milliways_bar | (no subject)

Hope he doesn't mind babbling because he's getting a good dose of that now.

Mia has Cepheus with her this time around, the baby engaging in an enthusiastic but mostly wordless conversation with his mother who thought the both of them could benefit from the change of scenery that comes with the outer areas of Milliways. He's contently sitting on her hip as she gives him her fingers to play with and hold.

He has her fingers in his mouth by the time she finds Kaworu and his contribution to her greeting is a mostly-muffled gurgle.

Kaworu has never had any idea what to do around human children. In fact, eleven times out of ten in the past, he tends to get skittishly awkward around them. But he's okay with this. Of course, it helps to have had repeated exposure and one of your favourite women around.

"Sounds like he's on the verge of learning a symphony."

He sits up as he says this, perhaps it feels rude to just lie around otherwise.

"Must be all the music he's been listening to. He had plenty of that even before he was born."

Yes, Mia did put headphones on her tummy so Cepheus could have his prenatal jam sessions.

"His father likes to sing some. He even sang to me the day Cepheus was born."

Speaking from a 24 hour standpoint, that is.

"Music is important," Kaworu says. "I am glad that it makes you happy."

Even when he had nothing else in his life, he always had music. It is the one invention of lilims he will never lose respect for.

"It is almost a magic of its own, particularly in my world."

And now she gets a close look at Kaworu.

"This is familiar."

When they first met familiar.

"It happens," Kaworu says, waving it off with a gesture of the hand. "It means I need different medications, nothing more."

'I need to change medications once every several months so that my body does not reject its own organs' is such a small matter. Really.

Mia takes her hand out of Cepheus's mouth, reaches into her pocket, and pulls out a (thankfully wrapped up) healing herb.

"This should alleviate some of that."

Meanwhile, Cepheus is a bit amiss that he no longer has Mama's fingers in his grasp. He retaliates by putting Mia's robe in his mouth.

He remembers this from before. He ought have asked of it, but he still had ideas that such magics only had quite the limited supply.

"Thank you."

It does help, something for which he lets himself look grateful. But a pause.

"Do lili - humans ever become immune to this sort of thing?"

Of course, he doesn't ask because of himself.

"I don't know," Mia says, gently removing her robe from her baby's mouth. "And I'm not sure if he's hungry or just wants a pacifier. He ate not long ago, so that shouldn't be it."

But he is getting bigger and solid food is more or less just around the corner for him.

"Humans are good at adapting to things, though. They wouldn't have existed for as long as they have if they weren't."

Mia digs in her pockets and finds Cepheus's little stuffed octopus, which is given to and then glomped by the baby.

"Did you just want a funny little sea creature to play with?" she asks her child.

"Da!" he says in happy excitement as he hugs the octopus.

Kaworu laughs.

"They have all sorts of funny looking toys in my world, I will have to see if the bar can come up with them."

Hey, the Angels don't look like ill will to him. Of course humans make toys based on the enemy - and of course many would enjoy them.

Mia's used to her angels being more dragon-shaped. That does seem to be the tier of divinity that dragons sit upon on Lunar.

It's led to some interesting conversations in the bar with the not-dragon-shaped angels, Kaworu aside.

"Oh? Are you planning on spoiling my Cepheus? As if he didn't have enough family doing that for him."

It's about now that Cepheus takes a good look at Kaworu, one of owl-eyed intensity and his mother's own brand of innocent curiosity. Hopefully it's as charming for him as it is for her.

And then he holds out one of his tiny hands.

"There won't be anyone else to do it for until Asuka is at least sixteen, it will be his lot in life to be the sole child I can spoil."

Could Mia ever have a genetic influence on anyone or anything that wasn't charming?

Kaworu smiles at Cepheus and holds his own hand out for the baby, if he wishes. "Manners already, you're being raised well."

As if there would be any doubt.

Cepheus holds Kaworu's finger and gurgles in apparent approval.

"Have I ever told you that you look like my stepfather, Kaworu?" Mia asks. "It's comforting, in an odd sort of way."

