Title: 13th Hour
Author: Naisumi
Rating: R
Pairings: implied Lance/Scott and Todd/Pietro
Disclaimer: You've _got_ to be kidding...^.~
Archive: If you want, but could you tell me at least?
Warnings: Deathfic, slash, angst
Notes: There're lots of ambiguous phrases and symbolism ^-^ So beware. And yes, you've been warned: THIS IS A DEATHFIC. ANGST. AAAANGST! ^-^;; *coughs* Anyways...
Additional Notes: This is _not_ betad.
Enjoy, and please give me C&C!!! Comments and critics welcome, flames will be posted and laughed at and then used for the litter box.
"blah." People speak -- uh...scene switch
--
The sky was streaked with smog, silvery black and ebony gray. Outside, the rain pelted quivering puddles of brownish water, miniature lakes that dotted the land, as if the earth itself were bleeding from the pinprick stabs of hoary celestial tears. The trees were smeared over with drab olive, seeming aloft and distant, like faraway military holdings. They stood, slumped in defeat against the ashen sky, their leaves trembling under the streaming assault of icy water, as if humbled through all the pain.
He could remember a time when a sprightly boy would grab his arm every time it rained, exclaiming with delight, "Let's go outside!"
Then they would stand there, he pretending to scoff at the childish actions, the other with his face tilted upwards towards the open floodgates of heaven, as if enveloped in a river of communication between him and some other caring deity that existed in his own mind. Hours upon hours...just the two of them in the rain, dew-lit stars shooting past them before diving into rippling puddles. Then they'd go back inside and get scolded...but that didn't mater. All that mattered was spring...rain; life.
Yes, he could remember Pietro Maximoff. He remembered Pietro, the boy with cerulean eyes that engulfed the skies and lit them with a million fireworks, a billion glowing stars, forged in the bellowing furnace of life and emerging ever brighter. In the midst of it all, he remember Pietro, his head dropping as he fell asleep. Yes, that was what it was...sleep.
"Todd," he had said, "What do you think it's like to die?"
It was absurd...of course it was. Absolutely absurd...why would Pietro with his sparkling elfin eyes ask about death? A joke, of course. Of course. Just supposing...
"Who knows," he continued, voice trembling slightly, "Maybe it'll be just like falling asleep."
Trembling? Why trembling? The cold...it m ust be the cold. All the snow around...that's all there is. Cold. That's all it is.
"Todd! Todd, don't you leave me, too! TODD!"
Too? Why 'too?' There's no other 'too...' No one's leaving Pietro. No one's left. No one is going...We're all here and we're going to...going to...to...
"Todd..." Not as desperate as before. "Todd, it's going to be okay."
Of course it's going to be okay. Why do you think it's not? Since when? WHEN?!
"You just go with them, okay? Lance would want..."
Lance? What about Lance? Lance...he's just sleeping, too. Maybe I feel tired. Maybe I should go to sleep, too...Maybe.
"Todd, it's over, okay? Okay...? It-It's..."
Pietro...no, don't fall asleep. Not you! NOT YOU!! Pietro!!
"C'mon kid...you've got to..."
Kid? Not a kid...I can't be. I can't. Seen too much, hurt too much...c-can't...
"It'd be all right...all right for once..."
Pietro?
"Pietro...? Pie...tro...?"
"All right...all...right..."
"Pietro!" His voice was low now, a soft, tired drawl.
"It'a......all..."
"P-Pietro--"
Todd quivered and stumbled to his feet only to slip, his palms slapping down in lukewarm liquid.
Water, he told himself desperately, ignoring the redness that now stained his fingernails, his skin, his tears.
"Pietro!" He reached toward his friend--the slight body lax, slumped against the wall, azure eyes staring blankly into the reflecting pool of crimson that glazed the floor around him.
"Pietro, wake up..." His voice sounded foreign; reedy, high, trembling.
"Pietro, this isn't funny..."
Todd lurched forward, his hands spanning Pietro's chest, feeling the blood gush out, painting his fingers with scarlet despair.
"Pietro..."
He whimpered slightly, pressing his fingers to the pale, cooling skin of the other boy's neck, quaking even more violently when all he could feel was remnant warmth and his own blood rushing past.
Yes, it had to be a joke...just like when...
A rattling cough shook his frame, and he wiped his mouth with one trembling hand. It came away red.
"Y'know...we gotta survive..."
He stared at the blood, morbidly fascinated. It looked fake, too red with spittle. Another violent hacking convulsion rippled through him, and Lance doubled over with the force of dry heaving. He clutched his stomach.
"We...maybe we won't all survive, but..."
It didn't make any sense. What was Lance talking about...? Where was Pietro? Fred?
"You haveta get out of here, Todd."
"No way, yo...I ain't leaving you!"
The words came unbidden and heartfelt to his lips even as his mind raced, attempting to comprehend the situation and failing.
"Dammit, Todd!" Lance lunged for him, staring wide-eyed into his countenance as his slippery fingers clutched the younger boy's shoulders, his breath ragged as his bit out urgently, "Those bastards are goin' to come for you, too!"
