applesaucedream | Stuck in the middle with you [CLOSED]

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Stuck in the middle with you [CLOSED]

When he comes to himself, Peter cannot see. He gasps into awareness, his own breath rasping loudly in his ears, and it takes him several moments of straining to understand that he is not blinded but blindfolded. His wrists are heavy when he reaches up to tear away the cloth tied over his eyes, and when one stops partway to his face, halted by tension, he realizes that he has been chained. Hurriedly, almost panicking, he yanks off the blindfold with the hand that can reach to find himself blinking in the dim light of a stone room.

On either side of him is a man in a similar predicament, one of Peter's wrists connected to one of the wrists of each by a chain about two feet long. Each man's other wrist is chained in turn to a bolt in the crumbling walls of either side of the cell, and each is similarly blindfolded -- or was. Peter recognizes both of them as he turns his head back and forth to stare at each in disbelief -- first Seth on his right and then on his left --

"Oh, come on!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, right, because Seth is so incredibly sexually active these days.

"No, because unlike you, I make a point to actually test and use my new powers to figure out what the limits are," he answers impatiently. He does sort of realise he's not adhering to Daniel's request to cooperate very well either, but he's annoyed at Peter. Perhaps partially because of his animosity towards Daniel.

"All right, guys?" Daniel interrupts a little desperately. "Can we maybe do this later? Like, once we're out?"

He jerks viciously at the bolt chaining him to the wall which, evidently, got significantly loosened from Peter's rough teleportation attempt because it crumbles out from the wall and lands on the ground with a dull clunk and a shower of stone dust.

Daniel stares at it, uncomprehending for a minute.

"Huh."

"...You're welcome," says Peter, realizing what probably happened (and what he'll take credit for either way). "Come on, let's do the other one and get this over with."

See? He's being productive. And cooperative. And he's making sure Daniel is, too, because he's going to go right ahead and haul Daniel over to Seth's side of the room ~~if Daniel lets him despite being stronger than Peter~~.

Seth is chastised by Daniel's words, but then they're all a bit distracted by how easily that chain got tugged out from the wall, and he forgets his annoyance. Even though Peter does a pretty good job of reminding him.

He grabs hold of the chain with one hand, and then with the other once Peter gets close enough, and braces his foot against the wall. This one is a bit more stuck than the first one, but eventually it comes out as well, and Seth stumbles back, spitting a bit at the sudden stone dust in his face.

Peter just goes and drags Daniel willfully along and Daniel, torn between irritation and sheer bewildered amusement, goes along with it. He can't help but marvel. The unmitigated, overpowering bravado of the man. He'd almost find it fascinating if he weren't currently chained to him and therefore completely unable to maintain any reasonable distance.

"Hey," he says once Seth gets his own bolt out, shooting him a vaguely sympathetic raised-eyebrow look. "How you doing?" That trick Peter pulled didn't look to have done Seth's shoulder any favors, and Daniel has had quite enough of injured shoulders in dreams to last him a lifetime, thanks.

To his credit, Peter does lift a hand to Seth's shoulder as he comes stumbling away from the wall. Less to his credit, he shoots Daniel A Look at the question very obviously not directed at him. "Better, since you asked," he replies.

Why between these two, he wonders. It's not like he knows them from the same place. "You two know each other?" he asks belatedly.

Seth's about to answer Daniel, but Peter beats him to it. Now that they're not chained to the wall anymore and Seth can actually maybe use his hands, he finds himself a little less annoyed about it, though.

"We're friends," he answers Peter's question. "And I'm fine," he answers more softly aside to Daniel, though he does reach up with his now sort-of-free hand to rub at his shoulder a little. Just a bit sore, nothing that won't heal, and Daniel and Peter looked like they experienced about the same.

"Okay, good." Daniel nods, and shoots Peter a downright quizzical glance. "And, um, good?"

Peter sounds surprised that they know each other which, all right, he supposes makes some sense. Daniel is fairly new to most of this though not so much, to his supreme frustration, to the uncomfortable dreams. He's starting to get used to those. Unfortunately.

"Yeah, Seth sort of helped me get on my feet, get used to the whole 'Rift' thing," he explains, very carefully not adding that Peter had been absolutely no help at all in that department, not even when it had come to simple directions.

"You do get around," says Peter to Daniel, gaze flicking up and down the other man's body. He hasn't forgotten how he and Daniel met, nor is he going to imitate Daniel's tact in refraining from bringing it up. "Or was it just that she got tired of you after all?"

