"Can I go home now?" + young whumpee + captive + chains around the wrists
day 16 of @whumptember
272 words
warnings: young whumpee, being left behind/forgotten
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Villain walks into the small room and sets a plate down in front of Sidekick. “Hungry?”
“Can I go home now?” Sidekick asks, eyeing the plate warily.
Villain shakes her head, “Not just yet, little one.”
Sidekick writhes against the restraints, she stares up at Villain and cries, “Why are you doing this?”
Villain kneels down in front of Hero and frowns, “I’m trying to teach someone a lesson.” she says, cupping Sidekick’s cheek. “He’s been too reckless with you for too long. Some day, you won’t come back.”
Sidekick pulls away, she curls more into herself and her cheek rests on her raised arm. The cuffs groan with the added weight and the chains jangle with the movement. “He’ll be here for me before you know it. He- he’ll kick down your door and save me.” she forces a smug smile and sighs. “I know he will.”
Villain stands and brushes the wrinkles out of her clothes, “I hope he is. But, if he isn’t…I’ll take the chains off and let you go. You have my word.”
She turns and exits the room, leaving Sidekick alone. She waits for five hours, alone, scared, and restrained before the door opens again.
Smiling, Sidekick pushes herself up against the wall and tries to stand, despite the restraints. “I knew you’d come for me!”
The door pushes the rest of the way open and Villain walks back in the room. She smiles sadly and walks up to Sidekick with a key in her hand.
“I’m sorry, kid. I wish he’d shown up for you.” She says, softly removing the cuffs from Sidekick’s worn wrists.
“I thought you, of all people, would understand why I did what I did.”
And the thing was, Hero did understand. They could see their former friend’s thinking perfectly. But being understandable didn’t make it okay. Not trusting themself to say what they should, they just shook their head.
Villain’s eyes become colder, as quickly as a shutter slamming down. “I cannot believe you are like the others.” The statement was more disbelief than disgust. It was hard to fool a friend.
“Please, Villain…” Hero’s voice was quiet, barely theirs to use.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Bleach (Anime & Manga)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke
Characters: Kurosaki Ichigo, Urahara Kisuke
Additional Tags: Tropetember, Whumptember, why am I doing this to myself, Ichigo does not like this sensation, some gore, But mostly healing afterwards, Nobody approves of this, Blame the UraIchi Discord, Especially Cross, Blame the Rat Pit
Series: Part 1 of TropeWhumptember
Summary:
An arrow to the back is not a nice thing. Ichigo loses some blood, some coherency, and his brain to mouth filter. He misses the last the most.
"Leader and I will cover the left, rest go around and catch Whumper off guard."
Leader stayed silent as Right Hand changed their yet another order. The team eyed them cautiously, so they nodded and fled to the opposite side.
"Ready?"
Leader loaded their gun as a response. They were feeling sour over the mission. It was so redundant to dispatch a special unit for a barely guarded base. It was even more absurd to think Whumper was there. Leader had spent years hunting them down. They didn't believe a word of the intel.
At least every part of the plan was safe to ditch or retreat, even if it cost the night's sleep.
"What do you have in mind?"
"Just the mission," they breathed out at once. They often kept themselves from vocalising their worries, as if saying it loud would make it real. Right Hand's decisions weren't clashing with Leader's plans, but they didn't like this daring attitude.
"Relax, we will be fine. We are overqualified for this."
"Not until we go home." They darted forward, Right Hand after them. Soon, they were standing alone in the pool of enemy blood, dead bodies around. Leader was out of breath from covering Right Hand's back. They couldn't find any reason for this unusual behaviour.
"You'll get one of us killed!" They finally snapped as they pulled Right Hand back from the camera view. Tech was yet to disable those.
Right Hand smiled, and it was one of the scariest things Leader has ever seen.
Right Hand pulled their gun, and Leader started to run without a second thought, a bullet grazing their ear. They stumbled, and one more shot missed them, the turn in the corridor providing a cover.
"When the agency told us to get rid of you, I was afraid pulling the trigger would be hard."
