#pi writes

It was only ever meant to be a quick drink between acquaintances.

But now the fire burning behind the cast-iron grate throws shadows against the wall that crash together and break apart like waves in a storm, twisting and turning in tune to the breathless gasps, soft sighs, and desperate pleas playing out across the kitchen table.

Bodies moving in breathless synergy, strange shapes in strange places. All familiar to the Fade.

Davrin though… Davrin doesn't recognise himself like this, his jaw working and his muscles straining and all of his consonants faltering past his lips. "I’m f—!" Fuck. "I’m fff—!" Fuck.

He knows this isn’t the time but honestly? After the misery of the past three days, it feels damn good to just let go with a stranger. Even if they don't feel like strangers, couldn't be strangers any more.

Not after everything.

Tofana barely manages to throw their arm across their face in a breathless bid for dignity, but considering the state of the kitchen table… that ship has long since sailed.

"Fuck, Davrin—!" A single, perfect tear clings to Tofana's lashes, trembling, euphoric, on a knife edge… and spilling over.

Fuck.

Davrin comes undone, barely managing a pathetic hiss before the broken wheeze emanating from the elf doubled over to his left sends his lungs scrambling again, his head slumping gently onto the table as yet another cascade of laughter erupts from somewhere deep inside his belly.

Upon which Tofana proceeds to emit a truly hideous squawk, gloved fingers batting through the air as they flop about in their seat, the firelight playing with their Crow leathers.

They've been laughing like this for a good ten minutes now, the observation that brought this on long since lost.

"This isn't funny," Tofana chuckles weakly, shaking their head and rubbing their eyes.

Davrin pinches the bridge of his nose, his shoulders still shaking. There’s nothing to say.

Tofana slides him a look and coughs up a few final syllables of watery mirth.

Then, silence.

Heavy, dark, complete.

Davrin tries for a sip of his whiskey, but the amber catches the light all wrong and flashes far too brightly to be anything but burning and screaming, screaming, screaming, screaming.

Jeff was napping in the common room when he heard voices coming down the hall. He immediately recognized it as your voice, followed by Natasha’s laughter.

“I’m just saying, have you ever heard Clint sleep? He’s gotta be part bear by the way he snores”

“Fair, but he’s not the only one”

Jeff lifted his head up to watch you two as you walked through the room, carrying your mission gear and heading towards the holding bay.

You looked at her incredulously, “What do you mean by that??”

Natasha suppressed a laugh, “I didn’t want you to find out like this, but…you’re not exactly a quiet sleeper.”

“…I snore?”

She laughed, “Yes Y/N, you snore a little”

Jeff snorted to himself. Even the landshark had noticed you were quite the heavy breather when sleeping.

Burying your face in your hands, you groaned, “oh god that’s so embarrassing. How bad is it?”

“Not awful, I only notice it every now and then, I promise!”

“Ugh, I’m sorry Nat…I didn’t know”

Still chuckling softly, Natasha leaned in to kiss your cheek. “Don’t worry detka, I still love you. Even with the snoring.”

“Alright alright, I love you too. Now can we drop this? We should focus on the mission.”  

A mission? Jeff frowned to himself. That meant you and Natasha would be leaving and he would be alone at the compound again. He hated being left alone and stuck in the compound with nothing to do. But, maybe this time he didn’t have to be. As quietly as he could, Jeff got to his feet and followed you both towards the quinjet.

By the time Jeff reached the hanger, you and Natasha were already aboard the jet making final preparations, but luckily, the back door was still open. Jeff quickly looked around to make sure no one was watching, and ran up the ramp.

Once aboard, he could hear the two of you still bantering about your sleeping habits from the front of the jet. He made his way to the cargo area and tucked himself under a seat and awaited takeoff.

A couple of hours later, Jeff awoke from his nap to a flurry of activity on the jet. Natasha and you were moving around grabbing last minute gear as the quinjet came in for a landing. “Alright, it's a simple mission.” Nat told you as she adjusted her suit, ”There have been reports of strange and dangerous creatures spotted in the area. We’re here mostly to observe and make sure hydra hasn’t started anything. There should be no real threat, but we should stay on alert.”

“It should be easy then. Let's move out.”

