No.26 - Tumblr Posts
Day 12, 20, 26, 31- Friends are the Best Obvious Solution
Prompts- Insomnia, Found Family, "Sometimes I Get so tired, I Don't Know Myself", and "I thought I was getting better"
Katsuki hasn't been able to properly sleep for a while, having nightmares that leave him unable to get back to sleep until he has to get up again. The squad notices something's wrong, and decide that they're gonna help no matter what Katsuki says.
ao3 link- https://archiveofourown.org/works/51255391
Katsuki couldn’t count the hours of sleep he’d lost in the past couple of weeks. He’d tried everything to help him sleep, all sorts of tea, white noise, melatonin, and even yoga and meditation. Nothing worked. Every day was becoming the same, go to bed at 8:30 like normal, fall asleep, have terrible nightmares, wake up terrified and shaking just past midnight, stare at the ceiling trying desperately to fall back asleep, fail, and then get up at five when his alarm goes off. He’d had this routine since getting to the dorms, it was very similar to his old routine except now he could train and shower instead of showering before getting on the train. He very much liked it, even with his friends calling him an old man for going to bed so early. He never cared about what they said anyways, they had shitty routines of their own, and he just laughed at them when they complained about being tired after going to bed at 2am. His routine was far superior, and let him get actual rest to be prepared for the next day.
Except now, he wasn’t getting any rest at all. He didn’t understand. The nightmares that had started after the sludge villain incident had died down, resurfacing with the USJ and Kamino, but they had died down again. Nothing violently traumatic had happened again, so the fact that they had come back with a vengeance made no sense. It had been months, he shouldn’t be having these nightmares! He’d moved on, everything was different now, and he should be fine!
But he wasn’t fine. Katsuki didn’t do well without sleep. Simple things that he’d never put any thought into, like taking notes or staying awake in class, had suddenly become very daunting tasks that he struggled with every day. It was even getting a little hard to read his own handwriting, though it was usually crisp and clear. At this point, it was only his pride that kept him from going to Recovery Girl or his family’s doctor for some sleeping medication. He was fucking Bakugou Katsuki, and he didn’t need fucking medication to do things he’s always done.
Though, his pride took a heavy blow in favor of the meds when he got his last math quiz back. Katsuki excelled in school, in all subjects, and it was rare that he’d get anything below a ninety-eight percent.
This one was a ninety . Shit.
“Hey, I did way better this time!” Kirishima said happily, shoving his seventy-eight in Katsui’s face. Through the fog of sleep deprivation, he was at least proud of his friend. Especially since he’d worked hard to get all that damn information into Kirishima’s head.
“Finally.” Katsuki muttered. “Bout time you started retaining the shit I teach you.”
Kirishima gave him an abashed but still ridiculously bright smile. “You know, I may learn better without you whacking me on the head all the time. What did you get?”
“Fuck off, that’s my business.” Katsuki said, immediately trying to shove it into his backpack. However, his behavior must have set off alarm bells in Kirishima’s mind, so his stupid fucking best friend tried looking even harder than his casual glace of before.
“Ninety?!?” “Shut up!” Katsuki hissed, his cheeks heating up without his consent.
“Dude I’ve never seen you get a score so low.” Kirishima’s voice was irritatingly worried, and Katsuki hated it. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing, keep your nose out of my fucking business.”
“ Something’s wrong.” Kirishima pressed. “You’ve been off lately, like way off. I just thought maybe you were studying really hard but something’s wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong.” Katsuki insisted.
“Come on, I’m your best friend, you can tell me.” Kirishima said, his eyes gratingly sincere.
“There’s nothing to tell.” Katsuki growled, and thankfully, class was over for the day now, and they could go home. Katsuki just quickly grabbed his stuff, and left, ignoring Kirishima’s urges to talk.
Thank fuck it was friday. Now it was time to stare at the ceiling for long past five am. At least he could still stay in bed however long he wanted to.
Katsuki just went straight to his dorm room, again ignoring all of Kirishima’s attempts to talk to him, and locked his door behind him. His bag thudded heavily to the floor, and he flopped down onto his bed, cradling his head in his hands. Gods, what he wouldn’t do to just sleep.
His bed was comfortable, his room was the perfect temperature, he’d changed into comfortable sweats and an oversized t-shirt, and he didn’t have school tomorrow so he could sleep in as long as he wanted, and still he couldn’t sleep. Closing his eyes just left him in the dark, and trying to do stupid breathing exercises to calm his mind did nothing. Sleep eluded him like common sense eluded Deku, and Katsuki just lay in bed, wishing with all his might that he could sleep and not getting it.
A knock startled him out of his desperate attempts for sleep, and he just sighed. Impatiently, the knock sounded again.
“Kaaaccchhaann.” Kaminari whined from the other side of the door. “We know you’re in there.”
“No shit I’m in here, it’s my fucking room!” He shouted back.
“Come on, bro, open the door!” Kirishima was there too apparently. “We wanna hang out.”
“Yeah! It’s friday!” Aaaaand there was Sero. Dammit, he hated when all of his friends ganged up on him. It was always much harder to resist when all of his idiots were yapping at him. “Time for a smash brothers tournament!”
