[ the only answer given now is the dondondondondon of approaching footsteps a moment later, heralding the door bursting open. ]
I. Have arrived. [ a little flushed of face, breathless, and currently donning a cabaret bunny outfit of generous cut and fluffy tail, fuzzy ears bobbing undeterred by his apparent dead sprint through the base. ]
Okay... I guess we'll just have to do it like this, then...
[ This is so embarrassing - and here he thought it would be cute... Yuji steps around, going to grab a small box from the bed. When he hands it over, he smiles softly. Inside are a pair of matching rings, the stones the same colour: blood red. ]
[ sorry yuji, it's not his fault technology doesn't like him (or likes him too much?)
it takes him a moment to actually take the box, and another to open it: it is a gift from yuji, after all, so choso must accept it properly, must turn it over and over in his hands with an expression of slowly-dawning amazement and, yes, a gentle joy. not even the bunny ears can detract from how choso's eyes sort of light up. ]
They are fascinating. What are they for?
[ asked as he picks one up, holding it up to the room's light. flowing red scale stretches out the mark on choso's face as he takes a Real Good Look at it. (who needs a loupe when you've got fancy blood?) ]
[ One day, his brother might chill out and be a little less weird, but until then...
Yuji reaches and takes out the other ring, smiling softly. ]
They're tracker rings, so we can find each other. I know you can find out where I am because of my blood or whatever it is, but I can't do the same, and if you were in trouble...
[ it is... touching. it touches choso in a way he can't quantify, a feather-light brush over some raw thing inside of him that rather than flinching away from, he lets wash over him, envelop him, possess him.
And it is warm.
He lays the box aside to better handle his own ring, lets the wink of the stone in the light hold his gaze as he tries it on each finger in turn. Which would it fit? Which one felt best? Important questions. It would live on the digit he decided on, after all: this was a gift from Yuji. This was Yuji's precious connection to Choso. ]
I will never part with it. [ Simple, iron conviction: he really won't. Ever. ]
[ A hard breath sucked in. To think, Yuji wanting this connection for safety, showing how he cared in such broad and bold strokes, always thinking of others, always so considerate...!
how did choso get so lucky with such a wonderfulperfectamazing little brother?
for no reason in particular, choso puts his right hand up over his eyes with a huff and a puff of air.
The red stone glints from its home on his ring finger. ]
[ He should've known this was coming, huh... For all that Yuji is a little exasperated, he can't help but find it wholly endearing as well, shaking his head as he reaches out to tug his brother into his arms.
A little weird, since he's dressed the way he is, but...
Squeezing his arms around him, he presses his face against Choso with a soft sigh. ]
You're welcome, okay? I'll wear mine a lot too, so you can help find me - but, oh! Wait, there's -
[ Leaning back, he tries to tug Choso's hand away. ]
The rings have another feature. You can feel emotions, too.
[ the hand comes away easily, revealing choso’s face with his pink cheeks and wet, reddened eyes, but he seems less concerned about how he looks (bunny ears and all) now and more with what yuji’s trying to show him, blinking at the ring first before turning curious, weepy eyes on his brother. ]
Emotions? As in… can you feel this, too?
[ can yuji feel it? choso’s fondness, his love, this intensity that wends through his bones like steel cable? ]
[ the cock of his head sets the ears bobbing crookedly, inquisitively, even.
sometimes, looking at yuji was like (so he surmises, having never been) peering into the ocean deeps. what unknowable titans lay beyond the surface light? what debris transformed the landscape of yuji’s incandescent soul into the tormented thing it is now? ]
The first rolling emotions are fairly simple: there's bubbling affection, rolling through Yuji like a blanket around his shoulders, curling and holding him - that's obvious. His love for Choso is there, a bubbling warmth, not quite as extreme as perhaps Choso's is in return, but it's getting there, like a flower in Spring: growing, waiting to bloom in summer.
Happiness comes twinned with it, the comfort of knowing his brother has accepted the ring, wants to be taken care of, wants to be around Yuji, as well as that sheepish little embarrassment of his brother in a strange rabbit outfit.
Further than that, though, below it, like a gaping hole in Yuji's core, is grief.
The sadness is like an anchor, immovable and too large to lift, even for someone as strong as Yuji. It's a tsunami, a tidal wave, pressing and pressing and pressing down until it could make you break under the power of it. It's like a monster with too many arms, reaching out and poisoning everything else around it; as if no matter how happy Yuji is, what joy he feels, it'll be curdled and damaged by this vile, twisted thing.
