i'll folllow you into the dark
summary: When reports of a beast-like wanderer terrorizing Linkon cause the city to go into lockdown, it doesn't take much for you to sneak out and try hunting it down yourself. You'd fought plenty of wanderers over the years, but nothing could prepare for meeting Valko. You felt an instant connection with him, like a part of you had been missing and you hadn't realized it until he was by your side. But before you can explore this feeling, you realize that Valko is being hunted too. Naturally, you decide that the best way to both learn more about Valko and to protect him in the process is to invite him to move with you. The house you share with your five other boyfriends has plenty of space, after all. There's plenty of room for a sixth. Right?
tags: reader x valko, reader x xavier x zayne x rafayel x sylus x caleb, established polycule, angst with a happy ending, explicit content
also on AO3 | 6k words | next chapter?
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The Hunters Association's announcement about a gigantic creature that was running through the city had everyone on edge. It'd been days of news reports, blurry photos, claw marks along the sides of buildings, and a few pawprints in concrete that were entirely too large to belong to anything that wasn't a wanderer.
The whole city was panicking.
When the initial warning had gone out, several teams of Hunters had been sent to investigate. Any wanderer, after all, was your responsibility to take care of. But it had moved too fast to take out, the sighting reports too untrustworthy to track it accurately.
It'd been four nights and, though there had been no casualties so far, the entire city was in lockdown every night until the wanderer was taken care of. Including all of the Hunter teams.
Without additional information, it was too dangerous to hunt. Drone patrols were stationed all over the city instead, hoping to narrow down the wanderer's movement pattern and location. All Hunters were on standby, waiting to be called in to duty the moment the analysts had enough information to properly track the wanderer.
You'd despised it, of course.
You'd dutifully stayed home the first night, pacing back and forth across the living room as you waited for your watch to go off with an alert. You were on edge the entire time, your TV volume turned down low as the news broadcasters continued reporting on non-verified sightings and other rumors about the wanderer.
"Cutie, you're distracting me," Rafayel said. He was sitting on the couch, sketchbook in hand. You knew he had a painting that he should be working on instead, but he'd only shaken his head as he sat down. You'd told him you were fine, but Rafayel insisted on staying in the same room with you after Xavier had - predictably - fallen asleep on the couch.
If Zayne had been there, he would've insisted on you at least sitting down to conserve your energy, but he'd stayed at the hospital in case there was a mass attack and he was called into surgery. Caleb would've dragged you to bed too, but he was currently away on a mission for the Fleet. Sylus had returned to the N109 Zone for the night too, after one of his contacts had discovered something new about the protocores he'd recently purchased.
It was infuriating. Especially because you knew that Sylus would have been more likely to encourage you to go hunting with him than to stop pacing.
When Rafayel sighed loudly - the fake one, the one you knew he did for attention - you stopped pacing.
"Sorry, Rafayel," you said, taking a seat on the couch next to him.
As if sensing your presence, Xavier shifted in his sleep, resting his head on your thigh mid-dream as he'd done dozens of times before. Rafayel smirked as he turned to a fresh page in his sketchbook, quickly outlining the scene of you and Xavier together as you watched him work.
It worked to calm your nerves for a while, until you found yourself checking your Hunters watch ever few minutes.
"If you check that thing one more time," Xavier said, voice half-slurred with sleep, "I'm going to tear it off you and hide it somewhere."
You let out a deep sigh as you threaded your hand in Xavier's hair, combing through it to both lull him back to sleep and give your hands something else to do.
When the sun finally rose and you and Xavier both got a notification that your standby status had been released, you'd crawled into bed exhausted. The stress and anxiety of waiting had drained you but you struggled to fall asleep.
There was something nagging at you that you couldn't pinpoint. Something that was calling to you to move, to go, to do anything other than sit in your house and wait.
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The next night was worse.
"Kitten-"
"There's no use," Rafayel said, cutting Sylus off. "She's going to keep pacing until their watches go off."
