Wipe Your Tears, They're Things of Rain and Dirt

(ty for reading, the little star and i are happy to see you :)

(some of you know i do a little bonus chapter after every story w/questions + lore and extras and such, so if u all have any questions of any kind, feel free to drop them for later :D  enjoy the chapter)

(EDITED)(Note to readers: Some chapters ahead may not be in line with the new edits.)

Elias will tell you I never went to see him once. But that's not true. If anything, the last time I saw him, was not the last time he saw me.

My mother was in full descent, her body too frail to bother with me anymore, content to be bedridden and wailing as the nurses tried to cure her of her heartache. The tests had been long underway by then, and a twelve year old with nothing to do but listen to most of the world crumble a bit under his fingers by the second was a dangerous thing to leave alone. It was the heat of December, a month away from our thirteenth birthday, a month away from everything changing all over again. I didn't know it, but maybe a different part of me did, because for all the nights I'd spent licking my wounds without a care to spare, that night, I wanted to see Elias.

I beckoned for a nurse, dragged him to me by his linens. "Please," I whispered. "Tell me where my brother is."

"I cannot tell you," he whispered, trying to tug himself away. "Let go."

I dug my nails in deep until the fabric tore. "Tell me. Tell me where he's gone. I know he's not here, I know it, so tell me."

The nurse had screamed. I'd thrown my fist into his chest and held his neck down with my still-torn-up palm. He gasped for air, for answer.

"He's...gone to Incheon," he whispered.

I was gone.

The party was gorgeous in a conventional sense, bloated with glamour and greedy eyes, overwhelmed with guests dressed in black silk or windy blue satin, the house decorated head-to-toe in heavenly bodies plucked from the dark mixtures of the ground. I watched alongside the golden lights, the sneaky moonlight crawling in through the skylight, right up in the darkened scaffolding of the ceiling.

Elias. Elias. Elias.

I clambered down like a spider, slinking through the halls, the corridors, the unfamiliar wood floors. I listened for any sound that echoed his name.

I stood watch at the balcony, peering through the pearly bars, down into the mingling crowd. My breath smelled of red, my clothes torn, my skin bruised purple and sickly yellow. A street rat among the house mice.

Elias. Elias. Elias.

The string tugged. I spotted him.

He was rather pretty. Gray suit, white tie, my father at his back, loyal subjects at their front. His hair was brushed back, my mother's face on full display for the world to see. His smile radiated, not a scratch to be seen, not a cut to be acknowledged. A prince of the world, postured and perfect.

I pushed my palm into my chest, and sighed.

"Oh, my goodness! Are you all right?"

My eyes shot open. I whirled around.

A young woman, clad in a baby pink dress, the only pink dress to be seen for miles, gasped down at me, her painted fingers over her mouth. She knelt down as if approaching a timid street cat.

"You look hurt," she said carefully. "Are you all right?"

I skidded away. I hauled myself to my feet, took a step back, nearly tripped onto my face. I grabbed the railing.

She held up her hands. She peered at my face for a long moment, and panic sank through me like a knife. Elias and I were never supposed to be seen together anywhere, nowhere at the same time. I saw something cross her face that turned her eyes down to my brother. I felt myself fall into the dirt, six feet deep.

She lowered her hands. She hesitated, then reached into her handbag, and withdrew a baby blue handkerchief. "You're bleeding, you know," she said quietly, and dabbed my cheek. The scent of lavender filled my nose. "You should be careful."

I stepped back from her. The woman opened her mouth to say something, but the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs jarred us both. She whirled around.

"Ya, why are you here? Go back to imo," she hissed, hurrying for the stairs to block the stranger's way. She clutched the handkerchief behind her back, my blood staining the blue. A trace of me. A trace of me here. It was enough to be a death sentence.

"Imo is busy, noona, I'm bored," the stranger sighed.

I glanced the other way as more footsteps began to approach. The woman snapped something else, stuffed the handkerchief back into her pocket. A young boy was perched on the stairs in front of her, and tried to push past.

