Donut Look Now

Chicago After Hours

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Nicholas “Nic” Wu

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Location: Nic & Ren’s Apartment - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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“Yes ma’am.” Nic says dutifully before pulling both of her hands close and kissing her knuckles. His brain quickly fills with thoughts of Cass in his bed in only a t-shirt and he has to pull himself out of the little fantasy before his body responds.

Nic clears his throat and stands up, letting go of Cass’ hands so he can clean up the table and kitchen. “If you want, you can go get comfy in my room while I clean up.” He says - most of the cleaning up is just throwing packaging away and placing dishes in the washer.

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Nero

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Location: Car -> Alla Vita - Chicago, IL
Skills:

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Nero chuckles, finding his boyish grin adorable. “Total opposites in our own height preferences.” They observe with a silly smile, wiggling in their seat happily. Their eyes look up out the window as the brick building comes into view with its striped awnings.

As per usual, Caden is quick in getting to Nero’s door and they beam up at him as they take his hand. Pulling themselves up, they’re quick to make sure the dress is laying down smooth on them, distracting themselves from thinking about their back on display. “It smells amazing.” They whisper in observation to Caden.

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Kimiko “Kiki” Voss

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Location: Caden & Nero’s House - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Kiki’s face heats up as she’s not really able to react any other way as Avery kisses her - not that she minds at all. She wraps her arms loosely around his neck and kisses him back. The whole afternoon had felt like it flew by for her but at the same time it felt as though they were perfectly frozen in time from anything else.

Chicago After Hours

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Nicholas “Nic” Wu

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Location: Nic & Ren’s Apartment - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Nic’s face lights up with a smile and he turns to Cass with a grin. “I would absolutely love it if you spent the night.” He says, grabbing her fidgeting hands in his as his eyes shine. “I’ve been eagerly waiting for the next time you’d wear my clothes.” In fact, he had set aside some more of his clothes from his bulk phase for this exact moment.

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Nero

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Location: Nero’s House - Chicago, IL
Skills:

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Nero smirks and shakes their head, trying to to wave off the immense attraction they feel towards Caden. He needs to stop whispering in my ear like that when we’re out in public… The demon says in their head, knowing it’s a very small chance of happening.

“Would you be able to just shrink yourself to my size? A mini Caden?” Nero asks when Caden rejoins them in the car, watching their mate start the car. They can’t help but feel that driving one of these metal carriages would make them feel invincible.

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Kimiko “Kiki” Voss

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Location: Caden & Nero’s House - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Kiki can’t help but feel tiny when Avery’s able to easily just pull her into his lap. She squirms a little as he nuzzles her neck, softly giggling as he teases her back with his words and nips. When he pulls back to look at her, she blushes of course, but also beams at him. “It’s okay, I love you too.” She tells him, flicking the tip of his nose before kissing it.

Chicago After Hours

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Nicholas “Nic” Wu

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Location: Nic & Ren’s Apartment - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Nic mulls Cass’ words over in his head, trying to see it from her perspective. “I think I’d rather have my partner describe it to me.” He finally says with a satisfied smile but he can’t help but let his eyes roam over Cass’ body after she’d gestured to herself. He’s quickly becoming distracted from the task at hand and looks back at the laptop, licking his lips and rubbing the back of his neck.

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Nero

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Location: Retail Store - Chicago, IL
Skills:

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Nero looks up Caden from the passenger seat, leaning their face into his gentle touch. “You might have mentioned it.” They tease as they reach up to grab Caden’s hand and kiss it. With their memories coming back slowly, Nero has started having a newfound appreciation for this body - it really is as close to their human form as one can get.

“I couldn’t help but find you very attractive when you became my copycat.” Nero purrs shamelessly with a wink. They’re playing it up, but their ears warm when they remember the words Caden had said about shifting into something from Nero’s fantasies.

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Kimiko “Kiki” Voss

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Location: Caden & Nero’s House - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Kiki’s eyebrows raise and her eyes go wide at Avery’s reaction - it’s more than she could have hoped for from him. She squirms in her position so she can cuddle closer into Avery and his lap. “You love me.” She teases in a singsong voice.

