Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone

[strikefirster]

Who: Johnny, Daniel, Ortus, Gideon Nav's Exquisite Corpse, Paul, Kaworu, Deku, Harrow, Maybe more?
What: Kidnapping, Forced Adoption, Getting these kids away from the Emperor
When: Shortly after boatgate
Where: The Bone House and Cobra Kai

Content Warnings: Probably references to Murder, Manipulation, Johnny Lawrence.

Prompts and Mingle will be in the comments.

Comments

i have seen the writing on the wall (open + closed; one week later)

[lipochrome]

open. cw: reference to corpse

[ About a week later, the thing that used to be Gideon's body begins to rot. It happens unnaturally quickly, as if making up for lost time.

The next day, Gideon stands in the entrance to the dojo, an angel by her side. Her hair is a mess, her clothes rumpled and ill-fitting, and it definitely looks like she hasn't slept in a week, but she is, without a doubt, alive. Some tension in her shoulders unwinds, as if relieved to finally have made it to a place of safety.

(And this is a safe place, isn't it? It has to be. There's nowhere else she can think of to go.)

Gideon doesn't expect to find the cots and crates, set up as if a whole group (a House?) of people have moved in. She spots her sword, and a tentative, grateful smile threatens to break across her face. ]

Hey. [ Gideon says to whoever approaches, trying to keep her voice level. There are still patches of muscle and bone where her skin has yet to heal, and the chill and numbness have yet to fully go away, but still. She feels warmer than she has in days. ] Sorry I'm late. I know, I know, I didn't bring coffee or anything, don't hate me.

for harrow.

Gideon has been rehearsing this conversation in her head over and over, all through the journey from Gaze to the dojo, although part of her feels like she's been practicing it for longer. Maybe she has, in one way or another. It's been long overdue.

She approaches Harrow when she's relatively secluded, which, thankfully, happens often. Gideon takes a seat beside her necromancer, without warning or introduction, and resists the urge to pull her knees up to her chest. Her heart races like she's about to fight a Lyctor, or a seagull, or God. Which is so stupid, she thinks, because she's not about to do any of that. She just has to talk. That's it.

Part of her wishes she was here to fight. She's fought Harrow so many times that it's become the easiest, most second-nature thing in the world. A good fight might even calm her down. But they're well past that, aren't they? And they have been for months.

Instead, she swallows, picking at a ripped spot in her pants. "Um." Wow! Great start, Griddle, you're killing this. "Hey. Can we talk?"

More references to corpse.

[strikefirster]

[Johnny was handling Gideons death completely fine. It's not like he had been propping her corpse up through the Dojo either doing finger guns, acting like she was lounging around, or training. So he definitely was not the first the first or second person to notice she was gone. (He had to give Harrow some cred it here.)

But for the most part when she shows up at the door he does his best not to make a big deal about it. He leans up against the threshold and thrusts a thumb into the door.]

You'll have to do fifty pushups on your knuckles to make up for that, but it can wait. We've got manwiches cooking.

How you holding up, kid?

[lipochrome]

[ Gideon knows all about the casual, no big deal lean against a doorframe. She does it all the time, especially when things are a huge deal. There's a surge of warmth in her chest, mixed with guilt and shame.

She can't believe she waited this long to come back. Waited for closure, maybe, or at least for the man biologically related to her to see her, or to care. But he never mattered, not for a minute.

Here's what she's been searching for, all along.

Gideon offers a small, lopsided smile, followed by as precise of a Cohort salute as she can muster. ]

Yes, sensei. I'm... [ she swallows, not wanting to lie, but not wanting to sound completely pathetic, either ] I'll get there. I bet the sandwiches for men are gonna work wonders.

[strikefirster]

[Johnny was an emotionally stunted fuck up on the best of days. But he was absolutely trying his best for the kids he had taken under his wing. Mostly because they had also been teaching him so much, about what was actually important to focus on, what actually mattered.

