At the End of the Rainbow 9&10
Rating: R for arsekicking and smoochies
Characters & Parings: OC, Cain/Glitch, Jeb's in there, mention of just about everyone.
Story Summary: When the story keeps going, heroes fall.
Chapter Summary: Lizard and Memories
Obligatory Author Drivel: Okay, here's the next bit of floof. I posted all previous bits on my fiction com
ameonna1_writes, cause usually that's what people are looking for in my journal. This way I can actually get organized. (Ha!) So jot on over there to read 1-10 if you missed it and get a bit spoiled cause I put the banner up.
CHOCOLATE
“Okay, w-what are you making?”
Glitch looked up over the small fire that had taken Poppy hours to choose where to have it and seconds to actually start.
“Um, I'm not quite sure.”
He looked up as Poppy raised her eyebrow and turned whatever poor little animal she'd caught on the spit. She'd left him to scavenge through a row of abandoned houses they'd come upon, then she'd gone off into the brush, and come back with something smaller than a rabbit but bigger than a bird and that was when he stopped looking at it altogether. Choosing instead to toy with the bits of metal and wire he'd pulled out of the brush and houses.
He didn't know what he was making but his hands had grabbed and twisted and snipped and scavenged screws from broken lamps with a precision that surely looked like he knew what he was doing. All he knew consciously was that he had a curve of metal that he'd been working for a while and some wire and if he lashed together several of the conductors he'd pulled off of what he though might have been some sort of generator at one time then...
“D-Dinner's done.”
Hell.
He frowned and looked up as Poppy held up her stick with her rather comically small animal. It looked vaguely lizard like in shape now and it made his stomach turn.
“Right.”
His distaste mush have been showing because Poppy smiled and very sweetly asked which end he wanted.
“I don't supposed I can pass, can I?”
“I d-don't know w-what you're going to eat then.”
Hell. She was right and he'd been hungry until he'd been presented with that... whatever it was on a stick.
“I don't supposed we can split it down the middle?”
Poppy shrugged and he looked down when she pulled out her little knife. For some reason this was a familiar feeling. Why? Hungry was familiar. This feeling of...
Poppy came and sat down next to him holding his portion out. He took it from her after he'd put his bits of metal down and sighed holding it out. Yep, definitely a lizard. Crunchy looking too.
“I think you overcooked it.”
Poppy smiled, “i-it's not exactly veal to b-begin with.”
Glitch frowned, “I'm not sure how I'm supposed to eat this... There doesn't appear to be much meat...”
His eyes widened as Poppy simply ate a bit of hers, bones, skin, and all.
“I think I'm going to be faint.”
“I-I pretend it's chocolate.”
Glitch blinked before he smiled, “You what?”
Poppy looked up and nodded, “It's a c-chocolate covered biscuit, the kind I u-used to get at market stalls w-when I was little.”
“Your mental prowess astounds me.”
“J-Just eat it quick. It tastes like c-chicken.”
TOUCH
Glitch closed his eyes and pressed himself tighter against the stone. He hated Tiktoks. It hadn't taken more than a few days of travel before the pounding sound of marching metal had sounded in the distance. Poppy had grabbed his hand and they'd run, fast, frantic, and through the trees he'd caught a glimpse of the hollow faces. They were tin suits. They were worse than tin suits. He'd spent hours pacing as Poppy slept. What were they? How could they have been made? Poppy said they came from a place called the Clockwork Tower, northwest of Central.
He didn't want to think about some of the possibilities.
After that they'd come across them, once in awhile, like this. Central kept getting closer and further away. They kept having to make large circular paths so they didn't run into these things.
He could hear the marching fading in the distance.
“Glitch!”
His eyes snapped open as Poppy darted forward and tugged at him, “C-come on, we c-can get across t-the river.”
He followed, Poppy knew what she was doing. She hadn't been caught yet. Together they slipped across the ruined path that the Tiktoks had left and ran north.
The fire had died down and Glitch was now occupying himself with staring into the embers and the feeling of Poppy asleep against him, her hands curled in his coat and his fingers gently combing out her hair.
He was on guard. He hadn't really gotten tired since Poppy had found him, he supposed that was a side effect of sleeping for so long in that tube. So he stayed on guard, listening and toying with the fragments he could pull out of his subconscious now.
Someone once told him he was a wonderful dancer.
A girl was laughing.
He was in trouble, his hands stained with berry juice.
Someone used to sing him to sleep.
There was a snowstorm and he was worried about something.
Blue eyes.
Glitch closed his eyes and tried to focus. Blue eyes came up a lot when he tried to remember. Blue eyes. That gun in his pocket belonged to blue eyes. Blue eyes. Blue eyes was bigger than he was. Blue eyes had this sad sort of smile sometimes. Blue eyes was a protector, like Glitch. Blue eyes...
Glitch frowned and opened his eyes, looking down at Poppy for a moment before returning to the fire. Snatches of memory were coming back to him but they were all jumbled, like someone had gone through them and mixed them all up before shoving them back in his head.
Back in his head...
Slowly he raised his other hand and brought it to his forehead, carefully sliding his fingers into his hairline and trying terribly hard to not panic when they felt the scar there.
What in the great O.Z. had happened to him?
He ran his fingers through his hair letting his eyes widen as he felt the length of it. It went all the way across his scalp like someone had just...
The zipper bit into his fingertips sometimes when he wasn't paying attention. He learned to not touch it. But sometimes when it got cold it made him hurt. Stupid metal. He hated it, and if it came unzipped... Headcase... Zipperhead...
“Glitch?”
Glitch blinked as Poppy stirred against him, lifting her head and looking up at him.
“A-are you okay?”
“Hm? I'm fine, doll. Go back to sleep.”
She stared at him, not believing him in the slightest before sitting up and frowning, then she scooted forward and curled up in his lap, her arms wrapping around him. He stayed frozen for a moment before he tucked his chin on top of her head and pulled her closer. He wouldn't dwell on the scar. He'd think about blue eyes some more or who had been laughing or singing, but he was a bit grateful that if he remembered anything scary, at least he wasn't alone.