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You had hoped the adrenaline rush from narrowingly escaping those hellish mines would have numbed the sting of your wounds all over your body, but tragically, that wasn’t the case. While you were slowly slugging your battered body back to your home, you felt nothing but sheer agony. It felt like your entire body was just a huge heart with how much rapid beating you were feeling in so many parts of your body. Three arrows were lodged somewhere in your neck and shoulders, another was in your head. Massive openings and lacerations were all over you, with blood pumping out of them by the second. You could hardly tell, but you think one of your ribs was broken, would make sense after making a nasty fall at some point. You knew you fell somewhere, but this pain was so overwhelming, you simply couldn’t care enough to fully remember. Right now, you needed to get home before nightfall, before that… bastard showed up and decided to make your wounds worse.
After what felt like ages, you could see the familiar colors of your house, just only meters away. You wanted to start running towards it, but you hardly had any enough strength as it is, so you kept your slow trudge to your house steady. You’re almost there, although the sun is beginning to set. You mentally, quietly pleaded he wouldn’t show up. Soon enough, you were at your front door. Your armor and weapons have never felt this heavy before, even the treasures from that hectic mine you collected were beginning to weigh you down. You only stepped a few feet inside before you gingerly closed the door behind you. Safety; Finally. Your worn out, battered, bruised legs finally gave out as your body slammed to the floor with a clang, somehow not taking more damage, despite being on half a heart. You let go of your weapons as you fell and hear them clink to the floor loudly. As your body stopped moving, the pain only increased as you felt your body panicking over every injury. You wanted to get to your bed, end this night, but you had no more strength, not even to eat something. You felt like crying, wanting to beg for someone to help, to hold, comfort you. Alas you knew no one…
…until you were reminded about the only one you did. You didn’t need to look to know why your door was opening, the creaking was enough. The sound filled you with more dread than you needed right now.
It was him.
August.
You only heard a few footsteps before they stopped beside you. You didn’t feel like looking up, seeing his boots was just enough for you.
“...Well, well, what happened here?” His voice condescending as you felt his eyes peer down at you. Great, sounded like he wanted nothing more than to make fun of you before worsening your situation. The thought alone finally pushed the tears out, although you didn’t audibly cry, not wanting to jolt and move your body to bring more pain. You didn’t respond, just hoping he would get it over with. You could hear the fabric of his coat and such rustle as he knelt down. Soon after, you felt his calloused hand wrap around your chin, guiding it to make you look at him. The tears flowed harder, your breath catching in your throat making your body jolt, bringing even more pain. Ain’t this just great, he was going to make this extra lengthy.
“You know you look really pathetic, don’t you Maus?” He teased. What a living nightmare this was. You hated it, wanted it to stop. Fuck, you just wanted to fuck over and die. You had a sliver of strength left, enough to talk. More so, plead. Plead to be left alone. Your voice cracked with soft sobs, clearly sounding dehydrated as the raspy stutters came out.
“...August… please, just… leave me alone… I… I’m… Please… just go…”
There was only silence after that. Your eyes averted to the floor, but you could still feel his on you. After a few minutes, he let go of your chin, letting your head drop pretty harshly to the floor. Wonderful, more ow, just what you wanted and needed. You then heard his steps retreating somewhere. Did… did he actually leave? Your hope immediately vanished as you heard the rustling of fabric somewhere. Was he taking his clothes off? Oh god, what the fuck. You hoped he wasn’t going to do what you thought he was. Would he? He wasn’t that vile was he? Your body felt like it was twisting on the inside from the panic your heart was starting to spread throughout it, the blood coming out of your cuts quicker. Your train of thought ceased when you felt two firm hands wrap around your waist, and then hoist you over his shoulders. You shouted, startled from the sudden movement and from the pain it brought.
