Dead Reckoning - A Gregorio del Pilar x Reader story

Bonus Chapter: Winter's Song

A/N: In celebration of DEAD RECKONING's first year anniversary, allow me to present to you my appreciation for the love that you've given this story. I hope that I am yet to disappoint you, and will continue to support me even with my other stories. (Yes. Kapalan ko na mukha kong i-promote ulit ang FLIGHT PLAN.) Anyway, thank you for reading DR, and once again, happy anniversary for DR's completion and happy second anniversary for my first solo. An airplane emoji to comment will be enough to make my day! ✈ The A/N below is my additional ramblings.

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DEDICATED TO ALL OF YOU!

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SUMMARY: Goyo believed that he was like the burning flame during the winter. However, he realized he wasn't, and he didn't mind: for the true fire was the most beautiful. And there were five times he almost burn being drawn to that light.

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It was the first day of 1897 and Goyo felt like there were too many things yet to be done. There were too many things to look out for, too many plans to settle, too many people to protect, and too many dead to bury. He swallowed hard at that, remembered once again that he wasn't just a survivor, but one bearing some guilt that there had been those he knew who were now dead. And the last thing on his list was to deal with a Pendejo.

"Siya nga pala, Goyo, si (Y/N). Isa sa mga bagong kasapi ng Krus Roja," one of his friends, Isidro, introduced to him with a smile.

He couldn't stop frowning despite how his head injury only made the pain worse; he almost snapped telling Isidro that he has no time dealing with women now. Even though they were members of the Krus Roja. When he turned to the young woman next to Isidro, his frown dissipated. His anger and exhastion suddenly replaced by something else. He suddenly became curious and perplexed by her presence, and he hated not being able to pinpoint what was that thing that dubbed her as completely different from all others. In the end, all he managed to say was: "May kakaiba sa iyo."

Yes, she was definitely a strange person. Not just as a woman, or because she appeared young, or because she was new. But it was very much more visible within her aura. Something about her troubled him. It was because he couldn't pinpoint what it was about that surely had stemmed his cold treatment to her despite her supposed to be helping hand.

That's also something that had truly captivated him. Like a moth drawn to the flame, he wanted to know her.

However, after witnessing the aftereffects of what could've happened to the people who became attached to him... the friends and comrades they've lost, the people who even at the slightest he had made contact to and formed acquaintances... he couldn't think of a way to avoid leading himself to a bottomless pit.

Isa lamang siya sa mga taong makikilala ko at lilipas lang din, he thought as he walked away after telling her that she was useless. Walang halaga ang makipagkaibigan pa sa panahon ngayon.

He didn't thought that even if he tried to move forward on his own, avoiding her at the behest of his capabilities, the flame will always be there to try luring him close.

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The revolutionary movement ceded to the Americans on its fight to Spain, and with that, he was offered a chance to come along with the rest of Aguinaldo's men to Hong Kong. A country beyond the seas, somewhere all different from the Philippines. A foreign place that will serve as their haven and cage for who knows how long.