little grave / tw, day 3

The landing is hard, softened by the cushion of Lu’s body. The jagged edge of the roof smacks Tick's face as they go down. Lu's shoulders have already done the hard part of making their entrance.

The hut stops spinning once he stops moving. His head settles. It still feels like they’re swaying a little. The after effect of the squeezing, phantom vines, the rain chills every little cut.

He hates this place.

"You bit me." Tick groans out, rolling onto his side, cheek pressed to the damp planks of the floor. He slides his body half out of the rain, even though it doesn't do much. Lead in the legs.

If the vines come back, they're screwed. The careers could walk through that dilapidated door and he still wouldn't be very inclined to uncurl. He shoves his forehead against the flooring, pressing into the smell of the mildew, the rough texture of the woodgrain. He groans again.

“I could eat.”

“You’re insane.”

Except.

Except yeah, maybe the near death experience does work up an appetite.

His bag fell from the vines with him. Hit the floor of the hut like an afterthought. Half of the contents have spilled out, the sword haphazardly clattered, coins stuck in the plank gaps, bandages unspooled wall to wall. There was bread in there. Only thing back in the collapsed ruins of an upper floor that wasn’t moulded.

Tick gestures uselessly, without looking up.

The floor is very comfortable.

"Food went." Spin of the wrist. "Around."

Good idea.

The rain doesn't let up, but they have a sort-of roof now. Sort-of shelter. The humidity makes it sort-of warmer.

Tick has a sort-of blanket.

He's curled up against the wall, and since his head is so very, very heavy he's decided that Lu's shoulder can carry it instead. As long as he keeps going uh-huh and keeps nonsensically saying yeah, totally, pretending to pay attention instead of nodding off, he doesn't get shoved away.

"Boney." He mutters.

Your scapula is so sharp.

He has to keep raising his head, has to keep moving to a different part to avoid the bone. He keeps smashing his cheek back down to find a more comfortable position. He sags a little. Gives up.

The cake tasted like nothing.

He's never had something that sweet before. It hurt a little, in the back of the teeth, first bite like a jolt.

Sugar's too expensive in Twelve, so they cut it with flour. The bread comes out like bricks. It has to be eaten in chunks because the ratio makes it too crumbly to slice. It always tastes like dust. Only takes one wrong inhale to start choking on the shit.

Tick mouths at a bit of icing left on his finger.

It's really not so bad here. The thunder rumbles by quietly. Another lightning flash illuminates the hut in long slants. If he closes his eyes for a second, he can pretend that they're sitting by a fire.

There's a woman walking across the water. It's very bright, everywhere suddenly. Like the fire. Like the lightning. A flash of it. Tick has to squint through the slats of the wall to see her properly. Where is she going. Some sense of urgency. He should be following her. But it's too bright, he has to close his eyes again, and when he opens them again, she's gone. It's just the yawn of the collapsed doorway. It's just Lu's shoulder, warm under him.

The trees outside are dark. He's mumbling.

"Where'd she go."