TRP: Goro, Hansel, and Mishka (Same Sam)

[SETTING: Day 372. Mishka returns to the inn to meet up with Hansel and Goro after hanging out with Sam all night. He finds them both upset.]

Mishka headed to Hansel and Goro’s room as soon as he reached the inn. If he was lucky, he’d catch them both still asleep, and then he could weasel his way between them and sit fat and happy in the middle while they were too unconscious to stop him.

Instead of knocking or opening the door, he simply snapped his fingers, then vanished and reappeared silently and suddenly in the room.

IZZY

While Goro had done his morning prayers, Hansel went down to fetch them up some breakfast. The king-sized bed had small tables on either side of the headboard, and Hansel had come back to take one over with a tray stacked with banana cinnamon pancakes (and the bananas on Patch Island were the fucking best he'd ever tasted), heavily buttered toast, hot chocolate for Goro, and a carafe of coffee with an extra mug along with enough bacon for both Goro and Mishka if he ended up coming back before noon.

Hansel had chucked a bit of it to Rexa, because she was still lurking around, but the little shit hated him no matter what he did. Eh.

By this point, they were just about done with breakfast. Hansel had dragged Goro back into bed and sat behind him, so Goro could lean back against him, and they picked off the tray with Hansel eating one-handed around Goro and keeping an arm wrapped around his waist. He knew Goro hadn't slept, and he hadn't slept either, but they'd had time to relax and unwind, at least, and the nice breakfast took their minds off of it.

When Mishka popped silently into the room, Hansel looked up and made a pleased sound around a bite of pancake. He bit down on his fork to hold it in his teeth and pat the bed next to them, so he wouldn't have to let go of Goro. That was good. Everything was better when Mishka was around.

LINA

Goro flinched a little at Mishka's arrival. Then he relaxed, but it was short-lived.

A reminder that there were other people in the world he might need to confess his latest monumental fuck-up to.

Goro ducked his head and snatched a tiny bit of bacon off the plate, then sucked it off his finger.

COYOTE

“Oh. Sad. You’re awake,” Mishka said. “I was going to sneak in the middle. Bacon, though, hmm. I suppose you can feed me to make it up to me.”

(Goro flinched when he came in. Looked a little shadowed. Strange. Strange. Dark eyes, this morning.)

Mishka sat on the bed and curled happily in the spot Hansel indicated.

IZZY

"Mm. Mmhm." Hansel wrapped his free arm around Mishka and pulled him into kiss his head. Sandy. Unfortunately, he couldn't hug them both and feed Mishka, so he linked his arm through Mishka's instead and passed him some bacon. "Good business with your friend?"

God, he really wanted to just fuckin' ... make small talk and act like everything was fine and normal. He'd enjoy it for a couple minutes. Just a nice breakfast with his husband and fiance. For a bit. He squeezed Goro comfortingly, slightly.

COYOTE

“Sam? Yeah.” Mishka stuffed some bacon in his mouth. (Didn’t like how Goro looked. Wasn’t looking at him, wasn’t making eye contact, huddling against Hansel. Bothered him. He could wait, though, to find out what was going on. Wait for Goro to be ready to talk about it, give him space. Or let it be.)

“It was the weirdest fucking thing,” Mishka said. “I found him fucked-up on a dock. Looked like somebody half-killed him with... necrotic spells.”

He stuffed pancakes in his mouth. God, they were so soft and good.

LINA

Goro tensed immediately when Mishka said the name Sam. Then kind of shuddered a bit, like he was shaking it off.

Then... then Mishka said the bit about necrotic spells.

Goro froze, at first. Then he started breathing quickly. He blinked several times, glanced at Hansel, then back at the plate.

What? What? No. Weird coincidence. Really, really fucking weird. But just a coincidence.

IZZY

Hansel paused. "Uh." He squeezed Goro tighter again. "Uh. It look like ... someone healed him a bit?"

There were a lotta people on Patch Island. Sam wasn't an uncommon name, or anything. But ...

COYOTE

“Yeah. He said he asked somebody to do it,” Mishka said. “The fuck, right?”

His eyes shifted from Hansel to Goro. They both looked weird. Back to Hansel. Back to Goro. Goro. Who was upset. Looked like he hadn’t slept.

Asked somebody to do it, then healed him.

Goro. Upset.

Mishka put another bite of pancake in his mouth, then just kinda left it there without chewing, and stared at Goro.

He pointed at Goro questioningly.

LINA

Goro's eyes kept darting between Mishka and his plate. "You--the--the guy you know? The bounty hunter?"

COYOTE

Mishka covered his mouth, choking on pancakes.

