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[superniceone]

(open / overflow)

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[superniceone]

It's not often that Gustave allows himself the luxury of just idling. There are too many things to do; time is too precious to be frivolous with it. There's a little bit of color to his face when he answers, more to do with sheepishness than as a result of the kiss.

"You've got an alright face," he says lightly. "Maybe I wanted to bask for a second."

Or, maybe if he leans into being silly and irreverent, too, Verso won't startle and bolt. He's allowed to have a minute, he thinks.

[recreatable]

He drops the hand curled around Gustave's metal wrist, although he keeps the one on the flesh wrist, a gentle, easily breakable hold, thumb on Gustave's pulse point. "Alright," he laughs, clearly not actually offended. Gustave can't ever un-call him obnoxiously good-looking.

He ducks his head, amused smile still on his lips. "There goes my hope of you drawing me like one of your Nevrons."

[superniceone]

Gustave isn't interested in pushing this too far into the direction of something other than the single kiss that had been agreed to. Similarly, he doesn't want Verso to end up chafing uncomfortably beneath any overtly affectionate acts Gustave might try.

He does his best to split the difference. Gustave snorts at Verso's statement, then leans in to try to coax him into another kiss (and maybe just a few minutes of making out, if he's allowed to get that far.)

[recreatable]

He'd talked himself into one being harmless. More than one is probably letting himself indulge more than is strictly smart — but emotional- Verso is currently making the decisions rather than rational-Verso, so he leans in again until the feeling of dread grows greater than the feeling of enjoyment.

"I hope you'll take it as a compliment when I say that you're very distracting," he says when he pulls away again, trying to sound as if Gustave is just so hot and sexy that he can't control himself, and not that being around him makes Verso feel like he might be the worst person ever. "And I need to keep my head screwed on straight."

There's surely something wrong with him that he cares about maintaining Gustave's feelings when there's a 100% chance he'll have no feelings left to have soon, but he adds, "For the next few days. After that, I'm all for celebrating enthusiastically."

[superniceone]

"No, I know, sorry," Gustave says quietly, expression both guilty and pleased by the diversion. "It's just-"

He squeezes his jacket, then smooths the wrinkled bit down to step back, to give Verso a little space. It's clear he's trying to articulate something, head slightly tilted again, before he settles on: "I just don't believe you."

It's not confrontational or judgmental; if anything, Gustave seems surprised by his own conclusion. But to hear Verso talk so casually about the future, when even Gustave - one of the most optimistic members of the original team - had lost hope entirely more than once already-

It felt- placating. "But that was nice," he adds hastily. "Jealousy adequately sated, I suppose."

[recreatable]

Ouch. He's right not to believe Verso—about anything, ever—but it still smarts a little to hear it. He removes his hand from Gustave's wrist, sticking it in his pocket for lack of anything better to do with it.

"It's not—" Like that, he wants to explain, but blurting out the truth will only make everything worse. Better for Gustave to think Verso is just an ass who's happy to play with his feelings. He lets himself trail off, before saying, sheepishly, "So which limb should I cut off to have an excuse to talk to you tomorrow?"

[superniceone]

It's Verso he pities in this situation more than himself. It's not like they were living some star-struck love story - but still. He can't imagine how hard it must be, only ever meeting people who were, for lack of better description, doomed.

"I think you're the only person on Earth who's ever thought they need an excuse to talk to me," he says, expression wrinkled in amusement. "You're the popular one."

[recreatable]

Verso is incapable of not trying to charm his way out of every unpleasant feeling, so he makes a point of looking thoughtful for a moment before: "Just a pinky toe, then?"

[superniceone]

"Verso," Gustave says, performatively exasperated and using it as an excuse to crowd him just slightly, "why would you-"

He's cut off by a gasp, and is halfway to summoning his sword when he realizes it's just Maelle.

"Maelle-" he starts, and is cut off immediately.

"I knew something was going on."

[recreatable]

Oh. There's a slight shift of his jaw. He doesn't particularly mind who knows about this—whatever 'this' is—but he'd have preferred not to have his sister find out that he's been kissing her brother. (Ugh. He was right not to tell her the truth. Imagine having to navigate that odd dynamic.) It's all fraught enough without involving Maelle.

"...Is that Esquie I hear calling for me?" he asks. It's dead silent.

[superniceone]

Gustave gives him the most deadpan possible look. "Yes," he says, "it certainly is." Coward. It's not like Gustave is so embarrassed he could die or anything.

