maskormenacelogs | Chasing leaves in the wind // closed

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Chasing leaves in the wind // closed

WHO: Declan Lynch

dauntless_son + Ronan Lynch and Kylo Ren
WHERE: the Meadows
WHEN: January 9th-ish
WHAT: meeting the... family?
WARNINGS: Lynch Family Trauma, violence

I. The birds all left my tall friend

Declan doesn't ask Ronan for a car. It doesn't even occur to him to ask a dreamer for anything. He rents one in the city and follows memory out to the Meadows. He shouldn't have any memory of how to get there, but Ronan said it was where the Barns should be. So he knows. Declan doesn't know if he's disturbed or relieved when he finds it. There's flickers of familiarity - some of the out buildings that he can see from the driveway, fields of cows (none of them sleeping as far as he can tell), the shape of things.

But the house is different. That's the first jarring thing that disrupts any sense of deja vu. Declan slides out of the car and just stands there for a moment, taking everything in. He's just come from work and his staid black pea coat covers an equally staid gray suit. Black gloves, black scarf to ward off the familiar evening chill.

He's about to head toward the house when a flash of light through the trees catches his attention. Ronan's always dreaming light... Declan follows the flash and realizes that there's more than one and that the way they move is very deliberate.

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Kylo's eyes are wide, strangely unseeing. It isn't dread he feels, though he'd always assumed it would be a heavy, deafened horror, being amputated from the rest of the endless flow of existence. It's nothing. There's nothing beyond the boundary of his skin, beyond the finite edges of his physical senses. Nothing at all.

Is Ronan doing this?

Belatedly, he stares down at his face— at which point he realises there's nothing there, either. No whisper of intention, no thought, no feeling bleeding out into the shared space between them. Only the performance of fear on Ronan's face.

And Ronan's pulse, shuddering through his skin where they touch.

"Stay down," he hisses, deciding in the absence of evidence that they must be under attack— or at least, that they could be and he wouldn't know.
How can anyone fight when they can't see?

He can hear the quiet thuds of bodies hitting the ground. He knows that sound, it's unique no matter where it happens. If this place is like the Barns, he wonders if they might be dream things. The only other sound Declan can hear for a few seconds is his own breathing.

The last of twilight is starting to fade across the sky, and beneath the treeline dark settles. Declan can't fight well when he can't see, but it's one of those things he's prepared for. The Gray Man had been hell for his paranoia, but good for preparation.

With a slower breath, Declan pushes himself up from the tree he'd fallen against. He listens; he thinks he hears a voice.

"Ronan?" There's a flicker of hesitation in his voice. Ronan has to be alive. He has to be okay. He thinks he can make out the shapes of bodies still heaped on the ground. Darker against the dark.

The magic throughout the Meadows may have gone into hibernation, but Ronan Lynch is very alive.

"Declan," he growls, all of his relief turning instantly to fury. Of course it would be Declan snooping around in his woods, setting off nullification like a bomb.

Which, it occurs to Ronan with some delay, must mean that Declan had thought there was reason to set off a nullification bomb. And possibly, given all that Ronan has learned about his brother in the past year, that is not the only weapon Declan is armed with.

At that thought, Ronan pushes himself up with a renewed but different fear, trying to put his body between Kylo and the approximate location of Declan's voice. If a bullet's going to land anywhere, it'll be in Ronan's back. "It's my fucking brother," he tells Kylo before shouting over his shoulder, "Turn your shitty power off!"

Without access to Ronan's thoughts and fears, Kylo can't quite understand what Ronan's doing, at first. Declan, the brother Ronan had mentioned had arrived, hadn't been presented as a potential threat— and Ronan had absolutely neglected to elaborate on any powers he might have at his disposal. Particularly ones that would potentially leave him vulnerable.

And he is, he realises, vulnerable. Not necessarily in a brawl, but...

That's what Ronan's doing. He's blocking the path of a bullet.

Does Ronan believe his brother is here to kill him?

