Nightly Thoughts and Nightly Meetings
- Short Synopsis: Yoko moves in and Zach thinks.
Tropes
- Breather Episode: A nice little feel good.
- Do Not Go Gentle
- Innocuously Important Episode: This does lead to Zach going through with Bozo's operation later.
Story
He was thankful Sam didn’t snore and Mahvash...did...something at night but she was quiet about it, so that was a bonus.
His arms behind his head and his eyes staring up wordlessly at the ceiling, he debated his options.
I think my best bet is going to be going to Dr. Bozo...considering I’m not even sure the mark is demonically based, so I’d be wasting Mikael’s fathers time if I did decide to go to him and find out it’s not even remotely related to anything demonically...his dad doesn’t seem like the kind of person who likes having their time wasted.
But Bozo should be a little bit better to help, regardless. He’d be able to tell me if it’s a curse, if its demonic, if there’s any way, shape or form it can be slowed down, removed...and if not?
...Well, I don’t wanna think about that.
If I can get it slowed down, or stop the whole “killing me” thing, that’d be great. I still need to use it for my powers, but if I can’t do one without the other, well...I’ll figure something out.
He idly moved one hand around his neck and rubbed it, feeling the hard bauble of Yoko’s hoshi-no-tama resting against his collar.
If I could just talk, that’d be a great step in the right direc–
“BOO!”
Had Zach been able to talk, the loud utterance of “HOLY FUCK” would have made Ash proud, as Zach had thrown himself off the bed and pointed two of his tendrils at the location of the voice, eyes wide and wild, heart hammering and breath panicked and raggedy.
A pair of very, very familiar fox eyes seemed to gleam in the darkness, and a familiar, pointed smile shone below those, a curtain of tails swaying behind the form teasingly.
“You’re jumpy, Zach-kun.” It came out as a statement, one dripping with affection and teasing venom.
Oh, god, Yoko, he signed panicked to the air, his free hand grasping his chest and silently trying to calm his hammering heart. You scared the hell out of me.
“Too easy, too!” Yoko pouted a little bit as she leaned down, grabbing Zach’s hand and lifting him back onto his feet. “I was sitting beside the bed for a solid minute looking at you! You didn’t even see me?”
You were sitting next to my bed for– wait, Yoko how did you get IN my room? He blinked, looking around. This isn’t your dorm!
A grin broke her face again and she winked. “Mahvash-san gave me the okay. She barely spends time in this room anyway and she definitely doesn’t sleep! She said; ‘officially’, she’s in the dorm by name. Unofficially…” She leaned into Zach with a teasing smirk, staring him right in the eyes and hiding the giggle when she saw his face go red. “I get to be in the dorm in her stead.”
Oh boy. That’s typical.
You’re not going to sleep in Mahvash’s bed, are you? Sarcasm and deadpan-snarkiness was often an art that died in the written word.
“'Course not! I’m gonna sleep in YOUR bed!” It came as a happy cheer as she jumped backwards and landed on her back, bouncing a little bit as she did and then rolling backwards so she was sitting up properly. “Where else would I sleep?”
Zach’s blush deepened and he quietly gulped. She HAS to know what she’s doing...I mean of course she does, this is her PAST TIME.
Yoko, I don’t want you to get in trouble because you’re not in a room that you’re not assigned to–
“Are you going to tell anyone?” She asked suddenly, staring him dead in the eyes.
Well, no but–
“Mahvash knows, and I don’t think Sam even cares enough if I wanted to lounge here, or even sleep here. So I don’t think anyone HAS to know, and even then…” She giggled. “I can just become a cute plushie again! Ano... I should really thank Fluffy for giving me an out just for that kind of emergency…”
Yeah, but… he gestured to himself. I’m...well...you’re….one bed, sharing, I don’t–
“I trust you, Zach-kun,” she said honestly and softly. “I know you wouldn’t do anything to me to hurt me, or even make me feel uncomfortable. You can barely kiss me without freezing up.” She giggled a little bit. “What makes you think you’d even do anything even remotely close to what you’re thinking?”
Zach had no arguments.
The predatory, wicked grin on her face eventually melted away to a more happy, affectionate smile as she pat the bed beside her. “Coming to bed?” In that tone of voice that showed once in a blue moon, when Yoko was serious, or relaxed and comfortable.
His body on autopilot and his mind blank, he approached the bed and instinctively sat down beside her. And once he did, Yoko pounced.
