bullseye.

Spending a night in jail was not necessarily a new thing for Scratch, but spending a night in wizard jail was certainly something else. His shoulders were stiff from sitting up, and his eyes were nearly closed before he even crossed the threshold into his shitty little flat, barely managing to remember to flick the lock behind him and shuffling like a zombie through the place, ready to fall face first into bed. 

Except he couldn’t do that, because there was already a lump in his bed. 

He rubbed his eyes as he knelt down, carefully brushing warm brown hair away from Indi’s face, and eyebrow lifted. “Hey, Hawkeye. How’d you get in here?” His voice was rough, scratchy with tiredness and disuse, having spent the entire evening refusing to speak to the wizard cops in his face, but he cleared his throat a little as his eyes wandered her. “Hey… hey what happened to your arms?” 

-

breathe. it felt like someone was trying to talk to her from above water. the words were dull and intangible, each syllable drawn out and incorrect. breathe. the air coming into her lungs was shallow and painful. this felt bad. this felt wrong. indi tried to force her eyes back open. she blinked and caught sight of the blonde hair sticking in tufts. “-scratch.” she so rarely called him that. currently very ironic given the tenor of her voice. indi tried to force her eyes open again. “I- I-” breathe. “I broke your window... am I dying?”

indi was now constantly aware of her skin’s consistent burning. her throat was on fire and every breath she took felt like bee stings in her lungs. she survived the night, but time was starting to feel tight. while her coat managed to hide most of the visible damage as she desperately climbed up the side of the diner, it was obvious enough now that indi was well out of sorts. if the ministry was looking for her, then she couldn’t exactly go to their little magic hospital, but she couldn’t go to her own muggle one either. they wouldn’t know what to do. still, she needed help, and frankly, didn’t know where else to go in the moment as she broke in through the window and collapsed in scratch’s bed. she pulled a bag from her garter with extra clips and a syringe inside. indi grabbed the needle and injected herself in the thigh before losing consciousness.

location: a bar they’re used to visiting. who: indi || @indiarrow

PAM sniper and second in command, Indi and Hiedi respectively, were two members to be reckoned with. So many were before becoming softies. Heidi couldn’t let go of Indi even though her attitude was seeming to have shifted. Indi was friends with Mona which made Heidi’s skin crawl. However, she didn’t want to give up on her. Indi had been a total badass and Hiedi still wanted to still see her that way.

When Indi showed up at the bar Heidi raised her drink at the booth they always sat in. “Make sure you get a drink,” she hollered, wanting a good talk with her friend.

-

pam was going through a catatonic shift since the murder of their former leader on new year’s eve. mona had a less vindictive mission in mind for the collective, and while indi was skeptical of the more peaceful method, mona had been one of her closest and best friends since they were school girls. not to mention her own resolve on magic had wavered somewhat after scratch’s admissions.

heidi, however, would likely want to double down. she had been the right hand on a path of vengeance. while, they’d always had a good working relationship, indi was skeptical of this conversation too. she ordered a vodka cranberry and took a seat in the booth. “long time, no see.”

“hey, thanks.” fabian raised his eyebrows, a teasing grin still managing to find its way to his face despite the circumstance. it didn’t take the greatest auror on earth to notice that she was clearly ready to sock him and run at the first wrong move. “dunno what your jail cells look like, so, frankly, don’t wanna make ya a promise i can’t keep, y’know?”

“i do, yeah, got m’self a desk and all. same office that’s ordered me t’arrest ya, full disclosure, but i’m not doin’ that, am i?” he held his hands out, empty. his wand was in its holster; easily accessible, sure, but not an active threat. “actively going against them, mind you. c’mon, we’re going this way, don’t wanna fuckin’-” he nodded towards the madness, “before it calms down too much.” 

-

“a room with bars seems pretty standard across the board.” indi winced again. the pain in her arms and chest was growing to be very severe. if they did not make a run for it now, there was no chance that she could make it out on her own. “but I guess magic makes everything easier, huh.” still, there was a brief moment of hesitation when indi considered not accepting his offer anyway. she might be better off not trusting any of them, but in the end, relented and started to walk with fabian towards the treeline. innocent until proven guilty. “so what is this? field day?” she rolled her eyes. besides, he made a valid point. at the moment, he made no indication that he was going to arrest her. “are you just bad at your job?”

“I dunno, that the word that means I’m constantly thinkin’ about you and wondering if you’re doin’ okay and that you star in a lot of my dreams? Cause if so, then, yeah. I’m pining for you, Hawkeye.” He took a step closer, barely perceptible, but enough to reach out and catch her hand and bring it to his lips. “It was a good kiss, though, right?”