Sam. His Sam. The one he met in the woods, with long untamed hair with little leaves inside it, who slept in ditches.

Sam, who said, I’m a warlock, unprompted, out of nowhere, like he was testing the fucking waters, and, I made a deal with a demon, then looked like maybe he wanted to say something else and then didn’t.

Sam, who looked kinda confused and desperate and numb when Mishka talked about maybe liking Sam’s partner— about wanting to meet him— who questioned Joan being holy—

Aziz. Aziz.

Sam, sitting on the dock. Desperate to see his partner again. Desperate to sleep. Begging Mishka for drugs. Please. It’ll make it easier, Sam had said. Sam. Asking Goro— Goro— to fuck him up so a sleep spell would work, half-killing himself to see Aziz.

Mishka frantically grabbed a glass of water.

IZZY

Hansel grimaced and put his hand on Mishka's back, not sure what else to do.

LINA

Goro set his plate back on the tray, hugged his knees to his chest--best he could around Hansel's arm--and rested his face against them, groaning.

COYOTE

The first thing that came to mind was that he was going to need to talk to Sam again.

The second thing was: “What the fuck happened?”

Then he winced. Voice a little too loud. Goro might think— Mishka was angry at him, which he wasn’t. “What’d he do?” Mishka said.

LINA

"He... he wanted to sleep," Goro mumbled. "I mentioned I had the chime, and... then I said it wouldn't work, 'cause he was too tough. So."

COYOTE

“Good god,” Mishka said. Then he caught himself, again, a second time. “I don’t mean— you didn’t do anything wrong— he shouldn’t have asked you to do that.” He rubbed his face.

Grabbed the second carafe of coffee and downed half of it. He needed to be awake now. Kept thinking about the way Sam rested against him in the sand.

IZZY

"S'what I said," Hansel said firmly, reinforcing it. He kissed Goro's head, but he kind of wanted to cuddle Mishka, too, because ... it was a fucking weird situation. Mishka seemed like he'd really taken to that bounty hunter, in a way he didn't, often. Was hard to put the two together.

LINA

Goro frowned slightly, glancing between the two of them. "I--I never said I did anything wrong." For once.

COYOTE

“Oh. Well. Good. You seemed upset.” Mishka sipped his coffee.

IZZY

"Aye." Mishka hadn't seen the worst of it.

LINA

"Well." Goro bit his lip. He unhooked his bracelet, but it didn't make it to his mouth. "I... I mean, I did do something wrong, just... not..." He kept fiddling with the bracelet and chewing on his lip.

COYOTE

Mishka paused, blinking at Goro.

IZZY

Hansel gently directed Goro's hand, and the bracelet, up to his mouth.

LINA

Goro let it happen, but he didn't bite the bracelet. He stopped chewing his lip, too. He felt, suddenly, like he might throw up.

"Um." He blinked over and over and looked everywhere in the room except Mishka. It was occurring to him, belatedly, that Mishka was possibly the worst fucking person for Goro to have to admit this news to. There was no one who'd suffered more from Goro's other deal with a warlock patron. "I, um." He swallowed. "Aziz. I talked--to Aziz, last night."

COYOTE

Mishka was baffled. “What’d he say?”

Had to be something bad. God. Fuck. Sam’s partner. A demon. Far more powerful than Sam. The person giving him his power— was also the same person he was— dating? Was that the right word? Dating?

The idea of Sam in the grip of this demon didn’t sit right with Mishka. Didn’t like it.

Had the demon— done something to Goro? Mishka’s hackles were up.

LINA

Goro tugged on the two ends of the bracelet like he was trying to rip it in half. "Um." He was annoyed with himself already. Wasn't any reason not to just spit it out. He could skirt around shit and draw it out, prolong his own goddamn suffering. He could clam up and make Hansel have to explain it all, which sounded fucking embarrassing.

End result was the same. Mishka was gonna know everything. So Goro might as well just spit it out.

"I wanted him to... translate the scroll. So, um, he told me he, um." Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. "Wanted me to, um--motherfucker. Wanted assurances. That I'd help him and Sam. So he made me sign a contract, in exchange for him translating the scroll."

He finally shoved the bracelet in his mouth, then twisted around and pressed his face against Hansel's chest, moaning unhappily.

IZZY

Hansel wrapped around him protectively, even though there wasn't any threat, squeezing him and wincing at Mishka. It'd been such a nice breakfast.

COYOTE

Mishka was dead silent. White-faced. Sitting there, thinking about how badly the first contract went for Goro, the way it fucked him up. The way he checked his pockets. The time Mishka used magic to possess him to get his mask back as a lark and gave Goro a heart attack. The way Goro killed himself trying to get Joan and Mishka back and fix his mistake.

