Adapt to Live [Part 10]
Nov. 11th, 2015 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esp_dragonFandom: Noblesse
Summary: It's been a long time since Tao had seen an angel, not since ze left Heaven and turned into a demon. Ze hadn't thought it was possible to pass through the barrier between Heaven and the physical realm without changing. M-21's task in the physical realm is to kill as many demons as they can. Except the pieces aren't fitting together.
Contains: Anecdotal gore.
Rating: PG
Genre: General
Word count: 1,935
Total word count: 22,908
Status: Work in progress
The kid took another spoonful of soup and didn't have as much trouble swallowing the second time.
When they lowered their spoon though, they didn't bring it up again. "…Why are you like this?" the kid whispered.
"Heh," Tao said, "working this all out is hard on your own."
The kid shook their head. "Not this." They paused. "Not just this. From the start, you've looked out for me and I was trying to kill you. Why?"
Oh. That was what the kid was asking. "Because you need all the guidance you can get," Tao said. "Someone to look out for you. I know what it's like to have to get used to all those sensations. And I also know what it's like to think that everything's fine and everything will just work out, no matter what you do, because that's how it's always been, right?" The kid was listening to every word ze said, their soup forgotten. "I had Boss and Takeo with me when we went through the barrier, and we were going to find Boss' Lord in a matter of day, then we'd go back and everything would be back to normal. Easy."
Tao sighed, their heart squeezing at the memories. "But we didn't have a direction or a way to try and find Boss' Lord, and that was before we found out what had been happening since Muzaka had went through."
Tao closed hir eyes, picking at hir skin with a nail. "We had found a village and were talking with the people there, trying to see if someone looking like Them had travelled through. We found out that demons had been attacking people instead, attacking during the nighttime.
"So of course we decided to help out. The humans needed our help, right? Talking with our brethren shouldn't be a problem - we would find out what was going on, and we would get to talk with a sibling."
Tao stared at hir knees. "We'd split up, thinking it would be better to cover more ground that way, and we would get to explore more of the area. Me and Takeo were the ones that found the demon - they weren't any of our brethren. They were just able to think, just able to plan when was their best time to attack without being hurt.
"We both knew how to fight, but we hadn't tried since we'd first went through the barrier. Our weapons..."
Tao saw the kid straighten in the corner of hir eyes, and they must have been putting the pieces together. Good. "We were too busy trying to work out what to do that the demon would have killed both of us if Boss hadn't been close by. We should have realised it then, but we were still hopeful that things would turn out well, that that was only one incident that didn't mean anything.
"Except... It kept happening. We kept finding demons that had used to be human, whose minds had been destroyed by the power they had. Killing them had been more a mercy than anything else." Tao frowned.
"We got overconfident. We thought that was how everyone fought and that we would be ready for them."
Tao exhaled. "The first time we fought a demon that had used to be an angel went completely differently." Tao closed hir eyes. "We'd tried to talk with them, but they wouldn't listen. They just wanted to have 'fun' with the humans, wanting to kill whoever they wanted and rule over the rest that they'd terrified into submission.
"Takeo and I thought we could take them. We'd fought everything else with no trouble, so another fight should have been the same.
"Instead, Takeo was flitted into a tree and-" Tao's throat closed up. There had been so much blood. "There hadn't been anything we could do."
"So. Yeah," Tao said, getting better control over hirself after a few deep breaths. "That's why I was looking out for you. I lost someone doing the same stuff you had."
"...And I don't have someone to lose."
"Just yourself."
The kid continued to stare at their soup.
Tao exhaled again, and then gave them a light nudge with hir elbow.
The kid jerked their head up to look at them.
"You should eat your soup before it goes cold," Tao murmured. Give them something else to concentrate on.
The kid nodded and then started to eat their soup.
When they were halfway through, the kid seemed to lean further into their bowl, like they were trying to see something inside it.
"What is it?" Tao asked them. There shouldn't be anything else in there.
"Is that what I look like?"
Tao blinked. "Yeah, but that's not a – oh, right." Tao reached over and picked up hir phone -Boss still hadn't gotten back to hir yet; they must still be in a lecture- and switched to the camera. "Okay, just hold still..."
The kid did, and Tao saw their little jerk when the camera came on, showing both their faces. "That's what you look like, kid."
"That's me...?" they said, lifting a hand up to pat their face as their reflection did the same.
Tao nodded. "Yeah. Can you see your ears?" It depended on the camera if their extra appendages showed up, and the kid leaned in, turning their head towards the camera.
They stared at themselves, frowning. Then their ears twitched, one of them going fully down and the kid jerked at that, their hand going up to pet their ear.
"I've never known what I looked like..." the kid murmured, and Tao's smile widened a little more.
