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ashintheairlikesnow · 4 years

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Ryan and Danny have a conversation. While Ryan is a delight and charming, he’s still Syndicate - and Syndicate sons take what they want. The latest in the Honor Bound/Daniel Michaelson AU with @whump-tr0pes! You guys are going to be so mad at us soon…

CW: Referenced past torture, referenced past noncom, some sense of dehumanization but nothing direct

“Come on, jackass, don’t act all shy now. You and I both know I can feel your stupid crush floating all around you like snow.” Ryan elbowed his brother in the ribs, and Danny pushed back lightly, rolling his eyes, red already flushing along his cheeks, nearly canceling out the scars there. “You like him, admit it.”

“Okay, fine, I do.” Danny shrugged, kicking awkwardly at a stick in their front yard. Forty yards away, Michaelson men (and more than a few women) roamed armed and ready for any threat, but so far none had materialized. “I do, I like him.“

"There, was that so hard?” Ryan asked with a tone of exaggerated patience. Danny rolled his eyes and kicked at him this time, only to have Ryan step lightly back and to the side.

"Fuck off. Anyway… Nate does, too - and that’s important.”

“Sure. You’ve had him in your room for like… five days now. That doesn’t happen unless Vandrum likes him, too.” Ryan nodded, glancing over his shoulder back at the house. Nate had moved the battered, beat-up car the team had arrived in behind the house and to the side the day before. The team was due to leave tomorrow afternoon or evening, but Nate had said he had a feeling, something that kept sticking in his mind, and he’d feel better if the car was ready to take the secondary track.

There was a path, through the woods. Rarely used. Wide enough on the ground for a car and covered with the tree canopy over it, so it was harder to track someone from the air. It’d take them through the woods and out the back side of the summer estate grounds, onto a small unmapped road. A getaway road, just in case, that as far as Ryan knew, had never been used.

There had been no threat, nothing to fear - but when Nate Vandrum had a hunch, even Ryan just shrugged and let him do what he wanted.

Jackass.

"Are you gonna date him together, then, or just you?“

Danny’s face went bright red, and he ducked his head low, letting his wavy hair hide it as best he could. Ryan had always liked making his big brother blush - redheads blushed so easily, and honestly, how could anyone expect him to resist? “I, uh. I don’t know. Probably mostly just, um, just me. But we’re not going to-… they’re going to leave like, um, tomorrow night, Ryan. And they can’t exactly just swan in and out of, um, of Mom’s territory.”

Patrick Michaelson was the nominal head of the Michaelson syndicate - but everyone knew that Corrine Michaelson was the one in charge.

“I guess that’s true.” Ryan leaned himself back against a low stone wall that cuts across the front lawn, and Danny stayed standing, rubbing idly at the scars cut so deeply into the backs of his hands. Ryan had spent nearly four years spending every resource, calling in every favor, desperately working to find his brother.

When he found him, Danny was sitting in a mercenary’s truck, and Nate Vandrum was standing in front of a house on fire with seven people inside. Ryan had come with his own people planning to shoot the place until it fell down from all the bullet holes but instead he had found himself shaking the hand of a man who had been held captive alongside Danny and offering him a job.

Ryan put one hand up to his mouth, flickering at his thumbnail with his finger in thought. The breeze was gentle and warm on a pretty day, and he knew their guests were no doubt largely outside in the back by now, enjoying the sunlight themselves.

Out of earshot.

“You could have him stay, you know,” Ryan offered, gently.

Next to him, Danny stiffened. “What?”

“Don’t be mad.” Ryan put both hands in the air in a don’t shoot gesture. “I know what you think I’m about to say. But… you know, it’s been a long time since you looked at anyone but Nate, right?”

Danny went quiet, his blue eyes traveling over the lush green grass, the trees that line the drive up to the summer house, the wide, cloudless blue sky over their heads. “Right.” His voice was soft, and a little shaky, but Ryan knew his brother well - worry but not panic, concern but not slipping away into the nightmares that follow him through the waking world as well as the sleeping.

They might have been skirting a line, but he hadn’t crossed it. Not yet.

“We’re in charge, here,” Ryan said, firmly. “This is our territory. We did a nice thing, a generous thing, offering them safe haven and a way through here without being picked up by bounty hunters or worse-”

“Being picked up by Mom,” Danny muttered, and the two of them snorted nearly in unison.

“Right. Exactly. Look, I like them all-”

“You like everybody, Ryan, that doesn’t mean shit.”

“Not everybody.” No, Ryan wasn’t prone to hatred, but he could feel it. He was the one bankrolling Vandrum’s occasional forays into being a bit of a bounty hunter himself. Nate saw another face he remembered, heard a name that rang in his mind from the fucking parties where the Denners had passed his brother around like a cheap whore, and he came to Ryan for cash, a couple of armed men, and permission to kill.

Ryan gave him whatever he wanted, every single time.

Every new corpse was one less motherfucker walking the earth that had raped, beaten, or tortured his brother. Every dead body was worth the cost.

He and Nate would keep Danny safe, protected, and make sure that he would have what he needed from here on out. What he wanted. And the moment Ryan had seen Danny lay eyes on the man, he had known that Danny wanted Isaac.

“I’m just saying,” Ryan said quietly. “I’m saying that they’re not our friends, Dan. They’re on the run from the Stormbecks, and I like fucking over Collen and her shit family as much as any other Michaelson, but… but we don’t owe them any of this. This is all out of generosity. Goodness.”

Danny gnawed on his lower lip, sitting on the stone wall now, crossing his arms in front of himself. “We don’t have to be cruel, Ryan. Just because every other syndicate is, that doesn’t mean-”

“Yeah, we do. You can’t run the world without at least a little cruelty, you know. We’re lucky to be born on this side of the equation. And we should take the advantages that fortune gives us. You like him.”

“I do.” Danny knew what he was going to say, Ryan could tell. The blush had faded and been replaced by pale uncertainty. Once upon a time, Danny had been angry as shit but he’d been a good syndicate kid, too. It was all still in there, but the Denners had wrecked it, dismantled a lot of the easy assumptions Danny had once held.

Ryan hadn’t been able to save him or protect him, when it mattered. But he could make sure Danny never wanted for a single thing for the rest of his life.

“Then… he should stay here with us. With you and Nate.”

