Fandom [CLOSED] Tokyo Ghoul: Dead Enmity

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woohoo! adrian has been FED


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Lee's teeth had been set on edge and his jaws clamped tightly together, but instead of protesting against Claire having thrown the trio's meal to a stranger, the man simply sat and watched from the corners of his narrowed eyes.


"Hey, Tay?" Claire sang as she rocked back to her original position, then began to use her bare feet to scoot towards Taylor. When she reached the man, she pulled down at the skirt of her denim dress to remove all of the folds beneath her and then leaned in to the man's ear. "What do you think we should do with 'im now?"


There was no time for Taylor to give his own opinion, for Lee had managed to wrench his mouth open and speak in the man's place. "Send the bastard packing," he suggested and bent over to catch a glimpse of the outside world. Previously, the sky had been the darkest orange of London twilight, but it was now beginning to lighten and the world was suddenly bathed in a pool of warm sunlight. "Look, it's dawn. His bunch are going to be all over here in a couple of hours, you know."


Claire released a soft hmph and made a face at Lee, then turned back to Taylor and tugged on the man's wrist. "Tell Lee off, Tay! This kid here's starving, look at him eat, we can't jus' be throwin' him out. Tell him, go on!"

 

[Yoki]

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Seeing Claire approach him, Taylor looking up, placing his food on the ground. What should they do with the kid... That was a hard one. Seemed Lee had all the answers though, and he was right, Linkers would be all over the place in a couple of hours. They didn't need more trouble with this guy...but...


"Calm down Claire." He replied, sighing and standing up, "Lee has a point y'know?" Looking to the younger girl, Taylor put a hand on her head. "But she's right too Lee." He turned his attention to the man, "You said the kid came with someone right? So...what if that was 'is family or somethin'? What if you just scared 'im? Or what if he don't know where to go?" Sure, Taylor didn't like intruders, but he wasn't going to throw someone to their death like that, Claire wouldn't be happy with him. "Gimme a minute, will ya?"


After that he removed his hand from Claire's head and walked over to Adrian, who was sitting on the ground, ripping at flesh. He crouched down, leaning forwards. In response Adrian's gaze moved to him and the boy moved backwards slightly, he didn't look scared, he just seemed to be a little uncertain.


"Oi. Kid." Hearing Taylor's voice Adrian looked up again and stopped eating, cocking his head to the side. Taylor raised an eyebrow in response, "D'ya know what a Linker is?"


No response. Simply a confused look.


"Okay. So...d'ya know what the Omega Link is?"


An even more baffled look.


"So are you with 'em? Nod if you are, shake your head if not."


Adrian shook his head and took another bite of his food.


"Can you speak?"


No response.


"I swear t'god this guy's a mute or somethin'." Taylor looked back to Lee and Claire, then to Adrian, "Okay. So, d'ya know what Omega Link is?"


Adrian shook his head.


"D'ya know what Aegis is?"


Again, a shake of the head.


"Kid doesn't know shi-...uhh..." Taylor put his arm behind his head and turned his head to the side, looking between Claire and Lee. He knew Lee didn't like swearing in front of Claire.


"Shit." Adrian looked up, blinking innocently, "You...forgot the end of your sentence."

 

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F00B


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Claire had been watching the exchange between Adrian and Taylor intently, her hand still wrapped around the older male's wrist as she stared between Adrian and the leg of meat which was quickly shrinking as the boy ate. Every now and then she shifted positions, sitting up straight, leaning forwards, slouching or leaning on Taylor's shoulder, but her eyes never left the boy.


Lee cast a sharp look at Taylor and raised an eyebrow as the male cut himself off, and just as he sucked in a breath to give the man a warning, he was cut off by Adrian's sudden, unexpected interjection.


There was a loud squeal from Claire. The girl abandoned her place beside Taylor and leapt forwards, leaning on her hands as she ducked in towards Adrian. "Look! He does talk, Tay!" Not in the slightest did the girl seem bothered by Adrian's use of strong language - in fact, out of the three ghouls, Lee was the most concerned about it.


"He's not a Linker," the bald man pointed out, grabbing at the sleeves of his rainproof jacket and rolling them up to the area just above his elbows. "So it turns out we owe him nothing. Claire, you just handed our hunt to a thief."


"I told you, he's not no thief! Besides, my catch, my choice."


"God alive, girl, learn when to give up! Keeping this freak around won't do anybody any good. You can't trust him. And did you forget about the kagune?"


That last question seemed to dampen Claire's fiery spirit, because she settled back down and lowered her head. "Don't care," she mumbled without moving her lips. "C'mon, Lee... Please? Pretty please, with three cherries on top, jus' be nice for once? It donesn't matter if he's one of them Linkers or not, look, he finished Tay's sentence. He's a nice guy!"


'Finished it with a curse word,' Lee mouthed, but kept his voice reserved and his arms tensed to his sides. There was a strange reluctance about him, like he didn't want to leave his spot, but Claire's blue tone seemed to find its way to Lee's heart. He lowered himself back into a sitting position and simply glared forwards with his lips set in a thin line. "Fine. Go on. Talk, but we're leaving the area before the Link starts roaming."

 

[Yoki]

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"Uh. Thanks?" Taylor replied, unsure of how to respond to Adrian's odd speech, the kid seemed innocent enough, he didn't even seem to understand that staying here could get him in danger. If Taylor had been him he would have grabbed the food and ran, but this boy didn't seem to be making any attempt to book it at all.


