There was a heavy, heavy sigh as Danika came through the front door. She did not enjoy this aspect of being a rookie cop--her hours had a tendency to get tossed around as needed to help cover other shifts, assuming she moved at all from her now usual nighttime hours. Not that she minded the late nights, and since Dom usually worked from home she actually got to see him during her rotations and not only restricted to her days off. Even the twelve-hour work days were actually preferable to her, due to the fewer days of work during the week, and a little longer to get stuff done on her own time on days off.
Seven in the morning, to seven at night, on this particular day, saw Danika damn near slump through the door in her flats, black slacks, and jewel green blouse somewhere under the heavy long winter coat. Her exhaustion levels had been through the roof lately, and it didn't help that today part of her patrols had had her interacting with some folks who… big time needed a shower and the smells had just…
She groaned, swallowing heavily and gagging a little as the very memory made her feel sick. In general she'd been noticing feeling more sick lately. Someone had had fish in the break room and while the smell usually annoyed her as it was, today she just… she nearly hurled then and there. Removing her shoes and coat, putting things away as needed, she was pretty sure she was just going to nibble some honey nut Cheerios and call that dinner, along with some protein shakes that she rather liked--not a great meal, but suited to give back the calories she'd burnt off.
"Hey babe," she called, figuring Dom was home, as she meandered to the bedroom to get changed. Sooner she got out of her daywear and into loungewear, she'd feel so much better, she was sure. Yeah, she didn't need to dress up so much when she was just going to change into her uniform at the precinct, but it helped to put her into a work mindset even before she got through the door. Bonus if she ran into her mom--which.
A small smile flickered across her face as she glanced down at the ring she'd replaced onto her hand the moment she'd switched back to her civilian clothes. She'd managed to catch her mom for breakfast a couple days after Dom had proposed, and as Danika had sat down at the table at the cafe, Josselyn's eyes had immediately zoomed to the sparkling ring on her daughter's left hand.
The detective's hard red gaze had widened, jumping to her own crinkled in barely suppressed joy. Part of her had been nervous about how her mom would respond, so she decided to tell her solo… but with how Josselyn had leapt to her feet and squeezed Danika in a tight hug, the biggest smile on her face, it'd been instantly obvious any nervousness on her part were entirely misplaced. Just because her mom had her own preferences for her life and relationships, didn't mean she couldn't appreciate the joy others found in their own decisions.
Which reminded her--"Oh, mom offered to treat us to dinner soon, and asked if any of your family'd like to come, too. Nothing set in stone yet cuz she's not sure who's available when, but yeah."
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Getting ******** up while out on patrols was never part of any of his plans. Certainly not when he started dabbling again, at the behest of his ancestor who, while understanding of his desire and accompanying reasons to not be heavily involved in the war, made the case that he was handed these powers for a reason, and that he might consider at least doing the bare minimum.
Helping to keep allies alive was one, which had varying degrees of difficulty. Dusting youma was another, and that was usually simpler and more straightforward. As Ashur, he had stayed as surface level as possible as far as his involvement went, and he didn’t dunk himself into the thick of any situation without good reason.
A youma targeting an unknowing group of kids was a good reason.
Unfortunately for him, it was stronger than he anticipated. Feral, obscenely fast, and had far too many claws and even more teeth. The guttural sounds it made while essentially hunting for him through the woods was something that would probably live rent free in his nightmare for the foreseeable future. And while he was able to lure it away from the kids, it felt like he’d walked into a fight that he just wasn’t ready for, resulting in more cuts and bruises, ranging from minor to moderate in severity, then he would have liked.
He survived, but that wasn’t exactly the point. Not for him.
The point, at least for Dominic, was that he shouldn’t have gotten so close to dying in the first place. And it could have been attributed to a combination of a number of things, none of which he’d sat down to really think about. Not yet, anyway. He was still healing, and he was just trying to focus on that rather than on something that he might find potentially frustrating. Not to mention he hadn’t exactly told Dani about his extracurricular yet. He fully intended to, but it was a…timing thing.
Dominic had gotten home from a brief meeting with a client about half an hour ago, and promptly hopped into the shower, which took longer than normal because he was moving slowly to keep the pain at a minimum. He had small cuts and scratches, even bruises, that had been easy enough to explain away, but the worst, not to mention biggest, ones were on his back and torso, so the original plan was to shower and get them treated and patched up before Dani got home.
So when he heard her call for him just as he was turning off the water, he felt a panic shoot through him. “In the shower, be out in a sec!” he called back, then wrapped the towel around his waist and got as far as one step out of the shower…
Before he slipped and fell backward, in his rush to get to his robe.
The loud THUD that followed was far from subtle, and marked the point where he made contact with the wall behind him.
