Death has a request (with more rabbits than you'd expect)
Death’s hand is cold against his skin as she grabs his arm, the icy feel of the dead. Her nails bite into his flesh as she drags him to his feet, her skeletal grin harsh and bare. “So. You’re what he risked everything for, hm?” Her smile slips, her eyes flat and empty. “I can’t say I’m impressed.”
He pulls away from her, from the wrongness of her skin against his, but her grip is tight, holding him in place. “B- Billy-”
“Gone.” The word is bitter, sharp.
He does not think he wants this woman anywhere near his brother.
“Why-”
Her laugh is a ragged thing, the rasp of leaves in the wind. “To look for you, of course.” She snarls nastily, and he flinches away. “A foolish thing, he is. No wonder Agatha likes him. He should’ve realized you’d come looking for him in return.”
Looking for him. Billy is out there, looking for him.
He’scomingBillyhe’scomingjustwait-
“Where-” he starts again, but Death cuts him off, pushing him aside as she stalks toward the stairs.
“If I knew, little abomination, I would be there.”
“I need him! You don’t understand, I-” He cuts himself off but the accusation is still scathingly sharp, and she stills for a moment. “Please.” He hesitates, feeling the press of tears behind his eyes. “You said you’d help me find him...”
She looks over her shoulder, and-
Her face is human. Real flesh, real eyes.
She smiles, almost sadly this time. “And I will.” She looks away. “You aren’t the only one searching for someone, hm?”
“Please,” he repeats. “Please, lady-”
“It’s Rio,” she calls over her shoulder, and he follows her as she stalks out of the basement. “At least for your purposes.”
“Tommy,” he offers in return, and her jaw tightens.
“Trust me, I’m aware.”
“Why don’t you know where he is?” he asks, bordering on begging. “Y- you knew him, you know he was here, so why-”
“He’s being hidden from me.” Rio’s scowl is a fearsome thing, and he stumbles back from it. “Agatha always did like to be an annoying asshole. Wasn’t enough to be a ghost, of course she had to-”
She’s cut off by Kate barreling through the door- door frame, at least. Her eyes light up as they find his. “Tommy!”
He’s by her side in a flash, pulling her into a hug because damnit, he feels like he’s dying and he would really like a fucking hug. It’s quick, and then she pulls back, smacking his shoulder.
“Dude! Don’t run off on me like that, you scared me!”
“I panicked,” he mumbles, which is objectively the truth and yet still somehow makes him feel sorta shitty because it’s obvious she actually had been scared and it’s sorta weird to be cared about, a little? A lot, actually, in some weird way?
Her shoulders slump, and she squeezes his hand before dropping it and stepping back. “Sorry. I know you were- it just startled me, you pulling your disappearing act. And I had to go bullshit the neighbors before I could come find you, so-” she stops.
“So?” he repeats.
“Tommy,” she asks, “who the hell is this?”
“Oh.” He looks over his shoulder, at where Rio is staring at them, cleaning her nails with a wicked-looking dagger. “Um. I made a friend?”
“Not what we are,” Rio says flatly.
“Acquaintance,” he amends. Rio scoffs, turning on her heel.
“She’s leaving,” Kate points out faintly. He fixes her with his best gee-you-don’t-say look, and her cheeks flush pink. “Yes, okay, that was obvious but my brain doesn’t work the best around hot dangerous women, alright?”
He groans, burying his face in his hands. “Oh my god.”
“What?” she protests, holding her hands up defensively. “She’s hot! I don’t know what you want from me here. Y’know, this one time this hot Russian assassin lady-”
He rolls his eyes, following Rio out into the backyard. She stops at a patch of flowers, and he stands beside her, rocking his weight as he drums his fingers on his arm.
“So, how are you gonna help me find my brother?” When she doesn’t respond he bumps his shoulder against hers, frowning. “You promised,” he reminds her accusingly.
She glances at him briefly, before staring back at the flowers. “Go find the rabbit.”
“The- what?”
“Agatha’s rabbit,” Rio repeats, as if that explains everything. It doesn’t, for the record.
“Agatha’s... like, Señor Scratchy?” When she doesn’t dispute it, he laughs in disbelief. “Wait, he was real? I woulda thought he was something Mom made up. Y’know, like Sparky? Although I guess Sparky was Agatha, actually... was the rabbit not?”
“I regret not being able to drag your soul to the grave,” Rio says flatly.
“That’s how you know it’s the start of a great partnership,” he shoots back, sickly-sweet. A grin ghosts over her lips before she flattens her face.
“Rabbit.” She jerks her thumb at the house. “Then we can talk.”
He rolls his eyes again, giving her a mock salute as he turns back to the house. “Yes ma’am, Death ma’am.”
She laughs that same, rustling leaves laugh, dead nature scraping together in a rough cacophony. “ You’re almost more irritating than that blasted, cheating brother of yours, little abomination.”
He glances at her, offering her a confused smile. “Uh. Thanks, I think?”
She grins back, wide as a skull. “I’ll enjoy it when you die again, someday.”
...creepy. Way creepy.
He shudders, and dashes off to go find the requested rabbit.
Dying can be a later issue.
A much, much later issue.