#… oh… mobs parents don’t have names… ah

[almondpiglet]

ITS MOBS BIRTHDAY!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY BOY!! drink all the milk and eat as much cake as you like!!

[sinner-as-saint]

stealing hearts

Mob!Bucky x Thief!Reader 

Run-through: His mansion was highly secured, and yet, breaking in and trying to steal from him was rather easy for a skilled thief like yourself. Key word: trying. Of course you got caught by his men. And the mob boss was known to be ruthless, cold, merciless – the list of his villainy was endless – so you thought he’d end you the moment he laid eyes on a thief like you. However, he didn’t. Instead, he made you an unusual offer. One you couldn’t resist. 

Themes: thief!reader, mentions of homelessness and parental death, slight angst, mob!bucky, dom!bucky, slight daddy kink, sex toys, age gap (reader is in her early twenties), smut, fluff, cocky!reader

a/n: more mob!bucky bc i need to write him for my mental health

“Where is he?” 

You heard a deep, surprisingly calm male voice ask, followed by multiple footsteps that echoed outside this dark room which resembled a dungeon, or rather a large storage room filled with boxes. 

You heard someone correct the man. “Uh, it’s a woman, sir.” 

The footsteps stopped for a brief moment, then resumed. The first authoritative voice spoke up again. “She was alone?” 

“Yes.” 

Silence. More echoing footsteps. “I’ll handle this. Wait here.” Immediately all the other footsteps stopped and only one continued approaching. 

A few seconds later, the door opened and a tall man walked in. You knew who he was, you’d broken into his home after all. Bucky Barnes. You had seen his face on the news multiple times. He was also easily recognisable because of his metal arm. He was the one most people feared around here. He was the infamous mob boss. Filthy rich, arrogant, merciless. But powerful more than anything. 

He took one look at you, tied to a chair in the middle of the dimly lit room, and scoffed. The asshole scoffed. 

You glared at him. “Spare me whatever dark villainous speech you have planned and just shoot me already.” You hissed, looking away from him. 

He was quiet for a second. Then said, “What makes you think I have some dark villainous speech prepared?” His voice was surprisingly softer than how he sounded outside. Smooth, rich voice. The kind that felt like a caress. 

You turned to look at him again, still glaring, “All you old, rich bastards are the same. You love to hear yourselves talk.” 

He chuckled this time, shoving his hands in his pockets as he walked in a slow circle around the chair you were currently tied to. “I’m not that old. Besides, wealthy is the right word here.” He ignored the way you scoffed at his words, and continued, “Also, a thief who hates wealthy people? Very original.” 

You sarcastically chuckled this time. “See what I mean? You love to hear yourself talk.” 

He stopped right behind you, where you couldn’t see him. You would be lying if you said your heart didn’t start racing immediately. Out of your sight, he could have a gun pointed at your head right now and you wouldn’t even know. 

He didn’t say a word. He just stood there. Letting the anticipation build. Until you couldn’t take it anymore. Yanking on the ropes didn’t work, you tried that earlier. So you said, “At least have the decency to look me in the eyes while you kill me.” 

He was quiet for a moment. 

“What’s your name?” He asked. 

When you gave him your name, he sighed and said, “Who said I’m gonna kill you?” 

Oh? 

“Well I can’t imagine you’re gonna let me walk away just like that either.” You’d been observing rich people all your life, you knew how they operated. You knew he would ask for something in return. 

“No,” He said, remaining out of your sight. “No, I won’t let you walk away just like that.” He confirmed. 

You laughed humorlessly. “Just so you know, I don’t have any money.” 

He ignored you. “Who sent you?” He asked. 

Ah, the interrogation. Again. “Your loyal guard dogs already asked me that while they were tying me down. And they used some very colourful language too,” You scoffed. “And I’ll repeat what I said to them. No one sent me. I don’t work for anyone.” 

He began walking around you again, coming to a stop right in front of you this time. You looked up at him. Damn he was… kind of handsome. You couldn’t help but smirk, then failed at hiding it. 

“What’s with the smirk?” He asked. You were surprised with how calm he was with this whole thing. It was unnatural.��

You held his stare as you spoke, “Nothing I was just thinking about how I used to watch the news growing up and they always mentioned how much of a big bad monster you are. But there’s not even a single battle scar on your pretty face.” 

He chuckled this time, shaking his head as he looked away from you for a brief moment. “Stop making me sound old. Also, the scars are everywhere but on my face.” He said, stepping closer, bending down a little so he could whisper, “And did you just call me pretty?” 

Your smirk faded. Your murderous glare returned. “Fuck you.” You said quietly. 

He stepped back with a proud smirk on his face. “How did you get in here? With no help? I’m finding that hard to believe.” 

The smirk came back. “You’re doubting my amazing thieving skills? I spent years perfecting them mind you.” 

He sighed. “Years? You look twenty-five at most, have you been stealing shit since you were a kid?” 

You shrugged, or tried to, “Gotta do what you gotta do to survive. Dead parents, grew up with shitty relatives, ran away from there, been a thief ever since.” You summarised your life in that self-deprecating way you always did. 

He didn’t laugh, or chuckle. He just stared at you with an expression you couldn’t read. “Where do you even live?” 

You gave him a sassy smile, “I’m a thief, I break into somewhere new each night. You’d be surprised at how many vacant apartments with comfy beds there are in this area.” 

Again, he gave you that same poker face. Handsome poker face. “And you broke into my house tonight for what? To sleep?” 

“House?” You gasped dramatically. “This is a damn castle. Though the décor is a little too dark, then again it suits you, you know? Nice gardens, by the way.” 

He sighed again, like he was dealing with a difficult child. “Why did you come here? And how? How did you get past my guys?” 

You took a deep breath and began explaining, “Number one, I came here to steal whatever expensive things I could find. Though you do have very nice comfy beds but I never,” You put more emphasis, “ever, sleep in a house when the owner is home.” 

“Charming.” He commented. 

You continued explaining. 

“And as for how, well I spent the last few days hiding and watching. You have thick bushes out near the entrance of your castle. I stayed there, observed and learnt your security guards’ schedule, and found out that the multiple cameras around your property also rotate. I figured out that I had exactly a fourteen-second window to get past the gates. I found a chance and took it. Picking the locks was easy. But then your people just had to catch me while I was halfway through stealing that lovely painting from your lovely library.” You finished with a smile so sweet it had him sighing again. “And now here we are.” 

He mumbled something under his breath about god saving him, then he walked to the door and opened it. He called out a name and someone came running. A young man with a sweet face, looking younger than you even, walked into the room. 

“Peter, I need you to make all necessary arrangements.” Bucky pointed in your direction and said, “She’ll be staying with us. Looks like we have a new member.” 

You ignored Peter’s very confused look, and hissed at Bucky. “What? I didn’t agree to this!” 

Bucky turned to face you with a serious look on his face. “You have no job, no income, and no place to live. I’m offering you all three and you are not in a position to refuse me.” He continued over your attempt at cutting him off. “You have skills I could use. From now on, you work for me.” He paused. “Agreed, little thief?” 

You glared at him. Damn. A job, a salary, and a roof over your head? The bastard knew you couldn’t refuse. You had to be smart here. He could’ve killed you, but he didn’t. Instead he made you this almost irresistible offer. This could only mean that… 

“You really need me for something, don’t you?” You asked, suddenly sounding cocky. 

He clenched his jaw. And that was confirmation enough. “We’ll talk business later.” 

You laughed in his face. “Alright, alright, don’t get too excited. But if I’m working for you, I have some conditions and requests.” 

He blinked. The Peter guy was so quiet and still you almost forgot he was in the room. “What makes you think you’re in a position to have conditions, or make requests? I could’ve killed you the moment I saw you, you know that?” That cold voice of his would’ve sent shivers down anyone else’s back. 

“But you didn’t because you need me.” You argued with a sly smirk. “Now, here’s everything I need,” You turned to Peter and began listing, “A nice room, preferably the guest bedroom at the end of the right wing.” You winked at Bucky and said, “I checked it out earlier and it has the best view.” You turned to Peter and continued, “I also want a whole new, complete wardrobe, with bags and shoes and everything.” You looked at Bucky and said, “Can I also have a car and a chauffeur?” 

He frowned. “No.” 

“What if I need to move around? Run errands, go get my nails done and all?” You fake pouted. 

“I said no.” 

You rolled your eyes, “Fine, can I have a pet horse?” 

Bucky sighed, “No.” 

“A puppy then?” 

“What are you, a child?” He questioned. 

You smirked, “I mean you’re probably old enough to be my father.” You teased him and tried again, “Can I please have a puppy, daddy?” You knew the way you said it sounded far away from innocent. 

Bucky walked over to you so fast your brain barely registered it. He grabbed you by the back of your neck and stared deep into your eyes. “If that’s the case then daddy can also put you over his lap if you keep being a brat, and spank your little butt raw until you either cry or come, or both. Is that what you want, little thief?” 

You were breathless as you whispered, “No.” That wasn’t entirely true, and damn it, you both knew it in that moment. 

Bucky smirked. “Good girl.” He whispered. Then stepped away and turned to Peter and said, “Untie her and get her whatever she wants.” He looked at you as he said, “No cars, horses, or dogs.” 

Then he left the room. Leaving you speechless, and very much wet. 

— 

Peter, you learnt, was one of Bucky’s assistants. Whatever Bucky asked him to do, he did. That included sending a group of mean looking men out to shop for all that you had written down on your ‘Requirements’ list. 

He showed you to your requested room and promised your stuff will be here before the end of the day. And sure enough, by the time the sunset everything you had asked for was brought to you. 

You squealed when you entered the closet, excited to put away all your new things. Clothes, accessories, bags, shoes, toiletries, makeup, skin care products, and more. 

Peter came by again in the evening, bringing you dinner and said, “Boss said he’d see you in his office tomorrow morning at eight. Don’t be late, please. He hates it when people aren’t punctual.” 

You’d be lying if you said the mention of Bucky didn’t immediately remind you of what he said earlier about you being on his lap and… ugh. Damn him. 

For the first time in a long time, you went to bed with a full belly that night. And you squealed again when you got in the comfy bed, freshly showered and moisturised. As you drifted off to sleep, feeling weirdly warm and safe, you forgot all about your meeting with Bucky the next morning, and how you needed to be up early for it. 

— 

Bucky couldn’t sleep that night. So much had happened in such a short time. One moment he was having a quiet, calm day of golfing with Sam, and the next he got a phone call from his security guys that his mansion had been broken into. 

He went from spending a rare day off with his best friend, to having a sassy, drop dead gorgeous thief in his guest room. He sighed, sipping on his whiskey, holding the phone to his ear as he looked out of his bedroom window. 

“Oh, I know that sigh of defeat.” Sam laughed through the phone. “Is she really that pretty that you couldn’t even use your brain?” 

Bucky rolled his eyes. And here he thought calling Sam to complain about everything was a good idea. Of course the latter would only make fun of him. In fact, he thought, maybe Sam would team up with you and you two would make fun of him together. 

“Shut up, Sam. I’m serious.” Bucky sighed again, “She pisses me off but at the same time… I don’t know. This girl has been living like a fugitive since she was a kid. I looked up the relatives she ran from, her uncle and aunt, and honestly, anyone would run from them. God knows what kind of messed up shit she’s witnessed and been through her whole life.” 

Sam was quiet, listening. 

Bucky continued. “You know the bushes near the entrance? She hid there for days. Days, Sam! Through the rain, and cold nights all just so she could study the guards’ movements. She probably didn’t eat that whole time. Who knows when’s the last time she had a warm meal? She’s so resilient. And strong. But so sassy, and the way she runs that mouth it makes you want to-,” 

Bucky exhaled, exasperated. And continued. 

“She has that look in her eyes, you know?” Bucky thought back to earlier when he first saw you. “Life hasn’t been kind to her. She has really sad eyes. Like she was forced to grow up and take care of herself. I couldn’t…” Bucky trailed off, “I couldn’t just let her go back to living like that. Go ahead, make fun of me for it.” He sighed. “She’s gonna be really useful to me.” He stated. “You remember last year? When I was ambushed by Roger’s men? Something of mine was stolen then, and I’m gonna get it back using her.” Bucky already had a plan made. “I needed a skilled thief anyway. I mean she managed to break into my house, that means she actually is really good. She could even lead some of my guys when they go-” Bucky stopped talking and asked, “Are you even listening?” 

Sam chuckled, “I am, I am. It’s just rare to see you admire someone like this. Who knew big bad Bucky could be so soft? You better let me win next time we’re golfing, otherwise I’m telling everyone that you have a crush on the thief.” 

Bucky groaned, “What is this? What are we, children? I do not like her like that, alright? I’m about a decade and a half older than her. And she won’t stop reminding me of it.” 

Sam laughed again. “Oh I like her already. Anyway, have fun with your crush and tell me how it goes.” 

“Goodbye, you asshole.” Bucky ended the call and shook his head at the thought of what Sam said. A crush? On a thief? No way. 

As he made his way to his study room, Bucky couldn’t help but pause outside the guest room in which you slept. He could hear soft snores coming from within. Something in him felt satisfied that you were able to sleep soundly here, not having to find vacant places to break into. He wanted to keep it that way. 

Why? He didn’t know. Whatever it was, Sam was wrong. 

As he sat at his desk in his study room, Bucky tried to get work done but he couldn’t stop thinking about you. Something about you was different. Bucky never trusted people this easily, let alone allow them into his home. 

That reminded him of something… Bucky found the list that Peter had left on his desk. The list of Requirements, as you called it. And as he read all the things his men had to go out and buy earlier, Bucky couldn’t help but laugh. He hadn’t laughed like this in a long time. 

Oh this could be fun. Bucky couldn’t wait for your meeting the next morning. At eight sharp. 

— 

When you woke up, the sun was in your face. But you hadn’t felt so warm and comfy in a long, long time so you relished the feeling. You let out a yawn, opening your eyes slowly. And you found yourself looking right at a rather pissed off Bucky standing at the end of the four-poster bed, with his hands in his pockets. 

All black suit, perfect hair, and those blue eyes… 

“Oh hi,” You said, taking your sweet time as you sat up in bed. “Good morning.” 

“It’s two in the afternoon.” Bucky hissed. “Who sleeps in for that long? You and I had a meeting at eight this morning. I was waiting.” 

You yawned again. “I’m sorry, this bed is really, really comfy.” You said, as if that was a decent excuse. “Maybe you shouldn’t have put such nice beds in your guest rooms if you didn’t want your guests to sleep in.” 

Bucky closed his eyes for a moment, looking like he was trying very hard to contain his annoyance. “You are not a guest. You work for me. So when I tell you to meet me in my office at eight, I want you there.” 

You smirked, peeling off the covers and slowly crawling over to the end of the bed where he stood. You knelt on the bed right in front of him, “Oh? You want me?” You teased, knowing he would snap at any moment now. 

You remained kneeling on the bed as his metal hand reached out and wrapped around your throat, squeezing just a little. The smirk on your face stayed in place this time, only pissing him off even more. “Watch your mouth, little thief.” He said. 

“Or what? You’ll spank me till I… what was it you said?” You repeated his words from the day before, “Till I cry, or come. Or both?” He remained quiet. His hand tightened around your throat, choking you a little bit more. You couldn’t help but whisper, “Jokes on you, I’m into this shit.” 

Bucky let go of you immediately. You laughed in his face as he shook his head and shoved his hand in his pocket again. 

“Get out of bed and get ready. Meet me in my office in half an hour.” He ordered and turned to leave. 

“But I’m hungry,” You said right before he could walk out of the door. “You can’t treat your guests like this, you have to feed me.” 

Bucky refrained from groaning. “Fine,” He said, turning to look at you over his shoulder. His broad shoulder. “I’ll have someone bring up some food for you. Now hurry up, don’t be fucking late again.” He barked. 

—

Bucky was embarrassed to admit to himself that his hands were shaking as he left your bedroom and walked to his study room. Fuck, less than twenty-four hours and you already had such a bizarre effect on him. 

Bucky shut the door behind him, and closed his eyes to find some kind of composure. Fuck, fuck, fuck. The sight of you in those black satin shorts and that tight, excuse of a top… fuck. The sight of you so comfortable in bed had messed him up so much he’d gripped you by the throat like an animal. 

He was grateful you didn’t seem to notice the hardness in his pants. He needed to get a grip. How the hell was he supposed to boss you around if this is what a brief interaction was doing to him. 

He sat at his desk and waited. And about twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the door. It was one of the housekeepers with a tray of breakfast food. Bucky waited some more and after a short while, there was another knock at his door. Before he could even open his mouth to say something, you walked in. 

Bucky’s heart skipped a beat. Just who allowed you to look this good? You were glowing after a good night of sleep. You looked incredible in your little sundress. Bucky watched as you took a seat on the other side of his desk before he even asked you to. The smell of your body wash and perfume drifted over to him, and he was almost salivating. 

He kept watching as you moaned in delight when you took your first sip of coffee, then your first bite of warm croissant. 

“Glad to see you’re enjoying your breakfast at,” He checked his watch, “almost three in the afternoon,” He spoke, finally. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to discuss your position here in my house and as my employee.” 

You scoffed through a mouthful of some kind of pastry. You swallowed it with a sip of coffee and said, “So formal, my god. Just tell me where to go, what to steal and I’ll do it, no need to be so poetic about it.” 

Bucky sighed. “I don’t need you to steal anything at the moment. There is something, but the time isn’t right. I will let you know when it is. But as of now, I have other plans for you.” 

You frowned at him as you finished your breakfast. “Okay… I’ll do them under one condition.” 

“Enough with your conditions.” Bucky hissed. 

Despite his warning, you continued, “There’s this old, abandoned apartment complex,” You said, grabbing a pen and a sheet of paper from his desk like it was your own, scribbling something down, “I have some stuff hidden in there that I need. Not much, just two boxes. I know you won’t let me go but could you have someone go get it for me, please?” 

Bucky looked down at the address and apartment number written on the paper. “What stuff?” He asked. 

“Just stuff I’ve stolen over the years.” 

He scoffed, “But you have everything you need here.” 

You nodded, “Some of the things are… priceless.” 

Bucky nodded. “Fine. I’ll have someone go get it. Now, about your role here. You’re gonna start training with the guys tomorrow.” 

You frowned, “I’m a thief, I don’t need exercise.” You argued. 

“No,” He said, calmly as he leaned back into his chair. “But you need to learn how to fight, how to use a gun, a knife, self defence, how to be part of a team and all that.” 

Okay. Things got very real. You stayed quiet and nodded. 

“Can you drive?” 

You shook your head. 

“I’ll have someone teach you.” 

You shrugged. “So, no stealing for now. Only training like I’m going to battle. Anything else?” You asked. 

“Yes, actually.” 

–

About an hour later, you stood in the middle of what Bucky called your new workstation. You looked around the spacious room, impressed. It looked a lot like a lab, with every equipment a thief could ever need, even some new tech that you yourself weren’t familiar with. Weapons, trinkets, everything. 

“So you want me to teach your guys how to steal using this stuff.” 

“I want you to teach them necessary skills.” Bucky corrected. “Strategies. How to be observant. How to pick locks, how to be discreet, how to be invisible and hide for days, how to use a narrow, fourteen-second window to infiltrate a secure place. Whatever else you can teach. Minus the stealing.” 

You smirked, leaning against your new desk. “So you like what I do, huh?” 

Bucky ignored that. “Don’t cause any trouble.” He said. “I’m paying you to do a good job here.” 

You looked around again, not able to fight the genuine smile that formed on your face. “It’s like paying a kid to be at the playground.” You smirked, looking at him with determination in your eyes, and some mischief. “I’m gonna have so much fun here with my new friends.” 

“Do not hurt my guys, I need them.” 

— 

The next couple of weeks went by rather quickly. You woke up each day, excited for a change. No more having to be constantly on the run, no more having to steal for food, clothes, or find shelter. You had more time to live now, not just survive. 

Plus you had the lab. It was your favourite place ever. Surrounded by gadgets and tech you didn’t know could exist, weapons that you were starting to get the hang of, and Bucky’s guys that you used as if they were your test subjects – you actually had fun each day. 

The dynamic between you and Bucky changed too. And it all started the day after he first showed you your new lab… 

“My guys have your stuff from the old apartment. It’s in my office, come get it.” He spoke through the phone – your new phone – ordering you to come collect your stuff. 

You almost ran out of your room and to his office. When you got there, the two boxes were placed nicely on one side of his desk. A cardboard one, and the other one was a medium sized metal code-lock box. He stood behind the desk, watching you. 

“As requested,” He pointed at the two boxes, “Your stuff.” He paused, then said, “Open them.” 

You froze. “Uh, what?” 

Bucky shoved his hands in his pockets. “If I’m gonna allow you to keep your stolen goods in my house, I should know what they are. Now come on, open the boxes. I need to check them.” 

You walked into the room, shutting the door behind you. As you approached the desk, you tried to find a way out of this. “You don’t need to. They’re nothing. Just things I’ve collected over the years.” 

Bucky gave you the usual, handsome poker face. “Would you like me to open them?” 

“No,” You said quickly. You rushed to the cardboard box, opening it to let him see the contents. “See? Just books I’ve stolen from everywhere.” You explained as he looked inside the large box filled with old and new books. 

“Now the other one.” He said, eyeing the metal box. 

“That one has… um, personal things.” You said. “You don’t need to see all that.” 

Bucky walked around the desk, stopping only when he was inches away from you. He leaned a little close to your ear and whispered, “I have received bills of all the things you made my guys buy recently. Some of the bills explicitly listed each and every piece of lingerie and underwear you ordered, including a certain little red thong you’re possibly wearing right now.” He said, making you shiver. “And now you wanna talk about boundaries?” 

You pulled away to look at him, seeing the proud triumph in his eyes. “Fine.” You refused to let him win this one. You reached for the box, unlocked it, opened the lid and waited. Bucky was quiet. Too quiet. “Say something.” You whispered, “This is very awkward.” 

Finally he did. 

“Get on the desk.” He said. You froze again and seeing that you weren’t moving he leaned in to whisper into your ear, “I said, get on the desk. If I’m gonna allow you to keep all of these toys, then I better test their… effectiveness as well.” 

You avoided his eyes, focusing on the top buttons of his shirt as you asked, “What kind of rule is that?” 

“My kind.” He replied. “Now get on the desk. Legs up and spread them so I can see exactly what I have to deal with.” 

Fuck. 

You sat up on the desk, feeling just a little coy as you lifted your legs up and placed them on the edge of the desk, spreading your knees as far as they would go so he could look at you down there. 

Bucky scoffed. “See? There’s that red thong.” He pulled his metal hand out of his pocket, placing it on your inner thigh, slowly inching upwards. His cold fingers lazily teased your clit, then slid down to inspect your wet folds. He pulled the thong to the side and mindlessly dragged a metal finger up and down your slit, making you shiver and moan as he touched you. 

You let out a quiet whimper which made him groan. 

You looked down in between your thighs, his hand teasing you like it was the most casual thing. You sheepishly looked up and into his piercing, icy blue eyes that were already staring at you. You couldn’t look away. 

“Which one’s your favourite?” He asked. And it took you a little while to realise that he was referring to the pile of sex toys in the metal box. 

“The, uh… the vibrator.” You answered. Your face got all hot but you refused to seem embarrassed. 

Bucky smirked, pulling his hand away to reach for the vibrator. Light pink wand with a bulbous head. Bucky looked at it, then at you. He looked down at your wet folds and spat before turning the wand on and pressing it right on your clit. His spit helped the toy to move around better as he circled your clit with it, before moving it up and down your slit. 

You couldn’t help but moan and gasp as you felt the familiar pressure forming in between your legs, and you involuntarily bucked your hips against the vibrator, trying desperately to chase your orgasm. Of course Bucky noticed, and he scoffed as he lifted the vibrator off you, denying you your release.

“No,” You whined, closing your eyes and tilting your head back, “Please…” You begged. 

“Look at me,” he said, softly. You looked back at him as his other hand wrapped around your throat. Bucky leaned in enough so that his lips brushed against yours when he spoke. “You will come when I allow it, you hear me? 

You nodded immediately. 

“Good girl.” He said as he placed the vibrator back against your core. You felt the vibrations all over your body, as you stared into his icy blue eyes. He moved the toy around a little more before lifting it off you again, turning it off this time. “You can take your books and go now, this box stays with me.” 

He put the vibrator back safely, shutting the box. 

You closed your legs, hopping off of his desk. “What do you mean it stays with you? You can’t just… just steal my toys!” You frowned at him, pissed. 

Bucky gave you an annoying smirk. “Yes I can. Now whenever you need a toy, you can come ask for it. If I feel like it, I’ll let you have it.” 

Bastard. 

You left his office angrily that afternoon. And vowed never to beg for any of the toys in that box. Let him have it. Screw him, right? 

Wrong. 

You couldn’t sleep that night. Your fingers didn’t relieve you as much as the vibrator would have. And that’s how you found yourself swallowing your pride and knocking on his office door. The lights were on so you figured he’d still be in there. 

“Come in.” He said and you could already hear the smirk in his voice. 

You opened the door, walked in and shut it behind you. “I need it.” You said, looking at him as he lounged on the couch near his desk. 

“Need what?” He asked, acting oblivious as he placed his drink down and pretended to be confused. 

You rolled your eyes at him. “The vibrator. Please.” 

He leaned back on the couch, with a playful smirk on his face. “Oh I put it in the trash. I put all of them in the trash.” 

You blinked. It took a moment for the anger to surface. You took a step towards the couch. “Do you know what I had to do in order to rob that sex store? I had to fight the guy who was closing up for the day. With a baseball bat! And you know the worst part? He was one of my ex flings!” 

Bucky let out a chuckle. 

“Don’t just sit there and laugh! What am I supposed to do now?” 

He gave you a mischievous look and said, “Come here.” 

You crossed your arms over your chest and stood there in the middle of his office. “No.” 

“Keep being a brat and I will drag you here by your hair if I have to.” He raised an eyebrow at you. “Try me.” And those words had you moving towards him at once. 

You reached the couch where he was sitting and stood in front of him. “Now what?” 

“Get on my lap.” 

You rolled your eyes, refusing to show how his words and tone made you want to drop to your knees and take him in your mouth instead. “You’re such a disgusting, old, pervert who just wants to-,” 

He cut you off by pulling you into his lap and grabbing you by the throat. His metal hand squeezed your throat just enough to make you whimper. “What did I say about you and your smart mouth? Hmm?” Then he scoffed and said, “Right, I forgot you’re into this shit.” He squeezed your throat a little more. “If I reached down there, would I find that you’re completely wet and ready for me?” 

You whimpered again, instinctively grinding on his lap. He chuckled, shaking his head. 

“Look at you,” He murmured. “You won’t need your toys now,” He said, “If you need to come, you ask for my cock. Understood?” 

You nodded immediately. 

He smirked. “Now, will you be a good girl and fuck yourself on daddy’s cock or what?” 

You whined, nodding, “Please…” 

Bucky couldn’t help but lean in for a kiss then. All your whimpering was too much for him to handle and he couldn’t take it anymore. 

You kissed him back, allowing him to almost tear your PJs off of your body. You only pulled away from the kiss to say, “We need a condom. I’m not on birth control.” 

Bucky nodded, reaching to pull a condom out of his pocket. “Remind me about the birth control thing tomorrow.” 

You watched as he undid his trousers and put the condom on. The moment it was on, Bucky pulled you in for a kiss again. He helped you as you lifted up and then slowly lowered yourself down on his hard cock. 

You couldn’t look away as he held your stare. You both gasped and moaned as you finally sank down on him. Your body resisted just a little to fit him inside at first. Bucky felt it too, and an arrogant smirk formed on his face as he grabbed your hips in place and gently thrust his hips up, filling you up.

You moaned out loud as he did. “Fuck, you feel good, little thief.” He whispered. 

Once he was buried deep inside you, you leaned in to kiss him again while lifting your lower body just the slightest, before sliding back down on his cock, you whimpered as he groaned, filling you up and being all snug inside of you. 

“Oh fuck,” He swore again, “You feel so tight around daddy’s cock.” 

The tip of his cock reached places you never knew existed. You whimpered, whining in pleasure as you took a good look at the man beneath you. He oozed power, manspreading on the couch with you on his cock. 

You moved faster then, impaling yourself down on his cock each time. You whimpered shamelessly as you felt him filling you up completely each time, feeling him reach deeper into you with each thrust. His hand slipped between the two of you and found your clit, he rubbed it lazily. Grunting and moaning under his breath as you sped up even more, riding his cock and making him lose his damned mind.

“You have such a perfect little cunt…” He said, “It’s all mine now.” 

You were whimpering and whining yourself as you took more and more of him. But you couldn’t help but tease him, “And here I thought mixing business with pleasure was a bad thing.” 

Bucky playfully slapped your thigh. “I make the rules here. From now on, mixing business with pleasure is a very good idea.” 

You leaned down to kiss him, biting down and tugging at his bottom lip while you sped up, and his cock stretched you out each time he filled you up. “Fuck,” You whined. 

His hand circled around your waist and he pulled your warm body closer to his. He was still very much clothed, except for his cock being out and buried inside you. Meanwhile your PJs were on the floor, leaving you completely naked on his lap. Something about that contrast made it even hotter. 

