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“I’m sorry Nyx…” McCall’s voice crackles to life through the earpiece he’d handed to you earlier.
His words do nothing to help ease the internal battle your mind is currently struggling to fight. The use of your codename ‘Nyx’ — a name Dave himself had jokingly given to you many years ago while still in the early years of your friendship — just makes you even more aware of what it is you’re here to do. As you choke back the sting of tears forming in your eyes, your thoughts spiral in a way you had long thought was trained out of you.
The strong hurricane-force winds feel almost as if they’re burning your skin as Robert’s voice sounds once more in your ear.
“I need you to know that I truly do wish there was another way to finish this… That I didn’t have to involve you in this mess… But it’s only right that we’re the ones to end this. It’s the price we have to pay for allowing them to fall this far into madness.”
You shut your eyes tight enough to dissolve the tears that had been forming biting your tongue hard enough to ground you back into the present. You try desperately to re-enter the focused headspace you’d mastered for difficult moments like this, trying to push away any of the thoughts that remind you that this isn’t just some usual ‘assignment’.
But the endless memories resurfacing of the man who had been by your side through all of the most difficult moments in your life threaten to halt you in your path.
Even after Robert McCalls ‘death’, you had never once felt as exhausted and defeated as you do right now.
“I know Mac just…” You take a moment to breathe, the storm around you not helping to calm your nerves. “…just take out the other three and find the kid. I’ll handle him and then we can move on and shut this chapter of our lives off for good.”
The words don’t feel right as they leave your mouth but as your eyes drift up the ladder in front of you — to the deck it holds steady above the sprawling town below — even with the conflicting thoughts flying through your mind, you know what you have to do.
You also are well aware that this very well may break you. That if you went through with what it is Mac had you agree to, then you’ll likely be stuck in time forever, never able to move on.
Shaking the thought from your head, you begin the climb up the worn, white tower and relish in the painful sting of the storm-formed rain on your skin. The hurricane's harsh winds only make it worse as you struggle to lift your body up the rungs as quietly as possible.
Every rung you pass, lifting your body closer to your destination, you think methodically through what it is you have to do. Turning off every distraction and focusing solely on the job ahead.
Arriving at the top of the tower, your eyes instantly land on where he is crouching across from you, his full attention on the scope of his weapon, the wind masking your movements as you step up behind him.
But you don’t lift your arm to aim at him. Don’t take the shot and end this like you know Mac wants you to.
Instead, you allow yourself a brief moment of selfishness to just watch him. You take in his enthusiasm — no, mania — as his scope aims out towards the town that Robert had once brought you both to, to unwind after a particularly brutal op in the comfort of his family home. McCall's late wife had been over the moon to welcome her husband's teammates into her home as if they weren’t just on the other side of the planet doing things that will never be uttered or written on a piece of paper that could link the U.S. back to them.
It had just been a holiday of laughter, smiles and reintegrating into a society you had believed long lost to the three of you.
Back when you thought you had known the man right before you.
“Why’re you doing this Dave?”
Your voice startles him enough that he nearly drops his gun, catching it at the last minute just before it can tumble the long distance down to the rocky ground below. It confirms your suspicions that he has been so hyper-focused on Robert that he hadn’t even noticed you walking towards the very tower he’s been standing on for the last fifteen minutes.
It’s so unlike the agent you’d always known to be hyper-vigilant in ensuring area’s were clear before breaching. Everything about him on the surface is the same — calm, collected and strong— but the proof of his dishevelled state is finally appearing now. You’d seen Dave so much over the past couple of years and yet somehow he’d managed to keep his inner turmoil completely hidden from you.
It stings worse than the harsh storm surrounding you.
His eyes widen as they meet yours before wandering down to the gun held securely in the palm of your hand. Looking at the cold grey metal, understanding drains the colour from his face. You don’t miss the slight flinch of hurt as he realizes whose side it is that you’re on.
Dave York was a man who trusted no one.
Well… No one but you.
And right in front of his eyes, you were breaking it as though it meant nothing. Your betrayal is something he had never imagined before. Even at his darkest times, he always thought he’d have you. It was a vow the two of you had made early into your work together.
But you were different people back then. Both scarred from your time serving in the military but elated over being recruited for one of the CIA’s toughest jobs. They’d fooled you into thinking it was an honour when really you were just hired as the disposable soldiers used to do their dirty work. But you had been young and naive. The world hadn’t chewed you up and spit you out just yet.
