Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

For the first time in possibly months Seániel finally dozed off. It wasn’t obvious at first, just a slight slowing of his breathing before it slipped into something deeper and more even. Kevthi hummed happily. He’d made Seániel sit with him before he worked himself into a real tizzy, and sitting had turned to leaning into sleeping. 

Ya know he’s gonna flip his shit when he wakes up.

Ah let the lad get some rest, he’s been so uptight recently, he probably needs it.

But—

Kevthi’s tuneless hum turned into a low grumble, they were going to enjoy this moment or else. 

The else being…?

Not sitting with Bug dumbass.

They huffed in agreement, on that at least they could agree on. They couldn’t remember the last time Seániel took a break without immediately defusing as soon as his strictly self determined time allotment was up. Kevthi shifted, it was hard for him to keep still, his body aching from the strain of holding himself together without a direct task to keep his focus. But when Seániel’s breathing hitched he froze, before easing himself back into position. He could hold on a little longer.

Chapter Text

The back door of the bar banged open and a man spilled out into the dirty Dublin alleyways. He struggled to sit up, the weak light barely illuminating the pile of trash bags that cushioned his fall. Framed by the light of the door stooped a large figure, crossing both sets of his arms across his chest, the well kept green sleeves rolled up to show off his muscle. The glowering look on his face pinched darker as the man he’d just thrown out slowly made his way onto his feet, swaying as he did so.

“See ya next week Danthi,” His words slurred as he winked clumsily, “Same time?” He giggled, nearly bringing him back down onto the garbage. 

Danthi nearly growled. The dumbass had gotten himself drunk again and expected him to just play along like it was some casual fling. It had been well over three times Spian had shown up at his bar causing trouble, and Danthi was fucking tired of his bullshit.

“Like hell you will!” Danthi took a step forward, crossing the distance between them easily, and jabbed a finger into Spian’s chest, nearly upsetting the much shorter man’s balance. “I don’t wantchya in my bar ever again if I can feckin’ help it.”

Spian’s grin fell from his face, slipping into something more mournful. “Well ya didn’t have to go an’ say all that.” He muttered, giving up and sitting back down onto the dent he’d made while being tossed out. “Jus’ wanna have a good time s’all.”

“Feckin hell Spian. Do you even see yourself?” Danthi said, starting to pace back and forth in the alley way. In the past he might have tried to smack some sense into Spian, but he’d already found out that didn’t deter the headache of a fusion. “Yer a slobberin’ mess who can’t feckin’ stand without fallin’ over again.”

Danthi heard a small sniff from Spian as he turned his face away from Danthi, “I don’t, don’t wanna be- I jus-” his hands wiped away tears from the only eye capable of crying. 

Well bullocks. Now it was awkward. 

The alleyway echoed with quiet sobs that dripped down the pockmarked walls as Danthi stood there, unsure of what to do. He knew Spian could get… emotional when drunk, but usually he made his merry way fast enough from Danthi’s wrath before he had to deal with it. In the back of his mind Dan and Daithi ping ponged between trying to comfort Spian, or deciding if he deserved it. A few passerby’s made their way past their little corner of the city, but no one took any particular notice. 

As Danthi considered, he realized that he couldn’t hear Spian anymore. Leaning down, he realized the man was deep asleep. Sighing, Danthi headed inside to check in with the manager, before making his way back out and slinging Spian over his shoulder. The warm metal of Spian’s arm pressed against his neck as Danthi started his walk back to the FC&C building. He’d give a proper talk with Spian later, when he wasn’t a blubbering drunk, but for now Danthi would have to be content with making sure the idiot was safe.

Chapter Text

"Remind me why we’re here again?” Shen asked for what could very possibly be the four millionth time, “Hey don’t give me that look! They didn’t tell me anything!”

Rin resisted the urge to roll her eyes, “I don’t know either Shen. They just sent us all the way out to fuckin’ Ireland and told us they’d explain when we got here.”

“Well we’re here now and it hasn’t exactly been a party.” She jerked a thumb towards the window. 

She was right of  course, when the two of them arrived a few hours ago, the only thing that greeted them were two nervous attendants that shuffled them off into some random building and left them there, promising to return with answers soon. They’d been escorted quickly, but not fast enough, as on the way over Rin couldn’t help but notice a few partially ruined buildings that looked like a particularly nasty storm rolled through—or like something massive took a bite out of the top.  

Just as Rin started to respond, a sharp knock came from the door; without waiting for an answer a young woman walked in. She dressed neatly but casually, the collar of her fruit patterned button-up undone and her caramel colored hair pulled back only just enough to keep it out of her round, golden glasses.

