#barely edited

So Danny adopts his human form, being able to keep himself perpetually in his mid 20’s or early thirties, has the Ghost Writer create him an air tight identity in this dimension, and then gets going in giving Tim all the stuff he’s missed.

Tim wakes up in the morning to Danny cooking him an legit non frozen breakfast and a pantry and fridge stocked with food of every variety. He gets a smile and a “good morning” and Tim almost cries because something like this has never happened in this cold mosoleum of a manor. Tim tells Danny he’s a vigilante because he doubts that Danny’s not going to notice Tim disappearing at night and Danny just nods.

“Cool, runs in the family,” he jokes, ruffling Tim’s hair affectionately. “I was also a teenage vigilante.”

This leads to a sit down between the two where they set some base rules. Danny doesn’t doubt Tim’s abilities, but he also doesn’t know what they are yet, so he wants to shadow Tim for a few nights to see his capabilities. Danny promises not to intervene unless he see’s no other choice and this is more for Danny’s peace of mind over all.

Danny makes it very clear that as soon as Tim accepted the terms of the deal that the two of them “in simple terms.” Where bound to each other. As Danny’s ward, he’ll always know when Tim is in trouble and where he is. Danny has to actively check the bond to know where he is, but it’s an added protection and if Tim ever needs immediate help all he has to do is yell his name.

He makes Tim promise not to hide injuries. And actually will force Tim to rest when he’s hurt. The supernatural ice may accelerate healing, but nothing really beats good ole fashion rest. On nights where Tim can’t sleep, Danny summons one of the many Therapy ghost dogs he’s adopted and the lay on Tim like a weighted blanket and never fail to get him to eventually pass out.

Upon the designated meeting with the bats, Danny shows up with Tim all smiles and jokes with a Tim who is already really comfortable around Danny, which is important. If the bats thought Tim’s uncle was a threat of any kind to Tim they’d have picked up on the subtle body language. Tim, who’d slept for like 16 hours after being up two days straight is practically leaning into Danny’s side, but there’s a small content smile on his face.

Dick immediately thinks he’s drugged and moves to pull Tim away in a friendly sort of non suspicious way. Danny keeps his arm firmly around his wards shoulder until Tim gives a subtle little nod then let’s him go without breaking conversation with Bruce.

Dick asks after him and Tim kinda just laughs because he just woke up from one of those naps that leaves you forgetting the year. Explains how Danny got him a therapy dog who sleeps on him and it’s some of the best sleep he’s ever gotten.

Danny introduces himself as Daniel Drake. Bruce is suspicious because Tim said his name is Ethan. Danny just laughs it off.

“Daniel Ethan Drake. My parents thought it would be hilarious to name my twin sister Danielle so I went by my middle name.”

Bruce accepts it for now, and they have dinner. Over all Danny’s a pretty easy going guy. Smart as a whip too. Easily able to keep up with Tim on one of his tech rants, and seems to have a keen eye for engineering. Claims he came from one of the Drake lines who live overseas and that when Jack died it had been requested of him to head back state side, where he had a duel citizenship, to look after Tim. Naturally family is important so he readily agreed. He’s still looking for work, but he has enough in savings that he’ll be set for a good year without ever having to touch any of the drake money being allotted to him specifically for his emergency custody of Tim. Most of that would have gone to Tim’s care anyway, so…

Bruce is still suspicious, but as time passes Tim seems to be more…stable. Better sleep, seems to be eating enough, he’s slowly becoming more accustomed to accepting affection and that’s probably because Danny is a present fixture in the Drake household. One night Tim quietly admitted that his house finally feels like a home.

Everything was going well…until Jason showed up at Titans tower.

Now, Danny is still king of the realms, so every now and then he has to disappear into the realms to deal with business. When he’s gone he asks Bruce if he can watch Tim. Except with Red Hood, Bruce sends Tim to Titan’s tower hoping he’ll be safe out of the city. It didn’t work.

Jason has Tim pinned in the tower, about to slit his throat and in one desperate bid Tim screams out for Danny. It’s a whirlwind of chaos after that. A tear in reality opens between Tim and Jason and Danny shows up in royal regalia, claws out, fangs bared, death rolling off him in waves as he stares down this baby revenant.

Despite the heavily contaminated ecto, Jason still rings out as “mine,” to Danny’s senses. His subject. His Rogue. His species. So with a power laced voice, one he rarely uses, he orders Jason to stand down. To sit still and don’t move until permission is given. And Jason is ecto enough that he can’t disobey.

