filetofish | PSLS BECAUSE GAY

[Crow hates this more than he's ever hated anything, and that takes a lot of hate. But it's too late to stop now. He's committed. He can't take it back, no matter how badly he wants to.

So he keeps it up. And then finally it's time for the next phase -- Rean's left completely alone for three days. No injections, no manhandling, nothing but the food and water shoved in the door and left for him. The question they're testing is: how much will Rean do to get his fix? How desperate will he be without it, and how well can they control him with it?]

[The first day is... Bad. He eats a little and then huddles in a corner, getting increasingly agitated, scratching his wrists raw and bloody for hours.

The second day he doesn't eat, and he keeps scratching, though he sleeps more, exhausted and sick. Between that he licks at the blood from his nails, claws, licks, claws, licks, claws, licks.

The third day he continues not eating. Well, not the food he's given. He starts gnawing on one of his nails, and then on his fingertip. At first it just looks like semi-normal stress chewing but he keeps going. Biting into the flesh of his own finger like he can't feel the pain. It escalates fast, from chewing to outright tearing at the meat of his finger, trying to crunch through the bone, like a starving animal thrown meat. Except the meat is himself and there's actual food not that far away and yet here he is.]

[Crow watches for the first two days, feeling nauseous but doing his best to keep his feelings flat. On the third he gets so worked up he has to walk away -- he even goes to protest it. This is going too far. There's no need for it.

But when he argues, Cayenne pushes a button no one should push -- he slaps Crow, shamelessly, lecturing him about his place, about who's in charge, about how easily he could throw Crow to the wolves. Normally it wouldn't happen, but Rufus isn't there to keep things under control, and that's a fatal mistake on everyone's part.

Crow deals with it by decking his boss. After that all bets are off so he takes off for the depths of the facility, and shoves Rean's door open just in time to see him taking a chunk out of his own finger.]

--What the hell?!

[He's across the floor in no time, yanking Rean's hand away from his face.]

That's enough!

[Rean looks up at Crow, blood on his lips as he, uh, swallows part of his own flesh. Blood's getting all over Crow's hand where he holds Rean's wrist, that itself is bloody and then there's the copiously bleeding finger staining everything red.

It's not with his normal awakened strength but Rean is leaning forward to try to bite a chunk out of Crow after a few seconds.]

[Crow is a rude boy so he catches Rean's forehead with his free hand and shoves him backwards.]

Down. Stop moving.

[Because Crow needs to pull his headband off and use it to wrap up Rean's hand.]

[Sorry he's going to... Try to bite again... He's a little starved and feral and out of his mind. The whole obedience test is a real bust, honestly. Though he's weak enough to shove around after a few weeks of constant drugs and withdrawal.]

[He'd really rather not lose any chunks of flesh here, so he pulls a glove off and shoves it into Rean's mouth. Once he's got his hand tightly wound to stop the bleeding (alas, he has to rip his headband to make it work), he gets up just long enough to yank the blanket off the bed.

He needs to wrap Rean up but he has to work fast cause he really doesn't want to have to fight him.]

[Oh no, crow without the headband, power limiters on hotness released.

Not that Rean cares, he'd tug the glove out of his mouth but he's distracted by the pain of being bandaged and then he's trying to get up to--something? His head's a mess.]

[While Rean's trying to figure that out Crow's spreading the blanket on the floor, keeping an eye on Rean in the process in case he needs to stop him from doing something else.

Once it's down though he's going to try to shove Rean over and roll him up in it. A burreanto.]

[Rean was trying to pull the glove out of his mouth so he's pretty easy to shove over and roll up, though he struggles and makes angry noises about it.]

[He can be as angry as he wants!! Crow's still turning him into a log, so he can toss Rean over his shoulder and get him out. They have to move fast. He has to get to where he can call Ordine, though he's already talking to him in his head. Convenient, that whole telepathy thing.]

Rean, you're just going to have to hold on, okay?

[He's going to try to swing by the monitor room and pick up the drugs but he's not entirely sure he can pull that off.]

[There's definitely guards being called on Crow, now that Cayenne is over being slapped and the threat of losing not one Awakener but two is pretty real.

Rean is just kind of growling like a feral dog as he squirms but he's unable to do much to hinder Crow.]

[He manages to get to the drugs, but it's getting out afterwards that's hard. Or it's hard at first anyway, before he kicks a guard in the balls and steals his gun. After that it's a lot easier but also a lot bloodier -- good thing Crow gives 0 shits about collateral damage!