“We’re not gonna leave you alone until you come with us.” Ashido. Great, now the whole squad was outside his door. “So you might as well just give in and come out.”
He sighed again, loudly and dramatically. Fucking hell, his friends were annoying. But playing video games was mindless, and he did at least enjoy it. Maybe it would exhaust him enough to finally let him sleep.
“Fine.” He sighed, and the squad cheered. “But I’m player one, and no one complains about it.”
“Deal!” was chirped and Katsuki reluctantly got out of bed.
Apparently tonight was in Kirishima’s room, so at least he didn’t have to go far. They often cycled through the squad for video game tournaments and movie nights (except his. No one went into his room but him). But this time it was Kirishima’s turn to host, and so they all shuffled into the horrible brightness of his best friend’s room, and all spread out on the only available room to sit, the bed. Katsuki wasn’t sure how, as he didn’t like people coming into his personal space, but somehow, he ended up in the middle of Kirishima’s bed with Kirishima on his right side and Ashido on his left. Kaminari and Sero were sitting on the floor, leaning against his legs. This felt very intentional, but his friends weren’t acting suspicious, and since none of them could act well, he let it go. Maybe he was overthinking it?
He was handed the player one controller, and the others were passed around. The game was familiar enough to be relaxing, yet high speed enough to take his mind off his problems a little bit. He got comfortable and barely noticed it, sagging where he was sitting, body growing lax and complacent with a desperate need to rest. Everything started to fade into the background, the colors began to blur on the TV. His hands pushed the controller buttons automatically, on pure motor memory, but as his surroundings turned to white noise, he forgot that he was actually competing with anyone. His hands slowed as his mind sank into the comfort of where he was, the people around him. His friends’ animated chattering turned to a quiet buzz in his ears, sharp but familiar. He was warm on all sides, and Kirishima’s duvet was surprisingly soft.
Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder, yanking him out of his reverie, and the controller was being pulled out of his hands. He was confused until he managed to refocus his vision and see Ashido looking at him with big, worried eyes.
“Okay, Kirishima was right, something’s wrong.” She said.
“Nothing’s wrong.” Katsuki insisted. “Let’s just finish playing.”
“Dude, the game’s over.” Sero said, staring at him with the same worry in Ashido’s eyes.
His eyes flicked to the screen, and it had returned to the selection of characters for the next round. Shit. He hadn’t even noticed. His eyes came back to his friends, and everyone was staring at him. Even Kaminari was giving him an uncertain look.
“Come on, Bakugou, talk to us.” Kirishima said, and the walls Katsuki put up were becoming too exhausting to keep up. The sincerity even he couldn’t mistake for pity was too strong, the room too comfortable for him to be able to resist. He was just so tired. “We’re your friends. You can tell us anything.”
“I’m fine.” Katsuki hissed, his last desperate attempt to get them to back off before his walls fully crumbled. How had he lost so much ground so quickly? He was normally so much stronger than this. But dammit, he was exhausted and keeping up this act just added to his exhaustion.
“But you’re not.” Kirishima said. “You’ve been way off in training, you haven’t been getting your normal scores, and you just zoned out for like ten minutes without even realizing it. That’s not ‘fine’, dude. It’s just not.”
No matter where he looked, he couldn’t escape this sincerity, and he was trapped, with Sero leaning up against his leg so he couldn’t just storm out. Fuck.
“Icantsleep.” Katsuki whispered, his voice barely audible.
“What?” Chorused from his friends.
“I can’t sleep.” Katsuki sighed heavily. “Everything’s fine, I’m just really fucking tired.”
“But… you’ve been going to bed every night super early like normal.” Kaminari said, surprised. “We’ve seen you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you stay up past nine on school nights.”
“I don’t.” Katsuki said. “I just… I don’t know. I get into bed, and I just can’t sleep. I mostly just lay there.”
His friends exchanged worried looks.
“How long has it been since you last got decent sleep?” Kirishima asked.
Katsuki just shrugged, since honestly at this point, he really didn’t know.
“Have you tried, like, melatonin or tea?” Ashido asked.
Katsuki nodded. “Yes, I’ve tried those, I’ve already tried all the fucking obvious methods. Meds, tea, all the different noises, I even tried fucking yoga . Nothing worked. I just can’t sleep.”
“So is it like a mental thing?” Kaminari asked. “I sometimes can’t sleep because my thoughts are going too fast.”
Katsuki just shook his head.
“Well then, do you know what it is?” Sero asked. “That’s keeping you up? Because it sounds like it’s not a physical thing, if those other things didn’t work, and you say it’s not a mental thing, so I feel like there’s a puzzle piece missing.”
Katsuki just shrugged, not wanting to admit the nightmares, but his cheeks turned light pink anyways. Dammit.
“Okay, come on, what are you not telling us?” Kirishima asked directly. “I know that face, Bakugou, that face means you’re hiding something.”
“It does not!” Katsuki shot back.
Kirishima just raised an eyebrow. “How long have we been friends? And next door neighbors?”
“I keep telling you fucks, we’re not friends, I just can’t get rid of you.” Katsuki said, curling into himself unconsciously.
“Since the USJ at least.” Kirishima said, answering his own question. “I know you, man. We know you.”