I darted for the window in a last-ditch effort for escape.

"Ya, Kitae, you never listen to me when I need you to! I said go back down!" she hissed.

"What for?"

I glanced back at her.

Her and a young boy looked back. The boy stopped in his tracks at the sight of me. When his brows lifted, a mole below one rose with it.

The girl snagged the boy. "Go back down, now," she ordered.

"Excuse me?" a group of partygoers on the other end of the hall called. "You kids aren't supposed to be up here!"

I pushed open the window.

"Wait, please!" the woman tried. "Don't—"

I slammed the window shut, and fell down, down, down.

The bushes below were enough to break my fall, but they were not as plush as they looked, and I earned more than a few cuts from the branches. But I couldn't waste my effort in worrying about it, especially not when the distinct click of the window re-opening met my ears.

I leapt from the brush, and dashed for the streets.

It took hitchhiking and hope for me to get back to Seoul. Once I did, the only person that awaited was my mother. A shell of herself, swaying back and forth in her thin sheets and sunken bed, her hair no longer wavy, her eyes no longer honest. A ghost, perhaps.

"Where were you?" she croaked.

I hesitated. "Nowhere."

"Don't lie."

"Nowhere, Umma."

"You, your father, Elias," she hissed. "Who taught you all to lie like you breathe? I never taught you that. I never taught you to be so dishonest. Your father, your father taught you that. It's all him."

"Umma."

She grabbed onto my collar, yanked me into her body. "Why?" she cried. "Why won't you listen to me? Why don't you trust your own mother?"

"Umma, stop," I tried, struggling against her grasp.

She released me onto the floor, burying her face in her hands. "You promised," she wailed. "You promised me."

I said, "I'm sorry, Umma."

She sniffed. She yanked my arm up to her, pressing her cheek into my palm. "I know," she whispered. A tear ran out of her dark eyes and stung my wounds. "I know. I know. Me, too. I'll always be."

I slumped against her bedside, my body flush on the sheets sticky with sickness. My eyes drifted slow and tired, out into the tiny window peeking over Seoul. The night was blue like morning rain.

A single white snowflake fell against the window's glass.

I cried. Maybe because of the ache in my body. Maybe because it was December. Maybe because that woman had seen me and given me a handkerchief instead of a scream. Maybe because my father had always chosen Elias. Maybe because the only person that ever chose me, was dying.

I stared at the snowflake. The next one. The next.

"Look, Umma," I whispered, shaking with her as she sobbed. "Cheosnun."

She turned her eyes to the window. She closed them.

"Oh, Echo, my Echo," she breathed, wiping her tears with my thumb. "What are we going to do?"

The snow fell into Seoul like a promise coming to fruition. I laid my head in her lap.

"Hope," I told her.

Together, we watched the snow fall, and waited for the world to change.

_____________________

Of all the places negotiations concerning the highly confidential life, death, and economic future of several large-standing company representatives—and me—could take place, I suppose it was just plain irony that it had to be the press room.

Coach had never liked reporters and so the press room had been allotted to the smallest room in the entire stadium in order to force out most of them. Only a dozen lucky reporters got to sit down in the pristine black chairs, while the rest had to stand in the sliver of space in the very back. It left a comfortably large gap of space between the chairs and the long, pitch black news desk equipped with mics set up on the platform at the front. The only decor that gave away whose press room it was was the flying purple crow pasted on the desk's front face.

So you will get one chance to win your life back.

Well. That chance certainly stared me in the face now. Quite literally.

I'd been ushered off the track without being able to see Elias or Kane or anybody else the moment the results were announced, a few stand-by private nurses doing the work to patch me back together as best they could—and they truly tried, considering I was withstanding not only Elias's injuries, but the ones from the Ducks as well. The moment they deemed my blood to have mostly stemmed from the major gashes and punctures, they shoved me into my clothes from my locker, packed my bag, and threw me into the press room to await my inevitable fate.