Danny immediately starts fussing over Tim. He’s in bad shape, but he’ll live. Danny holds him tight and let’s him cry because for Tim, Danny rings out safety and Tim’s safe now. He cries himself to sleep and Danny gently sets him on the couch so he can deal with whoever the fuck attacked his kid. As far as Danny is concerned Jason is an unknown assassin. Some entity who dislikes Danny being on the throne sent him after Tim in an an attempt to hurt the king.

Danny’s fully prepared to wipe Jason from existence until he actually takes account of that vile ass ecto he’s surviving off of. Then he order’s Jason to take his helmet off and recognizes enough of Jason from the photos Bruce has around his house. With a scowl he rips a new portal into the far frozen and hands off Jason to the yeti’s with the order to fix him, because if Jason stays in front of Danny any longer he’s not convinced he’ll be able to contain his fury.

With the threat gone, Danny begins to calm down some. He takes Tim to the cave because he’s hurt enough that Danny doesn’t care about poorly kept secrets, and also Danny knows if he just takes Tim to the hospital, Bruce will use it as a means to petition for custody.

So he floats into the cave, scares the shit out of the bats, let’s them stabilize Tim, and then tears into them because *why* was Tim alone when you knew some weirdo was after him?

Bruce is clearly more curious about the full royal regalia his neighbor is sporting as well as the new color scheme and also the floating? Danny rolls his eyes and changes back. “Nice to meet you. The names Daniel James Fenton, Ancient of Space and High King of the Infinite Realms. Tim Drake summoned me because he hadn’t slept in four days and needed a pretend uncle. No he didn’t sell his soul to me. The deal was that I remain his legal guardian until he’s a legal adult, and no I will not sign custody over to you, Bruce, no matter what you think. I’ve imprinted on the kid. He’s mine until he no longer wants to be. I will wage dimensional war if you try to steal custody of him from me.”

Bruce is still confused, but before he could sort out his thoughts Danny continued talking.

“By the way, your son, Jason, isn’t fully dead. He’s the one who attacked Tim. Whatever Ecto was used on him was the equivalent of sewage and heavily polluted his obsession. Honestly probably completely reversed it. Either way, he’s ecto enough to be a subject of the infinite realms and you’re damn lucky I like you as a person Bruce, because I was this close “ll” to erasing him from existence for attacking and trying to kill Tim. Honestly I thought he was an assassin sent by Hades. That Bastard would try something like that. God forbid anyone be happy, not my fault he lost a bet and became a miserable asshole.”

Danny takes a deep breath and gets back on track. “Jason’s being treated by ghost doctors and I’ll bring him back when he’s stabilized, and not a moment sooner. I’m the meantime, can you watch Tim for me. Unfortunately contaminated Ecto like what was inside of Jason only happens when there’s a major breech in the veil, and it’s sorta in my job description to handle breeches like that.”

Bruce decides to latch onto that, because that was a lot of information that he was not able to fully comprehend and “what is ecto?”

“Glowing green plasma,” Danny holds up his hand and allows some to materialize in his palm. It’s what infinte realm denizens survive off of. It gives them power. It’s the same reason why spirits are more noticeable in places where the veil is weaker. Theirs more ambient ectoplasm in the air and it gives them a power boost. Let’s them interact with the physical realm more easily.”

Bruce then explains the Lazarus Pits and Danny just nods along because that sounds about right. Super gross anyone is bathing in that shit, but it’s not about to be a problem.

So Danny storms the league base all by his lonesome and oh? Is that a Mini Bruce? Looks close enough based on the photos he’d seen at Wayne manor from when Bruce was a kid. Ain’t no shot he’s leaving him here with these weird cult assassins.

So with one Lazarus pit closed and one child acquired, Danny returns to Gotham before Tim has a chance to even wake back up.

“Think I found one of your kids.” He explains dropping a probably 8 year old Damian into a chair in the cave.

Ever since you had moved into the small, two bedroom home at the end of the road, you’d been having nightmares. Or really, one nightmare. Over and over again. It began only a few nights in. At first you had it occasionally. Maybe once or twice a month. Then it was once a week. Then twice a week. And here you were, only about 8 months in, plagued by the same reoccurring nightmare every time you closed your eyes.

It started slow. You’d think you were just waking up in the middle of the night. You’d open your eyes to darkness. The familiar shadows spilling in from the window. Fabric softener from your blanket and light rose from your air freshener. It was comforting. Until it wasn’t.

