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Clot isn’t exactly a place one would describe as peaceful per-se, but it wasn’t particularly chaotic for the most part, either. When she hadn’t had any Sinners visiting its bloody realm, Sorrow typically found itself sitting on a rock, a sunken ship, any surface really, watching the rain fall and Tragedy leap from the ocean every now and then. Every now and then, she’d dive right in and swim alongside the leviathan, capable of easily outspeeding it with her squid-like lower half if she really wanted to.
Sorrow’s forlorn gaze was stuck on the beautiful ripples in the claret ocean, its tentacles dangling from the surface she sat on, dipping themselves into the sea, the warmth bringing her at ease any day of the week. Of course, there was always something that seemed to tug at it that it couldn’t quite put its finger on, that wrenched its soul like no other, but when she got to just mellow out properly instead of taking it all out on the self-loathing, it was nice enough.
It was safe to say that she was distracted enough to the point of not immediately noticing when an entryway had opened up to drop a Sinner into its domain. It wasn’t until her entire vision had turned blue and she could hear a faint cawing in the distance, preparing itself for what’s to come, for her to actually glance up. Yes, someone was about to drop in, but to her surprise, this wasn’t a Sinner at all.
A snow bright figure, chains in place of limbs, wordlessly began to fall from the entryway, but not seemingly on his own volition. Rather, they fell as though someone had shoved them right in, his “arms” reaching for the rift to no avail, and not a peep leaving their mouth as they fell. Despite the speed of which he was shoved into the water, he landed with hardly any semblance of a splash at all.
This wasn’t right. The entrance to Clot was purposefully extremely scuffed, and most sins were intended to be barred from it completely. Silently as well, Sorrow plunged its entire body into the drink, propelling itself towards its visitor at a faster speed than she usually swam at. Quickly, it snatched up the other sin and darted upwards, leaping out of the ocean with a great amount of water as she made its way back to the rock and placed the sin down.
Their vertical eyes had been wincing tightly shut the entire time, and they seemed incredibly hesitant to even attempt to open them. Sorrow backed away slightly, giving him more space as she spoke gently his way. Interestingly, the rain that had been falling rather moderately before had begun to lighten up; not entirely, but she found that the clouds had shifted their tears into light sprinkles as its gaze met the other.
Eventually, they finally opened up, slowly but surely, as his gaze met Sorrow’s aquatic figure. Very slowly, it inched closer to them, trying not to worsen the fear of the already startled sin. The look in their eyes could be recognized anywhere— Rue, wasn’t he? That sounded right.
Rue’s entire body trembled, eyes less despaired in his usual saddened sense and more outright terrified. Suppose anybody would be mortified out of their mind after being shoved into an ocean of blood from the sky, but something was telling Sorrow that there was more to their terror than she had initially thought.
Unfortunately, she didn’t know what that something was.
Sorrow continued to study Rue, who became increasingly more shifty as he attempted to shield their head to the best of their ability from the light drizzle. Their gaze remained on her as its eyes looked all over their blood soaked form. Soon enough, its sights fell upon a large bandage on their cheek, and she slowly brought its hand towards it to remove it.
“Would it be alright if I…?”
Rue nodded hastily. Sorrow’s hand reached forward, gently pulling at it until the adhesive came off of her visitor’s face. It was rather easy to remove, being soaking wet, after all. As it came undone, Sorrow spied a large scratch mark that was hidden beneath. Her hand reached for the injury, a curiosity in her body language, only for Rue to swat away at it with their chains, causing her to draw back as it lightly rubbed the hurt areas in hopes of soothing the pain.
“I’m sorry…”
Where in the world did this scratch come from? Sorrow’s mind could do nothing but blank on the possibilities. Most of the time, she’d see injuries like this on the wrists or thighs of Sinners, but those were typically larger and occurred outside of Clot, just as this had. Did Rue ever even use their chains like hands? What blade was at their disposal that left cuts so small in comparison to the marks of the Sinners?
It was very unlike it to do this normally, but Sorrow had, after a bit of thought, opened her arms for Rue to fall into her embrace. He hesitated, fidgeting with his chains uncomfortably, before nervously approaching. They seemed to struggle with the simple task of floating, somehow stumbling as they moved, but eventually reached the squid-like sin, allowing himself to be enveloped in Sorrow’s embrace.
Sorrow found itself incredibly surprised, possibly more-so than at their arrival in the first place, at the condition of Rue’s body. She had faintly recalled holding certain Sinners in the past, often the ones that her feathered friend had been the one to take out, and they tended to have a bit of warmth to them that quickly diminished. Rue’s body was incredibly hot in comparison, a bit of sweat mixing in with the ocean that drenched them as they violently shivered and trembled in its grasp.
“Is there anything I can do to help you…?”
The question had an air of sadness that seemed different from its usual woebegone self, as if she already knew the answer from the moment she saw them. Tears very quickly began to well up in Rue’s eyes as he shook his head gently, seemingly to avoid worsening a headache. Despite this helplessness, he burrowed his head further into Sorrow’s form, letting out all the tears they needed to as Sorrow gently stroked their back.
“Do you wish to stay any longer…?”
The words that left Sorrow’s mouth only seemed to make Rue tense up in a deeply uncomfortable, uncertain manner, unlike anything the squid-like sin had seen from him yet. His eyes uncomfortably darted around the entirety of Clot, and then comfortably at Sorrow, beginning to quiver even further as Sorrow simply planted a kiss onto Rue’s forehead.
“Actually, wait a moment… Why don’t I spend time with you outside…?”
At the sound of that proposition, Rue’s eyes seemed to light up for the first time in their whole visit, as well as the first time Sorrow had ever seen that from them. Their body never grew out of the way it shook as hard as it did, but a newfound comfort seemed to settle into him when Sorrow offered this to him. He nodded slowly, bringing a chain to their eyes to wipe them as Sorrow manifested the two of them outside of Clot.
He wouldn’t be okay, but with Sorrow at their side, maybe he could have a little bit of comfort after all.
That is, as long as they don’t run into Ire, of course.