hello vonnie
we're not kids anymore.
blake kathryn
will byers stan first human second
gracie abrams
trying on a metaphor
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
Noah Kahan
★
@theartofmadeline
titsay
KIROKAZE
roma★
cherry valley forever
shark vs the universe
almost home
Today's Document
JVL
Aqua Utopia｜海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
taylor price
seen from Canada
seen from Malaysia
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Netherlands
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from Belarus
seen from Japan
seen from Romania
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
seen from Singapore
seen from Bangladesh
seen from Canada
seen from United States
@scorpiuslucci
I've got a little proposal I think you'll want to hear.
//
but first, for your own safety, listen up:
-no sudden moves.
-I take 50% off the top. non-negotiable.
-expect 18+ content.
-don't forget, I have eyes everywhere.
-don't try to touch Taiga...not if you want to keep that hand.
now get back to work.
No your honor i would never kill out of anger. I killed that guy for sport
romeo is crazy as a guy’s name bcuz it’s famously one of the most well known love stories between a man and a woman in history but if i were to meet a dude named romeo id probably assume he’s gay
We all know Taiga doesn't do shit as captain
Victorian Silver and Moonstone Scorpion Brooch
Item: silver moonstone scorpion
Romeo doesn't bother knocking on Taiga's door anymore. Nine times out of ten he doesn't even hear it, anyway. So it's 4a.m. and he lets himself in and sits on the edge of the bed.
He's been thinking. Well, 'thinking' is putting it flavorlessly. He's been...remembering. And seeing. And his brain feels like it's been tumbling through the universe, or maybe left in the dryer too long.
He's thinking back to their mission earlier, when the anomaly kept fucking teleporting back and forth, and he couldn't fucking hit it because he couldn't predict where it was going to go, and he was getting agitated because he only had one round left. And he's thinking about how Taiga sidled up behind him like a big, lazy cat, left hand holding him steady by the hip, right hand sliding along his arm to his hand, and neatly slipped two fingers under his glove and over the back of his hand.
And how he whispered "Malab" into Romeo's ear, and something changed. Because then he could see where the fucking sightless blur of too-many-limbs-with-too-many-joints was going to be next, and where it would be after that, and where it would be if he didn't shoot it, and what would have happened if he blew it up five minutes ago instead, and he ended up missing the shot anyway because he couldn't make sense of it all, and, and, and-
And now he's sitting on the edge of a sleeping Taiga's bed, not fully remembering how he got there.
//
@scorpiuslucci
Despite what most might believe Taiga was actually quite a light sleeper, or could be, though only if needed, like a guard dog always keeping one ear perked up.
Lulu was safe, he'd always been safe, Taiga has never been alarmed by his presence. Yet there was still a weird inkling, like a sixth sense alerting him to Romeo being near.
So this was what had Taiga blindly pawing at the sheets, searching for Romeo, not quite awake but not fully asleep anymore either. Once he'd caught the edge of Romeo's sleeve between his fingers he relaxed, releasing a small sleepy sigh and mumbled out a barely audible 'Lulu.' as he gave the sleeve the tiniest tug, urging him to come closer.
(continued from here)
Romeo didn't have anywhere near enough practice repeatedly wandering the same hollow, tortuous mental corridors of a specific vision, picking up a thread at random on each attempt and following it hand-over-hand like a mystery cable through the broken glass and the blood to find where it connected, to retreat into himself that way and try to figure it the hell out without feeling very, very sick all over again. Almost worse than the scene itself - and it was cataclysmic, and he could not think about that right now - was the understanding of what Taiga must have faced every time his eyes lost focus and oscillated like two gold coins flipping end over end.
Romeo was afraid.
He had always thought, no- known himself to be intelligent, if not quite so self-aware as he hoped. Very few things frightened him anymore. Not after all he had seen in his short years. All he had done. But knowing how easily he could become lost in those halls, following thread after thread after thread and all of them are actually the same, they all lead to the same room, the same ending, doesn't that mean anything, Romeo? You could haunt them like a ghost and not even realize you're trapped until you've been dead for years, while the body you occupied withers and blackens like the forgotten grapes in your nonna's garden.
Knowing that was what waited for Taiga every time he blinked, or looked away, or zoomed out during a lecture or a fight, that he might be balancing on the ledge at any time, or maybe all the time - that terrified him. Through it all, he had never once questioned that Taiga would be there. Taiga was just There, always. He wouldn't leave Romeo for anything.
But what if he didn't have a choice?
