Chapter Text
And so, the weekend finally arrived, Nova spent most of the morning working on paperwork and astronomy research, nothing out of the ordinary for him.
Apparently, he had not learned his lesson to not text Eve about... anything really. After they told her about Neon J inviting him to dinner, she immediately began mocking him .
She just said they’re ‘unbelievable’, but it was still very insulting.
‘If you don’t want to go to the dinner, just cancel’
‘I cannot do that, I believe it is too late to do so.’
‘why? because it would be rude? You’re rude to everyone else, Neon included’
‘Eve, I am rude, not a monster.’
10 minutes or so later, Eve was at Nova’s house, when he inquired her about why, she just said it was for “ emotional support”
Emotional support my ass.
“What do you plan on wearing?” The diva sat on one of the stools around the kitchen table, she traced the brim of a cup Nova had served her, Nova placed down his coffee machine on said table and pointed at their emblematic jacket, causing Eve to stare in disbelief.
“You’re kidding” She paused, making a face of outright disgust “Right?”
He shook their head.
“I have no expectations for you yet you never fail to disappoint me” She rubbed her temples as Nova served himself a cup of coffee “I do not see what is the problem with me wearing this” They said nonchalantly, taking a sip off the beverage, the liquid disappearing into thin air as it touched Nova’s helmet.
“The problem is that Neon invited you to one of the most elegant restaurants in my district and you plan on wearing that ”
Nova shrugged “Precisely, I still cannot see what is wrong with that” He scoffed as he saw Eve’s nose wrinkle in annoyance, they have always had a keen eye to know what exactly ticked a person off, specially with Eve, who is very facially expressive.
She exhaled loudly “Let’s move on from that” Standing up and grabbing Nova, she dragged him around until she found his room.
It was the same as the kitchen, paintings in the walls about space, only some shelves in the walls with books, nothing exceptional. Nova had always considered themself a minimalist, cluttered spaces stressed them, but empty rooms also did, so he had to find a healthy middle between the two.
Eve looked at the center of the room and groaned.
“A round bed? seriously?”
“I find round beds delightful, thank you very much”
Eve narrowed her eyes as she stared at the bed, as if it had just slapped her in the face.
The bed was covered in a simple space themed blanket, with small cushions of different shapes placed on top of it, causing the sheets to be barely noticeable.
After some seconds, Eve decided to ignore the blatant crime of humanity that was Nova’s resting place, clapping her hands and looking around.
“Where is your-” She stopped herself as she laid eyes on Nova’s closet, humming as she walked over and opening it.
“What exactly are you doing?” Nova sat still on the entrance of his bedroom as Eve began taking out a variety of clothing from his closet “I’m getting you to dress decently, I won’t have the charter of Cast Tech dressing like its his usual Sunday morning as he goes to one of my most esteemed restaurants”
“Excuse you, this ‘usual Sunday morning outfit’ is better than what half of the simpletons in this city wear on a daily basis!” Nova moved his hands up near his head as they made air quotations, putting an emphasis on the atrocious description Eve made about his jacket.
Eve responded by zipping her mouth, telling him to shut up, after she spent a copious amount of time looking over his clothes, she lifted up a white spaced themed tuxedo, with simple drawings of celestial bodies embroidered with shiny purple threads. She insisted him to put it on and rushed out of the room, coming in a few minutes later to see how it looked.
“...Why are you still wearing shorts”
“I am not going to be putting pants on for this”
“Did you just forget what I said? Esteemed. Shorts are anything but elegant! Put the pants on” Eve rolled her eyes, then pointing at the complementary pants laying on the bed “Still a no, I only wear pants for important occasions”
“You wore shorts to your NSR welcoming party, what classifies as an important occasion? huh?” Nova just hummed in response “Gosh you have no clothing etiquette” she groaned as she rubbed her temples again, Nova had picked up that she does it often
“Incorrect, I rise above the need of clothing etiquette”
“Can you... at least get white shorts? So it looks decent ?” Nova looked over to his closet and takes out some simple, white shorts “that... will suffice..." she takes a peek back into the closet, taking out two big golden rings “What is this?”
