dadyl | 𝙿𝙴𝙽𝙰𝙽𝙲𝙴 𝙸𝙽𝙱𝙾𝚇 ;

[ Daryl just shrugs. Dog is here, now, because he'd asked for him. He doesn't know how Hell managed the trick. It probably didn't have shit to do with Dog's preferences. ]

When she found us, he went back to her.

[ He'll never forget that moment when she'd pulled off her mask while holding onto Dog. It's in front of his eyes now, even as he walks. ]

Guess I thought that meant somethin'.

[ Meant what exactly, he doesn't know. That she couldn't have really been the person she'd just revealed herself to be. That there was still the gentleness he knew in there.

That hope had lasted until the waterboarding. ]

It didn't.

Do you want to talk about it?

[ He's quiet for a moment, keeping pace with Daryl and tracking Dog through the snow. ]

Sometimes I want to talk about Jackie. Just get it out. And then sometimes I think about all the ways I want to kill him that I'll never go through on, so, you know.

[ That's definitely healthy. ]

[ No, he doesn't want to talk about it. He never wants to talk about it, hasn't since the morning he'd woken up with those new memories and yet the words still come immediately to mind. He stalks on through the snow in silence, trying to remind himself that there's nothing to be gained from telling Gabe about what happened. He knows the broad strokes. There's no point.

It comes out anyway like it was a bullet already loaded. ]

She had me waterboarded.

[ It comes out flat and low. Daryl sees Dog heading back their way again and he swallows and whistles for him, but he only does it because he's trying very hard to seem unruffled. The memory flashes back to life when he says it out loud and he shivers when the wind hits him wrong. ]

Tried to get me to tell her where my people were. Made me hurt a new friend. Bad.

Fuck.

[ It comes out soft. Whatever pain he was expecting - because there had to be pain, in the end; because there's always pain - it wasn't that. And it takes a moment for Gabe to realize why it rattles him so much, why he's silent as they trudge through the snow. It's the parallels he'd drawn, consciously or not. All the ways someone they loved fucked them over, and how it scarred in them.

Only thing is, Jackie never tortured him. Jackie's sliced Gabe up with those fancy knives of his, but it was always in a fight. Always for a purpose, some end game that was understandable even if it swung cold. A payday, a bounty he was collecting. Nothing personal, love. It never was. And bad as it got between them - bad as it'll be if they meet up again - Gabe doesn't think Jackie would hold him down and hurt him like that.

Not like Leah did to Daryl. And that's a place where the lines diverge between them.

Gabe slows his breathing down before the tension can catch him. He shouldn't be thinking about Jackie right now, but he is. Maybe that was inevitable. ]

That's a new kind of brutal.

[ Yeah. Fuck. It had taken everything Daryl had in him to survive that compound, at least for as long as he had. It had been one of the hardest things he'd ever done, forcing himself down in order to blend, to earn their trust. To put away what was done to him and what would be done to his friends if he failed. If they failed. If anything at all went wrong.

Just like it had. And he'd been the one that judged wrong and fucked it all up. ]

She vouched for me after that. After I didn't give anythin' up, said I didn't know who she was talkin' about. So they tried settin' both of us on fire.

[ Pope and the way he loved his fucking fires. Daryl had never been so relieved as when Leah had drawn her knife and stabbed him in the neck. He'd thought it had been for him.

It hadn't been. ]

An' she still picked them, in the end. When it came to it.

[ The family that had been happy to risk her life in a way Daryl never, ever could. ]

[ The sick part is Gabe understands that. The Wolves pulled shit like that too. Took them as trainees, beat them nearly senseless, ran them on no sleep and just enough food to stay coherent, and that was the trick. That was the test. Suffer, survive, rise above. If you survive, then you're worthy - better than the rabble, better than the ones who came before. Your suffering had meaning, possibly for the first time. It made you strong.

He doesn't say anything for a long time. Briefly, he wonders what they look like out here - two men walking through bloody snow, trailing a dog. He wonders if it shows on them, the things they've survived. If people can tell from a distance.

He's always wondered that. And dreaded the answer. ]

It was like that, in the Wolves.

[ He says it as neutrally as he can. ]

Not with my family. But with the others. A lot of the others. All these tests that didn't matter. It was just about suffering. Proving you could take it. Because then you were one of them. Better than the rest. They must've known it was bullshit. They must've seen it. But they didn't -

[ It never stopped them. They turned right around and hurt the new trainees, same as they'd had done to them. They backed people into corners in the locker rooms and -

And. ]

I'm sorry she did that to you.

