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Things were going surprisingly well in the first few months after Fade’s introduction to the Protocol. Most of the agents had, to varying degrees of eagerness, forgiven her by now, and the ones who still hated her were equal in number to the ones Fade could now call friends.
Neon somehow fit into none of these categories. She couldn’t truly say she’d forgiven the woman, despite the increasing amount of time they were spending together all but removing the uneasiness and fear she felt around the woman. Oddly, Neon found that these days, Fade had somewhat of a calming aura around her. When her stoic mask slipped, as it seemed to do around the electric radiant more and more as time went on, Fade’s true self was revealed beneath: a kind, caring, empathetic person in spite of the physical and mental scars she bore. Because of this, Neon certainly couldn’t say she hated Fade; in fact, she quite enjoyed spending time with her. But could she call her a friend? Knowing that in her heart of hearts, she hadn’t fully forgiven her former blackmailer, she didn’t think she could quite say they were friends: to do so would be a disservice to Fade, with the latter knowing she hadn’t truly forgiven her quite yet. She was getting there, but the words Fade had written for her in Neon’s dossier were harsh, evil, even. Fade understood, even if it did hurt.
Still, Neon was appreciative of the steps Fade had taken to show how apologetic she was about the situation, both to her personally and the rest of the Protocol. Fade was often the first one to volunteer for missions and even odd jobs around HQ in an attempt to prove herself. And privately, she had apologised to Neon profusely, saying that uncovering Neon’s fears in particular took a toll on her greater than any of the other agents, and had personally haunted her after the fact. Neon had found it odd; surely there were others with worse fears than her? But the sight of Fade getting nervous and fidgety while telling her told her not to pry. If Fade wanted to explain, she would, and Neon was more than happy to give Fade the time and space that Fade was giving her.
Fade’s muted and anxious mannerisms bothered Neon more than she would’ve liked to admit though. Thinking back to her dossier, she tried to connect the dots to figure out what might have Fade so anxious. Maybe it was something to do with her radiance? Fade was a very cagey person when it came to her radiance, though, and only the higher-ups knew the ins and outs of it.
Neon was beginning to figure it out, however, when one night she had come into the kitchen after one of her runs looking for snacks a-plenty. Being so fast had its downsides after all, with her incredibly fast metabolism being one of them. She entered the mess wrinkling her nose at the thought of Jett rummaging through her various stashes again , the depleted stash in her room coming to mind, courtesy of the wind radiant. The thought of food, however, made her stomach loudly grumble almost immediately after. At this time of night, she knew Viper and Fade at least were almost certainly still up, but she doubted either would be in the kitchen as she leisurely, yet wearily strolled out from the doors of the mess in the direction of the kitchen.
Neon didn’t get very far, however, as a certain someone seemed to have had their interest piqued by the loud noise of Neon’s hungry stomach. Or rather, some thing , as what was unmistakably Fade’s prowler slowly floated? trotted? toward her. Neon, having been trapped between the maw of the deadly Nightmare creature once, froze. It was as if she were there in that Turkish warehouse, living out her fears - trapped, with no escape, and no control. Just as sparks started to fly from her, prowler tilted its? her? their? head? heads? inquisitively, nightmarish smoke wisping around it as it changed its massive panther-like form into that of a domestic housecat, a Turkish Angora if Neon wasn’t mistaken. The roles were rather reversed as the cat tried to ever so slowly advance toward the human, frozen in fear and unsure of what to do, in order to gain their trust. The fear and anxiety in Neon dissipated as she gained control over herself once again, prowler now sitting about 4 feet in front of her, her head tilted, but relaxed all the same.
“H-hey kitty…” Neon whispered huskily as she found the courage to slowly advance, just as prowler had done, fervently holding out her hand as she inched closer and closer, letting her fears dissolve with each step.
Against her better judgement, Neon whispered out a pspspspsps , almost inaudibly, just to see if the creature formed of pure nightmare would respond, and prowler did, her eyes seeming almost happy despite swirling in the red and black of Fade’s nightmare essence.
Prowler was very intrigued, to say the least, having to prevent herself from bounding over to Neon so as not to spook her. Fade never treated her nicely, much less gave her pets! It might be something to do with prowler being a massive asshole to Fade, but prowler didn’t see it that way.
At this, all of Neon’s inhibitions were gone, the previous “Get me away from this nightmare creature” being replaced by “I want pet the kitty”, inching closer… and closer… and closer, until…
Fade sighed at yet another night filled with so much exhaustion that prowler could materialise, unable to be recalled. The closer she was to sleep, the less control she had over her powers. Coffee usually negated this, but she had been drinking so much recently that her Turkish blend had completely run out. Not only was she stuck with shitty coffee, any sleep was completely out of the question - Nightmare’s torment and visions had been ramping up lately.
Fade simply sighed again as she nursed her awful coffee, occasionally taking sips out of it. She had brought her laptop here to get out of her room and lessen her chances of going to sleep, while still being able to be productive. Still, the toll of far too many hours awake ebbed at her sanity - she didn’t even have the energy to be annoyed at prowler as it circled her, choosing instead to bury her head in her hands, the laptop screen intentionally too bright and dizzying. Even with all of this, the dream seer still couldn’t help herself from slipping into a semi-conscious state, her eyes unfocused and her posture slumped.
Because of this, Fade didn’t notice Neon’s entrance into the mess, but oh, prowler did, and prowler took her opportunity to investigate while she was able to evade the scrutiny of her master.
