"okay," she says and swallows. with nomi's emotional outburst mostly under control now, parker finally sneaks a glance at her apartment and is incredibly relieved to see the walls haven't splintered apart by the force of nomi's magic...crystal...ass?

is that where it had come from? those waves of crystal?

parker covers nomi's shaking hands in her own, squeezing tight, and pulls her wandering gaze away from maisey and back onto the head scientist. oh, nomi -  she doesn't get it. of course she doesn't get it. 

could she ever? does it matter anymore?

rocket's her home. her family. a sickening twist in her gut makes her grimace. 

"i think..." she says carefully, "things like this are a long time comin'. isaac, he - we went to the border. i followed his punkass into a rift and shit was bananas. like gwen stefani b-a-n-a-n-a-s."

he ripped the chains off of him. he got himself out. and after all of it, he'd left parker with her manacles around her wrists and ankles and him none the fucking wiser. her jaw tightens. 

"but it doesn't matter, nomes. about why or how. he's an enemy now. he's dead on sight."

Naomi Sato

☉

cillian will listen to me. 

parker can't risk that. he's an underboss. if this is between trusting nomi or carrying out his fucking duty to rocket, cill will choose rocket. she saw it in his shoulders and his hands and his words. she saw it in his eyes.

even if he loves nomi, even if she's like a sister, he'd kill her. whether he hesitates or not, parker couldn't say, but - fuck. 

she tries to stomach the anger. she tries not to let the fuse spark again because the powder snow got rid of all the crystal, but it didn't patch the hole in the wall where her damn hand went through. and she'd rather not have to find another spot to hang up on a picture frame. 

(don't look under the victorian bust of maisey, nomi.)

but she whispers more treason - true treason - and parker looks away. 

she draws her hands away because she's scared if she doesn't, she'll squeeze nomi too hard she'll hurt her. 

"this isn't about me. this is about how we keep ourselves safe. and it's by letting him go. you turn your back on rocket? you fuck up? you don't come back, nomes. he's done for. and everyone around him is gonna get burned."

Naomi Sato

☉

it's just inevitable then, that the people she knows and loves inevitably, irreparably, get sucked into hoenn's shitstorm of bullshit. this is why she kept her head down. this is why she kept to herself. this is why she never had friends or loved ones, especially not after avery left for kanto. 

all of this is outside of reach and she's a godsdamned close combat fighter. this is not her comfort zone. and it's plain on her face - her grimace, the trying and failing to smother her rising, frustrated temper. she worries her bottom lip, chewing more and more incessantly while nomi drones on about other universes and other isaacs. 

if their stories are already written, then what the fuck is the point? 

so isaac's not dead yet. cheers for him. that doesn't mean he can't end up a slab of meat in a box six feet under. if anything, from the sounds of it, he's taken one fucking step into the proverbial grave! isn't that what she said? the other universe isaacs were avatars, right?

"you're askin' me to stick my neck out? you're askin' me to give you my blessing to stick your neck out for a turncoat?" she clenches and unclenches her hands, fuming, turning circles, raising hands to her face, knotting in her hairline. 

"i can't do that."

Naomi Sato

☉

it's been manageable, the whole 'getting involved with rocket' shit, because she couldn't have gotten as close as she had with nomi without doing so. she's mostly been able to take out her frustrations on punching bags. or in nameless' ring. or out on runs, over hundreds of push-ups and sit-ups and anything else to keep her brain active and off of the truth.

she's scared. having an underboss rip into your wounded leg with nothing but an irritated thought will do that to a girl, she supposes, but it's not just that.

nomi doesn't understand.

parker's teeth groan from the stress of her clenching jaw and she throws her hands in the air at the tail end of nomi's question. 

"don't tell me i fucking won't, nomi. 'everything rocket does?' are you serious right now? what, i should just be peachy with global terrorism? the fuckin' types of torture i'm sure Cillian Quinn gets off on? the godsdamned regime my sister was carted away to? to keep the fuckin' peace in kanto?"

she shakes out her hand, flexing and unflexing, rooted to the spot because she is so gods damned angry. 

"you found a family here, nomi, but me? rocket killed mine. don't talk to me like any of this is easy. like me saying i'm gonna have to kill your best friend is in any way easy. but if it's you or him, i'm always gonna choose you."

Naomi Sato

☉

parker never asked because she didn't want to know. she doesn't know a lot of things about nomi because she doesn't want to know. they're fucked up - she knows that. they're fucked up and they're bad people, but it's so hard to admit that when nomi is sitting on her bed with puffy eyes and the most adorable fuck-me-right-now pink bedhead.

beating people up for money doesn't seem so bad anymore, in the grand scheme of things. 

it's nothing in the scope of the lawless land that governs nomi. megalalas and unown korianders and an evil organization hell-bent on destroying them, well, it's a lot. 

scientists murdered by their own test subjects - 

parker's jaw sets. she turns on her heels, stalks back (and will swivel again, turn forth, but for now she has) to hide the disbelief, the frustration, the anger, the revulsion. she runs a hand over her face, scrubbing it and leaving only a remnant of bitter anger in its wake when she turns back. 

her eyes are such a tired blue. 

"at the end of the day, nomes, i'm gonna do what i gotta do to protect us." her heart is heavy with the weight of too many forgotten years. "i'm your bodyguard, remember? can't have you go dyin' for the greater good. fuck the greater good. you're my greater good."

Naomi Sato

☉

are they still fighting? it feels like they should still be fighting. nomi hasn't budged and parker won't relent. they're stuck between a rock and a hard place and parker is still kinda pissed off, super fuckin' scared, and she wants to do a bunch of things right now like - 

1. go on a five mile run
2. do a thousand push-ups
3. run her fist through the drywall again

cuddling nomi isn't up on that list because she's wired. she's still twitching, as though her brain hasn't really caught up with the fact that she'd stopped pacing, but nomi's request is heeded despite all of this. without a thought. 

the please isn't necessary; she's already taken two steps. the other one comes with a bent knee and she almost shoulder-checks nomi as she crashes into her in a big bear hug, hands coming up behind her head to cradle her as she tumbles them over. 

"ten more minutes," she says roughly against her neck. "fuck all this for just ten more minutes."

nomi knows better than most what parker jones can accomplish in just ten minutes. 

Naomi Sato

☉