Adrian was slightly startled by Claire's sudden exclamation, his attention flicked to her as she came closer, but he didn't move away again, instead he simply smiled. Out of all of them she seemed the nicest. Maybe he did lack a sense of danger some of the time, but he honestly didn't feel all that threatened at the moment, he just felt like they wanted to know something.


"Hey. I wanna know what's goin' on too!" Taylor interjected when Lee started talking about getting rid of him, "He don't have to stay, but might as well find out a little bit. Not often you meet a ghoul who don't know what Aegis or Linkers are now is it? What if he's like from some sorta countryside where none of that exists eh?" He was starting to move over to Claire's side, Adrian was interesting, he wanted to know what was going on with this guy, and why Claire seemed obsessed about asking him questions.


"Are you gonna hurt me?" Looking between the three people in front of him, Adrian didn't know what was going on, although his question was casual as if it really was just a general question. "Because if you're gonna hurt me I wanna put this down first. Is that okay?" He was confused, he was too used to being told to kill ghouls, told that they were violent and only lived to kill. So talking to them was different to him, he didn't know what he was supposed to say to them.


"Wow this guy's weird..." Taylor muttered, leaning backwards to sit cross legged again, "Who knows." He addressed Adrian, "Claire was the one who brought ya back 'ere. Ask her." He shrugged, sighing, why did this guy seem so clueless? What was up with that?

 

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Names, what's in a name?


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"Hah?" Claire rocked backwards again as she heard Taylor mention her name. "Oh! Um, nah, no more hurting. I think Lee went and did enough of that outside, right?"


Lee turned his head away and refused to speak when he was addressed by his younger companion.


"Yeah. Tay, Lee kept kickin' him over and over, it really was quite ugly," she recalled, rolling her eyes to the side as her level of thought deepened. For a moment the girl shuddered, but the movement shook her back into the present.


"Claire," said Lee, still begrudgingly holding his arms across one another, "You're wasting time. If there's something to say, hurry the hell up about it."


Claire threw up her arms at Lee, tutting and sighing and then covering herself with some sharp words. "Okay, okay! I was just gettin' there, Lee, I'll have you know! So, ah..." The girl turned her attention to Adrian again. "Well... You talk, so you gotta have a name, right? What is it? I myself am thinkin' you look like a Mitty."

 

[Yoki]

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"Why'dya kick 'im Lee?" Taylor asked, turning around to look at the man, Lee seemed really mad with this kid, sure, he got it to an extent...but to hurt him over and over. Oh well, it was just Lee, he wasn't really complaining about him, he protected them after all.


"I-It's okay." Adrian blinked, looking to Claire, then Lee and smiling, "I don't mind. It doesn't hurt that much." He took another bite out of the leg and then looked down, he really didn't mind if Lee kicked him, it didn't hurt that much... Plus he was used to it, after awhile you just started to zone out the pain. He'd been kicked enough in his life to have gotten over most of the pain.


Of course then Claire started to ask him questions...what was his name. That wasn't a hard question. "It's not Mitty." He replied, "My name's Adrian. You look like a Dana, but your name is Claire...right?" Again he smiled happily, the leg he'd been eating was pretty much done by this point, and Adrian was content.


"Adrian huh... Strange name... Never head that one before." Taylor put his hands on his knees, "How old are you, kid?"


"Hm?" The boy turned to Taylor again, blinking, "Eighteen."


"WHA?!"

 

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dana lol that's funny because it actually does suit her


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@Yoki

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Eighteen. Lee's breath caught in his throat, and Claire, who had been leaning forwards on her hands, jumped backwards with a voiceless hiccup of surprise. Quickly, she scrambled back onto her hands and knees and then shuffled forwards towards Adrian, scraping her scabbed knees against the rough and rotten wood floor.


"Ooh, really?" the girl chirped. With one arm she reached out, poked Adrian on the forehead a couple of times and then sharply flicked the skin above his nose using her finger and thumb. "Ya don't look eighteen, 'Adrian'. More like my kinda age."


"Claire's fourteen," Lee cut in, his words slow and voice low and gravelly. His teeth were still clenched - clearly the man still displayed mistrust for Adrian, but getting his own word in above Claire was more important. "Just... Thought I'd say."


Now that Lee had mentioned that one detail about Claire, it was almost as though she were bathed in a new light. In all ways she did have the appearance of a child; she was short, shorter even than Adrian, if only by a centimetre or two. Her knuckles did not visibly jut out through the skin on her hands, but instead were inset in a row of small dips. Calling her fourteen would have felt like a stretch had she not acted so childishly, because Claire didn't look older than nine or ten. Judging by the way her skin was blemished and pale, how her hair was matted and straggly and she walked barefoot in a self-made dress, perhaps she hadn't been fed as much as was healthy. Perhaps her growth had been stunted after a lifetime of poor diet.


"Do I really look like a Dana?" Claire carried on, sitting backwards again having poked and prodded Adrian to a satisfactory degree. "Lee says I look like a feral child with some kinda tribal name. Oh, Lee, what was that name again? Nevermind! Hey, check it out, the sky's gone all blue again. Mornin'!"

