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Cosmic picked up the pot-like item, glancing up slightly to see Esther nervously rubbing the end of one foot against the floor. He didn't answer immediately to the quarry the other asked, pouring the goo as equally as he could with the judgement of his eyes onto individual plates. The goo was presented neatly with a nice puffy round shape.
❝ I told my side of the story multiple times when you all accused me of being the mastermind to our home's explosion, ❞ Cosmic uttered flatly, but the two of them already knew this. ❝ After the first briek of trying, anyone would have stopped bothering themselves when every little bad thing in this ship gets automatically blamed to you. ❞
Unlike Earth, Xleon Goo wasn't cooked with flames. The sacred dish was formed by addition of element ingredients that could be gathered around their planet and shockingly, chanting a short and sweet spell-like verse which was sung. Hence, one must be at peace with their mind ; not angry or stressed. If not, the goo would leave a foul taste. From that, the substances would glow as it was mixed together with constant and precise stiring that took up most of the time. Cosmic normally kicked anyone out whenever he was cooking ‒ specifically during his soft singing.
Soras liked to bother him whenever it was that stage though, complimenting how cute he was being all self-concious about his supposedly amazing singing.
His singing was decent, but "amazing" was a bit far fetch.
Placing the utensil into an opened little metal box, he shut the door, snapping his fingers. The box lit up and sounds of bubbles popping indicated that the pot was getting cleaned up.
❝ And you defending Crux back there? You even fucking placed her against the wall before we left, ❞ Esther pressed on with distaste, although it seemed he pushed himself to say so in the first place.
Unamused, Cosmic shrugged and explained, ❝ Crux looks at Andromeda with love and she can't control her senses under the pressure of one's manstural cycle. I stopped her before she could make a mistake. Plus, Perseus leaving to get "revenge" on Crux would just leave Andromeda to suffer alone and would tear a special friendship. Perseus needed to cool down her steam off first and woman up to talk with Crux afterwards. ❞
❝ You... ❞ Esther gasped as the information slowly floaded into his mind, ❝ You're really too kind. ❞
𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, was what he wanted to say back.
Cosmic was just observing this situation with logic and common sense. Both Esther and Perseus had their views of the case biased, thanks to their emotions. His Mamelia always reminded him to think from everyone else's shoes before his own since he was young.
He didn't mutter anymore words, simply thinking it was tiresome to carry on a pointless conversation and vanished from the kitchen with a pair of plates. Once he was in the dinning room, he put them in front of Soras and Starling, earning two distinct reactions ; one throwing praises at him with a toothy grin and the other grumbled something along the lines of "What took you so long" underneath her breathe before scarfing down the goo. Soundlessly, he went back to kitchen, finding a stupefied Esther and repeated what he did. By the time the third round of this plate delivering, Esther snapped out of whatever trace he was in and picked up two platefuls of goo.
Before Esther could follow him to the dinning room though, Cosmic lifted a hand to stop him in his tracks and suggested gently, ❝ Could you send those to Perseus and Andromeda instead? ❞ He figured he was the last person the two, mostly Perseus, wished to see at the very moment.
❝ Oh, ❞ Ether blinked, nodding slightly. ❝ Of course, I don't mind. ❞
❝ I appreciate the help, ❞ Cosmic flashed a small smile, not really wanting the other to be so tensed around him. Honestly, he preferred to go back to the mean teasing because this was just plain awkward.
Esther grinned at that, nodding more eagerly. ❝ The least I can do for what you did back there. ❞
While Cosmic felt a little burdened Esther probably assumed he should do something in return for the events earlier, he just waved him off and brought the remaining three dishes into the dining room. Balancing two plates on one arm took a lot of effort than one plate, so he was slightly slower in his walk there. Thank his Mamelia for that strict, torturing elegant drills Cosmic was put under that was needed for males his class and part of his training for his job, so this was practically almost nothing. Fortunately though, he didn't drop any of them because if he did, his first meal of the day was gone.
To Cosmic's astonishment, Crux was seen to be sitting on her spot in the dinning room, flinching violently when he settled down her meal.
