-1The suns were bright. Their light spread over the land, highlighting the few gold strands in the Queen's silvery hair and casting gentle warmth in every living heart – overcompensating for the fact they had almost been lost to the O.Z. forever. Cain heard a ragged cheer from somewhere down below, or perhaps it was his ears buzzing. Ahamo turned and said something then, he didn't hear what, but DG turned with him and by the glow in her eyes, she'd agreed.

Kiddo was with her family again, all of them safe and sound. A good thing. Soon he'd go downstairs and see how the remainder of his own fared. Cain blinked, trying to clear out the spots in his vision, obviously caused by staring at the suns. The Queen approached and Cain heard footsteps hurrying behind them. He turned, hand going for his gun and the two Longcoats stopped dead in their tracks.

They stared at him, tensed for battle, and looked over Cain's shoulder. To general surprise, they put their weapons down after a moment and knelt. Cain turned back, not sure whether they'd been looking at the former Sorceress or her reinstated mother.

Then, for some absurd damn reason, Cain's world went sideways. Multiple voices rose in alarm, some of which he couldn't recognize.

"Oh my god! Cain!"

"What happened? What's wrong with him?" Ahamo, perhaps.

"Try and make him comfortable--"

"You - Cain, you absolute MORON!"

That had been Glitch. In his ear. Cain looked up to confirm a dark suspicion. Indeed, he now was lying on the floor with his head in the headcase's lap.

". . . . A-Ambrose!" softly exclaimed the Queen. She sounded shocked.

Cain muttered something that might've alluded to him being perfectly fine, thank you.

"Of course you are!" Glitch glowered down at him, his face the only one in focus out of the rest of the people in the room - perhaps because of proximity. "You only have a great big hole in your arm, you fat-headed ninny!"

Cain heard the sound of a palm thocking against a skull. He paused to wonder who'd been hit and then his head hurt. "Ow," he complained dryly, though the new sensation took some of the unpleasant throbbing away from his shoulder.

"Glitch! Don't hit him, he's injured!" DG squawked, scandalized.

"Oh don't worry; I doubt I damaged anything of use to him!"

Cain felt another aggravated assault upon his head and merely grunted.

The newly alleged Longcoats looked at one another and started to edge toward Glitch, both seeing a chance at clemency in getting the apparently mad headcase away from the fallen Tin Man. Glitch actually bared his teeth at them. Wisely, they backed off.

The look in the man's eyes must've alarmed even himself; for once again Cain opened his mouth and tried to talk some sense into Glitch. He managed to repeat the first attempt in all its futility.

"Don't you dare tell me you're fine! Why didn't you say you were injured? You and your stupid masculinity issues – I swear to the gods!" Glitch's words might've had venom in them if he wasn't trembling so hard. Cain could feel it. He reached with his good arm and tried to squeeze Glitch's hand, to comfort him.

"Don't," Glitch snapped, but he squeezed back – almost hard enough to make Cain wince. Cain stared up at him and nowhere else for what seemed like seconds but was actually much longer, because Raw was suddenly pulling away from his side and his shoulder felt much better than it had before. Glitch still hadn't let go of his hand.

Cain heard talk of a bed and more people were standing around him than he felt entirely comfortable with. He tried to sit up and the world blinked out into nothing.

His mouth was dry.

It was one of the first things he noticed before he actually woke up all the way. Cain swallowed and licked his lips. Only when something clinked gently against his teeth, and he could smell the water did he open his eyes.

"Here," DG said needlessly.

Cain stared at her flatly, with the air of a man who had already suffered enough indignity for one lifetime and who could definitely handle drinking from a glass of water by himself, injured or not. To prove this, he tried reaching for the glass. His injured arm sent him a very angry memo. Cain pulled a face, decided to ignore DG's little smirk, and reached for the glass with his other hand.

That too refused to move. Irritated, Cain looked over to see why and finally noticed Glitch curled up by his side and sleeping on top of it.

"What the hell." It was more of a statement than a question.

DG took it upon herself to answer anyway. "He didn't leave your side all morning. He wouldn't even leave to rest."

