#// still love the thoughts in my head but if I keep getting dissatisfied w everything coming out of my head I dont think im going anywhere

[m0e-ru]

[yandere-sins]

Get away - Yandere Suguru Getou

Something that’s been lingering in my mind ever since I saw the beach scene :3 Enjoy!

Characters: Yandere!Suguru Getou X Reader Rating: Mature Warnings: Mentioning of Murder, Yandere Word Count: 1967

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How long had you been running?

You didn’t know how far your legs had carried you until now. What kind of distance you had put behind you. The sun didn’t change its place in the seemingly endless blue sky. The time didn’t seem to pass, despite your breath getting more and more ragged as you forced yourself to go on. Just a little bit more, a little bit farther. Put more power into it, strain your legs, and make them carry you far away. Ignore the pain of your bare feet on the hot sand and how salty the air felt in your lungs. Get away.

Far, far away.

Hesitantly, you turned your head to the side, eyes gazing over the shimmering blue sea and over your left shoulder. Immediately, you froze at the spot; your stomach began to twist while your eyes widened. What had felt like a solid 30-minute-run had been nothing but a few steps from the location you had found yourself in after waking up. Your footprints were still visible in the sand, from the ones where you had stumbled over your legs while getting up to the ones that passed by the closed door - standing freely on the beach - you tried to open first without success.

The white-haired man with the strange marks all over his body leaned forward as he felt your gaze on everyone collected at the spot. They sat in their sunchairs without a care in the world, having snarled or laughed at you pitifully when you first woke up. Some looked like human-sized toys, grotesque even with features that couldn’t possibly be, like twigs instead of eyes. Others, like the man now waving at you and patting the arm of the monk, you remembered sitting next to him, excitedly, looked a bit more human, but you detected nothing close to the feeling of looking at a human when you met their eyes.

He said something to the man beside him, the one you couldn’t see as he was hidden from sight by the back of the door that separated you two. But sure enough, he too leaned forward, a broad smile appearing on his face as he spotted you staring back and panting heavily after your run. 

You didn’t know what was happening, but you couldn’t get yourself to care and wait it out. Turning around again, you began to force yourself into a trot, using the last of your strength to move forward. Call it instincts, but from the moment you awoke in this unfamiliar place, surrounded by strange and unfamiliar faces, you knew something was wrong. The difference between the busy metropole of Tokyo and this peaceful, Caribbean dream-beach should have been indication enough, but if you had any doubts, knowing how hard you had worked on running away without making any progress, tipped the jar.

“Are you done yet? I know the beach is beautiful, but the domain doesn’t expand so far as to run in it endlessly, you see.”

Domain… you didn’t understand what he was talking about. But the presence of the voice behind you alone made you jump, putting even more strength in your legs out of sheer panic. You imagined feeling like a startled animal, running for their dear life from a predator, until, suddenly, you lost your footing, forcing you to fall head-first into the sand. Coughing, you had a hard time rubbing the sand from your sweaty hands, unable to wipe your own face free of it. Even though you feared what was behind you immensely, your body feared getting sand in your eyes, keeping them shut tightly. 

“Oh, my. Look at you,” you heard the snicker next to you, feeling how a body moved right up to your side, disregarding any personal space as it squatted down. The feeling of hands on your face that were not yours, their palms big and surprisingly cold against your heated skin, made you open your mouth in an attempt to scream. But no sound escaped. Instead, you closed it quickly as you felt the hands brush off the sand on your face, starting from your eyebrows down to your lower lip.

“There. Better, right?” the voice asked you, clapping its hand to free them off sand while you slowly and hesitantly opened your eyelids again. You’d almost wished you could have avoided looking in this direction, as you’d have preferred to look at the ocean instead of the man who came ‘to your rescue’. But your body, panicked and stiff, didn’t allow you to avoid his presence. You wished you could have found any sympathy in the man’s expression, even just a hint as he seemed the most human of them all, but his thin smile didn’t match the haughty gleam in his eyes, and the casual clothes he was wearing didn’t hide the tension in his whole body. 

It was the same man whose feet you woke up at, though you believed that back then, he had been wearing a very different attire. It had been so prominent since the get-up fitted more into a temple than the beach, but now he apparently had changed to a Hawaiian shirt and fitted shorts. How much time must have passed for him to do that without you noticing that he was gone? But there was no doubt, he still was the person who you had to face right out of your sleep, the one playing with your hair and touching your neck despite never even giving you his name. 

“Look who’s stopped running away,” he laughed softly, gripping your arm to pull you up from the ground with him. “We thought it was best to let you use up all your spare energy first before explaining everything.”

“W-What’s going on?” you stammered, legs shaking as he brought you to a stand. “Why am I here? What is this place? Why didn’t I get away--” With your voice breaking from the exhaustion on your body, you managed to look into the direction of the seemingly endless beach before you and then back to where the others were collected, idly talking amongst themselves. “--further?”

Watching the confusion on your face as you tried to puzzle together your thoughts, the man too looked back at the collection of his companions before speaking. “You see them, right? That makes you special, you see. That’s why I brought you here, and that’s why you are still alive.”

A cold shudder ran down your spine as he casually uttered these words, the last ones having the emphasis of a warning hiss on them. Your body began to shake slowly, memories that it had repressed flooding back in as you tried to remember. Tried to remember the massacre you had been in. Your family, the people you loved, the neighborhood you had lived in all your life. You began to remember their dead faces, the blood on their bodies, their guts spilling out, all while you had run and hidden behind a pile of rubble.

And then you remembered him. 

Clearly, like the blue of the ocean and the warmth of the sun on your skin. You remembered how he approached you, unbothered by what path laid before him, no matter if it was walls of buildings or bodies of humans, he simply walked over it as if it was nothing to even think about. 

He must have noticed you going silent, the emotions vanishing from your eyes, so he asked you, “Do you remember it now?”

It wasn’t like you wanted to respond to him, but your head nodded, taking it’s time to go up and down. Though a smile spread on his lips, he let out a dissatisfied breath, his right hand coming up to brush under from the root of your neck upwards to your chin, lifting it so you’d look at him. “Don’t go catatonic on me now. It’s over; you’re safe. I noticed your abilities and saved you from these monkeys. You understand what that means, right?”

Life rushed back into your body as you gulped, your throat as dry as the desert. No, you didn’t understand anything. You didn’t understand what he meant with ‘abilities’, and you didn’t understand what he saved you from. All you knew was that he killed people, but that’s where your comprehension of the matter stopped. The smile vanished from his face as you didn’t give a suitable answer like he expected. He clasped his thumb over your chin, shaking it side to side reprimandingly, testing if you were still with him.

“It means you’re mine now,” he explained it for you as if you were an idiot for not understanding. “I saved you, so you belong to me now, do you understand?” 

“N-No…” you finally managed to croak forth. You had wanted to finish the sentence more strongly, like, “I don’t belong to you! You are a murderer!” but thinking about accusing this scary man like this made you freeze again. Survival instincts won over, keeping you from doing so, and you knew that what he had done, he could repeat. 

Just as you thought that you saw the hints of frustration spreading on his face, his hand fell to your neck. One palm was enough to wrap around it, his features softening again before he squeezed it tightly, shutting off your air-supply as it felt like he was crushing your throat. “Getou, are you having fun over there?” you faintly heard a voice call out to him from the side. You wanted to turn your head and scream for help as he effortlessly lifted your inches off the ground, making you feel how gravity pulled you down and choked you on his hand. 

He, unbothered by your struggles and the vain nails you tried to pry into his skin and force him to let go, smiled at the person calling out to him, signaling them everything was fine. Could they not see your struggles? The way you were slowly but surely suffocating through the actions of this man with the name Getou? Or did they simply not care?

“Let’s try this again.” Directing his attention back at you, he lowered you to a stand, giving you exactly one deep breath by loosening up his hand before you were forced to struggle with the air in your lungs again. “You’re mine, do you understand?”

Squishing your chin into his hand, you did your best to nod, gasping out a desperate, “Yes!” and finally, he let you go. Tears dripped out of your eyes as you sunk to the ground, clutching your hands over where he had choked you, feeling your throat trembling from the applied pressure. Your coughs and sobs mixed into an ugly cacophony, but you let out a scared squeal as his arms hooked under your knees and behind your back, picking you up. 

For someone who almost choked you to death, this touch was almost unreal in how tender and caring it was. “Alright, let’s go back to everyone then. I want to introduce you to the bunch!” His voice was chipper now, and the usual smile returned to his face while your heart raced with fear and panic. You didn’t want to be carried by him, but the thought of him choking you again, or worse, scared you as much as the fact that he was bringing you back to the place you wanted to get away from in the first place.

“... Why?” you whispered, straining your voice as best as you could. 

Looking down on you, you saw an almost tender pitifulness in his eyes, quickly avoiding your gaze to not look into them for too long. “Because you’re special,” was his reply, no hesitation on him. 

“You’re special, and you’re mine.”

[sammysmaddy]

All Again (Dean x Reader)

Summary: Dean's been savoring his last moments with you before he ends up in the pit. When he can't perform, all of the bottled-up emotions erupt.

Characters: Dean x Reader

Rating: 18+

Chapter Warnings: Fluff, angst, sad!dean :(, talk of death, mentions of blood and bruises, this makes me emo.

W/C: 1,800

A/N: Inspo the quote "Even though I know how this story ends, I'd do it all again". It's from a fifth harmony song don't kill me lmao.

Masterlist

•••

"Dean, baby, it's okay," You told him, hands rubbing up and down his trembling, bare arms.

"No, it's not, Y/N," Dean sighed frustratedly, flopping down and lying next to you. He didn't bother to pull the covers over his naked body so you didn't either. He was upset, understandably so because in less than twenty-four hours there was a good chance that he'd be in Hell, and he was desperately trying make his last moments with you count.

"I'm sorry," You said in a quiet voice, turning on your side, and pressing a soft kiss on his shoulder.

Tensions were high, they have been for months, but the one thing that remained normal was the love you and Dean had for each other. Nothing could break you apart- no matter how many times he tried breaking up with you for your sake, hoping that it might hurt you less. Of course, you understood why he tried so hard to cut things off, but you never thought twice about staying with him. The hardest part about it all was that he had played it off as a joke for so long that now it was all catching up to him. He didn't like to get emotional or vulnerable, especially if it would have any affect on you, and the thought of leaving you alone in this world was an indescribable pain for him. The most open you'd ever seen him was the first time he said the L word, casually dropping it three months in and pretending it didn't mean anything. Then you confronted him and he was raw and he was honest and you couldn't have been happier.

Ever since he made the deal, he's pretended that it wasn't reality and completely brushed it off. Now, there's twenty-one hours to go and it's hitting him like a ton of bricks. You knew it was coming, you knew there would be a drop in there somewhere, but, as much as you tried to prepare yourself, you couldn't think of anything else to say except that you're sorry.

He didn't even tell you at first. The only reason you had found out was because of how outrageously high his sex drive had gotten- he took every chance he got to be inside of you. It didn't matter where or what case you were on, he couldn't get enough of you and it made you suspicious. You knew from the get-go, he was trying to make up for something, and it was your job to figure that something out. At first, and you're sure Dean didn't realize this, you thought maybe you weren't enough for him anymore. Maybe he grew disinterested, maybe he found you boring or wasn't interested in conversation, maybe he only wanted you for your body.

But, that too, didn't make sense, that wasn't Dean. Plus, he became extremely attached to you, wanting to be at your side no matter what you were doing. Sometimes, you would wake up early and go for a walk- Dean made sure to come with you. Even trips to the restroom consisted of him sitting on the outside of the door and talking to you. It became overbearing, but you tried to keep yourself at bay for as long as you could. When you finally couldn't take it anymore, there was a huge fight and he suggested that the two of you broke up. You left, coming back thirty minutes later and realizing that it was stupid, you just weren't used to this Dean. This Dean was sweet yet controlling, helpful yet he would get in the way, and he was extra careful of what he said to you. You were used to I don't give a fuck Dean, the I'll do it myself Dean, you knew it was time to figure out what the hell was going on.

It was about a month in until you finally cracked Sam, he too had been acting strange. You strategically put enough whiskey in him one night, knowing he was at the point of spillage when he told you his celebrity crushes and when he confessed that he still missed Madison. Then, you slowly coaxed the truth out of his mouth, feeling satisfied and dissatisfied knowing why Dean had been acting so lovey-dovey.

"It's not your fault," He told you, extending his arm so that you could cuddle up closer to him. You scooted your body over, cheek resting on his chest, and you tried your best to stop the tears from forming. You had to stay strong for Dean because it wasn't much longer until he cracked. "Guess I'm already in Hell. Can't even perform for my girl." Dean joked and you couldn't fight the frown on your face.

"Dean, I don't care about that. You know I don't. I just want to be with you." You told him honestly and he sighed aloud, feeling the exact same way.

"Do you ever wish you weren't with me?" Dean asked quietly and your brows furrowed immediately. You could hear the pain in his voice and you knew he was blaming himself for leaving you.

"Never," You gave him a small smile, looking up to see his teary eyes. You shifted on your stomach, propping yourself on your elbows while his warm hand glided up and down your back. "Baby, we did everything right. Spent all of our money taking trips together, saved people, kicked ass, we had sex like three times a day- I don't want you to leave but I feel better knowing that we spent our time the best we could." You told him, trying to lift the mood, and swiping your thumbs across his cheeks to get rid of the tears that had spilt. "And I don't know how to make it better or make Hell sound more fun because I know you're scared. I don't know how I'm going to control Sam or how I'm going to kill that bitch Lilith, I don't even know how I'm going to survive without you. But I'm going to get you back or I'm going to die trying."

"Don't talk like that, Y/N," He said in a low voice, sporting a frown on his face at the thought of you dying. "Don't waste your life, don't do what I did, don't make your life about revenge and hate. You might end up in Hell with me." He joked sadly and the pain in your heart weighed heavily in your mind.

"Dean, I can't do this without you," You told him honestly, tears rolling down your face and blurring your vision of him. "And I hate that I made this about me, but I can't lie. I'm more scared than I've ever been, more scared than when you found me bloodied and bruised in a vampire's nest. I know that I'm doing a bad job of making you feel better but there is no 'better' in our situation. There's no rainbow at the end of the storm unless I get you back, so that's what I'm going to do. You know there's no changing my mind."

"Can you promise me something?" He asked, grabbing one of your hands in his as he brought his lips to the back of it.

"Probably not," You told him, laughing lightly through a choked sob.

"God, you are so stubborn," He laughed along, seeing his soft smile only making you sadder- knowing that after tomorrow you'll probably never see it again. "If you get the chance to get out of the life- take it. Leave it all behind and don't look back. You deserve to be happy and to find someone and settle down with kids, not come back to a motel when you're fifty and be dead inside." He told you, his hands trembling as more tears fell down his cheeks. "You should find someone with a ton of money and then never work a day in your life. It's what you've always wanted." He said, attempting to play it off as another joke but the sadness in his voice told you otherwise. You had joked about it before with him, before you were in a committed relationship, but you threw all of that out of the window when you fell in love. Dean was what you wanted, no matter how poor or rich he was. He made you happier than you could ever dream of, fancy cars and nice dinners weren't priorities anymore.

"Dean, do you really think I want someone like that? Someone who sits at his desk all day, writing down recipes to slim down because he isn't active?" You questioned and he laughed, cracking a genuine smile. "You know there's never going to be anyone but you, Dean," You said in a whisper, knowing your fate all too well. He was it. He was always it since the moment you laid eyes on him. He's your forever no matter what.

"I know, baby," He said quietly in return, his warm hands continuing to glide up and down your back. "I wish I could stay with you forever." He sighed and you watched as your fingertips drew small designs into his chest. "I wish you could have found someone else."

"No, you don't," You frowned and his lip began to tremble. "It's not your fault, Dean. You know I'd do the same for you. Hell, I'd even do the same for Sam."

"Maybe you should have fallen for the more alive Winchester," He joked sadly and you gave him a sad smile.

"Sam died first, remember? That's how we ended up here, naked and crying," You laughed and he flashed his perfectly straight teeth at you. He looked so beautiful, even though the circumstances weren't the greatest, you were happy to have the time with him.

"Well, look at us. He gets to live and I'm going to tengo with the Devil. You must have really bad taste in men." He sniffled, playing it off as a joke but it only seem to make him sadder.

"Dean, I'm still here, aren't I?" You checked softly and he nodded his head in silence. "Even though I know how this story ends, I'd do it all again."

"You promise?" Dean asked in between choked breaths.

"I promise, baby."

[gaja-1337]

Hello! This is my first fanfic so I hope you enjoy! Took me a lot of time and courage to write it an post it!

(Side Note: I’m still working on the cover page and still might need a little more time, thank you for your patience!)

✨The Sparkle in Your Eyes✨

(Jotaro x Kakyoin)

[contains a small sex scene]

As the night seemed to be approaching, the Crusaders were able to rest at a nearby luxury hotel. As Joseph got room keys, Kakyoin glanced at Jotaro with a smile, happy to stand next to someone who he had feelings for ever since his life was saved by Jotaro.

Joseph handed everyone their room key and all released a small dissatisfied sigh, as Joseph was the only one to get a singles room while the rest of the Crusaders had to share. Kakyoin wasn’t bothered much by it, he knew that the excuse of “Me and Jotaro are students, so we should share a room” would convince the adults.

Some of the others would poke fun at Kakyoin since they all knew about his feelings for Jotaro. Polnareff would always nudge Kakyoin, making weird sex jokes to brighten the mood at the wrong moments. Avdol would be passive and mostly support Kakyoin and give advice such as “There’s no rush, you have time to make your mind up”. As for Joseph, he couldn’t help but ask Jotaro if the teen was ever interested in having children one day, Jotaro would shrug it off and just tell off the old man, while Kakyoin couldn’t help but look away so his red and flustered face wouldn’t be so seen.

As Kakyoin and Jotaro were settled in the room, Kakyoin wanted to start a conversation, but oh, he sure didn’t know it would turn out so different later on.

K: So, Jotaro, have any interest in video games? Like, at all?

J: Eh, not really... I guess I like the games you’re interested in?

Jotaro looked towards Kakyoin, having a smirk on his handsome face. Kakyoin always enjoyed looking into Jotaro’s eyes, they were green...which reminded the man of his own stand, Hierophant Green, and how it’s his favorite colo(u)r.

K: W-Well… I’m a gaming fanatic! W-Would you really like the games I’m into?

J: Yeah- even if I’m not such a pro at playing games... I like to hear you talk about your own interests at times, it’s the only thing that isn’t boring on this damned trip...

K: Ah, that’s very nice of you to say Jotaro! I never really expect compliments from someone who can be so…. what’s the word…..Cold? Harsh? Mean?

J: Let’s just say that friends have a spot in my books-

That’s the word Kakyoin sometimes doesn’t like hearing….. “Friend”... Kakyoin still smiled, knowing that he was still able to be close to someone he likes having around.

J: Yo, I have a small question to ask…

K: Heh, Go ahead! Ask away

J: Do you… like me by any chance?

At this point, Kakyoin sat completely up, startled from the question. Jotaro sat there with the trademark glare he’d give when he’s absolutely serious and not afraid of going back on his actions or words.

K: Wh-What?! Why a-ask that question?!

J: I’m not dumb, Kakyoin... I pieced everything together and found out maybe after the train ride.

K: I- well…..

Kakyoin froze up, he had no idea what on earth to say after Jotaros question. “How would J-Jotaro think of me? Would he really think kindly of my feelings?” were the words that would always run around in Kakyoin's mind. Kakyoin always knew himself as someone who would stick out like a cherry in a batch of blueberries.

K: How would you think of me… Jotaro.

J: Me being honest, I like you too…

Kakyoin shook up in his spot, he never knew someone he’d have feelings for would be able to accept and also share the same feelings. Kakyoin wanted to explore that feeling more and more, he was almost desperate to do almost anything with Jotaro.

Jotaro also thought to himself, he thought about his words and told himself how he could have said that better. As he looked into Kakyoin's eyes more, he would enjoy seeing that purple night sky glistening right in front him, being reminded of his Stand, Star Platinum, and loved the way Kakyoin’s eyes contrasted from the green and red that bloomed from such a simple outfit.

Kakyoin stood up from the bed and walked closer to Jotaro’s bed, sitting next to the bigger teen, leaning on him. “Yare yare” Jotaro exhaled as he slowly pinned Kakyoin down to the bed. His shoes slid off as he took off his jacket. Jotaro wanted to give the idea of “You better be getting undressed too, I’m not doing this on my own-” towards Kakyoin. Kakyoin started to get undressed slowly so he could take in the moment of being under his new supposed lover.

Jotaro gently pressed his lips against Kakyoins, his tongue stirring in Kakyoin's mouth as sweat already introduced itself into the action. As Kakyoin finally got fully undressed, it was quite easy to see how erect and turned on he was from the previous kissing. They were both slightly panting and sweating despite the fact they haven't done much but kiss.

J: Have you always had such soft skin? It turns me on too much to even feel you at times...

K: H-Heh, why say such a thing Jotaro-kun~.

Kakyoin said as his face was red and being so flustered by Jotaro’s monotone and soft voice in his ear

J: Are you fine with doing this? We don’t even have some of the ’required’ items to continue this far- right…?

K: J-Jotaro-senpai… I don’t care how much it hurts, I don’t mind if there are troubles with anything, It is what it is sometimes, I just want to explore more of this feeling with you! I like you Jotaro, and if it causes me pain, it won’t be much of a bother. We could always get everything we need once this journey is over.

Jotaro didn't know how to feel from that, but it did sound like a scream of “Just fuck me already”. Jotaro undid his belt and slid his pants down, followed by his underwear. Both teens were undressed fully and stared into each other's glistening eyes. Kakyoin turned around to have his back facing Jotaro as he clenched a pillow, awaiting the worst from the now horny and turned on teen pinning him down.

Jotaro took an unnoticeable deep breath and slowly slid his erect cock into Kakyoin, grunting a bit before Kakyoin let out a soft yet quite loud moan. Jotaro felt pleasure, he was in someone he now loved. He loved even more from how tight Kakyoin was since this was both their first time.

K: J-Jotarooo! You f-feel amazing!

J: You keep squeezing me to a point where I can’t stop my hips anymore

Jotaro slightly turned Kakyoin around, continuing to thrust with every movement and lowered his tender lips onto Kakyoin, their tongues touching as they pant from every touch.

Kakyoin couldn’t help but moan his pleasurable feelings. His deepest desires now being acted upon. He began to smile and gently look into Jotaro’s sparkling emerald eyes.

K: A-aah~! As Kakyoin moaned out loud, he threw his head back on the pillow.

Kakyoin came from all the pleasure and so did Jotaro, he came in Kakyoin, smiling as he looked deep into Kakyoin’s purple eyes.

J: We came at the same time, isn’t that surprising?

Kakyoin started to pant, resting his head on the pillow, chuckling and smiling. Jotaro made a face of confusion. Why is Kakyoin laughing at a time like this?

K: I didn’t think we could make such erotic faces, Jotaro-kun~

“Yare Yare”... Jotaro slid himself out Kakyoin and pulled the smaller teen under the blanket and kissed the back of Kakyoin’s neck, falling asleep cuddling Kakyoin close to him. Kakyoin accepted all the actions and fell asleep to Jotaros soft touch.

_________________________________________

Morning finally arrived and all the Crusaders gathered into the lobby with one small problem that everyone understood by just one look on Jotaro and Kakyoins face. Kakyoin wasn't in the best shape to do much work….

“Yare Yare Desu, it’s not so bad-” Kakyoin exhaled

END

(To be Continued...?)

[Another side note: very sorry if the title or other words appear a little off for your device]

[breakyeol]

Heart Glow | 01

masterlist

01 | 02

☆ pairing: chanyeol x reader | ft. baekhyun

☆ genre: alien AU, fluff, smut (next part)  

☆ summary: No, you didn’t witness an alien spacecraft crash in the middle of the woods. No, a half dead person’s heart did not start glowing. And no, that person was not an alien. Because aliens don’t exist… right?

☆ word count: 7.3k 

A/N: shiiii hello. so... i did this. I did a crap job editing so sorry for any grammar or spelling errors in advance. this is the first part of a two or three part series, depending on the length of the next part. ALSO, i made the moodboard thingy so plz don’t repost w/o crediting me :( thank you lovelies, hope you enjoy! 

“I can’t believe you tricked me.” 

“I didn’t trick you!”

“You said we were going to get ice cream!” Baekhyun hissed from the passenger’s seat, arms crossed angrily over his chest as a pout teased his bottom lip. 

You gestured towards the empty ice cream carton sitting in his lap. “Which we did! And now we’re going camping.” 

“You conveniently seemed to have left that part out. This could be considered kidnapping, you know. I could probably sue you.” 

A deep scowl contorted your features as you swung a brief glare in his direction. “Hey! This was my last resort, okay? You promised to go camping with me a while ago! But every time I tried to bring it up you suddenly had plans.” 

“What can I say? Byun Baekhyun is a man in high demand. It’s not my fault I’m so popular.”

A loud scoff had him pinning you with a stinging glare. “You don’t even have any other friends besides me, Baek.” 

“Not true!” 

“Name three.” You retorted swiftly. 

“Kyungsoo, Jongdae, and Minseok,” he smirked triumphantly. 

You took a big breath. “Kyungsoo literally can’t stand you because of that one time you dropped his new phone in your sangria. Jongdae only tolerates you because you work at the same company. Minseok is my friend, not yours. And he doesn’t like you either because of that time you dyed his hair hot pink,” you exhaled, matching his smirk with one of your own, “Try again.”

He spluttered in disbelief, at a loss for words before he finally managed to spit out some form of a reply. “That last one was an accident! It was meant for you!”

“Exactly why I’m your one and only friend.,” you snapped, detaching one hand from the wheel so that you could reach over and flicking his forehead, “because I’m the only person on this planet that can tolerate your bullshit.”

“Whatever,” he scowled, and, knowing he wasn’t going to be winning this argument, smoothly changed the subject, “What’s with the sudden camping trip anyways? You barely ever even want to leave your bed.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong about that. 

In the past, the idea of camping would not have been very appealing. You would have much preferred the warm company of your bed to a thin, cold sleeping bag.You weren’t the type to step out of your comfort zone too frequently. You enjoyed your little bubble, it was safe and happy and familiar. There was no reason for you to go out of your way to try new things or explore the world. You had everything you needed with your job at the bakery, your cozy apartment, your close knit circle of friends. You were content.

