smartass_captain: (At a loss)
Jim Kirk ([personal profile] smartass_captain) wrote2017-12-01 07:58 pm
Entry tags:

Picking up the Pieces ( for [personal profile] conjuredskies )

They made it out alive.

It still hasn't quite sunk in fully yet. Jim's body still tensed and coiled with every step ready to go into fight or flight mode at the drop of a hat. Everything hurts. His hand feels like he's grabbing a redhot wire with every beat of his heart. Both knees are bloody with glass, dirt and who knows what else in the wounds. He's bruised literally everywhere and his stomach doesn't know what the fuck is going on anymore the way he's been swinging between starvation and mildly hungover. The concept of relaxing being fought tooth and nail by his body's override of survive that pushes him to keep moving keep fighting get somewhere safe.

Even with Felix in hand, Jim feels like he's lost a limb coming back to the ship without his younger counterpart. We go together or not at all. We go together or not at all. But even that ended up in tragedy. The younger captain changed and warped, turning into just another Jim Eating Monster and that's a blow Jim doesn't need. Not being able to even trust himself.

Jim's unaware that Felix has maneuvered him onto his couch until he's suddenly sitting and his knees scream with the protest of bending. A shaky gasp of pain eeks out of Jim's throat that he tries to stifle. Not safe to make noise not safe not safe. Unaware that it's Felix who's calling the lights to thirty percent, who's getting a cup of coffee from the replicator. Who's acting as though they belong in this place. Right now, Jim doesn't feel like a starship captain. His mind is still jammed stuck firmly in the past and to the facades of ghosts who shouldn't have been on Tarsus.

It's going to be a long night.


[This is gonna be a heavy read and deal with trauma and heavy subjects you are warned.]
conjuredskies: (Careful)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2017-12-02 04:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Back here again. It's not until he has Jim on the couch and is fetching the coffee that he has a chance to let it sink in. He glances around the room as he comes back, setting the cup down on the table. The last time he was here his mind wasn't his own. The last time he fled in a sweating, shaking terror after he...

No. No no Jim is hurt he has to help Jim. He promised he wouldn't let anything happen to him again. He swallows and hurries to fetch a small basin of warm water, a clean cloth he can use for the wounds. Some of that sharp-smelling disinfectant Jim swears by.

"Keep your legs still," he says firmly. Those knee scrapes are a whole other problem and first he wants to make sure Jim keeps his hand. He sits down beside the captain, reaching for his hand.

"Let me see- was this a knife?" It looks like a knife wound - and from a sharp knife, which is good. Felix bites his lip at the smell of blood, the churning in his stomach at seeing an open wound - on Jim, no less - for the first time since their confrontation in Rielle.

He's alive. He will live. I'm healing him.

"This will sting," he warns gently. "I need you to keep as still as you can, Jim. All right?"
conjuredskies: (Sidelong)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2017-12-02 06:49 pm (UTC)(link)
His first instinct is to demand to know what Jim did that for. To invite their usual bickering and the exasperated jibes they trade when Felix wants to impress on Jim that he cares if the captain gets hurt. But he can't muster that now - and far more importantly, he's stopped cold by one look at Jim's face, the way he shakes even trying to utter the barest of explanations. The thought of even trying to wrangle an elaboration from him goes tumbling by the wayside.

It doesn't matter. What matters is doing his job. Taking care of the man he loves. The man he nearly killed, comes the whispering thought.

He takes a firm grip on Jim's hand, arm in arm with the captain and twining their fingers to help keep his patient from jerking away when he starts to wash what looks like a painful slice. "I'm going to call a light in a second, all right? I just- I have to see this clearly."

It's delicate work. It's painful, for Jim and for Felix who clenches his jaw at every twitch and jerk he causes. He tries not to think about what he's doing in coming here. What's going to happen after. It doesn't matter. Only Jim matters.

Once the wound is clean then he'll go looking for a healing potion in the closet, cursing to himself when he remembers he didn't leave any here. He took them all, even before that last night. Nothing for it. He's going to have to try and heal Jim himself.
conjuredskies: (...Wait)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2017-12-02 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Felix doesn't really have words for the way his heart jumps when Jim tells him to wait. But that one feeble word is enough to render the conjurer stock-still, eyes a little wider as they seek Jim's. He still hasn't lowered his hood, but the magelight he summoned overhead illuminates his magic-bleached hair.

"Tarsus..." The name sticks in his throat. When they said 'nightmare realm', he hadn't really thought about what it meant. Hadn't dared to. Well, now he can see. Now he begins to understand.

