FIC: Once Upon A Time 4/?
Title: Once Upon A Time Part 4/?
Pairing: Cain/Ambrose
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Despite my seize for power, nothing came of it.
Summary: During the Cains' work to the South, something goes awry. Ambrose has to help, but also faces his own perils along the way.
Notes: Part One, Part Two, Part Three.
And what, really, is a story without love?
Love in the simplest sense is that which is caring. Love can be familial between a father and daughter and can strengthen the bonds between the closest of friends. Love can break through the nastiest of traps and can soar above the highest mountain. Romantic love, of course, fills the page of so many fairytales, of a Princess and her Knight.
Our fairytale is more unconventional, for it is two other roles whose hearts have begun to lace together in an unknown knot, twined in all things and controlling each others’ hearts and desires.
*
It was that night that Cain discovered just why he’d been pushed into a strange house and pumped full of drugs at any moment’s notice. Just as he’d suspected, every night while he was cold to the world -- thanks to the sedatives they dumped into his system -- people were coming into the house to make changes in order to strengthen the prison he was in.
“We need to strengthen the windows. He’s starting to weaken the frame,” a man remarked worriedly. “Some of the floor planks are coming loose too. Get the hammer and we’ll fix those while he’s out.”
A woman softly agreed, but neither of their voices bore any recognition to Cain, which worried him. He couldn’t help but wonder just why he was there at all and worried for Adora’s family, hoped they would be safe out there and more than that, he really hoped they weren’t behind this. He’d been betrayed enough over the years that one more knife in his back might tip him over the edge of reason.
He waited to spring into action until they left for their tools.
They were right about the floor planks. Cain had been working them loose for the last several days in the hopes that they would come loose. He’d managed to only get one loose, but that was all he needed. By the time the man came back with the hammer, Cain was on his feet and swinging with all his might. Cain was a strong man and the single blow to the back of the man’s head sent him sprawling to the floor, unconscious to the world. After Cain checked to make sure he was alive, he shifted his gaze to the woman. “Why am I in here?” he demanded, edging towards the door so he could escape.
“You’re a wanted man, sir,” the woman said, matter-of-factly. “The reward is very generous.”
“Not anymore, not since the fall of the Witch.”
“I do beg to differ,” she said, curtsying. “Your worth in the Realm of the Unwanted is quite high. And we need money after Azkadellia’s reign. We’re sorry, very much, but we need the money.”
“Find another way,” Cain warned, backing up and holding the door open. “Where’s my gun?”
She stared meekly, but gave no answer. The town was as small as Cain had remembered, but the houses were dilapidated (reflecting the need for money) and if they were all out to collect on the reward on his head, it might be best to abandon his holster and fashion a new one when he got back to safety.
“This reward. It just me?”
“Oh, no, sir. Yourself, Mr. Glitch, Raw, the Royal Family, and many Resistors too.” There was a panicky look on her face. “You can’t leave.”
“Afraid I have to,” Cain said, keeping the plank in his hand as he slipped out the door and started heading for the woods. Unless they had someone in their midst who was a tracker worthy of being a Tin Man, he’d be far more than able to throw them off his tail.
It was dusk by the time he’d escaped and the one thing he didn’t count on was climbing a hill in the thicket of trees and the first thing he saw over the edge was…
“Zero,” Cain growled, pace increasing and the first thing he did when he reached the top of the hill was punch Zero, ignoring the shackles and the smirk on his face.
There was no end to the pleasure it brought him to see him go tumbling down. He was so distracted with that self-same pleasure that he didn’t notice anyone else was there until he felt a light touch on his arm.
That was enough to shock Cain from his reverie. He turned and grinned broadly when he saw just who it was, tugging the man who’d just touched him into his arms, holding on good and tight. “Ambrose,” he exhaled with relief. “Any reason you’re carting Zero around like a puppy?”
Ambrose held on tightly in the hug, which gave Cain even more pleasure - at least, the kind that wasn’t derived from beating on Zero some more. He didn’t take his eyes off Zero in case he decided to bolt as best as he could. “Queen’s orders.”
