@scornedfire from here
Ann was laying with her back against the cold hard concrete, the scent of iron hanging in the air as the hot sticky substance ran from the corner of her mouth. She’d taken a particularly bad beating. Normally she was careful enough that this didn’t happen but she got sloppy and underestimated just how many people where there. She’d counted two but there ended up being three hiding in the shadows waiting for her to drop her guard. She’d already twisted her ankle so she was off her game.
A flutter of thick lashes as her eye caught sight of Iwai, feeling the strong embrace of his arms. A soft sigh fell from her lips as she shook her head with a bit of difficulty. “You were right, I should’ve checked my six.” the laughter that followed after was followed by a painful cough as she clutched at her side.
No number of rehearsals could ever fully prepare you for the real thing. Takamaki could be theatrical but never overconfident -he didn’t even think that anyone could ever gain the upper hand over her, but one less pair of eyes on the situation could well mean disaster. There was no time to be hating himself for letting her take a job alone. The image of Takamaki curled up on the hard floor of the parking lot reminded him that she was not quite as big and tall as she made herself to look during fights. She was moving, at the very least, and was conscious. The urge to just scoop her up and hold her like a child was overriding all reason and training, but he forced himself to slow down and go through all the procedures in case there was any spinal damage.
“Exactly. What did I tell you about shooting behind you without looking?” he joked in return, doing his best to keep his voice level. “I was making dinner, you know. Well, dinner at 2am. Hope I remembered to switch off the oven.”
He kept chattering on about trivial things to distract her, even as her vision seemed to swim. Iwai carefully scooped her up and made a steady path towards their vehicle. He was livid, of course. Adrenalin pumping, crimson signals flashing in his brain. Once he had her in safe hands at a trusted ‘private’ clinic, there would probably be little chance of stopping him from going on a solo manhunt.