Now that she could take in what was going on at the proper speed, now that she could understand what he was saying and comprehend the situation, she tried to shirt back to herself. She tried to be cynical about what was going on, tried to act like she was not bothered, like she could handle herself. When the water and pills was sat down next to her, she picked up the cup, splashing some around from how badly her hands were shaking. Reaching for the pills, she accidentally knocked one into the tub and it took her more than one try to be able to pick it back up. Finally, she was able to swing them back, taking a long drink of the water. Though not able to control her breathing all that well, she began to cough and sputter. The action made her head pound and she cringed, dropping the cup onto herself as she put her arms over her head, once more feeling the need to try and keep her skull together
( ... )
Taking the water cup from her, he stood from dabbing at her legs, and turned to refill it in the same motion. Her timing was impeccable, as his side flashed with pain as she asked the question, aggravated by the twist he'd just made. Slowly, he finished turning to the sink, filling the cup only to empty it himself, popping a couple of pills of his own. "Yeah..." he muttered out of the grunt he gave beforehand. "...just got hit with something." His hand gently pressed on his ribs, and he sucked in another breath, grimacing. "...think I broke a rib." He sighed, refilling the cup again and bringing it back to Jinx. "Here, drink up. You've lost enough blood to worry about
( ... )
As much as she could through the burning of her tears, she watched him move, seeing the pain when he twisted. Worried, she moved a bit away from her corner of safety and brought a shaking hand to the edge of the tub. "You... you got hurt... you got hurt be-because of me." Hearing what had happened, she began to shrink back. "I did that. I hurt you... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... that's bad... I'm sorry..." But he came back to her anyway, handing her something, the cup of water again. Her hands, normally steady as a surgeon's, could barely hold the cup at a level where it would not spill. Luckily, water was nothing new to this bathtub. And despite spilling some of it down the front of her, coughing at every swallow since her breathing would still not keep on time, she managed to actually get down a good half of the cup. It was emptied now, either into her mouth or over it, and as she attempted to set it back down on the edge of the bathtub, she ended up knocking it onto the floor
( ... )
Her concept of time was horribly askew. Every moment in the courtyard felt like an eternity, and the car ride home had taken a mere five minutes to her. So she did not know now whether she was curled into an unreceptive ball for a matter of minutes or nearly an hour. Yet when she finally began to pull away from herself, uncurl from her shell shocked state, let her skull stay together on its own and opened her eyes... Alba was still there. That was when she began to rationalize. Timidly, she reached out a hand toward him, using small whines as an easier form of communication than Italian, and begged to hold his hand. When she could finally grasp it, she pulled it to her face and cupped her cheek in his palm, the size difference very relative. "You... you're not leaving me..." she more observed than anything else
( ... )
She was walling herself up, trying to protect herself from being hurt, by any forces, outside or within. But it didn't dissuade Alba. He tried not to worry, tried to just keep doing what he was doing, touching her, talking to her, making sure she knew he was still there. Eventually, he saw her unclench, begin to unfurl from herself, and finally saw her eyes again, and smiled at her, responding to her gestures and sounds by giving her his hand
( ... )
And suddenly Jinx was hushed, a finger to her lips. Under normal circumstance, that would have been a very stupid thing to do, hushing the assassin, but this was not the average situation. Instantaneously she quieted herself to nothing above a soft whimpering that came naturally with this state of being. And there, right in his second sentence, he hit the nail right on the head. Her twin brother had left her, but not intentionally. He had died. But Gin, the man she worshiped, the man she followed around like a sick puppy, who she did anything for no matter what it was, who she convinced herself she loved... he went back to Japan without a single word to her. She nearly killed herself trying to find him in the city, trying to track him down anyway possible, and part of her did die when she finally found out his location. Because he had intentionally left her without a single care and nothing she could have done, no matter how much she told herself otherwise, would have changed that
( ... )
His eyes never left hers as the realization dawned, hit her like a sack of bricks, even. He watched as the betrayal, the sadness, and the anger that he'd tried to warn her about all rose to the top at once. Part of him, a part that he never let out himself, grinned at her reaction, because if Gin ever returned to Reggio Calabria, he would be a dead man ten times over. He deserved no less, treating a tormented girl like a servant. But he'd never say so to Jinx. He'd never say so to anyone. It was one of those thoughts that some people just couldn't let out; it would color the view of them, both in other people's eyes, and in their own. Alba was the quiet one, the least likely to fight. Strong, silent, and a rock of support for his family and friends. What would happen if the rock showed some chips in it? Would they begin to wonder what it would take to bring him toppling down? No, he had to keep to himself. He was kind, compassionate, and while given to anger once in a while, was never overtaken by it
( ... )
When his lips pressed tenderly against her cheek, she gave a small, sad smile, knowing the salty warmth of her tears were now on his kiss. And when he called her his sister in German, a language she knew next to nothing about, she knew that everything was going to be all right for now. Gin was gone, and he was never coming back to hurt her. Now was a time to move on, for she had people who loved her and were never going to use her. They were not going to hurt her. "Right, so all little brothers strip down their sisters and give them baths when they have mental breakdowns. I never knew." With that bit of cynical sarcasm, Jinx was now thinking straight... or as rational as she could be after what she just put herself through. Gratefully, she took several tissues from the box with her hands incredibly erratic in their shaking, and she spend the new few moments blowing her nose until she could finally breathe through it again. The hot steam from the bathtub helped clear things up
( ... )
A chuckle escaped him as she likened the possibility of their would-be lives to that of an old sitcom. Mostly, he was glad to hear her starting to come back to herself, her sense of humor the most reassuring thing at that moment. When she dove under the surface of the water, he watched her pink strands float apart from each other, and he found himself wondering what life could have been like somewhere else... with his parents alive, with no Monacello or Vescovo... But Alba wasn't a fan of 'could have been' situations. Reality had enough problems as it was without adding the depression that came with a 'what could have happened' line of thinking. Still, he did see what some people could find appealing about the fantasy
