[Not considered in-play until it is complete][INCOMPLETE]

[thorn_of_rose]

Who: Sellz and Cosmas
What: Revivification and Reunion
Where: Damien/Cosmas and Max's place
When: The next day
Warnings: It's these two. Not even God Himself knows.

Comments

[innate_speculum]

He'd since drifted off in his bedside vigil, so to speak, but his sleep was light enough for him to immediately snap awake. The first thing he saw was Asellus sitting up, gasping for breath, looking like...well, considering she had been dead, it wasn't surprising that she was so shocked and confused.

"...Sellz. Welcome back to the land of the living." Cosmas was greatly relieved to see her awake again, and at the very least, a bit of that showed on his face.

[thorn_of_rose]

"C--" She choked again, having to regain trust in her own lungs. "Cosmas?" She was sure it was him, and she was so happy it was him, and not some stranger. Her eyes were still a little wild. "Wha-What happened? I... died?" She was confused. She was very, VERY confused. "Where are we?" Her hands were clutched to her bandaged chest, which still stung a bit, mostly from the memory of the pain.

[innate_speculum]

"Apparently so. Still, you're in one piece now. As for our location, we're at my house. I found you a little whole back and brought you over here. You were..."

For a few moments, he paused, thought things through, looked at her again, and slapped her on the cheek. Not too hard, of course, but to get a point across.

"The hell did you think you were doing, running out there with everything going on like that? Getting yourself killed? You know how worried we were about you?"

[thorn_of_rose]

She blinked at him, tears filling the eye above the cheek he'd slapped and then heading to the other eye, as if to balance out. As her hand went up to cup the offended skin, she stared at him, already emotionally shaky. "I-I was just doing what I usually do when I'm not sick... I didn't... and then when something was going on at the labs, I... I couldn't just sit there..." She looked at him, stunned and shocked and misty-eyed. 'He was... worried? Why would he have been worried about me?' Her confusion and shock and shakiness was evident on her face, most especially in her eyes, which were almost violet with only the barest red tinge. "I... I'm sorry..."

[innate_speculum]

"And you thought you were in any state to go out there and fight? Damnit, Sellzy, you're not stupid."

He moved to sit on the bed next to her, shaking his head. "Either way, you're fine now, and that's all I really give a damn about." Again he paused, before drawing her into a tight hug. If her injuries still hurt, she could suck it up. Cosmas figured that people probably needed hugs after they died or something. No, he hadn't a clue what he was doing here.

[thorn_of_rose]

She bit her lip, all sorts of confused before she latched onto him, fingers clutching at his back as she tried her damnedest to burrow into him, to hide the shame that was her face right at the moment. She was so confused, and the residual scare from her death was still there. She had needed an anchor, someone to hold onto, and that was Cosmas now. He seemed to forget-- as everyone else did-- that despite her airs, she was still mentally quite young, easily thrown off-balance. All she could do was keep repeating apologies, eyes wet as she tried to pretend that she wasn't crying, only succeeding in fooling herself.

[innate_speculum]

"Damnit, Sellz...stop crying. There's no need for it." Cosmas sighed and held her closer. This was where things were completely out of his field of experience. "Come on. No need for apologies. I forgive you, alright?" What the hell was he supposed to say to get her to stop crying? "Shh. It's alright. Everything is fine, okay? You're alive. That's what matters. You're alive now. There's no need to be scared." A hand moved to stroke through her hair, similar to how he had done not very long ago by the fireplace at her home.

[thorn_of_rose]

She calmed a bit, simply sniffling, before she pulled away to wipe at her eyes a little, looking frustrated with herself. "I'm sorr-- I mean, I'm trying, I am." She looked up at him through eyelashes that sparkled with teardroplets. "I didn't mean to worry you, I swear. I just... It was stupid, but I didn't want to just leave things like that..." She blinked tears away again. "And then there was that guy, and I could feelhis sword go through my chest, and then I was down and choking and all I could think was that I didn't want to die alone, and why couldn't anyone save me..." She sighed shudderingly. "It hurt-- it hurt so bad... I forgot what dying was like."

[innate_speculum]

"Then forget it again." Yeah, he knew it wasn't as simple as that, but what else could she do? "Just don't think about it. The fuck who did this to you is going to pay dearly for it. You can think about that instead."

Cosmas continued stroking her hair, confused on how Asellus had become so...childlike. Was this what death did to a person? Was it really that much of a frightening experience? Somehow, as he thought about it, it wasn't surprising. The dead shouldn't even be coming back to life to begin with, so it was no surprise that the experience would be traumatizing beyond belief.

"Shh. Just rest now. It's fine. Everything's fine, got it? No one's angry at you. We just want to help you." The words were just coming out at random now, anything he'd ever heard in regards to comforting a person. "Don't worry. I'm here, okay? I'll take care of you."

He felt a sudden sense of deja-vu, and it took him several moments to place just when he had said that before...oh, yes. ...Amazing how in a decade and a half, some things never change.

[thorn_of_rose]

"Cosmas..." Deja-vu for him, but these were words she'd never heard before. All her life-- and there was a lot of it to account for, wasn't there?--, she'd been her own caretaker; even as a child, she was the one who'd made sure she had food to eat, done all the shopping... Her aunt had simply been too old to be caring for anyone. To be taken care of now

[innate_speculum]

Whatever he had done, it at least seemed to be working. Good. He pulled away from her just a little bit.

"There. Feeling better? And for that matter, I mean that physically as well. I don't know how this death stuff works, if you're still in pain from the injuries or whatever."

[thorn_of_rose]

She still seemed a little confused, but most of her thoughts were turned inward. She ran one hand-- the other still holding on to him-- over the spot where Sephiroth's sword had pierced her. "I'm... still a little sore, I guess...." Without modesty-- when had she ever had modesty when he was concerned? Really now-- she unwrapped the bandages, inspecting her chest. There was a scar, just beneath her right breast and extending to the side of her ribs-- it wasn't bad, as scars went, a single line where she'd been pierced and then where the blade had cut her on its way out. It was tender and warm to the touch; still healing, she supposed. She tried to wrap herself again, but there was no comfortable way to do it. "I guess my clothes were ruined."

[innate_speculum]

"Let me do that." He swatted her hands away before taking the bandage, wrapping her chest back up. "And yeah, your shirt at the least was completely ruined. Though we'll get you another one. You've got some high up friends at ShinRa, they said they're willing to do whatever they can to help you."

[thorn_of_rose]

She blinked. "Huh." She was barely an employee of ShinRa-- sure, she was about to take on a Public Relations job, but... "Unexpected. Well, only a little," she added, as she remembered that there was Shu, and their conversation before she'd died.

When he finished bandaging her, she wasn't really sure what to do; her gut instinct was screaming for physical contact, probably to make sure that she wasn't dead anymore. But she was a little afraid of that instinct; she didn't want to cling and she had a sneaking suspicion that it would make him uncomfortable. And while sometimes that would have been something she ignored, she'd probably bothered him a lot in the past while; cleaning up a dead body was about the epitome of uncomfortable. Instead, she just kind of... looked at him. "You're alright too, right?" Both physically and mentally, she meant.