#Bro this idea has just been floating around in my head for awhile now | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tigerdrop · 3 years ago

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so. this is my attempt at posting a 20k-word-long g/t frenrey RP that kogo and i were doing at the start of this year. its not finished and im not sure when were gonna pick it back up, since we are currently working on co-op game theory instead of a filthy RP that takes place like 100k words down the line of co-op game theory. but ive been sitting on it long enough so here u go

i never really planned on posting this anywhere so its really self-indulgent and not as polished as our usual stuff but look. this is a ludicrous amount of erotica im dropping here. cut me a lil slack

anyway, here it is: Gordon Gets A Xen Bath

Gordon tries to keep moving, but eventually his pace slows to a stop, his legs growing heavier and heavier until he can't bring himself to lift them.

"Okay. Okay," he pants, bending over and bracing his hands on his knees. "I can't fucking do this anymore, man! I'm tapped out! We've been walking all day - or, well, I have, I don't know about you. We can't... can't all be alien god fuckers, floating around or whatever." He pauses to catch his breath. Every muscle in his body aches from the strain of hopping around Xen in the HEV suit. Sure, gravity doesn't have quite as strong a hold here as it did back on Earth, and that makes all that metal easier to lug around, but it seems like time doesn't work the same way, either. Gordon can't tell how long it's been. Feels like days.

Smells like it, too, now that he's got a moment to breathe. He's covered in dirt and slime and congealed alien blood and God know what else. In short, he needs a fucking break. And Gordon aggressively takes one right then and there, dropping to his feet. What's the rush, anyway? "Like we're ever gonna find out way out of this fucking place," he mutters.

> Benrey watches as Gordon collapses, a pile of metal and smells. Odors. Sweat and dirt and tangled hair. His head tilts to the side but his expression remains flat as he lifts his head and gazes out into the vastness of Xen, before turning back to Gordon and furrowing his brow. They hadn't even gotten far, not really, so it doesn't really make sense that he'd just crumple like this.

> He sniffs, shuffling in a circle on his feet as Gordon bitches behind him--something about never escaping Xen, as if Benrey hadn't traveled from one end to the other to find him in the first place--and chews his lip in deep concentration, trying to think of literally anything that would maybe make the guy stop. Stop with the, uh, whining and whinging and "blah blah, we're not all alien god fuckers" or whatever.

> (Though, well, technically, Gordon was an alien god fucker anymore. Their time back with the space maggots and the gun bugs and that skinny doppelganger had seen them in a couple of situations where Gordon happily fucked an "alien god.")

> But. Wait. No. Mind wandering. Wandering to fun places, places more fun than being lost in Xen (though he's not lost; they'll find their way out eventually), but not anywhere useful. And, for once, he has to think along those boring terms. Being, you know, reliable or whatever.

> What matters is making Gordon go. The hamster wheel in his head turns and turns until the rodent is slung clear off and, with a slow blink, Benrey accepts defeat. Ideas are not his forte when he's actually trying to be helpful. He turns to his human, he tilts his head in the other direction, and he waits for his human to look up at him. Then, he speaks without even waiting for eye contact.

> "So, uh... what can best friend Benrey do to... make you. I dunno. Less dumb?"

> Nailed it. Benrey is getting good at this "empathy" thing.

Gordon drags his gaze up from the ground to Benrey, and immediately scrunches his eyebrows up. "Wow, that was almost nice of you," he says, a touch of genuine surprise in his voice. It doesn't outweigh the disdain, though. "You know what? Just don't do anything. The best thing you can do right now is to stand right there and do absolutely nothing... and let me just... catch my breath."

He hopes against hope that, for once, Benrey will do what he says. Despite all the evidence that suggests otherwise. His internal monologue turns a bit haggard. Well, it's not like there's anything he could do about it, anyway. Even if he was fit as a fiddle, if Benrey wanted to fuck off and get lost, there was no stopping him.

He can't hold Benrey's stare for long, though. It's-- it's always harder to look him right in the eye like this. Something about the size of him makes it uncomfortable, like he's staring right through Gordon. So he darts his eyes away, scanning his surroundings. The perils of an alien landscape: all the little islands and chunks of earth start to look the same after awhile. Rocks and strange, angry plants and pools of mysterious fluids. He's seen it all. There's a number of all these things and more around him, but the one thing he finds himself wishing for is something to eat. You can't trust anything out here.

"I just want a burger, man," Gordon groans. "Sick of jumping around like I'm playing some kind of platformer. You know, they never tell you how exhausting this shit is! My heart's-- my heart's racing-- like, adrenaline? Hate fucking jumping over these big-ass pits, I'm tellin' you."

Or, failing that, like, a nap. Or a bath. He vocalizes both of these things before burying his head in his hands. Maybe he could get one of those microsleeps going. If he can just calm the fuck down, anyway.

> Food? Nap? Bath?

> Benrey's mouth curls into a jagged smile. Of course Gordon would just need some of that weird, seemingly pointless human stuff. You would think after two grand adventures of dragging this sad sack around and listening to him complain every two meters, he'd have picked up on the human necessities. Things like 'burger" and "bed time" and "smelling like preferred smells, and not the natural smells that are apparently 'bad.'"

> A huge sigh heaves out of Benrey and he watches in amusement as it makes Gordon's hair puff out of his face. Small little tiny man, curled up on a chunk of rock, not able to embiggen and make things easier. It's sad and pathetic, almost as sad and pathetic as Gordon looks, but Benrey knows he's capable of being a good enough guy for the both of them. A real bro. A best friend.

> Because he knows Xen inside and out for some reason. And he's observant. He's seen things and can do the mental math necessary to figure out how to problem solve, sort of. He's spent enough time floating around Xen to figure out what those sparkly puddles do, and he's seen enough of those people back in the Wrong World eat the not-Lamarrs (or, at least the Vorti-bros did, which were close enough).

> And, well, Gordon could literally sleep anywhere. There was dirt for days, lots of rocks to align the spine. Fun nap places. Good for Gordon.

> With a burst of pride and dagger-toothed grin, Benrey propped his elbow on the island where Gordon was whining and held out his hand, palm up and flat, extended as an open invitation.

> "Oh. Uh. That it? That's, uh... that's a cool I can do. Big cool for you."

He stares, eyes narrowed in confusion. "What? What do you mean, that's a-- What are you doing?"

> "I'm doing a cool," Benrey responds. Though his voice is still fairly flat, there is a bite to it, hidden almost completely under his monotone. As if to emphasize the point, he lifts his hand and slaps it back down into the earth once more in a way he thought was light. Judging from the way the ground shook and the island rocked, perhaps not as light as he'd imagined.

> "Gonna, uh... help. Or somethin'. You gettin' on or you gonna be a babyman about it?"

Gordon yelps as the ground shakes around him, even though he's (relatively) safe on the ground. "Jesus, Benrey! Watch it!"

What the hell is he doing? His eyes dart between Benrey's hand and face as the gears struggle to turn. It's been a long fucking day, all right, and Benrey's... Benrey-isms are hard enough to understand at the best of times. This is supposed to help, somehow. So, scratch the burger. And the nap, too, probably. So, does that mean he wants to--

No. That's stupid. He's stupid for thinking it. Gordon steadfastly ignores the way his ears prickle and shakes his head, like a dog ridding itself of water.

"Please tell me you're gonna just carry me the rest of the way," Gordon sighs. It's a visible effort for him to get back to his feet. "Hey, actually, why didn't you just do that from the get-go? You're not even breaking a sweat!"

He complains, sure, but it doesn't stop him from dizzily shuffling forward and stepping on. Better late than never. He'll have plenty of time to chew Benrey out for this once he's out of this alien hellscape and back in his own goddamn bed.

> Benrey blinks.

> Oh. Yeah. He probably could have carried Gordon, huh? The thought never really occurred to him at first because, well, why would it? Was he a bad guy--a bad friend--for believing that his bestest buddy was a capable man? Color him insensitive for actually expecting things of Gordon, but he'd just watched the guy win Space Invaders in real life.

> After that, traipsing through Xen should have been a walk in the park.

> Best not to point that out, though. Gordon may take offense and, for once in his life, he isn't out to make him mad. He's trying to be good, trying to carry that camaraderie they built from Shit World Without Sony Products back to Good World With Heavenly Sword. Highlighting Gordon's stupid human failings would only work to reset the karma he'd worked so hard to build up in their social link. Or, you know, however humans fucking worked.

> Instead, he lets Gordon crawl onto his hand and then turns away, wracking his mind for the last place he saw a good puddle. After all, it made sense to start with a bath, right? Eating while gross would make Gordon complain, and sleeping while gross wouldn't be much better. Drifting past island after island, his head swivels to see if maybe there are some good candidates going forward.

> And there's... really not. Testicle stalks. Pointy rocks. Less pointy rocks. Tit-on-stilts that is aggressively spitting little Lamarrs over the edge of a rock chunk that looks like Swiss cheese. Benrey isn't sure what it's hoping to accomplish, but it's sure as fuck not accomplishing it.

> Then, he sees it, in the distance: A glittering pool of blue that sparks like electricity and glitters like cheap body mist. A strange smell, not unlike Sweet Voice, wafts from its direction. It's certainly one of the Good Smells Humans Like. Gordon will love it.

> Wordlessly, he glides toward it. Gordon's smart. He'll know what he's getting at.

Benrey's not saying anything, which is mildly concerning, but he is looking around like he knows what he's looking for. And when Benrey fucks off, Gordon in tow - held in a grip that's a little looser than he likes - Gordon lets his brain wind down for the first time in... a long while. Flying around Xen like this is nervewracking, yeah, but in a way he's more equipped to handle. Benrey's chest at his back helps. It's solid as a wall and deceptively warm, and if he keeps himself pressed flat against it, he can almost forget about these bottomless pits they're flying over.

He lets Benrey go like that for an indeterminable amount of time. (He may have dozed off a little.) But Gordon comes back to himself once Benrey's velocity changes. Gets a bit more pointed. Eventually, Gordon puzzles out that he's heading for one island in particular, one with a shimmering pool on its surface. Not exactly what the endgame was.

Wait. Gordon's brain chugs. He was looking for... some kind of water? Oh, Christ.

"Wait, were you being serious about the bath thing?" he asks as they approach. "I-- I wasn't being that serious about it! Getting out of here kind of seems like the more important thing!"

> "Huh?"

> The word falls off of Benrey's lips despite the fact he actually heard everything Gordon said. He heard him and even registered him, but he just didn't get him. After all, he's fairly certain that Gordon wants a bath considering it was one of the big things that spewed out of his mouth when he was being all needlessly fussy before, so why isn't he just saying it? Owning up to it?

> Was it because it was a detour? Slowing them down? Or was it just Gordon being whatever-the-hell-Gordon-was?

> Yeah, that had to be it. Gordon just doesn't want to get side-tracked. That's fair, he supposes. Or, at the very least, he assumes that's what a human would consider fair, considering how obsessed with "time" and "schedules" and "fast" they all were.

> "Real quick dip," Benrey promises, hoping to put Gordon's mind at ease; it was a far cry from what he typically did, so he could only hope it landed properly, that he was saying the right things and had the right inflections. "Real fast. Get'cha all nice. Wet. Uh. Soaps and hygiene. You know."

"Oh my God, man, it's gonna be a whole fuckin' production!" Gordon agonizes as Benrey brings them to that strange, glittering watering hole. "Saving the world's kinda time-sensitive, you know? And it's always such a hassle getting in and out of this thing! And-- Okay, hold on, you actually want to-- Okay. Fine. Look, I'm just saying, this is weird even for you, Benrey!"

Soaps. Hygiene. You know. Letting his best frenemy peel him out of his suit so he can scrub him clean, like normal people do. A shiver runs down the back of Gordon's neck. There's gotta be some kind of catch, but honestly, he's having a hard enough time keeping up with events as they're written. If there's some kind of malicious subtext to this whole thing, well, that's not his problem. He's got more important things to worry about, like convincing Benrey that it would be a little more prudent to just keep forging on rather than waste valuable time on a bath.

...Unfortunately, he's close enough to smell whatever it is that wafts off the surface in waves, and it makes Gordon's resolve waver. It's a clean smell, warm and vaguely fruity, with an undercurrent of salinity. Like a shower that's just been used, almost. God, he'd really like that, wouldn't he.

> The words don't really have weight to them anymore. If Benrey had a nickel for every time Gordon called him "weird" or told him he was endangering the world by taking detours, he'd have enough nickels to melt them down and make a big-ass nickel. And, judging from the way even Gordon's mouth wasn't running anymore, it didn't seem like Gordon had put any weight into his own words, either.

> Which was good. Real good. It meant Benrey was doing a nice job of not pressing every one of Gordon's buttons like a kid in an elevator, and being a proper friend. Best friend. More than friend? God, he fucking wished.

> And he'd shut up right in the nick of time, too, because the urge to tease is building up inside of Benrey like pressure in a flaming aerosol can. It's hard not to want to pick at him when Gordon is griping like this, just goading him on with his (strangely cute) bullshit. Benrey mentally pats himself on the back for a job well done as he glides to the edge of the island and leans carefully over the tiny expanse of mottled dirt and glittering water.

> "S'fine. You're fine. S'gonna be fine. Just cleanin' you up, makin' you pretty. Like a good friend. Best friend."

> The water bubbles against the back of his hand as he extends it, dangling Gordon over the surface so he can get a good look at it himself. Maybe, with the proper viewing, he'll realize that this will be a pleasant time all around. Good for him. Fun for Benrey. Bonding experience.

> "Gonna make you, uh, real shiny. Polished. A, ah, regular... Casa... Casa del Nova."

> With that, he hooks a nail under one of the thigh pieces of the HEV suit and waits, eyes resting on Gordon's face in search of approval. Approval he selfishly hopes comes quick, before reflex takes over and he pops it off regardless.

Gordon peers over the edge of Benrey's hand to look down at the water, where it lies placid and clear and a vivid blue-green. Mysterious bubbles aside. It's... it's like one of those pools at Yellowstone, he thinks dizzily. They look so warm and inviting and then you step in and suddenly your flesh is deciding to melt right off of you. Gordon's stomach swoops unpleasantly.

Then Benrey offhandedly mentions making him pretty, as if he were just trying to sell Gordon on a new restaurant, and it swoops for an entirely different reason. An irritating reason.

"Don't just fucking say things like that," he says hotly, his voice pitching up and cracking from nerves.

But it becomes an afterthought in short order when Gordon feels Benrey's nail tugging at his HEV suit, and he realizes that Benrey's very, very serious about this. Especially when he fixes Gordon with that intent stare. Like he's waiting for something. Permission? It must be, since he's not making any moves to pop off the armor on his thigh. Gordon looks down at Benrey's finger, chipped black paint peeking out from the corners, then back up at Benrey.

Oh, fuck this. He hates when Benrey does this. It's one of those mind games, or something. Make Gordon be the one to make the call, like it's a game of chicken and Benrey's trying to get him to lose. Instead of, you know, not derailing his entire fucking journey in the first place with the suggestion of a bath. One where, well, it does smell really nice. And he can feel the ambient heat from the water from his perch on Benrey's palm. And Benrey's offering to pry him out of his suit and, presumably, do the washing for him. So Gordon doesn't have to move a muscle. Or even think about it.

His face twists and turns its way through a melange of emotions before he decides, fuck it. Even if this is weird, and Benrey's probably playing some kind of 4-dimensional chess, his mind's already sold itself on the idea. So Gordon's tongue darts out to wet his lips, mouth unexpectedly dry.

"I-- Okay-- You know what, fine. We're already here. Just... no, fucking, tricks or jokes or whatever, man. If you leave me on some fucking rock with my dick out, I'm going to kill you," Gordon tells Benrey.

> What Benrey wants to say is that Gordon is being a baby. A bitch, even. There's no reason for him to get all flustered and pissy when they've already done so many things together. Things that only the closest of bros do, like take down a hostile invading force and push their dicks together and make out. But instead, Benrey takes a deep and steady breath as he works his nails deeper under the chassis of the HEV suit and tugs up with a satisfying click as the latches come undone and the thigh piece flops uselessly off of Gordon.

> "Cool."

> He moves onto the next section, eyes narrowing and eyebrows knitting above his nose as he looks down at Gordon and tries to focus. Head empty, aside from trying to figure out how in the hell he's actually supposed to undo all the delicate bits with fingers as big as his human. It was easier when he was small, and he supposes he could be small again, but that would be no fun. Perhaps he could just rip it off of Gordon with his teeth like the top of a sardine can, but it would be even less fun to deal with the little guy yelling at him for hours.

> Getting Gordon's goat was fun and all, but god, did the guy know how to harp on a subject like no other person he'd ever met.

> Instead, Benrey's tongue pokes out between his fangs as he presses the tip of his finger against the inside of Gordon's other thigh and lets his fingernail search for the seam, the latch. He cocks his head like an owl and leans down close enough that Gordon could touch his face, heaving out a huge and uncharacteristically irritated breath. From here, he can smell the musky odor of sweat and dirt and grime and alien goo, and it's strangely nice. Earthy. Very Gordon.

> He'd smelled it before, when he wasn't quite this big, when Gordon was unzipping his suit and climbing into his lap and drool pools at the corner of Benrey's mouth, equal parts saliva and lusty Sweet Voice and--

> Click.

> The other piece of thigh armor falls away. The noise shakes Benrey to his senses.

> "Turn please," he orders mindlessly. His voice is a bit more husky and demanding than it had been a moment before.

Gordon watches as Benrey pops off his armor like it's nothing, like Gordon hasn't spent hours fruitlessly trying to do the same himself. It would have saved him the constant indignity of relying on Benrey to get him in and out of the fucking thing. He tries really hard not to think about the indignity of this, too - Benrey's face so close to his, a hot, irritable breath fanning over him, and fingers at his--

Oh. Gordon jumps a little at the insistent press of a fingertip against his inner thigh, and heat rushes to his face. This part's mildly embarrassing at the best of times, when Benrey's smaller and more human-sized, but now? With fingers much too big for the job? Spreading his legs apart where he sits, rubbing insistently against his inner thigh... He can't help the shaky breath that forces its way out of him.

Jesus Christ, his hands are big, Gordon thinks, mind racing. Sure, yes, he's had this thought before, when Benrey was using them to slap gunships out of the air, but it's a little more pointed when they're prodding him like this. He tenses. Not entertaining these thoughts today, thank you. The whole point of this, presumably, was for a normal, ordinary bath. In a pool of mysterious alien water. With his rival stripping him down and scrubbing him. While he's so big that he could squish Gordon like a bug, if he wanted... or pick Gordon up and maneuver him around, broad fingers all over him, sizing him up. If he wanted.

He comes back to himself when he hears a command. Turn please. Quick and insistent. Gordon's eyes jerk away from where they'd been staring at Benrey's finger.

"Turn? Like, fucking-- God, ow--" Gordon hisses through his teeth as the motion twists one of his aching muscles the wrong way. "I don't even know why I'm doing this. It's not like this was stopping you... You know, I'm starting to think you just like bossing people around for no fucking reason." Despite his bitching, he does as he's told.

> Maybe he does like it. The bossing, that is. Benrey isn't sure. It's one of the few human things he knows--his job back at Black Mesa--and it's one of those things he's good at. Usually. At least now he feels good at it, with Gordon actually listening to him.

> He watches as Gordon turns, head shifting to tilt in the other direction, watching as his human trustingly turns his back to him and displays himself in a way that makes more Sweet Voice seep from between his teeth. He sniffs, he uses the back of his free hand to wipe away a trickle of fluorescent fluid trailing from his lips, and quickly wipes his hands off on his pants. His eyes never leaves Gordon's back.

> Lower back.

> His ass.

> Benrey had told him before that it was a nice one, and it was still true... uh, even if he can't really see it with Gordon sitting and all. He can imagine it in its entirety, though, nice and small, even as he fumbles with the latches on the back of the chest piece. He hardly notices as he clicks it open and the front hits the pad of his palm with an audible slap of metal against skin. He reaches around to pluck it away, the side of his hand brushing against Gordon's front.

> Gordon's heaving chest. His soft midsection. His...

> Benrey shakes his head as if snapping himself out of a trance. An involuntary laugh snorts out of his nose as he leans down, peeking over Gordon's shoulder like a creeping dragon, breath hot against the back of Gordon's neck.

> "Cute."

> And with that, he grabs the next part of Gordon: his arm, raising it up effortlessly like a doll's and carefully searching for the next latch.

Maybe facing away from Benrey wasn't the smartest idea, in retrospect. It feels like he's closer, somehow, his breath coming hotter and faster against Gordon's back. Benrey breathing down his neck should be, like, gross. Creepy. Gordon knows by now that Benrey likes to make a big deal about keeping them clean, but it's not like he knows when Benrey brushed last. It shouldn't smell... like that. Sweet. A distinct chemical note on the underside. Like ketones on his breath, but nothing that Gordon can place for certain.

Sweet Voice, probably. It's muted and subtle. He's not belting it out like he usually does, so Gordon can only guess what Benrey's feeling. Unfortunately, he's all too aware of what he's feeling: goosebumps, pebbling his skin from the neck down. A little frisson. They crawl all the way down his arms and make him shiver. He can practically feel Benrey's eyes on him, too, all up close and personal. Don't break a sweat, he wills himself, because he knows Benrey's watching him like a hawk.

It doesn't stop a bead from pooling at the back of his hairline, then losing the fight against gravity and slowly trickling down his neck.

Benrey snorts, and Gordon flinches, cursing under his breath. He couldn't even have that, huh. Then Benrey has the audacity to call him cute. And that makes his blood pulse, briefly flashing his skin with heat, before receding just as quickly and leaving a chill in its wake.

"Wh-- Whoa, okay," Gordon starts. His indignant response is temporarily cut off by Benrey lifting his arm between a thumb and forefinger. He offers about as much resistance as a fucking action figure, even creaking a little for good measure, and it's distracting, okay?

After a few moments, though, he regains his bearings. "Shut up, man," he says, flustered. "I'm not even-- Just-- Quit being weird, okay?" Because, frankly, this is weird. He's not used to Benrey being so... accommodating. Helpful. Nice. And he doesn't know what Benrey's endgame is, here. So it just leaves Gordon feeling off-kilter. Uncertain. A little hot in the face.

> Benrey's eyes flick up like a lizard that's spotted its next meal when he hears Gordon's words, conveniently at the same time as he finds the latch with his nail. The armor on his upper arm falls away with a clonk and his fingers move down to the much-easier-to-remove gloves and wrist pieces, which come undone with a light twist and an even lighter yank. But his gaze isn't even looking at what he's doing, instead resting on the back of Gordon's hair, now wet with sweat and the dampness of his own breath.

> His skin is raised up in little bumps, and so are his hackles. Something bright and violet and base, fluorescent, builds at the back of Benrey's tongue, and he swallows it down. He has to focus, keep his composure. Get the other arm with a few quick clicks, fingers now more adventurous than they were before. The pads trail across Gordon's back, the undersuit bunching with his touch, pressing into his side for no reason other than the urge to feel. Then, when the second arm is freed, he remembers he forgot the boots.

> "Not being weird," Benrey protests as he wrangles Gordon in his grip, sighing heavily as he pinches him lightly in his grasp and rolls him in his hand like some kind of trinket. Until they're face to face once again and Gordon is flat on his back in his palm. He takes a moment to idly scratch his chin before reaching for the metal encasing his lower legs and feet.

> "Not weird to, uh, help a bro out. Be a friend. Friends call friends cute. All the time. Every day. S'pre... pre-requi... prere..." He pauses and stills and, then, with unwarranted confidence, forces the word out and continues fiddling. "It's pre-registered to, uh, do that. Yeah."

Blunt fingers at his arm, his back, his sides, prodding and rolling him around - each investigatory touch makes Gordon cognizant of just how much he's holding his breath. Until Benrey manhandles him into laying flat on his back, that is. A startled noise bursts out of him, and then Gordon's looking straight up at Benrey, with nowhere to go to escape him. Even without a hand pinning him down, he can't help but feel like he's stuck in place, anyway.

At least Gordon can sit up on his elbows a little. Less like he's some kind of specimen that way. And he lets Benrey fiddle with the boots, the strange feeling that curls in his stomach easing up on him the longer Benrey messes with something other than his soft, fleshy, vulnerable bits. He lets out a shaky breath of... relief. Let's go with that.

"IIII don't know about that," he says. "I'll be real with you, I'm not the kind of guy who does that... Uh. Well. Except there was that one time in high school? But it kind of weirded her out and she stopped talking to me."

Gordon pauses for a moment, brows wrinkling in thought. Then he shakes himself. "Anyway, that's not even the point. The point is," Gordon emphasizes, feeling like he's trying to present a convincing legal argument to a judge with all the size and breadth of (and possibly, the powers of) some ancient Greek god, "I think you have a, uh, tenuous grasp of what friendship entails, buddy. My friends don't call me cute."

As an afterthought, under his breath, he adds, "Nobody calls me cute." It comes out more bitter than he expects.

> The boots come off, one after another. The shin guards, too. Politely, Benrey scoops up all the miscellaneous pieces piled in his palm between his free fingers and puts them to rest next to the pool of... well, "water." Liquid. Something, though he's hard pressed to tell you exactly what it is. "The Bath."

> He listens as he does so, to Gordon squawking and muttering and saying, well, things. Things that he's not really listening to as he brings his hands back up to Gordon and tries to figure out where the zipper to the bodysuit is. Technically, he knows where it is, but his fingers are huge and the zippy-uppy part is so small, and he's prodding and poking with gentle strokes along Gordon's chest and belly where he saw the seam once-upon-a-time. He feels his nail click against the metal and it's... uh, well, it's aggravating.

> And Benrey isn't used to this kind of aggravation. Fuck's sake, he just wants to see some dic... ah. He just wants to help his best friend get a nice bath and feel better. Because he is a good guy who does good things like kill gun bugs for tiny dudes who can't shoot straight and not drive off with vehicles when Gordon leaves him alone. He's a good guy who doesn't want to be bad and--

> "Uh," he drawls, his mouth moving before he can really catch himself, "fuckin'... maybe people would call you cute if you, uh, weren't such a, uh, mean. So mean about it. Mean to me, just trying to say nices. To my best friend. Being such a good and a cool."

> His voice dies as he misses the zipper again. Fuck. When he speaks again, it darkens.

> "Please unzip suit? Please? Thank-you."

Soon enough Benrey's got him down to that reinforced bodysuit, the last piece of armor sliding off his hand with little resistance. Usually, this is where this process stops: Benrey gets him out of the armor, and Gordon fucks off and does whatever it is he needs to do. Change. Wash up. Sleep. The part where Benrey starts tugging at the fabric in search of the zipper? That's new. And it catches Gordon so unawares that he can't even speak.

That fingertip strokes him, almost, warm even through the black fabric, and a harsh breath whistles through Gordon's nose. It feels him up from his chest to his belly, a warm and insistent pressure. All the words in Gordon's brain get trapped in a mental sieve. In their place is a single, repeating thought:

Oh, God.

Benrey keeps trying, again and again, fingernails scraping uselessly against Gordon's belly. And his eyebrows furrow harder with the effort, frustration evident in his frown. And his fingers. Their grasping grows rough and imprecise and Gordon's trying so hard to bite his lip because there's an ugly noise threatening to punch his way out of him and Benrey's saying something to him that he can barely focus on and then finally, finally, he's giving up and pulling away. Christ.

It takes a moment for his mental fog to clear and for Benrey's words to sink in. Unzip? Himself? Oh, no. Somehow that's worse.

"Can you, like... give me some privacy, maybe?" Gordon complains.

He immediately feels stupid afterward. It trickles down from his scalp like something cold and slimy. So he clears his throat, and admits, begrudging, "I, uh... I'm not trying to be mean. It's been a long fucking day, okay? You're... uh... Well. Thanks. I guess. For trying to be nice."

There's a beat before the silence gets to be too uncomfortable, and Gordon hurriedly follows it up by saying, "Don't take this the wrong way. I think you could still use a few pointers on being 'nice' to 'humans', you know."

> "Wha?"

> In a second, the irritation is gone. Benrey's expression turns flat. He leans in close to Gordon and inhales deeply (yup, still smells like Gordon) and exhales just as hard.

> "I'm nice," he defends, eyes flicking down the pile of HEV parts on the island. "Fuckin', ah, Mother Tuh-ree-sah. You're the one who is bein'--"

> A pause. Nice. He was being nice, and he wasn't going to pick at Gordon. He wasn't going to point out that he was the one being snippy, while he was out here undressing him, and carrying him around, and getting ready to give him a bath, and maybe touch his--

> Wait.

> "Privacy?"

> The word tastes bad, real bad. The kind of bad that makes Benrey want to scrape his tongue off on his teeth. That isn't how they'd played these games before. Is this even still a game, though? Did "nice" contradict "games" too much? He isn't sure and he doesn't even give himself a chance to think about it as he nudges Gordon encouragingly with a finger and the words just start rolling out of his mouth.

> "No? No place to private at, bro. Maybe gonna have to just, ah, suck it up, friend. Besides--"

> Benrey leans forward on the island on his elbow, chin resting in his hand. As his body tilts, Gordon raises higher up due to his shifting of positions.