Once the two of you had left the jet, Jeff shuffled out from under the chair. He wandered around the jet, sniffing at the hoodie Natasha had left in her chair (technically it was your hoodie, but Natasha said otherwise), peering out the windows, and poking around at the controls. What he did, he wasn’t sure, but suddenly the backdoor of the jet opened with a buzz. Jeff sprinted towards the open door and into the woods.

After getting his fill of running around the woods Jeff finally slowed down and began to properly explore. He sniffed at all the trees, dove into piles of leaves before he discovered a wild blueberry bush. Jeff’s stomach grumbled loudly and he gladly helped himself to the fruit. Suddenly - crunch!

Jeff lifted his head up at the sudden noise from behind him. He looked around him, but didn’t see anything so he went back to his berries.

SNAP  

Another sound from behind him. This time Jeff got a little worried. Didn’t Natasha say there were monsters in the area? Maybe he shouldn’t have left the jet. He slowly began to make his way back, but his appetite got the better of him and he turned to grab one more bite of blueberry.

Just as he opened his mouth, Jeff heard a low grrrrrrrrr from behind him and spotted a flash of gold through the trees.

Jeff’s blood turned cold. What was that? Leaving all his blueberries behind, he started running back to the jet. As he ran, he heard multiple sets of footsteps behind him and closing fast.

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A couple of hours later, you and Natasha had finished up with the mission. Overall, it had been pretty boring. It seems the rumors of strange creatures were just that; rumors. You had found a few tracks, but they looked like foxes or bears, pretty normal for the area.

Together you and Natasha walked back towards the jet. Just as you were expressing your disappointment in not seeing any animals, Natasha suddenly grabbed your arm and yanked you behind a tree.

“Jeez Nat, what are you doing? You nearly dislocated my arm!” You complained.

“Y/N stop being dramatic and shut up for a second.” Nat whispered to you, “the quinjet’s door is wide open. I am positive it was shut when we left.”

“damn it” You cursed, “ do you think someone is in the jet?”

“That’s a distinct possibility. Weapons out and stay alert.”

You drew your weapon and followed Natasha out from behind the tree. The two of you slowly approached the jet door, ready for an ambush at any moment. You froze at the sound of footsteps and you pointed your gun in their direction.

“Mrrrr?”

Suddenly Jeff was running out of the jet and towards you with a huge grin on his face.

You lowered your gun with a sigh, “god damn it Jeff, we could have hurt you! What are you doing here? I thought you were at the compound.”

Jeff just looked at you sadly, “Mrrrrr.”

Natasha sighed. “He must have gotten lonely and stowed away on the jet. How he got the door open is anyone's guess.”

Jeff just smirked and shrugged, before grabbing your pant leg with his teeth and tugging you towards the open doors of the jet.

“Hey woah, buddy slow down.” You knelt down in front of him, “are you okay? Is there something in the jet?”

“Mrrr!” Jeff turned and excitedly ran up the ramp and into the jet.

You and Natasha just looked at each other. “Well” Natasha said, “I guess we follow him.”

The two of you followed after Jeff and into the jet, only to be met with a completely unexpected sight. Rather than seeing just Jeff waiting for you, you saw three animals.

Jeff was sitting in the middle, looking very proud of himself. On his left, sat what looked like a small bear? A dog? A wolverine! That's what it was. The wolverine simply sat there and glared at you, huffing every now and then. On Jeff’s right, sat a crocodile with a gold crown on his head. A very familiar looking gold crown.

“...is that… a Loki crown?” You questioned. 

She stared at you incredulously. “That’s your first question? Not ‘why are there strange animals in our jet?’ or ‘where did they come from?’”  

“I mean, it's a valid question.” You said, “but you make a good point. Where did they come from?”

Natasha frowned. “They’ve got to be the creatures that we got the reports about.”

You nodded. “Jeff must have brought them here. If he made friends with them, they’ve got to be friendly.”

“Are you sure about that?” Nat asked, eyeing the wolverine who was still glaring at the both of you.

Jeff let out an indignant, “Mrrrrrrrr!”

You laughed lightly, “does that answer your question?” You moved closer to the animals, kneeling to be on their level. You reached out to Jeff, who immediately nuzzled your hand. “Hey there buddy. Are these your new friends?”

