Sides of a Coin
Notes: Usual disclaimers apply, not for profit, for fun.
Tyki, because Tyki, and for Ascended _Sleepers because Tyki. ^_^
..
In snatches of memory he thinks that Tyki comes again to talk to him. Memory? Imagination? He cannot be sure. He is in pain, excruciating perpetual torment. He can feel, feel those things inside of him. He is not aware if Bookman is still with him or not, but just at the moment he cannot seem to care. There are pangs of betrayal and hurt, as if the physical torture is not enough. He refuses to pass a final judgement just yet, because the old man is full of riddles and enigmas. Being his apprentice does not exclude being ensnared within his master's own meddling. He manages a rueful smile in spite of the pain.
"Come to do some actual dirty work?" He notes Tyki's informal attire. Probably doesn't want to get blood or sick on his clothes - he thinks.
"What? Oh the clothes?"
Lavi observes that the shirt is still silk though and the trousers, a soft wool. Nothing coarse or rough for the Noah of Pleasure of course, no matter how casually the dress. In spite of what he is like with his miner friends.
"Not sure yet what I feel like." He clicks his fingers and two of those god-awful, cannibalistic butterflies appear. They just hover above the Noah and make no approach yet. The dark man paces.
Lavi watches and counts his footsteps, because it is small things like these observations that ground him and tether him to the waking world. Or what feels like wakefulness. Because he has lost count of real time, these are the things that will keep him sane. Or perhaps he is insane already and it is just sheer bloody stubbornness that keeps the refusal to give up. To keep imagined insanity at bay. STOP! Count the footsteps you idiot. He scolds himself.
Even if he squeezes his eye shut, he does not lose count because he knows the length of the stride by now, except of course Tyki cheats by phasing near and far, as if he is aware that this is what Junior is doing, it becomes a game. A torture all of its own. The redhead shrugs - in his mind - because real movement is actually impossible. He casts his concentration on the flap of the wings of those misbegotten creatures instead. These ones are bigger, the hum of their wings heavier than those he saw coming out of Suman, when Timcanpy replays the recording of Allen's encounter with the Noah.
Tyki just smiles, clicks his fingers and the Tease disappear. There are no questions, or even idle banter. It is as if the Noah just comes to watch, maybe think. His eye follows the Noah. The Noah watches him and Tyki just paces. Briefly, they catch each other's eyes. For a moment Junior thinks that there is fear and uncertainty in those eyes, briefly he wonders if Tyki sees the same in his eye. He remembers thinking some time earlier, some when he cannot exactly recall, that on some level him and this Noah are similar. Conflicted and torn - between duties and loyalties forsworn. Different sides of the same coin. Different sides of the War. Phantom phasing again, just like that Tyki disappears and Junior does not know what to make of it all.
..
FIN
Notes: This is for posting date 3 Sept, sorry I'm late with these Birthday Wishes, but if it was your Birthday on the 3rd, Happy Belated Birthday.
Yet more meagre offerings from this corner of the world.
For what it's worth, I hope you like it somewhat my dear.
Love and hugs, thank you all for reading as ever, - love Zan
Part 35 of the 49 Days series