#⠀⠀⠀ ❝for laughs; for luck; for the unknown; take me with you — alexander. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

dreamingofep · 7 months ago

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Sinned Awakening pt. 27🩸

An AU Elvis fic

(Vampire!Elvis/ Vampire Austin! Elvis x reader)

Fandom: Elvis - Elvis (2022)

Prompt: Getting promoted to be Elvis full time housekeeper, you realize the man holds secrets beyond beliet and your undeniable attraction makes you tear the unknown. [Fem!Reader]

TW: Cussing, tension, mentions of killing, ANGST, SMUT, mentions of blood/ gore!!!

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 9.5k

A/N: Hello everyone!! Thank you for your patience! This part has a lot to uncover so get ready! Lots of new back story of Alexander and Iris and new discoveries have been made that you're not going to like...🫣Thanks for continuing to be so enthusiastic about this story!

If you'd like to start from the beginning, start here or Ao3! hope you enjoy and message and comment what you think.

A reminder, this is Vampire!Elvis so there is going to be mentions of blood/gore from here on out. If that's not your thing, sorry but it's needed for the story.

The air felt tense like everyone in here was holding their breath as you and Elvis walked in the room. Elvis tells Jerry to wait outside and he gladly obliges. Iris and Alexander sit next to each other on the long couch and you go to take a seat in one of the chairs by the fireplace. Elvis doesn’t sit down, he stands right beside you and places his hand on your shoulder to try to calm you. You couldn’t completely relax though. You were too anxious to see what these people had to say or if they were even telling the truth.

You look at them expectantly, waiting for them to start the conversation. You direct your first question to Elvis instead.

“Where did you go?” You ask in a hushed tone.

He sighs heavily, seeing how much you’re hurt, and kneels next to you to get closer.

“Baby, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I was gone for so long…I went all over the country. I was trying to find anyone who might have a clue where I could find older vampires. Ones that would be more well-versed in such matters we are facing. I ran into dead ends everywhere I went. I went to New York, Louisiana, all the way back to California even but had found nothing. I couldn’t give up though.” He explains.

“I then went to Colorado, one of the final places I decided to stop at. I met one of my buddies I know out there, he’s also one of us. I told him what I was looking for and how I wasn’t having any luck. He knew about some old vampires that lived in the mountains, far away from any town, and were essentially recluses.” He chuckles looking at Iris and Alexander snarkily. They throw daggers back at him and stay silent.

“It wasn’t easy finding them. It took me hours to get through the mountains and get past the traps they have set up for wandering hikers,” he quips.

“Yes that’s the whole point of living out of reach of people, so no one can find us,” Alexander grumbles.

Elvis has a smile on his face and continues to speak, “Well, their traps weren’t that effective since I’m in one piece. But they did not like trespassers, they tried to hurt me and get me off their property,” he snickers. You didn’t laugh though. Every hair on your body felt like it stood up and your blood boiled. The very idea of anyone trying to hurt him made you angry beyond comprehension. You hate the idea of anyone hurting Elvis or even laying a finger on him.

You grip the arm of the chair tightly, your anger getting the best of you.

“Did either of you lay a finger on him?” You say through your teeth. They shift uncomfortably in their seats as they look at each other. They clear their throats and take a deep breath before speaking.

“Well, y/n, you have to understand, we don’t like intruders coming near us. We didn’t know who he was-,” Iris starts to explain but you don’t let her finish, your anger getting the best of you.

“What the hell are you even talking about?! He’s Elvis Presley! The most famous man on the planet!” You snap. Elvis puts his hand on yours, squeezing it lightly.

“Honey, they’re telling the truth. They had no idea who I was before telling them. They don’t own a single TV or a radio,” Elvis tells you.

You’re absolutely shocked. You had never heard of anyone before such a recluse they don’t know who Elvis is. Even his name is eye-catching and different, you can’t believe the name doesn’t even ring a bell for them.

You try to relax a bit and focus on Elvis to calm you down.

“What did you do to convince them?” You ask.

“I tried to talk to them at a distance, try to explain our situation. Nothing really convinced them til they saw my eyes. They trusted me a bit more after that. The harder part was getting them to leave with me. They aren’t exactly adventurous…” he says slyly. That earned Elvis another death glare from the both of them. You throw them the same look and they get the message.

“So do you believe us? Are you going to help us or continue to be difficult,” you question. You knew it sounded harsh, but you weren’t going to have these people in your house if they weren’t going to help you two figure out some things about your new vampire lives.

They take a deep breath before speaking and look at you both.

“Yes, we believe you. The way you protect Elvis is a huge indication that you have a bond. We just haven’t met anyone like us in a very long time,” Alexander says gently.

Considering how they are so isolated, you aren’t too surprised they haven’t been in contact with any other vampires. Let alone any other bonded ones.

You relax a bit, trying to give these people a chance and not get too upset.

“How old are you both then? When was the last time you met someone like us?” You ask.

They smile at each other and hold each other’s hands.

Iris speaks first, “I’m meant to look twenty years old but in reality, I’ve been on this earth for seven hundred and fifty years. I’m originally from Spain where my family was royalty and very powerful. I’ve only met another Chosen pair twice in my life. We are extremely rare you see,” she says directing her attention to Alexander to start talking too.

“I’m the same age too. I’m from France though. Our regions had religious tensions in these times and I was a knight fighting for my country. I was a young man then, only nineteen at the time. But I saw her face in the grand throne room and I never was the same after seeing her,” he says sweetly looking at Iris.

“Did you know she was meant to be with you? Did you feel the connection?” You ask him inquisitively.

He chuckles softly at you, “I wouldn’t know. I was just a human then. I just thought she was distractingly beautiful,” he explains.

You look back at Iris with a smug smile on her face. You don’t know why you assumed he was a vampire first but you kind of feel embarrassed for jumping to conclusions.

“Oh, I’m sorry for assuming things. How were you turned then, Iris? Did you feel the connection with him?” You ask.

“I was turned when I was on my death bed, a lot like how Elvis was from how he explained it to us. It was common at that time to catch smallpox and there was no cure. It was brutal and anyone near you would undoubtedly catch it. I didn’t want to die. I begged my mother and father to do anything. Hire someone that could cure me,” she tells you.

“At this time, it was looked down upon to go against the church's beliefs or practices. Dark magic was shunned by anyone in the country but it was still being heavily practiced. I heard from many people that there were people on the outskirts of town that would practice it and they could cure anyone that came to them. I begged my parents to get one of them to help me. I felt death closing in on me with every breath. As much as they hated the idea, they didn’t want me to die. I was engaged to a prince in England and there was too much to be lost if I suddenly passed away. They were willing to risk the chance of someone finding out that dark magic was being practiced in the palace walls.”

You were shocked by her story. She was royalty at one point and no one now knows the true story of what happened to her. All except for you and Elvis now.

Iris continues, “They found a healer and snuck him into the palace late at night. I was getting weaker by the second and barely remembered how it happened… but I remember him asking to save me. I remember how cold he was. He felt like ice to me but I thought it was because I was so weak. He leaned in close and told me he’d give me a gift, one that would let me live forever. I thought he was crazy but I permitted him to do what needed to be done to save me. I wasn’t expecting the bite, I was expecting some sort of magic spell or something. It was excruciating as you are aware of, but after the pain of the bite resided, my body felt stronger than ever.”

“He then took me away from the palace, out of the way from harming any humans, and learned how my new abilities worked with the others that lived outside of town. I learned how to control my thirst and how to feed without hurting anyone. I was gone for a month and everyone was worried sick about me. But I eventually returned to the palace and assured everyone I was fine and better than ever. I compelled most of them that I wasn’t gone as long as they remembered to help me get back into normal life.”

You and Elvis were enthralled by her story. Some of her stories paralleled Elvis’ too. They were both so desperate to live. They didn’t know the ramifications of this choice and how it would alter their entire existence. You had so many questions for them, especially how they have been living like this for so long.

“That’s truly incredible. I’m so glad you had guidance from them. What happened after all of that? Did you marry the prince after all?” You ask.

She laughs amused and shakes her head, “Well, almost. I was a few days away from marrying the prince and then he walked into my life. I knew the moment I saw him,” she blushes.

“So did I,” Elvis says softly. You look up at him in awe. It was the first time he said it to you. It was shocking to hear from his lips but it made your heart feel so happy and overjoyed.

“So you know what I’m talking about then. That instant feeling of happiness and the pull to be closer to them,” she explains to both of you. “I had that with Alexander. The second I saw him, I thought he was the most beautiful man to ever exist.”

Alexander squeezes her hand and smiles at her.

“I thought she was beautiful too. Everyone thought she was beautiful so I didn’t think much of it when I wanted to be closer to her. Thought I was just like everyone else,” he chuckles.

“When did you know it was something more?” Elvis asks.

They both look at each other and have this sly look on their faces.

Oh… you remember that moment it became so much more intense between you two.

“Well I… I invited him to my room to talk to him. His scent lured me even more and I wanted to be extra close to him. It wasn’t until I touched him… and kept touching him that I realized there was so much more here. My body wanted him to please me beyond my wildest dreams…He became my new obsession I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I wanted to have him locked in my bedroom at all hours of the day. That was my plan actually, to keep him there til I had my fill and make him forget all of it. But as you know Elvis, you can’t compel them to forget anything,” she says heartily.