“Beg.” He said, “I want to hear you beg me to let you come.” 

You bounced on his cock moaning and whining, feeling him stretch you out as you stared into his blue eyes. 

“Please daddy,” You whimpered, “Please, can I come?” 

Bucky held you at your waist and rhythmically thrust his hips up each time to match your movements. “Hold on, just a little,” He panted against your cheek, kissing the side of your face and gripping your jaw with his hand. “Just a little,” He whispered, “Wait for me.” 

“Please… I can’t,” You didn’t slow down as you felt your orgasm wash over you, and he kept thrusting his hips up into you as your eyes rolled back and you moaned out loud as you came, hard, feeling your walls squeezing and clenching around him as you came undone. You panted and leaned forward, pushing your face into his neck to catch your breath. 

Bucky came right after you, his warm load spilling inside of you, filling you up as he wrapped his arms around you and pressed your trembling body closer to him.

“I’m sorry,” You said as you caught your breath. “I’ll wait next time.” 

Bucky laughed. “It’s alright. You were still such a good girl for daddy.” He murmured. 

—

That night changed everything. 

Ever since, each time you annoyed Bucky he would just fuck you against the nearest surface. Safe to say you began to annoy him even more. 

But he could also be kind sometimes. For instance this one time when he found you in the library: 

You were lounging on a sofa, reading when he walked in silently. 

“Winter’s tale?” He surprised you with both his literary knowledge and presence. 

You peaked at him from behind your book and said, “Leontes is such a cunt. Quite like you sometimes.” 

Bucky ended up fucking you right there on the sofa. And then promised to get you your own bookshelf in the library because he didn’t like the way you stuffed your books among his on the current shelves. It’s messy and immature, he said. Grown ups don’t keep their books like this, he said. 

Bucky could also be so confusing at times. Like how he would always treat you like the thing between the two of you was just a casual fling. But then he would get jealous whenever he saw you getting too close to any one of his guys while you trained with them. 

“I will be overseeing your training from now on. No need to join the guys in the morning.” He said out of nowhere when you joined him for dinner in the dining room one night. 

“Why?” You asked. 

“Because you distract them too much with your shenanigans. Constant flirting, walking around in your little workout outfits, all that needs to stop.” He spoke, avoiding your eyes. 

You smirked. “So we’re gonna be early morning workout buddies from now on?” 

He sighed, “Don’t make me regret this.” 

You chuckled, “Oh you will regret this.” 

He did. But in the best ways. So each morning workout either started or ended with a nice fuck sesh. 

—

You were at your workstation one morning when Bucky walked in with a serious look on his face. 

You’d just seen him a couple of hours ago for your ‘workout’ so you wondered why he was back. Usually he left you alone for most of the day, only finding his way back to your bed late at night. So this was unusual. 

“What’s going on? Why do you look like you want to murder someone?” You asked as he stood right in front of you with an earpiece in hand. 

“Put this on.” He said. 

You did as he asked. And waited. 

Bucky grabbed his phone, walking to one of the nearest screens and a few taps later, you were looking at the live feed of some kind of body cam. 

“What’s this?” You asked. Just then, you began hearing muffled voices coming from the earpiece. 

Bucky turned to you. “My guys are… retrieving something of mine from a secret location. I need you to guide them.” 

Your eyes widened. “Wait, is this it? Is this the thing you needed me for?” 

Bucky’s face gave away nothing. “Just do as you’re told.” 

You nodded, quickly looking back at the screen. “Who’s leading them?” You asked. 

Someone’s muffled voice replied from the earpiece. “Thor is.” 

You nodded, looking at the screen. “Right. How could I miss those biceps that are bigger than my head?” You said. 

Bucky smacked you on the butt and said, “Focus.” 

“I am, I am. I got this.” 

Anf for the next few minutes, you led the men through whatever maze of a building they were in. You found the location within seconds and managed to have a blueprint of the place. You warned them of the cameras, told them when to move and when not to. You instructed Thor how to pick an ancient looking lock that led them into an even bigger maze. But you did everything right, used the right strategies, the right tricks up your sleeves, and you managed to get the guys out of there safely, with the mystery package they stole. 

Once they were out in the clear and confirmed that they were on their way home, you turned to Bucky and asked, “How did I do?” You waited eagerly for his response. 

Bucky just smirked and said, “Good. You passed the test.” 

Your smile faded fast. “What? What test?” 

Bucky explained, “The guys weren’t actually out stealing shit. I just wanted to see how you would do in a situation like that. And you did great. Congratulations, little thief.” 

He turned to walk away but you called out. “You know, I deserve a nice gift for being so amazing.” 

“Do you now?” He asked, not turning around. 

“Yes, I want a dog!” 

Bucky paused at the door. “No.” He said and left. 

“Please, daddy…” You pouted. 

“No.”

Oh well, it was worth a try. 

— 

The next morning, you woke up and got ready for yet another day of annoying Bucky. However, when you stepped out of your bedroom door, you noticed something outside your door. 

It was a basket. And inside it slept two puppies, two of the fluffiest little balls of fur you’d ever seen. Once the shock passed, you began tearing up immediately. 

You picked up the basket as slowly as you could and made your way to Bucky’s bedroom. You walked in without knocking. And there he was, standing in the middle of the room, getting ready for the day, buttoning his black shirt, casually looking like a god. Once he saw you, his playful smirk showed itself. 

“So, how do you like-,” He stopped talking the moment the first tear fell down your cheek. His smirk disappeared. “What is it?” He asked. 

You carefully placed the basket down, the puppies inside it sleeping soundly. Then you rushed to Bucky, wrapping your arms around him tightly. 

Bucky hugged you back instantly, though confused concerning your reaction. Out of all things, he didn’t expect this. “Hey, what’s going on?” He asked, softly. 

You sniffled, hiding your face in his chest. “I was thirteen when I ran from my uncle and aunt’s house.” You said, voice muffled. “And they had dogs so I grew up with them. But when I took off to be on my own, I couldn’t have a dog because I could barely take care of myself.” You sniffled again. “And it’s hard being without animals when you grew up around them, you know?” You let more tears wet his shirt. “Thank you,” You said, finally. 

Bucky held you as your shoulders shook with your sobs. He placed a gentle kiss on your temple and whispered, “Oh baby, I’ve got you now.” 

You pulled away to look at him, both of you ignoring the patch of wetness your tears left on his grey shirt. “You got me two puppies.” 

Bucky smiled down at you. “You deserve it.” 

You sniffled, “You’re being nice, what do you want?”

“Nothing,” He rolled his eyes, “Now get out of here.” 

You stayed put. “I can’t. I have to make it even.” 

“Yeah?” Bucky raised an eyebrow at you. “How?” 

You shrugged. “I don’t know, let me suck your-,” 

He cut you off by pulling you closer, a hand wrapped around your throat already. “You are very tempting right now, in your little red dress. And if you don’t want want me to tear it off right this instant, I’d suggest you-,” 

You cut him off this time, “Who said I don’t want you to tear it off?” You asked with a smirk. 

Bucky sighed before pushing you down on his bed. “I’ve got a busy day ahead.” He said, looking down at you as he hovered above you, “But you don’t care about that, do you?” 

You giggled, shaking your head. “Not one bit.” You said, running your hands over his chest and his strong shoulders. 

He smirked, giving in. He leaned in for a brief kiss while he pulled your dress up and placed both his hands on either one of your knees and separated your legs, settling in between them. 

Your heart raced in anticipation. His hand slowly dragged your thin underwear down your legs and threw it around somewhere behind him as he inched his face closer to your already dripping core.

“Such a fucking brat.” He mumbled and brushed his soft lips along your inner thighs, making you giggle and moan quietly under your breath.

“Shut up, admit it. You’re obsessed with me.” You sassed, then moaned out loud when you felt his warm tongue lick from your entrance up to your clit. You felt a familiar rush in your veins. Fuck he was addicting. 

Your hands grabbed fistfuls of his hair, tugging on it as his mouth teased you. His tongue slowly circled around your clit, earning more moans out of you as your back arched off the bed. His bed, you realised. This was the first time you two were fooling around in his room. 

Only now did you realise how it smelt like him. Dark, male, addicting. But most of all, dangerous. Fuck, just his scent made your head all foggy in lust. 

Bucky had you squirming, moaning, a complete mess under him in no time. “I love seeing you like this,” He said, kissing your inner thighs, “Too busy moaning for me to run that smart mouth.” 

You couldn’t answer as your legs trembled around his head, he locked his arms around your thighs and pushed his tongue deeper into you, making you cry out of pleasure. 

“See what I mean?” He chuckled, “I bet you want to say something sassy so bad right now, but you can’t.” He playfully bit you before sucking on your clit. “Daddy’s tongue has you all tongue-tied, huh princess?” 

You cried out. “Please… please daddy,” You whined. 

With a proud smirk, a look of determination in his pretty blue eyes, and a couple more strokes of his tongue, he had you gushing out all over his tongue, lapping up all that you gave him. While you moaned and squirmed on his bed as he sucked on your sensitive clit until you calmed down. 

You kept your eyes shut as you caught your breath, feeling him leave small kisses all over your thighs. 

When you opened your eyes again, his face was right above yours. His devious blue eyes looking down into your wide open ones. You were certain all he saw in your eyes was hunger. For him. 

“I want you,” You whispered, sliding your hands into his hair. “Now.” You demanded. 

“Brat.” He hissed when you tugged on his hair. 

You smiled. “Pretty sure it’s princess.” You teased. 

“A bratty fucking princess then.” He didn’t give you a chance to sass back as he leaned in for a deep kiss, holding himself up with one hand as he quickly undid his trousers. You helped, pulling his cock out and stroking it. Bucky moaned into the kiss as you did, and the sound of it sent shivers down your back. 

You gasped, and whined into the kiss as he carefully slid into you, filling you up entirely, inch by inch. Stretching you out deliciously like he did all the time. Bucky wasted no time, he pulled out and pushed back into you, making you moan into the kiss each time until the makeout turned lazy and messy, filled with gasps and moans. 

You noticed he wasn’t being as ravenous as usual. He was… trying to be gentle with you. 

Indeed he was. Your heart skipped a beat when Bucky laced your fingers together and pinned both your hands above your head as he sped up just a little into you. He was groaning and panting against your lips as he fucked you slowly, and you were unable to focus on anything other than him. 

His hips rolled against your body perfectly, and his body weight pressing down gently on you was comforting. His grip around your hand tightened each time you’d moan his name out loud. 

“That’s it, princess.” He whispered against your open mouth, “Tell me who’s making you feel this good. Who’s fucking you, huh?” 

You kept whimpering his name over and over again as he fucked you nice and slow, kissing his way down your face, from your collar bones to down your chest. And you cried out when he took a nipple into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue.

You opened your eyes as he pulled away to look down at you, his lips soft and pink and parted as he breathed rapidly, fucking into you a bit faster. 

Something shifted in that moment, you weren’t sure what. But something changed. 

His brows furrowed as he tried so hard to hold back and make you come before he did. “Fuck,” He swore. “Come for me.” He smirked and leaned down to whisper in your ear. “Come for daddy, princess.” 

You felt the pressure building in between your hips as he sped up even more, his metal hand reached down and grabbed your hip gently, keeping you in place as he sped up into you. Your bodies moved perfectly against each other.

Bucky pushed his face into you and nuzzled your neck as he growled in pleasure. With a few more strokes of his cock, you came undone, moaning and whimpering under him, grinding against him hungrily while he came right after, filling you up again. 

He stayed there, limp on top of you for a brief moment, before he slid off of you and laid down beside you. He caught his breath while you blinked rapidly, trying to calm your racing heart and figure out what the hell just happened. 

Before the awkward silence settled in completely, you got up on shaky legs and fixed your dress. “Well, this has been fun. I gotta go feed my new kids now. See you later.” You grabbed the puppy basket and almost ran out of his bedroom. 

As you shut the door, you heard him laughing to himself. A boyish, carefree laugh that made you smile. 

— 

With your new dogs, training, your lab, more training, days flew by. 

Whatever Bucky had planned, whatever big heist you were supposed to carry out, you knew it was coming soon. 

You often wondered what would happen once you successfully stole whatever he intended for you to steal. You didn’t even know what it was yet. Must be something precious either way, if all this planning went into it. But what after that? Would you no longer work for Bucky then? 

Would this… whatever it was between the two of you that both of you absolutely refused to acknowledge – no matter how much Sam teased you both for it – would it all end? 

You were lost in thoughts of all this when you found yourself mindlessly making your way to Bucky’s office one evening. Your two dogs, loyally in tow. 

You found Bucky in an equally sour mood as you, sulking at his desk with a drink. 

You shut the door behind you, leaving the dogs outside as you made your way to Bucky. He looked up at you and silently patted his lap. You made yourself comfortable on his thighs, an arm around his neck as you leaned in and nuzzled his cheek. His stubble rough against your nose and cheek. 

“What’s wrong?” You asked, “What has you looking like an evil god plotting the end of mere mortals who are standing in the way of you dominating the world?” 

He chuckled at that. “You are so annoying you should be grateful at least you’re pretty to look at.” He mumbled, taking a sip of whatever was in his glass. You assumed it was whiskey. 

You couldn’t help the laugh that left your lips. But then you noticed that distant look in his eyes. Unfortunately, you were very good at reading people. You leaned in and kissed his cheek softly. 

“What is it?” 

He let out a sigh. “You never ask me what I’m keeping you around for.” 

You shrugged. “You said you’d tell me when it’d be the right time. I’m just waiting, I guess. You told me about Rogers and his men and how they stole something from you. The details aren’t necessary, whatever it is, I’ll get it back. I promise.” 

Bucky placed his glass down and turned to look at you. His metal arm held you securely on his lap. “It’s my mother’s ring.” He said. “The ring has been in our family for generations. All the men propose to their women with it.” He paused, then added, “I have nothing left of hers. Just the ring.” 

Damn. Well. You would have never guessed that. A family heirloom? Why would Rogers tell his men to steal that? How would he even know to steal that? 

You began to ask just that. “How did-,” 

Bucky answered before you could even finish your question. “Steve, Sam, and I used to be friends. I always thought we’d be friends till the very end. But then Steve went rogue, power got to his head.” 

Shit. No wonder Bucky and Sam were so close, they survived the downfall of a strong trio. 

“I’m sorry.” You murmured, gently stroking his cheek. “I’ve never had close friends like that, I can’t imagine what it must be like to lose them. But I can tell it makes you really upset.” You pointed out. Then you took a deep breath and said, “I’ll get your mom’s ring back. And I will even kick Steve for you if you ask me to.” 

Bucky gave you a faint smile. 

“Just get the ring back.” He said, staring deep into your eyes. “I need it.” 

Oh? The thought of him on one knee, asking someone to marry him was surprisingly uncomfortable. But you pushed all that aside. 

“So when do I go?” 

— 

Another week later, the plan was ready. Bucky’s men were ready. You were ready. 

You had the location, had studied the blueprint very well. You’d be in contact with Bucky the whole time through the earpiece. Steve was rumoured to be out of town. His guards would not be expecting the heist. This was perfect. 

Or so you thought. The moment you got near Steve’s house, a gut feeling told you something was off. And you must’ve mumbled something to yourself because Bucky’s voice came through the earpiece just then. 

“I’ll say it again. The moment you sense something wrong, fall back. Do you hear me?” He used the cold, bossy tone. 

You scoffed and replied, “Yes daddy.” 

A few of the guys chuckled around you. And you could hear Bucky sighing as you giggled to yourself. 

You noticed the guards getting ready to move, the typical security rotation. You looked behind you and whispered to the guys, “We have exactly twelve seconds to make it past the gates. Don’t be too loud, and follow me. If you can’t make it, stay back here and keep watch. Everyone understood?” 

They all nodded silently. 

“Okay… now!” 

Not all of the guys could make it. Some had to stay back because the twelve-second window was too short for everyone to beeline through the gates. 

But the group of you that made it past the gates and into Steve’s house were in for a big surprise. It was a trap, Steve wasn’t home but his people had been waiting for you. 

What was meant to be a clean heist ended up in a crossfire. 

You could hear Bucky barking orders through the earpiece. “Fall back! Now!” 

You almost did… but fuck you were so close. So close. That was when you took the earpiece off and tucked it into the pocket of your cargo pants. He may have been right, but the adrenaline was too much to resist. You’d missed this feeling, this rush of being so close to danger, to being caught… 

So you went for it. 

Walked deeper into the trap. 

You knew where the ring was kept, you had the little box in your hand. You didn’t have time to see what it looked like as you put it away in your pocket, along with the earpiece that Bucky surely was still screaming through. 

And then. The room exploded. 

Then there was nothing. Just ringing in your eyes, and blurry images in front of you. You coughed, gasping for air and all you got were dust in your lungs. 

You faintly remember hands reaching for you, dragging you, trying to get you to walk. But your body did not cooperate. It refused to. 

You don’t know how much time passed. Or where you were. 

You could hear the panic in his voice as you tried your hardest to reorient yourself. Bucky was here? You were lying on the floor somewhere. You couldn’t remember much. 

The heist. The ring. A lot of fighting. An explosion. 

Ah, an explosion that threw you across the room causing you to collide against a concrete wall. 

Your side hurt, badly. Your head throbbed. Your vision was blurry, but at least Bucky was here. He was here, you could hear his rapid footsteps approaching. 

“Baby….” His voice sounded distant. “Baby, open your eyes. Please.” He had never sounded so vulnerable. Due to the way your body moved, you assumed you were in a rapidly moving vehicle. “Look at me,” You felt his hands on your face, “Princess, please…” You couldn’t focus too well on what he was saying, “... sorry, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have… baby, please…” 

Then there was just darkness.

And pain. 

And a headache that refused to go away. 

But you were with Bucky so you gave into the darkness. You knew you were safe now that he was here. 

— 

When you woke up, you realised you were in Bucky’s room. On his bed. The headache was still here, not as bad as before though. 

The room was dimly lit, so you figured it must be well into the evening. The house was quiet, but as you tried to sit up, you heard him. 

“Thought you were gonna sleep for two more days.” 

You couldn’t help the smirk. “I slept for two whole days?” Then you panicked, looking around, “Where are my dogs?” 

“Safe, fed. Sleeping.” Bucky stepped out of the dark corner of the room, but didn’t come any closer. He was quiet for a few moments. Then, “You almost got killed.” He stated, looking like he hadn’t slept in days but no less handsome. 

You scoffed. “As if that’s all it would take to kill me. You know, I once fell from two storeys and survived with just a twisted ankle. I’m amazing like that,” You winked at him. “Besides, I did a good job. I managed to get your precious ring,” You went to pat your pocket, only to realise that you were no longer wearing those cargo pants. 

Of course, he wouldn’t have left you in those same clothes for two days while you recovered. You looked down under the blanket and you were wearing clean clothes. His clothes. Sweatpants and a t-shirt. The t-shirt smelled like him. 

“Looking for this?” He held his hand up and there it was. Prettiest piece of jewellery you’d ever laid eyes on. You could see the big, heavy stone from here. Dark green, black, silver. It looked elegant, and like it was crafted in some fae realm. It was truly unique. 

“You changed me.” You pointed out, looking down at the clean clothes. 

He gave you the same poker face. “What does it matter? I’ve seen you naked more times than I can count.” He said. 

“And you made me wear your clothes.” You gave him a bratty, triumphant look. 

He glared at you. “I’m sure my clothes feel more comfortable than those tight little dresses you wear all the time.” 

You gasped dramatically, “You mean those tight little dresses you fuck me in all the time?” 

That had him walking towards his bed immediately. “Don’t fucking tease me. Not right now, you’re hurt.” 

“Aww,” You teased, “You care about me.” 

Bucky sat down on the edge of the bed, turning to face you. “I guess I do.” He said, reaching out to touch your face carefully. 

You couldn’t look away from him. He was so gorgeous. Even in poorly lit rooms with his face half hidden in shadows, he was the most handsome man you’d ever seen. 

He smirked when he noticed you checking him out, “I know I’m pretty, stop drooling.” 

You scoffed, shoving on the shoulder. The muscular bastard of course didn’t even move an inch. 

“I’m gonna go bring you some food.” He said, taking your hand in his metal one. “You’ve been unconscious for days, you need the energy.” He slid the ring on your ring finger so casually it took you a few moments to realise what he’d just done. 

Only when he got up to walk away did reality hit you. Hard. “Wait, what the fuck?” You held your hand up, “What does this mean?” 

Bucky gave you a shrug, “Get used to it.” 

“Bucky!” 

“What?” 

You blinked, mouth open, your body frozen in shock. “Did you just… are you for real? I thought the plan was to get the ring back so you could display it in your office and admire it like the deranged villain you try so hard to be.” 

He couldn’t help but laugh. “Change of plans.” 

You lowered your eyes, tracing a finger over the big stone on the gothic looking ring. “You can’t marry a thief.” 

Bucky sat back down again, taking your chin between his fingers. “Why not? You stole something very precious the day you broke into my home, and this is your punishment now. A life sentence, if you will.” 

“What did I steal?” 

“My heart.” 

You groaned at his cheesiness, leaning in and hiding your face into the crook of his neck. “You bastard.” 

Bucky chuckled. “I love you too.” 

You were quiet for a moment, breathing in his scent. It grounded you. But then you pulled away and asked, “What about Steve?” 

“I’ll deal with him.” Bucky answered, sounding grave and cold. “He hurt my princess,” He said, pulling you closer so much that you were almost on his lap, “I’m gonna kick his ass.” 

You giggled, “Well technically he hurt your princess because she broke into his house to steal. Honestly, he had every right to hurt your princess.” You argued. 

Bucky smirked, “So you agree? That you’re my princess?” 

You rolled your eyes at him, “Technically I’m your fiancé but I don’t really care about labels so yeah, I’ll be your princess or whatever.” 

He laughed, “Oh you don’t get to be nonchalant about this. I’ll throw a big party, invite the whole city if I want to. And you’re gonna be the centre of attention the whole night, parading around in a pretty dress of my choice, showing off your ring, and telling people how much you’re in love with me.” 

You groaned again. “You are insufferable.” 

“I love you too, princess.” He repeated, kissing your forehead.

[d3pressed-caffiene-addict]

Hazbin Hotel Ep 5&6 Oh My God (Major Spoilers)

I am having so many thoughts, this is just a brain dump

-LUCIFER. He’s so pathetic I love him

-Jeremy Jordan you fucking legend. I’m a big fan of a lot of his work and was excited to see him in this but I was slightly unsure if he was the right casting since I expected Lucifer to be more of a high and mighty/snobby figure, but with the way they characterised him HE IS PERFECT.

-“TAKE THAT DEPRESSION”

-The Lucifer vs Alastor rivalry is beautiful

-“Ha ha, fuck you.”

-Father figure Alastor

-HIS EARS GO BACK LIKE A CAT WHEN HES ANGRY I CANT

-MIMZY’S ARRIVAL. I know most of us know the lore about her and Alastor being developed as a couple before it was scrapped but I really like how they are in the show

-Even if it’s just crumbs I’m so excited to be getting snippets of Alastor’s lore. It’s wild to keep going back and forth between “aw he actually cares for and protects his friends” and “oh my god he’s a fucking psycho”

-Speaking of that the scene with Husk holy shit. Poor man looked terrified

-The confirmation that Alastor’s also stuck working for someone, it has to be Lilith surely. I know some people will call it predictable because a lot of theories are coming true but personally I think it’s from good worldbuilding/foreshadowing

-ALASTOR IN FULL DEMON FORM JUST ANNIHILATING EVERYONE and then he just goes “Ah that was fun, now back to it”

-I kinda like the parallel between Al and Mimzy & Angel and Cherri where they invite their friends to join them if they want to, even if neither of them take it up initially maybe we’ll see them join the hotel in the future?

-BABY CHARLIE

-I really expected Lucifer to be a dickhead and a shitty dad, but he seems to be an overall better guy than most people in hell

-CHERRI BOMB ARRIVAL! And she’s Aussie now fuck yeah represent

-I still love her and Angel’s friendship even if she is a terrible influence. Everyone’s got that friend who’s solution to a bad day is just self-destruction but they mean well at least

-DARREN CHRIS TOO, THE MUSICAL THEATRE/BROADWAY ACTOR CASTING IS STACKED

-Emily is so sweet I love her

-The Molly cameo is so sweet, I was waiting for her to appear somewhere but lowkey forgot she was in heaven. Honestly though how did she get there when the rest of her and Angel’s family got condemned for what they did together? Maybe she left the mob or something idk I just hope we get to meet her properly at some point

-Heaven’s real fucked up? Yeah not shocked

-VAGGIE?? FALLEN ANGEL REVEAL?? AND SHE WAS AN EXTERMINATOR???? I know most of us called it but holy shit I didn’t expect it to be confirmed this soon

-Adam is such a dick but he’s so much fun

-I love that Charlie was gonna start her court presentation with definitions like a high school essay

-“Consent is a good name for a sex club” the gentleman Husk truthers gonna have fun with this one

-Pentious hitting on Cherri is hilarious and totally not the same level of subtlety I flirt with when I’m drunk

-Hearing more and more about how Val treats Angel is so sad especially with how casually he talks about it since it’s just another day for him

-Him parenting drunk Nifty is beautiful

-“You wanna play with the kitty?”

-Valentino is my #1 enemy

-Seeing Angel stand up to him to protect his friends is making me feel feelings. Like he knows that he’s gonna be treated even worse for it but I think he’s reaching his tipping point and shits gonna go down soon

-Also I know there’s a popular theory that he’s gonna die soon and a lot of the theories are coming true so I am scared. I kind of don’t think this one’ll happen though since he’s the fan favourite and its just too soon to take that much of a risk. Plus Vivsie’s admitted he’s the best written character and it’d be such a waste of all that development

-More sweet moments between him and Husk, they’ve gotten me so invested in this ship so fast

-The fact that most of heaven didn’t know about the extermination?? Wild

-Idk how I feel about the timeskip between Ep 4&5, they’re only a month away from the extermination now. Yes it’s making the stakes feel higher but I do wish we’d been able to see more of that time for the relationship development, all the characters seem much closer than before and we’ve only seen bits of how they got there

-I really wish they’d greenlit more than 8 episodes to pace things a little better but I’m glad we have season 2 confirmed

-That last minute ‘reveal Vaggie’s past to Charlie, boot them out of heaven and then cut to credits before she can react’ is gonna torture me until next week

-I don’t disagree with past criticism that Vivzie’s female characters can feel a bit underwritten but I think it’s getting better

-“We’re coming to the hotel first” plus all the theories that someone’s gonna die are fucking stressing me out man

Anyway hope you enjoy the brain dump, this show has once again consumed my thoughts

[nemobeatrice]

The Golden Miners - Chapter 1: The Gang Meets Giorno

I think I might change the name of this fic. I really don't know.

Ao3

Quotev

Wattpad

Fugo awaited Giorno at the hotel he stayed. He waited for a few minutes, thinking he would take a while. The elevator dinged, and Giorno was by himself. Curious, he wondered where Giorno’s parents were.

“Panna!” Giorno embraced him. “We’ll be alone together. My dad trusts you to show me around. And—ugh, it’s so hot out! How can you stand it? No wonder why your outfit has so many holes.”

“I have an older friend whose shirts have a boob window. Have you tried that?” Fugo suggested.

His face turned red. He wore a white t-shirt, teal shorts, and sandals, dressed perfectly for the summer. “Ah, no. I feel like people will stare at me.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’ve seen what Trish wears. It gets hot here. Speaking of Trish, do you want to head over to Libeccio for lunch? That’s where we’re going to meet up. They’ve been dying to see you.”

“It’s lunch already?

“Nearing. Narancia said he wanted to discuss something. Have you had Italian food besides spaghetti and pizza?”

“Ah, no, I’m afraid that’s it.”

Fugo grabbed his hand and headed to the restaurant. “You should see what’s on their menu.”

“Wait, hold on!” Giorno said.  “I need to text my dad where I’m heading to.” Before he could quickly text his dad, Fugo caught a glimpse of his lock screen, an old photo of him from his Tumblr.

“Want to make a new photo for your lock screen?” Fugo asked.

“Sure, but are you sure we should do this in the middle of the street?”

“Yeah, we should probably hurry.”

“Perhaps next time with a scenic background.”

They held each other’s hands as they hurried down the street. Libeccio wasn’t far from where they were, and when they got inside, the host sat them down with their friends.

“Wait, Fugo, is this Giorno?” Narancia asked. “I thought he had black hair. Seriously, did you dye it before coming here?”

“Yeah, this is him,” he answered. “His hair somehow turned blond while flying here.”

Mista laughed. “Come on, man. You believe that?! He so dyed his hair to impress you.”

“But it did happen.” Giorno frowned slightly.

“Mista.” Fugo’s brows furrowed.

“Well, whether he dyed it or just so happened to turn, I think he looks great,” complemented Trish, who noticed how defensive Fugo was.

“Narancia, didn’t you have something to say?” asked Sheila.

“Oh yeah! Guys, I think we should make a Minecraft YouTube channel. I haven’t thought of a name, though.”

“Just wondering, what about our channels? Also, we might get tired of Minecraft. Are we allowed to upload other games on the channel as well?”

“You guys can upload whatever you guys want on your channel.”

“Should we make a group account?” Trish asked. “Maybe Mista, you, or I could run it. We’ll need to make a Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram account.”

