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Kill, Marry, Fuck Chapter 21
Arro has busied himself with food again despite their mounting evidence that their employers are not as they seem. When Arro doesn't bring home the answers they're looking for, Rangavar knows he may need to go find them himself.
The chapter wasn't supposed to be this long, but due to popular demand, I have included More Plot™
I didn't know a lot of people were into it lol
Give me feedback! Tear me apart! Please! :U
Also btw I consider this chapter SFW but there are adult jokes and I still don't know how strict the rating system is
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Kill, Marry, Fuck
Chapter 21
Rangavar sensed that Arro wasn’t telling him something.
He also sensed that Arro wasn’t lying.
The Darkal was sitting in one of the new chairs, at the new desk in their room. The chair-to-desk-height ratio allowed him to lean back and put his feet up on it, which he liked a lot. They hadn’t actually used it for anything else yet, so he wanted to enjoy that while he could.
The one thing on the desk right now was that sticky note that Arro had brought home yesterday. It didn’t lie completely flat, although Rangavar had tried to press it as flat as he could after pulling it out of the trash. Fortunately, it wasn’t dirty or anything. Unfortunately, he couldn’t tell what it said. He knew that it would bring him to the lab, though.
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Arro; the Faerian seemed to have genuinely forgotten about the lab until he pulled out the note. It was more the fact that Arro finally, ACTUALLY got into a lab, and just… had legitimately cared so little that he almost forgot.
Rangavar steepled his fingers under his chin as he thought about it.
Now he really wanted to see that lab.
A while later, he descended the stairs to see Arro playing videogames on the new couch. It was massive, and reinforced to support large amounts of weight. Also, it was more suitable to two people now. Or three to four normal-sized people, Rangavar supposed. He was able to plop down on one side without crushing himself into the arm so Arro’s mass had enough space.
The Faerian had been absentmindedly stuffing his mouth with potato chips during pauses in the game. He offered the bag to Rangavar and made some sort of unintelligible noise around his crunchy mouthful.
Rangavar wrinkled his nose. “No thanks.”
Arro swallowed. “Oh yeah, I forgot you don’t like anything with flavor.”
The smaller dragon glowered at the screen for a moment while absently watching him play.
“Do you want a match?”
The Darkal shook his head. He had something else in mind. “I want to break into that room.”
Arro frowned. “What room?”
“The lab at the research building.”
Getting distracted, the larger dragon snarled as he lost the game, roughly setting down the controller. He glared at Rangavar for a second.
Rangavar flattened his ears and shifted uncomfortably.
The larger dragon leaned back and sighed. “I wish there was something exciting in there, but there wasn’t.”
He wasn’t lying, but Rangavar still felt uneasy. “Maybe I just have to see it for myself to believe it. Check it out just in case.”
Arro snorted. “It’s so cute how into all this you’re finally getting.”
Rangavar bristled “What?”
The larger dragon grinned. “You know, how you used to make fun of my ‘obsession’ all the time, and now you’re just as ‘obsessed’ as I am.”
“It’s not ‘cute’ and I’m not ‘obsessed’.”
“Uh-huh.”
Rangavar crossed his arms and glared at the screen for a moment while thinking.
“How about I go with you to work tomorrow, and take you to the door, and then I go home and you can go get into trouble with Jethe or whatever you’re intent on doing.”
“Won’t the door be locked?”
Arro shrugged. “You’ll be in your maintenance uniform… maybe you can find an excuse to get in.”
Rangavar suddenly thought back to the note on the desk upstairs. “Maybe I’ll use the note, pretending someone left it out and that I think I’m supposed to go fix their socket or whatever.”
“Oh…” Arro looked away awkwardly. “I threw it out. Sorry.”
Rangavar waved a paw. “Oh, it’s okay, I rescued it.”
Arro stared at him for a long moment. He gave the Darkal a knowing grin. “So you ‘aren’t obsessed’ but you’ll go digging through the trash for a chance to see the lab.”
Rangavar rolled his eyes.
“Say it, and I’ll take you to the room.”
“Ugh. I’m ‘obsessed’, if that’s what you want to hear.”
Arro grinned. “Tomorrow, I’ll help you waste your time like I did.”
The smaller dragon scowled.
For a moment, Arro pawed though some of the snacks on the couch next to him, then held out a box of crackers. “Do you want some of these instead of the chips?”
Crackers. Rangavar remembered crackers. Crackers were actually good. “Sure.” He went to take the box, only to open it and find everything dusted with cheese. He sighed.
“Ugh. Please tell me you’ve seen crackers before.”
Rangavar waved the box at him. “These aren’t ‘crackers’.”
Arro rolled his eyes. “Just try them. They’re good.”
“That’s what you said about chips.”
“Chips are good.”
Rangavar wrinkled his snout.
“At least try them? You’ve got to try them before deciding if they’re gross,” Arro insisted. He grabbed a few out of the box and held them out.
Rangavar started to get up from the couch. “I think I’m going to grab one of those apples out of the cabinet.”
Before he could move, Arro wrapped a chubby arm around his waist and pulled him back. “You’re going to try a cracker.”
“Hey! Let go of me!!” Rangavar tried to push away from Arro, but his paws just kept sinking deeply into his rolls of pudge.
“Try at least one!”
After a moment, Rangavar stopped squirming. He just kept sinking into Arro’s plush belly, layers upon layers of fat molding around his movements. It puffed up around him when he pushed back against Arro’s arm, which was still wrapped around his waist, the fat arm was too strong to push away.
“I’ll try ONE,” he growled reluctantly.
Arro didn’t wait for him to grab one himself, instead holding out the ones in his palm to feed them directly into Rangavar’s mouth.
“I said ONE c—agch!”
“Just chew. And then admit they’re amazing.”
The Darkal forced himself to swallow. He still wasn’t convinced they were crackers. “Alright, I ate your stupid crackers.” He pushed back against Arro’s plush body. “Let go.”
“Well?? Did you like them?”
Rangavar scowled. “Which answer will make you let go?”
“Tell me if you liked the crackers!”
Rangavar crossed his arms. They rested on his chest just over Arro’s arm. “They were edible.”
Rolling his eyes, the larger dragon finally loosened his grip.
Rangavar hopped up. He glanced down at the massive collection of adipose around him. “I could have stood up, you know. It’s just because of this.” He suddenly hefted Arro’s largest roll in both arms and scowled. “Do you have any idea how squishy you are? Or else I definitely could have. I mean I could have stood up if I wanted to.”
The fat Faerian blushed, clutching his belly and squishing the fat as far away from the Darkal’s little paws as he could, which wasn’t much, leaving most of his bulk within Rangavar’s reach. “Ach! stop grabbing me!”
Rangavar paused for a moment, and tilted his head. “Do you have any idea how often you grab me? It’s okay to grab others all the time but nobody can touch YOU?”
Arro grimaced. “You’re not fat though!”
“So what you’re saying,” said Rangavar slowly, “is that being fat gives you special grabbing-privileges.”
“What? No!” Arro wrinkled his snout.
“That’s basically what you said.”
Arro rolled his eyes. “Well if you want to insist on that, then my ‘fat privilege’ gives me the right to do this.” He reached out and grabbed Rangavar again, dragging him back down on the couch. Rangavar yelped as he stumbled and fell back into Arro’s side.
“Rrrrr get off!” He writhed against the fat dragon’s round pudge as he tried to tear himself from Arro’s grip.