Eventually they do manage to hop in a mech. He doesn't have time to rescue Valimar from the hanger he's stuck in, but... they'll figure it out. He's not in any danger. It's Rean who is, so Crow's taking him inside his own robot and getting the fuck out of there. With an angry feral Rean in his lap.]

[If Rean were in a better state he'd protest the murder. If he were in a better state he'd be helping Crow. If he were in a better state, though, Crow wouldn't be doing this so that's all rather moot.

In any case he's a bundled up Rean making angry noises in Crow's lap while they sit inside Ordine.

But he's tired and pretty quickly he just flops against Crow, head pressed to the crook of Crow's neck, eyes closed. He can't bite and he can't talk and he's half out of his mind anyway, so he's falling asleep against the first sustained human contact and warmth he's had in weeks.]

[Good, sleep! The position is embarrassing but Crow's not thinking about that. He's thinking about where to go, how to keep them both alive, and how Rean is ever going to recover from what Crow did. He can't believe he did all of that for nothing, but... but it was worth it. He can throw a lot of things away but it turns out Rean's not one of them. He just wishes he'd figured that out before.

After awhile though, he settles them down deep in the woods somewhere. He'd spotted a cabin, halfway overgrown, and he figures that's the best spot they're going to find. So he gets Ordine hidden and then drags Rean into the mossy cabin, dropping him on a leaf-covered floor and sitting down beside him to breathe.]

...Shit. We're so screwed.

[At least the good news is sometime in flight Rean's hair turned black again. Being held awkwardly in Crow's lap was enough to relax the feral part of him it seems. Despite all Crow did and was there for, even unconscious Rean's relaxing entirely against him.

He wakes kind of groggily as he's set down on the floor, tries to move and finds he can't. He doesn't really remember much, his head's a total mess and everything hurts and he feels sick from days without drugs, so he's making a soft little noise of distress.]

[Crow's shoving things around, looking in the old furniture for anything they can use. Whoever left this place behind had covered things like chairs and the bed, so yanking the moldy coverings off and chasing away spiders leaves things... musty but usable. At least enough to get Rean off the floor. Which Crow is doing, by picking up the bundle and unrolling it onto the bed. He's hoping the change in Rean's colouring means he'll be... Rean.]

Morning, sunshine.

[Lucky Crow he is unrolling Rean and not a feral rean-shaped beast. Rean does look confused though, and really strung out. He raises a hand to take the glove out of his mouth and finds that hand all bundled up so he uses the other hand.

Everything hurts with such an overwhelming and deep pain he isn't actually noticing his hand hurting much more than any other part of him.]

Crow...?

[He's croaking it out, with a voice that hasn't been used for anything but feral noises and screaming for days.]

Yep. Your knight in shining armor, only I'm a fiend underneath.

[Y'know. Cause this is all his fault and he's a monster who might as well die. At least he's talking like himself again.]

I can't say you're safe now, but I can tell you I'll do my best to get you to it.

[He doesn't actually remember how this all happened. He has snippets of impressions but after he lost it is all a haze even more addled than his drugged fugues.

What he is registering is Crow is here, this is not the sterile, terrifying lab, and whatever shape he's in, Crow rescued him.

So he's struggling to sit up only to throw himself on Crow. If Crow doesn't dodge he's getting hugged with whatever strength Rean has in him.]

Whoah, whoah!

[He doesn't dodge but he does complain. He's patting Rean on the back though, awkwardly.]

What's this about? You remember I'm the one who did this to you, right?

[He's absolutely crying against Crow's neck. He's got a lot of emotions and they're all fucked up, but right now is mainly relief. Relief to be out of there, relief to be with Crow.

He's hiccuping a little with the force of his tears. He's so stressed and fucked up and nothing is really okay at all but he's also happy, right now, this instant, he's genuinely happy. There's a lot he's upset about too, and he's not going to be okay for a long time, but that's not stopping him from clinging tighter.]

I know. I'll beat you up later. I'm just [hiccups] I'm glad.

Mm.

[He really doesn't deserve this. He shouldn't ever feel Rean's affection again, but here it is, twisting the knife in his heart. But rather than show it he just sighs, putting on a tired smile and petting Rean's hair.]

Yeah, well. I guess I couldn't follow through after all.

I already knew that.

[He says it tiredly, pretty shaky, still keeping hold of Crow, crying pretty freely.]

Sorry I didn't... figure a way out before you figured it out.

[If he'd managed to escape and drag Crow with him or at least... Do something, he definitely would have saved them both a lot of pain.]

Don't you even start with that.

[God, what does he do with Rean? He feels like he shouldn't be held by him ever, but... well. Rean seems to want it, so Crow will tentatively let himself hug Rean back.]

It's not your fault.

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