There were five available seats on the news desk. Sunhee sat in one with Mercy on her left. The other three were occupied by Janchi's current CEO, and former CEOs, Kane's aunt and his very own parents. Nami, Tang, and Gao all stood at the corner, waiting stiff-straight and obediently. Nami stared me down like she could set me on fire with her gaze alone, and I could only wave sheepishly back. Oh, my luck.

I stood in front of them, waiting.

Chaemin Wang cleared her throat. She said, "I should say congratulations to you, Mister Yun." She gestured at me. "Your team won Red, and with that, you won your match."

I bowed my head. "Thank you for that, ma'am."

She drummed her fingers on her desk. She said, "But I have to say, I can't say I am very happy with you, all things considered."

I pursed my lips. "I understand that."

"You lied to my family, to me, to your team, to the public. You risked your profile and your father's just to race. If anyone were to find out any of what you did for the Bengals, you'd likely be put away for life. You've gotten yourself into countless bouts of bad press and bad ranking. You have also managed, within that one match, to permanently injure your brother, and likely rendered him unable to race for a long time." She raised a brow at me. "We did agree to a negotiation with you, but for these reasons, I hope you understand that it will likely be difficult for us to simply...let you go."

I winced at that. It was an inevitable blow, but it was a factual one. I was less of a loose end and more of a live wire at that point.

"However," she said, "a deal is a deal." She nodded at Mercy.

A woman at her right raised her hand, the man at her right nodding to her, and I finally mustered up the courage to take a good look at the former CEOs of Janchi.

I had never seen Kane's parents, not even when I was in Seoul. But seeing Marie and Sangcheol Wang in person, made it rather easy to link their connection to their son. Kane had gotten all of his mother's face and all of his father's figure, her face equipped with the same soft cheekbones and narrow jaw, a mole below her left eye and her nose emboldened on her face. Sangcheol was tall, broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped, his arms a bit stretched for his body and his neck a bit long for his head. Just by the look on their faces, I could see the bullet coming before the gun was even cocked.

"A deal or not," Marie said, "we cannot very well help to save this boy over Elias. There is a profile to Elias. This child is a nobody to most."

"Unnie," Chaemin placated. "This is my word."

"He is Byungho's son," she chirped. "Both of them are. How can they be trusted to keep quiet?"

"It hurts him more than it helps him to speak up," Sunhee argued.

"He has too much blood on his hands to release him," Sangcheol said. "We need a better compromise."

"The agreement has been made," Mercy snapped.

"This was before he permanently damaged one of the best upcoming racers in South Korea," he snapped back.

"Which makes it all the more easier for him to disappear."

"Which makes it all the more suspicious on the rest of us," Marie argued. "It will no doubt be seen as a bloody scheme to replace one twin with the other. People who know will be able to put it together the more this one grows in popularity." She gestured at me. "We cannot give him full freedom in the agreement, we have to be realistic."

"This was the agreement made," Mercy argued again. "And he did win."

"Another suspicion to add to the pile," Marie sighed. "We cannot afford any issues intervening with this, especially not the press's conspiracies. We've already had to sacrifice several affiliations just to make this agreement."

"I had to," Chaemin corrected dutifully. "Unnie. I fully understand what is going on within my own company. I understand your concerns, but Sunhee has a point, we have even less reason to protect Elias, and Mercy came to a deal with me. I must uphold my end. This is the agreement."

"You will throw this company under if you are hasty. You think this child will not want to suddenly become a champion alongside his teammates? Do you understand the amount of repercussions we'll have to pay out, literally and figuratively, just to make his past disappear, to make everything else, including Elias, line up beside him? The price we pay to keep this child in the spotlight is far too much."

"He won twice," Sunhee argued. "Elias won't race for a while, and even if he can, he agreed to the deal just as much as Mercy and us did. He knew what would happen to the person who lost that match. RIYU is to disappear anyway."

