leave me alone, I'm lonely [text - cw: talk of underage drinking.]

[awooligan]

I guess announcing this sort of thing is what you do on here, so
Héctor Rivera-Adlantis and Neko Adobephotoshop aren't here anymore
Yes I know it's Adomaitis and Nekane, I don't care

[But he'll still make it clear who they are, and stuff. Something something jerk was married to a forgotten guy, being remembered is basic decency or something.]

What I care about is that this means someone else has gotta step up and buy my booze for me
Preferably without the lecture

Comments

[awooligan]

[oh my god]

My tongue was frozen!

[whenyouneedme]

[Kai barked out a laugh]

You went for seconds.

[awooligan]

[He's a boy again so that he can reach over and shove at Kaito. Mean!!]

What was I going to do, put more of your shit in the water? I'm not an asshole!

[whenyouneedme]

[oh a violence upon him! Kai snickered, rolling back to toothlessly kick Cliff's leg.]

Didn't expect you to drink it at all! Not gonna make judgement calls on soup, geez.

[awooligan]

[UGHHH. He lifts his foot over Kai's leg and brings it down, lacking any real pressure but still trying to push it down with his heel.]

I wasn't going to. Eating like that is weird! It's not like I chugged it or anything!

[whenyouneedme]

[yeah get sincerely unintentionally suckered into hugbucks, bro. His leg is a menace, better keep it there.]

Haa, yeah... guess it would be, huh?

[awooligan]

[Oh no, money.

He huffs his agreement, glad at least to not be made to explain why.]

No way was I changing back, either. Still don't know what the fuck miso is, though.

[whenyouneedme]

Heh. Salty fermented soybeans. We use it a lot for seasoning.

[Not changing back was fair enough. Kai might not have had an outwardly robust reaction to this surprise, but he wasn't completely dense. What he'd done to earn that trust that was being placed in his hands, Kai wasn't sure, but he knew the weight of it. He'd hold on to it nice and tight.]

S'real good on chicken or salmon.

[awooligan]

[Salty fermented soybeans... Sounds disgusting, and also a little bit like a swear. Whatever. It wasn't like it had tasted bad in the soup.]

Barbecue's still better.

[Mmm, barbecue... Good thing he's headed to their house later so that he can have some quality dinner, because this is making him hungry. Also because he actually has something to contribute to dinner, and it won't be super depressing to have anymore.

Anyway. Back to things that make him feel bad.]

...Are you going to tell Shinji or Kyoko?

[whenyouneedme]

Can't argue with that.

[Someday, Cliff, you'd have to introduce them to your American barbecue if you had the chance. He'd have said so too, if this conversation had not been in tandem with big reveals. Kai looked over at him.]

I'm not gonna take that choice away from you.

[awooligan]

[He would be so happy to introduce them to American barbecue, like fuck the importance of secrecy at that point, just bring on the meat -- no, okay, he's actually really grateful for that kind of response. There's already too many things that have been out of his control, so the promise of getting to keep some is -- good. Cliff lets out a slow exhale.]

Okay. Good. I know they're cool, and I don't hate it or anything, [Especially since he has memories of a life where he was born this way instead of only one where he was forced into a disease that made him violently out of his mind once a month--] it just sucks to be the one that's different. I don't want anyone making a big deal out of it when it's not anyone else's business. He thought it was important to have people, or just a person, that knows, though -- uh, Héctor.

[whenyouneedme]

[It sucks to be the one that's different. Wasn't that the fucking truth. Kai knew that well enough even without the stark black and white nature of things that being 'exclusively different' like a demi-human introduced.]

Mm... yeah. [They weren't alone if someone else knew.] I can get that.

[Kai stretched his arms out over his head a bit before he tucked his hands under his head.] You're still Cliff either way.

[awooligan]

Yeah.

[He's Cliff, whether people liked it or not.

Anyway!!]

So I don't know if you saw, Kyoko invited me over. Probably thinks I need a babysitter or something...but I'll get good food out of it, at least. We gotta stop by my place again for atole ingredients, by the way.

[whenyouneedme]

[He nodded. He did see part of that.]

Heh. She knows you're a big boy. Probably just tryin' to remind you that you've still got a place to go, not that you actually needed the reminder. [How to ask if someone is okay without actually asking if someone is okay and all that.]

[He grinned a bit.] But gotcha, we can stop wherever you want. Atole sounds real good.

[awooligan]

[As expected, probably, he rolls his eyes. The light catches on them briefly in the motion.]

I know. [And he does, really! He knows and appreciates it very much.] Everyone's making a bigger deal out of it than it is... But then as soon as I say that, they're all "feel your feelings". It's none of their business. How are they supposed to tell me what I'm feeling when they don't even know me? And they can't see me.