sowelililiwan :3

Games I like (in no particular order):

In Stars and Time, Rain World, Undertale/Deltarune, Omori, Ultrakill, Gears of War, Horizon, Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, Terraria, and such and such

Books I like:

Everything by Brandon Sanderson, Everything by Brandon Mull, House of Leaves, Worm, Wheel of Time (only on the sixth book rn), How To Train Your Dragon, Artemis Fowl, Wings of Fire, The Inheritance Cycle, Rick Riordan Books, also more

Shows I like:

Avatar the Last Airbender, Arcane, The Last of Us, Fullmetal Alchemist, Ajin: Demi-Human, Firefly, also more

"Ko?" Pine asked, softly, from her position draped across the buizel's stomach. He'd grunted a bit when she'd stretched across him, but he hadn't pushed her off or complained about her weight yet, so Pine was pretty sure he was enjoying it. Not that she would've let him leave even if he wasn't, though.

Ko glanced towards her, slowly, a mix of exhaustion and annoyance in his eyes, slashed across his snout. She knew the annoyance wasn't for her, but for the book he held close to his face.

She'd been forcing him to get reading practice in, lately (which was another reason she'd laid on him-- impossible for him to run from reading when pinned down). Usually late at night, before either of them went to bed, which was how it was now, the sun already set long ago, their small cabin lit only by flickering candlelight and Pine's slightly shining fur.

He was struggling with this one, a somewhat-thick history book with far too many big words in it (for a second, Pine remembered desks and chairs, textbooks and the smell of too-strong coffee in a too-small classroom, staring baffled at the pages in front of her as-)

She shook her head, shivering at the small feeling of loss that flitted through her chest. Pine hadn't understood a lot of the book either, but she was forcing it on Ko anyways. So, technically, the annoyance was about her. In a roundabout way.

Ko didn't respond, turning back to the book, but that flick of his eyes had been his confirmation that he'd heard her.

"What happened to your arm?" It was another question that she asked softly. She could feel and see Ko tense, paws clenching around the page of the book, his breathing quickening beneath her. He probably wasn't going to answer, but she had to ask anyways.

She'd been staring at it this entire time-- those twirling scars concentrated near his paw, a few of them reaching farther upwards, sharp tendrils that dug through his fur and left it patchy and spotted.

He didn't talk about it. Scars were all they were, now, not painful anymore, not like his ankle, but it was still a mark of something.

Something that hurt him. Something important.

She'd wondered about it, ever since she met him, but she wouldn't push, if he didn't answer. She never would.

Ko gave the tiniest shake of his head, more of a twitch than anything else, a mumble dying on his snout as soon as he started to speak.

Pine lifted up a paw and patted him softly on the side. Things settled back into silence, though with a twinge of...apprehension? Like Ko was waiting for her to press. Instead, Pine laid her head down, purring softly, rubbing one of her cheeks against his stomach.

She could feel Ko tense, again, as her fur sparked, small static flaring out from her cheek and skittering between the two of them. The static was a nice feeling, for her, combined with the softness of Ko's fur (she wasn't sure when he'd started actually brushing himself, but he'd definitely started after she'd first made an offhand remark about how rough he felt).

He was actually sensitive to the static, describing it as an itching, almost-painful feeling, but he'd gotten used enough to it by now.

"Am I done?" he asked, gruff.

"Mmhmm," Pine replied, eyes closed. "What'd you-" Her question was broken by a massive yawn, an unexpected feeling of drowsiness hitting her. How late was it? "What'd you think?"

"Boring." He attempted to keep up the gruff sound, but there was a tightness in his voice that Pine cracked open an eye to stare at. He was obviously struggling not to follow her example, but gave in a second later, dropping the book and yawning.

"Bedtime," she stated, and Ko's tiny nod was all the answer he gave. Her eyes had drifted closed again, but Ko's very deliberate silence made her peek again. He was staring at her expectantly, a finger tapping (that she knew now) anxiously on his side.

"Are you going to let me get up?"

"No," Pine said. "Comfy.”

"I need to-"

"Noooo," she mumbled, stretching out a paw to tap him on the chest. "Sleepy."

"Fine," he muttered. Ko stretched out an arm, moving the book to their new bedside table (Pine had insisted on getting it, and it had been very convenient so far). He turned his head, blowing out the candle, and they were instantly blanketed in darkness.

Their walls weren't empty of cracks, so the moon shined through more than just the window, little spots of light that Pine could easily ignore. It was a slightly warm night, and the wind coming through the cracks was just cool enough to make the room comfortable.

"Nighty night," she whispered, brightly.

"...Goodnight, Pine."

She wasn't sure how long she laid there, waiting to fall asleep. It was odd, how tired she felt but how hard it was to actually drift off. It came slowly, a haziness that grew ever heavier. She thought, distantly, there was a paw stroking through the fur on her head, gently touching along her back, as if partially afraid.

Instinctively, she started purring louder, and some part of her could feel Ko tense again, the paw retract, before continuing a bit more confidently this time.