CLICK TO READ THE REST

#honor bound au #ash/Athena au #ryan Michaelson is a good syndicate son #and that means something #the calm before the storm #shit about to get real y'all #but we got more smut for you first!#tw: referenced past noncon #tw: referenced past torture #daniel michaelson's au

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whump-tr0pes · 5 years

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Honor bound masterlist

Honor bound: published, available on Amazon here

Delirium, unconscious, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12, pneumonia, grabbed by the hair, cradling someone in their arms, blindfolded, you can scream all you want, kind restraints, parting words regret, hand gagging, slammed into a wall, mercy killing, hostage video, part 24, no-holds-barred beatdown, reopening an old wound, dissociation, forced to hurt someone, human shield, I will only slow you down, passing out from pain, this is for your own good, doesn’t realize they’ve been injured, secret caretaking, claustrophobia, left for dead, attempted rape, part 38, part 39, part 40, part 41, came back wrong, accidentally hurt by friend, knife to the throat, part 45, part 46, tortured for information, part 48, cry into chest, part 50, part 51, #bonuscontent, childhood trauma, clawing at own throat, backhand slap, take me instead, anger born of worry, mind games, go through me, lifted by the neck, biting, bounty on their head, it’s all my fault

Honor Bound 2:

Part 1, part 2, Gray’s alternate (bad) ending, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, cold-blooded torture, disowned by family, part 11, pinned to the wall, will not be a victim, flashbacks, part 15, part 16, manhandling, forced to kneel, betrayal, part 20, public humiliation, caning, Ryan Reveal part 1, Ryan Reveal part 2 (also Vera part 26), part 25, part 26, part 27, part 28, part 29, part 30, part 31, part 32, part 33, part 34, part 35, part 36, brainwashing, part 38, part 39, part 40, The Dream, part 42, part 43, part 44, part 45, part 46, part 47, part 48, hostage situation, hurt protecting someone else, drowning, part 52, part 53, part 54, branding, I have your loved one, shock collar, stress position, part 59, part 60, part 61, part 62, part 63, conditioning, big brother instinct

Vera series: (prequel)

Handcuffed/manacled, kick them while they are down, whipping, captivity, part 5, rape/noncon, part 7, part 8, recorded/broadcast torture, forced to beg, sadistic choice, leave me alone, part 13, choking, dehumanization, part 16, part 17, part 18, part 19, part 20, part 21, part 22, part 23, part 24, part 25, Ryan Reveal part 2, part 27, part 28, part 29, part 30, part 31, touch starved, part 33, part 34, part 35, part 36, part 37

Ash/Athena Crossover AU

Crossover with @ashintheairlikesnow‘s Daniel Michaelson story!

Safe passage, meeting Danny, room assignments, whiskey and nightmares, Ryan’s morning coffee, safe, secret, a walk in the woods part 1, a walk in the woods part 2, the last night, enter corrine, trust, the branding, unwrapping, party, rescue, unmarked, reunion, epilogue

Fillis angst crossover

Finn/Patrick spice

Fillis angst crossover epilogue

AO3

Story is set in an AU where crime syndicates essentially run things, and it’s up to everyone else to either stay out of the way, or do what they can to stop them.

Character bios under the cut

When the story begins...

Isaac, 27: the protector of the team. He’s been tasked with keeping them all safe, but he tasks himself with so much more. He’s been fighting the crime syndicates since he was a teen. He’s brave, protective, and would do anything for the team’s youngest member, Sam.

Sam, 19: the youngest and newest member of the team. They are Isaac’s little sibling in every way but blood. When they were captured by Gavin and tortured to the point of delirium, the team risked everything to get them out. They’re sweet, devoted, and loved. They didn’t want this life, but that choice was taken away when they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they’re part of the ragtag team, learning how to survive.

Gavin, 24: the son of the Stormbeck crime syndicate. He prefers torturing people to attending meetings and often uses his pull just to amuse himself. He’s always wanted to find someone he can’t break, someone he can hurt who can take it. He’s chronically bored and just wants to spice life up a bit. Maybe Isaac is the hero he’s been looking for.

Vera, 36: there isn’t anything Vera learns that she doesn’t become good at. Over her life she’s picked up every random skill she can get her hands on, be it flying a helicopter, hotwiring a car, or dancing the tango. She helps the team now using the skills she picked up as a cop and on the run, getting them out of tight spots with her quick thinking and improvisation. She knows the cruelty of the syndicates better than most.

Gray, 52: Gray is the heart and leader of the team. Empathetic, caring, and sensitive, they see the places their team needs support the most. They are always ready and willing to put someone else first. They are the only one that still remembers how the world was before the syndicates, and they’ve spent their whole life trying to fix things one way or another. Damned if the team isn’t all their kids.

Finn, 28: they have the unfortunate gift of having training as a combat medic. It’s unfortunate, they say, because that guarantees they’ll always be farthest from danger, waiting to patch up the team whenever they get hurt. They want nothing more but to be in the thick of the action. Their gift is their curse.

Ellis, 34: Finn’s partner. They have no family left but the team. When their family was gunned down by Gavin’s family, they vowed to do whatever they had to in order to bring the syndicates to justice. They hide their pain under a mask of sarcasm and snark but will fight you if you threaten their team. They don’t cope in healthy ways behind closed doors. They get very soft around their team, and are an absolute sap around Finn.

Tori, 33: Tori was involved in the resistance movements with Gray years ago. Now she runs a safehouse, helping out victims of the syndicates and trying to keep innocent people safe. She has no time or tolerance for nonsense from the people she takes into her care. She enjoys her quiet life under the radar. When she answers Gray’s call and lets the team into her protection, she has no idea what they bring to her doorstep…good, and bad.

Joseph, 52 (at the time of Honor Bound): Fourteen years before the start of Honor Bound, Vera was assigned to infiltrate Joseph’s syndicate. As the head of his family, he didn’t take kindly to the police snooping around his business. Rather than kill Vera outright, he decided to capture her and torment her for months. Suave, patient, and wildly sadistic, he became the subject of her nightmares when she’s asleep, and awake.

Ryan, 24 (at the time of the Vera series): Fourteen years before the start of Honor Bound, Ryan joined the Stormbeck syndicate for safety, purpose, and most importantly, a job. When he was assigned night shift guard duty for Vera, he figured it was going to be an easy paycheck, babysitting an easy captive. He had no way of knowing the consequences of that assignment.

Colleen, 49 (at the time of Honor Bound 2): Colleen lived as one of the top syndicate members, in control of one of the biggest regions in the shattered country. She loved her husband and her son more than anything else in the world. When her husband is taken from her and her son nearly dies (again) at Vera’s hand, she decides to exercise her divine right as a Stormbeck to set the world right again: by hunting down and destroying Isaac and his team. She would do anything to maintain her family’s status and power, and there’s no one she wouldn’t cut down who got in her way.

