Set post chicken KQ but pre-arson
A note sent him to the grounds, some part of Nate curious about the task Sunjata is helping with, but a much larger part of him bored and irritated by his own misadventures. He should just stay in the VlamVloed, but the sun is setting, and he’s been restless.
So he wanders. Through the ruins, an unlit smoke between his lips, waiting for him to remember and light it. Not that it really changes the effect either way.
It’s pure chance that has him stumbling over Azrael, Nate watching his fellow demigod for a ponderous moment before moving his smoke behind his ear, and entering the ruined building they seemed to be working on.
“[say]Hey Sprout.[/say]” He greets softly, leaning against the doorframe and letting the setting sun silhouette him. “[say]Workin’ hard here?[/say]”
Ever since, well, everything, Azrael has remained home in the Grounds, avoiding the Wilds and the unknown in order to work on what they’d promised Wessex they’d help with. One of those things was rebuilding the Ruins, painstaking process by painstaking process. But they had made a promise they intended to keep, and it’s one that has them quite busy right now between the tools in a belt around their waist and their blueprints sprawled out to the side of them as they add a support beam to one of the walls on the inside after noticing the wall seemed to sink.
Only when their hemming and hawing has them pausing to stare at the blueprints, do they notice the shift in the fading light that comes in from the door, and if not for Nate’s soft greeting the young demigod might have jumped out of their skin. They still do whirl to meet their fellow demigod, dark brows rising high enough to disappear beneath dark curls as they try to relax and stop fidgeting. “[say]Hi Nate.[/say]” They say softly in return, loosening their grip on their hammer. “[say]Yeah, just… Doing some reinforcement. Didn’t know you were stopping by, though! It’s good to see you![/say]” They say with a brighter, easier smile.
But they’re still a touch awkward about things, despite having picked up a few new mannerisms among their fellow people in the Grounds. “[say]Did you… Want to hang out?[/say]” It’s a bit boring of a task, truthfully, but Azrael can stop the work and pick it up again whenever it suits them.
The smile that spans Nate’s face grows softer by barely there increments, his arms dropping to his sides while he steps in to the room. “[say]Looks important.[/say]” He praises, tongue poking out to wet his lips. “[say]I wasn’t actually planning on stopping, but when I saw who it was, how could I resist?[/say]” His tone shifts to some closer, almost teasing, Nate slipping into some easy fraternal place the more he talks with Azrael.
“[say]Fuck yeah I do.[/say]” Nate replies easily, lopsided grin crossing his face. He pushes through awkwardness like a hot knife through butter, more than personable enough for the both of them. “[say]Thought maybe I could make up for... spookin’ you last time we talked.[/say]” A flicker of sheepishness crosses his face before he leans in, a hand reaching out to grab Azrael and them under his arm. “[say]Y’like hide and seek?[/say]” He suggests, pulling his fellow Demi-god outside, into the maze of ruined buildings.
“[say]It is important![/say]” They say with a brighter smile – one that flushes and grows as Nate mentions he specifically stopped because of them. It’s so surprisingly nice, in a way, that they don’t exactly know what to do other than give Nate their full attention, eyes bright and the grin easy and fanged as they look at their fellow demigod.
Brows furrow a fraction at the curse, but they bypass it quickly when Nate agrees. The whole making up for it has them shaking their head, dark curls bouncing around their head before a chimed laugh leaves them. “[say]It’s okay. Sometimes people have bad days. That’s okay.[/say]” They haven’t had many, personally, but that doesn’t matter when it comes to other people. And they’re swiftly tucked under Nate’s arm with complete and utter ease.
Hide and seek, though? There’s a pause, a moment of silence as mischief glimmers in their gaze and they find themselves outside with Nate, before their head tilts up to peer at their friend. “[say]Fuck yeah I do.[/say]” They repeat Nate’s prior statement with a hint of pride, another chimed laugh. “[say]Do you wanna count first or should I?[/say]” They seem to have a bit more bounce in their steps as they wait for Nate’s response, vibrating with excitement.
Fuck. Fuck Azrael is a good kid, and it really only makes Nate that much guiltier about the way he’d acted before. “[say]Yea, I uh... thanks.[/say]”
Nates grin seems to grow impossibly wider at the curse that leaves Azrael’s mouth, his hand coming out with thought to ruffle the others hair. “[say]I’ll count first, sprout, get hidin’.[/say]” And he does, waiting until the other Demi-god has gotten some distance away before he starts counting, loud and steady.
When he hits twenty he crows out a warning and sets to seeking, starting a methodical sweep of the surrounding ruins. Nate jumps around corners and lifts debris covering hides holes with his staticky arms, whistling the whole time he searches, a manic grin on his face.
