RP Sunny and Larimar


“Even if your friend catches up to you, we can keep you safe. Stay a little while. You need it. Have you seen yourself in a mirror lately? You look like hell, pretty boy.”

Smokey smiled and gestured with her hand to him, letting it encompass all of him. Ame chuckled in response and nodded. Honestly, they just needed to keep him until Obsidian could show. He was the scariest man either of them had ever met. Whatever was chasing him, it wouldn’t be able to face Obsidian. Obsidian was darkness come to life, was the cold that ran through your blood when you were afraid. There was no one who could escape his touch, no one who could live through him.

“Look, your friend is not scarier than our boss. He’ll be here tomorrow and you’ll be safe. He’ll take you back to the Emerald and you’ll have real protection.” Ame stood up, making a small huffing noise as she did so. She smiled and put her hands on her hips. “Trust us. We can handle whatever you bring along with you. Our boss is interested in meeting you.”

Smokey nodded along to Ame’s statement. She was confident that at least for one night, she and Ame could keep this weird tall cannibal safe. She grinned wide, her teeth flashing against her dark skin. “Look, kid, the point is you’ll be safe with us from whatever is chasing you. There are others back at home, others who can help keep you safe. There’s thirty of us total, you won’t be in any danger.”​
 
Todd – Nick – laughed again, and scratched the scruff along his jawline. Amethyst was right – he probably looked like a half-starved coyote pulled out of a dumpster, or a hobo. Then again, he… was a hobo. It wasn’t like he had a home. And he was running out of money. If he could rest for a day or two…

“That is a nice thought.” His smile was dull, like he was thinking of something impossible, but pleasant to think about. He shook his head, however. “Listen, as much as I appreciate it, you guys really don’t have to go out of your way. If any of you got hurt, I don’t know what I’d do.”

Well, he did. He’d blame himself for agreeing. It wouldn’t be his fault, but – well, he’d just add it to his already-full plate. He couldn’t let Sam destroy these people just so he could have a safe place for one night. He remembered how heavily she’d smelled like blood that first night, over the scents of rage and cinnamon. She was capable of violence equal to or greater than his own. And if he was hunting someone…

He looked at where Amethyst stood again. Then he looked at Smokey, her teeth bared in a bright smile. Right now, he couldn’t take either of them alone. But if he slipped into the hunt, into his own obsession, then there wasn’t much that would keep him from his prey. If he couldn’t shoulder through them, he’d find a way around them. He didn’t know if Sam would think the same way, but he couldn’t put anything past her. Not again. Not anymore.
 
“Listen, kid. We’re not really asking ya. We’re telling ya that you’re coming back to the safe house with us.” Smokey’s smile changed ever so slightly, becoming just a little bit sharper. She stood up, following Ame’s lead. The two women looked down on Todd from where they stood. They didn’t strike imposing figures, but there was an energy about them, an energy that said they were willing and ready to throw down.

Ame scratched her head and then gestured to him again. “Look, pretty boy, this is for your own good. We’re going to take you to meet someone who can help you, who can protect you. Clearly, this friend of yours wants you gone, or you wouldn’t be so worried. We can hold our own. Come back with us and sleep. Finish eating and we’ll take you there.”

Ame’s smile was softer than Smokey’s, but still firm. They looked at each other again. This time, Smokey raised a brow and slowly tipped her head in his direction. Ame looked at him, tapped her lips, and shook her head. She didn’t think they’d have to manhandle him, but she was prepared to shock him if necessary.

No, Nick would come of his own volition.​
 
Even in his condition, Nick was a master of reading a room. Even the parts they didn’t clearly telegraph were noticeable to him, the unspoken messages under the surface. He didn’t stir from his own spot as they stood. If they did start a fight, he’d be best staying where he was and moving when the opening presented itself, no sooner. But it wouldn’t come to that. It wouldn’t, unless he started it, and he was in no condition to make a break for it.

He looked back at the body. He reminded himself how long it’d been since he’d had a full meal, and even in its state of decay, it was still food. And when was the last time he’d slept enough to actually process the energy? Asleep, he was vulnerable. He’d slept in his car, in the forest, in cheap motels with whatever his most recent vehicle was parked blocks away. A good night’s sleep did sound like heaven.

And they weren’t really giving him a choice, he reasoned.

“Okay. Okay, you win.” He sighed, but he was smiling as he looked back between the women. “One night. I’ll meet your boss, and then if I still want to go, I’ll go.”

He doubted they’d let that happen even if they did take his offer, but it was going to have to be good enough for them. He relaxed again, releasing tension that unless someone was paying close attention to his every movement, they’d have missed until that release.