Cast faceclaims/fancasts here, here, here

Honor Bound playlist here

Isaac moodboard

Finn/Ellis moodboard

Vera moodboard

Gavin moodboard

Sam/Isaac/Gavin moodboard by @orchidscript

Isaac/Gavin moodboard

Moodboards by @newandfiguringitout:

Gavin and Isaac captivity, Isaac, Sam, Gavin, Ellis, Vera, Isaac and Sam, Isaac/Gavin

@untilthepainstarts, @womping-grounds, @blue-flare10, @free-2bmee, @quirkykayleetam, @walkingchemicalfire, @inpainandsuffering, @redwingedwhump, @burtlederp, @castielamigos-whump-side-blog, @insomniacscoprio, @cursedscribbles, @whumpywhumper, @stxck-fxck, @omega-em-z-02, @whumps-the-word, @justwhumpitwhumpitgood, @justplainwhump, @moose-teeth, @slaintetowhump, @finder-of-rings, @grimwhumper, @inky-whump, @thatsthewhump, @im-only-here-for-the-whump, @orchidscript, @insanitywishes, @this-mightaswell-happen, @newandfiguringitout, @whumpkitty

#honor bound #masterpost #my writing #my oc: Isaac #my oc: Gavin #my oc: Sam #team dynamics #torture #rescue #backstory #bthb

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whump-tr0pes · 4 years

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Ash/Athena Crossover AU

Ok, ok, I couldn’t help it. I just couldn’t.

The Michaelsons and Nate belong to @ashintheairlikesnow. (I wanted to say Nate and the Michaelsons but it sounded too much like a band name XD)

Ryan’s family syndicate hates Gavin’s family and offers the team safe passage when they go through their territory… as long as they agree to stay under their direct supervision for a long weekend while they lay low after being nearly caught.

The Michaelson Group offers a safehouse, but they send their sons - one of whom was held and tortured, along with his partner, by mercenary twins for years - to keep an eye on the team and make sure they don’t do anything stupid to draw attention.

Gavin is convinced he’s going to be abducted and killed because of who he is. Ryan is very friendly to him and makes more than a few comments trying to get various team members alone, which is not reassuring to anyone.

It’s just a few days.

What could possibly go wrong?

Isaac’s arms were folded tight over his chest. “This is a bad idea, Gray. This is a bad, bad fucking idea.”

“Will you calm down?” Gavin snapped. “These people are my family’s direct fucking competitors. If they find out who I am, I’m… I’m fucking –”

“Dead?” Isaac’s eyes burned with contempt. “Can’t even imagine how you feel right now.”

“We’re walking into enemy territory here.” Gavin clenched his jaw shut.

“Every territory is enemy territory for us,” Ellis spat from the back seat. “My heart bleeds for you. Really, it does. You must be so –”

“Fuck you, Ellis.”

“No, fuck you, Gavin.”

“Everyone enough,” Gray bit out. “This is the best option we have. We were nearly killed trying to cross the bridge to New Fayden. This is just for a few days until the syndicate presence at the border dies down. It’ll pass by quickly if we all just… stay calm. Alright?”

“I feel like my tongue is going to burn right out of my mouth for saying this, but Gavin’s right,” Vera said from the back seat. “Passage for us is one thing. For him…” She jerked her chin at Gavin. “If they find out we’ve got a Stormbeck with us our welcome might run out.”

“Then they won’t find out we’ve got a Stormbeck with us.” Gray’s voice was so low Gavin almost couldn’t hear the threat that lay under the words.

“It won’t be too bad,” Sam said quietly. “Our own beds, hot water, a house all to ourselves…”

Gray jerked their head from side to side. “We won’t have the house all to ourselves.”

“What?” Isaac’s voice was horrified. “We’re going to be staying there… with the syndicates?”

“After the disaster at the bridge, the Michaelsons wanted someone around to keep their eyes on us.” Gray sounded annoyed. “I didn’t think it was that unreasonable. They’re harboring Stormbeck enemies. I wouldn’t blame them for wanting to keep a close eye on us.”

“Good luck keeping it a secret who this idiot is,” Vera said, jerking her thumb at Gavin. “Yup. We’re all dead.”

“Who are they sending?” Finn said timidly.

“The Michaelsons’ two sons,” Gray sighed. “Ryan and Daniel. And Daniel’s boyfriend.”

“Why the fuck was someone’s boyfriend invited?” Gavin demanded bitterly. “What, he wanted to just tag along on a romantic weekend with his boyfriend’s brother and seven –”

“I’m given to understand Daniel and his boyfriend are more or less inseparable.” Gray said the words very carefully.

“Oh, please. Are they six-fucking-teen? Who can’t live away from their boyfriend for one goddamned –”

“Apparently they had an experience something similar to Vera’s experience with your father,” Gray said evenly. “Theirs lasted several years. They prefer to stay together now, for their own comfort and safety.”

Gavin fell silent. He twisted his fingers together in his lap. Vera looked out the window at the trees as they suddenly thinned and fell away.

The house was massive for something that had been called “a small summer bungalow.” Gray pulled their car into the driveway and shut it off. They all looked up at the three-story house, at the wide windows and ivy creeping up the walls. At the yard that extended out into the forest behind it. At the curtain at the window that had just shifted.

Gray blew out a slow breath. “Ok. Let’s go meet our hosts.”

“You know what, go on without me. I think I’ll just –”

“Be quiet, Gavin,” Isaac snapped. He groaned as he stepped out of the car. Gavin was shaking slightly as he got out beside him.

One by one they each exited the car, peering up at the impressive-looking house. Even Gavin had to admit it was beautiful. They approached the front door.

Gray took a slow breath. They raised their fist and knocked. The door opened almost immediately to show a young man with dark skin, dark eyes, and a wide smile. They all took a sharp breath in at the same time.

“Hey! I’m Ryan. Come on in.”

#crossover au #ashintheairlikesnow #daniel michaelson #nate vandrum #ryan michaelson #honor bound AU #isaac #sam #gray #vera #tori #finn #ellis #gavin

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ashintheairlikesnow · 4 years

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Ash/Athena AU: The Branding

Continuing my Daniel Michaelson / Honor Bound AU collab with @whump-tr0pes - Corrine brings Isaac, newly claimed by Danny, back to the Michaelson family’s compound to be prepared for Danny’s birthday party. Can be read on AO3 here.

CW: Threats of torture and a frank discussion of noncon and torture. Branding. Nonconsensual touching (not sexual). Dehumanization.

By the time they arrived at the vast, palatial mansion set on a hill that comprised the Michaelson family's main estate, Corrine was relieved to see that Isaac had stopped being a bawling little limp noodle and walked on his own between a pair of armed escorts.

Those pretty eyes were still terrified, but she could sense as his heart finally began to slow and understood it for what it was - he was slipping into numbness.

For now.

It wouldn't last.

"Welcome to my home," Corrine said, somewhat carelessly, gesturing ahead as Isaac was led towards the huge wooden front door.

Corrine and Patrick had built the house piece by piece long before they were Syndicate, back before the takeover. They had different names, then. It wasn’t overly designed like so many of the younger Syndicate homes, and was instead a sprawling series of new floors or wings added as Corrine decided she needed or wanted them.

“Wh-where-... uh, will I…" Daniel’s gorgeous new plaything licked his lips, clearing his throat. The tears were still in his voice, but the car ride from the summer home to here seemed to have given him time to cry them all out while he was locked in the trunk.

Now, he looked beautifully resigned, more than anything. Which suited Corrine Michaelson’s purposes just fine.

“Yes? You may speak.”

