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Burgie : Mischief Managed! :D
*Chapter 108*
Gideon grinned, pressed out of his bathroom and fully allowed himself to the kiss of cockiness he secretly marinated in. Now understanding that Kepa's sweet, innocently prodding wonderings had the potential to turn sexual, Gideon could feel his heartbeat thud firmly in his chest. The raw ideas of Kepa falling into his arms, following through with an act that her kind absolutely forbid, something he was both wildly excited for and entirely inexperienced with, his mind tortured him with the what if's, both good and bad. Desperate to get his mind off of it, he stepped out of his bedroom, eased his phone into the gape of his sweat's pockets and head into the dimly lit kitchen. As he rounded the corner, he could hear the tender murmurs of the women still awake. Although not one to shy away from conversation with said women, as Gideon pressed out into the gape of the kitchen, all four women perked up, tossed their curious gazes to Gideon's approaching figure and now visibly sagged out of a whispery, secretive little bubble they had been tightly drawn to. It was here did Gideon scuff his heels to the tiles, furrowed his brow in tight suspicion and grinned in cheeky, sneaky delight.
"...Telling secrets, I see?" Gideon's deep voice grunted out to the air, to which all four women wildly giggled in sheepish dismissal and began to very loosely scatter, making even clearer to Gideon that all four women were discussing something private. Gideon crossed his arms, took a few steps to the kitchen island and leaned the side of his hip to said counter, "Go on, tell. I can keep a secret. Unless you guys were talking about me, in which it'd be cool if that stopped now, y'know?"
"We weren't, Giddy," Emery covered gently, she bashfully tucked her glorious, long, emerald green hair behind her ears and nervously shot her eyes to Vanellope, as if to politely ask for a further bump of help.
"It's... Okay, Ems. Yes, Gideon, we were talking about you," Vanellope mumbled, to which Emery and Koko shyly stole glances and nervously peered to Gideon in apologetic sorrow, "We weren't saying anything bad about you."
"Nox told me what you did for him today," Koko stated in gentle honesty, Tessa crossed her arms and smiled in Gideon's direction. Gideon sharply glanced into Tessa's eyes to further assess if all of this was truth, and with the promise of her loving gaze, Gideon visibly sagged with relief to feel humility soak the group, "Tessa was also filling us in... W-We were just... Shocked at how easily it all came to you, how you almost immediately adopted Nox's powers. I mean, I'm his swap mate and even I struggled with adopting his powers for the first month, or so, but..."
"You did it in two seconds flat," Tessa huffed a shaky breath and shrugged.
"So, what is there to discuss, then?" Gideon wondered in a stark tone of almost nervous authority, as if to wonder just why he felt as if they were on to him, as if there'd be anything to be 'on him' about.
"We were just talking about how fluid your coding is, bud. We wondered who else you could exterior swap with and adopt their powers as easily as you did for Nox, today," Vanellope wondered, Gideon shrugged and dart his eyes about their dim, cozy home, "You're... Kind of an anomaly, bud."
"Anomaly?" Gideon wondered, he long-blinked in confusion, to which Tessa rubbed her forehead and peered to Gideon in grinning confusion.
"Gideon, you said it yourself, you have these manifestation powers with no root, no source coding that gave you those powers," Tessa mumbled cutely, Vanellope looked down to her opened palms in full humility and sighed.
"I mean, I am a heavy daydreamer... I just had no clue that could warp into a gamer power that would actually come to tangible fruition in my offspring," Vanellope stated through a cute chuckle as everyone peered to Gideon in warm delight.
"Did you... No, never mind," Koko grunted, she bugged her eyes and looked off, "Almost asked a question I genuinely don't want the answer to."
"Do NOT ask code swap questions," Tessa muttered.
"Well, why not?" Gideon dared as he stepped deeper into the conversation, all four women peered their prickled, frozen gazes tight to Gideon's in a swing of a reversal, "I don't care if it's awkward... Any bit of information could answer my burning questions. Where did I come from and why?"
"You came from me and Ralph, Gideon, there's genuinely no question," Vanellope barked a giggle, to which Tessa and Koko gestured their wrecking hands. Vanellope flagged her hand in Gideon's direction, "If ANY of my four children had to represent Ralph in any way shape or form, my guy, it'd be you. You're like a Ralph-mini."
"If you had Oliver's stature, you truly would be Ralph's clone," Emery giggled.
"Too bad my coding had a say," Vanellope sneered; Gideon looked down to his figure, and although he was a proper upside-down triangle shape, his leaner lower half was a stark difference to Oliver's full, stocky, Ralph-build.
