nine !
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Rosa is still damp when she wakes up and her head pounds as she sits up, rubbing her temples vigorously.

Once again, she awakes alone.

Warren is no where to be seen and briefly she panics. She hasn't been alone like this in too long and, in her vulnerable state, she isn't sure she's okay with it.

But she has to be.

She has no choice.

What if he's gone for good? Left her behind despite his previous claims against the possibility of such actions. What if something happened to him and she was too deeply asleep to notice? No. She would've woken up at the commotion. He would never have gone down without a fight.

Besides, wouldn't they have taken her too?

She swings her legs over the beam and beats her wings, lowering herself to the ground. Her weight balances on her good leg as she lands. Tentatively, she puts a little weight on the other, but still her body recoils in agony.

With a hiss, she draws it back off the floor, glaring down at her leg as if that'll change anything.

But with no way to get the bullet out, she's stuck with the pain. At least her ankle will heal soon and she'll be able to put a little more weight on it. Admitting defeat and deciding pacing isn't going to benefit her, she flaps back up onto her perch and sits in waiting.

Maybe he'll come back.

He wouldn't have left her behind, would he? She doesn't think so. Doesn't want to believe he would. Not after everything they'd been through at one another's side.

God, he's one of the only people alive who even understands what she's been through because of it. Understands her anger, her burning fury that just will not die no matter how she tries to suppress it.

These thoughts race around and around in her head. Over and over again. Around and around. Like she's on a merry-go-round, but it's going to fast and she's going to throw up and there's nothing she can do to stop it. So all she can do is sit and panic and hope that, by some godly miracle, someone stops the ride. Clutch onto the pole and let the horse bob her around and around. Faster and faster and faster and-

Her head whips to the side as footsteps enter the warehouse and she almost tumbles right into the concrete at the sight of him.

Warren saunters in as if he hasn't just caused her one of the biggest panics of her entire life. Rosa floods with relief and jumps from the beam, flying down to meet him.

When he sees the state of her, he stops dead in his tracks.

"I thought you were gone," She breathes out, her hands knotted together before her, knuckles horribly bruised. She wrings her hands as if she's forcing water from a wash cloth.

Warren just holds up the plastic bag and says, "I went to get food while you slept."

"Oh." Rosa's heart begins to return to its normal pace, colour returning to her cheeks. "I hope you bought more than liquor this time."

"Only one bottle. That's all."

She shoots him a look, but it's half-hearted as he crosses the distance between them so she doesn't have to. With a hand on his upper arm, she steadies herself to peer into the bag.

"Wow, I didn't realise how hungry I was until right now," She comments, mouth already watering as her empty stomach roils and groans. "But don't do that again." Her molten eyes harden into shields of bronze as she cuts her eyes to him, fingers lightly digging into his flesh.

"Do what?" He frowns, the expression shadowing his face.

"Disappear without telling me," She replies, hobbling a few steps before ascending onto the familiar beam.

Warren follows, albeit a little slower, and sits beside her. She's careful not to bump wings with him, though their shoulders brush and she makes no effort to shift away from this contact. It's a welcome sensation.

He pulls open the bag and hands her a slice of bread. White and plain, but better than nothing. She devours it immediately and reaches for another.

"Did you really think I'd left you behind?" Warren dares to ask.

Rosa pauses mid-reach and slowly draws her hand back into her lap to reply earnestly, "Yes. Wouldn't you assume the same thing if you woke up and I was gone?"

"But you still waited," He says, watching her curiously as she tries to hide the mixture of emotions rushing across her features. "Why?"

When she turns her gaze to him, he almost topples off the beam with its weight.

"Because I trust you," She replies softly, her voice a brush of velvet upon his ears. For the briefest of moments, the shield drops and he can see Rosa for who she is, not who she wants him to think she is. But they snap up as quickly as they dropped. "And because I'm in no shape to be flying back to America."

She grabs another slice of bread and stuffs half of it into her mouth at once. Until all the bread is gone, they sit in silence together. A comfortable silence.

But when the bread is gone and they're both full for the first time in days. That's when Warren breaks out the liquor and Rosa doesn't protest.

"Where did you get all this stuff anyway?" She asks as she watches him chug too much too quick.

He passes her the bottle. "Does it matter?"

"I suppose not," She murmurs, voice muffled as she puts the bottle to her mouth and matches the pace he's set.

She lets him take the bottle from her and, as he sips it steadily, she begins to think about the future. Wondering what comes next.

"Hey, when we're both able to, would you want to come back to Xavier's School with me?" She asks gently, hoping for his agreement.

Now he is in her life, she doesn't quite know how she would adjust to not having him around. Not because she is dependent upon him by any means. No, she knows she can heal perfectly well alone, but because his presence means she doesn't have to do it alone.

"Sure, why not?" He replies with a shrug.

Rosa bumps his shoulders with her own, chuckling lowly at him. "At least try and sound enthusiastic. Bet it's the first time in a long time a girl's invited you back to her house, huh?" She jokes, grinning up at him in her attempt at lightening the dark mood that hangs around their necks.

"There's not much time for that when you're busy cage fighting," He quips back, though the same light doesn't reach his eyes.

"Guess there's not." She reaches across and takes the bottle. Her head tilts back and she lets the liquid pour down her throat, keenly aware of his eyes watching her. A spark dances through her as she gestures to him with the bottle. "But guess you've got all the time in the world now."

Warren shrugs his shoulders again in response. When he reaches for the bottle she holds it out of his reach and takes another gulp. Only then does she hand it across to him.

"What about you?" He questions curiously, liquid courage beginning to fizzle to life. "Have you got someone waiting for you?"

"Definitely not anymore," She says, rolling her stiff shoulders and flexing her wings before she relaxes again. "I made sure of that before I left."

She watches him frown at her, but he doesn't push.

"Give me the bottle," Rosa says with a sigh, extending a hand. "I'm gonna need more if I'm gonna tell you this."

Warren passes the bottle, watches her gulp down another two mouthfuls before she hands it back to him and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand.

"I was young when I met him. Twenty, just about to turn twenty-one, and it was just one of those things. I wanted to hate him. He got, or gets, under my skin and back then it was like a game for the both of us. Chasing the other, arguing, making up."

She rattles it off as if it's nothing when, for so long, it had been her everything. Her every waking moment consumed by Alex Summers. Looking for him at first entrance into a room and being disappointed when he wasn't there. Wondering where he was when she wasn't with him. Relishing his touch when he held her.

"One thing led to another and suddenly I was in love with him." She shakes her head as if she can't quite believe herself. "Everything I did revolved around him and even that wasn't enough for him, I guess."

Without a word, Warren hands her the bottle and gratefully she takes a drink.

"He didn't want me and, when I asked him to stay, when I asked him to just give me a try, he walked away." She presses her lips together, alcohol burning a hole in her stomach.

"Do you still love him?" Warren asks, the question striking her hard and fast even though she knows the answer without hesitation.

"No," she replies without skipping a beat, searching his face to understand those concealed emotions, but failing miserably, "definitely not."

-

1574 words
25.2.19

im soft for them