Author note: LeLouch was only ever meant to appear in flashbacks, y'know. Stupid uppity characters. *sigh* Anyway! Today's chapter title is taken from Darren Hayes' brilliant song Neverland. Also, I promise that I do have a plot, honest, if a rather vague one.
NaNoWriMo word count: 11,815
Chapter Six – Neverland of Fun
John and Marek had Gray flanked, as the three of them walked through the crowded chaos that was the Merry Month of Mae, and regardless of that fact, regardless of the way people moved out of their path – Gray still flinched at almost everything.
So many people. So many species. So much life.
There had been a few colonies on Boeshane. Most of them human, some of them not, and that had been Gray's extent of inter-species relations; an exchange of food, gifts or useful technologies every planet cycle or so.
It had nothing on this place.
He kept his eyes down, but still the feet and colours and miscellaneous limbs swirling past were enough to overwhelm him. The constant presence of Marek and John was nice, though. No way to ever think they didn't exist or were just another trick of his mind.
That had happened, a few times. After Fael had died and Gray was left to wonder how long it'd be before he died too. He would imagine he'd be rescued, the faces of his mother and father and friends and him dancing behind closed lids. He'd imagine, when he couldn't help it, that... that they would come back, and that they would take him away to whichever planet they were currently ravishing, and the whole cycle would repeat until they got bored of him again.
Ten years, and they hadn't gotten bored of him once. His body, with hidden fractures and line after line of scarring, was proof of that.
Ahead of the two time agents and their... something (Gray wasn't really sure what he was), a bizarre creature that looked rather like one of the chickens Gray's family had kept back on Boeshane ducked through a set of legs and startled Gray out of his thoughts. Well, it would have looked like one of those chickens if not for the fact that it had three heads and a long blue lolling tongue. It was also making a disturbing array of noises, as most animals do when escaping their owners, being sure of the knowledge that their owners want nothing more than to baste 'em, cook 'em and eat 'em. It squawk-hiss-garbled at Gray. Gray screamed back at it.
"What the—"
"Kid! Gray. Fuck, kid, come on. Calm down."
Gray shook his head in an extremely vehement manner, and only subsided when John kicked the squawking, hissing, garbling, flapping creature away.
Unfortunately, its owner, who was carrying a half crushed cage of some sort and had only the two heads, appeared half a minute or so later looking quite harried and exasperated and demanded to know where the creature was. Gray decided to faint. The last thing he was aware of were arms around his chest and a voice swearing to his left.
When Gray woke, everything was dark. And quiet. He rather liked the quiet, but the dark wasn't to be trusted as much.
No, wait.
The sound of soft breathing from nearby. His eyes flicked to the sound, and slowly the familiar profile of Marek Takashi's face formed from smudges in the darkness. Gray felt his shoulders relax in response.
Marek looked over at him, green eyes gleaming briefly in the faint illumination that was coming from under the... there was a door there? Gray had no idea where this was. Couldn't have been John and Marek's ship; no humming of an engine.
Gray found himself missing the hum, all of a sudden. And this startled him.
"Hi," he whispered to Marek. Because it seemed the thing to do.
"Hello," Marek said in return, voice hinting amusement. "Gave us quite a turn, back there. Never seen a jycwar before?"
"N..." Was that what that... that thing had been? "No," said Gray.
Marek chuckled. "Yeah, they're weird looking. Taste good, though..." He trailed off before adding, again with that hint of amusement, "But, as seen today, you have to actually catch the things first."
Gray didn't say anything, then twitched as the sound of laughter drifted through the wall behind him. Two people, at least. Gray thought one of them sounded like John.
He wet his lips, swallowed and then coughed. Marek was holding a flask of... he assumed it was water; definitely sloshed like water... out to him before he could blink. He did blink, though, and then accepted it and wriggled backwards so his back was to the wall. He still hunched, even when lying down. It just felt safer. Something familiar, something that he knew.
Sip.
Marek knew Gray had woken when he heard the change in breathing patterns, and looked over at him a few moments later.
"Hi," the boy whispered, the shadows on his face multiplied .
A smile tugged at the corners of Marek's mouth. Words! Words that were willingly given. The shock of it nearly floored him. Sort of. (Well, maybe not.) He murmured a greeting in return. "Gave us quite a turn, back there. Never seen a jycwar before?"
Gray had fainted dead away between John and Marek, out in the crowded corridors of the Merry Month of Mae. Marek kept him as upright as he could while John made suggestions to the jycwar's owner about the location of the stray, garbling jycwar. First place to look? Up the jycwar's owner's arse. And preferably away from John.
