Unsung Heroes (Part 2)
Simon x (gn!reader)
*MAJOR IRON LUNG SPOILERS*
[ Part 1 ]
This whole fic idea is just: What if Simon had someone to bounce his sarcastic comments off of?
tw: blood, injuries, swearing, cannon-type body horror
Word count: 2.9k
Summary: The generator is out, but the pair of convicts start to look for some sort of solution. And for something to bandage each others wounds.
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You continue pressing the button periodically, following Simon with your eyes as he starts to search the sub, running his hands along the seams in the wall.
From where you're standing you see a little spark from under the floor panels. “Hey, did you see that?” You point to the little hole in the floor where you saw the flash of light from.
“See what?“ he asks, confused.
”Hold on.” The two of you wait a few moments before the spark goes off again. Simon quickly moves towards it and tries to lift the panel up. “Fuck- no good. It’s screwed down.”
”Maybe we’ll find a screwdriver somewhere?” You offer.
”Oh sureee. And maybe some ice cream, and a teleporter while we’re at it-“ Simon added helpfully.
You roll your eyes, but smile. ”I could go for ice cream…haven’t had any since my last trip down to…” Down to Mars, which didn’t exist anymore. “haven’t had it in forever.” Simon graciously ignores your slip up.
”There’s gotta be something…” He resumes his search of the walls, and after a few more moments you hear him softly cheer, ”Ah-hah! a locker.” He pulls it open as you press the button one more time before stepping closer to look. At the top there’s a single bright orange life jacket.
”Oh look, a life vest for one person. How helpful.” You mumble sarcastically.
”As if that little thing could save either one of us from this deep down.” Simon rolls his eyes as he grabs the life jacket and throws it behind him.
You put a hand on his shoulder, “If we go down…you can have it.” You say holding back a smile.
He responds flatly, ”Gee, thanks…my hero,” but he mirrors your half smile. For a second you allow yourself to be grateful to have at least been stuck in this horrible mess with someone with a sense of humor. You walk back to the button to press it again, and by the time you turn back you see Simon has pulled out some sort of metal box. He places it down near the X-Ray screen, and opens it.
Inside there was an arrangement of items, including a water bottle, a small container of alcohol, a few rolls of medical tape, and some metal forceps. “We had water this whole time?” Simon scoffs in disbelief as he reaches for it and pulls it out. Your eyes lock onto something else though.
You reached into the box and grabbed the forceps, opening them, and holding them in a way your teachers in the past would have scolded you for. You look towards Simon with a grin. “See? Screwdriver.”
You actually manage to draw a laugh from him with that. “Yea sure, whatever.” He reaches out his hand but you shake your head. “Your turn on the button, I wanna try.” Simon just shrugs, opening the water bottle and heading over to the button. “Don’t chug it, I’m pretty sure that’s all the water we’ve got.”
”I wasn’t gonna-“ You just hum as you get to work unscrewing what was holding the floor panel down. You might not have known him for long, but you’ve seen how, when Simon did anything, he did not half-ass it. After a few minutes of Simon pressing the button and sipping on the water, you were able to remove all the screws and go to lift the panel. It takes some effort but you manage to get it open. Simon walks over, and you both stare into the dark abyss the opening leads into. Simon groans,“Oh, fuck that-“
You can’t help but agree with him. “Um…I‘ll go back to pressing the button…”
”Oh sure, now you wanna trade jobs.” You smile sheepishly, but you move over to the button, there was no way you were going down there. You manage to remember that the life vest had a light, so you grab it from where it had been tossed to the floor.
“Can I have the water?” You ask.
“Sure.” He hands it to you, and you take a few sips before putting a drop on the water activated light.
”Here. A flashlight. Don’t die.” You say flatly, though you really do mean it.
”It’s a crawl space, not a death trap.” He rolls his eyes.
“This whole place is a death trap.” You reply as he takes the light, and starts to descend into the dark. You stay near the button, pressing it as soon as the light of the previous photo dims. You hear shuffles and then some curses, muffled by the metal floor. “Hey, you ok?” You call out.
”Yea, I think I see the generator, I just went the wrong fucking way…” You let out a relieved laugh. He yells out a bit louder, “So glad you find my pain funny.”
”I’ll apologize as soon as the lights turn back on.” You chirp, suddenly feeling a bit more hopeful. Simon's determination was starting to rub off on you. After a few more muffled curses, and some metallic cranking noises, you hear his voice call out.
