multifandom one shots

nysm 2 - jula

lula's pov

"the stick," arthur tressler demanded,"dear boy.". and as per what they agreed, dylan's immediate reaction was a firm shake of the head and a solid "no.". they needed to give atlas as much time as possible to switch the fake stick with the real one. what they thought was going to happen was that either arthur or walter would launch into a monologue about how pointless it was to fight them on this and the father-son duo's quickly growing reputation for obnoxiously long monologues would provide sufficient time for the switch. what they hadn't accounted for was the extent to which they were willing to go for the stick. the extent they would go to prove their dedication to getting the stick. that dedication was proven when walter, seemingly unaffected by his response, said "fine.". this got lula confused, wasn't the whole point of this elaborate plan of kidnapping them from new york and having them steal the darn thing so that he could have it? it wasn't until he continued and said "start with her." that she understood what he meant. oh. oh. in a flash the goon standing next to merritt turned and slammed his left hand on her shoulder gripping it tightly and in his other hand he flipped out a switchblade. lula didn't even register that she had screamed. he had a colonial switchblade model 105 to be exact. lula never had the opportunity to share, nor did she want to, about her little collection and obsession with switchblades. she referred to the weapon her mother used to stab her father in the neck as a knife because that's what it was to them. living in a cramped hole in the wall apartment also meant that her family wasn't the richest. a switchblade was a good choice. it could be used for cooking, woodshop, and it was easy to sharpen. a task she often turned to whenever she was alone. it just calmed her somehow. as a child, her father could often be found by the door sharpening the many switchblades the family owned. in a way, she had gained this obsession from him. contrary to the assumption everyone made whenever she told them about her mother "knifing" her father in the neck, her father wasn't the bad one. she remembered he was the one who tucked her in every night, the one who waited up for a woman who wanted nothing to do with her husband and daughter because they kept her from the lifelong party going on in "the real world". he wasn't the one who was an alcoholic. or the one who gambled and splurged their limited family income. or the one who ransacked her 14 year old daughter's room for the stash of money she earned from washing dishes at a corner restaurant and had been saving up for near a year to buy a new switchblade for her dad's birthday. he was a good parent. she wasn't. she went crazy. screamed at him for losing the house. how could he not? all their money went into her addiction. when he said he could get them another place she flipped out. insisted he was keeping another woman. with what money? that he wanted to steal her daughter away from her. its not like she wanted her to begin with. she started yelling and pacing. all while lula watched from right outside the door. she was waiting for her dad so they could sharpen the blades together. she's still waiting. it happened so fast. her mom, yelling at her dad who had his head down, having learned not to fight her when she got like this. and her mom screaming for him to look at her before finally snapping. grabbing the switchblade he had walked over to get in the first place. driving it into his neck. she says neck because that was the one place she actually saw the knife stab him.   after that she closed her eyes and covered her ears as she tried to block out the muffled screams of her mother as she brought the blade down again and again. she failed. she crawled towards her dad after her mother had left and cried. felt her heart snap as he looked up at her and called her for the very last time his little lulu. and said he loved her. then she hugged him as his body became limp and she muffled the screams she let out in her dad's shoulder. she whispered that she needed him. please don't go. she loved him too. she remembers the determination to leave. the aching feeling that she couldn't live in the same house as that monster. or that her father hadn't. so she left. packed up all her things in a backpack and ran. she ran until the corner restaurant she worked at and the owner recognised her. gave her a place to shower and a fresh set of clothes before expressing her sorrow that she couldn't take her in. she said it was fine. she would be fine. she always was. but that night, and every night since then, she relived it. that horrible scene played over and over in her head, burned into her memory. "lula? lula what's happening?" she was shook from her memories, back into reality. somehow she had gone with the plan, though not really, she had barely even processed that she had already been thrown from the plane. and was just sitting on the edge of the mat for fear that her legs would give way if she tried to stand. she barely remembered that someone had brought her back to reality, let alone processed who it was. he moved in front of her and she could finally see that it was jack. for now she could hear atlas, merritt and dylan carrying on with the crowd in the background. but jack had his hands on her shoulders and was looking straight into her eyes. "lula talk to me what's going on." her eyes suddenly became blurry as she realised that she was safe. that the blade was no longer near her neck and that their plan had worked. she finally let her breathing slow down, she hadn't even realised she was hyperventilating. that's when she remembered jack, damnit how had she forgotten about her major crush like three times within the span of-how long had it been? that's not important. oh right! jack! "i'm fine."

jack's pov
"yeah and im a walrus"
shes fine? well that was a load of crap. she screamed bloody murder when the switchblade flipped open-a logical response to the threat, he himself had jumped up and hit one of the goons so hard they were momentarily disorientated, all in a bid to get to her and save her. but after the threat was nullified, she just clamped her mouth shut and started breathing heavily. he had tried to get her to look at him, to calm down, but no matter what he did her eyes remained fixated on where the blade used to be. no matter what the sleight of hand magician tried to get her attention with she wouldn't budge. and she barely even tried to scream when she was thrown out of the plane. luckily he had been thrown out just after her and saw her in time to narrowly avoid falling on her by somehow twisting himself midair and landing just behind her. he then dragged her to the side of the mat in a hurry so that atlas wouldn't have to dodge her. and even then she still just stared. to her credit, she kind of tried to help him by moving towards the side but it hardly helped really. when he had asked her what happened, she sort of looked at him but then went back to not being able to see him before finally answering with "im fine.". yeah, no. she gave a weak chuckle to his claim of being a certain marine animal, "what happened lula?" "i-i was thinking about my dad. and my mother..yknow." "oh." lula started getting lost in it again so instead of letting her drown in her memories again he said to her, "well it's too late to join them now huh? lets get to the boat." the team had two boats prepared, for a group of three and a group of two. they took the boat for two and as jack was getting the silent engine started he told jokes to lula. mind you they weren't good jokes but she laughed anyways, and he was just glad to give her an escape from her terrible past.

luckily after they had all made it to the rendezvous she had fallen asleep and slept through the car ride to the apartment the eye had prepared for them, all the way until the next morning. she had fallen asleep on jack and merritt during the ride there and even though it was supposed to be jack's turn to take the wheel halfway through, the two men who had seen what happened to lula after the plane ride and filled atlas in while jack stayed quiet and they all unanimously agreed to let her enjoy the bliss if only for a little while. somehow she had integrated herself nicely in the group and none of them could even remember what the horsemen were like before she had joined. what exactly had happened was that jack was telling lula a story of how he had stolen apples from a vendor and she had been visibly getting sleepy so jack offered her the option of placing her head on his lap which she gratefully accepted. she had been sitting in the middle between jack and merritt and when he saw the exchange, merritt dragged her legs so they were on his lap and she could lie down comfortably, to which she smiled and teased him about actually being pretty smooth. merritt let out a jolly laugh and smiled, while jack continued on with his story. he caught jack's eye and whispered "smooth huh?" flicking on an imaginary pair of sunglasses and staring ahead. when they arrived, jack slowly maneuvered lula into his arms and carried her up the stairs and into her room, the other boys had followed him there and atlas peeled back the covers to let jack put lula down. that was the first in a long time that lula slept soundly through the night.