Disclaimer: I don't own Elsword (is this how you do it?)
warning: inexperienced swearing and like 90% dialogue
CYCLAMEN
When Aisha sees the red-haired man, she thinks it's about the craziest thing she's seen so far, for a number of reasons, and she's seen more than enough crazy for lifetimes.
First, there are dozens of bodies strewn carelessly in his vicinity.
Second, despite it being sometime in winter and cold enough to hurt, he wears an elbow-length, thin, black shirt with a wide collar. Before the zombies, or just bees, appeared, it might've been attractive, but now, with every inch of skin revealed, the chances of dying, or worse, turning, grow exponentially. And who would risk that? (A good amount, actually.)
Third, he sits on a lump of charred, gray flesh, casually, like it was a throne, and he was a king. Aisha could believe it too. There's confidence in the slope of his shoulders, a condescending tilt to his head, and power behind every movement.
He sticks out his thumb.
She slows to a stop, and before she can regret her decision, he's already climbing in and placing his swords on the dashboard. And before she can comprehend how he even got there that fast, he shoots her something between a grin and a smirk, gestures to the road ahead, put his disgusting grime covered feet on her beloved grandfather's car, and says, "Continue."
And because Aisha is a mature, reasonable person (unlike someone) who can see a swarm of bees approaching from the rearview mirror, she slams on the brakes, then pulls out the key in one smooth motion.
Red-hair, who also has black hair, raises an incredulous eyebrow, glancing behind them. He had noticed the bees too.
"Are you crazy?" He asks.
"I am not your personal chauffeur. You drive." Aisha challenges, crosses her arms with a vicious glare.
"Bitch, what-"
"Bitch? Did you just call me bitch? I'm your fucking savior! You should be bowing down to me and making songs about my kindness and beauty-"
"Why the hell would I sing about some insane brat who thinks she's something great-"
"I'm not insane!"
"You are!"
"You're the crazy one! Why are you wearing that?! And why were you sitting on a pile of dead bodies?"
"Why can't I wear what I want? Are you the fashion police or something? And I was tired, ok? You try fighting for two days straight and not falling over and fucking dying!"
"I wouldn't be able to fight for two days," Aisha says calmly, averting her gaze to her hands clenched around the steering wheel.
He blinks, startled by the abrupt change in pace. "O-of course you wouldn't be able to. You're probably weak as shit. Be glad I decided to get in your car and protect you. That's probably why you stopped, right? Because you were impressed by my looks and muscles."
A vein pops out on Aisha's forehead. "I wouldn't be able to fight for two days, since I would've taken care of all them in two minutes! Also, there's no way I'd be that shallow!"
"So you do think I'm hot." He smirks.
"A little," she concedes. "But don't get full of yourself, I'm still way out of your league."
"You're-" His eyes widen. "Shitshitshit. SHIT. FUCK."
"What? God, you're so noisy!" Aisha throws the car keys at him.
"YOU JUST THREW THE KEYS AT ME!"
"I DID!"
"WHY?"
"SHUT UP AND YOU'LL FIND OUT!"
"YOU DUMBASS!"
"YOU'RE THE DUMBASS!"
"LOOK BEHIND YOU!"
"AND WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO YOU?"
"Because-" He clicks his tongue, then grabs Aisha by the collar, yanking her forward so fast her neck cracks.
Maybe it's the uncaring atmosphere the crazy man has, because despite the world falling apart around them, when Aisha finds her nose centimeters from his (nice) jaw, and her eyes level with his (nice) lips, she feels a blush erupt across her face. It reminds her of one of those shoujo mangas she used to read in middle school.
But the sound of shattering glass behind her reminds her of where she is. There are no happy endings to be found here.
Aisha is afraid to look.
Red-black-hair glances down. "Turn around," he commands.
She does, detachedly, already knowing, dreading, what she'll see, because this is her, his, their, reality now. The grotesque, disfigured face of a bee peers at them, its head tilting to the side curiously, like a child. For a moment, all Aisha does is stare. She's never been this close, so she takes the chance to absorb every detail. The scraps of gray flesh and black ooze caught on the sharp corners of her broken window. The sagging skin, the bugs, the shriveled eyes. The few strands of ginger hair. (Her friend had ginger hair too.) And the teeth, always the teeth. In sharp contrast with the overall rotting appearance, the teeth are always a perfect pearly white; Colgate advertisement worthy.
There's saliva pooling at one corner of its mouth, and a drop of it falls from the bee's upper right canine.
Like clockwork, the world around her explodes into motion.
The bee's head snaps up as it thrusts its arm into the car, and Aisha's eyes follow the appendage when it flops beside her leg, the cut side of it burnt black. She can't move.
Behind her, the man grasps her arm harshly. "Wake the fuck up. We're in the middle of a goddamn apocalypse; there's no life for the weak." He rolls down the passenger side window and beheads three zombies in one swing. Their bodies droop and block the open window."And you're being really fucking weak. It's fine if you can't fight, I can protect you. But if you're scared, I'll kill you. Right here. Right now." To emphasize his point, he picks up his other sword and impales it in the armless bee's neck, slicing Aisha's on the way as well. "The people who travel alone through this hellhole are either retarded and scared as fuck, or just plain fucking insane." He pauses, examining the back of her head, and when she doesn't move, he sighs. He somehow flings the impaled zombie into the path of the rest, knocking down the closest ones. "I was hoping that you'd be the second sort, but it looks like you're just another coward. See you in hell, I guess."
