An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
My contribution to Day 1 of this event. I’ve been so excited for this week!! I’ve never participated in a fandom event like this before and I was a little nervous writing for characters I’ve never really written for but I had so much fun!
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 怪獣８号 | Kaiju No. 8 (Manga), 怪獣８号 | Kaiju No. 8 (Anime), 怪獣８号 | Kaiju No. 8 (Video Game)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Rin Shinonome/Meixing Wang
Characters: Shinonome Rin, Wang Meixing
Additional Tags: Kn8 Women's Week, Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Series: Part 1 of Kn8 Women's Week 2026
Summary:
The kind of love Rin has spent her life secretly longing for is within her grasp. Will she allow herself to reach out and grab it?
“That looks like it hurt.”
Rin - too absorbed in cleaning her weapon to have heard anyone approach - jumped. She looked over her shoulder to see Meixing leaning against the doorway. Now that she had Rin’s attention, she pushed off from the frame and crossed the room to her.
“Did it?” Meixing asked, gently brushing her fingers across the jagged scar that zigzagged along the back of Rin’s shoulder.
“I don’t remember,” Rin told her, turning her attention back to cleaning her gun. “It’s hard to keep track, after a while.”
“You have so many,” Meixing said softly, her fingers continuing to trail over the skin Rin’s tank top left exposed.
“Comes with the territory. You should know that.” It was increasingly difficult to focus on weapon maintenance when every graze of Meixing’s fingers was like a match igniting a blaze within her.
“That doesn’t make it any easier to see them on someone so precious to me.”
Rin renewed her efforts to focus on her gun, not at all sure how to respond to that. Meixing hadn’t been subtle; Rin had been aware of Meixing’s feelings for her for weeks now. But it was easier to pretend she wasn’t. Meixing was kind, considerate, and far too perfect for someone like Rin.
“Who takes care of you when you get hurt?”
“I can take care of myself,” Rin replied sharply. She tried to ignore how the words poked at the edges of a wound that was still raw, still bleeding, unable to heal even after all this time.
“I don’t doubt that. But if someone else wanted to take care of you, would you let them?”
Rin dropped all pretense of cleaning and set her gun aside. She looked over at Meixing. There was a softness, a heart-wrenching vulnerability in the way Meixing was looking at her that had every wall Rin had ever built threatening to collapse.
Meixing moved closer to her and gently cupped Rin’s face in her hands. The tenderness of her touch had Rin feeling safe in a way she had never known was possible.
“Would you let me?”
Rin had spent the past few weeks trying her hardest to pretend she wasn’t teetering on the edge of a dangerous precipice. But seeing the way Meixing looked at her - with her heart so sincerely on her sleeve - she felt her balance give way. For the first time in her life, she let herself fall.
“Yes.”
Meixing’s beautiful eyes went wide in astonishment. She smiled at Rin - a dazzling smile that chased away any doubt that still lingered - as she leaned forward and rested her forehead against Rin’s.
“You’re safe with me. I promise,” she whispered.
She placed her hand on the back of Rin’s head, holding her close. Rin had never believed that she deserved to be loved softly but as Meixing held her, she felt her oldest, deepest wound finally begin to heal.
