Road Kamelot (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dreamsofnoah) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
tampered2008-12-26 12:06 am
dreamsofnoah) wrote in tampered2008-12-26 12:06 am
Log; Complete
When; Late on Christmas day
Rating; PG
Characters; Tyki Mikk [![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
onlyteasing] and Road Camelot [dreamsofnoah]
Summary; After this, Tyki goes to bring Road back home in time for a (very) late Christmas.
Log;
Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Waiting. There wasn’t even enough room to bang her head against the wall in time with her thoughts. Road was beyond screaming or scratching at her prison, she’d already done all that through the past few days, anything to relieve the tedious passing of time.
The dark didn’t bother her, she’d seen darker in her dreams, but she wasn’t patient at the best of times and this was just. Too. Damn. Much. She’d lost herself in thinking, in remembering things a few times, only snapping out of it after minutes or hours or days, she didn’t know how long, and she didn’t care. The hatred that always fueled her, one of the legacies of Noah, had flared and burnt and condensed itself into a bright, still, seething spark.
And now she was just calm, and waiting, because she’d finally broken through enough to let Tyki know where she was, and she knew he would be there soon. He had to be.
By the time the last word died, Tyki had already gone. He didn't bother with stairs. Instead, he slipped from floor to earth in a heartbeat, following the directions he'd been given with a sort of absent precision. From there, he rejected everything that wasn't air and kept walking. It wasn't hard - he'd spent most of the past week wandering tediously, imprinting every inch of this city to memory in his search for a girl he'd known from the beginning probably couldn't be found. Not as if he were searching for a human, at least.
Now, more than ever, he was aware of his thoughts, of considering and discarding tortures one after another with the clear ease of a dealer shuffling cards. Usually, most of his pleasure stemmed from making his opponents react, seeing their pain and feeling Noah's vicious, ancient grudge rise to meet it. This time, the pleasure would lie in making them understand.
They could kill them or they could surrender, but these in-between measures - these pretenses that "out of sight, out of mind" could make for anything like real peace - were out of the question.
Even from underground, her prison was easier to find than he might have thought. Stopping at the wall, Tyki glanced up and about. His hands curled. Then he reached out. Without hesitation, his fingers passed through, shortly followed by head and half a shoulder.
"Road," he said.
Finally, she wanted to say, or what took you so long, or even just Hi, Tyki! but she kept quiet for once, reaching out to grab hold of him. If anything showed that there was something wrong, it was the bright, normal smile on her face, the calm in lieu of a tantrum.
Because Road would usually fuss and be noisy, clamouring for attention, it was part of who she was, who she pretended to be, only being still in rare moments of complete contentment, or like now, when she was far past being content with just her normal games.
“Let’s go home, Tyki.”
And there’s an unfathomable look in the golden eyes above that sweet smile, something that more than hinted at Road’s true nature, at what she was truly capable of. Not a look aimed at Tyki, of course, even if he was bearing the brunt of it right now. Her grip tightened a bit more, not really clinging but because family shouldn’t be separated.
Especially not the Noah family.
Braced for the storm, this stricken silence took him utterly by surprise. His arms went around her automatically, and he let her settle before he started to walk. As before, the barrier offered no resistance, though Tyki glanced at it thoughtfully as he strode through. Not Innocence, but something else entirely - something that could still bind the Noah, though it had no part in their world's fight. He'd have to find out more about those seals later. But that was only a fleeting note in passing; the majority of his attention rested on Road.
Road, still calm as they rose through the earth and into the snow and darkness. Her very quiet was so alien as to be stifling.
"We'll have to hurry," he remarked, almost off-handed - except for the way it wasn't. The occasional lamp threw his shadow before him like a path. Still, he didn't quicken his pace, even with snow unraveling in idle flakes from the sky. "Devit and Jasdero are probably tearing the place down by now."
He didn't ask for names or causes. Road wasn't the sort to keep it separated from the rest of the family, and so the fact that she hadn't spoken of who or what or revenge meant that there was a larger game to consider. And Tyki could wait for that.
It felt like ages since there’d been anything beyond that constricting prison. And now there was light, albeit faded, and the cold, one arm reaching out to snag a snowflake while the other still held tight to Tyki. She brought her hand up close to her face to study the flake as it slowly melted away, trickling down into nothing as Tyki carried her closer to home.