> "Can't, ah, can't not look. Dinosaurs and, uh, zombies out here. Ghosts. Gotta keep my eye on you. Safe-tee."

Safety. Right. As much as Gordon doesn't want to admit it, Benrey has a point. He's... vulnerable like this. And it would be just his luck that he gets beset by a peeper puppy with his dick hanging out. More to the point, he knows that it's stupid to develop a sense of modesty all of a sudden when Benrey's seen his dick before. It's just, you know, the size. The scrutiny.

Heat lodges itself in Gordon's face and makes a home there as Benrey brings him all the closer. As if to see him better. "Dinosaurs and zombies," he snorts. He can't believe that's the justification Benrey's giving him. And he can't believe he's buying it.

"Just... fucking, okay. Don't stare, at least," Gordon tells him, as if it will help.

The zipper's nestled in the seam at his neck, right in the center. Gordon fishes it out with shaky fingers. And then, slowly, he drags it down his front.

As he does, his flesh starts to spill from the suit in a creamy sliver. He's paler underneath, skin shielded from the sun for so long that his characteristic tan has all but faded. Consequences of running around in a HEV suit in the middle of Bulgaria. The rattle of the zipper rings in Gordon's ears, louder than life. First his chest, then his stomach, prickling with goosebumps in turn as they're revealed.

Finally, he pulls it down to its endpoint, just under his navel. Gordon's face burns with embarrassment.

> That... was easier than Benrey anticipated. Usually there's more resistance or, you know, playing involved whenever he asked Gordon to do something like that. Usually he had something a little more snide to say. Something in the air has changed, though, and he dimly wonders if maybe all of that advice he'd taken from the Resistors (Resistance? Transistors? Alyx, basically) has actually paid off.

> Learning how to human does, in fact, make interacting with Gordon easier.

> His pupils widen as he stares, mouth slightly agape, as more and more of Gordon's skin is revealed to him, a pretty porcelain color that looks incredibly soft and as delicate as a china doll. Usually he's darker, tanner; Benrey didn't know humans could change colors like that, but it's an interesting development and one that requires further investigation.

> So he leans closer, head tilted, watching the zipper come undone. Curiosity grips him as he gingerly reaches up and hooks his nails into the open edges of the suit and tugs, enough to jostle Gordon and peel away the wrapper but not enough to actually knock Gordon off his feet. As he does so, he ignores the sounds of protests, mouth opening wider and lifting in a sharkish grin.

> He's so pale now, but he's just as soft as Benrey remembers. Just as warm. Hair's still in all the right places, muscles in his arms growing visible as Benrey tugs the sleeves down, then the rest, leaving the top half of the bodysuit dangling from around his still-covered waist.

> He waits a moment, drinking in the sight. He could almost see his--

> No. No. No dick thinking, not now. No. He wasn't going to say anything because he was seriously just trying to be nice. And make Gordon shut up. And...

> And...

> "Cute."

> The word comes out while his brain is still arguing with himself. For a moment, he considers apologizing, or trying to pretend he never said it, but ultimately decides to stand by what he said.

> His eyes lift to rest on Gordon's face as he silently doubles down, waiting for a reply.

"Hey, careful," Gordon yelps, caught off-guard by fingers at the edges of his open suit. "You don't have to fucking-- Benrey, I can do this myself!" But there's no fighting him off before Benrey's tugging it down his shoulders, baring him from the waist up.

Impatient. That's the word that comes to mind. Benrey's itching to get him out of this thing, Gordon realizes. If it wasn't already obvious by that insistent scrape of nails against his jumpsuit, or the way Benrey's looking at him now, eyes wide and mouth parted. That heat in Gordon's cheeks crawls down to his chest. He's staring at Gordon like he's hungry, and all the pasty skin being revealed to him may as well be a juicy T-bone steak. Being half-naked ought to be making him pretty chilly in a place like this, but for some reason, it feels way too fucking hot right now.

Thankfully, Benrey stops there, which gives him a moment to get his bearings. On the other hand, Benrey's calling him fucking cute again, and Gordon was having a bad enough time handling that earlier. Now? Jesus, the guy's barely paying attention to him. Mumbling it like it's an afterthought. He doesn't know what it means.

"I-- I'm not fucking cute, dude, we already established this," he insists, doing his level best not to meet Benrey's stare. Gordon folds his arms, irritable and flushed a bright red. "I'm too mean or whatever. I got the picture. You don't have to keep fucking with me."

> Oh, he's changing colors again. Red now, from the tips of his ears down to his chest, and Benrey snorts a laugh. Of course humans can change colors. He'd seen him do this before. A few times actually.

> But he's just turning red, and being snippy, and he's not making a move to take off the rest of the suit. Benrey's eyes flick from Gordon to the water and, with a low chuckle, he decides to take the cue. Which... was a cue, right? He's pretty sure it's a cue, but humans were weird to begin with and Gordon was odder than most.

> Has to be a cue, he decides after a moment of silence wherein Gordon doesn't budge. He grabs the draping top of the suit and gently peels it downwards towards Gordon's feet, watching it pull away from sweaty, dirty skin. Watching it expose dark curls of hair just below his stomach, and watching Gordon's dick spill out into the open air. Benrey's teeth dig into his lips as he watches, even as his hands move clumsily to strip the rest of the rubbery material off of his legs.

> He's touched that before. Wants to touch it again, wants to say something about it. But he can't because apparently it was bad form to say shit about your best bro's average-but-good meat when he wasn't specifically asking, or at least that's what his stupid, skinny doppelganger had said and--

> God. Wait. No. He shakes his head. Best to focus on anything else.

> What else had the Resist-y Squad said? To listen? Humans liked listening? Even when they were being bitchy little drama-snots?

> Then he should... listen, right? But... what had Gordon said? He wasn't actually paying attention. He furrows his brow and his stare intensifies as he tries to piece together enough of the words he did hear to paint a picture. It takes a moment, but soon, it clicks.

> Oh. Yeah. Not cute. Blah, blah. Something, something "mean."

> Benrey's mouth snaps shut as he struggles to tear his eyes away from Gordon's cock, instead keeping a trained eye on his face. His mind is a machine running on fumes with rattling parts, but he struggles through the distraction. He's going to be reassuring. He's a good friend.

> "Uh... yeah? Mean? Cute? You can be both. Bratty little, ah, Gordon Meanman with his nice... cute. Cute little hog."

> The words come out before he can stop them.

> Goddammit.

Oh, God, okay, so none of what he said got through, clearly. He squawks out as much. Gordon's mind spins into overdrive as Benrey manifestly does not let him take care of it himself, instead peeling the jumpsuit clean off his hips and legs and exposing him from top to bottom. His heart thunders in his chest, and he presses his legs tightly together in a futile attempt at modesty.

"My-- my cute little-- Jesus Christ, Benrey, you can not say shit like like that!" Gordon snaps. He jams his hands between his legs to cover himself, humiliation boiling over.

Fucking Benrey. Always saying the worst possible shit, the most embarrassing shit. Gordon thinks this as furiously as he can, because if he acknowledges that there's anything other than purestrain embarrassment and indignation at play, he's gonna snap like a twig. That's all it is. He's a normal guy, and normal guys don't feel their dicks twitch when their best friend calls their dick cute. And... little. That's worse. Much worse.

The thing that Gordon's still failing to understand is why Benrey's still calling him cute. Yeah, it gets his goat, but it's not like Benrey was in the habit of pulling this shit before. And... And Gordon doesn't know why it's getting to him so much, either.

The first time seemed like a prank. A bad joke. The second time, an accident. And the third - fourth - fifth? The times after that, he's not sure anymore. But each time it gets his skin burning hotter and his heart skipping a beat and Gordon's still pissed off but he's not sure exactly why. (Well, in the general sense. This time, it's because Benrey's straight up insulting his dick, thank you.)

"Why did I even agree to this," he moans, head hanging between his shoulders. "Everything's always gotta be a big fucking ordeal for Gordon. You know what, just put me down if you're gonna-- gonna make fun of my meat or whatever! I'll get myself a bath and then we can go and forget this ever happened."

> There is something about the way Gordon fusses at him that makes Benrey's heart skip a beat, though it also awakens something in the back of his mind that he's been consciously trying to tamp down. The urge to pick at him grows as large as his smile as he hooks two fingers under Gordon's arms and lifts him up and out of his palm like a claw in a skill crane. Words dance on the tip of his tongue, ones better fit for a schoolyard bully, and he rumbles a dark laugh as he contemplates what to say.

> It seems the crack about his hog got him all worked up in a delicious sort of way, judging from the way he's still bright crimson and his dick seems appreciative of Benrey's attention. He could double down on that. Then again, he was supposed to be nice in this situation, wasn't he? He'd been doing so good up until this point, and he could imagine the Resist-y People would be proud if they could see him now.

> But the reaction. It's... it's good. Seeing Gordon's dick twitch, seeing him bright as a tomato, seeing him sweating and nervously dodging his gaze. All were signs that he was interested, that he may just be thinking the same things Benrey has been trying not to think and... fuck, them's good thoughts. Great thoughts.

> Maybe there's a line to walk between. Play the game and still be "nice." Benrey wets his lips and huffs a sweet-scented laugh into Gordon's face, before gently lowering him into the water. The surface of the pool practically sparks as Gordon's bare feet make contact, and a shimmering azure mist billows into the air.

> "Nuh-uh. Nope," Benrey replies with a pop of the p. "You're, uh, tired. Gonna, y'know, get you sparkly. Clean. Squeaky. Pretty. Make you feel so good you'll, uh, wanna buy BFF necklaces after."

> Once Gordon is nestled in the pool, he leans down close and presses down on his shoulders to urge him into a seated position.

> "'Sides, ah. Not making fun. S'nice. Cute. Fun size."

> Emphasis on "fun," Benrey thinks, and his smile widens.

A tingle effervesces across Gordon's skin as Benrey slowly lowers him into the water, something like carbonation but not quite. For one, bubbles aren't nucleating on him so much as drifting toward the surface, sluggish and small. But the effect is as curiously refreshing as a cold glass of Pepsi.

In contrast, the water itself is warm and clear, and the humidity fogs up his glasses in short order. Makes it hard to see Benrey before he's firmly suggesting that Gordon sit down. With his hand. He's not expecting it, and he sinks to his knees with a splash and a quiet "whoa, shit".

Gordon rights himself, sitting back against the edge of the pool. And he opens his mouth to say-- well, something, you know, there was a lot to unpack in whatever the fuck Benrey just said to him, but he barely gets it out before Benrey's talking over him.

Cute. Fun size.

"Stop, okay, just stop talking about my meat! Can we please move on? Any other topic?" He crosses his arms in front of his face.

This is, it's too fucking much, okay, there's-- it's just-- the word was already starting to crawl under his skin, and he's just an average American male! You're not supposed to say this shit to another dude! And you're not supposed to, fucking, swallow and shudder when you hear that shit, either. Not supposed to like being talked down to like that. By... by such a big guy. Who probably does think he's a fun size right now. Probably wants to...

Gordon splashes his face with water. Then he takes off his glasses after the fact, feeling like an idiot. See, this is why he's got to get Benrey to knock it off. Too much. Gets him lost in his own head. Gets his blood pumping. And the last thing he wants is to embarrass himself by looking a gift horse in the mouth, getting a boner when Benrey's just trying to do him a solid.

Well. At least that's what he's saying he's doing. The jury's still out on that one. But either way, the most likely outcome is that Benrey never lets him live it down, and Gordon doesn't know if he can handle the psychological devastation right now. So.

"Here, look, I'll even... okay, so, what is this stuff, anyway? It feels like I'm taking a bath in a... a hot energy drink. But like, in a good way?" He cups some in his hand and lets it spill through his fingers. "Last time I jumped in this stuff, I think it fixed a bone. Is that normal? Weirdest fucking thing I ever felt, man."

> "I 'unno," Benrey answers honestly. Because, well, he doesn't know what this stuff is. Even if he knows a lot about Xen (and would be hard-pressed to tell you exactly how he knows these things), it's not like he knew much more than "this thing will eat you" and "this thing won't." All he knows is that these pools feel good and smell good and do things that are good, and could more than likely get Gordon clean. Make him have a more agreeable scent than the already agreeable people-odor he's already wearing.

> The Gordon smell. It's... a nice smell.

> "It's water. Uh. Bubbles." Benrey dips his fingertips in the pool to wet them and feels the curious, sparkling sensation around his skin; it's warm and cold and fizzy and, honestly? Yeah, kind of refreshing. Like caffeinated Pop Rocks or something. He dimly wonders what it tastes like, but ultimately decides not to drink the bath water.

> "Doesn't matter. You're thinking a lot. About wrong things. Need to focus on, uh, getting you ready. For the ball. Gordo-rella." He pauses, scowling. That was bad even for him. Quickly, he recovers, as if it never happened. "So, quiet? Please? Relax?"

> With that, Benrey extends one wet finger and presses against Gordon's chest, as carefully as he can, working in the glittering water and scrubbing gingerly at his chest hair. He works his muscles with a care he didn't know he possessed, and then maneuvers to his shoulders. He feels Gordon's muscles loosening underneath his touch and it makes him feel... accomplished.

> But his eyes keep straying down, down into the water where Gordon's dick should be, obscured by bubbles and blue. And he exhales, fighting the urge to press a button, to raise him up and see if it's still twitching in anticipation, wondering if he'll see it break the surface and greet him.

> Benrey's eyes screw shut and his fingers still as he takes a moment to force himself to be, as Gordon would say, "normal." It is a foreign feeling.

> He is not a fan.

"G-Gordo-rella?" Gordon bursts out laughing despite himself. "That's so bad, I know you can do better than that!" And the funny thing is, he does know. Benrey's got jokes. He's... good at making Gordon laugh. Even when he's clearly phoning it in.

The laughter sets him at ease for the first time since they'd set out the day before. And when Benrey reaches out to start scrubbing, Gordon flinches, but does as Benrey suggests and eventually relaxes into it.

Benrey's strangely quiet as he does it. Doesn't make any dumb quips. Doesn't start talking about video games or whatever. So Gordon doesn't feel inclined to break the silence, either. The meaner part of him insists that it's just because he doesn't want to set Benrey off on some dipshit tangent, but the truth is, it's kind of nice. The quiet. Even if it's bordering on surreal. All he can hear is the quiet sound of Benrey washing his skin, dipping his fingers into the water. His breathing, measured but heavy. And the sound of his own heartbeat pounding in his chest.

The bath itself isn't half-bad, either. He didn't expect Benrey to be this... careful. Not a word Gordon really associates with the guy. But Benrey's fingers work his muscles in tight circles, slow and firm, washing off however many days of sweat and dirt and blood, and Gordon's finds himself melting a little. Letting his eyes drift shut.

He groans when Benrey works his thumb into his back just right, dislodging a knot in the muscle he wasn't even aware of until it was gone. "Oh my God, how did you do that," Gordon breathes.

> Oh. Oh.

> That noise was a... nice one. A pleasant one. One that makes Benrey hesitate for a second and lose his smile before quickly regaining it and pretending he'd never misplaced it in the first place. And he figures Gordon likely didn't notice--his human can't see without the glasses--so he says nothing as he dips his fingers yet again and massages into Gordon's shoulders, exploring every inch and feeling how bizarre every groove and curve is underneath the pad of his finger.

> It's odd, but not a bad odd. The kind of odd that requires further investigation because, while he's had his hands on Gordon before, this feels different. Better, even, in some ways. Motivated by equal parts curiosity and mounting desire, he continues to glide across Gordon's skin and work his muscles and feel them loosen and pause to take in the rapid thudding of Gordon's tiny, tiny pulse against his skin.

> Benrey swallows the Sweet Voice pooling in the back of his mouth. He gags. He coughs into his shoulder. His voice breaks a bit as his normally flat demeanor begins to falter amid a mob of intrusive thoughts that march right into his brain like little soldiers.

> "Can do it 'cause 'm not human. Got magic fingers. Call now. For $19.99, we'll throw in a second one free," Benrey recites, but his eyes are still looking for a hint of cock. But not just that--

> "Limited time offer. Supplies going fast. Better, uh, pick up that phone."

> -- his chest, bits of leg sticking out of the water, that pretty neck, that long hair--

> "Call in, uh, next fifteen minutes and I'll... uh..."

> --that stomach, slightly soft around the middle, and arms that were too strong for somebody of his persuasion--

> "Uh."

> -- every inch that HEV suit wouldn't let him see. Gordon would look so much better in something more... breezy. Clingy. Revealing.

> "Fuck," he says breathily. Something roils inside him, and a lot of it is unfortunately roiling below the belt. So much for subtlety. So much for "nice."

Benrey keeps scrubbing, keeps rubbing his sore muscles between thumbs and index fingers, and it takes a conscious effort for Gordon not to doze off. Even the prickling of fizzy bubbles against his skin fights an upward battle to keep him awake. It's just, he's been on the go for way too long, now, and days of tension are leaching out of him, and Benrey's, like, weirdly good at this. For once, Gordon doesn't have to be thinking about parallel universes and the end of the fucking world or whatever. Somebody else can do the thinking for him.

And then he starts rambling about magic fingers like he's hosting some kind of infomercial and Gordon's laugh comes easier and harder than it has any right to. But Benrey's trailing off now, distracted. Swearing under his breath. Gordon blinks open his eyes and glances up at him.

Despite his lack of glasses, Benrey's big enough (and close enough) that Gordon can make out most of his expression, even if it's fuzzy and indistinct. His mouth hangs open a little, and his brows are knotted up under the cast shadow of his helmet. Like he's thinking about something.

"Free shipping?" Gordon finishes his joke for him. Benrey must have lost his train of thought again. Gordon's mostly used to it... mostly.

He shrugs and rolls his shoulders from side to side, grunting and making small, quiet noises as he stretches. Man, that feels good. There must be something in the water, even if Benrey was, as usual, unhelpful as to what.

Finally, Gordon decides to tug out the band from his hair, spilling it loose over his shoulders. He snaps it around his wrist for safekeeping, then runs his hands through his hair to shake it out.

"Uh. While we're at it. Think you could get my hair later? Like, I don't know where you got the soap from, but I'm assuming you can just, like, magic up some conditioner or something, too."

> Benrey doesn't know how to tell Gordon he didn't actually have soaps. He said so, but he... he didn't. If not for Gordon pointing out that he could "magic" some up, he might have been really stuck, but with a quick shake of his head to bring himself back to his senses, his face lights up once more with a teasing smile and his tone eases back into his typical taunting monotone.

> "Uh. Yeahs. Soaps and, uh, condo-stuff. Got'cha."

> There is a flash of green as he lifts his hand above him (in a dramatic way that he hopes is as cool and impressive as it looks in his head), and feels something slimy manifest in his hands. Slimy and, well, scented like a Glade plug-in. Like flowers and "summer breezes" and things that are a lot more Earth-y than the Sweet Voice. It's a nice color, too, but one that doesn't match how he feels it should look, because it smells more like blue than it does white and...

> ... You know what? It doesn't matter.

> Benrey dips a fingertip in the soap like a child about to paint and, tongue poking out between his teeth once more, sets to work giving Gordon a once-over yet again. He hopes that maybe Gordon won't notice or point out the fact he hadn't even used soap in the first place, as distracted as he was, and just accept the fact that Benrey is once more rubbing his shoulders, his chest, his arms, his legs. Lifting up limbs and maneuvering them to get into hard-to-reach places. Pushing a little firmer than before to feel for that fluttering pulse.

> God, his own heart is beginning to match it beat for beat.

> "Yeah," Benrey mutters at long last as his tongue darts back into his mouth, "I can. Do that. Get your hair."

> His hair. His hair is so pretty when it's down, already having grown out after he cut it in the Bad Ending World. Silky and nice with bits of gray that make him look like he's as smart as he thinks he is--

> No, no. Nice. Nice. He is grappling with the idea of being nice!

> "Get your hair with, uh, real shit. Good shampoo. Actual soaps and stuff that ain't, uh, the stuff. Your stuff. Head and Shoulders. Make you look real good, real nice. Nice for m--uh."

> He pauses. He snaps his mouth shut. He pauses over Gordon's body and thinks for a moment. He wants to say it, he wants to tease and pick and make Gordon flush bright red and play their stupid goddamn game, but now isn't the time. He doesn't think so, at least? Maybe it is?

> Does Gordon think it is? He hopes so, but he doesn't know how to tell. And, apparently, humans didn't like it when their alien best friends played games they didn't want to play.

> "... Mandatory hair inspection," he recovers. "Black Mesa, uh, protocol. Already fucked up the passport. Don't... don't fuck up hair day."

Blood doesn't so much rush to Gordon's face as it crawls, moving as sluggishly as his mind does, processing this. He knows what Benrey was gonna say before he snapped his mouth shut like a mousetrap. Gordon swore he could even hear the teeth click.

Maybe he didn't actually say it, but Gordon's entire system reacts as though he has, because, fucking, he did! For all intents and purposes! A bright, prickling heat surges down his spine that has nothing to do with the water. Why does he talk like that?! Fucking cooing at him, like Benrey's taking some kind of sick pleasure in teasing him in the most embarrassing way possible... but that's about what Gordon expects at this point.

So why did he stop himself?

When Benrey marshals his voice into something more flat and toneless, Gordon frowns. He's... he's really trying, isn't he. Trying to do something decent without turning it into one of their fucked up little games. Some of the mental furniture rearranges itself in Gordon's head, pictures straightened and doorways unjammed.

Unfortunately, all the dusting and clearing in the world can't change the fact that the foundation in his head is wired to make him a paranoid little fucker. And Benrey's always playing some kind of 4th-dimensional chess with him, anyway, right? He's just being rational. Wary.

That said... he's already here. He might as well relax and deal with the consequences later. Especially when... oh.

Benrey's washing him in earnest, fingers pressing into him and manipulating him. They're all over him, probing him without direction, and now Gordon's not sure if "relaxed" is the best descriptor for himself. There's just, there's a lot of touching happening, and Benrey's hands are so, so big, and Gordon can just make out the tip of Benrey's tongue poking through his teeth and something about that intense focus - on him - makes Gordon's breathing go shallow.

Christ. He can't-- He shouldn't think about this. This is the kind of sick shit that only happens in his head, not in real life. Gordon's just a normal guy with something very wrong with him, and that "something" makes him more prone than most to awful little fantasies, intrusive thoughts.

That's all this is. There's gotta be something wrong with him to want somebody ten times his size to touch him like this, but in, like, a horny way. Like some kind of freakjob doing gross shit with an action figure. Maybe it doesn't make him a bad person. So long as he keeps it to himself. He'll keep all his weird little fantasies right next to his heart, and then he'll die. That's that.

It's almost over, Gordon tells himself furiously, willing his blood to stop rushing to his dick and his stomach to stop coiling with heat. If he can just focus, he can will his boner down before he has to get out of the pool and then Benrey will be none the wiser.

"Okay, first of all, I didn't fuck up the passport," Gordon blusters, in an attempt to power through it. "I never needed one before! If anything, I think you fucked up, man. Never told me about Black Mesa Picture Day or whatever."

> Benrey's fingers do not pause as Gordon fusses at him, but his eyes can't stay focused on his own work. He's too busy watching Gordon's throat bob as he swallows around a lump, or how his blush is darkening and spreading. He's gauging the look in his eyes, looking for any indication that he can go ahead and make it weird, but--even though he's sweating and nervous and fidgety and acting just like he does when they're playing--Benrey is too nervous to make a move.

> And "nervous" wasn't a part of his vocabulary until that Alyx lady and Gordon's own downhill slide made it obvious that he actually had to think human to interact with humans. His human specifically.

> So, even though he sees the signs, he decides to bite his tongue. It is foreign, it is uncomfortable, and it's almost painful to choke down. To redirect his alien brain into more terrestrial channels. To try to figure out what a human person would do in his situation and, barring that, just continuing to do what he was supposed to be doing in the first place.

> Bathing Gordon.

> "Shouldn't have to tell you. S'in the, ah, employee handbook. Welcome packet. Folder. Right next to Warhammer 401k and, uh, ensure-ants."

> He cups a small amount of water in his palm and trickles it over Gordon's body, watching it drain down his form in sparkling rivulets. They trace his contours, weaving into every nook and cranny and crease that Benrey couldn't reach, and he watches them with an intensity that even he can feel. A warmth in his gut, a twitch of his dick. His tongue laps at his lips like a hungry animal; he wants to lick every droplet off of Gordon and explore ever inch of him as thoroughly as the bathwater.

> But... no. No, no. He's normal. He's normal and human and he's being nice, and Gordon hasn't said anything so he's going to close his eyes, huff angrily, and then continue on his merry way.

> "Everyone knows about, uh, Hair Inspection Day. And Passport Inspection. You, ah, you're just... uh."

> Benrey breathes heavily out of his nose as his eyes lock on Gordon yet again. Staring up at him, red-faced. Hair now adhered to his skin from the water. Chest heaving. He reaches out in spite of himself and presses a fingertip to Gordon's torso once more, feeling that rapid pulse and feeling it rise and fall with each breath. Knowing he could make Gordon's heart race faster and really put his lungs to work.

> He wants to feel him pant, wants to hear each heavy breath accompanied with his name and...

> No. God, it's getting so fucking hard to resist the game, but Benrey is good! Good for his best friend! He's learned and he's going to stay good. He's just being nice. He can be nice without being--

> "Missed a spot," Benrey lies as he pulls his finger away. He pretends to rinse Gordon off once more and sputters a cough. "Now, let's get those, ah, locks. Clean and brushed. Shiny. Barbie Girl, Barbie World, am I right?"

Gordon ducks his head instinctively as Benrey douses him with water, shielding his face. There's a huff from above him, and then another, breath hot and heavy on Gordon's neck. The closest comparable experience is... it's like being trapped under some kind of big fucking animal. A bear, maybe, snorting at the nape of his neck before it decides to eat him. Violently.

Cool. He loves thoughts like that. A pleasant reminder that they don't exactly carry fucking risperidone in the aftermath of a fascist takeover.

He shakes his head again to rid himself of it, then looks at Benrey in surprise when he presses a fingertip to his chest. It just rests there, warm and steady. Not pulling or pinching or shoving or any of the things Gordon expects. Gears whir to life in his head. Benrey's being-- he's being kind of fucking weird, but not in the ways Gordon's grown accustomed to, and when he's spent the entirety of their working relationship trying to get his sea legs, it throws him off just as badly when the boat stops rocking.

"I don't know how to tell you this, but it's not just Barbies who have to wash their hair," Gordon snorts at him. "You got me all worried now, man, I don't even know if you know the basics. It's shampoo, then conditioner, okay?"

After a moment, he slicks his hair back out of his face, too. For good measure. "And try not to get it in my eyes, either... Actually, uh, I'm kind of having second thoughts about this. Maybe you should just let me handle it. No offense."

> "Know what I'm doin'. I got hair. Nice hair. Better than... uh, Mr. 2-in-1," Benrey protests, masking the sudden wave of panic that just roiled up inside of him. Just the idea of not touching Gordon is too much, and he inwardly crinkles at the thought of missing his chance to feel his human again. And again. And again. Petting and scrubbing and massaging and imagining what it would be like to get Gordon close enough to his face that he could taste him.

> But... he can't do that. He's not allowed. This isn't The Game. This is A Nice Favor for His Person and, well, he's got to be normal. And chill. And calm. And this is all really too fucking hard.

> However, as long as he plays by the rules, he still gets a chance to touch Gordon, and he supposes that is a small victory. It's what spurs him on to press his thighs together and shift his weight to hide his burgeoning boner behind the Xenian island so that Gordon can't be alarmed or scandalized or angry or accusatory. It's what prompts him to summon from the ether, yet again, a new supply of nice-smelling soaps and an equally pleasant conditioner that still don't match the color his brain tells him they should be.

> And, with fangs pressed into his bottom lip, he dips his finger into the shampoo freshly spawned in his palm and swirls it gently, watching as Gordon regards him with a mixture of curiosity and what he hopes isn't disdain. He's been working so hard to try to not make the guy angry, and he's struggling not to slip.

> Slowly, he drips a dollop of soap onto Gordon's head--towards the back, since he is honestly trying to obey the request not to blind him--followed by a few drops of glittering, warm water. He monitors the way Gordon's expression changes as he presses against his head as gently as he can and begins to work it into a lather.

> It's... nice. It's not the usual rough stuff and bullying he's used to, but there is something undeniably pleasant about watching Gordon melt into his touch as he works, careful and light, his body rocking with the movements in a way that makes Benrey feel both strangely aroused and, well... warm. As warm as the pool of water, all on the inside like a badly heated burrito. It's new, and uncomfortable, but not unwelcome, and he savors it by trying to make the moment stretch.

> From the scalp and downwards, until his finger is stroking the side of Gordon's cheek and reaching under his chin as if trying to tilt his head up for a kiss he was way too big to give. Like a true romantic that he knew, in his gut, he wasn't actually anywhere close to being. But it felt right, and the dazed and pleasant look in Gordon's eyes shatter the alien armor around his heart in one powerful blow.

> Benrey swallows hard and says nothing. He just scrubs and stares. And scrubs. And stares.

