Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Spirit hadn’t decided if he enjoyed being in whatever “Adralla” was supposed to be. The mix of people, hybrids and magic gave him such a painful headache he preferred to stay away from larger towns. Thankfully, whoever this Neon person was lived in a secluded place deep in a forest, and it made for a great hiking spot. After letting Celia know he was going out, he ventured into the woods to give himself a break from the constant bickering going on between the three. The trees were easy to feel for, especially if he veered off the path and nearly slammed into one. The bushes were a little fuzzy unless he tried his hardest to pick out each and every leaf and twig. Honestly, he was completely blind to the path and wasn’t even sure there was one at all, but he figured there was based on the spacing between the trees. If there wasn’t, it wasn’t a big deal anyway. He’d just follow Celia’s aura home.

Server had been monotonously observing the intruders after detecting their presence in the entity archives. Three unexplained additions to the logs, one recorded several months ago while the other two were somewhat recent. With the help of Vholin, he'd located them, and had been watching since, silent and deadly.

His boredom seemed to lighten up as one little rabbit split from the litter.

Spirit eventually hit what seemed like a dead end; The trees pressed together and left him no way to continue. He stood still for a moment as he tried his hardest to focus and see what was around him. …It was looking like it was time to head back. He turned on his heel and sighed as he started back the way he came.

As Spirit turned and began to walk, Celia's aura slowly faded from view, as well as the others in the house and all the living bugs and animals in the area. The sounds of the forest hushed themselves and even what little sunlight that filtered through the treetops stopped shining.

After a few seconds, some much longer and some much shorter than others, Server rested his hands on the entity's shoulders, speaking from behind. They were now trapped together in the server's very own console.

"What vile creature spat you up?"

Spirit slowed to a stop as everything around him suddenly went… well, black. He couldn’t detect anything anymore. The hands that fell on his shoulders startled him more than he’d ever been startled in his life. He twitched, but froze, and didn’t make any effort to wiggle out of their grasp. The voice sent a chill down his spine.
He couldn’t focus… nothing was coming up. He couldn’t even hear anything- The peaceful sound of wind through the trees and tweeting of birds was suddenly gone. All he could hear was his own breathing, and the voice behind him. What was most confusing, though, was the fact that he still couldn’t see anything. This person… or entity, whatever you want to call it, had no aura at all. There was no proof it was even real beside the hands on him.

“What…?”

Spirit’s head turned toward the voice, but his shoulders were still held firmly in place.

Cold fingers grazed up the man's neck and toward the mask that covered his face. Server touched it, felt the material on the front, and then began to remove it.

"You heard me."

The god's tone was sharp, but also unnervingly sweet, as if he were smiling as he spoke—and he was. Though, it was not a very genuine and joyful smile. He was more so enthusiastic that he'd gotten such blessed alone time with one of the intruders he'd been watching the closest, but that was all.

"What made you decide to come here, bunny? You didn't think I'd come to poison your lot and snuff you out?"

Spirit desperately clawed at the mask and slammed it back down onto his face, shivering at the touch before shoving himself out of the entity’s arms. He was facing it now, and yet he still couldn’t detect or see anything. His heart rate was dangerously fast, and it slammed against his rib cage with every beat.

“What… are you?”

His voice trembled. He knew this being wasn’t human, and whatever it was, it was far more powerful than he was. He’d heard rumors of gods and server rulers from clients before, but he’d never given it much thought. He’d consider praying that wasn’t the case, but his prayers would likely be heard by whatever was in front of him.

Server's hands continued to fight for the man's mask, and every second that passed brought a larger smile to his face. He was growing excited now, waiting and craving to see the hidden face of the entity before him, so that he could get a nice long look at it.

Some sort of substance lapped at Spirit's ankles, warm but also cold enough to sting, like an ice cube trapped in someone's fists.

"What am I? I figured you'd be smart enough to know that on your own... how wrong I was."

Spirit felt his heart drop at the realization that the only explanation for this… entity was that it was otherworldly. A god… Exactly what he feared. His foot lifted to take a step back from the voice and hands tugging at his mask, slipping in the mystery liquid beneath him. He stumbled and just barely caught himself with another quick step back.

“Please… Stay away from me…”

His voice trembled, his usual assertive tone lodged in his throat somewhere.

The mask was quickly shoved off of Spirit's face once Server got tired of childishly fighting him for it. Delicate hands felt the other's bare face and cupped his cheeks from behind, fingers inching toward empty eye sockets.

A pair of wings—the god's back ones—grazed Spirit's shoulders, as though they were attempting to wrap around him but didn't quite get that far. The feathers were very well groomed, though almost unbearably soft.

"You're not supposed to be here."

Spirit jumped as the mask was ripped from his face, and he flinched as soft hands gently caressed his features. He hesitated, terrified to fight back against such a powerful entity, but quickly recovered and shoved the hands away. His pinched eyebrows made him seem as though he were angry, since there were no eyes to see the fear in. Exposed muscles twitched inside the cavities he once ripped open as he frantically searched for any sign of an aura. Nothing showed.

“Don’t touch me…!”

Words ripped through his throat as he desperately tried to regain his composure. Without his mask, he felt naked— completely exposed in both a literal and metaphorical way. No one had ever seen what was behind his mask.

A quiet sigh could be heard from the entity before everything stopped—the hands on Spirit's face, the wings that brushed his shoulders, the slimy liquid that had wrapped itself around his ankles. Everything was painfully silent until a rough hand grabbed Spirit's throat. Server's voice, which seemed to echo both inside of the other's head and outside of it, came inches away from his face now.

"Where did you come from? Answer me now!"

The grip around Spirit's throat tightened despite the god requesting a verbal response from him.

"Little imperfections like you and your kind aren't allowed in my playground! And you certainly will not tell me what to do with you!"

All that could be heard from Spirit now was the sound of him struggling to breathe— choking on his own saliva and the little air he had left from his last breath. His fingernails dug into the hands of the stranger as their breath fanned out across his face. Their touch felt like static. It certainly wasn’t a human’s touch, but it wasn’t completely void of feeling either. He tried his hardest to force out an apology, a desperate request, anything at this point, but nothing escaped.

After many painfully long seconds of struggling, one of his hands released the grip it had on the other. It searched and searched for the weapon on his side. As he pulled the small knife out, he gave up his fighting seconds before attempting to slice at what he thought was the entity’s wrist.

The knife made a clean cut through Server's wrist; the fist immediately went limp and fell to the slime below. Another arm, with a fresh hand attached, soon replaced the one that had been injured. That hand had a different feeling, though—the skin of it was rough, nails long and sharp and poking Spirit's skin as it reached to grab around his mouth. It also seemed to vibrate; a subtle rumbling that resembled the pins-and-needles feeling of a leg that had fallen asleep. It felt more like static than the first hand had.

Server's other hand was finding its way to the side of Spirit's head, where his thumb could easily jab into one of two eye sockets if it chose to.

"Speak!"

Spirit made the quick decision to spit in the other’s face instead of responding, regretting it immediately after. To hopefully avoid whatever attack the other was going to throw at him next, he snapped his leg out and slammed his heel into what felt like the other’s stomach, separating the two. He sent himself falling backward into the liquid, and he quickly crawled back, away from the god.

“I’ll leave- I’ll leave! Just let me go, please!”

Server flinched as his face was spat into. His eyes quickly narrowed, from both intense anger and disgust from the saliva on his nose. He watched the rabbit helplessly crawl away from him as he, the wolf, approached with irritation.

A shoe slammed down onto Spirit's chest, forcing him flat onto his back in the slime. It knocked a nauseating headache through his skull, one completely alike the headaches that were caused by the hacked server gates. Shixa complained about those more times than anyone ever had.

"I don't want to hear your begging. You sound like a pathetic animal."

The god knelt down to Spirit, taking a fistful of his hair and holding onto it tightly.

"Don't let me see your face again, or I promise you, you'll become a mere statistic in my kill count."

After his last statement, Server forced Spirit's head beneath the surface of the slime, listening to any choking sounds the other might have made until he met air on the other side, where the pixels of the ground made room for him.

Spirit was silent the entire time the god spoke, listening fearfully as he was pulled and kicked around like a rag doll. His head pounded as it was forced through solid ground, and the rest of his body quickly slipped through to follow. When he was back in the forest, the outline of nature quickly coming back to him made his head pound louder and harder. As he tried to catch his breath, he choked on and coughed up a bit of the slime into the long, unkept grass of the forest. It slowly sank back into the soil and faded from his detection. Standing up, he slowly started to recover the best he could.

Blood from the sharp cuts the god’s nails left started dripping down his face and neck. Wiping it was pointless— it only smeared and made him look so much worse. As he tried, it stained his clothes and hands, and thankfully covered the large bruises now on his neck from the strangulation. Ignoring the uncomfortable warmth now smeared across his body, his heart sank into his stomach upon realizing his mask wasn’t with him. Hands desperately searched the ground, sifting through the blades of grass and staining them red. He wanted to cry, but no matter how badly he wanted to, he never could.

He came up with nothing, and despite having such a strong connection to the object, he couldn’t detect it anywhere near him either. *Fuck me.* The god must’ve kept it. He’d have to return to the others without it.

Spirit started the quiet trek home, hiding a majority of his face with his arms. By the time he reached the house again, detecting all three people, blood had completely covered the front of his chest and jaw— the only part that was visible to others. He knocked on the door with the toe of his shoe and waited, body still trembling in fear from the encounter.

Neon had been catching up with the other two when he heard an unusually aggressive slamming against the front door. Ripping his eyes away from Shixa and his previous smile dropping, he excused himself from the office and answered the door. Before he could even get a good look at who it was, the person shoved past him and smeared blood across his clothing.

“Hey- Woah- Holy shit, are you okay?”

Spirit didn’t bother to answer. He made a beeline for Celia’s aura, shoving his face into the man’s chest to hide himself.

Celia had been loudly conversing with Shixa and Neon ever since Spirit had left the house. He had to find some distraction, of course; he couldn't worry about the other forever, especially since they didn't know when he'd be back.

He was in the middle of telling Shixa a story from several years ago as the door was kicked on. The sound didn't stop him, though, and Neon excusing himself didn't, either. What did was a figure moving toward him blindly, a mess of white hair and bloody skin bumping right into his chest, so fast he didn't process most of it at first.

He raised an arm and protectively hovered it around Spirit's head as his voice grew serious and dropped its usual playful tone. Celia seemed to only notice the mask missing, for now.

"Hey, where'd your mask go? Did you lose it out there?"

“Dude- He’s bleeding-“ Neon stumbled over his words as he quickly rummaged through his kitchen, searching for anything he could use to clean him up. “Bring him over here-“

“We have to leave- it wants us gone-“

Spirit’s voice was barely audible, being nothing more than a quiet, trembling mumble. He covered a majority of his bloodied face with one hand and pulled gently on Celia’s shirt with the other, smearing the red across his clothes too. Spirit’s hand was big enough to cover his eye sockets, nose and mouth, but a bit of his eyebrows were visible along with his jaw and chin. He felt so painfully exposed. He wanted to disappear, and the idea of going anywhere near Neon, a stranger, right now made him feel sick.

Celia gave Neon a quick, confused look before glancing back down toward Spirit and inspecting him closer. He watched as blood was smeared onto his shirt, and caught sight of the stains on Spirit's cheeks and neck. At that point, his demeanor quickly switched into something Neon hadn't yet seen from him.

Celia's expression fell to one of complete seriousness and he began walking through the house with Spirit's head against his chest. He had to go slow, for the sake of Spirit's balance, but made it to Neon's bathroom at the other side of the house in no time, having to push past the man to get there as well. He opened the door and ushered Spirit inside, blindly holding out his other hand in Neon's direction. The tone of his voice almost sounded mean; it wasn't truly meant to be.

"Give me whatever you have."

Neon stepped out of their way as they moved, his expression switching to a confused look. The tone change made his hands hesitate to keep looking.

“I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong- what is he even bleeding from? Spirit, let me see-“

Spirit’s heart dropped at the thought of showing anyone anything. His hands trembled against Celia’s chest as he continued to hide, terrified by both his previous encounter and the request from Neon. Neon’s rambling didn’t help either— he had begun to list the many injuries he could possibly have. God, he talked too much.

“Don’t come anywhere near me- I’ll kill you!”

Spirit’s voice wavered. Despite the threat, he sounded like he was on the verge of tears.

Celia's own volume raised as Neon argued with them. He let Spirit speak first, the threat hardly surprising him, and then responded in turn, angrily repeating what he'd said before.

Neon's inability to cooperate quickly pissed him off. Was it not obvious that Spirit was hiding his face?

"Just give me what you have! I'll take care of it!"

He turned his head to look over his shoulder, at Neon. Despite his tone and general expression seeming stressed and annoyed, his eyes also had a bit of terror in them. No one knew what injuries Spirit had received, yet. Celia was just as lost as Neon was in that regard—he was just much more protective, and knew much more about the other's fears.

The sudden outburst quickly snapped Neon out of it. His hands worked quickly to find anything they could possibly need, hiding his slightly hurt expression behind his mask. Just as he adjusted his own, he remembered he’d made an extra mask. It was hidden god knows where in his room, but it if it would help, he’d find it.

“Damn okay, chill out. My bad.”

Neon quickly handed off the items to Celia, averting his eyes from Spirit to respect his privacy. He wouldn’t want Spirit to see his face, so why should Neon look at his?

Spirit tried his best to breathe normally while the two argued, visualizing the position the two were in. Shixa sat awkwardly off in the office, watching as the other two morons fought. This whole situation quickly made him realize he definitely doesn’t like Adralla.

Celia reached to take the items that Neon passed on to him, revealing how much his hands were trembling. He mumbled something incoherent, most likely a sloppy "thank-you" of sorts, before gently guiding Spirit into the bathroom and shutting the door behind them both.

"Okay, okay, door's shut. Can I see?" Celia set down the supplies in the sink while his other hand led Spirit to sit on the toilet lid.

"There's a seat right here."

Shixa, on the other hand, had been shocked into silence ever since he'd caught sight of how bloody Spirit was. His eyes were wide and dilated, watching the scene until the two disappeared into the bathroom and Neon, obviously shaken up, stood in the front room. His tail flicked against the office desk before he hopped off and crept up to Neon to speak to him.

"...What the fuck just happened?"

~

“No- Don’t touch me…!”

Spirit’s voice sounded more desperate and terrified than angry— After all, it was Celia. He could never seriously be upset with him. He knew he just wanted to help, but he still refused to let him see anything. He was more terrified of Celia seeing what he really looked like than the minor wounds in his cheeks.

His hands continued to cover a majority of his face, only bits of his jaw and forehead visible. There were minor scars across the exposed skin, and he was nearly white as snow. It was partially from the half Ghast in his blood, but also from being scared half to death. He sat on the toilet seat, nearly hyperventilating as he tried to catch his breath.

~

Outside the bathroom, Neon stared silently at the door as both him and Shixa were shut out.

“How are they gonna lock me out of my own bathroom?”

Neon’s deadpanned look to Shixa was a desperate attempt to lighten the mood, but the air remained stiff.

~

Celia turned his eyes away once Spirit found the seat. Worriedly, he scanned the items in the sink, trying to muster up some sort of solution in his head. Spirit didn't want him to help, but he also couldn't see what he was doing, so he couldn't do it on his own. Spirit would need help unless he wanted to spend all night trying to clean himself up. Celia would hate for that to happen.

"Snowflake, I have to help you. It's a lot and you'll spend all night doing it by yourself." Celia's voice had completely dropped its angered tone. He only sounded concerned now, for good reason.

"I know you don't want me to see your face, but maybe you could keep your hand over most of it. Does that sound okay?"

~

Shixa had to choke back an anxious laugh, mostly at the look he'd been given but also at Neon's words.

"He got blood on you."

~

Spirit felt his face start to burn after hearing the name. Why was he being so sincere? It made his chest feel funny, so he spoke quietly.

