(no subject)

[fairytaleknight]

[a few minutes into Episode 15]

Fakir walks out of the door of Mr. Cat's office, past a pile of identical teenage girls, without saying a word.

Without saying a word, he stops at the library, borrows three books, and carries them out with him. The library isn't far enough away from the other students; anyone could walk in, at any time.

Milliways, then. Fakir sits at a corner booth with his books and a cup of tea he isn't drinking.

What's happened to Mytho?

Comments

[reallyaduck]

"-- oh, he really is here!"

Finding Fakir seems to act on Duck much the same way as a draught of caffeine; it's not that seeing him makes her less anxious, exactly, but there's something to do about it now, and that makes all the difference. Picking up speed, she skitters across the bar in his direction.

[fairytaleknight]

Fakir marks his page with a napkin and looks up. He doesn't smile, but something wry twists at the corner of his mouth.

[reallyaduck]

This is . . . not actually encouragement.

Fortunately, Duck is not actually in need of encouragement.

"Fakir! Just now Mytho and Pique ran into each other, and it was kind of weird, and it was like it wasn't like the normal Mytho, and what happened yesterday was weird too, and I wondered if maybe Meowzinsky's shoes were Mytho's fault too, but that might be my imagination, but, but it was really weird, so Mytho is, Mytho was, Mytho is --"

(Things Duck is starting to be in need of: AIR.)

[fairytaleknight]

I know.

Yes, it's Mytho's fault.

How could it be Mytho's fault?

What he said to me--

Fakir doesn't say anything. What is there to say?

[reallyaduck]

"-- and so Mytho, I mean, Fakir, Mytho is, was, is --"

At this point, Duck wheezes herself to an overstimulated halt, and then spends the next few moments coughing and attempting to turn less blue.

[fairytaleknight]

Fakir sighs and pushes his teacup over to Duck. "Drink this. And take a breath."

[reallyaduck]

Duck attempts valiantly to comply!

Unfortunately, she attempts to comply with both commands at once, and the result is another coughing fit and several drops of tea spraying over Fakir's book.

Mortified, Duck freezes and claps her hands over her mouth, which has at least the beneficial effect of stopping her from choking.

[crabbycustomer]

He is being watched. Not for creepy stalking purposes, just to ascertain that this is the right one this time.

Ugggggh this is probably going to be awkward.

He walks up in his usual inimitable style, as if his feet are ankle-deep in a vicious vendetta with ground. "HEY."

[fairytaleknight]

Fakir looks up from the fairytale he is reading -- that can't possibly be the end, can it? and sees Karkat. He nods. It passes for a greeting, in a way.

"Karkat," he remembers to say, after a moment.

[crabbycustomer]

"YEAH, SO... YOU KNOW THE THING YOU SAID ABOUT YOUR SWORD? THE SWORD OF LOHENGRIN?"

"DID YOU KNOW THAT THAT PARTICULAR GUY HAPPENS TO BE IN THE BAR SOMETIMES?"

And also happens to look way too much like you.

[fairytaleknight]

"Yes."

Fakir has stored the sword of Lohengrin back at the smithy. Should I take it up again? ...Against Mytho? I can't fight him.

(The author would like to note that, unfortunately for any romantic hopes Karkat may have had, right now Mytho is firmly occupying the 'kismesis' slot on Fakir's shipping chart.)

Belatedly, Fakir realizes he ought to be participating in the conversation. "Did you meet him?"

[crabbycustomer]

It has been a long time since Fakir was in the bar, and flickers left in the caliginous torch he bore for Fakir have now been stifled under suffocating embarrassment and awkwardness.

"YEAH... I KIND OF..." Arrrgh. He scrubs his hand over his face.

When he says it he says it all at once, like a bullet out of a gun. "I KNOW THAT WE WERE NOT EXACTLY HUMAN FRIENDS, BEFORE, BUT I WANT YOU TO KNOW I WOULD NOT DELIBERATELY GO AROUND AND STIR UP SHIT FOR YOU WITH YOUR ANCESTOR UNDER ANY PROVOCATION WHATSOEVER, THAT WOULD BE SOME CLASSLESS GARBAGE."

[fairytaleknight]

It takes a moment for Fakir to process that sentence. When he does work through it, he answers drily, "But the idea occurred to you?"

[herr_bookman]

"Tsk," Autor says, placing a hand on Fakir's table, near his teacup, "those books are terrible. Seriously, this one has the worst side-plot I've ever read, and that one has a narrative so weak I wouldn't even call it an arc."

He's bearing his journal, a smirk, and some tea of his own.

[fairytaleknight]

Autor's right, of course. The book Fakir's currently working through is a German version of Boeve de Hamtoune, and the hero goes from defeating a monster to being courted by a lady to killing another dragon without any logical transition from episode to episode.

Fakir's lips tighten. "I thought I told you not to come back."

[herr_bookman]

The music student grins and slides into the booth, opposite Fakir. Autor can be graceful when he wants to be, and now is such a moment.

"I wasn't aware that you owned the bar," Autor says, setting the timbre of his voice to a carefully measured 'infuriating'.

He calmly sips his tea.

[fairytaleknight]

"You were so desperate to get out." Fakir turns a page, pointedly. "Why would you bother coming back?"

[herr_bookman]

"Several reasons," Autor says, shrugging as he throws an arm over the back of the booth.

"They've a much bigger library, here," he says, pointing to the books. "I've a door now--thank you--so I can leave whenever I wish, so I can research here and then return."

He pauses to brush lint off of his sleeve. "And I wanted to fight Lohengrin again," he says, casually. He tilts his chin. "What about yourself?"

[fairytaleknight]

"You wanted to what?"

This boy, fighting the Knight of the Story? Fakir hopes Lohengrin forced him to cry for mercy.

[gorgonfondness]

You know what gets Mia upset?

Not seeing people for an entire year while the bar is going to absolute hell.

This just makes the Guildmaster all the more imposing when she does actually spot Fakir. Everything about her, from her unusually regal dress to her heavy glare, from her crossed arms to that faint scent of smoke, screams that she's not to be trifled with tonight.

The poor kid's never gonna catch a break.

[fairytaleknight]

For Mia, Fakir actually closes his book and stands up.

He won't admit that it's good to see her, but he does say, "Hello, Mia."

[gorgonfondness]

She considers it as if Fakir just presented an argument to her. She closes her eyes, winces, and grasps the sleeve of her dress a moment before letting it go.

"Althena's sake, Fakir, where have you been?"

[fairytaleknight]

Fakir shrugs. "Goldkrone."

It hasn't been that long, really, exactly.

Of course, the last time Fakir saw Mia, she was pregnant. "How is your child... children?"

[gorgonfondness]

Mia sighs. She hates that answer. But she knows Fakir wouldn't lie to her.

"They're fine. Cepheus is already three and Scorpius is nearly one."

So that's how long she's seen him.

[fairytaleknight]

"Nearly one? Your new baby?" Fakir stares at her.

I was sixteen. I'm still sixteen.

How long has it been?