This room is rather bare, save for a few dark, uneven lines that look like scorch marks running down the walls and the usual furniture: a bed, desk, chair, bedside table, and dresser.
X-Men Time
Friday, November 18th
Light had sprung out of her bed and quickly made her way into the bathroom before she could puke all over the floor, aiming for the toilet and barely making it. A few days prior, she'd began vomiting, no more than twice a day, but always right after she woke up. She could only assume she'd caught some sort of flu or cold or stomach virus but carried too much pride to visit a doctor to get her diagnosis and possibly medication. Besides, the nausea only lasted for an hour or two, and was completely gone after that, or at least, until the next day. However, the girl hoped that this would be the last day and that tomorrow she'd feel up to par to possibly get herself out of the mansion and get away for once. Spitting out remnant of bile from her mouth and with her hair in one hand, Light stood up from the ground, reaching out immediately for a tissue to blow her nose and rid her sinuses of the burning sensation from stomach acid. Tossing the used paper into the trash, the girl ran her fingers through her head, glancing at the clock in her bedroom to see that it was well past noon and that classes must be over (not like she attended anyways). With a sigh, she twisted the knob to turn on the shower water, letting it heat up while she stripped down and brushed her teeth vigorously, making sure to rinse with mouthwash to get the awful taste out of her mouth. Finished and still a little dizzy, Light stepped into the shower, standing in the hot water a long while before she cleaned herself.
Finished with her shower, Light stepped out, drying off and heading straight to her dresser. Feeling less than dressy, she pulled out a pair of simple black sweatpants and tugged them on over a pair of cotton bikini panties. Putting on a simple, comfortable sports bra, she then picked up the shirt that Shade had left behind, slipping it on and buttoning it up just to the top of the bra. She'd gotten into the habit of wearing it nearly every night for the past few weeks, and as much as she'd hated it, the thing was starting to smell and she'd had to wash it, removing Shade's scent along with it. After brushing her hair and pulling it into a loose ponytail off to the side of her head, Light stretched her arms up high, the too-long sleeves of Shade's shirt slipping down to her knuckles and then over her hands when her arms dropped to her side. Finally, after pulling on some socks, the girl gave a quick glance around her room to be sure she really needed to leave her room, then headed out into
X-Men Hall South 3rd in search of food and water, hoping her sickness had passed for the day.
For a split second, shadows flickered in Light's empty room, stretching out from under the bed like flames and clinging to the wall, trying to climb up to the ceiling before dissipating. A few more times, the shadows began to climb up the wall until they formed a large patch of blackness, shaky and dissipating almost faster than it could build itself up. Finally,
Shade emerged from the shadowy mass, stumbling forward, the boy looked rather severally injured. As soon as he stepped out, he seemed to lose the strength to hold up the flickering shadow portal and it disappeared into thin air as the boy stumbled forward, falling down on one knee for a second before dragging himself over to the bed. As he moved, the boy left behind a trail of droplets of blood, his right hand clutched over his side as his hair, sticky and bloody, stuck to his face. Unable to apparently move anymore, Shade was unable to actually climb into the bed, clutching the covers, he slunk down and curled up at the feet of the bed, one of the blankets falling on his shoulder.
Only seconds after Shade had stumbled into her room,
Light stepped into her own room, closing her door quietly behind her. She was dressed in a simple pair of black sweatpants and in a black bra, having discarded of her shirt only moments before, and her hair was dripping with water. The girl kept her head down as she moved into the room, staring at the floor and completely missing the half-conscious boy by her bed. With a hand in her hair, Light walked straight to her bathroom, picking up a hair tie from the counter and pulling her wet strands into a loose ponytail. She proceeded to turn the sink faucet on, waiting for the water to heat up, and leaving it at just a little too hot, she washed her face and brushed her teeth, ridding her mouth of the taste of tea and bile. She still felt bad about the incident in the kitchen; the more she thought about it, the more she knew she should apologize to Vlad, but she just wasn't the type to seek out someone just to give them a silly apology. Finishing cleaning up, Light dried her face then looked in the mirror. Her body looked thinner than before, almost unhealthy. Since Shade had left, she'd hardly eaten a thing, other than some pieces of fruit and water, and now she was throwing up anything she managed to put into her body. Leaning forward on the counter, she looked closely at her face. There, too, she looked sick, dark circles under her eyes and her cheeks looking sunken. Sighing, the girl stepped back and turned out the light to the bathroom, walking back into her bedroom and straight to her bed. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, the girl sat down briefly on her bed, reaching out to pull her blankets up when she noticed something just past the foot of her bed. Crawling over the mattress, she looked down in the floor and spotted a bloodied body laying almost motionless under part of her bedsheets. "What the hell.." she swore as she stood up off the bed and walked to the foot, kneeling down to get a better look. She had no idea how anyone would've gotten into her room, much less in the shape that this person was in. Unless they could teleport... "Shit!" Light cursed again as she finally realized that the barely conscious person in her floor was Shade, her heart nearly beating out of her chest. "What the hell did you do to yourself?!" she asked frantically as she put a hand on the boy's cheek, moving her fingers down to his neck, checking for a pulse, then brushing his bloodied, sticky hair back from his face to see if he was awake.
There was a hint of alcohol to
Shade's smell as Light got closer to him, as well as the smell of cigarettes on his clothes (but not on his breath), as if he had been in some seedy dive bar. Up close and with her eyes adjusting to the darkness, the girl would probably be able to see the young man's sorry state all the better. He had taken a powerful blow to the side of his head, probably with something blunt and heavy, and a trickle of blood had ran down the side of his face until stopped by heavily matted hair over it. The boy also had several scratches, cuts and bruises all over, including the mark of the inside of a ring on the side of his neck, probably left there in an attempt to restrain him. Some of the cuts went straight through his clothes, a half torn shirt and a leather jacket, so they must've come from shiv's or blades of some sort, his clothes were also dirty and wet in several points. The most alarming, however, was what the boy was clutching on his hand, he had a large ball of what must have been paper towels or napkins at some point pressed against his side, but they were now shriveled and red from the blood they were trying to contain. Each time the boy breathed in, a little bit of blood squirted out from under the paper towels, too saturated to hold any more, and in between his fingers. Opening his eyes for a second, they looked grey and dead to Light, before he winced and closed it again, taking a deep, painful breath and letting out a small, angry sounding. "..had.. ucking flashlights...
" He had probably tried to sound nonchalant and failed miserably at it. The moment the girl's hands touched his skin, however, he seemed to calm down a bit, as if they had some soothing effect on him.
Seeing the boy's entire state, Light sat up, looking down at Shade and running her hands back through her hair and inadvertently getting the boy's blood on her own face and hair. Slowly, she was beginning to panic, her breathing becoming rapid and her heart beating fast. "Fuck, Shade," she whispered when she saw the blood streaming out from beneath the wad of paper towels he had at his side. Her head whipped around as she glanced around the room for something to help stop the bleeding, and seeing nothing, she looked back down at Shade again, pressing her palm to his cheek, her hand shaking. "Hey, stay awake," she whispered as his eyes opened and closed again. Biting her lip, Light looked around the room once more, then stood abruptly and almost ran straight into her bathroom. The girl made a lot of racket as she began shuffling through her drawers, looking for a first aid kit, or anything, really. Finally the girl spotted a small kit, probably from when she and Shade had been injured in the attack in the woods, and she reached to the back of a drawer to retrieve it. Standing up, she stopped, looked around the bathroom one more time, then, spotting a clean towel hanging from a rack, snatched it up and went straight back into the bedroom, to Shade's side. "What the hell did you do?" she asked again, her voice sounding almost angry, but mostly worried as she dropped the kit and towel in the floor. Reaching down, she grabbed the boy's hand and gently pulled it away from his side, telling him in an attempted soothing voice, "Move your hand out of the way." Managing to move his hand just enough, she pulled the blood-soaked paper towels away from his side and leaned down to briefly inspect the wound. Her brows furrowing in concern she reached beside her to pop open the first aid kid, pulling out a pair of tiny scissors, usually used for cutting gauze. She wasted no time in attempting to cut the boy's shirt straight up from the bottom, trying to get it out of the way so she could try to stop the bleeding from his side. Finally, she managed to get the shirt cut half way up, and with one little snip at the collar, Light impatiently gripped the shirt with two hands and pulled, ripping it open. The girl grabbed the towel at her side, quickly, and messily, folded it, and pressed it to Shade's side, holding it there firmly. "You need to go to the infirmary, Hank can take care of you," she tried to convince Shade, unaware that the blue doctor was absent from the mansion. As she spoke, Light leaned down closer to his face and smoothed his hair back, her face full of worry as her eyes moved over each of the wounds and marks that covered his body.
Shade's shirt came out with surprising ease, since the the many cuts had severely compromised the clothing's structural integrity. Every time Light touched him, the boy stirred a bit, almost seeking her hand with his, as if to point out he was still awake. With Shade's hand away from the wound, a lot of blood welled up to the surface, right over his skin, obscuring the wound for a bit, but after the blood began slipping down to the floor, a clear bullet wound could be seen. Luckily, it seemed to be, by far, the biggest wound. Other than that and the blow to his head, Shade seemed to be covered mainly in bruises, scrapes and small cuts which could not threaten his life. A bit more active now, the boy winced while Light pushed the towel against his side, his breathing normalizing a bit as the towel soaked up blood and stopped the hemorrhage a lot better than the paper towels could "Ran into som-some bullets." he tried to joke, forcing a small grin even though his eyes were closed. When Light said she'd bring him down to Hank in the infirmary, however, Shade began to struggle, almost trying to slip away for a second before he let out a severely weakened whisper, "N-no... no doctors, no Xavier." he said, clearly meaning it. "Just you. No one else." he added, clearly meaning there was no one else he would trust at the time, gripping Light's hand as hard as he could in his (which wasn't hard at all). "I'll be fi-.. fine." he added, coughing up a few droplets of blood. "Just pull.. out.. " he added, now leading Light's hand towards his side, where the bullet would be.
Light was the last person that would find any of this, of Shade's state and situation, amusing, but she knew Shade was just being Shade, always making light of things, even if he was on the verge of death. He had such a dark sense of humor. She kept pushing her fingers through the boy's hair, finally running on a warm and wet spot on the side of his head, another obvious wound. "Fuck, Shade," she whispered, lifting her fingers from his hair to see them covered in his blood. "Okay, okay..." the girl whispered reluctantly when Shade opposed the trip to the infirmary, knowing that she wouldn't be able to convince him unless he was unconscious, and that was the last thing she wanted him to be right now. Feeling his hand trying to tighten around hers, she gave his hand a light squeeze in an attempt to reassure him, still looking down at him, worry all over her face and her hands shaking badly. For the moment, she had forgotten all about the incident with this man and Camille, and their dramatic breakup; now she was only focused on helping him. Looking down to where he led her hand, to the towel again, she finally pieced together what he meant about the bullets, and her shoulders visibly fell, the thought of removing the bullet and causing him even more pain simply, well, scaring her. "I don't..." she started to say, taking her hands away from his face and hand and gently grabbing the towel, pulling it away from the bullet wound. "I don't know what to do." Looking up at his face for just a few seconds, the girl was silent, then sighing, with a whimper, she reluctantly placed one hand over the hole in Shade's side. "Just... stay awake," she commanded as she focused on sending dull pulses of electricity to the palm of her hand, slowly increasing the intensity until she thought, maybe, it was enough to numb any feeling in Shade's side. With her hand glowing light blue, she tried to keep the focus of her energy to that one spot, not wanting to do any more damage to Shade than he'd already suffered. She watched his reaction carefully, and proceeded with pushing more pulses into hr palm, this time focusing them deeper into the wound, where the bullet was. Light had no idea if it would work, but as with her chain, if she put enough energy into something metal, she could magnetize the object, making it float, and she hoped she could pull the bullet out this way.
The pulses of electricity Light was sending into the boy's body seemed to be doing their job, as the pain Shade was feeling became considerably dulled each time a tingling wave traveled down his spine. "Just.. do it fast." whispered the boy, feeling much better now. He closed his eyes and winced in preparation for Light's fingers digging into his skin, but he instead felt a pulsating sensation originating from the point of his injury, drowning out the pain and replacing it with Light's warm fingers. Finally, the bullet began to move, each time it edged closer to his skin, he opened his mouth and gasped with pain, but when it finally came out entirely, pushing against Light's palm, the young man let out a considerable sigh of relief. Unbeknownst to him, blood came gushing out for a second right after the bullet came out, but soon became a slow trickle coming from his stomach. "T-thanks..." he let out, closing his eyes after a deep breath, as if he was drifting off to sleep, with his hand still clutching Light's over his wound. "You have any pain pills?" he asked the girl, his voice heavy and slurry.