“Good afternoon Ms. Penrose and Ms. Pai” She said, crossing over and taking a seat at the table. Laying out the piles of paper she held onto the surface, she beckoned for the two of them to take a seat. “I’m Mango. Welcome to Ireland.” She smiled, though her eyes were blackened from a lack of sleep. 

“I am sure you both have plenty of questions, and I am here to answer what I can, but please, let me explain first why you were called here.” Mango rifled through some of the papers before laying out a cream colored folder in front of Rin. “Before I begin, I must warn you that nothing we discuss may leave this room. This is of the utmost importance for the safety of everyone involved and if the company is to stay afloat.”

Rin nodded, “Of course,” her mind already began to run through the possibilities of the mystery set before her as she flipped over the folder, heavy with papers and all sorts of juicy secrets. She started to open it, but Mango stopped her, laying a hand on the other end of the folder. 

“How much do the two of you know about why you were sent here?”

Shen shrugged, “Something happened with the previous guy right? He got neglectful and the branch went to pieces, so now you all need us to help pick up after you.”

“That’s the… general gist to say the least, but there are a few other details.” Mango flipped open the folder landing on a picture of a man. “This is Tom Spiff, the previous CEO of SpiffCo. He moved out to the Irish branch a few years ago to conduct confidential experiments through the company. Specifically experiments pertaining to,” Mango shuddered slightly, “Human recombination, or as he called it, ‘fusion’. And this,” She flipped the folder onto another photo, “Is his fusion, a rogue experiment that called itself Spin. It took over after an ill-advised experiment and claimed to be enough of Spiff to continue running the company. Obviously there was no legal precedent, nor did the branch want anything about this to get out, especially not the fusion itself, so without a stronger hand at the wheel the situation snowballed until it was utterly out of control into a nightmarish situation for everyone involved.”

Spin stared back at Rin through the page, two eyes where they should be, and another pair planted just beneath, both sets equally judgemental. The mouth was a firm line set into the jaw, convinced of its own surety as a monocle and a set of glasses cut into the face. Overall, he resembled Spiff, but shifted just enough from the original man to indicate it wasn’t him if the four eyes weren’t enough. 

“That can’t be right,” Shen interjected, her voice starting to raise, “We aren’t some evil scientists wet dream. The company does genetic modification on plants not animals, let alone fusing fucking people together!”

Mango continued on grimly, ignoring Shen’s objections, “You may have heard of some strange news from Ireland within the last few years, things about monsters and strange “heroes” that don’t look quite human fending them off. These are all a result of Spiff’s actions and inability to keep his own experiments in check.” Her voice laced itself with derision, no longer able to keep the impartial tone she’d started with “We would know more, but following Spiff’s brief return, many key documents tracing his experiments mysteriously ‘disappeared’ and were unable to be recovered.”

Rin digested the information. She knew her goal was to cover up and repair some of the mistakes of the previous CEO, but illegal human experimentation, done on himself and who knows how many other people to the point that it started affecting the surrounding area itself… That was quite an insane task, even for her. 

“So we really have nothing?” Rin asked, desperate for anything to work with.

Mango motioned to the papers in front of her. “Everything we know, or was left behind relating to the fusion experiments is in there, though most of it is fragmentary and useless without more context.”

“And more importantly, how did no one know anything about this??” Shen said, completely mystified.

“Spiff is a very secretive man, and often had several projects running in the background of every day company activity, he allocated resources to his personal projects supposedly for the favor of the company and covered anything that seemed even slightly suspicious in a paperwork trail of deadends and obfuscations. The Irish branch was built specifically to facilitate these projects, and as a result minimal notice was taken by the rest of the company until the rogue fusion’s takeover.”

“And now we have to fix it” Rin finished, already well aware of at least the financial and legal mess that had been left behind, even if she hadn’t known exactly who was behind it. And now that she did she had no idea what to think about it. A technology like this? One that was able to fuse people together into something else? Something more dangerous and unstable, but clearly powerful. Well, she didn’t like it in terms of the workload it now put on her shoulders, but she couldn’t help the spark of curiosity that flared in her chest. The need to investigate deeper into what exactly this all might mean, and how she might be able to use it to her advantage.

“You mentioned “heroes” right? Ones that didn’t look quite human like this guy here.” Rin tapped the photo of Spin.

