fandom: original -- Anderson and Company
characters and relationships: Avi & Aaron Anderson - platonic
warnings/additional tags: Blood, aftermath of gunshot wound, torture, dislocation, hair grabbing, swearing, Avi is a little shit, amputee character, bionic leg, head slam, one your mom joke
@ailesswhumptober Day 2: Amputation | Gunshot | "It's not worth your life!"
Day 5: Torture | Withholding aid | "How do you want me to punish you?"
Day 12: Dislocation | Dizziness | “Don’t pass out on me.”
Day 13: Ransom | Tranquilizer | "I trusted you!"
Avi and Aaron get kidnapped by a man who has very specific and unethical demands. They can only refuse for so long.
notes: Welcome to my OCs in a world with little to no plot!!! This is Aaron (dad) and Avi (son) and they are very normal people except they have a billion dollars and a billion trauma.
“Dad. Dad! Hey. Just look at me, okay?” Avi shuffled as close as he could, and Aaron groaned as he pushed himself up against the wall.
“I’m okay, Avi. I’ll… Just stay calm.” He leaned against his son, letting his head rest on top of Avi’s. “Someone will come to get us out. We’ll be all right.” His voice was fainter than he’d intended, and the amount of blood that had soaked into his shirt around the gunshot wound probably didn’t make his words very believable.
Avi made a concerned sound and snuggled nearer, hands bound behind his back and preventing him from reaching out.
“I’m okay, spark. I’m okay.” He pressed a soft kiss to Avi’s hair.
“Just hang on. They’ll let us go soon,” Avi murmured, “and you owe me a new car.”
Aaron let out a weak laugh and then regretted it as pain stabbed through his torso. “Nh- I’ll get you one when we get home, promise. You can use the- Porsche until then.”
“Make it the Lambo and you’ve got a deal.”
Aaron had to hold back another chuckle as Avi let his head rest on Aaron’s shoulder. “Deal.”
The door creaked open again, and he felt Avi stiffen. The man who’d shot him walked in, grinning. “Isn’t this a heartwarming scene?”
“Piss off.” Aaron probably shouldn’t have been proud of him for cussing out the man who held their fates in his hand, but he was.
“Now, now, is that any way to talk, young man? You haven’t taught him to hold his tongue very well, dad.”
“I’m 21, you absolute f-”
“Avi.” Aaron gave him a warning look, and he snapped his mouth shut, still glaring at the man. “What do you- want from us?” Aaron asked, subtly reaching to hold Avi’s arm.
“It’s very simple, Mr. Anderson. You have money and a very large tech company. I have you. Before I return you two to society, I’d like to benefit from your extensive wealth.” The man came over to them, hands in pockets, and smiled down at Aaron.
“I’ll give you whatever you want. Just- Just let us go.”
He tsked disapprovingly. “Not just yet, sir. You haven’t given me anything. Well, your son gave my associate a rather nasty shiner earlier, but nothing I want.” The thug glared at them from the doorway.
“What- What do you want?” Aaron leaned away from him, wincing as the movement pulled at his wound.
“Soldiers, Mr. Anderson. I would like you to take each and every one of my men and give them fancy new toys just like your little boy over there.” He nodded toward Avi’s bionic leg, and Aaron stiffened.
“Great idea. Let’s drop giant industrial crates on all of them, and maybe then they’d qualify.” Avi looked up at him scornfully. “We’re not doing shit for you.”
“Avi.” Aaron squeezed his elbow as the man gave him an expectant look.
“Well? Do you both feel this way?”
“I- We- I can’t make you soldiers. That would be- inhumane, first of all, not to mention illegal, and-”
“That’s a shame. That’s a real shame.” The man’s gaze went faraway for a moment, as if deep in thought, then shifted back to them, and he grabbed Aaron by the hair and yanked his head back. “You may want to reconsider.”
Aaron struggled to breathe with his head shoved against the wall, forcing his hand to loosen around Avi’s arm. “I ca- can’t. There- has to be something else that you-” The man let go abruptly, and Aaron gasped for air.
“You know, I really thought you would be more reasonable than that. But it’s okay.”
Avi pressed himself into Aaron’s back again as his breathing started to even out. “It- It is?”
“Of course. No hard feelings. All that means is that you’ll need a little… convincing.” He grinned the humourless, dreadful grin of a shark about to bite, then faster than Aaron could blink or reach out to stop him, he grabbed Avi by the hair and dragged him across the room, ignoring his yelps and struggles of pain.
Aaron tried to reach for him, but groaned and doubled over in pain. “Avi- Wait! Don’t- Don’t hurt him. Please. He’s all I have.”
The man’s grin turned to a snarl. “No, he’s not! You haven’t been paying attention, Mr. Anderson, you have SO MUCH right at your fingertips. The man who has everything and still believes he doesn’t, the man who won’t simply give me what I want!” His voice rose to the end of his sentence, and he kicked Avi hard in the gut.
“No!” Aaron watched, wide-eyed, as Avi was knocked into the wall, coughing and gasping. The man dragged him back as quickly as he was able to recover, grabbing him by his bound hands and using them as leverage to push his face against the ground.
“Any input for papa dear, Avi?”
“Nh- I- I’ve got some input for your mother-” His head was violently slammed into the floor, and Aaron covered his mouth to stop from screaming as blood started to trickle down the side of Avi’s head and he groaned, hanging limp from the grip on his hair.
