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FUCK-
What happened?
The pulsing in my skull muffles any bit of comprehension of reality as I try to pull myself up- my eyes too heavy to open and the blood in my ears rushing too fast to hear anything-
“ Stop trying to get up.”
I recognize that voice- I recognize them. Who is it? Who’s here?
I lay back down, relenting as my head is cushioned by buckles, presumably on a bag- a groan leaving my mouth without a warning.
“ You’re in a lot of pain, huh?”
Stop fucking talking-
My lips don’t form words- I can’t feel my lips- my lips can’t form words- any noise dying into a groan.
“ Here, ” A hand cradles the back of my head, lifting it enough for someone behind me, my head placed down to be reclined against something -
“ Open your mouth .”
There’s no choice in the command, opening my mouth as a hand cups my jaw- bitterness assaulting my mouth as I whine in protest, trying to turn my head away.
“I know it doesn’t taste good, but you need to drink it.”
They sound gentle.
I comply, drinking whatever the bitterness is-
“There we go,”
There’s a smile in the voice.
Who the hell is being so gentle?
“Drink.”
Water washes away the bitterness from my tongue, a stream leaving the corner of my lips to my chin, a thumb gently wiping it away,
“Was that enough?”
I try to nod, blood pulsing the pain in my skull, a groan leaving me at the attempted movement.
“I’m taking that as a yes ,” A soft, pitiful chuckle leaves them, “ Try to sleep now; I’ll stay and care for you.”
Oh GOD-
Dull pulses bang the bone of my skull behind my eyes, a little groan leaving me-
It’s not as bad as it was.
I grip the blanket over me, pulling it closer to my body as I keep my eyes shut- shutting out any bit of reality in hope of the pain leaving me with reality.
“You alive?”
OH FUCK not YOU-
“Fuck off,” I groan, not noticing the pillow of thighs I rest on-
“If I did that I think you’d be dead,” I could hear his eyebrow raise, “Besides, I don’t think you can even move.”
“ Why are you taking care of me?” I slur some words together, my lips not wanting to go back to work yet.
“I don’t know.”
“Insightful.”
“Go back to sleep- you don’t sound like you’re much better-”
“Fuck-” I try to sit up- sitting up all too fast as my arms try to work, only holding myself up for a few moments- “You.”
“Not right now.”
I groan at his snark- my arms giving out as hands catch me, pulling me up to rest against him-
“Go back to sleep.”
A grumble of protest leaves me as fingers stroke my hair back, a heartbeat against my ear as it echos my own, the blanket following close behind as I lay in a pile of limbs-
Just sleep and this’ll all be over.
“ You look pretty when you sleep like this- I shouldn’t like it, I don’t like you… yet here I am, holding you when I could easily end you.”
“I could do anything I wanted… But I want to hold you- what are you ?”
Arms hold me in a warm cage, pressing me against a chest, keeping me still as my foggy thoughts crawl their way to the surface-
“Hm?” I try to open my eyes- the entrance of a cave in the distance as rain dances against rock-
“Awake?”
Volo.
“Unfortunately,” I snap, more venom seeping out than intended-
“You can’t despise me that much.”
“You betrayed me, you tried to kill me, you didn’t even try to fix anything-”
A hand covers my mouth, muffling anymore of the list as his other hand holds me between my shoulder blades, keeping me in place from trying to look up at him- keeping my focus on the pattering rain.
“I don’t understand you.” Volo mumbles, keeping his hand over my mouth, “I hate you. You ruined everything. But I don’t think I hate you.”
His grip on my face tightens for a moment- a fearful whimper leaving me, trying to squirm away- his grip relaxing as he still covers my mouth.
“I don’t think I hate you.”
Do you have to hold me here while you try to figure out your feelings?
Volo stays quiet for a few moments, his breathing and heart steady, his hand leaving my face.
“What are you?”
“A person.”
Man, I can feel that glare.
“Volo, I- I don’t know what you want from me. Don’t act like I wanted to be here. I had indoor plumbing then Arceus put me here to make sure people don’t cry when a bird gets too close to them.”
