I don't know if you watch pretty little liars or not but there's that one line that one of the girls says " you know you wanna kiss me" and now it's stuck in my head that Janus would say it to Virgil in that same annoying tone
... i wish I could remove this from my head but alas i can't...
(excuse any misspelling/lack of correct grammar I'm very tired rn)
okay i'm a little stuck because I have not seen or read pretty little liars and I can't find a video of the scene or even like an excerpt from the book to have literally any context to that
however
anxceit brainrot doesn't care about fact it only cares about anxceit and brainrot and rotating the bois in my head 24/7
so thank you for the additional brainrot have some more brainrot in return but it's unedited because I don't feel like editing today just brainrotting over this prompt
(okay update a very cool friend found me a clip and I was a little off with more teasing and less snooty but the brainrot still prevailed and that’s what’s important here)
Dice rolled outcomes: Drunken Confessions, "That's not a happy face."
CW: Alcohol, Drinking Alcohol to Cope, Mild Implied/Referenced Car Accident, Threat of Parental Disappointment, Playful Teasing but it's Mildly Mean, Cursing, Stolen Kiss
Virgil slammed down his shot glass with a sour look on his face, not turning to face Janus at all who smiled smugly the next barstool over, twisting his finger along the rim of his highball glass as he leaned his chin on his hand.
"You certainly could use another," Janus joked and Virgil glared before holding up his hand to get the bartender's attention.
"Another shot of rum, please," Virgil requested when a bartender looked at him. The bartender nodded and reached for the bottle.
"Are you sure you have the brain cells left to handle another shot?" Janus asked, picking up his highball to take a sip. Virgil accepted the rum with a nod and shot Janus a spiteful look before throwing it back and placing the shot glass on the counter next to the other empty ones. "Fantastic showing, darling, do you deal with all your mistakes so well?" Janus added sarcastically.
"It's not like you helped any!" Virgil shot bitterly, reaching up to rub his face.
"It's not a big deal, Virgil, everyone does it." Janus rolled his eyes, putting his drink back down on the bar counter.
"If everyone did it, then all cars would be damaged, now wouldn't they? Not just mine in a way that there's no way the car insurance would cover because it was my own stupid mistake," Virgil grumbled irately, shifting to hold his head in his hands.
"And you call me dramatic." Janus scoffed. "It's a dent and a scuff, not the end of the world," he pointed out.
"And possibly a damaged tire. It's on loan from my mother and when she finds out she is going to have me tarred and feathered before burning me at the stake," Virgil hissed, still glowering at Janus. "All you did was laugh at me earlier when I was freaking out and you suggested some shots to get over it, you have no right to judge me for doing what you said," he impressed emphatically.
"I said a few shots, not a glass short of a pyramid." Janus sneered, picking up his highball to point at Virgil's small collection of shot glasses in front of him before taking another sip. Virgil peered towards the empty cups through his bangs.
"Okay, well, your face is dumb," Virgil badgered him quietly, slipping slightly on his hands and pulling himself back up to lean on the bar.
"Scathing, absolutely abhorrent treatment of a friend. I'm wounded to the core," Janus jeered sarcastically, rolling his eyes and taking a sip of his highball.
"Yeah, yeah." Virgil waved him off, reaching out for his glass of water.
"Rum is supposed to be a joyful drink, and that is not quite a happy face," Janus said teasingly. Virgil turned to Janus and gave him the nastiest, most snide customer service smile he could muster. "Perfect, much better," Janus said facetiously, flashing Virgil his own derisive smirk. Virgil faltered and slipped on his arm, nearly bashing his head on the bar before he caught himself, propping up his head on the bar again and sipping carefully at the water. "You are utterly trashed, darling," Janus told him with a sickly sweet voice.
"Yeah, well, you're utter trash, too," Virgil mumbled, his face a little redder than before.
"You know you want to kiss me," Janus teased, grinning more genuinely now.
"Only when you're being a little shit, which is all the time," Virgil smiled back, and Janus' eyes went wide, and he sat back a little in surprise. "Wait, shit, no—" Virgil denied it right away. "That was a joke! I was joking! I didn't have a dream where you kissed me last night! Fuck, goddamnit—" he babbled, trying to take it back.