“You’re being oddly nice and it’s freaking me out…”

His tone sounded a bit worried, afraid that something worse was wrong. It would explain why Celia was taking this so seriously. While he hated to admit it, he was awful at caring for wounds on his own. He relied entirely on feel and wherever it looked like his aura was leaking from, and touching all over a fresh wound usually caused infection. After accepting that he did in fact need Celia’s help, he slid his hands together in the middle of his face, using his fingers to cover the upper portion, and exposed the cuts in his cheeks. Underneath all the blood, his cheeks were tinted slightly pink from the embarrassment.

~

Neon glanced down at his shirt and made a dramatic gagging noise at the blood that had been smeared on him. It really wasn’t a big deal, but he felt way too uncomfortable to try to be serious right now.

“Of course he did! He’s an asshole!”

~

Celia took a shaky breath as Spirit briefly changed the subject. He always tried to be nice to the other—it wasn't his fault most of his attempts backfired. He just sucked at it.

"Sorry, you're just hurt, so..."

As Spirit slowly gave in to the urging, Celia got right to work. First, he began to clear the blood, using the sink to dampen a square washcloth he found in one of the counter drawers. Careful to not get water on the rest of the items in the basin, Celia rinsed the cloth and brought it to Spirit's cheeks first, gently wiping.

"What happened? You said something wants us gone?" Celia spoke as he worked.

~

Shixa cringed at the gagging noise from Neon and gently smacked him on the arm. "Ew, don't sound like that!"

~

Spirit let out a quiet gasp as he was reminded. They were supposed to be leaving! Celia could be sweet some other time- they had to go!

“It- it’s the god! The creator of this server- it wants us out and he’s going to hurt us if we don’t leave-“

Quickly stood from the toilet, nearly slamming his chest into Celia’s. He reached to open the door as he switched to hide a majority of his face with his elbow. It hurt to swallow, his back and ribs were aching from being stomped on, he was covered in his own warm, and now sticky, blood- how could he have gotten so distracted?

~

As he lowered his voice, Neon spoke with genuine sincerity.

“As much as I dislike Spirit, I hope he’s okay. Don’t tell him I said that though.”

~

"Hey, no—" Celia stumbled over his words at first, struggling to grasp the serious tone again. He moved to block Spirit's path, walking him backwards toward the seat once more. "No. It can wait for me to fix you."

He locked the door from the inside and stood flush with Spirit's knees. "Tilt your head back, okay? The faster you let me help the faster we can leave."

~

Shixa rolled his eyes and stepped past him, itching his ear mindlessly as he approached the kitchen window. Peeking past the wood frame, he saw absolutely nothing out there. Whatever had mauled Spirit was gone. "There's not even anything out there..."

~

Spirit went silent. He didn’t have the energy to argue with him, and he knew he would lose anyway. The little space between them would make him stumble over his words too.

All he responded with was a quiet sigh before tilting his head back, going back to covering his face with his hands. He’d just have to wait. Maybe if the god returned, he’d get his mask back.

~

“Wait- The mask! I have one- I can help!” Neon shouted upon remembering his previous thought, grabbing and shaking Shixa’s shoulders in excitement. He dashed into his bedroom and started tearing through his stash of old memories he’d hidden under his bed. His old weapon, a flag from the ship, his coat he wore when he was captain and a few other items. Underneath everything was a near exact copy of the mask he was currently wearing. Spirit would most likely hate the idea of matching masks with Neon, but it would work until they could find something else. Neon knew how scary it was to lose something so important. If he was a friend of Shixa and Celia’s, he was a friend of Neon’s. Neon stumbled over himself as he rushed back into the room, sliding to a stop in front of the bathroom door. He knocked quietly.

~

"Thank you." Celia mumbled toward him, relief flooding his chest at Spirit's cooperation. He just had to fix him up, then they could leave. He could tell Spirit didn't like it in this place at all, and he hadn't liked it even before whatever had happened with the god.

Celia continued cautiously washing Spirit's face, eventually moving onto his neck once he got most of the blood off. He didn't bother washing Spirit's clothing; he assumed they could just wash it all later, either in Neon's pond or the stream back in the Market City.

"I'm sorry it took your mask. Maybe we could find a—" Celia's voice was interrupted by a knock at the door. He gave a long sigh, then put down the washcloth and cracked the door open, blocking the opening with his body and looking out at Neon.

"What?"

~

Shixa had followed Neon into his room, but stayed there after the other rushed out with the mask. His eyes had quickly fallen toward the box of memories, most of which he recognized from the ship. His tail dipped a bit as he remembered some old things.

~

Spirit flinched as his neck was pressed on. As gentle as Celia was being, it still hurt like a bitch. The knock at the door made him jump a little, but he relaxed when he noticed Celia wasn’t freaking out. It must’ve been Neon.

“Chillax with the attitude bro. I found this.” Neon joked, slipping the mask through the door and handing it to Celia. “Try not to get blood on it, please. It’ll stain the wood.”

The mask looked to be in way better condition than the one Neon wore everyday. It would work for now.

Celia blinked at the mask and slowly took it through the opening of the door. He looked at it, looked back up at Neon, and then had to stifle a laugh.

"Yeah, okay. I'll try not to do that." He replied, not truly knowing whether Neon was serious or joking. Either way, he guessed it would be fine.

After a quick word of gratitude, a little more comprehensible than the last one he'd given Neon, he shut the door and turned back toward Spirit with the mask in his grip. Slow steps brought him back to the toilet seat and he pressed the edge of the mask to Spirit's arm in an attempt to let him know it was there.

"Neon brought an extra mask for you."

Spirit responded by jumping a bit, but he turned toward the mask anyway. It had the lingering energy of… Neon on it, but it was better than nothing. He quickly turned away from Celia, uncovered his face and took the mask to put it on. Immediately after securing it, he visibly relaxed. “Thank you…”

He turned around to face Celia again. The mask looked a little funny on him— the eye holes were completely pointless for a blind person, but they gave the illusion of a facial feature Celia had never seen before. When compared to the literal blank slate of a mask he had before, it was… Freaky. “Is it ugly?”

~

Neon stepped away from the door and immediately returned to Shixa to lightheartedly mock Celia’s attitude. He mumbled in a high pitched voice, “Thanks Neon, I really appreciate your help! You’re a great friend!”

~

Celia looked away as Spirit took the mask and put it on. He only glanced back once the other spoke, taking that as a sign that he was done, and that it was okay to look once more.

The new mask looked odd on him. Celia was completely used to the blank one, the one void of emotion that always tricked his brain and even sometimes made him sad. This one at least had some decoration on it, and the eye holes were an added bonus to its appearance, even though Spirit couldn't use them.

Celia let out a small, breathy laugh before responding. "No, no. You just look like Neon."

~

Shixa snorted at the comment and turned away, almost entirely unfazed by the situation at that point. He'd seen Spirit covered in blood enough times to not worry about it for very long. "He's just stressed out."

~

Spirit’s entire body visibly cringed at the thought of looking like Neon. Gross.

“So ugly then, got it.” Spirit’s tone lifted a bit at the end as he teased. The mask didn’t feel any different than the one he was wearing before. He was sure it looked different, but it wasn’t like he could tell anyway. Despite the comment about the similarity to Neon, hearing Celia sound less stressed made him feel better. He was happy to hear his laugh again. “Thank you.”

Spirit gave Celia an awkward pat on the shoulder as he thanked him, unsure what else to say. He wasn’t usually dependent on someone else.

~

Neon rolled his eyes behind the mask, and it was obvious he did in the way he moved. He wasn’t really hurt by Celia’s sudden outburst, he just wanted to complain. “I was stressed too! I expect a written apology when they’re done making out in there.”

~

Celia leaned his hip against the edge of the sink countertop, relief slowly flooding into his voice at the fact that Spirit was both fine and covered once more.

"It's fine. You're fine." The man took a deep breath and turned back to Spirit. Celia wanted to get close to him, perhaps hug him or something, but he didn't want to startle him. "...Right?"

~

"Uh-huh, you're expecting too much from Celia already. He can't write and I'm dead serious about that." Shixa's tail flicked against Neon's thigh as he stepped past him and wandered closer to the doorway. "Also, I saw... your old stuff."

~

Spirit stood facing the bathroom door, ready to leave but something stopped him. Celia’s aura flickered as it began to grow brighter, relief stopping the weighing down that stress was causing. He was back to how he usually was, only the aura seemed a bit…. Slow. The swirls weren’t as quick and jumpy as they usually were. Celia was upset about something.

Spirit turned his head toward the aura, looking at him over his shoulder as his hand hovered over the door handle. “Yes. What’s wrong?”

~

Neon’s heart dropped when Shixa spoke. It wasn’t a terrible thing that Shixa saw where his old things were, but he would’ve liked if he hadn’t. While he trusted Shixa, the worry of something going missing lingered in the back of his mind.

“Oh.” His voice hesitated, thinking for a moment. He wanted to joke about it to lighten the awkward mood but he couldn’t think of anything. “Yeah- I kept some stuff.”

~

Celia had always been interested in Spirit's ability to tell things about him. His location, his feelings, his injuries; it was apparently his "aura" or so Spirit called it, but Celia wished he could see for himself. He wanted to know what it looked like without having to be given some difficult description of it.

Spirit recognizing his lingering stress didn't surprise him. He answered with a half-truth and took another step closer, reaching a hand out to grab at Spirit's clothing. "Just concerned... come back."

~

Shixa's own expression fell as he heard Neon's tone shift. It sounded awkward and almost shameful, as if he were guilty for something. It was just old pirate stuff he'd seen. Nothing too embarrassing.

"...That's cute. I want to see it more later." Shixa mumbled, looking at the vines that hung past the doorway as he spoke. He used it as a distraction from what words he allowed to slip from his mouth. "If you please."

~

Spirit frowned at the request. Celia often said things that confused him, but he didn’t want to seem mean if Celia was upset about something. “Come back? But I’m right here.”

Spirit watched the outline of his hand lift toward him, and he glanced down to look at it. After a few silent seconds of staring, he slowly lifted his hand to take Celia’s, holding it between both of his own. Celia’s aura swirled and swayed faster at the touch.

~

Neon smiled, following Shixa to the doorway and holding his face in his hands. “You’re cute. Anything for you, my love.”

~

Of course Spirit was right there—but Celia needed him closer. So much that there wasn't room for anything else. His heart skipped at the hands that grabbed his own and he watched before closing the space between them even more to rest his head on Spirit's shoulder.

"Don't scare me like that," he said, his voice muffled a bit. "You suck."

~

Shixa turned around to see Neon following him, just in time for hands to reach his face. He squinted at first at the squish, then rolled his eyes and glared off at nothing in particular. "Yeah, yeah..."

~

Spirit jumped as he remembered— They were supposed to be leaving! The god could take any of them at any moment… They needed to leave while they still could. “Speaking of scaring- We need to go. Now.”

It was like Spirit did a complete reset. He instantly turned away from Celia and threw the bathroom door open, pulling Celia along with him. “Shixa- We need to go!”

Neon flinched at the sound of the bathroom door slamming against the wall, followed by yelling. Spirit quickly found the other two in the house and stared at them, despite the awkward position they were caught in. Neon was squishing his face like he was some sort of kitten.

“Shixa, let’s go. Now.”

“Wait- Don’t I get a say in this? You’re not leaving me again without some explanation-“ Neon began to rant, worried about a repeat of last time. Spirit didn’t have time for this- they needed to go.

“No time for explaining.”

“Then you better make time, ‘cause I’m not letting him leave unless I know what’s going on.” Neon’s hand found Shixa’s and held it firmly.

Spirit's quick attitude turn-around made Celia's eyes narrow. It hurt him that their minute alone was cut short by something he'd barely been given information about. And it hurt him even more that Spirit seemed much more worried about it than anyone, despite not giving Celia many details at all. The man frowned as Spirit began to pull him.

His aura slowed once again as he gave a hesitant answer. "...Okay."

Shixa's moment with Neon was cut short, too. He angrily glanced over toward Spirit's voice, watching them emerge from the bathroom together in a rush. Spirit's sudden insistence with their departure annoyed him. "What the fuck? Why?"

Spirit was too distracted to notice Celia’s aura now, but he kept his hand held firmly in his own. He took a few seconds to think of the words to explain, and while he noticed the jolting movements in Shixa’s aura, indicating he was upset, he didn’t let that rush him.

“The creator of this server is going to kill us. Let’s go.”

“That… isn’t a good explanation, Spirit.”

Neon could tell that talking wasn’t exactly easy for Spirit, so he tried his hardest to understand and cut him some slack, but seriously… He was trying to take Shixa from him again. He needed more than that.

“I am… sorry. It wants us out. We have to go.”

Spirit squeezed Celia’s hand lightly as he struggled. He really wished someone else was there with him when the attack happened. It sounds insane to someone who wasn’t there, but he needed them to believe him for their sakes. Even Neon could be in danger.

Celia frowned at Spirit's words, listening to the interactions around himself. Spirit seemed too afraid and irritated to explain any more than he already had, and Neon and Shixa were both angry. Words escaped him faster than he could filter them.

"Everyone shut up. We'll all go. Neon, too," he said. "Fuck it."

Whatever had happened to Spirit did sound insane. Celia wished he'd been there; but still, Spirit wasn't usually the type to act this way.

Neon rolled his eyes after the initial silence and tension dissipated. Spirit and him both didn’t want to argue anymore.

“Sure- Whatever your boy toy wants, he gets. Let me get my shit.” He lightly tapped Shixa on the arm as he walked into the bedroom, laughing at his own sly remark. If Celia wanted to be sassy today, Neon would be sassy right back.

The comment made Spirit glance down at their hands— they were still holding each other. He quickly slipped his hand out of Celia’s and turned away, crossing his arms over his chest. Neon could be mad all he wanted, but he was just trying to help. They were seriously in danger.

Shixa had to hold in his laughter at Neon's comment, and at the tone of voice he'd spoken in. The tapping on his arm alerted him enough for his ears to perk up, his attention staying with Neon as he followed him into the bedroom.

After hearing that, Celia stood silently. He usually loved hearing stupid jokes and getting teased about his love life, because it was typically funny, but not this time. This time, he was irritated, and everyone kept making it worse. Spirit pulling their hands apart with ease set him off, too.

He let out an obviously angered sigh, then turned away from Spirit and walked to the front door, leaving the house to wait for everyone outside.

Spirit wanted to follow Celia. He wanted his aura back to normal, but he wasn’t sure how to help. Words were hard for him. Maybe, if he could convince Neon, he could apologize… Even then, he wasn’t sure an apology would make him feel better, but it was something. After a long pause of silence, Spirit followed Neon and Shixa into the bedroom.

As he stepped in, he noticed Neon’s aura was… different. It wasn’t as still as it usually was. He was upset too. “Neon.”

Neon quickly met Spirit’s… eyes. His holes in his mask, that is. “What?”

“Understand me. You’re upset, and so is Celia. Talk to him.” and after a long, awkward pause, “…please.”

Neon nervously laughed as he turned his attention away from the barrel he was rummaging through. “What, can you read minds or something?”

“You’re… still. Your energy is lacking.”

Neon stared at Spirit for a moment, frowning at his words before slowly turning to Shixa. What was this guy on? I mean, he was right— Neon was a little upset, but he thought he was hiding it pretty well. After thinking for a moment, he turned back to Spirit and laughed. “Okay, weirdo. I’ll be back.”

Spirit was left alone with Shixa after Neon went to find Celia. He spotted him outside and stepped out to chat with him. Spirit suddenly felt uncomfortable, and judging by Shixa’s aura, he felt it too.

Shixa looked up as Spirit entered the bedroom behind him. He blinked and listened to their short conversation, helplessly watching Neon give in and leave the room, stranding him with Spirit.

Great.

He assumed he'd have to explain that whole "energy" thing later, too.

Instead of awkwardly standing there, Shixa unwillingly found something to do, wordlessly packing Neon's bag for him. He already knew what all needed to be there.

~

The door was loud as it shut behind Neon, but Celia didn't turn around. He couldn't care less who was coming to talk to him—or maybe they were done packing already. The latter seemed less likely.