-

“is there any proof that those aren’t nightmares?” indi asked, but allowed scratch to take her hand. obviously he did know what pining meant. hell, she did too. indi had been thinking about that damn kiss for weeks. it wasn’t like her to linger on moments, but the memory still made her stomach feel weightless. “don’t expect any complaints from me.” she whispered. “except that you’d rather walk headfirst into a big boom than have another.”

fabian was, to be frank (but not frank, he couldn’t be frank, much as he’d love to be him sometimes, he was fabian, not frank, alright?), a bit grumpy. he wasn’t supposed to be working today, there wasn’t supposed to be any sort of bullshit today, it was supposed to be a day where a bunch of people danced around some poles (not those kind of poles) and drank some drinks (only mostly those kind of drinks) and sat around a fire (yeah, that kind of fire, was there another kind? okay, actually, upon thinking that, on second thought, there was fiendfyre, so sure, there was another kind, but this wasn’t that kind, this was normal fire. hopefully. for all he fucking knew, at this point, maybe it would turn out to be fiendfyre. anyway!). 

he shook the rambling thoughts out of his head, focusing on what was now the mission at hand. find indiana, get her out. he’d met her just once, briefly, they’d had a short conversation, but it was enough for him to know who he was looking for. the darkness didn’t help, nor did the quiet chaos of dozens of chess pieces moving across a board made only for a normal set, but thankfully a specific bonfire had been pointed out. the quiet chaos was quickly becoming less quiet (honestly, it was preferred) and after a few false alarms, people who looked oddly similar to his soon-to-be job risk, then finally he spotted her. he cleared his throat to announce his presence, “want to get out of here?” fabian quickly stepped up next to the woman, close enough she’d know he was speaking to her, but hopefully not enough to startle her. 

as he spoke, his eyes scanned the nearest crowds, looking for anyone who might’ve been looking at the two of them. certainly didn’t help matters that he had another mission at hand, technically, and that was to arrest the exact type of person he was currently offering an escape route to. it’d do neither of them any good if a fellow auror saw them. “i know a great place, loads better than this dump.”

-

it was a surprise to see a familiar face approaching her. indi tensed up. she glanced around at the other aurors who were currently grabbing and restraining her friends. he didn’t look much different from them. she might have to make that run a lot faster than originally anticipated. her hand twitched towards the holster just beneath the hemline of her dress.

just in case it was necessary.

“cute.” her tone was dry and terse. his name was fabian unless there were two people walking around here with the same face, but apparently anything was possible these days. “how’s it compare to a jail cell, stud?” she asked in a hushed rush. frankly, indi still wasn’t sure if he was the one supposed to help her or if he was here to arrest her. it wasn’t a very comforting confusion. “I thought you worked in an office.”

“Not all of them.” He said it without thinking, but he only really had one person in mind, and that, he figured, was the source of all the tension he could feel between them in the first place. “Indi, I–” He hesitated, because the question he wanted to ask, he knew, he didn’t really want the answer to. “Do you hate me? Cause, uhm… cause I kinda… well, I kinda like you a lot and I just need to know if I’m… if I’m stupid for pining or whatever it’s called.”

-

indi glanced up into his eyes. the problem was that this had all gotten very personal, and she wasn’t very good at personal. it was sort of standard fare when working in the legal system, and also when being a sniper, to be removed emotionally. “I don’t hate you. you just kissed me and then really pissed me off.” she admitted trying to bite back a smile. “are you really pining for me, chapman?”

mona caught indi right after she came off the may court stage and briefly debriefed her on the situation. of course these witches were turning on them. indi had been told to wait by a specific bonfire near the edge of the clearing for one of the ‘order of the phoenix’ to escort her out. what a pretentious name for an organization. she didn’t know how she was supposed to trust these people anyway, but if mona said to, she’d try. her breathing was labored and there was a sharp stinging beginning to cause pain in her arms and chest. indi buried it down and maintained a guarded expression as she watched any and everyone who approached her now. one more minute or she would run on her own.

Without thinking, Scratch reached out to catch the spool, and looked at it for too long of a moment confused. Then, he laughed, because of course she had taken it. Of course. He simply shook his head a little and tucked it away in his pocket. “Not at the risk of you starting a fight. Isn’t this supposed to be a peaceful day?”

-

“isn’t sharing peaceful?” indi quipped. “and the court might recall that I didn’t try to start a fight. he did.” she said with her best possible mock lawyer voice. it had been a while since she’d seen him, but indi already realized that she still didn’t know how she felt about his whole secret. “which appears to be a pattern of behavior for these people.”