What do you do when you can't get back to sleep because your anxiety decides to kick in and make you panic at 4am for now reason, keeping you awake? You put that pain onto a fictional character, of course. This might have the potential to go somewhere further, maybe? I've been wanting to write from this guy's perspective for a while. If a story forms, I might continue it. Anyway, enjoy. I'm going to try and get an hour of sleep in now because God, I am tired.
He couldn't sleep. Again. It was becoming tiresome in itself. No matter how much he tried, that peaceful slumber remained just out of reach. Every time he closed his eyes, the panic set in. At least when he was awake he could ground himself to the here and now; he was in his room where it was familiar and warm and not out on that disastrous mission. When his eyelids shut, however... that was a different story entirely. Shades of crimson tainted the darkness. It swirled and melded with the inky black, sometimes blending seamlessly and sometimes dripping in stark contrast. A reminder of the pain, the loss and the crippling agony he felt by being the sole survivor, the only one who managed to live.
It wasn't fair that he was allowed a second chance whilst all of his comrades didn't. His therapist (mandated by the Powers That Be if he wanted to keep his position) told him it was "survivor's guilt". Maybe it was. He didn't care. A fancy name and symptom list didn't stop the memories from plaguing him in those tender hours of the night. It didn't stop the pain he felt when he swore he could feel his old Captain's hand in his, bloody and dying and cold, even through his gloves.
It hadn't been the first time he'd witnessed death, yet the moment had been horrifying. There had been nothing to do but wait until the man he had once called a friend took his last, shallow breath. His voice, once a voice that held such authority, that had given commands with such gusto, had become feeble and quiet. Scared. There had been whispered requests of a dying man. He'd allowed them to become broken promises because the thought of seeing the pregnant wife of his superior officer, to tell her the news and his last message, had been too painful for him in those following weeks. The phantom hand in his squeezed. Whether it was telling him he was a coward or whether it was in forgiveness, he didn't know. He wasn't sure he wanted to know.
He rolled over onto his side. Why was he remembering everything in such vivid detail? It had been years. Hadn't the ghosts of his past grown tired of all the haunting? Occasionally the human brain was a cursed thing. All he wanted was the sweet respite that sleep offered, even with the knowledge that nightmares were common after he'd endured these levels of panic. Right now, he didn't care for them. He'd endure those images if it meant he could get even a wink of sleep. He had a mission to run tomorrow. He couldn't afford to be drowsy. He pulled the duvet up closer to his chin, inhaled deeply and held his breath for a moment. In the still and quiet of his room, the pounding throb of his heart was deafening in his ears. He exhaled and repeated. Never had he felt so pathetic. He knew they were only memories and yet...
Another exhale and he closed his eyes again. This time, at least, pure, untainted blackness greeted him. It was a welcomed change from the blood infested image and, being worried he'd lose that small blessing, Rigby kept those eyelids tightly shut. Criminals he could easily face down, but demons? His demons? They were one battle in an endless war he hadn't yet defeated.
error 404: [character] refuses to admit they’re sick. With Kayo
None of these asks are going to be done in order, I fear, but I promise I am slowly working through them!
It's so hot at the moment so I'm just going to use that as an excuse for only having done one of these in the past couple of days and not because of my perfectionism that has me editing every little detail when I read-through them.
Anyway, enough rambling! I hope you enjoy, @janetm74 😇
Error 404 (feat. Kayo)
The illness had slowly been creeping up on her all week, no matter how badly she tried to continue her routines as normal.
Kayo couldn’t possibly be sick. She couldn’t allow herself to be sick. She had things to do, for goodness sake!Only in the rare moments when Kayo was certain she was alone did she allow herself to cough up the bile that had been sitting on her lungs all morning, or allow herself to take five minutes to just sit down and rest her muscles that had been screaming at her to stop all afternoon.
Not that any of that made her sick, though.