Helping to keep allies alive was one, which had varying degrees of difficulty. Dusting youma was another, and that was usually simpler and more straightforward. As Ashur, he had stayed as surface level as possible as far as his involvement went, and he didn’t dunk himself into the thick of any situation without good reason.
A youma targeting an unknowing group of kids was a good reason.
Unfortunately for him, it was stronger than he anticipated. Feral, obscenely fast, and had far too many claws and even more teeth. The guttural sounds it made while essentially hunting for him through the woods was something that would probably live rent free in his nightmare for the foreseeable future. And while he was able to lure it away from the kids, it felt like he’d walked into a fight that he just wasn’t ready for, resulting in more cuts and bruises, ranging from minor to moderate in severity, then he would have liked.
He survived, but that wasn’t exactly the point. Not for him.
The point, at least for Dominic, was that he shouldn’t have gotten so close to dying in the first place. And it could have been attributed to a combination of a number of things, none of which he’d sat down to really think about. Not yet, anyway. He was still healing, and he was just trying to focus on that rather than on something that he might find potentially frustrating. Not to mention he hadn’t exactly told Dani about his extracurricular yet. He fully intended to, but it was a…timing thing.
Dominic had gotten home from a brief meeting with a client about half an hour ago, and promptly hopped into the shower, which took longer than normal because he was moving slowly to keep the pain at a minimum. He had small cuts and scratches, even bruises, that had been easy enough to explain away, but the worst, not to mention biggest, ones were on his back and torso, so the original plan was to shower and get them treated and patched up before Dani got home.
So when he heard her call for him just as he was turning off the water, he felt a panic shoot through him. “In the shower, be out in a sec!” he called back, then wrapped the towel around his waist and got as far as one step out of the shower…
Before he slipped and fell backward, in his rush to get to his robe.
The loud THUD that followed was far from subtle, and marked the point where he made contact with the wall behind him.
General exhaustion made her pause a second when she heard he was getting out. A warm shower sounded really good right then…
She'd just gotten her blazer pulled off, relieved to be able to just strip out of the work clothes and into comfy, fluffy things, when the thud sounded, and Danika immediately turned and bolted to the bathroom. "You okay?" No, she didn't bother knocking, no, she didn't have any hesitation pushing open the door, because really? That sounded painful and head injuries weren't a joke if that was where he got hit. And yeah she didn't exactly have a reason to freak about bare skin.
When she did push into the steamy, warm bathroom though, she immediately honed in on the array of injuries splattered across him. A couple scraps here and there? She could chock that up to messing around with some device or another, maybe a kitchen accident. But these went far beyond that. Danika felt her stomach fill with ice, having an immediate inkling to where those might have come from.
Either Dominic got mugged and didn't bother to report it, which she'd need to have a hell of chat with him about, or...
She wasn't really sure if she was more freaked out, angry, or what in that moment if it was the other option. She still had a world of tangled emotions on that front. Especially given their… history there.
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Thankfully, he banged his shoulder, rather than his head, on the wall. Not that that made it any less painful, particularly given his numerous injuries that were still in the very early stages of healing, but at least it wasn’t his head. The last thing he wanted to deal with was a concussion on top of having to explain why he looked the way he did.
Immediate dread ran through his body when he heard the door open. Given his state he was in too much pain to really move, so he was just lying there, groaning quietly and gathering himself, when she walked in.
“I can explain!” he said through a wince as he started moving, because he couldn’t very well stay like that while they talked about that. It was a…sensitive…topic, given their history, so it warranted more care and attention than he could afford in his current position. “Or try, anyway. Just…need a hand up, if that’s okay? It’s…kinda…hard to move right now…”
Immediate dread ran through his body when he heard the door open. Given his state he was in too much pain to really move, so he was just lying there, groaning quietly and gathering himself, when she walked in.
“I can explain!” he said through a wince as he started moving, because he couldn’t very well stay like that while they talked about that. It was a…sensitive…topic, given their history, so it warranted more care and attention than he could afford in his current position. “Or try, anyway. Just…need a hand up, if that’s okay? It’s…kinda…hard to move right now…”
Her eyes narrowed, and though she was keeping herself very calm and contained outwardly… she wasn't sure how to process this. But she leaned down somewhat to offer her hand to him, catching his and carefully leaning back up to not just… yank him hard or something. Even if her own muscles weren't too happy by the act, what else was she going to do? No you deal with it?
"This should be interesting," she sighed, stepping back and crossing her arms when he was back up in a more manageable position. "...you take anything yet for all that?" Not to mention whatever new bruise he probably just got from hitting his shoulder like that…
Huffing through her nose, she turned to the closet in the bathroom, fishing out the first aid kit, and a large microwavable heat pad that was great to curl up with when needed. Probably do him some good.