“Why did he pick you?” The venom in his voice is thick-
“Volo, I don’t know-”
“Stop saying my name,” He pauses, his thumb on my back absently rubbing circles into one of my shoulder blades, “Or keep saying it. I don’t know. I don’t know what I want now.”
I sigh deeply, his grip on my back light enough to be relaxed-
He’s holding me.
“I don’t know why I got put here, Volo. I could name a hundred other people I knew who could of done this instead of me– ” His free arm wraps around my back, lazily holding me- “But I didn’t want to take anything from you. I didn’t want to do this. I just wanted to live a normal life.”
Volo is quiet as he holds me, his hands resting on my lower back- letting me move back to look him in the eye-
“Be careful, I’m sure your head is sore,” Volo warns as he averts his gaze.
“I guess you have every right to be angry with me, although I don’t really know what I could do to fix it. I can’t go home. I can’t. If I could, I would of already done it.”
“What about the Galaxy Team? Aren’t they something to you?”
He’s prying information. I know that tone now.
“Volo, they kicked me out because the fucking sky got red as if it was my fault,” I snap- why do I keep saying his name?- “ The clans are more caring than Galaxy is. There’s Cyllene, but she had to bend the rules to help me. There’s Rei and Laventon but they couldn’t do much.”
I pause, remembering the incident.
“They kicked me out with nowhere to go… And you were one of the first to find me and try to help. I know you were using me for those stupid plates but you still helped me more than the Clans initially did.”
Volo gently moves his hand up to cup my cheek- our closeness painfully apparent now as I meet his eye- my place on his lap.
“I don’t know if I hate you.”
“You’ve only said that four times,” I sneer.
“How did you find community?”
Weird question.
“I didn’t, it found me.”
Grey stares back with some sort of irritation-
“I don’t want to hate you but you ruined my plans.”
“Well maybe your plans sucked.”
Volo recoils slightly at my snip- his gaze somewhere between enamored and enraged.
“I guess that was a mean way to put it, but you did try to a.) kill me and b.) destroy this world, but I kinda understand,” I pause, Volo suspiciously quiet- “I know what it feels like to be beaten around by life until you’re tired of it but you’re too stubborn to die to get away from it.”
“Do you?”
“I. Fell. Out. Of. The. Sky. Without. Consenting.”
“Fair.”
Volo is quiet as he looks over my face, his thumb stroking my face softly,
“I’ve always been somewhat fond of you.”
“I know.”
“No,” Volo glares, his tone darkening, “You don’t. If you did you’d be terrified of me.”
“I want you to look through my eyes to my soul to understand this- You summoned Arceus’ trouble child to try to create your own world after manipulating me the entire time. I think I’ve already been there and done that.”
“Why haven’t you run away yet?” Volo asks darkly, his arms moving away from me- giving me a free pass to run away-
“Maybe I don’t want to. Maybe I’m still processing the one person who was consistently nice to me being the person who stabbed me in the back in every single one of my vital organs with a dull knife . ”
“That’s definitely a way to describe it.”
My hands rest on his shoulders, glaring down at him-
“Besides, you made it really hard to be focused on not dying in that outfit,” I snip, leaning just too close to his face, “Didn’t like the hair much, if I can give you friendly criticism.”
“I could kill you right now.”
“But you won’t.”
Volo rests his hands on my hips, his grip dangerously tight-
“I could do something worse than killing you-” A hand grips the back of my neck, a gasp leaving me as he roughly pulls me against him- the soreness in my skull screaming- forcing my head beside his, “I could treat you gently until you love me and I could just die, leaving you all alone.”
“Is a fulfilled life worse than a quick death?”
“You have something to leave behind, or something to leave you behind,” His breath brushes against my neck, “Maybe that’ll be a new plan of mine. To ruin you.”
“To ruin me by giving me a good and fulfilled life?”
“Mhmm,”
“That’s just marriage.”
“Maybe that’s part of the plan-” Teeth brush over my neck, running down in a line of pressure.