...And now that he knew that he wasn't going to let them get dragged down by what had just happened.

He's a little surprised by how honest that answer is but he steps up and gives her a light punch in the arm to show some support.]

No one's expecting you to be at a hundred percent right now. Jus take it easy.

But trust me, you're going to love this shit.

[lipochrome]

[ Ordinarily, Gideon would punch him back. Or she'd laugh, and make some joke about how Johnny would need to try harder than that, or that he hits like an old man. But too often, when Gideon closes her eyes, she sees him lying lifeless in a pool of too-slick blood.

Instead, she takes the contact as an opportunity to try and pull her sensei into a tight hug, fierce and desperate. ]

Yes, sensei. [ Gideon agrees, in the low, soft tones of I'm glad you're back. I'm sorry I didn't save you. ]

I've -- [ There's a hitch in her breath, and it's ugly and awful and embarrassing, but Gideon just has to plow through ] -- I've always wanted to try a sandwich for men.

[strikefirster]

[Honestly Johnny has been receiving a whole lot of affection from his students lately and there is a part of his brain that doesn't know how to handle it. He feels that he doesn't deserve it after everything he's done to screw up his life and the life of his son. Of all the people around him. He fights it off briefly because he is absolutely trying his best not too be that person anymore and for the most part he thinks he's doing okay at best at it. But he knows there are still points when his sludgy behavior sinks through.

...But this. He really hadn't expected Gideon to come at him like this. He doesn't know that she was there to witness what happened with Willow. So... He can't help but wonder if John was as bad as he seemed or maybe even worse.

He takes the hug like a champ but there's an awkward moment where he sort of fidgets before he finally let's his arms wrap around Gideon to return it, and give her a light pat on the back too.]

Right... Well.

You are in for a fuckin' treat then. LaRusso might cry about them but these are the best damn meal you could ask for where I'm from.

[They are not that. But he liked them.

He also... Doesn't really make an effort to move or shift Gideon off of him. He just wanted her to know he was there for her.]

[lipochrome]

[ Gideon fully believes every word Johnny says, including the bit about manwiches being the best and that Daniel literally cries over them. He's probably a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve.

Gideon takes her time. She stays there for a while, letting herself be held, letting herself hold Johnny, someone who is dead but isn't. Someone who's just like her.

Quieter, just for the two of them: ]

I know what happened. It's okay if you feel like shit, too.

[miyagimagic]

[ The entire corpse experience has sure been.. something, alright, especially after arriving so soon in this place. Daniel has kind of been trying really hard to not think about it, especially with the handy excuse of there being a lot to do to make Johnny's dojo habitable look after the kids, but it's definitely the kind of thing that's been nagging at Daniel in the back of his mind. It's not even like he really knew Gideon super well, he just chatted with her on the day he arrived here, but..

.. well, it's not like seeing a corpse is ever not awful. Especially when it's someone so young. No matter how much Daniel has been told that people who die here come back - somehow!! Yet another thing he's trying hard to not think about too much!! - it's still a lot.

And seeing her standing there? Also a lot. At least it's the kind of A Lot that comes with relief of seeing that the information was actually true, and she is walking around and alive. Their little previous social interactions make this a little more awkward, but Daniel would feel like a huge jerk for not helping welcome back a teenager who's clearly been through a lot. ]

.. hey. [ He greets. The awkwardness shows a little in his tone, but the guy tries his best to smile a little anyway. It's a soft smile though, especially when his gaze falls on the parts of her that didn't entirely heal yet. God, it's so awful. ] I'm.. not sure if you'd remember me. We talked on the beach a little while ago.

[ Not that it's the important part here, but it makes this feel a little less awkward to at least announce that. ]

I've been helping out here. But more importantly-- no, way more importantly. Are you okay? Do you feel like you need anything?

[lipochrome]

Oh, hi. Yeah, I remember you.

