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breakdancingsigma · 2 years ago

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'all things end, it's part of living; forest fires feed the trees'

a riz gukgak & the bad kids post canon fic! @d20exchange fic for @breakdancingsigma :D

tags: fantasy high, character study, beta read, minor angst, fluff

full 4.5k word fic below the cut, ao3 link in reblogs because tumblr hates me specifically lmao

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It was snowing outside and the heating in Riz’s office wasn’t working. The screen on the window banged against the glass, creating a steady metronome of destruction that Riz would probably have to fix later.

He hadn’t had many customers during the last month. When he’d first moved to Bastion City to reinvent his P.I. service, it had been summer and business had been booming. Adaine had gone off to college, Fabian on vacation somewhere, Fig and Gorgug on tour, and Kristen had been doing something or other with Tracker. Riz was the last one out of town. He had figured out that he would be lonely whether he stayed or left.

At the beginning, they’d all texted every day. In fact, a couple of months after Riz had moved, the Cig Figs put on a show just a couple blocks away and let Riz in for free. It had been loud, but it was the most fun Riz had had in the city so far.

Now, though, things had slowed down. The last time someone had sent a message in the chat was last Sunday. Maybe it was winter, and everyone was just tired. Maybe they were all busy. Maybe they’d made new friends in their respective locations.

It was probably easier to make new friends at wizard college than while working independently as a 20-year-old in a big city.

He sighed. He was freezing. Gathering up his stuff, he closed shop 3 hours early. He hesitated, and then stuck a sticky note with his crystal number on the door. If business came, at least maybe he wouldn’t miss out. The bright yellow paper was a stark contrast to the gray room. Riz got back to his room and opened the doors. He had papers and things strewn around the room and pinned to the walls. All in all, it didn’t look too different from his office, except for the tiny bed and even tinier kitchen.

He sat on his bed and read through some past files. He opened the group chat, stared at the last text (That’s so cool, Adaine! from Kristen) and then closed it. Adaine’s winter break started soon. Maybe he could go visit her? But he needed money to keep his office and he needed the office to keep working and honestly, he needed to keep working to stay sane.

There were things to do in the city. There were certainly parties on Fridays (that he didn’t go to), and people chatting (that he didn’t talk to), and nice employees at the corner store by his office—the only store he really went to anymore, even though they didn’t have the widest range of products. He tried to go on Wednesdays and Fridays, if he could, because on those days there was a goblin girl working the cash register who was always nice to him. It was a constant, if he could help it. He could usually help it. His days weren’t all that packed.

December tasted like metal and Riz hated it. He flicked on the stove and pulled out a container of instant noodles. He never wanted to think about how he was making instant noodles, so he threw out the flavor packet and added soy sauce, vinegar, sriracha, ginger, and garlic until he was satisfied. It made him feel like he was putting effort in. He liked the feeling of putting effort in.

The leg on his little coffee table was broken, so he ate the noodles on his bed, legs crossed, leaning over the side so he didn’t spill anything

The sun was setting, and it was like every other sunset that Riz had seen in this city.

Until it wasn’t. There was a knock on his door. Not his office door—although Riz thought that it was for a second, almost spilling the noodles in the thrill of business until he realized it couldn’t be.

It took him a minute to set down his dinner, smooth out his clothes, and try to make himself look presentable. A second knock came. He ran to the door and opened it.

Kristen stood outside the door, with her grin so wide it almost closed her eyes. Her red hair was so much brighter than the yellowish walls—the carpet that used to be maroon that had had so much dust stomped into it it was brown—the flickering lamps—Riz couldn’t help but smile right back at her. She didn’t say anything, just pulled him into a hug so tight it lifted his feet off the ground.

Once he was released, Riz finally managed to exclaim “Kristen! I missed you.”

“I missed you too!” she said. “It’s so cold here. Are you cold?”

“Yeah. But I have warm clothes.”

The two just stood there for a while, smiling at each other. Riz searched for words, but couldn’t find any, which annoyed him in some ways because it had been so long and he should have a million things to say. But Kristen was here, and that was enough to pull him away from worrying.

“Do you wanna go to dinner?” she asked.

Riz thought about the noodles he’d left sitting on the kitchen counter. “Yeah. Yeah, I’d love that.”

He grabbed his coat and his hat and they walked out of the building together.

“How’s Tracker?” he asked, speedwalking to keep up with Kristen’s lengthy strides. She noticed and slowed down.