They both laugh at the notion and Elvis nods his head in agreement.

“Did you feel similarly with y/n Elvis?” She asks him.

He pauses and looks at you, analyzing your eyes and dragging down to your back and your chest. He takes a slow breath in before speaking.

“Yes, very similar. The pull she had on me from the start… all of that was the same. I tried not to touch her though. I didn’t want to repulse her. I tried to protect her from myself in any way I could. I was so starved I was so afraid I’d hurt her if I tried to take a bite.”

“But what changed…” Alexander asks him.

Elvis shifts uncomfortably and bites the inside of his cheek.

“Well uhh… I got upset at her… for something stupid that was my fault anyway. But something changed in me. The way I needed her…The way I needed her physically… it was so overwhelming,” he admits. He looks over at you longingly but adverts his eyes elsewhere to not be distracted. The more you learn about the first few days with Elvis will never not shock you. You didn’t know what he was feeling or what he wanted. He was smitten by you long before you accepted the truth.

Iris and Alexander exchange looks and nod their head in agreement.

“That’s how it goes. You don’t want to leave their side or anything,” Iris agrees, “I felt the same thing. It only makes it worse if you have them intimately,” she adds. You watch as Elvis squeezes your hand slightly at that comment.

“How did you tell him what you were?” You ask changing the subject.

“Once I realized I couldn’t compel him to forget anything, panic slightly set in. I knew one of our rules was for humans to never find out about our existence. It scared me and I didn’t know what to do. I went to the man who turned me, looking for guidance. I told him the problems I was facing with Alexander. He looked at me like I grew a second head. He knew the second I started to describe the feelings I had for Alexander made him my Chosen. I never heard of what that was. He had met many others like us but for them, it took centuries to meet their Chosen. After wrapping my head around that all, I went to find Alexander and told him the truth, I showed him my fangs and reassured him I wouldn’t hurt him. But I had to explain the bond, the connection we shared was more powerful than anything in this world. He accepted me for who I was and eventually let me feed on him. It seems like we got very lucky that we didn’t need to wait for centuries for each other,” she quips proudly.

Elvis looks at you lovingly, “we are lucky,” he coos.

“How did you tell her Elvis? Were you scared too?” Alexander asks.

Elvis instantly gets uncomfortable, letting go of your hand and standing back up. He fidgets with his rings, not looking at anyone in the eye when he speaks.

“I didn’t get the chance to tell her…” Elvis admits. He looks so uncomfortable telling this to these strangers in his living room.

“She walked in on me feeding off of a girl in my bed,” he admits.

Iris and Alexander exchanged shocked looks. You felt the room grow very quiet and uncomfortable. You didn’t want to relive that moment, it was hard to deal with. Everything changed in that moment. If you had actually listened to him and didn’t go in his bedroom, many things would have turned out differently in this journey… you couldn’t help but wonder the alternatives…

“How could you do that to y/n?” Alexander snaps at Elvis. Elvis shoots him a death glare, it petrifies everyone in the room.

“It’s not like I got any enjoyment out of it, believe me,” he snarls.

“But how could you still do that? You knew that y/n was meant for you and you still fed off of someone like that,” Iris presses.

“I couldn’t admit to her or myself that this sort of thing was real! I thought it was a legend! Something that happened a long time ago but doesn’t happen anymore,” he seethes. He steps away from you, seeing how his emotions are getting the best of him.

“Every time I fed off of someone, all I could think of was how she tasted! How bad I wanted her and only her. So don’t look at me like I'm some kind of ruthless monster. I hated myself for doing it. How I’d have her in my bed only hours ago and try to forget how much I needed her by drowning myself in someone else.”

It felt like your heart stopped. This new confession was shocking, to say the least. Nothing prepared you for the truth of what he might have done when you weren’t with him. His eyes looked sorrowful as he looked at you. It hurt you so much to see him be this way.

“How often would you do that…” you ask him.

He sighs heavily, “Baby please,” he whimpers.

“Just tell me. I can’t go back in the past and change it so it doesn’t matter. I just want to know the truth.” You say firmly.

“One too many times…” he says softly. Not the answer you wanted to hear but it was enough.

“I don’t know if you knew… but you’re not supposed to do that…” Iris says gently.

“Yes I’ve gathered that,” Elvis spats at her coldly.

They were looking at Elvis like he was the most vile creature they’d ever laid eyes upon. You felt your anger bubble up to the surface and snap.

“How about you tell us how to go about feeding instead of sitting there and judging him! He’s not perfect but he’s different now! So much has changed. If you’re going to judge him, you have to judge me too. I was engaged when I met him but didn’t care and let Elvis take me to his bed anyway. You’re in the twentieth century, learn to adapt,” you hiss.

Their faces are shocked by your blunt words. You weren’t going to sit there anymore as they continued to take little jabs at Elvis.

“We’re sorry for saying those things. We apologize for hurting your feelings,” Alexander says somberly.

“It’s fine,” you grumble, “can you tell us how you feed though? There isn’t any guidance in any book for us to follow,” you try to explain calmly.

“Well from what I’ve known and experienced from the different vampires I’ve met, you can feed however suits you but it’s a little different when you’re with your Chosen. As I’m sure you are aware, you only want your partner’s. Nothing is as fulfilling. You still should drink human blood every few weeks to keep your strength up and keep your hunger at bay. It can be from a human you compel but you don’t bite from anywhere but the neck. You don’t feel any need for humans other than their blood. There’s no pull to give them anything else. You make your interaction with them to feed as brief as possible. But the need for each other's blood will never go away, you’ll always be in need of one another. That’s just how your bond works.” She says. She suddenly looks at you inquisitively, analyzing your overall demeanor.

“You haven’t fed in a while. I can tell by the way your heart sounds,” she says matter-of-factly.

You’re annoyed you can’t hide anything from any vampire.

“I know. I couldn’t feed when Elvis was away. I was too nervous and didn’t have an appetite for anything,” you say defeated. She nods her head, understanding how you feel. She then looks over at Elvis too, giving him the same analysis.

“You haven’t fed either. You’re starving for her,” she tells him.

You watch as Elvis swallows harshly when he looks over at you.

“Yes of course. We’ve just been a little busy and haven’t had the time to,” he says uncomfortably. Alexander and Iris exchange panicked looks. You don’t understand why they look shocked. Elvis was saying the truth about it all.

“You haven’t fed from each other… at all?” Alexander asks. “Why aren’t you taking care of your wife?” He says looking at Elvis with disgust.

Oh no. Not good.

You stand up and step in front of Elvis and push at his chest as he looks at them with a deadly look in his eye.

“You do not get to accuse me of not taking care of my wife!” he barks over your head. “You better fucking watch it,” he growls.

“You left her unprotected and starved! Your only job for the rest of your life is to provide for her! You haven’t done that for her in this new life of hers,” he snarls at him.

“Enough! Both of you!” You snap. They both have the same reaction and look down at the floor listening to your command.

“Stop this! Stop accusing him of being a terrible man, Alexander. You know nothing about him. I have drank blood! It’s not like I’m on the brink of death. I’ve just drank from blood bags… why is this a big deal?” You ask growing increasingly anxious and frustrated.

“Well,” Iris begins to say nervously, “That’s the final step of your change, it’s to drink each other's blood, securing the bond for life. What you drank out of him while you were still human wasn’t enough. You have to be fully changed and then drink his blood to secure your bond to him.” She explains.

You feel like you just got punched in the gut. It made you feel sick that you weren’t technically bonded with him. If you hadn’t started fighting with him, you wouldn’t be facing this dilemma. Another bomb hits you in the chest as you're sitting there worried out of your mind…

You can’t feel Elvis’ emotions like you did the first day you were changed. You can hardly feel anything. You go to sit down again, needing to calm down and get a grasp on this information. Elvis grabs onto your hand and you look up at him. You expect to feel the worry roll off of him but you don’t feel much at all. It scared you half to death.

“I can’t feel you… I can’t feel anything you’re feeling like I did before… it’s so faint.” You say scared. You look back at Alexander’s and Iris’ nervous faces.

“Yeah… that’s what can happen…” she says low. “You need to bite each other and it’ll be okay. The longer you wait, the harder it is to restore your bond. You could have easily been able to be compelled by another vampire while Elvis was gone,” she says regretfully.

Alexander nods in agreement, “that’s why we don’t like to be away from each other. You made to protect your other half. It feels physically ailing to be away for long,” he says gently.

It made so much sense why you felt so lost and empty when he left. The other half of you was being ripped out of you.

“When were you turned y/n?” Iris asks.

“May 17th,” you inform. She gives you both another wide-eyed look.

“And that was the last time you drank from each other? That’s so long ago…” she says confused.

“Well, I didn’t wake up for eight days after his bite,” you start to explain.

“Eight days? That shouldn’t be possible…I don’t understand…” Iris says lost in thought. “The only way for the change to be interrupted was if someone else bit you but that can be possible…”

You feel your mouth turn dry at the memory. It feels like so long ago but it wasn’t. The last memory of Raphael biting you was excruciating and the most pain you’ve ever felt. You would always hate him even in death that he did that to you.

