Forget Me Not

I've Got No-one But Myself To Blame

"Mounty?" He called out to the wind.

Looking down, he saw the seatbelt had been undone and placed carefully back in an unused position. The buckle and the button both had smears of black on them. Shuffling boot prints in the light coat of snow that had fallen over the wreck since the crash led out where the bus doors half hung on their hinges. Spots of blood littered the centre of the trail that led back up to the road, roughly twenty metres away. Through the snow Rain spotted a figure huddled close to the ground on the pavement.

It was definitely Mountain; despite being in full glamour, he was unmistakable. Rain ran to him, scrambling over rocks and slipping on frozen ground. As he got closer he realised that the blood was dripping from an obviously broken nose. But Mountain wasn't cradling it like most would. In fact, it didn't seem as though he noticed it at all. He was sitting on the ground with his knees up and one bare hand placed flat on the road at the side of him. Despite panting heavily, he seemed very calm.

"Mountain? What's wrong?" Rain approached cautiously from the front so as to not spook him.

"Black ice." Mountain muttered.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"Black Ice."

Mountain rubbed his hand back and forward on the road. Rain looked down and sure enough, there was nearly invisible ice clinging to the road under Mountain's hand.

"I didn't see it. I looked back and I didn't see it."

Rain kneeled in front of him and put his clawed, grey hand over Mountain's, which, with Rain in his natural form, were about the same size. Mountain looked up at him, brows furrowed in confusion as though he didn't realise Rain was there.

"I just wanted to see... I'm sorry. I didn't see it." He spoke slowly in between deep breaths as though he was having trouble putting his thoughts together.

"Shit, you're cold." He grabbed both of mountain's hands and grasped them in his own, rubbing at them to get him some warmth back. Mountain wasn't making eye contact, he was still staring at the ice on the road.

"Mount." Rain reached up to lightly tap his cheek, "Hey, Mounty, look at me, you're in shock, I need you to drop your glamour, all right?"

"Did I hurt anyone?" Mountain was looking at him now but still not quite hearing him, "Is everyone okay?"

Rain looked back at the wreck further down the hill, searching for words and deciding whether or not to lie. His own arm was smeared with blood from numerous but thankfully superficial cuts. He could hardly say everyone was fine, not even just the ghouls, but for the time being he didn't want to mention Copia being missing.

"Just some nicks and scratches, we'll be fine. You seem to be the worst off out of any of us but you'll feel a little better if you drop your glamour."

"Drop my glamour?" He looked at his hands which were splotchy red and his nails blue with cold. He noticed the black blood in his lap but it took a few seconds for him to register that it was his own. "Oh." He moved his hands out of Rain's grasp and touched his nose, flinching back with a hiss.

He went still for a moment while he tried his best to concentrate on his magic. Slowly the illusion started to falter and fell away to reveal a shaggy looking ghoul with branching antlers and small tusks. His nose corrected itself to an extent and would continue to, now that he had dropped the glamour, but he might yet need some attention at the infirmary later.

Harming an earth ghoul was no easy feat, but not impossible. The accident causing the airbag to inflate wouldn't have been enough, but the twisted metal and, as Rain recalled, the steering wheel appearing to have been pushed upwards, perhaps after the bag had deflated would certainly cause some damage. Physically, besides some bruising, he hoped Mountain would be fine but for now, the shock alone was more worrying than a bruised and bloodied nose.

"Better?" Rain offered his hands out again

"Yeah," He took a deep breath, "yeah, a little bit." He took Rain's hands in his own and lightly squeezed them, feeling around from his wrist to the tips of his fingers and back. The repetitive motion served to convince himself that the hands were real, that Rain wasn't hurt and was truly sitting right in front of him, but also to ground himself, to keep him safe from the horrible thoughts of self blame and hatred that he could feel bubbling just below the surface.

The thoughts that told him that this was all his fault, that he should have been better, should have been more careful, that he shouldn't be cowering on the ground, that he should stop being so pathetic and get up already, a better ghoul would have checked on his packmates by now. You're pathetic, you couldn't even prevent such a simple accident you dumbass, you idiot, wh-

Mountain wrenched his hands to his head, bringing Rain's with them. It was a jerky and sudden movement compared to everything else he had done thus far since the crash. Almost pulling Rain off balance, the ghoul managed to right himself quickly. Comfortable in the cold and damp around him, he was possibly one of the least affected by the weather.

"Mount?" Rain kept his voice soft as he felt Mountain begin to shiver, or possibly tremble, he wasn't certain which. "What do you need?"
"Can we just," He chose his words carefully, "can we just sit here for a moment?"
"Sure."

Rain adjusted himself so that he sat alongside mountain and wrapped an arm as far as he could around his shoulders and leaned in to offer what warmth he could.