“Tracker’s great. We’re great. We don’t—we don’t really know what we’re going to do with our lives yet. Which is stressful, but also kind of freeing. In a way.” She glanced at him. “Sorry. You probably didn’t want to hear all of that.”

“I did,” Riz assured her. He almost wanted to say that he wanted to know everything. He wanted to say that he missed her. But he left it at that.

A thin layer of snow covered the sidewalks and Riz’s loafers left clean indentations in them. He knew he should get boots, but good boots were expensive and bad boots broke instantly, and it wasn’t like it snowed a lot in Bastion City anyway so it wasn’t a good investment.

Still, he was glad when Kristen led him down a staircase in an alleyway. It seemed almost sketchy to him until they turned a corner, where the mood abruptly changed. A Thai restaurant was there—buried underground, but with walls covered in rugs and red ornaments and chestnut tables. There were some tacky tropical ornaments around the bar, and beams of wood every few feet to hold up the ceiling. It was almost empty, too.

Kristen saw him analyzing his surroundings and smiled her full-body smile again. “This place is hard to find. But Zelda found it on her quest ages ago, and she recommended it to Gorgug and Gorgug recommended it to me. So now we’re here.”

Kristen’s rambling reminded Riz of his own thoughts. He didn’t have time to dwell on it, but realized that it was comforting in a way.

“Table for four, please,” Kristen requested.

Riz snapped out of it. “Four? Why?”

Kristen gestured behind her, to the other branch of the weird underground alleyway, and a tiefling dressed in black followed by a half-orc in a hoodie emerged.

Gorgug gave an awkward wave and Riz returned it. Meanwhile, Kristen and Fig were hugging. Fig was dressed even more elaborately than usual, with an awesome leather jacket and combat boots.

“Missed you,” Gorgug offered.

“Missed you too,” Riz said, relaxing.

Fig hugged Riz too, and then Kristen let the waitress lead them all to their table.

Fig was the one to break the silence. “I love you guys,”

Kristen laughed, and Riz could see that she was close to tears. “I love you too.”

They all had the same things to say—I love you, I love you too, I miss you, I miss you too, I hope you’re okay, and it was all somehow enough.

Riz ordered noodles. Fig and Kristen decided to share some kind of giant, bright yellow soup with egg rolls. Gorgug ordered noodles and soup.

It was so… expected, Riz thought. He didn’t have to figure anything out, because it was them. It was terrifying and comforting. He loved them and he missed them.

The noodles were good. Riz mentally marked this place in his mind. He’d never been there before.

When he thought about it, he didn’t go out to dinner much at all. He didn’t have anyone to go with. He should go out to dinner more often, he resolved. Alone or not. It was warm inside the Thai place.

“Riz?” Kristen snapped her fingers in front of his face. Riz started.

“Yeah?”

“We’re ordering dessert. Gorgug’s never had a fried banana so I’m forcing him to try one.”

Riz shook his head. “What’s a fried banana?”

“You too?” Kristen looked at him, aghast. She turned to the waitress. “Four fried bananas, please.”

The tiefling waitress scribbled that down and gave Kristen a thumbs up.

“Now, to answer your question, a fried banana is exactly what it sounds like,” Kristen said, flipping her fork in her hands. “It’s fried in this sweet dough, and it comes with ice cream, and it’s better than heaven. I would know. I’ve been to heaven.”

The table laughed. Kristen had made that joke a million times before, and she’d probably make it a million more times, and they would still laugh. Partly because it was funny, and, Riz thought, partly because it reminded them all of the times she made it before.

The dishes came to the dinner, and Kristen shoveled hers into her mouth like it would disappear. It was pretty good, Riz thought. Maybe not entirely worth Kristen’s hype, but it was sweet and cold and hot and was honestly probably the nicest dessert he’d had in all his time in Bastion City.

While they were all finishing, Kristen’s crystal let out an insistent beep. She picked it up and read the message. Her eyes lit up. She leaned over to Fig and whispered something into her ear. Fig leaned to Gorgug and whispered something in his ear. Riz waited for one of them to tell him what was going on, but Fig just waved the waitress over and asked for the check.

“I like your horns,” she added, gesturing at the waitress’s tiefling horns. They had intricate carvings in them.

“Thank you!” the waitress returned. “I like your shirt.”

Fig glanced down at her shirt. It said “EAT THE RICH” in large block letters. “Thanks!” They fist-bumped.

This was how Fig had always been. Able to make friends in the strangest of situations, no matter how emotionally unavailable she thought she was being. Riz was sure there was some alternate universe where Fig was the one in Bastion City instead of him, and she would be friends with this tiefling waitress and probably all of her neighbors.