Light surprised herself as she managed to wiggle the bullet out of Shade's torso, the tip of it hitting her palm as she used pulses of her electricity to pull it towards herself. She lifted her palm just enough to reach under with the fingers of her other hand and snatch the bullet away, tossing it away and pressing her palm down on Shade's skin once more, still sending the pulses into his skin to keep it numbed and hopefully to stave off the sudden flow of blood from the wound. The girl ignored Shade's thanks, too worried to reply while she wondered how she could stop the bleeding. The only useful tool she had was her own powers, and she wondered if she could generate enough heat inside the boy's wound, would that cauterize it and stop the bleeding. Won't hurt to try, she thought, knowing she had to do something about the blood or Shade might lose too much. Once more, tightening her hand over the wound, Light sent pulse after pulse of electricity through the boy's skin, attempting to seal off any blood vessels the the bullet might have punctured. Finally, she pulled her hand away, Shade's still on top of hers, and watched the wound for a second. Noticing significantly less bloodflow, Light sighed with some relief, then looked up at the nearly unconscious man as he asked for some pain pills. "I think I have some... from before," she said after a moment's thought, remembering that Hank had sent Shade back with some pain pills in hand after their injuries in the woods. Placing the towel back over Shade's side, just in case, Light slowly removed her hand from beneath his and stood, walking over to her nightstand once more. She dug around for a few seconds before finally pulling out a small prescription bottle full of heavy duty pain pills and sticking it under the waistband of her sweatpants. She spotted an almost empty water bottle, as well, and she grabbed it, hoping it would be enough to allow Shade to swallow the large pills. She knew the medication would probably knock him out quickly, especially with his current state, so she also set out to find a temporary change of clothes to get him our of the torn and bloody ones he was currently in. Luckily, the two had spent plenty of night together, so she knew there must be some clothes left over from his visits. She checked every drawer in er dresser, and found several shirts and pairs of boxers and shorts. Light figured Shade didn't need to wear a shirt, but she grabbed one just in case, as well as fresh pairs of boxers and shorts. She also made a short, quick trip to the bathroom, grabbing a few washcloths, running them under the still warm water from the tap, then came back into the bedroom. "Can you sit up?" Light asked as she went back to Shade, leaving the clothes on the bed and the towels in the floor. She pulling the medicine from her waist band and twisting the bottle open, dumping a few pills into her hand. The girl put her other hand behind the boy's head for support, hoping he would be able to sit up, at least partially, on his own.
Once the bullet was out, Shade began to feel much better, as if some strange warmth was enveloping him. The boy felt himself heavy and sleepy, drifting off and unaware of the copious amount of blood he was losing. Luckily for him, he was quickly snapped back to reality by a searing pain on his side, his flesh burned and he smelt the stinging scent of charred skin as the girl cauterized his wound. Wincing, Shade held onto Light's wrist tightly and arched his back, but didn't resist. Once the wound was closed and his bleeding had pretty much stopped, he let out a sigh of relief, wanting nothing more than pass out right then and there, but struggling to stay awake as Light began to move around the room. When the young woman came back, Shade still had his eyes closed and a towel clutched against his side, though his breathing was much calmer now. "Y-yeah..." he replied softly to her question, slowly sitting up with a grown, his recently cauterized wound radiating pain as he doubled over. It seemed like every muscle in his body was screaming at once, but it was still much better than the desperate numbness he had felt before coming to Light. No matter what, Shade didn't want to pass out, as last time he had fallen unconscious like that, he'd spent years locked inside his own body by another personality. Still not opening his eyes, he opened his mouth slightly, hearing the pills click together in Light's hand.
As Shade sat up with a loud groan, Light immediately put her free hand behind his back, trying to support him and help him up as much as she could. "Here," she said softly as he finally managed to get up off the floor, her voice more calm sounding and soothing than it had been before. She put her palm, still covered in the boy's own blood, against his mouth, tilting her hands so that the two pills she'd gotten, though the directions called for only one, would slide into his open mouth. As soon as she had them in, Light reached for the half-empty water bottle, untwisting the cap and then putting the plastic to Shade's lips so that he could drink the pills down. The girl was still nervous as hell, but it seemed his wounds were no longer a serious threat and that put her at ease enough to be able to handle things calmly.
Shade did indeed seem to be doing much better than before, the blood from his bullet wound having almost stopped, he gulped down the pills and took a long sip of water, it only occurred to him now that the pain was passing that he was parched. Sore and aching all over, Shade's body felt heavy, tired and still a bit dizzy, but he felt like he could fall asleep now and he would survive. Still, the boy would not open his eyes, feeling safe for a change, he simply muttered a "Thank you..." to Light, trying to slowly reach arm to touch her skin with his fingertips before he suddenly stopped, as if he remembered something. Turning away from the girl, he opened his eyes a bit, just enough to see as he tried to stand up, putting one knee on the floor, a hand on the bed and trying to push himself up. "Thanks..." he kept saying, not sure what else he could say. The boy then caught sight of the clothes she had brought for him and grabbed them, moving slowly towards the bathroom, as if he was going to topple over and pass out in any moment, each step was like a battle, the boy had never looked so brittle and fragile, something no one was ever supposed to see. "By the way..." he added, still clutching his now cauterized wound with his clothes slung over his arm and his back to Light, ".. I never touched her." he added, not really caring if she believed him or not, he just wanted to tell her. After another step, Shade almost collapsed, grabbing onto the door frame before trying to pull himself into the bathroom, he wanted to clean up and try to find somewhere to spend the night. Hopefully he could still port even if he could barely walk.
Light watched Shade silently as he gulped down both the pills and the water, still keeping her hand on his back just in case he decided to fall unconscious. Hearing his thanks, the girl was taken by surprise, since Shade never thanked anyone, ever, and she missed the small reach he began to make towards her. She fully expected him to pass out in front of her, in her arms, but his stubbornness kicked in and he began to stand. "Hey.." she said quietly, not thinking it safe for the boy to be moving on his own and holding her arms out to either side of him as a cautionary measure in case he stumbled. Again Shade thanked her, and with her brow furrowed, Light replied, "You're welcome." She continued to watch from her spot on the floor as he grabbed his clothes and began to walk away, her heart beating faster with every step he took towards the bathroom. The girl began to call out to him, but he spoke again, this time making Light feel as though her heart had dropped into her stomach. Light put one hand over her abdomen as she felt another small wave of nausea come over her, the memories of their last encounter finally returning, but she ignored the discomfort as Shade finally stumbled, nearly falling to the floor, and she stood quickly, muttering "you idiot." She moved to his side, placing her hands on either side of his torso. "So you just waltz in here a wreck, demand I save your life, remind me of the reason I've gone through hell these past three weeks, and then you're just gonna take off?" she asked, looking at his face sternly. "You're a fucking jackass, Shade," she said, her eyes falling to the floor and her voice softening a bit, sounding somewhat sombre. Light was silent for a moment, her hands still on the boy's sides, and she finally said, "At least let me help you get cleaned up or something. Or, hell, just... stay the night so I can be sure you won't die!" Her cheeks were a light tint of red, probably not too visible in the dark, from the anger she felt towards Shade, as well as the slight embarrassment from asking him to stay after their painful separation.
Shade was not expecting Light to go after him as he stumbled into the bathroom, he wanted to change clothes, clean up a bit and disappear, he figured he had hurt the young girl enough already. When she was right there next to him, however, he could smell her scent and feel the warmth of her shoulder against his side and her hand against his back and he simply looked away, muttering a small "Sorry..." with a small sigh and his eyes nearly closed, not knowing if the girl would realize the amazing amount of humility she was getting from Shade. Taking another step, Shade winced as he took another step forward and the recently cauterized skin folded over a bit, "Ok... ok..." he added, his voice still lacking the usual bravado and cockiness, "At least let me go and change my own clothes..." he added, sounding like someone who speaks while half asleep. "I just need to rest." he added, now in the bathroom, as he tried to take a step towards the sink and turning on the water. His movements were clumsy and shaky and it seemed as if each movement represented lifting a huge weight for him, but Shade still managed to get the water open and painfully slowly and clumsily, he grabbed a hand towel and began wiping the dried blood off some of the cuts on his side. "I'll leave tomorrow." he added with a tiny crack in his voice that anyone but Light would probably have missed. "Once i'm better..." he added, the pain pills making him even sleepier and his head tilting down a few times as he tried to stay awake.
"Tch, 'sorry'," Light spat angrily, repeating Shade as he began to walk away. She folded her arms and leaned against the doorway to the bathroom, watching Shade from behind and shaking her head at how stubborn he always was and how insensitive he could be, or had been lately. She stayed silent as the boy groggily insisted he take care of himself, and proceeded to do so, wondering when he would just fall out onto the floor from exhaustion. Then, when he said he'd be gone the next day, Light nearly winced, the words dropping on her like a ton of bricks, that Shade would be leaving again, just as soon as he'd come back. She was silent for another moment, her eyes falling to the floor for a second, before she answered quietly, "All right." Looking at the young man again, she noticed his head beginning to droop, and she sighed, standing away from the wall and walking forward. "Stubborn idiot," she murmured, stopping at his side and slipping her body beneath his arm so that it rested over her shoulders. She reached out and grabbed the hand towel from him without saying a word, then with one arm around his torso, ready to brace him if he started to fall, she began to dab at the blood covering his skin, gently wiping off the majority of the still moist and drying blood. It didn't take long before the hand towel was mostly red, though all the blood still wasn't gone, especially from his head wound, so she tossed it aside then turned on the faucet as hot as it would go, throwing another clean towel under the running tap. While she let the water heat up, she moved slightly so that Shade's arm was no longer over her shoulder and instead hung by his side, and she reached up to push his torn jacket and ripped shirt off his shoulders, hoping he would comply and at least let her help a little.
Shade tried to struggle a bit as Light took over the cleaning, but was too weak right now to truly resist. Leaning back a bit on the sink, he let Light wipe dry blood on the old scars on his back, figuring after tonight, he'd have a few new ones. Though feeling much better now, Shade was still rather dizzy and had a hard time keeping his balance on it's own, still, as Light took off his jacket, the boy began to drop his pants and then looked at her for a second, wondering if she was going to leave before he changed into the clean clothes she'd gotten for him or not. Regardless of what the girl did, changing was an ordeal for the boy, even if his legs were free of bruises and blows, keeping his balance and having the strength to so much as lift his legs was troublesome. After several minutes, Shade was mostly clean and turned back to Light, "Thanks... I'll just.." he began to say as he moved towards the bed, slowed to a crawl. "I need to rest a bit..." he added, his voice slurred and his eyelids heavier than ever. "Then.. then.. I'll be fine..." he continued, finally he got his hands on the bed and simply stood there for a second, leaning forward, dizzy and weak, he probably should have eaten something to make up for the blood loss, but he didn't have the appetite.
As she managed to push the jacket and shirt off of Shade's shoulder, Light noticed his eyes on her for a second, and she raised her hands in defense, stepping back from the boy. "Excuse me," she said in a snappish tone of voice as she turned around and stepped out of the bathroom. She stopped just outside the doorway, and rested her back on the wall to the side of it so that she was out of Shade's line of sight, and he out of hers. Not like she hadn't seen him naked countless times before, but he seemed to want privacy, so she was giving it to him. The girl looked down at herself while she waited, remembering that she, too, was rather under dressed, still in only sweatpants and a bra, and now covered in smears of Shade's blood. Crossing her arms over her chest, she made a mental note to clean herself up later, but right now she wanted to keep an eye on Shade. It seemed like several minutes before the injured boy finally stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in the fresh clothes she'd brought for him. While he made his way over to the bed, Light darted into the bathroom again, retrieved the now how towel from the sink and wringing it out, and cut off the water. She followed Shade's trail to her bed, and stopped behind him as he leaned over the bed, looking like a complete wreck. She placed the towel on her nightstand and once more put her hands on the boy's sides, trying to carefully ease him down onto the bed so that he could lie down.
A slight, yet very noticeable chill ran down Shade's whole torso as Light placed her hands on his side. The boy was obviously on edge, still wary of attacks even though there was no way anyone could know where he was right now. Even in the mansion, Light was the only one who knew, the only person he'd ever trusted, as messed up as that was. The boy's body probably felt tender and bruised, like meat that had been hit by a hammer. Still, the boy quickly calmed down, his breathing becoming slower as he tried to get on the bed, leaning on Light's hands and enjoying their warmth almost subconsciously. Finally, Shade let himself fall on the bed, even the touch of the soft mattress hurt his skin made him wince and arch his back in pain. It was probably the memories that hurt too, he was so familiar with that mattress and that room, but right now, it was painful to remember that neither it nor Light were his now. The memories he'd worked so hard to drown in alcohol the last few weeks were rushing back now, and he was unable to keep from asking "...Why help me?" in a quiet voice with his eyes still closed, almost afraid to hear the answer.
Light did her best to continue supporting Shade as he tried to put his body onto the bed, but when he finally fell, her hands slipped off of him, and she nearly gasped as she watched him fall to the bed, wincing. "For fuck's sake, Shade, you're so reckless!" she hissed as she knelt down on her knees to see if he was okay. She lifted his shirt to check his bullet wound when she heard him speak again. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment, and she had to force herself to breathe in deep, letting out a sigh as she stood up. As the girl walked to the other side of the bed, a number of reasons for helping him flashed through her head, but the most predominant was that she really, truly cared for Shade. Even if he'd betrayed her, left her, came back to her just for a quick fix before he left again, that didn't change her feelings toward him. But that was something she couldn't admit to him, not now, not after everything he'd put her through since the Halloween party. "Because you were just laying in my floor bleeding to death," she began as she crawled onto the bed and sat down next to where Shade was. "I couldn't just leave you there," she continued, then feeling as if her words sounded too harsh, she added, "and you wouldn't go to see Hank. He could have helped you more than I can. I mean, if I had shown up at your doorstep, all beat up and needing help, what would you have done?" It seemed like everything she said only sounded worse than the last thing she said, and so she kept rambling, trying to fix her mistakes. "Just... Did you really come here expecting me to dismiss you and leave you there to die?" she finally asked, her voice sounding slightly agitated. Light leaned over Shade carefully and snatched up the still warm towel from the nightstand, twisting it up in her hand and leaning down to look at the side of Shade's head, where he had been hit. "Why come to me, anyways?" she then said quietly, turning the question back to him and somewhat afraid to hear his answer, as well. Leaning on one arm, she began to dab the corner of the towel against Shade's cheek, wiping away spots of dried blood as she moved up towards his wound.