And then, like he'd heard it, like he'd known, like he always seemed to know, Taiga grabbed him and pulled him in tight. One the anchor to the other's wayward ship, one the life preserver to the other's thrashing soul.
Romeo kept Taiga from being lost at sea, and Taiga kept Romeo from drowning.
I'll paint this whole island red before I let it come to that.
Pulse soaring like a signal flare, Romeo gripped him so hard he could hear the puff of air he crushed out of Taiga's lungs.
"I'll blow the fucking world up first."
The tiny gasp Romeo had managed to pull from his lungs seamlessly morphed into a giggle, then a laugh. "That's my Lulu," he chuckled, pressing his lips against the crown of his head and nuzzling the spot afterwards like an affectionate cat.
This was what he's always wished for, right? For Romeo's greed to sink its claws into him so deeply everything else in the world ceased to matter, paling in comparison to his utter obsession with Taiga and mirroring his own devotion to Romeo in return. Nothing in the world would ever matter more to him than this thing they'd carved out for themselves, as destructive and unhinged as it was.
"My pretty little Lulu," he murmured against his hair, pressing a kiss to it again.
"Cuore mio." Another kiss, right where he brushed away slate grey bangs from his forehead.
"Anima mia." His lips pressed against his temple this time.
"Vita mia." And finally against his cheek where his lips lingered the longest.
It seemed so stupid now. That he had gotten so upset.
Taiga was always There.
Taiga was Here. Taiga was here, calling him all the sweetest things, but most importantly, every one of them started with 'mine.'
Romeo pulled himself as close as possible, as if he could crawl into Taiga's heart itself and lock himself in his ribcage for safekeeping. He tucked his head under Taiga's chin and sighed.
"Tired," was all he really had the energy to say. He would be annoyed with himself when he woke up in the late morning, still in his clothes and buried under Taiga like he was a weighted blanket. But right now, this moment folded in between heartbeats of the universe, Romeo was okay.
He had everything his greedy soul could ever want.
"I know," he breathed against his hair. God, did he know. That bone-deep exhaustion he always felt after his skull got split in half by knowledge no human being should ever possess.
But sleep won't ever come to him.
The noises of countless visions overlapping into a constant stream of white noise buzzing inside his head, not allowing a coherent thought but also not letting him indulge in the sweet embrace of unconciousness. It was torture.
Taiga didn't have high hopes Romeo wouldn’t suffer the same consequences he did, no amount of coddling him would take that burden away from him now. That's what he's been doing all this time, wasn't it? Coddling Romeo. Keeping him on the safe side, the side where he could always grab him by the hand and pull him back, never letting him take a peek over the edge into the abyss.
"You're just as naive as the day we met," he had said like he hadn't been the one to shelter Romeo from the gruesome truth for way too long, like he was some delicate little flower. Fuck that, Lulu was doing phenomenal given the circumstances, way better than Taiga had back then. Romeo was far more resilient than anyone gave him credit for. Himself perhaps included.
Taiga nuzzled his hair one final indulgent time before beginning the excruciating task of pulling out of the warmth of Romeo's arms. To pry those ever-greedy hands off of him he took hold of his wrists, pulling the other into a sitting position with him as he sat up.
"Sorry, Lulu, not gonna listen to your bitching in the morning." In lieu of elaborating his nimble fingers moved underneath Romeo's tie to pull it loose before moving on to the buttons of his shirt and vest.
Romeo whined in a way completely unbecoming of him. "Don't want to," he mumbled. He felt drunk without any of the fun parts. Tired, head spinning, not sure what day it was, thinking he might throw up. But he let Taiga take his armor apart anyway, because he was right, as usual...
'As usual?' You're joking, right?
He really must be exhausted.
Romeo clumsily pulled himself out of bed enough to deal with his pants and also to correctly fold the top half of his uniform to keep Taiga from crumpling it into a ball and leaving it to die on the floor. He was too out of it to care much about his leg at the moment, other than being annoyed that it hurt.
Not that it ever didn't hurt, these days.
When his fingers found the edge of his prosthetic, something-
hap pe n
e
d-
¿
Fuck, his hands are soaked in blood. His arms, all of him. His leg hurts, but how can it hurt when it's gone? No, wait, it's not gone. It's fucked up, but it'll be okay. But Taiga-
Why is there a hole in Taiga's chest?
Why are his eyes like that?
Why is everything on fire?
Why is it all...silent?
Romeo didn't remember ending up on the floor.
Taiga shot out of bed before his brain had even fully caught on to what was happening. One hand already clamped tightly around Romeo's upper arm just for his grip to slip for a split second at the blood-soaked vision flooding his head once his fingers closed around Romeo's bicep, like a jolt of electricity tearing up his arm and straight into his head.