She would probably go to parties on Fridays.

Fig stuck her card in the bill, and Riz remembered too late that he was supposed to fight for the right to pay.

Instead, he let her pay. Kristen and Gorgug didn’t say a thing, and Fig looked happy enough to do it, so he let the social custom pass. They were the Bad Kids. They didn’t need to do things like everyone else.

Were they still the Bad Kids if they were all twenty? Twenty-five? Thirty? Fifty?

As soon as the check was paid and everything was sorted Kristen jumped out of her seat and grabbed Riz’s hand.

“Okay, close your eyes,” she said. “There’s another surprise.”

“Another?” Riz asked, but obliged.

Kristen led him down what Riz knew must be the alley they’d walked to get in.

“Okay, now the stairs,” she said. Riz tripped on the final stair, but a pair of big hands that were probably Gorgug’s caught him and he still kept his eyes closed.

“Open them!!” Kristen exclaimed.

Standing in front of Riz was Fabian, in white harem pants and a long, elaborately embroidered white coat. He had a sword strapped to my side. He grinned at Riz.

“I would have come in, but they wouldn’t let my sword in, and I couldn’t just leave it.”

Riz managed a nod. “Yeah. Of course not.”

“Give me a hug, Fabian,” Kristen said, less like a request than a statement. She pulled him in and Riz saw a brief look of—panic? not panic, definitely not panic, he couldn’t really tell—flash across his face before he smiled down at her.

Maybe that was what Riz looked like when he first saw Kristen. He didn’t know. He didn’t have a mirror. He hadn’t had a mirror in his room in years.

Now the only one missing was Adaine. Riz wouldn’t put it past Kristen to have her hidden away somewhere as well, but he knew she was busy. She was always busy. Occasionally she’d update them all on her projects, and they all looked like immensely difficult feats. Besides, he didn’t know when winter break started, and he suspected it would be very hard for her to leave before break started.

“So, now that Fabian’s here, where should we go?” Fig asked. “Riz, you live here—where are your favorite spots?”

Riz was caught off guard. He couldn’t very well say that, in order, his favorite spots were his office, his apartment, and the corner store.

“I think there’s a bookstore around the corner?” he managed. That was true—he’d never been in there, but sometimes he would walk past and think about how Adaine would enjoy it. He had thought about getting her a gift there, but he really hadn’t seen her in ages, and it wasn’t her birthday or anything soon.

“Well, then, let's go to the bookstore,” Fabian said, like it was the most natural thing in the world. He strode down the street, bright white coattails flaring out behind him.

The group followed behind him, letting him lead the way even though none of them were quite sure he knew where he was going. In fact, Fabian headed the right direction, but walked right by the bookstore, and Riz had to pull him back to the correct door.

Kristen pushed the door open. The bookstore was bigger than Riz had thought originally—from the windows, it looked like a small one-room place. But now he could see it had winding corridors of bookshelves and carpet, making for an almost maze-like walkthrough.

He eventually discovered the mystery section and trailed his fingers over the spines, occasionally pulling one out to read the summary. He found that after solving real-life mysteries, it was much more difficult to find a book that struck the same sort of chord.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Kristen get a call on her crystal. She answered it and stepped out of the door of the shop to talk excitedly to the person on the other end.

Riz didn’t want to spoil her surprise, but given that Kristen seemed to be the ringleader of this whole thing, he suspected that Adaine was about to appear out of somewhere. He idly turned the book in his hands over while keeping an eye on Kristen out the window. Sure enough, after a little while, he spotted her walking over to a familiar shock of blonde hair. With a green streak in it, now—Adaine had called him back when she’d first let her roommates dye her hair, and he’d told her how good it had looked. He couldn’t get a good look—Kristen was smart enough to keep Adaine mostly out of window view—but he imagined she’d re-dyed it since then, because it was certainly bright.

He smiled down at the book in his hand. He’d be surprised, for Kristen.

“Are you getting that one?” Fig asked from behind him. He flipped it open to a random page and immediately spotted a typo.

“Nope.” He snapped it closed and put it back on the shelf.

Fig laughed. “Alright then.” She showed him a comic book about some superheroes Riz remembered vaguely hearing about. “I think I’m gonna buy this one. It looks interesting.” She glanced at her crystal. “And Kristen wants us outside for some reason, so I think we’re all checking out.”

“I don’t think I’m gonna get anything.”

