glitter: the cluster discover that Wolfgang's not a fan of glitter; lots of plotting and mayhem ensue.
Wolfgang knows she's up to something as soon as he catches her expression, her eyebrows quirked mischievously at him. For some reason though, he can't quite figure out what; he tries to probe, relentlessly pushing at Kala's mind with his, but she just pushes him back, keeping him out. He frowns at her, perplexed, but she simply smiles at him, completely undeterred by his efforts. She lifts her arms to rest on his, gently uncrossing them, tugging until she can grasp his hands in hers.
"So..." Kala starts, still wearing that look that Wolfgang's not entirely sure he can trust. He eyes her suspiciously, itching to cross his arms again in self-defence. "You know when we were in Nomi and Amanita's apartment last week for Diwali? With all the glitter?"
He nods, smiling despite himself as he remembers his plan and how all the pieces of it had fallen so effortlessly in place. He's so caught up in the memory, his mind replaying images of each of the cluster's heartfelt contributions - images of their decorated apartments and warm smiles - that he doesn't realise what Kala is doing until it's too late.
"—What the fuck? Hey, what are you doing?" Wolfgang asks, alarmed as he suddenly sees that she's left his side and is now raiding his weapons bag, hidden in the corner of the room. He stands quickly, walking over to her, a slight note of panic running down his spine. Kala turns to him then, and he realises what she's holding in her hands, dread instantly building in his chest. He absentmindedly thinks that he would have maybe preferred it if she had shown him one of his guns then, rather than this and...
"Kala, no—"
...But it's too late. He blinks, hastily stepping back as he's suddenly attacked by a wave of glitter in his face, his arms frantically waving in front of him in a hopeless attempt to stop any of it from landing on him. She's laughing then, looking immensely proud of herself as she holds the glitter bottle in his direction, and whilst this is really not his idea of fun (his idea of fun involves a lot less glitter and a lot more alcohol), the sound makes his heart lighten a little anyway. He frowns at her as she starts waving the glitter at him again, quickly grabbing her hands in his, stilling them before she can do any more damage.
"I think it's a good look on you," Kala tells him matter-of-factly, ignoring the way he's glowering at her. Her eyes are bright as she looks at him and admires her work, his black leather jacket now decorated with millions of glitter pieces. "I like it."
He frowns harder.
"Okay, what the fuck is happening in here?" Felix exclaims, appearing at the doorway, scanning the scene and giving them both a weird look. Kala laughs in response, and Wolfgang finds himself smirking a little at the look on his face because yes, they probably look ridiculous. He lifts his head to meet Felix's eyes, though it's a bit hard to see anything through all the glitter floating through the air, silently pleading for Felix to save him. Felix doesn't see – or if he does, he doesn't really care – and just continues talking, eyebrows raised suggestively. "Didn't really think this was the sort of thing you were into, Wolfie, but if it is, you should have invited me—"
"—Felix," he interrupts loudly, adjusting his grip on Kala as her cheeks instantly flush at Felix's words, burying her face into his chest in embarrassment. "Fuck off," he tells him, but his lips are quirked into a half-smile, half-smirk as he says it. It's hard to really feel anger – or, even, mild irritation – when Kala's squirming in his grip, trying to press herself closer to him.
He waits until Felix leaves – still shouting profanities and innuendos at the top of his lungs – before he gently lifts her chin so that he can see her eyes. "He didn't mean it," he tells her, though they both know that's not entirely true. Kala smiles, shakes her head, but relaxes against him anyway.
It's then that he feels the others tugging at his thoughts, mentally asking to be allowed in. He eyes Kala suspiciously, squinting at her.
"They know, don't they?" He asks, his voice suddenly a little forlorn as he slowly looks down at himself, his favourite dark jacket absolutely covered in glitter. He's not entirely sure he's going to be able to save it and that thought makes his heart clench a little; this jacket has seen him through many milestones his life - through many fights and many drunken nights - and he can't quite believe that this is what has led to its demise. Kala just laughs at him, almost gleefully, clearly in tune with his thoughts. She runs her fingers persistently across his jaw until he sinks into the feeling, eyes sliding shut and then—
"—Oh wow, this really is priceless."
