Nightwisher
And don't you dare go hollow....
A side story set in the Chronology Series
She could hear her breathing despite her attempts to mask it, control it. Worse still, as if the world itself was in defiance against her, she could see the swirling puffs of air that came with each exhale. There was no snow on the ground, but the pressure of the gray clouds could be felt above as they threatened to overflow at any moment. The wind cut through her clothes, pricking at her skin like nettles. The cold air struck against her face, both numbing and making the still healing scar over her left eye ache. Her heart was beating against her chest like a bird throwing itself at its cage. A feeling she could empathize with.
The raven haired teen felt his presence only a fraction of a second before she felt his hand on her shoulder, throwing her against a tree where he pinned her. Cold silver brushed against her throat, making her breath hitch.
“How many times do I have to tell you: watch your back.” The man’s voice was quiet as annoyance dripped from his tone.
“I tr-tried,” the girl’s teeth chattered as she spoke. A contrast to the man’s controlled voice. It was like nothing in the world could break the dominance he had over every centimeter of his body.
“Try. Harder.” Each word was spoken with anger, a ferocity that she knew all too well. One she hoped to master herself someday. Someday, she would have his same power, the same menacing yet shadowed presence.
“Yes, sir.”
“Go.” The pressure was released from her throat as the man stepped back. Without hesitation, she was off again. Her feet pounded against the forest floor as she dodged around trees and did her best not to allow her boots to get caught on the roots and rocks that were hidden by the night. She checked over her right shoulder every moment that could be spared, but it never felt like it was enough.
A few miles into her run the girl started to slow, her lungs feeling like they’d been filled with ice. Teal eyes darted around the dark forest, looking for any movement or an out of place shadow. Again, she felt his presence bearing down on her and she spun, knocking his hand aside and driving her fist into his cheek. He followed the momentum of her block and strike. With a spin, his elbow dug into her shoulder. Like him, the girl used the attack to her advantage as she doubled over, dropping her shoulder down while pivoting her weight to bring the heel of her left leg into his side. The man caught her foot against him and pulled her forward in an attempt to knock her off balance. With what stability she maintained in that second, she pushed off of the ground with her free leg, trying to ram her head into his face. He lifted his hand, catching her, and threw her to the ground.
She lay there for a few moments, staring up at the sky through the breaks in the leaves as she replayed the fight in her mind and tried to pinpoint something she’d done wrong. She couldn’t. It wasn’t a matter of doing something wrong, it was a matter of not being a fair match.
“Get up,” the order came, but she didn’t move. “Did you hear me?”
“Yes, I heard you,” she grumbled back, pushing herself to a sitting position. Her tone caught the man off guard. It was rare for her to sound so annoyed.
“Go.”
“No.”
“What?” she got to her feet, and turned to him.
“We’ve been at this all day and I haven’t gotten any closer to out running you, or beating you in a fight. I’m cold. I want to go home.”
“I said ‘go’,” if he’d sounded angry before, he sounded almost animalisticly furious now.
“I said ‘no’! This is bullshit and you know it! I am going home!” She turned on her heel, but only made it a step when she felt his fingers wrapping around her wrist. Fear shot through her. Not in her life had she ever defied a direct order. The girl pressed the trigger on her palm, unsheathing the blade that hid beneath her jacket and spun in an attempt to get him to back away from her. He was faster. The man raised his arm, her blade clinked against the metal of the katar still hidden under his own sleeve. Then there was the sound of metal cutting through flesh and he released her, eyes wide with shock. She heard it before she felt it. She felt the strange sensation of not quite being able to breathe before she felt the pain. Her hands went to her throat, teal eyes meeting teal eyes as she opened her mouth to ask for help.
Shilo’s eyes snapped open, a hand shooting to her throat and pulling away to find that it was clean. No blood. A shaky breath released from her chest as reality started to set in around her. It had just been that dream again. They were more frequent now, more realistic. Throughout the years her dreams had started to become more shadow like. Instead of facial features, they’d been black masses. Words seemed muffled. Like slowly, but surely, everything was fading to nothing. Not when he returned. Since Borys had sent his first letter, they’d been starting to take shape again. After the fight with Ganon, when he’d finally shown his face, all of her nightmares had turned into reliving those moments.
She sat up, blinking sleep from her eyes as she ran a hand through her hair. Without thinking, she pushed herself to her feet, grabbed her jacket and nothing else, before leaving her room. She wasn’t sure where she was going until her hand was already knocking at his door. To her surprise, he answered immediately, though with the cigar in his mouth it was clear why. Shock shown on his features, though it softened when he realized that it was just her. Then worry over took his expression.