The way Goro was looking, now, like he’d just seen a ghost.

Mishka wet his lips. His face showed no expression. Locked down. No reaction. Was afraid if he said or did anything, or felt too strongly, he’d do something wrong or scare Goro. “Can I see it?”

LINA

Goro turned his face enough to look at Mishka one-eyed. He was still a moment, then wiggled his way out of Hansel's arms.

Chewing the bracelet all the while, he climbed off the bed and went to his pack, where he'd once again stashed the contract. He pulled it out and came back to the bed, tossed it to Mishka unceremoniously, and curled up against Hansel again.

COYOTE

Mishka looked it over, sipping his coffee, keeping himself cold and expressionless. Didn’t wanna react yet. Didn’t wanna do the wrong thing.

He read the contract in silence.

IZZY

Hansel held Goro's face to his chest, stroking his hair. Probably wasn't gonna do much, right now -- wasn't fuckin' magic -- but still. Any little bit.

He watched Mishka read the contract. "Was gonna have you check it over," he said quietly. "See if there's any loopholes, or anything, y'know. "

He tried to process the idea that the bounty hunter Mishka liked was the same person he'd met -- scowling and hunching over his food, snapping at them, storming off and coming back with Goro dead-eyed. The person who'd ... taken advantage of Goro. One of them had to be wrong in their read of Sam, but he had no fucking idea which way to go -- the guy made him think of Goro in some ways, and Mishka liked Goro, and Goro didn't like himself, but -- Sam fucking wasn't Goro. Hansel didn't trust him. He needed more information. Needed to know what Mishka saw in him.

LINA

"I'm good at loopholes, normally," Goro muttered. Not like anyone was ever gonna believe that again.

COYOTE

Mishka nodded slowly, fixed on the contract.

“Huh,” he said. “Huh.” Then he set it down. He started to smile. “Neat. This is... this is neat.”

This was probably not the right reaction. Mishka massaged his mouth and tried to make it stop smiling.

“We have a demon vaguely allied with us,” he said, pleased. “A demon. Goro, this is— you’re so fucking smart. Are you okay? This is good. You did good.”

IZZY

Hansel gave Mishka a doubtful look and kept petting Goro's hair.

LINA

Goro cringed and gave Mishka a weird look. "Um. What?"

COYOTE

“Okay, okay. Hear me out— I mean, I realize the demon is dangerous— but, motek, it’s always better to have dangerous people on your side rather than against you, regardless if you’re gonna backstab them later or not. We’re gonna do him a favor, something he probably would’ve figured out and done on his own even if we didn’t help him, and it costs us nothing. You’ve secured our safety, got some information, got the scroll translated— I assume— and now we’re forging a working partnership with someone stronger than us. And even if all else fails and the demon does turn out to be hideously evil, we’re no worse off than before. What’s the issue? You made the best choice with the information available.”

IZZY

Hansel made an uncertain mm. Things always sounded reasonable when Mishka said'em like that. Just ... felt bad, in his gut, doing this.

LINA

Goro didn't say anything for a while. Again, he turned his face just enough to stare at Mishka one-eyed.

"Well. Yeah," he said quietly. "I mean. Obviously, that's why I did it. But... god, does this shit ever not backfire?"

COYOTE

“Sometimes it does,” Mishka said. “But it’s like playing poker. You’re always gambling, motek, and sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. You’re not in control of the outcome. All you can do is make smart moves and see where it gets you.” He tapped the contract. “This is a smart move. And now we’re gonna see where it gets us.”

IZZY

Hansel chewed on this. He wanted to argue that they shouldn't be making deals with shit like this -- shoulda learned their goddamn lesson. But Mishka wasn't wrong that Sam and Pride were probably gonna pull it off anyway, without them, and that this way they had ... some sort of protection, had made an ally, maybe. And it wasn't them that should've learned a lesson but had made a deal anyway. It was Goro. And Hansel didn't wanna argue a point that was just gonna make Goro more miserable.

Was all said and done with, now, anyway. Just made him feel fucking uneasy. Goro had the same feeling, he knew -- the sense he'd done something bad, something deep and dreadful wrong.

"I ... think Mishka's right, ahuv," Hansel said, hesitating. Felt wrong to say it. He'd wanted to get Mishka's opinion, though, 'cause Mishka was clever and tricky and canny. Hansel's gut couldn't outweigh that. "I wish you would've talked it through 'fore you signed anything, but -- if we would've decided to just do the same thing, end of the day ..."

