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 Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 4:37 pm
"I'm going to kill that b*****d," Haruhi spat, feeling angry enough to try and tackle an elephant. "I can't believe the audacity of that—that man. What kind of p***k—" Ne cut nemself off abruptly, sighing and sitting down on the couch that ne now shared with nis cousin. "I'm sorry, Kiki. I just... I'm happy to have you here; you're the best cousin ever. No worries about that. I just..." Ne leaned against Reiki. "I hate that guy for what he did to you," ne whispered, "And I'm glad you're finally free of him, even if the circumstances kinda suck for you. Might suck having to share a space with me, huh?" Ne chuckled a bit.
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 8:40 pm
“Eh. I’ve slept in worse places,” Reiki replied easily, keeping his tone pleasant, “and with worse company, when working some out-of-town gigs…and while traveling to some out-of-town pageants…and during the month I spent in London, the summer me and Junsei were eighteen…”
Although he felt his Haruhi leaning on him, and felt the impulse to curl an arm around nis shoulders, at the moment, Reiki’s hands were otherwise occupied. Specifically, his hands were busy ruffling the neck-fur and floppy ears of one, Cersei Rokugin. Stood up on her hind-legs with her fore-paws in Reiki’s lap, the mostly white pit-mix let her mouth loll open and her tongue spill out as she rhythmically panted—the sure sign of a very good girl who was getting her skritches in exactly the right ways.
“Honestly, Ruhi, I’m just grateful that I had so many people I could turn to right now…and, again, living with you isn’t bad at all.” Now, it occurred to Reiki, likely would have been a good time to acknowledge and honor Haruhi’s attempts at talking about him…except anything to do with certain vaguely man-shaped piles of garbage sounded like the last thing in the world that Reiki wished to do, so instead, he went on:
“Seriously, this one time, about five years ago? Miss Sibyl, Miss Cherry, Brandy, Dorian, and I all piled into Cherry’s husband’s van to head out to Chicago for Dorian’s first big pageant. Now, Brandy and I had been here, done this already. She’s better at pageantry than I am, yes, but the both of us thought we knew how everything was meant to go.
“Except, first, the motel and hotel rooms all cost far too much to spare—of course, they would schedule the All-American Camp Entertainers’ finals at the same time as about three different academic conferences, scattered between DePaul, Loyola, and U-Chicago, plus some Shriners convention, two family reunions full of inbred white people from God knows where, and a bunch of peeping little Nancy Drew tourists who all thought they cracked the code and found out where the next ******** Batman movie was being filmed—ha!”
The fake laugh was an affectation, like most everything about the particular mode into which Reiki had so delectably sauntered. But as far as anyone was concerned, he was both entirely himself—simply a more advanced placement version thereof—and serving his best Crystal and Pepper LaBeija, his best Venus Xtravaganza and Dorian Corey, his best Elektra Abundance and Cersei Lannister, his best Jade Cole, his best Divine, his best America’s Next Top Reality TV Villain You Love To Hate. Even without all of his wigs, his face, his corsets and rhinestones and a mic in his hand, Reiki felt his queenly fantasy, and the honor fell on him to take the world along for the ride.
It was either that or actually talk about how he’d walked out on Greg, all the circumstances surrounding it and everything about that mess, and…girl. Babydoll. Miss Thing, please—Reiki would never.
He huffed, pausing briefly to pucker his lips and kiss the air near Cersei’s sweet little face. But as she made a sound like contented laughter, Reiki added, “Fortunately, some cousin of Miss Cherry’s mother offered to let us stay with her for the weekend. Unfortunately, that rundown halfway-farmhouse had drafts, a leaky roof, and three other linebacker-sized guests who left us with the distinct impression that they might very well have carried out a hit for the Bratva, right there in Cousin Aleksandra’s very basement.”
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 9:12 pm
Haruhi rolled nis eyes and chuckled throughout Reiki's story. He was clearly "feeling his oats" and all that stuff as he rambled on, very obviously avoiding any conversation to do with Greg. Ne wished Reiki would go through the whole "talking about it" thing instead of the bottling it up thing, but... ne just had to let Reiki do it at his own pace, no matter much it personally annoyed Haruhi. And boy, did it personally annoy Haruhi that Reiki refused to deal with his s**t like an adult. Haruhi hummed, shaking nis head at the end of the story, and reaching over to pet Cersei. "Good girl," ne cooed. "Dude, I think I'd rather pay too much for a hotel than stay in some kind of mold inducing hell hole that would irritate the hell out of my asthma," ne said, laying nis head over Reiki's shoulder and yawning softly. "Also, don't think I didn't notice your extreme topic dodge. You know it's not healthy to bottle s**t up, man. I did it for a long a** time. It sucks. I have permanent dark eye bags now. Even your perfect makeup management can't hide these puppies."