"I'm not surprised." Seeing how there's no mirrors in Heaven. "And these are a vaguely recent invention." Cameras that were smaller than a palm, anyway.
The kid's eyes were starting to droop and Tao patted their shoulder. The kid jerked at that and Tao said, "You're starting to fall asleep, don't worry about it."
"Like Seira and Regis..." the kid murmured, opening their mouth for a yawn.
Oh, right, ze needed to contact the pair so they didn't think Tao had killed the kid. ...Though since they were demon hunters, the kid turning into a demon probably was death to them.
"I'm just going to take your tray okay? I'll be right back." At the kid's nod, Tao took the tray and left, taking it to the kitchen. Cleaning it up didn't take long and when Tao returned, the kid was already curled up under the blankets again.
They were still awake though, stirring when Tao sat next to them. Tao's blinked when the kid reached out with both their arms.
Ze breathed a light chuckle. "Hugging is a little hard when I'm sitting up, kid. Hold on, I'm going to go under the blankets with you."
The kid nodded and Tao slipped in.
Once ze were in, the kid moved in and wrapped their arms around Tao as best as they could.
Which didn't exactly work, and Tao moved their head so the kid could but their arm under there.
"If you keep it there, your arm will feel funny in a little while," Tao warned, watching the kid start to frown when they were close enough to be breathing in each other's faces. "It's better if you keep that one down."
The kid nodded and then moved their arm away. "Is this warm?" they asked.
Tao smiled again. "Yeah, this is warm."
"Okay." The kid yawned one more time, their eyelids drooping before closing completely.
Tao checked hir phone again. [
But they'd been willing to see Boss without killing them, so there was hope they wouldn't completely reject the kid.
And after all that time, ze hadn't asked the kid what their name was.
Tao huffed, and the kid scrunched their face up at that, but didn't wake up. Ze could ask when they woke up again. It hadn't been that important compared to everything else.
Tao yawned, and damn, the kid must have passed it onto hir.
Well, they could do with the extra rest while ze waited for Boss' response. Ze closed hir eyes and slept.
* * *
There was a warm body next to Tao and ze patted the person, frowning. It had been ages since ze'd shared a bed with someone - ze'd only did it with Takeo, and Boss afterwards, and when Tao opened hir eyes, silver hair greeted them, not purple or blond.
What-?
Ze turned hir head towards hir buzzing phone and that must have been what had woken hir up.
Ze answered without checking who was on the other side - only one person had hir number. "Hey, Boss."
"Did I wake you?"
"S'fine," Tao said, clearing hir throat so hir voice didn't sound quite as rough. "I was resting like you told me to," ze said, a small smile curving hir lips.
Boss sighed. "I would have preferred if I hadn't disturbed you at all."
"Heh." Tao sat up so the kid wouldn't have hir voice right in their ear. The kid started hugging hir thigh instead and Tao ran hir fingers through the kid's hair until they settled down again.
"I've informed Seira and Regis of the current situation. They're understandably concerned for their friend's well-being."
"We're fine, Boss," Tao said. "I'll tell you when you get back. But there's something you should know." That ze'd forgotten to put into the text, because it hadn't been as important as everything else. "Our new houseguest looks a lot like Muzaka's bunch."
"...I see."
"Yeah." The kid had stiffened, running their fingertips over Tao's thigh, curling their fingers over and over, almost if they were trying to scratch there but not putting any actual pressure there behind it. Hm.
"My lecture is finished for the day, so I'll be coming home shortly "so I'll be coming home shortly."
"Got it, Boss." Tao hung up and looked down at the kid. "Hey kid."
The kid rolled their head to look up at them, their eyebrows drawn in. "Why do you keep calling me that?"
Tao quirked a grin at them. "We haven't had the chance to properly introduce ourselves, and since you're no longer an angel, I can't call you that anymore. You're what, two? Three-hundred years olf?" They had to be, from the way they acted. "That makes you a lot younger than me."
"...Three."
Tao grinned. "So I was right."
The kid shook their head. "No. I'm three years old."
Tao's jaw dropped open as ze stared at them. "You're young by human standards!" What the hell was Heaven doing sending a newborn here? Making a newborn do anything? They should have just been out exploring Heaven's clouds, not going to the physical realm and trying to kill demons.
The kid jerked their head away, frowning at them. "I'm not young!"
"Yeah, kid, you are." How had Heaven changed so much? Who was in charge that thought it was perfectly fine to do that? Human progressing quickly was one thing, but those were humans. Tao expected Heaven to never change, to still be exactly how it had been like when ze'd left when ze returned.
"Okay," Tao said, dropping the topic, "I won't call you kid then if you don't want me to - what do I call you then?"
The kid's expression froze, and dammit, what else had Heaven been doing?
