[Fic] Kazethyst - Gris

[vientouch.livejournal.com]

here's another one that was a long, long time in the making. i meant it to be a short and sweet drabble, but it kinda just ran off on me... and actually turned out to be my longest fic yet.

Gris

The morning was gray. The world had hardly felt the arrival of the sun, and everything seemed to remain asleep… the birds were nowhere to be heard, and the ghosts of the wind were nowhere to be seen, and no windows opened to welcome the day.

But through one closed window, one girl looked up at the sky.

And she smiled.

Then a huff and the sound of a cupboard closing called her attention, and Sera turned to the girl behind her, with her stop-snooping-around-the-kitchen glare.

Tatter returned the look in kind, and followed up by placing her hands on her hips. “You’ve hidden the cookies.” she accused.

Sera rolled her eyes and waved her hand absently at another cupboard on the other side of the room as she resumed stirring the contents of the saucepan steaming on the stove.

Tatter let out a squeal and bounded across floor. “Which shelf?”

“I’m not making it that easy for you. Bring me some mugs from there while you’re at it.”

There were ten seconds of scuffling before Tatter lost patience. “I can’t find it!”

“Try inside big steel pot.” came a muffled voice.

Sera stopped stirring to smirk over her shoulder at the figure hunched over the table. “Aeda, you spoil my fun by spoiling her.”

Still not raising her head nestled between her arms, Aedelia let out another muffled response. “You should let her get the goods before-”

CLANGCRASHCLANG. Aeda jumped in her seat, and Sera very visibly cringed. Slowly, both pairs of eyes traveled to the floor to encounter some fallen (though unbroken) cutlery, before meeting Tatter’s nervous gaze. They stayed frozen in this manner for a few moments, until Tatter stretched out her hand to Aeda, offering an apology in the form of a treat. “Want a cookie..?”

Aeda let her head fall back down with a sigh. Sera was already carrying on her task while shaking her head slightly. Sensing the storm to have passed, Tatter made her way to Sera to place three mugs beside her, then hoisted herself up to sit on the counter. “So how’d you know where the cookies were?”

“They were there because Thana would never touch the cooking ware willingly.” replied Aeda.

“Ooohh.”

“And coz I’ve shown her where I hide them before.” Sera amended.

“Well, you didn’t show me!”

“Aeda asked me nicely.”

“Aedaaaaa… Sera’s being mean again!”

There was no reply this time.

Sera began pouring her concoction into the mugs. “C’mon, Aeda, perk up!”

A grunt. “You’re not the one who had Tatter bouncing on your bed at 4:30am.”

Tatter pouted. “I was just excited! It’s not like I was the only one awake at the time, I even saw Rylis while on the way to your place.”

Her friend inclined her head to look at her without lifting it. She smiled as she said “The two of you are making a habit out of barging into my room.”

Sera and Tatter shared a grin.

“She’s worried we might barge in on her naked or something.”

“Or perhaps that we might barge in on her naked… with someone else.”

Aeda’s jaw dropped, and she blushed most gracefully, before promptly burying her face back into her sleeve.

Chuckling, Sera handed Tatter a mug, then picked up the remaining two and set them down on the table, taking the chair beside Aeda.

“Hot chocolate, Syrup?” Tatter inquired, as she peered down at her drink.

“I didn’t feel like coffee today.”

Aeda lifted her head. Sera never ‘didn’t feel like coffee’. And she hadn’t even reacted to the pet-name, the use of which usually left a small light bruise somewhere on Tatter’s body.

But Sera simply winked at her, nudging her arm with the mug. “It’s got marshmallows.”

Grinning, she took the offered beverage, swirling the thick liquid around a bit before taking a sip, warmth sliding against her throat to fill her belly. Her friends followed suit. They all let out sighs of contentment as they brought the cups away from their lips.

“How is it?”

“Perfect blend, as to be expected of you.” Aeda answered. Then she smirked, “However…” Picking up a napkin, she wiped at Sera’s lip, removing the brown milk moustache there.