"What, truly, could've been different about Gideon's conception that didn't have its way with any of our conceptions?" Tessa questioned as she gestured to herself and Koko, save for Oliver's absence in this conversation.
"There's only truly one factor I can think of," Vanellope muttered as she shyly rubbed her forehead. She blurt a giggle and sighed in defeat, "Ralph and I must've swapped at LEAST four times before Gideon's bar showed up."
"... Damn, dad," Gideon grunted in full surprise, he deflated to prove that said feat would be entirely depleting; all four girls wildly giggled.
"That's the ONLY thing I can think of," Vanellope urged through her happy giggling, and with a sudden pop of the front door, Ralph and Zed made their way inside, with Novus tight in tow. All three boys quietly chattered to themselves as they dusted each other free of snow, released themselves of heavy winter gear and began to welcome themselves into the kitchen with Gideon and the four women. Vanellope perked up and crossed her arms, "Oh, perfect timing. Just the man we'd like to see."
"Noooo, no, I can't be here, right now," Koko griped as she covered her face; her, Emery and Tessa were lost in girly laughter, to which Gideon crossed his arms in cheeky delight and teasingly eyed his dad.
"Four times in one go, eh, dad?" Gideon's deep voice muttered in cocky, smiling delight; Ralph visibly stiffened as both him and Zed scuffed their bare feet to a halt, upon entering the kitchen space.
"I'm, uh... Gunna turn in, chief," Zed stated through a grunt of exasperated delight as he stifled a laugh and firmly pat Ralph's upper back, "Thanks for helping out with those nasty vines."
"I'm about to go back out there and never return, truly," Ralph grumbled cutely as now everyone was lost in laughter. As Zed gave Tessa a warm hug and a kiss, he politely retreated to their bedroom and was hopeful Tessa would join soon, though she hung back to see this conversation through. Ralph heaved a long, drawn sigh of pure dread and approached the other side of the island, opposite where everyone else was, deeper in the kitchen, "Alright, why are we talking about me and your mother's PRIVATE doings?"
"We're trying to deduce just why Gideon has manifestation powers," Emery chimed cutely, Gideon bobbed a nod and peered to Ralph with twinkling eyes of teasing cheek.
"User, I don't know, truly. The multiple swaps we did in hopes to get a loading bar to appear faster? Maybe," Ralph shrugged his big shoulders and sighed as he looked down to the counter top in aimless, smiling remembering, "Did your loading bar appear quicker? Yeah, it did. Did it result in a wild amount of new power neither of us could've given to you from our own gamer powers? Truly, who knows."
"Sounds like a brain coding rabbit hole," Gideon uttered as he tossed his eyes to Tessa in boyish, hopeful cueing.
"Ooo, something to expand on," Emery perked up and held up her pointer finger. She cutely eyed Vanellope, Ralph and then Gideon, "What would this look like if Gideon has children?"
"Do I look like proper father material?" Gideon grunted loudly, the group erupted into laughter, "I can hardly take care of myself."
"It would be interesting to think about," Tessa prod; she desperately wanted to mention Kepa, in all of this mess, though just as she vowed to keep quiet about it and allow the topic of Gideon fathering kids, with Kepa no less, to dissipate, Tessa felt the world spin to a slow the second she could see Koko's cute, naively innocent little brain begin to whir the cogs and wheels in preparation to ruin Tessa's plan.
"Well, what powers does Kepa have?" Koko freely asked as she gestured out to Gideon and crossed her arms; the whole group fell silent in a prickle of terror as Gideon raised his eyebrows and visibly looked rocked, even with the frozen-still disposition he held.
"Koko-Bree," Vanellope mumbled quietly as she looked off and heaved a shaky breath of full, nervous anticipation; Koko sagged and tossed her now apologetic eyes to Vanellope, and then Gideon's.
"O-Oh, sorry, never mind," Koko ushered sorrowfully as she visibly sagged, and though Gideon could tell that everyone was walking on eggshells, Gideon narrowed his eyes and very bravely saddled himself back into the conversation and question at hand.
"Welp... Kepa is a thoroughbred, three-ability lion gargoyle," Gideon stated proudly; such claim had Emery's eyebrows raising in a stick of solid shock, due to her knowing a little bit about gargoyle culture due to Tatum's situation, "She can breathe fire, unfurl wings for flight and she can turn to stone."
"... Holy shit," Ralph huffed shakily as he rubbed his forehead and urgently looked off, the group eased as loud laughter coat the common room. It was here did Novus cutely mosey up to join Gideon's side, he lovingly rested his bigger hand atop Novus's head and was relieved he had Novus to lean on for this conversation. Ralph blurt a chuckle and gestured to Gideon with a warm smile, "Y'wanna have babies that can just willingly breathe fire with no concept of restraint?"