> Slow, precise, delicate circles. Enjoying the moment, and buying time as he tries to untangle this utterly alien knot of feelings that is twisting around in his gut. Feelings he isn't sure he understands or particularly wants, but addictive all the same.

"Oh, that's kinda nice, actually," Gordon mumbles distantly, as Benrey starts to lather up his hair.

It's impressive, honestly, just how delicate Benrey's capable of being when he puts his mind to it. The pressure's firm enough that it feels good against his scalp, but he's not being knocked around or given a headache or anything. It's... pleasant. His eyes drift shut again, now that he's pretty sure Benrey's got the hang of it.

That finger slips lower, lower, stroking the side of Gordon's jaw, and Gordon leans into it. Lets him work soap into the underside of his facial hair. (And that's nice, too. It's the kind of thing he figured Benrey would miss.) And if Benrey rubs a bit slower, tilts his head up just a little so that Gordon has to peer up at him through slowly-blinking eyes, well, he's not going to complain.

Benrey's eyes are so big, so close to his and so intently focused that-- that he's sweating a little, just visible at the edge of Gordon's vision. Gordon's heart beats faster, and a strange tension begins to wind itself tight in him. It's like Benrey's trying to scan him. All that attention focused directly on him gins up butterflies in his stomach.

Gordon's suddenly hit by the awareness that nobody's done anything like this for him in a long, long time. Maybe ever. And here he is, letting his frenemy (best frenemy, whispers an annoying little voice that sounds suspiciously like Benrey) scrub him clean. Take care of him. How in the fuck did he end up here? And, more importantly, why is he so comfortable with this? This is the guy who got his arm cut off, not, fucking, not his live-in girlfriend. That broke up with him a couple years ago, citing the fact that he was "a puffed-up MIT asshole". Whatever. Details.

After a long stretch of silence, Gordon breaks it by saying, "I, uh, I think that's good. Yeah. Lemme just..."

And he pushes Benrey's finger away before ducking his head under the water, hoping Benrey doesn't notice the way his voice cracks.

> It... almost feels like he's being spurned when his finger is pushed away. There's a quaver in Gordon's voice and he isn't sure if it's nerves or rejection. In an instant, a long-dormant part of Benrey's brain flares to life, leaving him mentally bouncing theories as to why his person had sounded so off. It could have been that he was having the same sorts of thoughts Benrey had been having the whole time, or it could have been that he had done something wrong. Getting advice on how to handle Gordon came with the unpredictable side effect of giving him a lot to worry about in terms of "boundaries" and "behaving," which he honestly wasn't comfortable or keen on dealing with.

> These insecurities melt away as he watches Gordon duck under the water, however. It creates a hiccup in the system, a blue screen that necessitates a reboot. There's something distracting about the way his back arches forward, muscles moving, head dipping beneath the surface. On his knees, ass lifting up slightly so he has a touch more leverage. Hair floating to the top, and then clinging tightly to his skin as he emerges with a gasp and throws his head back and slicks it out of his face and...

> ... His face is dripping. Sopping. Water trailing from his mouth and down his beard. Running down his temples, his cheeks. Like sweat. Like... something else.

> "Holy shit," Benrey mutters with the barest hint of voice. He pauses, he tries to think of something to say that would mask the fact he's not being "normal," and he's been playing The Game the whole time, regardless of what he's been telling himself. The hamster is running, the gears are whirring, but Windows is still updating and he's at a loss for anything better to say.

> So he doubles down. His voice grows louder.

> "Holy shit."

Gordon winches his eyes shut as he wipes water from them, slinging his hair back out of his face for good measure. God, he can feel how much less greasy it is now, and it's like taking off an itchy sweater for the first time. Makes him breathe a sigh of relief.

"Thanks, man, that's honestly really... uh..."

He slows to a stop, thrown off by Benrey muttering something. Almost inaudible. It gets him to crane his neck to look up at Benrey properly, about to ask, before Benrey says it again. Louder. Okay, yeah, he did catch that right the first time, huh.

Even though he's out of focus, Gordon can still see how wide his eyes are. How slack his face is. He doesn't need the finer details to notice Benrey's hand hovering in midair, like he's been interrupted in the middle of a thought. Staring at him like... like...

Heat crashes over Gordon in a violent wave, from the crown of his head to the pit of his belly. He's not even-- he's not even doing anything. He's sopping wet, and he can't fucking stand the way his hair looks when it's laying flat and slick against his head like this, and he can't exactly hide all the unseemly scars and and stretch marks and soft spots and all the other issues he's poked at in the mirror time and time again. (He had a growth spurt as a teenager, okay, and stretching him out an extra foot and a half so quickly didn't give his skin a lot of time to adapt.)

In short, he feels more naked and exposed now, half-covered by the foamy surface of this shallow pool, than he did when Benrey had him in his palm with his entire dick out. And it makes Gordon fucking throb under the surface of the water.

He's gotta be making fun of me, Gordon desperately tells himself. Defense mechanism. It's not working as well as it usually does, and he subconsciously presses his thighs tighter together.

His tongue darts out to wet his lips, suddenly dry despite the water carding down his face.

"What," starts Gordon. But he doesn't know where to take that question, and it dies as quick as it came.

> Game over. It's done. Benrey's used his final life and lost it in a valiant attempt to beat the final boss, but now he's gawking down at Gordon who is gawking right back up at him with a tell-tale look on his face that makes Benrey almost positive that he's playing just as hard. His own breath quickens as once complicated thoughts congeal into something more comfortable, something more streamlined, something more natural.

> Something that Alyx would have been disappointed to hear, especially after how good he had been doing.

> He inhales sharply through his nose and leans in close, the air coming back out at a low laugh as his mouth twists into a hungry grin. A finger extends and he presses it against the side of Gordon's face, an almost loving stroke. He can feel a burst of heat in his cheeks and he knows, glasses or not, that Gordon can probably see how red he's getting. He shifts his legs as he floats beside the island, trying to accommodate a cock that is now frighteningly hard and twitching against his stomach.

> "What 'what?'" Benrey asks, his voice monotonous but still somehow teasing. "Can't a bro, uh, admire his bro? Have a look-see? Look nice. Pretty."

> His finger drops to the water and stirs it a bit, creating a roil of bubbles that send a pleasant, tingling sensation up his hand, his arm. It seems to travel straight to his heart, which is pounding furiously in his chest.

> "You, uh... you good? Need anymore help? Getting clean? Hard to reach places?"

> A pause. He feels his stomach twist into knots. This has never really happened before while playing this game, but it's powerful. Makes him feel desperate. Needy. Makes him feel guilty and he hates it because he never feels guilty.

> As quickly as the mask breaks, he picks up the pieces and puts them back together. He slides it back on. He takes a deep breath, fumbling with his words.

> "Want to, uh... pla... pretty? Want to pretty? Want best friend Benrey to make you, uh, cleaner? Prettier? Help you? Please? Thank-you."

Two paths emerge before Gordon. On the one, well-worn and well-lit, he would tell Benrey, "No thanks, I'm good," and he would tell Benrey to turn around so he can dry off and crawl back into the jumpsuit. And then he would let Benrey fit him in the armor again, trying his best to ignore those fingers on his skin, and later he would duck away and jerk himself raw thinking about it. Swearing at himself. Wishing he could be normal for once in his fucking life and not develop questionable new fantasies about the one guy who's as out of place in this world as he is.

On the other, bracketed by brambles and dark, uncharted woods, Gordon would... He would...

He'd get it through his head that he's not the only little fucking weirdo in this relationship. That Benrey keeps staring at him like that for a reason.

And that Benrey's trying so fucking hard to play nice because... well... Gordon hasn't wrapped his head around that one yet, but he has his suspicions. Some of them more worrying than others. But the point is, Benrey's not taking the bait. He's got Gordon in a highly vulnerable position, and he could be pushing Gordon around if he wanted, playing their little game and driving him up the wall.

But he isn't. He keeps choking it back. It's unsettling. Gordon doesn't know how to handle it. He kind of wishes, in the back of his mind, that Benrey would tack on his 'schoolyard bully' demeanor again. At least that Gordon understands on some level. Push, pull, tussle.

And most unsettling of all is that downright tender way that Benrey drags a finger along his cheek. Anxiety thrums to life in Gordon's blood. No, no, that's not-- This is weird. This is so weird. There's something roiling and ugly churning in his stomach, and he doesn't like it one bit. He's not coping with it, he needs to-- to wrangle this situation, get some control over it, steer it back to familiar territory.

And in doing so, Gordon floors it directly into the woods.

He looks back at Benrey, taking in the hot flush crawling up his skin. The awkward shifting. I'm not the only freak here, Gordon reminds himself, blood pounding in his ears.

So he shifts himself. Sits back, draws his legs up so that his knees peek out of the water. Lets them fall to the sides, just a little. And he says, tucking a strand of wet hair behind his ear,

"What, and you're not even gonna-- That's some low-hanging fruit you're leaving on the vine. Startin' to get worried about you, man. You haven't gone this long without making fun of me in... uh, ever."

> Wait. Was that...?

> Was that admission?

> Benrey's pupils grow wide at the words, and his smile threatens to falter as he feels the cogs creaking inside of his head. Connecting the dots with all the newfound information he has on human people is like doing the advanced science stuff Gordon seemed to believe he was so special for knowing. There's emotional equations, rechecking the data, counter-arguments for every theory he comes up with, but in the end a little lightbulb flickers to life. The lights are on, somebody is home, and by god does that somebody want to play ball already.

> Benrey's finger stills on Gordon's cheek and he feels an uncharacteristic lump grow in his throat as his face grows redder and sweat beads at his brow. That weird emotion that once wrapped itself around its siblings, Worry and Guilt, finally cut itself loose and tangles itself in his stomach. He doesn't like it--it's too warm, and it's not the horny kind of heat that he's used to--but he allows it to stay. It feels like it may turn into something good if he just lets it incubate.

> "Uh, what? Not gonna... huh?"

> Benrey's voice cracks just like Gordon's had a moment before. He pretends it never happened and seamlessly continues.

> "Not gonna, ah, make fun of you. Gonna... gonna pick that fruit, though."

> His finger trails down Gordon's chin, down his neck, across his shoulders, down his chest. It rests dangerously low on his belly, threatening to dip lower. He grins at Gordon, leans in close, and huffs a laugh that's less malicious than it is honestly amused with its own cleverness.

> "Uh, get it? Fruit? Picked? You're, ah, you're the fruit, bro."

> A pause.

> "Laugh, please."

Gordon swallows, hard. The implications hit him like a bowling ball. That somebody's dropping on him. Maybe from an overpass or something. He's spinning out a little, alright, and losing his grip on the metaphor.

Benrey's fingertip leaves goosebumps in its wake, and his breathing goes shallow as the nail lightly catches on the crook of his neck. Lower, lower, slipping just below the surface of the water to rest on his belly, and Gordon thanks every deity he can imagine (and some he can't) that the bubbles hide... well. This, feeling it throb where it lies heavy against his hip.

Despite himself, he does actually laugh when Benrey prompts it. It comes out high and way louder than he intended, but still. Now that's a metaphor he's got a good grasp on, he thinks wildly. Oh, Christ.

"That's-- that's not really what I meant," Gordon tries to argue, but not with very much conviction. "But, uh, ha ha! Great joke! Fucking love jokes, man!"

> Benrey doesn't really hear what Gordon is saying. He does know that tone, though, from times they've played The Game before. It's a tone that speaks of permission, a sort of polite denial without the force. The kind of arguing that Benrey knows he can get away with ignoring because it's not sincere. Game talk. A challenge.

> Their own secret language of want.

> "Thank-you," Benrey purrs when Gordon forces a laugh, and his finger rubs a slow, slow circle into Gordon's stomach. He's sure Gordon notices when it bumps a bit too low, because he can feel something tell-tale just beneath the surface of the water. His grin grows at the realization that he was on the right track, tongue slipping out from between his teeth and running along his lips. A show, given to Gordon.

> A show he desperately wants Gordon to notice is meant for him. A tech demo. A promise.

> "But, uh... if that ain't what you meant. What did you mean? 'Cause you seem to be enjoyin' this, best friend."

A noise threatens to burst from Gordon's chest when Benrey starts to rub, slow and insistent, and grazes against-- Oh, God. But he clamps his lips tight, and all that escapes him is a harsh puff of air through his nose. He knows now, he knows, and it's written all over his face, a raised eyebrow and a smug smile and the slow, deliberate movement of his tongue over his lower lip.

It's fucking cartoonish, is what it is. Gordon should laugh. Gordon does laugh, again, another nervous little titter that doesn't communicate "amusement" so much as "flustered hysteria".

"I don't know," he blurts out, and it's the most honest thing he's said all day. "Fucking, God, I'm not-- This isn't what it looks like, okay, you just-- you keep looking at me like that, and I don't know what your fucking game is, man!"

He can't look at Benrey, not right now, not when he knows Benrey's looking at him like that, and so he looks down and oh, no, that's a bad idea. Because Benrey's still drawing tight little circles into his skin, unnervingly gentle. And so Gordon's eyes keep darting around, finding nowhere suitable to land.

At least Benrey's taking the bait. He's not doing that weird sappy shit anymore, and Gordon's in more familiar territory: the push and pull. The teasing. So he pulls harder, in hopes that Benrey will knock it off for good.

"If anybody's 'enjoying this', it's you, buddy! I'm just a, uh, innocent bystander, you know?"

> He doesn't sound convincing. There's fractures in his voice, and his words are stumbling like they fell down the stairs. He's looking everywhere but at Benrey, his face red and his eyes nervously darting from thing to thing to thing. But, in the end, they always come back to him, in one way or another.

> It's tells like this that let Benrey know that he's playing. The Game is afoot, he's been given the go-ahead. It's time to take the ball and run.

> "Uh-huh. Sure. Innocent. Lessee what you're hidin', bro."

> And with that, Benrey removes his finger from Gordon's stomach, instead parting his fingers into a V-shape and hooking Gordon underneath his arms. It's like a claw in a skill crane and, with a snort, he lifts Gordon out of the water. Naked, wet, and standing at attention from the looks of it; his human apparently had been playing along a lot longer than Benrey knew. He watches Gordon dangling a few feet from the pool at the end of his hand and smirks.

> But there's something different now, isn't there? Something Benrey sees in his human that makes that weird feeling he's been fighting twirl and twist. He's barely even noticing Gordon's boner more than he's looking at the way his hair is clinging to his face, and the way his eyes are flicking up at him expectantly, and how warm and small and cute he looks. He looks delicate and handsome and he wants to touch him, but he wants to touch all of him, and his heart is thumping so hard he starts to worry because... fuck. Is he dying? Is Gordon killing him just by being cute?

> Benrey swallows hard. He hopes his expression didn't falter. He broadens his grin in case it did, until the muscles in his cheeks honestly hurt. And he inhales deeply and forces a mocking laugh and squeezes his fingers around Gordon gently in an attempt to further mock him.

> "I 'unno, bro. Looks like you're, uh... you're carrying without a permit. That's... uh, an infract... fracta... infection. You're a bad boy, aren't'cha?"

Gordon yelps as those fingers hook under his arms and drag him out of the water. Oh, God, his legs are kicking out from underneath him, and his hands scrabble at Benrey's, and Benrey's just smirking at him all up close and personal and he's fucked, he's really, really fucked. His fucking dick bobs in the air like-- like-- he doesn't know, he doesn't have a simile for this! Gordon's never been in this situation before! But bob it does, until he comes to a stop right in front of Benrey's face.

"It's infraction, dude!" Gordon snaps, his mind jumping to the least important thing Benrey said. "Fucking 'infraction'! And I don't-- I don't know what you expect when you're all, fucking--"

He's cut off by a gasp when Benrey squeezes him, just a little. Makes Gordon keenly aware of those big fingers. He can just... he can do whatever he fucking wants, huh? Pick Gordon up like it's nothing? Wrap those fingers around him, so big and hot and rough against his skin, and move all his limbs around just like he was doing earlier and--

And--

Gordon blinks, coming back to himself. Face hot. Mouth dry. And Benrey's grin looks impossibly wider.

"You know," he finishes weakly.

> "Maybe I do," Benrey responds, jostling Gordon lightly. "Maybe I don't. Maybe you should tell me, bro. When I'm all fuckin' what?"

> He lifts Gordon higher, and closer. Really gets a good look at him, leaning in and running his tongue along his jagged teeth. Like a predator, like something that wants to swallow Gordon whole, though that's the last thing on his mind. He wants to taste Gordon, that's for sure, but there's... there's more to it.

> He wants to reel him in. Follow this weird feeling. Press his lips against Gordon and--

> Benrey inhales sharply through his nose. Gordon smells positively delicious. Like something fruity and sweet and earthly. And he looks delicious, too, all soft and supple and soaked to the bone, smooth skin glistening in the alien lights.

> His dick twitches, straining against his pants. He's so hard it hurts. He wonders if Gordon can see, but can't imagine he can miss it.

> "C'mon," he teases, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Tell me what I am, bro. Tell best friend Benrey what's on your mind. Bonding experience. Bros being bros."

He wrenches his eyes shut, breath coming harder and faster despite his efforts to control it. When Benrey fucking talks like that, he can't help it, okay? All-- all smug and condescending and all the shit that should get under his skin-- and does, yeah, it drives him up the wall, but. But. There must be something wrong with him, Gordon thinks desperately. Something warped in the fabric of his mind that makes a shiver race down his spine.

Then he feels warm breath puffing against his face, and he opens his eyes again. Just in time to see a broad tongue run across sharp, sharp teeth. A naked suggestion. Gordon's mouth falls open a little and hangs there, stunned speechless.

Until Benrey mutters, c'mooon, voice low and heated in a way that goes straight to Gordon's belly. And his dick twitches in the open air, fully visible this time. Fuck.

"You're," he starts, staring at his own fingertips, where they're digging into Benrey's hand.

God, this is humiliating! And he should, he should tell Benrey to fuck off and put him down, but he doesn't. That same warp in his fabric goes all the way down to his autonomic nervous system. Heart racing, blood pumping, pupils dilating and sweat beading and every other unconscious reaction he can't wrangle into submission.

Because he wants to be wrangled into submission.

Okay, Christ! He gets it! He doesn't need the color commentary from his own fucking brain!

Gordon takes a deep breath to steel himself, and then he starts again, choked and hesitant, "When you're... God, fucking, touching me and breathing on me and shit, man! Like you'd be doing any better if you had somebody's big fucking hands all over you! Okay?"

As soon as the words leave him, a fresh wave of embarrassment crests and crashes over him. Stupid, stupid, he shouldn't have said it.

> Oh. Well. That was new. Usually, there's a bit more arguing, a bit more resistance, a bit more of Benrey getting called things like "weirdo" and "freak" before they have a good "haha" about it and touch dicks. But Gordon is being so earnest and honest and talking about how he's touching him, about big hands, about doing this same thing to Benrey (sort of talking about it, anyway), and...

> ... And Benrey feels... wanted? Was that the word? Wanted?

> Yeah. He feels wanted.

> And that foreign, alien, hot-cold emotion twisting inside of him balloons and explodes, and there is a sudden, pulse-pounding sensation of want and warmth that courses through his body like a poison. He can feel drool pooling under his tongue and he swallows hard, his smile fading into something more earnest as he tries to maintain a mocking, bullying stare. Tries to keep his head in the game.

> Their game.

> "Oh. You, uh. You like it when I breathe on you? Fuckin'... secret alien power. Uh, blow dryer." He pauses and chuckles. "Heh. Blow."

> He inches Gordon closer to his face, and the closer he brings him, the more he can feel the little bit of warmth radiating off of him. Welcoming him. Blazing hot, like he is on the inside, and flushed so red he looked burned. And that warm, weird, unwelcome emotion surges again as he lets out a sigh and sits Gordon in his palm, plopping him down unceremoniously like a captured bug.

> Only he's not watching him with a childlike curiosity. He's really examining him, trying to wiggle the wrench out of the gears in his brain. With some effort, he pops it loose, and the words pour out of his mouth without any restraint.

> "Bet'cha you'd like it if I, uh... dried you off. Gentle breeze. Pick a scent. Have eight exciting flavors. Blue. Watermelon. Other blue. Tropical, uh, kiss."

> Even he isn't sure why he stressed that last word. The weird emotion spoke for him.

> His mouth snaps shut.

> Awkward.

Whatever Gordon was expecting, it wasn't "being dropped buck-naked onto Benrey's palm". His legs splay out in front of him, and he instinctively tries to draw his knees up. Doesn't change the fact that he's got his boner out in front of God and everybody.

"Was that supposed to be a joke?" Despite himself, he bursts out laughing. He does his best to choke it back down. "You really, uh, gotta work on your dirty talk, man."

Gordon doesn't manage to catch himself before he all but admits that, yeah, that was dirty talk. This is a situation where Benrey should be trying to talk dirty to him. It's breaking the rules a little. Breaking kayfabe. But it's hard to resist bringing it up when Benrey's trying to get him hot by talking about blowing on him like a spoonful of soup.

Then he actually thinks about what Benrey said. Tropical kiss. That's not-- that's not anything. That's not real. Benrey's just talking about kissing him, in whatever weird fucking roundabout way he usually does. A small part of him softens. It's... almost cute. If he were inclined to ever describe Benrey that way. Which he isn't.

But Gordon plays along anyway. "What are you talking about? Scents? Dude, I smelled your breath earlier, and lemme tell you, it wasn't any kind of fucking tropical kiss."

> "Uh, no. S'one of the other flavors," Benrey responds indignantly, façade breaking for a moment. "That flavor was, uh... Glade Plug-in."

> As he speaks, he reels Gordon in closer, sitting in his palm and still sopping wet. He looks so small, so delicate, so... cute, and the thought makes his heart flutter again. It grabs his tongue and twists it into an awkward knot that takes a moment to untie. He works fast, hoping to save face. Get back in the game.

> But it's hard. Harder than before, and as Gordon stares at him expectantly, he's suddenly floundering. While he is externally stiff, flat, and monotonous, on the inside he is scrambling to pick up his scattered index cards during a speech. He wants to play, but he wants to taste. He wants to stroke Gordon's head as much as his dick and he doesn't know why. He wants to say something naughty and nice all at the same time and...

> "Lemme, uh. Demo. Demon-stray-shun," Benrey says, interrupting his own thoughts. "Tropical kiss. Free sample. Here we go."

> And with that, he brings Gordon to his mouth. He presses the smaller man into his lips, a small and chaste kiss being planted in the first place he can reach: Gordon's throat. Only it's... not just his throat. It's basically his whole shoulder, and throat, and beneath his jaw. He practically envelops him, could literally swallow him if he wanted to, but pulls away and snorts a laugh as though this spontaneous act was premeditated as a joke.

> He sounds unconvincing.

> Even more so when he chuckles, "See? Coconut. Sea breeze. Lime. Seagulls. All the classic smells."

Lips press against Gordon's skin before he's fully prepared for it, and he lets out a surprised little sound. Jaw and throat alike find themselves enveloped, a heat and softness and moisture the likes of which he's never felt quite like this. And then it's over. Gordon's still left dizzily processing this as Benrey draws back.

"Did you just kiss me?" Gordon asks, stupidly. He touches a hand to his jaw, where there's a hint of moisture lingering.

The longer Gordon thinks about it, the more disoriented he becomes. Benrey's never kissed him like that before. All, fucking, sweet and tender. Those aren't words in his vocab. Like, yeah, sure, they've kissed before, but only in frantic, snarling bursts. This is strange and new.

But... at the same time... that's not all it is, is it. At this scale, chasteness is impossible. Gordon's so small in his hand, wet and splayed like some kind of foal, and those hands could wrap around every inch of him at once just to touch him. Lips, kissing wide swathes of skin. Hot breaths of air forced through Benrey's nose and spurring the hairs on the back of Gordon's neck to stand up. The unpleasant realization that Benrey is very, very big, and could probably just swallow Gordon whole if he so chose. You know. Normal things to worry about.

But he doesn't. He just lets Gordon go with a kiss. And Gordon flushes up to his ears, still a little dumbstruck.

> That was... new. That wasn't like the lust-fueled, rushed kisses he'd given Gordon while trying to get fingers around his cock, but it wasn't bad. It was something that scratched an itch he didn't know he had, something that made his lips tingle, something that milked an incredibly good feeling out of that foreign emotion swirling inside of him. It's intoxicating in a way human substances never could quite pull off, and Benrey feels an addiction already forming.

> It takes him a moment to realize that Gordon has spoken. It's just a tiny sound to his colossal ears, one he nearly misses from the full-body throb of lust and affection. It's not just his dick anymore. His heart is thundering against every bone, every inch of skin, and he feels almost overwhelmed. Again, like he's dying. This is new, it's intense.

> He wets his lips and furrows his brow, and with a surprising amount of clarity, rattles, "Yeah... uh. I guess I did, huh?"

> His tongue continues to run over his lips. His teeth. His eyes dart to Gordon. He's struggling to play the game properly, but there's a sudden bout of nerves involved. He can't help but wonder if this is how Gordon feels all the time, and the realization clonks him like a clawhammer.

> If this is how Gordon feels all the time, then no wonder he's always such a mess. It's latching onto his jaw and holding it shut like an invisible muzzle, it's pumping him full of drugs that don't exist, it's making him feel small despite being absolutely batshit levels of huge. And, it feels like he's learning... god, what had Alyx called it? Empathy? He's not sure how much he likes it, but it mingles well with the now-welcome warmth following the kiss in a way that feels positively, cathartically self-destructive.

> Benrey coughs. He doesn't laugh. He doesn't tease. He looks to Gordon with an intensity even he's surprised he can pull off.

> "You, uh. Like it? Wan' another one? I got, uh, plenty. Warehouses full. Best Friend Special. BOGO."

Gordon watches Benrey's tongue slide over his teeth like it's in slow motion, a reminder of what lies just underneath the surface. And he freezes under the intensity of Benrey's stare, anticipatory sweat beading on his forehead.

"What, you mean you want to..." He trails off with a nervous laugh. "C'mon, man, put me down! I know you get a kick out of, fucking, making fun of me or whatever, but I don't know what you're getting out of this!"

> Unfortunately, Benrey knows exactly what he was getting out of this. A feeling, strong and tingly that's now full of a primal need that he understands quite a bit better. And, beyond that, he was getting permission. Full permission in every movement Gordon made, every lilt of his voice, every glance up at him that was filled with a hunger that his human never got quite got the hang of voicing. It's a look that Benrey knows good and well, though, from the other time they've played their little games.

> He says nothing. He just smiles, moves Gordon to his mouth again, and pushes his lips gently against his collar bone, though it stretches down to his chest. He can feel Gordon's nipple brush against the corner of his lip, hair brushing against his mouth, the taste of the strange, glittering water and skin as he parts his lips and rumbles a laugh into Gordon.

> He pulls away. He maneuvers his human. He presses his mouth against him again, brushing his stomach with a feather-light kiss that nearly encompasses his dick. He can feel it pressing against him, feel it twitch as he pokes a tongue out between his teeth and presses the very tip into his soft flesh.

> His eyes angle up to Gordon's in a silent bid for a sign. The lick intensifies, nimbly avoiding the cock poking at the very corner of his mouth.

> He continues to say nothing. He has a feeling he doesn't have to. Gordon isn't the only one who can get away with communicating silent intent in their back-and-forth.

Of course Benrey's not gonna answer him. Of course Benrey's just gonna grin at him - like an asshole - and kiss him again, lips soft against his chest. Right over his heart. It's cartoonish, is what it is. And, unfortunately, it's also more ticklish than Gordon expects, and he snorts aloud.

"What are you doing? You're being weird, dude."

When Benrey laughs back at him, his huffed breath ruffles Gordon's body hair, and it just makes that whole "sensitivity" problem worse. Gordon tries to choke down a giggle and fails. Despite himself, it's... it's nice. He almost feels light-headed.

And then Benrey's doing it again, a soft kiss against his middle, shifting him bodily into position, and Gordon laughs again, shoving at his face. Playful. Roughhousing. Their usual.

And again. "That-- That tickles, man, c'mon!"

And again, hot against his belly. Mouth parted. Benrey's chin grazes his dick, which he'd all but forgotten about in his reflexive urge to kick Benrey away. A peal of laughter bleeds into a gasp. All the worse when Gordon feels the wet-hot tip of a tongue push into his skin.

Oh God. It feels just like he thought it would. In that dream, that fucking dream, the one he can't get out of his mind. The one that's made Gordon look twice every time Benrey grins at him, teeth sharp and glossy. He freezes, afraid even to breathe too heavily and press himself all the more against Benrey's tongue.

"What are you doing," he asks again, this time less of a playful rebuff and more of a high squeak. Then it's hotter, wetter, more of the broad side of Benrey's tongue flattening against him, and his dick twitches, hard.

Fuck.

> Alyx would be disappointed, Benrey thinks. He was doing so good and playing so nice, and now he's licking a hot, wet stripe across Gordon's belly, feeling the hairs and skin against his tongue, teeth barely grazing against sensitive flesh. But, he knows things she doesn't and will never know, about the game and the language that he and Gordon have built. He squeaks in defiance, but with a tone that shows only polite refusal: Oh, I couldn't possibly, but if you insist.

