Chapter Text
Have you ever stood on a median? Just, watching the cars go by while you’re stagnant. The motion of the vehicles blur and you stare at your hands and imagine if you’re the only real thing there. You’re all solid lines. You must be real, but to the people in the cars -living their fast lives- you’re scenery. Ever since he realized he was stuck with an office job, Velite had been standing on the median. He’s thought about jumping into the road. Maybe he’ll get run over, or maybe, a kind soul will stop and take him to the fast world they live in. Velite is a self-proclaimed coward, however. It’s been beaten into the man’s mind that he shouldn’t skirt the line between life and death; he can think as much as he wants, but he’ll never jump.
Well, he’ll never jump but he sure as hell can be pushed. It was how Velite found himself stuck in a cave with at least a couple of ribs broken and most likely a concussion (a headache was the worst he got but it felt like that). He’d been lying in this unknown cave for a solid 20 minutes now. Bile was threatening to come up his throat and his head was spinning faster than he could keep up with. He’d tried to push himself up and find a way out, but every time, the gravel on the cave’s floor pierced his hands and made him fall with a hiss of pain.
“..Hm?” Velite perked up like a deer, in the distance there was the tell-tale sound of a ship. At that moment his veins pumped adrenaline instead of blood, he scrambled to his feet and felt around to find the entrance of the cave. He ran his fingers across the wall, mapping out the bumps and crevices, the wall seemed to veer outwards and his eyes could finally see the outlines of rocks along the path. He was almost there, he was almost there, just a little more.
“Argh! Ow…fuck..no. Damn it,” Velite’s leg began to cramp and he clutched a calf with his shaking hand, using the wall as support. He couldn’t keep going if he tried. Millions of ships came by, there had to be another one that would see him later. He lumbered down back on the floor, inhaling through his teeth as he treated his cramped leg gingerly. The back of Velite’s head hit the cool wall of the cave and he let himself breathe for a bit.
The cave still was nearly pitch black, at least if he had his phone he could use a flashlight and call for help. His breath coming out in ragged exhales, Velite felt around the floor for the device, wincing at the occasional shrapnel scattered across the surface that threatened to draw blood from his palm. He had to backtrack a bit but to no avail. He went back to where he was, as he always did.
Velite was nearly crying, was this how he went out? He tried to recount the people in his life who would care about his absence. His brother and…and? Aeons, he really was scenery. Many would notice, but who would care? If he hadn’t been hurting himself enough with his fruitless search for his phone, he would have bitten his lip until it bled to stop the tears from spilling out of his eyes. He curled in on himself and shook silently, gritting his teeth to keep his overwhelming emotions at bay. The hum of the earlier spaceship, which had soon become ambient noise, had suddenly stopped. Velite’s eyebrows furrowed as he tried to hone in on any other noises that might point to some friendly other lifeforms. He didn’t have to try hard because an unmistakable clunk of metal resounded through the cave and echoed off the walls. The IPC guards made a similar sound but this one sounded much more authentic—pure iron rather than an amalgam of metals.
Velite was desperate, he had nothing to do but listen to the clunking get closer. A flashlight shone over the adjacent wall of the cave. Velite’s eyes widened with hope and he tried to push himself up to stand now that he registered how pathetic he must have looked on the floor like that. Velite recoiled at the burning sensation of the flashlight on his eyes, but once he finally was able to take in his surroundings, he was met with a curt smile from one of the most gorgeous people he’d ever laid eyes on.
The man extended his free hand to Velite and beamed. His red locs draped down his face like a waterfall as he leaned down to observe this stranger before he monologued, “Another anomaly in this vast universe. What luck that the two of us would cross paths''
“Wha-” Velite began, but the man’s voice was too strong to let him get a word in.
“For you, my friend in this mortal plane,” The strange man took Velite’s hand gingerly and gently pulled it to his lips, placing a dainty kiss on his knuckles, “are truly beautiful.”
He was what now.
Velite’s mouth was stuck gaping open as he tried to formulate some response, to no avail. Eventually, he choked out, “…Thank…you?”
“An expression of gratitude! Chivalry comes naturally to you my friend.” The gorgeous man gushed, his thumb absentmindedly brushing over Velite’s knuckles, “Such a show of your beautiful character should be shared with the universe.”
Velite’s incredulous expression gradually melted into an unamused stare as the other man rambled. The words didn’t even register in Velite’s head after some time as he opted to try and catch onto the other noise in the cave. He wasn’t mistaking it, right? There was a faint but incessant buzzing coming from deeper inside the cave. For a brief moment, Velite tilted his head away from the red-haired man to identify the sound.
“Your mind is elsewhere, friend,” The unnamed man muttered, noticing Veliete’s gaze grow askance. Finding no problem with doing so, the knightly-looking character traced the other man’s jawline with a finger, then gently coaxed the blonde man back to face him again. A choked pathetic sound escaped from deep within Velite’s throat as his focus was ripped away from him.
“You- that’s-”
“As I was saying, Idrila the Beauty is simply waiting for us to find her divine form again.”
