It's a Wonderful LifeChapter 7.8

A week passed quietly, during which absolutely nothing dramatic happened. Ira didn’t leave Darcy’s mansion the entire time, satisfying himself by watching zombie movies and playing zombie shooting games. These games were very simple; it was only a matter of shooting them in the heads and they’d die. Whenever he had the ammunition to spare, he would shoot the zombies in other places just to see how they would react.

Darcy spent a lot of time at his job, catching up on the work he had missed while he had been playing house with Ira. For a couple of days, they didn’t see each other at all. When they first did see each other again, they spent a whole evening cuddling together in front of the TV in one of the parlors. Ira fell asleep on the couch and woke up several hours later in the middle of the night because he needed to pee. They were still on the couch; apparently, Darcy had fallen asleep as well. It was the first time he could remember seeing a sleeping Darcy, and the sight made something in his chest squeeze. 5uFmly

He wondered if he was getting sick.

But after a week of this zero drama state, that he did enjoy, it was time for a change. That was when they started shooting the drama that was the cause of the protagonist’s downfall. Of course, it was not the only cause of the downfall, there was a lot of machinations going on in the background — organized internet mobs and stuff like that, but Ira was too uninterested to go into it. There were multiple factors in play, let’s just settle with that explanation.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

His Host showed up to shoot one bright day at six in the morning. Ira was not awake at this point, but he was recording everything she was doing for his reports, so he just rewound the recording a little and knew exactly what had happened. It was fine, the camera was still recording while he caught up.

Things did not go well. re16Oq

In the first place, because of a delay with… something, Ira wasn’t paying attention okay, but something went wrong and delayed everything. Because of the delay, it took three hours before her scene even started. Which was blatantly against what the schedule she had been given told her and apparently she hadn’t brought a book or a movie or something to spend the time with, so she was super bored the whole time. Ira was not sympathetic. He was super bored just watching her.

Of course, things did not end there. That would have been too easy. Things had to get more ridiculous and it had to be an even bigger mess because life was just like that. So she ended up getting a new stylist that had only just joined the crew because something happened to the old one. Again, Ira was not paying any attention to why, but the stylist messed up and dyed her hair a very garish pink color. The director was not happy.

Luckily, it was only temporary dye so she could wash it off quickly enough. But that delayed the shooting even further and at this point, everybody was just waiting on her. And because she was a newbie with no backing, everyone took it out on her.  Even though it wasn’t actually her fault. Like, even Ira realized that it was the stylist that was at fault. It wasn’t any of his Host’s fault at all, actually.

That was such a rarity. Things getting messed up, and his Host had no part in it at all. He wondered if he should, like, take a picture of this or something for posterity’s sake.

But Ira didn’t actually care though, so he just forgot about it.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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Yeah, on the whole, it was just very boring to watch.

Yes, he was the idiot who had decided to catch up on what he’d missed, but he was still pissed. That was time wasted, time wasted on a shitty human Host with shitty human tastes and shitty human opinions. Seriously, what was even the point of paying attention to her? It wasn’t like she mattered to him. oeEQZn

…Huh, there was some of his old anger, where had that gone lately?

He was definitely writing down in the report now that he had gone back to see what he had missed so that it wouldn’t be a complete waste of time. Because it was, and he was not fine with it, so his boss would have to suffer too when they read the report.

Ira very much operated on an “if I’m going down, I’m taking you down with me” mindset. He had no intention of suffering from his own bad decisions alone.

Ira wandered out of the living room he had been resting on the couch in, in search of Darcy. He was getting pretty used to the name Darcy. He wasn’t sure if he preferred it to Silas, but it was a name that was growing on him, and it was growing even swifter than Silas had ever done. He was maybe even starting to prefer it. VjIBAM

It was the first day that Silas had been able to take off work since they had rust stayed home together. Darcy had been working nonstop the whole week and it had been annoying the hell out of Ira because every time the man came home, he was tired and had absolutely no energy to bake anything at all. The cupcakes and other stuff that the man had baked previously had all been ransacked and there was no other single thing left. This meant that Ira was going through, despite the fact that Darcy was right there and could fix this easily, withdrawal.

And even though the man was home today, Ira wasn’t going to get it yet. He knew full well that humans needed res­­­­­­­­­t; around eight hours of sleep every night in order to be in optimal condition. And Darcy had not been getting that amount of sleep. So even though Darcy was at home and it was in the middle of the day, the man was still sleeping. Ira had no intention of waking him up; what if it broke the man and he was never able to bake again?