Chicago After Hours

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Nicholas “Nic” Wu

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Location: Nic & Ren’s Apartment - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Nic turns his head to stare at Cass, eyebrow cocked as he smirks. “Oh, but I have so many questions after hearing that.” He leans an elbow on the table to hold his head up as he watches her stuff her very red face.

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Nero

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Location: Retail Store - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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“Alcohol is alcohol.” Nero chirps in response before they shake their head. “You’ve bought me enough clothes to fill one rather large closet already. I think I have plenty.” They say with a smirk.

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Translations

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Kimiko “Kiki” Voss

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Location: Caden & Nero’s House - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Kiki is momentarily distracted as she watches Avery eat every part of the apple. His lips are cool against her warm skin and she closes her eyes at the touch. She opens them again at the mention of ‘sugar mama’, shaking her head as she narrows her eyes at Avery before laughing softly. “I can supply the house fund, but I think I’d rather not be referred to as as ‘mama’, thank you.” She tries to say the word in her deep ‘Avery’ voice that usually gets a laugh out of him.

“You follow Caden wherever he goes though, right? So it makes sense living with him… I wonder if we can just have him add a little house on the property just for us.”

Chicago After Hours

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Nicholas “Nic” Wu

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Location: Nic & Ren’s Apartment - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Nic grabs his pocket notebook and starts writing down the questions he’ll want to ask tomorrow. “Good thing staff likes to gossip, otherwise they’d start getting fidgety if I asked them more about this.” He has a strong urge to loop Jane in on this, but he also doesn’t want to have her mixed in with all of this.

“Maybe Caden can pretend to be me and ask them questions if I’m busy.” The nurse muses mostly to himself.

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Nero

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Location: Retail Store - Chicago, IL
Skills:

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Nero smiles widely up at Caden. “Let’s find out if their food’s gotten any better since the thirteenth century.” They stretch up to kiss Caden softly, something a bit easier to do with heels on.

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Kimiko “Kiki” Voss

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Location: Caden & Nero’s House - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Kiki watches Avery carefully from his lap, wanting to make sure she can see his body language. When he mentions staying in Chicago, she bites her lip in thought. “For the space, yeah…” She glances away with a blush, stopping herself from saying something about having him in any room of a place.

“I don’t know where I want to ‘settle down’ really… I never dreamed of finding something like this,” Kiki motions between the two of them. “When I came to visit the states, but… I don’t know, everything’s all jumbled in my head right now.” She closes her eyes again.
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Chicago After Hours

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Nicholas “Nic” Wu

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Location: Nic & Ren’s Apartment - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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“That’s the worrying part for me… Jane was telling me they’ve only realized with two of the patients from our hospital because a family member showed up asking where they were… I found a third patient from ours just by skimming through the footage to find those two.” Nic’s leans back in his chair and drapes his arm across the back of Cass’ chair.

“Jane also mentioned that the operating teams have no idea what happened either, just that they were about to do surgery and then they were standing in an empty operating room… I have to wonder if their minds are just filling in gaps from the unexplainable or if they’re actually experiencing lost of time…”

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Nero

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Location: Retail Store - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Nero’s cheeks redden, once again finding that Caden always has the right words. “You clean up well.” They say as they look him up and down before stepping closer to wrap their arms around him. “Do you already have a place in mind for supper?” They ask, placing their chin on their torso to look up at him.

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Kimiko “Kiki” Voss

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Location: Caden & Nero’s House - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Kiki and Avery spent most of the afternoon in her bedroom, snacking, watching some TV, and talking. As the sunshine starts to disappear from the windows, Kiki looks up at Avery. Her head in his lap as she laid on the little couch in the room. “Don’t freak out on me… but… how would you feel about maybe getting our own place? N-not right now, but like… in the future sometime…?” She can feel her cheeks and ears start to burn, closing her eyes as if she can avoid her blush that way.