At the moment Neon thought her hand would make contact with prowler’s ears, the only sensation she felt was in her ears, if Fade’s shriek and stumbling yet hurried footsteps were anything to go by. Both Neon and prowler pulled back at this, momentarily stunned, and Fade took the opportunity to absorb prowler back into herself, the last thing heard from the Nightmare cat a saddened mewl while Fade winced at the heavy effort it took through her tiredness.
Neon was, a moment later, pulled out of her shock by Fade’s voice, immediately zeroing in and focusing on the extremely panicked woman in front of her.
“Neon! Neon, oh my god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise, I- Did she hurt you?!, Fuck, I shouldn’t have- I-”
Taking the opportunity to take in Fade’s appearance through her panic, Neon registered the absolute look of horror and fear in Fade’s wide eyes, a sight she never thought she’d see. Their two-toned nature only served to emphasise Fade’s urgent panic, her copper eye filled with self-hatred, her cerulean eye filled with concern for Neon. If the latter didn’t know any better, she would’ve sworn there were tears threatening to form in them.
Fade fell silent after her outburst, her breathing heavy and laboured, clearly on the verge of a panic attack, her pupils darting around the room as her wild hair followed the rapid, sudden movements of her head.
“Hoy, Fade, it’s okay… She wasn’t going to hurt me, I think she only wanted to play. I’ve seen her try to attack me, and it certainly wasn’t like anything she just did now, so don’t worry about it, alright? I’m okay, Fade.” Neon’s tone was calm, collected and pacifying, a complete contrast to the shock horror painted so plainly on Fade’s face. Neon held up her arms in a placating manner, approaching Fade while trying to soothe her. “You don’t want to hurt me, so your cat wouldn’t hurt me, ‘di ba?”
Fade furiously shook her head at the mere suggestion, backing away from Neon as her panic settled into something more controlled, but no less irrational. “If you’ve seen what prowler does… if you’ve been under her influence…” Fade herself shuddered at her own words, and Neon started finally catching on. Not only was Fade far more affected by her own powers than she would ever let on (her constant tiredness and the coffee obsession notwithstanding), she clearly had issues with control as well. Neon’s eyes widened at the realisation, though she steeled herself, ready to try to alleviate Fade’s worries - Fade would probably have a full-on panic attack if Neon exposed her like that..
“She was just being friendly, Fade.” Neon gulped as she tentatively moved forward and placed a hand on the Nightmare radiant’s shoulder, to which Fade sucked in a breath and seemed to freeze. “Maybe she just needs attention like Skye’s animals? I wouldn’t mind spending some time with-”
“No! Y-you- prowler is- I can’t let it hurt you, Neon. You don’t understand, I-” Fade’s sudden outburst pushed Neon back, a look of shock and hurt clear on her face. Neon had never seen Fade act this way, and to say the Filipina was concerned would be an understatement.
Seeing the look on Neon’s face, Fade realised what she’d done. So much for making friends with her , she thought. Neon should have agreed with Jett all along and just hated Fade. It would have saved her from this. Neon’s hurt expression broke her already icy heart. She knew allowing people this close was a mistake. She tried so hard not to let it happen, and still, it did, even by accident. Of course, Nightmare agreed, happily savouring Fade’s internal torment. Prowler, curiously, was mewling softly in her mind, not serving as Nightmare’s herald as it usually would, tormenting Fade too.
“I-I’m so sorry Neon, I should- I should go now.”
Before Neon could protest, Fade was already gone, wisps of Nightmare’s red and black smoke being the only evidence she was even there to begin with.
Even though she was alone now, the only image in Neon’s mind was those bicoloured eyes, brimming with tears, before Fade turned and ran.
Despite being a bit dumbfounded at the quick sequence of events (and a tad disappointed that she didn’t get to pet the kitty), Neon quickly pieced together everything in her mind: the reason Neon’s fears had haunted her in particular, the reason she seemed so cagey when talking about the dossier - it was Fade’s lack of full control over her powers. The fact that Neon’s dossier had been so much crueler was not due to Fade particularly hating Neon - that wouldn’t make sense, as after all, all the agents were equally to blame in their perceived guilt - but it was due to Fade’s hatred of herself, every word of Neon’s dossier rife with projection, and perhaps jealousy that Neon had people there for her, trying to help her with her radiance from the beginning, whereas Fade had always had noone.
Neon felt her heart grow heavy at the belated realisation - how hadn’t she noticed before?
“I’ve seen your darkest fears - mine would eat them alive. ”
The words rang in Neon’s head as she finally, truly understood what Fade had meant by that. Fade was more of a victim to her own powers than those she chose to target. In that instant, Neon could now finally say she understood, that she could forgive Fade, especially considering the similarity of their plights. All that was left for Neon to do was wait for Fade to open up by herself, especially in the wake of what had just happened, not to mention her already extreme caginess.
Pondering for a while on how to get closer to Fade during that time, her excitement at finally having someone who could actually understand her issues with control caused her stomach to grumble, reminding the blue-haired woman of just why she was in the mess hall in the first place.
“Can’t think on an empty stomach ” Neon thought to herself as she sauntered off into the depths of the kitchen.
A few days later, despite managing to convince Fade that no, Neon didn’t hate her, and no, her prowler didn’t harm Neon, Fade was perhaps even more guarded about the situation and her radiance in general. When Neon tried to bring up prowler’s presence in the first place, Fade shook it off with the ease of a practiced, albeit at that moment unconvincing, liar. When the older woman’s nightmares and sleeplessness were brought up, Fade brushed her off again with slightly more desperation in her voice, and with Fade struggling to come up with a lie, Neon sighed and dropped the topic, but reassured Fade that she was here for her.
