[drabble][Mercy Street, Retsu, Kenpachi, PG-13] Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose

[ajremix]

Okay, that should be my f-list spamming for the night. I can't believe I forgot about this one in particular for so long...

Title: Freedom is Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose
Fandom: Bleach RP mercy_street_rp
Rating: PG-13 for implications
Word Count: 586
Characters: Retsu, Kenpachi
Summary: For sophiap for running the last fic exchange.




The hands at his arm are almost unnaturally small. “Sit.” A face like that shouldn’t be commanding but he’s finding himself sitting all the same. Those same hands are working the bandages against his face, unwinding them and tilting his pale face back. The thick swatch against his eye is lifted and the wound cleaned and he hisses a little against the sting.

Retsu works quickly, replacing the swatch and bandage, keeping pressure against the remains of his eye. “They won’t give up.” She whispers softly. Not out of fear but because it felt right.

“No.” Kenpachi agrees, wincing at the pain. He doesn’t move to get up, his head is still reeling.

“You won’t give up either, will you?”

He looks up at her, the world a strange place without the depth he once knew. “I can’t.” He says this because he has memories that won’t let him alone and probably will never let him alone. He has promises now and when he runs sweaty palms along his dirty pant legs he can feel the cool metal of tags in his pocket burn against the material.

He says this but Kenpachi isn’t entirely certain how long he can not give up. He doesn’t doubt that they’ll be as persistent as him, try to break him. He knows because he never let them when he was part of them. To do the same- to the man that taught them how to track and trace and relentlessly push and push, that turned them into more than human –isn’t something that he doubts.

They won’t ever give up and he doesn’t know how long it’ll be until he does. And he doesn’t want to think of what they’ll do when they catch up. Not to him, not to Retsu.

Her hands are on him again, this time sweeping across the harsh cuts of his jaw, down thick cords in his neck and across impossibly broad shoulders. They heal no physical wound but her presence and her touch makes something inside him quiver. His hand comes up and tilts her chin so he can kiss her. It’s not romantic but it gives him strength he didn’t know was failing him.

She has a strength Kenpachi had never really acknowledged at one point. Hers is deep underneath where no one can see it. Quiet and solid and sublime, that strength is always there but kept tucked away until it’s needed and he needs it now.

He kisses her like she’s his breath and she’s what will keep those memories and those promises alive. His large hands move under her clothes and over her skin and he draws her close and in, burying his fears into her hair, his worry a whispered caress on her shoulder. And she lets him because she’s afraid and she wants to know what it feels like to be alive one last time and she brings him inside her where they’re both together and free if just for a moment.

She’s gentle, even now, even when she wants to curl tightly against him and hide from the world trying to pull them down. He’s gentle, even when he claims he doesn’t know how to be, because Retsu’s presence makes him calm when he’s urgent and considering when he’s vicious. And when they come it’s together and on their breathes, weaving together is a promise that this they’ll get through together. And on their lips they can taste the future.

And in the future they are free.

Comments

[sophiap.livejournal.com]

That's gorgeous. You managed to capture what makes those two work so well together, and I love how things are so desperate and so quiet at the same time.