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 Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:23 am
Try as he might to not get himself in over his head, Jet often found himself up against an opponent who was more skilled and more experienced than himself. It made things… a little more complicated than he was anticipating, and a fight which could have ended with his victory quickly went south.
At least had an ally not been there to intervene.
As it were, two on one was a little more than the senshi knew they could handle, and wisely retreated. Jet was sporting a cut across his forehead from being kicked into a trash bin just earlier, but when Aquamarine stepped in to cover him from the senshi’s attack, well… He never intended for someone to get hurt in his stead.
“Are you okay??” he asked, trying not to sound too panicked as he raced back to the other after making sure the senshi wouldn’t be coming back. He might not be very skilled but he was stubborn as hell, and unless he was down for the count, he would keep fighting. “s**t, what the hell did you do that for??” he asked, feeling his face pale as he tried looking Aquamarine over for any kinds of injuries.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:25 am
Aquamarine was not the type for battle.
Oh, he knew how to fight well enough. He was certain his fencing practice was good for something, but a plastic sword wasn’t much in the way of weaponry. He’d prefer better odds and more useful equipment when it came to facing their enemy. A toy sword wasn’t going to do anything against magic, nor was it any more helpful in a physical fight.
Aquamarine dropped his plastic sword to the ground and curled his arms around his stomach protectively. In truth, his wounds weren’t that severe. Whatever the Senshi’s magic had done to him had faded quickly enough. He sported little more than a few bumps and bruises, but even those aches and pains were enough to have him regretting jumping in.
“What, do you expect me to just stand there and let you get your a** handed to you again?” he wondered, knowing all the while that that was exactly what most people expected of him.
They weren’t wrong to. He prefered to stand on the sidelines and observe until there was a suitable opening.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:26 am
”Actually, yeah,” Jet was quick to respond, his brows furrowing in concern as he reached out to try and find where the other was injured, pulling at his jacket so he could undo the buttons, trying to see if he was bleeding anywhere, or had a bone sticking out, or anything that might indicate need for a hospital visit. “Yeah, I expected you to stay there and tell me I deserve getting my a** handed to me again. I don’t know what the hell you were thinking, jumping in like that,” he frowned, pushing Aquamarine’s arms out of the way so he could tug the shirt out of the way and inspect his stomach.
It looked like it was going to be bruised, but at least any prodding he did with his fingers didn’t result in discomfort from potential broken bones. “Dumbass… you should have let me get my a** handed to me. Where are you hurt the most?”
Whether or not the magic had faded quickly, he knew it often had lingering effects, and if Aquamarine was downplaying his injuries to get Jet to back off, he was not going to be happy. He couldn’t wait until he finally had more power in which to protect his friends and allies. He had no family to worry about, so that was a relief at least.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:27 am
Aquamarine ‘tsk’ed at the manhandling.
“Ow, you’re hurting me,” he complained.
It didn’t hurt quite as much as it could have. He was at least fairly certain that nothing was broken, which was just as well; if he’d managed to break something he never would have let Jet live it down. As it was, the rough handling of his uniform annoyed him. Aquamarine batted Jet’s hands away before returning his arms around his stomach.
He’d had the breath knocked out of him. Even now it hurt to breathe a bit.
“I was thinking that someone needed to save your a** before you ended up dead,” he said.
Jet gave too much of himself to the Negaverse, and they gave absolutely nothing back as far as Aquamarine had seen. It’d been a year and they were still both lowly Lieutenants with nothing but cuts and bruises to show for their efforts.
“My stomach hurts,” he said, “And my ankle is killing me.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:27 am
Jet frowned deeper, and when he was sure there weren’t any other senshi hanging around to come back to find them, he powered down. “My place isn’t far from here. Let me at least get you some ice,” he offered, lifting a hand to touch his own forehead to test how bad the cut he had was. It could have been worse, but at least Aquamarine hadn’t been too injured.
Ilian offered a hand to the other in case he would suck up his pride and accept the help. He felt guilty for putting his ally in danger like that and shook his head at Aquamarine’s previous comment about him ending up dead.
“Since when did you worry about me getting killed? If I end up dead then you wouldn’t have to even worry about powering up, right?” he wondered, knowing that the Negaverse wasn’t exactly Aquamarine’s favorite occupation.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:27 am
“Don’t be stupid,” Aquamarine said. “Do you really think the Negaverse is going to let me get away with not powering up?”