“Fat privilege,” Arro reminded him.
“Fuck you!”
Arro laughed and pulled him tighter. “Well, since you just finished telling me about how easy it is to leave if you wanted to, why don’t you do that instead, then.”
Rangavar tried to push his thick arm away. Even his arm fat squished as the Darkal struggled. “I already said you were too soft to get up. Now let go!”
“Fat privilege.”
“Arro!”
The larger dragon took to holding Rangavar’s arm in his paw as Rangavar tried to squirm his way down under Arro’s own arm wrapped around him. The larger dragon grinned. “Now you’re just cheating.”
Rangavar growled. “‘Cheating’?? If this is a game to you, then it’s a very unfair one. Get off!”
Arro’s grin widened. As Rangavar squirmed free, Arro still had his arm grasped in one paw, and pulled him down and pinned it against the couch. “If being fat is giving me special privileges for the first time in my life, I’m not going to waste them.”
Rangavar rolled his eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. Straining back against Arro’s grip, he tried to leverage himself farther away by kicking the larger dragon, his paw just sinking into the soft pudge and making it jiggle. Arro laughed at him again, and despite himself, Rangavar cracked a grin. “Get. OFF! You’re being such an asshole.”
“Why don’t you just get up and leave?” Arro asked innocently.
“Why don’t you go fuck yourself.” The smaller dragon tried to roll himself off the edge of the couch instead, forsaking dignity for the ability to slip onto the floor and get away, but Arro latched onto his other arm and pinned Rangavar on his back with both arms pushed into the couch.
Grinning mischievously, Arro arranged himself so that he was over Rangavar, his doughy gut trapping the smaller dragon’s light frame against the couch cushion, and he leaned down and whispered softly in the Darkal’s ear. “Fat privilegggggge.”
Rangavar finally burst out laughing. “You KNOW that’s not what I meant.” He stopped writhing for a moment, exhausted and trying to catch his breath. Arro’s paws leaned on his arms heavily, leaving the much smaller dragon unable to budge.
Chuckling softly, Arro finally sat back and released him, giving Rangavar the chance to scramble backwards from beneath him to safety. “I have a feeling you were lying about being able to push me off.
Still slightly trying to catch his breath, Rangavar leaned against the opposite arm of the couch and groaned. “You’re really heavy.”
“At least it’s good for something.”
“Good for tormenting me?”
Arro shrugged, still grinning mischievously. “I doubt ‘torment’ is the right word. If anything, I was helping you by introducing you to the wonderful food that is crackers.”
The Darkal finally got his breathing under control, looking up at Arro’s round, chubby smile. It was good that their new couch was so big, so that they could turn towards each other more fully, instead of being pressed up side-by-side constantly. He appreciated the way he got to stretch out his legs slightly, finally having enough cushion to not be crammed with his knees drawn up.
“Now you know why I eat so much,” said Arro solemnly. “It’s so that I’m strong enough to share my knowledge of good food.”
“Sure.” Rangavar pushed himself into a sitting position. “What a noble sacrifice.”
Arro was quiet a long moment. “Thanks for never making fun of me. For being fat, I mean. You make me feel normal.”
Rangavar leaned back on the opposite arm of the couch, eyeing him. “You ARE normal.”
“Well… you know.”
“There’s no such thing as true ‘normal’, it’s an empty word. Everyone is ‘normal’, and no one is ‘normal’.”
“Heh. I guess.”
Rangavar felt satisfied to see Arro not stumbling over himself with self-loathing for a change. “If I go get an apple right now, do you want one?”
To his credit, Arro pretended to genuinely think about it for a second. “No thanks, I’m good.” He seemed to have abandoned his diet about a full week ago by this point, so Rangavar wasn’t surprised. He hopped up and went to the cabinet.
Arro suddenly sat up straighter. “Wait—”
Opening the cabinet revealed boxes of donuts, muffins, muffins with frosting, along with some other stuff. Rangavar didn’t recognize half of it.
Over on the couch, Arro tried to hide his blush by covering his face with both paws. “I know that looks bad! I forgot I put all that stuff in there.” The Darkal could sense he felt mortified.
Rangavar sighed when he realized that there weren’t any apples left. “Did you finish all the apples?” That was honestly the most surprising thing.
The Faerian pushed his fingers together. “I was reeeally hungry.” It was enough of an answer. “I know I’m supposed to be on a diet. I’ve just been having a really bad week.”
Rangavar shut the cabinet and looked over at him. “Your diet? It’s none of my business. You can do whatever you want, you know.”
Arro squirmed uncomfortably. He quietly watched Rangavar return to the couch. After a moment, he said, “I’ve been thinking about the gym, like you said. I might try that.”
“Oh, yeah.” Rangavar guiltily recollected that he hadn’t gone yet himself. He supposed since neither of them actually wanted to go, it was really hard to, well, go. Rangavar hadn’t exactly been encouraging Arro, and Arro certainly hadn’t been encouraging him.
The other dragon held up a videogame controller. “Wanna play games instead?”
“Hmmm.” Rangavar reached for the other controller. “That sounds way better than the gym.”
Rangavar threw down the controller and growled.
Arro leaned back with amusement. “You said not to let you win.”
“I know! I don’t want you to let me win.”
Arro raised a brow at him. The other dragon sank back into the couch, glaring at the screen, the TV’s reflection in his eyes. He looked smaller against the massive couch cushions as he crossed his arms. Arro remembered when they’d sat on the old couch and were forced closer together. It was true that they were no longer cramped, but…
He found himself thinking back to earlier, when he’d grabbed Rangavar and wrestled him onto the couch. They’d been joking around, but Arro couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to pull Rangavar close and hold him like that in other ways.
“Do you want to go again?”
“Huh?”
“The videogame.” Rangavar very obviously gestured at the screen.
Arro shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Oh, that.”
“We can take a break if you want.”
Arro blushed and looked away nervously. Rangavar always seemed so nonchalant with him, like some of Arro’s feelings were more of a blind spot to his telepathy than others. Or the Darkal was perfectly aware, and liked tormenting him. “Yeah, let’s take a break,” Arro agreed.
Rangavar moved to go to the kitchen. “Do you want food? We’ve been playing for hours.”
“That’s what having days off is for. Videogames and food.”
Arro watched the Darkal’s lithe body stretching as he reached up for the cabinet. Shelves that were an easy height for Arro were more challenging for the smaller dragon. Arro had a great view of the lean muscles working in his back and arms as he began to transfer the items on the lowest shelves onto the counter. His slender tail flicked absentmindedly from the end of his cute butt. Arro wanted his paws all over that dragon.
I need to snap out of this. Shaking his head again to clear it of thoughts, Arro stood up suddenly. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to go wash my paws before eating.” He’d taken a moment beforehand to decide that he would, so that it would be a true statement and the Darkal wouldn’t ask questions.
Rangavar pricked an ear and glanced over at him. “Uh, okay, I’ll be here…”
In the shower room, not only did Arro wash his paws, but he also splashed cold water on his face to try and keep his mind on the present. He was in a mood from earlier and needed it to stop.
He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror as he dried off his face. An incredibly fat dragon was staring at him, as usual. His eyes roved over the way his giant gut spilled out in front of him, the bottom leaning heavily on the front of his thighs, the massive lovehandles hugging his sides and curving to join his hips. He knew it had only swelled over the course of the week as he continued to binge. It even seemed a bit heavier, the bottom of his gut smacking the tops of his thighs as he walked, which had only begun recently.
