Prompt #1 - "She-wolf" (June '18)

[ｒａｂｂｉｔ]

June's 1st prompt is
"She-wolf"

---

If you have any questions about how to participate in this event,
please visit the The rules and Guideline thread or PM Karma.

Feeling like offering us a prompt?
Do you want to see your idea featured as one of the Month's prompts?
Click here to learn more!

[ArtisticVicu]

The air rushed passed as the ground came up to meet him. His back collided with the ground first, several things breaking upon impact as the air was ripped from his lungs. He had no time to reorient himself, to even get a breath back in his lungs, before he was rolling out of the way of the incoming attack. Pain rippled down his back, weakening the muscles in his arms and legs as he tried to get distance between him and his assailant. Another dodged attack and another till he misstepped and took a hit to the shoulder followed by a hit to the chest. His back collided with a wall, agitating breaks and breaking a few more things. The pained cry slipped out with the air in his lungs.

Words were being spoken as he collapsed to his hands and knees. What had once been beautiful wings looked battered and unkept, draped from his back as useless limbs since far too much was broken now. He looked up through sweaty locks, finding his vision blurred and images duplicating.

That wasn't a good sign.

A hand suddenly came into clear focus and he flinched back, expecting a hit. Instead, the hand fisted the front of his outfit and hauled him upwards so that the other could scream in his face. What headache he had been managing intensified ten fold, blinding him with pain. He grabbed at his assailant's wrist, snarling but unaware of the words he was uttering, if any. His tongue felt too fat to even utter things properly and the ringing in his ears was helping none.

He was dropped. While normally it wouldn't have been an issue - he could have stood up and been taller than the hold had been - there was no strength in his legs to even fathom attempting to support himself with. The impact with the unforgiving ground was crippling and he swore he broke something else. A wrist, probably, with how he had landed. There was too much pain and too much exhaustion to discern anything properly now.

Something touched him and he flinched. His head throbbed from the motion and he spat something. Words, he hoped, but at that point, could have been jargon and saliva and he wouldn't even know. Nor did he care but it certainly hadn't stopped whatever had touched him from touching him again.

He realized hands were pressing firm into his shoulder and hip, though there was no pain from the touch, like the person wasn't putting any weight behind the gesture.

Blessed relief rushed through his body as the pain all but vanished.

When he came to, it was to a sore body cushioned in a familiar room.

He closed his eyes as he ground out, "Who let you into my home."

There was a pause but the shifting of fabric told him he wasn't alone.

"We...didn't take you home," came the hesitant reply.

He opened his eyes again. No, that was indeed a very familiar roof and a very familiar set of walls at the edge of his viewing limits. He turned his head, taking in the guests to the left of his bed. The furniture and trinkets were his.

"Lies," he spoke but it came out breathy. "This is my room. Those are my things."

He watched the surprise and horror wash over the faces he could see. He wondered if there were others in the room mirroring their expressions. The girl sitting beside his bed had her hands over her mouth. She had figured it out faster than the others, it seemed. That or they were new. Wouldn't surprise him at this point.

"Alexander," she whispered.

One of the boys behind her started, his staring going from her to him in an instant. He would have smirked if he had the energy.

He head pounded painfully.

"It's been a while since we've been on a first name basis, Rebecca," he replied in kind. His gaze moved to the boy staring at him. "You look well, Marcus. I'm impressed you've lasted so long."

"Sir, what's going on?" a voice asked from somewhere he couldn't see. He didn't care to move to look.

The other boy behind her looked towards the owner of the question. "In a minute."

He blinked and suddenly those kids weren't kids anymore. Heck, they had never been kids despite the ages they bore. Young adults too young and now they were all well into adulthood and looking it. He was certainly feeling it.

Rebecca's marred hands closed around his, the scars of countless battles pale on every inch of exposed skin. Marcus behind her had a nasty one on his face. He was certain he had given the other man that particular scar, destroying one of the man's depth-less blue eyes.

He still didn't recognize the kid with them.

It was probably unfair to call the adult a child but, at this point after all he and the others had seen in the beginning, they were all kids to him.

