Summary: Denali doesn’t usually count herself as a possessive person, so when Rosé seeks help from another friend she’s not bothered by it. Though that doesn’t mean the realisation that Rosé has a life outside of her is easy to come to terms with.
Warnings: Referenced child abuse and injury
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“Hey” the ringing finally stops but the voice doesn’t belong to Rosé.
“Hi?” Denali says back, pulling the phone away from her ear to check she hit the right number: she had.
“No. Stop talking” the voice comes through slightly muffled.
“I’m sorry?” Denali frowns.
“Not you, gorge” the voice comes back through the phone more clearly, like the speaker re-held it up to their ear. “Stop talking, I’m taking the call for you” the speech is muffled again.
Then Denali can hear another voice that sounds in the background before it cuts off coughing.
“See that’s why” the other speaker finalises before moving the phone back to their ear. “Sorry ‘bout that, Rosé’s being a little bitch like usual.”
“Okay?” Denali enunciates slowly.
“Anyway, name’s Mik: Rosé’s current secretary.”
“Ooh, fancy” Denali muses a little distractedly before she pulls in a breath. “Hey, I just called to see if she’s alright, seeing she’s not at school.”
Mik hums lowly and there’s a pause long enough that Denali isn’t sure if he’s going to answer. “She got hurt pretty bad last night.”
“What?” Denali’s voice gets choked in her throat.
“Her dad got her by the neck.”
Unintelligible sounds fall from Denali’s lips before she can form them into a proper sentence. “I’m coming over after school.”
“Yeah, okay” Mik accepts. “She’s staying with me though. You got a good memory; I’ll tell you the address?”
“Yeah” Denali confirms before Mik tells it to her.
“…it’s white with a concrete mailbox” Mik details further.
“Got it” Denali confirms. “I’ll be over around 3:30.”
“Cool, just take your time. It’s not like we’re going anywhere.”
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Truth be told, Denali never needed the address, she remembered how to get there just fine from the first night she met Rosé. She also didn’t take her time. Much to her teacher’s disdain she was packing up and raring to go a minute before the final bell rung and was out the door before anyone else left their seat. Though that was better than skipping the class as a whole like she had wanted to.
After pulling up to the curb and taking the keys out of the ignition, it’s only the necessity of seeing Rosé that keeps nerves in her stomach from appearing as she walks up the path to the door, knocking three times. Within seconds she hears footsteps, and the door is pulled open as she steps back.
“Welcome!” a boy with black hair stands before her, arms splayed open.
“Hi” Denali says simply, stepping through the doorway when Mik stands to the side.
“I’m just doing something in the kitchen, but she’s in my room. First door down the hallway, on the left” he gestures in that direction before he moves back over to the bench.
“Thanks” Denali says as she sets off toward the door.
The room Denali steps inside is covered in posters, sketches, and printed pictures of punk aesthetic, seeming to try and hide the pale pink walls behind them. Though she doesn’t focus on it all for long since she finds Rosé lying on the bed.
“Hey Rosie” Denali greets quietly.
Rosé smiles weakly, then her jaw shifts and she opens her mouth.
“Don’t speak” Mik warns, brushing past Denali and further into the room. “Or I will follow through on my promise to tape your mouth shut.”
Rosé just rolls her eyes and mouths, “fuck off.”
“Charming bitch” Mik rolls his eyes back. “Sit up” he lets it go, instructing her to lean up against the headboard.
As she does, the angle Denali sees her from changes, and she gets a clearer view of the deep-coloured bruises in patches on her neck.
Before she can stop herself, she lets out an audible gasp and two sets of eyes look at her.
Then Rosé’s eyes flick over to Mik as he hands her a pack of frozen vegetables. Seeming to ask him to explain for her while she adjusts the cloth around the bag and holds it to her neck.
“It could have been worse” Mik says as he sits on the edge of the bed. “She never passed out.”
The comment doesn’t ease the frown off Denali’s face because it’s barely a reassurance.
Then Rosé clicks her fingers.
“It was quick” Mik translates. “And she could always breathe a little.”
“Rosie” Denali sighs but is otherwise at a loss for words.
Rosé smiles to try and reassure her but it doesn’t work.
“It just hurts, doesn’t it Rosie?” Mik asks her and she nods before he turns back to Denali. “He didn’t do anything else.”
“That doesn’t really make it better” Denali points out.
“It doesn’t” Mik agrees. “But it could be worse. At least this way it’s easy for a cover story.”
“Poor thing is sick with laryngitis” Mik plays up an act of touching a hand to Rosé’s forehead before she bats it away. Though she smiles and a short laugh escapes her, setting her coughing hoarsely into a sleeve.
