a/n: I'm sure this is not really very canon compliant, but it's an idea I've wanted to write out for a while. Feedback is always appreciated!

I definitely do not own WoWP or the title.

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I think I might have inhaled you

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I. Prologue – March 2015

Her leg is bleeding, the crimson color staining the ground around her, and it's Justin's face that appears over her head. Her Justin, the annoying, overachiever, but here at the end he's something completely different to her.

She lifts a shaky hand to his dirty face, his own blood gets muddled in with hers but they've always been more than blood and bone. The shade of his eyes might be the last thing she ever sees and for some reason that doesn't bother her in the least. If she wants anyone next to her finally broken body is defeated she wants it to be Justin.

"Hey," she breathes softly, still tracing his face gently, breath catching in her lungs from the pain. His arms are impossibly warm against her clammy skin but she doesn't pull away.

"Hey," his breath is warm, too, like the fingers now holding her hands. He isn't crying, but his eyes are doing the squinty thing they did when Max had been kidnapped and their parent's bodies were recovered.

She knows she's all that's left for him and now there won't even be that much.

"I wish you'd won the tournament." It's the most honest thing she's ever said aloud in front of him, but she needs him to know. He's always been the best of everything, and after she grew up, where there was jealousy, there is now only pride. She always knew who deserved magic the most and she hates that he's going to watch her die without any hope of saving her.

He lets out a short laugh filled with no humor at all, "Max won fair and square, it's why he's still..." Alive hangs in the air between them, she knows why he doesn't want to say it. It's such a small word, something which used to seem insignificant and she's never really thought about it until now.

"I know... but you wanted it more than us, you trained harder." The pain is causing her vision to blur and she grits her teeth because she wants to take in his face for however much time she has left.

Justin's fingers tremble as he pushes her hair out of her eyes and she knows that he's going to cry. He was always a crier. She can't see the scars running along his arms but she feels them beneath her own battered hands and smiles.

"With these badass battle wounds all the girls are going to want you." Her quip doesn't make him smile, instead he turns his face away to the dusty ground.

"Alex," he starts but she places her fingers across his lips because she knows what he's going to say and she can't hear it. Not now. Not here.

"Tell me about something. Something stupid, just talk like you used to." The words fall from her lips between gasps but he catches them and he looks down at her for a few seconds before readjusting himself behind her.

"Okay, it's not stupid but it's the only thing I can talk about." She glances up, eyebrow arched and he swears he's looking four year into the past.

"It's the story of you and I, Alex. The most important story." He whispers softly as she closes her eyes with a smile.