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"What are you doing up at four in the morning?"
Sigma yelped, flinging the bowl filled with batter into the air. A yellow circle opened in mid air, and gloved hands shot out, grabbing the bowl before the contents could be spilled. Only to disappear back into the portal, which left him with his heart racing from the sudden shock. The two-toned man turned around, halfheartedly glaring at the clown behind him. "You could've warned me" he complained, as Nikolai grinned lazily and placed the bowl down on the counter. "Where would be the fun in that, though?" the white haired man asked, his tone joking.
The shorter male groaned, rubbing at his face. "If you do that again, I'm throwing you out the window..." he muttered, but with how exhausted he was, there was no heat to his words. There wouldn't have been any heat to his words either way. Probably. He rarely got mad at the jester nowadays. Too used to his odd antics. Confused, he watched as the man skipped over to the window, which took up almost the whole wall. "What are you even doing?" he questioned, confused, and watched as the white haired man grinned, wide and cheerful. "Checking if it's worth it!" he responded, as if he were talking about the weather. He was, in fact, not talking about the weather.
God, Sigma was far too tired for this.
Far, far too tired running on maybe an hour of sleep after having been awake for probably more than twenty-four hours. Why was he up baking cookies at four a.m. again? Oh, right... he couldn't sleep. Fyodor's last comment still rang in his ears, "Are you truly incapable of following simple orders?" and he winced at the memory. It hadn't been that big of a scolding, but he knew that he had messed up. He'd known beforehand. He'd known the second he'd lost track of the agent from the Special Division for Unusual Powers. He found the man dead on the ground, with no visible injuries, but blood pooling around him.
He still felt sick after seeing that, although he'd seen far worse since joining the Decay of Angels. Between the guilt of messing up and essentially causing someone to die and Fyodor's soft yet biting comment, sleep had evaded him and memorizing names and facts had not worked in the slightest. So, with shaking hands, he'd taken to baking.
As he glanced up at Nikolai, he noted that the other had definitely been asleep prior to entering the small kitchen that took up half of Sigma's suite. His white hair was in a disheveled ponytail, his white shirt rumpled. His white-black striped pants swapped for black sweats. Luckily, he was wearing his overcoat. But he was currently in the middle of folding it and placing it over the chair he usually occupied. Like this, the jester didn't look very much like one. It almost felt like they were... normal people, in a way.
Mismatched eyes peered at him, a small but soft grin etched across his pale face. Suddenly, though, the soft grin twisted into Cheshire smile. "Siggyyyy~" said man paled. Slowly, he backed from the clown, grabbing the bowl filled with dough and clutching it against his chest. "No" he narrowed his eyes warningly, and Nikolai outright pouted. "You don't even know what I was gonna say!" the jester complained playfully, but Sigma only sighed and put the bowl down next to the stove, before looking for the baking tray. "Knowing you, it would've been either stupid or dangerous" he countered, glancing towards the bowl and hastily slapping Nikolai's gloved hand away when the man tried to dip his finger into the dough. "Don't eat the batter" he warned tiredly.
Nikolai pouted at him, but was quick to push himself up onto the counter and sit there. Idly, the casino owner wondered why he was called a toddler when they had Nikolai. Sometimes, at least outside of missions, he felt like he was babysitting. On the other hand, he was pretty sure that the jester wasn't as childish as he let on.
Sigma decided to ignore the clown for now, and instead went to work forming the cookies and putting them on the tray. He had to slap Nikolai's hand away at least ten more times before he finally but the tray into the oven and leaned against the counter next to where the clown sat. He flinched, slightly, when long fingers tangled into his hair. "Nikolai..." he complained, but didn't move away. Heaving a exhausted, if fond, sigh when the clown chuckled behind him. "I think you'd look nice with a braid, Siggy" the two-toned male flinched at the sudden weight on his head and shoulders, when Nikolai leaned on him. "You think so? I think I'd look stupid" he murmured, carefully reaching up a hand to touch the shorter, choppier parts of his hair with a frown.
He didn't know why he kept his hair like that. He just knew he'd been created like this... and while it looked odd, seeing as everyone else had normal haircuts, he couldn't help but feel attached to the mix of short and long hair. He winced when Nikolai pulled on one of the long strands. "You'd look nice, Sigma" there was a no-nonsense tone to the clown's voice and the casino owner knew not to argue when the other used that tone.