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 10:07 pm
“You only think so because you haven’t let me paint you before, Ruhi. Best believe, if I can contour this aquiline nose into something delicate and dainty, I could hide your dark circles so well, even you would forget they existed.” It might take some work, and definitely a trip to Ulta, given how much lighter a complexion Haruhi had. But if ne ever wanted to give Reiki a chance, he knew he could work some magic for nem.
Besides, he covered up his own dark circles every day. Haruhi’s couldn’t be that bad.
Nis insistence on calling Reiki out, however.… Well, that just made Reiki frown and sigh in a way that he wanted to sound like a princess or someone else who was simply too beautiful for this world and didn’t deserve any of the horrible, wretched, atrocious torments they endured. A sinking suspicion in his chest, however, left him feeling that he sounded more like one of the bratty girls who’d once upon a time starred on My Super Sweet 16, whining about how her daddy only got her a hideous, Pepto pink, Barbie Dream-House nightmare of a Lexus for her birthday, when she really wanted a Ferrari or a BMW.
But since Haruhi probably wouldn’t let things go—and…because ne cared about him, which Reiki did truly value—he huffed and said, “Maybe I’m not bottling things up, though. Maybe I just don’t want to talk about that amoeba on a flea on a Bubonic plague-infested prairie dog because there’s nothing more to say about him. He wanted to know if my art, and my drag, and the legendary House of Disobedience-and-Poppins were more important to me than he was. And seeing as I don’t believe in catering to the whims of petulant man-children with absurdly limited, binaristic patterns of thinking…”
Pointedly trailing off, Reiki shrugged as if to say “and that’s that on that.” More or less oblivious to the nuances of the conversation, Cersei made one of the contented, almost feline rumbly sounds she so often let slip whilst being inundated with all of the affection. Truly, she knew how to live her best life. Reiki couldn’t help but think that he ought to take pointers from her.
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2022 8:06 pm
"Yeah, well, I'm not letting you near my face with all your kooky makeup, as amazing as you look when you do it. I'm a very clean face sort of fellow," ne said, chuckling quietly. "If you did get rid of my circles, I'd probably scream when I looked in the mirror, thinking I was seeing some evil mirrorverse version of myself instead of my normal self." Ne listened to Reiki's little rant about Greg and pressed an affectionate kiss to his shoulder, playing with Cersei's ear. "I'm glad you ditched him, cuz. I mean, honestly, binary thinking? Ew. Everything's nonbinary these days, me included," ne joked, chuckling.
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2022 10:16 pm
Reiki gave a small huff at Haruhi’s insistence on avoiding makeup, but—“In fairness, as someone who enjoys the art of painting a face? I can’t really blame you for wanting to avoid it. Jude’s only been teaching me how to paint since shortly after Mom and Dad decided I was old enough, which was pretty early, all things considered? And I still get the impulse to wipe it off in the middle of a show because it’s weird to have so much stuff on your face for so long.”
Under all the softness coming from nem, though, Reiki wilted. As much as he wanted to continue avoiding the subject of the garbage man-thing of whom we do not speak, it just…didn’t feel right. Not given how little Haruhi showed this side of nemself to anyone, sometimes even people in the family. Reiki had to honor that, had to offer nem something vulnerable, something honest, so that ne wasn’t wasting their own openness on someone who didn’t care enough to give back to nem equally.
“All joking aside? I mean…I’m glad I left him, too. Like, mostly? And, y’know, it’s just…weird, how quickly you can whip around from something being true, and that something defining a huge part of how you’re structuring your entire view of the world, and then…?” Reiki made a noncommittal sound, the vocal equivalent of a shrug. “A few weeks later and he’s asking his parents to help him pay the rent because the lease isn’t up on your old place yet…and you’re hearing from two of your drag sisters how they maybe might have seen him out at The Closet, flirting with some twinky white boy over who’s not so twinky that his effeminacy might offend some of the good Congressman’s more centrist constituents…”
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Posted: Thu May 05, 2022 8:02 am
Haruhi had only met Jude a handful of times, and liked him well enough. It was interesting to learn all about drag stuff from him and Reiki, even if ne never was interested in doing any of it nemself. Ne just enjoyed supporting nis cousin, no matter what. Even if it normally didn't come in this form of affection for nem. "Oh my God, Reiki," Haruhi said, snorting at the absolutely ridiculous joke. "Ugh, of course it only took him a couple days to get over it. ********... he just wants someone to control. I feel bad for the poor twink." Ne stood, reaching out to ruffle Reiki's hair. "Still, I'm sorry about the huge shift in your life. It's nice to have you here, though. But.... okay, enough mushy stuff, what do you want for dinner?"
