[A/N] Gosh, it's gunna be a pain in the ass building Lily's relationships with the Earthrealmers-especially Scorpion, from here on out.
Lily tried taking a nap, but she was still running on adrenaline, which made sleep completely impossible at this point. It was even more impossible trying to ignore the hell-spawn with the fear of him killing her in her sleep. All the sympathy and pity she felt for him had quickly evaporated and turned to repulsion when Ermac revealed Scorpion was the one behind the whole fiasco.
She was so close to stomping off down the other dark tunnels that led astray, but she knew better than to let her anger make her do something stupid. She knew she would easily get lost, and who knows what was lurking down there. It must be dangerous since even Scorpion wasn't making an effort to go there. In fact, through most of her struggle of attempting to sleep, the ninja hadn't said a peep—or heard him move a muscle.
Lily groggily sat up again to see him in the exact same position with his eyes still closed.
What a liar, saying he doesn't sleep.
"Yeah right," she mumbled to herself as she continued to observe him.
Her eyes drifted towards his wounds that kept leaking blood. If Scorpion was supposed to be healing, it sure was a hell of a process. The ninja looked like he was bathing in his own puddle of blood. As a matter of fact, the wounds didn't appear to be healing at all. Lily became bothered by him not attending to aid himself, as he should have been. She looked away, wondering why she should even give a damn about his welfare. But the puddle that was beginning to trail across her side of the tunnel was too much to ignore.
Exasperated, Lily ran a hand through her knotted blond hair as she slowly inched her way towards him. In her mind she convinced herself that what she was about to do was purely to relieve her annoyance of the bloody mess. Nothing more, nothing less.
Scorpion's eyes instantly flickered open at the sound of her subtle movements. Lily flinched in fright when she met his gaze, but stayed in place.
"What are you doing," the ninja demanded.
"Well I…uhh…"
She was about to retreat, but dismissed the idea when she decided to stop being bossed around by him. Enough is enough. He crossed the line. He must take her seriously now.
Lily cleared her throat. "You're making a mess, so…" she looked around for something to use, and patted herself for anything.
Once she felt the soft fabric from her loincloth, she tore some of it off, revealing the bright pink-laced underwear that was given to her by Kitana. Scorpion immediately looked away.
"I will ignore your actions," he grumbled.
"Huh? Just let me do this," Lily huffed as she ripped the fabric into smaller pieces and used them to tightly bandage the wounds. "There. That should help stop the bleeding."
"I don't need you," Scorpion said, still looking away from her. "I've already said I heal on my own."
A twinge of anger shot through Lily by the hell-spawn's rudeness. God, he was such an asshole. How is that she ever felt pity for this guy—err—demon?
"You know what? Your healing process SUCKS!" she blurted irritably. "Why are you just sitting here like an idiot? If I'm such a nuisance to you, then teleport out of here!"
Her outburst echoed through the tunnels, followed by a moment of silence. Lily stood up, and vigorously wiped his blood off her hands with what remained of the loincloth.
"And take your disgusting blood with you!"
She stomped back over to her side, crossing her arms. A couple of weeks ago, Lily wouldn't dare yell at him like the way she did just now. Calling him an idiot would be an act of suicide on her part.
She looked up sadly at the dirt ceiling, thinking her mother must be suffering from so many horrible possibilities of what happened to her daughter. Especially since Lily was last seen inside her home.
Stop searching. You'll never find me.
Slowly closing her eyes, she desperately fought back the urge to break down. She missed her mother…her room…her bed…Jerry…
Lily let out a stifled sigh at the thought of him. She really was hopeless if she was still pining over him: the boy who shattered her heart—her bones. He lingered in her thoughts, haunting her memories. Maybe she was still in her coma, and all of this was just a dream. That would be the reasonable explanation for everything.
Coming to this conclusion allowed Lily to drift into a restless sleep, letting a couple of tears sneak out.
Lily tossed and turned, the cold becoming inevitably present. Without realizing it, she was beginning to shake in her sleep. It continued for some time, until she felt a rush of soothing heat blanket over her. Lily opened her eyes, and noticed everything was brighter. She heard the unmistakable sounds of fire crackling, and instantly sat up. She was right. A neat pile of all kinds of twigs and roots were burning right in front of her.
Scorpion casually stared at the fire, not saying a word about where this campfire came from. Of course, Lily knew it was him. He had made a campfire for her when they were out in the woods together. Did he notice she was cold?
This was probably his way of saying sorry, but Lily wouldn't bet on it.
"Thank you," she said.
He broke his gaze from the fire to look up at her. "I couldn't rest in peace while you made such a ruckus."
Lily took back the thought of his action as an apology.
"Then leave," she challenged. "No one's forcing you to stay here. Go up in flames and disappear already."
Scorpion stared at her through the fire very intently. Lily was ready for any other insults he was going to throw at her.
"You're different," he stated.
She raised a brow. "Different? What do you mean, 'different'?"
"You are being loud and obnoxious now."
Lily scowled at him, but Scorpion kept his eyes on her, which made her feel very uncomfortable. There was a long pause before the ninja spoke again.
"I am too weak to teleport. I need to heal first."
"Oh…" was all she could say. As soon as he was strong enough, he'd leave her here to rot.
Scorpion's eyes narrowed, reading her thoughts through her obvious expression.
