This piece of writing by @cristaq for the PriceSoap tag heavily inspired this fic, and I really wanted to show it off
Warning(s): The following fiction below displays heavy themes of violence, blood, and depicted injuries from the characters, it also has a descriptive written portion of the antagonist’s death, if any of the following is uncomfortable for the viewer I highly advise to scroll past this post, thank you
Disclaimer(s): there might be inconsistencies within the story written below because originally it was meant to be a completely different fic, very sorry for the confusion
General note(s): none
other mention(s): none
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What keeps me going
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Summary: Captain Mactavish gets injured on a mission, and Yuri finds out how much Price is willing to do for the man in the course of a few months, it kind of reminds him of a certain someone…hmm
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Yuri humped his way up the pile of rubble that seemed to only grow more and more the further he went up, he needed—no he has to get up to that building, ignoring the bullets that seem to zoom far too close to him, he was bleeding, blood slowly trickling out of his left calf behind him as he made his way up, the weight on his back didn’t help, the vest was heavy, the rifle was heavy, the ammo was heavy, and adding the weight of Captain Mactavish on his back was making it worse, Yuri felt his eyes droop, his vision was hazy, but he had to make it inside, and get Mactavish medical attention he needs, among the midst of all the chaos he could hear Price yelling in the distance, it was eerie to hear him like that, but Yuri couldn’t put his finger on it as to why, he can’t he’s injured, he has to get to that building, before they both die.
John Price was the opposite to Makarov or at least that’s what it seems like at first, Price makes decisions that overall keep the rest of the world in tact, Makarov makes decisions that would get to his goals quicker it doesn’t matter if the world around him got destroyed, polar opposites almost, almost, but not quite, something else lingered and Yuri didn’t know what it was, he didn’t want to know he had other worries he has to attened to, like getting Mactavish to safety, right now at least.
Yuri Puts Mactavish down on the metal table, he winces, Yuri jumps, and calls for a medic, when no one came he shouts louder until three medics came running towards the Captain who was groaning on the table, he’ll be fine, Yuri thought to himself, and went back out arming himself with a trusty rifle, only when he went through the entry way, was he stopped by Price himself, angry, breathing heavy, his eyes bloodshot and his brows scrunched he pushes past Yuri, who was frozen on the plie of rubble between the hole in the wall that soldiers come in and out of, Yuri’s eyes follow him, the chaos outside suddenly fell on deaf ears, he just noticed and Price didn’t look too happy, Yuri swallowed, his eyes flicking to Captain Mactavish on the operating table it looks like the surgeons managed to at least stop the bleeding but he was in critical condition, if they didn’t get Mactavish to a doctor and get the bullet out he could die, and that information upset Price even more, Price told the staff to “get the hell out of my sight”, his words not mine, and to “get Nik, send a chopper, anything” and everyone left the room.
Yuri was unsure if he should leave but he left with the medics, but he stayed by the door, just in case, peeking through the crack, he sees Price sitting down next to a very unconscious Mactavish he had his head in his hands, he slowly leaned on the metal table as he sighed, pity, Yuri thought, a man his age shouldn’t be going to war, and getting himself blown to bits for another man,he should be living in the suburbs enjoying a cup of coffee at a coffee shop, going on walks at the crack of dawn, and then going to a bar at the end of the day to play a game of pool right afterwards, not crying over his past subordinate who’s actively bleeding from the inside and out in a middle of a war zone. Yuri almost felt bad for the man. Almost, truth be told Yuri has never liked Captain Price, neither did he like Captain Mactavish, if he had the choice he’d leave this place and probably leave Mactavish out on that battlefield to die, but he didn’t Yuri wanted something from them and for him to get that he has to work with them, he wasn’t exactly thrilled about it but what could he do?
Yuri thought Price was insane, which to be fair he is, after being under his command for this long, that was without question, but his strange attachment with Mactavish was…..inappropriate to put it simply, Yuri doesn’t understand why, Price does this, or even wants to do this for a man he shouldn’t even be involved with, maybe Yuri is just too jaded from his time with Makarov, or the military in general, a medic sprints past him making Yuri jump from his spot, the medic turns his head to Yuri “what are you doing? Aren’t you supposed to be in evac right now?” Yuri was about to respond before the medic interrupted him “never mind! Just help me get the Captain there cmon!” He says rushing in the room, Price’s head immediately bolted up and he stood, Yuri silently walked in with him, Price stepped back, and the unnamed medic signaled Yuri to go to the other side of the metal table, Yuri did as followed and they both started to wheel the captain outside to evac, Price followed although Yuri doesnt have to look back to know he trailed behind.
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weeks pass by, nothing was quite the same, but there was something simmering just within the atmosphere of the base, it was low, quiet, but everyone felt it, it was…dangerous, like a predator hiding from prey, you can’t see it you can’t hear it but you know it’s there and ypu should run, but you can’t not when the very predator lives along side you in the building, Yuri was…..scared? confused?…surprised? he wasn’t sure but something shifted and it didn’t seem like anything would be able to stop it, not when he doesn’t know when it’ll strike…maybe it was just better to run.
