paixaorpg | The Morning After [Completed]

Entry tags:

The Morning After [Completed]

Characters: Laharl, Etna, Flonne, Ivan, Carpet
Content: Ivan and Etna discover that Flonne found Laharl last night. Much Q&A ensues, as well as a great lot of relief.
Setting: Actua Are (J7)
Time: Morning
Warnings: HOMG FLUFF!

Flonne was having a wonderful dream. In it, she had found Laharl. Sure, he had been hurt, but a quick heal spell had fixed that. They had made it back to the hotel room, and she'd fallen asleep just across the bed from him. In fact, if she reached out, she could touch him.

It had been such a good dream, but it was over, Flonne knew as she awoke to the morning sun strewn across the bed. It was just too bad it wasn't real. Yawning and stretching, she rolled over, not expecting her hand to come in contact with something soft and warm.

Her eyes flew open, taking in the sight of her hand resting lightly on Laharl's cheek, the rest of him burrowed deeply in the blankets on the bed. So it hadn't been a dream..."Laharl," she breathed, hardly daring to move. It was real...he was here...her face split into a wide smile and she jumped off the bed, intending to tell everybody the good news.

Unfortunately for Flonne, natural clumsiness prevailed and tangled her in the blankets. Instead of her happy jump, she tumbled off the bed with a loud, surprised squeak.

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Laharl was doing what he did best that morning: sleep. Except it was well deserved sleep.

He did twitch slightly at the touch to his cheek, lifting his hand after a moment to brush the thing away, but it was already gone. Then came the sound of Flonne tumbling from the bed.

It stirred him enough into wakefulness to mumble quietly, and roll over, nestling further into the warm blankets. What had been that sound? Oh... just Flonne. Wait, Flonne? Wait... he was in a bed? Confusion slowly pushed him more into wakefulness, and last night's events replayed in his mind. Right, he was at a hotel with Flonne. Er... was she here alone? What about Etna?

As curious as he was, the Overlord did not yet have a desire to move. The bed was so comfortable and he still felt extremely exhausted, although thoughts of food, cleaning this blood off him and other such things tempted him to move. For now, however, he lay still, content to lay there for as long as he could.

Ivan was jarred awake by the thud Flonne made as she fell out of bed. He hadn't been sleeping wonderfully anyway, since there were only two beds in the room and he'd either volunteered or been volunteered to be the one on the floor, but the sound would have been enough anyway.

After a second of confusion, he scooted to where he could see what had happened, and he had to chuckle. "You okay, Flonne?" he asked, glancing up at the bed she'd fallen from. They'd have to watch the noise, or they'd wake Laharl, and...

Wait a second.

"Laharl!" he exclaimed, almost without realizing it, and scrambled to his feet. A hundred questions crowded into his brain before he'd even fully gotten his balance. When had he- but how- he thought he'd heard someone come in during the night, he suddenly realized, but why he hadn't thought anything of it then was beyond him.

Since the overlord still looked asleep from here, Ivan turned back to Flonne, flabbergasted. "How long has he been there?" he asked dumbly, pointing; he tried to keep his voice low so as not to wake anybody who wasn't already up, though.

(ooc: Carpet's also welcome to jump in anytime ♥)

It really was a shame that Carpet couldn't sleep; while it definitely would have helped while away those ten thousand years in the Cave of Wonders, it probably would have been nice to sleep this week too, while he looked for Master Balthier and helped these nice people look for their missing demon friend. He didn't mind though, he was used to not being able to sleep; instead, he had just contented himself with cradling a sleeping Ivan in his folds, trying to make sure the adept's nights were as restful as possible. After all, he probably wasn't as comfortable as a bed, but he liked to think he was better than sleeping on a solid floor....

Thanks to this involuntary insomnia, he had seen Flonne and Laharl stagger into the hotel room the night before, and wasn't surprised at all to either see Laharl had returned, or Flonne's attempt at celebration go awry. He would have echoed Ivan's chuckle if he could, and answered the his question; instead of bothering with an attempt at pantomiming an answer, he just floated past the adept to help disentangle Flonne from her blankets so she could get up. What would they be doing now that they had found their friend? Would he find Master Balthier, too?