“Yuck, Facebook?” Narancia’s face grimaced. “Maybe if we want Boomers following us. As for the Twitter account, I have lots of followers, but I don’t think we should make a Twitter account for our group. Also, we still need to think of a name. Mista, have you thought of any?”

“How about La Squadra?”

“Sounds basic. Any other ideas, anyone?”

The table was quiet.

“The Golden Mob,” Giorno said.

Everyone’s ears perked up, and Fugo quickly shut his mouth.

“Careful when saying the word mob,” he told him. He removed his hand. “It’s a great name, but we can’t go around school telling everyone to subscribe to the Golden Mob.”

“Golden Miners? Because we’re miners and also minors.”

“Except me!” Mista said. “I’m 18. I like that name a lot. So, are we calling our channel that?”

“Let’s put a hold on it,” Fugo said. “We should start our channel when Giorno returns home.”

“No, let Giorno live here!” Narancia said.

“Do you know how long it’ll take for that to happen?”

“No. Can’t you just marry him?”

Fugo was in mid-drink when he said that and spat it out, accidentally getting Giorno wet. The two blonds blushed.

Fugo wiped him off with a napkin. “I’m so sorry.” Once he was dry, he faced Narancia. “We would have to wait for Giorno to turn 18, which would take three years. And first off—” Fugo heard Giorno’s stomach rumble. “Never mind. We’ll discuss Italian citizenship later. Giorno’s hungry, and it’s a long pain-in-the-ass topic to talk about. I’m thinking about getting the lasagne. Darling, what about you?”

“Spaghetti,” Giorno answered.

“Hmm, spaghetti? Don’t you want to try something different? Don’t you like octopus salad? They have it right here on the menu.”

“I had that before I flew to Italy. Maybe I’ll try it next time.”

A waitress came over and took everybody’s order. While they waited for their food to arrive, they made small talk.

“Hey, guys, I think I might have two channels,” Fugo said. “One will have my Twitch highlights, and the other will have my past streams. As for the group channel, it’ll mostly focus on Minecraft videos, but we’ll have other videos uploaded as well.”

“What’s the point of calling ourselves the Golden Miners if we aren’t strictly a Minecraft YouTube channel?” Narancia asked.

“People might lose interest in Minecraft one day. We need to grow and make different types of videos.”

“Do our channels have to be strictly gaming channels? I have some ideas,” Trish said.

“What you guys do on your channel is up to you, but our YouTube channel has to be strictly gaming.”

The waiter came back with their food. Giorno had spaghetti, Fugo had lasagna, Mista had a strawberry shortcake, Narancia had some pizza, and the girls shared some crab. They finished their meal quickly, hoping to spend time with Giorno.

“Hey, Fugo, where will you take me?” Giorno asked.

“Want me to take you to the Naples National Archaeological Museum?”

“I’d love to go there! Do you guys want to come?”

They left Libeccio and headed to the museum. When they arrived, hardly anyone was inside. They all quietly chatted while walking, however.

“No one’s here except for us,” Giorno noted. “Is that normal?”

“We’re too busy with school to come down here,” Fugo answered. “I can’t believe I never asked this before, but back when we used to help each other with our homework, how much time do you spend doing homework?”

“I’d say about four hours. Why?”

“No way!” Narancia commented.

“Oh man,” replied Trish, “we spend around seven hours doing ours.”

“Hey, guys, can we not talk about homework?” Mista asked.

“Yeah, I don’t want a reminder of how it sucks here,” Sheila complained.

Giorno could feel the tension from the group and tried to keep their minds off of school. “This statue in the middle of the room is shiny. Amazing.” He looked over to see a bust of a man and walked over to it. “Oh, and the details on this guy’s beard. Hey, how often do you see people with beards walking around?”

Trish stuck her tongue out in disgust. “Ugh, I hate guys with beards! It feels filthy.”

“How would you know? Did you kiss a guy with one?” Narancia inquired.

“No, but I see guys get food on their beards. Ugh! I think it’s a growing trend because there are a lot of guys now with beards.”

“Will you guys ever get beards?” Sheila asked the boys.

They shook their heads no and caused her to giggle.

They headed into the next room, where the Artemis of Ephesus caught Giorno’s attention.

“Wow!” He then headed over to the museum label. “The scrota? Oh. That’s what that was.”

“These are copies,” Fugo said. “I wonder where the original ones are at.”

Trish blushed, trying to avoid staring at the nude statues. “C-can we get out of here? This place is a sausage fest.”

Sheila walked over to a marble dog statue. “Aw, look, Trish, a puppy!”

She quickly stood next to her. “This is a much better view.”

The group continued exploring, walking down a hallway with more statues.

“Hey, you noticed how the naked statues of women try to cover themselves up?” Sheila remarked.

“Yeah,” Trish replied, “and the men are proudly showing off their junk.”

They were in the room with the sculptures from the Baths of Caracalla.

“Everything is huge,” Narancia said.

“Yeah, it’s probably cause you’re short.” Mista snickered.

“Don’t underestimate the little guys!”

Mista ignored him and looked at a statue of a naked man. “Damn, this guy has some cheekage.”

Narancia put a hand to his statue’s butt cheeks and giggled.

“Oh my gosh, will you two grow up?” Fugo complained. “I’m sure we aren’t allowed to touch the statues. Also, where’s Giorno?”

On the other side of the hall, Giorno was over at the Group with the torment of Dirce .

“Wow, this guy really is an Italophile,” Fugo heard one of them mutter.

He turned around, scowling. “What was that?”

“You’re lucky to find a guy like him,” Narancia answered. “Honestly, I think our culture is kind of boring, but this guy likes everything.”

Fugo approached Giorno and grabbed his hand. “Come on. We should check the other rooms.”

They went around the museum, admiring the old sculptures. Then, Giorno realized something.

“On the naked statues,” he began, “there were handprints of their asses. Do people touch the rears of these sculptures?”

Fugo looked at Narancia.

“Don’t look at me!” The black-haired boy blushed.

The girls giggled.

“Don’t go around touching people's asses,” commented Mista.

“You’re the one touching the statues’ breasts!” Narancia replied.

Everyone in the group started laughing, including Fugo.

Since they had seen half of the museum, they ascended upstairs to see what else was on display, which happened to be the mosaics from Pompeii.

“These floor mosaics are beautiful,” Giorno commented.

“I know, right?” Sheila agreed. “I want a giant kitchen with beautiful mosaic tile. What about you guys? Have you thought about your dream house?”

“I’d rather live somewhere small, away from my family and servants,” Fugo answered. “Giorno, what about you?”

“I haven’t given it any thought. I guess where ever you want to live.”

“Younger me wanted to live in the Barbie Dreamhouse,” Trish said. “I still do.”

“Oh, I think I know what you’re talking about,” Mista said to Trish. “Yeah, that house looks sweet. If you ever find something like that, can I live with you? I’ll clean your house as long as I can go down the slide whenever I feel like it.”

“I want to live with you guys too!” Narancia said.

“Hey, Trish,” Sheila said, “I think you’re going to need to find a bigger house than Barbie Dreamhouse if you’re going to live with those two.”

The group later completed the tour of the museum and stood outside.

“If I had gone alone, I probably would’ve been bored,” Fugo said. “This was fun. Guys, what about you?”

Everyone agreed it was fun.

“Seeing the sculptures reminds me of this guy I passed by a few months ago,” Mista said. “I think he was a sculptor because he had these statues near his house, but they seem like the people I walk past by. It’s not that artistic nudity crap we saw back there. That guy gave me the creeps.”

“Can we see him?” Giorno asked.

“What? No, I don’t want to see that guy.”

“Are you talking about Scolippi?” Fugo replied. “If Giorno wants to see him, we’ll see him. And Mista, you’re coming with us. I don’t remember where he lives. What will you guys do in the meantime?”

“I think we’re all going to head home,” Narancia answered. “My brain hurts.”

-

The three walked to the sculptor’s house. Scolippi lived in an old three-story house, where a few of his artworks greeted the visitors.

“That statue looks just like that one pissed-off guy who works at that ice cream parlor,” Mista commented. “God, it looks like he wants to kill me. I’m out!”

Fugo grabbed onto his shirt, stopping him from successfully running away. “You aren’t going anywhere.” He gave him a death stare. “We want to see how scary he is.”

Giorno knocked on the door to have Scolippi greet them. His hair was the color of lavender and adorned with metal clips, and he stared blankly at them.

“Hello, come in,” he said.

Giorno went in first, and Fugo had to drag Mista in. The three followed Scolippi to a room where he worked on his sculptures. Finished statues decorated his room, but they noticed an incomplete one. Despite its incompletion, Mista knew who it was.

“Isn’t that Bruno Bucciarati?”

“Who?” Giorno questioned.

“My parents got into a fight one day to the point they went to seek a marriage counselor,” Fugo said. “I was 13 then, but that’s when I met him. He tried to cheer me up even though I didn’t care if they were fighting. You might like him. Bruno’s friendly, and you might get along with him. However, he’s studying and trying to become a marriage counselor himself. Oh, and that’s the guy with the boob window.” He looked at the incomplete statue. “Nice work so far.”

Giorno looked at Scolippi. “Scolippi, right? I’m Giorno. I like your artwork. Just wondering, do you make fan art?”

“No, but I can. Why?”

“Could you make a sculpture of my original Assassin’s Creed character with Fugo’s?”

“You’re going to bother him with a request like that?” Mista asked.

“I’ve never done a request like that,” Scolippi answered Giorno. “I’ll need to see the details of these characters. Also, I need to know if you want a full body or bust and the size.”

“Wait, you can do that?” Mista questioned again. “Um, what if it's very detailed?”

“I can work with plenty of details, assuming I’m not under a time limit.”

Mista smiled and was no longer afraid of the sculptor. “Sweet! I might come here next time.”

“How much will this cost?” Giorno asked.

“Whoa, let me pay for it!” Fugo said. He then whispered to him, “You know I have lots of money.”

“You can’t ask your parents forever,” he whispered back. “Besides, my dad has a couple of euros to spare.”

“Wait, Giorno,” Mista interrupted them. “How are you going to bring it on the plane? We don’t even know how long it’ll take.”

“I’m not taking it home with me. I’m gifting it to Fugo.”

“What? Really? Giorno, you don’t have to.”

Giorno kissed him on the lips. “You’ve given me everything I ever wanted. It’s my turn to give something to you.”

Fugo embraced him, returning a kiss while Mista stuck his tongue out in disgust.

Scolippi cleared his throat. “I need to see the image and know what size.”

“Sorry.” Giorno showed him a picture of his original character along with Fugo’s. “Could you have them both about 15 centimeters? As for the money, I’ll need to call my dad.”

-

They waited outside for Giorno’s dad to come to Scolippi’s house. A taxi arrived, and Giorno’s dad stepped out. For some reason, he was shirtless, causing Mista and Scolippi to blush furiously.

“Dad, why are you shirtless?”

“It’s hot.” He then stared at Scolippi. “You must be the sculptor. I’m Dio. Here’s the money.”

“W-wow, thanks. After I’m done with my work, can I sculpt you?”

Dio laughed. “Of course, you can. Do I have to pay for it too?”

“Oh, no. It’s free. On the house.”

“I thought you sculpt people without their permission,” Mista said.

“They don’t mind,” Scolippi replied. “Anyways, it’ll take some hours for me to complete the request.”

“Hey, Giorno,” Mista whispered, “you never told me your dad was hot.”

“My dad’s married,” he whispered.

“Tell him to get a divorce!”

“No!”

Dio approached his son. “It’s starting to get dark out, and it’s been a very long time since I’ve been here. Last time I visited, it wasn’t safe out.” He looked at Fugo. “And this must be the boy you love. I’m curious. What does your home look like?”

“I live in a mansion,” Fugo answered. “I don’t think my parents will let you in, though. They’re strict.”

“I want to see your house. We don’t have to go in. Will you show us?” Dio asked.

“Okay.”

“What about me?” Mista questioned.

“I’m sorry. There isn’t enough room,” Dio answered.

The blonds got into the taxi with Fugo sitting in the front, giving directions to his mansion. While in the car, Dio asked Fugo a few questions.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Dio asked.

“What do I want?” Fugo repeated. “I don’t know, honestly. My parents want me to be a lawyer, but I don’t know what I want.”

“Oho? I’m a lawyer.” He smiled.

“Where did you study?”

“I attended Hugh Hudson Academy and graduated as the top student. My brother was an archaeologist. We were good at rugby. With my brains and his brawns, we were unstoppable.”

“Brother?” Giorno interrupted. “Wait, I didn’t know I had an uncle. How come you never mentioned this before?”

“Did I say that?” His smile died. “It doesn’t matter. He’s dead.”

“Dead?” Giorno sounded shocked. He frowned. “What was he like?”

“He was—”

“We’re here,” the Taxi driver interrupted.

“This is my house,” Fugo said. “What do you think?”

Dio got out. Confused, Giorno and Fugo got out too.

“Almost reminds me of home,” Dio commented.

Fugo looked at Giorno. “Is your dad secretly rich?” he whispered.

He shrugged. If he was, why did they live in Tokyo?

“Come. I want to meet your parents,” Dio said.

They approached the mansion, and Dio rang the doorbell. One of the servants opened the door and then closed it to fetch Fugo’s parents. Later, Fugo’s parents opened the door, glaring at their child and then looking at the shirtless man. Both of them blushed.

“W-who are you?” Fugo’s mother asked.

“I’m Dio Brando, a lawyer. Next to me is my son, Giorno. May we come in?”

“Of course!”

“Darling, I don’t think we should let them in,” Fugo’s father objected.

“We can’t turn them away!”

“Excuse me, may we talk somewhere more private, away from the children?”

“I suppose so,” Fugo’s mother answered.

“Mother?” Fugo looked at her.

“Go upstairs to your room. Now. Take your friend with you.”

Fugo took Giorno’s hand and brought him to his room. His room was more spacious and had a lot of expensive-looking furniture, and he even had a bathroom. However, instead of playing a game, they lay on the double bed, discussing what happened.

“Your dad just convinced my parents to let you in,” Fugo said. “What’s up with that? They’re so strict.”

“I don’t know what happened,” Giorno replied. “Dad has never spoken about uncle before. I wonder what happened.”

They cuddled in bed.

“I wonder if it was something horrible that he didn’t want to describe,” Fugo said. “Wait, how much do you know about your grandparents on your dad’s side?”

“I know nothing. I’ll ask my dad about our family next time.”

Someone knocked on the door, and the boys sat straight on the bed.

“Yes?” Fugo responded.

“Your parents allowed Giorno to stay for the night,” said the servant behind the door. “His father is fetching his things.”

Fugo looked at Giorno. “What?” he whispered.

“I-I don’t know. I guess your parents aren’t as strict as you thought.”

Fugo wasn’t sure what was happening, but he accepted it. He was hoping Giorno would stay, and somehow, his parents let that happen, but he felt like Dio must’ve done something.

“Well, if my parents had become less strict, you want to get something from the kitchen? We have a lot of leftovers. The chef could make you something if you don’t like anything.”

“You have a chef? Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Let’s go!”

They rushed downstairs to the kitchen, enjoying the night together.

[cocoabubbelle]

My overall impression of this guy + the fandom’s reaction to him:

Oh cool, Twisted Wonderland made another character.

Hmmm, Judge Claude Frollo you say? This could either go really well or really bad.

Ok here’s his design; hehe they really nailed that weird bowl cut and dark eyeshadows. Nice hat m’dude.

Oh he’s from an entirely different college is this going to be an official thing and we’ll see more characters?

Student Council President. Checks out.

Does he have a name ye-! Oh wait here it is.

My brain: Rollo Flan??

*reads again* Ah, Rollo Flambé….?

*reads again to make sure bc third time’s the charm*

Rollo FLAMM.

Is it pronounced like FLAME or HAM??? Or DAME (the way the French pronounce it)?

Voice actor. Do I know this guy?

*sees the voice actor has worked on Haikyuu!! so immediately play his voice for my sister (who’s a fan of the show) to see if she can tell who it is.)

Also showed this character to my sister for her opinion:

“He looks like he’s 12.” 🤣🤣🤣🤣

He’s interested in Malleus Draconia I see. As a rival? As a recruit of part of the student council?

Ngl him sniffing the hanky looking like Esmeralda’s scarf is sus (of course maybe he’s chronically sick and has a thing against germs, but still. Sus.)

Hmm, Jack Howl, Rook Hunt, Trey Clover, and Malleus Draconia are still my favorites visually and personality-wise, but I’m interested in how Twisted Wonderland is going to portray this character and add depth to him to make him likeable 😌

*checks to see what the other members of the fandom think of this guy.*

*lots of hate-projection from the haters already bc of the character he’s twisted from.*

*despite how the other beloved characters are derived from villainous characters.*

*also apparently he’s not allowed to be tall.*

*to be fair, calling back to my sis’s comment, “he looks twelve” 🤣*

*portion of fandom who like him and still bully him affectionately.*

* remaining fandom peeps already writing Rollo x Reader content.*

haters: THE OTHER DISNEY VILLAINS WERE ENTERTAINING FROLLO IS BASED OF REAL LIFE RELIGIOUS AND PREJUDICED JERKS IN POWER

Other disney villains:

Evil Queen Grimhilde: a fully grown woman and narcissist who 1) was an abusive, neglectful stepmother, and 2) felt threatened by a girl who BARELY entered her teens and reacted by trying to murder her in gruesome ways. A jerk in power.

Maleficent: a sadistic being who enjoys looking down on those she deems inferior to her, (but heaven help you if you don’t treat her with the respect she’s entitled to), who *1) felt insulted for not being invited to a birthday party for a baby, so takes it out on the baby to get back at the parents, **2) takes advantage of the other heroes’ gifts and attempts to prolong everyone’s suffering out of a sick amusement from everyone’s misery but hers, and 3) is less concerned about her henchmen and pet crow’s vulnerable states and more offended by the audacity of the heroes finding loopholes and weaknesses in her magic so doesn’t cut her losses to back off and try helping her people and instead keeps trying to assert her dominance because she HAS to win. A jerk in literal power.

Lady Tremaine: An emotionally abusive woman who sees her children as a means of success and will not tolerate her stepdaughter having an ounce of happiness. A jerk in power.

Queen of Hearts: temperamental woman-child in power who 1) resorts to threats and violence when things don’t go her way, and 2) makes sure the system is ALWAYS in her favor and not for anyone who’s “wronged” her. A jerk in power.

Cruella de Vil: would have happily murdered newborn puppies had they had their spots. Uses her riches and influence to endorse Animal Cruelty. A jerk in power.

Gaston: Violent, Entitled, Narcissistic Misogynist/Sexist Womanizer who will turn on the charms long enough to try to get the woman he wants. Can’t take no for an answer. Is able to sway mob opinion because of his charisma and skill set and be one of the top dogs so to speak. A jerk in power.

Dr. Facilier: Conman extraordinaire who hates successful people and uses others to weasel out of debts he put himself in. Will aim for a willing stooge to aim for the top and seize control/influence from a person of perceivable authority. A jerk in literal power.

Ursula: Conwoman who makes sure that any deal she makes will always work out in her favor and will do anything to bring you down if it looks like you’re going to succeed. A jerk in literal power.

Scar: Jealous brother and uncle. Fratricide. Attempted Nepoticide. Wants to be in a position of power purely for the perceived personal benefits with no regards to his citizens’ well-being. Shifts blame from himself to others if things aren’t working out his way. Will only engage in a fight he’s started if there’s anything to put the other opponent at a disadvantage. A jerk in power.

Jafar: arrogant and jealous second-in-command who uses means to manipulate things to his favor. Classist jerk who will not follow up on his end of the bargain even if you fulfilled yours, or will use ambiguous words so that he does fulfill his bargain only at your expense. Will abuse his authority to objectify others. A jerk in power.

Hades: Bitter and Temperamental Boss man who rather make the most of an unsavory position thrown upon him, takes out his temper on others and makes elaborate schemes to overthrow his bosses, while making others do his dirty work for him as opposed to doing it himself. Makes deals for his own benefit. Sore Loser. A jerk in power.

Twisted Wonderland has been able to create characters TWISTED from their villainous inspirations and make them have reasons for their initial attitudes before overblotting, receive consequences for their actions that make them reflect on themselves, then actually go through character development that help them to become more heroic/tolerable. Not even all of them are shown to be remotely close to their original villain in motivation or personality. Again, I don’t think Rollo Flambé Flamm will be one of my top favorites anytime soon, and his predecessor is one of the most vile villains to exist in animated films, but I am willing to wait and see what Twisted Wonderland does with him and how he will contribute to the story.

Edit: Help why is this post so popular?

Also Spoilers below.

Rollo is indeed cray cray. But it is thanks to his cray cray that Malleus calls out to us by name.

See? He has a positive contribution to the plot 😆

Also, it looks like this version’s backstory will be mostly pulled from his original literary counterpart as well as his broadway counterpart.

So.

Looking forward to see how, if at all, Rollo overblots and/or gets redeemed following the other characters who overblotted and tried to kill everyone.

More Spoilers!

Rollo got his just deserts after the shenanigans he pulled, and with an appropriate callback to the words the Archbishop/deacon(?) threw in Frollo’s face in The Bells of Notre Dame song.

Mwahaha!

Something that piques my curiosity though. The other housewardens + Jamil were given opportunities to redeem themselves after the mess they caused.

Rollo looked like he was going to confess his sins (so to speak) when the other NBC students asked what happened.

Malleus doesn’t let him because he wants him to rot with his guilt a little longer.

Justice? Or is Tsunotarou still mad over not being invited and decides to be petty? 😆😆😆😆

* “felt insulted for not [actually] being invited to [the Festival for the City of Flowers], so [initially] takes it out on the [City of Flowers via angry lightning storm temper tantrum before he calms down so he can redirect his anger at the actual culprit, Rollo]”** “attempts to prolong [Rollo’s] suffering out of a sick amusement from [Rollo’s] misery”

Ah whatever Rollo kinda definitely in this case let’s be real had it coming.

Now we will see if he will forever stew in his guilt and self-loathing, or if the rumors over him transferring from/getting kicked out of Noble Bell College and attending Night Raven College are true and if he gets a redemption arc/becomes much worse.

Only time will tell since Twisted Wonderland so far has failed to disappoint regarding character arcs and story development!

[spidernerdsblog]

Can you do MMIH blurb where the reader and Tom try and have alone time but the twins keep interrupting and tom gets frustrated and sends them to Nikki's nd Dom's place so they can have alone time?

Got a couple of requests on this concept so here it is the well deserved date night for them. Hope you like this. Let me know what you think.

Match made in Hell (series)

DATE NIGHT

Pairing : Mob! Tom Holland x Reader

Warnings : 18+, SMUT, minors DNI, soft passionate, bathtub sex, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it)

Running a business was never easy be it the mob or his new real estate business Tom always found paperwork grating. The constant signing of his initials after scrutinizing the legal documents line by line stacked in those manila folders on the table was strenuous. And on top of that when you walked into his office in the middle of the day dressed in that sundress that drove him insane didn’t help much either. He was quick to put all the work aside and pull you in his lap. 

With the kids and a business to run you could barely spare some time for each other. So whenever you managed a little alone time you were all over each other like some horny teenagers all desperate and needy. Your dress was bunched up to your waist, his hands kneading the soft flesh of your ass as you grinded on his growing bulge. Tom’s breath was hot on your neck as he kissed the sweet spot behind your ear that made your knees go weak. You let out a whimper when he slipped a hand between your legs rubbing your clit through your panties feeling your wetness. 

“Fuck baby you’re soaked” he grunted hastily undoing his belt and fly. He was about to pull out his throbbing length when you were interrupted by Leah’s sharp voice.

“Mommy! Look, Nate ate my chocolates!” 

“No mommy I did not!” Nate retorted as you stopped everything you were doing. Sighing against his mouth you pulled away from Tom.

“Mmmmph don’t go please” he whined, chasing your lips as his grip tightened on your waist in an attempt to keep you close.

“I have to” you kissed his nose and pressed your foreheads together with a smile.

“You know I love them with my life but they are being serious cockblocks lately” he mumbled.

“Don't say like that, they are small and they need me” you snickered. 

“What about me? I need you too” he pouted, giving you his best puppy eyes.

“Yeah that is the reason they are here in the first place so now deal with it” you got off his lap standing up and fixing your dress while Tom sat on his chair with a scowl on his face. He knew he was being selfish but you both deserve some alone time together. He can’t remember the last time you cuddled together and poured your hearts out, drifting off to sleep listening to each other's heartbeat. And then suddenly an idea went across his mind.

“By the way, are you going to the diner today?” he asked.

“Yeah, some deliveries will be arriving. I need to check them myself. Why?”  

“Try to come home early”

“For what?” you glanced at him questioningly.

“Just be back by six. You’ll get to know” he insisted.

“Ok I’ll try” you left, pressing a gentle kiss on his cheek.

After solving the huge mystery of the stolen chocolates, it turned out that Nate indeed had eaten all of his sister’s chocolates. You made him say sorry to her and then went to your diner. As promised you returned home early and were a little surprised to find the house oddly quieter than normal days.

“Good evening darling. How was your day?” Tom’s voice startled you as he walked in from the backdoor of the mansion. You also noticed how he was dressed differently tonight in a blue turtleneck and trousers, hair gelled back as his rolex glimmered on his wrist.

“It was good but why is it so quiet in here? Where are the kids?” you asked, taking off your overcoat and handing it to Tom who took it from you and hung it on the coat hanger.

“At their grandma's” he informed nonchalantly.

“Thomas Holland, you just did not send our kids to your parents house to have sex with me did you?!” you raise an eyebrow questioningly.

“That’s preposterous! I would never do that!” he gasped dramatically “it had been a long time since they visited their grandparents and mum was missing them too so I dropped them off at my parent’s for tonight” he explained. 

“Okay I believe you. So why did you ask me to come home early?” 

“Well I thought it has also been a long time we spent time together just the two of us so I arranged a little date night for us” he revealed, smiling with glee. 

“Aww that's very sweet of you. So where are we going?” you asked curiously.

“You'll see. Shall we Mrs. Holland?” he held out his hand for you.

“Sure Mr. Holland” you slipped your arm into his with a smile.

Stepping out of the mansion you strolled through the blue stoned walkway hand in hand as he took you to the gazebo built in the middle of your huge lawn. As you neared it your eyes went wide in awe. The gazebo was decorated with fairy lights, a table for two was set with flowers and candles on it and a mix of your favorite songs playing.

“You like it?” he asked softly.

“Oh my god Tom I love it!” you gasped, taking his face between your hands and giving his lips a warm rather long kiss.

“My lady,” Tom pulled out a chair for you.

“Thank you kind sir” you snickered sitting down as Tom took the seat opposite to you. He opens the bottle of wine and pours you both a glass. Raising your glasses in the air for a toast he admires your beautiful face glowing in the soft yellow light emanating from the candles. After you are finished having your dinner which, not to mention was delicious. You reached out your hands, taking his hands in yours gently.

“This was perfect Tom, I really missed spending time with just the two of us” you said, mindlessly tracing his wedding band with your thumb.

“I’m glad you liked Y/N” he gave a warm smile, squeezing your hands lightly.

“Thank you so much Tom for...”

“Ah ah not yet darling” he cuts you off.

“What else did you plan?” you gave him a puzzled look.

“For that we have to go back inside the house”

“I think I already know what the surprise is” you narrowed your gaze, giving him a knowing smirk.

“Oh c’mon you’ll love it I promise” he said with an impish glee.

“We’ll see,” you laughed as you got up from your seats and slowly made your way back into the house and then headed to your room.  

“You might wanna change” he whispered into your ears as you felt butterflies in your stomach in anticipation at what he had planned for you “and don’t come in before I say” he added before disappearing inside the bathroom. You unzipped your dress, taking it off as you decided to just put on your satin robe and sat on the edge of the bed wondering what he was doing inside for so long.

“Y/N you can come in now” you heard him call out after sometime. The lights were off as you padded your way inside to have your jaws dropped. Tom had drawn a bubble bath for both of you. The room was lit with your favorite scented candles, the sweet scent looming in the air and rose petals scattered everywhere.

“So what do you think?” Tom asked, sitting inside the bathtub.

“Well you got me speechless Holland”

“I thought what’s better than a relaxing bubble bath at the end of the day”

“Can’t argue with that” you snickered.

“Now come on in before the water gets cold” he invited you.

You untied the knot of your robe and slipped it off your shoulders letting it fall on the floor. Tom’s eyes were on you watching every slight movement of yours mesmerized. He can never get enough of you and your beautiful body. You stepped inside the tub as Tom spread his legs a bit to accommodate you. You sat down between his legs leaning back on his chest instantly relaxing at the feeling of the warm water hugging every inch of your skin as you breath in the aroma of the bubble bath. Tom’s warm chest brushing against your back adds to the feeling as you  melt into him soaking in the heat radiating off his body. It was like heaven and this is exactly what you needed.

“Comfortable?” he asked as you nodded in a yes. Tom brought his hands up to your shoulders, gently pushing his thumbs into them, massaging your tired muscles. He rubs his hands all over your shoulders and upper back relieving the knots. A little moan escaped your lips whenever he hit a spot.

“You really need to give serious thought to taking up the job of a masseur” you snickered.