The mention of the twins was the first thing that snapped Road out of her passiveness. Her lips pressed tighter together before pulling up into a cruelly sharp smile.
“Jasdevi’s here?” A rhetorical question, obviously, because if Tyki said they were here then they were. More telling than that was her use of their joint name. Because Devit and Jasdero were playmates, her brothers who were amusing and annoying in turn, but Jasdevi was the same and more, their true Noah form, and right now Road was far more interested in having another Noah in her plans than in mere playmates.
Her hold on Tyki was gentler now, less automatic. “That’s good.” Not that the twins might be destroying the apartment, of course, not that she cared about that. But she knew Tyki understood what she meant.
“I think we’ll have a little~ family chat once we’re back.” She wrinkled her nose as she looked down at herself. “After I’ve changed.” And slept, and eaten, because it was only now that she was out that she was paying any attention to the state she was in, not that she really needed any of it, but she was too used to being pampered and comfortable to stop now.
At least, she was talking again. Acting normal. Even if that’s all it ever was, an act.
"A short while ago. Along with another member of the Black Order. They do seem to be coming quickly now." There was amusement in his tone, with the barest inflection of disdain that meant the latter wasn't an Exorcist, wasn't anyone important. Just another target, and that was good enough. There were other matters at hand anyway.
A meeting with no Duke to assemble them would feel strange, to say the least. And certainly the Millennium Earl could hardly have predicted this in his elaborate plan, a City that would tear them out of their own world and trap them in a place where the Exorcists hid behind angels and seals and thought that they were safe--
"We are overdue for one, aren't we?" He spoke mildly, voice pitched low, but the words still rang sharp enough to cut. Really, he'd been very idle for the past several months. Enjoying the leisure time - but they were past that now. Fortunately, they had plenty of time to make up for that oversight.
Slowly, slowly, unfamiliar paths wove into familiar streets. They'd made good time - nearly in sight of the apartment building already.
And then the rest of her words caught up with him. "After you change? ... Ah." By reflex, Tyki glanced up. Snow was still falling, heavier with every passing minute. A storm was closing in. "I suppose I should mention that I needed to pay some bills while you were gone."
Not that he'd ever use her dresses to pay, because his lungs had yet to fail him and Tyki had always supposed that he might as well return the favor and not have them painfully constricted by a little girl. But it was an ordinary sort of distraction. It would do.
Another member of the Black Order. Something to note, even if Tyki’s dismissive tone meant it wasn’t anyone fun. Still, it wasn’t that important. Not that Road was considering leaving the Exorcists alone, not at all, but for now they weren’t the only ones on her mind. Not by far…
“Mm~, we are. And one and one and two makes three, which might not be everyone but it’s more than enough.” This might not be part of the Duke’s scenario, but it had gone past being just a happy little vacation for them. It might not be their world, meant for destruction, but since when had something like that ever been enough to stop them? Humans were humans, no matter where they were from, and there was only one thing any of them deserved. Especially those who were stupid enough to try and cheat when playing with a Noah.
She shivered a little as the snowfall increased, exaggerating the motion, looking up at Tyki beseechingly. “Faster, Tyki. We’re almost there.”
And she aimed a mock punch at his shoulder at his insinuation that he’d gotten rid of her dresses, even as she gave an unladylike little snort at the idea that he’d ever really do anything like that. “You wouldn’t dare, Tyki! Sell your own things first!” She knew what he was trying to do, and appreciated it, really, even if it wasn’t quite enough to make things okay. But it was a start.
"Don't you have more in that closet of yours?" Tyki remarked, though he took the punch dourly. "Besides, you could always have Jasdevi make more for you." Still, it was getting cold - but that didn't matter now. They were already there. Together, they passed through the doors and into the building foyer, where he set her down. The cold dispersed easily as he strode on, almost as though it was being rejected from the atmosphere.
The apartment hadn't changed much in her absence. Even the arrival of more Noah had made hardly a dent in the surroundings. There were, of course, a few larger changes: a miniature fir set out in the middle of the floor, easy to spot from the moment they entered the room. He'd even carried it a little further - underneath, there rested a tiny wrapped present which, if she should inspect it, would turn out to be nothing more than a packet of cigarettes. It was wilting a little, Tyki noticed - weren't those trees supposed to be able to cope with a little stress? Ah, well. He hadn't really been in the mood for plant care in the past few days.