The images where gone the second he'd lost his hold on Romeo, hand once again snatching him by the arm and only barely softening his fall, and yet the phantom pain in his chest and taste of blood on his tongue lingered on for far too long to simply be just another vision planted in his brain by the demon that owned his soul.
He should have seen it coming, Romeo losing his balance when his mind was suddenly plunged into the disorienting mess that was Taiga's only redeeming quality. How many times had he caught him on their way back from that mission, after seemingly tripping on air or momentarily blacking out just to come to again mere seconds later? The blood was no longer the only vile taste on his tongue as the realisation of just what he'd burdened Romeo with trickled in.
Cursing under his breath he not so gently grabbed a hold of Romeo's jaw, turning his head to face him and the clouded-over and unfocused look in those gorgeous eyes made his insides clench painfully. "Shit, Lulu, don’t scare me like that," he hissed, voice more of a panicked wince than holding any genuine irritation.
"S-sorry," stammered Romeo as he reached for Taiga, or where he thought Taiga was, or where Taiga should be. "'m fine. Just need a minute." He was shaking. Crying. He was crying. "Fuck..."
Still half-dressed, Romeo buried his face in Taiga's chest - which did not have a hole in it, actually - and sobbed quietly for a few minutes, the only sound in the room besides Taiga's breathing. He wished he were drunk. Then at least he would have a better excuse to cry.
(His eyes were even prettier when he cried, in his opinion.)
"I don't want to lose you."
What Romeo couldn't say just yet - what had been haunting him, almost as badly as the scene of Taiga's death right in front of him - was his vision of the same scene, with their roles reversed. With Taiga cradling him as he bled out through a gaping space where his wretched heart used to be, blood streaming from his mouth, eyes unseeing of the horror that was the endless depths of loss and grief in Taiga's wild eyes.
What Romeo couldn't say yet was how much he would give for Taiga never to have that look on his face.
What Romeo couldn't say yet was, "I don't want you to lose me."
Taiga caught the hand blindly reaching for him, pressing his lips against the knuckles as he guided it towards his side for Romeo to hold on to, his own hands just a little shaky at the sight of tears in those gorgeous eyes. Fuck, it wasn't fair something so sickening was perhaps one of the most beautiful sights in the world.
His heart clenched painfully inside his chest as he cradled Romeo's head against it, tipping his head down enough to plant a kiss on the crown on his head and whisper sweet nothings into his hair. Part of it was to ground Romeo, the other to not lose his own footing within the flood of all the ways their story could end, one tragedy worse than the other. Somehow they all ended the same, always with one of them cradling the other's dying body as they bled out, one in particular preluded by the sight of Romeo in front of him, rifle trained right at his heart yet his hands had never been less steady, shaking so hard he struggled to even pull the trigger. He'd never seen him this terrified; he hoped he never would.
Two threads branched off from there. One left the sound of his own laughter choking on blood ringing in his ears. The other left him with perhaps the sweetest thing he's ever tasted on his tongue, warm and rich and perfect and the one and only time he'd ever get a taste of it before his life would lose all meaning.
Were they really bound to end up like this? With each other's blood on their hands?
Yet somewhere in the murky waters was a future that burned brighter than all the others, figuratively and literally.
Flames licked at the night sky, the heat of it against his back. Kitty was there too, one of his arms slung over her narrow shoulders as she visibly struggled to drag him away from the inferno. Taiga had the nerve to laugh at her, a weak chuckle disrupted by a coughing fit that earned him a harsh smack against the side she had her other arm wrapped around and a 'Shut up!' hissed at him and he couldn't help but wonder where she'd gotten the moxy from.
Lifting his gaze from his own feet dragging and stumbling over the ground he saw a few familiar faces in the distance, more and more scrambling into view as they spotted the both of them one by one, frantically shouting and waving at the others while Harry and two Frostheimers he couldn't recognize rushed towards them. Harry slung Taiga's free arm around his shoulders, one of the Frostheimers taking his other arm from kitty's shoulders while the other guy was just straight up bawling as he offered his cloak to her. What the hell...
He could hear Harry chastisising him right next to his ear but all noise got drowned out the second he looked ahead and was greeted by a sight that pulled his lips into a grin and all he got out was a 'Lulu! Looking stunning as ever when yo—' before the punch landed and knocked him off his feet. Romeo was on him before he had the chance the brace himself, fingers gripping his shirt so tightly he could have ripped it. Damn, Lulu was really pretty when he's angry. Taiga lied back with a sigh, letting his eyes slip shut as Romeo's tirade went on and on. He could really do with a nap right now...