(Sadness echoes from it, guilt, pain, each one its own limb on this fabricated monsters, suffocating, murderous).
Yuji leans back and, after a moment, switches the ring off. ]
[ it strikes choso still, strikes him silent and stupid where he sits that for the seconds that yuji allows him this glimpse, choso spends all of it wide-eyed and staring. he forgets how to blink. how to breathe. his expression, that which had started out measured and calm, drains away like a severed jugular hand in hand with the remaining colour in choso’s face.
yuji’s soul is the ocean deeps and it is teeming with monsters that know choso by name.
(can yuji feel it? the opening of this door that should have never been opened, it admits visitors from both sides. yuji’s grief finds a ghostly reflection in choso’s and a guilt that’s rooted itself into his soul like a choking mat of kudzu: pervasive, persistent, consuming. it snakes higher, flourishes in the sudden calamitous deluge of yuji’s ruinous tide, digs its insidious roots into choso’s dread and burgeoning horror.)
in the long moments after yuji turns off the connection, choso only sits staring at the ring on his hand, dry of eye but with a cold sweat dampening his brow. ]
Watching Choso's reaction... He takes a deep breath and wiggles over, wrapping around his brother like some kind of limpet, sinking into his body and squeezing him gently. ]
[ no matter what, choso must be strong for his brothers.
so he sits up. lets yuji embrace him, lets himself be held and soothed even if every platelet in his body sighs that this is nothing he has earned. a hand lifts to settle at yuji’s side. ]
I know, Yuji.
[ both hands, one on either side, the better to lift the pink lad up mid-hug and deposit him, more conveniently, (and without a single damn thought about it) into choso’s fishnet lap. like this, he can hold tighter, return the squeeze with his cheek squished against yuji’s, offer some sort of assurance without having to show his coward’s face, unable to hide. ]
[ Yuji sinks into the solid weight of Choso, squeezing him gently.
Does his brother know how much Yuji trusts him? Knowing that Choso will witness these events sooner rather than later, trusting him to unburden his heart to him, to offer it all over to him... Breathing out, he lets himself use Choso's strength to keep him up.
He tells Choso more than he tells anyone else. He trusts his brother to help him.
Arms and legs wrap around Choso, more childlike than Yuji would like to admit to, pressing his face into his brother's chest. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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I. Have arrived. [ a little flushed of face, breathless, and currently donning a cabaret bunny outfit of generous cut and fluffy tail, fuzzy ears bobbing undeterred by his apparent dead sprint through the base. ]
1/3
[ Yuji’s reaction is excitement, standing to greet his brother when - ]
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Choso… Who dressed you like that…?
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Eh? No one dressed me.
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There was a download. Something was strange about the installation, but you called first.
[ his priorities are well-sorted. ]
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[ The same thing that made Kugisaki have to hug them all… Groaning, he covers his face. Why is this his brother…?
Why is it also weirdly endearing that Choso ran to him dressed like this? ]
Can you change it yet? You can try and match my outfit if you want.
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[ glancing down at himself, he flexes his hand. it’s strange, to feel one thing but see another. ]
It seems to be in malfunction; the menu is frozen.
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[ This is so embarrassing - and here he thought it would be cute... Yuji steps around, going to grab a small box from the bed. When he hands it over, he smiles softly. Inside are a pair of matching rings, the stones the same colour: blood red. ]
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it takes him a moment to actually take the box, and another to open it: it is a gift from yuji, after all, so choso must accept it properly, must turn it over and over in his hands with an expression of slowly-dawning amazement and, yes, a gentle joy. not even the bunny ears can detract from how choso's eyes sort of light up. ]
They are fascinating. What are they for?
[ asked as he picks one up, holding it up to the room's light. flowing red scale stretches out the mark on choso's face as he takes a Real Good Look at it. (who needs a loupe when you've got fancy blood?) ]
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Yuji reaches and takes out the other ring, smiling softly. ]
They're tracker rings, so we can find each other. I know you can find out where I am because of my blood or whatever it is, but I can't do the same, and if you were in trouble...
[ He shifts, awkwardly. ]
I'd like to be able to find you.
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And it is warm.
He lays the box aside to better handle his own ring, lets the wink of the stone in the light hold his gaze as he tries it on each finger in turn. Which would it fit? Which one felt best? Important questions. It would live on the digit he decided on, after all: this was a gift from Yuji. This was Yuji's precious connection to Choso. ]
I will never part with it. [ Simple, iron conviction: he really won't. Ever. ]
Thank you, Yuji.