In some ways though, things were going well, as the two increasingly spent more time together, with Neon actively enjoying being in Fade’s company more than she would have ever thought possible. Neon caught herself wishing to see Fade’s smile, or hear her laughter more times than not. It was hardly a normal occurrence, so that line of thought wasn’t weird, right? Neon just wanted to see Fade happy. Yeah. That was it.
A week or so after the “incident”, Neon had figured out the perfect thing to try to get Fade more comfortable with her. While this hadn’t exactly been planned, Neon had laid her eyes on it during a shopping trip with Jett and Sage and had decided it was the perfect thing to gift Fade. Neon doubted that the nightmare radiant had received many gifts in her life, if any, and was absolutely confident in her plan. It and the plan being a stuffed cat, a bit smaller than Neon’s own octopus Squish-Squish. The cat was black with white at the end of its tail, and even had heterochromic eyes like Fade, albeit the cat’s were blue and green rather than Fade’s blue and copper.
“Oh my god! You guys, LOOK!” Neon had said excitedly when she noticed the cat among the other stuffed animals on display.
While Sage eyed her young mentee with confusion at this, Jett caught on immediately as Neon went over to the display.
“Neon, there are easier ways to show your affection for the nightmare witch than getting her what is essentially her as a stuffed animal.”
Hearing this, and seeing Neon’s mix of flusteredness and exasperation at Jett’s comment, Sage walked over and put her hand on Neon’s shoulder. “Pay her no mind, Neon. A thoughtful and wonderful gift idea, I must say. I am sure Fade will love it.” Sage warmly smiled at Neon, attempting to stop her and Jett bickering in the middle of the store before it even began.
“Fade would love anything Neon gave her. That stray cat would happily eat a raw fish out of her hand. Really, Neon, she’s obsessed with you, girl.”
Jett’s unhelpful comment had Sage facepalming as Neon burst into argument with Jett, a furious red painting her cheeks.
“Firstly, as I’ve told you , she doesn’t like me like that! Secondly, the plushie has one green eye, and the blue one is in the wrong eye, so it can’t be Fade!”
Even Sage had to hold in her giggle as Neon clasped her hands over her mouth, realising the implications of what she’d just said, while Jett just laughed.
“Wow, and here I thought you weren’t as obsessed with her as she is with you!”
Neon, quickly recovering from her embarrassment, took the opportunity to lightly smack Jett as she was giggling, accompanying it with a muttered “lintik kayo, Jett…”, which only made Jett laugh even harder.
Neon rolled her eyes and grabbed two of the stuffed toys (how could she resist a buy one get one free?), making her way to the checkout with Sage, leaving Jett behind to catch up.
“Hey, wait, Neon! I was only joking! You didn’t take it serious, right? Neon?”
At least Neon had the last laugh as Jett had to walk at a civilian pace to catch up, grumbling the whole way.
By the time the trio got back, it was already quite late, and with Jett inviting Neon to her room to play some games, the time had quickly whizzed by to the point where Jett had passed out on the beanbag in her room at 1 in the morning.
“ We don’t have anything to do tomorrow, c’mon Neon, let’s go all night! ” Neon muttered to herself, mocking Jett’s earlier words as she looked upon the sleeping form of her best friend, completely dead to the world. Neon still had energy to burn, though, despite her busy day, so she set out of Jett’s room as quietly as she could to go for a run.
When Neon got to the door of her room to deposit her shopping, however, her hand hovered over the biometric scanner as her mind wandered.
Fade is definitely still up, I could go see her and give her her gift right now , Neon thought to herself as she weighed up the options in her mind. Deciding that Fade could probably use the company, and seeing as she was up anyway, Neon decided to go searching for Fade. On the way, she resolved that she should probably do something else with the second cat: the thought of keeping it for herself brought much more red to her cheeks than she’d like to admit, and then she could practically hear Jett teasing her for being flustered. Neon shook her head, refocusing her absent thinking of Fade into searching for the woman in question.
Not in her room. Not in the mess. Not in the common room. Neon scratched her head as she scrunched up her nose in concentration. Where else might she be. As Neon was preparing to give up her search, she caught sight of the all-too-familiar Nightmare tendrils wisping around her, accompanied by barely audible mumbling, and very much audible tossing and turning. So she was in the common room. Neon’s chest tightened at the thought that Fade might have accidentally fallen asleep and be trapped in some awful nightmare, making haste to follow the trails that led to the furthest corner of the room, obscured from the entrance.
The tendrils morphed into thick black and red smoke the closer Neon got, and when she finally reached Fade’s thrashing form on the coach, she froze at the sight of the inky black and red swirling around the nightmare woman, a harrowing expression on her face, forehead painted with a cold sweat as she tried uselessly to escape from the clutches of her own radiance.