Drip
The fuck, was it starting to rain now or what?
Only then did he clue in on Romeo's incessant yelling having grown oddly silent and he pried his eyes open just in time with another drop hitting his face and sliding down his cheek.
Oh...
"You reckless fucking idiot... Do you ever think about anyone but yourself...? Don’t ever fucking scare me like that again, understood?!" The fire in Romeo's voice had been put out by the angry tears spilling from his pretty eyes and all Taiga could do for a second was stare before bursting into laughter until tears were blurring his own vision and he pushed himself up, throwing his arms around Romeo and burying his face against the side of his neck, shoulders still shaking with laughter that now sounded a little too wet around the edges.
"Lulu's always so angry, even when he's worried about me," he teased and it was then that Romeo's hands clawed into the back of his shirt, tears now soaking into the fabric on his shoulder as another weak 'Shut up...' was followed by a sob.
His fingers were drawing soothing circles along Romeo's scalp, the sweet nothings he'd been whispering at him growing in conviction until finally he managed to string together a coherent sentence. "You won't lose me, Lulu. Can't get rid of me that easily. And I won't lose you either... We'll get out of this shithole and go back to our place. And then we'll fly back to Italy and I can get your nonna's engagement ring and finally ask you to marry me."
Taiga barely consciously thought about the words just spilling from his lips at this point, spilling his heart with it in the process.
"Wanna wake up to your gorgeous face for the rest of my life... Nothing's gonna take that away from me."
With the many scenes he'd been watching and experiencing like awful movies inside his head for the past few hours, Romeo hadn't seen this one coming.
"...you...I..."
The words shocked a memory out of him. Not a potential or a would-be or a could-have-been. A memory.
Years earlier, when Taiga had practically followed him home like an oversized stray cat (that had been hit by a car three or four times), having disposed of his bodyguards in a back alley and grinning at him like he'd just caught a mouse, Romeo herded him inside to clean him up before his parents found out, and even though he didn't speak word one of Italian, he was clearly fascinated by his host. Stroking Romeo's cheek and his hair, examining his softly manicured hands, smelling the fragrance at his throat like some kind of bizarre predator. Romeo was fascinated by him, too, if on the more 'horrified' side of the spectrum as he washed the blood and dirt off of this stranger's body in his previously-pristine bathroom. Taiga was covered in scars and other evidence of old wounds, and a massive tattoo spread over his back like a painting. He'd wanted to touch it - he'd never seen anything like it - but it was probably rude, and they couldn't talk to each other yet, and, and, and, until Taiga caught his curious fingers and pressed them to the inked and scarred skin.
Downstairs, the front door opened and closed, and voices drifted up as his family began to arrive home. Romeo panicked and threw a towel at Taiga and oh my god what were his parents going to think, what was he going to tell them, should he start praying already? Which saint would listen to a prayer like this?!
Taiga had spoken, then, something in Japanese that merely sat in front of Romeo as a string of unfamiliar sounds. And he gently, but firmly, took Romeo's chin, looked him in his gorgeous eyes, and smiled.
"What was it you said to me?"
Taiga let one eye laze open. Romeo could feel the eyelashes brush his skin. "Hmmm?"
"The first night you were at our house. What had you said to me? You know, when my parents came home and I was going to have to explain what happened to Angelo and Vincenzo?"
Taiga laughed against his neck. "I said, 'You can't get rid of me that easily.'" He repeated it again in Japanese, just like he'd said it that night. "And I was right, right? You're stuck with me."
Romeo sighed and continued finger-combing Taiga's hair. "Yes, you were right. I am stuck with you."
Romeo curled up against him, leaning into Taiga's gentle strokes of his hair, still crying (but, like, pretty-crying, because that was the only crying he allowed himself to do), but no longer afraid.
"Sounds good to me," he whispered back. "It does match my eyes."
Looked up their birthday colors and found out their colors reflect each other I’m screaming
Before I knew it I made a doodle
Romeo doesn't bother knocking on Taiga's door anymore. Nine times out of ten he doesn't even hear it, anyway. So it's 4a.m. and he lets himself in and sits on the edge of the bed.
He's been thinking. Well, 'thinking' is putting it flavorlessly. He's been...remembering. And seeing. And his brain feels like it's been tumbling through the universe, or maybe left in the dryer too long.