Fortunately, there was a larger tree too - tucked away in the corner and nearly out of sight from the door. A proper Christmas tree, as Road had demanded.
He hadn't gotten around to finding an Exorcist to plant on it yet, but it was still a nice tree, for all of that.
Road ignored his first comment – having more didn’t mean she was ready to give up any of those she had. “…ask the twins to make me more dresses? Tyki, you’ve seen what they wear, haven’t you?” She could imagine the kind of dresses those two would come up with.
She kept hold of his hand after he’d put her down and tugged at it a bit happily as she saw the additions to the apartment. “Ooh, you remembered!” She looked at the tiny present for a second (yes, Tyki, she recognized the shape of the box) and then at the larger tree. “We need to move that to the middle of the room, Tyki. Wait here!”
A quick dash into her room, and the sound of a few bumps and crashes – don’t ask why she felt she had to hide everything away in there - , and she came out with her arms full of brightly wrapped boxes, since she’d been getting presents for the both of them for weeks before Christmas. She dropped them on the floor around the smaller tree, fully intending to make Tyki switch both trees around.
“There. And don’t think I won’t want my presents too later!” She tapped a finger against her mouth in thought. “Hmm. I guess Devit and Jasdero can have the wrapping paper, since they got here so late. It’s shiny enough.” Road looked rather amused at the notion – it was going to be more fun now that she had more family members to tease.
She yawned a bit then, and stretched out her arms towards Tyki. “Tuck me in. And we’ll decorate the tree and open the presents together when I wake up. And then we’ll have that chat.” Because she might be feeling better now, but that doesn’t mean she’d in any way forgotten.
"They might suit you," Tyki suggested, though there was no real force behind the thought. He suspected that his brother would burst into tears if Road should ever move on from lace - not that Cyril didn't do so on a regular basis already. Particularly to fishnets - many things were suspicious about Devit, and the way he dressed was the most prominent of those.
He stood at the door, one hand against the doorway as he slid off his shoes - less a necessary gesture than a simple, delaying tactic to give Road time for whatever reason she'd run into the other room. She was behaving as if she'd been distracted, and he was behaving as if it didn't matter; it was a pretense, but good enough for her return. These sorts of holidays were meant to be for family, after all. At her reappearance, he felt his mouth curl into a helpless sort of smile. Road did get so absurdly enthusiastic over things like this. Even so, Tyki took care to look quizzically surprised. "Your presents?" A beat, a glance at the tiny "gift" on the floor before he recovered. "Well. That can wait until you wake up. You can give the wrapping paper to them personally."
Acknowledging the cue after a pause - well, it had always been Cyril's task; Tyki wasn't quite as quick and eager when it came to this sort of thing - he gathered her up again, arms slack and comfortable around her as they headed towards the bedroom. Once they were in the room, he dropped her on the bed, because there was a difference between keeping Road amused and letting her have it all her own way. "Sleep well," he said. Dreams, of course, went without saying. "Merry Christmas, Road."
The words were only a little ironic.
“Uh huh!” was all she said, ignoring his little charade of looking pointedly at the tiny box. She definitely didn’t believe that that was all he’d got her, whether because of a childish belief that she had to have presents on Christmas, or, more likely, because she knew Tyki would find getting her presents much easier than facing the ensuing tantrum if he didn’t. “The sooner I sleep the sooner I’ll be up. The sooner we can have our Christmas.” Because if Christmas had to be postponed just for her, then so be it.
She squealed a little and swatted at him as he dropped her unceremoniously on the bed instead of tucking her in properly, but she wasn’t too surprised, knowing quite well the difference between being looked after by him and by Cyril. Kicking off her shoes and burrowing under the sheets, dirty clothes and all – there’d be time enough to take care of those later – she was already nodding off once her head hit the pillow. “Mm, stay with me till I fall asleep.” Half closed eyes looked up at him as she made herself more comfortable, one arm tucked under the pillow and her other hand curled up next to her cheek, peeking out from under the pink sheets.