 

[Yoki]

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"Don't act like eighteen either." Taylor replied, he was completely shocked. There was no way that such a small guy was eighteen, it wasn't just that he was small though...it was that he looked like a child, he honestly looked like he should still be in school, he looked too young for an eighteen year old. There was no way.


"There's no way!" He leaned in to study Adrian, gaining no response but confused blinking from him, "Y'mean to say that this guy is older than me?! By a whole year! No way!" It was true that Taylor looked older than Adrian, he was much taller, and his facial features were much more defined than the smaller of the two. "No damn way!" He couldn't believe it, it was baffling to him.


Adrian didn't get what all of the fuss was about, sure, he was used to being called short or told that he didn't look his age...but these guys seemed really shocked. Claire was fourteen? She looked young for her age too... He guessed that they were in the same boat on that front. It wasn't like he minded being small though, it meant he could get away with more, he could go through small spaces, and he could hide places that other people could. It had its advantages.


The boy looked to Claire's hand as she flicked him, going cross eyed for a moment before staring back at her again as she asked the question about the name Dana. He nodded, smiling and bringing his knees to his chest to wrap his arms around, she did look like a Dana. Maybe he'd call her that...if she didn't mind.


"Oh." She then seemed to point of that it was morning, he'd been up all night? Really? A yawn escaped Adrian and he rubbed his eyes, he was feeling so much better now, but...but everything was just starting to set in... He was a ghoul...wasn't he? And...if he didn't want to hurt Jackson, he was going to have to eat humans from now on... Oh god... wait...


"Jackson!"

 

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here u go


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@Yoki

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Claire rocked backwards and began to trace a finger along the edge of a worn wooden plank in the wall, scraping her overgrown and chipped nail into a patch of dying moss. She wasn't really listening anymore, just relaxing again to dwell in her own thoughts as Taylor kept spilling out his disbelief and Lee attempted to maintain a cool stature.


"That's different to the eighteen I know," the man muttered under his breath, a barely-audible comment seeping out from between his lips as he kept his gaze fixed firmly on Adrian and Taylor. Claire twitched her head to the side, but didn't react to the little hum of opinion and simply kept playing with the moss on the wall.


Despite his apparent rigid stance, Adrian's sudden outburst of a name he had never heard before caught Lee's attention and triggered him to turn his head towards the young boy. As usual, he had one eyebrow raised and one hand scratching at the back of his bald head, but it was Claire who spoke first instead.


"'Scuse me?" The girl abandoned the moss, which she had now ripped from the wooden plank, causing it to drop to the ground and skitter into a corner. She took a moment to glance up, down, behind her, lean forwards to check outside. There was nobody nearby by smell, sight or hearing - just the three ghouls and Adrian. "I can't see no-one," she admitted, shrugging and then blinking quickly at Adrian. "Who's Jackson, then?"


It took Lee a while to process the situation, but after a moment of thought the coldness returned to his eyes and he pushed Adrian against the wall with a hand. His eyes became transfixed on Adrian's, an intimidating brown that somehow felt as frightening as the red and black that the boy may have been used to seeing. "What's that?" the man inquired, pressing Adrian against the wall (much to Claire's dismay). "Are you calling someone to smoke us out? Huh?"

 

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"Huh?" Adrian hadn't realised he'd exclaimed it out loud at first, it was when Claire mentioned Jackson's name that he finally realised he'd not just made the exclamation in his head. "Oh...he's-" Whilst trying to answer the girl's question he felt a hand land on him and push him up against the wall, he didn't know what was going on until his back hit the hard wood, making the whole building creak. Lee... Lee had pushed him up against the wall, why?


He started getting quizzed about Jackson, this guy really was a little too wary of him, Adrian wasn't smart enough to set up an attack like that. Surely he should have gained that knowledge from the boy acting like a young adolescent.


"No, Jackson wouldn't do that." He replied, shaking his head at Lee's question, maybe he should have been afraid, but if he was his gaze didn't betray him. The only emotions in his eyes were worry, for his friend, and confusion at Lee's sudden outburst towards him. "He's nice. He wouldn't do that." Again he repeated this, shaking his head to try and remind Lee he really wasn't trying to hurt them, he struggled a little, but gave up after a second or so, sitting still.


"So...if he's not that. Then who is he? Eh?" Taylor joined in as well, narrowing his eyes, he wasn't exactly comfortable with the name being shouted out, especially not after they'd just properly met this guy....and it had all been Claire's idea to bring him here in the first place.


"I'm meant to help him." Adrian replied, looking from Taylor to Lee again, "But I left him on his own...at home. Things were...complicated." Leaving Jackson on the floor like that all night was awful of him, he needed to get back, he needed to see him and help him up. He couldn't afford to stay here too long.

 

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idk why but adrian just becomes more adorable every time i read about him *squawk*


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Claire screwed up her face to a greater, higher degree as Adrian continued to explain himself, her expression contorting to look more and more exaggeratedly confused by the second. Her first proper reaction was when Adrian mentioned the word 'home'; the girl's eyes lit up and her lips parted in a gesture of surprise. Or admiration. It was one or the other, but with a girl as odd as Claire, differentiating between the two could be difficult.