[ Gideon brightens up at seeing a semi-familiar face, even if her reaction is more subdued than it would ordinarily be. She's not sure what he's doing here, though. Doesn't he have problems, back home? The last thing he probably needs is to take on Gideon's problems, which are many and complicated, and generally make her want to zone out and stare at a wall for long stretches of time.

Then he asks if she needs anything, and the confusion she's been trying to hide shows up plain on her face. Gideon doesn't ask why do you care, because she's not an asshole. But she does stand there silent, like a moron, which is almost as bad.

That's not a question strangers, or really, people ask her. Gideon takes care of herself. ]

I mean, uh, not really? But better than when I first washed up. I guess. I'll be fine.

[ There, very reassuring. ]

[miyagimagic]

[ It's too bad for Gideon that Daniel has way too much experience dealing with teenagers to see right through this. Not.. that it'd take much, but the experience certainly helps.

Which means he definitely knows I'll be fine never necessarily means exactly what those words would imply. Especially not coupled with that surprised expression on Gideon's face. It definitely worries Daniel, because.. well, has no one ever offered this girl some actual help? Or is it because he's a stranger, and she's unused to kindness from those? Who knows, but even that implication is kind of sad to Daniel, whose life was basically turned around by a man he met as a total stranger. ]

Well, we ought to do something about that 'not really' then. [ He offers, though there's something a little gentle around its edges rather than forceful. ] Do you want something to drink? I could make some tea.

[ If only he knew how Gideon's taste just aligns with Johnny's.... ]

Or some food. Are you hungry? [ And, you know, sitting together and eating might give him an opportunity to coax some more out of her, if this entire situation is still bothering her.

Which Daniel can entirely understand, since.. well, she was a corpse. So much must have happened there. He doesn't even want to think about it, and he's entirely uninvolved. He can't imagine how much worse it is for all of them. ]

[lipochrome]

[ This guy is really stubborn on the whole 'helping' thing, huh? Ordinarily, Gideon would jump at the chance for some free food. She'll never get used to how much better the food is here compared to the Ninth, and this guy has the personality of Magnus Quinn, who she should have saved but didn't someone who likes to cook. Now, the idea just makes her stomach turn.

Tea might be nice, though. The warmth might help. ]

Sure. [ Gideon says, carefully, like stepping around a trap. ] Tea sounds good. Thanks.

[ She's not really sure how he's going to make tea in the middle of a warehouse, but he's probably got his ways. Gideon figures she'll just follow behind him, a silent, well-muscled shadow. ]

[miyagimagic]

[ Don't worry, because there is actually a kitchen.

.. granted, when they've wandered over there together.. It's not like it's a huge kitchen. In fact, it's not even like it's a clean kitchen, considering it's been maintained by Johnny Lawrence so far, and that guy's idea of an ideal dinner is ham slices straight out of the package with beer.

It looks like there's been some effort put into making the kitchen something a bit easier to work with and getting junk out of the way, but it obviously hasn't gotten very far yet. Taking care of all these kids is enough multi-tasking without adding cleaning up Johnny's dojo to his task list. ]

Let's see.. [ He says, grabbing the teapot. ] Do you like any particular flavour?

[ Maybe a bit of a mundane question to ask, given what Gideon went through, but since the other seems to keep the subject to some lighter stuff, Daniel will gladly go along with that for the moment. ]

[lipochrome]

[ Despite Daniel's best intentions, the question throws Gideon for a bit of a loop. She's only ever had tea a couple times in her life, and both times she never really got to taste it. She does know it's made of leaves, though. There are only so many kinds of leaves, right? Like, three kinds, maximum.

Gideon opens her mouth. She closes it. She opens it again. ]

Uh -- leaf flavor? Or red, if you've got it.

[ That's a flavor. It's like green tea, but different. Still, as soon as the words are out of her mouth, she realizes they're stupid, and quickly follows up with: ]

Or, like, whatever you like best. There's not really tea, where I'm from.