“Well as I told you before it’s only for a special person” he said continuing to massage at the base of your neck.

“It feels good” you sighed in content.

“Oh yeah?”

“Mmhmm” you hummed.

“I have another way to make you feel better” he murmured against the shell of your ear and your breath hitched.

“How’s that?” 

Tom wrapped his right arm around you, cupping one of your breasts. He places his other hand on your knee, running it across the expanse of your thigh before dragging them along your inner thigh. The cold wedding band on his ring finger a sharp contrast against your warm skin sending shivers down your body.

He spread your delicate folds with his long fingers and dragged them slowly up and down taking his own time. He littered your neck and shoulder with bites and kisses as his fingers explored you and little waves of pleasure coursed through your body. He switched between pinching your nipple and squeezing your breast as you grind your ass against his cock.

“Want my fingers inside you love?” he purred.

“Yes... yes please Tom” your voice came out shaky yet desperate.

He bites on your shoulder gently as he inserted his pointer and middle finger into you in one swift motion. The feeling of his knuckles pressed deep against you felt so overwhelming makes you clench involuntarily. His fingers massaged your velvety walls pushing in and out of you drawing out delicate moans of his name from you. His thumb soon found your bundle of nerves drawing slow circles around it. You grinded your ass back against him harder as he picks up his pace.

“Needy for my fingers, aren’t ya?” he chuckled as you mewled in response. Your head tilted to the side as he trailed kisses back up your neck, nipping at your earlobe while his fingers worked on your wetness. He whispered praises into your ear as you clenched around his fingers, legs threatening to close. Tom placed a hand on your thigh to keep your legs apart. He could tell you were close as your body grew heavier in his grasp.

“You gonna cum for me darling?” he curled his fingers inside you hitting your spot.

“Yes...fuck Tom... right there” your body fell back against him. Tom knelt down, capturing your lips in a sloppy, passionate kiss as he rubbed at your clit faster. Your body convulsed as your orgasm hit you like a tidal wave. Tom held you against him as you came down from your high you felt his hard cock pressing against your ass. 

You turned around in your post orgasmic haze placing your hands on his chest straddling his waist. You captured his lips in a heated kiss, his tongue slipped past your lips dominating you as he ran his hand down your bare back. Your wet bodies rubbing against each other as you moaned into each other's mouths.

“Ride me baby. Wanna feel every inch of you” he said pulling away, the deep baritone of his voice making your pussy throb with need.

You lifted yourself up gripping on his shoulders tightly as Tom grabbed his dick and lined it to your hot, wet and welcoming entrance. You slowly sunk down on him, your eyes rolling in the back of your head as he filled you up. You can never get used to him always stretching you in the most incredible and delicious ways. Tom groaned loudly, bottoming out. 

You started to ride him, gradually gyrating your hips in a slow motion. His hands falling to your hips guiding you up and down his length. Your hips meet with each and every thrust, water splashing out of the tub which you could care less about right now. He knelt down peppering your chest with kisses and love bites, your fingers knotted in his hair tugging on the roots as you bounced on his cock.

Tom’s hands slid down to your ass, spreading your cheeks as he took control. You gasped when he picked up the pace, plunging deeper inside you. You wrapped your legs around his waist, clinging onto him as he thrusted up into you mercilessly. You hid your face in the crook of his neck sucking a mark into his skin. Tom felt your body tremble, your walls squeezing him like a vice and he knew you were almost there.

He wrapped an arm around you holding you securely while his other hand reached down between your wet bodies. He began rubbing your oversensitive clit in fast circular motion that sent you tipping off the edge. You wrapped your arms around him trying to keep him as close as possible as you slowly rode out your high. Your walls spasmed around him which sets him off too. His whole body shudders and he spills his seed inside you. 

Both of your chests were heaving as you came down for the high. He leaned back against the edge of the tub with you in his embrace. You sit back to find a goofy smile on his face . 

“I love you” your hand traces his jaw and you lean in to kiss him “you always take care of me so well” you murmured against his lips. Tom tugged on your bottom lip, a grin forming at the corner of his lips.

“We are just getting started, darling”

..................................................................................

Reblogs are appreciated ❤️

[latetaektalk]

(he)art thief | jjk [i, preview]

“jungkook is charming, kind, smart, and funny. jungkook is the guy to fall in love with. he is perfect in every sense, except that he is also a member of a notorious heist group and only getting close to you to steal from you. but what does he do when he starts to fall for you? who does he choose? his brothers or you?

genre: heist! AU, thief! jungkook, art curator daughter! oc, ocean’s! AU, fluff, angst, sexual themes/implied smut (in later chapters)

pairing: jungkook x female reader

estimated word count: 35 to 40k

warnings: cursing/swearing, a bit of alcohol consumption

a/n: this is loosely based off the ocean’s film! to be added to the taglist, shoot me an ask/message! also, gureum is jungkook’s dog! and thank you to movie club for helping me come up with this amazing title!!

coming sunday, may 30th 2021  

Jungkook avoids playgrounds.

Does so because when he was at the tender age of just seven, he fell off a swing. He ended up in the hospital (his first but not last visit); seven stitches, his mother told him, but he could swear it was a million.

Needless to say, Jungkook has been avoiding playgrounds like the plague ever since.

But here he is, in the middle of one, dog leash in his hand, and heart pounding in his chest so violently it might just explode.

A mob of boys runs past him, all of them no older than six—which means that, for the most part at least, they’re harmless—but still, Jungkook flinches. It’s embarrassing, even more so because Gureum turns and stares at him. If one of them should flinch, it should be Gureum, with him being a dog and Jungkook a full grown adult, but God, today is just not his day. He’s stressed! Out of it! Nervous! A wreck-

“Did you just flinch?”

Jungkook feels his heart drop. Fuck, he thought he walked out of sight!

“No, I didn’t, Tae,” he hisses, pressing the earpiece further into his ear.

“You flinched! We can still see you- ah, okay, not anymore. But we saw that-”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I definitely did not flinch-”

“Denying it is pointless. We all saw it. Back me up here, Jimin.”

“You definitely flinched.”

Jungkook stops dead in his tracks, is about to walk back to the car and tell them that they must be hallucinating because he definitely did not flinch when-

“Can you see her already, Kook?” Namjoon asks and for a moment, Jungkook forgot why he is here, you.

He looks around himself, and it doesn’t take him long to find you, sitting on a bench, under a big tree, soft shadows dancing on your skin.

“Yeah, I-I see her,” Jungkook says under his breath.

“Okay, good. I’m gonna need you to focus up then,” Namjoon continues, and Jungkook nods like Namjoon could see him.

“Yeah, if you screw this up, it’s your fault if we end up in jail-”

“Tae!” Namjoon warns, and judging from the ‘ow’ that follows, someone punched him. Jungkook’s guess is Jimin.

“What? I’m just saying-”

“I knew I shouldn’t have let you come,” Namjoon mumbles and runs a hand down his face. “Hey, Kook, don’t listen to Tae, yeah? He’s just messing with you.”

“Yeah… I know,” Jungkook mutters, and he means it. He really does know that Taehyung is messing with him, but there’s a part of him that takes it to heart, that is worried sick about how he’s going to fuck this up and be the reason for why they all end up in jail.

“Don’t worry, Kook,” Jimin cuts in, taking the phone from Namjoon. “We’ve got your back. All you have to do is repeat after me, say what I say. You’ve got this. Remember what I taught you?”

“Always smile and laugh and never talk about yourself. Keep the conversation about the other person because people love talking about themselves,” Jungkook repeats, and looks at you again, heart heavy in his chest.

He shouldn’t feel like this, wishes he wouldn’t. But he can’t help it. This isn’t how he imagined he’d meet you. Jungkook thought he’d meet you at some fancy event, sipping expensive champagne, or at some luxury clothing store maxing out your parents’ credit card—after all, your mother is a world famous art curator. But instead you spend your time at playgrounds, babysitting.

There’s actually no reason for Jungkook to be this nervous. Jimin did practise with him this exact scenario, but he can’t help but think that with a flute in his hands and some alcohol buzzing through his system, he’d feel more comfortable. But here he is, in the middle of a sea of children.

“Kook, do you copy?”

“What? Sorry, I wasn’t…” Jungkook pauses. He shouldn’t admit that he wasn’t listening.

“Get your head in the game, please,” Namjoon tells him over the earpiece.

“Sorry, you’re right. I’m here,” Jungkook says and starts to walk again even though he still feels fucking lost as a goddamn adult at a playground. Gureum follows him when he tugs on the dog leash.

“Okay, good. Just- just try your best,” Namjoon says, voice a bit muffled. “You’ve got this.”

Jungkook could swear that there’s a waiver to his words.

“Don’t worry. We’re here,” Taehyung tells him before Jungkook can think about it too much, distracting him from the quiver he heard.

He stops behind a tree, close enough for Gureum to spot you, but not close enough for you to spot them. His knees crack when he kneels down to stroke Gureum’s ear.

“Hey, Gureum? I’m gonna unleash you in a second and then I’m gonna need you to run towards,” Jungkook points as discreetly as possible to you, “her, yeah? Just like we practised? Remember? Remember how you ran towards Seok and Yoongi? Do it exactly like that again, okay? If you do, I’ll get you your favourite treat.”

Gureum doesn’t run away instantly when Jungkook unclips him because he’s trained, but when he points at you and whistles, he’s gone.

You react surprisingly calm to a dog barreling towards you, barely flinching. You lean down and greet Gureum.

“Approaching target now,” Jungkook mumbles quietly and can only faintly register how Namjoon tells Taehyung to be quiet from now on, all of his attention on the mission now.

With the leash in his hand, Jungkook jogs towards you, heaving extra hard to sell the act of a dog-owner-who-has-been-chasing-his-dog-for-the-last-ten-minutes to you.

You look up to him when he stops in front of you, eyeing him. Jungkook stands there, bend over, his hands on his knees, breathing like he’s struggling to catch his breath.

“Uh…. hi,” you start, brows pinched together.

Jungkook puts on his most charming smile, ignoring his thumping heart to the best of his abilities.

“Hi.”

“Oh, we’re starting- okay, showtime: I’m sorry, are you okay? My dog- he just ran and I couldn’t stop him. I’m so sorry,” Jimin says in his ear.

“I-I’m so sorry.” There’s a quiver to Jungkook’s voice, and it isn’t on purpose. “Are you okay? He just ran and I-”

“It’s fine,” you tell him with a small smile, still petting Gureum who has clearly taken a liking to you. During practise with Seokjin and Yoongi, Gureum always ran back to Jungkook, but now he’s staying at your feet, relishing in your pets. “Is that your dog?”

“Yes, yes, it is. I’m so sorry. I just unleashed him for a second, but then he ran away and I couldn’t catch up with him. Are you okay?”

“Yes, and I’m so sorry. I just unleashed him for a moment, thinking it was okay, but-”

“Can you prove it?” you interrupt and Jungkook pauses. “I mean that it’s your dog. It’s just that he isn’t really reacting to you, you know?”

Jimin’s response comes a bit late. “Oh, yes, I can. His name’s Gureum and he is- what’s the breed of your dog again? I don’t remember. If you look at his collar, you’ll see I’m telling the truth.”

“Oh, yeah, I can,” Jungkook smiles, wiping the non existent sweat from his temple. “His name’s Gureum and he’s a white Maltese dog. If you look at his collar, you’ll see that I’m not lying.”

You actually look at the collar and part of Jungkook is offended that you don’t just believe him. Does he look like a liar to you? “Actually, I have pictures too-”

“No, no, it’s fine. I believe you,” you say before gesturing for Gureum to go back to Jungkook. He does, but somewhat reluctantly and Jungkook doesn’t know how to interpret this.

“Ask her if she’s okay again.”

“Are you really okay?” Jungkook says and offers you a smile the way Jimin taught him to. “I really am sorry about-”

“It’s fine,” you tell him and wave him off. “Nothing happened. Don’t worry about it. Just leash your dog.”

And then, you turn away from him. Jungkook stands there awkwardly for another moment before kneeling down to Gureum, absentmindedly petting him, mind filled with questions because what now? How does he communicate to the others that you turned away from him? That the conversation has ended and he has no idea how to start it again?

“What’s going on Kook? Is she smiling-”

“Ah, Gureum, no,” Jungkook cuts in. “Don’t turn away- I can’t leash you if you do that. Don’t turn away.”

“Oh, shit, she turned away, huh?”

“What now, Jimin?”

“Shush, Joon. Let me think, yeah?”

Jungkook fiddles with the leash like he has a problem clipping it, hoping that maybe you’re going to offer him your help. You don’t. And why would you? He’s an adult after all.

Before Jimin can come up with anything though, the solution to the problem presents itself. It comes in the form of a girl running and tripping right next to Jungkook and him catching her just in time before she can faceplant in the dirt and scrape her knees open.

“Oh, hey, careful here!” Jungkook brings the girl back up on her two feet. She stares at him with big eyes, and he recognises her from the pictures. It’s Siyeon, the seven year old girl you babysit regularly, the reason why you’re spending your afternoon at a playground today. ”You okay?”

“Kook, what’s happening right now?” Namjoon asks.

Siyeon looks at you, and you’re already kneeling beside her, fixing her hair.

“Siyeon, I told you not to run. See, you almost fell now!” You say it the same way a mother would, less strict though. “If he hadn’t caught you, you would have hurt yourself, wouldn’t you have? Now, what do you say?”

“T-thank you,” Siyeon mumbles, and Jungkook isn’t sure if she’s staring at her hands because she’s embarrassed or just about to cry.

“Who’s that? Who are you talking to? Who’s he talking to?”

“Was that a kid?”

“Are you okay?” Jungkook asks Siyeon, ignoring Namjoon and Taehyung to the best of his abilities.

“Y-yes, thank you.” She won’t look at him.

Jungkook smiles. “Well, I’m happy that you didn’t get hurt there.”

“Kook, answer please. Do you need help?”

“Should we interfere?”

Jungkook’s about to snap. Does it seriously sound like he needs help? He’s talking to a seven year old, for fuck’s sake! Sure, he didn’t practise this scenario, but God, he was capable of improvising!

“Thank you. She’s really clumsy,” you say to Jungkook.

“Ah, don’t worry about it. I’m like that too. After all, I let,” he looks down at Gureum and finishes his sentence by gesturing to him and then you. You laugh.

And that’s when Siyeon seems to notice Gureum for the first time, eyes growing big at his sight like she has never seen a dog before. A chance.

“His name’s Gureum. You wanna-”

“Do you think we should go over there? See if he’s okay?”

And with that, Jungkook snaps. Yoongi is going to give him an earful for destroying his oh so precious equipment, but he can’t do this any longer with Jimin, Namjoon and Taehyung in his ear. So in one smooth movement, Jungkook digs out the earpiece and crushes it between his fingers, hiding it in his hand.

“Sorry, a fly, I think,” Jungkook says, swatting at his ear, and before you can think about it, he moves on. “Do you wanna pet Gureum, S- Is it okay if I call you Siyeon?”

Siyeon stares at Jungkook like he can’t believe he just asked her that. It’s probably the first time an adult has asked her for permission to call her by her name, and she seems to appreciate it immensely because she beams at him and gives him a huge nod.

“Okay, Siyeon, do you maybe wanna pet Gureum? He doesn’t bite, I promise.” Jungkook can feel your eyes on him. He’s doing it, charming you!

Siyeon turns to you.

“Can I-?”

You hum. “If Gureum is okay with it-”

Siyeon kneels down. “Hello, Mr Gureum. Sir, can I please pet you?”

Jungkook melts, and so do you.

Receiving no response from Gureum, Siyeon looks back up to you. Jungkook quickly takes his paw and waves. “Hello, Mrs Siyeon, if you promise not to hurt me, you can pet me. I like it especially if humans pet me at the back of my head. Just, please, be nice to me.”

In all of the years he has had Gureum, Jungkook has never tried to imagine what his voice would sound like, but he knows for a fact that he doesn’t sound like a chain smoker. It’s a questionable choice, but he doesn’t regret it. Because not only does it make Siyeon laugh, it also elicits a chuckle from you.

You look at him with a grin. “I don’t think I’ve introduced myself yet, have I?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Jungkook says, and you two rise to your feet when Siyeon starts to pet Gureum and he doesn’t bite her.

“Well,” you stretch out your hand, “I’m Y/N.”

Jungkook swallows the ‘I know’ that wants to slip him and takes your hand. He has to stop himself from bursting with pride, only allowing his smile to grow into a blinding grin.

“Nice to meet you, Y/N,” he says, and he means it. It’s really nice to meet you. “I’m Jungkook.”

coming sunday, may 30th 2021

[aliensunflower-fics]

Marinette Changes Schools: A funny little Lila salt prompt

So, there are a lot of ‘Marinette changes schools’ au’s and I love a whole bunch of them don't get me wrong. BUT the one thing I haven’t seen yet is Marinette changing schools not because of Lila or salt but simply because her parents are moving and they want her to attend a school close to home. So without further ado let me sell you on my little idea: 

Lila has been plotting weeks worth of plans and lies, she’s thought up some sob stories about being stalked, about near death experiences, about celebrities that are like her family. She has plans for Marinette all the ways she could make the girl look bad and all the ways she could force Adrien to see her. That all goes out the window one day when she gets to school and it's a sob fest. There is a clear air of dread and dismay, the blue skies she saw on the way to school replaced with heavy storm clouds. And when she gets to class it's worse. Marinette and Alya are hugging and crying, Adrien looks like he's been shot, Nino and Kim are demanding to know ‘why’ even Chloe looks upset, her blue eyes a little glassy. Lila quickly learns why, Marinette’s parents' business is doing GREAT so great in fact that they have decided to open a second location! The twist? They also decided to move INTO the new location and with it being on the other side of Paris and her parents fears for their daughters safety that means Marinette is moving to a new school!

Now Lila doesn’t even have to school her face into a practiced expression of shock. She genuinely is shocked here she’d been planning months in advance picturing the ways she would destroy her rivals life and steal her friends! And now just like that Marinette is MOVING? Of course Lila quickly decides this is a good thing! After all if Marinette is out of the picture ruling the school will be that much easier. Sure Chloe might be queen bee but with Marinette gone people will be looking to replace her! In walks Lila Rossi, a gorgeous upstart model with a heart of gold and connections coming out of her bangs! She’d rule the school and Adrien would fall for her, then Marinette would probably come crawling back desperate for her old friends only to learn she’d snatched them all up! It was brilliant! And with Marinette gone she could probably do it in record time! So Lila covers up her smirk and says she’s devastated to hear that the twin tailed girl would be leaving and begins plotting.

In the month that follows Lila leaves Marinette alone letting her have her friends for what would be for the last time. After all if everyone still loved the designer when she left they’d be all the more eager to replace her with a new and better version. Of course just because Lila is playing nice doesn’t mean she enjoys it. Alya is practically glued to the girl and ignores Lila even when she’s not trying to sabotage Marinette. Adrien is acting like his life is ending and all anyone will talk about is Marinette. When she checks social media it's all just pictures of ‘old-great times with Marinette’ or new photos and videos of helping the girl pack up and move into her new room, which Lila seethes about for a week when she sees the photos of the spacious luxurious room with a private bath. Apparently the Dupain-Cheng’s new bakery was in a pretty ritzy rich neighborhood. During school Marinette is mobbed by a constant stream of people begging her to stay and when they accept that not happening they all at least beg her to ‘come back and visit’ Marinette promises and Lila has to hide her snort. Fat chance of that actually happening. 

Finally the last day arrives and Lila has to hold back the urge to gag as everyone fills the nearby park giving Marinette gifts and heartfelt goodbyes. Adrien is the last one to offer his gift and Lila seethes as Marinette gingerly opens the box with a gasp and pulls out two brand new pink hair ribbons, and Adrien goes on to say that they’re made of imported silk! SILK, as if the little baker brat deserved silk! The whole exchange is cliche and romantic as Marinette removes her current hair ribbons to tie in the new ones and Adrien ties the old ones around his wrist like some idiot who doesn’t realize what a love struck longing look he's giving his ‘good friend’. But Lila just keeps reminding herself its just a bit longer and sure enough not long after the hideously gooey exchange between Adrien and Marinette is over the designer is leaving with more tears and farewells. FINALLY Lila thinks she can get back to what matters! Ruling her empire.

As it turns out ruling her empire is not what she thinks. For the first month after Marinette leaves all anyone will talk about is the photos she’s posted online. The first week its ALL about HER new school is a private well known academy with uniforms, and isn't Marinette cute in it? And look at her in her custom black kitty thigh highs? Lila wants to scream, but not as much as when she catches Adrien drooling over the photo of said thigh highs and twirling the old nasty hair ribbons around his wrist. The second week its all about the video tour of her new home and school that Marinette sent Alya. Lila glares the whole time as Alya puts the video on the projector at lunch so everyone can see the big new gorgeous bakery and the beautiful house on the second floor and her stupid big bedroom that should belong to someone like herself and not some bratty bakers daughter! By the third week Lila has had enough and fakes some nasty texts from Marinette hoping to speed up the process of helping her classmates move on to HERSELF. It backfires spectacularly with Alya going on the warpath to learn who would dare frame Marinette now that she’s gone. Lila is starting to realize that somehow Marinette has reached a higher level of popularity now that she’s gone. But she reminds herself it won't last forever that in ‘just a little bit longer’ everyone will forget the baker. Right?

A little bit longer. Never happens. Lila asks the girls to hang out that weekend with plans of winning them over with some juicy celeb story? Alya says they all already made plans to hope aboard the train to spend the whole weekend at Marinette’s new place! Lila tries to corner Adrien into a date after a photo shoot. He disappears and all she hears from the workers on set is that he's been looking up some new bakery on the other side of town. [Marinette is suddenly being visited by Chat Noir every other night but she figures she must have moved closer to where his civilian self lives if hes dropping by so much.] She tries to throw a party for the class? They can't. Marinette will be coming out to the park today! With her new school friends!

AH HA! Lila see’s opportunity and decides to tag along. After all if Marinette has new friends Lila can twist it! She’ll whisper about her replacing them all! Make them hate Marinette’s new friends! Fill them with jealousy till they hate Marinette! It's BRILLIANT! And, it fails in less than two minutes, with Alya learning about Aurore being a ballet dancer and the two girls bonding over their mutual love of DANCE?? How the heck was Lila supposed to know Alya had been a champion ballet dancer in her younger years! Then Nino is bonding with some kid named Allen or whatever about classical vs modern music and how to blend the two! And some kid named Claude is joking with Kim, Max, and Alix! And this is definitely not how things were supposed to go!

The worst part is Adrien, who is passive aggressively fighting for Marinette against Kagami AND Felix who are both all too eager to show how ‘close’ they’ve gotten to the baker's daughter while Adrien’s been across the city. Kagami is all to happy to show off that she ALSO bought Marinette some new silk hair ribbons [in a red shade that happens to match her fencing uniform] while Felix eagerly wisks Marinette away the moment Kagami and Adrien are distracted the two fencers find him openly flirting with an oblivious Marinette her hair down because ‘oh felix was nice enough to help me get some leaves out of my hair and said i should leave it like this!’ [while both Kagami and Adrien agree she looks beyond cute they know this means war.] Needless to say Lila didn’t realize that Marinette was that damn popular with men and woman.

The week after the meet up Lila is worn so thin she’s ready to snap. Not only did the class not get jealous but they actually became FRIENDS with all of Marinette’s new buddies and were planning many more meet ups including a paintball war over the baker girl that saturday. Adrien had taken to openly mumbling to himself about changing schools and how he ‘cant believe’ his own flesh and blood would so openly flirt with HIS very good friend! And what was with Kagami showing off how easily she can pick up and carry Marinette? And why did she invite Marinette to watch their next tournament! He needed to train, what if he lost?? In front of Marinette?! And then she thought he was too weak to keep her safe like all good friends are supposed to do! Clearly Kagami was trying to replace him as Marinette’s very good friend! Poor Nino who was sitting next to the boy had actually volunteered to switch with Lila but she came up with a lie to avoid it, she’d had enough of hearing about Marinette from Alya and Juleka and the rest of the girls, she didn’t also need to hear it from Adrien! 

It all comes to a head that Saturday during the paintball tournament when Lila now at her wits end her plans out the window her schemes barely thought out hopes to find something ANYTHING to ruin Marinette’s day and reputation and everything. But Lila just so happens to get completely pelted with paintballs everytime she so much as moves and then later gets ignored when trying to wow Marinette’s new friends, and then gets called out by Felix and Kagami snaps and finally she snaps and SCREAMS and runs off and not even a dark little butterfly comes to help her ruin the perfect day. As it turns out Hawkmoth was a little preoccupied with trying to save his business after all the computers and data involved in his precise scheduling were mysteriously corrupted suddenly freeing up his son's time and schedule so he could spend more with HIS very good friend and no one else's. Kagami and Felix apparently had the same idea as when he gets to her new house their already their doing their best to get on her parents good side.

Basically just give me some comedic, fluffy, Lila salty, Marinette changes school fics. Because I love them ok.

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Take Me Away (TMA) Chapter 12:

A/N: I still am in disbelief that it’s time to release another chapter of this story. I cannot wait for you all to discover the mysteries and secrets that still are hidden the story. 😉❤️

If you missed a chapter, or are looking for a place to start reading, then visit the Series Masterlist! It’s never too late to get caught up on the story.

TW: Islands, oceans, mob mentality, mermaids, MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH(s?), blood, gore, angsty angst like usual ;)

You let go of the woman’s hand as you sit at a table in the kitchen.

“I made breakfast! Eat up.” The red-head places a plate of food in front of you.

“Thanks!” You cheerfully say before eating the food in front of you.

“Do you remember my name, or do you just remember me?” The girl asks suddenly.

“I remember you, and living here with you, but I don’t remember your name.” You shyly admit.

“That’s alright!” She gives you a bright smile despite the sadness in her voice. “I’m Gahyeon!”

“Gahyeon.” You repeat her name out loud. “That’s a beautiful name.”

“Thank you!” She gives you a cheerful smile that immediately lifts your mood.

“The breakfast was really good. Where did you learn to cook?”

“Oh, my parents taught me. It wasn’t hard to learn. I could teach you sometime, if you’d like…” Gahyeon looks away from you with a slight blush on your face.

“I would like that.” You flash her a smile before handing her your empty plate.

“We should get going. I’ve got to tell the village elders about how well you’ve been doing since the accident!” Gahyeon grabs your hand and pulls you out of the chair.

“Oh, okay!” You say as Gahyeon leads you out of your shared home.

~

The beach village that you now live on is much larger than you expected. Small wooden huts like the one you just left line the beach at sporadic intervals, and a big fire pit lies in the middle of all of the houses. A much larger house lies away from most of the houses, and that is where Gahyeon is leading you.

“What am I supposed to say?” You ask as Gahyeon heads inside of the building.

“Absolutely nothing. Let me talk to them.”

~

That didn’t go as horribly as I thought it would’ve.

I might not be the brightest, but I can follow directions.

That’s the truth.

Hey, you’re not supposed to agree with me!

You’re the one who said it in the first place.

Oh, hush!

“Hey, are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Gahyeon says as soon as you both leave the building.

“I’m sorry! I was just thinking about a lot of things.” You mumble.

“Like what?”

“Hmm… besides that meeting, I was thinking about how cute the girl next to me was.” You attempt to flirt with Gahyeon, but she simply folds her arms and pouts.

“What girl? I was the only…” She trails off as the realization hits her. “Ah, my bad! Thank you for the compliment.”

“You’re welcome.” You smirk before walking alongside Gahyeon. “What’s next?”

“Well, we all have a community supper at sunset, and there’s something I want to show you after that. For now, you’re free!”

I wonder what she wants to show me… Oh goodness, I’m having flashbacks from JiU. Please don’t be anything bad! I need to switch the conversation topic, and fast.

“What are your plans?” You stare directly at her.

“Me? Oh, I was just going to do some chores around the house. You’re free to join me if you’re that bored.”

“I don’t have much else to do, so I’ll take you up on that offer!”

~

You quietly wash dishes alongside Gahyeon until she gasps in surprise.

“What is it?” You ask nervously as Gahyeon states at you.

Do I have something on my face? Do I look weird? What’s going on here?

“You’re still wearing the anklet that I made for you!” Gahyeon laughs before continuing to speak. “I might still have mine in my room. Let me go check!”

Gahyeon sets the dish down and runs into her bedroom as you try to understand what happened.

That was not wearing I expected that conservation to go, but it is what it is.

You continue to wash dishes by yourself until Gahyeon charges back into the room.

“Look what I found!” She waves the beaded anklet around in the air. “I knew that I still had this thing around here.”

Without another word, Gahyeon slips the anklet onto her foot before walking over to you.

“Now we’re matching!” Her bright smile makes butterflies swarm in your stomach as Gahyeon picks up and continues to clean the dish she previously abandoned.

I don’t know what that mess was about, but I’m glad that she’s happy. Gahyeon’s smile already makes me so happy and nervous inside. I can’t wait to get to know her as a lover.

That’s a good attitude to have, Y/N. I’m proud of you!

Thank you for supporting me through everything. I couldn’t have done any of this without you.

You’re welcome. Go on and get her, you charmer.

Roger that!

~

You’re surprised by the high quality of the barbecue chicken that you’re eating.

