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[amicably_absent]

They arrived the day before Wyatt and Jeb left.

Glitch happened to be in the entryway when they came, getting tackled full on by DG before he was quite prepared. He hugged her, listening to her bubble about how well he was looking and her mother had told her he might not even be up.

Then he was being cuddled by Raw as well and pushed forwards a bit and there was the tank, nicely decorated and with a smiley face on the side. He was touching it before he stopped to think, looking at the much smaller portion encased in the much smaller and more portable tank they had moved it in to.

"Mother said we should bring it down with us." DG at least never seemed disgusted by it. Not DG, not Raw, not Cain. Never Cain.

He nodded, taking the tank in his arms and trying to adjust to it.

"Glitch glad to have it back?"

He looked up to Raw and nodded. "Can you-?"

Raw nodded and touched Glitch's face, his other hand coming to rest on the glass.

Glitch jerked, inhaling sharply, head tipping back and then straightening, look out with calm, collected clarity.

"Gli-" DG stopped herself. "Ambrose?"

"Yes, Princess," he asked mildly.

"Do you remember your time as Glitch," she asked.

Ambrose smiled ever so slightly and bitterly. "Enough. But not more than I do at any other point. The memories are misformed in the brain." He shakes his head. "Enough, Raw, please."

"Ambrose? Glitch?" DG was catching his arm even as Raw withdrew. "Are you okay?"

He gave her a tremulous smile. "Yeah, doll face. I'm okay. Just thinkin' a little too clearly for a moment. I think... I need to go and lie down for a bit, 'fore Rennie gets on at me."

"Okay," she murmured, kissing his cheek. "We'll get ourselves settled, say hello to Mister Cain. You go and rest, all right?" She patted his shoulder.

He nodded and headed upstairs to his room with the brief, lasting lucidity of being whole.

Comments

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"How could that possibly be a terrible thing to ask?" He kisses Glitch firmly on the lips, and hurries on out of there in search of Raw.


Within ten minutes there's another knock on Glitch's door, but this time he doesn't wait before showing Raw inside. Right on his tail is DG, wide eyed and worried. But it doesn't take much to convince her that the two of them had better wait outside for a little while. Give Raw some space to work.

"Glitch hurting," Raw nods solemnly as he pulls a chair up to the side of the bed. "Raw can feel it."

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Glitch makes himself more comfortable, trying to ignore the pain until Cain gets back...

With the entire entourage. Of course. But he smiles fondly, catching Raw's hand and laying it against the side of his face. "Yeah, well Glitch can feel it too." He keeps his hand over Raw's as he lets him soothe the pain away.

Raw blinks and looks at Glitch, fingers shifting slightly and then eyes going wide with understanding. "Glitch and Cain..."

"Want Glitch's headache gone."

"Raw understand." He nods sagely and works a bit longer before opening the door to the other two. "Glitch feeling better, but is still keeping jar under blankets."

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DG slips in, running to the bed and taking Glitch's hand. Cain and Raw follows shortly after exchanging looks.

"Why are you hiding your marbles, Glitch?" She asks him quietly.

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"I dunno. Just feels right. Keep them warm." He rubs the jar with the arm curled around it, squeezing DG's hand. "It sounds silly out loud."

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"No, it doesn't. Not at all." Determined, she pulls the spare blanket from the foot of the bed, and lifts up the edge of the covers and the comforter, arranging the bundle neatly, the tank at its core. Glitch wants his marbles warm, he gets help. That's just the way it is.

Cain and Raw exchange looks again, and as one, they go in search of something else, something more.

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"I just don't like the tank. I know it's important, but it's always so cold." He tugs for a moment, dragging DG into the big bed with him and cuddling up to her, the jar and blankets between them.

"Where'd the other two go?"

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She giggles, happily hugging his head and curling up around the tank. "It is cold. But maybe it needs to be, I don't know."

She blinks, scanning the room for her other two favourite people in the world (aside from her family). "No idea.

"How've you been, Glitch? I haven't seen you in quite a while."

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He stays curled up, head being hugged. "I'm good. Except for the day I got confused and threw Rennie in the lake and went and hid because I forgot who she was. But Wyatt came and got me.

"Jeb doesn't like me much, I don't think."

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She smiles, petting his hair, glad to see and feel actual curls rather than dreads. But that isn't the best part. Glitch remembers something, and Cain was only marginally important to the memory. "What makes you say that? He seemed real worried about you."

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"That's because apparently we had a really bad morning yesterday, because the night before something happened that I can't quite remember and when I do Ambrose comes out instead, but he likes me well enough but he doesn't really like me outside of being that guy over there."

Something in there might've made sense.

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"Oookay. Then let's try not to remember, all right?" ... "Hold on, Ambrose comes out? What, like with the tank and Raw?"

~

In another part of the grand mansion, palace, abode, Cain and Raw are making their way back with several blankets each. Plus a surprise or two, on Cain's behalf.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"Kinda. He goes comes out sometimes and it's a bit fuzzy, but he makes sure stuff gets done, like when Cain was naked and he went and got him clothes and even managed to get all of them right, but he can't manage buttons either, he just gets more annoyed about it than me."