Neon knew she had to do something, but considering Fade’s anxiety and closed-off nature about her struggles, and Fade’s horrified reaction to Neon trying to pet prowler, Neon thought it best to wake her then run, so as not to further panic her - she already looked awful enough. Producing one of the two cats from her tote bag, Neon carefully walked over, shivering as the Nightmare essence lapped at her, and began to shake Fade’s shoulder while placing the stuffed cat at the end of the couch so that Fade wouldn’t knock it off when she was violently ripped from her nightmarish slumber. If Neon couldn’t try to comfort Fade after her nightmares, she figured the stuffed animal was much better than nothing. She knew her own Squish-Squish helped her a lot, and considering the dream seer’s obsession with cats, she was sure it would be helpful in at least some capacity. Neon was a bit miffed that she wouldn’t get to properly give Fade a gift, but that could wait. Maybe that’s what the second one could be for. Since her shaking was not working, and the Nightmare tendrils, which had previously only been focused on Fade, were now snaking closer to Neon as well, Neon started to call Fade’s namel, redoubling her efforts to try to wake the woman while also preparing to run. As soon as she saw the woman’s eyes flutter and her trembling begin to subside, Neon called Fade’s name one last time, much louder than the last before the former took off and ran, briefly checking behind her to see that Fade was now thoroughly awake, having shot up with unfocused eyes darting around the room. Feeling a little satisfied with herself, Neon left the common room, hoping that Fade could at least find some comfort in the inanimate object given that she refused help from anything animate. She chose to ignore the Jett part of her brain calling the whole situation dumb, and stuffed animals childish. Her idea was great, Neon reassured herself, slapping the annoying Jett in her mind away.
“You can’t take him! I won’t let you!”
The gruesome scene was one Fade had seen a million times before, somehow worse, more chilling every time. Nightmare made sure of it. Scenes of her lost brother being taken, being tortured and killed… they were par for the course, but that didn’t mean Fade would ever get used to them. Just as Fade knew she was about to get to the one part of the Nightmare she dreaded, Hazal as helpless as her poor brother as she watched on at the scene, unable to act, thoroughly trapped in the nightmare that only made it worse to know she was within one, a difference occurred. A faint, husky voice as the blood-red sky above parted a bit to let out a small blue light. A beautiful spark that carried an even more beautiful voice as it weakly called something out, the words indiscernible as Nightmare redoubled its efforts to stop any means of escape. Just as Hazal felt completely hopeless again, the voice, the spark, they both grew louder and brighter, this time drowning out the usually deafening, threatening, cruel calls of Nightmare. So bright that the scene before her started to collapse, the sky’s red being brown out in a sea of bright blue and warm yellow. It was so beautiful. If her nightmares became like this, she wasn’t sure she would even want to escape. It would be bliss to listen to that husky, ethereal voice all night.
“-de! -ade! Fade!”
That name… that voice… it was so…
“Fade!”
Fade woke up with a start, chest heaving and bolting upright, scanning with her bleary eyes for any danger instantly as her wild and matted hair was flung about. She could’ve sworn she saw a flash of something, but given that she saw things all the time, not much was thought of it as her breathing evened out and she began to take in her surroundings. This was the second time this month she had accidentally fallen asleep outside of her room, the cold coffee by the couch mocking her as she looked at it. This was not to mention the time she got distracted in the mess hall and prowler almost attacked Neon. She should be better than this; her negligence was getting dangerous, not only for her own mental health, but for anyone else around her. No control during her sleep spelt bad news for her, and anyone around her. Her brother could attest to that. Shuddering at the thought, she swung her legs off the couch and noticed not only a very quickly fading blue mark on the ground a ways away from her, but also some type of plush she had just knocked onto the ground off the end of the couch. Far more intrigued by the plush, she bent down to pick it up and held it in front of her so she could observe.
A black cat with white highlights and… her signature heterochromia? Where had this come from? Could Nightmare materialise solid objects now? She quickly did another sweep of the room, fruitlessly hoping to find a clue as to a perpetrator. Finding nothing, she sighed, her eyes fixing and narrowing on the stuffed cat that now occupied her lap. She would have to find out how this happened later, but for now? This place was a blind spot for Cypher’s cameras and she had to admit it… the cat was cute, and soft, and fluffy - it wouldn’t hurt to just hold it for a bit, right? Whoever was trying to mess with her clearly had good taste, she had to admit. For the first time in a while, Hazal found herself not having to fight back tears after waking from an awful nightmare, instead tentatively relaxing a little back onto the couch, bringing the stuffed animal up to her chest, wrapping her arms around it tightly and burying her face in it. It smelled quite nice, and faintly of vanilla - a familiar scent that she couldn’t quite place at that moment. For once, coffee could wait.
Fade opened her eyes with a start, jumping slightly. Looking down at the plush in her arms, confusion filled her. That couldn’t have been a dream; she didn’t get normal dreams. But if that were the case, hadn’t she woken up already? Placing the cat in her lap, she pulled out her phone to check the time, the bright screen reading 3:00am. Fade narrowed her eyes in even further confusion. Had she gone to sleep again? If that were the case, she thought to herself, she would have had a nightmare… right? Looking to the stuffed animal again, her eyes widened as she realised she had to have gone to sleep.
“You’re a real miracle worker, huh…”
Fade paused as she realised she hadn’t given the cat a name yet, settling on the first thing that came to her mind.
“...Meowy.”
Hazal could feel Nightmare stirring again, creeping its way into her thoughts to reprimand her for her childishness, for slacking when she could be trying to save him . But oddly enough, this time… she didn’t care. A crooked smile found its way onto her face as she ‘pet’ the odd-eyed plush, much to the now quiet chagrin of Nightmare.
Her comforting peace wouldn’t last for long though, as the dream seer received an urgent mission alert on her phone not one minute after. Checking the roster, the team comprised Neon, Omen, Deadlock, and Raze. Maybe the mission wouldn’t be so bad after all, Hazal mused, getting up to prepare (not without a pitstop at her room first to deposit her new friend) for her new assignment. Putting on her jacket and stuffing the stuffie inside, Hazal made her way to her room as her mind wandered. Maybe not, actually. Neon gets really grumpy when she has to be up this early , Fade thought, chuckling to herself. While she was glad her mind wasn’t wandering in a bad way, it did make her wonder when she started picking details like that up. When she started caring. And it wasn’t for just any agent, either - it was Neon. Why did she notice things like that and most of all, care about the other radiant in particular, more than anyone else?
