fried: (forty)

[personal profile] fried 2024-10-19 09:06 pm (UTC)(link)
[ "It is no problem. Behave yourselves."

and then she's off, carrying the bunny off to another part of the house to give the two of them some privacy.

jiaoqiu is just as bandaged as therion - his shirt is off, so they're very visible, across his torso and arm. his leg is in a brace, and he's mostly clean of blood, though his fur and hair is still stained in places. he looks particularly frail, pale, but he's breathing, and it's not ragged or gasping. whatever magic lingsha has seems to have at least made it so that he is not missing chunks of flesh, but he's got a huge bruise on his cheek and a nasty claw mark across the side of his face that extends down to his neck and shoulder. not as bad as it had been, but... still.

when therion sits, jiaoqiu's ear flicks. and he shifts, expression contorting into something pained, though he's not all the way awake just yet. there's a mumbled word that sounds familiar, as he struggles to pull himself to consciousness. ]
fried: (twenty-four)

[personal profile] fried 2024-10-19 09:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[ maybe the reason jiaoqiu fights so hard to wake up is because he subconsciously knows, somehow, that therion is taking all this alone time to internalize more guilt and trauma,

no, it's probably not that intricate, but there is something in him that senses the distress. it takes a second, but he follows that voice, and after a moment, his gold eyes blearily open and try to focus. silence, for a moment, and then he sucks in a sharp breath, a little panicky, because his vision isn't gone, but the claw mark across his cheek makes it a little difficult to open that eye and it's just so, so similar, he can still smell the borisin and the blood and he's a little lost in it. he can see, but what if it fades, what if someone comes to him and says, i'm sorry, you should be sitting down for this, it's just that the general...

therion's hand hovers, and jiaoqiu grabs for it, fingers scrabbling - misses the first time, and then tries again, with a much more clear: ]


Therion.
fried: (forty-two)

[personal profile] fried 2024-10-19 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[ it just barely staves off the panic attack he's working himself up into, hearing therion's voice.

his chest heaves with it, which hurts all over. he doesn't feel a lot, sometimes, but that doesn't extend to the physical. he's a noodle with absolutely no pain tolerance, and it makes him wince horribly when he moves wrong. he freezes, sucking in another sharp breath and trying to calm down. alive. they're both alive. therion is here. it's not really a surprise, but it's such a relief in so many ways that he chokes a bit, forgetting that he has to breathe.

he's shaking, but he holds that hand like a lifeline, and for the first time in a very long time he doesn't immediately have to fight off the void. he's so, so awake, staring at therion like he's not sure he's real. ]


You... where...
fried: (thirty-nine)

[personal profile] fried 2024-10-19 10:03 pm (UTC)(link)
[ it's a good enough answer. it tells him enough - the borisin can't get here, for now. another couple of seconds of trying to calm down, his hand shaking so violently that it hurts, and he really feels like he might pass out again, but. lingsha's magic keeps him together, makes the pain start to recede a little. ]

Are you... all right? [ he asks, haltingly. ] You... came for...

[ deep breath. he looks therion over, trying to find and catalog his injuries, forgetting about his own. it hurts, but he has a very vivid memory of a borisin getting his teeth into therion's arm, and he passed out before he could see the extent of the damage. ]
fried: (forty-seven)

[personal profile] fried 2024-10-19 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[ his ears sort of just press back, which also hurts, but it's an involuntary thing. he swallows, and very gingerly brings therion's hand in his closer, pressing it to his uninjured cheek. trust, bringing the withdrawn claws to him. ]

... I'm sorry. [ he says, after a moment, closing his eyes. ] I was cornered. They took... my phone. I wanted to... come back. So I went with... with them.

[ it's the only time he's had some measure of survival instinct in years. they could've killed him, but therion was waiting for him. he couldn't do that to him. he couldn't leave therion to find his corpse somewhere.

therion's hand is cold, but that's okay. jiaoqiu's are normally freezing - he's usually got no body heat to speak of, despite everything - but right now he's all overheated. probably a fever, he thinks absently. therion's hand feels good on his skin. ]
fried: (fifty-two)

[personal profile] fried 2024-10-19 10:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ a beat. he frowns a little. ]

No... but I would be alive. [ he says, opening his eyes to look at therion. ] I would have... found some way to escape. Somehow.
fried: twt: xxltty (twenty-five)

[personal profile] fried 2024-10-19 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)
... Better to be deaf or wordless than a corpse.