“Well, we have to get a move on,” Cain said, low and serious. “Turns out some faction in the Realm of the Unwanted want our heads on a platter for felling the Witch. We need to get to Jeb and Raw now and get back to the Palace to warn the guards.” Cain doubted they could stop them, but they could at least get guards established and everyone could be warned.
“Right,” Ambrose agreed, pulling from Cain’s grasp, but not before the other man could finger the material of Ambrose’s coat, just by his upper arm. “Cain?”
“There’s a bandage here,” he said, two fingers smoothing up and down in order to see that it wasn’t level. “What happened?”
“Just an experiment gone wrong.” Ambrose’s face grew dark. “Trust me, it wasn’t Zero.”
Cain took that as an explanation for the moment, arm wrapped around Ambrose’s waist. “Come on, let’s go,” he encouraged quietly, not wanting to rile search parties in their direction. “Get him. We’re only a few spans from the camp if they haven’t left yet.”
“Your camp been searching for you.”
“They should have found me,” Cain said with a scowl.
“Not if they came across someone from the town who said they’d not seen you,” Ambrose pointed out as he lifted Zero forcibly off the ground and then sighed. “Cain, really. I know you dislike the man, but he’s unconscious. You’re carrying him.”
Cain would have much rather been carrying Ambrose, but he muttered a quiet curse under his breath while bending down to pick up Zero and throw him over his back as if he was nothing but a piece of kindling. It ached, but then, he wasn’t used to carting around men Zero’s size. Half of him wanted to just leave him, but if the Queen had sent him with Ambrose, she probably wouldn’t take too kindly to Ambrose not finishing whatever job it was.
“All right, sweetheart, let’s go,” he grumbled, already picking up the pace.
“I know this is absolutely terrible timing, but I missed you.”
Ambrose was right. It was bad timing, but Cain couldn’t say the sentiment didn’t go both ways. He’d missed him too.
**
Cain unceremoniously dumped Zero down on the ground when he arrived back at camp. It was just in time too, seeing as his back was beginning to seize up. He didn’t let that stop him as he found his way to his son and Raw, bringing the former into a tight hug and clapping the latter on the back with a broad grin, though there was worry sitting steady and deep in his eyes.
“We got trouble,” Cain announced.
“More than usual?” Jeb sounded wary on that. After so long with the Resistance, Cain supposed that his son wouldn’t be disturbed by much that could be thrown his way. “I’m glad to see you, Father,” he added, relief shining through. “I thought…well, I thought…”
“I’m not dead, Jeb,” Cain swore, still holding on tight to his son’s shoulder, tugging him closer again. After everything they had gone through, it wouldn’t be very fair to either of them if Cain went off and did something stupid and abandoned his boy after so many annuals of thinking him lost. “But there’s a price on our heads. We need to get moving back to the Palace.”
“Father…”
“Zero is Ambrose’s charge. He’s bringing him to a prison near these parts,” Cain explained, but still didn’t like it one bit. “So we go there first, then we make it back fast as possible. The Royal Family needs someone looking out for them.”
Raw’s attention hadn’t been on the conversation at all. He tilted his head to one side curiously and was looking in Ambrose’s direction. Cain slowly caught onto that fact and followed Raw’s gaze and wondered just what that curious look was for.
“Raw?” Cain asked warily.
“Ambrose…changed,” Raw evaluated, stepping closer with the Cains in tow. Cain himself stepped forward at the evaluation. Ambrose had been drinking from one of the canteens and now looked at them owlishly, unsure as to what Raw was accusing him of. “Not sure how. Changed.”
That was all Cain needed to stride forward and grasp Ambrose by his good elbow. “S’cuse us,” he said with a polite-enough smile as he yanked Ambrose into one of the tents, tugging the flap down for something resembling privacy.
Once inside, he knew he had to keep his voice down or people would start overhearing and he didn’t want that in the least, so he started pacing back and forth while he went over his words in his head, always keeping patient.