“Stopppppppp… Jett turn that off…”
The incessant noise not stopping, Neon finally woke up enough to realise what was happening. Really? A mission? On two hours of sleep? Tala groaned, running an electrically charged hand down her face as sparks went off between her fingertips in annoyance. Even in her dead-tired sleep, however, Neon was still hyperactive, tossing and turning, a fact evidenced by Squish-Squish and the cat she had given the name Prowler lying on the floor. Neon scowled, getting out of bed, putting them back in their rightful place, and stretching, still barely able to keep her eyes open. Naming the stuffed animal had been an accident before she went to sleep, and now that she named it, she didn’t think she could bear to part with it. She could always just get more stuffed cats, she thought. Neon sighed, eyes wandering back to Prowler, now on her bed. How she wished she could lay in her bed like that right now. Now fully awake (mostly), her cheeks heated up thinking about the name. Tala was beginning to think her friendly feelings for Fade were slowly turning into something more, a warmth bubbling in her chest as she thought about the nightmare radiant. She had named her new stuffed animal, that she had bought while explicitly thinking of Fade, after a literal part of the woman. If only she could hug Fade like she had just been hugging that plushie, Neon thought, before mentally scolding herself, trying to remove the annoying thoughts from her brain. It did make her unembarrasedly sad that she didn’t get to pet Fade’s actual prowler though.
“I should actually get ready for the mission instead of thinking about your human equivalent, Prowler.” Neon said, walking over to both grab her phone and play with the stuffed cat’s ears.
Ah. The mission was with Fade. She hadn’t been embarrassed before when she woke Fade from her nightmare - why was she shy now? A second alert beeped as Neon splashed water over her face and looked in the mirror. Wow. She looked like shit.
“Today’s gonna be a long day…” Neon groaned to herself as she began to get changed.
The mission wasn’t too bad, all things considered. The interaction with Fade had started out very awkwardly, mostly, but they had got on well after that, chatting happily as they waited for Raze to finally get over to the teleporter. Neon’s mention of Fade actually not looking worse for wear for once had earned her a turned head and an embarrassed look from Fade. Neon smugly took that as confirmation of her plan working.
“Tatá, how are you even late for this? You knew about the mission in advance because we needed the cross-dimensional portal for this! I swear, you drive me crazy sometimes.” Killjoy huffed as she busied herself with preparing the portal. Raze hurried over to help while a huge grin spread across her face.
“But, meu amor, you know I’m always driving you crazy, huh?”
Killjoy rolled her eyes as Raze walked over, but the smile on her face betrayed her true thoughts. Neon thought her too much at times, but she couldn’t deny that-
“Heyyyy, Neon, gata! What’s up!” Neon groaned as the excitable Brazilian bounded up to her, taking the opportunity of Fade being distracted by Omen asking her something to divide and conquer Neon’s attention.
“Hoy, Raze.” Neon drawled out sleepily. “How do you even have so much energy at this hour?”
“Ah, you know me! I was just doing my thing in the workshop for a bit, and…”
As Raze excitedly (and unfortunately for Neon, loudly) went on, Neon couldn’t help but think about how much she missed talking to Fade. Fade was quiet, reserved and respectful, always giving Neon room to talk and remaining calm and level. As much as Neon appreciated Raze’s bombastic nature, there was just something about Fade that… drew her in. Her composed and calm nature was such a contrast to everyone she usually talked to and even Neon herself. A quiet rock, a pillar that Neon knew she could trust, lean on, be herself around.
“-and then me and JoyJoy were like - heyyyyyyyy, are you even listening?!” Neon was shocked out of her thoughts, surprised at how easily she was able to tune out Raze just by thinking about Fade. Fighting back the sparks that threatened to jump from her skin at the implications of that thought, Neon quickly retorted with “Didn’t you ignore me last mission ‘cause you were listening to music?”
“That’s- Ai, I didn’t do that on purpose!”
Killjoy’s voice cut off whatever was about to follow, hurrying the squad into the now-online portal. It was able to take all 5 members of a squad now, thanks to Neon’s increased power outputs.
The previous portal having been deactivated, the team had to travel through what the people of Omega Earth called the “Garden of Heroes”. Omen cast a very confused glance at the statue of himself, and as Neon looked over at him and Fade while Raze was yapping something to her, Neon caught a sad, almost longing expression on Fade’s face, directed pointedly at her and Raze together, before she quickly looked away. Maybe she had just imagined it, but the look the dream seer had given her…
“Gata, you checking out on me again? I can’t believe you! How am I meant to trust you on the battlefield like this!”
“It is like, super early, Raze. Agh, I’m tired as hell!”
“Maybe you should ask Fade to help wake you up! You were talking to the coffee connoisseur before I came along and you didn’t even think about it?”
Neon’s annoying embarrassment at her friend’s phrasing was thankfully interrupted by the Portuguese intercom that she recognised from her prior time at the location.
“Vá ao Memorial da Guerreira do Vento, no Jardim dos Heróis. Conheça a sua impa…” The announcement droned on as Neon cursed herself for not even thinking of grabbing a Spike Rush before the mission. She had been too busy thinking about Fade, and she couldn’t really find it in her to blame herself for it, until her thoughts wandered to the smell of coffee that always clung to Fade. She had hated coffee for all of her life, yet strangely, its scent on Fade was nice, comforting even.
