Chapter Text
“Well, you certainly seem chipper.” Warfarin’s deadpan voice had all the clinical detachment she could muster. Her charge, the young vulpo who sat on the examination table before her, was radiating a sort of quiet excitement. It seemed fishy.
“It’s nothing.” Frostleaf tried in vain to brush it off coolly. Stilling her fidgeting and schooling her expression back into one of disinterest. It might have worked if not for her tail. Wag wag. Wag wag. Warfarin snorted. Frostleaf’s face immediately springing back into action and she pouted her indignation. It was the most emotive the doctor had seen her.
“It’s good. I’m glad. You’ve looked like you were already dead the past few weeks.” Frostleaf’s face immediately clouded over, setting itself back into passive disinterest.
“Aren’t I?” Oripathy was a death sentence, wasn’t it? One that could be prolonged, but not avoided. Frostleaf’s face darkened further. Her tail stalling and the fog that’s been chasing her overcoming her voice and demeanor once more. “It won’t be long now before the dead rise up and claim me for their own.” Warfarin watched the entire process impassively.
“Haha” The short doctor enunciated both syllables clearly, absolutely crushing any sort of humour they might normally suggest. “So that’ll be therapy with Doctor Kal’sit then. Nice to know even with a new girlfriend you’re still a little goth shit.” There was a smirk on her face as she baited her patient.
“She not my fucking girlfriend you creepy little bloodsucker!” Frostleaf immediately shoved through the fog in a burst of anger. “Oh my god what the fuck kind of doctor are you? God I can’t believe you even said a word about my condition to her I should tear your fucking head off!” Her voice raised into a shout by the time she was finished. Warfarin continued to scratch away at a tablet and printed a sheet off as she responded once more.
“Okay, you still respond to emotional stimuli, that’s good. Here’s your prescription. Don’t forget to show up to therapy and I’ll see you next week.” The pale doctor had stood and was halfway out the door before Frostleaf’s breathing evened itself. She mumbled about quack doctors for a few seconds as she pulled her headphones back on and flicked her phone onto a different playlist. This one featured some jazzy trumpet and sported an album cover of a group of people wearing black and white suits and checkered shoes. It wasn’t her normal fare, being almost ridiculously upbeat, but Aciddrop had recommended them and… Frostleaf caught herself. She was thinking of the fashionable libiri again. It was insufferable how often the skateboarding bird jumped into her thoughts, pushing the miasma of dark thoughts that constantly followed her. Frostleaf’s lips pulled gently upwards. She stopped walking and brought her hands to her face. Weird. It felt weird. Her pale skin flushing redder and redder as her thought process skipped a few beats. Did she like Aciddrop? Did she want her? Did she even deserve to feel this way, after everything she’s done? The lives she’s ended. The blood she’s spilled. Sighing into her hands Frostleaf turned into the brushed steel wall of the ship’s medical bay. Resting her forehead on the cool metal she pricked her palms with her nails as darkness once again encroached her. She was spiralling. She was suffocating. She needed air, but she couldn’t remember the way to the rooftop gardens she frequented when she needed to cool off. The maps were, of course, useless to her in this state. Letters and numbers were the first thing that left her. She slammed her hand into the unyielding metal, spinning and walking on unsteady feet towards her room. She needs to disappear for a while.
A trio of thumping knocks wake her from her tortured sleep. Frostleaf shot up, tangled in her sheets, damp with sweat and blood from the lesions on her body.
“W-” Her voice cracks and groans from misuse. How long had she been here? “Leave.” She croaks out. her phone has fallen off the side of her hard mattress, it’s screen flashing low battery.
“Leaf! It’s Drop, Dr. Warfarin told me you missed your scheduled therapy appointment and I got worried.” Shame burned in Frostleaf’s chest, she was a burden. She was useless. She let her friend down. The door burst open. Well, more accurately it slid open easily on its rollers, but in Frostleaf’s sleep-addled mind it was quite dramatic.
