052 || before the bomb party starts

[shiro2hero]

(Did anyone else get an almost-message from Bellamy today?)

[There's concern in the message. And the ghost-feeling of the urgent, slip-through-the-fingers contact from his broodmate minutes before. Because how else do you describe what just happened?]

(I tried to get back to him and got nothing.)

[Needless to say, he's worried. Maybe someone else got something more concrete.]

Comments

[unsea]

[ You're not the only one, Shiro, who's lost people who were dear --

( There is a man, dead on the wooden deck of a capsizing ship. Dressed in red, red blood pouring from his nose and mouth. Empty eyes. A throat heavy with bear claws. The Darkling's own, brief, wrenching pain at the sight of him cast to the ground and abandoned. )

-- interchangeable with Bellamy, sick in his bed, heavy with sweat and disoriented by his own power. The sensation that though they three are brood, he clearly harmonizes far more with Bellamy - who hatched the same day that he did. ]

( Because I can break in to reach them, easier than I can break out. )

[shiro2hero]

[He throws back, almost in defiance, that looming, angry presence still lurking behind every thought, his own memories. Of a crystal clear moment when it had to be him. Has to be me, he'll die otherwise, this is a chance. Of throwing himself on the smaller body, yelling in feigned rage and hoping he'll understand. Hands pulling, dragging him away while the other is left in prison--]

[And melding into Allura's face. Calm and resolute and sad as she watches him leave her behind. Hands closing around her. Dragging her away. Knowing it should have been him. It always should have been him, but she'd thrown him to safety and there is so much guilt... She is lost behind closed doors, left imprisoned --]

(Does he know that?)

[unsea]

[ they parry with memories, with images. an even match, and from him - the soft vibrato of his approval as shiro pushes back. that's better, he thinks. whatever fury had possessed him before, seemed to have returned the steel to his spine and the edge to his teeth. some of the chilliness returns to the darkling's mind, as he pulls back - deeming their exchange "fair", apparently. ]

( He knows me, Shiro. I will not leave him, or his companion, behind.

Unfortunately, this means I will not be of much help, during the last legs of this long, arduous mission. )

[shiro2hero]

[At least where this is concerned. Where this Nerve is concerned. Where people being left behind is concerned. Someone who should have been saved...]

[But he doesn't throw anything else back into the Darkling's "face" for the moment. Even while the metaphorical "hackles" are still up.]

(Fine. As long as he knows.)

(I'm going with the others. I'll tell them.)

[unsea]

( Be safe, Shiro. We've lost someone to an explosion before.

I don't want to lose any of you. )

[ he's definitely talking about brood > nest, but it's a decent sentiment from a man like him. ]

[shiro2hero]

(You won't.)

(... I think I'm harder to kill than that.)

[He thinks. He hopes. All evidence would point to that fact though, so. He'll try to project more confidence.]

[unsea]

[ the mental equivalent of a mournful smile, and the flash of the red-robed man, gone cold and still.

seems it's not the first time that he's known someone who's said such.

he pulls away, then. to give shiro the time to prepare for his own mission. ]