Blade looks down when his communicator buzzes. It’s Phil messaging him for dinner. He looks over at Demo and decides that he doesn’t want to go. He’s not leaving Demo again so soon.
‘im busy’ the communicator reads. He continues talking with Demo and ignores the first few buzzes of his communicator.
“Can you answer or are you going to doom us to listening to that for eternity?” Demo gives him a shove.
Blade groans and picks it up. ‘I’m Busy.’ It reads again. Phil is being awfully pushy today.
Demo teases him for being such a bad friend and paying more attention to his communicator than him. Blade puts him in a headlock for that one.
Demo’s halfway to biting him before the communicator buzzes again. He wriggles out to grab it before Blade can.
“It says ‘where are you? you have to come back for dinner, that was the agreement. Phil says you said you were busy.’” Blade reaches for it before Demo dashes off with it in his hands.
He shouts after him before giving up and chasing him into the forest. He almost shoves Demo into a tree when he catches up but succeeds in knocking the communicator from his hands.
‘Fine. can i bring someone with me tho?’
‘Sure? Who is it though’
The rest of the communicator buzzes are ignored at that point as it’s shoved into his pocket.
“You’re coming to dinner with me. I don’t care if you don’t want to.” Demo is once again in a headlock and Blade starts dragging him in the direction of the camp.
Demo slams his elbow into Blade’s gut and that loosens his grip enough to slip out.
“Fine. Why would I turn down free food? One less meal to worry about.” He reaches up to grab Blade’s mask.
He pulls it down and off his face as Blade opens his mouth to speak. He makes a sputtering noise as he gets hit with the ear.
“Hey! Fuck off.” He grabs at the mask but Demo keeps it out of reach.
“I’m doing you a favour, you look stupid.” Demo stares at the boar mask and compares it with Blade’s face. He can see the resemblance.
“It makes me look intimidating. People get scared when I wear it.” Blade glares at him for a moment before brushing his hair out of his face.
“I think it makes you look stupid and the opposite of intimidating. You haven’t been intimidating to me since the time you decided to cut your hair.”
“That never happened.”
“It was so cute and so dumb. Your little fuzzy hair sticking up like a chicken. It looks so much better now that it’s long. And less like a rats nest.”
“As if you’re any better. You look like a dog toy.”
Demo makes an offended face and charges at Blade. He catches him off guard enough to knock him to the ground.
Blade tosses him off of him far enough to get up before he picks him up. Just picks him up like a cat, arms under armpits. Demo begs for mercy.
He receives none.
He gets tossed into a bush but on the way down he kicks Blade in the face. They both have to catch their breath after that one.
Eventually though, after many bruises, they make it to the edge of the forest.
They step out from behind the cover of the trees to the sight of a full table. Everyone is here already, Blade’s the last one to show up.
Everyone at the table stares at Blade and Demo. A few people look nervous and shift in their seats. Most look suspicious, and others look simply confused.
Pato clears his throat and directs his question towards Demo. “Who are you? I don’t think you’re supposed to be here.” It’s clear he’s asking him to leave.
“I asked Sen if I could bring him. He’s supposed to be here.” Blade glares at Pato for speaking up.
They step forwards to sit down at the table. Blades glaring at everyone now as if daring anyone to speak up about Demo.
They gather their plates and as Demo starts to eat Blade clears his throat.
“This is Demo-kurr.” Demo whips his head up to stare at Blade. “He’s-”
“Absolutely not. It’s Demo-tiff.” Blade stares at Demo trying not to laugh.
“Absolutely not. You are a small child.”
“I’m not a child! It’s tiff.”
“You are delusional if you think that.”
“You’re just incorrect.” Blade sighs at that.
“Fine.” Blade turns back to the table. “This is Demo, he’s from the tournaments.”
“Demo,” He turns to gesture at the people on his left. “This is Wilbur-tiff, Tommy-kurr, and Phil-pal.”
Demo snickers as Phil is introduced. Blade rolls his eyes.
“Yes, he is very ancient.”
Phil interrupts with an offended cry before going silent again. He is very confused about this situation and he's not the only one. Wilbur and Tommy don’t know what’s going on with the additions to their names but don’t speak up.
Blade goes on to introduce the rest of the party. There are a lot of people here, it’s the entire group.
After being introduced to everyone Demo realizes that some people here looked vaguely familiar. Something about them was recognizable but he doesn’t know what. He narrows his eyes at them.
“I recognize some of you but I don’t know why.” He stares at Ramlee for a second before his face lights up in recognition. “Oh! Are any of you from the tournaments?”