Nova turned back to face Eve, as she held up the rings “Ah... they’re just some rings... meant as clothing decoration, they begin to rotate when you pace them on me” Nova made a mental note to throw that thing to the trash when he came back
“Ohhh, just like Saturn, right?” she traced her fingers though the detailed carvings in the rings, noticing how they were all handmade “I suppose. Which sucks, Saturn sucks”
“Where does this sudden hate for Saturn come from? I thought you only hated Pluto?” She placed the rings back into the closet “I personally really like Saturn”
Nova groaned, scratching the back of his neck “Well I do not, she is awful”
They moved on from that topic. After that they talked about whatever came to mind as Eve looked for shoes that matched the outfit and a hat Nova had lying around.
Nova came out of his room, fully dressed on the clothes Eve had picked for him, she turns to look at him, inspecting him up and down to then frown “It looks... passable, I suppose, if I ignore your legs exist, it’s a solid 9/10”
“9/10? what is that supposed to mean?”
“I took out one point because I don’t like you” She smirked, followed by Nova groaning “I should have told him to gift me a book or something, this is going to be horrendous” He rubbed the side of his helmet, Eve exhaled and walked over to him.
“Look, if I’m honest, I don’t think it will go as bad as you think” she grabbed his upper arms, rubbing them slightly.
“As a friend of both Neon and you, I feel that if you tried to not be passive aggressive and mean for once, you would get along well. You’re going to be stuck with him for the next couple of months anyways, so attempt not to make yourself more miserable than you already are”
She had a point, he should try to make this the least agonizing for himself, so, maybe he’ll try to be nice for a change, give Neon J slightly more patience.
Eve let go off him, looking at the time on a clock hanging on one of the walls “We should probably get going, you don’t want to be late with Neon, he will bother you with it for the rest of the night”
Thus, they were off to Dream Fever.
Nova was now standing in front of the restaurant's entrance, Neon J was probably inside waiting for their arrival. He took a deep breath and stepped inside, his attention went immediately to his coworker, who was pacing around the main hall. A loud ping came from his monitor as he turned and walked over to him.
“Ah! Supernova, I’m glad you could make it” He extended his free hand, while he held his cane with the other, Nova shook his hand. Neon went to the front desk and one of the workers guided them to their assigned table, it was right next to a picture window, giving them a direct look into the rest of the district. The table was round, a mantel with detailed patterns covering it. There was a cylinder lamp placed in the center with a variety of flowers surrounding it.
The two artists sat down on opposite sides, staying in silence for the next couple of minutes, Nova took the chance to inspect Neon’s outfit in detail, he wore a black suit with buttons from top to bottom, but they were merely for decoration. He had golden shoulder pads, with wool threads coming from it in a pattern, he still had the emblematic fluff on his neck. He wore a leather belt on his stomach, but the suit went on until the top of his knees, he had white pants and very large boots.
In essence, he looked like one of those toy nutcrackers kids would get on Christmas.
Neon J’s radar pinged slower than usual, Nova wondered what it meant, he had recognized what some of the paces and volume of the pings meant, but not in this case. Did it mean he was relaxed?
The manager had always been a mystery to Nova, he was so expontaneous, unpredictable even.
“Did you tell Eve you were inviting me to this place?” Nova decided to break the silence, trying to be nice to him,
Neon jumped slightly on his seat, a loud ping came from his monitor “Oh! I would never tell her about it, she would have immediately jumped into making fun of me one way or the other”
Ah...
“What about you? Did you tell her?” He began tapping the table with two of his fingers, Nova sayed quiet, which gave the answer right away. Neon J began laughing at this.