With a note of finality he goes, ”Ok...here goes nothin’.” You hold your breath, holding on to the small sliver of hope that this would work, because… because it had to. You hear a heavy thunk, followed by a loud whir as the light flickers back on. You let out an ecstatic cheer that had no place echoing around the rusty and bloody submarine walls of your shared prison, but in that moment, you couldn’t care less. When Simon crawls back out, you can see his face clearly in the light, and he’s beaming. ”Told you it’d be fine.”
You’re so incredibly relieved you instinctually reach out a hand to grab one of his, Eden had always been known for how causally affectionate everyone was. Hugging and such being common greetings between fellow brothers and sisters, but you got a bit worried you might’ve misjudged the situation when Simon didn’t immediately return the gesture. You let go, suddenly embarrassed. “Sorry, I just got excited-“ You saw him finally blink from his slightly stunned expression before he shook his head.
“No- no don’t apologize. I’ve just been in that cell for so long I…” He reached out to grab your hand again, squeezing it reassuringly. You squeeze his hand back and giggle, you couldn’t help it, you were still deliriously happy about the lights coming back on. “That happy to finally see my face again huh?” You roll your eyes and release his hand to instead gesture at the ship.
“5 minutes ago I was sure we were both dead. That’d we just have to sit here til we ran out of oxygen. Now we actually have a chance. At least we can do something!” You weren’t stupid, you knew your chances of survival were still incredibly low, but at least they weren’t zero, not anymore.
Simon let out a surprised chuckle, “Damn, you must have hit your head harder than I thought.”
“Oh shut up-“ you laugh.
“Come on, now that we can see, we can patch you up.” He turns towards the first aid kit still on the ground, and sits down next to it.
“It’s like one cut- I’m fine.” But you sit down next to him anyway. You reach for the alcohol, and search the box for some gauze.
“Here, there’s barely anything actually in there.” Simon reaches for the bottle, and you hand it to him. He pulls his sleeve over his hand, and dampens his sleeve with the alcohol.
”That is not sanitary…” You grumble, face scrunching up.
”You got a better idea?” He asks. You just shut your mouth, and tilt your head up to give him better access to the cut you assumed was on your jaw. You can’t really see it yourself anyway, but you sure as hell could feel it. You wince when his sleeve touches your skin, the alcohol making it sting that much more. “Don’t be such a baby…” he chides, but when his other hand goes to stabilize your chin, his hold is gentle. You roll your eyes but bite your tongue, trying not to flinch again. It stings a bit as he cleans your wound, it must’ve been worse than you initially thought.
When he pulls his hands away and reaches for the medical tape you ask, “How bad is it?” He unrolls a piece, and then holds it up to your face, rotating it a few times before squinting in concentration.
“It’s not too deep, just kinda long…I uh…don’t know…?” He rips off a piece of the tape and tries to put it on your wound, you wince through your gritted teeth. When he lets go, the tape falls off as soon as he’s not holding it in place anymore. “Well…fuck.”
You just chuckle, “It’s fine, if it’s not bleeding I'll just try not to touch it. Your turn.” He nods in response, and lightly rubs his forearms. He pulls his sleeves up and you wince at the sight of all the scratches down his arms. “Did you get those while you were down…?“ You start feeling a sense of guilt start to tug at you.
”Nah, I’m pretty sure I had these when I woke up.” He tries to pull his sleeves up higher, but the fabric’s not stretchy enough. You look at him trying to figure out if he was telling the truth. You quickly but brush the thought away. Why would he lie? Just to save your feelings?
You quickly look away as he finishes taking off his outer harnesses, and goes to pull off his shirt. He notices and laughs. “You can watch, I don’t mind.” His tone is almost teasing, and you can’t believe you were getting flustered in such a perilous situation such as this, but you couldn’t help it. You were never a soldier talking with friends in locker rooms. You were used to closeness with others in Eden, but this? Not so much.
You stay looking away until Simon waves a hand in front of your face. “Hey, are you gonna help me or what?” He still has the ghost of a smirk on his face. “I guess I can do it myself if it makes you uncomfortable, but-.” You shake your head.
”No, no I got it.” Get over it, he’s hurt and you're acting like an idiot. You pull at your own sleeve and dampen it with alcohol before pressing it against the scratches on his arm to clean them off. Simon hisses at the contact. “Now who’s being a baby?” You tease, holding his arm in place as you clean it.
”What is that shit, acid?” He mutters through gritted teeth. You finish with the first arm and move onto the next. You don’t mean to, you swear it, but your eyes drift up to his bare chest in the harness and you have to tilt your head back down to hide your flustered expression. You quickly focus back to the task at hand.
”I’m pretty sure it’s just rubbing alcohol.” You focus on cleaning his other wounded arm and internally scold yourself for even looking.
