Relative Fun [Aurora/Geata]

Limen caught the bottle and stuffed it in the most convenient pocket. “Considering chances of me accidentally dozing off and Aurora getting eaten by a bear lured and unsatisfied by her snacks are… slightly higher than slim. Chances of me accidentally dozing off, falling out of a tree, and waking up Aurora by mistake and then getting a new grin gap via Aurora’s fist or that large beam there because of it, however, are a little higher than I’d like.” Limen glanced up at the sky. “Plus it might rain.”

She was already trotting over to where Aurora lay, hopping over the various things scattered about. If she looked hard enough she probably could find an umbrella or something and make a makeshift roof, but really if Geata was offering to take their sleeping leader off her hands so she could get some shut eye of her own, she wasn’t about to turn him down.

“So hold up, Aurora’s actually got friends? That she’s happy to see?” In lifting Aurora carefully up princess-style (she noted that this was possibly the one time she may be able to get away with doing so, as chance of Aurora being conscious and not punching and or kicking her for such a maneuver were small to say the least), she considered what Geata had said. “Is he a cannibal?” She asked. “Seems about as likely.”

Taking extra care not to trip, she made her way back to Geata. When he was ready, Limen would help Aurora onto his back, making sure her center of gravity was forwards rather than the backwards that might result in an upside down Aurora.

After they were ready, Limen hesitated a moment longer. Honestly, even after all this for not actually meeting their goal of stargazing, she was glad to see Aurora finally getting some rest. Their leader was working herself to the bone and even she could tell you that wasn’t healthy.

Her smile dropped to a kind one, and she patted the unconscious woman’s back. “Take care of Mom, yeah? Rulers can’t rule alone, even if she seems set on trying.”

She shot a final smile of thanks at Geata and gave him a wave, and if there was nothing more, she’d steal some of Aurora’s scattered snacks and then vanish off into the forest with all of the exhausted comfort of a sprite who thought traveling to the city was a great idea before they realized they had to walk and that the city was dirty, smelly, and full of judgmental people before they made the long return trip to home. All that was left was to find a nice tree to appropriate as a bed.

Kasty was indeed home. After a week straight of running around the city every night, he was both far overdue on his sleep and very behind on classwork, and so today had been spent sleeping and tonight hunched over a history textbook and working his way through a tub of ice cream. He was writing on an essay that wasn't so much due as had been due last week and, as understanding as the professor had been, this was the third such paper he was turning in beyond late and there was only so much the professor could do and Kasty could explain.

The portal was a light startle, but with everything that happened here, he was honestly used to it. What Geata said was... confusing to say the least, but also seemed urgent and so Kasty acted urgently. Thus, though doors were good and all and guest aside, the quickest method downstairs was chosen. If Geata was using his powers, it probably meant it was safe for him to use his. Kasty pulled himself up, grabbed his sword in the corner of his room, and teleported downstairs.

Kasty’s eyes went wide. Of all the people Geata could’ve come back home with, and under what circumstances- He had hoped with his evening he’d be able to just work on history, and instead history had to play a cruel joke of repeating itself.

“What- Again?!” Kasty picked up his pace to a haphazard run that took a couple of steps to get socks to make traction with the hardwood floor. He skidded to a halt beside him (nearly overshooting). He didn’t bother with offering to take Aurora. Geata was clearly hurt, and having an unconscious person’s weight on his back was probably not helping. He simply - and carefully - relieved Geata of her for his own back. Somewhat awkwardly, with the sword in one hand, but he figured Geata wouldn’t care and Aurora couldn’t judge him.

“Is she-” He stopped himself - he was still yelling, and even though the house was empty and a quick glance and listen hinted that no one (who cared) had heard, and a glance back to Aurora showed no signs of her waking, he figured announcing the arrival of the leader of Pandaemonium to a house full of supers was probably a bad call. He lowered his voice to a whisper, albeit a hurried and a fair bit panicked.

“Is she hurt? Are you hurt?” Geata was clearly hurt. He’d been over this. “What the hell happened?”

He glanced again at the woman on his back. He really hoped, for both of their sakes, that this wasn’t going to become a reoccurring theme. Though, if he included himself, this made the third time one of them had helped the unconscious other back to or at the boarding house. It was probably more realistic to hope she wouldn’t be in too bad of a mood whenever she woke up.