Suddenly the darkness became unnaturally so. Thick tendrils of pure blackness would break away from the rest of your surroundings and start slithering towards you.

You couldn’t move. Not sure if it were terror or lack or reality stopping your frantic escape.

The tendrils climbed up your bed posts and licked at your ankles. Your blankets ripped away from your body. You could do nothing as the darkness climbed your limbs and slipped under your clothes. Fear froze your lips.

Slowly, the darkness would pull your legs apart and waste no time in sinking deep into your depths. Soon both your sloppy holes were being roughly pounded, soft cries slipping from your mouth. Another tendril of black would pry your lips apart and writhe down your throat. Tears formed in your eyes while you were being gagged by… something

You’re thankful for the gag when, shortly, you, yourself are writhing, and would be loudly exclaiming. Your orgasm crashed through you, hard and viciously. It catches you off guard. You feel yourself pushing back slightly to meet the thrusts of the tendrils.

After what feels like hours and too many orgasms to count, the creature dumps an obscene amount of liquid in every hole. You’re filled to the brim with it. Slowly, it slips out of you, behind the retreating tendrils.

You wake with a start, sweaty, grasping the sheet in your hands. The bed is soaked below you.

But it was just a dream, right?

It wasnt real, right?

When the medication didn’t work for the tooth aching pain tickles did.

It was hell for Lara, waking up in tears from the excruciating pain. All the other days it seemed normal, but the one time she had a planned day off it fought back. It managed to surpass a ten on the pain level, possibly a twenty when she had to wake up Sophia to take her to the doctors. The medication dosage fixed the problem, but she felt bummed that her itinerary of sightseeing across Toronto fell short.

Now she was resting, computer on her lap binge watching any trendy Netflix show that was on. She encouraged the others to get out, have fun and not worry about her. Realistically, she wished she wouldn’t have said that. Lara would’ve snatched her words back and begged for cuddles and head scratches, being adorably clingy and getting away with it because of her toothache. But she hated her impulses of being desperate for attention out of the member’s plans, so she kept quiet.

During her intense screening of a Korean drama Manon rang her cell. It took three rings for Lara to pick up, eyes glued to the suspense but having to pause.

“Finally you had the decency to call me.”, Lara gives out attitude, flaunting her British accent. Ever since the start of tour Lara and Manon were hit with the British speaking disease, and now every interaction over the phone had to be in a British accent.

“Whatever. I’m at the shop, bout to grab something to eat. Would you like some food darling?”, Manon asks sweetly. Lara was a foodie, any adventure needed to have snacks or meals included. With the harsh events and relentless crying for half an hour her appetite seemed to disappear, over and over again.

“I’m fine darling but thank you.”, Lara responds back, and there was an eery silence on the call. She thought Manon reached a dead end or a fan noticed her. When Lara’s thumb was going to reach the end call button Manon spoke again.

“What do you mean you haven’t eaten? Are you alright?”, The accent breaks down into genuine concern.

“Yes I am alright, I’ve been snacking and hydrating.”, Lara bites into a saltine cracker to have proof. Manon can tell Lara has been munching on crackers and water, not enough for it to be filling. She knew the script all to well, it was one of Lara’s habits when her mind was overwhelmed, shutting down. Lara would have a lack of hunger but would hide it with how extroverted she was.

“That’s not a meal, you need something to stick to your bones.”, Manon lectures, hoping Lara’s next words would be what she wanted to order. When it continued to be Lara being a brat that’s when the fun and games were over. If Manon knew anything besides reading in between Lara’s lies it’s with tackling it with her weakness.

“And why should I think it’s best to listen to you huh?”, Lara plays around, giggling.

“Lara, text me what you want to eat or I’m fucking tickling you. I’m not playing.”, Manon’s tone shifted, Lara immediately can tell when Manon casually slips the f bomb in her words. She played serious whenever she mentioned tickling, it had Lara in a mess of indecisive choices that no matter what she does she’ll get tickled. If she hangs up tickles are on the way if she continues to bicker she’ll get tickled.

The anticipation of tickles were ten times better when Lara’s brain is jumbled up.

Lara hung up, punching the air, kicking her feet, being a mess hiding in her sheets. In a way her words were calculated, that she was only acting slightly bratty for tickles. She did it earlier with Dani but she didn’t think the message was received. It came easily to Manon, a few words exchanged and now she was going to get tickled out of it. She didn’t act out for tickles often, it happened once with Sophia. Accidentally bickering over the smallest details as it ends with Sophia getting her lick back in tickles.