A while later he pulled the cookies out of the oven. Nikolai, being Nikolai, snatched one off the tray and whined when he burned his fingers on it. Yet he bit into it anyway, probably burning his tongue in the process. Sigma couldn't help but snort at the other's antics, only to flinch when he turned around and found vivid purple eyes staring at them from the doorway. "And why might you two be awake at this time of morning?" a thick, Russian accent filled the air, and Nikolai beamed, turning around. "Dos-kun!" the Ukranian ability-user grinned widely, grabbing a second cookie and holding it out to man who stared at them in a mixture of apathy and narrowed eyes. "Siggy is trying to bake- he's reeeeally good at it!" said man's face turned red in embarrassment.
Anxious, he glanced from Nikolai, to the cookies and to Fyodor. The Russian did not seem amused, and that worried the youngest of the three. "You're exaggerating, they're not that good" he muttered, gulping. He respected the man, he had to. He was his superior, the man who'd hired him in the first place. But something about the man was off-putting, making him anxious. "Dos-kun, you neeeeed to try them! They're sooo good" Nikolai grinned, waving a cookie in front of Fyodor's face. Uncaring towards the flat look on the man's face. Sigma nervously started putting the cookies into cookie jar he'd prepared beforehand, trying to ignore the presence of the intimating ability-user.
"They do taste good" he heard Fyodor behind him, and bit back a sigh of relief. Perhaps the other wouldn't be mad after all. "But I do have to ask, why are you awake at this time of night?" well, he spoke too soon. Sigma offered a small, weak smile. Hyper-aware of the shadows beneath his eyes. "I couldn't sleep" he admits, and a glance towards the black haired man told him all he needed to know: he knew why Sigma had been unable to sleep. "Oh? Why is that?" the Russian asked him, his eyes slightly narrowed. A gesture missed by Nikolai, who'd already taken to stealing yet another cookie. Sigma let him. "Oh, w-well..." he paled at the lifted brow, at the clear gesture for him not to mention their previous conversation. "I had a headache" he lied, and Nikolai perked up next to him.
He flinched, startled, when the clown grabbed him by the shoulders. This time a lot more gentler than usual. "Why didn't you say so?" Nikolai looked at him, oddly serious, but with his eyes narrowed in a way that caused him to believe that he didn't buy the excuse. Sigma merely smiled weakly. "Ah... it's gotten better, really" he claimed, swatting at Nikolai when the clown attempted to fuss over him. He couldn't help but chuckle slightly, even if he was beyond exhausted. Yet he stayed tense, until Fyodor left them to their own devices and the dry reminder that they had work to do tomorrow. Well, Sigma did. Nikolai would probably just terrorize the casino guests again.
A weight leaned on his shoulders suddenly, and he glanced to the side, where Nikolai had rested his chin on his shoulder, half hugging and half holding him. The white haired man glared slightly at him. Probably to keep him from fleeing. He wondered why, until- "You lied" the jester accused, and Sigma grinned nervously. "I... did?" he tried to form it as a question, but they both knew that it wasn't one. With a sigh, he slumped his weight against the other. "Sorry, it's just... I didn't want to tell. It's... embarrassing" he muttered. Which was at least a sort of half-truth. He noticed the other staring at him, mismatched eyes looking him over.
"Fyodor's my best friend" Sigma had to hold back a snort. He knew that. Everyone knew that. Nikolai shouted it at the top of his lungs, not only when he was drunk. Sometimes, the casino owner worried for his frien- coworker's obsession with the man. "I'm aware" he answered, nodding indulgently. Nikolai also nodded, a little faster than Sigma did. Yet his gaze was oddly serious. "Good, but even though he is my best friend, I'm not above giving him a piece of my mind if he's giving you a hard time, Sigma" said man frowned, just slightly. He opened his mouth to question just why the other would take his side over Fyodor's, but found his mouth stuffed with a cookie, effectively keeping him from asking or saying anything.
"C'mon, I wanna try making chocolate cookies!" Nikolai cheerfully exclaimed, as if nothing had happened. Then paused. "Tomorrow. You need sleep, kid" Sigma bit off the piece of cookie in his mouth, holding onto the other half. He sent the taller man a dry glance. "It's four... no, almost five in the morning. I don't think going to sleep now is going to do a lot when we have to get up in two hours anyway" he sighed, turning towards the coffee machine only to yelp when Nikolai grabbed him, throwing him over his shoulder. "Nope~" the clown chirped, turning on his heel with a cheerful bounce to his step. He glanced over his shoulder and groaned in annoyance and exhaustion when he saw the gleam in Nikolai's eyes. When would the other learn? The jester cackled, skipping out of Sigma's suite, down the hallway towards his own room and a proper bed instead of Sigma's couch. He was far too used to the clown's antics, which left him sighing in despair, then annoyance at Nikolai's cheerful shout of "Toddlers need their sleep!" that probably woke up at least half of the guests on the floor below them.
"Nikolai!"