popcorn: hosting movie marathons when Capheus is around involves very high quantities of popcorn being consumed: it becomes a bit of a health issue for the rest of them and they're not sure what to do about it.
With both Capheus and Lito in the cluster, it doesn't take long before movie nights become a regular occurrence. Lito's apartment becomes the unspoken venue for them, simply because Hernando, Dani and him have already carved out a cosy spot in their lounge to watch (his) movies. Capheus is, by far, the one who enjoys the movie nights the most, always appearing to them with a beam on his face, watching the films in silence, eyes wide, completely enraptured; he'll always love Van Damme movies the most, but he appreciates that there are other great movies out there too. Through spending time with the cluster, he's also introduced to the wonders of Netflix and microwave popcorn and swiftly becomes addicted to both.
"This tastes amazing!" Capheus exclaims gleefully as he takes the popcorn bucket from Lito and starts shovelling masses of it into his mouth. The rest of them stare at him, varying expressions on their faces (Will, for one, looks distinctly impressed at how fast he's eating it, whilst Sun looks a little horrified), but they don't make any move to stop him because of how ecstatic he looks. After the year they've had, they could use a little happiness and Capheus' excitement at something that most of them take for granted is tremendously infectious.
…The only problem is, they're all visiting Lito in his apartment so Capheus isn't really there and isn't the one really eating it. Lito makes it through four sore throats in a row before he cracks.
"Kala," he wails loudly as he appears, his throat unbelievably scratchy. "I don't think I can take this anymore." He blinks, looks around, and then realises that in his despair, he has forgotten about the time difference between them: it's nine in the evening in Mexico, making it about four in the morning in Paris where she is. "Oh no, oh no," he says hurriedly, much quieter this time, as he picks up on the darkness and stillness of the room, just making out the fact that she's half-lying on the bed and half-lying on Wolfgang. By now, they're all very aware of the fact that Wolfgang gets more than a little irritable if he's woken up by an unexpected visitor; he'll usually wake up just enough to check that they're not in any real danger and then tersely ask them to fuck off and come back later. (Kala is – and will probably always be – the only person that isn't subjected to this behaviour; since their first connection, Wolfgang has always welcomed any visit from her, no matter what the time). "I'll come back later, uh, don't wake up."
It's much too late for that, of course; Kala is already stirring, having felt his presence tugging at the edges of her mind even in her sleep.
"—Lito?" She calls out softly, slowly untangling herself from Wolfgang's grip as she sits up in the bed, blearily peering at him through the darkness of the room. Wolfgang, on the other hand, doesn't move a muscle, though Lito suspects – can feel – that he is also awake now, just annoyed enough at being woken up to stubbornly ignore him and pretend like he's still sleeping. "Are you alright?"
He shoots her an apologetic look, before his expression changes to one of despair, gesturing at himself glumly. Kala observes him, takes a moment to probe his mind, then scrunches her nose as she feels the echo of a burning sensation running down her neck.
"You have a sore throat? Again?"
Lito pulls a face at her and nods, even though it's clear that she already knows the answer and he's not really sure she can actually see him properly through the darkness. "It's all the popcorn Capheus eats when he visits," he says, pouting a little as he flops himself down on the bed, almost landing straight on top of Wolfgang. Wolfgang flinches in response, but still insists on ignoring them, his eyes remaining shut. He hasn't told him to leave yet though, so Lito takes this as an indication that he can stay and continues talking. "I don't understand how one person can eat so much of the stuff."
The rest of the cluster, minus Capheus, are suddenly there then, all shooting him sympathetic looks. They've all felt what was happening through their connection – can feel the hoarseness of his voice; the soreness when he swallows – but it feels more like a vivid memory, rather than something they're actually experiencing.
"We should just tell him next time," Wolfgang states dryly, sighing loudly and slowly sitting up, knowing that he can't ignore them for much longer. He makes the point of shooting them all an extremely displeased expression though, intense enough that Lito cowers a bit; he just wants to sleep, thank you very much, not have a full-blown cluster meeting at four o'clock in the morning.