Somehow, she managed to restrain herself from babbling out a long string of 'ooh's and 'aah's and questions about this magical place Adrian called home, instead taking a few seconds to stop and think about what else had been said. For a second she glanced at Lee, licked her lips and opened her mouth like she were going to say something - probably tell him to let Adrian go - but Claire decided against it and settled her stare on the older boy.


"Help 'im?" she echoed, tipping her head over to one side and then staring up at Lee again for explanation.


"God, like I'm supposed to know what the hell that means," Lee blurted with a sudden explosive movement of his one free arm. He shook his head in despair at the girl's reliance on him, but had no more time to roll his eyes or tut before she was speaking again.


"Like how? You hunt for 'im or something? What'cha talking about, Adrian?"


Lee frowned again and shot Claire a sharp glare. "Stop asking questions, you loony. He's stalling."


"No he ain't!" Claire whined, lightly hitting at Lee's elbow with the ball of her hand, causing his grip to momentarily loosen on Adrian. He quickly readjusted his position and gave the girl another warning look, which she then elected to ignore. "I was jus' asking about what he was sayin'. So go on then, kid. Spill!"

 

[Yoki]

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"I'm not stalling." Adrian's voice was rather quiet when he said that, almost a whisper, why did he think he was lying? He didn't lie about things like that, that would be awful. He struggled a little more, it was important that he got back to Jackson at some point, he'd like to stay and talk to Claire, but he really couldn't. Jackson wasn't in a good position right now...


The more Claire defended him, the more surprised Adrian was. It wasn't often that someone did that for him, the only person who had ever really defended him properly since Leo died was Jackson, so to hear someone else apart from him so determined to defend him... It confused him, and that was obvious in the look he gave Claire. He was close to saying 'why're you defending me?', but he kept himself silent.


"I don't hunt for him." He kept his eyes on Claire now rather than Lee, the guy just seemed angry and he didn't get it, "He's human, but he can't move. It's something to do with his legs and a car crash, I don't know the name, Leo knows more about it." He talked as if Claire would understand who he was talking about, which she obviously wouldn't, none of them would.


"But he was trying to help me last night, and I left him on his own, and I need to go back and help him." It seemed very important to Adrian that he actually made sure Jackson was okay, he would be on the floor right now, he must be uncomfortable... When he got home he'd have to apologise all day for it...and he'd have to explain to Jackson what had happened. He wasn't sure he'd fully realised himself, he wasn't sure he wanted to either. Right now he was attempting to procrastinate learning that the CCG had screwed up.


"And I don't know if we're meant to work today..." He mumbled, turning his head to Lee, "Would you mind if I asked if you could let go?" Adrian cocked his head to the side then smiled, staying very still, he wasn't trying to annoy Lee in any way.

 

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no bitch, you're being held and questioned


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There was a variety reaction from Claire for a short while, and at several points she seemed to inhale as if she were about to speak. Each time, though, she jumped at herself and closed her mouth, remembering the manners that she had been taught by Lee - though a tiny giggle escaped her after Adrian finished explaining what he knew about Jackson's condition.


"Wow!" she squeaked, rocking back on her posterior again with hands wrapped around her ankles. "It's funny how humans don't heal so well as ghouls an' stuff. Uh..." When she trailed off, her eyes wandered over until they found Lee. Adrian had mentioned a person called... Leo? She didn't know who that was, but it sounded a little like Lee. Maybe that's who he had meant.


"What now?" Lee grumbled when he caught Claire staring at him.


Claire poked at the man's arm again, and he pushed her away with a foot, causing her to tip backwards and then rock over onto her knees. "Oh! Nothin'. I was jus' looking, Lee." Since she wasn't allowed to poke Lee and let Adrian escape, she went and poked him instead - right on the throat. "You're a lil' weird," Claire confessed her opinion, staring through Adrian with her odd, ghastly white eyes. "Why'd you do all that for a human? Can't ya jus' eat it and be done with the hassle? I mean, it's gotta get a bit annoying, 'specially if it can't move."


Lee pressed his foot into Claire's face again, causing her to yelp at the coldness of his hard and bare skin. She slid away from the male, who now, very slowly and reluctantly, lessened his grip on the boy until his hand simply hovered in front of him.


"Go, huh? Where? Work? Where do you work?" The man was now unstoppably firing questions at Adrian with all the intensity of a police interrogation, his hand still raised in front of the boy so that he could grab him again if necessary.


Claire pouted and turned her head towards Taylor; he hadn't been properly involved for a little while. Maybe he had been listening better than Claire ever was. "Yo, Tay!" she called, reaching out an arm to touch Taylor's shoulder. "You think the kid knows his way back or nah? Did he say where he lives?"

 

[Yoki]

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Adrian had been passively sitting with a calm stare until he heard Claire ask why he didn't just eat Jackson and get it over with, his eyes seemed to harden, even if only slightly, and he shook his head vigorously. He would never do that, he'd held himself back last night so that he didn't hurt him, he'd never hurt Jackson.


"Why would I do that?" He asked, "I wouldn't eat Jackson, he's my family!" It seemed to annoy him a little bit, but he calmed down after a second or two. Jackson had helped him through so much, if it wasn't for him who knew where Adrian would be right now. After Leo died he really thought there was no one left for him, and he thought that it was his fault. He didn't want to leave their house, it had taken forever for everyone to stop him from running back to the apartment, he'd go up there and hide and cry until they came and found him. Then he'd throw a temper tantrum when they tried to make him leave, he'd probably still be like that if Jackson didn't help him through it all. Even considering eating him made Adrian feel horrendous, if he actually did it...he'd never be able to live with himself.