But for whatever reason, your head had been feeling rather off these past few months. Like there was something that you were missing. Laying in bed all day was no longer fulfilling, only leaving you drained, dissatisfied, and scoured with the feeling that you’d just wasted precious hours of your life binge watching unrealistic shows and movies. 

This sudden change left you confused and grasping helplessly for answers. 

You’d tried changing little things at first; redecorating your apartment, going out more often to bars or clubs, buying a membership to a gym, et cetera. It was satisfying for a moment, a short lived gratification to make a difference in your life. But it all just felt pointless in the end. It all ended up feeling like white noise. And that little nagging voice in the back of your head grew more and more relentless. 

Figuring out what could possibly soothe it proved to be the biggest challenge you've faced since trying to figure out what college you could attend in your high school years. 

Until you had an epiphany. Maybe it wasn’t something you needed to change… but something you were missing. What exactly it is that you’re missing, you’re still not quite sure of. But hopefully getting away from the noisy city and getting some fresh air and a much needed escape into nature would help clear that up, especially with the help of your beloved best friend Byun Baekhyun at your side. 

“Honestly, I don’t know. I just felt like it was time to do something a little out of my usual daily routine,” you paused, brows furrowing as a sudden thought struck you, “you ever get that feeling like you’re going in circles?” 

“Circles?” He repeated, confusion clear in his voice. “What do you mean?” 

“I mean—“ you stopped abruptly and chuckled softly, shaking your head as you realized it would be impossible to try and untangle the mess of thoughts in your head and lay them out for him, “never mind. It’s too hard to explain.” 

“No, tell—”

“We’re here!” You exclaimed loudly, voice bubbling with excitement as you spotted the sign indicating the beginning of the camping grounds. Pulling into the parking lot, you were shocked to find it completely empty. “Are we… the only people here?” 

“Are you surprised? Who the hell camps anymore?” You decided to ignore his remark, instead, parking and hopping out of your car, before looking over at him with an excited grin. 

“More forest for us then,” you chirped happily, and he groaned, “Come help me unload the trunk. I want to have everything set up before it starts getting dark out.”

Baekhyun scowled as you slammed the door, before sighing dramatically in defeat and unbuckling his seat belt. “This is going to be a long night.”

“When the hell did you have the time to go buy all this camping shit?” Baekhyun grunted, face red with sweat glistening on his brow as you hauled the equipment up a particularly unforgiving hill. You’d somehow convinced —ahem, threatened— him to carry the bulk of the stuff you’d brought, while you got off easy with only carrying your bags and a folding chair.

You shot a light grin at him over your shoulder, shrugging vaguely. “You’d be impressed by how much free time I gained by not sleeping in until two in the afternoon.” 

Baekhyun chuckled dryly, shaking his head as he peered after you in wonder, “you amaze me.” 

You grinned as you looked back at him, only to see that he’d begun to fall quite far behind, exhaustion clear on his features. “Pick up the pace slowpoke! We’ve still got a little more ground left to cover!” You called, laughing as he groaned dramatically and staggered on forward, trying his very best to catch up with you. 

“You enjoy my suffering, don’t you?” He huffed.

“Mm, you know I love it, baby.” You winked, biting your lip as your brows wiggled suggestively. He picked up the first thing his fingers could find off the leafy ground (luckily a small twig and not a rock) and chucked it at your head. 

“Hey! Throwing things is not a solution for your inner rage,” you scolded, squeaking in surprise as he suddenly surged forward, trying to make a grab for you. You dodged out of the way just in time and began booking it up the hill as fast as your admittedly sore legs would carry you, Baekhyun close on your heel with determination burning in his eyes. 

You all but flung yourself to the ground once you reached the peak, laughing breathlessly, sweat glistening on your face, body aching and tired from the exertion, but the feeling of accomplishment warded away any negativity that threatened your mindset. 

Baekhyun staggered up after you, looking even more exhausted than before, face also completely red and knees visibly weak under the weight of his body combined with the mass of the equipment. When he saw you laying on the ground, he dropped everything he’d been carrying and collapsed beside you, trying to catch his breath as he blinked sweat away from his eyes. 

“Are we…” he swallowed as his raspy voice cracked faintly, “here?” 

A grin broke out across your features as you turned your head, finding him already looking at you hopefully. “We’re here,” you confirmed, heading shifting so that you could stare up at the beautiful blue sky peering shyly through the thick green canopy above you. 

“Thank fuck,” he croaked, and you cackled. 

For a few minutes, you laid in comfortable silence (a rare blessing when hanging out with Baekhyun), catching your breath and recuperating from the hike to this special little spot in the woods. 

“Have you been here before?” He suddenly asked, turning to look at you, dark eyes blinking curiously. 

You nodded, smiling nostalgically. “Yeah. My dad and I used to come out here once a year during the summer for a day or two.”  

“No wonder it seemed like you knew where you were going,” he chuckled softly. 

“We came to this exact spot, you know. Because when the sun sets, you have the best view of the stars,” you sighed dreamily, hands rising above your face as you pictured the midnight blue sky riddled with winking stars, “it’s seriously beautiful, Baek. One time I even saw a shooting star.” 

“Did you make a wish?” 

You scoffed in disbelief, turning to look at him with a lopsided grin. “What do you take me for? Of course I did.” 

He laughed softly, “did it come true?” 

You sighed thoughtfully, eyes squinting against the bright blue sky. “No. Not yet.” 

Looking back, you still remember exactly what you’d wished for. But you’d been so young then, so naive and hopeful and, admittedly, pretty dumb. 

It was an unrealistic wish. 

But you couldn’t stop your heart from wanting it, even now. You’d wished for something that most people found unattainable, something only the luckiest of the lucky were able to have, and able to keep. And, especially in these past few months, the universe seemed astonishingly adamant on showing you just how mind bogglingly unlucky you were. 

“Okay!” You exclaimed abruptly, and Baekhyun jumped in surprise, head swinging around to watch with wide eyes as you pushed yourself off of the ground, swatting any dirt that clung to the back of your black leggings. “That’s enough time wasted. Time to set up.”

“Y/n~” Baekhyun whined in protest, flopping back onto the ground as a heavy pout tugged at his lips, “can’t we rest for a little more? My legs still feel like they’re about to fall off.” 

“Nope!” You sang, grabbing his wrists and pulling him upright, ignoring him as he objected loudly. “There’s much to be done before we can relax. Here, we'll set up the tent first and then the fire pit. It won’t take too long, I promise.” 

“Not long my ass.” Baekhyun snapped, glaring at you. 

“Hey, it’s not my fault you don’t know shit about how to properly put up a tent!” You hissed, thrusting an accusing finger in his direction. 

“Why the fuck would I need to know how to put up a stupid tent? You’re the one that dragged us out here in the first place! Take responsibility instead of blaming me!” He bit back harshly, arms folding stubbornly across his chest while he sassily cocked a hip. 

You rolled your eyes, exhaling heavily at his childishness. “We got it done. That’s what matters.” 

Well, you got it done– but you weren’t adamant on starting any more unnecessary arguments with Baekhyun. You’d gotten more than a day’s worth or arguing done in just the last hour while trying to set up your campsite. You dragged him out here to relax, to take a break from any and all things stressful and annoying. You probably should have kept in mind that Baekhyun was, in fact, one of the most annoying people you’d ever had the pleasure of meeting. But you loved him, so it was okay. 

You flopped down on one of the log benches encircled the fire pit, letting out a long breath as you tilted your head back and inhaled deeply, a nostalgic smile flickering at the corners of your lips. The musky scent of the smoke you brought back memories you’d thought you’d long forgotten, if the long nights spent laughing and joking with your dad into the early morning, until you both collapsed from exhaustion with bellies full of s’mores and cheap hot cocoa. They were nice memories. But they made you sad. The kind of sad that felt like a heavy stone had been dropped on your chest. 

Baekhyun dropped down beside you, and you felt his shoulder nudge up against yours. Peeling open your eyelids, you glanced over at him with a raised brow. 

“What did you mean earlier?” 

You blinked at him. “What?”

“When you said the thing about circles?” He elaborated, throwing in a circular hand motion for good measure. 

“Circles?” You pondered for a moment before finally recalling the conversation you’d been having in the car before you arrived. “Oh. That. Well… I don’t think I can really… it’ll just sound stupid once I actually try to say it out loud, and explaining it would be too complicated—”

“Try.” 

You opened your mouth, about to give a smart aleck reply, but then you met his gaze. There was something so sincere in his dark eyes, something pleading. He wanted to know what was on your mind, what was bothering you. He wanted to help you. You felt an unexpected warmth in your chest, a gratefulness swelling up inside of you. 

In spite of his obnoxious, playful nature, Baekhyun was one of the most genuine people you’d ever met in your entire life. He was honest, thoughtful, and loving. He had a good heart. And although you’d never admit it out loud, because you’d never hear the end of it from him, you were very glad to have him as your best friend. Maybe one day you’d tell him everything he meant to you. One day, when his incessant teasing wouldn’t be so brutal and he wouldn’t rub it in your face with that stupid lopsided grin on his face every chance that he got. 

And so, regardless of not quite understanding your internal turmoil yourself, you tried your very best to explain it to him. To put into words the confusing emotions and thoughts that were running amuck in your head. You bore your every thought, every worry, every trouble, not missing a single detail if you could help it. You laid it all out for him, as best you could without sounding completely insane. 

There was a brief pause when you finished, the only sound was the low cracking of the flames as  they playfully danced before your eyes. It made you feel anxious. But there was also a sense of unparalleled relief to have finally gotten all of that off of your chest. 

“Maybe you’re lonely.”

You were surprised by the suggestion, turning him with brows furrowed in confusion. “Lonely? Why would I be lonely? I’m not lonely.”

“It sure sounds like you’re lonely.”

You immediately shook your head, rejecting the idea. “That doesn’t make sense. I have plenty of friends, I’m surrounded by people all day at work. I also have your annoying ass with me twenty four seven,” you teased. Baekhyun scowled. 

“Not that kind of lonely, dumbass. Romantically.” He paused, searching your face for any kind of understanding. But, he could only sigh in frustration as he saw the look of pure confusion in your eyes, making it very obvious you didn’t understand what he was saying whatsoever. “When did you and Junmyeon break up?” 

“I don’t know. A year ago, maybe? But why are you bringing him up?” 

Disregarding your question, he asked another one of his own. “Have you been with anyone else since then?” 

You paused, trying to recall if you’d had any flings or short lived romances with anybody after your breakup, but could call none to mind. “No. I don’t think so.” 

“Well… have you been with anyone since?” 

You gasped, shocked he’d ask you something like that so outright. “Baekhyun!” 

“Oh my gosh, just answer! It’s not like we haven’t talked about our sex lives before.” He rolled his eyes at the flabbergasted expression on your face, shoving your arm lightly. 

“You mean you talking to me about your sex life,” you corrected, stabbing an accusing finger into his chest, to which he swatted your hand away with a pointed glare. Huffing, you swung your gaze away from him, choosing instead to focus on the flickering orange flames in front of you. “No. No, I have not been with anybody since Junmyeon.” 

You jumped as he suddenly clapped his hands together, eyes wide like he’d just discovered the solution to world hunger, “Therein lies your problem! You just need to have sex!” You rained down a vicious attack of hits on his arm and chest, spewing curses at him until he finally relented, “ow! Ow! I’m joking, y/n, joking! Stop hitting me!” 

“You’re disgusting, Baekhyun.” You spat, frustrated beyond belief as you pushed yourself off of the log and stood up, “Why’d I think you’d actually try to help me?” 

You turned, about to leave, when he suddenly grabbed your wrist and tugged you back. “Wait! Wait, I’m sorry. I’ll be serious. Sit back down,” he gave another pleading pull at your hand, looking up with what you hoped was genuine sincerity in his eyes, “please?” 

You hesitated for a moment, before huffing in defeat and dropping back down into the chair. He smiled faintly, adjusting his hold on your wrist so that he could play with your fingers. There was a brief lull of silence before he finally spoke up. “I was serious about the lonely thing. Even if you do have people in your life all the time, and my annoying ass hanging around,” he added playfully, and you chuckled, “it seems like you miss that more intimate part of being in a relationship with someone.”

“The intimate part?” You repeated, looking over at him with furrowed brows. He nodded in confirmation. 

“It seems like you miss knowing someone inside and out, and someone knowing you just as deeply. You mentioned having nightmares more often than before, right? It sounds like you miss sharing your bed with someone, I think that gave you a sense of security.” You listened intently as he spoke. It still surprised you at times when your best friend, your goofy, annoying, yet somehow lovable best friend, dropped heavy wisdom on you out of the blue. Sometimes, you forgot how deep his mind and heart actually were. 

Maybe you were lonely. Maybe you’d been lonely for so long and had gotten so used to the emptiness that you didn’t even realize that it was loneliness you were feeling. Maybe this whole time, that something you’d been craving and subconsciously searching for, was actually someone. Maybe more than anything in the world, you wanted somebody to fill up that hollow place in your heart, somebody to hold, somebody to kiss, somebody to love. 

And maybe you wanted it so badly that you’d take it just about anywhere you could find it. 

That last bit probably wasn’t true. You weren’t desperate for affection by any means. But, at the very least, it would explain why you found yourself staring at Baekhyun’s lips for a few seconds longer than a friend probably should. Just long enough for him to notice. His voice fizzled off into the night air, the only sounds left surrounding you were the gentle crackling of the orange flames and the sensual song of the cicadas hidden in the trees. 

You watched as he blinked, confusion and intrigue gracing his gentle features in the form of a warm pink blush and fluttering eyelashes. You felt your heart start to pick up speed. 

“Baekhyun,” you murmured, voice almost quiet enough to be lost amongst the hushed rustling of leaves. 

He swallowed, and you watched with unfamiliar intensity as his Adam’s Apple bobbed. “Yeah?” He whispered, his own voice strained and heavy on his tongue. His hands curled into tight fists on his lap as you subconsciously licked your lips. 

“Can I…” your stare flickered up to meet his, “try something?” 

His face reddened as he glanced briefly at your mouth before hurriedly meeting your eyes, giving a single, faint nod in response. “Okay.” At his consent, you shifted closer to him, until your thigh gently bumped his, your shoulders nudging up against one another. Up close, it seemed as if you could see every detail of his face. Every stray freckle, every delicate eyelash, 

It was strange. But familiar. A nervous sensation bubbled up inside of you when you met his wide eyed gaze, and you found yourself faltering. 

“Can you close your eyes?” 

The request was met with hesitance at first, understandably. But soon enough he was nodding, eyes squeezing shut obediently. He pursued his lips, brows furrowing as he breathed unevenly through his nose, 

You suddenly found yourself being reminded of a night long ago. When the two of you were still teenagers, young and reckless and hormonal. 

He’d been over at your place. You’d talked and laughed late into the night, even stolen a glass of your mom’s prized wine just to try. You hadn’t been too fond of the flavor, though Baekhyun loved it. You remember laughing at how quickly he got himself tipsy, cheeks going a soft pink, eyes becoming hooded, lips pulling into a hazy little grin. You’d listened to him babble aimlessly for almost an hour before he’d finally fallen asleep, slumping unexpectedly against you mid sentence, head falling onto your shoulder, hands wrapped loosely around your waist. 

You can still remember the warmth of his breath against your neck, the softness of his cheek on your shoulder, the faint tickling sensation of his hair under your chin. He’d looked so innocent then, features washed in the delicate grey moonlight, making him almost seem to glow. You remember looking at him— really looking at him for the first time in your life. You’d always known he was considered attractive by many, the subject of several girls’ fantasies, but you saw him differently that night. Just as you were seeing him differently now. 

Only now, you weren’t in your bedroom wrapped up in your warm comforter, but washed in the throbbing heat of a campfire. And it wasn’t the moonlight that made him glow, but the flickering yellow flame that doused his entire body in the hellish radiance. 

You couldn’t help but to wonder when exactly he’d become a man. It seemed like it wasn’t long ago that he was that goofy little boy with the weird haircut and a mouth that could run for hours without becoming exhausted. How had you not noticed him changing before your very eyes? 

He shuddered when your fingers suddenly raised, ever so gently feathering over his cheek, and you saw his eyes squeeze tighter. You let your hand settle around the back of his neck, cupping it loosely. He leaned forward ever so slightly, and you felt the side of his chest pressing against your arm. You tilted your chin upwards. You felt his breath tickle your upper lip. The faintest of chills rolled down your spine. 

Were you really about to do this? Were you really about to kiss your best friend? It definitely wasn’t a good idea. But you couldn’t really bring yourself to care. 

Your train of thought was unexpectedly halted by an odd noise. A faint humming or whistling, you couldn’t quite make it out. But, it was enough to have you leaning away from Baekhyun’s puckered lips, just in time to catch a streak of white light piercing the midnight blue sky. For a moment, you thought it might’ve been a shooting star. But, shooting stars are there then gone in the blink of an eye. Whatever this was, wasn’t vanishing. In fact, it seemed to be getting closer.

“What the hell?” You muttered, face contorting in confusion. 

Baekhyun’s eyes fluttered open, his brows furrowing as he caught sight of your unsettled expression. “What? What’s wr—”

And then, all at once, it felt as if the air itself had come… alive. 

It vibrated around you, buzzing excitedly. Warm and energized, it sent something equivalent to jolts of electricity shooting through your veins. The hair on your arms and the back of your neck stood on end, skin rippling with goosebumps. An unfamiliar anticipation seized you violently.

It all happened so fast.  

There was a flash of white in your peripheral vision, and the whistling sound progressed into a low, prolonged shriek. Confusion and fear ripped through you. “Baekhyun—” you tried to reach for him, but next thing you knew, you were knocked flat on your back by a sudden sharp rush of wind, leaving you gasping and heaving desperately. You recognized the feeling of not being able to breathe. The air had been knocked from your lungs. 

A skull splitting screech tore through the night sky. Your hands leapt to cover your ears, eyes squeezing shut in agony, the sound making your head feel like it was about to explode. There was a flash of something bright behind your eyelids, and then an unearthly howling, before a deafening explosion flung your writhing body across the damp earth. 

The last thing you felt was a pain equivalent to receiving a knife to the back of head before a deep, inky blackness consumed you.

“Y/n!” 

Your eyes snapped open at the sound of someone calling your name, ears ringing faintly, vision blurry for a moment before focusing on the familiar, worried face of your best friend, Byun Baekhyun. 

“Baek?” You muttered softly in confusion, throat feeling dry and raw. 

“Thank god. You scared the living shit out of me,” he laughed, but you could just make out the glistening reminisce of tears clinging to his eyelashes. The ground felt as if it might fall out from underneath you as you pushed yourself upright with a low groan, trying your very best to ignore the dull throb in the back of your skull. “Are you alright? You hit your head really hard.” 

You carefully touched the back of your head, drawing away sharply as the faintest pressure sent a shock of pain shooting through the area. “Did I? Shit. What happened?”

His eyes went wide, trembling hands shooting out to grab your shoulders. “You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Look for yourself.” He gestured with a sharp nod of his head at the large grey rock you just realized you were tucked safely behind. Glancing at him skeptically, you crept forward on your hands and knees before slowly leaning up and peering over. 

The first thing you saw was flame. Dull orange flames flickered lazily, some scattered in the wet grass, others clinging onto the shredded silver metal of the massive contraption that had broken through the treetops and created a dent in the earth. 

“Holy shit.” You blinked in disbelief, jaw going slack as you stared at the scene before you, an equal amount of both horror and curiosity flooding through you. “Is that… is that a—” 

“An alien spacecraft? Yes indeed.” 

“Don’t be fucking stupid.” You hissed, smacking the back of his head. “That’s impossible.”

“Well the fuck else could it be, y/n?”  He laughed harshly in disbelief, throwing his hands up as his eyes took on a wild appearance. “Have you ever seen an airplane that looks like that before, huh?” 

You wracked your brain for some kind of rational explanation, spluttering out weakly, “maybe it’s some sort of satellite or something.” 

“Yeah–fucking–right.” Baekhyun was shaking his head suddenly, pulling at your arm as something anxious glinted in his usually playful gaze. “We have to get out of here. This is fucking insane. This is—” he froze abruptly, body tensing beside you, the hold he had on your arm tightening substantially, “what the fuck is that?”

“What’s what?” You murmured in confusion, head whipping around to try and find whatever it was that caught his eye. It didn’t take very long. 

There was a dark shape on the ground, a lump in the grass. You squinted, before your eyes widened in horror. You might’ve easily mistaken it for a rock in the darkness had it not been for the dull glow of the fire from the strange aircraft and the bright silver moonlight.

“It’s a person.” You murmured in  realization, slowly standing up right. Baekhyun was quick to snatch your wrist.

“What are you doing? Are you crazy?” He hissed, eyes looking about ready to pop out of his skull. 

“They look hurt! We can’t just leave them there!” You yanked your wrist sharply out of his hold, turning on your heels and cautiously making your way over to the unmoving person, completely ignoring Baekhyun’s frantic calls for you to ‘get your ass back over here’. 

You could admit that a part of you was scared shitless, but what kind of person would you be to just leave them here, completely defenseless. As you grew closer, the person's features gradually became clearer. It was a man. Washed in the pale moonlight, he almost appeared to be… glowing. Tanned skin, hair red as blood, body covered in nothing but bruises, gashes, and ash. Even in that state, you couldn’t deny how handsome he was. But that definitely wasn’t your greatest concern. No, your attention was captured more by the fresh wounds littered across his naked body. There was one especially nasty looking one across his chest. 

Unsurprisingly, you soon felt Baekhyun’s worried presence looming over your shoulder, spluttering out curses as he took in the state of the unconscious boy. 

“Oh my god. That’s a lot of blood. Is he dead? I think he’s dead. He looks really dead. What are we gonna do, y/n?” Baekhyun rambled, voice panicked and frightened as he paced anxiously behind you.

“He’s still breathing, shit head,” you snapped, shooting him a pointed look over your shoulder, “but we have to get him to a hospital, and fast. He’s bleeding a lot.” 

The amount of blood seeping from the gash in his chest was increasing by the second. You wracked your brain for a way to ease it up before he bled out in the spot. Inspiration struck you in the form of your best friend’s yellow and blue plaid button up. “Baek, quick, take off your shirt.”

His face twisted. “Excuse me?”

“Just take it off! We need something to cover him with and to stop the bleeding,” you explained hurriedly, not giving him a chance to respond before you were shoving it off of his shoulders and pulling it down his arms. 

“Hey! Hey! I’m not wearing anything under this! This is assault! Assault!” He shrieked, attempting to squirm away from you, when suddenly a loud tearing sound split the air. His jaw dropped, gasping as he stared in horror at his sleeve hanging limply in your hand. “Y/n! This is my favorite shirt!”

“I’m sorry! But I think he needs it a little more than you do right now. I’ll buy you a new one I promise, but can I please have it for now? He's completely naked,” you tried to reason, gesturing vaguely towards the man’s bare nether regions that were just somewhat distracting. 

“Fine,” he relented, albeit visibly disgruntled, “but you’re buying me dinner for the next month!” How he was making demands like that at a time like this, you’re not quite sure. Byun Baekhyun was and always will be a strange, strange man.

“Fine, whatever, just take it off already, Jesus,” you rushed. He huffed in annoyance, but his fingers made quick work of the buttons, not fighting you off when you pulled it off his arms completely and turned to get to work on covering up the large wound. 

“My decency…” Baekhyun pouted as he covered his bare chest. 

You rolled your eyes. “Is that really what you’re worried about right now? Seriously? I think we have bigger things at hand.” 

“Yeah, like the fucking spaceship that just crashed!” He thrust a finger in the direction of where the large metal aircraft had crash landed not one hundred feet away from where you’d set up your camp. 

You shot a brief glare in his direction, “It’s not a spaceship.”

“Really? Because I’ve never seen a plane that looks like that before. Do you know any flying vehicles that look like that? No! Because there are none! Not on earth at least.” 

“Baekhyun, please! Shut up for two seconds so I can focus!” You snapped, your shaking hands working anxiously to press the torn fabric  against the large wound to alleviate the bleeding. It was rather nerve wracking knowing that a person’s life could possibly be in your hands. 

“I’m sorry! You know I ramble when I get worked up.” He whined defensively. Ignoring him, you carefully tied the ripped sleeves tightly around the man’s chest, applying pressure to the injury.

“We have to get him to the car. Help me get him up. Grab his legs.” You commanded, grunting as you hauled his torso up so that you could hook your arms under his armpits. 

Baekhyun let out a sound of disbelief. “Why do I have to take the legs? You take the legs!” 

“I don’t want his junk all up in my face!” 

“And you think I do?!” He yelped out, giving a sharp shout of pain as you smacked the top of his head. “Fine! Fine! I concede! Gosh, you’re so violent. Hitting people won’t solve all of your problems, you know!” 

“True. But it’ll solve this one.” 

It took you less than half of the time it took you to trek up the steep incline of the hill to haul the limp body of the boy back down it. Most likely because the two of you were running like your asses were on fire, the threat of the odd aircraft possibly exploding at any given moment adding much needed encouragement to ignore the sharp burning of your sore legs and the notable aching of your lungs. 

By the time you reached the car, you were sweating profusely and heaving for breath. Your arms felt like they were just about ready to fall off, knees weak beneath you. Your fingers were shaking as you fumbled to yank open the back door. 

“You drive,” you demanded, maneuvering into the backseat with the unconscious boy, pulling his top half up so that he was positioned over your lap, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t bleed all over my leather.” 

Baekhyun would never step out on the opportunity to drive your car, nodding sharply in agreement. “Good idea.” 

Slamming the door shut, he scrambled into the driver's seat, the engine purring to life as he turned the keys in the ignition. The tires kicked up gravel as they swiveled, the car jerked backwards before Baekhyun was swinging the wheel to the left, and you were taking off down the same path you’d come in on. 

You watched through the back window as heavy grey smoke smothered the twinkling white stars, obscuring the bright moon from view completely. Your heart lurched in your chest, your throat running dry as you watched the tips of angry flames consuming the treetops, the heavy grey smoke throbbing with an under glow of orange and yellow. It was a terrifying sight. You’d never seen anything like it in your entire life. 