“So…what you’re saying is we shouldn’t take shots of it when we’re done.” You laugh at his words, and glance up at him with a slightly judgemental look. “What?” he chuckles.
”We’re stuck in a submarine, in the depths of a blood ocean, and that’s what you want to use our little bit of alcohol for? Sharing like, one shot?” You shake your head, but can’t help but crack a smile. You finish cleaning off the cuts, and reach for the medical tape.
He sighs, “You're right…you can have all of it, for your nerves.” You roll your eyes as you start to gently wrap the tape around his arm.
”Gee thanks..my hero.” You return the tone he gave you earlier, and he laughs in response. “Stop moving, I'm trying to bandage you up here.” you scold him, stifling your own laugh.
He stills for the most part, but has to bite back a chuckle. There’s a moment of comfortable silence as you finish wrapping up his other arm. You look up at him to see his gaze locked on you, expression soft but serious. His voice is gravely genuine when he finally breaks the silence. “I’m glad I got stuck here with you. Not that I wish this fate on anybody…but…if I had to be stuck here alone…I-“
”I know.” Your voice is just as serious as his. “I’m pretty sure I would’ve given up to panic when the lights shut off if I was by myself.” Simon shakes his head, and rests a hand on top of yours.
”No, you- you're stronger than you think. I might not have known you for long but…I can tell.” You smile and turn your hand over to hold his. You let yourself believe his words, even if you're not sure if you truly agree. ”After…” Simon takes a shaky breath before he continues. “After all this, because there will be an after.” He squeezes your hand to emphasize his seriousness. “Would you…would you want to get dinner sometime?” Your eyes widen as you look up at him, not a hint of joking in his expression. You let out a surprised chuckle, which slowly turns into a laugh as his expression turns confused. He rolls his eyes, “I don’t know what’s so funny. You could’ve just said no-“
”No! I mean, not no. I meant- wait-“ You can’t get a straight answer out though you're laughing, you try to hold it together but you can’t. The weight of the situation hits you all at once, and this was the funniest possible thing that could’ve happened when the C.O.I. decided to send you two down here as punishment for your supposed crimes. The world was over, humanity was over, but that didn’t mean your heart didn’t skip a beat when you looked into Simon’s dark, kind, eyes.
You manage to calm your laughing fit, grabbing hold of his hand with both of yours and holding it close to your chest. “I’d love to.” You look into his eyes to let him know you're serious, and after searching yours for a moment, he softly smiles. “Maybe we could even get some ice cream?” You knew you were being silly, there was no more milk, no more cows, no more grass. But you wanted to indulge in this little fantasy as long as you could.
”Sure. Anything for you.” Simon's eyes soften. “I mean it though, you know? When we make it out, I’ll make you plastic flowers and everything.” You squeeze his hand tighter, holding his gaze, trying with all your heart to believe him. To believe there was a world where you both escaped this hell, and got to go out like normal people.
”I know…If we-“ You start but Simon softly interrupts you.
”When.” His voice is soft, but firm. Determined. And you decide to believe him.
”When, we make it out. I’ll cook you dinner myself.” You gaze into each other's eyes for a moment before Simon shakes his head.
”No way-“ He chuckles, “Not unless you let me help.” You roll your eyes, the touching moment fading back into banter.
“You’ll probably just end up setting something on fire-“ You tease, and he scoffs, offended.
”Wow, you have such little faith in me.” You both release each other's hands with a final squeeze, and get up. You gaze into each other's eyes for one more moment before reminding yourself that in order for any of that to happen, you both had to make it out of here first.
”Figure out where we are, and let's see if we can move somewhere with a signal. We have the sample, we just need the C.O.I. to pull us back up.” Your voice is filled with something you almost don’t recognize, a new sense of determination.
“Aye- aye- Captain.” Simon salutes you before, heading back to the head of the sub. You head back to your position by the button, smiling. You were gonna make it out of this…
You had a date to look forward to.
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. . .
There is only one regret that passes through your mind as the submarine starts to explode. It wasn’t that you were dying, that would actually be a relief from all the pain. The agonizing pain of your own skin betraying you, thick blood clinging on to it, and tugging at you like it was a creature of its own trying to drag you down into the depths to join it. Death would be an escape from the screaming voices trying to stop you from giving humanity its last hope.
You don’t regret your decision, and you know Simon doesn’t either. Neither of you would consider yourselves heros, but the two of you might just have become humanity's last hope. To think, the fate of all of mankind is left to two unnamed convicts. If your lungs weren’t so full of blood, maybe you’d laugh
You can’t help the feeling though, a small pang of regret flows through you as you shut your eyes one last time. Because now…you don’t think you were going to make that date.
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