Imprints in Stone [AU]

[Carver Amell]

"Hmm?" he asks, trading her back for her ice cream. "Oh, that. Yeah. I thought maybe... well, you can come if you want, I don't know if you do, but Beth and me might, might get something out of it for sure."

[Tethras Clan]

"Me?" Merrill blinks rapidly. "I'll come for you, for sure, but... for me?"

[Carver Amell]

"Well, I mean. I don't... I guess..." He shifts, uncomfortable. "It's different, losing Marian as opposed to... but it hurt, for years, not having a dad. So, I think, I mean, I'm not an expert in grief or whatever, but, if you're, uh... feeling any of... that sort of thing, maybe... maybe this would help?"

[Tethras Clan]

Merrill nods slowly as she licks her ice cream. "That makes sense," she replies softly. If nothing else, I'll be with you. And Beth. So that's a good thing. "Okay."

[Carver Amell]

"Okay," he echoes, relieved. He licks his ice cream for a moment, then says, "I was going to go to the gym, if you want?"

[Tethras Clan]

"Yeee- I can't. I was supposed to pick up lunch. Ooops." She offers him a bashful smile. "You're distracting."

[Carver Amell]

"Oh! Is it -- it's lunchtime? I... uh. Okay. Maybe we'll get lunch and then I'll go to the gym?"

[Tethras Clan]

"It's a date," Merrill says sapily, leaning in to kiss his nose with a giggle.

[Carver Amell]

Going to the gym, punching things, staves off the need, but only for a time. There's still a tension, something unresolved between himself and his twin, and there's still the way Merrill looks at Anders, the way she listens to him, rapt in attention, that she doesn't do to Carver. Nobody listens to Carver. He'd say he's used to it, but it still builds up tension. 

In the dark, a few nights later, they sit up in Merrill's room, and Carver lets out some of that tension. He drops his knife, and it rolls under the bed; he can't find it without light, so he draws his boot knife, the adamantine dagger he's never without. 

It's been a while since he used it. He hisses with pain as his flesh splits, blood flowing freely rather than seeping from the little cut he's made. 

[Tethras Clan]

Merrill, having been dosing after they'd worked on stress in another fashion, stirs at his pained hiss, the scent of blood. "Carver?" she mumbles.

[Carver Amell]

"I'm okay," he croaks. "Uh. I could use a hand though."

[Tethras Clan]

Merrill yawns sleepily, eyes still mostly shut. As her brain starts to warm up, she sniffs the air. "Is that..." A quick mutter causes a handful of small glowing lights to appear, most of them under the bed to cut down on the illumination- she doesn't need much after all. "Carver!"

[Carver Amell]

Carver glances down, wincing. "Ow. Why does it always hurt more when you look?" he mutters. It's a deep cut, that's for sure -- deeper than he meant to, though not life-threatening by any chance. "Can you...?"

[Tethras Clan]

Merrill reaches out to teach his hand, then winces at the empty pang her mutters get. "Oh. Ummm. I haven't slept yet..." Fretting her lip, she looks over the cut. "Carver, that's really bad."

[Carver Amell]

"Damn," he mutters. "Okay. I'll get Beth or, or maybe Dad, he's less likely to freak out."