"This is an absolutely terrible idea." Loki says, grinning cheerily at Leah. She hums noncommittally, watching the mirror as magic edges around her form, changing her dress piece by piece as she decides on what she wants to display tonight.
"I agree, for the record." Yahiko says from the doorway. Leah isn't entirely sure why he's tagging along, but she has a feeling it involves Loki.
"And yet, here I am, still planning to go for a night of dancing in Kumo." Leah says.
"Hoping to get laid." Loki tacks on.
Leah shrugs. "Hoping to get laid."
"You'll probably run into Yugito." Yahiko says, sagging as he leans further against the door. "She's been itching to meet you."
"She sounds like a nice young woman," Leah says, "But seeing as you said that immediately after I mentioned getting laid, I'd like to point out that she is a little young for me."
Loki snorts. So does the woman next to him.
"Hush, you." Leah gives him a light slap on the shoulder. "My age is mine own to determine, considering what you and yours have done to my timeline."
Loki opens his mouth as though to protests, and then subsides with a shrug. "That's fair."
"Are you trying to get laid?" Yahiko asks, eyeing Loki. "Because if so, I'm going to tell you right now that you don't really need to go out."
He eyes Loki's form up and down with a grin; it's a clear invitation, but nothing overtly predatory.
"See, I would? But I'm pretty sure Verity would object to being forced to sit through that." Loki elbows the woman in question, who rolls her eyes.
"I don't even want to go to the party, let alone have to be in the room with you while you get it on with someone." Verity bumps her hip against Loki's, reveling in the fact that, for as long as they are in the land of the dead, she's basically solid. "Having my soul tied to that bracelet of yours isn't exactly doing me a lot of favors on that front."
"Rude," Loki sniffs. "You could totally just wait outside the door."
"I'd still have to hear you, Loki." Verity shakes her head. "Get me my body back and you can have your nightlife to yourself again."
"So I don't know what your skillset is entirely, but could you tie her soul to a puppet or something?" Yahiko asks. "Kushina told me about something Senju Tobirama could do, too, called Edo Tensei?"
Leah's hands and magic still, and the sheer fury and hate that surges through her at those words surprises even her.
Mostly because she doesn't even know what Edo Tensei is.
"Leah?" Loki asks, and it's a low murmur, the kind of voice a person uses when they aren't sure if the listener is liable to attack or just distracted.
"I'm fine." She breathes out, and she can feel something in her cold, dead heart stutter and twist.
She doesn't know what the technique does, but she can already tell she loathes it. She wants to wipe it from existence.
"You're scaring the mortals."
Loki's voice breaks her out of whatever flurry of emotion has caught her, and she catches sight of Yahiko and Verity as she turns, reining herself in.
She was throwing out rather a lot of power in that loss of control. Hm. Something to work on, perhaps.
Neither of them actually look scared, per se, but Yahiko is tense, with a hand hovering over his kunai holster (which he's taken once more to carrying around, despite rarely, if ever, actually needing it), and Verity's taking care to keep Loki between herself and Leah.
"I'm fine." Leah doesn't apologize, but, "I'll do my best to keep it from happening again. I've no idea what came over me."
"I'm sure you'll find out eventually," Loki promises, "Because this reeks of foreshadowing, and that means it's obviously going to come up in the future."
Leah makes a face. "I can't wait."
"That's the spirit!" Loki cheers, throwing an arm around Leah's shoulders and hauling her bodily off in the direction of the door. "Now, let's go get drunk and get you laid."
Leah rolls her eyes, but it's not like she has any real arguments against the idea.
o.o.o.o.o
Much as Leah prefers the electric swing clubs, they aren't quite as conducive to her goals for tonight as traditional nightclubs are. If she goes to an electric swing club, she'll be too busy dancing to remember to find a partner for the night.