He ate quietly for a little while, then asked, “Did you two have anything else you needed to know, or would you rather I just get this over with? I wouldn’t mind passing the time.”
 
Ame didn’t notice the release, but Smokey did. He was relaxing, little by little. Had he been preparing for a fight? Had he been preparing to run? Whatever it was, he wasn’t thinking about doing it anymore. And then he set in on the body, ravenous like a person who hadn’t seen food in weeks. He didn’t even seem to mind the smell of the body. Maybe he hadn’t seen food in weeks. After all, he was being chased.

Which begged the question.

“Listen. We need to know what you’re running from so we can better protect you. The more we know, the safer you can be.” Smokey gestured again, but this time just a quick motion, a quick wave of her hand. Ame nodded in agreement, her short hair bobbing.

“So out with it, what’s on your tail?”​
 
He paused before putting the next bite in his mouth, his eyes turning unfocused for just a moment. Honestly, he’d been expecting more questions about this, the morbid curiosity that came with the territory of watching something just like you get eaten by a monster. He remembered her eyes, her face, when she found him. Was she the reason he expected that? Or was it just reasonable?

He blinked his eyes a few times to clear the image away. No more. Not tonight. He could talk about her, he was sure. He could without breaking apart or falling apart.

“A meta. She’s – fire, I think. Heat at least. She can heal pretty good and she can fly. She’s…” He sighed, and he seemed to become smaller. Not losing tension, but almost curling in on himself, spiritually. “She’s beautiful the same way a wildfire is. Unstoppable and mesmerizing. And obsessed. She– doesn’t want me gone. Not like that. But she wants… she wants the part of me that nobody can have. I’m worried she’ll keep burning away the parts of me that make me human, that make me a person, until… until it’s just the teeth left. And then I don’t know if I’m more worried she’s going to burn that, or give herself to them.”

It was the first time he was saying it out loud. Fuck, it was the first time in months he was actually addressing people for longer than a quick ‘lovely weather, isn’t it?’ chat over the cashier counter.

“She’s destructive, she’s violent, and she’s – beautiful the way a wolf is. But she’s going to hurt me in ways she won’t even realize, and she’s going to destroy anything that gets in her way. And it’s going to destroy her, too. But she’s not going to see that.”

He looked back at Smokey. He felt like she saw what he was – not just the scavenger, but the predator, too. He felt seen by her in a way Amethyst didn’t seem to notice. And it was nice, to be seen by something that wasn’t trying to kill him for once.

He wiped his mouth, and then went back to his food, finishing in a too-casual tone compared to the ramble he’d gone on earlier: “Sorry, it’s – hard to put a ‘who’ to the ‘what’, sometimes. She introduced herself as Sam. Sam Walsh, I want to say.”
 
For a while, both of the women simply listened, taking mental notes about what they could do about a meta who had fire. Sure, Amethyst could do a lot of damage, but they had never faced off against someone with fire in their veins before. And god, did he have a problem. A stalker, not an aggressor. Ame opened her mouth, prepared to launch into tactics and discussions on countering her when they both paused, tension flowing between them. They looked at each other for a moment and then back at him.

“I need to go call my boss back. Just a minute.” Smokey pulled her phone out of her pocket and started walking back toward the door. She had the phone to her ear by the time she reached the door, and had already started to speak. “Hey, boss, we have a problem.”

The door closed behind her as silence greeted her. He was waiting, waiting for more information. “We got it out of ‘im what he’s on the run from. Girl made of fire, who goes by the name of Sam Walsh.”

That earned a sharp inhale, a breath of disbelief. Then a small cry, almost as though he was relieved, but also concerned. “I see. So she’s alive then. Unexpected, but not unwelcome. Maybe we can bag both of them and keep them separate while we work on her. See what you can do.”

“Will do. See ya in the morning.”

Inside the building, Ame tried to act as naturally as possible. But she couldn't hide the way her foot started tapping or the way her eyes darted to the door Smokey had disappeared beyond. She couldn't help the way her fingers went to her mouth and she began nibbling on her nails. She couldn't hide the nerves. “A girl made of fire. You sure have got one hell of an admirer. How did that happen?”

While she spoke, Smokey returned, slipping the phone into her pocket. She deliberately didn’t make eye contact, but Ame swallowed anyway, as though nervous. This wasn’t just the girl stalking Nick, after all.

If he was right, this was the girl who was destroying all their safe houses and bases of operation. This was the girl who was ruining their organization piece by fucking piece.