Then Lee was questioning him again, he'd let go and so Adrian had moved to sit in a better position. Where did he work? Well... He opened his mouth to speak before shutting it again, he shouldn't do that, if he told them he worked for the CCG there would be more questions. Plus he might get hurt.


"I-I..." He hesitated, unsure of what to say, "I work at a grocery store!" His hands went him behind his back and he smiled brightly again, "I don't think they'd like it...um...if I was really late, and I can't go until I've helped Jackson..."


"Huh?" Taylor was sitting back against the wall again, watching the whole situation unfold. Claire was right, Adrian was weird, there was something about him that just didn't seem right. He was acting like everything was fine and he wasn't in a dangerous situation, his whole demeanour was naive and lively, he just didn't fit... It was strange. He didn't know how to fully explain it...but it was strange.


"What Claire?" He turned his head to look to the girl, then shrugged, "Eh. Who knows, he didn't say where he lives, nah. An' you can't call 'im a kid. He's older than both of us, ain't he?"

 

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either my last or second to last post for the day, i gotta get to bed


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@Yoki

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The mention of family provoked an 'um' and an 'err' from Claire, and she kept switching her gaze between Taylor and Adrian as if trying to think of something to say. After all, it was a little strange for a ghoul to be related to a human, and Lee had always said that hybrids were little more than a fairy tale. What was she supposed to think or comment on now?


Though it was unlike Claire to ever be rendered speechless, Lee noticed the sudden lack of squeaking and squealing coming from the young girl and stepped in to rescue her. "Urgh... I'm not buying this. The kid seems fishy."


Suddenly those words seemed to inspire Claire to find her own. She leapt up, banged her head on the roof and made the shed sway for a brief moment, then returned to normal height and tugged at Lee's sleeves. "C'mon, Lee!" she whined, pulling down at the jacket sleeves. "Adrian ain't done nothing, see? Can't we let 'im go?"


"No, we can't."


"What? Why not?"


Lee smacked his own forehead with the back of his hand and spoke in a hoarse, restrained voice with his teeth grinding together like he was attempting not to shout. "Because I said so, Jesus Christ. It's dangerous, unless-"


"Unless what?"


"-Unless we have Taylor tailing him, is what I was going to say."


Claire's entire face seemed to glow at the mention of following Adrian home - in fact, she felt compelled to skip on the spot. So she did, and the shed swayed again, causing Lee to press a hand against the wall to steady it. "Oh! Oh, Lee, for real? I can come with Tay, right?"


There was a hand covering the top half of Lee's face. He mouthed 'I shouldn't have said that,' to himself and then dragged the hand downwards to regard Claire with his slightly bloodshot eyes. "If it'll shut you up for a goddamn minute, I don't care. Go! I've had it."


"Yes!" Claire lowered her elbows in a downwards fist pump, and she grabbed at the undersides of Adrian's upper arms and pulled upwards to lift him to his feet. For a thin girl, she was surprisingly strong - the power probably came from the fact that she was a ghoul, but it was still likely unexpected. "It's settled! We're gonna follow you, Adrian, me an' Tay! Can we come inside your house? Is it a mansion?"

 

[Yoki]

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"I'm not..." Adrian mumbled, the only thing he'd lied about so far was where he'd worked, and he'd done that so they wouldn't hurt him further or keep him away from Jackson, he just wanted to go back. Although Claire chimed in again, she was confusing him so much, she didn't need to stand up for him, it was okay.


Lee said they couldn't let him go, he didn't understand why not, he just wanted to go home. Although he seemed to be okay with as long as someone tailed him home. Jackson wouldn't like that, he didn't know whether he should let ghouls follow him home either, that might be a bad thing. They could hurt Jackson.


"Aight. Fine. I'll go." Taylor stood up and sighed, "Sounds fun." He then heard Claire ask if they could go inside the other's house, he walked over and grabbed her shoulders, pulling her backwards. "Hey! Claire! You can't ask stuff like that!" He told her, shaking his head. It had been awhile since he'd been inside a proper house, he was interested as well, but he wasn't going to ask that.


Adrian could see the way she seemed to excited, and even Taylor seemed a little intrigued at the mention of a house. Had they not been in one before? Well, they had to have been at some point right? Everyone had.


"Well, it's not a mansion." He stood up, "It's kinda small, I had a bigger one when I was little, but I had to clean it all with Leo and that wasn't nice." Did he want to say that Claire couldn't come in...no...she'd fed him and really helped him, but...Jackson would not be happy if he brought people in, plus they could hurt him and Adrian wouldn't allow that!


He seemed to debate the question for quite some time before answering. "Okay...but..." His gaze locked onto the girl a large smile on his face, hands behind his back, "You can't make too much noise, we have a lot of neighbours, and...if you hurt Jackson...I'll kill you." It was a threat said in a rather upbeat and happy way, and he meant it, but the giggle afterwards that came from him seemed to say otherwise. "So...can we leave now?"

 

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MOOORNING!


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Claire was completely transfixed on Adrian throughout his short-lived explanation of the apartment, her eyes appearing to stretch yet more impossibly wide with every word spoken. At the end of it, she grabbed onto Taylor's arm and shook it vigorously, a wide grin spreading across her face as she attempted to make eye contact with the male.