"You are going to make me a fucking list of anything else I should expect," Delcan snaps when he realizes Ronan is fine. As soon as his brain and body catch up to each other, realizing there is no longer a need to prepare to fight or flee, his knees feel weak. Now that he knows Ronan is okay, Declan is furious. How difficult would it have been to answer his fucking phone at some point in the last thirty six hours? To check his messages?

Declan hates surprises.

He stays where he is, hand on a tree as he watches movement in the clearing. He's losing the ability to make out even the outlines of bodies but he knows generally where they are. Had Ronan just put himself between Declan and whoever is out there with him? He isn't sure if he's offended or concerned.

"I don't know how," he says after a moment. Declan looks at the ground and tries to get his heart and his breath back under his control. Maybe if he just calms down it'll stop.

Edited 2020-01-12 09:08 (UTC)

"You don't know?"

At least it doesn't seem like Declan's going to make any further attempt to come to his rescue. Ronan's shoulders sink as he turns back to Kylo, who's being suspiciously quiet and still. In the dark, it's hard to get a good look at him, but Ronan strokes his cheeks in apology and assures him, "It's okay. Declan's just an idiot."

Kylo can't feel Ronan. Anything. Nothing is okay.

"If he can't turn it off," he bites out, stiff and furiously irritable, "Then maybe he should leave."

Because Kylo knows one way to turn it off for him, and blinded or not? He likes his chances a lot more than he suspects Ronan would like the outcome.

His jaw goes tight and he can feel the familiar roil in his stomach, the anxiety that comes with something being out of his control. Something important. Declan wants to argue that he's been here for three days and this is the first time he's experienced whatever getting here did to him outside of reading about it in his file. How is he supposed to know what triggers it or how it works? How can he prepare himself when he has no idea what he's walking into? How difficult would it have been for Ronan to--

But he doesn't say anything.

Declan pushes his fingers through his hair. He is not helpless in this situation. He can do something. But how does he make it stop?

"I'm not leaving."

Whatever he did is already starting to break up. When an angry-sounding little bird streaks past his head in the dark, Declan assumes that Ronan is getting his power back. It lifts like a fog, dissipating slowly and then gone altogether.

His heart is still pounding and he's angry with himself for thinking this world would be different in principle. This is why he kept a gun under the driver's seat in his car. But he isn't armed right now and he still doesn't know the exact situation he's interrupted. Ronan's talking to the person with him. He doesn't sound like he's in pain.

Declan pushes away from the tree, moving into the clearing toward Ronan's voice and straining to listen to everything else. Movement, breathing, voices. He hates this so fucking much.

Edited (i stg i can write words) 2020-01-12 19:28 (UTC)

Ronan knows Kylo well enough to know where that fury is likely to lead. Unfortunately for him, without the Force's aid, he's not going to win against two Lynches at once. The arithmetic leaves Ronan with no concern for what Kylo might do to Declan, but an increasing fear of what Declan might do to Kylo.

"Don't hurt him," Ronan calls out. Not to Kylo. To Declan, whose approach he can hear more than see. He obviously doesn't expect his brother to obey, though, because he's still shielding Kylo when he turns around, arms spread wide. "That's some fucked-up shit, Declan. You freaked the hell out of us."

Past-tense, like he isn't still freaked out. Ronan can't feel magic returning, and Vexed to Nightmare remains dark as long as it's out of his hands. The woods may be stirring, but are they Ronan's creatures or natural animals who've just been disturbed?

Don't hurt him?

Kylo's fury only builds as Ronan makes a plea for his protection, blinded rage boiling under his skin with nowhere to go. He's stranded, caged in his body with nothing but his anger. Nothing but his violently pounding heart and the sharp-edged tearing of breath after breath from the cold night air.

Which is why, the second he feels anything beyond, he bursts out— his will exploding outwards in an indiscriminate tidal wave push as the blade in his hand crackles back into life.

Don't hurt him? What does Ronan think he's going to do? He can see the vague outline of Ronan with his arms out, a shield, a saint demanding that swords be laid down.

"I freaked you out? Jesus Christ--"

Declan doesn't know what hits him but it knocks him to the ground, hard. The blade ignites and as adrenaline dumps into his system, his power manifests again. The curtain of it falls and the menacing red that had been illuminating Kylo's face goes out.