Nova groaned and his coworker took notice “I suppose she mocked you didn’t she?” Neon J put his monitor to rest on his hand “She did, she made fun of the situation and then she appeared at my house to choose my clothes for me, I do not even like this suit that much”
Neon J’s radar pinged “Well, I don’t think it's that bad, the embroidery is a very nice touch, it seems nice” Nova hummed “How did you know there was embroidery? you had told me that you cannot notice details with your radar vision” Nova leaned closer to the table, tittling his head to the side.
“Ah, You remembered? I did say that, but embroidery has a special texture, it sticks out of the cloth, making it very easy to notice” He tapped on his radar before placing his hands back on the table.
They went back to silence, until Neon J spoke up again “Soooo… how’s it going?” He fidgeted with his fingers, tapping them on the table. He was clearly struggling to make small talk with Nova, which they couldn’t blame him for honestly, they had not really had that many conversations in the past. They were either work related or very aggressive, this was new for both of them.
“I have been... well. I spent most of the morning working on some research-” Neon J interrupted him, probably not realizing Nova was not finished “Ah right, space, you’re really into that, correct?” He paused while he tapped his own shoulders in a repetitive motion “What were you researching, exactly?”
“The Kardashev scale” Nova stated, not planning to go into more detail, he was sure it would bore his coworker and he did not need more complications today. However, Neon J leaned over, eager for Nova to elaborate. He shifted on his seat and sighed.
“Practically, the Kardashev scale is a method to scale the level of technological advancement in a civilization, usually divided into three types. This scale is merely a hypothetical”
Neon J’s radar pinged at a faster rate, paying close attention to Nova’s words “What are these three types?”
“Type three civilizations are considered the most advanced, being able to control and use the potential energy in their own galaxy” Nova began rambling, fixing the cuffs of their suit as he went on “Type two civilizations can only utilize the power on their solar system. And finally type one can merely use all their potential in their own planet, it is pretty simple”
Nova shifted his attention back to Neon J, who was practically sitting at the edge of his chair as he heard them talking “Would you like to take a guess at what type we are?” He traced their fingers around the cloth in the table as his coworker thought of an answer. Neon J tapped his monitor as his radar spinned faster, humming as he thought of answer
“I would believe we were in between type one and type two?” He did not sound sure of himself, but Nova could hear the interest in his robotic voice “You see, it is speculated were not even type 1, were closer to around... zero point seven”
A loud ping came from the monitor, catching the DJ off guard “What do you mean 0.7? That's... nothing basically!” Neon roared, throwing his arms back into the air dramatically.
“We are yet to be able to use all of our planet’s resources to its fullest potential. Until we do, we will be stuck at type zero” He giggled, they had not expected such a reaction from him. Or well, he had not expected a reaction, period. Nova thought the manager would be uninterested in hearing about such topics, only listening out of decency.
“Well that’s bullshit isn’t it, who is in charge of this anyways?” Neon J crossed his arms and leaned back into the chair, sinking into it “Very respected scientists did”
“Those respected scientists can shove their dumb scale up their ass then” Neon muttered, turning his montor to face the wide window next to them, he shook his hand dismissively for dramatic effect.
Nova found this amusing, the way his coworker got overly worked up just because of a simple civilization scale. He felt thankful over Neon J being so willing to listen to him talk about such things.
“I did not mention this before, but another goal I have with my satellite is to make bigger steps towards achieving a society of higher regard. To at least be considered a type one in the scale, but they are just secondary goals in the grand scheme of things”
Neon J nodded slowly in response, as he processed all of the information DJ had given him, they fell back into silence for a while, but it was more comfortable this time. Maybe the night wouldn’t be that bad after all.
A waiter passed by their table and handed them the menu, the radar displayed on Neon J’s monitor began spinning quicker, the pinging also did, being more repetitive and losing its pattern.
“Is... everything alright Neon J?” Nova said, paying close attention to the monitor, He jumped on his seat, as if he was lost in thought and had forgotten he was currently having dinner with the DJ.
“Ah, yes, I am fine, don’t worry, I was just..." he paused. “The menu surprised me, yes” Nova noticed how his coworker began bouncing his leg, he would push more into the topic but they refrained from doing so.
