#viridigone

@viridigone

@viridigone  

A kiss that conveys emotion.

Cold rock stings through layers of dark fabric, Kris leaning back heavily against the connecting tunnel above the path under him. The lockers were close by and the grating sound of the mechanism in the Nerve Center lay beyond the closed doors next to him. Chords vibrate and sing next to him, reminding him of the stakes in this game. 

His head hurts and his ears sound flooded with the stress of the Shape being so close. He swears that there’s a fire behind his eyelids, but after a few moments it finally disappears and he regains his focus. Heartbeats calm and he dares to lean over the side of the edge and look below. Nothing. 

In the distance, he hears the heavy footfalls of the other two running up the stairs towards the surface. They have the first fire in their hands, ready to can it and be done with the mission. Things have been hectic and there were too many Lucids in the underground tonight. Things went sideways and Jude was caught in the crossfire, getting captured and slept by the Angel.

Kris takes his grappling hook and attaches it to the ledge, tossing the rope down and giving it a tug to test the integrity of the hold before climbing down. Boots touch down next to a pile of trash, not spotting anything useful. He pulls his grapple down and attaches it to his belt before pushing open the door to the locker room.

Nobody was in here but Jude. The red door in the back corner makes Kris nervous about trying to retrieve him so close by, but there wasn’t much else for him to do in this case. He’s careful in his approach, the tiled floor clicking softly with each step. 

Jude’s not really going anywhere, standing in one spot and swaying softly. Every now and then his hands reach out as if to catch his balance. Kris gets in front of him and stares at him for a long moment before grabbing his face. He holds him still and waits for him to wake up but after a solid minute, he starts wondering if it’s not working. The bright red floodlights saturate their forms in succeeding patterns. It’s eerily quiet aside from the sounds the lights make.

The buzz of his phone indicating the mission was over and it was time to leave breaks him from his confused train of thought. Kris lets go of Jude to check the screen, noting which exit they needed to meet up at and he curses under his breath. Blue eyes search his friend’s face for any sign of consciousness but nothing greets him. Kris knows Jude is a heavy sleeper but this was not the time for such a trait to show its stubbornness. 

His hands come back up to Jude’s face and he rubs his thumbs over his cheeks softly. Teeth catch his lip as he debates with himself how to wake him up without hurting him. (It’d be easy to just shake him or push him into the lockers, but that wasn’t something he wants to do.) A few pats to the cheek and he sighs when nothing happens. Hands grasp Jude’s shoulders and he shakes him softly, then a little harder so his whole body lurches and tries to steady itself. Nothing.

Another buzz of his phone in his pocket and Kris starts feeling a little more desperate. The longer he waits, the more likely the Shape might come back to try and catch him away from the other kids. 

“Jude. I need you to wake up. Jude. Jude!” 

Kris curses under his breath again and he gets closer to him, wrapping his arms around the shorter man and holding him close. The sides of their heads rest against each other and he briefly mimics the little swaying motion Jude naturally does when he’s not influencing him. A million and one thoughts run through his mind but he does know that he refuses to leave him behind.

He pulls back a bit and tries to reason with himself. Things aren’t going to end how he wants them to and attempting to drag Jude around while he’s asleep isn’t going to work when there are stairs and ladders between them and the exit. He figures that despite his efforts, he’s still giving himself the excuse to try something else--that he’s not speaking loud enough for Jude to hear him and he’s not being forceful enough, in the end, to really wake him up. Of course he’ll beat himself up for the idea, but in the end, it leaves him with the option that he’s been thinking about for a while now (even if Jude wasn’t in need of saving.)

Hands grab ahold of Jude’s face again, cupping his cheeks and holding his hair away from his eyes. Lips press to Jude’s and he closes his eyes while hoping (praying--a hint of confidence sparking inside of him from the multi-faceted danger he faced at the moment.) He holds the action for as long as it takes, forcing himself to relax more until it’s less desperate and a bit more careful. Mouths caught in a simple, gentle motion.

It might have taken the full minute--just like his previous attempt of keeping him still--but this time he feels the flutter of eyelashes on his cheek and he does his best to remain calm. Heat flushes his cheeks and ears when he feels the initial receptiveness of Jude being awake finally and Kris lets his hands fall away so he can pull away if he wants to. 

Kris keeps his eyes closed, afraid to face the repercussions if Jude decided he wasn’t about all of this, but he doesn’t hesitate in continuing to kiss him despite him having woken up.

It’s the first time he’s ever been so direct in expressing his feelings for Jude. Everything before this was all subtle and half-assed things hidden behind the guise of friendship (holding hands, spending nights together, taking him out.) He’d be lying if he didn’t admit he was extremely anxious as to how his best friend would react. 

@viridigone

Kris can’t believe they actually left him behind. He watched them run behind the houses back to the gutters where they could return to the hideout, leaving Jude in one of the houses. Most of the adults walking around were still in high alert but slowly going back to their normal stare of wariness.