This was the boss’s sister.​
 
Nick’s ears were almost as good as his nose. Even while he watched Amethyst, even as he kept eating the corpse, he could hear the soft voice outside. Hushed tones at this proximity wouldn’t protect a conversation from him – and even with the closed door, he could strain his ears to hear the boss’s voice. Since there wasn’t any sound inside except the tapping of Amethyst’s foot and his own quiet eating, he picked up the words, if no other verbal cues.

Bag made this sound like an elaborate kidnapping. He doubted that’s what they actually meant, but he didn’t like it. It didn’t sit right. They were an organization – a meta organization – and Sam had been… she’d killed a lot of people when they met in Billings. A safehouse’s amount of people. And this organization knew who she was. Just saying her name had gotten their attention.

On the one hand. He was going to bring her to their fucking doorstep, and he wouldn’t be able to do anything about what happened next. But, on the other hand… maybe he already had. Maybe she’d go for them anyway, and maybe, just maybe, his warning could save some lives. Maybe he wasn’t hopeless. Maybe he didn’t have to destroy everything he touched.

Maybe.

It was hard to think about maybes, as tired as he was, as hungry as he was realizing he was, now that he’d actually gotten to work on the corpse.

“Because I was pretending to be a person when I didn’t feel like one.” He sighed. He closed his eyes, but reopened them when a face looked back – not hers, this time. This time, it was Arlo. None of this would’ve happened if Arlo had killed him. “I’d – lost my closest friend. Because of what I was. I wasn’t dangerous, and I – I was alone. And she… she came on strong. I didn’t think. We… we spent the night in a motel room. Together. And I left without saying goodbye. She followed me after. I didn’t make it easy, but I... haven’t been able to lose her. Believe me, God, I’ve tried.”

And every word reaffirmed it in his heart. My fault. It was his fault that she had started on this path. Maybe not on her path of destruction, but – but if he’d said no that night, if he’d turned her away, if he’d just left before she could touch him and ran then…

But that wasn’t what happened. He picked up where he’d left off on the liver. He was here now, and he had to live with the consequences of his choices. Survive, because everything he’d done so far to survive would be wasted if he didn’t. He’d take their help, for tonight. And maybe there was something he’d be able to do, when she came for them.

Because there was no doubt in his mind: if he stayed more than a few hours, she would come.
 
“I’m sorry, you did what now?” Ame gave him a look, and then when Smokey looked at her with confusion, she sighed and pointed at Nick. “This idiot slept with Sam Walsh and then didn’t stay til the morning. He left her all by herself.”

Smokey turned wide eyes on Nick and gave him the kind of smile you give someone when you are impressed. But she didn’t seem impressed by how he was eating the body anymore. Instead, a small, humorless laugh slipped past her lips.

“You slept with Walsh and then ya left her? God, I was starting to think ya must be smart to be evading her all this time, but now I see that that ain’t true at all. Couldn’t have picked a worse girl’s heart to break even if ya tried, sugar.” Smokey laughed and looked at Amethyst with another look, this one indeterminable except to Ame, who nodded and then sighed. Both women looked back at Nick.

“Listen, kid, if this is the girl we think she is, and we’re pretty positive she is, you have fucked up. I don’t think you could have picked a more emotionally intense person if you went out of your way to find one. You let this girl fall head over heels for you, and after that whole business in Columbus, well. I can’t believe she had the stomach to try and love anyone again. You probably broke her.”

“Listen, listen here honey-bun, you can’t go blaming him for all of it. That girl is single-minded. The kind of damage she’s done already to Slate, it isn’t his fault.” Smokey turned back toward Nick and shook her head at him. “Ame’s right, baby. You done fucked up. You’d be better off trying to fix this with her, but, well, if ya can’t bring yourself to do that, we’ll help you out. Our boss wants her anyway. He needs to talk to her. So don’t worry none about bringing her to our doorstep. That’s where we want her.”

Ame stretched out with a loud groan, her back cracking sharply. “After Columbus, she shouldn’t be that dangerous at all. Sure, she can do all that stuff you say she can, but she’s broken. She was long before she met you. You just gave her a reason to li–”

“Ame, that’s too far, honey-bun.”

The woman rolled her honey-brown eyes and smiled. “Sorry, Smokey. I’ll cut it back.”​
 
“I thought I was protecting her.”

His voice was dull, and numb. He’d slowed down his eating to listen, and the longer the two of them talked, the less he became. He didn’t look at either of them while they talked, though he tilted his head toward one or the other to indicate he was still listening. He had his face lowered, though. He didn’t want them to see the exhaustion, the guilt he already felt. He took a long, shaky breath when they finished, and another after his first statement. He turned the heart in his hands over.