Neon J reached into his pockets and took out his damaged phone, connecting it to his monitor and pointing the camera to the menu.
Nova pulled up the menu himself and began reading, but in the corner of their eye he could easily notice that the manager was not reading the menu. Solely focusing on a single page.
Nova could easily see he was not as comfortable as before, to try to ease the air again, Nova attempted small talk with him.
“So" Neon J immediately pointed the phone’s camera at Nova “Why does Haym struggle so much to walk around your mansion?”
That is… such a barebone theme of conversation Nova, good job.
Still, Neon J quickly looked more relaxed, pushing the menu lightly away from him “I can’t for the life of me figure out why he doesn’t! I thought that after living in the mansion he would at some point get used to it and learn the ins and outs of it”
He punctuates each couple of words with a swift movement of his arms, it looks as if he's dancing “Turns out I was wrong for believing that. It’s been... 10 years? And he still doesn’t know how to navigate the place. I’ve checked any problems on his memory disc or code and there’s nothing! He’s just… like that I suppose” Neon J chucked, seemingly not that bothered over it.
Nova rested his helmet on the palm of his hand, afterwards, Neon J subconsciously imitated him “want to hear a funny story? We got into NSR by accident”
Nova hummed, showing clear interest in the story. Giving Neon J a reason to continue “My troops were just recently created. Still picking up information and mannerisms from around them, figuring out who they were. One day, Eloni found a flier promoting the future lights up auditions and they all collectively begged me to let them participate. So I did. The day came and they got chosen, I believed NSR would just give them a prize money or promotion, then Tatiana contacted me and began talking about running a district”
“And you had no idea about it, did you”
“I did NOT, but my troops did, they just kept the information ahold from me. They knew I wouldn’t have allowed them to participate if there was a chance of me having to become a district charter”
Nova giggled under his breath, he did not expect 1010’s beginnings as a megastar to be so... bizzare for lack of a better word “What did you do then?”
“At first, I declined the offer. I had recently come back from the Border Wars and had the responsibility to raise my troops, I didn’t think I was ready to add ‘managing a district’ on top of it. But I thought about it and saw how much it could help all 6 of us and I gave in”
“Help? how so?” Neon J tapped his foot on the ground “You see, I aim to protect the citizens of Vinyl City with my life. And leading a district is one of the best ways I could do so”
Of course, Nova had heard many times from his coworkers about the strive that the manager has to act as a protector of the city, quite mundane if you asked him.
“For my troops, becoming a charter would make them become more sociable. They have always had trouble with meeting new people, in fact! They used to be scared of you the first few months after you became a megastar”
“Well that is… insulting” Neon hummed, at this point, he had already gotten used to the pinging from his monitor
“don’t take it like that, you were just intimidating to them. They don’t see you as such anymore. Though Rin did tell me not to come, so, maybe you’re still intimidating to him”
Right after, a waiter passed by their table again, inquiring their order, Nova simply asked for pasta and water, and after long minutes of waiting, Neon J settled for meat.
“So… pasta, huh?” Nova noticed whirring and clanking, coming from Neon J. In past NSR meetings, the DJ had heard the same sound, but it was low, most would have assumed it was background noise “Yes, I do not eat meat, the texture irritates me”
The pinging got louder and more rapid, they lasted in silence until the waiter came back to serve them the meal. As Nova took a bite out of his place, a loud ping came from Neon J’s monitor “is there something wrong?”
“How… how did that… where? I- what”
Neon stumbled on his words as he signaled to where his mouth would be.
Right, eating.
“Do not think much of it, it will drive you crazy, maybe one day I will explain how I can eat” Neon just nodded slowly and changed his attention back to the plate.
The two share one of two conversations while Nova ate, after a while, he noticed how his coworker had not touched his plate.
That was odd.
…
Oh
Oh
It clicked for him.
“Neon J” he jumped at the mention of his name, slowly turning his monitor to look at Nova “excuse me if this comes off in any way rude but… can you… eat?”
