Aftermath Series ~ Exit Wounds
A/N: Spoilers warning for ACC#9
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Exit Wounds
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“So I was thinking we could maybe go out for a movie later, you wanna?”
Billy trips, the convenience store bag on his arm swinging dangerously, but Teddy’s hand is quick to grasp his arm and keep him from nosediving.
“Woah, that would have been bad news for the eggs,” Teddy offers a gentle smile as they pause on the sidewalk.
Billy checks the bag with a nervous twitch- no signs of a wet oozing mess. He says nothing, turning to continue on their way home. Teddy frowns, lips twisting into a purse before he catches up.
“I, uh, overheard people talking about one in Lit class. It’s supposed to be funny as hell … “
Billy strolls beside him silently, eyes trained on the ground, bag swinging slowly at his side. Teddy reaches for his hand, weaving their fingers together loosely.
“Bee?”
“Huh?”
He blinks a few times, the fog clearing from his eyes as he looks up, but the sadness remains.
“Billy …”
Dark brows wrinkle as Teddy stops them once more. Billy’s eyes shift back to the pavement, shoulders hunching. He would have tugged his hand free of his grasp, if Teddy allowed it- but he held firm.
“We don’t have to see the movie if you don’t want to, Bee. I just thought a distraction might be, you know … helpful … “
Tired eyes meet his, dark, and bruised from lack of proper sleep. The lines around Billy’s face are too pronounced for someone so young. Teddy runs his knuckles along the side of a cheek starting to grow rough with stubble, and the forlorn pinch of Billy’s face gentles for a precious instant as he leans into the warm touch.
“Maybe …” Billy concedes and-
A woman screams.
They whip around in unison, instinct making them move towards the sound of a scuffle just yards from them, where a man in a black mask is backing a young frightened couple into the opening of an alley.
Teddy’s growl comes from somewhere deep in his chest, his clothes tightening and his skin stretching, “HEY-”
He rushes forward, only to pull up short. A small hand tightens hard on his as he turns bewildered.
“Bee-”
Billy shakes his head, eyes bright and glassy. The streetlight makes him look pale as a ghost, makes the shadow on his chin look old and dark, makes the fine tremors running through his frame all the more evident as he stares fixed in something like terror and hope at the alley, yet his feet remain stuck to the pavement.
Teddy hears a curse, looking back at the alley when masked mugger realizes he has company. With a shove, he pulls away from the frightened couple, fleeing with the woman’s purse into the dark. The fence at the end of the alley rattles with his weight as he makes his escape over it to disappear into the guts of the city.
With the worst of tragedy evaded, the woman bursts into sobs in her boyfriend’s arms as he ushers them out down the street. He pauses, nodding at Teddy and Billy, where they stood frozen still in the cone of the streetlight. A silent offer of gratitude for their small, futile intervention.
But they don’t deserve that nod. They didn’t do anything. It was dumb luck that they frightened the attacker off; but they let him get away, free to terrorize a new target elsewhere tonight and-
The hand gripping his is a small, clammy, tremulous thing. Teddy shifts back to normal with the danger gone, his hand fitting better around Billy’s.
“Billy?”
The face that lifts up to look at him is … fragile.
Wide brown eyes haunted with repressed emotion, furrowed brow lined with wrinkles that looked decades old, sharp incisors biting into chapped lips, and he had thought …
A week, Tommy had hoped- he had hoped with Tommy- that everything would be alright.
Two months. And still-
“Can … we go home now?”
Nothing.
Billy’s voice shouldn’t ever sound so broken.
Teddy doesn’t know what to say, what to do - to make it right; to make it better.
“Yea … ”
It was a gentle sigh as he kissed Billy’s temple, wrapping an arm around his waist before continuing home. And the way that dark head leaned against his shoulder was too small a comfort, too little reassurance, that any of this would ever be right again.
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Fin
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