You’re running. Mostly with the help of Kaku, but somehow, you’re running. The gunshot had hit you in just the right place on your chest to cause the most amount of pain, without outright killing you. Well, at least that’s what you hoped. Internal bleeding would be tricky to treat.
Half the stuff you had to maneuver around was no longer recognizable, making it even more of a hassle to avoid. Hidden beneath the gray and brown mass of rubble could be anything, metal support rods, shattered glass, and a whole slew of other things ready and waiting to give you tetanus if you happened to step on them the wrong way.
You felt dizzy and out of breath as he drags you forward, dodging obstacles and hazardous debris in your way. If they keep this up, you’ll pass out before you actually reach safety.
More gunshots behind you, one close enough for you to hear it whizzing past and ‘tinging’ against an old car door as you shuffle past. You gasp, surprised from the sound.
Lucci, further ahead of you and carrying the most powerful of your weaponry, turns and fires a burst of shots towards whoever was still chasing you down. It would buy you precious time, but wouldn’t be enough to deter them long.
“Keep going!” He calls out, waving you both past. “I’ll be right behind you.”
“Almost there…” Kaku mutters in your ear. “Hold on a little longer.”
“Trying.” You grit, focusing on not allowing your feet to stumble on the jagged concrete of the road. Fuck. This was more difficult than you expected.
But Kaku is determined, and within minutes, you see the familiar doorway of your hideout and make a beeline for it. Lucci stays back, covering the both of you long enough to get down into the underground bunker before your pursuers get there.
It’s a bitch of a time lowering yourself down into the bunker. Each stretch of your torso is painful and debilitating. You want to scream, but eventually manage to get yourself down onto the floor of the bunker moments before Kaku follows after. He helps you clear away from the entrance.
“Lucci! We’re clear!” You hear him call, and the gunfire ceases just long enough for your third other companion to drop down through the manhole-sized entrance.
The complicated locks and seals snap into place behind him, and with a few more turns and twists of the metal handle of the locking mechanism that Kaku had developed, you’re safe at last.
It’s blessedly quiet down in the bunker. Still and calm. You all pant from exertion, Kaku and Lucci both leaning against the metal walls of your home to catch their breaths. All the running had worn you out. It had to have been at least 2 miles, and with them tag teaming carrying you back it wasn’t easy on them either.
You’d never been happier to breathe in the sterilized stale air that filtered through the metal walls. It may taste metallic after so long lingering in the underground space, but at least it wasn’t poisoned with the latent radiation on the surface. You sucked it in greedily as your heart calmed it’s rapid, thumping pace.
You’re on high alert again when you hear banging on the cover above you. Lucci’s gun points at the entrance and holds there, glaring with determination. Your defenses had thus far never failed you–it had withstood grenades, gunfire, and all other manner of things that your would-be attackers had tried to kill you–but your arrogance didn’t go so far as to call it impenetrable.
Your pursuers bang and clang at the sealed metal cover, trying anything to get inside. The rapid-fire of an assault rifle sprays above, but still the seal remains intact. Lucci doesn’t take his eyes off the entrance, but Kaku helps you back onto one of the beds at the very back of the bunker. With a sigh of relief, you collapse onto the bed and finally rest.
“Where’s the first aid supply?” He asks, taking off his dirtied jacket and shucking it to the floor.
“Top shelf in the hallway cupboard.” You say, closing your eyes against the pain that flares up when you try to sit up straight. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off from your desperate escape, the pain was coming to you in full. “Fuck…I hope we still have some of those painkillers left.”
“Stay there.” He says, as if you could go anywhere else, before he leaves the room to find the aforementioned kit.
You fight off a wave of nausea. On top of your injury, the exposure from residual radiation that tainted the entire country was settling in, too. You’d realized too late that your radiation equipment had sustained a tear. You’d be stuck in the bunker until Kaku and Lucci were able to find you a replacement somewhere.
Your long-nosed friend returns, setting the first aid kit on the bed beside you. After helping you to get into a more comfortable position, he helps you out of your shirt. In any other setting, this might be crossing some boundaries of privacy, but you’d been surviving together long enough that the action of removing your clothing in one another’s vicinity no longer phased you.