"Echo Yun is nothing but a risk and—"

"If I may" I tried, holding up my hand. "May I make my agreement first?"

This is my life.

Racing, Corvus. You are my life.

I stood in front of the five. I'd wanted to stand in front of them for years, beg for my name back, my life back, beg for my brother's place. To feel like a winner.

And I'd gotten it. I'd gotten my champion moment. I could still feel the cold kiss of the trophy on my skin. I could still hear the shouts of Corvus, the screams of the crowd, see the purple banners blaze alive, see the points on the scoreboard light up in victory, spot the flash of a camera imprinting the moment in ink. Somewhere, somehow, I got a thumbprint in history. I was a champion. I was a part of a team. I was a part of a family.

I wasn't ready to let it all go. Not when I had come this far to hold onto it.

I faced the former CEOs. "You're right," I told them. "I am a risk, and maybe not a worthwhile one. You have every reason to lock me away and have me disappear instead, or displace me back into Korea and put me to work there. To the world, I'm still an anomaly, a Class III Stirling on a team of elites. Me disappearing would be a lot more plausible than Elias."

Mercy raised a brow at me.

"But Elias lost the Hail Mary," I said. "And with the injuries he has, you know it won't be that he won't race for a long time. Alpha or not, he might never race again. You'd be protecting a shell. You'd be betting on a losing dog." They all stared at me. I clenched my aching fists. "With Elias's Hail Mary, and the money from Red, I'm worth a hell of a lot more than him right now, aren't I?"

Sangcheol scoffed. "Elias is a name, you foolish child. Byungho dying and Elias disappearing would make it our fault, no doubt to the public. What is your solution for that?"

"You did it to save your company," I said. "Distracting one displacement with another, right?"

"What?"

"If Elias 'disappears', that's a major racer gone from the scene. You need another one gone too, right? Make it a widespread issue, don't centralize it on you. Then you need a new target to take off the blame, don't you?"

"What are you suggesting?" Marie snapped.

I took a breath. "Please let your son stop racing for one year."

The whole room went silent.

Marie narrowed her eyes. "Excuse me?"

I pursed my lips. "Your son needs the 607 surgery," I said. "He says he can't afford to because of you. The payments he has to make, tuition, Busan, the publicity. I'm asking you to wave it, for one year."

They looked shocked, but not nearly as much as I expected them to be upon telling them about the poison. The only people that looked truly surprised were Nami, Tang, and Gao. Even Sunhee looked at me more with surprise than fear.

"That's my request, for the agreement," I said.

Marie narrowed her eyes at me. It resembled Kane's glare. "I thought he resigned from that option."

I blinked. "He has until January," I said. "I've taken some liberty."

"Liberty," Sangcheol repeated. He frowned. "There is a slim chance at full recovery from the 607, he knows this. And taking such time away from racing, without a guarantee of coming back, it's a direct breach of our own, separate agreement. There is nothing to do about this."

"Slim is not none," I pressed. "'Slim' is 'slim'. Kane has survived a lot of things. He's withstood the silver longer than most project, too. There was a slim-to-none chance of me being here.  Where am I?"

"Bit of a mouth," Marie muttered.

I just smiled.

Marie said, "What is your plan to repay us for...'waving' this?" She gestured around us. "Kane King is a champion, child. He's worth millions by now, pays millions, too. We're out that." She raised a brow. "What would we be 'waving', exactly?"

"I don't need all that money," I said. "Red, Elias, any of it. Take that."

"And in addition?"

"Keep me on the team," I said. "Let me stay on Corvus. Let me pay what he earns."

"Even with Red and the Hail Mary, you're an amateur," she scoffed. "You're going to need a lot more than those numbers to—"

"He has them." Mercy smiled at her, a mirthless, mocking thing. "He was good with a knife." She gestured at me, then Marie. "He can pay the difference out of the jobs he did, that'll be plenty for you to leech off of."

