[ For the moment, Maruki stays silent, watching his own blood running off Akira's hands beneath the water. There's a sickening lurch in his stomach when he realizes it, but there's also a strange, horrible sense of security in it. The same sense that sits deep in his soul when he considers the fight that awaits him back in his reality, the inevitable loss, the fact that Akira will not let him die as he'll surely want to.
I can't let a threat to your life go unchecked.
It's the same for him. Akira is far less hapless than him, unlikely to find himself in a danger he can't get out of under his own power – and it doesn't matter. Maruki would have protected him from anything back at Shujin and he'll do the same now, no matter the cost.
They're allies now, after all, impossible as it feels. A lick of blue flame warming the center of his chest from the inside out, a space that only Akira occupies, whether he knows it or not. ]
I ended up finding a place in 4. I know you don't necessarily need to live in the district associated with your mark, but it felt appropriate... And the city is pleasant enough. I'm sure I won't enjoy it when Envy inevitably takes over, but it is what it is.
[ He finishes patting his torso dry with the same towel he used for his hands, the faintest mottled pink splotches on the cloth. With a grimace, Maruki adds it to the list of ways to repay Akira for this incredible kindness – a new set of towels, a new shirt to replace whatever one Maruki is going to have to borrow, an inevitable invitation to lunch. ]
Ah, but– no, it happened here. Not all too far away, either.
[ Which isn't comforting, is it. Maruki folds his arms over his chest and looks askance. ]
A trip to the Amplitheater spat me out here, and I was trying to find my way to the train station. Guess I'm just lucky, huh?
[ The weak joke is as good an excuse as any for him to look at Akira again, searching, both for what to do next and for the question that's been on the tip of his tongue since they were first reunited here. But he can hedge around it a bit longer, circle in closer and closer to what he most wants to know. ]
i'm about to go full-tilt self-indulgent and i'm dragging you down with me
I can't let a threat to your life go unchecked.
It's the same for him. Akira is far less hapless than him, unlikely to find himself in a danger he can't get out of under his own power – and it doesn't matter. Maruki would have protected him from anything back at Shujin and he'll do the same now, no matter the cost.
They're allies now, after all, impossible as it feels. A lick of blue flame warming the center of his chest from the inside out, a space that only Akira occupies, whether he knows it or not. ]
I ended up finding a place in 4. I know you don't necessarily need to live in the district associated with your mark, but it felt appropriate... And the city is pleasant enough. I'm sure I won't enjoy it when Envy inevitably takes over, but it is what it is.
[ He finishes patting his torso dry with the same towel he used for his hands, the faintest mottled pink splotches on the cloth. With a grimace, Maruki adds it to the list of ways to repay Akira for this incredible kindness – a new set of towels, a new shirt to replace whatever one Maruki is going to have to borrow, an inevitable invitation to lunch. ]
Ah, but– no, it happened here. Not all too far away, either.
[ Which isn't comforting, is it. Maruki folds his arms over his chest and looks askance. ]
A trip to the Amplitheater spat me out here, and I was trying to find my way to the train station. Guess I'm just lucky, huh?
[ The weak joke is as good an excuse as any for him to look at Akira again, searching, both for what to do next and for the question that's been on the tip of his tongue since they were first reunited here. But he can hedge around it a bit longer, circle in closer and closer to what he most wants to know. ]
Why is it you decided to live here, anyway?