Your hands, pressed down firmly against the boy’s dressed wound, were shaking profusely. You could hear the sound of your blood pulsing in your ears, the thundering of your own heart a deafening echo in the back of your skull. 

Calm down, y/n. Calm the fuck down. 

Baekhyun glanced back at you through the rear view mirror, then at the receding flames. “Do you think it’s going to—” Any speculation he was about to offer was silenced abruptly by a flash of white light and an unearthly boom. Your entire body went stiff, your breath escaping you in sharp, uneven gasps. The hold you had around the unconscious boy’s body tightened. “Holy fucking shit, y/n. Holy fucking shit. What the hell is happening right now?” 

You shook your head, at as much of a loss for answers as he was. “I don’t—” you swallowed, your throat feeling unexpectedly dry and tight, “I don’t know, Baek.” 

“Did we seriously just witness an alien spaceship crash landing on earth? Oh my god. If the government finds out— they’ll kill us won’t they? Y/n, we’re so screwed! We’ll have to go into hiding. We have to get new identities. Y/n l/n and Byun Baekhyun have to disappear. We can’t—” you cut off his senseless rambling for the umpteenth time that night. 

“Baekhyun! No one is coming to kill us! We will not have to go into hiding or find new identities or any of that sci-fi bullshit because this is real fucking life and alien spacecrafts don’t just fall out of the damn sky in real life.” 

“Like you’d know! Remind me how many movies about aliens you’ve watched in your lifetime?” You rolled your eyes, not bothering to justify such a ridiculous inquiry with a response. But, he took your silence as a sign of you admitting defeat, “yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“Baekhyun, just pay attention to the—” you cut yourself off as the hand you were holding over his chest suddenly began to feel incredibly warm, the kind of heat you feel when hovering your hands in front of a flame. Brows furrowed in confusion, you lowered your gaze. A warm, crimson glow was emulating from beneath your palm. Confusion swirling to life inside of you. Slowly, you removed your hand. 

“What the fuck.”

“What the fuck what? What what the fuck?” Baekhyun questioned curiously from behind the wheel.  

“He’s… glowing.”

“Glowing? What’s glowing?”

“He’s fucking glowing, Baekhyun!” You snapped. 

He tore his eyes away from the road, torso swiveling around to try and get a glimpse as to what the hell you were talking about. “What the hell are you—,” he did a double take, eyes bulging as his jaw dropped, “holy mother of shit.” 

You could only stare, completely awestruck as his chest was consumed in a deep, blood red glow, like there was a fucking flashlight shining from the inside of him. The glow intensified, and you drew away like you’d been burned. “Baekhyun,” your voice was shaking as you called for him helplessly, a heavy sense of fear settling into your gut, “Baekhyun, what do I do?”

“I don’t know! I’ve never been in a situation like this before!” His voice was panicked and pitchy, cracking every other word like it always did when he was on the verge of losing his shit. “Try s–smacking it or something!” 

“I’m not going to smack it! What if it’s radioactive or something and we blow up!” You hissed back, trying uselessly to wriggle out from underneath the unconscious boy’s suddenly stifling weight. 

“Oh god,” Baekhyun cried out distraughtly, “we’re going to die!” 

You opened your mouth to try and argue, but all at once, the brightness of the glow emulating from the boy’s chest increased tenfold, your eyes burning fiercely from the unexpected intensity, drawing a yell of shock from your lips. 

Okay. So maybe dying was a distinct possibility. 

But just as quickly as it had come, the glow suddenly vanished. “What happened?! What just happened?!” Baekhyun demanded from the front seat, head swinging back and forth frantically between you and the road. You couldn’t bring yourself to form a proper sentence. “Y/n? Y/n?!” 

You stared blankly at the makeshift wrapping you’d made from the sleeves of Baekhyun’s favorite shirt. You found your curiosity getting the better of you. You reached towards the fabric fastened securely around his chest. Slowly, you undid the knot you’d so deliberately made, watching as the sleeves went slack and fell limply across your lap. For a moment, you were at a complete loss for words. 

“I–it’s gone,” you breathed in disbelief, trembling fingers grazing over the smooth expanse of skin that was only seconds ago marred with a deep, jagged wound. 

“What? What’s gone?” Baekhyun questioned, turning around once again. 

“H–how…” you choked on your confusion, head slowly shaking in denial. All at once, a horrible realization struck you. There was no fucking way that it was a human being laying across your lap fucking glowing. Because humans don’t glow. Because humans don’t fall out of strange aircrafts that don’t exist on earth. Because humans don’t magically heal their own wounds. 

So what, the holy hell, was on top of you?

You didn’t have much time to try and process it, because suddenly, there was honking. Loud, incessant honking. When you lifted your head, you were shocked to be blinded by a pair of bright bright headlights. It took you less than a second to process that Baekhyun had swerved to the wrong side of the road and there was a massive truck headed straight for you. 

“Baekhyun the road—!” A scream ripped from your throat. 

His head whipped around, eyes going wide as his lips parted in horror. 

There wasn’t enough time to swerve. 

And for a moment, it was like time slowed down. 

You never could have imagined that your cause of death would be getting flattened by a truck. Damn. You’d really hoped that you would go out with a little more grace than that, preferably from old age. Poison would’ve worked too. How cool would you have sounded? 

But now, when people ask how y/n l/n died— “oh, she was squashed by a semi.” See? It’s just… meh. There just isn’t as much of a kick to it as, “she was mysteriously poisoned one day… people suspect it was the jealous pool boy.” See. That’s much more mysterious, intriguing, and suspenseful. 

Plus, there was always a jealous pool boy in your death fantasies. There’d never been a massive red semi, though. What a shame. 

You closed your eyes, body bracing for the impending impact. 

… but it never came. 

Confusion washed over you as one second after another passed and you didn’t feel your bones being crushed or your body being mangled. Hesitantly, you peeled open an eye. It took you a second to process what had happened, and why there was a dark shadow cast over the car. 

But once you had, for the second time that night, it felt like the air had been knocked out of your lungs. 

Looking up through the large sunroof that stretched across the entire top of your car, you were met with the underbelly of a truck. The intricate maze of  grey tubes, oil stained metal, and the insides of massive black tires were unmistakable. It was like it was happening in slow motion. Your eyes followed as the truck gravitated over your car, emulating an eerie red glow, before landing smoothly back on the road one hundred or so feet behind it, driving off like nothing had even happened. 

Your mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, eyes just about ready to pop out of your damn skull. “W– what…” your voice escaped you as less than a whisper, eyes blinking slowly as your brain tried to process what it had just seen. A cold palm pressing against your cheek was what broke you from your stunned trance. Slowly, you turned your head. 

You were in such a state of shock that you couldn’t even bring your stiff body or distraught mind to react to the glowing red eyes that were staring back at you before they fell shut and a pair of warm, plush lips were being pressed to yours. 

Well… fuck. 

You can officially say that this has been the most eventful night of your life.

[collapsingintojupiter]

Patton being sick and Logan having to do all his normal duties - laundry, cooking, homework help - but, needless to say, he doesn't really have a lot of experience with it. Remus and Roman as their kids, of course.

Heh, this was a fun one to write. I kept the original prompt but I’ll be honest I did tweak a few of the details, mostly because of how I personally envision this specific Logicality situation would go. 

Characters: Patton, Logan, Roman, Remus

Relationships: Logicality

Warnings: There is some chaotic 7-year old Remus content. Nothing graphic or nasty though. If you want something added here please let me know.

_____

“Patton, please sit down.” Logan sighed, exasperated, as Patton stubbornly tried to get up off the couch again. “Dear, you’re sick.”

“But the kids! They need breakfast! I need to make them breakfast!” Patton gasped, his face hot and flushed with the mere effort of sitting up. 

“Patton, dearest, I can make them breakfast. Don’t strain yourself.” Logan returned to his husband’s side with a glass of water, which he set down on the coffee table before helping Patton lay down again. “Now don’t get up again,” he said sternly. “Let me handle things.”

“Papa, what’s going on?” Logan turned as Roman and Remus ran into the living room, eyes going wide when they saw Patton down on the sofa, meekly sipping at his water with a straw. Logan could tell; he was too weak to argue with him any more on the matter. 

Which left only the matter of taking care of their 7-year old twin sons.  

“Roman Remus, go sit down at the table. I will be making breakfast this morning,” he told them. 

“What’s wrong with Dad?” Remus asked. 

“He is merely sick, Remus.”

“Will he get better?”

“Of course. But he needs to rest for now. In the meantime, I will be taking care of you two.”

“What about your work, Papa?” Roman asked, having already seated himself at the table. Logan smiled ever-so slightly as he led Remus to join him. 

“Don’t worry about that, Roman. I’ve already called in to let them know.”

“So we get to play with you today?” Remus asked excitedly. 

“Perhaps. But first, you have school, don’t you?” Logan chuckled a little at the two boys’ groans as he went to the cupboard, pulling out a box of Cocoa Puffs and getting the milk from the fridge. 

“Logan, are the boys--”

“You’re supposed to be resting Patton, not worrying,” Logan called. “They are simply disgruntled because they have to go to school.”

“What’s disgruntled mean?” Roman asked. 

“It means that you are dissatisfied with--”

“It means you aren’t happy that you have to go to school,” Patton interrupted. 

“Patton!”

“Sorry, dear!” Logan could hear his husband laughing on the couch. “It’s just, the boys can’t always understand your big words.”

“I’m disgruntled!” Remus proclaimed. “Can I stay home with Dad?”

“Not a chance, sport,” Patton called. “You need your education.”

“Patton, am I going to have to take you back to your room?”

“You’re gonna put Papa in timeout?” Remus asked. Logan sighed, setting the bowls, milk, and cereal on the table in front of the boys. 

“Eat your breakfast,” he ordered, “I don’t want you two to be late.”

Once the food was in front of them it wasn’t hard to keep the twins busy, and Logan set to work collecting their backpacks and homework. 

“Did you get their math books?” Patton asked as he made his way back towards the kitchen. 

“Yes, Patton.”

“And their spelling books?”

“Yes, Patton.”

“And their--”

“Patton.”

“Yes?”

“I have their homework. I have all of their homework.” Logan set the two backpacks down in the front entryway, then went to refill Patton’s water for him. His husband smiled at him when he returned. 

“Sorry dear,” he said. “It’s just I worry about--”

“I know, Patton.” Logan pressed a soft kiss to his forehead, then stood up again. “But let me worry about things today, okay? The boys will be fine.” Patton smiled again. 

“You’re doing a wonderful job,” he said. 

“I try.” Logan went back to the kitchen and saw that the twins had put their dishes in the sink, but they hadn’t put away the milk again. He sighed and did so, before going to the entryway where his sons were busy pulling on their shoes and coats. 

Well, Roman was. 

Remus was trying to make a paper airplane out of the math homework from his bag. 

“I’m gonna throw it at Mrs. Johnson today!” he told Logan when he saw him. 

“And why is that?” Logan asked with a frown. 

“She’s mean!” Remus said, and Roman nodded his agreement. 

“She always yells at us when we get math problems wrong, and she called Remus stupid once!”

“She did?”

“Yeah! I hate her!” Remus growled. “So I’m gonna throw this at her!” Logan was quiet for a long time. Then he nodded, and held out his hand. 

“Can I see that?” he asked. Remus hesitantly gave it to him, and Logan quickly set to work modifying the design. “Here,” he said after a moment, handing back the paper plane. “With the wings shaped like this, your plane will fly further and be more accurate.”

“Whoahhhhh,” Remus said in amazement, taking the plane back from Logan. “Thanks Papa!”

“Logan, what are you boys--”

“Nothing, dear.” Logan smiled at Remus and held a finger to his lips, then stood up and helped him put on his coat and backpack. 

“Patton? I’ll be back in about half an hour, okay? I’ll see what I can find for you at the store.”

“I love you Logan!”

“I love you too, dear.” Logan herded the twins out the door and into the car, where he spent the next ten minutes listening to Remus recite gross science facts to him and Roman ramble excitedly about dragons. When they got to the school parking lot the two raced each other inside, shrieking at each other the whole way. 

Logan sat there in the car for a moment after they’d gone, shaking his head slowly. 

“Where do they get all that energy?” he asked himself. 

He stopped at the grocery store on the way home, picking up ginger ale, more bread, bananas, and some medicine that would help Patton feel better. Logan hoped that he hadn’t been gone for too long when he got back--and sure enough, Patton was still sitting on the couch, watching the doorway he’d just come through.

“Dear, I do hope that you’re resting and not stressing yourself out more,” Logan mused as he set the groceries down on the counter. He filled a glass with ice and ginger ale, bringing it to Patton’s side and sitting down next to him. Patton took a sip and smiled. 

“The boys behave in the car?”

“They were the epitome of obedience and discipline,” Logan replied. Patton chuckled at that, then leaned against Logan’s chest and snuggled against him. 

“You’re nice and warm,” he said. 

“You have a fever, Patton.”

“Shhh, let me hug you.” Logan smiled fondly at his husband, then wrapped an arm around him as he absentmindedly picked up the remote to turn the TV on. It wasn’t long before Patton was fast asleep, not even halfway through the Disney movie Logan had put on for him. He watched for a little while, but before long he too was asleep. 

…

“Logan! Logan!” Logan jolted awake to find Patton shaking him, his curly hair a mess and his glasses askew. 

“Patton, what is the matter?” he asked, trying to compose himself as he sat up. 

“Logan, the principal just called me!” Patton yelped. “Remus is in trouble for something, and I--” Logan’s eyes widened, and he abruptly stood. 

“I’ll be back soon hun!” he shouted, bolting for the door. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this! I love you!”

Logan didn’t wait for Patton to answer as he raced out the door and slammed it shut behind him, banishing the grogginess from his mind as he jumped into the car and started it. He gripped the steering wheel tightly as he drove back towards the school; he had no idea how he hadn’t heard the phone ringing, but what did know was exactly why Remus was in trouble. He was also pretty sure that Roman would be joining him shortly. The two hated to be apart. 

Moreover, Logan wasn’t exactly sure how he planned on explaining this to Patton when he got back. And when he was supposed to be resting too, not worrying about his sons! 

Such an idiot, Logan thought with a sigh. Course, Remus wouldn’t be in trouble with him, and he’d certainly have some words for the principal when he got there, and….oh, why did such rotten people get to be in charge of children like his? This was ridiculous. Logan let out a huff as he pulled into the parking lot, shutting the car door rather hard behind him as he marched inside. 

He made his way to the principal’s office, where he found a tired, balding man sitting behind a desk beyond the window of the secretary’s office. Remus pouted in the chair in front of him, and as Logan had predicted, Roman was sitting next to him. Those two really did do everything together. 

“Are you Mr. Sanders?” asked a voice, and Logan turned to see a small, red-haired woman sitting at another desk on his right. 

“I am,” he replied. 

“The principal’s waiting for you.”

“So I noticed.” Logan opened the door and stepped into the principal’s office, looking down at the older man with an unreadable expression.

“Ah...you are not who I was expecting…” he started to say, but Logan held his hand up. 

“My husband is sick. Is there a problem?” The principal turned red. 

“N-No, of course not. Well, I mean...I-I don’t believe we’ve met before. I’m Charles Lawrey, the boys’ principal.”

“I can read,” Logan answered. “Why is my son in trouble?”

“W-Well you see, Mr. Sanders, your son Remus threw a paper airplane at his math teacher--”

“Is this the one that called him stupid?” Logan interrupted. He saw Remus’ eyes light up at that; he gave the boy a stern look and he quickly went back to pouting. 

“I-I...what, sir?”

“I asked, is this the teacher that called my son stupid?” Logan repeated, crossing his arms and gazing sternly down at the principal. 

“I-I don’t know sir, but you see, it’s--”

“Remus, did that woman call you stupid?” Remus nodded. “Hmmm. So, Mr. Lawrey, you’re telling me that you have wasted half an hour of my time, woken up my sick husband, and disrupted the education of my children because they grew tired of having to deal with such inappropriate behavior from an adult, and not only that but from a teacher at your school?”

“Sir!” The principal spluttered. “Your children disrupted the education of the other students!”

“Then consider a more competent teacher to put in charge of my boys.” Logan turned. “Roman, Remus, let’s go.” The twins got up without a word and followed Logan out of the office, out of the school, and back to the car. 

Once they were driving again, Remus was the first to speak. He was always the first to speak. 

“I never seen anybody get mad at the principal like that before,” he said. Logan sighed. 

“I’m sorry you boys have had to put up with all of this,” he said. 

“Are we going home?” Roman asked. 

“Nope. We’re going to get ice cream.” Logan smiled at the twins’ cheers. 

He took the two into the nearest ice cream shop and let them get whatever they wanted. Remus chose a scoop of peanut butter-chocolate ice cream with lots of gummy worms on top, and Roman got strawberry with a heaping of chocolate fudge. The ice cream was enough to keep them quiet for the rest of the drive back, which Logan discovered he was more than grateful for. 

The moment the trio stepped inside the house, Patton’s voice called from the kitchen. 

“Logan, honey? Are you guys home?” The twins looked at Logan, and he motioned to the kitchen table. 

“You two get started on your homework and I’ll talk to Dad, okay?” The boys nodded. 

“Thanks Papa!” Roman said. Remus echoed him as they took their backpacks to the kitchen table, and Logan went to join his husband by the couch. Patton raised an eyebrow as he sat down, and Logan glanced aside. 

“You son was in trouble for throwing a paper airplane at his math teacher,” he explained. 

“And what did Roman do?” Patton asked. 

“I went pbththbthbhbhrbhbt at her when she tried to take him away!” Roman yelled from the kitchen table, along with a long raspberry noise for extra emphasis. 

“I see.” Patton looked at Logan. “And what did you think of Mr. Lawrey?”

“A despicable character,” Logan grumbled, crinkling his nose in disgust. “Incompetent.”

“Papa, what does despicable---”

“Remus, please let your Papa and Dad talk. I’ll be over there in a minute.”

The boys quieted down, and Patton grinned a little at Logan. “I didn’t like him either,” he said. “But hon, we can’t have the boys getting pulled out all the time. I know Mrs. Johnson is...not a pleasant person, but we can’t protect the twins from everything. They have to learn to work with other people...even the less friendly ones.” Logan frowned. 

“I know, dear, but…” he glanced back at the kitchen table. “I am also happy that our boys will stand up for themselves if they are mistreated. And as for being pulled out...one missed day won’t hurt them.”

Patton thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Alright. Help me stand?” he asked. 

“But Patton--”

“I want to talk to our boys! No buts!” Patton held out an arm with a look of determination--Logan knew that look, and he knew his husband wasn’t going to change his mind. He took Patton’s arm and helped him up, and the two made their way to the kitchen table. 

“Remus?” Patton said. 

“Yeah Dad?” a little bit of nervousness flashed over the boy’s face, but then Patton grinned at him. 

“Did you at least hit your target?” At this, Remus beamed at him. 

“Hit her right in the nose!” he said. Patton laughed. 

“That’s my boy!” he glanced at him, then Roman. “How much homework do you two have?”

“Not much,” Roman said. “We got kicked out before the lesson was over.”

“Alright well, how about you two finish that, and then we’ll have a movie night. That sound good?”

“Yeah!” The twins nodded eagerly, and in a flash they were in a race to finish their homework. Logan helped Patton back to the couch, got him another glass of ginger ale, and went back to help the boys with their Spelling homework. Roman was right, they didn’t have much, and once that was complete the boys darted off to change into their pajamas in preparation for movie night. 

“What are we watching tonight Papa?” Remus asked, coming back rather quickly in his octopus-themed pajamas, which were backwards, and a matching blanket. Roman was quick to follow, his knight pajamas quite the contrast to his twins--and also put on properly.

“Let’s watch Frozen!” he yelped. 

“Oooh, Frozen!” Remus agreed. “I like the snow monster!”

“I like Olaf!” Roman shouted. He and Remus plopped themselves into Logan’s lap--he wouldn’t let them sit on Patton while he was sick--and Patton put on the movie for them to watch. 

“Logan?”

“Yes dear?” Logan glanced at his husband, who smiled and kissed him softly on the cheek. 

“You did a wonderful job.”

Logan smiled.

“Thank you dear.”

[ill-skillsgard]

Texts From Henry 2 - Henry Deaver x Mistress

Warning: 18+ smut/sexting/forced masturbation/teasing/mentions of cheating/mature themes.  Please read at your own discretion.

Note: Hello, loves. I’ll just leave this here. Let me know your thoughts and all that jazz. I don’t have much to say except enjoy! Comments, reblogs and likes are appreciated! Many kisses.

Read more Henry x Mistress imagines here > Masterpost

Henry was breaking the rules all day long. Rules he set out when you first started working for him. From the moment he strutted into the office, to the last minute on the clock, he toyed with you. You weren't sure why Henry was in this peculiar mood, but you had a feeling it had something to do with the holidays being everything he wanted and more.

They were long gone—the holidays—and everyone was back to the regular grind. No more Christmas music played over the radio, no more decorations around the office, but still, a hellish amount of tinsel remained ingrained into the carpets. As Mr. Deaver's assistant, your winter holidays stretched just as long as his, and you came in refreshed and ready to work.

Henry had other plans, which started during his first meeting of the new year.

You sat at your desk, changing your planner and sending out confirmation calls to clients. With your phone pressed against the side of your face, all notifications went unchecked until you finished.

I'm so bored... and horny.

Aren't you in a meeting right now?

Yes.

You're horny sitting around a table of older men talking about how much money they made over the holidays?

Hey! I'm one of those old men!

Mr. Deaver, it's 10 in the morning. Maybe you need some coffee?

I need my tongue on your pussy.

Your face scorched, and you sucked your cheeks in to keep a sly smile from creeping along. Henry told you before that you often looked at your phone like there was porn playing and how it might alert others to your inherent deviousness, but it was always his bold little messages making you grin. Another text came in not five minutes later.

Is that a no? Or can I eat you for lunch?

Are you dissatisfied with the blowjob I gave you this morning?

Lol, not a chance. I just can't stop thinking about you. I can't get up from this table because I'm so hard thinking about ripping open that nice new blouse I bought you and cramming my face between your beautiful tits.

You're being wildly unprofessional today, Mr. Deaver. I'm going back to work now!

Can you do me one favour?

Yes?

Go to the bathroom and send me a naughty pic?

I can't! I have real WORK to do, unlike you, Mr. Big Shot.

I'll give you a big shot, alright.

You set your phone down and pictured your boyfriend in the conference room seated around a board of men with his head full of nasty thoughts. It seemed like a week had passed since he was a stranger in a café, ordering coffee in the morning and whiskeys at night. When he was a mysterious businessman writing in his planner with a silver pen, you never once pinned him to fantasize. It was a silly assumption, everyone had dirty thoughts, but his quiet demeanour and big duo-toned eyes skittered across the walls in deep thought reserved for important things. He was, after all, your good Christian boy.

Henry hinted all morning about going out for lunch. You suspected it meant he wanted to get into his car for a quickie, but you had other plans. He was easy to tease and easier to frustrate. You required payback for the distractions and to remind him that, when it came to naughtiness, you'd always have him beat.

You received a lucky hand when Henry got roped into another long meeting. He had settled down somewhat into the early evening, texting you to head home without him. You did not argue and set your plan in motion as soon as you returned to the condo and got undressed in the master bedroom. Henry would receive those naughty pictures he requested.

You snapped the first one, a playful pose with your hand and forearm covering only nipples. It took a bare minute for Henry to respond.

Omg now you decide to be a dirty girl? When you're not even here? Evil.

How much longer is your meeting?

Not sure. Hopefully over soon so I can come home and devour those beautiful tits. 😝

Too bad. I'm already in bed playing with myself.

He received another picture of your hand between your legs against the backdrop of his bedspread. It was for show, but the image of him getting aroused and squirming in front of his coworkers excited you. You needed a moment to work yourself up, planning what you would do the moment Henry charged through the doors with high expectations.

Sure enough, he raced home. By a quarter to seven, Henry was up the stairs, shed of his jacket and already loosening his tie. When you saw him come through the bedroom door with an outline pressed on the front of his trousers, wildness sparked in his eyes.

"Okay, no more teasing, understand?" He crawled onto the bed, stilled by the sole of your foot pressing against his chest.

"Not so fast."

"What is it?" He giggled.

"Take your clothes off for me," you demanded.

Henry paused, let out a small, exasperated chuckle and sprung off the mattress. He unravelled his tie, hanging it over the foot bench, and then worked the buttons of his dress shirt open. His long, graceful hands made short work of his belt, and when every zip, button and lace came undone, he peeled his clothes off, tossing you knowing looks like once he was naked, the game would be on. But you had plenty more in store for him as your legs parted, and your hand snuck down.

Angling your gaze at his boxers, you nodded. "Your underwear, sir."

He hooked his thumbs under the waist and pushed them down around his ankles. When he stood stark naked beside the bed, you hummed and let your fingers do a bit of wandering. Gaze fixed, he barely noticed your devious smirk.

"Mm, Daddy wants," Henry purred.

"No."

The word struck him like a soft slap, not enough to sting but quick to make him flutter his lashes. "What do you mean?"

"You were so very bad today. I think a bit of punishment is in order... Sitting in your meetings, texting me all those naughty things, being unprofessional at work. That's not how big boys act."

"Oh, come on," he laughed. "You do the same."

"You just get to stand there and watch me play with myself," you informed him.

Henry had much to say in protest, but you closed your eyes and circled two fingers around your clit, awakening your own arousal with the sound of him whining next to you.

"Babe, come on. Wanna play, too," Henry prodded.

"Mm, feels so good, just doing it myself."

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Henry's arousal grow. His cock filled with blood, curving up and standing resolute. He gave himself two long strokes, but he longed for more than his palm. He wanted to plunge himself deep inside your warm wetness and feel his balls slapping against your soft, damp skin. The way you massaged yourself and spread your legs made him itch.

"Oh, don't do that. That's mine," Henry said with a pout.

He watched your middle finger disappear, slick noises and little moans driving him mad with desire. Saliva flooded his cheeks when he imagined dragging his tongue up and down your pussy lips, enclosing your clit with his mouth to give you just enough gentle suction to have your back arching.

"Baby, please," Henry begged. "Let me do it."

"Touch yourself," you replied.

His hand wrapped around the base of his cock, and he stroked himself at the same pace. You turned up the heat until he couldn't take it anymore. It amused you to watch such an important man struggling and lustful.