Sylus had settled into one of the armchairs, resting his chin on his hand as he watched you. You'd resumed your pacing as soon as the lockdown started, checking your watch every few minutes like your heart would stop if you didn't. When Xavier had tried changing the channel to a non-news station, you'd snapped at him so loudly that even Rafayel had glared at you until you apologized.
Your boyfriends let you pace for an hour before Sylus stood and blocked your path. When you glared up at him, he rested his hands on your shoulders and squeezed them gently until he had your full attention.
"What do you need, kitten?" Sylus asked.
You shook your head, sliding out of his grasp so you could resume your pacing.
"I need the analysts to find something concrete so I can go hunt this thing," you said.
Sylus didn't move out of your way, so you had to sidestep him to continue pacing in the same space. You could've sworn you heard him chuckle after the seventh or eighth pass you'd made, before he finally conceded.
You didn't pay him any attention as Sylus left the room, pulling his phone out to make several calls. When he returned a half hour later, Sylus looked a little too pleased with himself as he picked you up and sat down in the armchair with you in his lap.
"Mephisto is out looking, sweetie," he said, kissing your temple. "The moment he has something to report, I'll go hunting with you. Try to get some rest until then."
You'd shrieked in protest as he lifted you, fighting him until his words sank in. You hated how he'd so easily manhandled you, but you only pretended to pout. Sylus's lap was far too comfortable and knowing he had Mephisto out hunting on your behalf helped settle some of your nerves. You weren't sure if you got any sleep, but you did close your eyes and rest.
When the sun rose and your watch hadn't triggered an alert, you met Xavier's gaze to see find him as equally confused as you.
Two nights of searching and no leads?
"Mephisto thinks the beast is hunting something," Sylus said, brushing your hair back from your face as you stretched in his lap. "If your Hunters Association hasn't figured out what yet, we can go hunt together tonight."
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The third night, Xavier went hunting.
Alone.
He'd been called into HQ in the middle of the afternoon, specifically by Captain Jenna. You'd tried following him, meeting him at the door as you finished buckling the last piece of your uniform. Even if Xavier was the only one who was called in, you refused to be left out while your Hunter partner was called in. Xavier had frowned at you, but hadn't stopped you from tagging along.
No, he'd let Captain Jenna do that.
"You're on standby tonight," she said, her voice that steady tone that was somehow both authoritative and maternal. "Xavier will be going in alone for the first few hours as he's the only one who is fast enough to follow the wanderer."
You remained professional the entire time, despite wanting to tear your hair out. You knew it wasn't Xavier's fault, that he hadn't been the one to make this decision. Sending Xavier alone even made sense, letting the team member who could literally teleport go in first.
But that didn't mean you had to be okay with it.
Thankfully - for Rafayel - Zayne and Caleb were both home that night. When you returned home, Sylus had kissed your cheek, promising to go with you later once you'd heard an update from Xavier. Unfortunately, Caleb had overheard him.
"Absolutely not," Caleb said, pointing at Sylus. He'd been chopping vegetables in preparation for dinner but now he was wielding the knife at the two of you like a slasher from a horror movie. "No one is going out hunting. Not even you, Mr. Invincible."
"He's not invincible," you started, but Caleb cut you off.
"Doesn't matter when he acts like he is. No hunting tonight, period."
You made sad puppy dog eyes at Zayne, who was currently setting the table for dinner, but he only shook his head at you.
"I agree with Caleb on this. It's too dangerous. Let's wait until Xavier returns before we go charging out without a plan."
With the other three home, Rafayel had retreated to his art studio to work on his latest painting. He'd claimed your nervous energy was "ruining his creative flow" or something, despite the fact that he'd literally sought your company the last two nights.
You tried not to dwell on his absence. You knew Thomas was on him again for another looming deadline and it also wasn't fair to the other three to pout just because Rafayel needed some space.
You'd been quiet all through dinner, half-internally scheming about how you could sneak out once everyone was distracted and asleep. Caleb hadn't given you a moment's reprieve though. The moment dinner was over, he'd swept you into his arms, claiming he required additional cuddle time after being gone for several days. You expected him to take you to his bedroom - each of you had your own personal spaces you could retreat to in the shared house - but instead he carried you to the sleeping room.