He grimaced. Food helped keep his mind off of Rangavar. And while he was eating his feelings, Rangavar was quietly letting him, just accepting that Arro was fat and never thinking twice. It was somehow actually quite freeing for Arro, to feel safe around the smaller dragon. It was also infuriatingly troublesome to his waistline.
He grabbed the largest roll of his belly and shook it, watching the way the fat folded around his chubby fingers. He gritted his teeth in the mirror. He had to lose this thing, once and for all.
He pricked his ears at the sound of the cabinet closing in the kitchen.
Well, resuming his diet could at least wait until tomorrow, right? He just had to make sure that “one more day” didn’t turn into two more days this time, then three, then four—
He looked back down at his belly. No, this time would be different. He was sure of it.
Just one more day. Definitely.
“You didn’t mention what you wanted or how much, so I just took out one of everything,” said Rangavar awkwardly. While Arro had done that thing where he went into the shower room and just stood in front of the mirror for a long time, Rangavar had somehow managed to surround himself with boxes. He wondered if he should bring them all over to the couch. Now that there were finally stools big enough for Arro, maybe it would be easier to actually eat at the counter for a change?
Arro shuffled over and sat on one of the stools, answering the question before he could ask. “There’s no way I’ll eat ALL of that,” he said, although maybe sounding a bit unsure. Well, what looked like a feast to Rangavar probably didn’t look like all that much to Arro.
The fat Faerian reached for one of the boxes of donuts, then paused. “What are you going to eat?”
Rangavar eyed the boxes. “I’m not hungry.”
Arro gave him a look. “So you were hungry earlier, never actually got an apple like you wanted, but now you’re not hungry.”
Rangavar just stared him dead in the face. “Yeah.” It was a couple of moments before he felt his cheeks grow warm while Arro stared back.
The Faerian rolled his eyes and slid a box towards him. “Try these.”
They were the muffins without frosting. He supposed they sort of looked like rolls. Well, if he used his imagination. They didn’t smell anything like rolls, though. He looked from the box back to Arro. “Sure…”
“You always agree to eat food as if you’re agreeing to get beaten up or something.”
“Well with you, either of those things could happen,” Rangavar pointed out playfully.
Arro wrinkled his snout. “I do not ‘beat you up’, I carry the mantel of introducing others to good food, remember?” He was quiet for a long moment, looking down as he started tearing into a box with his claws. “And I’ve never tried to ‘beat you up’. I hope that’s not what it feels like.”
“What? No. I was kidding.” If anything, he was pretty sure Arro had actually grown more careful. He hadn’t hurt Rangavar or anything when giving him crackers. Well, his tastebuds, maybe.
Rangavar hesitantly pulled one of the muffins out of the box. It was moist and squishy, not like a roll at all.
“Please just eat it.”
He shot Arro a glare and finally took a bite. The thing practically fell apart, crumbs falling before he even got it in his mouth. It didn’t taste bad. “Yeah, it’s great,” he said halfheartedly as he swallowed.
Arro raised his brows. “Cool. You can have that whole box then.”
“What? Six?” Rangavar scoffed. “Only a professional such as yourself would dare.”
The fat dragon giggled around a mouthful of donut. “I don’t understand how you haven’t starved to death by now.”
They ate in silence as Arro wolfed down the rest of his box of donuts. He slowly reached across to Rangavar’s side of the island counter and selected a muffin. “I hope you don’t mind.”
Rangavar rolled his eyes.
Arro made quick work of that too, selecting another, and another…
Pretty soon, as Rangavar finished up his muffin, Arro was squeezing by him to get to the cabinet for more pastries. The Darkal watched with mild amusement. Arro’s belly leaned heavily into the counter, his girth taking up a large amount of space in the small kitchen. Rangavar almost felt like he should jump off the stool to give Arro more room.
The fat Faerian eventually made his way back to his seat with more boxes piled in his paws. They were all donuts. Those seemed to be his favorite; he ate them more often than the other things.
Arro caught him looking and scowled. “I’m not going to have ALL of them.”
“I didn’t say anything.” Rangavar leaned his elbows on the counter. “Also, they’re yours, you can obviously have as many as you want.”
“You’re welcome to some too,” Arro forced out around a mouthful of dense, heavy donut, already diving into them. His snout was sticky with glaze, all of the sugar coating his mouth and his claws. “Or, you could have dessert.”
“Dessert?”
“It’s food you eat after eating food.”
“I know what dessert is, Arro.”
“Well with you, I can never tell.”
Rangavar made a face at him.
The fat dragon helpfully pushed another box towards him across the counter. Rangavar peered inside. “If I just had a muffin, why would I want a muffin with frosting?”
“It’s a ‘cupcake’ and doesn’t taste anything alike.” Arro forced down his current mouthful of donut. “I swear to Vaugh, Rangavar, you have to find SOMETHING you like.”
“I like REAL food,” the smaller dragon countered.
“If it’s not real food, tell that to the pants I keep growing out of.”
Rangavar eyed the muffins unenthusiastically. He JUST ate dense, sugary food, and dessert these days was just even-denser, even-more-sugary food? He removed one from the box, holding it up to inspect it. Yup. Dense and sugary.
He glanced up sharply at Arro. “Stop watching me.”
Arro blushed and pretended to look away again.
Opening his mouth to taste the cupcake, he was suddenly struck by the sickly-sweet smell. He wrinkled his nose and pulled it away.
“Oh, for the love of Vaugh.” Arro reached across the counter and pushed the back of Rangavar’s paw with the cupcake towards his mouth. Rangavar just let him push the cupcake inside. One way or another, Arro always made him try every food, and sometimes it was easier to just accept it.
He tried not to make a face. He really, really tried. The cupcake was also very, very sweet. The sticky frosting was all over his mouth and claws, and a layer of sugar coated his teeth.
Watching the look on his face, Arro sighed.
As calmly as possible, Rangavar got up, went over to the sink, and got himself a glass of water. He chugged it. “Wow, that was delicious,” he forced out over his gritty tongue. He started to pour himself a new glass of water.
“Next time you’re hungry, I’ll bring home some plain air for you to scarf down. I’ll make sure it’s unflavored air.”
Rangavar leaned on the counter, facing him, a glass of water in his paw. “I think it’s mostly the excess of sugar.”
The fat Faerian leaned back and resumed downing the donuts. “Your loss.”
Feeling full from the two entire bakery items, Rangavar made his way to the couch to lie down. Maybe he could play videogames until he learned how to kick Arro’s ass at that, instead of letting Arro make fun of him. He had the rest of the day to try.
He also absently reminded himself to grab the note upstairs for his shift for tomorrow, but it could wait for now. He could use a break.
The hallway was clear. Rangavar stood in front of the door with the note. He had the perfect ‘disguise’; the grayish-tan maintenance jacket that was always slightly loose on him, the sleeves a bit bunched, and the plain, form-fitting pants. Completely average. Ready for a normal day of work.
At his side, Arro glanced around. He finally looked back down at the Darkal, pushing his index fingers together nervously. “Well, here you go. Good luck.”
Rangavar just nodded. He wasn’t going to pretend he wasn’t nervous. The deeper they delved into the research facility’s ‘secrets’, the more questions they had. He was wondering when they’d finally get an answer or two. Getting downstairs still seemed like the best way at this point, but getting into one of the actual labs would be a start.