[ Daryl knows it shows on him. He's known his entire life, known since he couldn't take his shirt off to go swimming with the neighbourhood kids when he was eight. It was all over for him by then and everything that came after just piled up on top of it. It's never been a mystery to him why he lived his life alone. The world has always known how broken he is and that's always been the problem.

And he can hear it in Gabe's voice no matter how even he tries to keep it. He can hear because he's attuned to it, because he knows the sounds. ]

So'm I.

[ And it still hadn't been enough to make him turn on her. Never completely. ]

'm sorry you an' your people are trapped.

[ And yet somehow, the one positive about this place is that those things can't matter as much here. They just can't. ]

At least here I can keep my eye on you.

[ That part, at least, is simple. For all the pain of this place, they’ve been taken away from what came before. What would have confined them back home.

Here, there’s room to maneuver. ]

I know you will.

[ He exhales, suddenly tired. ]

You have for a long time now.

[ A long time. It has been a long time, something Daryl has been very carefully trying not to notice but now he can't deny that it's true. They've been here a long time and whatever is happening between them has been building for almost as long. It's becoming comfortable in that safe, familiar way that Daryl knows from back home. The feeling of easy trust.

It feels so similar to what he'd had with Leah before it all fell apart that it scares him. ]

I just like bein' around you. That's all.

[ Because all he can offer is the truth, even if he does it shyly. ]

An' I wanna keep it that way. For as long as I can.

[ It's such a simple thing to say. Much harder to mean. And yet, Gabe believes it. He doesn't say anything for a moment, focused on moving forward, the snow crunching under his boots, and then he nods. Just once. ]

I like being around you, too.

[ They've reached the front of the hotel again and Dog is sniffing around the door, following a scent that Daryl can only guess at. Everything is quiet and red and Daryl feels sort of the same, calm but smouldering over so much he can't change and one thing he doesn't want to. The street is very still. ]

You wanna come up, then?

[ One of them had to ask eventually and Daryl doesn't like the cold. He snaps his fingers and Dog lopes over to his side and to Daryl's surprise, presses his nose into Gabe's hand again. ]

He needs a bath, I'm thinkin'. It'll go easier with two of us.

[ Even though it's true, Daryl kicks himself in his head for saying it like it's an excuse he's making for the company. ]

[ Gabe pauses, surprised, but lets Dog sniff his hand. After a moment, he rubs Dog’s ears as well, wondering at the texture. The softness of them. Like silk. He’s never known dogs in a quieter context, outside of a fight or a moment that was about surviving them and their handlers. He thinks he might like this one, though.

He huffs. ]

Putting me to work, huh?

[ It’s a gentle tease, though. No bite in it. ]

All right. I’m game.

[ Daryl smiles a little, relieved that these moments always seem to go easy with Gabe. He doesn't make it uncomfortable. He doesn't make Daryl pay for his clumsiness. He just says 'sure, why not'. ]

He behaves himself, don't worry. He's just got a lot of fur.

[ It turns out Dog also has no idea what to make of an elevator and when they get into it, Dog immediately turns around to get out again like they've all just walked into a closet. ]

Hey! Get back here!

[ The second time, Daryl keeps a hold of him until the doors close. When they get up to his floor and the doors open again, Dog shoots out and into the hallway to sniff at the crack of every single door in turn. Daryl just snorts and shakes his head. ]

He ain't used to any of this.

Whole different world out here.

[ There’s a part of Gabe that worries about what having a dog in Hell might mean. Do the animals get fucked up too? Do they count as sinners if they came from Daryl’s Earth, or anywhere else that wasn’t Hell? But that’s a dark thought and he tries to put it out of his mind, focusing on Daryl and how he moves with Dog. How he seems almost boyish, more animated.

It’s sweet.

Gabe steps out, following Daryl. ]

He need special soap or anything, or is the stuff we’ve got okay?

[ That question almost brings Daryl up short. He shrugs, opening his own door and whistling for Dog. ]

I don't know. I mostly just used water to rinse him down back home.

[ He doesn't mention that was his go-to for himself most of the time as well. His hygiene habits have changed with the easy availability of soap and running water here in Hell (not to mention company that isn't also living through the scarcities of the apocalypse), but he hasn't considered how that should work for Dog.