Shade kept his eyes closed, his aching muscles slowly calming down as he sunk in the familiar softness of Light's bed. As she spoke the boy simply stayed quiet, soaking in her words and thinking about what to say next. He'd told the girl already that nothing had happened between him and Camille, before he went to change out of his bloody clothes, but it was obvious she was not going to believe him. He wished he could just undo the last few weeks, reach out and touch her face and embrace her, but he'd burned the bridges when he left and there was no building them up. Still, as Light asked her questions, Shade looked away and answered, "It crossed my mind.. yes." he replied, feigning a joking voice he hoped would fool Light. Truthfully, after their last meeting, Shade was expecting her to act that way, it was the way anyone else would have acted, looking out for themselves and only themselves. It's the way Shade had always acted before, but he'd hoped Light was different, at least when it came to him. Then, before he truly thought about it, he blurted out. "I came here because I don't trust anyone else." admitting more than he cared to admit, he hid his face from her as she wiped the dried blood around his cheek and neck, trying to hide his embarrassment at the admission.
Light didn't appear overly amused at what seemed to be Shade joking around, stopping what she was doing to look at him once as if he was a complete idiot. Going back to cleaning his neck and face, she dabbed very lightly and cautiously around the large clump of bloody, dried hair that covered the cut on the side of his head, not wanting to hurt him or make the bleeding worse if it had already clotted over. Finally, when he admitted that he only trusted her, Light's heart skipped a beat and she stopped what she was doing for a split second, her eyes falling on his face again. However, she blinked and looked away, frowning slightly, and spitefully replied, "You obviously trusted Camille, too." Even if he continued to deny ever being with the woman, he had, to this point, shown no proof, and so the girl had no real reason to believe him. It started to become obvious to Light, or so she thought, that Shade had only come to her because he knew she cared about him and would help him at all costs. Just like she had tried before to help him by letting his wounds heal before they got physical, but he had gotten bored and gave in to Camille for a quick fix with no strings attached. So sure of these thoughts, Light was completely oblivious to the embarrassment Shade was showing, and to the fact that the two were thinking entirely different things about one another, both completely wrong. Growing quiet now, she leaned down further to better inspect te side of Shade's face, carefully pushing some of his hair out of the way.
Shade's heartbeat grew a bit faster as the girl approached him, in part because he had her so close he could reach out and touch her lips in a split second if he had wanted to, and partly because her words brought back memories of the day they broke up. Trying not to let anger flare up, Shade simply let out a "Pfft..." and looked away, wincing as Light's fingers found the gash a blow had left on the side of Shades face. It was swollen but not too big, if the swelling was brought down quickly, he might not even need stitches. "Why would I trust her?" replied Shade, his silvery grey eyes fixed on the far wall of the room, recognizing a small dent he and the girl had made one night. "I don't trust anyone." he added matter of factually, no doubt anyone would be able to recognize this as the truth, Shade truly distrusted everyone, with one exception, of course.
Light made a mental note to retrieve some ice later to put on the cut on the side of Shade's face, hoping it would bring down the swelling. As she pushed the rest of Shade hair out of the way, smoothing it back so that she could easily clean the wound with the towel, she continued listening to Shade speak. His words were true; it was unlike him to trust anyone, but that didn't change the fact that he'd gone to Camille behind her back, whether he'd trusted her or not. "You trusted her enough to let her fuck you," the girl said in an almost casual tone of voice as her lips tightened, though severe hurt an anger were hidden behind it, or so she thought. The last two words out of her mouth were said with a very slight quiver of her lips, her voice sounding somewhat shaky with her mouth probably close enough to Shade's face for him to hear clearly.
By now, the boy was actively fighting against the overwhelming desire to fall unconscious, but the girl's weight on the bed next to him, the few wisps of warmth breath that reached his beaten skin, and the feeling of her fingertips on him kept the young man painfully awake. It was as if merely having his eyes open hurt, so Shade kept them, for the most part, closed. Feeling the towel against his head injury caused the boy to inadvertently pull away, almost like a knee-jerk reflex, which caused his neck and back to ache and made his grit his teeth. It was Light's words, however, that got to him the most, but he was resolute not to turn to anger again, he knew he and Light were past the point of no return and he never made a point to explain himself to anyone, but as with many things, the girl was different. "I never even touched her, I told you." he let out in a pained hiss as he lent back down. "Why would I want anyone else if I had... " he began to say, but his words were cut short, instead, he just repeated much more quietly. "Why would I even want anyone else?"
Light immediately pulled her hands and the towel away from Shade's skin when he suddenly pulled away, feeling bad that she might have hurt the boy. She decided to leave that particular wound alone for now, at least until she could find ice to decrease the swelling and the pain so she'd be able to clean it better. Finally, when Shade answered her, Light almost didn't give him enough time to finish before she clenched the towel in her hand and pulled away, replying sharply, "Because you're you, Shade, and you're not someone who can be with one person! We both know that. And you can't tell me you never did anything with her after what she said at the party!" Light sat up and let her head fall back against the head board, shutting her eyes tightly and trying to ignore the hurt and the pain that was resurfacing all over again. "If you didn't touch her, then explain how she knew about your birthmark!" she then added bitterly, bringing her knee to her chest and dropping her forehead against it somewhat roughly and exasperatedly, hands still clenched and her fingernails digging into her palms.
When Light finally blew up, Shade tried to sit up to face the girl which caused an incredibly sharp pain to shoot up his spine from the wound on his side. Still, Shade ignored the pain and sat up as if nothing had happened, his silvery eyes flaring up. Shade was about to open his mouth to reply to Light's accusations, but he decided to contain himself. Now that he had her in front of him, even with his brain addled from blood loss and alcohol, he didn't want to walk away again leaving her angry and in pain. Once Light was done, Shade simply stayed quiet for what seemed to be the longest two seconds ever, trying to calm down before he answered. "If I just wanted to fuck someone there's better ways to go about it..." he hissed. "I'm not going to go and get invested and fall in... I'm not..." he added, for once in his life stammering over his words. "Maybe it's not about sex. I don't know what the fuck its about, but its not just sex." hissed the boy once more, utterly confused but still stubborn. "And she saw me in a towel, I was showering to take YOU to that fucking party and she came knocking and I sent her away." he added, each moment he spent sitting up sending a rippling pain up his torso.
Light's body tensed as she felt Shade sit up, expecting the worst, for him to yell at her again, and to just up and leave like before. Even if whatever they had before was ruined, even if they had no chance of fixing things. she didn't want him to leave, not again. The girl just wished she could erase everything that happened the day of the party, to just make things better again. As soon as she heard Shade's voice, she drew her other knee to her chest and hugged both her legs, looking much like a scared child as she tried to fight away the emotional pain and the once more oncoming sick feeling that had been plaguing her the past few days. She took in a deep breath before it caught in her throat at Shade's words, his unfinished sentence, his claim that there was more to them than sex, and finally a goddamned explanation to back up his claim that nothing had happened between him and Camille. Without breathing, Light let everything he said soak in, and finally, she let out a long, drawn out sigh, her head still on her knees, and her arms falling slowly to the bed. She sat there for several seconds more, processing everything and taking deep breaths as it finally hit her: Korvka was right, Camille was nothing but a scheming bitch, and her plan all along had been to break up Light and Shade. Or that's how Light saw it. What mattered most to her, though, was the realization that Shade hadn't been lying, and the last three weeks had been wasted on a pointless breakup and suffering. And now there was no way she could have him again. With shuddering breaths, the girl finally sat up, leaning back against the headboard again, but looking away from Shade, at the far wall, and asked quietly, her voice cracking slightly, "Why didn't you tell me?"
Shade laid back down on the bed as Light lent back herself, letting out a small groan as he forced his abdominal muscles to support his torso on his way down and a sigh of relief once he was horizontal again. He could still feel Light sitting next to him on the bed, but couldn't see her, his eyes were instead fixed on the dead light bulb on the ceiling, as if expecting it to suddenly be aflame with light and burn his eyes and skin. The boy simply waited, not wanting to interrupt the girl's train of thought, he wanted to apologize, to touch her and kiss her and say he was sorry for everything, but he knew he couldn't and he felt too weak to even try, his head slowly spinning. By the time Light replied, Shade had had his eyes closed for a few seconds, and simply replied, softly and without opening them. "I tried to.. dunno... I was pissed..." he tried to justify himself, he knew the truth though, why he'd just let the girl think he'd done what was in his nature to do. Maybe he had not wanted to admit that things with Light were different, that he had been dumb enough to tie himself to someone. "I..." he began to add before blurting out. "I didn't like that you could get to me so easily." he finally admitted, in total honesty. No one had ever managed to hurt him emotionally before Light, and he had been greatly thrown off balance by the fact.
Light was amazed that Shade was still awake after all that he'd been through, and on top of the pain pills, but given his stubborn nature, it shouldn't have been a surprise. However, she was sure he'd be losing consciousness soon after using what little energy he had left to stay awake and talk. She continued facing away from the boy until he finally spoke, and she turned her face to look at him. Seeing him laying there, looking pitiful and in pain, the girl's heart sank, and she wanted to do all she could to make him feel better, even if he left again in the morning. Turning her body more to the side to face him, she listened intently as he continued talking, her heart beating even faster when he told her the truth, about why he hadn't said anything about Camille. She really got to him that easily? That was surprising, but even more so was that Shade had actually admitted it. Right now, the girl had no idea how to reply, so she simply sat still for a few seconds, then picked the towel up again, moving closer to Shade. "Don't try to sit up anymore," she told him softly as she leaned over him once more, placing the towel on the nightstand beside them. Leaning back onto the bed, Light rested her head in her hand, looking down at Shade, he body closer to him and somewhat more relaxed than before. The more they talked, the more it seemed the tension between them was ebbing. "What did you get yourself into?" she asked when she once again noticed the scent of alcohol on his breath, no longer overpowered by the smell of blood. Almost thoughtlessly, Light ran her free hand through the boy's hair, trying to keep it from falling onto the wound on the side of his head, while her eyes looked over the marks on his neck, specifically one that looked like an imprint of a ring.
"I got stupid..." replied Shade to Light's question, but his voice seemed to point out that he was referring to the last few weeks as a whole. "You must know someone as charming as be is bound to-" he began to say with a small grin before he broke out into a coughing fit which caused him to arch his back in pain. After a few seconds, he continued. "- bound to piss some people off...", feeling around for the wound on his head, his fingers found Light's and he immediately pulled his hand away, not wanting to threaten her in any way, broken as he was right now. "I just got clumsy and drunk in the wrong place." he continued, trying to hide his wounds from Light altogether too late.
"When are you not?" Light asked in reply to Shade, what looked like the beginning of a small grin beginning to break through, the corner of her lips pulling up a bit, until the boy went into his coughing fit. Immediately, her expression was just that of concern, and she subconsciously placed a hand, very lightly, on his chest, as if to calm his breathing. As the coughing passed and he started speaking again, Light relaxed and pulled her hand away after noticing it on his chest, then her attention was drawn to the feeling of Shade's fingertips brushing against hers. "You're so fucking reckless," she muttered as she pulled her other hand away and sat up a bit on the bed, all the little touches almost becoming too much to bear if she couldn't have him. The girl looked down at herself, realizing once more that she was still in just a bra. Now that she was sure Shade was safe, she climbed off the bed and pulled out a single black tank top from her dresser, throwing it on while she asked, "I'll go get you some water and food from the kitchen. Want anything in particular?" If Shade had paid enough attention, he could have seen that Light had lost weight, her body growing thinner and looking almost unhealthy. She tugged the shirt down and straightened it out, looking over to Shade for an answer.
"You know me..." said Shade trying to kid along with Light, now what she was in a better mood, but trying to laugh would probably hurt, so he restrained himself to nothing more than a small grin and a sincere smile, his eyes slowly closing again as he fought against the overwhelming desire to sleep. When Light commented on his recklessness, the boy let out a small scoff and another cocky grin, though his eyes remained closed, "That's what you used to like about me though." he added before he looked in her direction for a second, wondering why she had gotten off the bed. In all the time she'd spend tending to his wounds, the boy had not even noticed Light wasn't wearing a shirt, and part of him wanted to ask her why she had been walking around in just her underwear, but the possibilities pained him and he didn't think he had any right to ask, lest he anger Light again after getting back on amiable terms. "Just.. something to drink." replied the boy as she asked, feeling like he could drink an ocean. "I need something to make up for all that stuff I was leaking on your carpet." he joked, making light of the fact he had almost bled out earlier.
When Shade mentioned that his recklessness used to be something the girl had enjoyed about his personality, Light's heart sank again, the sadness of losing him overcoming her again. Crossing her arms over her chest as a chill came over her, she turned and headed for the door, missing his humor and saying, "Alright. Just stay there. I'll be back in a sec'." Rubbing her arms, she walked out of the room and into X-Men Hall South 3rd, closing the door behind her with a soft click. It seemed like only seconds later when the girl returned, having obviously wasted no time in retrieving two water bottle and a bag of plain potato chips, all for Shade. She knew he was thirsty and had gotten two bottles just in case he devoured the first. Moving over to the bed, she climbed back onto her side of the mattress, leaving the chips and one bottle on top of the blankets. The other bottle, she laid down between herself and Shade, then moved closer to the boy, almost behind his head, placing her hands lightly on his shoulders. "Just sit up one more time," she said as she tried to put whatever support she could muster behind Shade's weight, helping him to sit up more easily than before. Although Light wasn't normally the nurturing type, and she knew Shade wasn't the type to accept help, it was as if some sort of caring and maternal instinct had kicked in as soon as she found Shade, hurt, in her room, and she was caring for Shade whether he liked it or not.