"Yes, stroke that big dick for me. Get yourself nice and hard. Oh, you've been fending off hard-ons all day, haven't you, Mr. Deaver?"

"Yeah," he panted.

"Been wanting to fuck my pussy while you were busy in all your meetings, huh? Thinking about how good it would feel to stuff your cock inside me?"

"Oh, fuck, babe."

You lifted your hand to your mouth, and Henry's jaw dropped. One wet finger disappeared between your lips, and he groaned as though he were in pain from watching you taste your juices. He wanted that sweetness on his tongue and took more steps until he could walk no further.

"Come on, let me taste that pussy."

"I might just make you jerk off for me while I get myself off. Perhaps that would be adequate discipline for distracting me with your nastiness."

"No," he shook his head. "Nuh-uh. I'll never get off."

"Is that a challenge?" Your eyes popped wide.

"No! Please, baby. Please don't torture me like this. I can't see you fingering that pussy right in my face. I need some. Please? Let me have my pussy. I promise I'll be a good boy from now on."

"Promises, promises," you teased.

"I do! I promise. Don't make me play by myself."

The tension building in your tummy lifted the base of your spine as your gentle flickers picked up speed. The glossiness in his eyes made it difficult to contain your amusement. Teasing him was too easy.

"Oh, it's so good. I might come soon, Mr. Deaver. Just like this."

Henry's shoulders slumped as he gave up stroking himself. "Baaaabe," he whined again. "Please, please, please. I'll be good. I'll be good, just please let me touch you."

Before he clambered onto the bed, you shot him a warning glare. "No, you don't have permission to touch my body right now."

"W-what? No! Come on. I've been waiting all day."

"That's not what you should do with your time, is it? You should have focused and did your work instead of getting yourself all hard daydreaming about dirty things. And begging for pictures. Such bad behaviour deserves punishment."

Instead of griping for permission, Henry rose his leg and planted his foot on the bed while he gripped his shaft and began pumping away. "Fine, you want me to jerk it for you? I'll give you anything you want."

His eyes closed as he worked himself into a passion, pleasured breaths filling the room. After a couple longer, slower strokes of his head, he settled at a quick pace, grinding his teeth together, trying to forget he wasn't allowed near you.

"I'll come like this. Thinking about that sweet pussy juice getting all over my cock."

"You wanna taste it, don't you?"

Henry shook his head, never opening his eyes. "No, this is fine. Plus, I can smell how wet you are and hear you fucking that soaked little hole. That's all I need."

He assumed he had bested you until you scooted closer to him, tilting your pelvis so he could see every naked inch of you and what your slick fingers were playing with. For a moment, you expected he might groan and beg again, but he drew in a deep breath, hand pumping away while he enjoyed you touching yourself.

"How badly do you want my cock?" He asked.

"I don't need it," you grinned.

"No? You don't need to feel me inside, your fingers doing it for you? You don't want to feel my hot tongue licking that little clit? You're okay with rubbing one out on your own?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Because all I have to do is remember how your face looked when I fucked your throat this morning. I don't need your pussy. I got it all up here, baby."

A shudder of air left him as he came closer to the edge. It was clear when he was getting close, as he liked to concentrate all stimulation at the tip where he was most sensitive. But he groaned in frustration, gripping the hilt of his shaft before trailing the same hand down to cup his balls—a move he had grown used to by your introduction.

"I bet you wish I were sucking on those balls right about now, huh?"

Henry pouted, eyebrows arching with desperation. A muffled groan rumbled in his throat, and he nodded his head yes. "Want you so bad."

"What will you do next time I'm busy at work?"

"I'll be a good boy."

"And?"

"I'll wait, and I won't bug you."

Your heat began to boil from the fake innocence on his sulking face. Henry was no angel, but when he brooded and whimpered like that, your heart faltered.

"No more naughtiness at work?" You asked.

"Only if you say I'm allowed."

A shiver skittered over your shoulders, and you stopped toying with your clit. "Promise?"

He dropped his foot back on the carpet and lowered to his knees, clutching at the blankets in hopes you would finally allow him to at least stroke your legs. "I promise."

"Come here, then."

Henry climbed onto the bed, shuffling himself between your thighs so quickly you had no time to blink before he pushed down on his throbbing erection. easing into your tightness. Once inside, he spasmed, pulled out and slipped back in fast. A large hand coasted down your leg and lifted your calf over his shoulder. Eyes screwed shut, Henry gripped your thigh, pulling it up to use it as a support for his battering.

With one arm clutching your leg in place, his free hand spread your lips for a better view. "Yes, oh, Christ, that pussy's so wet. So warm. Aw, fuck. I'm gonna come!"

"So soon?" You asked, but Henry had already slipped out and shot his cum down the back of your leg and opening. "Uh-oh. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Jesus fuck."

"Just a desperate boy, aren't you?"

"Told you, I needed you."

"I don't think I've ever seen you come so fast."

Henry tried to laugh at himself, a hint of shame tainting his post-orgasm expression. He laid down next to you, chest heaving until his breath levelled.

"Would you like to sit on my face?" He asked.

"I'm covered in cum."

"I don't care," he whispered. "Hop on, baby."

[thebiasrekkers]

Make It Right [BTS Mafia!AU]

Plot: “It’s always darkest before the dawn…” It’s a dog-eat-dog world in Seoul, South Korea. One has to dwell in the shadows in order to reach for the light. What are you willing to sacrifice in order to feel the sunlight on your face? What will it take to drag you back into darkness? How long will the journey be to make it right?

Rating: NC-17 // NSFW

Genre: Series | Mafia!AU | Crime!AU | Angst | Romance/Fluff | Smut

Pairings: Jin x OC | Taehyung/Hoseok x OC | Yoongi/Jungkook x OC

Warnings: Graphic Violence (bloody violence), Heavy Language, Angst, Slow Burn, Smut

Previous Chapters: Prologue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Links: FAQ || BTS Masterlist || Admin E’s AO3 || Admin E’s WP || [ REQUESTS ARE OPEN ]

Word Count: 2,480

Tag List: @prisczero​, @pinkpjmin​, @btsaudge​, @flowerwrites06​, @unoriginal-username15432, @halussali​, @shrimpmsg​​,

Chapter 45: 21st Century Girl

“Whatever other people say, whatever this world tells you, you’re the best to me just the way you are.”

© thebiasrekkers (Admin E). All rights reserved. Reposting/modifying our work is prohibited. Translations are not allowed. Plagiarism/stealing is not tolerated by any means. Legal action will be taken in instances of theft.

“Isn’t it early where you are?”

“No, it’s only nine.”

“You look tired though.”

“A lot’s been going on with my new job.”

“I’ll admit, I was a little worried when you said you were quitting your other job. Is that even allowed with the visa you currently have?”

“It’s fine. I applied for another visa through my new company.”

Anastasia sighed, attempting a smile for Jacob. The Skype call had only been going on for about twenty minutes, but it felt like they were talking for hours. She tried to check in about once a week, but with all the hustle and bustle with the company and the ever-blossoming relationship she was in with Seokjin, it was hard to maintain contact in the way she would have liked. Add on the extreme time zone difference and that was how things wound up.

“Is it harder than working for your old job?”

“No,” she said while shaking her head, “it’s about the same workload. I have more responsibilities because I technically got promoted when they hired me.”

Jacob nodded, brushing some of his hair out of his eyes. It was getting a little longer than she was used to. He would have cut it by now, but he seemed set on trying out a new image.

She watched him take a drink of water. “Are you happy, Ana?”

Blinking, she wasn’t quite sure what to make of his question. Had she given any indication that she wasn’t happy? She hoped not. She didn’t want him worrying unnecessarily.

Again, she smiled. “Yeah Jake, I’m happy.”

Anastasia watched her brother’s eyes furrow from the computer screen. She knew it wasn’t because he didn’t believe her. He just worried a lot and tended to fuss over her unnecessarily. It was the role Jacob chose to play since he was the second-born. They were only two years apart, but they were thick as thieves and she appreciated how close they were despite her being the oldest of her three siblings. Their baby brother, Phillip, was still just starting college while Elena just graduated from her university. Their parents were still harping on about practicality when it came to their futures, something that both Anastasia and Jacob despised. They should have all been allowed to choose the paths they wanted to live, regardless of the outcomes.

“Well,” he finally said, shrugging one shoulder, “as long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters.”

Relief washed over her and she sank back in her chair a little more, cradling the mug of green tea in her hands. Her hand slid from the handle to press a palm to her stomach, a warmer smile touching her features. She must have looked a little silly because the sound Jacob clearing his throat loudly startled her from her thoughts. When she peered back at the screen, his face was a little closer, as if he was leaning forward to look directly into her eyes.

“So, are you finally dating someone now?”

She coughed loudly, sitting up and quickly setting her mug down on the desk by her keyboard. “W-What?” Anastasia attempted to wrangle the words that were escaping her. “What’s with the interrogation anyway?”

Again, Jacob shrugged. “I know you dated that one guy, but that’s it.” He leaned back in his chair, lounging lazily. “Just figured you were seeing someone new.”

She felt her cheeks grow warm, her hands fidgeting until Anastasia started twirling a few locks between her fingers. It was a nervous tick that she hadn’t been able to break and there was no sign of it stopping anytime soon. She’d be an old woman pulling at her thinning gray strands until they put her in the ground.

Jacob laughed, realizing he’d caught her in his cleverly laid trap. If he was within arms-reach, she would have shaken him like a rag doll. “Your face gives away everything. It’s why you suck at poker.”

“Shut-up,” she muttered.

Another window suddenly popped up, notifying her that she had another call. She stared at the screen as Seokjin’s name and picture appeared in the window. Her eyes lowered to the corner of the monitor, spying the time, and she wondered why he was calling. He’d given her the rest of the week off so she could adjust to all the hormonal imbalances that came with her pregnancy. Talking with her brother was part of the whole routine check-up bit, but she really wanted to talk to him about her being with child.

“Hold on, Jake. I have another call.”

“Sure.”

She put her brother on hold, answering Seokjin’s call. When his face popped up on the screen, Anastasia could only stare at how uncomfortably close his face was to the camera. Neither of them said anything. She was too startled to speak and he apparently was trying to read something about her. He did this often when he was trying to catch her in some kind of lie or if she was secretly up to something.

“Seokjin,” she finally said, blinking, “what are you doing?” Anastasia looked over his shoulder to see if he was in his office. “Shouldn’t you be, oh I dunno, working or something?”

“Why are you on the computer?” he asked suddenly. “I gave you the rest of the week off to rest. Not so you could stare at a monitor.”

Anastasia sighed. “I’m talking to my brother. Why?”

“You can’t talk on the phone?”

“Phone calls are expensive. Skype is free.”

He gave her a dissatisfied look. “Are you serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious! Why are you calling me on Skype if you’re worried about me being in front of a monitor?”

“Because you won’t answer your phone!”

“My phone’s dead and I’m charging it!” Anastasia puffed out one of her cheeks. “Geez, you’re impossible.”

He frowned, brushing some of his hair out of his eyes before leaning back in his chair. “…are you hungry?”

“Am I hung—what?” She looked back at the clock to make sure of the time. “It’s still early!”

“You should at least eat breakfast. It’s the most important meal of the day.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Anastasia rolled her eyes. “Shouldn’t you be working? Go back to work!”

Without waiting for his response, she hung up the call and went back to the window her brother was on. Jacob was busying himself with scribbling some notes on a notepad.

“Sorry about that.”

He looked up at the screen, setting his pen down. “Who was that?”

“A potential headache.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Just a headache.”

Jacob smirked. “Yeah? Sounds like a boyfriend to me.”

“Jacob Martin!”

He laughed loudly, holding a hand up as he patted the air. “Okay, okay. I get it. Dropping it now.”

Anastasia smiled as she sighed, realizing how much she missed her brother being around. He mentioned coming to visit from time to time, but between working and trying to find his place in the world, she knew that it was almost impossible. Air fare wasn’t cheap and while she could afford to fly him out if he wanted, there was the internal worry about him judging her ties with former gangsters. Their home life wasn’t peaches and cream, but it was far from unsavory. What family was perfect?

Even so, she still wondered what her brother would think of her if she told him she was having a child out of wedlock.

Once the heavy topic of her work environment was no longer the focus, the two of them were able to engage in lighter conversation. Again, Jacob mentioned coming to visit her in South Korea, mostly because he wanted to see the country she’d called home for the last three and a half years. The place was full of beauty and splendor. There were many things about the land that helped heal her from the horrible fall she’d had over her broken dreams. While she may not have been a chef and restaurant owner like she wanted, her current occupation brought her to this place.

The path she walked led her to Seokjin, the man she loved.

Half an hour passed and she realized that it was getting late. She worried that she was keeping Jacob up longer than normal.

“You should probably get some rest,” she said, noting the tired look in Jacob’s eyes, “you have the overnight shift this week, don’t you?”

Jacob stifled a yawn. “Yeah, but it’s fine. I need to make sure that Phillip did his homework.”

“Let Elena worry about that.”

He nodded, waving a hand back and forth to her. Anastasia wished to ruffle his hair like she often did when they were teenagers. A painful wave of nostalgia overtook her and she did her best not to cry, cursing herself for all the pregnancy hormones throwing her out of whack. Jacob didn’t seem to notice as he finished off his bottle of water.

“Mm, alright. I guess I’ll try to get some sleep. G’night, ‘Stasia.”

Anastasia rubbed at her eyes to keep the tears from falling. “Goodnight, Jake.”

The blip noise sounded after the call ended and Anastasia was left with only silence. She curled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs as she buried her face into her knees. A weak sob was all she could muster, mourning the lack of family around her to tell her that everything was going to be okay. That her worries would be for nothing and that she would be happy. That she deserved to be happy, despite all of her failures.

For a moment, all she could do was sob quietly to herself. There were so many missed opportunities to empty her soul to her brother. He would have understood and encouraged her. Jacob would have told her that she was strong, that she was one of the strongest people he knew, and that this little bump in the road was just one pothole on the way to glory. Their parents would have told her she was shameful for carrying another man’s child when she hadn’t even so much as been introduced to his family. That it was a disgrace to have a child as an unmarried woman. People did it all the time, but not her family. Not the D’Angelo’s.

Anastasia didn’t know how long she was curled up in her chair. She was pretty sure that she’d drifted off at some point. Her limbs ached from scrunching herself up into a ball and they protested as she tried to straighten herself out. A hand rubbed at her stomach while the other wiped the moisture from her cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Baby,” she whispered, rubbing circles over her belly, “I didn’t mean to cramp you up like that.”

She stretched her legs out, then her arms, before standing. Grabbing the mug, she made her way downstairs. She’d barely made it into the kitchen before the front door burst open and in walked Seokjin, looking flustered and haggard. The mug slipped from her hands and fell into the sink with a loud clatter as she spun around the moment he stalked into the kitchen.

“W-What are you doing?!” Anastasia managed to stammer out, taking a step back as Seokjin quickly closed the distance between them. “You’re supposed to be at work!”

“You hung up on me!”

“That’s because you were acting crazy!”

Anastasia peered around him, hoping that Jimin had the wherewithal to at least follow so she could drag Seokjin back to the office. She frowned, ducking under his arm and bolting from into the living room. He was practically on her heels.

This was insane!

Stopping short, she whirled on her heels and Seokjin had to raise himself up onto the balls of his feet to keep from crashing into her. She stuck her hand out.

“Phone. Now.”

He blinked down at her. “What? No!”

“Gimme the phone, Seokjin!”

His eyes narrowed, issuing his silent refusal. Anastasia didn’t care as she took a step forward, her hands lunging out to reach into the inner pocket of his suit jacket. He wasn’t fast enough to move out of the way and her fingers quickly found the item. When he tried to snatch it back from her, she twirled so that her back was facing him.

Her thumb slid over the dots to form the pattern needed to unlock his phone and she immediately dialed Jimin. As the phone rang, Seokjin tried to take the phone back but Anastasia was already half running, half jumping up the stairs toward the loft. Jimin answered before the second ring could finish.

“Hyung! Where did you go?!”

“Jimin-ah, you tell your boss to take his ass back to work!”

“A-Ana Noona? What are you—?”

“Do you hear me?” Her feet landed on the top step and she turned around to stick her foot out, her heel planting itself against Seokjin’s chest to keep him from moving any closer to her. “He has fivemeetings today and one of them is in twenty minutes. How could you let him leave the office in the first place?!”

“I’m sorry, Noona. I tried! But Seokjin Hyung hit me. He hit me in the chest and I was horrified!”

She shot him a glare. “He did what now?”

“He’s never hit me. I didn’t know what to do! I was caught off guard! I’m sorry. I’ll come over right now.”

Anastasia hung up the phone and tossed it back to Seokjin. She then pointed downstairs. “Out.”

He pouted. “Anastasia, come on…”

“Go back to work!” Her eyes narrowed. “If I end up having to take you backto the office, I’m going to work and I’m gonna make every second of your life a living hell while I’m there. Do you understand me?”

Seokjin gave her the once over, as if trying to surmise if she really would do it. He knew better. At least she hoped he knew better. She was as stubborn as a mule and if he thought, for even one second, that she was playing around, then he’d rue the day he ever hired her. She wasn’t going to back down from this and an angry pregnant woman was not a variable that Kim Seokjin would be in a hurry to deal with.

After a moment, he sighed and leaned against the wall. “…alright, you win.” He held his hands up, turning to head downstairs. “I’ll go.”

She stayed upstairs, waiting to hear him put on his shoes and open the door. When she didn’t hear it close, however, Anastasia smiled and shook her head. “I’ll see you tonight,” she called down to him, “have a good day.”

“…love you.”

Her cheeks flushed slightly and she walked down a few steps so she could see his pitiful face.

She laughed.

“I love you too.”

[dreadwulf]

*sigh* Okay, I just had to write this all out to get it off my chest and hopefully get over it and move on.

People tell me I look just like Brienne of Tarth. I’m tall, blonde, broad-shouldered, and homely. I get mistaken for a man, even when I have long hair that goes all down my back, even wearing a dress. I’ve gotten used to it.

My earliest memory of school is lying on the ground while a crowd of boys are kicking and hitting me, because I was an ugly freak. Girls grow earlier than boys do, you see. I was the tallest kid in my elementary, and I was hated for it. I endured constant abuse. When I got a little bit older, and I was almost 6 feet tall when I was 12, the abuse mostly turned away from being physical and into emotional and psychological. Girls followed me into the bathroom, laughing at how my clothes didn’t fit, how awkward I was, how masculine. Boys no longer hit me, just ignored or ridiculed me. Because it was the 80s I heard constant references to the East German olympic team, how I looked like a member. I didn’t understand the references at the time, but I knew it was yet another reference to how I didn’t measure up as a woman. Much later I learned about how those women were dosed with testosterone by the government against their will - a terrible story that the people around me regarded as a joke.  There’s nothing funnier than a manish woman, apparently.

When I was young I was undatable, never considered an option to anyone. I never kissed anyone until I was in my twenties, and was a virgin until I was 25. It’s bizarre when I look back now at photos of myself, because I’m expecting a hideous monster, and all I see is an ordinary girl - a little taller, broad-shouldered and plain, not pretty, but ordinary. But it all got into my head, you see. Inside I still feel like a freak. Undesireable. Unloved.

I started watching Game of Thrones from the first episode (mainly because I’m a big fan of Peter Dinklage!), and I was intrigued. Intrigued, but not obsessed, not yet. I’m a grown woman and I don’t have time for that sort of thing. But the first time Brienne of Tarth took off her helmet onscreen and I saw her face, I literally pointed at the screen and said out loud, “that’s me!”

Never in my life have I reacted that way before. Never before, and never since.

Granted, the actress who plays her is a great beauty, but the character of Brienne I latched onto instantly and felt a deep kinship with, especially after reading her story in the books. How as a child she was a girl very much like Sansa, who loved songs and romance and dancing and other girlish things, but the adults around her told her she was too ugly. Her septa told her no one would ever love or want her. She was shamed for wearing dresses and trying to be feminine, was told she was embarassing herself because her body was not womanly enough. She was made to feel like a failure just for existing, for being umarriagable, for causing the end of her house by being so ugly that no one wanted her. But instead of just crumbling and disappearing, Brienne of Tarth took up a sword and decided to make something else of herself. She wanted to help people, she wanted to contribute something to the world, and she decided to find a good lord and serve them as a knight. Brienne is brave and caring and defends the weak and wants to protect the people she loves. Brienne is a hero. She is a hero while not being tiny and delicate and pretty but large, sturdy, and ugly. In that she is completely unique, and completely wonderful.

A lot of old wounds opened up, watching that story and reading A Feast For Crows. Old issues I thought I was over all came back up. I identified powerfully with having your femininity stolen from you because your body is different, with being abused for not being woman enough, and with longing for love in a world that hates you. I remembered being hated, constantly and visciously hated, just for existing. I relived the bone-deep belief that I would spend my entire life alone, because no one would ever want me, a belief that was constantly validated by the actual people around me. I became painfully aware of the sense that I still have to this day of being constantly too big, too loud, too much, that has me slouching and shrinking and taking up less space and whispering timidly and the effect that those things have had on my life and career to this day.

And watching Brienne’s story, I saw how someone can endure the same things I did, and keep trying. Can keep struggling to succeed, and even fall in love. That was the most amazing thing of all, you see. This woman on television who looked like me, she was a love interest! She had her own romantic storyline! I could hardly believe it at first. I watched through my fingers trying to talk myself out of hoping. Because this never happens - an ugly woman, a masculine woman, is never desirable in fiction, never important enough to the story to be a love interest, and never worthy of romance. Yet here it was, it was happening right in front of my eyes.

Her love story with Jaime Lannister was a competely unique thing on television. An ugly woman with a beautiful man. A bond of deep respect and admiration, with undeniable sexual tension. Here were two people who can understand each other because they have both been hated for reasons beyond their control, who sought refuge in honor and knighthood and were loathed for it. Brienne understood how hatred can warp a person, make them someone they never meant to be, just the way she herself had been made to harden and close off to the world. She saw the person that Jaime might have been, if things had gone differently, and the man he could still become. Jaime for his part saw worth in her when everyone around him called her ridiculous, even though she was his enemy. He still knew that she was more deserving than any knight in Westeros, and believed in her when no one else in the world did. He gave her a sword and a quest and even a squire, lost his hand defending her, and he put his own life on the line to save hers.

Jaime openly adored her, looked at her like she was the most wonderful thing in the world, and I have never seen anything like that. A woman who looks like me, being looked at like that. Do you know what that felt like for me? Can you imagine it?

This story meant a lot to me, is what I’m saying. It was healing for me. I believed in that story, and I expected that even if there wouldn’t be a happy ending, at least there would be that respect for the character, and that she would be taken seriously by the narrative and her story would be completed in some fashion.

And then they aired Season 8.

In season 8 we learn that not only did the show never bother to adapt her storylines from the books, where she is slated to face Lady Stoneheart and the Brotherhood Without Banners, they gave her no story in replacement. She has no material impact on the storyline of the show, she simply doesn’t matter in any way. The only major storyline they kept from the books was her romance with Jaime Lannister, and in Season 8 they destroy that story in the cruelest possible way.

After emphasizing that Brienne is an adult virgin, they give her one scene with what we thought was her love interest, where they share one kiss. One. Onscreen within seconds of Brienne being naked Jaime looks dissatisfied and unhappy, and in the same episode, leaves her to go back to his traditionally beautiful ex. Leaves her crying and pleading with him to stay. And then her story ends, except for a brief bookend where she writes an entry in the White Book showing she still loved him, even though he abandoned and betrayed her in the worst way possible.

Right now I’d really like to know if anyone involved with this show ever gave a moment’s thought to what it would be like to watch that happen. After years of patiently waiting to get the love story we were promised for five seasons, instead, to humiliate and punish Brienne for daring to think she deserved love. Did anyone ever consider what that would feel like for women like me? If they did think about it, I hope they enjoyed the hurt they caused me, because the way this story played out felt outright malicious and hateful. They could have given me one tender moment, one declaration of love or affection, just to know what it would look like to see that onscreen for a woman like me. Instead they deliberately withheld that. And then went out of their way to invalidate absolutely everything about the storyline we had been watching, as if it had never happened, as if we had imagined it all, and been foolish to believe in it in the first place.

Yes, I know, it’s only a story, but stories matter. We wouldn’t put nearly the effort and investment into them that we do as a culture if they didn’t. My story has never mattered before, and it meant something to me over the last 8 years that someone was telling it. So was this ending intended as a deliberate slap in my face, or was that collateral damage that the show simply did not care about?

The messages sent by our media are sometimes unintentional, but they are usually given at least some consideration. So I wonder what sort of message was trying to be sent by giving the gender non-comforming woman who dared to open her heart an immediate rejection, and have her then swear to serve a celibate organization for the rest of her life? Giving up her inheritance, her island, her own sworn vows to Sansa, and everything else she cared about? Am I meant to regard this as a happy ending, I wonder? Her feelings and dreams don’t matter, but hey, she has a position in the small council, so Girl Power! Was there a single woman anywhere involved in this production who might have pointed out how awful this is?

I understand that what’s done is done and there’s no fixing this, and complaining about it is pointless. But what I really want, what I wish for, is for somebody to confirm that at least at some point this was a love story, and that for whatever reason, network interference or showrunner decision or whatever it was, it was changed at the last minute. Just tell me that at some point the intent was real. To know that would be helpful. Because right now I feel like a stupid chump for ever believing that anybody wanted a woman like me to have a love story, and you cannot imagine how much that hurts.

[bthump]

What is your favorite, most dark/twisted griffguts scenario/hc/au or whatever?

dark and twisted eh? lol this is a question and a half. advance warning for a mention of consent issues.

This is a fic idea I’ve considered writing but gave up on pretty quickly bc I didn’t think I could do it justice lol. And also I never finish anything and this is a novel’s worth of material.

AU where the behelit is an ordinary apostle behelit, and also Guts’ instead of Griffith’s. It opens at pretty much the exact same time, after the rescue, when Guts sees Griffith attempt suicide and it hits him that it’s all his fault. He destroyed Griffith and there’s no way to fix this, no one to kill to make it better, he threw away the only thing he’s ever wanted.