Chicago After Hours

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Nicholas “Nic” Wu

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Location: Nic & Ren’s Apartment - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Nic nods absentmindedly along to what Cass says. “Yeah, I’ll try to get as much information as possible for you…” He switches the windows back to the footage and plays it again. “You’d think the hospital would have noticed a bomb going off… or employees getting covered in pink mist… would whoever or whatever is doing this be able to make all the evidence disappear too?”

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Nero

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Location: Nero’s House - Chicago, IL
Skills:

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“I have some experiences that say otherwise.” Nero says as they happily find a change of underwear waiting with everything else. Caden is right about one thing; the zipper was in the perfect spot for them to reach and pull up.

With a look in the mirror, Nero makes sure everything is in place before walking out of their changing room. They lean back against the wall as they wait for Caden to change. He might think their back is ‘gorgeous’, but Nero knows the weird looks people start to exchange when seeing the long scars across their skin. They nervously pull at the gloves on their hands, the fabric matching the tights they wear.

Chicago After Hours

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Nicholas “Nic” Wu

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Location: Nic & Ren’s Apartment - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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“And no one’s really mentioned the pink mist so far. It must happen too fast for the human eye to actually see…” Nic frowns as he runs the trauma team rosters over in his head. He pulls the laptop towards himself and types into google ‘someone vanishing in pink mist’ before scrolling through the results.

Nic’s brows crease more as he skims the websites. “A lot of these are about how a body exploding might look like pink mist, like a bomb going off in a battle field…” One particular search result goes into more of the gruesome details. He adds the word ‘occult’ to his search and finds even less helpful answers.

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Nero

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Location: Nero’s House - Chicago, IL
Skills:

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Nero starts curling and scrunching into the ear Caden whispers in, feeling the familiar ticklish feeling that always happens when he does this. “I’m sure that’s not the only reason you want a corner table.” Nero quips before being led away by a salesperson to go change.

Chicago After Hours

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Nicholas “Nic” Wu

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Location: Nic & Ren’s Apartment - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Nic pulls up the other footage he acquired and plays that frame by frame as well. “Different teams - one of these patients was brought in during the day shift, the other one during the night shift. There can sometimes be an overlap of some of the same nurses or residents, but the attending are different.” The second footage follows the a similar pattern, but the team is halfway through the surgery when the patient vanishes in the pink mist.

“I called around and asked some of my buddies at the other hospitals to see if they were encountering anything similar - only the trauma centers are experiencing the same thing.” Nic runs a hand through his hair, popping the mochi into his mouth. “It’s always a patient in critical condition too.”

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Nero

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Location: Retail Store - Chicago, IL
Skills:

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Nero watches Caden with an open expression as he spoke, pinpointing exactly what Nero is nervous about. Their ears warm at being caught that easily, but his hand running down their back produces a pleasant shiver up their spine. The whispering in the ear breaks Nero of any hesitancy and they bite their lip for a moment before sighing dramatically.

“I did say I’d wear whatever you picked, so I suppose this will do.” Nero leans their head back so they can look up at Caden with a smirk. “Who could say no to this handsome face anyhow?” They reach a hand to trace Caden’s jaw.

Chicago After Hours

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Nicholas “Nic” Wu

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Location: Nic & Ren’s Apartment - Chicago, IL
Skills:
Fit

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Hearing the desire in Cass’ voice makes Nic want to forget all about anything else, but he drinks some cold water to help stop himself. He nods to Cass’ question, pulling the laptop closer so they can both see it before he starts playing it frame by frame. “This is the first one I was able to find - they just wheeled the patient into the OR and everyone is getting ready when poof, the patient’s gone.”

When it gets closer to the disappearance, Nic tries his best to go through it as slowly as possible. Just a fraction of a second before the patient vanishes, there’s a cloud of pink that seems to explode from them. “What the…”

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Nero

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Location: Retail Store - Chicago, IL
Skills:

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Nero tilts their head at Caden’s choice, trying not to look too nervous about the open back of the dress or the fact that Caden is smirking. “Do I even want to know why you’re smirking?” They ask as they approach the rack and reach out a hand to feel the fabric of the dress.

“It’s cute.” Nero observes before turning their head to look at Caden, still suspicious of him.