Shade truly wasn't one to be taken care of like this, but considering he had come looking for Light, he was hardly in a position to complain, or resist had he wanted to. With a small groan, the boy sheepishly sat up, his pain not so much a sharp stab in his stomach anymore, but more of a soreness all over his body. Shade looked at the girl and let out a small "That was fast..." as a tiny iota of rebellion before he took a sip of water. The cold water felt like a blessing travelling down his throat and finally settling in the boy's stomach like a wave of cold. Before Light could stop him, he chugged down the whole bottle of water, a droplet of it sliding down his chin and neck before he brought the bottle down. "Thanks." said Shade as he took a deep breath which made the sides of his torso feel as if they were overstretching, "You're a lifesaver." he admitted.
Light kept both her hands on Shade's shoulders as he pushed himself up from the bed, scooting a bit so that she was sitting with both legs beneath her, one behind the boy and one beside him, ready to catch him if he suddenly became weak or fell unconscious and toppled over. Part of her wondered if she was being too cautious, but she also knew that the young man was badly hurt and on the verge of passing out soon. She tightened her grip ever so slightly as he tossed his head back to down the water, watching the droplet of water travel down his chin and neck. Once he was finished, he thanked her again, and she looked into his eyes for a brief second before reaching out to his chin and, with her thumb, gently wiping away the wet path the water had left. "Guess you came to the right person, then," she replied as she leaned over to grab the bag of chips, still unsure of how to take all the thanks and compliments that Shade was suddenly throwing around, not used to that sort of behavior coming from him. "You should try to eat something," she then added as she open the bag of chips, propping her knee up behind Shade's back, barely touching him and still being overly cautious. She set the bag of chips next to him and placed a hand softly on his back, handing him the other bottle of water, as well. Looking up at him, the girl suddenly got the biggest urge to put her arms around Shade in an embrace, and her hand started to slide a bit lower, but she stopped, knowing it was a bad idea to let herself get comfortable and set herself up for the disappointment that would come once Shade was gone. Instead, Light continued to sit there, waiting for him to eat, her thumb making a small movement, once, very softly, over his back before she caught herself and reluctantly pulled her hand away.
Shade turned to the girl when she wiped the droplet of water from his neck, feeling her warm hand against his skin. Oddly enough, he had been passing out a few seconds ago, but now that she was with him, he felt awake and alert, at least for a bit. "It seems I did." he added, noticing that Light had missed his pun considering she had, in fact, saved his life. "I'd try to eat but I got hit in the head pretty hard." replied the boy as he placed his hand on his chin, stretching out his thumb and index fingers to touch the sides of his lower jaw. "Don't know if my teeth are up to par yet." he continued, taking a small sip of the second bottle of water, his thirst almost quenched. It was funny, Light looked disheveled, stressed, tired and like she had lost weight, but after all that time without her, she seemed to the boy as if she was more beautiful than ever. If he had known what was going on through her mind at the time, he would have embraced her and kissed her, even if one of his wounds opened up. As he looked at the girl, he noticed the awkward silence had lingered for several seconds now, so instead he turned around and looked away, taking another sip of water before asking, "So.. how are things in the mansion?" as his eyes traveled through the walls of the room that had been so familiar to him.
"Alright," Light said, admitting defeat without putting up any fight as she grabbed the bag of chips and folded the top over. She leaned over once more to leave the uneaten bag of chips on her nightstand, her hand automatically coming up to rest on Shade's shoulder for her own support, though she played it off as though she were helping him sit up when she noticed, moving her palm down to rest on the boy's shoulder blade instead. "Just try to eat something tomorrow before you go," she added, probably sounding more concerned for the boy than she had meant to, even though she truly was worried about him. Once again the painful knowledge that he would leave again hit her, but there was no use in pretending he would stay and getting to comfortable only to be disappointed later. Hearing him ask about the question, and wondering when he had ever become concerned with the goings on around Xavier's mansion, she moved over a bit, moving her leg from behind the boy and stretching them both out on the bed when she was back on her side of the mattress. "Dull, full of pathetic idiots, and a waste of my time. Same old," Light replied as she scooted back to lean against the headboard again. "Haven't killed Camille yet," she added, making a poor attempt at a joke on the reason for the tension between the two. She sat quiet for a few minutes, then another thought hit her, and her eyes moved across the walls as she concluded, "Addy's gone, too. We've all noticed and that bald-headed prick who's supposed to be everyone's protector hasn't done shit."
"I will, promise." said the boy, his skin shuddering a bit but soon growing comfortable with the feeling of Light's hand on his back, slowly, he lent back on the bed until his head touched the pillow, at which point the boy let out a sigh of relief, the muscles on his back and neck relaxing at once. "I figure my room is still pretty close to the kitchen." replied the boy, as if trying to assure the girl he was not leaving the mansion, at least not for a bit, he WAS a wreck, after all, and it would take a few weeks for him to get better. When Light brought up Camille, Shade could feel some tension in the air, to which he replied. "I'm surprised... after the party.. you did rough her up quite a bit..." hoping that the memory of a broken nosed Camille might cheer up Light a bit. When she mentioned Addy had gone missing and Xavier had not done a thing, though, he tensed up. Truthfully, while he didn't hate the blue teleporter, he really didn't consider protecting her a priority. On the other hand, he had left the mansion thinking that if anything happened, at least Light would be safe, but not it turned out she might not have been. Shade knew his relationship with the young woman was behind them and would never admit he wanted to keep her safe, but now he considered staying in the mansion after his wounds healed, until Light got fed up and went somewhere safer, or Xavier got his act together.
Light looked over to Shade when she felt him move, and she sat up and reached down for the covers once he was on his back. Pulling the blankets up from the foot of the bed, she tugged them up and laid them softly over Shade, then picked up the water bottle and set it aside. The comment he made about his room didn't strike her as him staying, but instead leaving her room for his own, and so she had put the blankets over him as a sort of subconscious move to keep him there. "Broke her nose, gave her a black eye, and gave her a nice concussion," the girl said about Camille, sounding rather proud, as she laid down on her side, resting her elbow on the bed and her head in her palm. "Wished I could've done more, but I'd say all that is quite an achievement. Korvka apparently gave her a nasty infection, too." The girl picked up the top edge of one of the blankets and began toying with it between her thumb and forefinger, thinking about how much Camille cherished her own beauty, and added with a slight smirk, "I hope she fucking scars." Again there was another long silence, and Light's eyes fell on Shade for a second, then she looked down again at the blankets. She was doing everything she could to keep herself from simply curling up next to the boy and clinging to him, and though she was far too proud to do so, part of her wanted to ask him to stay with her indefinitely. While thinking of something else to talk about to distract her from her thoughts, she remembered the gash on Shade's head, and that she had forgotten ice. Luckily, the water bottles were nearly ice cold, and she picked up the unfinished one. Leaning in almost uncomfortably close to Shade, she very tenderly pressed the cold plastic bottle against the side of his face, hoping it would help both the pain and the swelling from the wound. "So what exactly happened?" she asked again, unable to come up with any other sort of conversational topic, as she pushed the boy's hair back away from the wound once more.
Maybe Light was worried about Shade having a concussion, but the girl seemed adamant in not let the wounded boy pass out. Shade betrayed a little smile as Light relaxed, telling him about her tussle with Camille. The sheets felt cool on Shade's legs and arms as they fell on him, making a little chill run up his spine. Closing his eyes for a second, he grinned as Light kept talking and promptly replied, "Yes, I figured Korvka must have quite a number of nasty infections to pass around." with a malicious tone. Coming closer to him, Light made it very hard for the boy to keep from putting his arms around her and holding her close, but he couldn't do that, not after the last time they were together. Shade wasn't expecting the feeling of the ice cold bottle against his temple, and pulled away first, but soon understood what Light was trying to do and stopped squirming. Though the touch of the plastic against the gash on his head hurt, he could also feel the area begin to numb from the cold and the swelling reducing. "Well.. have you heard about the first time I got to the mansion?" asked Shade, as if he was about to tell a little girl an interesting story, his eyes closed and his head lent back all the way.
Light couldn't help but smile a bit at Shade's crack at Korvka; that part of him was still the same old Shade. What she couldn't get over, though, was how different he was acting how, how appreciative and concerned about things he seemed, somethings he'd never shown before. "Lucky I haven't caught one from being around her, I suppose," the girl said, attempting a joke herself. Hearing the seemingly beginnings of a story, the girl settled into the bed, and daringly piped up, like the fascinated child ready to hear the story she was told, "The first time?" She raised her eyebrows, trying to make her expression seem full of the curiosity of a young child, then relaxed, trying to hide a small smile, which faded quickly when she realized she might be acting too outgoing for the situation. The girl knew Shade had been in the mansion for a while, and she'd heard whispers around the mansion about how Shade had changed since he was kidnapped, so part of her wondered if that was something he was going to touch on. She couldn't deny being interested in that sort of thing, so she simply sat still, listening intently, while her fingers, subconsciously, very lightly, began stroking the small patch of hair close to his wound.
"Well... as you might have guessed... I've never been altogether... 'right in the head'" said Shade with a cocky smile, unable to notice Light's expression or how alluringly close to him she was with his eyes closed. He could feel her shifting on the bed and sense the tone of her voice, however, so he continued his tale. "I don't remember much about my early childhood, but as far as I'm concerned, I've always had my powers. So I was always cocky, and stupid. I had a gang and everything, all of them mutants, convenient little henchmen." he added, pretending to move something akin to a marionette with his left hand, though lifting and moving his fingers made his muscles ache. "Of course, I was a kid, so I got stupid... bit off more than I could chew." he continued with a shrug. "You know I tend to do that." he added with a scoff, as a bit of a sex pun. "In any case, severely overestimated things and then shit hit the fan, pissed off the wrong people and I got hit, hard, ditched the gang and fled. By the time I woke up.. I wasn't... me. I was there.. just.. far away... as if I was seeing the stuff my body was doing through a window, but I wasn't in the driver's seat. I guess you can call it split personality disorder or something, I think it was a self preservation thing, because the little prick who replaced me could barely even fuck use my powers." he continued. "He's the one who came to the mansion, Anton Black. Fleeing.. scared... weak." he continued spitefully, even though he had fled to Light's side now, but he, at least, intended to go back and settle some scores once he was better.
Although her initial question about what had happened to Shade wasn't meant as one asking for the boy's life story, Light was oddly thrilled to be able to learn more about his past, since she knew next to nothing about his life and background, only who he was and that he used to have some sort of keen interest in Daniela, which seemed to her to have disappeared over the weeks (as well as her own interest in Shana). The girl listened closely to every word she was told, smiling just a little when the man next to her admitted his life-long cockiness. "So I'm assuming tonight you ran into the same guys from before?" she asked, wondering why he was telling her so much additional information. As he continued with his story, Light was somewhat taken aback to hear him confirm the fact that he had indeed been different before. Two personalities? That made sense as to why everyone was so distraught about Shade's behavior when they had supposedly known him before. The entire time, Light kept the bottle steadily in place over Shade's wound, even when her arm started to feel weak. Soon, though, the water bottle in her hand became too warm to make a difference in the swelling, so she carefully eased it away from the boy's face and set it aside once more, laying down on the bed afterwards but leaving her fingers to continue making their way through Shade's hair, wondering if he even noticed. "Do you think he'll ever come back?" she asked curiously, her head sinking comfortably into the pillow, "I mean, how'd you get back to yourself, anyways?" Outside, she could hear thunder rumbling, and a few occasional lightning strikes temporarily lit up the room while the raindrops pelting the window slowly relaxed her and made her feel sleepy.
"Well I actually owe that to Kaider." replied the boy after taking a second to glance at the girl as she asked her questions, her hand making its way from the wound to his hair so softly and gently Shade truly did not notice. All he knew is he was beginning to feel incredibly comfortable right now, the kind of feeling which might have scared him off in the past, but which he now relished. Closing his eyes, Shade let himself fall further into the feeling, unintentionally pushing his head against Light's hand as he continued. "The little tranny actually did something to Anton's head and let me loose. Still couldn't control my own body, but at least I could mess with the moron who replaced me..." he added as he placed one of his hands on his stomach, red scrapes lined up against his knuckles as if he had punched something hard. "Then when the attack came, the kid panicked and I guess it was my turn to bat, I did my thing, hurt some people, got away.. and just like that he was gone." said the boy as a shiver ran down his spine from Light's touch. "Anyhow.. getting back to the topic at hand, you're right, I happened to run into the people I pissed off. It was this big, fat mob boss guy. I ran into him with a baseball bat right in his bedroom." he added and he closed his eyes as if remembering and letting out a small chuckle. "Boy was he surprised."