She absolutely, positively did have a clean bill of health. She absolutely, positively did not need anyone making a fuss over her, and she absolutely, positively could still go this afternoon to help on this very specific mission which she’d volunteered to do weeks ago.
Absolutely, positively fit and healthy! Maybe she had a little bit of a runny nose, but who cared about that? She’d survived much worse and Kayo was proud to admit that fact out-loud.
Rigby, however, wasn’t as keen on it. “That shouldn’t be a badge of honour, K. You look like death warmed up right now. How did you even get off the island without being intercepted?”
It was a good question, one she didn’t have an actual answer for. Perhaps her ‘brothers’ knew any attempt in trying to stop her would have proven futile, or maybe it was because they didn’t want to get into an argument and possibly make her feel worse — not that she could get worse, of course, be she wasn’t ill.
“Because I’m not sick.” She helpfully replied, knowing full well that he did not believe her in the slightest.
Everything had been (and still was, thank you very much!) going to plan so far. She had met him on the ground nearby the warehouse they were to investigate and they had entered without anyone being alerted as to their presence. Nothing had gone wrong so far, and it wasn’t about to either. Kayo refused to let a little sniffle get in the way.
She shivered, despite her expertly crafted suit and the fact that they were in Oman. Kayo told herself it was the fault of some dodgy air con the building probably had, and not from a fever. Because she was not sick.
“You don’t have to be here, you know?” Rigby’s voice echoed up to her. “I can take care of this myself. Go and wait in your cozy little Thunderbird.”
She hadn’t realised how far she’d trailed behind until she glanced up from her feet. Rigby was no longer only a few paces ahead of her; he was already at the bottom of the stairwell.
“What, and let you get all the glory? No, thanks.”
The idea of moving any faster to catch up to him quicker was most unappealing so Kayo, watching her feet move inch by steady inch, kept moving at her very slow pace.
Her ears picked up on the sound of boots scuffing against the stone steps. They grew closer and closer until she saw the tips of Rigby’s boots in her vision.
Kayo lifted her vision to find him standing right in front of her.
“I thought you rescue guys weren’t about the glory.” He teased, offering out a hand to help Kayo down the last of the (what had seemed to be) never-ending stairs.
“We’re not.” She batted his hand away, her words slightly clipped. “I don’t need a hand.”
“You’re sick, Kayo.”
“No, I’m not!”
Rigby seemed to ignore her last comment, though that offered hand of his was retracted. “You’re going to slow me down, K.”
There was an edge to Rigby’s tone which had Kayo feeling guilty. There was also an edge that suggested he felt guilty himself for weaponising the fact against her.
She decided to ignore both. “I’m fine.”
“Are you actually fine, or are you a Tracy Fine?”
“What is Tracy Fine?”
“When you guys say that you’re fine but you’re actually the opposite?”
Kayo huffed at that, barging past him to clear the last few stairs. “That’s very insulting.”
“Is it an insult if it’s the truth?”
Her next move was a very dumb move. She realised this only after she had tried to jump the rest of the steps and found her legs giving out from under her, leaving her crumpled on the floor.
Somehow she managed to refrain from exclaiming sour words because ow, that hurt.
“Tanusha!”
It was the first time he’d ever called her by that name, the name which only a select few in the world chose to use these days. Between the pain spiking in her ankle and the confusion that had set in by that damned fever, only one other man came to her mind, and it wasn’t her father. This man’s face was a despising image whenever she saw it; the very worst of her family, of humanity as a whole. Whenever he spoke her true name, there was always an element of underlying devilry.
With Rigby though, it was a total antithesis. His was filled with care and, in this very moment, worry.
He raced down the rest of the steps and crouched beside her, offering up more assistance. This time, Kayo didn’t shrug him off.
“Maybe leave the jumping down staircases move for when you’re not ill?”
“For the last time, I am fine!” Kayo was helped into a sitting position, her back up against one of the walls of the small stairwell. “I made it to the bottom, didn’t I?”
