middleofsomewhere | So Familiar a Gleam: Conclusion

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So Familiar a Gleam: Conclusion

Time to leave!

There is not much of the city left, but the park is holding together as those anchoring help those who are not voidtreckers through back to where they belong. Monsters continue to attack and a little further out there is a battle of hearts and minds being fought with the mass of colours and chaos.

Eventually, after the bulk of citizens had been evacuated everyone with SCA's on would hear Jin-Roh's voice after a few frantic beeps, as Chiff aligned everyone's SCA's. "We are almost done here, if you are with anyone not tethered to a voidcraft get them to the evacuation point, as quickly as possible."

Anan pulls out of the anchoring point to call out to any defenders in the park. "Come on! Anyone who isn't a voidtrecker! It's time to go."

Luckily those off fighting the entity headed the message and made their way to the park as Jin Roh spoke again.

"Everyone else get ready. When we call it you need to leave. If you don't have your SCA on then get to someone who does."

As the last people rushed to the park Anan calls out again, through her SCA and outloud to the park. "You need to unanchor, before you can evacuate. Everyone be ready."

She goes in again though, because there are some last people, those from the large battle, getting through as another message was called.

"Almost there. Be ready. On my command..."

Anan unanchored again. "Quick everyone unanchor."

"NOW" Jin Roh's voice came through strong on their SCA's. Hopefully those with SCA's would grab those without.

There is some outside help as well, the train pulls anyone who is unconscious or still under the entity's control, forcibly evacuating them. This includes Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji and Zagreus.

Luggage Carriage

There has been a mass evacuation before and that was crazy enough but since then the population of the train has almost doubled and now it is an extremely tight squeeze as everyone crashes into the luggage carriage at the same time.

The train jerks and rolls as they enter into the void at breakneck speed and again as they seem to slow, rather than speeding off though the void.

There's a crackling from their SCA's. "Voidtreckers? Voidtreckers come in!" Anan's voice. "Please tell me you made it..."

There's only a few moments of signal and soon they are flying though the void again, away from the strange non-world, the entity sealed for now. To new adventures, but first hopefully some time to recover from all that has happened.

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The priest has pretty much run out of energy. It's not like he's not physically tired from their mission, he just isn't as wiped out as Devero from it.

Mentally and emotionally, he's running on fumes.

Mutely, he shakes the band down off his arm under his gi and robe, and offers the thin wrist it's now draped around like a gaudy magical bangle bracelet.

Devero takes that bony hand in both of his and lifts it to kiss the back of it before he removes the band. Reaching inside, he pulls out a water bottle for him and one for Koumyou. "Here," he says, putting it in his hands. "Drink some of this before we sleep, please."

Koumyou uncaps it and drains the bottle in one long pull. Not because he's super thirsty, but just to get it all into himself with the least work.

Only once it's empty does he re-cap it and hand it back, and then he scoots down on the bed, moving like he's aged a few decades in the last few minutes.

Sometimes he really does feel like a sad, middle-aged old man. This is one of those times.

Devero empties his with a similar single-mindedess, then tucks both of the bottles back into the band and sets it aside. He slides down into the bed as well, pulling the covers up over them both and then gathering Koumyou up. Assuming the other man doesn't resist, Devero will curve his whole body around his partner, making a bulwark of his broad back between Koumyou and the rest of the world.

Koumyou does not resist, of course. All he does is take a double handful of Devero's pajamas, and curl into him.

And he's quiet, for a while.

So quiet.

Until--

"...Did you try to pet the Seiten?"

Devero is basically asleep when Koumyou's voice interrupts their quiet, and he actually startles a little. Aren't you lucky, Koumyou? You get a completely unfiltered (if somewhat sleep-slurred) answer. "Yeah? Wanted to say thank you f'r carryin' me around."

Koumyou giggles at that, muffled into Devero's chest.

"You're too precious, Dev-chan!"

Hearing him giggle makes Devero smile, and he squeezes him close for a moment. "Am not," he says, still half-asleep. "I am serious at all times an' you oughta treat me with decorum."

Oh, don't worry Devero, Koumyou is still a self-loathing murder-monster who is convinced he's a restful branch you've perched on while your wings heal.

But.

He can also giggle.

And... tickle Devero's ribs with his fingers.

"Serious, serious man!"

A tickle attack? In this vulnerable state? Devero whines in protest and tries to shove Koumyou away. Unfortunately, Koumyou doesn't have far to go with the wall at his back, and their bunk isn't that wide, so really all he ends up doing is thunking the priest into the wall and pushing himself half-off the bed.