“I… when I said I lost my friend, I wasn’t telling the whole truth.” He spoke quietly, but he pushed himself to keep going. “He – he was like us. A meta. He cared about – humans. Normal people. More than anything. I was able to lie to him about what I was for – a long time. Two years. And when he found out, I – I had to –”

He stopped himself from choking. He didn’t deserve to choke on tears for Arlo. God, he was pathetic. All of this was his fault. He was supposed to be a monster – a hunter. He wasn’t supposed to care this much. He wasn’t supposed to have feelings, to get broken. Part of him that might still have an edge complained about that, complained about his softness. But he remembered her face, dotted with freckles, her glowing golden eyes, the scent of cinnamon and blood. His fingers curled around the heart in his hands like he wanted to crush it, but couldn’t quite find the strength.

“And then she came in. And she was everything. Maybe – maybe, if she hadn’t assumed we could be soulmates… maybe. But you need a soul for that. I can’t even feel angry about what I’ve done. I’m just empty. I don’t have anything to say. I’m sorry – of course I am. But I broke her. I did. She’s seen this. She’s seen what I am. And she –”

The cold heart buckled a little under his hand, and he relaxed his grip, his eyes coming back into focus. There were tears on his cheeks. He sat still, so they couldn’t see them. The self-pity, the guilt that he didn’t deserve. That should infuriate him, but only resonated in the empty space where his own heart might’ve been, once.

“She tried to – to feed herself to this… this hunger. Not just the hunger, but the hunt. I couldn’t – I can’t let her. I can’t go back to what I was before. I can’t lose what’s left of me. There’s no fixing us, not without losing us both. And… you’re right, Amethyst. Smokey. It’s my fault.”

Another shaky breath.

“It’s my fault.”
 

The two women looked at each other as he spoke. Then, they moved at the same time, walking toward one another. They pressed their head together and started whispering softly, facing away from him so he wouldn’t be able to read their lips. Already, his statement about hearing better was lost on them.

“Should we tell him, Ame?”

“What do you want us to say to him, Smokes? ‘Listen, you didn’t break her, our boss did because he tried to kill her and killed who she thought was the love of her life?’”

“That is exactly what I want to say to him. He deserves to know he didn’t break her, that she was done broken already. He can’t possibly know that by running from her he probably took away the only reason she had found to maybe stop this suicide mission she’s been on for like the last five years.”

“You heard him. He thinks this is all his fault. He ain’t gonna listen to us. No, we should just get him to finish up here so we can take him back to the safe house.”

“Alrigh’, alrigh’.” Both women turned back toward him with tense smiles. Ame’s soft face was tense and Smokey’s was finally fully relaxed, almost as though they had traded positions. Smokey gave him a soft smile. “Alrigh’ sugar, let’s hurry this on up. We got to get you back to the safe house before your friend catches up.”​
 

While the two women were talking to Todd inside the warehouse, Sam was sitting in the alcove of one of the overhead skylights of the building. She had cracked the window open just enough to hear what was happening inside. Thanks to the new soap and perfumes she had started using, she was pretty sure she was masking her scent enough with daisies to trick even his nose. She sat and she listened and she immediately regretted it. She waited until they left before she made any movement, any sound. She watched as the car drove away.

And then, and only then, did she let the tears start to fall and the sobs start to come. Only then did she curl in on herself and cry as loudly as she had that day in the motel room. Only then did she bury her hands in her hair and press her face into her knees.

God, he thought such terrible things about her. Violent and destructive. Obsessive. He thought all she wanted was the teeth, was his hunt and his bite and to feed herself to him. God, she had been so stupid to have said all of that. She had regretted it ever since, and now she knew that was all he saw her as. He thought that she was going to destroy them both.

Or was it? She took in a shuddering breath as she remembered the rest of the things he had said. Unstoppable and mesmerizing. Beautiful.

Everything.

That hurt her heart more than she had words to express it with. She was everything. The way he had said that. Like it was the most obvious thing in the whole world. Like it was fact, and nothing could dispute it. She was everything.

The tears that had started to stop came again, and she put both her hands to the center of her chest, curling in on herself. She felt cold. The girl made of fire and heat and who burned as bright as a star in the evening sky was now so cold. Her heart felt like it was breaking. She had messed up. She had messed up so badly. If she had just stayed quiet– if she just hadn’t said those damn words– if he had never heard her say soulmate–

But it was too late for ifs. It was too late. She had ruined it by chasing him, had ruined it with her own words and actions. He was scared of her now and thought she’d burn them both into ash. He thought there was no way to fix them, not without losing them both.