And then, mumbled just before her eyes closed and she fell asleep. “Merry Christmas to you too, Tyki.”
Rating; PG
Characters; Tyki Mikk [
onlyteasing] and Road Camelot [dreamsofnoah] Summary; After this, Tyki goes to bring Road back home in time for a (very) late Christmas.
Log;
Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Waiting. There wasn’t even enough room to bang her head against the wall in time with her thoughts. Road was beyond screaming or scratching at her prison, she’d already done all that through the past few days, anything to relieve the tedious passing of time.
The dark didn’t bother her, she’d seen darker in her dreams, but she wasn’t patient at the best of times and this was just. Too. Damn. Much. She’d lost herself in thinking, in remembering things a few times, only snapping out of it after minutes or hours or days, she didn’t know how long, and she didn’t care. The hatred that always fueled her, one of the legacies of Noah, had flared and burnt and condensed itself into a bright, still, seething spark.
And now she was just calm, and waiting, because she’d finally broken through enough to let Tyki know where she was, and she knew he would be there soon. He had to be.
By the time the last word died, Tyki had already gone. He didn't bother with stairs. Instead, he slipped from floor to earth in a heartbeat, following the directions he'd been given with a sort of absent precision. From there, he rejected everything that wasn't air and kept walking. It wasn't hard - he'd spent most of the past week wandering tediously, imprinting every inch of this city to memory in his search for a girl he'd known from the beginning probably couldn't be found. Not as if he were searching for a human, at least.
Now, more than ever, he was aware of his thoughts, of considering and discarding tortures one after another with the clear ease of a dealer shuffling cards. Usually, most of his pleasure stemmed from making his opponents react, seeing their pain and feeling Noah's vicious, ancient grudge rise to meet it. This time, the pleasure would lie in making them understand.
They could kill them or they could surrender, but these in-between measures - these pretenses that "out of sight, out of mind" could make for anything like real peace - were out of the question.
Even from underground, her prison was easier to find than he might have thought. Stopping at the wall, Tyki glanced up and about. His hands curled. Then he reached out. Without hesitation, his fingers passed through, shortly followed by head and half a shoulder.
"Road," he said.
Finally, she wanted to say, or what took you so long, or even just Hi, Tyki! but she kept quiet for once, reaching out to grab hold of him. If anything showed that there was something wrong, it was the bright, normal smile on her face, the calm in lieu of a tantrum.
Because Road would usually fuss and be noisy, clamouring for attention, it was part of who she was, who she pretended to be, only being still in rare moments of complete contentment, or like now, when she was far past being content with just her normal games.
“Let’s go home, Tyki.”
And there’s an unfathomable look in the golden eyes above that sweet smile, something that more than hinted at Road’s true nature, at what she was truly capable of. Not a look aimed at Tyki, of course, even if he was bearing the brunt of it right now. Her grip tightened a bit more, not really clinging but because family shouldn’t be separated.
Especially not the Noah family.
Braced for the storm, this stricken silence took him utterly by surprise. His arms went around her automatically, and he let her settle before he started to walk. As before, the barrier offered no resistance, though Tyki glanced at it thoughtfully as he strode through. Not Innocence, but something else entirely - something that could still bind the Noah, though it had no part in their world's fight. He'd have to find out more about those seals later. But that was only a fleeting note in passing; the majority of his attention rested on Road.
Road, still calm as they rose through the earth and into the snow and darkness. Her very quiet was so alien as to be stifling.
"We'll have to hurry," he remarked, almost off-handed - except for the way it wasn't. The occasional lamp threw his shadow before him like a path. Still, he didn't quicken his pace, even with snow unraveling in idle flakes from the sky. "Devit and Jasdero are probably tearing the place down by now."
He didn't ask for names or causes. Road wasn't the sort to keep it separated from the rest of the family, and so the fact that she hadn't spoken of who or what or revenge meant that there was a larger game to consider. And Tyki could wait for that.
It felt like ages since there’d been anything beyond that constricting prison. And now there was light, albeit faded, and the cold, one arm reaching out to snag a snowflake while the other still held tight to Tyki. She brought her hand up close to her face to study the flake as it slowly melted away, trickling down into nothing as Tyki carried her closer to home.