"So he decided to take a nap on me."

"He still thinks you're an idiot."

"Did he stay with me despite that or because of it?" Cain asked. Now that he'd noticed Glitch, he couldn't seem to look away. The headcase looked exhausted even in sleep. He or someone else had draped his ragged coat over him to serve as a blanket.

"Maybe both. So . . . water?" She offered again brightly. Wyatt sighed and acquiesced, letting her hold the glass up so he could drink.

DG put the empty glass back down on the table next to a pitcher. She let out a small sigh of her own and Cain noticed that she too looked a little frayed around the edges.

Victory was exhausting in its own way – especially because the fight wasn't yet over. There were Longcoats running around – probably still in the castle. Most would kneel to the Queen when they found out their champion had melted, but few could be counted on as meaning it. Hopefully Jeb would have led his men in by now and they could be the Queen's trusted guard until it was all sorted out.

They'd all been on a wild ride to get here and the adrenaline had just worn off. DG looked ready to take an unplanned nap herself.

"Hey, kiddo," Cain said, and it seemed to snap her back awake. "Maybe you should rest for a while. Somewhere other than on top of me," he added, nodding his head to indicate Glitch. "Since I've seem to run out of bed space and functional limbs."

DG snickered softly. "Yeah right, like you totally mind." She got up and adjusted the pillows beneath Cain, despite the man's protests. Cheerfully she ignored him and bent over Cain to give Glitch a light kiss on the temple and to readjust his coat over his shoulders.

"Right, just tuck him in why don't you?" Cain grumbled. DG pecked him on his cheek and walked out – with more of a spring in her step than any girl her age with this much of a mess to clean up should have. Not that he begrudged her, but he found it slightly suspicious.

And then, there were two. Wyatt felt his gaze drawn yet again to the sleeping man and decided to just glare at the ceiling for a while. Glitch muttered something about intellectually challenged boy scouts in his sleep and shifted his weight.

Now his head was resting over a pressure point in Cain's arm and it was impossible to keep still. Inevitably, Cain's movements caused Glitch's eyelids to flutter.

Cain looked at him warily as the man regained consciousness, all the while not moving his head off Cain's arm. When it looked like Glitch was merely going to roll on his back and fall asleep again, Wyatt moved his arm purposefully. This time Glitch's eyes flew open and he sat up halfway, sputtering in confused alarm. His hand groped for Cain and came to rest upon the Tin Man's chest, while Cain watched him bemused.

"Alright?"

"I . . . yes," Glitch said, and then got his bearings. He frowned and snatched his hand back, folding his arms across his chest. "I meant 'No'," he answered contrarily and looked away. Otherwise he didn't budge.

"You're still angry."

"Yes."

"Because I got shot?" Wyatt asked, a little incredulous.

"Y- Well, no, that wasn't your fault. But you could've mentioned it before you fell over nearly senseless and bleeding all over the place! What if it had been life-threatening? Fatal, even?"

"Then I wouldn't have been on my feet to begin with, Glitch" the lawman pointed out with great patience.

"But – that's not the point!" Glitch protested. "It could have been worse! The only reason you fell over when you did was because of all the other injuries you sustained and sheer exhaustion! Otherwise you would've kept on going – kept on fighting and protecting -"

"Because I had to!"

"You didn't have to anymore! You were done - it was someone else's turn to do the detail work! But no - you would've gone downstairs with the others anyway and fought anybody that still posed as a threat – I know you, Cain!" Glitch shouted. "You don't stop giving until you have nothing left to give! Don't try telling me it was because you had to – the Queen has an army to choose from now! She has her husband and both daughters by her side – she didn't need you to protect her! You just needed to prove to yourself that you physically could! It's all about those ridiculous macho standards and measuring yourself up to them!"

"Hey! Now you listen to me dammit, I--" Wyatt started to yell, but he stopped when he noticed Glitch had already looked away from him. He was trembling again, badly. It was most evident in his hands, as they tried to gather the material of his coat around his shoulders, pulling the ends close for warmth. His left hand kept grabbing at nothing.