“Cain, I…” Ambrose was stuttering and stammering and sounding more like Glitch than he had in a very long while. “Changed? I don’t know what he’s talking about! I haven’t done anything, I haven’t …” He glanced around, leaning in. “I haven’t been with anyone or done anything to myself. I’m definitely not crazy enough to change my hair or or or my eyes!”
“Glitch?” Cain asked, a shot in the dark.
It was the most obvious change he could think of and the way Ambrose was acting, he wouldn’t honestly be very surprised if that was the case. “No. I don’t think so,” Ambrose admitted, yanking on his hair, but looking as if he was considering the possibility. “No,” he added, softer, still only inches away from Cain, so close that when he exhaled, Cain could feel the breath against his neck.
Neither of them moved.
Neither of them even dared to blink as they looked at one another.
“Ambrose,” Cain spoke slowly, carefully. “Think.” He sounded just the way he did back in the brain room all those months ago when he had been coaxing numbers out of a brain divided. “What happened?”
Ambrose just shook his head and offered a weak smile. “Other than the thing we don’t talk about?” he mentioned quietly, so no one eavesdropping outside the tent. “Other than that amplifying and getting worse, I don’t know. But it has been getting worse. And I won’t say a word because we have an agreement. I just thought you ought to know.”
Cain froze up at that, knowing exactly the subject at hand and he couldn’t exactly say he hadn’t spared a thought or two about the very same thing.
“Cain?” Ambrose murmured.
“I know what you mean,” he admitted, staring down at the ground to avoid having to look at Glitch’s eyes. “But I don’t think now’s appropriate when we’re on the run again. Maybe when we get back to the palace, you and I can sit down and talk it out properly.”
When Cain did look up, Ambrose was smiling tensely, clearly not happy with the plan. “When we return,” he agreed with a nervous laugh. To Cain’s ears, he still sounded like Glitch when he got wary about a situation, but there was that steady current of Ambrose underneath.
It left Cain more than curious as to just what kind of change Raw had seen in Glitch from so far away.
It also both worried him and made him anxious that it could be something as simple as the thing they never spoke of.
tbc
Pairing: Cain/Ambrose
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Despite my seize for power, nothing came of it.
Summary: During the Cains' work to the South, something goes awry. Ambrose has to help, but also faces his own perils along the way.
Notes: Part One, Part Two, Part Three.
And what, really, is a story without love?
Love in the simplest sense is that which is caring. Love can be familial between a father and daughter and can strengthen the bonds between the closest of friends. Love can break through the nastiest of traps and can soar above the highest mountain. Romantic love, of course, fills the page of so many fairytales, of a Princess and her Knight.
Our fairytale is more unconventional, for it is two other roles whose hearts have begun to lace together in an unknown knot, twined in all things and controlling each others’ hearts and desires.
*
It was that night that Cain discovered just why he’d been pushed into a strange house and pumped full of drugs at any moment’s notice. Just as he’d suspected, every night while he was cold to the world -- thanks to the sedatives they dumped into his system -- people were coming into the house to make changes in order to strengthen the prison he was in.
“We need to strengthen the windows. He’s starting to weaken the frame,” a man remarked worriedly. “Some of the floor planks are coming loose too. Get the hammer and we’ll fix those while he’s out.”
A woman softly agreed, but neither of their voices bore any recognition to Cain, which worried him. He couldn’t help but wonder just why he was there at all and worried for Adora’s family, hoped they would be safe out there and more than that, he really hoped they weren’t behind this. He’d been betrayed enough over the years that one more knife in his back might tip him over the edge of reason.
He waited to spring into action until they left for their tools.
They were right about the floor planks. Cain had been working them loose for the last several days in the hopes that they would come loose. He’d managed to only get one loose, but that was all he needed. By the time the man came back with the hammer, Cain was on his feet and swinging with all his might. Cain was a strong man and the single blow to the back of the man’s head sent him sprawling to the floor, unconscious to the world. After Cain checked to make sure he was alive, he shifted his gaze to the woman. “Why am I in here?” he demanded, edging towards the door so he could escape.