> Gordon isn't pressing against his face. He isn't pushing him away. He isn't snarling and cursing, and he hasn't made any move to extricate himself. He's parting his legs invitingly, his voice is getting higher in want and anticipation, and his dick is so hard. As hard as Benrey's, to be honest, and twitching almost as if its beckoning.

> "What'm I doing?" Benrey purrs, and he can see Gordon's body tremble at the way it rumbles through him. "M'helpin'. S'what best friends do."

> With that, his jaw opens wide, his tongue slithering out and the tip dipping lower. Low enough to catch his cock, his legs, the entire bottom of his stomach. It presses hard against Gordon and then creeps upward before coiling up politely behind Benrey's jagged smile. Drool pools at the corner of his lips and he swipes it away with his spare hand.

> He opens his mouth and dives back in again, the faintest hint of flesh and salt and soap and glittering, sweet Xen water dancing across his tongue. It fills him with another burst of primal want, though it's watching the flush on Gordon grow deeper that satiates that other, newer beast nesting inside of him.

Hot, wet, sinuous, pressing against his belly like a snake, making him gasp and jerk instinctively - Gordon's head spins on contact. And Benrey's eyes keep flicking up to meet his, like he's gauging Gordon's reaction. Looking for the go-ahead. Like-- Like they haven't been playing this fucking game for hours, glorified foreplay, you know, like he hadn't let Benrey practically feel him up behind the bleachers while he was (is) stripped down to nothing.

When Gordon's legs jerk open, though, he doesn't snap them closed again. He lets them fall open, leaving room for Benrey's face. If he wanted. To put his face anywhere around there. It's embarrassing as soon as the thought hits his conscious mind, and Gordon burns a bright red down to his shoulders.

"I-I don't know if this is what every 'best friend' is supposed to d-- oh-- oh God, Benrey--"

His voice pitches up, raw and hoarse, as Benrey's tongue flattens itself against his thighs and dick. No more games. Just what this was always building up to, this whole time, if Gordon had just paid a little more attention, pushed his glasses back up on his nose and seen the hunger in Benrey's eyes. And the full knowledge of it cracks over his skull like an egg.

His chest heaves desperately to catch his breath, but it's so much, he can't--

He can't--

Benrey's going back for more, licking him in slow, deliberate strokes and chuffing like a big cat against him, and Gordon can't fucking think. His hands clench at Benrey's, then, finding that inadequate, at his own face. His hair.

"Benrey," he chokes out again. "You're gonna-- oh-- you just gave me a bath and you're gonna get me all fuckin' nasty again, man!"

It comes out as a whine that belies just how fucking stupid he sounds.

> "I'll, uh, just bathe you again. No biggie."

> Benrey's voice is low, dismissive. There is a dark and teasing chuckle hidden just under the surface, as much of a predator as the rest of him. Waiting for a moment to strike, to snag his prey and drag it beneath the surface. But not now, not now.

> Benrey likes to play with his food.

> His alien tongue is strangely dexterous, encircling Gordon's thighs and tracing wet lines into the crease where they met his body. Faint trails of Sweet Voice-tainted saliva leave visible marks of where he's been, allowing Gordon to ogle at exactly when Benrey is doing to him even after he's moved on. Even after he's moved from one leg to the other, to his belly, to his cock.

> His own aches as he flattens his tongue against his dick and licks upwards, like an animal lapping water. His tongue curls delicately and folds back into his mouth, scraping against pointed teeth before emerging again. Hungry, tasting, teasing and growing faster, more deliberate. The taste of Gordon swirl in his mouth and he feels a heat building in his belly so hot and dangerous that it almost makes him feel ill.

> And it intensifies with every squeak Gordon makes, every pant that falls out of his mouth. It drives him onward, a leopard on the prowl, gradually cornering its next meal. His own breath is becoming ragged, his mind a messy whorl of emotions and thoughts that make time seem as though it hardly matters. He's long forgotten how long he's been teasing, eyes nearly crossed to focus on Gordon. Benrey has long been lost in the sounds he makes, the way he writhes.

> It's almost like divine inspiration when it strikes him that he should maybe push him a bit harder.

> Delicately, and uncharacteristically slow, he rolls his tongue back into his mouth. He parts his lips and fits them around Gordon's length. He can't suck, not at this size, but he hums in satisfaction, the vibrations pulsing straight from him and into his human.

> If he wasn't so afraid of doing damage, he'd have smiled.

"We don't have time to--" Gordon breaks off in a moan, that compulsive need to worry stopped in its tracks by Benrey's tongue.

He shivers from his neck down to his toes when it worms around his thighs, digging into those sensitive creases in his skin. Something like a laugh bubbles out of him, but it's also something like a whimper, with a hint of a plea.

"You can't," he gasps, fighting for breath, "you can't do this to me, man, you don't even-- ah! Fuck! Don't even know!"

Gordon turns his face to the side and buries a noise into Benrey's hand. Makes it easier to cope when Benrey licks up to his chest and swirls his tongue, his own breath loud and hot around it. Tasting everywhere he can get to. Benrey just keeps going, salivating and groaning for the sheer thrill of it, and it makes heat pulse off Gordon's skin in waves.

Faster, harder, enveloping him in ways he had only dreamed possible, something only he can do - Benrey - just for him, he doesn't do this shit with anyone else, how could he. Gordon squirms and gasps in his grip, legs straining to arch into that wet heat.

Agony creeps into his voice, low and haggard. "Benrey," he whines, "how are you so fucking... good at this, why are you even--"

He doesn't get to finish that thought before Benrey's lips wrap around him, and he hums, smug as a cat that's gotten the cream, and Gordon cries out so hard that some winged thing bursts out from a nearby outcropping. How is-- Why is he-- what does he even get out of this, he thinks wildly, brain desperately clinging to neuroticism even in the face of sexual obliteration.

> Every time Gordon shifts his weight, whines, looks away, says a word, Benrey feels that warm, weird emotion surge through him in a way that defies explanation. A feeling he thinks he can now identify, but is hesitant to verbalize, lest he somehow break the rules. But, it's so much stronger than before, especially after everything they'd been through, especially with the way Gordon is finally saying what he really means. Instead of snapping that he's being weird, he's whimpering praise and the words hang crookedly in his head like paintings in a forgotten room.

> "Benrey, how are you so fucking... good at this?"

> The boner he'd been ignoring for what seemed like millennia is now aching, and he pushes his hips against the side of the island and grinds upwards in hopes of finding something resembling relief. Unsurprisingly, what he finds is a crotch full of rocks, and he winces even as he continues to lavish Gordon with attention, breath hot out of his nose as he continues to hum and mouth at his dick. As he unfurls his tongue once more and presses it against his entire body and pushes Gordon against the palm of his hand, something akin to a wet hug. As the tip once again finds Gordon's cock and greedily laps at it, mesmerized by how prominent it is compared to the rest of his soft body.

> There is no give. Just hardness, sinking into the sensitive muscle.

> As he continues on--gently sucking on entire hands, tracing circles into the wet skin of his stomach, tasting the inside of his thighs while grazing his junk with the side of his tongue--he grunts. He feels his hips rocking just out of Gordon's sight. He clenches his free hand when its not in use pulling Gordon's legs apart for easier access or fiddling with his arm to get access to his fingers.

> It's instinctual, and impossible to ignore. He aches, and he knows Gordon can see he's losing himself to this as much as his prey.

> He waits to see if Gordon will have anything to say about it.

Gordon grabs desperately at Benrey's face, a nasal noise forced out of him on every exhale. It's more than a blowjob, it's, it's Benrey humming through his entire fucking body, okay? He can feel it down to his bones, and the inside of Benrey's mouth is achingly warm and so, so wet, and Benrey just keeps mouthing at him, tongue unfurling behind his teeth to lap up Gordon's length in a hot stripe.

It's... it's good. It's so good. Gordon closes his eyes tight and moans aloud.

Benrey moans, too, as his lips part from Gordon's dick to envelop his fingers instead. He pants through his nose and shuffles awkwardly, and the uncomfortable motion gets Gordon to open his eyes again. And he really looks, this time.

Oh.

He's hard.

Benrey's hard, and he's rocking his hips forward into the barren earth. And he's got his hands on Gordon instead of himself. Thumbing his chest and spreading him open. The burden of that knowledge makes Gordon pant like a dog.

"Oh my God," he warbles, voice cracking as Benrey draws patterns into his stomach with his tongue, "are you-- are you not gonna--"

Gordon slaps his hands over his mouth, suddenly regretting his words. No, he's not going to ask if Benrey's gonna touch his own dick, Jesus Christ. That's none of his business. What does he even care, anyway. It's not like he wants to see it. Not like he's curious about how big it would look once Benrey whipped it out. Gordon's aware of the general, you know, size and girth, proportionally, but it looks so much bigger down there, even in the confines of his work pants. It's not really fair.

And then Benrey grunts against him and flicks the tip of his tongue against his dick even faster, and Gordon can't stop the agonized whine that forces its way out of him.

> Benrey's tongue rolls up Gordon's body yet again, and again, and again. It envelops his dick, his thighs, his stomach, and everything in between. He watches, he waits, and eventually he hears Gordon's voice small and broken from his palm. It is enough to make him recoil, to open the floodgates in his mind. That warm feeling floods the inside of his skull and drowns out every thought out but lust, who is gasping for air defiantly.

> "Huh?"

> Benrey pauses, looking down at Gordon--soaked and slimy and oh-so-small--laying with his legs parted, his face flushed, his eyes locked on the very prominent erection straining against his pants. His own trail down to it and he smirks as the weight of Gordon's almost-question hits him.

> "Oh... huh? Wha? Touch myself? Is, uh, is that what you were gonna say?"

> He leans down over Gordon, tongue sticking out between sharp teeth but frustratingly distant from his body. The hand he'd once used to manhandle his human pulled away, fingers slipping into his waistband behind his belt. He sneers, but there is no actual malice behind it. Feigned mockery, just to make Gordon grow brighter. Redder.

> "You... seem to like the idea. You, uh. You... you wanna see? That what you want? Wanna see best friend Benrey's massive hog? Wanna... wanna touch it?"

> A pause, a laugh.

> "Want me to touch it? Seems you like the idea. I can do it. Just, uh, gotta say so."

Gordon mumbles a quiet plea into his hands, begging for some higher power to-- to do something. He doesn't know what. All he knows is that Benrey's sticking his tongue between his teeth, now, looking at him as if he's some problem to be solved or some piece of furniture to wrangle into place. Instead of keeping that tongue right where he had it. Gordon squeezes his eyes shut and takes a deep breath through his nose. He's not disappointed, actually. That would involve caring about what Benrey was doing at all. Which he doesn't.

"You can... you can do whatever you want, man. It's your life," he says, not meeting Benrey's eyes.

Not like he wants to... oh, God. That's Benrey's hand in his pants, isn't it? Slipping under the waistband before Gordon’s even finished his sentence. A sound escapes him that he really wishes wouldn't. He’s really into this, huh, Gordon thinks distantly, just as surprised by the realization as he has been all the previous times he’s figured out that, yes, Benrey actually is pretty hot for him. Like he’s still waiting for the Band-Aid to be ripped off, even now. Even after Benrey’s sucked his dick in a fucking dumpster. (You take what you can get.)

And-- And there it is, huh. Larger than life. Gordon swallows, a little intimidated. Then he wants to curse himself out for feeling intimidated by Benrey’s dick. Freud would have a field day with him.

#writin stuff #please clap.

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yamithediaperdork · 3 years ago

Text

My little Brothers revenge- Final

The next day at school time dragged by for Justin. while his teacher was tickled pink that he'd done so well on his extra credit work, Grizz's hadn't been met with the same gushing, and more of a "well at least you tried and I appreciate the effort you put in."

Needless to say this didn't help mend any fences between Grizz and Justin and come noon hour Rayne was even angrier. It had only been the fact that Rayne was one more suspension for fighting at school and he'd be expelled that saved Justin from a ass kicking.

With all the grades going to the same school and the lunch hours the same, Justin found himself hanging out with Alex's group ironically, and even then they only allowed it because Alex had let them in on what he had planned for Justin.

As it got closer and closer to 3 Justin toyed with trying to get himself detention so he'd have to stay after school and put off his upcoming humiliation but then pictured trying to explain it to his parents and that wasn't a fun mental picture either.

As the final bell rang and the loser's club met up to walk Justin home, claiming to be his honor guard to protect him, Justin mentally wondered what he had done to deserve all this.

Their dad worked 9 to five five days a week so he wasn't home as the boys arrived, and Mom had recently taken up a part time job working 12 to 5 herself.

She had waited till Justin was old enough to be trusted to look after Alex, though if she had known what was about to happen she might not of been as eager to start a job.

"Alright BABY brother..ready for your first of many, many diapers?" Alex asked as they got inside, practically bouncing he was so excited.

"Would it make a difference if I said no?" Justin groaned, though he had accepted this was happening.

"heh, not in the least bit! Max, would you be a pal and go and get ohhh.. i dunno, what do you guys think would be a good number of diapers for widdle Justin to wear?" Alex chuckled, looking at Max, Kyle and Lyle.

"Well we want him padded for awhile so I say one." Max said, nodding thoughtfully.

"Bull dooky on that!" Kyle giggled. "10!"

Justin paled at that and whined loudly.

"Uhhh I like the idea of that.. but I think we're gonna have to be more realistic." Lyle said, rubbing the back of his head. "3?"

"Heh, all good suggestions. Max, I know we want this to last awhile but i also want a waddle in his set. Kyle, I like how you think but maybe save that for when mom and dad aren't gonna be around. we don't want him busted in diapers right off the bat. I think we'll just go double diapers for now and see how that works." Alex said and nodded to Max.

With Max heading down into the basement to get the diapers from where they'd been stashed, Alex had the twins go and make sure doors were locked and curtains were pulled, then go down into the basement and pick out some baby toys for widdle Justin.

"ah come on, playing with baby toy's in the living room?" Justin whined.

"I can always have you play in the front yard." Alex said with a smug grin.

"..Oh boy! playing in the living room! weeee!" Justin said quickly, sweat dropping.

"That's what I thought. Lose the pants and undies."

getting the diapers on Justin's big butt turned out to be a bit harder then Alex had figured, and he wasn't sure if he was gonna trust them for a stinky accident though he was positive they'd hold up to wet ones.

'eh, so i just make him a pants pisser. win some, lose some.' Alex thought with a grin.

He was currently using a role of light green masking tape and after using it to make sure the sides of the diapers were fixed on tight, he was running it around Justin's waist so they're would be no quick and easy getting out of the diapers and Alex would know if he had taken them off without permission.

Just to make sure he had each of the loser club sign they're named in pen on the waist band as Justin turned red as a cherry and had his hands to his face looking ready to cry.

"Now Little Justin.. I want you to TRY and be a big boy and use the potty for uh-oh's." Alex said as he finished signing his name.

"What!? After he made-" Lyle started up.

"-Us poop ourselves!?" Kyle finished, both twins filed with righteous anger.

"Justin would be too toxic to hide it, plus I'm not sure the diapers will take a load of back door fudge without leaking. anyone wanna clear that up?" Alex asked.

"heh, yeah guys, Alex has a point. sides, you two DID turn Judas on us so consider crapping yourself karma." max added.

"For the record, I am perfectly fine with crapping in the potty." Justin chimed in.

"That's good to know baby bro. though there's just onnnnne thing about that.." Alex said and flashed a impish grin.

"Why do I get the feeling this is gonna suck." Justin muttered, shifting and crinkling in his white and pink diapers.

"Because despite what your test scores say, your not stupid." Alex giggled. "Anyways, You have to get permission from one of us to go and use the potty for boom boom and one of us will be waiting by the door to make sure your in your diapies when you come out. or if you need help with your pampers after."

"Of freaking course.." Justin whined as the loser club laughed.

Sat on the soft blanket on the floor and in a t-shirt and diapers, Justin was made to put on a show for the younger boys using the stuffies that the twins had fished out of the basement for him.

they had been washed and dried before being stored in a plastic bag so no one was worried about Justin getting sick as he had a interesting epic war between 4 teddy bears and then a lion, tiger and bear stuffie. (And yes a 'oh my' comment had been dropped.)

The only reason Justin didn't have a paci in his mouth at the the moment was the fact that the loser's club wanted to heard EVERY single bit of the 'plot' of Justin's little show he was putting on for them, even though it was clear that he sucked at improv.

"S-So then uh.. the Lion decided that the four bears had disgraced the bear on his team too many times at.. gathering..honey! yeah honey and so-"

the losers just chuckled and encouraged Justin on, though he never once go into the being a big baby dork to their disappointment.

the story came to a sudden end however when Justin turned beet red and dropped the stuffies and his hands went to his crotch. he'd been on his knees at the point and hunched over.

"Alex..alex please..I gotta take a whiz so bad my back teeth are floating.." Justin whimpered.

"And? your WEARING your bathroom for piddles remember little guy?" Alex asked smugly.

"..O-Oh and I have to take a crap! so you better le-" Justin tried but Max snorted.

"Nice try dip shit. you must think we're as stupid as Rayne if we're gonna fall for that." Max said.

"But..But..I can't just wet myself like a baby!" Justin whimpered.

"Oh! I know what the problem is!" Lyle said, locking eyes with Kyle, who shared his brothers grin.

"Yeah, me too! don't worry Justin! we'll help you!" Kyle said.

Before Alex or Max or even Justin could ask what they meant, the twins had sprung up from their seats and tackled Justin to the floor though a combination of surprise and leverage, then they were on top of him and tickling his sides.

"ah! No Stopppp!" Justin cried out, actually being fairly ticklish though normally it wasn't a weakness Alex could take advantage of as Justin would just easily over power him.

the tickling made what little bit of self control Justin had left vanish in mere seconds and with a wail that made all of the losers club wince, and some dogs around the block howl, Justin flooded his pretty pink and white diapers.

If Justin had thought the low point of his day had been being made to wet himself, he soon found out just how much worse it would get as the heavy soaked padding sagged around his hips, and he was told how he'd have to earn a diapie change before their parents got home.

"Unless of course you wanna risk leaking during supper." Alex chuckled.

"...I hate you. SO much right now." Justin huffed, rubbing at his tear stained checks.

"Awww don't be like that, you'll hurt big brothers feelings" Alex scolded but couldn't stop grinning.

"You should be thankful we're giving you a way to earn a diaper change nice and quick anyways." Max added. "We could just wait half a hour and let you squish around in your soaked diapies."

"Yeah, I think you should tell Alex how much-" Kyle started

"-You love him and how he's the bestest big brother in the world." Lyle finished.

"..Your joking right? It's bad enough I gotta do the stupid diapie change song, now you want me t-" Justin started to rant, but was cut off.

"Say it or you can sing till your blue in the face, I won't change you till 3 minutes before mom and dad are due home." Alex interrupted.

"...I Love you Alex and you the best big brother in the world." Justin said, huffing and saying it in a flat tone.

"no no no, say it with some gusto!" Max snickered, bringing out his cell phone to record.

"Fuck my life.." Justin groaned and face palmed, then taking a deep breath and forcing a cheerful tone into his voice. "Gee golly big brother! I wove you sooo much! your the bestest big brother ever!"

between the goofy look on his face and the statement, the loser's club was roaring with laughter.

"Awww, I love you too. now let's get on with your little song~" Alex wheezed between laughs.

Set to the tune of tinkle tinkle little star, Justin started singing.

"Tinkle tinkle in my pants,

I just blew my last chance to wear big boy pants.

wetting my my diapers till their super soggy

It makes me sleepy and kinda groggy

Alex please change my diaper butt

then pat me on the head like I'm a mutt."

Needless to say Justin wished a hole would open up in the earth and swallow him whole, but the performance was deemed acceptable by the losers club who noted it wasn't like Justin wouldn't have time to perfect his act.

One soggy diaper change later, and after letting Justin sit on the potty for five minutes and try and go 'uh-oh', and Justin was in two of the blue and white diapers this time and was allowed to wear a baggy pair of shorts over them as Alex set him to work doing any chores that needed to be done while the loser's club did their homework.

with the chores done Justin mentioned that he was kinda thirsty and so much to his humiliation (and the losers club delight) he was given a sippy cup full of Kool-aid to drink, never having noticed that some pills had been slipped in and dissolved, just chalking the weird taste up to the sippy cup being old.

He was sipping away on pills that would make sure he was peeing like a race horse and having to stick around Alex all night long, as well as a mild sedative that would have him going night night much earlier then normal. (one of Alex's new goals was to have a later bedtime then his big brother naturally.)

After finishing his sippy cup Justin was supervised as he did his homework and the rest of the losers club took off since technically they weren't suppose to be over.

Ironically compared to all the other times Alex had attempted to tutor his big brother, somehow having him in double diapers had him paying more attention and picking up on what was going on faster then normal.

'huh, Maybe I SHOULD send him to school in diapers..at least on test days.' Alex wondered and giggled a little.

Justin looked up, wondering what the the giggling was about but Alex just put him back to work.

The rest of the night was mostly incident free except for a cute moment at the supper table when Justin had been in the middle of telling his parents how happy his teacher had been with the extra work he'd done AND was giving props to Alex for helping him when he just stopped, their parents giving him a weird look but Alex knew full well what was happened, baby Justin was making piddles.

"It's Ok Justin, you don't have to hide I helped you." Alex said, jumping in and playing it as if Justin was worried they'd be mad. "I didn't just give him the answers but helped him to find them on his own. we're gonna start doing stuff like that more often so Justin can keep his grades up for when he wants to join the football team next year."

"Heh. Well ok." Dad said super proud. "Justin, I don't mind if Alex is helping you, just as long as he's not giving you the quick and easy way out."

"Oh trust me, I don't make this easy on Justin. right bro?" Alex said and smirked, winking at Justin.

Only their mother seemed to pick up on the fact there was two different conversations going on, but being tired from work she left well enough alone.

And so after supper Alex changed Justin's diaper and let him sit on the potty for 10 minutes to see if he could made boom boom (and to Justin's humiliation, he was praised and told what a good boy he was when he DID manage it)

Re-diapered and lead to the bedroom, Justin found himself super wiped and ready for bed even though it wasn't even 8 pm yet, but just chalked it up to his stressful day.

"Hey squ- Big brother.." Justin mumbled, rubbing a eye as he headed for his bed.

"Yessss?" Alex asked, already knowing where this was going.

"Can you tell mom and dad I'm too sleepy and going to bed early?" He asked.

"of course I can' you don't mind if I stay up do you?" Alex asked, but Justin was laying in bed, eyes closed.

"What..whatever." he yawns and was snoring softly before Alex even left the room.

Day's turned into weeks, and before long Justin's once 11 pm on weekday's bedtime had been adjusted to a 8 pm one, with Alex's jumping from 9 pm to 11.

Ironically, 4 days into the diaper punishment from Alex, and Justin's padding had been found by they're mom, Forcing Alex to come up with a off the top of his head story about how Justin had started bed wetting too and begging mom not to tell dad because Justin didn't want dad thinking he was a wuss.

that was ALSO why Justin hadn't said anything and only asked Alex for his help.

their mom had bought the line hook line and sinker, but had also gone and tossed out the other diapers and still told their dad about it, before taking Justin out to pick out his own diapers.

Naturally Alex was giggling his butt off the whole time they were gone and telling his friends about it.

Grizz and Rayne never really forgave Justin and isolated him more and more and so it became more and more natural for Justin to hang out with Alex's friends and just be treated like everyone's kid brother, even as his accidents got worse and he started needed day time diapers as well.

Ironically the daytime wetting, at least during school hours WEREN'T something Alex was behind, but it only reinforced the perception of Justin being their little guy.

at the same time as Justin's accidents got worse Alex finally stopped wetting the bed and just kept his avengers diapers around for when he or the other loser's wear to make Justin who had turned into a cry baby feel better.

And so, a tale that began with one brother being a bully and a dick ends with the bed wetter now the big brother despite being smaller and younger, and a ex-bully now a 24/7 diaper dork. Don't you just love a happy ending?

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sweatersexual · 4 years ago

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In Gravity Falls, You Abduct the Aliens

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“This,” proclaimed Stan, “is not a house.” He waded through the piles of books, papers, and weird gadgets. “Seriously, who keeps a chalkboard in their living room? This is more like some kind of nerd lair.”

“I prefer to think of it as my own research lab that I have all-hours access to, but the term lair does lend a certain ambience,” said Ford.

Stan picked up a deformed skull that looked like it belonged to some kind of rodent. “This feels like the intro to a horror movie. With a plucky pair of teen heroes to terrorize and giant switches to a zappy doomsday device, you’d be all set.” He started playing with the skull’s jaw hinge.

Ford reclaimed the skull from him. “Well, it’s no doomsday device, but once I get the portal in the basement working, it’ll be plenty ‘zappy,’ as you say.”

Right, the portal. Ford had talked about it a lot on their drive up from Vegas, where the two of them had happened to run into each other and ended up reconciling. Ford seemed preoccupied by how he’d build the thing without his old flame, Fiddleford McGucket. Ford had invited him to join them in Gravity Falls as well, but when the two nerds realized they still had the hots for each other, Fiddleford had decided to do right by his wife and kid and stay in Palo Alto.

Stan, on the other hand, might be no mechanical engineer, but he was smart enough to realize there was more to this portal business than Ford was telling him.

“Man, you really have a one track mind when it comes to that portal, huh? You were even talking about it in your sleep while we were driving up here. ‘So sorry, shouldn’t’ve let my personal feelings get in the way. . . . ‘S only a temporary setback . . . won’t let all our hard work go to waste . . .’ Has somebody else been helping with the portal?”

Ford nervously spun the skull around in his hand. “Really, Stanley, it’s silly to read too much into sleep talk. I could’ve been talking about anything.”

“Come on, Sixer. If you’re gonna lie to me, you gotta try harder than that.”

“Don’t you trust me, Stanley?”

“Don’t you trust me?”

“I do, but . . . I don’t want you to think I’m crazy.”

Stan put a hand on Ford’s shoulder. “Listen, bro. I’ve been all over the world. Whatever it is, I’ll understand.”

Ford sighed. “All right, I’ll try to explain. But first, let me go get something. A visual aid, if you will.”

A few minutes later, he returned, having replaced the deformed skull with a ceramic jar in his now gloved hands. “I was lucky to get my hands on this,” Ford told him. “The Northwests hoard just about all the artifacts they can find. Please avoid touching it, I don’t have any disposable five-fingered gloves to protect it from the oils on your hands.”

He presented the design on the jar to Stan, who was doing his best to show Ford he didn’t think he was crazy. The picture was of a man with an animal pelt on his head talking to a triangle with one eye. “Don’t tell me you got recruited by the Illuminati or something,” said Stan.

“No, I haven’t joined any secret societies,” Ford assured him. “This depicts a man named Modoc from three thousand years ago, seeking wisdom from an ancient being. From time to time, this being presents himself to truly singular minds, giving them divine insight and knowledge. And now this Muse has chosen me.”

“Okay,” said Stan. “So you’ve gotten into some kind of niche religion. It’s not that weird. Just don’t drink the Kool-Aid, all right?”

Ford set the jar down on what little empty space his dining room table had left. “I haven’t joined a cult, Stan. I mean, it is a kind of spiritual experience, talking to my Muse, but there’s no organized religion involved. Ever since I summoned him, he manifests himself in my dreams. I never could’ve gotten this far in my investigations of Gravity Falls without him. And he’s helped me come up with the plans for this portal. I know it sounds strange, but there really is something otherworldly about him. And even if he is somehow all in my imagination, the inspiration has never steered me wrong.”

Stan’s bullshit-o-meter was going off, but not because he thought Ford was lying to him. Stan knew his twin’s tells, and Ford was definitely sincere about this muse thing. He couldn’t take Ford’s words at face value, but he could tell that Ford was really going out on a limb here, being honest about something that could get him called a quack at best or institutionalized at worst. So what if the guy was in his thirties and had an imaginary friend? Let him have his weird triangle dreams if it made him happy.

So Stan simply said, “Hey, whatever floats your boat, poindexter. But now that I’m here, you’re not just some weird hermit living in the woods. We’re a family. And families live in homes, not nerd lairs.”

Ford blinked, seeming surprised that Stan had changed the subject. But he went along with it anyway. “Right. Well, I have been meaning to organize everything for awhile now. My research keeps getting ahead of me. But I’ll probably be able to think better without so much clutter around.”

It didn’t take long for the twins to settle into a routine. Mornings were for cleaning and organization. After lunch, Stan would run errands while Ford struggled building his machine in the basement. Stan never imagined he’d get so excited about yard sale curtains and other furnishings, but after so many years never having a permanent place of his own, he relished the chance to decorate his own living space. Afternoons and evenings were dedicated to finding and studying anomalies, then Stan tried to persuade Ford to go to bed rather than get back to work on the portal again. He was rarely successful.

“I owe it to myself to at least stumble along with the limited mechanical knowledge I have,” said Ford. “And maybe I’ll find someone or something else that can help.”

Stan did try to help, but it took so long for Ford to even explain what he was trying to do, and it was so boring listening to him speak nothing but jargon, and Ford just didn’t think the way Stanley did. Stan would probably have better luck just taking Ford’s plans and trying to decode them himself, either way it would take ages. Instead he simply figured out how to use a welding torch and applied it where Ford told him to.

