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 Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:07 pm
It hurt.
Sprawled along the bathroom floor, covered in medicine and tears, she strained at her wounds. It had proven more effective to simply coat her hands in the ointment, wincing and recoiling with each contact. Even the crème itself, which promised cooling relief, did nothing but infuriate the wounds into a screaming pain.
She hurt.
Even worse… The gun, Vale’s Father’s Gun. It had been destroyed. She hadn’t even bothered to look over its remains. It would hurt too much to fiddle with the corpse of protection. It hurt even just looking at it.
Vale was not going to be happy. Not one bit.
How was she going to explain this?
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Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:21 pm
Back home, back home; Quinn had dropped him off last night after helping to fix him up (even if Valeriu had ended up wrapped like a mummy until he'd stolen the bandages back).
He might've been sneaky. Might've snuck into bed with Tepin before she had a chance to see his newest marks and bandages. Might've woken up and left early before she woke, either.
He'd left her with a lovely note and a tray, loaded with breakfast-in-bed next to her pillow. Pancakes should've distracted her. He'd gone to work, and now work was done, and it was too early for her to be asleep.
Time to fess up.
The house was strangely quiet; no sounds of her at the stove or in the rooms. For a minute, he thought she wasn't here, until he heard noises from the bathroom. His ears pricked up curiously, and he took the stairs two at a time.
"Tepin?" he called, as had become customary. "You home?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:28 pm
“No--” She whined piteously, and her hand bolted to the door knob, only to hiss in pain and retract her hand to blow what little relief she could onto it. “Don’t come up-- I’m-- I’m in the bath!”
A reasonable story. They had repaired it a day or so before. Of course she would want to enjoy it, right?
“Just don’t come up-- okay?”
She’d come up with some excuse-- She’d need to, in order to get by like this. He would never notice the gun on his own… But burns? That was another thing entirely.
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Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:40 pm
He frowned at the door, leaning against the wall skeptically.
"I don't hear v'ater," he mentioned.
Like a good, honest man, he decided to open the door and peek in - totally good and honestly, just in case.
"Seriously, v'hat are you doing in here?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:52 pm
She recoiled further, sliding against the bathmat and causing it to bunch up unnaturally against her feet. She was a wild deer, caught in his headlights and still trapped within the walls of the bathroom. The new tub held her in place as her back pressed so tightly against it that she worried it might snap under the pressure.
“I’m not doing anything!” The ointment sprawled across her hands and face said otherwise, “I’m just getting ready--”
She looked from his chest up to his face, where his wounds became painfully obvious.
“Oh god-- Not again.” He was beat up again-- How many times would he come home looking like this? “That b*****d--”
It was Quinn’s fault. Somehow, she knew this. It was always Quinn’s fault.
“What did he do this time?”
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Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:04 pm
"Forget that! V'hat happened to you?" He could see, smell, the ointment slathered on her face, almost tripping over himself to rush into the room and inspect the burns. He kneeled in front of her, frowning, as he gently he took her wrists, looking over her palms. "How did this happen?"
The burns were pretty bad. Worse than the ones on her face. Nothing too bad; second-degree burns weren't anything to scoff at, but it could've been worse.
He clucked his tongue sympathetically. She'd slathered enough ointment, but these needed to be bandaged. He rummaged around under the sink before pulling out some wrap-arounds and the medical kit.
"You shouldn't have tried to hide these from me," he chastised. "Did you run these under cold v'ater?" He knew he also had some anti-inflammatory drugs stashed away in the medical kit, along with local anesthetic and the burn solution (he never quite remembered the name, but he knew the formula for how much to make post-burn treatment).
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Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:52 pm
She whimpered, trying to pull her hands free-- as if removing them from his grasp she would somehow be saved from his chastising.
“I burnt them on a pot-- I didn’t realize I was still hot.” Though lying through her teeth, she made it all too clear her displeasure. “I already rinsed them--” It had been painful. The water stung against the new flesh that hid behind the remaining burnt flesh.
“You fought again!” As if her hands were insignificant, she scolded him, ignoring his onslaught of concern with a wave of her own. “Why do you keep doing this?!”
The answer was obvious. They had to fight. It was something preordained, and greater than their small lives.
“What are we gunna do when you get hurt real bad?” An honest question. Without Valeriu, both Tepin and Sydni were helpless. They couldn’t afford to have him put out of commission.
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Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:59 pm
He held on, grip firm on her wrists.
"I didn't plan to," he defended, ears flattening back, "v'e v'ere surprised, at the hospital. V'e killed him, but he v'as very fast."
The frustration in his eye was plain. He started rolling the bandage around her hands, carefully, after slathering on some local to numb the wounds.
"I don't know," he ground out, carefully wrapping. "I just - I don't know, okay? I'm sorry. It's part of v'hat I am, Tepin. I fight. And I get hurt, and I try my best not to get hurt too badly."
But there were tough opponents in the game.
He bit his lip, trying not to yell at her. He was out of resources. Nathan was not going to show up a second time to magically fix him up. He couldn't go to any doctors.
"I v'ish I had a real answer for you, but I don't."
