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“I knew I should have stayed in the city.” Gustave ducks behind a chunk of old rubble. The Nevron they’ve been fighting is fast, tricky too. It’s more cunning than the usual fodder they've been encountering, more on the level of the Dualliste than anything else. It’s smart.
There’s the sound of bells, along with a disquieting, almost melodic humming before Gustave is tackled to the ground. His previous hiding place erupts in another spray of rubble and dirt and he looks up into Verso’s annoyed face. “Are you actually trying to get yourself killed? Maelle will kill me if I don’t come back with you. You realize that, right?” They’re both covered in dirt and dust at this point and they’ve been on the back foot the entire fight.
Gustave rolls his eyes and grabs Verso by his ridiculous fur collar, rolling them over and out of the way of another attack. “Yes, that was actually the entire point of this excursion. I’m trying to get rid of you while also putting myself in danger of getting bisected.” He fires off a shot at the Nevron, getting it dodge backward and give himself and Verso some breathing room for long enough that they can both climb to their feet. “You’ve caught me.”
“You are infuriating, do you know that?” Verso rolls his shoulders and redraws his weapons.
Gustave gets to his feet and stands shoulder to shoulder with Verso, an easy smile on his face. “I think I’m quite charming.”
The sound of bells is gone, their surroundings eerily quiet. “Do you think it’s gone? Maybe it’s just toying with us.” He moves, turning until he and Verso are back to back, shoulders pressed together. This Nevron has been annoyingly strategic since they literally stumbled over it. He and Verso have been going out into the Continent to explore and take on the dangerous Nevrons they didn’t want to leave for other, less experienced groups. So far it’s been relatively simple, enjoyable even. Verso is a competent fighter, and someone Gustave is happy to have at his back, even if most days, he can’t decide whether he wants to kiss or kill the other man.
Ever since the truth about their world came out, since Maelle repainted everything, things with Verso, with everyone if he’s being honest, have been tense. These outings into the Continent, their miniature Expeditions, were a way to get out of the city, to take the time to release some tension. It’s also served as a way for Gustave to get to know Verso a bit more, and the more he finds, the more intrigued he is.
Gustave is dragged from his thoughts by the sound of bells. He turns, but Verso is already there, throwing up his blades to block the attack from the Nevrons scythe. Multiple past Expedition armbands flutter on the end of the creature’s weapon and Gustave swallows, sending out a thought for the ones that came before. “Move!” Verso’s voice cuts through his melancholy and Gustave spins to the side, firing at what he hopes are weak spots. You can never tell with Nevrons.
The creature shrieks at them and dances back, taking a swipe at them that he and Verso both dodge away from.
“I think it’s in our best interest to retreat and regroup.” Gustave says. He hates leaving a job unfinished, but the idea of trying to take something like this down with just the two of them does not sound like an enjoyable afternoon.
Verso’s mouth narrows in distaste, his eyes tracking the Nevron as it paces in front of them, seemingly waiting for them to finish their conversation. “I hate it, but I think you’re right.”
“I’m sorry, could you say that one more time? I don’t think I heard you correctly.” He can’t help it. Even in the midst of a fight, Verso is too much fun to tease.
Verso growls and turns his head, taking his eyes off the Nevron to snipe back at Gustave. “I won’t say it again. I know you heard me the-”
Gustave can see the Nevron over Verso’s shoulder. It tips its head as soon as Verso is no longer looking at it and Gustave gets a terrible feeling in his bones, hairs rising at the back of his neck. There’s the sound of bells again, but the Nevron hasn’t moved. On instinct alone Gustave wraps his arms around Verso’s waist and sends them both sprawling to the ground again. The Nevrons blade passes over them, so close that Gustave feels the way the air is displaced, feels the energy from the attack on his skin. He looks down into Verso’s wide, startled eyes and smiles a wobbly little smile at him. “We need to go.”
Verso nods, the teasing air from before melting away as the gravity of the situation becomes real. “Mm-hm. Time to run.”
