(also like did @gamoraspeter and I call it or did we call it)
We tripped and now we have five rats! Meet Gamora and Nebula <3 @enigma731
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ingram Ashburton/Charlotte Holmes
Characters: Charlotte Holmes (Lady Sherlock), Ingram Ashburton
Summary: He had built a wall around all the most vulnerable parts of himself, a facade of generosity and implacable good manners, shored up by the white-hot flames of righteous anger. And it had worked, at least for a while. It had seemed simple enough, acting gracious outwardly while seething under the surface. It had felt almost like a game, a fresh sort of challenge or achievement. If self-control was an art and denying himself a science, then he would be the master of both.
But that was the problem with fire, wasnāt it? It was finite. It burned out, and left a barren wasteland in its wake.
When Kaiās honored father and uncle had condoned his joining the Library -- strongly suggested it, even -- they probably hadnāt imagined anything like this was a possible risk.
To be fair, despite their numerous encounters with Silver, ambush by giant magical spiders, kidnapping, and facing down Alberich twice, he hadnāt thought finding himself in someone elseās body was a feasible possibility either. True, ridiculous, chaotic things happened in this alternate all the time -- it was quarantined for a reason, after all. But there was ridiculous and then there was absolutely ridiculous.
Still, there were some things to be grateful for: If he had to have swapped bodies with someone in this group, at least it wasnāt Silver. He was fairly certain he would have fallen into immediate masochistic behavior if that had been the case, if only to enjoy the thought of the bodyās original owner having to deal with the consequences later.
And, if he had to have swapped bodies with anyone at all, at least it had been Irene. Kai prided himself on being well-mannered, intelligent, disciplined, and sophisticated. However, he also happened to be wildly attracted to the body he was currently occupying, and apparently he wasnāt entirely above a certain sort of thought Silver would no doubt have appreciated very much.
the invisible library headers <3
like or reblog if you save or use
For a long moment, neither of them said anything else.
Or more likely, it was a long moment before either of them could say anything else. Certainly that was true on Ireneās part. Theyād managed to keep the conversation light thus far, but it was a front, a cover for the desperate need and hope that were currently occupying her throat in a tight ball. She wanted to kiss Kai again, wanted to cling to him embarrassingly and beg him for promises they both knew he wouldn't be able to keep.
She wanted to go back in time and do all of this sooner, before he'd had to resign, when she might have had a chance of keeping him at her side. She wanted to go back further than that, wanted to prevent him from ever getting mixed up with Jin Zhi or Evariste or Hu.
But she couldn't do any of those things, of course, nor could she come up with anything to say. The tension between them was as palpable as a wave of chaos.
Vale cleared his throat from his seat at the table. "Might I suggest that the two of you make use of my guest room? I've got work to do and you're rather distracting."
Kai is sometimes cuddly in an annoying way. Like a cat when you need to get up and be productive.
When he leaves the old house after New York, Kai also leaves some of his books for Irene. She discovers that they smell like him and subsequently sleeps with an especially well-loved volume of poetry under her pillow when she's feeling lonely -- which is a thing she did at boarding school when missing her parents.