Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Never had I felt so goddamn bored. I was lying on my back on my bed, staring at the ceiling and looking through my phone. I had caught up on all the news that there was to catch up on. All the YouTube rabbit holes of weird videos I usually fell down weren’t there. There wasn’t even drama to read about on Twitter, which was more unsettling than it should be. 

“Ugh, there’s nothing to do,” I said to no one in particular. I couldn’t even fall asleep, since it was a Friday. Everywhere else, there was partying. Anyone who could sleep early in this city on Fridays were either deaf or BadBoyHalo. I had tried calling him multiple times to bother him, but he only answered the last one, telling me to stop calling him.

Just then, I thought of Karl. My closest friend since before I moved into the city, as well as my long time next door neighbor. I sat up immediately, shocked. Why didn’t I think of it before? Karl and I could go around the city! I went to put on a sweater as well as a beanie, and went to knock on the door. 

The door wasn’t the one that a resident of our apartment complex uses to get into our apartment, like what people normally assume. The building used to be a really big hotel before it got sold to a new owner who didn’t have the budget to construct a new building. When it was a hotel there were these doors that connected the rooms together, although they were almost always locked. They were there for the cleaning crew’s convenience, but they didn’t really have any purpose now.

When Karl had moved in, he saw the doors and he and I went right back downstairs to ask if we could have the key for it so that we could get to each other faster. The building owner gave us the key, and we’ve been using it since.

As soon as I heard a “come in” from the other side of the door, I flung it open and walked in. I saw Karl on his couch, intensely looking at his laptop screen. He muttered a hello in acknowledgment.

“Come on, Karl! Let’s go somewhere tonight!” I flopped on his couch, waving my hand in front of his laptop’s screen and breaking his focus. He looked at me, a bit annoyed but kind of smiling.

“Quackity, I wanna finish reading this. It’s really interesting and it just updated, I need to know what’s gonna happen next!” He turned his screen to briefly show me a long block of words, before looking at it again. “Some college girl’s professor posted the link to this really amazing story, and it’s spreading like wildfire.”

“You can always read it later. It’s not like the author’s gonna delete it or anything.” 

“Yeah, but I don’t really feel like going anywhere. Besides, even if I wanted to, where would we go?”

“Well… I dunno. But shouldn’t we at least walk around? You know, get some fresh air?”

“Ah yes, the fresh, clean air of a city. With smoke from factories, cars, and buildings.”

“Come onnnnnn…” I smiled and poked Karl’s face. He sighed, then turned off his laptop to stand up. 

“Fine, I’m gonna go get a sweater. If we find any place to check out, we will. Happy?” I nodded eagerly, and he went to his room. When Karl returned, he was pulling a dark navy hoodie over his head. I got up and walked to him, fixing my beanie.

“Let’s go, Karlos!” I flung open his door and we left, strolling on the streets not too long after. 

“See? Doesn’t it feel nice to stretch your legs?” I asked as I balanced on the edge of the curb of the sidewalk. We still hadn’t found anywhere that particularly interested the both of us enough to go in and check out. 

“Yeah, I guess. You probably shouldn’t be walking there, though. You might fall onto the road and get hit.” Karl grabbed my sleeve and tugged my arm closer into the sidewalk. I sighed, and moved closer in. 

Just when we had lost hope, a stranger decided to point us in the direction of a new bar that had apparently opened. Something about him instinctively made me really nervous. Maybe it was something about his narrow eyes, the way he talked like a businessman running a scam, or even how he wore a New York Jets cap when it wasn’t even New York (Perhaps I had been influenced by the only football enthusiast in my family; a cousin I had. She was a diehard Patriots fan and despised the Jets). 

When he left, I breathed a sigh of relief while Karl started looking for the directions to get to the alleged new bar. We walked for about ten minutes, before Karl stopped.

“Did you hear that?” He asked me, looking around.

“Hear what?” 

“It sounded like someone was in… pain?”

“Well, that’s just how it is around this city. I’m sure it’s nothing to be concerned about…?” I said, unintentionally making it sound like a question rather than a statement. Karl didn’t move or say anything. Then, I heard a quiet but pretty audible groan. 

“I think it’s coming from there! Let’s go see!” Karl pointed right down… an abandoned alley. Wow.

“Oh, ok! Let’s go to the questionable noise in the number one place where people get mugged and robbed! Amazing idea!” I said, trying to drip as much sarcasm as possible from my words.

“Come on Quackity, please?” Karl looked at me. But not with just any look. His eyes were bigger. They seemed shinier, his bottom lip jutted out, and his checks seemed rounder. It was absolutely… adorable? Adorable. But in a bro way. The way you say it when you’re with the homies. I tried looking away, but Karl tugged on my hoodie. Finally, I caved.

“FINE! Fine. We can check it out. BUT,” I emphasized on the but, “I’m gonna keep my phone on 911 speed dial. Got it?”

“Ok!” Karl immediately turned to run into the alley, giving me minimal time to both open my phone and chase after him. At the very end of the alley, there was a dark figure. They seemed to notice my open phone, and fled quickly. After they left, we saw…

A person. Lying on their back. Very brutally injured.

