My muse has been missing for several days. Send “Where were you?!?” For mine to suddenly show up at your muse’s doorstep, in rough shape.
Kaito flinched, just barely managing to stop himself from taking a step back, his gaze shamefully, guiltily, darting off to the side and towards the ground. Maybe this had been a bad idea after all. He knew there would be questions – of course there would be – but he’d hoped against hope and prayed that his other self would, at the very least…
…He wasn’t quite sure how to finish that. And, in all honesty, it didn’t really matter at the moment anyway, did it?
Swallowing thickly, he opened his mouth, then closed it again, hesitating, before glancing back up towards the thief again. And the expression that met Kaito only made the guilt and utter selfloathing grow to the point that he felt like he might just throw up.
“Ah, I…”
A thin, weary smile curved at the corners of his lips and a bloody hand selfconsciously tugged the equally bloody and dirty sleeve down his other arm and Kaito chuckled, quietly, tired indigo eyes flickering away once more.
“I went to buy chocolate and got lost on the way home…?”
He stiffened, the gentle embrace catching him by surprise, and for a few seconds he’s not entirely sure what to do, arms hovering uncertainly around his counterpart, before slowly settling around him. He’d missed this. Another person’s body, solid and warm, pressed against his in a way that felt comfortable, gentle and soothing and Kaito squeezed his eyes shut, shoving thoughts of dirty filthy unworthy slut to the depths of his mind, arms momentarily tightening around the thief.
The fact that the other didn’t question him further about what had happened made Kaito’s shoulders relax ever so slightly in relief, part of the previous tension slipping away.
…It didn’t make the guilt lessen any, though.
God knew he wanted – needed – to tell his double the truth, but the fear of what he might say, what he might do, if he found out—
Kaito gave an internal shake of his head and offered the thief a small smile in return, more genuine and warm than the one he’d given him before. Those weren’t things he wanted to think about right now. No, right now, he just wanted to focus on how good it felt to acually be back, contrary to what he’d felt the day he decided to run away.
“…Thanks.”
He paused, arms sliding away from the thief and falling back against his sides, fingers nervously picking at a loose thread at the hem of his shirt. It really was filthy, dirty, bloody, and he wasn’t any better, was he?
“I, uh…” His expression turned the slightest bit sheepish, hopeful and grateful. “…I guess a shower would be nice?”
The smile grew wider as the magician returned the hug and relaxed a little. It might not be much, but at least that told him he’d been right not to push. Kid showed a more full smile and took a few steps further in, though didn’t completely let go of his double as he did.
“Well, the least I can do is start it while you get some clothes, then. Maybe offer some company in there while I’m at it?~” A slight tease, as he usually does with offers like that, but not as much as normal. The thief definitely wouldn’t mind joining his other self right now, though half doubts the other would say okay at this time.
My muse has been missing for several days. Send “Where were you?!?” For mine to suddenly show up at your muse’s doorstep, in rough shape.
Kaito flinched, just barely managing to stop himself from taking a step back, his gaze shamefully, guiltily, darting off to the side and towards the ground. Maybe this had been a bad idea after all. He knew there would be questions – of course there would be – but he’d hoped against hope and prayed that his other self would, at the very least…
…He wasn’t quite sure how to finish that. And, in all honesty, it didn’t really matter at the moment anyway, did it?
Swallowing thickly, he opened his mouth, then closed it again, hesitating, before glancing back up towards the thief again. And the expression that met Kaito only made the guilt and utter selfloathing grow to the point that he felt like he might just throw up.
“Ah, I…”
A thin, weary smile curved at the corners of his lips and a bloody hand selfconsciously tugged the equally bloody and dirty sleeve down his other arm and Kaito chuckled, quietly, tired indigo eyes flickering away once more.
“I went to buy chocolate and got lost on the way home…?”
…Very believable there, Kaito. Yes. Unless a sudden trip to Switzerland had occurred or similar, the thief highly doubted a chocolate shopping urge caused this, if the body language didn’t already say enough. A flash of what looked like a mix of disappointment and hurt flashed across his face, because did he really not even trust his other self enough to tell him the truth?
