The male glanced down at her, a smile tugging at his lips. “Oh I know. You work a little too hard. I’m just making a point.” An uneasy expression crossed his face, his fingers moving slightly against her.
“Another finger sounds strange… can you imagine? I wonder what it’d feel like.” Tali had never tried to add more bones to his structure but maybe that would provide useful. He’d just have to find a way to safely store away those extra bones he could be given.
"It feels strange. Of course, I could only stretch and grow the bone, not the tissue itself, but it was strange. You get more used to it after a bit." Osora said, lifting her hand and tapping the side her pinky was on, where a scar just the width of a finger lay. "I could show you, if you wanted. It's kind of cool. It was something I played around with when I was younger, giving myself skeletal limbs. I can't say mom was too happy with that, though."
“I’m interested. I would love it if you’d show me. I’ll show you more of what I can do.” He stepped down from the stairs and looked around. “The kitchen?” He asked softly, looking for Shou.
“Yeah. I’m assuming that’s where they are, at least.” Osora said, pointing down the hall they’d taken the opposite way last night to her room. She patted her pockets with her other hand, searching for something as she directed him to the kitchen. “I’m sorry, again, for waking you last night.”
Tali nodded faintly, looking up the stairs then down the hallway. He was trying to memorize the layout of the house so as to avoid confusion later.
“Don’t worry about it, Osora. I’m glad you did wake me. I was able to comfort you.” He gently kissed her head and walked down the hall, turning into what he hoped was a kitchen.
And it was a kitchen indeed. He smiled at the people gathered there and gently set Osora in a chair.
Maki grinned as soon as Tali stepped through the doorway, waving from his spot on the counter. “Mornin’ you two! Toki, your knee still bugging you?”
“Not really.” Osora shook her head, ignoring the eyes on her as she motioned Tali over to the counter to rifle through one of the drawers. “My stature given by the gods is just apparently screaming for people to pick me up and carry me around.”
“That’s what you get for being small.” Shou said, sticking his tongue out at her as she flipped him off emotionlessly.
Tali sighed and moved to the counter, lifting her back up into his arms so she could look through the drawer. “She is small, but I’m just trying to make sure she doesn’t kill her self if her knee proves to be bad.” He chuckled lightly and kissed her head, humming softly.
“I feel patronized.” Osora stated, nudging him slightly before withdrawing a kitchen knife. Holding her hand over herself to keep the blood off of him, she didn’t give him a chance to stop her, slicing into the mirror side of the scar on her hand from her last foray into skeletal fingers. “You know, a few years ago I would have hit you for picking me up.”
Tali opened his mouth to stop her but it was too late. He frowned as he watched her with the knife, wincing at the casual slice. “Would you have really?” He asked quietly, leaning his head against hers. “You would have hit poor me?”
“I’d have hit anyone who picked me up. Shou did once, while I was half conscious and bleeding out. I hit him then too.” Osora said, leaning her head back against his in response as she focused on the bones in her hand, stretching them into a duplicate of the structure of the one right next to it. “And we were dating then. I guess you showed up at a good time. A point where I wouldn’t hit you.”
Tali watched in slight amazement, his eyes half lidded and soft. “Mm I did come at a good time. I’m glad you showed up in my life at a time where I wasn’t suicidal or majorly depressed.” He mused, chuckling. “Those were the days, Osora, let me tell you that.”
"If I had, showed when you had been, I hope I would've been a comfort. Or at the very least, enough to scare away those thoughts on occasion." Osora murmured, setting the knife down in her lap to wave her hand over the slowly growing bone, drawing it out at a faster rate. "Because I don't control the muscle ligaments, I have to connect the bones slightly, which decreases the range of movement."
“You would have been the best distraction from those thoughts.” He hummed, burying his face in her hair for a moment before he peeked up to look at her finger. “You can’t control the ligaments around the bone?” He asked curiously, shifting her so he could show her his fingers as he adjusted the connections and ligaments in his own. “I can. But I do have to be careful because if I rip a ligament by stretching it a little too much, then I’m screwed.”
“I can’t. I can control the bones, and I can control the blood. That’s why I’m not bleeding everywhere now that I’ve got my focus on it.” Osora said, wiggling her skeletal finger. She was right, the movement was much more limited, especially notable when she wiggled her other fingers. “Torn ligaments are the worst. They take forever to heal, too.”
