Chapter Text
I sat quietly at the table in the centre of the command room, poring over the days newspapers. With the Monger still at large, any new information was important, any new lead was worth looking into. Not that there was much to find. This Monger was clever. This Monger was frightening.
Shark shifted in his chair across the room, a bandaged hand reaching forward to change the fequency of the radio.
"I thought you were asleep," I mustered a chuckle.
He didnt respond.
I sighed and turned back to my newspaper. My list of potential contacts was short, but at least I had a few. I wouldnt be able to contact them till the morning - not many people enjoyed being visited after 11pm.
The dregs of my coffee had long gone cold - they'd been cold by the time the Chief had taken Misa home. Really, after the day we'd had, I should have gone to bed when they'd left. But I couldnt. Not till Shark did.
My gaze lifted from the black and white pages, once again resting on the man across the room. His back was to me, his posture slumped to the point where all I could see was the top of his head. My wrists ached from the altercation earlier, the skin raw with rope burns. I could imagine how Shark's knuckles felt.
It had been an ambush, we'd been captured. Overwhelmed and dragged to a hide out, tied up as prisoners and left to wait while Amazon Killer and the Monger made negotiations with the Chief. Three machinemen stood guard. Though not for long. One had made the mistake of shoving their rifle in Misa's face. It all happened quickly.
Shark freed himself from his binds and disabled the machinemen with ruthless efficiency. A quick severing of the right circuitry rendered two of them useless - his rage was immediately turned on the third. He'd wrestled the rifle from its grasp and tossed it aside, knocking the goon to the ground with a single punch. He didnt stop. He pinned the machineman down and continued to wail on it. A ceaseless round of punches, knuckles growing bloodier as its head became less and less recognisable. He didnt stop. A smear of wires and oil, blood glinting on every sharp metal edge. He didnt stop. He was as good as punching the ground by the time Misa's pleas got through to him. He'd taken a moment to observe the damage he'd done, before quietly freeing us from our ropes.
"You can go to bed, you know."
His words snapped me back to attention.
"Huh?"
He turned his head toward me, but didnt look up from the ground, "you can go to bed."
"I'm not tired."
The silence thickened the air between us. Shark turned back to the control panel.
"You could go to bed too."
He didnt respond.
I bit down on my cheek, drumming my fingers quietly against the table. I turned the page of my newspaper.
Shark had hardly said a word since the altercation. Even once we were home safe, he kept his mouth shut. Chief didnt push him - Misa and I had provided all the information we had anyway.
Misa had tended to Shark's wounds, cooing to him as she replaced the handkerchiefs with proper bandages. I'd watched quietly from across the room as I patched myself up.
The way she looked at him weighed heavy in my chest. I'd seen her fight with skilled tenacity, I knew how strong she was, how fierce her gaze could be. But as she looked up at Shark - I'd never seen her so soft. And when she lifted his hands to her face and nuzzled her cheek into his palm, my heart ached to join them.
They were close, so close that sometimes I felt like a stranger. Whatever was going on between them - I often found myself hoping there was room for me.
"Do you want another coffee?"
Once again I was dragged from the depths of my thoughts.
"I-" I couldnt stop the smile that crept onto my face, barely managing to swallow the relief that welled in my chest, "I'd love one."
Shark stood up from his chair, stretching his arms up high before turning to face me. He locked eyes with me, offering me a brief smile of his own, and a quick nod.
"I'll be back soon."
I watched him leave the room, my eyes lingering on the door long after it had closed behind him.
Before they'd left, Misa had pulled me aside. She had important things to tell me - secrets I had to keep to myself. Of course, she had my word.
In hushed tones and with wet eyes she filled me in. Not so much an excuse, but an explanation for Shark's behaviour. About his family - how not even his little brother had been spared. She made me promise not to tell him I knew - she was hardly meant to know herself.
One last favour - she'd grabbed my hand before she asked, her thumb brushing across my knuckles, her gaze low to keep her voice steady.
Dont leave him on his own.
