"I feel a change in the dance, but I'll leave it up to chance, one last shot at romance." –Original second verse, changed before release.
Hello, everyone, this is part two of my little challenge/celebration, 11 weeks of Area 11.
Every week, on Saturday, I will be uploading one or more one-shots inspired by Area 11's songs. Please note many of their amazing songs are inspired by anime-however, I don't watch anime. So… expect something possibly weird/different from what you expected, or possible, accidental rip-offs.
I screwed around with the lyrics… in here, you'll find both versions of the second verse, a line repeated and then followed by the line change from the "dirty version", (seriously it's just an f-bomb) and as usual in my weird songfic style, the chorus at the end. Also I translated the Japanese lyric(s).Enjoy!
PJO Jasper reference in here- if someone spots it, then you win a shoutout!
I also don't own the song, Area 11 do, nor do I own the Flux Buddies/Yogscast or Minecraft/Yogscast Complete Modpack. Sadly.
Lalna Pov, third person.
Lalna clutched the sapphire necklace tightly in one gloved hand, his drink in the other, as he sat out on the little back porch of Panda Labs, watching the twilight pen and waiting, wishing.
As a scientist, he knew when something was irrational; he knew these drinks were killing brain cells that would never be replaced; he knew he should be preparing the place for when the Flux attacked, but at the moment he couldn't care less. Supplies were meaningless when you weren't sure if you wanted to continue living. If Kim was gone, then maybe he should be too.
"Oh, damnit." He said sullenly. His eyes never left the horizon as he took another swig from the bottle in his hand.
Damnit he missed her. He missed everything about her short, adorable frame; he missed her playing with penguins and messing around with witchcraft, he even missed her nagging him to sleep. He mostly missed the cute look she got when she was confused, when her head tilted to one side and her eyes opened wide and her lips parted a tiny bit in thought and her eyebrows scrunched up a bit.
He wasn't sure how many days had passed; at first, he'd been frantic, trying to find her. Eventually he'd realized that she wasn't coming back, and he became depressed. He started drinking again. Livid started talking sometimes, even.
He considered ending it, but he couldn't. He would die and be returned to health at home when he woke up. Immortality ate away at him almost worse than the guilt.
Oh yes, the guilt, the feeling that weighed down his stomach with bedrock and made him remember to feed and care for her animals and plants even after she was gone.
He hasn't known that the Flux would take hold like that, he thought it had stopped, he thought she would be okay...
But now she was as good as gone. He hadn't found a cure; he hadn't saved her.
That was his last thought before things blurred and went black around him.
He must have fallen asleep out there, but no mobs disturbed him when might fell, thanks to the lighting around their home.
What did wake him up, though, was a tingling, warm sensation around his waist. He opened his eyes, still squinting from hangover upon hangover, to see the faint trail of rainbow sparks fade into the twilight sky above him, marking where a jetpack had come.
Looking down, he was shocked and ridiculously pleased to find Kim there, less fluxed, hugging his waist as though she never wanted to let go.
"Kim?" He asked roughly, his throat sore from lack of use. "You're... Why are you here?"
"I'm so sorry, Lalna." She murmured, burying her face in his lab coat. The scientist rubbed her back gently and somewhat awkwardly until she looked up.
She stood on her tiptoes and tilted her head up towards his blonde one, pulling him down lower with her hand on the back of his neck.
His eyes are half closed again, longing desperately for her lips on his. It doesn't happen, though. Instead she just presses together their foreheads, letting out a small sigh.
"Kim?"
"I'm so sorry, Duncan." She whispers. He starts a bit as she uses his secret name, the one only those closest to him know.
Lalna =Duncan + LividCoffee.
"Why?" The taller one asked quietly.
"Because I know that this will never work out." She admitted. "So it shouldn't even start."
"What do you mean?" He asked, alarmed.
"This. Us, Lalna. It would never work out..."
He almost hears his heart shatter to pieces in her grip. "Why not?"
