(no subject)

[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

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"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.

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

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."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"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.

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"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."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"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.

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

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.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

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."

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"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.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"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.

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

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.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

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.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

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.

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

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.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"Happy for me?" He flops back down again, holding the jar but having managed to completely forget it's there.

"About you and Wyatt," he suddenly whispers very softly, maybe softly enough for most people to miss.

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

As it turns out, Wyatt catches it, and Raw senses it more than anything. It's Wyatt that does something about it, which is to say, he does nothing to draw attention to it.

He just laces his fingers with Ambrose, and turns his focus on DG. "Thanks, kid. But, listen, we don't want to make a big thing out of this."

"But it is a big thing!" DG protests, and Raw cuts in by poking her foot softly.

"Is a big thing, for us," he intones quietly. He gestures at the lot of them. "But not our thing. Their thing, their decision."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

He gets a squeeze back and cheeky grin that is not Ambrose at all. Apparently he was just coming out to tell Glitch what he was missing.

"Oh well, you know, there's only so many times you can perv on a guy before you're honour bound to make an honest man of him," Glitch giggles out.

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

Wyatt grins back, relieved despite himself that it was a brief visit. Brief, sure. Disconcerting, oh yes indeed.

"You're not a pervert, you're a scientist. Big difference." He tilts his head, asking without words if a kiss is out of the question. It's all in the eyes, and the way he glances at Glitch's lips.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Glitch looks back at him, slightly confused and the answer so obviously sitting just out of his reach. He can see it, but he doesn't know what it is. "Science... Observations..."

He tips his head up, inviting said kiss.

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

The girls are sighing even before their lips meet, and, being the gentleman he is, Cain winks at them, picks up his hat from the edge of the pile, and uses it as a shield from prying eyes.

Then, to the dismay of their two biggest supporters, he gives Glitch a kiss worth waiting for.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

How good is evident in the way Glitch lets go of the jar with a giggle and wraps both arms around Cain's neck to return the kiss.

Then breaks the kiss and steals Cain's hat, putting it on. "Mine."

[spoonfulofwit.livejournal.com]

The next time the door opens, it's by tiny little hands clad in fur-like, fingerless gloves. Jeb found Kalm, and the two of them volunteered to make a raid of the kitchen for something to eat. Kalm's hungry, Jeb wanted to help (and sort of put himself together better for proper socializing with Dad's friends). It was an easy decision to make.

Kalm holds the door open, beaming like a little beaming beacon of a fluffy thing, and waves at the mass of people on and beside the bed. Jeb comes in, none too gracefully manhandling the biggest tray he could find through the door.

"We brought coffee and sandwiches."

"And chocolate!" Kalm adds, triumphantly, closing the door behind his newfound friend. "And cheese!"

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"OH MY GOD YOU'RE ADORABLE!" Glitch is off the bed, out from hugs and pouncing on Kalm, sweeping him up, ruffling all his furry hair with long fingers. "Can I keep you?"

Raw is trying not to chuckle.

[spoonfulofwit.livejournal.com]

It's down to shock and shock alone that Kalm doesn't slip and slide and zip his way to under the bed before being swept off his feet in the most literal sense. Shock, and wondering just what is up with people. He glances at Raw, frowning when there's no help forthcoming, so turns his big eyes on Glitch. "I'm Viewer. Viewers keep Viewers. Sorry."

Jeb smiles, trying to hide a grin, glancing at Raw. Kalm is sort of adorable. "Gather round everyone, it's chow time." He starts pouring coffee for the ones he knows wants it (meaning him and his father). "Who wants cocoa?"