interstellar5555 | NO FEAR [OPEN]

Who: Steven and anybody in the Defying Atmosphere penthouse.
What: Greg is rewarded with a slightly used pet child.
When: About 24 hours after the SC concert where he gets kidnapped.
Where: DA's penthouse in Virgo HQ.
Warnings: There is a laundry list of things wrong with this situation.

No matter the intention, the violence of being kidnapped leaves a mark on a person, and that's the lingering anxiety that Steven feels now. He was pulled away from his life once again, as terrible as it might have been. He was manhandled, drugged, and dragged off somewhere else, even as he pleaded, for fear of angering his keepers again.

There was a period of claustraphobic darkness followed by a time where blinding white is all he can remember. And then, suddenly, he finds himself here...a penthouse that is totally unfamiliar to him, and is told that he's going to be with his dad now.

He doesn't know if he can believe it, or what he should do. So, once he's left alone, all he does is curl himself up on one of the couches and wait. He's been dressed in fresh clothing, simple in comparison to anything he's made a habit of wearing - the flashes of pink cracklines are still bright on his exposed skin.

He has no control over anything anymore. He may as well stop pretending.

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Greg's still kicking himself for his stupidity a few nights previous, waiting for the sign of what's next to come. He'd been too caught up in everything to question Blanche properly, and now he isn't really sure how to get in contact for more information. All he knows for sure was things were about to change, big time. He wasn't given any further warning; he was just told to go about things as usual. So he does.

The last few days have been... stressful, to say the least. Anyone can tell at a glance he's twitchy and anxious, but in all honesty, it's only a notch up from how plainly miserable he's been in the last few weeks.

And then, he walks into the common area, and sees a huddled, pink-glinting lump curled up on the couch.

"St--" Something hot flashes through him, and in an instant Greg's by his side. "Steven!" No amount of promises or claims could have prepared him for the reality of it.

Steven looks up vacantly, at first lost in his own head. The eternally hazy appearance of his eyes sharpen ever so slightly when his mind sorts out what's going on, though, and he latches onto Greg like he's the first person he's seen in weeks.

There's no makeup to conceal his unnatural marks, now, no artfully painted design on his face. It's just Steven, barefoot in jeans and an oversized T-shirt, broken but present. His breath comes out in a shaking gasp.

"I didn't...I didn't know what happened I didn't know why they...I thought...I..."

He can't get his words straight - his mind is still so fragmented, and the sedatives he's been on for the last while are still fading. He has no idea about anything, anymore.

Greg practically scoops Steven right into his arms. "Did they hurt you? I said.... oh, Steven."

They've put him through so much. He's had every sort of assault on his identity and agency, and Greg's only dragged him further in. It's the only option they have at this point. That's what Greg keeps telling himself, as he cradles the confused boy.

"I'm so sorry, Steven. But it's going to be all right. We're together."

"They didn't try to," he answers, as honestly as he can recall. It's hard to grab someone and force them into a truck without being at all rough, but it wasn't like they had caused any damage that wasn't psychological. Luna (Lapis?) had done way more damage to them, but he doesn't say that.

Steven snuggles into the cradle of Greg's arms without hesitation. Despite everything - despite the horrors he's had to endure - the idea that they're actually together...it gives him a sense of relief. Of peace. Like it's the only thing he needs right now to make things okay.

Maybe he just wants to escape from this. Maybe this is the closest thing to a victory or happiness he'll ever have. It doesn't matter.

"Did...you know?" he asks fuzzily. Steven still doesn't understand how this happened.

"S...sort of." Blanche's tendency to vagueness and workarounds made it hard for Greg to know much of anything for certain. "I thought this might happen, I wasn't sure if..."

Perhaps it was too much to hope Blanche would fix Steven's jewel, too. This is all rough enough to deal with for a kid who's not sick and dazed. Odds are, he'll have to make it worth Blanche's time. Until then, he can at least rest assured nothing else can happen to Steven. That's really all he's able to ask for at this point.

"No one's going to hurt you anymore, Steven. You're safe now, you don't ever have to go back there. I'll take care of you."

Did Greg want him to be brought here, then? The idea dully registers to him, but for some reason he can't find any problem with it. Lesedi was probably going to kill him, anyway. He'd messed up the concert, he wasn't good for anything else-

He's not really good for anything here, either. Was he brought here for his dad?

He wraps his arms around Greg's shoulders, burying his face in his neck, his curly hair soft against his skin. He wants to believe what he's promising, so for the moment, he does. He lets out a soft gasp that's almost like a sob.

"Did you ask them to get me?" he asks. He still feels so tired. There's only so much he can think to ask about at once.

All of Greg's shame, fear, and regret get washed away for this. Helping Steven, letting this lost child know he's wanted and loved, that makes all of this worth it right now.

"Yeah. We're a family again." He rubs Steven's back. The kid hasn't cried since his jewel was hurt, has he? He must want to. "Now we don't have to hide being together. No one can get mad at us."

He hasn't cried - he hasn't felt a lot of things like he normally would. He hasn't managed to be properly angry, or emotional enough to shed tears. Everything he's been feeling since his gem was cracked has been muted but what feels like an impenetrable fog around his mind. He can feel misery, and he can feel affection and love, but his ability to naturally process anything intense has been somehow been damaged.

It's just distant, far away, like he's constantly part ways into an out of body experience. Which probably makes sense when an important part of his being has been severely out of sync with the rest of his body. He just wishes he could feel like a real person again.

He stays where he is, genuinely comforted by Greg's touch and the things he's telling him, all things that he wants to believe. He'd been so scared, only moments before being stolen.

"I thought she was going to kill me," he says, a rare moment of catharsis. "I couldn't do it. I couldn't play right..."

"You don't have to worry about that anymore. She can't touch you." Greg doesn't get angry, he doesn't have the energy for that sort of thing, but there's a venom in his words. Everything is Lesedi's fault, and Greg will do whatever it takes to make sure she never gets her hands on Steven again.

"You can do whatever you want, now. You don't have to play if you don't want, you don't have to worry about performing or anything. It's going to be like before, like the old us." He's rambling, reassuring himself just as much as Steven.

All logic aside, Steven is willing to indulge in it, at least for now. He feels so suffocated by everything that's wrong with him at the moment, he's desperate for some kind of release from it all. Maybe this is the closest thing.

Though he doesn't really understand why it happened.

"Your boss said so?" he asks, finally. He hadn't thought that Blanche would do something like this. Being brought over here and having nothing demanded of him seems too good to be true, considering Blanche's last interest in people from Pride.

NO FEAR [OPEN]

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