A fond, if a little exasperated, chuckle slipped from his lips. “You almost broke your goddamn ankle is what you did.” Rigby gently rested the back of his hand resting against her forehead. The quirk of a smile vanished. “You are not fine. You’re burning up.”
Burning up? Huh, and here she thought she was freezing to death.
“I’m fi—”
“Go back to your ship, Kayo. I can handle it from here.”
“Rigby—”
“That’s an order.”
Kayo cast a glance over, meeting his steel eyes with a sobering realisation; no longer was she dealing with Rigs, her most trusted friend and ally outside of iR, but with Captain Wayne Rigby, one of the GDF’s finest and most efficient officers. In short, Kayo knew her battle was lost.
Before she could give in to the realisation that okay, yes, maybe she was a little sick and that okay, yes, maybe she should sit the rest of this one out, the door beside them swung open on creaking hinges. Two men blocked the doorway and directed a semi-automatic rifle each toward them.
Ah.
“You both took your time. Are the GDF underfunded or something, sending out rookies like you?” One of the men sneered.
Kayo, though still dazed with fever, managed to hold Rigby back from making a very stupid mistake.
The other rifle-holding man gestured for them to stand. “Don’t give him the satisfaction.” He turned to his partner in crime, giving him a look Kayo couldn’t quite distinguish right in that moment. “The boss wants a word with you first.”
Hello there! I’m still on my little Kayo/Rigby train from a couple of months ago @dreamycloud @willow-salix @olliepig I’m still holding the three of you responsible, not that I mind being here though 😂
**
Kayo pulled back sharply. Her own eyes felt much wider than the blue ones that blinked back at her in slightly shocked confusion.
Oh no…
“Oh fuck, shit, sorry!” She panicked. “I didn’t mean to… I am so sorry!”
Her mind was scrambling, hard. Any excuse would do but she wasn’t being furnished with a single one.
He opened his mouth to respond but didn’t get to make a sound before she interrupted him.
“I’m so so sorry! That was really unprofessional of me! I shouldn’t have… I didn’t think… I just… I’m sorry!” She backed away from him further.
“Kayo…”
She interrupted him again. “That was inappropriate, heat of the moment, sorry…”
“Kayo.”
“I’m an idiot. An idiot!” She growled, her head now in her hands.
“Kayo!”
She turned back to him.
“I’m sorry…” She apologised again.
“Stop apologising. It’s fine,”
“But I…”
“I said it’s fine,”
She nodded, he was smirking at her.
“You kissed me, it’s fine.” His tone was light, almost teasing. “You don’t need to apologise. We’re good,”
He reached out to put a hand on her shoulder and she sighed in relief.
“But,”
She tensed right back up.
“If you’ll notice, I didn’t exactly push you away,”
What? Her mind still hadn’t cleared from earlier but the GDF Captain’s words had added a new density to the fog.
“Wait, what?”
Rigby shrugged. “I’m just saying, if you wanted to do it again, without heat of the moment from almost dying… Well, it would be rude of me to say no,”
“Rigs…”
“If you don’t want to, that’s also fine.” He shrugged again. “But if you do, I’m sure we could work something out,”
She relaxed enough at his words to roll her eyes at him.
“You see, that’s not a ‘no’ but it’s also not a ‘yes’…” He grinned at her.
She stared him down.
“Still not an answer, I’m afraid I need verba- -”
His light ‘Oof’ was muffled by her taking his face in her hands and pressing her lips firmly back to his.
I was inspired to do another prompt piece today, which can be found here. Again, this is rough around the edges and has only been read-through once, so I apologise if there are any mistakes or plot holes (definitely some of those). Might have overused the italics button too... Oops.
Mild violence in this, but nothing graphic.
AO3 here.
————————————————
Rigby was accustomed to close calls. It was part of the job, a sort of occupational hazard, but that didn’t mean he liked how his adrenaline spiked, how his heart hammered, how the lump in his throat simply wouldn’t budge no matter how many times he swallowed. He didn’t want to become so acquainted with almost losing people — his team, his superiors, his friends — so he held onto the uncomfortable feeling he was left with. He allowed his body to shake, his temper to rise.