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 12:13 am
She seemed to shrink under his words, wanting nothing more than to just hold him until the pain went away. But this was not an issue of whether or not the Game would continue without them. They were a part of it, through and through.
“I tried to fight Quinn, today.”
Now was as good a time as any. If this was the nature of the game-- if this was something that they could not stop… Then she had done nothing wrong.
It was in his best interest, after all. His wounds only confirmed her suspicions.
“That’s how this--” Her wrist vainly strained against his hands, “--Happened.”
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 12:24 am
He looked up sharply at her confession.
"Fight Quinn?" he asked, dumbly. Though he knew he really shouldn't have been surprised; Tepin hated Quinn, with a passion. "Seriously?" Incredulity shone on his face.
His eye narrowed as quickly as it had widened, though he dipped his head to lightly kiss her newly bandaged palms.
"Don't," he asked, and he tried not to think of it as begging. "He is much, much stronger than you. Don't do it. V'hen the time comes, I v'ill take him out."
Quinn was his friend. His other. It was his right, and he would defend that, even against Tepin's wishes.
"So, please. Just let it be. It's okay. I have you."
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 12:36 am
“How-- How do you know when it’s ‘time‘?” She was not so covert about her pleading, her body twisting in order to look up to his face, “He’s going to kill you--”
How did he not see this?
“Every time you come home, you’re worse off than the day before-- Every time, he takes a little bit out of you. Emotionally--- Physically-- It’s--”
It was maddening. Watching as he slowly deteriorated.
“He doesn’t care, Valeriu-- He’s not--”
Quinn was the type that did whatever would work out best for him. Other people’s feelings were nothing in front of him.
“He doesn’t think-- At least, not about you. Or anyone else, for that matter! He-- He cheats, and he manipulates--- And does whatever it takes to get what he wants at whatever expense it takes on others--”
Actions did not have consequences in Quinn’s world. People did not having meaningful feelings.
"I can't just let it be-- Not like this. You're killing yourself for his sake."
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 12:49 am
"Shh," he hushed her, frowning, kissing lightly up her arms and pulling her into a careful hug. "It'll be okay, I promise. I'm getting better."
And he was, he was. He thought he was, at least. Learning to shrug off Quinn before he got dragged in too deep, learning to bite back without care. It wasn't what he wanted, no; he didn't want to have to learn these things, but he knew her fears were legitimate.
Because Valeriu didn't know. Didn't know how to handle someone like Quinn, didn't know where to draw the line. It was true - it was maddening.
"I swear, I'm learning. I'm getting better," he assured, kissing at her cheek and lips skirting around the burns. "Trust me. I can handle him. Today's v'ounds have nothing to do v'ith him; I started the fight on my own, and Quinn helped me v'hen things got bad. He killed my opponent to make sure I didn't-" he hesitated. He had to be honest. "Didn't e-eat his heart."
There. He'd said it. He'd confessed, before, about killing others to live; but he'd never explained that statement any further.
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 1:23 am
She drove herself closer into him, pressing as tightly as she could even while the burns still shrieked against her palms. Even--- Even if she knew, even if it was required… Hearing it. Those horrid words, and the vivid visages that they conjured… She didn’t want to think. Those thoughts-- Let them fly from her! Gone to the wind with only her empty mind and feelings of love that would remain.
A waste! Even as she tried to pity the poor soul, or be repulsed by Valeriu’s words, she could not see the death as anything but a waste! What was the point of killing him, now, with no benefit to Vale? Before, it was justified. Killing was in need, and none was to be superfluous. But to kill… And then not to take what he needed…
It had decayed from a casualty with a purpose to a mindless slaughter because of Quinn’s actions.
“Even if you are getting better, will you make it in time to save yourself?” Before he was destroyed by Quinn’s selfishness, could he learn how to control himself?
She had tried to save him, yet he had bound her hands.
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 1:31 am
He frowned at her words, nipping her ear reproachfully.
"I don't need saving," he bristled pridefully at the implications. He didn't need to be saved, like a princess. He wasn't in anything to be saved from either. "Look. I am a grown man. I can handle myself. Something like this v'on't ruin me, so stop talking like that or I v'ill bite you again," he warned, and hugged her.
"I don't like it. Cheer up!" he bumped his forehead against hers with an intent glare. "Or there v'ill be consequences."
Ticklish consequences. His fingers curled and uncurled to make the threat clear.
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 1:44 am
Her small eyes glared up at him, willing to accept his challenge. As stubborn as he was, Valeriu should have known, of all people, the situation he was in.
He was rescued mere weeks before by a stranger whom he knew nothing about, and yet he felt he was not going to be ruined? This was far more than just Quinn… It was his rash and selfless behavior that always seemed to get himself hurt. Even if he did it for everyone else‘s sake, the fact of the matter was that he disregarded both Sydni and her own desires for an unscathed Valeriu.
It was selfishly selfless.
But as worried as his girls were, there was no way he could stop. She knew that.
“I am going to kiss each and every ouchie you have better.” She informed him, quite hautilly, taking whatever control she could grope for. “So you better sit down and take it like a man.”
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