for CRAZEDbySUGAR. enjoy, all 2 of you who also ship this
One second Jade is yelling at you and Danny for whatever (you don't really care, she's been yelling about a lot of stuff lately), and the next second you're blinking in the gloom of a misty, chilly forest, surrounded by trees wider than your wingspan.
"Did your ex seriously just teleport us to some random forest over a broken window?" you hear Danny ask off to your left. It's kinda hard to see in the undergrowth with your shades on. (But like hell are you gonna take them off.)
"Looks like it," you reply in the most nonchalant drawl you can muster. You're flipping out a little internally, because you know the four planets pretty well and this doesn't look like any of them. Maybe it's some secluded place on LOFAF, cuz of all the trees and the temperature. Or it could be some random-ass section of LOWAS that isn't primarily covered in glowing mushrooms. It's certainly dark enough. But what's weird is that you should just automatically know where you are, based on your sprite knowledge. And your database is currently coming up empty.
"Dude, you two have some serious relationship issues to work out," Danny says.
"Hey that's not fair, you were pissing her off just as much as I was," you retort. "And it's not like she's gonna stay mad forever, you'll see, she's just trying to ruffle my feathers." Danny snorts at your excellent pun. "She'll cool down and bring us back in an hour or so. Probably."
"...Don't you mean 'fetch us back'?" he says slyly.
You can't help a grin, and you look over at his vague silhouette. "You catch on pretty quick. Glad you're getting into the spirit."
"Ha, ok, enough," he laughs. "Don't get me started on ghost puns; I will seriously own your butt."
You raise an eyebrow. "I might take you up on that. The Harleybert goobers can't keep up with my masterful wordplay. It'd be a nice change of pace."
"Then it's a date," Danny promises, and your already fast-paced heart picks up a few bpm's. You know he's just using the word flippantly but...a bird can dream. "But for now, we should probably figure out where the heck we are."
"Yeah," you agree. You don't tell him that you really should know where you are and that you're kind of rattled by that.
He transforms, and the brief flash of light illuminates the lines of his body in stark contrast to the shadow of the leaves. You pretend not to look at the way his suit stretches taut against his lean muscles as he drifts up to float between the massive trunks.
"Coming?" he asks.
"Y'know what, we should totally split up, because neither of us are the get-lost kind of people and we can cover twice the ground, it'll be great and totes efficient yo" and you won't have to avoid looking at his spandex-clad ass. Yeah.
He looks at you strangely. "Are you sure? We don't really know what's out there."
"Yeah, it's all cool, bro. 'Sides, you'd just slow me down," you joke.
"All right, suit yourself," he says as he shrugs. "Meet you back here?"
"Sure, sounds good." He turns around and races off, weaving between the trees expertly. You sigh and turn around to take off in the other direction, raising your wings and bringing them down in a powerful stroke. You don't really need them to fly but you guess it's a holdover from your crow instincts. The rhythmic motions are comforting.
The forest is way quieter than either LOFAF or LOWAS; you can't hear croaking frogs or whistling wind. Other than the steady beat of your wings, there's really no sound at all. It's unsettling. Your whole life has been full of beautiful noise, from your life in the city to months spent in the industrial clanking of LOHAC to these last few years on the cramped battleship. You wonder how anyone can find this relaxing, and you end up focusing on your own flapping.
Danny hadn't really said what he'd thought you should be looking for, so you just kinda travel in a random direction and hope you'll come across something interesting. It's still dark, though, and getting darker, and while your eyesight has been greatly improved from a normal human's by merging with a bird, your shades continue to impair your vision.
It's probably because of this that you don't notice the spider web until you've flown directly into it.
"Fuck," you say pointlessly, and twist around in the sticky strands, trying to get yourself free. You just end up getting more tangled, and you pant from exertion, glancing around wildly. Your shades got knocked off in the struggle, so you can see much better, but it barely matters. You're stuck for good.
Trying to get out would just make it worse so you hang there limply, wincing as your wings are twisted uncomfortably behind you and some of your feathers are pulled out by the web. Wow, do you feel like a big, dumb bug. Now you realize that you'd never agreed on a time to meet up with Danny, so there's no way he's gonna think to come looking for you. You're trapped until Jade zaps you back in a couple of hours.
You don't know how much time passes. If you'd have to guess you'd say half an hour tops, but it feels like years of suspended limbo. Occasionally you pull at the webbing, trying to free yourself, but it's strong and sticky and you really do just end up tangling yourself worse. When you're not struggling, the silence of the forest presses down around you like a tangible force. There aren't any sounds at all. No animals, no wind, nothing. It's ominous as fuck and you start shivering violently.
You try very hard not to think about the size of the spider that had to have built this web.