“I was bitten by someone else,” you squeak out. They stare motionless on the couch, looking at both you and Elvis in shock.

You hear a growl form deep in Elvis’ chest at the memory.

“Who?” They ask in unison.

“The man that bit me, Raphael, abducted her and fed off of her, multiple times. He almost killed her along with her ex-fiancé,” Elvis seethes.

Iris turns her attention to you to speak, “How many times did he bite you? Where did he bite?” She asks a little frantic.

Your head feels a bit lightheaded and you have to take a few deep breaths before speaking.

“Everywhere. His bite hurt so much. He bit deep and tore my skin so badly. I had ugly scars everywhere,” you tremble at the memory. You instinctively remember where he bit you. You had to look at those marks every day and shield them from Elvis in any way you could for months. You raise your hand up to your chest, feeling the phantom pain of where those bites were.

You freeze.

You had to be delirious with thirst or so in shock with all this new information that you could swear you feel the raised scar of the bite mark. You pull down the collar of your shirt and gasp.

A prominent scar, a bite mark was red on your chest, the exact place where Raphael bit you.

You look at Elvis horrified, you have no idea when this got here but it looks just like it did when you came back from the hospital. Elvis stares angry daggers at the scar as his breathing becomes ragged.

“How long has that been there,” Elvis hisses.

“I-I don’t know. I don’t know. I haven’t noticed it,” you say dazed thinking to remember if you noticed anything weird before. He moves your hair to expose your neck and growls loudly.

“What does this mean!” Elvis snaps at Alexander and Iris. You raise your hand to cover your neck and feel the raised scar there too. You want to cry, this was all too much.

They can’t look him in the eye, his anger was so palpable and coming off of him in heaps. It felt like it was choking you.

“We don’t know exactly. I know for a fact that no one is supposed to feed from another person’s Chosen. That is heresy and that person would be killed for their actions. No one is even supposed to touch her except you,” she explains to Elvis. She cautiously stands up and lowers her gaze.

“Do you mind if I take a closer look at your wife’s scars? I won’t touch her I swear,” she says timidly.

“Fine,” he grumbles through his teeth.

Iris makes her way to you and kneels in front of you to get a better look at the marks. You hear her suck in a sharp breath as she inspects them. You pull your shirt down to show her that mark too. She looks at you with sorrow in her eyes.

“These bites… I don’t know how you survived them while you were human. These bites were vicious and cruel. It’s like…” she trails off lost in thought. You knew what she was going to say. You thought the same thing while he was biting you.

“Like he was trying to mark me as his,” you breathe.

She stays silent and nods her head. “This is so strange… I’ve only heard of something like this happening if-,” she says but gets interrupted by Elvis.

“What does this mean? Why is this happening to her? First, she didn’t turn right away and now these bite marks are coming back? I don’t understand,” Elvis says frustratedly.

Iris stands back up and is listening in thought. She paces a bit, collecting her thoughts.

“Forgive me for the lack of clarity but… you killed Raphael for this, didn’t you? For doing all of this to her?” She asks him.

“Yes of course I did. Cut his head right off,” he growls. Iris looks at him expectantly like she’s waiting for him to say more.

She swallows harshly, “…and you staked him in the heart right?” She asks gently.

You look up at Elvis expecting to see him nodding in agreement but instead, he turns three shades paler and his knees buckle to the floor. You grab onto his shoulder and try to get him to look at you.

“Honey?” You shake him.

He looks up and for the first time in a while, his eyes look dark.

Deadly.

Vicious.

On the hunt for blood.

His breathing becomes labored and his fangs descend down.

“You’re telling me, Raphael is alive?” He hisses.

“It’s possible… and it looks like it’s true with these scars reforming on her body. He has a tie to her it seems. Only someone so cruel and vile would inflict this kind of harm,” she says lightly.

“No!” Elvis yells, his fist slamming into the wall behind him. Pieces of drywall crumble down and a large hole is left behind.

“I’m not entirely certain though. It is just a theory. It looks like a huge possibility though. He would need a lot of help to be brought back to life, but it’s possible. The only way to truly kill a vampire is to stake them in the heart, with an ash stake in particular. Certain types of wood hold mystical properties that will keep vampires dead. There is no way of resuscitating them after that and since you didn’t do that… he might be out there somewhere,” she says walking back to the couch cautiously, looking at him with his fangs exposed like he was dangerous. You had to agree though, he was dangerous when it came to protecting you. He would do anything for you and should be feared.

“I-I-I didn’t know… no one told me and none of the legends go into that sort of thing…” he says scared. You try to recall the books you had been reading and you don’t remember any specifics of how to kill a vampire. You’re sure Elvis read every book there was and read it multiple times, he wouldn’t miss that crucial piece of information.

“It’s okay Elvis, it's not a widely known thing because we don’t want everyone to know how to annihilate us off this planet. Humans have always been superstitious about us and if they knew the one thing that can kill us, it would be a very hard life to live here,” she explains

Your stomach turned and felt like you could be sick. This was the worst thing you could hear. You had some sort of tie to that wicked, cruel man all because you let him bite you while you were human. You couldn’t believe any of this. It felt like the world was closing in on you and you were drowning.

“We’ll figure out what to do together. It’ll be alright. It’s not like he knows where you live,” Alexander tried to reassure.

“Everyone knows where I live you fucking-,” Elvis starts to yell but you quickly get up and try to stop him.

“Honey stop stop! It’s alright, it’s alright. We’re going to be fine,” you say trying to calm him down, He looks at you like he doesn’t believe a word you just said. Frankly, you don’t believe a word you said either. You had no idea if it was going to be okay.

“What do we do?” Elvis asks them.

“He’s going to come looking for her eventually, so it’s best to be prepared. Keep your guys on watch and keep everyone strong. So that means you two need to feed and complete your bond. That will help you get stronger and not let him have more of a hold on her or risk her getting compelled by him in any way,” Alexander tells you both.

Iris grabs his hand and stands up again.

“We should leave you alone for now. I know you both have a lot to discuss. We’ll come back tomorrow and we can talk more,” she says softly and starts to make her way to the front door with Alexander in tow.

The front door slams and you both are standing there motionless, stuck in complete shock. Elvis looks like he’s about to collapse again. He slowly walks to the staircase and sits down on the third step. His face is in his hands and his long legs are stretched out. He looks defeated like this. Your heart dies to see him like this.

You kneel in between his legs, “Honey, I-I’m so scared,” you whimper. He looks up at you and his fangs are gone and tears fall down his cheeks.

“This is all my fault. I’m so sorry for this,” he sighs.

“No honey that’s not true-,” you try to reassure.

“No. It is. I have put you in so much danger since meeting you and even worse, I left you alone for weeks, defenseless and starving. I don’t know why I keep fucking all this up with you. I’m so sorry,” he sighs.

“I understand why you left,” you say gently, “you were desperate for answers. I’m sorry that I started a fight that drove you to leave though. I’m sorry for that. I wish you could have told me how you felt in the beginning. I didn’t know about any of that you said in the living room,” you say sheepishly.

There’s an uncomfortable silence between you two and Elvis continues to not look at you. Your heart thumps nervously, waiting for him to say anything to reassure you.

“It was too sickening to admit to you. I couldn’t look at your face when I said it,” he pauses to look at you. “I can’t take any of it back but if it changes anything, I’ve loved you the second I saw you. I was too afraid to admit it, so I did some shallow things, and I’m sorry for that,” he sniffles.

Your heart breaks as you watch him sit there. You reach for his hand and squeeze it lightly.

“We’re not perfect, but I believe you. We can’t change the past… I know your love for me has always been stronger than I can possibly imagine,” you say softly. He lets go of your hand and wipes his face.

“I’m an idiot… I can’t keep doing this to you. You’re in harm's way yet again,” he pauses and looks at you for the first time. His eyes look like he’s looking right through you, “Maybe it would be better if you forgot all of this…compel you. Send you far away until I take care of Raphael once and for all and just start over with us…” he alludes.

Your heart stops. You stare at him blankly and can’t believe the words that just came out of his mouth. You stumble backward, not being able to be so close to him.

“E-Elvis…NO! What are you thinking! No!” You yell at him.

“I can’t cause you any more pain! And there is bound to be more pain with Raphael around! It’s going to kill me if he hurts you again! I can’t see that again,” he cries, grabbing your arm to still you. “I can send you with Iris and Alexander, I know they’d protect you-,” he continues.

“NO! I won’t let you do that!” You yell, getting up to your feet. “If you do that, I’ll never forgive you, Elvis! I promise you that!” You seethe, tears flowing down your face.

He stands up too, looking at you intensely. You can’t help but hold your breath, too afraid of what he’s going to say next.

“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to put you out of harm's way,” he trembles.

“This isn’t the solution. I would never agree to that” you cry. “I swear I won’t forgive you if you make me forget a single detail!”

“Then what is the solution?! If he hurts you, or even worse, tries to kill you, I would die too. We’re meant to be together forever, tied together in our bond…the bond that I’ve only weakened being gone so long and not letting you feed…” he says mournfully.