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Dominic stifled a very loud groan as she helped him up, feeling his muscles and wounds protesting the movement. “Thanks,” he said, face scrunched up in very obvious pain. He wasn’t exaggerating either…it’d been a long time since he had to deal with such wounds, he’d long since lost any skill at hiding it. Nor did he feel the need to now that she’d seen the extent of it all. She’d worry regardless.
“Not since this morning,” he went on, fixing the towel around his waist before moving toward the mirror to get a look at the damage done with the fall. “I was gonna try and put some ointment on and redress some of the bad ones after I got out of the shower.” It took a bit of effort to turn, but he did anyway, wincing the entire time. The gashes weren’t too bad–bleeding, but not horribly–and the bruises…well. They looked bad, as bruises always did, and he imagined there would be a fresh one by morning on his shoulder where he hit the wall. But it wasn’t the worst thing he’d ever have to deal with.
Once he finished assessing himself, he turned to face her, and offered a weak, apologetic smile. “Uh, as for that explanation…”
He thought back to that conversation with Alya, how much he resisted at first as she made her case. His mindset at the time had been focused on his life with Dani, and…pretty much nothing and no one else. Civilian life wasn’t without its worries, but compared to knight life they were far fewer and further between. Nor did they feel quite as high stakes. He wasn’t constantly worried that someone might have gotten the better of her, or that he wouldn’t make it home alive at all. He didn’t think about never seeing Dani again, nor his family.
There weren’t sleepless nights wondering if someone might stick their hand in his chest again, or hers for that matter. He still had nightmares about that, too…
But ultimately the fact remained that he was one of just a small collection of people–at least by comparison to DC’s population–that could actually do anything about it. Which was where she caught him.
“She said I should at least consider doing the bare minimum with the power I have,” he sighed, eyes trained at her feet. “Toppling down that…entire…organization is probably a pipe dream at this point, but if I could keep them from hurting even just one person? I can do that and usually walk away without all of this. So I’ve stayed on the outskirts, just looking in and getting involved when I need to. Usually I do a better job assessing the situation, but I got…unlucky…the other night…”
“Not since this morning,” he went on, fixing the towel around his waist before moving toward the mirror to get a look at the damage done with the fall. “I was gonna try and put some ointment on and redress some of the bad ones after I got out of the shower.” It took a bit of effort to turn, but he did anyway, wincing the entire time. The gashes weren’t too bad–bleeding, but not horribly–and the bruises…well. They looked bad, as bruises always did, and he imagined there would be a fresh one by morning on his shoulder where he hit the wall. But it wasn’t the worst thing he’d ever have to deal with.
Once he finished assessing himself, he turned to face her, and offered a weak, apologetic smile. “Uh, as for that explanation…”
He thought back to that conversation with Alya, how much he resisted at first as she made her case. His mindset at the time had been focused on his life with Dani, and…pretty much nothing and no one else. Civilian life wasn’t without its worries, but compared to knight life they were far fewer and further between. Nor did they feel quite as high stakes. He wasn’t constantly worried that someone might have gotten the better of her, or that he wouldn’t make it home alive at all. He didn’t think about never seeing Dani again, nor his family.
There weren’t sleepless nights wondering if someone might stick their hand in his chest again, or hers for that matter. He still had nightmares about that, too…
But ultimately the fact remained that he was one of just a small collection of people–at least by comparison to DC’s population–that could actually do anything about it. Which was where she caught him.
“She said I should at least consider doing the bare minimum with the power I have,” he sighed, eyes trained at her feet. “Toppling down that…entire…organization is probably a pipe dream at this point, but if I could keep them from hurting even just one person? I can do that and usually walk away without all of this. So I’ve stayed on the outskirts, just looking in and getting involved when I need to. Usually I do a better job assessing the situation, but I got…unlucky…the other night…”
She listened, her back turned as she fussed a bit too long with the first aid kit, because she could feel her hackles wanting to rise but… she had no case. And in a way, that just pissed her off even more.
Turning back around, she put the box of supplies on the counter by the sink, eyeing the open wounds especially. She said nothing while he spoke, annoyed that she… got it. Or annoyed that he didn't tell her? Or… or something. Her emotions felt like a tangled ball of yarn and she was stuck somewhere in the middle trying to make sense of it.
"Sit down," she sighed, motioning to the closed toilet. At least then she could get to some of his cuts on his back. Her socked foot tapped absently on the floor, a minor outlet for her agitation. Yes, she was afraid of what could happen out there. The youma, the Negaverse… and who the ******** knew what else at this point. She was afraid of it, and what it could do to them. She'd already lost Dom once, and the idea of anything remotely like that happening again… Danika swallowed thickly, not allowing herself to dwell too long in that particular spiral.
But she was a cop.