Janus took Virgil's wrist and pulled him closer, leaning in to plant a kiss on his lips. Virgil's lips pressed against his and Virgil's heart jumped in euphoric exhilaration, which the drunk very Virgil short-circuited over and lost his balance, falling off the barstool. "Which one of us is a better kisser?" Janus asked playfully while Virgil stared up at him from the dirty bar floor in disbelief.
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BioFluff Week 2023 Fic #7
Title: To Breathe Again.
Prompt: Free Day/Family
Summary: The one where Delta and Sinclair reunite in Dionysus Park.
Characters: Subject Delta, Augustus Sinclair, Stanley Poole; mentions of Father Simon Wales, Little Sisters, Eleanor Lamb, Splicers, Big Sisters, Sofia Lamb, Brigid Tenenbaum, Sander Cohen, Mark Meltzer, Andrew Ryan.
Pairing: Augustus Sinclair/Subject Delta.
Warnings: firearm usage, blood; mentions of death, kidnapping.
Notes: Final submission for this new BioFluff Week! Here’s an answer to the prompt ‘Free Day’! Have some worried-but-sassy Delta reuniting with his bf. Another victim of technical difficulties (ie. my internet has fuckin sucked lately).
Side note: This acts as a prequel to one of my fics from last year’s event, Keeping the Romance Alive, but it’s whatever, ya don’t have to read this to understand that and vice versa.
All material belongs to Irrational Games.
Fic also available on AO3.
…
The only thing Delta wants - and has wanted ever since getting knocked out of the train by Simon Wales - is to reunite with Augustus.
Well, that’s not necessarily true - he wants to see the Little Sisters into their vents safely, and he wants to make sure his journey to Eleanor isn’t impeded any more by this ‘Father’ who had hit him with a torpedo, but reuniting with Augustus and ensuring his safety is very high on the list.
It’s the reason he doesn’t dawdle in Siren Alley as he usually would, only goes off path when he needs supplies or is searching for the Little Sisters of the area, and even those missions are done as fast as possible. The second Augustus had mentioned the train car he’s stuck in is running out of air, Delta had moved quickly, and he doesn’t slow in the Alley. Splicers are killed with one shot or just thrown aside like they are nothing, the Brutes are stabbed with his drill and blended to avoid having to wrestle with them like down in Pauper’s Drop, he makes do with the minimal amount of ADAM when freeing the Little Sisters, and the Big Sister comes sprinting into an array of traps he’d set, to help fend her off.
Because Augustus needs him, so Delta marches through Siren Alley with barely a hitch in his step.
If anything happens to my Augustus, Delta had thought as Lamb had taunted him at the beginning of his trek, telling him how loyal Father Wales is to Eleanor, like Delta had given a damn, I may be out of mercy for you, ma’am.
He hadn’t cared about Father Wales’s problem with him, he just wants to get back to Augustus, to see him safe, and then to move on to Eleanor. That’s it.
Predictably, Lamb and her army don’t make it particularly easy for him, but he gets down to the church finally, and then he’s only increasing his speed when Augustus’s voice comes through the radio, panting, sucking in every breath he needs to tell Delta that the pump control is in the back, but Delta will need to be ready before he transfers the suction to Dionysus Park because they only have a small amount of time for Delta to safely get there - and then to not worry about him, because he’ll “hang in there”, even when he’s so audibly struggling.
Well, who cares about Delta’s safety? Because Delta doesn’t, so he sprints down the length of the church, neglecting the corpses with their potentially useful supplies, and uses Father Wales’s key to get into the pump control room. Without hesitation, he flips the switch and, desperate to hear if Augustus is okay, he waves a hand in front of his camera and taps at the lens, trying to get Augustus to talk to him, tell him that everything’s okay. But he can’t, because she speaks first.
Of course, Lamb’s interference only continues - by flooding the fucking place.
Many of her own people killed, just to try and taunt one man; he finds it diabolical. When he sees the Splicers praying as the church starts to fill with water, he almost wants to tap their shoulders, tell them to come with him, but he knows they won’t listen, and there isn’t anything he can do for them anyway. He has no spare suits like his to hand out, and he can’t afford to give his helmet over to someone. He can only hope the ocean kills them quickly.