But Stan’s favorite hours were spent running through the woods with his brother. He had never expected to see a gnome for himself, or play with magic size-altering crystals. About one week into his stay, Ford was over the moon to find a sleeping gremloblin. “I don’t know when I’ll get another chance to study one up close like this!”

Stan helped take samples and measurements (it really was remarkable how heavy a sleeper this gremloblin was), then helped himself to his favorite toffee peanuts while Ford finished scribbling in his journal. Rustling in the bushes behind him turned his head, and before he knew it a red and black creature was running away from him, and the toffee peanuts that had fallen on the ground were gone.

Ford snapped to attention, too. “Did you see what that was?” he asked Stan.

“Something with a duck bill.” Stan held up his snack. “It was trying to get these.”

Ford grimaced. “I suppose there’s no accounting for taste.”

Stan rolled his eyes. Ford was so dramatic about his distaste for Stan’s favorite snack.

“Can I try to lure it back out?” asked Ford, reaching for the toffee peanuts.

“Fine.”

Once they had gotten the creature to reemerge, Ford was back to scribbling in his journal. “So the plaidypus legends are real! Fascinating, fascinating. Is it just me, or do you think it smells like maple syrup and bacon?”

They were able to track the plaidypus back to its burrow on the marshy banks by the creek, where they found a clutch of flannel-patterned eggs. To improve upon their fantastic luck, they had arrived in time to watch the eggs hatch.

“Look at that! They only have the horizontal stripes now, the vertical stripes must come in as they grow - did you get the measurements on that last one, Stanley?”

“Yeah, but what do you think the deal is with that one?” Stan pointed to a blue egg that hadn’t yet hatched.

“I have no idea. I’m not even sure that’s a plaidypus egg.”

Ford turned out to be extremely correct when the blue egg did hatch and a slimy white monster popped out.

“What the hell is that thing?” asked Stan.

Ford replied, “I’ve never seen anything like it,” then gasped when the monster mutated into another baby plaidypus. “It’s a mimic!”

“Wait - which one is it?” asked Stan.

Ford cursed. “I should’ve been paying closer attention.”

The shapeshifter soon revealed itself when instead of latching on to the mother plaidypus’s lactating glands, it sank its teeth into another baby plaidypus. “No!” cried Stan as he picked up the imposter and pried its jaw open. “Bad shapeshifter thing!”

Ford tended the baby plaidypus’s wounds while Stan wrestled the shapeshifter into a containment jar, where it resumed its original pale, slimy form.

The study of this creature quickly set Ford into what Stan liked to call Full Nerd Mode. They hardly seemed to get through a conversation without Ford bringing up how “Shifty”, as he’d nicknamed the thing, changed his DNA when he changed forms, and how the implications from that would revolutionize the field of genetics, or asking for suggestions for safe forms to add to Shifty’s repertoire. Stan had to admit it was nice to see his brother obsess over something other than that portal for once, though if he had his way he could think of several ways for Shifty to aid with some under-the-table schemes.

“Stanley!” Ford had chided him when Stan had joked about the idea. “You have a job with me now. You don’t need to get into more trouble with the law.”

Yeah, that had been weird, getting an actual, legitimate paycheck for once, and with his brother’s signature no less. And it really was quite a lot considering that Stan didn’t need to pay rent or anything. But Stan couldn’t help that niggling doubt in the back of his mind questioning whether he had enough, whether Stan’s luck might still run dry and he’d better get as much as he could while the getting was good -

Stan had simply shrugged at his brother. “A side hustle never hurt anything,” he said. “And with Shifty’s help, we wouldn’t get caught.”

“I’m afraid it’s out of the question,” Ford had insisted. “We wear masks around Shifty for a reason, you know. It’s too dangerous to have him impersonate humans.”

And Stan could see the wisdom in that, but even so, he thought he did a good enough impression of his brother to recognize the second-rate performance Shifty would put on. The little monster couldn’t even talk!

That last assumption was proven wrong one afternoon while they were working on the portal and a high-pitched voice called out, “Beans!”

Ford’s head perked up from his schematics. “Did you say something?” he asked Stan, who shook his head.

Stan pointed to the dog kennel where they kept Shifty. “I think it was -”

“Beans!” the voice repeated, and it was definitely coming from the kennel.

“Remarkable,” said Ford, replacing his mask as he walked over to kneel in front of the kennel, where Shifty could see him. “Are you hungry, Shifty?”

“Beans,” he repeated, “for me.”

“I’ll go get him some,” said Stan. As he climbed the stairs up to the house, he heard Ford ask, “What else can you say, Shifty?”

When Stan returned with the beans Shifty liked so much, the little monster was repeating the brothers’ names. “Stan,” said the little voice. “Ford. Sixer poindexter knucklehead.”

Ford laughed. “Very good, Shifty. Those are some other names we call each other.”

“Who am I?” asked the shapeshifter. Stan felt his mouth drop open. That wasn’t the sort of question a parrot asked . . .

“Why, you’re Shifty,” said Ford without a trace of the trepidation Stan was feeling just then. “Stan has brought you those beans you wanted, Shifty.”

“Beans!”

When he was done eating, Shifty went back to asking questions. “Who am I? Who is Shifty?”

“Speaking in full sentences already,” said Ford. “This is really quite incredible.”

“He’s asking if he’s a person, Ford.”

“Stan, don’t anthropomorphize him. Even parrots can repeat phrases -”

“Parrots don’t ask existential questions like that! And besides, when have we ever said anything like that around him?”

Ford frowned. “I’ll need to collect more data -”

“This isn’t about data, Ford!” Stan gestured to the kennel. “That’s a kid! A weird monster kid, but still a kid. And we’re keeping him in a cage. Take it from someone who’s been to prison.” At that, Ford glanced up at him in surprise, and Stan looked away. “It does things to you.”

Ford stammered, “Stan, I - I didn’t know - you never said -”

“I don’t like to talk about it,” said Stan. “And anyway, this isn’t about me. This is about him.”

Ford nodded. It was a moment before he answered, “Well, I will need to do more tests, and we do need to keep his abilities under control, but -” Stan opened his mouth to argue, but Ford placed his hand on Stan’s shoulder in a calming motion - “but . . . your concerns have merit. Even a parrot would need a more stimulating environment than this. Will you help me whip something up for Shifty?”

Stan grinned. “Of course.”

With Stan’s help, Ford was able to construct a walled-off enclosure in the basement, which Shifty took to happily. When Ford was able to determine that the burrow Shifty made in the corner was a bed and not an escape route, he found he could breathe much easier.

Ford spent an increasing amount of time in the enclosure, testing Shifty’s language and cognitive skills. Soon he had an impressive amount of data confirming the shapeshifter’s intelligence. Shifty was always eager to participate in the “games,” as he referred to them, and responded very well to Ford’s praise. Ford had to admit he also enjoyed designing activities to keep Shifty occupied while Ford was working on other projects. These activities usually took the form of a puzzle or scavenger hunt, with chicken nuggets as prizes.

Shifty was also making great strides in learning to read. Ford had picked up a number of secondhand children’s books, but only ones that contained no illustrations of humans or dangerous animals for Shifty to take the forms of. This still left him with a wide variety of benign anthropomorphic animal characters like Frog and Toad, Frances, and Little Critter, many of whom became common forms for Shifty to take.

Eventually Ford felt comfortable enough for Shifty to have supervised playtime in the house and walks around the yard, but he and Stan always stayed masked and kept Shifty from seeing any people or dangerous animals.

On one such occasion, Stan was keeping an eye on Shifty upstairs while Ford was getting in some work on the portal. A loud thump from the floor above broke Ford’s focus, and a second had him scrambling up the steps, adjusting his mask as he went. The last thing he expected to find in the living room was two elephant seals.

“You didn’t tell me humans can shapeshift too!” said one of the elephant seals.

“What? Shifty? Are you saying Stan turned into this elephant seal right here?”

The other elephant seal groaned, a grumbling, braying sound.

“Elephant seal,” Shifty repeated. His high voice sounded comical coming from such a blubbery monster. “I like being an elephant seal. I’ve never been this big before.”

This was a disaster. Ford had never intended to have Shifty turn into such a volatile creature. “I’m afraid elephant seals are too big to be in the house, Shifty. Would you please turn into something smaller?”

“But how come Stan gets to be an elephant seal?” Shifty complained as he morphed into Arthur Read, hands clenched into fists at his sides.

“I don’t want him to be an elephant seal either,” said Ford. “Stan? Can you try to turn back? What were you messing with, you know a lot of the artifacts I keep are cursed.”

Stan made a series of grunting seal noises, none of which were in the least helpful.

Ford sighed aggravatedly. “What happened before he turned into an elephant seal, Shifty?”

“Well, we were gonna build a blanket fort, so we got some blankets out of a trunk, then I put one of the blankets on my head and pretended I was a ghost, and Stan did too, only he used the -”

“The sealskin?” asked Ford. “The heavy one with the decorative beading?”

“I think so. He turned into an elephant seal after he put it on.”

“But that one’s cursed!” said Ford. “This is not good. We need to turn him back soon, or he’ll stay an elephant seal forever.”

Stan let out a series of angry honks and grumbles which, if translated to English, would probably be the kind of language Ford would not want Shifty repeating.

As it was, Shifty shrank into a field mouse, his ears meekly tucked behind his head. “What can we do?” he asked. “How do we change him back?”

“I’ll need to consult my journal,” said Ford. “I think I found a curse breaking spell somewhere . . .”

Ford tried to flip through journal 2 quickly, but had to pause every time Shifty climbed up to his shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of the pages.

“Cut it out, Shifty,” he said, setting Shifty back on the ground for the third time. “You’re slowing me down, and time is of the essence.”

“Why don’t you trust me?” asked Shifty.

“Come now, you know my journals are off limits,” said Ford. “Why don’t you make sure Stan doesn’t wreck the coffee table, hmm?”

A few minutes later, Ford found the page he was looking for. “Vis maleficiis expello. Fundere atque fugare in pacem. Purgare. Purgare. Purgare,” he chanted over Stan’s blubbery form.

Nothing happened.

Ford rechecked the journal entry. “Did I miss something? Let me try that again.”

The second attempt was no better than the first.

“This curse is clearly more malignant than I thought,” said Ford. “A simple spell is simply not up to the task. We’ll need to try something with a little more oomph to it.”

“Can I help?” asked Shifty.

“You can,” said Ford, “by waiting very patiently in your room while I take Stan to meet an acquaintance of mine.”

“But I can do more!” Shifty protested. “I’m sure I can.”

“I’m sorry, Shifty, but I’m afraid the risk is too great.”

“But what if he gets stuck as an elephant seal forever and it’s all my fault?”

“Shifty . . .” Ford was surprised Shifty had developed such an attachment to Stan, and a sense of responsibility. Though as far as Ford was concerned, it was entirely unwarranted. “I don’t blame you for any of this. If Stan had been more careful -” Stan snorted at that - “or if I had clearly labeled which items were cursed,” Ford conceded, “that is to say, this was just an accident. You don’t need to feel guilty.”

Shifty seemed to accept that, “But I still want to help. If you let me go with you, I promise I’ll be good. I’ll do what you tell me, I promise.”

Ford shook his head. “Shifty, it really will be more of a help if I’m not having to watch out for you while we’re undoing the curse. Don’t worry, I’ve dealt with phenomena far more malignant than this. Why don’t I refill your octahedron puzzle, hmm?” It was one of Shifty’s favorites. “By the time you’re done with it, we’ll be back, and Stan will be in his right shape again.”

Once Ford had started a reluctant Shifty on his puzzle, and gathered a few materials he thought might be helpful for curse breaking, Ford and Stan started hiking over to the lake. Well, Ford was hiking. Stan was doing more of a hobble. Ideally they would drive over, but the El Diablo wasn’t built to cart around elephant seals, and Stan wasn’t too keen to try.

“We’re going to summon a siren I’ve had some dealings with,” Ford explained to Stan. At his questioning look, Ford added, “She’s safe, don’t worry. We may have had . . . some miscommunications, at first, but we’re on good terms. Doripea’s been an excellent source of information. I just hope she’s not too busy.”

To their good fortune, she wasn’t. “Well, if it isn’t my favorite gentleman caller,” Doripea greeted Ford. Her angular face and pointed ears add to the mischievousness of her grin, aided in its brightness by the afternoon sun reflecting off her turquoise scales. “Here for another interview date?”

“Ah, sort of?” said Ford.

Stan’s snorts sounded an awful lot like laughter.

“Oh, I figured out Ford was gay pretty quickly,” she told Stan, apparently in response to a comment Ford hadn’t been able to understand. “What I couldn’t figure out was why he kept trying to summon me with a suitor’s call.”

Ford groaned. “The summoning instructions in Eatherena Aquatica didn’t specify -” He was cut off by Stan’s repeated laughter. “Anyway, I was hoping I could get your input, Doripea. You see, we’re in a bit of a pickle.”

“Aside from the shapeshifter stalking you?”

“What?” Ford whirled around, zeroing in on a deer which had frozen in place with a wide-eyed, panicked expression. “Shifty, I told you to stay in your room!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” cried the deer. “I just wanted to make sure Stan was okay! Please don’t hate me.”

With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Ford realized he wasn’t wearing a mask, meaning Shifty could now take his form if he wanted. Who knew how many people or dangerous animals Shifty had come across while tailing them to the lake? How could Ford possibly do damage control on this?

“You don’t have to panic,” said Shifty. “I said I’d be good if you let me come. I’ll do what you tell me, just please, I couldn’t just wait around doing nothing.”

“Amazing,” said Doripea. “You tamed it. I didn’t even know their kind could talk.”

Ford turned to her, curiosity suddenly overcoming his concern. “You’ve seen other shapeshifters before?”

She shrugged. “Not in a long time. It’s been, what, a century and a half? I saw it come out of its burrow to feed every now and then, but for the most part it kept to itself, I think.”

“Strange,” said Ford. “Shifty has tested well when it comes to social behaviors. It’s hard to determine such things with only one extant specimen, but I would’ve guessed his kind to be pack hunters.”

“As far as I know, only one of them has existed at a time. Can’t pack hunt without a pack,” said Doripea.

“Hmm.” Ford would have to examine the implications of this later, but for now, “Shifty, you can stay, as long as you keep close to me and stay in deer form unless I tell you otherwise, got it?”

“Okay.”

“Now, Dora, the reason I came to call on you. My brother here mishandled the selkie’s revenge and I was hoping you could help me change him back to human form.”

“How long has he been in seal form?”

“No more than two hours.”

“Oh good, you caught it early. Stan, you don’t feel any strong urges to swim in this lake, do you?”

To Stan’s grunts she replied, “Well, if you get any, resist them. This curse is designed to turn you into an elephant seal in mind as well as body. Swimming in the water will kick start that process. You’ll be drawn to the other elephant seals, and before you know it you’ll be on the wrong side of a territorial beachmaster. You’re lucky we’re so far inland, and that it isn’t mating season.”

“I tried a simple curse breaking spell, and when that didn’t work I thought we would need something more specialized.”

“You got that right, Stanford. Did you bring any material we could use as a taglock?”

Ford nodded and produced some hair he’d removed from Stan’s hairbrush. Doripea listed a few other ingredients, some of which Stanford had on him, and another she could harvest from the bottom of the lake. She sent them off to gather cedar leaves while she retrieved it.

“See, Shifty, you had nothing to worry about,” Ford reassured him as the three of them set off on their short trek through the forest. “With Doripea’s help, Stan will be back to normal in no time. You didn’t need to break out of your room.”

“I guess,” said Shifty. “It’s just that you and Stan never let me go anywhere. And maybe I didn’t have to come, but now that I’m here, it’s not so bad. Why do you think I’m so dangerous?”

Ford hesitated. How wise was it, to let Shifty know how powerful his shapeshifting abilities were? How easily they could be misused? How much of Shifty’s good behavior was due to his innocence?

Before he could start parsing out his answer, something caught his eye. “Look, there! A cedar grove. Shifty, why don’t you change into bird form and help me gather the leaves?”

Shifty was sufficiently distracted by leaf collecting for the time being. But as they made their way back to the lake with their spoils, something seemed off about Stan. He would stop moving periodically, his head cocked to the east. Then he would shake his head and catch up with Ford and Shifty.

The third time Stan stopped, Ford asked, “What is it, Stanley?” but Stan didn’t seem to hear him. Instead he took off in the eastern direction.

“What are you doing?” asked Ford, running alongside him. “That’s not the way back to the lake!”

“He can’t help it!” said Shifty as he glided through the air above them, still in bird form. “Something is drawing him that way!”

“The river,” Ford realized. “It must be closer to this spot than the lake is! We can’t let him get in the water!”

“Can I turn into an elephant seal now?” asked Shifty, and he whooped gleefully when Ford gave his assent. With an extra burst of speed, Shifty flew several feet ahead of them, then dropped to the ground in elephant seal form. The two bull seals collided, and Stan looked even more frenzied as he tried to evade this new obstacle.

“Stan, don’t hurt him!” cried Ford. “You know Shifty, he doesn’t want to hurt you! Stan, look at me, you know you can’t get in the water! Snap out of it!”

Stan paid no attention to this. Clearly the call of the water was too strong. Was Stan hearing the water? Were there lower vibrations from the gallons of rushing water that elephant seals could pick up, but humans couldn’t? Ford could only think of one way to find out.

Grateful he’d thought to bring an infrasonic transducer, Ford quickly set it to the needed specifications. “Shifty, cover your ears!” cried Ford, demonstrating with his hands.

Shifty found a hole in the ground to duck his head into, just in time for Ford to press the button. Ford couldn’t tell by the sound if it worked or not, because it was far too low for human ears to detect. But Stan let out a cry and dropped to the ground, rubbing his head in the dirt.

“I’m sorry, Stan,” Ford said to the writhing elephant seal. “It was the only thing I could think of.”

“He’s mad at you,” said Shifty, pulling his head out of the ground. “But at least he’s not crazy anymore.”

“And what about you? Are you hurt?” Ford asked Shifty.

“I’m okay. It was kind of fun, wrestling like elephant seals.”

Ford sighed, relieved that Stan had snapped out of his frenzy, and that Shifty was unharmed. “You did very well, Shifty, thank you. I suppose it was good you came after all.”

Shifty turned into a dog, the way he always did when he was happy, and moved as if to lick Ford’s hand, but he paused. “Sorry, I didn’t ask if I could change -”

“It’s all right, Shifty,” Ford assured him. “You got excited. It happens.”

For the rest of their hike, Ford kept his infrasonic transducer handy, just in case the sound of the water got to Stan again. Luckily he didn’t need it. Doripea helped him grind all their gathered ingredients into a thick paste, which they applied to Stan’s body. Then, and only then, was Stan allowed to get in the lake. Ford couldn’t think of a time he’d been happier to see Stan’s face as he watched his brother resurface from the lake. He helped Stan wring his wet clothes out and put them on, then hugged him, unconcerned about getting soaked himself.

That evening, the three of them all ate dinner together, something they’d never done before, since Stan and Ford had always worn masks around Shifty. Eating at the dinner table was new for Shifty, but he took to table manners well enough. Ford could tell it would take some doing to cure him of talking with his mouth full, though.

“Why didn’t you want me to see your mouths and your noses?” Shifty asked around a mouthful of beef.

“We were trying to protect our identities,” said Ford.

“What’s an identity?”

“Your identity is, well it’s who you are? How do I explain this . . .”

“Let me show you something,” said Stan. He ducked into his room briefly and came out with a shoebox. He pulled a few driver’s licenses out of it. “These are fake IDs. Basically they tell everyone that I’m someone I’m not. They’re lies. And they’re illegal.”

“What’s ‘illegal?’” asked Shifty.

“Only the fun stuff, kid.” With a look from Ford, Stan added, “Kidding, I’m kidding! Lots of illegal things can hurt people. Like killing, that’s bad. So the government will punish you for doing those things. If I stole someone else’s ID, I could steal their money, or do bad things under their name, so they would get in trouble and not me. It’s called identity fraud, and humans take it very seriously.”

“So that’s why we didn’t want you to see any human faces,” said Ford. “Because stealing someone’s identity like that is wrong. Do you understand?”

Shifty nodded. “You don’t want me to lie and pretend like I’m a human.”

“Exactly,” said Ford. “You’ve seen our faces now, so it can’t be helped. But if you want to meet other humans, we need you to promise you won’t take their forms, all right?”

“Okay, I promise,” said Shifty. “I won’t turn into you, or Stan, or any other humans. I won’t lie.”

Ford realized he had every confidence Shifty would keep his word.

The following week went much more smoothly, now that Stan and Ford didn’t have to wear masks so much and could take Shifty with them on field expeditions and into town. It started to feel like Shifty was a third, junior member of their team.

Shifty made it clear he thought of it differently, when one night he asked Ford, “Are you my dad?”

Surprised, Ford put down the Little Critter book he’d been reading to Shifty. He shifted uncomfortably at the beseeching look from the red eyes of Shifty’s true form, which he always reverted to when tired or sleeping. “Ah, not biologically, no. I assume you’re referring to my social role as your caregiver?”

“Yeah. You tuck me in at night, like Little Critter’s dad. And we play during the day, and you take care of me. We love each other.”

Ford was surprised at Shifty’s word choice. He’d always found Shifty interesting, at least, and Ford couldn’t deny he’d become quite invested in Shifty’s welfare, but love? How did you quantify such a thing? How did Shifty even know what that meant?

“Isn’t that how human families work?” asked Shifty.

“I - yes, I suppose. I’m afraid it’s not my area of expertise. I never expected to make a human family of my own. I’m still just trying to be a better brother to Stanley.” Ford adjusted the cushion he sat on, next to the opening of the den Shifty preferred to sleep in, rather than a more traditional bed. “But you, Shifty, you’re not human. Why would you want a human family?”

“I dunno. I thought it would make me happy. We don’t have to be family if you don’t want to.”

Shifty curled around himself, rolling deeper into his den, and Ford felt his heart sink. “I do want you to be happy,” he told Shifty. And that was when he knew Shifty had become more than an experiment to him. He had more than a scientific interest in helping this creature learn and grow. He had felt that way for a long time. “You can call me Dad if you want.”

“Really?” Shifty scrambled out of his den, morphing into a dog as he went. His paws rested on Ford’s shoulders, and he nuzzled his soft, furry head into Ford’s neck. Ford reflexively hugged him back, stroking his pelt. “Thanks, Dad.”

The enormity of it hit him then. He was a father now. Another being depended on him, loved him. He was Shifty’s whole world. And Shifty was his.

Ford hugged him tighter. “I love you, Son,” he said.

“I love you, too. Dad.” said Shifty.

When Shifty called him Dad the next morning at breakfast, Stan raised his eyebrows. “Shifty’s your kid, now?” he asked Ford.

“Last night, I asked if I could call him Dad, and he said yes,” Shifty informed him.

“Really?”

Ford tugged at his collar. “Well, he is a sapient child whom I have grown to care and take responsibility for, so. It is appropriate.”

“Huh. Well, Shifty, if Ford’s your dad, that makes me your fun uncle!” He clapped Shifty on the back. “It’s Uncle Stan from now on, all right, kid?”

Shifty smiled back with Little Critter’s buck-toothed grin. “Okay, Uncle Stan.”

“Mazeltov, Sixer!” said Bill. He summoned some lavender balloons that read, ‘It’s a shapeshifter!’

“Thank you, Bill.”

“Hey, I’m just grateful you’re able to make time for me now you’re a working parent and all.”

“I’m sorry, Bill. I know between Shifty and not having the mechanical help I need -”

Bill waved off his excuses. “I told you, a solution for that is in the works. I just don’t want you getting lost in the weeds with individual specimens while your Grand Unified Theory goes unpublished!”

“Yes, of course. I’ll try harder.”

“And anyway, once you get the portal up and running, you’ll be able to find the dimension Shifty comes from. Think of how much you could learn about his species then! Things you should probably know if you’re trying to raise one of them.”

Ford hung his head. “You’re right. When it comes to figuring out Shifty, and what he needs . . . I’m stumbling around in the dark. He’d probably be happier if we made contact with some of his own kind . . .”

“Yeah, well, for now he’s stuck with you, isn’t he? With any luck, he won’t end up resenting you the way you do your dad, right?”

“Of course not! I would never treat him the way our dad treated us.” Despite his indignation, Ford was forcefully reminded of the inhumane way he’d treated Shifty all of a few weeks before, and was ashamed.

Bill clapped a reassuring hand on his back. “Oh, I’m sure you’ll do your best, Sixer.”

The deep midnight blue of the mindscape abruptly faded away, and another voice called out to Ford.

“Get out of his head!”

“Shhh, Shifty, let him sleep, he never takes a minute to rest like this . . .”

Ford opened his eyes and found Shifty in the form of a badger, scrambling to get out of Stan’s grasp. “Dad!” he said. “Did you tell the monster to go away?”

“He thinks something was attacking your brain while you were asleep,” Stan explained.

Ford shook himself awake, annoyed at himself for messing up his schedule like this. He’d only meant to sit on the couch for a minute or two . . . “Come here, Shifty,” he said, and extended his arms to Stan, who handed Shifty over.

Ford stroked his pelt and assured him, “I’m fine. Nobody was trying to hurt me. I was simply speaking with my Muse.” Really, it was quite extraordinary that Shifty seemed able to sense Bill’s presence. “Sometimes he enters my dreams and helps with my research. It’s nothing to worry about.”

Shifty looked unconvinced. “He made you feel bad. Bad shame wrong. He’s yucky.”

Ford gave an explanation that was close enough to the truth. “We were just talking about some of the obstacles setting back my project. It’s not his fault. How could you tell what I was feeling when I was asleep, anyway?”

Shifty looked confused. “You . . . smelled? No, not a smell. I just felt the, you know, the little waves, they tell you what the feelings are. I can’t feel them when I’m asleep, but I was awake. You were asleep.”

“You have a psychic sense for other people’s emotions?” asked Ford. Of course he did. Looking back, it was so obvious. Shifty had always been so confident when talking about how people felt. Ford really should have noticed sooner. “And that’s how you could sense my Muse’s presence?”

“Yes? Is that not something humans can do?”

Ford shook his head. “We can read facial expressions and body language, but otherwise, the only way we can tell how someone is feeling is if they tell us.”

“Is that why you didn’t trust me at first? Because you couldn’t tell I didn’t want to hurt you?”

“Well, yes,” Ford admitted. “I didn’t realize you were a sapient being and I didn’t know what your abilities were, or how you wanted to use them. So I kept you locked up. I’m sorry.”

“Oh. I thought I had done something wrong. I tried to be good.”

“Oh, Shifty . . .” Ford hugged him closer. “You are good. You’re a wonderful kid. I’m sorry it took me so long to realize it.”

Shifty must have sensed how guilty Ford felt, because he said, “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know. I know you love me now.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t deserve to be mistreated,” Stan cut in. “You don’t have to take care of Ford’s feelings. He’s a grown up. We should take care of yours.”

“You’re right, Stan,” Ford agreed. “I know we’re at a disadvantage, Shifty, when it comes to supporting you emotionally. I’m bad at dealing with feelings, even by human standards. But I’ll do my best for you. Will you tell me your feelings so I can help you?”

“Okay,” said Shifty. “I wish you had always been my dad. I wish you had never been mean.”

“Me too,” said Ford.

“I’m glad you said sorry, though. I still love you, anyway.”

“I love you, too,” Ford assured him.

“And I still don’t like your muse. He’s mean, and he’s sneaky.”

“I’m not sure I like him either,” Stan concurred. “When you first told me about him, I didn’t really take it seriously. I’m sorry, it was just really weird. But if Shifty can sense him, and he’s actually real, well, all that stuff you said, about how he only picks one brilliant mind a century and all that? If I were trying to con you, that’s exactly the angle I’d go for.”

“But he’s not a con,” Ford said reflexively. “I don’t think I did a good job of explaining him. If you met him in person, you’d see, Bill is amazing.”

“No no no no no,” said Shifty. “I don’t want him in my head! Promise me you won’t let him in my head.”

“Okay, I promise,” said Ford, alarmed by how much this agitated Shifty. “He won’t hurt you, he won’t hurt any of us. Ever.”

Shifty was still wary, but he accepted Ford’s comfort. Ford could tell Stan had more to say on the subject, though, and he did, after Ford had put Shifty to bed.

“Ford, I’m just saying, your mind is a powerful thing. Letting some supernatural creature inside it is no small potatoes. Whatever you’re getting out of this arrangement you got, make sure he’s not short changing you.”

“Of course he’s not! Look, Stan, if you want to see the truth for yourself, there’s a simple spell you can use to follow him into my mind, next time he’s there. You’ll see, there’s nothing to worry about.”

“All right,” Stan said tentatively. “I might do that. But just ask yourself this, Ford, what is this Bill guy getting out of this? Why does he want you to build the portal so badly?”

“Well that’s simple, he . . .” Ford realized he’d never asked Bill that question before, and he’d never volunteered the information himself. But clearly that just meant his motives were pure, right? “He’s a being of the mind, Stan. Scientific discovery is its own reward.”

