ya_assemble | [LN] Thank Goodness We're Well-rounded Characters

Kon was reading at relative superspeed. It wasn't at his usual brisk pace, because he found that the limitations of his powers meant he couldn't retain the knowledge for more than a few minutes at his usual speeds, so he had to slow it down a little, but he was still thumbing through far faster than some of the others were taking just to go through the study guides they'd quickly procured.

"Is it just the fact I'm reading this as superspeed or does this story make no sense?" Kon said, as he thumbed through page after page.

Another reality shard had fallen away and now that their brands had signaled it, it was time to go dimension-hopping. Fortunately, it was a very small shard in the middle of the wilderness in Siberia and the area of effect was spreading slowly, so they had time to prepare.

With his otherworldly wisdom, Manny had managed to help out on this one, communicating some clues about the world they were about to enter by flashing the image of a cover of a book.

A fairly terrible book. Apparently they were entering the world it was based on.

So they were doing their homework as they geared up to go and trying to make sense of the senseless.

"So what I'm getting from this is this is a world where you're not allowed to have more than one personality trait? I think? Under pain of death, you have to be a one-dimensional character."

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It was maudlin moment time.

And it was okay. He needed this. It needed to happen and then be over.

He wrapped his arms around her, buried his face at her neck, and let himself cry. It wasn't the wracking sobs that sometimes came after the nightmares this time, just a gentle plip plop from his eyes. He had cried a lot already. There was still a wellspring of tears locked in there, whole stagnant tanks that needed to be drained out. But the water pressure had gone down over time, thanks to the fact he'd been letting himself let them out as he went.

"I love you, too," he whispered back. "I love you so much."

So much that his reward for being "good" had been making her those little gifts. That was what had kept him sane at times, kept the despair from consuming him. It was such a tiny thing to cling to, leaving her gifts so she'd know he loved her, even if he wound up dying before he was ever free, but it had meant something.

Loving her had kept him sane. As sane as he could be anyway.

Cassie rocked him slowly back and forth, petting his hair and making soothing noises, trying to center herself while Kon cried himself out. He'd said he wanted to just take the moment and then move on from it, and if they were going to do anything naked without her flying into a rage, she needed to find some way to calm herself down.

And when they got back to the Pole, she was going to start making plans for what she'd do when they went back home. She'd talk to Diana, she'd talk to Bunny and Tooth, she'd raid the library, she'd do everything in her power to make sure that she could tear Project Gladiator out by the roots and bring those responsible to justice.

And if that meant that those monsters couldn't be caged or made harmless and needed to be slayed, Cassie thought she'd be up to the task.

His breathing eventually calmed. He stopped crying, still resting his face against her neck for a few moments more.

Then he pressed a few soft kisses to her neck and drew away, wiping at his eyes.

"Okay, moment over." He sucked in a deep breath. "So, this is me now. Kinda got a Frankenstein thing going. Except all my various parts are not scavenged from anywhere gross and are definitely fully functional."

He reached his hand up to caress her face, his eyes roving up and down her body.

"And we're alive and I'm free and we're both very naked right now. We should probably do something about that."

He survived. Through the pain and the loss and his life rolling wildly out of control. That was just what he did. He survived and he found the good. He always found the good. He'd found it with her even when the world had been ending.

'Moment over'. More like 'moment paused until Cassie got some alone time'. Hopefully she could get that before they got back to the Pole. She smeared her tears back out of her eyes with the heels of her hands, then found a smile for him.

"We should definitely do something about that," she answered, snaking a hand around the back of his neck and rising up on her knees so that she could pull him in for a kiss. "We gonna wrestle for this one or just take it slo-o-ow?"

Embracing her and kissing her soundly, he suddenly rolled over and gently pinned her, pulling the blanket up around them.

"How about a little of column A, a little of column B?" he said with a grin.

He started kissing his way down her body, disappearing under the blanket, and stopped at her chest, focusing his attention there.

"Ladies. How I've missed you so."

Cassie chuckled appreciatively, arching her back and looping one of her legs around his.

"Believe me, they missed you too," she purred. "Mmm..."

One good thing could be said for the wind: it covered up an awful lot of noise.

Quite a while later, when they were thoroughly wrapped up in the blanket and each other, Kon sighed happily as he lay there wrapped up safe in her arms. He used to like doing a lot of the holding but now he seemed perfectly content to be held.

"That was. So good."

"Mhmm," Cassie agreed, running her fingers idly through his hair. "Definitely worth the wait."

It really had been. She'd missed this -- not just the sex, but Kon being all loose-limbed and relaxed like some kind of giant cat. Things weren't back to normal, and maybe they never would be again, but she was breathing a little easier every day.

He was quiet for a little while, just laying there comfortably in her arms.

Finally, he said, "I was numb for such a long time. I felt like I was dead inside." He snuggled a little closer. "Being with you helps me feel alive again."

[LN] Thank Goodness We're Well-rounded Characters

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