hai mươi ❀| you get a shiver in the dark

[lotuslife]

[It's late afternoon on Beaver Street, and Vietnam is collapsed in the hallway of 1762 in a deep red, shimmering pool of her own blood. There's an obscene path of it smeared and streaked behind her, trailing from the kitchen to the living room up to where she's stopped. Blood stains the carpet and some of the walls; it permeates the tiles of the

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[lotuslife]

[After bathing the blood off of her body and inspecting the wound- the internal damage seems to be all but gone, and the entry and exit wounds are largely healed- she wraps her ribs in clean bandages and begins cleaning the parts of the house that Rika missed. Large portions of the carpet will need to be replaced. The kitchen tiles seem stained, as well

[supersizedpower]

[He hadn't felt much like going back home, even though he knew he should. There was a chance Vietnam would stay in the hospital, and he shouldn't have left Rika alone in a bloody house

[lotuslife]

[She turns the bullet over in her fingers, still staring at it. A part of her registers the sound of the door opening, but she isn't thinking about it, nor is she thinking of America. Because when she thinks about what he did yesterday, she feels physically ill.

After a moment, she stands and tosses the bullet in the sink with a metallic thunk.]

[supersizedpower]

[He notices that everything appears to be clean; either Vietnam or Rika or maybe the little drone who used to be Coraline. He comes inside the house, shutting the door and looking in the kitchen.]

Rika?

[lotuslife]

... [The muscles in her back tense; she turns her head just a fraction, but not to look at him. Just enough so that he might see that the person standing by the sink is not Rika.]

[supersizedpower]

Oh.

[He stops in the doorway to the kitchen.]

I left something upstairs, anyway. Later.

[lotuslife]

[Vietnam turns to face him. Her words stick in her throat. Instead she crosses the kitchen and lifts her arm to try to slap him across the face.]

[supersizedpower]

Geez!

What do you gotta do that for?

[He rubs his cheek, scowling at her.]

[lotuslife]

[She drops her hand- almost tempted to rub at it, as hitting him causes more damage to herself than it does him like it always does- and balls her hands into fists at her sides.] You know why. You- why did... [She's shaking a little.] Yesterday! Why did you do that?!

[supersizedpower]

It doesn't have to do with you.

I'm not gonna just let somebody die just because I hate them. That's just not how I am, okay? So get over it.

[It's mostly true, but he's not completely sure. He has saved Russia's life before, but that wasn't the same situation. Still, the last impression he wants her to come away with is that he likes her. He doesn't completely hate her, but it'd be embarrassing for her to think something like that when it's not even true.]

[lotuslife]

You had no reason to make an exception for me, and you know it!

[Her voice cracks as it rises in volume. She sweeps an arm in front of herself, motioning to her chest. It's not that she thinks that America saved her because he secretly likes her (how can he? how can he, with my knife in his back?), it's that she just can't accept that what he's saying might be true because the truth can't be that cruel. It can't. America is not allowed to somehow maintain that heroic ideal of his. He is not allowed to genuinely think that he should help an enemy if they need it. He is not allowed to think of it as the right thing despite all of the horrible things she's done to him and vice-versa because if Vietnam admits that, then she loses. She loses entirely. America will come out of it the better person and that just can't happen because she can't let it. She can't let go of what little sense of pride she has left.]

[supersizedpower]

You're being stupid.

[He takes an involuntary step back from her, but otherwise remains standing still, giving off confidence.]

Just because you wouldn't act that way doesn't mean that everybody is just out for themselves. I'll do whatever I feel like doing.

[lotuslife]

[She nearly chokes on her rage.] Stop- just- [Clenches her hands. Releases them.] You're lying. Admit that you are lying.

[supersizedpower]

No.

I'm not lying, so get over it.

[lotuslife]

[Even if he isn't lying, Vietnam knows that she will owe him. She owes him, quite literally, her life, even if she knows that Mayfield would have brought her back anyway. And that's what makes her angriest at all: that she can't reconcile her deeply rooted sense of pride with her need to seek revenge upon him. Until she finds a way to repay this debt, he is untouchable to her. She wonders if he knows this, if that is why he helped her- and then decides that he lacks the foresight to have drawn the conclusion. Which only leaves one possible reason for why he may have helped her, and it's the one she wants so desperately to not be true.

Either way, it feels like she's being smothered.]

I hate you.

[supersizedpower]

[No, the idea that she would owe him never occurred to him; he doesn't have the foresight and he doesn't have any desire to hold anything over her head. He would rather be able to break all of the connections they have between them, and on some level, he does know that if anything, his actions have forced them together more than they were before.

He feels smothered, too, but he also feels angry.]

Fine, act like I'm in the wrong for saving your life.

I hate you, too.