[miyagimagic]

[ Daniel's lip twitches.

Because it's so very hard to hear someone say the words leaf flavour with such seriousness without laughing. And he doesn't want to laugh, since it'd feel like a pretty insensitive thing to do when Gideon only just returned from the dead and is clearly still not fully back to herself. But god, it's hard. It's really hard. He struggles, but Daniel does manage to keep the laugh to just that lip twitch.

Mister Miyagi would be proud, he tells himself. ]

Don't worry, I'll pick a good leaf.

[ .. okay, he couldn't fully resist that. But it doesn't sound like he's making fun of her as much as he's just having some private amusement - and he is already getting to work, putting some water into a kettle onto the fire and moving to grab some of the teabags he's been moving into the dojo. Because it's not like Johnny would have tea at ready. ]

You should sit down though, to spare your energy. [ He gestures at a few nearby chairs. Nothing fancy, given that it's a dojo and all, but it's a space to sit. ] You're not feeling any side effects?

[ He figures that it's probably safer to talk about the physical aspect of it than the mental or emotional one, so he doesn't feel as bad about bringing this up through that question. ]

[lipochrome]

Oh, good, I'm glad you're not gonna pick a shitty leaf.

[ Gideon doesn't quite smile back, but a corner of her mouth does twitch upward. Just a tiny bit, like a weed pushing through the sidewalk. It's easier to make a dumb joke than it is to admit that maybe she does need to sit down, that dying is upsetting and exhausting and is never as cool as it is in the comics. She still sits, more out of an effort to not upset Daniel than anything else.

While Daniel makes the tea, Gideon picks at a scab on her knee instead of answering his question. When she does finally respond, she's quieter, her voice weighed down by shame. ]

They're not so bad, anymore. Mostly I'm just. Cold. [ numb. feeling nothing, at last, and somehow that's worse. ] And I bleed a little easier. It's not a big deal.

[ To be looked after is to be studied, Gideon has always figured. She doesn't need Daniel looking too closely, lest he realize how rotten and pathetic she is, deep down. ]

[miyagimagic]

[ He hums. ]

I suppose it doesn't sound like too big of a deal. [ He'll have her have that much, though he's pretty sure that Gideon is severely understating it all here. Isn't that what kids always do when talking to adults? He doesn't even think that the fact she doesn't know him well matters in that. His own kids often have trouble telling him stuff, after all.

He's kind of used to it, hence why he's trying to go along with it in this sort of way. Not pushing hard enough to break, but instead trying to gently bend along with the turns of conversation.

Yet not entirely giving way. It's why he says-- ]

But it would be completely fine if it were a big deal, you know. I sure wouldn't mind. [ He's giving her the mercy this time of not directly looking at Gideon, instead focused on grabbing some cups for the tea and mumbling under his breath that this place is a serious pig sty-- ] Or rather, I'd mind that it happened to you in the first place, but I've got kids back home. I'm used to constantly dealing with big deals.

[ Especially when you live in Extreme Anime Karate City. ]

open

[noniad]

[Ortus emerges from the back of the dojo with a basket of freshly laundered clothes in his arms, and he halts on the threshold of the room, the door close to where Gideon's sword has been mounted with the greatest respect upon the wall. It bears a woven wreath of dark clustered flowers, petals nearly a perfect black, and there is something of a makeshift shrine on the table beneath its scabbard's point: white candles, bone trinkets, a pair of silver winged pins, and folded sunglasses.

He does not drop the basket. He sets it aside on the floor with exaggerated care and crosses the space between them the same way, trepidation draped heavy across his shoulders and eyes full of anxious awe.

They had explained to him what the dissolution of her form might mean. It had not soothed him. Nothing had, these past shadowed days, but he had borne it in silence that resembled, though was not, stoicism. There is no trace of it in the great open relief that transforms his features, a sheen of tears already in his vision as he beholds a resurrection.]

