voidtreckerexpress | Have the fire extinquisher ready

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Have the fire extinquisher ready

Who: Xue Yang and OTA
Where: Training carriage
When: For the entire week after the new arrivals
What: Xue Yang has decided to experiment with his new swords and making up some new techniques. Experiments with fire and deadly weapons. Proceed with caution.
Warnings: Xue Yang may accidentally set something on fire.

Scenerio 1: Double blade
Xue Yang is currently seated in the center of the training carriage. Two swords on the ground in front of him, various tools whose soul purpose is for attempting to cut through steel and several pieces of paper that are very clearly talismans.

He picks up one of the swords and studies the hilt and handle, he then places it on the floor alongside the second one but going in the opposite direction. He becomes quite intent with taping the two together with what appears to be some sort of medical tape that he likely stole from the infirmary while no one was looking. Once he is content, he stands up and picks up the swords that are now stuck together to form one very long blade.

He tests the balance of it first and then starts to swing it around with the skill of someone who is very used to using a double ended blade. After a few moves he stops and looks at the connection.

"It's not strong enough with the tape..and also wouldn't be very quick to assemble when needed." Which is a problem when one is used to the sword simply transforming in his hand.

Scenerio 2: Talismans
Xue Yang picks up one of the blades and a talisman, moving a little bit away from the rest so that he doesn't accidentally light his entire set up on fire. He has two ideas to try and make this work and perhaps it won't work at all but he at least has to try.

He takes the talisman and with one swift motion, slides it along the blade as he attempts to transfer the fire onto the steel. The Talisman lights on fire but the blade does not and Xue Yang tosses it away quickly before he can burn himself. Failure one.

Next attempt he writes the talisman design right onto the blade. The fire lights up the sword and when he swings it as he normally would the fire doesn't appear to make things unwieldy, but it also doesn't go any further then the blade. Second attempt is marginally better then the first.

"Decent but not exactly what I'm hoping to achieve." Time to figure out plan three.

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Xue Yang gets enough out of that answer to understand. Feelings are a complicated thing and he doesn't understand them, even though he has been trying to figure them out while on the train. So in this way it seems that Gen does have those feelings but would rather not avoid losing the friendship he has to pursue them. Xue Yang would prefer to be on the side of feeling nothing at all, then having to conceal and try to forget about them.

"Is it not a little cruel to have to endure liking someone, only knowing that they will never return the feelings?" Because that is what he is afraid of in his own life and perhaps why he refuses to admit to himself what he does feel.

"That's a kind of selfish way of looking at it," Gen said, but it wasn't in a sharp tone, or even a judging one. He spoke softly, even a little fondly. "Endure liking someone ... if you really liked someone, if you enjoyed being with them, seeing them enjoy life and be happy, giving them things they enjoy and laughing with them, winning against a tough obstacle or escaping a narrow loss ..."

Gen laughed. "That's not something terrible to endure, is it?"

Xue Yang considers this, thinking back to those years at Yi City. He had been content with that life. Didn't need anything more then what he had. Perhaps this is what Gen meant when he talked about it. But for him, all of that was shattered very violently so he can't say if the secret was worth it.

"Depends on the circumstances. What if someone came along that changed their mind. That because you never said anything, they chose them instead?"

Gen gave him the brightest smile he could. To be fair, this would only be a partial lie.

"I'd be happy for him, of course! If someone else made Senku-chan that happy, I'd be a terrible person if I resented that person for it, wouldn't I?"

"I wouldn't be. I'd want to kill them." The corner of Xue Yang's lips curve upwards slightly in a rather sinister smile.

"Actually..I guess I already did." Of course then Xingchen also died so he didn't gain anything but at least he had been able to take down Song Lan as well. "Does that make me a terrible person?"

Xue Yang doesn't need the answer to that. He already knows that he is.

He hid his flinch. Someone who so gleefully murdered others ... Gen didn't think it was a particularly smart idea to insult him. He laughed sheepishly.

"No offense meant, my friend," Gen said, a little apologetically. "I'm much less capable than you are, of course. Even if I had those sorts of inclinations, I lack the ability to follow through - unlike someone of your talents."

"Well considering he isn't opposed to kissing, the possibility of him changing his mind at some point does exist. You just have to make sure you are the one in his view when he does so."