Light kept listening as best as she could to Shade, though her eyes were beginning to feel heavy. Occasionally, lost in the sound and comfort of Shade's voice and being able to hear it again, her eyes would close and her hand stop moving for a few seconds as she started to doze off. However, Shade's words always brought her back to consciousness, and she never missed more than was necessary to understand the whole story. She was glad, and somewhat relieved, to hear that there was no trace of that Anton person that had taken over Shade's mind, but for a brief second, part of the girl wondered if Shade would ever lose himself again. While she curled a lock of the boy's hair around her finger, contemplating these things, subconsciously and very lightly, she noticed him place his hand on his own stomach, and in the dim light, and occasional bright flashes of blue, she could faintly see red marks running down the back of his hand, distracting her from her thoughts. Instinctively, she reached out and placed her hand gently over the boy's, running her fingers softly along the marks, saying when he paused, "I'll get you some ointment for these in the morning." For just the moment, laying there beside him and talking as casually as they had before, things seemed rather normal and Light had forgotten that the boy had planned on leaving (not for a few days, though, unbeknownst to her). "So," she then continued, speaking softly, "it seems like you had the edge on him. What happened after that?" She closed her eyes again, slowly, unintentionally leaving her hand to rest gently on top of the boy's, but her fingers still running slowly through his hair.
"Beat his ass..." replied Shade, "...asked some questions.", his eyes closed and the back of his neck arching as Light's fingers ran through his hair. The boy had noticed, of course, but had not really though about how she was petting him now, it just felt so right and comfortable that nothing seemed off it, in spite of what had happened. Shade was being intentionally vague, but then he added. "I asked about the kidnappings." as a short quip, trying to make it seem unimportant. He wondered if Light knew... she HAD to know, even though he would rather she didn't. He didn't want the girl to see through his motivations easily, he would rather remain a mystery. Of course he had a stake on the kidnappings, they'd try to take him before, but he knew they'd never get him again, he was on his guard now. The true reason was that they were still out there, whoever was targeting the mansion and even though Shade didn't give a rat's ass about the mansion, Light was still there, and any attack might hurt her. Even drunk, hurt, stupid and reckless, Shade had known that and had acted on it, he just didn't openly want to admit his reasons. "He didn't know shit, or if he did, I didn't bash him enough to crack him..." continued the boy, as if remembering a dream, his hand twitching lightly when Light's fingers ran over the skin of his knuckles, the boy froze for a second, as if Light was a small animal he did not want to spook; "So I went to his biggest rival, and questioned him too... and nothing." he continued with a sigh. "Then the next one.. and so on for several days..." he said in frustration. "No one knew shit.. these people were ghosts." Of course Shade had not gotten to the end of his tale, how this related to the stuff he had said before, about his youth, but he stopped for a second, as if to gather his thoughts.
The girl laying in bed next to Shade kept quiet the entire time he spoke, not wanting to interrupt the boy and hoping she could remember everything she wanted to ask, or at least that all or most of her questions would be answered as the popped up, but she was still left with several. By the end of the next part of Shade's story, Light had so many questions going through her mind that she could barely sort them all out. When the young man finally paused, Light opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated when the noticed that her hand was resting gently on top of Shade's, but his felt stiff and awkward. Feeling as though she might be intruding on his personal space, the girl casually pulled her hand away and tucked it under the pillow, turning her face so that it was half buried into said pillow. She also took her fingers away from the boy's hair, laying her hand down in front of her face. Trying to conceal the movements, at the same time, she said, "You seem really intent on your revenge." The entire time Light had known Shade, she knew he had been looking for clues as to who the mysterious kidnappers were, but she had not know him to simply go out looking for them and beating up every suspect he had in mind. And, especially now, she didn't consider him to do any of that just to protect her. Of course, as far as the black haired girl was concerned, she could hold her own and she didn't really expect anyone to feel protective over her. "I'm still kind of confused about how.. this happened," she continued, giving a small motion of her hand towards his body, then placing it back on the pillow quickly. "Any why you've suddenly decided I'm worthy of knowing so much about you," she added rather nonchalantly, not thinking of it as a truly big deal, but instead just a bit odd.
Shade noticed all too well then Light's hand fled from his own, the warmth of her touch disappeared all at once and the boy, almost subconsciously, tried to follow with his own. Stretching out his fingers, he touched Light's hand with his fingertips as it slipped away and for a second it seemed like the boy was about to let out a whimper. Instead, Shade opened his eyes for a second, looking as cold and silvery as ever and fixed them on Light for a second as she spoke. Then the boy looked away and closed his eyes again with a sigh. "I can certainly hold a grudge." he joked as he slowly reached out to the girl. His hand moving very very slowly, but without hesitation, until the tips of his fingers touched the skin on Light's shoulder ever so lightly. "Well... I got sloppy." said the boy, lightly caressing the girl's shoulder, stopping every few seconds, as if to test her reaction to his touch. "I was drunk.. and as I said.. these people knew me from before.. from when I was a kid. I had my usual haunts back then, you know. And they knew them. Normally no one can take me in a fair fight... I mean.. not like I ever fight fair. But if guns come out blazing, I watch myself, I can stop a bullet all the same as the next guy." he added ironically as he stretched and let out a small groan, the soreness of his muscles and pain of his wounds invading his mind for a second. "So they came to me prepared... I was stupid to hang out in a bar I used to hang out in when I was younger. But they all banded together, shared intel, and came to me with a plan... " suddenly, the boy went deadly quiet, "God... I can't believe I got fucking taken by.. by..." he began to say, stopping for a bit. If Light had not known him better, she would have said the young man was embarrassed right then and then, by some memory.
Light truly wasn't expecting Shade to respond to her pulling away by actually making an effort to touch her instead, especially as obviously as he did. Feeling his fingers graze against her skin, the girl's body tightened up, her shoulder twitching involuntarily, and a strong chill ran up her spine. As she listened to the boy continue speaking, Light wondered if he could hear her heart beating. She certainly could, pounding in her ears from... excitement? nervousness? fear? She wasn't sure, but she knew it was because of Shade. Him being next to her there, both of them lying in bed and exchanging small, shy touches, it was all sort of like a first date with someone you really liked, something neither of them had had with each other. The only difference was, it wasn't a date, and she knew it would be their last time being together. Trying to shake all the thoughts from her head so that she could focus solely on the rest of Shade's story, Light took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she let it out slowly and tried to relax under the boy's touch, which proved more difficult than she thought it would. Hearing the boy grow suddenly quiet, she opened her eyes and looked at him, wondering if he'd say anything else. Then, when he did, she lifted her head off the pillow a little to be able to hear him better with both ears, thinking maybe she hadn't heard the last of his sentence, rather than the fact that he had trailed off, and asked softly with a concerned expression, "By who?"
Shade shuffled a bit with his eyes closed to indicate that he had heard the girl's answer. His hand had stopped moving up and down Light's arm, but his fingers were still touching the young woman's skin. "Not who, but what." replied the young man brashly, as if he was a little boy who'd done something bad to which he did not want to confess. "It was not my best moment, you know." said Shade was he turned to the girl, leaning on his shoulder now. Moving, however, proved to be a stupid idea, as the boy's muscles screamed bloody murder the moment he turned his waist and shoulders to face Light. Wincing and trying his best not to show the pain, the soreness slowly began to fade as he continued, the tip of his middle finger now casually making small circles on Shade's shoulder, drawing closer to the side of her neck. Nevertheless, Shade spoke as if he did not notice what his hands were doing, he just wanted to feel her skin even if it was with a single finger. The girl's scent drew up to him as he turned to her, getting a bit closer, "I got done in by thugs, armed thugs, and a dozen, yes. Normally I could have taken, even if they were all the men three mob bosses could muster... but... they were all carrying glow sticks..." he finally let out and kept quiet for a bit, looking away, to the ceiling, as the words sunk in.
Light's eyes, although sleepy and closing, widened when Shade admitted to not being at his best. She was so taken by surprise at the boy's words, and everything else he'd done that night and all the ways he was acting, that she didn't realize that she boy was turning over until she noticed him wincing. "Shade," she hissed, scolding, as her hand shot out towards his side, either intent on pushing his back down onto the bed or steadying him, considering her was already turned over. However, her hand barely touched his skin, rested there for only a second, before she pulled it back to herself, holding it at her chest. Now, Light was suddenly aware of the light tickling sensation on her arm, Shade's fingers caressing her skin, and she froze once more, looking away from Shade's face and down at the thread patterns of her pillow case. Finally, he said what had probably been bothering him the most, and what had confused Light overall about the entire situation, how he of all people lost a fight to some ordinary humans. The girl's breath caught in her throat; she wasn't used to Shade actually having a weakness, except to herself, but to others? And most of all, the reality that he had actually lost a fight, and almost his life, because of that weakness set in, surprising more than she would have thought. Slowly, she looked up at the boy's face, noticing he was looking away. She kept quiet, not knowing what to say, then slowly, shuffled a little on the bed, scooting just a tad closer to Shade, then she reached out with her hand. She didn't know any other way to comfort him, so she simply pressed her fingertips, very very lightly, to Shade's cheek, brushing them backwards and into his hair as a comforting gesture. Light was at a complete loss for words, but she finally managed to utter in a whisper, "Shade.. you didn't... there was no way that you could've anticipated..."
Truth be told, Shade had been expecting the girl to laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole situation behind his defeat. He was pretty much taken in by a bunch of thugs wearing party favors, one or two of them were probably even carrying small flashlights to neutralized his ranged attacks. Still, the boy remained quiet as Light tried to make him feel better, but truth was that giving him pity probably made the situation even worse. "I got complacent." he simply replied, shrugging a bit as he looked up into the ceiling "It won't happen again." he began to say as his voice grew softer and his eyes began closing again. Shade's eyelids felt so heavy right now, and his body felt as if it was driftwood, floating in the ocean. As Light's hand touched his cheek, the boy pushed his face lightly against the girl's fingertips almost subconsciously. "Crap... I'm getting rather tired..." he let out before taking a deep breath. The fingers that had been caressing Light's forearm and shoulder slowly wound down until only the side of the boy's hand rested on Light's forearm. The young man had been fighting exhaustion and pain in a sort of mad dash to survive, but now that he felt safe, it had all overtaken him and pushed him into a deep sleep.
Contrary to the norm with other people, Light didn't find anything funny at all about Shade's loss against the thugs and the beating he'd taken. She'd spent three weeks tired and weak and stressed over his absence, at times worrying about him, even though she'd been angry with him for the entire Camille escapade, and seeing him here in front of her, bloodied and beaten and barely hanging on, especially now that she was beginning to believe things hadn't gone down between him and Camille like she'd thought, Light was more worried for the boy than ever. Sighing at his seemingly nonchalant, or maybe embarrassed, attitude toward the whole thing, the girl sighed, looking at him, concerned. Before he'd said a word, the girl noticed his breathing becoming shallower, and she started to sit upright quickly, fearing the worst, but then relaxed back onto the bed when he mentioned he was only tired. "I can imagine," she replied quietly, lightly caressing the side of his face and neck with her fingertips, just as his fingers stopped moving. She laid there for what seemed like forever, rarely blinking as she stared at him with a gentle expression, watching him sleep. It had been so long since he'd been there with her in her room, and now it all seemed so surreal, more so considering the state the young man was in. But truthfully, past all the awkwardness of his return and the anger that had built up inside her, she was glad to see Shade safe and have him there with her.
At some point, Light jumped, waking herself from a light sleep she'd fallen into and from a dream she was having that Shade had come back to the mansion. Looking around, she spotted the boy next to her, unconscious, her hand resting on his neck, and she remembered that he had returned. Stretching her entire body out, the girl yawned and placed her hand over Shade's on top of her arm. Gently, she caressed it lightly before picking it up and placing it on the bed, then sat up carefully. She was awfully tired, but her stomach was rumbling, and although she knew she wouldn't have much of an appetite, she decided it would be best to try to eat something. Looking over at Shade, something pulled at her heart at the thought of leaving his side, but she knew she'd be back in minutes. Sighing, the girl reached down to grab the bedsheets and blankets, pulling them up and letting them fall onto the bed and over Shade. She tugged the blankets up to his shoulders and smoothed them out before running her hand gently across his hair, brushing it from his face. Light sat still for a few seconds, then, hesitantly, leaned down close to Shade's face, pressing her lips very softly to his forehead. She pulled away slowly, still watching Shade, then rose from the bed, stretching once more before heading out her door and into X-Men Hall South 3rd.
Not too terribly long after Light had departed, Korvka entered the room, completely ignorant of what had transpired. From what she could tell, there was a lump in the bed and that could only mean one thing: that Light was moping. Korvka couldn't blame her, really, given her own propensity to linger on the dark side of things, but still, she wanted, perhaps selfishly, to offer something. With her own thoughts tied up with trying to run damage control, monitor her thought process, and throw herself at the wall of her music project, it left little time and energy to spend on someone who was obviously hurting. The dark room didn't surprise her at all - in fact she'd come to expect it, even after Shade had finally disappeared from the mansion. Unlike her summation of what happened to Addy, Korvka was pretty certain she knew what had spurred Shade to leave and felt no sympathy at all for him aside from a tiny reservoir of compassion that she only tapped into for Light's sake - and even then, not often. Walking into the room, Korvka stood to the side of the bed and reached out a hand to gently cup the sleeping girl's shoulder when she stopped suddenly in her tracks. The black haired figure in Light's bed was not Light at all and was instead Shade. <"What the fuck?"> she asked, going from zero to indignant in .006, ripping the blankets off the cheating bastard's sleeping form. What the fuck did he think he was doing there, like he belonged there after the stunt he pulled with Camille? Wasn't his timely escape just proof that he knew what he'd done wrong - admittance of guilt? However, as soon as her eyes adjusted to the light pouring in from the hallway, Korvka was able to see that Shade's twiggy little body was covered in bandages - bandages that were beginning to soak with blood. <"Shit..."> she breathed, trying to pull the most logical thought from the swirling vortex that spun in her mind. The first thought was that Light had worked him over and left him for dead...but the bandages looked fresh and there was no logical reason to electrocute a man half to death and then patch him up and let him stay in your bed. No, the only thing that Korvka could postulate was that Light had no idea that Shade had crashed in her bed. <"Come home at last? Tch,"> she growled, glaring down at his unconscious form as she deliberately pushed her unwarranted thoughts of helping him to the back shelf. Pulling out her cell phone from between her breasts, Korvka wiped the phone off on the sheets and then took a seat at the end of the bed, well away from Shade and any part of him that she might touch. Her fingers flew and then she raised the phone to her ear, calling Light.