No, he's not jealous. No, he's not taking lingering resentment out on Daniel. Why would anyone think that?

Seth gives Daniel a raised eyebrow at that. He's going to go ahead and assume the 'she' in question is Lucy. And the implication here is then that Peter thinks they've slept together, and Seth wonders suddenly if they have. He wouldn't have thought so, but then Johnny had, to Seth's surprise. One day he should try to get all this from Lucy's point of view, because he doesn't feel like getting so much of his information about her through Peter is very helpful for getting a fair idea of everything. Then again, it doesn't really concern him. (It's probably going to take Seth a while to realise the 'get around' comment might then also imply Daniel's relationship with him is of a similar nature.)

"Oh, would you just -" Daniel makes an odd spasmodic jerk of one arm that suggests that were he not currently chained, he'd be flapping his hands quite animatedly in furious exasperation.

"We are not sleeping together," he grinds out in the fuming, weary tone of someone who has spent far too much time worrying about this, former insistence on teamwork now quite forgotten. "We were never sleeping together. Would you quit assuming that everything Lucy does is some sort of personalized attack on your well-being?"

"Isn't it?!"

Peter knows as soon as the words leave his mouth that he's being ridiculous. He still fumes over it, glowering at Daniel like he can 'win' just by refusing to come off the offensive. He's starting to believe him, but Daniel is still the closest target, actual lover or no.

Seth feels strangely relieved at the confirmation that Daniel and Lucy hasn't slept together. He's not sure why, but he's going to pretend it's because, well, then Peter would never let it go, probably.

But then it doesn't look like he's going to let it go anyway, and Seth sighs loudly in exasperation.

"Hey, Peter," he says, with deliberate calm. "Remember how last time you picked a fight over Lucy with one of my friends, I put you through a wall? I am not afraid to do that again."

Daniel inwardly braces himself for the inevitable, the display of aggressive machismo that he has exactly zero time or patience for and silently curses the Rift, again, for its cruel, cruel sense of humor in deciding to put him and Peter in the same room and then physically chain them together.

Seth's declaration comes as a surprise - put through a wall? Is he speaking figuratively? - but Daniel recovers enough to try and smooth things over, the operative word being try.

"Look," he says, doing his very best not to sound as incensed as he is, "Lucy was literally the first person I met when I came through the Rift. What was I supposed to do? Whatever is, is going on with you two, you're gonna have to sort it out without - hauling in third parties indiscriminately."

Being put through a wall was surprisingly painless; it was the part where he tripped over Gabriel's bed immediately after that hurt. Still, the answer is no, he doesn't want a repeat performance (not that Seth's power is apparently working right now anyway). He edges a step away from Seth, then realizes he looks like an ass for doing so.

"And I was the first person she met," he says, though some of the fire's gone out of it now. He mutters, "And look how that turned out."

"Not completely indiscriminately," Seth answers, lifting up the dangling chain and wrapping it loosely around his arm so it doesn't keep flying about. "I still haven't been accused. Nor Gabe. Or have you accused him? At least he actually knows Lucy." Not that he wants Peter to accuse Gabe - or perhaps he does, because Gabe is one of the few who might be able to smack some sense into him.

Seth faintly realises he isn't actually helping the situation.

Peter sounds vaguely defeated enough for Daniel to sigh and dial back the frustration a bit. Whoever Gabe is, he's going to assume that Peter knows him well enough to not involve him in something so completely uncalled-for.

"I'm sorry, whatever happened, okay?" It's a hasty apology and he can't fully eliminate the undercurrent of exasperation still lurking beneath, but if they're going to make any progress in getting out of this place Peter's going to have to get over it, at least for now. "But you can stop getting mad at me for something I didn't actually do."

"Oh, fuck off, Seth," replies Peter. "Gabe asked for a threesome, alright? At least he's up front about it, and he takes no for a bloody answer."

Sorry, Seth, Peter has actually been getting along really well with Gabe lately. It might have something to do with Peter feeling bad about the whole not realizing Gabe was on the brink of suicide thing, and/or something to do with Gabe financing Peter's upcoming return to the stage. Seth, on the other hand...Peter could really take or leave Seth right now. Daniel, too, but 'take or leave' is an improvement from how Peter has previously felt about him, so points to Daniel for that.

"Can we just get out of here?" he asks petulantly, as if he hasn't been the one holding up Daniel's attempts to get them to work together and do just that. It's probably as close as they're going to get to an agreement from him to stop being an ass about the Lucy debacle.

