mineo

[dotcom]

Comments

[sengokus]

[he snorts faintly at that

shaking his head]

No, we'll probably be okay. It's twisted this week, but White and I don't have a weird relationship or anything. I don't think anyone even knows anything's different....

[just takeru and (redacted) who is the only other person mineo's told]

I wouldn't make Grace-san sit through anything awkward or complicated. So we'll be fine. Trial might get annoying, but I'll try not to make anything worse.

[in terms of inspiring jealousy..... plEASE LET HIM JUST VIBE]

1/2

[dotcom]

... well, if you're sure. I'll be staying out of it.

[ he gets another text and pulls his phone out to read. ]

[dotcom]

[ and just fucking drops it to cover his face in his hands ]

[sengokus]

[ . . . . . . he's going to hate this and he can feel it

but he will go to reach for takeru's phone and hold it back out to him]

What now...

[dotcom]

Fucking Santa Claus.

[ he'll take the phone and will just go back to walking. ]

[sengokus]

[ . . . right. mineo will follow after and then after a little stretch of silence]

Um.

I figured that out by the way.

It's harmless....

[dotcom]

[ he just shows mineo the texts. ]

. . . Something very odd happened when I was texting Molly. I know this may not be the time, but when I saw it, I became very alarmed. I hadn't ever noticed this before, and I fear that its appearance now bodes very ill. I can only hope to be wrong.

I'm not sure whether we should be talking about this over text. Is it secure?

The following has appeared among the list of pictograms on my phone:

🎅🏻

[ he's so tired. ]

Who did this?

[sengokus]

[this is

so funny hold on

he's absolutely just going to fucking rest his forehead on takeru's shoulder because he's losing his fucking mind]

H-Holy fuck, noooooooo, Harrow-saaaaannnn.

[dotcom]

Who did this.

[ but he allows the shoulder. ]

[sengokus]

[he's still laughing but to his credit he looks a little guilty about it when he straightens up wiping at the corner of his eye]

Ugh. White. He already feels like shit about it since it's just a prank gone wrong, so I figure we can let them work it out. I scolded him a little, but I'll beat him up for you next week if you're extra mad.

[dotcom]

[ he sighs. ]

As long as it's just that, but she's going to be so pissed later.

[sengokus]

Yup, and he's pretty prepared for that. He really didn't mean for it to get this bad.

[phew okay he's done laughing]

It's the power he got after the second group disappeared on Thursday, by the way. Making an illusion that'll distract someone... but he didn't get an answer about how long it'd last. He thought it'd be a few minutes max.

[dotcom]

Hopefully it's only twenty-four hours, since she was hit with it after you threw a snake at me.

[sengokus]

[







back to looking guilty]

Sorry.... It didn't bite you right? I wasn't really watching where I was throwing them to. There were so many snakes, Takeru.

[dotcom]

No. Which you're lucky for.

[ also

we can probably say they are passing near the simulations room for if we want to just flash forward this thread til after (gestures at mingle) ]

[sengokus]

[well

picking this up immediately after the greed thread because of course mineo is following after but he won't actually try to stop takeru from wherever he's going]

[dotcom]

[ well, for now, he doesn't really have a clear location other than Away From Crowd.

eventually, he'll slow to a stop to lean against a wall. ]

Goddammit...

[sengokus]

[ . . . . .

mineo reaches out, just to place a hand on takeru's back, between his shoulderblades]

Takeru.

[dotcom]

[ he doesn't respond right away, but there's an eventual, ]

No one noticed, right?

[sengokus]

.... no more than they'd normally react to something like that.

[to someone having a gun drawn on them. so he can't say if anyone's picked up on takeru's trauma specifically but... well, he knows how much takeru prefers his privacy.

but he'll just rub slow circles against takeru's back, to try to relax him a bit, grounding him]

[dotcom]

[ he nods in response, breathing in and out slowly. ]

Good. That's... good. [ ... ] You didn't get shot?

[ logically, he knows no one got shot (besides greed, it seems, but he'll process that one later). but he still has to make sure. ]

[sengokus]

No, I'm fine. You're fine. No one got shot.

[just simple reassuring statements - though he'll reach for one of takeru's hands with his own, bring it up to rest over mineo's heart. a completely normal cadence of his heartbeat under takeru's fingertips, a normal rise of breath, calm, as if to provide additional evidence.]

See? We're okay.

[dotcom]

[ he just nods again. ]

We're okay.

[ he'll repeat after him, relaxing under the touch. the confirmation seems to has done its job. ]

[sengokus]

[good.

then mineo is just going to use that hold on takeru's hand to lightly tug him closer into a hug.

he just seems like he could use one.]

[dotcom]

[ he really doesn't allow himself that many moments of weakness.

so takeru is stiff, at first, when mineo initiates the hug, but that's probably not a surprise. but as the seconds pass, he'll lean more into it. ]

Stupid.

[ the fact that he's even able to say it implies it's not directed at mineo. ]