“Yes, those are the members of FusionCo&Co. They are a secretive group that somehow caught hold of fusion technology and use it to perform vigilante acts against escaped experiments. Not much is known about them—”

“But given that they have the technology they must know something about what happened.” Rin interrupted, gears already clicking together in her mind.”

Mango looked at her strangely but continued on, “Presumably yes, but they’ve managed to keep themselves well hidden and they are a tricky group to deal with as they seem to hold a kind of vendetta against the company.” Mango glanced around, before leaning in to whisper despite the supposed safety of the room, “There are also some rumors, unfounded ones, that after Spiff left he went to join them as he has also disappeared after the fusion incident.”

Mango straightened out and stood up. “But I didn’t tell you that. Thank you for taking up these heavy responsibilities Ms. Penrose and Ms. Pai, if you have any more questions, please reach out to me through this number rather than the normal company channels.” She laid a small scrap of paper with a phone number written on it onto the table. “Good luck and,” she hesitated, an inscrutable emotion passing over her face before it was erased into her carefully curated neutral, “I hope you find him.” Then Mango left just as quickly as she appeared. 

Rin stared after her, not sure how to move forward with everything she had just learned. A poke nudge at her elbow, Shen offered her one of the files, “Better get reading,” she said, “We got a lot of ground to cover.”

Slowly cracking her knuckles, and then her neck Rin rolled up her sleeves, “Let’s get started then,” and plunged into the pile of mysteries. This was going to be the most exciting thing she’d done in years.

Chapter Text

Rin didn’t usually come to a pub to drown her sorrows, but after a day like today… well maybe a little something to take the edge off would be nice. Besides, she didn’t really know anyone in the city yet and Shen had taken the day off, so it was just Rin, left all on her lonesome. Rin ran her finger along the edge of the glass. She’d thought it’d be nice to stop and talk to someone, just for a casual chat, but the place she’d picked out was much emptier than she thought it’d be, just a couple of old geezers chatting and laughing with each other in the corner and a solemn drinker nursing his bottle near the window. 

Rin sighed, but just as she stood up to leave—finishing off the last of her drink with a swig—the door rang open and a young man with a burst of fluffy brown hair and a completely out of season Christmas jumper strode in. He smiled and greeted the bartender by name before asking for a drink. They were chatting when Rin slid into the seat next to the stranger. 

“Bit late for a drink don’t you think?”

The man jumped a little, caught a little off guard by Rin’s sudden appearance, “Jesus! Do ya do that with everyone you just meet?”

“Psh, nah, just you.” 

He snorted, catching onto the teasing in Rin’s voice, “We’ve just met and I’m already getting the special treatment I see. Bit early for that don’t you think?” He echoed, falling easily into the rapport, “Come on now, buy me dinner first!”

“Well I won’t be doing that, but I might just buy you a drink if you’re lucky.” Rin leaned back in her chair, the man’s smile was damn near infectious and if she was any closer she might just start smiling back against her will. 

“Ah now, we can’t be having that. Hey Mary, would you mind getting a drink for…?” The man glanced at her.

“Rin.”

“Rin!” He called with enthusiasm, “It’s on me.”

The bartender nodded and turned to start mixing the cocktail Rin had before. 

“Rather rude if you don’t tell me your name too.” Rin commented, as the young man took a sip of his own drink. 

“Wouldn’t want to be rude to the person who walked in on a pleasant conversation of course.” He said with the most annoying grin on his face. 

“Well sounds like you don’t have very much practice in making friends if that’s what you thought was happening. I’ll have you know it’s perfectly normal to insert yourself into a conversation when trying to get to know someone. And as someone new in town I’d appreciate a little more kindness.”

“I guess if we’re helping out a newbie, you can call me Dan. Though all my real friends call me the drift king.” Daniel winked, “Because you know, they used to call me the drift king back in college.”

Oh he was insufferable.

Rin hated how much she loved it.

“And who exactly are they?”

He waved away the question, “Anyone who respects a real title.”

Rin snorted, “I doubt anyone who calls themself the ‘drift king’” She said the moniker with as much mock disdain as she could, “to a complete stranger, really deserves the title, or does anything else of much import.”

Dan put his hand on his chest dramatically, “I’ll have you know—” his phone buzzed with the accompanying sound of someone screaming in a bad toad impression.

“Ah shit,” Dan checked his phone, “I meant to make this a short trip. Thanks so much Mary.” He jumped up from his chair, sliding some money across the counter before turning to Rin. “Be seeing you around I hope?”

“You’re definitely not getting rid of me that easily.”

“Good, I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

And with that, Daniel was whisked away by the dark of Dublin. 

