Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Adam was sitting on the edge of their base of operations in False Bay, enjoying the fresh air of the night. The wind gently swayed his hair which was now slightly longer than he last remembered them to be. He could ask Lyle for a haircut, but shivers went down his spine when he remembered the last time the man had given him a haircut. The man sure knew how to be stylish, but haircutting was not something he was trusted with. The last time he gave Adam a haircut, he almost cut off his ear and the haircut was uneven. Who even cuts hair with the Attack on titan theme running in the background?

Distant memories invaded his mind, some were filled with laughter while some were bittersweet. Of all the times he could be remembering those, it had to be tonight.

He let out a long sigh and looked at the glass of bitter melon juice Timido had given him. Bless her heart, she was too kind and caring. He doesn’t like bitter melon juice, but the hopeful look in her eyes stopped him from saying it. It was hard to refuse her offer. Right now, everyone should be asleep, it was two in the morning after all. Off in the distance, he could see the faint red glow of the Arcane Castle.

He would be lying if he said that he wasn’t worried about Mei and Carole, both of them insisted he uses their first names. God knows how they were doing. He remembered the wounds on Mei’s unconscious form vividly and how he went past his limits to use the full potential of the Labor of Olympus to save his squad. He rolled the sleeve on his right arm to look at the red marks of corruption on his arm. It sent a jolt of pain whenever he felt the presence of Honkai energy, even if it was from his teammates. The fight against the Hanged Man was still fresh in his mind. The sheer amount of pain that coursed through his body was enough to make him lose his breath when they had just entered the Santarem Hospital. He unconsciously rubbed his wrist, feeling the dull thrum of the lines.

Does he regret doing it? Not at all. Would he do it again? If the situation called for it, he would do it again to save his team. The number of people he cared for is increasing, with the addition of Squad Leader Zaychik and Timido. He would go through hell for his loved ones.

He took a deep breath in and closed his eyes, letting all of his stress out of his body. He isn’t good with stress, oftentimes, he would end up with a minor panic attack. He wouldn’t show it, however. The moment his parents would be notified about his falling mental health, they would pull him out of here. After all, he did go against his parents’ wishes and joined Schicksal. In that regard, his circumstances were opposite to Carole’s, who went AWOL because she was worried about her skin, oddly enough.

“Squad member, why are you up?” A soft voice asked behind him, he turned around and opened his eyes to see Bronya, wearing the base of her combat suit with the shoulder cape discarded.

“Just thinking, ma’am. You should go to sleep.” Adam said, picking up the glass of the juice. Bronya walked up to him and sat beside the man. “I could say the same for you.”

They sat in silence, none of them uttered a word. The silence was awkward at first, but it soon became a comforting type of silence. The sound of the crashing water served as white noise as both of them were unsure of what to say. Finally, Bronya broke the silence between them. “What is on your mind?” She asked. Adam stretched his legs to get rid of the numbness from sitting too long. He replied, “Just thinking of what has been happening recently.” Bronya looked at him and nodded sagely, offering a gentle pat on his shoulder. “Here’s a pat in these trying times.”

“Did you just quote Sugar Haw Child from Arahato Beta Version?” He shot an incredulous look. The woman let out a small chuckle. She tucked away a strand of her hair behind her ear and answered, “Of course I did. I am one of the developers of the Arahato series.” She smiled. He didn’t know that. So that’s why Lyle was talking about Arahato with the Squad leader the other day. He had chosen not to join their conversation and let the two converse while he chose to help Timido fix a loose plating on her ice skates.

“Ah, I was not aware.” That was all he could say. 

The small smile on her face transformed into a smirk, her eyes had a glint of mischief behind those steel grey orbs. Adam could feel that the leader's inner businesswoman was emerging. “Since you played the beta version…” That sent a big red flag in his head-

“... how was your experience and what was your opinion back then?” She finished. There it was, the million-dollar question. In his honest opinion, it was a bad game, even for a beta version. The general storyline sucked. Had she never read a novel or fanfiction? He could lie his way out but he’s a terrible liar. He couldn’t turn back now. “I … developers … punch … face.” He muttered quietly. 

She raised her eyebrow and asked, with a hint of teasing in her voice, “Hmm? I couldn’t catch that. Mind repeating that?”

Adam sighed, finally accepting his fate. “When I played it back then… I said that the developers deserved a punch to the face.”

