Chapter Text
Kasper bit into his slice of toast. It tasted nothing like how toast should taste. In the best of ways.
"Mmm!" he exclaimed involuntarily, before quickly composing himself. He made sure to chew the rest properly before speaking. "This is really good!"
"I'm saying!" Kroe confirmed, already on his second slice.
"What have you guys been eating the last few days that this is so impressive?" Strangle chuckled, sliding the next slice onto Alastyr's plate.
"Corn." Flynn replied.
"Eugh. I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Kroe assured.
It was early morning in the Stranglehold. Probably. The void outside was dark as ever, not in any way indicative of the time, which was pretty confusing for Kasper's already fairly scrambled brain. But if he were to trust the clock, and he had no other choice - it was just past eight in the morning. Though he's never seen a clock like this before, rectangular, one that displayed the time using just the four relevant numbers instead of clock hands. The past few days have taught him that there's a lot he's never seen, and a weird clock was probably the least bizarre.
Strangle was standing over the stove, wooden spatula in hand, making breakfast for the whole team, despite Kasper's remarks on how he really shouldn't bother himself with feeding everyone, especially while sick. He was soon forced to bite his tongue, though, since it turned out Strangle was a damn good cook. The toast was fried on butter mixed with sugar, giving it a rich, sweet taste and a delicate texture with crispy edges - all things that Kasper never expected to think about a slice of fried bread.
Strangle flipped over another slice with a quick motion of the pan, making Kasper wonder why even bother with the spatula at all. Like everything Strangle did, the flip was effortlessly cool, and he was soon sliding the toast onto his own plate.
"Would you guys mind grabbing some groceries while you're out and about?" he asked in between bites, "I'm not gonna lie, this place is really not stocked up for this many people. I can make y'all a shopping list if ya need one."
"Yuh noth comin' withus?" Alastyr asked, mouthful of toast. Rude.
"Nah, I'm still sick. I'm recoverin' alright, but I wouldn't wanna make it worse, yanno? I wanna be there for the end of the world."
"Of course." Kasper nodded. He was a little disappointed Strangle wouldn't be joining them, but there was comfort in knowing he'd be safe in the base.
"So, what's the plan?" Kroe asked, "Besides going shopping."
"I mean, it's not like we've ever had a plan before." Flynn pointed out.
Strangle shook his head. "This time's different. Since the eggs you had are just gone like that, it means someone else got 'em. Finding the eggs is one thing, but if someone's trying to take 'em away? That's no good. We need to find where they are and take 'em back. Now, there may be a way for me to direct you guys to those specific eggs, but that's a big 'may'."
"How are you gonna do that?" Kroe licked each of his fingers clean. Gross.
Strangle smirked. "Once you're all done eatin', I can show ya."
With everyone's plates cleared and put away into an automated dish cleaning machine called 'the dishwasher' (Alastyr's amazement with the technological wonders of the Stranglehold grew with every second), the crew was soon standing in the main room, looking over an unknown to them device. It consisted of what looked like a glass jar with some sort of panel attached.
Strangle leaned over and held a button on the side of the device for a few seconds, and soon enough, the crew saw as the screen lit up a pale blue. A faint whirring could be heard from inside the glass tube.
"Aight, who's got the egg?" Strangle asked. "Kroe, may I?"
He took the egg out of Kroe's hands and placed it in the tube, letting go of it quite suddenly. Kasper instinctively flinched when he let go, as did the rest of the crew members, but the egg didn't fall to the bottom of the jar, instead staying suspended midair.
"Fascinating." Alastyr muttered, "How's it doing that?"
"I'll spare you the technicalities, but basically, the walls of the jar all act sort of like polarized magnets, suspending the egg midair." Strangle explained. "But that's not what's impressive here. Watch this."
He pressed one more button and the machinery began emitting a soft buzzing sound. Along with it, numbers began appearing on the light blue panel.
After staring at the strings of numbers for a few seconds Strangle reached for a drawer. It opened with a slide, revealing an inside full of papers, pages upon pages covered in messy handwriting on both sides, with graphs, chemical formulas and scientific equations Kasper couldn't even imagine the purpose of. Strangle carded through them in just a few seconds, compared what was on the screen to the contents of the notes, and was done. Some more clicking buttons. Some more looking through notes. Kasper's never seen him this focused before. It was incredibly attractive of him.
"Okay." Strangle finally concluded, pressing one more button, causing the numbers to rearrange into slightly less complicated numbers. "See this? That's where all the eggs are."
