Original Ao3 chapter summary:
This is set after chapter 30 and before 31 of the main fic!
I was going to post it after I'd finished 31, but I've had a bunch of work come up so I might be slower with that then I'd like — so I figure I'll just upload this now!
"Hmmm…" G'raha raised a hand to his chin, squinting as the smoke from Ifrit's raging inferno slowly subsided, the hellish beast that had been conjured from the aether vanishing with it. Its fading revealed, however, that the enormous golden doors of the Crystal Tower's main spire were still perfectly intact, not even a scratch or smudge upon their gleaming surfaces to show for any of their efforts.
How unfortunate— especially after such a fantastic display of might. It seemed even the unbridled force of all of Joker's consumed Primals had failed to put so much as a dent in them, including this latest assault. That didn't bode well.
G'raha's ears twitched with suppressed irritation, "Given that was every element in the Warrior of Light's arsenal, I think that settles it. Brute-force will clearly not avail us… of…"
And his words trailed off as the last of the fading smoke allowed him to properly take in the poor state of the deity's summoner. Cid and Rammbroes followed his gaze as the slow shift in tone altered them to Joker's condition.
Though turned away from them, it was clear he was unsteady. He wobbled a little where he stood, a poorly-concealed tremor running through him. Cid drifted closer, reaching out a concerned hand.
"Quite alright there, Ren? I'm sorry that you were made to exert yourself to the point of— oh."
And G'raha and Rammbroes gasped as Joker suddenly tipped forward, forehead meeting the solidity of the doors with a soft thump.
Cid helped pull him upright. He groaned, head flopped as something dribbled down his chin from his nose. Was that…? Yes, blood. Blood and something much more dark and viscous. A kind of ichor not entirely unlike the substance secreted by the creatures of the Void they had fought only yesterday.
That was… alarming. Was that likewise just an element of his otherworldly anatomy that they were unfamiliar with? G'raha's tail frizzed as he pressed closer, waving a hand in front of Joker's face.
"Joker? Ren? Are you injured?!"
The half-lidded gray eyes sluggishly followed the motion of his hand. Joker sniffled loudly.
"Yeah. 'M fine. Just gotta lie down, pro'lly."
The three looked between each other as Joker awkwardly straightened himself, smoothing his coat down. He took a wobbling step towards the opening of the Labyrinth of the Ancients. And then immediately stumbled. Rammbroes caught him this time, grabbing at his upper arm and pulling him back.
"Whoa there, lad." He said gruffly, hauling him up, "Don't be daft. We'll not have you go back through the whole Labyrinth like this. Cid, get that puppy-dog of a Reaper here, will you?"
With G'raha hovering nervously nearby, the two loaded a feebly protesting Joker into the cockpit of the miraculously independent Magitek armor that they had fetched to assist with their attempted assault on the Syrcus Tower doors. Apparently having been 'tamed' and dubbed Maggie, it let out something like a morose coo with gentle beeps and whirs as Joker wearily slumped in its seat.
G'raha followed behind the bizarre war machina as it— she?— bounded entirely of her own Mammet-powered will down the path Joker had previously led her through the maze, taking tight corners and leaping over streams of lava, until she had delivered her dazed pilot back to the greater comforts of the Sons of Saint Coinach's main camp.
Maggie bent down low upon their arrival, emitting an encouraging chime. Joker pat blearily at the console.
"Good girl, Maggie." He groaned, "Good girl."
He swiped at his nose with his sleeve before taking G'raha's offered hand, helping set him back upon his feet. Led him on shaking legs to one of the tents where he recalled medical supplies were stored.
"I really am fine." Joker grumbled as G'raha directed him to a seat. One of the Sons on standby— a recent enlistee from the Students of Baldesion much like himself, if he recalled correctly— jumped in alarm at the sight of the blood. Setting aside her clipboard, she rummaged in the supplies before returning with a bowl of water and a cloth,"This happens. It's nothin' big. Just used my Personas too much."
G'raha frowned as he pressed a damp corner of the cloth against Joker's dribbling nose, clearing away a thick smudge of red and black.
"My apologies. Had I known it would impact upon your health so, I would have insisted you stop sooner."
Joker shrugged, sniffing.
"Had to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks, y'know? Sorry nothing did the job."