I'm sorry, he wants to say. I tried to get you back. I should never have left your side. Those words catch, too. This is no time for excuses. But the nagging thoughts are back - Jim was sucked straight into one of his worst nightmares already tonight. What is Felix being here, in th- in his quarters, going to do to him?

This was a worse idea than even he thought.

"I understand," he says quietly, squeezing Jim's arm in turn. "You're out now. You escaped. You're safe here. I promise." And whatever it takes to make Jim feel safer, he'll do it.
conjuredskies: (Careful)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2017-12-02 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
"Anything. Anything you want." Felix's throat is tight, his own cheeks wet. Jim wants him here. Jim wants him close. He has a hand running through Jim's hair without thinking, heart pounding with mingled joy and fear.

"I'll... I'll get the potions." He has to pull away. Has to go looking, though in the end it's fruitless and he sits back down with Jim. Trying to hide the uncertainty in his face. "Okay. Let me... let me try this."

He's trying not to balk when the restoration magic flows over his hands. But the feel of it makes him flinch and let the spell die. Twice. Eventually he swallows and closes his eyes, wrapping his hands around Jim's wounded one and focusing on that. On the warmth of Jim's skin. On what he has to do.

I'm healing him, I need to heal him, I don't care if it hurts... The chant is silent, but his lips move along with it, so intense is his concentration. Don't think about how it feels. Just keep it flowing forward, through his hands and outward. Into the flesh that must knit, the skin that must close.
conjuredskies: (Sidelong)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2017-12-03 09:35 pm (UTC)(link)
He's missed Jim painfully the last few weeks. Hazy as they've been, even shut away in his childhood house where no Jim ought to be expected, the captain's absence has been a gaping emptiness at his side, a silence hanging in every room. No-one to steal the blankets from each night, no warm arms draped over him in the night, no waking up to a blinding smirk as he's poked in the cheek.

He asked Stratos, tentatively. He saw the first message from Jim and after that hid his phone where he wouldn't hear it. He'd told himself he shouldn't see Jim yet and he wasn't sure, really, how much that was true and how much was his fear of the conversation he knew would have to come.

Because he couldn't expect Jim to accept him back. Not after what he did. Knowing that Jim loved him enough to come and save him in spite of it - in spite of what he'd become - hurts too much to bear. Felix can't even accept his actions. How could Jim live with them? He has enough memories haunting him already.

And yet here they are. Jim's clinging to him with all the trust and love Felix knows he's already thrown on the pyre and he's trembling with longing for what he no longer has a right to. He swallows. Has to make himself let go of Jim's hand. Thank all the gods it worked.

"You don't..." He checks himself. Keep it simple. "It's the least I owe you, Jim." He reaches for the coffee. "Can you hold on to this now? It might help. I should start on your knees, and then we can get that steel off you."
conjuredskies: (What?)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2017-12-05 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
His own hands are unsteady as he takes the spilling cup from Jim's hands. Wonders if this is the shock talking, if Jim will come to his senses and decide that Felix is the last person he needs around him. Wishes that he won't. Knows it makes no difference. If all Jim needs is someone to comfort him against this night's terrors, someone who knows his secrets and won't share them... Felix will give that, and gladly.

And then Jim says I'm sorry and the fortress gates fall open and the imprisoned words all come pouring out of him again. He doesn't know where he's set the cup but his hands are at Jim's cheeks. Holding him, touching him, brushing the damp tears away from his skin while the Imperial's tongue runs loose.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't there. I'm sorry I hid from you, I'm sorry for what I did to you, I'm sorry for making you come for me. I love you, and I always loved you, and by the gods and daedra and whoever fucking else I am so, so fucking sorry I ruined everything." He gasps for air, refusing to sob. Not when he has to say this. "I've missed you every moment since you brought me home. And I... I shouldn't be doing this now. I'm... I'll look at your knees. I just... whatever I can give you, it's yours. If you want it."
conjuredskies: (...Wait)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2017-12-24 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
"I won't leave." Felix kneels before him, shaken and raw. It takes a long minute to pull his eyes from Jim's face. To take his thoughts from the aching gladness that fills his chest when Jim asks those words. "Until you say otherwise. I won't abandon you again."

He doesn't care any more if it's a wise promise or a realistic or a kind one. Jim still wants him. Still loves him. Jim went into a crypt filled with horrors of Felix's own making and brought him back and he still cares for the conjurer. If Jim has any doubt of Felix's devotion to him, it's written all over his face in this moment.

