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The pitter-patter of rain on the streets overshadow the gargling noise of throats which Uki has manipulated. Around him, the street lights illuminate the alleyway, sparing the corner Uki has picked for themselves to rid the world of the people associated with the pain he had to experience for when he was young.
He grunts as the psychic forces respond to his brain, making his right eye shine in a bright colour. The victims of his power lay on the ground in front of him, spasming, shaking, before slowing down. Resting at once.
Uki stops. His hand lowers back, facing the ground.
It is quiet.
Who are these people? And how did they end up in this universe? He thought he escaped from his past. He didn’t think it would catch up to him this quickly.
Uki rubs the side of his arm. Memories of being sold back at home, the first home he had to leave, and then the second home he had to escape from. He now rests at his third home. He has found a peaceful life, with Fulgur by his side, supporting him on his way to betterment.
He can’t allow anything or anyone to intervene. He doesn’t want to leave his third home. Not again.
The rain gets heavier and the splashing of puddles start to pull Uki out of his thoughts.
He should get going - Fulgur might worry soon if he stays away for too long.
~
He walks up the stairs to the apartment. The evening had to be tough on him emotionally already, and when he arrived back to the building, the elevator seems to have broken recently, so he has to walk up several levels.
He sighs.
When Uki comes back him, they surely hope that Fulgur has cleaned the dishes. Uki reprimanded him several times before that he should just get rid of the dishes right when they appear. They soil the image of the kitchen. Uki is not sure if he could clean the dishes himself right now. Well, it can be somewhat therapeutic, he supposes.
Uki arrives at the door, and he hears loud noise coming from inside. He furrows his brows. Is Fulgur watching a movie?
He enters the key into the keyhole and turns it.
As the door opens, the voices grow louder and shouty. He immediately recognizes them.
The apartment is filled by six people, five of them who shouldn’t be here at this hour. It is the Luxiem household plus Fulgur.
“I am gonna fuck you up, Ike!” Vox presses away on the Switch Controllers as the TV-Screen shows a Smash match. Flying colours, quick movements, haptic deployment of shields in the midst of beloved fictional characters.
“You are severely underestimating me, Vox.”
“Hey, hey, you might be underestimating me as well. I can fuck you up in more ways than one.”
Ike sighs. “Whatever you say.”
Uki closes the door in surprise, looking for the eyes of Fulgur. He meets them, although they seem rather apologetic. He approaches quickly and rubs the back of his head.
“Hi Uki, uhm-”
“How did they get in here? Did you invite them?” Uki didn't mean to sound so serious. They actually don’t mind that much that they are here. Maybe it is what he needs at this very moment. But they would have to lie when saying that this was not at least somewhat unexpected.
“Well, they kinda rang the doorbell, and invited themselves in. I couldn’t keep the door closed, haha…”
“Oh is Uki here?” Shu asks.”Hey there Uki!”
Luxiem choirs greetings to Uki. A warm feeling spreads in his chest.
“Uki, my man, where have you been!”
The golden retriever personified, also known as Luca, proudly approaches the shorter guy.
Uki lifts his head and looks into the beaming smile of his.
“Well, haha, yea I have been busy. Had to leave the house because I had… business to attend to. If you will!”
Luca raises an eyebrow and examiens Uki’s face, before just shrugging and putting an arm around his shoulder.
“Well, my bro, you must be wondering why we are here!”
The psychic is pushed down a little as Luca’s arm rests on him, but holds back against it.
“Yes, very much so!”
“Well, the reason is pretty simple actually. We were bored…”
Luca stops. Uki waits for a second, hearing no continuation.
“And…?” they ask.
“No, that’s it. We thought it would be a good idea to find entertainment at your place. We have played smash so many times at our own place, so to spice it up we thought we could just have 1 v 1 matches somewhere else!”
“And you picked our place, of all places?”
“Yes.”
“And you decided to play Smash? Do you even like 1v1 in Smash?”
He holds a hand to his chest, as if hurt and his imaginary dog-tail sinks to the ground. “Duels in Smash? I love duels in Smash!”
He waves him off. “Of course you like smashing. With all the girls you are pulling, you must be experienced.”
“Well, not really. Not a lot of them seem to be interested in playing Smash with me.”
Fulgur looks over at Uki and they smile at one another. The oblivious moments of Luca is something they have grown used to over the years, so it is always pleasant to see other people realize the joke way before he does.
He doesn’t seem to be growing more knowledgable about the joke though.