[recreatable]

"I don't hear anything," Maelle says with that patented little sister Look™. It makes his heart clench and yearn to be close to her the way that Gustave gets to be, family and not just some strange man who came out of the woods to join her Expedition.

"When he gets stuck on his back, he can't get back up again," Verso says, excessively serious. "I should go help turn him over."

He's not proud of the way he absconds from Gustave for a third time, but clearly, it's their thing. Maelle watches him turn tail for only a moment before she turns back to Gustave, eyebrow raised, annoying little sister mode fully engaged.

"Is it offensive to say I didn't think you had it in you? Because I didn't think you had it in you."

[superniceone]

Gustave watches Verso go as well, but it's mostly with jealousy; he wishes he could evaporate from this situation, too.

"No, it's fine," he says finally, exasperated. "I didn't think I did, either. Are you going to lecture me?'

[recreatable]

"Lecture?" she asks, eyebrow raised skeptically. "I thought that was your job." Although Gustave is really a terribly poor lecturer. Not cut out for being a stern authority figure at all.

"I am going to tease you, of course." As is her sworn duty as a little sister. She makes a face, then adds, "He's a hundred."

[superniceone]

"Yeah, but he barely looks a day over ninety-five." Having a conversation about the complexities of his and Verso's weird - thing - together is honestly the last thing on the planet he's interested in doing. "If you actually love me, you'll pretend you didn't see anything."

[recreatable]

Wow, at first she was only interested inasmuch as it meant she could gently bully Gustave. Now she's actually curious. "Why?" she asks, voice lilting. "Is it a secret thing?"

[superniceone]

"No. I don't know." A good role model wouldn't be sneaking off to kiss boys in the dark, Maelle! He groans, pressing his hand to his face. "Sophie would never stop teasing me if she knew. She'd say she ruined me for other women."

[recreatable]

Maelle doesn't have extensive experience with relationships—she'd kissed a boy once, but the next day, she'd caught him kissing another girl—but even she knows 'I don't know' doesn't bode well. She cringes a little at that, open and obvious with it, before laughing at the next comment. "Well, didn't she?"

She'd just assumed that was the reason Gustave never tried anything on with Sciel or Lune, as beautiful and wonderful as they both are. Too much Sophie on the mind, on the heart.

[superniceone]

Gustave hums quietly at that question, glancing in the direction Verso had disappeared off in. "Suppose you're right," he says. There's no denying that it's easier knowing that Sophie is nothing but a name to Verso; there aren't any shared memories to mutually stumble over like emotional landmines.

That isn't a conversation he can have with Maelle.

"It's not a secret because it's not a thing," he says a moment later, belatedly expanding on his earlier answer. "We're going to focus on more important things until the mission is over. Let's head back to camp."

[recreatable]

"Okay, okay," Maelle says, hands up in a gesture of surrender. She's just trying to get the tea, jeez. No one tells her anything around here!!! She does take a step back toward camp, but then she turns back— "So you're saying he's not your secret boyfriend."

[superniceone]

"I'm saying he's not my secret boyfriend," Gustave confirms, joining her to pointedly walk back to the others. He hesitates, adding: "But I do hope he'll stick around for a while with us when we've washed our hands of the Paintres."

[recreatable]

"That's too bad. A secret boyfriend would be much more exciting than whatever weird, sad thing you have going on," she says chipperly. But! She'll let it go, because it seems to be a source of bad-embarrassment and not fun-embarrassment. Maelle links her arm in Gustave's as they walk back, saying, "He'll have to stick around. I've already talked to Esquie, and we're throwing a party after."

[superniceone]

Gustave can't really bring himself to disagree with that. He, too, wishes that any of them had the opportunity for something so mundane and normal.

But all of his attention is back on Maelle the moment her arm is in his, and he grins sidelong at her. "Oh, a party, huh? What do you think - three tables or four?"

[recreatable]

"Four," is her response. Does she really believe they're going to make it through this, or is she just putting on a brave face? Hard to say. Party-planning is a good distraction either way. "Esquie takes up at least three seats by himself..." She continues yapping about party logistics as they make their way back to camp proper, clearly happy to have a conversation with Gustave where they're both looking forward to the future.

[superniceone]

Monoco finds himself mostly unconcerned with the details of what Verso gets up to when he spends time with the other humans, but he's fully aware neither he nor Verso are immune to grief. He's aware that his human companion had been making an effort to keep an emotional barrier up between himself and this latest group of Expeditioners. He's also had front row seats to nearly incidental ways they'd begun to breach it.

"You can do better," he informs Verso matter of factly when Gustave and Maelle return to camp, arm in arm.