Leader closed their eyes, their heart rushing as they listened to the footsteps getting closer. They had to keep calm and figure out what was happening later. Leader was better than Right Hand in the close combat.
They ignored their heart breaking to million pieces. They thought they were friends. Or a family of sorts. They always thought their team would be with them no matter what. They ignored the feelings creeping up. They were good at it, too, but they knew it was going to crush them down sooner or later.
"Please don't take this personally. This is just what it takes to end this pointless conflict. We will bury you and Whumper here and finally stop dying while hunting each other."
As if Leader was the reason for this ridiculousness. With a deep breath, they felt anger run through their veins and lunged to Rught Hand.
They fell to the floor with the impact, the gun flying to the opposite side of the hall. Leader pinned Right Hand to ground, their one knee pressing to the unguarded chest.
A hit from the back of their head sent them to the floor. The next thing they knew was pain, accompanied by a loud bang. Leader cried, hands reaching to the source, their fingers meeting with a warm, sticky fluid. They didn't look down, pressing their stomach as they gasped for air.
"Job is done. We don't have to torture ourselves with waiting for them to die."
Teammate, Leader wanted to call, but they could only cough as Teammate helped Right Hand back on their feet, leaving Leader's blurred sight without a word.
Leader didn't know how long they laid and waited for death to claim them, but some time later, a shadowy figure stumbled towards them, dropping to their knees.
"This can't be it. I refuse to die like this. And I won't let you die by someone else's hand."
Leader could barely recognise Whumper from the blood covering the enemy's face. Without a warning, Whumper pulled them up, leaning them against the wall. Leader grunted, pain too much for them to breathe properly, let alone think of a sarcastic comment like usual.
CW: suffocation, past murder mention, future murder threats, very vivid and frank talk of murder, acid
(cont’d from Day 9: This Was Always Going To Happen and Day 5: What Do You Want Me To Do. You don’t really need to read them to understand this story, but it would help a bit for full comprehension)
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“Villain–” Spy sputtered, scrambling backward with a heavy limp, wincing every time they tweaked their ankle in just the wrong way. “--Villain, wait, wait, I don’t–... You don’t have to–”
“Don’t I?” Villain cut them off with an amused tilt of the head. “Because it seems to me, Medic, that ever since you joined the team, small yet… unexplainable things keep happening… Voices that aren’t your own coming from you room, victims suddenly ‘can’t take any more’ just as they’re about to crack…”
Spy’s bad ankle snagged onto a ripple in the carpet that wasn’t there before and they crumbled back, their butt and wrists shooting warning bolts of distress through their bones as they hit the ground hard.
“I’m just here to make sure you don’t kill anyone you don’t mean to, Villain.” Spy reasoned weakly as Villain closed the distance between them. “You always go too far.”
Villain kicked halfheartedly at the mangled ankle they just broke, and Spy hissed, barely holding back a full screech.
“Now that’s all just circumstantial, I’m sure, Medic. I like you, really, I do. You’re all business, but you still know how to have fun, like me.” Their hand glided gracefully into their jacket pocket. “I really wanted it not to be true, but…”
Villain flicked their hand up and produced a small black and white composition journal between their middle and pointer finger, smiling lightly as the blood in ‘Medic’s’ face drained at the sight. They frisbeed the journal with a flick of their wrist, and Spy flinched as it smacked them in the face before falling face up and open beside them, their sins out on full display.
“The evidence doesn’t lie, does it? Spy…”
Spy grasped the acid bottles strapped to their belt and hurled them at Villain with a loud cry, watching as they sailed straight through Villain’s body with a sparkle and splattered onto the wall behind them. The drywall hissed in protest. Villain was on them in an instant, one foot weighing heavily on their throwing wrist, splaying it out wide away from their body while Villain’s other foot slammed them back and rested on their throat, pressing down just enough on their windpipe to barely allow airflow. Spy’s eyes bulged as they gasped against the obstruction, an involuntary whimper escaping their throat as the pressure didn’t let up.
“I hate double agents, Spy.” Villain growled. “And even more, I hate traitors.”