Neon slowly approached Celia from behind and tapped him on the shoulder. “Excuse me, sir. Your boyfriend said our ‘energies’ are ‘lacking.’” As he spoke, he slowly bent into a dramatic bow. “My apologies for joking about your boyfriend in front of your boyfriend. I’ll keep it on the DL next time.” His voice lowered into a whisper as he said “boyfriend,” pretending it was some sort of secret that the two had a thing for each other. Maybe to them, but to everyone else? Definitely not.

~

In the house, Spirit swayed silently from side to side. He hated how awkward it was when him and Shixa were alone together. “Are you upset too? I think your aura looks like that all the time, but it may be a little worse than usual.”

~

Celia couldn't swallow down his annoyance. He turned around and swept his hand beneath Neon's head, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him up from the bow, so that they could look at each other.

"I don't care what jokes you and Shixa make at me while he's gone, but he hates it here as it is. I'm trying not to make him hate this place even more, for your sake and Shixa's, both. Whatever happened while he was gone was some serious shit. He doesn't get scared like that for no reason, and I appreciate you trying to help with his injuries and everything, but don't push like that when he barely knows you. He doesn't even let me help him like that." The long-winded scolding fell from his mouth easily. Celia felt a little better just from that, but even so, yelling at Neon just made him feel guilty on top of everything else. This guy didn't know what he was doing; neither of them did. Celia just wanted Spirit to like it in Adralla, so they didn't have to drag Shixa back with them every time they left, and so they could come visit instead, without having to worry about safety. But as far as the server creator was concerned, apparently they'd never be safe. It was complicated, and confusing, and frustrating, and Celia just wanted a better home than the trashy place he'd lived in since he was little. He was tired of fearing for his life and for two other lives every single day.

It was all piling up and Celia wasn't usually the type to let his bottled-up problems explode in front of others, but he was dangerously close to doing so at that moment.

"...I'm sorry." He let go, wiping sweat off of his face with his palm.

~

Shixa shrugged at the question, hoping the movement was obvious enough that Spirit could see it in his aura, whatever that looked like—he didn't know. "I'm fine."

~

Neon’s hands went up in mock surrender as soon as he was grabbed, and he leaned as far away from Celia as he could as he ranted. When he finished and apologized, Neon let out a little nervous laugh he’d been holding in. “That… was hot.”

He continued laughing after, a little less nervous, but rushed to clarify. “But seriously- I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how… well, serious this was for you. My bad. I’ll chill out.”

~

Spirit smiled under the mask, stopping his nervous swaying for a moment. “Your aura is… nice to look at.”

~

"Shut the fuck up." Celia said as he began to laugh, shoving Neon back by his chest. The brief, playful tone slowly turned sour once again. "You're so weird. I'm just sick and tired... of so much shit. I want this place to be a better home for us than out there. It can't be like that if everyone hates it, and if everyone hates us."

He was very clearly stressed, but he didn't dare cry in front of Neon.

~

Shixa hesitated as he sloppily folded one of Neon's shirts. The words that met his ears caused the stutter, but he quickly recovered, at least on the outside. "...You've never even told me what it is."

~

Neon let out the girliest giggle he could as he was shoved, but quieted down to listen as Celia got serious again. “Yeah, I get that. …Wanting to start over and find somewhere new. Leave things behind. I don’t wanna ruin that for you, or Spirit… even if he is a little weird.”

Neon stood up straight and stretched his arms, throwing his cloak hood off his head. “It’s hot as balls out here- Can we go back inside now?”

~

Spirit thought of what to say for a long time. He wasn’t the best at describing things, but he would try if it would make Shixa feel better. “It’s… like *swoosh* and *rah* but a glowy grey color. And when you’re upset, it goes *crash* and *eek!* …Like an arrow… or… A stabbing motion. When you’re…average-feeling, it’s very… still. Silent.”

The ends of Spirit’s ears got redder the more he explained, and the noises he was making didn’t help the embarrassment of not being able to explain properly. He nervously picked at his fingers when he was finished.

~

"He's not as weird as you." Celia shoulder-checked the other as he walked past him, heading for the door. "Just different. You'll get used to it—me and Shix had to."

He used one hand to open the door and another to gather his hair and hold it up at the back of his head. It was dreadfully hot, that was the truth.

~

"It's only gray?" Shixa made a face at Spirit as he made the sounds, not really understanding that part. He guessed, if it made sense to Spirit, then that was all that mattered. Shixa approached him suddenly, stepping up to a dresser right next to him, reaching for something on the top of it. As he reached, his tail touched Spirit's leg, almost in the same affectionate fashion as it touched Neon's at times. "That's boring."

“The color doesn’t matter to me. There’s plenty of grey auras.” Spirit noted as he watched Shixa move. His head sort of lagged behind, like his vision was delayed, and the touch made him jump. “Your tail touched me.”

His head very slightly followed the movement of Shixa’s tail for a moment. He liked to watch it— the aura left a sort of trail behind it that was similar to Celia’s.

~

Neon followed Celia as they stepped back inside to check on the others, flicking at Celia’s tail to fuck with him. “I guess so.”

~

"It matters to me. I don't wanna be boring like everyone else." Shixa's tail flicked, then hit Spirit's leg again, further down. After being called out on it, Shixa moved it off. "...Oh."

Sometimes he was glad Spirit couldn't see most things. His embarrassment at getting caught was quite obvious on his pale face.

~

He jumped as Neon flicked at him, looking up to see the other two coming in. Shixa pointed in the direction of the bag he'd been packing. "Check that."

Spirit didn’t need to see Shixa to know he was embarrassed. The uncertainty in the movement of his aura told him enough, and he was about to say something before Celia and Neon returned. He decided to stay quiet instead and move to stand against Celia’s side like usual.

Neon’s attention snapped to Shixa when he spoke, and his hand slid across Shixa’s side and back as he walked around him to the bag. “Thank you. You’re so sweet.”

His hand ruffled Shixa’s hair and rubbed his ears for a bit before pulling his head against his chest, giving him a quick hug.

“We can go now, I guess.”

Spirit looked up at Celia for confirmation.

Celia welcomed Spirit against his side, leaning into him without making it completely obvious. He always loved doing that, putting some of his weight on the other and feeling comforted when he was caught.

"Whatever, you guys just took too long." Shixa grumbled, squinting his eyes as his hair and ears were pet. Pleasant tingles rushed along his head and neck, relaxing him enough to take the edge out of his reaction to it.

Celia nodded his head at Neon's statement. "Yep. Gate's not too far away."

~

The four traveled through the server’s gate, and Spirit’s demeanor changed immediately. It was like he was completely reset, and was right back to how he usually was; completely neutral and deadly silent. The mask he wore was still kind of throwing it off, though. Neon noticed the change and rolled his eyes as he was seemingly instantly cured of any stress he had before. If the creator of Adralla really did attack him, he shouldn’t be able to leave, according to Inbetween knowledge. Server “gods” were unable to leave their own servers. Neon’s hand held Shixa’s firmly in his own as they made their way down the gate hall and into the town. Everything was beat up and worn, and fires blazed from random spots around town. People were camped out on the streets, and chatter was heard from every corner as they walked. A few things were shouted at them, but Neon had already been advised not to respond, and he listened. They were already on edge— it was best not to start a fight right now.

When they finally reached Shixa and Celia’s home — Which Neon was shocked no one had crashed in yet — they dropped their things on the floor and let out a collective sigh.

Spirit hadn’t left Celia’s side since they left Neon’s. His hand eventually found Celia’s wrist, which he quickly latched onto as though he was afraid of losing him somehow. When they got to the home, he finally released the death grip he had on him and sat on one of the makeshift beds with his hands folded in his lap. Beneath the mask — which he was planning on replacing ASAP — he closed his eyes and sensed every little thing he possibly could in the room. It was like he was meditating. He was completely still and silent.

Neon, on the other hand, threw his things down as loudly as possible and groaned. “I was trying not to say anything to the dude who kept talking about our masks. I think he thought we were either related or dating.”

…No response from Spirit.

“Okay, good talk.”

Going through server gates and traveling through such portals hardly bothered Celia at this point. He'd been doing it for as long as he could remember, since he was a child. He knew Shixa still got nausea and bad migraines from it, and it often knocked most of his energy out of him, but he and Spirit were typically fine after one or two travels. Any more than that gave them some tricky symptoms that Celia, at least, preferred to avoid.

The gate hall was relatively busy, but it always was. People living, sleeping, panhandling near the walls, while others walked with intention and some looking completely lost. Celia recognized a lot of them, mostly from past encounters or random eye-contact in passing. The same was true for some people in the Market City.

Celia led the group, confident in his stride and indifferent toward the volume of voices around them. Shixa, on the other hand, was less collected, his ears pointing this way and that at different catcalls and words shouted from god-knows-where. To someone close that yelled, he threw up a middle finger and hissed, receiving laughter in return. Sometimes he liked to play with strangers like that, other times it was more difficult to let it go.

They reached Celia's house in no time and he pulled the thick bedsheet over the doorway to close off the room once they were all inside. It blocked most of the lantern light from the alleyway, though soon enough, he lit his own lantern. It was the only source of light they had in the home at the moment, left to sit on their dining table. It did well enough at illuminating the area.

Amongst the makeshift beds on the floor, one actual bed—a twin mattress with a blanket on top—was tucked in the very furthest corner of the room. Shixa headed for it, his tail low and his voice fatigued. "I call the bed."

Neon nearly smacked his head on the ceiling with every movement, and threw his hood on in frustration. He was a little overwhelmed by the sudden change and he hoped that by blocking out his peripheral vision even more, he’d be able to calm down a bit. It worked for the time being, but eventually he figured it would be best to step outside. The alley just out the doorway wasn’t too busy, and the few that were out there didn’t say anything as they walked up, so he hoped they’d be silent. “I’m going outside.”

Once again, no response from Spirit. He just kept staring forward at the floor.

Neon rolled his eyes at the silence from him and shoved the bed sheet out of the way, stepping out and leaning against the wall. He took a massive breath in and stretched, but was met with the taste and smell of pure static. That’s the void for you.

Celia was the only one that gave a response to Neon, acknowledging his disappearance before deciding to join him. "Wait," he said, but his voice was almost too quiet to hear.

He put down his things and rushed outside to meet Neon in the alley. A heavy breath left him, one of partial relief and partial exhaustion from the journey. "Where are you going? I want to come."

~

Shixa collapsed onto the mattress and curled up against the wall, the blanket soft and comfortable beneath his head. He was more than used to Spirit just existing in the room, meditating or whatnot, so it didn't bother him.

~

Neon hid behind his comically large hood and cloak, glancing past it to meet Celia’s eyes. “Anywhere but in there right now. I feel… like I can’t breathe.”

Neon’s chest felt like it was shrinking and crushing the organs inside. He needed time in a space that wasn’t the size of a closet.

~

Spirit didn’t move until the other two were gone, and when he did, it was just a slight movement of his head toward Shixa.

“Shixa.” His voice was low and unintentionally demanding— like he had something extremely important to say, but it was nothing like that at all.

~

Celia frowned at the words. At first, he didn't know how to help. The Market City was that bad... pretty much everywhere he looked. There were more tiny crevices and small rooms than there were open spaces, although he did have one idea.

"...Here. I know somewhere." He held out a hand, expecting Neon to take it.

~

Shixa's ear moved as his name was called, but he took a moment to respond to it. His brain was tired, thoughts slow. He didn't want to get up no matter what Spirit might tell him to do. "What?"

~

Neon hesitated to reach out, but eventually took his hand, holding his hood up with the other. “I’m trusting you— Don’t make me regret it.”

He wanted to believe Celia was actually going to help him so badly, but his thoughts quickly turned sour the more overwhelmed he grew. He’d follow him anyway, desperate to be proven wrong.

~

Spirit hesitated once he heard the attitude in Shixa’s tone, but he figured he’d be nice anyway. “Are you going to sleep?”

~

Celia didn't respond, slowly taking off down the alley. He tried his best to walk past the larger groups of people quickly, taking a sharp turn at a set of stairs going up. He took Neon to what seemed to be a second level, then again to a third level, behind a business that seemed to sell handmade clothing. There was a ladder behind the building that appeared to lead up to the rooftop.

After gesturing for Neon to go first, he stepped back.

~

"I don't know yet." Shixa responded, his voice quieter that time. He rolled over to press his back to the wall instead, facing Spirit with his eyes shut. "Why?"

~

Neon stared at Celia for a moment, a little confused by what he was asking before mumbling a little “oh.” He hopped up and grabbed the ladder, swinging around and climbing the rest. When he reached the top, he took a minute to admire the view before turning around and offering a hand to help Celia up.

~

Spirit suddenly stood and walked over to the bed Shixa was curled up in. He sat beside his head, a hand resting in Shixa’s hair and gently rubbing part of his ear with his thumb. “I’ll be the look out. Sleep.”

~

Celia grabbed the sides of the ladder to follow Neon up, reaching for the man's hand once he was close to the top. When he was fully up, he stood, peering out into the endless void beyond the broken wall. Part of him always wondered when these walls would truly fall apart.

The rooftop was completely empty, unlike some nearby, which had small campfires and a few sleeping individuals. One in particular had a family eating dinner together. Celia walked toward the wall and climbed onto it.

~

Shixa only opened his eyes once he felt the weight of something on the bed with him. He saw Spirit near his head, and then felt a hand in his hair. For a brief moment, he wanted to freak out and move, but he didn't. The petting reminded him of Neon; he'd learned to like it because of him. Spirit had just never done it before. "...Now I don't want to."

~

Neon quickly followed him, afraid of being separated. He eventually settled and sat to the side of Celia, a bit behind him. He didn’t want to get too close, mostly because he needed the space right now, but he didn’t want to sit awkwardly far. He felt comfortable where he was.

“Thank you.” He mumbled into his knees, hugging them to his chest. Being out in the open made him feel like he could breathe again.

~

Spirit’s hand twitched before he moved it away from him, worried it made him uncomfortable. It awkwardly hovered above Shixa’s head, waiting for permission to touch him again. “Why?”

~

Celia watched the sky for a few moments longer before coming back to Neon and sitting near him. He tried to give the other enough space, at least, but wasn't sure how helpful he was in that regard.

"Don't mention it." Celia sighed, looking down and fumbling with his hand. He loved this place; he'd gone through some bad stuff up there, processed tragedies up there, screamed and cried into the black sky as if it could hear him. The amount of times he'd wanted to jump was embarrassing, too. Neon didn't need to know that part. Nevertheless, it was like his own hiding spot.

~

Shixa rolled his eyes behind his eyelids and blindly reached up to force Spirit's hand back down. "Why do you think?"

~

Neon watched Celia through his mask as he moved, and quickly hated the silence that followed. “How long have you been um… server jumping?”

His question was really to fill the silence, but he was slightly curious. He wanted to know more about Celia, but he hoped he wouldn’t have a repeat of Shixa’s “you know everything about me and I know nothing about you” dilemma. Yikes.

~

Spirit tried his best to go back into his meditative state, but his focus was on petting Shixa. He knew he never would, but he was afraid of somehow hurting him. The aura beneath his own slowed and swirled as Shixa calmed. It was beautiful to watch. “Hm.”

Spirit hummed quietly, and slowly got lost in thoughts of what Shixa could look like. He wasn’t sure what a lot of over world people and hybrids looked like— his vision was gone before he even got to step out of the nether in his original server. He had to guess a lot, but judging by his aura, he had ears that twitched at every sound and a tail with a mind of its own. His hair felt like it was fluffy and layered— the way his aura feathered out around his head supported that idea. His thoughts quickly wandered into wishing territory, regretting his past decisions of blinding himself. Whatever.

The thought made him frown, spoiling his previous thoughts. “You can sleep. I’ll leave you alone.”

~

Celia reached up his hands, gathering his hair once again and using a hair tie on his wrist to tie it up. Sometimes he loved his hair, other times it overstimulated his neck too much to bear.

The question made him stop and think. He hardly remembered his childhood. Only certain bits and pieces of that past remained in his memory, but then he'd met Shixa, and everything after that was easier to recall. He looked up into the black sky as he gathered words in his head, then spoke. "Ah, fuck... since I was, like, ten?"

