rundown — grace ashcroft x reader, fem!reader, established relationship, hurt/comfort, light angst, mentions of wounds/blood, no smut, grace is a busy bee and reader is attention starved, grace tries to get some tonight but the time isn’t right.
proofread by my goatest goat!!!
You’d always dreamt about the comfort that a domestic life would bring you.
Your girlfriend coming home from work at a reasonable, albeit late, hour while you’re struggling to contain your excitement as you finally hear the lock click open from the other side of the front door.
Except there is one small issue.
The keyword in this situation would be ‘dreamt’, and you are especially aware of it whenever Grace comes from work at midnight—if not even later— heading straight to your bedroom to change and get ready for a good night’s sleep, often too drained to even say a simple “Hi.” or “How has your day been?”.
As you expected, tonight bore no difference to this cycle,. You heard the lock click open at exactly 11:48 pm. Your date was supposed to be at 7pm sharp. You look into the hallway from your usual place on the worn down couch, half asleep, and unadmittedly worried to death about your girlfriend’s whereabouts.
“Grace?” You call out to the hall, tilting your head in confusion when you get no answer.
“Hello? Grace? Is that you?”
You sigh, put away your 5th cup of tea and get up, slowly walking over to the bathroom. “Grace I told you to always tell me if-“ You stop in your tracks, a little embarrassed from the fact that you’ve just spoken to the void because your girlfriend was not, in fact, in the bathroom.
You thought to yourself before turning on your heel and making longer, faster steps in the direction of the bedroom. You were so sure she was there. You were so ready to settle the pending issue of her unavailability (and your touch starvation, but that counts as an unmentioned result) and you were so ready to just-
Your breath stopped before it returned quicker, more shallow, as you nearly jumped with one step over to Grace’s side. She was bleeding. Badly. Her shirt was torn on her chest in a straight, claw-like shape. The blood seeping through it was hard to miss, and so was the evident wound that peeked out of the torn pieces of the cloth that now hung loose over her frame.
“What the fuck happened-“ At this point you panicked, one part of your brain was already two steps ahead calling the ambulance, the other knew that this is no case for a public hospital. “Work.” Grace hissed, the tissue that she had doused in disinfectant making direct contact with the open, bleeding wound on her side. You instinctively try taking the tissue from her at the sound of her struggle, your hand swatted away instantly by Grace’s shaky one. “Don’t touch me- don’t touch that.” Grace frowned, her words coming out harsher than she wanted them to be.
“I’m trying to help.” You shot back, your own tone switching to a mode of defence at her words, your head tilting in confusion and eyes narrowing in anger.
“Grace, you can’t possibly do this whole thing by yourself-“
“I didn’t ask for you to help, did I?”
A beat of silence fell in between you as Grace stopped trying to make her wound worse than it already was, while you were trying your *best* and *hardest* to not just leave.
You took a deep breath, looking into her eyes before speaking.
“You’ve been coming home agonisingly late for the past what- like 3 weeks?” You chuckled bitterly before continuing. “You leave your clothes on the floor, expecting me to spend my days not only picking up and washing blood soaked, ashy jackets, but to be your personal nurse and be the sweetest pie and smile along while you huff and hiss at me for, god fucking forbid, trying to help you with something you won’t even give me the reason behind.”
You took another deep breath after speaking, an invisible yet very, very heavy burden dropping off your heart. You knew you were raising your voice, you also knew how much you hated doing so, but saying it made the past 3 weeks of your life have a little more reason.
You watched Grace in silence for a bit, expecting her to shout something back, to laugh, to do anything at this point, but the silence persisted. The look in her eyes behind her glasses was unreadable- the fact that one of the lenses was broken did not help one bit.
She took a deep sigh before she took them off, placing them on the bedside table, the impact making the barely-holding lens fall apart into small crystals.
A shame. And another ‘detail’ she forgot to give the background about.
She ran her hand across her face, leaning her head back before looking at you. “I told you my work isn’t an easy one. I thought you said you were fine with that.” She gave you a look before sitting up slightly. “So please, spare me the long talk about whatever it is that you’re facing while sitting on the couch sipping tea, because it sure as hell doesn’t compare to what I’ve been doing just to pay for the electricity you use to heat up your water for said tea.” She was calm. Too calm for your liking. She was always like this when you argued, trying to seem like the calm, collected good guy who’s apparently being harassed by her own girlfriend, not her workspace.
“I don’t care about the electricity or the water Grace, have you just entirely missed what I was saying?” Your voice was higher.
