Title: a thousand cuts
Fandom: The Old Guard
Rating: PG-rated
Length: 200 words (double drabble)
Notes: Joe/Nicky, backstory, immortality angst, battlefield angst. Much thanks to out_there for beta! <3
Summary: When you’re immortal, everyone else is a child.


A Mongol soldier trips, falls. A breath-pause in the battle. Yusuf’s sword points to his throat, drifts to his chest, all without making contact. The man’s already wounded, his eyes dark with pain.

Yusuf’s killed thousands of times, driven by duty, necessity or mercy. Humans are fragile and short-lived. Famine, disease—isn’t that enough?

The soldier gasps. There’s nothing special about him. He likely has children, even grandchildren, but Yusuf must be thrice his age by now. Everyone they kill is a child.

Knowing he’ll regret it, knowing it’s neither noble nor kind, he withdraws his sword. “What’s your name?”





Nicolo’s the only one left standing. He looks for Yusuf among the fallen, expecting to find him reawakening. Instead, sees him kneeling, cradling something.

Heart in his throat, Nicolo runs over. A minor skirmish like this shouldn’t have brought Yusuf to his knees, but his tears are glistening in the twilight, running into his beard.

There’s a dead Mongol in his lap. Everything smells of blood. Nicolo crouches to grip Yusuf’s shoulder. Closes the Mongol’s eyes.

“If I didn’t have you, I’d go mad.” It’s a broken confession.

Relieved, suffused with love, Nicolo can’t reply. Then, “You’ll always have me.”