Nude from the waist up, you sit back and allow your companion to inspect your wound. His hands are gentle on your skin, one of them snaking behind you to feel for an exit wound.
“At least it went straight through you.” Kaku said with a half-hearted grin. “No need to go digging around in there for bullet fragments.”
“Small mercies.” You say, fatigue coloring your tone. Your head droops to the side.
“Hey, hey…stay with me, now. Don’t pass out.” His attention returns to the first aid kit, and he produces a rag and bottle of liquid from within. “This’ll probably sting.”
“Ok.” You tense up, teeth grit in your mouth as he applies the sterilized rag to your wound. The pain spikes up when the cold, wet portion of the rag makes contact, killing off the bacteria on site. That stuff was potent, and burned like a match to your skin. “Ffffffuck…”
“Sorry, sorry…” Kaku mumbled, glancing behind him when Lucci approached from the doorway. “Are they gone?”
“It’s gone quiet up top, but they’re probably waiting somewhere close by, watching.” He says, before taking a closer look at your wound. His eyes narrow just enough for you to notice. “You’re lucky you aren’t dead, Y/N.”
“I know.” The talking helps to distract from the pain somewhat. Your fingers bury themselves in the sheets below you as Kaku gently cleans the area around the bullet wound. “Couldn’t have known they were staging an ambush, though.” You say, and he nods slowly.
“They had to figure out how to use their brains eventually.” Kaku added quietly, focused on the task of fixing you up. He had finished cleaning the wound and now rummaged through the first aid kit for an appropriately-sized bandage.
“One little bullet isn’t gonna put me down.” You say with as much strength as you could, but your weariness was crashing down on your fast, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep your eyes open.
“Aimed in the right place, it very well could.” Was Lucci’s stiff reply. “Y/N, hey, stay awake.”
His words alert you to the fact that your eyes had closed again, and you blink a few times. You’re tired, and want to tell him so, but the effort of speaking proves to be too much.
“Kaku, do something.” You hear, your eyes having slid closed again. Hands on your shoulder and chest make you dully aware that you’d slumped forward, and they were holding you up. “Y/N! Hey!”
“There’s nothing I can give to keep them awake. We don’t have any more adrenaline shots.” You feel a gentle patting at your cheek, but your brain has already dragged you too far away from the realm of consciousness, and you don’t open your eyes. “Y/N, come on, just stay awake a little longer. Y/N!”
Darkness completely takes you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next time you regain consciousness, you slowly stir awake and crack open your eyes. You’re at least happy to be in the safety of your bunker. The events from before begin to catch up with you. The sight of both Kaku and Lucci right beside your bed, clearly tired by trying to stay awake but failing miserably, surprises you.
How long had you been asleep? Had they stayed that way the whole time?
“Guys-?” You mumble into the small space, causing both of your male companions to look to you sharply. “What’s going on?”
“Y/N.” Kaku says with reverence, the back of his hand immediately pressing to your forehead. “Shit, you’re awake.”
“Yeah?” You mutter in confusion. “So?”
“Do you have any idea-” Lucci started, then paused with an expression of deep thought, going over to one of the chairs tucked under the table and pulling it out to sit. He leaned forward and took a steadying breath. “We were this close to losing you.”
“What?”
“We weren’t able to stabilize you before you passed out. You’d lost a lot of blood before we got you here, so we weren’t sure if you were going to wake up or not.” Kaku explained, looking relieved. He managed to give you a shaky smile. “Seriously, don’t do that again.”
“Sorry…was really tired.” You admitted, sitting up as best you can.
You heard Lucci huff a humored breath, his head shaking. “If you didn’t pull through…”
“We don’t know what we’d do.” Kaku finished for him with all seriousness. You look between the two of them, surprised by how seriously they were taking this.
You guys had been surviving together for a long time, and you were all close with one another. You thought of them as brothers, comrades, and more in the tender moments of companionship in the safety of the bunker. You’d never admitted as much, but that was one secret you would take to your grave. The fleetingness of life, it left you wishing to enjoy what life you did have to the fullest, even from afar if necessary.