I never thought that chicken could taste this good! I guess I’m so used to the way that the chefs make food at home that I don’t tend to explore foods that much. I should try to incorporate more foods into my diet because this is really good!

“Is everyone on this island an excellent chef?” You ask Gahyeon as she stares at the sunset.

“It’s not like cooking is that hard, Y/N.” Gahyeon teases before you gasp in shock.

“I’ll try to do better next time for the Queen of Food over here.” You tease her back before both of you burst out laughing.

“I wouldn’t mind being your Queen, you know~” Gahyeon wiggles her eyebrows at you which causes you to laugh more.

“How about we meet in the middle at Princess? How does that sound?”

“I don’t know.” Gahyeon shrugs. “You’ll have to properly ask the royal her thoughts on that.”

You roll your eyes as you go along with Gahyeon’s shenanigans.

“Can I call you Princess, Your Highness?” You ask.

“You can call me whatever you’d like, my dearest servant.” Gahyeon winks at you before looking back at the sunset.

“Why do you look at the sun so much?”

“I don’t know….” Gahyeon pauses as she thinks of an answer. “I’m just enjoying my favorite sight with my favorite person.”

You blush as you continue to eat the food in front of you. The two of you fall into a comfortable silence as the town fire pit burns brightly next to the two of you.

~

“Hey, are you done yet?” Gahyeon waves her hand in front of your face as you set your plate aside.

“Yeah. You?”

“I’ve been done for a while. C’mon, it’s late enough that they won’t notice us sneaking off.” Gahyeon gestures to the rest of the villagers who are sitting down and eating.

She gets up before you stand up as well.

“I’ll show you the way in case you don’t remember.”

Gahyeon walks to the left as you follow closely behind her.

I wonder what she wanted to show me… it can’t be anything that bad, right? She trusts me a lot, so this must be something important to her.

“Do you remember playing out here as kids?” Gahyeon looks over at the sea as she walks. “We’d sneak out at night to meet each other here, and we’d play for hours until our parents caught us early in the morning.”

“I wish I did. That sounds like a lovely time.” You sadly mutter as you stare at the beach as well.

This is such a peaceful place. I want to stay here for a while longer, even though I know I can’t stay here forever.

Gahyeon makes a hard right towards the beach.

What is she doing?

“Ah, well… there’s no time like the present right? C’mon, the water won’t bite you!” Gahyeon laughs as she runs out to the coast line.

You smile before following her. You manage to catch her as she dips her toes into the water.

“I wish I was as brave and strong as you are, Y/N. You’re an explorer, just like your parents. It made sense that you wanted to follow in their footsteps. I just wish that you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.” The moonlight brilliantly lights up Gahyeon’s face as she admires the moon.

You can’t help but admire Gahyeon’s side profile as she looks at the sky. Gahyeon’s angel-like features just shine under the moonlight.

She’s beautiful, inside and out. Her soul is just as enchanting as her looks.

“You do remember what happened to your parents, right?” Gahyeon asks with concern in her voice.

“I…” You trail off while looking away from her. “I don’t.”

A single tear runs down Gahyeon’s face as she softly sniffles.

“They got stuck in a bad storm out at sea about five years ago, and no one has seen them since.” Gahyeon wipes the tears from her face with her hand. “I’m sorry that I had to be the one to tell you, Y/N.”

What do I say to that?

“It’s alright.” You place a reassuring hand on her back. “I would rather you tell me than anyone else.”

Tears continue to fall from her eyes as Gahyeon begins to sob. You immediately wrap your arms around her as she wails into your body.

“I’m so sorry, Y/N!” Her muffled cry makes your heart hurt more.

“It’s not your fault, Gahyeon. You couldn’t save my parents, even if you tried. Just breathe and relax. I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere.” You quietly whisper as you gently brush her hair.

“Do you promise?” Gahyeon pulls away from you with tear-filled eyes.

“I do, with all of my heart. I would never leave my princess behind~”

Gahyeon laughs as she wipes the remaining tears away.

“I’m glad that I have you, Y/N; otherwise, I don’t know what I would do.”

Gahyeon grabs your hand and squeezes it as she smiles at you.

“So… do you still want to show me what you were talking about earlier?” You say after a moment of silence.

“Yeah, but I need you to close your eyes. You have to keep your promise too, no matter what you see.”

That’s a bit disheartening, but I don’t think I could hate her at all.

“Got it.” You shut your eyes tightly as you feel Gahyeon drift away from you.

I wonder what she's up to…

An eternity passes before Gahyeon speaks again.

“Okay, you can open them.”

You open your eyes as you gasp at the woman in front of you.

She’s a mermaid!?!?

Her long, fish tail trails behind her as Gahyeon sits in the water a few feet away from you. The blue-green scales on her tail shine in the moonlight as Gahyeon plays with her hair while shyly looking at you.

“...What do you think?” Gahyeon asks after you gawk at her in silence for a few moments.

“I…” You pause for a moment. “I still think you’re the prettiest girl here, with or without legs.”

Gahyeon laughs at your joke while blushing.

“Thank you for being so open, Y/N. I was worried about what you might think.”

“You don’t have to be worried about me. I’ll always support you no matter what.”

You smile at Gahyeon as she beams back at you.

“Really?”

“Really.”

~

Gahyeon continues to be your helpful guide around the beach village as you adapt to a much simpler life. Her smile, laugh, voice, and personality never fail to make you happy as you complete chores and jobs that improve the living conditions of the village. The thing that drives you crazy about Gahyeon, for the most part, is her sweet touches.

Whether she’s guiding your hands while cooking, or if she’s got her hands on your waist while trying to move you out of her way, Gahyeon never fails to make you blush. Her words don’t help you either since she enjoys teasing you so much.

“Ah, Y/N, you’re so red! Do we need to go for a swim to cool you down?”

“It’s cute how you can’t form words whenever I say something sweet to you. I wonder if you’re like that with everyone, or just me…”

“Do you think about the future a lot? Of course you do, since I’m in it! I’m joking, of course… unless you want to make that a reality~”

Although Gahyeon teases you a lot, you’re able to catch her off-guard every once in a while. Her face turns completely red as she tries to come up with something to say.

“Pretty? M-me? You’re too charming for your own good, Y/N.”

“You say too many sweet things, Y/N! Have you had a lot of practicing wooing people? It sure seems like it!”

“You’re so adorable, Y/N. I wish that I could say some of the things that come out of your mouth.”

Teasing between the two of you mostly comes into play while you’re cooking for the two of you.

Today, you decided to wake up early and make breakfast for the two of you. You were cautiously gathering the ingredients you needed until Gahyeon tackled-hugged you like usual.

“Ah, you scared me!” You yell as you hold the flour close to your chest.

“What are you making?” Gahyeon peaks over your shoulder at the ingredients you’ve gathered.

“Just something that I wanted to try to make.” You shrug as you set the flour down on the counter.

“Can I help?”

You’ve never been able to say no to Gahyeon’s pleading eyes, so you sigh heavily.

“Of course. So for this recipe, you’ll need three…”

As a team, the two of you are able to complete the recipe without getting into a huge food fight.

“We did it! Hopefully this food is as sweet as you are~” Gahyeon smirks before laughing.

Here we go again…

“I thought I was the charmer, but I think you’re taking that title for yourself.” You smile as she gazes at the food you’ve made.

“I learn from the best.” Gahyeon winks at you before taking a serving for herself.

You grab some breakfast for yourself before sitting next to Gahyeon.

“Any grand plans today?” You ask her between bites.

“Nothing besides hanging out with you! I don’t know if you would consider that ‘grand’, but I most certainly would.” Gahyeon answers.

“Hanging out with you is always grand, so you could say the same about me.” You say before taking another bite.

“See? You’re still the charming one. I just am able to match you every now and again.”

“Oh really?” You raise an eyebrow at her. “You think you can match me?”

“Are you trying to start something with me?” Gahyeon asks. “If so, you’re on.”

“Okay, the rules are simple. The first one to pull away has to do whatever the winner wants.” You explain as she laughs.

“That’s it? I thought that you’d…” Gahyeon pauses as your face approaches hers.

She blushes heavily before instinctually pulling back.

“I win!” You cheerfully announce before doing a victory dance.

“No fair, you cheated!” Gahyeon accuses as she folds her arms across her chest.

“No I didn’t. I followed the rules, and you failed to. Easy as that.” You confidently state as she huffs.

“Fine. What do I have to do?”

“Kiss me.” You say as her blush grows stronger.

“Wh-What?” Gahyeon stutters as you smirk.

“You heard me.”

Gahyeon nervously sets her fork down before moving her face towards you. You move towards her until your noses touch, but your lips don’t.

“I know you like me, Gahyeon, and I like you too. Just do it.” You whisper as you feel Gahyeon’s warm breath against your cheek.

“Oh, hush.” She mutters before crashing her lips against yours.

You immediately respond by kissing back, and the two of you stay close together until you run out of breath. You break apart from her as Gahyeon tries to catch her breath as well.

“Was that so hard?”

“Sh-shut up, Y/N!”

~

The two of you continued to test the line between lovers and friends as the days and weeks passed you by. It was hard to tell where the two of you stood since Gahyeon would be like a lover indoors, but when you were around other people, she acted like your best friend. You thought about confronting her about this, but you didn’t want to cause issues in your relationship.

I love Gahyeon. I really and truly do love her. I just don’t know how I can tell that to her.

Just tell her. It can’t be that hard, Y/N.

You’re right. I just have to find her first.

You get up from your bed as the moonlight shines brightly through your open window.

Gahyeon said she was going for a swim, but she’s usually home by now. I wonder what’s up with that?

You should look for her. She might need your help.

Might? The way that you say that makes it sound like she will need my help.

Do you think that she needs your help?

Stop confusing me! I’m going to go out and look for her.

Be careful, Y/N. I worry for you.

I know. I’ll be safe, for you and for Gahyeon.

You grab a light jacket as you head out to the coast of the beach. As soon as you exit the house, you can hear shouting from a distance.

Is it Gahyeon? I wonder what’s happening.

You pick up your pace as you quickly walk over to the coast line. You hide behind a large rock as you watch a few men stare at the ocean with spears in their hands.

“I know I saw that damned siren!” One man states.

“I saw it too! That old fool isn’t crazy after all.” Another man gestures to the first man who spoke.

“Shut up! We can’t kill the monster if it knows where we are.” The third man says as he closely inspects the shoreline.

They’re talking about Gahyeon, right? She’s not the monster they think she is. Gahyeon wouldn’t hurt a soul.

After a few moment, a familiar streak of red rises out of the sea. Gahyeon slowly swims towards the men as they fumble with their weapons.

“There’s no need for violence.” She says as she floats a few feet away from them. “I mean no harm.”

“That’s what they all say! We should kill her on sight!” One yells, and the other two cheer.

“Please don’t harm me. I’m not the one who’s trying to harm humans. I’ve been trying to find out who hurts you all too.” Gahyeon pleads. “I just need more time.”

“Oh, all you sirens do is lie.”

“If you think I’m lying, then you can kill me.” Gahyeon simply looks up to the sky after speaking.

Gahyeon, what are you doing? They’re going to kill you! Don’t you have a better defense than that?

“Sounds good to me.”

The three men approach Gahyeon, and you turn around as you’re unable to watch what’s about to happen.

You can hear Gahyeon scream in pain, and you slap your hand over your mouth as tears stream down your face. Your heart thumps painfully against your chest as you hear Gahyeon cry out in pain over and over again.

I’m sorry, Gahyeon. Why couldn’t have this ended different for us?

You hear the three men laugh before their footsteps fade into the distance. You pause for a moment before rushing over to her.

“GAHYEON!” You scream as you look at her bleeding figure.

“Oh, Y/N… you came.” She mutters softly as you sit next to her.

“Why did they hurt you? You wouldn’t hurt anyone!” You yell as you gently place a hand on her face.

“Did I ever tell you how much I love your smile?” Gahyeon weakly says before coughing up blood.

“No, Gahyeon, don’t speak! I can find someone who-”

“No, let me finish.” Gahyeon interrupts you. “I should’ve told you how much I love you. You’re so much better of a person than I ever was.”

“Don’t say that, Gahyeon! You’ll still live, I know it!” You try to plead with Gahyeon.

“It’s alright, Y/N. I just had to tell you how much I loved you before I went.” She mutters as she takes a shallow breath.

“I love you too!” You cry out as Gahyeon takes one final breath before shutting her eyes.

You scream in pure agony as you fall into the salty water. Your eyes burn from the tears falling from your eyes. You let Gahyeon’s body go as you watch her slowly drift farther from you.

She deserves to rest where she truly belonged: in the ocean.

You wash the blood off of your hands as you trudge towards the small house you live in. You don’t care to shut the door as you immediately fall into your bed when you reach your room.

I’m sorry, Y/N. God, I’m so sorry.

My heart is numb. How could someone hurt her like that?

Just rest, Y/N. You’ll feel better in the-

That’s what you always say! You don’t realize that I still remember everything that has happened in previous lives. Will I ever feel better after everything that’s happened? Riddle me that!

I understand you’re upset, Y/N, but you cannot blame me, nor should you blame yourself. Blame the creator of the stones.

How am I supposed to know who created the stones?

You should ask the person who gave you the stones.

The seamstress?

Exactly.

You let the tears continue to fall from your face as you slowly drift into a fragile sleep.

Gahyeon deserved better than me and this world that we met in.

[mp100fanworkstranslation]

A Mixup in the Timeline: Part 2

Part 1 here

By FlamingoJump

Caption: The Situation with the 14 year olds

Smol! Reigen: Hey! Why did you call me master earlier? Where you come from, am I your master? 

Smol! Mob: Ah... Yes! He’s my master.... He taught me a lot of important things.  Smol! Reigen thinks: He’s sitting too close

Smol! Reigen: Ha ha Wow that’s amazing. Your world’s version of me sounds so cool! Aren’t we the same age here though?   Calling me master is so formal and weird, why don’t you just call me by my first name? 

Smol! Mob: uhh

Smol! Reigen: Well, my last name is pretty uncommon, and here I don’t have any friends that I’m close enough to to call me by my first name except Mob. Only my parents call me Arataka. 

ah, and I also have a sister, but she usually doesn’t call me by my name. Reigen’s sister: Hey! Asshole! those were MY snacks!  Reigen: Mom! sister is trying to kill me again! Mob thinks: Use Master’s first name? 

Smol Mob thinks: I’ve never called Master by his first name before. In this case his last name would be most appropriate. Isn’t using his first name inappropriately familiar? It feels so uncomfortable.

Smol Mob thinks: But this place is not the same as my world. Maybe calling Master by his first name is okay? I don’t know when things will go back to normal, and I can call him normally again.

Smol!Mob: ........A...Ara 

Smol!Mob: Arataka!  Sfx: Bite! Caption: It’s going to be hard for him to break the habit of calling him Master. Smol!Reigen: Hey, did you bite your tongue? 

Caption: The Situation with the 28 year olds

Reigen:....... It’s as I suspected. If we look at it this way, it make sense. The same people from a parallel world are now switched. 

The common link is Mob’s psychic powers. In fact, this is probably a manifestation of the original Mob’s psychic powers. 

Reigen: If that is so, then the party who initiated the crossover would be privy to the most relevant information. 

Reigen looks up and the chair is empty Reigen: Eh? Where is he? Mob: Eh? Reigen flinches Reigen thinks: WHY IS HE SO CLOSE??!?

Mob: Ah... (he pulls back a bit)

My apologies, I keep thinking that you and the Arataka from my world are similar, so delicate, easily hurt and in need of protection. That’s why I’ve been keeping my eye on you. It’s a force of habit.  Reigen is pissed that he’s just been called delicate Reigen: What did you say! That is beyond disrespectful!!  Oh! And another thing. You cannot keep calling me Arataka.  Mob: ??? Are you not Arataka?   Reigen: Excuse me. You should not be calling me by my first name. It’s inappropriate.

Reigen: It’s not my place to comment on the nature of your relationship, but you, and the me from your world are way too inappropriately close.

Mob:..... Is what we call each other..... really that important? Caption: Mob doesn’t think using polite form is very important.  He’s willing to switch to using more polite form if Arataka wants

Reigen quivers: ...... n...no  (He’s intimidated) Caption: But Reigen has only met him for 30 mins and doesnt quite understand. 

[roseworth]

Shadows of the Moon

word count: 4.6k

summary: Prince Eugene of the Dark Kingdom never had anyone there for him growing up. When one of the knights has a child, he takes it upon himself to always be there for him. The two of them grow up like brothers, and they find a connection to a "normal" life through each other.

note: for Eugene Appreciation Week 🥰

AO3

When Prince Eugene first heard that one of the Brotherhood Knights was going to be a father, he was far from excited. Having a baby in the castle didn’t seem ideal to him. All it meant was that there was going to be some snotty little blob crying and making messes all the time.

But when Quirin introduced baby Varian to him, Eugene immediately felt a connection to the child. As crazy as the kingdom was sometimes, he felt calm knowing that there was someone he could connect with. They weren’t technically related, but the Prince immediately saw the child as a little brother, and silently swore he would do everything in his power to make him feel safe.

Of course, there wasn’t much a ten-year-old could do to help an infant. Eugene decided he would leave the protection to Varian’s parents, and he and Varian could just be each other’s connection to normalcy.

When Eugene was bored, he liked to go into Varian’s nursery and read him Flynnigan Rider stories. He was pretty sure the baby didn’t understand a word he was saying, but he still liked the audience. Besides, Varian would babble along when Eugene got to an exciting part of the story, so maybe he was entertained by it.

“The monster tried to sniff out Rider’s scent among the forest, hunting for his next catch. The rogue was unphased, of course, and ducked into a cave to hide from the beast,” Eugene read, adding in dramatic movements as he read. Varian gurgled from his crib, and Eugene smiled.

“That’s not even the best part!” he said. “Once the terrifying monster left, Rider ventured deeper into the cave to find more gold than he had ever seen!”

Varian gasped and flailed his arms. Eugene grinned. He stood up and leaned in closer to the crib. “And of course, there was the time Flynn ran from the ferocious mob! He launched himself up and onto a dragon... . ” He lifted Varian up and onto his shoulders. He made sure to hold the kid tightly so he wouldn’t fall, then ran around the room as he squealed in delight. “And he rode the dragon for miles until he was back home!” Varian babbled and stuck his arms up from his place on Eugene’s shoulders. Eugene spun around, then lifted him off his shoulders and back into the crib. Varian was bouncing excitedly, babbling nonsense with a smile on his face.

Eugene beamed down at him. Even though Varian was only 6 months old, spending time with him was the best part of the day. The kid was a bright light in the middle of the Dark Kingdom.

~

By the time Varian turned 1, everyone in the castle had all but accepted that he and Eugene had a connection. Eugene had spent years growing up with no other kids in the castle, but now he finally felt like he had a little brother. The two were inseparable, much to the annoyance of some.

“Your Highness,” Hector grumbled. “You can’t continue to do things like this. You’re royalty, you can’t constantly be up to these… things.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the young prince said. Hector pointed at the child on Eugene’s shoulders, who was tugging on his hair and causing it to skew in every direction. “Oh him? He’s just my new advisor, he has to be with me at all times.”

Hector ran his hand down his face. “He’s a one-year-old, he’s not your advisor.’

“Oh yeah? Let’s see what my advisor has to say about that. Varian?”

Varian yelped and kicked his legs, making noises for a few seconds while Eugene listened intently, nodding along as if he was reciting important proverbs. “Go!” Varian said, reaching his arms forward.

“Well, you heard my advisor,” Eugene shrugged. “Maybe next time, Hector.” He grabbed onto Varian’s legs and dashed down the hallway, leaving Hector to regret his career choice. He heard the knight mutter something under his breath about how he couldn’t wait until the prince grew tired of spending all his time with a child, but Eugene ignored him.

~

Once Varian learned to walk and talk in full sentences, Eugene thought it was even more fun to spend time with him. He was full of energy, unlike everyone else he had to interact with in the kingdom. Everyone always acted like life was a burden they were forced to bear, but Eugene wanted to stay young and full of life forever.

The only problem was that once Eugene was 14, there were even more expectations put on him as the prince. He was told to conduct himself properly at all times, and he couldn’t get away with the excuse of being a kid anymore. He was called into his father’s office one day and was met with his usual cold gaze.

“The King and Queen of Corona will be visiting today, so I expect you to be on your best behavior,” Edmund said. He was sitting at his desk, his back straightened and his chin held high. Eugene stood on the other side of the desk, feeling uncomfortably still.

Eugene nodded. “Got it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not going to embarrass us in front of our visitors?”

“No.”

Edmund looked his son up and down. “Good. They’ll be here in two hours, make sure you’re ready.”

Eugene nodded again, then turned around and left his father’s office. He sighed quietly after shutting the door, glancing back at the room. Ever since Eugene’s mom died, Edmund was never sure how to talk to his son, and every conversation made that clear. He felt like he had been raised by knights and maids, and every interaction with his father was like a formal business transaction.

He had barely taken 2 steps away from the room before Varian, ever the bundle of energy, ran up to him with a huge grin on his face. “Eugene!” he called out. “Wanna play Flynnigan Rider?”

The prince frowned. “I can’t, we have guests coming in a couple of hours and I just told my father I would be on my best behavior.”

Varian blinked. “Well, the guests aren’t here yet.” Eugene hesitated, and Varian stepped closer and gave his best “kicked puppy” eyes. “ Pleeeeease?”

“Fine,” he said with a grin. “But only for a bit, okay?”

“Okay!” the boy said brightly, then dashed away, gesturing for Eugene to follow him.

They grabbed wooden swords and started reenacting their favorite scenes from the Flynn Rider books. Time started to get away from them; it could have been 10 minutes or 10 hours and they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

“I’ve got you surrounded, Rider!” Eugene bellowed, pointing his sword at Varian as they chased each other down the halls of the castle.

“Ah, I see your point ,” Varian said. "But you'll have to try harder than that!" He ducked under the sword and slid under Eugene’s legs, making his escape.

“You’re not getting away that easily!” he yelled. He chased after the kid, and Varian screeched happily as he ran away.

“Get back, foul beast!” he yelled. Eugene grabbed him by the torso and lifted him up as both of them dissolved into giggles.

“I’ve got you now, Flynnigan!” Eugene said.

“That’s what you think!” Varian replied, trying to squirm out of the older boy’s grasp and knocking them both onto the floor. They wrestled on the ground between giggles until Varian managed to slip out and dash away.

Eugene lifted himself to his feet and tried to chase after the boy before almost colliding with someone else. His entire body tensed as he met eyes with the Queen of Corona, who had been there and had seen him playing with a 5-year-old.

“Your Majesty, hi, um, sorry,” he mumbled, dusting himself off. He was pretty sure his father would have a heart attack if he had seen the way Eugene was conducting himself. “Uh, welcome to the kingdom?”

Much to Eugene’s surprise, the Queen just smiled warmly at him. “Your hair got a little messed up,” she said simply, reaching out to fix it.

“Uh…”

“No need to make your father think there’s a problem here, right?” she added with a wink. Eugene chuckled nervously.

If he had learned one thing from his father, it was how to read someone from their eyes. The Queen had an amused look on her face, but her eyes looked sad. “Are you alright?” he asked carefully.

She smiled again and looked down, waving her arms dismissively. “I’m fine, I just… I’ve always wanted a kid. And seeing you two made me think...” she trailed off, then cleared her throat uncomfortably.

His heart sunk. He remembered hearing about what happened to the Princess of Corona years ago. The Queen had lost a daughter, he couldn’t blame her for being sad. “I-I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I know how you feel, my mom…”

The Queen shook her head and put her hand on his shoulders. “It’s okay, there’s no need for all that.”

He looked up and smiled at her. The sound of quick footsteps broke their moment, and Varian appeared beside them seconds later. “Eugene- oh. Hi,” he said, looking up at the Queen with wide eyes.

“Varian, this is Queen Arianna of Corona,” Eugene said. The Queen waved down at him, and Varian waved back.

“Hi, Varian, you’re Quirin’s son, right?” she said. Eugene was a little surprised that she knew the names of the knights of the Dark Kingdom, but it made sense that she would be kind and attentive enough to know everyone. “I’m about to go see him, would you like to come with me?”

Varian nodded, and the Queen bent down to pick him up. Varian welcomed it, wrapping his arms around her neck as she rested him against her hip. “Bye, Eugene!” Varian waved. Eugene waved back.

The Queen met Eugene’s eye and smiled softly. “I’m supposed to be seeing the royal family of the Dark Kingdom for the first time today in five minutes, I will see you then,” she said with a short nod. Eugene smiled back at her, and she turned to walk away.

~

Eugene knew that not everyone would be as understanding of his and Varian’s games as Queen Arianna was. Over the next few years, the two of them would make sure to only pull their dumb shenanigans when no one important was around.

Besides, everyone was saying Eugene was too old to be doing that kind of thing. What they didn’t understand was that he was doing his best to give Varian a normal childhood. Neither of them got to experience true “normal,” but the least Eugene could do was make sure the kid was happy despite everything.

As Eugene grew up, he was expected to learn more about the kingdom. By the time he was 18 years old, he had gotten sick of hearing about the history of kingdom tragedies, mostly regarding the Moonstone.

“One of these days, you’re going to be king. You have to be prepared for whatever the Moonstone will do,” Edmund told him. Eugene glanced at the perpetually-closed door of the chamber holding the Moonstone.

“Why don’t we just destroy it?” he asked. His father narrowed his eyes, and he swore he could hear the Moonstone buzzing louder than it was before.

“Generations of your ancestors have tried and failed to destroy it. Now we simply leave it alone and smooth over the disasters as best we can. That’s all we can do, end of discussion.”

Eugene watched Edmund walk away, holding his head high like a king. Once he was out of earshot, he groaned to himself and kicked the door. Stupid Moonstone, causing problems all over the kingdom. And his father wouldn’t even think about finding a solution to the problem. Why did he insist on ignoring it?

“Eugene!” Varian yelled as he scurried toward him, snapping Eugene out of his thoughts. “Check this out!”

The boy had gotten a chemistry kit for his ninth birthday and was spending all his time with it. He had a new fascination with everything about science, and Eugene couldn’t believe he was having trouble keeping up with a nine-year-old.

Varian poured one chemical into another, and it fizzled then turned blue. Eugene watched it carefully, waiting for something to happen, but nothing else came. He looked up at Varian, who had a huge grin on his face and was looking expectantly at Eugene. “Oh, uh, cool! Your experiments are really coming along, Var.”

He beamed, practically bouncing up and down with excitement over his chemicals. “Adding one compound into another completely changes the components of the element! Isn’t that cool?”

“Sure!”

Varian rambled about his chemicals for a bit longer as Eugene tried his best to listen, then the kid suddenly stopped himself. “What’s that buzzing sound?”

“I think it’s the Moonstone,” Eugene shrugged. “It just got louder while I was talking to my dad.”

Varian’s eyes widened excitedly. “Let’s check it out!” He strutted towards the door and put his hand on the handle, almost opening it before Eugene grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back.

“Hold it, kiddo. We can’t go in there, it’s dangerous, remember?”

“All the Moonstone ever does is sit there, why is it so dangerous to go in?”

Eugene paused, then shrugged. “It just is, I don’t know. Either way, there’s probably nothing interesting in there.”

Varian scrunched up his face at the door. Eugene could tell he wanted to go in, and honestly, he wanted to too. But he knew that it wasn’t worth the trouble they would get in if they went in. “Hey, how about we check out some more of your chemicals? I’m sure there’s plenty of things you haven’t combined yet, right?” he suggested.

Varian brightened back up and nodded. “Yeah! You’re right, there’s a lot more science to discover!” he said, taking Eugene’s arm and dragging him towards the door, the Moonstone completely forgotten about.

If the Moonstone was as dangerous as his father suggested, there was no way Eugene was letting Varian anywhere near it. It was not worth the risk of him getting hurt. He had sworn to himself years ago that he would protect the kid with everything he had, and no magic rock was going to change that.

~

Eugene was 24 when the rocks started appearing everywhere. Black rocks had been common his whole life, but it was getting much worse. Homes were being destroyed left and right, and no one could stop them.

He didn’t know if he could sit through another meeting where everyone’s only solution was to relocate civilians. He wanted to scream that these were all temporary solutions, and they needed to find a way to stop the rocks instead of relocating people every other day.

“You’re relocating people again ?” Eugene yelled as he threw open the door of his father’s office.

Edmund’s hardened gaze fell on him. “I know you want to find another way, but I’ve told you there is no other way. These are the kind of decisions you’ll have to make when you’re king,” he said simply.

“But there has to be something else to do! Why aren’t we finding the root of the problem?”

“We already know that the root of the problem is the Moonstone, but there’s just nothing to do about it.”

“‘Nothing to do about it’?” he shouted, slamming his hand on the desk in front of him. “You won’t even try to do anything about it!”

“There’s nothing to be done!” Edmund shouted back, standing up to meet his son’s eye level. “I’ve told you time and time again that the Moonstone cannot be destroyed!”

“How could you possibly know that? You won’t even let me get close to it!”

“Because I won’t lose you the same way I lost your mother!”

Eugene’s mouth immediately snapped shut. He stared into his father’s eyes. He looked… lost. But that didn’t stop Eugene’s heart from racing as thoughts ran back and forth in his head. His face felt numb, and he couldn’t form the words that were on the tip of his tongue. Edmund sighed to break the silence and sat back down. “I just want to protect us, son.”

