openmisc | Daniel/Emery

It's Daniel's turn to lean against them, cackling a little under his breath. "Yes, but you're still here, aren't you?"

The hit to his shoulder is well worth it.

If Daniel hadn't been so obviously laughing at him, he might have let it go, stayed on the defensive. She really is off balance. The idea of actually enjoying things she wants is no longer terrifying on its own, but it's big and new and intimidating. But pride won't let Daniel win this exchange. "Will you quit acting surprised about it? You told me to come." They wrinkle their nose, cranky, and before they lose their nerve, tap Daniel's cheek with a kiss in return. It is very obviously an imitation, the same motion exactly. Emery is confident only with something to mimic. "It's why I graduated, stupid."

He laughs, about to refute that, and then pauses.

"The reason you graduated?"

Oh, no, feelings again. How can they constantly be dodging the damn things and still find more? Emery can only hope the flow of dumb emotions will calm down soon. It's early still. At least if he has to talk to someone about feelings, it's...

"When you told me to come here. It's the first thing I wanted to do more than disappear." She turns her gaze sulkily away, embarrassed.

"To come here. And sit on my couch and tease me and keep me safe."

It seems a little overwhelming, but Daniel leans against their shoulder again, the arm around them curling into a hug.

Emery is still irritated at having to say it, but the absurdity cracks through a bit. "Yeah, slightly better than not existing," they say flatly before sighing and turning to hug Daniel properly. This is more familiar than kisses, but before today it was a thing that happened in extremis, not just because it's... Nice.

A hug. A willing hug. Daniel happily returns it, resting his chin on their shoulder for a moment. "Alright, I'm finished making you talk about it," he promises. "We can talk about how I might have been involved in a fight a fortnight ago. And when I say involved, I mean I accidentally started it and then ran away."

"Okay, so why are you still starting fights?" Emery happily rises to meet the offer. And he is a little curious. This is a normal place. The barge locked up awful people like zoo animals and left them nothing to do but lash out. Daniel was always getting upset, sure, but everyone was honestly pretty upsetting. "Now that you're all reformed and boring."

"It was an accident!" he insists. "And I'm not boring."

He puts a hand on Emery's chest and tries to push back against her. "I was - talking with a woman. I thought she was nice. Apparently her very drunk boyfriend took offense to my presence and - and shouted at me. So I shouted back. And he tried to hit me. We both got kicked out and I complained at the owner. And then - then everyone was shouting."

They were all very drunk, apparently.

"It ended quickly! But I had already left."

Emery's not sure if Daniel actually wants to succeed or if they're still playing, but after a moment of no response at all, moves back a little. "That's barely anything." In their admittedly somewhat circumscribed experience of human interactions. "Something about your face just starts fights, huh?

He didn't actually want to succeed, but to be fair, he didn't know that until he Emery was already pulling back. He leans forward, closing that gap between them again. "Well, I didn't have you to tell me what to do," he snorts.

"I can't tell you not to look like someone who needs to be punched." It really doesn't sound like Daniel did anything, or at least he left out the part of the story where he was at fault. Which Emery would only expect. "You're just a trouble magnet."

"Ah, so that's why you like me," he laughs. "You think I'll find trouble for you to make worse." Daniel's alright with that. He's a coward still, but now he's a coward with Emery.

"That or I'm just more of your usual trouble," Emery says blithely. "You're the magnet. I can't help it." What the fuck is coming out of his mouth. This is so weird.

Daniel has no idea where this conversation is going, but he's enjoying it. He just grins. "You can't help it. You're stuck with me forever."

Which Emery uses as an excuse to close the space between them again. Because. Of magnetism. They wind up just sort of pressed to Daniel's shoulder. Still learning how affection works. "I'm your personal trouble. If other trouble comes for you I'll bite them, because this is my territory."

"You've gotten very good at biting," he says, the laugh catching in his throat. "Emery...do you want to kiss me?"

It's something that he would never ask Envy, but he's close to them now. Daniel's dense, but he's not that dense.

Ugh, he just did that, Daniel, why are you bringing it up again? "What, you aren't worried I'll bite you? Again?" It's easy enough to be blase, because they really... don't care about kissing. Except that it's closeness to Daniel, that he lights up when it happens, that it's a way to claim territory and reward the sort of enthusiasm she likes to see and gently strengthen the chemical bonds between them. All that stuff is okay. But the action is still weird.

Daniel laughs at that reaction and pushes himself back. It's easier to tease now, easier to feel how much it's changed. They aren't in any danger and Daniel - well, he's enjoying the things he's learning about Emery.

"You won't hurt me. I'm the magnet for trouble. And you like trouble too much."

Just to prove they don't care and aren't rattled, Emery leans in and delivers a second, identical cheek peck. The first Emery understood much better what this was for, but those memories are old, muted, overwritten. "No, I was never going to hurt you." True, though for a long time it was because Daniel was a tool, an interesting bug to poke. Come to think, he would have at least once if his admiral curses hadn't prevented it. "Well. Almost never."

Somehow that feels like a victory and Daniel looks smug. "You would have," he says because he remembers those moments. "But you couldn't. And then you didn't." He moves off of the couch and holds out a hand. "Come on. Let's take a walk."

Emery is glad to have something to do with this energy. Daniel's couch is a place they could warm to, but it's been too much stillness at once with everything so strange and new. He needs to go poke something. "Alright, show me the boring stuff." She takes the hand and swings herself up. With... more force than Daniel perhaps appreciates.

Daniel yelps and stumbles forward, catching himself, at least, before he fell headfirst into them. "Be careful!"

But he's already righting himself, searching out his shoes.

Emery enjoyed that too much. She's supposed to be redeemed. But it's nice to know there'll always be a reaction from Daniel. If there was one thing that made him madder about the barge than anything else, it was that smug refusal to show any feelings. What was the point of being human at all like that? At least they had to be as miserable as they made him.

Emery stands and shifts subtly, losing the same old utterly bizarre clothes in favor of boring camouflage. Still all black, still a bit tight for some tastes, but now it's jeans and a t-shirt. Still no shoes, though. They hate shoes.

Emery wanders up to Daniel's side as if they weren't just a complete little shit and takes his arm. They've lost the slightly more femme curves, less familiar and harder to maintain in unfamiliar clothes. "So? Where to?"

He's a little discombobulated, reaching up to brush his fingers through his hair and adjust his little bob. Then the vest and the shoes and suddenly Emery is right there, beside him, wearing jeans of all things.

"I thought - well, I thought I'd finish my walk that you interrupted earlier," he says. "There's lots to see along the way."

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