Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

2.7 Happy cooperation

Luca considered that, the scent on him that would be stronger than anyone else, could only be that of blood and death. If he truly wanted a life away from that then he was correct that the majority of people back home had that.  If he sincerely wants that.

Luca considered the matter. Shade was here it would be difficult to drive him away. If Luca didn’t ask him things directly about the box or the world there would be no effect of misinformation. Considering there were still the unknown people messing with things on the other side and the setup to begin with one more wild card would make life difficult for more than just them.

[Lucky: Opinions?] Luca was inclined to give this ago. He lacked information there was the potential it could be a trap. However playing spy and leading a trap was irrational because it was an unnecessary excess with continued pursuit people would be caught. Luca might be able to avoid for a while but there was too much hostile parts to the environment that would potentially trip him up. Thus there was really no reason to go through the effort of integrating into their group just to let them be caught.

[Tails: I’m inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. He could have waited to interfere until we desperately needed help. No matter how it is said it wouldn’t have been much longer before the wolves caught us.] Luca considered that. A sudden appearance could normally mean one otwo things that someone just managed to rush over or that they had been waiting and chosen the time to emerge. Given the description Tails provided it seemed that if Shade had been lurking h had poor ability to time a rescue. Which seemed incredibly unlikely given how collected Shade had been and the precise way he moved.

[Holly: Agreed, in particular he saved the three idiots even when they acted like he had the plague. We would have left them for dead with the attitude they had.] Luca agreed with that thought the reference to them as baits was a bit concerning. Luca hoped it was a matter of translation failing to include nuanced meaning.

[Ghost: Is fine either way, could be fun.] While the answer seemed devil may care and flippant how could Luca not understand his friend. This was his agreement he just liked to word it to get a rise out of Rӓv. After all this time it was still somewhat amusing that Rӓv still hadn’t caught on. Luca also took the message underneath that Ghost would keep watch on Shade to heart.

[Rӓv: Crazy Ruski. I’m fine with it if he isn’t pinging Lucky’s radar then I bet he’s fine.] Luca had to shake his head Rӓv had developed a weird superstation regarding Luca’s ability to judge people. Identify a couple of plants and suddenly you’re a good judge of character.

[Lucky: Thanks for the vote of confidence I think.] Luca refocused on Shade just as Help flew of his shoulder and moved to hover in the air in between them. Luca was a bit surprised at the fairy’s sudden move, but he’d noticed that Help seemed to have an uncanny sense of timing. Thus his timely interruption prevented the silence from stretching out and gave Luca a few minutes to think about a graceful way to agree to Shades presence.

“You better not try anything with lucky or I’ll curse your bloodline for eternity.” The serious tone was ruined by the high sweet voice that they used but Luca appreciated the intention, so he smoothed the curves out of his lips before he reached out a hand for Help to land on. He somewhat wondered about Helps seeming imprinting on him. Yes, he’d freed him from the little cage, but it hadn’t been much, and Tails had been the one to bring him out of the punishment level. Yet Help was determined to stay with Luca he made that clear in every choice he made.

“As you say little one.” Shade inclined his head to Help, and Help started at him from a moment longer before they settled on Luca’s hand. Luca pulled his hand back and let Help hop back onto his shoulder. As Luca then straightened his sitting posture and held his hand out again, this time side on. Unfortunately he hadn’t been able to think up an inspiring and moving invitation and so was forced to stick to something ambivalently friendly.

“To a happy and successful co-operation. As I said I’m Lucky, my pint-sized protector here is Help. Tails you’ve met. The man with him earlier was Holly. The other man is Ghost, and the lady is Rӓv. You’ll have to take some language lessons before we go back and Rӓv and Ghost will be best to help with that.” Luca gave out full introductions of his group and at the same time assigned a watch to Shade under the guise of language lessons. Luca trusted Ghost to pass the word on clearly. When Shade stretched his hand out Luca shook it once and then released it.

Shade stared at his hand as if surprised by the novelty. When Tails reached out and shook his hand. the second handshake seemed more natural. However as soon as their hands disengage a clap of thunder sounded and a deluge of rain came down. Luca looked up at the roof of the tent and was glad that it was specially reinforced.

“Sounds like a monsoon.” Luca shook his head he didn’t like to think about storms in general they always coincided with bad luck for him.

“The elementals are playing hard it seems,” Shade responded. Luca felt his left eye twitch at that comment. It was particularly concerning to have something that had been alluded to so clearly laid out. Particularly when it said something that Luca didn’t actually want to know. The elements were hard enough to deal with back home he didn’t need the additional issue of them being sentient and playful.

“Alright. We need to move early in the morning time to get some rest.” Luca didn’t indicate that Shade should leave, and he made no move to do so himself. Realistically Luca felt better about having the man close at hand so just turned to lie down. With three people in the tent it was warm edging into hot, so Luca didn’t bother with extra covering just undid his bets and set them aside and used his jacket to make a pillow.

Luca woke later in the night to the feel of the swords beneath his hands shivering in their sheaths and a foreign weight on his chest. He snapped his eyes open but remained still. When he’d laid down to sleep the glow stick had been left above his head. Now the source of the light had shifted to directly below his neck or otherwise on his chest. Luca could be certain though that the glow stick alone wouldn’t account for the weight he felt.

Though the fact the glow stick was still glowing told Luca that only a few hours had passed. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Help curled up beside his hair, so he wasn’t the weight. Luca hadn’t really expected him to be he was a bit too small for that. Tilting his neck slight Luca finds himself nose to muzzle with the weight.