When no one's around [ ACTIVE / CLOSED ]

[thedaggersedge]

Characters: Garnet til Alexandros, Zack Fair, Rion Steiner
Content: Zack and Garnet discover they've been sharing living space for the past several days, and were completely unaware of each other's presence.
Location: The Grand Masonic Lodge
Time of day: Mid-day
Warnings: None. ...Rion's kinda high-ish, though.

Comments

[hisdreamsmyfate]

Zack hadn't felt much up to moving out of the room, preferring to sit by the younger boy's bed, katana raised in a defensive position. Whatever decided to crawl into the room while the other was in this state would be immediately disposed of. Above all, he was still a SOLDIER, and SOLDIERs defended their comrades at all costs.

Looking up at the voice, the dark-haired man stood, glancing down at the eyeless boy. A bit hesitantly, he called out, "Up here!"

Hopefully, no red-heads accompanied her.

[thedaggersedge]

The halls of the lodge were many, far between, and large in size. Perhaps it was no wonder that they had not passed one-another until now. Still, to her, it was inexcusable that she had become to unaware of her surroundings. She had been neglectful, and absent-minded, and that was no way for her to go about anything.

The reply was distant, but Garnet's ears had begun to pick up on the faintest sounds in this place. She jogged after the voice, until she found the proper door; slightly ajar. With a purpose, she grasped the knob, and nearly threw the door open.

Garnet was quite different from the time she'd last met Zack face-to-face. Her clothing was less mismatched, and her once long, coffee-colored hair, had been reduced to a fringe that fell no further than her jaw.

[axinfinity]

Red lip.

Tulip spiral sprinkle.

Pocket purple roses.

...pickles.

Oh no. Anything but pickles.

Rion felt like he was going to be sick. His head spun. It hadn’t been any different for the past week. Except back then he had been laughing. Yeah, it was funny back then. If only because the high had been a pleasant distraction. It wasn’t so much now. He could barely keep his head on straight...

There were noises. He knew that much. He listened to them. He couldn’t tell whether he was talking or silent. Awake or dreaming. Didn’t matter. Couldn’t think. Head clogged by the fog. He felt sicker. Like he was falling even deeper into it.

He was lying. Lying down. That much he knew. Spiral continued, though. Onward down. His lips moved. Muttered. Nonsensical things.

“...s... sorry...?”

When was this going to end?

[hisdreamsmyfate]

Zack's sword lowered. Mako-blue eyes still focused on the mumbling boy.

One gloved hand resting on the mattress, the SOLDIER's attention remained averted, though it was obvious he had been addressing the younger girl. "He's only getting worse." He almost-whispered, pensive. Finally glancing up, he added, "Is there anyway you can help him? I've just been able to feed and hydrate him. I can't snap him out of it."

"...s... sorry...?"

The dark-haired man blinked. What exactly was he sorry about? Did he finally remember what had happened to put himself in this state?

He knelt over by the bed. "Tor-- Rion, what're you sorry about? Can you hear me?"

[thedaggersedge]

Garnet froze in the doorway, her stomach sinking in shame. How long had things been like this? How long had she gone about her days oblivious to anything but herself, and her own concerns? Slowly at first, she stepped away from the doorway, her pace picking up as she crossed the room. Seconds later, she was at the bedside, and the concern in her eyes was clear.

The one who should have been sorry, was her.

She looked at Zack briefly, and then turned her attention to Rion. She took a good long look at him, and then reached down to brush the hair off his forehead. Was he sick? Or was this merely a side effect of that drug he'd been working so hard to re-create?

"Rion...?" she whispered.

[axinfinity]

Really. It wasn’t as bad as they thought. The boy had been in such a world of pain before and suddenly there wasn’t anything. His brain drifted too far into that fog, however, to pay any mind to the concern that there had ever been pain at all.

He turned his head slightly to the noise, to the hand brushing over his forehead. Just more sounds and sensations. It had been like this. For two weeks? Maybe two weeks. Maybe more? He couldn’t be sure. Nothing really mattered right then.

