Tracy x reader || angst

TW: death, very angsty death

"Tracy! I brought you breakfast!" You shout, opening her door with your foot. Your eyes searched for her, finally landing on the mechanic fast asleep at her desk with a few tools scattered about her. You set the plates down next to her and took the screwdriver out of her hand, then you placed your hand on her head, ruffling her hair to wake her up.

"mmmph," after shaking her gently for a moment, she stirred and mumbled, "'m awake." Hearing her slurred speech caused a giggle to escape from your lips. She laughed back in confusion, then woke up fully when she smelled the food you brought. Between quick bites, she let out a muffled 'thank you' as if this wasn't something you did for her almost every day. When she finished her meal and you finished yours, you pulled her from her seat, dragging her downstairs. As she panicked from your sudden behavior, you explained.

"I let you sleep in, sorry. We have a match right now, and I don't want you to get in trouble for being late." Bursting into the match room, you instantly calmed yourself and slowed down, leading Tracy to a chair and ignoring the comments from Kevin and José about your late arrival. The moment you two sat down and readied yourselves, the match began. As you began to decode, you didn't realize that you were holding your breath until you heard the unmistakable sound of Tracy activating her robot from somewhere across the map. Breathing a sigh of relief, you continued to decode. Before anyone got hit, Tracy's cipher popped, and you were close to finishing yours until a box with red lines coming out of it was thrown towards you and your heartbeat increased. With haste, you let your teammates know of the progress your cipher made, then ran from the swiftly approaching penguin-like robot. As you ran, you caught a glimpse of the smaller, more friendly robot of Tracy's at the cipher you were previously working on. Bon-Bon realized this too, as he backtracked to take out her robot. You were going to warn Tracy, but it was too late. Her robot was gone, and now he knew where she was. You followed Bon-Bon and warned Tracy that the hunter changed targets. As he approached her, you went around a wall and came out between them, to protect her. This made him angry. All while throwing bombs for the two of you to dodge, he hit you, allowing Tracy to get further ahead of him due to her use of broken windows. You tried to distract him from her, but he kept pursuing the timid mechanic. You were able to pull a pallet down behind him, causing him to be stunned for a moment, then he hit you again, opting not to chair you, but to keep after the mechanic. Just as you managed to heal yourself halfway, Tracy got hit, urging you to heal yourself faster.

"Need any help?" The voice from behind you began to wrap a bandage around your bleeding arm, effectively completing your healing enough for you to get up.

"Focus on decoding." You grunted to the cowboy while starting off towards where you thought Tracy was. You didn't realize he was following you until you reached her. You watched her throw down a pallet, only to be hit and downed before it fell. Lightly pushing you out of the way, Kevin used his lasso to pull Tracy from the hunter's grasp and into his arms. Neither of them noticed your scowl. As the third cipher popped, Bon-Bon landed a hit on Kevin. You led Tracy away from the hunter to a cipher as you let José, who was already en route, rescue the cowboy. As the two of you decoded, she pulled out her controller, which you thought was unusable, and brought her robot to the cipher she was working on at the beginning, before the hunter started chasing her. The cipher her robot was working on popped when your progress reached half-way. Kevin was at 25% health while José was at 50%. Silently, you and the mechanic worked away at the cipher, and once it was primed, you began to heal her up, patching up her scratches back to full health. She smiled at you and looked as of she was going to say something, but was interrupted by Kevin being incapacitated. The two of you popped the cipher and ran to the nearest exit gate, you typing in the code. Just before you opened the gate, both Kevin and José ran up behind you, the hunter close behind. As the gate began to open, you grabbed Tracy's wrist and pulled her away from the hunter as well as shielding her from any possible incoming attacks. By the time she had gotten through the gate, Kevin had been downed and chaired for the final time as everyone made it through the gate.

"Thank you (y/n)!" She jumps into your arms as you reach the manor. You smile and hug her back, and she continues. "You didn't have to do all of that body-blocking for me!" The two of you laughed and walked to the kitchen all while talking about the match and making jokes back and forth. Taking the lead once you reached the kitchen, you grabbed two cups from the cupboard and filled them both with water and ice, then handed one to Tracy.

"I can get my own cup, ya know." She huffed, puffing out her cheeks.

"I know," you smiled at her, bringing your hand to her head, "but I like to do things for you."

She seemed surprised, and you noticed a faint blush appear on her face. She slightly stuttered out a 'thank you' and took a sip from her cup. You savored her pretty pink face and took a sip of your own drink to hide the beginnings of your own blush. She stopped suddenly with a bewildered look in her eyes, as if she had forgotten something, but before you could say anything, she pulled you towards your room with a simple explanation.

"I need your help with something!"

When the two of you reached her room, she pushed you to a heavy-looking object and asked you to hold it for her. When you obliged, she turned it sideways in your arms and began to tweak with its parts. After a good while of her screwing and unscrewing panels and moving things around, she added another, smaller part to what you were holding. You were not paying attention to whatever you her holding. Instead, your eyes wandered around her face, taking in the way her cheeks puffed out when she was focused, the way her eyes sparkled when she finally figured something out, and the way she would tell you to hold or turn something for her. It made you smile; she made you happy. Watching her felt like there was nothing else in the world to you. At this moment, you decided to be hers. She had you ultimately wrapped around her finger, and she had no idea, or maybe she did, but you didn't care. For you, she was the only one that existed. You loved her. You snapped out of your stupor when she shook your arm, asking you to gently place the thing back down on her desk.