“So I’m guessing she’s spending the night.” He sighed. “Whose bed is she taking?”

Kasty’s face flattened tiredly in conjugation with Geata’s change in expression and tone. “Uh huh and long story short Aurora has been here before.” Making one last check that their guest for the evening wasn’t going to fall off his back, he began his way gently up the stairs. So vague was Geata’s explanation that he couldn’t be sure if Aurora really was going to be fine, and so he was going to be careful. He still kept his voice down in talking over his shoulder, but made no such attempts to mask the sarcasm.

“I’m pretty sure if I’m getting dragged out of my nice evening into whatever mess you’ve gotten yourself into, I deserve a proper explanation as to why and how I can expect to be dealing with an angry Aurora sometime between now or maybe morning, depending on the things that have happened to her that you still haven’t told me about, way before I tell you about something only related to the topic at hand in the sense of irony.

“Further,” in coming to the top of the stairs, he began marching - again softly - towards the room designated to Geata, and began speaking almost executively, as though he were reeling off his stock market plan. “If you’re making your business my business, and as your friend, I’m pretty sure you owe me an actual explanation of how and why you’re hurt,” he looked back in an attempt to catch Geata in the eye, “how you really got hurt. And don’t give me smartass answers I know those tricks. I also want to know - with some level of actual detail - what Aurora’s been through and you may or may not have been involved with,” he broke eye contact with a suspiciously raised eyebrow, adjusting Aurora slightly as he came to his destination, “because last I checked, being unconscious is generally a sign that something’s gone seriously wrong with one’s body and we probably need to take care of that something, and you can’t expect me to not want answers after you go and dump on me the unconscious body of my…” He hesitated in front of Geata’s door, his hand on the handle. The corner of his eye went to Aurora. “Friend.” He sighed.

He gave Geata a smile that was about equal part concern and irony. “And I’m not taking ‘no’ for an answer either, Geata, now that you’ve gone and gotten me involved and all worried. I want to hear all the bullshit you really look like you’ve been dragged through tonight, and then I’ll tell you about… the thing I actually wasn’t going to tell anyone about.”

Kasty took this opportunity to push open the door. He’d only promised not to talk about certain parts of the first time Aurora’d been here, but he knew enough about his ability to keep secrets (or lack thereof), that he’d elected to just not talk about the whole thing. That was way safer. But, he’d just done a great job of slipping up, and now he doubted Geata was going to leave him alone about it.

With Geata’s permission already given, Kasty made his way over to the bed and softly set Aurora down on it. She didn’t look outwardly all that injured; she didn’t have any large red spots on her or anything this time, which was a good sign. He hoped Geata’s first statement was correct, and she was unconscious for reasons other than injury. Perhaps alcohol? He didn’t smell any on her or Geata, but it would explain… a lot, actually.

The story was reasonable, in the sense that it was just ridiculous enough that it was exactly the sort of thing supers - Geata especially, it seemed - would get up to, and Aurora would be dragged into. What confirmed it, though, was the mention of Aurora’s aurora coming after them at high-speeds. He remembered it vividly from when he displaced away from the police with Aurora, how great a swarm of angry bull bees the cloud made. Entirely unexpected, and something Kasty doubted Geata would know about unless through personal experience, especially since Aurora didn’t seem to use it often by her own will. ...Unless, again, they were incredibly drunk. Then again, Kasty was more willing to believe the two of them had run into aliens who kicked in Geata’s rib and knocked Aurora out than that he’d managed to get her drunk.

Which meant she probably had just fallen asleep after being tasered. Kasty breathed a sigh of relief. The question of how that had even happened remained, but Geata seemed exhausted, and pressing the guy about all the tiny details seemed unnecessary. Honestly, if Geata hadn’t demanded an explanation from him first, he wouldn’t have pressed any more than to know how hurt he and Aurora were. What mattered was that they were both alright. Or, alright besides a broken rib.

He felt like he should do more, but they probably could just set her up with a room and leave her be until she got around to waking up, in that case. “From what I gather, she’s a ‘ends justify the means’ sort of person, but I somehow doubt she’s going to agree it was for her own good. She’s going to be really angry when she wakes up.” Kasty sighed. But if she was still out only due to exhaustion, getting some sleep was probably for the best.