Ramlee slumps in relief after Demo stops staring at him so intently. His muscles ache from how tense he had held himself for the few moments of eye contact. Morado looks at him before speaking up, a flash of concern crossing his face.
“Yeah, I’ve competed with you a few times. There’s a couple of us.” He drawls as he gestures towards the people he’s referring to. Ramlee ducks his head when Demo looks.
He raises his eyebrows at that. “What’s up with you?”
Ramlee glances up before looking back down. “Umm...I don’t..mmmm...Eye contact.” His voice is small and trembling.
Demo hums and nods. He looks away from Ramlee.
Now that he knows there other people here from the tournaments, Demo takes this as an opportunity to talk about them. He talks about everything and asks a lot of questions.
“Ever since Blade-tiff left it’s been easier for me to top the leaderboards.” He gestures as he speaks.
“Bladetiff?” Someone asks.
Demo goes to reply but is cut off by Blade.
“Tek’no.”
“What.”
“It’s Tek’no.”
“Your name is Tek’no?” He sounds incredulous and is trying not to laugh. “I think I’ll stick with Blade. Tek’no’s a dumb name.”
People shift in their seats after the banter. This kid shows up with him to dinner and he doesn’t even know his name.
“You didn’t know that? You….You don’t know who he is.” Someone speaks up just to break the silence.
“I didn’t know he had that dumb name but I know him.” Demo raises his eyebrow at the person who spoke up. “So how do you all know him?”
Salta takes the opportunity to slander Blade as he usually does. He’s one of the people who’s known him the longest. He launches into a story he remembers from a long time ago. It’s long-winded and very biased but entertaining nonetheless.
Salta gestures wildly. “So I’m being chased and he’s laughing at me. I’m being chased by feral dogs and Techno’s laugh-”
“Why are you saying it like that?” Demo cuts in. Blade waves him off.
“It’s just how they say it, don’t worry about it.”
“Why?”
“Isn’t English your first language or something?”
“Maybe. But I don’t think in English so maybe not.” It surprises everyone who’s listening, Demo looks like he’s from an English speaking country.
“Well, it’s a root word in English. T-e-c-h-n-o.”
“Why would you let them butcher your name like that?” The explanation didn’t change anything. Blade just sighs.
“It’s just how they say it.” Demo frowns.
“Well, if I were you I would simply not let them butcher my name.”
Everyone looks amused. A few people look confused as well. Phil tilts his head and cuts in.
“Is that not your name?” Blade looks over to reply.
“No. It’s Tek’no.”
“Tekno.” Blade sighs again.
“No. Tek’no.”
“Like with a space. Tek No.”
“Sure. I usually spell it with an apostrophe. But sure, it’s T-e-k-n-o.”
Phils nods with an expression of understanding.
“So your name is actually Tek’noblade instead?”
Demo looks up with a glint in his eyes and his mouth is pulled into a grin. Blade takes only a second to slap his hand over Demo’s mouth.
“Absolutely not. Your speaking privileges are revoked.”
Demo narrows his eyes for a moment before that glint comes back again. Blade meets his eyes for a moment and has no time to react before Demo sinks his teeth into his hand.
Blade shouts in a language only Demo understands and starts struggling. To everyone else it simply sounds like growling, although Blade is cursing Demo out with every curse word he knows.
Everyone jumps at that. They watch with wide eyes and bated breath. Surely this is going to get violent, The Blade isn’t going to let this go?
Blade makes no move to hurt Demo and is instead trying to dislodge him. Demo tugs back and Blade curses him out more. There’s blood dripping down his hand and onto the floor.
It almost looks like they’re playing tug of war, except it's his hand and very bloody. Demo certainly looks amused and pleased with himself.
Eventually Blade tires of the game they're playing that just so happens to be painful. He growls at Demo to “cut it out, there’s blood everywhere.”
To the astonishment of everyone watching, the growling makes Demo stop. He unlatches his jaw from his hand and reaches up to wipe the blood off his mouth.
Blade shakes his wrist out and consequently gets blood everywhere. He stares for a moment before snatching napkins off the table. He shoves some at Demo and bundles the rest on the bite mark.
Demo wipes his hands clean and tosses the napkins on the table. He still has a lot of blood in his mouth so he takes a swig of water. He doesn't spit it out, he just drinks it. People pay more attention to Blade instead of acknowledging that. Nobody wants to dwell on it. There are a lot of weird people here but not quite that weird.