“Take a breath” Mik instructs softly, placing a hand on her chest and pulling in a deep breath of his own. “Hold it… and let it go” he exhales it and Rosé copies him. “Good girl. Nice slow breaths now.”
While Rosé rights herself, it takes Denali a few seconds to register herself not moving and she shuffles her feet on the spot.
Mik must sense her uneasiness and turns to her. “She’s got the cough for it” he gestures to Rosé, trying to lighten the mood.
It works a little and Denali manages a small smile back at him.
“And her voice probably won’t be right for a little while.”
“Sounds like a good cover” Denali says as she steps over to a sketch stuck to the wall, just to focus on something else.
“You can have a look around if you want” Mik invites, gesturing to the rest of the many images lining the walls. “There are a couple of sketch books in the corner if you like looking at those.”
“Do you draw them?” Denali asks, her eyes moving to another sketch tacked up nearby.
“Yeah” Mik says as he picks up one of the aforementioned sketchbooks and starts to flip through it with Rosé. “Most of them are just artist studies or stuff for school. I never really know what to draw on my own terms.”
“They’re really good” Denali complements as she keeps moving along the wall, stopping in front of a photo.
Four or so people are grouped together against the night sky and a lone streetlight. Their outlines all blurred a little since they were walking when the photo was taken. None of them seem to be aware of the camera in front of them, all talking to each other instead or looking somewhere else. In the centre Denali spots Mik next to someone with pink hair, being shoved to the side by their hand on his shoulder. Both of them laughing.
“Is that you?” Denali looks at Rosé and gestures to the picture.
It takes Rosé’s eyes a few seconds to understand what she’s looking at but then she nods.
“You’re wearing eyeliner” Denali points out, studying the photo and the artfully done design lining Rosé’s eyes.
Rosé smiles and prods a finger into Mik’s arm.
“Mik did it for you?” Denali guesses.
“You look so young” Denali notes her more rounded features despite the sophisticated make up.
Rosé thinks for a second before she holds up two fingers.
“Two years ago?” Denali asks more out of disbelief. “You grew up fast.”
“Also grew out of letting me practice make up on her” Mik adds with a faux annoyance to his voice.
Rosé just turns to him and pushes a hand into his face.
“Yeah, I know. I can do it on myself now” he says unfazed, turning his head back to where he had been looking.
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They all sit mostly in silence, the only sounds being the flicking pages from the sketchbook Denali looks through and the shifting of Mik and Rosé as he plaits her hair. Denali had smiled when Mik had returned from putting the frozen vegetables back in the freezer and said that he wanted to do it. Rosé letting him section her hair in half and weave them into two dutch braids without complaint.
“I never realised how long your hair is” he says as he sits in front of her, finishing off the ends of the last one.
Rosé doesn’t respond in anyway, not looking up from where she stares down at the bed.
“You okay?” he checks. “You feeling dizzy again?”
Rosé gives a small nod, a soft whine caught behind her lips.
“Here, lie down” Mik abandons his efforts on her hair and pulls a pillow down from against the headboard for her to set her head on. “Get some rest. It’ll pass” he touches a hand to her shoulder before turning and leading Denali out of the room by the wrist.
In a confused silence, Denali follows along as Mik pulls the door almost closed behind them.
“It’s a circulation thing or something” he explains vaguely, sitting down on the couch in the lounge. “We just deal with things rather than question them.”
“How can you be so relaxed about this?” Denali asks sitting on the other end from him.
“Bodies heal” he says before adding more hesitantly, “and what choice do we have?”
“None, I guess” Denali says faintly.
“She’s a tough one, though. I say give her 10 minutes and she’ll be all good” Mik smirks. “Unless she actually manages to fall asleep.”
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The couch dips as Mik sits down again, having checked in on Rosé after the allotted 10 minutes. “She’s out” he shakes his head with a smile.
“How did you meet?” Denali asks, turning to face him better.
“By chance really” Mik begins, tucking his legs up onto the couch. “I fought with my parents one night and I left the house without any plan where to go. There’s this playground I hadn’t known about down the road and when I found it, she was already there. She was up on the platform, and I went and sat on the swings. I thought for sure she was going to tell me to get off her territory, but she never said anything. She just looked at me like she understood me.
“I don’t remember which of us left first but we were both there again the next week. Her back on the platform and me back on the swings. I don’t cry often but I had been and for some reason I couldn’t stop. She gave me space for a while and hung back until she jumped down and came and sat on the swing next to me. Still didn’t say anything… but we just sat there.”
“And it just became a regular thing?” Denali guesses.
“Yeah” Mik smiles. “Funny thing is that we knew each other for months without knowing each other’s name.”
“And the staying at each other’s houses started?” Denali prompts.