Etna had remained oblivious to the rather unflattering entry of Laharl and Flonne. Having cocooned herself in the comforter of her bed, she didn't even notice the sound of Flonne cracking her skull against the cheap hotel floor.

Instead, it was Ivan's sudden and grating yelling that woke up the sleeping demon.

"Yeah, we're looking for Laharl, we've been looking for a week!" ,the demon grumbled, blindly feeling the floor for something, anything, preferably something heavy.
Finding one of her own shoes, Etna grasped it and with a guttural shriek, winged the boot backwards in the direction of the adept's voice.

Etna sat up, still angry, "Now shut up about-"
Her voice trailed off as soon as she opened her eyes and it was a good minute before she finished her sentence
"Laharl?"

Not even her fall and potential concussion could damper Flonne's enthusiasm. "Yes, Ivan-san, I'm fine!" she caroled as Carpet helped her free herself from the blankets in which she'd somehow managed to tangle herself. She squeaked again and ducked as a boot went sailing over her head. It looked like Etna was awake, too.

"Since last night!" She answered Ivan's question with another smile. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been this excited, or this happy.

[OOC: HAHA typos. >>; Third time's the charm, right?]

Part of him entirely did not want to face them yet. He could have been entirely happy just curled up under here for many hours to come, but it seemed the chances of that happening were slim. He recognized Ivan's voice, and Etna's familiar voice was strange but welcoming.

Well, he might as well just get this over with so he could get back to resting... hopefully.

Letting out a bit of a unhappy sigh, Laharl slowly eased himself up a bit, but it was difficult he found, his body felt sluggish and his head groggy. Despite his body's protests however, he managed to get somewhat upright. Pausing a moment to rub his eyes then shove some of his disheveled hair from his face, he glanced around the room.

There was Flonne - she'd fallen from the bed. Again. Stupid Love Freak... Ivan - Laharl was kind of surprised to see him there. He'd stuck around to help them find him? A........ floating carpet? ......What? He shook his head a bit, he wasn't about to ask now. And lastly....

Laharl hesitated, he'd been almost dreading this - facing Etna after... this. Well, she was here if that meant anything, and had been looking for him, apparently, so...

He finally met her gaze and Laharl found he was glad to see her and it showed in his expression, but he wasn't sure what to say at all. What could he say? Where the hell do you start? To say this was awkward would be an understatement.

".....Hey, Etna," he finally murmured quietly.

Ivan barely ducked out of the boot's path in time, letting out an involuntary yelp. This kind of thing was precisely why he'd been trying not to wake anybody, but, too late for that now. Then again, maybe Laharl would be able to tell them what had happened, now that he was awake. Or maybe not, given how wretched he looked. He couldn't even imagine what they'd done to him.

"So... how did you find each other? What happened?" he asked, partly to break the tension. And if nothing else, Flonne sure looked like she was itching to tell them.

Uh-oh, looked like Etna was awake and spitting mad.... Carpet found himself ducking her boot projectile as well, even as he extricated Flonne from the last of the blanket tangle. She also seemed to not realize the reason Ivan was yelling until it was entirely too late to take back the boot, which Carpet had been too startled to try and intercept, for the poor adept's sake. Instead, Carpet patted Flonne's head gently with a tassel, parting her hair and checking to make sure she hadn't been hurt worse than she'd realized. Probably wouldn't have anything worse than a bump or bruise, definitely nothing to worry about....

In that case, he might as well help Laharl, miserable as the little Overlord looked. He hadn't heard the story of how they had found each other either, so he had to admit to some curiosity too.... Leaving Flonne's side, the Carpet drifted to position himself behind Laharl, curling to fit the contours of the demon's back and head to provide a support to lean against and help him stay upright.

Speechless, Etna's face fell into an awkward stare. He looked awful; covered in cuts and caked in blood, which it seems he'd managed to work into his bed covers while asleep (great).

Her mouth agape and her mind rushing, she tried to summon something to say or do; maybe how he got here or why he didn't feel the need to announce his arrival.
Or maybe she should be debating whether to pick up her other boot and wing it at the magically reappearing prince or to wait for a full explanation, then wing both boots.