Okay, yes, he was being overdramatic. So what? He was entitled to some drama occasionally, he was suffering, okay. Suffering!

Darcy was really, incredibly good at baking. yGxir1

Marching to the kitchen, Ira put his hands on his hips and gazed out at it. Baking couldn’t be too hard, all he had to do was follow a recipe. Ira was a System, a world-class one with numerous abilities! He would not be defeated by something as simple as baking.

Rolling up his sleeves, he first turned on the music. Then he went through the cabinets, taking out all the bowls and spoons and measurement devices needed. He found a recipe online (yes, he was too lazy to search for Darcy’s recipes) and quickly gathered all the ingredients. Everything was neatly available in the kitchen, and Ira soon got started on actually baking the cake. Obviously, it was a chocolate cake.

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The first half went fine when he was only mixing together the dry, powdery ingredients. Things got a little messier when it was time for the next part, though. Specifically that part with the eggs, that one was tricky.

But Ira was a System and he would not be defeated by this. KNH7fJ

Darcy walked into the kitchen near the end. The man stopped abruptly in the doorframe and blinked sleepily, his hair mussed from his sleep, and rubbed his eyes. Then he tilted his head and asked Ira, “Are you baking?”

Ira took lots of pictures. The man, looking around blearily and confused, with sleep still clinging to him, was actually kind of cute. It made something in his stomach tingle and he couldn’t not take pictures. “Yes,” Ira answered. He concentrated as he poured in the last ingredient and then started mixing it all together.

Really, he didn’t see what the big deal was. He had found a very comprehensive recipe that laid it all out step by step. All he had to do was follow it and he would have a delicious cake.

Darcy smiled at him. He walked up to the other side of the counter and sat on one of the highchairs. He put his elbow on the table (just out of range of Ira’s mess) and rested his head on his hand, the smile only growing wider. “Having fun?” he asked, sounding amused. His eyes were sparkling. goDMOn

Ira was in the middle of pouring the batter into the bowl-round-shape-thing (he didn’t care what it was called) and didn’t spare Silas a glance. “Yeah,” he said instead. It was kind of fun, he guessed. It was still more fun to eat pastries than bake, though.

He put the cake in the oven, turned on the timer in his head, and walked around to sit next to Silas. He turned on the seat to he was facing the other man, his gaze flying over every inch of him. He studied him; the way the man smiled softly at him, the gentle look in his eyes, the softness to his body as he turned to face Ira as well. This man made something in his chest go soft, made something in him weak and fragile and breakable.

The worst part was that he didn’t dislike it.

Darcy was special. This, the man had proved time and time again. He kept on appearing in world after world, mission after mission. There was no way he could do that if he wasn’t special. Ira didn’t understand why the man continued to do it; Ira had never treated him well. Had never been kind to him. Pv70EG

Honestly, Ira was just an asshole to him.

To everyone, but Silas was the one who continued to follow him anyway. Well, Silas and Amanda.

This reminded him that he hadn’t met Amanda in this world. In fact, he was pretty sure she wasn’t in this world at all. That wasn’t strange; there were so incredibly many worlds in existence that it was impossible for a soul to visit them all. Silas was the weird one.

Silas made him feel so many things that Ira almost wanted to resent him for it. If Silas had just given up worlds ago, if he didn’t insist on continuing this farce, this never would have happened. Ira would have forgotten him easily, would have buried this all behind him and it would be like this never even happened. Hkr8mP

But Darcy was relentless. And he didn’t give up. And Ira was not immune to being treated well, to being spoiled and appreciated and loved.

And he was not unfeeling.

Scooting the chair closer to Darcy’s, Ira put his hands on the man’s cheek. He eyed the way Darcy’s gaze darkened, the way his breath quickened, the way he licked his lips. He observed the way the man curled toward him as if trying to pull him closer. But he didn’t touch Ira, merely waited to see what Ira would do.

Ira kissed him. Pressing his lips to Darcy’s, Ira enjoyed the cut-off sound Darcy made before he started kissing back. He kept a hold of the man’s cheeks, feeling the pulse beating harshly below it. He felt Silas’s arm go around his waist and hug him, felt the man’s other hand end up in his hair and gently tug on it. QdiHbY

A warmth grew in the pit of his stomach. His lips tingled. His pulse picked up speed and his world narrowed down to focus only on this one impossible man.

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