▏dev angst who cheered
dev feels like shit. he felt like he could have done better, performed better, timed his swings better. he could have done so much better.
he knows he's pushing himself. knows that if he keeps doing this then he'll wear himself out, even worse get burnt out, but that doesn't matter. he needed to do better and that didn't happen today.
he's so angry at himself that he doesn't even know what to do with himself. he needs to get this energy out before he did or said something that was only said in the heat of the moment. so, he wrapped his knuckles and heads out of the door in a hurry.
he marches pretty far out, too busy stewing in his anger to realise that he didn't come out to walk his anger out. he stops abruptly and scans his surroundings. he finds a suitable, punchable looking tree and steels himself.
every punch is punctuated with a gripe he had about himself. he completely forgot about his shield in that first encounter that lost him the fight. he timed his hits completely off. his routing could have been so much better. he had messed up his jumps more times than he could count.
his breathing laboured as a frustrated groan ripped through him. he hated this. hated this feeling of helplessness. dev's face scrunches up as he throws more force into his hits.
the mistakes kept piling up as did the scratches on his knuckles. the force of his punches were making the rough bark of the spruce tree dig into his armwraps and giving him splinters, but he couldn't find it in himself to care.
his body did though. his hands were stinging, verging on being numb. his whole body was beginning to shake. his eyes stung with tears. the fire of his anger was being smothered out by the cold of the mountains.
with one last pathetic punch, he slumped down against the tree and sobbed. he was so tired. his body was worn out. he sits there for a long time, trying and failing to gather himself.
he devolves into sniffling at some point. tiredness had really set in and he realised he needed to move before he passed out. he didn't want to be here in the cold, especially now that it had started to snow sometime while he was breaking down.
it takes a lot of effort, but he does stand and trudges back to his and kier's cabin. it's a far walk and when he spots the roof of the cabin, he picks up the pace.
he crashes into the cabin and nearly trips over himself in the process. his entrance must have alerted kier because dev can hear him scramble down the ladder from the attic.
"dev!? dude, where'd you go? i was just-" and then kier really sees him. must see how pathetic he looks, sees how dev is swaying just standing there. "dev!" he cries out as he hurries over to him and scans him for injuries.
dev would normally crack a joke about kier checking him out, but he couldn't find it in himself to talk. his tongue feels like lead in his mouth. so he just stands there and lets kier fret over him.
"jesus, dude! what happened?" kier carefully grabs devs hands and gets a closer look at the damage to them. "dev..." he's at a loss for words and dev so wishes he could fill in the silence that follows.
they stand like that for a moment with kier delicately holding devs hands. the wind picks up outside, reminding dev of just how close he was to being caught in a snowstorm. his anger had really made him short-sighted.
"you're so lucky we have the stuff for pots right now." kier tsks after assessing the damage. it's not meant to be harsh. dev knows that kier would patch him up, no matter the cost.
"stay here." kier gives his wrists a squeeze, making sure to be careful with where he placed his hands.
he doesn't want kier to have to do everything himself, so he takes off his outerwear and makes some use of himself. he shuts the door that had been left wide open, sweeps the snow that has gathered on the floor and chucks it outside. he even makes sure the brewing stand is ready for use for when kier gets back.