…But Kid wasn’t going to comment on it. Not right now. The magician already felt the need to lie – again – to avoid saying what troubled him. And really, pushing meant taking a risk. The other might break down and tell the truth… or asking further might push him away. But not saying anything about it might just make the situation worse… While he didn’t like seeing his other self like this… he also didn’t like those possibilities too much, either.
So he let out a silent sigh, worry and possibly the small bit of anger and fear that had sprung up at seeing his counterpart like that, after what’s been going on, softened and fell away slightly. And he looked back up at the other. Then stepped forward to put his arms around the magician, careful not to squeeze, though not caring if his own outfit might get a bit dirty.
“…Try not to get lost too often, okay? I’m sure it can’t just be me…”
Worried, wondering what’s wrong, wanting to help… The thief just shook his head though, pulling back a little and giving Kaito a gentle smile.
“You… we should probably clean you up. Wouldn’t want to leave you standing like this.”
Kaito wandered around a while, trying to decide on what to do. Or, well, that was what he had been doing for a while after noticing how he looked now. Really, he’d decided he did need to see his other self, both for any possible help, and… well…
He worried for the magician.
So most of the wandering and thinking now rested on whether or not he should go through with it, so much considering and debating on what might happen if he did, should he let him know right away, should he wait, or…
The sight of a familiar face off to one side caught Kaito’s attention, and he stopped. Why was…?
…
He didn’t hesitate too long before padding up to the other and tilting his head to one side, as if curious, wondering what was wrong.
“Mew?”
Playing with expectations? Possibly. But while his counterpart… while Kaito was comfortable with him, the thief wasn’t completely privy to what troubled the other. Not that he ever pushed the magician by asking, either. Comfort, companionship, and, well, plenty of distraction, he could give… But they only went so far when he didn’t know what was wrong.
So, no, he’s not going to see Kaito just yet. Maybe later, but for now, he’d just sit, watching the other roof with his knee pulled up in front of him, hands, then head resting on top of it, expressionless. This still took experimenting. How are you supposed to help someone who was another you… when…
He shook his head, closing his eyes briefly before opening them to watch the other again. Just barely able to see. Didn’t leave any listening devices near there. Just a question.
Because how can one help themselves if they don’t know who they are to begin with?
“…Well, guess you got back at me for the same number drink…”
Yeah, Kaito definitely hesitated this time. A buzz was okay, so long as he could still function, but… he’d never wanted to push too much further. Especially like this… one after another with nothing to stop it… It took a while, considering, but he did eventually drink another glass. And managed to set it down fine, but he was definitely more than a little flushed by now.
…And a lot less worried about what would happen if it went further, because hey, if it pushed that kind of thing away, it couldn’t be that bad… No, wait, yes it could. Stop.
…Was it always this easy to be distracted?
…Yeah, don’t think he likes alcohol… And he’s trying to ignore how pleasant his mind felt while it didn’t want to focus. No. Bad.
Send Σ(O_O；) for my characters reaction to having their clothes unbuttoned/unzipped by yours.
Was this a new kind of game?
Or revenge for the, ah, attention he’d given his double’s neck earlier?
A new way for the thief to try to make him flustered?
…All of the above?
Kaito wasn’t sure and the dexterious way in which his other self’s fingers undid each button of his shirt was proving much too distracting, making his mind unable to do much more than give a silent choked sound and promptly shut down in confused embarrassment.
Cheeks flushing, it took the magician much longer than he was wiling to admit to snap out of the rather hypnotic trance his parallel self’s hands had put him in. He swallowed thickly, then reached out to, rather clumsily, press a hand against the thief’s own to hold them still.
…It was only a moment later that he realized that pressing the other’s hands against his own chest was a very bad idea.
“Y-you, ah…” Kaito cleared his throat, trying very hard to ignore the warmth held against his torso while still being too stubborn to let the thief’s hands go, lest he start trying to unbutton the rest of his shirt. “If you wanted me out of my clothes that badly, the least you could do was ask, robot-san.”
“No.”
The reply was instantaneous and Kaito shook his head, tugging the Zorua plushie closer to his chest – it was most likely a good thing that it wasn’t a living creature or else it would’ve probably been suffocating right about now.