Velite didn’t even have time to set his mind racing, let alone catch it after the fact, as the insect-reminiscent buzzing quickly overtook any possible brain activity Velite could ever muster. Finally, the weirdo (Velite had hence chosen to use this name in lieu of the man’s unknown real one) noticed the sound as well, and his head perked up momentarily, his brow immediately furrowing. In a singular beat, Veliete felt strong hands push him aside, caught a blur of red whooshing past him, and had his abrupt 360 end with the sound of a singular slice resounding through the air. The sound rang out pure and long until it was snuffed out by a grotesque, squelchy thud and the dying hisses of the-
“Oh my Aeons!” Velite screeched before abruptly slapping a hand over his mouth, his frantic eyes trying to tear away from the dying creature in front of him. Why in the universe did he decide to turn around! The insect dragged the remnants of its severed body towards the nearest sound weakly, exoskeleton scraping the floor like nails on a chalkboard. Velite’s mouth pulled into a taut grimace as he shut his eyes and looked away from the…bug?- while it decayed into an unsightly display of smoke close to his feet.
“Your keen senses have saved both of us, friend.” The weirdo sighed reverently, pulling Velite away from the cloud of smoke and placing a hand on his shoulder, “However, if I’m not mistaken, our worries are not over yet.”
The weirdo dusted off Velite’s blazer and then suddenly took his hands off the man as if Velite was made of molten rock. Opening his eyes with a frown, Velite tried to scan the weirdo’s face for any reason he would’ve had for pulling away so suddenly, but quickly snubbed his thoughts before he started sounding like some sort of swooning maiden. It was a good decision on his part because multiple angry buzzes were echoing from further inside the cave and approaching the two men.
Velite frantically sidestepped a practically identical bug whizzing past him and stumbled back into the cold limestone wall of the cave. He bit down a scream at the sight of at least seven more of these bugs. No- no it was eight. Nine? Ten!?
“They-they’re multiplying!? Hey, you!” Velite griped before turning to the battle-ready weirdo with a pleading expression, “You-You’re a knight or something, right? Get us out of here! Please!”
The weirdo hummed thoughtfully and nonchalantly sliced an insect trying to charge at him, “As a knight, it is my duty to help,” Velite sighed gratefully at these words, but his face quickly blanched again as he ducked another bug. He shakily stood back up only to hear the weirdo open his mouth again, “But! You must pledge to acknowledge Idrila, The Beauty, as the most peerless beauty of all!”
Velite opened his mouth to respond indignantly but heard a hiss come from his right and quickly shrugged off his blazer to smack the thing into the wall with a panicked yelp. Luckily, Velite got one of its wings, but it just split itself in two. The obscene show left a sour taste in his mouth, and he hurriedly hid behind the other man who was skewering the dastardly creatures only to have them split in two before they died.
“I’ll marry her if you like- as long as you get me out of this stupid cave!” Velite begged, eyes darting across the walls to search for anything that could try to sneak up on him again.
“I appreciate the sentiment, friend. However, to truly be saved, one must pledge to Idrila.” The weirdo commented resolutely, completely disregarding Velite's cry for help. It was as if everything he said fell on deaf ears. That or ears that were only receptive to the sweet sound of praising Adrila.
Velite backtracked and nearly slipped on the gravel as the weirdo shifted his balance. Knowing he had no choice, he desperately blurted out, “Okay, okay! Adrila, the Beauty! She’s the most- uhh the most peerless beauty of them all! There I said it, now please save me!”
Even the bugs seemed to pause as the weirdo skeptically turned around with a frown etched across his gorgeous features and looked at Velite curiously.
“It’s Idrila, not Adrila.” The weirdo corrected matter-of-factly, the tone wholly unsuited for the life or death situation the two found themselves in right now.
Velite gaped at the man in disbelief and sighed defeatedly before the sound trailed off into a pathetic cry as he was directly shot in the shoulder by one of the bugs with some sort of pressurized air. He lost his footing and felt himself reeling backward. Like clockwork, the weirdo completely ignored his opponent to swoop Velite into a dip, breaking his fall by a hair.
“Okay! Okay! Please, it’s Idrila! Slip of the tongue I swear. Aeons above, just get us out of here!” Velite pleaded as his already glassy eyes filled with tears of frustration, “Idrila, The Beauty, is the most peerless beauty of all!”
Almost immediately, the man beamed with adoration and satisfaction. He didn’t even give his actions a second thought as he sheathed his lance and hooked his other arm under the backs of Velite’s knees, “The passion in your voice is worthy of centuries worth of praise! My new friend under Idrila, it would be my honor to deliver you from this-”
“Great! Wonderful- just- just start running!” Velite cried in terror as the low buzzing behind the two got increasingly higher in pitch and intensity.
The weirdo/knight resolutely nodded and took off almost immediately. Velite scrambled to wrap his arms around the man’s neck and screwed his eyes shut. Part of him was having the very valid reaction of being scared out of his wits, and the other part of him -the part reveling in the wind whipping his hair- drank in the feeling of adrenaline. He enjoyed it while he could. Velite enjoyed his time in the fast lane because he knew he’d soon become scenery again.