That was absolutely the stupidest thing you've ever done in your life. Your eyes are clouded with red tears while your feet somehow continue carrying you wherever the fuck you're going. You could've had two moms! Two! Compared to none ever.
Whatever. You guess you'll find another box to live in until you die, pathetically.
You think you heard something in the bushes behind you. Your claws instinctually come out and you start to freak out. You wish you could just flip a switch and not get scared in the face of death which is probably about to greet you. Do you want to see it? Not really? Wouldn't it just be better if you died quickly, simply and you're turning around you guess. Cool! Great!
Oh. Those are paws. Oh. It's a troll… Two trolls. They both appear much older than you. Their eyes are completely telling of their blood colors.
Your morbid curiosity strikes more fear into your blood pusher than you think it can handle. Those… are highbloods. An Indigo blood female and a Teal blood male stand in front of you.
"What're highbloods like you doing out here?"
"'Zat your business, runt?" The guy growls.
"Ehehe…. No. Now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna…" You make to run but the Indigo is predictably quick and grabs you by the scruff of the neck.
"How old do you think he is, Raynis?" The teal blood asks as if examining a specimen.
You struggle uselessly against her hold but, just like Equius, she could easily crush you like the fucking bug you are..
"I'd say… five sweeps. If I'm right, which, I'm sure I am, his eyes should have a hint of whatever blood color he is too."
Shit shit shit Shit Shit SHIT!
You shut your eyes and let your instincts take over. From where you are now, you'd have to jolt down and l… the other right and you could free yourself.
You take a deep breath knowing it could be your last and lunge at your captor's arm and BITE-
"Ah, shit!" You fall to the ground and open your eyes. "It bit me! Fuckin' brat… ORCIST GET IT!"
The teal blood looks down at you kinda sadly you guess then jumps when he's yelled at.
You start to crawl away fuck your ankle hurts but you manage to scamper a little further away before the ground is far away again.
"Little shit." He scratches you across the face. You hiss at him and you see a sick smile grow, you see his fucked up fangs.
"Well… Looks like we've got ourselves a mutant, Raynis."
The indigo blood growls hungrily at the sight of your blood. She rips you from the teal blood's claws and pulls apart your shirt, exposing your ugly grubscars. She drags a claw down your belly, a cruel stinging sensation following suit as well as the sensation of your blood rising to the surface.
"I am going to rip you to fucking shreds, mutant." She spits in your face.
You feel tears welling up in your eyes. Everything hurts…
She slams you against a wall and your vision's getting blurry.
"N… Nepeta.." You mutter even though she won't hear you.
You're so pathetic. This is your own fault and you know it. You knew you'd die because of the fucking hemospectrum. You feel teeth and claws digging into your body now.
'Sollux, I'm sorry..' You think to yourself. 'Gonna have to find someone else to rag on'. You laugh a little, a tear escaping. You know they'll think it a sign of weakness but Nepeta… She cried every night.. And she's the strongest person you..
You… were dropped again. The two trolls are gone.
Fucking cowards. Couldn't even finish the job..
You hear a human's voice and feel a slight pet.
"Mommy, look, a kitty!"
You spin around and recoil, hissing and tasting iron on your tongue. A mother pulls a daughter away.
"Kayla, you can't just pet random kitties in the street! He's sick. And… euch. Why that kitty?" The humans walk away, the little one looking back at you for a moment.
Once they're gone, you collapse onto the indigo and red stained pavement.
Alright. You guess you'll just fucking lay here.
Watching your red blood drain from your body is almost satisfying.. You see the light. Finally. Let's get this over with, huh?
A car door slams and you hear someone running towards you but you don't think you care anymore.
Too late, bud. You're already dead. Your vision fades and before you lose consciousness you feel your soul being lifted up to the safety of the afterlife.
You tap your finger on the desk, bored out of your MIND. You've contemplated closing early as Rose suggested a few hours ago now 'but like… what if somebody needs us?' you say to her and it's true and you know she knows but you can tell she's grown tired of watching the same programs on the TV.
You turn to her and she puts a pen down and smiles.
"You ready to leave?"
"Nooo! I just felt my retinas burning from that tv, so I thought my eyes would maybe hurt less if I looked at you!"
"Well, do they?"
"No."
Rose smiles and slides her chair over to you and takes your glasses.
"How about now?"
"Now they hurt and I can't see shit."
"Problem solved, then."
"No! Not solved!" You puff your cheeks in her general direction.
"...And now an unfolding news story on a court case following the son of the local mob boss, 'Grim Reaper' Makara' and his ex-fianceé, Nepeta Leijon."
"My glasses! Gimme!"
You snatch your glasses from your girlfriend in time to see some footage of the jury that you assume is live. Good for her, you think.
"Jade! Rose! I need help!" You hear your little brother burst into the building.
"What is it?" You leap out of your spinny chair and rush over to him, holding-
"A troll?"
"He's hurt real bad.."
The poor thing's mangled and bloody like you've never seen before.