“This is a weird way to talk about feelings, you know.”
“I don’t know what to do- I never learned.”
I rest my head against his shoulder, his arms lazily resting against my back-
“Why did you help me, Volo?”
“I saw you wandering around,” He whispers after a pause, “You didn’t have your normal composure; you looked like you were in pain. I followed you until you stopped. I checked on you and I noticed how much pain you were in, so I stayed.”
“ Why?”
“I’m not angry with you anymore,” He presses his cheek against the side of my head, “I’ve… Calmed down.”
“You had a massive supervillain speech and intended on ruining the world and wandering around in the wilds for a few months and you ‘ calmed down’?”
“Would you prefer I steal Arceus from you?”
“Yeah no I would like it if you didn’t,” Goosebumps line the skin of his neck where my breath grazes, “Look, you just.. Need a hobby. That isn’t killing Arceus or a cataclysm.”
“I attempted to murder you and you’re giving me a heart-to-heart,”
“I still want to trust you; I never said I was sane. I never claimed to understand me.”
Volo hums- contemplating. Trying to understand his thoughts.
“Look, if your big plan was to have revenge on Arceus for Giratina, you just needed to marry Arceus’ mother. Ultimate power move.” I tease, trying to alleviate some of the tension between the two of us, “Become his step-father.”
“What are you even going on about?”
“Like I know?”
Volo chuckles, our little puzzle holding us together in the cave.
“How is your head?”
“Better. Sore.”
The two of us stay quiet, our breaths in sync, his touch gentle yet threatening- that he could pull anything out of anywhere and ruin me.
“I don’t know how to say this.. Or when to say this… but I guess since the two of us are here- I don’t hate you, Volo… I don’t want to. I want to help you but I’m still a little peeved about the whole betrayal,” I pause, “You know, I know you can’t really, um, help a megalomaniac mentality, but couldn’t you try to do something smaller? A smaller goal?”
“Like what.”
“I don’t know… maybe, you could write down all these legends you know- I mean, hell, you know so much about all these legends and stories. You can’t just let those die with you.”
“Why are you trying to help me?”
“I already told you, dumbass- I still care about you. You’re powerful. You put a hell of a lotta work into manipulating me, so some cynical part of me has to give you credit for that- and maybe I’ll help you with some revised dream of yours.”
Volo stays quiet for a moment, moving back to look me in the eye-
“I’m obsessed with you.”
“Okay, blunt-”
“You are so powerful… I don’t want to hurt you anymore. I want you to stay with me. You’re too valuable.”
“That’s a psychopathic love confession.”
Volo glares at me for a moment, his hand still on the back of my neck-
His grip firm as he roughly pulls me down- stopping an inch away from my face-
“You make it very hard to act sane.”
“ Darling, I think we’re way past that-”
His lips crash into mine, a growl leaving him- teeth biting my bottom lip as his arms hold me firmly against his chest- the blood in my head roaring with an echoing pain, keeping me for a moment before my lips move against his; his tongue soothing my bottom lip from his little bites, humming as my tongue moves against his-
“I don’t know where I fit into all of this, but I’ll let you in on a little future secret- your bloodline is especially powerful.” I tease as I kiss down his chin, kissing his jaw-
I’m playing a dangerous game with a megalomaniac-
But I’m really tired of caring.
“Have you seen it for yourself?”
“Mhmm,” I pepper kisses down his neck, his grip on me tightening, nibbling over his Adam's apple-
“You’re dancing in fire.”
“Then let me burn.”
Volo pulls me against him- less force to keep my head from spinning- growling into a kiss; his grip firm as my hands lightly run down his chest, his teeth knocking against mine messily-
“You’re insane.”
“So are you.”
“How about this: I’m not the happiest about being here still, and I know you’re not the happiest about the way the world is- So we’ll see where our minds make our own world. Does that sound good?”
“Sounds insane,” Volo mumbles, his lips tickling against my neck-
Teeth sinking into the flesh at my neck and shoulder- a cry erupting from me as he holds me in place- his tongue soothing over the bite-
“I’m in.”