Gustave rolls to his feet, watching Verso do something complicated with one of his weapons, light crisscrossing the space in front of them as the Nevron dodges the attacks. Verso catches him by the upper arm and then they’re both running. Neither of them seemingly have a destination in mind as long as it’s away from the thing chasing them.
Either they are faster and more crafty than he thought, or the Nevron lost interest, which is probably more likely, because there are no sounds of pursuit. Gustave slows to a stop, bending at the waist to put his hands on his knees as he tries to catch his breath. “I think… I think we’re good.”
“I don’t know how we missed that thing on our first go’round, but I would be fine with never seeing it again.” Verso leans back against a nearby tree, chest heaving as he gets his breath back as well.
“You’ve never fought it before?” Gustave asks incredulously. “Not in all your time here?”
“I’m not an expert on the Continent and its flora and fauna just because I’ve been here a long time. I tried to avoid things like that when I was on my own.”
Gustave hears the implied ‘I was usually alone’ and immediately feels like an ass. Things between himself and Verso have always been tense. The Stone Wave Cliffs and everything that happened there had put them on the wrong foot from the beginning. It’s not that he dislikes the man, but he’s wary, cautious of getting closer. They’d done what needed to be done during their first journey on the Continent, but that had been by necessity. This is different. There’s no world ending threat, no existential dread. Just them. It’s not as bad as he’d been expecting.
“Point taken.” Gustave replies. “I say we head back to the meeting spot and wait for Esquie to come check on us. We need to get some backup if we go seeking that thing out again.”
Verso raises one hand as he interjects. “Counterargument. What if we just avoid it altogether and continue on our little adventure. We can meet up with Monoco at the station, take some time to look over the trains, I know you wanted to see the trains, and then we can all come back out and see about hunting that Nevron.” He shrugs, uncaring, but there’s a little smile at the corner of his mouth that indicates smugness.
Gustave kind of wants to smack him. “So we go all the way around to the Cliffs, where we’ll still need Esquie to get us across the water, through the quarry, stay a few days with Monoco, then come back out and kill the Nevron?”
“Not interested?” Verso asks.
Gustave rolls his eyes. He knows when he’s being baited, but he really does want to see the trains. “Fine, but only if-”
Gustave doesn’t get the chance to lay down his terms. The sound of bells and an almighty splintering of wood heralds the Nervron’s return. He watches Verso’s eyes widen and watches in slow motion as the Nevron charges right for him. There’s a moment where he knows he’s going to die and feels fear and regret and he’s sorry that Verso has to be the one to tell everyone what happened.
Then his back hits the ground and the air is knocked out of him. He blinks the stars out of his eyes and tries to take in a breath.
Verso is curled over him, arms around Gustave’s waist and a distressing amount of blood seeping out into the dirt around them.
“Verso!” Gustave gets his hands in the material of Verso’s jacket and hauls the other man in close. Well, that’s just perfect. Now what is he supposed to do?
The Nevron circles around from its failed charge, weapon held at its side.
Gustave looks at it with no small amount of trepidation. He's not in a good position, and Verso is going to be next to no help at all now that he's injured. In the past it would take a short moment for the man to heal and jump back into the fray. Ever since Maelle had removed his immortality, given the man a real, human life, it's been different.
So now, Gustave holds Verso tight and prays the man is still breathing. There's no time to check and Gustave can't take his eyes off their enemy.
Speaking of which, the Nevron isn't moving. It's looking at them, glassy, obsidian eyes glinting in the dappled sun through the trees, but it's not moving. It sways as if there were music, something Gustave can't hear, but it doesn't attack.
“Verso.” He shakes the man once, relatively gently so as not to further aggravate whatever wound is still bleeding sluggishly. “Please tell me you're not dead.” Maelle would never forgive him, and if he's being honest, the world.would be a dimmer place without Verso in it. Certainly less entertaining.
Verso groans and shifts, rolling away from Gustave with a hand pressed to his side, presumably where the blood is coming from. “Still here, mon coeur. Did you see the train that hit me?”
“It was a Nevron and you were stabbed.” Verso's words finally register and Gustave blinks, looking away from Nevron in sheer shock. “What did you just call me?”