While it looked like Crux was expecting a furious reaction from Cosmic ‒ anything really, he instead just silently went ahead to his own seat next to Soras and enjoyed his meal while he could. Midnight black eyes momentarily met the doe-eyed flaming red eyes, ignoring the confused girl as Soras made light conversation with him. They were shushed though by a fumming Starling when Cosmic muffled his laugh, earning snickers from the rest which was irkful since everyone else was talking too. Cosmic only patted Soras' hand to soothe her when the inventor's mouth was ready to fling out peeved and heated retorts.
From the corner of his eye, Cosmic saw how large Crux's eyes stretched open before glancing back to notice Esther standing there at the entrance with his own eyes widened. Cosmic could still spot the anger and protectiveness evidently swirling internally in those eyes for Meda. The thick tension between the two went over a few heads, yet it was so sharp that a knife could cut through it cleanly, so Cosmic quickly shook his head at Esther with stern eyes before everyone else could detect it. Averting his eyes away from Crux, Esther got the message and strolled over to sit next to the other male in the room.
Luckily Esther's seat was three seats away, or else the two would be playing an unpleasant game of footsie.
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A full week passed by since then. Nothing much had changed. Though, he got a somewhat visit from Perseus and Andromeda during one of his chores today ; room cleaning. He was requested for their bedroom to be tidied up, which Cosmic could understand why, but he didn't get why exactly did the couple obviously waited for him inside living room space, sitting side-by-side. Meda was hugging one of his girlfriend's arm, while Perseus attempted to maintain a neutral expression as she patted Meda's head lovingly. Normally, everyone else just coldly let him be, alone in their messy rooms, before he would even arrive.
❝ Cosmic, we'd like to have a word with you, ❞ Perseus clarified upon his arrival, causing the said boy's expression to blank out.
All Cosmic responded to that was a mere nod, with his facial features still hardened in defence.
❝ Meddie here actually pointed out something very important. ❞ What left Perseus' mouth didn't phase Cosmic at all, ❝ How do we know you're not just pretending to be nice to us, just to get you to believe your lies? ❞
❝ I don't care if you believe me or not, ❞ Cosmic laughed bitterly, causing the two to stiffen up. He didn't feel like wasting more time, knowing it was futile. ❝ I gave up a long time, so if this is all you want to talk about, can you just both leave for me to do my chore? ❞
❝ How do we know that isn't just another act too? To get all guilty, ❞ Perseus pressed on.
Huffing, Cosmic deadpanned, ❝ Are you deaf? I just said, I don't care. ❞
Apparently, Perseus was, because she barked out, ❝ How do we know you didn't manipulate Crux to do what she did to Meda? I know my best friend. She wouldn't do anything like that to me or Meda, unless someone did something. You fucking did something to her, didn't you?! ❞
❝ Don't you even realise how ridiculous you sound? ❞ Cosmic frowned, crossing his arms. ❝ Its strictly in our biology studies how males heightened our scent glands, since our scents act as a distress signal to drive in your female insticts to comfort males in our manstural cycle. ❞
Perseus scoffed, standing up to glare at Cosmic's steady composure but Meda squeaked at the sudden action and gripped onto her shaking arm. ❝ For someone with a long ass dark history of killing and poisoning, I know you have tricks on your sleeves to do such devious things! ❞
❝ I won't deny that damn past, but you're the one in denial that your best friend acted beyond her controlㅡ ❞
There was loud smack heard. It was such a quiet sound in reality, but the silence that settled in the room made it echoed loudly in their ears. Cosmic slowly turned his head back, which was snapped sharply to the side from the hard swing of Perseus' fist that met his cheek. Meda cried out in shock at the sight of a long, thick trail of purple liquid dripping down from the corner of Cosmic's lips, tugging down with as much force as he could on Perseus' arm.
❝ Perrie, calm down, please, ❞ Meda begged, scared of the sight of blood.