The mention of the twins was the first thing that snapped Road out of her passiveness. Her lips pressed tighter together before pulling up into a cruelly sharp smile.
“Jasdevi’s here?” A rhetorical question, obviously, because if Tyki said they were here then they were. More telling than that was her use of their joint name. Because Devit and Jasdero were playmates, her brothers who were amusing and annoying in turn, but Jasdevi was the same and more, their true Noah form, and right now Road was far more interested in having another Noah in her plans than in mere playmates.
Her hold on Tyki was gentler now, less automatic. “That’s good.” Not that the twins might be destroying the apartment, of course, not that she cared about that. But she knew Tyki understood what she meant.
“I think we’ll have a little~ family chat once we’re back.” She wrinkled her nose as she looked down at herself. “After I’ve changed.” And slept, and eaten, because it was only now that she was out that she was paying any attention to the state she was in, not that she really needed any of it, but she was too used to being pampered and comfortable to stop now.
At least, she was talking again. Acting normal. Even if that’s all it ever was, an act.
"A short while ago. Along with another member of the Black Order. They do seem to be coming quickly now." There was amusement in his tone, with the barest inflection of disdain that meant the latter wasn't an Exorcist, wasn't anyone important. Just another target, and that was good enough. There were other matters at hand anyway.
A meeting with no Duke to assemble them would feel strange, to say the least. And certainly the Millennium Earl could hardly have predicted this in his elaborate plan, a City that would tear them out of their own world and trap them in a place where the Exorcists hid behind angels and seals and thought that they were safe--
"We are overdue for one, aren't we?" He spoke mildly, voice pitched low, but the words still rang sharp enough to cut. Really, he'd been very idle for the past several months. Enjoying the leisure time - but they were past that now. Fortunately, they had plenty of time to make up for that oversight.
Slowly, slowly, unfamiliar paths wove into familiar streets. They'd made good time - nearly in sight of the apartment building already.
And then the rest of her words caught up with him. "After you change? ... Ah." By reflex, Tyki glanced up. Snow was still falling, heavier with every passing minute. A storm was closing in. "I suppose I should mention that I needed to pay some bills while you were gone."
Not that he'd ever use her dresses to pay, because his lungs had yet to fail him and Tyki had always supposed that he might as well return the favor and not have them painfully constricted by a little girl. But it was an ordinary sort of distraction. It would do.
Another member of the Black Order. Something to note, even if Tyki’s dismissive tone meant it wasn’t anyone fun. Still, it wasn’t that important. Not that Road was considering leaving the Exorcists alone, not at all, but for now they weren’t the only ones on her mind. Not by far…
“Mm~, we are. And one and one and two makes three, which might not be everyone but it’s more than enough.” This might not be part of the Duke’s scenario, but it had gone past being just a happy little vacation for them. It might not be their world, meant for destruction, but since when had something like that ever been enough to stop them? Humans were humans, no matter where they were from, and there was only one thing any of them deserved. Especially those who were stupid enough to try and cheat when playing with a Noah.
She shivered a little as the snowfall increased, exaggerating the motion, looking up at Tyki beseechingly. “Faster, Tyki. We’re almost there.”
And she aimed a mock punch at his shoulder at his insinuation that he’d gotten rid of her dresses, even as she gave an unladylike little snort at the idea that he’d ever really do anything like that. “You wouldn’t dare, Tyki! Sell your own things first!” She knew what he was trying to do, and appreciated it, really, even if it wasn’t quite enough to make things okay. But it was a start.
"Don't you have more in that closet of yours?" Tyki remarked, though he took the punch dourly. "Besides, you could always have Jasdevi make more for you." Still, it was getting cold - but that didn't matter now. They were already there. Together, they passed through the doors and into the building foyer, where he set her down. The cold dispersed easily as he strode on, almost as though it was being rejected from the atmosphere.
The apartment hadn't changed much in her absence. Even the arrival of more Noah had made hardly a dent in the surroundings. There were, of course, a few larger changes: a miniature fir set out in the middle of the floor, easy to spot from the moment they entered the room. He'd even carried it a little further - underneath, there rested a tiny wrapped present which, if she should inspect it, would turn out to be nothing more than a packet of cigarettes. It was wilting a little, Tyki noticed - weren't those trees supposed to be able to cope with a little stress? Ah, well. He hadn't really been in the mood for plant care in the past few days.