“Are you serious?” asked Stan. “You’ve never questioned anything he’s said, have you? I thought you were smarter than that.”

Anger flared in Ford, quick and intense. “You have no idea what the hell you’re talking about! This is just like you, to barge into things you don’t understand -”

“Hey, don’t try to turn this around on me. I’m just looking out for you, like I’ve been doing since day one.”

“I can think of at least one glaring exception.”

“Seriously, Stanford? Are you going to hold that one mistake over me for the rest of my life?”

“It just shows you have a history of ruining my work right when it’s about to pay off. You never cared about the things that are important to me, you’re only interested in chasing your cheap thrills.”

“I never cared about what was important to you? I thought I was important to you! You think I went to prison in three different countries just for the fun of it? I did what I had to, just to survive. Which I’ve had to do for over ten years, while you never bothered to stick your nose out of a book long enough to check on your brother.”

Ford’s seething response melted away at the thought of Stanley shivering, Stanley hungry, Stanley alone. “Stanley, I - I didn’t mean to imply that I don’t care about you. These past weeks with you have meant the world to me. You’re right. I should’ve tried to reconnect with you sooner, and - and I shouldn’t still be blaming you for something you did in high school.”

Stan’s gaze shifted down to his feet. “It wasn’t that I didn’t care about your perpetual motion machine. I really didn’t mean to break it, and I should’ve owned up to what I did and told you instead of trying to fix it myself. I may not understand everything about this portal, but I really do want to help you. It’s just that this Bill guy seems fishy to me.”

“And I told you, you have a chance to talk to him yourself. Will you at least try to keep an open mind about him until then?”

“I will, if you try to keep your mind open to the idea that he may not be what he seems.”

“I . . . suppose that’s fair.”

“Now will you please get some sleep? Between the kid and the portal you’ve been running yourself ragged.”

“It’s not so bad as all that.” Ford tried to shrug it off. “I think if I change the alignment on the oscillator I might get a better charge on the clux fapacitor -”

“It can wait until tomorrow.”

“It won’t take that long to test out. Anyway, I got a nap in earlier, I’m fine.”

“Yeah, a ‘nap.’ Looked more like you passed out from sheer exhaustion. You definitely need more sleep.”

“I can sleep when I’ve published my Grand Unified Theory of Weirdness.” And with that, Ford escaped to the basement before Stan could respond.

Ford didn’t want to admit it, but this whole business unsettled him. Stan was the one person he trusted best in all the world, but Bill was his Muse, the one who not only saw what Ford could be, but gave him the tools to achieve it. Now the two seemed to be setting themselves against each other. Ford didn’t want to think of what the outcome would be, should he be forced to choose between them. He could only hope it wouldn’t come to that.

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#stanford pines #stanley pines #gravity falls #found family #fanfic #7500 words #do not tag as stancest

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cilliankelly · 4 years ago

Text

DRUNK ON HALLOWEEN

FEAT: cillian & @judetaylorhq

WHEN: the halloween party (2020)

DESCRIPTION: the thread that started it all, for the first time ever, coming to a dash near you. cillian kisses jude for the first time and everything he’s ever known changes forever. in the best possible way.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: gay panic, light internalized homophobia\

Cillian

cillian was nice and drunk. not so much so that he couldn’t see straight, but he was definitely feeling good, almost kind of floating from one room to the next, though in reality it was more of a clumsy stagger. he was wandering around, exploring the house, admiring the spooky decorations that he really couldn’t appreciate until he was like, 5 drinks deep, when he stumbled into the bedroom. he was pretty sure someone was sitting on the bed and the first thought that came to his drunken mind was aw hellz yeah because admittedly, cillian was a pretty horny drunk. once he realized it was his best friend though, he got even more excited because finally, he’d run into someone he actually knew at this damn party. “dude, you dunno how stoked i am to see you, man,” he enthused, words a bit slurred as he crossed the room to sit beside jude. “now the party can really begin.”

𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐨𝐫.

Jude had only stepped away from the party to smoke a joint, sure getting drunk was a blast and all, but being around a bunch of people he didn't know? Made him a little on edge, he'd slipped into a bedroom, opened the window and made himself at home, and high. Once he was done, he'd decided to take a nice nap, and it wasn't until the door opened and a drunk Cillian stumbled in that he remembered he was at a party, "Bro..." He chuckled, looking up at Cillian, "Duh, homie, we are the party." He grinned, sitting up further and staring at Cillian. "Every chick I've talked to here has a baby." He'd talked to one person, but that was enough for him to draw his own conclusion, "I'm not ready to make a baby momma." He shrugged, perfect logic was clearly top of mind for him tonight and he picked up his mask, holding it up over his face and leaning closer to Cillian, "Cil, would you still love me if I was a worm? Or this dude?" He asked, nearly giggling behind is mask before he dropped it, only then realize how close he was to Cillian's face, "I'd still love you if you were a termite, but I draw the line at worms. Slithering bastards, you know?"

Cillian

cillian couldn’t help but snort at jude’s comment about making a baby momma, his own mind straying to the 0.2 seconds he thought ellie’s baby was somehow his even though they hadn’t seen each other in over a year. he certainly wasn’t ready for that either. “wouldn’t be surprised if there was already a jude jr running around somewhere out there,” he joked, nudging his friends shoulder playfully. god, he was so glad he’d run into jude. things were just so much easier when he was around, honestly. cillian didn’t remember the last time he felt so at ease, though the alcohol was certainly helping with that. cillian didn’t really do the whole i love you thing. there were very few people in his life that had ever told him that and even fewer who’d actually meant it so it was a kind of tricky emotion for him, even in playful situations like this when it didn’t really have to mean anything. but for some reason, probably alcohol fueled reasons, cillian was giving this some serious thought. “a worm?” he asked, and now he was leaning in a little closer because it was actually kind of dark in here and cillian’s vision was already kind of shit, and he wasn’t sure who jude was even supposed to be and suddenly, the mask was gone and his nose really wasn’t all that far from jude’s. and cillian, the guy who couldn’t even tell jude his ass looked nice in a joking matter was sporting a shit eating grin just thinking about the next words to tumble out of his mouth. “of course you’d still love me of i were a termite. i’d be all over your wood.” it wasn’t a good joke but it was definitely an attempt at a joke about sucking jude’s dick and honestly??? as shit a joke as it was it was at least progress. and because he was in a rather playful mood, he leaned forward and lightly booped jude’s nose with his own, hovering close afterwards instead of pulling away.

𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐨𝐫.

Jude shook his head, "you wish, buddy." he shrugged though, maybe he did have a kid out there somewhere, maybe that would be cool, to have a little person just like him around, but he was pretty sure he wasn't ready for that. he always thought he'd do the whole, have a wife before kids happen thing and so far, he hadn't met any girls lining up to play the part. "mm, a worm." he repeated back, his face still close, grinning when Cillian spoke and letting out a soft laugh. If he was sober he might have more to say, he might throw a friendly punch, or shove Cillian away, but up close and drunk, he never really had been this close to Cillian before. Not like this, and he wasn't hating the way he felt to almost feel the other against himself. "If you were on my wood I'd make sure you had a great time." He finally spoke, leaning up, sure that Cillian was going to kiss him before their noses touched and Jude let out a breath of surprise, "You're an asshole." He murmured, but he didn't pull away, instead lifting a hand to rest on Cillian's thigh, "So...if I was a chick, you'd totally be into me, right?"

Cillian

this was usually the point where cillian would pull away, laugh this off, push jude away and make some snide comment like he always did. but something about jude’s hand on cillian’s thigh was both scary and exciting and cillian didn’t want to pull away. there was something there between them and it definitely wasn’t just drunken horniness. if cillian was being honest with himself, a small part of him always kind of wondered about them in a different way. a more than friends kind of way. and he told himself that it didn’t mean anything because he’d thought those things about girls before but he didn’t actually want to date any of them. he was just curious. and was being curious really such a bad thing? usually when cillian started thinking like this he could hear his dad’s voice echoing in his head, telling him he was a fucking fairy and that he needed to be a man and that was usually enough to shut him down and quiet those thoughts for awhile. but here in bed next to his best friend, being this close to him, their lips inches apart, cillian couldn’t help but feel like there was something right about this. and for once he didn’t feel the need to bury those feelings way down deep below the surface. at jude’s words, cillian wrinkled his nose. “i can’t even picture you like a chick, man.” and cillian didn’t want to. he liked jude just the way he was, wanted him like that. there was a bit of fear turning his stomach, warning him to step away from the ledge before he got to close. but there was another stronger part of him that was urging him forward. without really thinking about it, cillian poked jude gently in the abs. “i’d miss those,” he sighed, drunk enough now that the idea of missing jude’s abs was making him actually sad. “n’ those...” he continued, his fingers continuing upwards and ghosting lightly over jude’s pecs. “and...” his fingers stopped when they reached the neckline of his shirt, his fingers hooking into the material as he hesitated for a moment, hovering just over jude’s lips. he was conscious of his own actions enough to know that this was a big deal and that doing this was crossing into something that he couldn’t undo. but he was also drunk enough not to care. fearful he’d lose his nerve, cillian pulled jude in by his shirt collar, their lips crashing together into a kiss that was far from hesitant.

𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐨𝐫.

Jude pouted, "I could try, I'm really pretty, you know." He spoke softly, watching Cillian's face as his hand moved, he was surprised, usually about now was when he'd expect some sort of homophobic comment, maybe a shove at the very least, but instead Cillian was touching him, his abs, his chest, up to his collar and Jude's eyes widened, "So you have...been looking?" he questioned with genuine curiosity, usually it was just a joke, between friends, the was Cillian protested always made Jude laugh and he'd never really truly considered the idea that Cillian might be so loud about it because he secretly did have feelings towards him. He almost stopped Cillian, opening up his mouth to speak, to make a joke, a comment, anything to get the lump in his throat to go away but before he could think of anything clever, Cillian was pulling him close and oh, they were kissing. Cillian was kissing him, and all Jude could do was decide how to react. And that choice was easy, he slide one hand further up Cillian's thigh, leaning in, kissing him back, in a sloppy manner, that was just how Jude did things, is free hand moving to Cillian's waist and pulling him in. It felt good, in a way Jude wasn't sure he'd felt with anyone before, but then, he didn't usually go around making out with his best friend, so it made sense that this was new, exciting and unique for him, and he already felt a sense of dread for the moment it would end.

Cillian

cillian hadn’t really known what to expect when he kissed jude. cillian didn’t usually think too much about the consequences, like ever, so he hadn’t even taken a moment to consider what would have happened if jude hadn’t kissed him back. but he did and a cillian felt a weight slide from his shoulders as he relaxed into the kiss, surprised at how happy he was that his best friend was kissing him. cillian liked to think that he’d been around the block enough times that he really had this kissing thing down, but kissing another dude was so wildly different than anything he’d ever experienced before. thank god for alcohol because there was a messy tangle of conflicting emotions swirling around in his gut and he didn’t know that he could fight them off for very much longer without the help of booze. cillian hummed against jude’s lips, leaning into it when pulled closer. he tasted like alcohol and he smelled of weed and him and the familiarity was both comforting and somehow arousing in a way that cillian wasn’t sure he’d ever experienced. everything about this was so new and honestly really scary and while cillian usually had no trouble pushing away those uneasy feelings in the name of a good time, he was starting to panic a little about how good this felt. the uneasiness was only that much more unavoidable when cillian felt himself becoming hard in response to jude’s lips on his, and the way his hand was moving up cillian’s thigh. cillian broke the kiss, taking in a shuddery breath, though he didn’t pull away, still hovering near. he was disoriented and confused, knowing what he wanted but too afraid to just let himself have it. “holy shit,” cillian breathed, because his brain wasn’t working properly enough to put together a more coherent response.

𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐨𝐫.

Jude had never really been the type to fully think out his actions before he went through with them, but under normal circumstances he would have thought a lot more about this action before he allowed himself to indulge. Of course, he'd always felt a certain level of attraction towards Cillian, he was cute, he was a lot of fun, and they were buds, they'd seen each other through a lot, and Jude was pretty sure they'd make a dope bro-couple. But Cillian had always been a little...unaccepting of things, he wasn't exactly what Jude would call open-minded, that was the main reason Jude always teased him about liking boys, and wanting to touch Jude's butt. Only...apparently he'd be right, and for a moment he felt a sense of guilt about not being more understanding towards someone who'd been struggling, much to his own oblivion. Still, all he really could focus on in the moment was the way Cillian's lips and body felt against his own, and even as Cillian pulled away, he found himself leaning in closer, chasing after that feeling still as Cillian spoke. "Yeah...whoa." He chuckled breathlessly, finally relenting, pulling back, staring at Cillian for a moment before he broke the silence again, "Okay...hit me." He shrugged, "Do your worse, buddy, it's cool. I mean that was totally hot, but...this is the part where you call me a slur and punch me, right?"

Cillian

under normal circumstances cillian might have done just that. though honestly, under normal circumstances, cillian doubted they ever would have kissed in the first place. everything about this was a weird tangled mess of newness and cillian didn’t know what to do. he was quiet, his eyes lifting to meet jude’s before looking away again. jude had been right, this is the part where cillian’s supposed to shove him away and act like this didn’t happen and deny deny deny because that’s what he’d always been good at. but cillian hadn’t expected to enjoy this so much and it honestly had him kind of shaken up. “i’m not— i mean this doesn’t make me—“ he couldn’t say it. he just kept hearing his dad in his head berating him and making him feel small. “i mean it’s you,” he breathed, not really knowing what he meant by that but feeling that it somehow made sense. like it couldn’t have been anyone else. this was somehow different than... shit, this was all so confusing.

𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐨𝐫.

It was surprising, when Cillian said nothing, even more when he did speak, and Jude let out a long breath before looking to Cillian, studying his face for a moment before he fell backwards against the bed, pulling Cillian with him so they laid on their sides, face to face, "It's me. Which means this can mean something or not. Totally up to you, dude." He offered a weak smile, "If you want to act like it never happened, that's cool. And if you want to start coming over and finally seeing what all the fuss about my butt is, be my guest." He shrugged his shoulders, "You know I have some edibles in my backpack if you want?"

Cillian

cillian allowed himself to be pulled down on the bed beside jude, conscious of the way his heart rate went up as a result. if he hadn’t been so drunk he would have been really grateful that jude was being so cool about this when cillian was so obviously out of sorts. kissing your best friend was always risky even when there wasn’t that whole questioning your sexuality layer and cillian hadn’t even given thought to how this may have affected their friendship. did cillian want this to mean something? regardless, it already did, and try as he might to shake it, cillian knew he wouldn’t forget it. but jude was giving him that option. and it was a really tempting option. it was so much easier to just go on pretending. but cillian remembered that moment of bliss when jude had kissed him and the weight had slid from his shoulders and cillian wasn’t sure he’d trade that for the current mess of weird confusion and unease he was feeling right now. that’d he’d felt for most of his young adult life, really. “well, what do you want?” cillian asked quietly in an attempt to remove a bit of the pressure on him, though admittedly, once the words were out of his mouth he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.

𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐨𝐫.

"Me?" Jude asked, as if Cillian could have asked someone else in the moment, Jude wasn't used to being the one with the choice, in relationships or anything else, but he took a moment to think about it anyways. What did he want? Being in a relationship sounded nice, it had been a long time since he'd tried to do that, but then, Cillian probably wasn't open to that. And Jude hadn't really ever considered it before, because he never expected this to happen, still, it wasn't the worst idea he'd ever had. "I dunno man. I want like, whatever you're cool with. Because I mean, this is kind of huge for you. And I'm proud of you and all that shit. But like, I wouldn't mind making out with you some more, if that's one of my options?" He grinned, "That part was pretty dope, if you ask me."

Cillian

this was kind of huge for him. and honestly? the fact that cillian hadn’t left already in an angry sort of confused storm of... something? progress. he couldn’t remember the last time someone had told him they were proud of him and it felt kind of really good to hear someone say that. and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t happy that jude wanted to do it all over again because yeah, it was pretty dope. and cillian couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed a kiss as much as he had that one. but this was also really overwhelming and before cillian knew what he was doing he was sitting up and putting distance between them. “i think i need a minute. or like... a lot of minutes,” he said finally. because cillian really wasn’t sure what he was “cool with” right now, and being this close to jude wasn’t helping. “but um... thanks man,” he said, his smile small but genuine. because really he was lucky that jude was such a good friend. because this could have gone a whole hell of a lot worse.

𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐨𝐫.

He half thought Cillian was about to lean in and kiss him again, but when his best friend pulled away he wasn't really all that surprised, he'd been expecting it this whole time, he wasn't trying to kid himself, Cillian wasn't the man of his dreams, he couldn't even accept the fact that he was into dudes, let alone actually be with one. Still...it stung a little, the way he pulled away, asked for time, and Jude tried to be understanding as much as it sucked. "Yeah man." He shrugged it off, as if he didn't care all that much, but much to his own surprise it did hurt. A lot. "It's whatever, you know? We're both faded as hell." He got up, standing and collecting his wallet, shoving it into his pocket and pulling his backpack on, "See you around, bro. Bring M&Ms next time."

Cillian

cillian hadn’t expected to feel so shitty when jude shrugged it off like that. seconds ago he was contemplating pretending this had never happened, knowing he’d never forget it and now that jude was halfway out the door, cillian was miffed that jude was acting like they were just both really faded? cillian knew that jude was probably doing this for his benefit but at the same time it kind of stung. because yeah, this had been a big deal. there was a panic rising in his chest at the idea of really having fucked this up because cillian really didn’t have that many friends and jude had stuck by him through pretty much everything. shit shit shit fuck fuck fuck, why did feelings have to be so confusing. this is precisely why cillian had never given thought to being in an actual relationship with anyone. it was too much. and despite all that, all cillian could think to do was kind of nod in jude’s direction as he left, sitting alone on the bed wondering what the fuck he was supposed to do now.

#and look how far they've come #i just needed this immortalized on my blog #discord #threads → cillian & jude

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blackhakumen · 5 years ago

Text

Mini Fanfic #421: Lovely Date Night (Super Smash Bros Ultimate)

9:05 p.m. at the Crimsonetteé Restaurant....

Tifa: (Looks Around the inside of the Restaurant in Awe) Wow...... I gotta say, you've really picked out a real fancy one for us tonight, huh Cloud?

Cloud: Yeah... I originally thought about taking you out to La Shy Café, but the place feels more like a causal meeting if anything.

Tifa: True. (Smiles Softly) But I still be fine with you taking me anywhere really.

Cloud: I know. I just wanted to treat you to something nice, you know?

Tifa: (Teasingly Smirks at Cloud) Has anyone ever told you how much of a Sweetheart you really are?~

Cloud: (Rolled his Eyes) A lot of people, actually....One of them being you.

Tifa: (Giggles Softly) Well, what can I say?~ It is the honest truth, you know?

Cloud: Yeah....But enough about that for now. How are you liking Smash Town so far?

Tifa: I'm loving it so far. I knew it would be interesting and all, but I had no idea this town be this exciting to be around. Plus, almost everyone in the mansion are so amazing to be around. Daisy and Samus especially.

Cloud: I can tell by the fact that you guys been going to the Gym every chance you get.

Tifa: Exactly. Hey, have I ever told you the time I accidentally punched the Knock-Out Meter Machine so hard that it went flying into a nearby wall?

Cloud: (Starts Snickering) Holy Shit. Really?

Tifa: Yep. (Giggles Lightly while playing with her hair a little) Kind of forgot my own strength there...

Cloud: How could you? You're practically the strongest woman I know. Not to mention gorgeous as well. (Winked at Tifa)

Tifa: (Blushes While Smiling Sheepishly) See? I told you you're became a Sweetheart.

Cloud: Hey. I wouldn't be who I am now if it weren't for you guys being there for me. (Smiles Softly) You mean a lot me, you know?

Tifa: (Heart Begins to Melt) Cloud.....

Waitress: (Arrived at Cloud and Tifa's Table) Good Evening! I'm Bethany and I will be your waitress for the night. (Pulls out the Menu) Here's the Drink Menu....(Place the Menu down on the table) and allow me to start you off with a glass of water. (Stares Directly at Cloud) Sparkling or Still?

Cloud: I'll try out.... Sparkling.

Tifa: I'll try Sparkling as-

Bethany: (Completely Ignored Tifa's Request) Excellent! Now, in the meantime, feel free to check out the appetizers. I for one prefer our latest Chili Cheese Fries. (Walks Away)

Tifa: Chili Cheese Fries.....It's been awhile since I made those back in Hollow Basin.

Cloud: Speaking of which, did you ever heard from anyone there as of late?

Tifa: From Barrett. He's actually looking after our bar pretty good so far. With some help from our new employee, of course.

Cloud: Isa right? Blue haired guy? Dating Lea?

Tifa: (Eyes Widened in Surprise) Those two are dating?!

Cloud: Yeah. They're even raising two teens now. Both are names Roxas and Xion. And from what I heard...(Chuckles Lightly) Lea's practically the "Mom" of the family.

Tifa: (Giggles Softly) Aww~ That's Precious.

Meanwhile in Twilight Town....

Lea: (Sudden Place a Hand on his Forehead)

Xion: (Place a Hand on Lea's Arm a bit Worryingly) You okay, Axel?

Lea: Kind of. Don't know why, But....I could've sworn I felt some sort of disturbance right now. I just don't know what it is....

Roxas: (Changing Channels on the T.V. with a Remote) You're thinking too much, man. Relax.

Xion: Roxas' right. It's okay. We're here.

Lea: (Sighs while Shrugging) If you kiddos say so.....

Back in Smash Town.......

Tifa: Seriously though, I think it's sweet of those two to become parent figures to those kids. Kind of remind me of almost everyone back at the mansion.

Cloud: Tell me about it. They are really taking this whole Parenting role that seriously. Not that I have problem with it, of course.

Tifa: Me neither. They really love those kiddos very much. And I'm starting to love them too.

Cloud: (Chuckles Lightly) Really?

Tifa: Yeah. I mean, sure, some of them can be a handful, but most of them, if not, all of them are so precious and fun to be around.

Cloud: I can see you being a pretty cool mom.

Tifa: Really?

Cloud: Yeah. You were able to look after Marlene whenever Barrett is away, so that's a pretty solid proof there.

Tifa: (Smiles Softly) Thanks, Cloud.

Cloud began to Smile back at Tifa when suddenly....

Bethany: (Arrived back at the Table) Hey there. Has we have the chance to look at the menu?

Tifa: Uh.... Actually, you think we could order a choice the dessert first? (Look Through her Menu) Cause I've heard quite a lot about your famous White Chocolate Soffle, and I honestly wouldn't mind trying one, two, or maybe three of them out. Or Maybe.....(Continues Speaking)

Bethany: (Turns to Cloud) I'm not sure if you know this by now, buuuuut we have quite a lot of specials this evening. A Nice Floating Island, with a dash of Crème Anglaise.....(Place a Folded Piece of Paper Down....All While Giving Cloud a Flirty Smile) And my number~

Tifa: ...........And about those Creamy Pies- (Looks up to see The Waitress Looking at Cloud) Uh.... Cloud, is everything's okay-

Cloud: Just a second. (Looks down at the paper and back up at the Waitress with a Raised Eyebrow) So? You're really seriously about doing this right now?

Bethany: Completely. I get off at Ten....(Flirty Grin Grew a bit Wider) So I can take you out instead~

Tifa: Wait. What is she-

Cloud: (Got up from table) Alright, Bethany or whoever your name is, a Few Things. One: I'm not interested in you and I never will be. Two: In case you're too dense enough to realize this, you could clearly see that my date is sitting right in front of us as speak. And Three and....Most Importantly: We are still waiting for our glasses of Sparkling Water. Now if you really value your job and your dignity....(Gives the Waitress an Annoyed, Intense Glare) You knock it off with your Pointless Flirting, Cut the Bullshit, and Get us our God Damn Water. Got it?

Bethany: ('Groans in Defeat'') Okay, fine.....You could've just said "no". God.... (Walks Away) You don't have to be Huge Emo Jackass about it.....

Tifa: (Slowly Turns to the walking Waitress with a Very Not So Pleased Look on her Face) Excuse you?

Bethany: (Stops and Finally Gives Tifa Her Attention) What do you want?

Tifa: (Got up from her Table) Ma'am. I'm gonna give you five seconds to turn back around and apologize to my boyfriend for what you just said....right now.

Bethany: ('Scoffs') Or what, Tits for Brains? You're gonna try picking a fight with-

*Smash*

Tifa slams a Table Down to the Ground at Ease, which made the Waitress' Eyes Widened in Shock and Fear.

Tifa: Apologize. Now.

Bethany: (Cowers Back in Fear) Alright! Alright! I-I-I'm s-so so sorry! Please don't hurt me!

Tifa: (Walks by the Waitress) Oh and uh....(Gives her a $50 Bill) For the Table. (Walks Away)

Cloud: (Gives the Waitress a Dollar Bill Before Walking away as well) And for your service.

Bethany: Uh....This is only a One Dollar Bill......

Cloud: (From a Distance) Don't care. We're not coming back.

Outside.......

Tifa: (Walking Right Next to Cloud on the Sidewalk) Cloud, I am so sorry for that. Really.

Cloud: (Chuckles Lightly) Don't be. That was the best thing I've seen all day. Plus.....(Rubbing the Back of his Head Back and Forth While Blushing a Little) I honestly thinks really cool of you to stand up for me like that, you know?

Tifa: (Gently Grab Cloud's Hand While Walking with a Sincere Smile on her Face) Hey. I told you I'll always be there for you no matter what. You mean so much me.

Cloud: (Squeezes Tifa's hand a Little While Smiling Back at her) You mean a lot to me too, Tifa. Thank you.

Tifa: (Gives Cloud a Kiss on the Cheek) You're very welcome, handsome~ (Winked at Cloud)

Cloud: (Blushes Even More) Sooooooo.....Uhh..... There's this Burger Place Ren mentioned a few miles from here, pretty cheap. You wanna go eat there instead?

Tifa: ('Sighs Relaxingly') Honestly, I've been wanting a Burger for a long while now..... (Smiles Brightly) I'm in.

Cloud: Cool. Also, uh..... maybe afterwards, we could go back to the Mansion, watch a movie.... maybe cuddling through it as well-

Tifa: ('Gasps') Cloud Strife, are you actually asking me out on a Cuddle Session?~

Cloud: ('Sighs in Defeat') Guess I am.....

Tifa: (Giggles Softly) Welllllllllll~ I, for one, would love that very much. Thanks, Sweetie~

Cloud: ....................Damn you're cute.

Tifa: (Smirks Teasingly and Flirtingly at Cloud) And you're Adorable~ A lot more than I thought you would be actually~

Cloud: You'll let me live it down, will you?

Tifa: Probably not, 'hon~ (Gives Cloud Another Kiss on the Cheek While Walking the Night Away Together)

@keyenuta

@26shann

@cyber-wildcat

@chompycroc

@ink-correctsmashbrosbloo

@albion-93

#super smash ultimate #cloud strife #tifa lockhart #lea #kh axel #roxas #xion #barrett wallace (mentioned)#isa (mentioned)#romance #cute romance #cloud x tifa #mostly based on DragonShortZ Episode 3 #tifa will throwdown at anyone who disrespects her cloud #lots and lots of fluff here #date night #have to edited it again to make it perfect. sorry about that

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aka-indulgence · 5 years ago

Note

(1) Hi! I just finished the current chapters of AMitS and I love it~ And I got this weird scenario in my head and wondered about something. After chapter 6 where MC escapes and Sans finds out about. What would happen if he saw her walking down the street with another man and later find out that it was her older bro who had gotten worried sick once she disappeared and wont leave her side even for a sec.

(Ah, you sweet thing- it’s no problem, this is a very interesting ask! Also, I’m going to assume you mean reader’s brother belongs to his own gang? Thank you and thank you for reading, I’m happy you like my works! ;;w;)

This answer became pretty long- I got hooked onto the idea! Also there are brief threats of violence is in here, so be careful!

It’s been… Awhile since he last saw her, and Sans is losing his mind, thinking where she could have gone, where she could’ve run off to- where is his girl?!

While he walks through the streets with a pissed-off look to his face, his red eyelights dangerously dim as he lumbers on, he sees her- walking down the streets, gripping onto the coat of a taller man. He… He recognizes him, a member of another gang, a human gang that he has met and had struggles with- his arms were wrapped around his lady-

He almost breaks then and there- almost teleporting to what he assumed was someone who thought they could have his baby- when he stops to look again, seeing her cling onto him tightly, and when he snoops closer to listen in on their conversation, your eyes swimming- he hears it. “Brother.” “Sister.”

… He was your brother?!

Oh yeah, he still has powerful urges to not only kill this guy who has you in his arms, but also a member of a rival gang- but he doesn’t. He knows how it’s like with his own family… Too important for him to just get rid of family. He can’t take him away from you..

… But he could take you away from him.

In all honesty, he’s not a bad guy, he just wants to keep you safe…

… But that’s Sans’ job now.