How much riskier was a Negaverse agent able to snatch a starseed, than a determined violent criminal with a knife or a gun? "I'm a hypocrite if I tell you to stop or something," she said at last, voice low and slow as she tried to collect her thoughts. "I at least knew a bit more than some of the new recruits getting into the force, already dealt with a chunk of the s**t the city could throw at us." She still saw and heard evidence of it all. Random attacks on civilians weren't as common in terms of starseed pulls these days, it sounded like, but things still happened. Fights still happened. For how many years now had Danika seen her mom's case load pile up and up and up with incomplete cases eventually shelved into cold cases? At least Danika had a sense of what might have happened to those people.
But what would she do if she encountered an agent in the field? If they were strong enough, they could just teleport--she couldn't arrest them, then, and she wasn't sure if she'd be fast enough to put a bullet in them..
Oh, Danika wanted to yell at his ancestor for this, but she knew she was just being a hypocrite… and she hated it.
"...why didn't you just tell me? Do I need to be worried about anything else I'm not hearing about yet?" She didn't mean the second part to be said with such a venomous snap, and looked away with a small swear, feeling the weight of the ring in that moment. "I-- …sorry. That… I didn't mean that."
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He took a seat without a word, not wanting to make things any worse for himself. It was bad enough that he didn’t tell her when he made the decision to get back to some of his knightly duties, but for her to find out like this…
The silence while he gave her space to sort through her thoughts was particularly difficult. There was a small part of him that wondered if this was grounds enough for her to start having doubts about their engagement. Not so much the not telling her part, but more the fact that he had gotten back into that life at all… Was that a life that she wanted any part of? Would she put up with it for him? They hadn’t actually had a conversation about it in such a long time, which was why he struggled to bring it up in the first place, and now that they were engaged…he really should have brought it up sooner.
Of course, when she did finally break the silence, that was the question that came up first. Followed by…something he never expected would come from her, and that one hurt.
Dominic's expression darkened, frown deepening at the snap. Rather than angry, though, a quiet sorrow settled in his eyes as he looked over at her from where he sat, watched as she caught herself and quickly apologized.
“Probably deserved it,” he gave a slight shake of his head after a moment of consideration, and he got up and reached for her, took her hands and gently pulled her toward him. He focused on that for a second, eyes falling to the ring on her hand and feeling the weight of it as well. Strange that something so small could change the gravity of certain things by so much.
“That’s it, though. Just the knight stuff again. It’s probably just an excuse, but I was waiting for a good time to bring it up.” An amused huff escaped him as soon as the words came out, because he knew there would never be a ”good time” for that kind of discussion. “Just like with the ring, I guess the universe figured I needed a little push.” He squeezed her hands gently, eyes closed for a moment before he finally raised his head and met her eye.
“I’m sorry for not saying anything. I should have brought it up as soon as I started thinking about it…I just…”
He could still feel his starseed being manhandled, the waves of Chaos being pumped into him. A lot of loss followed, and a lot of time taken to mend what was broken by that misguided decision he made. He was lucky enough to meet her again years later, luckier still that they got a second chance at a life together, and now here he was getting back into all of that. He couldn’t blame her for snapping.
The silence while he gave her space to sort through her thoughts was particularly difficult. There was a small part of him that wondered if this was grounds enough for her to start having doubts about their engagement. Not so much the not telling her part, but more the fact that he had gotten back into that life at all… Was that a life that she wanted any part of? Would she put up with it for him? They hadn’t actually had a conversation about it in such a long time, which was why he struggled to bring it up in the first place, and now that they were engaged…he really should have brought it up sooner.
Of course, when she did finally break the silence, that was the question that came up first. Followed by…something he never expected would come from her, and that one hurt.
Dominic's expression darkened, frown deepening at the snap. Rather than angry, though, a quiet sorrow settled in his eyes as he looked over at her from where he sat, watched as she caught herself and quickly apologized.
“Probably deserved it,” he gave a slight shake of his head after a moment of consideration, and he got up and reached for her, took her hands and gently pulled her toward him. He focused on that for a second, eyes falling to the ring on her hand and feeling the weight of it as well. Strange that something so small could change the gravity of certain things by so much.
“That’s it, though. Just the knight stuff again. It’s probably just an excuse, but I was waiting for a good time to bring it up.” An amused huff escaped him as soon as the words came out, because he knew there would never be a ”good time” for that kind of discussion. “Just like with the ring, I guess the universe figured I needed a little push.” He squeezed her hands gently, eyes closed for a moment before he finally raised his head and met her eye.
“I’m sorry for not saying anything. I should have brought it up as soon as I started thinking about it…I just…”
He could still feel his starseed being manhandled, the waves of Chaos being pumped into him. A lot of loss followed, and a lot of time taken to mend what was broken by that misguided decision he made. He was lucky enough to meet her again years later, luckier still that they got a second chance at a life together, and now here he was getting back into all of that. He couldn’t blame her for snapping.