The teen lowers himself from one of the rooftops and he heads across the street to the house he last saw Jude in. The front door was kicked open and he casually snaps a picture of it even if the others are already gone. There’s no threat of the Shape, most of the communication coming in through his phone going quiet at this point.

Jude is sitting on the steps going up to the second floor of the house, Kris standing in front of him for a long moment to gauge what he wants to do. He could just let him be and maybe lead him to a bed, but it’d be really weird for him to wake up in someone else’s house. His own was a little far of a walk, but he could also try and get Jude back to the club hideout. 

There’s no light on and he’s sitting in the dark, leaning against the wall as he’s sleeping. There’s some mumbling under his breath but nothing particularly intelligible. Kris kneels down in front of him and looks up at him ( given he’s a few steps up. ) A hand reaches up to brush a few loose strands of hair behind his sleeping friend’s ear, fingers hovering and thumb brushing his cheek softly. No time for such self-indulgent moments.

Jude’s hands are taken within his own and he pulls him up to stand, the other stumbling to do so but otherwise malleable to his suggestion. His eyes stay closed, his body sluggish as he walks. Kris leads him out of the house, closing the door, and into the middle of the empty street. The floodlight cast shadows behind them and yet the brightness did not affect the other’s slumber. He moves Jude so he’s facing with his back to the light, hands lingering on his shoulders.

Should he wake him up...? 

His friend mumbles again, head lolling to one side and Kris notices that he’s unironically sticking his tongue out when he’s not talking. Bright eyes blink almost comically as he takes Jude’s chin in one hand and rights his posture. Focus searches his face for any signs of wakefulness--not finding any clues--and he jostles him a little to open his mouth. A curious noise escapes him when he spots the tongue ring sitting in the middle of his mouth, a sudden warmth covering his cheeks as he taps Jude’s chin to shut his mouth.

Sure, he knew he had a tongue piercing. Something about this whole scenario leaves him a little warm in his own skin. There’s nothing cool about thinking about him when he can’t return any favors or even know he did anything. Nope. Not cool at all!

And so Kris laces their fingers together and he pulls him along towards the closest exit behind the houses. It takes over an hour to traverse the tunnels and woods back to the hideout but it’s worth it. He wasn’t going to leave Jude behind or allow him to stay under the Song’s influence all night. As soon as they were within eyesight of the train car ( but far enough away that no one else would see them yet, ) Kris cups his hands on Jude’s face to hold him still.

“Hey. I’ve got you. I need you to wake up.” A little mantra he tends to use when waking others, making sure his voice is heard and to remind them that they are not quite themselves. He knows he shouldn’t wake him on his own, not when he’s been tasked with apprehending them to the Shape and this works directly against that order. 

“Jude. I’m here. I need you here, too.” It doesn’t take very long, luckily, for him to snap out of everything and open his eyes. Almost like he’s breathing in a lungful of fresh air, Jude seems to quickly recover from the daze he’d been in and thanks him. Kris gives him a tight smile and pats him on the back, motioning back to the hideout.

// @viridigone

Just the two of them, down in the underground of the city and reconning what they could together. Usually, Kris invited Jude along just to have some company–it gets boring and tiring running solo for surveillance–and sometimes they ended up getting into more trouble than they intended to.

Things have been... strange but good between them in their friendship. Ever since Sally introduced them to each other they hit it off pretty well. Kris never even knew Sally had a brother until Jude showed up to the club one day. What an eye-opener. The fact he was still reckless but to a different degree shouldn’t have surprised him, but everything about Jude kind of threw Kris for a loop at times. He’s gotten... attached to him, in a way.

Out in the dream therapy area, the whole place was like a maze. Odd structures and creaking wood. What looked like bottomless pits seemed to be everywhere around here. Not a whole lot of sleepers were in the area but there was a lot of supply boxes that needed to be refilled. That was part of their mission tonight; they had to reset a lot of stuff to make sure the next group to crawl through would be prepared.

At some point Jude wanted to get up somewhere that was too tall for him to reach, tapping Kris on the shoulder and pointing up to the strangely-designed platforms above. “Give me a boost?” As if Kris would tell him no. 

“Ready?” Hands interlocked, ready to be used as a step so he could lift him up. Jude’s hand grabbed his shoulder as he readied himself and Kris attempted to pick up the slack as he hopped up. Not exactly trained in this sort of lifting, his arms are fully extended and it leaves his face against Jude’s stomach. Not the most ideal situation--he can tell Jude’s got a hold on the surface he wants to climb but he’s barely registering his call for lifting him up a little higher.

Face heats up out of exerting energy and Jude leaning heavily on him. Kris’ head turns and his cheek is pressed to the other’s mid-drift as he starts pulling himself up, Jude’s shirt riding up during the whole process. A few stumbled steps as he lifts his legs the last few feet up and Kris just huffs a breath and places his hands on his hips, quickly turning his shoulders and keeping his hips from moving as he cracks his back in both directions. A small distraction from the heat softly ebbing away from his cheeks.

@viridigone