Of course he wouldn’t call the thief pathetic.If he really did break down and cry, then surely there would’ve been a reason for it. It wouldn’t be pathetic no matter what it would’ve been. He wouldn’t be pathetic.
‘But you are pathetic. Pathetic, foolish and naive.’
The familiar words echoing through his mind, bringing with them flashes of screams, begging, humiliation and pain made the magician’s breath hitch and he pressed his face into the plushie’s fur again. For a moment, it felt like the scars on his back were burning.
“…If you…if you got c-caught, if you got— if you couldn’t get to any of your t-tricks and your Poker Face didn’t work, if you were told— …Wh-what would you do?”
The teen tilted his head when his double started asking the question. Then his eyes narrowed as it went on. And it took a few moments before he looked away from the other to look up, staring into space before he closed his eyes.
It wasn’t as though he hadn’t thought about it, actually. High risk of death from people like Snake, Hakuba being able to find him so easily and be so sure of his identity, and Nightmare looking into possible weaknesses of Kid in particular, without even guessing who might be behind the monocle. Combined with how lax he realised he’d become with dangers not tied directly to his job. Kidnapped by a robot maker. Held at gunpoint as himself when he’d been trying to get Jii’s cue back… He knew. He wasn’t always prepared. And when things get to the point when he couldn’t recover ground, if all those ever combined to put him in a position he could never escape from… If nothing worked and anything he tried would be useless…
He sat in silence for a good amount of time, going over various situations, how he might respond, what he might try, and what would happen if he couldn’t think of anything new, when he had to give up, how it might affect him. The thief wished he could say he could get past it, but…
“It… would depend on exactly what was happening… but I’d break, more than likely.”
Words finally broke his silence, though he kept his eyes closed. He thought he knew himself well enough… And having all those experiences help to bring ideas. The last ways of escaping in the end would be breaking down, going insane… or death.
“…But I’d hope. Even if I couldn’t get out… I’d try to imagine what would happen if I did. The worst that would possibly happen… well, if it did…”
He shook his head before looking back down, opening his eyes again, dark for a moment before he blinked and turned back to his counterpart, the look disappearing as he did. Best not to consider things like that for too long, or his imagination… Provided a lot he didn’t want to think about.
“Ah… nevermind. But the thing about breaking…” Small smile. “…There’s always a possibility of repair, right? If given the chance.”
Send Σ(O_O；) for my characters reaction to having their clothes unbuttoned/unzipped by yours.
Was this a new kind of game?
Or revenge for the, ah, attention he’d given his double’s neck earlier?
A new way for the thief to try to make him flustered?
…All of the above?
Kaito wasn’t sure and the dexterious way in which his other self’s fingers undid each button of his shirt was proving much too distracting, making his mind unable to do much more than give a silent choked sound and promptly shut down in confused embarrassment.
Cheeks flushing, it took the magician much longer than he was wiling to admit to snap out of the rather hypnotic trance his parallel self’s hands had put him in. He swallowed thickly, then reached out to, rather clumsily, press a hand against the thief’s own to hold them still.
…It was only a moment later that he realized that pressing the other’s hands against his own chest was a very bad idea.
“Y-you, ah…” Kaito cleared his throat, trying very hard to ignore the warmth held against his torso while still being too stubborn to let the thief’s hands go, lest he start trying to unbutton the rest of his shirt. “If you wanted me out of my clothes that badly, the least you could do was ask, robot-san.”
He stiffened involuntarily when his counterpart knelt down beside him, breath catching in his throat and his hold on his plushie tightening. A moment later, nauseating guilt and shame rolled in his gut. It wasn’t the thief’s fault. Not really. He was the one acting like a damn child, after all.
All his double had done was try to help, to cheer him up, and Kaito knew that, knew the other male would never do anything to hurt him in any way of the word and realizing how he’d reacted, the knowledge that Kid’s innocent actions had made him panic in a way he hadn’t done since the first couple of weeks after that event…
“It—”
Kaito shook his head, one hand wiping at his cheeks and eyes – not that it made much difference, he laughed bitterly to himself, since the tears just kept on coming anyway no matter what he did and wasn’t that just oh so mortifyingly pathetic.