So the Raiders followed him down to the lake, Casca and the rest of the Hawks stayed behind, and the behelit opens. Guts ends up sacrificing the Raiders for ~the power to fix his mistake~ and becomes a monster with magic healing abilities. Because I figure that if you’re not sacrificing the person you actually love most, then you need to compensate with quantity lol, and after all the Raiders were the example, alongside Griffith, of “the place [Guts] belonged,” which should count for something.

So the result of this is you got Beast of Darkness Guts who is basically fixated on Griffith. You got a Griffith who spent a year of torture thinking about Guts and realizing he’s desperately in love with him and is thus fixated on Guts. He’s also fully healed and has a super powerful monster under his command so he’s obligated to go back to pursuing his dream in some form or another.

The situation is Griffith as an unstoppable warlord leading an army that grows and grows as dissatisfied peasants join him and others see the way the wind is blowing and join him to back the right horse, and strikes fear into the hearts of nobility until he eventually takes Midland by force (which is doable bc it’s weakened by a century long war and also an insane king). He’s embracing his “cruelty” and doing whatever it takes to attain his dream which means stuff like executing nobles and whatever to send a message and strike first with fear and intimidation. He’s more distanced from the Hawks than he was pre-torture. His image is scary and ruthless and powerful.

On the flipside he’s super traumatized and emotionally vulnerable, like lbr he’s got complex ptsd and he’s devastatingly emotionally reliant on an apostle boyfriend which in no way helps, not to mention the issues he already had pre-torture like guit and self-loathing. And the whole point is that contrast. Like Griffith ordering fortresses to be burnt and razed to the ground vs Griffith being unable to sit too close to a campfire because sometimes the radiating heat gives him panic attacks. Griffith fighting effectively at the head of an army vs Griffith losing his grasp on the present in the dark and forgetting he’s not in a torture chamber. Part of why Griffith is more removed from the Hawks now is to keep these vulnerabilities hidden.

And wrt Guts and ~dark and twisted~ griffguts content, Griffith commanding a literal monster in battle vs Griffith, eg, never once saying “no” to him in bed bc he’s low key afraid Guts wouldn’t stop, both due to his own trauma and Guts being monstery, and he’d rather just never let that situation come up. Like, loving and needing Guts but being afraid of him after the apostle transformation, and denying that fear to himself. And it could vary. Sometimes being with Guts would be perfect, everything he wants, emotional and physical fulfillment, and sometimes it would pretty much be a form of self-harm. Sometimes he would crave sex and sometimes it would trigger him. Sometimes everything at once. That kind of thing.

And like lbr we’ve seen his inner darkness, Guts as an apostle would be a nightmare. He wouldn’t care about anyone except Griffith, possibly to the point of low key being a threat to the rest of the Hawks, and he’d be extremely possessive and needy. I don’t think he’d be like, completely out of control like the armour makes him, but I feel like his judgement would be shot, his impulse control would be shot, he’d have way more casual asshole tendencies a la Black Swordsman Guts (or even his imo insufferable cockiness post-vacation). He’d still have that eagerness to please wrt Griffith tho, so he wouldn’t be completely beyond Griffith’s control. He’d obey orders, at least to the same extent he did as an ordinary human lol, and he wouldn’t do anything to threaten Griffith’s image, his control and leadership over the rest of the Hawks, like insubordination or w/e. He likes the idea of Griffith being feared, and of being the only one (give or take Casca, probably) to see the vulnerable side of him. And he likes the idea of Griffith needing him to achieve his dream as well as needing him emotionally.

Like, in chapter 71 Guts basically realized that his desire to become Griffith’s equal by finding a dream of his own was stupid and doomed from the start, so I don’t think Griffith pursuing his dream again while he has no goals himself would bother him because now he knows how important he is to Griffith. And also I imagine post-torture Griffith would be willing and able to tell him that he values him over the dream. Even shares that it feels like an obligation to him. Like after that torture chamber monologue it’s easy to see him being more emotionally forthcoming with Guts, more revealing, more self-aware, at least in some ways.

They would both relish the sheer intensity of the others’ feelings for him, but Griffith would be afraid of his own feelings, how vulnerable they make him, and he’d be afraid of Guts’ literal monstrosity, both rationally because he’s a big undefeatable obsessive monster, and irrationally because apostles instill instinctive fear in humans. (That instinctive fear as symbolic of Griffith’s intense life-ruining feelings esp post-torture might be interesting tbh.) Guts would be afraid of Griffith hating him or growing indifferent, but as an apostle that would manifest in clinginess and possessiveness and a constant craving for proof of Griffith’s feelings. And for Griffith’s part he could take advantage of that in manipulative ways. Like I love the idea of an intense toxic relationship where the life-ruining feelings between them are occasionally weaponized by both.

Oh and you also got Griffith’s self loathing and guilt, and the knowledge that Guts became a monster entirely because of him, to help him, plus he rescued and healed him, and so he’d also be torn between feeling like he doesn’t deserve Guts, and feeling like he deserves Guts but in a penitent way, esp if he feels responsible for his monsterism, which he would whether that’s rational or not. Plus also feeling like Guts, as a monster who sacrificed a bunch of his friends to become one and now wreaks havoc in battle, is the only person who can understand him. “Do you think I’m cruel?” “What kind of question is that for the guy who killed a hundred men?” writ large. All the emotional dysfunctionality implied in that exchange taken to 100.

Griffith getting more ruthless and fucked up and taking comfort in a fucked up relationship with a literal monster as he pursues his dream. “You’re rough enough to share this with to the end.” Griffith in part relishing Guts’ monstrosity because it means they’re in this together. They’ll be together because who else would want them? Like a dark contrast to a happy Golden Age AU where Guts tells Griffith how he really sees him and it’s a step towards emotional healing and self love and whatever, this would be Griffith hating himself and being comforted by the thought that Guts is down in the dark with him. Dragging each other down instead of lifting each other up, yk.

(Guts tells Griffith he doesn’t regret it. This applies to both becoming a monster for Griffith’s sake, and leaving in the first place and all the destruction that caused, since it eventually led to both of them getting everything they’ve ever wanted. A kingdom, the Hawks, each other, everything worked out perfectly. Right?)

Also you have Casca and the rest of the Hawks for that excellent outsider/disturbed onlooker pov. Casca’s got her close relationship with both as well as her protectiveness of Griffith. Judeau’s got his detached perceptive observation. Corkus has his outrage and resentment. All good potential perspectives on this imo. Like eg imagine Corkus sowing discord by pointing out that they have no reason to trust Guts esp now that he’s a literal monster since he’s not even a Hawk after abandoning them, and they can’t even trust Griffith to keep him in line because lbr Griffith already fucked them all over once because of Guts.

Idk how it would end though. Something fucked up. Like say Griffith achieves the dream, settles into ruling, the realization that he only hates himself more than ever eventually creeps up on him, and he ends up goading Guts into killing him, like an impulsive and somewhat subconscious act of suicide. Guts becomes Zodd 2.0, wandering battlefields, looking for someone strong enough to take him out. Or maybe just living miserably ever after as Griff sets his sights on an empire (bc he can’t stop, bc as soon as he stops that’s akin to declaring that this end is worth all the deaths and pain and etc on the road to it, and nothing’s actually worth that, so he’s trapped and it sucks) would be a nice anticlimactic ending. Yk, something depressing.

Like overall it would be a giant trainwreck with extreme contrasts wrt power dynamics and emotions, which is basically my favourite kind of thing. Like there are definitely way more straightfoward ways to get dark and edgy griffguts lmao, like about a million post-Eclipse scenarios, but still it’s probably my favourite of the darker ideas I’ve had.

I just love the idea of post-torture Griffith + apostle Guts lol they’d be like the epitome of dysfunctional yet inseparable, and it’s a great starting point for compounding all of Griffith’s canon issues and exploring them.

[ugly-crying-over-bucky-barnes]

Trust Part 3

Summary: Jenna moves in across from Eddie and Venom after escaping an abusive relationship. Within hours of meeting the journalist, her ex-boyfriend winds up dead and she comes face to face with the creature terrorizing San Francisco.

Chapter Summary: Jenna and Eddie deal with the aftermath of his actions. 

Warnings: Anxiety, threats

           About a week after the incident, Jenna returned to her apartment. She an Eddie kept up a friendly relationship but she kept her distance beyond that. They did neighborly things but never spoke about themselves beyond how their day was going.

           Jenna made him brownies once, which Venom proceeded to inhale once the door shut. Eddie helped fix her leaky sink faucet because the landlord wouldn’t do shit about it. They chatted if they arrived home at the same time. Jenna said she liked his recent articles and commented on certain news developments she’d heard of. Eddie made note of them and looked into writing about the subject just to impress her.

           Jenna had come to the conclusion that she was a terrible judge of character. Several abusive relationships would prove that, in her opinion. But Eddie just seemed like a softie who was passionate about helping people. She often stayed awake thinking about him. Her heart wanted desperately to fall in love with the man who had treated her so well. But her rational side was quick to scold her heart.

           Every man in her life had ended up abusing her. But at the beginning, Jenna thought they were perfect, despite huge red flags. Either she was ignoring the red flags again or Eddie was just a good guy. But she wasn’t ready to risk it and felt like her ability to love was slowly fading away. It was possible she could just live alone for the rest of her life.

===============

           Months passed and Eddie realized Anne and Venom were right. He was just digging himself a deeper hole the more he got to know Jenna. But he couldn’t keep his mind off of her. There was something about her that kept her name on his thoughts. She was soft-spoken but had a good sense of humor and seemed to be interested in the same things as him. Despite all she’d gone through, Jenna appeared to have a giving heart and she lamented about how most of the population didn’t care about those less fortunate or in dire need of assistance.

           It was a sure fire way to win over Eddie’s heart. But at the same time, he wanted to respect her. It was only a few months since he had killed her ex-boyfriend. The boyfriend that had beaten her and stole all her trust and took it to his grave. Eddie wanted to nurture the relationship between them and hopefully be the person that rebuilt her trust, but how could he do that if he was keeping a huge secret from her? The longer they knew each other, the harder it would hurt once she inevitably found out about Venom. But Eddie didn’t know how to tell her and it tore him up inside.

===============

           Meanwhile, the symbiosis relationship was becoming stronger. Venom alleviated Eddie’s anxiety and was able to talk him through problems like an old friend. Or a lover.

          It began when Venom started poking around in the memories of Anne and Eddie’s relationship. Then, one night, Venom inquired about kissing as they prepared for bed.

           “Kissing?” Eddie spat toothpaste into the sink. “Why d’you want to know about kissing, Ven?”

           “You and Anne used to kiss.” Venom sprouted from his shoulder and locked eyes with him in the mirror.

           “Yeah, a while ago.” Eddie nodded. “You snooping in there?”

           “Your memories are our memories.” He replied innocently because he knew they had already established that.

           “Mhm, right. Yes, Anne and I kissed when we were together.” Eddie rinsed his mouth and retreated to the bedroom.

           “You kissed in the forest. I was there.”

           “Yeah, I remember.” He sighed because of the ache in his back. Vigilantism wasn’t easy on the body. He settled into bed, minding the symbiote’s hovering head.

           “You would consider that our first kiss?” Venom rested his head on his host’s stomach and looked up at him with opal eyes.

           “Did you want to kiss me?” Eddie wondered. He wasn’t particularly flustered over the conversation. They had been dancing around the idea of love for a while now. “Anne said it was your idea.”

           “It was.”

           “Hm.” Eddie rested back into the pillows. “It’s not easy, Ven, you have to understand. It’s complicated.”

           “I am listening.” The symbiote’s voice sent a purr-like vibration across his stomach.

           “We are…two different species.”

           “Correct.”

           “So something like this has never been carried out before. It can’t be a typical relationship, you know that right?” Eddie wanted to be sympathetic to Venom’s curious feelings.

           “You are worried about what others will think.”

           “Not really.” He answered honestly and rested a hand on the alien’s head. “I kind of stopped worrying what the general public thinks of me. But I’m worried this won’t be what you expect. It’s not a-a Dan and Anne relationship.”

           “Because they are the same species and are not connected.”

           Eddie smiled and lightly scratched over his smooth, black skin. “Right, doesn’t mean I don’t still love you.”

           Venom’s eyes slid shut with contentment and he preened from the attention.

           “You make me feel complete, Ven, and I think that’s what a relationship is all about.”

           The symbiote’s eyes opened for a moment to look at him. “What about Jenna?” He inquired innocently.

           “It’s alright, you don’t have to worry about that.” Eddie didn’t want to make him jealous.

           “But, Eddie, if you desire her then I do as well.” Venom blinked as he stated his facts. He leaned up into Eddie’s hand. 

           “C’mon man, you don’t have to word it like that. I’m not infatuated with her.”

           “But you do, correct?”

           “I like her, yes.” Eddie reached over to turn off the lamp beside his bed.

           “Then I like her. So we must have her as well.” It seemed like a simple enough concept to Venom. “You are able to kiss both of us, that should not be a problem.”

           Eddie couldn’t help but chuckle. “Well, it’s a little more complicated than that. I’m not even sure if she likes us back. Partly because she doesn’t know about you.” He reminded him. “And if she did, we’d have to tell her the truth. And if she doesn’t run away, I don’t know if she’ll want to be in our relationship. She might not understand.”

           “So, I am inhibiting your happiness.” Venom’s voice wilted.

           “What? No, no! Ven, I told you, you make me happy. Screw what other people think.” He tried to placate him but Venom seemed dissatisfied.

           “But you would be happy if Jenna accepted us and loved us?”

           “I…” Eddie let out a frustrated sigh. The symbiote was doing a good job of backing him into a corner even if he didn’t mean to. “Sure, I guess I can’t lie to you.”

           “It is impossible, we can read our thoughts.”

           “Right. It would be nice to have her company, sure. But I like what we’ve got going now.” He tried to end the conversation so they didn’t have to continue talking in circles.

           “You would like her to be a part of it.”

           “God, now you’re making me sound like a greedy asshole.” He protested. “I’m tired, will you let me sleep or are you going to keep me up all night?”

           “I will not keep you up. Goodnight, Eddie.” Venom seemed satisfied enough to let the man drift off. Now the symbiote had a clear plan to make Eddie happy, which in turn would make him happy. A real win-win just like their relationship was turning out to be.

============

           One morning, Eddie woke up earlier than usual. The sun had just barely broken over the horizon when he ventured outside. It was a little chilly and drizzling, so not ideal weather for a walk. But Venom had insisted they go out to get the chocolate croissants he loved so much.

           Halfway to the coffee shop, Eddie saw Jenna jogging down the sidewalk. She smiled and slowed when she caught his eye. “Hey!”

           “Hey, Jenna.”

           Venom stirred in Eddie’s chest at the sound of her name. “Ask her on a date.” He was quick to suggest.

           “I’ve never seen you out this early.” She wiped sweat from her forehead.

           “Yeah, I usually take my time in the morning. Dunno what got me out so early.” He stifled a yawn and shrugged. 

           “It was me. I am hungry.”

           “Do you always run?” He ignored Venom’s comments.

           “I take Sundays off.” She shrugged and rested her hands on her hips while her heart rate went down.

           “I could never really get into running.” Eddie folded his hands into his sweatshirt pocket. “I mean, I was good at running when I got caught being somewhere I had to be.” He chuckled and tilted his head to the side. “Hazards of the job.”

           “It’s a good stress reliever.” Jenna nodded with a polite smile. Everything about her demeanor screamed tension; she wasn’t usually like that so Eddie figured something was upsetting her.

           “Have you been stressed?” He asked trying not to sound as nosy as he was being.

           Jenna tightened her ponytail and became antsier. “I uh…yeah I have been.” She always told herself that showing your feelings meant you were showing weakness. It was a hard lesson she had to learn. But now she had just given her neighbor a sneak peek into her weakness.

           But his response wasn’t as predatory as she expected. He wasn’t the knight who swooped in to fix her then turn on her once she was vulnerable enough and too in love to leave. “You wanna talk about it? I know it’s personal. I just know that I’ve been through some shitting things recently and I had no one to talk to. And that probably made it worse.” He shrugged again. “I don’t wanna put myself in your business or make it seem like you owe me anything for it.” But if you don’t have anyone to talk to then I-I could just listen.”

           Jenna studied his face. Everything in her gut told her to reject the offer and just leave. But the proposal of an open ear was difficult to pass up on. It would give her the chance to put her worries into the open air instead of keeping them trapped in her mind. So, she made herself a deal. If he got even slightly invasive and weird, she’d leave.

           “Okay, sure. We can grab a coffee now if you’re not busy.” She agreed.

           “Yeah, I’m not busy.”

           “I still want croissants.” Venom said but he was pleased with the outcome. It would get them closer to winning over Jenna.

===========

           Eddie let Jenna take her time before confiding in him. She sat down at a small table by the window. It was close to the door so she could have a clear exit if necessary. She took off the lid to her coffee so it could cool down. Her conflicting thoughts raced as she glanced up at Eddie.

           He had a more relaxed demeanor about him as he gave her a gentle smile and waited patiently.

           “I guess you’re used to listening to people talk.” Jenna cleared her throat.

           “I’m not trying to interview you or anything.” He was afraid she thought he was trying to get a story about that attack on Tyler. “You talk about whatever you want. I won’t say anything or ask you anything if you don’t want me to.”

           “No, I know.” She waved off his worry. That was the least of her concern. “I’m just saying.”

           “Yeah, I guess I do listen to a lot of people.” He agreed. “But I’m the one who asks questions, I don’t have the answers. In other words, I can try to give you advice but I don’t think it’ll be any good.” He shrugged sheepishly.

           Jenna smiled. “No, that’s okay. I appreciate it anyway. You’re right, it’s just nice to have someone to hear the thoughts that are troubling you.”

           “Ask her why she is sad. Who made her sad? We will pay them a visit.” Venom huffed.

           “So what happened?” Eddie asked after the symbiote prompted him to.

           She sighed and anxiously tugged at her windbreaker’s zipper. “After Tyler died, and the news spread, a lot of his friends and family started coming after me.” She felt like she was diving into a pool of icy cold water while she launched into the story. “At first, I understood why they were angry. I seemed like the only suspect to them. Some don’t even live in San Francisco so they aren’t really as familiar with the reports around the city. I guess I just thought they would stop eventually or get tired of it. Especially since the police publically announced the cause of his death.” She inhaled shakily and reached for her coffee cup to keep her hands busy. “But they haven’t. They have been nonstop. I’ve already taken down my Facebook and Instagram, but they keep finding my email or my number. They even started going after my family and some friends.”

           “Jenna, that’s awful.” Eddie’s stomach sank and Venom seemed more than ready to get revenge.

           “They are bad guys. Can we eat them?” He begged.

           Her eyes welled up with tears even though she did her best to keep her cool. “I just…I don’t know what to do. They won’t listen to my explanation. They don’t care about the evidence. They won’t leave me alone.” She rubbed her eyes, willing herself not to cry. Crying symbolized weakness.

           “You don’t owe them an explanation. You didn’t do it and if they don’t believe you then that’s their problem.” Eddie insisted. “But they can’t harass you like that.”

           She shook her head. “They send me threats, saying they want to come to do the same thing that happened to Tyler to me.” She told him in a trembling voice. “Eddie, I’m terrified they’re going to find where I live and kill me.”

           Venom hissed and continued to pester Eddie about making them pay.

           “Have you called the police?”

           “Yeah, like they’re going to help me after everything that happened.” She looked miserable. “I can’t move yet because of my lease and I don’t have the money. I guess I could change my number but they’re relentless. Someone even called my work asking for my personal information.”

           “We will protect her.” Venom vowed. “No one will be able to get near her without consequences.”

           Eddie wholeheartedly agreed with him. But he couldn’t exactly tell Jenna he would personally see to breaking any intruders’ legs. He wasn’t sure how else to comfort her.

           “Did you tell Anne this?” He asked. “She might have some suggestions.”

           Jenna nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t think about calling her.” She sat on the idea for a moment and decided it would be a good step. She trusted the lawyer more than most people.

           “Maybe start with that. You have my number too, just in case.”

           She felt like she could take deeper and slower breaths. “Thank you, Eddie, this was helpful.” He smiled genuinely but inside he felt immense guilt.

=============

           They walked back to the apartment building together. The weather was starting to clear up and the sun began to poke through the clouds.

           “I was wondering if you were ever going to do an article about that thing? The monster or whatever you’d call it.” Jenna spoke up as they approached the building’s entrance.

           “Yeah, I uh…I’ve thought about it. A few people asked because of my involvement with the Life Foundation fiasco.” He stopped in the lobby to check his mailbox.

           “So you would?” Her face lit up with hope. “It would help get recognition so these crimes are put to rest instead of people blaming the wrong people.”

           “No, yeah, I get what you mean.” He pretended to be more interested in the bills he was holding. “I just dunno if that’s something I can do.”

           “I think you could. You’re a great journalist, you look for the truth to help people.” Jenna stood on the first step and watched him flick through his mail.

           “Thanks.” He rubbed the back of his neck and elbowed the metal mailbox door shut. “It’s just…it’s complicated I guess.”

           She looked confused. “I don’t understand.”

           “I’m just a little caught up in a tangled web of shit and I don’t think I need to get further involved, y’know?” He tried to sound as vague as possible in an effort to get her off his back about it.

           “Do you know something about it that the public doesn’t?” She hesitated and tensed up again. “Eddie, is there something you’re not telling me?” She asked in a low voice.

           “Be honest.” Venom said steadily.

           Eddie swallowed, doing his best not to look super guilty. “I uh…nope. I was just talking about, y’know…” He started climbing the steps to their floor. Jenna followed close behind, obviously not wanting to let the matter go. “Freelancing is tough.” He couldn’t find a viable excuse so he just floundered.

           She obviously didn’t look convinced. They reached their floor and she stood still, staring at him. “I don’t really remember a time when I trusted anyone.”

           He turned and met her sad eyes. The familiar ache returned when he saw the damage people had inflicted on her. It didn’t need to be visible, her eyes showed it all.

           “I-uh-my dad abused me and I guess that’s how I set my standard for love. A guy could beat the shit out of me but still loved me.” Jenna swallowed and wrung her hands together in a nervous habit. She looked hurt but she wasn’t weak. She continued to stay standing despite everyone that knocked her down. “But I found people, friends, who showed me that wasn’t what love was. Even after that I still put myself in those relationships. I don’t know if I thought that was all I deserved or-or if I was just asking for it. Because that’s what they told me. Over and over again. My actions. My words. My demeanor. Everything I did was a reason to hurt me.”

           “Jenna-” Eddie felt so much guilt bubbling up in his stomach and sticking in his throat.

           But she interrupted him before he could say anything else. “I’m not a victim, Eddie. It wasn’t my fault, what they did. But I continued to think I was worthless and that no one could be trusted. After what happened with Tyler, I’ve been trying to get back my self-esteem and learn how to trust others.” Her face hardened like stone. “When I met you after you helped me, I wondered if you would be the guy I could finally trust. And I know we still don’t know each other that well and maybe I’ve had my guard up, but if you’re keeping something from me…” Her breathing shuddered as she inhaled. “Something about that thing that killed Tyler, th-then this-” She gestured to the space between them. “This can’t happen.”

           “Tell her now!” Venom’s shout bounced around Eddie’s skull like a nasty migraine.

           “I…” He looked helplessly at her expectant face. “Jenna, I don’t know how to tell you.”

           Her shoulders deflated slightly and she shook her head. “Goodbye, Eddie.” She said firmly and went to unlock her door.

           She had one foot in her apartment when all hell broke loose.

           Venom shot out a black mass to grab her wrist and keep her from leaving. Jenna looked down and took in the arm protruding from Eddie’s shoulder a few feet away. There was a split second of dread as Eddie processed what the symbiote had done.

           His neighbor let out a scream and slammed the door shut on them.

           Venom recoiled and Eddie rushed over to the door.

           “Jenna, please, just let me explain!” He pled loudly his stomach tightened when he realized he was doing the same thing her ex had done months before, what had ultimately led to his demise.

           “Wh-what the hell was that?” She shrieked from the other side of the door.

           “That…I have a parasite.” He replied weakly.

           “For the last time, I will eat your lungs if you call me a parasite again!” Venom shouted among the chaos that was going on.

           “Then go to the hospital!” Jenna wasn’t sure a parasite could cause something like that to happen but she didn’t want to know anything else about it.

           “I did…I have. It’s not that sort of parasite. It’s more like…”

           “Let me speak to her. I will explain better than you can.”

           “No!” Eddie snapped loudly. “You’ve done more than enough!”

           Jenna’s apartment was quiet while she listened to her neighbor talk to seemingly no one. “Who are you talking to?” She asked shakily.

           “My…I’m host to a symbiote.” Eddie couldn’t keep it from her anymore. He just had to blurt it all out and get it over with. “We basically co-exist together. That alien you saw that night was…I was there. I was-that was me.”

           There was no response for a long time. Eddie slid down to sit by her door. The feeling of anxiety and helplessness filled his heart. Here was someone he really liked and he’d misled her and toyed with her trust. He knew she had issues with people who lied but he still kept the truth from her.

           Even Venom’s resolve wilted the longer they waited for her response. He rapped on the door quietly. “You don’t have to say anything or talk to me ever again.” He prefaced. “But I just wanted you to know that we would never hurt you. We both like you a lot and maybe the thing we did was wrong but we were only trying to protect you.” His explanation sounded flimsy despite how deep-rooted it was. “Ven and I, we don’t like bullies, people who go around hurting and taking advantage of others. We were afraid Tyler was going to harm you again and…” He sighed deeply. “I know the eating people thing is weird-never mind you probably don’t want to hear about that. Just, no matter what we wouldn’t hurt you. And we’ll leave you alone from now on. You won’t have to worry.” Eddie felt a hundred times heavier as he picked himself up and shuffled to his apartment door. The hallway was silent and Venom sadly curled up in Eddie’s heart.

Tag list: @goddessofthunder112

Permanent Tags: @what-the-buckybarnes @captainmarmel

Masterpost

My Masterlist

[inyournightmares97]

OMG ASKS ARE OPEN!! I've been thinking about requesting for a while now so... Please, please, pretty please a Jaebum hybrid!au. I don't have a paticular plot in mind but maybe something where he can lift up my spirits, cause I've been really stressed these days. Lol. Love youuuuuu~♡

Hybrid!au Jaebum

It was at your parents’ insistence that you had decided to adopt a hybrid.