I stared at her. Mercy didn't look at me, but she did flick a finger in my direction, and her grin widened. Clever fucker. My head hurt.

"I won't take your blood money," Marie snarled.

"What other choice do you have?" she sighed. "What money will a dead son bring you?"

We all winced. Mercy shrugged.

I cleared my throat. "I have the numbers for you," I argued. "Elias stepping down alongside Kane eases the weight off of everyone, it'll look more epidemical, like a poor coincidence. RIYU disappearing will be regarded as inevitable, and I'll get more attention having to take Kane's place for a season, it'll bolster the views and the sponsorships. I can move up to Class I come spring, and I can pay my own way through everything else with outside money I make on my own—without Mercy, to keep it clean. The rest is yours. In exchange, you let Kane take a year away from racing to get the surgery."

"And if he does not recover?" Sangcheol said.

I pursed my lips. "He'll recover," I promised.

"And if he does not recover?"

"Then," I started, "I'll return to my place."

I held my breath as they looked between each other, half-distressed and half-pensive. Mercy eyed me with something amused, almost impressed. I waited. It felt like the track's ticking timer all over again.

This is my life.

You are my life.

Chaemin faced me. She leaned over the desk, her hands folded before her.

"Before we come to an agreement, may I ask, why?" she said.

Why? There wasn't enough time in the world, the universe, the planes outside of it, to explain why. Why? Corvus had saved my life time and time again, even if they didn't know it. I'd been a ghost. But, here I stood, with a chance. Why? Where did I even begin?

"I just think," I murmured, "everyone deserves a second chance."

Her smile was sad, but, accepting. She got to her feet and stepped away from the table.

"Wait, Chaemin," Marie snapped. "We are not done discussing—"

She stopped in front of me, and held out her hand. A purple bangle encircled her pale wrist.

I grasped it tight, and she shook it once.

"All right, Mister Yun," she said to me, smiling. "We're agreed."

Relief was a hurricane over me, so fierce I nearly stumbled right over.

"Thank you," I said. "Thank you."

She shook her head. She let go of my hand. "I should be thanking you." She beckoned for Nami. "The meeting is adjourned. You are all free to return now."

Everyone rose, Marie and Sangcheol racing to gather their things and hound Chaemin out the door. I stood where I was, almost as if unable to move. Free. I was free. It was over.

It was finally over.

"Well, well, well, look at you." Mercy slid in front of me. "You have so little faith in me. Hasn't anyone ever told you to look at the big picture before?" She shook her head. "Sometimes, I think you forget how long I've been around here, yes?"

I blinked at her. I said, "You knew I'd win."

Mercy's smile was all fangs. "Oh," she said. "I bet on it."

I shook my head at that. "Why?"

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" she scoffed. "Congratulations, anyway."

"What about Elias?" I said. "What's gonna happen to him?"

Her grin was wicked. "I've got some work for him."

My skin crawled at that, but I let it go. It wasn't something I'd have to think about for the next year, anyway. What a notion.

Mercy held out her hand. "You're a free man, hon," she said. "I should thank you, for all your hard work. I'll almost miss you."

I shook her hand. "I probably won't miss you."

She giggled. "Let's keep it that way, hm?" When she spun on her heel and headed for the door, she called back, "May we never meet again, Echo Yun."

I watched her disappear with nothing but a flicker of black in her wake.

A hand touched my shoulder. I whirled around.

Gao pushed his sunglasses down to look at me. "Do you need a ride, Mister Yun?"

I let out a breath. It took the sting from my cuts.

"That'd be nice," I said. "Where's Kane?"

Gao gestured out the door. "Outside, I assume."

It was all I needed to hear.

We walked out of the Corvidae for the night.

A black KIA was parked outside, Tang waiting patiently by the driver's side, and Nami was speaking to Kane behind the body of the car. His face looked pale and stricken with whatever words were coming out of her mouth. At our approach, their conversation faded out, and Kane looked at me.

