forum what're you in for, love? (closed, o/o with @Dances_with_Shadows)

Started June 28, 2019 by Deleted user

tune

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"yeah, wonder if he's on our side. as for angel, i wouldn't believe she was against us for a minute. she sounds too innocent." he rolled his shoulders, trying to keep the idle conversation going.

"Angel's six, so I should hope she isn't against us," she said with a chuckle. "What about you? Any family drama to sort through on a daily basis?" She tilted her head, curious to see if he'd spill or shut her out.

"tch, we don't see each other enough to have real drama, but i'd assume my parents are awfully disappointed in their son. aimée's in boarding school, a beautiful singer and very successful, and i'm sucking dick for food stamps as a side hustle." he let out a coarse, rough laugh, looking off to the side.

"love em' dearly, but they can't stand to see my face." nik smiled vaguely, almost as if he had come to terms with the fact he'd die on the streets of the neon district.

Tessa smiled grimly and reached out hesitantly, putting her hand on his. She didn't have anything to say to reassure him, and she regretted that inability to come up with any response to what he said, so she settled with physical comfort. Her family might be messed up, but only one of her siblings hated her—helped that she, sadly, didn't really know them to begin with. She couldn't imagine what he was feeling.

he looked at her in mild surprise, but accepted the gesture anyway. he had figured out tessa wasn't one to touch people she didn't consider friends, so it gave him a sense of… acceptance, if you will.

"If it's any consolation," she said, finally coming up with something to say, "I don't think they see the hard-worker and survivor that I'm looking at right now, and they're wrong to push you aside like that." She gave his hand a quick squeeze, then made to pull away.

"eh. i wouldn't say so, but i appreciate the thought." he said quietly. he let her pull away.

"Well, I do, and everything I say is right," she said, flashing a grin. Of course she was being dramatic, but she had also spoken the truth. She didn't think he deserved the cold shoulder from his family. Family was the only thing you had in a life like this, whether that be blood or chosen.

he smiled back, shaking his head lightly. "of course you are. wouldn't doubt it for a minute." he… did think he deserved it. although when it came down to it, he didn't ask to be left behind at age 14. what did they expect would happen?

She smirked, then looked around her room as she stretched out her arms. "I'm gonna go check on Cin to see how much longer we have to wait for food. You wanna come with or no?" she asked him, looking for a change in subject before they got too sappy.

"yeah, i'll come. i'm almost afraid i'll get snuck up on by another resident if i'm not tailing someone they know." he got up slowly to stretch, raising his arms above his head and leaning back in an impressive arch.

She snorted and slid off the bed, ruffling her hair and waiting for him. "I'd like to say that the possibility of that happening is slim, but. . ." she shrugged with a sheepish smile. "We're curious creatures at heart. If we see someone in our home that we don't know, of course we're gonna go sniffing."

"i mean, it makes sense." he walked towards the door, waiting there for tess. he didn't exactly know his way around perfectly, so he'd much prefer to just follow her.

"In a sense, until someone gets incredibly curious and starts digging into everything about you," she said, shooting a glare in the direction of someone else's door as she walked out. A grunt of disapproval was heard, but no one came out to disprove or argue with her.

"oh, that doesn't sound fun." he followed her out, trying to keep relatively light on his toes as to not disturb anyone. the idea of living with other people was definitely a new concept, as had the wonderers evacuated the sewers before he set up shop, but it seemed nice. annoying at times, but almost like they were their own little family.

She flapped her hand. "I'm mainly outing Demitri, though he didn's seem all that bothered by it. A bummer, but eh." She shrugged, leading him downstairs. She's always lived with someone but had always considered herself a lone wolf due to her usual habits of going out on her own to get something done. But here. . . here she had people that she cared about—a family she had been welcomed into. It meant a lot to her, though she kept her lone-wolf habits sometimes.

"truly. i'm assuming we still have plans to-" he lowered his voice, just in case. "hitch him up with cin?"

She grinned devilishly, looking over her shoulder in the direction of Demitri's bedroom door. "Oh Hell yes," she whispered, then looked back at Nik, her eyes glinting.

his face split into a similar expression, but barely contained into a smirk. "now that we know each other better, and your pack will be aware of my presence, when do we ask him?"