“Stop please, I can’t live without you either. Not even for a second! I would always feel this giant hole inside my heart if you had someone compel me to forget you. It would be the worst pain I could ever feel,” you shudder.

You step closer to him with hurt eyes and an aching heart.

“We need to figure this out together, not pushing each other away. How many times do I need to prove that to you,” you say gently. He looks at you through tear-filled eyes and breathes slowly. You can feel the mood of the room drastically shift with the way he’s looking at you. You can’t tear your eyes off of him but there’s a small part of you that still trembles in his presence.

He takes a small step closer to you, then another and another, just until your chests barely touch.

“Yes, I know. I’m sorry. I felt so hollow without you these last few weeks… I don’t know how I would last another day,” he whispers, his lips so close to yours. You feel your heart flutter again, gasping for breath in his suffocating presence.

“I know,” you breathe, closing your eyes.

He gently caresses your arms, giving you chills down your spine.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for this.” He grumbles.

His touch sparks the dimmed light inside you and you want to touch him too. He moves his face to the side of yours and runs his fingers through your hair. He sighs slowly then takes in a deep breath, taking in your scent. You feel like you could crumble at his feet. The slightest touch makes it harder and harder to breathe. His fingers slowly drag down the length of your hair and his hand snakes down to your waist. Your breath catches in your throat as he does this, not ready for his intimate touch. You feel his teeth graze your earlobe and slowly drag it down.

Lord save me.

“Baby, I ache for you…” he gasps. You pull your head away from his and you try to look in his eyes.

He flashes his golden eyes to you and makes you weak.

“Fix me,” he whimpers.

“Y-you don’t… I don’t unders-,” you tremble as you feel him pull your body flush to his.

“Make me whole again… Please,” he sighs squeezing you tighter. “Forgive me for all of it.”

Your breathing feels ragged and like an involuntary reaction, you pull at his arms to hold you tighter. He places a kiss on your cheek and you feel the heat linger there. His hand tangles in your hair again and you feel him become more desperate.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers.

“I know, it’s okay,” you say back.

He quickly picks you up by the back of your knees and lifts you off the ground, carrying you up the white carpeted stairs. He looks at you in his arms like you’re a wounded bird he found on the side of the road. His eyes bled so much sorrow and shame. They might appear golden right now, but underneath there was this cold, blustery storm inside of them that he was battling by himself.

He pushes open the bedroom door with his back and shuts it with his foot. He walks over to the bed and places you in the middle of it. You realize this is the first time you’ve laid in this bed since coming here. You didn’t want to get in it with Elvis around. He sits next to you, observing every inch of you as you lay there. He brushes your hair off of your chest and exposes your neck to him. You instantly cover up the scar mark with your hand.

“Forgive me,” he whimpers again, pulling your hand away from your neck.

“It’s okay,” you breathe.

He scoops his hands underneath your back and gets on top of you. You can’t help but wrap your legs around his torso, wanting him closer. He grumbles delightfully, relishing in the closeness.

“Feed on me,” he says in a breathy voice, “then let me make love to you. Please,” he begs.

“Honey I-,” you begin to say but he cuts you off with a kiss. This kiss was like no other. It was meaningful, passionate, and intense with fireworks exploding in your mind when you felt his lips. Oh how you missed his lips, those perfect plush lips that have you needing more. Your hands tangle in his hair, wanting him to stay close. You breathe in his scent, realizing how much you missed that too.

“Please,” he begs.

He takes his lips off yours and covers your cheek with kisses. He stops when he reaches your neck and you freeze. You didn’t want him to look there ever again. His thumb glides gently along the scar.

“Honey I’m so sorry,” he begins to say.

“Please don’t look. It’s too much,” you whimper.

He doesn’t listen of course and starts to lift up your shirt to see the other marks. You had to look away from him, you couldn’t watch his reaction yet again to those horrendous scars. You can feel his fingertips trace over the marks in a calculated and precise manner. You sigh and try to get him to touch you anywhere else but he’s much stronger than you and won’t budge. He slowly starts to cover your torso in warm, wet kisses, trailing up to your breasts and you melt away. You feel your heart start to race, getting even weaker the longer his mouth is on your skin.

“Feed on me,” he says low as you feel his hardening length press against your core. You grumble at the sensation and moan softly. You pull his neck closer to your mouth and try to focus. You place a kiss on the spot you want to bite and hear him groan slightly. You try to get your fangs to descend and feel the pull of his scent to beckon you for more. You feel your teeth sharpen and your sensations get overloaded with need for him. You place your hand on the back of his neck and pull him closer to sink your teeth into him. You pierce his skin and he groans heavily. His blood spills into your mouth and it tastes like heaven. It’s better than you remembered and all the blood bags you drank put this to shame. He tasted so sweet yet savory. So satisfying and yet you’ll always need more.

You groan as you swallow mouthfuls, feeling so content and happy. You feel his hand slither down to the button of your pants and undo it, sliding the zipper down too. He feels your heat radiate from your core and puts his hands into your panties. You hold onto him tighter, knowing you’re going to be ultra-sensitive when he touches you. His fingers find your clit and rub it in soft, concentrated circles.

A fire ignites in you and you groan. You weren’t going to stop feeding until he told you to. You hadn’t felt pleasure like this in your entire life. It was strangely erotic, the way you wanted his body and his blood to appease the undying need for him. You hold him tighter, as you feel his finger tease your entrance. You were wetter than expected and he groans softly. You moan into his neck and carefully take your teeth out of him. Your entire body felt like it was tingling, buzzing with an electric wave that flowed between you and him.

He lifts up his head and hovers over you. His eyes drink in your needy body as you gaze at the bite mark you left on him leaking with blood. It made you thirsty again. He pulls your pants down swiftly and uncovers the remaining scars left behind.

He trails kisses up your body until he’s back at your lips.

“Can I make love to you now? Please,” He asks softly. You feel your heart fly out of your chest by the request.

All you can do is nod your head and tear at his shirt, ripping it clean off of him. He would normally make a snarky comment about how that’s his favorite shirt or something but not tonight. The mood is very different in here. He sheds his pants off and climbs back on the bed with you. His hand rubs your tummy lovingly and looks up at you with care.

“I need you,” he whimpers.

He doesn’t have to say much else to drive you crazy. You put your hands on his hips to get him closer. He gently rubs his length through your wet folds, causing both of you to groan. You were more sensitive than you were expecting. Every sense inside you was heightened and you can only imagine this is going to be like the first time he fucked you. So completely overwhelming and needy.

You watch as he teases you, covering his tip in your wetness. You squeeze your eyes shut and groan in agony. You can’t help but ball the comforter in your fist as you anticipate him entering you.

“I’m gonna love you nice and slow, okay?” He says low and sultry.

Please God yes! Please love me! That’s all I want, your brain screams.

You pop your eyes back open and nod your head yes.

That’s all you can do, there aren’t any words that can be said out loud. And with that, he pushes his cock inside you. He felt so good, it had been so long since he got to do this. His bedroom eyes are heavy with lust as he watches you underneath him.

He places a kiss on your lips, groaning as he does so. He pushes in a bit more, your entrance stretching around him as it makes you gasp.

“Oh God,” you groan into his mouth, your fingers scratching down his back.

He places a hand on your hip and the other on the back of your neck. These touches can send you to heaven and he knows it. He kisses you more and each one leaves you more breathless. His hips move like only he can giving you more of his cock.

There was so much urgency but also tenderness from him. The way he was loving you was like his life depended on it. Maybe it did and he needed you this much.

“I missed you,” he groans into your ear as he moves deeper inside you.

You can’t handle him, he is making you a total puddle underneath him. You continue to hold onto him tight and enjoy every second of this. Elvis places a kiss on your forehead before looking at you with a familiar glint in his eye.

He was starving.

It made your heart gallop uncontrollably and quite frankly, it made you starved too. You could wait though, you wanted to take care of him too.

“Bite me,” you whimper. He responds with a groan and plunges his length fully inside of you making you cry out for him. Your walls squeeze around him momentarily as he moves more inside of you. You need to gasp for breath as each thrust of his makes you immeasurably weak. Looking up at him stunned, he continues to gently swivel his hips into you and makes you moan his name louder. He can’t help but smirk when he watches you get physically pleased by him.

“Honey please,” you beg him, trying to get him to lean back into your neck. He doesn’t listen to your directions right away, there is this restraint to him. You sense that he’s timid and shy throughout all of this.

“I’m starved, honey. I don’t want to hurt you,” he says weakly. You claw at his arms and moan frustratedly.

“Please, just bite me. I can take it,” you groan.

His chest heaves as he looks at you and he grabs a hold of your wrists, pinning them above your head. It was like a switch flipped and the mood of the room shifted dramatically. You can feel how needy he has become and how hungry he is for you.

“Fuck darlin’, I needed to hear that,” he groans. His hips grind into you harder making that coil inside you tighten with every thrust of his cock. He looks at you so intensely and keeps his slow pace that is agonizingly satisfying for you. You bare the side of your neck to him and hope he takes the hint to bite you there.

