Chapter Text
Vriska insists on walking you down the path outside her hive to the bottom of the cliff and you feel things: surprised, touched, suspicious, annoyed. You have to keep disguising your limp and make sure your shoulders are straight even though all you want to do is just sit and cry for a while. You barely notice Vriska saying goodbye until she tucks your hair behind your ear and accidentally nicks you with a claw. The sting brings your eyes to hers.
“Safe journey back,” she says.
“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” you say, and she spits at your feet before turning and heading back hive.
Once she’s out of sight, you heave your breath into a sigh and throw your exhale and yourself onto the ground. Your legs were shaking, and even on your ass your knees are still fluttering up and down.
You felt okay, initially! It was probably adrenochrome that carried you through the fighting and dragging Vriska up to her hive. Then you numbed out in the shower. It was only after you ate Vriska’s offering that you began to feel as if Equius had given you a massage with his fists instead of his fingertips. You’ve always said an ache of the limb could never compare to an ache of the heart, but you’re very ready to revise your opinion on this.
You sit there a while, then start waking hive. Though trees are sparse on the foothills, you manage to find a felled branch to use as a crutch and make decent time through the scrub and shrubs. Vriska defrosted you a bunch of microwavable food to carry in a spare backpack, so you stop a few times to eat, teeth crunching through the grubshell packaging instead of finding a good eating stick to scoop the food out (she forgot to pack you a fork). You’re happy for the extra rations. There’s enough that you won’t have to hunt for a few days once you get back home and the opportunity to rest will probably be good for you.
Usually it takes you half a night to travel back to your cave from Equius’s hive. Tonight you find yourself sheltering in the trunk of a burnt out walnut as the sky lightens enough for you to realize you’re not going to make it before dawn. You crack scattered nut shells with your teeth and eat the meat as you watch the sunrise over the grassland. When the sun is just peeking over the horizon, its light is weak, and it’s hard to believe this is what blinded Terezi. You know better, though, so you cover yourself in duff and bramble, and go to sleep.
Waking is excruciating—daymares are a comfort compared to the pain your body is in right now. You open the bag Vriska gave you. At the bottom are a few bottles of painkillers you stole from her bathroom. You carefully read the label and take exactly the recommended olive dose.
You lie in the base of the tree, watching what you can of the skies out of the trunk hollowed by fire, sky darkening, stars emerging to wink at you. Maybe an hour passes. You feel a little floaty; that’s probably the drugs? Experimentally, you stretch your arms above your head. The ache is there, but faded.
You pull your pack on, you pick up your crutch. You hobble away.
When you get back to your home, it’s late again, sky peach. The painkillers you’ve pissed out by now, and you can’t help but groan making your way through the tight passage into the cave. Mom bounds up to you as you throw down your pack and collapse on the floor. She’s purring from worry, and starts breadmaking on your side, which pulls a yelp from you. She frowns with both mouths.
“I’m fine, Mom,” you say. She makes a small lilting noise, probably because you’re barely able to get the words out. “Really,” you say, and you even stand and stagger to a pelt to lie down on something more comfortable.
You ought to get your tablet and message Equius and Vriska and Terezi, but your mom lies down on top of you, purring. Now you’re warm, safe, and … asleep.