“I-I’m fine, s— s-sorry, I d-didn’t mean to—” A shaky breath, another shake of his head, trembling hands returning to clutch at the Zorua plushie. He swallowed, fingers curling tightly into the soft fake fur of the plushie, and he forced himself to glance over at his double, only managing a small grin that was more of a twitch of his lips than anything else.
“It…it wasn’t your fault, I-I just— I didn’t expect it an-and I… Heh. Sorry. P-pretty pathetic, isn’t it? Just ‘cause of a kiss…”
He listened, keeping an eye on the other before crossing his legs to sit down, hands resting in his lap. So much he wanted to try and say and do, to try and help his other self, to get him through this… even if the magician tried placating him right back. There was one thing he wanted to point out to the other first, though.
”…I don’t think so. People have reacted the same to even less sometimes, after all.“
A bit of debate went through his mind on whether or not he should get closer. Really, this situation looked more difficult to him than most people he tried to cheer up. Because while he could distract his literal self, not as sure how to cheer his other self…
”…If I were to break down and cry right now, would you call me pathetic?“
Send Σ(O_O；) for my characters reaction to having their clothes unbuttoned/unzipped by yours.
Was this a new kind of game?
Or revenge for the, ah, attention he’d given his double’s neck earlier?
A new way for the thief to try to make him flustered?
…All of the above?
Kaito wasn’t sure and the dexterious way in which his other self’s fingers undid each button of his shirt was proving much too distracting, making his mind unable to do much more than give a silent choked sound and promptly shut down in confused embarrassment.
Cheeks flushing, it took the magician much longer than he was wiling to admit to snap out of the rather hypnotic trance his parallel self’s hands had put him in. He swallowed thickly, then reached out to, rather clumsily, press a hand against the thief’s own to hold them still.
…It was only a moment later that he realized that pressing the other’s hands against his own chest was a very bad idea.
“Y-you, ah…” Kaito cleared his throat, trying very hard to ignore the warmth held against his torso while still being too stubborn to let the thief’s hands go, lest he start trying to unbutton the rest of his shirt. “If you wanted me out of my clothes that badly, the least you could do was ask, robot-san.”
His chest felt like it was constricting, like someone had wrapped a giant hand around his torso and was slowly squeezing the very life out of him, any air he tried to suck in getting stuck in his throat and his heart was beating fast, too fast, and he wanted to run – oh god please he couldn’t do this please – but he couldn’t move and it was all enough to make him want to laughand cry, because wasn’t it just so pathetic to get this worked up about a ki—
Something was thrust into his trembling hands. Something soft – and maybe even familiar, the fragment of Kaito’s mind that was still coherent supplied.
His fingers clutched at the object and he pressed it against his chest and wrapped his arms around it before he even realized what he was doing, his head dropping, face burrowing into the soft— plushie. A plushie. It was a plushie.
He was crying – oh, when had he started…? – into a plushie and that simple realization made a broken laugh tear from his lips as he dropped to his knees, legs to shaky to carry him any longer. It was pathetic. He was pathetic.
But at least he could breathe again.
The thief let out a breath of relief he hadn’t even been aware he’d been holding. The other hadn’t… calmed down, per se, but…
It was better than what had been happening before.
He stepped forward to help the magician when he fell, though it wasn’t entirely needed. What was needed though…
After a few moments, he looked off to one side, then reached up to remove the hat and monocle. They… weren’t exactly helpful right now. So he placed them to the side and knelt by the other.
“Hope you don’t mind that I borrowed your gift for a moment,” he said, glancing at the plushie before looking back at his doppelganger and giving a small smile, “But I did give it back right away, so no harm done, right?”
Another pause, just barely long enough to notice.
“Mind if I hang around a while? Unless I start doing something again, then feel free to chase me out with a flock of doves. I’m sure mine would help.”
Send Σ(O_O；) for my characters reaction to having their clothes unbuttoned/unzipped by yours.
Was this a new kind of game?