Alright. Okay, he can see how this is going to be beneficial. He still doesn't like it, but it's useful, and utility matters more than anything else. Declan gets up slowly, more ready this time.

"Ronan, are you okay?"

He'd gotten a slightly better look at the other figure and Declan braces himself on the off chance that what follows next is a blind attack.

Edited 2020-01-12 21:39 (UTC)

Ronan is... not okay. He'd been a lot closer to the blast than Declan and it hit his back like a lash, sent him flying several feet, and left him face-down in the mud. For the second time in five minutes, the wind's knocked out of him, and it hurts a lot more this time. Choking and sputtering, he drags himself up onto his elbows but can't find his voice yet to give Declan an answer.

The sound of his struggling may be answer enough.

"Get. Out," Kylo snarls furiously, grip on the hilt of his deadened sword tight enough to crush it— if he had the strength of the Force to draw on.

Half-blinded and agonised, Kylo's far from the threat he usually is— but Declan could be forgiven for thinking otherwise as his oversized bulk turns squarely in his direction, fixing his eyes on the shape of his silhouette. He isn't about to give up, especially now he knows it's possible he might regain his power any minute. He's fought while bleeding out, too weakened with conflict to call on the strength of the Dark Side before. He'll fight now.

Two problems, two directions. The snarl lets him know where Kylo is; the choking sound lets him know that Ronan's at least getting some air. There's a body coming toward him and Declan has no intention of taking another sprawling hit.

He darts to the side and forward. Where did Ronan land? He makes for the silhouette still on the ground and nearly skids past him on the damp leaves. Declan crouches down and manages to get a hand on Ronan's back, then his arm.

"You gotta get up. Come on."

Declan tries to keep his attention split because it's not going to take long for the brick of a man charging around to figure out where his voice is coming from. Fuck fuck fuck. He has nothing here to even improvise with.

He stands straight again, anticipating the next rush and thinking fast about how he wants to take it. Declan knows how to take a beating, he's not afraid of that. Thanks to Niall, he knows how to give one back. And he can't leave Ronan while he's down.

Ronan is trying to get up. Between that Force attack and the beating he took during training, his body feels like one giant bruise. As he pushes himself up on his arms, his back protests so sharply he's sure he's broken a rib or three. He manages to get on his knees, but he stops there, still fighting to breathe.

"Kylo," he gasps. "Stop. Just give him a minute..."

Without the tug and flow of the Force guiding his focus, Kylo barely hears Ronan's voice. His attention, all of it he has available to him, is on the figure straightening up from a crouch on the ground— right where he needs it. With his senses pared down and supplying only such basic, immediate information, he doesn't have anything left to spare.

If Declan won't leave, Kylo's mind supplies him, if he can't or won't stop, then he has to be stopped. The threat ends with Declan unconscious and unmoving. Nothing less.
And so this time, no longer offering an alternative, Kylo hurls himself at Declan not with the intention of driving him off but taking him down, his arm swinging heavy for a brutal blow to the jaw.

Declan can't duck out of the hit entirely and his head rings when a fist slams into him. While Kylo goes for his head, Declan punches hard at his ribs. He can't stop Kylo's momentum, either; regardless of where or if the blow lands, they run into each other and Declan loses his balance. The most he can do is twist them away from Ronan so that when they hit the ground, it isn't on top of his brother.

He kicks hard and immediately tries to get back to his feet.

This is going to be a more difficult fight than Ronan anticipated, now that he can barely move. Declan is an excellent boxer, like all the Lynch boys, but he's no match for Kylo alone. Even if Kylo's essentially fighting blind.

"Stop," Ronan cries again, louder and sharper this time, as he hauls himself to his feet. For several reasons, this isn't a fight he should get in the middle of, but he's pretty sure the worst outcome is what they'll get if he doesn't.

He uses what little strength he has left to throw himself between them, foiling Declan's attempt to get the fight away from him. He can't do anything for either of them except get in the way and take the blows meant for both of them.