“That’s cool.” He praised, staring at the extra finger in awe. “I can’t control my blood but I can make it a different type if I try hard enough. I usually don’t bother with that because most people don’t check blood type to make sure it’s their loved one they’re talking and interacting with.” He chuckled at that, blushing lightly as he thought back on his life. “Hell… I did quite a bit of criminal activity… I was also practically a prostitute.”
When Tali spoke of blood types, Osora and her mother shared a look. Then he continued to speak, and she tilted her head back to look up at him, brow arched. “Criminal activity isn’t the worst thing, Tali. You don’t have to think it is. Just as long as you know that you don’t have to keep doing all of that. As long as you’ll let me help you out, you know.”
The look passed right over Tali’s head. He looked back down at Osora and whined softly. “It feels way bad now that I’m with you and your family and friends. You guys have used your powers to help and save and I’ve used mine to get rich and live a good life.”
“You’ve been helping yourself. Which is still helping. And I…haven’t always done good things with my abilities. My family are healers, but what I do is gruesome, and hasn’t always been used for…the better.” Osora admitted quietly, reaching up with her normal fingered hand to cup his face. “Don’t feel bad. Just do better. Isn’t that what matters?”
He pouted as he leaned into her touch, closing his eyes. He let out a soft sound and huffed. “I guess that is what matters. I’m going to do so much better…” he huffed, acting more like a little kid at the moment.
Osora snorted, amusement flickering just briefly in her features. “Of course you are, you big baby. I have no doubt about that.” She let go of his face after a moment, returning to her finger. She did need to return it to normal, so she could focus on her knee again. So, in order to do so quickly, she broke the bone. Wrapping the fingers of her normal hand around it, she twisted her hand, breaking the bone off with a snap and breathing deeply as she mended it back into its normal shape.
“Why do you always have to do that in the kitchen, man?” Shou complained, making a slightly horrified face. “It’s worse than the zombies, honestly.”
“Nothing’s worse than the zombies.” Reeha disagreed, shaking her head.
Tali seemed to recoil at the sound of the bone breaking, something panicked in his eyes. It passed quickly, however, and seemed to have been something past brought back up.
Tali played the expression off by looking up at Reeha and Shou and frowning. “The zombies? You guys faced zombies? Man. I’m missing all the fun living my boring life. Say, mind teaching a skin-stealer a few ‘hero’ moves?” He asked with a grin, looking rather sinister for a moment.
“Your first move? Not making that face. Unless you’re going for Osora’s brand image.” Shou said, pointing a dramatically accusatory finger at Tali. “And actually, we didn’t face zombies. We fought alongside them.”
Osora didn’t say anything, watching Tali carefully after the way he’d frozen. She tucked the extra bones into her pocket, clotting the injury as she mended the bones in her hand to scab it over. She’d have to wrap it, but that would happen later. “I’ll teach you some things. Not that I’m the best hero. Do you want to learn to fight, or something else?”
Tali’s expression shifted to his name brand innocence, but it seemed a lot more obvious that his innocence was a cover for something else entirely.
He giggled anyways and pressed his cheek against Osora’s head. “Fighting alongside zombies, going against the biggest villains in Japan, you guys are crazy. I like it. And yes, Osora. I want to learn to fight. All I have is that dumb form I showed you with my sharpened teeth and altered finger nails. I’m not looking to become a hero or anything - I’d actually prefer to just be a better person - I just want to know enough to protect myself.” Just in case that dumb Spyder returns. He pouted to himself for a moment or two
“Then you’ll learn to fight.”
Shou winced, and Reeha made a face, shuffling her deck of cards. “We're crazy, yeah, but we had our reasons. None of us are as crazy as you for choosing Osora to learn from. You’ll get what I mean when you see her actually fight.” Shou said, shuddering dramatically.
“We did everything we did for reasons, he’s right. But I have my reasons for fighting the way I do, too. Maybe you’ll learn them. Maybe you won’t. As long as you have your own reasons, I’ll teach you.” Osora said, running her finger over the scab that would scar eventually. Another mark on a painting telling story after story of the things she’d done and been through.
Tali looked confused. “I’m decently strong. If her style is a little tough I’ll get through it..” he replied with a chuckle. “Can’t be worse than Tamaki’s, that man was brutal when it came to training me.”
He looked down at Osora for a moment and smiled softly. He could stand rough training if it meant he could spend more time with her.