Nami said something to Gao before whisking herself away without a word. Tang made a move to get in the car, and Gao took my bag to toss it in the trunk. Kane stood across from me. He looked rather tired. The night felt like a boulder in my throat.

I said, "Kane—"

Kane grasped me by my arm and yanked me into him. The hug was bone-crushing, absolving every open wound in my body and forcing the skin to knit back together. As if everything could be undone and remade by sheer will, sheer hopeful force.

I closed my eyes, and held him in the fading night.

After an eon—or at least until Gao had enough of our shenanigans and cleared his throat rather pointedly—we finally pulled away. Kane tilted his head back and sighed. Some blood stained his shirt from my bandages, but he didn't seem to care enough.

"Come on," he murmured. "Let's get the hell out of here already."

Tang was already in the passenger seat when we slid into the back, speaking composed Cantonese into his mic. The only thing he gave us was a nod in acknowledgment. The Corvidae's lights flickered out one by one in the distance, red banners shuddering to black, purple streamers disappearing in the shadows. The season was officially done.

Gao peered at me in the mirror. "Back to home, you two?"

Home.

I swore I'd relish the sound of it until the day I died. Which, I hoped, would be far too long for me to think about now.

What to think about?

I could almost laugh at the fact that I didn't know.

"Yeah," I whispered. "Let's go home."

There is no easy way to come back from the dead, especially when you look it.

Uma gaped at me from the front desk of the Talon. A part of me wanted to kiss her just upon being able to see her at all.

"What happened to you?" she gasped.

I withdrew my keycard. "Family reunion," I told her, and swiped myself in.

I opened the door of the unit.

A part of me expected everyone to out celebrating, or asleep, or a combination of the two, considering the hour was well past eleven by now. So it was to my surprise, you can imagine, when I pushed the door open to find everyone there, wide awake, and staring back at me.

Ramos gasped, hands flying to her face, her eyes red, her cheeks streaked with water lines. "Echo?" she said. "Echo, my God, what happened? And Kane! Where have you been? Where have you both been?"

Corvus gaped. No one else spoke. Coach took a step towards me. When she did, I saw her own face, her eyes pink, welling and uncertain it was even me. Guilt was shrapnel in my spine.

I cleared my throat. Tugged at my collar.

I sighed. "It's all...a long story."

Everyone looked amongst each other, seemingly debating between bursting out or giving up. Eventually, Kenzo got up from his seat on the couch, and gestured at me to get on with it already.

He said, "We've got time."

And hell.

So did I.

I shucked off my shoes. "All right," I said.

It took an hour and a half to recount the entire story with full details. To my surprise, they listened to all of it too, not even interrupting to ask questions until the very end. There were moments I saw an anger flash over their eyes, other times where there was more of a sorrow than anything. I left out the gorier details of Mercy's work, as I figured those were nightmares I'd keep for myself. By the time I had finished, the city had gone to sleep, the dim lights in the unit turning more into candlelight than anything, and my chest felt simultaneously heavier and lighter than it had been in eighteen years.

Coach sat on the armchair, propping her elbows on her knees and letting her head fall in her hands. Ramos sat beside me with a medical bag, doing her best to dab the dried blood from my skin and do a better job of clean-up than what the haphazard nurses had to offer. The rest of Corvus was content to remain still.

I let them sit with it for several minutes, before Meredith spoke.

"So, what now?" she said. "What's going to happen to your brother?"

I considered that. "Probably the same thing that I've been doing for the past five years," I said.

"What does that mean?"

I hesitated. "He'll become a ghost," I said. "He'll disappear."

To my surprise, she just nodded. "And you?" she asked. "What's going to happen to you?"

I shrugged. "Since I won, I'm technically free. Gao said I'll have to talk with Nami about integrating me into the system—paperwork and all—and I've gotta give up all the shit my old boss gave me ASAP."

"What about your pack?" Rosalie said. "Aren't you going to change back?"

I shook my head. "Can't, and don't want to. Too risky. Besides, I don't mind staying Stirling."