"Don't even think about sneaking out once I fall asleep," Caleb said, curling his body around yours once you were laying in the middle of the gigantic bed. "You wouldn't want to ruin our beauty sleep, would you?"
"Our?" you asked.
"Yes," Zayne said, joining you on the bed and curling up on your other side. "Our beauty sleep."
Even being sandwiched between their bodies, you felt antsy. You couldn't relax.
Your fingers tapped against Caleb's arm, your foot jiggled back and forth under Zayne's leg. You sighed so often that Zayne even made a joke about needing to check your lungs for respiratory distress.
"I had fully intended to just cuddle and sleep, pipsqueak," Caleb said, leaning up on one elbow to look down on you after the fourth time he'd tried stopping your fidgeting by holding your hand between his own and failed. "But I think you need a stronger intervention. What do you say, Zaynie?"
Zayne's hand was already sliding under your shirt, his Evol activating just enough for you to arch into his touch.
"I'd say serious intervention is needed," Zayne said, nibbling on the outer rim of your ear as you gasped.
Caleb captured your mouth in a kiss, immediately deepening it until you were rolling back into Zayne's embrace. You grabbed onto Caleb's sleep shirt, both to steady yourself and to tug him closer. He followed without hesitation, pinning you completely between their bodies.
It didn't take long before the three of you were naked and panting with need. Caleb and Zayne were completely dedicated to tiring you out, dragging as much pleasure from your body as they could.
Three orgasms later, Zayne had you in his lap, your legs caught on the outside of his as he fucked into you. Caleb held you in place, his tongue dragging from where you and Zayne were connected, through your folds, all the way to your clit. You cried out as he sucked it into his mouth, driving you to another orgasm.
"That's it, darling," Zayne said, turning your head so he could kiss you softly as you came down. He never stopped pumping into you, nor did Caleb stop licking your pussy. "Let us take care of you. You're doing so well for us. Can you give us another?"
Caleb dragged his mouth up your body to your breasts, flicking your nipples with his tongue as his fingers dragged back and forth against your clit.
"I didn't hear you, pips," Caleb said, pulling away just enough so you could see his wicked grin. "Was that a yes?"
You were already nodding, despite barely being able to hold your head up. Caleb and Zayne were a lethal combination when their shared goal was your pleasure and your muscles were already weak and protesting. But you weren't ready to stop just yet.
"Yes," you gasped, lifting your head just enough to meet Caleb's eyes.
"That's my girl," Zayne said, nipping at your shoulder.
"Milk his cock for me, pretty girl," Caleb said. "I want the two of you to come at the same time next so he can fill that tight little pussy of yours with his cum."
You and Zayne both groaned at Caleb's words, your pussy clenching involuntarily around Zayne's cock so hard that he had to grip your waist just to keep himself from coming then and there.
Caleb shifted until he was leaning over the two of you, pressing his hardened length against your folds to rut against your clit so you were trapped between them. He braced one arm on the headboard behind Zayne and you knew if you turned your head, you could see the two of them watch how well your body took everything they gave you.
As Caleb thrust against you, matching Zayne's movements inside you, you couldn't do anything but hold onto the two of them, gasping and moaning as they drove you to yet another peak.
You nearly burst into tears as your orgasm hit, every nerve in your body overly sensitive as you felt the waves of pleasure crash over you. Thankfully, your boys had always known just how far to push you and would never give you more than you could take.
Within a few strokes, they both finished too, Zayne's cum coating your insides while Caleb claimed your stomach and tits with his. They held you between them, pressing soft kisses against every inch of skin they could reach while they slowly massaged your limbs until you were steady enough to stand.
The anxious pull that'd plagued you for days dissipated just enough for you to lose yourself in their care and you let yourself fall into it.
By the time they'd helped you clean up in the shower, Rafayel and Sylus had already changed the sheets and were waiting for you in bed. You fell asleep before they'd pulled the blankets up around you, your body finally succumbing to the exhaustion of being on edge for days.
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When Xavier returned home the next morning, you'd barely made it two minutes before you interrogated him.
"What was it? Did you find it? Is it dead? Are we still under lockdown?"