He's thinking back to their mission earlier, when the anomaly kept fucking teleporting back and forth, and he couldn't fucking hit it because he couldn't predict where it was going to go, and he was getting agitated because he only had one round left. And he's thinking about how Taiga sidled up behind him like a big, lazy cat, left hand holding him steady by the hip, right hand sliding along his arm to his hand, and neatly slipped two fingers under his glove and over the back of his hand.
And how he whispered "Malab" into Romeo's ear, and something changed. Because then he could see where the fucking sightless blur of too-many-limbs-with-too-many-joints was going to be next, and where it would be after that, and where it would be if he didn't shoot it, and what would have happened if he blew it up five minutes ago instead, and he ended up missing the shot anyway because he couldn't make sense of it all, and, and, and-
And now he's sitting on the edge of a sleeping Taiga's bed, not fully remembering how he got there.
//
@scorpiuslucci
Despite what most might believe Taiga was actually quite a light sleeper, or could be, though only if needed, like a guard dog always keeping one ear perked up.
Lulu was safe, he'd always been safe, Taiga has never been alarmed by his presence. Yet there was still a weird inkling, like a sixth sense alerting him to Romeo being near.
So this was what had Taiga blindly pawing at the sheets, searching for Romeo, not quite awake but not fully asleep anymore either. Once he'd caught the edge of Romeo's sleeve between his fingers he relaxed, releasing a small sleepy sigh and mumbled out a barely audible 'Lulu.' as he gave the sleeve the tiniest tug, urging him to come closer.
(continued from here)
Romeo didn't have anywhere near enough practice repeatedly wandering the same hollow, tortuous mental corridors of a specific vision, picking up a thread at random on each attempt and following it hand-over-hand like a mystery cable through the broken glass and the blood to find where it connected, to retreat into himself that way and try to figure it the hell out without feeling very, very sick all over again. Almost worse than the scene itself - and it was cataclysmic, and he could not think about that right now - was the understanding of what Taiga must have faced every time his eyes lost focus and oscillated like two gold coins flipping end over end.
Romeo was afraid.
He had always thought, no- known himself to be intelligent, if not quite so self-aware as he hoped. Very few things frightened him anymore. Not after all he had seen in his short years. All he had done. But knowing how easily he could become lost in those halls, following thread after thread after thread and all of them are actually the same, they all lead to the same room, the same ending, doesn't that mean anything, Romeo? You could haunt them like a ghost and not even realize you're trapped until you've been dead for years, while the body you occupied withers and blackens like the forgotten grapes in your nonna's garden.
Knowing that was what waited for Taiga every time he blinked, or looked away, or zoomed out during a lecture or a fight, that he might be balancing on the ledge at any time, or maybe all the time - that terrified him. Through it all, he had never once questioned that Taiga would be there. Taiga was just There, always. He wouldn't leave Romeo for anything.
But what if he didn't have a choice?
And then, like he'd heard it, like he'd known, like he always seemed to know, Taiga grabbed him and pulled him in tight. One the anchor to the other's wayward ship, one the life preserver to the other's thrashing soul.
Romeo kept Taiga from being lost at sea, and Taiga kept Romeo from drowning.
I'll paint this whole island red before I let it come to that.
Pulse soaring like a signal flare, Romeo gripped him so hard he could hear the puff of air he crushed out of Taiga's lungs.
"I'll blow the fucking world up first."
The tiny gasp Romeo had managed to pull from his lungs seamlessly morphed into a giggle, then a laugh. "That's my Lulu," he chuckled, pressing his lips against the crown of his head and nuzzling the spot afterwards like an affectionate cat.
This was what he's always wished for, right? For Romeo's greed to sink its claws into him so deeply everything else in the world ceased to matter, paling in comparison to his utter obsession with Taiga and mirroring his own devotion to Romeo in return. Nothing in the world would ever matter more to him than this thing they'd carved out for themselves, as destructive and unhinged as it was.
"My pretty little Lulu," he murmured against his hair, pressing a kiss to it again.
"Cuore mio." Another kiss, right where he brushed away slate grey bangs from his forehead.
"Anima mia." His lips pressed against his temple this time.
"Vita mia." And finally against his cheek where his lips lingered the longest.
It seemed so stupid now. That he had gotten so upset.
Taiga was always There.
Taiga was Here. Taiga was here, calling him all the sweetest things, but most importantly, every one of them started with 'mine.'
Romeo pulled himself as close as possible, as if he could crawl into Taiga's heart itself and lock himself in his ribcage for safekeeping. He tucked his head under Taiga's chin and sighed.