Except for the floating, which she will notice in 3...2...1...

And her eyes open wide.

But really, when you have been doing something for the majority of your current mortal life, you tend to forget about it. Kaworu is no exception: as a result, he has no idea what the problem or confusion might be.

"Are you alright?"

Did his apparent comforting appearance take a wayward turn?

"You're floating," she points out painfully obviously.

Cepheus doesn't seem to mind this and experiments with pressing his cheek against Kaworu's finger.

"Have...have you always been doing that?" Mia asks.

"...probably, yes."

Kaworu does not mind anything that Cepheus chooses to do; he would play with the child actively if he was not distracted by this question.

"It's, ah, my ATField."

"Your ATField?"

Mia doesn't mind either. She's more curious than anything.

"Absolute Terror Field. By default, it is what keeps a human together in my world, literally, but if you are an angel, you'll probably do more with it - er - "

Now he's just stumbling around himself and can't remember worth anything how much he's really told her about himself.

"You're an angel?" she asks.

But she softly smiles and quietly says to herself, "I should have known."

"It's a bad thing to be, in my world."

~~There's no bus to sit in the back of, to fight for tolerance and diversity!~~

"But, ah, I try to be different than what they expect me to be."

And it does not look like she would agree with the others, which is a relief.

"Oh? You live in a world that fears dragons?"

This is a perfectly sane question to Mia, even though it might not look like one.

"I've been taught here that angels are good. My knowledge of angels at home is rather limited, even with all of my reading."

"Something such as that. In your world, they present as dragons?"

Kaworu smiles. "In other languages, it is hard to convey the cleverness of Japanese wordplay. Angel, tenshi, messenger of heaven. Angel, shito, dedicated to a noble cause.

The evolution of one to the other shows a great self deprecation on the part of the lilim race."

He laughs. "Of course, I am guilty of the same, and used this to circumvent my own destiny."

Tabris pats Cepheus on the head with his free hand and smiles at the child. "It is, of course, you and those like you, who make it worth it."

It is unclear as to whether Kaworu means Cepheus, Mia, or both. But really, it is safe to assume that last choice freely.

"In my home, dragons are divine creatures, servants of the goddess Althena. Some people are afraid of them the same way we're afraid of anything that's capable of swallowing us whole, but there's mostly respect for them. Probably because dragons keep to themselves and, once met, are generally kind, particularly my friend Nall."

She takes a moment to think on the wordplay.

Cepheus just smiles and blows a raspberry at Kaworu.

"You being silly again?" she asks the baby.

"Dadada," he replies.

Now there's a pause for revelation, caught on that particular sound repetition.

"You know," he says, "I've never met the illustrious father of this child."

Mia softly laughs.

"I'm sure you'll run into him sooner or later. Cepheus is clearly crazy about him. That and it's the only word he can say right now."

She nods a bit towards the baby.

"Would you like to hold him?"

"I've never done it before."

Something scratches at his brain that this isn't true, but he hates memories he can't recall, and therefore leads prejudice against them.

"You would have to tell me how."

"It's easier if you're sitting down, if that helps," Mia suggests. "And then all you have to do is worry about supporting him."

"And you will not have to worry about your child involved with floating," Kaworu says, amused somehow at that. As if he could not turn it off at will if he wished.

And so he sits.

[ooc: sorry for not being on yet but i will be in a couple hours :D long afternoon wtf]

Mia sits down as well and gently gives Cepheus to Kaworu.

The baby doesn't seem to mind this, just as long as Mama's nearby, too.

Kaworu finds that it is not as hard to hold a baby as many myths declare for men. In fact, there is something natural about it one can settle into. Holding a child - it can lay a deep impression on you of life like nothing else can.

"...does the awe of this ever fade?"

"It hasn't yet for me," she says. "And yet somehow I'm not jealous about all of the people who want to hold Cepheus as well. It's just as wonderful to see my friends and family with him."

She does take a moment to brush back the baby's hair.

Cepheus reaches a hand out and tries to grab Kaworu's nose.

