xp_logs | Match and Hope S.; lizards

xp_mimetic posting in

In a stunning betrayal, Match and Milton offer comfort to the enemy.

Someone was crying. Near the main living room where they usually played video games. Match stood in the hall, trying to figure out what he should do, before slowly following the found. After months of creeping around, he was almost soundless.

Oh, the redhead girl.

“Are you… okay?”

The girl started, uncurling in the chair she'd found when her feelings had overwhelmed her. She had to take a moment, scrubbing at her face, before looking up at him. But what she said, after a pause, was a hitchy, "Is that a lizard on your shoulder?"

The boy — and the lizard — blinked at her before slowly, firmly, Match nodded. “Yes. His name is Milton, I got him in New Jersey.” That he’d ignored an alert on his phone and continued to work (which everyone seemed to imply was the wrong response) went unsaid.

Picking at the sleeve hems of his jacket, he decided to ask. “Were you crying?”

"I was - um - yeah," the girl said, flushing, her eyes still teary; the interruption had stopped the flow, but she had clearly been crying her eyes out moments earlier. There were wet spots on her knees where she'd been hiding her face. "Sorry." She sniffed and swiped at her eyes, embarrassed and lost for words. "I, um - your lizard is really cute."

"Yeah... he is, that's why I picked him instead of the other lizards and reptiles we were paid in," Match agreed, not sure what to do with the confirmation that the girl – Hope had been crying before he found her. Crying a lot by the looks of it. Still perched on his shoulder, Milton stared out at his vast kingdom, happy with the heat he was being provided on his walk.

Match cleared his throat after a moment. "If you promise not to cry on him, you can hold him, if you want. He's really chill, he just sits around and doesn't get aggressive or nothing."

"Can I? I won't hurt him?" The promise of getting to hold a lizard seemed to help her steel herself. "I won't cry on him, I promise."

"Okay, you promised." A firm nod as Match reached up to take Milton off his shoulder. Lifted, the leopard gecko looked around, still comforted by the heat of the teen as he was shifted to be offered to the girl. "You can watch me play Valorant if you want. But don't tell Cats, okay?"

Hope took the gecko gingerly, giggling a little as he tickled her palms. "Hi," she whispered to the gecko, enchanted. "You're so pretty." She looked up at Match. "I won't. But what's, um, Valiant?"

"Valorant," he corrected after a beat, "it's a video game. Come on, you can try playing if you want to." Match nodded down the hall to indicate where they were going.

Nodding quickly, Hope rose, taking extra careful care to make sure Milton was comfortable and secure. "Is it like Banjo Kazooie? Uncle Hank had that one in the lab. Hey, does Milton like shoulders or is it better to carry him in my hands?"