"Easy, cutie," Rafayel said, pulling you into his lap so your Hunter partner could collapse into a chair. "Let him breathe. He just walked in the door."
You huffed in frustration, which only drew a laugh out of both of them.
"It's not like any wanderer I've seen before," Xavier said, a few minutes later after he'd drank the water Sylus had given him. "I chased it out of the city, but I couldn't get close enough to fight it properly. Whatever it's looking for is definitely in the industrial district at the edge of town though. It kept circling back towards that area."
You nodded along, a plan already forming in your mind.
"I sent my report in to Captain Jenna. She'll have a new plan of attack later this evening."
"One that involves a team, I hope?" Zayne asked, sliding a breakfast plate in front of Xavier.
He nodded and took several bites of food before he continued.
"It's going to take an organized effort to corner it. Now that we've narrowed down where it is and that I can herd it, the analysts will come up with a better plan for us tonight."
You happily drank your coffee, nearly kicking your feet with glee at the prospect of an entire team going out to hunt the beast. An entire team that would include you. Staying in the house for another night and doing nothing was slowly torturing you.
You'd do whatever it took to take out the wanderer out that night, as long as it meant the lockdown ended.
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The industrial district had never been what you would call welcoming, but without any of the usual workers around, it felt downright creepy.
You and a dozen other Hunters were stationed around the district at various intervals, waiting for the analysts to provide information on the wanderer's current whereabouts. Despite it running in similar patterns the last three nights, no one had seen it yet.
Not the drones, not any civilians, not even Mephisto.
Something wasn't right.
"All units, check in," Captain Jenna said, her voice chiming in through your Hunters watch.
You listened to your coworkers report their positions and status one at a time, joining in with your own and an "all clear" when it was your turn.
That pull you'd felt the last few days was only stronger. What was happening? Why was your gut telling you to leave your post and walk farther away from the district, towards the woods lining the edge of town?
After over an hour of patrolling your area without any sightings - in your sector or anyone else's - you gave in to it.
Thank goodness Xavier was positioned elsewhere tonight, or he'd be dragging you halfway home by now.
You walked half a mile before the pull suddenly changed directions, moving back towards the factories. You were already reaching for your firearms, all senses on high alert as you moved as stealthily as possible.
As you approached an alleyway, you heard the faint sound of grunts and gravel crunching under shoes. You didn't wait for backup, already turning the corner, guns drawn.
A large, wolf-like wanderer was jumping and slashing at two others nearby, the glint of its eyes the unmistakable sharp blue of a protocore.
You didn't hesitate before running directly at it, firing at the wanderer to get its attention.
It rounded on you immediately, baring its teeth as it growled and lunged. Before it could reach you, one of the others swung a large claymore and blocked the wanderer's path.
You darted out of the way, rolling sideways to get a clearer shot before you fired again. You landed half a dozen shots in its neck and belly before it pivoted, running up the side of the building and onto the roof away from you. The damn beast had moved so fast it had only been a blur. No wonder Xavier had struggled to follow it.
"Shit," the man with the large sword said.
You barely blinked before he bounded up the building after the beast, leaving you standing in the alley with the other human.
"I'm with the Hunters Association," you said, your voice low and calm. It was a practiced speech you'd repeated hundreds of times when dealing with civilians in the wake of a wanderer attack. "If you'll come with me I'll escort you to-"
The stranger lunged at you then, swiping at you with a knife you hadn't seen.
You ducked, blocking the knife with one of your guns as the attacker swung at you again. Your guns were useless against humans, but you still knew how to wield them in a melee attack. You slammed your other gun into the attacker's elbow, shocking him into dropping the knife. You were about to land a punch to his gut or his face when he dropped, swiping at your legs with a swift kick before he was up and running. You watched him sprint up the side of the building after the other wanderer.
You holstered your weapons, cursing this wanderer and all the trouble it'd brought as you tried calling for backup. But your Hunters watch was useless, showing nothing but static. It couldn't even get a decent enough signal to tell you what time it was.
Well, fuck it. You were on your own for now.