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how did choso get so lucky with such a wonderfulperfectamazing little brother?
for no reason in particular, choso puts his right hand up over his eyes with a huff and a puff of air.
The red stone glints from its home on his ring finger. ]
Thagg hyuuuuuh.
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[ He should've known this was coming, huh... For all that Yuji is a little exasperated, he can't help but find it wholly endearing as well, shaking his head as he reaches out to tug his brother into his arms.
A little weird, since he's dressed the way he is, but...
Squeezing his arms around him, he presses his face against Choso with a soft sigh. ]
You're welcome, okay? I'll wear mine a lot too, so you can help find me - but, oh! Wait, there's -
[ Leaning back, he tries to tug Choso's hand away. ]
The rings have another feature. You can feel emotions, too.
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Emotions? As in… can you feel this, too?
[ can yuji feel it? choso’s fondness, his love, this intensity that wends through his bones like steel cable? ]
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If we turn that function on, yeah.
[ It's not on all the time, thankfully. ]
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Do you want it on?
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... I don't think you want to feel this, Choso.
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sometimes, looking at yuji was like (so he surmises, having never been) peering into the ocean deeps. what unknowable titans lay beyond the surface light? what debris transformed the landscape of yuji’s incandescent soul into the tormented thing it is now? ]
I wish to. Of course I wish to.
[ like there was ever any question about it. ]
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Okay. But I'll turn it off soon, 'kay?
[ Yuji twists the ring and... There.
The first rolling emotions are fairly simple: there's bubbling affection, rolling through Yuji like a blanket around his shoulders, curling and holding him - that's obvious. His love for Choso is there, a bubbling warmth, not quite as extreme as perhaps Choso's is in return, but it's getting there, like a flower in Spring: growing, waiting to bloom in summer.
Happiness comes twinned with it, the comfort of knowing his brother has accepted the ring, wants to be taken care of, wants to be around Yuji, as well as that sheepish little embarrassment of his brother in a strange rabbit outfit.
Further than that, though, below it, like a gaping hole in Yuji's core, is grief.
The sadness is like an anchor, immovable and too large to lift, even for someone as strong as Yuji. It's a tsunami, a tidal wave, pressing and pressing and pressing down until it could make you break under the power of it. It's like a monster with too many arms, reaching out and poisoning everything else around it; as if no matter how happy Yuji is, what joy he feels, it'll be curdled and damaged by this vile, twisted thing.
(Sadness echoes from it, guilt, pain, each one its own limb on this fabricated monsters, suffocating, murderous).
Yuji leans back and, after a moment, switches the ring off. ]
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yuji’s soul is the ocean deeps and it is teeming with monsters that know choso by name.
(can yuji feel it? the opening of this door that should have never been opened, it admits visitors from both sides. yuji’s grief finds a ghostly reflection in choso’s and a guilt that’s rooted itself into his soul like a choking mat of kudzu: pervasive, persistent, consuming. it snakes higher, flourishes in the sudden calamitous deluge of yuji’s ruinous tide, digs its insidious roots into choso’s dread and burgeoning horror.)
in the long moments after yuji turns off the connection, choso only sits staring at the ring on his hand, dry of eye but with a cold sweat dampening his brow. ]
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Watching Choso's reaction... He takes a deep breath and wiggles over, wrapping around his brother like some kind of limpet, sinking into his body and squeezing him gently. ]
... Onii-chan, I'm here. It's okay.
[ A rare gift for a rare moment. ]
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so he sits up. lets yuji embrace him, lets himself be held and soothed even if every platelet in his body sighs that this is nothing he has earned. a hand lifts to settle at yuji’s side. ]
I know, Yuji.
[ both hands, one on either side, the better to lift the pink lad up mid-hug and deposit him, more conveniently, (and without a single damn thought about it) into choso’s fishnet lap. like this, he can hold tighter, return the squeeze with his cheek squished against yuji’s, offer some sort of assurance without having to show his coward’s face, unable to hide. ]
Thank you for showing me.
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Does his brother know how much Yuji trusts him? Knowing that Choso will witness these events sooner rather than later, trusting him to unburden his heart to him, to offer it all over to him... Breathing out, he lets himself use Choso's strength to keep him up.
He tells Choso more than he tells anyone else. He trusts his brother to help him.
Arms and legs wrap around Choso, more childlike than Yuji would like to admit to, pressing his face into his brother's chest. ]
Thank you. For listening.
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