"You are ill, Kaworu," Rei observes. He does not need to bring it up to her, she can feel it by close proximity. Question the reasons why or not, neither of the two are bound to bother.

"You need something."

Fever alleviation, for one point, of which her shadow overcasting him likely doesn't work upon.

"If I am ill," Kaworu says, "Then it is good that you are here, such a sight for sore eyes."

He'd probably throw up at that if it wasn't himself saying it. Good thing it is, then.

Rei giggles a little at that; she attempts to stifle the reaction with her hand, but it is rather impossible, he could always pull whatever reactions he wished from her.

~~Please, no comments from the peanut gallery on that one.~~

"You need to tell me," Rei says, elaborating no more on what question she may be asking than that. She leans over to feel his forehead - it is an unneeded gesture, but one she has learned others may find comforting.

~~Can the peanut gallery comment on the probable skirt view, then?~~

He closes his eyes and exhales. "Acute use of Thymoglobulin, chronic use of Cellcept capsules assisted with long term injections of prednisone at higher rates than usual. Diphenhydramine, aspirin. Assistance for cytokine release syndrome, of course."

Kaworu's head hurts.

~~Only unless we wish to find out where the peanut gallery keeps its sensitive areas and then send Asuka loose upon then.~~

"I have never been fond of CellCept," Rei says. "It did not last very long for myself."

She idly recalls that it was his own alternate self who decided against it for her, but says nothing of it. Each were aware that the other was not from the same branch of the Jenova Tree, mentioning it was the way to make it 'not okay'.

"Well," Kaworu says. "We shall look into it soon." He raises up and takes ahold of her hand. "Right now, I would rather take the time to simply enjoy your company."

Would he ever, ever do otherwise?

Add a charming grin into that to defend his case.

"Oh," Rei says, as if such a response from him could ever be surprising. Somehow she is always surprised by this sort of thing, perhaps it is the idea others would enjoy her presence.

Of course, there ought never be a question with him, or so he loves to insist.

"Alright," she agrees, sitting neatly on the ground next to him, perhaps holding his hand a little tighter than necessary.

Anything Rei wishes for is necessary, in Kaworu's opinion, so if she wishes to hold his hand that tight, he will raise nary a complaint.

"I do not insist on these things because I love them," he remarks. She was always so easy to dissect. "I insist on them because I love you."

"Oh," Rei says, her cheeks flush just slightly. Then a smile, a hesitant one, before she kisses the hand that she is holding onto.

This means: 'I love you, too'.

"More bad medicine?"

Miharu toes Kaworu's shoulder with a foot, the illusion of a kick without one existing.

"I keep telling you," Kaworu says. "If you clap your hands and think nice thoughts, I'll turn into a real boy."

"I can't do that," Miharu says, his voice in that maddening 'I am the most reasonable one around' tone he can call up at will, easily. "Without your otherwordly properties, you'd just turn into a different kind of special."

Oh, snap.

"You would grow wayward without my guidance," Kaworu says. "Lost little sheep without their guardian angel."

"I'm still suspicious that you will guide me off a cliff someday."

Not that Miharu did not volunteer himself for Kaworu, but truly, so far, it has been a little bungled up. Only the fault of his world being insane, though. Miharu holds grudges for a long time, but the one he is holding for Kaworu's disappearance is less like a cow prod and more like a lemon papercut.

But it doesn't really figure into anything at the moment.

"Guiding yourself off the metaphorical cliff," he says, sitting and feeling Kaworu's forehead. "You ought to be finding the good medicine, not lying around."

Miharu is particularly sensitive about health for no reasson that he can remember.

"Now that I'm allowed to be nice, is there anything I can get you?"

Shinji will never, ever let himself live his own previous actions down.

Kaworu squints up at him, then sits up, even stands. He would not do that for just anyone right now, Shinji - we know you don't like feeling special, but do!

"The best thing you can do for me right now," he says, leaning on the other, "Is stick around."

"W-well, um," Shinji fumbles, fluhing a little. He tends to get very embarassed at himself around either Kaworu or Rei, and he just does not like it very much! "Okay."