"Tay! Tay, this sounds really cool, doesn't it?" She released his arm for a moment to brush aside a few greasy locks of white-blonde hair, pushing it behind one of her ears, then grabbed at Taylor again and continued to shake. It was only when Lee intervened that she calmed down.


"If you want to go, hurry the hell up about it, would you? I can't wait around-"


"You're not comin' along then, Lee?" asked Claire, cutting off Lee's sentence.


Lee inhaled through his teeth and closed his eyes for a moment before carrying on. "No. Like I was trying to say, I can't just be waiting around all day for one of-"


"Why not?" Claire chimed in again, puffing out her cheeks at Lee. "It'll be no fun without you. An' I'll bet Adrian'll let you come too, s'posing you don't make noise. Or hurt - uhh - Jackson."


"No means no."


"But-"


Lee leaned forwards and eyeballed Claire from no more than two inches in front of her face. "No. If you're going, leave now."


The young girl turned her head away, but acknowledged Lee's instruction with a shallow nod and exaggerated shrug of the shoulders that said 'whatever' without the need for words. With a jerk of the elbow she beckoned at Adrian and then dived down and out through the hole in the shed. "D'you know the way?" Claire called from somewhere outside - it didn't much sound like she was still just outside. Clearly the girl had already skipped off a few metres back from the shed.

 

[Yoki]

Dead Enmity

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Adrian was starting to rethink letting the two into his home, he really shouldn't have said that...but he did, so...what could he do about it now? He could attempt to lose them, but nothing else, and besides, that was mean. He just didn't really know whether it was safe to have ghouls know where he lived when he had Jackson there, he'd always been taught that ghouls were awful, so bringing them to his house would be an awful idea...but...at least he could talk to them right? Even if one of them didn't like him, and one seemed on the fence, he was somewhat making friends! It shouldn't be that bad, he was a ghoul, he could take them...right?


"Yeah, sounds cool." Taylor replied, nodding his head and smiling at Claire, she really could get exited by anything. He didn't bother to get involved in Lee's argument with Claire, they had to come back quickly and that was that. "We just can't stick around long Claire, got other things t'do y'know." With a shrug, Taylor nudged the young girl forwards, Claire did need to learn that she couldn't always do everything she wanted. They did have to get back and leave before the Linkers came around.


Before either teenage male could say anything more Claire had disappeared, Adrian followed swiftly after her, and they Taylor followed after that. He seemed to be more comfortable sticking behind Adrian to make sure he didn't break for it, although he didn't know how fast the boy was, nor if he could keep up or not. Guess they'd find out.


"Hm?" Adrian jumped up, looking around, "Not...exactly..." He replied, walking forwards, "I...know the way through the sewers...not out here." If they got to a main road or something it probably wouldn't take him long to figure it out, but he didn't know the exact way to get home, and he didn't particularly want to go through the sewers. "I mean...if there's a main road anywhere...we can probably follow that and it'll bring us back to it..."


"There's a main road not too far away, we can take you there." He shrugged, putting his hands in the pockets of his dirty grey trousers, "That work?"

 

[yaint]

tฬเxt

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NOTES

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GOTTA GO OUT


TAGS


@Yoki

MAIN

​

Naturally, Claire was the one to lead the way to the main road that Taylor had described, keeping several paces in front of the two boys as she skipped onto the pavement. Finding their bearings from that point didn't involve too much difficulty, thanks to a number of signs and helpful locals who could point the group in the correct direction (though Claire and Taylor received many a strange look from passersby).


From there onwards, the three walked together, Claire twirling and jumping up at Taylor and fantasising out loud about the apartment all the while. As it happened, the sewage works that the old man Sam had taken Adrian through seemed to pass beneath a large portion of London. The journey felt like it took hours, and by the time Adrian's road finally entered his field of view, the sun was almost at its peak in the white sky of November.


***


Though she had been energetically jumping up and about for the duration of the walk back, it was still something of a surprise when Claire made a rather dramatic beeline for the front entrance of a building that she had never seen before.


"Tay! Tay, c'mon!" she yipped, pressing her face against the frosted glass door. "I think I can smell 'im on here. This has to be the place, right?"

 

[Yoki]

Dead Enmity

​

Adrian was happy to follow behind and simply ask locals where he was going, he didn't mind all the travelling, he'd done more before and so it was okay. Claire seemed really excited about the whole thing, which made him smile, and Taylor...well Taylor just looked like he was trying to keep Claire happy. He didn't seemed all that interested, but he probably was, he mostly just stared down at Adrian as if wondering something about him. The boy wondered if he was still thinking about their height difference.


It had taken all morning, by the looks of things, for the trio to get anywhere close to his apartment, but the closer they got the more anxious Adrian seemed to be. He just wanted to see Jackson again, the guy had been left there all morning...all on his own. What if he needed the toilet? Or...or he was hungry... He hadn't killed him had he? Oh he really hoped he hadn't killed him.... Jackson would be okay, right?


He was brought out of his thoughts by Claire's energetic voice and the way she ran up to a building, Adrian looked up, his eyes widening and a bright smile crossing his face. In seconds he'd darted after her, but he hadn't stopped at the door, he'd burst right through it, stumbling into the main lobby and waiting for the other two to follow him.


