[log] Nothing from nowhere, I'm no one at all [closed]

[spoileralert]

Characters: Stephanie Brown and Shiro Fujimoto
Location Building 40
Date: Day 79, evening
Summary: Steph loses her friends, but regains a straight nose
Warnings: Broken nose squick?

[ Steph was really starting to hate bats. They had come out of nowhere, silent in the snow except for the flapping of their leathery wings. They all knew they couldn't fight the beasts, and the four of them had no choice but to turn and run. They tried to go back in the direction they had come from, the nearest building they knew of, but the bat-things cut them off.

After that things got a little confusing. They kept changing directions, slipping in the snow, shouting directions to each other over the sound of wind and flapping wings. Before Steph knew what was happening she was being shoved hard in the direction of the house. She heard all three of the boy's voices telling her to run. So she ran.

Glancing back, all she could make out of her friends was a couple of limbs: a leg, an automail arm, Al's helmet, all being drawn into the black maws of the bat monsters. She opened her mouth to call out to them, but could only gasp.

She thought she could hear Al telling her to go, but the light of his red eyes had already faded.

The bats were distracted by their meals, giving Steph the time she needed to turn and run. She didn't look back again, not even when she ran (almost literally) into Shiro. She grabbed his arm as she passed and pulled. ]

Go go go go go!

Comments

[lionson]

We can. Or do you need a little longer?

[To calm down, he means. Because yeah that was a pretty traumatic thing to experience, he will totally understand if she wants to wait a little longer.]

[spoileralert]

Not like waiting will make anything better.

[ She slides down the wall into a sitting position and glowers at the floor. First with Angel and Rhys, and now Ed, Al and Greed are dead. Life sucks. Everything sucks, and her nose hurts, and she just wants to go to sleep and forget about everything for a little while. ]

[lionson]

Here, take this first.

[Out of his pocket comes a half-pill of Vicodin. He brought a couple more too just in case, but he figures one at a time would be better.]

By the time I'm done, it should be kicking in.

[spoileralert]

[ She eyes the pill sadly. Yes, she recognizes it. Hard not to, when the last week or so was based on obtaining these pills. But she sighs and pops it in her mouth, then takes a swig from her water bottle to down the tablet. She sighs, mentally preparing herself. ]

Alright. Ready when you are.

[lionson]

Right, I'll be as quick as I can with it.

[And he just. He holds the side of her head with one hand, takes her nose between the thumb and index finger of his other, and does a quick movement to snap it back into place.

He kept the tissues out by the way, in case there is bleeding. Which there probably will be.]

[spoileralert]

[ She tries really hard, but ends up yelping loudly anyway. Her hands come up instinctively to protect her nose, but she knows better than to get in the way. They just hover uselessly to either side of her face as a slow trickle of blood comes out from her nose. ]

God that hurt worse than I remember.

[lionson]

That's the funny thing about pain, the memory of it dulls in our brains.

[Don't mind him, he's just twisting up a couple tissues to stuff up Steph's nose, to stop the bleeding.]

Do you want to do this next part, or leave it up to my medical expertise?

[spoileralert]

[ She starts wiping blood from her lip, remembering the boys coming in and finding her like this a few days ago. They had all been so worried about her... Worried enough to die to save her. God, she hates herself right now. ]

I can do it. Thanks.

[ As promised, a sense of numb calm washes over her. It makes her tired, but she doesn't want to sleep. Her nose hurts less and less. ]

Is that the... Vicodin? That Angel stole from house?

[lionson]

[Shiro shrugs.]

Dunno whose it is. I found a bottle in the clinic, and I took some of it. They were pretty big, so I cut the ones I took in half.

[Mostly true. Technically he asked Clayton for them, but he knows way too much about that drama, and decides not to bring it up right now.]

[spoileralert]

Probably stolen.

[ She doesn't really care if it's stolen, it's the ridiculous shenanigans behind the theft that bother her. She holds the tissues to her nostrils and makes sure to breath through her mouth. Then she starts crying again. ]

[lionson]

[Oh no more crying.

Shiro sits there for a moment, awkwardly considering what to do. After a couple seconds, he leans over and pulls Steph into a loose hug, so that at least she can cry on someone instead of crying on her own. That is usually helpful in a situation like this, where people have died.]

[spoileralert]

[ She can't decide what to do for a second, but finally props her chin on his shoulder. At least this way she won't get any blood or tears on him. She feels so pathetic. So useless. ]

Sorry. I'm sorry.

[lionson]

[Hey, if it's helping, he won't complain. Blood and tears can be washed out later.]

Don't apologize. A very traumatic thing just happened, it's normal to be upset.

[spoileralert]

I just--

[ She sniffles, making her head swim with a combination of dull pain and narcotic pain killers. ]

I keep losing people. I'm so sick of it.

[lionson]

I know. It never gets easier, even if you know they're coming back soon.

[He's had way too many people die in front of him, and that was all without the promise of coming back to life.]

[spoileralert]

That's the one good thing about this place. People coming back.

[ Not that she's had a lot of luck with that. Still, it's more hope than she has for her father or best friend. ]

I'm really starting to hate bats.