Fic - Cold Comfort
Jan. 6th, 2009 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teddogWarning - Fic content. Avoid if it isn't your bag. I MEAN IT.
I'm setting up my fic archive and I'm in the process of locating finished fics that I have, but never posted. I went through a phase where I couldn't title anything for some stupid reason. Now that I'm getting past that, I'm going to toss these up.
Here's one that was written sometime in the fall and based on the setup in a birthday fic I got this year.
Cold Comfort
Rating: PG
Fandom: IP&S AU
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Notes: This is set fairly far in the past, quite honestly over a decade before the events of Near Bend.
My right arm ached under the tidily tied bandages, feeling like someone had tried to rip a chunk out of it. That wasn't far from the truth. The pain had mellowed out somewhat, although it still took a focused effort to move my arm around. It was just more comfortable to leave it at my side.
The pain in the rest of my body had eased into a dull constant. A reminder of what happened, of my brash stupidity, not thinking things through under pressure. For every action there was an equal and opposite reaction, after all. Then again, that also applied to the head that rested quietly under my own. The warmth that came with it distracted me somewhat.
It felt good. That was the only description that worked here.
It was a relief that he could rest peacefully right now, even if I couldn't. I didn't mind, but the doctor was going to be pissed when he visited in the morning. Then again, it wasn't really his business. As far as he needed to know, the pain was keeping me awake.
That also wasn't far from the truth.
I shuffled my shoulders, letting the arm rest a bit differently, get some circulation going. I clenched my jaw at the sharp shot of pain that raced up my arm to my spine. It would only hurt temporarily, just long enough to make me want to yell out. Having been on my own for so long, I was a decent judge of how I was going to react, mostly to make it go unnoticed if someone is lurking nearby.
Still, I couldn't stop my chest from jostling him and that was enough to wake him up.
Dustin lifted his head, a slight look of guilt in his expression. God, that hurt more than I could ever imagine. I rested my head back down on the pillow, still in full control, wincing but not from the pain.
“You alright?” he asked. It was a question that had to been asked at least once an hour. I suppose it couldn't have been helped; I asked the same thing every time he moved without warning.
“Yeah, just moving my arm, making sure it's still there.” I forced a chuckle. Cold comfort, as Dustin would put it, for the both of us. He nodded, taking my word for it before lowering his head to match mine. I knew didn't have to deal with all of the pain, but I was pretty familiar with what I could handle. The supplies of tablets and tinctures that the doctor could get a hold of weren't infinite. While I might not have thought everything through, I had that somewhere in the back of my mind as I sprang forward on that one night.
Trust. That's what the core was.
It's hard to explain how that felt. Normally, I operated strict set of rules: stay the night, don't get too close to the locals and leave in the morning. It's not that heavy of a weight to carry once you're used to it, but when it lifts, you notice. Being free of it feels secure, I guess. It's hard to imagine feeling anything else here in Boothbay. The recent attacks weren't normal, not for here and not for settlement attacks in general. They seemed too well planned for bandits passing by and certainly too out of the way. People just don't come up around here. I was unusual and the first outsider in months, enough to attract boundless attention.
To my credit, I wanted to protect the innocence I accidentally discovered.. I guess that's what Dustin saw in me; a stranger who was willing to die to protect his world. That world was now unstable. The threat was real. We were going fight back, but first we needed to heal and that was easier together.
Dustin had drifted back off to sleep without a word. I smiled, resting my head against his. He didn't sleep well after the attack, cursed with being worried sick about both me and his home. Eventually I had to put an end to it. Couldn't stand watching my best friend tearing himself up over bunch of “What-could-have-beens”. Getting him off the couch and into the bed with me was the most I could offer in my state. There was nothing sexual about it. He claimed that having a warm body to rest against comforted him. It was also... me. He could wake up every morning, every hour, really, and be assured that I was still here. Still alive.
I almost died for him. At the very least, I came close. I think he regretted that, even though I didn't think of it at the time. He was jumped and knocked over and I did what anyone else had done. Probably went too far. In the end, the bandit was dead on the ground and I was slumped over. I've been in scraps before, but none that ended so... so...
Yet, he reminded me that I was human. Wouldn't let me wander down that path, before it even dawned on me that it was a problem. Not book smart, but painfully observant.
And somehow, we ended up together. Not for one night or even just an act, but for what felt like forever laid out in front of us. I pulled my good arm across his shoulders, holding him close and keeping a watchful guard over the long night.
