Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

An echo seemed to crack through the stormy clouds as the harsh patter of cold wind seemed to show no sign of stopping;

The creature roars and seemingly summons a hoarde of dwellers right from the stone floor.
“Greaaat.” This was meant to be one of his only days off. Now, another boss had shown up trying to ruin everything yet again.
Power slicked back his snowy hair, just dodging the grasp of one of the creatures as he fished into his pocket for his phone. On speed dial, was the group's emergency group chat-

“Yo guys, we got a monster problem again.” Power says as he flicks off one of the creatures with ease, and just as AJ on the other side of the line mutters; “We're on our way”, his friends sharply emerged from the sky.

More and more dwellers emerged from the main bosses claws, all as Hamood and Incendius swiftly powered up.
“Let's just get this over with.” AJ yawns, seemingly disrupted from an apparent nap.
“Yeah, me and Speakerman were in the middle of renovations.. Actually, speaking of-” Bigness turns into a seemingly open horizon as the wind steadily picks up.

“Oh speakerman!” He sings, in cue comes the friendly giant with a wave.
“We got a boss again, you up to taking care of it?”
Speakermans’ hand scrunches into a thumbs up as he takes the initiative, springing into action with AJ close behind him.

Bigness turns to Power as they handle a hoarde of the monsters, leaving Hamood and Incendius to the stronger ones.

..That left just Lookout3D. Using a shotgun, he could pretty much obliterate any of the mobs if they'd even come close to him, a last resort would be the Warden, but overall he was okay on his own. Not everyone was needed for this battle anyway.

Their usual battle is short-lived as several more dwellers slowly overwhelm the few fighting on the rough terrain. As if the weather wasn't bad enough- it wasn't a help either, as rain began to pour from the sky.

“Ugh, I can't see..” Incendius murmurs, his force field really only illuminated a few feet ahead of him. Hamood remained silent, his voided eyes dull and very fed up with their current state.

AJ and Speakerman were practically playing ping-pong with the main boss that they'd had the most issues with in the past, as their fight with this thing became more of a cakewalk.

Lookout carefully maneuvered around the scraps of some dwellers as he could see Power just finishing up the Mimicer in the mere distance. Where was Bigness, though?

His eyes search around, eventually resulting to the air where he sees him getting double-teamed, seemingly by an enderman-looking dweller and another that looked similar to the Watcher.
Every twist, Bigness was either taking a claw to his backside / chest, or he was delivering a nasty blow to either the monsters’ in a normally fatal point on their upper-chest & neck areas.

“Lookout! Cover for Bigness!” Power calls out, with a subtle nod the shotgun is dropped as he jumps firmly into the air. In one deep breath, the words “Oh, Warden!” slip from his person, just as the heavy creature forms mid-air and crashes both of the dwellers on Bigness to the ground, ultimately crushing them.

Lookout takes a sigh of relief, turning mid-air just as–

–

The boss hits the wet grass with an earth-shaking thud.
Everyone re-meets at the center, surrounded by the clutter of pretty much dead mobs. They'd deshawn in a matter of time, or get sent back to whatever hell they came from.

The Warden and Speakerman were hanging out quite casually, which seemed strange since Lookout normally recalls the Warden to make sure nothing too catastrophic happens when it's out for too long.

Power brushes scuffs off of his jacket before nudging Incendius. “That wasn't too bad for twice the normal monsters, Eh?”
“Guess not.” Incendius shrugs, smirking at Hamood who just clicked his teeth & lowered his glasses to give the others a swift look.

AJ fixes his helmet, his finger tracing over a crack in his chest plate. “That was a little brutal, anyone else have any injuries or tattered parts?”

Bigness shrugs; “Besides my goggles being cracked, I'm good.”
“Alright..” AJ looks around and the silence is grim. Too noticeable.
“Lookout? You haven't even spoken or recalled the Warden-” Hamood begins to speak, but everyone grows into a panic as hes just physically not present. They hadn't heard him for a while, but surely this didn't mean..

Incendius closed his eyes, powered up and slowly pointed into the distance. “Hes that way, I can sort of sense his power still..”
Bigness turns, rushing out first while the others somewhat chase after him. They call for Bigness to slow down, but with blood gushing through your ears- it's somewhat hard to.

“Lookout? Lookout!-” He calls after seeing dents, dents from a struggle. It was enough to make the group feel sick to their stomach.

Then, a gasp erupts from Power, as well as Incendius powering down from a shocked expression.
There laid Lookout, seemingly had been struck on the head by one of the dwellers. Bigness rushes to his side, hand almost ripping his hoodie & mask off to see his twitchy eyes meeting the seemingly unconscious friend below him. A crater of his silhouette must've caused some pebbles & rocks to scratch up his arm & face pretty bad. 

“Oh my god.” The sight makes him churn with anger, sadness, even guilt. What if he couldve prevented this? Whatever. Whatever, Lookout needed him now he'd have to worry about this crap later. “Someone, we need to get him back to the base, Like, now!” Bigness snaps, arms lifting him aimlessly into his arms as his elbow stains from his own friends’ blood.