Isaac flushed and his eyes jerked back to the ground, wincing.

Ah, so that hit on a sore spot, did it?

Corrine wondered if this little broken toy had been forced to ask permission to speak before. She'd had one like that, once. Learned to press the side of his face against her with big, pretty doe eyes…

Corrine paused. She rather missed that man, now that she remembered him.

"Where w-will I… is this…." His voice seemed to fail him and Isaac was silent again as they stepped into the grand foyer. A spiral double staircase wound up to the second floor, and the first floor was obviously designed for entertaining. Large rooms full of ample seating, fireplaces for winter, and hooks littered throughout the house in ceilings and walls - unobtrusive. Daniel's little toy probably wouldn't notice.

He would learn about those later.

"Will you be living here?" Corrine suggested, and the toy nodded, crossing his arms in front of himself uncertainly. "No. As much as my husband and myself could make lovely use of your body-"

The man shuddered, unable to stop a sound like a whine as he exhaled all at once.

"-you do not belong to me. My son chooses to live elsewhere. You will stay with him."

There might have been a hint of relief, in the man’s face - replaced just as quickly with a whole new flush of shame as he realized he was relieved by such small mercies. She crooked her fingers and the escorts on either side of Isaac pushed him forward. He stumbled at first, nearly falling onto his hands and knees, and Corrine fought back a laugh.

Lovely.

They dragged him back to his feet, towards the staircase, Corrine walking ahead of them with a slight click of her heels.

His breathing began to change again as they headed up the stairs and he was further and further from the door. "You need to understand," Corrine said flatly. "I have no use for tears. I have no use for you. You live because you have precisely one use for Daniel and none for those who left you behind."

A broken sob, behind her. Corrine did not look back - but she smiled, nonetheless.

"You will live with my son. You will attend his needs, however he chooses to use you. You will keep yourself in good physical condition for him - physically fit, hair cut to his liking. You will dress in what you are provided and if you are provided nothing, that is what you will wear."

"Oh, fuck," Isaac whispered. "I… I won't."

Corrine, generous to a fault, decided to ignore that. It hardly counted as defiance.

“My son has… quirks, after what he has survived. You will no doubt find him the best option available to you. You should strive to please him in every way, if you want to stay out of my basement."

"Y-your-"

One of the guards shoved Isaac again, and Corrine listened to him fall and catch himself hard on his elbows halfway up the stairs. She paused - minutely - and then continued walking as the guards picked him up by his arms to keep him moving.

"My basement. I trust Nate's assessment but - as they say - trust and verify. I believe him, that you have no useful Intel. I will verify that, if my son finds you inadequate. You have been in basements before, I imagine. Or rooms that served the same purpose my basement serves for me."

A long silence. The sound of another thump. Then, shaking, the man's voice again, the sounds of his attempts to move faster, to stay ahead of the guards shoving him. "Y-yes," Isaac said hoarsely.

"Good. If you please my son-" She honestly only said it that way just to hear the little despairing noise he made, that time. "-then you have nothing to fear. So I suggest you put your only value to good use."

She walked back across the landing, knowing he would follow - he had no choice and there was nowhere to run. He walked like a man on his way to a gallows - a heavy step, only as fast as he was forced to go.

"My son's twenty-eighth birthday is tomorrow. We are throwing a rather… massive party, in which members of my Syndicate will be introduced to you. You will be polite. You will be courteous."

He was silent, now, as they walked down a hallway. Dark wood floors and deep, warmly painted red walls. Frames hung at regular intervals, a mix of artwork and photos.

"This is my family home," Corrine said, her voice softening slightly. "My boys both grew up here. Well, Daniel was five when we brought him home - his mother was…" Her voice trailed away. "Well. Not, perhaps, as protected from harm as she should have been. I should have noticed sooner. Here." She stopped before a spot on the wall that held a gallery of smaller photographs, carefully arranged. "Guards. My son's property will look."

Isaac was shoved up next to her, his face red, but he made no argument. His eyes ran, anguished and half-empty, over the photos as Corrine gestured and narrated each one.

"This is Danny's first day-" She pointed to a photo of a redheaded little boy with a backpack nearly as large as he was. Wide blue eyes were immediately recognizable, as were the freckles that seemed to cover every inch of skin.

"Here, you have them when they were tutored - we brought in the best private teachers." Danny and Ryan, arms around each other, sitting at a table with books and papers strewn in front. They both had the awkward, gangly, elbows-and-knees look of very young men.

"Here, Daniel on his first assignment with Patrick-" Daniel, clearly an adult but a younger one, rolling his eyes in the picture. He wore the gun at his hip naturally, and held another in his left hand. "This was shortly before he was taken."

Then, she paused. "And here is a few months ago."

The final photo was of Danny sitting at a table, talking to someone out of frame. The scars seem redder, deeper than they look now. There was a yawning emptiness, a darkness in his eyes, all too plainly visible. Nate sat beside him, a hand on his back. Nate's face was cold.

Isaac made a soft sound, next to her, and Corrine turned to look at him. He was staring at the final photo - Daniel recounting some details from one of the parties he had been forced to attend, so that Nate and the others could locate the hosts and deal with them directly.

Isaac's eyes were locked on the vulnerability - the hint of old fear and the deep wounds - so freely written across her eldest son's face. She felt Isaac's heart rate change, a shift through the blood that rushed under the surface.

A man being shown a funhouse mirror and seeing his own face covered in blood.

"My boy has made great strides in recovery. You are one of those strides. He should have wanted someone like you for himself long ago."

Isaac's head dropped and his shoulders shook, hands curling into fists. Rush of adrenaline, no doubt a small one as he'd been cycling through fight or freeze responses since he walked in through the door with Daniel.

She watched with curiosity, wondering if he really would do something that stupid.

He didn't.

He only nodded, tense as a bowstring about to snap, and kept his eyes on the floor. Corrine had expected more fight, but it was more clear than ever that this pretty toy had already been played with before, and broken by careless hands. That he was so… docile… suggested he not only knew the odds were against him, but had once been held long enough to be grateful simply to walk unrestrained.

Escorted, but unrestrained.

"You will sleep here, tonight," Corrine said, opening a door to show a spacious bedroom with a lovely queen-sized bed, side tables, tasteful decor… and barred windows.

Isaac swallowed, staring inside. "Why do you-"

"You are not the first plaything to belong to a Michaelson. You won't be the last. Go."

He was shoved and stumbled forwards into the room, and she watched him take in details he had missed, at first.

The four-poster bed had hooks installed at the top and rings around each wooden corner. There were other hooks in different places, at varying heights, along the wall. The chaise lounge that nestled against the footboard of the bed was set slightly low and was built to be wide enough to lay comfortably on one's back.

Corrine watched the blood rush to his face, as he took it all in, and felt her mouth begin to water. She rather wanted a steak, suddenly. Rare, bloody enough that it was one step from mooing.