And G'raha clicked his tongue, swiping away the rest of the caked blood and… whatever else with a motion perhaps just a tad harder than it needed to be, "Nevermind that now. We will surely find some other method of opening the doors in due time. Now go lie down."
G'raha and the Roegadyn woman soon had him set up with some simple bedding on the floor of the tent and a fresh damp cloth on his forehead. Despite his earlier protests, Joker, after clumsily unlacing his boots, crawled under the covers right away. He seemed to fall fast asleep within moments, breathing just a tad ragged as the shape of his chest rose and fell.
G'raha waited outside the tent, fidgeting. When Cid and Rammbroes returned, the scholar tutted at G'raha's report, insisting that their current efforts were enough for today.
"No sense having a repeat of that. We'll simply have to search for some alternate means of forcing entry to the tower proper. Surely there's something in that blasted Labyrinth we can use… When Joker's back in shape, we'll get him to help us scour it properly."
And though he agreed that stopping here was the wiser choice, G'raha couldn't help but feel disappointed. The mysteries of the ancient Allagans were so close at hand that he could feel it, almost like a yearning pull from within the depths of his very blood. Only to be stymied so soon by a door of all things. As if the delays caused by the Sentinels hadn't been enough…
His displeasure must have shown on his face, for Rammbroes' expression turned soft with sympathy. He smiled as he clapped a consoling hand on G'raha's shoulder,
"Think of it this way— it gives us some time to comb through ancient texts and compare our notes. See if we can put our heads together and figure out a way forward. In the meantime, do keep an eye on our friend, will you?"
The first thing he heard when he stirred back to awareness was the soft scratching of a quill on parchment.
Joker slowly opened his eyes, the glow of a candle appearing in his sight as a blur of warm orange. From the low light in the rest of the tent and the sounds of a crackling fire outside, it seemed to well and truly be evening now.
Removing the now warm and soggy cloth from his forehead, he slowly tipped his head back, spying the outline of a familiar set of cat ears silhouetted against the candlelight.
G'raha was seated on the floor just a little away from Joker's makeshift bed. The Miqo'te's back was to him, cross-legged and with a small book in hand. He was completely engrossed in his writing as his hand darted across the pages, the feathered top of the quill he held waving furiously.
Joker mentally prodded at the edges of his mind, feeling out the currently quiet presence of lightly slumbering gods. Perhaps the soft whisper of a mild reprimand from Arsène. He experimentally flexed his fingers. Yep, seemed to be all good.
A small bubble of excitement building in his stomach, he grinned as he silently crawled out from under the blankets, inching his way towards his temporary roommate.
And Joker pressed the tip of his chin against G'raha's shoulder.
"Whatcha writing?"
G'raha squawked in alarm, nearly knocking over the nearby pot of ink with a flailing arm.
"Y-You're awake!" He said, pulling the journal he was writing in against his chest and smearing the freshly-penned letters a little, "Nothing of consequence. I have finished cataloging our meager findings for the day and am now merely composing personal anecdotes."
"Oh?" Joker tilted his head. G'raha pulled the book closer, hunching his shoulders, "Let me have a look!"
G'raha's face scrunched, turning away as twitching fingers snaked towards his diary, "Stop it!"
"I can't help it! I'm also 'insatiably curious'!"
And Joker pulled back, patting down the pockets of the coat he was still wearing. Aha!
"How about a trade? I'll show you mine?" He said, lifting the small but hardy journal from Minfilia that he had taken to keeping on him at all times. Writing in it habitually was soothing, reminding him of the probation diary he had used to keep. Originally meant to be for Sojiro's benefit, it had instead become an outlet for doodling and planning heists once it became clear the older man wasn't ever going to actually look through it.
That did the trick. G'raha's tense face relaxed with open curiosity. His ears twitched.
Slowly, he lowered his own book from his chest. His eyes flitted to the entrance of the tent for a moment, before tentatively pressing his journal towards Joker.
And in a deft motion, Joker had snatched the small book up, smoothly replacing it with his own in G'raha's hands before the Miqo'te could blink.
Composing himself, G'raha took in an excited breath. His tail wagged a little as he slowly cracked open Joker's journal to a random page— only to be faced with a spread filled top-to-bottom with Japanese characters.
G'raha's face fell into an outraged frown.
"I can't read this!"