Now though…. neither of you are the same anymore. You both long ago lost the vital pieces that made you human. Now no more than weapons for others to use.
“That fucker dragged you all the way back into this mess just to hurt me.” Dave spits the words out with so much hatred that they almost feel venomous. Although he speaks the words to you, you know who they’re really meant for. An honourable man you’d both once seen as your leader.
The depth of sadness and anger in Dave’s eyes isn’t foreign to you. You’d held him together while he was falling apart more than once over your years working together. But seeing the defeat written clearly within the rich brown of his eyes makes you feel nauseous.
Of course, it’s in that moment that your coms crackle back to life, Robert’s voice filling your ear once more.
“The other three are neutralized. I’ve noticed Dave has gone quiet so I’m going to go find the kid and get him the hell out of here. Meet me at my old house once this is all over so we can talk and Nyx… Do what’s right.”
Dave watches you intently as you roll your eyes up to the sky as though waiting for some God to appear and tell you this is all some funny sort of joke and not your real life. McCall’s easy manner while discussing their friend's deaths chills you. As his voice starts up again you steel yourself for what could be next.
“I… I know this is hard. But he’s hurt too many innocent people to go free. Finish this and let us both move on from this nightmare.”
You’re thankful that he doesn’t ask you to reply. He doesn’t even both to ask if you’re still alive. Somehow McCall knows that **you’re still there, listening to his order on the other end of the line.
His disinterest would be concerning if he weren’t the man who trained you in all of the specialities he had mastered during his long and successful career. He knows his limits and because of that, he knows yours.
You wish you had that same confidence in yourself.
But as you stare at the cold coffee-brown eyes of a man who has spent more time by your side protecting you than your own family… For once, you find that your finger won’t press down on the trigger like it has so effortlessly been able to countless times before.
You knew well before today that the way you cared for Dave was different from the way you felt for others. But now was not the time for a reminder of that. Your finger locking even as your muscles itch to do exactly what they’ve been trained for.
The files Robert had sent you a few hours back— detailing Dave's crimes— had brought you to your knees. But now? Now you just felt angry.
Angry that Dave can look up at you and see his end so clearly. That he readily believes you would do exactly what Robert had asked you to. That you were moments away from lifting your hand and pulling the trigger as if you couldn’t have done that minutes ago and saved yourself the pain of looking him in the eyes.
How can he not know that for you, he is everything.
“He didn’t drag me back in,” you finally admit, although not fully aware if he’s even listening to you anymore. His carefully assessing eyes read yours, noticing something in you that makes his eyebrows raise in realisation a small “no” falling from his lips in disbelief as he looks you up and down as if the answer is hidden in plain sight.
You scoff at the shock on his face. All of that time you’ve spent with him over the years and somehow he never once noticed… You guess you’ve both been a lot better at hiding things from each other than you had realised.
“You know me, Dave, I couldn’t just leave it all behind. I had my reasons for leaving the agency but… this” you say motioning to the pistol in your hand. “This is all I know how to do. It’s the only thing I have to offer this broken world. I don’t have a family to go home to every night. No one to be better for.”
You shrug your shoulders trying to feign indifference and buy yourself a moment to collect yourself. The hurricane-force winds make angry waves crash against the rocks below the tower, almost as though the weather was in sync with your emotions.
You wait for Dave to say something. To tell you anything at all. You’re not sure if his voice would enrage or calm you but you do know that it would be better than the loud silence where years of trust and compassion crumble apart in the empty space between you.
But he remains silent. Not even bothering to look at you anymore as his gaze drops to the sniper still held firmly in his hands.
Finally, you quiet the voice in your head that seems intent on reminding you that this is Dave — your Dave — sitting before you, and you do what he expects. You raise the cold steel held tightly in your palm until it’s pointed at the man you’d been in love with for over a decade.
A love you’ve been aware of even before he met his wife Carol but never acted on. Not when he never made any move to tell you he wanted a life with you outside of the uncomfortable days spent in each other’s company for work. It is a love he has never allowed himself to reciprocate. Your mind conjures up the memory of you standing beside him at his wedding and you vividly recall all of the pain you’ve gone through for this almost unrecognizable man.
That is, until he looks up to find the barrel before him, and for a moment his mask slips and you see his heart-break as surely as he sees yours.