"It was a tentacruel," Ko whispered, and Pine snapped fully awake, fur sparking alight. She looked over at him, face half hidden by the dark shadows, and she couldn't tell if the haunted look in his eyes was real or from the lighting.

She'd never seen a tentacruel, but she knew what they looked like from pictures. Hard faces and terrifying tentacles. They made her think of something else (jelly-?), but she ignored that, keeping her breathing calm despite the immediate stress that flashed across her body.

He wasn't looking at her-- was waiting to say more, and didn't want her to respond yet, so she didn't. Just waited.

"It was in a mystery dungeon," he continued. "We were, uh-" He paused for a moment, then continued. "We were just retrieving some things, and it was supposed to be calm. It'd formed next to a lake, so there was a lot of flooded areas, which was why they'd brought me along. There weren't supposed to be many ferals, and we hadn't seen any so far when I'd ducked into a pool to see if there were any passageways underwater, so we'd all let our guard down pretty badly. The water was really murky, so I didn't manage to see it in time, but it also couldn't fully see me. I was lucky that it just tangled around my arm, cause I was able to shake it off and get back to the surface.

"They...didn't give me anything to heal it beyond the bare minimum. Razmin said that the scars would look cool. I couldn't really...use it for the next couple of days, but nobody ever seemed to blame Razmin when I couldn't."

"Oh," Pine said.

He nodded, as if that was the end.

"They sound..." What was the correct word? Ko didn't...talk about his life before, the people that he'd been with. "Horrible."

Ko shifted, glancing away. "They were...family. Not horrible, just...different."

That was a terrible way of thinking about it, but Pine didn't think she had the ability to convince him otherwise.

"How old were you?" she asked, instead.

It took a moment for Ko to respond, tilting his head and thinking. "Thirteen?"

He said it far too casually for what it was, and Pine couldn't help but just stare at him in horror. And now that he'd mentioned that, the casual cruelty, she couldn't help but look closer. Tiny marks where his fur was too thin, patches that seemed a bit off, as if disjointed with the rest of him. A horrified curiosity consumed her, and she couldn't help but ask, even when she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"What was this?" she asked, softly, staring at a thinner patch close to where her head was, starting by his thigh and presumably stretching to his back. She took a paw and spread some of the fur apart, examining the skin beneath. It didn't look injured, but there was still something off about it.

"Burn," he replied, after a short pause. "I...walked away from something I shouldn't have. Luci thought it was appropriate to get me as I was leaving."

Pine didn't know who Luci was, but she hoped they were dead.

...And then they became even easier to see. She turned her head, staring upwards to his chest and neck, shoulders. From this low angle, it was possible to see all the tiny marks that gravity usually smoothed over. Two long marks stretched from his shoulder to the middle of his chest, and once she reached out a paw, she didn't even have to ask.

"That one was an accident," he said, quietly. It didn't sound like he believed it. "It was just part of a...spar."

"But they still didn't give you anything to heal it," she said, her voice tight.

Ko turned to stare at the wall. "They weren't..." He paused. "They just...wanted me to learn how to survive."

"Is that what they told you?"

He went silent, looking annoyed. Or...defensive.

"It wasn't- just...she told them to."

Pine didn't think he realized how he reached to scratch at a few spots of fur as he spoke, near his shoulder, some kind of unconscious remembrance-- she reached out a paw, placing it on top of his, and he startled, staring down. She couldn't see anything in the area he'd been scratching, but Ko could, blinking and losing focus.

"Shinx," he whispered.

"...What?" she asked, gently.

"That's what she was," he whispered, after a minute. "She hadn't even evolved, but she...everyone was so scared of her. Anything she said got done. And her claws were so small, but she made them hurt so much."

He reached up to touch at his shoulder again, staring off into the distance, and Pine felt her stomach drop out from underneath her. She withdrew her paw, suddenly extremely aware of the claws hiding inside, so easily accessible by a simple flex of muscle.

"The leg was the last thing they left me with," he continued. "Too many mistakes, after everything that they'd done for me."

She only knew the end of that story. A young buizel, stumbling into Treasure Town, bruised and broken.

He didn't sound bitter, or angry, just...

He did sound bitter. But only at himself. Her fur flickered brighter, and she could feel Ko wince as she sparked.

"That wasn't your fault," she said, not quite keeping the venom from bleeding into her voice. "They just wanted you to hurt."

Ko seemed to ignore that, setting his head back down and staring upwards. "It doesn't...matter."

There was a flicker in his voice that said that it did. He wouldn't accept her comfort, and Pine knew that, but it felt wrong to just...leave it there. She didn't say anything, but she shifted her position-- Ko grumbled slightly as she draped herself farther upwards, settling her chin near his shoulder, into the crook of his neck. The one that he hadn't been scratching.

A second later, he hesitantly wrapped his arms around her, not quite a hug but not quite not a hug, either.

His breathing seemed to come a bit easier, she thought.

...She couldn't make herself stop glowing, though, her throat choked up with a maddening burn. She couldn't help but wonder if they were still out there.

She didn't like considering herself violent. But she had a hard time keeping herself from imagining, her claws instinctively sliding out, tail twitching.