luckless | [RYSLIG] IC Inbox

[He doesn't hate her for being cold. She hates herself a little for caring what he thinks. She's relieved, gratified, horrified by what he says next. Because of this place—]

[You will laugh while others weep. Your heart will be a riddle. A girl with golden hair and no fear.]

[—he got to meet her. Meeting her was worth it. And she fights herself, the huddled child denying it, the bloodhanded princess with no fear reveling in it, and the cat in its cage lashing out through the bars, screaming to catch his flesh and tear-shred-destroy. It's harder than usual, after all of this, to pull the mask back down. Suddenly it feels like it doesn't fit, awkwardly tight in some areas, loose in others, just wrong, made for someone else.]

[She's reading the message still, over and over. The last two sentences. Happy. Happy that he woke up here. Happy that he met her. Happy because of her. Nobody's happy because of her. She bites down on the edge of her thumb and her teeth go through, clamp down on nothing. She's happy. She's other things. She wants to go find him. She wants to run away.]

doesn't that mean

[She knows.]

that i bring bad luck, too?

[She knows it does. She wants to be lied to.]

Didn't you just acknowledge yourself that my luck isn't caused by people?

[He's confused, because he doesn't know what he said wrong to make her... respond that way. He doesn't want Lila to think she's bad for him, because if she does, she might distance herself.

Nonono—he doesn't want that, they just got here.]

If anyone is bad luck, it's me. I cause it wherever I go. And I can't guarantee that it won't hurt you, too. It always hurts the people I care the most about.

[But he's selfish, for one of the few times in his life he wants to be selfish and keep her anyways. Because if he doesn't... if Lila leaves...

He'll be alone again.]

If you want to keep your distance I understand.

NO

[The response comes immediately. She doesn't want to be part of the cycle of bad and good luck, doesn't want her presence in his life to herald the inevitable downturn into pain, but the thing is: Komaeda tries not to be selfish and sometimes fails. She is always selfish, even though she sometimes tries not to be. This is default. Selfish is easy.]

[There wasn't ever an alternate option. She's already made her decision.]

no way. no. i already told you. you're always going to remember me. remember?

[Breathless. He was smiling when she told him, the weird loopy smile that felt so comfortable. Now her chest hurts.]

i'm not scared of your luck. it can come at me, i don't give a shit, komaeda, you're mine now. you're mine. you have to stay.

[He's taken aback, not because of how selfish Lila's demand is but because it... it feels right, and it feels good, and he's glad she said it. Because if she didn't, if she had just been selfless, then he would've faded from her life like he had never been a part of it.]

That's stupid. Why would you willingly put your life at risk for me?

[Why, why, why? He's happy, but if his luck kills her—it always kills the ones he loves most—what will he do? Will he just rely on this place to bring her back every time?

He swallows.]

I'm broken... and you still want me?

[She says he belongs to her. It feels good, it's nice to belong to someone. To live for someone. To have a purpose again. But he's scared, because what if she changes her mind?]

[She's so shit at reassuring people. Absolutely trash at it. She's had literally zero practice. But if she can't say this part right, she's gonna get mad all over again.]

why do you get happy when good things happen, even though you know bad things are going to follow?

illogical question. you're not that broken, either, but it wouldn't matter either way because i've never met somebody who's not wrong somehow. your kind of broken is nice to me and doesn't lie and cares if i feel like shit and laughs when i do something funny. so yeah.

i'm pretty broken too, komaeda. we're all fucked up.

[. . . She shouldn't ask. She shouldn't. But.]

did you really mean that? that you're glad you met me

[It's definitely not the worst pep talk he's ever received, and it makes him laugh a bit, makes him forget the wetness of his cheeks for a moment.

In a way, it's exactly like her. And maybe it's because of that, that it actually works.]

I did mean it. I like your kind of broken too.

You tell me to shut up when I need to, but you also make sure I'm okay. I don't know. It's hard to explain why I like it. I just do.

[She didn't judge him, even after all the crazy stuff he's told her. She just... believed him. He's never had someone believe him like that.]

You're special. I'm glad you were the person I woke up to in that cabin.

[She believes him about the big things because she believes him about the little things. The little things, for her, are the most important. For someone so unwilling to trust, it's a shock every time she recognizes her own effortless belief in Komaeda's honesty.]