Gently, so as not to disturb her, though he doubted if she hadn’t woken yet she was going to wake any time soon, Kasty began situating sheets, pillows, and limbs so that there was a little more care put in than just flopping her down on the bed, and so that hopefully she didn’t wake up with any kinks in the morning. He, too, now owed an explanation.

“So, a few months back, I was out and about on my normal business and drew some police attention. They wouldn’t leave me alone and I couldn’t quite shake them, and, while they were right there on my tail, my sword decided that then was the best time to ditch me for warmer waters or something. I wound up in an alleyway, surrounded by police and completely powerless. Aurora was luckily nearby. She’d apparently seen me, and came down to help.”

It was kinda weird to think about, help literally dropping from the sky, but that’s what had happened.

“The police were getting ready to shoot me if I didn’t surrender. When Aurora came, they started to really look like they were going to shoot us.” He paused, standing up from pulling the covers from underneath Aurora, and looked back at Geata with a perplexed expression. “You know, this all happened like the week after I stopped that guy from killing all those police officers.” He shook his head. “Everything else happened really fast. One of them fired a shot, Aurora grabbed me - punched me in the gut, actually, and then slung me over her shoulder -” He grumbled. Most people he would’ve left that part out for, given how it had looked about as indignant as it sounded, but Geata was one of the few, he felt, would understand that pain. “And then, I dunno, a bunch of them fired their guns at once. She blocked several, including some that were headed towards me. We landed in the second floor of one of the neighbouring buildings because she’d been heading up.

“Aurora’d gotten shot.” He pulled the covers over the woman and stepped back from the bed. His gaze drifted to where the bullet had entered, and he found himself frowning. “Took a bullet for me.” He rubbed the back of his head. “She could’ve gotten herself killed over me, and now that I know I can heal myself,” he muttered. Letting out a sigh, he turned to Geata. “The sword came back pretty quick after that, and I got us both out of there. She punched me for it, and told me she was upset about it later, but I did get us a couple blocks away before either the police or us got any more hurt. After that, she was retreating inside, and ended up fainting.” And falling down a flight of stairs, but that he left that out for her sake.

“I didn’t have anywhere else to take her either, so I brought her back here. I’m just glad it’s not anything like a bullet wound this time.” With Aurora almost taken care of and story time over, he waved for Geata to follow him out of the room. His next destination was the kitchen, so he could return with a glass of water, an apple, and maybe a muffin if there were any left. Outside the door, however, he hesitated. “...You’re sure she just got electrocuted, right? And it wasn’t that bad or anything?”

“I guess you’re right.” Kasty sighed. It was a fair point, and Kasty would gladly take the reassurance. Want to harm or not, however, he couldn’t help but worry that maybe they weren’t watching carefully enough and Aurora hit her head on a rock, or she had some disposition to a heart problem that electricity might’ve triggered, or maybe she was shocked a little lot more than intended, and they were going to have a comatose and/or dead Pandaemonium in Geata’s bed. The thought of bringing her to a hospital - just to make sure - crossed his mind, but that had similar problems to why he didn’t see a doctor when he didn’t quite die. That would mean removing her mask, making her look like a normal person, coming up with a convincing lie, and then managing to keep it for the entire time.

“Honestly, I tried to sleep, failed, did homework, and watched youtube.” He admitted. “But she seems like she’s probably going to wake up this time, so I can probably get some sleep.” He raised an eyebrow at Geata. “And you probably should too.” He began walking down the hallway, in the direction of the kitchen.

With the lecture, and all the ‘we should do this’, Kasty was starting to worry he was stepping in Geata’s toes a bit here. This was strange, the ‘taking the initiative’ thing he seemed to be doing right now, and he felt like he was going to bump something and the house was going to go up in flames or something because him making decisions always went about that well, but he had to do something. Oh well, he figured, if he did something too wrong either Geata would tell him or the flames eating the wallpaper would make it good and evident.

“If she wakes up sometime during the night, we’ll probably hear it, so we’re good there.” He mused. “Besides that, I’ve got cards and Smash. And I renewed my netflix, so that too.” He offered. There’d probably not be no shortage of time to kill; they’d better stick around the house until she got around to getting up. Hopefully not to the noise of someone trying to find Geata (or conveniently not find Geata) in his room to be greeted with an angry Aurora instead. At least that’d probably wake them up.