“What do you mean by that?” he asked quietly when he found his voice. “You said she died of a sickness.”

Edmund shook his head. “She didn’t. She tried to destroy the Moonstone, and… the Moonstone had other ideas.”

“The Moonstone killed her,” Eugene whispered. His hands tightened into fists and his eyes were trained on the floor. His nails were digging into the palm of his hand, but he didn’t even notice.

“Yes,” Edmund said weakly.

“And you never told me? You didn’t think I would want to know how my mother died?” he spat, his voice slowly rising.

“I couldn’t tell you the truth about the Moonstone, I just needed you to know it’s dangerous . ”

“You couldn’t tell me the truth. You let me believe a lie for years because you ‘couldn’t tell me the truth.’”

“Son, I’m not the bad guy in this story, you know that.”

“Don’t call me son,” Eugene said coldly. “What have you ever done to be able to call me your son?”

He didn’t bother letting him answer. He practically ran out of the room and stormed as far away as he could from the king. He didn’t know where his feet were taking him, he just knew he had to get as far from that office as possible.

He slowly came up with an idea as he marched down the hallways of the castle. He threw open the door to the room he had gone to countless times and walked in. Varian jumped as the door to his lab was slammed open. “Hey, Eugene. You look… unhappy.”

“Yeah,” he grumbled. “You want to go see the Moonstone?”

Varian blinked in surprise. “Really? What about your dad?”

“I don’t care what he thinks. Are you in or not?”

Varian bit his lip, waiting for some kind of explanation. Eugene was breathing heavily, and he had anger etched into every corner of his face. Varian wasn’t sure what to do, but he knew from his expression that Eugene was about to do something dumb, and Varian took it upon himself to make sure he didn’t. “Okay, I’m in.”

“Good.” Eugene grabbed the boy’s arm and practically dragged him away from the lab. Varian tripped over his feet to try to keep up with the determined prince, but Eugene paid no attention to him. His only focus was getting to the Moonstone.

“So, uh, why the change of heart?” Varian asked.

“He’s been lying to me about everything. Now I don’t care what he wants for me, I’m seeing this Stone even if it kills me.”

Varian frowned. “...is it going to kill you?”

“Maybe. Probably not, though.”

Varian was about to object when they arrived at the door of the Moonstone Chamber. Eugene looked at the door with a sense of determination he had never felt before. Without another word, he threw open the doors and came face to face with the Moonstone. He stepped in, not checking to see if Varian was still behind him.

He was still behind, of course. He didn’t want Eugene to go in alone. Not to mention, he had wanted to see the Moonstone for years, too. It had always been forbidden for them to go into the Moonstone Chamber alone, so neither of them ever got the chance to get a good look at it. He looked at the rock in question, glowing softly from its black cage.

Now that they were in the Chamber, they had no idea what they were doing anymore. They had heard the horror stories about the Moonstone, but it didn’t look that scary. It was just floating there. Varian had half-expected it to be a giant murder machine, but it was just a tiny gem.

Eugene took a step closer, and the light it was emitting got subtly brighter. He stopped in his tracks, looking at the Stone.

This was the last thing his mom ever saw. He wondered if the Moonstone was glowing as softly and quietly as it was now, or if it was more… dramatic . It just seemed sad now. He stood still for a moment and watched the Moonstone floating alone in the cage.

“Eugene?” Varian said softly. Eugene turned around and looked back at Varian.

“That’s all I needed,” he said, walking back to the door. He pushed it open and walked out of the Moonstone Chamber.

Varian trailed behind him, his eyebrows knit together as he watched the prince. “Are you okay?”

Eugene paused, then nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get back to your lab, you said you’re working on something cool, right? Flynnoleum?”

“Yeah,” Varian said slowly, not wanting to change the subject so quickly. But clearly, his friend didn’t want to talk about this now. “Yeah, if it works right, I can get hot running water to the whole kingdom.”

“Cool,” Eugene responded, his voice barely steady. “Let’s go check it out.”

~

Ever since that day, everything was the same, but nothing was the same.

They both went back to their lives like usual. Eugene continued to go to meetings to learn about the problems in the kingdom, and Varian continued to work on his experiments. Eugene still spent all his free time in Varian’s lab, watching the kid performing experiments that Eugene didn’t entirely understand. All he did to make himself useful was pass beakers when he was told to. Just like before.

But there was still a weight on both of their shoulders as if something had changed. They learned more about the tragedies of the Moonstone, and they finally understood the burdens their kingdom had borne for centuries. They were each other’s lifeboats in the chaos of what Eugene not-so-lovingly called “The Disaster Kingdom.”

It had been 2 years since they had first visited the Moonstone together, and things had only gotten worse in the kingdom. More rocks were devastating the citizens’ lives every day and no one could stop it. Eugene stopped trying to find solutions, and instead went out and helped as many people as he could in the relocations.

He stayed distant from his father. They talked when they had to, but never more than that. He didn’t mind, though. He had never had a close relationship with Edmund before, at least now they both finally had an excuse.

But one day, everything changed.

Varian knew something was wrong when Eugene didn’t come to visit his lab at the end of the day. He searched through the castle to look for some sign of where the prince went.

His heart dropped when he saw the door of the Moonstone Chamber was standing ajar. He poked his head in to see Eugene standing on the walkway. He was staring at the stone with Adira’s Shadowblade gripped tightly in his right hand.

“Eugene?”

He didn’t turn around to face Varian. He didn’t move at all. “Someone died today.”

“What?”

“Someone died today,” he said again. “A rock shot up into their home and killed her.”

“Oh,” Varian said quietly. “Was it someone you knew?”

“No, but it was someone with a home and a family. And now she’s gone, and her family doesn’t have her anymore. All because of the Moonstone.”

Varian fell silent and looked at the Moonstone. He could have sworn it was glowing brighter than it was last time he saw it.

“I’m going to destroy it.”

Varian’s eyes widened. “You can’t! It’ll kill you!”

Eugene made a noise that sounded like a half-laugh, half-scoff. “It’ll kill me? Just like it’s done to everyone else for the entire history of the kingdom?” he said bitterly. The Moonstone began to hum louder at his words. “It’s already killing people. I’m done just sitting back and hoping it’ll stop.”

“Eugene, there’s got to be a better way to help everyone than walking into death!”

“If you know a better way, I’m all ears! But as far as I can tell, no one can do anything. And apparently, I’m the only one that cares.”

“I care too! I just don’t want to lose you like this.”

Eugene’s shoulders tensed for a moment then fell back down. “That’s not my problem.” He took a step closer to the Moonstone, and it started to shine even brighter.

“Isn’t this the exact same thing that killed your mom?” Varian shouted.

That made him stop. Eugene finally turned around, his eyes narrowed and his hands shaking. He raised the sword at his side and pointed it directly at Varian. “Don’t you dare talk about my mother,” he hissed. Behind him, the Moonstone shot out a burst of light. “You don’t know anything about her.”

“I know enough to know that this could kill you!”

“It doesn’t matter, as long as I can destroy this stupid rock.”

He turned back around and continued his walk towards the Moonstone. It glowed harsher with every step he took, the light almost blinding by the time he was right next to it. Varian’s lip quivered as he watched the closest thing he ever had to a brother drawing his sword and holding it above his head.

“Eugene, wait!” he cried out. Eugene snapped his head to glare at Varian. The kid cleared his throat and took a hesitant step forward. “I… I love you. You’ve always been like family to me, and I- I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Eugene’s face softened, and so did the light emitting from the Moonstone. He slowly lowered the sword to give his full attention to Varian. “Kid, I’m-”

Before he could finish the thought, the Moonstone shot up from the cage like an arrow and floated in midair for a split second. The next thing he knew, it flew to Eugene’s chest, causing him to gasp and fall backward.

“Eugene!”

“Stay back!”

He clutched his chest and tried to claw it away to no avail. It dug deeper in his chest, and he folded in on himself. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly to distract from the burning the Stone was causing as it embedded itself into his skin. He felt Varian’s hand on his shoulder, but he pushed him away. He held his hand out to force the kid to keep a distance. He had no idea what was about to happen, and he didn’t know what he would do if Varian got hurt.

He felt extremely dizzy and his ears were rushing. His eyes were still shut and he couldn’t hear a thing, all he knew was that the Moonstone was searing his chest. He had no idea what was going on around him or to him. It felt like hours, but it couldn’t have been much longer than a minute.

Is this what his mom felt like right before she died?

A rock shot up right next to him, and he reached out to lean on it, desperately trying to catch his breath. The pain was starting to subside and he opened his eyes slowly. He blinked a few times as Varian came into focus in front of him. The kid’s face looked horror-stricken, but thankfully he seemed unscathed. “Kid?”

“You- your- you look-” Varian stuttered.

Eugene looked down and saw that the clothes he had been wearing had been replaced with pitch-black armor made from the rocks, with spikes protruding from the shoulders. The Moonstone had settled into place on his chest. His hair was pitch black, too, the same color as the black rocks across the kingdom.

“Well, that’s… new.”

[c4rdsharp]

JULES UPHAM. ( @closedcoffins )

“Um–?! Hello, Mr. Gandor.” The greeting comes out half-surprised, like he wasn’t expecting to see the man in his own jazz hall. It really goes to show how disconnected from this side of danger Jules really is; the sorts of people with too much money and power for their own good on the legitimate business side of things would never be seen in their own lowly establishments. His own parents had been that sort of people.

The world of the mob really is different… Or maybe it’s just this one that’s strange. Kate had said the Gandor family was a little different from the average crime family, but it’s not like Jules has any point for comparison besides the Lemures, which had been their own beast entirely.

Either way, if it’s like this, he’s even more nervous. He’d been prepared for there to at least be a middle-man to talk to.

“I— Mrs. Kate sent me here. Kate Gandor. To ask about working at your jazz hall…” He anxiously glances around the room, even more unnerved to find that it’s mostly empty save for a few people whose general body language suggests they’re either regulars or affiliated with the family completely—but that’s just based on his own experience working in restaurants. It’s true that he trusts Kate, but he feels like she must be a little biased. This man in front of him… It’s Luck Gandor, he’s absolutely certain, based on Kate’s description and the few pictures of her or her husband that had included the rest of the family.

I knew Keith was terrifying because I’ve met him before, but this guy… Are they all like that? I guess it makes sense… They wouldn’t be effective in the underground if they weren’t at least a little intimidating, but… Even Chané had never felt quite like that. I feel like he’s already scrutinizing me more than most people tend to. But then again, most people don’t even look twice at me.

“She’s been teaching me piano for a couple of years now and I mentioned needing more money, so she directed me this way. I’m not, ah, sure what she really expected out of it.” It’s not like Jules hasn’t had work experience before, but that was as a busboy, not a pianist. Even though he knows he’s pretty good at it, it’s hard not to be nervous, especially since he doesn’t even know what he’s doing in terms of getting hired in the first place. “Oh, I’m J— Upham. Most people just call me Upham.”

It’s not like me to slip up that easily. I guess it’s just that look he’s giving me. It’s terrifying, and that makes it difficult to withhold important things. But I really can’t give my name out so casually. I don’t think Luck himself would do anything with the information, because Kate and Keith both know, but I don’t know enough about the rest of the people here to know they don’t have any connection to the Lemures or to Huey Laforet in general. Upham alone is a common enough last name, but if someone heard both…

Perhaps, in other crime families, there would be a middleman. However, other crime families don't have a Luck Gandor. Keith & Berga may have been satisfied enough to let someone else deal with the small, menial tasks, but Luck never was. It wasn't so much a lack of trust as it was a necessity. If someone were to be working with the Family, regardless of what position they would be placed in, it was imperative for Luck to know the ins - and - outs of who was in their establishments and what their role was for being there. Not only that, but it tended to keep all those in line. It saved the Gandors a fair bit of trouble when others realized they were being watched. It wasn't as if Luck was expecting anything of the sort from Upham. Kate has spoken to him beforehand during dinner of an up - and - coming piano player who had expressed an interest in working for the Gandors. Or, well, no. Not for the Gandors, but for the Coraggioso. Not that the difference was particularly stark -- it was simply not all employees were affiliated with the crime side of the family. Which was all well and good. Not everyone had the stomach for it. Of course, no one had the stomach to work on empty either. So, it wasn't as if they could really be picky on who their employers were anyway. Most people were willing to turn a blind eye to sordid affairs when it brought them food on their tables. And, Mr. Upham seemed like that sort of person. Nervous, fidgety. His eyes were going about every which way, seeming to avoid contact with Luck's own. All the telltale signs of someone unused to criminal affairs. No . . . perhaps, someone who just knows what they simply entail. There were nervous criminals just as much as there were nervous civilians. However, in Luck's experience, nervous criminals tend to not get very far in their careers -- either poor by their own incompetence or dead by their own mistakes. Considering Mr. Upham was here for employment and was clearly still very much alive . . . he was probably not that much of a worry. Luck didn't let up his scrutiny, though. Although he didn't expect normal employees to have the steel will of his men, being a part of Coraggioso staff was not for the faint of heart. If the young man was to play here, he'd better get used to the way things are. He shouldn't expect safety just because he wouldn't have involvement in their shadowy affairs. It was usually those who least deserved it that find themselves at the end of a gang conflict. However, Luck was kind enough ( if you could call it a kindness ) to grant Upham a polite smile. He held out a hand, calm and certain. " a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Upham. call me Mr. Luck, if you could. i understand you're only following proper etiquette, but seeing as how there's three of us, it tends to get awfully confusing. If you're to refer to one of us as Mr. Gandor, best it be my eldest brother. " He firmly shook Mr. Upham's hand, and took his own away, placing it once more behind his back. " and, don't be nervous. i assure you, Mrs. Kate has given me an already glowing recommendation for you. there shouldn't be too much trouble with your employment. however, for the sake of formality, i think it imperative to ask you a few questions, no? and, perhaps, a private showing of your piano work? I do not doubt your skill, of course, but we are a jazz hall. i'd be remiss to not at least ensure the musicians we hire are up to the task. " Luck spoke kindly enough. There wasn't any sort of warmth in his voice that would put Upham at ease, but the sharp edge Luck reserved for his underground affairs was notably missing. He wanted neither comfort nor fear from his prospective employee -- just steel and resolve. Luck's eyes remained unwavering.

[lovemxnot]

Worth the burn | Hwang Hyunjin

Firebender! Hyunjin x Avatar! Reader

Letters burned the scroll in your hand, reassuring words etched on them, scorching their presences into it.

“The city is great, they greeted me with much fanfare, and I’ve been having fun with Hyunjin and the others, like old times.

I feel more like myself than ever. Don't worry about me, mom and dad, I'm fine. I feel like I'm truly, finally healing.”

A pang of guilt surged through you, but you shoved it away, ignoring its lingering presence. Sealing the envelope, you gave it to the man standing impatiently next to you.

“The fire nation, I’m assuming?” He sighed, Referring to all the past letters you have sent.

“Wouldn’t bet otherwise.”

You were healing, perhaps not the same way you had mentioned in all of your letters, filled with nothing but the pure lies, but you were searching for a way- a way to forget, forgive, and move past what was done to you.

Forgiveness never came easy to you. Everyone around you pestered you into accepting the situation that you may never be the same avatar you used to be. But they had no idea what you were going through; no one did- after all, you were the only avatar alive.

It was humiliating how every day, you got up to move only for your legs to fail you despite daily visits to the most skilled healers.

At one point, you had hope, you could feel your legs again, and day by day, you were getting better until eventually, you learned how to walk again, but it all crashed once you tried combating and could barely throw a punch without images flashing, looming shadows engulfing your vision, sending you straight back square one, flashbacks so strikingly vivid it made you quiver down in terror. You were so ashamed, felt so weak and... helpless. How the once-great avatar’s mind turned against her becoming her gravest nightmare.

But You’ve had enough of wallowing in self-pity. You left your parent’s home, leaving the fire nation to sail to republic city, the city where your nightmare was born, the city where your friends reside, in hopes of confronting your fears and healing. And that was truly your plan, but it went astray.

“The match starts in five minutes, move to the ring,” the announcer reminded you.

You pulled yourself out of your head, wrapping the bandages tighter on your hands. Getting ready for your next match. You can feel the ground shake. The roars of the people at the stands pump your blood.

Today’s opponent was a new one. Never heard of it before; fresh meat. New to the game, alas, putting you at a disadvantage as you knew nothing of them or their bending element. Hopefully, it's not another lava bender. Those injuries of that fight alone had another nightmare simmering in the process.

And although you've mastered all four elements, you choose to fight with the one you were naturally born with-fire.

You stood behind the metal door, secluding you from the ring, hands going up to position, feet grounded, breathing in, then out. It wasn’t your first match, but it always feels like it is, no matter how many times you tried to nerve up.

As soon as the bell sounded, the doors slid open you shot a belt of fire to where you knew your opponent stood. Hoping to catch them by surprise.

Your opponent, on the other hand, skillfully blocked your advances while remaining idle in his place, silky red hood up- the signature of the fire nation, hair covering his eyes, shadowes concealing most of his face.

“What's wrong pretty boy? Afraid to fight?” You baited. The crowd's yelling got louder. They loved it when opponents ridicule each other. You surged another blast of fire their way, but they, once again, blocked it as if they already knew your next move.

“Come on, you know you gotta use your hands to fight, right?”

Nothing.

“Here, let me help” you looped a hoop of fire around their hands - or at least tried to before they counterfeited the attack and sent you flying. Body slamming the jagged wall with a thack that pales compared to thunder. But you were used to it by now.

“Alright, now you want to play, pretty boy? "

Using the tiniest amount of airforce, you air bended your way to them faster than they could blink and attacked. But all you were met with was hands blocking your every move.

Their movements were so familiar to you, you obstructed all of their attacks just as well as they blocked yours. It was more of a dance than a fight at this point, every move mirroring the others.

There was only one person that knew you that well. and oh god, did you wish you were wrong about this.

The red streak you glimpsed on his cheek supported your thoughts even more. There was only one person you knew that had that scar. A harsh exhale - laced with a little bit of airbending- blew his hood off, revealing what you wished was not true.

The tiny breeze blew his dark locks out of his face. Giving you a glimpse of his face.

No.

No. No way.

You knew those dark locks. You've run your hands through them enough times to know how they feel even without touching them.

"Hello Y/N"

“Hyunjin...? what are u doing here?!” You knew someday you might run into one of the figures of your past. It was inevitable after all, but not this soon and definitely not him.

“Why, when I heard the avatars look-alike was fighting in underground battles of the lower rinks of basingse I just had to come and get a glimpse myself!” Mockery slid fluidly through his sly smile, “and would you look at that? You do look like her! If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought it was you.”

He was furious, you could tell, even though he masked it with amusement in his voice. To the average eyes, it looked like nothing other than two old friends reconciling. But to you, you knew his blood was boiling by the crinkles of his eyes, the air so thick between you that even airbending it wouldn't help,

Hyunjin was your childhood best friend, and your firebending mentor's son.... and boyfriend. Well, technically, your ex-boyfriend now, seeing as you disappeared on him after the incident, didn't write any letters back for the past year letting him knew you were still breathing.

“Get out of here, I'm not going to fight you” you let your arms rest, blood running cold, fire distinguishing from you. Back turned, you head back outside the arena. You can faintly hear the crowds gasp in shock over the thoughts running in your head. Speaking of your head, it almost got completely scorched with a blast of fire sent your way had you not sensed it early enough and twisted on your hands to get out of its reach.

“Oh no, you don’t. You don’t get to run away. Not again ” He was heaving. He hadn’t moved a step, but he was seething. Another burst after burst was shot at you. “I waited a year y/n! " Oh, how you longed to hear him call your name for so long, but not when he was saying it out of resentment "a whole year just to hear something- anything from you! “

“Hyunjin- stop. I'm not going to fight yo-“

“I. spent. Two. Months. Searching. For .you” fire punctuating every word.

“ Hyunjin i-"

“I thought you were dead !” He punctuated with a blast. This one was charged with so much grievance that the fire was a searing blue. You were not as lucky as before at dodging it, mind catching on to the malice dripping from his voice. Had you not been burned, you would have noticed the tears welling up his eyes.

“Ah,” you hissed in pain.

“You never wrote me back!! But you wrote to Felix?!”

Felix was a mutual friend of yours. A non-bender that you’ve always been very fond of. A younger brother you never had.

“I didn’t know what to say!” You fired back this time, making it his turn to dodge, body ablaze with so much heat you felt it coming out of every limb.

“A simple ‘ hey I'm still alive, by the way, I want to break up with you’ would’ve done!”

“That's the avatar?” “ no way” “ they have a bounty for her head” the mob outside the arena started to murmur, but none of it registered with you.

“ i - I couldn't.....” your resolve faltered, arms dropping. Forgetting completely about the stupid match and the bystanders.

“But you could ghost me for A YEAR and three months?” He scoffed, “ not that I was counting or anything.” He added sneeringly.

“Ever thought I didn’t want to be found?” You snapped back. You had no right to at all. But it just... everything made you snap after the incident. Blame it on insomnia or the delusion or whatever, be it. It drove you crazy. Everything irked you, the sounds of footsteps, the numb feeling you would get in your legs sometimes, the breathing of the person standing next to you- everything aggravated you, you felt your resolve holding on to a thin thread.

Hyunjin, filled with so much fury, lashed on you once again. This time you blocked it, but it drove you roughly back into the unpolished wall. A rock that was jutted out of the wall struck you exactly where you were terribly injured in the attack that incapacitated you. A jolt of electricity crept through your body.

Pictures, more vivid than ever played before your eyes, legs feeling numb, horror swimming in your blood next to the burn of lighting that struck you. Body lying limp, you felt soft hands reach for your face.

“Y/N!” It was the same.

All the same.

You pushed Hyunjin out of shot, and it struck you midair.

The same face that found you after being utterly destroyed, peering over you, with terror and tears etched so deeply in his scarred face.

“ I'm sorry. I’m sorry,” he kept repeating like a mantra, hugging your figure closer, face resting in your neck.

“Please,” he sobbed, “ come back to me.”

Everything was foggy. Was it your eyes or the arena? You had no clue over the video looping in your head.

Lighting, as beautiful as it was, struck you so hard, slipping so gracefully out of your opponent’s fingers, dancing in your nerves, jolting your heart to a stop.

" I'm here." A soft voice pierced through the fog, glints of black and red becoming clearer the more the voice spoke. "I'm always here."

Hyunjin’s pained scream filled your ear” No, No, Chan- please do something! Heal her !”

“I can't lose you again, Y/N.”

Deep brown eyes broke through the fog, followed slowly by the rest of his figure. Hyunjin. That was hyunjin talking to you. The boy you were madly in love with. The boy that never gave up on you. Your eyes welled up seeing him so close- feeling him up so close again.

Fingers softly held your cheeks, your own clenching onto his silky red robe. He didn’t have to speak; his eyes spoke a thousand words. You hid from them in his neck.

"I didn't want you to see me like this," you mumbled into him, tears spilling.

His arms wrapped tighter around you, afraid you’d slip right through if he loosened an inch.

“Let’s go home.”

He didn't need to take you anywhere because right now, you felt more at home than ever.

[closedcoffins]

@c4rdsharp​ / finished bio starter call. ( #016: “the reformed terrorist” --- jules upham. )

"Um--?! Hello, Mr. Gandor.” The greeting comes out half-surprised, like he wasn’t expecting to see the man in his own jazz hall. It really goes to show how disconnected from this side of danger Jules really is; the sorts of people with too much money and power for their own good on the legitimate business side of things would never be seen in their own lowly establishments. His own parents had been that sort of people.

The world of the mob really is different... Or maybe it’s just this one that’s strange. Kate had said the Gandor family was a little different from the average crime family, but it’s not like Jules has any point for comparison besides the Lemures, which had been their own beast entirely.

Either way, if it’s like this, he’s even more nervous. He’d been prepared for there to at least be a middle-man to talk to.

“I--- Mrs. Kate sent me here. Kate Gandor. To ask about working at your jazz hall...” He anxiously glances around the room, even more unnerved to find that it’s mostly empty save for a few people whose general body language suggests they’re either regulars or affiliated with the family completely---but that’s just based on his own experience working in restaurants. It’s true that he trusts Kate, but he feels like she must be a little biased. This man in front of him... It’s Luck Gandor, he's absolutely certain, based on Kate’s description and the few pictures of her or her husband that had included the rest of the family.

I knew Keith was terrifying because I’ve met him before, but this guy... Are they all like that? I guess it makes sense... They wouldn’t be effective in the underground if they weren’t at least a little intimidating, but... Even Chané had never felt quite like that. I feel like he’s already scrutinizing me more than most people tend to. But then again, most people don’t even look twice at me.

“She’s been teaching me piano for a couple of years now and I mentioned needing more money, so she directed me this way. I’m not, ah, sure what she really expected out of it.” It’s not like Jules hasn’t had work experience before, but that was as a busboy, not a pianist. Even though he knows he’s pretty good at it, it’s hard not to be nervous, especially since he doesn’t even know what he’s doing in terms of getting hired in the first place. “Oh, I’m J--- Upham. Most people just call me Upham.”

It’s not like me to slip up that easily. I guess it’s just that look he’s giving me. It’s terrifying, and that makes it difficult to withhold important things. But I really can’t give my name out so casually. I don’t think Luck himself would do anything with the information, because Kate and Keith both know, but I don’t know enough about the rest of the people here to know they don’t have any connection to the Lemures or to Huey Laforet in general. Upham alone is a common enough last name, but if someone heard both...

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Another One?!, Part 4

First > Previous > Next

At first, Adrien didn’t really know whether or not they were being followed.

There are a lot of kids with black hair and blue eyes, and he had a tendency to patrol certain areas. It was entirely plausible that he could just be paranoid or imagining things.

But there was a point where you had to step back and say ‘no, that’s definitely not normal’.

And Adrien hit that point when he had started counting the times he spotted the kid and ended up with eleven times by the end of the week.

He stopped in the middle of patrol and sat down on his favorite gargoyle for a short break to text the family about his findings. They deserved to know what was going on...

ChatoNoir: I think there's a person following us.

HelmetRights: Lol

ChatoNoir: This is serious!

Buginette: is it the scrawny kid with black hair and blue eyes

ChatoNoir: You’ve seen him, too?

RockinRobin: we all have????

HelmetRights: Lol

Buginette: their fine if you wanna get rid of them just wave they get all blushy and hide

HelmetRights: *They’re

Buginette: bitch lets see you type in french

HelmetRights: Qu'est-ce que je devrais dire

RockinRobin: alkdjfskdjfksdl

There was a few seconds while Marinette typed, and then apparently deleted her message because it never came through.

Adrien almost smiled but then he remembered what they were supposed to be talking about.

ChatoNoir: Can we get back on subject?

HelmetRights: Lame

Buginette: whats the point its just a fan

HelmetRights: I just wish he’d go back to not taking pictures I’ve missed so many shots because of his stupid flash going off

RockinRobin: i think it’s flattering

HelmetRights: Lol

Buginette: relax its whatever as long as he doesnt get hurt watching us

He sighed and closed his eyes. Fair enough. It’s a kid, those aren’t exactly a threat.

Still, he was a bit concerned. Not for them, they’d be fine, but for the kid. Adrien and Dick were the only ones with some kind of schedule for patrolling because of his job and Dick’s schooling, but Marinette and Jason apparently saw him pretty consistently, too. Just where were this kid’s parents? Were they okay with him being out all the time?

But he figured he must have been overreacting. Maybe they were a street kid like Jason…

No, they had decent clothes.

Adrien frowned to himself. Weird.

He pushed the thought to the back of his mind. After all, he only had another hour for patrols before he would need to go home to get ready for work. The kid would still be a problem in a few days, anyways...

~

It turned out Adrien was right to worry, because Marinette spotted the kid a few days later… while she was a civilian.

She had been in her favorite cafe, sipping at a cup of coffee as she read through the newspaper. It was an article about the vigilantes, debating things like ‘What the fuck were they thinking letting kids join them?’ and ‘Why can’t the kids name themselves?’

She found it amusing, even if it was calling her and her family out.

But then she’d felt someone’s eyes on her.

She slowly looked up, expecting a person who wanted to sit or a guy who wanted to flirt…

Only to see the kid.

They locked eyes for a few seconds.

Did he know? Surely, he couldn’t. They did everything from applying makeup to using codenames to hide their identities…

But that was the same starstruck look he wore whenever he looked at their vigilante identities…

She gave him a tiny wave and watched him blush and slump a little in his chair to hide.

Huh.

~

“Hey, so heads up, I think stalker kid might know who we are.”

Adrien dropped the textbook he was scanning for a refresher on algebra. Dick fell from the ceiling. Jason just looked up in surprise.

“WHAT?!”

“Yeah, I don’t know for sure, though. He could just have a thing for people who look like us. Somehow, I doubt it, though. We can’t all be his type.”

“We don’t know how desperate he is,” Jason pointed out.

Marinette hesitated, then gave a tiny shrug as if to say ‘you’re right, I guess…’

“Hello?” Adrien waved his hands to get their attention. “Could you guys please take this seriously? A kid knows our identities!”

