[OPEN] Home Again, Home Again

[puddingemote]

WHO: Tamaki and you
WHAT: Tamaki has been released by the agents and has returned to the carnival.
WHERE: Around the carnival
WHEN: D33.
WARNINGS: Maybe torture mention? Body horror? Idk.

A: Carnival Grounds

It's late afternoon when Tamaki stumbles from one of the telephones and back into the forest surrounding the carnival. He's clearly shaken, eyes wide and frantic as he moves with staggering steps away from the phone, but he seems to be physically unharmed.

He nearly collapses in relief when he reaches the carnival gates. The cheery lights of the game booths and the smells from the cookhouse seem to warm him, though there's still fear that shrouds his heart. He's missed some of his performances - and not only that, but he gave up information about the carnival, and about his coworkers, to bad people with guns.

Is he in trouble? Tamaki's not sure. But he'd rather be in trouble here than back there.

With halting and confused steps, he slowly tries to make his way back toward the trailers. Whatever awaits him, he thinks he should start there.

B: Cookhouse

It's later that evening when Tamaki sneaks his way into the cookhouse. Food will probably make him feel better; it usually does. It doesn't help that lately he's felt utterly starved all the time. It's probably due to all the growth spurts - the Director had said she didn't think he was through with them yet.

Indeed, he is quite a bit taller than when he first joined the carnival over a month ago. A whole foot taller, in fact, now at seven feet tall. He hasn't really noticed, other than it's suddenly gotten more difficult to fit through doorways and he keeps growing out of clothes. But it's not a big deal, right?

He hunkers down with his food in a far, dark corner, hopefully away from anyone else. He doesn't feel like being around any strangers right now, particularly carnival guests. He doesn't want to run into any more of those men in suits and sunglasses, and be dragged back to that awful white room where they asked him too many questions and frightened him when he couldn't answer.

He's digging into his food when he notices something on his hand. It's glowing green, like the numbers on a digital clock, except it's not just numbers, but whole lines of something. Tamaki doesn't recognize it, but anyone who works with computers would be able to see that it's definitely lines of some kind of coding language.

The lines scroll over his knuckles and across the back of his hand, circling his thumb before sliding up his arm. With an, "Ah!" Tamaki drops his spoon and yanks his sleeve up, watching in horror as the lines continue up before suddenly fading away like they were never there.

"What wast that!?"

Comments

[otokogi]

You're crying on the biggest crybaby in the entire unit, Tamaki. Mitsuki cries more than Tsumugi and she's a girl. Trust him, your secret is safe.

"That's not so bad. We're all pretty boring, right? Except for the Ringmaster but she's tough and besides, I don't think anybody knows very much about her." He's trying very hard to be reassuring. For once, Tamaki, it's all right that you didn't know the answers.

"If they do then we can fight back. The carnival has people who do that as their jobs, so they'll keep us safe, and then we can just leave." Mitsuki's not sure it'll really be that simple but he hopes so, for all their sakes.

[puddingemote]

It works, although Tamaki isn't sure he'd consider them boring. But he feels better when Mitsuki puts it into perspective like that - even if he gave them some information, it won't matter. The security at the carnival will keep them safe.

"You're right, Mikki... I think, if they didn't have guns, I could take them even."

Tamaki has confidence in his scrapping skills against middle-aged men, even if that confidence is ill-founded. The guns are the scary part, though. He hopes he never sees one pointed at his or his friend's face ever again.

[otokogi]

Well, boring might be a stretch but if it helps Tamaki feel better about whatever he might've said, then Mitsuki'll say he's the most boring person in the world.

"You might be able to but I'm glad you didn't. You could've gotten--Tamaki, are you hurt?" It didn't even occur to him but what if they've been talking this whole time and Tamaki needs medical attention!?

[puddingemote]

Tamaki shakes his head. "No. I'm okay. Just tired."

One of them hit him at one point, but what scared him much more was the way they could change his body: make it so his mouth disappeared, make it so his eyes were blind. Physically, at least, he's fine now that he's returned to the carnival.

Well, except for the bug inside him, but of course, he doesn't know about that yet.

[otokogi]

Mitsuki's looking at him really hard now, even trying to move his hair out of his face and check him out properly, or as best as he can in the dark here. Tamaki may say he's OK but he could be trying to keep Mitsuki from worrying, which, good luck buddy, not going to happen.

"If you're tired, we should go back to the trailer. I can let Joker know you're here and you'll need some time to recover if you haven't seen him yet, but you should get as much sleep as you need."

[puddingemote]

Going back to the trailer sounds great right now. Tamaki nods.

"Yeah. Let's go back."

He's pretty sure he could sleep for a week. But he wonders if he'll really be allowed to take that much time off - Joker is nice, but the carnival is short-staffed. He doesn't want to leave holes.

Well, one thing at a time. He's definitely too tired to do anything related to performing tonight.

[otokogi]

Mitsuki hovers (there's no other word for it) as they start back toward the trailer. Tamaki seems like he's walking all right, he seems like he's all right physically, but Mitsuki's just going to keep worrying.

"If you want, I can make you something when we get back, too. Whatever you want! Or the best I can do with what we've got at the trailer, anyway."

[puddingemote]

Tamaki is less enthusiastic about food than normal. He's hungry, sure; it's a near constant since his growth spurts started, and he's not sure when his last meal was anyway (if it can even fairly be called a meal). But eating Mitsuki's food sounds less like something fun right now and more like something he just has to do.

There's a heavy feeling of things being wrong in his stomach, and he just wants to feel normal and safe again.

Still, he offers up his opinion. "Soup? And something sweet?"

[otokogi]

Losing your appetite is a bad sign under pretty much any circumstances, so Mitsuki's hoping Tamaki will still be interested in eating because, well, he's Tamaki and food is what he does. It's not as much of a relief as he was hoping when Tamaki replies, though. Soup? Tamaki wants soup?

"Of course! I'll put tea on, too, and you can just relax tonight." At least one of them will get to. Mitsuki's going to be watching Tamaki like a hawk, so while there's a measure of relaxation that comes with his friend being home again, it's not going to be a restful night for him by any stretch.

[puddingemote]

He really wishes he could have King's Pudding, but there's not any here right now.

"Okay."

He's glad he has Mitsuki to depend on. Having someone willing to take care of him, so he can rest, is all he really wants right now.

They get to the trailer soon enough, and Tamaki collapses straight onto Mitsuki's bed. He doesn't feel like climbing up to his own bunk at the moment.