madimpossibledreamer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
madimpossibledreamer) wrote2023-03-27 07:43 pm
madimpossibledreamer) wrote2023-03-27 07:43 pm
Entry tags:
Learning Curve
actually inspired by myself accidentally getting a metal cut on a chicken can. Usually, I'm not too bad with pain, but that got me. I think it's a little more interesting with nuance (and probably more realistic too).
in celebration of RE4 Remake being released!
Main Points:
Buffy/Devil May Cry/Resident Evil/Background NCIS Crossover
Chapter Summary: There's some adjustment, now that Leon's in a relationship.
Word Count: 1135
Rating: Teen
Pairing: Leon/Xander
One of the things he learns, quickly, is that his sweetheart has an odd understanding of weight. Xander knows, relatively, just enough to have an idea of momentum for weapons, improvised or otherwise, and it’s not like he doesn’t have some understanding of pressure if the way he likes cuddling or holding hands or carrying Leon around just because he can are any indication.
At the same time, if asked to estimate the weight of anything, he tends to be hilariously off. Leon had teased him about it exactly once and swore to never do it again, because he’d caught that fleeting look of hurt even if Xander had played it off like everything was fine. Bad memories, he suspects.
Teasing him is a bit like walking through a minefield, and he’d give up on the idea entirely if not for the fact that when he gets it right it’s clear Xander enjoys it too, with a sweet, shy smile before he tries to do it right back. Having met the Scoobies, by now, Kennedy has a guess—his friends had done so without an Agent’s training at spotting the mines and had gone too far when it came to some topics. He’d blame them, but as a whole while they were good at noticing some things they’re also the most clueless bunch he’s ever seen, particularly when they’re not on the lookout for something, and he’s guessing none of them expected Xander to be a sensitive man. The fact is only made worse given the fact that Redgrave would absolutely agree with them and tries to hide anytime his feelings are hurt, insisting that he’s fine. He really doesn’t think he has a right to be bothered by this kind of thing, that he’s taking it too personally, and while Leon plans to help his blue-eyed beauty’s self esteem (and his own, because he didn’t think he had the right to be angry at Ada in much the same way), in the meantime he just has to pay more attention.
Which is terrible. Really, he’s complaining about it. Having to watch the guy he loves closely? Such a hardship.
So anything (verbally, at least) teasing the man about his strength or any number of the other less human traits is a no-go. He actually seems to like it when teased about his appetite, but then restrains himself from eating more and then demonstrates by his ensuing lack of energy that while it’s likely in a pinch he could draw on his demonic blood to, say, fight for his life, in day-to-day functioning he needs a decent amount of calories, so that’s also off the table. (Summers and several of the other Slayers, apparently, do the same thing, although that one wasn’t him.)
Pop culture, sweet gestures, and any and all crushes are fair game, but Xander still gets flustered easily, so he has to be really strategic about where he uses those. It’s the most fun when he manages to catch the man in a quipping mood and they just banter back and forth.
One of the other less obvious things that takes him a while to notice is that Xander is also only vaguely aware of temperature. He might, if he’s really upset, notice the cold enough to shiver, but he’d been really embarrassed the time he freaked out Leon by sticking his bare hand in a boiling pot of water and been absolutely fine. Real extremes are what gets him, assuming that emotions aren’t running high, and even then it’s not exactly clear how the man experiences them. It’s likely that the layers of clothing Xander tends to default to have more to do with the fact that he likes the way they feel, the pressure on his skin, or the way they look than any inherent need for the warmth they provide, which abruptly explains why he’d been wearing four layers including a very soft hoodie one of the sweltering hot summer days they’d gone jogging, back before he’d known all this. (Seriously, Leon had been very concerned about heatstroke and kept offering his water bottle. Xander took it every time with a pleased, embarrassed smile.)
Pain is…a complicated topic. It soon becomes clear (to Leon, if not the Scoobies) that Xander definitely feels more pain than he says he does. Some of them are convinced Redgrave feels no pain whatsoever, and that’s clearly not true, although it’s also obvious that he’s had years of trying to hide it. It usually shows up as a slight pinch around his eyes, the way his smiles are a little less genuine. Leon doesn’t mention that he’s noticed, for reasons not limited to the fact that it makes him feel even more guilty about the Stabbing Incident and that Xander really, really doesn’t want him to feel guilty about the Stabbing Incident. It varies, wildly. Redgrave has mentioned before that he’s gotten stabbed loads of times so casually it’s clear he’s not hiding anything. Sometimes, though, the half-devil gets sore from sparring with the Slayers.
Leon’s working theory is that a number of different factors influence whether he feels pain. Like humans, he suspects, in times of serious danger Xander gets a rush of adrenaline so profound he actually can’t feel wounds that would be fatal to a full-blooded human. Unlike humans, other than the kind of aches or pains that would come days after while healing, that kind of adrenaline-induced resilience doesn’t wear off after the fact. In general, he has a high pain tolerance and the feeling of pain is dulled, compared to a human. In non-combat situations if Xander’s upset, particularly if he’s trying to hide it, that intensifies the pain, though. So, counterintuitively, the less serious the wound, the more painful it is. Leon thinks. He can’t be sure, not without asking, and Xander absolutely would not confirm anything.
The most pain he’s ever seen his white-haired beauty in is the time Xander had sliced open his finger on the chicken can. He’d gone non-verbal, even, just seeking out Leon, finger still bleeding, and leaned into Leon’s shoulder wordlessly begging for comfort. Leon just worked around that, gently leading them both toward the bathroom and the first aid kit, carefully cleaning the cut while humming soothingly and doing what he could to comfort the weight at his side. Luckily, it hadn’t required stitches, but it had bled more than Leon had ever seen from Xander, and his sweetheart had been more quiet and clingy for days.
in celebration of RE4 Remake being released!