~

Shixa had become quite calm and relaxed quickly. His breathing had slowed significantly, compared to the stress-induced panting he usually did. Every movement of Spirit's hand in his hair made him even more sleepy, but he refused himself the rest, not wanting the day to end yet.

He was nearing happiness, truthfully, until Spirit spoke and ruined it.

Shixa's tone in response was sour and muffled against the blanket under his head. "I didn't tell you to stop." He frowned, white eyebrows furrowing above his closed eyes, before he lifted his head and promptly looked up. "What's your problem? Why are you always like that?"

~

Neon slid over to sit directly behind him and pulled off his gloves to fidget with Celia’s hair. He started to braid it as he spoke.

“How did you find out everything was… fake, in a sense?”

His legs wrapped around Celia, sort of trapping him there. It was meant to be funny, but the closeness with someone he trusted comforted him.

~

Spirit quickly closed off, both mentally and physically. His arms crossed over his chest and he stared forward at the floor again. “Like what? I thought you were going to sleep.” His fingers dug into his arms, worried he’d messed up with Shixa. He didn’t want to upset him— if he wanted to do that he wouldn’t have moved to sit next to him. He wouldn’t have reached to play with his hair. He wanted to be comfortable with him so badly, but it seemed like every little thing he did was wrong.

~

Celia sat still, happy to have his hair touched—as long as it didn't tickle his neck any longer. He pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on top, trying his best to keep his head straight for Neon's braiding project.

"I was the youngest to ever climb up here from the city way down there. Where my people are actually from. It's weird." He blinked slowly. "The gates are pretty common knowledge here. It's not like an outsider's point of view. You had to find out, but I knew before I could even think."

~

Shixa continued his rambling. Most of the time, he never actually meant to sound as mean as he did. He just assumed Spirit knew that by now.

"You find something you like or do something that makes you happy, and then you finally seem like someone I can talk to," he started. "But then you ruin it for yourself and shut it all out and then all of a sudden, I'm talking to a brick wall. Stop doing that."

Shixa dropped his upper body back down onto the mattress, pushing his face into the blanket. His voice sounded weird against the fabric. "I don't want you to leave me alone. I want you to feel like a person to me and not be some lifeless dummy that follows us everywhere. I don't know anything about you besides that you're just as fucked up as us. I don't know what you like, I don't know what you hate, I don't even know what your personality is because you never show me! Put your stupid hand back!"

~

“You climbed? How long did that take?” Neon spoke just as he finished the braid. He rested his chin on one of Celia’s shoulders, tilting his head after questioning him again. He wanted to learn more about Celia— he’d known him for a while now, but sometimes he still felt like a stranger to him. His arms laid limp at his sides, and his mask accidentally knocked into the side of Celia’s head. “Sorry.”

~

Spirit stared back at him in shocked silence. The emotionless mask only proved Shixa’s point. He didn’t… want to be yelled that, but hearing that from Shixa made him feel… important. Like somebody actually wanted to know him. He was so used to only talking to others for money and jobs, but it was different with Celia, and now Shixa too.

It was almost impossible for Spirit to let himself enjoy something, or open up to someone. Every time he’s tried, someone’s gotten hurt. Maybe he could try again for Shixa.

“I’m… sorry.”

The silence after was unbearable, so he rushed to speak again.

“I like… you. Sometimes.”

~

"I don't even remember. Something like a week. A little less than that." Celia said it like it was nothing, but really, it'd been torture on him. With no food, water, or hardly any good rest, he'd gone through hell. Though, it still didn't live up to the state of living in that city. He'd never go back, not that he even could.

He flinched, just barely, as Neon's mask bumped him, but he didn't say anything about it. The other's head on him was too comfortable to fuss about.

~

Shixa huffed at him and grumbled some obscene insults under his breath, most of which were incoherent. He pushed himself up and crawled right into Spirit's personal space, finding a spot to lay right against his front, in true feline fashion. His body rested on the man's lap while his head found comfort in his chest area.

"You better like me, god damn it."

~

“A week?! Damn!” Neon shouted, hearing it echo back at him from the mask. “You’re so cool, Celi. Can I call you that? I think you’re one of the coolest people ever. You have a cool sword and a cool attitude, and you nearly kicked my ass the first time we met. That’s some bad ass behavior. And now you’re telling me you just… climbed up here for a week?? You’re insane.”

Neon suddenly noticed how close he was to Celia and moved away, sitting back in his original spot behind him. Personal space was a thing, dude…

~

Spirit’s sharp inhale was painfully obvious, and the blood rushing to his ears did not help. “Oh- okay.”

His arm slowly settled to rest around Shixa’s body, the other returning to his hair. He assumed this was a good thing, since Shixa’s aura seemed to calm, so he kept talking. “Um… I don’t like Neon.”

~

Celia let out a nervous laugh, his face burning at the compliments. Purple colors blossomed in his face and he bowed his head to hide it. His blush was always incredibly obvious, considering that it was so different than his actual skin tone.

"I'm not that cool..." His voice trailed. He knew Neon would probably disagree the moment those words left his mouth. "I'm stuck up here, now."

~

Shixa stayed put, right where he'd climbed. He couldn't move, now that he'd scored such a good spot.

Spirit's confession almost made him laugh. Almost. "I know. That's okay." He sighed against him. "He's just like Celia, you just haven't known him long enough."

~

“You are cool! Look- You’re red, and it’s not even red for you ‘cause you’re blue! That’s the coolest shit ever!” Neon laughed as he spoke, in awe of the man in front of him. He was so different than the people he’d met in Adralla. “Am I embarrassing you?”

He leaned forward and down to look up at Celia’s face through his bangs. He was so… pretty. “And dude, you’re gorgeous. And you have naturally white hair- why does everyone have white hair and I don’t?!” He shouted as he dramatically threw his hands in the air.

~

Spirit rolled his eyes and let a little attitude seep into his tone. “Don’t insult Celia like that. At least Cel has some brain cells.”

The sass was unexpected, even to Spirit himself. He wasn’t sure if it was a good thing he was getting comfortable with Shixa or not. He hoped it was.

~

Celia had to cover his face with his hands to truly hide from Neon's eyes. He laughed into his palms, hesitantly at first and then more genuinely as Neon complained.

"I don't know!" He giggled. The blush just got worse as the seconds ticked on. "I like yours, too!"

~

Shixa's head and ears perked up at the almost unrecognizable voice that left Spirit's mouth. The tone was new, something completely different from the man's usual, dull emotionless-ness. It made Shixa excited, so much that the end of his tail began to flick around.

"He doesn't even! Are we even talking about the same idiot?!"

~

“Mine is boring! You guys are all so cool. Maybe I’m being unfair ‘cause it’s me, but I’m so lucky to be hanging out with you and Spirit. Me and Shixa have known each other a long time, if you count the years in between. He didn’t know it was me for a few months though.” Neon started to ramble a little. He typically did when the topic turned to Shixa. “Did he tell you how he found out it was me? …did he tell you I lied to him for months at all?”

~

Spirit scoffed playfully at him, picking at pieces of Shixa’s hair. “He has maybe one brain cell. He got us here, didn’t he?”

Spirit watched his tail flick back and forth, the aura lagging behind like usual. He smiled, and if you watched closely enough, you could see it in the way his ears raised. “I like your tail. It’s cute.”

~

Celia rubbed at his face and tried his best to calm the heat down. He looked up when Neon began mentioning Shixa, smiling at the words.

"No fucking way." Celia decided to play along, despite already knowing the story. Shixa had told it to him about three times already. They were so obsessed with each other. "How did you do that?"

~

Shixa shook his head. "I could have got us here, too. Don't give him too much credit."

The comment on his tail made his aura swirl. He had to desperately ignore the feeling that it gave him in his stomach. "...You would think that."

~

“Well- I was scared he was going to leave me again, so technically it wasn’t as evil as it sounds, but he totally fell in love with me all over again it was insane…” Neon quickly started a seemingly never ending ramble about the entire thing, smiling so hard his cheeks began to ache. He was rocking back and forth as he spoke, fidgeting with the edges of his cloak and laughing every other word. He still felt a little bad about the whole thing, but Shixa didn’t seem too bothered anymore. “… and he finally realized it was me mid-argument, which was so fucking embarrassing for him. You’re telling me you didn’t even recognize my voice? My hair? I mean, I guess it’s been a while and I look different but whatever. I took the mask off all dramatic— I was having my moment.”

~

Spirit shrugged and reached for his tail, curling it around his finger for a moment. “Is that bad? I like to watch it. It moves funny. Same with your ears.”

~

Celia was quiet as Neon rambled on and on. It was cute, and endearing as all hell—but it made him a little sad, too. He'd never had anyone to talk about like that, nor anyone to talk to about topics like that. Spirit was the closest thing to a significant other he'd ever had in his entire life, but even then, they weren't actually anything. He wished they were, but things were complicated and difficult. Celia had low hopes, due to his crippling self-esteem, and Spirit was... Spirit. Not very expressive.

Still, Celia smiled and pretended to listen. "That sounds so goofy. I'm jealous of you guys."

~

Shixa could have passed away at the finger around his tail. He layed down his head and hid. "I can barely control it..."

~

“What are you jealous of? That I don’t hit on you too? ‘Cause I definitely do, I’m just less serious about it.”

Neon poked at Celia’s spine, drawing shapes and letters on his back with his finger.

~

Spirit tightened his arm around Shixa like he was hugging him, and eventually, an idea popped in his head. He’d seen Neon do it a few times, and Shixa pretended to hate it but his aura always proved otherwise.

He dropped Shixa’s tail and moved his hand to his mask, lifting it the slightest bit to reveal his lips. A soft kiss was pressed against one of Shixa’s ears before he quickly put it back down. “That’s okay.”

~

"You don't, sure. But also, um..." Celia's voice quieted as he realized what exactly he'd have to confess if he talked about it. It wasn't like his affections for Spirit weren't obvious already, especially to Neon, but it was still hard to talk about. He'd never actually said it out loud before. "...Nevermind. It's nothing."

~

Shixa tiredly kept his head down, completely unaware of what was about to happen. The kiss, which was so gently placed upon his ear that he almost wondered if Neon himself had snuck in and kissed him as a surprise, shocked him. He looked up, saw for himself that they were still the only two in the house, and felt his heart jump as a reaction.

"It's..." he muttered, nervous. "Yeah. Neon doesn't even know what it all means yet, just that it, um, moves..."

~

“No, now you have to tell me. You can’t start and then cut me off like that. Come on-“ Neon started to move, shifting to sit beside Celia instead of behind him now. He rested his elbows on his knees and held his head in his hands, batting his eyes at him beneath the wooden mask. “What’s going on…?”

~

Spirit rubbed Shixa’s back gently, watching the tail move again. “It matches your aura a lot. It moves a certain way when you’re happy.”

~

"Yes I can." Celia crossed his arms over his knees and hid his face against them. He couldn't tell if he was simply nervous to say it, or if he was actually afraid. Afraid he'd be heard, and afraid he'd jinx it. "It's nothing."

~

Shixa was almost asleep on him. His voice was quickly turning to a mush of mumbling and sleepy pauses. "At least you noticed."

~

“If you tell me, I’ll take my mask off.”

Neon’s voice lifted at the end, like he was singing the words. He poked the top of Celia’s head, urging him to take the bait. “You know- Spirit’s seen my face and you haven’t. That’s kind of embarrassing for you.”

~

Spirit felt a little tired himself, but he promised Shixa he’d be the look out for when the two morons came back. He hummed a quiet response before speaking again. “I’ll let Neon know. Help him along a little bit.”

~

Hearing that made Celia's head jerk up. He looked over at Neon, wearing a face of pure disbelief. "What? What?!"

He'd fallen for it.

~

"He needs all the help he can get." Shixa joked. It was kind of true. Even before finding each other again, Neon had sucked at reading his body language. On the ship, it'd been bad. He couldn't help but wonder if Alistair had that problem with him, too. Though, Alistair was better at expressing his true emotions outwardly. Shixa did not do that.

~

Neon was unbelievably thankful for his mask at this point, since it hid the devilish smile he wore. “Yup. You’re the only one who hasn’t… what a shame. You can change that though.”

Neon tapped lightly on the wooden mask, tilting his head and laughing.

~

Spirit, oblivious to his name being thrown around above them, felt a little bad for Shixa. “I’ll keep an eye on you from now on.”

Spirit hadn’t really watched Shixa’s aura other than how pretty it was. He didn’t pay attention to what the movement actually meant. Now that he knew Neon — the one that was supposed to be there for Shixa — wasn’t paying attention either, he’d have to pick up the slack for him. He didn’t want Shixa to feel emotionally neglected.

~

"You're lying." Celia started to slowly shake his head at him. "You just want me to tell you so you can go back on the offer after I say it. I know you." He could almost hear the grin behind the mask, in Neon's voice. "You're literally smiling in there!"

~

Shixa didn't normally feel neglected, at least not that terribly. He was used to brushing it off. His excuse was typically that, 'of course Neon wouldn't notice, he's not a cat.'

It made him feel good that Spirit would try, though. He nuzzled the man's chest sleepily. "...Thanks."

~

“Maybe I am…. Maybe I’m not… either way, I bet you wanna see, don’t you?” Neon teased, tilting his head and laughing again. “Come on…. I’m no snitch. If it’s a serious secret, I’ll stay quiet.”

~

Spirit felt a warmth in his chest. It was something he very rarely felt ever, but it when it was there, it was when he was with Celia. This time, he felt a little embarrassed that it was happening with Shixa instead. He decided it would be best to stay quiet from now on to let Shixa sleep, but he played with his hair and closed his eyes in the meantime, going back to meditating like before.

~

Celia was quiet for a moment, trying to think of some kind of comeback to keep the teasing flowing. He looked away and pretended to decide. "No. You're ugly."

~

Shixa fell asleep against Spirit easily. It had always been in his nature to find comfort in spots most people would feel too squished in, like the one he was in now, but he loved it. His ears twitched as he fell into a dream, and then Celia's rule went into effect; no moving with a cat on you.

~

“What?!” Neon practically screamed, pretending to be offended. “I pulled Shixa twice and you think I’m ugly?!”

Neon fell back and flipped his cloak over his face, making quiet sobbing noises for a few seconds before throwing himself back up. “Spirit doesn’t think I am. He told me himself. If Spirit thinks I’m hot, that’s gotta count for something, right?”

Celia burst into laughter at Neon's reaction, and at his volume. The sound of it practically echoed from how high up they were, but he didn't care. Everyone else was being loud, so he could too.

"I said it!" He stated confidently. "You're probably, definitely ugly under that mask and that's why you wear it! He probably didn't even see it, you fucking—wait!"

Celia whipped his head around to look at Neon as he realized.

"He can't even see?!"

Watched with endearment as Celia laughed at him, but he quickly stopped after being called ugly again. When Celia noticed, Neon stared ahead at him for a few silent seconds. Damn.

The laughter that bubbled out of him was deafening, and he quickly fell backward again. He could barely breathe as he cackled, taking massive, sharp breaths when he could. “I was hoping you wouldn’t realize until after! Tell me anyway!”

"What the fuck! No, you tricked me, go first!" Celia jumped up, crawling over to Neon and kneeling over him on his hands and knees. He wrestled Neon's face, or at least attempted to, with one hand to try and get the mask off. "You suck! Tricking me and shit! Show me your ugly face!"

The scream Neon let out was comparable to a little girl. His hands quickly caught Celia’s wrist, shoving him away and pushing at his chest. “No no no no no no- I’m sorry, it was funny! Just tell me what you were going to say!”

If he was being honest, he definitely already knew what Celia was going to say, but hearing it directly from him would be way better for teasing. That, and if Celia chose to confirm it, he could start making an effort to push Spirit along. He could be his wingman!

Celia laughed as he fought, grabbing at Neon's wrists to try and trap him, so that he had easier access to pull the traitor's mask off.

"You have to go first now that you pulled that shit!" He giggled, temporarily giving up and choosing to sit down right in Neon's lap instead. "I'm not moving until you do it. I don't care how long it takes."

Neon felt his hands slam against the stone as he was pinned, and he huffed out a frustrated sigh upon realizing he was trapped. If he was being honest, he wasn’t too mad about it— Celia looked… Anyway. “Go ahead then. You won’t.”