Blade waves them off and ignores what just happened in favour of staring Demo down.
“Tek’noblade?” Demo asks incredulously. Blade puts a hand up.
“Listen…..I panicked and I was also twelve, alright.”
“What?” Phil, along with everyone else, looks confused.
Blade looks at Phil and doesn’t quite sigh, but in spirit he does. “My name isn’t Tek’noblade. It’s Tek’no or Blade.”
Salta looks even more confused and he squints his eyes. “What do you mean it’s Tek’no or Blade.”
Blade rolls his eyes. “I mean, Blade is my name, and Tek’no is the name my parents gave me.”
“Why do you have two names mate?” Phil asks.
“Oh, I called him Blade cause he refused to give me his name” Demo explained. Phil freezes for a moment.
“Wait, you knew him all the way back then?”
“Yeah, we go way back.” He turns to face Phil. “We’re-”
He gets met with an elbow to the side, courtesy of Blade. Demo looks at him and Blade looks over at Wilbur and Tommy pointedly.
Realization dawns on Demo and he coughs. “Yeah, we were, uh, friends. And we competed in the tournaments together.” He tries to switch the subject. “He gave me my name too. I also refused to tell him my name and so he called me Demo. My parents named me Pi’turr.”
They continue chatting, almost refusing to let anyone bring up the obvious subject change. It’s all light chit-chat, about the weather, telling stories, anything other than acknowledging it.
“So why would you do that terra? Aren’t you supposed to be smart or something?” Blade rolls his eyes at that. He ignores him and continues with his story.
He interrupts many more times after that. Blade doesn’t react more than rolling his eyes and shrugging it off. After a while though, he lets out a sigh.
“Do you not understand storytelling, tella? You’re supposed to shut up and listen to the story. I thought this one is one you’d like to hear, but if you don’t want to listen…..I guess I don’t have to tell it after all.” Demo pouts at that. He headbutts Blade and tells him to get on with it.
They’re not used to seeing Blade be so open to affection, but they’re not used to a lot of things happening here. Weird things are going on in general, and everyone’s confused by apparent habits that they’ve never seen before.
“You’ve been saying things and I don’t know what they mean. What’s tella and terra? You’ve been calling each other that.” Salta speaks up.
“Nothing.” Blade stares him down as Demo shakes his head.
“Doesn’t sound like nothing, mate.” Phil looks at them.
“I don’t want this to turn into a big deal, and Tommy and Wilbur are going to turn it into a big deal.”
Tommy speaks up with a cry that is echoed by Wilbur. Tommy begins to pout as Wilbur looks offended.
“I’m sure it’s not that bad, just tell us.” Phil dismisses as he pushes.
Blade stares him down. He decides that he deserves what he hears.
“We’re pack.”
Phil reels back with an almost heartbroken expression on his face. He looks as if he had been struck or betrayed. It’s understandable and Blade does not begrudge him his feelings.
Not once in his time with them, has he referred to his brothers or his fathers as pack. Phil had assumed he didn’t want to say it, or it wasn’t a thing to him. Phil certainly considered them flock, but Blade apparently didn’t.
Tommy and Wilbur reel back with him, Tommy putting on a front of anger and Wilbur simply looking hurt. Tommy bares his teeth like the feral child he is, covering up his hurt by being angry. Wilbur just looks on in sorrow, sitting defeated.
“What’s pack?” Salta is left out of the loop. Blade doesn’t turn to answer. Demo turns to answer instead.
“We’re brothers.”
Salto turns towards the family as well. “Oh.”
This is an awkward situation for everybody.
“By the reactions of everyone else I’m going to assume this is an Issue.” Demo looks between the family and Blade.
Blade sighs. He glances away for a moment before steeling himself.
“We might have had a little bit of a falling out. Me and Phil were on one side and Wilbur and Tommy on the other. But even before that, we were estranged.” Blade keeps his voice neutral even though he has some emotions about the falling out.
“Which is why they’re offended by us.”
“Kind of.” He doesn’t elaborate further.
“Okay?” Demo throws Blade a look. He sighs again.
“I might never have called them pack, so they’re offended by the fact that I do have pack and just didn’t consider them pack. They all assumed I just didn’t do pack, and there are already bad feelings between us.”
Demo winces and looks over at the family.
“Damn.”
It’s Blade who throws the look this time. He shakes his head and tries to untense.
“So do you still want to hear that story?”
They move on, though not without tension. They get over it eventually and chat the night away. Demo isn’t going to leave in the morning. He’s not gonna let Blade go after so many years apart.