You gasp and take him in your arms and your heart drops.
"He's so cold! Poor baby.."
"The thing is.. He's a muta"
"Ah! Sh, sh!" You silence your brother. "Don't say that." Tiy thumb his ruffled fur.
"He's definitely got some broken ribs." John relays.
"He's certainly not strong enough to withstand procedures he needs then…" You turn to Rose. "Rose, get a room ready with an IV, now."
"On it."
You exchange a worried glance with John.
"John."
"Ah!" You startled him.
"Help me clean him up?"
You hold onto the kid tightly, making your way to the bath. While you check his wounds, John warms up some water and washing cloths.
John tentatively takes him from your hold and washes warm water over him, blood dying the water. You both carefully clean the wounds.
"Did you see what did this to him?"
"I thought I saw a few teenage trolls." You frown.
Poor baby. What to do..? You're closing fairly soon. And you really don't wanna leave him here overnight.
"I wish I'd gotten there sooner.."
You grip John's shoulder and give him a smile.
"John, you saved this little guy's life! You don't need to regret anything, okay?"
"Yeah, I guess that's pretty awesome, huh?" He smiles smugly then glances at the clock, back down at the little boy. "What do we do about him?"
You can't just leave him alone.. He must be so scared.
"Jade, I know that look in your eyes."
"What look?" You know what look.
"The look you get whenever any animals have to stay overnight."
"Well, I'm SORRY our overnight staff aren't the most reliable people… It's not like the animals sleep in bed with Rose and I when we taken them! That privilege is reserved for Becquerel." You puff your cheeks indignantly.
"Well, duh? Just don't let him run wild around the house. We don't know what he's like, personality or health wise."
"Jeez! John, thanks, but really, I know what I'm doing. I was born for this, like dad said." John looks down at the floor.
"He didn't think I was destined for anything but baking. Much less comedy."
Shit.
You hug your little brother and ruffle his hair.
"Keep proving him wrong. You know he's proud of you no matter what, right?"
"Sure that's not just you? Heh.."
"Hate to interrupt Sibling Bonding Time™ but we should be closing and getting out of here right the fuck now."
"What, somebody cranky?" Immediately changing his mood, John mocks your girlfriend who raises her eyebrows at him.
"No. It's past eleven now and my dearest Kanaya's fallen asleep on my shoulders."
And in fact, there she is; a damn cute bat girl curled up, on Rose.
You know she's tired too but she's too stubborn to keep herself from over-working herself, even if it doesn't earn the two of you more cash to bring home. You wish you could do something to help.. You guess your part-time job search starts tomorrow.
Rose takes your hand. You smile. John pretends to retch.
You give him a worried glance. Each time you bring up your dad, the seemingly non-existent gap between you and your brother grows.. John..
"So what's the verdict? We taking him with us?"
"Just to be safe, I'll get a crate."
"I'll close up." John nods, leaving the two of you alone.
"You collect the kid, I'll get some clean cloths and a crate." Rose makes to leave.
"Hey-" She turns to you. "I love you."
"And I…" Rose clears her throat, her cheeks flushing red. "You."
Dammit, Lalonde. What right does she have being so cute? She has all the rights. No matter how many times you tell her, she still has difficulty saying it in words.
You look over at the emaciated boy, taking shallow breaths in his unconsciousness. You suppose the best you can do right now is bandage him up, slow the bleeding.
You examine his body and feel one of his hind legs are broken so you gently wrap that up.
A red-blooded troll… What kind of blood could you transfer to him? He's called a mutant for a reason. Red-blooded trolls aren't common in the least! If he were to need surgery, you'd never find a troll with real blood to donate… And… you couldn't transfuse human blood into a troll's system, could you?
You don't think he'll be waking up within the next twelve hours, at least you hope he doesn't. You wouldn't want him to be in pain and though you hate to put it this way, it would complicate things quite a bit.
You pick up the poor creature, pressing down on his chest, checking for the broken ribs John speculated about-
Oh, no.. Poor baby.. His chest feels uneven too. You were hoping you could prescribe him with pain killers, get him to rest and time would heal him but.. If he's got flail chest like you suspect, you HAVE to perform surgery on this little boy!
You bite your lip and helplessly cradle him. Rose comes back in the room carrying a huge crate like it's nothing. She puts it down on the floor and feeling guilty, you put him in the cushioned crate. You'll do some tests to see how he's doing tomorrow but for now..
"Let's go home."
Rose nods and picks up the crate.
"Woow, can you carry me too, Rose?"
"And here I thought you wanted nothing to do with petplay. If you want to crawl into a crate reeking of piss so I can take you home, be my guest." Rose looks over her shoulder and winks. You quite literally verbally keymash at her nonchalant flirting.
"Rose! No! Roose! I'm notttt into that!"
"I know but you're adorable when you're flustered, especially about that particular subject matter."
"Well! You're lucky you have such a cute girlfriend to fluster!"
"Touché, Harley. Now hush and take my hand, we're going home."