“I don’t actually know who brought it up first” Mik considers with a frown. “I think we tossed the idea around for a while without thinking we would take up the offer of it. Then one night I found her on the swing set instead of the platform - and of course I teased her about it - then she told me she couldn’t get up.
“That was when I found out her parents hurt her. She’d been shoved and hurt her hip… and I just knew that she wasn’t going to go back home that night, so I took her home with me. Poor thing could barely take a step when we got here.”
For a while Denali is silent as she looks back to the front door, imagining Rosé being led inside hardly able to walk.
“Then it kind of just swapped between us” Mik brings her attention back to him. “After I came out to my parents, I swear I stayed with her for over a week. Her parents seem to like me enough to tolerate me being around as long as we mostly keep to ourselves. Though I know she doesn’t come over to stay with me as often as she should.”
“I worry about that sometimes too” Denali admits.
“I think she’s alright now that she’s got you” Mik tells her. “I’m pretty sure she just worries about putting extra strain between me and my parents when she comes over here. Which is why I don’t think she was bothered about it this time.”
“Are they away?” Denali guesses.
“For about a week” Mik confirms. “It’s nice to have the place to myself but it does get lonely.”
“If you need help or anything” Denali starts hesitantly.
Mik smiles genuinely. “I appreciate the sentiment gorge, but we’ll be fine. We’re a team. For a while it felt like just me and her.”
“I’m sorry if it feels like I’m taking her away from you” Denali says.
“Oh no, how dare she find other friends” Mik disregards her comment with sarcasm and she laughs. “It’s okay. I’m happy she found you, and I have other friends too.”
“You know”, Denali shifts uncomfortably, “I was prepared not to like you.”
“Jealous of me?” Mik raises a teasing eyebrow at her.
“Not really… maybe kinda” she reconsiders. “Seeing the pictures you have up on your wall. I just sometimes forget that she has a life outside of me.”
“A different one, but not a better one” Mik weighs up. “But I get it. It’s a protective thing. I’m protective of her too.”
“Oh, I know that. Still, if there is” - Denali cuts off as her phone buzzes in her pocket. “I’m sorry, my mum wants me back home” she says as she shuts the screen off after reading the message.
“Must be nice to have a parent that checks up on you” Mik muses mostly to himself, his voice a little sad.
Denali is about to voice how it’s actually quite annoying, but she holds back from saying it. Instead asking, “you think it would be okay if I said goodbye to her?”
“Go for it. No matter what state she’s in, she’d hurt me if she found out I let you leave without it” Mik nods her in the direction of the hallway, making Denali chuckle softly as she gets up from the couch.
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The room is darker than when Denali had left it, Mik having pulled the curtains closed when he had gone to check on Rosé earlier. Also having spread a blanket over her where she lies on the bed.
“Rosie?” Denali calls quietly across the room, in case she’s still asleep. Pushing the door open a little wider.
Eyes blink open and though they’re a little tired, they’re alert.
“No, you can stay down, angel” Denali says when Rosé shifts to push herself up.
Rosé sighs contentedly and relaxes back into the mattress.
“Why didn’t you call me?” Denali runs a hand along her arm as she sits on the edge of the bed.
“Too much” Rosé rasps weakly.
“You think it was too much to ask?”
Rosé shakes her head. “Do too much” she corrects.
“We do too much for you?” Denali checks.
Denali shakes her head. “You could never be too much for us. If you need help we’ll always help you.”
“I’m sorry for making you speak. You should save your voice” Denali considers after hearing how painful it sounds for her to talk. “You don’t have to waste words on me.”
“Important” Rosé reasons.
Denali smiles affectionately before she introduces, “I have to head off now. Do you want to come with me, or do you want to stay with Mik?”
“Stay” Rosé answers looking guilty. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. It’s whatever is easiest for you” Denali runs a hand over her hair. “I’d love to take you with me, but Mik seems like he has a good handle on this.”
Rosé points out the door. “Gets lonely.”
“He said” Denali chuckles as her eyes follow the gesture before she looks back to her. “You be good for him, okay? Listen to what he tells you” Denali emphasises, cupping her jaw in her hand.
Rosé smiles with a soft laugh before she nods.
“And text me if you need anything” Denali adds.
“I know” Rosé says as she pushes herself up and is the first one to initiate a hug between them, wrapping her arms around Denali.
“You are okay, aren’t you?” Denali pulls back a little, looking at her in concern.
Rosé nods. “Just wanted one.”
Then Denali pulls her in for another. Careful not to rest her chin too heavily on her shoulder before she pulls back again.
“Look after yourself” she says, tracing her fingers gently over the marks on Rosé’s neck. “I hope I’ll see you soon.”