“Holy shit Frostleaf, how long have you been in here? When did you eat last?” The liberi girl picked her way across the mess of a floor, admiring a few of the band posters and LPs that the vulpo girl had hung for display. “Oh damn you stink! Haha that owns. Not bathing is punk rock.” A couple of thumbs up appear in Frostleaf’s periphery. She turns away from the brown haired bird beside her in panic, she can’t be seen like this!
“Please, go away.” Frostleaf was quiet but Aciddrop was right beside her, finally sitting on the massacre of sheets and pillows.
“Nah, I don’t want to ‘Leaf. I can tell you’re hurting and I think it’s best if I’m here for it. Come on, let’s get some food in you.” The diminutive liberi surprised Frostleaf by bodily picking the vulpo up, she squawked in indignation. “But first, a bath!” Teen successfully in arm, Aciddrop barreled through the halls into the communal bath house that Frostleaf’s dorm shared. Thankfully it was deserted at nearly noon, and the vulpo’s dignity was somewhat preserved.
Before she had even registered what was going on, Aciddrop had her half stripped, hoody and skirt neatly folded in a waiting basket. Leaving Frostleaf in only her tights and boat necked shirt.
“Sh-shit wait, hold on. I don’t- Let me do it.” The vulpo stuttered unsuccessfully through a few lines trying to brush the other girl’s hands off her.
“No can do dude, doctor’s orders! Banzai!” She lifted the vulpos arms and carefully pulled the shirt around the outcroppings and lesions of origium, before whipping it off her head. Frostleaf’s pale face shot scarlet with indignation, she wasn’t wearing a bra.
“Dude, fuck OFF!” Frostleaf finally snapped. Pushing the tiny bird away from herself and covering her chest with her arms as best as she could. “What the fuck is your problem? I’m trying to tell you to leave me alone and you practically kidnap me and strip me down? Gods I thought you were cool Aciddrop, but you’re just another stooge in a white coat aren’t you?” Aciddrop’s face was frozen, the sunglasses perched on her head wobbling gently as she shook her head.
“N-no! I just. Um. Fuck. I wanted to help you, and Warf told me she thought you were stuck up in your thoughts again, and I always liked it when the older kids in my gang washed my back like when we all-...” Aciddrop rambled her way before dropping off suddenly. “I fucked up, didn’t I?” Frostleaf was still. “I’m sorry, dude. I didn’t want to hurt you or bring up bad memories or anything. I shouldn’t have butted my way in like this. I’m sorry Frostleaf. I just, I care about you.” Aciddrop turned to leave, taking a step before being pulled back by a tentative grip on her wrist.
“Why?” Frostleaf’s face was still red, but she had relaxed her features and her cheeks were pink. “Why do you care about me? I’m nobody. You barely know me.”
“What? You’re not nobody dude, Frostleaf you’re so fucking sick! You have great taste in music and clothes and you’re like, one of the youngest guards at Rhodes. The way you just charged ‘Nova in Chernobog was so fucking cool… I mean like, I’ve been watching you for a while now...” Frostleaf was suddenly extremely interested in the tiling of the bathroom floor. “We’re like, kinda similar. Grew up in Columbia right? Taken from our parents too young… You grew up fighting as a merc, I was a piece of shit running in a gang. I feel close to you. Frostleaf curled in on herself again, arms tight across her body.
“You shouldn’t. You shouldn’t be close to me. All I do is hurt. I kill people, all I can do is kill people. I can’t even do that anymore.”
“Dude! I’ve killed people too! You think it doesn’t fuck me up every night? I still have nightmares of the sound my bow makes filling those R eunion guys with flechettes, and it’s not like I was innocent before I came to RI. I’ve hurt lots of people ‘Leaf. I get it. But I had my board, and I had my friends. You may not feel like you have anything, ‘Leaf, but you have me. Hey, you have my board too, if you want.” She flashed a smile, lighting the room with her confident grin. Frostleaf turned around, hiding her pink cheeks behind her back as she stood in the dressing room of the Rhodes Island baths.
“Fine. But let me shower and get dressed first.”