The only saving grace to his tumultuous trek through the flooding pumping station is that Augustus speaks to him, at last, and sounds like he has enough air to tell Delta to get to Dionysus Park, and then - when things seem at their worst - to “Get outta there, kid!”
He nearly makes it before the Alley floods entirely, but then the bulkhead leading out of the junction between the different halves of the Alley won’t open when he approaches it, and it bends against the force of the water on the other side, then it bursts and water is hitting him hard enough to hurt as he’s thrown off of his feet.
But Tenenbaum had been right when she’d said the ocean can’t harm him in this suit, so he finds his footing and gets moving again, marching through the water and passing by the floating bodies and the shark that briefly stops him, if only because he hasn’t seen one in years.
Lamb is speaking to him, but he ignores her in favour of walking on, to Dionysus Park.
He gets through the airlock’s doors, coming into an area of Rapture that is infected with coral, sand, rust and barnacles from its time spent underwater, as Augustus tells him.
“Dionysus Park was owned by Sofia Lamb, chief…sort of a private retreat for her social experiments. One night it flooded - killin’ all her guests. Papers said it was ‘cult-related’. Come on up to the train station, let’s rendezvous.”
Augustus sounds a little tired, but he’s alive, and that’s what Delta cares most about.
(Though, he does take a moment to let himself get all giddy - Augustus is so clever, so knowledgeable.)
Like before, Delta is off like a shot, marching through the remains of Lamb’s home like the whole place means nothing to him - because it doesn’t.
He runs into more of her army, of course, and a new breed of Splicer, one that teleports and leaves rose petal-like fragments in the air. They try to trap him in the entrance to Dionysus Park, or at least be an annoyance to him - they succeed at only the latter, and while they’re off-putting at first, he handles them as he does any other Splicer.
He has no time for the rest of you - Augustus is waiting for him.
Delta walks on, through Cohen’s Collection (has Augustus mentioned a Cohen? He doesn’t think so) and into the room with the carousel, stopping only briefly when he hears a man shouting about his little girl, gunfire and the screeching of a Big Sister, but when he passes through the doors, the room is empty. He looks for the man, but he can’t find him, and he doubts there’s anything he can do now - he’s sorry, he is, but he has to move on.
Fortunately, a reminder of his own goals comes through then.
“Well, the good news is, I’ve located a new train car. But the station’s still locked down, an’ we’re not alone in here…I see a shadow in the security booth. I’ll lay low while you have a gander.”
Delta lets out a gasp, spine suddenly rigid.
Augustus! Augustus is in danger!
Delta breaks into a sprint then, boots thudding through the wet sand and heart pounding in his chest, a burst of a roar escaping his throat. He hopes Augustus has left the radio on, so that whoever it is might hear him and know better than to go near Augustus - Delta will rip them apart if they do - and he gets halfway around the carousel when -
“Well, hello boys,” comes a voice in his ear, giving Delta pause. “The name’s Stan Poole - Rapture Tribune. Quality paper, heh…before the locals stopped readin’ and started findin’, uh, other uses for it. Anyway, I’m, uh, looking to cut a deal, fellas. Come by the train station, I’m here in the booth.”
Stan Poole. Stanley. Delta knows of him - heard some of his tapes on his journey, including one earlier. Journalist. Worked for Augustus for a time, when it came to dealing with Lamb.
Augustus had told him a bit about Stanley after Delta had found that first tape of his: “Skilled when his word went ta paper, but workin’ alongside Andy an’ myself? Well. I used ta raise spaniels, kid, and lemme tell ya: there was always one pup of the litter who thought his bark was as nasty as his bite, when really, everybody else knew he was the runt.”
With that in mind, Delta doesn’t think it necessary to quite panic over Augustus’s safety, but…well, he’s been surprised before, and he has no idea if this Stanley might be spliced and have some sort of power, and so he resumes his quick marching through the park.
As it was in Siren Alley, Delta pays next to no mind to any of the Splicers in his way, hitting them with Electro Bolt and batting them aside with his drill for a one-two punch that kills them quickly. He doesn’t stop for supplies - he’ll get those later. The only stop he makes is when he finds one of Eleanor’s presents: a grenade launcher, of all things. He must ask where she gets such items, once they’re reunited; his fatherly instincts are uncomfortable, knowing his girl has been handling such dangerous equipment.