Cinnablob. Blearblast. Firecracker. Fish on a hammock. Pigs across the Milky Way. Run.

Rion.

“Rion.” A voice slowly echoed. He realized it was his own.

Strange. Yeah, that’s what it was. Everyone kept saying that. And then there was something else.

Something else: “It’s fine.”

He just wished Lilia was here. He wanted to hear her voice. A tiny corner of his brain registered that fast. How sad she had sounded that last time he had heard her. He hated this feeling because he couldn’t concern himself as much as he wanted to...

[hisdreamsmyfate]

Zack stepped back when Garnet moved forward, hating the familiarity of uselessness whelling up in his chest and head. He wanted to do something. He wanted to fix this. He didn't want anyone else here to suffer so much and--

"It's fine."

His grip tightened on the sword. How was this fine? How was... how was he...

"Angeal, please help." He mumbled quietly to himself, hoping the other two wouldn't hear. "You know how to fix these things. Tell me what to do..."

[thedaggersedge]

Garnet pressed her lips together in a tight line, glanced at Zack, and then back down at Rion. Her brows drew together, concern etched in the lines of her face. Fine, he said, and from what she knew of Rion, she wanted to believe him...

But she wasn't ready to. The guilt in the pit of her stomach wouldn't let her.

"Rion, do you know who I am?" she asked. It was a silly question, maybe, but if he could answer, it would put her mind at ease.

[axinfinity]

Did he really look that bad? He didn’t feel bad enough to be fussed over as much as he was now. One voice sounded remotely guilty, the other despaired. Why? What for? Sounded like someone was dying.

He wasn’t dying. He didn’t think so. Well, he was. In a way, they were all dying. He knew that much. But that was nothing to cry and despair over. He wanted to tell them that it would be all right but that seemed to only make them, or at least one of them, more upset.

“Stop... with the damn melodrama.” If he could smile right then, he would, just so that they knew he meant it. “I’m not... dying.”

Really. He was just a little... a lot... very high. That was all. It was a bit much, given the side effects, but he could pull through it. He knew he could. That’s what his body was made to do.

[hisdreamsmyfate]

Zack had to move forward slightly, just to hear the younger boy speak. He remembered when he'd been almost completely covered in blood when he'd first found him, and had to hope that there was truth to the boy's weak words. At least he wasn't acting as out of it as he was...

That was good, right?

Despite it all, he had to smile a bit, and wonder why he was acting so weird. "Sorry... you just remind me of a friend."

[thedaggersedge]

Garnet couldn't help herself; the faintest of smiles graced her lips. True, it wasn't the response she had asked for, but it was so distinctly Rion that it served the same purpose. She gave his shoulder a little squeeze.

"Okay. If you say it's alright I beleive you." the tension in her shoulders eased.

Garnet turned that same little smile in Zack's direction. "There's nothing to worry about," she said, moving away from the bed.

[axinfinity]

Lucidity had been a less than promising thing, though Rion tried to keep his thoughts focused on the familiarity-those voices. Garnet and Big Brother. That was what he called himself. But Rion was almost certain he had heard her say something else and it sounded like they knew each other.

“Head’s just... fuzzy... that’s all. Can’t think... too well. I’m...” His throat was dry, too, and he hadn’t been able to get himself to eat much. Just a little bit of food made him feel nauseated. These were just side effects. He thought so, at least. Had to be. That was some pretty heavy drugs that he had taken. And there were still plenty left that he had

[hisdreamsmyfate]

Zack just had to smile back at Garnet's words, and moved back again when she did. Perhaps it was simply something that wore off with time, like the mako-poisoning. Besides... the kid seemed tougher than he looked, if he could apparently survive having his own eyes gouged out.

...or maybe that was natural?

Not important.

"Take it easy and try to get some more sleep." He said quietly, placing a hand on the boy's head and crouching down. "I won't leave. I promise."