Welcome to Gaia! ::

Evan didn’t like ambiguity. It didn’t matter if Tobias had reassured him that ‘it’s nothing bad’. It wasn’t anything dire. But Ahri was hanging out with someone in the Negaverse, and it felt like there were half a dozen mysterious possibilities, and a dozen more growing every second that Evan didn’t ask what he meant.

Even if he hadn’t just finished putting the food in the oven and been at a good place to leave it, he’d have pulled it out and come back to it later. His fingers felt numb and he felt cold and his heart was pounding harder than it had a right to.

He’d smiled when Tobias first came to visit him, but now his lips were pressed together. His brows had knit and he just looked worried.

The kisses hardly even soothed him when his stomach was upside down and his mind was shooting to the worst case scenarios already.

He trusted Tobias, but he couldn’t control his anxiety, and now that it had spiked he couldn’t imagine putting off the conversation. “No, I have time. Now? Does he want to talk now? I can go now. What’s the rest, what’s going on?” he asked, quickly brushing his hands off on the sides of his pants as he stepped out of the kitchen.

Evan’s thoughts were already so scrambled that when he finally processed the last thing Tobais said, his cheeks turned pink and he nearly sputtered a response. The kiss was nice and easy to process! Being pulled close was nice and easy to process!

Tobias was either flirting or teasing, or both, or serious, and whichever it was, Evan was still flustered and trying to remember what was important.

“No, I–well, don’t make promises yet, I have to finish cooking. And I’m too nervous to think about any of that right now.” He smoothed his hands down the front of his pants again and had to curl and uncurl his hands into fists to try and calm down. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest and felt like he had to force himself to take slow, steady breaths.

His mind was telling him that something horrible might have already happened–maybe Ahri was trying to sneak out the window or something. He didn’t want to waste time fussing or fretting in the hallway. He didn’t ask why Ahri felt more comfortable talking to Tobias than him–maybe he just figured Tobias could handle it better. Tobias couldn’t have been too worried when he was teasing like that, but an anchor had already started sinking in Evan’s stomach and he was just waiting for it to hit him hard enough to knock him down.

“I can’t handle all these unknowns, I need the bad news first and a pick me up later.” He placed a hand on the doorknob and faltered once before he managed to turn it and step inside.

When he did so, he tried to smile at Ahri and not look so worried, but his brows were knit and he was still pink in the face. He didn’t trust his voice, so instead of greeting him with a ‘Hi,’ he raised his hand to wave instead. Evan stepped aside so Tobias could follow and hovered by the door.

“It’s not even that bad, Ahri, don’t look so upset, don’t worry. He’s just got the same issue we all do, or most of the people in this house do of wanting to help everyone who is on the side of Chaos and acts like a remotely decent human being, that’s all. He’s met a half youma and wants to help him out. Also he got stabbed and him and Talia were keeping that from us both, but this guy helped him after he got stabbed so everyone’s fine all’s well that ends well, and as for me. I bought the house next door for either other wayward people that we end up picking up, or…”

He glanced at the two and gave an almost hopeful smile. “Or as a home for us to live in. And start to pick up our own strays…”

It sounded wonderful to him. But it wasn’t difficult for something to sound good to Tobias.

Ahri's glare quickly turned into a look of sheer confusion and utter shock. "What the...."

...Welp, suppose he shoulda seen that coming.

"Hold on. Slow the ******** down." Ahri said trying to process everything. "Yes, I got stabbed. Talia only knows cause she caught me without a shirt on cause I didn't think anyone was home! I made her promise not to say anything." He'd really lost his stealth edge since purifying. "In my defense, I didn't say anything cause I was afraid of this." He said, waving his arms at the level of panic in the room. "That, and I was afraid if I said anything that you two, mostly Tobias, would to get back at them and I didn't want either of you getting hurt either. And what the ******** did Zac do? Did Zac get stabbed? When did that happen?" Just how oblivious was he??

Ahri finally crossed his legs, revealing the two scars on his chest. ".... You know I did not expect to be talking about a new house and me bleeding out in the same conversation." He said slowly. "This is not how I expected this to happen at all" Ahri glanced at Evan. "I'm fine. I promise. A.. uh.. friend, found me and patched me up. Few nightmares here or there but I'm as good as new, I swear." Ahri shot a flat look at Tobias however. "I am your own stray. You quite literally can't get anymore stray then me." He'd love to see someone try though.

Evan still seemed visibly overwhelmed, and while he didn’t draw away from Tobias, he raised his hands and pressed them to his burning cheeks. He felt like his head had exploded and–sure, if he were being honest, the idea of having more space sounded great--not that he even had that much stuff, but still.

“What? No, don’t make him jealous–what if he gives away our room here! My old room already went to Todd! Oh,” he said, and rubbed at his cheeks as he tried to focus.

…But it would probably be nice for Tobias and Zac not to always butt heads. But would Zac ever come over and visit? Would they still be allowed to come hang out here? Change was hard! And Ahri got stabbed.

He snapped back to that. “I can’t believe Talia would keep that a secret! I’m not going to run out and get revenge for you, I would have just wanted to take care of you! If you got stabbed you should be taking it easy, not keeping secrets! And that–let that be a lesson for both of you, if you get hurt just tell me! I’d rather know so I can try and make things easier for you! I’d pamper you, not–Zac used to come home with cuts and scrapes all the time, you know he’s rough. I don’t know if I’m supposed to say that, he doesn’t make a big deal out of it. But he tries to be so macho and deal with everything himself and I hate that, just let me worry about you and make sure you’re okay.”

Tobias shook his head, biting his lip to stop from laughing. It wasn’t funny. It really wasn’t funny and he knew it…but the both of them so flustered was just.

…Really cute.

Reaching out, he tugged Ahri into his arms as well, squeezing both of his sweethearts together and shaking his head. “No more secrets from now on. The three of us have to be honest with one another, I promise I won’t buy any more houses without clearing it with you two, and if any of us get stabbed, we better let the other two know, or else.”

He kissed each of their foreheads and snickered finally, unable to stop himself. “I love you nerds. I hope that you both know that. Evan, I can’t help but tease Zac…I think it’s in my blood.”

"******** p***k of a youma had it coming." Ahri growled under his breathe, crossing his arms in a pout, as best he could when tangled with them anyway. "Definitely one of my top three things for not wanting to do again though." Ahri mumbled.

"What I wanna know is, how the hell did he buy the house and the two of us hear nothing about it from said neighbor. Let alone when you managed to tour the damn place." Ahri was beginning to wonder if he was more oblivious then he thought he was. "Like seriously, how did you pull that one off?"

Ahri rolled his eyes with a huff. "Yeah yeah, laugh it up you p***k. Can't believe you just fed me to the wolves like that." Though, Ahri supposed that had Tobias not done so, he would still be tip toeing around the subject. "I love you too." He sighed against Tobias' shoulder as he glanced at Evan. "Please sit down if you're dizzy, I don't want you to get hurt. I'm sorry."