they stand crowned in gold, high up in the heavens, tipping over the karman line; both of them breathless, drained, accomplished. both of them glorious, the taste of victory and blood coating their tongues.
it doesn't matter who falls first, plummeting down towards the earth; this too they do together, the flames of their descent wrapping them as one. two shooting stars become one and their glow radiant as they come closer, eye to eye. rascal feels his arms close around her, and she doesn't stop him, her eyes glued to him, and the euphoria of unstoppable strength keeping a smile on her face, but there is more. there is always more, and her arms do the same, meeting behind his back.
glorious, together. one, together.
HAVOC, HE WAS HUMILIATINGLY #@$%!! UP… not a state the erstwhile usurper would once let himself play around with & ever get THIS STUPIDLY CLOSE TO— no, not in front of them .
( ALWAYS making sure that his physical was tip-topped & hotshotted; not to be messed with. his crown not toppleable; ‘fucked-over-proof’. NEVER allowing any sign of an exploitable weakness to leak out & for them to instantly lap it up — they’d laugh right in his face, fling spit on him at point-blank, before tossing him into the gutter. No hesitation, not a second-fucking-thought. Because otherwise, he was nothing in their eyes. ).
BUT THIS TIME, jeeeeeez… he really allowed himself to get messed up, didn’t he? His trademark getup, despite being super souped-up, was fucking tarnished beyond anything. when during those bygone days before, even without chaos-enhanced stitching making it near shred resistant, it seemed almost untouchable, & oh so annoyingly inviolable. but that ‘one shall not touch’ one-of-a-kind ninties vintage jacket was completely RIPPED TO SHREDS now, & his once unblemished flesh underneath that the leather had shielded had gotten just as ugly-ed up in the collateral, lacerating deep; so much so, that the swift healing ability of the emeralds was still trying to desperately catch up & mend the wounds that still GAPED. he was completely & utterly FUCKED UP from just how fervent he fought. how HARD he had fought— recklessly, & stupidly
( always all the way stupid with her. only with her, did he go all the way with everything )
BECAUSE HE DIDN’T CARE THIS TIME
( maybe it was because this time, his head was really in it; because he had REASON to fight, & he was willing to risk EVERYTHING for it . ).
& OH HOW HE FOUGHT HARD. HOW HE JUST FUCKING FOUGHT & FOUGHT. He fought with such stubborness & an absurd fervor, more than he has ever before. Even when he had to get a bit unsanitary with it ( because, like what one weird ass cat taught him, you have to do WHATEVER IT TAKES, even if your only options may seem way too nutty & eccentric. EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO GET A BIT WEIRD. Don’t hesitate, don’t think — fight head on, but also don’t use your head at all ).
he willingly pushed himself over to hang on the crumbling precipice of DEATH, & even taunted it — he dangled himself muzzle-first, faced it head on with a mug contorted by the most goddamn uncanny, daredevilishly giddy grin that he’s ever mustered, & hocked a gooey blood-soused loogie into the gullet of death itself down below just coax a challenge from it ( ‘JUST TRY AN FUCKIN’ STOP US!!’ )
BECAUSE HE DIDN’T HAVE TO THINK. Not anymore. He didn’t have to worry about getting too carried away & getting pulped to the point where he was too pitifully incapacitated to be able to hightail himself out of there. because he wasn’t alone this time. HE KNEW that no matter how sticky things may seem, no matter how seemingly un-clusterfuck-able of a predicament he gets himself into, RASCAL WOULD BE THERE. as stubborn of a hardass as ever, ready to pull him out of it. She’d even pull him out of a gaping black hole that threatened to guzzle their reality if she had to, & she’s proven it countless times before. She’s traded many direct, way-up-in-the face personal head bashes with him until it FINALLY proverbially just hit him…SHE WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO NEVER GAVE UP ON HIM, even when his dignity got hideous… even when he was at his lowest of lows…
( no matter how many times or how difficult it is, WE can flip it over. )
& EVEN NOW, as they plummet down towards the earth, RASCAL WAS STILL HERE.
HE REACHES FOR HER THEN, searching. a seemingly sheer blind shot with how much her shining form blearily-melded together with the blinding reentry flames that wrapped them, but SOMEHOW, HE FINDS HER without a hitch — There you are ( of course he did; her charm was magnetic. HE WILL ALWAYS FIND HER. ).
& THEN HE PULLS HER IN CLOSE, centering her within his gravity — wrapping his arms around her, chest to chest, all with such PASSIONATE INTENSITY despite his exhaustion ( the neverending reverberations of her rhythm was CONTAGIOUS, grooving him ‘til the break of dawn ). Eagerly, he then pushes her neon star glasses up, before pressing their foreheads together… Oh, how finally getting a full-blown look at her just OGLED HIM STIFF.
& IN THAT MOMENT, IT’S LIKE THEY HAD STARTED ALL OVER AGAIN— Those bygone days of the once legendary animosity between rascal & scourge felt like a FUCKING FEVER DREAM now more than ever; fading memories of a pathetic whelp, too deep underground in his home of delusions, who was never truly living. A whelp who once wanted to leave his very reality.
WHERE DO WE EVER EVEN BEGIN & END, RAS?
Maybe it was now, where scourge truly felt alive, where they could finally begin something meaningful together… & he knew just how he wanted it to start.
NO MORE HOLDING BACK… it is a no longer restrainable urge that LURCHES scourge forward, finally crashing mouths with rascal with such giddy snappiness & WAY TOO MUCH CLACKING TEETH, accosting lips into a jittery beartrap of a set of incisors that clamped down on them a little too forcefully… before immediately lifting to tenderly & apologetically graze over where teeth had sunk… jeez, it was messy; oh was he ever the king of fiasco. & he wouldn’t have it any other way ( it was always a rocky start with everything with them… but they always figure it out in the end ). He could taste the blood from rascal’s busted mouth, blood that she shed for his sake.
It made him feel WEAK, coating his tongue with sweet submission… no longer able to hold onto the emerald’s power —
WAIT, NO NO NO NOT YET. HE HAD TO TELL HER SOMETHING —
❝ RAS…— ! ❞ I LOVE YOU. but the confession evaporates within a once spitfire throat along with, well, EVERYTHING ELSE— literally. & It wasn’t in a sappy ‘too tongue-tied to speak’ kind of way. Oh no, he was all too ready announce it to the fucking universe. But the heat that she emanated felt WAY TOO overwhelming now all of a sudden as he felt the invulnerability that the emeralds powered him with start to dissolve.
BUT HE STILL DIDN’T LET GO OF HER. he will never let go.
( he would have gone to HELL for her.
&, oh, how he knew she would have stayed to BURN with him…
— maybe in the end, they were both just meant for the FLAMES.