It's Understandable: A Tronnor AU

17. Bang, Bang

Gun (noun.)

1. a weapon incorporating a metal tube from which bullets, shells, or other missiles are propelled by explosive force, typically making a characteristic loud, sharp noise.

2. a contraption that gives the holder advantages over other living things, including the heightened ability to kill and the power of causing suffering. 

3. An aid to make murder easier.

Did you notice something about these definitions? Something not quite realistic? In the dictionary, under 'gun,' you wouldn't think to find something so centred towards gun murder. The first one, maybe, but that's because it was copied and pasted from the little definition box that comes up when you Google "gun definition." It is a dictionary definition but, the last two, they are not. They have not been taken from the Oxford dictionary or the various definition sites on the internet; they are Troye's personal definitions, compiled only in the first moments of seeing a flash of metal whipped out from Roger's belt. It was how he saw it.

It was so sudden, unexpected like a change in tone during a risky conversation, one that starts with a cuss word and makes your stomach drop. And it did, make Troye's stomach drop that is, because these kinds of dangerous situations were so beyond the frankly privileged rich-boy. Movie madness, out-of-his-neighbourhood news, tools of suspense in Breaking Bad; that's all guns had ever been to him. Never a concern. So now, with the sudden reality of this weapon, and of potential death, he couldn't feel his legs or lungs. The man hadn't looked murderous when he came inside, only weird and drunk, but now he might as well have been Elmo Blanch from The Shawshank Redemption, and Troye didn't know how to deal. The dark handgun was the first gun he had ever seen in the flesh, and he couldn't breath, couldn't move, could barely think.

But Connor and Cheryl, however scared, refused to show their fear. They felt it, damn did they feel it, but they kept it out of their visible pores and deep inside their minds. Roger was shaking, nearly sweating with the energy put into his rogue gangster's snarl, but this; this was what Cheryl had been warning her kids about since they first stepped foot on the asphalt of this neighbourhood. Shit happens to good people, but it branches from there, because it's the good and smart ones who pull through. Survival means clear-headedness at all times: that's what she always preached. So, even though the man with the gun, his finger hovering over the trigger, looked maniacal, Connor subtly slipped a hand into Troye's to calm him and Cheryl swallowed all her anxiety.

"If you shoot..." She growled in an unnaturally deep voice for her chirpy persona, "...we will all scream for 911 so loud that you won't even have time to run."

Roger squinted, laughed, stumbled to one side, and Troye choked on a yelp as he saw his finger slip along the trigger. But he didn't press it, only smirked as he regained his balance. He swayed the gun back and forth, between strong-stanced Cheryl and now tightly huddled Connor and Troye. "You know you won't do that." The crazy intoxicated man slurred laughingly. "You know I'll shoot all of you."

He moved towards them, but Cheryl held her hands up in defence, and he stopped. "Roger." She said with crazy calm, taking a subtle step towards her son and his boyfriend, protective of the teenagers. "Roger, just go home, get some sleep. You're drunk and you will regret this. "

Redness flickered in Roger's eyes. "You fucking chased off my wife!" He screamed. "I can't trust you! You'll call the cops as soon as I leave!" For a drunk guy, he could put two and two together pretty well.

Troye pretended Connor's hand on his chest was a machine to slow his breathing, because there was obviously no way out of this. If Roger didn't leave, he would shoot, and he obviously wasn't leaving. It all felt hopeless, but good thing they had a resilient woman by their sides. "I promise I won't." Cheryl said firmly. "Go home, leave us alone, and I won't call the cops."