Yuri watches from afar, he watches Price dive deeper and get lost in his own ambitions, this was different not like the first, when they leave an area nothing was spared under John’s hand, it was too much even for him, yes he made decisions that involved the fall of innocents but it was never to this extent, Yuri watches soldiers, civillians, allies, just drop on Price’s feet like flies, it was never this bad, what had happened what had happened that made you do this? Part of him feels that there may have been something that could’ve stopped it from imploding, but he looks at the Captain again, there could have been a chance a long time ago that is, or maybe he never had one, until he did, something put that ever growing sense of vengeance to a halt, whatever it was it surely wasn’t present at this very moment, between his anger and now this, Yuri didn’t want anything to do with it, however it seems like whatever Price had in mind involved him directly, and he wasn’t sure he’s going to be able to stop it.
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Price laid on the floor of the church on his stomach he crawled forward onto the rubble beneath him, he looked around groaning, there were blood stained limbs sticking out underneath the rubble some wide eyed civillians stare back at him stiff, lifeless, limbs are held out like they’re trying to reach out for a helping hand that never came in the end, shattered glass showered from above him, Price wasn’t religous of course, but in this very moment, he might want to beg for mercy, John flipped to his back he huffed tiny glass shards trickled down, well….the worst of the storm was over at least, he thought he looked up and saw Makarov hanging above him, funny to see him like this a rope wrapped around his neck hanging limp as he swings back and forth, Price reaches into his pocket and pulls out a cigar, lights it and takes a puff. He sighs, clouds of smoke drape over him, it was….oddly peaceful, there were sirens outside and there were several buildings on fire just right outside the church, but, it was oddly peaceful….
John closes his eyes, he blinks looking up, sun’s out its early in the morning, John takes another puff of his cigar the cloud of smoke gets taken by the air this time, he lays there for another five seconds before he rolled over his side, he winced turning on his radio, “Johnny”he croaked out “Price? Thought we lost you, we’re sending a chopper your way, stay put” Mactavish said, and the radio turned off, Price huffed, dropping his head on the floor, he rolled over on his back again, and he looked up once more and closed his eyes, putting the cigar back in his mouth, he sighed, it felt like a lot of things that were bothering him finally felt…unimportant right now, not that he was complaining, he’d want it to stay like that, he wants that peace to settle, and this time he believes that it just might happen.
following his ever impending exhaustion, he heard the whir of a chopper outside, Price lifted his head and tried sitting up, he winced dropping back on the floor, Price never noticed but his vision became hazy, and John felt fatigued, he was so close to falling asleep on the floor covered in glass and broken remains of the church and it’s members, his eyes start to close, the last thing he saw was a hazy sillhouette of Mactavish, to which he muttered out a “Johnny” with a smile on his face, before completely blacking out.
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Mactavish sat on the fold up chair he flipped through the pages of the magazine before stopping at a section talking about gardening equipment, and growing crops, Price meanwhile was laying on the bed, he was looking outside, Mactavish took note of this and set the magazine aside, “Something on your mind Captain?” He asked, Price looked back at him before looking back outside “you wanna get out of here and take a walk?” He asked, Mactavish flicked his eyes to one side before going back to Price he opened his mouth slightly to say something, Price interrupted him “it’s a nice day out, we could stop by that bakery that sells those chewy chocolate chip cookies” he continued, he sat up slowly, “been awhile since we went there” he says, Mactavish stays silent for a moment.
“Where is this coming from?” he asked, Price just chuckled in response “what I can’t enjoy my momentary leave for a few hours? besides this area has a nice coffee shop downtown, what do you say?” he said, “I mean…I guess I could tag along I don’t know how long I could stay though” he replied “that’s fine” Price said, and he went back to looking out the window, Mactavish watched him for a moment before he opened up the magazine once again this time flipping to the latest cars section, talking about the newest advances, and the sleek sports cars that everyone wants, to which all Mactavish was thinking how much is it for maintenance? he’s already struggling to keep his old chevy up in running, he can’t imagine spending more on a car, although he would admit they’re flashy.
Price looked back at Mactavish, he gave him a half smile, Mactavish looked up from the magazine again “yes?” Price chuckled “nothin….nothing..you just remind me of someone” he said, Mactavish gave a nonchalant “…..okay” before he turned back to what he had been reading, Price smiled wider this time, and looked out the window, he could get used to this, he really could, he peeked at the retirement papers inside the slot of the desk, and looked back outside, it was a nice day out, it’s just a matter of convincing the Captain to stay, rather than go back to work after he’s recovered, after all men their age should be going out on walks at the crack of dawn, getting their morning coffee at a bakery, and hitting the pub later at night just to play a game of pool.
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Author’s note(s): Hi everyone very sorry for the delay, here’s the character x character fanfic I promised, I was kinda hesitant to post this one mainly because I wasn’t happy with the way I went about the concept I modeled this fic after, I ended up changing several paragraphs just to make it consistent, and somewhat make sense, and I tried to incorporate subtext for the first time! I did pretty terribly I’ll be honest with you, I tried to communicate underlying thoughts characters have or goals without saying thme outright, or maybe comparing one character to another without mentioning either of them once, Im not happy with it but I seriously need to get this out before start my other projects, the next one might be a Marvel fic, and it might take awhile I have an upcoming event I have to prepare for, I wont spill any details, its just an event I have to attend to.