Reality shrinks in to little more than the span of a heartbeat. The shock and hiss of pain, the gathering, building and loosing of strength, over and over and over, impact after impact, the interlocking physical mechanisms of his body all serving the one, singular goal. Everything he has left, to break this hold over him. He'll do anything. Endure anything. He wrestles Declan to the ground and holds him there under his furious weight, fully intending to trap him under a wild rain of blows until he's subdued all resistance— but with all his focus on the struggle he's easily blindsided by Ronan's interference, soon tangled up in his tightly coiling grip.

He thrashes against Ronan's hold long after his efforts to put his fists through Declan's face become largely futile, rage masking his agonised distress.

Declan pulls his next blow as soon as he realizes Ronan has launched himself into the fray. His knuckles are sore and he knows they'll swell and bruise; everywhere Kylo has landed blows hurts and the pain is grounding.

"Ronan. Jesus Christ, please--"

He hauls himself out from under the enraged body on top of him and watches, as much as he can by starlight and rising moonlight, as Ronan holds on to Kylo. He wants to intervene, he wants to drag Ronan away. But he can at least recognize that Ronan is trying to calm the thrashing man down.

Declan doesn't move far. He manages to sit up, tastes blood in his mouth and spits it onto the grass.

"Tell me what you need." He says it to Ronan because that's the answer he needs, the one that matters to him. Declan keeps an eye on Kylo, anticipating the moment that he might break free from Ronan and come at him again.

"Kylo..."

It feels miraculous that he's even managing to hold on. Ordinarily, there's nothing that can keep Kylo contained when he wants to be free, yet here's Ronan - injured, no less - with nothing but his arms to hold Kylo back... and he's succeeding.

For now.

"Kylo," he pleads. "You're hurting me."

If Declan gives them what they need, then Ronan's pretty damn sure Kylo will kill him in the process of shaking him off. He can't take another hit from Kylo at full power.

The only thing Kylo needs is Declan and the separation he brings with him gone— and it's that single-mindedness of purpose that keeps him fighting until Ronan's voice draws his attention to what exactly it is that he's fighting against.

There's a flash of betrayal at the realisation. A sick, lurching moment, where in his blinded and numbed isolation he can't feel Ronan's choice. All he has is that plea, and Ronan, holding him back while Declan refuses to leave. Ronan is hardly the sword in his hand now, is he.

"He attacked me," Kylo bites back, the heat of the accusation almost enough to burn out the traces of the one underneath.

Edited 2020-01-13 04:01 (UTC)

"No, I didn't." Declan's voice is tight. He wants to step in and relieve Ronan, but getting any closer to Kylo at the moment seems like it would do more harm than good.

"I think it'll stop if no one comes at me again." He directs the comment more to Ronan, if only because Ronan is the only other person to have seen his file. He wants to add, it would help if you stopped hurting Ronan, but he doesn't.

The moon starts to creep over the tree line and the light doesn't do much to illuminate the damage they've done to each other, but it's enough to see by. Declan looks at his brother. awash with concern. He can be angry later.

"Can we at least get Ronan inside?"

"Fuck off, Declan."

Ronan doesn't need to be inside. He needs Kylo to see him again. Now that there's something like communication between them, Ronan stops wrestling with him and reaches for his face. To bring them forehead-to-forehead and calm him.

"I know it hurts," he assures Kylo, his voice shaking with adrenaline and the sharp pain that cuts short every breath he takes. "But it's an accident, and if you kill him, we don't know if we'll lose everything along with him. He just has to stop being afraid, like before. Right? Be with me now. Hold onto me until you feel me again."

Everything is wrong, hollowed out and crushed flat. Words are just words. Touch is no longer an invitation. Nothing, while Ronan shivers through his reassurances, feels real. He might as well be watching a recording of Ronan trying to soothe him, one of those empty television dramas that never quite work, for him.

But the words are still true. Aren't they? Ronan hasn't become a liar simply because Kylo can't press into his mind to be certain. Kylo sets his jaw, focusing on the physical sensation of his teeth crushing together. His heart, pounding. The sharp pain where Declan landed a particularly hefty blow.

If Declan won't stop until he's no longer afraid, Kylo could be trapped like this for some time. He's given Ronan's brother every reason to fear further attack with his reactions. He regrets none of them.

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