“Uma Guerreira do Vento? Who does this Jett think she is, her wind can’t even beat your electricity, eh, Neon!?”
“What? Oh, um, yeah?” Neon cringed at herself for that one - she had to stop spacing out thinking about Fade.
“Wow, you really are checked out, huh…” Raze muttered as they went through the gates into the underwater city. Taking the steps up, the pair waited for the others to arrive at the threshold.
Deadlock, who was unofficially the leader of this incursion into Omega Territory, began to direct the team to their positions to prepare for the onslaught that Brimstone and Cypher’s intel had predicted. Neon was quite bummed out that she wasn’t assigned with Fade, much like a schoolgirl annoyed at not being assigned with her bestie for a group project, but as the team split up to guard their designated positions, Fade heading left through the flower shop to guard A and the room with the art mural on the ceiling, Neon turned in the opposite direction to her designated site, B, but not before getting an idea from seeing the shop, ‘Hi Tide Comics’ again. Despite having previously been in there, she didn’t really have the luxury of admiring the decor or merchandise, but she did remember the miniature Squish-Squishes on display, a smile growing on her face as she remembered the more purple-black versions on display there, reminding her of a certain someone. They wouldn’t miss a few items off the shelf, right? Besides, she had time, she was fast… entering the shop practically with a skip in her step, she made her way immediately to where she had seen the cute octopodes last.
"Aí sim, we rock! But seriously, when can we hit up the club here?"
The post-mission atmosphere was surprisingly jovial as they made their way back to the portal, with only very light injuries to speak of. Neon was glad the team seemed to have taken her comment about hating making new friends seriously, but it was undoubtable that Omega had been far too sloppy on their home turf, but Neon didn’t have time to worry about that, holding a cheeky grin on her face the whole way back as she gravitated toward Fade, getting more excitable the closer she got.
“What are you so happy about? Did the battle finally wake you up?” Fade teased, noticing Neon making her way to her. Although Fade was way more disappointed and sad than she thought she would be about not being able to spend some time with Neon, even if it was during a life-or-death mission (sans Sage), she was happy that Neon seemed to want to spend some time with her now, and she couldn’t lie, seeing Neon’s now excitable and bubbly attitude sent butterflies to her stomach.
“Quite the opposite, actually. It was so boring! They basically fell over for us!” Neon laughed, a bright expression on her face.
“Then what’s got you so energetic? I can see your electricity from here, sparky.”
Neon’s hair glowed bright blue at that, the blush on her cheeks almost visible through the blue tint her face took on. She wondered where Fade had got the courage to give her such a cliché nickname from, but also wondered why she liked it so goddamn much . But, alas, she conceded this small loss, knowing she would win the war in the end.
“Don’t worry, dreamy . You’ll see.” Neon giggled, more than aware of the multiple octopodes hidden in the bag right next to the visible pink one on her belt.
Now it was Fade’s turn to become utterly embarrassed over a nickname, thankful that she had the imminent portal travel to distract herself from whatever that was - Neon called her dreamy ? Her head was practically spinning even when she was back at Alpha, and not from portal travel.
Since portal travel couldn’t distract her, maybe a boring debrief would, she supposed.
Neon, on the other hand, lamented that she couldn’t tease Fade further due to Brimstone leading them all back to his office for immediate debrief. Tala wasn’t sure what had got into her, but it was probably how goddamn cute Fade looked when she was flustered and trying to desperately hide it like this. This, and the fact that Fade had had the gall to give Neon a nickname of her own first, spurred the electric radiant on. She had found a weakness, and she’d be damned if she let her shyness stop her from exploiting it.
As much as Fade wanted to be annoyed, she’d been finding it endearing more than anything. Finding little octopus miniatures in her locker, on her seat when she returned to her table in the mess hall (Sage had been on her heels for not eating enough again), and even attached to the guns she used in training as little charms*. Whoever was doing this clearly had dedication, and for some reason, she now doubted it was someone trying to mess with her. This didn’t particularly seem like a Jett thing to do - she didn’t have the patience to play the long game.
Fade felt a little silly for arranging them in cute ways on her bedside table and desk, but she couldn’t deny that there was a dumbass smile on her face as she was doing it. Was it wrong of her to find happiness in this? Nightmare certainly though so, but it had been quite quiet recently, more than usual, and Fade was nothing but glad for it - it allowed her to enjoy something like this without having the equivalent of a scolding mother reprimanding her for her childishness. Absentmindedly picking up Meowy and placing her next to her laptop (such had become habit over the past week), her mind wandered to her friends in the Protocol as the guilt of ne'er do wells had been ruled out. Would Sage be doing this? No, she’d be upfront. Omen? While he did like cats, if he were the culprit, the cat would have been knitted. Neon? Neon… Hazal was growing to get used to the way butterflies settled in her stomach at the thought of her, especially in the wake of Neon calling her dreamy, and the feelings which sprouted from that were something Fade was absolutely determined to ignore. It was a foreign, dreadful feeling at first to her, but as it showed no signs of stopping, she had accepted it now. It was rather annoying: while she was a seasoned expert at completely stopping and cutting off her emotions, this response was rather… involuntary. As for her being the perpetrator, Fade had to admit, it would add up. What with her being sly after the Pearl mission, her awkwardness before the mission, and the convenient timing of both of these, even a surface-level analysis seemed to point to Neon. And those octopodes did look quite familiar…
Fade shook the thought from her head, opening her laptop to distract herself from thinking about Neon. Work wouldn’t provide a good enough distraction when it came to the Filipina, though. It couldn’t have been her, Fade thought, absentmindedly playing with Meowy’s tail. She doesn’t like me enough to be doing something thoughtful like that, and she wouldn’t do it as a joke either. But then, who could it be?
