Love Notes In The Kitchen (Gawsten One-Shots)

Don't Look, Understand?

Description: Awsten and Geoff are a normal couple, but Awsten is by no means a normal person. Sometimes, instead of eating dinner together or watching a movie, Geoff plays doctor for his boyfriend- who comes home with wounds from knife fights, bullet grazes, and hand-to-hand combat on a regular basis.

Okay this is a weird one inspired by a dream I had!!

Vigilante!Awsten

1378 Words.

Trigger Warning: Blood.

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The atmosphere feels wrong. It feels like the air inside of a burning house; hard to breathe. It hurts to breathe it. It burns with a smokey intensity that can be felt despite the lack of actual fire. The flames lick at his skin and the smoke clogs his throat. Everything feels foggy and unsure, but all too sharp and real.

Something is happening, Geoff is sure of that. He continues walking toward his apartment door. He feels anxious as he comes closer, but he's still unsure as to exactly what he's anxious about. Everything just feels off. Shifted two inches to the left. One shade darker. Four degrees colder. Maybe his subconscious has picked up on something, and is withholding the information from him.

The doorknob is chilled, and as soon as his fingers touch it, he hears a small pained gasp. The quietest noise breaks through the atmosphere, splitting it wide open like Noah parting the sea, and Geoff knows what's wrong.

He has no way of knowing exactly what's wrong, but he knows that Awsten is in trouble, and that's all he needs to know. The door swings open, and for the first time in his nearly five years of knowing the purple-haired boy, he realizes exactly how real his secrets are.

Awsten is part of a vigilante group in the city, and it's obvious that it's caught up with him. He's sitting in a chair- no, he's tied to a chair. His wrists are bound behind him with rope. His shirt is cut and soaked with blood in multiple places.

Geoff freezes and stares. Their eyes meet, and Awsten's colorful ones go from narrowed- in either pain or defiance- to horrified.

The doorknob hits the wall, and Geoff breaks out of his trance. He looks around the room slowly, freezing again when he comes eye to eye with the barrel of a gun. It stares at him, daring him to speak, double daring him to move.

"Hey! You keep that thing pointed at me! Leave him out of this!" Awsten spits out angrily.

Geoff's eyes snap back to Awsten, and he slowly raises his hands in surrender.

"Geoff, you're gonna be fine, I promise," Awsten breathes, looking desperately at the terrified boy. Geoff nods shakily.

The door slams shut and both boys jump. Geoff can feel the tip of the gun pressed against the back of his head.

"Aws-" Geoff whispers, but he's interrupted by a hand being slapped over his mouth.

"Shut up- go sit against that wall over there," a strange man points to the wall with the TV mounted on it, "and do not move, or I swear I'll kill you both."

Geoff lets out a shuddering breath.

"Do as he says, Gee. It'll be okay," Awsten tries to comfort him. All Geoff can think about is how Awsten is literally tied up and bleeding, yet he is comforting Geoff.

With heavy feet, Geoff shuffles over to the wall and slides down into a sitting position. His eyes never leave Awsten's, even as the man ties his wrists together.

"Now, tell me where you hid the van!" The man demands, putting the gun down and pulling out a knife, stalking toward Awsten.

"For the last time- it wasn't us!" Awsten replies adamantly.

Geoff doesn't know a whole lot about the things Awsten and his vigilante group do, but he knows it's a Robin Hood type of thing. The purple-haired boy prefers to keep Geoff as far out of the loop as possible, because the more he knows, the more danger he's in. Geoff accepts the secrecy, and helps Awsten with what he can- usually tending to his wounds without asking what caused them. It takes a lot of trust- trusting that Awsten is telling the truth and trusting that he'll come home at the end of the day.

"I don't believe you."

With that, the man draws closer to Awsten with the knife.

The odd thing is, Awsten doesn't look afraid. He looks like this is simply a mild inconvenience, and while he would rather not deal with it, he has no problem sitting there, letting this man torture him for information.

He's putting on a mask- trying to seem unbreakable so the man focuses on breaking him instead of turning his attention to Geoff.

Awsten's eyes narrow. He doesn't break eye contact with the man as he calmly says, "Geoff, close your eyes and do not open them. Don't look, understand?"

Geoff closes his eyes. He doesn't hear much as the minutes pass, only Awsten struggling to keep quiet as the man continues to try to force the information out of him.

Suddenly, the knife clatters to the ground, and in sheer panic, Geoff opens his eyes. Tears stream down his face as he watches the man pick up the gun.

"You have one last chance," he says to an even bloodier Awsten.

Awsten is breathing heavily. He shakes his head, staring the man dead in the eye. "I had nothing to do with your missing meth lab on wheels, but if you kill me, you'll never know who took it. I can find out who did and point you in the right direction. If you kill me, I promise you'll never see it again."

The man continues to stare Awsten down over the top of the gun. The purple-haired boy spits blood onto the floor.

Suddenly, there's a noise that comes from the hallway of the apartment building, and Geoff watches as Awsten glances over to the door. The man turns quickly, alerted by Awsten's wondering eyes.

What happens next is so fast that Geoff can barely keep up. While the man is turned away- just for a split second- Awsten's hands come out from behind his back, revealing that the rope binding him to the chair has been broken. He grabs the gun with both hands and points it up toward the ceiling, then knees the man in the crotch. The man instinctually bends over slightly, still struggling for the gun, and Awsten knees him in the stomach. The man bends over even farther, and with a quick yank, Awsten pulls the gun from the man's grasp and flips it around, pointing it at him.

He holds the gun with confidence and stares at the man with narrowed eyes, then bashes the butt of the gun into the man's head. He falls to the ground- unconscious.

Setting the gun down quickly, he runs over to Geoff and unties the shaking boy. Despite Awsten being covered in blood, Geoff hugs him tightly, breathing in his scent.

Awsten fumbles with one hand for his phone- which had been thrown onto the table beside the couch- and dials a number. His other hand soothingly rubs Geoff's back. He places the phone on speaker and kisses the top of Geoff's head.

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Half an hour later, the man is gone, and Awsten's vigilante group is out of the door, leaving Geoff with plenty of medical supplies to stitch Awsten up.

"Y'know, maybe this whole thing you're involved in has gotten a bit too dangerous," Geoff softly muses as he cleans the blood off of Awsten's torso.

"Maybe, but I love what I do. I meant it when I said it was a Robin Hood thing. This was just an odd incident. We really did have nothing to do with that guy's missing van," Awsten replies, wincing as Geoff begins to work with disinfectant.

"Then how did you know there was a meth lab in the van?" Geoff questions, confused.

"Because I know who took it," Awsten laughs, and everything is at peace once more.

There will be more incidents, but as long as they're careful, Awsten will always come home. Geoff knows that.