Sweet Like Candy

Wake Me At Noon

Rin woke up with a gasp and sat bolt upright. Her breath shuddered and wheezed in her chest and she took a minute to cough and spit out the shit that had settled in the back of her throat while she slept. Her throat was raw and sore, just like the rest of her. Her clothes were–surprise–wrecked, but they at least covered her.

Well, her shirt had torn after Rodan held her by it to slow her fall before he'd had to grab her sword case strap once her shirt ripped apart completely, so she was only in a bra and ripped booty shorts that used to only be short shorts before the Spores got to them, but it covered her well enough. She went to move her hair to cover her chest and then remembered it was short now. In fact, the shoulder length locks clung to the sides of her face and neck from the rain. She looked at her hand and noticed a small part of the circle had already healed over, effectively severing the hold on her familiar in Assiah. Ucchusma was nowhere to be found, either. She was completely alone.

Rin groaned and got up, stumbling from tree to tree down the mountain. The endeavor got easier the further down she went since there were more trees the closer she got to the bottom for her to hold on to. Her bare feet were cut up and possibly infected and she had a lot of other minor wounds that were just starting to make themselves known in twinges of pain that mad her hiss. Her entire body ached and her chest hurt and breathing was hard and one of her legs ached and didn't want to hold her weight, but there was nothing she could do. She ignored the pain in favor of fighting the urge to just let her incredibly tired and battered body collapse where she was.

She kind of forgot why she needed stop get further down the mountain a few times and kept stopping, trying to remember what she'd been doing. Then she'd remember a keep going. It was a messy process in her tired brain.

Eventually, she did make it back to Suguro and Shura. Suguro gave her his camo pancho and she smiled weakly at him before practically falling against him in some form of hug.

"I was scared your body couldn't take the strain." She whispered to him hoarsely. Suguro felt a lot stronger and a lot more solid than she did right now. She let him hold her up as people found them and congratulated them. Koneko and Shima cheered and each hugged the two already there.

Yukio got there, finally, and he almost knocked Rin over when he hugged her. She laughed and patted his back weakly.

"I–I did it! I beat him, Yuki!" She cheered with as much excitement as she could muster, which wasn't much, unfortunately.

"You did it! I'm so proud of you!" Yukio let her step back and she swayed a little when left to stand on her own.

"I....I was scared I'd lose control again. That I'd kill everyone." She was having a hard time breathing and her arms and legs were going numb, but she had to get the words out. "I-I wanted to run away from the powers I have, from what I am....but I can't. And I won't anymore. I'll just have to learn how to protect with these flames instead of destroying everything....around....me." She smiled at him and finally let herself collapse, trusting her twin to catch her.

§~•~§~•~§

Rin blinked her eyes open, rubbing them with her hands before pulling her hands back to see one bandaged. She unwound the bandages and saw that there was no trace of the magic circle she'd carved into her hand the day before. She looked around the room she was in.

There were several other beds around her and sunlight streamed in through a crack in the curtains, lighting the still mainly dark room. She heard breathing close to her ear and reached up, coming into contact with Kuro's silky fur. The cat was bandaged and slept peacefully next to her head. She smiled and let her head drop back onto the pillow.