nomadicflame | open post

[The dark figure nods. Slow, as if aligning himself with the truth of it. Yes, that is all there is.]

I know.

[No accusation. No challenge. He believes him. Perhaps out of nervousness, he runs his left hand up below his right shoulder and lets it settle there.]

Games are built to erase choice. They launder necessity until it looks like consent.

[That scarlet gaze drops - only briefly - to Chishiya's mouth, then back to his eyes. Not hunger. Memory. Sweet, delicious memory.]

You did what the rules demanded. You used the only margin you were given. Kindness.

[That word is handled carefully. Reverently, almost. Another pause but this one is for himself.]

I reacted as though you had chosen to hurt me; you had not. You were surviving. The fault is mine for answering survival with rage.

[Finally, he looks away - not in shame, but in restraint; he grips his forearm with such force the knuckles would go white if he had mortal blood.]

Thank you for the kindness you chose. And forgive me for mistaking the rules of the game for your intent.

[Chishiya is smart. Clever. Mind always spinning, always thinking four steps ahead in borderland. Playing the games like chess, moving pieces like they don't have a heartbeat.

Warching for fractures, brittle little cracks he could dig his mind and fingers into to tear it wide open if he needs to.

But this isn't borderland.

He promised someone once, that he'd do better in his second chance. Sure, it had been Niragi and they hadn't remembered everything.

And yet.]

You're a piece of shit. Don't text me and threaten to murder me.

[A slight shift in his stance, less weight on his back-foot and Chishiya pulls his phone out, deleting a text before it sends.]

Borderland is cruel, I didn't want to be. But I did not give you a choice.

[Phyre stills.

Not stiff - deliberately still, like someone choosing to absorb a blow rather than deflect it. The words land. He doesn't flinch from them, and he doesn't argue.]

You are right.

[Immediate. Unequivocal. He has earned that title.

His gaze drops to the phone, to the unsent text, and something in his expression tightens - not anger this time, but shame, clean and earned.]

That message should never have existed. There is no world - game or no - where threatening you was acceptable.

[It hurts. But these are the results of his actions and he cannot deny that.]

I will leave you.

[Chishiya hums, tilting his head and ignoring the quib about his text. A short three-word message to Kuina. In case Phyre had decided to kill him on sight and not talk.]

And yet you did. You text me about drinks and threaten me.

[He watches the stars again, the same deep darkness that exist always. The stars change at alarmingly slow rates, the same constellations for thousands of years.]

Alright.

I did. I am sorry. I do not know what more I can say.

[There's nothing more to be said. That can be said. With one last gaze - it could possibly even be described as sorrowful - longing and sadness visible in his eyes, he turns away.

As quickly as he came, he is gone again into the shadows.]

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