Chapter warnings: character(s) in bindings; description of injuries, discussion(s) of death.

Don't forget that you can find me on tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now and that my ao3 account is wearealloflegendnow (even though I haven't posted there yet)!

~TLL~

Rose was a woman who kept her word. Come hell or high water, she was a woman who kept her word. Which is how she found herself limping from the Huntsclan in the late morning hours and making her way to Lao Shi's shop. She took as much care as she always did to make sure that she wasn't being followed, but the extra time cost her precious energy, and by the time that she reached his couch, it was all she could do not to pass out. She didn't remember the last time that she had felt so beaten down.

"Rose," Lao Shi said, hovering over her. "Did I do all this to you?"

"Not all of it," Rose assured him, struggling to sound casual, like it didn't hurt at all. "Don't worry. I've been hurt worse."

Rose wasn't sure if it was true anymore. She felt weak and tired all over.

"Let Fu get you something."

"I can't," Rose protested. "Master will know."

"Even if we don't heal the wounds," Lao Shi pressed. "We can numb the pain."

"I'm not good enough to pretend I'm in pain when I'm not," Rose said. "I'll be fine."

"Can you even stand?"

Rose didn't like a challenge, especially not from Lao Shi. She pushed herself upward, bracing herself on the arm of the couch. Then, she let go, grounding herself and keeping her feet grounded and balanced. She would have made a noise in triumph if black spots didn't start dancing across her vision. She choked down the nausea.

"You can't tell me I didn't leave a single mark on you," Rose said.

"I will admit nothing,' Lao Shi said, but Rose could say the way that he moved stiffly as well.

"Then, we understand each other?" Being around Lao Shi always made Rose feel as though she had to be as formal as she was around the Huntsman.

"I suppose we do," Lao Shi said. "I have a confession to make to you."

"Which is?"

"It is supposed to be a training day but the others are waiting for you at Maggie's diner. It was a hard night last night, for everyone. I thought it better to give everyone a rest than to be the one to break them."

If Master had been in Lao Shi's spot, he would have driven into them in the ground and then more. Rose hugged Lao Shi briefly, the feeling that she had a moment of rest more than enough to give her energy.

"Thank you!"

"Come back here before you go. Fu has things for Jake brewing."

"I will!"

Rose hobbled from the shop as fast as she could go, catching a passing cab rather than trying to force her sore muscles to go again. When she was finally able to pass through the door of Maggie's Diner, she tried to imagine the hurt and the pain washing off her, so that she could just be a teenager as she slid in the booth with Trixie, Spud, and Haley.

"Hey!" Haley chirped. "We thought you'd never make it Are you okay? Last night was so scary, the way you and Gramps were going at it! It all looked so real!"

"I needed to go over some details with Lao Shi," Rose sat down next to Haley, nudging her affectionately. "Your Gramps and I understand each other. We are okay. I'll be okay."

Trixie groaned. "I swear, my leg is never gonna be the same. Crazy ass people."

"We said we weren't going to talk about it," Spud said. "This is going to be a normal hangout."

"Then Jake should be here," Trixie said.

"Hey!" Maxim, Rose's favourite waitress, rolled up to the table. "What's for you today?"

Rose's eyes roamed over the menu for the first time in forever. She so often got the same few things, but she was thinking about all of the things that she'd told Jake about and all of the things that she'd never tried.

"Um, a hot dog with the works and a mint chip milkshake. Oh! Onion rings too, please, Maxim."

With a wink of her bright blue eyelid, Maxim said, "You got it."

"Mint chip?" Trixie asked. "That was Jake's go to."

"I know," Rose said. "I mean, not in the way you do. He mentioned it and I just thought I hadn't given it a fair shake."

"I forget you talk to him," Haley admitted, drinking from her own Oreo milkshake. "I think about it all the time but I kind of forget that you just sit down and talk to him the way that we used to be able to."

"The way you will again, very soon," Rose said.

"Eighteen days," Haley said.

"We said we weren't going to talk about it," Spud repeated.

"What else are we supposed to talk about?" Trixie asked him. "What else are we supposed to do? Pretend it's normal? We spent two years thinking our best friend was dead and now he's not, but he might be again before we get to talk to him again because it's the battle to end the war to get him out of there! And you just want us to chill?"

Spud nodded. "Yeah, I do. Being wound that tight isn't going to help him and it's not helping us. We have eighteen days to worry and figure all that out. We can take one afternoon without feeling bad about it."

Maxim dropped off Rose's milkshake, drinking deeply, and thinking about how to describe the flavour to Jake later. It was something for her to share and it was something for him to live for, because Trixie was right: Jake should be here. Rose wanted him to be able to take her place and be here with his sister and his friends, enjoying this shake for himself.

It was the least that she could do.

(-.-)

Rose's lungs burst and she gasped for breath, looking down and checking the stopwatch.

"Six and a half minutes," she announced.

Jake was silent. She watched him fight against himself for what seemed to be an eternity, but even with his larger dragon lungs, he still had to let it all go eventually. He let out a big pant and Rose stopped the stopwatch.

"Eighteen minutes!"

"By then, you'll be dead."

"I'm working on it," Rose said. "Plus, with what's in the ceiling, Lao Shi said you'd only need like eight minutes, max."

"Of fire. Pure fire. I can't do that for eight minutes straight without practice." Jake spat fire into the sand. "And, I can't practice."

