Miki fell back on the bed, cackling with laughter, having barely even payed attention to the game and still won. Finally she wiped her eyes and regained the ability to speak. "Okay… okay… go check on Vi. I'm sorry, Cage, you're just so easy to beat."
Silver turned to look up at him, still laying down on the couch, and took his eternally cold hand.
Cage stands, throwing a pillow at her and sticking his tongue out with smile before walking out of the room and softly knocking on Violet's door.
"Hey? Violet?"
It's silent and he stands still, waiting for a reply.
But none comes.
He furrows his brow.
"Vi?" He whispers to the door again.
-
Gabriel grips her hand with an assuring firmness, and he gently pulls at her to have her stands with him.
Come on. I know what'll make you feel better.
Miki held the pillow and listened to him call Vi's name. When she didn't response after a few minutes Miki got up and joined him in the hall. "Is she in there?" She whispered.
-
Silver let him pull her up, albeit reluctantly. "What are you doing, babe?" She muttered drowsily, blinking up at him.
He lets go of her hand, slipping his arm around her and leading her silently into the hallway, past the laundry room, into the dining room and pulls back the navy blue curtain to the library. The windows are open, letting in a cold breeze and the room is dark besides a few fairy lights along the bookshelves.
It's peaceful here.
-
Cage shakes his head. "I dont know? Probably? Where else would she be?"
Silver let him lead her, surprised as they passsed through two of the most untouched rooms in the house. She couldn't actually remember ever going into the library since they had moved in. The room glowed from the gentle yellow lights and she immediately felt safer and calmer.
"Ooh," she breathed, leaning into him. "I can't remember when… it's so pretty."
-
Miki frowned and tapped carefully on the door, whispering "Violet? Are you alive?" As loud as she dared.
Gabriel looks over the room with a blink and gives a quiet sigh.
"Don't worry about anything." he states quietly. Despite it being a demand, it sounds rather soft and gentle.
-
The house is deathly silent and Cage's heart rate starts to spike. "Should we open the door? Is she okay?"
Silver turned her face to look up at him, having to crane her head back since he was so much taller than her. Another single tear slipped down her cheek and got lost in her hair. "How?" She whispered. "I feel like that's the only thing we can do, Gabriel. It's all fun and nice to be goofy and weird and play our dumb games every day but it doesn't change the fact that… that Ben moved us to another continent and we're fairly locked in this house to keep from being found again." She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm stressing again and you just told me not to."
–
"Hey," Miki said, gently cuffing his arm. "She's probably asleep or something. It's like ten pm."
Gabriel takes her face in his cold hands, gently holding it.
"Silver."
He blinks, the cold breeze sweeping across her wet cheeks and catching up the curtains. His eyes seem teary, almost ready to spill over, and he stares.
"Breathe."
Rain starts to thump gently into the window screen.
He presses his forehead against hers.
"You're allowed to be broken."
-
Cage nods, taking a breath and letting it out.
"Ah, right. Where is Ben? I think he's still…" his voice trails off and he goes to balcony. "…downstairs?"
More tears filled Silver's eyes and she didn't bother to fight them. His cold presence so close gave more comfort than to be expected, and she soaked in every bit of him that she could. She took in a shaky breath and released it again, her chin trembling.
"I feel so, so broken, Gabriel." She choked, pressing her eyes closed.
–
Miki followed him and looked down at the dark house below. "Well, there are like a hundred places to hide in this house, Cage."
Cage blinks down at the darkness of the living room.
“I know. But Mik, look how creepy it looks down there. We’re probably in a horror film.” He slowly turns his head to look at her. “We’re gonna die.” He whispers.
-
Standing still and keeping his voice quiet and low, Gabriel simply states, “that’s okay.”
He keeps his hands on his cheeks and tries best he can to calm her and let her know all was well. The world would keep turning, people would keep fighting, hearts would still be broken, but it was okay to take a breath and let go.
Miki laughed. "It's okay, Cage. I'll protect you. I carry a gun, remember?" She ruffled his hair, but in the back of her mind she couldn't how strange it was that everyone seemed to have disappeared.
-
Silver took long, deep breaths to still herself. His cold hands gave her something to focus on to keep her from drowning in her emotions again.
I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, she told herself.
Slowly her tears stilled and she finally blinked her eyes open to look at him.
(OKAY IM BACK AND A LITTLE MORE ALIVE)
Cage rolls his eyes, shoving her hand out of his hair playfully. "Do you know how to use is is the real question, Mik."
-
He doesn't look at her and instead blinks at the ground. He's terribly still and his dark lashes make it impossible to see his eyes while he looks down, his head bowed. His wings shift behind him, one draping across a chair for more comfort.
