lights, camera, action

This was worse than the cheese. The cheese had been smelly, and maybe a little bit scary before rescue had arrived in the form of Talia, but it hadn’t hurt. These vines, with their sharp thorns and tight grip, definitely hurt. 

The Clayground had sounded fun, a nice and zen activity to further Luc’s little personal mission to see if he had any artistic skills outside the realm of acting. It had started as a way to keep Sebastian’s memory alive but along the way, it morphed into something more for himself. Why not see if any new hobbies interested him, and it wouldn’t hurt if he wasn’t bad at them. So he’d tried to make a vase, which had turned out… well, it had been a vase! Luc was at least happy enough with the vase to be relieved that he didn’t have it on his person currently, as it was still waiting to be fired and picked up later in the week. So… it was only Luc who risked coming to harm, currently. Had the person who had given him directions to the exit that definitely wasn’t the exit but rather a trap straight out of Harry Potter done so knowingly? Luc had always thought you’d get into trouble if you strayed away from the directions you were given by locals. 

Luc remembered the little knife Talia had procured during her rescue, wondered why he hadn’t bought himself one of those the same day (answer: was it really a great idea for him to carry around something that sharp?), and then winced as the slightest bit of movement made the vines remember his presence and they slithered and tightened again, thorns digging in deeper. Shit. It took quite a bit of deep breathing to ignore the fresh sting of the thorns in order to stay still, which is all Luc had puzzled out would help, but not before the angry plants had managed to really get their thorns in there and pull his left foot deep into the soft ground he stood on. Everything stilled once again and Luc exhaled carefully. What were the odds of Talia or someone as helpful as her passing by her and starting an impromptu rescue mission? Not like Luc had much of a choice but to just wait and hope, either way. 

—

Daniel stepped out of Bottoms Up Brewery and looked around the strange underground neighborhood. He’d only been down here a few times, mostly to meet up with Daiyu to help with a bounty hunt. (Though those days were in the past to him. He’d sworn off bounty hunting since getting back with Talia—partially because she hated bounty hunters, but mostly because it felt wrong to him. Bounties were always something he disagreed with, even as he took them on every now and then to get some extra cash when he was really low on funds.) Rather than out on a bounty hunt, Daniel had met up with his boss to talk about the summer season. Mostly they chatted about giving him more work, expanding beyond hiking and backpacking trips, and Daniel was open to it. Excited, even, to do more than just guide tourists around the woods. 

He walked along one of the exits to return to the outside world when he glanced over to the tunnel wall and recognized an all too familiar plant. He stopped in his tracks as he narrowed his eyes. Sharp, serrated thorns hooked out along the length of the vines, and one vine slightly moved as if realizing its prey had stopped. Daniel recalled the swiftness of these vines, as they had crawled up his leg and yanked him and Baz down into the earth. Down into a random tunnel in Netherville where he had to slice their way out of there. 

He removed one of his knives as he stayed still for a moment. He stepped forward, slowly and carefully, not wanting to make too much noise or send vibrations through the earth to send these stupid fucking vines after him. As Daniel practically tiptoed his way through the exit, he noticed not too far ahead of him how the vines had snagged someone and entangled around them. He crept closer to the man, as he kept his eyes on the vines as he watched for any sudden movement from them. “You’re all caught up in quite a predicament, huh?” he said, keeping his voice low as he looked at the thorns biting into the man. “I’ve dealt with these fuckers before.” He took a step closer, but one of the vines wriggled at the vibration. “Just … keep staying still.” 

—

After what felt like an eternity waiting, Luc thought he might have been imagining it when the dim lighting finally showed him someone approaching. “Hey!” Luc whisper-shouted and then winced, having shifted in his excitement only to have a fresh barb stick into his skin. Ouch. As the man got closer, Luc noted the knife with relief - a strange feeling to experience, relief in the face of a rugged looking man approaching with quite a threatening knife - and that solidified it. Luc was getting himself a knife the second he got out of here. Maybe not one quite as nice and imposing as the one this man was holding but still. “Yeah, I’m pretty good at that,” Luc admitted quietly, long past the point of feeling too embarrassed at being caught in these aforementioned predicaments. This hurt more than the cheese but it was a little less awkward, at least. 

