It Takes Time / Reaper x fem!OC

1. Pathetic, Girl

It was a stand off. Soldier 76, aiming down his sights, unwavering. Reaper, his claws digging cruelly into his young hostage's neck. Despite the situation, the death bringer merely stood and smirked under his skull mask, enveloped in husky shadows. 

Suddenly, the soldier took a half step forward, perhaps about to make a move, but Reaper's clawed hands dug tighter into the girl's neck: he was using her as a human shield and they both knew it. They stood for a few seconds, both unsure of the other's next move before Reaper leaned forward a fraction.

'You can't kill what's already dead, Jack' he growled out, tilting his head a little as if to indicate himself, 'but your little girlfriend isn't dead yet'. 

He shifted his claws against her neck as if to prove his point, and a trickle of blood ran down her neck. In response to the pain the girl tensed up and shivered, backing further into him to get away from his claws.

The soldier's hands clenched visibly. He said nothing, and although both of their masks made them appear emotionless, anyone who knew them closely would have felt the tense history that wrapped them both like a coroner's sheet; removing the air and leaving them both breathless.

In the end, neither made the first move as a second later a bullet tore through the edge of Soldier 76's arm, causing him to leap back to the cover of a burned out car on his right, hissing in pain as he tried to stem the bleeding. 

Hoisting up his gun with his left hand, he fired blindly over the top of the car in the direction of the sniper: he should have known Widowmaker would be here. She was never far behind Reaper, and he swore at himself for missing the obvious.

He leapt up again from behind the car, firing in the direction of Widowmaker's rooftop spot to earn a second of respite from her scoped gaze, but as he turned to focus his sights on Reaper and his hostage, he caught only a glimpse of the shadow master disappearing into the alleyway behind him, the intimate darkness enveloping them both faster than his legs could take him to them. 

The second before they disappeared, the girl locked her eyes with him - but as he stopped running, he saw no fear in her usually soft green eyes. Only pure, unadulterated determination. Stopping to a halt in the covered alley, he saw the last dusky bits of black shadow disappear, and he cursed again, this time louder.

'Pull yourself together, soldier' He muttered under his breath before once again leaping into a long legged run. Reaper may be beyond his reach right now, but that spider bitch certainly wasn't, and Jack Morrison sure as hell wasn't going to let her off easy.

As Reaper made his escape, he quickly put a hand against the now-struggling girl's forehead, sending out a shock and knocking her out cold. She slumped against him, prompting him to mock her. 

'Much better' his voice echoed, low and gravelly as he shunted her up onto his shoulder, grunting slightly at her dead weight.

 Calling on the darkness once more, he leaned into the black, curling mist and shadowstepped to the hallway of a dusky safehouse. Hesitating for a second, he dumped the girl on the floor unceremoniously, glaring at her. This had not been a part of his plan, but he appreciated her... Help in escaping Jack. She wore nothing more than plain jeans and a shirt that now crumpled against the floor; pitifully inappropriate for the freezing snow that coated the ground outside the house. 

Striding forcefully away from her down the hallway, the man formerly known as Gabriel Reyes pushed a bedroom door open, hastily clearing it of all the contents and leaving it bare and dim, with nothing but a bed and access to the adjoining bathroom.

Stirred by the scraping noises being made from the nearby room, the girl started to wake, her hand snaking up to massage her bruised head and neck, pushing away her brown curls that were now wet and matted. Realising her situation, she sat bolt upright, her eyes wide like a trapped fox.