ficbit
Note to self: next time you get Totally Brilliant Ideas for RP, just go write the fic that you will inevitably write first. You'll be less fail-y that way. XD
So, somehow, despite the fact that I have not actually watched Angel in years, my brain went all "lawl! Hellgods being all Illyria-esque" (truthfully, what I originally wanted to RP was King of the Underworld in Crow. But that's super ridiculous and only amusing to whatever small contingent read Poet's nerdings along those lines... not to mention I already have a dead, hellgod possessed Crow so, you know.... XD) So I went with Kiryu and Ccapac Apu. And then I started writing the fic. Which I should have just done in the first place. XD
Ficbit. Gen. PG-13 I guess. In which things take over.
[YGO isn't mine]
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Kiryu comes back from foraging one day with a cough, a horrible wet, tearing sort of sound that has the others fussing over him in their own clumsy ways. Yusei's expression tight with concern, Crow hovering around and treating Kiryu like he'd treat one of his kids and Jack loudly complaining to whomever might listen that Kiryu should know better than to let himself get sick like this. Kiryu simply grinning and shaking his head and assuring them all he's fine as he tries twice as hard to hide the horrible rasping noises his lungs are currently making with every breath and the aching deep in his chest.
The brave front works for a while. The others inclined to trust Kiryu when he says, "there's nothing wrong," just as they have always trusted him. But as the weeks wear on and nothing improves things grow tenser. Kiryu knows he's dying; it's something he can feel in every painful breath. Can see in the blood that comes up with every cough and the way his stomach heaves and immediately empties itself when he tries to eat. Knows it as an absolute certainty that must be hidden at all costs, because he can't worry the others; can't and won't.
It must be hidden, and his legacy must be maintained before he goes. Team Satisfaction must always and forever be considered the dominant force. Always commanding respect on the streets.
He never considers for a second that he might go too far. There is no too far. There can't be. There is only success.
When Crow tackles him on that night when things truly begin to fall apart, it takes everything to not hack violently, spewing blood onto the pavement. His own rage holding it down tight and it isn't until after, after Jack and Crow walk away and he has sequestered himself in some dark corner of their now nearly empty hideout, that he allows the weakness to come again. Coughing and wheezing until he thinks that tonight may very well be the night that it all ends.
At some point between spasms he notices Yusei rubbing his back. A steady hand attempting to soothe him through the worst of it, and he realizes that despite how hard he's tried to hide it, Yusei has always known. Yusei has always known and will never leave. Not while he's like this.
It's so easy to believe that, because Yusei is Yusei. He's loyal to a fault. He'll never turn. He'll always be there, especially when someone is at his weakest. But the evening Kiryu rasps out his plan (and it's getting so hard to talk now, every breath a struggle) to stop Security he sees the shift in Yusei's expression and he knows. Knows the instant the words leave his mouth that he has found the breaking point of Yusei's loyalty. And even if he's dying, even if he needs Yusei, this is something Yusei will not be party to.
Everything after that is like a fever dream. If his last moments are to be spent alone, then he will spend them fighting as he always has. Fighting in a haze of fire and blood and maybe he dreams it. Maybe he dreams his brothers at his side again (although not fighting, cowards won't fight) and that last desperate tangle with Security. Maybe (oh god, he hopes) he dreams Yusei turning on him even though the burning loathing cutting through him feels oh-so real.
He wants to be dreaming. He has to be dreaming the pain as he's beaten and marked and the voice....
The voice that whispers its thanks and swallows his mind, pulling whatever is left of him into oblivion.
o o o
Two days after Kiryu is taken they hear about the escape.
The news is huge, something Security tries to keep quiet but information slides between people in Satellite faster and surer than any news network in the City. A break from inside a Security transport is unheard of, but when Yusei is told he simply nods, not expecting anything else.
It's Kiryu, after all. If anyone could escape it would be him, even if the accounts ("...and I heard there was blood and bodies everywhere...") do seem exaggerated.