"Alexander," Rebecca spoke again, her voice stronger this time. "Why..."

He wasn't surprised she couldn't finish that. He was certain she had so many 'why's to ask that they were all blending in that quick mind of hers. She had always been one to fight against the onslaught of words in her head.

"I didn't ask for this roll, Bear," he confided, the old nickname bringing tears to her eyes faster than any speech would. "I didn't even want to take it up but I ended up in it and I had to keep to it or my past was going to take me out and destroy all we had done to hold what remained of the world together."

Marcus shook his head. "You could have leaned on us. Spoken to us. We weren't about to abandon you."

A tight, tired smile pulled at his lips. "You two might not have, but Tenner certainly would have. Pin too." Marcus shook his head again. "Same with Lolly and Hector, not to mention that you two would have at the time as well. We were too seeped into the black and white views on 'Good and Evil'. It's why I never said anything, why I hid it."

"For so long?" Rebecca choked.

He sighed, too tired to placate her. "I had no proof you guys had changed. Those you brought on seemed too bound to the old ways for me to try."

"But Sasha-"

"That she-wolf can go-!" he screamed, the force of his anger actually propelling him upwards till the action registered in his body and sent rolling pain through his body. His words jerked to a stop as Rebecca and Marcus leapt forward, hands outstretched. He curled away trying not to hack up a lung.

It just made the sudden coughing fit worse.

By the time he was able to breathe again, he was on his back once more, Those that had been on the other side of the bed were closer now and he was surprised to see a few more recognizable faces in among the crowd leaning over his bed.

"What did Sasha do?" one of the unnamed familiars asked.

He gave a dry chuckle. He lacked the air to support it fully or the words he spoke. "What didn't she do." The breath he took rattled, pain erupting through him at the same time. He winced. "Not that it matters. You guys did more damage than she ever did."

"Alexander."

He flinched. He was trying to ignore the fact that they were in the room, trying to deny himself the painful joy of even knowing their eyes were on him once more. He denied himself the knowledge that they held nothing more for him in those gorgeous eyes.

Their hand burned his skin when they touched him but he had no strength to pull away.

"What did Sasha do?"

Even after all these years - after all the years of pain and torture he had been through by his own doing and the doing of others - he could not keep himself from giving them what they wanted.

He wasn't sure if it was his heart hurting or if it was actual physical damage he was feeling.

"Betrayed me as I betrayed you." He couldn't bring himself to specify which 'you' he was referring. "Twisted my mind, my thoughts, till I believed lies and damaging thoughts. Not that it matters. I've overcome it as I do anything else."

Their hand tightened on him.

He wished they'd let go.

"Did she sway you to that side?"

"No, I swayed her." He frowned. No, that wasn't quite right, was it? "I think," he added, confused. Odd how he couldn't remember so clearly anymore.

"Do you think-" Rebecca started to ask the others but he cut in, annoyed and hopefully two steps ahead of her.

"I am not coming back," he cut in. "There is too much at stake, too much that has to change before I come back."

"But-"

He didn't give them the change, didn't dare look at them as he yanked his arm out from under their touch. He felt unbelievably cold as he slipped out of the bed brushing away Rebecca and Marcus's hands. He was grateful the bed was between them.

"Thank you, for your kindness," he offered solemnly, his wings still aching even as he knew they were well healed. Rebecca's healing magic was always so impressive, not to mention she probably had help once he had been brought into his old room if not before. "I will take my leave now."

"You won't be able to come back."

He stopped in the doorway leading to the balcony he still dreamt about. He turned back, forgetting for a moment how horrible of an idea it was to look at them, to make them real. Their gorgeous eyes held no contempt, no hate. In fact, the love they still held for him made it so much harder and far more painful to even breathe than he would have ever thought possible. He tried to smirk at them but it felt off on his face.

He hoped they couldn't tell.

"I was never planning to come back."

He took off before the pain in their gaze could register in his brain because when it did, when that image seared itself into his mind well after he had looked away, the anguish he felt was devastating.