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Neon feels like wailing— blubbering and crying like an absolute baby. Her arm hurts so much and she can feel the several dislocations and shattered fragments of her bone. Yoru’s clone had unceremoniously smashed her arm between the wall and his body all while jeering at her— her looks. Out of all the things he could’ve said, he made fun of her hair. What an asshole.
She’s waiting in the med-bay, sitting on a small hospital cot against the frame and cradling her right arm like a baby. Sage is busy, they said. Skye is on a mission, she was told. Viper can’t look after you either she can’t mend broken bones. So, Neon had to wait. Wait and wait and wait for Sage to finish healing someone else and come help her. Jesus, Neon would tear her hair out in frustration, but she couldn’t because her arm was literally incapable of moving. She felt so immobile, so useless.
That’s when her eyes decided to stop preventing the leakage of tears and her throat closed up even more. Neon’s head bowed down and a stream of wet, steady tears streaked down her cheeks and left a stained, blotchy imprint on her skin. She tried so hard to stay quiet. In all her years of training and battles she had never had to wait so long for medical attention. Sage was usually quick and fast with her healing, never letting such a small, broken pile of bones hurt more than a single pin prick.
Neon felt horrible. She felt bad that she blamed Sage for her pain, she felt regret for not seeing Yoru attack her with such vigorous movements, she felt so much pain and so much hurt.
A shadow looms over her.
“Uh. Hey. You okay?”
Neon sniffles embarrassingly.
“No. My arm feels like shit,” Neon mutters wetly, before looking up and locking eyes with a blonde-haired stranger with a funny looking set of moles under her eye.
“Oh. It does look pretty bad,” she responds, stitching her eyebrows together in deep concentration.
There’s a moment of incredibly awkward silence between them.
“Um. Sage’ll be here in around ten minutes. The purple lady told me that she needs to rest for a bit.”
“Oh. Okay. Who are you, anyway?” Neon says with a sniff, shifting clumsily between the sheets.
“Deadlock. I’m new.”
“I’m Neon.”
“Hey, Neon.”
“Hi.”
It’s so awkward. So, so awkward. Neon wants to shrivel up into a ball and die— the only good thing coming out of this conversation is the fact that her arm hurts slightly less because of this incredibly attractive distraction. She nibbles her lower lip, blinks away the last of her tears and sighs tiredly.
“Sorry, I don’t usually cry a lot. It must be weird meeting me like this, huh?” Neon cracks a small smile, cocking her head to look at Deadlock. The other gives her a grin in return.
“You’re fine. I know what it feels like to break an arm. Kind of.”
Neon looks at Deadlock’s mechanical arm and grimaces.
“Ouch. That must’ve hurt,” she winces.
“It’s okay.”
Another bout of silence. This time, it’s less awkward, but Neon can’t stop herself from flicking her eyes between Deadlock’s steely gaze and her very kissable lips.
The blonde woman raises an eyebrow at Neon.
Uh oh.
“Do you usually stare this much at people?” Deadlock inquires, furrowing her eyebrows at the younger agent.
“Uh— no. Yes. I dunno.”
They stare at each other for a few seconds. Neon cradles her broken arm closer to her and peers around the room nervously, while Deadlock keeps her harsh gaze on Neon’s face— still and unmoving. Unbelievably scary.
“I just think you’re pretty attractive, ‘kay? Stop staring at me. It’s weird,” Neon gives in to the stare, feeling her face grow a little hotter than before.
“I’m weird? You’re weird,” Deadlock shoots back.
“Is that really the part you focus on? Tangina mo.”
“What language is that? I don’t understand you.”
“Good.”
Deadlock pulls a face and runs her hand through her hair in exasperation. She had to admit, though, this blue and yellow-haired girl was kind of cute. She liked the way her emotions were displayed so obviously on her face, the way she was so oblivious to things was also pretty cute.
“Does it still hurt?” Deadlock asks, looking at Neon’s bruised and mangled arm.
“No shit, dude. I feel like my arm is gonna fall right off.”
Deadlock lets out a light laugh and leans her head on the palm of her hand.
“Sage will be here in a minute or so. You’ve done well ignoring the pain so far.”
Neon almost beams at the praise.
“I have to get to a meeting with your boss. Brimstone— was it? I’ll come find you after,” Deadlock continues.
“Okay, see you.”