You are returned to us.

[Not entirely whole, but so much more so than she had been, that hollow, incorruptible shell. He takes in the wonder of her eyes alight, and in an outburst of most unseemly exuberance he reaches out to lay his hand upon her warm shoulder.]

cw: mentions of past suicide

[lipochrome]

[ Gideon used to think it was easy to die. It was a secret she'd kept for months, one she learned from someone ten thousand years her elder. You just check out. You just let it happen. You never have to see this: the work of people mourning you, words and objects collected to call you back, or at least trap your memory. Gideon does not take her eyes off the sword, or the things surrounding it, for a long moment.

(Harrow made herself into this. First Harrow, and now everyone else, and it would have been kinder if Gideon had driven the sword directly into each of their chests instead, wouldn't it?)

She barely registers Ortus until he's close by. When her eyes focus on his, they're shining damp. She's been crying so much lately. It's so embarrassing.

So embarrassing that she might as well go all in, and throw her arms around Ortus when he reaches for her shoulder, praying that she'll feel at least some of his skin or clothes against hers. ]

What, you thought a bit of water was going to keep me down?

[noniad]

[Ortus fumbles only slightly when Gideon tosses herself whole-heartedly into an embrace, and perhaps it is that her embarrassment is contagious, or that it is simply the state of Ninth House children to always have the faint cringe of wounded beasts to them at any offered hand. He knows not.

He knows that he has wanted this since he was younger than she was, when he would sometimes lie awake in the still hours before the bells called him to his training and attempt to convince himself that he had dreamed of a terrible mistake. That he would walk into a room, and someone would smile at him in rueful apology for their too long and inexplicable absence, and the holes in the heart of the world would be stitched shut.

She is only ever so slightly shorter than he is, and much sturdier. He holds her like a babe burbling around a mouthful of her own fingers in the cradle of his arms.]

I am a foolish man. [He says, softly, with tears seeping into the black around his eyes.] I should have had no doubt that even the sea would fall before you.

[lipochrome]

[ Gideon holds Ortus tightly. Cling might be more accurate, honestly, although she'd never admit that, especially not to herself. The pressure feels good, even while the finer aspects of sensation are still missing. Gideon can feel a hint of warmth, at least, and she's doing her best to count her blessings. Her skin is still cold to the touch, and she hopes Ortus doesn't mind. She doubts he'll say anything about it, at least. ]

Yeah, dummy. Thought you were supposed to be the smarter cavalier.

[ Thanks to all the books and stuff. There's no bite of sarcasm to Gideon's words. If anything, her tone is the opposite: a soft, nearly choked relief at being a member of a group. Part of an us, rather than an extra annoyance no one wants around.

Gideon doesn't move, not for a while. Instead, she tucks her head in the nook where Ortus' neck meets his shoulder, making herself as small as she can. She feels younger, like this. Tiny. She is eleven years old again, and this time, she is not rocking herself to nightmarish sleep inside an empty cell.

She should thank him. Or make a joke, or put Ortus at ease somehow. He must have been so worried. But what comes out instead, in a very small voice, is: ]

You kept my sword.

[noniad]

[Ortus does not mind being clung to. He does not mind Gideon hiding her face in the crook of his neck, bravado and levity fled from her voice. Tenderness rises in him as a bruise, a diffuse welling up of care, accompanied by a solemn responsibility.

She is offering him her trust once more, as bravely as she did when she told him the truth of her parentage, as she did when they spoke of what became of the Ninth House. He is as unworthy of it now as he was then, but he has begun to truly understand a thing that he did not, in the depths of the world that shadows them both still.

He is a fortunate man, to be given the privilege of making amends.]

Cleaned and oiled.

[He may not have taken to most of Captain Aiglamene's lessons, but proper maintenance of a blade was not one of them. Simple, factual words, accompanied by the slow, careful stroking of her hair, that red-hot hue cool to the touch.]