"This is numbers." Kroe was unimpressed.
"Is this like degrees? Like cardinal directions?" Alastyr inquired, nearly bouncing up and down from the excitement.
"Pretty much, but on a much, much bigger scale." Strangle's excitement was less apparent, but still discernible in his face. Cute. "Basically, all those worlds you've been to, they're connected, they're just really, really far away from each other. Unimaginable amounts of far away from each other. And this egg, it's keeping track of all that, all the time. And we can see that with this bad boy right here - translated into numbers. Now, I'm gonna try and direct y'all to where the stolen eggs are, you see?" saying this, he pointed at three repeating strings of numbers. "But something like that only worked once for me so far, and I honestly can't tell if it was by chance or not. Yeah, by the way, if I'm not able to replicate that, we might not see each other for a while. So, fingers crossed, eh?"
"That's a lot of information at once." said Flynn.
"Kinda tough to explain years of research any other way, Flynn." Strangle grinned. "So, ya ready?"
The crew looked around each other. Seeing no signs of protest from anyone, Kasper nodded, accompanied by Alastyr's excited "Let's do it!".
"Alright, just gimme a minute to set everything up and you'll be good to go, aight?" Strangle slouched back over the device.
The rest of the crew stepped back, checking their bearings, making sure they got everything they needed for the journey ahead. Kasper patted himself down as well to check for his stuff, and that's when he felt it. The bandanna. Tucked neatly into his front pocket.
Kasper pulled it out, and it unrolled to reveal its full glory. He looked up towards Strangle. He could give it back now. He no longer needed it to remember.
"What is it, Kasper?" Strangle turned in the chair to face him as he approached, one hand leisured on the armrest, the other one fidgeting with a pen. Kasper tried his best to mirror that effortless chill like he totally didn't just tear up a few seconds ago.
"Nothin'." Too chill. "Actually, something. Well, it's a really small something. But I figured I should- I just wanted to give you this."
Having needlessly rambled long enough, Kasper reached out his hand, holding out the bandanna. It was a little crumpled, a little dirty, and for some reason a little wet, but by the way Strangle's eyes lit up when he saw it, you'd think it was the most wonderful gift.
"Oh, wow." He laughed, "You kept that old thing?"
"Well... Yeah?" Kasper replied, frankly a little offended. Here he was, offering Strangle back the only thing he had left of him after what Kasper thought was his demise, and he just calls it 'that old thing'?
"That's... real sweet of ya, actually." He smiled, and Kasper instantly forgave him for everything, ever.
Strangle's hand reached over to Kasper's to grab the bandanna, but before he touched the red fabric, he paused, instead closing Kasper's fingers over it and gently pushing his hand back towards him.
"You keep it."
"What?" Kasper couldn't stop the smile spreading across his face.
"Yeah, you took such good care of it the past few days. You should keep it."
Kasper looked down, quick to realize Strangle's fingertips were still lingering over his closed hand. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. I want you to."
"Alright." Kasper stuffed the bandanna back into his pocket. "Thank you."
"It's nothin'" Strangle assured. "Did ya ever wear it or...?"
"Just once." The mere fact of being asked this - honestly, quite unexpected - question made Kasper feel like he's committed some sort of faux pas by wearing another man's bandanna. "Sorry...?"
"Oh, no, I didn't mean it like that! I, uh... bet it suits ya, actually." A coy smile danced across his lips, and Kasper nearly giggled into his hand.
"Well, thank you." He replied, trying to keep the butterflies in his stomach down. Embarrassing, how little it took from Strangle to get him all giddy.
Then again, it was understandable, wasn't it? Here he was, standing before Kasper, the man he thought was gone forever. He could keep the bandanna now not out of necessity, but because Strangle asked him to. Strangle, who was alive, and here, and real, talking to him, smiling at him, his hand tangible over Kasper's own. No longer something Kasper feared would evaporate into nothingness as soon as he awakes from another soft dream.
He almost wanted to hug Strangle, right now, just to prove it. But before he could make up his mind, the man spoke out:
"Oh, I also got something for ya."
"Really?" Kasper perked up.
"Yeah. The shopping list." Strangle handed him a piece of paper.
"Oh. Uh, thanks." Bit disappointed, he stuffed it into his pocket as well. "Everything ready?"
"Almost!" Strangle sat back in the chair. "You?"
"Yeah!" Kasper nodded, then turned back to the rest of the crew to see Kroe give a big thumbs up.
"Alright," Strangle handed Kroe the egg as he walked up, "Enjoy the ride."