LINA

Mishka's support bolstered Goro, a little. A very tentative little. Like having someone lift him up to stand on a weak, rickety beam. It might break and he could hardly balance, but--he was still up there.

He could tell Hansel still didn't like it, though. He didn't want to make Goro feel bad, and he trusted Mishka, but he still didn't like it. Hansel was the most suspicious of the three of them, though, when it came to shit like this. Hansel didn't even trust Mask.

Goro's own internal compass felt... gone. No direction at all. No gut feeling. And nothing ever made him feel so lost as when his gut didn't tell him what to do.

He bit his thumbnail, but caught himself and switched to the bracelet. He chewed on it aggressively and hid his face again.

COYOTE

Mishka thought about asking, Why are you hiding? and coaxing Goro out, trying to get him to say what was wrong. And then Mishka could... fix it, handle it.

He'd noticed, though, that didn't really help Goro-- trying to get him to explain didn't seem to work. Maybe he didn't need to explain. Maybe he just felt bad, felt freaked out, and that was okay.

So Mishka set aside his coffee and went to curl up with Hansel and Goro on the center of the bed.

IZZY

Kind of relieved, Hansel pulled Mishka into the cuddle pile, kissing the top of his head and shifting to hold onto them both. Okay. Okay. All together. It'd ... be okay.

COYOTE

Mishka gave Goro a while to settle down as they finished eating breakfast and quietly enjoyed each other's company. When he thought it was okay, he said, "D'you mind if I ask you questions about your Sam? And about the other one. Aziz."

LINA

"Nah, go nuts," Goro said. He wasn't chewing anymore so much as sucking on one of the beads.

COYOTE

Mishka brooded. He wasn't sure what he wanted to know about Sam. Just everything, he supposed. He liked dissecting people like that. Figuring out what their deal was and why. "Did he... tell you anything about himself? Where he's from?"

Sam Obsidia, the contract had said. Mishka hadn't know that was his name.

LINA

"Skyport." Goro paused, wondering if any of the shit Sam had told him about himself had been said in confidence.

It all felt so hard-won. Goro decided it was his to do with as he pleased. "He was a street kid, like me. His mom ditched him."

COYOTE

"Huh," Mishka said. "Figures." Why did everyone Mishka liked have terrible parents? It was like a running theme. He arranged himself more comfortably in bed. "He seems like he's by himself. Does he have any allies we're aware of?"

Clinical. Detached. Trying to make it sound like Is there anyone we should be worried about? New potential allies of ours, or new potential enemies?

And not, Is he okay? What's his fucking deal?

Sam had made some mention of being alone. He wondered if Sam had told Goro the same thing.

LINA

"He's alone." Goro's voice turned bitter. "It's why I tried to be his friend."

He wondered... what exactly the extent of Mishka and Sam's relationship was, at this point. He didn't know if he had the guts to ask.

COYOTE

"Maybe he's alone because he's a dick to people who try to be his friend," Mishka said, and popped a piece of delicious crunchy bacon directly into his mouth.

What a dick. Mishka liked dicks, though. It was all good.

LINA

Goro didn't know what to say to that. If it was true, it made him think, Well, he's like me, then. And if that were the case, it seemed shitty that people would give up on him. Just 'cause you were a dick didn't mean people shouldn't love you, Goro figured. And he would still be alone himself if he hadn't met people who wouldn't give up on him.

Sam didn't even like Goro, though. Goro kept sucking on that bead, and stayed propped safely against Hansel's chest. "Maybe," he mumbled.

COYOTE

Mishka kept brooding. He wanted to make a joke about liking dicks, but eh. It felt like deflecting. What was he deflecting from, though?

I grew up alone, Sam had said. I never knew how to be around people. Working alone suited me. It didn't break me. Sam said, I don't know why this is easy, right now.

Mishka tucked his legs closer to him, toying with the half-eaten apple. Sam saying that it was easy to be around him felt really good.

Sam reminded him a bit of Goro, and-- he felt like Goro didn't trust him, sometimes, not really, not completely, not one-hundred-percent. He wasn’t sure why it bothered him so much. Mishka was, objectively, not a trustworthy person. He’d done untrustworthy things to Goro, specifically. Had scared the shit out of him with that domination spell, had pulled tricks on him, explicitly threatened him, and—only later—realized those tricks bothered Goro, made him feel unsettled, maybe like Mishka was making fun of him. Then there was, well, the whole thing about horrifically traumatizing Hansel, the person Goro was in love with.

And it killed him that he’d done that. Done those things, spooked Goro when Goro didn’t deserve spooking. He knew the permanent ramifications of that were that Goro probably wasn’t going to fully trust him, not ever, and that’s just how it was.

