Chapter Text
Blade enters the room in a somber mood, as usual.
It’s been a while since Firefly needed to be contained in her healing pod, but a familiar routine once again takes place among the Stelleron Hunters in the face of it.
Her body doesn’t so much as twitch as he approaches. Taking a seat beside the pod, he watches her for a while. The fractures that appear across her body glow and dim with the shallowness of her breath.
Blade observes the pinch in her brow deepen with her discomfort and wishes he could take it all away. For a long moment, he presses his head to the glass, closes his eyes, and breathes with her.
Only the feeling of the tiniest tap through the glass gets him to open them again.
Firefly gives him a pained smile as she weakly presses her hand to the glass. “Hi, Blade.”
Blade lays his hand over hers. “How are you feeling?” He asks for the sake of it.
“Slightly better!’ her voice chirps, but her body trembles and her fractures pulse.
Blade looks at her unimpressed, but she stares right back at him, urging him to change the topic. He sighs in defeat and turns his attention elsewhere.
His fingers trace a few drawings at the edge of her pod. Cute drawings of stars, flowers, and hearts. “Looks like Silver Wolf was here before me.” He says fondly.
Firefly breath stutters into a laugh, pleased with the distraction. “You should have seen it. She gave me a whole makeover.”
“Oh?”
“Right here,” She traces the glass above her with a shaky hand. “She drew me a pair of glasses and even a mustache,” she giggles quietly as she turns her head back to him. “She erased it, though, said you'd have a fit about the mess.
He scoffs under his breath, more amused than anything. “Perhaps next time I'll do the same to her.” With the way that girl lazes around so freely, it definitely wouldn’t be a hard mission.
Firefly giggles, her smile getting brighter. “If you do, will you take a picture for me?”
“Only if you help me with the next Gundam model.” He quips back, as if she isn’t the reason he makes them in the first place.
She grins before excitedly pressing her pinky to the glass. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
Blade taps his pinky back to hers with a small smile of his own. “A pleasure doing business.”
Firefly giggles, but the humor slowly replaces itself with something more somber the more she looks at their fingers. Pressed together, but not touching. One steady as the other fights to keep the tremors echoing throughout her body.
Before she knows it, her vision becomes blurry and wet. She sobs in frustration as she desperately pushes against the glass with her meager strength, wishing she could feel anything else besides cold, hard glass.
Blade keeps his hand pressed against hers as he lets her cry out her frustrations.
After a moment, she calms down again. Firefly looks up to him with red-rimmed eyes, and Blade’s heart quivers in his own frustrations of uselessness.
She’s so exhausted she can’t even wipe the mess on her face. “I wish I were out there with all of you guys.” She hiccups.
“You will be.” He reassures her.
“It's lonely.” She murmurs, eyes drooping.
“I'm here.” Blade murmurs back.
“I'm so tired…”
He can’t help the sharp breath that escapes him. “Then sleep,” he whispers to her. “I’ll be here when you wake up.” He promises.
Like a switch, all the tension drains out of her body, and she’s out like a light, breathing calmer than when he first came in. Even the pinch in her brow has been smoothed out.
Blade finds humor in the amount of comfort Firefly finds in his presence, but is thankful no less. It’s on days like this that she reminds him of himself far too much. For now, he’ll do his best to quiet the pain and make sure those similarities don’t multiply.