CW: Head injury, nightmares, afraid to sleep

“Here. We’ll be safer in here.”

“Here? Where exactly is here?” Hero asked as Villain led them through a short door in an old house.

“It’s my base.”

“This is your base? It’s falling apart.”

“Everything fancy is in the basement. I live in the house.”

“You live here?”

“Yes.” Villain ran their fingers through their hair, wincing as their hand brushed over a bump.

Hero noticed. “Are you okay? That’s right… you hit your head. Do you have a first aid kit? Where is it?”

“I don’t have a first aid kit. I’m fine. Calm down.” Villain stomped twice on the floor, then took their shoes off.

“What was thatfor?”

“Calling up Sidekick.” Leaning against the wall, Villain looked absolutely drained.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

But Villain didn’t get a chance to answer as Sidekick emerged from a closet. “Villain? Who— Hero?”

“It’s fine— They’re fine. I brought them in.” Villain stepped away from the wall, saying on their feet. Sidekick looked ready to catch them. “Hero, this is Sidekick. They’re the reason I don’t have a first aid kit.”

“Are you hurt? Where? What happened?” Sidekick placed a hand on Villain’s arm and led them to sit in a chair.

“Just a bump on the head.”

“Let me see.” Sidekick examined Villain’s head and tsked at them. “You’ve got to be more careful. Someday you’re going to hurt yourself and I won’t be able to fix it.”

“Well today isn’t that day, is it?”

“No.” Sidekick muttered, laying a hand over the bump. “This one’s going to hurt quite a bit. Try and keep still.”

Villain nodded.

A pained expression set into Villain’s face as Sidekick began to chant and the swelling began to visibly go down. Aside from paling and a quiet whimper, however, Villain seemed to take whatever Sidekick was doing remarkably well.

When Sidekick was done, Villain stood, leaning on the chair to support themself.

“You need to go to bed.” Sidekick said, leading Villain to the stairs. “Get some rest and I’ll make you something to eat.” The pair of them disappeared up the stairs, leaving Hero at the door.

A few minutes later, Sidekick came back down, looking flustered. “Will you keep an eye on them for me? I was in the middle of something downstairs and I need to finish. Besides… they won’t sleep unless someone makes them and I can’t right now.”

“Why? I mean, yeah, I’ll stay with them, but why won’t they sleep?”

“It’s… it’s complicated.” Sidekick shook their head. “If they don’t want to tell you, I won’t tell you either. Sorry. Their room is the second on the left upstairs.”

Hero frowned, but nodded and ascended the steps.

Sidekick was right. Even though Villain had seemed dead tired— especially after Sidekick healed them— they weren’t in bed when Hero opened the door. They were staring out the window.

“Villain?”

Villain turned when Hero spoke, startled.

“You need to rest. You look really rough.”

“Did Sidekick send you up?” Villain sighed. “Whatever… I’m not tired.” They turned back to the window.

Hero came up behind them, noting the way Villain still swayed a bit and the way their hands trembled. “Villain, why don’t you want to sleep? You’re clearly exhausted.”

With a deep sigh, Villain left the window and sat on the edge of the bed. Hero sat with them. “I just… I don’t want to.”

“Do you have nightmares..?”

Villain’s lack of an answer was as much confirmation as Hero needed.

“You need sleep. Look at yourself. You’re hardly awake.”

Villain’s eyes flitted over Hero’s face, lingering a moment too long on Hero’s lips. “I suppose you’re going to leave as soon as I fall asleep?”

“I’ll stay if that’s what you want.” Hero leaned a little closer, putting a hand on the bed behind Villain.

“I’d like that.” Villain whispered before leaning in a little closer and kissing Hero softly.

Hero kissed back gently, pressing a hand to Villain’s lower back and slowly pressing them to lay down before breaking the kiss, still hovering mere centimeters from Villain’s lips. “Stop trying to distract me. Go to sleep. I’ll be right here with you.” Hero layed down next to Villain.

In a matter of moments, Villain was asleep.