“No, but I’m sure you’ve missed my plea to spare me of- whatever this is.” Grace’s eyes were now more narrow, focused. You’ve had enough.
“And I’m sure you’ve missed our date today but instead you were doing- whatever this is. Remember? 7 PM?” You mocked her tone while sarcastically huffing over whatever bullshit she just let slip out of her mouth.
“Oh come on you know I wouldn’t let that happen if i wasn’t busy-“
“But you did let it happen multiple times?”
“You’re always too busy.”
“And you’re unnecessarily-“
You were ready to take whatever she was about to say, but her words were interrupted by a sharp pain hitting her side as she tried to stand up to elevate the argument. “Jesus…” you sighed, making your way over to Grace as she tried taking off her torn-apart shirt by herself.
You’ve lifted her arms up, warily pulling the shirt over her head, watching her eyes squeezed shut and her breathing urgent. You picked up a clean tissue from the bedside table, pouring the disinfectant lightly onto it before you lowered your hand to Grace’s side, close enough to touch her.
“Don’t even think about it.” Grace grunted, her breathing still quicker than normal.
Grace sighed in defeat as she finally let you put the disinfectant-soaked tissue onto her wound, a small protest coming out of her throat at the impact.
It took a while (and a shit ton of tissues) to finally get the wound clean of the unwanted dust and cloth threads. Your hand was now lightly tapping the mark below her chest with a towel, trying to clean the blood that was smeared all over her torso from her previous attempt. The room was quiet, only sound that was heard was the radiator humming and an occasional “Does this hurt?” question.
While you continued to clean the blood off your lover, her breathing slowed down, her eyes now closed and her head laid back on the now clean pillow you put under her head a few seconds ago.
“You’re an angel.” The silence was suddenly broken by Grace’s words, making a small smile appear on your face as she continued. “I never meant to miss the date…” she sighed, looking over at you now, “Whatever I said before was some stupid, downright disrespectful bullshit, I’m sorry for that too.” Her eyes were locked onto you, her own lips forming a smile on her face.
You stopped for a bit, not looking at her just yet. “And?”
Grace snickered, shaking her head while you got back to what you were doing.
“And I was irresponsible…”
“And… I love you? You’re amazing? You’re the best partner ever?” She responded jokingly, not ashamed of meaning every word she said, especially when it made you laugh. You sighed, smiling at her as your eyes met. “I shouldn’tve just shouted at you like that, that’s on me…” you put the bloodied towel away, taking some gauze in your hands and prompting Grace to sit up as you wrapped it around her torso while you continued. “I should’ve told you earlier that I was-“
“Deprived of my attention?”
“No Grace, I was unhappy.”
You handed Grace one of the shirts from her closet, helping her put it on. You made sure Grace was alright with being alone for 5 minutes (which, at that time, you found completely normal) and went to change into your sleepwear swiftly, climbing into bed next to your girlfriend in a matter of seconds. Before you managed to switch the lamp off, Grace tugged on your sleepshirt, pulling you closer to her.
“You still mad?” She asked quietly, her eyes locked onto yours. “Depends…” you responded with a small shrug, but deep down it wasn’t depending on anything, and even if it was, it would be the fact that Grace is alive and well— and both of those requirements for your happiness were currently checked.
Grace smiled, pulling you in, stopping you from falling onto her as she peppered kisses all over your face. “What about now?” She tilted her head, mocking a pleading expression before grinning. “Better.” You responded, your fingers tangling in your girlfriend’s hair. “Better?” She hummed before she crashed her lips with yours, her hand snaking onto your back and under your shirt. “Grace, you’ve got wounds on you.” You cooed, your heart involuntarily beating faster.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Grace continued before you pulled away from her, her face making an expression equal to the news about the end of the world. “We’ll let those heal, then I promise you can make up for whatever you want, however you want, okay?” Her expression didn’t do any better when you pulled your hand away from her hair, turning the lamp off and very carefully laying down on her shoulder.
You’d always dreamt about the comfort that a domestic life would bring you. And though this was far from your original dream, it was much, much better.
“I love you.” You whispered as you closed your eyes, pulling the blanket over both of you. “I think I have an emotion that’s beyond love.” Grace moved slowly under the blanket as you huffed a small laugh at her words, your hand carefully wrapping around her as you both closed your eyes and tried to sleep. “Goodnight, Grace.” A silence you didn’t register followed after that, before you heard a small whisper;
“I think I’m bleeding again...”
This is the first fic I’ve ever posted guys lmk how it is thank you🥹