The call was answered somewhat quickly, and Light's voice came over the speaker, "Yeah?" somewhat nervous and irritably. The Russian girl could probably hear, on the other end, a loud racket coming from the hall, and short, heavy pants coming from the girl.
Filled with questions and righteous indignation at Shade's presence in Light's bed, assuming he just crashed there without permission as if Light would be oh so joyous to see him again, Korvka did not notice the tone Light took with her. "You know Shade is unconscious and bleeding all over your bed, right?" she asked in a total deadpan, her words dropping with the weight of a tractor. She glanced over her shoulder as if to make sure that she was indeed relaying the truth (because it was so out of left field, she simply had to reassure). Crossing her legs at the knee, she leaned forward with her chin on her fist, waiting for the reply.
Without missing a beat, Light immediately responded, "His bandages are bleeding through?!" It was obvious she knew that the boy was in her bed and that she was seemingly concerned for him by her next question. "He's still breathing, right?" she asked, her voice lowering considerably.
Korvka only sighed at Light's response. So she did know that Shade was in her bed. Those bandages must have been her doing, which meant that more had transpired between them than she could piece together. Standing from the foot of the bed, she rounded the side and put a hand on her hip, looking down at the skinny boy with cold calculating eyes. "His head and hand are, and there's von on his shoulder that is starting to." She replied with an unnerving calm that she always adopted when her feelings were too confusing to deal with so she opted not to. Then, in response to Light's next frantic question, Korvka observed the shallow rise and fall of Shade's chest and answered, "Unfortunately. You need to get more bandages from Hank, as soon as possible, if you really vont him to survive," she added, her tone sarcastic as her personal feelings for Shade came in to belie the nurturing advice she was throwing out.
"Okay, just," Light began to reply hurriedly, he words spouting out quickly in succession. "Can you stay there and watch him for a sec'? I can't exactly get to Hank right now. There should be some towels or something by the bed or in the bathroom, if it looks really bad. I'll be there as soon as I take care of something..."
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuck," Korvka growled instantaneously after hearing Light's request. Her lip curled for a moment as her more selfish feelings tugged at her heart, remembering all of the cruel words Shade had thrown her way, debating with the angel and devil on her shoulders whether or not tending to his wounds was at all something she'd consider. However, despite her feelings she still followed Light's instruction, moving around the bed with her eyes on the ground to spot the towels she'd mentioned. "I'm going to have to cut them up," she said, holding up one that she found and sniffing it to make sure it was clean. Though she did not vocalize it, Korvka's statement suggested that she was willing to stay with Shade until Light got there. Stooping to grab the other linens, Korvka began to take more notice of what was happening on the other end of the telephone, hearing a great deal of commotion and ruckus. "Jesus, ver are you?" she asked, figuring the girl was perhaps passing a construction zone in one of the school vehicles.
"That's fine, I'll get more later," Light replied to the Russian without vocally acknowledging the woman's frustration with her request, followed shortly by a rather loud crash and the rattling of dishware, and Light gasping."Jurassic fucking Park," came the girl's reply after a second. "I gotta go. Be there in a sec." The other line cut off as Light ended the phone call, leaving Korvka without time to even say goodbye.
Korvka just barely caught the pop-culture reference before the line went dead and she pulled the phone away from her face, eyebrows furrowed. The ruckus on the other end gave Korvka pause as she tried to piece together what Light could mean referencing dinosaurs but stopped bothering to as she turned to face the bed, met again with the sight of Shade in the middle of it, breathing shallowly but with the steady rise ad fall of a boy who was clinging to life. With her full lips set in a thin, displeased line, she walked into the bathroom to thoroughly wash her hands. She soaped up to her elbow and rubbed her fingernails vigorously before wiping her hands on her yoga pants since the towels were all apparently in use for Shade's recovery. With the extra towel draped over her clean arm, she hunted through Light's desk without much care until she found a simple folding knife and the immediately stabbed the towel once. She ripped it apart cleanly, and then repeated the motion twice more until she had three long strips of absorbent terry cloth. The knife shut with a soft shick and she was by the side of the bed again, hoping to god the ungrateful wretch would just stay unconscious. Maybe forever... Sitting on the very edge, Korvka reached for his head, grabbing at the chin to manipulate his dead-weight cranium towards her so that she could scrutinize the severity of the wound. She had no way of knowing how long the bandages had been on but there was a sizable pool of crimson that stained the outermost layer of wrapping and was sure it would only increase. Knowing enough about wound care from childhood, Korvka did not try to remove the bloodied bandages, knowing that it would only encourage further blood flow. Step one was to stop the bleeding. Taking a strip of terry cloth in her hand, she scooted a tiny bit closer and then lifted Shade's head off the pillow by cupping beneath his skull. Her touch was gentle, despite her loathing. As she wrapped his head a second time, allowing it to drop against the pillow so that she could overlap the original dressing, she wondered what he'd gotten into that had resulted in something so sinister. This was not the work of a simple mutant - Korvka layered the terry cloth over his forehead until the ends met together near the side of his head and she began to tie a knot, her mind leading her down a dark tunnel where the mansion and now, apparently, abroad, became less and less safe. <"What happened to you?"> she questioned as she readied the second strap.
Shade was entirely out of it when Korvka began her treatment, the boy was mostly stable by now, but his wounds were still bleeding slightly, nothing like when he had first come to Light, though. In between restless dreams, Shade felt Korvka's hand on the back of his neck, then moving up to his skull and lifting his head up, for an instant he thought Light was back but this person's touch and skin were different, like comparing sandpaper to silk. Shade half tried to rouse himself, but was unable, simply wincing as his muscles screamed when he was moved. He finally heard Korvka's voice, as if the woman was a million miles away and her words had been carried by the wind, and opened his mouth as if to speak, but no words came out. Shade himself still wasn't sure if he was dreaming or awake, but each time he was moved, his barely closing wounds bled a little bit.
<"Shit,"> Korvka breathed in disparaging finality as Shade grimaced and then opened his trap - thankfully, he was too out of it still. At least he was hurt enough not to come right out with the insults, a fact for which Korvka could only take a small measure of solace. Impatiently, she looked over her shoulder, as if Light would barge through the door at any moment but there was no jiggling doorknob to suggest that her impromptu stint as nurse would come to an end. Looking back to her ungrateful, unfortunately conscious ward, the Russian's lip curled. This had to make up for not checking in on Light sooner. Patching up someone she hadn't been sad to see leave was leaving a bitter aftertaste in her mouth, even as she took the second strip and threaded it under his palm, trying to touch him as little as possible. Were it any other victim Korvka would have felt a tinge of compassion, perhaps even leaving a bundle of medicinal herbs and instructions for Light on how to make a poultice that would keep the area clear of infection and promote healing but Korvka had not progressed so far in her mental revolution. An asshole was an asshole, regardless of his past romantic affiliations. A tiny voice in the back of her head piped up as she wrapped his hand gingerly, a voice that suggested she certainly wasn't doing this to save Light's bedding, but she pushed it away. It was basic human...mutant...whatever, it was courtesy. God knows he wouldn't do anything to save her or help her out. Bolstered with a certain level of pride in her ability to put her personal feelings aside for the sake of someone's betterment, Korvka took his wrist and twisted gently so that she could tie the knot on the inside of his palm.
Once the new bandages were in place, Shade's expression softened considerably, his wounds still miraculously holding together in spite of the slight seeping of blood. Breathing a bit more calmly, Shade's eyes opened for a second, if barely, from her vantage point Korvka could probably see a small hint of silver peeking at the ceiling of the room as the boy let out a small cough. His throat felt like sandpaper, as if he had not said a word or drank water in forever, with each cough, the shadows in the room flickered. Even in this weakened state, Shade could feel his powers returning now that his bleeding had stopped. Weak as they were, they still gave him comfort and made him feel less helpless. He could feel someone there with him, and he knew it was not Light, he knew her scent and her touch better than anyone. Though he was unaware of who this person was, she seemed to be trying to help, so he did not react badly, for now. After he finished clearing his throat, he let out a raspy, dry, "Where's Light?" his voice sounding like he had just crossed the desert.
Satisfied with her job to at least quell the slow-but-consistent flow of blood, Korvka sighed, glad her job was over. She stood immediately and brushed herself off, as if she might have caught some sort of undocumented disease, wiping her hands on her exercise pants to rid them of the few, tiny specs of blood. The glimmer of silver indeed caught her eye and she turned away, uncomfortable, but then flinched at his first weak cough. Shit...what was she supposed to do now? Light had asked her to wait until she got there, a request she had given her word to fulfill. A chill crept up her spine as the cough continued, the shadows undulating all around, as if they were coming closer to cocoon their dark master. It didn't seem to matter how injured Shade was, he still gave her the creeps with his powers. Her shiver died though and was, surprisingly, replaced by mild concern as the coughing continued. She wondered for a moment if there was any blood in his mouth since his coughs sounded like they were tearing through tissue. She cringed at the sound and exhaled sharply once, knowing her job was not over. As he croaked his question she was already en route to the bathroom, looking around there for a glass. She found one on the sink and inspected it in the darkness, then immediately cleaned it under scorching hot water, running her fingers along the hot glass until she couldn't stand the temperature anymore. Adjusting it to cold, she let the glass fill halfway and then snubbed the flow with a push of her wrist. Walking back to the bed, all the while hating her task, she looked down at him with a cold expression and replied, "She'll be back soon." Then, she perched on the very edge of the bed and turned her torso so that she faced him. "Open your mouth, I haff voter," she snapped, waiting for him to move before she dared move any closer.
Trying to sit up, Shade's barely open eyes fixed on Korvka for a second, silver slits in the darkness. The girl looked a bit different from before, as if he'd been gone months instead of weeks. "Thanks." he actually said, reaching out to grab the glass and almost letting it fall before finally getting a firm grip on it. It was a well kept secret of Shade that his shadows were always working around him, even when they would be mostly unnoticeable, hidden under his feet when he stepped on the ground, or between his fingers and whatever he was holding at the time. They augmented him in whatever way he could in an almost unconscious way, he had grown to control his powers by using this method, making the movements of the tendrils and black masses as natural and effortless as breathing. Now, for the first time in a long time Shade was working on his own, and felt helpless and vulnerable. Bringing the water to his lips, he took a sip and commented, "Never pegged you for nurse duty, specially with me." his voice back to his usual whisper-like tone, unsettling and distant as usual. "Things must have changed in a few weeks." he added, feeling like he wanted Light to be back soon, even though he'd never admit it.
Korvka was reluctant to let the glass go as she saw Shade's tremulous grip. If he spilled it then he was simply out of luck - she didn't want to go in search of more towels and there was simply no way either of them would be at all comfortable with trying to get him into a dry set of clothes. However, when his hands finally clasped the chilled glass with a modicum of strength, she let go, though keeping a shrewd, watchful eye on his fingers to detect any sign of slipping. Once he had the glass she stood up and moved away from the bed, thoroughly uncomfortable and feeling awkward. Her arms folded over her chest in that same self-defensive manner that she always assumed when she didn't know what to do or say, her posture rigid, shoulders tense and slightly raised, neck stiff, plump lips set in as thin a line as they could make. She had just leaned against Light's desk when Shade's single word of gratitude hit her ears, causing her eyes to pop wide, spheres of cocoa brown becoming visible in the dark, trembling shadows. Her eyes cut to him suspiciously, roving over his features for signs of insincerity but, much to her surprise, there were none. Apparently he was too hurt to be a dick. "You're velcome," she replied stiffly. At his next comment, she let out a sardonic laugh. "It vosn't by choice," she informed with cutting frankness oozing from her tone, her eyes on his. "I came to see Light and found you instead. Imagine my surprise." Subconsciously, as she was able to communicate with Shade without malice on either part, Korvka's posture slowly slipped into comfort. Her shoulders dropped but her arms remained quite fastened to her chest, embarrassed by her attire, having come straight from the gym. "Hmph," she chortled in reply to his last statement, looking out the window to the scene beyond. "You haff no idea."