But he needs to attend the rest of Jim's wounds. Felix works the boot from his injured leg gently before he sets to cleaning it, quick and careful. "Sort of lucky you were wearing this armor. At least I don't have to cut pants off you."
conjuredskies: (Sidelong)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2017-12-28 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
He doesn't answer, for a long minute. Sponges dirt from Jim's scraped knees and pulls the light closer to spot any shards of embedded glass or debris. But he doesn't lie. Not to Jim. Maybe he should, should know the right words to make things easier for both of them. But all that's been stripped back in the emotions at work tonight, the last of his self-control lost the moment Jim was taken from him again. He's too raw to be clever. He might regret that.

"I don't know," he mumbles. "I don't know how you can even look at me now." How Jim can trust him to be here. The guilt is creeping back, the flashes of recall that have tormented him since he woke up in his childhood home. He remembers the last time they were together. Jim's exhausted and bloodied face looking up at him from the darkness. Standing on high and smiling down at his terrified anger. Drawing the blades...

"But I'm yours," he makes himself say. Forcing himself back to the present. Trying to reassure Jim even though everything looks bleak in his sight. "No matter what happens, I'll make sure you're okay." If Jim doesn't want him back, Felix will still be there for him in whatever ways he can be.
conjuredskies: (...Wait)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2017-12-31 02:04 pm (UTC)(link)
The spell he's working on Jim's knees fades as Felix's head jerks up. His eyes search the other man's face, trying to understand. Just what did he do? Why does it hurt so much? He knows Jim isn't like him. His world seems to foster a rejection of war, of the need to kill sometimes.

"Who was it?" he asks quietly. Who could Jim kill that makes him think he's no better than a would-have-been lich? "I know you, Jim. You don't kill easily. You feel too much guilt. You'd sooner die yourself..." And how his voice aches at that last. He knows how he's most likely to lose Jim.
conjuredskies: (...Wait)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2018-01-01 02:28 am (UTC)(link)
Felix stares up at him, trying to make sense of that. That doesn't sound like the man he knows. It does, he realizes, sound like the way Jim sees himself in his darker moments.

He shakes his head emphatically. "You wouldn't kill without good reason. I know you. If you set out to kill a man then..." No. That isn't what Jim needs to hear. Felix will never believe he committed an unjust killing, but he knows when the captain isn't going to heed such affirmations.

"It was a nightmare, Jim," he says more softly. "An illusion crafted to torment you. It showed you what you feared most. And you fear becoming a killer. That's why it turned you into one."
conjuredskies: (Sidelong)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2018-01-02 06:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Felix sees that hope return to Jim's expression and the shadow over his heart lightens for the first time in months. It was the right thing to say. He's done with the healing so he sits up by Jim and clasps his hand again for a minute.

"It's done," he affirms. "It's over." He wants nothing more than to just sit here, looking at Jim's face and being here to offer comfort. Something in him still won't settle, though. There's a twist in his gut that only tightens as he sits with Jim. A prickle of his nerves that says, You shouldn't be here. It's too close.

"...Let me clear up and get that plate off you," he says finally. "Your shoulders must be sore by now. I'll be right back." Let Stratos worry about cleaning it - or maybe someone else should. Felix thinks of his brother's harrowed expression earlier. That's a problem for the morning. He pushes himself up, clearing away the bloodied wipes and raided first aid kit besides washing his own hands. Stopping to breathe as calmly as he can for the two minutes he's out of Jim's sight.

It's fine. He's under his own control now. He won't lose it. They're both safe here.

It's fine.

Just don't think about it.
conjuredskies: (...Wait)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2018-01-07 01:51 pm (UTC)(link)
When Felix returns he's... well, he thinks he's go himself under control. But his face is pale, his heart hammering faster than it has any warrant to. He's too quiet as he sits down again, shuffling close to start unbuckling that armor. He tries, though. Remembers to murmur to Jim now and then. Even tries to joke a little. Once.

"Come on, let's get that off you. It's not your look anyway..." He fumbles his way through each stay and fastening, then helps Jim try to pull the armor off over his head. Has to do it twice, because he forgot to undo a couple of fastenings. Finally the armor's dumped aside, followed by the bloodied undershirt. His hands linger on Jim's skin as he works, squeezing his arms and stroking his back with the need to reassure them both.

"Should get you cleaned up," he mumbles, not knowing why that thought fills him with dread. "Want to try the shower? Or I'll just take care of you..." He really doubts Jim can manage a shower, to tell the truth. But he'll help- he has to. The tightness in his chest doesn't matter, it's what Jim needs.