He smiled beneath the mask. He acted all confident in Celia’s uncertainty, but he was getting a little nervous… and not just because of the position they were in. If he did take the mask off, it wasn’t the end of the world, but he couldn’t make fun of him anymore…

White hair fell over Celia's shoulder like a curtain and hung in front of his face as he leaned forward, holding Neon's hands still. He looked incredibly playful and excited until the other spoke such a deep permission, after which his expression fell, and his tail did too.

"What—"

He blinked, half surprised and half confused, down at Neon's mask. Celia hadn't expected him to actually do it, or better yet, say that. He wasn't emotionally or physically prepared yet, he hadn't had enough time. His chest started to freak out. "...What do you mean?"

“I mean exactly what I said. Take it off.”

Neon’s voice had zero trace of uncertainty in it. He sounded one hundred percent serious, and he was. If Celia really wanted to see him that badly, then he could go ahead and take it off, but he’d have to be the one to do it. Neon was feeling petty today. At this point, his hood had fallen off and his hair was out of the way. Scarred skin on his neck was visible, and his pierced-to-hell ears were uncovered. Parts of his jaw were showing slightly, but that was all Celia could see for now.

Celia swallowed thickly. He wasn't sure what to do. Neon sounded incredibly serious, but he still didn't know if he truly was. He didn't want to take it off just in case he didn't mean it.

Or maybe, he was just scared to do it himself, and scared to see. He'd known Neon for a couple months, but despite the short time, the mask was all he knew. He'd wondered what Neon's face looked like, of course, but in the end, all he could think of when he pictured the guy was the 'X', nothing more.

"I don't, um..."

“Don’t worry, love…” Neon started as he slid his wrist out of Celia’s now loose grip, taking his hand and placing it on the mask. “…I’m not ugly, I can promise you that.”

To literally anyone else on the various rooftops right now, this definitely looked like something different. Neon knew that, and took advantage of Celia’s sudden nerves. He loved the look on his face, and now, he craved seeing what Celia’s face looked like when he saw his.

Celia allowed Neon to take his wrist back, flinching only slightly as his own was taken. Unexpectedly, it was placed right onto the mask, and Celia had to really guess if Neon was still fucking with him.

To everyone around them, it definitely looked like they were doing something else, but Celia didn't notice. He had tunnel vision on Neon's mask now.

"You didn't tell me this was gonna happen and I didn't prepare enough," he muttered. Despite that, he didn't want to give up.

“I didn’t realize you had to prepare. You’re cute.”

Neon’s tone edged into flirting territory, just to make Celia more nervous. This was the kind of shit Neon loved to do. Usually it was with Shixa, but he didn’t mind fucking with Celia. It was bound to happen at some point. He did a lot more of this back in his pirate days, but he hadn’t lost his touch. “I thought you wanted to see me?”

Neon slowly released his grip on Celia’s wrist, sliding his fingers down his hand before resting it on the stone beside his head again. He turned his head to take a quick glance at anyone that might be watching, then turned back to Celia to play with some of the hair that had fallen in his face.

Celia pouted down at him, mostly because of the words that Neon spoke. It definitely brought some soft purple to his face, but he barely hid it this time.

"Shut up. Of course I do." He was telling the truth. It hadn't occurred to him that, upon meeting him, he'd be seeing Neon's face in a matter of months, not years like he'd expected. It was scary.

"...Why can't you do it?" It was almost painfully obvious that he was afraid. However, apparently it was not enough for him to move off.

“I mean, shit, you’re already on top of me. Might as well get to undressing, huh?” Neon spoke, but his voice broke at the end to laugh. He was trying to be serious, but the purple showing in Celia’s face made him giggle. “You were just fighting me for it seconds ago, and now you’re scared?”

Neon freed both of his hands to rest them on the sides of Celia’s thighs, staring up at him eagerly. “Come on.”

Neon wasn’t sure if he should keep pushing it at this point— he was stuck on whether it was genuinely making Celia uncomfortable or not. The blush Celia wore egged him on, but he was getting worried.

Celia's fear wavered the more Neon joked about it. He rolled his eyes and glanced away briefly, to respond. "Whatever. If that's what you're into."

He looked back down and took a slow breath. The hands that had been placed upon his thighs made his skin tingle there. The warmth of Neon's palms radiated through the thin, baggy material of his pants, too. He played along with the flirting for now, trying to stall for time to process what was going on. "Who taught you to talk to me like that?"

“Self taught.”

Neon suddenly shoved his hips up to throw Celia to the side, rolling the two of them over and flipping their positions. His hips stayed between Celia’s legs, and he hovered over him now, holding Celia’s hand on the edge of the mask. “Are you going to take it off, or am I going to have to help you out?”

The way Celia looked under him made him go red in the face, and he silently hoped he’d wait a little longer to give it the chance to die down. At what point was this not a joke anymore?

Celia made a soft, startled noise as he was pushed off to the side and thrown around, falling onto his back. Before he could get up, Neon was there in front of him, and then he was stuck for good.

"Self-taught? Bullshit." Celia laughed, the sound soft and quiet, unlike before. "No, I'll do it..."

Pink eyes stared up through white eyelashes at Neon's mask. He touched along the edge of it, briefly and almost affectionately, feeling the wood and the imperfections in it after what he assumed was a long while of Neon wearing it. He hoped he was just as embarrassed under that damn thing.

Neon hummed a quiet response, too busy staring back at Celia. His heart leapt in his chest as Celia’s hand started to move around the mask on its own, and he suddenly realized what was actually happening. He was seriously going to see him. He couldn’t hide all his stupid smiles and embarrassment anymore. …well, he could, but Celia would know what it looks like now. His hand moved to push one of his braids behind his ear, then unclipped the strap holding his mask there. Celia’s hand was the only thing stopping it from falling off. When he realized that, he started obsessing over what he looked like. Were his piercings all straight? Was his hair okay? Was Celia going to be disappointed by what he saw?

Celia could hear blood rushing past his ears. He was so nervous that it sounded like a waterfall, his heartbeat loud in his chest, too. When Neon unclipped the mask's strap, Celia jumped, having to catch the mask and keep it from falling with his hand. It was hot as fuck, having to hold it up all on his own, but also terrifying.

Celia was silent, still, as he just barely lowered his hand; not enough to reveal anything to himself but enough to give Neon some peripheral vision past the edge of the mask. "Okay, okay..."

His eyes squeezed shut as he moved Neon's mask completely away and left it on the roof next to his head.

Neon squinted a bit as the light flooded his eyes. The mesh in the eyes of the mask blocked out most light, but he quickly adjusted and looked down to realize Celia wasn’t even looking. “You’re not even looking!”

Neon’s voice sounded full and clear now that a wooden wall wasn’t muffling it. He sounded… excited, nervous and scared all at the same time. His nervous laughter echoed across the rooftops. “Here- let me help you.”

His hand reached for Celia’s and brought it to his face. Celia’s hand brushed against his cheek, under his eye and over part of his lip. He could feel the long lashes that sat at the bottom of his eye, and the piercings through his bottom lip. He could feel the way his mouth stretched into an anxious smile. He could feel his breath fan out across his skin.

"Aah!" Celia screamed as Neon scolded him for his eyes being closed. He didn't want to open them; he was afraid, and nervous, and didn't know what to expect, and—

His hand touched skin, suddenly. Neon's words had been blocked out by his brain worrying so loudly, and so he hadn't heard them at all. The feeling of the other's cheek, warm and real, felt odd on his hand. The metal his finger touched, too, felt strange. His imagination was putting together the pieces he felt with his palm; whether the picture was right or not, though, he didn't know. But he was so close to knowing.

"Oh my god," he mumbled, keeping his eyes shut for as long as he could. Celia knew he'd have to open them eventually, but he had no faith in himself. Everything felt unreal and he didn't want to ruin it, but he wanted to see so bad, at the same time. "I can't."

“You can- It’s okay! I’m just a guy, Celi, it’s okay!”

Neon spoke through laughter, smiling bright now that it was visible. His hand trembled against Celia’s, still holding it against his cheek. He could feel the words he spoke. He was going to see him. “I’m just a guy.”

Neon’s eyes traced every detail of Celia’s face. He couldn’t help but stare now that he could get a proper look at it. He stared as long as he could while Celia didn’t notice.

Celia internalized Neon's encouragement, nervously repeating it in his head. Neon was just a guy. He was also a friend, someone he could trust. If he said it was okay to look, then Celia could look.

"Okay, okay, um..." he hesitated, taking a couple of short breaths. Celia's hand felt Neon's face a little longer, touching his nose and the curly hair in front of his ears. It was nice to know his face for a change. It felt good.

Soon enough, pink eyes peeked past his squinted eyelids, his vision blurry as Neon's face came into view above him. It was just as he'd expected—pretty.

Eventually, his eyes opened all the way. He made eye contact with Neon, then scanned over the man's features. His cheeks, his eyebrows, his hair, his nose, mouth, and chin. Celia admired it all, heat building in his face until he noticed, after which he covered it with both hands.

"What the fuck."

Neon pushed himself off of Celia, afraid he’d done something wrong for a second. “What? Sorry-“

His hand quickly let go of Celia’s as his face grew beet red, scratching awkwardly at the front of his neck. Celia’s blush was just barely worse than his now, and he wasn’t sure if it was because he looked… wrong, or because of the position he was in. He wanted to reach for the mask, but he was afraid Celia would think he was upset. He wasn’t— he was just confused by Celia’s choice of words. His hands rested on his thighs as he waited. “Are you okay? You’re pink again.”

Celia was quiet for a few moments. Then, laughter bubbled out of him. It was soft at first, then it gradually got louder. He removed his hands from his face and sat up, launching himself toward Neon.

His hands reached for the man's cheeks and he squished them, smushing their mouths together in the same movement. He laughed during the entire brief kiss, pulling away to look at him after, his hands still on him.

"Shut the fuck up! You're hot as fuck!" He yelled. "'Boring' my ass!"

It was Neon’s turn to be silent. He stared back at him in stunned disbelief at both the kiss, and being called hot by someone he believed was absolutely stunning. His face was genuinely hot to the touch at this point, and he would’ve swore that if you looked close enough, you could see hearts in his eyes. “You just…”

His fingers pressed against his lips for a moment as he processed what really happened. “You just kissed me! Oh my god- I need to breathe-“

His cloak quickly came off, exposing both his chest and tattooed arms completely. He felt like he was having a heat stroke. “I’m freaking out- Are you freaking out?- You think I’m hot?”

Neon's disbelief was incredibly amusing to Celia. He laughed hard, coughing a bunch, trying to breathe and speak at the same time. "Yes—yes?! You are!"

He found Neon's reaction adorable, especially the other's red face and the fingers that had been pressed to his lips. Celia's kisses were always sloppy, sure, but they were filled to the brim with love, and that was always obvious. He hoped Neon had felt it.

"We—" He started, having to pause to continue laughing. Deep breaths calmed the excitement in his chest, enough for him to finish his sentences, at least. Seeing Neon's face had made him forget that he had to keep his mouth to himself. "We are not... about to fuck right now. You aren't a random stranger, I have to remember." Celia swallowed hard, his cheeks in pain from the embarrassed smile he had on. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself," he apologized shakily.

“Fuck?! Celia- I’m going to pass out-“ Neon’s voice sounded desperate as he struggled, heat creeping up his neck as his face somehow grew even more red. “I thought you said I was ugly, and now you’re thinking of fucking me?”

Neon didn’t sound upset at all. He was mostly just in disbelief that this was happening. His hands fanned at his face as he tried to calm down, but every glance at the man in front of him made it worse. “Oh my god- I need to chill…”

The kiss was better than he’d like to admit. It was really nice, actually, but he wasn’t sure if Shixa would be mad about it or not. Shixa knew he fucked other people when they were together on the ship, but now? He was a little worried.

"First of all, the fuck thoughts aren't new. Second, if you do pass out, I'm leaving you up here for the creeps." Celia giggled, reaching his hands up behind his head. He fumbled with the hair tie, fixing the messy braid his hair was still in. All of their up and down wrestling had pulled some of the shorter layers out; now it just looked funny.

"And I totally would, but... you know. Certain people are below us currently." He whispered the last part, snickering under his breath. Oh, how he'd love to, but he had respect for Shixa.

His eyes returned to Neon's face, and he continued to admire it. It was different than he'd expected. A little more unique, a little prettier. He loved it, despite not being used to it.

“They aren’t new?! You’ve thought about— You know what? I’m not even gonna act like I haven’t also thought about it. I gotta ask Shix first tho. He used to be chill about it!”

He was mostly kidding. …Mostly.

“I am gonna snitch on you for kissing me- Wait- It’s your turn now! Tell me what you were going to say! If you have the balls to admit you’ve wanted to fuck me this whole time then say what you were gonna say!” Neon quickly switched the subject to give himself a rest— He was genuinely sweating at this point. “I know it’s about Spirit dude— come on, just admit you’ve got the hots for him already. I can help you out!”

Celia raised his hands defensively at Neon's words. He hadn't expected the topic to switch back to himself so fast. "Wait, wait," he responded, his laughter taking a nervous tone. The same anxious fear from before returned to him, as well.

He hadn't even thought about what to say. How he'd word the confession, even to someone else. "It's, um," he tried, allowing Neon to assume the topic first, then piggybacking off of it. "...Yeah."

“Yeah?! So you do?!”

Neon acted shocked, but he knew the whole time. “Let’s go dude- I can help you out!! You gotta let me help you- My friend Alistair didn’t let me help him once and he ended up tearing the dude’s eye out. Let me help you, please.”

Neon wanted to talk to Spirit about his obvious feelings for Celia so badly, but he didn’t want to go behind his back. If he had his permission, he could help the two out. He could give Spirit some pointers!

"Yeah..."

Celia was aware that Neon knew. It wasn't like he didn't make it obvious; Spirit just tended to be oblivious. That wasn't a bad thing. It certainly helped him hide his own feelings at times.

But it also pained Celia, too. It made Spirit completely unreadable in that regard.

"What—the fuck? What was that about?" He questioned, then continued speaking as Neon kept begging. "Okay, okay, okay. You can't mess it up, please don't mess it up. He doesn't trust you yet as it is..."

That worried Celia, too. If Neon tried to talk about it, Spirit might get angry with him. They barely knew each other.

Neon shoved Celia lightly as he spoke. “I know what I’m doing! Don’t worry homie, I got you. Me and Spirit are going to be besties, watch.”

He suddenly stood, jogged toward the ladder, realized he was missing his mask and came back. “Whoops- need this back. Spirit!”

Spirit’s name was shouted as he made his way back down to their home, ditching Celia completely as he threw his mask back on. When he threw the curtain open to come back inside, his eyes widened at the position Shixa and Spirit were in.

Spirit quickly snapped out of his meditative state as the bedsheet was tossed to the side. He could hear Neon shouting his name from outside, but he hadn’t expected such an entrance. “Be quiet. Shixa is sleeping.”

“Oh, my bad. Spirit, I need to talk to you-“

“Shut up. Let him sleep.”

"Wait, he's probably—" Celia was cut off by Neon's quick disappearance. He jumped up and followed him, rushing down the steps. After nearly running right into someone in the alleyway, he staggered behind Neon, entering the home with weak balance.

A loud voice almost escaped him, but as he stood on his toes to look past Neon in the doorway, he shut his mouth. Shixa was asleep, and just as he'd expected, Spirit looked like he'd just woken up, too. At least, from his meditation. Because of the sudden halt of his voice, all that came out was an awkward sound.

As soon as Spirit detected Celia’s presence, he smiled. “Celia.”

His voice didn’t sound demanding, or like a request of some sort. He was just happy to say his name. His voice sounded oddly soft and quiet.

Neon quickly sped over to the two and whispered aggressively at Spirit, trying not to wake Shixa. “I need to talk to you. Alone, please.”

“In what universe would I ever agree to that?”

“Come on- Celia…! Can you take Shixa from him, please?”