Or revenge for the, ah, attention he’d given his double’s neck earlier?
A new way for the thief to try to make him flustered?
…All of the above?
Kaito wasn’t sure and the dexterious way in which his other self’s fingers undid each button of his shirt was proving much too distracting, making his mind unable to do much more than give a silent choked sound and promptly shut down in confused embarrassment.
Cheeks flushing, it took the magician much longer than he was wiling to admit to snap out of the rather hypnotic trance his parallel self’s hands had put him in. He swallowed thickly, then reached out to, rather clumsily, press a hand against the thief’s own to hold them still.
…It was only a moment later that he realized that pressing the other’s hands against his own chest was a very bad idea.
“Y-you, ah…” Kaito cleared his throat, trying very hard to ignore the warmth held against his torso while still being too stubborn to let the thief’s hands go, lest he start trying to unbutton the rest of his shirt. “If you wanted me out of my clothes that badly, the least you could do was ask, robot-san.”
He stiffened, freezing in place, what little color had managed to return to his face instantly draining away and suddenly he couldn’t breathe, familiar words echoing in his mind over and over and over—
‘Pathetic.’
‘Unworthy.’
‘Slut.’
‘Whore.’
The rational part of Kaito’s mind knew that his double had only been trying to help, to make him relax, laugh and play – but the panic from mere minutes ago had exploded into something uncontrollable, drowning whatever sense of logic and rationality the magician had left and he couldn’t do this, no, no, no, please, please, he couldn’t do this.
“I-I’m—” He choked, stumbling back, his vision swimming and he wasn’t even seeing the thief before him anymore, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t— “S…S-sorry, I— I-I ca—”
What little smile the thief had died at the reaction, immediately realising he’d messed up, and crap, crap! He hadn’t wanted to cause anything bad to happen to the magician, to Kaito! He couldn’t say to himself, because despite how similar they were and shared names and most of the past, they weren’t the same. Parallels were still not the same, no matter how close.
And whatever was happening now was very clear proof of it, and he didn’t know what to do. What he could do! Something was wrong, but if something he normally did caused this, how could he know what else might or might now and just-
Kid made a quick snap of his fingers, setting off a small smoke bomb, and pushed something into the other’s hands. And something that had already been here before.
Send Σ(O_O；) for my characters reaction to having their clothes unbuttoned/unzipped by yours.
Was this a new kind of game?
Or revenge for the, ah, attention he’d given his double’s neck earlier?
A new way for the thief to try to make him flustered?
…All of the above?
Kaito wasn’t sure and the dexterious way in which his other self’s fingers undid each button of his shirt was proving much too distracting, making his mind unable to do much more than give a silent choked sound and promptly shut down in confused embarrassment.
Cheeks flushing, it took the magician much longer than he was wiling to admit to snap out of the rather hypnotic trance his parallel self’s hands had put him in. He swallowed thickly, then reached out to, rather clumsily, press a hand against the thief’s own to hold them still.
…It was only a moment later that he realized that pressing the other’s hands against his own chest was a very bad idea.
“Y-you, ah…” Kaito cleared his throat, trying very hard to ignore the warmth held against his torso while still being too stubborn to let the thief’s hands go, lest he start trying to unbutton the rest of his shirt. “If you wanted me out of my clothes that badly, the least you could do was ask, robot-san.”
“Don’t worry about it, robot-san.” Kaito shook his head again, grin stretching wider in an attempt to reassure his other self, all while silently trying to get the inward panic under control again. “It’s fine.”
Breathe.
Just breathe. Stay calm. Breathe and forget.
I can’t forget
“S-so—” He cleared his throat, attempting to will some color back onto his face and ignore the nausea making his throat go tight. The instinctive desire to run, flee, was pushed down to the best of Kaito’s abilities, fingers curling inwards and nails digging into his palms to remind him where he was and who he was with and that things were alright. “Was there anything else you wanted?”
The thief watched his counterpart, then smiled a little before closing his eyes.
“…No, that was all I had in mind when I came over… Though…”
He quickly stepped forward, leaning in to softly place a lingering kiss on the other’s lips before leaning away.
Moonlight Archive 