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Zeffer's crumbling facade was not lost on her, and for the briefest of moments, Akko felt another surge of guilt. Wasn't it sort of her fault he was in this situation to begin with? The shame rapidly subsided, a quietly simmering rage crawling in its place as she stared down at the jagged tattoo. It really didn't change anything even if she was to blame- he had been marked by the Imperial military and it needed to be removed. They both needed to be strong (but much moreso him). That's what Byakko repeated to herself for the zillionth time, anyway, as she huddled over her blackcrush, mutilating his arm. A grimace momentarily flickering across her face as she studied Zeffer's hissing exoskeleton.

After a few long, silent seconds, Byakko looked back up at him, perplexed by Zeffer's reaction. Or rather, lack there of.

Then came the screaming.

Thankfully, these parts of the mountain were desolate. Even if there had been someone to hear Zeff's cries, they could have easily been passed off as some sort of poor feral beast being brutally slaughtered. Akko winced as he screeched in her face.

"Shhhh." His hand was practically crushing hers, or she would have offered him another squeeze of support. Instead, Akko tried to choke out a soothing coo, although given their relationship it seemed... almost sarcastic. "Just a little bit longer."

Akko pressed the blade down on his wrist steadily, making sure to evenly cover his markings. Her own hand trembled. The longer she watched, the more she wanted to vomit, but she couldn't tear her lookstubs away at the risk of ******** up his wrist. She hadn't been too sure how long to keep the glowing knife pressed against Zeffer- how long did it take to melt a troll's exoskeleton sufficiently enough to hide something like a tattoo, anyway?

She waited longer than she probably should have before pulling away, just to be safe.

Discarding the knife onto the cavern floor as if it had burned her, Byakko returned her attention back to Zeffer. "You did good." Her tone was almost apologetic, but her expression resorted back to default. Admittedly, she was quite a few shades paler.

Reaching out with her now free hand, she cupped Zeffer's cheek clammily. She flushed a bright mutant pink. Ultimately he had taken it like a champ, once he buckled down. Softly sliding her hand up his scarred face, Akko wiped at his sweaty forehead before leaning in to plant a firm, yet tender kiss above his brow. She lingered before pulling away, glancing down sheepishly at his bubbling scar instead of meeting his gaze.

After all that, he deserved a little reward.

Byakko's vision remained focused down on the raw burn, fidgeting and flushing an even more vibrant shade of pink when Zeffer shifted to nuzzle against her. The mutant's bloodpusher skipped a lone beat. She didn't even register his own blush, as she completely refused eye contact, preferring to stare down at the nauseating wound than acknowledge either token of affection any further.

"Good, you should be sorry. But yeah, I have some medical supplies back at the hive." She sounded drained. Prying her interlocked fingers from his own, Byakko took a second to stretch her aching digits, individually cracking each one. Undeniably she had dealt way more damage to him, but regardless her hand felt like someone had run it over with a ******** steamroller. Flexing stiffly, Akko braved a quick peek back up to Zeffer.

"Well, no point in wasting any more time." Pushing herself up off the ground, Akko hoovered beside Zeffer for a moment before retrieving the cooling dagger. "Let's head back." Turning on one heel, she glanced over shoulder to confirm that he was following her before melting back into the depths of the cave system.

Throwing a glance back every now and then to assure that Zeff was still trailing her and hadn't silently toppled over, Akko led them back to her barren hive. Sealing the hefty door shut behind him with a slight grunt, she pointed to the couch he had lugged up the mountain and ever so graciously bestowed upon her. "Sit," she commanded sharply, not completely unlike how one might address a trained pet.

Discarding the dagger onto the table with a clatter, Byakko slunk to immediately retrieve a medical kit stored on one of the shelves lining the uneven cave walls. The supplies she had managed to wrangle together probably weren't as new or high end as the ones Zeff brought that lay unpacked- but they'd be perfectly acceptable.

Returning to the centre of her hive, purposefully walking a large circle around the nesting Arcus, she tossed the small gray chest onto the table. There was no more conversation. Pausing to give his wrist a long stare, Akko reached down to flip open the lid, fiddling with the contents.