Turning back down the hall, Arro gave a small wave. Rangavar returned an anxious thumbs-up. Well, this was it.
He’d already checked, but the door was locked. Holding the note out and glancing down at it, Rangavar put up his other paw and knocked. There were two dragons inside, neither of whose auras he recognized—and who therefore wouldn’t recognize him.
The door was opened by a short, red-scaled Faerian. A sort of small, petty satisfaction welled up in him to see that she was actually shorter than he was. Nice.
“Can I help you?” She looked him up and down with suspicion.
He held up the note. “I got a maintenance request?”
Her eyes narrowed. “That was taken care of the other day.”
His heart sank. She must have been here when Jethe fixed it. Rangavar hurriedly struggled to think of more excuses. “Was it repaired incorrectly?” he tried. He waved the note again. “This was on the desk.”
She stared hard another moment. Rangavar was just beginning to wonder if she could hear lies when she finally, warily, opened the door. “You can come check it out, but I’m pretty sure it’s fine.”
Rangavar stifled his sigh of relief. “Yeah, I’m sure it’ll only take a second.”
He tried not to look too interested in the room, only surveying it out the corners of his eyes. It was mostly as Arro had described it. Well, other than the glaringly obvious staircase at the far side of the room. Wow, that seems a little fucking important, he thought, incredibly irked that Arro would leave that out… almost as if he’d been trying to hide it. Was that why he didn’t want Rangavar getting into the lab? But why did he want to keep that information to himself?
Had he found something down there that he thought they should leave alone?
The only other thing of interest in the lab room—well, it was more of a hallway, really, as it was lined with other offices—was another Faerian sitting in the far corner at a group of tables, apparently the other aura he’d sensed.
Right now, Rangavar only knew one thing for sure. He needed to get down those stairs. First he had to ditch this Faerian, though, and presumably the other employee at the tables in the corner so she wouldn’t see him either.
He ran out of time to glance around as he reached the wall. He played around with his toolbelt a bit, crouching down and pretending to look at the outlet. Yup, that sure was an outlet alright. Meanwhile, the red Faerian was standing over him with her arms crossed, practically breathing down his neck. Rangavar stalled as he tried to think of ways to get her off his back.
Maybe he could sneak back in later? Something this important might actually be worth the risk of breaking a lock or two. Not that he wouldn’t be careful, or wanted to be caught, obviously, but if he had to…
After he dismantled the outlet, he took his time putting it back together again, but the female Faerian still hadn’t budged. Rangavar resigned himself to the fact that he would have to come back later. “It’s all set,” he proclaimed, standing back up and brushing himself off.
“Great. Thanks for your time,” she said with false cheerfulness as she swiftly ushered him back to the main hallway and closed the door firmly behind him. This place keeps getting weirder. Or maybe she was annoyed because he interrupted something important? Secret office meetings, perhaps? Or he supposed, for all he knew, it was her lunch break.
He turned away from the door and hurriedly stuffed several of his tools back into his belt. He’d been shooed away so fast that he hadn’t even gotten to do that before getting kicked out.
Distracted, he instinctively pricked his ears at the detection of another aura nearby. He snapped to attention as he recognized it. He wasn’t really surprised to sense Jethe here. He’d only been half-joking when he suggested to Arro that the pale gray Faerian must live at the research facility. Maybe he had a cute little setup in its depths where he got to hunker down as round-the-clock maintenance.
Rangavar considered what he would say to the omnipresent Faerian. Then, he turned and began to walk swiftly in the opposite direction. If he got out of there quickly enough, he wouldn’t have to deal with it just yet.
He’d known it was possible—if not probable—that Jethe would show up. He imagined the other dragon had hidden cameras everywhere or something. If that were the case, then at least he wouldn’t be able to find Rangavar just by wandering around; he’d have to go back and look them over to see where the Darkal had gone. It would give Rangavar the time he needed to disappear. He could get down to some real work and leave Jethe without an excuse to chastise him.
He dipped around the corner and started back towards the main area of the building, away from the labs, and eventually turned another corner. He was still close enough to sense Jethe’s aura, and was disappointed to notice that the Faerian had the same idea and took the same path. Well, he was probably going to check the tapes or something, so Rangavar realized he should use the opportunity to hide instead, until Jethe passed.
Other than the labs themselves, Rangavar had been forced to clean each room in this facility and actually had the right keys on his keyring for once. He quickly let himself into one of the filing rooms long before Jethe rounded the corner.
He let out a sigh of relief, not even pausing to turn on the lights and went to go sit at the singular desk in front of the rows of towering stacks where numerous, meaningless folders were stuffed. He sat down to calm his nerves, leaning back and putting his feet up on the desk. It was a shame he couldn’t thumb through all these files. Although if they were this easy to get to, they probably wouldn’t yield any important data anyway.
Rangavar calmly waited as he felt Jethe come down the hall to pass the door. His sense of calm ended as Jethe stopped in front of the door. No. Fucking. Way. Rangavar knew he’d been long out of sight before Jethe got to this hallway.
The Darkal leapt to his feet at the sound of keys jingling while Jethe fished them out of his uniform. He dove behind one of the stacks, crammed full of files, folders, and junk that would stand between him and the sight of the door, just as Jethe turned the knob. He crossed his legs on the floor with his back pressed against the uneven edges of the folders jutting from the shelves behind him.
Rangavar contained his breathing to near silence despite his racing heart. He didn’t dare move. It occurred to him that the most likely way for Jethe to have known where he went was because he could sense auras; a rare skill in Faerians, but reasonable to assume at this point.
Fortunately, Rangavar was good at manipulating aura.
As Jethe finally pushed open the door and took several steps into the room, the Darkal forced his breaths calm and even, clearing his mind and trying to disperse his energy. He had to become one with the items around him, with the room around him, the building even—he had to separate his sense of self and reach out away from his own body.
As his aura became slowly harder to pinpoint, the footsteps paused.
Jethe could fucking read auras.
I fucking knew it.
Rangavar remained quiet, hoping against all odds that the Faerian may think that he’d misjudged the exact room where the Darkal had disappeared. He heard two more tentative footsteps. The room was dim, the light still off, but gray light hit the floor from several dusty windows. Rangavar hoped his grayish-tan maintenance uniform and darker gray scales disappeared into his surroundings.
He kept his eyes closed, breathing in, and breathing out. He felt the energy of the building as a hum around him. Breathe in, breathe out. He heard Jethe step closer, peeking around the stack closest to the door. Breathe in, breathe out. Jethe moved to the next one. Rangavar resisted the urge to wipe the sweat off his slick forehead. Another footstep in his direction. Another. Breathe in, brea—
Rangavar flinched as the inevitable happened and Jethe appeared around the side of the shelves. Their eyes met and they stared at each other for a moment, Rangavar still sitting cross-legged on the floor. He wasn’t surprised or anything. Trying to blend his aura had been an unlikely, last-ditch effort.
Of course, Jethe didn’t seem all that surprised either. In fact, while he normally showed almost no emotion at all, Rangavar sensed that he was actually incredibly annoyed. He decided to prove as much by striding over the Rangavar, grabbing him by the front of his maintenance jacket and hauling him onto his feet. Rangavar didn’t have anywhere to back away from him. Jethe, his fist still clenching Rangavar’s jacket, slammed the shorter dragon into the shelves behind him and peered down at him.