You try even harder not to hear the rustling, clacking sound that starts coming up behind you, or to notice the way the web suddenly starts to jerk and twist about like a bucking horse. Like some giant creature's stepping on it, making its way slowly to you.
You shout "Shit!" reflexively as you resume struggling with renewed fervor, tearing at the webbing with your fingers futilely as your wings thrash about. Without really meaning to you glance behind, and you freeze in horror at the terrible creature climbing across the web towards you. It could be called a spider in the same way a shark could be called a goldfish—it's a massive, putrid creature, its black limbs twisted and clawed and its mandibles chittering furiously, each fang as long as your arm and dripping with some foul dark liquid.
"Shit," you repeat, but your voice is a hoarse whisper. This is how you're going to die; you know it, like a little piece of shit insect squirming beneath a brainless stinking predator. Stupid. That's what you are, and now it's all you'll ever be.
You squeeze your eyes shut and go limp from panic as the spider-thing's front claw latches onto your midsection and pulls you closer to its gnashing mouthparts.
"Davesprite!" you hear someone scream.
Suddenly the world lurches and shifts and you feel light and buoyant—strong, gentle arms are supporting you and you don't feel the spider's claws digging into your side or its fangs tearing at your flesh. Your eyes flutter open and you look up.
Danny's come back for you.
He looks at you, eyes flashing with concern, as he lowers you gently to the cold ground a good distance away from the web. Before you have a chance to say anything, though, he turns around. You get a brief glimpse of his back, strong and confident and safe, before he's flying back to deal with the spider.
His fighting is a dance of electric green and unfair advantages. The spider doesn't stand a chance. He doesn't kill it—he doesn't have the heart for it (and it makes you ache a little bit to think what would have happened to him if he'd been the one unlucky enough to land in Sburb, with its constant demand for death), but the spider takes the hint and scuttles off, hissing angrily. You watch it happen in a sort of detached haze, hunched on the ground with your arms wrapped around you and your wings folded up tight. Danny returns to your side; he hands you your shades and you shove them on your face shakily.
"Just my luck to find the one bird-eating tarantula in the whole goddamn forest," you quip.
He smiles, but it's quick; tight; concerned. "Are you all right?" The worry in his voice is almost painfully obvious, and his hand hovers inches from your head like he wants to touch you to make sure you're still there.
"Yeah, 'm fine," you say. You don't tell him how scared you were. You'd never tell anyone that, especially not him. You swallow down your weakness and force yourself to take even breaths. It doesn't really work and you tremble and clutch at the ground. Your claws sink easily into the leaf litter.
He sinks to his haunches next to you, one cool, comforting hand settling on your shoulder. "I should have been there earlier," he tells you. "Look at you, you're a wreck."
"It's all right, I'm fine," you repeat, but your voice cracks and wobbles.
He frowns a tiny bit and his eyes scrunch up, as if he's in pain. His eyes are so expressive; wide and full of his thoughts and just so fucking green. You're losing yourself in this strange neon miasma and you don't care to find your way back.
"Stay with me, Davesprite," he urges, concerned. "C'mon..." You let him pull you closer, so close, until you're in his lap, his arms wrapped securely about your waist and your head resting heavily on his shoulder. You're dizzyingly conscious of your position, of every point of contact your bodies have. Your already avian-quick pulse picks up and your face flushes.
He holds you like that for elongated minutes, past when your muscles start to complain from being in the same position for too long. It feels so strange to just be in contact with another person, let alone this beautiful boy who understands you better than anyone, who makes you feel like less of a freak, less of a mistake. Like you belong somewhere. You clutch at his back, careful of your claws as you attempt to bring him even closer.
"Are you okay?" he murmurs. His voice is close enough that you can feel cool puffs of air rustling through your ruff. You shiver.
"Yeah," you reply. "Thanks."
He begins to stroke the feathers of one of your wings and you chirp involuntarily at the sensation, the intimacy. No one ever touches your wings. They never try.
"You're so warm," he says absentmindedly.
Oh god. Something clenches deep inside of you and your breath hitches audibly. You draw back, just enough to be able to see his eyes. They're heavily lidded, and his lips are parted. He's watching you closely.
You want to kiss him.
You kiss him.
He makes a soft little noise of surprise, a pleased little question mark that you swallow greedily. Icy fingers trail stroke your face, and Danny pushes your shades up and off. You don't mind, especially not when he starts threading his fingers through your hair. He's kissing back, you realize, he's really kissing you. Hell yes. Hell fucking yes. Spider? What spider? You don't even remember that being a thing.
You're still tangled together when Jade zaps you back to the ship.
CRAZEDbySUGAR (god its so weird to call her that XD) and i are calling this ship zeitgeist (means "time spirit" in german, from what i can gather). hope you enjoy it~