magisteriaexe | (no subject)

Who: Musashi, Musashi, and Lucy
What: Before Tenma goes back to sleep, she decides to clear the air with Lucy.
Where: Musashi's apartment at Evergreen Terrace
When: Between Parts 1 and 2 of the event

It starts with a text to Lucy's aXess device, once everything has calmed down and the situation at the mall has been resolved (unfortunately, the metal guy got away, but the actions of several Otherworlders meant he didn't get everyone in the mall), and Phantom Cipher's transformations had been taken care of.

The username is a familiar one; Musashi often texts with memes she's found that amuse her or pictures of things she sees around Magisteria she thinks are cool or Lucy might want to investigate (it's a given Musashi will go with her), and even the occasional workout selfie. But the text of the message is clearly written by a stranger's hand. It just so happens this stranger wears the face of her friend.

Kushinada-san, I wondered if you might be willing to stop by the apartment. Oh, this is Tenma, if that wasn't clear! I was hoping we might have a sit down and talk since our first encounter wasn't, hmm, conducive to conversation. hahaha!

Don't be concerned, I'll be handing the reins back to your Musashi soon, and I think it would be nicer if she didn't wake up alone.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Musashi speaks, and a dawning horror crests so sharply in Lucy that she can taste it in the back of her throat. In all the chaos, she'd almost forgotten the memory the sword had shared between them, a piece of herself that she's been desperately trying to keep from everyone else here, but especially from Musashi.

She just can't shake the feeling that if she tells, then Musashi will meet the same fate. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, an ouroborous of fucked up shit that happens to everybody she loves. But if she can keep it a secret, if she never speaks about it and the universe never hears her, then she can keep Musashi safe -- and Lucy knows it's probably bullshit, but it's what her gut keeps telling her.

And yet, as she stares into those bright blue eyes, and Musashi says impossibly kind, generous, loving things, Lucy finds herself wanting to tell her.

Would it be a relief? Would it be like setting down a burden and allowing someone else to help carry it? Or would the telling of it be like a poison, infecting the thing tentatively blooming between them?

"I--" Lucy starts, lost, so many wants and instincts battling within her that she doesn't even know what she wants to say. She squeezes Musashi's hands so hard her knuckles go white, and takes comfort in the fact that Musashi's strong enough to bear it. Her heart is hammering so loudly in her chest that she can barely hear anything else, fear tingling through every one of her nerves. She feels like she's at a precipice: she could tell Musashi everything, here and now. For a wild moment, she almost feels courageous enough to do it, fueled by fuck it might as well in the midst of a tangle of conflicting emotions.

In the next second, all of that bravado drains as quickly as it came, and Lucy makes the coward's choice.

"Later." Lucy ducks her head, both utterly certain she's making the right choice, and embarrassed by it. "I-- can't. Not yet. I'm not strong enough." She draws in a deep breath. "But... I will. I want to. Eventually."

Musashi hadn't expected Lucy would reveal all right there and then. It's so much, even just from the snippet Musashi saw, too much, and Lucy has lived with it too long. It's enough for now that Musashi makes her intentions plain and clear, that she wants to be the one Lucy can reveal herself fully too, the one she can fully let down the walls around her heart to. So that when she is ready, Musashi will be there.

But even the stating of that intention causes Lucy obvious distress, reminds her of the sword and what Musashi saw. If Musashi were a normal human, Lucy's grip would be quite uncomfortable! And yet, for a second, there's something in her expression that makes Musashi wonder if Lucy will tell her, perhaps buoyed by the support and care being shown...

...but instead she bows her head and says she's not ready yet. She wants to, but...not now. "That's okay. When you're ready." She assures, and yet Musashi feels there is a point that must be addressed. She raises a hand to Lucy's chin a gently raises it up so she can meet her gaze.

"You're stronger than you think you are, Lucy-chan." It sounds trite and cliché, but when Musashi says it, she does so with utter conviction and belief, and she won't let anyone tell Lucy otherwise.

Including Lucy herself.

Then she leans in for another kiss, so Lucy has something else to focus on, and because it is criminal, simply criminal that Musashi hasn't been the one to kiss Lucy yet.