Undying Love (Honkai Star Rail: Dan Heng x Fem! OC)

Chap. Six: Home

A hand firmly grasped mine and yanked me away from the thing under me, my back falling against a firm, warm chest, an arm wrapping around my waist to steady me. Before I could automatically attack whoever the hell had stopped me, a familiar voice gave me pause.

"Seems like I made it in time" Dan Heng sighed as I looked up at him, a purely confused expression on my face.

"Dan Heng! What the heck are you doing here?" March exclaimed, her eyes wide as she tried to comprehend where he came from.

"Himeko was worried because you two weren't back yet, so she sent me to find you. What's going on?" he asked, releasing my hand but keeping his arm firmly around me.

"I dunno... This guy suddenly called out to Mirage, but she seemed super uncomfortable so I tried to chase him away. When he tried to shove me, she... well, you can see for yourself," March said, pointing towards the incapacitated man on the ground.

"Seeing isn't enough to fully comprehend the situation. Who is he?" he asked me as he finally let me go.

Wrapping my left arm around my torso, I pointed my middle finger at the man on the ground, letting my actions do all the talking.

"Someone you hate, then. Even so, you must have a really good reason to do this, or else I'll have no choice but to see you as unreasonably violent and a threat to the rest of the crew," Dan Heng stated gravely, staring at me with steady eyes as I side-eyed him back.

A good reason?

I didn't even have a reason.

I just didn't want to hear his pathetic cries anymore.

Judging that wanting there to be peace and quiet wasn't a good enough reason to satisfy the Express Guard, I racked my brain for any other possible thing that could justify my want for his death. Come on, you've read enough novels to have a faint idea of what people tend to accept, I prompted myself as I reluctantly dug out my phone.

Mirage

[He took advantage of me before throwing me
off a cliff.]

Good enough, ignoring the fact that I didn't actually care that much about the second half of the text.

After sending the text, I peeked over the edge of the screen as I waited to see if I had chosen the right thing to say.

Judging by the murderous look on his face, I did.

A visible vein popped up on his forehead as he seemed to physically restrain himself from punching something, stiffly tucking his phone back into his back pocket. "...Let's just go. It's not worth wasting any more of our time here," he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Huh? We're... just going to leave him there?" March asked, glancing towards the man. "Shouldn't we... I dunno... bring him to the local authorities or the hospital or something?"

The first thing you think of when you see how much I beat him up... is to bring him to the authorities? Wouldn't that be the opposite?

"Someone will do something. It'd be best for us to leave before they turn to us for questioning," Dan Heng said dismissively.

"If you say so!" March shrugged, gingerly stepping around the man to stand beside the two of us. She looped my arm in hers as she shot me a reassuring smile, and I blinked. She was a very... affectionate person. Despite the natural chill of her pale skin, I could somehow feel a strange warmth spread throughout my body.

An unfamiliar sensation.

Slowly, tentatively, I gave her a small smile back, and hers grew even wider.

Why did that make me feel... like I wanted to make her smile even more?.

"W-wait! You're just going to leave me here without even speaking a word? What did I do to you... Come on, we're practically family! You love me!" the man called out in a pleading tone, shaking me out of my thoughts, snot and tears mixing the dirt under his face into mud as he strained to look up at me.

I looked down at him with a disgusted impression. Why couldn't he understand how close he was to dying? What in the hell made him so desperate to keep me here? Getting tired of putting away and pulling out my phone at that point, I typed a quick message on my phone and knelt down to shove it into his face. March knelt next to me, shooting a dirty look at the man as she kept her arm wrapped firmly around mine.

[I know that you were the one who pushed me. Let's just go our separate ways. Stop embarrassing yourself.]

"Wha...t...? Even now, you refuse to speak to me? How the hell would you know who had stabbed you if you were looking awa-" he demanded, then choked as he realized his second mistake.

I had never mentioned being stabbed.

I snorted in derision as he fumbled to correct his error. He's even worse than a rookie. I'll give him three days, tops, before he gets himself killed. I hefted myself to my feet, helping March up as well.

Mercenaries from my former company were beginning to swarm around us, the only reason why they weren't descending on the man groveling on the floor like a pack of vultures being my presence in the vicinity. Once I left, the man would be stripped bare and left to fend for himself. The strong rule the weak, and the only reason why he didn't fall prey to that rule was me.

Not anymore.

"No! Stop! Stop right there! You ungrateful little whore, I'm the only person who can possibly accept you! You're an undying demon who doesn't even think twice about killing, and I'm the only one who has your leash. Those random people will throw you away soon enough, and you'll come crying to me. Cut the crap and save us all some time!" he shrieked, spittle flying from his mouth as his face twisted in deranged anger, the curses exiting his cesspit of a mouth nothing I hadn't heard a dozen times over in the span of a day.

I blinked, nonetheless a little surprised. It only took this much for him to break character? It usually took a few hours for Garnet to break during interrogation training, and she's 12.

"Stop fucking ignoring me, you little bitc-"

Thud!

Crunch!

My eyebrows twitched in mild amusement as Dan Heng's foot connected with the man's face at the same time as March's smaller foot connected with a... much lower region.

Should that second sound mildly concern me?

"Aaaaah, now I'm really mad! I don't know who you are, mister, but you're no friend of hers! If you were, you wouldn't say those horrible things!" March huffed as his body rolled a few feet away, his long shriek of pain music to my ears. Dan Heng merely turned away from the man, placing a gentle hand on the small of my back as he began to guide me away.

"Let's just go home," he sighed, lethargy lacing his light rasp as he rubbed the back of his neck with his other hand.

Home.

I'd only been there for a single day... but...

"Home" seemed like a nice word.