When they get into the room, Daryl heads straight for the bathroom so Dog doesn't have the chance to shake and spatter the suite with blood. Once he herds Dog inside, he closes the door behind him. ]

You'll wanna take off your armour, I'm thinkin'. Unless you want it to smell like a wet dog.

All right.

[ He could leave it on. It’s designed to survive under varied conditions, all sorts of weather. Easy to clean, easy to repair. But it’s stiff, harder to maneuver with in close quarters, and he knows what Daryl associates it with. Who he associates it with.

Silently, Gabe steps into the room and begins stripping his armor off. ]

[ While Gabe takes care of himself, Daryl turns to get the bath filled and test the water. He makes a clucking sound with his tongue at Dog and points, and sure enough, he jumps into the tub on command, splashing slightly in the water that comes up over his paws. ]

Good dog.

[ Usually he would use a bucket to rinse him properly, but that usually took place by the side of a river. Still, the showerheads aren't the detachable kind so Daryl gets a bucket out from under the sink. ]

I take it you never had one of these growin' up.

[ He'd gotten that impression from how Gabe had greeted him earlier, almost like it was a new experience for him. ]

No.

[ Gabe pads in silently, leaning against the wall. Toggling his tech and listening to Dog and Daryl moving through the space. ]

I think my parents had a cat, but I don’t remember it that clearly. How’d you want me to help?

Here. I'll soap him down, you rinse as I go with this.

[ He hands Gabe the empty bucket and reaches for a bar of soap. Then he sits on the edge of the tub and lathers it up in the water, working it back along Dog from his hips on up. ]

If he shakes after you start rinsin', we're done for.

[ All right. Simple enough. Gabe fills the bucket back up in the sink, toggles his tech, and then stands at the ready. Once it seems like Daryl's got a good amount of soap worked in, Gabe pours the water. Rinse and (hah) repeat.

Gabe smiles faintly. ]

Figured that was a given.

[ He's never bathed a dog before, but he's read comics. Seen movies. He figures they're going to get soaked. ]

So you do know how dogs work.

[ He doesn't bother to keep the fondness from his voice because this is nice. Dog's back, they're all safe for the moment. He watches with quiet fascination how Gabe completes his task, curious about how Gabe knows when the soap is out of Dog's coat.

He finishes with Dog's ears and gets up off the tub to find a towel for after. That's when Dog decides to follow him and lurches, soaking, out of the tub. ]

Hey, I read. I'll have you know there are entire chapters devoted to washing dogs.

[ Not really. Or at least not in the things that Gabe reads. He grins as he says it, paying close attention to how Daryl moves. What he lingers over, and for how long. His tech can pick up blood and - occasionally - other contaminants. It's not great for soap but when in doubt, Gabe powers through. ]

Tell me if I miss anything.

[ It's a team effort, in the end. Still, Dog's up and out of the tub before Gabe can think to stop him. ]

Aw, shit -

[ He's going to get soaked, isn't he? ]

[ Dog is too big to be manhandled easily and it's no surprise he's out before Gabe can stop him. He's never had a bath exactly like this one, after all. Daryl turns back with the towel just in time to unfold it and half-block the shake that comes next, but mostly the two of them get sprayed with a shower of lukewarm, slightly soapy water. ]

Damn it!

[ But it comes out more like a laugh than a curse. Daryl throws the towel over Dog's back to stop him from shaking again and decides that yeah, they've rinsed him enough. He'll survive until Daryl can get this done properly. ]

Shit, he got me. [ Even as he's towelling Dog down, Daryl is using his shoulder to wipe water off of his own face. ]

[ Gabe can’t help but laugh as they both get sprayed. Well, at least the heating’s on and the water isn’t ice cold. He reaches for a fresh towel and drops it onto Daryl’s shoulders. ]

Yeah, me too. Not completely, though.

[ He’ll want to throw on a dry shirt, though. ]

How bad did he get you?

Thanks.

[ Daryl straightens up and uses the fresh towel to squeeze out his hair and dry his neck, then he examines how his shirt is sticking to him. ]

Not too bad. Pants survived.

[ He tosses the towel he'd just used on his hair back to Gabe and then squats to finish drying off Dog, at least as much as he can. When he opens the bathroom door and lets him bound out, Dog races around, trying to dry himself with the breeze he creates zipping between the rooms. ]

Watch out, don't get in his way. He'll knock you down like nothin'.

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