vanish beneath the surface :: fleur vs love

He screams when he swings the axe forwards and she manages to step backwards in the last of the moment, his axe only managing to graze the edge of the mask that is glued to Fleur's face. Love grimaces under whats left of his own, all blood and guts and spilled sins marking their territory all over his body. Love growls, guttural and filled with every shallow and deep wound that has littered themselves across his entire body. 

Fingers meet mask and he watches Fleur Adroxis pull away the monstrous facade the Gamemakers have placed them under, shattered pieces of the mask falling in a bloody heap down to the ground below. Bloodshot eyes meet bloodshot eyes and Love realizes this is the first time he has ever looked at Fleur without any ego or swagger laced heavy into his bones. It almost feels to foreign to accept, almost. Eighteen years of Career training fire up against the fact that Fleur has nearly killed him, battling for dominance against the way he knows he should be looking at a girl like her.

"Do me a favor, Two." Fleur says, and Love doesn't have enough energy left to respond in shit eating grin and a smirk. He thinks he nods, but he can hardly see forwards from the blurry spots that have clouded his entire vision. Every fading instinct in his body tells him to flinch and run when Fleur leans forwards with the scarf, drapes it around his neck and stumbles backwards away from him, but he's so fucking tired-

he's so fucking tired, he's so fucking tired.

The thought plays on repeat in the back of his mind, memories of slumping over across from Areto and burying his head in bloodied hands, repeating those same words over and over and over again until he couldn't think straight, until he couldn't see this for what it all was.

"You don't care about what I care about and frankly, I don't care about you either." "True." He manages to sputter, and a glob of blood seeps out from underneath the mask that he's wearing as he stumbles forwards, hardly managing to catch himself as Fleur continues to speak.

"... So at least listen to that. And take my friend's scarf." His eyes drift down for a brief moment, body hardly registering the soft fabric that is draped around bleeding neck as he sways back and forth in the grasp of death. He pulls another piece of the mask away from shattered face, until the entire right half of a boy too broken to survive in here is staring at Fleur Adroxis. It takes all the energy plus some to manage a hollow smirk, to choke out in between stumbling breaths "It might be more red than purple by the time it gets back to them, Fleur." He chokes out, and every word is laced with a poisonous fury that just feels so fucking empty in the shell of his heart. He pulls the axe up into his grasp one more time, stumbling forwards on a broken legacy and bloody diamond.

"Now, lay down and die." He chokes out, in malice and misaligned fury.