goddamngrenades | OPEN POST

"Fuck no. I'm not that kind of an asshole." Especially to people that are his. Responsibility. Right. His friends, his squad, his people. He's got to keep an eye out for them and help them come out of whatever the fuck Hargrove has done and he can swing that easy. He's...pretty sure he can swing that.

About half sure.

"We'll make it stick. It needs to stick. Hargrove knows how you think and operate. He doesn't know me." Not even a little. Agent Fucktruck York. No one ever sees him coming because, surprise, he's competent.

Wash manages a small smile. He knows York isn't. York is better than they are, definitely better than Wash is. He'd always been too blindly obedient and desperate just for a place that would accept him. Desperate not to fuck up his last chance and it had made him stupid.

That works better for Carolina. That's a concrete strategy. "That I can do," she agrees. Put the person in charge who Hargrove doesn't know, no matter how many files he's read because York had grown and changed in ways that he couldn't predict. "Training. Let's go."

"C'mere." He extends an arm to both of them, waiting for Wash to sidle up cuz he's sure that'll happen. Carolina...gets a little wiggle of his fingers, brows lifted. Playful. They're his, now. Reminding them of that in a good way will help make the training stick.

Wash does slide up against his side, slipping beneath his arm and leaning against him. York is solid and warm, reassuring in a way that Wash desperately needs right now.

Carolina takes longer, watching them, her lips pursed before she lets out a little huff of breath and takes his offered hand.

He tugs her in on the other side, dropping a kiss to Wash's temple, turning to do the same to her cheek. "It's gonna be rough while we figure out how to make this work- but we will make it work. They will learn to trust you if only because you answer to me. And I need y'all to not undermine me in front of them. Give me shit back here, ok? They need to think I have a handle on this."

When they all know he's improvising.

That sounds like a good plan. Wash... he misses it now that he thinks about it. He misses training with the kids. Misses York training with them more.

"Yes sir," he says, and it's only half teasing. The other half is more honest, more raw. Need wrapped up in respect. He needs York to give him a purpose.

"Good boy." It's easy enough to offer that praise in here, where it's just them. Outside- he'll need to think of something else. For now he holds him close. Squeezes them both as tightly as he dares before releasing them. Ok. Training.

"Hand to hand today, gonna work with training up kids to work as a unit. We'll be demoing together."

The praise is a warm swell in his head and he wonders how he'd never noticed before how this happened. He'd let Charon play with his brain and fuck him up in a whole bunch of new ways that Freelancer hadn't even dreamed of. He can feel how tightly York squeezes them too. He's scared, maybe as much as Wash is.

"So you're going to throw us about a bit?"

"Mmhm. Gonna try to not let it turn to foreplay. I'll do hands on with the kids- not that I don't trust you with them but they're all a little...disappointed." Palomo was almost heartbroken. Jensen might've cried a little. It was a thing. "Come on. Chin up, maybe look a little contrite."

He kisses them each once more before pulling back to lead them out. Just beyond the door there are guards. Anxious guards that look to York and back to the other two as he leads them out. "At ease, boys. They're behaving."

Carolina snorts at the comment about foreplay, but they can all see how easily it could go that way. None of them have normal reactions to things, and fighting might as well be dancing to them.

Wash winces. "I betrayed them. I deserve it." They'd trusted him and he'd thrown that away.

They follow him out, and there's that automatic calculation when they see the guard, how easy it would be to take the place down from inside now they were here. Wash brushes his hand against York's fingers to dispel it.

York twists his hand enough to curl his fingers around Wash's, giving them a squeeze. After half a second he offers the same grounding contact to Carolina before walking them out to the training field.

As he'd said- there are the kids. Arms crossed, eyes narrowed, Jensen looking more disappointed than angry, Bitters glaring with all his bitter heart. "Right. So. Hand to hand-"

"You're not even gonna EXPLAIN?" Palomo bursts out, Andersmith shushing him.

"Brainwashing is a hell of a thing kids." York quips, brows lifted. That doesn't seem to be enough from how they shake their heads, muttering to each other. "AI Implantation requires wires to be surgically inserted into your brain. Even when the AI's gone- the hardware's still there. Apply voltage to the wires and-"

"World's worst shock collar." Bitters suddenly looks green.

