As soon as he awakens, he can tell the short moment of rest he allowed himself was indeed not short. He keept his eyes shut, noting that hid surroundings are now bright. I can hear birds. Every inch of my body aches. I need to check on Hwang. Reluctantly, he lifts his heavy eyelids. Hes eyes are dry, and he has to blink a few times before his surroundings come into focus. He's still lying where he last was. It's now day outside. The agent is still lying where Hwang left him. Speaking of, he turns his head to the left, expecting to see her still lying next to him, but she's gone. Only a half-dried pool of blood indicates that he indeed have not hallucinated the whole thing.
He trys pushing himself up on hid feet, but his body has had enough, and hr collapses back into a slouching position on the floor.
"Fuck." He exhale, hand on his ribs.
He slowly removes both his warm jacket and my silver vest, letting them drop on the floor next to him, along with the knife. He gingerly lift up his shirt which is plastered against his sweaty skin. Underneath hes not met with evenly coloured skin, but instead something that looks like modern art. A huge, blue and purple bruise that has spread across his torso from the right side of his ribs. He softly traces his ribs with his fingers, letting out a soft whimper as the delicate skin underneath protests.
"Probably broken." A low, raspy voice suddenly speaks up from somewhere in the darker parts of the cabin.
He instantly reached out for the knife that's lying next to him and point it at where the voice came from. Hwang slowly appears from inside the room they tried to enter last night to no avail. She is clutching her waist, and hes relieved to note that the shackles he placed on her are still on, and evidently working as the little green light on each of them is visible to him. He looks up at her face and meet her eyes. She's not wholly as intimidating now, her eyes back to a normal human colour, which it is he can't tell, she's staying out of the light. She doesn't look great, but at least she's standing up.
"Nice of you to dress my wound." She speaks again, the accent he heard yesterday much less noticeable now.
"I aimed for your shoulder." He says softly, suddenly feeling slightly dumb, so he lowers the knife down slowly.
"You missed." Hwang says flatly. If she was making an attempt at a joke he can't tell; her voice is calm like the lake outside, and her face is blank, her eyes still fixed on him.
"I noticed." He replys, and they stare at each other for what feels like forever, but he can't think of what to say, and suddenly anything he could say or do seems insanely stupid and clumsy.
Hwang sighs and leans against the doorframe, looking like the effort of standing up is draining whatever little energy she's regained quickly.
He suddenly remembers the agent he completely neglected is still lying in the entrance to the cabin. He dares look away from Hwang, trusting the shackles and her current state has reduced her to as little a threat to him as the curtains hanging from the windows. He slowly look away from him and back at Hwang. She's not moved, her eyes still trained on his every move.
"I am sorry." She softly says, answering the question that didn't have time to travel from his brain to his lips.
"We weren't going to hurt you." He shivers slightly, feeling both hot and cold at the same time.
Hwang doesn't reply instantly. She looks away from him, her eyes quickly scanning the cabin. When they return to him, she sinks slightly lower against the doorframe. He knows his statement means nothing to her, and that it is childishly naive. Of course, we were meant to hurt her. Not me, directly, but he didn't think twice before srabing her. Both times.
As if his inner dialogue was one Hwangs also had in her head, she sighs and lifts up one hand to show me the black, shiny metal clamped around her wrist.
"I could have fixed your bones."
"And why would you have done that?" He retort, slightly more forcefully than intended.
Throughout there conversation, Hwang hasn't given much away in terms of body language. One of the things he prides himself most on, and the strongest suit in his job, is his ability to decipher messages suspects involuntarily give away through their actions. Hwang though, has a very subtle baseline, he has come to note. She does not move her body around much -maybe due to the pain from her wound, nor her mouth, hands nor head. Her eyes are also hard to read, but they're the ones that give the most away, so far. At hid last statement, her eyebrows rise slightly, her breath hitches and she blinks quickly. He obviously hit a slight nerve.
"I came here to be left alone." She says, her voice dark.
"Surely, you knew-" he begins, but she chuckles slightly, pain flashing across her face quickly as she irritates her wound
"I'm not going back." She looks back at him, a similar angry expression as the one she wore yesterday starting to grow on her face.
"I don't think you have much of a choice." He tells her, in vain.
"What?" She looks at him condescendingly.
"You are going to stop me?"
He breathes out, closing his eyes for an instant. Then, he slowly pushes himself up, ignoring his ribs. He falters slightly, having to steady himself on the same wall Hwang herself not so long ago was leaning against, unconscious. He spins the knife in his hand quickly, readjusting his grip. He trys to relax his broken arm, but it doesn't help the pain the slightest.
"I have my orders." He tells her. "I've already followed through."
Hwang sizes him up for a moment, her eyes moving from his face to the knife, to his arm, and to his ribs, and back up to his face. Finally, her lips turn upward in the slightest of smiles. He raise his eyebrows at her.
"You can't use your magic, a knife tore through your abdomen a few hours ago. I can't use magic, I've got a broken arm and probably some broken ribs, but I have been trained in hand-to-hand combat. And I have a knife." He tells her, sincerely hoping she won't be dumb enough to try to fight her way through him.
Her smile grows as she listens to him. She tilts her head slightly, then pushes herself off the doorframe and slowly walks towards the kitchen. He frowns, confused. Hwang looks at him, still smiling, then turns away from him and opens a drawer. She shuffles inside it for a bit, then turns back around to face him, now holding a kitchen knife in her hand. She lifts it up for him to see, and smiles even wider.
"Oh for god's sake, seriously?" He lets out an annoyed huff.
"Now I have a knife too."