Outside Work We... •[TNN One-shots]•

Last Man Standing •|| WINTUMN + ARRI ||•

Prompt: Winter becomes the last man standing.

[TW:!! MENTIONS OF CHARACTER DEATH !!]
(READ WITH CAUTION!!!)

The argument wasn’t supposed to matter.

It had started over something stupid— some offhand comment Winter had made about responsibility, about acting like an adult. Arri rolled her eyes. "I’m not a child."

Winter frowned. "Then stop acting like one."

That was it. That was all it took. The frustration had been building for weeks— maybe longer. And now it cracked wide open.

"You don’t get to talk to me like that!" Arri snapped, fists clenched. "You’re not my father!"

The room went still.

Winter felt that hit somewhere deep. He wasn’t her father. He never had been. But he always tried to be.

Autumn stepped in then, her voice calm but firm. "That’s enough. Both of you."

But Arri was already grabbing her jacket, shoving past them, heading for the door.

Winter moved to go after her. “We need to stop her.”

Autumn exhaled sharply. “She’ll be fine.”

“Autumn—”

“She can handle herself, Winter.” Her voice was tired, firm. “She has her knife.”

That was supposed to be enough.

But half an hour later, Autumn’s phone rang.

Autumn answered it without thinking, still irritated. "Arri, I swear—"

“Mom.”

Something was wrong. Arri’s voice shaking. Breathless.

“Mom, someone’s following me.”

Autumn felt a chill crawl up her spine. “Where are you?”

“I don’t know— I think I—”

A sickening thud.

The sound of wood meeting flesh. A choked gasp. A scuffle.

The clatter of a phone hitting concrete.

And then— the crunch of it being crushed under a boot.

Silence.

Autumn went cold. Winter was already grabbing the keys.

°•°•°--**--°•°•°

They searched for hours.

Calling her name. Checking alleyways, side streets, anywhere she could have run.

Then— a witness. Shaken. Said they saw a girl dragged into a car.

Dark sedan. Tinted windows. No plates. Gone in seconds.