"Come on! I gotta make sure Jackson it okay!" He called, running to the elevator and pressing the button rapidly as if that would make a difference on how fast the lift came down. It was jumping in place very slightly, whether it was nerves or excitement he wasn't even sure himself, he just knew that he needed to see Jackson again.


"Oh! C'mon guys! Serious?!" Taylor called after the two, jogging to the entrance and shouldering open the doors, "You two have to get so excited over a bloody apartment? Don't just run off on me like that Claire." He sighed, but there was a sort of glint of enthusiasm in his own eyes as well. Everyone obviously wanted to get to the ninth floor.

 

[yaint]

tฬเxt

​

NOTES

​

Written on mobile, sorry if it's a bit shit


TAGS


@Yoki

MAIN

​

Claire twirled around on her heels to pout at Taylor. "Sorry, Tay," the girl said, a tiny smile flickering at the corner of her mouth as she spoke. Her hands were busy playing with her greasy hair, and she made a point of flicking it upwards at Taylor when the distance between the two ghouls was short enough. "It's jus' so warm in here. It's nice, huh?"


The wait for the elevator to arrive was spent with Claire staring into the eyes of her own reflection visible in the doors. Faces were pulled and angles were trialled, but the girl's time as a model was cut short as she heard the 'ding' which signalled that the doors would soon open.


"Whoa!" Claire immediately leapt inside to inspect the elevator's interior, paying special attention to the panel of buttons on the near side of the wall. "Hey Tay! Tay, look't this, it's not at all like the lift in the mall. It's number nine, right? Which one's that, then?"

 

[Yoki]

Dead Enmity

​

"Hey, Claire. C'mon." Taylor was pulling on Claire, trying to get her to calm down, "Remember what he said, right?" The elevator opened and Adrian had jumped in before both of the others, Taylor came in after Claire, confused about the buttons on the screen. He hadn't really been brought up very well, he wasn't well educated at all...and so whilst he could count he'd didn't really understand the need for all of the different numbers on the side of the wall.


"Mmn. There." Adrian stood in front of the keypad and narrowed it eyes, poking a finger out to hit the '9' on the keypad. Then he stood back and smiled as the doors closed and the elevator started to go up. It took a few minutes before they got to the top and it opened again.


Once the door was open Adrian seemed to dart out, disappearing down the corridor, he stumbled and stopped as he reached his door, pushing it open. Oh god. Was Jackson going to be okay? Were the others even following him? He...he didn't know...


"Jackson?!"

 

[yaint]

tฬเxt

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NOTES

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gj adrian you finally got back


TAGS


@Yoki

MAIN

​

Claire spent several seconds too long staring at the array of numbered buttons lined up in front of her, becoming so engrossed in the mechanics of the elevator that for a while she forgot that there were places to be. It was only when she heard the familiar noise of a creaking door handle and the click of a hinge that she finally lifted up her feet from the floor.


Slam, slam, slam. Now that they were many floors up from the solid ground below, Claire wasn't sounding as light on her feet as she had done before, and her movements had slowed, too; though that could have been on account of her interest in the environment. She seemed fascinated by the rows of doors and the floor's bulletin board, but her attention turned again when she found Adrian standing in the open doorway.


"Is that the place?" Claire blurted as she jumped up behind Adrian. With her long and sharp nails the girl grabbed at his shoulder and used the force to propel herself upwards to get a better view of the inside of the apartment. "Oh! Tay, Tay, come look at this! The view's amazing!"


***


How many hours now? Five, eight, eleven - whatever the number really was, it felt like a thousand times more. The only truth that Jackson could find was in the hot bars of sunlight that fell through the half-drawn shutter blind and painted his back in a pattern of glowing white stripes. It was morning, or noon, or maybe even evening. He didn't know, and every second he spent sprawled across the carpet, his arms and shoulders slick with sweat, the tightness in his chest felt just a little more restrictive. It was the worry, above anything else, that he couldn't shake.


Even now, Jackson found himself refusing to believe what he was inevitably going to have to accept about Adrian, instead focusing on all the possibilities of where he had gone, how long he would be gone for, how badly he could have been hurt or even hurt somebody else. Is he even coming back at all? That wasn't such a far-fetched concept anymore. Adrian had been borderline insane the previous night, screaming and wailing at alarming volumes. He could still be out of his mind or in too much agony to even consider returning at this point. Or dead. Jackson shuddered. No, he's not, he can't be. Stop thinking about that. But if Adrian did turn out to be dead... Oh God, oh my God, please no... No, no no no!


Click. Stop. Freeze. Jackson pulled his eyes open and shifted his head to stare blearily upwards through the open doorway. Ow. There was a soreness in his neck from the strange position in which he had left it for so long after giving up trying to move, and he couldn't quite reach the angle that he was attempting to turn to. But that didn't bother Jackson for long, because he had just heard a sound that he knew very well indeed. The door. Someone's opening the door!


"...Adrian?" Jackson croaked. His voice was weak and hoarse, so he swallowed and cleared his throat before trying again. "Adrian? A-Adrian, is that you?"


Is that the place? Huh? Who's that? Maybe Jackson's mind was playing tricks on him, but that voice didn't sound like Adrian. In fact, it didn't sound like any person he had ever spoken to before. The view's amazing! There is was again. That voice, the voice of a child.