It comes in handy when he opens the door to the station and finds two Splicers attempting to set up a turret; their failure is almost laughable, but he’s too tense to do anything but fire a grenade directly into the centre of them.
The turret blows up, sending the Splicers flying in different directions, and he doesn’t know if they were dead before or after their bodies crash down onto the sandy floor. Doesn’t particularly care, either - he’s got bigger concerns.
Now that he’s finally in the station, Delta is back to sprinting, all the way down the station’s floor and up the stairs. He sees Stanley’s silhouette in the window of the security booth, but he pays it no mind as he throws the grenade launcher off of his shoulder, where it lands with a thud down on the platform, and approaches the window of the train. Pressing his hands against it, he tries to peer through the murky glass, but he can’t see anything.
He knocks once, then lets out a note of whalesong, his designated noise for when he wants Augustus’s attention or when they’ve been separated and Delta’s trying to find him.
Delta doesn’t know if the glass is opaque with dirt on the other side too or if Augustus was just about to respond because there comes knocking to his right, a fist against glass, and then his radio is whirring in his helmet.
“Hey,” Stanley says. “You forgettin’ someone already? Move over here, pal.”
Annoyed by the distraction, Delta’s fingers curl into fists against the window and he tilts himself just so, looking at Stanley through the limited peripheral vision he has. He growls angrily at the man and sees him look at Delta with fear as he backs away from the booth’s window.
Still, Stanley won’t leave him be until they’ve spoken, clearly, so he begrudgingly leaves the window and goes stomping over to the booth, staring at Stanley silently with his fists squeezed shut.
Stanley is clearly still frightened of him because he hesitates to speak, staring at Delta like Delta will burst through the window and drag Stanley out. When Delta doesn’t do that, Stanley slowly lifts the radio to his mouth.
“Okay. So dead men tell no tales, right? Wrong. See, with ADAM involved, every stiff’s got a story - and Lamb knows how to read it. If that stuff makes it back to her, I’m an obituary. So I want you to take the story of Dionysus Park…and bury it. Get rid of the Little Sisters for me…your way. Do that, and I’ll unlock the station here, heh. Scout’s honour.”
Delta has a feeling this man was never a scout.
He glares at Stanley from beneath his glass, shoulders tense with irritation.
Is it not bad enough that his love had recently nearly died and that he’s still got a daughter to rescue? That he nearly got washed out into the ocean and couldn’t save a man from being kidnapped? Does he really have the time or patience for Stanley Poole right now?
The answer is no, but he recognises he might not have much of a choice here, and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little bit curious as to why Stanley needs that ADAM so badly.
Still, he would have some choice words for Stanley if he’d had the tongue and vocal cords to speak them with - but any thought on what he’d say is quickly dashed when his attention is snatched away, as there is the sound of the train’s door swishing open behind him.
A little gasp escaping him, Delta straightens in surprise, then whips around to have a look.
“Well,” Augustus says, standing in the doorway to the train car, casting a displeased glare Stanley’s way out of the corner of his eye, “I’d say ‘he’s hiding something’ - but he sort o’ took the fun outta that one.”
He comes sauntering out of the train, out onto the platform, hands on his hips as he turns to face Delta and Stanley properly.
“He’s locked in the security booth, however - so we’ll hafta play along. Let’s go find those Sis -”
In an instant, a yell of whalesong is shot out of Delta’s throat, putting a stop to Augustus’s little quip, and Augustus is doing his own jump of shock, his casual tone and disgruntled expression both dropping as he gawks up at Delta.
Delta hadn’t even meant to interrupt him or scare him like that, but seeing Augustus standing before him - actually seeing him and knowing that they’re together again, back in the same room, in each other’s presence - has all those feelings of worry and anxiety over Augustus’s condition rushing back to him, accompanied by the sudden relief of seeing his love apparently safe and sound (safe and sound enough, at least, to make a sarcastic comment like that), and it’s all too much for him to stay standing around as he is.
Quick as a flash, Delta spins on his heel and goes running over to Augustus to close the gap between them, arms outstretched towards him, and he doesn’t blame Augustus in the slightest for the way his face pales and the step he takes backwards, the way he holds out a hand to tell Delta to wait; fond of each other as they may be, Delta is still a massive hulk of a man and the kind of creature Augustus has avoided for his entire time in Rapture, so he understands it may be scary, watching one come running for you.