Chapter Text

“Mgh, my head..”
Bigness turns, his brunette hair delayed in following his movement. “Lookout?”
“Bigness?” Lookout goes to sit up on his elbows, but his head throbs. “Ow, what the--"
Bigness rushes to his side, his hand laying firmly against his shoulder before pushing the smaller back down.
“Stay down-” He sighs. “You're hurt, and you need rest.”
“Hurt?” Lookout almost laughs at the implication of himself in the same sentence as the word ‘hurt’. “I don't get hurt, Bigness, I-”
“You got smacked literally into stone, and have been unconscious for almost a whole day!” Bigness realizes how.. snappy, his tone feels, and he sits beside Lookout on his bed with a sigh. “Look, I'm sorry, I was just.. worried.”
Lookout grins. It's slightly altered when he looks away and indeed sees a few get-well cards from the rest of the group, as well as flowers in a pot beside him.
“I hate that pot.” He murmurs, before turning back to Bigness. “You don't have to worry about me anymore man, I'm fine now-”
“No, you aren't.” Bigness's eyes are filled with concern. “Incendius could barely sense your power, I think they really got you this time..”
Lookout's ego was being crushed by the second. “What? No, I'm probably healed by now..”
His crimson hair has to be brushed by his hand out of his face, and only then does he feel the bandages on his face. A sudden.. panic sets in. He feels his arm, which is also bandaged, then notices the significant discomfort in his leg.

Oh. He really isn't healing, was he?
“Why aren't my powers working.. What about the warden? Oh no, oh no–”
“Chill out man, he's hanging out with Speakerman, probably doing things I can't really condone-”
Lookout grips his arm harshly, but Bigness is quick to rest his hand atop of Lookouts. “I think your powers just need a second to kick back in, that impact seemed pretty bad, you were bleeding..”
Lookout looks up with a slightly tired & smug expression. “You were really worried about me, huh?”
Bigness's eyes gloss over the thought and softens his gaze. “Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't.”

Their eyes met for a split second, before Bigness broke the contact. “Well.. I'm gonna go get you some water & medicine, you're free to follow me if you feel well enough.’
“Wait, we're at your base?” Lookout peels himself from the covers, and as Bigness stands up to leave, he nods.

The taller is halfway down the hallway when Lookout finally makes it to his feet. He's wobbly, pretty disoriented, but definitely just as stubborn as he's ever been.
Confidently, he strides away from the bed, before stumbling and clutching to the wall whilst his body roars in pain, ringing from the left side to the right.

He hisses and bites his lip to more fairly distribute the sounds of his apparent discomfort, and is somehow still standing?
“Still a slight win..?” Lookout sighs, the next step feeling more painful than the first.

The hallway feels like it stretches forever. He feels like he's been offloading pressure from foot-to-foot for hours. In reality, it's only been a few minutes at longest.
He was stuck just beside the door to Bignesses’ room, his body showing zero interest in pushing itself to go any farther. This was.. quite embarrassing.

Bigness stirs something via the cabinets as he already apparently was making his way back, and isn't very surprised to see Lookout almost hunched over against the wall outside of his room, practically balling up from the ringing pain he'd been experiencing.
“Hold on.” Bigness sighs loudly, Lookout didn't hear him over the gritting of his own teeth. Bigness has to literally put the glass of water & medicine for Lookout down by his beside, rush back out, and pick Lookout up by his legs.

The relief is almost instant as the pressure was lifted off of his feet. He hadn't even realized he'd hug himself around Bigness until he feels one of Bigness's arms cradle his back, then the realization that Bigness was carrying him & moving him into his own room.
"I'd rather not walk too far and have you attempt anything.. Honestly, my guest room isn't even that comfortable, we mainly make Power sleep in there-"

Lookout's face was more red than ever as Bigness softly sat him down on his own bed, the shock of 'Oh, we just had a bonding moment' seemed to kick in for Bigness now too.
Bigness shakes it off, firmly giving Lookout his glass of water & A handful of pills. "Hamood dropped these off, said that one was a painkiller, the other two were your anxiety & bipolar meds."

"Oh-" Lookout had forgotten about those. He took each one separately & chased the large pills down with water, before handing the glass back to Bigness.
"Stay." He commands, knowing Lookout probably would've tried something with him; "I'm gonna be right back, okay?"

Lookout huffs. "Fine."

When Bigness comes back, He's carrying a thick dark-blue blanket. He jokingly tosses it ontop of Lookout, who protests by struggling a bit before eventually settling down as a tangled mess.

Bigness laughs at him wholeheartedly, not long before slipping next to him as he pushes the covers to lay more comfortably atop the two.

"Didn't know we were sleeping together so fast." Lookout teases, and Bigness feels his face grow hot. 

"Technically you're in my bed." he retorts; "Someone wanted to try and be strong."

 "I didn't know it would hurt that bad to just walk!" Lookout pouts, and Bigness rubs his back affectionately. The touch is almost soothing, which makes Lookouts heart skip a beat.

His head leans heavy on Bigness's arm, and as the taller goes on about something regarding AJ, all he can really recall is how suddenly tired he felt..