We are so fragile...
He doesn't know what time it is, can't remember how long he's been here or how long he's been awake. The sun rose, he knows that and it's still early in the morning. The birds are singing and there's lot of traffic. It's not been very long since they found him though, since they started teasing and taunting him. He knows that much
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And then she sees them, Muggle boys all older than her, bigger than her. They can't see her shadow cross into the entry of the alley, not at first. But she sees them kicking some poor man who's clearly not in any shape to fight back, and it's just wrong. Her rarely-seen temper flares up, her wings spread and puff up as wide and as big as they can, and she stalks towards them.
"HEY! LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
Maybe it's the anger, or just the sheer force of her will to help this man, but for a moment, she is visible. Suddenly there, looking like a petite, brightly coloured angel of wrath. The moment her anger dims, she'll go back to being invisible to the Muggles of the city, but for the moment, she's there, glowering more terrifyingly than someone as adorable as her has a right to.
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"Oh my gosh, look at all this!" she exclaims, clearly worried, and kneels down next to him, trying to remember her first aid course in health class. Check his pupils - if they're unevenly dilated he could have a concussion. Make sure he's not bleeding too profusely from anywhere. "Here, look at me, okay? I gotta see if you've got a concussion."
As she speaks, peering into his eyes, she's groping in her bag for the light cotton hoodie she'd brought in case it got chilly, since September weather is so unpredictable. When she finds it, she pulls it out and immediately uses the sleeve to start mopping the blood off his face.
It's just a jacket. She can get a new one if she needs it. Helping him is more important than not ruining her jacket.
"Okay, your eyes look okay. Can you remember your name?"
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Buffy doesn't like bullies. She doesn't like the way they operate and she doesn't like what they do. And she certainly doesn't like it when they gang up on a poor defenseless guy. There are four kids against one person who seems too beaten down to be fighting back, and this? This is where Buffy usually steps in.
One of them turns and fixes her with a glare. "Leave it alone, bitch, or you're next."
"You really don't want to do that."
The biggest one steps up to try and get her out of the way, and it's over before it even starts. He lands on the ground hard, and the rest of them are staring at her, as though they're trying to decide what to do. She smirks, before holding her hands out.
"Who wants to come at me now?"
Smart boys -- they decide they have better things to do. Buffy lets them disappear, before moving closer, crouching down and placing a gentle hand against the man's back.
"Hey, it's okay," she says softly. "They're gone."
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She says they're gone and when he closes his eyes, reaches out, he can feel them fleeting, running far away because they know it's a fight they can't win.
he blinks, stares at her, and then remembers that he's bleeding.
He should stop that.
He wipes away at the blood but it doesn't stop. His nose hurts. His mouth hurts. A little bit of everything hurts but that's all right, he can handle it, he's used to it. It's just...more than usual.
"You made them go away, he says quietly, still lying on the ground. His tongue darts out to catch new blood that's forming against his lips.
"That was very nice of you." A smile that almost hope3ful.
Maybe she's nice. Maybe she can be a friend.
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"I don't like bullies," she says softly. "And you seemed like you could use a hand." And this is what she did, regardless of who she was helping. It's her job. It comes with the whole 'being a hero' package.
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To those men, he wasn't right. He didn't belong. He wasn't supposed to be there.
He squeezes his eyes shut and mutters softly to himself, trying to reassure himself that it's all right, that it's gone now, that they're gone now.
But they're right, he doesn't belong. This isn't where he's supposed to be. He's having more and more trouble remembering where home is but it's not here.
But there's someone in front of him, someone who's talking and nice and who chased people away for him.
"I was a hand," he says with a silt of his head. "I don't need another one." A pause, then he considers. "Oh, wait."
"It was still very nice of you," he decides after a moment. "Thank you." He holds out a hand, wiping some of the grime off of it first.
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Dani keeps her gaze trailed on the biggest of the group as he takes off in a direction different from the others, gun still balanced carefully on her shoulder. Once she's certain they're all gone and not coming back, she slowly lowers her weapon, then drops onto her knees beside the injured man.
"Hey." Her voice is quiet, gentle. "They're gone. It's okay."
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The gunshot makes him curl up and cry out, clamping his hands over his ears and shaking hard. He hates it, hates the sound, hates the smell fo gunpowder in the air, hates all fo it.
Even though there's someone talking to him, even though he knows he should say something he can't think, can't imagine anything else but the blood and the bang and the shootshootshoot heard round the world, round the universe, round and round and round again.
"Gonego9neggone gone with a gun, gone with a bang. Bangbagbag. Shoot, shoot them, shoot them down,. Don't shoot, please don't shoot? " he's shaking hard and babbling and not really mak9ing much sense but there's little he can do about it.
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"I'm not going to shoot you," she says, making sure to place the gun out of sight for the moment. "And I didn't shoot any of them. Just a... uh, warning shot. To make them leave."
And leave they did.
She didn't stop to think that a gunshot might do more harm than good, though. "I'm sorry if I scared you."
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He swallows hard, opening and closing his eyes and opening them again. He can't get rid of the noise in his head and they're starting to go along with the stars he's seeing.
"I see gunshots in my head," he mutters. "Bangbangbvamg. Stars going off Exploding. Supernovas in my brain."
He looks up at her, tilting his head. "It's not supposed to do that."
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Is not so much with the bullying.
She battled the surprise and the disgust at seeing the four boys beating on the man, and immediately sprinted into action. She runs toward them, wings itching to slide out of her shoulder blades. She ignores the urge. Whether they're human or not, she's been trained to handle the situation properly.
She shoves one of them off and kneels down beside the man, glaring up at them.
She doesn't yell. Her voice is controlled, but the threat is present in the low of her tone. "Leave him alone. Now."
If they do not, all hell will be breaking loose. Which is fine. She's dallied with it plenty in the past.
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he doesn't know what to say, doesn't have the words, he just looks at her, an expression of confusion on his face. He reaches out to her, his hands brushing her skin and he looks surprised when she's actually there. "You have stars in your hair," he says with a smile "Prettyprettypretty stars. Are you the Universe?"
He thinks it would be nice to meet the Universe and she would probably have stars in her hair, or planets. Maybe the planets would be her eyes. He doesn't know.
He knows that he's in pain though and that she's in front of him and talking, though he can't quite remember what she said.
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The smile is a reassurance and to signal he is not alone.
"I should like to travel across the Universe more so than be the Universe, so maybe I'm just a wandering star like the ones in my hair instead," she answers. Her skin is warm, warmer than any human would ever feel to the touch, and she bends over to gingerly touch his own skin.
Checking for bruising and the like. God, she hates how people treat each other sometimes. And she is the one feared for being a demon.
"We'll get you checked out, okay?" she asks. She doesn't think he can move, but she knows an angel of healing that would come to her, that owes her a favor, and he wouldn't have to move at all. "I'm Lena, and I'll take care of you."
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