Verso sits back on his heels and goes distressingly still. “I,uh, I said mon peur. Because I’m afraid of you… For you. Merde, I mean, you scare me.”
That is a development that he had not been expecting. Ever. “But you don’t even like me!” This isn’t fair. Gustave has been basing every single one of their interactions around the fact that he assumed Verso didn’t like him. Or at least that he wasn’t fond of him. They’ve worked together well enough, but every time Gustave is around Verso had always found somewhere else to be. He’s caught the man very obviously looking away when Gustave looks at him, or covering for him because he doesn’t trust Gustave to take care of himself or the group. He’d offered to teach Gustave how to fight, obviously because he thought Gustave was useless, especially after the Cliffs. Right?
“What?!” Verso sounds incredulous and confused and Gustave is very quickly realizing that he might be a little bit stupid. And blind. And maybe a few other not so nice adjectives.
Unfortunately, or fortunately in Gustave’s case, since he didn’t want to try and talk himself out of that hole he’s apparently been digging for months, the sound of bells echoes in their little clearing and draws both of their attention back to the Nevron. The creature is uncannily still, in the way no living thing can replicate. It makes Gustave’s skin crawl.
“I guess we’re fighting it now.” Verso tries to get his feet, going up on one knee. The way he wobbles and catches at Gustave’s shoulder to keep himself upright does not instill confidence.
The Nevron tilts its head mechanically, the movement jerky and unrealistic.
Gustave reaches up to get ahold of Verso’s coat, trying to keep him from doing something stupid. “It’s not attacking.”
“Yet.” Verso says.
Gustve’s mind is running quickly through possibilities, picking up and discarding theories as quickly as he can in the moment until- “We’re not armed.”
“What?”
Gustave shifts his grip on Verso to his prosthetic hand and raises his other, palm out and fingers spread. “We’re not armed.” He says again. “The only time it’s attacked us is because we were armed and fighting other Nevrons. Then it chased us. It thought we were still a threat.”
“We are a threat.”
Gustave hisses at him from the corner of his mouth. “Just raise your hands and maybe it will go away before you bleed to death.”
“I’m not even hurt that badly.” Verso grumbles, but he does as he’s told.
The Nevron tips its head one direction, then the other, both times tilting further than would be possible on a human and the motion looks uncanny. There’s a single musical chime before the creature nods and turns back off into the trees, lumbering out of view.
Gustave blows out a relieved breath and rolls to his feet. “That was close. Maybe we just leave that one alone for now. We can warn the other groups when we get back to the city.” He holds out a hand to help Verso up. “How badly are you actually hurt?”
Verso grunts in pain as he stands. “Nothing a healing picto won’t fix. It was just a grazing blow.”
“Why would you do that?” Gustave snaps. He plucks at a picto he’s prepared just for this purpose and presses his glowing hand to Verso’s side. “You’re not immortal anymore. Do you have any idea how much trouble I’d have been in if I didn’t come back with you?” It’s more than that but Gustave can’t say it out loud.
“I couldn’t let it… I wasn’t going to just-I mean, it’s not like I can go back without you either. They love you more than-”
“Oh for pity’s sake.” Gustave interrupts whatever asinine thing Verso had been about to say by taking the man by his stupid collar and kissing him silent.
Verso, to his credit, gets with the program very quickly. He only flails for a moment before putting his hands on Gustave’s waist and returning the kiss properly.
When Gustave finally pulls away they’re both breathing a little heavily. “So, you do like me.” Gustave says.
Verso smiles against Gustave’s lips. “Quite a bit, actually. It’s nice of you to finally notice.”
“I may be a bit of a fool.” Gustave blushes and touches their foreheads together with a little huff of laughter.
Verso kisses his nose. “That’s alright. I’m a bit of a fool as well. Maybe we can cancel each other out.”
Gustave laughs. “I’m not sure that’s how it works.” Maybe it is.
“Maybe for us it does.” Verso says. “I think we both deserve the chance to find out.”
“I think you’re right.”