Lara underestimated the time Manon was going to arrive, a few minutes on Manon’s line was twenty minutes. Five minutes in of Lara still in a flustered mess and having to force herself to not smile so it doesn’t bother the pain in her mouth. She had to do breathing exercises, focusing on her poker face in the mirror. Lara had it down, looking the part that she’s been resting and totally not giggling and kicking her feet over the thought of tickles.

The moment she opened the door, spending a hearty ten minutes working hard on fixing her face it all crumbled when looking at Manon. Those endearing eyes holding her soup that had Lara’s name written next to a heart. An envelope inside that could be a sweet handwritten note of motivation. Lara had to shut the door, on her knees by the pleasant surprise waiting for her at the door.

When she tried again she lasted longer at holding her expressions, world record of thirty seconds. Manon wasn’t going to let her shut the door twice, forcing it open to find a placement for the food. Then to carry Lara to the bed for all the nonsense she had to endure. It was a mix of giggles, happy energy as Manon managed to get a good spot in for raspberries.

“MANONNWAIT!!”, Lara’s head went back, laughing at the ballistic raspberry attack. Manon went all around, being careful not to tug at the belly button piercing Lara had. When her hands sprawled to protect her tummy Manon quickly pulled her hands to the pillow and went on going. That was the only method she thought off that failed on the first try, so now she was left giggling through Manon’s torment.

“Fine, I’ll stop so you can give me an apology.”, Manon lets go, giving the space for Lara to say her last works. She knew there was no apology, Manon knew how Lara’s brain operated. That she’ll refuse, get more tickles, then say thank you for the tickles. The same act has been done countless times and still it gave the same result, Lara crossing her and back talking to Manon.

“What? Why should I apologize to you if you tickled me first?”, Lara’s face gets closer to Manon, which turns into a bad decision with her fingers get tangled on Lara’s tummy. Her laugh became high pitched, suddenly fighting for her life but only moving to rest her head to laugh freely.

“WAITHAHAHWAIT!!”, Lara laughs having her hand up, but it made Manon dig deep to her sides. That way there was nothing to wait upon. Unless it was for Manon to use one of her hands lock fingers into Lara’s tattooed hand and the other to tickle. The tickles wouldn’t feel intimidating to her, just pure love.

“You’re worse than Yoonchae at trying to be mad.”, Manon says, letting the teasing begin. To think she’ll get on Yoonchae’s ass that she’s easy to bully. It wasn’t tickles that had the maknae agitated, it was either ignoring or mocking her. In the end Lara apologized and gave her hugs and kisses, which still annoyed Yoonchae but at least she knew she was loved.

“I am not!”, But still not showing signs of being angry. The anger wasn’t in the room, it simply ran off when Manon was tickling her neck. It was laughs from now on, not the fancy ones that made anyone think it was raining money. When she was with Manon the tickles were much different. High pitched, airy, made Lara feel like cloud nine whenever the tickles softened.

“WAITIMMMSAWRRY!!”, What in hopes is an apology came from Lara’s lips. It wasn’t, but it was a great start of another feast of teasing from Manon.

“Wait, what did you say? You need to speak a little. Gosh the AC is so loud in here.”, Manon speaks, knowing the loud noises were from Lara’s laughter from all the tickles. Lara wasn’t pulling any chances of bringing out more words, it was tickles all around. She can say vowels but Manon got to pinching the inner thighs her body swung to the side.

“YOUUUUIHAHAHAHAIII!!”, Now it was a mess of words for Lara to get out. Manon’s fingers were moving fifty places at once, all of them being ticklish. It was the thighs, the side, her neck, her tummy, then astonishingly her feet. For the finale of it all being the armpits.

“Please! Please! You got every spot, don’t go for the armpits.”, Lara was able to say, seeing Manon wiggle her fingers close to her. Lara wanted to lock fingers with her, trying to turn it into a small wrestle competition. That way she can get on top of Manon, shower her with kisses well enough to be forgiven. If she wasn’t bedridden all day her strength would’ve been better.

“Babes, not going for your armpits is like saying I can’t sing for a whole week. That’s impossible.”, With that Manon shoots her scribbling fingers around Lara’s armpits. For a second Lara thought there was a chance Manon was going to listen by her soft tone saying babes. She was glad the tickling didn’t stop, she rather tackle armpit tickles than let it stop.

“HEYHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”, To Lara’s dismay and couldn’t talk back or make any smart remarks.