[She believes that he's telling her the truth now. But it's a painful truth to hold, new and raw and sensitive. Nobody's ever told her she was special before. Not . . . just the words. The simple words mean more, she learns, because it doesn't feel like a con. The truth at its most stripped-down and basic is the truth she can most easily trust. No meaningful glances or important words hidden in sentences hidden in paragraphs hidden in speeches. Clumsy truth, and that's it.]

[Maybe it's okay for her to be a little clumsy, too. Even if she hates not being perfect.]

yeah. me too. i'm glad i met you too.

[Mm. She can't . . . talk about all of it. She's tired and sad and still kind of scared. She thinks he probably is too. But there's this one thing.]

can i tell you something kind of weird?

[She's glad to have met him. It's weird, and small, and he should feel like it's Just Something someone says when they're being grateful you said it first—but it feels genuine.

If she wasn't glad to have met him then she wouldn't wander into his apartment like a specter and silently beg for company. She wouldn't message him this late at night. She wouldn't be so conscious of what makes him comfortable or not, especially when she's usually so. Lila.

Behind his laptop screen, Komaeda smiles.]

You can tell me anything, Lila-san.

[Man. She's really going to have to talk to him about not calling her Lila-san after she's had her tongue in his mouth.]

[She wants to tell him everything, as much as she's ever wanted to tell anyone everything. It occurs to her that it might actually be easier if he'd seen Cassel before, even if she would have hated it too. It would be a starting point. But — no, this is okay. Maybe better. She can make her own starting point now, the way she decides to, centered around what's most important to her right now. Something she can't articulate without explaining the big picture.]

you remember i was wearing gloves when you met me? and i kept wearing them until after the first fog, when it got hard to like. stay solid.

everybody wears those where i come from. there's magic where i come from, magic that can destroy people, but somebody has to touch you with their hands to do it, so everybody covers them, even people who don't work — have magic. not wearing gloves can get you arrested. it's like walking down the street naked but worse. big taboo.

nobody here does that or even seems to have heard of it. it really freaked me out at first. i — there was a protest i went to once where people had their gloves off but besides that i've never seen that happen. you were the first person i saw other than that crazy cult guy, and your hands weren't covered either. so i should have been freaked out and i was a little but

[She's holding her breath, as though she's saying all of this out loud and just needs to get it out as quickly as possible.]

i still touched your hand.

i still don't know why i did that. it was really stupid. but it felt like i should and you needed it so i just didn't think.

and i wanted to tell you. i wanted you to know. and just

thank you. for not proving me wrong.

[Again.]

[A part of him wants to remind her that he actually was wearing a glove, just not on the hand she grabbed. It wasn't even on a hand that was functioning.

But he can kind of understand where she's coming from. It took him awhile to understand that ultimate talents aren't really a thing here in Ryslig either, but most ultimate talents don't kill people either (unless you're Mukuro, or him). It's weird, like she said, but he gets it. He can wrap his head around it.

She trusted that he wouldn't hurt her, and she had no intention of hurting him either.]

Is that why you don't like it when I touch you?

[Maybe that's not the right way to phrase it, or maybe that's something else entirely... but if he could touch her more freely, would he?

She didn't seem to shy away from it the last time they talked but, it was also always on her terms (understandably).]

Or, just... you know. With my hands. I don't have to, but it's nice. I like feeling close to you.

[Stupid, stupid— he's focusing on the wrong thing.]

You're welcome though! The last thing I want to do is hurt you. Thank you for sharing that with me.

[Communication sucks, but he's at least trying.]

oh my god

[Her first instinct is to be exasperated, but again, it's Komaeda. She doesn't immediately bite his head off, because it's Komaeda. What she does is lean back and stare at the ceiling for a minute until she realizes that . . . this is actually hilarious. This might be the most normal thing Komaeda has ever said to her. This is him just running facefirst into his own impulsivity and having to backpedal when he realizes he's shoving his foot in his mouth. Boy shit.]

[Crazy that he's backpedaling. Crazy that it's not even bad backpedaling. Crazy that it's taken this long, and somehow she's not even mad. Although it probably is time for a tactical strike.]

you're lucky you're cute.

[Ah.]

just ask first. don't just grab me. it's not that i don't like it, but don't surprise me with it. got it?

and don't, like, manhandle me.

[A pause. She's thinking.]

unless i change my mind. i'll let you know.