But she didn't choose either and she still didn't speak. Instead, she read a thousand hours of dialog in Laharl's own eyes.

He was happy now, but tired and something was still distinctly wrong or broken.
Like an old pocket watch, Laharl's eyes seemed rusted and run ragged; His springs were losing their grip and his porcelain facade cracked. There was an overwhelming sadness, but Laharl was still ticking. Which was all that mattered, they could iron anything else out later, so long as Laharl was still ticking.

Flonne smiled at Carpet's help. "Thank you, Carpet-san, I'm fine now." She watched Carpet float over to support Laharl before turning her attention to Ivan and his questions. "Well, I was out walking last night, and I found him!" Although, now that she finally thought about it, she just couldn't fathom what exactly had happened to Laharl, or why he'd been in that alley. "And then we came back here because we were both tired." It was the very abbreviated version, sure, but Flonne had long since learned that Laharl liked to tell his own stories. After all, there were parts of this one she still didn't know, and he always made them sound better anyway.

He blinked at the strange carpet, not sure still what to make of it, but was rather glad of the support to his back as the thing came up behind him. He was able to relax a little against it, as he watched Etna's expression.

Of all the things he'd expected from Etna, silence hadn't been one of them. He'd expected to get yelled at, or even hit... or something, but just received silence. It didn't improve the awkwardness at all, but he did notice her gaze looking over his arm, shoulder and face where he'd been hurt. "...It... Flonne healed them... they only look bad..." Laharl explained.

Tired eyes then turned back to Flonne and he sighed. That didn't explain anything at all. "Tired... Exhausted to point of almost falling over is more like it..." he corrected, then sighed again.

"...I... I don't know how I escaped really...." he started to explain after a brief moment of silence as the weight of everything that had happened to him had begun to weigh down on him, "It was like... I... was drowning in darkness... I wasn't in control... I realized I was with Flonne... I...think I almost..."

Laharl glanced to her, looking her over, as worry had now crept over him. He hadn't hurt her, had he? Looking now, he could see small pokes on her shoulders that had bled slightly... but nothing more. That brought a little relief, but only a little.

"She used her magic and pushed it out of me, then healed me... heh, used all her magic doing that," Laharl continued to explain. "Then... we managed to get back here and... I could hardly stay on my damn feet, much less think about waking everyone up, so... yeah."

There, he'd explained, although Laharl suspected next he'd have to explain everything else that happened.

As Flonne and Laharl were revealing what happened, Ivan's initial relief faded into a wide-eyed, open-mouthed stare of disbelief. Flonne had gone out for a walk in the middle of the night, by herself, for reasons beyond his fathoming, and then used up all her power helping Laharl... not that she shouldn't have helped him or anything, but it was like she had no idea how dangerous that had been! They'd been lucky to make it back.

He closed his eyes to sigh, then let them open again. "Well, I'm glad you're okay," he admitted. "I thought after everything that woman did to catch you..." He let the sentence hang. If he'd been any thicker into that fight himself, he'd have been dead.

But one thing still didn't quite make sense. "But... what did you mean by 'drowning in darkness'?" he asked.

Despite seeming rather vague, Etna was willing to accept the prince's explanation for the time being. She of all people understood the importance of keeping a secret and it seemed that whatever happened wasn't just going to fall by the wayside. Etna suspected that she'd be meeting her (proclaimed only by Etna) nemesis soon enough.

Etna gave Laharl one more hard glance to assure herself that he wasn't going to disappear the moment she turned around and, once happily convinced the battered prince wasn't going anywhere, she listened to the conversation continue while she began working through her morning routine.

Flonne had been right - Laharl always did tell stories better than she did. Her eyes met his as he trailed off to look over at her, and she gave him her warmest smile, trying to reassure him without words that yes, she was just fine.

The smile fell at Ivan's question. "There was a lot of darkness in Laharl-san," she answered worriedly. Sure, he had darkness in him all the time, being a demon and all, but this was too much even for the most evil of demons.

And Etna was being quiet. To coin a cliche, too quiet. "Etna-san?" she finally ventured, figuring it couldn't hurt to ask. "What's wrong?"

