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Glisten and Rodger were sitting on the couch in the latter's living room. The magnifying glass had a blanket gently covering his lower half. He had woken up from his hour long 'akuma-coma' about twenty minutes before. The atmosphere was incredibly awkward after Glisten had checked up on the detective's well-being and explained to him what happened, until the mirror finally sighed. He asked something he had wanted to ask ever since he had seen Rodger become the sobbing, shapeshifting 'villain', Mimicry.
"Rodger ..." Glisten began, looking softly at Rodger. "... is there something you want to tell me?"
Rodger glared over to the side with his single eye. He didn't say anything for a few seconds at first, but then he finally let out a deep, long sigh. "I ... think I underestimated how upset I feel." Rodger admitted, nervously twiddling his fingers. "I know I already told you that I'm not feeling the greatest, however, I'm not even sure if I'm feeling confident that I can figure all of this out anymore. Almost everyone in town has been akumatized at this point, but there's still a few of them that hadn't been yet."
Rodger hid his head in his hands. "All we know is that Allureium is male, and he wants Lucky Lady's earrings. That's all we know, we aren't getting anywhere. I'm not getting anywhere. There's no way any of our friends would do any of this, there's no way! Allureium has to come from out of town or something." Glisten noticed that Rodger's voice was quivering, as if he was about to cry.
"Oh dear .." Glisten muttered, scooting closer to Rodger. "Hey, hey, look. We'll figure this all out eventually. I promise." The mirror gently pat Rodger's shoulder. "You're right, Glisten. We will. But ..." Rodger mumbled, his gaze turning back towards the other end of the couch. "... I just don't want everyone to go through this anymore than we already have. I feel like I'm overworking and stressing myself out to death and I just-"
Glisten felt bad about interrupting Rodger, but he felt like he had to ask about it. His quivering voice, his mild trembling, his nervous stimming, and his eye not meeting Glisten's. It felt all too familiar to something Glisten would do, and he knew what all of that meant.
"Rodgie." The mirror gently placed his hands onto Rodger's, something the detective did to him after he got akumatized. Hearing that nickname made Rodger stop mumbling and made him finally look at Glisten. Their eyes met, and Glisten could see the shock and ... fear in Rodger's eye. "Please, Rodger, you can cry to me if you want to. I don't want you to feel like you can't."
The duo stared at each other for a few moments, before Rodger's hands held Glisten's hands back. "I-I .. I wish I could, however, um ..." The detective stammered. "... it .. it doesn't make me feel good. Mentally, obviously, but also physically. Crying makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable and stuffed up. However, perhaps it may make me feel better afterwards ... crying to me makes you feel better, doesn't it?"
"Of course it does!" Glisten replied, warmly smiling. "You make me feel better every time. It's about time I do the same to you, darling. I think I'm a great comforter to some of the others, after all!" The mirror half-joked, flipping his front curl back.
Rodger whimpered, trying to let his tears break free. "You're so sweet, Glisten. You know that?" The detective croaked out, sighing afterwards. "Apologies, this may take a while. I'm not very used to any of this."
Glisten made sure he was patient with Rodger, although, luckily, he didn't have to wait for long. Tears slowly trickled down from Rodger's eye, and he began to quietly sob. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and his face start heating up. His lack of nose made him feel that extremely stuffy feeling he hated.
"There you go ..." Glisten pulled Rodger in for a comforting hug. The duo soon went from sitting to laying down on the couch, the detective laying on top of the mirror. Rodger was a little bit ... heavy, but Glisten didn't mind. All he did was hug Rodger and comfort him as best as he could.
"I'm sorry, I .. I feel like I can't do this because I'm always the one the others go to. I shouldn't be going to you to cry, I-I don't want to be a burden-" Rodger choked out amongst his growing cries. The more he thought about it all, the more guilty he felt. His crying made him feel so suffocated, but Glisten somehow made it all more tolerable. "Burden? Oh no, no, no, no, you are not a burden. You'll never be one." Glisten replied, hugging the detective as tightly as he could.
It felt sort of strange being swapped this way, but there was something about it that Glisten … liked. Rodger was always there for him when Perfect showed up in his nightmares. He was always there when Perfect made him feel worthless. All the nasty names Perfect called him were washed away by Rodger’s kind, comforting words. He just wanted to be there for the detective, just like how he was there for him.
After a while of laying there, Rodger finally calmed down. His heartbeat slowed back down to a decent pace. His sniffles really did sound painful. “Are you alright?” Glisten nervously asked, although, Rodger nodded. He looked up for the first time since they had laid down. His glass was red, and his eye bags were now even more prominent than they were before. “Rodgie, are you sure? You don’t .. sound too great-“
“Y-Yes, yes, I’m sure.” Rodger’s voice was a little hoarse at that point. “Thank you so much.” The detective hugged Glisten back a bit tighter. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to let go. “I still .. despise the stuffiness, however, I guess I do feel better now.” Rodger lifted his arm to wipe off the extra tears that had built up in his eye.
“Oh, that’s good.” Glisten smiled, patting the magnifying glass’s back. “Heh, we’re more similar than I thought we were, aren’t we?” The mirror couldn’t help but laugh at his own realization. “Perhaps so.” Rodger returned the laughter, but a lot more quietly. His eye did still have a hint of sadness in it, though.
“I’m sorry for not doing this earlier. I wouldn’t have been akumatized and we could’ve avoided all of … that.” Glisten frowned. “No need to apologize, Rodgie. I know how stubborn you are sometimes.” The mirror chuckled, caressing the top and sides of Rodger’s head. “I told you I was a great comforter!” Rodger wasn’t sure why, but he adored Glisten’s touch so much.
“Do you mind if we stay like this for a bit longer?” Rodger asked, Glisten shook his head. “No, I don’t mind. I actually kind of like this.” Patting Rodger’s back once more, the mirror closed his eyes in contentment. “We’ll find out who he is soon enough, and we’ll put an end to his reign of terror on us. We should probably get some beauty sleep first, though. Right, Rodgie?” Glisten asked. He didn’t hear Rodger reply. “Rodger?” Looking down at the magnifying glass, the mirror realized that he was already drifting off. Glisten thought this was incredibly funny, but he tried not to laugh too loudly.
“Alright then. ‘Night, Rodgie.” Glisten wished the detective a good rest in a whisper, before he gently kissed the top of his head. The mirror loosened his grip on the hug, but still kept one of his arms on Rodger’s back. “I love you.” Glisten mumbled, closing his eyes once more.