PING!
The manager stayed silent, tapping the side of his screen “It’s… hard to explain uh… I can eat, yes. But, since I don’t have a mouth… or most of my digestive system… I… uh- shit”
“You cannot eat the stake, can you?”
He sighed.
“…ne…gative…”
Oh for the stars, this man keeps reaching a new low.
“I… If you could not eat, why did you invite me to dinner?!”
“You said we could go to eat!”
“I was just listing off things since you were so dead set on thanking me, you were the one who chose it!”
Nova groaned, Neon J’s leg bounced, making a crackling noise, while the DJ rubbed his helmet.
Stars! This was awful.
“I apologize Neon J, I was not aware of this-“
“No no no, stop that, I should be the one apologizing, I realized it was a bad idea right after you left”
The two stayed silent until Neon J huffed, which turned into laughter, the DJ joined.
“Is this a bad time to bring back the fact that you do not think before you act?”
“it's an awful time, Supernova …but yes, I will no refute that fact”
“Just call me Nova, we are not currently in a working environment” He flung his hand slightly, dismissing him. Neon sighed “oh thank god I always hated how long your name is”
Nova stared at him, acting annoyed “Oh come on, you can’t just expect everyone to keep calling you DJ Subatomic Supernova over and over again and not get tired of it! You can also call me Neon, or J, whatever you see fit”
“…Your pings are not being exporadic anymore” Nova had already finished his plate at this point, pushing it over as he shifted on his seat. Neon turned his monitor to face him, muttering a fast ‘what?’ in return.
“Your monitor pings a lot, I do not know why yet but it can pick different paces and volume. When the food arrived your pinging got louder and did not have a pattern, and now it is back to how it usually is”
They both sat in silence, it was deafening, Neon stayed unmoved for some seconds. Was that wrong to comment on? Nova was sure he did not use any sort of tone that could make it come off as mocking or judgmental. Maybe Neon is not that comfortable with people talking about his cybernetics? This dinner was finally going well and Nova just had to go and mess it all over as always-
“You’ve been paying attention to my… pinging?” It was all Neon was able to blurt out, sitting still.
Nova struggled to reply, stumbling over their words “It is… quite hard not to pick it up when you are near, it is not a big deal, yes”
He laughed in response “You’re acting like this is some sort of incriminating information against you Nova, I apologize if my reaction was odd. I wasn’t expecting you to say that” The manager leaned back on his seat.
Well good. He was not mad about the comment, thank the stars.
“What are you planning to do with that?” The DJ pointed at Neon’s plate, who in return just shrugged “Don’t know, I would take it home to avoid wasting it, but I know none of us would end up eating it”
“Shall we leave then? I do not see a reason for us to stay here any longer”
Ping!
“Affirmative, I’ll pay and we can leave afterwards”
And so they did, Neon paid for the meal and apologized so much for leaving the food untouched that Nova could notice the waiter was genuinely concerned, Nova had to practically drag him out of the establishment, who thought he would be so apologetic over not being able to eat food?
Now, the two artists were simply walking around the district, talking idly, a complete 180 to the beginning of the dinner.
“You know? At first, I didn’t have the best opinion about you Nova, but you have managed to prove me wrong. You’re not as bad as I led myself to believe” Neon used his cane to tap Nova’s arm slightly. Making the DJ jump and yep in reaction, but he recovered his posture.
“Another one of your notorious ‘actions without thinking’ that I will be able to add to the never-ending list” Nova cleared their throat, Neon leaned over and hurried his pace, getting face to face with his coworker “Huh? How does that count?”
“You do not tell a person that your first impression of them was bad, it can come off as rude to some. Thankfully, I am a very calm and collected individual that does not mind negative opinions from lesser beings”
“Oh~! You’re such a saint! I was complimenting you”
“Ah… I… Do not think that telling me that I am not as bad as you thought counts as a complement, but I will take it”
Neon laughed and patted him on the back “Now that we are talking about that. I must admit you also did not make the best impression on me, I found you loud and obnoxious, someone I definitely would not want to hang around with”
He paused, Staring at Neon’s radar “But…?”