.

But there were these small moments, sometimes, where Goro would lean into his touch, and it felt like the most rewarding fucking thing in the world.

And that’s what being around Sam felt like. Most of the time, Mishka hated himself. He was a beast and a fool, carelessly slicing open the people he loved even when he tried his hardest not to because he was too oblivious to notice they were in pain.

But when he was around Sam—

When he was around Sam, he liked himself. He felt like he could be… better, maybe even honest, and trustworthy, and safe. Maybe even good. And he wanted to be good so fucking bad. He figured Sam probably needed a friend, but… if he was being honest with himself, Mishka was pretty sure he needed Sam a lot fucking more than Sam needed him.

Mishka hunched his shoulders. He leaned into Hansel's arm to settle himself.

IZZY

Hansel cuddled Mishka against him and kissed the top of his head automatically. He kept thinking about that note Mishka had sent Rexa with. Handling some business with a friend. Ran into him unexpectedly. Not dangerous. All is well. I might be gone until noon tomorrow. Send if needed.

Kept wondering if it was really a coincidence, if Sam had been playing Mishka, what he'd ... done. He didn't wanna sound like he was suspicious of or didn't trust Mishka, and kept chewing on different ways to ask. Wasn't sure if he wanted to ask at all, 'cause Mishka had seemed to like the bounty hunter, and Hansel kinda hope there was a way to fucking -- preserve that, some way that Same wasn't a manipulative asshole who'd hurt Goro and was trying to hurt Mishka in a more complicated way. Didn't want Mishka's paranoia to poison something that might be all right, actually -- didn't want his own paranoia to poison Mishka.

Slowly, he asked, "So, uh. Last night. When you ran into'im. You get him to a healer, or ..." Then he just blurted it out. "What'd he want all day? Y'said you might be out 'til noon."

COYOTE

"Nothing. He didn't want anything from me. I just wanted to watch him until he was okay. That's all," Mishka said quietly, dazed and a little comfortable. He sighed. "He was bleeding on the docks. I didn't know-- Goro had done it. I figured somebody, y'know, attacked him. I didn't want him to-- die. But he wouldn't... fucking come with me to a healer."

IZZY

Hansel gave a thoughtful huh. Yeah, not wanting to go to a fuckin' healer checked out -- both if he wanted someone to put a sleep spell on him and as a comparison to Goro. That nagging paranoia didn't go away, though. Maybe he already knew what Mishka was like well enough to know he could use his own injury as bait. Maybe ...

LINA

"'Cause he wanted to be put back to sleep," Goro said. And felt guilty, for a moment, about Aziz waking Sam up just to give Goro a message. That wasn't his fault, though. He didn't know why he should feel guilty.

COYOTE

"Yeah, a lot of this is making sense now that I know about the whole fucking dream demon thing. Wanted to see his partner. That's why. God," Mishka said. He scrubbed his face. "He almost told me, like, three times last night. Almost told me he was dating his warlock patron, I mean. I'm a warlock, he says. I made a deal with a demon, he says. Neat, I say. Don't tell Joan, she's racist."

LINA

It was weird. Mishka and Goro seemed to have gotten to know Sam from completely different directions. Goro started with the warlock thing; Mishka hadn't even reached it. He slipped the bracelet out of his mouth so he could speak a little more clearly. "You guys are... friends, or?"

COYOTE

Mishka wanted to make some offhand joke about Sam being his business partner, but not being sure what business they were in, yet. Or shrug and say it was always good to makes friends with dangerous people, even if you intended to backstab them later. He'd explain that sometimes it was good to gather strong chess pieces even if you didn't know what you were doing with them, yet. He'd suggest, vaguely, that he didn't really like Sam-- of course he didn't; Mishka didn't like anybody-- but Sam was useful, and he'd brush it off with a joke.

But he slunk down in his seat, mildly embarrassed. He checked around. Briefly. It was just Hansel and Goro.

"I s'pose," Mishka said, fidgeting with his hands.

LINA

Goro felt a spike of happiness for him. It wasn't easy for Mishka to admit stuff like that.

But then... a flash of apprehension, because Goro wasn't sure Sam made for a good friend, a good ally, even if he was contractually obligated to protect Mishka for the time being; things could go south somehow, and...

This was Mishka, though. If there was anyone capable of navigating through that kind of bullshit, Goro supposed, it was Mishka.

"That's good," Goro said, trying to sound comfortable, and not sad. Trying not to sink too deep into wondering what he'd done wrong.

'Cause that was a fucking joke, pretending like he didn't already know.