Arcus never once left Akko's peripherals. It was a force of habit, really- she didn't expect him to really move, let alone strike, but the mutantblood was still never quite able to shake the uneasy feeling she had around the massive lusus. She noticiably flinched when the giant snake shifted, biting on the insides of her cheeks at Zeffer's vague explaination. Forgot. Mhmm.

Upon Zeffer's thinly veiled request, Akko retrieved a lone syringe and added it to the other items in her palm. "Mmm, there's some in here." Sliding a roll of guaze across the makeshift table towards him, she gave the glass container a few light flicks, inspecting the clear liquid closely against the dancing candle light. Shadow played across her scarred face as she held it in front of her nose, spinning it in her fingertips before narrowing her eyes past the capped tip and back to Zeff. Akko rose an eyebrow judgementally, but merely blinked, popping the cap off the needle with her thumb. Edging around the table to settle down on the couch beside him, she discarded the rest of the supplies beside them before turning back to inspect his bubbling wound once again.

Without bothering to issue so much as a warning, Akko slid her free hand into the crook of his elbow, pressing down as she jammed the needle sideways into the centre of the burn. Her eyes flickered up to meet his. She understood he was suffering, but- anaesthetic? For a wound this, ultimately, insignificant? How... pitiable. The corners of Akko's lips twitched. Once all the liquid from the syringe had been steadily expelled under Zeffer's charred flesh, she withdrew the needle, tossing it carelessly onto the wooden table before busying herself with applying a thin layer of salve to his arm. Scooping another generous helping of translucent cyan goop from a glass jar with what seemed to be a home made label, Akko shrugged and decided to break the silence. "Trolldad taught me how to make this stuff from plants on the mountain," She slathered the ointment over his arm gingerly, taking care not to miss any areas. "It works better than any crap you can buy at some highblood store, I think." Another shrug. She wouldn't really know. "But Qinlon preferred it." The name still felt sour on her tongue- it was odd to let herself mutter it aloud. It was odder to think that he was still alive and innocent of crimes she had blamed him for sweeps, and even odder still that Zeffer had actually met the older blueblood. "Either way, it works." Wiping her fingers off on his pantleg, Akko turned to reach for the guaze, unravelling and twisting it between her fingers. "Good enough for you?" Her expression signalled that there was really no question posed, despite her inflection.

"Nn..." Akko's face fell and soured at the mention of Errade, hunching over to fidget with her braid absent mindedly. Sinking back against the couch, she let out a heavy sigh, shaking her head after her thoughts had marinated long enough in the heavy silence.

"You did what you were supposed to. If anything, I was. I told you to do it," well, not verbally- but there had been no miscommunication regardless. Byakko had wanted Errade dead.

"She needed to die."

Didn't she? In the moment, Byakko was resolute. Revenge for her father was all she had ever dreamed of; coupled with Errade's guilt and continuous interference, there hadn't been a flicker of doubt in her thinkpan. Errade's impending death from her injuries was just a bonus, nothing more than a card she was lucky enough to be able to play to quell Vremea and Odette's enmity towards the execution.

Byakko wanted to think she always did everything in the best interest of the Initiative; but did this really fall in line with said oath? They probably could have squeezed more information out of Errade, or as the girls had vehemently pointed out, at least talked about it. The looming fear that she had placed her desires over something crucial to the Initiative haunted her.

She didn't question her decision to end Errade; no, it was more than deserved. Akko did, however, question her own motivations.

In all honesty, the rebel's discord had struck Akko deeper than she had cared to admit. But then again, why did she feel the need to keep up that facade with Zeffer? He was obviously confiding in her; and once again, he was the only one in any position to even try to begin to understand her. A mentor, that's what the older rebels had been commanded to refer to Zhuque as around the newer recruits, before they had all been killed. If they were pried for more details- which they weren't, to the best of her knowledge- Akko's 'lusus had passed away when she was young'. But she had already confided the truth about her guardian to Zeff, after he had learned about her mutation. At the time Byakko had opted out of sharing that Zhuque had been head of the rebellion- but unless Zeffer was even more of an idiot than she thought, he had pieced together that they were one and the same.

