TTT: Standoff (part 5)

Whoops! Meant to post this final piece... last month. Sorry about that! Things are looking like they'll return to something like a normal schedule soonish, so the updates will be less sporadic. In the meantime, though...

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As Shizu and her doctor doll backed away, Jasmaby walked over to Charthur and scooped her up, Charthur throwing her hands around his long neck for support. "Well, I'm glad for this happy conclosure. But it is quite late, and we shall be retiring to bed. Adieu!"

Neon got to her hooves slowly, brushing off the dust and watching them depart, Charthur throwing her a parting wave. 

"BING!" Chip chirped near her ear. "I RECOMMEND RETURNING TO SLEEP IMMEDIATELY, IN PREPARATION FOR OUR DINNER INVITATION. BOOP!"

"Bed. Yeah," said Neon distantly. "Good idea." Finally alone again, her brain could finally begin settling down and sifting through the moments of the night, examining each one in turn, twisting and inspecting them like a jeweler with a precious stone. 

"There's just one thing I need to do first," she concluded.

"BZZT!" Chip pressed itself into her cheek, nudging her insistently. "HISTORICALLY, DATA ANALYSIS IS AN ACTIVITY THAT YOU HAVE TROUBLE DISENGAGING FROM, AND THAT LEAVES YOU AN ALERT STATE ILL-SUITED TO SLEEP. BZZT!!"

"Data—" Neon caught up with what Chip was suggesting. "Oh. No. Not that." She gently pushed the tiny robot off her face. "I mean, definitely offload all your readings to a backup server as soon as we're back home."

"BEEP? THEN WHAT DO YOU INTEND TO DO, NEON? BOOP?" Chip asked.

"Just..." Neon sighed. "One quick update to the site. And then a few edits I need to make." She hadn't given up tonight, even when things seemed hopeless. Perhaps, for now, she'd try moving forward for herself. 

Epilogue

In a dark room, a single finger glided across a touchscreen. The page was terribly brief, only a few lines long. His eyes settled briefly on the single row dominating the center of the text:

Knockout: Jasmaby (Kid Neon assisting) --> Charthur

...before returning to the timestamps at the bottom of the page. The site had updated a few minutes ago (the notification having awoken him), but the War itself had ended not even a half-hour before that.

With a frustrated grunt, the jet-black tiger slammed the compact back down on his bedside table. Zeromy threw his hands over his face, unable to contain his frustration.

A War! At night! And he had slept through it!! 

Zeromy cursed the gods silently (less worried about them hearing than his parents) and tried to get himself back to sleep. 

Actual Epilogue

Charthur flicked her compact open, then closed again. She bit her lip, hard, then relaxed her jaw.

She glanced at the corner. Just around it, she could hear the sounds of her students gathering and chatting idly, waiting for her. She only had a few minutes anyway. It would be easy enough to put it off.

She looked back down at her compact, and her open bag nearby. It would be the easy thing to do, just... chucking it in and walking away. She could just leave the doubt simmering in the back of her mind...

Charthur had a moment of courage, and she seized upon it. She flicked open the compact and hit his number before she could stop herself.

She put her compact to her ear, but instead of a ring tone, she heard Jasmaby's voice immediately: "Oh, uh… hi, hello."

"Hey," she said back.

"I was just about to call," he explained, his confusion giving way to gentle amusement.

"Oh, ha ha." She breathed out, trying to release some of the tension that had built up in the back of her neck. She asked, "Am I not interrupting your show? It’s an important one, I know."

"Oh, don’t worry, there’s plenty of time before I’m set to go on." There was a pause. "Actually, Sunny’s making that face of theirs again so I supposition I’m cutting things close. But I needed to call."

"Yeah, I..." Charthur bit her lip, mulling over her words. "This morning was a little rushed… I didn’t want to leave things untouched." It was a weak rhyme, but the words were right, and important. And for that reason, they didn't sting to say. 

"I as well," Jasmaby's voice was resonant, even over the phone line.  

Then there was a long pause. Charthur nervously thumbed at the knot of her belt, words not coming. She didn’t feel tangled in her head, and that was a relief; but in its place was just silence, and she didn’t know how to deal with that. 

She spotted Tempo peeking around the corner at her. The long-eared tiger pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the gathered class, but she waved them off, turning away with her compact. 

Jasmaby’s voice finally came through: "Ah, I should ask… Kit will be coming to dinner tonight, won’t she? I think I may have… may have poorly…"

"She'll come," Charthur reassured him.

"You know how I am sometimes... and with her, I just..."

"She’ll come for sure, without fail," Charthur insisted. Then she remembered who she was talking about. "I'll escort her myself, so she doesn't bail."

"Good. Good. I'm glad." 

The conversation trailed off again. She peeked at the corner again, where Tempo was still hovering. They gave her an exaggerated shrug, but she just waved her compact at them.

She listened at her compact for another second. She gave herself a little push, forcing some words out, letting them be imperfect. "Uh, I know... last night was no big thing, but, uh... if something ever... took that ring..." It wasn't right, but it was something.

Jasmaby picked up where she left off. "Yes, if... if you ever felt like... if there was... rather than wait, you would..." He trailed off.

Charthur took another stab, trying to imagine Jasmaby's face as she spoke. "If a serious vein beneath frippery lay, then surely you would... without delay..."

"Why is this so hard to..." She heard a big inhale on the other line, and then he burst out, all at once: "Charthur, if there was ever anything you couldn’t talk to me about, you would tell me, yes?"

