Push Me Under [Hinote...Again]

Warm colors reflected in the lake below the setting sun, red and orange making the liquid seem like a fire was burning beneath the glassy surface. Large pine trees were set in the background and lined the clearing, the tips reaching up toward the Heavans.

Red sky at night, sailor's delight.
Red sky in morning, sailor's warning.

Thats what came to mind when she saw this, the sun creeping below the horizon, making her feel all warm and cozy.

The aqua colored mare was approaching the water that was lapping lazily at the muddy shore. She arched her neck down, mane tumbling over her neck. She looked quite pretty standing there like that... Bits of sunlight breaking around her form and between the strands of purple hair. Like an angel, an angel who had severe mental issues at the moment.

Crimson hooves were sinking in the damp earth, caking them in the brown substance... But she didn't care. She was more curious as to how the water looked like glass... The swirling colors making her want to slip beneath the surface, to see what it was like underneath.

She caught herself as her lips skimmed the surface, jerking her head up. Eyes were wide in surprise... Had she just wanted to drown...? It was hard to tell what she was thinking these days. But her eyes... Something was wrong with them. They didn't hold the same fire as normal, nor did she look like she could take on the biggest and baddest stallion in these lands... Not like she could have before, but she was stubborn enough then. Now she looked like even Spin could boss her around.

She looked... Soft...

There was a wind through the pines that kept asking him that one idiotic question, over and over.

'What are you doing?'

Hell if he knew. He had come back. He hadn't killed Id. He had talked to Mirage. She had told him what he'd been waiting to hear forever. And then he walked away, end of story. Didn't mean he understood it in the least. He needed more time, more time alone. Sanguine let him go easy enough. She touched his face in a rare moment of tenderness, and her grey eyes were understanding. "You're growing up."

Hinote shook his head. Growing up? More like he'd been broken so many times he didn't know where the pieces went anymore. The only thing he could do were the automatic things, eat, walk, fight. Not even sleep came easy, but he didn't want it, not with the dreams.

The line of trees broke into a valley, a valley he knew had a lake like a mirror. Maybe he could look into it, find the stallion he was supposed to be maturing into, or at least find something of himself. But no, instead there was...

Saphire.

His first thought was how much she'd grown. She looked...almost like an adult now, but for all the wrong reasons. There was that weight about her that was so familiar on his own shoulders, the chains that broke down the fire and rage and whatever had made them young and untamed. Now they bore the marks of time, the marks of resignation...

It didn't matter to him. He cantered down the hill, calling no greeting until he was by her side. He had changed, but not as much to become a gentleman. To hell with that.

"Hey, Saphire," it wasn't the firebrand he was talking to, he knew that much. "Didn't expect to find you."

Surprise shook her body and she scittered aside, shying away from one of the many Serians she had been told to forget about. Time had done it's damage, with the help of other things, they had mutilated her soul & scattered scars on her heart. She had been twisted, shattered, and thrown away like the rest of the trash.

And now, that is exactly what she felt like.

She appeared almost nervous as she glanced around, as if trying not to look at him, "Oh... I, um, thought you were someone else. Sorry," A rattled breath was inhaled, then slowly expelled through trembling lips before she finally built up the courage to actually look at him, glancing him over as if she were looking for something in particular. When she didn't find it she looked away again, avoiding looking into those eyes, the ones that had critisized her so many times before.

Ah yes, the past. Those were deffinitly different times, they had passed before her crimson gaze a long time ago. Now they were simply distant memories of a time when she was someone else.

Her gaze was locked on the ground in front of her, not daring to look up.

"Hello once again... Hinote," His name felt like poison on her tongue, a foreign word that felt almost taboo for her to speak.

She was...scared of him?

He didn't move as she danced away. Mist had a tendency to do the same thing, but when had Saphire ever acted like Mist? Instead he studied her out of the corner of his eye, her furtive movements, her submissiveness. She looked like a wind-up doll that had been broken, by what he didn't know. Maybe the person she had mistaken him for.

"Easy," he said, offhandedly, still not one for comfort. It couldn't be because of him that she acted this way; he had been rough with her, yeah, but not that cruel. Not cruel enough to shatter a soul. That was something Id could do, something that creepy new Lucid could do. Had she fallen into company of serians like that? Hell, what had happened while he was gone?

"Ch," his tone was laced with spite, most of it toward himself. "You say my name like it was a disease. The hell happened to you?"

"I... Got what I wanted." She finally stood steady, her gaze examining the lake to her side. Staring into the dark pool, losing herself for a moment trying to see into the very depths of it, trying to finally see the bottom that she felt she had finally hit.

Eyes quickly snapped away, sweeping over him once again, "...You were gone...Where?" She could clearly see the fatigue etched into his form, and she briefly pondered if he was taking care of himself. Wait, why should she care? They were hardly friends, merely... Acquitances. She knew of him, and he of her. Not much else was there.

There was still lack of eye contact, settling to watch a tiny ant crawl up the stem of the leaf, working to reach the top. She envied the insect, and longed for the need to strive for something better. There was a glance toward Hinote, and wondered if he was in a similar boat.

Got what she had wanted, or what had been coming to her? No, sh~t, don't start thinking like that. But Brittle, Sanguine, hadn't they always told him that his brashness, the fire in him, the arrogance, that would be his downfall? He had always known in the back of his mind that he would crash and burn, but told himself, still naive, that he'd get over it.

Well, reality didn't work like that. He had found out just how far six hells down was, maybe she had too. Maybe...it had been worse. She didn't have a warrior's training, after all, not that she had told him. But she had really never told him anything at all.

"Desert, purgatory, hell, anywhere in between," he didn't get specific about his answers, wasn't really sure himself. He'd lost track of time and place, and only now was beginning to find them again. His eyes, looking at her again and the way she refused to raise her head, seemed to be the only thing in him that moved. Gone were impatient actions; he had learned stillness.

"What's this 'got what I wanted' crap?" It really wasn't any of his business, but he was sick of avoidance, sick of lying and games, even though he had done them all. Hypocrite.