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“I want you to take a deep breath and hold it for as long as you can… Yes, very good.”
Wonrei stands leaning up against the outer wall of the small house he and Lien have claimed for themselves on top of Faudo. It’s really more of a shed, but it suits their needs well enough— and keeps them far away from the rest of the residents of Faudo.
Not that Wonrei finds much solace in this. While it might offer the illusion of protection, his fellow cultists— at least, the ones who have chosen this path of their own free will, very much unlike him— go when and where they please, and call him paranoid for not wanting them anywhere near his partner whose very life hangs in the balance.
“Why would we want to hurt you?” they ask, with the kind of smiles no one in their right mind would describe as pleasant. “Without you, we can’t unleash Faudo. We have no reason to pick a fight with you.”
Wonrei understands their logic. At the same time, he’s hardly been in a trusting mood since the day Zaruchim showed up and threw his and Lien’s peaceful life into chaos.
There’s only one person on all of Faudo he allows to get close to Lien without him being even closer to her, and that’s only out of necessity.
Chita is a nurse, or at the very least she passes for one on Faudo. Though she’s one of the humans partnered with a demon who has chosen to follow Riou voluntarily, and she seems to be just as willing as said partner, he doesn’t sense anything vicious about her.
There’s anger there, below the placid surface of her unchanging facial expression, to be sure… But when she comes to them with medicine and orders from Riou to keep the cursed partners healthy, Wonrei can hardly afford to turn her away.
He allows her to be alone with Lien only because she has proven herself to be trustworthy— cold, clinical, and disinterested, but her treatments help Lien to feel better, feel a little less like death is looming closer with every passing breath, and so in spite of her lack of bedside manner Wonrei can hardly say she’s failing at her task.
Chita seems to do her best work when left to her own devices without Wonrei, as she so untactfully put it, ‘looming’ near her. So as much as he hates to leave Lien alone for even a single moment, he does so out of courtesy for Chita’s services, even if he also feels angry about the way she makes it sound like he has no place at Lien’s bedside.
Maybe he doesn’t. Maybe the simple fact that his presence, his reluctance, is what has caused her to fall so ill and has put her life at great risk… Maybe that makes him ill fit to be her guardian any longer. And yet he’s hardly going to abandon her now when she’s quite literally dying for him.
“Eh… She must be in pretty bad shape if it’s taking Chita this long.”
Wonrei tries not to let anger get the better of him. He tries to keep calm. Extreme emotions will do no one any good in this situation. He’s well past the point of being able to do much of anything, in fact; he simply has to sit and wait for Riou’s plan to come to fruition and hope that someone will be able to stop Faudo after it has been set free.
The alternative, after all, is far too painful a possibility for him to bear.
In spite of the fact that anger won’t do him any good in this situation, that doesn’t stop it from rising up from deep in his chest.
While he quietly tolerates Chita in spite of her brusque demeanour, because she has the necessary skills to help him keep Lien safe and alive, the same courtesy doesn’t extend to her partner.
Rodeaux is exactly the sort of demon who gets under Wonrei’s skin. From his slasher smile full of razor sharp teeth that’s always at its brightest when he’s mocking or berating someone, to the casual and cocky confidence he carries himself with as though he’s on top of the world and nothing can even hope to bring him down, to his complete lack of regard for other people and their feelings… Everything about him reminds him of exactly the sort of person he would never want to see sitting on the throne, which makes it all the more frustrating that he’s gotten this far in the competition.
Rodeaux isn’t even the worst person on Faudo. That would undoubtedly be Riou, someone so hungry for power and victory he’s willing to put untold human lives in harm’s way to achieve it. And yet, Wonrei’s hatred for Riou is a cold, calculated thing that always lives in the back of his mind.
He knows he can’t do anything to cross Riou. It would only put Lien’s life even more at risk than it already is. Better to bide his time. All he can do it what Riou wants him to do and hope that it is enough to save Lien’s life, and worry about everything else later.
But Rodeaux?
His anger for Rodeaux is red hot, and it sits near the surface of his skin. Wonrei isn’t the sort of person who likes to get angry. Calm is more suited to someone like him, and he takes pride in his gentleness, despite denying it in many ways.
In this situation, he doesn’t suppose there are many people who would blame him for being as angry as he is. That doesn’t mean he likes the hot, sick feeling in the pit of his stomach when he sees that sharp, nasty smile or hears Rodeaux’s insensitive words, as though talking about the state of Lien’s health is something as unimportant and casual as the weather— as if his being inconvenienced by the fact that his partner is tied up far trumps her ensuring Lien’s health when Wonrei has to stand by and watch her waste away day by day.
“What do you want, Rodeaux?”
Wonrei doesn’t bother extending him any politeness or courtesy. His voice is clipped and cold, and he only looks at him out of the corner of his eye in something almost resembling a glare, while Rodeaux casually leans against the wall of his and Lien’s makeshift home on the opposite side of him. He doesn’t seem to care that Wonrei clearly doesn’t want him there. If anything, he seems to take a twisted sense of joy in it.