“Shi, you alright? What happened? Did you get another letter?” Frank Woods leaned out of his room and looked down the hallway as if he would see Borys waiting for them. The woman shook her head.
“No, I just…You going to smoke? Can I come?” He arched an eyebrow, looking her up and down, then shrugged. The walk to the smoking area was a bit further than Woods would have liked, and he complained about it often. Though tonight he kept quiet and allowed his companion to gather her thoughts. They remained silent as he lit up the cigar and took a few big puffs on it to make sure the fire really took before shaking the match out and tossing it onto the ashtray.
“Look, if this is about what almost happened-,”
“It’s not.” Shilo cut the Marine off quickly and he responded with a nod. Though his jaw tensed a bit as he held back whatever emotion her fast retort had caused him. “We can talk about that, though, if you want.” Woods shook his head.
“Nah, we don’t have to.” The assassin gave a slow nod and looked out over the area that was darkened by the night. Awkward silence fell over them for what felt like an eternity.
“It’s just that-.”
“It’s not like-.” The two of them spoke at once, turning to face each other, but cut themselves off as their words mashed together.
“Sorry, go ahead.” Shilo was quicker to recover, but Frank shook his head.
“No, I’ve done a lot of talking, I think it’s your turn.”
“I don’t want him dead.” The words came out of the woman’s mouth before she could really think them over. Well, she’d thought these words before but she’d never said them aloud. They earned a scoff from the man, but Shilo ignored it. “I don’t want him hurt.”
“Why? So you can continue being scared? Do you like running from him?”
“No.” It was a quick, defensive answer. “I just don’t see what he did was as wrong as everyone thinks it was. Don’t,” the warning was clear in her voice and Frank closed his mouth. “He was unconventional-.”
“Unconventional? Is that what we’re calling it now?”
“But!” She raised her voice to talk over him. “I wouldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for him and what he did. And it’s not like anything he did was out of the blue. When you were getting yelled at by your Drill Sergeants in Boot Camp, you didn’t hate them afterwards.”
“No, but they didn’t take my eye out because I looked like their dead wife!” He sounded exasperated. The man closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. He didn’t want this conversation to get out of hand and it was already teetering far too close to the one that they’d had on the Comet Observatory, but with a far more fragile topic.
“Look, I know how much you care,” Shilo paused to try and find the words she wanted. Frank took that moment to jump back in.
“No, you don’t.” He dropped his hand to his side, looking at the woman’s confused expression before he sighed. “I tried to tell you and I thought it got across, but I really don’t think it did.”
“I don’t understand.” Confusion was clear in her voice, and Frank couldn’t help but give a small chuckle. He knew how much she hated being bemused.
“Yeah, I know you don’t.” The teasing tone earned an annoyed glance from the woman. “I told you that I was going to kill that mother fucker, right? But it’s not just because he hurt a companion, someone I worked with.”
“That someone being me?” Shilo crossed her arms over her chest as she forced him to clarify his sentence.
“Yes, that someone being you. But you’re not just a companion anymore, Shi. Back in Millennium you were a partner, someone I worked with who was damn good at what you do and made being there a Hell of a lot easier than it was when I was alone.”
“Yeah, I know. Feeling’s mutual.” She still wasn’t getting it, and Frank was starting to get annoyed as the words weren’t quite matching what he was trying to say.
“When I saw you at the Star Festival, it was all the same. Like seeing a business partner who is easy to work with and makes a shit show seem a little less shitty. I joined the MPF because I didn’t want to go back to Millennium alone, and because you asked me to and I knew we would be able to work together again.”
“Dream team, and all that.”
“Yeah, exactly. But since then, things haven’t been the same.”
“That’s because Borys has been-,”
“It’s not just him. God dammit, Shilo.”
“Then what the fuck are you talking about?”
“If you stopped interrupting me every five fucking seconds, I’d fucking tell you.”
“Well, if you could just string a fucking sentence together that made sense! I was fucking there when all this shit happened, I don’t need a god damn recap!”
“I’m trying to say I fucking love you, so will you just fucking let me say it!” Frank and Shilo stared at each other for a few seconds as his words registered with both of them. “Well, fuck...Yeah, there it is.” Woods finally muttered, placing his cigar back into his mouth.
“What do you mean ‘yeah, there it is’?” Her mouth was still open to continue when the Marine responded.
“I’m saying that I said what I wanted to say, so you can chew on it and get back to me.”
“Chew on it and get back-. Really? You’re going to drop a bomb like that on me and expect me to just ‘chew on it’?”
“Chew on it, spit it out. Whatever you want. Just tired of thinking it without knowing what you thought about it.”
