Day Fourteen: "If you don't stop now —"

Characters/Pairings: Danika/Jake; Jake/Rose; Huntsman

Rating: T

Content warnings: violence; wounds; discussions of death/murder; pregnancy

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 threw herself at the American Dragon with a fury. Now that they were both twenty-six, they were done with being ignorant little children, fighting as if they were on a playground. Now, they fought for blood. They fought for death. Rose swung at him, driving her staff so far into his shoulder that she was surprised he could still move his arm when she pulled it out. His blood flowed across the concrete as he grabbed for her staff, his talons catching her wrist, cutting her deeply. Without hesitation, Rose switched hands. This was why the Huntsman had ensured that they were all ambidextrous.

Rose tried to get the staff over his head and down on his ear but he was too fast, grabbing her arm and backing her up against the wall. He pulled the Huntstaff from her hand and flung it far into the alley. Rose never took her eyes from his, watching the goodness that had been bred into him war with the chance of taking her out for forever. A life without her was everything the American Dragon had ever wanted.

"Take the opportunity, Jake," Rose taunted, lifting her head so that he could cut her throat easier. "Kill me right now."

"I'm not a murderer," he said, backing away from her.

"Not yet!" Rose called.

She went and retrieved the Huntstaff when she was sure that he was gone. Not that she thought that he would attack her from behind. He had too much honour for that. Rose scoffed as she took herself back to the Huntsclan, not seeing even the glint of his red scales. That didn't surprise her; he had always been a coward.

Rose took herself straight to the infirmary when she arrived home, knowing what Master would have to say if she took any time to shower after being out in the field. The Huntsnurse took one look at her wrist and sighed but Rose didn't pay her any mind as she did her job and stitched Rose up. She was here too often for them to sigh about it. She was widely discussed in the Clan, about how she had snapped one day and no longer cared about life or death as long as she was being reckless about it. She was sure no one but the Master knew why that 'snap' had occurred but she was the Master's pet, his most useful tool. He wasn't going to spill her secrets.

Rose left the infirmary and went for a shower. As soon as she was out, she set an alarm for seven PM and dropped into bed for her two-hour nap. When she awoke, Master was in her bedroom, standing at the end of her bed and watching her sleep.

"What?" Rose asked. She'd long lost any respect for the Huntsman. They were begrudging teammates now because she knew if she went rogue, they would hunt her down and he knew that if she went rogue, she would hunt them until they killed her. The having a death wish part of the rumours weren't necessarily true. Rose had things to accomplish before she died.

"I was hoping you wouldn't be going out again."

"Oh, please," Rose said, getting out of bed and going to pull her uniform on. She had no modesty anymore either. "You knew I was going."

"And I know where you're going."

Rose shrugged, struggling to remain nonchalant. It was the closest they had ever come to actually having a conversation about it and she found that she was very disinterested in having a conversation about it. "It's not really any of your business."

"Any time you leave this place wearing that uniform, it is my business," the Huntsman said.

Rose grabbed the mask into her hand and turned to face him. He wasn't wearing his mask today and he looked strangely vulnerable without it. Rose liked to see the vulnerability in him, knowing that she had none in herself. Any opening into her heart had already been killed. Three whole years ago. "What is this really about?"

Not that she was in a rush. Maybe it would be better if she was late. It would lull them into a false sense of security.

"The Huntsnurse who tended you today –"

"I told them to stop calling you." Rose scowled.

"And I told them to keep calling me. We lose a valuable asset if you die."

"I'm not going to die."

"You might. This game of cat and mouse only ends one way."

"Good thing I'm always the cat, then, isn't it?" Rose asked. "I'm leaving."

She was almost at the door when the Huntsman blustered, "If you don't stop now –"

"Then what?" Rose asked, turning to face him. "You're not going to kill me or lock me up. You said it yourself – I'm a valuable asset. If I get myself hunting a dragon then I did what you trained me to do. We are dragon hunters! I am hunting a dragon!"

"You are being stupid and selfish!"

Rose let the door slam between herself and Master. She could be stupid and selfish and hunt a dragon. The three weren't mutually exclusive. Rose pulled the mask of her head and left the Clan, running through the darkness of her streets.

(-.-)

"I swear, Jake, I saw her out there."

Jake joined his wife at the window over the kitchen sink that looked out over their tiny backyard. He wrapped his arm around Danika, his hand resting on her slowly growing baby bump. He summoned the eyes of the dragon but from his perspective inside the warm house, there was nothing amiss on the outside. But, still, Jake new that Danika was probably telling the truth. Rose was almost always out there, out of his sight but always in Danika's mind. It would be sad if Rose weren't such a terrifying person.

"I don't see anything," Jake said and he kissed Danika's temple. They both knew he was lying and it was supposed to make her feel better. "It's okay."

"She has been out there every night since we announced the baby!" Danika slammed her hands down on the counter, the sharp noise echoing in the silence. "She didn't even do this after we got married. I'm worried she's going to steal our child!"

"I won't let her get close enough –"

"You're not here all the time," Danika said. "I want to be alone and comfortable in my own home. I deserve that. You broke up with her and she needs to accept it, not stalk you! Why is she like this?!"