What if there was? What if there was a way for them to save this? He thought she was everything. She had scared him off with words– maybe she could fix it with them. She was mentally better than she had been the night he wouldn’t listen to her, the night she had found him eating. She wouldn’t use the word soulmate. She wouldn’t even use the word love.

She could fix this. She had to fix this.

Because Todd was everything too.


She paced down the street. It hadn’t been hard to find the safe house. Once you knew where they were and how to get to them, they were easy to find in whatever city they had set up in. And they had set up in a lot of cities. The Slate safe house in Bismark was just outside town, in a small complex that had a sign that read “Redeemer”. No other signs anywhere on the property, and aside from a single gated fence, it looked like a completely ordinary small event hall.

But Sam knew that inside the building, the halls were lined with bedrooms and office spaces and “dispensaries”. That was what their members referred to their arsenal as. A nice and subtle way to distribute weapons, with an easy enough name that it didn’t rouse suspicion.

She looked at it and tried to work up her nerve. She wasn’t nervous about the safe house. She’d been through a lot of Slate safe houses, especially in the last year and a half. No, she was nervous about what she’d find inside. Because either he would see her, and she would be able to talk to him again, maybe even touch him and feel that warmth fill her from head to toe again.

Or he would send her away and refuse to see her.

She didn’t know what she would do if he did that. She didn’t. All she knew was that she was willing to put everything on the line for this to work. She was willing to do anything he wanted. She was willing to go as slow as he needed. She was willing to go as fast as he wanted.

All these months later, and she still just wanted to be near him. At this point, she didn’t care how.

With a deep breath, she strode up to the gate and moved in past it. She was dressed in civilian clothes, her vigilante kit left in the car. She had her suit on underneath her clothes, but other than that, she was weaponless. She knew the moment she touched the gate that the sensor activated camera would have flicked on. She looked around until she found it, sitting in a nearby tree.

She looked ahead again and headed to the door. It opened before she got there, and she was greeted by a pair of women, one mixed black with a halo of curls, and one a Latina with two-toned hair. They stood side by side in the doorway, arms crossed as they looked at her. She walked right up to them with no hesitation.

“Please. Tell him I’m here and I just want to talk. I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to hurt anyone, I just… want to talk.” There was a tiredness to her voice, a softness that took the edge off her rasp. She looked at the ground, her eyes slightly unfocused as she tried not to show how desperate she was for his hands on her again, for his voice saying her name, for his presence. Yet, her hands shook in front of her, and her lips trembled.

The two women– Amethyst and Smokey, she knew– exchanged looks. They made some gestures with their heads and their hands, a silent conversation that Sam didn’t try to read. She didn’t want to know. Finally, the dark-skinned woman turned to her and said, “Sugar, you stay here. I’ll go see if he wants to see ya. If he does, I’ll come collect ya. Honeybun, stay here with ‘er, I’ll be back.”

She clapped the Latina woman on her shoulder gently and headed back into the building. The two women didn’t stare at each other. Or at least, Sam didn’t. She couldn’t do anything other than stare at their shoes. She was so tired of this. She was so tired of crying. She just wanted to take comfort in Todd’s arms and spend the next month resting, recovering, and helping him to deal with the trauma of his best friend. Arlo Baker. She remembered that name.

Either way, she would wait​
 

Smokey was uncertain as she moved through the safe house. Amethyst thought this was a good idea, even if she didn’t. She thought they could fix it, that they could save what they were. Whatever they were. The girl clearly loved him and just wanted to fix things. Maybe that was enough. Maybe he wouldn’t be upset to hear she was there. After all, he clearly had some strong feelings for her.

Or had them. Who was to say if still did? Certainly not Smokey.

She walked to the door that had put Nick in and knocked on it. She cracked it open slightly and peeked inside. “Hey sugar, you awake in here? Your, uh, friend has arrived. And she wants to talk.”​
 
Todd heard everything the women had said in the warehouse, of course he had, but he was too tired to really understand everything it meant. He finished his meal quietly, as if he wasn’t spending every second dwelling on the last… the last…

