FANDANO || Dano Characters x Reader Imagines

⛪ | You're holy to me.

Warnings: religious,
Content type: Fluff, angst(?), unedited
Pairing: Eli Sunday x fem reader
Relationship: Husband + wife

My husband Eli had shut down for a little while, ever since the discussion he had come home from. Daniel had battered him with a bowling pin, and it left Eli with an injury, hair matted to the side of his head with blood and eyes now dull and lacking life. He looked hopeless, and I wasn't sure why.

That was a few days ago, and though the wound was patched, his eyes remained dull.

I was already dressed for bed, and he was pacing in his suit, the side of his head still patched up as his hands were folded neatly in front of him. He wasn't wearing his waistcoat anymore, and he kept checking to make sure his suspenders wouldn't fail him at some point. He couldn't afford the embarrassment in front of me, for some reason. His wife.

"Eli." I spoke his name, waiting for him to turn his head to look at me, but he never did, keeping to his pacing and mumbling under his breath. I heard what I thought was a prayer, followed by a few obscenities. 

"Eli, my love," I speak again, sliding off of the bed and trying to get his attention. "Stop pacing."

"No." He replied bluntly, face reddening ever so slightly as he flexed his hands, turning them into white knuckled fists as the joints made a little popping noise.

"Would you like a kiss?" I offer, to which he stopped in his tracks and furrowed his brow before sighing.

"Yes. I would."

"Come here." I tell him, watching as he walks back over to me as I sit by the foot of the bed. He kneels in front of me, and I take his face in my hands and give him a quick kiss. He closes his eyes for the duration of it, extending it for a few moments after I pull away.

"What's wrong?"

"Everything."

"That's not true." I reply, brushing some hair that had come loose behind his ear before smoothing my thumbs over his cheeks.

"We are coming into troubles with money. Plainview gets away with nearly killing me. I keep having a ringing in my ear, and god is more quiet than he ever has been." Eli sounds angry. "I don't hear him like I used to."

His fingers dig into the fabric of my nightgown, bunching up the linen as he lays his head in my lap and sighs.

"I am a sinner. I have done things— thought things I shouldn't." He sighs. I don't press, allowing him to simply unravel his own words of his own free volition. "I have thought lustful things. For you of course, I know we're married but they... And I am a horrible wrathful man. I'm pitiful."

I just stroke his hair with one hand, the other carefully holding his cheek, making sure my fingers don't get too close to the bandage.

We sit there in silence for a moment, before he speaks again.

"Do you know what Daniel Plainview said to me?" He asks, sitting up and pulling away from my hands and standing to his feet, looking down at me.

"Eli, you cannot trust Mister Plainview, he's an aw-" I begin to speak, but my husband quickly snaps.

"Do you know what he said to me!?" He shouts, huffing. Once he's one hundred perfect sure I'm actually paying attention to him, he speaks again. He uses a familiar voice, an angry hiss of a voice. "He told me I was the afterbirth that slithered out of my mother's womb."

"He said Paul was God's chosen, not me." He hisses, clawing at the air like he's doing some kind of personal one on one sermon to me.

"That's not true, Eli."

"I am Unholy! I am a terrible unholy man!" He yells, before wincing and lifting a hand to hover over the bandage on the side of his head. The shouting had tensed up the muscles in his face and that felt like something was pressing on his injury and trying to pull it open again, only slightly.

"God allowed me to be struck down, beaten by the filth that is Daniel Plainview." He announces, choking out his rival's name like it was a curse word. "Maybe I really am no better than him."

"Eli-"

"Shut. Up!" He hisses. I just stand and walk up to him, watching as his body tenses and his hands ball up into fists. I wrap my arms around him, bringing one of my hand to the back of his head to comb my nails through his hair.

He wraps his arms around me, exhaling sharply.

"I'm unholy, I'm not the preacher I should be."

"You're not unholy."

"Why would I be wounded this way if-"

"God's plan? You're still alive now, aren't you?" I answer before he finished talking, an interruption that would usually make him upset but he pauses and sighs, crumpling down on me as his arms squeeze tighter around my shoulders. We wind up on the floor, his head buried into my shoulder. It's not comfortable, but I don't notice. All I can think about is that he's holding me.

He smells like the church does. Like incense and cologne. He bites at his lower lip before choking out something I'm unable to understand.

"Speak more clearly, dear, I don't understand." I say softly, fingers tracing patterns into the back of his neck. I feel his nose press into the side of my neck and he sighs, a small cry.

"I love you." He whimpers, hands squeezing my shoulders, arms wrapped around my body.

"I love you too." I reply, whispering the words to him. I continue on, murmuring a few sweet things to him until he stops crying, still sniffling.

"You're not unholy, Eli."

"No."

"And if you are," I continue, but he tries to interrupt.

"I am."

"If you are unholy," I say, "Then you'll always be holy to me."

A small moment of silence passes as he processes the information and thinks of what to say. His voice comes out soft, desperate, like he needs this.

"Say it again, please?" He asks of me. I've never seen him so vulnerable. I've seen him cry before, he's the type of man to cry. Sometimes he does it to get what he wants, but I'm usually able to see through it. I don't mind it, really.

I give him a kiss on his lips, feeling the salt that had managed to trickle from his eyes to his mouth. I held his face again, smiling gently as I speak to him;

"You're holy to me."

———————————
Author's Note

This was short, but I think it was cute anyway! I hope you liked it. Usually, I like to write 2.5k+ words, but this came around at about 1k.

Eli Sunday is such a whiny little bitch, but he's one of my favourite Dano characters, so I figured he'd be a great start for 'FANDANO'!

I'm so good at puns, please praise my cleverness /j

- IJ

Requests here!