They were worried about you, and with good reason. You were a young girl who lived alone in the city, you worked a lot and you had never been particularly confident or outgoing. Your mother was constantly stressed about your safety, and she insisted that she would feel much better if you had a hybrid to watch over you at home. A large dog hybrid, preferably, one that could protect you if the need arose.  

That was what you’d had in mind when you went to the adoption center. A bright, easygoing dog hybrid that would keep you safe and would be nice company. You followed the employee, who was took through the rooms where the hybrids up for adoption were kept. You had barely reached the dogs when you suddenly spotted one. He was rather large and broad-shouldered, so you wouldn’t have guessed he was a cat hybrid unless you saw the soft, pointy light brown ears peeking out of his head. Most of the hybrids looked rather eager at the thought of being adopted and were watching you with eager expressions. But not this one; he made no move to get up from his curled up corner and merely watched you calmly with a dull expression. He had dark, deep eyes and you found yourself stopping.

“Uh…” you called out for the attention of the employee. “Is he up for adoption?”

The employee blinked at you. “Jaebum? Certainly he is. But I thought you were looking for a dog hybrid? You might be misled by the fact that he’s rather broad-shouldered, but Jaebum is actually a cat.”

You bit your lip. “That’s okay with me.”

The employee blinked at you doubtfully. “Are you sure? I’m only saying because you were looking for a dog and I imagine you wanted someone bright and playful. Jaebum’s not a bad hybrid… but he’s very quiet and doesn’t open up easily. To be honest, he’s been through a lot. He was separated from his brothers in an accident and we’re trying to track them down.”

“Can I talk to him?”

You followed the employee over to where Jaebum was. He didn’t move much to greet you, but lifted his head and watched you with an intense gaze. His eyes flickered between you and the employee, who greeted Jaebum cheerfully.

“Jaebum-ah! This young lady is looking to adopt and she wants to talk to you. Why don’t two chat for a bit, and you can decide if you want to go home with her, huh?” he asked cheerfully. The employee turned and left you alone with Jaebum. You cleared your throat and kneeled down on the floor next to where he was curled up. He still watched you warily and you blinked. You had never had a hybrid before and you weren’t sure how to act around them. Unsure what to do to not offend him, you shakily held out your hand for him to shake.

“Hi,” you greeted nervously.

Jaebum’s eyes flickered down to your hand warily. No wonder he was a cat; there was something extremely sharp and intelligent about his gaze. He merely looked at it and flicked his tail lightly, ignoring your hand.

“Do you plan to tie your hybrid up?” he asked you bluntly.

You stared at him, eyes wide. “W-what? No! Do people even do that to cats? I wouldn’t dream of tying a hybrid up. As long as, you know, you don’t run away or anything. Not that I wouldn’t let my hybrid go anywhere, I’d just hope that he’d let me know whenever he was going somewhere…”

“I thought you wanted a dog.”

“Ahh… that was sort of what my parents wanted. But they live in the countryside and they’re never really going to visit me so they wouldn’t find out whether you’re a dog or a cat, would they?”

“So you plan to lie to them.”

“Uh….”

Jaebum turned away from you, resting his head on his hand and averting his gaze. You felt a little embarrassed. Had you just been rejected by a hybrid? It wasn’t a very pleasant feeling. You stood up slowly, trying to hide the fact that your cheeks were burning red and quietly exited the room. It hadn’t really occurred to you that the hybrid might reject you as an owner and now you were feeling really weird. You smiled forcefully at a couple of the other hybrids that watched you with hopeful eyes in the other rooms, and then trailed to the front desk.

“Uh, I think I’m just going to come back on another day…” you explained hesitantly to the woman behind the desk. She blinked at you in surprise.

“Oh! Are you sure? Did Jaebum scare you off? He’s a little hostile but he has a good heart, I promise. Why don’t you wait here and I’ll go talk to him. We have plenty of more playful hybrids if you’d like…” she trailed off and disappeared into the other room.

You bit your lip and sighed, wishing she would just let you leave. Part of you scolded yourself for thinking that things would be easy with a hybrid. They weren’t just animals, they had human emotions and you couldn’t pick and choose human beings like vegetables in the market. You wanted to leave but the woman behind the desk returned in a few moments and beamed at you.

“Looks like you left a good impression with Jaebum! He wants to be adopted by you. Or did you want to look at some more dogs, like you originally intended?”

You blinked. “He wants to be adopted?”

“Yup!”

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Two days after adopting Jaebum, you were wondering whether the woman behind the counter had lied to you.

Jaebum didn’t seem particularly… upset or dissatisfied with you. Rather, he just looked uninterested in everything around him. You tried your best to make him comfortable. You googled the sort of food cat-hybrids liked best, and made sure your fridge was always stocked with them. You cleared out the spare room in your apartment that you’d been using as a storeroom and made him a bed in it.

You worked long hours and often came home late at night to find Jaebum already asleep. He never closed his bedroom door, he just opened one eye to watch you through the darkness as you made yourself dinner and left a glass of milk beside his door. In a way… you didn’t mind that he was so quiet. At least he was extremely low maintenance and never made a mess of the apartment.

Still… you wished he would talk to you sometimes.

One day, you finally worked up the courage to ask.

“Are you… happy here?” you blurted out.

Jaebum, half-way through a glass of milk, blinked up at you from where he was curled up on the sofa. He had a hint of a milk-stache but he wiped it away with the back of his hand instantly and blinked at you with his deep eyes.

You cleared your throat. “I mean… am I a bad owner? I know I work long hours and I’m not around a lot. But if there’s something I’m doing wrong or something I can do to make you happier, then I wish you would tell me. if it’s within my control then I would do it for you.”

He blinked. “I’m fine,” he said quietly.

You resolved to make Jaebum open up more. Maybe it was your fault for letting the atmosphere get so awkward. You tried to come home earlier to catch Jaebum before he went to sleep and you started talking to him. Regardless of whether he responded to you or not, you told him about your day. You talked about the assignments you were doing at work, how you and your co-workers had found a lovely new cafe at lunchtime and how your boss was being mean about deadlines. You invited him to watch television with you and asked him which movies he liked.

To your delight, Jaebum warmed up to you slowly. He came out of his room whenever you came home, and sat at the kitchen counter while you prepared dinner. He rarely responded to your ranting and chattering about work, but one of his ears was always perked up and you knew he was listening. He would curl up on the sofa whenever you watched television and if he didn’t like the channel you were watching, he would blink at you and stare pointedly at the remote. (Apparently Sex and the City reruns were not to his taste). He even started to help around the house. You came home certain days to find the dishes done or the laundry folded. When you thanked him, his cheeks flushed a light tint of pink but he didn’t respond.

It all seemed to be going well, until things got worse at work. There was a huge new client contract and your boss had you working overtime almost every day. You were exhausted from listening to his nagging and the stress of the work was getting to you. Jaebum waited up until you got home and you could see the slight worry in his eyes as you went straight to bed, dinner and bath forgotten.

Soon, even sleep began to evade you. Somebody new had moved in next door and apparently they enjoyed blasting loud music at night. You weren’t one for confrontation so you tried to ignore it, but the thumping music had you tossing and turning in bed at night. Finally one day, you’d had enough. You got up and marched straight out of the apartment in your pajamas, Jaebum’s wary eyes following you as you walked out.

You knocked loudly on you neighbour’s door. “Excuse me? Could you turn the music down a little?” you yelled through the front door.

The door swung open and you were greeted with the smiling face of an extremely handsome man. He stared you up and down and then grinned. “Ah! Hi, neighbour. I’m Jackson Wang. We’re having a housewarming party right now, so why don’t you come in and grab a beer?”

Your head was throbbing and your nerves were on edge. You forced a smile at this Jackson and shook your head. “It’s a weeknight. I’ve been working long hours and I have to get to office early tomorrow. Could you please turn the music down? I’m sure the other neighbours are disturbed too.”

He laughed. “I don’t see anyone complaining.”

You felt your cheeks flush red in humiliation as Jackson shut the door in your face and you were left standing there alone. You glanced back at your front door to see that Jaebum was peeking at you; great. So he had seen you get completely ignored too. Could this get any better? You began to trudge back to your apartment when Jaebum walked out.

“Uh-Jaebum…”

He didn’t look at you, he merely walked past you and banged loudly on Jackson’s door. Jaebum was usually sitting curled up but at his full height and with his broad shoulders, he looked rather scary and intimidating. When Jackson reopened the front door, Jaebum simply shoved him aside and stormed into his apartment. You followed him in horror, watching as Jaebum shoved past a few people and reached the sound system. He grabbed a bunch of cords and pulled hard, plunging the party into silence.

Jackson gaped. “What the- who the hell are you-”

“Keep it off,” Jaebum hissed at him, his eyes flashing dangerously. You were still in shock as Jaebum came over to you, grabbed your hand gently and pulled you back towards your own apartment. He led you inside before shutting the door behind him and locking it firmly.

You blinked. “Jaebum… what if he gets mad?”

“I’ll handle it,” he said firmly. You watched as Jaebum coolly went over to the sofa and curled up in his usual spot, closing his eyes. You felt a sudden warmth in your chest and you smiled at him. Gently approaching him, you sat down beside him and cleared your throat.

“Thank you, Jaebum.”

He blinked at you for a long moment, before suddenly tilting his head downwards so that you could only see the top of his head and his messy hair. He pointed at his head and then cleared his throat. “Pat,” he said simply.

You stared at him. “Huh?”

His cheeks were flushed pink but he was trying to hide them from you by ducking his head. Jaebum merely lifted your hand and placed it on his own head gently. “When I do something good, you… pat,” he mumbled.

Oh. You suddenly understood what he wanted. Unable to resist a giggle, you stroked the top of his head in a gentle manner. His hair was soft and you could feel the warmth of his skin. You peeked at his face to see that he had closed his eyes and had the slightest hint of a smile on his mouth. You resumed the patting, letting your fingers run through his hair and smiling when he let out a quiet, contented purr.

Maybe Jaebum was just a big cat after all.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

@ijustwantacue, I’m not sure if this is what you wanted but I hope you liked it! I’ve never written a hybrid!au before and I’ve read very few so I wasn’t sure how to go about it. But tsundere!Jaebum and protective!Jaebum are my secret fantasies, so lol. I hope you feel less stressed!!!! 

I’m sorry the rest of the requests are taking so long, I’ll work on them soon! 

[rifleshotsandflowerpots-blog]

In which Jade n Jake meet and both the similarities and differences are striking between them. @tallyhothere

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)Last Thursday at 8:36 PM

Your name is JAKE ENGLISH and you are currently galavanting around the not countryside at all. Is cityside a word? It is now! You are galavanting around the cityside as you explore the concrete jungle you find yourself in.

It's been exciting! It's been new! It's been thrilling! But most of all...its been COLD AS THE DICKENS.  So you have found a sneaky technique to beat the chill is to step into random shops and browse around a bit.  Marvel at all the knick-knacks, chat with the clerk a bit.  Then skidoo out for another block or two. 

At this juncture, you find yourself jingling the small shop bell and are greeted with perhaps the best shop you've seen yet! Plants! Flowers! A bona-fide jungle inside a box!  Wonderful!  And warm....very warm.

You step inside, coat a flashing eyesore blinking as you start to look over the various flora. @🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)Last Thursday at 9:05 PM

Your name is JADE HARLEY and you're in your flower shop again. You are.... well, not fine but you will. In time. For now you felt like taking care of your plants!   

You just need to keep your hands busy and well, you think you've done enough murders for the next couple of days. Also you still got orders to finish! Not a lot mind you, but you like to keep on top of things. 

 You're finishing up another bouquet when you hear the bell ring. Another customer maybe? Or a friend perhaps? You do love to chat when it's a dear friend!~ 

"Just a minute!!" You say, tying the final bow for the flowers. Aw, this arrangement is rather pretty actually. Blue's a calming colour.

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)Last Thursday at 9:20 PM

Oh! A voice! Sounds like a lady, but who knows.  "Alright!" you call back.  "Take your time, don't rush?"  You aren't really sure what you are supposed to be saying in this situation.

Walking among the flowers, for the first time since you've arrived you actually feel a pang of homesickness.  The snow is a marvel, the city is fascinating, but...also so unfamiliar.  Being surrounded by greenery feels comforting in a way, even if it is an artificial jungle.

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

Oh! That's an odd accent; maybe a newcomer to the city? How fun! 

You set the lovely arrangement to the side and dust off your hands before walking over to where you heard the voice come--what on Derse is that weird light show coming from among your plant??? 

"Hello??? Sir??" 

No raves in your flower shop! Well at least there's no obnoxious music.

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

Your attention is turned to the voice as you try to make your way towards it.

"Hello! Sorry! Was distracted!  Quite a lovely shop you have heeeeee...."

Your words taper off as you round the corner and for a moment you are confused by the lady in front of you.  She looks like the old photos of your grandmother, down to the hair.  Age her up some and she'd be a spitting likeness.

You blink, shake your head, blink again.  Hwah...wow.  Weird.  Maybe she's related to the Jude Harley fellow?  It suddenly dawns on you that this is another realm alltogether...she could in fact be a daughter or a granddaughter in this time to your grandmother?  The sudden concept that you could have very well a timeline of family who never had to deal with the batterwitch's terrible undertakings leaves you a bit speechless.

So you just stand there flabbergasted.

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

You blink at him. And then blink again just as astonished.

You have absolutely no idea who his guy is before you, but he reminds you alarmingly quickly of your Grandpa. You don't have much in the way of photos, but you remember his eyes, and his voice and it just... leaves you speechless.

Almost choked up even. He looks like a young version of Grandpa--!

Actually the longer you stare the more you kinda see Jude in him. A cousin to him then?? Maybe you and Jude might be more related than you thought.

"Ah.... w-well... you're new!"

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

The vintage memory standing before you speaks, and you are reminded she is in fact a person and not just a surreal memory.  Right, she's....likely someone else entirely.  And you're here staring at her like a buffon.

You look away at the plants and give a laugh that is uncharicterisically shaken.

"Ahaha! I am! Right you are on that!  Bit of a newcomer to this city of Midnight!    Can sort of say I just dropped in really!"  Another laugh, a bit more comfortable sounding this time.

"I must say, been in and out quite a few shops but this one so far gets the egg!  Think I've seen more plants here than I have the entire time I've been here so far!"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

You pick up on that; his nervous laugh reminds you that this guy can't be your Grandpa. He's dead after all. But the way he responded to you... well. You definitely don't think he knows you but maybe someone similar?

"Well it is a flower shop." You smile brightly, gesturing around you. "There's not quite a flower shop like mine in Midnight City! It's my way of bringing a bit of colour to this city~"

You eye his rave coat. "Though I must say, I think you've gotten me beat! I'm surprised that the Fashion Police hasn't stopped you yet."

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"Well I'd have to say you've done a right good job of it.  Bang up to the elephant even!"

Some of the plants are not anything like you've seen, but there's a few that make you think of home.  You lean over to smell one of the more tropical flowers.

The comment about the coat gets a chuckle.  "You aren't the first person to say that...what even is a fashion police?  I've met one policeman so far and he seemed rather friendly.  I didn't think the coat is that bad...though I guess not being able to turn it off really does make it a bit rough on the totsies."

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

Oh god he kinda talked like your Grandpa that's so weird!!!

"Why thank you Good Sir!~" You giggle, hands clasped behind your back as you observe him. "The Fashion Police are exactly what they sound like; they're a whole division devoted to making sure we Derse citizens stick to wearing clothes of the 1920s."

You tip your head as you step a little closer to the Grandpa double. "An off switch would have been smart yes!~ Really, I can't imagine that you came to Derse the legal methods; not that I'd tell anyone of course! Promise!~"

You really do. He's only in his odd coat and short shorts! And it's winter!!! Just how the heck did he get to Derse???

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"Huh....quite the oddity!  Wait....is it the 1920's?"  You suddenly look a bit confused. You thought this was just another planet.  "I swear this whole thing gets more and more tomfuddled the more I hear about it..."

Rubbing the back of your head, you think a moment.  "True.  Granted at this point not even sure if it does turn off. Been going for as long as I remember...but sheesh. I've yet to figure out what the legal methods are so not sure if I am or not? I suppose portal in sky meets ground is on the backlist of no-go.  I appreciate that though, last thing I came here to do was get arrested. Specially for coming here!"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

Oh. Oh dear. He doesn't seem to have noticed much since he got here! When did this guy even arrive to the city?

"Wait wait; first! Not actually the 1920s but because of Prospit winning the war against Derse, they implemented the Technology ban and thus life on Derse has been stuck in the world of Earth's 1920s; yes that does include the alcohol ban too."

"Secondly..."  You narrow your eyes, and place you hands on your hips. "You came here via portal in sky???" That sounded very much like Dirk, but more on purpose. "Where did you come from exactly?"

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

Prospit? War?  You read about the ban in Arq's files but huh...this all just sounded utterly silly.  Then again did you really have room to speak mister wearing shorts in the middle of winter?  Nope!  So you don't speak up on that bit at all.

At her gesture, you make a visible yerk as you are temporarily transported to a time when you were a child and your grandmother made that exact pose. The James Hamilton English what are you doing mister pose that causes the reptile part of your brain to immediately feel guilty over everything you have ever did in life.

"OH!  Well! Ah." You find yourself a bit more tongue-tied than you've been in years.  "It's a bit of a humdinger of a tale, probably going to make me sound more like I'm zozzled out of my gourd trying to sell you a dog."

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

You arch a brow, completely dissatisfied with that answer. He's kind of a dork, this double, but quite open about his expressions. Makes him pretty easy to read!  Poor sod; you hope he has friends that'll keep him from being manipulated then. 

"Well, good thing I already have a dog." Bec was the best boy hands down. "Now spill! If you came via portal, I'm guessing it had to be a very powerful portal to bridge you here from Earth. And since there wasn't any rips in the sky or blinding flashes of light, this portal had to be more discreet to not be spotted." 

All assumptions you make, but you say them to gauge.... this guy's expression.

....you should ask a name soon though.

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

Well, she certainly seems sharp enough to know a bit about portals and things...so maybe this would be more believable.  If anything, worst case she'll think you're a nutter and that's that.

"I think it was discreet?  Hoo. Granted from my perspective I just felt like I was hurtling down from space itself for a bit, so not sure how big or small it was from the other end.   The portal my friends and I hopped through was about uhh....yey big.  Maybe the size of your shop window?"

You gesture as you speak, as if you're incable of speaking and standing still at the same time.

"As for where I came from! Well! From another planet it seems, in a whole other dimension!  Earth, though a different Earth. My friends and I came across time and space to find and rescue one of our dearest friends who vanished when we tried to transportalize him over!"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

If you hadn't experienced Candy Hell and Horror Town you honestly would have thought him nuts! And yet you have and thus you believe him. He is also being openly honest about it too; there's nary a lie that you can see.

He's so innocent; untouched by the city and its own set of poisons and pain. He hasn't experienced what it's like to live in Midnight City, a world blacker than it's name suggests. 

You have a desire to protect that, but push it away. This wasn't like how it wa with Jay. You're both couldn't possibly be related!

"So... you came here. To my dimension. With other people. Just to find a friend??" You admire his loyalty.

Wait the only guy that he could be possibly referring to was--!

"You're here for Dirk!"

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

The idea that it seems odd or perhaps suspicious that a random flower shopkeeper would know Dirk and catch on so quick is completely overshadowed by how excited you are to talk about all of this to someone.

"I am!  I am indeed! You're sharper than a tack!"  You smile wide.  "Days....I guess now months back?  Hoo time stuff. Time stuff I must say is the worst stuff.   Some time back Dirk vanished in our attempt to bring us all together at long last, and so the rest of us put our collective noggins together to find out he fell into some rift or wormhole that had unexpectedly shown up!"

You give a slight spin, coat flowing around behind you as you do.

"So we found a way to get here to find him! And I have!  Which is good, because hoo-diddy did I get very lost for a bit there.  But he's currently having a bit of a trouble spot with one of our other friends so I'm just...hm. Well I'm giving them some time and space to sort that barrel of figs out.  Gives me a chance to explore this whole city thing in all its delights and  marvels!"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

You smile back. My god this boy is too precious and he's probably the same age as you. You might be that sharp but him? Duller than a butter knife. Or maybe you're just jaded and you hide it smoothly with your bubbly personality. One or the other.

You mean, he just told his whole story to you, a complete stranger! You sincerely hope he only did that because you remind him of someone, or that his friends are smarter street-wise; this city will gobble him up otherwise!

"Well, I'm glad you found Dirk then. He's a lovely friend." Good kisser too. "Though I'm worried about this trouble he has..." You figure it has to do with the Felt and Arquius. You do hope they both will be alright, all things considered. 

"Though if you were going to go explore, I have to ask why you didn't put on something a little warmer??" You question, eyeing those booty shorts. If you didn't like wearing pants on principle, you could probably pull off a pair of those too.

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"I'm glad too. I was expecting to have to search high and low for him in who knows what wilderness.  It didn't even dawn on me that he'd end up in a city, but perhaps for the best!  It's quite a nice place...full of people!"  you smile brightly.  "Did you know there are friendly trolls here?  Wait why am I asking that, of course you would.  Ahaha...sorry!  It's just been such a plum novelty since I arrived. Everything is so different, magical even!  Street lights, crowds of people, SO MANY PEOPLE, shops of just...things!  And snow!"

You look down at your outfit and chuckle.

"Yeah that was a bit of a blind-shot for me there, really should have thought of that one before I jumped.  It actually skipped my mind that of all the places to go, one may be a place that has more than one season that isn't tropical island. Hahahah...I mean I'm not sure I'll be here long enough to worry about getting pants."

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

Oh no he's ridiculous you want to protect this idiot child so much he rambles!!! You can't help but giggle in delight at his antics! 

"So I guess you were raised on an island then? A quiet one?" You tease just a little bit. "That sounds lovely; I think I used to live on one myself a very long time ago. I think that's partially why I have this flower shop. The city's not quite as colourful as an island!" Minus the red, black and pale light district of course.

"There's troll, humans and carapaces all living in Midnight City. Some are lovely people but others not so much. You best be careful when exploring; not everyone may take kind to you and your shorts~"

"....you know what? I don't think we ever exchanged names!" You can't keep calling him Dork in your head. "So sorry about that! I'm Jade! Jade Harley!~"

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"A bit yes.  Though that's likely another long tale in and of itself. " You grin.  It's just so...novel to be able to talk to another person face to face.  Is this what it's like to have a normal world and normal life?  Is this...small talk?  "It's true...this city does seem to be a bit low on color. But the lights are remarkable!  Just everywhere sparkling like the stars came down to nest!"

The caution is noted...you did expect sooner or later someone was going to get a bit irate at the strange man running around in shorts and flashing lights.  Dirk had offered you some of his clothes but...that felt a bit odd.  Besides, may as well enjoy this chilling cold while you can.

Your smile goes wider at the mention of name exchange, but you can't quite hide the surprise when she introduces her name and you feel yourself once again thrown for a loop.  Ooh heavens to murgatroy, this just got weird again.

Maybe she's an alternate younger version of your grandmother...or maybe she just was named after HER grandmother who would have been your grandmother. Oh god, what if she's an alternate YOU.  There is a bit of resemblence there.

"Ah! Right right.  I'm Jake. Jake English.  Please do m-meet you  G-Miss Harley!  Don't suppose you are related to the Jude Harley fellow I met a bit ago?"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

"That's Midnight City for you! The city that never sleeps~"

Jake English; well not quite your grandpa's name but close! You're pretty sure his name could've been Jake too. Though you vaguely remember calling him Grandpa Harley.

"Please! Just call be Jade! Less I call you Mister English in turn!~" Oh he's met Jude?? He come to think of it, he kinda looks like Jude too! Hmm maybe in his dimension that Jude could've been an adult relative?? 

"So you've met him?? No, no relation of any kind! We just happen to share a last name. I don't have any blood ties." 

A small white lie, but you're not about to tell your possibly alternate younger grandpa about your illegally experimented dog gal sister when you've barely told anyone else.

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"Righto!  Jade it is! Pleasure to meet you Jade."  You give a good proper bow this time, realizing you should have done that earlier.  Human interraction is difficult.

"I have! I well, ran into the poor gent headlong when I shot into the brown on my landing here.  Still feel a bit bad for that really. Should make an apology proper before I leave.  Quite and alright chap!"

You listen to her speak and nod solemnly.  "The Harley name is quite the prolific one I daresay.  Was my grandmother's, though since she passed I think...well shoot maybe it's not that prolific at all now. Well that's a bit of a humdinger....SO! What do people here do for fun?"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

Oh he's bowing; you let out a giggle and curtsy back. He doesn't have to actually but hey, you've always been a go-with-the-flow kind of gal~

"Oh! Yeah I think so; Jude's a sweet guy if a little shy." You like Jude a lot; you might not be related but he's a darling! Especially after learning he's not a stalker.

Ah; how odd! His grandma's dead, yours is too.... or maybe you're grasping at straws with that tidbit. "Well we are stuck in the 1920s so there's a lot of swing clubs and we still have movie theatres and casinos and the like! There's also bars if you know where to go; technically it's illegal to be drinking, but people love their drinks too much to really give it up."

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

The giggle she gives sounds so much like your grandmothers, it's uncanny.  If anything, there was a strange surreal comfort at the idea that perhaps this is another time and place where your grandmother is alive and gets to have a happy life running a flowershop versus well...what all happened in your time and place.

Your eyes light up at the concept of clubs, and theatres!  Casinos...eh not so much cause it isn't like you have any money to gain or lose.  "Fair fair.  Not much for the gigglewater myself what with the whole island thing....though Roxy is quite fond of it.   She'll be glad to hear there's that."

You chuckle, not showing any opinion on the legality of things.  Not like that kind of thing is really your concern.  "A theatre sounds nice though! I don't think I've ever been to one before so I should definitely try to get to do that!"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

"Roxy? Is she another friend of yours that came to find Dirk??" You wonder how many that makes; currently that's four people from the same different universe. How are they going to go home? Would they even make it back successfully...?

"There's are a lot of fun! I don't go often but sometimes it's nice to go watch a movie with some friends and popcorn. I very much recommend the theatre on Main and Bayview; they always get the newest movies first~" 

Honestly that sounds fun; you should probably go see a movie when you get a chance.

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"She is! She's the smartest most talented church-bell I've ever met!  One of my best friends!" One of your only friends, but you aren't going to let that detail get you down.  "Her, Hal and myself all jumped through and here we are. Though I guess Hal is now Arq?  I have noticed people sure love their name changes when coming over here. "

You laugh and then listen, nodding enthusiastically. 

