My Steampunk AU I talked about like half a year ago and finally decided to actually write.
Nea and Allen are about 22ish or so.
"Is that my arm?!" Nea screeched and pointed at the metal arm poking out of Allen's backpack.
"Technically it's mine," Allen replied and pulled the arm out of his bag to lay it on the work table in front of his partner in crime. Various colorful wires were sticking out of the artificial limb and it looked like engine oil was running out of it too from god knows where. Never mind that all the important joints were broken and most of the metal plates either ripped off, exposing the complicated technology beneath it, or melted off.
"What did you do with it?!" Nea appeared to be just a few breaths away from fainting in horror.
"Fought against the Earl's latest robots. They got a bit meaner," Allen explained calmly as he searched through the drawers for some fresh bandages and pain killers. His ribs had suffered a lot from the Akuma attacks and the red haired man hoped they weren't broken. Going to a doctor was too expensive as they were close to being broke because they had spent all their money on new equipment, like always. "Since the arm was lighter than the previous one but not nearly as durable, it broke."
"My greatest work, Allen! And you ruined it!" Nea kept complaining while inspecting the broken prosthetic. He had put so much work into building one that would ease Allen's shoulder pain and this was what the other man returned with. At times like this Nea was sure Allen didn't appreciate his work at all, otherwise the man would be much more careful.
"If that's your greatest work, I worry for Timcampy's life- Ouch! What the hell?!"
Allen shot Nea a betrayed look while rubbing the back of his head where Nea had hit him with the prosthetic.
"What did you do that for?" Allen complained.
"That was for ruining my work! Please tell me the Inno-essence at least is still in there somewhere."
Nea stared at Allen in anticipation, only to be disappointed when Allen shook his head.
"No, sorry. I would have lost it if I did that but-"
"What did you do then?" Nea hissed.
He loved Allen, he really did, but right this moment he very much wanted to punch his friend for losing the only thing that gave them a slight advantage over their enemies.
When had his dear friend become so reckless and careless? Allen used to be such a cautious, if slightly more bratty, person.
"I drank it."
"WHAT!?" Nea shouted. "Are you mad? That could have killed you- probably is killing you. We've got to get you to a doctor before you start collapsing. Fuck, this is the exact reason why-"
"Nea," Allen interrupted him, unusually calm. "It's fine."
"'It's fine'? Nothing's fine! You will die! Direct exposure to Inno-essance is lethal!"
He'd seen often enough what the green element could do to people who couldn't stand its concentration. First their bodies would decay, then their minds would descend into madness. Given that they wouldn't die the moment the Inno-essence would reach their bloodstream.
"I guess that's true in some cases," Allen replied shrugging. "But I'm fine. Actually, I've never felt as well as I do now."
Nea stared at his friend for a long while, trying to figure out if Allen was lying. Allen was a good actor but even he had a few tells. None of which Nea could see out now. It appeared that Allen was actually speaking the truth, no matter how farfetched it sounded.
"So, Inno-essence immunity," Nea finally gave in and collapsed on the chair in exhaustion, his frustration having drained him.
Allen smiled, a little crooked, a bit tired, familiar enough for Nea to force his panic to the back of his mind.
"Alright," he sighed. "But tomorrow you're gonna go to Narain and get checked up. If you feel even just a bit dizzy, I'm locking you up until we know what's going on."
Allen rolled his eyes. Nea was acting overly protective again, his golden eyes unusually wide and full of fear.
It wasn't like Allen hadn't been aware of what consequences his actions would probably bring. Letting his Inno-essence, and it had been his ever since it cost him his home, fall into the hands of the Akuma hadn't been an option. He'd rather die than let it come so far. But death hadn't claimed him yet, and hopefully wouldn't in the future. Sure, the first few moments after drinking the Inno-essence he'd felt horrible, probably even puked, he couldn't quite remember, his memories were fuzzy at best, nonexistent at worse, but afterwards his condition had bettered. And if Allen was honest, it kept getting better. His fatigue wasn't as heavy as it had been just a few hours ago and the phantom pains of his left arm had never been so dull.
Allen felt healthy.
Besides, even if his condition would worsen again, what would Narain be able to do? While Narain was the closest thing to a good and affordable doctor this part of town had, he didn't possess the knowledge necessarily for dealing with essence ingestion. Not that Allen or even Nea knew enough about it to be able to treat it in case it got out of control.
The only one with that knowledge… Allen shook his head. It wasn't an option.
"I'm fine," he told Nea again. He simply had to be, there was no other way.
"That's what you always say."
And Allen only ever lied about that 80% of the time which, for the time being, made it a quite acceptable rate.
Thanks for reading!
I'd love to hear what you think and what other character's you'd like to see in this AU.