Eleven. Eleven months. A year, if he included the memories of Arlo; three years, if he included the good memories of Arlo. He’d never had good memories of Sam, not after that first night. He… he didn’t know if he wanted that. He remembered her warmth, the satisfaction, the pleasure, the happiness that wasn’t even second to the huntsong anymore, maybe colored by the blur of memory. But there was so much more after that. Just as his memories of Arlo were a single painful moment in a sea of good ones, the memories of Sam were a series of pained refusals with only a glimmer of hope from that first night. He remembered her face as he left her. He remembered her demand that he take her, if that was the only way she could have him. He remembered every time he had heard her cry or scream, the buckle of her bones beneath his teeth, her smile as she offered him that goddamn knife –

He finished eating in silence. A suicide mission. She wanted to die, and she loved him. So she wanted him to kill her. That didn’t make him angry. Did he not have the energy to be angry, or was the sadness just written into him as deeply as the hunger? Or was he just – just what he’d believed himself to be, for the last year. A hollow place in the world. A person who wasn’t really a person, a monster pantomiming emotions the way he changed faces.

Another face was added to his repertoire tonight, as he finished his first meal in months. It was cold and bitter and smelled heavily of decay, but it was a meal. It filled him. As he took the second hand back out of his bag and bit into it, he could feel the lethargy starting to spread through him, warm where the meal hadn’t been.

When he was done, he wiped the last of the gristle on his sleeve for the last time, then rocked to his feet and collected his knife and his bag. There wasn’t anything left to collect. He’d followed Smokey and Amethyst out to their car and absently noted the make and model – Kia Cadenza, dark silver. Basic sedan. A good choice. It made him ache for his Malibu.

The ache didn’t last long, however. He was asleep almost before he’d fastened his seatbelt.


He’d also fallen asleep as soon as he hit the bed. He hadn’t bothered to check for extra clothes.He’d barely bothered to strip out of his boots and coat, or to tug the comforter free. The exhaustion cradled him almost like a blanket all its own, secure and known and welcome. He slept dreamlessly, as he almost always did. It was the kind of sleep that could carry him through a day or more, if given the chance.

A knock on the door told him he wasn’t going to be given the chance. His eyes pried themselves open against their will as something cut through the weariness – adrenaline, he recognized for a second, before the memories of the night before washed away the panic. He knew the voice that came. With a deep sigh, he pulled himself up into a sitting position, and rubbed his eyes.

And then he registered what Smokey Quartz had a actually said, and he felt the adrenaline rush in again. He didn’t let it bleed into his body language, but he took a deep, slow breath.

“I, uh… oh.” He ran a hand through his tangled curls, thinking the information over. His head was foggy, not with hunger, but with regular sleepiness. He hadn’t had nearly enough time to process his food. He blinked a few more times, then decided to just… go with it. It wasn’t like he had the strength to run, if she wanted to chase him. Or worse.

“Um… sure, okay.” He took a deep breath. “You got a change of clothes and a bathroom I could wash up in?”
 

Smokey nodded her head thoughtfully as she looked him over. He no longer looked dead on his feet, replaced instead by a sleepy kind of tired. The kind where you were woken up too early to be able to claim a good night’s rest. It had been a little more than seven hours, and yet, he still was this tired? God, running from Sam Walsh was as much of an event as she thought it was then.

“Yeah, we got something that should fit ya. It’s gonna be loose, not much we can do ‘bout that. I’ll show ya to the bathroom and… should I be lettin’ her in, then?”

She opened the door the rest of the way and leaned against the doorframe. She caught the eye of one of the human members of their team and gave a quick order to find him a set of usable clothes. Then, she turned back to him and waited for his response.

Still, she didn’t think this was a good idea. But it wasn’t up to her. Something about it sat uneasily in her chest, as though she was waiting for it to all implode. But if he was okay with seeing her, if he wanted to see her, then Smokey would do what he wanted. If he changed his mind, for even a moment, though, she was flashing the girl right out the front door and maybe off a cliff. Though, apparently, she could fly, so who knew what would actually kill her.

Smokey was ready to find out.​
 
Against his body’s complaining ache, Todd swayed to his feet. The sheets were probably unsalvageable, based on the smell, and that was part of the reason why he knew he desperately needed a shower. He could shower fast, if it came to it, even if they didn’t have the industrial-grade stuff he’d gotten used to using to get rid of smells and blood. Everyone here knew what he was, he was sure, so it wasn’t like he was hiding anything. Just making himself presentable.

He knew a shower would give him plenty of time for second guesses, but he’d burn that bridge like the rest of ’em when he got to it. He paused when Smokey asked her question, though. Like she was looking for his permission.

“I… I guess that’s up to you guys.” He swallowed, then looked at her. His face was still masked with sleep, but for the first time – maybe in a whole year – his eyes had just a hint of hope in them. “If she hasn’t started a fight yet, then I don’t think she came looking for one. But if you don’t want to risk it, I can go outside with her. We’ll be okay.”