“Oh, come on. Let me at least buy you a bookmark.”

Riz laughed. “A bookmark?”

“One of those fancy wood-carving ones. I’m doing it.” She marched toward a display and picked one with an intricate flower design out of the middle.

Riz hurried after her. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I know I don’t. I want to.” She set down the items on the counter and started paying for them, and Riz didn’t argue anymore.

He idled by the door, waiting for Fig, Gorgug, and Fabian to come out. He was excited to see Adaine, sure, but he didn’t want to be the first one going out to see Kristen. Even though the rest of them all seemed to be in on the plan to surprise him.

Once they finished checking out, Riz pushed open the heavy door.

“Surprise!” Kristen called out, gesturing at Adaine, who waved shyly. She’d gotten new glasses, Riz realized—rounder, gold ones, to replace her cat-eye silver ones.

“Adaine!” he exclaimed, partly trying to sound surprised but mostly just happy to see her. She walked forward and knelt down to hug him.

“Missed you, dude,” she whispered in his ear.

“Missed you too,” he whispered.

She stood back up and went around hugging the rest of them. She seemed much more confident than she had been at Aguefort, Riz noticed. Of course, she’d gotten much less shy after all of their adventures together. But now she carried herself in a different way, and Riz couldn’t quite pin down how.

She had a bunch of fandom and science pun pins attached to her messenger bag, and she was still wearing her jean jacket. She’d had a growth spurt since freshman year, but had figured out through a lot of magical experimentation how to make the jacket a larger size. Riz remembered sitting in her room chatting with Gorgug as she tried to figure it out, back in the middle of senior year when none of them were quite sure what was going to happen after they graduated. They’d all known Adaine was going to go to college, of course, even when she herself wasn’t sure. She was too talented at wizardry to not keep honing her skills.

And it became pretty evident that Fig and Gorgug were going to keep doing their band things, especially after their albums really blew up. It was profitable, and they liked it, and that was all they could really ask for, wasn’t it?

Kristen and Tracker had their religious stuff, and they certainly had each other through it all.

And Fabian wasn’t going to run out of inheritance anytime soon—of course he’d keep flying around Spyre for as long as he could.

In hindsight, maybe everyone was pretty sure what was going to happen after they graduated. Maybe it was just Riz who always felt like he was scrambling to keep up. No, that couldn’t be right. Adaine had always been just as unsure as he was, no matter how sure he was of her skills. He couldn’t say he was alone when he had always had her.

In fact, Adaine had probably always been just as sure that Riz was going to turn out a professional detective. And in a way, she was right. But no customers had been by in ages, and Riz was thinking about rent costs again, and eating noodles in his apartment, and he couldn’t tell Adaine that what he really was was just a tired 20-year-old in the city. Hardly professional at all.

Adaine gave him a soft smile, and Riz was glad that she wasn’t reading his mind.

“I know you guys just got out of the bookstore, but I love bookstores. Do you guys mind if I take a look around?” she asked.

“Go ahead,” Gorgug answered for the group, and the rest of them nodded in agreement and approval. Adaine pushed the door back open and Riz followed her in. She seemed to have some kind of instinct for the layout—maybe she’d been in enough winding libraries to notice a pattern—because she found the fantasy section almost immediately. She pulled two out, holding one in each hand.

She glanced back at Riz with a small smile on her face. “I’ve read all these already.”

Riz looked over the giant bookshelf absolutely full of thick books. “That’s crazy.”

She laughed. “I’m a fast reader.” She knelt down to the very bottom shelf and started running her hands along the spines. Finally, she pulled one out. “Here’s a new one, though.” She sat cross-legged on the dusty wooden floor to read the summary.

Riz watched over her. “Look good?”

She shrugged. “Doesn’t look half bad. I’ve got a little spending money, I’ll get it.”

“Okay.” He walked to the checkout with her.

“Have you been here before?” she asked him, handing the cashier a few silver pieces.

“Honestly, no,” Riz answered, somewhat sheepishly. “But I thought you would like it.”

She laughed. “I do.”

“Good.” “Yeah. Good.”

They walked out to rejoin the group. Kristen waved at them.

“I found a churro truck!” she said cheerfully. “It’s freezing out here, so I thought we could go get some.”

Adaine shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. “It is cold. I’m more used to it now because of the Astral Plane and all, but I guess I thought it would be warmer here for some reason.”

“Nope,” Riz said dryly. “Just more smog.”

“Horrible.”

“I know.”

