A/N: Fair warning, things will get intense, but not graphic.
Your life gets into a little bit more a routine as your second week of being out of the hospital begins. Kid and Killer are becoming morning and evening staples, coming by with breakfast and dinner on a regular basis. A couple times during the week they don't stay to eat with you, business is picking up and they're needed, but you don't hold that against them, even though the little apartment seems impossibly empty without them.
You did get a schedule for your prosthetic. You go in next Monday to have your stump examined, and mapped, so they can create the connector for your neural hand. Then you'll have that surgery, recovery, and the fabrication of the hand attachment, and after almost a month since your accident you'll start going through rehab for the actual prosthetic and learning how to use it.
Your only real big issue was Decken.
You'd exchanged an unfortunate number of texts with him and you were starting to run out of ways of trying to get him to go away. You considered actually going out to coffee with him, but you hadn't promised that you would, only that you'd think about it, and the more you thought about it the less you wanted to do it.
Since then, every time you tried to get him to let it go, he'd just get more persistent, and start saying that if he couldn't take you for coffee then he could bring coffee to you. Having him at your apartment again was absolutely not an option. You hadn't even wanted him here the first time, and if he had an invitation from you in record form - like a text - you'd never get rid of him.
The whole debacle was coming up on a week. It was Thursday, one more day it and would be 7 days of dealing with these terrible texts. If you couldn't get him to drop things before Kid and Killer showed up for dinner tonight you were going to tell them, and however Kid wanted to deal with him then you'd just be okay with that.
Decken: It's just a coffee. A quick cup.
Your patience with this back and forth was beyond thin. You'd been trying to be civil and polite and nice during the entire thing, because you knew full well how these sorts of things could go south fast. You were expecting Kid and Killer soon and you didn't want to have bury your phone in your bed again just to avoid the deluge of texts.
You: At the risk of sounding rude, I want neither your company nor your additional apology.
Decken: I'll be on my best behavior.
You felt your eye twitch, and your blood pressure go up. How dare he try to trade on good behavior when his very actions up to this point already showed how terrible his behavior was. This whole deal was harassment, it didn't matter if he wasn't being cruel or vicious with his words, the persistence alone was the definition of harassment.
You: You haven't listened to me this entire time, your behavior is atrocious. Go away. I tried to be kind in turning you down, but you're clearly not getting it. Buzz off.
You hit send and set the phone down, walking away from it for a moment and trying to cool your head. If there was a response you needed to be level-headed about it, to avoid any sort of escalation beyond what you'd already opted to push things to.
A minute. Two minutes. Ten minutes. Your phone was silent. You let out a small sigh of relief, and then decided to text Eustass. You were shaking with nerves, and you wanted him to be here sooner rather than later. You needed to tell him and Killer about all this anyway, in case it wasn't actually the last of it. You just hoped neither of them would be too mad that you hadn't said something sooner.
You: Hey, can you be by sooner?
Red: Packing up as we speak. Should be there in twenty. Soon enough?
You: Yeah. Got something I need to talk to you about.
Red: No one likes hearing that, Mouse.
You: lol sorry, you're right. It's about Decken. It's not a bad talk, it's just conversation about a greasy bastard.
Red: Problems with the court ordered restitution?
You: Not so much. I don't want to get into it through text, I'll tell you when you get here.
Red: On my way shortly.
You washed your face in the bathroom sink to try and kick some of the nerves rolling around in your stomach. You paced the apartment and little bit as well, trying to throw off the excess energy that was building in you. You considered making tea, but Kid and Killer usually brought you some, and there was such a thing as too much tea.
You managed to knock off enough of your nerves and the associated excess energy and were stretching to keep your body from knotting in on itself while you waited. There was a knock at the door, taking in a deep breath you let it out before opening the door, trying to steady yourself against the weight of the impending conversation.
