[There's so many things in him that push back against what she says, in that violent, frightened way of his -- he isn't ready to be home for anybody. His style has always been to hurt so that he doesn't get hurt. He doesn't open places inside himself for others to be safe. He doesn't plant his roots down and build a place for someone to belong.]
[But he has to.]
[He has to, and it brings them forward step by step, each of their soft voices whispering the phrase he doesn't know into the darkness. He doesn't know it, but it's safe. If he's honest with himself, and lies and denial are too heavy to drag around in the silent dark, his home is where his brothers are. Always. That's why without them, back in their world, he was homeless. That's why here, he's aimless. Or --]
Se No.
[That's what he'd thought.]
[He's her home? She found enough of something in him to make that? Ha ha. What a total joke.]
[She has it completely the wrong way around.]
[It isn't his brothers, but it's still everything that matters to him. The home he made, held in his hand. He wonders again if Osomatsu ever, ever felt like this. If Choromatsu did. If Karamatsu did.]
[If they ever felt danger prickling on the back of their neck, like he does now -- like he hears now, his ear slanting toward a soft wheeze of something slinking between ferns -- and wanted nothing more in life than to take his terror and beat the absolute shit out of it before it even breathed in the direction of his home.]
[He's smarter than any of those morons, though. At least he likes to think so. It's a forced calm that keeps him walking at a steady pace, and he thinks it might be the confusion of the pendant's blue glow that keeps the beast at bay, but he's not willing to rely on it forever. He can see the firelight-glow of the Storyteller's temple approaching in the distance. Should be close enough.]
[Calmly, his voice the depth and texture of ground asphalt, Ichimatsu's next 'Se No' is followed by flat instruction.]
Ren-chan... when I count to three, we can start running. Together.
It'll be like hunting practice. We have to run and pounce.
no subject
Se No.
[There's so many things in him that push back against what she says, in that violent, frightened way of his -- he isn't ready to be home for anybody. His style has always been to hurt so that he doesn't get hurt. He doesn't open places inside himself for others to be safe. He doesn't plant his roots down and build a place for someone to belong.]
[But he has to.]
[He has to, and it brings them forward step by step, each of their soft voices whispering the phrase he doesn't know into the darkness. He doesn't know it, but it's safe. If he's honest with himself, and lies and denial are too heavy to drag around in the silent dark, his home is where his brothers are. Always. That's why without them, back in their world, he was homeless. That's why here, he's aimless. Or --]
Se No.
[That's what he'd thought.]
[He's her home? She found enough of something in him to make that? Ha ha. What a total joke.]
[She has it completely the wrong way around.]
[It isn't his brothers, but it's still everything that matters to him. The home he made, held in his hand. He wonders again if Osomatsu ever, ever felt like this. If Choromatsu did. If Karamatsu did.]
[If they ever felt danger prickling on the back of their neck, like he does now -- like he hears now, his ear slanting toward a soft wheeze of something slinking between ferns -- and wanted nothing more in life than to take his terror and beat the absolute shit out of it before it even breathed in the direction of his home.]
[He's smarter than any of those morons, though. At least he likes to think so. It's a forced calm that keeps him walking at a steady pace, and he thinks it might be the confusion of the pendant's blue glow that keeps the beast at bay, but he's not willing to rely on it forever. He can see the firelight-glow of the Storyteller's temple approaching in the distance. Should be close enough.]
[Calmly, his voice the depth and texture of ground asphalt, Ichimatsu's next 'Se No' is followed by flat instruction.]
Ren-chan... when I count to three, we can start running. Together.
It'll be like hunting practice. We have to run and pounce.
Alright?