A White Rose (Pt. 1)

(This series is created from the prompts given by @summer-of-whump) (Also, Shea is pronounced [shAY])

CW: Child whumpee, kidnapped, ‘it’ as a pronoun, head injury, child abuse, manipulation, fire, lightly implied burns, implied death

Shea screamed, covering his head as flaming debris fell nearby.

“Shea!” The boy looked up to see his mother running towards him. She scooped him up into her arms and ran.

“Momma, what’s happening?” Shea squeaked, hiding his face. “I’m scared!”

“It’s going to be okay, baby. We just need to get out.” His mother’s voice was calmer than it was a moment before, although it still held a note of panic. “You remember the fire drills? It’s just like that. It’s going to be okay.”

Shea dared to peek back at the community. The fires were everywhere. People were running, some flying. To Shea’s horror, several people’s wings were actually onfire. His own mother’s wings were blackened in places.

“Momma, what happened to your wings?”

“Don’t worry about it baby— I’m fine. Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”

“I’m okay.” And Shea hid his face again as his mother continued to run deeper into the forest.

Only a short couple of minutes had passed when Shea felt the unmistakable feeling of rising in the air. It didn’t feel like flying, however— the incline felt sharper. His mother screamed and held onto Shea tighter.

Shea tried to wriggle free of his mother’s hold to see what was happening. “What?? What’s happening??”

Cruel laughter broke out from the trees around them and Shea managed to catch sight of the net surrounding him and his mother before his mother managed to pull him back against her, shielding his eyes. “Don’t move.” She whispered, her voice breaking.

Shea stopped moving, confused. He felt his mother pull her wings to surround him.

“Well would you look at that? We actually caught one of them!” Someone said from the ground.

“Who are you people? What do you want?” Shea’s mother’s voice sounded harsh and a little scared.

“Damn. Its wings must’ve caught fire. This one’s as good as worthless.” Another voice said.

“Best to just leave it and check the other traps. If we don’t catch anything else, this one’ll have to do.”

Shea heard footsteps begin to walk away. “Momma, I’m scared.” He whispered and the footsteps stopped.

“Shhh…” His mother held onto him tighter.

“You got somebody else up there?” One of the voices asked.

Shea’s mother didn’t answer.

“Cut it down. I think I heard something.” The person said and the footsteps came closer again.

Shea’s mother was trembling now, whispering prayers under her breath.

There was a sudden drop and the net hit the ground with Shea and his mother inside it.

Shea couldn’t understand what happened next. There was movement, his mother was yelling, squeezing him so tight he could hardly breathe. One of the other people yelled for her to let go. The next thing Shea knew, someone was pulling him away from his mother. He kicked and yelled, trying to hold onto her, but they were separated a moment later.

“Shea! Shea, you have to get away— you have to run— Shea—” One of the other people— Shea could see now that there were three— hit his mother over the head and she closed her eyes. When they let go of her, she fell to the ground.

“Momma!” Shea screamed, struggling to get away from the person who was now holding on tight to his arm. “Momma— Let me go! I want my mom!”

“Now this one’s worth this whole trip. Its wings are perfectly intact and it’s only— what— seven years old maybe?”

“How old are you, kid?”

Shea didn’t answer, tears streaming down his face as he tried to pry the person’s hand off his arm. “Let go!”

The person holding Shea slapped him hard across the face and Shea stopped for a moment, shocked. No one had ever hit him before.

“You were asked a question, brat. How old are you?” The person demanded.

Shea’s lip quivered as he tried not to cry harder. “I just want my mom— Why did you hit me? It h-hurt!”

“I’ll hit you again if you don’t answer the fucking question.” The person threatened.

“I’m six years old.” Shea whimpered, shielding his cheek with his free hand. “Please don’t hit me again— It really hurt!”

“Just do as you’re told and I won’t have any reason to hit you, now will I?” The person started to pull Shea away. “Come on. We can check the other traps once we get this one secured.”

“No!” Shea started to pull again. “No— I want my mom!”

“Shut up!” The person yanked Shea by the hair, making him scream. “If you keep trying to make things difficult, I’ll pick you up and fucking carry you. Just walk. Your mom isn’t going with us.”