“And that face means you’re hiding something.” Ashido finished. “You always get the tiniest blush when you know something we don’t know.”
“I do not.” Katsuki grumbled.
Several versions of “yes, you do” were echoed from all sides.
Katsuki just slumped harder. Fuck his friends. How the fuck did they know him so well? He hadn’t even known them a year! And yet, they knew him better than anyone in his life, outside of his parents and maybe Deku.
“Fucking fine, I have nightmares, okay!” Katsuki shouted, the jagged remains of his internal walls becoming like porcupine quills, trying to stab his friends with his anger. “I don’t fucking know why, but I’ve been having them basically every single fucking night, and there’s no goddamn reason for them! Will you shits leave me alone now?”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Kirishima asked, placing a hand on his shoulder for a moment.
“What the fuck would I say?” Katsuki snapped. “So you could call me a fucking pussy who gets nightmares for no fucking reason?”
“We wouldn’t call you a pussy because you get nightmares, Bakugou.” Kirishima said. “I get nightmares too.”
“Yeah, we all do.” Sero said, with Kaminari and Ashido nodding along.
His confusion must have been written on his face because Kirishima continued. “Dude, I’ve gotten them ever since Kamino. And the Shie Hassaikai raid made them come back for a while too. I still get them every once in a while.”
“I got them after the USJ,” Kaminari said, “and mine came back for a while too, after that whole fiasco on I-Island.”
“And not to mention Nabu Island too.” Sero added.
“I still have nightmares about that woman.” Ashido shuddered, and Katsuki knew she was also talking about Nabu. “Sometimes I even have nightmares about failing out of school.”
“Oh gods, girl, same.” Kaminari said, leaning back on Katsuki’s leg to look directly up at Ashido. “I have that nightmare the night before every test.”
Katsuki unconsciously filed that information away for later, he’d come back to that when the next test came around, but mostly he was still confused. “But none of you ever said anything. You shits literally talk about every subject under the fucking sun and you’ve never mentioned that. I would’ve noticed.”
“I mean, I guess not, but like.” Kirishima shrugged. “That doesn’t mean we’d call you a pussy for having them. You’re too hard on yourself, bro. Nightmares happen.”
“Not to me.” Katsuki hissed. “I’m fine , there’s nothing wrong with me!”
“We’re not saying anything’s wrong with you, Bakugou.” Ashido said, placing her hand on his shoulder for a moment, like Kirishima did.
“Nothing has to be wrong with you for you to get nightmares.” Sero said. “Honestly, with all the shit you’ve been through, I’d be shocked if you didn’t get them.”
“Yeah, I can’t imagine getting kid-uh, I mean battling villains the way you did and not getting nightmares.” Kaminari recovered quickly after almost fucking up, reminding Katsuki of what he did not like being reminded of . Kamino could go die for all he cared, and he hated any reminder of it with a passion.
“But we haven’t had any battles lately.” Katsuki snapped, his hatred for his own weakness coming out as a spat at his friends. “There’s no fucking reason for this.”
“I don’t think nightmares need a specific reason to happen, bro.” Sero shrugged. “You just get them. There doesn’t always need to be a reason.”
Katsuki huffed, unhappy with that answer.
“We can figure out the reason tomorrow.” Kirishima said, successfully putting a pin in the conversation. He was good at that, at getting Katsuki to come back to shit when he felt better. “Right now, I think we just need to focus on helping you sleep.”
“I don’t need anyone’s fucking help.” Katsuki growled.
“Uh-huh.” Kirishima was also good at calling him out on his bullshit. Dammit, when had his stupid best friend gotten so good at that? “Come on. Lay down. You’re staying with me tonight.”
“No.” Katsuki said, very confused at to what the fuck his friend was even planning. “That’s dumb.”
“Fine, I’ll just tackle you.” Kirishima stated seriously, and honestly, Katsuki believed him.
“Whatever.” He grumbled, pulling himself back a little so he could properly lay down on Kirishima’s bed. For someone who’s entire thing was hardening, Kirishima’s bedding was unexpectedly soft. “Now what, geniuses?”
Apparently ‘now’ was everyone climbing onto the bed with him, Ashido pressed against his abdomen and the wall, Kirishima on his other side, and Sero and Kaminari back on his legs. They weren’t on him enough for him to feel trapped, but enough for him to feel that they were there. It felt oddly comforting.
“Okay, now close your eyes.” Ashido said.
He just glared up at her.
“You have to close your eyes to sleep.” She rolled her eyes. “Unless you sleep with your eyes open. Wait, do you sleep with your eyes open?”
“No, I don’t sleep with my eyes open, that’s weird.”
“Okay, so close your eyes.”
Katsuki rolled his eyes at her, and he sighed unhappily, but he did as she said.
“Breathe in for four seconds, and then exhale for seven.” Sero said.
“Tried that.” Katsuki replied. “Didn’t work.”
“Do it anyway.” Sero said, and he could hear him rolling his eyes. His bastard friends had a lot of nerve to roll their eyes at him, considering what they were doing. “You need to relax, and stop fighting us. Otherwise, you’re never going to get to sleep.”