“We don’t even know that for sure, though,” said Dick as he started climbing onto the nearest ceiling light. “And, if he does, so what? It’s a kid. People hardly listen to kids.”

He sighed. “Yes, but if he found out then other people might be able to, too. Shouldn’t we ask?”

The family considered this for a minute…

And then Marinette shrugged. “We need to know for sure if he knows our civilian identities, first, though. Everyone keep a lookout?”

Everyone nodded, bored and reluctant.

Adrien frowned. He loved his family, he just wished they’d take things more seriously sometimes… or, at least, not brush past things so quickly...

His watch beeped and he sighed. He pushed the thought aside. He needed to get ready for work.

~

After everyone had spotted them in their civilian forms several times, they decided to call it: the kid knew who they were.

(At least he wasn’t taking pictures of them as civilians, they thought, because that would be uncomfortable.)

So, for the first time in ages, the four of them were spotted doing a casual patrol together. It was kind of fun, actually. Dick and Marinette practiced some old circus acts that they remembered, Jason and Adrien raced. Maybe they should do it more often…

Marinette and Dick were walking along some power lines when Dick suddenly stopped to point down.

Her eyes followed to find the kid and she whistled for Adrien and Jason’s attention.

The kid was alone on a rooftop. He didn’t seem concerned that they were all pointing at him, though maybe a little flustered…

But then he did freak out.

Because the vigilantes jumped down in a loose circle around him.

Their stalker spun around anxiously as if he wasn’t sure who to look at.

Dick cleared his throat. “Right, do you know why we’re here?”

“I…” The kid finally stopped spinning to look at Marinette and Adrien. “Because I know your identities?”

“Yes. How exactly did you do that?” She said, crossing her arms over her chest.

The kid cleared his throat awkwardly. “Well, I’m a big Haly’s circus fan --.”

“Ah, shoot,” Dick muttered.

“And… I was looking through some old footage of you guys on Youtube… and I realized that Robin did a move that only Dick Grayson would know. And, if Dick Grayson was Robin, then you guys all had to be vigilantes.”

The entire family was glaring at Dick.

The man in question just awkwardly looked to the side.

Marinette clicked her tongue and then looked back at the kid. “Okay, what was the url of the footage you got? I’ll see if we can give them a copyright strike. Youtube’s system is broken so it’d probably work.”

The kid in question shook his head. “You don’t have to. I got rid of it myself.”

“Oh… thanks. Is it anywhere else that you know of?”

“No, I got rid of everything on the internet that could trace back to you guys.”

The family looked at each other, confusion on all of their faces. How…? This kid was fifteen, max, there was no way…

Well, maybe he was bluffing so he could keep the footage. They’d check later.

Jason was apparently done with caring about what was going on, because he had sat down and started checking his guns to make sure they were all okay.

Marinette was feeling much the same, leaning on her cane. “Great, well, thanks for that, I guess… could you maybe stop stalking us as civilians, though?”

“Don’t worry, I’m just doing that to get enough proof to clear your names and then I’ll go back to just watching you as vigilantes.”

“Oh, ok -- wait, what?” Said Dick, frowning a little bit.

The kid frowned as well. “I’m clearing your name… do you not know?”

The four looked at each other before shaking their heads in unison.

He sighed and brought out his phone to pull up an article. He passed it to Jason because he was closest and he cursed quietly.

“The gist of it is people are starting to wonder if you’ve gone bad,” explained the kid as Jason scrolled through the article. “It’s just a gossip column thing right now but I figured I should get proof you guys are still good in case it gained traction.”

Marinette frowned. “I’d understand if they thought we were just bad, not everyone understands that we kill people for the greater good, but saying we’ve gone bad implies that we’ve somehow gotten worse…?”

The phone was passed to her and her first instinct, much like Jason’s, had been to curse.

“Well, there’s been rumors of you and Riddler being friends for years now --.”

“WE’RE NOT,” Marinette hissed, and it took a lot of mental power to not crush the phone in her hands. She passed it on to Dick just in case. “He’s just helpful on some cases is all.”

Adrien rolled his eyes.

The kid sighed lightly. “And, on top of that, all of your most recent high-level takeouts have helped a particular mob boss, Antony Agoura, gain power.”

Her first instinct was ‘cool, thanks for the name, let’s kill him’, but then she forced herself to reconsider.

It seemed that taking down people just helped someone else take their place, which didn’t really surprise her. The moment anything was freed from someone’s hold, there would always be people who would do their best to grab it…

But then what was the solution? The situation with Agoura itself was proof that just murdering the head and saying ‘alright, next thing’ wasn’t working. Someone would just pop up to take his place --.

Adrien met her eyes and they shared anxious frowns.

Fuck, they were actually going to have to think about this one, huh?

~

He fell back on the couch and closed his eyes.

He listened to his family mull about. He could hear the quiet creaking of Dick getting on a light, could hear Marinette pulling out baking pans, could hear the clinking of Jason’s rings.

He sighed.

What could they do?

They had had a rule that they would never kill henchmen because they often weren’t working just for fun, they had a family to feed or hadn’t been able to get a job elsewhere.

Besides, with the mobster gone, there would be little reason for the police to let them go. They’d serve hard time and then, hopefully, come out a better person.

(Probably not. The prison system needed work.)

But…

He had remembered the name Agoura. He had been under Zucco at some point. He wasn’t sure whether he’d been a mob boss or a henchman at the time, though it didn’t really matter. There were a lot of people who had started out as henchmen that had somehow gotten power.

He sighed. He hated systemic issues.

The main problem, he thought, was that mobsters didn’t fear death as much as they should. Sure, everyone fears death on some level, but the people of Gotham knew what they were doing when they decided to get to that point. They would die if they got caught, and they were willing to take the risk in order to get the money and power that came along with being mobsters.

What did they fear? What weren’t they prepared to face?

He opened his eyes and looked over at Dick, who was currently reviewing for final exams from the ceiling.

The law, maybe? Serving actual hard time?

Well, it was worth a shot.

Dick was about to be a lawyer, so they had someone who would be able to try them in court…

But they needed a police officer to arrest them…

Marinette walked into the room and started looking for her shoes, cursing out brownies.

“Chocolate sauce. How did I forget that? Kwami!” She clicked her tongue. “Son of a -- where are my shoes?”

“Shoes are under the couch,” said Dick calmly.

Marinette gave the world’s angriest “Thank you!” as she ducked down and grabbed them.

“M’lady,” said Adrien.

She paused, looking over at him. “Yes, Chaton?”

“I have an idea for what to do about our newest problem, if you’d like to hear it.”

She tipped her head to the side a little, smiling.

“Sure, but make it quick, I can only keep Dick and Jason away from the batter for so long.”

~

Hey, New Jersey, what the fuck?

It had literally been easier to get into the circus than it had been to become a police officer.

She’d already gotten a degree in criminal justice a few years back. Why? Because she was really bored.

(Also, she’d wanted to mess with Officer Ross and she had decided that it would be funny to memorize as many laws as possible to point out when his buddies weren’t abiding by them.)

The test had been almost painfully easy. She spoke English as a second language and she’d thought that she was reading almost every question wrong. Some of these people would be detectives one day, you’d think they’d ask for more than basic reading comprehension. The most difficult question she’d gotten was one about license plates, and even then it was multiple choice so she’d had a 20% chance of guessing right.

And then getting a job in the GCPD was somehow easier.

Though she figured out why that last part had happened the first day she walked into work.

Can someone say ‘diversity hire’?

She hugged herself awkwardly. Really? Was she the only person of color in this place?

Wait, there was a singular black guy. She was wrong. She was just the only woman of color. Yay.

But, it seemed, her day was about to get worse.

“Marinette Agreste?”

Her nails dug into her arms and she turned to look at Officer Ross. “That’s me.”

“I’m here to give you a tour of the place. Ready?”

Asshole. Chienne. Motherfucker. Other swear words she couldn’t think of she was so mad.

She forced a smile to her face. “Sure!”

~

Yay. Galas. He always loved those.

He reached out and helped Jason with his tie and then ruffled his red curls. “What’s the rule?”

Jason grinned. “If you absolutely have to ruin someone’s life, do it discreetly.”

“Good.” He met Dick’s eyes in the mirror. “And what’s your rule?”

“... no hanging and/or swinging from chandeliers.”

“Thank you.” He looked at Tikki. “Please, just let us have one easy gala. No press, no kids getting their hands on wine, no people talking to Mari so we don’t have to leave early.”

Tikki shrugged.

He sighed. Yeah, he’d expected that. Worth a shot, though.

So, the four of them all head off. They told themselves that, hey, even if Tikki couldn’t promise that things will go okay, they could make it happen.

The peace lasted about ten seconds.

Because then Marinette hissed a curse and nodded her head to point out the kid.

He sighed. They hadn’t seen the kid in a while as civilians, so they’d thought that he had actually ended up agreeing that stalking them while they were civilians was taking it too far, but apparently not.

Wait a minute, galas were private events. How did he get in?

They started looking around for the kid’s parents, because obviously they had to be around, but they were nowhere near him.

Marinette and Adrien exchanged frowns.

And then their frowns deepened. Because they glanced behind themselves to look at their kids and found that they weren’t there anymore.

She clicked her tongue and looked around. “You deal with the stalker, I’ll go find the kids. I’m sure that one of them has found a loophole to their rule by now --.” Her eyes widened and she rushed away. “RICHARD JUST BECAUSE THAT’S NOT A CHANDELIER DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN CLIMB IT --.”

Adrien sighed.

He grabbed a glass of wine and then headed over to the kid. “Hey, kiddo, where are your parents?”

He shrugged and pointed over to the small crowd of people watching Marinette attempt to pry a glass of wine from Jason’s hands while they cursed each other out in French.

“Probably over there.”

Adrien winced. “Fun.”

“Your family is a disaster,” said the kid.

“Thanks,” Adrien muttered.

“I think it’s nice. When you’re vigilantes you’re basically gods, it’s nice to know you’re just people.”

He considered this for a second.

“Also, it’s really funny to watch,” added the kid.

He sighed and leaned back against the wall.

After a few minutes of watching the Agreste family crash and burn, the kid looked back over at him.

“Why are you still here?”

“Here with you, here at the gala, or here on Earth?” Adrien half-joked.

They shrugged. “Here with me. Your family needs you right now.”

“Marinette is the better problem solver of the both of us. Besides, you’re a kid, you shouldn’t be left alone.”

“I’m alone all the time, I’ll live.”

Adrien frowned. “What do you --?”

He was cut off when he spotted Marinette dragging Jason over by the back of his suit.

“Hold onto him, will you? I need to catch Dick before he breaks --.” There was a crashing sound nearby. She clicked her tongue. “... before he breaks that hedge. I’ll be back.”

Adrien absently held a hand out and Jason put his arm in it so he could keep a hold on him. His wife gave a tired smile before turning on her heel and stalking off to the hedge maze.

He sighed and looked back at the stalker. “Right, where were we…? Oh, what do you mean by you’re alone all the time?”

Jason’s eyes narrowed a little bit.

“My parents… go on a lot of trips.”

“Without you?”

He shrugged. “Yeah.”

“What…? Why…?”

“You wouldn’t understand, you guys never go anywhere.”

Adrien opened his mouth and then closed it again. He wasn’t exactly wrong, but…

“Okay, point, but how often are you alone? Is that why you’re always following us? Do you go to school? Do --?”

He frowned and held up a hand. “That’s a lot of questions at once.” He started to count off on his fingers. “They’re never gone for longer than a month at a time but they only come back for a few days at most. Yes, it’s why I’m always able to follow you. And I’m homeschooled.”

Adrien’s frown was deepening more and more by the second. “Who are your parents, exactly? Or, I guess, who are you?”

“I’m Tim Drake.”

Drake. His eyes flicked to Jack and Janet Drake. He had talked to them a few times because they had a tendency to ask Marinette for commissions (or, at least, they did until Dick and Jason came along and kept their parents distracted for the entire time they were there). Still, he hadn’t even known that they had a kid…

Jason suddenly tugged on his arm, pulling Adrien’s attention back to him.

“Dad, it looks like Dickwad and Mom are wanting to go.”

He frowned and looked up to find that, yes, Marinette had managed to catch Dick and was now waving for their attention from the door.

He winced and looked back over at the kid. “Tim…”

Jason tugged harder on his arm. “Dad, let’s go.”

Adrien gave an apologetic look but allowed Jason to pull him out the door.

The silence in the car was deafening that night, everyone lost in their thoughts.

~

Marinette was now constantly fighting the urge to punch someone.

Why are all cops just… the absolute worst? Sure, some of them aren’t directly beating up the teenagers that are brought in for information or planting evidence, but they weren’t exactly saying anything about it.

And then there was the fact that she’d been paired with Officer Ross.

Really, she should have expected it. She’d known that his partner had recently passed away in the field, and that he would need another.

If she’d known that she’d have ended up the lucky officer, she would have said fuck it to the whole trying something new thing and just gone after Agoura’s head like normal.

Now she’d gotten too far to just give up...

Didn’t mean she wasn’t going to be bitter about it.

As a way to vent her anger, she’d wanted to ask what happened to his old partner but then this stupid thing called ‘morals’ got in the way. Really unfortunate, because now all she could really do was glare at the stack of paperwork that she was being forced to make a digital copy for over her cup of coffee.

She felt an arm rest on her shoulder and cursed internally. She forced a smile to her face as she looked up to see…

Dick. Oh, thank the kwamis.

Marinette grinned. “Hey, sweetie, how did finals go?”

“I don’t want to jinx it.”

She hummed her understanding and moved on. “No problems?”

Dick gave a tiny shrug. “There was a few problems, there was a really annoying kid next to me that apparently still hasn’t learned how to breathe through his nose, but… they actually listened to the doctors and gave me extra time, so that’s good.”

She got up and wrapped him in a hug. “So, out of college officially. How’s it feel?”

He hugged her back, absolutely beaming. “If I passed.”

She clicked her tongue. “Right. But, let’s say you did. Then you’re out.”

“Then I’m out!” He said, pulling back and resting his hands on his hips. “Now all I have to do is find a job.”

“How horrible,” she said sarcastically.

“Yeah. Speaking of horrible jobs, wanna leave?”

“I do, but I have to finish this.” She sat back down and pulled up the daunting task in front of her. She had to type up another few pages and she was not eager to do so. Still, the commissioner had asked to get her email by the end of her shift and, if Dick was here, she was already behind. “I’ll need around an hour, I think.”

He groaned and pulled out his phone.

She smiled faintly and went back to working.

Or, at least, she tried to.

Officer Ross was talking to Dick.

“So, you’re her kid?”

“One of two!”

Ross laughed. “Tell me, is she always so angry at home?”

“Not really. Our family doesn’t really get angry in general, at least not at home. I think we all vent our anger at work, though.”

“Hm. Weird.”

Dick gave a tiny shrug.

“So, just graduated, then?”

“Mhmm! I just finished law school! I’m gonna be a lawyer!”

Ross’s eyes narrowed a little bit. “A lawyer, huh? Are you going to be the one doing the persecuting or defending?”

“Um…” said Dick, who seemed to be just now remembering that cops and lawyers didn’t exactly get along if the way his smile was dropping was any indication. He looked to the side and brought a smile to his face again. “Persecuting. I’m on your side. It would be kind of embarrassing to go against my mom in court, don’t you think?”

He relaxed, nodding. “Good.”

They lapsed into an awkward silence after that and Marinette was finally able to concentrate…

For the two seconds of silence she got before Commissioner Gordon walked over to ask her when she’d be done.

She fought the urge to bang her head on the desk.

She turned around, about to throw Officer Ross under the bus, but it turned out she didn’t need to.

Because then his daughter showed up with some dinner for him.

Gordon turned around to greet her. Thank kwami, finally something was going right. Hopefully he’d forget about what he was doing (he was old, after all) and she’d have until he was back at his desk before he remembered. She’d have around half an hour.

Not enough time to do well but she could probably get away with it because she was still a relatively new hire...

She managed to hit send the second the commissioner turned away from his daughter and slumped in her chair. It wasn’t on time but at least she’d done it.

She looked at her empty coffee cup and clicked her tongue. She glanced at Dick. “I’ll be right back, I’m getting some of the free coffee before I go.”

“Didn’t you say it was awful?”

“Yeah but it’s free.”

“... we’re rich.”

“And?”

Dick grinned. “Whatever. Go ahead. I’ve waited this long.”

She sent him a wave and then disappeared to the break room, clocking out on the way.

When she came back out she found Dick flirting with the commissioner's daughter. She would have been proud if that wasn’t, y’know, her boss’s daughter oh my god she was screwed she was going to lose her job and then the mission would be compromised and --.

She practically ran over to sling her arm around her kid.

(She didn’t actually run, she had a mug of coffee in her hand and she thought that was much more important than any mission, but she was close to it.)

“Sweetie! Hi! We should be getting home, it’s your celebration-dinner-thingy-can’t-remember-the-English-word -- PARTY tonight! I can’t keep you any longer or there won’t be time to bake the cake.”

Dick gave her a bit of side-eye and she gave him a smile in return.

“But…”

Barbara laughed a little. “Go ahead. It’s cake, you can’t just pass up on cake.” She smiled. “Congrats on whatever it is, Dick.”

He looked to the side, smiling. “Thanks. I’d invite you because my mom’s a great baker… but it’s kind of a family thing.”

Barbara shrugged. “It’s fine. I doubt that my dad would be too thrilled about me getting lured into a house with cake, anyways. It’s not that far off from getting lured into the car with candy.” She broke into a grin. “Promise to bring some of her cake by sometime?”

“Sure. I’ll be by tomorrow with as much as I can save.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Dick finally allowed Marinette to pull him out of the police station, sending Barbara a wave over his shoulder long after she was out of view.

She clicked her tongue as they climbed into the car. “If I lose my job it’s on you.”

“Who knows, the commissioner might be mad at you because you got between us. Depends on what kind of dad he is.” His face split into a fox-like grin. “Besides, you should be thanking me. I just got us a backup plan. If you get fired, knowing the commissioner’s daughter would be useful.”

Marinette hummed thoughtfully. “Smart.”

“Thanks, I have my moments.”

“Yeah, ‘moments’ is definitely the word for it.”

He gasped and took a hand off the wheel to give her shoulder a tiny shove. “Rude!”

She just laughed.

~

It was inevitable that it would happen at some point, but that doesn’t mean that they were happy about it.

Adrien had made a stupid mistake.

He had been alone on patrol. It had been a standard street fight, after all.

He’d seen the flash of Tim’s camera out of the corner of his eyes and looked up at the wrong time. Now he had a bullet in his shoulder, his staff was rolling across the floor, and he’d had to duck for cover behind a car to ensure that the one bullet didn’t turn to twenty.

So the night was already going great.

But then he realized that some of the people had also noticed the flash going off and were now going to investigate.

His day just kept getting better.

He pulled out his phone.

ChatoNoir: H! E8th, Eads. LW, 1?C-K.

HelmetRights: I’m close I’ll help

He breathed out a sigh of relief. His miraculous was the most useful for situations like this.

He brought a hand to his shoulder and flinched a little bit. He had a few minutes before he bled out.

Adrien slowly poked his head around the car. They were all distracted fighting each other...

Good?

He slowly reached out and pulled a nearby body over to him and peeled their shirt off. He needed it more than them right now, anyways. He bandaged his wound and then looked around again, this time searching the ground for his staff.

Ah. It was pretty much in the exact center of all the fighting. Fun.

How about no?

He looked around wildly for inspiration. What to do, what to do, what to do…

He ran out from behind the car and made his way over to the building where he had last seen Tim’s flash. The gang members would likely be there for a while, probably until Jason could come over, and Tim’s situation would get worse by the second. Hopefully the kid had enough sense to hide…

He stepped inside the old office building. Abandoned, probably, there was a thin coating of dust on everything and the only light in the place was a result of the sunlight streaming in through open windows.

He listened in for anyone and winced when he heard a metallic clang above him. He ran up the stairs and looked around.

A kid… was trying to fight… five fully grown gang members…

It was going about as well as you’d expect.

Would it kill people to have even a scrap of common sense?

He flinched when he heard a bone crunch.

Adrien grabbed the nearest desk lamp and looked around. He hooked it around a light and tested the strength…

Not great.

Whatever, he was already injured.

He heard a gunshot outside and breathed a sigh of relief. Jason, probably.

Hopefully...

The gang members looked up at the sound and Adrien took his chance, pressing his hand to the floor and mumbling a Cataclysm.

Black webbed along the floor and it crumbled beneath everyone.

He swung over and grabbed Tim from thin air. Much like he’d expected, the cord snapped under their combined weight and they were in free fall. Adrien pulled the kid to his stomach and flipped them around in the air to make sure he was the only one to actually hit the ground.

Adrien hit the floor and tried not to think about the piece of rubble now lodged in his back and the way the bullet in his shoulder was definitely displaced now and he was bleeding faster and OW.

He released his grip on Tim so his claws wouldn’t dig into him and rested his head back on the cold floor.

“You alright, Tim?”

“Not really.”

He wheezed out a laugh. “Same here.”

He felt Tim shift his weight on top of him and winced mentally at the rubble digging into him, and looked over. It was dark, the sunlight had been clouded by the dust drawn up by the collapse of the second floor. He didn’t know if Tim could see but that was fine. Adrien could.

He slowly pushed himself up and looked for any sign of movement.

He could see a couple of the gang members stirring. He shook his head a little bit and rested a hand on top of Tim’s head. “Stay. I’ll be back.”

“I’m not a dog.”

“Don’t care. Stay. Here.”

Tim looked annoyed but he sat himself down and rested his head on his hand. Adrien glanced him over. One of his legs was definitely broken and he was littered with thin cuts and bruises but he seemed otherwise fine.

Maybe his definition of ‘fine’ needed some work…

He pulled his attention back to the people that were getting up and he grabbed a nearby blunt object: a rock!

Well, a piece of the floor, but it was pretty much a rock.

Adrien made his way around with his rock and made sure that everyone would stay down. He didn’t exactly aim to kill but he wasn’t exactly concerned if he ended up doing so.

After a few minutes he walked back over to Tim and he slowly helped him to his feet, letting him sling an arm over him for support as he helped him walk out.

Jason was outside, checking bodies for extra bullets.

He looked up and frowned. “You look awful.”

“Thanks. I have a photoshoot tomorrow and I was really hoping that I would like ‘awful’ for it.”

“No problem.” His eyes found their way to Tim and he rolled his eyes. “So, what, are you adopting him, now?”

Tim frowned. “I… have parents.”

“Barely,” muttered Adrien.

“Mom will kill you if you adopt another kid.”

“I’m not scared of Mari.”

“Yes, you are.”

“Yes, I am.”

He sighed and closed his eyes.

He didn’t just want to leave a kid in a bad situation, but Marinette had been annoyed by him adopting Jason…

He peeked an eye open and looked at the kid next to him.

“I have a plan.”

“Oh no,” mumbled Jason.

Adrien looked at Tim. “Would you like to live with us?”

Tim thought for a minute, then shrugged. “It would be cool to actually have someone in the house with me.”

“Oh no,” Jason mumbled again, starting to mess with his rings.

Adrien broke into a grin.

“Awesome. Let’s get you home.”

~

Marinette noticed Tim the moment she walked into the kitchen.

She gave her husband a tired look. “Please tell me you didn’t adopt another one.”

“I didn’t. He has parents, I can’t adopt him.”

Her eyes found Dick’s for confirmation. He gave a small shrug.

She relaxed a little bit. “Good. Why’s he here?”

“He got hurt stalking me, his leg’s all busted up.”

Tim showed her his leg and she winced. They’d set it back into place but all the bandages said that it couldn’t have been a nice experience.

“Sorry about that, sweetie, do you want a cake or something? I can make one.”

Tim smiled. “No, thank you.”

Marinette, who had already been pulling out pans, gave him a confused look. She slowly put the pans back. “Oh… okay.”

“I have a dietician. She’d kill me if I went too far off,” he explained. “But I’ve heard good things about your baking.”

She nodded slowly. “Right.”

Adrien met her eyes hesitantly and she knew that whatever he was going to say she wasn’t going to like it.

“I’m going to train him in self-defense.”

She clicked her tongue. She knew what that meant by now. “You are not making this random child a vigilante. It’s bad enough when we let our own kids do it, he isn’t ours.”

Adrien held up his hands. “He got hurt stalking us. I just don’t want a repeat. I won’t give him a miraculous, okay?”

She frowned suspiciously but nodded that he could do that.

Adrien visibly relaxed.

Marinette took in the bandaging on her husband and she frowned. “How bad is it?”

“Uh… one bullet to the shoulder and some shrapnel got me in the back. Not that bad.”

She nodded and leaned over, pressing a kiss to his lips. “No patrol for a month.”

“But --.”

“No.”

He pouted a little bit but nodded. “Fine. I can still help this kid learn self-defense, though, right?”

She considered this for a minute and then nodded. “Since you’re teaching basics you’re not going to be doing much physically… so, yes. But get help from someone if you want to do anything strenuous.”

Adrien rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah.”

Marinette hummed lightly. She glanced at the time. She had a few hours to patrol before Dick confirmed she hadn’t slept in a few days and came to physically knock her out…

She started up the coffee machine.

(Dick narrowed his eyes in the background and started trying to remember when the last time she’d gone to sleep was.)

“Ew, you drink coffee?” Said Tim.

Marinette slowly turned on him, her eyes narrowing. “It keeps you awake.”

Adrien and Dick looked hopeful, probably thinking that Tim would make her realize her caffeine addiction and tendency not to sleep was unhealthy.

And then he spoke: “Sure, but have you tried energy drinks? They taste better and have sugar.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Not enough caffeine.”

“You haven’t found Bam, then. Once you get past their political donations they’re GREAT. A 16 ounce can has almost three times as much caffeine as a cup of coffee.”

The other guys went pale.

She broke into a wide grin. “I like you.”

“This was a mistake,” mumbled Adrien.

“Yep! C’mon, Tim, we’re going to the store. I'll help you walk.”

~

Listen, opening a portal to a pocket dimension wasn’t easy… but he was perfectly willing to do it for his kid.

No. His soon-to-be kid. His wife still hadn’t said yes.

No. His soon-to-be younger housemate. Tim still had legal parents.

Whatever.

It was good, too, the portal was hidden to the naked eye for everyone but him, so there was no worries of Marinette finding out too early.

(Unless she just decided to randomly lean against the wall in the hallway.)

And, as far as pocket dimensions go, it was decent. Empty outside of a few things that Tim had brought over from his house and a lot smaller than any other room in the house... but decent. It didn’t have a single monster living in it, that’s pretty good by pocket dimension standards.

Jason and Dick had both complained when they realized that Tim got a room of his own, even though they knew the circumstances. Adrien was forced to make another.

Was Adrien a little worried that the dimension that they were currently in would become unstable if he opened two portals in close proximity to each other? Yes. But it didn’t collapse on them when he did it, so it’s all good.

There had been a monster in that one.

Adrien was going to be feeling that bite on his arm for the next few years, he thought.

But, hey, at least now everyone had their own rooms. And all the boys seemed happier for it.

Well, Jason still seemed a little annoyed that there was now another kid in the house and Dick was clearly anxious that Marinette would find out and get mad at them and Tim was clearly struggling to understand the whole ‘no longer an only child that lives mostly alone and therefore needs to at least wear pants around the house’ thing, but shhhhhhh avoiding problems is the Agreste forte.

Yes, even Tim Drake was in the practice of avoiding problems.

Adrien figured that if he adopted enough kids eventually one of them would have a good coping mechanism and they could steal that.

But, until then, avoiding problems would have to work.

~

A routine was forming, and she hated it.

She’d go to work for a large part of the day, and then get picked up by Dick. She’d spend about two hours in the break room drinking the free coffee and scrolling through her phone so her son could chat up the commissioner’s daughter. She’d grab him by the arm with some vague excuse about how they needed to get home. She’d get dropped off at random places in Gotham and start on patrols. She’d get home early in the morning and chug another few cans of Bam with Tim.

Then she’d start it all over again.

But she’d hated it more when the routine was suddenly broken.

She felt a hand rest on her shoulder and nearly tore the file she was looking through in half in her surprise. It surely couldn’t be time for Dick to pick her up yet…

She looked over at her computer for the time and her eyes caught the reflection of Barbara on the black screen.

Marinette slowly turned around. “Hey.”

“Can I talk with you in private?”

She tried not to tense up. Most of the time when people say that you’re in trouble. She didn’t want to get in trouble with the boss’s daughter.

“Mhmm!” She handed the file over to Ross to hold onto and then followed Barbara down a few halls and up to the roof. She sent Tikki out to check for people and relaxed a little bit when the kwami shook their head no. Maybe this could just be about Dick --.

“Do you not like me?”

She blanked. “Huh? I… what? No. Do you think I’d stay after to let my son flirt with you every day if I didn’t?”

“No, but then I have to question why you always cut us short.”

“We have stuff to do at home.”

She shrugged. “But you hardly ever go home.”

Marinette took a cautious step back. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you and Dick never seem to go the same way twice when you leave.”

“You watch that?”

She shrugged again. “Of course. At first I thought it had something to do with traffic or errands, but then why would you always list a home activity?”

“Because what we do at our house is none of your concern,” said Marinette.

Barbara smiled. “You know, I work at the library.”