"Do you think he'll be stupid enough to come back here?" Crow asks, winning a frown from Jack and a vague sort of shrug from Yusei. "I mean, if he's smart he'll head straight for the BADs but...."
"He thinks Yusei turned on him." Jack's voice is low, a toll of doom that leaves them all uneasy. Kiryu believes, truly believes with every ounce of his being, that Yusei (all of them) betrayed him. Which means he'll be back, even if it gets him caught again, even if it kills him, he'll be back.
"I still can't see how he could manage escaping. He was sick. He...."
"Sick or not he was still able to put up one hell of a fight," Crow cuts in, causing Yusei to frown slightly at him before voicing the one thing they had all always known, even if they never spoke of it.
"He was dying, Crow."
There's an uneasy sort of silence after that (everything has been uncomfortable between them since the split) none of them wanting to respond to, to focus too much on, that simple statement that seems impossible. Because to them Kiryu is invincible. He's proven it time and time again and this escape is just one more.
Kiryu will never die. He can't ever die.
A day and a half later, Crow is the first to spot him. Lurking around the old hideout (because even if none of them live there anymore Crow knew it would be the first place Kiryu would head to) his face smudged with blood and maybe it isn't smart to confront him immediately but Crow has never once in his life pretended to be smart. Fearless, yes, but never smart; which is why he doesn't even try to be stealthy about his approach. Snapping, "You're an idiot, I'm surprised you haven't been caught by Security again," as he does. His voice trailing off into a strangled sort of sound when Kiryu turns, face cool and impassive and studying Crow as if he were nothing more than a roach someone had caught under a glass. Eyes distant... and black, and in that moment Crow fears for his life even more than he did on his first run through Security's little Reform Program.
"The shell remembers you."
And Crow has no idea what to say to that. To this cold, distant, voice that only barely sounds like Kiryu. He doesn't know what to say, can't even breathe enough to say it, and his brain is screaming at him to run. A desperate primal urge to run, run and keep running. Run and don't look back, never look back, if you look back he'll get you and then you'll be sorry.
The next thing Crow remembers is being in an alley three blocks away, trying not to scream.
So, somehow, despite the fact that I have not actually watched Angel in years, my brain went all "lawl! Hellgods being all Illyria-esque" (truthfully, what I originally wanted to RP was King of the Underworld in Crow. But that's super ridiculous and only amusing to whatever small contingent read Poet's nerdings along those lines... not to mention I already have a dead, hellgod possessed Crow so, you know.... XD) So I went with Kiryu and Ccapac Apu. And then I started writing the fic. Which I should have just done in the first place. XD
Ficbit. Gen. PG-13 I guess. In which things take over.
[YGO isn't mine]
-----------
Kiryu comes back from foraging one day with a cough, a horrible wet, tearing sort of sound that has the others fussing over him in their own clumsy ways. Yusei's expression tight with concern, Crow hovering around and treating Kiryu like he'd treat one of his kids and Jack loudly complaining to whomever might listen that Kiryu should know better than to let himself get sick like this. Kiryu simply grinning and shaking his head and assuring them all he's fine as he tries twice as hard to hide the horrible rasping noises his lungs are currently making with every breath and the aching deep in his chest.
The brave front works for a while. The others inclined to trust Kiryu when he says, "there's nothing wrong," just as they have always trusted him. But as the weeks wear on and nothing improves things grow tenser. Kiryu knows he's dying; it's something he can feel in every painful breath. Can see in the blood that comes up with every cough and the way his stomach heaves and immediately empties itself when he tries to eat. Knows it as an absolute certainty that must be hidden at all costs, because he can't worry the others; can't and won't.
It must be hidden, and his legacy must be maintained before he goes. Team Satisfaction must always and forever be considered the dominant force. Always commanding respect on the streets.
He never considers for a second that he might go too far. There is no too far. There can't be. There is only success.
