#v; hellfire

   charles’ head is foggy, his eyes glassy as he tries to focus on his sister’s words. it shouldn’t be like this. he is her older brother. he should be protecting her.            not the other way around.

   if only he hadn’t ended up like this… if he hadn’t ended up just like–

         ❝ raven, i– you shouldn’t have to–            …i never should have let you get sucked into this place, too. ❞

              THE  GLOSSY       look   in   his   eyes   just   feels   like   it’s   adding   insult   to   injury   ,   even   though   she      knows      it’s   not   really   his   fault   .   but   he’s   also   the   closest   outlet   for   helplessness   and   frustration   about   this   situation   .

brit coming back to ruin my life uwu

@groovyxgenes​ asked  “ i don’t have to prove anything                                        to you. ” [ pick a verse, any verse! 8) ]

                BEFORE   SHE     can   stop   it   ,   her   hand   flies   across   his   face   ,   hand   stinging   with   the   contact   of   the     slap    .   for   a   brief   moment   ,   she   looks   just   as   surprised   as   she   imagines   he   must   be   feeling   .   but   quickly   ,   she   schools   her   features   ,   the   frustrated   anger   returning   . 

/ @voitel

“-----WHEN HASN’T IT?” Billy sure know how to make a party go from sour to worse, but it’s times like sitting on their hotel bedroom with a beer in her hand that Echo can physically exert the weight from her shoulders. Being honest ---- being truthful about their unfortunate circumstances in this godawful undercover mission. At least this time, neither of them ended up shot or maimed or humiliated. At least this time, both of them god away scot-free from a party that otherwise could have ended in the unfathomable.

// @voitel​

// @voitel

           “PRETTY SURE     I know there’s only one tool in this room, and it ain’t the knife.” Her face remains complete stone for a fraction of a second before it melts into a grin, fingers deft on the wound he sports on his right cheek. Echo’s soft with the way she maneuvers herself around the tub as she has him sit by the edge, though somehow they’ve made their way to a more comfortable spot on the floor. “You know, you didn’t have to go toe to toe with them just for my honor,” she murmurs finally, dropping her hands into her lap so she can really get a good look at HIM ---- not the mask, not the cuts, him. “My virtue ain’t exactly your concern but... gotta say the fight was hot, so there’s a perk to your stupidity?”

// @voitel

           “-------YEAH? Maybe you oughta settle down on the beers, o’wise philosopher.” Drunk Bucky has quickly become her favorite version of Bucky, especially when they don’t have to look over their shoulders at every second of the day. Even with his arm propped around her shoulders, Echo much prefers sitting at the entrance of a bar than sitting in silence at their hotel room; she’s made peace with a life that doesn’t feel very much like theirs yet it’s a life she come to love when they’re not idle in fear about who’s going to make the next round of Billy’s antics.

                                            a safe space.                 ( she wishes she were talking about the building behind them. )

// @voitel

They’re matted with sweat and someone else’s blood (surely) as his hand protectively covers part of her face --- like he might be able to shield her from the war that will continue in a couple of hours. She doesn’t miss that his thumb brushes against her lower lip, though it seems his mind is absent from his movements as he speaks. Strategizing, connecting the dots, developing a plan that will let them live for another day while Billy circles to sink his teeth into her neck like a wounded antelope ---- they need to start thinking about their future here, how they’re going to get out with as little damage as possible.

But it’s not possible. They might have broken free from a tirade, told to go home by Billy because he knows he’s going to get laid tonight with Rachel, but Bucky’s damn near possessiveness has even become noticeable to her. She didn’t believe it at first (didn’t want to) yet them standing like this when this room falls away from gun smuggling and drugs and amateur porn? It’s all too telling they would rather spend their only time behind closed doors solidified as a unit.

“So stop thinking.” By now she knows the scent of Bucky so well, her heart rate softens. (SAFE.) Everything about her softens when he’s got her in a hold like this and she knows that he means by THINGS LIKE THIS ----- she doesn’t leave the fucking room without touching his fingers, let alone breathe different air. Swallowing thickly, Echo’s voice is small, shaken, as she brings her hands between them. “....it’s been a couple of months because we’ve both been makin’ runs. You think I’m in love with another man because you see the way he looks at me ---- but you’re too busy lookin’ at him that you don’t see the way I’m lookin’ at you.”

manhandling starters // @voitel

            Often times she pictures Billy’s head on a stick for the ways he mistreats the people sitting in this very room. Her lips dry at the woman standing in the middle of the carpet, shaking and damn near ready to piss herself at the test of LOYALTY ---- it’ll only take one false move, one misplaced bullet. Echo’s cautious not to look at Bucky from across the room as to not pledge her allegiances elsewhere. When the gun SOUNDS to silence (and Rachel is still left standing) the room eases from a pin drop to boisterous laughs masking the uneasiness sloshing around their alcohol-filled bellies.

                                             No deaths today. They can still party.

          As if on a tilted cue, Bucky stands the minute Echo unconsciously rises to her feet. Billy looks her in the eye (is it a challenge?) before his gaze makes his way towards her husband partner. She is appalled and she is angry but she cannot let her emotions get the better of her. She thinks she hears him coo sweet nothings in her ear as he comes in hot, body blocking what once was a clear shot towards Billy. His hand slides across her abdomen to her back, ushering her to turn with him ---- and she does.

As much as she doesn’t want to, she follows him to the room they’ve been notorious to fuck in (if only they knew) and she doesn’t speak until she knows they’re in the clear.