Work Text:
“...bet I could jump this.” Tiso said, pointing to the gorge in the Fungal Wastes. The distance between one side to the other wasn’t very far, but he couldn’t see the bottom.
“Don’t.” said Hornet, her tone firm.
He grinned. “So you don’t think I could-”
“I think you are going to fall, split your head open, and die.”
"All I'm hearing is that you don't think I can make it." His grin grew wider, and it gained a challenging undertone.
Hornet shot him a glare, but he didn’t back down.
“When you fall into deepnest, I’m not helping you.”
They had a brief stare off, and then Tiso started backing up. Hornet lost a bit of the tension in her body, her glare dropping. It immediately returned when Tiso shot her a mischievous look. Her expression sharpened again, and she shot him a look that silently said don’t you dare. Tiso stopped about 3 yards away from the hole, a smirk already growing on his face.
“Tiso I swear to-” The rest of her sentence was lost in Tiso’s excited shout as he sprinted towards the hole. Hornet stepped forward but didn't get the chance to stop him before he reached the edge of the hole.
He jumped.
Hornet's heart stopped beating for the split second he was in their air, so certain he would fall.
But he didn't. He managed to leap over the crack and land on the other side. "Ha! You owe me five Geo-"
"I owe you a kick in the gut! I told you not to jump, but you did!" She shouted, relief turning into anger.
Tiso’s grin turned into a frown as he crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s the big deal! I made it, didn’t I?”
“What’s the big- you could’ve fallen, you moron!” Fury was coursing through her body, and she refused to acknowledge the lingering worry at the root of the feeling. “Get back over here, NOW.”
“Gods, Hornet, you’re acting like I-” Tiso stepped forward, and the rocks gave way underneath him. He lost his footing, and with a surprised yelp, fell down, down, down into the crack and tunnels below.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tiso swore he hit every single rock on the way down, mostly on his head. His fall seemed to last forever before he landed in a crumpled heap at the bottom of Deepnest.
Something was broken, he wasn’t quite sure what yet. He groaned, feeling his nose bleeding. “Ffffffffffuck. Shit.”
Painstakingly rolling onto his back, Tiso struggled to catch his breath. OK, maybe a bit of cracked shell. He sputtered, spitting up blood. Definitely cracked his shell.
“Hornet’s gonna kill me.” He groaned, leaning back to try and get comfortable. “...wait.” Hornet would only be mad if she thought he was hurt. If he said he was fine...he wouldn’t get into trouble! He’s lived with a broken shell before, he’d be fine.
He wiped the corner of his mouth, trying to get rid of the blood there. He shifted to try and relieve a bit of the pain in his chest, only to cry out in pain as fire spread throughout his torso.
Tiso threw a hand over his mouth, stifling the yell. His breathing had become labored, and he started trying to force it back to normal. He took a deep breath, and immediately regretted it as the pain flared.
He grit his teeth, moving to stand up. "Fucking motherfucker…" His voice trailed off into low mutters as he stood, leaning slightly against the wall for support.
He stayed there, trying to catch his breath. "It's not that bad, just get over yourself before Hornet gets down here." He silently berated himself.
He started walking. Slowly, his gait definitely favoring his good leg, but progress was progress. Of course, Tiso didn't know where he was in Deepnest, but surely if he kept walking, he'd find her.
---
Hornet quickly - but carefully - scaled down the cliff where Tiso fell. She was angry. Furious even. But she was so, so worried. What if he died? What would she tell Ghost? What would she tell herself?
Scaling down to the bottom, she did not find Tiso’s corpse. She also didn’t find Tiso. She could hear muffled rumbling, but barely registered it, too preoccupied with worry.
Gods, where he could be? Didn’t he know Deepnest was dangerous, even for her? Hornet hoped he managed to get up and walk off, instead of some creature picking up his corpse and taking it away…
Hornet couldn't stop the ice-cold dread sinking into the pit of her stomach. What if he was dead? Dying?
Hornet shook her head to dispel the thoughts. No, he was fine. If the idiot could survive being crushed by a brooding mawlek, then he could survive a fall into deepnest. But even still, she couldn't completely rid herself of the doubt in her mind.
Her eyes scanned the area, landing on a spot of color amongst all the blue and grey. Blood. She felt her heartbeat stutter, her palms going clammy.
Then the familiar cold rationality took over, and her tension dropped slightly. There wasn't anywhere near enough blood for him to have bled out. Her eyes studied the ground, and she noticed some drops to the right of the small puddle, and then another collection of spots, farther away.
Hornet's breath came out of her in a quick rush, relief flooding through her. The trail didn't look smeared, so it was likely Tiso had managed to get up and walk.
But that also meant he was trying to walk while bleeding, the fool. Shaking her head, she started following the trail he had left her.
She saw movement up ahead. “Tiso?” She called out, squinting against the dark. “If you try to scare me again, so help me-”
It was not Tiso trying to scare her. It was, in fact, a juvenile garpede charging at her. Hornet was able to swing her needle to deter it, but it charged again. It had the scent of blood - Tiso’s blood - and it would stop at nothing to get a bite of her flesh.
Hornet had little experience fighting garpedes. The larger adults generally gave her no trouble, but the younger ones were fast and mean and unpredictable. The garpede snaked behind her, biting into her calf.
She bit back a scream, ramming her needle through the beast’s head. She thankfully managed to hit it right where the gap in its armor was, and the garpede dropped dead.