“A-AUGUST!? What are you doing!?! Aggh–”
He didn’t respond however, keeping you firmly over his shoulder as he walked up the stairs of your home. Trying your damndest to ignore the throbbing pain throughout your body and get a grip of your surroundings, you noticed he did take… some of his clothes off. Namely, his coat and hat, and having the sleeves of his button-up rolled up. Now you weren’t sure of his intentions, since you’re sure if someone wanted to defile you, they wouldn’t take part of their clothes off and take the effort to take you to what you're sure was your bedroom. Pain slapped you out of your head again as you felt him lay you on your back against the bed, not with much gentleness. This rips a hiss out of your throat as you’re reminded of the arrows in your neck and head. You breathe rather heavily as you try to calm your body down and try to focus. You shift your eyes to find where August was, finding him a few feet away from the bed. He had pulled out a cigarette and was lighting it up. What the fuck is his problem? Did he think carrying you to your bedroom was such a strenuous task? You immediately doubted it since there’s no way he had trouble, you’re half his height and he’s… significantly muscular, from what you remember. Seriously though, what was he thinking? After he successfully lit it up, he took a drag before puffing it out and shoving the pack into his back pocket. He then turned and left the room, going back downstairs again. Leaving you alone.
You had such mixed feelings about him. You hated how he’d never stop at making your life a living hell, but you also hated how he never let you know more about him. He only ever gave you his name, his full name actually. To which, you giggled, thinking it sounded cute, a little silly even for how he was. He then promptly decked you in the back of your head with his gun, definitely insulted. Remembering that time got a chuckle out of you, immediately making you groan after. Oh yeah, you definitely had a broken rib. There will be no mining or night adventures for a while. Good news for August you thought, he could bother you even more now. Slightly better thought compared to being around him, you realized just how much blood is dripping out of you. This was not going to be fun to clean up, you could only begin to imagine how sticky you would get. Eugh.
You started hearing those terribly familiar heavy footsteps approaching you up the stairs again. August came back into your room still saying nothing, it looked like he was even avoiding eye contact with you. Speaking of which, you could clearly see his eyes now, a bit of a rarer sight because of his hat usually overshadowing his face. That wasn’t the only thing you saw, you also finally saw what his hair looked underneath his hat. It was swept back from what you could tell, aside from some stray baby hairs that hung the opposite way. It looked cute. You then noticed what he set down on the table in your bedroom… bandages, a rag, and a bucket of water. Was… was he going to take care of you? Your wounds? No way. You were for some reason scared of that, so you tried to wiggle away from him, having stayed still enough to recover some strength, biting back a great deal of pain. You also questioned him.
“What are you doing?”
He turned around and noticed you trying to get away, quickly approaching you by the bed and firmly pushing his hand against your armored chest and pressing you down.
“Sit still.”
When he removed his hand to go back to the table, you tried to move again, which immediately caught his attention again, being a bit more rougher, grabbing both of your upper arms and sternly pressing you into the bed. He stared down at you with a glare, you stopped wriggling. He spoke with a low, commanding tone.
“For someone who looks like they’re on the verge of death, you move too much y/n. Sit. Still.” He squeezed your arms with his last word, making sure you were staying down. Not like you had the heart to move now, that was arguably more scary than any other time he tried to kill you or jumpscare you. You then noticed his eyes were lingering on your chest. You mentally sigh, seeing he’s still a pervert at heart. However, looking closer, it looked more like he was looking at your armor. He then looked back at the items he brought, then back to your armor.
“...We need to remove these.” He hooked one of his hands under your chest plate.
“Oh… uh, okay.” It made sense, he wouldn’t really be able to take care of those wounds with your armor in the way. Luckily, there wasn’t too much to remove, your helmet and boots broke in the mines, leaving only your leggings and chest plate. So you allowed him to remove them, wincing when he had to work around the arrows still lodged in you. Surprisingly, he was gentler than you expected, gentler than he was before. After they were removed and he tossed them to the floor with a loud clank, you noticed just how much blood seeped into your clothing. Ugh. It seemed August noticed too, because he now started to try taking your clothes off. You jolted, panicking, ignoring the pain once again and shooting your hands to his to stop him.
“WHAT do you think you’re doing?”
He huffed out a puff of smoke between his teeth, scoffing like it was the dumbest thing you asked him.
“Your clothes are completely soaked with blood, it can not be comfortable… plus, I still can’t get to your wounds with your clothes on.” He definitely could, but his tone suggested he didn’t have any malicious intent. Don’t get yourself wrong, he sounded really intimidating right now, but it didn’t feel like he wanted to hurt you. Not right now at least. “I’ll let you still keep your underwear on, I’m not trying to take that off.”
