parker has yet to connect the dots that professor GIDEON GRAVES, nomi's mentor, is the same man she beat to hell and back in the super duper spooky sea. but for some reason the name rings a bell - more than the 'oh, that's nomi's nerd friend' bell. his name makes her feel a mixed bag of emotions that makes her brows furrow. 

and then they unfurrow, whatever thoughts simmering under the surface slinking back to their depths as nomi curls into her and noses into her. skin on skin, parker's thoughts turn to whether or not it's worth it to let graves kill nomi if it means one last little makeout session.

but right as parker goes to make a move, one of nomi's phones buzzes. 

maisey startles at the sound and biffs. parker sighs, sits up in bed, and pulls maisey's whole face in both her hands, giving her a rough shake and biffing right back at her. her murmurs of whosagoodgirlyouare peter out when she feels nomi go still beside her. 

she grins, bopping maisey on the head, still not looking. "what's up, babes? quinn gonna come bustin' down the door for round two if i don't letcha go? nomes?"

she looks over her shoulder and her grin falls flat. "hey, babes. nomes. nomi. "

Naomi Sato

☉

pet name, her name, nothing. parker's seconds away from calling her all three fuckin' syllables. fuck, is quinn going to come bursting through the door and gut her like a fish for keeping nomi away from her super duper important evil scientist work? 

exasperated, parker does a relationship no-no and goes to stoop over nomi's shoulder to look at whatever the hell is freaking her out so much, except she drops it. parker reaches, grabs it, and turns the screen around. 

it takes a second for it to click. 

and then a whole bunch of pieces fall into place. not that the pieces matter because there's no puzzle to be seen. just red. 

the phone's thrown down, comforter tossed aside, and parker is up, pacing back and forth, balling her fingers into fists. clenching them tight enough her arms are shaking and the snapping in her is too much and it fucking hurts and - 

pain splits her knuckles. she's breathing hard. doesn't remember walking over to the nightstand, how her fist got stuck through the drywall. maisey is behind her, whining. 

"fuck. fuck." she turns, through clenched teeth, panicked, shouts, "did you know? nomi, did you know?"

Naomi Sato

☉

the pain is compartmentalized. later (sooner than later, actually, ow) her hand is gonna hurt like a motherfucker and she's gonna be mad about that too, but right now she's too panicked and too angry to feel anything. the skin had healed over the bones, at the very least, thanks to remus' heal pulses, but they're still smattered purple, resembling misshapen eggplants more than hands. 

nomi takes it the wrong way, but parker doesn't mind the yelling. she doesn't mind the defensiveness. it means she hadn't known. she hadn't known. 

which might be enough to save her. 

parker's brows furrow at nomi's question though. the why is obvious. it's every baby rocket's childhood fuckin' dream to get out of this pisshole. parker just didn't think isaac would be enough of an idiot to put everyone he fucking loved at risk to do it. 

envy snakes through her, hissing regret before parker grabs it by the neck (body??? is a snake just a body??) and tosses it out the window of her mind. 

parker forces herself to stop pacing and stands in front of nomi, bending so she can meet her at eye level from where she still sits on the bed. 

"nomi, listen to me. you 'n i were some of the last to see him. i've already got a fuckin' spotlight on me. they get unreasonable, you gotta let me take the fall, okay?" she places heavy, calloused hands over nomi's shoulders and gives them a squeeze. "stop asking why and tell me you're listenin'." 

Naomi Sato

☉

unfortunately for nomi, that's the one damn thing parker's never been able to grasp. pressing situation aside, it'll give nomi and avery jones something to talk about. shared trauma bonding and all that, right?

quiet, pensive nomi, whose feelings overwhelm her and force her to collapse, still naked, in parker's armchair, breaking glass with limp fingers, is not the person screaming in parker's face right now. parker startles; rather than draw away, her fingers sink deeper into nomi's shoulders. 

and honestly, what is it with everyone parker knows and their inability to keep their damn feet in their own reality? parker's face goes white as a sheet and she thinks maybe they fell through a fucking dimensional pocket again, but nomi's tear-stained eyes have gone full blown white. 

she scrambles back from where she'd been kneeling on the bed, flight response taking her away from the HARDENING GODSDAMNED CRYSTAL SHEETS, fingertips leaving nomi's shoulders only to come back seconds later as she stoops over on shaking legs. 

"i'm not leaving, nomi. hell, you're in my apartment, cupcake, and maybe please stop turning everything into crystals. you're scaring maisey." her voice is tight and she's letting her mouth run away from her because fuck, she's scared. she's really scared.

Naomi Sato

☉

parker sees it all. she sees secrets not meant to be shared this way, visions glittering in the crystalline surfaces, mementos of love marred by grief. all of them shimmering in the cocoon nomi is building and it's crawling up her knees now and there, on her left shin, parker sees herself. 

a decade older, split lip and arm a broken thing at her side and she recognizes that, but more so she recognizes the look on her own face. the look that says, i'm not strong enough to protect her. 

her head splits, sears, hurts real awful, but she grits through it, swallows the blood in the back of her throat and plops her ass right back down on the avatar's sculptures, legs splayed around her, hands moving from shoulder to cheeks. 

nomi is looking at her, but parker knows she's not seeing her. she's seeing betrayal and it's not sitting right with parker because isaac's a fucking idiot, but he didn't do this to hurt her. he didn't do this to abandon her. 

"you are, nomes. special and someone worth loving and someone i want. so i need ya to listen to me and i need ya to concentrate on 'im, okay? ask kowabunga to show you where he is or what happened or somethin' so we can make sense of it."

Naomi Sato

☉

it clicks. something parker says clicks and she doesn't know what it is, but it brings nomi back. brings her back here. to this still-fucked-up-apartment and part of her is thinking how the fuck am i going to explain this to the landlord? and also good thing marla ain't home 'cause she'd be knockin' down the door at this point and also, mostly, most terribly, i wish this wasn't happening.

wishing nomi wasn't an avatar. wishing the unown left her alone. wishing she left the unown alone. wishing they met in a coffee shop somewhere. and nomi was a professor doing good things, working under GIDEON GRAVES or some shit. 

the crystal surfaces shimmer and parker sees the remains of her friend. 

nomi's wail meets an unflinching face. it takes even less time than nomi for parker to realize he isn't dead. beat to all shit and damn fuckin' close to it, but not dead. 

she's toed that line before, with people.

"i think that gay dog's saving his life," parker says, frowning. 

he's alive. as far as they know. if this is real. if any of it's real. but that fucking sucks too 'cause parker knows, knows, nomi's gonna cross paths with him again. and parker will be right there with her. 

and nomi won't be able to do it. 

nomi won't be able to kill him. 

so she'll have to.

Naomi Sato

☉