"King."

We all looked to Kenzo. He jutted his chin at Kane.

"Your agreement," he said. "Whether or not he recovers. You bet he does. If he doesn't?"

It was the question we all dreaded. I repeated my response. "I'll go back to my place."

"Your place," Wynter repeated. "What is that?"

"Where my brother's going."

"You'll disappear again?" Zoe said.

"That's the biggest shot in the dark you could make," Rosalie exclaimed. "Yun. It's twelve percent."

"It's the only way he can get the surgery and save this to come back for," I argued. "It was all I could think of."

Rosalie didn't argue, although she didn't look too happy. Corvus looked as though they wanted to say something, but didn't know how to frame it.

"But, the payment," Wynter said. "How are you going to make up the difference, if even all that isn't enough?"

I shrugged. "I've worked a lot of regular jobs before. Nothing wrong with picking up one again. You don't always need the mafia."

"Who ever needs the—never mind."

"But what about the press? Are you going to tell them you're an Omega?" Zoe said. "Are you gonna become Class I?"

"Have to," I said. "They'll find out I'm an Omega sooner or later, and it's in my deal to pass the Eval this time. I figure it might be one of the lesser shocks to the media though, considering everything that'll come out."

Corvus looked amongst each other but didn't ask more. Surprisingly, Diego was the first to move past the whole thing.

Diego looked up at me. When I met his gaze, to my shock, he dared to smile. He got to his feet and pulled me up to mine. I barely got a "what" out before he was enveloping me in a hug.

"Shit, Echo," he sighed. "Screw these bastards, talking about 'agreements' and packs and bullshit. Screw you all." He laughed, but it was weak. "Man, I'm just fucking glad you're home."

"Okay, well, I was getting to that," Rosalie argued, and hopped up.

"Oh, no," I said. "You do not have to—"

"Shut up and let us celebrate the fact you're not six feet under right now," she snapped, and hugged us both.

As if on cue, the rest of Corvus gathered about us like wrapping paper, save for Kenzo and Kane, who stood watch. Even Ramos squeezed me to with a, "Welcome back" to drive a stake through my heart.

I faced Edwards. She gave a heavy sigh.

"You," she said, "are the reason why I'm no longer holding freshmen tryouts."

I held up my hands. "That's fair."

She ruffled my hair. "You're lucky you came back when you did, because I was ready to call the police and start tearing every strand of this out right now," she mumbled. "Cruz is right. We can talk about all these logistics later, when you're all healed, or at least mostly. For now, we all just need some good rest. I think we've had enough chaos for one night." She clapped her hands together. "Season's over, Corvus. Congratulations." She headed for the door. "You're still champions."

With the weight of the story and the matches off our shoulders, Corvus seemed to regain their appetite, leading Diego to head for the kitchen. I frowned after them.

"Didn't you all have a res?" I asked.

"Yeah, for nine, I thought I told you," Rosalie said, and scoffed. "You didn't actually think, after King disappearing alongside you, we'd just go out to eat."

"Dunno. It's your tradition."

"Team tradition," she corrected. "What's the point without the whole team there?" She threw a bottle of paprika at Diego. "Hey! I'm white but not that white, stop going easy on the spices."

"Demanding, demanding," he muttered, and laughed.

I watched them in the kitchen light, lit up in blues and golds, their bodies hustling past each other to grab pots or pans, tongs or spoons, their shouts cacophonous and obnoxious. They laughed, clambering over and around each other as they worked.

I smiled to myself, even as my ribs ached and my mouth tasted of iron. Ramos placed a hand on my shoulder.

"We should get you to a hospital, Echo," she said. "Your body's sustained serious damage."

I turned my eyes to her. I glanced at Kane, who was turning away to head for his room.

"Give me five," I told her.

Ramos glanced between us. She patted my arm. "Take your time. I'll be downstairs."

I nodded. She packed up her things.

I headed after Kane.

I have never regretted you.

