oh no i dropped my noncon

Chapter 5 - i won't leave you

Payday 2 spoilers.

A full chapter, 7k words. The other chapters were summaries, barring the first one. Still, half of ch. 1 was a concept.

This however, is not.

Chapter 5 is rated Mature.

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Dallas slowly comes back to consciousness, dregs of tiredness sticking to him as he wakes up without any back pain. He absently thinks that it's weird, normally there's at least some soreness in his joints because of his sleeping habits.

He feels as if he awakened from a long dream, one that was more of a nightmare. The Mastermind doesn't quite remember what had happened while he was asleep, but he has a sense of gratitude; recalling it would only bring him torment.

That was one horrific fantasy and he has no desire to return; how in the world did he imagine something like that?

Someone with calloused hands jostles his shoulder in an attempt to get him up, and he bats it away out of reflex. He can smell salt in the air, the sound of waves crashing in the background. A distinctively different voice calls out to him from the ocean ahead, mixing in with gleeful laughter.

"Hey," the person pats the side of his head with a cold hand two times in succession, "wake up, sleeping beauty."

Dazzling marigold light peeks out from under what looks to be an umbrella, hitting him almost square in the face. Dallas squints through the blinding yellowish rays to look up at the person who's speaking, vision refocusing against the stark illumination.

A man with lengthy well-kept hair is staring down at him, an exasperated expression painted onto his features. When he opens his eyes all the way, the other person visibly brightens.

It was Bain, dressed in a modest short sleeve shirt and pants cut just below the knees; befitting of his placid behavior. His eyes are a lighter blue than what the heister was expecting, though he wouldn't have known what he was.

Or, I would have still been heisting if I hadn't retired, he thinks to himself, remembering where he is and what he's doing here.

"You're gonna get a sunburn if you keep lying down on that towel," their navigator offhandedly states with a grin on his face.

"Oh, you shut up." Dallas lifts himself off of said fabric and scoots back to the umbrella behind him. The other huffs, shuffling closer to inspect some random thing he decided to hyperfixate on.

"I'd hate to interrupt your nap, but you seemed like you were tossing and turning. You wanna tell me what that was all about?" the hacker says conversationally, making a good attempt at getting him to open up.

"Eh. I wouldn't say it was worth remembering," he replies in an uninterested tone, brushing off his apprehension. Now wasn't the time to talk about his issues, he wants to enjoy this moment.

Bain gives the retired heister an indescribable look, something like parental concern and that ever present loneliness that seemed to haunt him. It passes just as quickly as it comes.

The rest of the gang are playing their own version of beach volleyball, frantically scrabbling for the ball before it touches the water. Some of them have even divided into factions, throwing each other so that their team wouldn't lose.

Those type of competitive sports could get real ugly in record time. Bodhi especially was being butchered by the others in an attempt to take out the most experienced participant. Then they'll go for Sokol next because he'd pose the biggest threat after the obvious.