"My husband normally makes use of this room," She said, letting that sink in, as well. "But it's only for one night, hm? You'll be fine."

"I-I… is, will D-Danny-" The plaything's voice was shaking, and she saw fresh tears welling up in his pretty eyes. "B-be here-"

"No, you'll be alone tonight. You’re not quite ready, I don’t think, to show appropriate gratitude." Corrine smiled.

She snapped her fingers and one of the guards stepped forward, taking Isaac by the arm to lead him over to the chaise lounge. He stumbled over there, flinching away from the guard's touch. When the guard pointed down, Isaac sat - less like sitting and more like simply collapsing backwards until he hit the soft fabric, clenching his fingers into it, digging fingernails into the soft red cushion.

"Wait. If, if I'm-" He swallowed down revulsion - written plain as day across his face, as the tears began once more to fall. "If, I'm D-Danny's p-... his, if I'm…" He gasped in breath, curling over himself.

“Take your time,” Corrine said, impatient voice giving the lie to her words. She slipped the heavy ring off her finger and handed it to one of the guards, who nodded and stepped aside, pulling his cigarette lighter out. Isaac was still staring at the rug under his feet.

“W-Will I be… will he… will he put-”

“A collar on you?”

Isaac nodded, closing his eyes, miserably. Corrine sighed, flicking her eyes over at the guard, currently holding the heavy relief of her family’s crest over his lit lighter, heating it up. Unwilling to wait the amount of time it would actually take, Corrine concentrated, pulling the threads of the world around her a bit closer. Bouncing molecules off of each other, creating friction and increasing the heat around the flame. The guard hissed, softly, as the gentle warmth he had been able to feel on his fingers was suddenly uncomfortably hot.

“No, plaything. He won’t. Daniel wore a collar for a very long time - and before they gave him the collar, they cut his neck again and again with barbed wire until he might as well. Understand that people like you are who hurt my son.”

Isaac gasped, raising his eyes to look at her again. “What? I, I would never-”

“Anti-Syndicate fools,” Corrine said evenly. “Who piss off the people who hold rightful power and then turn on our children. People like you abducted my son. People like your merry band tied him down and cut him apart. They beat him. They kept him starving and scared. They held him in dark rooms and they sold him to the highest bidder. Because he was Syndicate.”

“We would never do that,” Isaac insisted, some flicker of defiance again. “We would never-”

“Did you ever hear rumors, Isaac Moore?” Corrine asked softly, too softly. A snake’s hiss before a strike, slithering through the grass. “Did you ever hear about the parties, where you could take it out on some Syndicate son who met a bad end? Couple hundred dollars for an hour alone, and the only rule is that he has to survive it?”

“No!” Isaac all but yelled, and then went quiet. “I, I mean… no, I don’t think…” His voice trailed, uncertain. He slowly looked back down at the floor. “If I had, had heard about something like that, I wouldn’t have-”

“You wouldn’t have attended, maybe. You’re soft. Sweet. Inherently good, and it’s goddamn sickening. But you’d have ignored it, set yourself to forget you ever heard, and left my son to suffer. Nothing you can do, after all. No way out for the poor little bastard, huh? Might as well resign himself to being the party favor, passed around like a whore, like-... well. Like you.”

She felt her eyes burn, and closed them, taking a deep breath to calm herself down.

“You would have done nothing, just like everyone else.”

“I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t leave anyone to suffer like that,” Isaac said, but she could see him wracking his brain, trying desperately to remember if maybe he had heard rumors about parties, and had simply dismissed them out of hand. She had met enough anti-Syndicate groups, since, who had. Who hadn’t believed anyone would hold someone like that, for that purpose, on their side.

As though there weren’t enough viciousness, in mortal men, to wrap around the world a hundred times.

“No,” Isaac said softly. “I never… I never heard anything like that. I know I didn’t… I wouldn’t have just, just…”

“Hm. Maybe not. My son was a pinata, he was burned and cut and whipped and raped in effigy. Again and again and again. Until he burst open, until he broke, until nothing was left. Until we brought him home a man who answered to a dog’s name. Until we brought home a man with their initials carved on the back of his neck, who can’t hold a gun or even touch one.”

“H-He touched the gun you h-had, in the house-”

“To stop me from killing you.” The plaything had a point, though. Corrine hadn’t considered that. Daniel had not hesitated when he put his hand on the barrel of the gun and pushed it away from Isaac’s head. “I suppose he must truly like you.”

Isaac let out a sound somewhere between a cynical laugh and a broken sob.

“Oh, don’t be so put out. You won’t do any better in life than this. Did you enjoy it, Isaac, fucking my son and his partner?”

Isaac turned bright red, closing his eyes so tightly she could see every muscle in his face tense. He swallowed, hard, and slowly nodded.

At least he didn’t bother trying to ignore the questions, and didn’t seem inclined to lie. That at least was something.

“Good. Daniel will no doubt be careful and kind to you. More than you deserve. Although… you are not responsible for what happened to my son. I understand that, I do.” The guard was ready, and nodded at her as the color of her ring began to change, the metal shifting to a deep reddish color that Corrine had always loved to see. She signaled to the other guard, who stepped forwards with half a smile already on his face. He grabbed Isaac off the chaise and shoved him to his knees on the floor, crouching behind him to wrap an arm across his shoulders, forcing his arms down by his sides.

“W-wait, wait! Wait, wh-what’s-...” Isaac struggled, but weakly - Corrine could still see that he was fighting some deep internal conditioning that told him to simply give up and let it, whatever it was, happen to him. “Wait! I never hurt him! I w-wouldn’t, I wouldn’t-”

“No, you won’t. Ever.” The guard wrenched Isaac’s head to the side, exposing his lovely neck, the veins standing out as he began to pant in fear, his hands going up to grip at the man’s arm and try to pull himself free. “Because you will live the rest of your life as docile domestic property. Don’t fight, Isaac.”

“Pl-please,” Isaac said, his voice cracking, thrashing with panic in the arms of a man who held him almost entirely still, fingers twisted hard into his hair to keep his head forced to the side, the whites showing around his eyes. “Please no, please, wh-whatever, whatever you’re going to d-d-do, please, I’ll be good, I’ll be-... I’ll be good for Danny, I’ll be-”

“I know you will.” Corrine didn’t bother to pitch her voice soothing. She simply took the ring from the guard with the lighter, leaned down, and forced the red-hot metal with her family crest on it against Isaac’s neck, just below his ear.

The sound he made, and the picture he painted with every muscle taut, back arched, eyes wide and bulging, was one of excruciating beauty.

A wild shriek of pain and panic, fear and agony, that came not so much from his lungs as from the core of him, and Corrine pressed harder and harder while the guard held him so perfectly still she didn’t worry about the lines being blurred at all.

His screaming was wordless, and it rang on and on and on through the room, seemingly endless, stretched out in time.