"Tired," was all he really had the energy to say. He would be annoyed with himself when he woke up in the late morning, still in his clothes and buried under Taiga like he was a weighted blanket. But right now, this moment folded in between heartbeats of the universe, Romeo was okay.
He had everything his greedy soul could ever want.
"I know," he breathed against his hair. God, did he know. That bone-deep exhaustion he always felt after his skull got split in half by knowledge no human being should ever possess.
But sleep won't ever come to him.
The noises of countless visions overlapping into a constant stream of white noise buzzing inside his head, not allowing a coherent thought but also not letting him indulge in the sweet embrace of unconciousness. It was torture.
Taiga didn't have high hopes Romeo wouldn’t suffer the same consequences he did, no amount of coddling him would take that burden away from him now. That's what he's been doing all this time, wasn't it? Coddling Romeo. Keeping him on the safe side, the side where he could always grab him by the hand and pull him back, never letting him take a peek over the edge into the abyss.
"You're just as naive as the day we met," he had said like he hadn't been the one to shelter Romeo from the gruesome truth for way too long, like he was some delicate little flower. Fuck that, Lulu was doing phenomenal given the circumstances, way better than Taiga had back then. Romeo was far more resilient than anyone gave him credit for. Himself perhaps included.
Taiga nuzzled his hair one final indulgent time before beginning the excruciating task of pulling out of the warmth of Romeo's arms. To pry those ever-greedy hands off of him he took hold of his wrists, pulling the other into a sitting position with him as he sat up.
"Sorry, Lulu, not gonna listen to your bitching in the morning." In lieu of elaborating his nimble fingers moved underneath Romeo's tie to pull it loose before moving on to the buttons of his shirt and vest.
Romeo whined in a way completely unbecoming of him. "Don't want to," he mumbled. He felt drunk without any of the fun parts. Tired, head spinning, not sure what day it was, thinking he might throw up. But he let Taiga take his armor apart anyway, because he was right, as usual...
'As usual?' You're joking, right?
He really must be exhausted.
Romeo clumsily pulled himself out of bed enough to deal with his pants and also to correctly fold the top half of his uniform to keep Taiga from crumpling it into a ball and leaving it to die on the floor. He was too out of it to care much about his leg at the moment, other than being annoyed that it hurt.
Not that it ever didn't hurt, these days.
When his fingers found the edge of his prosthetic, something-
hap pe n
e
d-
¿
Fuck, his hands are soaked in blood. His arms, all of him. His leg hurts, but how can it hurt when it's gone? No, wait, it's not gone. It's fucked up, but it'll be okay. But Taiga-
Why is there a hole in Taiga's chest?
Why are his eyes like that?
Why is everything on fire?
Why is it all...silent?
Romeo didn't remember ending up on the floor.
Taiga shot out of bed before his brain had even fully caught on to what was happening. One hand already clamped tightly around Romeo's upper arm just for his grip to slip for a split second at the blood-soaked vision flooding his head once his fingers closed around Romeo's bicep, like a jolt of electricity tearing up his arm and straight into his head.
The images where gone the second he'd lost his hold on Romeo, hand once again snatching him by the arm and only barely softening his fall, and yet the phantom pain in his chest and taste of blood on his tongue lingered on for far too long to simply be just another vision planted in his brain by the demon that owned his soul.
He should have seen it coming, Romeo losing his balance when his mind was suddenly plunged into the disorienting mess that was Taiga's only redeeming quality. How many times had he caught him on their way back from that mission, after seemingly tripping on air or momentarily blacking out just to come to again mere seconds later? The blood was no longer the only vile taste on his tongue as the realisation of just what he'd burdened Romeo with trickled in.
Cursing under his breath he not so gently grabbed a hold of Romeo's jaw, turning his head to face him and the clouded-over and unfocused look in those gorgeous eyes made his insides clench painfully. "Shit, Lulu, don’t scare me like that," he hissed, voice more of a panicked wince than holding any genuine irritation.
"S-sorry," stammered Romeo as he reached for Taiga, or where he thought Taiga was, or where Taiga should be. "'m fine. Just need a minute." He was shaking. Crying. He was crying. "Fuck..."
Still half-dressed, Romeo buried his face in Taiga's chest - which did not have a hole in it, actually - and sobbed quietly for a few minutes, the only sound in the room besides Taiga's breathing. He wished he were drunk. Then at least he would have a better excuse to cry.
(His eyes were even prettier when he cried, in his opinion.)
"I don't want to lose you."