“We need to talk.”
The chapter wasn't supposed to be this long, but due to popular demand, I have included More Plot™
I didn't know a lot of people were into it lol
Give me feedback! Tear me apart! Please! :U
Also btw I consider this chapter SFW but there are adult jokes and I still don't know how strict the rating system is
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Kill, Marry, Fuck
Chapter 21
Rangavar sensed that Arro wasn’t telling him something.
He also sensed that Arro wasn’t lying.
The Darkal was sitting in one of the new chairs, at the new desk in their room. The chair-to-desk-height ratio allowed him to lean back and put his feet up on it, which he liked a lot. They hadn’t actually used it for anything else yet, so he wanted to enjoy that while he could.
The one thing on the desk right now was that sticky note that Arro had brought home yesterday. It didn’t lie completely flat, although Rangavar had tried to press it as flat as he could after pulling it out of the trash. Fortunately, it wasn’t dirty or anything. Unfortunately, he couldn’t tell what it said. He knew that it would bring him to the lab, though.
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Arro; the Faerian seemed to have genuinely forgotten about the lab until he pulled out the note. It was more the fact that Arro finally, ACTUALLY got into a lab, and just… had legitimately cared so little that he almost forgot.
Rangavar steepled his fingers under his chin as he thought about it.
Now he really wanted to see that lab.
A while later, he descended the stairs to see Arro playing videogames on the new couch. It was massive, and reinforced to support large amounts of weight. Also, it was more suitable to two people now. Or three to four normal-sized people, Rangavar supposed. He was able to plop down on one side without crushing himself into the arm so Arro’s mass had enough space.
The Faerian had been absentmindedly stuffing his mouth with potato chips during pauses in the game. He offered the bag to Rangavar and made some sort of unintelligible noise around his crunchy mouthful.
Rangavar wrinkled his nose. “No thanks.”
Arro swallowed. “Oh yeah, I forgot you don’t like anything with flavor.”
The smaller dragon glowered at the screen for a moment while absently watching him play.
“Do you want a match?”
The Darkal shook his head. He had something else in mind. “I want to break into that room.”
Arro frowned. “What room?”
“The lab at the research building.”
Getting distracted, the larger dragon snarled as he lost the game, roughly setting down the controller. He glared at Rangavar for a second.
Rangavar flattened his ears and shifted uncomfortably.
The larger dragon leaned back and sighed. “I wish there was something exciting in there, but there wasn’t.”
He wasn’t lying, but Rangavar still felt uneasy. “Maybe I just have to see it for myself to believe it. Check it out just in case.”
Arro snorted. “It’s so cute how into all this you’re finally getting.”
Rangavar bristled “What?”
The larger dragon grinned. “You know, how you used to make fun of my ‘obsession’ all the time, and now you’re just as ‘obsessed’ as I am.”
“It’s not ‘cute’ and I’m not ‘obsessed’.”
“Uh-huh.”
Rangavar crossed his arms and glared at the screen for a moment while thinking.
“How about I go with you to work tomorrow, and take you to the door, and then I go home and you can go get into trouble with Jethe or whatever you’re intent on doing.”
“Won’t the door be locked?”
Arro shrugged. “You’ll be in your maintenance uniform… maybe you can find an excuse to get in.”
Rangavar suddenly thought back to the note on the desk upstairs. “Maybe I’ll use the note, pretending someone left it out and that I think I’m supposed to go fix their socket or whatever.”
“Oh…” Arro looked away awkwardly. “I threw it out. Sorry.”
Rangavar waved a paw. “Oh, it’s okay, I rescued it.”
Arro stared at him for a long moment. He gave the Darkal a knowing grin. “So you ‘aren’t obsessed’ but you’ll go digging through the trash for a chance to see the lab.”
Rangavar rolled his eyes.
“Say it, and I’ll take you to the room.”
“Ugh. I’m ‘obsessed’, if that’s what you want to hear.”
Arro grinned. “Tomorrow, I’ll help you waste your time like I did.”
The smaller dragon scowled.
For a moment, Arro pawed though some of the snacks on the couch next to him, then held out a box of crackers. “Do you want some of these instead of the chips?”
Crackers. Rangavar remembered crackers. Crackers were actually good. “Sure.” He went to take the box, only to open it and find everything dusted with cheese. He sighed.
“Ugh. Please tell me you’ve seen crackers before.”
Rangavar waved the box at him. “These aren’t ‘crackers’.”
Arro rolled his eyes. “Just try them. They’re good.”
“That’s what you said about chips.”
“Chips are good.”
Rangavar wrinkled his snout.
“At least try them? You’ve got to try them before deciding if they’re gross,” Arro insisted. He grabbed a few out of the box and held them out.
Rangavar started to get up from the couch. “I think I’m going to grab one of those apples out of the cabinet.”
Before he could move, Arro wrapped a chubby arm around his waist and pulled him back. “You’re going to try a cracker.”
“Hey! Let go of me!!” Rangavar tried to push away from Arro, but his paws just kept sinking deeply into his rolls of pudge.
“Try at least one!”
After a moment, Rangavar stopped squirming. He just kept sinking into Arro’s plush belly, layers upon layers of fat molding around his movements. It puffed up around him when he pushed back against Arro’s arm, which was still wrapped around his waist, the fat arm was too strong to push away.
“I’ll try ONE,” he growled reluctantly.
Arro didn’t wait for him to grab one himself, instead holding out the ones in his palm to feed them directly into Rangavar’s mouth.
“I said ONE c—agch!”
“Just chew. And then admit they’re amazing.”
The Darkal forced himself to swallow. He still wasn’t convinced they were crackers. “Alright, I ate your stupid crackers.” He pushed back against Arro’s plush body. “Let go.”
“Well?? Did you like them?”
Rangavar scowled. “Which answer will make you let go?”
“Tell me if you liked the crackers!”
Rangavar crossed his arms. They rested on his chest just over Arro’s arm. “They were edible.”
Rolling his eyes, the larger dragon finally loosened his grip.
Rangavar hopped up. He glanced down at the massive collection of adipose around him. “I could have stood up, you know. It’s just because of this.” He suddenly hefted Arro’s largest roll in both arms and scowled. “Do you have any idea how squishy you are? Or else I definitely could have. I mean I could have stood up if I wanted to.”
The fat Faerian blushed, clutching his belly and squishing the fat as far away from the Darkal’s little paws as he could, which wasn’t much, leaving most of his bulk within Rangavar’s reach. “Ach! stop grabbing me!”
Rangavar paused for a moment, and tilted his head. “Do you have any idea how often you grab me? It’s okay to grab others all the time but nobody can touch YOU?”
Arro grimaced. “You’re not fat though!”
“So what you’re saying,” said Rangavar slowly, “is that being fat gives you special grabbing-privileges.”
“What? No!” Arro wrinkled his snout.
“That’s basically what you said.”
Arro rolled his eyes. “Well if you want to insist on that, then my ‘fat privilege’ gives me the right to do this.” He reached out and grabbed Rangavar again, dragging him back down on the couch. Rangavar yelped as he stumbled and fell back into Arro’s side.
“Rrrrr get off!” He writhed against the fat dragon’s round pudge as he tried to tear himself from Arro’s grip.
“Fat privilege,” Arro reminded him.
“Fuck you!”
Arro laughed and pulled him tighter. “Well, since you just finished telling me about how easy it is to leave if you wanted to, why don’t you do that instead, then.”