“Won’t you tell me who bought you, Meowy?” Fade said to the inanimate cat, picking her up as heterochromatic irises met heterochromatic fabric.
“Meow.” Hazal imitated, as if the stuffed animal were talking back to her. Chuckling to herself and holding the cat closer, she almost lamented the fact that the familiar vanilla scent it once carried had already almost completely faded.
“Ah, I’m not getting any work done like this…” The dream seer muttered to herself, getting up to take a walk and hopefully go through the (suspiciously blue and electrically charged) things running in her head.
She stopped dead in her tracks immediately after opening the door, her eyes zeroing in on something that made her cancel her plans immediately; a suspiciously non-descript box placed just outside her door.
“I swear to god, if this is what I think it is…” Hazal muttered, taking the box inside and shutting the door behind her.
“Does she even know you’re doing this?”
“Firstly, no, secondly, I don’t see why that’s a problem.”
Neon was lazily lounging in Jett’s room under the pretense of playing a couple of video games, but with the games forgotten, it had turned into a yap sesh.
“Aw, they grow up so fast!” Jett began in an insincerely wistful tone, “You’re a creepy stalker now, just like your girlfr- Hey, what was that for!”
“You know what, dumbass. It’s not even like I’m stalking her! We literally talk everyday now.”
“Ok, the creepy part stands-” Seeing Neon’s annoyed expression, Jett careened from her teasing into her genuine thoughts. “But I have to admit, seeing her reaction to that was really funny. The way she looked around when she picked it up was gold!”
“Yeah…” Neon said dreamily, to which Jett rolled her eyes.
“Are you actually gonna, you know, ever tell her?”
“Well, I mean the plan was to give her the first one as a gift, but now, since she doesn’t know it’s me, I dunno… what if she's, like, offended by me kinda going behind her back?”
Jett rolled her eyes even harder at this, putting her hand on Neon’s shoulder.
“Girl, I think she’d somehow become more obsessed with you. And I didn’t even think that was possible! When do you think the last time was that someone did something genuinely nice like this for her? Especially since it’s from you as well-”
Neon opened her mouth to protest, but Jett swiftly cut her off, knowing she was about to deny Jett’s words.
“Look, all I know is that she’s been happier than I’ve ever seen her in the past few weeks. I’ve even seen her smile once or twice! She likes you, Neon.”
Neon just groaned, waving Jett’s hand away before slumping back on Jett’s beanbag. She’d tell Fade… soon.
The blue-haired radiant in question had just snuck Fade a third stuffed cat, deciding to bring Jett along to see Fade’s reaction with after she unfortunately didn’t get to see the reaction to the last cat - a slightly smaller white cat with homochromatic blue eyes - that she had left outside Fade’s room in a cardboard box.
It had been in the library, a space usually occupied by Fade, Omen, Astra, and… that was about it. Fade had been sitting with Omen as he knitted, nursing a cup of strong coffee, and after observing the pair for a while, Jett begun to whisper exasperatedly about how this was a terrible idea, but at that moment, Fade asked Omen to help her pick out a new book, causing the two to temporarily vacate their positions as Neon and Jett snuck up on their target, Neon quietly placing the new cat - a ginger one with brown eyes, about the same size as the first one she gave Fade - on her seat, before sneaking off again. Neon had to admit, she thought Jett and her big mouth would blow the whole mission, but her lithe and light nature meant that Jett could sneak around even better than her. Neon was a little jealous, but she wasn’t about to say anything about it. Hiding in their previous position behind some bookshelves, they observed Fade coming back to her seat just to facepalm, turning to ask Omen something before wildly looking around, narrowing her eyes at anything that seemed out of place.
Once satisfied and Fade’s pure confusion, frustration and reluctant acceptance of the cat, holding it even in front of Omen, which surprised both Jett and Neon, the two snuck out of the library for their ‘gaming session’. Jett was convinced Omen had been looking directly at them through their cover but Neon had brushed her off, telling her not to worry about it.
“And you say I’m the carefree one?”
“Do you ever shut up?”
Sitting on the edge of her bed, Fade tentatively placed her new ginger stuffed animal next to the other two cats, Meowy and the white cat she had mysteriously received a few days ago which she still hadn’t given a name to. Considering her previous attempt at naming, Hazal figured it could use some time to cook. What annoyed Fade about this wasn’t the stuffed animals or the fact she was receiving them, but the fact that she hadn’t the slightest bit of evidence to back up her suspicion that the culprit was Neon. There were never any fear trails, which Fade found impressive and exasperating in equal part. It was just like when Neon and prowler had their encounter in the mess - when she went to stop prowler, Fade could sense absolutely zero fear from her. Fade’s gaze moved around her room from her neatly arranged cat collection, lingering on the octopus toys she had put on her desk. Didn’t they look exactly like the stuffed animal Neon had? That she kept a miniature version of on her suit? What was its name again…?