Miki raised an eyebrow at him. "Cage, why do you think I carry one? If I was better off with just my hands I wouldn't bother with a firearm." She placed her hand over her heart and said in a serious tone, "I solemnly swear I won't let anything happen to you, Cage."
–
Silver sighed and rested her forehead on his chest, reaching her arms around him. "Thank you, Gabriel." she whispered.
Cage nods, giggling a little. "Yeah, sure." He runs a hand through his hair, then turns to look at the door downstairs.
"Should we just go to bed and hope everyone is still alive?"
-
Gabriel lets his hands slip from her cheeks and hang lip at his sides as her lets her hug him. He blinks and turns his head to peer out the window.
(We can do a time skip if you want to like the next morning)
Miki nodded, trying to keep her face light and not let her troubled thoughts show. "Yeah, I guess we can't do anything else. I'm gonna go see if I can find Silver and make sure she's okay. You head to bed, kid."
–
After a while Silver lifted her head and released her hold on him. "I'm gonna go to bed, Gabriel." she mumbled, already sleepy, and pressed a kiss to his cheek before leaving and dragging herself out to the living room. She intended to wait up for Ben to come home, but the moment she hit the couch she was out.
Miki came down the stairs and saw her sister curl up on the couch. She snuck over and covered her with the blanket she and Gabriel had left, and then settled on the stairs, gun in hand, to wait for Ben to return.
(Time skip to like 3;30am)
The motorcycle drearily pulls up in the drive. The engine turns off and Ben slips his helmet off with a sigh, letting his sweaty black curls catch in the freezing wind. The rain has turned to sleet and it burns his skin with every touch..
He pulls himself off of the bike and blinks at the front door for a moment before daring to silently open it. He turns the knob and it glows a dull orange as he does so. Stepping into the house, he blinks as his eyes adjust to see Silver on the couch and Miki asleep half-standing against the railing of the stairs. He opens the side closet to put his helmet and jacket away, wincing a little as he pulls off the jacket. His shaky hands fumble with the weight of the helmet and it drops with a dull THUMP to his feet. He presses his eyes closed and holds his breath.
Miki jumped awake, her grip tightening on her gun before she saw Ben's dim figure by the door and realized he had simply dropped his helmet. She took a deep breath and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
He waits a second, half expecting someone to get onto him for being noisy, then relaxes and reopens his eyes.
Looking over his soggy jacket, dripping with blood and water mixed, he decides against hanging it up and leaves the helmet on the floor to drag his feet over to the laundry room, one arm across his chest and gripping his side. He opens the washer, setting the jacket inside and letting it run on it's own.
He lets out a quiet sigh and sits in the folding metal chair across from the washer, running a soaked hand through his hair.
Miki frowned, watching him as he trudged through the house. The only light came from the moon and streetlights outside, barely penetrating the blinds. Ben didn't look okay, but then again, did he ever?
She knew she was the last person he wanted to see, but she got up anyway and followed him to the laundry room when he didn't return right away.
He leans forward in the chair to cough, being as quiet as possible, and he wipes his lips with his hand, replacing the blood from his mouth with the blood from his fingers. He gulps, clenching his jaw and leaning forward so his elbows rested on his knees and he stared at the tile. Sweat drips to the floor from his hot face and he presses his eyes shut again.
Miki stood in the doorway and watched him. She didn't need to see his hands or his face to know there was blood. She could smell it, and hear it in his cough. Swearing under her breath, she tucked her gun into her waistband before going over to a cabinet and retrieving a handful of washcloths and wetting them in the sink.
As much as he hates the fact someone is there with him, he doesn't react. He lets out another wet cough, wincing and wiping his face again.
He whispers a few cuss words in Russian and gulps again, sitting up and leaning back so the back of his head rests on the wall behind him. He gives a light groan from the pain and clenches his jaw.
Miki finished wetting each cloth and staged them on the edge of the sink, then brought him the first one. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and she could make out more of the mess on him now. It seemed mostly on his face, arms, and hands, but she remembered how he had braced his side as he walked through the kitchen, so she assumed he had an injury there. She held the washcloth out to him.
"Are you gonna clean yourself up or do I need to?" she said, keeping her voice low, just above a whisper.
He takes the cloth slowly and coughs under his breath again, wincing. He starts to wipe his right arm, his hand shaking. "I- I'm fine." He manages to grumble. letting out a small wet cough at the end and avoiding eye contact.
Miki crossed her arms. "Dude, even if that's not your blood, you're the farthest thing from fine right now." she retrieved another cloth, ready to trade when the first one got too bloody.