To fly out of this cage
Fall fics gift exchange for the touchstarved discord <3
Touchstarved fic, 2074 words, oneshot, Vere centric, implied Vere/Ais if you squint really hard. TW: none
Prompt: "Vere gets caught playing in piles of autumn leaves"
The Senobium had such a habit of letting Vere go free on the worst of days, he had a feeling it was fully intentional.
He shuddered, trying pull his long sleeves closer to his body like that would warm him up. Eridia was never not a soggy, rot-smelling swamp of a city, but with the shift of the seasons, both of those factors could only get worse. He put a hand over his nose, sniffling uncomfortably.
Damn cold, damn approaching winter, damn ever closer snow.
He stooped under a small stall to observe the seasonal goods, still steaming and emitting a pleasantly spicy smell.
"I'll just take some glazed buns."
"Excellent choice my good sir! Two silver pieces for three!"
"Thank you."
His pastries in hand, he started wandering around the streets, trying to find a drier place to eat in peace, but with such a cold, humid weather, most terraces were reduced to a puddle meeting place, if they were even installed outside.
The ginger exhaled sharply, keeping his precious snacks close as he wandered into the streets, the humid air weighing down his ears.
Just as he was about to get frustrated at this waste of time, he noticed the underside of a particularly proeminent balcony with a bench he could comfortably settle under. He hurriedly sat on, unwrapping his pastries and enthusiastically preparing to take a bite, but the weather seemed to have other ideas.
Just right as his lips parted, a sudden gust of wind blew the contents of a nearby rain gutter all over him and his fresh, delicious handmade buns.
"FUCK!", he screamed out, immediately springing back onto his feet, suppressing a shiver. He stayed frozen in place a second, not knowing what to do with himself. So what was he supposed to do, if the universe was so hellbent on fucking over his day out? Was he supposed to go back to the senobium, to his cell? Have his snacks confiscated, be chained inside, like every day, just because at least he'd be spared more misery?
No, he'd rather swallow his own tongue and die. In a mute rage, all the fur on his ears and tail standing out, he stomped out in a random direction, crushing his pastries in his hold.
The streets kept changing and shifting as Vere spiralled further, trying to chase away the gnawing feeling of helplessness threatening to to drown out his every thought. Who cared where he was going, it didn't matter. Eridia was just a bigger cage he was confined to outside of his cage.
And yet despite him knowing all that, he couldn't bring himself to just give up, he may have been chained to this place but he refused to give up and bow down. Perhaps too foolish, perhaps too angry. He'd find a way to break out, and when he did, the fury he would unleash on the Senobium would leave its mark. Hopefully he could manage to tear out its gangrenous roots out of the deepest parts of the world and erase it.
Only once he realised there was no more streets to walk into in front of him, had his anger started to die down. He realised he had stormed into a small parc, closed off from most of the city. The pavement had stopped, fading into a dirt path slithering among the trees. He sighed, exasperated. Since he'd walked all the way there he might as well take shelter under the sparse folliage and stew on his plans to destroy the world.
Sitting down at the roots of the trees after a bit of meandering, his heart suddenly felt a bit lighter. He'd forgotten how softly leaves and branches of a tree bristled against each other under a gentle breeze. After all, it'd been a long time since he had the freedom to come unwind here, been allowed even less than a day of respite. He sighed some more, angrily bringing out his first pastry and sinking his teeth into it. It wasn't as warm and airy anymore, and definitely a bit watery, but in the moment it tasted like the best thing he could've eaten.
Taking on the second one, he softened a bit. Maybe he was becoming too tame, he didn't feel like getting angry. His surroundings felt too peaceful to be disturbed and destroyed today, and there was no one near he could take out his anger on, not that he'd feel like doing it anyway.
He couldn't deny that the third one was finished too quickly, and he found himself wishing he had more. He threw the greasy paper in an abandoned composting bag with a sigh. He wouldn't call his outing a success in any capacity so far, but at least he didn't feel miserable, just lightly unsatisfied.
Pacing for a bit while trying to come up with what interesting thing he should definitely do before they'd start looking for him, his foot landed on something slippery on the floor and he paused. Leaves, of course. Spotting a small pile it probably slipped from, he nonchallantly put his foot in the middle of it, watching it sink into it and then slowly moving it around to scatter the pile all over the grass. Not really much of a destruction, but petty enough that he felt compelled to stoop down to it.
Once he was satisfied with his work, he noticed another small pile near another tree. Letting out a short jubilating sound, he quickly ran over to it and kicked it, sending leaves flying in all directions, some of the leaves getting kicked up high enough to be picked up by the breeze and diappearing out of view.
His tail started to wag at the sight, glee spreading in his veins. Oh, he absolutely needded to keep going now.
Weaving through the trees, running through the path and dirtying his boots in the process, he meticulously kicked through each and every piles, until he reached the deepest parts of the parc, where the biggest of them all laid, still undisturbed. It was so big it reached his waist.
His tail started to thump furiously as he got a very dumb, but very amusing idea. A single kick wouldn't get it down, or even multiple. But maybe if he put his whole weight on it...