Rangavar tried to push his thick arm away. Even his arm fat squished as the Darkal struggled. “I already said you were too soft to get up. Now let go!”
“Fat privilege.”
“Arro!”
The larger dragon took to holding Rangavar’s arm in his paw as Rangavar tried to squirm his way down under Arro’s own arm wrapped around him. The larger dragon grinned. “Now you’re just cheating.”
Rangavar growled. “‘Cheating’?? If this is a game to you, then it’s a very unfair one. Get off!”
Arro’s grin widened. As Rangavar squirmed free, Arro still had his arm grasped in one paw, and pulled him down and pinned it against the couch. “If being fat is giving me special privileges for the first time in my life, I’m not going to waste them.”
Rangavar rolled his eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. Straining back against Arro’s grip, he tried to leverage himself farther away by kicking the larger dragon, his paw just sinking into the soft pudge and making it jiggle. Arro laughed at him again, and despite himself, Rangavar cracked a grin. “Get. OFF! You’re being such an asshole.”
“Why don’t you just get up and leave?” Arro asked innocently.
“Why don’t you go fuck yourself.” The smaller dragon tried to roll himself off the edge of the couch instead, forsaking dignity for the ability to slip onto the floor and get away, but Arro latched onto his other arm and pinned Rangavar on his back with both arms pushed into the couch.
Grinning mischievously, Arro arranged himself so that he was over Rangavar, his doughy gut trapping the smaller dragon’s light frame against the couch cushion, and he leaned down and whispered softly in the Darkal’s ear. “Fat privilegggggge.”
Rangavar finally burst out laughing. “You KNOW that’s not what I meant.” He stopped writhing for a moment, exhausted and trying to catch his breath. Arro’s paws leaned on his arms heavily, leaving the much smaller dragon unable to budge.
Chuckling softly, Arro finally sat back and released him, giving Rangavar the chance to scramble backwards from beneath him to safety. “I have a feeling you were lying about being able to push me off.
Still slightly trying to catch his breath, Rangavar leaned against the opposite arm of the couch and groaned. “You’re really heavy.”
“At least it’s good for something.”
“Good for tormenting me?”
Arro shrugged, still grinning mischievously. “I doubt ‘torment’ is the right word. If anything, I was helping you by introducing you to the wonderful food that is crackers.”
The Darkal finally got his breathing under control, looking up at Arro’s round, chubby smile. It was good that their new couch was so big, so that they could turn towards each other more fully, instead of being pressed up side-by-side constantly. He appreciated the way he got to stretch out his legs slightly, finally having enough cushion to not be crammed with his knees drawn up.
“Now you know why I eat so much,” said Arro solemnly. “It’s so that I’m strong enough to share my knowledge of good food.”
“Sure.” Rangavar pushed himself into a sitting position. “What a noble sacrifice.”
Arro was quiet a long moment. “Thanks for never making fun of me. For being fat, I mean. You make me feel normal.”
Rangavar leaned back on the opposite arm of the couch, eyeing him. “You ARE normal.”
“Well… you know.”
“There’s no such thing as true ‘normal’, it’s an empty word. Everyone is ‘normal’, and no one is ‘normal’.”
“Heh. I guess.”
Rangavar felt satisfied to see Arro not stumbling over himself with self-loathing for a change. “If I go get an apple right now, do you want one?”
To his credit, Arro pretended to genuinely think about it for a second. “No thanks, I’m good.” He seemed to have abandoned his diet about a full week ago by this point, so Rangavar wasn’t surprised. He hopped up and went to the cabinet.
Arro suddenly sat up straighter. “Wait—”
Opening the cabinet revealed boxes of donuts, muffins, muffins with frosting, along with some other stuff. Rangavar didn’t recognize half of it.
Over on the couch, Arro tried to hide his blush by covering his face with both paws. “I know that looks bad! I forgot I put all that stuff in there.” The Darkal could sense he felt mortified.
Rangavar sighed when he realized that there weren’t any apples left. “Did you finish all the apples?” That was honestly the most surprising thing.
The Faerian pushed his fingers together. “I was reeeally hungry.” It was enough of an answer. “I know I’m supposed to be on a diet. I’ve just been having a really bad week.”
Rangavar shut the cabinet and looked over at him. “Your diet? It’s none of my business. You can do whatever you want, you know.”
Arro squirmed uncomfortably. He quietly watched Rangavar return to the couch. After a moment, he said, “I’ve been thinking about the gym, like you said. I might try that.”
“Oh, yeah.” Rangavar guiltily recollected that he hadn’t gone yet himself. He supposed since neither of them actually wanted to go, it was really hard to, well, go. Rangavar hadn’t exactly been encouraging Arro, and Arro certainly hadn’t been encouraging him.
The other dragon held up a videogame controller. “Wanna play games instead?”
“Hmmm.” Rangavar reached for the other controller. “That sounds way better than the gym.”
~~~~~Rangavar threw down the controller and growled.
Arro leaned back with amusement. “You said not to let you win.”
“I know! I don’t want you to let me win.”
Arro raised a brow at him. The other dragon sank back into the couch, glaring at the screen, the TV’s reflection in his eyes. He looked smaller against the massive couch cushions as he crossed his arms. Arro remembered when they’d sat on the old couch and were forced closer together. It was true that they were no longer cramped, but…
He found himself thinking back to earlier, when he’d grabbed Rangavar and wrestled him onto the couch. They’d been joking around, but Arro couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to pull Rangavar close and hold him like that in other ways.
“Do you want to go again?”
“Huh?”
“The videogame.” Rangavar very obviously gestured at the screen.
Arro shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Oh, that.”
“We can take a break if you want.”
Arro blushed and looked away nervously. Rangavar always seemed so nonchalant with him, like some of Arro’s feelings were more of a blind spot to his telepathy than others. Or the Darkal was perfectly aware, and liked tormenting him. “Yeah, let’s take a break,” Arro agreed.
Rangavar moved to go to the kitchen. “Do you want food? We’ve been playing for hours.”
“That’s what having days off is for. Videogames and food.”
Arro watched the Darkal’s lithe body stretching as he reached up for the cabinet. Shelves that were an easy height for Arro were more challenging for the smaller dragon. Arro had a great view of the lean muscles working in his back and arms as he began to transfer the items on the lowest shelves onto the counter. His slender tail flicked absentmindedly from the end of his cute butt. Arro wanted his paws all over that dragon.
I need to snap out of this. Shaking his head again to clear it of thoughts, Arro stood up suddenly. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to go wash my paws before eating.” He’d taken a moment beforehand to decide that he would, so that it would be a true statement and the Darkal wouldn’t ask questions.
Rangavar pricked an ear and glanced over at him. “Uh, okay, I’ll be here…”
In the shower room, not only did Arro wash his paws, but he also splashed cold water on his face to try and keep his mind on the present. He was in a mood from earlier and needed it to stop.
He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror as he dried off his face. An incredibly fat dragon was staring at him, as usual. His eyes roved over the way his giant gut spilled out in front of him, the bottom leaning heavily on the front of his thighs, the massive lovehandles hugging his sides and curving to join his hips. He knew it had only swelled over the course of the week as he continued to binge. It even seemed a bit heavier, the bottom of his gut smacking the tops of his thighs as he walked, which had only begun recently.