The door to the room suddenly, and somewhat violently, swung open, revealing a dim silhouette of Light, highlighted by whatever light was coming from the center hall and into the darkened south hall, as she walked into the door. Her eyes immediately went to the bed, assuring herself that Shade was still there and still alive. The girl sighed audibly with relief when she saw that not only was he alive, but now awake. Cradling her fruits and ice packs in one arm, she pushed the door closed with one foot moved over to her bed, dropping the items somewhat carelessly on her side before crawling onto the mattress herself. "Thank you," she said, looking up to Korvka as she moved over the blankets to have a seat next to Shade, noticing, and having been expecting, the awkward tension between the two, but not speaking a word of it. "This place is a magnet for the most bizarre things apparently," she said, being somewhat vague as she picked up one of the tiny medical ice packs and leaned over closer to Shade. "You know... I mean, obviously you do, but Addy, or someone... she came back. With a bang," she continued as she gently used her thumb and index finger as the base of Shade's chin to turn his face towards her so she could put the ice pack against the now bandaged cut across the side of his head. "I went to go get some food and ice, and a fucking lizard showed up in the hallway. Vlad took care of it, but.. some blue girl showed up with it and stabbed your scaly friend." She raised the cold compress and attempted to gently press it against Shade's wound, looking briefly into his eyes as she spoke. Light normally wasn't the one to spark up a conversation, either of the two in the room would know that, but she recent events had her stressed, and she wasn't letting the words spill out under the emotional pressure. "Girl looks like Addy, but... different. I really don't think it's her."
Shade looked like he was about to reply to Korvka when the door flung open. The moment the door opened, every single shadow in the room quivered, as if they had tried to 'contract' or Shade had tried to move them but not quite been able to. Turning his head, the boy winced at the sudden movement he'd just made, his muscles feeling like they had torn (even though they hadn't), which reminded him of how sore he was. Before he could compose himself, though, Light had crossed the room and was examining him, the boy silently welcomed her touch, after all, he had missed it. "I can assure you I'm not dying anymore." he let out after Light moved his head to the side and pressed the ice against his forehead. "Once you plugged all the bullet holes, I stopped leaking." he added, lying back down while he tried to hide the fact just sitting up for a few seconds had left him exhausted. To the whole dinosaur, blue girl, stabbing debacle, Shade simply lifted an eyebrow, not sure if he was hearing things from exhaustion or all of that had actually happened.
Korvka's head snapped towards the door as it flew open, her expression mildly relieved when she recognized the skinny silhouette that could only belong to Light. "Hmmm," she grunted with a nod as Light thanked her, immediately standing erect from her lean against the desk to make her way to the door and ultimately her escape when the black-haired girl's explanation as to the ruckus gave her pause. The noisome scene she'd overheard through her cellular was indeed something she intended to know more about - the only reason she would have stayed around Shade for a millisecond longer. She turned to listen, arms still folded protectively over her bosom, eyes skating from the injured prick to the apparently forgiving girl, wondering just what had transpired to change the tide so completely in Shade's favor. Probably his injuries, she thought, noticing with a cold expression the way that Light tended to them like a lovesick nurse. Pathetic. Her lip twitched in a curl but she staunched it by licking them and twitching a skeptical brow at the mention of Vlad killing some lizard. "Big lizard, then," she said dryly, mostly to herself. However, her face softened, eyebrows gently stitching in the middle in curiosity as the story continued to describe some Addy lookalike, then blossomed into complete shock as it was told that Flame had been stabbed. Unlike her brother, Korvka did not lose her head at this revelation since she knew more about Flame than any other in the mansion and was well aware of her regenerative abilities. She merely raised both brows and let out a low whistle. "Damn," was all she could say for a moment, rooted momentarily to the spot as the facts filed themselves away in some sort of logical order, her brown eyes lifted as she thought. "Addy vos cloned so she can't haff relatives," she mused, trying to piece together a viable explanation as to how there was an Addy lookalike. "But who knows how many other clones ver made. There's those bastards attacking us too, they haff a machine that mimics mutant powers. Maybe they got a hold off her and sent somevon here to kill more off us. Lucky for us they got Flame, she'll be healed by tomorrow," she concluded, her words growing harsh and edgy as the prospect of more trouble and fighting threatened her (apparently) false sense of security.
Whether or not Shade meant it as so, the words he said to Light as she tried to tend to her wounds came off as a sort of complaint, or a hint that he didn't need anymore care, and unintentionally the girl gave a disgusted sigh and rolled her eyes. She became further irritated when he simply laid down on the bed as if none of it mattered, like she hadn't been in the halls with two ferocious creatures that wanted to kill her and everyone else and as if she hadn't rushed back here, worried, to take care of the boy. Her intention had even been to let him rest his head in her lap, but it was apparent he didn't want that too much, either. So, she simply put the ice pack in the boy's hand without a word and turned to lean back against the headboard, finally replying to Korvka but saying nothing to Shade. "Flame's in the infirmary if you want to go see her. Lizard's dead in the East Hall if you want to go see it. and the Addy lookalike is probably ripping someone to shreds right now if you want to go see that," was all that she had to say (though she did acknowledge everything else Korvka had said), having been put in an instant bad mood with Shade's (probably unintentional) reminder that they weren't together anymore, and, since he was claiming that his injuries were better now, that he'd be leaving again soon. She sat quietly then, looking down at the food she'd dropped onto the bed, her appetite suddenly gone again. "Thanks again," she said softly as she reached down for her own ice pack and the fruit.
Shade's attempts to calm Light down and assure her he was going to be fine seemed to radically backfire as the girl's mood swung around in a complete 180. When she put the ice pack on his hand, he simply brought it up to the same point she had it pressed against previously. The boy turned to look at Light as she lied down, lifting an eyebrow as Korvka spoke. Now seemingly trapped between two hostile women, he simply added. "Wish I could go check out the giant monster, but I'm in no condition to walk yet." he added, every second he spent sitting up seemed to put a strain on the muscles around his stomach and back, but he was not about to just plop down on the bed with Korvka around and Light looking like she might finish the job the mobsters had started. "Wait..." he then said, turning to Light and then to Korvka. "Vlad left the mysterious girl alone? In the mansion?" he said in disbelief. "I never credited him with an overabundance of brains, but that's specially daft for someone who wants to take over the reins here sometime." he hissed, more to himself than anything else. It seemed the one safe haven might have been compromised by nothing else than mind-numbing stupidity. "He knew his red iguana's tail would grow right back, he should've secured the remaining threat.. or chased her off." he shrugged. He wasn't about to go look for the stabby Addy clone himself, though, or let Light go when he was too weak to protect her. After all, the girl that had been his could not regenerate, and he owed her big now, twice over.
Light gently placed the other compress onto her wrist, letting it drape over her arm to relieve the swelling from the slight, but powerful, nip she'd gotten from Vlad as he ran by her. As she looked down at her wrist, she recalled that it was the same one she injured when she first got to the mansion, at the artificially heated (by none other than Storm) pool party. She also remembered Shade taking rather good care of her after that incident, including making her dinner afterwards, and a small frown showed itself briefly on her face at the bittersweet memory. At the words of the boy next to her, at least those about going to get a look at the creature in the other hallway, Light's head snapped up and she managed to get a short, menacing glare in at him before he finished with the fact that he couldn't walk well. "I'm sure it will still be there tomorrow before you leave," she said, trying to be nonchalant, but coming off as somewhat irritated. She continued to listen, and sit quietly, while he went on his rant over Vlad's stupidity, and while she agreed with... well, all of it, she still felt the need to say something snappy in response. "Guess that's what people do; put the person they care about first. At least he didn't run off and leave her," she said as she stood from the bed. She'd finally really noticed the blood covering her arms, and she decided it would definitely be best to go clean up before bed, and so she made her way to the bathroom.
Let me get this straight... Flame was in the infirmary, Vlad was off saving his heroine, Addy (or someone who looked like her) was running amuck with barbaric weaponry, there was some dead Jurassic Park lizard in the east hall... Korvka leaned back against the desk as she tried to make sense of it all, arms loose over her chest, staying for whatever tidbits of information that Light had before she went to investigate herself. She had been staring hard at the floor, but looked up just in time to see Light's shift in demeanor as she practically slapped the ice pack onto Shade's forehead and the ignored him for her. Korvka caught Light's eye and tilted her head to the side in a curious manner, then letting her eyes drift to Shade before returning to the twin emeralds. The girl had sounded so eager and concerned on the phone - but now that she was next to the person she was fretting over it was time to act cold? Confused, she raised her eyebrows as she took this as her cue to leave, but again, she was stopped by Shade's summation of her brother's behavior. Her cheeks flushed pink under the olive tone of her skin but thankfully the shadows of the room hid her visceral reaction. Sure, she was upset with Vlad, but he was her brother to be upset with. No one else was allowed to hate him quite so fully. However, she cleared her throat and shrugged a shoulder. "He's the type to lose his head..." her words drifted off as Light spat in reply in Vlad's defense. Ok, it was definitely time to leave. "Ooooookay," she said, verbally pointing out the tension in the room without pinning it down with words. "Talk to you later, Light." She glanced at Shade and, figuring if Shade was leaving the next morning as Light's snarky words suggested, she added, "safe travels," and then turned and walked out the door into X-Men Hall South 3rd.
As soon as Korvka went out of the room, Shade let himself fall on the bed. Though his back ached a bit as it touched the mattress, the muscles in his stomach sent a wave of relief to his entire body when the strain from sitting up was gone. For a few seconds, Shade ignored Light's comments, simply following the girl with his eyes as she walked into the bathroom, her figure outlines by the sparse moonlight coming in from the windows, she seemed to have lost weight, looking almost frail and dainty. "Glad you're ok." he finally let out, closing his eyes and focusing on the sound of running water coming from the bathroom, when he opened them again, he simply stared up at the room, trailing every little crack and minuscule imperfection in the ceiling. He'd fallen asleep looking at it so many times he had memorized it. "I think I might stick around." he said then to Light, as a delayed response to her mentioning Shade leaving, there was obviously more in his voice than simply him making a statement. "All and all, it's probably the safest place to be while I recover." he then added, trying to hide his true feelings. Though he partly meant it, there was no way he could leave Light alone in the mansion with a crazy teleporter running around stabbing people. After all, the only way to catch a teleporter is with another one.
Hearing Korvka finally announce her exit, not that she didn't want her company, now just wasn't the time, Light replied with a short "Alright," and went about washing her hands and cleaning the blood from her skin. Things became awkwardly quiet in the room, though the sound of the running water helped somewhat. Inspecting her face, she found a smudge of blood along her jawline and a small speck on her cheek, and she made sure to wash those off carefully as well. While she finished up with that task and began to brush her teeth, preparing for bed, she heard Shade's words, just barely, and she almost choked on the toothpaste. When did that boy ever admit to being glad someone was ok? This whole night was turning out to be really weird, and rather stressful. Rinsing her mouth out, after a few seconds, she finally replied, "Why wouldn't I be? I'm a big girl." After drying off her hands and mouth, Light decided the last thing she had left to do was change clothes, and although she knew it was a bad idea to strip down in front of Shade, there wasn't anything on her body he hadn't seen before. However, as she walked into the room, the boy spoke again, and her heart skipped a beat, nearly making her trip over the even floor. She opened her mouth to speak, but he continued, justifying his decision, and the girl's face darkened a bit, a sort of sadness taking over her features that she hoped Shade couldn't spot in the dim room. "I don't know how safe this place really is anymore, truly. I'm sure there's nothing you can't handle here, though," she replied, almost slapping herself for her first sentence, which she thought could be misconstrued as a hint that she wanted him to leave. "I can... take care of you if you want. You know, clean your wounds and stuff," she added, almost nervously, as she walked over to her dresser, pulling her tank top over her head on the way. "Unless you'd rather a professional do it, of course. Hank wouldn't mind." Crumpling up the tank top and tossing it to the corner of the room, Light wondered when she had begun to sound and act so unlike her normal self, emotional and moody and stumbling over her words.
Right after Light mentioned the mansion might not be as safe as it once had been, Shade answered, "All the more reason for me to stay." but didn't say anything else at the moment, not telling Light know exactly what he meant by that, even if he considered it pretty obvious. "Not saying you can't take care of yourself though." continued the boy after a long pause, addressing something Light had said earlier. "I guess everyone needs someone to watch their back every now and then." he finally concluded with a momentous departure of the way he usually thought, or at least the way he had always thoughts before Light walked into his life. Shade could tell the girl was undressing, but peeking right now, as much as he wanted to see her body again, just didn't feel 'right'. "I don't trust Hank." he replied simply to the girl's statements, as if that's all he had to say. After all, if he was to stay and didn't want Hank taking care of him, it was rather obvious what he had consented to. Shade was not about to admit to anything, however, as he lied there, staring at the ceiling, he thought he was glad he'd come back to Light for help and she had not tossed him out on the street.
With each statement that came from Shade's mouth, he seemed more and more unlike himself, yet so sincere, and Light really had to reach down and pinch herself on the back of her hand to be sure she wasn't dreaming all this. She listened quietly as she dug through her clothes for something to wear, finding a simple black tank top that would work well enough. In the darkness, Light was unable to tell if Shade's blood had soaked through her shirt and onto her bra, but playing it safe, she set aside the tank top and unclasped the bra, tossing it to the same corner as her previous shirt. Stopping for a moment, she turn to look at Shade as she pulled the clean shirt over her head (and foregoing a bra), responding to his final comment with, "Who are you and what have you done with Shade?" It was obvious she was kidding, but with all the things going on that night in the mansion, she briefly wondered if this was the same man she'd spent all her time at the mansion with, but the thought vanished as she went over all their conversation in her head. Besides, she knew every part of Shade's body, of his skin and scent, even covered by that of alcohol, to know that this wasn't some impostor. Finally getting the shirt on and straightening it out, Light also dropped her sweatpants and underwear, finding a pair of boyshorts to match her tank top and slipping them on before climbing back into bed. "Well," the girl began to reply, finding it all too natural for the boy in her bed to be untrusting of others, "I'll just take care of you, then." It seemed she hadn't caught on to the deeper meaning of Shade's words, and just as well, her earlier sour mood seemed to have disappeared too. "First we'll start with another pill. You must be hurting pretty badly," she added as she leaned over him carefully, reaching out for the bottle of prescribed pain medication and the water bottle she'd left there earlier, her arm shaking a bit under her weight.