Main Points:
Buffy/Devil May Cry/Resident Evil/Background NCIS Crossover
Chapter Summary: There's some adjustment, now that Leon's in a relationship.
Word Count: 1135
Rating: Teen
Pairing: Leon/Xander
Leon hadn’t thought there would be too much to learn once they’d started dating—discovering more about Xander, sure. Quickly he realizes that was naïve of him, because Redgrave had been pretending to be 100% human, and he simply didn’t have to pretend anymore.
One of the things he learns, quickly, is that his sweetheart has an odd understanding of weight. Xander knows, relatively, just enough to have an idea of momentum for weapons, improvised or otherwise, and it’s not like he doesn’t have some understanding of pressure if the way he likes cuddling or holding hands or carrying Leon around just because he can are any indication.
At the same time, if asked to estimate the weight of anything, he tends to be hilariously off. Leon had teased him about it exactly once and swore to never do it again, because he’d caught that fleeting look of hurt even if Xander had played it off like everything was fine. Bad memories, he suspects.
Teasing him is a bit like walking through a minefield, and he’d give up on the idea entirely if not for the fact that when he gets it right it’s clear Xander enjoys it too, with a sweet, shy smile before he tries to do it right back. Having met the Scoobies, by now, Kennedy has a guess—his friends had done so without an Agent’s training at spotting the mines and had gone too far when it came to some topics. He’d blame them, but as a whole while they were good at noticing some things they’re also the most clueless bunch he’s ever seen, particularly when they’re not on the lookout for something, and he’s guessing none of them expected Xander to be a sensitive man. The fact is only made worse given the fact that Redgrave would absolutely agree with them and tries to hide anytime his feelings are hurt, insisting that he’s fine. He really doesn’t think he has a right to be bothered by this kind of thing, that he’s taking it too personally, and while Leon plans to help his blue-eyed beauty’s self esteem (and his own, because he didn’t think he had the right to be angry at Ada in much the same way), in the meantime he just has to pay more attention.
Which is terrible. Really, he’s complaining about it. Having to watch the guy he loves closely? Such a hardship.
So anything (verbally, at least) teasing the man about his strength or any number of the other less human traits is a no-go. He actually seems to like it when teased about his appetite, but then restrains himself from eating more and then demonstrates by his ensuing lack of energy that while it’s likely in a pinch he could draw on his demonic blood to, say, fight for his life, in day-to-day functioning he needs a decent amount of calories, so that’s also off the table. (Summers and several of the other Slayers, apparently, do the same thing, although that one wasn’t him.)
Pop culture, sweet gestures, and any and all crushes are fair game, but Xander still gets flustered easily, so he has to be really strategic about where he uses those. It’s the most fun when he manages to catch the man in a quipping mood and they just banter back and forth.
One of the other less obvious things that takes him a while to notice is that Xander is also only vaguely aware of temperature. He might, if he’s really upset, notice the cold enough to shiver, but he’d been really embarrassed the time he freaked out Leon by sticking his bare hand in a boiling pot of water and been absolutely fine. Real extremes are what gets him, assuming that emotions aren’t running high, and even then it’s not exactly clear how the man experiences them. It’s likely that the layers of clothing Xander tends to default to have more to do with the fact that he likes the way they feel, the pressure on his skin, or the way they look than any inherent need for the warmth they provide, which abruptly explains why he’d been wearing four layers including a very soft hoodie one of the sweltering hot summer days they’d gone jogging, back before he’d known all this. (Seriously, Leon had been very concerned about heatstroke and kept offering his water bottle. Xander took it every time with a pleased, embarrassed smile.)
Pain is…a complicated topic. It soon becomes clear (to Leon, if not the Scoobies) that Xander definitely feels more pain than he says he does. Some of them are convinced Redgrave feels no pain whatsoever, and that’s clearly not true, although it’s also obvious that he’s had years of trying to hide it. It usually shows up as a slight pinch around his eyes, the way his smiles are a little less genuine. Leon doesn’t mention that he’s noticed, for reasons not limited to the fact that it makes him feel even more guilty about the Stabbing Incident and that Xander really, really doesn’t want him to feel guilty about the Stabbing Incident. It varies, wildly. Redgrave has mentioned before that he’s gotten stabbed loads of times so casually it’s clear he’s not hiding anything. Sometimes, though, the half-devil gets sore from sparring with the Slayers.
Leon’s working theory is that a number of different factors influence whether he feels pain. Like humans, he suspects, in times of serious danger Xander gets a rush of adrenaline so profound he actually can’t feel wounds that would be fatal to a full-blooded human. Unlike humans, other than the kind of aches or pains that would come days after while healing, that kind of adrenaline-induced resilience doesn’t wear off after the fact. In general, he has a high pain tolerance and the feeling of pain is dulled, compared to a human. In non-combat situations if Xander’s upset, particularly if he’s trying to hide it, that intensifies the pain, though. So, counterintuitively, the less serious the wound, the more painful it is. Leon thinks. He can’t be sure, not without asking, and Xander absolutely would not confirm anything.
The most pain he’s ever seen his white-haired beauty in is the time Xander had sliced open his finger on the chicken can. He’d gone non-verbal, even, just seeking out Leon, finger still bleeding, and leaned into Leon’s shoulder wordlessly begging for comfort. Leon just worked around that, gently leading them both toward the bathroom and the first aid kit, carefully cleaning the cut while humming soothingly and doing what he could to comfort the weight at his side. Luckily, it hadn’t required stitches, but it had bled more than Leon had ever seen from Xander, and his sweetheart had been more quiet and clingy for days.