“Wait, no-“

Spirit’s arms quickly wrapped around the sleeping man on his chest, guarding him from the other two. Neon swore he could see a frown on his mask somehow. “No. I promised him I would watch.”

“That’s very sweet of you, but you trust Celi, right? He’ll watch for you.”

“Like hell he will…! He’ll get distracted after two seconds!”

Their whispered bickering continued on as they talked about the other two.

"I'm not that bad!" Celia whisper-yelled, approaching the others and letting the sheet fall back over the doorway. As he came closer, his voice got quieter. Shixa's post-awakening wrath had tortured him more than enough and he didn't dare be the one Shixa heard first this time.

"Would you two shut up? Snow," Celia scolded them both at first, then directed his attention to Spirit. He stepped in front of Neon and leaned down to Spirit's height, as the mattress was quite literally on the ground, and tried to console him.

"It'll be fine. He knows better than to try anything here, and with us." Sapphire arms reached to start slowly pulling Shixa out of Spirit's hold. "I can take care of it."

Spirit stared silently back at him as his ears quickly started to burn a bright red. Neon’s attempt at hiding his laughter was… disappointing, and Spirit quickly handed Shixa over to escape what felt like a trap at this point. “Outside, moron!”

Neon ignored the name calling and giggled as he followed Spirit outside, holding the sheet out of the way for him. Spirit’s heart, embarrassingly enough, leapt as he did, and he quickly swallowed it down to avoid having to mentally process it. Neon did not make him feel that way. That didn’t happen.

As soon as the two were outside, Neon started to ramble. “Listen, I know we got off on the wrong foot, but to be fair, you attacked me first.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah?”

“I did. What about it?”

“You don’t feel bad about it at all? Even though I had Celia's blood on me from saving him?” Neon’s voice sounded strained to emphasize how dramatic he intended on being. “You’re welcome, by the way! Your little boyfriend would be dead if it weren’t for me.”

“Stop that.” Spirit answered with few words, glare so deep Neon swore he could feel it through both their masks.

“What?”

“The ‘boyfriend’ thing. What does that even mean?”

Neon’s jaw dropped so low it could’ve met Celia’s parents. Spirit… didn’t know what a boyfriend was? Did he even know what relationships were? This was going to be a lot harder than he thought, but if he was being honest, he was excited by the idea of a challenge. “You… Don’t know what dating is? Boyfriends and girlfriends? Romantic partners?”

“No. Explain it, now.” Spirit immediately demanded answers from Neon, feeling inferior since he didn’t understand what he was talking about. He hated feeling dumb, especially when it came to someone like Neon. Neon was the dumb one, not him.

“Okay- Um, me and Shixa are boyfriends. Romantic partners. We kiss, and do other romantic things. We’re bound to each other through… love, I guess? I don’t know how else to explain it-“

“You’re ass at explaining things.”

“I’m sorry- I didn’t realize you were completely clueless when it came to this stuff!” Neon shouted, scrambling for some sort of example to use. “You know- like your parents! You have parents, right?”

“No.”

“Dude.” His voice sounded exhausted at this point. “Maybe not anymore, but you had them at some point, right?”

“I killed them.”

“O-oh.”

The silence that followed was… painful. Neon didn’t understand why, out of all people, this was the one Celia wanted, but god damn it he was not going to give up! “Well before you fucking murked them, they were together in a romantic way. That’s how they had you. They fucked, and your parent gave birth to you.”

“I guess.”

“Well, me and Shix can’t have kids, but we fuck. …and we’re romantically together.”

“Yeah, you said that- what is your point?”

Both of them were slowly getting more and more frustrated with each other until Neon suddenly blurted out something that definitely made sense to Spirit.

“Do you want to be ‘romantically involved’ with Celia, yes or no?”

Spirit’s heart sank in his chest. If that wasn’t enough of an answer, his ears quickly burned the same bright red as before. His fingers suddenly started to pick at his nails, and his head turned away from the man in front of him. His confidence was completely shattered. “I don’t know.”

Neon knew he struck gold. If Neon could “aura see” or whatever, he knew Spirit’s aura would be going crazy. That was plenty of an answer for him, but he wanted more. He wanted a yes. “It’s a yes or no question, Spirit. …Or should I say… Snow-“

“I’ll fucking kill you right here, right now!”

Spirit shouted his words so loudly that people nearby turned in hopes of seeing a fight break out. Their interest was quickly somewhere else when Neon laughed and shook his head. “Spirit. I’m not trying to antagonize you. I’m trying to help you. I want you two to be together. Romantically involved, if you will.”

“Why?”

“Because I can tell you two want to kiss so badly and I’m sick of watching you dance around each other! It’s painful!”

“We couldn’t kiss anyway.”

“Why not?”

Spirit tapped lightly on the mask he wore. It was still Neon’s spare.

“Then take it off. You can show Celia your face- I just did like five minutes ago. He’s chill.”

“You hide your face for fun. I hide mine for a reason.”

Just as Spirit finished his sentence, a group of people started to come down the alley. They looked like they were ready to pounce at any unsuspecting strangers. “Ugh- We’ll talk more later. I can help you- I promise!”

Neon quickly shoved Spirit back inside and followed, returning to the other two.

~

Celia had taken Shixa into his arms easily after Spirit had given in to their pleading. After watching the pair leave, Shixa had actually woken up, albeit barely and not enough to cause any outrage.

"What?" Shixa mumbled, his voice muffled against Celia's vest top. Celia looked down at him and used the brief opportunity to move himself all the way into the corner of the bed, where the back walls met each other.

"Nothing, Shixa, they're just going outside."

"What for?"

"Just fucking around." Celia reached to pet Shixa's ear, picking off a loose strand of Neon's hair that had landed there. "Go back to sleep. I'm right here."

"Okay."

Celia and Shixa sat in comfortable silence together until the other two entered the room once more. Celia's eyes had shut themselves in the meantime, but opened immediately after hearing the most subtle rustling of the sheet over the door. It was a conditioned response.

He watched as they came in, nervously looking between Neon and Spirit, wondering what had been said and how Spirit had taken it. Ultimately, he decided to play dumb. "You're all lucky he barely woke up."

Spirit ignored what Celia said and walked to the corner of the room, sitting on one of the beds and facing the wall. He quickly hugged his knees to his chest and went silent. It was like there was a field of tension five feet from him in all directions. He was… not happy.

Neon waved a hand at him like it was nothing and silently marked their conversation as a success. “Thank you for taking over for Spirit.”

Neon glanced over at Spirit for a moment, then slowly turned back to Celia. “He’s fine. It went well.”

Spirit felt his heart pounding in his chest, and with every beat, a flash of pink flared from his own aura. Fuck.

Just as Neon finished speaking, someone shoved past the sheet and into the home. The person was absolutely massive, in both height and mass, and immediately scanned the room to check who was present. Their hair fell just to their shoulders, silver and reminiscent of pure iron. Within seconds, another figure stepped inside, knocking a tune only familiar to Spirit, Celia and Shixa against the wall beside the doorway.

“Oh good, you’re in. Have you guys seen Spirit? He’s been missing-“ The louder one spoke, and quickly answered his own question with a glance to the corner Spirit sulked in. “Spirit! Man- where the hell have you been?”

The shorter haired, quieter one stayed beside the door for a bit before approaching Neon and grabbing him by the collar of his cloak. “Who is this?”

“Woah- hey there buddy-“ Neon quickly threw his hands up, leaning as far from the man’s face as he could once he was grabbed. His neck ached from how much he had to look up at the two of them.

“Aye- Cali. Put ‘em down. Spirit- What’s wrong?”

The quiet and seemingly deadly one nicknamed “Cali” suddenly dropped Neon. He stumbled back a few steps before recovering and watching the louder, longer haired one approach Spirit.

"...Um, yeah. Sure, but," Celia tried his best to get Spirit's attention, anything but silence out of him. He worriedly watched the other's figure until he knelt down to sulk in the corner, after which Celia shifted his gaze to Neon.

It didn't feel like it'd gone well. Spirit looked uncomfortable and he began to regret telling Neon about it all.

Guilt, shame, and a deep, painful concern burned his chest. It stuck his heart like pins and needles, but that same heart was quickly jumpstarted by the loud noise of someone else coming in.

Celia could hear his heartbeat thumping hard in his ears after Leviathan's sudden appearance through the doorway. He coughed once or twice on the startled inhale he'd taken, shouting at the first twin just as the second one appeared, as well.

"Hey, don't you know how to knock?!"

"Shut up!" Shixa hissed just as loudly, pushing himself completely off of Celia before laying flush with the wall and pulling the blanket over his head.

Celia used the free opportunity to jump up and rush over to the louder twin, arms up in a hug-craving fashion. He giggled before responding, having to stand on the tips of his toes just to be able to wrap his arms around the figure's neck. "I took him with me, but we're back now, so stop worrying. You're so cute."

Leviathan’s attention was quickly stolen by Celia. His arms wrapped around his waist for a moment before he started questioning him. “Good to see you again, Love. It’s been a while. What happened? Why is he like… that?”

Levi’s mask turned toward Spirit again, and lingered there as his hands slid off of Celia. “And who the hell is this?”

Both of the twins turned to Neon this time, and Neon was suddenly very uncomfortable with how close Caliban was. He looked up at him and took an awkward step to the side to put some space between them. “I’m Neon, a friend of Shixa’s.”

“Neon? That’s a dumb name.” Levi said before a loud, obnoxious laugh burst out of him. “I’m just fucking with you. If Shixa likes you, then damn it, I guess we do too. Caliban, give him some space, please.”

An even lower, scarier voice rumbled from the twin next to Neon as he stepped away. “My bad.”

Celia always loved Leviathan's hugs more than anything. The man's large arms made his waist feel small, and they always seemed to fit together like perfect puzzle pieces due to their sizes. He pulled Levi down slightly by the neck, pushing their cheeks together until the other stood up straight and turned his attention elsewhere.

Celia followed Leviathan's gaze and his face began to burn. He quickly looked away again. "Um, it's complicated..."

He then giggled as Neon shyly introduced himself. One of his hands slid down to Levi's chest and, while gazing back up at the twin in front of him, he spoke, eyes full of affection and cheer once more.

"Yeah, you'll know better than not to trust someone Shixa likes."

“He's not a problem then, right?” Levi pulled his mask off his head, voice sounding a lot clearer and less robotic. His eyes shined a bright red as they met Neon’s again. “Why are you here?”

“A mix up with my… server… God thing. Ask Spirit. He’s the one that dragged us out.” Neon spoke with slight attitude, still upset they had to leave all because of some silly “attack” Spirit made up. He wouldn’t have believed it even happened if it weren’t for the blood still smeared across his cloak.

Spirit’s heart sank at the mention of him, and he slowly hid his face in his knees. He wanted to be alone, if he was being honest. He hated how Neon read him to fucking filth and he hated how Neon knew too much now. His aura burned with the filth that was embarrassment, and even people like Celia and Neon could feel the uncomfortable energy radiating from him. “Aw, Spirit.”

Levi let go of Celia and approached Spirit slowly, assuming he could sense that he was nearby. He pressed a reassuring hand against his shoulder to confirm he was there, then sat beside him.

"No, he's not a problem."

Celia parted with Leviathan and quietly watched the other approach Spirit instead. The guilty feeling stung him again and dug into his heart like a stake, especially at the sight of how Spirit was sat. He hadn't meant to ruin everything. This is exactly why he never liked telling people his problems.

A small sigh left him before he stepped toward Caliban and only barely bumped the man's arm with his head. "Hi," he said shortly.

Caliban awkwardly patted Celia’s shoulder before hugging him against his side. “Hello. We missed you.”

Spirit suddenly stood, doing his usual reset and approaching Neon. He stopped right in front of him and spoke. “I forgive you.”

Neon smiled, laughter bubbling out of him. “You’re funny.”

“Spirit, what did he do?” Levi asked as he followed him to stand next to Neon too.

“He… read my mind. But I forgive him.

Spirit’s voice sounded oddly soft again. He was being genuine.

“Thank you for forgiving me, Sn-“

Suddenly, Spirit’s knife was at Neon’s neck, and he’d taken his cloak in his hand to pull him down to his level. “You say that again and I’ll fucking slaughter you.”

“Woah- okay Spir, calm down. Let’s relax for a second.”

Levi quickly separated the two by stepping between them and picking Spirit up, throwing him over his shoulder. A shocked gasp escaped him as he was picked up, and he accidentally dropped the knife. “Hey!-“

“Hey Love, can you take him, please?” Levi spoke to Celia, smiling at him like he wasn’t holding a furious Spirit over his shoulder.

"I missed you, too." Celia smiled subtly at the side hug. Despite loving on and interacting with Levi much more, Caliban had always been his true favorite. There was something so endearing about him, and his quietness.

The smile faded as quickly as Spirit stood once Celia realized that he'd done so. Dread washed over him and, for a moment, he expected Spirit to approach him—but that didn't happen. Neon was approached instead, although Celia couldn't tell if that made him feel better or worse.

Anxiety-ridden dissociation took him before he could give his attention to the conversation that occurred in front of himself. He stared off at nothing, but the clatter of Spirit's knife on the ground startled him back, causing him to flinch.

He looked up to see Levi standing before him with Spirit over his shoulder. "Oh, um—yeah." Awkwardly, Celia reached an arm out, tail low as he waited for Levi to put the other down. He'd never felt so afraid to touch Spirit before.

Levi slowly set Spirit down, kicking the knife away from him after. “You get that back once you’ve calmed down. I shouldn’t have to treat you like a child.”

There was a visible pout in the way Spirit’s shoulders sank into a pitiful slouch, immediately turning and pressing himself against Celia’s side. He wanted Celia’s attention back. He hated how his aura looked— he wanted it back to normal. His hands wrapped around Celia’s waist as he hid his face against his chest.

Chaos was practically the only thing Celia could hear. His mind was screaming many different things to him at once, all about how Spirit was angry with him, how he'd messed everything up telling Neon his issues, and so forth. He worried about how their conversation had really gone, and these thoughts swarming all at once made him nauseous—it was clear in his aura how bad he felt.

To his dismay, Spirit's slow hug against him didn't help much. It gave more of a rush to his heart, but the cloud of doubt in his head was still present. All he could do was lift his arms and give a nervous hug back; one not nearly as tight as he usually gave.

Spirit immediately noticed the difference. His hand slid across his waist to rest on his hips, rubbing the skin there with his thumb. The mask tilted up to look at him, and in a whispered voice, he spoke. “What’s wrong?”

His tone was more worried than anything, but he definitely wasn’t upset or irritated. He wanted Celia back to normal. Levi noticed this, and quickly shifted the attention to Shixa and Neon to give the two some time to talk. “Shixa! My man- how’ve you been?”

Levi knew Shixa was trying, and failing, to sleep, but he made no effort to be quiet. He made his way over to him and picked him up under his arms, holding him straight out like he were an actual cat, and smiling at him.

Spirit's voice spooked him, too. Celia let go from their awkward hug and stared anywhere but toward Spirit's mask, as if he could see regardless. He searched and searched for a reason to give for the question that met his ears, but he knew better than to lie to Spirit when Spirit always knew his feelings before he knew them himself.

"It's fine." That was all he could say, in the most private voice he could manage. Celia was starting to understand why Neon had felt so cramped and overstimulated in this house. The low ceiling was getting to him, the heavy air was getting to him, and it felt crowded now that the twins had come. He certainly didn't want to throw up on Spirit, but he almost couldn't help it.

"I need..." he started, his voice swiftly getting caught in his throat. Celia, as silently as he possibly could, instead took Spirit's wrist and pulled him toward the doorway and out into the alley. To the others, it looked like the pair had disappeared from the house without a trace.

He brought Spirit to the corner of the walkway, near the doorway to his home but not close enough for them to be heard. The question that tumbled from Celia's lips shocked him, too, due to how sudden and uncalled for it ended up becoming. "Do you hate me?"

~

Shixa practically growled as he was dragged and lifted out of the bed. The blanket slid off of his body in a slow, static-inducing motion, making quiet sparks against his clothes until it fell in one sloppy pile at the edge of the mattress. Shixa's arms stuck out as he was held up, though his ears were folded back angrily, and the tip of his tail thrashed the same attitude. Red eyes opened sleepily to stare at Leviathan.

