taxonomites | 028 ± [ location: central (locked to Cain) ] the buttons are pushing themselves

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028 ± [ location: central (locked to Cain) ] the buttons are pushing themselves

Somehow Glitch got it in his half-full head that what Cain really, really needed after a month and a scoosh of getting kidnapped, brainwashed into some bizarre alternate self, and then finding out that his two best friends had become romantically involved (...and no, that description still didn't sound perfectly right) was a housewarming gift. Not a music box, but a music player nonetheless, with an assortment of small discs he'd pulled from the palace archives. Traditional ditties, a few popular collections from well before the war, and some of the jazz that got imported from the Otherside and melded with Ozian styles.

Odds were against the gift going over too well, but Glitch was a bit desperate to get (back?) into Cain's good graces. So he struck out for Central - of course the tin man would settle in Central - and the dot on the map that showed Cain's home. There was a parcel under his arm, a scarf wound loosely around his neck, and snow flurries catching in his curls.

...maybe he should have gotten Cain a scarf instead, or some gloves, or something else warmth-generating. A very insistent half-memory told him Cain would not like the cold.

ooc - post shall contain mistletoe-induced shenanigans of a kissy and snuggly nature. BYO-popcorn :3

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Glitch pulled back slightly to look at him, gathering all his attention and focusing it because Cain deserved at least that, and so much more.

"I'm glad," he said fervently. "I'm...you're a good man, Wyatt, you should be happy. I want you to be happy."

Just ten minutes ago, going out in the street in search of a new scarf (or whatever it was, he can't remember, it doesn't matter), he couldn't have said he was happy. But now...

Well, it certainly felt like a possibility. It felt like right now, right this instant, he could be honest with himself. "Just give me some time. I don't want to jinx anything, but you're giving me a lot of incentive for happiness."

He knew there's prettier ways to say what he wants to, but Glitch was the eloquent one. If anyone could put frills on words and get away with it, it was him.

Glitch's eloquence tended to come from his verbosity: throw a lot of words out and see which ones stick.

"I can be patient," Glitch replied, seriousness shot through with glee. He could also be greedy, and closed the gap to kiss Cain again. "And we've got all the time in the--"

And he paused, distracted by the ever-familiar feeling he'd forgotten something.

Expecting a kiss was one thing, but not getting it was a completely different thing. Cain blinked, and tilted his head to the side. His hand cupped Glitch's cheek, thumb stroking along the crow's feet he'd grown to love.

"...how about that coffee, huh?"

"Coffee's a good idea," Glitch said with a nod, then gave Cain one more squeeze before disentangling himself and wandering over to settle on the sofa. "And and maybe...do you have any biscuits? Something to munch on?"

Yep, food will still and forever be of vital importance.

Cain gave Glitch a lopsided grin before hanging his hat and coat beside the door, then brushed a self conscious hand over the back of his neck. "I think I can fix us something along those lines, yeah."

It was ridiculous; he hadn't blushed like this since he started middle school.

The blush got a grin that was full of mischief, and Glitch fussed with the buttons of his own coat. "I'm sure you can, you're resourceful."

Boy scout.

"Always prepared, sweetheart," he quipped, rifling through his meagerly stocked pantry. Coffee and biscuits, coffee and biscuits, coffee and biscuits...

He straightened up, a packet of ginger snaps in his hand, feeling rather like there was something wrong with this picture.

Not the banter, surely, since he and Glitch... Well, it was what they did. Comments and remarks of varying acidity was their thing.

Oh, right, coffee's in the fridge, not the pantry. He tossed Glitch the ginger snaps and then silently reprimanded himself for his own scatterbrained-ness and headed to the fridge.

That same ripple of something along his spine came over him the moment he started adding coffee to the ditto maker, but he ignored it. He was in a good mood, and he wasn't about to let his paranoia get the better of him this time.

This was a Good Thing, and he sure wasn't about to mess it up. "Black? Sugar? I don't have any cream..."

Edited 2011-01-02 18:41 (UTC)

Glitch deftly caught the packet of biscuits - oh, ginger snaps! - and happily tore into it. He'd been in Taxon long enough to have forgotten what real food tasted like, and took everyone's word for it that stuff in the city just wasn't right, but he was happy enough...

He paused in nibbling on the first biscuit because there was something in thinking about unreal things that was disconcerting. Glancing over at Cain for reassurance, he felt a wave of...fondness. Security. Yes, of course, everything was fine, and he wiped the crumbs from his lips before answering.