You hesitated, but slowly slipped your hands off his, allowing him to take your clothes off. You turned your head away a little shy about this, it didn't matter there wasn’t sexual intent behind it, you were still going to be almost naked in front of him. Quick enough, there you were, sitting in your under garments, on your bed, and your shadow man stalker sitting next to you as he tossed your clothes elsewhere, with the hopeful yet odd intent, that he’ll tend to your wounds. He got up from the bed to grab something from the table, letting you take a glance at the amount of open wounds all over your body. Yikes. You could even see some really hefty bruises beginning to form. You’re honestly surprised your skin wasn’t falling off or something. This calls your attention again to those arrows. Damn skeletons. You carefully place your hand around one of them, trying to gauge how deep they were. You hissed, they were way too deep, yet miraculous enough to avoid any major arteries. You breathe, trying to pull it out. August sat back beside you on your bed, pulling the bucket at the bottom of it, while putting the bandages and rag on your nightstand. When he noticed you trying to take the arrow out, he placed his hand on yours.
“Don’t.”
You rescinded your hand as his eased onto the arrow you were trying to pull out. He tugged it, yanking a hiss and groan out of you.
“...That’s pretty deep… lay on your stomach.”
…A little odd request, but he’s not really giving you a reason to not trust you right now. You comply, carefully turning yourself over. You couldn’t say you hated this side of him. He may not be the biggest sweetheart, but this was… nice. Until you felt a huge weight settle on your lower back.
He was sitting on you. Your thoughts about him being sweet vanished immediately.
“What the- AGH!” One of his hands slammed into your head to press you into the bed further, cutting off your words. He was apparently mindful enough to make sure the arrow in the side of your head wasn’t putting more pressure on you though.
“Would you calm down? I can’t have you squirming around so much or else you’re gonna fuck up your wounds even more, understood?”
“...Would it kill you to explain before you act!? You keep freaking me out…”
He went silent again, after sighing in defeat. He slipped his hand up to one of the arrows lodged in your neck, wrapping his thick fingers around it firmly, waiting for a moment.
“...Stay calm.”
Oh jeez, you braced yourself, grabbing your sheets and gritting your teeth. This was going to hurt like hell, and it’s going to happen three more times too. Fuck. His fingers tightened for a second before ripping it out with full force. The sting shot through you and pushed a shriek out of you along with a few ‘ow’s. You’d think he’d take a minute to give you a break, but you felt him hold the next one. Exhausting, but at least he thinks getting over with it quicker is better. In another second, rip. There goes a second one. You bury your face into your blanket, screaming for a short bit. A few seconds later, he rips out the third one in your shoulder, your scream muffled again by the blanket you bit on. Your neck and shoulder areas throbbed hard as you could feel the blood rushing to come out of that area. Finally you could calm down a bit, releasing your death grip on your blankets. You tried to sit up, but he still kept his other hand on your head. Oh, right, the arrow in the side of your head, that one honestly scared you a bit. Apparently, August could also clearly see that it does.
“...Calm down, I… I’ll try not to make it hurt that much.” He then pushed your head to the side a bit to get a better angle on the arrow as he grabbed it. You wince and shut your eyes, pulling the blanket into your mouth again to bite on something, muffle your shrieks. Finally, yank, the arrow was out, tossed to the side. Although the sting in your head was loud, it was a relief to finally have them out. You took the blanket out of your mouth and breathed, trying to fully calm down, when you then felt his hand’s touch soften, caressing the wound on the side of your head.
“Good job.”
You feel your face gently flush, and you’re reminded that you’re in your underwear. Feeling nervous, you worm yourself out from under him and try to get to the other side of your bed.
“You know what, I really appreciate your weird change of tune and getting those arrows out and all, but I think I’m good now and I’m gonna call it a night, bye-!” But before you could get away, you feel a firm grip on your ankle yank you back to him.
“You have several open and uncleaned wounds all over…” He lowered his head to you with a sly grin and the stupidest smug face. “I don’t think you want to sleep in bloody bedsheets, Schatzi.”
Ugh, it didn’t take you long to learn that he liked calling you terms of endearment, despite you two not being together… you think. He especially enjoys using German words too, so you can at least deduce he’s German as well. Guess there’s two things you know about him.