“You have? Alright! My luck’s turning, I guess,” Luc breathed a laugh that wasn’t really a laugh because that required way too much movement, and then instantly grimaced as one of the vines reached towards his would-be rescuer. “Staying still, all over it. I’m Luciano, by the way, but everyone calls me Luc. Well, most people, anyway. Sorry, I’ll–” Without moving, Luc hoped to convey just the vibes of miming the motion of zipping his mouth shut. Allowing the apparent specialist in monstrous vines to do his work. The silence was really silent, though. 

“That’s a nice knife. I was supposed to have a knife of my own by now, my friend is going to kick my ass for not listening to her and having a pocket knife already,” Luc admitted, thinking of Talia and hoping she would be more amused than worried during the retelling of this story. Definitely amused, right, because this very capable looking man was going to get Luc out of this without any major injuries. Whether it was the beard or the knife, he just looked trustworthy. Although most people looked trustworthy to Luc. Whatever. 

—

“Luckily, I’m pretty good at getting people out of these situations,” Daniel said. By all accounts, he was fairly good at solving how to rescue someone from a situation. He spent most of his adult life getting folks away from supernatural nonsense. At least this guy seemed to have figured out the importance of staying still with these vines, which made Daniel’s life easier. He always hated when people complained or ignored his advice, just making it all more difficult and frustrating. 

Even with the situation at hand, Daniel couldn’t help but grin a little as the man—Luc, he said he went by Luc—rattled on while trapped by the vines. Daniel took a small step closer, testing if the vines responded to his movement this time. They stayed still, not yet yanking him into their thicket. “I’m Daniel,” he said, though his thoughts focused more on how tough these vines were—how it took a lot of effort to slice through the vines to rescue him and Baz. If he moved fast enough, then maybe—

Luc was talking again, this time about Daniel’s knife. “Ah, thanks,” he replied. “You should listen to your friend. Though ain’t sure how good a pocket knife would be against these.” When he stepped forward this time, the vines stayed still, but he was now in Luc’s personal space. “Sorry. I’m gonna …” Unsure of what he was even attempting to say, he squatted down to look more closely at the vines wrapped around Luc’s foot. The hooks already dug into the man’s skin, and Daniel grimaced as he thought back to how annoying it was to remove these from his tough skin. He could only imagine it being even more painful for a normal human—if that’s even what Luc was, he thought. He carefully wrapped his hand around Luc’s ankle, on top of the vines to keep them still and to hold them down for cutting. He held his breath for a moment as a few hooks dug into his palm. But at least more vines didn’t creep out from the ground to grab his ankles. 

“I’m gonna cut through the vines now,” he said as he glanced up at Luc, remembering that he should probably explain what he’s doing. (Why was he always forgetting that?). “Ain’t sure if there’s a way to not make this hurt.” Pause. “From the vines. Not … I know how to handle a knife.” With that, he sliced the knife against the tough vines. 

—

Yup, lucky. That was definitely how Luc was feeling - genuinely, no sarcasm detected because it was lucky that Daniel was here. “That’s great news. For me, not for you always having to get people out of situations. How did you come to realize that was like, something you were skilled at?” Luc asked, relieved to see that Daniel at least wasn’t put off by his rambling, or if he was, he was polite enough to just smile about it. 

