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This was ridiculous. Sayeon knew that, and she told Ryujin as much. "This is ridiculous," she said. Then, for good measure, she added, "And unnecessary." Then, as though Ryujin hadn't quite understood, and that was, in all fairness, how it appeared, she added, "Pointless."
"Yeah, yeah," Ryujin mumbled at her, waving her words off with two rapid flicks of her fingers, butterfly-quick. She did not seem to be listening to Sayeon, which, she had to admit, irked her considerably. "Shut the fuck up."
Sayeon would have wrenched herself away from Ryujin had she not had such a tight grip around her calf, the tips of her fingers, nails blunt, digging almost painfully into her flesh. Sayeon did have to allow that the gash on her leg, around the back of her calf, biting deep into the flesh from Sayeon's ankle all the way up to her knee, just barely missing the tendons, hurt more. "Really, Ryujin—"
"I said, shut the fuck up." Ryujin gave Sayeon a particularly vicious swab of the ripped cloth she was using to wipe away the weeping blood from the wound. It was soaked through, and unpleasantly sticky-damp against Sayeon's skin, but she decided to refrain from commenting on it. "You're the idiot that burnt through all their essence." She shot Sayeon a glare from where she knelt at Sayeon's feet, Sayeon's leg held slightly elevated in her palms, almost cradled in her lap. "Can't even heal a scrape like this."
Sayeon could have argued that a gash this deep hardly counted as a scrape, but she had the distinct feeling Ryujin was mocking her. I'm fine, Sayeon had said, dismissively, gritting her teeth against the limp that begged to manifest in her gait. It's just a scrape.
Ryujin had taken one look at her leg, called her fuckin' stupid, and sent Min and Iseul off ahead. You can't walk with that, Glasses. Thought you were supposed to be smart.
Sayeon had found that she hadn't had quite the will to protest, and so she was stuck here, out in the middle of nowhere, Ryujin knelt at her feet like some strange, angry supplicant, muttering all the while she mopped up the cut. Sayeon wondered distantly if infection would kill her at this rate.
"I do still believe you are blowing this far out of proportion," Sayeon told Ryujin factually, wincing as Ryujin squeezed roughly at her injury.
"Am I?" Ryujin asked somewhat viciously, squeezing hard again, drawing a sharp gasp that Sayeon did her best to muffle between her teeth. "Look, you're out of essence. Whatever. Fine. Happens. But stop actin' like you're above it or some shit." Ryujin had narrowed her eyes, but her head was tilted upwards to send her glare to Sayeon, and some part of Sayeon felt the sudden, unbidden urge to trail the tips of her fingers down the side of Ryujin's face, nails scraping against her skin, until they curled beneath Ryujin's chin, so she could tip Ryujin's face even further up.
It wasn't that Sayeon wasn't used to looking down at Ryujin— in, she supposed, more ways than one— but there was something strangely intimate in their current position, something that made Sayeon feel even larger, even more powerful than usual. Something about the soft motion of Ryujin's hands against her skin, despite the accompanying sting.
"You're human, too," Ryujin was saying, and Sayeon found that she couldn't quite help it; she threw her head back and laughed, her coarse laughter fading into dry rasps that scraped against her throat and tongue like sand.
"Ryujin," Sayeon said, the name chafing on the rough grains of her laughter, and Sayeon was still smiling, and she gave in to that strange urge. Ryujin flinched, ever so slightly, as Sayeon trailed the tips of her fingers, gently, down her face, her brow furrowing. She truly did have such lovely eyes, pale and ringed and hollow and so very vivid. "We're aberrants."
Ryujin set her jaw, and Sayeon felt it in the palm of her hand, felt the flex of her jaw as it tightened, and then she knocked, viciously, Sayeon's hand away, teeth flashing in her answering snarl. "Don't make me laugh. We're still human."
Sayeon settled her palm back behind her, leaning back, and she shrugged. Ryujin's hand had stilled on her leg. "Well. Debatable, isn't it?"
"No." Ryujin's hands left Sayeon entirely, and she sat back on her haunches to reach up to her neck, loosening the tie around her neck even further, pulled it neatly away from her. The collar of her shirt gaped open even wider without the perfunctory presence of the tie. Sayeon wasn't sure if Ryujin looked more rakish with or without it. Ryujin straightened the tie out, and then began the tedious process of wrapping its considerable length around Sayeon's leg. She tied it tight, tighter than was strictly necessary, if any of this was at all necessary, and pulled at the ends with vengeance, tying it off with a disconcertingly pretty bow. "That should be good enough for now."
"Hm," Sayeon hummed, inspecting Ryujin's handiwork. She supposed it wasn't terrible, though it was still completely unnecessary. "But you have to admit— especially you—" Sayeon waved a hand towards Ryujin's ringed, pale eyes— "that there is something other about aberrants. Godlings aren't human. We can't be entirely, either."
Ryujin huffed, and Sayeon saw how badly she wished to slam her foot into the wound she had just wrapped up. Ryujin showed impressive restraint. "Aberrants ain't just monsters."
Sayeon shrugged, watched as Ryujin settled back right where she was, did not even try to sit beside Sayeon instead. Aversion or preference for their current arrangement, Sayeon wasn't certain. The latter would, of course, be ideal, but Ryujin was an unpredictable one. "I never said we are." Ryujin narrowed her eyes. Sayeon smiled, wide and sharp, "We're not monsters, Ryujin. We're weapons." Sayeon stood unsteadily, her leg still throbbing, but no longer leaking, and she extended a palm down to Ryujin. "Let's get back to headquarters."
Ryujin considered her extended hand for a long time, as though she were regarding a snake, a snake she wasn't familiar with, a snake for whom she could not vouch in terms of lack or presence of venom. She looked at it as though she were leaning heavily towards venomous. Ryujin slapped Sayeon's hand away and stood up on her own. "Fuck off. We're just people."