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The first thing that caught my eye was the huge puddle of darkness on the unconscious dude’s grey sweatpants and unnaturally bent leg. I didn’t need to be a doctor to tell it was definitely severely broken. 

His face was covered with all sorts of cuts, bruises, and blood. However, the most prominent one was a large and most likely fresh black eye. It took up a good amount of his face, which was hard to see anyways due to the many other things going on with his face.

He wore an almost plain white t-shirt with most likely a long sleeved black shirt underneath, however it was decorated by a simple fire icon in the middle. It was splattered with the same dark liquid, which I could most likely infer was… blood. 

His hair was fairly longer than most, reaching down to his ears. It was pulled back by a white bandanna/ribbon/headband thingy, but cry loosely as his hair was extremely tangled and messed up.

Perhaps the most bizarre thing about this man was his… inventory? I guess? Anyways, slung on his shoulder was a strap that looked not unlike a strap to a quiver of arrows. He had a sword holder thing as well; but it clearly hadn’t been taken out. Yet. A big, flat board seeming object was strapped to his arm.

“Qu-Quackity?” Karl moved much closer to me, almost hiding behind me. “You h-have 911 on speed dial, r-right…? Could you… call an ambulance?” 

I stared, paralyzed, barely registering what Karl said. We avidly found someone in danger. Was he always dead? What was he doing here? What was up with his stuff? 

“Quackity? Could you call 911?” Karl was now definitely hiding behind me, as if the guy were to get up at any second. I quickly looked at my phone and called, hearing a short dial and connecting with a worker.

“Hello? Me and my friend-”

“My friend and I,” Karl muttered. I looked at him. “Sorry.”

“…My friend and I found an unconscious and severely injured person in an alleyway. My other friend heard something when we were on the way to a bar, and we investigated and found someone with what seems to be a broken leg? We’re at XXX street, in between a clothing store and bakery. Ok, thanks. Bye.” I hung up, both of my hands still shaking. “They said they’ll be here in ten to fifteen minutes.”

“O-ok.” Karl looked at the stranger on the ground. Then, he walked right up to the body. 

“Karl! What are you doing?” I hissed. “Why are you going towards the possibly dead body?”

“H-he’s breathing. He’s definitely alive.” He pulled the sword holder thing off the person, and tucked it inside of his clothes. 

“Karl? Why did you take the sword thingy?” I backed up a bit after he turned to me.

“I’m not gonna use it or anything! It’s just in case he tries to… use it. Y-you know?” Karl’s baggy clothes now perfectly hid the sword holder thing. If you didn’t know he had anything, you wouldn’t have caught it.

“…ok… let’s move to the side of this alley. That way we don’t get in the way of paramedics…” 

“Ok.” We both walked to the left wall, in an eerie silence. 

Soon, we heard the sounds and saw the flashes of sirens and the ambulance pulled up at the other end of the alley. It was like a movie, with people in white clothes carrying a stretcher. 

“He’s right here.” I pointed at the ground, feeling kind of dumb. They probably could see already. The two carefully lifted the dude up onto the stretcher, and wheeled him head first into the ambulance. 

“Should we come too?” Karl asked, standing stiffly probably as to not show the sword through his clothes. 

“You can if you want.” The left paramedic muttered. “If you choose to then hurry up. We need to get this patient to the hospital.” 

“Come on, Quackity.” Karl grabbed my arm and gingerly got up onto the truck while dragging me onto it too. The doors closed, and we stayed in the corner of the small space. 

When we got to the hospital, the guy was quickly rushed into the building to some room. Karl and I hung around in the people filled waiting room lobby room thingy, with him still concealing the sword in the holder thing. 

“I don’t understand why we have to wait around here. It’s literally been, like, two hours.” I grumbled, leaning on the wall against him.

“Well, I wanna make sure he’s ok…” He was inadvertently struggling with hiding the sword in holder thing in such a public place. 

“Hey, are you both the new patient’s friends?” A nurse interrupted our conversation, tapping her pencil on a clipboard. 

“Well actually-” I started to say, but Karl cut in.

“Yes! We’re his friends. We coincidentally just found him when we were hanging out without… him?”

The nurse looked at him, then sighed. “Follow me.”

We walked up a few floors, and got to a room. 

“He’s in here.” She said, then left. 

“I guess we go in, then.” I opened the door, and we both went in. 

In a white and pale blue bed, the same person we found was in it. The both of us leaned over the bed slightly to examine him.

 His clothes were changed into a hospital gown, but his headband and matted hair looked relatively the same. 

However, his face was much cleaner, and I could see much more of it properly. Most of the cuts and such were still there, as well as the prominent black eye, but he seemed relatively better.

Suddenly, his eyes squinted open. He made those noises people make when they wake up, and looked between me and Karl. Then he went back to sleep.

“I’m dead,” he muttered. 

“Huh?” Karl asked, not really directed towards me or the guy in particular. The guy apparently thought he was being referred to.

“I have to be dead. There’s literally two angels looking at me.” He pulled his pillow over his face. “Give me a few more minutes.”

Karl and I looked at each other awkwardly.