"Are you offering to do it?"
Wolfgang considers it, then shrugs. "If it means that you'll all leave me to sleep in peace, sure," he says.
A beat passes, then...
"No, no, Wolfgang, you can't. We can't do that," Kala says, giving him an almost reproachful look and moving to nudge him in the side. He catches her elbow before she makes contact though, smirking a little, and doesn't let go, smoothing his thumb against her skin. "He'll be upset! You know how much he loves the popcorn—"
"I'm upset," Lito interjects, but if she hears him, it doesn't show as she continues talking over him. He pouts at her in response.
"—There must be another way!"
At first, Lito experiments with offering a variation of different, healthier snacks at movie night, but Capheus takes one look at them and pulls a face, smile dimming just a bit, and it's enough for Lito to cave and bring out the popcorn again.
"Surely he must suspect something's not quite right by now," Will says, eyebrow raised, wincing at the feeling in his throat as he speaks; it's both sore and not sore at the same time. "I mean, I know he's distracted with the election and all, but if all of us can feel it, he should be able to as well. Right?"
...except if Capheus does feel it, he hasn't connected it to his own popcorn consumption and continues eating it with as much vigour and enthusiasm as always.
"He had three whole boxes yesterday," Lito tells them the day after another movie night, clutching his stomach as he flails around on the floor of Nomi's apartment in a manner that none of them are sure is strictly necessary (they know better by now than to say anything though, just take his dramatics in their stride). "Three. Whole. Boxes!"
In the end, they decide to move the responsibility of hosting movie night from person to person in order to give Lito a break whilst they figure out a better plan, especially since he has a new movie to film and he can't do that if it hurts to talk. (Wolfgang is still adamant that they should just fucking tell him to stop eating so much, but he's outnumbered. He sighs deeply, glowering fiercely at all of them, until Kala takes his hand and gently interlaces their fingers. It's not that he purposefully wants to hurt Capheus' feelings, but this whole situation is plain stupid, in his opinion: how the biggest problems in his life have gone from being kidnapped and tortured by BPO to worrying about Capheus' popcorn eating habits, he'll never quite understand.)
Will and Riley offer selflessly to go first. The cluster arrives to see their apartment warmly lit and a generous – but not excessive – amount of popcorn already prepared on the table. At first, it feels a bit odd to have the movie night in an apartment that is not Lito's, but Will, for one, is pretty (damn) happy that he gets to have full control of the movie choice for once, putting in a cop movie before they can protest and spending the night reminiscing on his Chicago cop days. The aftermath of movie night is a bit easier to handle when it's shared between two of them, but both Riley and Will still feel more than a little rough after consuming so much junk-food in one night. They think to themselves that Capheus' happiness is worth it though.
Next, it's Kala and Wolfgang's turn. Felix gets more than a little overexcited when they explain to him what they're planning ("I fucking love movies," he declares, before exchanging glances with Wolfgang as he adds assertively, "We're watching Conan.") and, as a result, he ends up buying every possible snack he can manage to pronounce in French. As it turns out, his French isn't really that great, and they end up with a lot of popcorn and…baguettes? Kala wakes up the day after, groaning, her throat scratchy, burying her head into the pillow.
"You should have listened to me earlier," Wolfgang remarks from somewhere to her left, smirking and sounding irritatingly smug, and she pulls a face as she remembers the many times he has tried to convince them to just tell Capheus to stop eating the stuff. She notes then that his voice sounds the same as it always does, steady and low, scrunching her nose in thought as she turns to look at him. He grins as he meets her gaze, shrugs at her unspoken question, looking oddly proud of himself. "Felix and I are shit at cooking," he tells her, though she is already very aware of that fact, having observed them both burn pasta multiple times. "We survived solely on fast-food for years; too much popcorn isn't exactly the worse thing I've ever eaten."
She blinks at that, opens her mouth to speak, but then closes it again, wincing hard. ("I'm not sure that's something you should be proud of," she thinks at him instead.) Wolfgang laughs at her, smirking even harder, but drags himself out of the bed anyway and gets her a glass of water, pressing it gently into her hand.
