Wayward Travellers

chap. ii

CW: Minor body horror.

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"Good morning~"

When you opened your eyes, you weren't expecting him to be the first thing in your view.

"Hong Lu..." you mumbled his name as he continued to look down at you, his heterochromatic eyes holding that same playful glint in them as always. It wasn't that monster staring down at you now but your coworker instead, which made you wonder... "Am I dead?"

"Are you?" he asked curiously before bringing his hand to your cheek and pinching it; not too roughly but not gent— oh god, what was that writhing sensation on your cheek?! "No, not dead, you're too warm for that."

You hastily swatted his hand away as you sat up, only then realizing that you were sleeping on Hong Lu's lap. You turned around, expecting to see that monstrous form of his only to be caught off guard when you saw his face and how human he looked. The monstrous parts were still there, but those looked more like some sort of disgusting outfit instead of being a part of him.

You sighed in relief before glaring at him. "What happened to you? And why did you knock me out like that?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," he answered with a smile, not bothered at all by the situation that he was in nor did he show any concern for you. You couldn't blame him though, not when he's been stuck here for who knows how long.

"Where's Yi Sang then?"

"He's also here?"

He didn't know?

Hong Lu wasn't the type of person to lie, if he even did at all. Of course, you knew of some instances that he lied, but this wasn't the type of situation that would give him a good reason to do so and you knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't lie about not knowing where your fellow coworker was.

That said, his lack of knowledge regarding Yi Sang's location was suspicious, especially with how fast he found you when you first came into this... dimension or whatever it was.

"You really don't know?" you asked again just to be sure, though it was likely that his answer wouldn't change.

"No, I don't know where he is."

You figured as such.

This was troubling, to say the least. With any luck, Yi Sang would show up out of nowhere just like Hong Lu did, hopefully in a less scary way since you doubted that you'd be able to survive a second heart attack, but you doubted that he would show up in the first place. Faust told you that the time spent in this dimension probably flowed differently than usual, so depending on how much time had passed for Yi Sang and Hong Lu, it might change the actions that the former would take but you doubted it.

Hong Lu had always been the more curious one, having grown up heavily sheltered and all that, and Yi Sang preferred to keep to himself. It was likely Yi Sang was a curious person by nature, too, but he didn't give you any reason to believe that if he was.

Unfortunately, this meant that you — and Hong Lu since you refused to leave him now that he was with you — would have to go search for Yi Sang yourself. But for now, you should focus on Hong Lu for a short while and see if he needed anything.

"How are you doing?" It was a simple question but it'd have to do for now until you had more information.

"Better now that you're here," he answered with a playful grin. If he could act like his normal self then you supposed that you didn't have much to worry about. It never hurt to be cautious, though.

"How were you doing before I came here, then?" you asked. "Are you injured anywhere? I hope that... outfit of yours isn't some kind of parasite that's feeding off of you..."

"Parasite?" he giggled. "It's nothing like that, so don't worry~"

Suuuure...

"If you say so. What about your injuries? Do you have any?"

"What's with all the worrying? You're not usually like this," he replied with a smile, looking at you curiously. "But no, I'm not injured."

"That's good to know—"

"You, on the other hand," Hong Lu interrupted you as he pointed a finger towards you, "do have injuries."

"I do....?"

He nodded. "A few cuts here and there on your back."

"When did I—" you cut yourself off when you remembered your encounter with Hong Lu. He had, very rudely, crashed through the window just to get inside — something that you didn't appreciate — so when he said that you had a few cuts then that must mean that the glass shards that hit you must've injured you. How something as fragile as glass of all things managed to injure you through your clean-up uniform was a mystery.

...Or maybe it wasn't the glass that hurt you.

You'd put that worry of yours aside for the time being since it didn't matter too much yet, but you'd make a mental note to remember it later. You should focus on finding Yi Sang and completing your mission first.

"I should be fine... I think," you spoke as you stood up. "I can get my injuries tended to later, for now, we should—"

You're interrupted, yet again, by Hong Lu hastily wrapping his arms around you and pulling you close to him; not stopping until you were sitting comfortably on his lap.

"Don't be hasty now," he lightly scolded you as he held you close to himself; his chin nestled comfortably on your shoulder. "You need rest, don't you? There's no need to rush and get injured when you can rest a little more by my side~"

You swore that you could feel the fleshy part of Hong Lu's outfit breathe down your back. For the sake of your sanity, you'd ignore it for the time being but the fact that you could feel its breath on you would haunt the back of your brain without mercy.

On to more important things. Your current position with Hong Lu reminded you of the few times when he'd have you sit on his lap like this while you comforted him. It wasn't common since Hong Lu's mental and emotional state never got bad enough to the point where he'd ask you to comfort him like this, but it happened enough times for you to know when he was seeking comfort.

You didn't know what exactly he went through during his time in this place but it must've been pretty severe if it got him acting like this.

"...Alright," you sighed before leaning back against his chest and into his touch. You could use some comfort, too. "I'll rest a little bit and then we'll go look for Yi Sang, got it?"

"Got it~"