From there it's one just clumsy topple to the floor, where his big body lands with a bang.

"Oh no!"

Dismayed, Koumyou peeeeeeks over the edge of the bunk.

"Sorry Dev-chan! Are you okay?"

Devero, suddenly very awake, meets his eyes. For a moment he looks absolutely shell-shocked, gasping like a landed fish; when he catches his breath, he dissolves into laughter. "My fault, my fault," he manages around wheezing laughs, waving a hand. "Knocked the air out of myself."

Koumyou laughs tiredly at this too, and at the ridiculousness of the whole situation.

Gods, he loves Devero.

Only once their giggling starts to wear off does he start to reach down over the edge of the bunk... and then rethinks it, and pulls his hand back. He can just see himself trying to pull Dev up and pulling himself down onto the big guy instead.

So, here come the tendrils of the sutra again, moving to scoop Devero up with the usual effortlessness.

As the paper tendrils descend towards him, Devero watches them without fear. As they scoop him up, he doesn't flinch. As they deposit him back on the bed, he waits a second to see if they'll dissolve immediately again, and when they don't he pats the nearest one.

With sleepy cheek, he tells it, "Thank you, Paper-chan."

And just like that, Koumyou dissolves into a fresh giggle-fit.

(It doesn't help that they're so tired, does it?)

It doesn't help at all, which is why his fit sets off another in Devero. His doesn't last terribly long, though, what with the exhaustion and all; soon enough he's trailing off into gentle chuckles. He turns on his side and burrows in against Koumyou, winding his arms around the priest's narrow waist and hugging him close.

"I love you," he breathes.

"I love you too, my Devero," Koumyou whispers back, because it's still very frightening to say, and about as frightening to hear--

But it's important.

If something ever happens to either of them, he won't have not said it, and he won't have not heard it! It happened! "I really, really do."

"I know." He cranes his head up to kiss Koumyou's throat, his chin, the corner of his jaw. He props himself up on an elbow so he can look down at the priest in the dim light of their room. The fingers of his other hand trace the path his lips just marked before rising to cup Koumyou's cheek.

He examines the priest, his giggles gone. "That's why I wasn't afraid," he says softly, after that moment of contemplation. "Because... because I think I'm starting to really understand that... that blood is the only language that your world acknowledges." He huffs a single, almost disbelieving laugh and shakes his head at himself. "Someone from my world would think I'm barkers, saying this, but-- I think I can recognize it now, when you say 'I love you' in blood."

Koumyou gazes up at him, brown eyes wide while Devero says all that.

So, so quietly, he murmurs, "You see me more clearly than anyone has ever wanted to. Myself included."

And that seems to make him sort of sad, in that gentle, understated way of his.

Devero's eyes hood, and he lays back down before gathering Koumyou into his chest again. "And you do the same for me," he murmurs. "Please don't forget that."

"When I'm not busy making you sad," Koumyou says into the base of Devero's neck.

Apparently he's just Having A Night, here. Too tired to keep this shit as hidden as he usually does by sheer reflex.

He takes double handfuls of Dev's pajamas again, curling in tight against him.

"I missed you," he says quietly, "even when I didn't remember you, I missed you so much."

"Hey," Devero protests softly. He curves his big body around Koumyou's as if he wants to encapsulate the other man, holding him tightly. "Sometimes two people in a relationship are going to upset each other. It's unrealistic to think otherwise. It's how we resolve it when we hurt each other that matters."

He hides his face against Koumyou's hair, and a palpable shiver crawls his skin. "I missed you so much it woke me up out of the dream," he says. "All I had to do to stay out was remember you. Even when you-- when you didn't remember--" He has to pause for a moment, because that had been hard as hell, and his throat closes as he recalls it.

He exhales and continues, "All I wanted to do was make sure you'd be safe. Even when you had no idea who I was-- who I really was."

Koumyou lets go of Dev's pajamas in favor of wrapping his arms around the big guy's ribs and holding on tight. Just as tight as Devero's holding him, or tighter!

"I'm sorry I kept slipping back into it," he whispers, "I didn't want to forget you."

And he adds even as he realizes it, "I wanted to forget me."

Devero goes still when Koumyou says that, the breath-held stillness of someone who's afraid even an exhale might frighten away the elusive creature they just sighted.

In a bare whisper: "Talk to me?"

"I don't know what to say," Koumyou's muffled voice is miserable. "I really, really hate myself. Always have."

Even little Houmei on the train that day had felt it.

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