Luc didn’t move his head to reassess the strength and uncomfortably large radius of these vines but he had to believe that Daniel had a point. With a small pocket knife, odds were Luc would have barely cut through a single vine before five others would have wrapped around him even tighter. “True. Either way, my friend will be glad to hear someone say she’s right, though, even if it’s coming from a total stranger. Well, previous stranger, we’re feeling pretty close now,” Luc joked as Daniel managed to pretty much share his air, offering a polite smile to assure the man that it was fine, no apologies needed. Even if Luc’s mind did offer up a thought on just how Mickey might comment on the situation if he were here when Daniel’s face dropped out of his line of vision. 

Thankfully, Luc’s mind was pulled away from that sort of unhelpful nonsense before it managed to have him start snickering while Daniel worked hard to help him out, as the sharp thorns reminded Luc of the current situation. Carefully, Luc flexed his neck to keep an eye on the situation, seeing (and feeling) the vines shift under Daniel’s hand before stilling again. So far, so good? “Sounds good!” Luc agreed with what he hoped was a smile of encouragement - he could take a few more thorns to the skin if it meant getting out of here. “I trust you.” Should he trust the man with the giant knife? Daniel was putting himself in danger to help Luc out here so the answer to that felt like a resounding yes. 

A sharp hiss slipped out as the even sharper knife went to work, with the vines grabbing on even tighter in the places they weren’t being cut. It stung and ached but his ankle felt better already with the vines no longer pressing sharp barbs through the skin (although it did feel like there were maybe a few thorns left behind which would be a fun project for later). “Feels better already,” Luc assured Daniel, hoping his voice sounded convincing and not too pained. Just rinse and repeat until they got out of here and– “Wait, stop. Something just moved in the dirt.” Luc’s foot, the one not currently being rescued and consequently the one that had slightly sunk into the soft dirt he stood on, had something new slithering up his ankle, underneath the leg of his pants. “It’s crawling up my leg,” Luc hissed, panicked and just a little bit grossed out. Hands balled into fists at his side as it took every single bit of self restraint he had not to start thrashing and pulling his leg away from the invasion. 

—

How did he come to figure out he was so good at helping people? Great question, but not really one that Daniel could answer truthfully. He shrugged his shoulders, and just said, “Dunno. Guess moving to this town has put me in these types of situations a lot.” Easy enough and not a lie. He could barely exist in Wicked’s Rest for one week without some ridiculous thing happening. 

Luc rattled on about his friend’s suggestion of carrying around a knife, and Daniel huffed in amusement at the lighthearted joke about them being rather close. They were close enough—much closer than he usually ended up with people in these types of situations—though, when he thought about that a little bit more, he realized someone else was often landing on top of him or him on them. Even his situation with that weird werewolf woman had her stumbling onto him when she slipped in ooze. But he focused instead on cutting through the vine, which was difficult enough for his knife. He recalled how easier the roots were, but as he glanced around them, he didn’t spot the large root system. The last thing he wanted was him and Luc being dragged into the earth just so he could slice through the roots. If his hunting knife struggled against the tough exterior of the vines, he doubted Luc’s pocket knife idea would get him anywhere with these. But at least Luc trusted him enough in that moment. 

“Good, that’s good,” Daniel answered as he briefly glanced up. He swiped away the cut vines, though he realized one of the thorns stuck into his palm. Whatever. As he moved to some of the other vines hooked around Luc, he heard a rustling sound. Right as he turned in the direction of the noise, Luc said Wait. Another vine slipped underneath Luc’s pants leg—all too familiar for Daniel, who recalled the vines wrapping and curling around his leg when he and Baz got stuck in this mess. He needed to work faster to get Luc out of this situation. “Just—just stay still,” Daniel instructed, keeping his voice calm. “I’ll get that one next.” It was far more invasive than the ones wrapped around Luc’s foot still, but he knew these vines were moving fast towards their prey. The last thing he needed was Luc getting yanked into the earth as it opened wide for him. 