“I’m never going to sleep with all you fucks watching me either.” Katsuki mumbled.
“We’re not watching you,” Ashido said. “We’re helping you.”
“Same thing.” Katsuki muttered.
“Just do the fucking breathing exercises.” Sero snapped.
Overdramatically, he took a big breath in, and blew it out. Afterwards, he started counting to four and seven as he breathed, and his body did start to relax. His mind was still very much wide awake but at least his body wasn’t as taut as a rubber band anymore. It felt a little strange, as he hadn’t felt anything when he’d tried this on his own, but it was working so he didn’t question it.
A hand suddenly came to his hair, brushing through his spikes, scratching lightly. His eyes immediately snapped open, and he found the hand belonged to Ashido.
“Fuck are you doing?” Katsuki asked, but he was taken aback a little by his own voice. He sounded like he was half-asleep, but he knew that was untrue. His mind was still very awake.
“Shush, and keep your eyes closed.” She lightly chastised him. Katsuki didn’t even notice that she hadn’t answered his question.
Instead of standing up and telling his friends this didn’t work either, his leaded eyes just slid shut. His mind sank back into the comfort from before, a quiet voice of anxiety and fear effectively silenced by the warmth and safety his friends emanated.
Distantly, he could feel hands pull at his feet, taking his shoes off for him, and he didn’t have the words to respond to them. The fingers in his hair became his only real focus, feeling the gentle strokes of Ashido’s hand as she lightly dragged her nails over his scalp. No one but his parents had ever attempted anything like this, but he found he didn’t really want her to stop. Her fingers seemed to turn his exhaustion into a soft brook across his body, seeking out tension and washing it away. After an amount of time he couldn’t distinguish, the only things he could feel anymore were his friends comforting weight against him, and Ashido’s fingers in his hair. There were soft noises around him, gentle but garbled. Katsuki only caught the words ‘sleep’ and ‘night’, and couldn’t decipher any of the rest.
In an instant, Katsuki’s mind had gone from being completely awake to hanging by a thread, and Katsuki wasn’t sure when that had happened. Sleep hit him like a freight train, the thread of his consciousness didn’t stand a chance, and he was asleep between one breath and another.
After being so used to waking up shaking and sweating, Katsuki didn’t notice he was actually awake at first. He woke up slowly, an easy rise to consciousness not tainted by fear and terror. He felt warm on all sides, with heavy pressure all over his body, and he was so comfortable that he could’ve slipped back into sleep without much issue. Even more surprising, he felt rested for the first time in what felt like weeks. This was one of the best sleeps of his life. He idly wondered what brought it on after those debilitating nightmares.
Oh yeah. His friends. He could hear their soft breathing, feel their bodies all over him. Ashido was still sandwiched between him and the wall with her legs across his waist, Kirishima had flopped almost onto him, and the idiot’s legs seemed to be hanging off the bed, Sero and Kaminari were all tangled up on his legs, using his thighs as pillows. Kaminari was drooling on him, of fucking course the idiot drooled, but he was so comfortable that he let it go (for now). It took a bit of work to extract his hand from the pile that was him and his friends, but he checked his phone that was still in his pocket. It was a little past 5. Wow, he’d actually slept through the whole night.
Even with all the sleep he'd gotten which made him feel sooooo much better, he was still exhausted. His sleep deficit had only increased the more this went on, and he had a lot to make up. So, since no one was awake, he just snuggled in deeper to his friends, pressing into all of them, and he let the safety of his friends (who were practically family to him at this point) take him right back to sleep. And he slept long after everyone else had woken up, though they all still stayed cuddled up to him, their presence keeping the nightmares away.
İçimde dolaşan hayal kırıklığı hissi bana kimseye güvenmemem gerektiğini hatırlatırken yapayalnız olduğumu hatırladım. Kimin bana ilaç olacağını düşünsem o benim yaram oldu.
Whumptober day 24 - Secret Injury; 25 - Humiliation; 26 - Abandoned
Another fill for @whumptober2019, and another one that’s pre-WinterIron and an amalgamation of multiple prompts. It’s also available on Ao3.
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"Never again," Clint groaned.
From around the Quinjet there were sounds of agreement, though none of them had the energy to do more than that.
Today's battle had been simply awful, and none of them had gotten out of it without at least a few bruises, if not worse. Hours upon hours of fighting meant they were also completely exhausted.
Most of them had collapsed where they'd been standing when the fight finally ended. Bucky and Natasha had held on by a single stubborn thread, but Tony had carried all of the others to the Quinjet in the armor, trying to get them as comfortable as possible before getting behind the controls and starting to fly them back somewhere they would have medical attention they could trust.
Once he had the jet in the air and set to fly under JARVIS' control for a while, Tony stared out of the window for a little while. Then, shutting his eyes briefly and taking a deep breath, he got up again.
The Quinjet might not have a large amount of medical supplies, but it did have some emergency things stocked. "J, keep track and order new supplies." He knew he didn't have the energy at the moment to make note of whatever he was using, let alone remember it to replace it later. Fortunately, that was why he had JARVIS.