“Hey, is something wrong? Why are you guys looking at each other like that?”
Uki waves him off. “No worries. Hey, is that pizza? Could you get me some and maybe some of the Coke?”
A few different kinds of Pizza are on the table, waiting to be eaten. Many slices have already been taken and put on plates. A small feeling of dread arises, thinking about how Luxiem will not clean that up since they are guests, which means he will have to do it himself. Or maybe he can ask Fulgur to take over. Since he couldn’t keep these fellas outside.
“Sure do!” Luca says, and he walks over to the Pizza.
As Luca heads off, a voice from behind him approaches.
“Eyyyyyyyyyyy Uki!
Shu stands in front of him, wearing casual outfits.
“Hi Shu. You couldn’t tame them, could you?”
“Can I ever?” Shu shrugs, looking over at Vox and Ike.
They keep on cursing at one another, Vox dropping word combinations that they have never heard before, while Ike says words that they have never heard given they are swedish.
Ike gets a stock in and throws Vox off the map.
A big “GAME” appears on the screen and Vox buries his face in his hands.
“Yeah. How have you been, Uki? Anything happen? You were out for so long.”
“Oh, well, nothing of note. Just doing things while I was out and about.”
Uki attempts to shove away the thoughts of the people from today, who seemed to know too much about him. The thoughts of his resurfacing past, his fear of losing what he has built here, a home. He looks around the room. Yeah. A home.
Shu’s eyes glimmer as he looks straight through Uki’s, albeit good and experienced, attempt of concealing the heavy feelings he had… has to endure tonight. He bites the bottom of his lip.
“Well, okay. You know,” he looks over to Fulgur, who has seemed to walk off, helping Luca navigate the kitchen. “You can always talk to me about the things that bother you, you know? You don’t have to force yourself to anything but… keeping it in isn’t always a good thing.”
Uki takes a deep breath. He feels his eyes welling up slightly, but he is trying to push it down.
“Or, of course, I might be reading too much into this. Anyways…”
“Oh no, don’t worry, Shu. We are good. You should probably get to Smash, Mysta is eager to play a round with you it seems.”
Mysta waves over to the two of them with lots of excitement in his eyes.
“Hey Uki, so happy to see you! I hope you don’t mind me dunking on Shu in Smash now!”
Shu’s head drops and Uki feels the need to put a hand on the side of his arm.
“C’mon, you got this match. And… thank you. For being there.”
Shu looks up, smiles solemnly and walks over. “I will dunk you first, just like I dunked your mom last night!”
Luca returns with the pizza and a glass of coke. “Hey, hot stuff coming through!”
“Thanks for the announcement.” Vox pushes himself through Luca and smiles with his eyes at Uki. “Happy to see you here. Hope you don’t mind us hogging the TV.”
Ike, who trailed behind, says: “Yeah, Vox really wanted us to challenge him in Smash. He did surprisingly bad at connecting to your fancy Cyborg-TV, so Shu had to help out.”
He giggles. “Look, there are so many ports!”
Ike eyes Luca and grins. “I personally know how to deal with ports of many different kinds~.”
The pizza in Luca’s mouth blocks him from replying and he just munches, looking surprised. He swallows and says: “I didn’t know you were also tech-savvy, Ikey Wikey!”
Ike facepalms.
“What?”
Uki bites into his own slice of pizza to stifle a laugh. He can hangout with them. For tonight.
~
It is getting late and the Luxiem-Crew says goodbye one after the other, hugging Uki and Fulgur goodbye.
The door closes and it is just Fulgur and Uki left at home.
Uki throws himself onto the couch face first. The quiet at last calms him from the excitement he just had to endure.
Fulgur sits down next to his head, drawing circles on his shoulder.
“Soooo sorry for all this mess tonight.”
“It’s fine, I think I needed it.” His words are muffled by the couch, and his whispering makes them barely intelligible, but Fulgur can hear them just fine.
“Why? You have been acting all mysterious ever since you came home.”
Uki sighs.
“You know. It’s the typical topic. I feel like I am boring you out of your mind if I keep repeating it.”
Fulgur exhales through his nose. “I will listen for as often as you need me to.”
Uki is appreciative, but he finds it hard to believe.
Fulgur continues.
“This home we have, it will move with you. No matter where you go, it won’t disappear. You know, I am quite resilient as a Cyborg. I won’t get put down that quickly, you know.”
Uki smiles.
“So now tell me, what happened?”