“You’re a wanted man, sir,” the woman said, matter-of-factly. “The reward is very generous.”
“Not anymore, not since the fall of the Witch.”
“I do beg to differ,” she said, curtsying. “Your worth in the Realm of the Unwanted is quite high. And we need money after Azkadellia’s reign. We’re sorry, very much, but we need the money.”
“Find another way,” Cain warned, backing up and holding the door open. “Where’s my gun?”
She stared meekly, but gave no answer. The town was as small as Cain had remembered, but the houses were dilapidated (reflecting the need for money) and if they were all out to collect on the reward on his head, it might be best to abandon his holster and fashion a new one when he got back to safety.
“This reward. It just me?”
“Oh, no, sir. Yourself, Mr. Glitch, Raw, the Royal Family, and many Resistors too.” There was a panicky look on her face. “You can’t leave.”
“Afraid I have to,” Cain said, keeping the plank in his hand as he slipped out the door and started heading for the woods. Unless they had someone in their midst who was a tracker worthy of being a Tin Man, he’d be far more than able to throw them off his tail.
It was dusk by the time he’d escaped and the one thing he didn’t count on was climbing a hill in the thicket of trees and the first thing he saw over the edge was…
“Zero,” Cain growled, pace increasing and the first thing he did when he reached the top of the hill was punch Zero, ignoring the shackles and the smirk on his face.
There was no end to the pleasure it brought him to see him go tumbling down. He was so distracted with that self-same pleasure that he didn’t notice anyone else was there until he felt a light touch on his arm.
That was enough to shock Cain from his reverie. He turned and grinned broadly when he saw just who it was, tugging the man who’d just touched him into his arms, holding on good and tight. “Ambrose,” he exhaled with relief. “Any reason you’re carting Zero around like a puppy?”
Ambrose held on tightly in the hug, which gave Cain even more pleasure - at least, the kind that wasn’t derived from beating on Zero some more. He didn’t take his eyes off Zero in case he decided to bolt as best as he could. “Queen’s orders.”
“Well, we have to get a move on,” Cain said, low and serious. “Turns out some faction in the Realm of the Unwanted want our heads on a platter for felling the Witch. We need to get to Jeb and Raw now and get back to the Palace to warn the guards.” Cain doubted they could stop them, but they could at least get guards established and everyone could be warned.
“Right,” Ambrose agreed, pulling from Cain’s grasp, but not before the other man could finger the material of Ambrose’s coat, just by his upper arm. “Cain?”
“There’s a bandage here,” he said, two fingers smoothing up and down in order to see that it wasn’t level. “What happened?”
“Just an experiment gone wrong.” Ambrose’s face grew dark. “Trust me, it wasn’t Zero.”
Cain took that as an explanation for the moment, arm wrapped around Ambrose’s waist. “Come on, let’s go,” he encouraged quietly, not wanting to rile search parties in their direction. “Get him. We’re only a few spans from the camp if they haven’t left yet.”
“Your camp been searching for you.”
“They should have found me,” Cain said with a scowl.
“Not if they came across someone from the town who said they’d not seen you,” Ambrose pointed out as he lifted Zero forcibly off the ground and then sighed. “Cain, really. I know you dislike the man, but he’s unconscious. You’re carrying him.”
Cain would have much rather been carrying Ambrose, but he muttered a quiet curse under his breath while bending down to pick up Zero and throw him over his back as if he was nothing but a piece of kindling. It ached, but then, he wasn’t used to carting around men Zero’s size. Half of him wanted to just leave him, but if the Queen had sent him with Ambrose, she probably wouldn’t take too kindly to Ambrose not finishing whatever job it was.
“All right, sweetheart, let’s go,” he grumbled, already picking up the pace.
“I know this is absolutely terrible timing, but I missed you.”
Ambrose was right. It was bad timing, but Cain couldn’t say the sentiment didn’t go both ways. He’d missed him too.