Sam was the first he saw to, if only because the gash on his arm still hadn’t stopped bleeding. He honestly didn’t imagine it would without stitches, but it was at least important to staunch the flow a little. So, after rinsing it out quickly to make sure there would be as little dirt in there as possible, he smeared some disinfectant cream over there and wrapped it up. The doctors would do better later, but for now it was important to keep him from bleeding too much.
“Any other big wounds?” he asked, managing to sound far less tired than he felt.
“Nothing open,” Sam admitted. “Bruises, wrist might be sprained or broken.”
Grabbing one of the multitudes of cold packs was quickly done, and after putting it down on Sam’s wrist and seeing him relax, Tony moved on to Steve. His supersoldier healing was already at work repairing the damage, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a lot of it.
It took some bandages and cold packs, but soon Steve relaxed at least some. Bucky had the same deal, though he did admit his leg might be broken as well. Since he honestly didn’t know enough to be sure of how to set a leg so it’d heal right, Tony just made a mental note to have it checked out by a doctor as soon as possible.
Slowly but surely, he worked his way through all of them. Most of his work involved applying cold packs to wherever things hurt the most and hoping it’d help with the pain at least a little, since he didn’t want to play with medicine when the doctors might need to give some of them something and it could possibly interact. He did at least notice some of their strain easing a little, so he had to be doing something right.
Finally, Bruce only needed a blanket - the Hulk had taken damage, but that didn’t transfer to Bruce. But he was even more exhausted than usual, not even responding when Tony gently eased him up a little to drink a meal replacement shake. It was cautious work when he wasn’t entirely conscious, and Tony almost wanted to skip it, but he knew the Hulk spent enough energy that leaving Bruce to just sleep it off might mean he’d end up in the medical wing anyway due to a dangerously low blood sugar level. At least this way, he wasn’t in immediate danger, though it was likely he could still use an infusion for the first few hours.
“Dude… How?” Clint groaned as he finally stepped away from Bruce, empty packet in his hand.
“Regular insomniac,” Tony told him with a fair attempt at a grin.
“And a suit that protects you extremely well,” Sam noted, managing to sound both complementary and a little jealous.
“Regular genius insomniac,” he allowed. He couldn’t say he was too surprised when both Clint and Sam graced him with a look only slightly better than if they’d stuck out their tongues. His huff was close enough to laughter that it made both of them glare playfully. “You’re just jealous.”
“Very,” Sam deadpanned, but since Clint hissed out a “Yesssssssss” at the same time, he didn’t take it to heart.
“I mean, our protective suits are great, but it’s gotta help when you’ve got your mechanical suit to do a lot of the fighting.”
Tony just grinned at them. He was well-aware of how easy it was to assume the suit did most of the work, especially since he usually managed to look pretty bright-eyed and bushy-tailed even after a long fight. It wasn’t always ideal, but he preferred it over having them worry about him.
Once they finally landed, he took them to medical one by one. Bruce, as expected, got an IV line and a bed to rest. He didn’t even wake up when Tony picked him up, so he was glad there were experts to look after Bruce now.
Sam got stitches for the gash in his arm and had, unfortunately, broken his wrist. Once that was taken care of, the doctors ended up setting a couple of bones for both Bucky and Steve, though their healing would have to take care of the rest. Little by little, Tony watched as his teammates were taken care of, the doctors busily working around all of them as they switched tasks smoothly.
Perhaps, for situations like these, he should see if there was any more trustworthy personnel that could work on the Avengers? They were enough after regular missions, but now even the less human members of their team needed extensive treatment.
Still, he was sure they were in good hands.
Abandoning them to the care of the doctors, Tony headed off to his workshop. Once the door closed behind him, JARVIS immediately spoke up. “Sir…”
“I know.”
Now that he didn’t have the others to worry about worrying, he didn’t bother putting in effort to keep the strain from his voice. Instead, he stumbled over to the corner he’d designed for when taking the armor off on his own was either too much or simply impossible.
“I would advise you to see a doctor, Sir,” JARVIS informed him as he went to work gently removing the armor.
“They’re busy with the others,” Tony dismissed him. “Not to mention that, even if my ribs are bruised or broken, there’s not a lot to do except take pain medication and cooling it.”
“They would be able to tell if anything was displaced, however. Not to mention there appear to be some other injuries as well that should be checked out, including but not limited to a possible fracture in your left arm and a sprained or broken right ankle.” JARVIS was matter-of-fact about it, and Tony knew he was right. He didn’t think anything was too bad, but without a scan, there was simply no way of being certain.
Still, he shook his head. “I’ll just take it easy for now. They’ve got the others to worry about. I’ll go see them later.”
It was obvious JARVIS disapproved, but rather than push it, he simply guided DUM-E to support Tony for a quick toilet visit before moving over to the couch. Then, he encouraged the ‘bot to grab some cold packs for the injured areas, as well as some bottled water. Tony was grateful for it, resolving to do something nice for his creations when he was feeling better.
One advantage of the suit was certainly that it tended to keep his bones in place, meaning he wasn’t too worried about anything starting to heal wrong. Especially in the few hours it would take for the doctors to take the best care of the others.
He dozed off a few times, but only slightly. The pain made it impossible to truly relax, and every breath hurt just enough to keep him awake despite his exhaustion.