When Crow tackles him on that night when things truly begin to fall apart, it takes everything to not hack violently, spewing blood onto the pavement. His own rage holding it down tight and it isn't until after, after Jack and Crow walk away and he has sequestered himself in some dark corner of their now nearly empty hideout, that he allows the weakness to come again. Coughing and wheezing until he thinks that tonight may very well be the night that it all ends.
At some point between spasms he notices Yusei rubbing his back. A steady hand attempting to soothe him through the worst of it, and he realizes that despite how hard he's tried to hide it, Yusei has always known. Yusei has always known and will never leave. Not while he's like this.
It's so easy to believe that, because Yusei is Yusei. He's loyal to a fault. He'll never turn. He'll always be there, especially when someone is at his weakest. But the evening Kiryu rasps out his plan (and it's getting so hard to talk now, every breath a struggle) to stop Security he sees the shift in Yusei's expression and he knows. Knows the instant the words leave his mouth that he has found the breaking point of Yusei's loyalty. And even if he's dying, even if he needs Yusei, this is something Yusei will not be party to.
Everything after that is like a fever dream. If his last moments are to be spent alone, then he will spend them fighting as he always has. Fighting in a haze of fire and blood and maybe he dreams it. Maybe he dreams his brothers at his side again (although not fighting, cowards won't fight) and that last desperate tangle with Security. Maybe (oh god, he hopes) he dreams Yusei turning on him even though the burning loathing cutting through him feels oh-so real.
He wants to be dreaming. He has to be dreaming the pain as he's beaten and marked and the voice....
The voice that whispers its thanks and swallows his mind, pulling whatever is left of him into oblivion.
o o o
Two days after Kiryu is taken they hear about the escape.
The news is huge, something Security tries to keep quiet but information slides between people in Satellite faster and surer than any news network in the City. A break from inside a Security transport is unheard of, but when Yusei is told he simply nods, not expecting anything else.
It's Kiryu, after all. If anyone could escape it would be him, even if the accounts ("...and I heard there was blood and bodies everywhere...") do seem exaggerated.
"Do you think he'll be stupid enough to come back here?" Crow asks, winning a frown from Jack and a vague sort of shrug from Yusei. "I mean, if he's smart he'll head straight for the BADs but...."
"He thinks Yusei turned on him." Jack's voice is low, a toll of doom that leaves them all uneasy. Kiryu believes, truly believes with every ounce of his being, that Yusei (all of them) betrayed him. Which means he'll be back, even if it gets him caught again, even if it kills him, he'll be back.
"I still can't see how he could manage escaping. He was sick. He...."
"Sick or not he was still able to put up one hell of a fight," Crow cuts in, causing Yusei to frown slightly at him before voicing the one thing they had all always known, even if they never spoke of it.
"He was dying, Crow."
There's an uneasy sort of silence after that (everything has been uncomfortable between them since the split) none of them wanting to respond to, to focus too much on, that simple statement that seems impossible. Because to them Kiryu is invincible. He's proven it time and time again and this escape is just one more.
Kiryu will never die. He can't ever die.
A day and a half later, Crow is the first to spot him. Lurking around the old hideout (because even if none of them live there anymore Crow knew it would be the first place Kiryu would head to) his face smudged with blood and maybe it isn't smart to confront him immediately but Crow has never once in his life pretended to be smart. Fearless, yes, but never smart; which is why he doesn't even try to be stealthy about his approach. Snapping, "You're an idiot, I'm surprised you haven't been caught by Security again," as he does. His voice trailing off into a strangled sort of sound when Kiryu turns, face cool and impassive and studying Crow as if he were nothing more than a roach someone had caught under a glass. Eyes distant... and black, and in that moment Crow fears for his life even more than he did on his first run through Security's little Reform Program.
"The shell remembers you."
And Crow has no idea what to say to that. To this cold, distant, voice that only barely sounds like Kiryu. He doesn't know what to say, can't even breathe enough to say it, and his brain is screaming at him to run. A desperate primal urge to run, run and keep running. Run and don't look back, never look back, if you look back he'll get you and then you'll be sorry.
The next thing Crow remembers is being in an alley three blocks away, trying not to scream.