Kintsugi

[Nox]

The simple word was not what he'd expected. He wasn't exactly sure what he expected, but that hadn't been it. Hell he expected a lot worse than any of the reactions Raffe had. And right now it just felt even worse than it did before, at least he'd cried, shown some fucking emotions.

Nox rolled to his side away from Raffe. It wasn't to get away from him -- well not because he wanted to. More he wanted to touch him, to fucking hold him and it was killing him to not be able to. He curled his fist up against his chin and pressed the half arm against his stomach and curled up in a ball. He wasn't going to be able to sleep, but not because he was sharing a bed with Raffe. That was the best part of the whole thing, there was comfort in Raffe's room, always had been. Comfort in Raffe even when they were just friends, and now it was fucking ruined.

No, sleep wouldn't come because everytime he closed his eyes he saw a shadow of his former self ripping through people. It always started out as strangers and then got progressively worse after he killed Aria. And then it was every person he knew and tearing into Raffe always woke him in tears. He laid there listening to Raffe drift off to sleep.

Nox didn't know how long he lay there. The girls hadn't stirred but his back was starting to ache from being stuck in the same rigid place avoiding touching Raffe as much as he wanted to. Nox slide to the end of the bed without waking Raffe and flung his legs over and just sat staring out the window. Everything was numb.

The chair clattered to the floor and a sharp squeak of flailing children pierced the silence of the club. "Shit!" Nox quickly moved from the end of Raffe's bed and out the door but not without tripping over his hoodie that had slipped from the chair and fallen to the floor.

Nox crashed into the door. "Fuck!" He bit his tongue in the whole thing as he stumbled out into the hall to catch the girls running flailing into his arms.

Morgan screamed again. Makenzie chasing after her with her bunny. The sterner of the two girls glared at Nox as he scooped her up and wrapped her in his arms the best he could, taking the bunny with his good and and hoisting Morgan into the half arm and knee balancing like a fucking stork while he handed her the bunny.

She might need it a little more than he did at this point, Nox thought to himself as he settled everything back into place.

Mackenzie growled at him. "She has nightmares without this."

Nox nodded. "I know better. What do we need to do to help calm her down?" He asked. He had my own rituals, one of which Morgan was already engaging in and that was hiding in someone safe. Her shaking had subsided a little. "How does food and shopping sound?"

The latter pulled Morgan away from him with the strength of a ten year old she slid down his body and they had to quickly steady the both of them or they both might tumble down the stairs.

Mackenzie looked at Nox's arm then and stabbed her finger into the stump. "What happened?"

Nox was honest "The same thing that killed your dad, bit me. And immediately after the bite I cut off my arm with a flaming sword. Well I didn't I was screaming 'cut it off' at the police officer with me." It wasn't a sword, more like a disk blade or maybe one of Xena the warrior princesses shakra things. Those never worked except in the movies.