Seth really should be more surprised than he is to hear Gabe had asked for a threesome. But no, that is actually not surprising at all, seeing as Gabe knows and likes both parties involved. It seems to be inevitable at that point.

"Yeah, he offered me one too," he answers, unbothered by being told to fuck off. "Not with Lucy," he adds hastily, because no, he'd rather not Peter assume that. He's definitely not gonna mention it was with Johnny. For several reasons.

As for the getting out, Seth steps a little closer to the wall, and tries to run his fingers through it. To his surprise, it actually works. "Huh," he comments, then tries to run his fingers through the dangling chains, but they remain as solid as ever to him.

For a long minute Daniel's mouth flaps soundlessly as he tries to work out the verbal turning point that took them from Lucy to threesomes. And then Seth goes ahead and drops a threesome reference without blinking, eliciting from Daniel a spectacular double-take.

"So, um." Yes, he is going to return to the original objective which was, at least until the recent bombshells of threesomes got dispensed into the discussion, to get out of this place. And hopefully someday get to a topic that's less...well. Private.

"Uh." Vocal chords are taking their time reorienting. That's...great. That's great. "I'm not getting a lot of this. Erm. Contextually."

And that is fine. Daniel can live his life just fine without an intimate understanding of Peter's or anyone else's sexual activities, polyamorous or no, and oh look at that Seth has provided a useful distraction in the form of hopefully finding them a way out. Daniel takes the subject change and pounces on it. Eagerly.

"Think you can de-localize it to extend to us?" Daniel asks curiously, then takes off at full tilt to take his mind off of - that. The prior conversation material. All of that. "Or, or do you think the chains block it radially too? Maybe they just nullify powers that directly affect them, I don't know, I haven't tried mine but I don't know how useful it would be, um."

Peter actually draws in a sharp breath when Seth starts up, not because he genuinely thinks Gabriel randomly offered Seth a go with him and Lucy (though anything's possible, isn't it?) but because at this point he half expects Seth is trying to wind him up. Then he lets it out again in a whoosh at the clarification, feeling just a little bit gratified that Seth seems afraid to make that kind of crack by accident.

He turns to stare at Daniel when gibberish starts pouring out of the man's mouth. "What?" he asks, though he'll likely parse it in a few moments if he puts the thought into it. Then, "Everyone else is doing it -- why don't you show us what you can do? Or can't do."

Afraid might be stretching it. But despite appearances, Seth does have a certain sympathy for him, since - with the backstory Seth has somehow been made aware of in mind - it's pretty obvious that most of Peter's animosity comes from a place of bitterness and hurt, not a lack of ability to care about people. After all, just how aggressive he gets when Lucy is involved is a pretty clear indication that he does care. And, well, Seth is fairly sure Gabe wouldn't be friends with him if he was just a shit person.

Meanwhile, he rather enjoys Daniel's reaction to the discussion of threesomes, though he lets him get away with the subject change. Especially since it's possibly a way out.

"Nothing that will help us get out of here," Seth answers Peter's question before Daniel can, giving him a look to say mind your own business. Then, to figure out the answer to Daniel's question, he grabs Peter's hand and sticks both their hands through the wall. Well, that's that answered.

"Woah!" Daniel jerks backwards when Seth just sticks Peter's hand through the wall without hesitation. And swallows hard. When he mentioned putting Peter through a wall, he might not have meant that in a figurative sense at all. Daniel doesn't know how he feels about that.

"Okay, so it doesn't impair powers, then." Yes, he's going to focus overly hard on the getting out thing and not so much the threesome thing, thanks. "Or at least not so much that it just - limits them. You can expand the field of effect to everything but these things, I guess."

He waves one of his manacled wrists demonstratively and starts inspecting his own chains with interest, noting the obvious keyhole. And wonders if, seeing as his powers have nothing to do with transportation or teleportation or anything remotely escape-oriented, if Daniel's powers might work after all.

"Either of you know anything about lock-picking?" he asks abruptly.

"Jesus!" Peter freezes, muscles tense. His first instinct is to jerk his hand back, but if he actually pulls it out of Seth's grip while it's through the wall he expects it won't be very nice.

"Not recently?" he ventures, more focused on grabbing Seth's arm with his free hand and slowly but insistently pulling both their hands back out of and away from the wall.

Seth doesn't make an effort to keep Peter there, pulling back almost as soon as he's tested, and letting go of Peter. Given Peter's teleporting stunt, he doesn't have too much sensitivity regarding his power and Peter, but he seems to have worried Daniel too, and he's less okay with that.

"Not even slightly," he answers, though he can guess where Daniel is going with it.

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