He twisted his position on his heels, trying to keep his movements as quiet as possible. Getting Luc freed from the vines was one thing, but getting both of them far away? His only thought was running. Running fast. Daniel cut through the vine snaking around Luc’s leg, and he worked faster, not caring if his movements brought some of the vines towards him in turn. With that one sliced through, he tossed it to the side. Some of the vines moved towards the sound and wrapped around it. He went back to Luc’s other foot, cutting through more of the vines when that familiar rustling rang through his ears. Two vines slithered across the top of Daniel’s boot as they made their way towards his pants. Instead of wrapping around his leg, they moved up into the air and danced side to side, almost like a cobra in a trance. Right as the vines jumped towards him, he grabbed them in his fist and cut through them. With these cuts, he finally figured out just the right spot and angle for his knife to easily slice through the hard vines. 

“Okay, I’m going to cut through these and …,” he sighed and shook his head, “I’d suggest running but I just know they’re gonna come after you.” He angled his knife just right and cut through the remaining vines and pulled them off Luc. He stood back up and softly stepped away from Luc. None of the vines moved towards him. “Maybe let’s … tiptoe outta here. Let’s try that.”

— 

An explanation that made decent sense, probably. Luc hoped he’d reach that point one day, to be helping instead of being helped. Not that he hoped he’d get into situation after situation requiring it but, well, optimism apparently only got you so far in this town. “Yeah, I’ve sort of been noticing that,” Luc chuckled nervously, just hoping it wouldn’t inspire a new version of the ‘you should move’ talk. It wasn’t one he particularly liked, as much as he generally enjoyed talking to people about pretty much anything. Talking about staying still while something crawled up his leg, though? Another not fan-favorite. “Okay. Staying still, yup, just shit, ouch - staying totally still, this is so fine,” Luc rambled, wincing at the fresh new cuts to his leg now and the feel of warm blood trickling across his skin .

Meditation really didn’t cover the basis of ‘panicking for a legitimate reason because vines are trying to cut you up and drag you into the earth’. Luc attempted a deep breath anyway. It was pretty useless once he noticed more vines on the attack, rearing up to mess with Daniel. “Look o-” It was hard to tell which had moved faster, the vines or Daniel, but it was clear who had won. Visibly star struck by the real-life display of like, Spiderman abilities, Luc’s jaw hung open as the vines were sliced. Daniel looked entirely too unimpressed with himself as he simply continued to work on the vines and once Luc finally found his voice again, he breathed out a simple, “holy shit.” It had been a good distraction from the pain and panic. 

Even so, Luc’s stomach twisted once Daniel informed him it was his turn to get out. “Tiptoe,” Luc parroted, stalling. He’d hate to ruin all of Daniel’s hard work with a misstep. “Great, I’m like, historically light on my feet,” he huffed, hoping the joke, or more accurately the sarcasm, was conveyed. “Do you… mind?” Moving as slow as he can, Luc had reached out a shaky hand towards Daniel, hoping it wasn’t asking for too much. Daniel had after all reached up into Luc’s pantleg just earlier so hopefully a short while of some literal hand holding wasn’t pushing it. 

—-

Daniel snorted at the sarcasm. “Just follow my lead then. Light as a feather, yeah?” Daniel knew that he could move as silently as possible—he had plenty of practice doing just that across forest floors covered in leaves and twigs. This area, with nothing on the ground? Easy, he hoped. He raised his brow as he realized that Luc wanted to hold his hand throughout this, but Daniel wasn’t going to say no. He had just been all in Luc’s personal space just moments ago. “Yeah, okay,” he agreed, taking Luc’s hand in his. He thought it’d be better anyway, just in case they needed to run and he had to pull Luc along with him. 

The two crept quietly through the tunnel, towards where Daniel hoped there would be actual sunlight, away from this underground neighborhood. As he walked, he kept his eyes on the vines, making sure they weren’t crawling along after them. They stayed still, unmoving, as if they were like any other plant. Up ahead, the tunnel curved to the left, and the plants seemingly disappeared from view. Though Daniel knew that meant little to these vines. (He’d have to remember to figure out exactly what these were though.) 

