OH MONSTER IS DEFINITELY THIRTEEN'S SONG ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? LIKE BEFORE HE TURNED GOOD
OOooooh yeah. Like, the whole song so PERFECTLY fits Victor's mental image of himself as the Ruin-corrupted Thirteen and how he considers his more lustful feelings for Alice as a monster that he's got to push down deep inside of himself, lest it take him and ruin everything he has. ("It wants my soul it wants my heart" indeed. . .) It's just a never-ending fight for him throughout most of "Fixing You," poor guy. :(
Fixing You - https://archiveofourown.org/works/39132561
Leeja kept looking around and over her shoulder as she and Thancred made their way back to Camp Broken Glass. “Are you alright? You’re a lot more nervous than usual” he frowned and squeezed her hand tightly.
“Something is messing with senses, I don’t know what it is. I can’t tell if its the overwhelming aether but my echo hasn’t triggered, I can’t focus properly and–”
“Are you sure it’s not just stress, darling? You’ve had this before” she sighed and gently bumped her head against his arm. “I am not dismissing your symptoms, we both know that, but we both know stress plays a big part” he put his arm around her gently.
“I know. I know stress is a problem and I’m trying to be better with it but given the gravity of the situation, I think I can get a pass for being stressed.” Thancred chuckled and they continued on their way.
They both stopped as something behind them caught their attention. By the time they both turned around, they were surrounded. They both freed their weapons and stood back to back “congratulations, you get to be my dance partner, love” she smirked and grabbed his hand quickly and channelled aether through her body into his, linking the pair, as she quickly setup her dance to begin her attacks as Thancred did his best to pull all the attention onto himself while Leeja did her best to take down as many of the tempered Garleans as she could without killing them. However, they didn’t seem to understand they were trying to help, not if their fresh wounds were anything to go by.
Leeja cried out as the swipe of a gunblade caught her face and neck, rendering them to bleeding. Thancred wasn’t fairing much better, despite his various mitigating attempts. Leeja growled angrily “get them in a line in front of me and then stand back, this ends now!” She dashed back slightly and waited as Thancred pulled them into position. She waited a single heartbeat before channelling her Crimson Lotus “move now!” She hardly gave Thancred enough time before she triggered the attack, taking out all of the tempered quickly.
Once her attack finished, she crashed to the ground, panting hard and unable to heal her wounds properly while Thancred spoke on his linkpearl quickly before realising. “Send Urianger as well, quickly.” He crouched down and took over putting pressure on the wounds with the rags Leeja was already using. “Are you not about to heal yourself?” She shook her head.
“Too much energy went into Crimson Lotus. Don’t have the energy to heal myself” she murmured the words slowly.
“Rest, Urianger is on his way and we’ll get patched right up. Let me take over holding these but you need to stay awake.” She looked him over and noticed his own injuries. “I’m fine, nothing serious that my armour hasn’t absorbed.”
Her ears flicked as she heard the sounds of approaching footsteps. “Urianger and others are here.”
“Thancred? Leeja?” Urianger couldn’t see them and sounded worried.
“We’re here, behind the rock. Can you come and heal Leeja first? She’s got a wound to her face and neck that won’t stop bleeding” he poked his head out from behind the rock.
“Aye. What happened?” He knelt down, noticing the blood soaked rags and focused on healing the injury quickly.
“Got ambushed. ‘M struggling to…” she bit her lip and lowered her voice. “My senses aren’t as sharp and I’m struggling to discern my surroundings. ‘S too much aether, I can’t focus.”
“I don’t have nearly as sharp senses but I didn’t sense anything wrong until it was too late and by that point, running wasn’t an option” Thancred stood and watched the tempered be taken away.
“I know Y’shtola’s having the same problem, it’s why she’s staying in camp” the wounds knitted together the best they would and the bleeding stopped. “Thanks, Urianger.” Leeja rose to her feet slowly, feeling achey and rolled her shoulders. “Let’s get back to camp, we can inform our comrades of what happened here, rest for a bell and get back to it. I should be fine to finish healing our wounds as well when we get back” she slipped her hand into Thancred’s and they made their way back with less of a delay.
G’raha and Alphinaud immediately made a fuss of them upon their return. “What happened? Are you both alright?”
“We’re fine, a touch tired but we’re okay. Just need to rest for a moment” Thancred waved off their worrying quickly. “Come, let’s go warm up and finish patching the last of the damage” he tugged Leeja away gently as she grabbed her pack. They were given the privacy as they entered one of the smaller buildings.
“Coat off, love. Let me take a look” she pulled out her small medical kit as she sat down.
“Oh no, I’m fine. It’s you I worry for, your armour isn’t nearly as resilient as mine. Leather is fine to a certain degree but you took a fair few hits” he sat in front of her and shrugged his coat off. Leeja did the same and grimaced at the feeling as several cuts and bruises were pulled on. Thancred grabbed the kit from her lap and opened it on the table. “This is why. It makes me wonder why you don’t just wear your paladin armour.”