“Squish-Squish.” Fade said aloud, narrowing her eyes and walking over to her desk to pick up one of the octopodes and examine it. Fade narrowed her eyes even further as she thought back to all of the events in which she received the toys, the first one in particular. The blue mark on the floor - unmistakably Neon’s footprints. The vanilla scent Meowy carried - Fade had spent too much time around Neon recently to mistake it for anything but Neon’s. No wonder I enjoyed it so much , Fade thought, too enraptured by her revelation to be embarrassed about it. And the weird way in which Omen acted, the way he seemed to look straight through a bookshelf after seeing the cat in the library, as if he knew something, Fade began to piece it all together in her head.
Now alone in her own room, before Neon even got the chance to think about any of her conversation with Jett, she heard a soft, almost imperceptible knock at the door. Tala groaned - it wasn’t unusual for Jett to come bothering her about something just minutes after they had hung out. While Jett usually knocked on her door faster, louder and far more annoyingly, there was no possibility in her mind of anyone else being on the other side of her door, so she simply yelled at ‘Jett’ to go away, returning to fiddling with the projection in her room.
The knock was only heard again, accompanied by a muffled voice.
“It’s not Jett, It’s Fade. Can we talk?”
Fresh off her escapade and her conversation with Jett, Neon froze. Had Fade figured her out? Neon quickly steeled herself; after all, if it wasn’t what she thought it was, she couldn’t act suspicious, so Neon opened the lock on her door, clearing her throat.
“It’s open.”
The dream seer cautiously walked into Neon’s room, heterochromatic eyes immediately zeroing in on the large octopus plush on Neon’s bed.
Making sure the door was closed behind her, Fade tentatively pointed at the plush.
“Nice octopus.”
Oh no.
“Oh, um yeah, thanks! Her name is-”
“Squish-Squish.” Fade finished, producing a miniature dark version of the toy from her jacket pocket.
As if Neon’s wide-eyed deer-in-headlights expression wasn’t enough, Fade pulled out a stuffed cat from inside her jacket. Neon immediately recognised it as the first she gave Fade, the one with heterochromia - oh no .
“You received one of these too? What a coincidence.” Fade teased while pointing to the cat on Neon’s bed slightly hidden by Squish-Squish, gaining large amounts of confidence (in stark contrast to her previous nervousness) at seeing Neon’s guilty and shocked expression, as if she were going through the 5 stages of grief.
True to the stages of grief, Neon appeared to reach acceptance rather quickly.
“I take it you liked my generous gifts, then?” Neon counter-teased, a smirk forming on her face.
Neon was surprised at Fade’s genuine reaction to this, the latter holding her stuffed cat closer, a gentle expression taking over her face.
“It was quite… comforting. To have Meowy after I woke up from that nightmare. And I do appreciate the fact that you simply woke me and left. I was… not in a good place, and certainly not ready to accept any help.” A wry smile formed on Fade’s face as she continued, “But it is quite hard to not accept help from an inanimate object. Or 3.”
Neon blushed at the sudden emotional genuinity from the bounty hunter, a warm sense of pride washing over her from getting to witness the fruits of her labours.
“I was planning on giving it to you as a gift, because like - it was just perfect for you! A black cat with heterochromia… It was love at first sight! It’s literally you as a plush! Minus the eye colours, but you can’t have everything.” Neon snorted, smiling warmly at Fade.
“Teşekkürler, Neon, truly. It means a lot to me to be gifted something with so much thought put into it.” Fade smiled back at Neon, but not before a teasing aura overtook her. “It reminded you of me, but it was also love at first sight, ya?”
“You- Fade!” Neon huffed, accompanied by a symphony of sparks as her hair glowed radiantly.
“It’s not funny! Stop giggling!” Truthfully, Neon didn’t mean those last words - the sound of genuine laughter from Fade was so rare, but it was music to her ears, a beautiful tune that she was rewarded with more of after Fade started laughing harder at Neon’s pouting.
“But, uh, Fade?”
“Hm?”
“Did you call the cat… Meowy?”
This time it was Fade’s turn to blush, twiddling her fingers in embarrassment.
“...maybe?”
Neon really wanted to tease Fade for this, but fuck if it wasn’t adorable, she thought, especially as Fade held the cat closer while doing so..
“That’s really cute…” The words just slipped out of Neon’s mouth, but she couldn’t say she regretted them, considering the redness in Fade’s cheeks almost overlapped the radiance mark across her nose.
“Hush, you.” Fade said, as Neon quietly admired Fade’s flustered state.
“You know I mean it.” Neon teased, sticking her tongue out at Fade. “What did you call the others?”
“Well, considering how naming went the first time, I haven’t… actually thought of one for either.” Fade confessed, now unabashedly hugging Meowy in front of Neon.
If only I were the one being held by Fa- “WELL, how’s about I come over and we can have a little, uh,” Neon fumbled, fearing how childish she might sound, but after deciding she was definitely in good company, she picked up her own stuffed cat, holding it out excitedly, and continued. “Playdate!”
Fade contemplated for just a moment, before her gaze softened and locked on Neon and her identical inanimate cat. “Yeah. That sounds… nice. Let’s go, sparky.”
You’re not getting the upper hand this easily , Neon thought, fighting down the sparks threatening to dance on top of her skin. “Lead the way, dreamy.”
Fade’s heart almost stopped then and there at the embarrassment and… odd, very odd feelings brewing within her at being called dreamy again. Fade fought down her flusteredness, giving Neon a quick smile before turning around to leave Neon’s room, not before giving Meowy a tight squeeze and shoving her back under her jacket. At least she can’t see how red my face is anymore… gods, if only you knew what you did to me, Tala.
Neon was thankful for the opportunity of Fade turning around, as the embarrassed, emotionally charged sparks bubbled on her skin unabated.
The things you do to me, Hazal…