"That's what I thought. So. Hand to hand-"

It should be awkward. They're holding hands like children needing to be guided where they're going. But really it just feels nice, like everything might be okay now, somehow.

It's a hope that's dashed as soon as they step into the training room and they're confronted with the kids. Carolina blinks, but she never met the rebels. Wash just wants to hide behind York and pretend he isn't here. He remembers them doing everything they could to get him and York together, even making them a cake from their meagre rations.

"I-" he begins, but York speaks for him and for once he doesn't mind. He can't help a mindless reach for the back of his neck, rubbing over the metal embedded in the base of his skull.

"Thanks," he says finally, quiet, to York.

"No problem. Now-" It's easy to fall into the patter and bark of instruction, running Carolina and Wash through grapples, throws, and ways to disengage, to break holds, or counter throws. Carolina- well. She's always on point, always militant, gets up from when she's tossed and has a little fun throwing York's ass around.

Wash? Does as he's told. Helps York up from the mat, takes the falls and-

Well.

After about an hour it's hard to pin him and look down and not think. Things.

This is familiar and that makes it easier. He knows how to be thrown without damage, how to fall and how to break holds. They're muscle memory by now, so engrained he doesn't even have to think. And he desperately needs to not think right now. Watching Carolina and York move is always incredible to see. They'd been the top ranked on the leaderboard for a reason, and Wash had never quite been up to their level with CQC.

He falls where he's thrown, York pins him, body pressed against his. And it's electric for a moment. He sucks in a breath, tongue flicking out over his lips as he stares up at York. It's deja vu, going right back to the rebel base the first time they'd kissed.

Carolina's off to one side observing and York? Can feel the heat of her eyes licking down his spine. The moment with Wash stretches and crackles and strains till Andersmith clears his throat and even then?

"Everyone take five." A beat as he lets more of his weight settle on Wash. "Make that thirty. Take thirty."

"Seriously-" Bitters starts, only to get jerked back by Jensen. "Thirty sir, understood!"

He can feel their eyes on him. The kids, but also Carolina. His breath catches when York settles more heavily against him, keeping him still.

It's only when The kids leave that he relaxes, the tension bleeding out of him as he slumps back against the ground. "Don't think they're happy."

"Yeah they're still a little pissed." York braces his hands on either side of Wash's face, leaning down to bring their lips together. Last time, this time- it doesn't matter. All that matters is that he's here, he's solid- and they've got a plan. "I got you, though. Both of you. So don't worry, ok?"

"They're right to be," Wash says. He lets out a soft noise when York leans down to kiss him, warmth flaring in his chest. It just feels right, and it's something he'd thought he'd never get again so he savours the feeling. "Of course I worry."

"They'll get over it." He pulls himself up, tugging Wash along. Carolina paints herself along his back as soon as he's standing and, um. Hi? Hi. "...Right this has become foreplay, hasn't it?"

Wash lets himself be pulled up, and plasters himself against York's side at the same time as Carolina presses up behind him. They're remarkably in tune when they want to be, and York is something they're united on.

Carolina leans in and brushes her lips against his ear. "Just a bit."

"We're gonna have to work on that." A little, maybe, as he buries his face in the side of Wash's neck, pressing a soft kiss there. Treating him gently after all the rough pinning and bruising of the session. "Gotta make these lessons last longer than an hour, you know."

Wash shivers at the kiss and tilts his head to give York better access. Mmm, that feels good.

"Well, we know that you have stamina," Carolina says.

"Mhmm-" Okay they need to move. "Room. Double time."

They did good, they get a reward. That's how he'll frame it.

Wash blinks at him. "But it's only lunchtime." If it's even been that long. He's been too focussed on York and on what they're doing.

"You've never heard of an afternoon quickie?" He tips his head back enough to look Wash in the eyes, brows lifted. "We'll be back out for range time and knife work after we eat and do whatever."

Hanging out in the mess isn't really an option at the moment.

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