salt tickles her nose. so does copper. her lungs huff with the exertion, capillaries bursting and giving her that copper tang that accompanies pushing your body well past its limits. her wrists are blooming red from grasping with such fervor. a couple of the kids are cheering her on. one little dude is pretending he's not impressed. 

he kicks a rock at her and scorbunny sends it back, punting it into his stomach and sending him away crying. out of the corner of her eye, she watches the parents' reaction and grins like a wolf when they contemplate and decide Fuck No. 

back to it. 

she goes until just before her arms start feeling like jelly. breathing hard through her mouth, a dribble of clear snot trailing down her nose, she takes a hearty swig from her water and counts down until her next set. 

some short meathead walks behind a tottering totodile, back to her. she slams her palms together, flexes her fingers, and hauls ass back onto the bar. this time she goes for pull-ups, legs crossed at the ankles as she pumps up and down and - 

fuck, what?

mr hunk is waving and it's not some nameless dumbass. it's motherfucking stupidass piece of shit ISAAC GODSDAMNED MERLO. 

her grip slackens out of surprise and she grimaces as the full force of her weight shunts onto her shoulders. the old injury doesn't quite pop, but it hurts like a bitch and she totters onto the asphalt, fuming. 

snot still running down her face. pink hair matted on her forehead. muscles still tight with exertion. she's only halfway done and if she walks over there right now, she knows what she's gonna fuckin' do. 

so she scowls and drops, face hovering over the ground as she counts in rapid succession onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineteneleven - push-ups, going, going, going, staring at the ground and seeing scarlet.

Isaac Merlo

☉

he helped give her the world. watson too. her nose nearly touches the asphalt. sweat drips down her nose. it stings her eyes. her palms are prickled all over from playground sand and pebbles. she relishes the bite of it in her skin. makes her think of the matching skinned knees she and avery jones always had.

on a push up, the totodile nears. her mouth twists in a grimace, but she's too out of breath to snap at the gator to leave her alone. and she pays the price. the muscles in her back knot, straining, and she huffs out an exhale, catching it behind her teeth and shifting into the new weight. 

and then she goes down. and up. and down. slower, now, because she's built like a truck, but she's still human. 

slow enough that rage-fueled heart palpitations aren't making her see herself punch the lights out of isaac in a ridiculous amount of ways. she's still mad. she's still really fucking mad by the time she's done, but by the time she's done, she's exhausted. 

she could probably eat like fifty eggs right now and still be hungry. hungry enough for bacon and ham and half a loaf of bread and shit, she's starving. usually she trots right back home and gorges herself protein, but muscle isaac will have to do.

with watson dutifully in tow, she walks back to isaac. the kids have mostly gone back to playing. 

which is good. 

because parker underestimates her ability to stay angry. 

and punches isaac in the face.

Isaac Merlo

☉

scorbunny is too busy playing footsies with a rock to worry about what her trainer's doing. she's about as no-thoughts-head-empty as watson is, minus the sociability. 

parker stares him down. her shoulders tighten. her jaw tightens. her calves tighten. her fucking toes curl. the smile on his face makes it worse. her heart tightens. 

"fuck you."

for getting out. for leaving her behind. for leaving before they knew each other proper. for teasing a friendship and slapping her in the face with it. for hurting nomi. for putting nomi in danger. for making nomi cry. 

bruised knuckles raise again. a muscle in her cheek flicks. but then she drops her arm and scowls down at the ground. 

Isaac Merlo

☉

"you get it?" she says, baffled. "you get it?" 

she spits at his feet. is this why he's here? to tell her it's okay to be angry, just hit me! just make it all go away, parker! just yell at me, parker! so he can fucking feel better about what he did? so he can wipe his hands clean of guilt when they're six fucking feet under?

"nah, nah." she reacts with violence because she doesn't know how else and because he's telling her it's what she needs and she hates that she needs it and, "i beat on fuckers every godsdamned day, isaac. what the hell makes you think beatin' your ass is gonna fix this? is gonna fix any of this?" 

her lips are curled, words sharp on razor teeth, fingers fisted in his shirt to raise him eye level even if she wants to look down on him. 

and then, she thinks about something that really does make her angry. 

"you makin' rounds? stay away from us. i swear to fuck if you put nomi in any more danger, i'll fuckin' kill you."

Isaac Merlo

☉

but they're not just randoms. she knows their stories. she knows their families. she knows their friends. that's her job - to know their closest, well-kept secrets and to use them to threaten if her fists don't work. they're convenient. she has issues with her rage and they're a get out of jail fuckin' free card when it comes to behavioral therapy. 

he's right, though. it's gonna kill her one day. 

"i hoped they'd get you," she says. betrayal still stings, prickling the corner of her eyes. "so i don't have to." here, now, they're safe, though. 

are they? 

if he's had rockets crawling up his asshole since the hospital, ain't no way he can just walk around in broad daylight like this without a tail. right?

"i hear they call you the liberator now. cheeky fuck. what, you gonna liberate me? 'cause you know damn well that ain't happenin'. not while she's here."

Isaac Merlo

☉

she could be happy for him. instead of letting herself turn green, she could be happy for him. and maybe she could have, if she hadn't known he'd resurface. he'd complicate things. he's always going to complicate things. that's how enemies work. 

"i coulda got ya killed," she says. and it would have happened. she knew from the moment he broke that fuckin' chain in the border that he was leaving all the rest of them behind. it's just, with things like that, you gotta ignore it before your own sanity. you gotta tell yourself, that ain't my job and just deal with the fallout. 

that's what she's been telling herself anyway.

she stares coolly at him the entire time he talks. she wills herself to stay rooted to the ground. she imagines her tennis shoes have rocks in them. and then that they have 50 pound weights in them, but really small. and then that they're covered in concrete all the way up to her ankles. 

he narrates every rated-e-for-everyone fantasy she's had about herself and nomi. 

"i was fine with my line, isaac. fine doing grunt work. fine being the piece of shit no one cared about so long as i got my quotas filled." she scowls. but that's gone now. and it's not gone because of isaac.

it's gone because of nomi. 

she breaks the concrete and kicks at the ground, swearing. scorbunny stops juggling a pebble and hops over. parker ignores her so she goes up to and around isaac, cheeks puffing as she dribbles in circles. 

"cool. great. yeah, fuck me, isaac. i already knew all this. what's the point, huh? to find me 'n go 'na-na na-na boo boo, rocket's gonna kill you'?"

she laughs an empty, callous laugh. "like i don't already know? well, fuck you." and then, with a gritting of her teeth, a rolling of her tongue, she squares her shoulders and clasps a meaty hand on one of his shoulders. 

"and i get it. fine. cool. we both made our beds. you got that dog. i go down, you keep her up."

Isaac Merlo

☉