He’ll confront him in front of you, knowing that the brother that seemed to care so much for your well being wouldn’t want to show violence to you, after hearing you panic and cry at the memory (on his behalf)… Your brother knows who he is, both in the business and out- with his little case with you. He’s going put a hard front, already used to confronting people like Sans, putting you in a protective hold and reaching for a weapon to hold against Sans- but he’s already one step ahead, a floating bone right next to his head, ready to let it go through- more bones slowly appearing around him when you and him notice, and your brother freezes.

Of course, Sans wanted to kill this guy. But you… With your wide eyed look and terrified stare, full of worry for your brother… He can’t do it because of you. He wouldn’t be bluffing otherwise.

… But neither of you knew that.

Sans is going to threaten to let them fly if you aren’t going to be hand back to him. He counts.

“one.”

You looked at your brother.

“two.”

He freezes- he doesn’t know what to do.

“thr-”

Before Sans could finish the last number, you’ve pulled yourself out of your brother’s hold, shouting that you’ll go to him, that you’ll stay with him willingly this time. Sans smiles. Your brother is shocked. Sans doesn’t take away the bones, opening his arms with a huge, cruel grin on his face as you walk fearfully towards him, willingly, into his arms as he wraps them around you as soon as you were in reach. He holds you close to his chest and he looks back at your brother- who was now held by his red magic from him about to whip out something to throw at Sans.

He warns him.

“you wouldn’t want your dear little sister to get in trouble because of you, would you?” He’d ask, stroking a phalange down your cheek down to your chin lovingly, his eyelights trained at the top of your head- he knows your brother couldn’t move with his magic on him like that.

He tells him not to look for you anymore, that he’ll “take care of her.”

In a blink of an eye, both you and Sans had disappeared into a cloud of red smoke, the magic and bones leaving your brother without a trace- left alone without his sister again.

#AMitS #AMitS ask #ask #Sans is a criminal #an experienced one #with magic..#Your brother is too but #Sans is going to have you one way or another...#Nothing that burns his soul more than someone being near his human...

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negasonicimagines · 6 years ago

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My One and Lonely

whew! this was intense! I’m really sorry if this doesn’t correctly fulfill these requests, folks! i tried!

1: “okay what about poly yukisonic x reader where the yukio, ellie, and the reader have started a new relationship, but the reader is unsure of it?? and Ellie and yukio just reassure thems?? basically I just want poly yukisonic x reader angst with a happy ending. : ')” 2: “Could you do a negasonic imagine where reader is her girlfriend and has telekinesis? And Wade takes any opportunity to tease the couple so reader constantly uses her powers to slam the door in Wades face?” [yeah i defo didn’t really fill this one but the reader has telekinesis and DOES slam the door in Wade’s face and I have so many requests bro... but I’d be willing to redo this if you’re not satisfied] TRIGGER WARNING for mentions and discussion of past abuse. the reader also almost has a panic attack. let me know if i missed anything

“You know, you could just talk to them about it,” Wade tells you, and your fork and book fall to the ground.

“Uh, no? I literally can’t, dude. Now my fork’s dirty.”

“Uh, yeah. You literally can, dude. And that’ll teach you to be lazy, using your powers for easy stuff like turning pages and eating. I bet the fork’s not that bad.”

“Like you wouldn’t do the same thing,” you scoff, and he shrugs, nodding.

“Come on. It’s totally normal for you to be feeling the way you are. They were friends and dating before you came into the picture. Insecurity’s normal. Especially considering-”

“Call me insecure one more time and I’ll use the dirty fork to show you just how insecure your eye’s placement in your skull is,” you threaten, feeling your face heat up. You didn’t like that your weakness was so obvious. Or that he reminded you of her.

“Christ, maybe I really am a bad influence...Nah, we’re just birds of a feather,” Wade says with a cheeky grin you don’t know how you can see through the mask. Maybe his tone of voice makes the subtle expression more perceivable. “Sorry,” he quickly adds. “But, seriously. They’re the last people who are gonna judge you.”

“Who’s the last people that are gonna judge Y/N?” You hear from behind you. Ellie. Shit. She made you far more nervous than Yukio did. Yukio was the gentle, sensitive moon, and Ellie… Ellie was the sun. Nuturing, yes, but scorching, too.

“Well-”

“No one. Not important. Right, Wade?” you plaster on a smile, fiddling with the fork in your hand before letting it float in the air. “Want the rest of my ramen? I’m not very hungry.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.”

“Catch,” you say, flinging the fork at him telepathically. He gasps sharply, but his reflexes are quick enough to grab it.

You get up, and notice Ellie looks a bit… gloomier than usual.

“Everything okay?” you ask, and she nods, her lips twitching into a small smile for you before quickly concealing the expression.

“Yeah, I’m alright. ‘Kio and I missed you at lunch, that’s all.”

“Well, I was, uh… Hanging out with Wade. Like you saw,” you explain.

“You didn’t seem very happy. He didn’t say anything to bother you, did he?”

“Oh, uh, no. I was just a bit stressed. Exams coming up and all that.”

“Exams are a couple months away,” Ellie reminds you. “But you were stressed, weren’t you? Look, if you’re having regrets, whatever, fine. I wouldn’t be happy about it and neither would Yukio, but you have a right to your feelings. Just don’t fucking lie to me, okay?”

“I- I promise it’s not about that. Really, I’m… Happy to be with you guys.”

“Then what is it? Seriously?”

You stiffen, you can tell she’s getting angry. Your heart feels like a stone in your chest, cracked and heavy.

“It’s nothing,” you say, not meeting her eyes.

“Alright. Keep your secrets, then,” Ellie sighs, walking away. You head to your room, locking the door behind you. Most students with telepathic abilities get their own rooms in an effort to avoid accidental harm of their fellow students. This was the case for you, and you used to like it.

But then, you met Ellie and Yukio. The two of them were already dating when you were officially introduced, and you became fast friends with them. It quickly evolved into more, and the three of you became what many refer to as a “throuple.”

The facet of the insecurity Wade so rudely talked of earlier was, of course, the fact that they were roommates, and you were alone every night. They got to cuddle and kiss and you got to watch ASMR.

It was depressingly lonely. Sure, every once in awhile you could get away with sleeping over on weekends. But, most of the time, the teachers monitored the rooms, making sure everyone was where they were supposed to be, in case of emergency.

But, wait, there’s more!

As mentioned previously, Ellie is the sun. Yukio is the moon. What are you in that?

And it didn’t help that you were still struggling to cope with the aftermath of her, a little over a year later.

Before you began your schooling at Xavier’s, you were friends with a small group of fellow mutants that were slowly drawn together by fate. One of these mutants was a girl. You can’t even bear to think her name.

Back then, you were only telepathically gifted. You hadn’t even dreamed you would be capable of telekinesis one day.

But she, she had super-strength, and she liked to use it on you. Even when you didn’t want her to.

You were defenseless.

You shake, pulling your knees to your chest.

“Hey, why’s the door locked? I thought we were all gonna work together on our art projects.” Yukio’s bright voice is muffled by the door.

“Uh, um, yeah, yeah, I’ll be there in a, um, sec,” you say, your breathing growing heavier and more fast-paced. “Actually, uh, you- you and Ellie sh...sh-should just go and, uh, go work on your projects t-together. I’ll- Yeah, I’ll, uh, figure mine out eventually.” Shit, I’m doing a terrible job at covering this up.

“You okay in there, bunny?” It was a cute nickname that Yukio liked to call both you and Ellie.

“Mmhmm, yeah. Just a bit, uh, very tired. Gonna take a nap soon.”

“Okay…” she says, and you know she doubts you. Failure.

“On second thought, uh, I’ll just go to bed early tonight. Let’s get to work,” you decide, unlocking and opening the door.

Upon opening the door, you notice Wade behind them.

“Didn’t realize you took Art, Wade.”

“You also didn’t realize that we planned for you to come to our room. You were supposed to show up twenty minutes ago, actually. So, we went to talk to Wade. Since you tell him everything these days,” Ellie says, pure bitterness in the mention of Wade. It wasn’t that she hated him. She hated that you told him and not her. Not even Yukio, who she’d admit was far more approachable than her.

“Sorry, kid,” he says. “They had a right to know.”

“You- You didn’t tell them about- About…” You feel your eyes widen, alarm racing through you slowly and quickly at the same time.

“No, not that. Not her. Just the other stuff.”

“Oh.”

“Her?” Ellie asks. “Cheating on us, seriously?”

“No,” you say, and it comes out as a whimper due to her angry tone. “I- I- This was a bad idea, Wade. You guys should just go, all three of you, I don’t feel well, I’m tired, I-”

“I’m gonna leave you kids to sort this out,” Wade tells you three. “Good luck.” He slowly backs away.

“Can you close the door?” Yukio asks, and you jolt, door slamming in Wade’s face.

“Yeah,” you say afterwards. This was becoming less stressful thinking and more panic attack by the moment.

“You’ve been avoiding us lately,” Yukio points out. “Wade already told us why, but… I want to hear it from you, ‘kay?”

“It’s nothing, I-” You take a careful, ragged breath, sitting on your bed. Yukio sits on the stool at your desk, and Ellie leans her back against the door. “I just don’t fit. I’ve never fit in anywhere, and I never will. All I’ve done trying is bother others. Especially Ellie and you.”

“You don’t fit?” Ellie asks. “What the fuck do you mean?”

“I- You’re the sun...Yukio’s the moon… And I’m just… I’m Pluto.” The last bit comes out as a shaky whisper. A large, hot tear rolls down your cheek swiftly.

“What?! No! No, bunny, you’re- You’re…” Yukio kneels in front of you, swiping your tear away with her thumb and keeping your sad face in her hand. “I can’t think of anything, but you’re not Pluto, baby.”

“The eclipse. You’re the eclipse, Y/N. Everything aligning perfectly so that we can be together,” Ellie says thoughtfully. “Is that all? You feel like you don’t have a place here, with us? You do. You’re what makes this whole thing work, okay? Now please, please tell me you didn’t cheat on us for validation.”

“The her comment, right…” you say, the temporary relief you felt by Ellie’s original statement subsiding. “No. I didn’t cheat, I swear. I’d never do that to you guys, to anyone. I… The last relationship I had before you guys was, um… Not the greatest. It was around a year ago, a little more. Before Xavier’s. Before I honed my abilities. There was a girl, a mutant like me. Like us. But she, uh… She had super-strength. And I wasn’t very physically strong, I was pretty weak, actually. So… You can probably see where I’m going with this, or I hope you do, because I don’t like talking about it, not at-” You finally dissolve into tears. “Not at all…”

Ellie rushes towards you to embrace you, and you flinch reflexively.

“I’m sorry. I was really thoughtless. Just now and for most of our interactions today,” Ellie admits. “I’m just… Things between me and ‘Kio weren’t the greatest, but we were trying because we knew we were meant to be together. And then you came along, and everything made sense. Everything finally fit together, perfectly. And- And I don’t wanna lose that. Ever.”

“Same here,” Yukio agrees. “You’re so great, Y/N. Wade said that you feel really lonely all by yourself in here. Maybe we should try to get you transferred to our room. Sometimes they let people room in groups of three, and they probably could use the extra room.”

“Yeah, but… It’d be kind of annoying to have me tagging along all the time,” you remind her.

Ellie’s eye twitches. “Tagging...Along?”

“That’s the phrase, isn’t it?” you ask.

She takes a deep, calming breath, and you watch her fingers move as she counts to ten on them silently. They’re both sitting with you on the bed, now.

“Ah-” Ellie clenches her teeth, hissing for a moment, as if she’s in pain. “Y/N, you’re just as much a part of this relationship as Yukio and I. What part of that is so hard for you to understand?”

“I- I don’t know. It’s just hard to believe. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

“What shoes? There are no shoes here,” Yukio tells you. “I really only wear them because it’s frowned upon not to, and because if I didn’t then I’d pick up all sorts of nasty germs.”

Ellie nods in agreement. “Same.”

You sigh, knowing there’s no way to convince them of how worthless you are to the relationship. Maybe because to them, you aren’t?

“Hey, did you see that? I saw that. I think it’s clicking, ‘Kio.”

“I did see it,” Yukio agrees, and you smile a little at their antics, shaking your head. “Let me go to the office and get the room transfer forms. I’d love to stay, but I think you two cuties need to talk a bit… In private.”

Yukio exits.

“I’m...Sorry. For talking to Wade and not you guys. I shouldn’t have-”

“You’re allowed to confide in your friend. I shouldn’t have taken it as personally as I did. I just know there was a time, before we all got together romantically, where you would’ve talked to me or Yukio about something if it stressed you out that much. But I guess not… We didn’t know about her.”

“It’s just hard to even think about. I feel so ashamed all the time, I’m really sorry that I didn’t-”

“Seriously. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to, and I feel seriously shitty that I was such an asshole about it. You have a right to privacy, as long as you’re not putting anyone or anything in danger. But, the anyone and anything includes you. Okay?”

“Okay,” you respond, and Ellie kisses your forehead, her dark brown eyes looking to yours before she places the softest kiss on your lips, carefully holding your face as if you were priceless and she didn’t want to risk breaking you. You lean into her, forehead on her shoulder.

“Let’s lay down. I owe you some cuddling. I hear I’m an excellent big spoon,” she tells you.

“From a biased source. Let’s try the sweetheart’s cradle,” you offer.

“What the fuck is the sweetheart’s cradle?”

“Honestly, I did far too much research into the perfect cuddle position, for the time it might actually happen.”

“We don’t really cuddle, do we? Yukio hasn’t really given you any cuddles either, has she? Wow, you’re really missing out- ...Oh. I’m so sorry,” Ellie apologizes, looking more heartbroken than determined with this one. She hadn’t realized the extent to which you were being neglected by them. “I’m sorry, doll. Really sorry.”

“Doll? That’s new,” you comment.

“I figured you deserved a petname of your own,” Ellie informs you. “Now, explain this ‘sweetheart’s cradle’ to me.”

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bleachanimefan1 · 5 years ago

Text

Turtles Forever Part 39

Return To The Underground

In the lair, Mikey, and Raph and Mona are playing Frisbee while Leo was training. Yuuki was sitting down, reading silently. Donnie is in his lab. He didn't even notice Venus had walked in.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Research." Donnie briefly answered.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Venus asked. She takes a paper off of his desk, only for Donnie to take it back and set it down.

"No. I got it. But thanks anyway." Donnie said not even looking up.

"Please, I want to help." Venus said.

"Then you can help me by going away. I can barely work with all of these distractions anyway." Donnie said as he was trying to ignore the playful loud yells of the Frisbee game going on and the training session.

"So that's all I am to you? An distraction?" Venus asked, hurt. But Donnie didn't hear her as he was still looking through the papers. "Fine, I will leave you to your work, Donatello. I'm sorry to bother you." Venus replied coldly. And She walked away leaving the olive green turtle alone to himself.

Donnie looked looked up to see that Venus had vanished and he looked around wondering where she had went. He went back into his work. Unbeknownst to the two of them, someone had been watching the whole thing the entire time, Yuuki.

Back to the Frisbee game with Raph and Mikey. "Coming at ya!" Mikey throws the Frisbee to Raph, but it goes too high and he misses. The disc flies towards Donnie.

"Yo Donnie, heads up!" Mikey calls out.

But he's too absorbed in his work to notice until it hits a stack of papers, sending them flying everywhere.

"Hey you guys!," Donnie yells out angrily as he grabs the disc "Can't you just leave me alone! I'm sick of all these interruptions! I can't work like this!" He throws the disc hard and Leo raises a hand, catching it in midair.

"Whoa, ease up, Donnie," Leo said. "You okay?"

"I know you ain't slept in day, bro?" Raph replied as they make their way towards him.

"Maybe, you're, I don't know, working too much," Mikey comments.

"I'm trying to find a cure for friends, trapped in the underground city," Donnie answered as he walks over to the computer with a crystal in his hand.

"That creepy place?" Mikey asked.

"Well, how do you think they feel? They're like prisoners down there." Donnie points out.

"Man, remember that spooky sole survivor guy?" Mikey answered.

"Remember what he said?" Donnie asked.

"As we speak, the power of the cavern's crystal moon is infusing your friends with its regenerative energy."

"I remember we had to put that wackbag on ice." Raph adds.

"And when our friends strayed too far from the crystal moon, they turn right back into monsters." Donnie continues. "We made them a promise, remember? A promise to find a cure, and I know the cure has something to do with these crystals, I just don't know what," Donnie begins to walk back into his lab, Raph was about to say something but Leo stops him.

"Let him go, Raph, Don's got that "no matter what it takes" look. We better just leave him alone."

Mikey and Yuuki give each other worried looks. As he walked away with his brothers Yuuki stayed behind. She walked up into his research lab.

"You know, you really hurt Venus' feelings. " She scolded.

Donnie looked up at her surprised "What do you mean?" He asked, confused.

Yuuki shakes her head "I'm not going to tell you. Your smart enough figure it out." She said.

it was in the middle of the night, as Donnie stayed up late working in his lab with the crystals. After trying a laser, he stops when he sees that it didn't do too much. He groans, taking off his goggles.

"I still don't have a clue what these things are made off," Donnie groans "Much less how they work,"

He yawns as his eyelids began to feel heavy then he was asleep on his desk.

Everything is dark at first and Donnie can hear someone calling out his name. He thought that it was Venus at first but it sounded a little different. He opened his eyes, he sees that he is back in the underground city. He blinks and he is now deeper into the city and he sees someone walking away from him as they call out his name again. When they turn around, he sees that it's Quarry in her human form.

He blinks again, he sees that she is back in her mutated form and she looks up at the Crystal Moon.

"Donatello,"

"Hear the crystal," Quarry tells him.

The Crystal Moon begins to melt and pour over the city and towards Quarry.

"Hear the crystal," A different voice calls out.

The liquid swallows Quarry in it, but she floats back out of it, she is reverted back into her human form.

"Donatello, hear the crystal," She tells him.

Donnie's eyes immediately opens and he shoots up from his chair. He turns to the crystals lying on the tray and takes them. "The crystal. Hear the crystal, that's it! At least I think that's it. I gotta wake the others. Hey guys!,"

Everyone is gathered around the lab table still half asleep after been woken up. "This better be good Donnie," Mikey groans sleepily and yawns. "A turtle does need his beauty sleep, you know."

"I've been doing some testing," Donnie said as he prepares a machine near the crystals. "The crystals react to sound, high frequency sonic disruption, to be precise," He turns the knob to start up the machine. "That will cause them to break down into their purest, simplest form." As the frequency of the machine goes higher the crystals begin glowing and start to hum louder. Then the two crystals suddenly melt.

"They liquefy!," Donnie said as he turns off the machine. "And in this liquid form, we can administer a version of it like a serum," He picks up the tray and pours the liquid into an tube. "A cure. Our friends will be able to leave the underground city forever."

"Don, I got to say," Leo starts with a smile.

"Way to go, egghead," Raph added.

"I, uh, I'm not so sure I deserve the credit." Donnie starts nervously "I kinda got the idea...in a dream."

"A dream?" Mikey questioned.

"Donnie, you've been working too hard." Raph said.

"No guys, don't you get it," Mikey spoke. "Don had a crystal dream like the one I had last time we went underground."

"We got to get back down there right way." Leo said as he walks over, picking up the tube.

"I've been working on that to," Donnie said as he opens a drawer from his desk and pulls out a blueprint. "It's a lot shorter, if we go straight down," They walk into Donnie's vehicle lab to see a giant vehicle. "Ladies and gentlemen, and Mikey," Donnie said as he presented the machine.

"I give you...the Turtle Tunneler!"

Donnie presses some buttons and starts it up. "Tunneler engaged."

Everyone gets strapped in except for Yuuki, Mona, and Venus.

"But, I didn't get the chance to build more seats into it." He said as he looks at the girls.

"That's okay I'll just sit here." Yuuki said as she takes a seat in Leo's lap. He blushes. He wraps his arms around her waist supporting her keeping her from falling off. Mona and Raph does the same as well. Donnie turns to Venus "You can sit with me if you want." He said.

" No, I'll stand thank you. " Venus answers not looking at him.

Donnie shrugs. "Okay, suit yourself."

"From here on in, the ride gets a whole lot bumpier." He warns. When Donnie starts up the drill and drives through the wall the whole vessel begins to shake violently. The shaking causes Venus to trip and fall over landing right into Donnie lap. She looks up and glares at him.

He smiles, nervously 'Hey, I tried to warn you."

She crosses her arms and looks away. "I'm not speaking to you."

The shaking stops when they drill all the way to the abandoned subway tunnel. Donnie drills through another wall.

The Tunneler drives some more deep underground. Donnie noticed that Venus has been quite for awhile now. Then he remembers what Yuuki had told him. He had hurt Venus somehow but what was it? Gears began to grind in his head but nothing came into his mind. He whispers quietly so the others can't hear.

"If I did something to upset you, I'm sorry." He said. "Can you tell me what I did? So I can fix it."

"Why should I? I thought that I was being inconvenience for you. "

"Inconvenience? When did I ever say that?" Donnie asked. He was confused.

"You said that I was an distraction and you never answered back when I asked why."

"Venus, sometimes when I get caught up in my work I do things or say things I don't mean. I'm sorry that I made you feel that way. You mean a lot to me. Please, forgive me."

"I-I have to think about it. " Venus said.

After some time, they have driven back to the underground city.

"Are we there yet?" Mikey asked and laughs a little, but Raph smacks him on his head.

"Ow!"

"Zip it, goofball." Raph groans.

They began to drive some more as it was a smooth ride the rest of the way.

"Next stop: underground city." Donnie said.

"Already?" Mikey whines. "I barely had time to watch the in-flight movie."

"Wait a minute," Leo speaks as he looks at the screen. "Isn't there supposed to be a light at the end of this tunnel?"

They are soon in the underground city, but they notice that it's dark. "The Crystal Moon! It's gone!"

"Okay, I know there was a giant Crystal Moon thing on the ceiling the last time we were here." Raph speaks.

"It can't just be gone." Leo said.

"It's worse than that," Donnie replied.

"What do you mean, Donatello?" Venus asked.

"The Crystal Moon was the only thing keeping our friends from turning back into monsters."

Donnie begins to drive again around the city, but they stop when they spot something on the screen. Everyone gasps when they see the rogue mutant.

"You were saying?" Mikey asked gravely and the mutant jumps onto the Tunneler.

The monster begins to pound on the machine and Donnie begins to drive, trying shake it off, but they don't get to far when they see a spider mutant in front of them. The monster shoots its webbing at them. Donnie starts up the drill, drilling the webbing off. The monster growls and hits the side of the machine.

"Hang on!" Donnie shouted.

He drills into the wall, knocking the monsters off the vehicle and into another tunnel. But as they make it through, they are suddenly attacked by two more monsters. They pick up the machine and began to carry it off, towards the edge of the cliff. Below them is a river of lava.

The monsters toss the machine, and it begins to descend as they fall down towards the lava. The turtles, Yuuki, Venus screamed as they came closer to the molten lava. Mona closes her eyes shut and clings to Raphael, wrapping her arms around him, hugging him tightly. The vehicle hits and sinks into the lava. Then, they burst out of the lava and drive to solid ground. Everyone is shocked, but relieved.

"Uh, shouldn't we be burnt to a crisp by now?" Yuuki asked.

"What?" Donnie asked when he sees their reaction. "You think I wouldn't design this thing to withstand lava? What kind of idiot do you think I am?"

"Are there different kinds?" Mikey questioned.

Donnie continues to drive the Tunneler into the city, and as they drive through, they see that it's deserted and very dark.

"Um, why are we traveling into the city and not to, say, Singapore?" Mikey asked.

"Because we made them a promise to help our friends, Mikey," Donnie reminds him. "And we're gonna to keep it." They drove in silence for a bit.

"They're out there," Raph speaks.

"Yeah, they're stalking us," Leo adds.

"Why don't they attack us already?" Raph asked.

"Cause they don't want the Tunneler," Mikey said gravely. "Just the chewy snacks inside!"

Donnie stops the machine in front of an entrance. "Guys, don't worry, I packed us a little something for emergencies," He presses a button and the top of the seats detaches itself. "Our seat backs detach to become tech pack units, high tech weapons, and survival gear. And by the looks of this place, we're gonna need them."

Donnie turns to Yuuki, Mona and Venus "It would probably be best if you stay close to us." He explained. "We don't know what's lurking out there."

"Excuse me," Mikey calls out as he was the last one to exit. "Why are we getting out of the nice, safe, heavily armored vehicle?"

"Cause I need to find more crystals," Donnie said.

"Don't worry, Mikey, it's gonna be a piece of cake," Raph reassures him, then they hear growling noises somewhere in the city.

"Yeah, except we're the cake!," Mikey exclaimed as they all rushed inside of the entrance.

Soon, they walk into a room where some people where frozen.

Raph walks up to the Entity "You still here? Yo buddy, that bus ain't coming,"

Donnie walks over and reaches for the crystal on the panel "The Entity's amulet seems to be the only crystal we've seen," The crystal begins to glow slightly. "It's a start, I guess, but I need more."

A noise is heard in the room and they look to see a door open all by itself. They walk in and see dozens of more people frozen in the room.

"What is this place?" Leo questioned as they look around.

"This is getting too creepy." Yuuki chimed in.

"Just what we need," Mikey said, nervously. "More creepy bald guys."

"Why do I get the feeling Mr. Sole Survivor didn't exactly tell us the whole story about his extinct race?" Donnie asked. A loud hiss is heard right near them.

"Heads up, guys," Raph said as they look towards the doorway and see a shadow coming their way. "We got company."

Donnie holds up the crystal and the door closes before the figure could make it. But it doesn't stop it from throwing itself at the door to get in. The turtles draw their weapons, including Yuuki while Venus and Mona get into a fighting stance. Suddenly the door begins to melt and they are surprised to see that it's Quarry that bursts through the door.

"Quarry," Mikey sighs in relief as they lower their weapons, except Yuuki who still held hers up. "Am I glad to see you!"

"Mikey, look out!" Yuuki shouted as she pushed him out of the way when Quarry shoots acid out from her mouth. It nearly misses them by an inch, and instead, melts the floor where Mikey once had stood. "Too bad the feeling ain't mutual." Raph murmurs. Quarry hisses as she advances towards them.

"What's up with her?" Raph questioned. "It's like she doesn't remember us at all."

"That's because I don't think she does." Leo said and Quarry hisses at them again.

"Raph!" Donnie calls out. "Your tech pack!"

Raph presses a button and the tech pack shoots out purple lasers just as Quarry was about to jump on them, sending her flying back.

"Don't worry," Donnie explained. "She's just stunned."

"Not for long!" Mikey exclaimed as she starts to stand up, to strike again.

"Keep her busy," Donnie said as he removes his pack. "I'm gonna try the antidote serum on her."

"Guys," Leo said. "Tech packs only."

Quarry charges at Mikey and he lets out a girly scream. He presses a button, shooting a net at her. It captures her for a moment but she uses her acid spit to break free. Mikey continues to shoot a barrage of nets at her until he eventually runs out.

"Nets, I'm all out of nuts!" Mikey said incorrectly and then corrects himself "I mean, nuts, I'm all out of nets!" He panicked.

"Relax goofball," Raph replied as he stands beside him and shoots a purple laser at Quarry then jumps on her. "Donnie, any day now with that cure thingy!" Donnie frantically tries to prepare the serum as the others continues to try and hold off Quarry. "Come on, come on." Quarry throws Raph off of her and rips the net open. Donnie pulls out the cure.

"Quarry, wait, it's me, Mikey!" Mikey said as Quarry approaches him. "Don't you know me?" Quarry stops and looks at him. "We're your friends, try to remember!" Quarry stares at him for a moment as if she remembers something then she turns feral again and picks Mikey up.

"Quarry, stop it!" Donnie shouted as he runs over to her and injects her with the serum. Quarry starts to wobble a bit before she drops Mikey and falls to the ground. The turtles immediately cover their eyes as she turns back into a human.

Quarry looks up at them "You came back, I knew you would."

"I can't thank you enough," Quarry finishes as she finishes dressing herself and walks to stand in front of the turtles, Yuuki, Venus and Mona. "You came back with a cure. It's unbelievable!"

"Our little Donnie's full of all kinds of ideas," Raph said.

"Quarry," Donnie speaks. "What happened to the-"

"My real name is Sydney."

"Oh, sorry. Sydney, what happened to the Crystal Moon?"

"The Crystal Moon, it's all our fault. We were getting stir crazy being trapped down here, so we tried to find a cure for ourselves. We used up a lot of the crystals, but it was hopeless. We thought perhaps a larger piece of crystal might work, so we turned to the Crystal Moon. With the help of some explosive geodes we discovered in a chamber in the underground city, we had hoped to break off a sizable piece of the moon. But the geodes were more powerful than we realized. The entire Crystal Moon fell from the cavern ceiling and sank beneath the molten lava. Without the moon's regenerative power, we instantly reverted back into monsters. Savage, mindless, fighting among ourselves, lashing out at everything that moved. But now that you've cured me, you can cure all of us, we can all go home!"

"Yeah, except for one little problem," Donnie said. "I only had enough crystals to make one vial of serum, never expected to find a shortage of crystals down here."

"With the Crystal moon gone, all the crystals are dead."

"We have to raise the Crystal Moon from the lava and bring back the energy source."

"What're you talking about?" Mikey questioned. "That thing must have melted away to nothing in that lava."