"What."

~

Spirit nearly tripped as he was pulled out the door, stumbling to follow quickly behind him. They were moving too fast for him to really detect anything, so he had to just blindly trust that he was taking them somewhere safe. He did, and he was glad he did when his ears found silence until Celia asked his question.

“Do I… what? Are you serious?”

Spirit could tell something was wrong. His aura was completely off; sharp, jagged movements shot from him in vibrant, almost blinding blues. He was… very, very upset, but Spirit didn’t feel like he’d done anything wrong. Was it Neon, maybe?

~

Leviathan gasped when Shixa opened his eyes, smiling wide at him. “There he is! Good morning, Sunshine!”

He dropped Shixa back onto the bed, and suddenly, Caliban was at his side. He silently placed the blanket back over Shixa and shook his head at his brother. “Leave him.”

Caliban stepped between the two. His hand brushed through Shixa’s hair, petting his ears and encouraging him to rest again. Caliban always loved Shixa. Like Spirit, he appreciated someone he could just sit in silence with. Neon… didn’t seem like that type. Speaking of, now that Levi’s attention was turned away from Shixa, he started conversation with Neon, and they instantly clicked. They bounced off each other effortlessly.

~

Celia was silent for a few seconds, processing the fact that he really had just asked that question. Then, he started laughing. It wasn't quite a genuine laugh, more of a stressed one, hoarse and forced.

A blue hand ran through his bangs as he answered. "Yeah, haha—yeah! Yeah..."

~

Shixa pictured himself violently ravaging Leviathan's face until Caliban came to save them both.

He settled beneath the blanket once more after being laid to rest there. Caliban's hand in his hair was welcomed; Shixa knew it was him from the gentle grasp. Leviathan always pet him too roughly, but the other twin had never done such a thing.

Shixa peeked past the blanket to check if he was still there.

~

Spirit panicked for a moment, a little lost on what to do. Sparks flew from his aura as he laughed, signaling that he only felt worse. Spirit watched it for a few seconds, thinking of what to do. If he tried anything, it was more than little risky. It could just make him feel worse, but leaving without trying anything would definitely make him feel worse…

Spirit suddenly pulled his wrist from Celia’s grip and placed both of his hands on the sides of his face, gently pulling him down to his level. “No? I don’t hate you… I like you. I like you a lot.”

Spirit’s hands pushed Celia’s hair out of his face and pulled his head lower, kissing his forehead through the mask he wore. To Celia, it just felt like the mask had been pressed against his skin, but it was obvious what it was supposed to be. Spirit would’ve moved it before hand like he did with Shixa, but it was too risky with so many people wandering nearby. He figured this would be better than nothing.

~

Caliban had settled on the edge of the bed, continuing to play with Shixa’s hair while he rested. He eventually turned his attention fully to Shixa, using both of his hands to massage and play with both ears. When Leviathan suddenly laughed loudly, Cali quickly covered Shixa’s ears for him, flashing a subtle smile at him.

“How do you two know each other then?” Levi asked, gesturing toward Shixa. Neon glanced over at the two sitting on the bed, and if he hadn’t been wearing his mask, Levi could’ve seen hearts in his eyes.

“We met ages ago, but recently got back together. It’s a long story. He’s everything to me, though.”

“Wow… you sound like Celia.” Levi turned to poke Celia’s side, going silent when he realized both him and Spirit were gone. “Oh. They left.”

~

Celia squinted at the hands that touched his cheeks. He leaned down as Spirit indicated with the gesture, and tears burned his eyes at the words.

The obvious attempt at a kiss through the mask also made him want to cry. Celia had spent such a large fraction of his life pretending to be happy, and pretending to not have any problems or worries. He was so awfully afraid that he had ruined it by giving in to someone's questions about those hidden problems. Spirit had always done a beautiful job at consolement, especially when it came to him, and even now.

The kiss was better than nothing. Despite the tears, Celia's aura lost some of its aberration.

"...Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I just didn't know Neon would do that stuff, and talk to you, and I thought maybe I'd have more time before he did any of that, but," he shut himself up before he could continue rambling. Tears stained his cheeks now. "Sorry."

~

Shixa made eye contact with Caliban, just past the edge of the blanket. His nose and everything below was concealed, though his eyes were wide and ruby, peering up from the bed with both fatigue and a great deal of trust in them.

Sometimes, his ears were stiff enough to refuse massages, like when he was angry or actively moving them. However, when he was at rest, they were perfectly malleable and much easier to pet, and it always felt better that way, too. Shixa always enjoyed Caliban's massages. He was one of the highest on the favoritism scale, in that regard. It was meant to be an extreme honor.

~

Spirit watched the aura calm a bit, and let out a breathy laugh. He was genuinely shocked that that worked at all! His hands suddenly yanked him forward into a tight hug, burying his face into his chest again. “He didn’t say anything… wrong. I didn’t mind the conversation. It’s okay.”

Spirit’s voice, muffled by Celia’s shirt, sounded so… sad. He was upset that his conversation with Neon worried him that much. “I can tell him to stop when we go back, if you want. I don’t want you to be upset.”

Spirit waited a bit for a response, but chose to speak again anyway. “If kissing you is going to help, I can do it more.”

~

Caliban continued to cover Shixa’s ears as the other two talked about… god knows what.

~

Celia sniffled and wiped his eyes with the back of one of his hands, wrapping his arms around Spirit's neck soon after. This hug felt better, less forced and more genuine. As seconds passed, it grew tighter, until Celia was squeezing him the way he always did. He pushed his face into Spirit's hair before responding, his voice sounding just as muffled.

"It was my fault. I should know better than to tell him my problems." Celia made it sound like a joke, but it was partially a serious statement. Nevertheless, he was glad Spirit wasn't as upset as he'd thought.

The bit about them kissing more often made his aura freak out again, but in a much happier fashion. He gave a laugh, then spoke. "For real? And I don't have to pay up or anything?"

~

Shixa continued to watch Caliban until the blanket suddenly shifted, arms emerging from it to reach for the twin. He grabbed at Caliban's neck and pulled him all the way down until his mouth neared the man's ear.

"You're nice."

~

“I wouldn’t make you pay for anything.” Spirit watched as the aura around his head turned a little pink. He was glad he was getting closer to feeling better. “And I told you Neon was bad! I never liked him! I was right the whole time-“

Spirit suddenly cut himself off, jumping back and patting down his body. “My knife! It’s still on the floor.”

~

Caliban let himself be pulled down, and when he heard what Shixa said, he took his hand and shoved Shixa’s face away playfully as he laughed. His laugh wasn’t as harsh as Levi’s— it was more airy. His cheeks grew pink as he looked back to his brother and his new friend, hiding his smile and blush behind his hand.

~

Celia giggled, shaking his head. "No, no, he's not bad, he's just weird. There's nothing wrong with weird, right?" He lifted his arms away and stood straight to look at Spirit once again. "I'm weird."

He blinked with slight confusion as Spirit searched for his knife. During the previous conversation he'd completely blocked out, Spirit must have lost it.

"We can go back in."

~

Shixa started to laugh, too, at the hand that was shoved into his face. He whacked at it, leaning as far away as he could whilst the mattress existed below his head. Despite their laughter, what he'd said was very genuine. Caliban was one of the nicest people he knew.

~

“You’re the good kind of weird. He’s… not.” Spirit voice went… sour at the mention of Neon. “But you said you told him something you should’ve have… What does that have to do with me? What did you tell him?”

~

Caliban looked away, avoiding watching Shixa laugh. It would just make his already obvious blush worse.

“What are you two doing over there?” Levi said, turning both his attention and Neon’s toward the other two. Levi stepped toward Shixa and poked at his side. “Why are you all red? Are you flirting with my brother? Right in front of me?”

Levi wasn’t upset at all, he was just teasing. Neon laughed at his teasing, joining in. “Are you flirting with someone else? Right in front of me?”

~

"Ah—nothing!" Celia cleared his throat and took one of Spirit's hands, effectively lifting it above his head and spinning him around as though they were dancing. However, it was just to turn Spirit around so that they could go back. After letting go of Spirit's hand, his own made its way to the man's waist instead, ready to lead him.

"Let's go, cuteness, before you start asking questions I can't answer."

~

Shixa curled up under the blanket and squealed, trying to hide under it as the other two came for him. He was certainly awake now, and it seemed the short nap that he had been able to take had given him more energy than expected. "No!"

~

Spirit let a little noise escape him as he was turned around, and he jumped as his waist was grabbed. He followed where he was lead for a moment before turning his head slightly back and up to look at Celia. “But- you won’t tell me? Why not?”

~

Levi ripped the blanket away from him, tossing it across the room. He started to poke at Shixa’s stomach, laughing loudly as they played. Caliban quickly shifted out of the way, switching to stand beside Neon. “Silly cat, you can’t escape me!”

~

Celia led Spirit down the alley again; however, this time, he only considered going back inside. After weighing his options, he ultimately passed the doorway and continued walking on, bringing Spirit with him.

"Well, I've been sort of... trying to figure out some shit about it." He nervously answered, giving vague words on purpose. "Does that make sense?"

Spirit’s head followed the home as they passed the auras inside. When he spoke, his voice sounded confused. “We passed the- um, no, no it doesn’t make sense. Where are we going?”

"Stop freaking out. We're just going on a walk." Celia's voice grew significantly more calm and serious when he said that, though right afterward, it came out normal. "We gotta find someplace less busy."

“Oh- okay?” Spirit still sounded confused, but blindly followed wherever Celia was taking him anyway. One of his hands rested on Celia’s, and he tried his best to see everything around them, despite them moving so fast.

Celia tried his best to walk slower than his normal quick pace, though it quickly proved to be difficult moving around people.

The Market City was almost always bustling no matter what time of "day" it was. Shopkeepers and vendors yelling their scripts, random people on the sidelines shouting catcalls at anyone they found interesting, others making strange sounds in dimmer corners as their bodies pressed together. These sounds were all normal to Celia's ears—he'd been hearing such things since his childhood. He'd had plenty of time to get used to it and learn to not turn his head. As long as he kept his gaze forward, they wouldn't be stopped.

Eventually, they reached a darker corner between two busted, empty restaurants across the way. Celia brought Spirit all the way to the wall, standing in front of him. "There's nobody else around, is there?"

Spirit was still a little overwhelmed by how busy the Market City was, despite living there nearly his entire life. It made his head hurt when he was near too many people and too many new auras, smells and sounds. Since they were moving at a decent pace past everyone, it didn’t seem to really bother him as much as it would if they had stayed still in the crowded places. When he was backed into an alley, separated from all the people, Celia asked him the question and immediately he focused to see anyone. There wasn’t anyone that he could detect, and he could sense auras through solid wall. They were alone. “No- Celia, what’s going on?”

"Lovely."

Celia smiled down at him. His aura had gone completely back to normal, aside from the occasional flicker from the nervousness in his chest.

He lifted a hand to touch Spirit's mask, mumbling a quiet disclaimer before he went on with his impulsive plan. "It's not coming off completely, don't worry. Do you trust me?"

A quiet gasp escaped Spirit as the mask was grabbed, and his hands instinctively reached for it to hold it in place. “Ah- Wait-“

His voice was soft, almost embarrassed. What was he doing? “I… trust you, but what are you doing-“

His hands slid down Celia’s wrist, the other resting on his chest.

Celia started a small ramble, his voice quiet as to not lead anyone down to their location, just in case. He knew how much people loved to follow.

"I'm so much better with actions than words, um, so... If you're wanting me to tell you what I said, I'm gonna have to tell you like that." He took a breath. "Is that okay? Can I try?"

Spirit would’ve taken the entire mask off for him in the moment if he really asked. Celia sounded so… genuine and sweet. Their conversation was for them and them only. He wasn’t trying to impress anyone, or be someone else. It was just them. Spirit’s heart thumped in his chest, and he could see the same pink in both his own aura and Celia’s bursting with every beat. His hand slid to the middle of Celia’s chest, and his head dropped to look, holding his hand where the pink sparks flew from. It was pretty to watch his own aura swirl with Celia’s. After the small distraction, he stumbled over his words to speak again. “Oh- um- yes. Go ahead.”

Celia couldn't help the childish grin that spread across his face. It was unstoppable, and he had to briefly wipe his mouth in an attempt to not look so stupid in love. Even if Spirit couldn't see it.

"You can push me if you want me to stop. Anything for you."

Celia's hand returned to the mask. Gently and slowly, he began to move it, sliding it up until the tip of Spirit's nose was visible and everything below.

Soon enough, Celia pressed their lips together, having to lean down for Spirit's sake, due to their height differences.

The noise that escaped Spirit as he was kissed was more than embarrassing, and he immediately realized what Celia was hinting at the whole time. One of his hands stayed on Celia’s chest, and the other released the weak grip on his wrist and moved to his waist, pulling at the fabric there. Normally, he’d be freaking about about how much of his face was showing, but the lips against his were distracting him enough to completely forget.

The kiss wasn’t long. Spirit broke away suddenly, catching his breath after it was taken away. “Oh… my god…”

Breathless, he started to process what actually happened. His brain was racing, and the bright colors in front of him were distracting him even more. He smiled, quickly realized Celia could see it, and then brought his hand up to cover it. He was burning up, and felt faint.

Celia indulged in the kiss until he felt Spirit move, breaking away at the same time as him. Unwillingly, but politely nonetheless. He'd prefer to kiss Spirit until the void exploded and everything became nothing; forever and ever, but he couldn't yet.

He smiled in response to Spirit's smile and took a loud breath. It was just as dramatic as it was relieving. "Oh shit," he began to laugh. "I just did that. We've never done that."

It excited him to know the feeling of Spirit's lips. He'd been craving it for so long, and now he wanted it even worse, knowing how much he loved it.

"You know what that kiss means, right?"

Spirit quickly took the opportunity to pull his mask back down while Celia was distracted. If he kept talking without it, he was going to have a heart attack. Processing everything was hard enough, but while his mask was up? Lord.

Spirit looked down from Celia’s face and at their chests. The pink was still there, but… something else was there. If he focused hard enough, a small, thin red string connected their chests together. It was short now that they were so close, but now that he thought about it, it had been there since they were in Adralla. He lifted his hand to try to touch it, but his fingers phased through. He couldn’t move it.

Distraction aside, he looked back up at Celia and spoke. “Are we ‘boyfriends’ now? Neon tried to explain it to me, but he’s really bad at it.”

Celia distracted himself quickly, freaking out and shaking his hands in the air at how excited he felt. Spirit's lips, on his lips, and he needed it back. Every ounce of fear had disappeared from him. The only things now were joy and embarrassment.

He only returned his attention to Spirit after hearing his voice, noticing how muffled it'd become once again. That, in turn, made him realize just how un-muffled Spirit's voice had been before the mask was pulled back down. It set off some more excited sparks in his chest.

The question caught him off guard. "...If you wanna be."

“I do. I do want. I ‘wanna be’ really bad.” Spirit spoke with absolute certainty. His hands quickly found Celia’s face and touched his lips with his thumb, wanting to feel them again. “Do that more. You’re… good at it. The best I’ve had, actually.”

Spirit smiled so hard, you didn’t need to move the mask to tell. His ears moved, and you could hear it in the way he spoke. “Don’t let it get to your head, though.”

Spirit couldn’t possibly take his hands off him if he tried. He wanted to feel him, be closer to him, and be with him more than he already had. His heart ached for it so badly, and with every beat, the red string burned brighter. His hands slid across Celia’s cheeks, pressing the pads of his thumbs on his different features to feel what he looks like. He could feel his smile, his scars, his freckle above his lips, his eyelashes, everything… but he couldn’t see him. He wanted to so badly— he has since he met him, but he hasn’t wanted it this badly before. He thought silently that maybe, in Adralla, the weird room he was in with the god was a sort of mind space for it. Maybe he had one of his own that he could access there. If that were the case, and he could see there since it would be in his mind, he would absolutely risk running into the god again to try it. Maybe they could talk about it later.

