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Chapter Text

His wife never cheated on him.

He lay in the hospital bed, staring up at the ceiling while the doctors gently explained his prognosis: his powers were strengthened when he was under emotional duress, and the voltage he could generate weakened when he fell in love.

Everything hurt. He couldn't move - not with the burns that covered most of his body, not with the lines and wires snaking out of him. Tears slipped down the sides of his face as he struggled to control himself, sniffing softly and blinking his eyes.

*****

He had confronted her - quietly, at first, but with a growing hurt that was tinged with disbelief and anger. He told her he knew everything; he told her he knew the baby wasn't his.

"I didn't!" she cried. She clasped her hands and pleaded. "I love you - I wouldn't!" Her words knifed at him, but he didn't believe her.

*****

He slipped in and out of consciousness.

Somehow, during the battle, thoughts of Rose and her betrayal kept rising up - with every slash and burn of his body, he remembered that no one would mourn him if he died. That no one on Earth actually loved him.

The electricity, it crackled beneath the skin of his arms.

*****

There was a soft sensation at the top of his cheek. Reinhard stirred. His eyes cracked open.

Rose was sitting at his bedside. Her eyes were dim, and dully she was brushing his hair back with her fingertips.

"Rose." His voice cracked. His throat was dry, like he was swallowing day-old bread. She lifted her eyes and he reached out a hand, moving with difficulty to touch her.

She wept silently. Clasping his hand, she pressed his knuckles against her face.

Even after everything, she never stopped loving him.

*****

He remembered when they met. How she gently touched the ruined side of his face. She was always kind to him, and she seemed so happy when she married him. How could he believe that she would cheat on him?

"Are you angry with me?" he asked. She dully shook her head.

"It hurts too much to stay angry," she said. "I just wish you trusted me."

They got the true report after their baby was tested - the baby didn't have a mosiac organ, but half of her genes still came from him.

*****

The scars on his body kept accumulating.

In quiet moments, he felt her lips graze the tender spot beside his lip, one gentle hand brushing the jagged parts of his skin.

He had felt so lonely - thinking his wife was cheating on him, thinking he wasn't enough, that she had stopped loving him - and he realized that hurt was what had driven him. Mental anguish turning into explosive power. It was another way they had experimented with him.

She had no reason to forgive him, but they were too exhausted to fight. Both of them just wanted to get back to how things were, back when there was no doubt that they loved each other.

*****

For the first time in years, she slept curled up beside him.

When she climbed into bed, he wanted to cry. She cried too, and they wept together and held each other, kissing softly and wiping each other's tears.

*****

"Did you know? The baby started walking."

"She did?" Reinhard said. Rose smiled at him shyly.

She pressed a soft kiss against his throat, kissing the scars along his collarbone. She lifted a hand to touch his face again, then brushed her lips tenderly against his.

*****

He burrowed his face into her chest, letting her rest her arms around him.

It felt nice. Her arms were a comforting weight against his back; her body felt warm against his. She pressed her lips into the top of his head, then quietly stroked his hair.

*****

"What's wrong? Come....come at me!" Tears streamed down his face, mixing with blood and rain. "Come at me! I'll kill you all!"

How could he believe it?

She didn't pull away from him.

She told him she loved him. She married him.

How could he believe she'd cheat on him?

*****

She was too tired to be angry with him.

She held him tight as he wept into her shoulder.

*****

"You know, for a bit, I thought maybe I hated you," she said.

She spoke quietly, holding him against her chest. There were tears in her voice as she said it. "I don't though. I always loved you."

Reinhard didn't say anything, just closed his eyes and burrowed his face against her.

****

Morning came, and with it pale streaks of watery light filtered through the window.

She had fallen asleep lying pressed up against him, her body half sliding off the hospital bed. Carefully he reached a hand, then brushed his fingers against the side of her cheek.

She stirred and nuzzled against him.

It reminded him that he was human.

*****

Home was a foreign place to him.

The baby held her arms up at him, her face lit up in a smiling grin. She had dimples on her cheeks and eyes the same color as his.

Stupid. He was so fucking stupid. His wife blinked back tears as their baby cooed and babbled at him.

*****

The electricity crackled. But what propelled it was rage.

*****

She mapped the scars along his body. Traced the flat discs implanted in his skin.

So this is how it felt, when everything stopped hurting. A gentle touch that soothed away the pain.

*****

They gave him his discharge papers because his Mosaic Organ stopped working.

His wife smiled at him. She picked up a scarf, and carefully wrapped it around his shoulders.

Chapter Text

"We want you to tell him that you cheated on him."

"What?" Rose said. The commander lifted her eyes.