“...Fine.”
He settles himself more comfortably on your bed, bringing the bucket up on the night stand. He then pats his lap, like he was commanding you as if you were a pet. You look at him with raised brows, incredulous. Did he really just do that?
“Excuse me?”
“...Well I can’t take care- clean those wounds if you’re over there now, can I?”
“You could’ve been more respectful, sir. Jeez.” You crawl over to him, despite all the sore in your body, and sit adjacent to him. You could swear you heard a low, gruff grumble from him. He grabs you by your ankle again and yanks you to him so you’re cradled by his lap. A bit close for your liking, especially considering your current predicament, but whatever. He takes the rag and lightly dips it into the bucket, bringing the rag to your abdomen to one of the particularly bigger cuts. Once again, another loud hiss tore from your throat and instinctively squirmed. He scoffed and brought his other hand to press on your shoulder to attempt to restrain you.
“Would you relax for a minute?”
“Hhhhggg– gee- I dunno, IT’S AN OPEN WOUND.” He rolled his eyes. What an asshole, you thought for a second. Then again, he was still doing this for you, so was he really that much of an asshole?
“I wouldn’t need to do this if you had healing potions, y’know.” Alright he still is one.
“...Ghast tears are a bitch to get.” You groaned in brief agony again as you squirmed when the rag moved to another wound. He let out a frustrated snarl as he roughly gripped your shoulder. You stiffened immediately and shrunk away a bit when he glared down at you. He was losing his patience.
“Do you have to move every time? You are a grown adult, you can sit still for a few minutes, even if you’re in pain. Because I will tie you down on all corners of your bed if you keep moving.” This might just take the cake for being the most terrifying moment with him, more than any jumpscare he’s given you. He is right though, if you were able to tough through those mines for that long and make it home, you could suck it up for a few minutes of stinging. You were still tense, but submitted.
“Sorry.” It looked like he chilled out, but still was a bit upset. Honestly, the last thing you wanted was to piss him off. He wanted to make sure you were going to listen, so he moved the rag to a deeper cut on your collarbone. It took all your strength, but you only winced, not a peep or wriggle. The pressure of his hand on your shoulder lightened, becoming more of a gentle hold. As he continued to clean out the rest of the injuries on you, you didn’t want to stay in awkward silence. Your shadowy stalker is in your bed taking care of your wounds, you wanted to try and learn a little more about him. You felt something huff into your face, the cigarette smoke. You could always tell he was around even if you didn’t see him because of just how much he smokes, he’s got his own smokey aura because of it. Not like you minded the smell of smoke, it’s just... so strong coming from him.
“...Any reason why you smoke?” He paused his motions and glanced at you. When he wasn’t staring at you with the widest eyes, his normal eyes looked rather soft. You relaxed a little, and he resumed.
“Relaxes me.”
“You must be super nervous all the time then.”
He chuckled. “What makes you say that?”
“You have the fattest smoke aura, every time you come around, I literally smell you before I see you.” He laughed a little harder at that.
“Well, I didn’t say I was nervous-”
“Then why else would you be smoking?” He glances at you with a raised brow. He then took the rag to your neck and shoulder punctures from the arrows, moving more slowly.
“You ask too many questions.”
“I wouldn’t need to if you properly talked to me.”
“...You don’t need to know much about me, nor my… motives.”
“Speaking of, that makes me think: why are you doing this? Y’know… tending to my wounds thing?” He then placed the rag to the puncture wound in the side of your head, however he placed his hand more in a manner of holding your face. His gaze looked so gentle on you for once, almost like… he was admiring you. Hell, you could almost say it looked like he wanted to say something. Confess? Hold on… was he actually into you? You knew he was obsessed with you, but you always thought it was just a weird stalker not… actual interest. This was awkward, you had to break the silence somehow.
“Uhhh–” Making noise seemed to snap him out of whatever look he was giving you, averting his eyes. He then tossed the rag to the bucket. Looks like he was able to clean everything up. You noticed he took a sizable inhale of his cigarette, puffing it out and away from you. Looks like he was done, so you tried to crawl out of his lap towards the other side of your bed. He then yanked your ankle again to get you back into his lap.
