Alibi (S/F)
A/N: So, this is for taifunu, who after I did that drabble meme set me a challenge to write a fic based on/inspired by Alibi by 30 Seconds to Mars (which is a gorgeous song I've now been listening to on repeat over the past few days), and is also the world's best beta and writing cheerleader <3 I hope this passes even if I don't know how I got what is essentially probably the fluffiest thing I've ever written for these two out of that.
His world exploded into a blinding flash of white light as blood poured from the final wound.
Bang.
The quest was over. What had to be done was done. The dead weight of years had been lifted, the weight he couldn’t remember not carrying. One distinct thought emerged from the haze of waking up. Free.
He staggered one last time before gravity took over. Stars collapsed into empty space. Everything faded into nothing. The inevitable end he had long ago accepted was crashing down on him with unmistakable certainty. He was ready.
But the inevitable was not as inevitable as it had seemed.
Despite everything, his eyes opened again, taking in a world that now seemed strange, yet familiar enough at the same time. With the confusion that dominated his senses, he had somehow retained the clarity that had come to him in what he thought were his final moments.
He might not have died that night, but something in him had. The part that kept him grounded in the past, the part that he had come to rely on like a crutch because he didn’t know any other way to live. Phantom afterimages of it still flickered behind his eyes, intangible, fleeting, but would never again exist on the plane of reality.
So he eventually ended up back here, setting the Swordfish down gently into the Bebop’s hangar. There was nowhere else to go. There was nothing else left.
He closes the hatch and treads a path that is familiar, yet viewed from new eyes. His feet have walked here a million times, but they are hesitant as if it is the first time. A familiar scent, that distinct burnt smell somewhere between cigarette smoke and already substandard meatless cooking gone horribly wrong, hits him as if he’s never smelled it before. Around every corner, there are visions of the people he had left behind, of a life he claimed he never cared about but had honestly felt more like home than anything.
Yeah, he might admit that he’d missed the goddamn piece of junk.
She’s there when he reaches the hallway. He stops, and his feet root him firmly to the spot, his eyes a helpless prisoner to the déjà vu that is inevitably about to play out in reverse.
She turns, and her eyes widen at the sight of him. He hears a sharp intake of breath before she bites on her quivering lip and contorts her face into her best attempt at something that hides the emotion crossing it. She looks away from him and down at the floor, but he notices that a single tear has escaped onto her cheek.
A pang of something, nagging but unidentifiable, courses painfully through him at that knowledge.
Her shoulders rise and fall in a deep, steadying breath before she lifts her head to look at him once more, this time with darkened eyes. She raises her shaking hand with a purpose and balls it into a fist. But she falters halfway to her target, and leaves it lingering there, frozen, for a long moment, then simply lets it drop again.
A tense silence, full of a thousand unspoken words, fills between them. He simply watches her. And waits.
She raises her hand again. But this time, she takes him by surprise. Before he can even deduce what’s happening, her arms wrap around his neck, and her face buries into his chest.
He finds his senses much more jolted than if he’d simply been punched. That he could’ve prepared for. But this? This was completely uncharted territory.
Yet again, so was his entire life now.
Time seems to stand still. He freezes, hesitating. But something in him, something almost unconscious, takes over and guides him the rest of the way.
His arms encircle her and pull her even closer to him, building a bridge over the gulf that separated them and forever passing the point of no return. Nothing matters in this moment but the here and now. He closes his eyes and breathes her in, perceiving nothing else, nothing but the warmth and scent of her, completely losing himself to it.
And against one another, everything came undone.