Once the garpede was dead, Hornet checked her leg for injuries. It had bitten deep, through the shell. Walking on it would be difficult, but not impossible. The rational part of her demanded she sit and bind it with what remaining silk she had.
But what if Tiso needed her silk more?
Choosing to ignore her wound, for now, she marched onwards. "Tiso? I swear to every god alive, if you're dead I'm going to kill you!"
"I'm not dead!" Came his voice, echoing on the cave walls.
Struggling to contain her limp, she continued down the cave, looking in every nook and cranny for him. Tiso had hidden himself away in a little nook, hiding from the Deepnest monsters. “Took ya long enough.” He smirked, but she noticed it was strained.
She felt her muscles involuntarily loosen at the sight of him, and she let out all of her breath in a deep sigh.
“Gods you’re an idiot, where are you injured?” Hornet asked, crossing her arms and pinning him with a glare. His smirk grew noticeably more strained, and he made an aborted movement to reach up towards his face. Hornet’s glare followed the movements, and she faltered when she finally caught sight of the blood staining his face.
“Fuck! Are you okay?” She immediately grabbed his head, gently moving it around to check for any cracks in his shell. It didn’t look as though there was anything severe, but appearances could be deceiving.
Tiso smacked her hands away, annoyance filling his expression. “Relax mom, it’s just a bloody nose.” As if to prove his point, blood started dripping from his nose almost immediately after he had finished speaking. “See? I’m fine. What about you?”
Hornet tensed, subtly putting her injured leg behind her good one. “What are you talking about? I’m fine.”
“I heard fighting. Are you sure?”
“Yes!” Hornet snapped, a little harsher than she wanted. Tiso tried to laugh it off, but his laughter quickly became harsh coughing. “What are you hiding from me?” She hissed, eyes narrowed. “You’re more hurt than you’re willing to tell me, aren’t you?”
Tiso stepped away, looking a bit nervous. “I’m not hiding anything. But you definitely are!” He shot back. “You limped over here, I saw you!”
Shit. He was onto her. “You started coughing up a lung a minute ago, you’re hiding something too!”
“So you admit that you’re hiding something!”
“You first!”
“FINE!” Hornet shouted, unable to take this stupid argument any further. “While looking for you, I was attacked by a Garpede and my leg was injured. There! Happy?!”
Tiso seemed surprised she’d actually admit something. “Did you bind it?”
“No, I was busy looking for you. Now can you please tell me if you’re injured or not?”
He seemed to hesitate. “You need to promise me two things.”
Hornet rolled her eyes. “Fine. Sure. What is it?”
“Promise me you’ll bandage your leg first.”
If she weren’t so thoroughly annoyed, she would have found it sweet how much he worried about her. “Fine. And?”
“...promise you won’t be mad at me?”
Immediately she hated agreeing to this. “...Fine. I promise I won’t get mad. Please tell me what’s wrong-”
“I fell on my shell and cracked it and now I have internal bleeding. But that’s OK! That’s where all the blood is supposed to go!” He had a grin on his face, even as his mouth spoke the stupidest words Hornet had ever heard. “...You’re not mad, right?”
“No, I’m not mad.” said Hornet, completely furious, but containing it well. “I am going to drag your ass back home and kill you in private.”
“You said you wouldn’t get mad!”
“I am completely calm.” She lied. He gave her a skeptical look, but screw him. Hornet wasn’t the one who decided to fall into Deepnest. It was taking all of her willpower to not punch him in his stupid injured face.
However, all of Hornet’s fury was immediately put on the backburner as Tiso doubled over into another coughing fit. She immediately ran over to crouch next to him, previous anger be damned. This time, when Tiso took his hand away from his mouth, it was splattered with blood. Both of them were silent for a second, and then Hornet raced to pull out her silk.
Tiso’s head snapped to follow the movement, and his posture grew defensive as he saw what she grabbed. “Hey! You promised that you would use that on yourself!”
“Tiso, you are coughing up blood.” Her voice was uncompromising, and she started to wrap his ribs. “If you don’t let me use this on you, I’m telling Iselda.”
The mention of their resident medic caused Tiso to freeze, allowing Hornet easier access to his injuries. Evidently, he remembered what happened the last time he hid injuries from Iselda. Even Hornet shuddered to think of that day. Iselda had scolded him for hours.
Tiso remained silent as Hornet finished wrapping up his shell, using up the last bit of her silk in the process. She stood, only to almost immediately drop back down to one knee as the pain in her leg made itself known again. Thankfully, Tiso caught her before she slammed into the ground, and they both let out quiet grunts of pain.
“Do you have anything to wrap that with?” Hornet looked up at the question, scanning the area for anything that could be used to bandage her leg.
“No, and there’s nothing around here either.”
They both lapsed back into silence after that, before Tiso started to stand up, using the wall as a brace. Hornet glanced at him, a question written across her face.
“We’ve gotta go, fresh blood plus Deepnest isn’t exactly the greatest combo.” Tiso responded, reaching down to help Hornet to her feet. She swayed for a moment, blood loss beginning to hit her. Tiso slung her arm over her shoulders, helping to steady her, and she gave him a nod of silent thanks.
A growl from deeper within the area caused them to share a glance, and they started moving. With all of the injuries between them, as well as the difficulty of Deepnest in general, it was going to be a long trek back to dirtmouth.