genessia | [action | closed] and I don’t want the world to see me, 'cause I don’t think that they’d understand

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[action | closed] and I don’t want the world to see me, 'cause I don’t think that they’d understand

Who: Sanzo and Amberdrake
What: Drake has a nightmare
Where: Hotel room
When: Early-mid August
Warnings: ANGST, character (dreamed) corpse

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They -- faceless, forgettable -- led him to the site where it had happened. The area was torn apart, and in the middle of it was a still figure in blood-drenched white robes. Amberdrake tore away from the forgettable 'they', rushing to the body, falling to his knees in the mud beside it and scooping up Sanzo's muddied head and shoulders into a desperate embrace. A heart-wrenching sob ripped free of him, feeling like it tore through his throat on the way out with sharp barbs and hooks.

One pale hand was still around the gun, in the mud. The sutra, a flash of green, was still on the body's shoulders. Drake didn't care; he ignored the weapons completely, even the dreaded sutra now being pressed between the living and the dead in that embrace.

"I'm... I'm so sorry enar ves'tacha," Amberdrake cried, rocking the body, "I'm so sorry. I couldn't be there, I couldn't comfort you. I'm so sorry."

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"Being unknown works better than a disguise." Sanzo had poor luck with disguises and very little motivation to maintain one. He paused as the impact of what Drake had said sank in. Had this been mentioned before? He was struggling to remember everything that had gone on early into finding out he was trapped away from his own world. He couldn't say he was that surprised at the revelation, nor that it was unfitting. Assassination attempts only added to his ever present worry for Drake's safety but he was used to that anxiety by now.

"You don't take a break from worrying yourself sick over everyone else's lives." How Drake could deal with that he had no idea. "You don't even settle for being a 'random therapist' with all that you do."

Drake chuckled again, "You're not the first to call me on that, and I doubt you'll be the last. But as for random therapist... that's the best my profession translates to in the common tongue, isn't it? I try to explain what I do in any more complex terms, and everyone's eyes glaze over."

Thinking of his first visit to the Haighlei kingdoms, Amberdrake smiled. "Sometimes the disguise is being unknown. I once disguised myself as my own bodyguard for several weeks so that I could move freely while 'poor, crazy Amberdrake' was restricted to his rooms. But kestra'chern are good actors, and good costumers, as part of our usual duties. I altered every nuance, even my gait. My height, with heeled boots. Even how my hair lays, slicked back into a strict tail with black feather dye. It also helped that the Haighlei couldn't tell most of us Kaled'a'in apart."

"I want to know why you felt the need to do that, but not right now." Sanzo was curious and had been meaning to ask more about what Drake had actually done before getting stranded away from home, but he had a feeling that story would be a bit much after everything else he'd seen and learned tonight.

"That said," he went on. "You would've been damn useful when every lowlife in ten miles was yelling 'Sanzo' at the top of their lungs."

That went for every overexcited villager too. The robes and sutra made him obvious enough without his title being broadcasted to the local youkai. No one had a bit of sense.

"Yes," Drake found that amusing; the non-combatant, coming in useful for disguises at least. "A little feather dye and some regular clothing would go a long way for you. For all four of you, really. You're a rather distinctive group."

"Maybe," Sanzo grumbled. He strongly disliked the idea of having whatever that gunk was in his hair and liked the idea of going without his robes where it actually mattered even less.

"We didn't have much luck with disguises when we did try them." He really hoped that Drake didn't know what those disguises had been. "It's not like we could disguise Jeep."

While they had been talking, Sanzo had been slowly unclenching his hand and moving it away from Drake's back. Just in case he happened to do something stupid again for whatever frustrating reason.

"What were these disguises you tried?" Amberdrake asked, because he had a knack for zeroing in on things!

Sanzo debated outright refusing to answer but that would tell Drake just as much as admitting the stupidity he'd participated in. He gave Drake a fantastically grumpy look while considering this.

"Sunglasses and cloaks, essentially," he said with tense reluctance. "It was to shut Goku up, I didn't expect it to work. Like I said, we couldn't hide Jeep."