We kept all of your belongings. Your garments, your trophy, your [an exceeding delicate pause] periodicals. All is as you left it, save for its place.

[He had taken care of all of it, a thing he had not thought to question until it was done, animated by the same spirit that subtly bears him up to support her weight as if an unshakable pillar. He has never felt more his age.]

[lipochrome]

That's better than Harrow could do. Did you know she doesn't even know what a pommel is? I was in her brain for nine fucking months, and she never even bothered --

[ Gideon cuts herself off there. While she could go on forever, this is tremendously stupid. There's a fragile undercurrent of gratitude to her voice though, a soft, almost shy quality.

She buries her face deeper, her words now muffled. Nothing can hurt her, like this. ]

It's called porn, Ortus. You can call it porn. You gotta know your genres, man.

[ And that's an important one, with many distinct and valuable sub-genres. He should be proud of her. She's doing literary criticism. That's what this is.

(It's a way of being preserved. They kept her around, without cutting open anyone's head, and it does something warm and strange and frightening to Gideon's chest.) ]

[noniad]

[The turning of Gideon's thoughts back to Harrowhark, her insistence on her prurient materials being called by their crude name, the bubbling up of her ever-insistent will even in her uncharacteristic timidity - these things Ortus takes as vouchsafes of her well-being. They have a new, precious quality from their absence, his budding familiarity with her manner and person highlighted starkly by her departure.

The depth of his breath moves them both, his capacious rib cage expanding in all directions before he heaves a wide, slow, and weighted sigh. When it has passed, she is settled a degree more securely in his arms.]

Your pornography [he pronounces, with an air of long-suffering relief] has been preserved.

[If it pleases her to hear him say it, he will say it. He would utter any crude inanity she wished in this moment, though he does hope she will not prevail on him to do so.]

They are safe. As are you. [He thinks his paint may be smearing into her hair when he turns his chin slightly; he thinks she will not mind overmuch.] All is well.

[lipochrome]

[ It is nice to hear Ortus pronounce pornography, all things considered. That hint of suffering is more familiar to her than almost anything in this place. It's very of the Ninth, but recast in a way that sounds like home, rather than hurt.

The Reverend Mother and Father could not give Gideon this. Aiglamene couldn't, and Crux never wanted to, and neither did the cloisterites. But here, safe in the arms of the elder cavalier, Gideon lets herself think that this is what it's like to be part of the Ninth, instead of its scapegoat.

(It's not like that at all. It's better.)

Still, it might be nice to heard Ortus try and say titties. Gideon better not push it, though. ]

Yeah. [ Through a smile: ] Thanks.

[ Gideon pulls away after a long while, and only barely. Just enough to see him. ]

I can't believe you're here. Sensei Lawrence isn't getting on your nerves?

[ He's the best Sensei around, of course, but even Gideon knows he might not exactly be Ortus' style. ]

[noniad]

[ Ortus is very near to reluctant to let her pull away even that much. He shares in the common Ninth discomfort with such closeness as this, but he has not felt it here. Only gratitude still, overflowing, and so it is that when she does look at him it is still plain as if stamped upon his features.

Even the mention of Sensei Lawrence cannot dim it, though Ortus does his best to affect more suffering at his name. He understands, dimly, that there is a role to be played.

(He remembers. Brothers jostling each other with sharp elbows, sisters wrestling in the halls, the hushed but fearsome arguments over trivialities. All the things the last children of the Ninth grew in want of, while he retreated inward, but no more.) ]

I have found him bearable, if, at times, perhaps over familiar, and crude, and possessed of many unusual habits of both deportment and demeanor, to say nothing of his diet.

[ He brings a hand to her shoulder and squeezes it, firmly. Perhaps too much so, in overcompensation. ]

He came to transport us from the house, and of great help to myself, and to Lady Harrowhark, and all others he has taken in. I forgive much in the name of my gratitude.

He missed you, too.