Clearly Xue Yang is not offended by being called a terrible person. Such things don't bother him and never has. He enjoys the reputation he put in place for himself on his world.

"I -"

Wait.

Wait.

WHAT?

Gen's brain shut down for a moment, and rebooted, giving Xue an expression that was much more flustered than before.

His voice was a squeak. "What do you - Senku hates kissing! Every person who's kissed him. He makes a face. A terrible face. Why did he say he likes kissing?"

Xue Yang laughs even harder as he watches the progression of Gen's disbelief.

"I didn't say that he likes it. I said he isn't opposed to it. He said he wouldn't mind it if it is someone he likes. Just because he has made faces before just means maybe he hasn't been agreeable to the terms at the time."

Gen didn't mind that he's being laughed at, he's behaving rather pathetically, honestly. But he can't make himself stop. What -

"- But he doesn't like people, like that. That's the whole ..." Gen flailed his arms. "... How did you get on this topic anyway? Why - why did you ask me about it?"

It seemed impossible that Senku might've mentioned him in this context, but it seemed the most likely explanation at the same time.

"It was actually on the topic of gifts. He mentioned that you two gave each other a lot of gifts, which eventually moved to discussing why you give gifts since I was unfamiliar with such an act. Which eventually led to him saying he was doing it because you were from the same world and that you were together a lot."

Xue Yang holds up his fingers and touches each one as if making sure he goes through each progression of the conversation, "That then moved onto him mentioning that you often dragged him to bed. So naturally I asked about being lovers."

It's all a logical progression in Xue Yang's mind. "So of course once he said he didn't care about sex I asked about simpler signs of affection."

"... He's my friend, and so of course I give him gifts, and he's terrible at looking after himself so of course with, dragging him to bed ..." Gen realized how weak all of this sounded in context with everything else, so he rubbed his face a few times with his palms.

It's possible, Gen realized, that Senku might not be aromantic, just asexual. Even without any prior evidence. Even with just what Xue said. If he was interested in romantic affection ... wait.

He peeked between his fingers, a sudden sliver of doubt entering. "... You're not saying all of this to play a prank on us, are you?"

Xue Yang snorts softly as he tilts his head, giving Gen a look that clearly indicates he thinks the man is crazy if he believes he would put so much effort into a prank.

"Do you really think I'm the kind of person to pull a prank?" When Xue Yang wants to mess with someone they usually end up dead. He's not one for simple childish gimmicks.

Gen sighed, and gave Xue a wry sort of look, "I suppose not. That's perhaps me projecting a tiny, tiny bit. Which is entirely on me."

Shaking his head, he lowered his hands and just rolled everything around in his head for a moment. "I guess I'm fortunate you're finding me amusing, instead of being annoyed by this ... teenaged drama, my friend."

And what a thing to have revealed by someone like Xue. They really just had to stay on his good side now, this was dangerous on many fronts with such a revelation and him as its catalyst.

Xue Yang enjoyed being the one with such excellent information at his disposal. It may never come to be necessary in the future, but he has it regardless.

"Why would I find this annoying? It is interesting to see the differences between our times." Xue Yang was already a mass murderer by the age of 16. If all they have to deal with is discovering feelings on a train, that is a fairly easy life in his mind.

"Sometimes people aren't really entertained by drama, instead finding it tiresome," Gen shared, not that he wanted Xue to be irritated by all of this.

He laughed softly. "Now, you have the additional comfort of knowing that the attitudes during that era were superior, if they left people alone to make their own choices."

And there's nothing a lot of people liked more than a sense of superiority, really.

He reaches out to start to clean his swords, "So what are you going to do with the knowledge you now have?" Because even if Xue Yang has gained some information, Gen has also learned something valuable with their exchange.

“I think I’ll need to see if what you’ve told me is accurate,” Gen told him, his expression bemused.

He got to his feet. “You’ll forgive me for postponing our discussion about your experiments for another time?”

He waves him off, "Of course. You have more interesting things to attend to now." He looks up at him amused.

“I’ll catch up with you again later, my friend. Until then,” Gen said with a bit of an apologetic tone.

Given all that Xue knew about them now, they needed to be extremely careful.

But he had more important things to worry about for the moment ...

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Have the fire extinquisher ready

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