He grimaced. Food helped keep his mind off of Rangavar. And while he was eating his feelings, Rangavar was quietly letting him, just accepting that Arro was fat and never thinking twice. It was somehow actually quite freeing for Arro, to feel safe around the smaller dragon. It was also infuriatingly troublesome to his waistline.
He grabbed the largest roll of his belly and shook it, watching the way the fat folded around his chubby fingers. He gritted his teeth in the mirror. He had to lose this thing, once and for all.
He pricked his ears at the sound of the cabinet closing in the kitchen.
Well, resuming his diet could at least wait until tomorrow, right? He just had to make sure that “one more day” didn’t turn into two more days this time, then three, then four—
He looked back down at his belly. No, this time would be different. He was sure of it.
Just one more day. Definitely.
~~~~~“You didn’t mention what you wanted or how much, so I just took out one of everything,” said Rangavar awkwardly. While Arro had done that thing where he went into the shower room and just stood in front of the mirror for a long time, Rangavar had somehow managed to surround himself with boxes. He wondered if he should bring them all over to the couch. Now that there were finally stools big enough for Arro, maybe it would be easier to actually eat at the counter for a change?
Arro shuffled over and sat on one of the stools, answering the question before he could ask. “There’s no way I’ll eat ALL of that,” he said, although maybe sounding a bit unsure. Well, what looked like a feast to Rangavar probably didn’t look like all that much to Arro.
The fat Faerian reached for one of the boxes of donuts, then paused. “What are you going to eat?”
Rangavar eyed the boxes. “I’m not hungry.”
Arro gave him a look. “So you were hungry earlier, never actually got an apple like you wanted, but now you’re not hungry.”
Rangavar just stared him dead in the face. “Yeah.” It was a couple of moments before he felt his cheeks grow warm while Arro stared back.
The Faerian rolled his eyes and slid a box towards him. “Try these.”
They were the muffins without frosting. He supposed they sort of looked like rolls. Well, if he used his imagination. They didn’t smell anything like rolls, though. He looked from the box back to Arro. “Sure…”
“You always agree to eat food as if you’re agreeing to get beaten up or something.”
“Well with you, either of those things could happen,” Rangavar pointed out playfully.
Arro wrinkled his snout. “I do not ‘beat you up’, I carry the mantel of introducing others to good food, remember?” He was quiet for a long moment, looking down as he started tearing into a box with his claws. “And I’ve never tried to ‘beat you up’. I hope that’s not what it feels like.”
“What? No. I was kidding.” If anything, he was pretty sure Arro had actually grown more careful. He hadn’t hurt Rangavar or anything when giving him crackers. Well, his tastebuds, maybe.
Rangavar hesitantly pulled one of the muffins out of the box. It was moist and squishy, not like a roll at all.
“Please just eat it.”
He shot Arro a glare and finally took a bite. The thing practically fell apart, crumbs falling before he even got it in his mouth. It didn’t taste bad. “Yeah, it’s great,” he said halfheartedly as he swallowed.
Arro raised his brows. “Cool. You can have that whole box then.”
“What? Six?” Rangavar scoffed. “Only a professional such as yourself would dare.”
The fat dragon giggled around a mouthful of donut. “I don’t understand how you haven’t starved to death by now.”
They ate in silence as Arro wolfed down the rest of his box of donuts. He slowly reached across to Rangavar’s side of the island counter and selected a muffin. “I hope you don’t mind.”
Rangavar rolled his eyes.
Arro made quick work of that too, selecting another, and another…
Pretty soon, as Rangavar finished up his muffin, Arro was squeezing by him to get to the cabinet for more pastries. The Darkal watched with mild amusement. Arro’s belly leaned heavily into the counter, his girth taking up a large amount of space in the small kitchen. Rangavar almost felt like he should jump off the stool to give Arro more room.
The fat Faerian eventually made his way back to his seat with more boxes piled in his paws. They were all donuts. Those seemed to be his favorite; he ate them more often than the other things.
Arro caught him looking and scowled. “I’m not going to have ALL of them.”
“I didn’t say anything.” Rangavar leaned his elbows on the counter. “Also, they’re yours, you can obviously have as many as you want.”
“You’re welcome to some too,” Arro forced out around a mouthful of dense, heavy donut, already diving into them. His snout was sticky with glaze, all of the sugar coating his mouth and his claws. “Or, you could have dessert.”
“Dessert?”
“It’s food you eat after eating food.”
“I know what dessert is, Arro.”
“Well with you, I can never tell.”
Rangavar made a face at him.
The fat dragon helpfully pushed another box towards him across the counter. Rangavar peered inside. “If I just had a muffin, why would I want a muffin with frosting?”
“It’s a ‘cupcake’ and doesn’t taste anything alike.” Arro forced down his current mouthful of donut. “I swear to Vaugh, Rangavar, you have to find SOMETHING you like.”
“I like REAL food,” the smaller dragon countered.
“If it’s not real food, tell that to the pants I keep growing out of.”
Rangavar eyed the muffins unenthusiastically. He JUST ate dense, sugary food, and dessert these days was just even-denser, even-more-sugary food? He removed one from the box, holding it up to inspect it. Yup. Dense and sugary.
He glanced up sharply at Arro. “Stop watching me.”
Arro blushed and pretended to look away again.
Opening his mouth to taste the cupcake, he was suddenly struck by the sickly-sweet smell. He wrinkled his nose and pulled it away.
“Oh, for the love of Vaugh.” Arro reached across the counter and pushed the back of Rangavar’s paw with the cupcake towards his mouth. Rangavar just let him push the cupcake inside. One way or another, Arro always made him try every food, and sometimes it was easier to just accept it.
He tried not to make a face. He really, really tried. The cupcake was also very, very sweet. The sticky frosting was all over his mouth and claws, and a layer of sugar coated his teeth.
Watching the look on his face, Arro sighed.
As calmly as possible, Rangavar got up, went over to the sink, and got himself a glass of water. He chugged it. “Wow, that was delicious,” he forced out over his gritty tongue. He started to pour himself a new glass of water.
“Next time you’re hungry, I’ll bring home some plain air for you to scarf down. I’ll make sure it’s unflavored air.”
Rangavar leaned on the counter, facing him, a glass of water in his paw. “I think it’s mostly the excess of sugar.”
The fat Faerian leaned back and resumed downing the donuts. “Your loss.”
Feeling full from the two entire bakery items, Rangavar made his way to the couch to lie down. Maybe he could play videogames until he learned how to kick Arro’s ass at that, instead of letting Arro make fun of him. He had the rest of the day to try.
He also absently reminded himself to grab the note upstairs for his shift for tomorrow, but it could wait for now. He could use a break.
~~~~~The hallway was clear. Rangavar stood in front of the door with the note. He had the perfect ‘disguise’; the grayish-tan maintenance jacket that was always slightly loose on him, the sleeves a bit bunched, and the plain, form-fitting pants. Completely average. Ready for a normal day of work.
At his side, Arro glanced around. He finally looked back down at the Darkal, pushing his index fingers together nervously. “Well, here you go. Good luck.”
Rangavar just nodded. He wasn’t going to pretend he wasn’t nervous. The deeper they delved into the research facility’s ‘secrets’, the more questions they had. He was wondering when they’d finally get an answer or two. Getting downstairs still seemed like the best way at this point, but getting into one of the actual labs would be a start.
Turning back down the hall, Arro gave a small wave. Rangavar returned an anxious thumbs-up. Well, this was it.
