Sent from @thefatalmarksman
“do you remember hitting your head?” here, have a concerned woof dad who totally isn’t actually concerned at all for his knife dotter while he has one arm slung about her back and the other hand pressed against her forehead, haha, jsjs.
She's standing on two stilts. Legs stiff and body tense as Xion bent forward at the waist. Her stomach turned over, flipping and flopping, and churning like she was about to regurgitate her breakfast. Xion swallowed, hard, tamping down the taste of bile and iron on her tongue. She reached for the wall, coarse concrete blocks rough under the scrapped skin of her palm and cold, numb fingers. What would Xigbar say?
Ah, yes, she felt like complete horse shit.
He stooped beside her, arm slung over her shoulders, supporting her by pressing his hip into hers so she could lean into him. Through the layers of coats and shirts, clothes damp from the subsided drizzle from that afternoon, he was warm. Skin warm, where at the moment she felt cold, like ice had crept up her throat and nipped at her chapped lips. She could taste the lingering magic, a dry and bitter mouthfeel like the bite of Xigbar's vodka laced orange juice.
Xion gathered spit in her mouth and spat. The spittle collected, marred with red blood on the puddle-stained pavement. Streaked with the iridescent blur of oil and dust. Reflecting a gray, overcast sky.
"I-I'm fine," Xion groaned, lying through her teeth. Her voice choked and hoarse, struggling to scratch the words out of her own lungs. She straightened, body and muscles protesting.
She let him collect her, pulling her towards his chest. An uncharacteristic protectiveness and closeness for them. When they held each other at arm's length, warded off by sarcasm and words drawled in flat affect. In the tight grip on her shoulder and the strain of his hands, digging into her coat, Xion understood that Xigbar had been worried.
"i don't remember what attacked me," Xion confessed. She smoothed her hand over her forehead, growling and teeth bared. "They're going to regret it."