“What, do you not appreciate my company?” Rodeaux’s hair falls like a black wave around his face when he tilts his head. His equally black eyes only make him look all the more vicious, all the more like the kind of animal you should absolutely not approach.
Not that he’s giving Wonrei much choice in the matter.
“If you have no business with me, leave. I have no desire to entertain you right now.”
“Aww, and here I thought we were getting to be such good friends. You know, what with my partner being practically glued to your partner’s side, and all.”
Wonrei’s eye twitches. He takes a deep breath, trying to keep himself from saying or doing something he’s going to regret.
He knows that Rodeaux is trying to get under his skin on purpose. The things he’s saying are so deliberately targeted, so obviously trying to annoy him that it’s almost laughable. Whether Rodeaux actually feels those things or not, he has no idea; he can’t rule out the possibility simply because he doesn’t want to waste too much of his time and energy on the inner workings of a man whose presence makes Wonrei’s skin crawl.
Rodeaux is probably just bored. As one of the first people to join Riou’s group— aside from his only truly loyal follower, Zaruchim— Rodeaux is used to a certain level of freedom, as evidenced by the fact that he seems to be the one who is always trusted to find new members to join the cult and bring them back, or to retrieve those who have had the curse inflicted upon them. Now that the day of Faudo’s attempted release is drawing closer, Riou has fewer reasons to send him abroad in search of new demons to join their group— and Chita’s presence is needed to make sure the cursed partners will still have the energy they need in order to be able to release their most powerful spells.
Wonrei isn’t going to give him what he wants. He isn’t going to stoop to his level. He’s going to continue to ignore him until Rodeaux gets bored with bothering him and goes to find some other way to amuse himself until his partner is done with Lien’s treatment. He’s going to—
“She’s way worse off than the rest. Kinda fucked up that Riou didn’t seem to think about what would happen if one of the cursed humans died before we even tried to unleash Faudo, huh?”
Wonrei’s patience is a deep and many-faceted thing. Even though everyone and everything around him has been trying it since he first came to this terrible place because of his own terrible misstep, it has held strong in the face of everything they’ve dared to throw at him.
The last strand of it snaps, then.
He doesn’t give Rodeaux a word or sign of warning. He’s well past that point. This isn’t an attack that’s meant to deter or drive off; it’s motivated by pure, raw emotion, and the kind of emotion that has been festering inside of him since the day he had the misfortune of encountering Riou.
Everything since then has been working at slowly wearing his patience down and Rodeaux has foregone the slow and steady approach in favour of taking shears to the last threads.
Wonrei punches Rodeaux in the face.
Or rather, Wonrei tries to punch Rodeaux in the face.
There’s no elegance to it, no attempt to make it a strike worthy of the training Lien has given him. Maybe that’s why Rodeaux is able to dodge him so easily. Or maybe it’s the fact that this is exactly what Rodeaux wants, exactly what he’s been trying to achieve in getting him worked up like this, and so he’s fully expecting Wonrei to try and hit him.
Whatever the reason. Wonrei’s fist collides only with empty air, and Rodeaux— light on his feet and grinning like a maniac— is standing a few feet away from the shed now with his hands in his pockets.
“About time. I thought with all that high and mighty talk of yours, I’d never get you to cave.” Rodeaux’s eyes are as black as his hair but that doesn’t stop them from glinting with the knowledge that he’s gotten exactly what he wants. “But is that really all you’ve got? C’mon then— hit me for real.”
There’s a part of Wonrei telling him to stop this now before it gets completely out of hand. He’s already crossed a line as far as he’s concerned, trying to punch someone like that just for annoying him— even if that someone was literally asking for it, is admitting to his face that he was deliberately pushing his buttons to try and get him to cave and hit him.
Another part of him decides there’s no harm in giving Rodeaux exactly what he wants. After all… He’s asking for it, right?
So he lunges at him, this time not making the mistake of a silly, uncoordinated attack— he lets himself be fuelled by thoughts of what he would have liked to do when Rodeaux and his partner were sent to collect them, not to mention the anger still burning inside of him at the comments he’s made and the sheer injustice of the situation Wonrei finds himself in, and he strikes.
Rodeaux laughs.
When Chita hears Rodeaux’s laughter— close, and then growing more distant a moment later as he surely takes off and lands some metres further away to give himself more room— she has a good idea of what’s happening. But she doesn’t let out any indication aside from a small sigh as she focuses completely on taking care of the patient in front of her.
After all, she is a nurse. Or she was one, almost, if her accident hadn’t rendered her too depressed and afraid to be able to leave the house.
She never thought she would be using what training she does have in a situation like this, but then, her life has thrown a lot of strange twists and turns her way since meeting Rodeaux. At least this one leaves her feeling somewhat useful.
‘Somewhat’ being the operative word in this situation.
“What… Is that?”
Lien is lying in bed with a cool, damp cloth over her forehead. Wonrei has been doing a good job at taking care of her, as good a job as can be expected considering the circumstances. Chita has no idea why she seems to be so much sicker than the rest. Sure, Aleshie and Nicole are in rather bad shape— but while they run high fevers and have difficulty breathing, they still manage to power through, somehow.
