Far Cry 5 One-Shot Collection

John x Reader: "They were getting in the way of your happiness..."

2. "They were getting in the way of your happiness! And I can't allow that."

- - -

There's a heavy silence that blankets the scene, smothers it like a pillow pressed oppressively to a person's face. Cuts off all breath, all hope of reasonable thought as diluted instincts rear up with the screeching whinny of a panicked beast. The urge to flee such an aggressive thought that the mind lags and stutters and holds onto it for far longer than is wise; overthinking a dangerous pastime when the crawl of time provokes the draw of danger.

Ensnared in that cloying grip you choke, lost and adrift, being tugged in different directions of thought that leave you vibrating in the worst way possible. Unable to see anything other than the visual that will forever stain your once innocent eyes, you don't see the way the only other living person in the room turns to you, don't register the way they gasp your name in a tone of dreaded elation. So buried beneath your own whirling thoughts, incomprehensive and elusive, you hardly feel the way they grab you, turn and shield you with a wall of familiar blue taking up your vision; but only in the way that it glazes the dark scene painted onto your retinas with a tinted frost.

You flinch violently at the feeling of something touching your cheek, a terrified whimper spilling free as the world snaps back into focus. Finally registering the man in front of you, concerned azure eyes meeting your own, you physically shrink under their openness. Attempt to retreat with a step back as the tears fall, caught by a mockery of a caring touch as his thumb swipes the moisture from your cheeks, barred in by his free hand, wrapped around your waist as it holds you protectively against his chest.

"Shh, it's okay, my dear," he murmurs soothingly, "it's alright, you're alright. I've got you, sweet thing. Shh, there's no need to be so scared. You're safe with me. They asked for it."

There is a harshness within his last words that makes you tense, that makes you shakily reach forward to grab at the hem of his waistcoat. You're not too sure what you're doing with such an act, especially after all of this, but regardless John appears to soften at the silent gesture. His hold on you loosening just a bit as he lays a gentle kiss to your forehead, uttering quiet reassurances against your skin that you feel with every brush of his lips.

Gratefully, John is able to ease you away from the treacherous labyrinth of your thoughts. Calm you enough so that your breath doesn't catch as aggressively within your lungs as it did a moment ago, only hitches on every odd breath as you breathe him in; something woody with the faintest twang of iron, musky and so distinctly John. But with the calm comes the cohesion, the caging clarity, and with that a deceptively simple question; the only one you have the strength and courage to ask--

"Why?"

Internally you cringe at how fragile you sound, as if you were one wrong word away from falling apart. The brief thought that John would be there to catch you when you did was terribly bittersweet.

"Because they were holding you back," he answers easily, an impassioned fire in his words. "Because that filth was not worthy of you, of your care or even your 'friendship'. They didn't appreciate you and what you've done for them. And, perhaps most egregiously, they were getting in the way of your happiness! In the way of us; and I can't allow that. I couldn't allow that."

His hold on you tightens, constricts your breath into a small and unintentional stutter. Your words are hesitant as you say, "but, they were-- you didn't have to... you didn't have to do that to them..."

"That was a mercy, dearling." Running his hand through your hair he carefully tucks you into the crook of his neck, the ocean of his eyes dark with the hunger of an unsatisfied sin. "It may have taken some... gentle persuasion, but they agreed to go through the Atonement all the same; regardless of how sudden and unorthodox it was. It's hardly my fault if they couldn't handle the weight of it..."