Stockholm Syndrome

[Kitten Queen Danielle]

(FullmetalChao, while writing the story, it turned out that I didn't need to use what I PM-ed you about. The story just flowed away from it. This means I meddled with your character less than intended. smile )


Pairing: Wolf/Danielle aka Cat and Dog
Title: Blindsighted
Rated: PG
Song Playing During Creation: Disease by Matchbox 20


**********************


Alarmed shrieks filled the air as the large room suddenly exploded from all sides, and Danneh’s group rushed in to attack. His strategy this time had been to catch them off-guard, rather than appearing in the room with them and ultimately preparing them for the eventual epic battle; so he had situated his minions at different points around the room. They attacked as one, blowing up the walls to cause confusion and then moving in for the kill.



Indeed, they were surprised. They’d been distracted beforehand, agitated and bickering. For once, the group had jumped into a dimension that nobody knew about. Trying to talk to people hadn’t helped, just gotten them weird looks, and they hadn’t found any allies. So for the past few hours they’d been walking through long, lighted corridors aimlessly, not sure if there was a virtue in this dimension or not, finally stopping in the large antechamber they’d been in to try to discuss their options.



They found out during the attack that they were underground.



Support beams sagged and dirt and rocks came in through the busted walls, making it hard to see and cutting people off from each other. Anger had totally cut loose, and his attack had blown away most of the wall on his side without the slightest resistance and then continued on. In the confusion someone hit Danielle in the back as they flung themself away from the attack. She looked up, disoriented, to see a support beam above them break under the strain of trying to hold up its corner of the room without the help of its partners around it. The ceiling and earth rushed down swiftly towards them.



She screamed.


***************


“Danielle!” Arcel whirled around at the sound of Danielle’s scream, cursing himself for not paying attention to her. He zipped around, ignoring the fight and the rocks raining down through his ghostly form, searching for Danielle. But he couldn’t find her, couldn’t see her at all. “Danielle? Danielle, where are you?!”



“There! I see her, she’s over there! To your right!”



Arcel sped through the air towards the indicated section. The shouts of the fights around him made it impossible to tell who had helped him. Perhaps 80’s or Fun Danny had said it? But it didn’t matter; what did matter what getting to Danielle as quickly as possible to protect her. He flew right through a rock that he otherwise would have gone around had he not been a ghost, appearing on the other side of it.



Lust snickered from his hiding place behind the rock, perched to surprise whoever came around the corner for cover. He didn’t even see Arcel when he came through the rock behind him, turning around a full 180 degrees in the air to find Danielle and stopping himself when he spotted Lust.



“You’re not Danielle.” Arcel stared at him, blinking cluelessly.



Lust wheeled around to stare back before his shoulders slumped in disappointment. “And you’re not a girl,” he whined.



Arcel rolled his eyes, turning to fly away. “I must be behind the wrong rock.”



Lust grinned triumphantly, brandishing a Fenton Thermos he’d concealed behind his back. “Which is why I have this!”



“What?” Arcel turned again in time to see Lust screw off the thermos cap, just before the otherworldly white-blue light consumed him. “No!”



The cap was placed back on when the last of Arcel’s spirit disappeared inside, and Lust grinned proudly at actually accomplishing something for once.


******************


Danielle’s eyes fluttered open. Her feline senses made her able to see through the shroud of black that had descended over wherever she was. She could hear sounds of a battle around her. Where was she? All she could see were rocks and beams of wood. She remembered . . . long corridors and her friends bickering like children . . . . She’d been standing off to the side, no desire to join in their squabbles. And then . . . an explosion to her right. Danneh! And her friends were still fighting him. She had to—!



Trying to get up was hard. A large rock had fallen on her hand and a biting pain emanated from it. She winced, trying to push the rock off, to no avail. It was too heavy, especially when only using one hand for leverage. There was something on her back. She sighed, thinking it was another rock, admitted to herself that she was stuck and opened her mouth to yell for help.



The rock moved. “Karen . . . ,” it mumbled.



“Hello? Who’s there?” She shifted, trying to arch her back and get whoever was there off her, with little success. The person had some sort of lead weight keeping them down and she gritted her teeth. The voice had definitely been male, and that narrowed down who it was.



Unless the person wasn’t in their group. Which would mean he was in Danneh’s group.



Who the heck was Karen?



“Hey!” She arched her back upwards again, trying to dislodge him, or at least awaken him. “Hey, wake up!”



The person jerked awake, still lying down as he raised his head to look around. “Hm—what? What happened?”



“Who are you?” Danielle demanded.



The man stiffened above her. “Who are you?” he shot back.



“I asked you first.”



