Chapter Text
"Caelus. Please put that down."
The gray-haired trailblazer nearly hisses at the crack of light that emerges from the sliding door, eyes squinting at the two silhouettes standing in the doorway. March sighs in annoyance, gesturing wildly at the hunched Caelus crouching over the item in his arms.
"See? Look how weird he's being," she complains, side-eyeing him as she turns to Dan Heng. "He didn't even look at you. Hasn't even cracked a joke." Dan Heng can't help but agree. He hasn't seen Caelus been this defensive over something that wasn't trash, and not even then. Especially lurking in the dark of his room. He tries again, softer this time.
"Caelus?" When the trailblazer still doesn't move, he inches closer toward the figure. Golden eyes narrow at him as he turns away with the object in his arms. It shimmers under the light coming from outside the room. Once Dan Heng gets closer, he can see that it's shaped as an oval, almost like an egg.
Upon closer inspection, seeing that Caelus still isn't truly moving away, he realizes that it is an egg. It's iridescent, an ombre from blue to purple on the scales decorating the surface. It looks really familiar for some reason, but at this point he's more worried about Caelus than the egg-like object.
It's only when he reaches out that Caelus genuinely growls at him, shifting his arms to cradle the egg closer to his chest that he sees it.
Black tendrils curl around his hands, twisting around the exposed skin on his arms, some even sliding under his jacket sleeves. Parasitic.
"Dan Heng! Be careful. Earlier, he tried to swipe at me," March calls out, worry evident in her voice.
"Don't worry. I've got it covered." There's only one thing he can do to try to snap Caelus out of it.
He summons Cloudpiercer and gives Caelus a good whack on the head with the blunt side of the spearhead.
"Ow! What the hell!" Caelus yelps, nearly dropping the egg to cradle his head. In a flash, Dan Heng dashes in and takes the egg from him. While Caelus is still recovering from the hit, Dan Heng speed-walks away from Caelus, March taking the initiative to turn on the lights. It's blinding for a moment before Dan Heng's eyes readjust to the trailblazer crumpled to the ground, March's concerned look, and the egg, warm in his grip.
"That's an egg. Where did he get an egg from?" March realizes, kneeling next to Caelus and looking at him as he groans. "Do you think….maybe Sunday gave him that?"
Dan Heng does not think Sunday produces eggs, much less one the size of a Trotter. But at least March did not imply it was from him. He had already denied all the previous times she had inquired about his ability to produce any.
"I do not know where he got it from," he chooses to say instead, because he doesn't. He's hoping Caelus has the answers to their questions, starting with his strange behavior. "I don't have a good feeling about this, either," he continues, thinking about the tendrils coming out of the egg.
Dan Heng doesn't notice the ones slowly wrapping around his arms.
It's a few minutes till Caelus is willing to talk to them, pouting with his arms folded.
"Egg." is the first word out of his mouth. March is still a ways away, looking at the situation wearily. Dan Heng peers at Caelus' face, making sure that the hit from earlier didn't leave too much of a mark. He also notices the shadows under Caelus' usually bright eyes, the golden sheen dimmer than normal. Thinking about it now, his absence recently around the train was heavily unusual, though Dan Heng had assumed he was off on one of his side quests.
Dan Heng lets out a long, suffering sigh. He's not a stranger to Caelus' strange habits and behavior, and he's learned that the best thing to do is go along with his demands.
"If you tell me where you got it from, I'll give it back to you."
Caelus is silent for a few moments, seemingly mulling it over before nodding stiffly. "Fine."
Dan Heng waits.
"I…may have stolen it from Ruan Mei."
Caelus!" March gasps, hands flying to her mouth. Her pink hair shakes as she waves her hands animatedly. "You can't just steal from a member of the Genius Society? How did you—why?!"
Dan Heng had other concerns.
"Are you hurt anywhere? Why have you been acting so strangely?" He tilts his head, genuinely worried. Again, it isn't strange for Caelus to lift stuff. Half of the papers he brings back are "collected" from the desks of people who have supposedly abandoned these grocery lists and letters. Especially ones found in the trash.
He remembers how their interactions were when they first met.
"It's not like anyone will miss it. I'm giving them a new life. And you get more information!" Caelus says cheerfully, handing over another stack of papers for Dan Heng to add to the Archives.
"…Thanks. I'll add this to the data bank."
"No problem. It's the least I can do. Plus, it's not much trouble to just snatch—I mean, collect with the trailblazing I do."
Dan Heng never shares that it's endearing, that the curiosity they have in common has always had a special place in his heart, making him feel closer to Caelus. After all, the both of them love learning.
Caelus sniffs, finally standing up.
"Egg first. Questions later." He sticks out his arms, wiggling his fingers expectantly. The moment Dan Heng hands it over, he embraces it like he has with the multitudes of trashcans he's come across, as if it's a long lost lover.
(He ignores the twinge of jealousy in his chest.)
March and him stare at him in disbelief as he whispers sweet nothings to the egg, nuzzling his face against it as he continues talking.
"Well, I was helping Herta while I was cleaning out some bugs in her space station." Dan Heng stares in increasing concern as tendrils reach out toward Caelus' face, seemingly embracing him back. Caelus either doesn't notice or doesn't care. "I happened to stumble across one of the labs there, saw it chilling in an incubator, and decided to take it. End of story."
Dan Heng feels an ensuing headache. "You can't just take everything you find interesting. Especially a random egg."
"Yeah, what if it's another bug? Do you want a Big Sting situation again?" Match chimes in before shuddering. "It was a pain to get rid of all the gunk when they came on here before. And didn't you have to fight one because of Ruan Mei? Sans all the memory stuff."
Caelus hmphs. "You're just jealous before you didn't find it before me." Ignoring the "In your dreams, weirdo," from March, Caelus begins to walk toward his bed, content in cradling the egg in his arms, effectively ending the conversation.
So it doesn't seem like it's harmful, other than making Caelus weirdly attached to the egg. And the tendrils. Dan Heng would keep a close eye on Caelus, but he's really hoping it's another phase.
If not, he'd deal with the problem as it came. It's his job, after all.