#some wips

2. Daniel has a bad night

For once, it’s Daniel who’s plagued by nightmares. Wren wakes up to a low whine and the arms around him shifting, and it takes him a moment to realize what’s going on, why Daniel’s breathing is shaky, why his hold on Wren borders on desperate.

“Daniel,” Wren mutters, squirming in his embrace, reaching up to squeeze his arm; he’s only answered with another strange whine. “Daniel.”

That works. Daniel’s breath hitches, his movements no longer feel like they’re outside of his control. Wren sighs, not wanting to deal with this in the slightest, but he pushes against Daniel’s arm until he can move more, and rolls over to his other side, to face Daniel, whose eyes are half-closed, gaze still absent.

“What…?” he asks, and Wren barely stops himself from rolling his eyes.

“You had a nightmare. Woke me up.”

3. Everything's fine

Wren leaves the house without Daniel’s knowledge.

He still has the tracker, of course, but when he left, Daniel was napping, so he hopes that he won’t wake up for a few more hours. He just wants to go for a swim in the picturesque pond that he remembers the path to. He’s unarmed, without so much as a kitchen knife, but he’s not scared. He’s not anything.

There is an emptiness inside of him that has had a grip on him for several weeks now. The sort of hopelessness he was trying to avoid, but instead of making him Daniel’s loving partner, it’s only making him… do this. Go for a walk in the jungle, looking straight ahead, not scanning his surroundings, barely flinching when he hears rustling and other sounds of the dense forest.

4. Continuation of Berkeley's Revenge

“I guess when I feel like hearing you scream again, I can just take my pick.” He lets go, circles the table, and gets to cleaning and dressing the wound on Wren’s right hand, laughing a bit at his instinctual attempt to wrench his hand free. “Try not to get an infection and die, but it should be fine. You'll live. You’re so tough, after all.” He glances at Wren’s face, listening to his frantic breathing. “Why so quiet, Rackham? No more jokes? Figures,” he scoffs, shaking his head. “We both know how pathetic you really are.”

“You cut off my fucking finger,” Wren rasps.

“And I can do it again if you don’t stop swearing.” The terror in Wren’s eyes when his head jerks towards Berkeley makes him smile. “Yep, I think that’s a good idea. Cutting off a finger every time you swear.”

5. Speech is silver

“See? Just like that. I know what I’m doing, don’t worry.”

The feeling of the thread slipping through his skin makes him sick to his stomach, and there’s more sharp pain which turns to burning with another stitch. Daniel strokes his chin with his thumb in a soothing motion, and doesn’t stop his work for a second - a small mercy in his eyes, getting over with the sewing as fast as possible while remaining cautious not to mess it up.

To him, it’s love.

6. #scrabble whump

“Buying you was the best decision in my life.”

“The most expensive Scrabble buddy in history,” Wren scoffs and lets his head drop again, his shoulders trembling with muffled laughter, because this whole situation is hilarious, honestly.

All this effort to kidnap the head of the League’s kid just to play fucking Scrabble with him.

Well, and torture him. And humiliate him.

But right now they’re playing Scrabble, and it’s the funniest thing Wren can imagine in his almost delirious state.

7. Oscar's debut

“Who the hell are you?” Oscar snapped. The person didn’t answer - instead the pressure on his neck disappeared, and the object was sent flying to the side. It hit the ground with a horrible clangor, and Oscar finally saw what it was - a piece of metal shaped like a capital H, probably a piece of scaffolding, no doubt identical with the one pinning his legs down. He could finally prop himself up on his elbows and look up at the face of the person who defeated him - the face he’d seen on billboards and the news, the face of Bradley McKenna.

“You know me, don’t you?” Bradley flashed his teeth in a brilliant smile seeing the hint of recognition in Oscar’s eyes. “Would be weird if you didn’t.”

~~~