Much as he wants to sweep Augustus off of his feet and twirl him around bridal-style in his arms, he knows Augustus wouldn’t like that, especially not with how fast Delta is moving - would probably give the poor guy whiplash - so Delta reigns in his desires and puts to work his self-control.
Instead of picking Augustus up, Delta goes down to his level: he throws himself to his knees in front of him and pulls Augustus into an embrace.
He perhaps puts a little too much strength into it because Augustus comes stumbling forward and hits his body with a choked “Oof!”, arms awkwardly half-closing around Delta’s body, to both gain purchase and to return his hug. Delta’s holding him close enough and tight enough that his feet are coming off the floor, if only slightly.
It’s hearing Augustus make a noise like that that reminds Delta of what he is: a being who is very capable of squashing Augustus like a grape if he were so inclined, and he is most certainly not inclined, so - with a gasp - he lets up on his hugging.
He unwinds his arms from around Augustus and takes him by the shoulders; in his frantic worry, he’s accidentally a little too rough again when it comes to pushing Augustus away from him and probably ends up making his head spin, which has him gasping all over again. Guilty, he removes his hands from Augustus’s person altogether and backs off, lest he do anymore damage, but then his earlier panic over Augustus’s health is back full-force and he shuffles forwards on his knees, hands flying at Augustus again.
He uses a finger to rapidly tap at Augustus’s chest, trying to communicate questions in his haste. He doesn’t even wait for answers - he goes grabbing at Augustus’s arms then, one at a time, checking them for wounds and turning Augustus’s hands over in his own, then he grabs at his shoulders again and brings him forward so that Delta can have a look at his face, checking his eyes and the colour of his skin for any lingering signs of suffocation, before he goes back to poking at him.
Delta’s trying to ask if he’s okay, if he needs first aid or pain relief or bandages, Delta can run and get him whatever he needs, and he wants to know if something happened while he was gone, he points towards Stanley to ask if he did something to Augustus or not - but on the outside, Delta’s hands are speedily flying about, poking at Augustus’s body, moving too quickly to be communicating anything but Delta’s mood as he’s too caught up in concern to eloquently think of how to better phrase things with his hands.
Augustus must finally have enough because his hands come up, palms facing Delta to tell him to stop, and he takes a step back to discourage Delta from manhandling him anymore.
“Enough, kid, stop! Just - take it easy now!” he exclaims, which finally gets Delta to stop.
With Delta no longer pulling him around, Augustus lays a hand over his heart, huffing a breath.
“You must be seein’ me as a pin cushion, kid, way you were pokin’ holes in me like that,” he says. “Usually, I’d make some sorta speech remindin’ you that I value my personal space, but somethin’ tells me it’s not really needed here, if this really was a moment of madness on your part. Now, what’re you makin’ a meal of, kid?”
Delta thinks it’s obvious, but perhaps his frantic prodding had been even less affective at communication than he’d thought. To drive his point home, Delta forces himself to slow down as he takes Augustus’s shoulder in one hand and uses his other hand to pointedly tap at Augustus’s chest, over his lungs.
Now that Augustus has the time to think, he can finally understand what Delta means, and given what had happened earlier, he doesn’t need very long.
“Ah,” Augustus’s head bobs with understanding, his expression softening and one hand coming up to pat at the back of Delta’s reassuringly, “I see it now. I’m alright, chief. Got all the precious oxygen a fella could ever request, thanks to you. Only thing takin’ my breath away as of late,” he cracks a grin, “was you, jus’ then.”
He’s joking, but reminding Delta of how he’d just carelessly squeezed Augustus like that - so soon after Augustus has nearly suffocated to death - has Delta feeling ashamed, and his body language seizes up oh-so tellingly as he removes his hands from Augustus again and goes shuffling back.
Augustus’s face falls and he holds up a hand.
“Oh, now, don’t let that eat you up, pumpkin. You didn’t mean any harm, an’ I know that.”
Augustus steps forward and reaches out to take Delta’s nervously fiddling hands in his own.
“You just let your worries take over a little, that’s all. Concerned about little ol’ me back here?”