[Cute? Lila called him cute.

The last person to call him cute was Junko, probably, and that had been phrased as a joke. A cruel one. He was cute because he didn't play the games she played. They played a game with two sets of rules, and he kept her on her toes, kept it interesting.

So, when she calls him cute it makes him feel nauseated and brokenhearted all at once.]

Okay.

I can do that... I don't normally touch people anyways, it just sort of happens when I'm near you, so I apologize if I've ever made you uncomfortable.

Of course you would be disgusted when I touch you suddenly!

[Breathe, he has to remember to breathe. There's similarities but Lila isn't Junko. Junko was unpredictable but Lila makes him feel... safe.]

Please do tell me if you change your mind! I completely understand if you don't want me to touch you at all.

[Something's . . . off.]

[She doesn't know what. Just something. Making the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Like the last hour hasn't happened. Like she's slid sideways into some other world.]

[She's too tired to keep having stupid feelings. She needs to move.]

are you at home?

[That catches him off guard. He is at home, of course, but in one room over both Mukuro and Celeste are asleep. Or he assumes they are. It's late.

So he sits up, looks down at his loose white t-shirt and his boxers.]

I am but...

[What's a nice way to say she shouldn't come over, if that's what she's intending?]

Do you want to go for a walk, Lila-san?

not really.

you have sixty seconds to meet me at your door. after that i'm gonna start making noise.

[She doesn't respond on the laptop again after that. At forty-five seconds she is, in fact, standing in front of his door. She doesn't look angry, exactly, but frustrated, yeah. Tired, as much as it shows on her face anymore.]

[Sixty seconds is just barely enough time for him to find his pants in the dark and pull them on while hopping around so that he doesn't fall. No one tells you how difficult it is to wear pants with a tail until you have a tail, either. He's going to have to get them tailored soon.

But at roughly fifty-six seconds, Komaeda opens his door both as frantically and quietly as possible, looking disheveled and also completely submissive to Lila's whims. This is, as they say, "whipped".]

Lila-san, um, Ludenberg-san and Ikusaba-san are asleep so... [Actually, Mukuro is probably already awake with him trying to get his pants on seconds earlier.] Why did you want to visit suddenly?

[He's just going to step out into the sliver of hallway between her and his doorframe, before closing the door behind him.]

Hi.

[Her gaze slides to the closed door, calculating. She's here to make a point, and that point isn't getting caught. Glancing down the hall, she takes Komaeda by the elbow and marches him down the hall and just around the corner, out of sight of his front door. The look she gives him when they still is calculating, too.]

[Then she backs up against the wall, pulls him with her, and, grabbing his hand, places it on her throat. Lightly. She looks calm, and in this moment, now that she's gotten where she knows she needs to be, content.]

Look at me.

Do I look disgusted to you?

[He doesn't get a chance to say hi back. In fact, hi didn't even cross his mind when he first laid eyes on her. Seeing her in person feels different than who he just spoke with over a private chat. It's disconnected, like this isn't the person he just bore a piece of his soul to, and how he was able to see a piece of hers, too.

Instead his thoughts are thoroughly halted as Lila grabs his wrist and pulls him down the hall. Even if she heard, Mukuro isn't the type to pry. Just keep tabs. But maybe this is good, too, because he doesn't need her threatening Lila if they become enemies.

What he expects is to be shoved against the wall himself, like she's ready to corner him and demand his lunch money like some schoolyard bully. What she does instead completely surprises him, as she's prone to doing. Beneath the cool pads of his fingers, he feels that familiar solid nothingness. As if Lila is someone who exists between realms.

His hand is on her, and not just anywhere but her throat. Again, he's reminded of Junko, as if he could blink a few times and her sharp grin would appear in front of him. It flinches him, pulls his hand from her neck and pools color to his cheeks. Komaeda's gaze averts, suddenly sheepish at how... fast, and intimate, and unfamiliar yet familiar this all is.]

Yes- no— I, I don't know...

[He mumbles unsure, his fingers still hovering close enough to her throat that he can feel ethereality lick away from whatever could constitute as skin.]

Komaeda.

[She's quiet, ducking in an attempt to catch his eyes even as he averts them, expression open and honest but unforgiving. He's not going to get away. Not now. Not after all of this.]

I don't know what happened. You were right there with me, and then you went away. I don't know why. But you need to come back, okay? Don't leave me here by myself when we got so far.