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Uhhh ao3 deleted Swords

Well not deleted but hid it so only I can see it

I don’t know why but I had another chapter for that

I sent a thingy to them asking about it so idk

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So Swords got put back up, the reason why it was taken down was because I put the bully busters lyrics in the tags and some of the lyrics were called harassment

Anyways I’m gonna go on vacation for this week so don’t expect any updates soon

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“You’re not… dead since you’re in a hospital because you see, me and my friend found you on the streets and you looked injured so we called an ambulance and you’re here now so the nurses and doctors can take care of your injuries and make sure you’re ok and stuff…” Karl rambled on and on to the guy, who had put his pillow back so he could listen carefully. 

“…oh, I see. I’m sorry for that last line,” He mumbled when Karl finished his long run on sentence/explanation.

“It’s fine…” I responded, pulling over one of the chairs in the room to the side of the bed to take a seat. Karl stayed standing with his hands in his pockets, still trying to hold up the sword in his clothes. The room was quiet for a bit. (a/n: I’m typing this in the car and the radio literally just started playing Hey There Delilah oh my god I’m gonna keep this note right here idk why I find it funny) 

“Well… my name is Nick.” The guy, Nick I guess, stuck his hand out for a handshake. I reached and took it, hearing Karl breath a nearly silent sigh of relief. 

“I’m Alex, but my friends call me Quackity. That’s Karl.” I nodded my head towards the other, who shrugged. “We found you in an alleyway and called an ambulance.”

“Oh, ok…” Then, Nick started to look around him. “Uh, did you happen to see… anything with me? Like, any objects?”

He seemed to be nervous, most likely referring to the sword he had. I looked at Karl, who returned a glance. 

“Well, what kind of objects do you mean?” I asked, putting my hands behind my head to stretch. Nick was visibly getting more anxious; his breathing ever so slightly increasing in speed and beads of sweat started to appear on his forehead. 

“Well, it’s… uh…” He wiped the sweat off by pulling his headband down and bringing it back up, then exhaled.

“This?” Karl tried to pull out the sword from under his clothes, startling Nick and accidentally slicing some of his hood and a good amount of the front fabric. “Oops.”

“Careful!” I hissed, immediately moving to him to help completely take it out.

“Sorry!” He dropped the sword on the floor by accident, and almost right after the same nurse form earlier came in.

“Is everything ok in here?” She asked. “I heard a loud noise.”

“Oh, no, we’re fine!” Karl said, sounding almost completely genuine. I nudged the sword under the hospital bed with my foot. “I just… kicked a chair. Well, tripped over one. Kind of. By accident.”

She looked at him a bit, skeptically. Then, she sighed and left. I turned to face the other two. 

“Karl, are you ok?” I put my hands on his shoulders and shook him. He nodded, although struggling a bit through my shaking. We looked back at Nick, who hid under his blanket a bit.

“Would you believe me if I said that sword wasn’t there when I was conscious?” Both Karl and I shook our heads.

“We found it in this holder thingy strapped really close to you. I took it off because you might have woken up and hurt me or Quackity,” Karl said. He held his chin up a bit, almost smiling. 

“Well, Nick ? Can you explain the sword?” I asked, leaning over the edge of the bed and staring dead into his eyes. Closer up, I could see that Nick’s eyes are a dark shade of gray, almost black. The “bruise” now seemed much more like an old burn mark. It reminded me of… Todoroki? Is that what Karl had said the Pokeball hair dude’s name was? I kept staring at Nick, who finally cracked.

“Fine, fine.” He held his hands up in defeat, and I stepped back satisfied.

“You see, basically I’m an… assassin. But-” he held up his hand, like a wait sign- “I’m not necessarily a bad one.”

The room was quiet. Then, I started laughing nervously. 

“Not necessarily a bad one? How can a trained, professional murderer be morally good? ”

“My targets are never innocent, you know. I’m an assassin. I get hired to kill people of semi importance. However, they’re always guilty of doing something that's ethically wrong. Y’know, like politicians?”

I heard Karl suppress a laugh. Nick’s joke wasn’t really funny. It wasn't even much of a joke.

His laugh is really nice though, A thought rang through my head. I ignored it.

“Wow, way to sound all righteous and shit.” I crossed my arms and stuck my hips out like a stereotypical teen girl. “What makes you think we’d believe you?” 

“Well, you don’t have to believe me. I’m just telling you the truth.” Nick shrugged, wincing from what was probably mild pain from the injuries. I was about to shoot back another retort, when Karl put a hand on my shoulder. 

“Quackity, it’s ok. I know it sounds like this is from a half assed fanfic written by a sexually ambiguous teenager, but… I kinda trust Nick.”

I looked at him in disbelief. “Are you kidding me, Karl? He just admitted to being a murderer. Why are you not more concerned about this?”

“Quackity, I just… know. If this is a half assed fanfic written by a sexually ambiguous teenager, there’s probably a reason why this is happening to us. Maybe it’s plot convenience for me to just overlook that? I really don’t know why.”

“Well,” I sighed in defeat. “I suppose I’ll have to trust you. We are friends, after all. Right?”

Karl nodded. “Right.”