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 Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2022 5:04 pm
“Yeah, that sounds like ********,” Yuki said without a moment’s hesitation, taking a moment to ruffle Reiki’s bangs. “Yelling and all. I’m pretty sure like four or five of his drag siblings got adopted into the House through a similar series of circumstances.… Some differences all around, sure, but ultimately, the same general point of ‘******** got into it with somebody, over something, and really thought that he was going to be a bad b***h today, for real this time, he means it? Except then, someone was sad, or hungry, or lonely, or tired, or all of the above, and decided that they were one of his people now, then took them to Miss Sibyl and Miss Cherry like moms, can I keep them.’”
“Mmm, what can I say?” Reiki said, sighing softly and quirking his shoulders. For good measure, he nuzzled at Yuki’s shoulder. Good pillow. Second-best pillow after his chest. Severely underappreciated pillow of late because Reiki had tried to hold back from being so affectionate because he hadn’t wanted to make Greg feel insecure about their relationship. “The only type I have is ‘men,’ and I’m always a slut for making a positive dent in the world if I can’t just up and change everything whole-cloth.”
Though, who knew? Maybe the magical girl stuff would lead Reiki somewhere in that direction.… In the meantime, though, Reiki needed to pull out his phone after all. Yuki just being here solved the issue of whether or not to show Toráin a photo, but there was someone else who needed attention, now that Reiki thought about it.
“You’re also less of a bad b***h than you think you are—”
“Am <********, please, you’re not even a moderately mean young lady.” With a soft, fond huff, Yuki turned to kiss Reiki’s temple. “You’re the sort of dork who loves feeling his fantasy like Maleficent, Ursula, and Team Rocket Jessie doing her camp trash ojou-sama laugh, then you turn around and want to take the person you just yelled at out for chicken fingers. And then—how did you run into him tonight?”
Just like that, Reiki tensed. His breath felt so shallow that it might as well have not existed. Hand clutching his elbow, he started racking his brain for any good excuse that wasn’t going to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (because how was he supposed to say “oh, both of us were running around as cute magical boys and doing some well-mannered magical boy vigilantism against some of the sick ******** gentrifying people out of their homes around here” without sounding like a lunatic, and without possibly needing to get in a debate about the specific nature of that vigilantism, since draining energy from people was apparently bad enough to make Order-aligned catgirls kick you)……but that, crucially, also wouldn’t feel like lying.
(Worse yet, Reiki couldn’t handle saying something that felt like lying to Yuki.)
“We, uh……ran into each other over near Puppy Paws,” he settled on, nuzzling more at Yuki’s shoulder. He forced himself to take a deep breath, and shot a look across the table that begged Toráin to just play along. “I wanted to get an order put in ahead of time for Cersei’s birthday cake, but I got kinda busy at the library, like? Enhh, arranging stuff because the lady who books us for the Drag Artist Story Hours wants to book us for something with more actual performance involved—like, our ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ number? Point is, I rocked up to the bakery way after closing, thinking it can’t possibly be that late, and on my way to the next misadventure, I run into this darling.”
Strictly speaking, none of this was actually a lie. Puppy Paws was in the general vicinity of where Toráin had crashed in on Reiki’s vigilante energy-draining. Plus, he had spent way too long at the library earlier, talking to people who wanted to book the Legendary Haus of Disobedience-and-Poppins for a more family-friendly gig than normal. It wasn’t entirely unheard of for Reiki to lose track of time, especially at the time of day when the Adderall had long since started wearing off. So, he wasn’t really lying. He could work with this.
God, he hoped Toráin knew enough about improv to understand the principle of Always Say ‘Yes, And…’
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2022 9:25 pm
Toráin nodded and chuckled through their banter, simply enjoying the company. It was nice, to be around people who were just... comfortable around each other like this, including him. It made him feel warm and included, and he adored it. "Yeah, and it was that late, because some people operate on a sane person's schedule," he teased gently, going with the lie easily. He may not have been a proper theater kid of any kind, but lying was as easy as breathing for him, these days. It wasn't that hard, when you had two identities. You had to protect both of them. "Thankfully there weren't any other kind of garbage animal furries knocking over trash cans to interrupt us," he added with a chuckle.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 12:00 am
“Sane people schedules are weird, and gross, and I want nothing to do with them,” Reiki huffed easily, tapping out a message to Haruhi without removing himself from Yuki’s shoulder:
text to Haruhi At Gertrude’s with Yuki and a friend. Want me to bring anything home for you? heart
And while Toráin’s second sentence made Reiki giggle, it mostly made Yuki frown befuddledly. “……I’m apparently missing something hilarious here,” he said to both Reiki and Toráin, whoever decided to answer him first.
“Oh no, Gorgeous, it was just…” Once he’d set his phone on the table, Reiki gestured at nothing in particular. Moving his hand felt like it was jogging his memory, even though it wasn’t really. “The night we first met, Toráin was wearing this belt that was, like, an exquisitely made porcupine tail? I mean, seriously, exquisite craftsmanship.”
The fact that Reiki now knew the belt to actually be part of Toráin’s sailor fuku was irrelevant. He and Toráin knew that, but……it was better if Yuki didn’t, since he didn’t, strictly speaking, need to know.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 12:29 am
Haruhi's phone dinged, and ne looked up briefly from nis Overwatch match to see the notification. On nis next death, ne shot off a rapid fire response and then respawned, shooting back out to get boopin'.
text to Reiki burg/fries choc shake luv u Toráin nodded, blushing a bit and fiddling with a hair fallen loose from his bun. "Y-yeah, an old friend of mind made it. If I'd had pictures, I'd let you see them, but they're on my computer, not my phone," he explained, "So now I'm the weird furry." He aimed a little kick over to Reiki's shin, unable to stop the grin on his face.
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2022 12:42 pm
With Haruhi’s order mentally jotted down, Reiki slipped his phone back into his pocket. Better to give his full attention to the conversation in the here and now—and he decided to do so right in time for Toráin to kick him in the shin. Despite the grin on Toráin’s face, Reiki nodded back at him more solemnly. Playfulness was well and good, and he did appreciate being given the grace of forgiveness……but dealing with all of this secret identity s**t was still new to Reiki. Mostly, he’d handled it by simply not bringing it up with the people he loved and it hadn’t often gotten this close to the surface of a conversation. And it wasn’t only his own secret identity at risk of exposure, now.
Either way, Yuki seemed to take it in stride, chuckling about the whole story. “Well, whatever you like wearing,” he said, “I’m glad ******** found himself a new friend. You’ll be good to him, right? ‘Cause I’ve only got the one……I’m pretty invested in keeping him safe.”
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Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2022 8:34 pm
Toráin nodded to Yuki, smiling warmly. "Of course. I want to keep him safe, too. From other maniacs destroying trash cans in alleys that he just can't help himself from trying to provoke," he joked, giving Reiki a sly look, followed by a little nod. This... was really, really nice.
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