more sam / darlin angst yaaay
sam turns darlin, its NOT fun..
ao3 version, if you prefer.
It was a slow night, Sam and Tank were just on their way back home from a date (mid)night. Tank in the driver's seat, Sam in the passenger seat, after much argument as to who would be driving.
"You drove us here, let me drive us back." Tank already had his hand on the door handle, until Sam pulled his hand away and held it against his chest, kissing Tank. "Please, let me drive us home? It's no trouble, darlin'. I drive us all the time." Tank playfully shoves him off, opening the driver's side door. "Exactly, you drive us all the time. Let me drive us home for once, baby." Tank got into the driver's seat, shutting the door and nodding at Sam to get in the passenger seat.
Sam stares at them in the driver's seat and can't help but have a feeling of inevitable doom come upon him. He takes a deep breath and gets into the passenger seat, thinking to himself. 'It's just one drive home.'
And that's how they ended up on the side of the road.
Tank had music blaring, Sam begrudgingly singing along to it with them, when all of a sudden, Tank started cursing out whatever the fuck just zipped across the road. "Oh- Fuck! Holy shit-" He swerves the truck to the left, that tree wasn't there a second ago.
And for a split second, everything went still. This wasn't happening to Sam again, was it?
Then came the smell, burning, bitter, bringing back memories Sam never wanted to relive. Smoke started to fill the vehicle. Thin wisps at first, slipping through the dashboard.
For a moment, his entire world went silent. A panic that he had never experienced before coursed through his veins. A sharp pop echoed from under the hood, and the smoke continued to curl upward, thicker, darker. Flames flickered to life like they’d been waiting for this moment to happen, lying along the destroyed engine before surging higher into the truck.
Sam's fight or flight doesn’t kick in until a sharp, burning sensation covers his bicep. He pulls away, realizing the flames are spreading faster than he'd wish right about now. He looks over, seeing Tank crushed in the driver's side. He pulls Tank out of the driver's side and into his lap, having no other choice but to pull them through the flames on the passenger side of the truck to get him out of it. The entire driver's side was crushed to all hell, along with Tank.
"Darlin- Tank. Please, please don't do this to me." Sam lays them on the ground next to the truck, the hissing of the flames blocked out by his panicked state. He lifts Tank’s shirt up and over his head, his ribs and sternum very visibly broken. His breaths invisible to the unempowered eye, lungs threatening to collapse.
As Sam takes in the injuries, he realizes he doesn't have the power to heal all of them, nor does he have the time to get him to a proper healer before Tank's last breath is taken. "Tank, baby.. I-" The tears streaming down his face stung more than the burn on his arm, falling onto Tank's flannel. Sam's flannel, actually, but it looks better on Tank.
"Tank, please, I can't lose you first. I can't do this without a straight answer." Tank mumbles a barely legible response with a nod, his lungs barely permitting it. "Tank, c'mon.. One word, yes or no, verbal answer." Tank can't help but start coughing through the smoke, and his threatening-to-collapse lungs. Sam can’t help it, he hates this feeling. It’s like he can’t control himself, but he can’t shake it.
Sam leans down, hovering his fangs over the scarred bite on Tank's neck. The one Tank begged him to let scar.
"I'm so, so sorry, darlin.."
Crunch.
Sam sobs, his lover in his arms, pulse barely there. This isn't the Tank that Sam was used to feeding off of; this was Tank on the edge of life and death, and it tastes just like it. One swallow, it's all he needs. Sam pulls back, the sight upon him unbearable. He looks down at his arm, not enough blood leaking through the already scarred tissue. "Fuck.. Okay, okay." He lifts his palm to his fangs, cutting himself just enough to get a sizable amount of blood leaking through.
Sam moves his shaky palm to Tank's lips, forcing the blood to flow down their throat. "Please, please, please.." Sam begs to whoever will listen, until a sudden crack splits the air behind him. He flinches, looking back, and there it was. The truck, still burning, fire snapping and popping like it was just getting started. "We gotta get you outta here, Tank.." Sam looks down, his lover's eyes closed and breaths threatening to stop completely.
”It should’ve never happened this way, I swore it would never happen this way.” Sam pulls Tank into his chest, looking up and around for the quickest path home, screw the truck, it can be replaced. His mate can’t. A recognizable figure stands before him, looking down at him with a smile on her face. “Isn’t it nice? Do you understand now?” Alexis leans down, getting on Sam's level. “Don’t you understand how I felt all those years ago? Look what you’ve done. He didn’t even say yes.” Sam can barely respond, not with the realization hitting him like a freight train. “He didn’t, did he..?” Alexis shakes her head, a coy smile on her face. “He didn’t. But to be fair, neither did you.”
And just like that, she’s gone. As if she was never there to begin with. Sam is on the edge of a breakdown, he’s never felt so out of control of himself, even when he was a newborn. “No, no.. I didn’t just do that, did I?” Sam looks back down at Tank, their breaths already steadying. He stands, holding Tank as tight as he can without furthering their injuries, forcing himself to get out of there before he starts spiraling.
”I’m sorry, Sam, you did WHAT.”