"Kala, do you have a camera?"
"Amazing."
"I don't think he's ever looked so uncomfortable. Or colourful."
"That jacket…"
"Why didn't we do this sooner?"
Wolfgang groans deeply, immediately wondering if he can block them out, but then he feels Kala press her mouth gently against his. "Breathe," he hears her say teasingly, and he's not sure if it's with her voice or with her mind. "It's just us."
He sighs, taking a deep breath before hesitantly opening his eyes, groaning again as he sees all six of them standing there, desperately trying to stifle their laughter at the scene they have stumbled upon... except, he quickly realises, it's not so much as 'stumbled upon' than—
"You told them to come, didn't you?" Wolfgang asks, his tone just shy of being highly accusatory as he meets Kala's gaze.
Kala grins, shrugs innocently.
"Oh, Wolfgang," Nomi starts, her mouth still twisted into a smile as she pushes her glasses up, shooting him an almost pitying look. "It was more than just that."
He blinks hard, then grits his teeth as the others start sharing memories with him.
It begins in San Francisco, of course. It's two days after the cluster had carried out Kala's surprise and Nomi and Amanita are (very reluctantly, on Amanita's part) starting to clean up all the glitter strewn over their apartment. Kala appears just as Nomi has turned on the vacuum, and she instantly bends to switch it off again as she senses her arrival.
"Kala, hey," she greets, with a wave. "What's up?"
Kala smiles in response, wordlessly pushing the memory of Wolfgang's overreaction to Amanita's glitter waving at her, and Nomi nods at her unspoken question.
"Definitely," Nomi says. "I would kill to see that." She pauses, rephrases, thinks back to the events of the past few months. "Okay, maybe not kill, but it would be priceless."
Kala visits Will and Riley next, both of them still in Iceland. She smiles softly as she sees Riley in the middle of teaching Will a simple tune on the piano, her head resting on his shoulder. They both turn as they feel her presence, eyes questioning.
"So, I was thinking..." Kala starts, filling them in on what had happened last week at Nomi's apartment and the plan she had been conjuring up in her head ever since. Both of them are grinning at her widely when she finishes talking, Will going as far as to offering her suggestions to where she can hide the glitter once she's bought it ("I'd hide it in his weapon stash," he advises seriously, eyes a little glazed over in thought. "Wolfgang hasn't touched it in weeks. It's the last place he'll think to look.")
"But what if he finds it? Or realises what's going on? I'm not sure I'll be able to keep this from him." She pauses, gesturing aimlessly in the air as she paces back and forth. "I, um, I talk a lot," she says, eventually.
Will and Riley exchange glances, nod at the same time, and then mentally push her towards—
"—Sister! Come and join us!" Lito says as she appears, and she smiles as she realises he's not entirely alone but with Capheus. The two of them are in the middle of a movie marathon, a sizable bucket of popcorn placed in between them. They shift to make room for her on the sofa and she sits tentatively, eyebrow raising as she recognises what's playing on the screen.
"Lionheart? Again?" She asks, her tone a touch disbelieving as she turns to Capheus. "Don't you ever get tired of watching this?"
Capheus shakes his head firmly. "Never," he states, his eyes not leaving the action unfolding on the screen.
Lito's watching the film too, though it's with more of a critical eye. He makes the odd comment about the acting, but it's never anything serious, knowing better than to say anything remotely negative about the film Capheus loves so much.
"Did you have something to ask me?" Lito questions curiously minutes later, seemingly sensing why she came to visit him.
Kala nods in response, shifting in her seat as she fills them in on the plan. By the time she's told them everything, even Capheus has torn his eyes away from the screen to focus on her, his eyes bright.
"If he suspects anything, I'll be there to help," Lito promises solemnly, nudging her shoulder reassuringly, just as Capheus shakes his head at them.
"You won't need to. Wolfgang won't suspect a thing," Capheus says, and it's confident enough that Kala believes him. He pauses then, tilts his head, before asking curiously, "does he really hate glitter that much?"