[Her fingers clench in the front of his shirt, unclench, find a better grip. A little fussy.]

Do you think I'd have told you any of that if I didn't want you to touch me? Tell you why it matters just so I could laugh about how you can't anymore? Do you think I've told anybody else anything? Nobody knows shit but you.

[All of the talking just seems like too much and not enough. They've talked so much, but things fall between gaps in the sterility of text, and she can't afford that. Not that kind of misunderstanding. Not now, not with him.]

[The fingers of her other hand wrap around his wrist and tug, gentle but firm, until she can push his palm flat over her heart. Surprisingly, there is a beat in there, steady and strong. It kicks up slightly when he touches her, but not much. Not enough to be panic.]

I'm not disgusted. I'm not scared. Whatever other shit you think I am, throw it out and look at me. See me.

[That persistence ties them all together in his mind, proves to him who matters and who doesn't, or at least, who cared enough about his measly existence to not leave him completely alone. He isn't used to it and it clenches his lungs, seizes his chest, as if he might just die, as if that disease of his finally caught up to him and this was it right here.]

Sorry, [he spits out, frantic, rather than the careful and polite and edited apologies he usually gives. It's genuine and raw and just as awkward as he is, despite the way Lila fusses with his shirt and shifts her grip on him.

He doesn't flinch from her touch but he flinches from touching her. Always fine with whatever happens to him but careful about what he does to others.]

I'm not used to this...

[A breath, in and out, and he turns his gaze to meet hers. He doesn't know if he just appreciates her for sticking with him or if this is something more, because he doesn't have a whole lot of experience there, and he certainly is afraid to say it out loud.]

She would always call me cute. I just remembered it... that's all.

[That's not all and even when he looks at where she's pulled his hand against her chest he knows that he should say it. He knows, but he can't.]

[She. He says it the same as he did the first day in the cabin, when he saw the wrongness of the cultist's arm and panicked. He said it like he hated her, like he would rip her throat out if he could, whoever she was.]

[So this is confirmation. A name to a pronoun and an emotion, and one extra puzzle piece whose shape she doesn't understand. Tipping her head, she tries to catch his eye again.]

You think I'm used to it? I have no idea what I'm doing. The last time I gave a damn about anybody, I got stabbed in the back from about ten angles. Just—

[She clicks her tongue, struggling with the words, and reaches up to touch his face, trace the edges of it like she's committing it to memory.]

Just tell me. If I say something that feels bad, tell me. Don't get stuck in it like you deserve it. I'll call you something else. Or nothing. Whatever.

[He's offered up easily as much flexibility to her. She can try, at the very least, to return it in kind.]

[The way she talks, the way she touches him—Lila makes it all seem so easy. Like those words and those touches won't be ripped out from under him. Like she won't turn around and think he's lying to her, one day. That unknown tangles itself with a myriad of memories that feel as if they'll swallow him whole and drown him in an abyss of despair.

But he leans into her touches like a seeking animal, hungry for those gentle touches and those kind words. Starved for someone to pay attention to and validate him. To make him feel like he's a little less paranoid, a little less... crazy. Lila says she's broken just like he is, and maybe she's right. Maybe they're both broken with edges that slot against one another perfectly. He raises his hands, cool scales and unfeeling metal gently touching over the backs of her hands.]

Okay... I promise I'll tell you.

[His lashes flutter open, and he stares into her eyes. They no longer hold mismatched irises or pupils, but he knows she's looking directly at him. Even when they're just two white holes seared into her image, he can feel her stare.]

Lila-san... [Komaeda takes a breath, he has to tell her now, when they've already pulled the wounds open,] the last time I told someone I cared about all of this... he didn't believe me. It was my fault, I made it so that he couldn't trust me — and before that was Junko-san.

I don't have the best experience with all of this and I'll probably mess up a lot but... thank you.

[His hands squeeze hers. Gentle. Assuring.]

Thank you for understanding me.

[She realizes a lot of things between one moment and the next, from the last word she says and Komaeda's hands laying gently over hers, insect-light. She abruptly understands how much easier this was for him when they were high, with all his fear pushed down and away and only instinct and want to guide him. She understands that she doesn't like Hajime Hinata and doesn't like the way he calls her Junko-san and that there is more to that story, to both of those stories, than he's willing to say explicitly. She understands that she wants to chase them out of his mind, to kiss him enough that she's the only person he can think of, ever ever ever, because he's hers. She understands that she shouldn't.]