“A bit further,” he whispered as they followed the curve. He sighed in relief as just up ahead, sunlight peaked through the tunnel entrance. Part of him just wanted to run now, get out of here, but he recalled how fast these vines wrapped around him and Baz. Slow moving would be fine … He didn’t want to rush and then both of them wind up even more trapped in these tunnels. (Daniel would never admit it out loud to anyone, but sometimes these tunnels made him a little claustrophobic. He was glad to not be going on hunts for New England Death Worms anymore. He’d rather stay above ground.) “I think we’ll be fine,” he said, glancing over towards Luc. 

—-

Out of anyone’s lead to follow, Luc felt fairly confident in following Daniel’s. He radiated a sort of quiet composure that made Luc think he could be convinced of following Daniel into pretty much any situation, as long as the older man was assured that it was fine. What a relief that this person had stumbled on Luc’s viney mishap instead of say, someone who would have just gotten themselves tangled up right next to Luc, too. Daniel probably didn’t think it was a huge relief, especially when Luc asked for a steadying hand, but before Luc could apologize for the silly request and pull his hand back, the rough palm was grabbing his. Maybe some hand scrub and moisturizer could be Luc’s thank you gift to Daniel once they got themselves out of here… 

Unsteady on his feet with the added complexity of tiptoeing - maybe Luc should have pushed for practicing ballet when he was younger - Luc was relieved for the grounding effect of Daniel’s steady grip. More than once, Luc suspected he might have clipped his toe or swayed a bit too far to one side if not for the hand holding, which was effective in erasing any remaining embarrassment Luc felt over asking in the first place. But throughout the whole process, staying completely silent was the hardest part, questions of ‘how far’ and apologies for his clammy hands burning Luc’s tongue. Miraculously, he stayed silent, to the point of being startled when Daniel’s barely audible whisper cut through the silence. Luc sighed in tandem with the other man, also spotting the wondrous sliver of sunlight that had to mean safety. 

Luc nodded, feeling confident that they would be fine now, actually. Confident enough even to feel comfortable without the steady grip of Daniel’s hand but asking to let go now, just a few feet away from the exit, felt silly. And was also most likely asking for trouble. Sure enough, the sunlight greeted them as they finally emerged through an opening, standing… Luc had no idea where he was, actually, having entered Netherville in a completely different spot. Thank god for navigation apps. Although Daniel probably knew exactly where they were - he seemed like the type capable of navigating just by the sun and like, the flow of water. 

“Oh my god,” Luc breathed as they were free from the stifling cave walls, letting go of Daniel’s hand with an apologetic smile, wiping his hand on his pantleg. “That actually worked. You were so calm. Like, a more chill version of Indiana Jones or something.” Before Luc could wax more poetic about his most recent saviour, something brushed against his hand and he yelped, springing away from the contact in fear of the vines having followed them outside of the cave. Half cowering behind Daniel, Luc was quick to realize that it had just been the gentle touch of a leaf caressing him, no murderous vines in sight. He cleared his throat and straightened out, shaking his head with a quiet chuckle. “Oh, Talia is going to lose it when I tell her about this.” 

—--

The warm sunlight was a welcome presence as soon as they exited the cave. Daniel looked around for any more of those killer vines, but he didn’t see any around them. Instead he spotted the familiar sweetferns and dogwoods scattered in the wooded area around them. He had almost forgotten he was holding Luc’s hand until the other man let go, and he glanced over to see Luc wiping off his hand. Daniel snorted but didn’t say anything, instead looking around to really make sure the coast was clear. “Thanks, but–” Luc’s yelp interrupted him, and he was about to jump back into action, but it was just all normal plants. At least, he hoped they were, but he could never be certain about that in this town. 