"Because I'm just a kid at heart." She admitted.
The scientist laughed, but not happily. "So am I, Kim. So am I."
Her eyes start tearing up. "I know, but still... "
"At least sit with me and have a drink." He slurs slightly. She seems to not notice, instead gratefully sitting down on a wooden chair.
"Here." He hands her a bottle of drink, not even sure of what it is anymore.
"And you know, Lalna, that it's such a waste to give me your kind of drinks."
He paused, knitting his eyebrows together as though remembering something for a long moment. "Oh, yeah..."
"Because I hate that bitter taste it has." Kim continued, fiddling with the flower in her hair.
Maybe it was the influence still leaving him, or maybe it just gave him the courage to do what desperately wanted to after missing her for so long. Whatever it was, he leaned across the empty space and cut off whatever she was saying next with a kiss.
She didn't pull away right away, but rather after a few lingering kisses, when she sat back with a wry smile. "I guess I'm going to have to deal with that taste now anyway, huh Lalna?"
They both laugh for a little while. Then Kim speaks again, after taking another drink from the pile of Lalna's and draining a bunch of it. "You know what else I'll have to deal with, Lalna?"
"Me getting drunk a lot?"
"No."
"Oh."
"I'm going to have to…" She stops for another sip, her eyes starting to water with more tears. Her lips tremble. "Going to have to live with what I've become and how it ruins everything, everything! The guilt that I've destroyed so much hard work everyone's fought for and soon-"Her voice cracks as she rambles. "Soon, everything here is going to be destroyed, and we'll go with it, and your bittersweet embrace hurts because it's all my fault but you blame yourself and it's not your fault, Lalna, there was nothing you could do! It's my entire fault, and I don't know why you don't hate me for it." She breaks down in tears.
He hurriedly puts down his bottle and gathers her in his arms. "It's okay, Kim, there was nothing you could do either. Even if I pushed you in the first place, or you think you could have stopped it with your witchcraft, if it's anyone's fault it should be the taint's. It's okay. It's okay."
They sit there for a long time as he comforts her. When she says she's thirsty, he hands her a bottle. When she's crying, he rubs her back and hugs her and when she finally starts feeling better, he plays with her hair a bit.
"I feel like drinking like this has gone to my head." The short girl said finally. "I can't drink anymore of this stuff. I'll never drink again, ughh."
"You say that." The scientist laughed lightly. "Wanna dance?"
"On the roof." Kim narrowed her eyes as she continued. "With no music. At night. Sounds dangerous."
"We're not on the roof right now, but we could do that." Lalna smiled at the dark haired girl.
Kim grinned and threw back her head as she laughed. "I'm a dangerous girl. Let's do it."
He tugs her hand along as they fly up to the roof of Panda Labs, lab coat and kimono billowing in the wind, making the rainbow sparks dance behind them. One of the smoking chimneys blew a column of fire into the sky as they touched down on the edge, still hand in hand.
"Shall we dance?" The still mildly drunk scientist asked jokingly, offering his hand.
"We shall." Kim declared happily.
She took his gloved hand in her smaller, still slightly fluxy one, pulling her close and spinning her around. She let out a startled but happy bout of laughter.
They began a strange dance, not quite a waltz or anything specific, rather just lots of spinning and holding each other.
"We should do this more often." He whispered to her as he dipped her backwards, daringly close to the edge of the roof.
"We should…" Kim said quietly. He could feel her suddenly shiver in his arms.
"Are you cold?" He asked worriedly.
"No…" Kim said. "No, those fiery things are really warm."
"Yeah, they are." He laughed. "I mean, they are on fire."
"Yeah." She laughed with him, but it sounded forced.
He didn't push her further, not until he spotted the darkness gathering over the horizon, even though dawn was coming, and even then when he knew what was going to happen he did nothing more than make sure to keep her facing away from the dark purple gathering on the horizon.
(I feel a change in the dance here, Duncan. Mind telling us why?) Livid said scornfully.
