His lungsscream.
‘Kade!’
It’s not Lachlan, it’s Luca.
Luca pulls him off.
Drags him away.
Kade is breathing so hard it has voice in it, wildly feral noises spilling free like an animal deprived of the feast from his kill, only Lachlan isn’t dead and Kade isn’t an animal.
He drops to his knees.
Luca holds him tight, the pair far enough away that Kade can’t touch Lachlan anymore but close enough to see it clearly when Lachlan’s face begins to sew itself together, even while bleeding, and he stares up at the ceiling, breathing shallow while it happens.One of his eyes requires more healing than the rest and Kade seeseye fibreslatching to knit and pull and form.Luca gags, doesn’t likeeyes,but Kade is horribly fascinated.
After less than a minute, it’s done.
Lachlan rolls onto all fours and spits blood on the mat.
Then he gets up, walks to Kade.Luca’s arm tightens around his middle, but all Lachlan does is offer his hand.Kade allows himself to be pulled upright.
‘Feel better?’
No.‘Yeah.’
‘Good.’
?
They clean up in the shower room.
Lachlan’s nose healed crooked, so after washing the blood from his face he has to stand in front of the mirror and break it back into place himself.Kade wraps his hand afterwards.The damage is mostly superficial as long as he avoids hitting anything especially hard for the next few days.It was reckless, stupid, but in the moment, he genuinely couldn’t stop himself.
Lachlan winces slightly as the cartilage of his noseclickswhen pressed.
‘Ahh,fuck!That always hurts.’
He looks at Kade in the mirror, who shrugs.‘You expect an apology?’
‘I’m not that stupid.’
‘You fight well,’ Kade grants.‘Good blend.’
‘Yeah, you too.You’ve picked up a lot.’Lachlan rinses the last of the blood away, then he pats himself dry with a small hand towel and faces Kade.His hair came loose in the fight.His body has no marks on it beyond patches of red skin.His face is splotchy, like he’s recovering from a teenage blush fit.
The eye Kade popped, newly healed, is still blood-red.
It’s maybe the only lasting injury he can see.
He asks, ‘If shit like this is possible, why doesn’t everyone do it?’
Lachlan shrugs, leaning against the counter, drying his wrists.‘Fuck if I know.You want to run your tests now?’
‘They’re notmytests but yeah.’
‘You’re gonna be there?’
‘Why, you scared?’