Looking into his eyes, you’re reminded of all the reasons you’d fallen for him in the first place. The bright-eyed, caring, young man who’d held you close when teaching you how to adjust the scope of a weapon. His heart beating so hard you could feel it against your back as his arms reached around yours, head resting on your shoulder as he gently adjusted your stance while remaining close behind you.
The Dave who used to take you out for middle-of-the-night drinks and ice cream to celebrate any small feat the two of you managed to achieve. Reminding you both of your humanity even after the darkest of assignments.
But that had all been back when your ‘team’ was no more than a trio. Robert McCall, Dave York and yourself. All recruited for the DIA after serving time in the military. Back then you’d all had each other's backs and managed to succeed at assignments the government needed to be done quietly. You were unstoppable together, a formidable force when side by side.
You’d saved each other's lives countless times during your years as a team. You’d once thought of yourselves as a family.
The irony of that isn’t lost on you now as you look down the barrel of your gun towards him. He doesn’t raise his own in return, not even as the sound of you tuning off safety echoes slightly in the now calming air.
“Please don’t make me do this,” your voice comes out weak, giving away just how badly this whole situation is hurting you. The idea of pulling the trigger is still almost unthinkable.
Almost…
Dave’s face morphs into a twisted dark smile, shoulders shaking with silent, humourless laughter. He had to give it to McCall, he certainly knew Dave better than he thought he had. Dave would usually admire such a sadistic plan but right now he can’t focus on anything other than stopping the build-up of tears threatening to fall from his eyes. He’s finally getting what he deserves for everything he’s done.
“Might as well take the shot sweetheart. It’s not like Mac is going to let me walk out of here after this.” He admits dryly. “The only reason he asked you to do it is to make sure I suffer a little before he takes me out just like he did the rest of our team.”
You flinch at the brutal reminder of the three men Robert had ‘neutralized.’ You’d helped train each of them when Robert had first recruited them to your unit. Now, they were going to be names that McCall will ensure be remembered for the crimes they’d committed, not the reason they’d even been able to commit them in the first place.
Ari. Kovak. Resnik.
Victims of the government's apathy towards the one’s who they train to defend the country. You don’t add Dave’s name to the list just yet even though you know beside the others. If you’re being honest with yourself, your name should be up there too.
It’s your turn to laugh this time. All the bottled-up pain you’d been holding onto all of these years finally rising back up to the surface and making your body shake. The laughter quickly turns into silent sobs that take the breath from your body making your lungs burn.
“You’ve known me for over a decade Dave,” you bite out, enjoying his little jerk of surprise at your harsh tone. “Ten whole fuckin’ years and yet you still haven’t realized that the idea of you dying is the thought that often haunts me in my nightmares. That I would rather McCall push me off this tower than pull this trigger.”
He doesn’t even try to hide his shock over your candid words. This was the most you’d ever spoken to him about the way you felt. There had been a silent agreement between the two of you to leave it all unspoken. So you could continue with the soft touches and closeness without having to think too heavily about the reasons behind them. If they’d been said aloud then you both would’ve had to act on them and with the lives you live… that wouldn’t have ended well.
No matter how hard he had tried, he’d never managed to get you to open up to him about whatever thoughts had made you grow more and more distant from him before you’d finally snapped and resigned from the agency. You never told him exactly why you left but the distance your new job put between the two of you allowed you the strength to keep your feelings at bay whenever you visit him and the girls.
You were still friends, but he couldn’t read you anymore. The thoughts he had once been privy to were now locked tightly away from his assessing eyes.
The unmistakable pain lacing your voice is enough to make his whole world freeze. His whole body going still as he watches the tears finally break free of where they’d been forming below your eye. He’s so focused on you that he doesn’t notice his gun slipping from his grasp until it’s crashing upon the rocks below him.
“Why didn’t you tell me what you guys were up to all these years?” The pain turns into anger as you begin yelling at him through the quieting rain and wind of the end of the hurricane. “I had to find out through a fuckin’ dead guy that the team who I had once thought of as my *family,*had not only been taking private ‘contracts’ but kidnapped an innocent kid just to get revenge… How— How could you do this when you have two daughters waiting at home? Little girls, who need their dad to return to them?” Your goddaughter's faces fill your minds as well as the smile they always managed to pull from Dave no matter how exhausted he was. “Why couldn’t you just fucking walk away like you said you were going to?”