Gazing down to the male, Perseus bit her lips, not being able to balance the need to comfort him and anger-filled urge to corner Cosmic, ❝ Meddie, please. Not right now. ❞
While the couple was distracted with each other, he quickly passed the two to head straight for the bedroom, not allowing any more comebacks to delay him to get this task over with. Once the doors closed behind him, a frustrated heavy sigh escaped his lips and there was brief second to collect himself, wiping carefully his stinging lips with his fingers. Studying the bed as he took slow calming breathes, he noticed how Andromeda's nest was slightly crumbled by now but that only meant he needed to dismantle it himself, washing every piece of clothing up before returning them to their owners. There were probably some of Esther's there, and his room was on the other side of this couple's room. Not to mention, this room held a faint intermingled scent of Perseus with Andromeda's, so he needed to vent it out to freshen this place up.
There was a lot to do, even if it was only one bedroom, so he sucked it up and began his work. After all, a long list of chores to check off before the day could end was still yelling out his name.
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❝ Thanks Cosmic, ❞ Esther smiled, taking the pile of clothing from aforementioned male's into his own.
As the clothes were being washed earlier that day, he removed the musky scent in the couple's bedroom and then had left to do his other tasks. He returned Perseus' and Andromeda's clothes, blankets and pillows right before the "moon-rise meal", or simply "dinner". Since Esther's room was more close to his own than the couple's, he figured it would be best to just hand over the clothes as the final chore before he could retreat to his own room.
Nodding at Esther, Cosmic didn't say anything since talking would only remind him of his aching lip. The pain gradually got worse as the day progressed, causing the skin on his cheek to faintly get dusted in gold. A horrible, annoying fact about the male bodies was that their skin was a bit more fragile and softer compared to a female, so injuries were slightly more easier for males to obtain ‒ which lead them to assume all Xleon males were stereotypically weak. That didn't make males any less of a potential warrior than a female though. Furthermore, Perseus also pretty much did a full-out punch on him, so he wasn't surprised he was bruising too.
All in all, he just needed to leave before Esther would notice.
Much to his dismay, Esther offered something rather unexpected, ❝ Hey, want to come in for a bit and help out with my nest? I got side-tracked with Meda's... and my heat is due within two quintes, so I feel a little under the weather. ❞
Even though touching one's nest without permission was frowned rather shamefully upon, it wasn't odd for other males to contribute in the building of one's nest, but offers like these were only, very specially reserved for those few that the male in pre-heat could absolutely trust, since their own life was at stake. After all, this was the place one was going to spend their week in during their extremely vulnerable state, especially those without partners. If the nest was built too weakly, the burn and freezing effects of manstural cycle would make the male prone to death.
❝ Me? ...Seriously? ❞ Cosmic couldn't help but feel genuinely taken aback.
Nevermind the pain.
Didn't this boy just despised him?
❝ Of course you, ❞ Esther grinned, seeing Cosmic's walls lowered for the first time. He sucked in a deep breathe and began, ❝ You saved me and Meda when we needed someone most, without even expecting anything in return. Hell, you defended Crux properly when those close to her couldn't bring themselves to... just because we were scared to accept the truth. And... And you backed her up, even though she was so mean to you. She was one of those that even belittled you... You could have used her multiple times in your own defence, but you didn't.❞
Cosmic's midnight eyes widened, as he felt a small weight being lift off his shoulders at each word directed towards him. A guilty, yet grateful smile was shot his way before the cantaloupe orange eyes that was looking at his own beamed up.
❝Oh! And also, I can't forget that this isn't the first time you saved me. I could have been dead if it wasn't for you... I heard you jumped out of the ship, out of your way when you yourself were safe... just to save me! ...You never, ever, brought that up. Not once as I bullied you along with them. I learned how incredibly selfless and kind-hearted you are... and how fucking wrong we all were. That just makes me feel all the more reason to trust you. ❞
Esther's speech warmed his beaten up and caged heart, so much, after such a tough time.
❝ I... uh, thank you, ❞ Cosmic uttered out, suddenly feeling very shy.
❝ Silly, I should be the one thanking you, ❞ Esther giggled, before jerking his head inside as a gesture, ❝ Now are you coming in or what? ❞
Despite being more than ecstatic to comply, Cosmic couldn't give Esther an answer as a new voice butted in.
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