Sun and Nomi agree wordlessly to team up and host next, the cluster flitting between both apartments, watching two different movies simultaneously. Both of them are smart enough to make sure that there is minimal popcorn available and they don't suffer too badly as a result. By this point, Capheus has (finally) registered that they all seem to be getting sore throats extremely often, one after another, but he's distracted enough by the upcoming election and the events going on in his own life that he still hasn't figured out why, even though it's not something they're trying very hard to hide from him anymore. ("What's wrong with all of you? Why are you all getting ill?" He asks them, but none of them – even Wolfgang – have the heart to tell him to his face that, well, it's because of you; instead, they just give him a reassuring smile and try to pry the popcorn away from him as subtly as they can.)
As it turns out, the solution to their shared predicament is really quite simple, and they're all a bit embarrassed that they didn't think of it sooner. It's not the cheapest solution ("It's fine," Nomi says, shrugging at them nonchalantly as she adjusts her glasses, taps at her keyboard. "I think I've figured out an affordable way to do it.") and it's a bit logistically challenging, but between all seven of them (plus Bug), they figure out a way to make it happen.
"Capheus? Are you there? You have a package," Jela tells him as he appears at the door, a bunch of battered-looking boxes in his arms, "actually, seven packages."
Capheus takes them from him, frowning slightly, but then starts grinning as he realises what's inside. He summons the cluster then, profusely thanking them for the gifts. "This is a great surprise," he tells them earnestly, almost hugging the popcorn packets to his chest. The others just exchange tentative glances, feeling a bit guilty as they see his reaction because they all know it's not so much of a 'surprise', but more of a please stop making us digest so much popcorn on your behalf. Capheus is ecstatic enough at receiving the packages that none of them have the heart to tell him the truth though.
As it happens, it doesn't take him very long to figure it out at all; he wakes up the next morning, his own throat sore this time after having eaten four of the seven packets in a row ("This tastes even better in real life!" He had exclaimed to them, eyes wide in wonderment, and whilst they had all hastily told him that he should probably slow down a little, he hadn't taken any notice.)
"Riley, can I ask you something?" Capheus asks, as he appears to her, his smile a few degrees dimmer than usual. Riley nods, smiles softly, gesturing for him to come and sit next to her. "The sore throats that all of you have been getting, were they…were they because of me? The popcorn?"
Riley bites her lip, and then suddenly the rest of the cluster are there too and Capheus knows the answer. His eyes widen, staring at them in horror. "Why didn't you all just say something?" He asks, gaping at them, looking a little betrayed. "I wouldn't have eaten so much if you had told me that having so much popcorn is bad for you!"
They blink, all of them tilting their heads in sync. Wolfgang's about to open his mouth and tell him that "I told them to", but he's distracted by six of them yelling suddenly in his head, drowning out his thoughts. He frowns at them, glowers a little, but remains silent nevertheless, slowly crossing his arms as he leans back against the wall.
"We just—We didn't want to take it away from you," Kala says eventually, giving him an apologetic smile; she feels bad for keeping secrets from him, but she's not entirely convinced the alternative would have been any better. "You always seemed so happy when you were eating the popcorn."
Capheus considers this in silence, his expression unusually unreadable. He's split between being grateful that they would go through all of this for him, but also a little bit surprised that they didn't just tell him the truth.
"We'll tell you next time, we promise," Riley says, reaching for his hand as she picks up on his thoughts.
Capheus looks at each one of them in turn, relaxing as he realises that they had all had good intentions, even Wolfgang. His trademark smile slowly returns back to his face as he pulls them to his city, his house.
"I think it's time that I hosted movie night," he tells them sincerely, as he gestures for them to sit in his lounge, switches the TV on (which is playing Double Impact) and then brandishes the three remaining bags of popcorn in their faces. They groan collectively, but they're laughing, all of them racing as they try to secure a spot on the sofa. It is, however, the last time that popcorn makes an appearance at movie night and no-one, even Capheus, is really that upset about it.