As ever, she had my word.
The way she'd looked up at me knocked the air from my lungs. After a tip-toed kiss on the cheek, her thank you was hardly necessary. I'd held her hand as long as I could. Had I been braver - had the Chief not been waiting - I'd have asked her to stay too.
Shark placed the coffee in front of me, sitting himself down on the opposite side of the table.
"Thank you," I lifted the cup to my mouth, testing the temperature with a quick sip.
He slumped low in his chair, cradling his drink close to his chest, his eyes scanning over the mess of papers.
"Find anything?"
"Nothing instantly helpful," I sighed, "but a few things that may prove useful. This guy here in particular-" I quickly flipped through some pages "-seems like he might have seen something."
I passed the paper across to Shark, leaning back deep into my chair as he read. The tension in my shoulders eased more with every mouthful of coffee - I hadn't realised quite how stiff and sore I was. My mind had been elsewhere, but now that Shark had snapped out of his funk, I found myself more aware of my own situation. Not that I blamed him for his behaviour.
"So you're going to call this guy in the morning?"
"I was thinking I'd drive out there," I polished off my coffee and sat forward, doing my best to hide the wince as I leant my forearms against the table.
He pursed his lips and nodded, "I'll come with you."
"You don't have to-"
"Its a three hour drive," he interupted, "its a long way away to be on your own and I-" he cut himself off. He rolled the corner of the newspaper between his fingers, his cup holding hand sinking into his lap, "if this guy has seen something, going alone wouldnt be smart."
I hummed an agreement, "I guess you're right."
The room fell quiet once again. He continued to fiddle with the newspaper. I couldn't take my eyes off his bandaged knuckles. Misa had cleaned him up well, but that had been hours ago, and there was no way of knowing how filthy the innards of a machineman were.
"Do they hurt?"
His brow furrowed as he looked up at me.
"Your hands," I clarified, "how are they feeling? Do we need to change the bandages?"
He let go of the newspaper, tucking his hand under the table, "they're fine."
My throat burned with words of comfort - I kept them locked diligently behind gritted teeth.
I pushed myself up, striding quickly across the room to the first aid drawer. He might not have wanted tending to, but I sure did. I rumaged around until I had everything I wanted. Fresh dressings and bandages, antiseptic cream, painkillers. I made sure to grab enough for two.
Once I was sitting back down, I began to unravel the bandages around my wrists - doing my best to ignore the gaze burning into the top of my head. Being open to the air turned the dull ache of my wrists into a sharp sting - I shook a couple pain killers from the bottle. I reached for my mug, remembering its empty status the second my fingers curled around the handle.
"Here."
Shark leaned across the table, offering me his coffee. I glady took it. I watched over the rim of the cup as he stood up, my heart beating faster as he walked round to sit next to me.
"Dont drink it all," he chuckled, tipping a couple pills into his hand.
I swallowed, handing his cup back with a smirk. I kept my eyes on him as he brought the drink up to his mouth - exactly where mine had just been.
The clock ticked steadily past 1am. Even with my jacket the cold air had begun to feel like it had seeped into my bones. I contemplated another coffee, but the call of a warm bed felt exceedingly more alluring. The conversation had long shifted from anything important - I was happy to see Shark the way he usually was. The soul crushing moping seemed almost a life time away as he chatted quietly about Sand Vulcan's fuel mileage.
His sentences had become slower, filled with yawns and heavy eyed sighs. Eventually, he leaned over, resting his head heavily on my shoulder. I froze, holding my breath in a desperate attempt to keep my heart out of my throat.
"You can go to bed, you know," I spoke softly, barely above a whisper, leaning into him to encourage him to stay put.
"Here's fine."
I hid my smile in his hair, brushing my fingers across the bottom of his jacket.
"Maybe you," I took in a slow, deep breath, "we..."
He lifted his head off my shoulder, glancing up at me before looking back at the ground. I curled my fingers into his jacket, tugging him closer. Despite his stooped posture, I could see the smirk on his face.
"Your room?"