The sound of the gun firing pierced his chest as if he had been the one shot. All other sound quieted, and his wide eyes watched as your limp figure collapsed to the ground.
Blackbeard laughed. The bastard had the gall to laugh, as Shanks saw his world crumble at the edges, threatening to cave in and collapse entirely.
Things were a blur after that, the fighting and killing nothing but a backdrop as he walked closer to your still form. Blackbeard was nowhere to be seen, but his sorrow overshadowed his stewing rage.
He drops to his knees, eyes unable to look away from the blank expression, the absence of light in your normally bright and shining eyes.
Shanks ignored the sudden shouting in his ear, Benn telling him they needed to leave. In that moment, he couldn’t tear himself away from your side, regardless if it meant his imprisonment or not.
Shanks woke up coughing, his grief overwhelming. The noise wakes you along with him, but before you can ask what’s wrong he’s already reaching for the bottle of booze on his nightstand from the evening before.
The burn is sour and sudden, but he prefers it to the numbness of grief that was beginning to engulf his head from the terrible fate you’d befallen in his dream.
“Shanks? Are you alright?”
He doesn’t respond, gulping down more of the alcohol in a desperate attempt to forget the morbid scene he’d been forced to witness. Some dripped past his lips, but he doesn’t stop, even when your hands settle on his shoulder in a comforting manner.
“Babe?” You ask, concerned by his extended silence.
His panic having subsided enough to breathe easier, he sets the now empty bottle on the nightstand again, and works to even his breathing.
The feeling of your fingers on his skin, flexing and moving with vitality ad you work at a knot in his muscle, provides a reassurance he cant speak of in that moment.
“I’m fine…just a bad dream.”
“What was it-”
“I dont want to talk about it…please, I’d rather just forget, Y/N.”
“…Ok.”
He accepts your warm embrace, skin warmed from being under the comforter. Closing his eyes and feeling the steady heartbeat from your chest pressed against his back, the smallest sign of life puts his troubled mind at ease.
ns 15.158.61.42da2