There was a disconnect in your brain as you open the door to see Vander Decken standing there. Ill-fitting hat, cheap suit, greasy countenance, and your face reflected in the mirrored sunglasses. Your small smile for Eustass fell from and drained from your face quickly, as your brain caught up with what you were seeing.
Even as you moved to close the door you could see the smile spread across Decken's face. You threw all your weight behind slamming the door, and felt it shudder as it smacks into him. You didn't know how strong Decken was, or wasn't, but you hoped it knocked him back enough. You kick off the door, wanting to either close it, or smack it into him a second time as you scramble for your phone.
A harsh tug at your hair nearly takes you off your feet, pulling you off to the side and sending you into the wall of the hallway with a grunt. You heard the door shut and the lock click, and start looking around for anything to use for defense. You grabbed an umbrella, deciding to swing it like a bat, hoping that the wooden handle had enough heft to do something.
Decken dodges the swing, and then puts his arm out and pins the damn thing to the wall. He's got you beat on reach and strength. For the first time in your life you're really mad you never took anyone up on learning how to fight. There had to be things that short people could do to defend themselves.
You could see Decken's shoulder move, but the blow from his hand was something you only felt, your eyes hadn't seen it coming at all. The smack from his back hand make your teeth rattle and knocks you off balance. As you stumble, he grabs your hair again and pulls you down backwards to the floor. The combination of movements has you dazed and off balance and you crash into the floor hard enough to push the air from your lungs.
His legs pin yours, and he slams his weight down on you as he pins your forearms to the floor, knocking the wind from you a second time before you had even recovered from the first. You're hacking and wheezing, scrambling to breathe as tears sting your eyes.
In a haze of fear, you realize he is practiced at this. Struggling to break your arms free at the very least you hoarsely grunt for him to get off of you, but there's not enough air in your lungs yet. He moves your arms together over your head, holding them in place with one hand as you gasp to catch your breath.
"Get off! GET OFF!" You scream as more air fills your lungs. The glinting flash of metal stops you and Decken taps the side of your face gently with a wicked looking dagger.
"Now kitten, I'm going to need you to behave." His smile is as slimy as he is, and everything about him looks greasier to you right now. From his skin to his hair to his very soul, and it was almost like you could feel him dripping onto your skin.
You keep your eye on the knife and speak softly. "I'll behave." You could heal whatever he did to you, but if you lost too much blood you were pretty sure that'd be the end of it all. You just had to try and stall. Kid and Killer were on the way, and you just needed to stall until then.
"I don't doubt that kitten." He tries to purr, but even his words are greasy. He puts the knife away and licks his lips before running his hand down your waist. His hand goes under your shirt, touching awkwardly along your skin, and you jerk in revulsion before you can stop yourself.
"Now, kitten, you said you'd behave." His tone was admonishing, and playful.
"I will! I am... I am, it's just," You swallow hard and do your best to look him in the eyes. "We haven't even really had a date, and so I think we're moving a... a bit too fast?" You explain, offering your best apologetic smile.
"Oh, but we're destined to be together, there's no need to be shy."
"Destined?" You didn't like the direction this conversation was going anymore than you're current predicament.
"Mm, you felt it too, I'm sure. Those moments in the courtroom. You looked at me so shyly, face red, glancing at me like that." His eyes were glossed over, like he was lost in his own world. You jerk when his hand hikes your shirt up higher and he grabs the end of your left wrist like a vice. It was almost completely healed, even the tenderness that took forever to go away, but his grip was painful on its own, and the sharp pain brings tears to your eyes.
"Stop struggling, kitten, or I'll bring the knife back out." He promises, leaning down toward your face.
A knock at the door renews your struggling, with much more vigor than before. "KID! KID HELP ME! HEL-mfffph!"
Decken covers your mouth, but you had screamed loud enough to be heard across the street, you were sure of it. He releases your wrists and begins raining punches down on you as your door is unceremoniously ripped off its hinges by one very big, very angry, very strong Eustass Kid.