Nova considered leaving it as that, it would be amusing to see the physical reaction the manager would have if they did not say anything else. But that would be too foul, so he continued.
“...But” Neon jumped slightly, his radar mimicking this action by emitting a louder ping, as if Neon was not expecting him to continue.
“You are not as bad as most people in this city, you do not come to my level in terms of brilliance, but I could come to consider you as an equal”
Neon did what could be considered as the equivalent of an eye roll “very nice…”
“You have… a variety of strengths that are worth noting off, is what I mean”
He laughed as he spun his cane, making all sorts of little tricks with them “Complement taken”
They kept walking, appreciating the sight that was Dream Fever, Nova wondered how it would look on the lenses of Neon, was the infrastructure sharp enough for him to tell the shape clearly? They were in silence again, but it was comfortable, He felt comfortable, It was a weird feeling.
“Actually, I believe we both started on the right foot” Neon stopped walking, turning swiftly back to face Nova, tapping his foot onto the ground.
“I would assume you meant to say left foot?”
“Left foots are good luck in my case, that’s not the matter right now. What I’m saying is; I feel we should begin anew”
The cyborg extended his hand to the DJ “I’m Neon J, Manager of 1010 and protector of Vinyl city, Pleasure to meet you!”
Nova quickly noted how this was the same as their first interaction, verbatim. Though it felt… friendlier. Back then the introduction felt more like an obligation from both parts. They would be working together from now on so they had to be accuantainces, this was not the case here.
Nova cleared his throat, taking Neon’s hand and shaking it slightly. he only now noticed how big their hands are in comparison “DJ Subatomic Supernova, Award-Winning Astrophysicist and future avatar of Earth”
Neon hummed as he tightened his grip on the handshake “See! Now we are off on the left foot!” Nova nodded, confused over the shift between the ‘right foot’ and ‘left foot’ term, but feeling… optimistic.
Almost at the end of the district, Nova looked up at the night sky. It truly is a shame that most stars are hardly visible inside the city.
He did not notice they had audibly sighed until his coworker pointed it out.
“Is there something wrong?” The manager did not move his monitor, instead he kept it facing ahead, Nova had guessed by now that most of those movements were more of a habit than an actual need.
“Not at all, I was just thinking about how the light pollution makes it hard to stargaze in any place in Vinyl city. Even in Cast Tech, no matter how dark it is, the stars still are barely visible, I usually use the celestial bodies as inspirations for my creations. So it is disappointing.”
Neon hummed “Is there a way for you to see them then?”
“I can use the telescope in the planetarium but it is not as authentic, there’s a hill outside the city that I tend to go to though”
“Well that’s good to hear at least, you have some places to see the stars. Now that I think about it, I haven’t gone stargazing in years”
“If you wish, I could take you to do so one day”
Neon tapped the tip of his cane against the floor with a rhythm “You better keep that offer up Soldier!” He pointed at him dramatically, causing the DJ to groan.
“I suppose you were really inspired when you got launched in space, being so close to the stars-”
Nova stopped in their tracks, his body tensed up as he felt a chill go down his spine, as if someone was rubbing an ice cube against his back. When did he begin sweating? Gods he felt awful all of the sudden. They felt more than great a few seconds ago, his head was pounding, was he dying? He would not be surprised if he was-
“Nova?”
Ping.
Neon placed his hand on their shoulder, making him break out from their small spiral, he snapped back to turn to Neon, who was expecting any sort of reaction.
He had lost composure in front of his coworker, perfect.
“It was fine ”
Ping.
“I’m sorry for bringing that up, I didn’t realize it would be a sensitive subject-”
“I said, it was Fine , Neon”
Ping.