Delta gives him a noise of confirmation; forgiven as he may be, Delta still feels guilty, so this time, he doesn’t pull Augustus into an embrace, but rather just offers one, holding out his arms for him.
Augustus cocks his head with a smile and a soft “D’aw,” as he accepts Delta’s offer and meets him halfway, pressing his body to Delta’s and wrapping his arms the best he can around the bottom of Delta’s helmet, in lieu of hugging his neck.
It’s now with great care that Delta pulls Augustus back to him. He holds him as gently but as protectively as he dares, one arm crossed over Augustus’s shoulder blades while the other is around his waist.
It’s times like these that he wishes he wasn’t so big and didn’t have this helmet encasing his head, as he’d be able to lean down and press his head to Augustus’s chest and hear his heartbeat and be encompassed in Augustus’s arms for once instead of Augustus in his (not that he dislikes that - in fact, he very much enjoys being bigger than his partner, he just wishes he had the opportunity to be held).
That’s something he fantasises about a lot: he and Augustus laying together - on a couch or a bed, it changes with every imagining - with his head on Augustus’s chest, listening to his love’s heartbeat. He can’t wait until that’s possible.
“Oh, but - now,” Augustus says, pulling back from the hug and placing his hands against Delta’s chest, “what about you, kid? Are you alright? I was watchin’ you back in the Alley, I saw you takin’ on those Brutes an’ that Big Sister. Daniel gave you the rigamarole back there, and even the good Padre didn’t make it easy - for a man of the cloth, he gave you one helluva brawl. And then there was that flood…”
He sighs.
“A lesser man would’ve been eaten alive by Rapture after all that, kid. And - lookit, you…”
Augustus looks down at Delta’s suit.
“All you gotta show for it is the parts of the ocean you’re carryin’ around, all soaked ta the bone.”
Delta hadn’t thought of that; he can see where the water from his suit has wetted Augustus’s shirt (fortunately, he appears to have an undershirt on, so nobody will be getting a view of his chest through the wet patches - not that Delta would complain, of course) and goes to move backwards, to stop himself from making it worse, only for Augustus to stop him with hands on his shoulders.
“No, no, no,” he mutters, “don’t you go away, now.”
Delta lets himself be pulled back in, warbling softly as his heart warms at Augustus’s gentle tone.
Augustus pulls his hand off of Delta’s shoulder, only to look down at it, brow furrowed.
Delta follows his gaze and sees the blood smeared over Augustus’s fingers and palm, perfect for painting a handprint.
Augustus looks at him from under his eyelashes as he carefully asks, “That…doesn’t belong ta you, does it, sport?”
Delta grunts in the negative. His shoulder doesn’t hurt and his ADAM would’ve sealed his wounds anyway - it must belong to one of the Splicers he’s killed on his way here, or maybe several of them.
Augustus bobs his head in a couple of nods as he pulls out his handkerchief from his pocket and tries wiping his hand clean, leaving a faint red hue behind.
“Good,” he says, “then I can forget I ever saw it.”
After cleaning his hand the best he can, he stuffs his handkerchief into his pocket and looks back to Delta’s covered face, smiling.
“Ain’t nothin’ to fret over now, chief. I’m as fit as a fiddle - if a little hungry - and you’re still the top dog walkin’ the halls.”
He rests his hands on Delta’s chest again.
“Everything’s alright now.”
Delta croons, happy, and gently cups Augustus’s cheeks in his hands, which turns into cupping his whole head and part of his neck, considering Delta’s huge mitts, but Augustus doesn’t seem to mind, so Delta continues with his plan of carefully pressing the top of his porthole to Augustus’s hairline, the closest he can get to touching foreheads with him.
Augustus’s eyes sparkle as he looks at Delta lovingly, his smile stretched wide enough to make a crinkle under his eyes, and he leans in to push his head against Delta’s, eyes closing peacefully.
They stay like that for a good few, long moments, before Delta’s carefully bringing Augustus back in for another hug, which Augustus gladly reciprocates the best he can, resting his head on Delta’s clean shoulder and breathing out a calm sigh through his nose, eyes still closed.