Jeff nodded and let out happy noises. Natasha moved to stand behind you while the other two animals also moved closer. The crocodile reached you first, nudging your knee with his nose. “Hey there little guy. You're not actually Loki are you?” Instead of answering, the croc just stared back at you silently. “Okay then. I’ll take that as a no.”

Next, you reached out towards the wolverine, only to receive a low growl and another glare. You tried again, but this time the creature bared his teeth at you. You raised your hands defensively, “okay okay, no touching. Got it.”

You stood back up and looked at Natasha. “What are we supposed to do with them? Take them back to the compound?”

Natasha looked back and forth between the two animals before shrugging. “I suppose so. Tony’s not going to be too happy about it, but we can't throw them out.”

You nodded. “Okay then. I guess we're adopting two new sons, yeah?”

“I guess so,” Natasha chuckled. “If we’re adopting them, they need names. Any ideas?”

“I think we should stick with the ‘J’ theme.” You thought for a second, “that one looks like Loki, so maybe Jroki?”

“.....Jroki?”

“Why not? He seems to like it.”

The crocodile, or Jroki, had laid down and closed his eyes, smiling contentedly.

You turned towards the wolverine and he walked right up to Natasha and sat on her feet. She leaned down and scratched the creature between his ears. The wolverine closed his eyes and let out what sounded like a purr.

“Huh,” Nat said. “He likes me”

You groaned, “now that's just unfair.”

Natasha laughed, “Don't get jealous just because Jonathan likes me better.”

“Jonathan?”

“Why not?” she said, mimicking your words from earlier.

You just rolled your eyes. “Okay then, it's settled. Jroki the crocodile and Jonathan the wolverine, you boys get to come home with us.”  

Jeff let out a happy, “MRRRR” and ran in circles around you.

You laughed, “someone is happy to have two new brothers.”

Natasha raised her eyebrows. “Brothes huh? Does that make us a family now?”

Davrin keeps his response slow, measured—he isn't sure what to do with this cold, shimmering creature wearing the face of someone he could care about. The dress feels decadent under his fingertips, the fabric rippling under his touch and toying with the light, dancing like a river in the early throes of dawn. He pauses, then takes the plunge, running his hand over Tofana's waist. He'll lose. Maybe he wants to.

Maybe he should.

Never hunt anything you don't understand. 

The end comes quickly; Tofana flashes a smile and gives him a perfunctory nudge in the ribs. A few loose twists trickle into Davrin's face when they lean in over him, their fingers curling around his forearm.

It's warm.

"I win," they gloat, vanity coiling in a low octave. Nails flashing, Tofana gestures first at themself and then at him. "Hunter... hunted," they declare pointedly, preening themself for an audience that isn't there.

Davrin's lips twitch. There you are.

In response, the Fade splashes sunlight over them in all the rude little ways they'll never know about, and suddenly, today feels different. Maybe it's them. Maybe it's him. Maybe he's choosing gold over silver.

But to do that, he has to win.

"—tiful, talented, gorgeous Crow! Better luck next time, Warden! And when you do sculpt this victory in my honour, remember to—"

A lot can happen in a second. A thousand victories across history have come crashing down into a thousand different defeats in a mere matter of moments, and Davrin's duty is simple drop in a complicated ocean.

He bends his knees and lifts.

Tofana's eyes snap open as self-preservation takes over, legs and arms wrapping around him in a desperate, clumsy instinct. Pelvis pressed into his front, heels digging into his back, hand fisting into his shirt and with their ass, thighs and dignity entirely in his hands, Tofana cedes a too-late squeal in a too-high pitch: "DAVRIN!!!!"

That's right, he thinks.

Davrin.

They feel the crack, feel the wound splatter something hideous all across their faltering ribcage, feel their lungs fester into uselessness. But Neve... she doesn't let go, doesn't stop, doesn't take it all away. Not when they start shuddering for air, not when the pain winces past their lips, not when it all fucking falls apart and hot tears fall from their eyes. Fine flecks of spit seething past their teeth, breathless air sawing at their throat, sternum cracking open, Tofana de Riva becomes an agony exquisite.