// And it's our time now if you want it to be //
Maybe Jude doesn't deserve his anger, but fuck does he have a lot of it, curled like a snake in the base of his stomach, waiting to be activated by an unsuspecting tread. And here comes Jude, stomping merrily onward, without regard for the whirling pain Koa's tried to suppress for so long 'Why didn't you tell me?' Gods, it's petulant and grating, snarling into the insecure parts of Koa's psyche, another knife cut upon the unraveling fibers of his patience.
"You don't understand," Koa echoes in accusation, eyes narrowing, his fingers clenching and unclenching against his palms. "I come home from an extended deployment and the first thing I'm told is that Noe - my sister - is infected." He shakes his head, reliving that moment, the way those words had permanently altered the trajectory of his life. "Not that I needed to be told, not really - she was different, like the edges of her personality had been sanded away. It was obvious as soon as I talked to her."
His eyes narrow further, bright and accusing. "Which begs the question, Jude - how the fuck did you not know? Because I didn't tell anyone - Zavien, Lena, Kaisel, Dad? They figured it out on their own. So tell me how you, her best friend, didn't have a gods-damned clue?!" He's properly angry now, his shoulders taut and curving forward as he looms above the slender boy.
"Here's the thing, Jude - you're right. I didn't think to tell you. In part because, I dunno, I assumed you would have figured out that your best friend was infected?" He gesticulates aggressively, needing to let out some of the energy that shoots through him like a burst livewire. "And in part because I didn't know where the fuck you were, and I didn't have time to hunt you down. Because like you said, it's Noe. And I wasn't going to sit around and sulk while my sister was becoming one of them."
Unlike you doesn't need to be said; it hangs between them in Koa's heavy breathing, the accusatory glare he fixes on the boy, the way he looks utterly ready to throw a punch far heavier than the one that broke Sohalia's nose.
"You don't understand," Koa echoes in accusation, eyes narrowing, his fingers clenching and unclenching against his palms. "I come home from an extended deployment and the first thing I'm told is that Noe - my sister - is infected." He shakes his head, reliving that moment, the way those words had permanently altered the trajectory of his life. "Not that I needed to be told, not really - she was different, like the edges of her personality had been sanded away. It was obvious as soon as I talked to her."
His eyes narrow further, bright and accusing. "Which begs the question, Jude - how the fuck did you not know? Because I didn't tell anyone - Zavien, Lena, Kaisel, Dad? They figured it out on their own. So tell me how you, her best friend, didn't have a gods-damned clue?!" He's properly angry now, his shoulders taut and curving forward as he looms above the slender boy.
"Here's the thing, Jude - you're right. I didn't think to tell you. In part because, I dunno, I assumed you would have figured out that your best friend was infected?" He gesticulates aggressively, needing to let out some of the energy that shoots through him like a burst livewire. "And in part because I didn't know where the fuck you were, and I didn't have time to hunt you down. Because like you said, it's Noe. And I wasn't going to sit around and sulk while my sister was becoming one of them."
Unlike you doesn't need to be said; it hangs between them in Koa's heavy breathing, the accusatory glare he fixes on the boy, the way he looks utterly ready to throw a punch far heavier than the one that broke Sohalia's nose.
Koa
// Maul the world like a carnival bear set free //