To say Etna's silence didn't worry him a little would be a lie. Etna not saying anything was... not normal. He didn't know what it meant at all. Was it because of how he... he failed?

Her turning away from him added to the sense of rejection. Great... so this is how it would be huh?

Folding his arms to his chest, hell it did feel good to be able to move again, he turned his gaze back to Flonne, who'd given him such a more reassuring look a moment ago. Of course, it WAS Flonne, she was always being so damn positive, but... still... she was also so loyal to him, no matter what. And... she'd saved him last night. If she hadn't driven that darkness from him...

Casting his gaze to Ivan for a moment he sighed and dipped his head, bangs falling to cast shadow over his expression as he waited a moment for Flonne to finish speaking before he did. "I... I don't know how to really explain it any better..." Laharl said quietly. "It was like... I was barely aware what was going on outside around me and I couldn't get back in control... something... darkness... not like my own... it... gah."

He'd tried to explain, but he just shuddered in the end, a chill passing through his arm where the needle of darkness had been injected. It was like a memory... The darkness was gone, but... he still remembered how it felt. Oh! Right, the needle...

"It was caused by something they put in me..." Laharl suddenly added when the thought hit him and he rubbed his arm a little. "I... they strapped me down to a damn table and injected something into my arm. I... it's hard to remember... the tube had something black in it..."

He paused when Flonne suddenly addressed Etna.

Ivan frowned; Laharl's answer confused him more than it helped anything. The way he and Flonne said it, it didn't sound as if they were speaking metaphorically... but he'd never heard of darkness being treated like an actual substance before, it was just the absence of light. Wasn't it? He had never given the subject any thought, to be honest.

There had to be a better explanation for this out there somewhere, but... Laharl clearly didn't have it, so it'd be useless (and kind of cruel) to press the matter now. Contemplatively, Ivan put a hand to his chin. The demon overlord had escaped, but he was a demon overlord. Whatever these people in black coats had done to him, were they still doing it to the others? With some guilt, he remembered Syaoran and Bloo, and the list that Timon had posted a while back. Those people were all still in danger - if they were even alive. They couldn't quit looking now.

His mind began racing through possibilities of what to do next, so much so that he inadvertently zoned out from the rest of the conversation. There was that festival tomorrow...

She just felt so awkward, Etna squirmed at Flonne's question, she didn't want to say anything, but she needed to diffuse the situation.
She needed something that would put everyone at ease and make things seem like they aren't.
Now, what was it that did that again?

Oh right, a lie, she was good at those. Her mind must still be half asleep to have not remembered.

Etna perked her head up, gave Flonne a confused and almost hurt look and with a dismissing wave, told the first lie of the morning, "What? nothings wrong, every thing's fine. Great even, we've got Laharl back and everything, right?"

Flonne had been in the Netherworld long enough to develop some sense of when somebody was telling a lie. Problem was, it conflicted with the deep-seated belief that deep down, everybody was good, and if they were good, why would they lie?

It didn't help that Etna was one of the best liars she'd ever seen, and Flonne always had trouble catching Etna's lies, if she was even lying at all.

Everything had just gotten a lot more awkward, which was the exact last thing Flonne wanted, but she had no idea what to do about it. "Oh," she responded quietly, looking down at her feet. "Yes. You're right, Etna-san." She looked back up, offered a faltering smile. She wanted to believe everything would be okay between all of them again, but...well, she just didn't know anymore.

So, finally Etna decided to speak. While Flonne seemed convinced, for the most part, he was not so much. She'd been too quiet. It just wasn't normal for Etna at all. He didn't get it, but Laharl also wasn't about to dwell on it. If she wanted to pretend everything was fine, whatever. He certainly wasn't about to question her.

Slipping away from Carpet's support, he lifted the covers as he rolled over to his side, away from Etna. Laharl then settled his head on the other pillow, curling up beneath the comforter. They hadn't asked him anything else, so hopefully that was the end of that for now. While he suspected he'd be explaining things for some time, if they'd had their fill for now, he wouldn't mind dropping back off to sleep.

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The Morning After [Completed]

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