"That sounds perfect!  I'll get to try popcorn for the first time! I've read about it, it sounds delightful!  Thank you for all these suggestions."

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

Awww she sounds wonderful. Maybe with your luck, you might run into this Roxy lady too. She sounds very pretty! And sweet~ "I think that's because there exists in this world a Hal? He's... he's very neat all things considered, but he was here first before your Hal~"

You laugh and smile back. "It's not any trouble Jake! Just be safe! The city is wonderful but it can be dangerous; not everyone is a sweetheart like you!~"

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"True true. I've noticed there seems to be a bit of a double up.  Wonder if there is another of me out there on adventures.  Maybe I'll get lucky and run into him before I have to go."  You like to assume that he is somewhere out there...doing some grand escapade.  Probably is really cool.

"Well if this city is half as pleasant as you are, I can't imagine it being anything but a paradise!  But I shall do my best to stay safe.  I hope I can meet you again before I go though, this has been the most delightful of meetings."  It's true, and admittedly you'd like to see this place once more before you stop off and away.  It feels so much like home, and she looks so much like her that it kind of recalls old feelings you wouldn't mind having at least once before you lose any chance again.

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

"Maybe!" You doubt it, if his counterpart was indeed your grandpa. Who is very much dead. Definitely not alive anymore.

You give another bright smile and before you know it, you're giving him a warm, patented Jade hug. "I concur!  You have been the most interesting person to enter my shop today! You're welcome back any time! You can bring your friends too it would be nice!~"

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

The hug is a surprise, but a welcome one.  Goodness, it's been so long since you've been around people in general. But then you got hugs from Roxy, and Dirk, and Arq, and sort of one from the little green fellow, and now this!  Hands down, this is your best city experience ever.

You are already starting to miss it.

But for now, you smile bright!  "Oh! Definitely! I'll make sure to bring them as well! I expect they'd love this place, and be glad to meet you too! Thank you so much Jade. You've been the jammiest bits of jam!"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

You give the best hugs! You've been told this many times so it must be true.

"You're very welcome Jake!" You let go after a few moments, hands clasped behind you once more. "You are also quite the darling! I hope you all get home safely. And uh," You eye his coat and shorts, amusement all over your face. "Try to find something warmer okay? City winters can be harsh, too harsh to wait it out."

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"Can do!" You give her a salute and a smile.  No sense bringing up the whole what is money and how you have none of it, the last thing you want is to come across as a nose bagger.

"Until next time!  Tally ho!"

And with that, you turn and make your exit.

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

You smile and wave him off, watching as he steps out of your shop and braves the cold once more. What a curious individual! And so very, very trusting. Too trusting even.

You pull out your phone and stare at it a little. Telling the bosses about people apparently dimension-hopping into yours would be pretty important you feel. You'd rather not give those Felt bastards any more potential help if possible. Hmm.... yeah, you should let others know.

Though you do hope Jake goes home. He would be safer that way.

[midtownvaledictorian]

Always

Months after breaking up, you get a text from Tom...

(2,600 words)

Warnings: SMUT-T-T-T

A/N: considering trying a Peter Parker fic, thoughts??? also, definitely want to start doing requests so send them my way. also considering doing a series of little events between you and Tom dating. JUST SO MANY IDEAS.

also- will probably be most active Friday-sunday because I have class Monday-Thursday but I’ll definitely try my best to post during the week.  

w/o further ado... 

You were always the experienced one in relationships. No matter how much a boy would talk himself up, you would leave highly dissatisfied; really the only satisfaction you could get from sexual encounters was watching boys come completely unhinged by your actions. You were truly a goddess. That’s why your first encounter with Tom took you by surprise. You had met in a crowded club in L.A. After hours of watching you dance, and after about five drinks, Tom finally worked up the courage to approach you. You had to admit, you were instantly attracted to him. His sharp jaw line, perfectly curling hair, and deep brown eyes nearly put you in a trance as he asked if he could buy you a drink. It didn’t take much convincing when he asked you if you’d like to come home with him. Dancing with him allowed you to feel the bulge you helped grow in his jeans and you were intrigued by what he could do, or more so what you could do to him.

That first night was ecstasy. It was as if he was able to stimulate every nerve in your body. Orgasms washed over you over and over again, yet you still had your effect on him. After you both had your fill you laid there together, head on his chest. Feeling it move up and down harshly, still trying to fully calm down. “Fuck. How did you even do that?” He said, running fingers through your hair.

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” you replied, earning a chuckle from Tom. “I guess we’re perfect for each other then.” And damn was he right. You both found out that your emotional chemistry far surpassed your physical chemistry. You had both fallen madly in love with each other. But that was months ago, and now you lay alone on your bed. Everything was perfect between you and Tom, except one thing. He was too afraid to make your relationship public and you were growing tired of being a secret. You understood the fear, the idea of you becoming too overwhelmed by the attention, the hate you might receive from jealous fans, the fear that it would change everything. But you couldn’t handle it anymore, so you left. You were lying on your bed, scrolling through old messages, when suddenly they swiped back down to the very bottom. You groaned, too tired to swipe all the way back up to the ones you were reading, before you realized that it was because of a new text. hey, can I call? it’s tom btw, just in case you deleted my number. Your heart dropped. What could he possibly need? You tried to convince yourself that you were annoyed by the sudden contact, but you knew you wanted to talk to him. No matter what it was he had to say, just to hear his voice. of course It was easy to send that text, but when his face suddenly illuminated your phone, you realized how difficult it was to actually pick up. You swiped the screen to answer the call, but it took a moment before you could actually put the phone to your ear. “Hi,” you almost whispered. “Hi, I was afraid you weren’t going to answer for a second there.” He said, allowing a breathy chuckle to follow. “I’ll always answer for you.” You instantly regretted that. It just slipped out. Feeling the uncomfortable silence, you quickly added, “so what did you need?” “Well, I need you to come let me in.” “What?” “I’m outside. We need to talk y/n, please.” “I’ll be right out.” You hung up the phone and started walking out of your bedroom when you remembered that you weren’t properly dressed for company. You ran to your closet and threw on a pair of sleep shorts and a Vampire Weekend shirt you bought at the concert you saw with him. Suddenly, you were nervous about how you looked, but you decided it had been too long since you hung up for any more primping. You made it to the door and went to turn the handle, but noticed your hand just lying there, unable to turn it. With a deep breath, you swung the door open. There he was, clad in black jeans and a t shirt, just tight enough to notice that his muscles have only grown since you last saw him. “Tom.” It was all that you could get out. His eyes looked bloodshot, and his lips were swollen. You knew he had been crying, but he hid it so well over the phone. “Y/n. May I come in?” You nodded and moved out of the way from the doorway, allowing him to enter your apartment like so many times before. He moved to the closet next to the front door to shed his jacket, and returned wielding a raised eyebrow and an old sweatshirt—his sweatshirt. “Oh yeah, I meant to run that by your place but I've been so busy with work I never had the chance.” You quickly lied. He started working his arms through it, as if he was about to put it on, but backwards. He walked over to you and held it above your head. You raised your arms in response and he easily slipped it over your petite frame. “It always looked better on you anyways.” His face was so close to yours. For a moment you thought he was about to lean in a place a long awaited kiss on your lips, but instead he started walking towards the living room and sat down on the couch. You followed. You sat down nervously, a bit further away from him than you probably should have. “Y/n I can’t take this anymore.” He blurted out. “We love each other. We are meant to be together. I know I messed up okay? But I can fix it, I will fix it for you.” “Tom…” “If you can look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t think we should be together then I’ll leave.” His intensity took you by surprise. You had no idea he felt this way, if you did, then you probably would be back together by now. You could see tears starting to well up in those brown eyes again, and you could feel them starting in yours. The fear you felt earlier was replaced intense feelings of love. You wanted him back, in every way. With one foul sweep you placed yourself on his lap, straddling the boy you loved so much. You cupped his cheeks and put your forehead on his. You were so close you had to keep darting your eyes back and forth to look into both of those beautiful brown eyes. You couldn’t take it anymore, you crashed your lips into his. The passion was overwhelming, so many emotions were behind that single kiss. You could tell he was taken off guard, but soon he found comfort in the familiar feeling and began exploring your body. First he wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you in even closer. Then they trailed down to the small of your back, then further to cup your ass, instantly causing you to start grinding on him. His hands journeyed to your thighs. He savored the feeling of your soft skin as you savored the roughness of his palms. You moaned at his touch, and he took the opportunity to slip his tongue into your mouth. His kisses grew more and more desperate, as if he thought he’d never get to kiss you again. Then you realized, he probably did think that. He pulled away from the kiss and rested his forehead on yours, “I really thought I’d lost you.” Tears began to well up in those big brown eyes. You placed soft kisses on his forehead in between shushes. “I’ll always be yours, Tom. Always.” “Always,” he nodded. He gave you one more quick kiss before scooping you up and carrying back to your room. He set you down gently on your bed. You expected to feel his lips against yours again, but instead he barely lifted up the sweatshirt and began placing kisses all over your stomach. Goosebumps began covering your body as he kissed the sensitive skin. He chuckled when he noticed the little bumps, “always worked like a charm.” You rolled your eyes at that typical, cocky remark. Even after months of being apart, he knew you like the back of his hand. He never broke eye contact as he slowly slipped you out of your shorts. Even though your room was dark, his eyes were darker, and you could see the lust glistening in them. He started rubbing circles on your clit making your eyes flutter shut and your head fall back into your bed. The sensation suddenly stopped and you groaned at the discomfort starting to grow between your legs. “Look at me,” he barely whispered. You propped yourself up on your elbows and the second you found his eyes he attached his mouth to your clit and slid two fingers into you. You wanted to throw your head back in pleasure, but you know it’d only cause him to stop again. That was always his thing. He loved watching you, and he really loved you watching him. Each lick and pump brought you closer and closer to the edge. Tom could tell you were getting close, he only stopped his movements to whisper, “say my name, love.” “Oh, Tom,” you began to moan. Each time you repeated his name he would pick up the pace, soon you were chanting his name and a feeling of euphoria swept over your body. A feeling only he could give you. One orgasm wasn’t enough though, you were desperate to be even more intimate with him. You grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him up to you. You could taste yourself on his lips as he began to kiss you again. You began fumbling with the button of his jeans, but couldn’t seem to get them undone. Tom noticed you struggling and reached down to help you. “I see you haven’t improved your dexterity,” he chuckled. “Yeah, well I haven’t really had much practice in a while,” you grumbled as he released the button and you pulled down the zipper. Tom smiled as he realized you hadn’t been with anyone else since the two of you broke up. Even though he knew it was selfish, he really couldn’t stand to think of you being with anyone else. You slipped your hand into his jeans and began palming him through his boxers. He clenched his jaw and hissed from the contact he had been anticipating for so long. It really was a spectacle, him all worked up, curls messy, t shirt clinging to his chest with sweat, dark eyes locked with yours. He was getting harder with each stroke, and you couldn’t help but wonder how much he could take. Clearly not much because he rolled off of you and began kicking his jeans and boxers off. Once he was free of the clothing you swung your leg over to straddle him. You tugged at the hem of his shirt and he pushed himself off the bed just enough for you to pull it off of him. You grabbed the hem of the sweatshirt and started to lift it off when he grabbed your wrists. “Don’t. I love it when you wear my clothes.” You smiled at his confession, especially because he always pretending to be annoyed when you would steal his sweatshirts and t shirts. Tom was throbbing beneath you. You began grinding against his length, letting your wetness cover his cock. Tom sighed, half in pleasure, half in desperation. You raised an innocent eyebrow at him. “Always such a tease,” he sighed. You smirked as you lined yourself up and began lowering yourself onto him. His eyes rolled back as he reached for your hips. Squeezing tighter as you began to quicken the pace. He pulled you forward by the back of your neck and began kissing you sloppily. He grabbed your ass, causing you to lean forward even more. He began lifting up his hips to thrust into you, and you bit at the skin on his shoulder to suppress your moans. “I love you,” he whispered into your ear before nipping at its lobe. The feeling of his hot breath against your neck drove you crazy and you let out a loud whine. He flipped the two of you over so that you were on your back and began thrusting relentlessly. He lifted one of your legs up over his shoulder so that he could thrust even deeper. The new angle was too much, you could feel your abs tightening as another orgasm started to creep up. “Tom I’m- Oh I’m gonna,” you couldn’t even get out a full sentence before the feeling washed over you again. You dragged your nails down his back as he continued to fuck you, riding out your high. His thrusts started getting sporadic and you could tell he was close. He got up on his knees and he started to jerk himself off, but before he could cum you scooted forward and took his length in your mouth. You bobbed your head before sucking on the head, running your tongue over the little slit—his most sensitive spot. He ran his hands through your hair before letting out a breathy “fuuuuck.” Soon hot ribbons of cum were shot down your throat—you savored the taste that you didn’t even know you’d missed. He collapsed next to you, letting out a satisfied sigh. He held out one of his arms, inviting you to snuggle up under it. Once you found yourself situated in the familiar position, you looked up at him and whispered, “I love you, too.” Tom gave you a kiss on the forehead before pulling the covers up over the two of you. You woke up alone. You immediately made yourself believe that he must’ve left early so that he wouldn’t have to face you. You should’ve known it was all too good to be true. You wanted to bury yourself under the covers in embarrassment, but then you noticed music playing faintly. It sounded like Goodness Gracious by The Heligoats. That was Tom’s favorite song on your morning playlist. You dragged yourself out of bed and walked into the kitchen, and there he was. Flipping pancakes and sipping on coffee while wearing nothing but boxers. He was singing along so softly that you could barely hear him, you always loved the few moments you could hear him sing. You started humming along yourself, which caught his attention. “Good morning love, I was worried the coffee would go cold by the time you finally woke up,” he laughed. You rolled your eyes and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before pouring yourself a cup. 
“Good morning to you too.”
“I’ve got plans for us next weekend.” “Oh really? Well I’ll have to see if—” “You don’t work.” “Oh. How exactly do you know that?” “You never unsynced our calendars. How was your gyno appointment by the way?” “Uhh,” you could feel the heat flood through your cheeks. “I’m only joking, darling,” he laughed as you rolled your eyes. “Anyways, BAFTAs are next weekend, I figured that’d be the perfect way to introduce you to everyone as my girlfriend.” 

[all-alone-he-turns-to-stone]

Who Is In Control?

Summary: When the pack is split apart, there’s no one left for Stiles. So when Theo comes for Void Stiles, no one stops him. The chimera had prepared everything to make him come back, torture and experimentation with the dread doctors are waiting for the poor Stiles. But there is someone left. Someone who can still find him. His last hope and remain of humanity. You.

Pairing: Stiles x reader, Void Stiles x Reader

Word Count: 6659

Warning: angst, angst, angst, angst, torture, more angst, is that fluff? Oh no my bad it was angst!

Forever tag list: @multilovee @5sospoplikerock @rosecoloredshawn

A/N: This is my entry for @fillthevoid-stilinski writing competition with the prompt Am I scaring you? And I’m very anxious to post it. I passed 2 days no joke on it and kept doubting, oh no this is so bad and ew who wants that? I am so mean with Stiles oh my god I love my baby please don’t hate me!!! Feedbacks would be glady appreciated and since it’s for a contest I prefer to not make it check and proofread. Well. Hope y’all like it…? Also this is setted in season 5 but y’all probably figured it out.

“I came for Void Stiles! And you know what, Stiles? No one will come for you. No one will look for you because every single one of your friends will be too selfish and busy to. Scott? Your best friend who turned his back on you? Dead. Liam? He will kill him. Kira? Gone. She won’t ever come back. Lydia? Crazy in Eichen. Malia? Malia is too busy looking for her mother to even think about you. You’re alone, Stiles. Alone and weak.”

Theo’s words hurt him more than they should have. On the one hand because a painful truth was hidden, on the other because Stiles didn’t want to believe it. He simply couldn’t believe all his friends, his pack, his family wasn’t going to find him. They wouldn’t even look for him.

The young man, powerless, could only retreat. He couldn’t beat the chimera, he was alone, and especially weak. Theo was right, Stiles was weak and painfully alone. So, when his golden eyes sparkled with malice as he moved toward him, Stiles did nothing to defend himself. What would he lose? It was better dying now, his father was probably dead anyway.

“You’re gonna kill me?” Stiles muttered, his voice trembling with fear and rage, his fists clenched painfully while itching. The intense urge to place his weak human fists against Theo’s jaw was very tempting. He had a dark and black urge to hit his enemy, to demolish his face until the dark red of blood was the only thing his brown eyes could see on his face. This indescribable, intense and burning anger ran through his veins, contracting each of his muscles. He had a powerful rage but it didn’t seem to belong to him.

“No, no, Stiles. I told you. ”

Then everything cleared up in Stiles’ mind. His eyes widened with fear, and this time, when he stepped back, it was in pure terror. Everything but not that. No.

“I came for Void Stiles. And I always get what I want. ”

Just before the blow that swallowed up his mind in blackness and unconsciousness, Stiles remembered something. A radiant face appeared quickly behind his eyelids sheltering the blackness of darkness as his body encountered the hard, rough ground under him, never damped impact. Theo hadn’t taken into account the presence of the last small human of the pack.

“Y / n …” Stiles sighed before dark and nightmares ate the last remaining of his conscience. You were his last chance.

It was several days that the pack was scattered, broken, just like your heart. You hadn’t been going out since then, school seemed only useless and a waste of time. You worried too much, negative and haunting thoughts that something worse was preparing invaded your nights as well as your days. Your worries went to Scott, who hadn’t yet recovered from his injuries, for the sheriff who was between life and death in the hospital, Malia not found, Lydia imprisoned in the psychiatric hospital, Liam who felt too guilty to get out of his house, Kira gone you no longer knew where … and Stiles.

Stiles had disappeared. No one cared more than that, everyone had something more important to do, pretending Stiles was fine. That it was his kind to go, to disappear and the remorse of having killed Donovan made him leave, same remorse that gnawed Liam and prevented him to leave his house probably hiding in his room, eaten inside by painful and heavy regrets.

But you, you knew him. He would never have left without warning you, without leaving a clue and a word. And your worries grew stronger when his jeep was found, empty and abandoned in a parking lot of a place without name or importance.

If no one was looking for Stiles, you would take care of it. If all his friends were busy caring for themselves, you were going to take care of Stiles.

The lights flashed even when his eyes were closed, blinding light piercing his closed eyelids to attack his pupils. His wrists were tightly tied as well as his ankles, and a solid belt held his chest against the hard, cold surface he could feel under his body, a cold that bite his bones even through his clothes. When Stiles understood that the chemical smell and the questionable light of the neon meant only one thing, he began to panic, pulling on his bonds frantically creating a buzz in the silent room. He was prey to total panic.

Stiles was lying on a table in what he understood was the dread doctors’ laboratory of horror. And if he were there, it meant only one thing.

“You’re lucky they let me talk to you before it starts,” a hoarse voice that didn’t even hide his satisfaction sounded somewhere behind his head. Stiles resumed firing at his bonds as hard as he could, grunting in despair. His groans quickly turned into a scream, a terrified scream.

“Don’t do that …” Stiles snorted, realizing he would not be able to break free. “Don’t bring him back. Don’t do that, he’s gonna kill you all, Theo, listen to me… ”

“Stiles, Stiles, Stiles … Come on, Stiles.” Theo began by placing himself near his victim, his left hand resting on his bare arm. "I won’t bring back the nogitsune, I don’t have the triskelion box that keeps him prisoner, box that left with Isaac in France.”

Stiles couldn’t tell if he was relieved he wouldn’t be forced to be possessed again or simply even more frightened to know Theo knew all about his life.

“At first they didn’t want to, you know? Dread doctors. They kept saying in their monotone and robotic tone you didn’t have two DNA.” Theo continued to speak, making the outline of the table where Stiles was held tied while sliding his fingers against the metal surface, absorbed in the contemplation of his victim to go to the other side. "But they were wrong.”

“W… what?”

“Being possessed leaves a trace, you know. A mark, a… Fingerprint. Do you understand, Stiles, where I’m getting at? ”

“A fingerprint is a DNA mark …” Stiles whistled between his teeth, his jaw clenched with rage that bubbled through his veins.

“Exactly! You’re the sheriff’s son. My condolence, by the way.”

“What …” It was a barely audible murmur, filled with anger, intense and uncontrollable rage that only accentuated the already dark emotions that bathed in Stiles’ veins. The muscles of his arms contracted, while in the silence that reigned before Theo’s response, only Stiles’ rapid and erratic breathing was perceptible as well as the sound of his ties, pulled out frantically and unnecessarily.

“Your father died today. Scott is dead too, but you don’t care, you weren’t friends anymore, were you? He abandoned you when you needed him the most. ”

“You lie …” He was in denial, no, impossible. It was impossible. The rage shook his voice and tears of anger replaced those of fear.

“I would like to lie, it would have been an interesting torture.” A satisfied corner smirk stretched Theo’s lips as he showed what he had in his right hand slowly. A long syringe filled with a thick black liquid appeared before Stiles’s wide-eyed eyes who panicked even more. "Speaking of torture, I must unfortunately begin. They’re getting impatient and they hate waiting. I warn you, it’s going to hurt a little. But don’t worry, Stiles. You won’t remember a thing. Since you will no longer be…  The one in control. ”

Stiles’ whole body trembled as the strongest fear he had ever felt gripped his bones firmly, making him turn his head from left to right, constantly repeating weak and unnecessary no that quickly turned into screams of supplication.

The most horrible and heart-rending scream of suffering broke the lugubrious silence of the long underground corridors without anyone hearing it.                  

The days passed in pain and torment for Stiles. The poor young man didn’t know how long he was there, how many days in the nightmare of his reality had passed. For how many hours he had been suffering, living all kinds of atrocities with the eternal goal of being transformed into a monster. He didn’t know it, his empty eyes staring at the ceiling without seeing it, his half-open mouth breathing the soiled air, his pale, dry lips begging for only one sip of water. Sleep fled from him, pain and atrocious images were all that filled his mind. Stiles stopped counting the seconds since a long time, something he did at the beginning in order to not lose his mind. When he forgot what number he was at, he counted in his head how much seven subtracted from 1000 made until he reached zero. At first it worked. Between the tortures, he counted, keeping a disappeared hope that someone was looking for him. He had to stay sane, so he was counting. Again and again. Then the pain became too intolerable and he even forgot his name.

“I tell you it’s going to work …”

His executioner had a muffled anger in his voice today, he seemed very dissatisfied with what the robotic voices of the masked people were telling him. And when he was angry, Stiles knew he was going to suffer only even more from the impatience of the person who was torturing him. The poor boy didn’t even know why he was suffering, the blows, the horrible images in his head, the needles entering his throat again and again, his eyes burning horribly as if a liquid were coming out. The metallic taste of blood became the only thing that his senses perceived. Several times, Stiles had let go. But every time he was brought back.

A grunt confirmed his fears. His executioner was very angry. And Stiles knew what was waiting for him, so the young man closed his eyes and waited while he tried swallowing saliva he no longer had, reminding him how thirsty he was.

“If he forgets who he is, he will never become someone else …”

No blow, pain or needle planted in his bruised flesh entered the muscles of the poor boy, only a not at all reassuring laugh resounded in his cottony ears, followed by footsteps fading in the distance.

A sigh escaped silently from his lips, his body trembled slightly at the dose of adrenaline he had just received under the sudden fear. His tired eyes burned with desire to remain closed, his heavy eyelids falling on his dark pupils before he could do anything.

And for the first time in too long, Stiles let himself go to sleep and welcomed the nightmare as an old friend.

“Stiles? Oh my god, Stiles! ”

The name sounded in his mind like an endless echo, a distant and yet luminous memory that warmed his empty stone heart. A cry, a voice of a memory, a part of his past. Stiles opened his eyes slowly, fighting against the urge to leave his eyelids closed to see who was the person that seemed to revive in him a forgotten and lost part of himself. The face he saw after turning his head to the side was familiar to him, the color of the girl’s eyes, her hair so familiar, the features of her particular face … Stiles’ tired eyes detailed the person without understanding where the sudden emotions animating his body that he thought dead had come from. His body that he thought was tied firmly but that wasn’t for a long time.

“Stiles! It’s me, Y / n! Stiles I’ve searched you everywhere … what did they do to you… ”

The girl had put her hands on his cheeks, warmth and tenderness he forgot like everything else. Tears now flooded in her beautiful sad eyes that he would have liked to see shining with joy and complicity. His heart had a painful beating when he realized he loved this girl. What was her name already? She had said it. Her lips smiled weakly when she saw he was starting to recognize her, his brown honey eyes staining a light in his dark, dead pupils. He was beginning to come back to her.

The girl’s thumb gently caressed his cheek, a gesture that made him shiver up to his feet, body members he didn’t think he had until then and goose bumps raised his arms’ hair .

“It’s me, Y / n …”

Her name, pronounced with a tender and quivering voice, trembling with fear and relief rekindled and awakened a part of his conscience which had disappeared beneath the intolerable torture he had undergone.

“Y / n …? ”

Pronouncing her name was harder than he thought. Stiles hadn’t spoken for a long time, his voice having died out after shouting for hours. Suddenly, all the weakness of his body seemed to disappear, his muscles animated by a sudden force that he didn’t think he had.

“Y / n … Y / n …! ”

Stiles remembered everything and especially her sad eyes that now mourned of relief to see the disappeared boy that she loved so much back. He had returned, Stiles had returned. You had done well to follow him, to trust him, Theo was right. He had found Stiles, and when he came knocking at your door to beg you to follow him, swearing he knew where your friend was, you had done well to follow him. But you couldn’t know Theo’s words were actually covered with venom of lies. And by following him, you had only started the final phase of his plan.

“How …” Stiles tried to speak, his voice still missing. But he didn’t need to hear your answer to understand, his eyes shifting to the right behind you to see him, standing upright with the most arrogant smile. The sight of his enemy and executioner succeeded only in reviving a black anger, a rage boiling in his veins. His eyes, enlivened by the joy of seeing you again were dyed too quickly by a frightful blackness, making you step back a few paces as Stiles stood up, his chest lifting by himself to get into a sitting position. You glanced behind you to see what could make him in that state to see Theo.