He didn't look at me when the door shut behind both of us. The room was suddenly quiet, stark in the moonlight. He'd cleaned it at some point that I'd missed, the floor pristine, the closet closed, the drawers re-organized, his shoes put away, his books stacked onto his desk or shelves. Two trash bags of clothes sat by his door, two boxes of knick knacks open beside them.

But the walls. Patches of photo-less plaster stared back at me, posters torn down, trophies and frames put away, clippings tossed into the trash. Like sections of its soul had been sucked out of its body. It felt strangely cold.

"You cleaned your room," I said.

Kane shrugged. "I trade things out after Korea."

"I meant the walls."

He stared at the patchy memories. "Shit changes," he murmured. "Things get old."

I stalked towards the walls. We waited in the silence like fighting an impasse.

"Why'd you make that deal?" he finally said, facing me.

I shrugged. "I wanted to."

"That was your chance," he snapped. "That was your chance to get the hell away from all of this, to keep your life, and you threw it all away to make a shot in the dark on me?"

"You said you couldn't do it because you wouldn't even have the chance to recover anyway," I said. "This is your chance."

"My chance is done, Echo."

"Ramos said you had until January."

"Twelve percent," Kane repeated. "You bet your whole existence on a survival rate of twelve percent, are you out of your mind? And a recovery within a year? Most don't even make it within five, and those are the ones who survive."

"Why'd you bet Hail Mary on me?"

Kane paused. "What?"

"Elias is an Olympian," I said. "He's Class I. Drachmann. An Alpha. He's had more pro training than I've ever had. So why?" I gestured at Kane. "Why bet on me?"

Kane pressed his lips to a thin line. He raked fingers through his hair, and the silver had gone from a sheen to stark white streaks through the black.

"Because," he tried, "I knew you'd win."

I pushed my palm into my chest at that. I said, "Then, you should get why I made the agreement."

I glanced at the wall, spotted a photo strip from Busan still posted there. A thumbprint.

"Without Corvus, I would probably be good as dead," I said. "Before this year, it felt like I was just meant to lose. But you all gave me a chance. You made me feel like I could win. You made me feel real." My smile felt sad, but honest. "This is the least I owe you."

"You don't owe me anything. I don't want you to owe me anything," Kane argued, his voice desperate.

I shrugged. "Then, call it a gift."

Kane blinked. I listened to the sounds of Corvus out in the kitchen.

"Get the surgery, Kane," I told him, and made a move to head out.

Kane put his hand out to stop me. There was a soft melancholiness to his face. He opened his mouth, then decided against it. He took my hand instead.

He placed the ring I'd returned to him in my palm, and closed my fingers over it. His hands were rough with bandages, but I could feel his pulse from his veins. He smelled of silver, of blood, of burnt rubber, of faint cotton. I wanted to grab hold of his hand and yank him into me and stay that way for a hundred years.

Kane turned away, taking my breath with him.

I left without another word.

"Hey, hey, where are you going?" Diego snapped. "You race another match, they'll have to wheel your body in here in cases."

"Hospital," I said. "I'm pretty sure I broke a rib or three." They gaped at me. I waved it off. "Save me a plate."

"We'll go with you," Meredith said.

I shook my head. "Don't worry," I assured. "I'll be right back."

The door shut behind me with a clack.

Ramos was waiting by Uma's desk downstairs. She hurried for the door the moment she spotted me. "Let's go," she sighed. "You look absolutely awful."

I did. I felt awful, too.

But, I was alive.

It's over.

So I smiled at her, and wrapped an arm over her shoulders.

"Thanks, Ramos," I said. "Just get me back in time for dinner."

She hugged me to her with a grumble, and even a broken rib couldn't keep me from laughing.

(nice and succinct :) ty for all the love on this story, you all truly make my day. this chapter was written in 1.5 days so if it seems clunky, forgive me TT i fix in post. one more to go. let us end this contentedly. the little star and i are forever grateful)