Spy yanked fruitlessly at the foot planted firmly on their throat, before leaning their head back, defeated. “Just kill me already.” They rasped, squeezing their tear lined eyes shut. They should have known this would happen.
“You should be so lucky…” Villain laughed as they brought their foot up slightly, enjoying the feeling of the fragile life force they held under their sole spasming and begging for life. For mercy.
Villain knew no such word.
“No, no, no death for you… traitors can still be immensely useful, especially when their friends still love and more importantly, trust them.”
Spy’s face twisted into a burning rage as they tried to beg, reason, curse Villain out, do something, but the full weight of Villains body fell squarely on their throat just as they were about to do so, and their rage morphed into full blown panic as they convulsed around the unyielding force denying them the mercy of oxygen. Panicked agony ripped through their chest as they clawed at Villains leg and silently begged into their cold, calculating eyes, the same ones that sparked with radical enjoyment as Spy finally started to go limp under their heel a moment later, watching with glee the slowly but surely losing battle that Spy fought with the ever encroaching blackness at the edges of their vision. Their spasming chest and stomach grew steadily weaker until they stilled entirely, sitting unmoving under the villain.
Just as Spy went limp, Villain raised their foot fully out of Spy’s windpipe, so their boot was just resting on their trembling neck again. Spy coughed violently under them, attempting to curl up into themself as the weight still on their neck actively prevented it. They just clutched at the carpet and coughed violently into the air, tears now freely flowing from their eyes.
“I’m going to make you give them false information, Spy.” Villain continued nonchalantly as Spy hyperventilated under them. “Then I’m going to make you sit there and watch as I torture and murder every. Last. One of them.”
Villain crouched down grabbed villains jaw, yanking their teary face up to look them in the icy blue eyes.
“I’ll start with Youngest. The one who got you caught. The one you tried so hard to protect from me. I’ll make you look them in the eyes and apologize to them for not being good enough as they die, and I’ll make sure they know you won’t be saving them this time. Then Leader, just so you know that all this? It was all for nothing. They all died for nothing, because of you. Then finally, Caretaker… Your love, the one who first made me suspicious of you. I’ll make sure to thank them as they scream for mercy, and I’ll make sure they feel the weight of their careless mistake with every cut of the blade. They’ll slowly bleed out, and you’ll sit there and hold them in your arms, knowing you can do absolutely nothing. Maybe I’ll even throw in Sidekick, too, the spineless dog. Just another traitor. I only wish I hadn’t killed Rogue so soon so I could make you watch the life drain from their eyes, too.”
Spy glared up at Villain through their despair with all the hatred they could muster, struggling against their weight as best they could, uncaring of the foot that held their throat to the ground like a vice. They screamed out, in defeated rage. What else could they do?
“Oh, don’t look at me like that, Spy.” Villain tutted, like a mother scolding her troubled child. “We can’t all win. Excuse me for wanting your failure to hurt.”
The Villain stomped down before the weight suddenly lifted off of Spy’s bruised neck, and Villain sauntered away toward the door. The sudden supply of air had Spy splayed out and coughing into the ground once more, pressing their forehead into the soft carpet in the vain hope that they could just push through the the fluff and scratch and disappear forever. Like Villain could, if they wanted to. Spy should be so lucky.
“Come along, Medic.” Villain called out to the mess behind them. “Stop writhing on the ground like a worm and at least pretend you’re not a complete failure.
Whumptember day 28: "I never should have let it come this far" | failed hero | hospital stay | begging for help
Set in the future, when Phoenix has been with Kai's team a while. After being kidnapped together and tortured for, Phoenix and Aaron have been rescued, Kai injured while doing so.
Joseph belongs to @i-eat-worlds, from their story Alex and Friends. Please go read it if you haven't yet!