You close your eyes and feel his teeth gently sink into your neck, making you suck in a sharp breath. You don’t know what to expect but you know it wouldn’t be painful like last time. And you were right. This strange frenzy develops inside you and your pleasure skyrockets. You loved how he felt drinking from you as he buried his cock deep inside of you. You couldn’t get enough of this and you could feel how much he loved this too. Your heart soars knowing your bond together is only strengthening. Elvis groans deeply as he drinks your blood, his grip on you getting tighter.

He pauses and takes his fangs out of you.

“Oh honey, you are so delicious,” he grovels.

“Take more baby,” you tell him breathlessly.

He licks his lips slow and sultry, thrusting into you a bit faster. He concentrates on your pleasure and the faces you make because of it, wanting to see you fall apart.

“You’re mine,” he growls, "fucking mine." He goes back to sink his teeth into the top of your breast. You gasp as he squeezes and sucks on it. He quickly takes his length out of you and you groan in agony, your walls fluttering in need of him once more. He trails kisses down your breasts and moves down to your tummy, biting there and groaning. Every kiss and bite from him was so overwhelming. Pleasure skyrocketed through you and couldn’t help but cuss his name. You knew what he was doing, he was trying to mark you as his in a very apparent way. You believed it, your heart and soul knew it but for anyone else that might glance your way, he wanted them to know too. You moan his name and look down where he’s going to bite next. He examines the scar on your thigh and grumbles displeased. He takes another bite there, squeezing your thigh tightly and groaning when he tastes you.

His bite marks that he made were left leaking and spilling onto the sheets. You had to pray they would heal quickly and everything was going to be alright. Elvis licks up your thigh and looks at you once again. His eyes are much more soft and his demeanor is calmer. Lastly, he takes your wrist and bites there, grumbling to himself pleased at the taste of you.

“Thank you, honey,” he sighs, “I can feel you again. I can feel how much you loved that.” He says relieved.

“Mhmm me too,” you smile at him, feeling his heart soar with happiness and relief. You pull at his arm and make him get closer to you.

“Please, I need you,” you moan.

He gives you a soft smile, “what do you need baby?” He says low, his voice gruff and sultry.

“I need you back inside of me,” you beg.

He nods his head at you and grabs onto your hips tightly, pushing his cock into you with a groan. You cry out for Elvis and writhe under him.

“Jesus mama you feel so damn good,” he groans, continuing to thrust slow and concentrated. “So fucking wet for me.”

With the way he feels and those lust-driven words coming from his mouth, you can’t hold on much longer. You wanted him to make you come apart. He looks so good while he fucks you; his hair tussled against his forehead, the low groans he makes when his cock is deep inside you, the way he lets his head fall back to the ceiling as his eyes roll back in pleasure. His neck was perfectly bared for you to bite him. You wanted him so desperately, that it made it hard to breathe. Your hips match his thrusts, needing him to fuck you harder. You look at him with pleading eyes and it’s like he heard your thoughts when you feel him move a bit faster and rub your clit.

“Fuck yes,” you cry out.

“That’s it, baby, let me feel you come,” he beckons, thrusting deep inside you. He pins your arms down again and nips at your neck.

“Come for me, please,” he growls in your ear. “I need you.”

You gasp at his words and beg him for more. He groans deeply and fucks you harder, making you see stars. Your walls squeeze around his cock and rock into every thrust he gives you. Every limb tingles with pleasure and you moan loudly for him. It felt so different than the last time you were with him. You were so much more sensitive now and craved him like never before. He takes in a sharp breath through his teeth and moves slower in and out of you.

“FUck, sucha good girl. I want to come deep inside you now,” he groans loudly. You need him to do that, the way his body ached for you was overwhelming, and wanted him to feel pleased like never before.

You twist your arms out of his grasp and it surprises him you were able to do so. You grab onto his shoulders and push him to the side, making him lay on his back quickly. You sink down on his cock once again and groan when he fills you again. He looks up at you wide-eyed and needy. His chest heaves and he grabs onto your hips to help you ride him.

“Shit baby yes, nice and slow,” he groans, rocking your hips back and forth on him. You gasp and nod your head at him, grinding slowly on his cock.

You cup your breast in your hands and roll your nipples in between your fingers, sending a zing of pleasure through you. Elvis can’t tear his eyes off of you and you can feel him grow desperate for you. You tease him, touching yourself more and making him watch. You look down at your hardened nipples and see the blood spilling from the bite mark he made. Your finger swipes up the trail of blood and place it to his lips. He opens his mouth gladly and swirls his tongue around your finger, sucking on it to make sure he licks all of your blood clean off. He groans and his eyebrows furrow as he looks up at you. Rocking your hips more, you know he needs to come. Your heart pounds away as you watch him and you feel his cock pulse deep inside you, groaning your name as he comes. You move faster and he holds onto your hips. His hips move off the bed to meet every thrust you give him making you want to come again.

“Fuck baby… so good, so good,” he whimpers. You smile pleased that you have him so weak for you.

You lean down onto his chest and make him bare his neck to you. This incessant thirst you have for him consumes your thoughts and you take a bite from his neck, sucking his blood happily. You hear him growl low and moan your name again.

“Good girl,” he whimpers. You take a few more gulps and take your mouth off of him, needing air. You felt so light and weak and yet, stronger than ever. It was such a strange sensation and you can see Elvis feels the same. He wraps his arms around you tightly and keeps you on his chest.

You both lay like this for a while, not wanting this moment to end.

“I love you,” he whispers in your ear.

“I love you too,” you sigh.

“Everything is going to be okay,” he says softly.

“I know,” you say. You didn’t want to think about the future, you just wanted to live in this moment with him forever. You had to have hope that his words were true, everything was going to be alright and you both could have a peaceful and happy life together.

You push yourself off of him to look into those beautiful eyes of his and he smiles when he sees your face.

“The bite marks I made are healed honey,” he says pleased, rubbing his thumb gently along your neck.

“Good,” you smile. You start to get off of him to lay next to him but he stops you and keeps you on top of him.

“Where do you think you’re going? I’m not done with you,” he says devilishly. You feel your heart skip a beat and he pulls you close again, covering you in kisses.

Tagging : @burninlovebutler

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theres-no-protocol-for-this · 4 years ago

Text

Necessary Repairs

Part III. I don’t even know if you have to read any of the other parts. SecUnit should probably have slept through most of its own healing, but that’s not this machine’s luck.

Part I | Part II

At some indeterminate point later, I woke up.

I was receiving minimal sensory data, and none of it was sight-related. A diagnostic subroutine spun up and casually began sending me bursts of error messages I couldn't even begin to translate.

Oh, and the world was pitch black.

It took me more than five seconds to determine that the darkness was self-inflicted and open my eyes. Longer still for the random noise to resolve into sounds I could understand -- the hum of an air circulation system, at least two distinct voices, and an automated warning system. My connection to the feed stabilized, but the walls that normally guarded my mind against its onslaught were conspicuously absent.

Something else was shielding me, something big and surprisingly gentle.

Friend?

I could feel cold metal under my back and head, probably the medical suite platform. My internal temperature refused to rise, so I was shivering and couldn't stop. It felt like I was still leaking, and the pain ebbed and flowed with each passing moment.

“Would you like me to turn up the heat?” Transport asked.

Yes. Where the hell am I?

I felt a mild shock as the governor kicked in. It hadn't liked my tone, apparently, or the phrasing of my answer, and wasn't shy about letting me know. The standard code read, "you're outside of protocol and need to adjust your attitude."

Silently, I cursed the damn thing. I was getting used to life without it.

A moment later, Transport answered, "SecUnit, you're still in medical, and your performance rating, while stable, remains abysmally low."

The ship paused and sent me a couple of data packets that succinctly described all the things still wrong -- which was most of them. I should've probably remained in stasis, but the medical unit was calibrated for humans. So, it hadn't given me nearly enough sedative to knock out the organic parts of a construct for any appreciable amount of time.

I was awake, kind of.

"I'm waiting for your vital signs to improve," Transport added. "Until then, would you like to watch an episode of that one show you liked?"

Yes, please.

The ship's calm tone reassured me, even though everything else looked like shit. My diagnostics were coming back with nonsense, still. The governor couldn't find a SecSystem to connect with. The Traveler didn't have or need one of those; it had a skeleton HubSystem instead managed security, life support, and logistics. My inflexible governor couldn't figure out how to interface with it.

Surprise, surprise...

It fell back on some preprogrammed garbage, complete with a minimal set of actions and responses. "Yes, please" and "No, thank you" was probably the best I could manage at the moment without incurring its wrath. I'd try poking at it later when my performance no longer looked quite so dramatically sad.

Captain Owens pulled up a chair and sat down where she could see me. Transport shared the view from one of its cameras, so now I could see her, too. It also queued up an episode of a long-running serial and waited for the captain before it started playing. I wanted to ask about the hostiles but couldn't -- thanks governor -- and Transport didn't seem inclined to enlighten me.

I suppose it was only fair; it was doing its best to keep me calm.

MedSystem sorted out the sleeping issue in the meantime and had injected more sedatives into my resupply channel, so sleep was happening shortly, whether I liked it or not. I could practically feel my diagnostics slowing down to a crawl since they relied on data from my organic parts, which were affected by the drugs.

"Good afternoon, SecUnit. I'm glad to see you're awake." The captain nodded in my direction and then turned toward someone I couldn't see. "As I mentioned, thanks to SecUnit, we came out of the boarding attempt in one piece. I'm sorry to hear your ship wasn't as lucky."

