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"Go away. Don't make me hurt you."
Silvija stood in the hallway with a helpless look. Laura had barred entry in her own room purely because of the person sleeping on the bed behind her.
After Dante left Emma in the parking lot, he had a run in with Laura on the second floor and something had happened between them. The details didn't matter. What mattered was that Dante had been declared off-limits by Laura.
"Relax." Silvija kept her voice as soft as she could make it. "I'm not gonna hurt him. I just want to—"
Laura's claws flashed out as a symbiote crept up to the side of her face. She didn't like the symbiote covering her face and making it monstrous, but she would if it gave her a little more power to fight off Silvija.
"He is already hurt. I won't let any of you make it worse."
Everyone, including Silvija, had assumed that leaving SHIELD and spending time under everyone's care had softened Laura. That the girl who had started smiling again, who had started making small jokes and whining about Dante's absence, had left the beast behind her. They had been wrong. It hadn't gone anywhere. It had only been sleeping.
Dante was the reason it had slept. And now Dante was the reason it woke up angrier than it had ever been.
It didn't matter that Silvija had been kind to her. It didn't matter that they lived in the same building and shared meals like a family. At this moment, Laura would attack anyone who came through that door.
It was Laura between Dante and the world.
Ava took a few steps toward Laura, but a growl from her made her stop.
"Laura, come on," Ava whispered, hands slightly raised to indicate she meant no harm. "Sis is his girlfriend—"
"I don't care." Laura pointed her claws at the door. "Leave him alone."
Silvija placed a hand on Ava's shoulder and drew her back. Ava made the expression of wanting to argue, that "we still have one option left" expression.
She showed a thin smile and shook her head.
A cornered Laura, with claws that could punch through almost anything, protecting the one person she'd decided mattered most—that was not a problem force could solve. Someone would inevitably get hurt. Besides, Laura did it to protect him.
The planted spy cam would show if Laura had any other intentions. The rest would automatically diffuse the moment Dante woke up.
***
Laura listened to their footsteps until the hallway fell silent. She carefully locked the door and locked every window before pulling the curtains. Only then did she withdraw her claws and let the symbiote retreat.
She sat on the edge of the bed and put a hand on his wrist, feeling his steady pulse. He appeared to be resting, but her enhanced senses picked up something else. She had no name for it, but it triggered every alarm in her body.
This combined with what he said before sleeping gave her the feeling that something had happened.
So she was going to wait here and protect him, stopping anyone from disrupting his recovery.
The normal life he had promised could screw off if the person who cared for her, the person who she cared for, wasn't there with her.
***
Hours passed.
The light outside changed and the world became less noisy. She sat with him through all of it.
When hunger crept in, more of an inconvenience than anything else, footsteps approached, and there was a knock. She could smell the sweetness from across the room.
She listened to the footsteps recede before she opened the door far enough to take the tray sitting on the floor.
Food, water, and pancakes. Just a sniff told her none of it had been tempered with or poisoned.
She sat on the floor by the bed and ate with the tray on her knee, watching him breathe.
'Did I treat Silvija too harshly?'
The thought surfaced briefly as she enjoyed the delicious meal. Silvija always cared about Dante and her. Was it right to—she shook the thought away. When he was awake and well, she would apologize to Silvija.
Right now, she had a promise to keep.
She placed a hand on Dante's cheek. "Wake up soon. I have a lot of things to tell you."
Time passed by with Laura willingly trapped in Silvija's room. When she grew bored, she would lie down and talk to him about the gym, the new tutor, her spar with Ava, and spill Natasha and the other Widows' secrets.
When the talking ran out, she browsed the internet on the phone Silvija had given to her. SHIELD had too much restriction on her gadgets. Now, she was free to look up anything.
She took a sneaky glance at Dante, as if anxious he could somehow know what she would be typing.
"It's not related to you."
Clearing her throat, she faced him and then typed. Even if he somehow woke up, he would see the back of her phone.
The search results that showed up left her disappointed.
'It's not legal.'
She lowered her phone and stared at his face before blocking it with her phone again.
'The strong make the law.'
Just like how Dante took the clothes. Just like how SHIELD arrested mutants.
She was stronger than the cops. Dante was stronger than the whole country. They had no reason to follow the laws made to protect the weak.