Jake stayed quiet, cuddling Danika closer and resting his chin down on her shoulder. He spread his arms over her stomach, hoping to feel their baby kick at his hands. He kissed the side of Danika's neck, trying to figure out if he should respond or let it linger as a rhetorical question. He had told Danika about the fact that he was a dragon and what all of that meant – he couldn't in good conscience marry someone who didn't know the truth – but all that he had ever said about Rose was that she was an ex, bordering on the one that had gotten away. Jake had never told Danika that he had broken up with Rose, sending her away rather than losing her. The fact that Rose was the Huntsgirl and he was the American Dragon had gotten to be too much and Jake had lost faith that she was even trying to find her way out of the Clan at all. He had chosen a normal life, where he could marry someone who was always going to be home at night, who he could have children with and not worry about if they were going to come out already owned by the Huntsclan. Jake had loved Rose more than he would ever love another person and he lived with that every day to this day. But, being the only person she knew outside of the Clan, being needed by her in the way that he was, it was too much. It stopped being sustainable, it stopped being a want and started being a need. Their relationship with each other had devolved into an addiction to each other and Jake had been the one to quit first.

Rose had never quit.

"She's like this because she's nuts," Jake said, trying to sound dismissive, like she wasn't an active danger. He didn't need Danika worked up any more than she already was. "Come on, let's go lay down and I'll rub your feet."

"I'm bringing the cheese crackers," Danika said. "Baby needs the cheese crackers."

"And the cheese crackers," Jake agreed, laughing as baby kicked in agreement.

They went up to their bedroom. They put on the trashy reality show of the week and Danika snacked and told him about her day while he rubbed her feet, loving every minute of it, but feeling like his mind was stuck on Rose. Jake had a good life. He wouldn't trade his life for anything but he knew that this thing with Rose had to stop. She couldn't keep pulling on the Huntsgirl mask and terrorizing him because, well, what if Danika was right? What if Rose stole the baby? What if the baby was a dragon too? She was a dragon hunter. Jake had always told himself that the reason that he didn't kill her was because he was better than that and because he didn't want to bring the wrath of the Huntsclan down on him for taking her out. Now that he was sitting here, seriously thinking that to ensure his future, he needed to end hers, Jake had to admit that he didn't do it because he couldn't. Someone was going to have to kill Rose but he didn't think he had it in himself to be the one to.

"Where'd your mind go?" Danika asked.

"Playing the boy or girl game again," Jake lied. "I don't think I have a preference."

"You will if we have three more and they're all the same," Danika said with a laugh.

It was a normal night but Jake was struggling to take part of it. He went through the motions but he was almost relieved when Danika fell asleep, wrapped around her pregnancy pillow. Jake leant over her and kissed her temple before climbing out of bed. He tucked the blanket securely around her shoulders and then he went downstairs and out the backdoor. He didn't even transform. He just stood in the dewy grass, his hands in his pyjama pants pockets, waiting. He knew that she was still here but when there wasn't so much of a rustle in the bushes, Jake grew afraid that she had snuck in the house behind his back.

"Rose, I know you're still here."

With a soft whump, she was in front of him, slowly straightening up to look him in the eye.

"Rose, wow," she said. "We're so casual now."

Rose stripped off her mask and for the first time in three years, Jake got a look at her face. It wasn't at all like he remembered. There was no more roundness to her; there was no more joy. She was all sharp angles and coldness now, with a large scar across her face, one that he knew his tail had caused.

"You never come outside," Rose commented. "What's the occasion?"

"I want to know what your plan is," Jake said honestly. "Are you going to kill Danika? Are you going to kill our child?"

"Congratulations by the way. I don't think I ever said that. Wow, a baby." Rose crossed her arms over her chest, leaning back. "Remember when that was our dream?"

He did, so clearly that it hurt him.

"We made our choices," Jake said.

"Actually, you made all the choices. They say I lost it, probably because of that, but, hey, we're all so much happier now."

"Are you going to kill Danika?" Jake reiterated, not wanting to go down memory lane because neither of them would recover from that.

"No."

Jake was surprised she gave an answer at all and then was immediately suspicious of her. "Why not?"

"Dead women don't terrify," Rose said with a laugh that sent chills right down Jake's spine.

"What are you plans for the baby?"

"Pray it's a dragon so I have an excuse," Rose said. "I'm not killing a child, Jake."

"But you would kill a dragon child?"

"I think you've established dragons aren't people. Can't be a person if you don't have a heart." Rose shrugged. "Anything else or can I go back to the Clan for some sleeping before I come back and peep in your windows in the morning?"

Jake shook his head. He couldn't stop her but if nothing else, he believed her. Rose took his movement as a dismissal and she turned her back on him, crossing the yard.

"Hey, Rose," Jake called.

"What?" she asked, turning back to face him.

"When are you going to kill me?"

Rose smiled but it wasn't right. It was an eerie, haunting smile of someone who had truly had a cracked mind.

"Whenever it's funniest," she promised him.

Then, Rose put her mask on and bounded away, while Jake turned and went back to his wife.