3&11 for Erich/Kisuke
skyshinigamialchemist
(3: Accidental Marriage, 11: It’s not a date, we swear — Erich/Kisuke)
Erich sweeps his gaze over the collection of boxes starting to take up a good portion of Kisuke’s lab, then lets his breath hiss through his teeth. While he appreciates the chance to examine relics hoarded — and potentially made by — Yhwach’s hidden Quincy, the sheer volume is… daunting.
“And here’s the last of what we’ve found so far!” Yoruichi announces as she saunters in with yet another box packed to the brim with the detritus of a fallen empire. She drops it atop a stack of identical boxes then sets her hands on her hips and purses her lips, giving the crowded lab a look. “You sure you want to keep this between just you and Kisuke? It’s a lot for two people, and I’m sure the Twelfth would—”
“Absolutely not,” Erich cuts her off before she can offer, then glowers when she gives him an amused look. “Kisuke is one thing, but I’m not letting Shinigami paw through and attempt to decipher Quincy relics.”
“Well, it’s your time to burn, I guess,” she says with a shrug and another long look around the lab. “Good luck! Try not to get eaten by something!”
Erich snorts and shakes his head as Yoruichi saunters out of the lab, then turns around and gives Kisuke an amused look. “It’s like she forgets we’re capable of fighting, sometimes,” he says as he steps closer and peers into the box. He grimaces at the jumbled collection of things inside, trying to make sense of the mess of bottles, knives, cups, little boxes, and other random trinkets filling the box. “Where did they find all of this?” he asks in disbelief.
“Anywhere they could,” Kisuke answers with a laugh as he fishes up a small green bottle filled with some unknown liquid, then holds it up to the light and gives it a little shake. He hums in interest as the liquid seems to spark, bright pinpoints of light flaring and vanishing as if the thing is filled with glitter. “What do you think this is?”
“It’s an old fashioned glamour bottle,” Erich tells him, stretching up to pluck the bottle from Kisuke’s fingers. He tilts it from side to side, watching the play of light for a moment, then sets it aside. “It was common centuries ago, and our use of it played no small role in many legends of the fair folk or of hauntings. Sometimes a person just doesn’t want to look like themselves for a while.”
Kisuke hums and eyes the bottle again. “Ever used one yourself?”
Erich hesitates, debating how honest he wants to be, then finally shrugs and says, “We lost the knowledge of how to make them when my grandparents were infants, and used the last of our supply around that same time. So… no.”
Kisuke winces and gives an awkward laugh as he looks away, clearly drawing the correct conclusion immediately. His shoulders round in and he ducks his head, managing to look small. “You know, I’m surprised you’re letting me help you. Exile or not, I’m—”
“My friend,” Erich interjects as he elbows Kisuke’s side and gives the man a narrow look. “I think you’ve earned that much after everything we’ve been through.” When all Kisuke does is stare at him like he’s grown two heads, Erich glances up at the ceiling in exasperation. “Is it so odd to think that I could change my mind?”
“Er… well… no, but…”
“Then accept it and move on. We have work to do.” Erich fishes another glamour bottle from the box and sets it next to the first, then casts a sidelong, sly look at Kisuke and says, “Unless you’d rather tie yourself in knots instead of investigating these artifacts with me? It’ll take me longer, but I’m sure I can—”
“No, no, I’ll help, I’ll help!” Kisuke interrupts, an edge of laughter in his voice. He leans over the box and reaches in, pulling out a blunt dagger covered in rust, and wrinkles his nose. “Not very interested in upkeep, were they?” he asks as he sets it aside and reaches in again. “Half of this stuff is broken in some way, and the rest looks like its seen better days. Even these glamour bottles don’t look like they’ve been touched in ages.”
“They were chasing after an ideal that could never exist, and were mired deep in their fixation on revenge,” Erich reminds his friend as he sets about fishing out the rest of the glamour bottles from the box. With this many examples — and with Kisuke’s help — he might even be able to reverse engineer the damn things, though he refuses to get his hopes up. “When you let yourself get blinded like that… anything deemed unnecessary falls by the wayside,” he finishes sadly, remembering how his own country twisted in upon itself until he could barely recognize it — or his old companions — any more.
