pumnopu

Masterlist - Misc. masterlist

Indika x Ilya

Words: 470

Notes: that little scene in the fish factory but now with the outcome I was actually hoping for 😅 so obsessed with this game, it brought me back from my fanfiction writing retirement because damn... I want those two to be happy 😭 (haven't finished the game yet, so please no spoilers)

The oven groaned softly, its rusted metal ticking as heat spread through the cramped room, invading the cold darkness. Indika sat close enough for the warmth to sting her skin, her damp shift clinging uncomfortably to her frame, while beside her, separated only by a simple linen sheet, Ilya rolled his shoulder with a quiet wince and stared into the fire as if expecting it to reveal some private revelation. Everything between them felt suddenly too present despite the silence. Not their breathing, nor the occasional crackle of the warming flames, but the simple fact of proximity, of warmth shared too closely, of being reduced by circumstance to something painfully human, stripped of all the things that usually kept a safer distance between them.

"Thank you", she said at last, the words stiff and awkward, as though they had to force their way through years of habit and restraint.

Ilya stood up and glanced sideways over the sheet at her, faintly surprised.

"For dragging you through swamps, gunfire and several deeply questionable decisions?"

"For staying", she corrected him quietly, eyes fixed on the orange glow of the coals, "you could have left after feeling better."

A pause settled over them, not empty but dense, filled with things both of them seemed determined not to touch. When Ilya laughed, it was softer than usual, stripped of its usual rough edge.

"Feeling better is a bold statement given my condition. Maybe I was simply not given much choice."

Indika frowned slightly and finally looked at him, and that was the mistake, because he was already watching her with that unnervingly direct gaze of his, like he was trying to understand something he did not have the language for.

"There must be a reason for all this", he murmured, quieter now, his gaze lingering on her longer than either of them should have allowed, "you, me... all of it. Perhaps God is simply less subtle than we give Him credit for."

He gave a faint, humorless smile.

"Or perhaps I misunderstood what was being asked of me."

their dynamic....