Deep in the Woods, Sunday Evening

[not_a_parakeet]

Warren still hadn't gone back to his room.

Yesterday, when the embrace of the taint had fled his mind, he'd fled in turn, to the woods. He felt like a monster, looked like a monster. He'd hurt his friends and had nearly killed Karla, and when he found himself in his right mind, still covered in leather and jagged edges, he'd run. He wasn't up for

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[glacial_witch]

After sleeping through most of the day and then eating her body-weight in food, Karla had finally left her room to go across the hall and check on Warren. Except he wasn't there. And she didn't think he'd been there at all last night.

"Warren?" Fortunately for her--and him when she finally caught up with him--Karla was able to track via psychic scent. She left the dorms and headed into the Preserve, following the thread that said Warren into her mind. "Warren?"

[not_a_parakeet]

It took hearing his name a few times before Warren clued in to the fact that it was actually being said at all. His sleep last night had been fitful at best, and his day had been spent drifting in and out of consciousness. Between the nightmares and his healing factor kicking in again, trying to drive the taint out of his system, he wasn't really taking much at face value, tonight.

But then, when the sound of his name being called didn't stop, he looked down with eyes that still cut through the lengthening shadows of the forest with ease, and his heart damn near jumped out through his throat.

He licked his lips, looking down at himself, still caked in dirt and blood and god only knew what else. Still half monster.

She was going to keep looking. He knew that much.

"Karla..."

He wasn't coming down out of his tree yet, dammit.

[glacial_witch]

Karla stopped at the foot of the tree and peered up until she was able to make Warren out among the boughs. "You going to come down from there?" she called, placing her hand on the trunk. "Or should I come up there?"

Because she wasn't about to go without him.

[not_a_parakeet]

He peered down at her for a while, contemplating just jumping through the branches and joining her there on the ground. It would be quick. Painless. Just get this over with and get back to living.

Easy.

But even 'easy' wasn't generally as simple as it looked on the surface.

"I hurt you."

That was apparently Warrenese for 'the branches are fairly sturdy all the way up.'

[glacial_witch]

Karla sighed and started climbing up, eschewing Craft to do it the old-fashioned way. It had been a few years since she climbed a tree, but she remembered how easily enough. "I hurt you, too," she pointed out. "Badly. Worse than you hurt me."

They'd never agreed on a No Eviscerations rule explicitly, but...

[not_a_parakeet]

"I was kind of asking for it." He leaned forward a little, watching her climb, his insides feeling like they were flopping about as he realized how stupid he was being.

It would be easier to hide if he'd found some place with a door that locked.

... That she could walk through. Carry on.

"A lot."

[glacial_witch]

It took longer for her to climb the tree than she expected and her breathing was a little labored when she pulled herself up onto a parallel tree branch. "That wasn't you," she said. "There was nothing of you left."

Well, almost nothing.

[not_a_parakeet]

He'd wanted to offer her a hand, to pull her up comfortably onto one of the branches.

He balked the moment he'd held up his hand and realized that his fingers were still tipped in some fairly vicious claws.

"Are you so sure?"

Aside from the snarling and the drooling and... Yeah. Okay, there hadn't been much of him left. But there'd been something in there all the same.

[glacial_witch]

"I..." She closed her mouth on a protest. There had been something there, when he'd rolled over and landed on his back, taking the brunt of the landing. "Not entirely. But for the most part, you weren't in there. It was the infection. You wouldn't have hurt me."

[not_a_parakeet]

"I wouldn't," he agreed, his voice softening as he moved his hands down to hold on to the bough he was sitting on. That was a nice, safe place for them, right there. "But you were still hurt. This was supposed to be a break, for us."

Yes, Karla. He was going to sit here and feel guilty for screwing up the vacation that he'd pretty much blackmailed you into taking.

[glacial_witch]

Probably for the best, since Karla had been reaching leaning over to reach for his hand. "How exactly was this your fault?" she asked. "I would have been running around like a crazy person even if you hadn't gotten infected."

She drew back, bringing her hand back to rest in her lap, trying not to let her hurt show.

[not_a_parakeet]

"Maybe. But I would have been around to tell you to rest from time to time, at least."

Or to sneakily grab bits and pieces of the workload to finish while she wasn't looking.

He tightened his grip on the branch as he watched her try to reign in her expression, his claws gouging deep trenches in the bark.

"Did you get any rest?"

[glacial_witch]

"I slept last night?" Karla offered.

A managed to snatch a few hours here and there while she was watching Warren's condition. Oh! And Monday before they had any idea that anything was wrong.

"Did you sleep at all last night?"

[not_a_parakeet]

"In fits and starts," Warren murmured, his gaze dropping down to the ground. He had been able to see her perfectly when she was down there. Now she was right across from him, and looking just made his heart ache even more. "I kept seeing you hanging by the arms, screaming and trying to get free. And Wesley... I clawed him up pretty bad, I think. And..."

And now, the little bit of color in his cheeks seemed to drain away completely as he remembered the shattered splinters of ice that had rained down to the ground.

"Bobby. Did you see Bobby at all after? He's okay, right?"

[glacial_witch]

"Bobby's okay," Karla soothed. Or, rather, she hadn't heard anything from Sookie suggesting otherwise. "And Wesley is, too. I know Raven was at the clinic today and you know that she wouldn't let anyone too hurt walk by her without pouncing on them to drag off and Heal."

She looked up at him, heart in her eyes. "No one's in great shape right now," she admitted. "We're all tired. Some people are hurt. But we're going to make it. That's a promise."

[not_a_parakeet]

He was breathing again, at least. He hadn't killed Bobby. That was...

It was possibly a testimony to how tired he was that the only word that game to mind right then was 'good.'

"I like that promise," he admitted, his voice still soft as he looked up to find her eyes, blue and sincere, with his own, black and alien. "It's really over, then? It's just... pieces to pick up, and the rest is fading? It's not just fading for me, right?"

Oh, please. Please please please. On top of all of that, he didn't think he'd be able to forgive himself if his own body healed thanks to his mutant power, while everyone else was trapped in bodies that weren't completely their own.