"He's gotten weaker since you took up with him," the commander said. She tossed a folder across the desk, showing her. "Sadness and rage are what powers him. He's scheduled to go out to Mars soon. You want him to survive, don't you?"

*****

She wasn't supposed to fall in love with him.

The assignment had been simple: keep tabs on Adolf Reinhard. Follow him and make sure he didn't spill any secrets.

"Dating?" the commander lowered her papers on the desk. "You and the asset are dating?"

"I request permission to leave my post as handler of this asset," Rose said. "I'm...compromised. I got too close to him."

"Do you have feelings for him?"

She hesitated. "Yes," Rose said. The commander rubbed her forehead.

"You're not to tell him of your role here. Everything that has happened is still confidential."

"Of course," Rose said. The commander folded her hands.

"Do what you will," the commander said. "But when the time comes, you will answer when we need you."

****

He didn't say anything, at first. Rose stood in front of him, heart in her throat as she saw Ado's eyes grow glassy and wet.

"How long?" The words were rasped out. Harsh and guttural.

"Not long," she said, and she could see it: the wounded look on his face, the dull hurt that settled and gathered in the corners.

"Why?" he asked, and Rose closed her eyes.

"Because I was lonely," she said.

He closed his eyes, a tear spilling over.

*****

Adolf Reinhard had survived.

"He thought about you, you know," the commander said. Rose pushed past her, running down the hospital. "The thoughts of your betrayal made him stronger."

*****

She sat beside him in the hospital bed, leaning heavily with her fists to her forehead. She listened to the steady beating of his heartrate on the monitor.

"I wish I could have told you," she said. Her eyes were wet, and her face felt taut from crying. Slowly she reached a hand out, then brushed back a strand of hair from his forehead. "I never cheated on you. It was orders. I'm so sorry."

She hung her head and wept quietly.

The monitor beeped. She felt the sheets shift.

"Rose."

His eyes were red. He smiled at her tiredly.

*****

The story came out in fits and starts: how she was supposed to be his handler, how she was ordered to keep tabs on him. She followed him from a distance, but he saw her; she had no choice but to talk to him.

"Do you have an MO?" he asked. She shook her head.

"I do reconnaissance," she said. "I'm not a soldier, just a spy."

She took out a report from her purse.

"This is our baby's profile," she said, showing him. "She didn't inherit a mosaic organ, but the paternity shows she's definitely yours."

"I can trust this?" His words hurt. She nodded.

"Test it again if you want. I won't mind."

He lowered the papers.

"Do you love me?" he asked. She took a sobbing breath and nodded quickly. "Why did you say you cheated on me?"

"I wanted you to survive." She started crying. "You were going to Mars. I didn't want you to die."

She sobbed and leaned her head against the mattress. She felt his hand rest over hers.

******

He was nervous the first time they made love. Standing in the dark, the lights from a passing car arced through the window and over his hulking form. Carefully Rose stepped forward, letting her hand rest against the high-necked collar of his jacket. Pulling down the zipper, she leaned her head forward into the hollows of his neck, then pressed a reverent kiss against the ruined skin along his collarbone.

She was well-acquainted with his body now, the scars and the implants and the harsh, jagged edges of old burns on his skin. She pressed her lips against that sensitive part of his chest, one of the few places of him that was still somehow unmarred by burnt flesh, and was rewarded when he sighed softly, closing his eyes.

He had more scars. The battle in the valley had left his body marred and broken in several places, the slingshot wounds from the rocks crashing into him bruising his skin.

He thought about her. The roaches somehow made him remember her, and the pain of those memories made the electricity crackle more brightly.

She kissed him, cradling him against her body. He sighed and buried his face against her neck, hugging her as he moved with more intent. Harder, deeper, his arms winding around her, he thrust and gasped, then pulsed inside her.

He stilled. Rose kissed his head as he pulsed gently, lying heavily atop her body.

She smiled, then brushed a sweaty lock of hair from his forehead. His eyes were soft, and he smiled at her, shyly.

They kissed, and she moved to press her lips against the ruined gash where his cheek would have been. His eyes fluttered closed. The area was sensitive there, and as she kissed him he sighed, and she felt him pulse once more.

"I love you." His voice was soft. He didn't look at her.

"I love you too," she said, and he wept quietly.

She kissed him and held him, stroking his hair.

Chapter Text

"Do you see him? That's Commander Reinhard."

"I heard he's the second-strongest soldier in the project."

They whispered to themselves, quietly.

"His wife died recently. I heard she died having his kid."

"The baby didn't survive, poor guy."

They watched as Reinhard started giving a mission briefing, standing at the front of the room.