What Romeo couldn't say just yet - what had been haunting him, almost as badly as the scene of Taiga's death right in front of him - was his vision of the same scene, with their roles reversed. With Taiga cradling him as he bled out through a gaping space where his wretched heart used to be, blood streaming from his mouth, eyes unseeing of the horror that was the endless depths of loss and grief in Taiga's wild eyes.
What Romeo couldn't say yet was how much he would give for Taiga never to have that look on his face.
What Romeo couldn't say yet was, "I don't want you to lose me."
Tokyo debunker please release wedding Ritsu or Romeo SSR before I end myself
You can't afford me.
FUCK sinostra. i HATE those bitches. (not you ritsu <333 never you <33333 (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ) btw have you eaten today? hahaha.....)
STOP WHERE DI YOU COME FROM
Sorry, he escaped containment again.
I love him 😭🥰
He is the prettiest bitch of this game and he knows it, slays it ! Annoying bastard, take my money 😆
Gladly.
Malleus, Idia, Leona, Azul, Jade, Floyd, Rook.
@blundering-thoughtless-hooligan
prettier eyes
satoru gojo
romeo scorpius lucci
yes i do have a death wish
(holy shit 58 votes already lmao you people feel strongly about this)
there is only one correct answer, and I know where you live.
ilysm stands for i love you, sadomasochism
@scorpiuslucci you're kinda pissed at Taiga today. Which pair are you rockin
Romeo doesn't bother knocking on Taiga's door anymore. Nine times out of ten he doesn't even hear it, anyway. So it's 4a.m. and he lets himself in and sits on the edge of the bed.
He's been thinking. Well, 'thinking' is putting it flavorlessly. He's been...remembering. And seeing. And his brain feels like it's been tumbling through the universe, or maybe left in the dryer too long.
He's thinking back to their mission earlier, when the anomaly kept fucking teleporting back and forth, and he couldn't fucking hit it because he couldn't predict where it was going to go, and he was getting agitated because he only had one round left. And he's thinking about how Taiga sidled up behind him like a big, lazy cat, left hand holding him steady by the hip, right hand sliding along his arm to his hand, and neatly slipped two fingers under his glove and over the back of his hand.
And how he whispered "Malab" into Romeo's ear, and something changed. Because then he could see where the fucking sightless blur of too-many-limbs-with-too-many-joints was going to be next, and where it would be after that, and where it would be if he didn't shoot it, and what would have happened if he blew it up five minutes ago instead, and he ended up missing the shot anyway because he couldn't make sense of it all, and, and, and-
And now he's sitting on the edge of a sleeping Taiga's bed, not fully remembering how he got there.
//
@scorpiuslucci
Despite what most might believe Taiga was actually quite a light sleeper, or could be, though only if needed, like a guard dog always keeping one ear perked up.
Lulu was safe, he'd always been safe, Taiga has never been alarmed by his presence. Yet there was still a weird inkling, like a sixth sense alerting him to Romeo being near.
So this was what had Taiga blindly pawing at the sheets, searching for Romeo, not quite awake but not fully asleep anymore either. Once he'd caught the edge of Romeo's sleeve between his fingers he relaxed, releasing a small sleepy sigh and mumbled out a barely audible 'Lulu.' as he gave the sleeve the tiniest tug, urging him to come closer.
(continued from here)
Romeo didn't have anywhere near enough practice repeatedly wandering the same hollow, tortuous mental corridors of a specific vision, picking up a thread at random on each attempt and following it hand-over-hand like a mystery cable through the broken glass and the blood to find where it connected, to retreat into himself that way and try to figure it the hell out without feeling very, very sick all over again. Almost worse than the scene itself - and it was cataclysmic, and he could not think about that right now - was the understanding of what Taiga must have faced every time his eyes lost focus and oscillated like two gold coins flipping end over end.
Romeo was afraid.
He had always thought, no- known himself to be intelligent, if not quite so self-aware as he hoped. Very few things frightened him anymore. Not after all he had seen in his short years. All he had done. But knowing how easily he could become lost in those halls, following thread after thread after thread and all of them are actually the same, they all lead to the same room, the same ending, doesn't that mean anything, Romeo? You could haunt them like a ghost and not even realize you're trapped until you've been dead for years, while the body you occupied withers and blackens like the forgotten grapes in your nonna's garden.
Knowing that was what waited for Taiga every time he blinked, or looked away, or zoomed out during a lecture or a fight, that he might be balancing on the ledge at any time, or maybe all the time - that terrified him. Through it all, he had never once questioned that Taiga would be there. Taiga was just There, always. He wouldn't leave Romeo for anything.
