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 Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 7:48 am
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To say that it had been an odd day - would be an understatement. He was still, shaken in a whole new way from his encounter with Gelria.
He could have understood, or … anticipated hands around his neck. Part of him had been ready to lay down and die on that hill, never solving the terrible riddle of who had set him on this path.
He had not expected kisses, licking… a warped sort of ‘affection’.
He hadn’t gotten any answers, but oddly enough he’d perhaps earned whoever was doing this, the ire of the Cinnamon psycho.
He needed to pause and take a step towards what he had told Karone that he would do, and that was calling Ilya. he couldn’t bring himself to return to the house yet. But he could at least, he hoped, learn if Sterling had recovered.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 7:58 am
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The phone rang only twice before Ilya answered, and it didn't matter that he had just been asleep on the couch, he sounded perfectly alert and awake.
...He couldn't remember which phone he'd just picked up though, personal or his work phone, and he was too tired to open his eyes and find out, so he answered, "Ilya speaking."
He rubbed at his eyes tiredly; even under the blanket he was cold, and his muscles ached and burned.
He was sluggish, either sick or just exhausted, or both. He hadn't even meant to fall asleep, not when there was so much going on.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 8:29 am
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“Oh thank god….” he said almost breathless, the words ‘it worked’ nearly slipped out behind, but he bit his lip hard enough to taste copper to keep them in.
The rest of the question was harder.
“Eh…yeah.” He said awkwardly. Not dying under Gelria’s hands in their last encounter, totally counted as taking care of himself right?
“I’ve … got someone who said I can grab some sleep there. I… have a lead on who pushed Priam, I - I can’t remember if I said that. “
He hesitated then… thoughts crawling back to the forefront of his mind. A dangerous thought… because Ilya had… a lot of access to things, didn’t he? He knew Yu’s past, Yu had been sure of that since the garden incident.
But… he couldn’t be…, right?
Panic surged in the back of his throat, and he squeezed the phone a little harder.
What if this was all… Ilya. He felt like he stood in that moment, on the edge of a precipice If he stepped forward …. he didn’t know what was beyond that thought, reality, or a paranoia driven nightmare.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 8:46 am
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Ilya sighed on the line, a gentle exhale that sounded almost like relief.
"I don't know what you're doing to find leads, but just be safe, Yu. Don't do anything brash or dangerous, I don't want you to get hurt. Or, to do everything right and still wind up in prison. I told Priam and Yu that I might have a lead on you. I wish you could have seen the look on Priam's face."
He shivered in the kitchen and turned on the stove just to heat it up as he began to fuss with the coffee maker.
"I don't know how long I can drag it out that I'm close to finding you, but any time I say it, they look relieved. I haven't told them anything you said. I don't want to worry them." Another little sigh, a tired one. "I haven't noticed anything strange in the neighborhood though. I don't know if that will bring you any relief. Is there anything specific I should be looking out for, anyone I need to keep away from them?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 9:27 am
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Ilya bristled but it didn't take him long to put things together. "...It is coffee, yes."
He didn't invite people into his house often, but he figured Yu--or whatever this version of him was called--standing on the doorstep was going to cause more trouble than not. He didn't want someone seeing him there so he moved aside. "Come in. It's brewing, but I'll pour you a cup as soon as it's done. I'm sorry for the mess."
There was no mess. There was a crumpled blanket on the couch he'd just been sleeping on, and a half emptied glass of water on the table.
He pocketed his own phone when he realized he didn't need it right now.
"I don't know much. I got a crash course recently, though, so I know a bit. Don't wear that in my house, if someone's after you, I don't want them to show up on my doorstep too." He was eager to close his door, to keep out the cold; he seemed more sensitive to it now, even though he was in his two sweaters, in his socks, shuffling out of the way for him.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 9:47 am
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"At your home?" Ilya insisted, looking unimpressed. But, Yu--or, he thought it was Yu--had not relented.
"When I found Sterling in the snow," he answered quietly, watching him. "There was a cat with him. A big, white thing. Blended in with the snow. I wouldn't have seen him if he hadn't run up to me and demanded I do something. I'd already been out in the cold for a while, so I thought I was hallucinating. But."
He sucked in a breath, trying to hide behind the door as another burst of chill fluttered in.
"Here we are. He gave me the run down." Ilya didn't often swear, but it was obvious he was exasperated. There was no anger, just a tiredness. "Damn it, Yu. What is this--you're with the Negaverse?" he gestured to the get up. No wonder he was in trouble, no wonder it had followed him.