**
Cain unceremoniously dumped Zero down on the ground when he arrived back at camp. It was just in time too, seeing as his back was beginning to seize up. He didn’t let that stop him as he found his way to his son and Raw, bringing the former into a tight hug and clapping the latter on the back with a broad grin, though there was worry sitting steady and deep in his eyes.
“We got trouble,” Cain announced.
“More than usual?” Jeb sounded wary on that. After so long with the Resistance, Cain supposed that his son wouldn’t be disturbed by much that could be thrown his way. “I’m glad to see you, Father,” he added, relief shining through. “I thought…well, I thought…”
“I’m not dead, Jeb,” Cain swore, still holding on tight to his son’s shoulder, tugging him closer again. After everything they had gone through, it wouldn’t be very fair to either of them if Cain went off and did something stupid and abandoned his boy after so many annuals of thinking him lost. “But there’s a price on our heads. We need to get moving back to the Palace.”
“Father…”
“Zero is Ambrose’s charge. He’s bringing him to a prison near these parts,” Cain explained, but still didn’t like it one bit. “So we go there first, then we make it back fast as possible. The Royal Family needs someone looking out for them.”
Raw’s attention hadn’t been on the conversation at all. He tilted his head to one side curiously and was looking in Ambrose’s direction. Cain slowly caught onto that fact and followed Raw’s gaze and wondered just what that curious look was for.
“Raw?” Cain asked warily.
“Ambrose…changed,” Raw evaluated, stepping closer with the Cains in tow. Cain himself stepped forward at the evaluation. Ambrose had been drinking from one of the canteens and now looked at them owlishly, unsure as to what Raw was accusing him of. “Not sure how. Changed.”
That was all Cain needed to stride forward and grasp Ambrose by his good elbow. “S’cuse us,” he said with a polite-enough smile as he yanked Ambrose into one of the tents, tugging the flap down for something resembling privacy.
Once inside, he knew he had to keep his voice down or people would start overhearing and he didn’t want that in the least, so he started pacing back and forth while he went over his words in his head, always keeping patient.
“Cain, I…” Ambrose was stuttering and stammering and sounding more like Glitch than he had in a very long while. “Changed? I don’t know what he’s talking about! I haven’t done anything, I haven’t …” He glanced around, leaning in. “I haven’t been with anyone or done anything to myself. I’m definitely not crazy enough to change my hair or or or my eyes!”
“Glitch?” Cain asked, a shot in the dark.
It was the most obvious change he could think of and the way Ambrose was acting, he wouldn’t honestly be very surprised if that was the case. “No. I don’t think so,” Ambrose admitted, yanking on his hair, but looking as if he was considering the possibility. “No,” he added, softer, still only inches away from Cain, so close that when he exhaled, Cain could feel the breath against his neck.
Neither of them moved.
Neither of them even dared to blink as they looked at one another.
“Ambrose,” Cain spoke slowly, carefully. “Think.” He sounded just the way he did back in the brain room all those months ago when he had been coaxing numbers out of a brain divided. “What happened?”
Ambrose just shook his head and offered a weak smile. “Other than the thing we don’t talk about?” he mentioned quietly, so no one eavesdropping outside the tent. “Other than that amplifying and getting worse, I don’t know. But it has been getting worse. And I won’t say a word because we have an agreement. I just thought you ought to know.”
Cain froze up at that, knowing exactly the subject at hand and he couldn’t exactly say he hadn’t spared a thought or two about the very same thing.
“Cain?” Ambrose murmured.
“I know what you mean,” he admitted, staring down at the ground to avoid having to look at Glitch’s eyes. “But I don’t think now’s appropriate when we’re on the run again. Maybe when we get back to the palace, you and I can sit down and talk it out properly.”
When Cain did look up, Ambrose was smiling tensely, clearly not happy with the plan. “When we return,” he agreed with a nervous laugh. To Cain’s ears, he still sounded like Glitch when he got wary about a situation, but there was that steady current of Ambrose underneath.
It left Cain more than curious as to just what kind of change Raw had seen in Glitch from so far away.
It also both worried him and made him anxious that it could be something as simple as the thing they never spoke of.
tbc