A stranger in formal wear came into camera view as he approached Owens. I figured he was the owner of that second voice I hadn't been able to identify earlier. The logo on his tunic looked familiar, but I couldn't place it. Parts of my memory felt like tangled network cables.

"Indeed, but this is still better than nothing. I don't suppose you've already contacted your bonding company?"

The captain's face scrunched up in confusion. "We're insured outside of the Corporation Rim," she explained. "I've sent a message, but I'm here pretty much on my own."

Outside of the Rim, everything appeared to work in ways that were incompatible with corporation control. A lot of the propaganda around freehold planets implied they were a complete shitshow. Except, clearly, the Traveler was doing just fine.

I had a sudden burst of "bad feeling" in my organic neural tissue. Something about the newcomer didn't sit right with me. I thought it might be unwise for the captain to tell him anything about herself or her ship.

"No, thank you." It sounded like my voice, but I didn't remember speaking. Hi buffer, I thought I'd never see you again.

The newcomer gave me a puzzled glance. "So, where'd you get your unit then?"

Owens shrugged and schooled her expression. I'd seen that face before when she'd spoken to her daughter before our first jump. "I rented it from a friend, as a security consultant. It's doing a great job."

I was?

I mean, the human was alive, and the Traveler had an intact hull, so I guess things weren't terrible. I could practically hear the Transport laughing on a private channel. If I could roll my eyes, I probably would have, but the governor frowned on that sort of thing, and my eyes had closed minutes ago.

"I see. Well, if you wouldn't mind giving us a hand with repairs, we can both be on our way." The man watched the captain like a hawk. "I would also recommend getting your unit checked out at a licensed repair station when you get a chance. With this level of damage, there's no telling what other problems are hiding under the surface."

As far as statements go, it was polite enough, but I didn't like it. It sounded to me like a threat.

Performance rating dropping. Initiating emergency shutdown.

I really would prefer you didn't.

***

Memory fragment:

The mining installation doesn't inspire confidence. There are eight of us and two combat models. Ten security units should be enough to keep a workforce of 153 miners and a dozen more supervisors in line. Everything looks worn and rundown, including the humans.

Protocol dictates that we take shifts. A human has created a schedule to which we adhere. The two combat units are mixed in with the rest of us.

It's my patrol shift. I walk through one of the mining shafts and stop at the far end. I can hear a supervisor arguing with two of her employees—something about the rocks they've uncovered. I turn around, ready to head back to the primary installation, when one of the combat units walks up to the three humans.

It has been summoned by the supervisor.

The supervisor tells it to fire on the workers. It does, without question. Bodies crumple to the floor. Then, the supervisor notices me.

***

Transport popped into my feed. "Wake up, SecUnit. How're you feeling?"

"Like I got shot."

The words were out before I could consider the consequences, and I braced for an electric shock -- or worse. Nothing happened. Performance reliability was at 87% and rising steadily. My diagnostics routines had run several times, and the results looked promising. I was also no longer leaking, and most of my organic parts had grown back.

I had two arms again. That was nice.

Transport shared a smiling sigil. Reason unknown. "You did get shot, silly. MedSystem patched you up pretty well. If you're up to it, my captain and I could use your help." It paused and added, "Captain suggested that you might want payment in exchange for services rendered. That's how it works in CR, right?"

I had my doubts about anything actually working in the Corporation Rim. Still, arguing with a clearly sentient ship about theoretical economics didn't sound appealing. I'd rather get shocked again.

"OK," I said aloud and sat up. "Priority question: who was here earlier?"

"Dr. Alexander Soren is the current captain of an ArialHydra exploration vessel. They are stranded in this sector after a pirate attack. Captain Owens speculates that it may be the same group of pirates. We were lucky to have you on board."

Lucky. Right.

I shoved off the platform and crumpled to the floor in a pile of arms and legs. Hi there, limbs. A few minutes later, I managed to get up and stumble around under my own power. I admit to sitting on the floor and trying out my new arm. It didn't have a cannon -- MedSystem didn't have the required parts -- but it was fully functional, otherwise.

"I've seen Dr. Soren before." I couldn't remember where. That bothered me.

"Perhaps you were deployed on one of his survey missions?"

"I don't know."

One of the ship's drones floated into the room, carrying spare clothing, which it dropped directly on my head. I grabbed at the falling fabric and started getting dressed. It was the Traveler's standard-issue uniform, beige and blue and generally not hideous. I missed the protective qualities of armor, but it would've been weird to wander through the ship's pristine, carpeted halls with it on.

Captain Owens walked into the medical room and waved at me and the drone. "I see you're both here and scheming."

"We're not scheming, and technically, I'm everywhere," Transport informed us.

"I don't think you should trust Dr. Soren," I blurted out.

Owens narrowed her eyes. "Do you know anything you'd care to share?"

I shook my head. Constructs don't get gut feelings -- we don't even have a gut to have them with -- and my memories of any encounters with the doctor had been removed. Memory wipes aren't typical, but occasionally, a bonding company or a manufacturer/repair company decides they're necessary. I've had at least one that I know about. I also had no idea how to explain that my organic neurons probably remembered things the rest of me didn't.

"Well, in that case, has Trav told you what we need?" At my puzzled expression, the captain said, "We gave the other ship supplies, and they're almost ready to depart. And they're making a fuss about..." She sighed. "Something. I really don't care. They'll be coming back aboard in a few hours to discuss whatever it is. And I would feel much better if you were there. Just in case. And only if you're feeling up to it."

Protecting humans was literally the only thing I liked about my job. "OK."

"Great. Do you want a weapon?"

"Depends on how threatening you want me to look." Any weapon I wielded would be for show unless the human was in danger. And if she was, I had a miniature cannon hidden inside an arm.

The captain pondered this for a moment. Her face went through a range of expressions that Transport interpreted for me as "Captain Owens thinks the other ship's posturing is stupid and would like to be on her way, but it would be impolite to leave, so here we are." I agreed with the captain's assessment.

Finally, she said, "Let's try without any extra threats and see what happens. The quicker we get this over with, the better."

Transport suggested we spend the time between now and the upcoming meeting watching more of its favorite shows. I agreed.

#the murderbot diaries #SecUnit #let me sleep #into the unknown #fanfiction

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cristinablackthornkingson · 4 years ago

Text

Shadowhunters Short Story #67. Alastair and Cordelia meet their little sibling.

(This was written way back in March before I finished Chain of Gold, so there may be some minor inconsistencies with the plot.)

CW/TW: Alcoholism.

It is a cool October day in 1903, when Cordelia and Alastair Carstairs get to meet their baby sister for the first time.

It has only been 3 months since Cordelia found out her mother was expecting, and ever since she has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of her little brother or sister. Alastair has also been excited, but he has not shown it in the same way as Cordelia. Cordelia and Alastair’s friends are all eager to meet the newest little Carstairs too, especially Lucie who has always wanted a little brother or sister, and now will not stop pestering Tessa and Will to have a baby.

Elias stood trial a few weeks ago, but before he did Cordelia explained to Charlotte- The Consul- about his alcoholism and how he needs medical attention and help more than a prison cell. Thankfully Charlotte was extremely understanding, seeing as her Matthew is clearly an alcoholic too and she would never want to see him put in prison instead of being given the help he clearly needs. Now Elias is still in Idris, in the Basilas, receiving the right treatment. He has written a few letters to Sona and the children, and will hopefully be able to come visit the new baby soon.

Sona had gone into labor late last night and while Cordelia stayed with her mother, Alastair rushed to the London Institute to have them summon The Silent Brothers.

Cordelia had been delighted when Jem arrived along with a Clave midwife, she knew Jem would take good care of her mama and little brother or sister.

Now it has been approximately 8 hours since Sona went into labor, and Cordelia and Alastair are both waiting in the living room, trying their best to stay awake. Alastair is reading a mundane newspaper and Cordelia is attempting to stay awake while reading Layla and Majnun, though she is not having much luck and keeps dozing off.

After dozing off for about the 8th time, Cordelia is jerked awake by a familiar voice speaking in her mind.

Cordelia, Alastair.

Cordelia and Alastair both look up to see the robed figure of Jem, standing in the doorway to the living room.

“Jem?” Cordelia asks, pushing herself up in the armchair.

Yes Cordelia, would you two like to come meet your little sister?

“Sister? It’s a girl?” Cordelia asks in a breathy tone. She would have been happy no matter what, she would have been thrilled to have another brother, but secretly the idea of not being the only girl anymore is quite nice.

Yes, a very healthy little girl. She and your mother are doing very well, and I believe they are both eager to see you. Would you like to come meet her? Jem asks.

Both teenagers leap from their seats and eagerly follow Jem upstairs and down the hall to their mother’s room. When they reach the door to Sona’s room, Jem tells them

I will wait out here to allow you four some privacy, I will be right here if you need me.

Cordelia and Alastair nod, before Alastair softly knocks on the door before opening it and walking in with Cordelia right behind him.