"Two sugars, please. I like sweet."

He smiled to himself, ducking his head at the comment, because boy wasn't that the truth. Glitch liked sweet things. Apples, biscuits... Wyatt might've known, but he didn't much like extrapolating when he had so little to go by. He knew Glitch loved apples (red, ripe ones), and he'd heard him moan enough about muglug to know he liked that too... But that was just the beginning of it. He could tell that much. Headcased though he may be, there was more brain left in him than most people got to begin with.

...even if it didn't show, at times.

Point of the matter being: He was rather looking forward to finding out what else Glitch loved, besides apples and muglug and biscuits.

"Two sugars, comin' right up."

He didn't know whose kitchen this had been before he came here. Truth of the matter was he didn't much want to think on it, but in any case it came fully equipped. As much as he needed, anyhow. He got out two cups, prepped Glitch's with two sugars, picked them up and--

And...

And set them back on the counter, going pale as death in the face.

Apples and muglug and biscuits and long mornings hiding under blankets and wind in tall grass and the sound of an engine turning over and...it was a long list. A very lengthy list and right at the top of it were blue, blue eyes and a teasing smile.

And long dark hair.

Wait a second.

Glitch looked over to Cain again, this time with a puzzled frown. Why...how...

"Um." Yeah, that was an intelligent statement. "Cain? Is...something wrong?"

Yes he was mostly hoping for verification before he jumped to any absurd conclusions.

One after the other, Cain's shoulder returned to their preferred position - all straight lines and very lacking in the fluid department. His neck felt like it was about to snap (like a twig, and he deserved it, too), but instead it didn't, and he found himself turning around. Slowly. Expecting the other shoe to drop - or to kick him in the face.

"I... Y--you're..."

He couldn't feel his face anymore. And he couldn't feel his hand drifting to his lips either.

Glitch clambered to his feet, coat open, head tilted to one side, the picture of abject confusion. His shook his head as his hands came together to wring.

"You...that was." Was, past tense, because the world was the right sort of upside-down now. The color was rising in his own face and he shook his head again. "Ozma on a pony, what was that?"

He shook his head, hand still pressed to his mouth as if to stop himself from saying something he'd regret, the wrong thing, the not quite right thing, any thing.

Maybe if he squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again this would turn out to be a dream: surreal, nice and disconcerting in equal measures, but ultimately harmless.

He tried it to no effect. All in vain. "I-I, no, that, I didn't mean... I don't know."

Glitch was less worried about saying or doing to wrong thing, much more accustomed to just letting his instincts guide him. Right now they told him to go to Cain, to..

He didn't know, he just took a few steps, stopped, took one step back, let the frown deepen.

"I don't know either," he confessed. "It was just like...you didn't mean it?"

Nope, there was absolutely no ability to focus going on here.

"No!"

If he could've, he would have backed himself right into the wall, but the kitchen counter blocked even the slightest bit of effort to that effect. He was stuck, well and good and rooted to the spot despite Glitch moving closer.

He couldn't have that; not when he felt both disappointed and relieved when Glitch backed off just as soon as he'd moved closer.

"I mean... I didn't mean it like that, like I meant it." ...no, wait, that wasn't right either. He had meant it. Even going over it all, he was struggling to find something that he hadn't meant - anything that he'd just said, for some, some sort of intensely awkward reason. But there was nothing. "Just..."

Glitch did make Taxon easier to bear just by being around, he just wasn't supposed to know it. Or he was. He should know. Cain just wasn't supposed to ever have to tell him outright, as if it was the single most important, most incredible thing there ever was.

...but when he said it, he couldn't have thought of one single thing greater than Glitch's companionship. He'd meant every single word.

He still did.

He just didn't mean it.

"Just stay where you are."

There was a flinch - it couldn't be helped - and Glitch looked around for a place to bolt to but...no, there was nothing to run from, it was just Cain and it was okay because Cain was a good man. And Glitch had said he'd stay with him, as long as Cain could put up with him he'd stay and--

That wasn't right; true but not the right kind of right. His fingers went to his lips, mimicry and realization of what had happened and his dark eyes went wide as he looked to Cain again.

"Not moving," he confirmed, although he wanted to but whether it was closer or away was up for debate. "Not moving Cain I'm not no I'm--" His eyes slammed shut and fingers moved from his mouth to his right temple and pressed. "Gods, what did they do?"

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028 ± [ location: central (locked to Cain) ] the buttons are pushing themselves

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