It's a Wonderful LifeChapter 7.9

The cake was a disaster.

It was too soft and too hard in turns, the edges burned but the middle completely uncooked. The taste was unbalanced and strange, and he thought he could see whole eggshells in there somewhere. It was a mess, and it tasted bad enough that Ira had no intention of eating any more than the one bite he had unfortunately already taken. wSrAYk

Darcy ate a whole slice of it.

Ira’s eyebrow rose progressively higher on his forehead with every bite Darcy forced down. He stared at the man as he ate, a kind of strange fascination growing in him. How could the man eat this cake that was objectively horrible in all aspects? Why would he force himself to eat it when he had to pause between each bite and drink copious amounts of milk? What was there to gain by pretending to like it?

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

When the slice was completely gone, Darcy poured out more milk in his glass and drank the whole thing in the shortest time Ira had ever seen a human drink anything. Darcy put the empty glass down on the table and exhaled.

He smiled at Ira. “I loved it.” lf7xkO

Ira scoffed. “Don’t lie, it’s horrible.”

“Yes,” Darcy agreed way too readily. “But you made it. So I love it.”

“That’s insane,” Ira declared. It really was. How did the fact that he made it overcome how disgusting it was?

Darcy shrugged like being called insane was no big deal. Maybe it wasn’t, to him. Maybe he was insane enough that he didn’t care. There was definitely something wrong with him though, to be able to eat that… that thing.

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Ira shuddered. He pushed the place away from him, giving it the stink eye as he did, and pushed the cake away from them too for good measure. He didn’t want Darcy to eat any more of it. The whole thing needed to be disposed of like the poison it was. Darcy evidently couldn’t be trusted with his own health, so Ira would simply have to take care of it on his own.

He looked out over the kitchen and the mess he had created in his failed attempt to bake. He didn’t understand where things had gone wrong. He had followed the recipe to the letter and yet still, it was an utter disaster.

Ira frowned. He fingered his hair, pulling a little on the fringe. It was starting to get too long, falling into his eyes and impeding his vision. But it wasn’t like he actually needed his eyes to see, so he hadn’t done anything about it. That said, sometimes the strands landed directly in the eyes and caused him serious annoyance.

Darcy rose from his seat. He stopped in front of Ira and swept him into a soft hug. Darcy’s scent and warmth instantly enveloped him, the scent soothing in a way that it had no right to be. Ira let himself get pulled into the hug, surrounded by the sensation of warmth and familiarity that made his heart pick up just the slightest bit of speed. p59D0r

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.

He lingered in it, longer than he probably should. But it was nice, and Ira saw no reason to deny himself something that brought him pleasure. What would even be the point of that?

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He rose a hand and touched his own hair. The strands were dry and limp, fluffy to the touch and fell smoothly straight down when he let them go. There was no hint of the madness that was on Silas’ head. SCdnW7

“Have any plans for today?” Darcy asked as he sat back down after he’d gathered all the cereal things for breakfast.

Ira shrugged. “Gonna shot zombies.”

“Ah, a worthy endeavor,” Darcy agreed and smiled at him.

Ira looked away before that smile blinded him. It was unfair, the kind of power Silas’ smile had. fEZilQ

…did his own smile have that power? He had never thought about it. He usually wasn’t paying any attention to what his expression was doing and so didn’t know. How did one even smile on purpose? Technically, he knew the muscles involved in the procedure, but he couldn’t remember ever doing it before.

Hmm. He would have to investigate this.

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While Silas was eating breakfast, Ira left the kitchen and wandered to the gaming room. It was equipped with all the latest gaming technology and Ira had barely used it; a travesty, in his expert opinion. Especially when Darcy had bought like five different zombie games.

Or maybe six? Something had come in the mail yesterday that had suspiciously looked movie/game package sized. Regardless, he was feeling in a gaming mood and so walked straight there. aiw1RY

Once he entered the room, he flipped the switch and the ceiling light came on. Ira walked over to the couch in front of the gigantic TV and flopped down on it, using the remote control to turn it on. Then he realized that there was no remote button to the turn on the gaming console, and grimaced as he heaved himself up again. He crossed the two-meter distance and turned on the gaming console, then walked back and flopped down even harder onto the couch. If such a thing was possible.

Ira spent the next three hours killing zombies. It wasn’t quite as fun as killing real zombies, but some concessions had to made in favor of the mission. At some point he was vaguely aware of Darcy walking in and taking a picture of Ira splayed out sideways on the couch, only to then walk right out again.

Ira had no idea what that was about.

He comforted himself with the knowledge that Silas was weird and there was no use in trying to figure out what he was thinking. If it was important, the man would tell him. 79od5n

While he was playing game and genuinely having fun, his Host wasn’t in such a lucky situation. The shooting for the Drama™ had officially started and it wasn’t going that well. Ira had, quite frankly, not bothered to keep up with the mission’s progress and he utterly refused to rewind the videos to catch up on what he’d missed.