Straight away they see their mother sitting up in bed in a pale pink nightgown and matching dressing gown, her roosari sitting perfectly as always. In Sona’s arms is a little bundle of pink and white blankets, and Sona is gazing lovingly down at the bundle, though she looks up when she hears the door open, and smiles lovingly at her eldest two children.

“Hello my loves, come meet your sister.” Sona softly says, beckoning them over. Cordelia and Alastair make their way over to their mother’s bed, both of them sinking into chairs that have been placed on either side of the bed. Cordelia eagerly leans forward to look at her baby sister.

The baby has brown skin, the same shade as Cordelia and Alastair, she is almost completely bald expect for a few tufts of dark black hair, the same shade Alastair’s is naturally, when he does not dye it, and big black eyes just like Cordelia’s. Immediately Cordelia falls completely and hopelessly in love with her sister, feeling a huge rush of love and a fierce desire to protect her at all costs. She can now understand why Alastair is so protective of her, why Jamie is so protective of Lucie, why Eugenia is so protective of Thomas and why Anna is so fiercely protective of Christopher and Alexander.

“Oh mama, she is so perfect.” Cordelia says in a tight tone, as she feels the tears well up in her eyes.

“Layla, are you crying?” Alastair asks in a tone of disbelief. Why would Cordelia be crying at such a happy moment?

“I-I... y-yes b-but I-I don’t u-understand why, I-I’m so h-happy!” Cordelia hiccups as she tries to control her tears, it makes no sense for her to be sobbing her eyes out at one of the happiest moments of her life.

“Oh khoshgelam, sometimes you can be so overwhelmed by happiness that you cry, it’s alright Layla, would you like to hold your sister?” Sona softly asks, brushing away Cordelia’s tears. Cordelia sniffles and nods eagerly. Sona helps her position her arms before carefully lowering the baby into them.

“Oh, hello baby, my sweet baby sister. I love you.” Cordelia says in a soft, teary tone, bending to press a kiss to the baby’s forehead.

“Have you decided on a name for her mama?” Alastair asks.

“Yes I have, her name is Daria Esta Carstairs.” Sona gently says, brushing her finger’s over the baby’s few tufts of dark hair.

“Oh that is so beautiful! It suits her.” Cordelia exclaims, gazing down at her sister, never wanting to let her go. “I love you Daria.”

“How do you feel mama, is there anything I can do for you or get you?” Alastair asks. Unknown to all but his family, Alastair is a complete mama’s boy and always has been, as a little boy he always clung to his mother’s skirts and followed her around, while Cordelia has always been more of a daddy’s girl, wanting her father to tell her stories about Cortana and the time he slayed Yanluo. The two siblings have remained much the same, Cordelia is still a complete daddy’s girl and Alastair is still a complete mama’s boy.

“No Aziz-e delam, I am fine thank you.” Sona says, placing a hand on Alastair’s cheek and smiling at him.

“Are you sure?” Alastair asks, eager to be of some help to his mother. He hated being completely useless and unable to help while she was in labor, now he wants to do whatever he can to help her.

“I am sure Alastair Joon, thank you, you need not worry about me, I have done this three times now, I shall be fine.” Sona assures her son ,squeezing his hand reassuringly.

“Alright mama. Cordelia, let me hold the baby now!” Alastair says, turning his gaze on Cordelia, who is still cooing and fussing over little Daria.

“Well I would have had you asked nicely, now I will not. One thing you need to learn sweet Daria, is that Alastair is very, very annoying, I am afraid we just have to put up with him, I have asked many times if we can trade him for a puppy but alas, mama and papa seem instant to keep him, Angel knows why.” Cordelia quietly says, slowly rocking her sister back and forth, as Alastair glares at her.

“Cordelia, let your brother hold Daria, honestly I do not know how I am going to cope with three of you.” Sona says. Begrudgingly Cordelia passes Daria to Alastair, who holds her with an air of expertise and comfort.

“Poor little thing looks just like Cordelia.” He says, adjusting the blankets around the baby’s face, smug in the knowledge that Cordelia cannot hit him or throw something at him while he is holding the baby, he can tease her relentlessly for the next few years and be completely safe, as long as he is holding the baby.

“Mama, are you sure we cannot trade Alastair for a dog?” Cordelia asks, looking at her mother, who smiles back and brushes Cordelia’s hair back from her face.

“Quiet sure Azizakam, quiet sure.”

About 40 minutes later, little Daria wakes up crying and fussing, clearly in need of feeding, so Cordelia and Alastair decide to wish their mother and sister a goodnight, and finally head to bed, after a very long day.

A week later, with permission from Sona and to the delight of Cordelia, Tessa, Will, Jamie and Lucie call around to meet little Daria.

Currently they are all gathered in the drawing room in Cirenworth, fussing over the baby. The only ones who are not there are Elias (who is still in Idris) and Alastair who left for London this morning, to go see Charles and help he and Grace with wedding arrangements.

Currently Lucie is holding little Daria and seems happier than she has ever been, no one doubts that she would sneak her home if she could get away with it.

“Oh she is just so adorable!” Lucie exclaims, as Daria wraps her tiny hand around Lucie’s finger. “Oh mama, papa, are you sure you don’t want another baby?” Lucie adds in a pleading tone, looking at her parents with begging blue eyes full of hope.

“Quiet sure Lucie, after my pregnancy with you I am quiet done, you never let me sleep a wink for about 5 months, and I was sick through the whole pregnancy, then you decided to be late, so late that I had to be induced, no my love I am quiet done with pregnancy.” Tessa laughs, though it is easy to laugh at now, her pregnancy with Lucie was a total nightmare, after she was born, Tessa and Will agreed that they did not want to risk Tessa’s health in such a way again, and would not have anymore children.

“Oh but you could adopt! Papa you always said you wanted a big family because you and mama came from such small families.” Lucie points out.

“Lucie my dear, adoption is not as simple as you seem to think, we could try to adopt but there is no guarantee we would end up with a baby, and we are quiet content with you and your brother, and having a big family is not only limited to having many children, I have you two, your mother, your aunt Cecily, Anna, Kit and Alexander, and angel forgive me, I even have your Uncle Gabriel and Uncle Gideon, as well as your Aunt Sophie, and Thomas and Eugenia, and of course there is your Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Henry, and Matthew and Charles, and now Cordelia and Alastair too.” Will gently explains. He understands Lucie’s desire for a little sibling, but he and Tessa have their hands full with her and Jamie, and all their nieces and nephews, who they love as their own.

Lucie sighs and looks back down at baby Daria.

“I know papa, I would just love to have a little brother or sister.” Lucie says in a longing tone.

“Oh Lulu, you would not be saying that if you did have a little brother or sister, trust me, I have your Aunt Cecily and she drives me absolutely mad at the best of times.” Will says, putting an arm around his daughter’s shoulders and kissing her temple. Lucie is such a sweet and happy girl, and has Will wrapped around her little finger, and has done since the moment she was born. It kills him not to be able to give her anything and everything she wants, but having another baby would be too unfair and harsh on Tessa, and as much as Will loves his daughter, he adores his wife too and would never want to do anything to compromise her.

Little does anyone know, that over 200 years later, Lucie finally gets her wish for a little brother or sister, when in March of 2013, Tessa gives birth to her and Jem’s first daughter, little Wilhelmina Yiqiang Ke Carstairs.

Lucie’s spirit often visits her little sister, keeping her company when she wakes up from her naps so Jem and her mother can rest some more, telling her stories about the adventures she and Jamie, Matthew, Thomas, Christopher and Cordelia went on when they were teenagers. Lucie adores her baby sister just as much as Cordelia and Alistair adored little baby Evie.

One night, as Lucie stands in Mina’s nursery, watching her sleep peacefully, she feels someone next to her, and looks over to see her father, watching Mina with the same love he always watched Lucie and James with. Will puts an arm around his daughter and holds her close, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“So what do you think Lulu? Is being a big sister everything you thought it would be?” He softly asks. Lucie nods.

“Yes, and more. I love Mina so much it hurts, and I would do absolutely anything for her.”

“Just as Jamie would for you and I would for you Aunt Cecily, you are officially a member of the big sibling club, like you always wanted. Come on, let's leave this little one to sleep.” Will softly says. Lucie nods, but before leaving, she walks over to the crib, and using all her power she manages to reach down and brush a hand over Mina’s thick dark hair, and press a kiss to her cheek.

“I’ll see you soon sweet baby sister, I love you.”

She then turns and follows her father, rejoining the rest of their family and loved ones in the afterlife, watching over and protecting Tessa, Jem, Mina and Kit.

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alecmagnuslwb · 4 years ago

Text

The Death of a Gerbil

Writer’s Month 2020 Day Twenty-Two

Read on AO3

Maia looks inside the gerbil cage in horror. Three days, all she had to do was keep her roommate’s gerbil alive for three days and she failed. The poor little brown and white guy is laying on his back feet up in the air, tiny tongue dangling from his mouth, dead as a damn doornail.

She knows what she should do, she should put him a nice shoebox, seal it up and find a lovely place to lay him to rest where she and Aline can bury him when she gets back tonight. However that isn’t what she does instead she’s immediately pulling up every picture Aline has posted on her Instagram of the little bugger and googling the nearest pet store to replace the dearly departed little Alexander Graham Ger-Bell.