Tessa tapped her lips, thinking with her head tilted. "Hmmm. Love how you call them my pack, by the way. Very accurate. Uh, how 'bout during dinner? Or after, maybe?" She looked to Nik with a shrug. "Unless you have better ideas?"

"maybe a casual invite during dinner. along the lines of 'we were gonna go out sometime soon, you guys want to come with? make it a double date or something?'. i guess just remember to mention 'double date,'" he said, cocking his head as he thought.

pretending to be closer to tessa than he actually is would be… scary, but it doesn't seem too hard. she's very easy to get along with if you're the right kind of person, nik reasons to himself. easy. this won't be any more anxiety inducing than the interviews.

it'll surely be fine.

"Yeah, that sounds about right. Puts them in a position where they almost have to say yes." Tessa nodded, liking the plan. Knowing the group, they'd unknowingly help her and Nik out by adding to the pressure to say yes, even if it's just dinner.

She didn't seem all that fazed by the prospect of acting super close to Nik. She did a lot of acting in her life, so it wasn't anything new or especially daunting to her.

"great. now, we just have to do it."

nik tossed his head, briefly shaking out his shoulders and popping his knuckles.

"well, this'll be one for the record books. local twink asks mafia members out on a double date. wonder how it'll go."

Tessa snorted, then twirled her finger around in the air. "To make things clear, I'm the only one associated with the mafia. Everyone else here is doing their own thing. We just look after each other as if we were a family of our own." She smirked and winked at Nik. "But semantics. Who's to say we really aren't a mafia family? I might be a traitor. Cinthia might be the secret Boss. We'll never know."

((im fuckin around with his timeline of healing and i've decided he's about a week away from being considered fully functional and healed so he's. Anxious. no worries im working on the kinks and inconsistencies lmao))

"well, apologies. i'm sure all of you could kick my ass in 20 different ways, though. not that i mind, i'm used to some rough play. although, your family dynamic is cute."

he shrugged, looking over with a mild expression. his left arm reached to grasp his opposite elbow, betraying his general calm with a slight air of anxiety. i'm sure they'll like me. does she need to know about the lung situation? is that mandatory? if i tell her, she'll know i'm worried that they'll hurt me, and that's… kind of an asshole thing to do.

((lmao, it's alright. I'm no stranger to fucking around with timelines/things))

"I'm sure we could, but I highly doubt Kiriti would if given the chance," Tessa said, waving her hand in dismissal. "She's like our on-call doctor, and wouldn't hurt a fly unless it did something especially heinous towards one of us." She lightly elbowed his arm, not noticing his anxiety. "But I'm glad you think our little family relationship is cute. Helps that some of us are actually related to one another in some way, whether that be by blood or just some sort of connection."

he heaved a sigh of relief. i'm gonna go for it.

"thank god. i hope your on-call doctor knows how to perform an impromptu lung surgery, because i… definitely have a chance of popping a lung. it's slim, but. rather anxiety-inducing."

he gave a watery smile, rubbing his arm.

Tessa stopped in her tracks, grabbing the back of Nik's shirt and hauling him to a stop as well as she stared blankly at him. "What," she asked, her voice flat and more demanding than questioning. Sure, Kiriti was a really good doctor, but she didn't know if she could perform such a surgery.

But more importantly, Tessa was worried about Nik.

nik gave a short bark of a laugh at her surprise.

"it's a bit of a long story, but some weeks ago i got pumped full of lead and punctured my lung. my scientist friend knows a doctor, so i'm okay, but i'm about a week to full functionality. there's a slim chance i could, indeed, reopen the wound and pop my lung."

he let out a long exhale, smile not matching up to the weary look in his eyes.

"it's a fun time."

She poked the hallow of his collar bones. "No, it's not. How could you not tell me about this sooner? I could've gotten you some help before now." She sighed and rubbed at her temples, starting to pace back and forth. "My brother's father is an actual surgeon. He's stationed in Hawaii, but I think I can get him to do a surgery with no questions asked."