But what if he didn't have a choice?
And then, like he'd heard it, like he'd known, like he always seemed to know, Taiga grabbed him and pulled him in tight. One the anchor to the other's wayward ship, one the life preserver to the other's thrashing soul.
Romeo kept Taiga from being lost at sea, and Taiga kept Romeo from drowning.
I'll paint this whole island red before I let it come to that.
Pulse soaring like a signal flare, Romeo gripped him so hard he could hear the puff of air he crushed out of Taiga's lungs.
"I'll blow the fucking world up first."
The tiny gasp Romeo had managed to pull from his lungs seamlessly morphed into a giggle, then a laugh. "That's my Lulu," he chuckled, pressing his lips against the crown of his head and nuzzling the spot afterwards like an affectionate cat.
This was what he's always wished for, right? For Romeo's greed to sink its claws into him so deeply everything else in the world ceased to matter, paling in comparison to his utter obsession with Taiga and mirroring his own devotion to Romeo in return. Nothing in the world would ever matter more to him than this thing they'd carved out for themselves, as destructive and unhinged as it was.
"My pretty little Lulu," he murmured against his hair, pressing a kiss to it again.
"Cuore mio." Another kiss, right where he brushed away slate grey bangs from his forehead.
"Anima mia." His lips pressed against his temple this time.
"Vita mia." And finally against his cheek where his lips lingered the longest.
It seemed so stupid now. That he had gotten so upset.
Taiga was always There.
Taiga was Here. Taiga was here, calling him all the sweetest things, but most importantly, every one of them started with 'mine.'
Romeo pulled himself as close as possible, as if he could crawl into Taiga's heart itself and lock himself in his ribcage for safekeeping. He tucked his head under Taiga's chin and sighed.
"Tired," was all he really had the energy to say. He would be annoyed with himself when he woke up in the late morning, still in his clothes and buried under Taiga like he was a weighted blanket. But right now, this moment folded in between heartbeats of the universe, Romeo was okay.
He had everything his greedy soul could ever want.
"I know," he breathed against his hair. God, did he know. That bone-deep exhaustion he always felt after his skull got split in half by knowledge no human being should ever possess.
But sleep won't ever come to him.
The noises of countless visions overlapping into a constant stream of white noise buzzing inside his head, not allowing a coherent thought but also not letting him indulge in the sweet embrace of unconciousness. It was torture.
Taiga didn't have high hopes Romeo wouldn’t suffer the same consequences he did, no amount of coddling him would take that burden away from him now. That's what he's been doing all this time, wasn't it? Coddling Romeo. Keeping him on the safe side, the side where he could always grab him by the hand and pull him back, never letting him take a peek over the edge into the abyss.
"You're just as naive as the day we met," he had said like he hadn't been the one to shelter Romeo from the gruesome truth for way too long, like he was some delicate little flower. Fuck that, Lulu was doing phenomenal given the circumstances, way better than Taiga had back then. Romeo was far more resilient than anyone gave him credit for. Himself perhaps included.
Taiga nuzzled his hair one final indulgent time before beginning the excruciating task of pulling out of the warmth of Romeo's arms. To pry those ever-greedy hands off of him he took hold of his wrists, pulling the other into a sitting position with him as he sat up.
"Sorry, Lulu, not gonna listen to your bitching in the morning." In lieu of elaborating his nimble fingers moved underneath Romeo's tie to pull it loose before moving on to the buttons of his shirt and vest.
Romeo whined in a way completely unbecoming of him. "Don't want to," he mumbled. He felt drunk without any of the fun parts. Tired, head spinning, not sure what day it was, thinking he might throw up. But he let Taiga take his armor apart anyway, because he was right, as usual...
'As usual?' You're joking, right?
He really must be exhausted.
Romeo clumsily pulled himself out of bed enough to deal with his pants and also to correctly fold the top half of his uniform to keep Taiga from crumpling it into a ball and leaving it to die on the floor. He was too out of it to care much about his leg at the moment, other than being annoyed that it hurt.
Not that it ever didn't hurt, these days.
When his fingers found the edge of his prosthetic, something-
hap pe n
e
d-
¿
Fuck, his hands are soaked in blood. His arms, all of him. His leg hurts, but how can it hurt when it's gone? No, wait, it's not gone. It's fucked up, but it'll be okay. But Taiga-
Why is there a hole in Taiga's chest?
Why are his eyes like that?
Why is everything on fire?
Why is it all...silent?
Romeo didn't remember ending up on the floor.
My morning glory doesn’t like the wind chime
SHUT