Cain wordlessly pressed the errant sleeve into Glitch's questing fingers and watched the man hunch over his own knees.

"You were really scared for me. Weren't you?"

"I am scared for you. Because you don't know when to call it quits. If you don't learn your limits, you're not going to be around for when somebody does need you." Glitch's voice cracked toward the end of that sentence. He seemed fixated by the torn patches over his knees.

Cain regarded him for a long moment. Slowly, as if his hand was attached to someone else, he reached for Glitch. He didn't know why until his fingers touched feather light against the other man's cheek. Time seemed to freeze, but Wyatt strangely did not. His hand turned until the back of his fingertips trailed down to Glitch's jaw, one knuckle barely brushing against his bottom lip. Glitch leaned into the unprompted caress.

Regrettably, Cain's thought process seemed to catch up to him and in a rather out of breath fashion, demanded to know what the hell was going on. It was enough to make him pull his hand away, but only to have it slide across Glitch's shoulders and pull the man in closer. Cain's thought process was disturbed and went away again, muttering to itself.

He felt Glitch's warm breath against his jaw line and turned his face slowly towards it until the corners of their mouths were touching. Wyatt stayed still for a moment then turned further towards the warmth. Their lips met and whether it was himself or Glitch who moved forward, neither could remember.

Cain grasped at Glitch's coat, felt it slide down the man's back and cast it aside, hands seeking warmth under his shirt. He felt Glitch gasp, squirming against his chest as his fingers left light trails. Cain sank down under his comfortable weight, matching Glitch for every fevered touch – at least until his shoulder bumped against the headboard. Cain hissed and his body turned rigid under Glitch's ministrations as he fought to overcome the pain and get on with things.

Exhaustion unfortunately had taken its toll on Cain, and it hadn't spared Glitch the rod either. Glitch kissed now with a tired frustration yet his hands were gentle as he pushed Wyatt down into the pillows.

"I'm sorry," Cain breathed, and let him. "I'm . . . I want to . . ." he tried to explain. Glitch smiled and left his hand on Wyatt's chest even as he clambered off the Tin Man and lay gingerly on his side. Cain wondered if Glitch's muscles were as sore as his own from the days of fighting and running.

"Don't be," Glitch said, nestling down against him. He made an attempt at stretching; an act that caused him to wince and didn't improve matters much for Cain either. The Tin Man groaned and stared at the ceiling again, willing it to give him unheated thoughts.

"I'd rather you rest now," the headcase was going on. "Frankly I'm too tired right now to do a thing anyway." There was a strain on his voice that implied his severe regret at this fact. Cain smirked bitterly in agreement. Glitch lied beside him, breathing irregularly.

"You know, considering we're heroes and all, this is kind of disgraceful," Wyatt put in. Glitch nodded fervently, and swallowed.

"We'll just have to wait until . . . some other night," he said at last, with effort. He shrugged lightly. "I'm just glad you admitted you've reached your limits. Shows you have some respect for them after all."

"Well, you wouldn't be getting me at my best, that's for damn sure," Wyatt tried to reason, eyes shut tightly.

"Oh, me neither. You need all the recovery you can get first," Glitch yawned. Cain opened one eye and rolled it over at him. Glitch blinked owlishly and then happened to see Cain's sardonic look. "What?"

"Was that some kind of challenge?"

"Wyatt, for heaven's sake!" Glitch protested. He made a hopeless gesture in the air. The other hand on Cain's chest traced a crease of the lawman's shirt idly. "You are entirely insecure, you know that?"

"No, I am not."

"Yes you are! I never meant to imply doubt of your stamina."

"I cannot believe we're having this discussion."

Oblivious, Glitch went on. "In fact, I think it has to something to do with male-pattern baldness – losing one's hair gradually is like losing sexual prowess, so you have to prove yourself in the bedroom by asserting control."

"I am going to sleep now."

Glitch didn't really seem to register the comment. Mercifully, Cain was unconscious by the time he got to Freud anyway.

END