tigerundercover

"Oh my god."

Raven knelt and pressed her hands into the snow, turning it red. Her back arched, the scales along her spine and shoulder blades literally bristling with leftover adrenaline. She didn't look up.

"Oh my god," Misfit said again. "Raven, what did you do?!"

"He had a gun." She rubbed snow across her hands, washing them with it like soap. She wondered if the reason she didn't feel the cold was because she was already freezing inside. Maybe she always had been. "He pointed a gun at you."

She heard the squinching crush of their feet as they backed up. Normal people didn't like to stand that close to dead bodies. There wasn't enough snow on the ground to finish wiping off the blood; not even quite an inch. It figured. The only reason they'd come this close to town was because of the snow, because Misfit couldn't spend the night in it as easily as Raven could. And now it wouldn't even be enough to get her hands clean so they would --

So they'd stop looking at her the way she knew they were looking.

"He was scared," they said. "He didn't know who we were."

"I know." She stood up, shaking melted, pink snow from her fingers. "They always are." She finally looked up. She wondered what they saw in her face that made their own crumple that way.

"Well," they said. "Now so am I."

Raven shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. There were blood stains on Misfit's wool dress, not many, but Raven knew where every one of them was. She didn't think there was anyone in this world anymore who wasn't at least a little bloodstained. "You've seen me kill before."

"Kill zombies. They're already dead, that's doing them a favor. This guy was -- he was just --"

"We should go." Raven looked towards the houses and stores that climbed the steep road ahead of them, away from the natural barrier of the two rivers coming together. She'd expected Harper's Ferry to be another ghost town, but of course there was a settlement here. Not a large one, not with only one man standing guard at the bottom of the road. But enough to be a threat. "Others will be coming." She leaned down to pick up the man's gun, wiping the snow and blood -- and other bits -- off it on his shirt. She checked the magazine and found it full. If the snow hadn't made its way inside it, it would be useful to have for awhile. "Do you know how to use this?"

"No." Misfit recoiled from the gun even from five feet away. Raven didn't blame them.

"I can teach you, if you like."

"Raven." Misfit had their arms tucked tight around their torso. Raven realized they must be freezing. "He asked who we were. You didn't even try to talk to him."

"He had a gun," Raven said again. It wasn't that she didn't understand why Misfit was upset. She just didn't feel it, not anymore. Misfit hadn't seen what she had in Texas. They didn't know how most people reacted to someone like her.

"Yeah, and now you do." Misfit's laugh sounded painful. "Awesome."

It hit Raven like a fist to the gut. They were terrified. Misfit, who had looked up at the biggest bear form Raven could muster, laughed, and said 'how'd you do that?' was looking at her now in fear.

Oh god.

What had she done?

She held out her hands, careful to point the gun out toward the trees on the bank of the river as she slowly lowered it back to the ground. Guns were useful, but she didn't need it. Not when Misfit was looking at her like that. "Hey," she said. "Hey, no. It's okay. I won't keep it. It's okay."

Misfit shook their head. "You really don't get it. Oh my god." They stepped back again. Raven saw a faint glow appear against the houses behind them. People were coming.

"Misfit, we have to go."

"Is this what you do? Is this what you -- what you would have done to me?"

Raven shook her head. "No. No, Misfit, I'd never hurt you."

"Yeah, 'cause you gave me a chance. Because we talked." They pointed to the body on the ground. "You never gave him a chance!"

Raven couldn't say he had a gun again. Not and make them understand. She didn't know how to explain that people had been a threat to her her entire life, that they looked at her and saw a monster. "He saw me," she said, remembering how the man had spun, startling them both as they stepped out of the trees. How the moon had bounced off the still almost pure snow and she'd seen his eyes widen because he was there before she knew it, before she had a chance to disguise herself. How she knew that expression, how she'd seen it turn towards Misfit, the gun following along -- "People who look at me like that don't stop to talk."

Misfit shook their head again. They seemed to be shrinking, collapsing in on themself as they kept backing away. "I thought you were supposed to be a superhero."

Raven couldn't answer that. "I'm sorry." The sound of voices, several of them, raised in fear in anger, descended the road from town. Raven looked up at the still approaching light, then back at Misfit. She took one last moment to try to memorize their face. Not to use. Not to mimic. Just to hold in her head and her heart. "You're not coming with me."

"I --"

"It wasn't a question." Raven took a breath and grew, darkening her scales and filling her mouth with bright, pointed teeth. "Scream. Make a fuss. Tell them it was a monster, something horrible in the woods. Let them take you in." She met Misfit's eyes one last time, and marvelled that they could look up at something like what she'd become with what looked like it might just be love.

But you weren't supposed to love the things that scared you.

"Please," she said. "I know you hate them, but you need people."

Misfit swallowed, holding Raven's gaze. They whispered something, so soft and fast Raven barely had time to hear it before they opened their mouth and let out a blood curdling scream.

Raven held her ground until the first of the townspeople rounded the bend. She made sure to flash her teeth and flex her claws before leaping off into the trees and dropping to all fours, shifting into a snowshoe hare, all but invisible out of the moonlight. Her large ears picked up the shouts and questions behind her as she ran, and she heard Misfit above all the others, doing a perfect terrified babble.

They'd be safe there, for a little while at least. Much safer than they ever were with Raven.

Misfit's last words to her lingered, though, following Raven across the Potomac and back out onto the road to Baltimore.

He was scared of me too.

[ooc: NFI, NFB, OOC welcome. Warning for off screen violence and NPC death. It was nice of the real life weather to coordinate with my fictional whims. . . .]