He allowed himself to remember what he had lost and what he’d never lose again.
Carefully, he laid Kayo down. He gently rested her head atop his folded jacket. Thankfully she’d only received a bump and a scratch, nothing too substantial that required immediate medical attention, but he’d still make sure she’d see a medic the second they found a way out of the complex.
If they ever found a way out.
“Is she okay?”
The voice of Francois Lemaire lacked empathy. Rigby peered over his shoulder, his eyes narrow in a glare as he sized the man up.
Lemaire stood a few feet away from where he was crouching over an unconscious Kayo, hands clasped together in front of him with his fingers fidgeting anxiously as he awaited a response. Rigby knew he was only concerned for himself. The main reason he’d been so against taking Lemaire with them in the first place, no matter his connections to the business they were investigating, was that he couldn’t be trusted. Kayo hadn’t listened to him, deeming Lemaire worth the risk for the information he claimed to possess.
If he could have said I told you so, he would have done, but Kayo wasn’t currently awake. She was unconscious, yet another victim on Lemaire’s long list of collateral damage, only she was lucky enough to still be breathing.
Lemaire was lucky she was still breathing.
Rigby stood to his full height and turned on the man. He could have sworn Lemaire backed up a step or two, cowering slightly when he could see properly the anger that was evident on Rigby’s features. Rigby didn’t follow him, however. He remained rooted on the spot, next to Kayo.
“She’ll live.” He state bluntly, as though it was through no help from him. Technically speaking, it wasn’t. “Now you’re going to tell me what the hell you were thinking.”
“It wasn’t my idea!” Lemaire protested, his hands palm side down on his chest.
“What wasn’t? The ridiculous stunt you just pulled, or dragging us here in the first place. You were the one who said there was a lead, but all you’ve done is lead us into more and more danger!”
“I suggested that there might be something of interest to you both, for your investigation.”
That had Rigby’s ears perking up. Quizzically, his brows furrowed and he advanced towards Lemaire. “Speaking of our investigation, how did you even come to hear about it?”
“I keep tabs on things…”
Despite his attempts to sound confident, Rigby could tell Lemaire was in the deep end. He gulped visibly and, for every step Rigby took towards him, he backed up double. Rigby knew the man wasn’t as heroic as he’d like to show the world, that Lemaire hid behind his money and lived his life alongside the idea that someone was always going to come and rescue him as a rock-solid fact, but this behaviour he found interesting. Whatever this was, Lemaire was in over his head. The stubborn man was just too proud to admit it.
For now.
“You mean you spy on government agencies, on the GDF?”
“I wouldn’t say spy, not like that anyway. I think its a public service—”
“I’d be very careful how you proceed, Mister Lemaire, if you don’t want to end this day arrested and in a cell.”
Lemaire was taken back, affronted by the threat. Finding his lost confidence, he lifted his chin and, smugly commented, “I’d like to see what my lawyers think about that, Mister Rigby.”
“Captain.” Rigby corrected him with a growl.
“Excuse me?”
“You will address me as Captain Rigby, not ‘mister’.”
Lemaire waved him off as though the matter was unimportant. His lack of respect was astonishing, even to Rigby who had dealt with far worse than him in the past. Master criminals with nefarious intent were only a few leagues above this… imbecile, and that was saying something.
“You still haven’t answered my question.” Rigby realised out loud.
“Which one?”
Quite, Rigby thought. Through gritted teeth and with fists curled into balls at his side, he calmly replied. “Both. What were you thinking and what exactly do you ‘keep tabs on’?”
“I wasn’t thinking.” Lemaire proudly proclaimed. “It had been her idea!”
A slender finger was pointed accusingly towards Kayo, who was still peaceful on the ground behind Rigby. The man’s attempt to absolve himself simply by claiming the idea wasn’t his had Rigby’s patience wearing thinner.