1.5k
CWs: immortal whumpee, hero whump, caretaker turned whumpee, trans whumpee, mentions of superpower overuse, mentions of waterboarding and whipping, past torture, medical setting, coma, low self-esteem, self-degradation, wish to have committed self sacrifice, something that could potentially come across as a death wish but isn't, past self sacrifice, emeto, past temporary character death, past whump reveal (I guess? Idk how to label it)
Phoenix blinks back tears as they watch Aaron, still and silent in the medbay bed in front of them. He's lying on his stomach, trailing with monitors and IVs and all manner of medical equipment, swathed in bandages. They should've done better. They should be there instead of Aaron, but their stupid healing factor, their immortality that's been so useful in the past, means that he was the one who almost died.
It's not fair. He could've escaped if it wasn't for them. But they're stupid and they failed, and now people are worried about them, too.
"They're definitely out of the coma?" whispers Phoenix to the nurse currently taking Aaron's vitals.
"Yes. Just asleep now. They're safe, everyone is."
"It's my fault."
"No. No, it's not, kiddo."
"It *is*. They used me to control him, he could've, um, escaped. And to check they were right. If I'd died quicker then he would've been less hurt, I should've, um, I should've–"
"Don't you dare. Don't you dare talk about yourself like that."
Phoenix blinks, then bursts into tears. The nurse is so fierce.
"Why do you care? Aaron's yours, I got him hurt, you should–"
A hand falls onto their shoulder. "Do you think that after what we've seen of you over the past few years, how much you've helped, how much you've hurt, do you honestly think that we wouldn't care for you too?"
Phoenix cries. They watch Aaron's too-still body and they cry. Everyone else shouldn't care. But as they watch the nurse tend to Aaron, they can't bring themself to point it out again.
"You're sure they'll, um, they'll be okay?"
"Yes. He's recovering nicely. They should be awake in about six to twelve hours."
They're still too bandaged, too still, too too too, too little Aaron in there. Phoenix tries to comfort themself with the thought that he'll be awake soon, but it doesn't help much. What if he doesn't want to see them again? It's all their fault. They're a failure of a hero, a useless, stupid–
"Hey. Whatever you're thinking, that's enough. Joseph's sent you another cat meme if you want a distraction. Are you in pain?"
The answer is yes, everywhere still aches and hurts whenever they shift (and when they don't), but they can't say that. They know why the nurse is asking. But they're a waste of resources and they deserve this anyway.
"No, sir."
"Are you saying no because you really aren't in pain or because you don't want painkillers? I have standing orders from Aaron to remind you that, although you can of course refuse medication, it's perfectly fine to take painkillers or anything else and it's not a waste of resources."
"I'm, um, I'm okay without, sir," murmurs Phoenix, unsure whether they want the nurse to call them out on it or not. She sighs knowingly.
"Alright. Let me know if you need any. Do you want to see Joseph's cat meme?"
Phoenix nods. "Please. And, um, can I move over to Kai's bed? It's, um, it's his turn."
"Of course."
The nurse fetches Phoenix's phone and wheels them over to Kai's bed, then adjusts their saline IV.
"We'll start you off trying to drink again soon. No water for a while yet though."
Phoenix nods, feeling a burning shame. There's no physical reason they can't drink, they're fine. But mentally...
Mentally, they've spent too long without Kai or Aaron reassuring them on anything, and they didn't realise just how much they relied on that. They're useless on their own.
They clutch Mr Frosty to their chest, smiling weakly at Joseph's new message and making sure to reply. They barely see it, but they know now that he'll worry if they don't answer for too long.
It's their daily cat photo. They don't know what they ever did to deserve Joseph.
They slide their phone onto their lap and sink their chin down onto Mr Frosty's head, observing Kai. He's unconscious too, but a lot of that's because he overused his powers. The medics weren't worried about his unconsciousness so much as the stab wound.
Kai looks peaceful. Phoenix isn't sure if that's true.
They look between their two best friends and guilt wells up inside them. Guilt, and grief for something unknown, bubbling over like an old stone well, overflowing and unstoppable. They've both been hurt, everyone's been hurt, because of them.
"I wish I'd been tortured instead of Aaron," murmurs Phoenix, stroking Mr Frosty's fur. "He didn't deserve it. But it's partly so I wouldn't have to watch, so maybe that makes me selfish. What do you think, Mr Frosty?"
