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Jae traces the tip of his finger lightly around the curved gash on Labirinto‘s chest. A smile, carved in red. The blood is cleaned away the in the best makeshift way they could muster, but still it marks him, the wound stark against scarred labyrinthine patterns on pale skin.
The moment Jae’s knife carved into Labirinto’s skin is burned into her memory, replaying over and over ever since things finally calmed down for the night. After they arrived at the circus, of course the loss of Dalmo and near-loss of Henri were highest priority in all of their minds; but now, after turning in for the night, it’s impossible not to turn back to thinking about the battle against the Couraças, and all that it entailed.
Outside, desert wind whistles softly around the walls. It’s dark, the abandoned mansion only lit by moonlight falling through the glassless windows, and faintly, the ambient sounds of the desert can be heard in the otherwise silent house. Aguiar and Henri are asleep in their beds, Kemi and Eloy somewhere out in the treehouse, and Jae lies awake on Labirinto’s chest in their pushed-together beds, thoughts still uncomfortably swirling.
“Hey.” The soft murmur of Labirinto’s voice brings Jae back to the present, his head tilting up to meet their eyes through his own cracked-open ones. “You should sleep.”
“Very responsible of you,” Jae mutters back. He continues his finger’s path around the wound, starts trailing along the geometric paths of the labyrinth instead.
Labi’s hand catches his, weaving their fingers together to stop his tracing. “It’s not your fault, Jae. You know that.”
Jae sighs, bitter. “I know.” It’s Escarlata’s fault. Escarlata, with her lovely, lovely voice, so sweet and tempting and…
Jae thinks again of what they almost did to Aguiar, the bloody slash their knife left across his chest as they laughed, half-crazed with the wonderful sound of Escarlata in their ears – kill him, make him bleed for me. The blinding, all-consuming rage they felt when Labirinto fired his Energy ray at Escarlata, and they saw her burn before their eyes. The sickeningly satisfying feeling of their knifepoint carving into his chest, knowing it was punishment after he’d killed their one true love—
Guilt twinges in her chest. She knows it was Escarlata’s fault, she does, and Labi shut down her angry near-breakdown about this very same spiral in the circus before. Still, it can’t do anything to stop the dull anger still flickering in her chest.
“I mean it,” Labi repeats. His hand moves to cup her cheek, in the way he always does. “It was her. Not you.”
“I know,” Jae repeats. “It’s all just…” He trails off. Nowhere to take the sentence. Labi will get what he means.
“Yeah.” His thumb brushes under Jae’s eye. “But it’s over now. For today, at least. You can rest, Jae. We’ll need the strength tomorrow.”
Which, yeah. Considering the fight with the vampires is only too certainly looming on the horizon, and the exhaustion sitting deep in his bones – it’s definitely a good idea to rest.
Jae takes a deep breath, and slowly exhales, turning to lie with their cheek pressed against Labi’s chest. “You’re right.”
His hand brushes through their hair. “We’ll fix this shit tomorrow. We’ll find Pomba, and figure out a way to stop all this. I’ll figure out a way to get us out of this shit.”
Jae frowns, thumbs over his cheek from where they can reach. “You don’t have to do it alone. That’s what we’re here for.”
There’s a pause. “…I know.”
“Good.” She raises her head again to lean forward, stretch just enough to plant a brief kiss on his lips. “You get some sleep too, okay?”
Labi exhales, softly. “Yeah, I will.”
Jae settles back on his chest, presses closer to him. “Good.”
It’s not long before they both drift into quiet, uneasy sleep.