Haha I really love this message in my inbox @whumping-newbie. I, um, will use this as an excuse to post this Maritessa snippet here, then.
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['The Casino'-AU]; where Marissa is trapped in an exclusive 'club' on Charlie and Stephen's behalf
Content/warnings: just some comfort in a place of angst; captivity; lady whump; vaguely referenced past torture and noncon
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"What is the thing you're looking forward to the most?", Tessa asked, in one of these nights they were huddled up in one of their narrow beds together.
Marissa almost chuckled - it wasn't that there was any chance they'd ever be free again, really - but there was an odd sincerity to Tessa's voice that made her try and take this seriously.
"If we get out of here?", she asked.
"Not if." Tessa's fingers interlaced with hers and Marissa looked down on their hands. "When."
"I admire your confidence."
"And I admire your persistence. But this is not our topic." She placed a tiny kiss on Marissa's nose. "What is the first thing you would do?"
"The sun", Marissa said. "And grass... Maybe a park. I think I'd have a picnic. Prepare all the food I like, myself. Get on a bike. And go to a lakeside, with a big blanket, lie down, eat it all. Maybe with a book. Just be there, feel the grass under me, the sun on my skin, the wind." She had to smile even at just the idea of it. "You should know, I'm not usually that pale."
Marissa rolled to her side to fully face Tessa. "What about you?"
"Fighting", Tessa replied simply.
"I, uh. I had thought we'd have enough of this here."
Tessa laughed quietly and shook her head. "Fighting with a fair chance at winning. Competitions. Training. A team."
Marissa's hand ran over Tessa's stomach, the hard muscles under her skin. She was allowed extra time in the fitness room every day to keep her muscles toned. The athletic type. That's what she was offered as. Marissa had never really wondered where it came from. "You competed? Were you any good?"
"National team. Wrestling." Tessa chuckled. "Yes. I was good. Pretty sure I could still break most these clients in half."
"Why don't you?"
"Because I can't break them all. I want to live, Marissa. I want to be outside again, I want to see my friends, I..." Her fingers ran over Marissa's cheek, brushed back some strands of hair. There was a sadness in her light brown eyes that made Marissa shiver. "I just don't want to die, you know."
"I would kill Stephen if I could", Marissa whispered. Just saying his name made her mouth taste sour, her body ache in places that shouldn't even be able to hurt. "Whatever the cost."
"Please don't." Gently, Tessa pulled her in closer, too aware of all the places she hurt, before she pressed a kiss on her shoulder, somewhere between the criss-crossing scars Charlie had left there. "Don't die. Let's survive this together."
Marissa felt tears well up in her eyes, something that happened too often, but it was safe to cry here, safe with Tessa, her light in this place of darkness. "Okay", she whispered, her voice breaking. "Okay, Tess. Let's survive together."