Summary: It's been a long time since Tao had seen an angel, not since ze left Heaven and turned into a demon. Ze hadn't thought it was possible to pass through the barrier between Heaven and the physical realm without changing. M-21's task in the physical realm is to kill as many demons as they can. Except the pieces aren't fitting together.
Contains: Anecdotal gore.
Rating: PG
Genre: General
Word count: 1,935
Total word count: 22,908
Status: Work in progress
The kid took another spoonful of soup and didn't have as much trouble swallowing the second time.
When they lowered their spoon though, they didn't bring it up again. "…Why are you like this?" the kid whispered.
"Heh," Tao said, "working this all out is hard on your own."
The kid shook their head. "Not this." They paused. "Not just this. From the start, you've looked out for me and I was trying to kill you. Why?"
Oh. That was what the kid was asking. "Because you need all the guidance you can get," Tao said. "Someone to look out for you. I know what it's like to have to get used to all those sensations. And I also know what it's like to think that everything's fine and everything will just work out, no matter what you do, because that's how it's always been, right?" The kid was listening to every word ze said, their soup forgotten. "I had Boss and Takeo with me when we went through the barrier, and we were going to find Boss' Lord in a matter of day, then we'd go back and everything would be back to normal. Easy."
Tao sighed, their heart squeezing at the memories. "But we didn't have a direction or a way to try and find Boss' Lord, and that was before we found out what had been happening since Muzaka had went through."
Tao closed hir eyes, picking at hir skin with a nail. "We had found a village and were talking with the people there, trying to see if someone looking like Them had travelled through. We found out that demons had been attacking people instead, attacking during the nighttime.
"So of course we decided to help out. The humans needed our help, right? Talking with our brethren shouldn't be a problem - we would find out what was going on, and we would get to talk with a sibling."
Tao stared at hir knees. "We'd split up, thinking it would be better to cover more ground that way, and we would get to explore more of the area. Me and Takeo were the ones that found the demon - they weren't any of our brethren. They were just able to think, just able to plan when was their best time to attack without being hurt.
"We both knew how to fight, but we hadn't tried since we'd first went through the barrier. Our weapons..."
Tao saw the kid straighten in the corner of hir eyes, and they must have been putting the pieces together. Good. "We were too busy trying to work out what to do that the demon would have killed both of us if Boss hadn't been close by. We should have realised it then, but we were still hopeful that things would turn out well, that that was only one incident that didn't mean anything.
"Except... It kept happening. We kept finding demons that had used to be human, whose minds had been destroyed by the power they had. Killing them had been more a mercy than anything else." Tao frowned.
"We got overconfident. We thought that was how everyone fought and that we would be ready for them."
Tao exhaled. "The first time we fought a demon that had used to be an angel went completely differently." Tao closed hir eyes. "We'd tried to talk with them, but they wouldn't listen. They just wanted to have 'fun' with the humans, wanting to kill whoever they wanted and rule over the rest that they'd terrified into submission.
"Takeo and I thought we could take them. We'd fought everything else with no trouble, so another fight should have been the same.
"Instead, Takeo was flitted into a tree and-" Tao's throat closed up. There had been so much blood. "There hadn't been anything we could do."
"So. Yeah," Tao said, getting better control over hirself after a few deep breaths. "That's why I was looking out for you. I lost someone doing the same stuff you had."
"...And I don't have someone to lose."
"Just yourself."
The kid continued to stare at their soup.
Tao exhaled again, and then gave them a light nudge with hir elbow.
The kid jerked their head up to look at them.
"You should eat your soup before it goes cold," Tao murmured. Give them something else to concentrate on.
The kid nodded and then started to eat their soup.
When they were halfway through, the kid seemed to lean further into their bowl, like they were trying to see something inside it.
"What is it?" Tao asked them. There shouldn't be anything else in there.
"Is that what I look like?"
Tao blinked. "Yeah, but that's not a – oh, right." Tao reached over and picked up hir phone -Boss still hadn't gotten back to hir yet; they must still be in a lecture- and switched to the camera. "Okay, just hold still..."
The kid did, and Tao saw their little jerk when the camera came on, showing both their faces. "That's what you look like, kid."
"That's me...?" they said, lifting a hand up to pat their face as their reflection did the same.
Tao nodded. "Yeah. Can you see your ears?" It depended on the camera if their extra appendages showed up, and the kid leaned in, turning their head towards the camera.
They stared at themselves, frowning. Then their ears twitched, one of them going fully down and the kid jerked at that, their hand going up to pet their ear.
"I've never known what I looked like..." the kid murmured, and Tao's smile widened a little more.
"I'm not surprised." Seeing how there's no mirrors in Heaven. "And these are a vaguely recent invention." Cameras that were smaller than a palm, anyway.