Kim didn't seem to notice, far too engaged with the enthusiastic twirl she was giving at the moment. The fact that he could keep her happy for a while longer was one of the only things keeping a real smile on his face as he stepped in closer.
(You have a plan, Duncan? Or maybe we should let Lalna be Lalnable for a while again?)
Never. I don't need one, when I know what's almost certainly going to happen. I could be gathering resources and supplies, but instead I'll leave it up to chance, for one last shot at romance. More than I- we- deserve.
(Romantic now, are we? I wonder how fast that'll change when the day comes that she really figures out that it was you that made that secret lab under the lab, from the future.)
Kim finally sits down on the edge exhaustedly, grinning. He sits next to her, swinging his legs over the edge fearlessly.
I'm going to miss these armoured jetpacks.
"Duncan." She says after a long, silent moment. Her voice catches with emotion. "You do know Mother's coming for us, right? You know she'll destroy everything?"
"I know." He says as calmly as he can, hoping his voice isn't shaking. "C'mere."
He opens his arms wide and she gratefully leans into them, away from the purple touching the forested horizon, turning it purple and scary.
He says nothing in particular, simply murmuring nonsense as he threads his fingers through her dark, silky hair, dark grey gloves cast aside. She fidgets, not letting her eyes leave the horizon, even when he kisses the tip of her nose softly.
"Stop." He says finally.
"Stop what?" She says, finally turning her head away from the terrifying violet across the river.
"Twisting and turning." He reassured her. "You'll fall off the roof doing that."
"I'm wearing the boots." She muttered, and then added crossly, "Maybe I should, though, so you stop messing around with my hair."
"C'mon, I like the strands of your hair. They're really shiny and soft and long. They're pretty."
"I think you're still drunk."
"Whatever. I think we have milk in the fridge or the computer downstairs if it's a problem."
"Seeing as it doesn't actually seem to affect your brain power anyway, because you have none, so stay right here mister."
"Ouch. Yes ma'am." The blonde chuckled, brushing hair out of her face.
For a long moment, there was no sound from either of them. Down below, Ramsey made a low, long, loud baa sound.
"Duncan." Kim said again. She was using his real, secret name again.
"Yeah?"
"Can you tell me something?"
"What?"
"Anything. I just… I just need… to hear someone talking, outside my head." She admitted.
He opened his mouth to ask her if she was hearing the flux's 'Mother' again, but instead just end up staring into the open sky with his mouth hanging open.
"Lalna?" Kim asks again.
"Sorry."
"Talk to me."
"Ummm…" When he realized that she had her eyes closed, he decided to talk to her about what was going around them.
"Ramsey is trying to get out of the circle again. Mickey is nowhere in sight, though that might just be the tree canopy. The Dinnerbone deer is looking very unhappy. Billy is taking a swim."
"Yeah?" Kim asked.
"Yeah. And the villagers are all missing as usual… the rocket platform needs to be tidied up-"
"We're not going to get around to cleaning it up." Kim said suddenly, cutting the scientist off.
"Whaaaat?" He asked, baffled. "Kim? …Nano?"
Her breath caught in her throat with an audible gasp. "Oh, no no nonononono… she's getting closer, she coming…" She whispered to herself, then up at Lalna, without opening her eyes: "Could you... keep talking, please? Maybe?"
"Sure." The taller one replied, adjusting his grip on her. "By the way… I made you something. Remember how I was avoiding you just before you disappeared?"
Kim paused for a moment, then, almost not saying anything at all, whispered; "Yeah."
"Remember that sapphire I gave you a really long time ago? And you were wondering where it had gone? Well…" The scientist reached into the inside pocket on his lab coat and pulled out the necklace he'd put in there just before he'd fallen asleep earlier. "Hold out your hands."
The girl is his arms obliged, still keeping her eyes firmly shut.
The scientist carefully placed the necklace into her hands, warm to the touch from being in his coat so long. "Open your eyes, Kim."