Maybe. Maybe he almost believed himself when he said that. Or maybe he was too tired to keep fighting the hope off, keep burying himself in grief and exhaustion and hunger that wasn’t hunger.

Maybe he just needed a hot shower before he actually made a decision.
 

There was a moment of silence and then a dramatic sigh filled the space. She jerked her chin toward the hall. She started moving, calling back over her shoulder, “You’re the one whose life she’s ruined. Sugar, this is your decision. Judging by that look in your eye, I’ll be lettin’ her in. Get cleaned up and we’ll get you two set up in the lounge. Ask anyone to point ya the direction when you get out, or better yet, have ‘em show ya the way.”

She walked with him down the hall and to the left until they reached a few doors. She gestured wide with her arm. “Take your pick. They’re all functional. I’ll have ya clothes brought out and set outside the door for ya.”

With that, Smokey turned on her heels and left, heading back toward the entrance. On her way, she passed the young woman who she had sent to acquire clothing for Nick, and then sent her off in the right direction. She kept going until she returned to the front door.

Amethyst and Sam were continuing to be silent. They looked like they’d been silent the entire time. Ame’s eyes were still looking Sam over, taking in long and sleek curls, tangled around themselves, and her gold eyes that flashed in much the same way as Obsdiain’s. Well, if they were ever concerned they had the wrong girl, the family resemblance told them right. Sam looked up at her approach, her eyes wide and full of something indescribable. A mixture of dread and hope, maybe. Maybe a touch of fear, maybe a touch of want or need.

Smokey came up to stand next to Ame and sighed, looking down at the girl. She was so small, so tiny for so much fuss and chaos and destruction. And the way she carried herself, it was all wrong. This wasn’t someone who was meant to be small. Still, she preferred her this way. Small. At least then she wouldn’t try to fight them.

“He said yes. He’s getting cleaned up. You can come and sit in the lounge while we wait.”

A strangled gasp came from the small girl and she watched as Sam dropped her head into her hands and took in a shuddering breath. When she looked back up, her eyes had so much hope in them, so much fear, that she almost felt bad for her.

“Thank you. I would… I would like that.”

The three women walked into the building, the door shutting behind them.​
 
“Trust me, my life was ruined a while before I met her.” He flashed an unconvincing smile, then followed after Smokey, paying attention to her instructions.

Maybe the shower was a little longer than he actually needed, but the hot water soothed the muscles that hadn’t forgiven him for waking up before his body was ready. His meal hadn’t finished “digesting”, or whatever his equivalent was, but he had enough energy to be functional, and to think. His mind crossed over a number of long and winding trails before he finally realized that he felt better, and not just because of the food.

He wanted to see her.

He hadn’t been lying to Amethyst and Smokey: he still thought of Sam as everything. Even broken, either by Obsidian or by his own hand, she was the opposite of himself. Fire and light, where he was cold and shadow. Energy expended where he was just energy taken, and taken, and taken.

And for the first time in months, he recognized what they were. A balance, as all things should be.

He dried himself, pulled on the clothes he’d been given – baggy darkwash jeans with a belt that still didn’t really do it, and a black long-sleeved shirt that fit in length but could fit two of him in width. That was okay, though. They were clothes.

He looked at himself in the mirror, and debated shaving or doing something with his hair, then decided against it. He’d wasted too much time already, and Sam was waiting. She’d been waiting for him. And now, finally, he really didn’t have anywhere to run. He knew if he said the word, Amethyst and Smokey would make her go. But he didn’t want to risk them,, if it wasn’t necessary.

Despite Smokey’s advice, he asked directions to the lounge and then found his own way. Halfway there, he picked it up, masked though it was under something heavy and floral: cinnamon. He didn’t need the directions to get the rest of the way there.

She was dressed simply. A green high-neck sweater, a denim jacket, faded bootcut pants. She seemed so much smaller than last time – not as small as she had at Zion, but small enough for him to notice. She’d fallen back from the clean, groomed woman who’d approached him in Wisconsin. Her hair tangled the way it had their first night, impossible to run hands through without some worrying.

The only thing keeping her from being the woman he met was the way her fire seemed to have died down to embers, the same way his teeth had become dull and his instincts panicked. He took a deep breath as he paused in the doorway, then decided the best course of action was to lean against the frame and slip his thin hands into the too-big pockets. She didn’t need to know the way his heart raced the second he laid eyes on her, though whether it was excitement or fear even he didn’t know.