“Because plate is heavy and I can’t fight properly in it. And before you ask, no I cannot wear my gunbreaker armour as it’s back in the Rising Stones. I only have my paladin gear because someone insisted I brought something protective with me” she carefully removed the damaged chest piece and hissed quietly as it peeled from some of the wounds. She shuffled the leather pants down her legs, revealing the long slash on her thigh.
“I apologise for caring about your safety” he smiled a little. “This is going to sting and no, punching me isn’t an option” she pouted playfully. She hissed and hit the table hard as Thancred pressed against her thigh with the cotton boll and rubbing alcohol.
“At least it isn’t my previous dancer gear” she grit her teeth hard.
“No, that would would have been much worse since it offers you very little protection.”
“Doesn’t need to if I’m quick enough to evade attacks” she breathed out slowly as he carefully placed a clean dressing over it and covered it with a bandage, tearing it with his teeth as his breath tickled the sensitive skin of her thigh. Thancred smirked a little at the quiet moan he heard leave her throat.
“Not now, later. If we have time” he purred the words and kissed her quickly. She felt her face flush at his words, making him laugh. “Let me check your back and arms, I know how terrible you are for admitting your back hurts.”
“Aye but it’s not my fault. It’s a pride thing” she yelped as he pressed down on a bruise. “Arse.”
“Case and point, darling. You’ve got no terrible wounds on your back but your shoulder needs covering.” Leeja slid the pack back toward him with her less damaged shoulder and flinched when he began to clean it up.
“I am getting you back for this” she groaned hard and bit down on her fist, fangs digging into her skin and piercing it ever so slightly. She felt him secure the dressing and watched him sit back down in front of her.
“Take it off, I’m checking you for injuries” Leeja stood and pulled the leather trousers back up, securing them once again and wincing as it pressed against the wound.
“I am more bruised than anything, darling. You are fussing for no reason” Thancred indulged her, removing his chest piece and placing it off to the side after noticing the fresh cracks in it with a slight frown.
“I’ll repair it before we leave, don’t want you going out in damaged gear.” She took his arm in her hand and traced it lightly with the tips of her fingers. He looked a little confused for a moment before the warm flow of aether followed in their wake. He felt the stiff muscles relax and the bruised skin feel better. She repeated the action on his other arm before standing and moving behind him. “Take slow, deep breaths. This might feel strange and I apologise if it does. Do you trust me?” She leaned down and kissed his temple, resting her head against his for a moment.
“Of course” he breathed out softly. She placed her finger tips on his back and channelled the aether through them once again, trailing them down his back slowly. Every bruise, graze, break and fracture became non-existent as her aether found its way to each injury and healed it. He felt the spasm of the muscles ease and the tension leave at the same time. “Stand up for me, love” Leeja kissed his shoulder gently and removed her hands. Thancred stood and he felt her hands on his lower back and groaned softly as the tense muscles relaxed and the ache faded. She moved around to his front and placed her fingers just under his collarbones, channelling the aether again and slowly pulling her fingers downwards, fanning them out slowly to reach more of his chest. Thancred sucked in his breath sharply as she hit a particularly sensitive spot. “Sorry, I’ll be careful” she looked up at him and gave him an apologetic smile. Leeja’s fingers gently traced each muscle slowly, her aether seeping into his skin and helping to speed along his healing. Thancred leaned his head down and rested his brow against the top of her head lightly as her fingers glided slowly over his abs and down to his hips before stopping. “How does that feel now?”
“Much better” he tipped her head back gently. “Like the embrace of a warm blanket on a cold evening mixed with an incredible massage” he smiled softly as she chuckled lightly.
“Ah, the famous silver tongued bard hasn’t lost his charm, has he?” She teased him gently.
“I should hope not” he kissed her gently. “Thank you. We should probably rejoin everyone.” Leeja hummed slightly in disappointment as she grabbed his chest piece.
Summary: What happens when the one you love doesn't have the will to continue? How can you help? What to do?
Lee Jinki R.N. has been faced with this realization after a mysterious man has been brought into his hospital unconscious. Will his feelings develop... will his feelings be returned? Read on to find out...
Rough draft is complete! *blows noisemaker* Halfway through the year, and we have a story!
Granted, said story is far from postworthy yet. There’s a lot of rough spots, and I’ve already come up with a list of things I need to add/adjust to make other bits make sense or strengthen the flow of the narrative. But I’m pretty pleased with the general thrust of things. Favorite bits were writing Victor in both Alice’s Wonderland and his own. Him getting all excited about getting to play around with the A:MR quad-jump was so cute, and some of the fight scenes were nice. Gotta polish ‘em up, but I think they have decent bones.
Anyway -- time to let this fic rest and percolate for a little bit. God knows I have enough other AU ideas to keep me occupied for a while.
