Meliora - Emanate - 31

[lady_mab]

Rhys Darcy

Something in the region of where my shoulder might be shakes me gently. “Rhys. Rhys, I need you to wake up.”

A groan leaks from my mouth. Moving is a multi-step project: Think the action, remember where my body is in relation to itself, force the part to move, push through the pain, move, damn it, move.

Gravel bites into my skin and plays across my lips as I breathe. Since when did my cheek become so intimate with the asphalt?

Something presses against the side of my neck, warm and reassuring compared to the icy air. It finds what it’s looking for, and moves instead to the side of my face. Light floods my vision as my eyelids are pried open. First one side, then the other. All I can make out is a blurred shadow.

“C’mon, Rhys. Open your eyes.”

“Mmng.” I mean to say you already opened them for me, but a jumbled mess of sounds escapes instead. Close enough.

“I don’t speak concussion. Please open your eyes.”

My brain starts sorting through the information as it comes leaking in through my battered nerves. Kaito’s voice processes first. So those must be his hands on my face.

There’s a thin layer of dust inside my mouth, though I don’t know how it got there. My head feels disconnected from the pieces of my body that I can sense. A steady flow of pain takes over as I become more aware. Pins and needles indicate the edges of my form.

“I hurt,” I finally manage, although it sounds far less coherent. My jaw refuses to move, another in my long list of aches.

“I know, but you have to open your eyes. Keep talking, and open your eyes.”

I’ve never heard this level of panic in his voice before. The soft, urgent pressure to his words, the familiar accent slipping into something else. I wish I knew the reason. I wish I knew why I was lying on the sidewalk after—

I bolt upright, sucking in a lungful of air. My brain kicks into high gear as it pieces together the scattered puzzle. “Where is Liala?”

Kaito catches me with an arm around my shoulders as I sag under the sudden weight of gravity. Everything whirls and tilts around us. “Lia’s fine. Lio and I came when she called us. He took her home.” His hand closes around mine, pressing strength through his palm and fingertips.

It takes several attempts before I can muster, “What happened?”

“I don’t know. Lia sort of managed to explain it. That monster showed up again, didn’t it? The one from the graveyard.”

A shudder takes over my entire body, and despite my best efforts, I can’t make it stop. My breathing stutters, catches, then doesn’t come at all. It wheezes, stuck in my throat.

One of Kaito's hands presses to my stomach, the other resting across my shoulders. He eases me upright, and I will myself to breathe -- to feel the press of his hand against my stomach rise and fall as I inhale, exhale, steadily return to normal.

The first thing that I manage to ask is, "Where are my glasses?"

I hear his confusion on the pause. "Out of all the things to worry about--" He shakes his head. "Sorry, they were cracked. I hope you have a spare."

I do, and another pair at the twins' apartment. So I'll be fine. Instead, I pick up from the earlier question. "It was another one of those creatures from the graveyard. Same in every detail. The buzzing, the wide unseeing eyes..." I shudder again, but at least this time it passes quickly. "It got so close so quickly. I have no idea how I had..." I run out of breath before finishing the thought, shoulders slumping and jaw falling slack.

"Rhys?"

I'm suddenly very tired. My head dips forward, chin settling against my chest. I mutter for the sake of responding. Even though I'm sitting on the sidewalk of an empty street, I want to curl up and sleep.

"Rhys!"

I jump at the sudden clarity of his voice. My head snaps up. My body is supported by arms stronger than my spine. "It--It spoke this time. It grabbed me by the arm and it burned." My fingers stray to the spot on my arm that aches in a different way than the rest of my body. There are tears in my jacket, scorched along the edges. "What the actual fuck is that thing...?"

Talking is an effort that I can't muster the energy for. I suck in several breaths, or at least try to before everything starts to spin again. My eyes pinch shut.

Kaito remains where he is perched at my side -- one hand to my shoulder blades, the other shifting back to his lap. "Lio took Lia home about fifteen minutes ago. I didn't want to move you until I could wake you, but both of them said no hospitals."

I manage to force my eyes open long enough to focus on him. His dark eyes look black under the streetlight. The panic that settles into his expression adds to the wave of guilt and nausea that threaten to overtake me. "I'm sorry."

"What? Why?"

My hands flop uselessly in my lap. I meant to indicate something, anything, but I can't remember what it is that I wanted to point at. "I feel so useless."

He hesitates for a moment before reaching out. For a moment, I think he's going to press his hand to my forehead and make some kind of joke about me having a fever on top of a concussion.

Because I must. I feel so warm all over, and my heart won't slow down.

Instead, he runs his fingers through my hair. His grip settles on the back of my head and pulls out the space between us until our foreheads are pressed together.

I want to protest, to push him away and declare that I am fine. That things between us are fine, because they were a normal and comfortable distance. I'm not prepared for this, for this closeness that hasn't existed before.

A sigh tumbles from my lips. I can at least pass it off as exhaustion, and not how disappointed I am in myself for wanting more. "You had to come out here to clean up my mess."

A huff of laughter fills the space between us. "Shut up, asshole."

"It's the truth."

"This is in no way your fault."

I try to pull back, to put some space between us. To see his face better, to make him understand better. But his hand doesn't allow me to. "Every time I think I'm qualified to take care of them something comes along and proves that I'm wrong."

"This game is no reason to blame yourself. These are forces beyond your control--"

"You don't understand--"

"Until you're prepared to make me understand, Rhys Darcy, then shut the fuck up before I punch you."

His anger is loud, ferocious, so sudden that a laugh is startled out of me. "You'll just give me another concussion."

Our faces are close, impossibly close despite the miles stretching between my head and my heart. I wonder what he's thinking, if he feels the distance the way I do.

"At least you'll stop this self-loathing long enough," he says.

"Yes, because I'll be unconscious."

He carries on like I didn't even say anything. "Listen to me: The twins love you. You're my best friend." His words feel more like a punch to the gut than a reassurance. "You keep my business running, and you keep your family alive."

His free hand shifts to press to my chest, and I hate that my heartbeat jumps to meet the touch. "I will help you through this. I owe you this much."

My emotions choke me, threaten to overwhelm me in a torrent I can't control. "Kaito--" My voice falters and falls before I can figure out the rest of the sentence.

The silence between us breaks when my watch beeps to signal a new hour.

We both glance at the face, illuminated with an eerie green light that quickly fades.

"I don't think I've actually said happy birthday yet," Kaito says suddenly. "Which is dumb because I was doing payroll all morning and staring at the date."

"If it makes you feel any better, I sort of want to forget that this day even happened." That's not completely true. If anything, I want to remember this sensation. Of this space and the absence of it.

"Can you stand, old man?"

Somehow, I manage a snort of amusement. I didn't think I had any room for that left in me. "I've only been twenty-six for a day and already you're insulting my age." My bones feel ancient, my body like it has been remade from clay. "You'll have to be my crutch."

We move together, a stumbling dance as we struggle to figure out how to proceed. He offers me back my phone, mentioning that he and Lio had checked us in.

For just a moment, we huddle together on the curb, unspoken thoughts floating half-formed in the air. I take this feeling, the memory of this feeling, and tuck it safely away. Then we step apart, the comfortable, casual distance between us. Then, together, we head toward Lionel and Liala's apartment.