[I do not own Teen Titans or any characters mentions in this story. I had. So much fun writing this. I love overemotional Joey vs emotionally dead Kyd. Also, I didn't make it clear in the last chapter but Kyd is NOT a Telepath, he is an Empath. Instead of thoughts, he can feel emotions.]
Jericho scrambled wipe some weird green moss that had formed on his finger off. Despite Kyd's incessant nagging that it was a horrible, terrible idea to touch every crystal and find out it's properties simply out of curiosity, Jericho was prone to do so anyway. So, while Kyd was busy attempting to start a fire of some sort in their makeshift camping area they'd found, Jericho snuck off to touch as many of the crystals as he could, completely ignoring Kyd's advice.
He'd found that the green crystals left a sort of sticky moss on your hand when touched for more than three seconds, and they were also very squishy and gelatinous once removed from their place in the wall. The pink crystals were very dusty and almost glittery, letting off dust specks of what looked like glitter glue when you hit it against something (Jericho had learned this the hard way, and wasted almost fifteen minutes of his adventure-time trying to shake off the glitter that made him look like Tinkerbell's twin brother).
Joseph suddenly yawned, finding that he was starting to grow a bit tired from all the excitement from today. Joey finally managed to wipe off the last bits of the green crystal's moss on the wall and started making his way back to Kyd tiredly.
Joey gasped at the beautifully colored light purple fire that Kyd had created. Kyd Wykkyd himself was nowhere to be found, but Joey was much too distracted by the components of this new fire. It was almost see-through, and instead of wood, two reddish orange crystals lay at the fire's feet, seeming to feed its flames.
"...Beautiful, isn't it?" Joey suddenly heard Kyd's voice say from behind him, making the poor blonde shriek in surprise. Kyd didn't seem to take notice, too invested in gazing distantly into the purple fire.
Joey would've been doing the same...had Kyd not looked...like that.
"Please excuse me, the top half of my suit was torn by one of the crystals when we were first walking through here, and the elbows were scraped when we fell into this dimension the first time." Kyd explained as he walked past Joey - still shirtless, as Joey tried not to hyperventilate - and sat down not too far from him next to the fire.
Somewhere, deep in Joey's mind, there was a small, innocent voice that told him that staring was impolite and rude, but it was shoved back into the abyss of Joey's thoughts by a stronger, more forceful voice that wouldn't let him pull his eyes away.
Kyd was...not as wimpy as Joey had previously thought. He was definitely nowhere near as strong as Joey himself was - being a regular Titan and having lived on a mountain for several years - but he was...toned. Was it normal for your train of thought to have voice cracks? Joey didn't think so. Perhaps he should be worried. Of course, he wasn't. He was too busy tracing the strange black lining that ran up and down Kyd's skin. It was almost like the lines on a tiger's back, except more tattoo like. From where the middle of Kyd's spine was, his skin was colored a deep purple that slowly faded back into stark paleness as it got closer to his front. It was like looking at a spray painted guitar, until you got to his front and saw that his entire chest and stomach were pale white besides the black lines.
"It's not polite to stare." Kyd practically growled at Jericho. Jericho was ripped from his thoughts and honestly startled by his tone - considering Kyd had been nothing short of a gentleman their entire time together, it was strange to hear him near growling at Joseph.
Joseph looked up at Kyd's face to see him angrily glaring into the fire. When he finally looked up to glare at Joseph, his glare softened immensely at Joey's face. He looked...innocently confused.
"...I'm not...proud of the black marks, okay?" Kyd explained.
"I was just staring at your chest." Jericho blurted bluntly.
Deathly, heavy silence followed.
In Jericho's mind, he wanted to curl up and die. On the outside, his face was blood red and his eyes were blown wide, lips in a thin line as he mentally screamed. He forgot that people with voices are supposed to have filters as well.
Suddenly, Elliot's surprised stare turned into...laughter.
Real, genuine, bouncy but deep laughter that echoed off the walls for a while. It relaxed Joey, at least. He nervously laughed alone and let his shoulders loosen a bit.
"...You're a strange person." Kyd stated with a glint in his eyes and a charming smile adorning his lips.
"...Y-Yeah I uh...I kinda get that a lot." Jericho said with a nervous smile, thankful Kyd hadn't made it awkward.
"So…" Jericho said, trying extremely hard to change the subject, "how did you get the fire to start up?" He asked with a smile.
"Well- I found these two reddish orange crystals back that way somewhere and decided to start with those. When I rubbed them together, they broke open, but somehow the fire come out purple and-" Kyd rambled with a large smile. Jericho couldn't help but find it really, really cute how Kyd Wykkyd was secretly a huge nerd about this kind of stuff.
"Uh...s-sorry." Kyd said, looking down in embarrassment once he realized how nerdy he sounded. Jericho noticed that as Kyd's face blushed, some very thin black markings on his lower jaw darkened to a deep purple as well, as if they were blushing. They would normally be covered up by Kyd's cowl, though they...suited him somehow.
"Where did you get that?" Joey asked innocently enough as he pointed to what looked like a deep cut on Elliot's chin, right below his lips and to the right some.
"Oh. When I was pulling these crystals out of the wall, one of them was stuck, and because of the force I used to pull it out, its scraped my chin upon exiting the wall." Kyd answered in his ever so eloquent voice.