"Yes!" Charthur shouted happily. "Eye to eye we clearly see, if you do would do the same for me." It was a relief, to hear him so precisely vocalize that tiny concern that had been nagging at her.

"Intimediately, and not a moment later," Jasmaby promised. "That way we can get better at, ah, talking. Together." There was some commotion on the line, something happening on Jasmaby's end, but his voice was smooth and certain. "Nonething would make me happier."

Charthur couldn't help but giggle, just a little. "You’re cute," she told him.

He laughed, the kind of laugh not in response to anything funny, but for its own simple, happy sake. "Well, you're cuter. I mean that with my heart."

Charthur didn't have words again. But that was fine. Somehow, she knew Jasmaby could feel her warm glow just fine without them.

The two indulged in the moment as long as they could. And then Jasmaby spoke once more, "Darling, I'm sorry, but Sunny's face thing is becoming rather dire so I'm afraid I do have to run."

"Of course, okay, I too am late." It was getting hard to ignore the sound of Tempo rhythmically tapping his large foot on the ground. "My students, I fear, do me await."

"I'll call you after the show," Jasmaby told her.

"Okay," she said. She hung up — almost.

But then she got another moment of courage, and once again seized upon it. 

"I love you!" she declared. It still managed to be nearly as heady as the first time she said it. The thrill — the rush! — traveled through her body like a shiver. 

Jasamby put a little pause before he again. It wasn't hesitation, Charthur knew, but that moment Jasmaby took when the words he was about to speak had to be perfect. "I love you too, dearest," he said with patent pleasure.

"Best of luck with your new line! I know that you will do just fine," Charthur cheered.

He gave her a pleased hum. "Thank you, darling. Good fortuity with your class." 

"Thanks!" she called back. It was going to be a perfect lesson, a perfect afternoon, a perfect day.

And that's when Jasmaby added: "You can hang up now."

"You hang up," she shot back. She hadn't realized she was saying it. It had been a reflex.

There was a beat. "No, Charthur," came Jasmaby's voice, troubled. "I really don't have time for this. Just hang up."

"You hang up," she shot back again. This time, it was extremely intentional.

"Charthur," Jasmaby warned, "I cannot stress the consequence of this spectravaganza enough. I need you, right now, to hang up." 

"You hang up," she retorted.

"Charthur," he hissed. "You hang up right now or I will—" There was someone speaking to him, and she heard him yell back, "One momentous, Sunny! Just one!" 

"You'll what?" She challenged.

She had his attention again. "I'll make you regret your ludicrousity," he growled, threat and promise in one.

"You started it!" She could feel Tempo's Look burning on the back of the neck, but she wasn't going to let him get away with this.

"You were going to hang up anyway!" he shouted.

"Until you insisted!" 

Jasmaby unleashed one of his most dramatic, condescending sighs. "I cannot, cannot believe how childish you are being about this."

"You're being childish," she spit back.

"Hang up!" he screeched.

"You hang up!" she shot back, with equal intensity. 

Jasmaby fell to a low growl. "Charthur, you are going to hang up if I have to..." He trailed off as Sunny's voice, shouting in the background, finally made itself heard. "Ugh, I don't care!" Jasmaby shouted off to the side. Put Lucela on first! It'll be fine!" There was more of Sunny's shouting, and then, "Then change the programs! Hand out pens if you have to! Why do I have to tell you everything??" There were more voices shouting now, but Jasmaby's voice could always dominate the room. "Hand me my robe! Fifteen minutes! I'll be back in fifteen minutes!"

"Ten minutes!" Charthur shouted into the phone. "Ten minutes for sure. That's all that I need to wipe with you the floor!"

"Quill Plaza!" Jasmaby shouted in the compact.

"Quill Plaza!" Charthur shouted back in agreement. 

"Prepare to fry, snowcone," he said, his voice taking that nasty and sweet tone she loathed and loved. 

"I'll defeat you soundly, with style and class," she boasted back. "I'll beat you completely, so bring your whole ass."

She turned, nearly slamming into Tempo. They opened their mouth to protest, but Charthur was already shoving them back around the corner. "Lead the warmup! Do as I say! I'll be right there, a brief delay!"

She rolled up her sleeves and charged off in the direction of Quill Plaza, trying to remember to be angry rather than excited to see him. His show was so important, and he was coming to see her anyway!! She owed it to him to kick his butt quickly. 

Final Epilogue

"It's alright, everyone!" Jasmaby called to the assembled crowd of tigers. "Disputation resolved." He made a dramatic display of clicking the compact he was holding in the air shut. "No War this time, we handled it ourselves perfectly peacefully!"

As the crowd groaned and shouted their disapproval, Jasmaby handed the compact back to Charthur, then released her from his twisting hold. He then produced his own compact with a flourish, snapping it shut as well. 

The mob dispersed, throwing disappointed hisses back at the couple as they stared each other down.

Once they had a little privacy, Charthur broke the silence. "...that was slick," she admitted, rubbing the feeling back into her arms.

"You were distracted," Jasmaby teased, fluttering the opening of his robe at her again. 

"Cheater," she accused, blushing. 

"All's fair, dearest," he retorted.

They stared at each other a moment longer. They felt it from each other, the urge to embrace, the urge to hold each other and never let go, but...

"Tonight?" Jasmaby asked.

"Tonight." Charthur agreed.

And with that, the two tigers broke into a sprint, rushing to catch up with life once again.