fatealteration | (no subject)

"Let go of him!" Hitomi's hands tightened around his arm, trying to yank it away from Doppio's throbbing neck.

Doppio gasped and kicked like a fish caught on a hook.

‘Who are you!?’

‘What did I do to you…!?’

The answers wouldn’t come. His head was pounding and his field of vision was narrowing to pin pricks. The urge to vomit rose in his throat but it wouldn’t make it pass the crushing force around his esophagus. The last thing he could make out was the man taking hold of Hitomi then—

██████

Doppio blinked. He was suddenly on his hands and knees several feet away. He gasped in a harsh lungful of air - there was nothing around his throat now to stop him. His vision slowly returned and the first thing he could see was a small pool of blood beneath his nose on the ground. He whipped his head up, and Hitomi was somehow the only one left standing among them. The two men were laid out and groaning on the ground. They sounded as flummoxed as they did pained. Still, Doppio barely spared them a thought.

“Hitomi!” Doppio shakily pushed to his feet. “Are you okay?”

"Yeah," Hitomi said with a nod. She had no idea what had happened and her legs were on the verge of trembling, but she knew from the grunts and groans behind her that she couldn't let them fail now.

"Come on!" Hitomi ran towards Doppio, clapping her hand around his wrist as she passed.

Doppio breathed a sigh of relief, but he didn’t have long to catch his breath before Hitomi was flying on her feet and it was all he could do to trip and drag her down with him as they descended.

“H-H-Hiiii—!” Doppio panted as they reached the cliffside, his legs ready to disintegrate.

Hitomi didn't stop until they were what she felt was a safe distance away. While Doppio might have been winded, she wasn't. Hitomi was thankful she was part of track club; she'd gotten more use of running in her time on Gaea -- and then here -- than she had in all of her 16 years on Earth.

"Are you okay? What happened?"

Doppio collapsed against a fence that cut off the road from the brush leading to the cliffs, gagging from how hard he was gasping. The blood in his nose had started to congeal.

“…Huh?” It took him too long to process Hitomi’s question.

"All of those guys went down and suddenly you moved away really fast." So fast, in fact, that Hitomi had not made out what had actually happened; she had to fill in the blanks herself.

“I did? I thought I just…” Doppio trailed off made a mysterious gesture with his hands. “…blacked out.”

"You really don't remember anything?"

Doppio bristled—and caught himself doing it. He was more than agitated…he was furious. But it wasn’t at Hitomi. It could never be at Hitomi. This wouldn’t have happened if those idiots hadn’t been boozed up out of their mind and looking for a fight.

So why did her question get his hackles up? It wasn’t an accusation but some part of him felt under attack.

“No,” Doppio swallowed. “I don’t remember…whatever that was.”

That made Hitomi uneasy.

"We should go back," she said quickly, taking Doppio's hand in her own. She didn't run as she had before, but she was definitely walking at a quick clip.

Doppio let himself be tugged along. The blood in his nose had congealed and he wasn’t bleeding anymore - but he could still see the red spots on his shirt. Max’s shirt.

Suddenly, he dug his heels in. “You go ahead.”

"But you're hurt!"

“It’s not broken.”

"That doesn't mean you're not hurt," Hitomi insisted.

“They insulted you.”

Hitomi shook her head. "I don't even care about that!"

“I do.” Doppio was expressive with every part of himself no matter what was happening, but now—he was so still it was eerie. His face was a controlled mask but his eyes gave him away. They were fixed on the road back into town, his expression dark.

“They insulted Father, too.” They could despise him all they wanted, but Father Serra? There was no excuse.

"Do you think he would want you hurt for his sake?" she insisted.

Doppio winced. “I won’t get hurt.”

"You can't guarantee that!"

“They didn’t look like they’d be on their feet for awhile.” Doppio made to step back. “I won’t get into a fight with them, okay? I promise.”

Hitomi bit her lower lip. "What are you going to do?"

Doppio smiled as though he were suddenly calm. "I'd just like to talk."

"Okay." Hitomi said it as though she had no problem with it, but she really did. But at this point, she knew there was no way she could convince him otherwise.

She still planned to follow him secretly, just in case something happened.