“At least you’re honest about it. I’ll admit, the beta version lacked a lot of features and the general storyline was not solid. So your comment is understandable.” She turned her gaze away and looked at the moon. Who knew what was going on on the moon? Her friend was either fighting honkai or maybe she was already dead. She would like to not think about it today. The sound of someone gagging turned her attention away from the moon. She looked to her side to see Adam coughing furiously while holding the glass of Bitter Melon juice in his hand.

“Who the hell likes bitter melon juice. It’s just bitter.”

She smiled, “Maybe it’s because it is called Bitter Melon Juice? And I know one person who likes it.”

“Maybe it’s someone who’s above 60 or they’re a child.” His face crinkled with disgust just as the aftertaste hit him like a freight train. 

“Both.”

“Both?”

“Both, and you never answered my question. What’s really on your mind?” She asked Adam. 

“I would rather not. Not right now.” He shook his head while saying that. Bronya nodded slowly, choosing to give another shoulder pat. She said, “It is fine. Just know that I’m always here whenever you need me.” Her index finger pointed downwards to the building they were on top of. She just stated an obvious fact. A huff came from Adam at that. 

“But you need to finish the juice your kouhai gave you~” She smirked again. Fucking hell.

So, in a stroke of bravery, he downed the whole drink at once. Just like the previous attempt, he gagged but tried to forcefully swallow the juice. His face crinkled again from the bitter taste that assaulted his tongue. His mind went blank and suddenly, it felt like he could see nothing and everything at the same time. He could see stars rotating in a washing machine, a random guy who was walking menacingly towards a man wearing gold armor, a teen who yelled something along the lines of 'people die when they are killed', and even overseer Theresa dancing to an odd remix of her own dialogues along with the Vodka girls. Meanwhile, Bronya rubbed his back in consolation and offered yet another shoulder pat. 

Once the coughing fit seized, Adam said, “Squad leader?”

“Yes?” She replied, her hand never leaving his shoulder. She maintained a firm grip on him but not enough to hurt him.

“Do you think Me- I mean, Squad Leader Raiden will be okay?” He asked. So this was what it was about. She sighed before replying, “To be honest with you, I don’t know. She will survive, yes. But I don’t know how long it will take her. Be assured though, Big sis Mei will be okay, she is the strongest person I know.”

The feeling of dread in his heart seemed to calm down at that. “He must have been thinking about it.” She wondered.

She got up from the floor and removed her hand from his shoulder, moving her other hand to reach out to him. He took her hand and pulled himself to his feet. The moon looked to be at a lower position than it had been when he last looked at it.

Bronya looked at him and said, “Come on squad member, we need to explore the area later today. Get some rest.” Adam gave a quick salute to her. “Yes, squad leader.” They were about to go down the staircase when Bronya turned back to face him.

“Also, Squad member?”

“Yes Ma’am?” 

She let a smile slip past her indifferent expression and said, “Call me Bronya, at least when we’re not in the field.”

“Sh.. should we wa- wake him up?” Timido asked the former Valkyrie standing beside her while looking at the sleeping form of her senpai. Bronya looked at her and shook her head.

“Let him sleep, he deserves it.” She turned and walked to the bar, but not before giving Adam’s hair a gentle ruffle. That day, when Adam woke up at 9 AM — three hours later than he was supposed to — nobody said anything.

Chapter Text

“Member Timido and Adam. We’re running low on medicines, It’s your shift now.” Bronya informed the two, with the upper half of her body still inside the container and her lower half sticking out of it. Out of decency, the squad looked anywhere but in their leader’s direction. Lyle was polishing his gun although he actually polished it 2 hours ago and Adam was quietly wondering how it would feel to drift through the roads of False Bay.

Timido was quietly snoring on the couch, off to dreamland with her mask on her face and another mask to cover her eyes. Her left arm was dangling over the edge of the seat; her right arm, along with her right leg, was put over the headrest. 

Internally, Adam prayed for Timido's limbs. 

Imagine getting proper sleep. 

“Timido, ever listened to Tokyo Drift?” Adam asked the girl running alongside him. She had slowed herself down considerably to match pace with her teammate, both of them were running from a horde of Fools, Wheels of Fortune, and Stars. To anyone else, it would’ve looked like they committed a robbery and were fleeing the scene like some classic Marvel comic villains. Technically speaking, they are stealing stuff from the abandoned buildings but Bronya had a different opinion on it.