Not knowing immediately why so much rage was directed towards his savior, your mouth opened to ask for explanations but Theo was faster and in a few seconds, a pain in the neck made you grip the hand that clenched your throat very strongly , cutting your breath away from the strangulation. You resisted, struck his arm and struggled, but nothing worked. Your vision began to become blurred by the lack of blood in your head but you could still see the face of Stiles change. The softness that usually resided in his face had gone and seemed to have disappeared forever. His skin, pale, created a terrible contrast with the blackness of his eyes, usually shining with an amber tint. And under his eyes, his reddish dark circles were only even more apparent.

“Sorry, beautiful, but you played your role perfectly. The last barrier that prevented my plan from working was you. His last hope, his humanity. Too bad, you weren’t bad for a human. She never gave up, Stiles. Never did she lose hope of finding you,” Theo laughed, squeezing only even more, and you felt something sharp and painful pierce your bruised skin, his sharp claws. “And now you have nothing left.”

Stiles was now standing, his head leaning to the side, his eyebrows raised and a smile stretching his dry lips. You no longer understood anything, fear and confusion mingled with the mist that numbed your mind. Why did Theo do that? Why did Stiles look so different? What happened to him?

“I’m here.” His voice was his but wasn’t at the same time. His mouth moved but it wasn’t his words. Stiles’ soft, husky voice was now nothing but an amused murmur stained with malice and despair. Theo’s grip against your throat became weaker as a laugh shook his chest behind you.

” Finally. I have you, finally.” But soon his laughter was cut off by the sharp words of Stiles, which slowly advanced towards you.

“No, no, no … you don’t. And you never will. ”

“Stiles …?” Your voice was shrill, weak, a mere murmur inaudible in the tension that reigned in the room.

“Oh yes I will,” Theo panicked visibly because immediately after the claws perceived your skin more deeply, causing the blood of your throat to flow and soaked his fingers under your cry of pain.

But before seeing what was going to happen, the blood no longer surrendered to your brain and you lost consciousness, having as a last image a Stiles who was no longer himself. A person you had seen before was now standing in front of you but you couldn’t know if it was only a nightmare that your unconscious showed you or reality.

Void.

It wasn’t the strident sound that brought you back to reality, neither the strong and unpleasant smell of chemical. The floor was cold and rough under your face, a surface you weren’t used to waking up on. What awoke you with a start was rather the alarming and poignant feeling that something bigger and more serious had happened. The urgent feeling that you had to get up from the dirty and uncomfortable ground to find him, to find Stiles again.

Your eyes suddenly opened and you took a noisy inspiration by rising quickly, not worrying about the pain in your throat or your head that you had to hit somewhere when you fell. Your confused pupils went through the demolished surroundings. The metal table was torn off, pieces of granite covered the ground, and long streaks of dark red liquid led to the exit, the door which was half open towards the underground tunnels.

Blood, but whose blood?

Panicked, your hands were placed in front of you to support your weight on the ruins, the shrill sound still making your jaw start. There was no one left in the abandoned laboratory, only you and your memory confused by the events. It was evident that Theo was a traitor, that he had used you and your worries for Stiles. And Stiles … you knew you had to find him, you didn’t know where he was and you were on foot, but you had to find him as quickly as possible.

So you staggered towards the exit, following the traces of blood on the ground without seeing it, having the only goal to find your friend and boy whom you loved so much.

The tunnels were all alike and soon you felt lost, but you never stopped walking, your feet making as little noise as possible in the dirty water that covered some parts of the underground as you walked as fast as possible, turning your head on all sides looking for a corridor that you wouldn’t have already borrowed. Your hand was placed in front of you, your cellphone whose screen had been broken when you had fallen in search of a network bar to call your friends. You couldn’t do it on your own. And none of this would have happened if your friends had told you about Theo and the experiences he was doing.

A grunt of impatience and despair echoed through the many corridors. It was long, you were wasting too much time. But you didn’t want to give up, especially now that you had found him. Seeing him thus, motionless, amorphous, you had feared that Stiles was no more. Tortured and covered with wounds, he was no more than the shadow of himself. But he had come back, you had brought him back, Stiles was still there.

So absorbed in your thoughts of his face, smiling and accomplice, his cornered smile and his eyes shining, you didn’t immediately notice the bars hanging on the greenish wall in front of you only when the long awaited network bar appeared at the top of your phone’s broken screen. A small gasp of relief escaped your lips as you raised your eyes to notice the ladder leading to the exit above you.

Without waiting you climbed the slippery bars, being careful not to escape your cell phone. Once out, you took a deep breath of fresh air. It was now night, the sun had disappeared to let room for the moon, meaning you had to be knocked out a few hours. You bite your nail before starting to walk in the street without knowing where your legs were going to bring you, carrying your cellphone against your ear after having quickly dialed a number with your trembling fingers.

“Y / n, this isn’t the time …” The voice answered you, impatient and not at all interested. You grunted again, your hand clasping the device more strongly in your hand as you swallowed your insults.

“I found Stiles.”

“What? Where is he? Where are you? ”

“Now, are you interested, Scott? You didn’t look for him, you didn’t do anything for him! I had to be fooled by Theo and almost killed for… ”

“What, Theo?” You have … Y / n …”

“Shut up, Scott!” You were fulminating, rage and despair making you raise the tone. “You have no idea in what state I found him … I don’t even know myself,” you confessed as you entered the forest without realizing it, passing a hand in your tired face. “He’s your best friend, how could you …”

“Exactly,” Scott cut you off and his voice became firmer. “He’s my best friend, my brother. How could you think I wasn’t looking for him? ”

His words made you slow down for a moment.

“I … well, that’s not important. I lost him again, he … I … I don’t know what happened, but Theo seems to have changed something in him and …” Your leg passed over a large tree trunk and you staggered against a rock while swearing. It was so dark and the moon wasn’t enough to illuminate the uneven soil of the ground. “I’m scared, Scott. Scared something very serious happened to him. He tortured him … Theo, he … ” A sob shook your voice and you scratched your throat to try to hide it.

“I’m sorry, Y / n … But right now I really can’t …” A cry echoed in the handset followed by electricity sound. “I have to go! ”

And Scott hung up, leaving you alone and lost in the middle of a forest that you didn’t even remember having made the decision to go in. He was busy, again. Too busy to come and help his best friend. This time, the swearing sounded loudly in the forest when a branch cracked behind you, making you freeze on the spot. Your finger opened your phone and landed above the flashlight, ready to press it and blind the source of the noise behind you, only weapon at your disposal.

Make it not be a wild animal … or Theo … Which would come down to the same … Finally made it be Theo that I give him a punch in the face.

After a deep breath to calm the erratic beat of your heart, you quickly turned and pressed the torch at the same time, blinding the person who placed his hand in front of his face to protect himself from sudden light aggression. You took advantage of the distraction to start running in the opposite direction, a cry of terror stuck in your throat but a voice you recognized stopped you immediately after a few steps.

“Y / n …”

Your body froze again, the goose bumps pervading your limped limbs. Your face turned towards him, your eyes wide open.

“Stiles!” Your legs turned around and approached him, threatening to let you go at every step. He was there, you had come into the forest for a reason. Stiles was there. But as you got closer, he drew back a few steps and placed his hands in front of him, his eyes frightened.

“Don’t come closer… Don’t… Stay back, Y/n…”

“What? Why, Stiles, I’ve been looking for you…” You stopped moving, sadness invading your confused eyes.

“He said he wanted him in his pack. He wanted him. I think he did, Y/n. I think he’s back…”

“What? Who’s back? What are you talking about, you’re not…” You hesitated. “You’re not a chimera, you don’t have two sets of DNA…”

“Void. He wants void. And seems the nogitsune left enough digital prints in me to create a second set of DNA… He… They… It was horrible, Y/n… What they did to me… To make him come back…” A sob stopped him for finishing, his eyes full of tears at the memories still fresh in his mind.

“No, the nogitsune is gone, I was there when we trapped him in the box…” You tried, moving closer but he stepped back, raising his tone.

“You don’t understand! He made him come back! Somehow some of the nogitsune was still in me! And they found a way to freaking making him resurface!” His voice broke and he placed a hand on his face, his breathing fast and jerky. “Oh God… I don’t want to live this nightmare again… I can feel it in me, he’s weak, but not for long… My anger makes it stronger, that’s why Theo was making everything to keep me angry…” Stiles stopped, lifting his head as a forgotten thought came back to him.  “Does Scott… My dad…”

“Your dad is alright, Stiles. Scott saved him, he found what was wrong, everyone is okay,” you went on, trying to keep him calmer as possible. But the ephemeral relief on his face quickly disappeared.

“It’s too late. Theo won. He did it. I lost, Y/n… I suffered so much in the hope of being able to see you again; now that I did I can go die somewhere.”

Something in his voice sounded false, sad and desperate. It wasn’t the Stiles you knew. He wasn’t the strong and intelligent man you knew he was. Something broke in him, broken by Theo.

“No, I’m here.”

“ Leave!” He yelled, taking several steps towards you, his eyes frightening under the light of your torch, making you step back a few steps too. “I don’t want to lose you to, I…”

“You didn’t kill Allison, Donovan was an accident. You are not a killer, Stiles. You won’t hurt me.”

“You think?” His voice was rusty, low, a sigh that made you shudder from head to foot. You no longer knew who was before you, what Stiles faced you? Who was in control? His gaze was suddenly empty, his movements too fluid to be him. The confusion was on your face and your eyes widened in fear. Your feet retreated by themselves in the face of a threatening situation.

“Am I scaring you? Oh, I am. You should be scared of me, Y/n. Something changed in me, and it’s eating me alive, eating the last remaining of my humanity. I…” His eyes turned back to the honey-brown eyes of the Stiles you knew and he stepped back, erasing the steps he had just taken toward you. You saw that he was fighting against himself, deep down in his conscience Stiles was fighting. And after all he had lived, he no longer had the strength to continue his inner fight. The negative emotions were all that was left, it was everything that allowed him to survive all the days of his torture. "I don’t want to hurt you, not you …”

His eyes filled with water under the difficulties he had to remain himself and your eyes soon also filled with tears. You were suffering to see him suffer so much, sharing his grief more than you thought you could.

“I won’t go. Not now, never.”

“You should run now that you can…” His voice was again menacing, inhuman. You were confused at all changes of personalities, not knowing if you should indeed run or stay, your emotions switching from fear to relief. And you didn’t like that. You hated to see him like that, a prisoner of himself, his soul broken in two. And that’s probably why you did it, remembering Theo’s words before he made you lose consciousness, your skin still burning from the wounds he’d made to you. You were Stiles’ last humanity barrier.

So, ignoring the more than obvious threat that Stiles or what was left of him made to you, you crossed the distance that separated you. You were afraid, yes, your body trembled at the thought that the person you loved could kill you as easily as he had ransacked the dread doctors’ lab. But you knew that Stiles would never hurt you, and you were betting on it when your hands were resting on his frozen cheeks to bring your face close to his and put your hot lips on his cold and cracked ones.

At first nothing happened. Only your heart beating and the wind blowing all around you, rustling the leaves of the trees. Stiles was motionless, as straight as a statue, and his whole body was stiff. Then, after several seconds, you received a reaction. His lips responded, moving gently against yours, animated with life through your touch. His hands were placed against your hips, bringing you closer to him in order to have more warmth. He was so cold.

And when you drew back your face, your lips still stretched to detail his look, it was to see Stiles. The real one. A loud sigh made you laugh softly.

“You know you won’t always be able to save me …”

“Hm, hm,” you shook your head positively, denying his words. “I can and I will. We’ll be okay, Stiles. I love you. ”

Your free hand, the one that didn’t hold your phone, placed itself on his, which was cold. But quickly your warmth spread to him and his fingers gently tightened your hand as you began to walk in the forest in search of an outlet or escape, trying to get out of your head that first kiss more than perfect in spite of the more serious circumstances. Surprised at your revelation, Stiles didn’t think of answering immediately. He still savored the three words that made his heart beat in the unrealistic hope this story could still end well, that he was going to take you to see a movie for a first date and how the words I love you too would sound in his mouth. But just as he was about to say it, some other threatening words kept Stiles from going.

“Again, you ruin everything, Y / n.”

This voice, hoarse and full of wickedness rang somewhere behind you, causing you to stop again and turn your head.

“I had him, finally, Void, Void was back. Looks like I gotta get rid of you. ”

The voice changed place to sound somewhere in front of you and your hand squeezed Stiles’s as you turn your head towards him, your eyes filled with fear.

“His condition is not improving.”

The metallic voices of the doctors of horror added to all this sent doses of intense fear into your veins and only even more when Stiles’ hand left yours and he screamed something you didn’t hear because your ears had become cottony. You saw him gesticulating, pushing you, pointing a place away from him but you didn’t move because your body was paralyzed.

“Y / n, go! They want me!” His voice broke in his yell as he pushed you away, begging you to leave, fear slowly invading his body. Stiles panicked, he knew Theo would come back for him and the dread doctors wouldn’t be far to finish what they had started. He knew that and despite everything he wanted to stay with you, to cherish the hope that with you at his side, he would get out of it, that you would kiss him and hold his hand every time the other was about to take control. And the kiss had brought him back, it had given him the strength to fight. However, now that he felt his enemies approaching and threatening you, the anger was mixed with fear, an anger he could not afford to have. He could not. That’s why Stiles suddenly pushed you away, screaming to save you, save your life while there was still time. But when he turned around, ready to accept his destiny, he saw a metallic mask a few inches from his face. Stiles’ body stopped then. It was the end, he would either die or become his worst nightmares. And between the two, he would rather die. But at the same time, he refused to abandon you, not now, not after you told him you loved him and especially not before he could answer you.

Stiles’ eyelids closed, ready to let go, to let him be abandoned in pain, powerless. But a scream, a scream of terror, rang out behind him. Y / n, she cried out of pain, she called him, her threatened voice boiled the blood in his veins and suddenly, he pushed the dread doctor away that flew a few yards further. A single hit was necessary, his palm placed on the chest of his enemy, and he was already far away. His action surprised him and he stared at his hand for a moment, confused, before turning his attention to you who was caught between the other two doctors that surrounded you, directly threatening your life.

"Leave her alone!” Stiles shouted, running towards you, his face decomposed by anger. A howl of beast stopped him and he turned his head just in time to see none other than Scott disembark and grab a doctor with him, taking him away from Y / n in his acrobatic roll of his noticed entrance. Shortly afterwards Malia and Liam arrived, taking care of the other two enemies, grabbing each one in order to keep them away from the human that you were. Surprised to see his friends here, at that very moment, Stiles remained frozen.

"Sorry about the delay,” Malia excused herself by kicking her enemy unnecessarily, and she retorted. “We were busy saving Lydia.”

Your eyes widened in understanding. Scott was not busy for anything, he was saving Lydia, your prisoner friend of the psychiatric institute who was surely safe with Kira right now. You were as confused as Stiles to see them coming suddenly that you didn’t move any more.

“Y / n, take Stiles with you! Go away!” Scott screamed, his red eyes staring at you for a split second before he gave another claw strike to his enemy who only stepped back a little.

Nothing more was needed. Your legs were full of energy again, probably caused by the adrenaline of fear, and you went to catch Stiles’ hand to run away from the battle that raged without catching your breath. You didn’t have much time.

Soon the sounds were carried away by the wind away from you, only your jerky and erratic breathing sounded in the morbid silence of the forest. The more you sink, the more the cold would bite your bones and your hands became cold, the love that united you was no longer enough to warm you up. Something was wrong, something was missing. The fear that made your heart beat faster was making you sick, your belly twisted painfully and a nausea rose in your throat. Unable to continue, you let go of Stiles’ hand to stop, your hands against your thighs in search of oxygen. The cold air found the entrance and you felt it enter your lungs, then get out in a mist of hot air.

"You can’t stop, Y / n, we have to …” Stiles had no more breath, his hands were shaking a lot. He was afraid, just like you, and you knew too well how fear could turn into anger. And you just could not let anger get hold of Stiles because otherwise, it would be the other who would take control.

“Hey …” Your soft voice rocked Stiles who closed his eyes slowly, taking a deep and difficult breath through his nose. “It’s okay, they’re not gonna get you … you see, Scott didn’t leave you, nobody left you, everything Theo told you was lies.” Your hand settled gently on his cheek, caressing the cold skin with your thumb gently. His breathing seemed to calm down after a few seconds and he opened his eyes, only to put them on something behind you that distorted his face with terror, his eyes wide and his mouth open to scream a silent warning.

"Not just lies.”

And on these hard, poisoned words, you turned back to the source of the voice that made you screeched only to receive a powerful blow on the face, sending your whole body to the ground under the inhuman force of his fist. Your head spin a long time, the world around you became blurred and bent. Your body encountered the ground, scratching your palms with dead branches and small rocks when you pressed it down to cushion the shock, but the worst was your cheek and your jaw that had received all the impact. Your eyes filled with pain and rage tears as you turned on your back to better stare at your enemy who was overlooking you with all his height.

“I was sincere when I said I wanted Void in my pack. And also when I said I had to get rid of you to succeed. ”

“Leave her alone… ”

Oh no. That tone, that sensation, you had felt in the laboratory just before losing consciousness. Rough, low and threatening, Stiles’ words shook your body as you tried but in vain to get up, Theo’s foot coming to stop you as he put it on your throat to keep you on the ground and eventually kill you by suffocation.

“She keeps you from being who you are, Stiles. I help you by removing her from your path. ”

You struggled, not knowing in how much trouble you were, dying slowly for the lack of air in your lungs and blood in your head. But not in danger of Theo, no.

And in your eyes misty with the tears of pain and unconsciousness wanting to come back to seek you, you saw Stiles advancing towards Theo, slowly, too slowly. And without saying a word, he raised his arm and his hand in a fist and put it hard in his throat. The shot was quick, well placed, and the dark pupils of Stiles watched Theo falling to the ground holding his throat, the air no longer entering his lungs. He was dying asphyxiated, but you knew it wouldn’t be enough to kill him. Because cockroaches are very hard to get rid of.

Now free of his grip, you coughed loudly also holding your throat, oxygen finding its way normally in your pharynx. Still on the ground you raised your head towards Stiles, who, in the darkness of the night, was only even more frightening. You had lost your cellphone when you fell so you could hardly see his face in the darkness and confusion of your tearing up eyes. He stopped beside you, sighed and crouched at your high while placing his hands against his cheeks and elbows on his thighs and tilted his head to the side. His voice then sang a sentence that paralyzed you.

“And now, Y / n, am I scaring you enough to run?”

[newstfionline]

Theologian-in-Chief

Amy Sullivan, Yahoo News, Jan. 14, 2017

Over the course of his presidency, Barack Obama has spoken about his Christian faith arguably more often and in greater detail than any other modern U.S. president.

That claim will surprise many political liberals who still believe that George W. Bush spent his time in the White House trying to turn the United States in a theocracy run by evangelical Christians. It is also sure to outrage those conservative Christians who argue that Obama is hostile to their faith. And it must confound the 43 percent of Republicans who as recently as the fall of 2015 told pollsters they still thought Obama is Muslim.

But a look back through eight years of Obama’s National Prayer Breakfast speeches, his remarks at the White House Easter Prayer Breakfast that began as a new tradition during his first term, and the heartbreaking number of eulogies he has delivered following mass shootings reveals a president who has spoken about faith not only with great frequency but also with uncommon depth.

“This is a president who is very comfortable with deep reflection and discussion around the theological implications of faith,” says David Domke, communications professor at the University of Washington and co-author of “The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America.”

Previous presidents have certainly invoked religion and displayed a comfort with the language of faith. Dwight Eisenhower is still the only president to have written a prayer that he read at his first inauguration. He was baptized not long after. And he once said of himself, “I am the most intensely religious man I know.” Several decades later, Jimmy Carter taught Sunday school at a Baptist church not far from the White House during his presidency. George W. Bush cited Jesus as his favorite political philosopher in an Iowa debate before the 2000 GOP caucuses, and he enthusiastically made the support of faith-based organizations one of his first domestic policy priorities.

Bill Clinton may come the closest to Obama in being a president whose speeches occasionally veered into sermon territory. At one point during the 1992 campaign, Clinton traveled to Memphis to address the annual Church of God in Christ convention. Dissatisfied with remarks his staff had drafted, Clinton tossed them aside and delivered an extemporaneous sermon on the “new covenant” between government and citizens, drawing “amen”s from the crowd.

If Clinton sometimes aspired to be the preacher-in-chief, however, Obama has been a theologian-in-chief. Since entering the White House in 2009, he has steadily built on the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, the influential theologian he once told New York Times columnist David Brooks was “one of my favorite philosophers.” And as racial tensions at home and terror attacks abroad have spread anxiety, the president has spent the past few years developing a theology of faith in the face of fear.

Let’s get this out of the way first: Yes, Obama is a Christian. Raised in a mostly secular environment--his mother was “spiritual” but suspicious of organized religion, and his grandparents were nonpracticing Protestants--he began attending Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago after he moved to the city to become a community organizer.

He responded to an altar call in 1988 at age 26, knelt before the cross and became a Christian. As he told the National Prayer Breakfast in 2011, “It was through that experience, working with pastors and laypeople, trying to heal the hurting wounds of neighborhoods, that I came to know Jesus Christ for myself and embrace him as my Lord and Savior.”

To little fanfare, in 2010 Obama and his close aide Joshua DuBois began a tradition of hosting Christian leaders at the White House for an Easter breakfast. At these gatherings, which continued through the last year of his presidency, Obama spoke in surprisingly intimate ways about the nature of his faith.

“We are awed by the grace [Jesus] showed even to those who would have killed him,” he told the clergy at that first 2010 breakfast. “We are thankful for the sacrifice he gave for the sins of humanity. And we glory in the promise of redemption in the resurrection.”

At the 2015 breakfast, the president spoke about the daily challenges of faith. “Today we celebrate the magnificent glory of our risen Savior,” he said. “I pray that I will live up to his example. I fall short so often. Every day I try to do better.”

Just a few months later, after the killings at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., Obama stunned mourners when he began singing the first verse from “Amazing Grace” while eulogizing victims of the massacre. It was a powerful moment. But while that may have been a first for a sitting president, others have spoken openly about their faith. Where Obama differs from his predecessors, according to Domke, is his willingness to go deeper in talking about theological ideas.

“In those moments of high-profile eulogies, he has been pretty comfortable with diving into some of the deeper areas of how faith can comfort and sustain people,” says Domke. “Obama didn’t just sing ‘Amazing Grace.’ He preached about the meaning of grace.”

Indeed, Obama took the extraordinary step of weaving a mini-sermon about the responsibilities of grace into a funeral address. “According to the Christian tradition,” he began, “grace is not earned. Grace is not merited. It’s not something we deserve. Rather, grace is the free and benevolent favor of God.”

He continued, “As a nation, out of this terrible tragedy, God has visited grace upon us, for he has allowed us to see where we’ve been blind.” That hymn reference allowed Obama to segue into the sins the Charleston slaughter forced into the open. And once again, “the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts upon this nation.”

Whenever individuals make “the moral choice to change,” Obama suggested, “we express God’s grace.” The message left unsaid: to fight moral change is to refuse to embody grace.

In the last year of his presidency, Obama has turned his attention to the question of how people of faith should respond to fear. Speaking at the White House Easter breakfast in the aftermath of terror attacks in Brussels, he told his guests, “These attacks can foment fear and division. They can tempt us to cast out the stranger, to strike out against those who don’t look like us or pray exactly as we do.”

But, he continued, “if Easter means anything, it’s that you don’t have to be afraid. We are Easter people, people of hope and not fear.”

Obama’s most complete mediation on fear took the form of his final National Prayer Breakfast address, in which he preached on a verse from 2 Timothy: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

“It is a primal emotion--fear--one that we all experience. And it can be contagious,” he acknowledged. “For me, and I know for so many of you, faith is the great cure for fear. Jesus is a good cure for fear.”

“His love,” Obama continued, “gives us the power to resist fear’s temptations. He gives us the courage to reach out to others across that divide, rather than push people away.”

That’s a message that hasn’t been heard from many pulpits in the past year, with conservative Christians afraid of government and threats posed by immigrants and refugees, and liberal Christians afraid of Trump himself and the normalization of intolerance. But it’s a profoundly Christian message--”My faith tells me that I need not fear death; that the acceptance of Christ promises everlasting life and the washing away of sins,” Obama reminded his listeners.

He moved on to argue that being free from fear should lead Christians to be more open, not closed and defensive, protecting their own turf. “Each of us is called … to assume the best in each other,” the president said, “and not just the worst.”

Obama closed with a remarkable tale about a U.S. sergeant in World War II whose soldiers were captured by Nazis. When the Nazi colonel ordered Jewish POWs to identify themselves, the sergeant responded by telling all 200 of his troops to line up. Holding a pistol to the sergeant’s head, the German ordered, “Tell me who the Jews are.” The American simply repeated over and over, “We are all Jews.”

“I can’t imagine a moment in which that young American sergeant expressed his Christianity more profoundly than when, confronted by his own death, he said, ‘We are all Jews,’” said Obama. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

Obama’s approach to religion as president has been in keeping with everything else we know about him. It makes sense that the former professor would respond to years of almost unbearable violence--he delivered at least 10 national addresses following mass shootings in the space of seven years--through reflection on faith and grace and belief.

In his last such appearance--after five Dallas officers were killed by a sniper--Obama quoted from the Epistle of John and the prophet Ezekiel. “My faith tells me these men did not die in vain,” he told mourners.

The son of two secularists was also the first president to regularly mention nonbelievers, starting with his first inaugural address in 2009: “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers.”

The man who spent part of his childhood living in Indonesia and whose sister Maya identifies with Buddhism has opened up the White House for celebrations of many faiths. He is the first president to host a celebration of the Hindu holiday Diwali by lighting a diya in the Oval Office. Obama continued an annual White House tradition that has been in place since 1996 of holding an iftar dinner to observe the end of Ramadan. And he is the first president to host a Passover seder for family, friends and staff every year of his presidency.

And the man who spent his entire presidency having his Christian faith denied by critics who suggested he was hiding a secret Muslim identity has consistently spoken out on the need to protect Muslim Americans from discrimination.

It may be that Obama’s willingness to embrace people of other faiths, his broadening of the official religious landscape beyond just white Christian traditions, make it difficult for so many Americans to hear him when he speaks about his own faith.