"Hello?" Jackson's fists curled into balls, his muscles tensed in readiness for an encounter with this new stranger. Who were they? What were they doing in his apartment? Damn it! If only he could get up, reach his glasses and phone, he would be able to say or do something. But I can't. All he could do at that moment was wait and worry and imagine and hope. And speak. "Hello? Wh-who's there?"

 

[Yoki]

Dead Enmity

​

Adrian wasn't listening to Claire, he had too much to worry about with Jackson being left on his own for so long. He was awful, he was awful for doing this to him! The boy was looking around, trying to see if he could spot his friend, but Claire got in his way and made him stumble. He turned to the girl and smiled, moving forwards a little bit, he didn't want to be mean, if she wanted to look around then she could.


It was a few seconds later that he heard Jackson's voice again. He gasped, eyes widening, and again he was off towards the male's room.


"Jackson!" Adrian called, noticing the man on the floor. He dropped to his knees, grabbing hold of Jackson's shoulders and slowly moving him into a sitting position. "I'm so sorry...I'm so so sorry... I didn't mean to... I'm sorry Jackson. I..." He kept repeating that he was sorry over and over again until he was stumbling over his words. Whilst doing this he'd grabbed Jackson's chair and brought it over, before lifting the other into it. He was surprisingly easy to lift for the boy this time...which was strange to say the least.


After getting the other into a comfortable and safe position he backed up, lowering his head and looking guiltily down at the ground. "I'm really sorry. I won't do it again." His hands were behind his back and he was swaying back and forwards like he usually did. "I understand if you're mad with me, I'm really sorry." What else could he do but apologise for leaving Jackson in that position for hours on end.


"Hey...look at this..." Taylor breathed, walking inside to look around the room. So this was where Adrian lived, it was nice, really nice. It was warm too...unlike where they were staying. Couldn't Lee get somewhere like this? It would be amazing.


However, he knew they couldn't stay long, he'd let Claire look around and then he'd take her out. Lee said they had to get back, and they'd made sure Adrian just went back hadn't they? He was just looking after some guy... Actually...they should check if he was.


Taylor walked past Claire and over to the door of the room Adrian had just gone into. He saw the guy lifting some other male into a chair, all he could hear from the kid was aplogising, he seemed upset with himself...and he seemed to expect the guy in the wheelchair to be mad too. He just looked...nervous about having done something wrong...


Yet he didn't even care when he was put in a situation that could have had him killed...

 

[yaint]

tฬเxt

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NOTES

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SORRY, THIS IS A LONG ONE. I FELT INSPIRED.


TAGS


@Yoki

MAIN

​

"Adrian, oh, oh, you're here... S-sorry, I thought - I thought you... Uh, I didn't know if you were - if you were coming back." Jackson grabbed at his own forehead as he felt Adrian's hands gripping at the hot and sweat-filmed skin of his shoulders. Feeling the hardness of the floor taken away from his side was a relief, and a few seconds after being upright again the redness began to face from his face and the throbbing inside his skull began to ebb away into a dull, pulsing ache.


Even now, when Adrian's safety had been confirmed by his sight, his voice, the touch of his hands, Jackson's thoughts were still tangles in a knotted mess of confusion and worry. There were definitely things to complain about - he was too warm, he felt sick and his heart hadn't seemed to realise that everything was now okay, because it was still racing in the core of his chest. But despite himself, Jackson elected not to complain. Adrian... No, no no, he's got enough to worry about, he thought, blinking furiously when he realised that he had been lifted up into his chair and then patting mindlessly at the arms.


What do I do? What do I say? Once more he was clueless. He didn't know where Adrian had gone, what had happened whilst he was out, there was no telling what the time was now. Maybe he was late for work... But even if he was, that didn't matter. As soon as Jackson became aware that he was once again mobile, he had fumbled about with one hand on the nightstand, found his glasses and slid them onto his face, replacing the world's ambiguous blur with the clear image of Adrian's regret-contorted face.


"H-hey! Adrian..." No, no, he's doing that thing again. It was known to Jackson how much Adrian could beat himself up whenever something like this were to happen. Of course, the situations were never ideal, but often the boy would worry so much that he would put himself in a state worse than Jackson's. The telltale sign of repeating his apologies over and over... Jackson knew what was going on now, what Adrian was thinking. "No, no, Adrian! I-it's fine, I swear. Uh, I'm not mad. It's fine."


Suddenly, Jackson was cut off by a voice he had heard before. What the-!? Forget? How could he have forgotten about another person in his home? And a stranger, no less... But this one didn't sound like the child he had heard before; this person was a man. Look at this? What did that mean?


For a few seconds, all Jackson could think of was huh, weird, until he twisted his head to the side and caught Taylor's image standing in the doorway to his bedroom. "Whoa! Wh..." The man jerked backwards in his seat and quickly shot Adrian a shocked glance of inquiry.


"What is it, Tay?" chimed another person. This was the child from before, and now Jackson could see her - short, skinny, straggly and matted blonde hair, white-grey eyes and a tatty denim dress. She was small, but the girl's image triggered a shudder in Jackson's neck.


"Adrian?" Jackson hissed from the corner of his mouth as Claire pushed her way past Taylor with a deep 'ooh' and began to hop around and gawp over the man's room and possessions.