The normal nightclubs aren't bad, at least. The music's alright and the drinks are strong, and it's non-smoking and dark, so she can breathe freely and join the utterly packed dance floor. There are literal mobs of people, undulating and so very, very close that there's more areas of skin contact than not. Leah doesn't join them, but she thinks she can imagine the appeal.
Yahiko floats up against the ceiling, jamming out but not particularly invested in anything, at first.
Then he apparently spots something and darts down through the throngs of people to meet a girl that just came in through the door.
She's… eighteen, maybe? She's blonde and fit, clearly a shinobi, and there's a strange cast to her eyes. She's very, very pretty, and Leah can see those eyes tracking Yahiko's movements, can see the girl respond aloud to Yahiko's enquiries, ignoring the man next to her.
Yugito, then.
Her fate lines are patchy and thin, compared to most of Konoha's inhabitants, but there's one or two threads that are running strong; she's not a main player in anything, may not even truly appear in the end, but her existence off-screen impacts something drastically. As she comes closer, Leah feels a new line being created, thickening and grasping and connecting to Leah herself.
Yugito comes to a stop before Leah, and bows. It's not the deepest bow the woman could manage, not even in this cramped space, but her eyes flicker to the darker man standing bemusedly behind her and back, and then she straightens up. "You must be Leah of Hel."
"I told her to keep things discreet," Yahiko says, lounging in the air next to them, "Pretty sure she'd be a lot more respectful if we weren't, well, here."
"And you must be Yugito," Leah says with a smile that could, in certain lights, perhaps be considered charming.
"I am," the girl says, and then seems at a loss of what to do with herself.
"I don't suppose you would mind if I found you sometime later?" Leah suggests. "I'd love to discuss your particular powers in a quieter setting."
Relief floods Yugito's eyes. "I'd be happy to do that, yes."
"You're rather interesting, my dear. But, moving on," Leah nods in the man's direction; his fate threads are much stronger than Yugito. "Your friend?"
"Ah, this is Killer Bee. He's… much like me in some ways."
Leah takes that mean a jinchuuriki, rather than a seer of the dead. She lets a smile curl over her lips as her eyes drag appreciatively up and down the man's form. He's not that much older than Yugito, but he's old enough for Leah to have absolutely no qualms about taking him out for a spin.
When her gaze reaches his face, there's a smug little grin on face and raised eyebrow. "Seems pretty obvious to me, but you seem to like the Bee."
…rhyming? That's…
"That's almost as bad as Loki's puns." Leah informs him, because really, it is.
"Hey, my puns aren't that bad." Loki complains, somehow having made his way over from the dance floor to the bar, and throwing one arm over Leah's shoulder so he can properly display his angst over the fact that his puns are awful.
"I heard that." He pouts at Leah.
"I'm not surprised." Leah picks up his arm and removes it from her shoulder.
"She's so mean," Loki whines, and looks at Bee, "Don't let the pretty exterior fool you, she's scary and mean."
"This is…"
"My brother," Leah says, for lack of a better explanation. Going through the whole story would take far too long and probably not be believed anyway.
"You two can get going, if you want." Loki waggles his eyebrows in Leah's direction. "I mean, you may have only just met, but—"
"I feel like dancing," Leah says abruptly. She knocks back the rest of her drink, stands, and gives Bee an inviting look. "Care to join?"
His smile is answer enough.
o.o.o.o.o
When Leah swans her way back to Hel the next morning. Loki is waiting.
"So, how'd it go?" the now-Goddess of Stories asks, all sing-song and teasing.
Leah tilts her head, considers how to answer, and then smiles vaguely in Loki's direction. "There were tentacles."
The answering splutter is incredibly gratifying.
(There were tentacles, actually, just not during the actual sex. It was, in many ways, Leah's first time, and she wanted to keep it vanilla.)
(Bee hadn't been able to resist showing off the next morning as they were getting dressed and she asked about the Jinchuuriki thing, though.)
o.o.o.o.o
A/N: Maybe leave a review?
Next time: STOP DOING THE THING, NAGATO.