Todd could feel himself shaking uncontrollably and didn't know why. It hurt, seeing Lance like that--with dimming eyes and parched, cracking lips. A dull ache throbbed somewhere in his body, filling the cavity of his soul with desolation while siphoning away all lemonade happiness.
"Lance?" he whispered, voice unfamiliar, as if someone had let out the hurt, lonely child of his past and asked him to speak.
Sienna eyes closed before opening once more, faded amber than anything else now. Todd heard an indistinguishable voice in the distance and turned his head to see a glint of crimson before looking back at the sound of Lance's voice.
"Todd, you have to get out of here. Pietro and the rest of you...you've got to stay together."
He grinned weakly at that, trying to ignore the wetness on his face as he peered into Lance's eyes, as he grasped at Lance's slowly relaxing fingers, "We gotta represent, yo. Right?"
A joke. If he treated it like a joke, maybe...
"Yeah, man..." Lance smiled back, the flame in his eyes slowly guttering out.
Then he fell.
Todd stumbled back, emerald eyes glazed. He felt the weight of his fallen comrade capsize off him, sliding onto the floor with the faint hissing of cloth against cement.
It didn't make any sense.
Then Pietro was there, pulling on his arm, hysterically sobbing over and over, "Todd, Todd--we've got to go, Todd! We've got to! God, Todd--he's dead. Dead! We've got to..."
And then they were running, and Todd didn't even remember making any move to leave, to go away. He glanced back as he stumbled along, and distantly noted a figure with claret over his eyes and a navy and slicker yellow suit, cradling Lance in his arms.
He felt thick arms around him, shielding him from the fire and hurt and death. Crashing into the wall, he bounded back, trying to see through the haze of destruction. Fred slammed into the hard brick as well, after protecting him from most of the blast, his eyes black with pain. Todd met them, horrified, and rushed over to him, limping slightly.
"Fred! F-Freddy!!" Skidding on the floor, he wind-milled clumsily before managing to reach the fallen teen.
"Fre-Freddy, c'mon man--" Helplessly, Todd strained, trying to tug the hulking boy to his feet, but failed in his valiant attempt.
Wildly, his eyes darted about the murky room, desperately searching for any sign of Pietro or Lance. Far off to the right, he could hear someone yelling his name, and he called back shrilly, "Help! Freddy's down, yo!--Pietro!! Lance!!"
Someone ran towards him in a blur of blue and silver...and then it all just faded.
So he listened.
He went with them. The X-men.
Turning to Scott, a humorless smile graced his lips.
"What'dya think 'bout them, yo?"
The other mutant tilted his head slightly, his body language as ambiguous as his guarded eyes.
"I don't...hate them...but I..."
"I hate them," Todd whispered as the other trailed off uncertainly. His voice was harsh with remembrance, bitter.
Scott was quiet for a moment before murmuring softly, "I was one of them."
"Doesn't matter," Todd said off-handedly, eyes flashing with long-kept anger.
Scott shook his head, saying sadly, "They helped me, you know? Who would've known that they were the enemy..."
The silence passed between them as surely as a million past regrets. Then, they left the alcove of the silent mansion.
Todd stepped over the cooling bodies, ignoring the burned holes and broken necks; he stopped at the front door, glancing back at the slumped figure of the former leader of the X-men.
"You comin', yo?"
A beat, then, "Yeah."
Peridot met gleaming red as the former asked frankly,
"Did you love him?"
They continued walking in silence before Scott replied, his voice low and strained, "Yes."
Todd smirked sardonically, "I loved someone, too."
Scott smiled back, as mirthless and disillusioned as his companion.
Stopping beside the lemon pudding river, Todd's smile grew, this time filled with a sort of reckless joy and abandon, the kind he got from gazing into silvery cobalt eyes with infinite stars.
"Let's finish this, yo," he said, peering out at the waxen rippling water. The face of his digital watch red 12:10 in large teal numbers.
Scott nodded faintly, wrapping his arms around himself.
"Three more minutes," he replied, eyes wide behind crimson lenses. He felt a chill, and leaned into it, as if hoping to imprint the earthly realm's cool caress onto his skin.
"They're waiting," Todd said quietly in return, as if afraid to let go of the last two and a half minutes with only silence to spare. His companion stepped close to him, clicking the handcuffs around his wrists. The cold metal stung his skin, filled him with dread humor. Reaching over, he did the same for Scott before glancing at his watch again.
12:12 47
"It's about time," Scott remarked, the redness of his artificial eyes glowing an odd amber under the hazy moonbeams.
Todd paused at the edge of the bridge, saying breathlessly, "See you on the other side, yo."
Scott stood beside him, smiling distantly as he whispered back, "Yeah. See you."
Then the moonlight yellow surface broke, the stream of light entered.
And they jumped.
12:13 00
A/N: The 13th hour isn't allowed to exist so it's kind of like a time beyond mortal possibility. 12 is the latest, or earliest, really, hour possible, so 12 "going on" 13 symbolizes Todd and Scott's transition. I'll leave the rest of interpretation up to you ^-^