"You'll have all your claws too," Rose said. "I'm just going to get your mouth free first so you can start with fire."

"And if this gas is flammable, you're toast."

"It won't be," Rose said, climbing to her feet. "Otherwise, they'd all roast themselves if they were trying to come down here and stop you."

Jake rolled his eyes. "I'm just saying, this plan has a lot of flaws, Rose."

Rose crouched by his head. "You have one better?"

"No."

"Then, shut up."

"I do like them bossy," Jake mused as Rose circled his body. "Looking at my booty now?"

"Seeing if there's anything we missed for Fu. He's sent everything to fix what was in your medical records and now it's just stuff to build muscles and keep up your stamina and energy."

"I can fight my way out," Jake said. "I'm good to go for all that."

"I'm worried about your mental strength."

"I never failed a class."

"Jake." Rose crouched in front of his face. "I don't mean that in the way that you're stupid. I just mean that I'm worried about you. Do you know what it means to kill? Do you know what it means to do what needs to be done, even when someone is begging for mercy and their mother?"

Jake inhaled sharply. "No, but you do?"

"I do. I don't think it makes you weak but you can't think about the person behind the mask when it comes to life and death. You're here for your freedom and your family and your friends. Nothing else matters."

"You do," Jake said, in the same serious tone that Rose had. "I wouldn't even have a chance at life if it weren't for you. I won't let you be another mask in the crowd that doesn't matter."

"That's sweet," Rose said, "but whatever I do doesn't matter if you don't get to live your life."

She stood by Jake's head, thinking that she would give anything to not be special and that she wanted the anonymity of being a person in a mask. But, she supposed, when it all came down to it: she would rather die for something than die for nothing.

"Rose, you might live," Jake said. "You might survive this."

"Not your Dragon Council," Rose said, smoothing the scales along his neck for something to do. His claws dug into the ground. "Does that hurt? Do you need something?"

"No, I'm fine. I just meant that the Council won't hurt you. You're on our side. Look at how much you've done for us."

"The Council won't even come save you and you are the great American Dragon."

"They told Gramps 'no'?"

"No. They're ignoring his last letter, which is giving Lao Shi the answer he needs," Rose said, running her hand along Jake's spine. "If they don't come now, they're not coming at all. They won't ever make it in time."

"Thirteen days," Jake said.

"Thirteen days and you'll get to go home again."

"I'll take you with me," Jake said. "We'll go home together."

Rose blinked where he couldn't see her. There was nowhere else but this high rise that was home for her. When the Clan was gone, when the Huntsman was dead, there was nothing else in the world for her. There was nowhere else for her to go. When the throat of the Huntsclan had been slit, when she knew that the Master was dead and that she didn't have anything to fight against anymore, Rose supposed that she might just turn herself over to the Dragon Council. There was no use in running for her; there was no life to be found in the shadows.

"Does anywhere along your spine hurt? Does anything hurt?"

"No, I feel better than when I came in here, honestly. I feel ready to go."

Rose ran her hand through the hair at the base of his shoulders. "Good."

"Do that again. That felt good."

Rose obliged and then felt that she had the right to ask, "Aside from hot dogs, what are you doing when you get out of here?"

"I'm not seventeen anymore but I still feel like I am. Getting back that time that was lost and being me, I guess."

"I was looking for specifics."

"I'm going to go see if I can still ride a skateboard and I'm going to sit down to dinner with my family and have it mean something. I'm going to take Trixie and Spud and go to Canada and get myself some legal beers, whether it's somebody's birthday or not."

Rose slowly circled around Jake, though she couldn't find a single imperfection in his dragon's physique. She was thinking about how he was going to live. He was going to get to go to the world and be in it, in a way that she hadn't ever gotten to be.

"What about the American Dragon?"

"I am the American Dragon," Jake said, and the authoritative tone in his voice sent chills down Rose's spine. "But that doesn't mean I don't deserve a vacation."

Rose sat in the sand next to him. "So, where would you go? Don't say Canada."

"Hmm."

Rose had never seen a picture of him human, she realized, with a shock. She'd been lost in the brown of his eyes, of the soul that he could bring to the smallest expressions. She was sure she could assemble a vague idea of him – those big brown eyes, that chunky jawline, the same easy-going posture of Spud and Trixie as they rested against a fence and declared everything to be 'all right, yo'.

"I'm Chinese and I've never been to China so there first," Jake decided. "What about you? The second you get free, where are you going?"

"Hell."

Rose hadn't meant to say it aloud, even if it was the most likely of all the options ahead of her.

"You can't think like that."

"It's just reality," Rose said. "I can't change it. I can't take it back. I am who I am. Who I am sucks."

"You come and sit with me every night because you won't break a promise that you'll be back tomorrow," Jake said. "Even when you have nothing to say. Even if you don't have potions. Even if you can only spare two minutes. You can't tell me that's someone who's going to hell."

"No, but it's someone who doesn't have time to atone. Come on, I have to –"

"Go," Jake interrupted. "Where are you going?"

"Bed. It's two a.m. Wake up is at five for me.""

Rose outstretched her hands and, with all the trust in the world, Jake put his head out so that she could do up his muzzle. She saw the question in his eyes that he wasn't able to ask and she nodded.

"Yes, I'll be back tomorrow."

For good measure, she kissed him on the forehead, before running off to take the tape off its loop and then going to bed for the little rest that she had.