Literally.
He found himself on his back and Yoko on top, her face nuzzling into his neck and a happy sigh escaping her lips as she rested her head on his collar, her tails drifting into a single one and letting it slump happily off the side of the bed. She looked up at him, arms wrapped around his midsection and grumbled contently. “Comfy?” She asked, half of her face in his collar bone.
Just calm down, Zach! You knew this was gonna happen eventually. Stop acting like such a stick in the mud and enjoy it! You already practically said your VOWS for god sake.
So, he closed his eyes and gave a slow, content nod of his head and wrapped his arms around her slowly, making sure not to disrupt her position on top of his head, and closed his eyes, regulating his breathing and feeling her do the same.
She was smiling so hard, he could feel it through his shirt.
Okay. Back to basics. He thought to himself, staring back up at the ceiling and and biting the inside of his cheek. If Bozo CAN help me figure this out, I’d need some way to keep in Saint. If not, then I’d need to find someway to extend my lifespan. If I literally can’t find a way to have this thing removed, then my next course of action is to find a way to give myself more time. Now, I’m not willing to give up a part of my soul or having something else living in me, but if I need to–
“You’re really stressed out about something.” Yoko’s voice firmly knocked him out of his thought process and he blinked, looking down at her. Head tilted up properly to stare up at him.
“I can feel it. Here.” She gently tapped on the orb shaped lump under his shirt. “It lets me feel what you feel and vice versa. So if you’re feeling stressed, then I can feel you feeling stressed. Just like how I can do this if I wanted to.” She closed her eyes and concentrated.
A warm wave crossed over Zach’s body, originating from the Star Ball and coursing through his body. It was enough to leave his own mind blank for a moment, but a good kind of blank. A relaxing blank. His muscles untensed and he felt...content.
It stopped and snapped him back to reality, where she was now hovering over him properly, staring down at him.
“So, if you’re stressed about something, then I want to help.”
Fuck. So hiding this was gonna be a lot more difficult than even he imagined.
“I gave you this... for a reason.” She reached down and gently pulled the Star Ball out from under his shirt, holding it up between the two of them. “Because I trust you. Zach, I don’t need to remind you I’ve never even heard of any of my kind willingly giving this up. This is the ultimate sign that I trust you. That I care about you. You said you wanted to protect it—protect me—so...let me protect you too. Even if it’s from the thoughts in your head.” She punctuated this by pressing her finger against the center of his forehead.
He stared up at her silently, trying to find the proper words. Maybe that was the benefit of the Ink, to keep him from spouting his mouth off when it wasn’t needed, to keep some truths under wraps. But the more he stared up at her, with those eyes simply full of concern and that honest little declaration of wanting to help him.
Shoot, she was the largest reason he was HAVING these thoughts. Before, he would have coasted through life until death or...whatever the hell the mark was gonna do. But since then...since the Exams, he wanted to fight death with every ounce of his power, if it meant being with her for a while longer.
Shoot, her protectiveness over him made him feel, well, honest to goodness safe. Like even if he couldn’t find something here, there was definitely something SHE could do to help him.
Yokai magic was weird like that.
So he finally returned the smile after staring at her for almost a solid ten seconds and he reached up, gently cupping her cheek in a way that was reminiscent of their exchange back at the Exams.
You’re doing plenty, just being here, his spare hand wrote, his thumb gently stroking under her eye.
She smiled in return, leaning into his hand and enjoying it for a moment. The corners of her lips curled upwards even further into a smirk, mumbling, “You know that means I HAVE to stay here if it means you'll relax…?”
I had a choice?
“No…” She leaned down, forehead to his. “Do you mind…?”
...No.
“Thought so.” Her lips came down onto his, and all he could do was return it in earnest.
Zach waited until she fell asleep first, an almost purring sound coming from her as she rested on his chest, occasionally nuzzling into the fabric of his shirt while he affectionately scratched the back of her head. He stared up, but he didn’t stress any further.
Everything’ll work out, he finally decided to himself. I’ll...I mean... we’ll...figure something out.
As he thought this, he felt small, radiating waves of comfort washing over him from the hoshi-no-tama, and based on the fact that Yoko was smiling, he could only assume she was as content as he was feeling.
Zach had found himself liking the night time a bit more with each passing day.
But with Yoko around, he could only imagine he was going to like it for a new reason entirely.
