Night 59: Soccer/Recreational Field

[strayfag]

[from here]

It was admittedly a little better outside. The air lacked the smell of too many things not-so-freshly killed and it felt less claustrophobic than the hallways by far. Unfortunately, even the sky seemed to be glowing faintly pink, which meant Code Fabulous was still in effect. It was casting a lot of freaky shadows.

Badou was starting to think that this might have been a bad idea. Passing through the Rec Field was the quickest route to Alle's room, but not necessarily the safest one. Despite the fact that he was moving quickly with his back mostly to the wall, he kept thinking he saw shapes moving out on the field.

He couldn't be more relived when his fingers closed around the cool metal of the knob and the door eased open. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one who wanted in apparently. Something fat and mangy reared up about five feet ahead of him. Badou froze. The squirrel stared. Badou stared back. You have got to be kidding me.

"You wouldn't be one of those singing---"

The squirrel bared its teeth and lunged. Badou swung the door open, throwing his weight behind it as quickly as he could. The impact nearly pushed him off his feet, but squirrel face meeting door was a pretty fantastic sound. Badou grinned. Asshole.

Maybe when he told this story, he'd say it was a bear. And that he'd punched it in the face. And that it had stayed down, because Alvin sure as hell wasn't going to let a little head trauma get between them.

Badou, on the other hand, would be all too happy to end this sordid affair. He bolted. In retrospect, he should have pulled the door shut behind him.

[RUNNING THIS WAY.]

Comments

[strayfag]

Well, that worked better than expected. Maniacal laughter was like music to his ears, and this time when the birds went after Alle he didn't make any move to intervene. He just watched, torn up arms dangling at his sides, a bubble of laughter at the back of his throat. It paid to be friends with badasses.

Even Heine had never moved that fast, not unless he lost himself. When they came down from this he'd worry about the fact that he'd never heard Alle laugh like that, or sweep his hair fully out of his face. For now, he couldn't really care too much because it was starting to look like the birds weren't on the top of the food chain anymore.

The one that had tripped up Alle earlier was already waddling after him, and this one Badou did go after - with the heel of his standard military issue boots to its back, then wing, then throat until he felt bone snap. "No, you stay down motherfucker."

There was being disinterested, and then there was being stupid enough to turn its back on him.

[tender-cruelty.livejournal.com]

They'd never worked together like this before, him and Hallelujah. It had always been one or the other, all or nothing, control fought over violently until one of them overcame the other for control of the shell that they inhabited. And now... now it was what they were made to do and oh, those of them at the Institute, they had never realised what they had tried to kill, what they had deemed worthless when they had marked him as a failed experiment.

He laughed, Hallelujah and him, voices twisted together in black threads as they moved as one. They jerked backwards, away from the foundering birds, slashing with glass to slit the throat of the closest and it seemed almost slow motion when one of them charged at him, razor-beak missing him by millimetres but might as well have been miles. The other one blinded, acid in its eyes and in its beak, fizzing and hissing as rotting flesh was dissolved. He stabbed the glass right through it's scrawny throat and left it to bleed as he turned back to Badou.

[strayfag]

Watching Alle work was nothing short of fucking terrifying. Badou wasn't even entirely sure of what happened, except that Alle was a fluid blur of death and the birds were helpless - actually, honest to god pathetic - in his wake.

And then he turned. This wasn't the same as dealing with Heine when he lost his shit, because there wasn't really any dealing to be done in that case. They both lost it, and then they both came back down to gunsmoke and blood, and then they changed into something clean and went out for pasta. Heine hadn't ever messed with him. He couldn't say the same about Alle's other side. 'Halle' had left bruises the first time he said hello. The rest of the fucking monsters were too terrified to come over.

Still, it didn't really matter, did it? Alle was his friend. That wasn't gonna change. So Badou took a step towards him, heart beating a little too fast.

"You alright?"

[tender-cruelty.livejournal.com]

He felt... they felt... it was strange. A small frown crossed his face as Badou asked that question because he didn't know. They'd never done that before. It was always him or Hallelujah, never both and...

"You're moving really slowly," he said groggily, peering at Badou as he took a step. It was like watching something in slow motion. Did people really move that slowly? Did they really think that slowly, have to take time to plan things, even if to them it was barely a scant second.