Edited 2016-08-12 03:12 (UTC)

Drake hid his smile against Sanzo's shoulder, and said not a word. Not a word.

"Shut up." Drake hadn't said anything, but he was thinking it.

Drake couldn't help it; he laughed, the sound muffled only a little by Sanzo's bony shoulder.

Sanzo elbowed him in the ribs for the laughter. Lightly, both to not hurt Drake and to not incur consequences that would make him even more embarrassed than he already was.

"I didn't ask for your opinion!" Drake still hadn't said anything of course.

"Did you... did you have the hoods up, too?" Drake finally asked, mid-laugh.

"No, having the chakra and my hair clearly visible was a great goddamn idea," Sanzo snapped. Was it worth pulling away from Drake in irritation by now? He was tempted but he'd upset Drake many times with his temper. Curse having a conscience.

The mental image of the four of them dressed up that way just made Drake laugh all the harder. He couldn't help it!

Amberdrake spared Sanzo the decision by rolling away, himself, ending up on his back with his hands over his mouth as the laughter continued. "I'm sorry, I just... the four of you must have looked so suspicious!"

Sanzo sat up abruptly, scowling ferously down at Drake. Drake wasn't wrong and that was even more humiliating! He still wasn't sure why he had agreed to that to begin with.

"We looked like a pack of jackasses." His tone was terribly resentful. "I'm going to smack that monkey again for the idea whenever I get the chance."

He couldn't remember entirely the series of events and dumbass suggestions that led to those piss-poor disguises, but he was pretty sure he could get away with blaming Goku.

"Hey, I would have joined in too, I'm sure!" Amberdrake dropped one hand away from his mouth, but only to brush his fingers absentmindedly against Sanzo's nearest arm. "Thank you for the laughter after that ordeal, Genjyo. It's a relief."

Going from heartbroken sobbing to rolling onto his back with laughter was quite the range of emotion, but he'd much rather be on the latter end!

"...Whatever." Sanzo was huffy and his pride still wounded, but that had helped Drake. Somehow. So that was a plus even if he was annoyed by the laughter. Some of the tension in his shoulders eased as his anger started to fade.

Amberdrake levered himself up into a sitting position, too, and bumped his shoulder against Sanzo's. "Someday," he offered, "I'll tell you about some of the ridiculous stuff I've done. It's only fair."

Sanzo glanced over at him, looking as haughty as possible to cover the mix of relief and lingering embarrassment he felt.

"You were going to let me know more about you," he said, knowing it was mainly his own fault he didn't know more. "Whatever you consider ridiculous might be worth hearing."

"Well, there was the time I brought restraints for taking prisoners to a break-in that... it turned out.... just involved us walking right in with the keys," Amberdrake chuckled, "it was Urtho's tower, no less."

"Why- no." Sanzo paused, knowing he would regret asking the first question that had come to mind. "How the hell did you get to do whatever would require prisoners by just walking in?"

Amberdrake grinned and answered anyway, "I'm just a random therapist, you know."

Truly, 'kestra'chern' meant many things that Common just couldn't touch easily!

"Lady Cinnabar... just asked Urtho." Amberdrake added with a laugh, "I mean, she asked for something besides what we were looking for, but it got us access regardless."

Ugh! There had been a reason he hadn't asked and there came the mental images he didn't want. He pushed to the side quickly, frustrated. He should have known better than to even think about asking anything about the damn restraints.

"What were you after?" He was going to pretend that Drake hadn't done that thing he did, always answering questions Sanzo didn't ask.

"Information on gryphon breeding," Amberdrake shrugged, "at the time, they couldn't procreate without Urtho's direct intervention. It made the race's future questionable, should anything happen to him in the course of the War. So... we stole the secrets. No prisoner-taking required; we walked right in past the guards, and then right back out again."

Well, Skan had lingered behind and had ultimately uncovered Kechara's existence, but that was a whole other matter.

"He wasn't expecting you to try anything right under his nose, I assume," Sanzo replied, keeping his derision to a minimum for Drake's sake. It wasn't his place to give two shits either way as it was.

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