I'm setting up my fic archive and I'm in the process of locating finished fics that I have, but never posted. I went through a phase where I couldn't title anything for some stupid reason. Now that I'm getting past that, I'm going to toss these up.
Here's one that was written sometime in the fall and based on the setup in a birthday fic I got this year.
Cold Comfort
Rating: PG
Fandom: IP&S AU
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Notes: This is set fairly far in the past, quite honestly over a decade before the events of Near Bend.
My right arm ached under the tidily tied bandages, feeling like someone had tried to rip a chunk out of it. That wasn't far from the truth. The pain had mellowed out somewhat, although it still took a focused effort to move my arm around. It was just more comfortable to leave it at my side.
The pain in the rest of my body had eased into a dull constant. A reminder of what happened, of my brash stupidity, not thinking things through under pressure. For every action there was an equal and opposite reaction, after all. Then again, that also applied to the head that rested quietly under my own. The warmth that came with it distracted me somewhat.
It felt good. That was the only description that worked here.
It was a relief that he could rest peacefully right now, even if I couldn't. I didn't mind, but the doctor was going to be pissed when he visited in the morning. Then again, it wasn't really his business. As far as he needed to know, the pain was keeping me awake.
That also wasn't far from the truth.
I shuffled my shoulders, letting the arm rest a bit differently, get some circulation going. I clenched my jaw at the sharp shot of pain that raced up my arm to my spine. It would only hurt temporarily, just long enough to make me want to yell out. Having been on my own for so long, I was a decent judge of how I was going to react, mostly to make it go unnoticed if someone is lurking nearby.
Still, I couldn't stop my chest from jostling him and that was enough to wake him up.
Dustin lifted his head, a slight look of guilt in his expression. God, that hurt more than I could ever imagine. I rested my head back down on the pillow, still in full control, wincing but not from the pain.
“You alright?” he asked. It was a question that had to been asked at least once an hour. I suppose it couldn't have been helped; I asked the same thing every time he moved without warning.
“Yeah, just moving my arm, making sure it's still there.” I forced a chuckle. Cold comfort, as Dustin would put it, for the both of us. He nodded, taking my word for it before lowering his head to match mine. I knew didn't have to deal with all of the pain, but I was pretty familiar with what I could handle. The supplies of tablets and tinctures that the doctor could get a hold of weren't infinite. While I might not have thought everything through, I had that somewhere in the back of my mind as I sprang forward on that one night.
Trust. That's what the core was.
It's hard to explain how that felt. Normally, I operated strict set of rules: stay the night, don't get too close to the locals and leave in the morning. It's not that heavy of a weight to carry once you're used to it, but when it lifts, you notice. Being free of it feels secure, I guess. It's hard to imagine feeling anything else here in Boothbay. The recent attacks weren't normal, not for here and not for settlement attacks in general. They seemed too well planned for bandits passing by and certainly too out of the way. People just don't come up around here. I was unusual and the first outsider in months, enough to attract boundless attention.
To my credit, I wanted to protect the innocence I accidentally discovered.. I guess that's what Dustin saw in me; a stranger who was willing to die to protect his world. That world was now unstable. The threat was real. We were going fight back, but first we needed to heal and that was easier together.
Dustin had drifted back off to sleep without a word. I smiled, resting my head against his. He didn't sleep well after the attack, cursed with being worried sick about both me and his home. Eventually I had to put an end to it. Couldn't stand watching my best friend tearing himself up over bunch of “What-could-have-beens”. Getting him off the couch and into the bed with me was the most I could offer in my state. There was nothing sexual about it. He claimed that having a warm body to rest against comforted him. It was also... me. He could wake up every morning, every hour, really, and be assured that I was still here. Still alive.
I almost died for him. At the very least, I came close. I think he regretted that, even though I didn't think of it at the time. He was jumped and knocked over and I did what anyone else had done. Probably went too far. In the end, the bandit was dead on the ground and I was slumped over. I've been in scraps before, but none that ended so... so...
Yet, he reminded me that I was human. Wouldn't let me wander down that path, before it even dawned on me that it was a problem. Not book smart, but painfully observant.
And somehow, we ended up together. Not for one night or even just an act, but for what felt like forever laid out in front of us. I pulled my good arm across his shoulders, holding him close and keeping a watchful guard over the long night.