Finally Corrine pulled back and away, and Isaac went limp, hands dropping to his sides, only still on his knees because of the guard holding him up. She tilted her head, looking - M, surrounded by vines, perfectly legible. Essentially permanent.

“There we go,” She said softly. “Can you hear me, Isaac?”

Tears rolled down his face and he managed a nod, then winced and groaned as even that much hurt the brand she had seared into him.

“Good. If you try to leave, that brand will mark you. Anyone in our territory who sees you will bring you home to Daniel, to me. Please trust that you do not want to run and be brought back to me.” She reached up to run a hand back through his sweaty hair, and Isaac shuddered and whined in his throat, like an animal. Like a dog.

People like Isaac - or not like him, but who acted against the interests of the Syndicate and were therefore close enough - had once forced her son to sound like that, with a muzzle whose markings still remained on him.

“You are Michaelson property now. You live as long as my son wishes for you to live. You will fuck him until he is done with you, and you had best be very good at it. That is your life, it has narrowed to this. The sooner you accept that, the more content you will be in your new existence.” She stood back up. “There is a toothbrush in the attached bath for you, and toothpaste. There is a cup to drink water from.” She flicked her eyes up at the guards. “Strip him.”

“N-no-... please, let me keep, at least, let me-” But he was too weak from pain, and she watched as the guards manhandled him like a sick child, yanking his shirt off over his head and his pants off of him, shoes and socks, until he was curled up on the floor with his back to the chaise, shuddering, trying to guard his vulnerability, his nakedness.

“Your clothing will be destroyed, you don’t need it any longer. I will come for you when it’s time to prepare for the party. You will be fed, before then. You will not leave this room until it’s time to dress.” The guards stepped away, but her son’s new toy did not uncurl from his spot, didn’t even try. He just cried, and Corrine sighed at the beauty of the tears.

Daniel would not appreciate them, but that was fine. This wasn’t about teaching him appreciation, only to take the first few steps into who he had been meant to be.

“I love my son, Isaac,” Corrine said, almost gently. “I love him very much. He suffered immensely because we adopted him. He suffered for his name, the name we gave him when he was so young… he couldn’t have known this would happen. None of us knew. And I… I will never let it happen again, not to my child, to my-... I love Daniel, he is as much my baby as Ryan, even if he didn’t begin that way… and he wants you. So spend the night considering how you can best show your gratitude when he unwraps you tomorrow.”

Corrine turned and walked away, the guards falling into step behind her. She stepped outside, and swallowed against the core of warmth that suffused her, her deep love for both her children. The door closed and locked, the crying man still on the floor, curled up and naked, one hand up as though he would cover the brand but not daring to so much as brush the angry red skin.

“I failed my son once,” Corrine said softly, to herself. The guards pretended they could not hear her. “I will not fail him again.” She stood there, stilled for a moment, lost in her memories of the shy, nervous five year old she’d brought into her home as a way to distract the anti-Syndicate fools from sweet Ryan… and the grown man who had fulfilled that role all too well.

Broken and beaten, raped and destroyed, brainwashed and bashed in and held in dark room after dark room. Only dragged out into the light so they could call him by other Syndicate names as they hurt him.

She closed one hand slowly into a fist, and just as slowly - consciously - relaxed it.

Daniel, used by the kind of people who fought the Syndicates, their pretty effigy to burn. She had failed to value him until it was too late, failed to keep him safe. She would not make that mistake ever again. Isaac had of course not been one of those who hurt him. But Daniel taking him as a plaything, using him the way Daniel had been used, might be a way to turn that effigy around, and make someone else stand in for those who had hurt him.

She couldn’t imagine any other reason, really, that Daniel would want the pretty thing so badly.

“What Daniel wants, he will have. Have a tux altered to the exact specifications I will give you. My baby is going to receive a perfectly obedient gift at his party tomorrow night, and I know exactly what to do to ensure Isaac is sufficiently appreciative of my son’s attention.”

The guards nodded.

God, she needed that steak. The smell of burning skin had lit a fire in her veins that could not be put out without blood.

Corrine headed for the kitchen.

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whump-tr0pes · 4 years

Text

Ash/Athena Crossover AU: Trust

The team waits in the safehouse @ashintheairlikesnow‘s Nate prepared for them and hope for good news.

Sam hadn’t stopped crying since they fled the summer house.

They were curled up on the couch in Nate’s safehouse, completely inconsolable. Tori’s fingers were stroking through their hair as their tears soaked into the fabric. She murmured soothingly to them, holding back her own tears as she did.

“We left him,” they sobbed. “We left him there, how is he going to feel when he finds out we heard someone was coming and left…”

“Shh,” soothed Tori. “He’ll understand. He’ll understand that if we hadn’t left, we’d all be –” Her voice choked off.

“But we left him!” they wailed. “We could have stayed, we could have… done something, we could have fought them…”

“And we’d be killed, honey.” Tori’s fingers kept moving through their hair. “We’d have tried to fight the Michaelsons on their own turf and we’d have been killed.”

“They’re going to torture him!” Sam’s voice was quickly becoming a scream. “They’re syndicate, Danny and Ryan are different but… Nate wouldn’t have gotten us out if he hadn’t… known… They’re going to hurt him…”

Vera was pacing, biting her nails down to the quick. She squeezed her eyes shut at the words. “They’re not going to torture him,” she said firmly.

Sam hiccoughed. “You don’t know that!” they whimpered, and buried their face against Tori’s thigh. “They’re going to hurt him, they know he protects us, they know he knows our safehouses and friends…”

“They’re not going to hurt him,” she said, more quietly. “Okay? They’re not.”

“How do you know?” Finn looked over at her from where they were seated at the kitchen table, their head in their hands. Their face was wet with tears, too. “How do you know they won’t hurt him?”

Vera bit her lip. She thought about how Isaac had looked the first morning they were there, cheeks flushed red, a sort of… preoccupied look in his eyes. Not haunted, like he sometimes was. Happy. She thought about how the boy Danny had looked at him, with furtive smiles and downcast eyes, how their hands had rested on each other with such care. How they laughed together. How Isaac didn’t flinch when Danny was close. She smiled softly. “You saw how they were together.”

Gavin bit his lip and looked away.

“We should never have come,” Sam moaned. “We shouldn’t have come here, we’ve lost Isaac!” They buried their face in their hands.

Vera cast a glance at Gray. They were in the kitchen, leaning against a counter. Their face had been drawn with pain ever since Nate had come to them and said, “leave your things. Pack your family up and go.” Her eyes didn’t linger on them. She knew well enough that they felt terrible that they had made the decision to come here. That they had let Isaac fall into syndicate hands. But if we hadn’t gone, the Stormbecks would probably have us now. It was the right decision. It was the decision I would have made.

Vera wandered to the couch and knelt in front of Sam. She smoothed her fingers through their hair and they whimpered. They lifted their head and looked at her with tears in their eyes. “He’s being held again,” they whispered. “I know what that will… do to him…” Vera glanced at Gavin as he flinched behind the couch. She pressed her lips together.