The same evening, a knock on the door disrupted her train of thoughts. Laura was off the bed before the second knock landed.
She closed her eyes and breathed. Only one person. She knew exactly who it was from the scent.
Glancing back and forth between the door and Dante, she stood there indecisively. Emma Frost had an advantage against her. She could never win a head-on encounter with Emma.
She remembered how Emma had comforted her at the academy, showering her in warmth. But then again, Silvija had done the same.
"Come back when he wakes up."
If she was willing to turn Silvija, she had to turn Emma away as well.
The silence on the other side lasted long enough that she thought Emma might simply leave.
"What happened?" Emma asked softly. "Why are you this on edge?"
She shook her head even though Emma couldn't see it. "It's because of you he is like this. Leave him alone."
The breath Emma took was audible and shaking.
"You're right. It's really my fault," Emma said, leaning against the door. "I'm sorry."
Her footsteps went down the hall.
Laura stood in the middle of the room for a long moment after the sound was gone.
She sat on the bed and drew her knees to her chest, putting her forehead against them. Emma had already been full of guilt. What she said made it worse.
However, those were the words she needed to send Emma away.
She touched his wrist. "It's the only way."
***
Dante surfaced from sleep to the distant sound of running water. He lay still for a moment and stared at the ceiling before finally pushing himself upright. A casual stretch released a series of pops and cracks from his spine.
An observation through the Biokinesis surprised him. He had been out for over two days.
The running shower distracted him again.
'Silvija wouldn't say no.'
He pulled his shirt over his head and took his trousers. The bathroom was warm with steam. Through the frosted glass, a silhouette moved beneath the spray. She pretended not to notice him. Perhaps the lack of intimacy had made her shy.
He slid the door aside and embraced his lover under the warm water. His hands settled around her waist for a second then moved up to her tits. The softness and perkiness made him sigh.
'Wait.'
He put his hands over them and frowned.
"How did they get smaller?" He squeezed them for another feel, feeling even more confused. "It's almost a two-cup downgrade."
He continued playing with her breasts as he noticed more and more incongruities between the woman in his arms and the Silvija in his mind. She was smaller, leaner, and less curvy than Silver Sable.
"Mhmm… Dante…"
The moan left him frozen despite standing under the hot shower. The voice wasn't Silvija's. He would recognize that European accent anywhere.
He reached past her and shut off the water, then clicked on the overhead light.
The woman in his embrace had long black hair, not silver.
For a long moment, neither of them moved. Dante looked down. She looked up. Her cheeks had taken a faint shade of pink.
He reached for the towel on the rack and draped it over her shoulders before taking a step back.
"Laura, why are you in Silvija's room?"
She pulled the towel a little tighter and tilted her chin slightly. "You told me to protect you."
He recalled mumbling to Laura that he would be vulnerable in sleep. He wanted her to pass these words to Silvija, but he must have passed out before that.
"How did you do it?"
Laura smiled with a proud expression and explained her measures as if they were "achievements". She had taken the mumbling to heart, not leaving the room or allowing anyone in for two days. She had "protected" him from everyone.
After finishing the explanation, she gave him the sideways glance of someone waiting to be praised.
The correct move was clear. Be firm and tell her that intentions matter but so did method. That she must ask for Silvija or anyone else's understanding rather than trying something so bold.
Praising her now would encourage her to do something twice as unhinged the next time around.
He took a step forward and brought her in his arms. "You did great."
But… he couldn't bring himself to scold Laura Kinney when she looked at him like that. He couldn't be that cruel and heartless.
"Just don't try to isolate yourself next time. Silvija and Felicia are family," he whispered. "They care for me like you do."
Laura would shed this rigidness, eventually. The SHIELD's rewiring of her sense of what was norman—that would soften as she spent time under the right influences.
"I understand," she murmured in a pleased voice, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her cheek against his chest. "Are you fully recovered?"
He took a deep breath to push any wrong thought away. "Yes."
She looked up, showing a face half-plastered with black hair. "Do you want to shower together?"
"Aren't you already done?"
She looked away and clicked her tongue.
"...What was that?"
She raised her gaze and revealed a cheeky smile. "Nothing."
***
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