“Sir, the doctors are done with taking care of the others,” JARVIS alerted him.
As he started to get up, he found that he simply… couldn’t. The exhaustion and pain made it so he could hardly even move his mostly uninjured right arm, let alone the rest of his body. So rather than getting up like he knew he should, he just remained where he was.
“Sir?”
He wasn’t too sure what to say. ‘I can’t move’ was incredibly embarrassing, but he’d also sort of promised to go see the doctors once they were free. “I… think my body might be a bit done with today?” he settled for, grimacing a little at how silly that sounded. “I’m trying, but…”
Before he could get too worried, or doze off again - it was honestly a toss-up at the moment - JARVIS announced he had a visitor. “Sergeant Barnes is at the workshop door, Sir.”
Frowning in confusion, Tony couldn’t help but let out a surprised “why?”.
“From what I can gather, he appeared concerned for you upon noticing you weren’t in the medical wing with everyone else. He then asked me if you were on your floor or in the workshop, and I informed him the latter was the case.”
Part of Tony was embarrassed to be seen like this, but another part of him was honestly warmed that Bucky had actually worried about him. It was that part that won out, nodding to JARVIS for permission to let the supersoldier in.
Of course, he regretted it almost immediately when Bucky frowned with concern, sharp eyes noting the multitude of cold packs that DUM-E had kept regularly taking off and reapplying.
“How hurt are you?” was the first question he asked, moving straight past worrying and into caring.
“I was going to see the doctors after they were done with all of you,” Tony justified himself.
At that, Bucky’s eyes softened just a little. “Not blaming you - your body, your choice. Not gonna pretend I like it, but you do what you think is best. Just worried about you.” He stepped closer, giving DUM-E a pat on his claw as the ‘bot came to say hello. “Docs are done with us though - nothing left to do but wait for everything to heal now. Steve and Thor are keeping an eye on the others for now, since we’re mostly healed already.”
His face felt like it was burning up, though he wasn’t sure if it was exhaustion or embarrassment. “I… can’t move,” he admitted, and yeah, it was humiliation.
Despite the way worry sharpened his eyes, Bucky remained gentle and respectful. “Do you… I mean, are you okay with me helping you over there? Or is there anything else I can do?”
And yes, he was incredibly embarrassed. Ever since he’d been young, he’d been taught that needing help was weak, and that he should be able to do things on his own no matter what. But even though there was nothing he could do at the moment, even though his body didn’t even listen to him, Bucky did. Rather than let his concern take over, he asked Tony what he wanted, and there was no doubt in his mind that Bucky would respect his decision even if he decided to just keep sitting there.
It was that respect that enabled him to overcome his embarrassment enough to nod just a little. “I… If you could? Support me?”
He didn’t think he’d be able to handle Bucky carrying him, no matter how much that might be the wiser option for his ribs. And rather than argue, Bucky just nodded, gently helping him off the couch and supporting him as much as possible while still allowing him to stand on his own.
If he had to pinpoint it, that was the moment that started to transform his basic attraction into more.
Whumptober: It’s A Trap! (No Duh, Genius)
Raphael turned on his heel and stormed out of the room, slamming the shoji behind him. He needed out, out of the room, out of the lair, out of the sewers. It was too small and it suffocated him with his own wrath. The surface was open. There, he would be able to breathe freely, and then come back and apologize when he was ready.
No. He wasn't going to apologize. If anything, he deserved an apology. Leonardo couldn't stop breathing down his neck for two minutes, so really, Raphael had every right in the world to turn on his control freak older brother.
He'd come back when he was ready, and Leonardo would apologize eventually.
Ick, how in the world did they ignore the smell of the sewers? At the moment, it drove Raphael crazy, making him kick the ladder in front of him in frustration before he climbed up. Maybe he was just sensitive at the moment, since he could ignore it at any other time of the day. As he slid out of the sewers and closed the manhole behind him, he took a deep breath to try and soothe his nerves like he had seen the others do so many times before. No such luck, of course. He wasn't called "The Hothead" for nothing.
A familiar sound called to him, something that sounded painfully close to a Star Wars blaster. He knew that sound, knew it made trouble, and went to it with a grin. Mindless violence was good for calming down.
As Raphael approached the small building it was coming from, the sound stopped and magenta lights faded, which only fed his curiosity. Why had they stopped? Had one of the sides won already? He stepped in cautiously, and promptly nearly tripped over the corpse of a metal Kraang body. Looking around, he noted that it almost looked like a normal store you would find around that you had to already know about to find, if you ignored the hollow robot shells strewn across the floor and the gaping hole in the wall. The bodies earned a small frown from Raphael as he picked his way over to the hole. Dang, had he missed all the fun in the few seconds it took to get over here?
Shaking his head, he peered into the crater in the wall first, then noted the staircase and went down slowly. At first, it was dark, but it got brighter the further he went. When he hit the bottom, it actually looked more like something that the Kraang would have built, all chrome and bright purple lining the walls. For a brief moment, he wondered if they had any other designs to use for their bases before he realized that perhaps now wasn't the best time to wonder about that.
Man, this place was weird. No matter where he went, it was completely empty, but clearly built to house people while planning and experiments went on. Raphael, confused, continued to wander around the abandoned base until he stumbled upon more bodies.