He ignored her retort, looking around, but his eyes couldn’t pierce the darkness. “Where am I? It’s too dark.”



“Trapped underground.” His voice finally registered to her. “Wolf?”



“Yeah?”



Danielle huffed in annoyance. “Could you get off me, please? It’s Danielle.”



His reaction was a bit more violent than she had anticipated. He threw himself away from her, scrambling to his feet. Halfway up, though, his head came in contact with a support beam balanced above them at a slant and he cursed, ducking down and rubbing his head. Danielle turned where she lay to look up as the beam jostled, rocks grating against each other ominously. Small pebbles and dust rained down.



“Are you crazy?” she hissed. They had been fortunate. The support beams lay above them, criss-crossing and holding up most of the rubble above them. The rocks had tumbled down and around them to enclose them in, displacing the weight, but moving them an inch could throw the balance off. “You want us to get buried alive?”



“Sorry,” he spat back, inspecting himself for any injuries as he moved to crouch down away from her. “I didn’t know. How did we get here?”



“Danneh attacked, remember?” She gestured with her good hand to the outside, where sounds of battle could still be heard. “I think you ran into me and then we got trapped.”



“Right. So, how do we get out of here?”



“I don’t know,” she admitted. Now that she had a good idea of their situation . . . “I’m afraid to move anything.”



“Not that we can even see what we’d be moving . . .”



“I can see.” Wolf opened his mouth, but the question was already on his face. “Cat eyes. I can see in the dark.”



“Oh.” He looked away, stretching and flexing his automail arm to make sure it was in good condition—which reminded her of her own plight.


“Wolf?”


“What?”


She scowled at his harsh attitude. They were on the same team, yet he treated her like an enemy. “I need your help.”



Wolf looked up, his surly attitude melting away. “With what?”



“My hand . . . a rock fell on it. I can’t get it off.”



Wolf winced apologetically and she realized that he thought it had fallen when he hit his head. She didn’t bother to correct him and he moved forward slightly to help. “I can’t see it or you, though.”



“I’ll help lead you. I’m right in front of you. Just keep coming and don’t stand up.”



He frowned irritably. “I wasn’t going to,” he grumbled, moving forward. He fumbled around in the darkness. He found her tail first and flinched away when he realized what it was, then found her arm quickly. His metal hand followed it up and across her shoulders, and then up her other arm. Danielle shivered lightly at the sensation of the cold metal as Wolf leaned over her, grunting as he found the rock and grabbed it. He hoisted it up off her hand with just his one arm and flipped it over on its side, freeing her.



Danielle pulled her hand close to her body as Wolf retreated back a few paces. Her hand hurt badly and she bit back a cry when she tried to move it. Her hand was broken somewhere, probably in several places. She sat up, still holding it tenderly, and looked over at Wolf. “Thank you.”



“No problem.” His voice had gotten calloused again and she sighed. There was a minute of silence, except for the sounds of battle outside. Danneh’s group was rather persistent this time, she mused to herself. She wished she could be out there helping them.



Wolf, it seemed, had the same thoughts. “Isn’t there any safe way we can get out of here? Don’t you have those . . . teleporter claws or whatever?”



She blinked, reminded now of the new power that she had only used a select amount of times. She nodded, forgetting Wolf couldn’t see it. She winced as she lifted her hurt hand. “I don’t think I can. My hand feels broken.”


Wolf rolled his eyes. “Use the other one.”



She blushed in embarrassment and raised the other hand, after cradling the hurt one back in her lap. But the same translucent energy that she had come to recognize didn’t issue forth from her fingernails, and when she swiped them through the air in front of her, no fissure through reality formed. “I . . . can’t.” Her face went redder at the admission of weakness, her sin of Pride creeping up. “I must need both hands . . . .”



Wolf leveled her—or the direction he knew she was in—with a disbelieving stare. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”



“I’m not,” she defended.



Wolf turned to gaze this time at the ceiling of their stony prison, gesturing emphatically, voice incredulous. “You have got to be kidding me!”



Danielle’s forehead creased. “I told you, I’m—”



“Not you,” Wolf said tersely, still glaring at the ceiling, before beginning to talk to it again. “Is this your idea of a joke?”



“Who are you . . .?”



“Doesn’t work with one hand, my rear end! How contrived are you going to get?!” He glowered when he received no answer from the rocks above him. “Oh, come on, I feel like I’m in a bad fanfiction!”



YOU ARE. NOW STOP BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL AND GET BACK TO THE STORY!



Both of their eyes went wide at the booming disembodied voice that had echoed off the stones. Danielle’s head whipped around to find out where it had come from. Wolf was hunched back against the stones looking extremely paranoid.