"Aah," Celia let out a noise, excited and overwhelmed in the best way possible. Everything built up inside of his chest and stomach and he'd be a fool to scream like he wanted, but it was so difficult to stop himself. After allowing Spirit to feel his face with his hands, the feelings became too intense to bear.

He wrapped his arms around Spirit once more and squeezed him tight, spinning the two of them around as he giggled. "Oh my fucking god, I'm so letting it get to my head right now," he said a bit loudly, excitement dripping from his voice so much that Spirit didn't need to have his hands on him to tell he was smiling.

"You want me to do it again? For real?"

Spirit let out a surprised noise as he was spun, laughing with Celia. He hadn’t laughed in… god knows how long. His laughter was the kind that made him hiccup and squeak, especially since he was being squeezed by Celia. “Yes- do it whenever you want-“

Spirit thought about the kiss, and his heart did a flip in his chest. Just thinking about it made him smile, but now Celia could kiss him whenever he wanted… he was nervous, in the best way possible. “Just don’t um… lift the mask higher than you did. …please.”

Spirit knew that it would ruin the mood if Celia saw what was under it. He was ugly, deformed and torn apart all thanks to himself, and he wasn’t ready for Celia to see that yet.

Celia giggled with him, making a brief, loud ruckus. Their laughter together sounded like what he'd imagine the gates of heaven to sound like, if it even existed. It excited him and made him want to squeeze Spirit until he popped.

"Whenever I want?!" He exclaimed, joyfully grabbing at Spirit's face and kissing all over his mask. "Okay!"

The man gave a few more kisses before leaning down to speak to him much, much quieter. "I'd still think you're perfect no matter what you're hiding. Don't forget that."

Spirit felt like he was floating as they laughed together, and his arms wrapped around Celia’s neck as they spun and giggled. His hand slid down his neck to rest on his chest as he kissed his mask, making him laugh harder.

When Celia went quiet and spoke, Spirit’s mood… shifted. He wasn’t sure Celia really meant it. “Don’t say that…”

He wasn’t trying to kill the mood, but Celia was saying things he didn’t mean. If he really saw what he was hiding, he’d leave in seconds. He wasn’t planning on showing him any time soon.

Celia pulled away to look at him straight-on. "I'll say it as many times as it takes for you to believe it. Even if it takes the rest of our lives."

Truthfully, he couldn't think of anything that would make him go back on that statement. He really meant it. If Spirit had ugly eyes, or even no eyes at all, he'd still love them. If Spirit had burns and scars from his cheeks to his hairline, he'd still love them.

One last kiss was given before he changed the subject. "We can go home now. Unless you wanna stop any place."

Spirit felt light headed from all the love he suddenly received, and he was embarrassed just thinking about the reactions from Shixa and Neon when they get back. They disappeared alone together… wasn’t it obvious what they were doing? Maybe if Celia returned alone, it’d be less obvious.

“I need to go home and get my mask. I’m sick of wearing Neon’s. It hurts my nose.” Spirit’s voice was quiet and unsure. Walking alone in the market city was never a good idea, but he knew he’d be okay. He was more worried about Celia. “Will you be okay to walk back alone?”

Celia's smile faltered as he realized the implications of Spirit's question. His own voice came out with a confused lilt. "You want to walk back separate?"

It worried him, for half a second, but he tried to ignore it. Maybe he'd gone too far already. Still, to answer the question, he knew he'd be fine on his own. "Um, yeah. Yeah, I'll be okay."

“No no— my home. I have an extra back at my house.” Spirit reassured. “I wouldn’t just leave you like that for no reason…”

Spirit reached up to kiss Celia one more time, quickly moving his mask for a second. The kiss was long, and he savored every second of it before tugging the mask back down and stepping back. “Meet you back at your place?”

"Oh—oh!" Celia laughed, relieved. Sometimes, it was difficult to keep up with how fast he jumped to conclusions. It was a sucky trait of his that would never disappear.

"Sorry, I thought, haha... anyway. Yeah, I'll be okay. You be safe, too, okay?" He gladly accepted the kiss and leaned into it greedily, giggling against Spirit's lips until they were gone from his own. "Yeah!"

“You’re okay. Be safe.” Spirit gave a little wave before jogging down the alley, peeking around the corner before slipping into the crowds alone. He missed him as soon as his aura was out of his detection, and something in the back of his head told him to turn back and walk with him, but he didn’t listen. He slipped through stranger after stranger, ignoring the cat calling and shouting at him as he passed. He eventually slipped between two buildings and into a secluded walk way. At the very end was his place, and he slipped through in silence. It didn’t take very long to find the extra mask, and he quickly swapped them once he was sure no one was around. His mask felt so much more comfortable than Neon’s wooden one, and his being hollow, thin plastic made it easier for him to detect through. He decided to be nice and planned to return the original mask to Neon, so he clipped it to hang from his belt for now. Since his house was significantly far from Shixa and Celia’s, it would take him a while to get back, but now that he had his original mask, people would recognize him and leave him the fuck alone.

~

Shixa made a loud, startled noise at the removal of his blanket. He sat up on the bare mattress and shifted around, trying to avoid Leviathan's hands while keeping his eyes on Neon in case he joined in. His voice came out half-spoken, half-giggled. "Fucking watch me!"

Neon laughed as Shixa was playfully attacked, and eventually tapped Levi’s shoulder to move him out of the way. “Hold on, I got you-“

Once Levi moved, Neon pounced on Shixa and grabbed his wrists, pulling him against his chest and off the mattress. He spun him around and held his wrists firmly on his shoulders, leaving his front completely open. Levi immediately took advantage and poked at him, toying with him while he couldn’t fight back. “Gahaha! Got your ass!”

Shixa only trusted Neon for a second, but that was all the time the other needed to betray him, it seemed. He screamed playfully as he was pulled off the bed, kicking his shoes at Leviathan's arms when they got too close. "Stop, stop! I kick hard!"

One mistake in his aim and his foot kicked right between Leviathan's legs. Shixa barely noticed, at first.

The fight was over when Levi suddenly stopped, taking two steps back and holding the wall with one hand. His other rested over his dick, and it was very quickly obvious to all three of them what had happened. “Dude…”

Caliban suddenly stood to effortlessly throw Shixa over his shoulder, giving Neon a break from the thrashing. “Calm down, little one. You’ve hurt him.”

Neon couldn’t help it— he was suddenly holding the wall to stand too, but for a completely different reason. His howling laughter could be heard three doors down, and he could barely breathe as it shook his entire body. It was nearly a cackle, the way he pointed and laughed at Levi’s pain. “He fucking- no way dude-“

“Haha, very funny. I’m going to get you back for that you dick!”

Shixa burst into loud laughter after realizing where his foot had gone. He wrestled out of Neon's grasp, taking advantage of the other's weakness due to his own laughing, until Caliban picked him up like a feather.

"He was poking me!"

“I’m sorry they were poking you.” Caliban walked across the home and set Shixa down on the other side, away from the other two that now argued about Neon laughing at Leviathan’s pain. They weren’t seriously upset, Levi was just being petty.

Shixa shook his head, his hair falling back into place after being rustled about while he was upside down. He then gave a pout to Caliban and crossed his arms over his chest. "I didn't kick him that hard."

“You were shouting, ‘I kick hard.’ I think you kicked him pretty hard.” Caliban laughed, kneeling down to pet his head. “He’ll be alright. Just be careful next time.”

"I won't! He fights hard, so I have to fight hard, too." Shixa stated confidently, relishing in Caliban's laugh until it was gone.

Caliban turned toward Levi. “Are you hearing him? He’s got a point, Levi.”

“Yeah I hear him, and I hear you too! Shixa always gets so many words outta you- why aren’t you that talkative with me?”

“Shixa’s funny.”

“What- I’m funny!”

"I do have a point, and I am funny! You're just jealous, fuck face!" Shixa snickered, blowing a raspberry out in Leviathan's direction.

~

Celia followed Spirit down the alley until they had to part ways. He turned his head to watch the other, admiring him and the way he walked until he slipped through the crowd and disappeared behind the corner of a building. A goofy, lovestruck smile lingered on his face until he had to wash it away to blend in with his surroundings.

The frown that quickly overcame his grin was hard and unwavering. He stared blankly at the people that passed him on the road, making it about halfway back to his house before hearing something specific yelled in the distance.

"Aye, there's the alien fuck! I heard your poor grandma got into some deep shit!"

This caught Celia's attention quickly. He flinched, turning his head—something he was absolutely not supposed to do. A group of young men sat together near the steps of a tavern he frequented when all of his friends were busy doing their own business.

Another stranger shoulder-checked him as he paused right in the middle of the street. Spirit was busy, no one could stop him from kicking ass and then going back home.

His mind went silent in fury as he turned on his heel and walked sideways through the crowd to approach the group.

"What the fuck did you say?" Celia tilted his head as he walked, his bangs falling over half of his face as his other, visible eye stared past. "You think you're so cute, huh? Letting shit spew from your mouth like that?" He smiled down at the one who had yelled, continuing to talk. "Since you wanna talk about her, wanna see what that lady taught me to do when I get in deep shit?"

"Some clown ass kicked her down and I swear to god, it was the funniest—"

Celia stood straight up in front of the man, shoving his foot—the one he wore a thick sneaker on—right against his face. The force knocked his head back into the stone wall behind him.

This threat alerted the other three strangers surrounding them, and Celia was promptly punched in the upper jaw by one, in retaliation.

~

Spirit made it back to Celia and Shixa’s relatively fast, shoving the sheet out of the way and stepping inside. As he returned, the four inside went silent.

“You’re back! Where’s Celia?” Levi asked, interrupting whatever conversation was being thrown around before he stepped in. Neon smiled when he saw the mask had been switched.

“Where’s… Celia…? He’s supposed to be here.” Spirit’s voice was quiet, concern slowly overtaking his previous happiness. He expected to walk in and see Celia with everyone else. Where was he? The walk to Spirit’s and back should’ve been a hell of a lot longer than just a straight shot like Celia had. “He didn’t come back?”

“No…?” Levi’s voice quickly grew concerned too, approaching Spirit slowly. He knew what was coming. He could tell from the way Spirit’s aura slowly grew brighter. It was fear. Fear, and a bit of anger. “Hey- it’s okay-“

Spirit used his shoulder to shove past Leviathan, grabbing his knife from where it had been dropped a while ago. He quickly unclipped Neon’s mask from his belt and tossed it at him. Neon just barely caught it in time, speaking with worry. “Wait- Where are you going?”

“To find him. He should’ve been back before me.” Spirit’s voice sounded… different. Like he had snapped into work mode. Levi and Cali knew it well, but to Neon, it was like he was a different person. He had gotten used to Spirit’s soft, friendly voice over the past few hours, but now that Celia was supposedly missing, his voice was back to… whatever that was. He sounded deadly serious— Like he’d kill without thinking. Neon believed he would too. He knew what he was paid to do.

“Hey, hey- let’s not get carried away here-“ Levi reached to grab Spirit’s wrist, but he quickly yanked it out of his grasp.

“Don’t fucking touch me. I’m going to find him.”

“Just give him more time! I’m sure he’s okay- it’s Celia!”

“Exactly! It’s Celia, and I need him to be okay. I’m finding him.” Spirit spoke with absolute certainty.

Nothing could stop him at this point. Levi wasn’t an exception to the “don’t get in Spirit’s way” rule. Spirit took long strides toward the doorway and threw the sheet aside, ready to head out.

~

Celia staggered to the side after a fist ripped through his jaw. He broke out into pained laughter, leaning over to spit some sort of thick saliva and blood mixture down at the ground.

Pink eyes glanced back up and the group of four looked ready for a fight, but also incredibly nervous, as if it was their first one. It made Celia laugh harder, and suddenly, he didn't believe their previous bullshit so much.

"Yeah, okay. Fuck you," he chuckled, pointing a middle finger in their general direction before turning around and merging with the crowd once more, using worthless bodies as protection in case he was followed. His vision was blurry and pain overwhelmingly throbbed in his jaw, but it didn't stop him from continuing his journey. He couldn't stop again.

Warmth dripped into his mouth and smeared over his lips, and by the time he reached his home once again, it was all over his chin. Celia raised an arm to move the sheet, but his body rammed right into someone else's before he could do anything. It didn't take him long to recognize the mess of white below his head.

A smile formed on his face. Spirit couldn't see it, but the others could. He was missing one of his top teeth. "Oh, hey!"

Spirit glanced up after slamming into someone, the stress delaying his detection. It took him a second to realize who it was. As he picked up on the aura, his heart dropped. It was leaking through some injury on his face. “Celia?”

Spirit’s voice was soft again, tone dripping with intense worry. He yanked him inside by his shirt, swiping the sheet back into place as they stepped in. “You scared the life out of me-“

“Oh dude- what happened?” Neon spoke, walking toward the two. Spirit picked up on someone approaching and pulled his knife on them without thinking. If it weren’t for Neon’s quick reflexes, he could’ve been cut, but he quickly grabbed Spirit’s wrist and twisted the knife out of his grip. “Hey- it’s just me! Watch the knife…”

“Tell me what’s wrong with him- is he okay?” Spirit asked Neon, not trusting Celia to give him an honest answer. He let himself be pushed back out of the way by Neon, and watched as their aura’s touched. Neon seemed to be inspecting his mouth.

And Neon was. He noticed the missing tooth, and didn’t hesitate to stick his fingers in his lips and move them. “Aw dude… your tooth is gone.”

The hand that had raised for moving the bedsheet lowered to pet Spirit's hair in greeting. He stumbled in and barely regained his balance before Spirit was worriedly questioning him.

"Sorry, I just had—" he was interrupted by Neon, who approached and was quickly threatened. The ease of which Neon stole Spirit's knife away briefly shocked him. Even Celia hadn't been able to do that before.

"I, uh..." Celia tried to speak, but was once again stopped by Neon—more specifically, the fingers that forced his mouth open. Blood stained his tongue and the teeth on either side of the missing one, as well as his lips and everything below. He had to speak with his mouth open, his words sounding odd because of it. "I got in a fight."

Neon and Spirit spoke in frightening unison. “With who?”

The two were both ready for anything, willing to fight for Celia instantly. Neon laughed at the timing, lightly shoving Spirit’s shoulder. Spirit wasn’t laughing. His aura burned bright enough that Levi and Cali could see it effortlessly.

Levi tried his best to calm the two down. “Hey, let’s think for a second- they’re probably long gone by now. People know Celia has connections. They wouldn’t stick around anyway.”

Levi gently moved the two out of the way, approaching Celia and lifting his chin to look at his injury. “Yeah… your tooth is gone. That’s fine, Shixa, do you have anything he can bite down on?”

Celia blinked at the question, feeling some of his previous rage return at the thought of what had started it. "Just some prick kids. Yelling some stupid shit about nanna." His cheerful eyes narrowed to glare off at nothing for a moment. "They were scared after one punch. I didn't want to waste my time."

He looked up again as Leviathan approached him, beginning to lift his head before a hand could even be placed beneath his chin. The tooth was completely gone, and his gums were the source of the bleeding. There didn't appear to be any more damage than that.

Shixa's ears perked up at his name being called. He searched the room from where he sat, locating a pile of what looked like unfolded laundry in the corner of the large room. He got up to rummage through it until he found a small washcloth, bringing it back for them.

“Thank you, love.” Levi lightly patted the top of Shixa’s head before taking the cloth and shoving it in Celia’s mouth. “Bite down.”

Levi’s spoke in an unusually demanding tone. He released Celia’s chin and gave him some space, only for it to be quickly taken up by Spirit again. He hugged him silently, worry melting away. He whispered so only Celia could hear. “I should’ve walked with you. I’m sorry.”

"I don't wanna hear any more apologies from you. It's okay." Celia said this, the words muffled, before biting down as he was told. The pressure from the towel in his mouth felt both painful and nauseating, like it was triggering some gag reflex. He reached up to adjust it and let out a deep breath against it.

Shixa moved to stand behind Neon, peeking toward Celia past the man's arm. He'd seen Celia get hurt countless times, but it always scared him, for some reason. It felt like he was losing family, despite not having any left. At least, not blood-related. So, he understood Spirit's reaction to it.