#I was thinking about them hugging | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

skoulsons · 9 months

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uhh inspired by the Winter embrace, Lissa’s chappy 2, and that one joel and ellie post-David hug that Paws did where they’re sitting next to each other and joel hugs her. you know the one

“Cee!”

It was a guttural plea. He’d been screaming her name so much that it became a mix of unorganized sounds amidst heavy pants—no longer a comprehensible word. His voice was shaking, breaking more with every breath.

His stump was bleeding. Cee was gone. The hallways were a maze. Cee was gone.

Ezra raced through the halls, propelling himself past each turn with his only arm. His stump stung with every step and attempted swing of his arm, blood still pouring out from the newly opened wound. His right side was coated in it, the blood starting to seep into his waistband and trickle down his leg.

He approached another turn in the hallway and extended his arm, bracing himself for another quick swing around the corner. His fingers grazed the wall but he didn’t catch the corner. Ezra’s built up momentum sent him into the opposite wall and brought him to his knees. He coughed, using the wall and his good arm to try and push himself up to continue his search for Cee.

He coughed again once he was back on his feet. “Ce-”he started before his eyes fixed to the scene in front of him.

It all came into Ezra’s focus slowly. Cee, first. She was kneeling on someone. Her left leg was bent, kneeling on the unnamed person’s chest. Her right leg was also bent, the tip of her shoe to her knee pressed flat into the ground beside the body. She was bent over, her face and both her hands close to the body’s head. He watched her back intently, watching for it to move in tandem with her breath. Her breathing was sporadic and uncontrolled, full of panic. Her hair was disheveled, multiple knots coating the back of her head. She was without a shoe on her left foot and there was a gash along her calf on the same leg.

Second, the man beneath her. The dead man. There was a hint of pride in Ezra seeing the corpse under her and knowing she did it. But his pride quickly soured when he realized that she did it.

He wasn’t there to do it. Whatever this man did or attempted to do to her, he wasn’t there. She had to defend herself. His little bird ended up in a dangerous situation that he couldn’t save her from.

He’s supposed to protect her. Even with one arm, he’d sworn to protect her. That’s his job, anyway. She’s capable, but she shouldn’t have to be.

He should’ve been there. He should’ve strung the man up by the muscles in his fingers. He should’ve spent what strength he had left in his only arm to bruise each and every one of the man's ribs. He should’ve made small but painful cuts in the man's limbs—incisions along the major arteries in his arms and legs. He should’ve taken an ear, teeth, his tongue, or any number of toes from the man while he was alive. Anything, anything to prove that no one goes near Cee.

Third, all the blood. There was a pool of warm, crimson blood still pouring out from the man's abdomen and flowing towards the opposite wall. It was building up under Cee’s right leg, seeping into her pant leg and starting to flow towards Ezra.

His hearing then caught up with his vision. Cee. She was panting, dry heaving… crying. Her form was shaking, her shoulders bouncing with each hiccup she let out.

Ezra’s breath caught in his throat hearing her cries. “Cee!” He shouted, urgently pushing off the wall towards her. He didn’t make it four steps before he tripped over himself, his knees colliding with the floor again. He caught himself with his arm, immediately pushing himself back up and half-crawling the rest of the way to Cee.

He crawled to the left side of the body, settling on his knees on Cee’s left side. He could see what had transpired now that he was up close.

The five inch blade of her knife was plunged into the man’s jugular. Cee’s right hand, covered in blood, was shaking while still holding onto the handle. Tears were hastily falling down her cheeks and dropping off her chin, mixing with the blood on the man’s neck. She was still dry heaving and hiccuping, unaware Ezra was next to her. He looked at Cee’s face, her gaze locked on the man.

Ezra looked where her gaze was fixed. The man’s eyes were wide open—dead and bleak. He reached over and closed them. That’s when Cee noticed him.

She turned, her knee still pressed into the man’s chest. The bloody knife that was just hidden in the man’s throat was now held a hair from Ezra’s. He caught her forearm just in time, holding it tightly as he found her eyes and checked her face.

Four traces of blood followed her jawline down to the bottom of her neck—traces that accurately resembled bloody fingers and the streaks they leave when they’re dragged along a surface. There was a gash in her lip and blood in the corners of her mouth. Her nose and cheeks were covered in speckled blood as well.