Not wanting to waste any more time, you raced down the alleyway, hoping you could track the wanderer's movements from the street. You really, really hoped that the interference on your watch was just from the nearby buildings and not the wanderer itself, or you were going to be in very big trouble.
You saw wanderer three blocks down. It was still on the roof, fighting the guy with the large sword as the other person - not a civilian, though also not a Hunter - quickly caught up to them. You thought they were there to fight the wanderer too, until you saw them raise another knife as they approached the tall swordsman from behind.
You sprinted as fast as you could. When you realized you weren't going to make it in time, you yelled as loudly as you could.
"Behind you!"
The swordsman flicked his giant weapon at the last moment, blocking the attacker's knife just before it would've driven into his neck.
You sprinted up the fire escape and onto the roof with them. You thought you saw the swordsman grin wildly at you before he swung a fist into his attacker's face.
You drew your firearms again as you took in the full scene. The wanderer was prowling around the edge of the roof, clearly waiting for an opportunity to lunge at one of you again, but you didn't give it a chance. You pulled the triggers, catching the wanderer in the face with several shots before it turned its attention on you again. You never stopped shooting, aiming for its chest in an attempt to find a weak spot to take it out.
The wanderer leaped towards you, its body a dark blur you couldn't follow until you felt its claws dig into your shoulder. You cried out as you whipped around, firing at where you thought the beast had landed.
Your flurry of shots must have finally hit something vital, as it hit the ground and collapsed. You watched it turn into ash before a bright blue protocore hit the ground.
One down, you thought.
You whirled around, looking for the other attacker, but he was gone. The swordsman was there instead, leaning against his giant claymore with his head cocked to the side as he watched you.
Sensing no immediate danger, you glanced at your arm and tried to take in the damage. The wanderer had torn through your skin and into the muscle, and you quickly tore at your sleeve until you could tie a makeshift bandage around the worst of it. It helped, but your arm was still weakened and you knew the blood loss would eventually catch up to you.
You needed to get out of here, and fast. One glance at your Hunters watch and you saw that it still wasn't working. Great. Well, first thing was first, you needed to secure the protocore.
You moved to pick it up, but it slid across the rooftop. Your eyes widened as you watched it fly in front of you, directly into the other man's hand. You half-expected Caleb to appear then, as the only other person you'd known who could manipulate objects in that way.
The other man was still watching you as he turned the protocore over in his hand.
"I'm with the Hunters Association," you said, striding towards him. You held your hand out for the protocore. "You can hand that protocore over to me now."
Despite the fact that the man was more than a foot taller than you and your shoulder ached, you held your chin high and did your best to sound as authoritative as possible, remembering all of the tips Sylus had given you about wielding power.
The man tossed the protocore up and down in his hand like it was a toy before he pocketed it.
"Why should the Hunters Association have it?" he asked. His voice was deeper than you'd expected, like it belonged out in the wilderness, in a cave or in the mountains somewhere. "I found it first."
You squared your shoulders as you looked at him, doing your best Zayne impression to harden your expression.
"And I took out the wanderer, which means it's mine. Now hand it over."
The man grinned at you wide enough that you could see all of his teeth. Did he have actual fangs?
"No, I don't think so," he said. "I appreciate your help though. You should go get your shoulder looked at."
He turned away from you, moving towards the edge of the roof like he was going to jump down.
Fine, you thought. We'll do this the hard way.
You focused on everything you'd learned about fighting from Sylus and Rafayel as you ran towards the man. You aimed a punch at his head but he ducked, and you aimed for his knee instead. He quickly rolled away and you followed, not letting him retreat. You shoulder was killing you and you knew the movement would only worsen the injury, but it didn't matter.
You needed that protocore.
"Is that how it's gonna be?" he taunted, tossing his greatsword to the ground. "Let's go then."
Despite the man's obvious size advantage, you kept up with him, dodging and punching as you traded blows despite your injury. You'd never been so grateful that Xavier had forced you to train with both sides of your body as your dominant arm was weakening and you needed to switch stances. At one point, the man ran at the wall, using it as leverage to vault himself farther upwards.
It would've caught you off-guard if you hadn't trained with your boyfriends for so long.