"And I can't read this." Joker countered smugly, waving G'raha's journal under his nose, "My Common without the Echo is abysmal, and it doesn't even work with written words."
G'raha glared at him, "You had me worried for nothing!"
"Keep your secrets." Joker poked his tongue out, closing the book and shoving it back at G'raha's chest.
G'raha snatched it up. He turned away from him, returning to his notes in a mild huff. Joker, after briefly swinging by the campfire to get a small bite to eat, let the scratching of the Miqo'te's quill fill the silence between them as he passed the time shuffling and reshuffling his Triple Triad cards. With his Circadian rhythm thoroughly thrown off by his late afternoon nap, he found himself uncomfortably energized.
"Hey, wanna play some Triple Triad?" He spoke aloud to the air, raising his freshly re-re-organized deck, "I know you have some cards. I saw them in your bag."
G'raha's ears jumped up, "Wha— When did you…?!" He cleared his throat, "Nevermind. As amusing as the offer sounds, I am afraid it is rather late for such a diversion."
Joker pouted at him. And maybe it was the excess energy from a good, hard snooze, or maybe it was severe damage to his mental faculties from the cognitive strain of overusing his Personas, or maybe it was just that the godsdamned catboy in front of him was stupidly cute, but frankly: he was feeling silly.
"But I'm completely awake now, and bored!" He whined, leaning back and draping himself across G'raha's lap, "Play with meeee!"
He kicked his legs as G'raha spluttered, squirming out from under him with the furs of his tail raised.
"I-I intend to retire to bed soon!" He complained, shutting his journal, "And besides— I thought you said your reading level of Eorzean script was, and I quote, 'abysmal'."
"And it is!" Joker, still on his back, placed a hand upon his heart with dramatic sincerity, "But I have been studying the game under the strongest master in all the realm, and have thus memorized the effects of the cards in my deck perfectly!"
"But not anyone else's, I imagine."
"Well. Yes. But that's where I'm trusting you not to cheat and tell me exactly what your cards do when you play them. You don't need to rely on cheating, do you?" He looked up, peering into G'raha's mismatched eyes above him and raising his eyebrows, "Against an illiterate baby?"
And something in G'raha's expression shifted, a sharp glint growing brighter in his slitted eyes. Ahaha! Another fellow who couldn't turn down a proffered challenge…
Plus, as the rueful sweeping of his tail seemed to indicate, he was evidently feeling a little bad that he was a contributing factor in Joker pushing himself to the point of injury. With a sigh, G'raha relented.
"Fine. But just one round."
They were soon seated across from each other, the floor of the tent between them their battlefield as an array of colorful cards brightened the drab interior.
"Interesting." Joker hummed at G'raha's setup, cheerfully placing a Nanaa Mihgo card face-down.
G'raha glared suspiciously at the plainly decorated reverse side, cheeks puffed with irritation and the tip of his tail lightly thwapping the floor with each twitch as he attempted to ascertain Joker's gambit.
Joker tried not to let himself be too distracted by the sight as the part of his heart that Ifrit had settled into tracked each minuscule motion, quietly murmuring something about chewing on the Miqo'te's ears. Worried that he'd take cuteness-induced aggression to a new level if he indulged in that line of thinking too much, he settled for merely gripping at his own thighs as he waited for G'raha to make his next move.
And as G'raha, with some trepidation, set a Planar Rift field card upon the floor next to his Lehko Habhoka, he announced an observation aloud.
"I can't help but be curious about commonalities between the writing system I saw in your journal and what I've seen of ancient Hingashi— the traditional language of the Far East. I don't suppose you'd be interested in teaching me some of your native tongue?"
Joker thoughtfully scanned the cards in his hand, selecting another one with a flourish.
"Japanese? Sure, I can teach you a few words. If—" He added, grinning and placing a Perih Vashai down, the watercolor artwork depicting a cat-eared woman boldly taking aim with a glinting arrow, the muscles of her arms rendered taunt and powerful as she pulled back on a bowstring, "—You promise to teach me how to use a bow."
And the corner of G'raha's mouth quirked.
"Seems we have a deal."
Original Ao3 endnotes:
G'raha: maybe dripping black face goo is normal in his word idk
Bonus sketch: Which one is more of a cat, really?
Once again, sorry if I'm slow with the next main chapter!