Even with as drunk as he was- as fuzzy as drink and strangeness had left his head he could feel the moment when everything in Jack ground to a halt and began to whirl about like broken winged birds. Strung so tight and flickering, flailing, Zev rolled to brace himself above him. Literally used his weight as a reminder that he was alive now, that this was not something to be taken lightly. He had to straddle Jack's waist to do it, but straddle he did with no thought whatsoever to the consequences.
"Jack- Argento. Bello-" Amore. Something that went unsaid but was so very audible in the gentleness of his tone, the warmth of his tired eyes, the weight he put behind the endearment. Something he was terrified to say but wanted to in his own way. He swallowed, smoothed a hand along Jack's cheek to sooth him, and spoke the rest carefully. "I asked him to."
Please. He had said please. And Isaac had been so kind as to grant him that much. For a moment he was braced above Jack, lost to the memory, lips soundlessly working over that faint plea. They shaped the word before he blinked himself back into the present, resolved to explain. This Jack needed to know, and his voice leveled out, gravely serious. He took one of Jack's hands and rested it over his abdomen, where that ragged wound had been hidden by his leathers.
"Here. I was gutted and dying from a wound here." He had to pause a moment, remember the blood, remember the pain, and push on. "...I was beyond all saving. I know death. I know wounds. And I know how long it takes to die from such wounds and the one I had it...it would have taken an hour to bleed out and die."
An hour spent bleeding into the dust. Dying like Rinna but so much slower.
"A long. Painful hour. What Isaac did for me I asked him to do. It was a mercy. It was quick, it was clean." That hand was dragged up from his abdomen to rest over his beating heart. With eyes and voice he begged Jack to understand. In some way, in some part of his mind to be able to comprehend what Zevran asked and Isaac granted.
"One blow, here, that I barely felt. It was mercy, Jack."
no subject
"Jack- Argento. Bello-" Amore. Something that went unsaid but was so very audible in the gentleness of his tone, the warmth of his tired eyes, the weight he put behind the endearment. Something he was terrified to say but wanted to in his own way. He swallowed, smoothed a hand along Jack's cheek to sooth him, and spoke the rest carefully. "I asked him to."
Please. He had said please. And Isaac had been so kind as to grant him that much. For a moment he was braced above Jack, lost to the memory, lips soundlessly working over that faint plea. They shaped the word before he blinked himself back into the present, resolved to explain. This Jack needed to know, and his voice leveled out, gravely serious. He took one of Jack's hands and rested it over his abdomen, where that ragged wound had been hidden by his leathers.
"Here. I was gutted and dying from a wound here." He had to pause a moment, remember the blood, remember the pain, and push on. "...I was beyond all saving. I know death. I know wounds. And I know how long it takes to die from such wounds and the one I had it...it would have taken an hour to bleed out and die."
An hour spent bleeding into the dust. Dying like Rinna but so much slower.
"A long. Painful hour. What Isaac did for me I asked him to do. It was a mercy. It was quick, it was clean." That hand was dragged up from his abdomen to rest over his beating heart. With eyes and voice he begged Jack to understand. In some way, in some part of his mind to be able to comprehend what Zevran asked and Isaac granted.
"One blow, here, that I barely felt. It was mercy, Jack."