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Watchmen Kinkmeme 7
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Published:
2017-10-09
Updated:
2023-08-26
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99,113
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56/?
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249
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263
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Nocturnal

Chapter Text

Dan was stressed about being locked up when the moon was full. He paced and fumed. It wouldn't be long now. One more night, one more day. He wouldn't be able to fight, or protect anyone. He would be too mindless to use any strategy. He would be as much danger to his friends as he would any intruder. He could already feel it beginning. It was recognizable now.

It felt like a brewing fever or the early stages of an anxiety attack. The sense of foreboding hung low and heavy over his head. He didn't want to stay, he didn't want to run, but fight or flight hammered at him. The urge to eat just to soothe his nerves flared and ebbed all through the day. He was famished until he found something to eat and then had no appetite for it. It was all too soft. He wanted to use his teeth and it made him wonder how much booze it actually took to keep Byron off his feed.

Dan stomped off to find the other werewolf without really intending to ask. He just wanted to know where he was. He already was aware of Rorschach dozing upstairs out of sight, and he made note of Hollis moving around in the kitchen.

They weren't really his pack, he supposed, but he found himself wanting to keep an eye on all of them. He wanted them in sight, even though his temper had been shorter with them today than it had ever been. They were his. He was dealing as best as he could with the need to bully and smother and keep them all under his thumb where they would be safe and no one could take them. He had to breathe deep and remind himself that that it wouldn't work that way.

Rorschach was his partner. They were already inseparable. Rorschach would fight just as hard to not be taken as Dan would fight to keep him. No one could ask more than that. Hollis was probably safe. Comedian wasn't likely to kill him, not if there was any chance of Sally finding out. And with Laurie in the loop, word would spread no matter how little actual proof there was. That left Byron.

He found Byron almost as soon as he thought of him. He was sorting through the past week's newspapers. There wasn't much left after Rorschach had red-inked everything suspicious and Hollis had done the crossword.

Byron was looking for the funnies, Dan realized after he found one and settled down to read it. Byron didn't laugh at any, but his mouth quirked at one or two. When he got to the end of the page, he refolded it and set it aside, then went looking for another. He raised any eyebrow at Dan, but didn't speak, and Dan just watched over him for a little while before slinking off even more agitated.

Dan didn't want the old man to die. Byron had suffered enough already without being cut down like he didn't matter at all, but there was something melancholy over the whole thing. Byron was going to be left out to patrol. If anyone died, it would probably be him.

They all knew it, deep down. Hollis was gray with dread over it. Rorschach was treating Byron more politely too. Dan just felt the sad ache in his bones of grief-yet-to-come. Byron seemed all right with it. If anything, he was in better spirits than ever. It could have been bravado, or the moon, or just having the end finally in sight. It didn't made it any less sad, or leave Dan any calmer.

He revisited his first fight with the Comedian, remembering how faint and far away the pain from a broken arm had been in the rush of battle. The memory wasn't a clear one. He had been so close to Changing that everything after stepping down to confront Blake in the Nest was tinted red and blurred. He did remember how satisfying the smack of his fists driving the body
armor into the bones underneath had been and how much more satisfying it would be with claws. The armor would protect Blake's vitals to a point, but he didn't have much in the way of throat protection and he was down to one eye, which made Dan rumble happily to himself.

Of course, Blake wasn't stupid either. He might come suited up for a real fight, with real armor and silver weapons. But Rorschach had planted the seeds of doubt. If Blake wasn't sure, if he even suspected he had made a mistake, would it change his actions, or would he plow ahead with his plan whatever it was, to kill them all? Dan had already grappled with the horror of a morning after where he had killed everyone he cared about. Waking up to find that someone else had done it wouldn't be any better, but it did blast the horror to white-hot rage.

I would bite him, Dan thought. Lock him in a box with Laurie. Deliver him and some silver bullets to Sally. Let her see the mess and kill him herself. Or just blind him and leave him out by the docks. See how long it takes the other predators to pick him off. Take him up in Archie and push him out. See what shape his blood splatter makes from 3000 feet. Or just lock him in with me and let there be nothing left but scraps of armor and a full stomach in the morning.

A presence materialized behind him and he stopped pacing. He hadn't realized he had been growling out loud, but it sounded low and threatening in the silence before he caught it. He had been noisy enough to wake up Rorschach, who seemed unruffled by the growling. The answering exhale sounded more amused than anything.

"Hungry?" Rorschach asked. That was usually his question, so Dan just nodded. Rorschach nodded a little too. "Follow me," he said. Dan would've done that anyway.

A jacket was tossed to him and Dan caught it on reflex. Rorschach was in his street clothes and he led the way back to Cold Turkey's. Dan recognized it and couldn't help but be impressed that Rorschach remembered the way when he had only been there once. Rorschach got the special again. This time it was a grilled TLT with fries. Dan didn't even look at the menu.

"I'm starving," he told the waitress. "Bring me whatever's the biggest."

"That's the Thanksgiving sandwich," she said. "All the turkey we can fit on a sage bun with gravy and cranberry sauce. It comes with fries."

Dan agreed and she hurried away. They sat quietly for a minute. Rorschach was hunched over the table on his elbows, looking at Dan from under the hood of his sweatshirt.

"Thinking?" he asked. Dan made an affirmative sound.

"About?"

"The things we talked about last time we were here," Dan said. "First kisses and such." He felt a light kick and grinned. He moved his own leg to press their calves together.

"Some things still the same," Rorschach said. "Still have to worry about Blake."

"I'm not worried," Dan protested. "Just…"

"Dreading it?"

"Not really."

"Be glad when it's over."

"Glad isn't the word either."

Their sandwiches came and they ate quietly. Rorschach took the chance to look Dan over again in daylight. He needed a haircut. His sideburns were getting thicker too. All of him was. Dan had always been solid, but the full moon exercise was shaving all the softness off him. The jacket was tight across his shoulders, the shirt across his chest. His hands seemed different, maybe from all the claws and the clawing. The joints seemed more pronounced and the fingertips darker, maybe from all the claws and clawing.

"What?" Dan asked, noticing the attention.

"Your hands," he said.

"You like them." There was some of the alpha wolf smugness back again. Rorschach would never have admitted to liking it, but having Dan more confident and at ease helped him relax, too.

"Of course," he said casually. Honesty was usually the best way to treat an ego. Sure enough, Dan beamed, but didn't gloat and went back to his sandwich. It was a monstrosity, but he was making short work of it.

"Bite?" he offered when he felt Rorschach's gaze again. He held out the last quarter.

"No."

"It's good."

"I believe you."

Dan didn't ask again, but he didn't pull the sandwich back either. Rorschach finally took a bite to get it out of his face. That pleased Dan enough to send him back to eating. Maybe it was some instinctive thing to feed your mate when food was plentiful. Or just to make sure no one watching had any doubts as to who was feeding him. He glanced around to see if anyone was paying any attention, and while the waitress looked a little more flushed than she had before, there was no immediate threat.

A fire truck went by with the sirens on as they were finishing up. By the time they had paid, two more had gone by. Outside, they could see the smoke rising over the buildings. A sideways glance and a shrug, and they headed that way to see what was going on. They didn't have to get too close to see that there was a fire at the docks. It could've been the same sweatshop that the boy had been held in. They couldn't tell exactly which buildings were burning from where they were and Rorschach almost started toward it before he thought that the fire might be a trap to bring them into sight. He caught himself and hurried Dan back towards the brownstone.