Death was a well-known and likely possibility every time you left the confines of your bunker. Had they not prepared for the eventuality of one of you dying?
“I’m sure you’d be able to keep going without me.” You say with a shrug, wanting to reassure them. “You’re both strong, and resourceful-”
“Don’t say that.” The long-nosed man interrupted. “Don’t say stuff like that.”
“What would the point be, if you weren’t there with us?” Lucci stood from his chair, coming closer to hold your chin in his hand, forcing you to look at him. “Without you, there’s no reason to keep going.”
You blink, overwhelmed by the admission. “Lucci-”
“He’s right.” Kaku says, grabbing a hold of your hand and drawing your attention. “There’s no one else out there worth surviving with. And neither of us would be the same without you.”
“I…” Words fail you, in that moment. They’d never looked at you so intensely before. At least, not in any other setting but your dreams.
“Do you think we value you so little? That you don’t mean anything to either of us?” Lucci asked, and clearly was waiting for an answer.
“I…don’t know…”
You watch as Lucci and Kaku share a glance, before they resolute to something in the short exchange.
Kaku shuffled a little closer, gaining your attention. “You’re important, Y/N. To both of us. Don’t think for a second you’re not.”
“We care about you, more than just a partner or companion. Almost losing you then…we realized how true that is, and how foolish it’s been to try keeping the fact to ourselves.” Lucci said with an intense gaze. You’re quiet as you gaze back. “Do you understand?”
There’s something in his eyes you’ve never seen before. Something heavy and meaningful. Kaku’s eyes hold it, too. Like you were the sun and stars. Like you were the reason to keep going. Your heart thuds in your chest.
Their confession finally prompts your own words to come out, and you feel a lightness as they spill over.
“I…care about the both of you too. More than I probably should have all this time.” You look away shyly. “I didn’t want to disrupt the dynamic we’d had all this time, in case you didn’t feel the same.”
“That’s not something you have to worry about anymore.” Kaku said with a little smile, leaning forward to kiss the skin of your knuckles. “We’re here for you always…if you’ll have us?”
“Yes.” You say with a smile. “I wouldn’t want anything else.”
“Good.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You still needed time to recover from your injury, but so caught up in the high of knowing your feelings for Kaku and Lucci were reciprocated, you want nothing more than to feel them close beside you. It had been a hell of a day, and given you couldn’t go anywhere above ground–the pursuers were no doubt still watching the entrance–there’s was no reason you couldn’t all keep close and rest together.
You’d pushed your beds all together, giving enough room for you to lay in each other’s arms with enough room. Your head rested on Lucci’s chest, and you could feel Kaku’s warm breath against the back of your neck as he breathed easily.
Their hands gently caress the skin they could touch, relishing in the fact that they could touch you like this without consequence, or fear of letting their hidden feelings be known.
Those slow, exploratory and comforting touches were slowly, gently, replaced by lips. Soft, loving kisses kept you completely content, and overwhelmingly in love with your two companions. You knew there was nowhere else in this hellish world you would rather be.
At one pint, you’d hated the bunker. Now, it was nothing less than home in the embrace of your lovers.
Lips traversed shoulders, jawlines, and your neck, until they began to explore lower, at your consenting nod. Hands explored under shirt hems, to touch and caress more skin underneath. The air begins to grow hot as you explore each other’s bodies in ways you’d only ever done in your dreams. It’s hot, and so soft.
The quiet bunker is filled with the soft sighs of your pleasured breaths, as you rid yourselves of all of your clothing. The need to be as close as possible clearly wasn’t just felt by you. Collectively, you all work towards that goal, that feeling of love and the sensation of touch.
You’ve always been a good team, and now is no different. Kaku and Lucci’s skilled hands working in tandem bring you endless pleasure, and for as long as you’re held between them in such tender ways, you can forget the world outside of your protective metal bunker hatch.
You can pretend that this is all there is, forever and always.
Come morning, you’re certain the harsh reality will descend again, but until then…you’re more than happy to remain suspended in such unending contentedness.
ns 18.68.41.141da2