Lots and lots of bodies.
Raphael shivered and shifted his weight from side to side. It was probably a good time to leave, since it didn't look like anyone was home, and it felt almost like the apocalypse had happened down there.
But, stronger than his fear was a deep want to find out what was going on. If they were all gone, they were gone for a reason and so help him, he was going to find it.
The fear grew as he kept going. Kraang equipment faded away, scorched and torn up, into an almost normal basement. Or at least, it looked normal, the lighting was extremely dim over there.
Maybe he should call the others, or just completely leave and never speak of it again. It would be nice to just back out while he still had the chance or have company to die with (if he was going to die at all), but something kept pulling him forward. Well, curiosity killed the cat, they always said.
Under one footstep, part of the floor slid down and clicked.
Nothing… Happened?
Well, that was-
Nevermind, wind rushed past Raphael's ears as the floor dropped out from underneath him, and he had to turn his shell to the floor at the last second as an attempt to protect himself.
Freaking ow.
He was certain that if he didn't have a shell, his spine would be dust at that point.
Raphael rolled to his feet with a groan and squinted into the darkness, trying to make out his situation. From the looks of it, he was stuck. The towering walls were smooth, too smooth to climb or get any kind of good grip on, and he hadn't been expecting a mission, so he didn't have any kind of equipment on him that might be helpful.
Dim lighting turned to pitch black darkness as the trap door closed above him, rendering him sightless. Great, could the situation get any worse?
...Apparently so.
There were a few rumbles around him, followed by a loud whoosh that seemed to go on into eternity and the sound of something splattering.
He hoped it wasn't blood, spinning around and focusing on using his tremorsense to find one of the sources. Taking hesitant steps forward, Raphael reached out to where he assumed the sound was coming from, and felt something cold and wet. Almost immediately, he ripped his hand away, startled by the feel of it on his hand. He paused, then raised his hand and gave it a sniff to find out what it was. He couldn't really smell anything and, although tempted to lick it to find out, wiped it off on his belt.
After a few minutes, though, it was pooling around his ankles and rising higher by the second. It was water, he realized. He was going to drown. Panic was the first thing that rose up, fighting to be first in his kaleidoscope of emotions, but he quickly shoved it back down with the thought that it would be alright. He was a turtle mutant, he could swim well and hold his breath for a long time, it would be alright.
...Right?
As the water rose higher, a heavy current took him off his feet. Raphael sank for a second, thrashing, then floated back to the top and found out very quickly that he already couldn’t touch the bottom. It was fine. Everything was fine. He just needed to figure something out real quick.
There was no time to think and plan. By the time he had half an idea together, his head was bumping the ceiling. Soon, he would be submerged.
Raphael saw no point in fighting it, lifting his head as high as he could and taking a deep breath right before he was submerged. Now, with no way to get back to air, he took the time to swim around and try to find an exit. He tried going through where the water was coming from, but the current was too strong, blasting him back and slamming him against the wall. There really was no way out of the trap he got himself into.
At that point, he couldn’t panic when his air finally started to run out and he started to fade. Instead, he welcomed it with open arms, because it was a heck of a lot better than trying to stay awake in a place he couldn’t even get out of.
Light came only after he closed his eyes and accepted the water.
%%%
Raphael frowned when he woke up to grey walls and an oxygen mask on his face. It wasn't that he wasn't relieved about being alive, it was more a nagging worry about how he got where he was. As he shifted around to get comfortable, he ended up realizing he was in a hospital bed. More importantly, somebody was holding his hand.
His gaze drifted to the right, where Leonardo- Gosh darn Leonardo- was sitting on a fold out chair. His hold on Raphael's hand was loose, as he was leaning forward and mostly asleep, but it was probably a death grip sometime before that.
The hothead swallowed down the bitterness that threatened to rear its ugly head, and greeted Leonardo softly, half hoping he wouldn't wake up, "Hey."
Of course, with their Turtle Luck, Leonardo's eyes snapped open as he shot up, blinking sleep out of blurry eyes before he looked at Raphael owlishly. "Oh, hey. How're you feeling?"
"Good," He was not good. His throat hurt and it felt like there was still water in his lungs. He was choking and suffocating and angry, but nothing else would come out of his mouth, the lie rolling off his tongue smoothly.
"I cannot believe," Leonardo mused, hopefully missing Raphael's discomfort, "that you woke up seconds after I wrestled Don to sleep."
As much as he wanted to stay upset, the younger's face relaxed as a short, rasping laugh escaped him, "It's just a habit of ours, I guess."
Leonardo smiled, but it soon faded, leaving him to toy with Raphael's hand as he spoke, words now very serious, "What happened out there? More accurately, what were you thinking?"
And there it was again. The whole reason he left in the first place. Raphael couldn't stop the new wave of anger that rushed in, but he could keep control of his big mouth for at least a minute, "I don't know. I just kept moving, I didn't want someone to die because of some hesitation."
"You could have called me!" Leonardo blurted out, then flinched, and Raphael couldn't help the satisfaction that followed, "Or Donnie, or even Mikey, or April or Casey or literally anyone for backup. You're so lucky that Donnie tracks us and that we found you when we did-"
"I'm sorry, backtrack just a second. He what?" Had he misheard his older brother? There was no way.