That earned her a raised eyebrow. “You’re too sleepy to converse properly but not sleepy enough to stop being motherly?”

Sticking her tongue out at her, Aeda jibed “Well, who else is gonna take care of someone as hard-headed as you?”

Sera leant back in her seat. “I don’t know, really.”

There was just a heartbeat of silence before Tatter broke it. “Do you…” she began as she fished out a marshmallow with a teaspoon, “Do you miss your mom, Sera?”

Aeda bit her lip. Trust Tatter to be blunt.

“Sure, I do.”

And trust Sera to be just as straightforward. Aeda felt her lip quirk upwards.

A nod. “I miss mine, though mine’s still…”

“I know, Tatter. It’s hard on all of us.” Sera’s patented half-grin appears, as she rolls up the sleeves of her sky blue sweater. “And I’ve had more time to practice than you guys anyway.”

Aeda leaned over to place her head on Sera’s shoulder.

“Aeda?”

“Shh. I claim you as my pillow.”

She felt rather than heard Sera’s laugh. “Mmkay.”

 

-x-

 

“For heaven’s sake, will you just pick something already?”

“But I can’t chooooose! Everything’s so… pretty!”

Valerius rubbed his temples for the nth time that afternoon. “You’re impossible, Dimidium.”

His partner only fixed a pitiful expression on him, which he pointedly looked away from. However, he discovered that may not have been the best idea as he now found Thanatos in his line of vision, leaning sideways on one of the many shelves running through the store with that cocky grin, and that annoyed him exponentially more.

“Aw, Val, you’re just jealous that Dimi finds other things pretty aside from you.”

Val was going to contest that when he felt a pair of arms snake around his waist. “Val knows he’s the fairest of them all.”

Rolling his eyes, Val reiterated: “You’re impossible.”

A breath rolled across his ear as Dimidium promised “I’ll make it up to you later.”

Thana clicked his tongue. “And he’ll enjoy it more than you will.”

Val coughed, and pried Dimi’s arms away from his torso. “You both seem to be enjoying yourselves immensely without my help anyway, so I don’t see any reason for me to stay here.”

“Of course you’re helping!” Thana exclaimed. “The jokes need to be at someone’s expense.”

Once more, Val’s argument was cut off by Dimi’s hand, this time turning him to face him. He was not expecting the look of sincerity he found on Dimi’s features. “Please, love. This is important to me.”

The ice in Val’s eyes immediately melted, though he said nothing for a few seconds. Then, “I’m still going to shoot your best friend one day.” he said loud enough for Thana to hear, but his next words were only for Dimi’s ears, “And you better make sure I enjoy myself later just as much as you do.”

Dimi simply smiled and kissed Val’s now heated cheek.

Thana heard a strangled noise behind him, the source of which he discovered to be a teenage girl with a look that suggested she couldn’t decide whether to be more surprised or more disgusted.

In the sweetest voice he could muster, Thana addressed her. “I’m sorry; you must be in the wrong shop. They don’t sell any cures for bigotry here, so you’ll have to go get a life elsewhere.”

Her expression changed to anger as it directed itself at him. “Who do you think you a-”, then all the color drained from her face. Thana would really have been amused by all these transformations had the circumstances been different.

“Guess you’re not so dumb after all. So now that you’ve figured out I’m a rich, famous and powerful dude who doesn’t like people giving my friends dirty looks, what are you going to do about it?”

To her credit, the girl spun on her heel faster than lighting. He watched her rush out the door, catching a glimpse of the afternoon outside. It was grey.

And he smiled.

Checking back in on them, Thana saw that Dimi and Val had returned to sifting through the contents of the shelves on the wall as they had been earlier. “C’mon Dimi, even Brais was able to select something ages ago, and we were here first!”

“What about this?” Valerius asked, picking up something that had been a little towards the back of the shelf and holding it up for them to see. It was a bracelet, a gold bangle in the design slim, gently twisting vine with a modest teardrop-shaped emerald as its centerpiece.