“Without knowing-,”
“Will you stop repeating everything I say?” Frank ignored the ashtray and tossed the remainder of his cigar out over the railing before using the banister to brace himself for whatever was coming. He gazed out over the Cape grounds as he refused to look at the assassin. Shilo rolled her eyes and then went quiet for a long while. Finally, the Marine had to be the one to break the silence.
“You’re really just going to think it all over right here in front of me and make me sit like a criminal waiting for his sentence?”
“It’s complicated.” Shilo responded. Frank rolled his eyes.
“It’s always complicated. Look, I know you have your secrets and your quirks. That disappearing act you pulled in June, the arm-length-at-least distance...sometimes,” over the months they’d been working together the two of them had shared a close moment or two. A hug of relief, one of them worriedly checking the other for fatal wounds, the almost kiss that they kept avoiding. “And I don’t have to be the person you tell, and I don’t have to be the person you warm up to. But I don’t — I can’t hear about how you want Borys alive while I have to watch the woman I love walking around in nothing but a jacket because she’s so scared out of her mind after a nightmare that she forgot to put pants on.” The assassin looked down at her bare legs, a light pink blush painting her cheeks. She’d noticed a while ago, but had decided to just try and play it off casually.
“How did you-,”
“You’ve looked more tired than usual, been running more. It wasn’t that hard to figure out.” The woman nodded her head but didn’t say anything, letting the entirety of the conversation run through her mind as she tried to work out the variables, play with the idea of it all. Frank sighed and turned back to the view, just letting her take her time.
“I don’t know,” his grip tightened around the railing as he braced himself for what she was going to say. “How to be in a relationship,” Frank’s gaze turned on Shilo quicker than a bullet. “But to deny that I feel nothing for you would be a lie. I’ve known it for a while now, but I guess I didn’t really have a word for it. Nervousness, excitement, jealousy, guilt, fear, wanting to see you when I wake up, and wishing you were a little closer when I went to bed. I want to save you more than I want to save myself, a lot of the time.” A small smile played at the corner of her lips as she thought about the many different moments they’d both pulled each other out of harm’s way, or the times he had taken a hit for her. The Marine let her words wash over him like a cold, yet comforting shower; the butterflies in his stomach he almost never felt going wild.
“But none of that changes the fact that it’s complicated.” Shilo continued and Frank felt the fluttering in his stomach turn to a twisting sensation. “That being said, I’m cold and I want to go inside. And I don’t want to sleep alone tonight.” Woods hesitated, just watching her as she fidgeted with the ends of her long hair, avoiding his gaze. After a few moments, she looked up at him expectantly.
“Oh, yeah, right. Um, let’s go.” The walk back to Marine's room was quiet, but he noticed that Shilo was making the conscious decision to walk closer than an arm’s length away. His hand hesitated at the doorknob.
“You sure about this?” He asked, looking down at her.
“I mean, nothing’s going to happen. I just-,” she took a steadying breath. “I just can’t be alone.” Shilo looked up at him, something in her eyes begging him to understand how badly she needed to not be by herself. The man gave a nod and opened the door, letting her walk in first. It was awkward, and new, as they adjusted themselves on the bed. Each of them hugged an edge, Frank wanting to give her space, and Shilo demanding it. Once the positioning was figured out, however, the Marine heard exhaustion take over the assassin as her breathing slowed.
It was unclear how much later it was when the Marine woke to the feeling of Shilo twitching and muttering in her sleep. It wasn’t violent, very controlled, like even when she was unconscious she knew to be quiet and not make any movements that would bring too much attention to her. “Shi-,” the assassin’s eyes snapped open, her breathing ragged as she pulled the blankets tighter to her.
“Hey, you okay?” Frank whispered comfortingly, not wanting to move closer on the off chance it was too much. She responded with a shake of her head. To his surprise, with a slightly trembling hand, the woman reached forward and gripped his shirt. He watched, not wanting to react, not knowing how to react.
“What’s up?” The Marine’s gaze searched Shilo’s expression for any answers, but she just shook her head again before sliding closer. He could smell the scent of her shampoo, sweet but not overwhelming. The scent of his laundry detergent from his shirt, with a hint of his body wash, surrounded her as she pressed her forehead to his chest. Woods gently placed an arm around his companion, as loosely as he could manage so she could pull away if it was too much. She didn’t.
Now in each others arms, the assassin matched her breathing to the Marine’s, focusing on deep and slow breaths until sleep took her again. Held closely to Frank’s chest, Shilo slept without nightmares; safe and protected by the gruff and grumpy Marine.
Frank Woods played by
FactionGuerrilla
Shilo Saga played by Nightwisher
It's time for Shank to sail!
FactionGuerrilla
Shilo Saga played by Nightwisher
It's time for Shank to sail!