Geata had long since changed out of costume by the time Aurora woke up. He was currently wearing a plain white t-shirt, a pair a multicolored pajama bottoms, and a distinct lack of violet contacts. He kept his mask on all day, though, as he had no clue when she would wake up. When she finally did, his jaw was stiff and sore since it was unaccustomed to the constant pressure, but it was perfectly fine compared to his rib, which had become quite vocal ever since the pain meds wore off. He had considered going and getting some replacements, but he dismissed it for the same reason he hadn't went to get it fixed already; if Aurora were to wake up and he wasn't around, he feared he would have worse to worry about than a cracked rib.

Aurora's yelling came through a torso sized portal that Geata had opened with the wonderful timing of just a few seconds before she awoke. It led to the common room downstairs, where Geata had come to occupy himself with extensive reading into Aurora's journals. So far, his favorites were the hitlist (he had a good laugh telling Kasty about how he had apparently been on it) and the illustration book. He was currently trying to figure out which one he thought was funnier, and therefore his ultimate favorite. The shouts warranted immediate attention, though, so he closed the notebooks and replaced the portal with a larger one that Aurora could easily get through.

"Limen's gone," he said quietly and calmly. "Been gone for around eighteen hours. Your stuff is all where you dropped it, and I'll take you to go get it if you like. Only exceptions are a few notebooks I grabbed. Out of curiosity, the drawings in this one," he accompanied by holding up the particular notebook, "they're the docks, yeah? I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just not entirely sure."

Her mind was still catching up with the rest of her. There was a lot to take in, and she just woke up, so it wasn't that surprising. She still didn't know where she was, and the events of the night before were hazy. There was too much to think about at once, so she could only take Geata's statement one sentence at a time. Her attention to detail was even off because she didn't even notice that his eye color was different, and Blue Jay's presence didn't even register until he said something. It surprised her enough that she nearly jumped. Aurora coughed to regain her composure, though it ended up sounding more like a scoff.

"Figures she'd leave right after fucking electrocuting me. I swear I'm--"

That was when the next sentence registered. Eighteen hours? He was exaggerating right? It didn't sound like it, and eighteen was an odd number to choose for an exaggeration. It wouldn't be that weird either given how long she normally slept when she did sleep. Her words stopped in her throat and the color drained from her face. For a moment, she stood there with her jaw hanging open as though she needed a moment to reboot her brain. There were several implications for this, especially now that the events of last night were starting to filter back into her memory. She hadn't been able to check to make sure her aurora didn't cause too much damage while it flew back towards her. However, the first thing that came to mind was something far more important than even that. Her hands balled into fists and her brow furrowed so much that it looked like the ends might fly off her face.

"GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!" she shouted almost at the top of her lungs as she slammed her fist against the nearest wall. "It wasn't enough to waste my time because I didn't want to do what you wanted me to do, it wasn't enough to literally fucking abduct me and to take me to the middle of nowhere, it wasn't enough to tie me up and use me as a fucking chair, you had to knock me out and make me miss class too? What the HELL is wrong with you?" She started grinding her teeth for a moment before continuing. "School is one of the few things keeping me relaxed and sane, and one of the few things I can do without being scrutinized without feeling like I'm wasting my time and getting irritable because of that. I haven't missed a single day of class since I started college. Not even super fights, getting shot, or fighting off fucking dragons stopped that. And the thing that finally makes me miss a day is..."

She closed her eyes and brought the fist that hit the wall close to her face. It hurt a bit because of how hard she hit the wall, but considering how much her hands had been hurting in general lately it barely registered. Her hands were visibly shaking, she started grinding her teeth again, and it looked like a vein was about to explode in her forehead. That was when his next few sentences registered. Aurora's cheeks started turning red. While the ones she kept on her person weren't as personal as some of her other notes, they still weren't things she wanted people looking through. Her words were slow and enunciated more than usual.

"Put the notebooks on the floor and take me to where the rest of my stuff is. Right. Now. I'm going to need some help getting some of the heavier things off the ground so I can pick them up again. You're going to help me with that too."