#emberworn

“I know what you’re thinking-is that a weapon in his pants, or is he just happy to see me?” 

“... i need to leave.”

there were hushed whispers amongst cinder and emerald, anyway. he heard rumors they were planning on leaving after the fall - and he had his own reasons. renji was gone. vera and the rest of the team. everyone... everyone was gone. he had his own responsibilities, but... he couldn’t just leave without another word.

“ You are the best, have I ever told you that, mama ? “ She keeps the picture on her desk, where she’ll most likely show it off during her streams. The shopping trip happens a day after Christmas, since everything is open and no one has gone back to work yet. “ What do you think we’ll need exactly ? I’ve never really gone shopping for furniture, aside from buying things for my office setup. “

Pain was a constant in Mercury’s life. He was used to bleeding, trickling from sore nose and busted lip; to bruises encircling his eyes and peppering arms and torso. That sharp pang on inhalation was as an old friend--and though the poignant, persistent agony at his thighs was a newer addition it wore a face familiar enough. The assassin’s son was able to breathe through it all and follow the woman with the burning eyes, father’s corpse cooling in the dirt and childhood home devoured by merciless flame. There was no need to go back for his belongings, no need to pack anything. It all belonged to the fire now.

Strange looks accompanied the trip into lower Mistral. Mercury remained a handful of steps behind his new employer and the shifty-eyed girl at her side, stoic despite the need to periodically wipe blood from his busted lip and the hitch in his step. Whether people thought she’d beat him, or that he was about to try to mug them, he wasn’t sure and in truth he didn’t fucking care. What had begun as tolerable agony in his legs grew in intensity until he could feel it all the way down calves he no longer possessed. It rolled in his stomach, created nausea that he shakily swallowed down. Just a few more blocks and he could address the bandages that had become saturated with red.

When at last Cinder passed through the open door of a questionable, run-down inn Mercury breathed a sigh of relief. The stairs were murder and by the time he reached the landing he trembled visibly. Still he limped along after her, eyes carefully averted from any who glanced his direction. The tinkling of keys heralded the unlocking of the room the two had apparently already acquired and paid for; they must have anticipated that recruiting his father would go well, he thought. His footfalls were heavy as he passed Cinder and the girl he didn’t care to remember, perhaps a bit too hasty to claim the one wooden chair and get off of his feet.