darker_london | Scarlett & Maria

Scarlett hadn’t really been doing much that afternoon. In fact, she’d spent most of it lying on her back and singing at the posters on the roof. Sharon Den Adel seemed mostly unimpressed and Scarlett had to convince her that she hadn’t really given up her opera vocals for all time and that it just wasn’t the right thing for Entropy. It was somewhere in the middle of explaining Entropy’s angle to a poster that Scarlett decided that she might, just possibly, be going stir crazy. With a sigh she jumped up off her bed and- after dragging her hair brush though the tangles- called out to James. “Hey, I’m going out, okay?”

James came out from the living room toward her room looking slightly apprehensive. “Maria’s here.”

It was said coolly but Scarlett could hear the dislike behind it. James- unlike Scarlett- didn’t even have a reason to not like Maria. He knew almost nothing of her. For him it was all gut feeling. For Scarlett it could have easily been much more than that. She frowned. “Maria?” She knew it was going to be bad news. It always was when it came from Maria.

James nodded and then looked down the hall and then back to his sister. “I’ll leave you to that, Saint Scarlett, while I go be elsewhere.” It was strange for James to be so unwelcoming to anyone. Scarlett had to wonder if he picked up anything strange off the dark girl. She watched him walk down the hall and then went out to meet Maria at the front door.

She was standing just outside, her focus caught on something across the street and her arms crossed tightly. She had the same sour expression on her face that Scarlett always saw on her. She heard Scarlett coming and locked her eyes on the redhead quickly. “Scarlett.”

Scarlett nodded. “That’s my name.” She was a little confused to why Maria was there. “What’s up?”

She looked around, dark eyes wary. “Can we talk somewhere private?”

Again Scarlett nodded. “Sure, come in.” Without another word she led Maria through the house and back into Scarlett’s bedroom, pulling the door shut behind them. Maria stood looking uncomfortable by the bed and Scarlett noticed the small flinch she made even as she tried to keep her features hard. She frowned. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Maria said and then seemed to think better of it. “I mean, no, not really.”

Suddenly she squeezed her eyes shut and a small sound of pain escaped her lips. Scarlett moved forward on instinct to help her stand, but Maria pulled away very quickly before the other girl could touch her. Scarlett raised her hands to show she was backing off. “It’s alright. No touching. See?” Silence filled the room and Scarlett looked at Maria carefully, trying to read her. "What's going on?"

“It hurts,” she told Scarlett, teeth gritted. “More and more every day.”

Scarlett frowned and bit her lip. “I thought you said I helped?”

“You did. And it was…bearable.” She shook her head and sat down on the bed, hugging her stomach. “But now it’s getting worse again.”

Scarlett sat down on the bed- keeping a safe distance between the two of them- and looked at her carefully. It had been almost a year since Maria had first come to talk to her. Before that they’d just been fellow students at Regents. And then, in the space of an afternoon, they’d become something like partners in crime. Scarlett the witch with her helpful herbs and magical brews, and Maria the werewolf who was losing control of her abilities and living in constant pain. The shock at the thought of a werewolf had been put aside very quickly at the prospect of helping someone who needed her. She'd managed to bring Maria's daily pain down to what the darker girl described as 'somewhat managable' But now it seemed all her work had been for nothing. “Have you thought about seeing an actual doctor, Maria?”

Maria gave her a withering look. “And say what, Scarlett?” An eye roll. But a moment later her well built defences fell. “I can’t stand this. I used to think I was stronger than this. But it hurts. My whole body feels like it’s tearing itself apart and it’s all the fucking time. I’m living on bottles of painkillers and they don’t even make a dent anymore. I passed out from the pain of changing yesterday. I just can’t do this-” she closed her eyes tightly and when she opened them again they were softer than Scarlett had seen them before. “I need your help.”

Scarlett could hear how hard that had been for the other girl to ask and Scarlett couldn’t stop wondering about her. She knew barely anything about Maria. Maria seemed to like it that way. “Of course,” Scarlett told her with a nod. “I’ll do everything I can.”