Game Week of the Multiverse: Orbeetle's House (Lance, Kora, Harvard, Brian)

[Navar]

Lance was sleeping on top of Kora. And peacefully, not even snoring. He just hugged his partner while sleeping and every so often, whispered something soft, some random compliment his mind thought of.

Until he moved a bit. Not enough to raise suspicion, but just enough to be noticed. Then, he moved again. And again. Something was wrong.

 

[Fusion]

Fortunately, or unfortunately, who's to say at this point, Kora wasn't asleep. He had fully accepted his place as the Giant Fox Bed, and to pass the time, had two tiny illusions of himself and Lance arm wrestling before him. Either it wasn't accurate, or tiny Kora was being nice, cuz the two had a perfectly even split of wins and losses.

But, the restless movements of Kora's boy of blue was reason enough to see leave the teeny illusions be. The fox sat up, gently lifting Lance as well and setting the jackal in his lap. "Hey... Lance? Laaaaance..." Kora whispered, poking Lance's cheek. "You alright? I don't remember you moving so much in your sleep."

 

[Navar]

The canine didn't bother to wake up just yet, simply embracing Kora while mumbling complete nonsense. His dream hadn't ended yet.

Then, he began to pant and sweat, shivering. Almost like he was scared of something.

 

[Fusion]

"Hmmm... all signs point to this being a nightmare..." But, patience wasn't a thing Kora knew, especially this late at night, and since Lance was a tough cookie and could take a hit or two...

Kora bit Lance's shoulder.

It was quick, easy, and had a very low chance of blowing up in Kora's face... or would that have been shaking Lance?

 

[Navar]

Lance panted faster, his entire breath was raspy and he shivered some more. Whatever he was dreaming about, it was bad. He even shed a tear.

Kora bit Lance's shoulder.

The Lucario woke up with a scream. He shouted and instinctively backed away from Kora, breathing quickly.

 

[Fusion]

"Ah, you're finally awake," Kora sighed, then rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, it looked like you were having a nightmare and I couldn't think of a faster way to wake you up."

Aside from any possible thing else, but that was neither here nor there.

"What's going on, Lance?"

 

[Navar]

"I-It's fine."

Lance forced a smile. Shit, so Kora noticed the nightmare? Just great.

"...Sorry, Kora. I just... had a nightmare about a terrible part in my life."

 

[Fusion]

Kora leaned over and rested his head on Lance's lap, a somewhat worried look on his face. "You wanna... try and talk about it? That helps, sometimes."

 

[Navar]

Lance blushed, slowly wagging his tail.

"Uh... s-sure. Sure, I can talk about it."

It had been too long, so why did it still hurt?

"...I got kidnapped as a kid. When I was eight."

 

[Fusion]

Kora winced a bit and let out a whine. "Geez... that's pretty awful. Gods..."

"Did you... get away?"

 

[Navar]

Lance nodded. He pointed to the scar on his chest and grumbled. "I-I got this there. My captor forced me to fight a Houndoom."

"Did you... get away?"

He winced, ears drooping at the question.

He forced himself to answer it. "Sort of. After a whole month had passed, my captor just... threw me away. He threw me into a dungeon, I had no idea where I was, until someone found me there. A Typhlosion."

 

[Fusion]

"A Typhlosion? That pretty lucky, huh? Well... I wish whoever that typhlosion found you sooner, all of that sounds pretty terrible..." Kora exhaled and shut his eyes. "But that's all behind you now, right? It happened, and it was... horrid, but you got away!"

"So then... why're you having nightmares about it now?" the fox asked. "It's not... no, it probably... hopefully isn't me, right?" It was hard to say who Kora was asking that to...

 

[Navar]

Lance frowned, almost fuming at the idea. "...Kora, it's not you."

He shrugged. His tail swished in frustration, and he looked down. "I'm not... sure why I'm having them now. Maybe I didn't fully put it behind me. Definetely not because of you, though. I really like your company."

 

[Fusion]

Kora felt he should have mentioned a little... caveat about himself that he might have forgotten, something about nightmares. Thanks Lee...

"That's... good, uh..." Kora muttered, then sat back up and patted his own lap, like a pillow. "We can keep talking about it more but... if it's too much to get through, we can just... rest." He put on a smile. "Even here, at this weird vacation kinda place, it's been rough on a lot of us."

 

[Navar]

"Look, Kora... it's fine. He won't hurt me anymore, I've made sure of that."

Lance nodded again, sitting on Kora's lap and hugging him. "And... thank you for being with me. I mean it."

 

[Fusion]

Kora grinned, wrapping an arm around Lance's waist and petting the jackal on the head. "Hey, it ain't a problem, sweetheart. What good is a friend that's never around?" For a very brief moment, Kora's face twitched. Practically unnoticeable. "I'll be here as long as you need me to."

 

[Navar]

"You dork..." Lance barked happily, wagging his tail even more. "It's... it's nice. You're like a body-sized pillow, or a chair, since I'm sitting on your lap..."

 

[Fusion]

"I could literally be both," Kora snickered. "And I could make myself even more comfortable by..." With not even a snap of his claws, Kora's fur poofed to twice the floof. He put on a sly grin and waggled his eyebrows, and anyone within a hundred mile radius probably visibly cringed. "Magic."

 

[Navar]

Lance only hugged him tighter, embracing the sheer amount of floof that fox had. His tail was wagging much faster now, and Lance barked in excitement.

"...I don't honestly believe in magic, but I'll take it."

 

[Fusion]

"Well, what else would you call it?" Kora tittered, pecking Lance on the cheek. "I'm... mostly genuinely asking, I have no idea what I'd call any of this. I'm not exactly normal, even by world's standards."