“You didn’t think to try and stop her?”
“Why would I? She said she thought she could find a way out of this place. I’d have been a fool to try and stop her.”
“You are a fool, Lemaire, because you let her almost fall to her death! You don’t even care and— Hold on a second! You said you knew the way out of here!”
Lemaire’s eyes suddenly glinted. “… Did I?”
“The whole reason we brought you along with us was because you said you knew the way out of this labryinth.” Rigby sized him up. “Were you lying?”
It didn’t make any sense. Lemaire wouldn’t have put himself in danger if he there wasn’t something he could gain from it. If he was the captain of a ship, Lemaire would be the first to jump overboard and then later proclaim that he’d been the hero all along, simply because he’d been there.
“No! No, no, no! I wasn’t lying. There must have been some sort of miscommunication… Perhaps my secretary sent you the wrong details… or something...”
Rigby was having none of it. He shook his head. “I spoke to you directly. When you told us you had the lead, you said to me that you knew this place like the back of your hand.”
Behind him, Kayo stirred. The first groan was so quiet, he almost missed it. Rigby abandoned his interrogation and crouched back down to help his friend.
She was trying to sit herself up, gripping her head. “Everything… spinning…”
“Take it easy, Kay. You had a nasty fall.”
“Fall… falling… I don’t…”
Again, she tried to move, and, again, Rigby cautioned her against it.
“Take it easy.”
Her eyes, which had been blinking painfully as she reorientated herself, suddenly flashed wide open, and that was the moment Rigby’s heart sunk. He’d seen Kayo scared before. Working with her so often, Rigby had picked up on certain tells. Normally she’d pretend, very convincingly, to be anything but terrified and he usually would have argued that she’d perfected that skill. But this time she wasn’t trying to hide her fear. The absolute terror that was shining from her amber hues sent a chilling shiver down Rigby’s spine.
“We have to get out.” Kayo whispered. Her words were sharp, crisp and she tried to move again.
“Yeah, we’ve been trying that. Don’t you remember?” Perhaps the fall had done more damage than Rignby had previously thought.
Adamant in her need to sit up, he stopped fighting her and aided her instead. Kayo pressed her back into the wall behind her and Rigby immediately set the medical scanner to work again.
As he hovered it over her body, Kayo peeked over his shoulder. “Where is he?”
“Who, Lemaire? He’s right…”
Rigby turned to point the man out, only he’d vanished. He couldn’t suppress his sigh. Now, of all moments, was the time Lemaire decided to bolt? Rigby guessed he shouldn’t have expected any less.
His attention was again returned to Kayo as she pulled on his jacket sleeves. She was shaking her head. “That wasn’t Lemaire.”
“What do you mean that wasn’t Lemaire? Of course it was.” He lifted up three fingers. “How many?”
Kayo batted them away forcefully. “I’m not playing around, Rigs. We need to get out. Now!”
“Kay, relax, alright? He’s probably just gone off for a wander. You know what Lemaire’s like.”
“That wasn’t Lemaire!”
“Then who—?”
The blood drained from Rigby’s face as the realisation sunk in. He felt the presence behind him before he’d had the chance to stand and face the man. Like the coward he was, he didn’t wait for Rigby to confront him.
The so-called Lemaire imposter kicked Rigby’s legs out from under him, knocking him off-balance and sending him to the floor. Polished brogues collided with his stomach. The breath was taken out of him.
Rigby glanced up in time to see Lemaire’s face morph into a more sinister appearance, one Rigby was unfortunately well acquainted with. Large, bushy brows and a thin, gaunt face. He was smiling down at Rigby, the same shoes as before kicking once again as he tried to upholster his weapon.
“And the penny drops.” The Hood’s taunt was accompanied by a condescending smile. “And they claim you are one of the GDF’s best and brightest? Pah!”
