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together we'll outrun it
Permalink Mark Unread

He steps out of the tour bus and looks up at the empty Gothenburg mansion.

It looks...like they left it, honestly. All stately and old and imposing outside, very different from the remodeled interior. He vaguely remembers letting them hire somebody to take care of the grounds, when somebody asked, which explains why the front yard isn't a mess.

He looks back over his shoulder at the rest of the band behind him.

"So...this is it."

He has the keys clutched in his right hand. It's a good thing after all that he kept carrying them around.

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Ey presses closer to his side, muscles tense in a way that suggests ey's trying no to shake. Ey doesn't like this. Even if it makes sense.

"Home sweet home," ey mutters, not quite sourly.

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"-We can find somewhere else?" Marlene offers, looking at them, concerned.

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He squeezes Ant's hand.

"We'll be okay."

It's a reassurance to Ant as much as to Marlene.

When he puts in the code – it's still the same – the gate opens for them, and they both proceed through the yard towards the front door.

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Ey squeezes back, and stays plastered to his side as they walk in, the rest of the band following.

"This place was always too big," ey manages to sound almost normal. "So there's plenty of bedrooms to go around."

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Shin gives a quietly pleased sound. "Think we all need a good night," he mumbles.

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Ira's trailing some, unsettled and on edge. She (he, you freak) remembers the last time she was here. Still expects blood, and corpses and-

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There's hand on her shoulder, suddenly.

"...you okay?"

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She doesn't quite startle, rests her hand on his back in turn. "Memories," she says dismissively. "I'll be fine. We should all get to bed, huh?"

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"...yeah. We'll figure out what to do with this place in the morning."

He hesitates, for a second, and then leans in and kisses her on the cheek.

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She turns her head and kisses his forehead. Leans over to kiss Ant's head as well, takes the keys from his hand and steps over to open the door.

She doesn't let herself pay that much attention to her surroundings, just enough that she knows they're clean, knows she isn't going to walk into anything.

"The studio still out back?" she asks, looking back to her siblings.

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"Far as I know, yeah."

He knows she's slept on the couch in the control room more times than they can count. Better than having to sleep in here, for her.

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Ira nods and...

"Sleep well," she says over her shoulder as she heads through the house towards the back.

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"Alright, let's all get...somewhere approximating beds before some of us just keel over- Shin, no, you can't sleep leaning against the wall."

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He lets go of Ant's hand briefly to take Shin's shoulders and steer him towards a room.

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Shin grumbles, but lets himself be steered.

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Ant follows close behind, grabbing Marlene's hand to tug her with them.

The others follow along as well.

"-Are these beds even made?" Ant asks abruptly.

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“...should be. We’re not choking on dust or anything, and everything’s...”

He pauses.

“...clean.”

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"-Did one of us hire a maid service or something? I don't remember doing that, but I do remember getting blackout hammered after we bought the place... Maybe the lawyer did it."

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“I remember signing some stuff about the grounds. Might’ve been in there.”

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"-I'm pretty sure there's some sort of saying about signing something a lawyer hands you without reading it?"

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"Probably, but this guy helped us get emancipated. If he was going to fuck us over, he'd have done it then."

Ey waves a vague hand at the doors down the hall. "Have at. Sleep. We can figure out food in the morning. If all else fails: I'm pretty sure the wine cellar is still here."

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"Wine is not a breakfast food, even if it is made of grapes."

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"It is if you try hard and believe in yourself!"

He takes Ant's arm and leads em down towards their old room – well, it was his old room, but it might as well have been theirs.

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Ey leans into him, half hanging on his arm.

(Behind them, the others disperse into room, all of them, somehow, avoiding Ira's old room.)

"We're gonna be okay, right?" ey mumbles when they're alone.

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"...yeah. We're gonna be okay."

He strokes eir hair.

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"This place is going to be totally different when this crowd is done with it."

 

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"-Yeah," ey agrees, smiling slightly. "Home Depot do deliveries right?"

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“Yeah, pretty sure.”

He grins and flops down onto the bed, pulling em down with him.

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Ey giggles and flops on top of him, nuzzling into his chest. "Hey," ey says, as though ey hasn't seen him in ages.

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"Hey," he says.

(His heart is going so fast it sounds like he must have run here behind the bus.)

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Eir heart rate isn't going much slower. "We should make them roll in their graves," ey almost sounds venomous.

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He nods, and looks up at the ceiling, and just tries to...not.

"We'll paint it pink or something."

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"And polka dots! We should definitely have some polka dots somewhere!"

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"And I can finally paint my walls black like my tragic little emo heart always wanted."

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"They'll probably have taken all the weapons, otherwise I would've suggested clay pigeon shooting with those ghastly vases."

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“I didn’t hate all the vases. There’s gonna be a furniture reckoning, though.”

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"I said the ghastly vases, not the unobjectional ones," Ant teases. "But yeah. I feel a furniture fire coming on. Or maybe we should sell it..."

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He shrugs and holds em tighter.

"We'll figure it out."

It's kind of hard to keep his eyes open, at this point in the night, even after the coffee.

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Yeah. Ant's not far behind him. It's been a day.

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The next morning they'll wake up to the smell of someone cooking.

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He tries to sit up and elects to flop back over onto Ant instead.

“Mmmgbh.”

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Ant is a little more awake, pokes his side playfully. "I'm curious as to when this place got food. And you need a good meal."

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"...Yeah, guess I do."

