ᵒᵛᵉʳᵉᵃᵍᵉʳ ᶠᵒᵒˡ

❝  mcdonald’s. had to make reservations six months in advance for this.  ❞  her expression lightens up, and she smiles before opening the bag and reaching in to grab two of the sausage biscuits, tossing them onto the bed next to him before she goes to flop onto the couch sitting nearby. there’s an idle thought that maybe she shouldn’t be so familiar with her girlfriend’s drug dealer, but she supposes stranger things have happened.

shrugging it off, she reaches to grab her coffee from the end table, taking a long drink of it before giving a loud, obnoxious yawn. hand scrubbing over her face, she clears her throat.  ❝  you and ketsu have fun last night? i called when i was on my break, but she didn’t answer. figured you were over.  ❞

his snort is obnoxious, it wasn’t like the joke was that funny. but when just about everything ranging from vision to thinking process remains slightly distorted, she could tell him the damn chicken joke and he swears he might piss his pants laughing. his appetite is ravenous, having sworn he didn’t eat anything that entire night in spite of the fact that there’s an empty bag of potato chips nearby. in fact, as if on cue, he nearly crushed it whilst adjusting to get off the bed and dressed. no, he swears, those were ketsu’s only. 

❝  you’re a talkative one, aren’t you?  ❞ his silence doesn’t discourage her  ——  it might have, had she not been paying attention to the bodily cues instead. still tense, though not as much  —  besides, she got what she thinks might be a laugh: she’ll take it.  ❝  i’m serious, by the way. you help me win the bet? i’ll share. i mean, it won’t do you much good, considering…  ❞  she pauses, realizing that maybe that wasn’t the best route to take.

so instead, she tries another. ❝  my name’s sabine, by the way. you don’t have to talk to me, but is it alright if i talk to you?  ❞

what a strange one this one is. persistent, or would that be too obvious to state now. beyond the mask, she cannot tell that he’s studying her features, determining her somewhere between much too young to be involved in this violence but not old enough to pass off a high rank. too young, much like himself. although he has learned age holds no relevance in regards to exposure to warfare; indeed, this he learned the hard way. how she retains her innocence as compared to him, rambling on about credits and punching wisecracks about splitting this nonexistent fortune, is almost lost on him.

but then again, he quickly recalls, the answer is plain as the marks on his face.

❝  you don’t have to be rude.  ❞  but, she supposes, he has the right to be at least a little rude, considering the circumstances. her eyes are still trained on him, though she soon forces her gaze to avert and focus instead on a spot on the wall, out of a slight respect for his privacy that she had intruded on. she has an answer  ——  she could leave. but her feet remain anchored, and soon, she finds her gaze flickering back to him.

❝  no,  ❞  she says finally,  ❝  they tend to keep to themselves. they haven’t told me anything.  ❞  a pause, the words feel heavy on her tongue.  ❝  that isn’t quite an answer, though. what happened? i doubt they did it just to get their thrills.  ❞

he, being harsh  ----  ? the concept unfathomable, laughable in truth.  ❛  you’re the one intruding here. i thought manners were disregarded as soon as you entered the room.  ❜

shoulders roll, the grip loosening when the harrowing trance of trauma relents briefly from him to settle as annoyance. how relieving it is to know that this changes nothing. stubborn as always, intuition forewarns him that she will not leave the premise until she has a proper answer of sorts. he sighs, not surprised by the response. 

❛  well, firstly, if you believe that then you truly don’t know them.  ❜  his sardonic words are cryptic, withholding years worth of details in regards to the thrills which his siblings bask in. yet, he carries on.  ❛  -- although, you’re right. they didn’t do this to me, not out of entertainment. it was punishment. i...   ❜