Kala shrugs, not really knowing the answer to that. She doesn't have time to think it through properly though, suddenly blinking and finding herself in Korea. She takes a moment to adjust to the heat, lifting her head towards the sky so that she can feel the warmth on her face; it's been really cold in Paris the past week and she misses this.
Sun nods at her in greeting once she senses her presence, and Kala glances around to see that she's in the park, practicing her kicks. Kala doesn't interrupt her practice with any spoken words, but mentally sends her the outline of her plan.
"Do you think he'll be mad at me?" Kala asks, once Sun's lips have quirked into a small smile, having received the details of her plans and the possible implications. Out of the seven of them, she thinks - knows - that it's Sun who relates to Wolfgang's past and his actions the most, both of them having been born into unfavourable family situations.
"No," she replies quickly, then tilts her head, reconsiders. "Maybe a little."
Kala frowns.
"He'll get over it," Sun tells her confidently, moving to punch the air a few times. "I don't think he could ever be truly mad at you."
Wolfgang blinks hard as the images starts blurring, returning to the present day where the seven of them are sitting in front of him, exchanging highly amused looks with each other. They watch him silently, with bated breath, as they wait for him to react and say something; anything. He sighs deeply, shaking his head at them.
"I am mad," he announces eventually, but they just laugh at him, completely unconcerned by this. He sighs again, furrows his brow.
It takes about three seconds before Lito has grabbed the bottle of glitter where it's still sitting in Kala's hand, taking a step towards him and proceeding to tip more of the stuff onto his head.
"Sorry, brother," he says, but it's not really apologetic at all.
Wolfgang groans, wants to curse at them all very badly, but then gets distracted as he notices that most of them have come laden with their own glitter bottles. He purses his lips, eyes widening in despair as mayhem breaks loose: Lito's suddenly attacked by Capheus, who grins gleefully at managing to hit his target (Wolfgang allows himself to feel a little bit vindicated by that). Capheus' smile quickly dims a little though as he's swiftly hit by Will, who, in turn, is hit by an innocent-looking Riley ("Riley!" Will exclaims, shooting her a look of mock-betrayal as sparkly, blue glitter streams down his face, "I thought we were in this together!"). Riley's hit by Nomi, who's hit by Kala ("I'm sorry!"), who's hit very precisely by Sun, and then...
Wolfgang sighs, hastily grabbing a bottle of his own. He tells himself that he might as well join in, seeing as he's here. It has nothing – absolutely nothing – to do with the fact that their collective joy is undeniably infectious and he doesn't think he hates glitter so much anymore. Besides, if they're going to attack him with glitter, it's his right to…defend himself.
Almost an hour passes before they all slump to the floor, catching their breath. "Truce?" Will calls out, his head sandwiched somewhere between Riley's shoulder and Capheus' knee. They all nod, tired but content, every one of them shimmering.
"This was fun," Sun remarks, a rare grin on her face as she stares up at the ceiling, her hair and clothes sparkling. The rest of them murmur their agreement, before slowly disappearing back to their own lives, one by one.
Wolfgang doesn't shift from his position for a moment, eyes closed, forehead furrowed. He's not sure how his life became like this, but he's not exactly upset about it either. He vaguely registers Kala moving towards him and twists slightly to allow her to rest her head against his chest.
"I'm not helping you clean this up," he tells her, eyes still closed, but one eyebrow raised. "This was your idea."
Kala laughs at him, reaches up to wrap her hands around the back of his neck, tugging him closer.
"Yes, you will," she tells him confidently, and he shakes his head in retort. He opens his eyes and moves his head down to catch her lips, but she pulls away before he can. He blinks, tries again and gets the same result. He realises then that she's grinning up at him, almost slyly, and he knows immediately what she's up to.
"Fine," he says, tensing his jaw slightly as he reluctantly surrenders, but relaxes as soon as he hears her giggle, her mouth (finally) pressing against his.
"Don't think that this is over though," he tells her gravely, minutes later, already starting to plot his revenge. She blinks, eyeing him warily, giving him a reproachful look. "You started this."
Somewhere, in the depths of his mind, he thinks he hears the other members of the cluster laughing along with him, already offering up their services. The possibilities, he thinks to himself, are endless.