So he didn’t know what had happened so far, or how his Host got singled out by the director as being a bad actress when there were lots of actors playing minor roles that were just as bad, or worse, than her.

Honestly, watching her shoot the current scene and than get scolded by the director was just confusing. Ira was so out of the loop that it wasn’t even funny watching her be humiliated.

It was boring, so he stopped paying attention. juHMQ4

With his killing urge pacified, Ira left the gaming room. It was significantly later in the day now and the sun was beginning to set. It felt like he’d just woken up, but somehow the day was already approaching its end.

He walked outside. The mansion’s garden was gigantic, just like everything else here. Tall green trees rose around it, caging it in. The grass was the kind of sparkling green that spelled artificial, but it smelled real enough so maybe it was just a very skilled gardener. The setting sun made half the sky turn pink and purple, the colors beautifully stretching out from the horizon.

Ira leaned his head back and felt the wind move through his hair. He smelled the overpowering scent of the flowers, let the sensation of sunlight fall upon him. His eyelids fluttered shut as he stopped and just breathed.

The world, so far out of the city, was quiet. KRsDlu

He was surrounded only by the sounds of nature, untainted by human hands. His heartbeat slowed down as he breathed steadily and embraced the nature around him. It was beautiful. He didn’t think it was something he usually bothered to think about, but out here, away from humans, it was truly a breathtaking view.

He opened his eyes again and snapped some pictures of the view. He had the urge to draw it, to trace over the pictures with something else and bringing out more of that calm beauty.

He absolutely wasn’t mentioning a word of this to his boss. That person would be ecstatic and start talking about hobbies and how it wasn’t healthy to only focus on his job. Ira wasn’t only focusing on his job—he was having fun killing things, too. Well, his boss would say that that wasn’t healthy either but screw that geezer, Ira was having fun and that was what counted.

Spinning on his heel, he took in the view from the other direction. After barely a moment of consideration, Ira flopped backward onto his back. He landed back first on the grass, the carefully maintained strands poking his skin. He splayed out his arms wide and stared straight up at the slowly darkening sky. 7rAmQ5

His eyes drifted closed. His breathing slowed. And eventually, he fell asleep.

Ira woke up to the sound of somebody taking pictures. He blinked blearily, staring around in confusion before he remembered where he was. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned and glared at Darcy. “What are you doing?” he asked, still sounding sleepy.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

“For posterity’s sake,” Darcy replied. The man didn’t look ashamed at all to be caught red-handed, he only took even more photos.

Well, Ira didn’t really have a leg to stand on. He’d taken tons of photos of Silas without asking for the man’s permission. Or him knowing about it. e50BoV

Was that a bad thing? He felt like it was a bad thing.

“I currently have one-thousand-and-thirty-two pictures of you in my database. Is this a problem?” Ira asked. After a minute of Silas only staring at him with his mouth hanging open, he added, “I took them without your permission.” Just to make sure that they were on the same page.

“I…” Silas frowned and asked, “Really?”

“Yes.” j65NSZ

“Do you… take photos of lots of people?”

“No, why on earth would I do that?”

Silas blinked and scratched his nose. “Oh,” he said, as if Ira knew what that meant. Slowly, a smile grew on Darcy’s face, that unbearably soft look back in his eyes. He said, “I’m fine with that. Take as many pictures as you want.”

Ira furrowed his eyebrows. He was fairly certain that something about this wrong. Weren’t humans super specific about making sure you had permission before you took photos of them? Should Darcy really have such a cavalier attitude about this? Shouldn’t he be pissed at Ira? up81sU

“Well… if you’re sure about it,” Ira said. It felt a little like all the wind had gone out of his sails. He had been perfectly ready to make his case to Silas, to explain why he felt the need to take pictures of the man when he didn’t take pictures of others (well, he’d taken photos of Nylo. He should tell them that the next time he saw them).

Darcy sat down on the grass next to him. He threw an arm around Ira’s shoulder and squeezed them together, smiling at him. “I’m sure,” he said.

Ira sagged against the man. He closed his eyes, still feeling tired from his brief nap. He’d only been asleep for a couple of minutes according to his internal clock, and it wasn’t nearly enough. He curled into the other man, feeling him embrace him tightly. The warmth stuck to him, scorched him and spread throughout his body.

He didn’t quite manage to fall asleep again. They stayed out on the grass for another half-hour or so, the setting sun coloring the sky pinker the farther it set. 4UFIOT

Leave a Comment

6 comments

  1. Wow, Ira… this character development from not caring about SIlas to asking if it’s fine for him to take pictures is good. Keep it up ≧ω≦

  2. … Ira is growing… not sure if this is good or bad, meh

    We’ll find out sooner or later ¯_(ツ)_/¯

  3. It was too soft and too hard on the curves, the edges burnt but the middle completely raw. The taste was unbalanced and strange, and he thought he could see whole eggshells somewhere. It was a mess and it tasted bad enough that Ira had no intention of eating more than the single bite he had unfortunately already taken.

    Darcy even a whole slice of it. The power of love surprises me once again! Just imagining this scene makes me sick!!