[ He's awake. He's awake at the same time that nn sound begins to peel from the back of Mace's throat, eyes snapping open like sudden headlights in the dark, wide and terrified and still. Speechless, the only sound being the parting of his lips and the sudden sucking in of a breath too sharp to be a gasp.
He's on his back staring straight up at the ceiling, deep dark wood that almost looked black and vast for a second. Stretching out to nothing. He wasn't sure, he wasn't-- he doesn't recognize it for what it is until his name falls from Mace's lip.
He'd been frozen - metaphorically speaking. His body's warm enough on the mattress beneath his half of a quilt, but his muscles were locked. Every single one of them tense and rigid, seized up like electric shock, heart hammering away rapidly in his chest.
He felt the pain in his lungs. He felt the pain in his body.
He was expecting to crack apart, and it's startling that he isn't. That he hasn't. That wild surprise is still on his face when Mace turns. He'll catch Ian uncomprehending, struggling to figure out why he's still in one piece, tear tracks down his cheek and chest pulsing like a panic attack in progress. ]
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He's on his back staring straight up at the ceiling, deep dark wood that almost looked black and vast for a second. Stretching out to nothing. He wasn't sure, he wasn't-- he doesn't recognize it for what it is until his name falls from Mace's lip.
He'd been frozen - metaphorically speaking. His body's warm enough on the mattress beneath his half of a quilt, but his muscles were locked. Every single one of them tense and rigid, seized up like electric shock, heart hammering away rapidly in his chest.
He felt the pain in his lungs. He felt the pain in his body.
He was expecting to crack apart, and it's startling that he isn't. That he hasn't. That wild surprise is still on his face when Mace turns. He'll catch Ian uncomprehending, struggling to figure out why he's still in one piece, tear tracks down his cheek and chest pulsing like a panic attack in progress. ]