“Little bird,” he whispered, his eyes begging for her to recognize him, “it’s me. It’s Ezra.”

Cee’s eyebrows twitched as her eyes darted between his. In his hand, her arm started to shake. She opened her mouth and quickly closed it, swallowing the bile that was building up. Cee tore her gaze from Ezra’s and looked past him, then between them, then beside her. Before her eyes even made it to the dead man’s face, Ezra let go of her arm and immediately found her right cheek.

“Hey, no…” he said, gently directing her face back to see him. “Look at me.”

He kept his hand against her cheek as she glanced back at him. She swallowed again before focusing on her shaking hand that found a resting place on his good shoulder. Her lips quivered as she dropped the blood covered knife, the blade clanking on the floor beside Ezra.

“Birdie,” he breathed, a small stroke of his thumb over her cheek. “Are you with me, Cee?”

Her breathing hitched. Her voice cracked as she choked on tears. “Ezra?” She questioned.

Ezra let out a breath he was subconsciously holding. “It’s me, little bird,” he said.

Her breathing continued in uneven sputters as she bowed her head and let her forehead hit his chest. Ezra moved his hand from her cheek to her back and wrapped it securely across it, squeezing her right shoulder.

His missing arm, a phantom longing he could only describe as agonizing and desperate, craved to hold her. If there wasn’t someone in his life who deserved it, he wouldn’t have cared less about losing it. If there wasn’t a kid in his life who deserved more than 50% of what he could give, he wouldn't have cared less about losing it. If there wasn’t a little girl in his life who, now, he realized all he wanted to do was give 110% for, he wouldn’t have cared less about losing it.

But now there was.

He squeezed her shoulder tight, pulling her body against him. She buried her face deeper into his neck as he pulled her into him, rocking them lightly back and forth. She heaved and coughed beside his neck, trying to catch the breath she’d so desperately lost.

“Here, birdie…” he whispered, falling backwards to sit on the ground next to the body. Cee pulled from him slightly, helping them scoot back to the wall. Once his back hit it, Cee sat beside him, slightly embarrassed.

She was still crying, dried tears and blood along her chin and down her neck. “I lost… track o’ you… and then he… he was… he said…” she stopped, rubbing her forearm across her nose to wipe the snot away.

Ezra took that opportunity to squeeze his arm between her back and the wall and pull her body towards him again. He wrapped his arm across her back again, pulling her into his chest and keeping his hand held tightly to her left shoulder.

She reciprocated it as best she could. She turned into him, her left arm going down by his right side and holding onto the fabric at his waist. Her right hand held onto the fabric on his left side. She buried her face in his chest, right next to his bloody stump.

Ezra rested his chin atop her head. He exhaled, rubbing his hand up and down her back. “Kevva, Cee, I…” he trailed off.

For once, he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know how to express the panic when she was no longer beside him. He didn’t know how to express the urgency in his strides as he raced to find her. He didn’t know how to express the desperation in his kills, not knowing who could’ve taken her and making sure that every single person took their last, most painful breath. He didn’t know how to express the fear that there was a chance she was gone—not that he’d ever truly let that chance reach any level of certainty.

She rested her cheek against his chest, eyeing his stump. She pulled her left hand back from his waist and pressed it to his stump. When she brought it back, fresh blood was on her fingers. “Wait, what…” she stopped, attempting to choke her tears away, “why’s your stump bleeding?”

Ezra smiled lightly, but kept it to himself. I suppose my worried reaction and urgency looking for you surprised some unkind onlookers. “Nothin’ you need to worry about, birdie.” He rubbed her back again. “Soon, once you’ve relaxed, I can take care of you. Then, we can focus on that.”

“But it could get infected…”

“So could that gash in your leg.”

Cee sighed, pulling at the fabric of his shirt. She kept her cheek pressed to his chest, focused on calming her breathing and slowing her heartbeat.

Ezra pressed his lips to her head briefly before pulling away. “I commend your concern, little bird, I do, but I will be fine. Let me take care of you.”

#this got lazy by the end #but I needed to write about them #I was thinking about them hugging #and while #originally #I had softer ideas #those were thrown out the window #if this is terrible #I do apologize #sleepy time!! it’s 4am 💀#prospect 2018 #prospect movie #prospect fic #ezra prospect #cee prospect #L writes

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