“Nate’s going to get him out,” she murmured, and stroked their hair. “He’s going to do it. Then we’ll all be together again and we can keep moving.”

“We’re putting an awful lot of faith in that asshole,” Gavin spat. “I don’t trust him. He’d do anything to Isaac to keep that fucking…” He swallowed hard and grimaced. “If Daniel Michaelson could be convinced he needed to hurt Isaac, Nate would do it in a heartbeat. So why are we trusting hi—”

“We’re not trusting him,” Vera snapped. “We’re trusting me, and my instincts. Nate will come through. He’ll bring Isaac. I know he will.”

“What the hell do you know about what he’s going to do?” Gavin said miserably, like a petulant child. “He spent more time in his room with Isaac and that syndicate prick than he did with anyone else.”

Vera took a deep breath. Let it out. Felt Tori go very still in front of her.

Vera stood and carefully made her way across the room to Gavin. He quailed under her glare. They were the same height, but she seemed to tower over him, baring her teeth and backing him into a corner like an angry snake. She brought in a slow breath that hissed through her nostrils and wet her lips.

“Nate Vandrum was tortured for years. I can guarantee he has scars that look exactly like mine. And when those fucking monsters who kept him hurt the one he loves, he burned them to the fucking ground.” Gavin swallowed, his eyes wide and fixed on Vera. “I know more about who he is than you ever want to find out.”

There was a strange look on Gavin’s face that Vera couldn’t place. He looked… desperate. Hurt. Like he was being torn apart. She didn’t understand why.

“Forgive me for worrying about who we choose to place our faith in,” he mumbled. “I just want him back.”

“Not as much as I do,” Vera hissed. A strange look crossed his features and she turned her back on him.

The phone rang.

Everyone jumped. Vera looked over at Gray, still leaning on the counter. Their eyes were faraway, their forehead still wrinkled in worry. Vera took a step towards the phone. Gray gave a small nod, their eyes never focusing fully on her. She swallowed and picked it up.

“Hello?”

“It’s me.” There was an edge to Nate’s voice that made Vera go still.

She felt the burn of tears in her throat already. Keep your shit together for him. He would do it for you. Keep it together for Isaac. She didn’t speak. She knew her voice would shake if she did.

There was a deep breath over the line. “Look… I kn-know you have no reason to trust me. I know you don’t.”

“I do trust you.” Vera pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling.

“I’m… grateful, f-for that.” A pause. “I’m calling in every f-favor I have to get Isaac out. I’m g-g-going to try to have him to you between midnight and 0200. I’m doing m-my best.”

His stutter was better. He’s focused. Just like I get. “Thank you.”

“He won’t be st-stuck as a p-plaything. I won’t l-let it happen. I won’t let hi-hi- anyone be treated like Danny w-was. I p-promise.”

The world lurched around Vera and she had to grab the counter to stay upright. There was a pause at the end of the line. “…what?” she whispered.

Another pause. Longer.

“Did they hurt him?” Tears sprung to Vera’s eyes. She noticed everyone sitting up and looking at her out of the corner of her eye.

“N-no. But it was… Danny… it w-was the only—… Corrine would have…”

The room was spinning. “How…”

“I-I’m going to fix th-this. I’m g-going to get him out. Th-then you and your t-team n-need to b-be ready to drive w-west. There’s a th-thin band of territory that neither th-the Michaelsons nor th-the Cor-ordovas patrol. Follow it t-to Cedar S-Springs and the 35 will take y-you out from th-there.”

“But –”

“I might n-not have t-time to tell you when I arrive w-with him.”

She clenched her jaw. “…is he…”

There was a heavy silence. “…he thinks we b-betrayed him. But he knows y-you didn’t.”

Vera blinked tears from her eyes. She took a steadying breath. “Bring him back to us.”

“I will.” No stutter. “I’m going to get him out. I swear to you, I will d-do everything in my power. He will not end up like Danny.”

Vera’s throat tightened. “Bring him back to us. Be safe.”

“I will.” The line went dead.

She stood at the counter, stunned. She squeezed her eyes shut.

“Is he okay?” Sam asked, terrified.

“They, um.” She squeezed one hand into a fist. Let it go. “Danny claimed him.”

“What?!” Gavin’s voice shot across the room.

“Um.” She struggled to steady her voice. “Corrine Michaelson was going to kill him. Danny claimed him. Nate’s still going to get him out.”

“That scarred-up son of a bitch claimed him?” Gavin shrieked. “I’m going to kill him, I’m going to fucking kill him.”

Vera’s head snapped up. “You’re on dangerous fucking ground, Stormbeck,” she hissed. He froze at her use of his last name.

Gray appeared at her shoulder. “Nate’s going to get him out?”

“Yes,” she forced through her teeth, eyes still blazing and fixed on Gavin. “Between midnight and two this morning. We need to be ready.”

Sam was sitting up on the couch with tears still streaming down their face. “But we’ll get him back?”

Vera mindlessly touched the scars at her throat. “We’ll get him back. Or the Michaelsons are going to figure out Nate isn’t the only one who can burn a fucking house to the ground.”

#ash/Athena au #Athena/ash au #honor bound AU #daniel michaelson's au #whump #betrayal #safehouse #implied torture #murder bros #can nate be a murder bro(TM) too?#Gavin is...#not jealous #not jealous at all #nope #sam is a cinnamon roll

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whump-tr0pes · 4 years

Text

Ash/Athena AU: Epilogue, in which Gavin is a dumbass

The team is safe. One thing Isaac can’t understand, though, is why Gavin had to hurt the man who set Isaac free. He’s about to find out more than that.

Y’all, I seriously had the time of my life writing this with @ashintheairlikesnow. Letting my characters let loose and have fun (and then tying the whole thing up into an angsty little bow) has been one of the best parts of the last few weeks for me. I hope you read her Daniel Michaelson series, if you haven’t already (she’s just getting into The Bad Arc, which promises to be horrible.) She is the Conductor of the Spice Train and Angst Connoisseur and she was just absolutely amazing to write with.

AO3

NOTE: I really feel the need to point out, Gavin is way more of an asshole here than he is in canon. Please keep it in mind!

“Isaac, we need to go.” Vera’s voice was soft and low as he stared after Nate’s car as he sped away with Danny. He turned his head a little to acknowledge her, but his eyes stayed fixed on the car.

He felt her next to him, felt her warmth. A soft hand on his shoulder. He finally turned to face her. He had tears in his eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Isaac,” she murmured.

He licked his lips and blew out a slow breath. “It’s okay,” he whispered, his voice pulled tight into a sob.

She pulled him into a hug. “No, it’s not. And that’s okay.” She kept her head away from the bandage on his neck. He shuddered against her and folded into her arms.

“I thought –”

“I know,” she soothed.

