02/09/2024
Happy Father's Day! Sorry this was posted over a week, but I hope you enjoy it.
This fic is angsty and has slight mentions of abuse. Feel free to skip over it if you need to.
You scamper across a thin, black piece of wood at the top of the gymnasium. Your father is chasing after you. You groan and grab a rope, hoping to gain some time. Today you are supposed to be on a mission. If your father catches you, its over. No mission.
You find a corner surrounded by wooden pieces, creating a little hiding space. Involuntarily, you find yourself reflecting on your life up to this point. Steve's always been harder on you compared to your siblings. But when they died, it just got worse. He never beats you, but he'll lock you up in a room with minimal food. Sometimes for days and days on end. The worst time is when he calls forth Shadow and leaves you locked in your mind.
Shaking yourself free of your thoughts, you quietly step out of the hidey hole and briefly see the reflective glint of metal pass right next to your head. You feel it touch your hair and hear the accompanying whistle before you see the knife dig itself deep into the wall, right by your head. Heart thumping, you whirl around to find your father standing there. And then you run. Instinct takes over as you blindly race through the gym. Footseps echoing behind you, alerting you to how close behind Steve is. Finally, you make it to the gym's exit and emerge gratefully into the sunlight.
You come out drenched in sweat. You'd managed to stay standing this time. Your father had taken great joy in weakening you to the point of exhaustion. He calls a guard to him and they converse quietly. Steve leaves and the guard drags you away to a dark room, despite your protests and useless struggles. This rooms new. It has one tiny barred window and one large barred door with what appears to be 20, 000 deadbolts. You sit in silence for what feels like hours.
---- Mini Time Skip ----
(24 hours later)
You sit unmoving, facing the door. Waiting. No one comes. The first few cramps of hunger start in your stomach. You ignore them. Faintly you can hear voices, but they're soon drowned out by distant gunfire. Hope flares in your chest as the voices get nearer, Then, gunfire sounds again. Closer. That small piece of hope is instantly exinguished.
You sit there. Numb. Cold. The sounds of fighting disappeared a while ago. No ones come looking for you. You don't know who's out there. If anyone is. Then the door handle turns. The locks hold fast. Someone rams into. The locks snap and fall to the ground. You tense. These aren't your father's men. A brown-haired man steps into the room. "Hello?" He calls softly. "Is anyone there?" He squints and slowly walks in. He takes in the room. You accidentally let out a whimper as your muscles tighten. It's quiet, no louder than a whisper, but he hears it. His head whips around and he looks directly at you. You prepare to run. That's what you're meant to do, what you've been taught, but something stops you. "Hey, are you okay?" He asks softly. Slowly he makes his way to you. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine." You stutter. He comes over and gestures to your weak frame. "Can I carry you?" You nod. Using a metal left arm he picks you up bridal style and carries you to safety.
566 words
A/n: This one was surprisingly a fun one to write. I do like Steve, I was just in a mood to cause chaos when I wrote it, so I pitted the two best friends against each other. That being said, it also took me way to long to actually write it.