Even as the words leave your mouth, you know the answer. Know that just like you, he’d spent his whole life being turned into a weapon by his country only for them to throw him away the minute they didn’t need his skills anymore.
Robert didn’t know that your job in the private sector was no better than theirs. You were the golden child to him. The one who never compromised on your boundaries and walked away when it became too much.
In reality, your new boss — a man you’d served with as a marine — is on the payroll of some powerful people who went to you for the jobs the country can’t be tied to. Not even the DIA.
If you’re being honest with yourself, you probably wouldn’t have even bothered turning up here today to help him if it weren’t for the kid McCall mentioned on the phone. The loud thumping of blood flowing through your ears increased to a near-deafening volume as McCall recounted the story of Miles’ abduction. Because he was right that you did still have some boundaries you would never cross.
Including standing by and doing nothing when you have the abilities needed to save an innocent young man that had been kidnapped just to make a point.
Learning about Miles’ abduction while meeting Carol and the girls for coffee was soul-destroying. It’s when you’d realized that the man you had once been able to read like the back of your hand was no more than a smiling stranger to you. A stranger you had talked to at least twice a week since you’d met him.
You answered McCall’s plea for help because a part of you felt guilty. You should have been able to see Dave’s suffering and helped him long before it reached this fatal point.
The man sitting before you now was no more than a shadow of the man you’d seen cry over a stray bullet of his that had caused an innocent bystander to lose their arm. He’d once been full of endless light and warmth. A signature smile that had the ability to leave you breathless when near.
He doesn’t reply to your question. Whether it’s because he doesn’t feel the need to explain it to you or because he truly doesn’t know why he’s done it, you’ll probably never know.
For the first time, you actually consider pulling the trigger and releasing him from whatever torment has led him down this path.
Instead, you move your finger to flip back on the safety before tucking the pistol back into your holster.
You focus on moving your legs, taking the last few steps over to his side before you lower yourself down so you can sit next to him. An exhausted sigh escapes your body as it falls onto the cold surface, all your energy disappearing the minute you’ve sat down. The rocks below fade into the background of your mind as you listen to the waves crash against them. Dave stays still and the two of you relax slowly in the near silence that always follows a big storm.
You let your mind wander back to the man next to you.
He was always someone you had seen as a guiding light. Saving you from the dark paths that have been set before you. But now… now you realize that both of you have been walking down that path from the start. Neither of you holds any ‘goodness’ or ‘light.’ Just shadows and darkness so thick you’d lost yourselves in them.
Just like the code name Dave had given you all those years ago. He always noticed the way you lit up at night as if it were your home. The first time a mission had you assigned to camp together overnight, he’d joked that the night sky was your family. That you were part of the stars and planets floating above you. It was one of the first things he found out about you that wasn't from a file.
His eyes watch your chest fall with every steadying breath and find his own chest slowing to match it. You try to make yourself as comfortable as possible next to him on the tower's old deck. Moving around trying to find something solid to lean against so you wouldn’t accidentally fall off the side.
It leaves you sat so close to him that your arm and thigh are pressed firmly against his.
It’s the soft touch of your body that wakes him up from whatever nightmare he had been lost in since you left the team — and him — behind.
For a moment, he regrets what he has done.
Not because what he’s done is wrong. Fuck that! He’d given up caring about right and wrong long ago when his country had basically dumped him to the curb after McCall’s supposed ‘death’.
No. He regrets it because of how he’s hurting you.
The one person besides his daughters that he has ever considered changing for. He wants to be better for you. Ever since McCall brought you in and you introduced yourself with a smile that never failed to reach your eyes, he swears he fell in love with you instantly.
He’d do anything for you to smile at him that way once more.
“I’m sorry he asked you to do this,” he admits so quietly that the wind almost steals the words away before they can reach your ear.
“Yeah well… I’m not.” You admit just as quietly.
You don’t bother masking the sadness weaved tightly into your words as you continue. “I hate what he asked me to do but… finding you…” your hands move to rest loosely together in your lap, nervously fidgeting as you stare down at them intently. It’s a habit you’d developed when you were a teenager, the sting of a nail against your skin was always effective at dragging you from the thoughts trapping you in your head.
It’s the first time you’ve resorted to this coping mechanism in years. The light scars on the palms of your hands are barely visible now although your nail moves to reopen them once more.