She tried not to frown at the change of subject. It was weird, but at least it had moved away from where she went at night.

“Alright.”

“I know your other son, Jason. He comes by pretty frequently with his dad.”

“Alright.”

“Want to tell me why he and I have had long conversations about how we hate cops?”

Marinette wanted to punch something. Still, she forced a smile. “It’s perfectly normal for kids to take opposite stances about things than their parents. Just like you and your dad.”

“Sure, but then why do you act like you hate cops?”

Wow. Even the commissioner's daughter knew she hated being a cop. She really needed to brush up on her acting skills… or get new ones. She didn’t know if she’d ever been good at acting.

“Listen, I know you’re planning to take this place down, I’m not stupid. I won’t rat you out, I want in.”

Well, that was a development.

Marinette narrowed her eyes slightly. “Really? Why should I trust you?”

“Because I’m dating your son, maybe?”

“YOU’RE DATING?!”

“YOU DIDN’T KNOW?!”

Both women immediately pulled out their phones and started texting Dick. Nothing bonds people better than anger and they were both ready to kill.

MA: come to the precinct please

#1Sweetie: kjsklfjdskfjdks does this have anything to do with barbara texting me at the same time

MA: yes

#1Sweetie: i’ll be right there

MA: were on the roof

Dick deleted and then retyped his message four times before sending:

#1Sweetie: fun can’t wait

For someone who ‘can’t wait’ he sure took his sweet time, though.

Now, if it was only Marinette that was mad, it probably would have just blown over. However, Barbara wasn’t an Agreste. She actually knew how to deal with problems.

When Dick finally managed to get up to the roof, he found the two women glaring at him.

“So, care to explain why you didn’t tell me you were dating Barbara?” Marinette said with a bright smile.

Dick looked to the side and then brought a smile to his face. “I was just waiting for the right time to announce it.”

They both shared skeptical looks and then looked back at him.

“Okay, fine. It’s because I didn’t want to be the one to bring another person into the house, Mari would’ve killed me.”

Marinette accepted that answer. Fair enough. She would have. If Marinette and Adrien not had jobs they might have been able to keep up with three (and a half including Tim, who was around enough because of his stalking and self-defense lessons for her to somewhat count him) other people in their house, but she doubted that they could fully parent three kids with both their civilian and vigilante jobs.

Dick relaxed a little and walked over to the women, taking a seat in front of them. “Are we alright?”

They both gave him nods, then gave each other wary looks.

Marinette glanced at the time. “I’ll be back to talk more about this after work. Meet us at the car?”

A few hours later, they all filed into the car. Dick and Barbara took the back seat and Marinette angled her mirror to watch them just in case.

“Right, where are you on your investigation?” Asked Barbara.

“She knows --?”

“Yep, you’re behind, sweetie.” Marinette glanced at the mirror and found Dick messing with a rubix cube and Barbara listening intently. “Right now we’re searching for proof of corruption in the police force. The higher up I can get the easier it will be to actually have people prosecuted.”

“... are you having any trouble with getting proof?”

She shrugged. “Unfortunately. It’s not like they document when they let someone go and it’s way too easy to claim that people were all bloody before they got there.”

Barbara frowned. “Take pictures.”

“Cops are stupid, but they’re not that stupid. If I take out a camera they’re going to notice.”

“Write it down yourself, then.”

“It’s my word against theirs.”

Barbara groaned. Marinette could relate. She’d been struggling to find any kind of proof that wouldn’t immediately be traced back to her for over a month now.

And all she needed was proof, really. She knew that Barbara’s dad, at least, wasn’t a bad cop. He was just, somehow, painfully unaware of the corruption in his precinct. If given proof of a person’s corruption he would, at the very least, fire them.

“Doesn’t help that the kind of people that the police let go are usually killed by one of the vigilantes before they get to the police,” added Dick.

“And, even if we were the kind of people that vigilantes talked to, it’s not like they could stop killing those people without everyone getting suspicious.”

“... I’m beginning to think this might be impossible.”

She gave a quiet laugh. “Yeah. Probably.” She pulled up in her driveway and blinked a few times. “Um… sorry for kidnapping you.”

“It’s cool, I wanted to ask Jason about some of his books.”

“Are they overdue?”

Barbara smiled. “Yep. I need to know if he lost it or if I should just recheck it out for him.”

Marinette nodded absently. “Cool. Dick, drive her home when she’s done? I need to go grocery shopping.”

She waved at them and then got out of the car, tossing the keys to Dick without either of them glancing over. With that, she head off for patrols.

~

Adrien blinked a few times to make sure he was seeing this.

Dick had a girlfriend. Who was the commissioner's daughter. Who was also a librarian at the library that he and Jason frequented.

And she knew about the whole ‘trying to take down random people in the police force so Marinette can advance and prosecute people properly’ thing.

But not the vigilante thing. The vigilante thing was too far, apparently.

He needed to sit down for a minute.

Adrien pulled a knee to his chest from his spot on the counter.

Jason had been the most blunt: “Did dad adopt you, too?”

“I have parents.”

“That didn’t stop him from adopting Tim.”

“I’m also dating your brother, that would mess things up.”

Jason relaxed a little bit when he realized that Adrien wouldn’t adopt her… and then he laughed. “Wait, you’re dating Dickwad?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you had taste.”

Barbara and Jason grinned at each other, much to Dick’s annoyance.

“Adrien! They’re being rude!” He complained.

He shrugged absently. “I don’t control them.”

“You can control Jason! He’s your kid! Take away his trust fund or something!”

“WAIT WHAT NO --.”

Adrien cut him off by laughing. “That would be funny but I doubt Mari would be alright with that.”

Tim walked in with a can of Bam and some instant coffee mix. Everyone watched in horror as he started pouring the Bam into the water part of the coffee maker.

“Hey, Timmy, whatcha doing?” Asked Adrien, despite being very sure he did not want to hear the answer.

Tim looked up. “Experiment.”

“I thought you didn’t like the taste of coffee, though…”

“It’ll be worth it for the extra caffeine.”

Jason laughed a little bit. “You’re going to die. Go ahead, though, I want to see it happen.”

Dick and Adrien met eyes. They needed to destroy that thing and also maybe find a way to block Marinette and Tim from getting to the store.

They nodded at each other before getting to work pulling Tim away from his creation.

~

Marinette hummed as she finished off the fourth cake she’d baked and decorated with a flourish.

She started washing the dishes she’d just used because she had run out of free pans to bake with and she couldn’t restart until they were washed.

Dick groaned from the doorway, holding his head as he slowly made his way inside.

“Good morning, sweetie.”

He groaned again and then apparently caught sight of the cakes on the table. He frowned a little bit. “Um…”

“I made a vanilla cake for you. It’s the one with the buttercream flowers.”

Dick hesitated for a minute before shrugging and sitting down with the cake. “Thanks, mom, but are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“... mom… as much as I love your cakes, you only bake this much when you’re stressed.”

She clicked her tongue. “Sweetie… I doubt you’ll be able to think of a solution if Adrien, Barbara, and I couldn’t think of something.”

“You went to Barbara and not me? Come on! At least let me try.”

She doubted that he could be of any help but whatever. If she told him and he couldn’t come up with something then he’d leave the subject alone, and if he came up with something then they’d have a solution. Win-win. Kinda.

“I have no clue how we’re going to get proof that people are corrupt.”

Dick thought for a minute, then shrugged. “Have someone join the mob. Any mob. There has to be at least a few moles. Take a few pictures or collect names and then take them to the commissioner.”

Marinette shook her head slowly. “Can’t, no one has enough time.”

“I do.”

“Sure, but you’re a kid and we’re not letting a kid join the mob.”

Dick huffed. “I’m twenty-three.”

“You don’t have any skills that the mob is looking for.”

“I’m a lawyer, they’d love to have me.”

“No.”

“But --!”

“NO, RICHARD!”

Dick flinched a little bit and looked down. He gave a quiet groan of irritation and pushed himself out of his chair. He took his cake to his room.

She closed her eyes. The problem would be gone by morning, but that didn’t mean that she liked that they’d fought.

She opened her eyes again and started pulling down ingredients.

~

Adrien knew that Marinette would catch on soon. It had been months since the incident, Tim was more than capable of taking care of himself. He was pretty sure the only reason that she hadn’t noticed anything was because her schedule was so messed up that she wasn’t registering time right.

He knew he should tell her but he couldn’t bring himself to. What if she kicked Tim out? What if she made him stop seeing the kid entirely? He couldn’t let that happen, the kid had gone through enough. No, he would have to wait for the perfect moment.

If she didn’t find out first.

Marinette walked into the kitchen in the morning and everyone tensed and glanced at Tim, who was casually playing a video game and definitely not learning self-defense.

Adrien sighed. Could he say he was just making sure Tim ate so he wouldn’t pass out? Would she believe that?

She walked over to the fridge and grabbed a can of Bam and then glanced back at the boys, her eyes glazed with exhaustion.

Then she gave every boy in the room a kiss on the cheek.

Yes, even Tim.

“I’ll be back after work. Are you picking me up like usual, sweetie?”

Dick blinked a few times and then stifled laughter with his hand. Once he’d managed to get his voice under control, he spoke: “Yep! I can’t wait to see Babs.”

“Gross. Right, I’m heading out.”

Everyone watched in stunned silence as she walked out.

Jason’s face soured.

And then he snapped his fingers. “I got it… HEY, MOM! YOU FORGOT THAT ROSS BROKE THE COFFEE MACHINE AT WORK!”

There was a beat.

“Jay, what the heck?” Hissed Adrien.

Marinette walked back in. “Guess who has been promoted to favorite.”

Dick gasped. “Wait, I was favorite beforehand?”

“No, Adrien was. I’m not telling you which kid was winning.”

“Hold up, I’ve been replaced as favorite over caffeine?”

Marinette nodded. She stole Tim’s laptop bag from him and then set three cans of the energy drink inside.

“Great, I’m off for real now.”

Jason slammed his head on the table, partially pulling his mother out of her stupor. “OH MY KWAMI. Mom. Tim has been living with us --.”

Adrien had clamped his hand over the kid’s mouth, but it was too late.

Marinette’s eyes slowly found their way to Tim and her face shifted from bored to angry in half a second.

He swallowed thickly. “M’lady, I can explain.”

“Please do.”

He hesitated. He hadn’t thought he’d get this far.

Her grip tightened on the strap of her bag when her phone went off in her pocket. She bit her lip and shook her head. She told her boss that she would be late because of a family matter, her eyes never leaving his.

He gave his most award-winning smile.

The kids filed out, though they both knew that they were going to just stand outside the door to listen in.

“Adrien, Tim has parents. You realize you essentially kidnapped that kid.”

“He went willingly!”

“Tell that to the cops!” She gave a bitter laugh. “Wait, you already are!”

He winced. “I know, I’m sorry. I couldn’t just leave him with his parents, though, they suck.”

Marinette clicked her tongue. “We can’t keep him. He isn’t ours and, even if he was, we hardly have the time to take care of three kids!”

“Dick can take care of himself, he’s an adult. So we’re back down to two! Actually, he can help take care of Tim, too, so less than two!”

“Remember when we said we wouldn’t have any?!”

“But we did fine!”

She groaned. “You’re not getting my point!”

“And you’re not getting mine! We can’t just leave that kid to suffer!”

“He’d suffer if he was with us, too!”

“He deserves people that love him to take care of him!”

“So does every kid on Earth! Are you going to adopt them all?!”

He rolled his eyes. “I want to but we have a limit... but this isn’t it! We’ve been doing just fine so far! He’s attached to us, we can’t just throw him out now!”

“I can’t let this one slide because I keep letting kids come in. It has to stop.”

“This is the last one,” he promised.

“I’ve heard that one before.”

“But I mean it this time.”

She scrutinized him for a long time, her lips pressed tightly together.

And then she clicked her tongue.

“Last one,” she muttered, pulling a new can from her bag and then turning. “I’ll see you after work.”

He watched her leave. He should say something, he should call her back and apologize, he should at least admit that what he was doing was wrong…

The front door slammed.

He slowly fell back into a chair and rested his face in his hands… only to realize it was wet. How long had he been crying? He breathed out a sigh.

He could feel eyes on him. He peeked between his fingers and saw the kids standing in the doorway, mouths slightly agape. He wiped his face on his sleeve and brought a smile back to his face.

Jason messed with his rings as he turned around and walked to his room.

“You didn’t want kids?” Asked Dick quietly.

His smile slid from his face.

“Not exactly. We wanted kids, but we figured we’d never be able to have them. I’m sorry it came out that way.”

Dick relaxed a little bit.

Adrien pushed himself up and walked over to Tim, resting a hand on top of his head.

“Right, welcome to the family, officially.”

~

Marinette rested her head on her desk.

“Um…?” Began Ross.

“Don’t. I’m not in the mood.”

“Okay.”

She heard his fingers get back to work on his keyboard and closed her eyes.

She’d officially hit a wall. What she needed was to get her hands on the security camera’s footage but she knew that they simply turned off the cameras when they let someone go.

Her mind wandered to Tim.

She bit her lip and sat up, pulling up a new tab and searching up “Haly’s Circus Dick Grayson” but, to her surprise, she found that any footage of her son during his time there had been scrubbed clean.

So, the kid had been telling the truth?

Well, he might be able to fix her current problem…

And, honestly, she was pretty much desensitized to the idea of a kid vigilante at this point. Partially because their family was up to four people who started being vigilantes as kids and partially because Dick and Jason had saved Marinette and Adrien quite a few times.

Besides, like it or not Tim was in the family now. That’s pretty much the main requirement, it seems.

That night she approached Tim about hacking.

“Right, what exactly would you need to hack into the police station security cameras?”

He frowned. “Probably a new computer that isn’t linked to me as a person. And I’d probably need to be inside the security room for a while, or at least the building.”

She thought about this for a minute and nodded. “Okay. I can get you that. Anything else?”

“Can I have a miraculous?”

She waved her hand vaguely. “Yeah, I was going to give you one anyways so we don’t have to do as much to delete footage… I was thinking the horse miraculous. Then you could get in and out of rooms pretty easily.”

“Cool. What are we trying to do, anyways?”

“Keep them from turning off the cameras when they need to do…” She trailed off, pursing her lips tightly. She knew this kid was around thirteen or fourteen, surely he knew all the kinds of things that went down at the GCPD, but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything. “... stuff.”

Tim nodded slightly. “I can do that, but I’d need to hide some kind of generator in the room. They might be unplugging the cameras to turn them off, I’d need to change some plugs around.”

“Great.”

They clinked their cans of energy drink together in a sort of toast.

~

Adrien should have expected something to go wrong.

Barbara and Dick had convinced the commissioner to go out to eat with them. Dick was now stressed for two reasons: the mission and the fact that he was officially meeting the parents.

Marinette had cleared a good amount of the precinct by offering to buy drinks. Even if her relationship with the precinct was… less than friendly, few people said no to free drinks paid for by the richest person there. This was mostly just to make sure people weren’t going to do overtime.

And Jason had drawn away the people currently on shift by ‘accidentally’ bowling over an abandoned building while on patrols.

Now it was just up to Adrien and Tim.

There was obviously a few people still there, it would have been too much to hope that the entire place would be empty. It didn’t matter, though, no one was suspicious of them. After all, Marinette would need a ride home and it wasn’t as if he could take Tim to a bar to wait.

And no one was suspicious of the fact that Tim had quickly pulled out his computer to ‘play some games’. Adrien had pulled out his phone as well, mostly to monitor the chats and make sure everyone was doing alright but also because he was bored.

A half hour later he got a tiny tug on his sleeve and looked down to see Tim shaking his head.

Great. On to plan B.

“Does anyone know where the bathroom is?”

They transformed in the bathroom and looked at each other nervously. They’d wanted plan A to work because it wouldn’t draw any attention to the security room…

Tim opened a portal inside and they stepped through. It was only two guys, and Adrien made quick work of them. He tied them up in some spare cables he found and pushed himself back to his feet.

Tim just waved him off and opened a portal for him.

He grinned as he dropped onto the floor of the main room. He looked around casually at the ten people that were still there. One of them was in just charge of guarding the prison, but the other nine were cops.

He tipped his head from side to side, weighing his chances as the cops began pulling out their guns.

Hm. This was much scarier when they could actually see him.

“Don’t move from that spot!”

Adrien raised his eyebrows, glancing at the officer who’d said it. Officer Ross. Of course.

He gave a tiny shrug. “If you say so.”

He extended his staff and smiled when it hit the cop nearest him in the face.

Then Adrien hooked it under a desk and tossed it at Ross.

Great. Now that he had spited that guy, he swung his weapon in a wide arc and took out the lights.

He smiled brightly at the now dark room and looked around as the cops scrambled. Some had already done this before and others had heard the story, but no one was looking for a repeat except for Adrien. He extended his staff to get to the ceiling and considered the people below...

A few of them shot blindly at where he had just been, which was a terrible idea but whatever.

He made his way through the room. He wasn’t killing anyone, though it was tempting after hearing some of Marinette’s stories, just opting to their weapons and moving onto the next person.

He also maybe broke some bones in the process. It happens.

A few minutes later he started making his way back to the security room and he grinned when he saw Tim coming out. He had his laptop under his arm. They’d succeeded.

Adrien took a quick look around and spotted a security camera. “Got it?”

“No, they deleted everything,” he lied.

He forced himself to frown (it was surprisingly hard to do after years of smiling for every camera he saw). “Dang. Guess we’ll need a new plan then. Let’s get home.”

Tim opened a portal back to the bathroom and they detransformed. They waited a few minutes before Adrien slowly peeked his head out the door. He held Tim behind him protectively as they walked through the precinct.

They got to the main room and found everyone groaning. A few of them had found flashlights or had turned on computers for lights.

“Is everyone okay? I heard gunshots!” Said Adrien, frowning.

Officer Ross, whose arm was bent at an odd angle, gave the kindest smile he could. “It’s fine, we just had a vigilante come by. It seems like everything is done, now, though.”

Adrien nodded a little bit.

“Good. Everything’s done.”

~

Marinette was one of ten people who didn’t get a jail sentence.

Now, she eyed the two-weeks notice on her desk. No one would be suspicious if she decided to leave. Fifty people had gone to jail, no one wants to stick around to see if they’re next.

Commissioner Gordon had resigned, too. Something about how he was disgusted about being so blind.

She bit her lip as she sat there at her desk, her computer on a How To video on quitting if you technically had no boss. Unfortunately, it seemed that she had phrased the question wrong because now it was telling her how to shut down a sole proprietorship.

“Agreste?”

She paused the video and looked up, her head tipping to the side as she took the man in. She knew that she knew him from somewhere, but her brain couldn’t seem to place a name to the face. “That’s me.”

“Could I speak to you alone for a minute?”

“Uh… sure. I’d love to.”

“I was thinking the roof? That’s a pretty private place, don’t you think?”

She pursed her lips tightly. She did not like where this was going in the slightest. “Well, sometimes people take their smoke break up there --.”

“Don’t worry, I know there’s no one up there.”

“Oh. Great.”

“Isn’t it?”

She nodded, letting him lead the way to the roof.

Her hand dipped into her back pocket and she cursed herself out mentally when she realized it was still on her desk. She wondered if she could get away with asking to go back for it. Somehow, she doubted it.

Marinette closed the door behind them.

She smiled at the man. “You wanted to talk?”

“I don’t think you’re stupid, Agreste.” He turned and flashed her a blinding smile. “Why don’t you guess what’s going on?”

“Well… I assume I’m in trouble,” she said carefully. Her eyes searched nearby rooftops and windows. “And that you have at least one person around that could kill me, probably a sniper since you chose a rooftop and not an alley.”

“Correct!” He said. He turned away from her and started pacing around. “What do you think you’re in trouble for?”

She hummed as if in thought. “You seem to be the one asking all the questions. Mind if I at least know who you are?”

“I asked you a question first.”

She forced a tiny laugh. “Sure, but no one likes admitting when they do things wrong. Besides, what if I fess up to the wrong thing? Then I have two reasons for you to want to kill me.”

“Just. Guess.”

Hm…

He couldn’t know about her being Ladybug, they’d done too much to make sure no one knew her identity. No one outside of Dick had ever done anything that could be traced back to them, and all that footage was gone from the internet forever.

Then what could he have found out about?

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

He scrutinized her face for a minute before frowning and shaking his head. “Agoura.”

“Huh?”

“My name. It’s Antony Agoura.”

Oh. Oh fuck.

Well, at least now she knew where she’d seen him before?

He folded his hands in front of him, smiling at her. “I see you know me.”

“Of course I do.”

He nodded. “Good. Now, I want to ask you a question.”

“Another one?” She said quietly.

“Mhmm. I’d like to know if you think I’m stupid.”

“Of course not.”

He chuckled, shaking his head. “You know, the day that Chat Noir bust into the police station was odd.”

“I wouldn’t know. I wasn’t there.”

“Yep! Odd, don’t you think? Someone who previously didn’t get along with her coworkers suddenly decides to take them all out for free drinks. That same night, her son takes the commissioner out to dinner. The precinct was almost completely empty thanks to your family.”

Great. That was why that was plan B. She was screwed.

She nodded slightly, her throat tightening. “You don’t say…”

“And, on top of that, the vigilantes were acting weird! I mean, they were all set on distracting people and keeping them as far away as possible!”

“That’s… odd.”

“Mhmm!” He smiled and rested a hand on her shoulder. “An interesting coincidence, don’t you think?”

She nodded again, fighting the urge to shrug him off. “Yeah.”

He steered her to the door. “I’d like to congratulate you on your promotion, by the way.”

“The…?”

“Being commissioner is such an honor!”

She scoffed. “You couldn’t get away with that. I’m the newest person here, it’s too suspicious.”

“You think?”

“Yeah --.”

He opened the door and she fought the urge to flinch at all the cameras suddenly flashing in her face.

“Congratulations!”

“How do you feel about being the first commissioner of asian descent?”

Her eyes widened. Oh. So, it turns out Agoura definitely could get away with that.

She glanced to the side to see the cops who had been there longer clapping with sarcastic smiles on their faces. “Congrats!” Said one in a tone that definitely said that she was dead.

The mob boss moved his grip to hug her to his side, smiling brightly and waving at the press.

“Smile for the cameras, Agreste.”

~~~

Taglist

@i-am-ironic @nathleigh @mialuvscats @golden-promises @sassakitty @deathwishy @toodaloo-kangaroo @ladythugs @moonlightstar64 @dahjokester @jjmjjktth

[staysaneathome]

Statement #3 of the Reigen Files (Name Pending)

[CLICK]

ARATAKA REIGEN: “Oh, a computer! Nice, nice, very nice.”

[A clatter of someone dropping into a chair with two much force. The table squeaks as it is nudged out of alignment.]

ARATAKA REIGEN: “How-eh-how’s the, «what’s the word again…» the recorder?”

THE ARCHIVIST: “Fortunately, its cover was just cracked and the tape was fine, no thanks to you.”

ARATAKA REIGEN: [Sucking in air through teeth.] «C-crap.»

ARATAKA REIGEN: “I can pay for a new one?”

THE ARCHIVIST: “It’s fine, Mr. Reigen. Just, just try not to gesticulate too wildly this time, alright?”

ARATAKA REIGEN: “Eh, what is ges-gesti—?”

THE ARCHIVIST: “Oh, damn, uh…Movement. No big movement, like this, right?”

[There’s a faint sound of a hand smacking against plastic.]

THE ARCHIVIST: “Ow! Oh, damn—”

ARATAKA REIGEN: “Sims?”

THE ARCHIVIST: “…At least the laptop’s screen’s fine. So, so no big movement like that, got it?”

ARATAKA REIGEN: “No big movement! Got it!”

[Another clatter as something else on the table is hit.]

THE ARCHIVIST: “…Let’s just get this over with, shall we?”

THE ARCHIVIST: “Statement of Arataka Reigen, regarding…” [Weary Sigh] “…Regarding the time his parents forgot to pack him a lunchbox for a school sports day. Statement is taken directly from subject by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, whose time Mr. Arakata apparently sees fit to waste at his leisure, on June 12th, 2016 at 11:45 AM. Statement begins.”

ARATAKA REIGEN: “Well, I want to say it was maybe…3rd grade in elementary school?”

THE ARCHIVIST: “I beg your pardon?”

ARATAKA REIGEN: “Elementary?” «I’m sure that’s the right word…» “The school you go to when you’re…eight, I think?”

THE ARCHIVIST: “Oh, you mean primary. Right, okay. Please continue.”

ARATAKA REIGEN: «…Okay… I could’ve sworn it was…anyway,» “I was eight years old. It was my school sports day. I was in class 3-B, and we were the red team that year. We had done well that year, because we had Urashima Taro in our class. We didn’t do so well the next year, because he moved down to 4-C, but we had him that year, and he was really strong and the fastest runner put of everyone. Of course, I helped us get a victory over 3-A in the rope-pull, so I was pretty important to our success too. But then lunch time came, and everyone in my class went off with their parents to eat their lunchboxes. You know what it was like in the one hundred and eighties, where everyone’s parents had to work to buy the next meal for the week. Well, my mom and my dad could not come because both of them were working that day. But I guess both of them had forgot to tell each other that? So after the rope tug, I went to go have lunch like all my classmates, only no one was there. And they’d both forgotten to pack me something to eat on my own, even? So I was just staring at everyone else eating, with their mommies and daddies, and feeling really, really hungry. And it was weird, because my vision got kinda…«what’s the word…» fuzzy? Like I was in a…«mist», you know? When clouds come down to where you can see and it goes all white?”

THE ARCHIVIST: “You mean foggy?”

ARATAKA REIGEN: “Foggy!” «That’s the word, I need to remember that for next time…» “Yeah, yeah, foggy. And I am in the foggy, staring at all these people, but they are hard to see. Hard to hear. Almost like I’m the only real person and they’re just…extras? Like in a movie? And I’m really, really hungry, and I’m wishing I had some…some food. Or a person to talk to, like everyone else. And then there was a hand on my shoulder. It really scared me, because I thought I was alone! It was Tanaka-sensei, my…«…I know this!» Ah! Homeroom teacher! Yeah, yeah, homeroom teacher. And he was scared because he saw me just staring at everyone, not moving, and Tanaka-sensei asked me where my parents were. And I said they weren’t here, and I had no lunchbox. So Tanaka-sensei gave me his banana and peanut butter sandwich, because I had no lunch. It was pretty good. But what I learned most on that day was that it was okay if your mom or dad or whoever takes care of you didn't show up, even if it was to something important to you. Because there are other adults who will care, even if they aren’t them, and that’s okay. But when you’re an adult, and you have a kid like that, you gotta do your best to be like Tanaka-sensei was to you to them. It’s what being an adult means. I have students like that, and I made sure to make Mob a peanut butter and banana sandwich when he was training for his club. Tome’s allergic to peanuts though, so she prefers cheese and egg sandwiches.”

ARATAKA REIGEN: “I have some pictures of Mob in his club, wanna see?

THE ARCHIVIST: “That’s quite alright Mr. Reigen, I—”

ARATAKA REIGEN: [Clearly ignoring his protests] “Yeah, see, here, this is Mob training for his first race! He was so excited for it, and he did super good, even if he ended up tripping at the start! He was «74th» in his year! Wait, I have a video here—”

THE ARCHIVIST: [Slightly desperately] “Is this really necessary—”

[Slightly tinny sound of a video being played through a phone’s speakers. There’s the sound of clamorous cheering in Japanese, in concert with wild and slightly too enthusiastic applause. Faint sounds of people running are audible beneath the sounds of support. Reigen’s voice calling out for Mob is much louder than anyone else’s.]

THE ARCHIVIST: “Ah. How lovely.”

ARATAKA REIGEN: «Right?» “Mob’s on the track and field team at Tokyo U now! He’s in his second year.” [A wistful sigh]«They grow up too fast… I remember when he barely came up to my knee, when he first came into my office…»

THE ARCHIVIST: “That’s very nice, Mr. Reigen. But if we’re quite finished?”

ARATAKA REIGEN: “Well, I guess—”

THE ARCHIVIST: “Wonderful. Why don’t you go and wait in the bullpen and Martin will fix you a cup of tea? We’ll be sure to look into this and see if it is anything more than childhood drivel and get back to you, posthaste.”

[Clatter of someone being not so gently guided out of their chair and shown the door]

ARATAKA REIGEN: “Okay? Wait, what does ‘drivel’ mea—”

[The door slamming shut in his face cuts off the end of his sentence.]

THE ARCHIVIST: “Oh thank God.”

[Slow trudging steps of someone shouldering a burden too heavy for their shoulders and slumping into their chair with more force than strictly necessary. The table squeaks in complaint again.]

THE ARCHIVIST: “I need a pay raise. Some similarities to Naomi Herne’s statement, but honestly I expect that’s more a result of Mr. Reigen’s sense of melodrama than anything else. Honestly, if Elias expects me to entertain these frivolities…”

[A pause. Shuffling as papers and miscellaneous pens and other utensils are shunted aside before audio quality suddenly increases.]

THE ARCHIVIST: “Wh-? What’s this doing here? And it’s…running?”

THE ARCHIVIST: “Ugh, MARTIN! How many times have I told you, we only have a limited supply of these tapes, we can’t afford to leave them running them willy-nilly, honestly—!”

[CLICK]