They hadn’t exchanged numbers or anything, but Rin had the feeling she’d be seeing plenty more of Daniel whether she wanted to or not.

Chapter Text

The stage is divided in half, a door between BRANIEL and SEÁVIN, BRANIEL sits alone, lost in thought and fidgeting horribly. Seávin enters on the other side.

Seávin takes a moment to reassure and steel himself. 

SE: It’s gonna be alright, I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?

SE: Well. A lot, but… gotta try at least right?

SEÁVIN raises his hand as if to knock, but stops, calling out to Braniel instead.

SE: Hey uh, how’re you doing man?

SE: It’s been a while since we’ve talked and I just wanted to—

BR: No you don’t.

SE: Huh?

BR: Well you do, but not really. Stop wasting everyone’s time with some sentimental bullshit you half believe and get to the point. 

SE: (A deep shaky breath) One, that’s not true Bran, I do want to see how you’re doing because you haven’t spoken to me once since I got back—which I still don’t know why you’re doing by the way. And two… Well I didn’t come up with two, but you get the point!

BR: You don’t actually believe that.

SE: Well maybe if you took a single goddamn second to—

SEÁVIN interrupts himself, 

SE: Look, I didn’t come here to fight with you Bran. I don’t want to fight. I was just wondering if… 

BR: If?

SE: If you wanted to come to the concert. My concert.

BR: What?!

BRANIEL leaves the chair and rushes to the door, stopping just before opening it, hesitation.

For the first time concern tinges his voice

BR: Seávin, Seávin you can’t, for god’ssake you still can barely—!

SE: It’s already planned Braniel. It’s happening whether you like it or not. [Aside] This is why I wasn’t going to tell him, I knew—

BR: You’ve never even held a concert before and all of a sudden you think you can do it? Like this? Seávin, this is a stupid idea and you know it.

SE: Well, maybe I’m trying something new.

BR: Now? Now?!

SE: I’m not getting better just waiting around! This [SEÁVIN gestures to his body] is an open fucking secret even if I wish it wasn’t, and maybe I just want you to come with me and do something that isn’t stewing around in your misery. 

BR: Oh and pretend this is all okay. Sure. Right. Let’s just do that.

SE: I’m not— I’m not asking you to pretend. 

BR: Oh but you are. Because you can’t even fucking look at yourself, you just want to play pretend that you’re alright, and we’re alright, and that your body isn’t broken in fucking half and that you can keep playing along with this little fantasy inside your head that you won’t crash and burn. I can’t watch that, and I can’t watch you. 

SEÁVIN cradles himself, rocking back and forth slightly, maybe in pain, maybe just anxious, but he’s hiding it too well to tell definitively.

SE: [Whispered] And if I don’t get better…?

BR: What?

SE: I said, all the more reason to go. One big huzzah just to say I’ve done it. I figured you at least would appreciate that.

BR: Not like this I—

BRANIEL breaks for a moment, but pulls himself back together

BR: I’m not going.

SE: Fine. But… Just in case you change your mind. 

SEÁVIN takes a ticket out from his pocket and slips it under the door, it sits there, half stuck, SEÁVIN pushes at it uselessly for a moment before giving up. As he straightens he flinches, clearly in pain this time. 

SE: See ya ‘round Bran.

BRANIEL doesn’t respond, he waits, looking anywhere but at the ticket as SEÁVIN slowly exits pausing once or twice, but ultimately, he must leave. As soon as SEÁVIN’S footsteps can no longer be heard, BRANIEL gingerly takes the ticket, staring at it before tucking it into his coat pocket. 

Suddenly he pushes open the door with a loud bang, but there’s no one there. 

BR: [To no one in particular, except maybe himself] I just don’t get it. Why he doesn’t give up. Or get angry or—or— I don’t know, do anything except… look at me like that. God, I can’t even look him in the face anymore. Pathetic. Bad enough he wants to be friends, but it’s the way he keeps trying. Can’t he see? Can’t he see that I’m just gonna keep hurting him? I don’t even know what he wants with me, why he would even bother. I sure as hell wouldn’t. Maybe it’s that I can’t see that’s the problem, every time I try to look, all I’m met with is that forced smile, like he can’t bear to let anyone know he’s more then— then some happy-go-lucky guy without a care in the world and nothing else. And I know, I know, he’s not okay, but… but maybe I’m wrong. It’s not like I can read his mind or anything. But still…

BRANIEL pulls the ticket out. He moves to crush the ticket, but can’t follow through. Instead he drops the ticket on the ground, staring at it. 

BR: I hate how much I care.