Aquamarine wasn’t so stupid as to believe it, not when they had energy quotas to maintain. Someone was going to notice when he stopped meeting his quota, and Aquamarine didn’t relish the idea of finding out what happened when that was the case. They treated their enemies bad enough. He could only imagine how they treated one another.
He’d heard rumors, after all, and none of them were good.
“At least this way I have company,” he groaned.
Aquamarine let go of his transformation, his uniform disappearing to be replaced by the jeans, shirt, and cardigan he’d been wearing before their eventful patrol.
“Anyway,” Lovely said, “lead the way to your dumpy apartment.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:28 am
Well, at least there was a reason to keep him alive, even if it was only for company. Ilian supposed that was better than nothing, and more than what he’d been expecting. He knew he wasn’t exactly Lovely’s favorite person and he didn’t make things very easy for him.
Unless it had to do with Lovely taking credit for what he’d done, but that was in the past… for now.
Ilian’s dumpy apartment wasn’t too far away, as he’d stated before. It was on the bottom floor of an apartment complex, and one that had obviously seen better days. It was built into the side of a hill, so while most of the other apartments had extra windows, especially if they were end units like Ilian’s was, his was partially submerged, so the windows looked out at a cement block wall in the back. At least it was relatively clean for being as old as it was. There was still a musty, underground smell that lingered, but there was no trash on the ground. He’d even managed to get a small couch from the local thrift store, and had it covered with a clean sheet.
“Sit down. Let me get the ice…” he said as he turned to the tiny kitchen so he could pull out the ice tray from the freezer.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:28 am
Lovely followed behind Ilian as Ilian led the way to his apartment, limping and staggering in his wake. Every few steps Lovely would pause to give his ankle a rest. He should probably have it looked at by a professional, but he wasn’t exactly in the mood to go to the doctor’s, particularly this late at night when his only choice would be a visit to the emergency room.
Upon arriving, Lovely took a seat on the sheet covered couch, groaning as the lowered himself onto the cushions. He looked around the place with a look of distaste on his face. It was clean enough and suitable for someone of Ilian’s means, he supposed, but Lovely was obviously used to better.
“I need something to wrap my ankle with,” he announced while Ilian went to fetch some ice. Lovely flopped over onto his side on the couch, his arms still wrapped around his stomach. “I’m going to die,” he complained. “You’re going to get me killed and I’m going to die and no one will know what happened to me.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:29 am
”You’re not going to die,” Ilian let out an exasperated sigh as he came back into the tiny living room with the ice and a towel. “I don’t have any plastic bags, so it’s probably going to melt after a while, but we’ll just switch it out. I don’t have any gause left, but I can get some tomorrow morning,” he offered, sitting on the floor in front of the couch so he could inspect Lovely’s ankle.
“Wow, it’s already swollen up… you should probably stay off it for a while. I guess you can have a taxi take you home, unless you want to stay here tonight. I’d understand if you didn’t,” he added with a small grimace as he went to work trying to wrap the towel with ice inside around Lovely’s ankle.
“Let me get another towel for your stomach…” he said with a sigh, getting up again to head back to the kitchen. “Do you want anything to eat? I have crackers… soup… uh… some cereal…”
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:29 am
“What part of ‘I’m going to die’ makes you think I want something to eat?” Lovely said.
Ilian’s assessment of his injuries didn’t help his mood at all, but Lovely at least remained still while Ilian wrapped his ankle in the towel full of ice. It was better than nothing, and the cold of the ice quickly dulled some of the pain.
“Don’t you have an ace bandage or something?” he asked.
He supposed that was asking for too much.
For a moment Lovely considered taking a cab home. His first aid kit still had plenty of materials left. He could wrap his ankle and go to sleep in peace. But even taking a taxi required walking some of the way. Lovely didn’t really feel like getting up now that he was down. He supposed staying the night at Ilian’s wouldn’t be too terrible. At least the place was clean and there were no bugs…
… that he could see…
“I don’t understand why you do this,” Lovely said rather than voice his decision to stay. “The Negaverse. The fighting. What’s in it for you? You’re just going to end up dead in a ditch somewhere and no one but me and Jericho will care.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:30 am
Ilian came back out into the room with another towel so Lovely could place it on his stomach with some more ice, knowing he didn’t have the necessary supplies to make the other feel as comfortable as possible, but he was doing the best he could with what he had.
“You’d care if I ended up dead?” he asked in surprise as he knelt down again, and tried to get Lovely to let him lift up his shirt and cardigan so he could have the towel against his stomach. “Why? You don’t usually act like you care what happens to me… unless it’s to make fun of me for getting my a** kicked again,” he pointed out , wondering if perhaps he’d missed something.