“It matches her eyes… the jewel and the workmanship is first class… and the vine…” Dimi pauses to chuckle as he took it from Val’s slack grip, “She’ll say it was made for her.” He glanced at Thana, who nodded in approval. Then he grinned at Val, “See? What would I do without you?”

“I imagine you’d be helpless.” Val smirked, obviously pleased that he was had been able to help Dimi… and that this headache of a task was over.

Thana stepped up to clap Dimi on the shoulder. “Well, why don’t you go pay for that, buddy. Really… you just had to put off buying Labrusca’s present till the last minute. Again. Not that it’s a much surprise…”

That sheepish grin was thrown over Dimi’s shoulder at him as he made his way to the counter. “Speaking of presents… sent anything to Hannah lately?”

“The usual.” was the answer, with a wistful smile. “Lilacs. No card.”

‘First love?’ Valerius mused, casting a sidelong glace at Thana. His thoughts must have been read because Thana turned to beam at him. “I became a rock star for her.”

Val almost laughed, but he somehow sensed that what had been said was in fact a very grave truth. But Dimi did laugh. “And after all that, he’s still amazingly, unbelievably and ridiculously shy. Shy!”

“Least I but my gifts in time!”

Dimi shrugged, now focusing on the clerk shuffling around as he wrapped the item. Dimi started pelting him with random instructions in an overly excited voice (“Oh! Use that ribbon!”), which seemed to stress him out quite a bit… but he complied anyway.

Thana was about to sigh, when he heard Val beat him to it. Facing him, he found that Val’s interest was actually not in what was going on at the counter, but back to the shelves. His eyes were scanning them… searching… then occasionally sneaking a peek at Dimi… before searching again…

Thana mentally face-palmed. These two. I swear.

He tapped the side of Val’s shoe with his own, and when Val raised an eyebrow at him (probably worrying for his precious boots), he thumbed at an object on one of the lower shelves.

It was a pen, black body, with a silver emblem of a panther that had an amethyst as its eye.

Val was stunned. By the time he turned to look at Thana, he was already stepping out the door, yawning and impatient.

 

-x-

 

Right now, Raphael did not like inertia very much. He just really wished that he would stop sliding across the blasted ice alrea — WHUMP.

He didn’t like gravity much either. It made his rear-end hurt.

There were scraping sounds approaching, and then Labrusca was in his field of vision.

“That was an awesome fall. And by awesome, I mean prime blackmail material potential. But don’t worry; you’re getting the hang of it.”

He visibly sighed (literally ‘visibly’ in the cold). “…Brusca.”

“Yes darling?”

“…Give me your hand.”

Brusca obediently bent down and extended her arm. Raphael grabbed it… and tugged.

“Eeep!” THUD. “…Raphy, that wasn’t nice.”

He simply gave a low hum in reply.

“That’s not good. I’m rubbing off on you too much.”

And smirked at that.

Suddenly, there was a shadow looming over them. “Honestly, you two. Just what d’you think you’re doing?”

“Perri?” Raph squinted.

“We’re talking about rubbing.” Labrusca provided cheerfully.

“…Come again?”

“Rubbing. Care to join us?”

“I don’t – HYIIII - oomph!”

Brusca really left Peregrine with no choice, scissoring her legs around Perri’s and sweeping her off her feet. The result was Perri unceremoniously sprawled across her two friends.

When she got a little wind back into herself, managing prop up her back against Raph’s side, she addressed the other woman. “You do realize the blades on these ice skates are sharp enough to behead you.”

“Aww, don’t deny it, I’m sure you enjoy rubbing Raphy all the time! Such terrible friends I have, never letting me join the fun.”

Her two companions turned a handsome shade of red, and she giggled. “You guys are too easy. Try to give me more of a challenge sometime.”

And then she couldn’t see anything, couldn’t even breathe well, because Raph had tugged her turtle neck over her head.

After a little scrambling, she managed to “free” herself, and fold it back into place… pouting all the while.

It didn’t help that she knew Perri was hiding a smirk behind that raised hand, and recognized the subtle changes in Raph’s ‘permanent’ nonchalant expression that betrayed his mirth.