“I didn’t actually expect an answer,” he said weakly. Danielle just stared at him like he’d grown an extra head. Finally he cleared his throat, sitting up straight. “I believe your line was next.”



Danielle launched quickly back into the conversation they had been having. “Well, it’s not like I know all the ins and outs of my powers,” she shot back. “This one’s new. Besides, I don’t see you doing anything to get us out!”



“What would you have me do? Chop the rocks up? Or I could try blasting them with chaos magic.” He gestured above them with both hands sarcastically. “I’m sure that’ll work out real well.”



“At least I have an excuse for not helping,” she grumbled.



Wolf narrowed his eyes. “And what is that supposed to mean?”



Danielle sat up straighter, sticking her chin out. “It means that ever since you’ve arrived, all you’ve been doing is complaining. We’re fighting to protect and save our lives and you haven’t contributed anything!”



“Maybe that’s because I don’t want to be here in the first place!”



“Yes, you’ve made that quite clear,” she retorted scathingly.



“Don’t give me that! Maybe I’d be more sympathetic to everything if people like you weren’t pushing me away!”



Danielle’s chin ducked down humbly, now looking timid. “I haven’t . . .”



But Wolf couldn’t see the change in posture, nor did he notice the tone of her voice, righteous fury flaring up. “And I wouldn’t be here had Medivh not sent me off with Mistro to you guys. I’d still be home like I’ve always wanted with my girlfriend and life!”



Danielle was only half listening at that point, something occurring to her about the complete darkness around them and the time they’d been there. “Wolf . . .”



“But none of you care about that! You don’t care that maybe I’m not into all the randomness that surrounds you. That I’m not interested in your love triangles and I definitely do not want to be a part of them. Yeah, saving the world from that psychotic demon is a good cause, but not at the disregard of my character! I shout out my intentions to not be romantically involved in this story to the Plot Bunniers and everyone blatantly ignores them. And you’re the worst!”



“I said I was sorry!” Danielle’s eyes were begging for forgiveness.



“Sorry isn’t good enough! I step into your little club and it’s automatically assumed that I’m going to get paired up! First, I have this jealous knight glaring and yelling at me without any just provocation. I was ticked, but I can deal with that. But then, as a joke—a joke—you make a fool of me and have me almost kiss Tucker in front of an entire audience! Like I said, gay jokes are where you cross the line! And you crossed it!”



Danielle was looking around, chewing on her lip in worry. Wolf’s voice was rising in volume until she couldn’t even hear if the fight was still going on outside. Still, there were other, more pressing matters. “Wolf, shut up.”



This only seemed to enrage him more. “I don’t take orders from you, Your Majesty,” he mocked. “You accuse me of never doing anything for the club, but what do you do? You stand there and give orders and act so superior to everyone else when all you do is control cats! And—”



In the dark, Wolf had no warning. Couldn’t even see Danielle fluidly get onto her knees in her long dress and crawl over with her good hand. No time to react or prevent Danielle from grabbing the back of his head by his hair and pulling it forward to kiss him fiercely.



Danielle let go of him soon enough and Wolf fell back to lean against the rock he’d had his back to, staring straight ahead with wide eyes. “You’re taking up my oxygen,” she replied coyly, enjoying the stunned expression on his face.



Wolf blinked, opening his mouth to say something, most likely to yell at her, but the expression and comment just faded away to revert back to the blank, stunned one. “Oh.”



“Because if light isn’t getting through to here, it’s a good bet oxygen isn’t either.”



“Right.” Danielle giggled at the lack of response, wondering exactly what was going through his brain.



“Still angry at me?”



“Yes.”



Danielle frowned. “I see.” She looked away sadly. “I really am sorry. I just get so . . . impulsive. But it was a cruel joke that I never should have done, and I regret it terribly. We almost lost you. I know you’re unhappy with how we do things around here, but I still enjoy your company. A lot. And I was so relieved when you came back and it turned out you’d have to stay with us . . . .” She let out a small sob. “I’m sorry.”



The warm touch of Wolf’s real hand on her shoulder, quite different to the touch of the automail, made her turn around to look at him again as he smiled tenderly at her and leaned forward.



“You’re taking up my oxygen now.”



He kissed her then, a kiss that lasted much longer than the first.



There had been no threat of suffocation. The electricity had been cut off due to the initial explosions, so there had been no light in the first place to seep through the small cracks and holes between the rocks. Plenty of oxygen was getting in, especially now that more openings had been created unintentionally when Wolf hit his head. But both were too oblivious by that point to really care about the oxygen level or acknowledge how much time went by, and they weren’t found and “rescued” until hours later.