"Well," Leonardo began with a little smirk, "Neither of us are supposed to know, so don't say anything about it."
So he had heard the other right. "I- Okay?" He still had to agree, even if he didn't entirely know what he was agreeing to, nor what agreeing to it would start.
The oldest grinned for just a second before going serious again. That was a bad habit they would definitely need to break. "Okay but, seriously, if you find something like that, please call for a partner or backup, something in case anything like that happens again. If you had stayed under longer, you could've drowned."
Darn Leonardo and his magic ability to make anyone guilty, even without realizing it. Raphael sighed softly and resigned himself to his fate, "Sorry."
"It's fine, I'm just worrying," Leonardo quickly reassured.
The two settled into silence after that for a long moment, each doing their own thing, before Raphael spoke up, "So," he began with a mischievous grin, "About those trackers?"
seeing double / working to exhaustion / you look awful (sometimes I get so tired, I don’t even know myself)
Jet blinked and peered blearily at the screen that was dancing in front of his eyes. It was difficult to make out the text or the image simply because he was seeing double. He was exhausted, no, he was well beyond exhausted.
But he couldn't go home to sleep.
Home was empty.
Reminders of the life he'd once shared with Alisa surrounded him there. Memories they'd made in the tiny apartment by the sea. Hell, the place still smelled like her favorite perfume and the kitchen had a zing of the spice he'd put on the last dinner that he'd made for her before she up and disappeared.
Well, that wasn't precisely true. She hadn't vanished... she'd left.
And despite his connections, despite his sleuthing skills, he refused to track her down. What good would it do to hound her? If you love something, you have to let it go, right? It'll come back on its own if it wants to. Stalking someone you proclaim affection for... that would be the antithesis of love.
Besides, he'd made a deal with himself. Had left a window of opportunity wide open for her to return. The pocket watch ticking away in his pocket was the reassuring reminder of that.
Tick, tick, tick...
He jerked abruptly as his chin hit his chest. Working himself to exhaustion wasn't exactly the best course of action in the aftermath of a breakup but at least it gave him something to focus on. Maybe he'd been too focused on the job to begin with? Was that why she left? A moot point now if so... besides, he was getting so close with this case. Corner a few more rats, hear a few more confessions, and he thought he might just have the answer he was looking for.
Europa had a huge problem with syndicates. It was the type of problem that bled over into nearby moons and sure enough it had begun to rear its diabolical head here on Ganymede in the past few years. Of course it had, the moons were all in varying states of depression or recession or population loss in the wake of the Titan War. And still there were murmurings that another war seemed inevitable.
He idly wondered if Ganymede might be smart enough to stay out of it this time. Was there even a choice?
He was just a cop, though. If the military wanted to go cause a ruckus elsewhere in the galaxy... well, good for them. Or, fuck 'em. It didn't matter a whit to Jet.
If the war was brought here to his doorstep, that was another story. So the potential war? Not his concern. The strengthening syndicate presence here on Ganymede took priority. There'd been an influx of drugs and criminals. Suddenly people were getting nervous about being out at night. There were neighborhoods that were no longer full of happy families but instead were full of abandoned houses and illegal activities.
Investigating one of the docks was actually the goal for the evening. Even if nothing panned out from this, it felt good to have a purpose.
A Styrofoam cup bearing steaming coffee was sat down on his desk, a few drops sloshing over onto Fad's hand before he could pull it away quick enough. The other man hissed in pain and shook out the hand, shaking off the scalding drops. Jet's eyes traveled over his partner and he wondered briefly if he looked as bad. They'd been pulling such long hours lately...
"Thanks. You look awful," he said gruffly to his partner.
Fad looked down at him with tired eyes but Jet wasn't sure if the other man even saw him. He had that look, what was it called? A thousand yard stare?
"Sometimes... I get so tired... I don't even know myself." Fad muttered, half to himself. He blew out a deep breath and rolled his neck before taking a sip of his own hot coffee and hissing again at the temperature as it hit his tongue. He gave Jet a rueful grin. "You might've thanked me too soon for the coffee, Jet. It wasn't the dregs this time, but piss water might be better tasting."
Jet huffed a short laugh. "If it keeps us upright and moving forward... well, then it's doing its job."
Fad closed his eyes for a moment and nodded sharply as if to wake himself up. "Speaking of that. You ready?"
Climbing to his feet, Jet nodded. "Crime waits for no one. Let's hit it." Grabbing the cup, accidentally splashing some of the dark liquid onto his left hand as he used his right to grab his gun holster out of the drawer it was in, he winced at the heat. 'Tis but a scratch! He thought to himself absently, a bit of dark humor at the unexpected yet insignificant pain. The Black Knight was one of his favorite parts of that old Earth sketch comedy. Something about the way the man never wavered in his pursuit of ...well, guarding a bridge for no discernable reason like a madman, but moreover his determination, how he never gave up... it really spoke to Jet. The man was like him. After all, when the Black Dog bites, he never lets go.
He finished his coffee as he followed Fad out the door.