“Where’s the apology I’m waiting on? Hm?”, Manon questions, going back and forth with armpit tickles, then raspberries on her tummy.

“IMSORRRYYYY!!”, Lara confesses, saying it multiple times through her cackles. Manon did her method then, swarming her with kisses all over her face, still doing raspberries which soon faltered into soft tummy kisses. Lara felt so special being at the other end of her method, in the moment of collecting her thoughts her mind was scrambled again by such tender thoughts.

“Are you going to start making sure you eat and not indulge in just crackers?”

“I promise.”, Lara agrees. Glad she was agreeing to that and not agreeing to stop her bratty tendencies.

Manon got her food from the dresser, setting it on Lara’s lap with napkins and some juice that came along with the meal. The vibe was content, TV on with Lara eating her meal as Manon was scrolling through her phone. With the bothering tooth pain gone there was still another worry, much bigger problem arising. How was she going to win the MIA outro if she lacked the capability of holding her composure around Manon?

Hal let their axe sink into the vine beneath them. It cleaved easily, but the blow still barely left a dent.

"Busy right now, Esker."

"Oh, and I suppose ya just forgot your radio was set to my channel?"

Hal laughed, or tried to. It felt more like choking. They cleared their throat. "Umm, yeah, something like that."

Esker let the silence drag on a little too long. If they think they can pressure me into talking, they've got another thing coming. If there was one thing Rhy... if there was one thing they'd learned, it was stubbornness.

"So. Ya seen Gabbro around?"

Of course it was about them. "Nope." It was only a half lie. Their hatchmate had made themself pretty scarce since coming back from Giant's Deep.

"Goss is just worried, is all. Ya noticed them acting... different?"

Hal leaned on the handle of their axe. This was clearly going to be a whole conversation. "Not really. Gabbro's Gabbro. You know."

Esker let the conversation stall again, long enough that Hal almost hoped they'd just resume their whistling.

"Porphy said you've been dodging em like they've got spring fever."

Hal's ears flattened. "Look, Esker, I'm really busy." Just imagining their older friend's eyes - so concerned and sad - made centipedes crawl into their vocal folds. They coughed. Tektite had noticed their change in demeanor and was picking their way around debris to reach them. It felt like the thorny vines were buried in their chest instead of the ground beneath their feet. Esker inhaled over the line as if to speak, then just sighed.

"We care about ya, hatchling. But nobody can support you if you don't... I just wish either of you..." Esker's voice trailed off. Hal could have sworn they heard for a moment the same exhaustion they'd seen in the faces of all their elders. "Maybe you should talk to Goss about it. That's all. They might understand more than you think."

Hal rubbed their fangs over their lower lip. Nope. Tektite had reached their position. "Why don't you take a break, eh?"

Much worse than the admonishment they'd expected. Hal knew their emotions were written all over their face and they hated it. "Nah, I'm alright. Just checking in with Esker. They get lonely up there." They forced a smile. Tektite squeezed their shoulder, probably harder than necessary.

"Haven't seen you drink water all day, so that's an order." Now Marl was looking in their direction with all four eyes, Ears pricked, brow furrowed. Frustrated, Hal pulled the respirator off their face so they could speak more clearly.

"If what Gabbro said is true-" And that was a big if "we need to get this thing cleared as fast as possible. I'm fine, I have my own water." Water they mostly weren't drinking, since it was such a pain to move away from the worksite, take off the respirator, all just for some lukewarm water that had been sitting in a flask all day.

"Well I better see you using it." Tektite moved away again, resuming their work. But Hal caught their upper eyes straying back to their position. Hal huffed and took a perfunctory sip of their water which tasted like shit and re-secured the respirator over their nose and mouth. Gossan had insisted on the extra safety measure after Gabbro mumbled out an explanation that was mostly nonsense but involved words like "vacuum" and "wormhole".

Honestly, it's like everyone's hit their head. Is this what it was like when Feldspar... they shook their head furiously as if they could rattle the thought loose. Maybe YOU need to hit your head, Hal. The movement had unintentionally captured the attention of their working companions, again. They put their head down and got back to work.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

It was just past sunset when Tektite called off work for the day. The light was just too low. The late summer air hung heavy, the last vestiges of twilight clinging to the horizon in shades of lupine blue and winged insects crawled along the surface of the lamps used to light the path back to the village. Hal trailed behind the rest of the group. Tuff had joined them halfway through the day, and Hal had no motivation to pretend to be interested in the whispered tones of gossip between their hatchmates.