"I don't want to." She protested.
He sighed. "You can close them after; I just want to show you it."
"Fine." She said. She opened her eyes and gasped at the jewelry in her hands.
"Duncan…" She trailed off happily. "It's so shineeeeeeey!"
It was, indeed, shiny. He'd taken the sapphire and put it in a manyullyn bracing, then put it on a (reinforced) gold chain. For her.
"Here, I'll put it on you." He unclasped the back and slipped it around underneath her long, wavy hair. With a soft click, he snapped it shut and fixed it to hang properly around her neck.
Her eyes were closed again. Lalna took that as his cue to keep talking. "There's smoke in the air, I think-"
She held her hands in front of her and looked at them suddenly. He stopped talking again.
As they watched, the faint remains of the dark violet flux on the girl's small, shaking hands -that had retreated all the way to her fingertips when she'd returned to Panda Labs- but now they were quickly crawling back up, not fast enough to truly be seen but noticeable if you looked away for a moment and looked back. Or maybe the drink was still messing with the blonde's head.
"Duncan, it's coming back."Kim whispered, horrified. "I'm dangerous. You should leave here; I'm going to lose it."
"But baby I don't care if you're dangerous to me or not, it's all going to sh*t anyway." He shot back, the drunkenness rearing its ugly head once again.
"You're still drunk, so I'll rag on you for calling me 'baby' later." She failed miserably at smiling up at him. "I…"
"What?" He said.
"I feel change in the pace of the flux, Lalna, they know I'm here. They're coming for me."
Watching the flux take shape of an actual storm on the horizon, he murmured back, "We should grab Tiddles III, we can't leave her here."
Kim looked worried for a moment. "What about Billy? Barnabus? Ramsey and Mickey? Our Luggages?"
"They won't be able to follow us to the place we're going to." He warned her. "You can say good-bye to them all, I'll get Tiddles."
By the time the scientist had managed to persuade a mistrustful Tiddles the III to join them on the roof, Kim had Barnabus, Billy and the Luggages sitting on the roof with her. By now, the purple flux had passed the point it had reached just before she'd disappeared and was almost to her shoulders. The flux on her face wasn't there again, though, which was strange.
"I-I said g-goodbye to them all." Kim sobbed.
"It's just a matter of time now." The scientist reassured her. "May I…"
He trailed off, an uncharacteristic blush forming across his cheeks. Kim seemed to get his train of thought and leaned in to kiss him again.
There was no need for them to confess love, no awkward pauses; they just kissed as they had earlier. They'd skirted around it for months, hinted, even flirted, and now they took the plunge.
As their hearts start to race, the kiss becoming more passionate, the flux roiled and stormed in the background but did not slow in the slightest.
Tiddles meowed nervously behind them. Moments later, a huge streak of darkness struck down a path ripped from space almost directly on top of them, striking the chimney next to them.
Okay, so I've had to divide this songfic into a two-shot. So, second part out next week! (Something tells me you hate me now. Was it the minor cliffhanger?)
Week 2, complete (sorta): Tokyo House Party, a NanoCoffee two-shot, part 1.
Next week: Tokyo House Party- NanoCoffee two-shot, part 2.
So, a bit more on this "11 Weeks of Area 11" thing I'm doing, in case you missed last week's.
I will upload a one-shot every weekend until about late December, when I will be finishing off with an awesome collab with the lovely Mage-Pages.
I already have plans for these songs: Vectors, Cassandra pt. II, Minecraft Christmas.
Songs I'm still willing to hear ideas for: Homunculus, Dreams and Realities, Go! Fighting Action Power, Bosozoku Symphonic, The Legendary Sannin, Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill, The Strays, Shi No Barado, and possibly Euphemia or Knightmare/Frame as well.
I'm not gonna be picky about the fandom; Minecraft, Yogscast, Sky Army, Uglies, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus, The Kane Chronicles, Warriors, Divergent, they all work.
I hope you enjoyed! -Spirit