Taking a step back, he erupted into a small sprint, lunging at the pile. He crashed into it at full force, sending tons of leaves flying as the ones not kicked up cushioned his fall. Getting back on on his knees, shaking his head vigorously to get the leaves out, he took a second to stare at his hands, sinking deep into the leaves and the grass below. That wasn't normal behaviour coming from him, but he didn't mind. It was quite fun.
He turned around towards the sky, laying down on the leaves before shimmying around, sending leaves flying around just to see them hover in the air and fall back down. How much time had even passed since he started? He truly didn't care.
He was so distracted he didn't even pay attention to the obvious footsteps on the dirt path getting closer and closer, until the sound of a choked up snicker right next to him snapped him out of his transe.
Cheecks burning bright red with shame, Vere turned around to see Ais, looking at him with a bemused but vaguely entertained expression. His lit cigarette was barely hanging onto his parted lips, and for a second, the ginger wondered how he managed to keep it lit among the light rain steaming over them. But his mind quickly snapped back to the embarassing position he had been caught in, and he tried to come up with something-- anything, to justify how he ended up here.
"What are you doing, can't you see I tripped? Won't you lend me a hand and help me up?"
The way his voice was wavering under the other monster's crimson eyes made him want to scream.
"You, tripped?"
"Why else would I be on the ground?"
"If you'd tripped you have already been up pretending it didn't happen.", he mumbled, a small smile lightly stretching the corners of his mouth.
The way heat rose up to his cheeks, he could tell his face had gotten ridiculously red.
"What's the implication here?"
"I dunno, why were you lying on the ground rolling in leaves?"
"I-I wasn't rolling in them--"
Ais threw his head forward, stiffling a laugh, and despite his hand flying to his mouth, his cigarette fell to the ground and slowly went out, but he didn't even seem to notice.
"Come on. We know each other enough by now. Do you think I'd laugh at you?"
Vere stopped moving, halfway through the motion on shaking off the leaves caught in and around his ears. Before he had the chance to do anything else, the raven had sat down with a grunt, and let himself fall back onto the scattered pile of leaves, closing his eyes.
"This is pretty nice, actually."
The tension the ginger had been unknowingly under suddenly evaporated, and his ears finally went back up. Taking advantage of the monster having closed his eyes, he laid back down, head turned towards him, basking into his serene expression.
"Do you actually think so?", he said, trying to hold onto his suspicion despite knowing it was futile.
"Do you think I'd lie about this?"
"Hmph. You're not above holding off to make someone comfortable."
"Would that be a bad thing?"
"I'd rather you be honest."
"Well, rest assured that I honestly like this."
"Like I'd believe that."
"You're allowed to just enjoy the moment without a layer if irony you know."
"Were you under the impression I didn't know that?"
"It was a subtle way to get you to shut up, but you're being difficult."
"You like me being difficult."
"I do, but I appreciate the silence even more.", Ais eventually mumbled, opening an eye and grabbing a handful of leaves and scattering them all over the fox.
"And now you're not getting it just for that.", Vere hissed, fully unable to hide the smile plastered all over his face, clutching his own, bigger handful of leaves and brandishing it above his head as a threat.
"You give me no choice, do you?"
Rolling onto his side in an instant, Both monsters immediately launched at each other, leaves furiously flying around all around them. Grabbing each other with pure glee, shoving wet piles of wet leaves on each other and tackling each other in puddles in the grass, without a care in the world.
Vere didn't know how much time they spent tussling before he realised he didn't regret letting himself go today.
Ais suddenly grabbed him, shoving him gently against the trunk of a tree.
"Does that mean I win?", he teasted.
"Interesting thta your version of winning always involves dominating a man, huh?"
"I don't know what you're talking about.", he whispered, leaning close so their faces touched.
A small amused snort suddenly rang near, and he froze, looking frantically around for who he'd have to kill to keep this a secret from anyone else.
His ears flattened and he let out a rageful growl, staring at that wretched, fucking doctor, hiding his smile behind his hand, trying to look innocent.
"Good afternoon, Ais, Vere."
He must have been really amused if he even forgot to ignore him, and that was not something the monster enjoyed in any way in this situation.
"Hey doc. Uhh. this can stay between us, right?", AIs asked, letting out a nervous chuckle.
"Of course."
"And you better stick to it.", Vere added.
Kuras' eyes narrowed slightly, but his smile didn't falter.
"Rest easy, I have no desire to tarnish whatever reputation you may have."
The ginger scrunched up his nose, feeling a tint of insult to his remarks, but decided to not escalate the situation-- Allmother forbid taking on whatever he was, durign his free time of all times. The doctor didn't seem to want to linger anyway, quickly shutting off the book he had laid open on his lap, adressing a curt nod before walking away, pristine white coat wholly unsullied unlike both monsters, now staring at each other shivering, dumbfounded, covered in mud and leaves.
"I think we can also keep this between us", Vere whispered, a smile starting to appear on his lips despite himself.
"Just another secret to add the pile, nothing much", Ais shrugged, pushing his hair back with his hand, "do you want to warm up with a cup of tea back at my place? My treat."
"So you can parade Princess around me and gush about thenew tricks you taught her? Tch, lucky your tea's good enough for me to stick around anyway."