"Mr Frosty thinks you shouldn't be so hard on yourself," croaks a voice from the closest bed, and Phoenix looks up, heart in their throat, to see Kai squinting at them.
"Kai! You're awake! Oh." They press a small red button on the side of Kai's bed. "The nurse said to call if you woke."
"How long have I been out?" he asks weakly, as Phoenix helps him with a sippy cup of water.
"A few days? Not entirely sure," they reply quietly. "I was unconscious too for some of it."
Kai tries to sit up, a concerned look on his face, but he can't manage it. "Are you okay? I thought you'd be healing faster, what's wrong?"
"Dehydration, mostly. I'm fine." Kai's gaze flickers pointedly to the IV line in their arm and back, and they sigh. Can't Kai ever miss anything? "I'm... struggling to drink, after... well. It's simpler this way." Phoenix hesitates, and then reaches out a hand hopefully, laying it on top of Kai's uninjured one. Kai turns his own over and squeezes it gently.
Kai's hand is rough, and warm, and large, and it fills Phoenix with relief, to be able to hold it again.
"Where's Aaron? How are they holding up? I don't remember that well but I'm pretty sure they were in bad shape."
Phoenix's eyes dart to the next bed, and Kai struggles in another fruitless attempt to sit up.
"He... he, um, he took the last whipping for me. After everything else he took it, I don't know why, I'm, um, I'm immortal, I'd have been fine, but he– anyway, they're, um, they're out of the induced coma now. Asleep. They're healing. I've, um, been switching between you."
Phoenix is dreading the point where they have to find out exactly how bad things are, how much Aaron hates them now, but they know they deserve it.
"Okay. Phoenix? Firstly, being whipped and waterboarded counts as torture, yes, to you too. Stop being mean to yourself."
Phoenix frowns. "How do you, um, know about the waterboarding?"
Kai squeezes their hand. "They sent videos. To anyone who might care that they had you both. Our team, Joseph, Electrocus, Aisling and Gemma... and Aaron's parents and Alicia. Nobody's told you, huh?"
Phoenix shakes their head, but everything's muted, like they're underwater. They're drowning and they have no idea how to come up for air.
They understand why no-one would tell them. Everyone knowing... that's far too much for their mind to hold.
They gasp, trying to grasp onto something, anything, looking for a lifeline their mind can hold. Everyone knowing...
And they don't even know how much.
"My... my parents?"
"No idea. We haven't contacted them, they haven't contacted us. If they know they're not saying. But no-one can share either of your identities further."
Phoenix takes a deep breath, trying to steady themself. This means Aaron doesn't know either.
Of course he doesn't. Of course he wouldn't. He hasn't woken since the rescue.
"Stop, um, stop trying to reassure me when you were stabbed."
"Then stop claiming you weren't tortured."
"Wasn't bad torture."
They were experiments anyway. That doesn't count as torture.
There's footsteps from behind Phoenix and they cower down, throwing their arm above their head even though it'll do no good. He's going to hurt them, he's going to stretch their limits and kill them and hurt Aaron and–
"Easy. It's just me, I'm here to check on Kai, breathe."
Phoenix does so obediently, blood rushing past their ears still but seeing the medbay as if from miles away, someone in a white coat entering their field of vision.
"Hello Kai," the voice says warmly. "You're awake. How are you feeling?"
"Tell Phoenix there's no such thing as "not bad" torture."
"There isn't. But Kai, I asked about *you*."
"Thirsty, tired, sore. Not dying." He coughs. "What happened?"
"Let me check your vitals and monitors." There's a pause. Phoenix puts their head between their knees, trying to remember how to breathe. "You remember the rescue? Well, you got Phoenix and Aaron, but you had a dagger thrown in your back on your way out. You're damned lucky you were in wolf form. The healers patched you up, but you had a way to go on your own."
"And the others?"
"Lian's been in and out of sleep, Morfydd's in a sensory deprivation chamber, and Santhiya's recovering in a power-blocking room. You all overused your powers drastically, but you'll be okay."
The floor is mostly white with splatters of colour, swirling swirling splatter, and Phoenix throws up on the medbay floor.