Shade turned to Light lazily as the girl approached the bed, his eyes following her while she walked until she sad down on the bed next to him. As she moved forward, he could faintly smell the aseptic scent of the soap on her hands. Shade tried to keep his eyes trained on the girl, but his body felt as heavy as lead, pulling him down and making him sink in the bed. Tiredness and relief began to grow from his back, over to his chest and down to his arms and legs, making them tingle and grow numb. Shade closed his eyes for what seemed to be forever before Light spoke again, pulling a bottle of water and some medication close to him. "If I didn't know you better I'd think you were trying to knock me out." he replied in a sleepy whisper before he tried to sit down, the strain of his muscles making him let out a small grunt, his stomach aching under the pressure. "Guessing it's for my own good, uh?" he continued to joke, a small, cocky smile appearing on the corner of his mouth for a second.
Grasping the both the water bottle and pain pills in one hand, Light immediately sat back on the bed right next to Shade, facing him, her legs curled under her. She let a small smile slip through and show on the corner of her lips when Shade spoke to her, but otherwise went about opening the bottle and taking out two of the pills. "Knocking you out, no," she replied to the boy as he began sitting up, swiftly putting her hand behind his back to help support him. "Making sure you aren't in pain? Yes, that is for your own good." As she spoke to him, she looked him right in the eye, wrapping her arm further around his shoulders and moving one leg behind him until she felt like she could fully support him. Holding out the pills to the boy, she looked away almost shyly, adding quietly, "Contrary to the majority of the people here, I'd rather have you conscious."
"Hey, I'm not a wuss." replied Shade with an obviously feigned pained look in his eyes as Light put her hand behind his back. With her help, the boy finished sitting up, he seriously felt like he was out of immediate danger though, regardless of the long recovery he had ahead of himself. Luckily, he figured once his control over shadows was back, he'd be able to move about normally with their help. Still, he might pretend to be helpless for a few days if it was going to let him be close to Light. With the girl closer to him, Shade would feel the warmth of her hand on his back in spite of the slight soreness the contact brought about, and subconsciously leaned back against her hand. "So you want me awake? what exactly do you have planned?" joked the boy with a mischievous smile that made one of the bruises on his cheek sting as Light's arm wrapped around his back, bringing the girl's face closer to him and flooding his nostrils with the sweet scent of her hair. Even disheveled, tired and scared, the girl was beautiful, there was nothing to do about it. Opening his mouth, Shade took one of the pills the girl offered and then downed it with a gulp of water that felt like ice traveling down to his stomach, offering much appreciated respite. Letting out an involuntary sigh after drinking the water, the boy asked, "I reckon I'm not the most popular guy around then." as he began to lean back down, unwittingly (or maybe not) pulling on Light's arm with his shoulders and back, as if he was going to drag her down with him.
"Never said you were," Light replied to the boy with a raise of her eyebrows, smiling a bit more at his act. "Honestly, you're probably one of the strongest and most resistant men I've met. Vlad being the most," she added with a somewhat bigger grin, her spirits obviously lifting. Looking up to him briefly as he joked with her further, she shook her head and blew a tiny puff of air between her now fully smiling lips at the suggestive statement. "A good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast in the morning," she responded to his question as she watched him down the first pill. She pushed her hand toward him further, motioning for him to take the second pill. He probably didn't need it, but she figured better safe than sorry, and she didn't want him waking in the middle of the night in pain. Feeling him begin to lean back, Light frowned a bit and abandoned the second pill, dropping it back into its bottle as Shade pulled her down with him, nearly making her gasp. Quickly adjusting her body so that she could balance herself to lean over him, she slipped her hand up to his back and placed her other behind his head, easing him down onto the bed and pillow so that he wouldn't strain himself more than necessary. "At least we have something in common," she said in reference to his not-so-popular comment after a short moment of silence, slipping her hands from beneath him to put away the medicine and water. Reaching down, she pulled up all the blankets from the foot of the bed and let the fall softly over her own legs and the boy next to her before she leaned back onto her own pillow. Sighing as she settled into the bed, silence briefly filled the room before she stated, "Vlad's an idiot, though," then turning her head to look at him, she added, "You're not," and finally with another small grin, she finished with, "Usually. Seems you took a break tonight."
Shade relished the reaction he got from Light when he began to pull her down into the bed along with him, her small surprised gasp reminded him of better times in that bed with the girl. "Trying to make me jealous?" grinned the boy as Light brought up Vlad being the most resilient guy in the mansion, still, he couldn't argue much to it as he wasn't anywhere near Vlad when it came to physical strength. "That does sound good though." he finally admitted once Light had helped him lay down, immediately he felt himself sinking into the mattress once more, as if it was a pool of water drawing him in. "I guess that's what we get for being misunderstood, right?" Shade replied when the girl mentioned not being the only one. As the young woman drew the covers over both herself and Shade, the boy closed his eyes and breathed in, feeling the cold of the blankets touching his legs and stomach. Shade closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, feeling himself drifting off to sleep, his arms and head getting heavier and heavier by the second. He heard Light's voice as a distant whisper and answered with his eyes still closed. "That he is." at first, then adding an "Ouch." and letting a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. "Yes, I've dabbled at being an idiot from time to time, I think tonight ended up not being too bad, though." continued Shade before letting out, almost as an inaudible whisper; "I definitely like where I'm going to sleep better than where I woke up."
"Jealous of what? A fat head and a severe lack of brains?" Light said back with the slightest hint of a laugh before she had laid down next to Shade. Pulling the blankets up over her arms, the girl turned onto her side, facing Shade, and somewhat snuggled into the mattress, suddenly feeling more at ease and comfortable than she had in weeks. "Guess so," she said simply in reply to his question, never really having thought of the two of them as misunderstood before, but rather... well, better than everyone else. "No, tonight was pretty bad," she then said with a laugh, more audible than before, as she buried half her face into her pillow, watching Shade now with one eye as his body stilled and his breathing became shallower. Finally, as the room became quiet, she heard his last quiet whisper, and a partial smile broke out on her face before it faded into something more solemn at the thought of him waking up somewhere else in a few days. "Guess that was one good choice you made. Coming here for repairs, I mean," the girl whispered back as she stared at the boy next to her. Light laid there quietly for several seconds, wondering if Shade, as quiet as he had spoken and as still as he was, was asleep or nearly there. She waited another moment, and silently cursing herself for being an idiot, the girl shuffled around and scooted closer to Shade, pressing her body very lightly against his side, just enough so that she could feel his skin on hers. She pushed her pillow against his, putting her head right on the center where the two met and just next to his shoulder, her chin brushing against his skin and the scent of beer, smoke, and blood filling her nose. Closing her eyes, the girl inhaled deeply then sighed as she curled her head and neck around Shade's shoulder, her lips and nose closer to his neck now, and she closed her eyes, listening to the sound of his breathing and wondering what his reaction would be, fearing for the worst, that he might push her away or tell her to get off. She knew this was probably the most idiotic thing she could have done right then, but she couldn't help it really; being next to Shade, curled up with him just felt too good, too... right. And after the stressful weeks and weird day she'd had, she needed something familiar. "Sorry, if I'm making you uncomfortable," she began to say, words beginning to spill from her mouth as she shrunk back a bit. "If it bothers you, I can move, or sleep somewhere else, or something. I just..." Light continued, her words trailing off, unsure if Shade was even still awake to hear her. And again, the girl wondered when she'd become so different, so worried about what someone else thought of her and nervous to the point that she was stumbling over her words.
Shade had indeed began to drift away to sleep as Light spoke, he grinned lightly, about to answer when he felt Light push towards him slightly. At first, he was wondering what she was doing, unable to open his eyes and look to the side, until he finally felt her skin against his, touching him slightly. The girl was so unbelievably warm that Shade felt like he had been cold for weeks prior, until that very moment. As she drew closer, he took a deep breath, drinking in her scent and touch. The girl was being silly, he knew that, not because she was trying to get close to him, but for ever thinking he'd be able to reject her. There had never been a situation in which Shade had been able to reject Light's advances. Finally, with a sudden movement and his eyes still closed, Shade let out what seemed to be an annoyed sigh and lifted his arm. "Silly girl!" he let out in a half whisper as, for a split second, it seemed like he was pushing her away. Stretching his arm up, the boy almost cussed out as he felt all his muscles pull at once and pain shoot down his shoulder, but managed to keep his placid expression. Moving his arm to the side, Shade put it around Light before she could pull back, as quickly as she could, with his arm mostly under her head and his hand around her shoulder, he pulled the girl close to him with the full remainder of his strength, to the point where she was almost on top of him. Her weight on his muscles made him ache, but it was a good pain, a warm, comfortable one. "You really think I would want to stop this?" he asked as if the answer was obvious while he pulled her close, hugging the girl with one arm and feeling her forehead touch his chin.
Light's spirits immediately dampened a bit when Shade called her 'silly'; she couldn't tell, or so she made herself believe, whether his words were kind or annoyed, but she automatically backed away, just a bit, beginning to mumble another apology even as he lifted his arm up. However, she then felt his arm curling around her, spreading warmth over her back and shoulders and pulling her towards him, getting a tiny, surprised grunt out of the girl. Finally, as Shade spoke again, Light relaxed into his arms, hesitantly bringing her hand up to his chest. "It's hard to tell lately, I guess," she replied quietly, in almost a whisper. She waited another moment, glancing up at him in the dark and listening to thunder rolling in the distance from the night's earlier storm. Cautiously, the girl buried her face into the boy's chest and pushed her hand gently to his neck, almost holding onto him, while her leg crossed over on of his, snuggling up to the man she'd missed so much the past few weeks. Sighing, the girl took everything in, his touch, scent, warmth, not wanting to sleep just yet. After a few seconds of silence, the girl opened her mouth, and finally whispered a simple request for the one thing that had been worrying and torturing her the entire night since Shade came back; "Don't leave."
Shade was glad to have Light pressed up against him once more as he felt himself falling asleep. In the boy's mind, it had been ages since the last time he'd laid with her like this. When the girl's hand wondered up his chest and towards his neck, the boy took a deep breath, his chest swelling up as if it was trying to push against the girl's palm. Light's scent was as intoxicating as ever and Shade slowly moved his free hand up to meet up with the girl's, his fingers intertwining with hers. Ignoring the pain on his arms from using them, Shade felt the soft, velvet-like skin of Light's inner thigh touching his legs when the girl slid her leg over his and snuggled closer to her. Hearing Light speak, Shade moved his face down, his eyes still closed while the boy struggled with sleep, and whispered back "I don't intend to.", his mouth hovering close to Light's.
Feeling Shade's fingers snake their way in between her own, Light hesitated, but then squeezed the boy's hand lightly, gripping his hand, though softly, as if she didn't want to let go. Then, waiting for a reply to her request, hoping he hadn't fallen asleep already and had heard her, the girl held her breath, lying completely still to be sure she wouldn't miss a word. And when Shade's reply finally came, Light exhaled, a long, shaky sigh at the relieving and more than comforting words. She had been so afraid that the boy would reject her, say he was simply there to recover and he'd still be gone in a few days, but he hadn't. He planned on staying. Whether or not he planned on staying with her, though, she wasn't sure, but she could still hope. Besides, things weren't exactly all bandaged up between the two, yet, but the way things were going seemed to signal a good start to repairing their relationship. After a moment lost in thoughts, hopes, and relief, Light could feel Shade's breath hitting her lips, the smell of alcohol assaulting her nose, and she opened her eyes, looking up at him. She couldn't tell if the close proximity was intentional, but with his lips that close to her own, she couldn't help herself, even if it was the stupidest thing she could have done right then. Light lifted her face ever so slightly, stopping for a split second before pushing her lips softly against Shade's, barely even brushing them against his very briefly. And then, suddenly feeling very embarrassed (but not regretting her decision), the girl gently pulled away, placing her head back on its previous spot on the boy's chest, and cuddled up to him, closing her eyes and sighing once more.
Shade's closeness to Light's lips had been entirely accidental, as the boy had his eyes closed and could more or less guess where Light was from the pressure on his body, but his aching muscles made knowing her exact position impossible. When the boy felt Light moving further towards him, he turned his head to where he figured the girl was, his eyes closed shut and his eyelids heavy with exhaustion. Suddenly, Shade felt a familiar softness pressing against his lips and had to struggle to open his eyes for a second, noticing Light's face close to his, he let his eyelids fall once more and melted into the brief, yet perfect kiss. Even with the stinging pain pulsing from a cut on his lip, the boy believed this was the best kiss he'd ever gotten. Once Light pulled back, the boy could not help but lean back on the pillow and hold her a bit closer and tighter than before, drifting away to sleep with Light in his arms.
Feeling Shade pulling her even closer, Light couldn't help but smile a little. After weeks without him and an awful fight, Shade coming back to her was the best thing that could have happened, and things were turning out almost perfectly. She felt the boy's breathing slow again and she light nuzzled her face against his chest, feeling the smoothness and warmth of his skin. She laid there, conscious, for several minutes, not wanting to sleep yet but to enjoy his presence, before finally the exhaustion from several sleepless nights and the last few days of being ill overcame her, and she drifted off to sleep as well, curled up with Shade.
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