"Not necessarily. The crystals are almost indestructible. They don't liquefy from heat, they liquefy from sonic vibrations," Donnie explained.

"Well, if its down there, let's get it back up, where it can do some good." Leo said.

"Yeah, Donnie, you're on a roll, today," Raph replied. "Anymore bright ideas? We're gonna need one."

"Well we could try to use the crystal cable from the old underground tram, secure one end to tram tower and the other end around a large sturdy rock ledge, thus rigging a giant size variation of the old block and tackle. The ledge should provide us with a good angle for optimal leverage, then I'll take the Turtle Tunneler down into the lava to hook the cable to the Crystal Moon. We can use the explosive geodes Sydney discovered to dislodge the tram tower from it's location and topple it over. We'll be cutting it close, but it just might work."

"Just one question," Mikey calls out. "Who came up with this plan? Wackos-R-Us?"

"It is a little unorthodox, but it'll work...I hope." Donnie said.

They carry out the plan and Donnie and Sydney hopped into the Tunneler.

"Sydney, you don't have to do this." Donnie said as she closes the door.

"Yes, I do," Sydney argues. " The only one who knows where the Crystal Moon went down."

Donnie starts up the vehicle. "Let's do this quickly. I don't know long the heat shields will hold."

He drives into the lava and sinks it down to the bottom.

Back with the others, they are placing geodes around the tower.

"Explosives are in place," Leo informed

"Now all we got to do is sit back and wait for Donnie's signal," Raph said. Suddenly, they hear a roar and Leo turns on his spotlights, showing monsters are starting to surround them from above.

"Or we could keep busy by fighting for our lives!" Mikey exclaimed as the monsters jump down, closing in on them.

"Donnie, we got company up here." Leo calls.

"Stall them," Donnie said as they continued to drive. "But try not to hurt them."

"Hurt them?" Mikey questioned, and jumps out of the way when one of the monsters tries to attack him.

"Easier said than done." Yuuki retorted. A monster lunges at her and she quickly jumps out of the way. Venus jumps on top and and hits a pressure point. It falls to the ground unable to move.

"Remind me never to make you angry." Yuuki said.

Leo uses a grappling hook in the tech pack and is pulled out of the way when two monsters are coming from him. Mikey leads two monsters to a higher point in the city. "Come on you big uglies, follow the leader!"

Donnie and Sydney are still driving around beneath the lave until Sydney spots the Crystal Moon.

"We found it," She tells him.

"The Crystal Moon,"

"Good, keep an eye on the heat shields, they're starting to go," Donnie said.

Back on the surface, Leo is still using his grappling hook to evade the monsters while Raph uses the stun lasers on two bigger monsters. Mikey continues to run from the monsters behind him until he comes to an dead end. Leo drops in.

"Though you could use a lift, Mikey," Leo said as he pulls himself and Mikey out of the way just as the monsters attacks. Donnie and Sydney are now heading towards the Crystal Moon.

"Heat shields are down to fifty percent," Sydney informs as she starts to sweat from the heat. "Structural breach in two minutes, we have to pick up the pace!"

"Almost there!" Donnie said, sweating as well.

A monster approaches Raph and picks him up destroying his tech pack. Mona rushed over to help him. Another monster, slams Mikey against the wall.

"Donny, hurry!" Leo calls as he runs from two monsters. "I don't know how much longer we can keep this up!"

He picks up Yuuki and jumps off the ledge and presses the button that shoots out the grappling hook. He swings down to Mikey and Raph, Mona and Venus, kicking the rock monster before it got closer to them. "Coming through!"

"Guys, look out!" Leo shouted when he sees the spider monster crawling down the wall.

Before they could run, the spider monster shoots out its webbing and captures the six of them.

In the lava, Donnie is tying the cables around the Crystal Moon.

"Crystal Moon is nearly secure," Donnie said.

"Heat shield are almost gone," Sydney informs. "We've got thirty seconds before were cooked."

"I just have to lock off the cable!" Donnie tries to do that, but it misses.

"Him and his big ideas!" Mikey complains as they struggle against the restraints and the monster begin to close in on them. "Come on guys, let's go down to the underground city, we'll have some laughs, we'll get eaten!"

Back in the Turtle Tunneler, it's growing hotter and everything is sparking from heat overload.

"Heat shields are down to ten percent," Sydney groans. "We're not going to make it."

Determined, Donnie tries again to hook the cable. It finally latches itself.

"Yes! Guys, go now!"

"We're kinda tied up right now," Mikey retorted.

"If I could just reach my-" Leo cuts himself free. "We're on it!" He said as he cuts Mikey and Raph out of the webbing then turns to Yuuki and cuts her out. "Cutting it a little close, aren't you?" She asked.

Raph gets Venus and Mona out of the webbing as well.

Mikey uses his cable and makes it to the tower and setting off the explosives.

The tower falls and as it does, it pulls the cable with it and the Crystal Moon rises out of the lava, brightening up the cavern. And with the light, the regenerative energy turns the monsters back to the their human form. The turtles cheer.

"Don, you did it," Leo said. But there was no answer on the other end, "Don, Sydney, can you hear me?" Leo tries again, no response.

Venus felt her heart stopped. No it can't be. He can't be...

She immediately runs to the shore of the lava pit. The others following. There was nothing there. Venus shakes her head with disbelief. "No." She felt like she wanted to scream but she couldn't. Her heart felt like it was beginning to clamp up in a vice. He couldn't be gone. Her eyes began to tear up. She slumps to the ground and began to beat it frantically "Damn you, Donatello!" She wailed.

Yuuki runs over to her to comfort her.

"Uh, they didn't...they didn't make it." Mikey said sadly.

They hear a bubbling noise and they see the Turtle Tunneler bursting out of the lava. Everyone cheers in relief. Donnie, and Sydney soon step out.

They all rushed over to them. Donnie was met with arms being thrown around him as he was pulled into a tight hug.

He looked down to see Venus burying her face into his plastron. When she finally looked up, he saw tears beginning to flow down her cheeks.

"I didn't mean to make you cry. Please stop." He said nervously as he wipes the tears off from her .

"I forgive you! Don't ever do that to me again!" Venus cries. Donnie wraps his arms around her hugging her.

Donnie works on the serum and gives everyone the cure. And their all cured, they bring them back to the surface.

"This is it, guys," Donnie said as he helps Sydney out of the sewer. "Daylight again."

They all gasp in amazement at seeing the sunrise and Donnie sees Sydney crying a little. "What's wrong?"

"I...," Sydney starts as she continues to look up at the sky "I'd forgotten how beautiful it was. Thank you, from all of us, we owe you our lives."

They all walk away, relived to be free from the underground. Donnie waves at them.

"Come on," Leo said. "Let's go home." Donnie is the last one in and Mikey pops his head up

"Donnie, you may be a pain in the shell, but I'm proud that you're my bro."

#tmnt 2003 #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #ninja turtles #fanfiction

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fearofaherobrine · 7 years ago

Text

Roleplay Server Log #274

“A Present for Slender, Zoo Trip pt1″

[Splender] Enters Doc's house with Pinwheel in his arms- Hello?

[Doc] Is sitting on the steps smootching Deerheart-

[Splender] Sends out his senses and finds them and begins heading towards them- Hello? Doctor?

[Doc] Leans back on the steps and reluctantly releases Deerheart. -

[Deer] - Oh, hello Splender! And Pinwheel too!

[Doc] Waves- What's up guys?

[Splender] - Well I was wondering if you would be willing to watch Pinwheel for awhile. Sally would like to come for a visit

[Doc] Pinwheel? Is that okay with you? You can probably play with Crim some more.

[Pinwheel] - Cri?

[Doc] Yep. I'm sure he's around here somewhere.

[Pinwheel] - Cri! Cri!

[Doc] Well there you go. Looks like it's okay Splender. Give my regards to Sally and your bro.

[Splender] - Oh I will!- He puts Pinwheel down- Now behave Pinwheel

[Doc] Is nearly eye to eye with the small dragon since they're laying back on the steps- How's your day going Pinwheel?

[Pinwheel] - No

[Doc] Okay then...

[Deer] Giggles a little-

[Splender] Creates an opening and goes through-

[Doc] Calls after him- did she eat already?

[Splender] - I think so!

[Doc] Sneaks a hand over to scritch her ruff-

[Pinwheel] Stiffens and then relaxes with a little trill-

[Doc] Did you get a chance to play in the scratchy grass?

[Pinwheel] Trills and rolls over, accidentally falling down the last few steps-

[Doc] Sits up - Whoah! Careful! Are you okay?

[Pinwheel] Huffs- No

[Doc] Then I'll check on you. - Touches her gently as if examining her and then scratches her ruff with both hands.

[Pinwheel] Neck stretches out happily-

[Deer] - She's gotten much better lately

[Doc] She's getting more exercise, and the attention she needs. I think she was just full of energy and not getting to run around enough.

[Pinwheel] Moves away from the scratches to sniff around-

[Doc] I have an idea. - Xe pops out one of the floor blocks and replaces it with a grass block from the creative- How's that?

[Pinwheel] Goes right over to it and just starts rolling around-

[Doc] See? Happy dragon.

[Deer] - It's adorable how her second word is her friends name

[Doc] That too. I'm just glad she made a friend. Ironic that's it's the only other dragon on the seed with a venomous bite

[Deer] - I wonder if that's why they bonded...

[Doc] Who knows? But I don't want her to be lonely and mad. I know Splender can be a bit... overwhelming at times.

[Deer] - That he can be- Leans against Doc

[Doc] Threads an arm around her shoulder and relaxes against her- Best to enjoy the peaceful moments while they last.

[Deer] - Absolutely

[Splender] Is walking with Sally to LJ's circus, singing a silly song with her-

[Herabrine] Is playing at one of the little booths, basically squirting the targets with little streams of water from a nearby puddle.

[Sally] Gets quieter when she see's Hera-

[Splender] - Hello!

[Herabrine] Hi Splender. -Looks at Sally - Oh man... Is your brother visiting again?

[Splender] - Nope! Sally is on her own little visit! Do you know where LJ is?

[Herabrine] No Ej this time either? I bet Doc's feeling lucky then. Heh. I'm not sure. He's around here someplace.

[Splender] - Well then we should go find him!- He twirls Sally around a bit

[Herabrine] Flies up a little so she's closer to Splenders level and looks around- Okay

[Splender] Goes investigating through some tents until they enter the main tent- I still don't see him...

[LJ] Grins from above them and reaches down for Sally-

[Herabrine] Jinks back a little as his rainbow sleeve goes past her- Ha! Trickster.

[LJ] Grabs Sally and tosses her up into the air- Hey kiddo!

[Sally] Laughs happily-

[Splender] - LJ be careful!

[Herabrine] Ah, she's okay. A three block fall is only a heart and a half and she's got ten.

[Splender] - Still...

[LJ] - Ha ha! So what are you here for kiddo?

[Sally] - Papa's birthday is coming up!

[LJ] - Oh! That's right!

[Hearbrine] I thought Slender was like... ancient or something? I'm shocked he knows when his birthday is.

[Splender] - He doesn't, but he let Sally choose one for him

[Herabrine] Oh, so, gonna suprise him or something?

[Sally] - Uh huh! But first I have to find him a present...

[LJ] - And there's no better present finders than Splender and I!

[Herabrine] What have you gotten him in the past? I mean you can't get high tech right? Cause of the EMP?

[Sally] - Books and pictures!

[Herabrine] Hmm... Does his emp blow out redstone?

[Splender] - I wouldn't think so, the torch on CP's door has never had any problems...

[Herabrine] Does some gentle loops in the air thinking- We could make something then? What's a good 'dad' gift?

[Sally] Macaroni art!

[Herabrine] What's a macaroni? -chuckles- we could find him an amusing tie?

[Splender] Gives her a mental burst of macaroni art- I know brother will love anything you get him Sally

[Herabrine] Just floats there turning the image over in her mind - that's weird..

[LJ] - Let's see here, we might be able to find some books he doesn't have yet...

[Herabrine] I've never had a dad.... I'm just familar with the cliches... What does he usually read anyway?

[Splender] - Boring stuff

[Herabrine] Well that's no fun... does Slender actually have a sense of humor?

[LJ] - His own

[Herabrine] I get it... Okay here's a thought, what's his most common complaint?

[Splender] - Depends on the day

[Herabrine] Motions for him to elaborate-

[Splender] - It depends on the day and who's in the house. Some days he's grumbling over us, his brothers, or the damages done to the manor, or the SCP, or even how much food we're going through!

[Herabrine] Nothing to him personally? He's old, isn't he creaky at all?

[Splender] - Things like that don't really affect us until we get as old as our great grandfather!

[Herabrine] Giggles - I'm just imagining him first thing in the morning shuffling around in slippers and a robe....

[Splender] - He occasionally does! Especially if he's recently been in a more difficult fight recently

[Herabrine] Yeah... nobody looks good first thing in the morning.

[Splender] - And depending on how many bathrooms are functioning in the manor will determine how grumpy he is about the fighting in the hallways

[Herabrine] He doesn't have his own bathroom? Maybe we should get him a really tall toilet!

[Splender] - Oh he does, but the halls can get rather loud if the others have to share a bathroom due to them breaking some of them

[Herabrine] Sounds like you need someone to expand the house...

[Splender] - CP did a couple of times, but that's just how it is in the manor. Every room has it's own small bathroom attatched

[Herabrine] I was just going to ask, it would have been a wasted opportunity if he'd never been asked to build anything out there.

[Splender] - Well, we have some time to brainstorm so let's just keep thinking!

[LJ] Has wandered off with Sally to play at one of the stalls-

[Herabrine] You know... I've heard TLOT can use redstone to make stuff vibrate...

[Splender] - Like a joy buzzer?

[Herabrine] How about a whole chair? Like a massager thingie?

[Splender] Thinks for a moment- That is a possibility...

[Herabrine] Does he already have a huge chair someplace?

[Splender] - Oh yes, a few

[Herabrine] If you nab one, we can probably alter it.

[Splender] - Got it! For now though... Time to play!

[Herabrine] Well you have your choice. Me and Lj got everything fixed up. I think him and the kid got a head start on us too.

[Splender] - Oh that tricky clown!

[Herabrine] Grins- Hell yeah. He's a hoot and a half.

[Splender] - Will you be joining us?

[Herabrine] Sure! I was just killing time anyway. It's weird being in here. It's like when CP and I went out to torment BEN, kinda more detailed.

[Splender] - Oh yes! Well he is more real world based

[Herabrine] I can't touch my hair, I get all distracted... It's so much...

[Splender] - Ha ha! I'm sure you'd get used to it if you spent more time there!

[Herabrine] Yeah, maybe. I think I'll stick to astral projecting irl. I heard about the hell you gotta go through to stay out there.

[Splender] - It's your choice.

[Lie] Has entered the castle looking for Doc- Doc? Hello?

[Doc] Is keeping an eye on Pinwheel and making more rock candy- Well I'm popular today... - louder- Down here Lie!

[Lie] Goes on down and skirts around Pinwheel who is snoozing- Hey Doc, I was wondering if you had any more pastries about? We seem to have run out of them at my place

[Doc] Sure! I keep that kind of thing hidden around the house if Yaunfen gets hungry. Try the trunk by the anvil.

[Lie] Goes over to check- So I saw that you went back out again after we got the gun for Ever, what was that about?

[Doc] Shudders - Hg wanted a goat and I took him and Crim out to get one. It was my bad for going to a physics game...

[Lie] - What happened?

[Doc] Everyone that went got banged up from being flung around just trying to walk.

[Lie] Can't stop her laugh- And you brought something that physics breaking here?

[Doc] It's a live goat. Hg wanted it. It seemed normal enough and I haven't heard any complaints since he took it away.

[Lie] - So anything else of interest happen?

[Doc] Yes! I got menaced by some kind of monster! And we got the hell out of there pretty damn quick.

[Lie] - Monster?

[Doc] Shakes hir head vigorously - it was huge! With creepy spindly legs, and nubby horns, and it stuck a big blue tongue out at us!

[Lie] - ... Show me mentally?

[Doc] Thinks about it, but the memory is distorted by hir fear and the creature looks far more menacing-

[Lie] - Okay that didn't help... What color was it?

[Doc] Yellow, with brown blotches. It was so skinny and weird!

[Lie] - Did it have a really long neck?

[Doc] It did! Long and slender everything! - Holds hir shoulders - it was horrible!

[Lie] - ... How the hell did you run into a giraffe in a game about goats!?

[Doc] I don't know?! Is that what it's called: a gi-raft?

[Lie] Gives Doc a mental image of one- They are real creatures Doc

[Doc] Makes a small cry of alarm- They're real?!!

[Lie] - Yes, and they are plant eaters and relatively peaceful... Maybe we need to take you to a zoo...

[Doc] What's a zoo?

[Lie] - It's a place where humans gather animals from all over the world so everyday people have a chance to see what they normally wouldn't be able to.

[Doc] Looks thoughtful- is that... Safe?

[Lie] - Oh yes, in fact a lot of animals there are ones that were rescued as babies and unable to survive in the wild, or are endangered and need protection and help raise their numbers

[Doc] That sounds kind of nice... What's the catch?

[Lie] - What do you mean?

[Doc] I don't know, I guess I'm just having a bitter day.

[Lie] - Well we could go to one if you wanted

[Doc] It sounds nice but... - gestures to Pinwheel

[Deer] Comes back- Oh, hello Lie

[Lie] - Hello Deer

[HG] -come into the room looking for plant to water-

[Doc] Hey there Hg, come to give the vines a little sprinkle?

[HG] yep what are you doing?

[Doc] Making candy and watching Pinwheel sleep.

[Lie] - Were also discussing going to a zoo

[HG] what's a zoo?

[Deer] Smiles at Pinwheel-

[Lie] - A place with lots of animals

[HG] I want to see that.

[Lie] - Well it might be awhile since Doc is babysitting...

[Doc] Sighs- I kinda promised Splender...

[Deer] - I can watch Pinwheel

[Doc] Are you sure? I feel bad running all around out there and leaving you behind.

[Deer] - I'll be fine, go

[Doc] Kisses her- Thank you. Here, take these just in case- hands her some of the rainbow fruits- hopefully she'll sleep the whole time and never miss me.

[Deer] - If she does I'll offer to take her to Crim

[Doc] Then I guess I'm ready when you guys are-

[Lie] - Doc?

[Doc] Yes?

[HG] -I am ready-

[Lie] - Clothes?

[Doc] Wilts- aw nuts... I'll go change. - Traipses up the steps

[HG] do I have to change?

[Lie] Looks at HG- Do you have anything cleaner?

[HG] -looks at his clothes- no

[Lie] - I guess what your wearing will have to do then...

[Doc] Comes back down in a simple t-shirt, soft shoes and shorts- okay... I'm ready. Should I bring anything? I emptied my inventory by half.

[Lie] - Money and maybe some snacks... Oh! And your contacts.

[HG] -puts on his sunglasses-

[Doc] Makes a mean little smile- can't we take Cps credit card?

[Lie] - He already gave me a copy of it

[Doc] Woo! Jackpot! - puts hir contacts in- ready!

[Lie] Puts on her sunglasses and concentrates, opening a portal-

[Doc] Strolls through and looks around-

-They come out via a TV advertising some stuff, a short walk to the entrance of the zoo which has a bit of a line-

[HG] whoa that's a lot of people

[Doc] Smooths hir hair a little and takes a nervous breath at the sight of so many humans

[Lie] - Not really...

[Lie] Leads them into the line and it isn't long before they are at the front. Unfortunately there's a mother grilling the girl behind the glass for all of the Showtime's and animal walks being held that day-

[Doc] Gives the worker a sympathetic look over the woman's shoulder, and then mouths along with the loud woman just for giggles.

[HG] -giggles at what doc is doing-

[Lie] Nudges Doc as another line opens and they move to it. Lie buys three tickets and grabs a map as well before passing out the tickets- Here you guys go

[Doc] turns the little piece of paper over curiously and follows Lie

[HG] -hold his ticket- what do I do with this?

[Lie] Takes her ticket and scans it's barcode at the gate which let's her through- It's too show that we paid for entrance, it also tells the zoo how many people have visited that day

[HG] ah -follows lie-

[Doc] just trading with villagers and collecting data. That's sensible.

-The entrance to the zoo is large with trees and a large gift shop to the left-

[Lie] Looks at the map- Looks like the path is fairly circular, so which way do you want to go first?- A peacock struts past them

[Doc] Darts behind Lie to avoid the peacock

[HG] left?

[Lie] - Left it is then- She starts leading them that way towards an area marked for marine animals

[Doc] Keeps an eye on the peacock, worried it will follow them-

-The peacock chases after some spilled popcorn before a keeper can clean it up- -A building looms up before then and Lie pushes open the door where a wall of heat meets them. They are instantly thrust into the shallow waters of the tropics-

[HG] -is looking around with a child like wonderment as he follows-

[Doc] Is a bit self- conscious about hir glitch and ankle stitches showing and is watching the people around them for any sign of threat almost as closely as the animals - feels like a jungle biome in here

-There's a shallow pool with stingrays in it and a keeper standing nearby-

[Lie] - Well these are tropical animals

[HG] -points to the shallow pool- what are those?

[Doc] look at these guys, they look like moving lilly pads, all flat!

[Keeper] - These are stingrays, would you like to pet them?

[Doc] Are they okay with being petted?

[Keeper] - Oh absolutely, these guys are here for educational purposes. Normally they'd have barbs on the end of their tails, but they've been removed for safety reasons

[HG] -tries to pet the stingrays-

[Lie] Sticks a hand in the water and pets one-

[Doc] Aww, - Xe puts hir hands on the side of the tank to see better and twiddles hir fingers gently in the water

-The rays swim around in a circle, pushing themselves up against the wall looking for treats-

[Doc] Ghosts over one gently and says quietly- we all have to make sacrifices I guess...

[HG] -tries to pet all of the rays-

[Keeper] Reaches in and gently pulls one out to show the mouth on the underside- These guys are bottom feeders, that's why they look like this

[Lie] Giggles as one investigates her fingers-

[Doc] Smiles at their silly squared off mouths - even green sea pancakes gotta eat.

[HG] there little faces are so cute

[Keeper] - Yup, every animal has its role to play in the ecosystem to keep it running smoothly, that's why we have so many conservation programs

[Doc] Thinks fondly of Deerheart - take care of the land, and it will take of you...

[Keeper] - Exactly

[Lie] - Come on, we still have a lot to see

[HG] okay -follows lie-

-They step onto a slightly raised wooden walkway where tiny sharks swim below them of multiple species-

[HG] -looks at the sharks-

[Doc] looks down at them - those are some sleek looking fish

[Lie] - They're sharks, they've been around for over 65 million years. One of the most efficient predators there is

[HG] predators?

[Lie] - Animals that kill others to survive

[Doc] quietly- hostile mobs behind glass...

[HG] -watches the sharks swim-

-The next room is darker with a massive glass wall with several larger species of shark swimming behind it-

[Doc] Goes right up to the glass and looks up in awe-

[HG] they are huge

[Lie] - These guys are adults, and not even the largest types of shark

[Doc] Is watching a hammerhead sway back and forth as it swims- I bet they're still not as big as Basil though

[HG] -points at the hammer head- why is it's head flat?

-A lemon shark swims closer and opens its mouth near the glass-

[Lie] - I don't know, that's just how it evolved

[Doc] Looks at the lemon shark and lets out a small laugh before poking Lie- now that's a familiar grin, isn't it? - Xe shows hir own triangular teeth as Xe smiles at Lie playfully

[Lie] Smiles as well- Oh I just got a wonderful idea. I'm betting we can buy some shark teeth in the gift shop... Wanna prank TLOT?

[HG] prank him how?

[Doc] What did you have in mind Lie?

[Lie] - We go back, acting a bit panicked and say there was an accident and show him the teeth, acting like they came out of your mouth

[HG] what about fake blood?

[Doc] Pffft! Or I could make you a set of falsies with them and you could shock him that way, that's actually funnier since he gave you his energy.

[Lie] - I don't think they'd fit in my mouth...

[Doc] Hmmm. Let me think about it...

[Lie] Moves on to the next section, it seems to be an empty enclosure until something darts past the glass-

[Doc] What the?!

[HG] -looks scared-

-The shape comes back around and stops this time, it's a seal and it's looking at them curiously-

[HG] -eyes light up- awe it's so cute

[Doc] it's so chubby!

[Lie] - Well I think these guys are meant for a bit colder water- She looks behind them where there's a tropical fish display

[HG] -is still staring at the seal-

-A couple more seals swim into sight as well-

[HG] -waves at the seals-

-One seal turns a circle-

[Doc] Actually... This looks familiar too. Lie? Doesn't it kind of look like that black sea monster that lives near Dawn's island? If you stretched the neck out?

[Lie] - Kinda?

[HG] daw so cute

-A gate starts opening at the far end of the enclosure-

[Doc] What's going on over there?

-There's another tank behind the gate and from it a pair of belugas swim through-

[Doc] Okay, those are kinda weird. Are they runts? They're so pale.

[Lie] - Nope, those are a type of arctic whale

[HG] -is watching all the fish and belugas-

-The belugas swim around with the seals-

[Lie] - Come on, there's a lot more to see

[HG] -follows lie- there are so many cute animals

-They leave the aquarium and enter a more jungle like area, they can hear monkeys from the monkey house-

[Doc] That's a weird noise

[HG] what was that noise

[Lie] - Yeah, but they are related to humans- They pass a few bird enclosures

[Doc] Nods- humans do make silly noises. Especially when you surprise one- snickers

[HG] -is looking at the birds as they pass-

[Lie] Opens the for to the monkey house. In front of them is a picture showing them what different expressions mean to the monkeys and apes and a warning not to grin teeth at them-

[Doc] stone-faced, got it. Just like humans in that too... Little Misunderstandings can be such a huge deal.

[Lie] - Well these are humans closest relatives...- She looks over at some chimps playing- Specifically these guys

[Doc] it seems like saying I see the resemblance would be insulting...

[HG] -is watching them play-

[Lie] Moves on to the gorillas-

[Doc] These guys remind me of Buff. They must work out. - elbows Lie playfully

[Lie] - Yeah, these guys are one of the strongest

-There's some screeching behind them as a couple of tamarins play fight -

[Doc] Watches the monkeys cautiously-

[Lie] Reads the plaque next to the glass- Those are golden tamarins

-Another group of people enter the monkey house with kids and Lie ushers the others out. The next section is very African themed-

[HG] -is trying to look at everything-

[Lie] Spots something in the bushes- Awww, look at that

-There's a large brown bird under the leaves of the bushes and some cheeping coming from under her-

[HG] -point a the bird- what is that?

[Lie] - That's a peahen, a female peacock. And I think she has babies

[Doc] That's a girl peacock? Oh I get it. Camoflage for sitting on the nest and hiding it.

[Lie] - Yeah, and she's a bit smaller too

[Doc] Well best not to upset a mama with babies. We should go.

[HG] don't we have a peacock?

[Lie] - Yeah- She turns around a corner and in front of them are two exibits, one on either side. One houses the hippo's with an underwater viewing station, and the other houses the elephants

[Doc] Lots of chubby critters... Hey... why are those mammoths naked?

[Lie] - Because they're not mammoths, they're elephants. They are related though

[Doc] Oh... I think the mammoths are cooler. The fur cubes make nice blankets and cushions too.

[HG] -points at the hippos- they look friendly

[Lie] - These guys are the largest land animals there are... And those guys are one of the deadliest HG

[Doc] Do they step on people?

[HG] -hides from them behind lie-

[Lie] - Nope, usually trample, drown, or plain bite them to death

-One hippo opens it's mouth wide-

[Doc] Those are some big teeth.

[HG] -refuses to look at the hippos and keeps hideing from them-

[Lie] - Let's go to the underwater viewing station, we can watch them swim

[HG] no they scary

[Lie] - It's okay, we'll be safely behind glass. This is one reason why zoo's exist, so animals can be viewed without humans being put in danger

[Doc] Yeah come on Hg, we'll be quick.

[HG] -whines but follows because he doesn't want to lose doc and lie-

-They go down a few stairs and enter a viewing area that lets them see under the water. One hippo is sleeping on the bottom while another swims around a bit-

[Lie] - See HG? Nothing to be worried about

[Doc] giggles- They look kinda funny with all their floaty jiggly fat.

[HG] -is still a little shaky-

-The wall behind them is full of factoids-

[Doc] Pauses to read the notice and then looks closer to see if there are any baby hippos in the tank.

[Lie] - Looking for something in particular Doc?

[Doc] Kinda curious to see what the little ones look like. I bet they're cute.

[Lie] Reads the wall- Looks like they had one, and they have some pictures over there

[Doc] Goes to look- awwwwww

[HG] -is trying to keep away from the glass-

[Lie] - Maybe we should move on, HG doesn't look so good

[HG] yes I want to go

[Doc] Lead the way then Lie.

[Lie] Leads them out the other side and they're facing the elephant enclosure and they hear laughing-

[HG] laughing?

[Doc] Are they doing something silly?

[Offender] - Arc! Arc! Look! Look at the size of it!

[Arc] Groans and goes back to sketching-

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