Shea stumbled as they tried to keep up with the fast pace of the adults. He didn’t want to get hurt more, so he had stopped trying to get away, but he was still crying and yelling for his mom by the time the person let him stop walking. The person tied up Shea’s hands and tied them to the outside of a cage.

“Somebody has to stay with this one while the rest of the traps are checked and it’s not going to be me. We won’t get paid if I get annoyed and kill the brat before we make it back.” The person said after they finished tying Shea up.

“I’ll stay with the kid.” One of the others said. “You two go check traps and come back with the rest of the group.”

The other two nodded and left into the woods again.

“Hey, kid.” The person who stayed behind crouched next to Shea. “What’s your name? Did I hear your mom call you Shea?”

Shea nodded, sniffling and trying to wipe his tears off his face.

The person nodded. “Good to know. Sorry about Thorne. He really doesn’t like kids. Or the Winged. Or honestly really anyone. He shouldn’t have hit you.”

“What did I do that made him a-angry at me?”

“Literally anything you would have done except for coming with us quietly would have made him angry. None of us expected that from you. You are just a kid. And we aren’t taking your mom with us.”

“Where… Where am I going..? Why can’t my mom come with me? Who areyou?”

“My name is Jade. Your mom burned her wings in the fire, that’s why she can’t come. We’re only taking people with complete sets of wings. Seeing as your whole little village just burned down, we’re giving you a new place to live. Aren’t you glad?”

“I-I just want my mom…” Shea sniffed again.

“I know it’ll be hard for a while, but you’ll be okay. After all, you’re just a kid. You’ll bounce back fast. Don’t worry about your mom. She’s going to be okay too. She just can’t come with you.”

Shea fidgeted with the ropes around their wrists in silence as he and Jade waited.

At last, there were several footsteps. “Jade. The fires weren’t really a great idea, it turns out. Most of them died or have incomplete sets now. We did find this one, though.”

“Is it alive?” Jade stood up and Shea tried to look and see behind them, but the ropes wouldn’t let them turn that far.

“It’s alive, but injured. I don’t know if it’ll live, but it has a complete set, so it’s at least worth a shot.”

“Fine. Put it in the cage. I’ll get this one in.” Jade came back to Shea and untied him from the cage, leading him around to another side. “Get in.” Jade said, opening the cage door.

Shea hesitated.

“Shea,” Jade said softly. “You need to get in before Thorne decides to see what’s taking so long. As long as you listen to me, he won’t hurt you again, okay?”

Shea nodded quickly and Jade helped him into the cage.

After Shea was in the cage, a girl was put in as well. She was sleeping and there was a big bump on her head. “Aubrey?” Shea whispered, sitting next to her.

“Do you know her?” Jade asked.

Shea nodded. “Sh-she’s my cousin.”

“Her name is Aubrey? Do you know how old she is?”

“I think she’s…” Shea thought for a minute. “I think she might be twenty?”

“Okay.” Jade nodded, closing the cage door. “We’re going to leave now, okay?” Jade didn’t wait for an answer as they climbed into the car.

The cage sat on the bed of a trailer and Shea was startled when it began to move.

Aubrey’s eyes opened a little. “Are they gone?” She whispered.

“Aubrey! You’re okay!!”

“Not really.” She muttered, closing her eyes again. “Are they gone?”

“Um…” Shea looked at the car. “They’re in the car. They said they were taking us to a new home.”

“This is really bad…”

“… Why is it so bad?”

“Shea, if they take us somewhere outside the forest, you’re never going to see your mom again— if she’s even alive still. They started…” Aubrey coughed. “… They started those fires. Half the community is dead and the other half will never fly again. We’re probably the only two people who made it out alive with both wings.”

“… How did you get hurt..?”

“I… I don’t remember. Something probably fell on my head. I don’t know. Maybe I fell from somewhere… All I know is my head hurts and I’m really dizzy and it’s getting kind of hard to breathe…” Aubrey opened her eyes and looked at Shea, undoubtedly seeing the worry in his eyes. “I’ll be okay, short stuff. But we really have to get away from these people if we can.”