“He…” Isaac buried his face in her shoulder. “I thought he claimed me. I thought he used me. I thought he… he didn’t care. And he did. He cared enough to get me out. Walked through the basement with me. He… he took…” He swallowed and more tears wet her shoulder. “He took that sedative for me. He… he pushed a gun away from my head…” He trembled as his chest swelled in another sob.

“I know,” she murmured against his shirt.

“I thought… I thought it was all a lie. That… that he just wanted… wanted to…” He gasped with sobs.

Vera pulled him closer. “But he didn’t. He liked you. He cared about you. He never wanted to hurt you. You need to remember that.”

Isaac clutched at Vera’s waist and muffled a weak wail in her shirt. “I thought I could have something good,” he whimpered. “I thought I could have something that didn’t hurt.”

“And you did,” she said gently. “You did, for a little while.”

He nodded weakly and closed his eyes. He let her hold him.

His tears stopped after a while and he pulled back. He scrubbed his face with his sleeve and saw her doing the same. He turned back to the house. “Sorry. Let’s get the others and go.”

They all must have been watching out the window. Before he reached the door it opened and everyone stepped out, carrying only what they had had on them when Nate had told them to run. Sam came out with wide eyes. They went right to him and pulled him into a hug.

He pressed a kiss against the top of their head. “We should go.”

They pulled away and nodded. Isaac looked up at the others. They headed for the car. Gavin came last.

Gavin’s face was pinched with some dark emotion Isaac couldn’t place. His eyes looked glassy, almost like they were filled with tears. His mouth twisted into a bitter grimace. He shuffled along behind the others with his shoulders hunched forward.

Rancor curdled in Isaac’s stomach. Danny saved me and Gavin still had to hurt him. As Gavin reached the car, Isaac stepped forward and squared up with him.

“What is your problem?” he growled.

Gavin’s eyes flicked up to him with a ripple of fear. Gavin swallowed. “Um.”

“He saved me,” Isaac said in a low and dangerous voice. He felt the others freeze around him. “His mother is the one that claimed me, and Danny saved me. I’d be dead right now if it weren’t for him, or at the very least chained up in her fucking basement. She’d be torturing me for information about you, Gavin Stormbeck. So why did you have to take the thing that… why did you have to hurt the person who saved me from her?”

Gavin’s throat bobbed. “I…”

Isaac took a step closer. Gavin took a step back.

“I thought I was going to be a plaything again, and it broke me,” Isaac snarled. “I thought I was going to live the rest of my life the way you kept me. Hurt me. I thought it was happening all over again. I thought I was going to be tortured again by a syndicate son. Someone just like you.”

Gavin held his hands out in front of him. “Isaac…”

“How can you be angry at him when you’re the one who broke me first? How can you say you cared that he claimed me, when you’re the reason I’m covered in scars? You burned me. Just because you didn’t brand me…” Isaac’s skin shuddered at the memory. “But you marked me so much worse.”

Gavin’s eyes were wide. His voice rose to a desperate whine. “Please…”

Isaac’s hands closed around the front of Gavin’s shirt as he closed the distance between them. “Why do you care so fucking much what happens to me when you’re the one who tortured me?”

Gavin shoved Isaac’s hands away from his shirt. “Because I didn’t know I loved you then!”

Isaac’s breath froze in his chest. “…what?”

Gavin’s had his hands over his mouth like he’d just spoken a mortal sin. He shook his head and backed away from Isaac.

Isaac took another step forward. “What the fuck did you say?”

Gavin trembled. “I…”

“Did you just say you…” Isaac wet his lips. “Did you just say… that?”

“Um…” Gavin’s eyes flicked to the others.

“How… why?”

Gavin’s mouth fell open. “Why… Are you kidding?”

Isaac blinked. “I… don’t…”

“Why do I… um…” Gavin’s face fell into his hands. “Have you looked at yourself?”

Isaac flushed red. “You like me because you think I’m… pretty?”

Gavin’s eyes rolled to the brightening sky. “No, you idiot…”

“Then…” Isaac spread his hands in disbelief. “What…”

“You’re good, Isaac,” Gavin sighed at him, exasperated. “You’re so, just…” Gavin squeezed his hands into fists in front of him. “You’re just so fucking good, it drives me absolutely fucking insane. How you’ll… how you just… fucking give yourself, how you protect us and you’re so fucking nice to everyone… except me! After everything, you went and slept with some fucking syndicate son like his name doesn’t even matter, like he’s not exactly the same as me…”

Isaac’s face darkened. “He’s not the same. He never hurt me. He never tortured me. He’s the one who was tortured.”

“What, and you found someone else as broken as you think you are and you figured, ‘sure, whatever, guess I’ll let this one fuck me’?”

Isaac swallowed. “What do you mean… as I think I am?”

Gavin threw his hands up. “You’re not broken, Isaac, you dumbass. You’re so fucking strong it drives me nuts. I just…” Isaac was shocked to see tears shining on Gavin’s cheeks. “I just… I gave up everything for you, I left my family, I left my name, I left my life, because my mom offered to give you to me and I just… couldn’t!” Gavin swiped his sleeve angrily across his face. “And I hoped, it was stupid but I just hoped that maybe you could forget –” Gavin’s mouth snapped shut. “Not… not forget. But if you could… if you could just… see that I’ve changed, that I’m better… If you could just see how much I care about you, and I always have, I just didn’t understand it before…” Gavin’s voice trailed off in a miserable whine.

“If I could… what?” Isaac knew the answer. He didn’t want to hear it, but he knew it.

Gavin stared miserably at the ground. “If you could just… see how much I care about you, maybe you would… love me the way you loved that syndicate prick.”

Isaac’s mouth hung open. He felt empty with shock. His body felt numb. His legs were still wobbly from what Nate had given him… What did he call it? Isaac remembered asking. He remembered Nate told him, but couldn’t recall the word. The sounds. It was all so confused.

“But… why… would you hurt Danny? If he’s the one who… saved me… you should be…”

“Because I’m fucking mad at him!” Gavin shouted. “Because he’s so fucking sweet, he’s fucking… broken and I wanted you to be mine, for months I wanted you to be mine…”

Gavin crumpled and burst into sobs.

What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck, WHAT THE FUCK.

“Gavin, we…” Isaac’s mouth was dry. “We have to go,” he said a little weakly.

“No fucking shit,” Gavin sobbed miserably. “Because now we’re on the run from my mom and his fucking horror-movie mom… What are they, anyway? Ryan’s not –”

“Not like her,” Isaac said quickly. “I’m telling you, Ryan’s not like her. They’re not the same.” Isaac looked around, a little dazed, still reeling from the shock. “G-Gray?”

Gray kept their eyes pointed at the ground. “I don’t know,” they murmured. “We should really get going.”

#honor bound AU #Daniel Michaelson's au #epilogue #in which Gavin is such a dumbass #Canon Gavin is an asshole #love confession #I just had to add this in #sorry not sorry #past captivity #murder bros #my oc: Isaac

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