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Posted: Thu May 05, 2022 10:22 pm
Listening to Haruhi go on about Greg and the new twink he’d found, even knowing that ne was probably more right than not, left Reiki with a distinct feeling of……void. Emptiness where he knew that he was supposed to have something. Not that this was a new feeling, exactly.… Reiki couldn’t recall the first time he really felt it, or the first time he became aware of it, or the first time he found the right words to express what it was and how it felt.…
All Reiki knew was, something in him was missing—had been missing for gods only knew how long—and there had been a time, with Greg, when it hadn’t felt so bad. Back when he’d thought Reiki’s drag was fun and exciting, something creative and beautiful and alive.… Back before he had to explain why he’d never told his parents and justify why he didn’t want Reiki telling them either, before he asked Reiki to ask Mom and Dad to please not say anything about Miss Sayuri Kurobara Disobedience or her legendary House because Greg’s mother and father didn’t know and revealing it over their Memorial Day fête might be awkward, before Greg’s parents found out anyway because someone at his father’s office thought booking drag queens for the winter holiday party was just the best idea and through all the layers of makeup, the corset, the wig, and everything, Thomas Cybulgnon clocked his son’s boyfriend’s voice.…
Before Greg had begged Reiki not to mention it to the Congressman at his holiday party for his staff, and Reiki did anyway, lest history repeat itself, and somehow, the lot of them turned Reiki’s “Actually, I don’t plan to audition for The Race because I’ve seen how the producers tend to edit East Asian queens, and not only do I not trust them to tell me story fairly, the same way Junior Labeija didn’t trust the producers of Pose with his story. Moreover, I don’t want my ability to win anything—which could make me look incompetent, like a failure as a queen, and could jeopardize my entire drag career outside of a reality TV competition show—to hang in the balance because I refuse to do Le Funny Japanese Accent or perform a racist stereotype of my culture for Rupaul’s amusement” into him saying, “I’m not talented enough for Rupaul’s Drag Race, so I won’t even risk the potential humiliation of auditioning.”
“Y’know, that’s the damnedest thing,” Reiki said quietly, slumping back into the couch cushions. He meant to go on immediately, but this shift in posture apparently signaled to Cersei that it was time for her to be a lap-dog—despite her weighing a good fifty-five pounds and being considerably bigger than most lap-dogs. At least Reiki’s height made it somewhat less overwhelming, having her clamber up in his lap and slouch against his chest like this.
As soon as she settled, though, he went on, “You’re right to be worried about Greg’s new twink, honestly? But probably not for the reason you think.… Because it wasn’t about control with Greg—not at first. It only got to be that way after I made it clear that loving him wasn’t going to make me quit drag, and loving him didn’t mean that I didn’t need my art anymore.… First, he wanted a manic pixie dream boy to make him feel alive. Then, once he’d felt sufficiently alive, he wanted to fix me—that is, make me more normal, and make me behave myself, and make me stop loving or finding any empowerment or freedom in the word queer. Then, when I wouldn’t let him fix me, that’s when he started getting all…like that.”
Letting himself sigh, Reiki said, “I don’t know if I just feel bad for his new guy, or if I’m scared for him? But the whole thing gives a very ‘Build A b***h’ sort of tea…” By way of emphasizing his point, he hummed a few bars of a deceptively bright, lilting tune, and sang, “‘Needs someone who falls apart so he can play Prince Charming…’”
But Haruhi had asked a question, and once again, Reiki was……doing pretty much everything but answering nem. “As for dinner, I…I don’t even know? Am I allowed to suggest something stupid? Like ‘pizza and the tears of our enemies’?”
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Posted: Sun May 08, 2022 12:22 am
Reiki was being so, so dramatic, and Haruhi loved him for it, even when it did make nem wanna sigh and roll nis eyes a little bit, because he was being sooo picky about word choice. "Well, if it happened to you, because he didn't like what you were doing... it could happen to the new guy," ne said, reaching out to give Rieki a noogie this time. "Greg clearly has some issues. And he doesn't deserve someone as excellent as you are." Ne did get a giggle from the "Build A b***h" comment, pulling out nis phone to open up their favorite pizza delivery app. "Pizza sounds good, but I don't think they bottle the tears of our enemies," ne said with a dramatic sigh, "That'd be too much salt to pair with pizza anyway. What do you want on your half, and are we getting cheesy breadsticks?"
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