Work Text:
“N-Nick?” Meryl called out weakly.
She had woken up from a nightmare, one far too common since the incident in JuLai. Her and Wolfwood had traveled together since that time, both needing an escape from their lost companions. Sure they fought a bit… a lot, but at the end of the day the two would still cuddle up next to each other in the back seat of the car, or whatever dingy inn they had come across.
“Nick…” Meryl called again, this time shakier. She tried to reach out to where he was supposed to be laying, right next to her. He wasn’t there.
Meryl started to panic, did he finally leave her? No no this can’t be happening-
Her panicked thoughts were cut short when she heard a weak sob from below the other side of the bed. Meryl, still shaking from her dream, crawls over to look at what’s making the sound.
There was Wolfwood, slightly rocking in place as he pulls at his hair… crying? Despite all the horrors the pair has been through, Wolfwood had *never* cried. It was always him comforting Meryl.
“Nick…” Meryl repeats for the third time, this time trying to take a comforting tone. She goes to try and touch his shoulder but the second her fingers brush against his bare skin he flinches.
Wolfwood immediately twists to look up at Meryl with fear in his eyes. His face was covered in tears and snot, eyes all puffy from who knows how long he’s been down here crying for.
“Hey… it’s okay, alright? It’s just me,” Meryl tries to comfort again, slowly getting off the bed to move to sit in front of the curled up boy in front of her.
Meryl opts to not try and touch Wolfwood until he gives any sign of an okay. Instead she watches him, he’s trying to avoid eye contact, shaking, small hiccups escape his lips as he tries to pretend like he wasn’t *just* crying.
Meryl is fondly reminded how Vash used to tease Wolfwood about how sometimes he really does act like a teenage boy going through hormones. Seeing Wolfwood in such a fragile state makes her understand what Vash was maybe talking about.
Of course… maybe thoughts of Vash weren’t the nicest when they… didn’t even know if he was alive.
“Why are you awake,” Wolfwood finally speaks, his voice soft and shaky.
“Nightmare,” Meryl somewhat winces. She doesn’t want to lie to him but Wolfwood seems to have taken some of Vash’s self sacrifice, she worries he’ll try and play his own feelings if she mentions her own.
“Oh… s-“
“It’s okay, really, I’m more worried about you,” Meryl cuts him off because he has the chance.
A few more tears fall from Wolfwood’s eyes, he quickly tries to rub them away but Meryl pulls his hands back gently. He looks at her, a mix of confusion and fear, a look Meryl doesn’t think she’s ever seen on Wolfwood, “The Punisher”.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” Meryl asks as she instead uses her own hands to delicately wipe some of the moisture on Wolfwood’s face.
Wolfwood shakes his head a little, Meryl was going to let him decide what he wanted then but he answered silently. He changes positions to wrap his arms around Meryl tightly, grounding. He buries his face into her chest. Meryl should be disgusted by all the fluids he’s now getting on her tank top, but currently all she wants is to try and comfort him.
“Livio…” Wolfwood mumbles.
“Livio..?” Meryl questions.
Wolfwood tightens his grip a little, reminding himself Meryl never really *met* Livio. “My brother, died on sand streamer, Vash tried to protect him.”
Meryl chooses not to mention how Wolfwood is indeed talking about it when he said he wouldn’t. “Oh… that must have been hard.”
Wolfwood nods as best he can in his position. “Miss him…”
Meryl feels like crying herself just hearing how broken his voice sounds. Wolfwood has never really talked about his past, where he came from, how he got here. Meryl couldn’t even begin to understand the horrors he’s witnessed. But she stays strong, she needs to be the bigger person this time.
Meryl pets Wolfwood’s hair soothingly, knowing that he is calmed easily by this action. Wolfwood immediately melts more into Meryl, a few more broken sobs come out of him.
“What was he like?” Meryl asks.
Wolfwood unburies his face, still not making eye contact but letting Meryl look at him. “He- Livio, he was such a crybaby,” Meryl hums, encouraging him to continue. “He’d cry every night, in the winter especially. I’d give him my blankets but then he’d just cry on my behalf. In the end we would often sleep together, so no one had to be cold and alone.” Wolfwood’s voice lightens a little as he carries on, a melancholic smile on his lips as he reminisces.
“Sounds nice,” Meryl muses.
Wolfwood makes a noise of commitment. Presumably done with his little story he adjusts again in Meryl’s arms to rest his head on her shoulder.
The two sit in silence for a bit longer. Words of comfort, empty promises, the two learnt not to bother. Neither wanted to accept the reality of JuLai, but neither could pretend it didn’t exist.
The pain never left, the best they could do was carry on.
“Wanna go back to bed big guy?” Meryl breaks the silence.
Wolfwood who had long since stopped crying nodded. The two got back into their positions in bed. “Just, don’t mention this, like, ever,” he whispers.
“Afraid I’ll tell the world how “The Punisher” cried like a baby in the arms of a girl?” Meryl attempts a joke.
Wolfwood chuckles a little, “Exactly, I have an image to maintain.
“Your secret is safe with me.”
The two smile as best they can at each other, and close their eyes and drift off to a peaceful sleep.
Tomorrow won’t be any better than today, but at least they still have each other. And for now, that was enough.