Gorgug ordered six churros and passed them out to the group. They were warm and nice. Not the best street food Riz had ever had, but it was sweet and crunchy and delicious and he was enjoying it with his friends.

After they had all finished, they stood to the side of the street under a store awning. It had started lightly snowing again, and Gorgug had his hood pulled up.

“What now, The Ball?” Fabian asked.

Riz didn’t know. They’d done a lot of things already. Luckily, Kristen jumped in.

“Riz, have you got a TV back at your place?”

“....Not a good one?”

“I can probably improve it somewhat,” Gorgug volunteered. “We could watch a movie.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Kristen grinned her huge smile.

Gorgug glanced around the group. “I’ve gotten a lot better at the artificer stuff. Not really much fighting in the band business, so I’ve been doing it in my off time.”

“Can vouch,” Fig chimed in. “He rigged my crystal so I could prank call everyone within a 1000-foot radius simultaneously. Really fun in big crowds.”

Adaine laughed. “Ayda will make a wizard of you yet, Gorgug.”

“Might need a few more years for that one.”

Kristen looked at Riz. “Lead the way!”

“Sure.” Riz started carefully stepping down the street, trying to avoid the biggest puddles so his shoes didn’t get more wet than they already were. He saw Adaine having the same problem behind him—she’d worn some nice sneakers that seemed very practical, but not good for snow.

Gorgug approached behind them. “I can probably carry you guys, if you want. Having wet shoes looks miserable.”

Adaine looked surprised. “Sure. Thank you.” She grinned up at him and reached out an arm to put around his neck as he scooped her up with one arm.

“Riz?” Gorgug extended his other arm.

Riz hesitated. On one hand, he felt bad about not wearing the right shoes—really, this was his fault, and Gorgug shouldn’t have to do it, and he’d probably look silly being carried in his suit by this half-orc in a hoodie when he was twenty, and really they weren’t kids anymore were they—but on the other hand? He looked up at Adaine, who was laughing and catching snowflakes on her tongue.

Gorgug was his friend. And he would bet this would be a funny memory someday. He hopped into Gorgug’s arm, and Gorgug set him on his shoulder to ride along.

He pointed the way down the street, and Gorgug led the charge towards the apartment. The rest all followed along behind, chatting and talking.

It was like another adventure. The first in at least a year and a half.

They arrived back at Riz’s tiny apartment and he hastily put his forgotten ramen from earlier in the sink.

Gorgug did indeed make an attempt at tinkering with the screen. He was able to make it actually respond to the remote, which was a big improvement. He couldn’t do much about the quality or size of the beat-up thing, but he made it run faster. Adaine said she figured she wouldn’t have to cast for the rest of the day and drew up a combination of spells that she fired off at the TV with a fifth level spell slot. It projected the image forward and larger, and enhanced it some too. Adaine surveyed her work with a grin on her face.

“How’d you do that?” Riz asked.

“They’ve been teaching us how to combine elements of spells. This one uses some Major Illusion, some Mending, and I added some Tongues to make the sound clearer. I probably could have done it in a lower spell slot, but it would have taken way longer.”

“That’s super cool,” Riz said. He kicked his shoes off and sat back on his bed, pulling his knees to his chest. “Sorry, we’re probably all going to have to sit on my bed. I don’t have a couch.”

Kristen and Fig piled on instantly, with Fig resting her head on Kristen’s chest. Kristen ruffled her fingers through Fig’s hair. Gorgug sat in between Riz and the two girls. Adaine sat on Riz’s other side, fiddling with her fingers.

Fabian looked at the pile. “I’ll sit on the floor.”

“Nah, we’ll make space,” Kristen said. She scooted over to the side, pulling Fig with her. The rest of them squished together until there was some room next to Adaine.

Fig figured out the remote and pressed play on the movies, and Adaine cast an On/Off cantrip on the lights so that none of them needed to get up.

They all settled in together. Mostly they watched the movie. Occasionally one of them would mock a particularly annoying character, or repeat a particularly funny joke, or make a particularly funny quip that would make them laugh so hard they had to rewind. But mostly they watched.

The characters entered a flower field, and Riz could swear he could smell the flowers.

Adaine leaned over to him. “I added Prestidigitation.”

He stifled a laugh. “Of course you did.”

He leaned back against Gorgug, and felt Adaine pressed up on his other side.

The lights were out and the wind howled against the windows.

The apartment smelled like flowers.

#dimension 20 #d20 #d20 fhsy spoilers #d20 exchange 2022 #i love this to pieces <3

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