Before your nail can break the skin, his familiar calloused fingers come to rest on top of yours, gently intertwining his fingers with your own just like he used to when he saw you grow nervous. He hopes it’ll still be able to calm you down the same way it once did.
He quickly finds out that it calms him down too. The careful sweep of your thumb across his hand dulled the ache he’d been feeling since you’d left the unit.
Your own eyes are completely addicted to the way your hands are resting together in your lap. You feel fresh tears begin to run slowly down your cheek. “I… I can’t bear the thought of you being hunted down Dave.” You admit nervously. Unsure how he will react to furthering this conversation now the two of you are sitting so close without a gun between you. “I don’t care what you’ve done… I’ll never be able to take the shot when it’s you.”
All those years spent holding each other together through assignment after assignment of unspeakable tasks and yet it’s your own country that broke you. That broke the young, vibrant, and loving man you’d met all those years ago in some office.
As the memories fly through your brain painting image after image of your life with Dave, the tears turn into silent sobs. His attention instantly falls to the uneven rise and fall of your chest as his hand rises to gently guide your head to rest on his shoulder, desperate to hold you close even though he knows he shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near you.
Your willingness to melt into him is what breaks him completely, tears trailing down his face to match your own and the slowly calming storm surrounding the two of you.
“I’m so sorry sweetheart,” he whispers into your ear, hoping you hear it through the rain. “I fucked everything up.”
It’s the first time he’s allowed himself to say that out loud after having spent years blaming Robert for the way he’s turned out but you were proof that, that wasn’t right.
He’s ruined everything.
Even if he makes it out of this town today, he has nowhere to go. He’ll have no one left to turn to. Only you. But he can’t allow himself to burden you with his darkness any longer. Just like he couldn’t return to his beautiful baby girls knowing how willing he had been to end some innocent kids life all because Robert had managed to escape this life while Dave hadn’t. Both the people he’d thought would always be by his side had moved on and left him in the dust.
Although now he knows that your escape might not have been as smooth as he had bitterly believed. He had been so jealous of you. Perfecting his smile so you wouldn’t notice the anger brewing inside of him whenever you stepped into his house for a movie night with the girls or coffee with Carol. The nice apartment you managed to buy only a year after your retirement whilst he worked every hour he could to keep the lights on for his girls.
He should’ve noted the tension and alertness you carried with you every day. The same feelings he has found himself adopting ever since he started working privately— illegally.
He’d allowed himself to build up so much misplaced hate towards you that he didn’t even bother to fight as the distance between the two of you grew.
It hurts to admit that you’re closer now to his wife and kids than you are to him. He’s become so obsessed with proving that he could live the perfect life just like you, that he didn’t even notice that maybe you weren’t living the perfect life after all.
He allows himself the luxury of pressing his lips against your hair one final time. Inhaling your familiar comforting scent before removing himself from your warm embrace. His mind goes back to where his gun now lays, shattered to unidentifiable pieces that are being washed away from the rocks by the angry sea below.
You know exactly what he’s planning the minute you see the slight narrowing of his eyes. You carefully watch how his body turns and leans ever so slightly away from the support of the safety rail of the tower and without even realising it, your hand reaches out to latch onto his shoulder, pulling him back towards you before he can even think of following through.
“Don’t you fucking dare, York.” You yell at him, not daring to let go of your hold on his shoulder. “I’m not going back down that ladder without you when there are two little girls and their wonderful mother who need their dad to return home to them alive” he doesn’t seem to be listening to you though, his eyes still set firmly on the rocks. *“*If you really want to go, then you’re dragging me down there with you.”
The sudden way he shifts to look back at you, tells you all you need to know. That he thinks you’re crazy for wanting to save him when he can see no path back to the home you had just mentioned.
Really though, he’s thinking that you’re insane if you think he’d let you follow him off the side. Even dead he’s sure he’d somehow find a way to hold you back from the dangerous edge.
So he fights back the dark thoughts and lets himself melt back into you a little bit. Silently letting you know that he’s heard you. Thoughts of his little girls’ toothy grins remind him of the reason he’s survived this long in the first place.
You stay that way for a while, leaning against each other on the cold deck as your heart rates steady back into the normal range. Enough time passes that Dave feels safe in believing that Robert has left the immediate area. He would’ve shot Dave by now if he saw the comfort and safety Dave feels while he allows himself to cling to the safety of your warm body.
