Wisps: Recollection (Ninjago X Reader)

69. The Oni and The Dragon

"A good second there, we thought the fire got you." You don't miss how he tensed. "And you were just kneeling on the damn ground." It's all blurry to you. Fragments poorly fused with boiling wax. One break to stab and burn into you with all the fury–

"I was passing out from the smoke... that's probably why I wasn't screaming. Hah." You grimly grinned, feeling how it pressed all the pain on your face into a pressured mess. "I thought..." Your voice's raw, scratched up inhaling the fumes, "I re-really thought I got a little bit better."

"Don't think anyone's gonna pull through with a fire lit up their ass." It's a firm embrace around you. "Be honest with yourself here."

"...what happened after?"

"I gotcha." Embraces and such never do heal all hurts. Marooned from your own piled trouble, a rusted anchor sat heavier in your hold. "Well, they got the mask. Hutchins' had it the whole time to guard it... We don't know where they went with it. The damsel family's all dead though."

"...And Harumi?"

"She's fine. A little too quiet. She told them about her situation and how she got your help. So that's handled."

"Guess that makes me more believable."

"Suppose it does. You're all good here." He eased from you now. That comfort never lasts. Ronin left you kneeling in that spot. "I'll get off."

"But..." Your hand crumpled around your metal wrist. All of that, being lost to time, this whole disaster– that hell in the ocean, that inferno– It had eaten a lot out of you. But you shoved it all back down to its gnawing pit.

"...best we go our separate ways, Kid." There he goes. A distance yet again. A sharpness, a pain to grapple to something, someone– "...don't be like that." He said it like he was steeling himself more than you.

"You need to get your hand looked at." You cleared your throat, inflaming it with an eroding bile. "...you-you'll be back, right?" He doesn't answer. "O–oh." You forgot. He always just hung around. 'He never sticks around. Haha.' He's back at the edge of the bed, arms stuck at his side. A face suffering. As it did in the palace. "Can you...tell me what that was? Back there?"

"Twenty years ago?" Exhaling out, shrugging it all back, his eyes flickered to the neon lights passing the windows. "Honestly, what you did there, I didn't need you to do that, Kid."

"I don't..." You're off the bed, wobbling to its post for balance. "Why does that matter now–"

"It matters a whole hell of a lot, because you almost didn't make it out of there. You risked a lot, for nothing."

"Nothing? I saved you." You get to the wall of the doorway, hooking to the jutting planks.

"I did too, so we're even there." Why is he so firm about it and... So fucking rude?

"Don't– don't bring up an-anything about debt, or, or anything like that. Because you only bring that up when...!"

'When you go.'

"You wanna exchange something now? Know what, I'll do you one better– I'll tell you all about it! Right here." He's leaving, and your unsteady momentum bucked into him, pinning him to the wall.

"I– I don't want that, Ronin." His chest heaved against yours, his heart overtaking yours. He wasn't letting go, gripping you hard by the hips, still a little unsteady. "...sorry." Your hands fall off his shoulders, and you're slanting to the wall. He stayed. Face lingering over yours, and you can't seem to look at him. Even when he's gone. You slumped to the floor, the thrum of the engine tickled the back of your skull, and your ears. A tired laugh racked and jumbled out. Rocked by the ship's movements, you would've curled to sleep in bitterness.