They paused at the top of the hill, eyes scanning the horizon of the crater. It was stupid habit, but the lightless void at the top of the village felt like a hole in their stomach. "Meet me after work, ok? I'll light a lantern." They turned their gaze upwards instead, watching the stars winking on one by one. Their hand fell to their radio, and they flipped through the channels absently.

Esker whistling.

"Yes, quite sure-"

"Hmm... that's odd... I'm-"

"Day off might be good-"

"Ground control to Rhyolite. This is an automated-"

They hit the off button so hard their finger hurt. They huffed out a few breaths. At some point, they'd sunk to their haunches. They forced themself back to their feet over the screaming in their lungs. I can breathe. I can breathe. I can breathe. They wandered down the village path, eyes half-focused on the ground, upper eyes flickering from place to place as if they'd spot a predator in the shadows. Just don't draw attention to yourself. Thank stars dinner's over.

"I can't tell you where they are because I don't know"

The raised voice cut through their dazed mind like water. Hal found themself drawing closer to the lit cabin window, hovering just out of its line of sight.

"You could at least help look for them" Hornfels sounded furious. "This isn't like you. You're unreliable but you've never returned from a mission early."

"Yeah well -" There was a growl, a sound of primal frustration and pain. "I can't you don't -" the speaker paused, panting for a second. "you can't understand."

Is that Gabbro ? It definitely was, the cadence and timbre left little doubt of that. Just... Hal had never heard them like this. In all the years growing up together, Gabbro had rarely shown their feelings. This was entirely different. The emotion spilling from Gabbro's voice made Hal's throat want to close again. It resonated deeply.

"I understand enough. Whatever happened with you two, this is unacceptable. Rhyolite is MIA and you want to what - abandon them?"

"I know they're not coming back but you won't listen to a word I say!" Gabbro gathered themself a little, frustration masking the raw pain beneath.

"I don't know what you're implying by that. I know you aren't suggesting Rhyolite would hurt themself." Hornfels' voice was darker. Hal instinctively made themself smaller beneath the window frame. There were sounds of shuffling inside.

"And I know you weren't suggesting I hurt them when you said 'whatever happened between you two'" A few seconds of seething silence passed. Hal wanted to creep away. This seemed like it was going to end in a fight. Should they call someone? Who could they call? Their body was frozen, rooted to the ground like a tree.

"I fucking told you what happened." Gabbro's voice was a little calmer.

"What you told me is delusional." Hornfels' was not. Another moment of silence passed.

"Forget it. I don't know why I tried." Footsteps moving towards the door.

"We're going to find them. And if you won't help I have no choice but to assume you don't want that." Hornfels' voice held a pleading note beneath the anger. Hal heard it. They were pretty sure Gabbro didn't. The door to their left clicked and Hal found themself face-to-face with the astronaut. Their eyes met for just a second before Gabbro's gaze dropped to the boards of the porch. Some things never change, I guess...

"You should... talk to them in the morning." Gabbro's voice was rough from vocal strain, but lowered. The dim lantern light glinted off the tears on their face, which they made no effort to hide.

"I'm. Umm..." Hal tried to formulate a coherent response. An excuse? Literally anything? But everything felt upside down. They suddenly felt very much like running to Gossan's cabin and pretending they were a hatchling again.

"Or, maybe better, don't." Amended Gabbro, glancing behind them. Footsteps approached the door. Hornfels could, of course, hear their low conversation.

"You're... different." Was all Hal could manage. Gabbro chuckled, but it was a sort-of sad chuckle. Not really a joyful sound.

"Yeah, buddy, a little. I should really be going though." Hal blinked dumbly at them as they slipped away into the darkness.

"Who - Halite? What are you doing here?" The change in Hornfels' voice from anger to the same sickeningly gentle concern Porphy kept trying to give them made Hal take a step backwards.

"I'm... Just heading home from work... Uhh... progress report... Seed is good? I mean. Not good. But we're working on it."

Hornfels squinted their upper eyes, scrutinizing Hal. "Right. So Tektite told me." well shit. Hornfels' face softened again. "Hal... If you need anything... just radio, alright? Your welcome any time."

It was, really unnerving to be let off the hook so easily. Memories of stern interactions from teenage escapades filled their mind like swarms of insects. I should be thankful. There's nobody left to take the fall. Hah. They numbly walked back to their cabin and sank into a dining room chair. They didn't bother to dim the lamp or shut the door quietly. There was nobody to wake up.