You dodged out of the way at the last second, using the man's momentum against him to kick his legs out from under him as he landed. The moment he was on the ground, you were on top of him, pinning his arms with your full bodyweight.
The two of you were panting heavily as you held him down. Your arms held his wrists down while your knees pressed into his thighs. You leaned forward, making sure he wouldn't be able to twist out of your grasp.
You shoulder screamed in protest, but you ignored it, sending a silent apology to Zayne for the stress you were putting your body through. You glared down at the man, but he only looked up at you curiously, obviously delighted by his current position.
"For being so small, you're definitely a fighter," he said.
"Are you going to give me the protocore now?" you asked, ignoring his statement. "I've now won it twice."
The man smiled at you before glancing at his wrists which you were still holding in place.
"Little hard to hand it over when you're straddling me."
You refused to blush under his insinuation, pushing against him even harder to reinforce your point.
"Why don't you tell me which pocket it's in."
The man let out a small laugh. You could nearly see the gears turning in his head as he looked at the stars, before he raised his head to speak to you. Despite his wrists being pinned, he moved easily, leaning so close that he could almost kiss you.
"Let's make a deal, shall we? You let me-"
He stopped abruptly, his head turning slightly to the side, closer to your neck.
The movement was so sudden it set you on edge. What was he doing? Had the attacker from before returned? No, you would've heard him. This was a trap, that's all.
"Where is it?" you said, more forcefully this time.
When the man pulled away from you, there was something different in his expression. His eyes had gone wide and soft and his mouth was partly open as if in awe. When he looked at you, his eyes traced over your every feature, before he smiled.
"Left jacket pocket," he said.
You stared at him for a moment before you glanced down. His jacket - more of a leather vest, really - was splayed open not far from where your knee pressed into his thigh. Which meant that in order to grab the protocore, you'd have to let go of his wrists and potentially leave yourself open to a counterattack.
The man's expression never changed as he watched you, but you knew he was thinking the exact same thing.
"No funny business," you said, glaring down at him.
The man only opened his hands, wiggling his fingers as if he was proving he had nothing to hide and was fully surrendering. When you shifted your weight off of his arms by a fraction, you paused. The corner of his mouth quirked slightly, but he showed no other signs of movement.
Here goes nothing, you thought.
You shifted your weight so your knees were on either side of his waist so you could sit up properly. You quickly realized that you needed both hands to properly dig in his pockets - what kind of leather vest had so many pockets, there wasn't even that much fabric? - but he held completely still for the entire search, his eyes following your every movement with an intensity that felt more like reverence.
When you finally found the protocore, you studied it as it sat in the palm of your hand. There was a strange light to it and you turned it between your fingers. There was a small reflection which you quickly realized were slivers of metal threads running along its edges.
"That's weird," you said. You didn't even realized you'd said it out loud until the man answered you.
"Extremely. I've only seen a handful of other protocores like it and each of them had been purposefully tampered with. If you want to make a deal with me, I'd be happy to share information."
You were still studying the protocore when the man shifted underneath you, slowly sitting up until he was holding you in his lap. He'd leaned forward far enough to speak directly into your ear and you swore you heard him take a long, deep inhale before he spoke.
"Let me take it to my lab and examine it. You can even come with me and take the protocore when I'm done. I won't do anything to damage it."
At some point, your free hand had grabbed onto his arm to steady yourself. The same arm that was now wrapped around you, his large hand spread across your lower back, because you were sitting in his lap.
You scrambled off of him then, careful of the protocore, and took several steps away. How the fuck had that happened? Why hadn't your training kicked in the moment he moved towards you?
The man only held up both hands in surrender, his eyes still open and honest, like he was hoping you could see his secrets in them if you just looked hard enough.
"I'm sorry," he said, not moving from his position. "I didn't mean to scare you. You just…. remind me of someone and I reacted instinctively. I won't touch you again."
You nodded, not looking at him as you stowed the protocore away. Your fingers were slipping against your zippers from your blood loss and you realized you needed medical attention sooner than you expected.
But you couldn't get yourself to turn away from this man. Why couldn't you walk away from him?