Fortunately, there was a larger tree too - tucked away in the corner and nearly out of sight from the door. A proper Christmas tree, as Road had demanded.
He hadn't gotten around to finding an Exorcist to plant on it yet, but it was still a nice tree, for all of that.
Road ignored his first comment – having more didn’t mean she was ready to give up any of those she had. “…ask the twins to make me more dresses? Tyki, you’ve seen what they wear, haven’t you?” She could imagine the kind of dresses those two would come up with.
She kept hold of his hand after he’d put her down and tugged at it a bit happily as she saw the additions to the apartment. “Ooh, you remembered!” She looked at the tiny present for a second (yes, Tyki, she recognized the shape of the box) and then at the larger tree. “We need to move that to the middle of the room, Tyki. Wait here!”
A quick dash into her room, and the sound of a few bumps and crashes – don’t ask why she felt she had to hide everything away in there - , and she came out with her arms full of brightly wrapped boxes, since she’d been getting presents for the both of them for weeks before Christmas. She dropped them on the floor around the smaller tree, fully intending to make Tyki switch both trees around.
“There. And don’t think I won’t want my presents too later!” She tapped a finger against her mouth in thought. “Hmm. I guess Devit and Jasdero can have the wrapping paper, since they got here so late. It’s shiny enough.” Road looked rather amused at the notion – it was going to be more fun now that she had more family members to tease.
She yawned a bit then, and stretched out her arms towards Tyki. “Tuck me in. And we’ll decorate the tree and open the presents together when I wake up. And then we’ll have that chat.” Because she might be feeling better now, but that doesn’t mean she’d in any way forgotten.
"They might suit you," Tyki suggested, though there was no real force behind the thought. He suspected that his brother would burst into tears if Road should ever move on from lace - not that Cyril didn't do so on a regular basis already. Particularly to fishnets - many things were suspicious about Devit, and the way he dressed was the most prominent of those.
He stood at the door, one hand against the doorway as he slid off his shoes - less a necessary gesture than a simple, delaying tactic to give Road time for whatever reason she'd run into the other room. She was behaving as if she'd been distracted, and he was behaving as if it didn't matter; it was a pretense, but good enough for her return. These sorts of holidays were meant to be for family, after all. At her reappearance, he felt his mouth curl into a helpless sort of smile. Road did get so absurdly enthusiastic over things like this. Even so, Tyki took care to look quizzically surprised. "Your presents?" A beat, a glance at the tiny "gift" on the floor before he recovered. "Well. That can wait until you wake up. You can give the wrapping paper to them personally."
Acknowledging the cue after a pause - well, it had always been Cyril's task; Tyki wasn't quite as quick and eager when it came to this sort of thing - he gathered her up again, arms slack and comfortable around her as they headed towards the bedroom. Once they were in the room, he dropped her on the bed, because there was a difference between keeping Road amused and letting her have it all her own way. "Sleep well," he said. Dreams, of course, went without saying. "Merry Christmas, Road."
The words were only a little ironic.
“Uh huh!” was all she said, ignoring his little charade of looking pointedly at the tiny box. She definitely didn’t believe that that was all he’d got her, whether because of a childish belief that she had to have presents on Christmas, or, more likely, because she knew Tyki would find getting her presents much easier than facing the ensuing tantrum if he didn’t. “The sooner I sleep the sooner I’ll be up. The sooner we can have our Christmas.” Because if Christmas had to be postponed just for her, then so be it.
She squealed a little and swatted at him as he dropped her unceremoniously on the bed instead of tucking her in properly, but she wasn’t too surprised, knowing quite well the difference between being looked after by him and by Cyril. Kicking off her shoes and burrowing under the sheets, dirty clothes and all – there’d be time enough to take care of those later – she was already nodding off once her head hit the pillow. “Mm, stay with me till I fall asleep.” Half closed eyes looked up at him as she made herself more comfortable, one arm tucked under the pillow and her other hand curled up next to her cheek, peeking out from under the pink sheets.
And then, mumbled just before her eyes closed and she fell asleep. “Merry Christmas to you too, Tyki.”