"What were you thinking about?" She innocently questioned while setting her tools back where they went. "I called your name twice and you didn't even hear me." You brought your hands to her head, ruffling her hair then, chuckling, you fabricated a reason for your actions.

"I was thinking of our match later tonight, it's supposed to be against the Dream Witch, I'm just a little worried is all."

She brought you into a hug as a reassurance. You smiled and hugged her back, enveloping her in your arms. Together, the two of you went downstairs for lunch. Without realizing it, you made a plate for her first, then yourself, and set the two plates down next to each other. Tracy smiled at you while handing you a glass of water, as well as setting one by her plate. You ate in a pleasant silence. As the time passed, your mind wandered to your made-up excuse. The more you thought about it, you were worried for your match against Dream Witch. Tracy was an easy target for the unseeable hunter. You just had to protect her the whole match, and everything would be fine. You thought too soon. After lunch, you decided to take Tracy to the garden for her to get fresh air after working in her room for hours. The two of you ended up helping Emma to plant cyclamen for the upcoming fall. The three of you talked endlessly as you worked, only for your conversation to be cut short, well not really that short, by the realization of the time. Hours had passed as you lost track of how long you had been there. With the promise that the two of you would help Emma finish that section of the garden the next day, you and Tracy left to clean up before dinner and your match. That was the only time you left her for the rest of your day. By the time you two had finished washing the dirt off of yourselves, it was time for dinner. Your dinner went as quick as lunch did as your anxiety about your upcoming match took over you. You offered to Tracy to have someone take over for her so she could continue working on her project, but she declined, wanting to stay with you. She wasn't scared, and if you weren't so worried for her, you wouldn't be either. You two walked into the room together and sat down next to each other. You hoped she couldn't tell how nervous you were. Soon, the others arrived and the match began.

The first thing you did was look for Tracy. She was decoding by the big rock of the lakeside village. Not too far from her, you decoded by the ship. You didn't get very far in your decoding when you heard Tracy's robot get hit. You ran towards where you thought she was, taking note of the white symbol by her name. You spotted her crouched behind a pallet, no one else around. She was trying to remove the mark on her, and you couldn't help her. You didn't know where the mark was, but it didn't matter. Before she had time to get the follower off of her, your heartbeat was suddenly pounding. Moving her out of the way, you let the follower hit you.

"Run." You told her, pushing her away from the hunter's minion. You managed to hit her with the pallet, but the sudden lack of hammering in your heart sparked worry. Before you knew it, there was a white mark by your name, and your follower was going after Tracy. Without thinking, you followed. Yelling for her to watch out, you caught up to her just in time to take the subsequent hit for her. Thus, you were down, but your follower had disappeared. You told Tracy to run again as you saw the follower still attached to her draw near. In this time, a cipher was popped with another almost completed. From across the map, Vera notified the team of her beginning a new cipher, while in the opposite direction, Kurt mentioned his cipher near completion. As quickly as possible, you got yourself back up and ran after Tracy. She got hit by her follower, so, for the time being, she was safe. You wanted to heal her up, but she pulled you to a cipher and you decoded together. Once again, you realized the white mark by your name. You weren't sure how much more of this you could take. Still having the ability to remove the mark, Tracy took your hands from the cipher and began to remove the follower. Half-way through the process, you pushed her away and braced yourself. You noticed the follower coming towards you, but you were hoping to get it off of you before it could hit you. Downed again, you told Tracy to run. Two ciphers remaining. You used your self-heal up and you were hoping you would be picked up and charied soon. Your wish was granted as Tracy shouted that the hunter changed target and your heartbeat increased. As a rescuer, the timer for your chair was slower than the rest, allowing the others ample time to finish the remaining ciphers. After being rescued by Vera, you went to find Tracy again. You were bleeding. Your arm had an ever-growing gash from the pickaxe of the followers, as well as constantly leaking scratches scattered about your legs, arms and torso. Dizzily, you wandered towards the exit gate. This was the worst you've ever been hurt, you thought as you leaned against the gate. Breaking you from your thoughts, the siren sounded loudly across the field. You smiled as Tracy ran towards you with a worried look, but your attention went to the gate in front of you. You could've sworn that you had fallen asleep while typing in the passcode, but the door opened with ease. Tracy looked worried.

"You look really bad." She started, cupping your face as you leaned into her arms. "Here," she dragged you into the gate, but you didn't leave yet, "let me heal you up." She began to wrap your arm, now coated in a thick layer of running blood, while lightly scolding you for your recklessness. You didn't notice the tears in her eyes, the blood soaking through the front of your shirt, or Tracy's name with a white mark by it. You never realized what happened. You acted on instinct when you heard the throbbing heartbeat in your chest. With your last bit of strength, you pushed Tracy into the gate, allowing for her safe escape, as well as the escape of Kurt and Vera at the other gate. Luckily for you, Tracy pulled you far enough into the gate that when you were hit, you were thrown into safety. Unluckily, that was the hardest you have ever been hit. You landed in Tracy's arms, and she softly led you to the ground, head in her lap. Eyes half-lidded, you stared up at her. Her tears delicately rolled off of her cheeks as she cradled your head.

"I love you, Tracy." You managed to force out as the last of your energy was drained. You never got to hear her say,

"I love you too."