The worst of the hurricane has passed over the area now, allowing you to speak normally to Dave again. Your words are clear and easy to understand once again. It allows him to get a read on all the emotions he knows you bury deep inside you. He can discover the true meaning of your words and tone as accurately as if your voice was his primary language.
His back is hurting by now after sitting on the hard, cold floor for so long. Ready to go home to whatever ghost of his life that he might have left.
“Mac will have told Carol everything by now… I doubt I even have a home to return to anymore.” His voice is detached as he becomes lost in his thoughts. His shoulders fall as he looks out at the sea and thinks of the family home he’d taken for granted all of these years.
The sad truth is, you’re almost certain he’s right.
That although Robert has faith in your abilities, he always has backup plans in place. He knows that if Dave were to make it past you then he his first stop would be to get his family and run. Robert will have revealed Dave’s secrets to Carol and helped get Dave’s family as far away from him as possible.
It’s not something that you were willing to just accept though. Robert had trained you in all of his specialities including the way he thinks and plans. You will help Dave make it back to his family and make things right with them no matter how long it may take.
Holding Dave this close while his heart broke over his wife and daughters was a kick to the gut. Here you have him, right where you’ve wanted him within the circle of your arms. But the price was too high for you to feel any satisfaction over it.
“I know it’s different… That nothing will ever come close to the home you have built with them but… you will always have a home with me, Dave.”
It’s probably the closest you will ever come to admitting the truth to him. It’s the closest you will likely ever have the opportunity to get. That is until…
“Why?” His voice is softer than before. The question is a genuine one as he tries to figure out what he’s done to deserve your glowing presence in his life. He’s almost certain he must have been some sort of saint in a past one if you’re so willing to keep him close even after all this mess.
Your hand reaches up to gently wipe the last signs of tears from his face. He notices the way your own eyes have blurred over once again as your lips turn up in a soft, sad smile, so much emotion openly displayed in your eyes as you take in all the changes your years apart have brought to his still handsome face.
“I think you know why Dave.”
And god he does. He’s known since the day you’d fallen asleep on his couch after training, you’d been on the verge of sleep as you’d leaned over and placed your head on his chest, nuzzling into him. Completely oblivious of the way it had made his breath hitch and his heart beat at double its usual speed.
He’s known since that day because that’s the day he first envisioned spending his future with you.
A carefully imagined series of dreams he’s kept secret like a prized possession for all of these years. Guiltily expanding on the dream whenever he has a tough day and needs the undeniable comfort that the image of you in his arms — his mother's ring on your finger — brings him.
When he’d first married Carol he’d felt guilty for having this desire. But it’s no secret to Carol that he married her because she was carrying his child and not because of the sort of romantic love he’d seen in movies.
Carol didn’t love him that way either, so she never made him feel bad when his mind would clearly drift off every so often, leaving an almost radiant smile on his usually closed-off and gloomy face.
He was a good dad and a caring man. At the end of the day, that’s all Carol needed from him. He’d grown content with dedicating his life to his family and his work. He knew no one could know about his real job so the idea of bringing someone else into his life was a non-option. The lies with Carol were absolutely exhausting and he couldn’t bare the idea of lying to someone else.
The fact you were offering this dream to him now… well he would be the first to admit that he was a weak man.
“Yeah, I think I do.” Your eyes flicker up to meet his. You hadn’t expected him to respond to your admission.
Before you can ask him what it is he thinks he knows he leans forward, hands rising until they can reach up to hold your arms, allowing him to draw your body in close to his. He doesn’t stop even as his lips grow closer and closer to yours, and then finally — over a decade since you first dreamed of it— his mouth meets yours.
His whole body rejoices over finally being allowed to learn the way your lips taste. They feel just as soft and wonderful against his own as he’d imagined countless times. Your little breathy gasp makes his lips lift into a smile that is quickly matched by your own.
It takes every ounce of the strength he has left to eventually break apart from you. His body’s adrenaline is finally low enough for him to become aware of your slight shivers that alert him to just how freezing it is up on the rain-slick tower. The Hurricane’s impact leaves you both in uncomfortably damp clothes.
“You’re already my home Nyx.”
Dave’s always been a master tactician, but in that moment, you’re certain you’ve never heard a better plan fall from his lips.