He didn’t want to think that Lovely cared. It was too personal and would pose too much risk. Ilian knew he was already getting too close to the other, considering him more as a friend than just another ally or rival. It was… dangerous.
“I’m doing it because my brother worked hard to take care of me. The Negaverse helped him do that, so… I want to be able to repay that debt somehow. And of course get justice for what happened to him,” he added, but refused to look Lovely in the eye. He knew it was his fault for getting Lovely and Jericho involved, but he had no idea how to make up for that fact.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:30 am
Lovely chose not to respond to Ilian’s question. He spent too much time being mean and pretending he didn’t like people for people to start realizing a lot of it was just and act.
Alright, so it wasn’t really an act. He was mean to people on purpose. But that didn’t mean he didn’t like them. He just had an odd way of showing it. Suffice it to say, if he didn’t like Ilian, he wouldn’t bother with him at all. Why waste his time, after all?
“One Senshi killed your brother,” Lovely pointed out. “Why not just kill her and be done with it?”
It seemed the simplest solution to him. Getting involved with an organization like the Negaverse was just needlessly complicated.
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter,” he said.
He battled Ilian’s hands away from his stomach again, moving his shirt and cardigan himself and taking the second towel full of ice to place against his stomach. He wondered if there might be any internal bleeding but figured it would hurt a lot worse if that were the case. He knew he was already making a bigger deal about his injuries than was really required, but if he was going to be hurt for Ilian’s sake then he was going to have Ilian feeling sorry for him.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:30 am
”I would if I could find her. She’s already stronger than I am. She was able to kill Sorin with no problem and I’m still having trouble fighting the basic senshi… I need to get stronger so I can go after her, don’t you see?” he asked, although he was sure Lovely wouldn’t care what excuses or explanations he offered. He was just a stupid teenage boy who was constantly getting in over his head, to Lovely.
Ilian let out a sigh and stood up so he could take a step back away from Lovely to give him some space. “I’m glad you’re not too hurt…” he told him, figuring now would be a good enough time to get himself cleaned up a little.
He went back to the kitchen, wiped up his face, and came back out once more with a glass of water for his guest. “Here… you should at least try and drink something before you go to sleep,” he offered, setting the glass on the table next to the couch, before turning to sit down at his keyboard.
It was late, so the volume had to be turned down as low as possible unless he had his headphones in, but so far no one had really complained about the noise.
He picked a ballad to occupy his time, or at least until Lovely told him to leave so he could get some sleep. Ilian sat on the stool that was not quite high enough to give him a proper angle to play, but it was good enough. Really, he just needed something to calm his nerves.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:31 am
Lovely sighed heavily but said nothing in response. It was obvious that Ilian would have a reason or an excuse or some sort of an explanation for why he did things no matter what Lovely happened to ask or suggest. Lovely wasn’t entirely sure why he concerned himself with it in the first place. Why should he care? If Ilian wanted to go out and get himself killed all in the name of revenge, that was his prerogative.
He told himself it bothered him only because he ended up being taken along for the ride. If he wasn’t involved, Lovely didn’t think he’d care as much. Then again, Ilian was practically his only friend in this place. Didn’t that mean he should care no matter what?
Lovely didn’t know. He wasn’t used to caring about anyone but himself. He told himself he didn’t care because it was easier that way. There was less chance of him getting hurt.
But then look where he was now.
Rather than continuing the conversation, Lovely laid back on the couch and listened to Ilian play the keyboard, closing his eyes as the sound washed over him. Ilian was really very good, even if Lovely saw no reason to admit it. All too soon, the quiet ballad had him drifting off to sleep.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:31 am
Once he was finished, Ilian turned to see if Lovely had been watching, but it appeared as though he’d drifted off. Letting out a small sigh, Ilian got up from the keyboard so he could bring a blanket over to the other and spread it out over him.
He didn’t know why Lovely bothered. He knew he could end up dead with no body but Jericho caring, so the fact that Lovely had included himself was… strange… but not unwelcome. It only made Ilian realize he needed to work harder so he could get enough power to protect at least the two other people who actually cared what happened to him.
Lovely was a strange boy, but he wasn’t as horrible as he let on. He was rough, but… not bad.
Ilian left him there on the couch so he could go into his own room and crash on the bed. For the first time in a long time, he didn’t feel alone.
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