He leans over to kiss em and sits up, with difficulty.

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Ey helps some, and then slips back off the bed. "C'mon. The others are probably already up."

Ey holds out eir arms, a silent offer of help.

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He takes eir hand and pulls himself out of bed with an exaggerated groan.

“I might give up halfway down the hall.”

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"I can go grab Ira and have her carry you," ey threatens lightly, tugging him towards the door and into the hall.

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"Like the sad bag of issues I am."

He drags his feet a little, rubbing his forehead to try to clear away the buzzing in his head, but he follows.

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Ey slows eir pace a little so ey can squeeze him. "Yeah, but you're my bag of issues."

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“Wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Squeeze.

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And not too long after: kitchen!

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With a familiar face stood over the stove making a truly impressive amount of food.

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"Tau, why're you in our kitchen."

He wobbles and squints.

"...why're you making eggs."

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"Ms Ferrier called me last night saying there was no food in the house and that you guys would need feeding this morning. And that we needed to get the security on this place up to snuff to make sure nobody can breach the perimeter."

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"Have I told you I love you lately? Because I totally do."

He drifts closer to the impending breakfast.

"You're sticking with us, huh...?"

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"Turns out Ms Ferrier set up my contract so I was directly employed by yourselves. So I don't even have to loophole myself out of anything. I've never had as much fun with any other contract as I've had with you guys."

She hands him a plate of eggs.

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"Awww. You really mean it?"

He takes his plate gratefully, grabs a fork and flops on the nearest vaguely ass-level object to start eating.

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"You have no idea how fun it is to watch you tase people," Tau says cheerfully, offering Ant a plate.

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"I know right?" Ant agrees, taking eir own plate and perching next to Z.

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"You have no idea how fun it is to tase people."

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"You remember what I do for a living right?" Tau teases.

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"Yeah, but do you have as much fun with tasers as me?"

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"Some might say I have more. But I'm pretty sure I don't get the kick out of them you do."

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"That's a way to say it."

He's doing his best to clear his plate. He's kind of starving after last night.

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...wow, he never really processed last night, did he.

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Ant nudges their shoulders together, reminding him that ey's right here, and not going anywhere.

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He leans against em a little.

"...we don't really know what's happening now, huh."

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"-No. I guess we don't."

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"Eating breakfast, and then one foot in front of the other."

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"Well. I guess we can't fuck up eating eggs."

Eggs on fork. Fork in mouth.

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"-If you choke I'm going to say I told you so before performing the Heimlich manoeuvre."

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"And that would be totally fair."

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"I smell food," Marlene says as she stumbles into the kitchen. "Please tell me I'm not hallucinating."

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"Only if I am. So, like, 50/50 chance."

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"More like eighty-twenty. Depending one whether or not I'm a hallucination."

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Tau sighs. "Nobody here is a hallucination."

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“Pinch me to check?”

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Ant reaches over and does so. "I mean. This doesn't really help if I'm also a hallucination..."

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"Yeah, but I like it when you pinch me."

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Ant catches eir lower lip coyly between eir teeth, and starts to lean forward-

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"-Not in the kitchen."

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"Aw, spoilsport, watching Z and Ant make-out is like...the highlight of my morning."

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"At least someone appreciates our art."

He leans forward and pokes at his eggs.

"What's wrong with making out in the kitchen?"

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"I remember that time that 'making out in the kitchen' turned into 'wild threesome in the kitchen'. I'd prefer that not to happen while I'm here."

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"What's even the point of having your own kitchen if you can't fuck in it?"

 

 

 

"...food. Is the point."

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"Yes, food is indeed the point-"

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Adrienna chooses that moment to enter the kitchen. She doesn't look like she's slept, and yet she still somehow looks perfectly put together. "Where's everyone else?" she asks without preamble.

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"...dunno. Ira's probably still out in the studio."

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She pauses, taps her foot. "Alright. I'll go see if I can get Shin up to get some food into him, and find E and Av we need to have a meeting at some point, I've got some things sketched out, but I want all your input before I go ahead with anything."

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He nods.

"...glad you're sticking with us. Whatever's happening."

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Her expression softens. "I haven't spent this long keeping you all alive to let you undo all my hard work now."

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...aww.

"You're gonna have to watch us until we retire."

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"Believe it or not, I'm totally game for that. Alright. Time to play Find the Shin. God only knows where he fell asleep, wish me luck?"

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"Good luck. Lot of beds in this house."

He returns to his eggs, and to leaning against Ant.

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She laughs, and leaves the kitchen, ruffling E's hair as she passes him in the doorway.

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"Really?" he complains, trying to smooth it down, and not having that much success. "I swear, this house is bigger than some of the venues we've played!"

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"Welcome to the Gothenburg Estate," he says. You can practically hear the cursive.

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"Did you guys use a map to find your way around or did you just get lost?"

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"Hide and seek was always fun..."

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"...we should try that again. Could still be fun, huh?"

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"Ooh. Yeah. Be even better with more than three of us!"

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"I'm game!" Marlene agrees with a grin.

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"I mean, if everybody plays we can't make it interesting the way I was thinking...but it's probably more fun with more than two people."

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"-strike that. Everyone else is uninvited."

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"Maybe we could play our round after."

He thinks.

"...or before."

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"Either of you going to be functional if you play it before?"

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"...maaaybe not."

He suddenly has the nagging feeling he's forgetting about something.

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"Where's the fun in being functional?"