parker pinches herself. delirium has set in now that adrenaline is slowly leeching away from her. or is that her blood? is her adrenaline in her blood? that would certainly make sense. and a very big part of her knows that it is important she hold onto the adrenaline, and by extension, she supposes, the blood. 

hence the pinching. 

but it's a little redundant because her arm hurts worse than any weak little pinch she can manage with her fingers. and that hurt is what is making the prey part of her brain tell her to go to sleep. that it will be okay and it will stop hurting if she just closes her eyes. 

that rabbit, stained red with blood and gray with ash, is an emaciated thing, and parker looks down on it one final time. she sees that little girl, feels the hardening of her heart, and she lifts one steel-toed boot and crushes it under her heel.

"oof," she croaks, but it's lost in nomi's wails. she goes to grab her face, but her limbs don't move. she is so tired. but steel blue shines brightly through the bloody pulp that is her face. 

"the biggest man i've ever seen," she answers and coughs wetly. "cupcake, lemme see you. i gotta see you're - urk - okay."

nomi makes it difficult, but remus understands, so he works as well as he can with pink-glowing paws. heal pulses radiate over parker's form, but the jackal's breathing is labored. he's already pushed himself so much.

Naomi Sato

☉

they're so fucking far beyond okay it almost makes parker laugh. instead she manages a weird, snorty whistle through her definitely-broken nose. 

but that pales in comparison when she looks over nomi and sees crimson made black, cheeks swollen, bits of rubble and a white dusting of plaster in her hair. parker grimaces and hauls herself up into less of a slouching position, groaning from the effort. 

"not worried 'bout him hurtin' me anymore," she assures nomi bitterly. 

she saw what that was. what he was. 

remus' snout trembles and with one final wave of his hand, the pulses stop. he plops back on his ass, wipes his palm against his cheek, and then tries to steel himself. parker uses her not-fucked-up arm to push him away. 

nomi says what she already knows and she closes her eyes, tilts her head back. normally, she'd be fantasizing about nomi whisking her away, coddling her back to health and smothering her with affection. she'd have at least ridden the daydream so it made reality that much easier to swallow.

now she sees that little girl bleeding out in the street.

her eyes open. "yeah, well, then slap this baby in a sling and i'm golden." her smile is pained. they both know she's not going near that drowning city.

but parker doesn't ask nomi to stay.

Naomi Sato

☉

"yeah, yeah," she says and her eyes are still kind of faraway. not nomi's far-sight kind of faraway, although maybe it is. maybe parker's own little unown shaped like her own eye (and really muscular, for obvious reasons) is staring at the battlefield, right up into beefcake's eyes, and then past him at the street.

while the city burned and its people lost everything.

nomi says her name and she raises a brow, seamlessly gliding back into her own aching bones. 

parker prides herself on being one of the world's biggest idiots, but even she's got the decency not to be patronized. her lips curl. she wants to slap a hand on nomi's neck and clutch her close, but her arms still aren't listening to her. 

i wanna go eepies, she thinks. and also fuck sootopolis, but also, fuck, sootopolis.

"you gotta save the world, yeah. i get it. told ya. got it. hundo percento. 'cause that's what we're doin', right? savin' the world?"

smoke chokes the skyline. parker wants to laugh. 

Naomi Sato

☉

parker doesn't ask questions. if she's gonna sell her soul for this woman, then she's gonna do it. and she knows nomi saunters off to the league when she can, convinced she can make the world a better place if government officials decide to play dolls and tea party with the terrorists. but she'd thought that this battlefield, this war, these sacrifices, were worth something in the grand scheme. 

nomi presses her forehead against her, but parker's gone rigid. there's an acrid taste in her mouth. coppery and sweet. 

everything i did. everything i've done. everything we - 

"yeah, well, we don't always get what we want, nomes. now, ugh, please, that hurts." her voice has gone cold. it doesn't sound like her. and the part that is her, the part that's hiding behind her steel eyes, is thrashing in frustration. 

but she can't let that part out either. that'd be worse. way worse. 

"gotta get movin'. i only got so much blood."

Naomi Sato

☉

"i told you," she snaps back. "i told you this was fuckin' bigger than us."

anger colors her cheeks. a black fire fills her chest and every exhale is sharp. pained. shards of glass needle her insides and she doesn't know why they're there, or where they've come from, only she does - her heart's gone past its limits, shattered into a million and one bloody pieces. 

fuck honesty. 

"FUCK."

no, fuck the lies. fuck this whole sham. the whole world is ending and parker doesn't care. 

"it's gonna be a bloodbath, nomi." her jaw stretches. strains. pain makes her tongue thick. "i don't care what the fuck you gotta do, you come back. 'cause ya can't die a godsdamned hero."

they're already the villains. 

Naomi Sato

☉

not many people get to say good-bye. not many get to look their loved ones in the face and know, this may be the last i see of you, and she should cradle nomi close. she should recognize this end, this possibility, and she should smother her in kisses, protect her as she can, and let love be her reminder of what's worth fighting for. 

but that part of her is bleeding out on the street. 

and the rest of it, all the calloused bits of her stuck through with shrapnel and needles and bits of sharp, dead things, is hurting. hurting because nomi's taking her life, parker's life, their life, and she is saying, this is not enough. 

remus puts a hand over parker's shaking hand and looks urgently at nomi. his red eyes are nervous. 

"and grab the mail while you're at it, eh? maisey's gettin' lazy."

Naomi Sato

☉