Falcata

Oh, Worth was fine. He'd been thrown around a lot harder than that, and he had a crazy way of being one of the most durable toothpicks this side of Jersey.

He just laid on the ground for a second though and groaned, curled up on his side, before lifting one hand and giving them...

a middle finger.

And a thumbs up.

Sometimes it’s cathartic to tell your secrets to drunks. They either won’t remember enough about you for it to matter, or just won’t care.

But this is Lark’s boyfriend.

And he seems like he’ll remember things. Just a hunch.

They probably shouldn’t do that.

…they did it anyways. He seems sturdy. Or extremely fragile, like a toothpick? but he’ll survive.

Once he was off them, they dusted themself off.

And tried to think of what to say.

Um.

“…sure.”

!!! Oh!

"CONGRATULATIONS! YER GONNA BE AN UNCLE TOO!"

Any of that. None of the Things.

But then again--

"Oh, I AM datin' someone in this house! So that prolly counts."

"....shit, that almost does count, though."

NOW THAT THEY THOUGHT ABOUT IT!

"Lark's kids are my half-siblings." Which was still so funny and weird to them. But also nice? That's some family that doesn't suck, even though there's a lot of baggage involved.

"Maybe like a third cousin. Twice removed. An' then... put back again??? An' then removed again."

Making little direction points with his fingers in the air for demonstration. Removed over there, put back over here...

Good job not admitting to which person you're related to. Amazing.

"I guess that tracks. With genetic tampering."

I can be like yer weird uncle!

That wasn't the only thing about to be dead though, apparently. What the hell? His brows lifted at their answer, leaning back a little as he glanced around, before focusing big eyes back on Falcata again.

"Well shit!" No, whoever had contracted them probably wouldn't care if they were sick.

Got over the shock pretty quickly though, and then he was scooting a little closer and fishing his cigarettes out of his pocket. Tapped the top of the pack against the palm of his hand. No care or thought to how he might be blowing Fal's cover or getting in their way; if and when the target came along, Fal would look less conspicuous standing NEXT to someone rather than out there on the street alone.

Falcata gave those cigarettes a look, and then Worth, before rolling their eyes.

"He made eye contact with an Enderman."

Ew, they're doing nerd jokes. Been talking to Taika too much. Been playing Minecraft with Taika too much. That would have been such a great line though if Minecraft weren't nerd shit. You get it, right? Like looking at a mob boss the wrong way? Pissed off the wrong guy? You get it.

"...I'm good at making people disappear." Much as they'd like to be known for fashion instead.

"...Can you keep a secret?" Falcata put a hand on Worth's back, and pulled him along to start walking with them. "You want to watch?"

Worth lifted his other hand expectantly when Fal failed to finish that sentence, tiny little smirk on his face. They were fucking SICK no matter how much they tried to stoically stifle their sniffles, and they should be in that big old hippie commune of Devang's house, laying on one of the 101 acceptable places to take a NAP.

He crossed his arms when his hand was swatted away, tail curling at the tip behind him and smirk stretching into a wider grin. Smack him all you want, it never bothered him much.

"Right, okay, I got it. You been hot since I met ya. Yer hot all th' time, even while wearin' TWO scarves."

He couldn't possibly be teasing this sick and suffering man, could he? No, of course not, they were talking about temperatures.

Fal glared at Worth, then looked away, checking out some nearby...bushes. Naked, sad, winter bushes.

Actually, those might be weeds.

Dead weeds.

"...Especially while wearing two scarves. That's what scarves are for." Making you hotter, fashion AND heat-wise. Except these scarves weren't very fashionable. Ugh.

"I gotta kill a guy." They finally met his eye again. Do you think they'll take a sick note for that?

"Nice space hole ya got there. Ya should prolly shove yerself through one an' back into yer bed, yanno."

They were obviously sick, and Worth wondered what the hell they were doing out when it was below freezing.

The tail lashing earned a smirk and a raised eyebrow (he always appreciated a nice big lizard tail) but otherwise he kept his cool about it. Did Fal think a nasty side-eye and a little whipping was gonna make him go away? They obviously didn't know him very well yet. He shuffled around into THEIR personal space in return, getting back in front of them and pressing the back of his hand to their forehead. Did they have a fever?

Could he even tell, with Falcata's different biology?

He was still going to try.

Actually, no, Fal has a lot of stuff going on, and the rift thing is just one of them, which makes it less shameful for them to admit, "Rift travel isn't safe when I'm...." Well, they were GOING to not admit to being sick, but they just said nearly the whole sentence. They huffed, irritated, and swatted away his hand. "I'm always hot, genius."

Cuz you know, being hot, THAT'S their whole thing, actually. Yeah.

They didn't feel so hot, though. Eugh.