Drawing a shaky breath, Akko changed course. "I don't know if we were hasty. Everything happened so fast..."

Her voice dropped, and she ripped her eyes from watching Zeff wrap his wounds, focusing on the stalactites above them. "I spent so much time thinking about how I'd kill Qinlon if the opportunity ever presented itself, back when I was convinced he had a hand in everything. I mean- it was just a fantasy, y'know- we all pretty much thought he was dead, even with all the rumours. But that didn't make it feel any less real." Twisting at her braid, she shrugged.

"I just... snapped, I think." Acting hastily wasn't her nature. "Carried all that over to Errade, or something." Byakko deflated further into the cushions.

"It doesn't matter either way. It's over."

Akko's fingers slipped to disentangle themselves from her braid, visibly perplexed when Zeff voiced his fears of mirroring Qinlon. She looked wearily back to him, studying his scarred face with her usual scrutinization as his tone faded into something much more sincere- something she had only ever seen once before from him.

"You're right, you shouldn't have opened your mouth." She wished he had kept it shut, too; back at the brooding cavern Zeffer had effortlessly swatted down her efforts to reconcile with the girls in one fell swoop. Akko had managed to scramble and pick up the pieces, again, but truthfully... the Initiative would never be a well oiled machine again without the base element of trust. Byakko couldn't possibly be the only thing keeping everyone from ripping each other throats out forever. She shifted to face Zeff, leaning in as she spoke. "But what's done is done- if you want to fix it, then work towards just that. That's something Qinlon could never do," the other blueblood had been infamous around the rebellion for his sour attitude and sharp tongue. While Zhuque was more charismatic than Akko could ever hope to be by leagues, he had also been the one scurrying around sweeping up Qinlon's aggressions. "You need to show them that there's no grudge held and that you can keep working together. Hopefully, they'll reciprocate. It's a start, anyway..."

Akko wanted to promise how she wouldn't let the Initiative's history repeat itself, that she'd protect him from that fate, but they both knew it would be a relatively empty one. There was no way she could possibly garuntee that.

"I don't know," she tacked on a confession, fidgeting with the edges of the cushions. Akko's usual surefire resolve had dissipated into an questioning unease she rarely allowed anyone to bare witness to, just as he had. "We just need to be more careful. At least there's a lot less of us to keep an eye on." Hers remained intently locked onto his face. Swallowing a lump of grief that rose in her throat, prompted by her own comment, she hesitantly nudged the side of Zeff's hand with her own. Akko laced a few of her fingertips with his, voice barely more than a whisper. "But... I trust you." Now that all the older rebels were dead, he was the only one she honestly, truly did.

When Zeffer locked his hand with hers, Byakko stiffened momentarily, somehow still inwardly surprised that he reciprocated the gesture. Her fingers twitched. She had simply been holding his wrist down earlier so he didn't squirm too much- to her, this was another ballpark altogether. He often yanked her around by the wrist, but they had never actually held hands, had they? Her face practically burst into a ball of hot pink.

"Mmm. Well, I believe in you." Akko returned his squeeze, ducking her head as she felt the now familiar heated throbbing rise to her cheeks. Hiding abashedly under a veil of her hair, she settled her vision on their hands. Zeffer's unrelenting support was comforting, more than comforting, even- but all Akko had really wanted was his word to work alongside the others. It was a relief to know he had taken the matter truly to heart and given it some genuine thought, and even moreso that he had reached a similar conclusion as she had. It was hard for her to decipher what actually got through Zeffer's thick skull when all he did was grin and laugh, but the pensive look painted across his face communicated as much depth as his words.

Byakko perked from her introspection when Zeffer changed the subject, responding with an empty nod. "Probably," it was a singular response to both questions. "There's still a lot of cleaning up there to do." Akko started to slowly work her fingers free of his while she spoke, growing increasingly aware of how uncomfortable their little moment was making her. "Why?"