Had they really moved so slowly when they had been separate?

He was covered in blood and whatever else the bird things had left on him, and his hands were burning from the acid and he felt more whole, more complete than he had done since that scarce remembered time before they'd cut his skull open and Hallelujah had appeared. He smiled, lopsided and just a little of both of them in it. He moved to push his fringe back down, but stopped partway there and left it, both eyes fixed on Badou.

[strayfag]

Badou couldn't help it, he laughed. "Bro, I've got news for you... I've never seen anyone move that fast."

He wondered if Alle was even aware of it. He looked different with all of his hair out of his face. Really different. Badou had never seen that kind of smile on his face, but it was weirdly endearing, like he was gonna be just fine. Lost, but fine.

He felt the tension leave his shoulders, and suddenly he was aware again of the cold stinging the slashes across his face and arms. Most of the blood on him was his own, and he'd lost his eyepatch somewhere, too. He raked his own hair out of his face, if only because it was getting into his shiny new wounds. He should stop and patch up, but who knew how much longer they had now? He nodded once at Alle despite feeling just a little too exposed. (Starving kids stared at double cheeseburgers with that kind of intensity.)

"Let's keep going. We're not gonna get a chance like this again."

[tender-cruelty.livejournal.com]

"We've never moved that fast before," Allelujah said, touching his forehead lightly. "We're not..." he shook his head, looking a little confused. "Hallelujah knew, I think. But Allelujah didn't so..." It was a little difficult to keep both sides of himself separate at the moment and talking about them was even worse so he decided to leave it at that.

He stepped closer, frowning at the blood and injuries across Badou's face and arms. He could see the blank eye-socket where the patch had been lost. Because of him. "You could have run," he said quietly, sounding a little taken aback by the idea that Badou had stuck around.

"Ah, we should go," he agreed, glancing towards the wall.

[strayfag]

It was sort of weird to hear him talking about both of his... personalities... and neither one at the same time. Badou frowned. To be honest everything to do with that was just downright concerning but he wasn't about to give himself a headache trying to sort it out right now. This had gotten them out of a pretty bad scrape, and if Alle kept it up it wasn't gonna hurt their chances of getting out tonight. "So, what should I call you now?"

That look on his face was pure Alle. He seemed to share a lot of expressions with lost puppies in the rain. Badou waved it off and flinched, barely resisting the urge to draw his arm back and wrap his fingers around it. That would just lead to more puppy faces. "Could have," He agreed easily. "You coming or what?"

He didn't wait for Alle to respond. He started jogging toward the wall again.

[tender-cruelty.livejournal.com]

He just stared for a moment, then gave an odd smile. "I'm sorry. I'm confusing, aren't I?" he asked. "You don't have to call me anything else," he added seriously. "I'm still me, we're still us. Just... better at working together, I think. They never expected this. Their loss." They were better than they could have ever dreamed of. He hadn't changed. Not really.

He caught the flinch when Badou waved, expression becoming suspicious for a moment. "I'm coming," he agreed. "Let's get as far as we can." And then they could stop and he could see how badly hurt Badou was.

[strayfag]

Better at working together, huh? Actually, that did make some sense, and he could see it. "That's just my kinda surprise."

His fingers were numb with cold and slick with blood by the time they reached the wall. Normally he wouldn't have had much trouble getting over it, but he wasn't about to risk splitting his head open when they were this close. "Hey, gimmie a boost?"

[tender-cruelty.livejournal.com]

He had to restrain himself from running full speed towards the wall and bounding over it as quickly as he could. He felt energetic, better than he had in a long while, with the strange bubble of excitement welling inside him. It was like a furnace, that feeling, and it was new and interesting.

"Of course," he said, when Badou asked, and he didn't like the look of him, how pale Badou was even in comparison. He stooped, offering Baodu a perch to help him clamber up to the top of the wall.

[strayfag]

"Thanks." Getting over the wall was doable with Alle's help, but a wave of dizziness hit him at the top. Not enough to make him lose his footing - climbing walls in the cold, even with slick hands, he'd done that more than once - but enough to make him realize he was losing more blood than he thought. Even though they were relatively shallow, he had too many cuts from those damn birds.

"You got this?" Alle didn't look like he needed any help over, so Badou dropped down on the other side.

[to here]