The Hood bent down and retrieved Rigby’s weapon. He aimed at the two of them, gesturing for Rigby to join Kayo by the wall.
With little power currently in his court, Rigby obeyed. He shuffled backwards and offered an apologetic look towards Kayo. She, however, had her eyes set on the man in front of them. She glared at her uncle.
“Come now, Tanusha, don’t be like that.” The Hood waved the weapon towards her communications device. “Do something more useful and call off your brothers’s rescue mission. We don’t want to be disturbed.”
He’d spat that word — brothers’s — with every ounce of disdain he could muster. Everyone knew if the Hood’s complete contempt for Kayo’s decision to join his enemies rather than stand with him. It ate away at him, bred more scorn towards the family Kayo chose to call her own.
Kayo did as she was told. Like Rigby, she understood the predicament.
As she typed away her message, he glowered up at the Hood. “What’s your endgame here anyway? I thought this complex was closed down? And why bother pretending to be Lemaire?”
“All in good time, soldier. For now, let us sit back and enjoy the fireworks.”
chose to do a little Kayo x Rigby as i see them as being quite a cute couple in eps
Kayo leant back wearily, she has not had the chance to sleep in over 36 hours while being cooped up with the GDF going over strategies and information and leads on her uncle and the chaos crew. It was frustrating, they had been loose for 10 months now and the whole world knew them for their devastation, particularly the new recruited siblings, Havok and fuse.
It was amazing though, the GDF always seemed to have a lead but never followed them until Kayo insisted they did, and even then, they were always too late, the renegades were always 2 steps ahead of the game and it just brought Kayo to her nerve ends.
Kayo knew she was far too tired to be flying home, even on autopilot incase she had to take charge so thought it was a blessing in disguise when Rigby had offered to let her crash at his place the night till she could return home, this didn’t exactly surprise Kayo seeing as she had been dating him for 5 months at this point. Kayo didn’t know what had happened or even when considering she originally hated the man, thinking he was too arrogant and full of himself when they first met. However he had started to Change his feelings towards her as they started working together more and more until he asked her out in a cafe after rescuing Ned again
“We’ve really got to change our approach when it comes to tip offs’’ Rigby mused towards her, Kayo hummed in agreement “I know, it’s like we’ve been chasing sensor ghosts, we need to act quicker in future” she argued back as Rigby silently acknowledged her. Kayo did feel bad though, she had never revealed her secret to Rigby, i mean how could she? One of the very men he’s hunting down is her uncle! How would he feel once he found out? Kayo had always imagined he would never trust or talk to her again, and it scared her.
Kayo’s attention was drawn away suddenly as her phone screen lit up ‘message from Scott’. Shoot. The woman had never told her brothers about her and Rigby, she often laughed at thinking of her reactions seeing as she had 5 of them and 4 older and highly protective of her. “Do you know roughly when you’ll be home tonight?” it read, Casey must have told him the mission was over, Kayo stared blankly at the phone before replying “Im staying at the base tonight and coming back tomorrow”. Scott highly doubted that as he raised an eyebrow knowing full well Kayo has made some alarming comments surrounding her personal feelings about them, Kayo knew that as well and she knew she would most likely be in an argument with her eldest brother tomorrow but for now, she just wanted to sleep.
“Kayo” Riggs muttered sleepily “come on, lay down” he smiled softly at her as she did so as Rigby started playing with her hair pushing strands of hair behind her ears and out of her face, Rigby found her hair so soft and it often intrigued him what she used to make it this soft. By now she was dozing off curled up at his side unable to keep her eyes open any longer as Riggs also chose to lay down and give in to his fatigue
“Good night Kayo, sweet dreams” he gave her a small kiss on the forehead before dozing off himself. Their long awaited sleep has finally arrived.
I can already tell it’s quite cringey as i personally find writing romance/romantic thing harder than siblings ones but after reading prompts
prguitarman
jacobvanloon
jbbartram-illu
kianamaiart
kaledo-art
ellievsbear