"Oh." Joey echoed, not knowing what else to say. He didn't want to get caught staring again.
"I think I have something that could fix it." Joey said suddenly before bolting up toward the crystals he was playing with examining earlier.
Joey trodded back with a pretty blueish white crystal in hand, slowly approaching Kyd and sitting next to him.
"I was messing with the crystals earlier, and this one seems to heal cuts. It fixed the one you gave me earlier on the cliffs." Joey said.
"It...might be a little cold." Joey warned as he started to reach with the crystal toward Kyd's chin. Kyd gave a stiff nod, allowing Joey into his personal space.
Kyd closed his eyes and allowed Joey to softly rub the crystal up and down his cut, knowing it may take a bit for the crystal to complete its task.
Kyd could practically hear Joey's heartbeat himself because of his enhanced hearing. Was the boy really that afraid of him?
"You...can keep me still if you want." Kyd muttered. He knew giving Joey permission to touch him would probably result in another wave of emotions like a bullet to the head, but he had to know what Joey was feeling. He hated not knowing, especially when their lives rested in Joey not being afraid to trust Kyd.
Kyd kept his eyes closed when he felt Jericho's considerably soft hand cradle his cheek, keeping him still.
Kyd was hit with emotions, but it was nothing like before. Kyd had braced himself for terror, worry, anxiety, fear, but nothing like this.
As an empath, whenever someone touched Kyd, he could feel their emotions, and go what they were going through.
Kyd felt what Joey was feeling. He felt...he felt wonderful and terrible at the same time. He felt safe and warm and nervous and like he had butterflies in his stomach. He felt like he had a fever and yet he had shivers going up his spine. He felt like...whoever, whatever Joey's emotions were directed on, he wanted to worship forever. His breathing was shallow and stuttery, like he was afraid of scaring them off, like if they left he'd honestly start to cry. He felt pinpricks on his arms and face and he felt his heart pound in his ears and he felt hopeful feelings cloud his mind.
Kyd closed his eyes tighter and attempting to access a higher part of his abilities, trying so hard to recollect what Scarecrow had taken. He closed his eyes and concentrated and...yes. Now he could feel what Jericho was thinking as well. Jericho felt terrified and yet absolute and confident in his thoughts. Kyd thought was Jericho thought.
Kyd wanted to love this person to their very core, until there was no love left that he could give away and then some. Kyd wanted hug this person and memorize what it felt like to have their arms wrapped around him. Kyd wanted to know what it felt like to be protected and safe and warm in those arms. Kyd wanted to kiss that person, god, Kyd wanted to kiss that person so, so badly. He wanted to kiss them enough to leave a lasting aftertaste of their lips. He wanted to hold their hand and caress their knuckles, Kyd wanted to lay down with them and talk about everything and nothing for hours. Kyd desperately wanted them to just...say something. He wanted to hear this person's voice so badly.
Kyd opened his eyes and tried to stop breathing so heavily, he was getting too caught up in Jericho's emotions - again. It was so...thrilling, though. But Kyd still didn't get an answer to his question. Kyd understood now what Jericho was feeling, love, but for whom? There was no one to focus on in this cavern.
Elliot let out a small gasp that Jericho didn't hear as he looked down at how Jericho was staring into Kyd's cut. Jericho was focusing on Kyd. Jericho was...in love with-
Kyd's own thoughts broke away like string as Jericho subconsciously moved his hand down to Kyd's chest, over his heart. As Jericho's emotions changed, Kyd felt them.
A deep, calming, slow warmth moved all throughout Kyd and calmed him. He felt...so, so in love. But now he felt...closer, calmer. He was so happy this person let him get this close. Kyd felt like he could melt in this person's arms right about now. Kyd felt like he could sit here in this position until the end of time and he wouldn't have a qualm. Kyd once again felt Jericho's thoughts. Kyd hated himself for staying quiet. He berated himself for not speaking up, for not just telling this person how in love he was. But how could he? Kyd told himself that he was so bad with words, even now.
Jericho thought all that...for Kyd. Jericho was in love with...Kyd. Kyd suddenly couldn't breathe, couldn't think, Jericho's emotions were drowning him-
"Are you okay?" Came Jericho's voice. It broke above the emotion, and Jericho pulled back his hand. Kyd's face was a deep, dangerous red color, and Kyd's expression said that he'd just looked into the face of god.
"You look sick, did I hurt you?" Jericho asked worriedly, already switching through his own emotions so very fast.
Jericho started reaching over to touch Kyd's forehead, trying to see if he possibly had a fever, but Kyd caught his wrist in a near death grip before he made it so far.
"F-F-F-FFFFine." Kyd stuttered as he gasped to regain his breath. Jericho was starting to get worried, he'd never heard Kyd stutter before, there had to be something seriously wrong. But Kyd had made it very clear he didn't want Jericho anywhere near him right now, so Joey took the hint, though a bit hurt.
Joey receded, standing up and going back over to his place a small bit away from the fire.
Kyd held his head in his hands, not knowing what to do anymore. Joey was gone, but his emotions weren't - but that didn't make any sense.
And then Kyd realized they were his own emotions.
Kyd Wykkyd...was in love.
Kyd was going to pummel Scarecrow when they found him.
[Read and Review please!]