Uneasy Alliance (A Roleslaying with Roman story)

The Deal

Youngblood and Roman looked around as Arpeggio led them to a large cave. The walls, ceiling, and floor were covered with vines, mosses, and flowers, as well as a few other, smaller plants. Roman looked around in awe as they walked deeper down the path. The cave was lit by yellow bioluminescent plants, and small amber-colored lanterns set around in different places.

The cave got larger and larger as the group went down, until it opened into a large room where the ground flattened out. The floor here was grassy, almost as though it was on the surface, and had a few small bugs and plants coexisting around it. The walls of the room were what really concerned Roman and Youngblood. They reached high up, at least twenty feet off the ground, and every few feet there were small, cubicle-like areas of a golden-orange rock framed by vines. A few of them seemed to have people suspended inside of them, frozen as though trapped in ice. Roman shuddered, and Arpeggio looked away shamefully. Youngblood was still extremely tense, and desperately trying to keep his fire under control.

Arpeggio started to lead the two across the room and to a doorway covered with vines against the back wall, until Youngblood turned and caught sight of-

"NOISE!!" Youngblood cried, turning and sprinting across the grass towards the wall of amber prisons. He stopped and placed both of his hands against one, staring up at Noise as he felt a pain in his chest.

Noise was just as still as all of the others trapped with him. The only part of him that he was seemingly able to move was his half-closed eye. His lips were parted slightly, and his arms and legs were positioned in a way that indicated that he had been bound and struggling when he was frozen. His head was turned down just slightly, and his hair was held up all around his head and horns in a way that made it look like he was suspended in water. In a horrible, painful way, he almost looked beautiful to Youngblood.

Noise's eye flicked around, panicked, seemingly trying to find a way to escape. When his gaze locked on Youngblood, his pupil, which had been nothing more than a faint slit, dilated slightly, which Youngblood knew to be a sign that he was happy or relieved. Youngblood swallowed hard and looked at Noise worriedly.

"Noise.. please, can you hear me..? Just... please, I need to know you're okay.." his voice broke a bit and he closed his eyes briefly to make the sudden burn he felt in his eyes and throat subside. Noise glanced away briefly before looking back at him, which Youngblood took as a sing that he could, in fact, hear him. Youngblood let out a shaky sigh and put his hand against the amber where Noise's cheek would be.

"I'm going to get you out, I promise. Please hold on..."

Roman put a hand on Youngblood's shoulder and nodded, looking up at Noise sadly. He went to the doorway with Arpeggio, but Youngblood hesitated. He took a deep breath as he looked into Noise's eye, his heart pounding as he prepared himself to say what he needed to.

"I... I love you, Noise."

He turned and walked away to join the others, avoiding Noise's gaze for fear of his reaction. Roman's eyes widened a bit as he looked between the two, but he didn't say anything about it. Youngblood pushed the vines aside and wrapped his arms around himself, trying to steady his heart.

Arpeggio cleared her throat a bit as they walked through another, shorter tunnel.  "We have a few guards here who Tempo wanted to talk to... they seemed like genuinely good people, I think you might want them to join your group. After that, we can find Tempo and try to reason with xem to make xem let the rest of the guards free.."

Youngblood nodded, not entirely paying attention. His mind kept drifting back to Noise. To the way he looked so helpless and afraid, suspended in that prison. Youngblood knew that Noise didn't like being saved. He used to, back when they lived together in the college, but now every time he was saved or helped, he would seem frustrated for at least the remainder of that day. With that, combined with Youngblood's confession of his long-suppressed love for him, Youngblood was afraid for how Noise would react when they freed him.