"Us flyers keep reproducing, don't we?" Novus retaliated, Ralph sagged in defeat and nodded with a humble smile.
"Touché," Ralph grunted.
"Besides, if Gideon and Kepa decided to have a kitten of their own, they'd have a fire-breathing uncle to help reign it in," Novus firmly covered as he sat on his rear, thus bringing his eye-height to Gideon's. Gideon eased a wide, smug little smile into Novus's sweet, welcoming aura and was now entirely relieved Novus welcomed himself into this conversation, "Not like this is even anything on the radar. If I know Kepa like I think I do, she'd laugh you all the way to Game Central Station if you were to suggest having a baby with her for... Science."
"She'd... Yeah," Gideon huffed a shaky chuckle as him and Novus related tighter than anyone else in the room, and though everyone kindly laughed, Novus and Gideon were laughing a bit harder with a touch more knowing, "Not a conversation either of us would want right now, anyways."
"Right now," Emery repeated with a cheeky waggle of her green eyebrows.
"Did you say kittens?" Koko squealed, though it was here did Tessa lull her arm about Koko's cute shoulders in a squeeze of physically reigning her little sister in.
"Shhh," Tessa loudly hissed with a teasing smile, to which Gideon grinned and crossed his arms; grateful Tessa had his back, they both caught eyes as Tessa continued on with full authority, "How about lets come back to Arcade, yeah? We've skipped so far ahead of even Gideon, to the point where we've shot PAST the moon and are now spiraling our way right into the sun, due to exploding. So let's, uh... Lay off a little."
"Fine, fine," Koko huffed in quiet defeat, and though her and Gideon caught eyes in a sweet show of apology and forgiving, Gideon still inhaled a deep breath and finally felt a power dynamic happening in his favor.
"Yeah I'm planning on keeping my coding, that'd be, uh... Nice," Gideon rubbed his chest and cheekily eyed his father, "Maybe one day I'll be crazy enough to put out four times in one go."
"There were gaps of time in between, c'mon, I'm not THAT crazy," Ralph loudly urged as Vanellope covered her face and shyly giggled.
"That's pretty crazy, dad," Tessa muttered as she furrowed her brow and shook her head, "I've... Y'know what, never mind."
"NO MORE!" Emery suddenly blurt through the uproar of giggling everyone erupted into.
"Yeah, I only came out here for a midnight snack, not midnight trauma," Gideon huffed through a sarcastic laugh as he firmly pat Novus's fluffy chest and made his way to the fridge.
The group continued on their bickering as Gideon quietly made himself a midnight snack of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, though as he stood with Novus at the prep area near the fridge, he felt his phone buzz in his pockets. He cutely licked his pointer finger free of jelly, reached for his phone as the atmosphere sagged with easy-going conversing, plans of what tomorrow would look like, Gideon furrowed his brow and patiently read the text message that Kepa had just sent.
Pebbles : Look, I'm really sorry for even saying anything. I feel embarrassed I asked about something so private. I put myself in your shoes and I'd probably feel weird, I'm truly sorry if I overstepped a boundary or... Was nosey or whatever. I just did my own research on human anatomy and I have all my answers now.
Gideon sagged his shoulders and smiled in apologetic warmth that hugged his heart, how desperately he wanted to urge to Kepa that he wasn't even slightly disturbed, he was floored that she was being so considerate. He silently chuckled and began to thumb her a reply.
FauxFox : Truly, Kepa, you absolutely did not weird me out. Was odd in the moment, but with how isolated you were from humans, I can understand the curiosity.
Pebbles : Yeah, well, curiosity killed the cat.
Gideon narrowed his gaze and felt a rush of bravery hit him. He bit his tongue and swiftly volleyed her a check mate.
FauxFox : But satisfaction brought it back.
Pebbles : ... You DIDN'T just use the whole quote against me, like that.
FauxFox : I did. What're you gunna do about it?
Gideon grinned, locked his phone and put it back in his pocket, now fully aware he was likely sending Kepa in a spiraling mess at her lonely light house, he confidently continued to keep on with the chore of his yummy sandwich, though Novus flattened his ears and eyed Gideon in sneaking suspicion.
"Why're you so smiley, all of the sudden?" Novus mumbled underneath the drum of conversation about them.
"Oh nothing," Gideon sighed with a deep chuckle, Novus eyed Gideon's pocket as the noise of multiple buzzing text messages could be heard, like a bee hive that had been disturbed, Gideon stood as if he was successful; with what, Novus was unsure.