[ he says, finally, to the first part. because he doesn't really want to be dead. he doesn't always want to be alive, but that doesn't mean death is preferable. the anger gets him - he knows this is how therion shows concern, but there's a weird tinge to it that he can't quite figure out. his overheated brain works overtime as he tries to make sense of what this anger means. obviously, therion's frustrated, but he can't figure out if it's because he's angry at jiaoqiu for being cornered, or injured, or something else. it does not occur to him that therion might be angry at himself. ]

You came to get me. [ ... ] You... almost died, to get me.
fried: (fifty-one)

[personal profile] fried 2024-10-19 11:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[ ah.

silence, for a moment, and then he slowly shifts therion's fingers to his pulse. lets him feel it against his neck. it's a little slow, but it's there. he strokes therion's hand with his thumb. slowly, the shaking is easing up. ]


Is that what you think? That... it's your fault? [ he asks, soft. ] It wasn't. It was an inevitability for me, whether... I'd met you or not.

[ ... ]

I'm not dead. I'm here.
fried: (twelve)

[personal profile] fried 2024-10-19 11:46 pm (UTC)(link)
[ that makes jiaoqiu laugh? it shouldn't, it's not really funny. it just makes him cough-huff one out, weakly. he's knows this is a lot for his stupid tsundere thief - and he doesn't even correct himself on the thought. his. the last three days in the hotel, the gradual ease of therion's shoulders, and now, watching him jitter at the thought of having to be honest with himself about how badly this affects him. all of that, he thinks, makes therion so very much his. and it's okay, if therion doesn't feel the same, but he can't quite lie to himself anymore about it.

jiaoqiu has shitty self worth, but he's not stupid. he can see this. he knows that he's a lost cause, because the first thing he thought about when he woke up was whether or not therion survived. ]


Therion.

[ he mumbles, watching him. ]

What do you think happened?

[ what did you hear? let him explain, let him help. let him connect, stop putting up that wall. he wants in, he needs in. ]
fried: (ten)

[personal profile] fried 2024-10-20 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
I did.

[ honestly, soft. ]

After the General and her retainer died, I tracked... him down. [ he has to take breaks, because even talking hurts, but he's going to explain or else. ] I convinced him that I was swayed... by the borisin creed. And I worked to bring him down. I wanted... to ruin his life.

[ a little smile. ]

Death was not enough for him. I wanted to... break him.
fried: (twenty-six)

[personal profile] fried 2024-10-20 12:32 am (UTC)(link)
I did.

[ he shifts, wincing just a little. ]

What I was doing... I couldn't keep doing. It was killing me. [ having to bring people in, having to gather information so that the people he wanted to save, wanted to treat - they got funneled in and torn apart, and nothing he could do would ruin hoolay. he had no morals. nothing to exploit.

he stood on a rooftop and he stared over the edge of it, and he was a step away from walking on air when feixiao's angry voice scolded him into moving back, and he realized - he couldn't keep on. he had to get away. ]


But he didn't want... to let me go. He wouldn't. I know... too much, and he'd grown fond of having a pet that... he could do whatever he wanted to.

[ he shifts again - like he wants to curl up. he can't, he's too broken for it, but maybe that explains why he flinched so badly, that one night. ]

So when he assigned me a mission to find new targets... I ran.
fried: (thirty-nine)

[personal profile] fried 2024-10-20 12:54 am (UTC)(link)
Years. I'm not sure how many.

[ he says, absently. he's fading, just a little, but. he stops moving, when therion tells him to. obediently. he glances up at therion, still holding his hand. ]

It really was only a matter of time until he caught up. [ he's so unaware - it doesn't even occur to him what hoolay might have said to his underlings, what lies he might have spread to save face. he doesn't know anything about darius passing on information, he doesn't even know that it wasn't common knowledge that he ran. ]

I'm... sorry, that you were in the... line of fire. You didn't... you didn't have to come for me. Thank you.
fried: (fifty-two)

[personal profile] fried 2024-10-20 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
[ silence, and then: ]

What do you mean?

[ because he does not for a second think that therion sold him out. not after dragging him across town to try and hide him. ]

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