Aisha reinforces her hand with magic, but the sword aimed at her neck still cuts deep into her palm. "I. Am. Not. A. Coward." To say she's offended would be an understatement. She's enraged. Murderous. She makes a half turn, gives a full glare. His eyes are surprised, though his face stays stoic. "I don't know which "sort" I am, but don't you dare call me a coward. Then I'll kill you."
If possible, she grips his blade even tighter, imbuing it with fire magic, and pulls it forward out of his hands. Although it's not as good a channel as her staff, when it touches an encroaching bee, it proves sufficient enough to burn it to a crisp.
On the passenger side, a hand plunges through the flesh wall the crazy man had made. He rips off the forearm without even blinking. "Alright. I'll take your word for it. Well, I'm out of mana. What about you, didn't you say you could take care of them in two minutes?"
"Two seconds, dickhead."
He smirks, leaning closer to retrieve his sword. "Show me what you got, then."
"Pass me my staff."
"What?"
"My staff. Right there. Next to your swords. Give it to me."
"...I'm not your servant. Get it yourself."
And because Aisha is a mature person (unlike someone), she grabs her staff on her own. "Lightning shower!" She shouts.
Countless bolts of lightning rain down around them while Aisha squeezes her eyes shut and plugs her ears. When she returns her sight and hearing, she sees what she expected. A few dozen piles of scorched earth and ash surround them.
But someone's laughing.
It's him, of course. There's no one else here except for herself and him, and it's not her. Aisha hasn't laughed in eight years, not since before the bees, and she doubts she's capable of mustering up the strength to laugh anymore.
She stares.
"What? Are you appreciating my face now that we're out of danger?" He bursts out laughing again.
It's not so much the act of laughter that shocks her, it's the feeling behind it. His laughter, while not genuinely happy (because who is in these times), sounds like he found something amusing. Which is strange, since what is there to laugh about here other than the dead? "...I lost all appreciation for you when you tried to kill me."
"So? Didn't you try the same?"
"I did not."
"You basically told me to drive the car or get eaten by the bees."
"That's not the same. At least you had a choice! And you chose not to drive, but you still didn't get eaten."
"You're just in denial. Why are you always in denial? You keep denying that you tried to kill me, and you keep denying that you're not attracted to me." He shakes his head with a fake sigh. "Don't you think we should fix that problem, darling?"
Aisha shudders violently. "Holy mother of Jesus. Don't say that ever again. I think I'm going to die from how disgusted I feel right now."
"Got it." He gives her a mock salute, before folding his arms on top of the dashboard and resting his head on his arms. "Should I start a list of "Don't Say's" for you? So far there's COWARD, and DARLING. What about honey? Love?"
Aisha mirrors his position and gazes at him pensively.
"...You're scaring me, darling," he says, nervous. "If you keep looking I'll really start thinking you're in love with me."
"Fucking kill yourself."
"Harsh," he replies, though he sounds honestly relieved.
"...Why were you laughing?" She asks.
"Is that why you're so bothered? It's your 'Lightning shower!' thing. Who actually shouts out their attack name? I don't scream "RAGE CUTTERRRRRRR!" when I cut up bees, you know?"
She blinks. And then laughter bubbles out as natural as ever. It's the whole situation. His face is so ridiculous she can't help it, not to mention that fact that she hasn't had an actual, proper, non-serious interaction with anyone in years.
"See? Laughing isn't that miraculous. It's like fire. You only need the right conditions, and it comes easily."
"Where are you headed?" She asks abruptly.
"Lansing."
One word and Aisha's laughing again. Because it's Lansing, the home of the bees, and absolutely no one wants to go there, but of course he does, and coincidentally, so does she. "You're completely insane."
"I thought we established that already."
"We're two of a kind! I'll take you there."
"Seriously? Fucking great. I was planning on killing you and stealing your car if you wouldn't take me all the way there."
"As if you could," she scoffs, sitting up straight and stretching.
She has to rethink her words, though. Her vision is swimming with black dots, and her limbs feel like noodles. As she topples to the side, she thinks that he really could kill her.
But he catches her with warm and gentle hands, and then she thinks that he won't.
Author's Note: I didn't check for errors, so, sorry if you find anything. Also, sorry for weird formatting, idk how this works. Also, I might write three chapters for this, but it seems fine by itself so I won't feel too bad about ditching it. If I do write more, I'll skip a lot of stuff until the ending, bc I suck at writing action, and I'm too lazy and too busy to actually try. Thanks if you actually suffered through the story and got this far. And please leave feedback/advice, so that I can feel happy and improve on my writing.
and I realized in one of the lines i accidentally copied a line from Hunter x Hunter but I wrote it without thinking of HxH so I guess it should be ok?
And cyclamen is a flower; if you look up the meaning you can kind of tell what the general ending of the whole story will be