Kid's prosthetic was built for fighting, and you could hear Decken's jacket rip from the force of the hydraulic powered grip as Kid grabs him and pulls him off you. Kid throws him out into the yard, almost to the street with so little effort it's terrifying.
"Mouse?" He snarls, his tone is only forceful to get your attention.
"I'm," you spit blood from your mouth to speak, your cheek and split lip throbbing. "Fine. I'm... f-fine." The realization of what had probably almost happened sinks into you and you started to shake. Kid glances over at you when Decken doesn't get up right away, and his golden eyes take on a fiery look.
Your swollen cheek and bloody lip were enough to enrage Kid, but the fact that you were pulling your shirt back down as you sat up has his blood boiling. He looks like a juggernaut, lumbering toward a rodent, he was just so much bigger than Decken in that moment.
Decken was either too ignorant, or too focused on you, to fully comprehend how dangerous Kid was. The greasy fool scrambles to his feet and lunges at him with a knife. Kid grabs the knife with his metal hand, pulling Decken closer as he mangles the wicked dagger between the hydraulic gears of his custom fingers.
"Mouse! You callin' the marines?" Eustass bellows, not looking away from Decken.
"I... Uh... yeah?" After you answer him, a funny feeling strikes you, as though you had just decided the thumbs up or down on Decken's life.
Eustass leans down toward Decken his grip threatening to shatter the bones of Decken's fingers and smiles a terrible toothy smile that causes the smaller man to pale. "Hear that? Mouse says you get to live."
Kid's flesh and blood fist clenches, and he back hands Vander while his metal hand still held the man in place. A few swift blows make short work of the creep, knocking him senseless and probably loosening a few teeth. Eustass let Vander's body crumple to the ground when he realizes the grease ball has fainted. You were already on the phone with emergency services, and it would only take a couple of minutes for them to arrive.
The lady on the other end of the phone stayed with you while you waited for the marines and ambulances to show up. The marines separated all three of you and took your statements. You told them everything about Vander, from the accident to his harassment, and how that had turned into this.
When Decken came to his senses he started screaming about your betrayal. The sound of his voice made you pale a little and the officers around you excused themselves and helped move him further away. After what felt like hours, everyone left. Kid wasn't arrested, but he was asked to come down to the station the next day and fill out a written statement.
Eustass stands in your doorway and rubs the back of his neck as the emergency personnel leave. He was calm, but now he was assessing the damage of having opened the door the way he had.
"Sorry, Mouse, this is gonna take a day to fix up right." He admits. "If not a little longer."
You nod, then shake your head, then just kind of sit down in the middle of the floor. Eustass takes a step closer, but he seems to be keeping his distance while also trying to block out the outside world for you. You take in a shaky, shuddering breath and let it out slowly, willing yourself not to cry again despite the day's events.
"Kid?"
"Yeah Mouse?"
"Hug Me. Please." You whisper, reaching out to him as a few frustrated tears escape you. "I want... I want to feel something I've consented to. Please."
Kid steps forward, crouching down around you, and pulls you into a gentle hug. It was easy to understand why he called you Mouse from the beginning. He was so broad-shouldered and, just, so massive, that it was easy for you to disappear in him.
You hug him back for a few minutes and are relieved to realize you feel safe. Decken hadn't shattered your capacity to be in physical contact with someone you trusted, even someone as big as Eustass who could easily do whatever he wanted to you.
"Hey Red?" You ask after you take a moment to calm down. Eustass clicks his tongue in response to the nickname. "I don't have a front door, Red."
You feel him flinch a little, but he doesn't grumble about the nickname. "Sorry, Mouse."
You chuckle weakly and lean back to look up at him. "My knight in hydraulic powered, cold rolled steel armor, do you have a front door?"
Kid snorts, and then laughs, and then he hugs you again – a little harder than before, but it was still warm and comforting.
"I do, Mouse, I do."