They keep that way in silence, just basking in the feeling of being together again; neither ever feel safer than now, at each other’s side in this underwater hellhole, the only people outside of Delta’s dear daughter that they can rely on. Their bond’s stronger than anything Rapture can throw at them, they know that for sure, and they’re going to do everything they can to make sure they’re not separated again.
Delta, in particular, feels as though he can finally breathe again, now that he knows for certain that Augustus is safe. He’ll do anything and everything he can to ensure that he remains that way, now that he’s back in his arms. Delta has a duty to Eleanor, but he chooses to extend his duty to Augustus too; they’re both the loves of his life, if in vastly different ways.
Delta’s not sure how long they stay like that for, but he knows how it ends: when there comes a knocking behind him, fist against glass, and his radio whirs in his helmet.
“Hate to break up this -” Stanley huffs a derisive laugh, which makes Delta’s blood boil “- gaga fest and all, but you forgettin’ again that you got a job to do? Or don’t you want the train to get movin’? Now, find those little ghouls and make ‘em gone!”
Delta releases and draws back from Augustus with a growl, then whips around to look at Stanley, getting to one knee as he turns, and gives a short burst of a roar in his direction, fists squeezing shut and shoulders hunched, hackles raised.
He’s just come down from the adrenaline rush of panicking over Augustus’s condition and was enjoying his time with him, and this runt thinks he gets to order them around like this, with that tone of voice?
Delta is his own man now - he takes orders from no one.
He rises to his feet, still growling at Stanley warningly, watching Stanley as he scrambles back from the window, wide-eyed and scared.
“Okay, okay! I get it, I get it! You do you, pal - or Sinclair - or - or whatever! Do whatever you want, I can’t stop ya, heh! You wanna keep doin’ that, you go ahead!”
Delta oh-so wishes he could speak so that he can give Stanley a piece of his mind and he’s tempted to try to communicate with him as he does with Augustus, but any attempt he could make is stopped when there’s a hand on his arm and he turns to look at Augustus.
“Hate to agree with a fella like that, honey,” Augustus says, “but he does have a point. We’d better get movin’ on if we wanna find those Little Sisters he’s after, as well as gettin’ you down to young Eleanor.”
Delta sighs, displeased, even as he knows Augustus is right.
Augustus barks a laugh and cocks his head, arching a brow as he takes Delta’s hand and gives it a squeeze.
“Aw, sugar - we got all the time in the world to cosy up with each other, but later. For now, we’ve gotta get our dear iron horse to gallop.”
Shoulders lifting in excitement, Delta croons; he loves it when he and Augustus are on the same page.
With a huff, Delta looks back at Stanley, squaring his shoulders again to let Stanley know he’s still annoyed with him. He stares for several long seconds, then gives him a dismissive, scolding huff before he turns away from the window.
He picks up the grenade launcher Eleanor had left him and hoists it up onto his shoulder, and the sight of it has Augustus letting out a long note of a whistle, impressed.
“Now, there’s somethin’ that’ll have folks singin’ out their swansongs,” Augustus says. “Smart idea, chief, takin’ that along.”
Delta doesn’t bother trying to communicate that it was Eleanor who left it for him, just gestures for Augustus to follow as he leads the way down the stairs and towards the station’s gates.
As they start to leave the station proper, they catch sight of a figure, which has Augustus gasping at his side, but then the figure dissipates into those rose petal-like fragments and there’re invisible footsteps running through the puddles leading out into the park.
“Damn,” Augustus mutters as he pulls his gun from its holster, then looks up at Delta. “Keep those eyes of yours peeled, chief - there’re Houdini Splicers lurkin’ around, the most difficult Splicer ta get a pin in.”
Houdini Splicers, huh? Creative, but Delta doesn’t fear them.
The only thing he fears right now is losing Augustus again, and so he plants his free hand against Augustus’s chest and gently pushes him, to stand behind Delta. Then he shows Augustus his palm and wafts it in the air at him.
Stay behind me. Safe there.
With a smile, Augustus nods and tells him, “Oh, I hear ya, pumpkin, loud an’ clear.”
Delta grunts in place of nodding at him, then straightens the grenade launcher on his shoulder as he steps forward and peers around the direction the Splicer had fled in. He sees no sign of them, so he gestures again for Augustus to follow him.
With that, the two of them venture into Dionysus Park, together.
22 notes
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