He’d already checked, but the door was locked. Holding the note out and glancing down at it, Rangavar put up his other paw and knocked. There were two dragons inside, neither of whose auras he recognized—and who therefore wouldn’t recognize him.
The door was opened by a short, red-scaled Faerian. A sort of small, petty satisfaction welled up in him to see that she was actually shorter than he was. Nice.
“Can I help you?” She looked him up and down with suspicion.
He held up the note. “I got a maintenance request?”
Her eyes narrowed. “That was taken care of the other day.”
His heart sank. She must have been here when Jethe fixed it. Rangavar hurriedly struggled to think of more excuses. “Was it repaired incorrectly?” he tried. He waved the note again. “This was on the desk.”
She stared hard another moment. Rangavar was just beginning to wonder if she could hear lies when she finally, warily, opened the door. “You can come check it out, but I’m pretty sure it’s fine.”
Rangavar stifled his sigh of relief. “Yeah, I’m sure it’ll only take a second.”
He tried not to look too interested in the room, only surveying it out the corners of his eyes. It was mostly as Arro had described it. Well, other than the glaringly obvious staircase at the far side of the room. Wow, that seems a little fucking important, he thought, incredibly irked that Arro would leave that out… almost as if he’d been trying to hide it. Was that why he didn’t want Rangavar getting into the lab? But why did he want to keep that information to himself?
Had he found something down there that he thought they should leave alone?
The only other thing of interest in the lab room—well, it was more of a hallway, really, as it was lined with other offices—was another Faerian sitting in the far corner at a group of tables, apparently the other aura he’d sensed.
Right now, Rangavar only knew one thing for sure. He needed to get down those stairs. First he had to ditch this Faerian, though, and presumably the other employee at the tables in the corner so she wouldn’t see him either.
He ran out of time to glance around as he reached the wall. He played around with his toolbelt a bit, crouching down and pretending to look at the outlet. Yup, that sure was an outlet alright. Meanwhile, the red Faerian was standing over him with her arms crossed, practically breathing down his neck. Rangavar stalled as he tried to think of ways to get her off his back.
Maybe he could sneak back in later? Something this important might actually be worth the risk of breaking a lock or two. Not that he wouldn’t be careful, or wanted to be caught, obviously, but if he had to…
After he dismantled the outlet, he took his time putting it back together again, but the female Faerian still hadn’t budged. Rangavar resigned himself to the fact that he would have to come back later. “It’s all set,” he proclaimed, standing back up and brushing himself off.
“Great. Thanks for your time,” she said with false cheerfulness as she swiftly ushered him back to the main hallway and closed the door firmly behind him. This place keeps getting weirder. Or maybe she was annoyed because he interrupted something important? Secret office meetings, perhaps? Or he supposed, for all he knew, it was her lunch break.
He turned away from the door and hurriedly stuffed several of his tools back into his belt. He’d been shooed away so fast that he hadn’t even gotten to do that before getting kicked out.
Distracted, he instinctively pricked his ears at the detection of another aura nearby. He snapped to attention as he recognized it. He wasn’t really surprised to sense Jethe here. He’d only been half-joking when he suggested to Arro that the pale gray Faerian must live at the research facility. Maybe he had a cute little setup in its depths where he got to hunker down as round-the-clock maintenance.
Rangavar considered what he would say to the omnipresent Faerian. Then, he turned and began to walk swiftly in the opposite direction. If he got out of there quickly enough, he wouldn’t have to deal with it just yet.
He’d known it was possible—if not probable—that Jethe would show up. He imagined the other dragon had hidden cameras everywhere or something. If that were the case, then at least he wouldn’t be able to find Rangavar just by wandering around; he’d have to go back and look them over to see where the Darkal had gone. It would give Rangavar the time he needed to disappear. He could get down to some real work and leave Jethe without an excuse to chastise him.
He dipped around the corner and started back towards the main area of the building, away from the labs, and eventually turned another corner. He was still close enough to sense Jethe’s aura, and was disappointed to notice that the Faerian had the same idea and took the same path. Well, he was probably going to check the tapes or something, so Rangavar realized he should use the opportunity to hide instead, until Jethe passed.
Other than the labs themselves, Rangavar had been forced to clean each room in this facility and actually had the right keys on his keyring for once. He quickly let himself into one of the filing rooms long before Jethe rounded the corner.
He let out a sigh of relief, not even pausing to turn on the lights and went to go sit at the singular desk in front of the rows of towering stacks where numerous, meaningless folders were stuffed. He sat down to calm his nerves, leaning back and putting his feet up on the desk. It was a shame he couldn’t thumb through all these files. Although if they were this easy to get to, they probably wouldn’t yield any important data anyway.
Rangavar calmly waited as he felt Jethe come down the hall to pass the door. His sense of calm ended as Jethe stopped in front of the door. No. Fucking. Way. Rangavar knew he’d been long out of sight before Jethe got to this hallway.
The Darkal leapt to his feet at the sound of keys jingling while Jethe fished them out of his uniform. He dove behind one of the stacks, crammed full of files, folders, and junk that would stand between him and the sight of the door, just as Jethe turned the knob. He crossed his legs on the floor with his back pressed against the uneven edges of the folders jutting from the shelves behind him.
Rangavar contained his breathing to near silence despite his racing heart. He didn’t dare move. It occurred to him that the most likely way for Jethe to have known where he went was because he could sense auras; a rare skill in Faerians, but reasonable to assume at this point.
Fortunately, Rangavar was good at manipulating aura.
As Jethe finally pushed open the door and took several steps into the room, the Darkal forced his breaths calm and even, clearing his mind and trying to disperse his energy. He had to become one with the items around him, with the room around him, the building even—he had to separate his sense of self and reach out away from his own body.
As his aura became slowly harder to pinpoint, the footsteps paused.
Jethe could fucking read auras.
I fucking knew it.
Rangavar remained quiet, hoping against all odds that the Faerian may think that he’d misjudged the exact room where the Darkal had disappeared. He heard two more tentative footsteps. The room was dim, the light still off, but gray light hit the floor from several dusty windows. Rangavar hoped his grayish-tan maintenance uniform and darker gray scales disappeared into his surroundings.
He kept his eyes closed, breathing in, and breathing out. He felt the energy of the building as a hum around him. Breathe in, breathe out. He heard Jethe step closer, peeking around the stack closest to the door. Breathe in, breathe out. Jethe moved to the next one. Rangavar resisted the urge to wipe the sweat off his slick forehead. Another footstep in his direction. Another. Breathe in, brea—
Rangavar flinched as the inevitable happened and Jethe appeared around the side of the shelves. Their eyes met and they stared at each other for a moment, Rangavar still sitting cross-legged on the floor. He wasn’t surprised or anything. Trying to blend his aura had been an unlikely, last-ditch effort.
Of course, Jethe didn’t seem all that surprised either. In fact, while he normally showed almost no emotion at all, Rangavar sensed that he was actually incredibly annoyed. He decided to prove as much by striding over the Rangavar, grabbing him by the front of his maintenance jacket and hauling him onto his feet. Rangavar didn’t have anywhere to back away from him. Jethe, his fist still clenching Rangavar’s jacket, slammed the shorter dragon into the shelves behind him and peered down at him.
“We need to talk.”
Category Story / Fat Furs
Species Dragon (Other)
Size 120 x 117px
File Size 58.8 kB
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