“Hey, Sam.”
 

She felt him coming long before she saw him. She knew his heartbeat, the vibrations of his body, the weight and spacing of his footsteps. And the closer he got, the more afraid she was. She was finding herself so afraid, so afraid of what he might say or think or do. She was so afraid of this going sideways, or of him just telling her to go away again, to leave his life and never come back. She was so afraid of a repeat of Wisconsin.

Then, his steps reached the door, and her heartbeat, which she hadn’t even been paying attention to, thundered in her chest. He was in her veins again, so close. She felt him vibrating through her. The tension in her shoulders faded out as she breathed in a trembling breath. He was right there. He was so close, but so far away.

She couldn’t look up at him. She was frozen. Her eyes remained locked on the ground as she heard him shift, as she felt his heart begin to race. Why was his heart racing? Was that excitement, or was that fear? She couldn’t tell the difference between the two. Not right then. It could have been either, or it could have been anger. And then, his voice came.

And he said her name.

He said her name, and it was free of the anger and malice and disgust that had been there before in Wisconsin. He said her name, and something indescribable seized in her chest, suffocating her. He said her name, and the tears started to flow. She finally looked up at him.

He looked worse than the last time they had seen each other, but better than all the little glimpses she had managed to get from a distance. He looked tired. He was scruffy, the starting of a beard on his face, his hair a little longer than it had been before. The clothes that he wore hung off him like bedsheets, and she almost wanted to laugh at that and say as much.

But all of the words died before they ever reached her lips. Everything died before it reached her lips. Nothing reached her lips. What was she supposed to say? She hadn’t actually thought this through. She just knew this was better than them continuing to have to live like they had been. She didn’t want to chase anymore. She didn’t want to hunt. She just wanted to live.

She stood up, slowly, but didn’t move beyond that. She could see Smokey and Amethyst further in the room, curled up together on a couch, looking at her as though they were ready to jump to their feet. Sam didn’t move from the couch she had been sitting on. She just stood, still and slightly curled in on herself. She wrung her hands together in front of her and shuffled her boot-clad feet.

She finally got the courage to look him straight in the eyes, the blue of his melting something that had been frozen inside her. It was like her heart had been wrapped in ice for the last six months, and now, now it was thawing, and she could feel the organ beating hard. It throbbed and sent sharp pain through her chest. Heartbroken, still, even now that they were so close and even now that he was looking at her with that polite smile, that one that looked so much like the one he wore the night they met. Heartbroken.

Still, she gave the best smile she could with the tears threatening to spill down her face. “Hi, Todd. I, uhm. I–”

She stopped and looked back at the ground. She wrapped her arms around herself, as though she could hold the shattered pieces together. “I just… I want to talk. Please. Please talk to me.”​
 
He could smell her fear, and her heartbreak. He already knew she wasn’t afraid of him, not his teeth, anyway. She didn’t have to fear his teeth, because he wouldn’t turn them on her. But Todd knew she was still afraid. He could see it in the way she didn’t look at him, the way she shifted her weight. She was afraid he’d run again. That he’d yell, again. She didn’t see that he didn’t have the strength to be angry. He didn’t have the energy to hate her, to keep up this chase. He’d had the chance to rest, and his body wouldn’t have run if she’d lunged at him the second she saw him.

She looked like she had in Moab. Small, worn thin by the chase. A hunter, following impossible prey. His wolf looked at him, and the politeness in his own expression wavered, giving way to his own nerves, his own grief.

If they’d been anyone else, they could’ve had everything. He knew that as a fact. If he was anything else – anything but a creature of hunger and fear and guilt – then they never would’ve had to go through all of that chase to get here. If he wasn’t a predator, she wouldn’t have needed to become one, too. Now he knew better than to look at her and see the brokenness. She was strong, stronger than he’d ever be. Even when she made herself small, it was an illusion. Not a deception, but something that reflected her hunger. Reflected how badly she needed him. Him. How convinced she was that he was her soulmate.

The soulless thing that was Todd Fowler looked down at his own feet for a second. Bare as they were, he could see his own bones in them. But that was nothing new. He’d stopped eating often enough to look healthy years before he ever met Sam Walsh.

And now he looked at her, holding herself together with her own two hands, and his nonexistent heart broke. Those feet started to move, and he didn’t stop them until he was across the room. Until his hands were under her elbows, touching her, close enough that if she wanted to be held, all she had to do was close the last few inches.

“Sure, Sam,” he said, quietly, the words too feeble to cross more than the space between them. “What do you want to talk about?”
 
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