girlwithout | welcome home: part one.

It’s a total accident. Rikki heard on the news about a couple of gay men who were beat beyond recognition, and (lucky her) she just happens to be nearby when they start bragging about how great they were. How they didn’t leave any signs of who they were; how much fun it was, listening to their bones break and watching their skin split open; how the world would’ve been better off with a couple less queers in it but they kept the two alive to remember that moment as long as possible. To pay.

She can’t throw up because she’s not just a kid walking by, she’s Nomad, so instead she jumps in to break their goddamn mouths and make them stop talking. There’s more of them and they have knives, but she’s faster and has actual combat training on her side. (She knows how to cause pain. It’s not her MO, she usually fights to disable, but right now, she wants to make them hurt.)

In between the step-by-step walkthrough of how to earn your place in hell, one of them mentioned something about their buddies planning to make a politician pay, so when she gets down to the last guy, she takes a little time to have a chat. She’s so focused on him that she doesn’t notice the one who got up and snuck in behind her until he’s punched out. She whips her head around to see who just saved her bacon, half-expecting to see Anya with a grin and a line about how Rikki’d never get anywhere without her, and –

“You need to be more careful, Nomad. You never know who might come from out of nowhere.”

Looking at him – grinning at her like nothing’s wrong, all giant and solid and real and here – all of the sudden, she feels a little wobbly. “…Steve?”