They had encountered a small patrol team of these guys and decided to take them on. But one of Adam's spinning attacks went too high and attracted attention. Now here they are. 

“N-no, senpai.” She replied while sidestepping an attack from a lover.

Their mission was simple: Gather medicines and return. But no! Everything just had to go wrong. 

“Then don't mind me.” Adam quickly switched her Bluetooth headset on by reaching his hand to her ears, connecting it with his phone and his own earbuds, and hitting replay. Surely, this was an odd time to play music but jokes on them (you too, Lyle), he is always playing a song when they're fighting. He has Bronya's playlist of songs so he's got music for days. Who knew that the squad leader does the same thing?

The beat started picking up and Adam took a look at Timido's face. Her face showed none of the nervousness, replaced by a calm and focused expression. 

Timido looked at the man beside her. The monsters were approaching fast and at the speed they were going, they couldn't shake them off. So she did the first thing that came to her mind, that is lifting her senpai and getting the heck out of there. The pink-haired girl grabbed Adam by his coat and hauled him over her shoulder. 

Adam felt his vision blur and his feet leaving the ground, only for his body to be spun around. He closed his eyes, waiting for some sort of impact. Instead, he felt someone gently holding him against their back. 

The wind whipped against his face and he could feel his heart jump out of his ribcage with every shift of his center of gravity. He knew that it was Timido from the gentleness despite their situation and eased into her hold, letting her take control. He had enough faith in her from the days he had spent with her on this mission and could trust her with his life.

Suddenly, he felt the shift to be far more drastic than before and more violent than what he had expected. His body was jerked in rapid successions. He opened one eye, met by the sight of pink hair below his head.

“Senpai, duck!”

The warning came a bit too late and the last thing he saw was a leaking water pipe.

‘Leader was not lying, it  does feel good~’ The shy girl thought to herself while stroking her fingers through the black locks of her male companion, still out from hitting his head on a pipe with a satisfying 'clang' sound. Was the last part necessary? No, but Timido kinda liked the sound but was also worried for her senior at the same time.

She took him to a rooftop, away from the constructs that were hellbent on chasing them down. It was quite hard to take the man with her on the ziplines but she managed. 

And now, they were chilling on top of the building like college students during PE, because who actually cares about PE? The clouds above her looked like cotton candy and the pink haired girl made a mental note to get some cotton candy after this mission. She didn’t mind the food she was getting during this mission, but Timido would be lying if she said that she wasn’t missing some good damn sweet food. A lazy rainy Sunday in False Bay, sitting on a rooftop with some Jolly Ranchers while sitting under an umbrella sounded heavenly.

The wind swept her hair and the girl let out a sigh.

“You want some candies?” The boy asked, surprising Timido who was lost in her inner desire for sweets.

“H-Huh? How did you know, senpai!?”

Adam looked up at her face and sighed, “You were muttering. Sweets do sound amazing though. You should try Lyle's Parfait someday.”

A sparkle shone through the girl's emerald eyes with the mention of the cold dessert.

“Really?”

Adam smiled, “He used to cook for the entire dormitory, but kept his sweets reserved for Shu and I. We used to be up till late, eating cheesecake and watching Arahato. Those were fun times.” While listening to her senior talking about his school life, Timido spotted a fond smile gracing his face. His face is mostly serious during their mission briefings, so this was a welcome change.

The man who had his head on her lap almost gave his life for his team and didn’t even stop, still going on despite each movement feeling like thousand needles going through his heart. Perhaps one day, she too will be as strong as him but right now, all she can do is watch the phoenix burn itself to ashes and piece itself back until she can help pick up the pieces too.

As Susannah once said, “The distance between a grain of sand and a star is too great, but we too, can aim to reach the stars. All we can do is walk towards it.” So she will continue to walk until she can say that she is strong. 

Unknown to her, Timido’s hand traveled down to Adam’s head and stroked his black locks. 

Feeling her touch on his hair, the man was reminded of his position and red overtook his face. “S-sorry about that.” He lifted himself and stretched his back, letting out a sigh of relief when the cracking sound reached his ears. After all, they still had to take the supplies back to their base.

If Timido was shaken awake by Adam and Bronya later that night to eat some chocolates that Adam went out to find, that was only for those three to know.