drown the hero and see what's left | {poet/ramsey}

He tasted blood. Possibly, it could have been something else, but he was all too used to this: the metallic taste and the sting of his tongue against a cut on the inside of his lip. He bet that if he smiled right now, his teeth would have been tinged pink and red with it. He spat onto the concrete as they escorted him further.

"Are you disappointed?" he asked the biggest one. For the most part, Ramsey Robichaux had been uncharacteristically compliant. Of course he'd save his best behavior for a moment like this, where he got to live out all those angry thoughts he'd been harboring for so long. A fist through a wall could only relieve so much unbridled rage, you know? But they'd found the piece of broken glass he'd hidden in his sock and that had made them a bit testy and then they'd punched him in the face and ever since, there was a weird tension that hadn't been there before.

Bother.

He smirked at them as they pushed him on, deeper into a communal shower. There were several others- his competition, he realized- in various states of undress as their peacekeepers hosed them down. He noticed a short girl with blonde hair, big eyes, and chubby cheeks. She looked terrified, which made him grin. There was also a girl whose glasses were fogged over with steam, a boy who looked like he chronically smelled something unpleasant- the list went on. He spent a moment eyeing each of them as the peacekeepers stripped him of his clothes, and it was not until his own gaze was returned by a pretty boy with stormy eyes. He was skinny, but in a way Ramsey was familiar with back in One, where the goal was usually less about being muscular and more about looking attractive. He was probably from an upper district going off the softness of his skin, and either pretty decent at defending himself or not frequently needing to based on the distinct lack of scars. He'd be easy to beat, Ramsey decided that instant. But a useful ally, should the need arise for one.

The look lingered for a single second too long: An unspoken question, Ramsey biting his bottom lip in reply, and stepping out of his underwear with no inhibition. Even as he felt the water begin to rain down on him, he kept his focus to the other boy.

Want it?

Ramsey glanced down at his own bare body and then back toward the boy.

He'd need to remember this later.

Come get it.