“Now, now. We wouldn’t want you all roughed up before we get to have a real conversation, would we?” The man shook Avi lightly, completely ignoring Aaron.
“G… Go to hell,” Avi coughed, before he was roughly pushed to the ground, arms at a painful angle behind his back.
“I’ll ask you one more time, Mr. Anderson. Are you willing to give me the army I want, or do I have to persuade you a little more?” The man turned back to him with an attentive look, as if he was a business partner waiting for an answer on some deal or other.
“I… I… What you ask isn’t possible. They would have to be volunteers and aware of the risks, and- and- I don’t even know if I have the kind of equipment you’d need for a project like that-”
“You had the equipment for him, didn’t you, Daddy? Even if not, surely you can procure what you need from some factory or other. So?”
“I can’t,” he said desperately. “I don’t- You can’t just do that to someone, and what- what are you going to use them for?”
The man sighed. “Wrong answer, Mr Anderson.” Then he adjusted his grip on Avi’s arm, shoved down hard, and Aaron heard his shoulder dislocate with a pop that was barely audible under his heartrending scream.
The man tsked, shaking his head. “I tried talking, and you refused. Typical of you one percent-ers, not to listen to anyone else but your money and ego.” He jostled Avi’s dislocated arm, and Avi cried out, kicking as hard as he could to get away as his tears dripped onto the concrete floor.
“Awww. Dad. Please,” the man said mockingly, bracing a knee on Avi’s back, between his shoulders. “Look at the little brat crying like a baby already. I honestly thought it’d take more than that to hurt him, but I guess he’s just as soft as you are.”
Aaron staggered to his feet, falling almost instantly and catching himself on his hands. “Don’t- NGH. Don’t hurt him, I’ll- I’ll give you all the money you want. Name the amount.”
The man scoffed, shaking his head again. “Don’t you get it? I’ve been telling you to your face what I want, and you still refuse to give it to me. At this point, I’m starting to think you’re just a shitty father. What kind of dad would let his little boy suffer over a simple favour like this?” Avi sobbed and squeezed his eyes shut, and Aaron let out a sound of distress.
“It’s not right. You’re going to hurt people, and I- I can’t let you. He wouldn’t want me to.”
“Are you sure? Why don’t we ask him. Avi, dear. Do you think your dad is a hero for refusing to make me my army? Or is he just a coward?” Avi whimpered and flinched away from him, blood mixing with tears where his face pressed to the ground. “Well, how sad. He can’t even speak about you for the shame.”
Aaron closed his eyes. Avi doesn’t think that. He doesn’t. Logically, he knew better, knew that his little boy would never say something so hurtful as that. But it was his fault they got caught in the first place, his fault Avi’s arm was hurt, his fault they were both on the ground bleeding. “I’m sorry, spark. I’m so sorry.”
Avi made an indistinct sound and struggled weakly, then went limp, and Aaron shuffled across the floor a little closer. All he wanted was to pull him close, smooth away the blood and the tears, and hold him, but the man was still there, coolly watching as if he’d simply plucked out a hair or two.
“I can think of about fourteen different ways to continue our little game. Do you want me to tell you, or keep it a surprise?” Aaron glared at him, then quickly dropped his gaze, desperately hoping that it hadn’t warranted another scream from his son.
He shook Avi again, drawing another whimper. “Come on, Mr. Anderson. I tire of repeating myself. Will you do it, or won’t you?”
“I…” Aaron stared at them, torn between staying true to the right thing and saving Avi even more pain. “I don’t…”
The man shrugged. “Your loss.” In a second violent jerk, he snapped Avi’s other shoulder out of its socket, and he screamed again, thrashing on the ground as the bent knee in his back kept him pinned down.
“No, WAIT- Stop! I’ll do it. I’ll… I’ll do it. Just stop hurting him.” He closed his eyes for a long second as Avi let out a last wail, going limp on the floor.
“Excellent. That wasn’t so hard, wasn’t it, spark?” The man bent to ruffle Avi’s hair, and Aaron felt sick at the mockery of their special nickname. “I’ll let you two have a little nap, then when I get back, it’s time for you to make good. Understand?”
Aaron swallowed and nodded wordlessly.
“Don’t worry. You’ll find I’m a much nicer business partner than I am an enemy. Until later, Mr. Anderson.” He and the black-eyed thug stepped out of the room and slammed the door behind them.
Avi whimpered again, and Aaron pushed himself over to his son, grimacing. “Hey, kid. It’s okay, he’s gone.” He pulled Avi into his lap, careful not to jostle his arms and cradling his head.
“M… sorry. 'M sorry, Dad, 'm sorry-”
The thought that Avi could possibly even think that this was his fault ached horribly, and Aaron forced his voice to steady. “No, spark, shhhh. It’s okay. Not your fault, alright? I’ve got you.” Avi whined again and buried his face in Aaron’s chest.
“I know, kid. We’ll fix it later, but just rest, okay? Just rest.” He closed his eyes and held his baby boy as Avi sobbed, arms limp and useless.
He could only hope that someone got to them before he had to acquiesce to the man’s demands. But it was getting harder and harder to have hope when he and his associates held both of their lives in the same iron grip they’d both already felt.