"What have you gotten yourself into? We've spent enough time in the snow, come in and get your coffee and tell me what's going on. Priam told me to stay out of the cold, let's not give him something else to stress out about."
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 10:33 am
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“You’re…. definitely not though, right?” He said desperate for the confirmation. He rubbed his face, and took a moment to just roll with it. He glanced around and stepped in, powering down as the door closed behind him. He leaned against the door for a moment like it was a barricade against whatever might be out there.
“It… yeah.. It’s not like It… was something I ran out and signed up for.” He sighed.
“I… think, no… I ******** KNOW, whoever is doing this is too. I’m looking into how to ditch man. But … I guess you forget a lot if you do that. So I gotta ******** find whoever is doing this. I gotta find them, man. I gotta stop this or they are just gonna keep hitting them. I just, when I called you just now I realized there was a chance… cause ********, this secret identity s**t.”
“For all I can figure, whoever the ******** this is did us both dirty, ******** with your garden, feet vanish if you can do this, magical vanishing teleport s**t. How else did I have clean shoes and footsteps to the damn porch… keying a car? ******** easy… everything is just too god damn easy.”
“I can’t… prove that, I can’t… I can just tell you it-…. everything that has been happening, whomever the ******** I pissed off. I can’t let them snipe at you guys anymore. I ******** up, I ******** up BAD.”
He let his shoulders slump.
“I just… if you can, I need you to keep eyes on them, if you feel anything that feels, well… like me when I’m in that stupid a** uniform. Just… get them out of there. I don’t know who it is, I don’t know how strong they are, just… keep them safe if you can. Hell… Sterling may want to help but just, get him out of there.” He shook his head.
“If… If the only thing I can find is a way out of this s**t, then I need you to…. remind me that this is a thing If I forget. Please?”
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 10:46 am
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Okay, it was Yu. There was some relief--this wasn't a trap. But then, back to the exasperation--Yu was in over his head, according to the cat who had helped him awaken, helped him save Sterling.
...And here was Yu, looking more vulnerable than he'd ever seen him before. Looking sincere.
He closed the door behind him and, though he didn't speak, he nodded.
He didn't want to introduce an awkward silence, didn't want to give Yu a reason to to power up and teleport and just run again.
"Okay. Well, if we're being candid."
Because, they were. Whether they wanted it or not, they were in this together.
His jaw clenched and he said, "The cat told me I was a Senshi. I've done nothing with it, it was enough to thaw me out and let me carry Sterling until we could get him to Priam. I don't know how much Priam knows, I don't think he said anything about it when I went back to, you know. Me. In his back seat. But we were all pretty messed up at the time."
It was sort of a blur in his head. He remembered some of it.
"...So, no. I'm definitely not in the Negaverse. The cat told me they were the ones that could pull starseeds, that the reason why Sterling was in that state was because someone took his. The running theory is that somehow his starseed got back to him, that that's why he's awake now. We haven't talked about it, it's all second hand knowledge."
Everything made sense except for the why.
Someone sabotaging Yu's life, his relationships, every chance he had at happiness and stability.
He had no doubt that Yu had made enemies, he'd seen his file.
"I didn't key your car. I didn't send those flowers to Sterling. If you can believe that I haven't been trying to make your life hell, I'll believe you, too. But it means that whoever you've got after you has put a lot of effort into doing this. Do you know what they want from you, have they said anything to indicate why?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 11:08 am
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“Well… you’re already being better than the worst Senshi I’ve met, though…Ironically I think he wants to help me take out whoever is doing this.” He murmured.
He rubbed his arms at the mention of star seed, unable to meet Ilya’s eyes.
“Doesn't… matter about the car anyhow it died and then someone towed it.” He admitted. “And I know, I don’t think you did it.
He was absolutely trying to dodge the star seed subject.
And… god, more than that, he didn’t want to answer what the b*****d doing this wanted, not in full.
“I uh… they don’t want me, near Sterling or Priam… there was a threat issued there. They… whoever did this tossed Sterling, and burned the house down… I don’t…get it. I don’t … If I could make sure none of you got caught up, I would. I just…don’t know where to go to stop this.”
“They haven’t said why or anything they just…” He trailed off and bit the inside of his lip, frowning as something sank home.
Clearly, something has fallen into place. <********…’ He said softly. “No…way…”
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