Neverland (snowbaz)

Drained Dry

It's silent when Simon comes to. Everything is hazy both in his mind and in his spotted vision. There's smoke all around him and he can feel it deep in his lungs. He groans and rolls over, noticing a pain in his side as he does so. He sits up to examine himself and to survey the damage around him. There's a gash in his side, presumably from the wreckage of whatever the fuck was in that package. He remembers it now. The package from Baz. The present in the elegant green bow that said not to open until six o'clock, but then, when six came, he couldn't even open it because it exploded. It should have killed him at such a proximity...

Penny. 

God, he remembers Penny bursting in and wrestling him for the package. He was mad about it because he thought the gift was Baz's way of apologizing and that Penny was just jealous, but now he knows that she was trying to save him. She took it far enough away that it didn't blow his head off. So, in comparison of what could have happened, the painful, bloody gash in his side is really not that bad. Even if it hurts like hell. 

Everything is still smokey and hazy, but he knows that he needs to find Penny. He crawls through the wreckage in search of her shimmering light, the dim glow of her fairy magic that should bring him right to her. He can't find it, though. There's too much smoke and his side hurts so much and he can't believe that Baz tried to kill him. As if telling Simon he didn't want to stay didn't already kill him enough. 

"Penny?" he calls, lifting up what he perceives to be a remnant of his fireplace. He sets it down and a cloud of dust and ash washes over him, covering his face in soot. 

He coughs, trying to expel the particles from his lungs. It stings his eyes, the ash, so tears form to cry and clean them. 

"Oh, Christ, Penny! Penny, where are you?"

He hears a faint cough or maybe the pained hint of Simon from nearby so he tries to follow the sound. It seems to be coming from underneath a pile of rocks. He flies over and, using all the strength he has left, starts to pull at the rocks. Debris falls around him and marks cuts into his arms, but he keeps pulling at the rocks. 

"Baz..." she manages from deep within the fallen pieces of their home. "Captain Humdrum has him...he's in," she coughs, "danger." 

Simon thinks about it for a moment, about Baz being held hostage by the Humdrum. If Baz is in trouble, that means that he wasn't the one that sent the package. It was the captain and his pirates. 

Simon shakes it off, filing it away to deal with later. "Well, I've got to save you first!" He starts pulling away the debris again. It's hot to the touch and he registers that it's burning his hands but he can't bring himself to care about it. All that matters is getting Penny. 

He crawls towards her voice and dim light, crawling under the vestiges of the life they had built together. "Hold on, Pen, hold on!" The purple light gets a bit dimmer. He's so close, though. He presses on. "Don't go out," he begs, not sure if the tears falling are just to clean his eyes. "Don't you understand, Pen? You mean more to me than anything in this whole world." 

He's finally got eyes on her. She's small and frail and coiled up into a hopeless ball on the rubble. Her wing is bent the wrong way and he can see that she's just barely hanging on to life. The ruins tremor around him and more debris falls from overhead, headed straight for Penny. He gasps and leaps towards her, curling himself around her so the rubble hits him and not her. Rocks cut through his shirt and tear violently at his skin. He bites his lip to hold back a sob because he isn't what's important right now––only Penny is.

When the shaking and falling subsides again, he scoops her up in his hands and crouches. All around him is ash and burnt pieces of the place he's called home for as long as he can remember properly and there doesn't seem to be an easy way out. If this is how it ends, at least it ends as it should––with him and Penny together. 

But he won't let this be the end. Penny needs to survive, at least. And he needs to at least try and get to Baz before it's too late. There's too much riding on him to give up now. And he's never given up before, even with much lower stakes, so he's certainly not going to quit. There's still some life in him, surely enough life for him to manage flying up and out of the wreckage. He cups his hands around Penny and closes his eyes, allowing his heart to guide him as it's always done. They're crashing through the debris and going up towards the dim light of the setting sun. The pain is so intense that he's numb. That's fine, though. He can deal with healing and resting later. For now, he lets the numbness carry him up out of the darkness and onto the solid land above. 

He flies her into the forest and away from the wreckage. He thinks about Ebb's magic and the power of the earth and emotions as he contemplates what he can do to save his friend. He keeps her in his hands and closes his eyes.

He thinks about the first time he saw her––when he was alone and cold and wet––and how she was so kind to him. How she smiled at him and listened to his story of woe and took him away from his dreadful life and gave him a better one. He thinks about when they found the secret entrance in Hangman's Tree, entirely on accident, and how she told him that they could, in time, make it a home. He thinks about how much he loves her and how the thought of losing her forever broke his heart in two. 

How it's a different kind of love than the love he feels for Baz and how it's not bad to love them both so much that there isn't room for anything else in him. How he would, and how he has, done anything and everything to keep her safe. To make her happy. How she protected him in turn and how meaningless and cold his life would be without her in it. 

While he thinks about all of these things, he pictures his undying, everlasting love and appreciation for her as a star. Or maybe a bolt of energy. Something tangible and warm and real. And he thinks about it filling her up so at least she can know how he feels about the warmth and consistency of her friendship and how much it means to him if these are her last breaths. He pushes the feeling into her through his hands. 

They start glowing. His hands are glowing. It's a golden light that leaks through his fingers and pours out of him uncontrollably. Penny starts to glow too. Golden at first, but then purple. Her purple. And suddenly her wing is fixing itself and straightening back out and there's life in her cheeks. 

It's positively draining, but Simon smiles at the sight of it. It's like he's giving her his life. His love. Everything she needs to get back up on her feet (or wings, he supposes) again. Her eyes flicker open and she grins at him then flies up to kiss his cheek. 

"Simon," she says, breathlessly but still so full of life. 

His life, he realizes. He's given her some of his life to fill her up again.

She's crying. "Simon," she says again. "What did you do, you idiot?"

He manages a shrug. "Gave you some of my life, I think."

She gasps and flies down again, landing on his hand and giving his finger a squeeze. Because she's so small, it's the only hug they can manage. 

"You shouldn't have. I don't deserve it. I've been a rotten––"

"It's fine, Pen. I...I wanted you to have it. I've got too much of it in me, anyways." He feels emptier, now. Less alive. Less excited about adventures with pirates and werewolves. It feels...well, it feels like shit. But it's okay because Penny's alive and well. It's something to get used to, but it might return someday. He hopes it does. He can't imagine living the rest of his life feeling this depleted.