"Don't be so imprudent!" he snapped. "If I tried doing it now, I will burn you to ashes! Is that what you want, you foolish girl!"
Lily assumed he was talking about the flames that enveloped him every time he disappeared. It made sense, she supposed. After all, he wasn't human, so him teleporting on his own wouldn't affect him. So then…he really wasn't going to leave her here.
Something didn't add up though. The way the ninja talked about his healing factor, it seemed he would be better in no time, but the way things were, it just wasn't so. Were the injuries that bad?
"Your injuries…they're not fatal, right?"
He groaned at her question. "It appears your annoying power makes it difficult to speed up the process."
Scorpion stopped, waiting for Lily to say something, but she just looked at him, listening attentively.
"No," he answered.
She sighed in relief. Wait, why does she care all of a sudden? What he did…was unforgivable! Unspeakable!
"You deserve those injuries," she muttered.
"What did you say?" There was a threatening tone in his voice.
"YOU DESERVE THOSE INJURIES! How could you? You're the one who foolishly risked our lives! And for what? Just so my stupid power can be triggered?"
She won't hold back. Everything she felt about today's incident terrified her. Lily experienced the same trauma she felt on prom night all over again. Not being able to control it…the helplessness…she swore she wouldn't try to tamper with her monstrosity again. The way he handled it was completely unacceptable.
"If I didn't pretend to threaten your pathetic life, you wouldn't be able to summon it!" Scorpion raged.
'Pathetic Life?' Lily snapped. "I DON'T CARE!"
He growls as he suddenly gets up, and briskly goes to her while managing to kick the fire out of the way with one sweep motion of his foot. This catches her off-guard.
Lily gasps as she nervously starts backing away. She bumps into to the dirt wall behind her, realizing there is no escaping him. Scorpion towers over her as he abruptly bangs his fists on the wall in frustration. She immediately yelps, squeezing her eyes shut, and turning her head.
She could hear the dirt crumbling down beside her, but there were no more hits. Her breathing grew rapid, fearing he would strike her next. If he did, she had it coming. After all, she had done nothing but yell at him. Expecting to be punched in the face, Lily was only greeted with the sound of the crackling fire, and the smell of blood.
Cautiously opening her eyes, she noticed she was blocked between his arms leaning against the wall. Scorpion leaned his head down to meet hers; his face only inches away from her. Lily flinched, involuntarily looking away again. She could feel the unbearable heat radiating off of his body. He was never this hot before. He must be really angry.
"You think you know pain?" he sneered.
The question was so random—Lily went blank. Though after processing what he just said, she was instantly reminded of Jerry's kindness, his affection, the abandonment, the betrayal, the creatures ripping out of her, and the pain.
Feeling her lips quiver at the memories, she bit her lower lip.
"My entire village was slaughtered. My family was murdered right before my eyes."
Lily tried to avoid eye contact with him, but his face was so uncomfortably close to hers, merely glancing at him got her held in his gaze. If she weren't so shocked by Scorpion revealing something extremely personal, her whole face would be flushed by now. His facemask was so close to grazing her lips.
She felt a little guilty for her emotions tugging at embarrassment and grief at the same time. Lily stayed quiet, only continuing to look at his eyes that showed so much anger, and a vague hint of sadness. Scorpion withdrew himself, contemplating on what he said, or perhaps the dark memory itself. Lily stayed where she was, feeling more sorry for him than she ever felt before. She was also mentally cursing herself for being such an idiot.
Every single one of the Earthrealm warriors must have some sort of baggage. Lily doesn't know what that may be, but she wasn't the only one who was having a hard time. They all were. They must have experienced far greater sorrow than she could ever fathom. And right now, she needed to apologize.
"I'm sorry…I really am."
"I do not need pity."
"I'm still sorry. I…I completely disregarded your pain, along with everyone else's," Lily placed a hand over her heart. "I don't know why, but I can sense the overwhelming loyalty you had for your clan and your loved ones."
She smiled sadly to herself at the mention of the words 'loyalty' and 'loved'. They were words she thought she knew, but they were only polluted in the end.
Scorpion can be cruel at times, but there was an odd feeling inside her that knew he wasn't evil. It was more than just a gut feeling. Lily felt certain of it. It kind of scared her.
He glanced up at the dirt ceiling, fixated by it. She wondered if he was even paying attention to what she was saying.
"What is it?"
"Foot steps," he answered, not taking his eyes off of the ceiling. "I can hear everyone looking for us."
"Guess they're gunna have to wait," Lily sighed.
Scorpion extended his hand to her. She stared at it blankly, looking back and forth between his face and hand.
"I don't—I don't have anything."
The ninja groaned as he yanked her to his chest, wrapping his entire arm around her. Lily immediately stiffened. Just what the hell is this all about?
[A/N] I really need some reviews from you guys xD I know I take a while to posts chapters, and I know I said I would get them out quicker, but I feel whenever I try to write a chapter by a certain time, it just comes out bad because I'm rushing. I wanna know what you guys think of Lily, and the story in general. Is the pacing good? Is it too slow? Does there need to be more LilyxScorpion time? I have an idea of the direction I want to take this, but with your reviews, it really guides me. Next update will be...sooner or later I guess lol
(As always, I'm thankful for you-the readers-who STILL keep up with Flower In Flames despite the slow updates)