“I still need to bandage them, any reason you’re in such a damn hurry to get away?”
“I am mostly naked in the lap of a crazy ass stalker, I have all the reason to want to go.”
“Tcha, well you’re gonna have to wait a minute.” He reached over to your night stand to get the roll of bandages, pulling it out and tearing part of it with his teeth. Now he started carefully wrapping your injury ridden legs. It still confused you as to why he was taking care of you like this. You would try to ask him again, but you don’t think he’s going to be saying much else about himself. So, you stay quiet, letting him continue to bandage you up, occasionally wincing from how tight he’s tying them.
Several minutes go by as you silently let him bandage you, until he commanded you to sit up. You were in your head for the moment so you weren’t sure why he wanted you to do that until you realized he needed to wrap the bandages around your torso and chest. You complied and sat upright in his lap, being mindful enough to make sure you weren’t pressing your back against him… anywhere. You zoned out again for a few minutes, feeling your eyelids beginning to flutter shut, your eyes lightly stinging. Ugh, tired. You hadn’t noticed since you were getting so tired, but August had briefly stopped since he realized he didn’t tie the bandages tight enough. To make up for it, albeit a bit too roughly, he places his hand on your back and harshly pulls the bandage tight, like it was a corset. The force immediately woke you up out of your dazed state, upsetting you and instinctively, smacking his side with your arm.
“GAH, WHAT THE FUCK? That really hurt! Agghh damn I think I really do have a broken rib, ugh.”
“The pressure was too loose, I had to tighten it. Sorry about that.” He mumbled that last part, although you could barely hear him. Did he apologize?
“Did you…” You felt his other hand grab the back of your head and make you face forward again as your head tried to turn around to look at him. Shortly after you felt the warmth of another puff of his cigarette smoke hit the back of your neck, gently travelling down your back, sending an opposing chill up your spine. He was able to tie the remaining bandage into a bow on your back, although his fingers lightly remained against your back, hesitant to leave you. He then softly patted your back.
“...All done, I suppose.”
“Oh, thanks… we’re really done? You’re not gonna yank my ankle again?” You say as you crawl away, sitting on the far end of your bed, away from him. He sat there, still, looking at you. He looked calm, docile even for once.
“...What, do you want me to?”
“Absolutely not. Anyways, I uh… thanks for the um help, now please leave.” You said as you carefully wormed into your sheets and turned around. It wasn’t even 30 seconds later when you turned back around and he was still there, sitting on the opposite side of your bed, looking at you and smoking.
“...Uhm, hello?”
“Oh come on, you wouldn’t kick out a kind man who just took care of you like that, now would you? In fact…” He then decided to make himself extra comfortable and lay down on the bed completely, positioning himself in the most relaxed manner he could, exhaling more smoke. “I offer myself as an extra cushion just for tonight, no sudden slaughter included.”
“Get the fuck out of my bed.”
“No.”
“Ugh I’m too tired for this- OK fine, look- If I… lay against you, will you shut up? And stop smoking for the night, I don’t wanna choke on the smoke.” He playfully nodded his head side to side as he looked away from you, as if actually deciding this.
“...Sure.”
You crawl over to him, keeping yourself under your blankets somewhat, finally sitting beside him. You keep your face averted away from him, as you could just tell he was looking up at you with the dirtiest, smug face. You wanted to hit him, but your beaten up body was begging you not to and you quite frankly did not have the strength to. You could nudge him though, so as you laid down you aggressively planted your face into his chest. Such rough motion caused him to jolt and make a gruff scoff. You’d never admit it, but… he was lowkey comfortable, especially since he wasn’t trying to kill you. Part of you was surprised you were starting to fall asleep this easily on him, shouldn’t you be terrified? Honestly, it didn’t matter right now, you just wanted to sleep. You felt your body radiate calm throughout as you slowly started slipping off to sleep.
You couldn’t tell if you were just half-dreaming it, you weren’t exactly fully asleep, but you felt a hand on your head. Supposedly, it was August big ol’ hand, ever so slightly caressing your hair. Then, it was followed by an uber soft crunch. Did he crush his cig in his hand or something? Whatever, you could just be having an odd dream. That is, until you heard an almost tender…
“Gute Nacht, y/n.”