The kid's eyes were starting to droop and Tao patted their shoulder. The kid jerked at that and Tao said, "You're starting to fall asleep, don't worry about it."
"Like Seira and Regis..." the kid murmured, opening their mouth for a yawn.
Oh, right, ze needed to contact the pair so they didn't think Tao had killed the kid. ...Though since they were demon hunters, the kid turning into a demon probably was death to them.
"I'm just going to take your tray okay? I'll be right back." At the kid's nod, Tao took the tray and left, taking it to the kitchen. Cleaning it up didn't take long and when Tao returned, the kid was already curled up under the blankets again.
They were still awake though, stirring when Tao sat next to them. Tao's blinked when the kid reached out with both their arms.
Ze breathed a light chuckle. "Hugging is a little hard when I'm sitting up, kid. Hold on, I'm going to go under the blankets with you."
The kid nodded and Tao slipped in.
Once ze were in, the kid moved in and wrapped their arms around Tao as best as they could.
Which didn't exactly work, and Tao moved their head so the kid could but their arm under there.
"If you keep it there, your arm will feel funny in a little while," Tao warned, watching the kid start to frown when they were close enough to be breathing in each other's faces. "It's better if you keep that one down."
The kid nodded and then moved their arm away. "Is this warm?" they asked.
Tao smiled again. "Yeah, this is warm."
"Okay." The kid yawned one more time, their eyelids drooping before closing completely.
Tao checked hir phone again. [
Can you tell Loyard and Landegre their friend is staying with us?] Though that could be on a permanent basis, if they even wanted to see the kid again. But they'd been willing to see Boss without killing them, so there was hope they wouldn't completely reject the kid.
And after all that time, ze hadn't asked the kid what their name was.
Tao huffed, and the kid scrunched their face up at that, but didn't wake up. Ze could ask when they woke up again. It hadn't been that important compared to everything else.
Tao yawned, and damn, the kid must have passed it onto hir.
Well, they could do with the extra rest while ze waited for Boss' response. Ze closed hir eyes and slept.
There was a warm body next to Tao and ze patted the person, frowning. It had been ages since ze'd shared a bed with someone - ze'd only did it with Takeo, and Boss afterwards, and when Tao opened hir eyes, silver hair greeted them, not purple or blond.
What-?
Ze turned hir head towards hir buzzing phone and that must have been what had woken hir up.
Ze answered without checking who was on the other side - only one person had hir number. "Hey, Boss."
"Did I wake you?"
"S'fine," Tao said, clearing hir throat so hir voice didn't sound quite as rough. "I was resting like you told me to," ze said, a small smile curving hir lips.
Boss sighed. "I would have preferred if I hadn't disturbed you at all."
"Heh." Tao sat up so the kid wouldn't have hir voice right in their ear. The kid started hugging hir thigh instead and Tao ran hir fingers through the kid's hair until they settled down again.
"I've informed Seira and Regis of the current situation. They're understandably concerned for their friend's well-being."
"We're fine, Boss," Tao said. "I'll tell you when you get back. But there's something you should know." That ze'd forgotten to put into the text, because it hadn't been as important as everything else. "Our new houseguest looks a lot like Muzaka's bunch."
"...I see."
"Yeah." The kid had stiffened, running their fingertips over Tao's thigh, curling their fingers over and over, almost if they were trying to scratch there but not putting any actual pressure there behind it. Hm.
"My lecture is finished for the day, so I'll be coming home shortly "so I'll be coming home shortly."
"Got it, Boss." Tao hung up and looked down at the kid. "Hey kid."
The kid rolled their head to look up at them, their eyebrows drawn in. "Why do you keep calling me that?"
Tao quirked a grin at them. "We haven't had the chance to properly introduce ourselves, and since you're no longer an angel, I can't call you that anymore. You're what, two? Three-hundred years olf?" They had to be, from the way they acted. "That makes you a lot younger than me."
"...Three."
Tao grinned. "So I was right."
The kid shook their head. "No. I'm three years old."
Tao's jaw dropped open as ze stared at them. "You're young by human standards!" What the hell was Heaven doing sending a newborn here? Making a newborn do anything? They should have just been out exploring Heaven's clouds, not going to the physical realm and trying to kill demons.
The kid jerked their head away, frowning at them. "I'm not young!"
"Yeah, kid, you are." How had Heaven changed so much? Who was in charge that thought it was perfectly fine to do that? Human progressing quickly was one thing, but those were humans. Tao expected Heaven to never change, to still be exactly how it had been like when ze'd left when ze returned.
"Okay," Tao said, dropping the topic, "I won't call you kid then if you don't want me to - what do I call you then?"
The kid's expression froze, and dammit, what else had Heaven been doing?