He wasn’t exactly sure where they were, but he guessed he could figure it out. He held up his hand towards the sun, blocking it so it wouldn’t blind him as he estimated its position in the sky. He was about to suggest heading west, guessing they’d end up in Gatlin Fields, but he was thrown for a loop at the mention of Talia’s name. Daniel turned his attention back to Luc, trying to determine how or why he might know Talia. He tried to think through all the conversations he’d had with Talia, trying to recall if the name Luc rang a bell. After a moment, it clicked—Luc. He’d heard her mention that name sometimes when they were chatting about their days or when they were sprawled out on the couch together, reading their books or playing on their phones, and she mentioned something about a chat was having with her friend Luc. 

“Talia? Do you mean Talia Shaw?” Daniel asked, jumping right to the point. “She’s my girlfriend.” He considered taking out his phone to show off his lockscreen, featuring Talia and Tree, just to confirm that they were talking about the same person. He wondered how much Talia had told Luc about him—how much might she have mentioned about their breakup or their current relationship. He glanced at the rhododendrons blooming on the ground behind Luc, before looking back towards Luc. 

—--

Out of everything Luc had managed during their time together - getting trapped, asking to hold Daniel’s hand, getting scared by a leaf - Luc hadn’t expected the mention of Talia to be the thing that caught Daniel off guard. Under the other man’s thoughtful gaze, Luc’s eyebrows raised slowly, waiting for… well, anything, really. “Yeah, Talia Shaw,” Luc confirmed, smile returning to his face and only widening when Daniel continued. “Daniel.” His name was spoken with a new sense of knowing now, because this was Talia’s Daniel. It wasn’t a super rare name and besides, Luc had been a bit preoccupied with not dying to fully flip through every mention of a Daniel in his life. Not exactly how Luc had envisioned meeting Talia’s boyfriend, the very same one whose wedding Luc had joked (mostly joked) about helping to plan. It made him realize that Daniel probably felt at a disadvantage here because you never talked as much about your friends as you talked about your boyfriend to your friends. 

“It’s so cool to finally meet you.” Any near-death-experience related nerves were tossed to the side as Luc properly took in his rescuer now in this new light, matching it up with Talia’s description of the man she was so smitten with. “I totally called that this thing would get serious, for the record, when she was still just like, saying it was casual. I could tell that she was crushing hard.” Luc refrained from mentioning that he was an expert in wedding planning (fine, a hobbyist) since Daniel had already dealt with a lot in the last hour. Daniel, the mostly-human human. Luc thought back to the effortless way in which Daniel had sliced through those vines as the pieces continued to connect. 

“You know, I met Talia because she also kinda rescued me from a cave. That was a cheese cave, though, wasn’t really as scary or painful. Just… smelly.”

—-

“Yeah, good to meet you too,” Daniel agreed, nodding his head. He tried to remember what Talia had said about Luc, but the comments were mostly in passing. He didn’t think he’d run into her friend like this, rescuing the guy from killer vines, but he guessed that’d be another win for him in Talia’s book. He chuckled lightly at Luc’s comment. “Ah, well, I guess there wasn’t really anything casual about us living together,” he replied. He really wasn’t sure what to say to Luc now. Whatever he said might get repeated back to Talia. Not that he had anything bad to say about her. Quite the opposite, actually. But she already knew how down bad he was for her, so she didn’t need even more evidence of it. 

“A cheese cave? Haven’t seen that anywhere yet. Don’t think I want to either. So, do you just end up in weird situations waiting for someone to rescue you?” Daniel joked. He grinned at the idea of Talia rescuing Luc from a smelly cheese cave. Although he hadn’t seen her fight much, he still recalled how protective she was of him, when the goggie first appeared in the woods during their fishing trip. So many aspects of that day stayed in his mind, but he especially thought about how it felt when she stepped in front of him, placing herself between him and the dangerous beast. He might not know anything about the cheese cave rescue, but he could imagine her wanting to save Luc from the cave.