“Just…”
He needed to calm down, then rubbed his helmet as he felt Neon’s hand stroke his back in circles. Why did he react like that? it was fine , truly, they couldn't care less. Why did his body had such a vivid reaction to just the mention of being lau-
the mention of that .
Ping!
Gods, he could not even stomach thinking about it, he took deep breaths, hoping the cyborg did not notice how shaken he was.
“Some… things you love or care about are better to be simply contemplated from afar”
The silence felt deafening again, it felt familiar, he hated this, he needed to…
“I could… also add this to the list of actions you did not think though”
Neon visibly relaxed after the DJ said that.
The air felt lighter again, he pushed his palm to his monitor and laughed quietly.
“Ah…! Look at the hour, if I arrive any late to the mansion my troops will freak out, I have to leave” He tapped his monitor “That sound concerning, but I do hope you have a safe return home then”
“The feeling is mutual! Apologies for some of the problems I managed to cause tonight, thank you for accepting my invitation”
“I did not have much of a choice”
Neon groaned “And I am sorry for that”
“It will take more than a simple ‘sorry’ to make it up to me sadly”
“What?! Do you want me to invite you to another restaurant so I can waste meat again?”
“I do consider myself a food enjoyer”
They both laughed, Neon straightened his back and patted Nova on the shoulder
“I’ll see you soon, Nova. Have a good rest of the night!”
Nova simply waved him off as he walked away, just to get hit by the realization that he has to head back to Cast Tech.
How fun.
After an hour or so, he had finally arrived at his house, throwing all of the uncomfortable clothing Eve had forced them to wear and changing into a more comfortable set of clothes.
As he served himself a cup of coffee, they thought back to the dinner. It genuinely went way better than he thought of. His relationship with the manager got abysmally better, which would make their teamwork easier from now on, and even though he would refuse to admit it, they enjoyed most of the night a lot.
most .
Even if he attempted to shift his mind off the topic, they could not help but think back on his reaction to… the thing .
He had felt indifferent about what had happened in his encounter with those plutonians, he actually could not remember most of his time in space, most of it was just feeling like he was drowning in the silence of his own thoughts. He was already aware to keep himself distracted to not be left with their own thoughts.
But he was fine , he had moved on from it, or so he believed.
If he had actually moved on, they would not have had that bad of a reaction.
Was it actually that bad? He could not tell, maybe thinking so much about it would eat them up, he does not want to feel like he's dying on the spot again. They did not want to feel like that at all-
His train of thought was stopped at the sound of sizzling, followed by a stinging pain coming from his hand.
Before his brain could catch up with what was going on, they dropped the cup he was holding in the aforementioned hand, the cup which shattered into pieces the moment it impacted the ground. Thanks to his godlike luck, one of the pieces flew straight into his exposed left leg, cutting into it.
He winced in pain as he fell back onto one of the stools in the kitchen and moved his leg closer to him to check the wound. Naming every celestial being known to man instead of swears.
Everything was moving so fast, he felt like passing out, the smell of blood was not helping his case either.
The sight of his bloodied leg was… disturbing to say the least. Sure, the piece had not gone that deep to probably cause damage, but he had not seen so much blood ever, it was nauseating.
His hand felt like it was melting, this was just perfect! just the thing he needed on this fine night! Oh so great! They sure loved being the gods’ favorite right now.
He had time to process what had just happened, he forgot he was pouring their coffee on a cup while he was lost in thought, the coffee overflowed and burned his hand, and when he realized their instinct was to immediately drop the cup.
He shifted on the stool to get closer to one of the lower cabinets in the kitchen, opening it and taking out a first aid kit, he quickly took out the piece and tried to clean the blood off with paper, but did not succeed do much since even touching the skin near the wound would make him want to dig his nonexistent teeth into the table.
They grabbed a bandage and wrapped it around his leg. It still felt awful, but gods was he too tired to do anything else, he just wanted to drop on their bed and sleep for the next week or so. He wished he could.
He laughed at the irony, left legs might be of good luck for Neon J, but they sure were not for him, huh?