When you'd taken several steps back but made no move to leave, the man spoke again.
"I'm going to stand up now and grab my sword. Is that okay?"
When you agreed, he was on his feet a moment later, retrieving his claymore from where he'd dropped it and slung it over his back. It was then you realized his weapon was nearly as large as he was tall. And he'd been swinging it with one hand.
Holy shit, how strong was he?
You glanced down at your Hunters watch again, only partially to hide your cheeks which you were now sure were red from something that was not pure exertion. You still had no signal, which meant you needed to start working towards your original post until you had enough signal to call for a medic.
"Come with me and we'll discuss this deal," you said, not giving yourself a chance to overthink it.
You didn't wait for him to respond before you were walking towards the edge of the roof. You were halfway down the fire escape before you realized he wasn't behind you. Had he really not wanted to make the deal after all? Was it all just a rouse? What the hell was-
"Are you always this slow? Or is it just because you're so small?"
The man had already made it to the ground! How? Nevermind, you didn't need to know. You just needed to get out of here and get help.
You ignored his verbal jab as you reached the bottom, already walking as you pointed in the direction of your patrol zone.
"My post was a few blocks that way. Once I get a signal, we can-"
You didn't get another word out before you saw the man double-over. You were at his side immediately, eyes widening as you realized he was clutching his stomach. You could see blood seeping between his fingers and you gasped. He was bleeding.
"What-"
"Those motherfuckers," the man gasped, his head whipping around as he looked for something. "Goddamn rooftops."
You followed his gaze to see a glimpse of someone at the edge of the roof one building away. You thought you saw a reflection of light before your new ally was pinning you against the wall, covering your body with his as your attacker fired several shots at you.
The man barely looked up before he flicked his wrist and you heard a yell from the rooftop. You'd known Sylus long enough to recognize the sound someone made when they were gravely injured. And yet this man - who'd been shot in the stomach! - had barely made a noise when he'd been shot and had used his waning strength to protect you.
"Change of plans," you said, "we're going to the hospital first."
The two of you moved as fast as you could down the street, as you tried to staunch the bleeding in his stomach while also keeping an eye on the rooftops for any other attackers. Thankfully, you didn't have to go far.
A familiar car pulled up in front of you before you made it another block. Sylus had already opened the back door with his Evol and you saw Zayne waiting in the backseat, his emergency medical kit open in his lap.
"Get in," Sylus said.
You helped the man into the backseat before you slid into the front and Sylus was gunning the engine. You could hear Zayne talking to the man, but you were struggling to focus as your adrenaline crashed. As if noticing your state, Sylus reached for you, wrapping one arm around your shoulders so he could add pressure against your shoulder wound.
"No hospital," the man said. Despite his earlier bravado, his voice had weakened significantly since you got into the car and you felt panic rising in your chest.
You turned around and saw Zayne had cut the man's shirt open, revealing a bullet hole and a significant amount of blood. You didn't have enough medical knowledge to know how bad it was, but you knew gut wounds were never good.
Based on Zayne's grim expression, you knew he'd been trying to convince the man to go to Akso for a while now.
"Okay," you said, turning in your seat so you could more easily talk to him. You reached for him, ignoring Sylus's grunt of disapproval as you shrugged off his wound care efforts so you could press your fingers into the man's knee to steady him. "No hospital. Can you at least tell us your name?"
Zayne spoke to Sylus in a low voice as he added more and more gauze to the man's wound, each only taking a few seconds before they were soaked through. You were vaguely aware of Zayne saying something regarding a private medical facility and what equipment was available, but you forced your full attention on the bleeding man in Sylus's backseat.
He met your eyes and smiled then, a real, toothy smile that warmed something in your chest you hadn't realized had been cold.
"Valko. My name is Valko."
⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆｡☁︎｡ ﾟ｡⋆ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆｡☁︎｡ ﾟ｡⋆ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆｡☁︎｡ ﾟ｡⋆
a/n: never posted a long fic on tumblr before. how do we feel about it? i will absolutely continue to post it on AO3, regardless. let me know if you'd like to see more here too!
