Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Yancy went to sleep in his cell last night, he was fully expecting to wake up in his cell. But that’s not at all what happened. He wakes up in a cell for sure, but it’s not his cell. It’s pretty dark in wherever he is. Yancy sits up and walks to the bars, there’s about half a room beyond the bars and what looks like a solid metal door. As he goes to lean on the bars the door opens and someone flips a switch flooding the room with bright light making Yancy flinch back slightly. 

“Mr. Yancy?” A deep slurring voice says.

Yancy shields his eyes and squints trying to get a good look at the speaker who was slowly walking toward them. 

“Yeah what of it? Youse the warden or somethin’?” 

The man stopped dead in his tracks and starts fucking laughing . “What? Youse got a problem with my fuckin’ accent?” The man started laughing harder and started to leave the room apologizing and calling for someone named Dark (Dirk?). He left and someone else can in. This person he could see. He was dressed in a white suit, black shirt, and red tie. He looks kinda familiar. 

“Do I know youse or somethin’?”

“No you do not, but you will very soon,” the man said ominously as he walks closer his dress shoes clicking with each step. “Tell me, Yancy, how would you like to be free?” 

Yancy scoffed. “Me? Free? Why would I want to be free?”

“Perhaps I’m not asking the right question. How would you like friends? A family that would never hurt or betray you? A place where you’ll always belong?” He was standing directly in front of Yancy’s cell. Yancy feels like this guy is looking right through him and it’s the most terrifying thing to not be in charge. 

“I already got that don’t I?” Fuck his accent really gets thicker when he’s nervous, doesn’t it?

“I suppose so,” the guy says calmly and then he smiles (scary), “But this isn’t Happy Trails Penitentiary, so think about your words a little more carefully.”  He turns away, walking to the door. “I’ll be sending someone else to talk to you in an hour,” he calls over his shoulder, “Think about what you want in life, Yancy.” 

The door slammed closed and Yancy hangs his head walking back to the bed and sitting down on it. Who did that guy think he was? Of course, he wanted a family. He had one at Happy Trails. But, there was always the fear of them leaving him, and that guy had said that this new family would never leave him. But what was the catch? There had to be a catch right? It sounded too good to be true, but fuck if it wasn’t everything Yancy wanted. He taps his feet and clenches his hands as he waits. Trying to think, trying not to pace and wonder who’s going to come next. God, he wished he had a pack of cigarettes. And he hasn’t wanted to smoke in ages .  Now Yancy definitely had a good sense of time and he could tell it had been way more than an hour before the next guy came in. 

The guy was hunched over, looked nervous as hell. He had some sort of cloth in his hands. He was dragging a chair behind him and when he sat down in front of the cell is when Yancy noticed he had prosthetic legs and was sweating something bad.

“H-I- um,” the guy cleared his throat looking like he want to be anywhere else, “Hi, my-um- my name is E-Eric. Eric Derekson. It’s nice to meet you?” 

Oh fuck . This kid was absolutely pathetic. He looked young and Yancy got the strong urge to punch whoever made him look so afraid. 

“Uh yeah, it’s nice to meet youse too kid, the names Yancy.” He reached a hand out between the bars to shake the kid’s (Eric) hand. He looks apprehensive still but gave Yancy a small smile as he shook his hand. 

“They um, sent me here to talk to you,” Eric fiddled with his glasses, “they said to convince you t-to stay?” His voice got quieter as he spoke and Yancy felt his heartbreaking. 

He leaned on the bars and gave the younger man a smirk and piled on the charm thick as he could.

“If I get to keep seein’ youse, I’d stay as long as you want dollface.” Eric blushed brightly and started stuttering to Yancy’s great amusement. He watched as Eric furiously cleaned his glasses trying to compose himself. 

“I-I’m not anything s-special but it’d still be nice if you’d stay. Everyone thinks you’d be a nice fit for us and um, I mean-”

“I don’t know about fittin’ in or nothing, I’m more of a stand out kinda guy. But who’s been runnin’ round tellin’ youse you ain’t special, huh? Who I gotta beat up,” Yancy asked with a smirk. He was joking (mostly) but it was so cute to watch Eric blush. Whoever sent him in made the right decision for sure. 

“I um, l-look,” Eric took a deep breath trying to make himself look serious, “This place isn’t as bad as it seems. You’d, um, probably like it here.”

Yancy paused and sighed averting his gaze. He wanted to see where this would go but at the same time… he was comfortable at Happy Trails. But the way Eric looks at him…

“Alright.” 

Before the word was fully out his mouth, the door opens and Yancy feels his vision swim. And then everything goes black.