( ... )
And now came almost exactly what she was expecting. Alba had always been the more emotional of the two boys, but not on the outside... not in front of other people. But Jinx knew him, and she knew him well. Every time he had cried at her embrace, every time she stayed awake until sunrise and held him through his nightmares. That was back when he was younger, before he became the man who handled delicate operations for the Monacello, who's job was to be calm and collected. A man who drove fast cars, wore his sunglasses at night and could occasionally kill a man. And now he was quickly reverting back to the young boy who had lost his parents. She knew something like this would hit Alba harder, deeper, but Soiree would not understand like his brother would. Soiree was not as close to Jinx, he was not the one who needed her comfort, and he was not one to give it, clean up her wounds, and hug her until she fell asleep
( ... )
The sound of water beginning to drain preluded her standing, and Alba rose with her, his hand still over hers, feeling the shaking under his fingers, wishing he could steady her just for a moment. When her fingers brushed his face, he closed his eyes, blinking a single set of tears down his cheeks before looking into those pink feline eyes, red-ringed as they were but much less feral than before. Her words came through, hitting him deep - he was a hopeless idealist, true enough, and everything Fate had planted in his head was a crapshoot at best when it came to the likeliness of it actually happening, but to hear someone other than Soiree or himself affirm a commitment to it... it touched him deeply. It gave him a minor spark of hope that they could make a difference here. Even when she brought reality back when she mentioned her time running out, he still felt a certain warmth knowing that, even then, she'd still be there for them, still supporting them when they needed her most. He smiled in response, reaching up to wipe her tears
( ... )
As she sat there on the edge of the tub, her cheeks still tingled from where Alba had reached down to dry her tears. And when she closed her stinging eyes, she could only see his green irises looking at her sadly, saline rolling down his cheekbones. Jinx wanted to kiss it away, wanted to make him smile once again... but in the end, it was her who had made him that way. It was her fault he was sad, that he was crying and that he had gotten hurt. Sighing, she wrapped her arms around herself, grasping onto her opposite shoulders, and found herself shivering against the porcelain tub. And as always, Alba was there for her. Through her sorrow, her stress, the pounding headache and her wounds... she managed to give a small sort of smile as she felt the warm towel hug her body. When he offered her a hand, she stood on trembling knees, grabbed the towel together in front of her, then took his help to get her out of the tub
( ... )
"Now, stop it," she told him, giving a weak smile. "You were never this worried when I was off fighting entire gangs by myself, or on dangerous missions. Just because you now know that something else may kill me if I manage to survive this city shouldn't change anything unless you were planning on marrying me or something. Now come on, come here." Seeing the moisture in his eyes, she knew it was time to play older sister. Trying her best to keep her hand steady, though it continued to shake terribly, she leaned up and weakly took his wrist. "Come here, kiddo," she coaxed him down onto the bed with her, to sit next to her. "I'm not going anywhere right now. You're the kind of guy who likes to live in the present, don't change that. Now come on, baby. Lay down with me, hold me for a while
( ... )
He sighed when he felt her fingers at his wrist, disappointed at himself for letting it get to him so badly. "When you went on missions though, you were making the choice... and I don't know, I didn't feel helpless about it back then." As he settled down next to her, he closed his eyes, hit with the fact that he couldn't help her, either with his brain or with his fists; it really was as inevitable as it seemed. Eventually, he'd come to accept that, but right now, nothing in the world could break him from the sadness that had grabbed the base of his brain. Right now, reality had confronted him hard, and the last time that had happened, he and Soiree were orphans without a home. He could normally deal with anything life threw at him; that was one of the things he was proud of, when compared to how he was as a child. But nothing hit him close to home, ever. This was different
( ... )
That smile was enough for her. Seeing it cross his lips, she felt something clench in her heart that made her feel like it was a promise she would always keep. Of course she did not wish to leave him, but times always changed and her promises were always broken with the dramatic shifts of her emotion. But this was so much different. This was Alba, her Alba, the little boy she needed to make happy, the one she needed to protect more than anything else in this world. Even though he was so much bigger now, even though her Alba was strong, responsible and could take care of himself... there was still that little part of her who needed him to need her. That little boy she knew years ago; the one who she immediately attached to because he reminded her so dearly of her own brother. Maybe that was why she was feeling this way, why her head swam with emotions that swelled in every beat of her heart. Maybe it was just what had happened tonight, her mental breakdown and the emotional trauma peeking through. That was what she told herself, what
( ... )
The choking sound came again, different from before, somehow softer. Less like something was missing, and more like she finally had something. Alba listened quietly, stroking her back before reaching up to her hair, running his fingers along her damp locks as he pulled her closer against him. If he couldn't cradle himself into her body, then he'd do the opposite, being the warmth, the protection that they both wanted to be for each other. When they parted, he took in her eyes, so full of pain, so tormented... and still so powerful. He looked into her eyes, and always found the strength, the courage to face anything. This time, it was the courage to face life, to face the truth, and not back down in the shadow of death. He blinked as she touched his cheeks, his own eyes deep and surprisingly steady as he watched her. When she spoke, they brightened for a moment, as though he realized that she wasn't just some hallucination before him.
"Yeah... of course you can stay here, schwester. I... I'd like that as well." He let out a slow
( ... )
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"Yeah... of course you can stay here, schwester. I... I'd like that as well." He let out a slow ( ... )
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