[She understands, when he touches her and her eyes slide closed for just a moment to process the always-overwhelming sensation of his hands, that they really are . . . broken in a lot of the same ways. He's afraid of touching, but he craves it. She's afraid of being touched, but she needs it. It's messy. They're messy.]

[Nothing in her life has ever been neat, though. Especially not the things that were worth it.]

[When she opens her eyes, she smiles faintly, carefully disentangles their hands, and grabs him by the belt loops to pull him against her. It's for a very specific reason, though: he's tall, and she's really not, and this way if she leans up on her toes she can rub her cheek against his jaw, tuck her face against his neck, and stay, just stay, for just a moment.]

I believe you. You did the opposite with me, right? You made it so I can't help but trust you. Understanding's harder, but—

[Her arms creep up behind his back, tentative and awkward. It's a hug. Just not a great one. She has limited practice.]

You make sense to me . . . and I like you, so . . .

[That's all she was trying to say, really, with cute. That you're lucky I like you. But it felt like too much, so she balked. If she has to be honest to keep him hers, though — at the very least she can try.]

[It doesn't take much to shuffle him forward, to press him into her even if it makes his heart jump into his throat. It sets the klaxon signals in his mind to blaring, like the pulse that thunders between his ears is the wailing of a siren that he chooses to ignore. Not because Lila is dangerous (even if they both know how easily she could kick his ass), but because he doesn't know what to do and that scares him. He always knows what to do, or at least, he can rely on his luck. But right now, he doesn't have either—or rather, he thinks that if he kisses her right now, the world might fall apart around them.

It's dangerous but he craves it, he's always craved that danger and that adrenaline that felt so comfortable it was like being swathed in a warm blanket. It's all he's even known, and perhaps the impulsivity that comes with that realization is the most dangerous thing happening between them.

Lila pulls him down and meets him halfway, and in his wide-eyed surprise, he plants his hands on the wall at either side of her head just because he's still afraid to touch. If he does it wrong, will she hate him? If he's too enthusiastic, will she pull away? But if he doesn't touch her, will she shatter even more—because right now she rubs against him like a cat scenting its owner, and the awkward vise of her arms around his back only makes his heart beat faster, harder.]

I... [he swallows, dryly, and even though she's got herself pressed against the wall, he manages to slip his hand behind her head. His fingers cradle the base of her skull, to keep her firmly hugged against his shoulder. The other hand stays on the wall, maintains a bit of that control so he doesn't completely unravel right here,] I like you too... but, I should be honest with you...

[Since they're doing that honesty thing, apparently.]

I don't have any experience, no one wanted to touch an ugly guy like me before, so... I hope you don't mind.

If you call yourself ugly again, I'm gonna bite you.

[This lightly sullen from what's quickly becoming her hiding place at the crook of his neck, only slightly mollified by the touch at the back of her head, tentative and so gentle but still — but still. He doesn't really get it, does he, why it's important, not quite. Maybe she can explain it better sometime, how every touch is fear and shock and desperate longing all at once. How his is slowly becoming less of that, but she doesn't know how to make it happen faster. This is nice. She asked for it, and even though she startled him, he gave it to her.]

[Threat made, she's quiet for a few heartbeats — his or hers, she's not sure which she's feeling — before peeking out over his shoulder at the opposite wall.]

You don't get it, do you.

[And she does it again, like she can't help herself, turns her head to rub the other cheek along his shoulder before curling back up against his neck. Her voice sounds somewhere between uncertain and embarrassed, although it's hard to know for sure with her face hidden. Without question, it's not a version of her anyone else has seen.]

I don't care about that. I didn't come up here to get in your pants. I don't like you so I can get in your pants. I'm — I came up here, I like you, because you make me — I don't know—

[With a huff of frustration, her claws tighten fractionally in the back of his shirt.]

Just like a person. Just normal, for once. Like I don't have to be perfect all the time to be okay. You don't have to be perfect, either. Actually, you better not be, you'll make me look bad.

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WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, NAGITO KOMAEDA. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 004.28.777.00 * MrBrightside has joined 004.28.777.00 <MrBrightside> Hello there! This is Komaeda. <MrBrightside>** I'm grateful that you want to talk to me.