The jycwar's owner had made himself scarce quite quickly, and between them, John and Marek had gotten Gray to a quiet corner and contacted LeLouch. One set of coordinates and a quick teleport later, Gray was settled in a spare room, Marek had decided to stay with him, and John had found LeLouch's liquor cabinet. That was two hours ago.
"N- no."
"Yeah, they're weird looking. Taste good, though. But, as seen today, you have to actually catch the things first."
Silence. Silence broken by laughter from John and LeLouch. Marek was about to pass comment when the boy coughed. He seemed surprise, when Marek was there with the water flask, but then he sat up and leaned against the wall and Marek sat back in his own chair. Took a sip of his drink, pilfered before John could get his hands on it.
John laughed at the caramel blonde haired man sat opposite over the rim of his glass.
"I'm not sexually frustrated," LeLouch was saying. "I'm not!"
"What are you, then?"
"Partner-impaired?"
Another laugh. "I beg to differ, friend."
"Then you beg to be wrong," LeLouch said, saluting John with his own, half empty glass (he preferred to think of it as half empty rather than half full because half empty meant it was closer to being fully empty... and when a glass was empty, you topped it up). "And since when have you ever called me 'friend'?"
"Never? But you're the one supplying booze, so it helps to be polite."
"Ah. Yes. Can't fault you there."
John chuckled and refilled both their glasses.
"What's the deal with the kid, then?"
"Hands off, that's what the deal is."
LeLouch huffed. "The assumptions I'm getting off the pair of you since you two got cosy, Goddess... I want to know who he is. Nothing funny. Honest."
"I'm keeping him for a friend."
LeLouch's grey eyes narrowed slightly. "A friend," he said, voice flat with disbelief. Then he snorted. "A lover, then. An ex-lover?"
John sighed and muttered, "I think everyone I know is an ex-something or other."
"And you're hoping he won't be an ex-friend when you show up with the kid," LeLouch continued, tilting his head. "Mm?"
"Alphonse LeLouch," John began, voice taking a solemn turn, "I will drink myself blind if I so choose, but there is no law that obliges me to speak of my problems, or my plans, with you."
LeLouch grinned, knowing he was on the money, but his victory was interrupted when Marek appeared from the spare room. At a questioning look from John, the young lieutenant nodded, then gestured to the small kitchenette in the far corner. John's turn to nod. LeLouch considered the both of them in a bemused, alcohol-relaxed manner.
"What's the deal with the kid, then?" he decided to ask of Marek as the black haired lieutenant walked past.
Marek paused for a split-second before continuing to the kitchenette and pulling the stasis cupboard door open. Rummaging ensued. "Ask John."
John smirked as LeLouch's gaze returned to him. "Ha," he said.
LeLouch rolled his eyes and drained his glass in one go, slumping back on the chair's lumpy pillows. The place wasn't the worst he'd ever stayed in, but it definitely ranked in the top ten. Then again, it was cheap and no questions were asked. Which bumped it up a bit in the rankings, LeLouch had to admit.
The rummaging concluded, and Marek turned around, leaning his hip on the counter behind. "There's nothing here he can eat. Not yet, anyway."
LeLouch frowned and twisted his head to see Marek. "I've got food in there."
One of Marek's brows raised slightly, and John bit back a smirk at not being the one to get the eyebrow treatment for once. "You have snacks, Lu, and left over take-out."
"The other cupboard?"
"Bare except for one teabag, a bottle of lube and a fuzzy thing on a plate riiight at the bottom that might actually be about to invent the wheel."
LeLouch hmphed. John choked on a laugh.
"Did find several hundred takeaway flyers, though," Marek continued, fanning the strips of digital paper between his fingers for John and Marek to see.
"Takeaway it is," said John. He held out his hand and finger-wiggled until Marek came over and put the flashing strips on his palm. Then he ducked in time for Marek's now empty hand to completely miss his head. Grinned as he perused the menus. "Hrmm pum pum. What do people fancy?"
Marek and LeLouch's gazes met for a moment, then. "Oh, I don't know," LeLouch murmured. "Could go for several things right about now."
Marek looked away. After several seconds of studying the wall, and of knowing that LeLouch was studying him, he tapped John on the shoulder. "I don't care. Just make it hot. And get something simple, for Gray."
John made a thoughtful noise. Blinked up, as if realising he'd missed something, and looked between the two other men. "Ooh-kay... Past issues are going to have to wait until the food's arrived. Deal?"
Marek went back into the spare room, choosing not to dignify that with a response.