(War never led to anything good.)
(Never.)
Kisuke nudges him with a shoulder and arches an eyebrow in question, but says nothing when Erich shakes his head.
Instead, the two of them turn to emptying the box, laying the bits and pieces out on the table as they go. The more they dig out, the more certain Erich is that they’re looking at someone’s personal collection instead of a communal stockpile; beyond the glamour bottles, many of the things they’re pulling from the box have the look of items once well loved and often used, their power now fading from neglect and disuse. He doesn’t know if he’ll be able to decipher anything from the lingering remnants, but… he’ll try.
He’s always wanted to know more about his people’s lost skills, and here, now, he finally has a chance.
(He’s not letting this opportunity go.)
His hand brushes across Kisuke’s as they both reach into the box at the same time and grab—
Something sparks to life with the crackle-hiss of fading power, and Erich’s hand prickles as the power dances across his skin, leaving a shimmering, iridescent glow in its wake. Kisuke yelps dramatically and jumps back as Erich yanks his own hand away with a hiss, shaking it to dispel the feeling of pins and needles. He leans over and glowers down at the thing they’d both touched, trying to figure out what they’d set off and why.
It’s a decorative chalice, old and battered, with the stem shaped like a dragon and the cup held in the dragon’s front paws like an offering. Its mouth is open in a gaping, cheerful smile and its eyes are slanted in a way that reads like happiness to him, despite both of them missing whatever stone was once there.
Carefully, cautiously, he reaches into the box and touches the dragon, ready to yank his hand back if it reacts again, but it remains inert, as if it’s nothing but a simple, decorative piece instead of some sort of enchanted relic.
He pulls it out and grimaces at the damage done to it; one wing is gone and the other is twisted, the metal along its back is scuffed, its tail is cracked, and the rim of the cup itself is bent. All in all, it looks as if it was thrown against a wall in fury, then discarded and forgotten.
“What is it?” Kisuke asks as he presses close, peering over Erich’s shoulder at the chalice. “And why’d it react like that?”
“I have no idea,” Erich admits with a touch of amusement, turning the chalice around in his hands and running his thumb over the smooth sides of the cup. “I’ve never seen the like before, honestly, and whatever it did discharged most of its remaining power, so I can’t sense much from it anymore.” Nor can he tell anything from the chalice itself; there’s no writing that he can see anywhere on it beyond the maker’s mark on the bottom, but he doesn’t recognize that either, so… he has no idea what it could be.
“Kind of impractical, isn’t it?” Kisuke reaches for the chalice, then hesitates and pulls back before he finishes the action. “Doesn’t look like it’d be very comfortable to hold.”
“It was probably something ritual related,” Erich agrees as he turns and sets it on the table to one side. “Whatever it was, it didn’t feel malignant or dangerous, so we’re probably fine.”
“Probably, he says,” Kisuke teases with a smile, then picks the chalice up and starts to examine it. “And if we wake up in the morning with wings and scales?”
“Then I guess we’re going to learn how to be dragons,” Erich says, amused by the very idea. “I’m sure you’ll catch on quick.”
“Me? What about yourself?” Kisuke asks, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Is there something you haven’t told me, Erich-san?”
Erich just smirks at Kisuke and turns away, chuckling at Kisuke’s squawk of protest. “If you really believe I wouldn’t have simply turned into a dragon the minute I was faced with Shinigami, I think you need to reassess your opinion of me.”
Kisuke huffs and sets the chalice aside. “Mou, Erich-san’s being mean.”
“Erich-san is only as mean as someone has earned,” he teases, bumping his shoulder against Kisuke’s arm and using that brief touch to assess Kisuke’s reiatsu. He doesn’t sense anything out of order, but without knowing what they touched he has no idea how quickly its effect will trigger, or if it already has.
He’ll just have to stay alert as they keep working, but… he has a good feeling about it.
Whatever that chalice was used for, he doubts it was anything nefarious.
(Now, if only he could say the same about the rest of it all…)
(Ah well, they’ll figure it out.)
(Together.)