It’s not like they’re any stronger than Lien, in terms of either body or spirit. She has plenty of both, although the latter has been broken a bit since Riou became involved in her life— which is something even those who chose to join him rather than being forced into it can sympathize with, to some degree.
(She doesn’t say that, of course. She wouldn’t want to compare her situation to Lien’s, and she has better things to focus on than that sort of thing anyway. She can’t make her feel better emotionally— but maybe she’ll be able to make her feel better physically, at least a little bit.)
“What is what?” she asks.
She’s only halfway playing dumb. For her, the sound of Rodeaux getting himself into trouble has just sort of become the background noise to her life.
“Is something… Happening?” Lien asks, answering her question without really answering it.
Chita lets out a low hum in her throat. She has no idea what’s going on outside. Knowing her partner, she probably doesn’t want to know. He’s having a good time, whatever it is, and his voice is getting even further away. The sorts of things that Rodeaux finds entertaining, especially in a place like this, are the kinds of things that most people would rather not think too much about.
And Lien, especially, doesn’t need to be thinking about anything like that right now. She’s running a high fever and her breathing has become more and more complicated as the days pass. Chita doesn’t have the resources or the knowledge to be able to figure out why the curse has hit her harder than the others, but she can do what she can with the medicine she and Rodeaux can get their hands on when Riou allows them to be away from Faudo and the hopes that they’ll reach the end of this mess with all of their lives intact.
“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” Chita replies as she finishes checking Lien’s pulse. “Just Rodeaux getting a little exercise.”
“Alright…” Lien coughs pathetically, and Chita rubs her chest to help her breathe a little better.
She’s not sure she sounds convinced, but she doesn’t need to be. She just needs to rest.
By the time the two of them stop clashing against each other, Wonrei feels like every muscle in his body is burning. His head is spinning from a lack of oxygen.
If this were a real fight, this would be the moment when he would either need to power through his exhaustion or admit defeat. Thankfully, it isn’t. So instead he just lets himself collapse to the ground.
It would be a show of weakness he wouldn’t want to give in front of an enemy, but Rodeaux is already on the ground, propped up on his elbows with his head tilted back to the sky. So he doesn’t feel bad about following suit.
“You put up a pretty good fight,” Rodeaux gasps, equally out of breath. Wonrei doesn’t know if he should take that as a compliment or not. After all, the way Rodeaux thinks of fighting borders on the barbaric.
Still, he supposes the fact that he was able to keep up with him purely on a physical basis without any of his spells is a sign that he’s improving, that his training with Lien has been effective, if nothing else. Rodeaux is vile, but there’s no denying that he’s strong, and a talented fighter.
Wonrei can’t even find it in himself to think too poorly of the demon at the moment. Certainly that doesn’t mean he thinks well of him— he hasn’t completely lost his mind, not yet at least— but that rage itching under his skin is gone.
He’s too tired to think about much of anything aside from how tired he is, in fact.
Rodeaux’s slasher grin is turned on him once again as he angles his head towards him.
“Feel better?”
“Huh?”
“You looked like you were about ready to start ripping people’s faces off,” Rodeaux replies, pushing himself until he’s properly sitting up instead of halfway lying on the ground. “You were tense.”
“A brilliant observation,” Wonrei drawls, because really… He can’t imagine why he would be tense.
It’s not like the love of his life is currently dying or anything like that.
“Sometimes when you can’t do shit about a bad situation,” Rodeaux continues like he didn’t even hear him, or more like he’s just choosing to completely ignore him. “The only thing you can really do is let your fists burn out your anger on the world for a little while. It works better than most people think.”
“I suppose you would know.” It’s meant to be another dull drawl again, but Wonrei can’t muster the energy for sarcasm.
As much as he hates to admit it… Rodeaux is right. He does feel better. Still nothing about his situation feels right or fair, but he feels less like he needs to take it out on the rest of the world. Instead, he can focus on doing what he does best: taking care of Lien and trying to think of a way to get the two of them out of this mess.
With a sigh, he pushes himself to his feet. He’s still exhausted, and he wobbles a little when he stands up, but it’s a good kind of tired— or at the very least, it’s a kind of tired that leaves him without much room to think too much.
“...Thank you.”
It feels wrong to thank Rodeaux. It feels even more wrong when he responds to his genuine thanks with a nasty sounding laugh, as he gets to his feet as well, dusting himself off.
“Don’t mention it,” he replies. “It’s not like I did it for you— I just wanted a good fight from someone looking to get out some aggression, that’s all.”
Oddly enough, Wonrei isn’t sure he believes that— but if that’s the narrative Rodeaux wants to spin, he isn’t going to argue. Not when it keeps things between them almost exactly the same.
He turns and walks back towards the shack, the only thought in his mind whether Rodeaux’s partner has finished treating Lien or not, and he doesn’t look back when he hears Rodeaux take off to find some other place to wait for his partner.
Nothing has changed. Nothing at all.
But at least… The burning inside of Wonrei has calmed itself.
Just a little.