He sighs again.

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Imagining Mister Cain naked is like imagining either of her fathers naked, and that's just not gonna happen. She closes her eyes, presses her lips together, and thinks of pulling apart her trusty motorbike back home sweet Otherside.

Not gonna ask. No way. "So he's more organized than you. That's good. Kinda like yin and yang, maybe? You know about that concept? It's about keeping your life balanced; that there should always be a bit of light in the dark, and a bit of shadow in the light." Absent-mindedly, she starts drawing the symbol on the back of Glitch's hand with her index finger. "Matching up different kinds of energies to reach a status quo."

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"He's more. oh, tell a lie. Cain wasn't naked then. Ambrose walked in on him naked in the bathroom later to give him the clothes!" He nods firmly, ducking his heads into DG's cleavage and not really noticing at all.

"We have a similar theory here." He feels her drawing, trying to picture it. He hugs the jar again, softly humming a song.

Two little princesses.

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"I'm still not even gonna think about it, Glitch. He's like, my third father figure in case you hadn't noticed." She never thought she'd have three of them, but Popsicle will always be Popsicle, and Dad is Dad and Mister Cain is Mister Cain. She's happy. Maybe even blessed.

"...spinning fast and freely on their little toes, where the light will take you, no one ever knows."

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"You should. The maids go out and watch him chopping wood from behind the hedges." Glitch can't remember having family. Not parents, not siblings, even if he had them.

He listens for a bit, trying to work out why he knows that song but gives up.

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DG frowns, interjecting in the middle of her singing, "Not. Going. To happen, Glitch."

Two little princesses dancing in a row... Dancing in a row... Dancing in a row...


And then, someone's at the door, which opens almost immediately. First comes Azkadellia, a bundle of blankets and other warm things in her arms, then Raw and Cain (his bundle is rather more modest, but he's also got a hat), and last but not least, Jeb. All of them come to stand around the bed with their armfuls of wanting-to-help.

"I offered to help find something warm for Ambrose, I do hope you don't mind," Azkadellia tells Glitch, while the others start arranging their bundles, following DG's example.

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Jeb lingers near the back... it's safer than setting off that awful loop again, having Glitch freaking out and shouting and frightened.

Raw is much more approachable, happy to help and curl up on feet to stay warm.

Glitch isn't sure what to make of it all, so he ducks his head in against DG and then peeks out with a shy look. "I- no, it's okay. Thanks, all of you."

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"Will you be all right?" Cain asks Glitch. Jeb moves towards the door with a hushed something about seeing where Kalm went.

Azkadellia sits down on the chair already pulled up to the bed, not knowing how to interact with such a close-knit group of friends, but not wanting to give up so easily.

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"Yeah." He tugs Cain to try and get him to curl up behind him on the bed, because having Raw and DG is nice, but he wants Cain there as well.

His fingers press against the warming glass.

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Uncertain of what to do, not as comfortable with going quite as public quite so soon, Wyatt looks from DG's wide blue eyes, to her sister, to Raw...

He locks eyes with Glitch and tells himself that he's among friends. They're among friends, and if anyone has some sort of problem, they're not worth the title. He gives Glitch a small smile, takes his hand, and scoots up behind him almost exactly like when there was just the two of them, and the tank.

DG gives a startled little giggle, whipping her head around to grin at her sister, who looks just as surprised but not at all as sure how to react. But with DG smiling, she can't help but follow her lead.

"What? Like, are you guys...?" she makes a vague little twirly gesture with her hand.


Raw says nothing.

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Glitch settles his head back down in against DG's tummy, pulling Cainn's arm over him and guiltily enjoying the centre of so much love and cuddling right in that moment. He'd needed it badly.

"Are you guys what, highness?"

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

And with Glitch's spirits getting back up where they belong, Wyatt relaxes, smiling against his shoulder and lets his lover call the shots. Sometimes, taking a back seat isn't such a bad thing.

Especially not when being engulfed in excitable princess hugs, and having your ears bombarded by the high pitched voices of both princesses giggling and close to shrieking with joy. The two of them would put a tea pot to shame.

And then the bed starts bouncing because all of a sudden, DG is. "OH MY GOD! I KNEW IT!"

The rest is lost in high pitched girl-speek, and somewhere along the line, Wyatt's laughing, and he can't seem to stop.

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Glitch is completely, and utterly, lost. He's not sure what DG has concluded, but it's making her laugh and shriek and it's making Azkadellia do the same and he hasn't seen her smile without malice in years.

Glitch starts laughing, because it's infectious, but he has no idea what all the happiness and mirth is about.

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Once the girlish glee subsides, and Raw is done grinning silently from his lounging at the food of the bed, and everyone is done laughing, DG deflates and flops over to press a kiss first to Cain's forehead, then to Glitch's (even if it's a pretzel-worthy challenge). "I'm so, so happy for you. Okay?"

"Everybody happy," Raw concludes, and Azkadellia nods in eager agreement, holding her sister's hand.