事故紹介
His hand meets brick before he really knows what’s happening.
(Then, do something about it, she says, eyes everywhere but him.)
The sign doesn’t shake. There’s no cracks in the wall – he’s not that strong. Kind of ridiculous to even entertain the thought.
(Do something about it, she whispers, and the side of her mouth starts to curl.)
His palm stings. His fingers lay flat against the surface, and his knuckles are seared red.
(Do something, she hisses, laughing at him, only barely holding it in.)
When he closes his fist, he can feel his pulse hammering. It’s loud inside his head.
(Do–)
‘You know what?’
He backs up a step. He curls his hand, uncurls it, almost experimentally. His gaze climbs up to the sky, where the first drops of rain have started falling, but he barely notices.
‘We’re done.’
And it’s like that, just like that, for one second. Gold, staring at her, all of the emotion gone from his face. He wipes at his mouth, fidgets, and it’s like he could walk away. Just like that.
Except he’s jamming his hand out towards her, palm open to receive.
‘Give it back.’
It.
(The same it she threw at him: do something about it. He gave it to her and now she’s blaming him, she’s glaring, acting like it’s not in her hands.)
‘My stuff. Give it back,’ he repeats, fingers twitching the slightest bit. The rain’s hitting him now, bouncing off the side of his hat. ‘All of it. I’ll go someplace else. And you can just…’ He breaks character to rotate his hand vaguely, like he doesn’t know or doesn’t care what she was doing before this.
It’s over.
‘They’re all gonna get hurt because of you. ‘cause you don’t get it. So just.’
He lifts his head like he expects her to just throw it, two steps away from a sigh.
‘Give it. I’m sorry I even asked.’
That’s probably the thought that really gets to her.
“Wh—”
It’s less a stutter and more a scoff.
“—I won’t. I’m not the one who’s hurting them.”
She takes a step back, or more like a step away. There’s the sound of rain pounding in her ears, sure, but louder still is the way Gold’s words fall at her feet. Kotone lifts her foot, like she’s about to kick them away—like, for an instant, there’s something tangible there—but she stops the action partway.
The rain makes it hard to think. “You’re the one who’s hurting them—but you think you can just— ... take it back? I can’t trust you with them.” I’m not done yet, says her stance.
But forget it, says her expression.
It’s not because he asked for her help that she’s having trouble accepting it. A step back, and it’s not even that she’s having trouble accepting it—whatever it is, it’s starting to feel like she can’t trust him.
Worrying about Gold is the last thing on her mind and everything else is infinitely further away. “You’ll just keep hurting them. Is that what you’re after?”
She says it, and suddenly it sounds ten times more believable. “—Is that what you’ve been after?”
(He gives her his Pokemon, says that she needs to get as far away as possible. He says that he thought she’d understand, and all of the signs are pointing towards only one thing.)
Lightning flashes over her head and she thinks she might throw everything out into the rain. “Forget it,” she says, and his wallet falls to the ground. “I’m done,” she says, and his badge case lands neatly on top of it, skitters off to the side.
“Deal with this yourself,” she says, and his belt is out of her hands before she really has time to think.
