veryroundbirdfics | Arknights | A Warm, Neverending Dream

Rating: Mild
Words: 859
Characters: Kroos, Beagle, Fang
Relationships: Kroos/Beagle/Fang (you know, Krangle)
Summary: After the garrison Kroos, Beagle, and Fang are assigned to becomes intolerable, Kroos makes a promise.
Notes: For Arknights WLW Week 2021 day 3.

"Fuck them!" Kroos says, storming across the street and slamming her boot against the curb. It's not going to do anything, and it's not going to make her feel better, but she really really really really really wants to kick someone's ass and she can't. Like, it's not like they can court-martial her anymore on account of they can't fire her she quit, but she can get arrested and then what are Fang and Beagle going to do?

Beagle's running after her, hands on her shoulders. "Kroos—Kroos, come on," she says, voice wavering. "Wh... where are we going to go? I bet... probably, you could take it back—"

"Uggh—absolutely not!" Kroos whirls, putting her hands on her hips. "I mean... I said a lot of things, but they're all true. They shouldn't treat any of us like that, especially when Fang works so hard—and if they won't, they don't deserve us."

She casts her glaze over at Fang, who's wandered out behind Beagle, but she's looking down, tugging at the sleeves of her coat and chewing slightly on her lip. "Fang—listen to me, all right?" Kroos reaches out for her—

Fang swats her away, though, and turns her face. "I was handling it," she says. "Now it's all—it's all..."

She shakes her head, expression flattening into a scowl. "Then again, I don't know what I expected." Jerking her arm out of Kroos's reach, she goes to sit on the curb, resting her elbows on her knees.

Beagle looks between the two of them, back and forth; her shoulders droop. Kroos hates to see it. She realizes that no one really expects her of all people to get angry, and maybe if it was only on her own behalf she could have been easygoing about it.

"Hey. Hey," she says, reaching up to pat Beagle on the head. "I got us kicked out, so I'll figure it out. Okay?"

"It's not..." Beagle shakes her head. "I mean, you got angry because of how they were treating us for being Infected, but if I hadn't been so slow, that day—"

"Wah, why are you like this—" Kroos takes both her hands and squishes them against Beagle's cheeks, staring her down. "I don't do anything I don't want to! I've been pretty clear about that, right?" She crosses her arms across her chest. "Listen, you got Infected that day, and I happened to get Infected nearby, because we were doing the same duty~ It's fine. It happens every day."

But—oh. Oh, no, she said it wrong, Beagle's crying. And—oh, Beagle's hugging her? That's fine, but she squeezes pretty hard. "Ah—Beagle! I don't know if I did something right or wrong..."

"I'm... I'm just, really sad, though... I wanted to be able to protect you, but I'm always being protected..." She buries her face in Kroos's shoulder. "And I thought... at least, they allowed us to stay while being Infected, but every time we had orders, they were scary, and I kept thinking we were going to die..."

Kroos glances over at Fang, who's watching them, glumly, from the curb, and just jerks her head, like, get over here. At first she thinks Fang isn't going to do it, but then she unfolds and shuffles over, wrapping an arm around Beagle's shoulders and putting a hand on her head.

"Beagle," says Fang. "It's fine, okay? It's fine. It's not your fault."

Probably Fang thinks it's her fault, too. She always puts everything on her own shoulders, like she could have made everything turn out all right by force of will. Honestly! Kroos has never cared about fault or blame or anything like that for more than five seconds at a time in her life, because life is way too short for that.

"Yeah," says Kroos. "It's definitely fine, and we can all protect each other. Just like we always have, and we'll get better and better at it, every day."

She wiggles out of Beagle's grasp, though, and stretches. "And, hey~ I know I said a lot of things to a lot of people, and a lot of them were mean, and a lot is happening really fast. But I promise—I promise! We'll get somewhere good, where they'll treat us right."

The thing about coming from Rim Billiton is that there's a lot of hazards, and Cautuses don't have a great life expectancy to start with; having Oripathy isn't that big a deal, with that in mind. Maybe she can't deliver on this promise; maybe, in the meantime, one thing or another will claim all of them.

As long as they can all be together, whatever happens, she can be pretty happy. But if she could have anything, she wants a place where she can see them smile—and she only does things she wants, but when she wants something, she'll put all her energy into moving heaven and earth for it.

Someday, maybe—they'll have happy sunny days together, away from the brown skies of this far-flung garrison where all they have is each other. No, not maybe: definitely. After all, she promised.