White winter and red bed sheets.
Droplets of blood stained the white snow.
Hero held tight to her side, aiming only to keep breathing.
In.
Out.
In.
She was going to die, she was going to die right in the middle of the downtown plaza.
Everyone was already cold, for the weather was hostile and the holidays were quickly approaching, preparations were to be made, decorations were to be hung and all those people who frequented the surroundings from the colleges and the clubs had already gone home.
Someone would find her the next day, she thought, hoped at least, in the inauguration of the winter festivities of the state. Quite a sight to start with, she laughed at herself, feeling the sting it brought to her ribs.
At least her parents would know what happened to her.
So, Hero let her head fall to the snow, hands brought up close to her chest, the cold was starting to numb her limbs, perhaps soon it would numb the pain as well.
She fell asleep, though unconscious was a better term, she reasoned when her sight grew blurry.
Music was certainly an unexpected thing to wake up to, the scent of cinnamon in the air and the softness she laid over just as much.
Waking up was in itself very much unexpected.
Perhaps, she thought, it was the moment where she opened her eyes and her grandpa would be there to greet her, perhaps she had done well enough in life to deserve such a gift.
And Hero wandered on that thought for a moment.
A warm hand rested on her forehead. And those fingers were slim, they were graceful and surely not as wrinkled and calluses as her grandfather's. So Hero opened her eyes.
"Good morning, pretty thing."
Villain.
Hero tried to sit, movements hurried, and head spinning. Villain placed a hand on her shoulder, pushing her slowly back to lay against the pillow.
"No, love, you need to stay down," said Villain in response. "you're lucky you're alive, we're trying to keep it that way."
Villain spoke as if underwater, slurry, muted, Hero could barely discern some of the words she made.
She asked for the other to repeat herself. Villain chuckled.
"I can't understand a thing you're saying, love," Villain said "maybe it's better if you go back to sleep."
Tears gathered in Hero’s eyes, she could barely see what was before, though the shape of the shadow, the voice and the touch gave it away immediately, less even could she articulate what she wished to say to such a person, wished to ask, to beg if it came to be.
A few aborted tries later, leaving Villain to ask once and again what was wrong, if something hurt even though all the pain killers, if she needed, wanted something else before taking her own leave.
Hero cleared her throat as well as she could, and spoke.
“Don’t…don’t do it,” she said, asked, prayed to the other, grabbing the hand that rested on her cheek.
Villain’s eyes softened at the request, she grabbed back Hero’s hand, holding it between two hands, close to her.
“I warned you what would happen if they ever returned you to me like this again.”
Hero shook her head slowly, trying not to make herself vomit, and held tighter.
“What can I do?” came broken, slurry from Hero.
Villain kissed her hand “To prevent it? Nothing, love. But you can lay back and rest, you’re way too high in painkillers to do anything else, if you do as I say and are good to the people taking care of you, I’ll get you a souvenir.”
“Please, Villain, please,” Hero begged then, letting go of her hand and grabbing onto her clothes, lifting herself from the bed.
The other sighed, grabbing onto her firmly, but gently, mindful enough of her state.
“Come here, hold on to me.”
Villain laid down on the bed beside Hero on the bed, letting herself fall against the pillows and feeling Hero lay all her weight on top, keeping her as upright as possible, not letting her fall on her side.
Soft hands drew circles on her back, slowly, travelling from time to time to her hair, to delineate the shape of her brows and the bridge of her nose. No anger nor frustration did Villain allow to slip through her at that moment, Hero did not need that on top of everything else.
So she was gentle, and she was comprehensive, she was as soft and patient as Hero needed, and eventually, through the exhaustion and the painkillers, Hero did fall asleep, held tight by the other.
Then was moment, she decided as she locked the door to her room from the outside, she would need a few favours, of course, nothing not worth fulfilling her promise, she was a woman of her word after all, and if she had promised to burn down the capitol the next time they returned Hero to her such as they had, she had to follow up her promise to the city.
_
Masterist
Happy holidays :)
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