[RYSLIG] IC Inbox
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Anonymous username(s): < Triple7 > < BlueRam >
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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.
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[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?
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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.
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[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.]
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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.]
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[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.
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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.
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[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?
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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?
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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.]
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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.]
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[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?
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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.]
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[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.
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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.]
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[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.]
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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.
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[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.]
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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.
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[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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[He's rambling, he can't help it with the way his heart races when she says she likes him. It thunders so impossibly loud in his chest he has no doubt she can hear it with the way she buries her face against his pulse. Komaeda swallows, dryly, and he figures she hears that too.]
I'm glad that we can both agree that we are not here to have sex.
[Okay, that. Komaeda clenches his eyes shut, shame coloring his face and neck blue as he realizes the stupidity that has just left his mouth. It's a good thing Lila isn't looking at him directly, and honestly if she bit him, he wouldn't even blame her.]
I... don't think I could ever be perfect. I've always been weird. Like a circle you draw over and over and it comes out too-oval every time. [He sighs, and then his hands shift—the one on the wall comes down, wrapping around her shoulders and holding her against his collar. Even if she's not-all-there physically, she feels... nice. Like she's meant to be cradled to his chest.] Besides, you're always... amazing. Even like this, I think you're wonderful just the way you are, Lila-san. Someone like me could never compete.
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[It's hard, wanting to have a serious conversation instead of exploit the fun vulnerabilities she knows he has now. How embarrassed he gets about sex, apparently, or touching at all, or any of this. She could wreck him. She kind of wants to. It's just not the thing she wants the most. Not right now, anyway.]
[And for once, restraint ends up being the right choice. As he scrambles to compose himself, he reaches for her, pulls her close, and holds her. This time, the breath she lets out is slow and gentle and relaxed; her smile eases into something simpler and happier. With him holding her, she doesn't have to stretch so much. She can let him do some of the work.]
You don't have to flatter me, but it's a nice touch.
[After a moment, she lets her hands fall from their fretful position at his back and lock easily around his waist. Possessive but secure. The things that were scaring her when she gave him that sixty-second ultimatum aren't anymore.]
. . . That's pretty much why I like you, though. All of that you just said. Sometimes you're dramatic and over the top or you shove your foot in your mouth but then you say something I would never have thought about and then you call me amazing or something. You're a lot of things at the same time, but they add up. They make sense to me.
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The reality is that any nocturnal monster can come up through the stairwell and see them, but Komaeda doesn't mind. He's not afraid of someone seeing them because even if they did, he probably wouldn't even notice. Between their tangled limbs, they've escaped to a world all their own. A neat little bubble, warm, and welcoming, and just big enough for only them.]
I think you're crazier than me, [his voice is light, a half-laugh against the top of her hair as his eyes fall closed. Anyone that's said as much about him has always been deemed as such, at least. Crazy to trust him, crazy to chase him, crazy to care. He already knows Lila is broken and crazy, but he also knows she won't leave his side, even if he asked her to.] I mean, those don't really sound like likeable things...
[He inhales her, pulls his chin from her temple and untangles just enough to catch a glimpse of a sliver of eye.]
But I suppose I get it. You're mean, and crude, and you make me do unreasonable things like putting on pants in less than sixty seconds. You don't have a tail, but I think a minute and a half is a much better time frame for that. [He huffs, his hands roaming over her back and registering just how petite she is beneath his touch.] But... I'm never bored when I'm with you. I learn a lot, and you don't let me become pathetic. I never feel lonely when I'm with you...
And I like seeing your smile.
cw eye gore imagery
[That much is easy, although she doesn't agree for the reasons he's thinking. She's grimly aware of the more basic difference between them: that Komaeda regrets what he did to harm people, and she doesn't. She regrets not doing more. She doesn't blame him for what he's done not because she doesn't think he's responsible, but because she can't make it matter to her. All of those dead people she doesn't know might as well be paper dolls on fire. If she could sink her brand new claws into a few familiar eyes from back home, she'd do it, and she'd do it here so they could come back and feel her in their heads down to the knuckle all over again.]
[Maybe the two of them would do the same bad things, but she wouldn't regret them, and Komaeda probably would.]
[When he moves, she responds, unwinding herself so that she can look up at him, watch his face when he speaks to her. Watching for lies. She does so idly with him these days, because he's passed a lot of tests. Now as before, he's not lying to her. She likes that he knows she's not likeable. That he likes her anyway. Whatever he sees in her, it's in more than one dimension. Like she's a real person.]
If you hadn't been acting weird, I would have given you a minute and a half. [Absently spoken, as she arches up slightly one more time under the reach of his wide hands. What is it with tall guys? A power thing, probably. If she can take somebody that much bigger than her and make them eat out of her hand — that's all it is. That's all.]
[The thing is, Komaeda's . . . better. She can't explain it to him, not now, but sometime — and for now she can't leave him with nothing. Or maybe it's less than she doesn't want his hands empty so much as that hers are too full.]
[Fussing with the hem of his shirt, she lets her head lean back on the wall, gaze thoughtful on him. Not good, not bad, just taking all of him in.]
. . . Hey. Guess what? . . . Before you, nobody ever said that to me. That they like when I smile. When I'm happy.
[Not just like that. Not without the undercurrent of her weakness, her incapability. Not Cassel, not like this, with no baggage, no implication, no strings, no sad dark eyes hanging on her every wicked word. Not her family, because the way she smiles was never dignified enough for her mother, and her father saved praise for crueler things. She wouldn't have asked it of him. But that does mean she didn't know—]
It feels good. [She sounds surprised, because she is.]
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The reflective pools of his eyes are still honest though, as if he knows his weirdness isn't on purpose, but it's just something that happens. It's something he's come to terms with and doesn't try to fix about himself. He knows he's weird and unsettling and that people avoid him because they can't figure him out. They think he's always scheming, when in fact he's only scheming about fifty percent of the time. He doesn't with Lila though. Her eyes are too sharp like a hawk, and she always sees right through him. She's used to his weirdness and accepts it, oddly enough.
When she arches her back, leaning back against the wall like a too-languid cat, Komaeda laces his fingers at that odd curve of her spine—holding her hips to his. He likes that even when they're trying to look at each other, they both like to cling. No one has ever clung to him before, they always kept their distance because of his aforementioned weirdness. Not Lila though, he can be as cryptic as he is, or as uncareful as he wants to be, and she'll still be at his side.]
That's stupid, [He huffs and then he unlaces his fingers, bringing his real hand, his feeling hand up to cup the outline of her cheek. Even if it isn't all there, his thumb traces beneath the cut of her daggered smile, feeling the whisper of where lips used to be.] You have a pretty smile... but I guess I get it. No one has ever said they liked how I talk. I've always been told I'm too confusing, and that it must be on purpose. Like I can control it.
[Sometimes, he can. The way he dances around topics he doesn't want to get into is usually on purpose. The way he glosses over unsettling or awkward things with a smile, is on purpose. But the way he shoves his foot in his mouth sometimes, or when he overreacts and starts rambling... that isn't—and Lila says she likes it.]
You're right though... it feels good.
[It feels good when it's just the two of them and nothing else matters.]
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