“I did warn you that you’d lose your head.” Perri reminded.

That sent them all into a bout of laughter, which eventually lapsed into a comfortable silence as they recomposed themselves.

But all the warm and fuzzy feelings in the world aren’t always enough to complete protect you form the cold… especially when you’re sitting on ice. And so the peace was broken when Perri half-sheepishly, half-amusedly stated, “I think my ass is going numb.”

At which Raph promptly folded in his outstretched legs, lifted her at the waist and deposited her onto his lap. She reached up to pet his head. “Good boy.”

He actually let out a low, jokingly (and notably happy) “Woof”.

Labrusca scooted closer, filling in the gap Perri had left and touching shoulders with Raph. “It’s really late too. Whose smart idea was this anyway?”

They shot her identical glares.

“Oh, right.” She shrugged, and stretched. “We should do this again, before the season’s over. Hey, you guys are staying tonight right?”

Raph nodded. Perri mimicked the action, “Though aren’t we a little old for sleepovers?”

“You’ve never been to one of Brusca’s sleepovers.” Raph intoned.

She turned to him, silently coaxing him to explain further. He merely tilted his head at Brusca. Their best friend smiled, reached into her pocket and drew out a key on a chain, which she dropped into Perri’s hand. Lifting it up to examine it, Perri let out a gasp.

“LDT’s penthouse suite?! Are you kidding me? I thought it’d be at you’re place!”

“Technically, it’s still my place since I own the hotel.”

“…Oh. Right.”

“I wish we had known you back when it was Raph’s 16^th birthday. All those strip-”, a hand clamped down on her mouth.

“Brusca,” Raph breathed through gritted teeth, “I thought we agreed we would never speak of that night ever again.”

“We did? Oh dear, I should probably tell Erran to keep quiet about it then.”

Raphael facepalmed and tried not to groan. Peregrine’s eyebrow had risen but she allowed this one to slide for now. She was pretty sure Labrusca would give her the gory details and incriminating evidence soon enough (which she would enjoy, then burn, then probably hire some assassins for those damn bit -- control, Peregrine, control). She leaned a little more into Raph. “…We’ve come a long way together though, haven’t we?”

Resting back on her hands, Labrusca looked up at the sky. “Yeah. We have.” A tilt of the head. “It’s so gray.”

Raphael followed her gaze. “…Gray isn’t a bad thing.”

“But you can’t see any stars!”

He merely shrugged, and gently pushed Peregrine off his lap, before carefully standing then helping the two women to their feet. “It’s late”, he said, echoing Brusca’s earlier statement. They nodded, and started making their way back to the bank where they had left their shoes.

Just as they were about ready to charge back into the busy city streets, Raphael tugged at their sleeves. His gaze was back on the sky. “…See. Grey isn’t a bad thing.”

And as the girls tilted their heads up, they each felt a snowflake kiss their cheeks.

And they smiled.

 

-x-

 

Mankind didn’t hear it said, but both the heavens above and the earth below vibrated with it.

“Merry Christmas.”

 

...yes, it took me THAT long to write it, okay? xD

Comments

[llyse.livejournal.com]

:D <---this is a fairly good approximation of my face right now.



Lol you were really excited while writing huh. All those missing words :P.

[vientouch.livejournal.com]

hehehe. :P

lol.. my typing is too slow for my thoughts.

[joymej.livejournal.com]

Mine's a --> '8D' glasses and all. 8DD. <3

I melteed. * n * <3
Mehn, you really got brusca, tatter and dimi. <3 I miss them real bad now. * n *

This ttly put my GE blaze back. <3
Twas sweet beij 8D -rereaaad-

[vientouch.livejournal.com]

heh, i had to interrogate you about your chars after all.
yes plz to be coming back to uz!!! <3

[dreamlandarrest.livejournal.com]

Aww, you finally finished
SO WAFF-Y. I APPROVE <33

[vientouch.livejournal.com]

WAFF FTW!