“[say]You’re welcome![/say]” They chime – though they don’t really know what they’ve done to elicit such a response. It passes swiftly though, at the prospect of a game, and Azrael’s grin is bright as it matches Nate’s own – the curse slipping from their tongue a bit awkwardly, despite the way they’ve mimicked it.
Nate says he’ll count first, with a ruffle of their hair, and they wiggle a bit playfully under the attention before they’re off like a bullet, zipping toward a space they think they can fit into. And by the time Nate’s done counting, Azrael is still as a statue, hiding behind a stone pillar with a slab of half rotted wood beside them.
And it does take some time before Nate finds them, and when he does they’ll be found with a spider trying to crawl along their shoulder given the intrusion. They don’t seem to mind though, because the grin is bright, a chimed laughter slipping from them when the staticky hand pulls away the slab of wood and Nate’s found them. “[say]Oh, you found me![/say]” They snicker in childish glee to find Nate’s face once he has found them.
They do spend a moment to corral the spider off their shoulder back into the web they’d disturbed, before they get to counting too, prepared to go off to ‘find’ wherever it is Nate’s chosen to hide in the Ruins.
It actually surprises Nate how effectively Azrael has managed to hide. The tune of his whistling changes suddenly, a sinister da-nuh, da-nuh repeated as he stalks through rubble.
Luck is what gets him there in the end, Nate catching a strange shape in a shadow and double taking to find his fellow Demi-god. “[say]I found you![/say]” He cheered the same moment Azrael did, arms lifting while a glowing hand is offered towards the other. “[say]My turn.[/say]”
Nate finds his hiding spot quickly, scrambling up a nearby pile of rubble and squeezing between some of the larger pieces before the countdown is even halfway done. It’s a mercy that he isn’t claustrophobic, the way he’s squished in here. The only thing that might work against him is how loud he’d been scrambling through loose rocks, but most of the area had been loose rock. It’s fine.
It is quite exciting whenever Nate finds them, the glee that crosses their face is nothing short of illuminating. But then it’s Nate’s turn and Azrael begins the count down, eyes shut – paired with hands over their eyes just to ensure that there’s little to no chance they could cheat at the game. Eventually, though, they manage it, the countdown completed, and they’re stepping through the ruins in search of Nate – pulling up ruined wood panels and pieces of stone as if Nate might have changed shapes and squeezed himself into a random space.
And truthfully, it takes some time, before they’re searching through a spot of loose rocks they hadn’t noticed before – loose stones that seem new all things considered. So it’s there that they begin their search, pulling back pieces of rubble and fallen bricks to see if anything (or anyone) is hiding within it.
Nate is not patient, not usually. Here though, he manages to rein himself in, manages to be just patient enough to wait until Azrael comes close. Closer. Just a liiiiitle biiiiit closer.
A glowing hand snatches out from the darkness as the Demi-god touches their first brick, Nate just barely holding in a shout. It’s supposed to be thrilling, not terrifying. Laughter follows it immediately though, Nate working his way out of the crack and reaching out with a real hand to ruffle Azrael’s hair. “[say]Y’found me![/say]”
“[say]One more round?[/say]” He asks, Vicki no his head. “[say]Try to find a a really good spot this time, okay?[/say]”
Honestly, the glowing hand scares the fuck out of Azrael as it suddenly pops up and snatches out at them, a high pitched screech leaving them as they cover their mouth with both their hands – eyes wide in surprise even as Nate laughs and Azrael doesn’t know what else to do other than to try and laugh their surprise and shock away.
They step back to let Nate manage to wrangle himself out of the crack he’d shoved himself into, and they beam up at Nate as the hand ruffles their dark curls again. “[say]Okay, I will![/say]” They assure Nate with a fierce determination, as if they had no other plans but to pick just as difficult of a space to find them as Nate had found.
This time, when Nate begins counting, Azrael manages to find something they think is perfect.
It’s an old destroyed chimney, still wide enough but hidden enough that it wouldn’t be unassuming and in fact, given the proper amount of time to inspect it during the countdown, it looks like it’s half embedded into the wall and not hollowed out. So they sink down into it, folding up into some type of ball, shrinking as much as they can.
And then Azrael waits.
“[say\2I know you will.[/say]” The words leave Nate in a warm rush, his hands on his hips while he watches Azrael run off, his count starting up a moment later. “[say]Ready or not, here I come![/say]” He shouts after reaching twenty, immediately beginning my his creeping whistling again, eyes swivelling and looking for any sign of life.
Nate walks in stubborn circles for close to ten minutes before he finally groans in frustration, his hands wrapping around his mouth to proclaim his defeat, and encourage Azrael back out. As soon as they’re side by side again, Nate lifts his fellow Demi-gods arms in a gaudy show of victory, a cheer rising up behind his teeth. They find their way past Azrael’s workspace, towards the direction of the Slagveld, where Nate can keep talking until he can catch up with Sunjata.
Done <3
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