She’s out the door seconds later hailing a cab instead of taking the subway to ensure she gets there with ample time to find an exact twin.

She throws the cabbie a nice tip and heads into Garroway Pet Supply in a rush.

The shop is small, rows labeled with detailed signs. Maia looks around a little frantically until she spots a row of glass cages a variety of furry little creatures running around in them. She stops at each one studying them closely until she finds the gerbil cage, inside a dozen or so gerbils’ scoot around happily the same way poor little Ger-Bell had been mere hours ago.

She gets out her phone flipping through the array of screenshots she’d taken to capture each angle of the former gerbil. She studies each one carefully, looking between the photos and every gerbil before her for the perfect match.

“Too big, too round, too red,” she says ruling out three of them right off the bat. A smaller brown gerbil is buried under some toys in the back and she stands on her tippy toes trying to get its attention so she can see beyond its little head.

“Can I help you?” a voice says to her right startling her. She jumps back from the glass cage a bit and meets the eyes of the prettiest girl she’s ever seen.

The red head smiles at her tilting her head in the direction of the gerbils.

“Looking for a new pet?” the woman, Clary as her nametag reads, asks next.

“Um, sort of,” Maia says looking from eyeing Clary up and down back to the gerbils. “I need a replacement.”

“Ah, we get that a lot. For a kid or a younger sibling?” Clary poses and Maia laughs. She understands the assumption, she recalls her own mother doing something similar when her parakeet dropped dead one day while she was at school. It’s safe to bet this shop doesn’t see a lot of adult women coming in to secretly replace the dead gerbils of their adult roommate.

“Um, sister,” she says which isn’t totally a lie she and Aline practically grew up together, they’ve been friends longer than she’s been able to read. The fact that Aline is 26 isn’t something this woman needs to know no matter how pretty she is.

“Hm, okay,” Clary says clearly not buying it, but putting on her best the customer is always right smile anyways. “May I?” she gestures to the phone in Maia’s hand.

Maia nods handing her the phone. Clary slides through the photos humming lightly as she goes, clearly in deep thought.

“Boy or girl?” she asks zooming in on one of the photos and studying it carefully.

“Boy,” Maia answers. “Alexander Graham Ger-Bell.”

Clary looks up and smiles scrunching up her nose.

“Cute name,” she says handing Maia back her phone.

“Yeah, Aline’s a bit of a history of inventions nerd,” Maia explains as Clary leans over to grab a stool and pulls it over to the cages. She steps up on it leaning in and picking up the pile of toys from the back revealing the gerbil Maia had been trying to see more closely.

She picks him up gingerly holding him in her hands.

“Now this little guy is missing a whisker permanently, but other than that he looks like an exact replica of your little inventor,” she says holding out the gerbil for Maia to take.

Maia holds out her hands taking the little guy from Clary, for a moment their fingers brush and the edge of Maia’s lips tilt up. Clary pushes her hair behind her ears shyly after she pulls back.

Their eyes meet and for a moment they just look at one another, until the gerbil starts squiggling around in Maia’s hands nipping lightly at her fingers and she remembers why she’s there.

Clary clears her throat, “Do you need anything else for him?”

Maia shakes her head following Clary up to the counter to check out.

“Just a box and a prayer she won’t figure it out,” Maia laughs as Clary pulls a box fromm under the counter and begins folding it together. She pushes it forward when she’s done putting a bit of bedding and some treats in the bottom and Maia sits the newly minted Alexander Graham Ger-Bell the second in it.

Clary rings her out asking questions about Maia’s ‘little sister’ that she artfully dodges. She hesitates when signing the store copy of her receipt and thinks what the hell she’s risking it all for a gerbil anyways why not shoot her shot with a pretty girl too. She adds her number at the bottom and the words call me with a little smiley face beside it.

“Good luck,” Clary says with a smile taking the receipt and waving as Maia rushes out the door eager to get back to the apartment before Aline.

She’s putting the former gerbil in a shoebox disposing of his body in the garden behind their building, the new replacement comfortably living upstairs, when her phone buzzes with a text from an unknown number.

I almost missed your number on the receipt, which would have been a real shame :)

Maia smiles stopping her digging for a moment to text Clary and save her number. By the time she’s done Aline is already back at the apartment and in ten short minutes she knows that it isn’t her gerbil in there.

She doesn’t talk to Maia for a week, but does decide to keep the new gerbil naming this one Kristen Ger-Bell, only forgiving her once she makes a small memorial stand and tiny headstone that she places in the garden where she disposed of Alexander Graham. But it’s all okay, because Clary keeps texting her and when Maia makes the mistake of inviting her in on their second date and discovers the truth about Maia’s gerbil replacement she only laughs at her for fifteen minutes, at least half less than what she expected.

#my fic #writersmonth2020 #claia #clary fray #maia roberts #shadowhunters

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visander · 4 years ago

Text

A Bit of Space (6/6)

The end.

You can read this chapter on ao3 here or listen to a podfic version here. Special thanks to @accal1a for creating the podfic and @the-prophet-lemonade for beta reading this chapter.

Chapter Six:

It turned out swimming was a wonderful idea because by the time they made it back to the ship, hours had gone by and Alec declared that it was time to test the solar panels.

It was a big moment, one that could change everything but Magnus found himself hesitating. If the solar panels were working and generating enough power, they might be able to contact someone on the radio tonight. If that failed, they could listen to music. And if they didn’t have enough power for even that, at least they could use the lights inside the ship. Magnus would be thrilled by anything, at this point.

But coming back from swimming, the feeling of Alec’s lips still lingering on his own, it felt like whiplash to see Alec revert to his role as Captain Lightwood as he began talking rapidly about solar panels, electricity and hope. If the solar panels didn’t work, nothing would change and yet, if they did, everything could.

Magnus felt tired. Swimming had drained him and instead of feeling excitement at the possibility of radio communication, Magnus felt numb. He would be disappointed if this didn’t work but he hadn’t gotten his hopes up and if he was stranded here forever with Alec- well, that didn’t seem so bad.

On Earth, maybe Alec wouldn’t like him anymore. Maybe everything would be different there and whatever made them click here would be gone. Maybe they’d been through too much together to ever make a life somewhere normal. There was a part of Magnus that wondered if they only made sense here, halfway across the universe and stranded on some unknown planet. Here, they were each other’s only option.

On Earth, Alec might not want Magnus anymore. He told Magnus he was in the closet and he might be too embarrassed to leave it or perhaps he’d ask Magnus to move out of the loft he loved so much. They might bicker, fight and disagree on everything. They might have nothing in common when the threat of survival wasn’t looming over their heads.

What if Alec didn’t like cats? What if he didn’t get along with Ragnor and Catarina? What if he didn’t understand Raphael’s dry charm? What if Alec didn’t want kids? What if he did? Magnus wasn’t even sure if he wanted kids or not.

Things were so simple here. He and Alec, they fit together because they had nothing left. Every part of their old selves was scattered and smashed apart by the crash but now, they might have to assemble all the little pieces back together. It left Magnus with one, burning question: if they were rescued, would they even like each other anymore?

When Alec flicked the switch on the main console and their ship lit up instantly, Magnus was excited. When the automatic door began whirring for the first time in months and they didn’t have to pull the crank to open it, Magnus was ecstatic. When he charged up his camera and took a wonderful series of photos of Alec and Apollo, Magnus was thrilled. How could he not be?

When Alec turned on the radio and his face lit up as he told Magnus that they had a signal, Magnus was happy. He was happy that they might wake up tomorrow to news that they were being rescued, that someone was on their way. Of course, he wanted to go home but when he laid in bed that night, his head pillowed on Alec’s chest, gazing at Alec’s arm and leg that dangled off the edge of the couch, Magnus wondered, if none of this had ever happened to them, would Alec have even looked at him twice?

They waited beside the console the next morning, eating inside rather than outside like they normally did. Magnus knew it might take a while to hear back, even if their radio was working, but Alec didn’t want to risk leaving it unattended. It would be just their luck they’d leave for a few minutes and the radio would go off.

Instead, they sat together, eating in silence. Apollo had disappeared for the day and Alec seemed like he was in just as much of a reflective mood as Magnus was.

Magnus wondered what Alec was thinking about. The silence hung unbroken above their heads, minutes piling up, before Alec finally spoke. “What are you going to do?” he asked softly. “If we can go back home, I mean.”

Magnus frowned. He’d thought about it a little, but mostly in terms of Alec. He wondered if Alec would want to come stay with him in New York for a while, after being reunited with his family, or if he would quickly grow sick of Magnus’ company. He wondered if Alec would be polite enough to say no to his face, or if they would part ways at the landing site and not see each other again, resigned to weeks of missed calls and email promises that would eventually lead to nothing.

“Well, I certainly will not be going into space again any time soon,” Magnus muttered, choosing that instead of voicing any of his fears out loud.

Alec smiled, laughing softly. “Yeah, me neither.”

They lapsed into silence again. It felt stiff and awkward, a thick sort of silence that weighed down on Magnus’ shoulders, no matter how many times it looked like Alec was about to say something, or how many times Magnus tried and failed to start a conversation.

Magnus wondered what that was about, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

Nothing came from the radio the next day.

Magnus was disappointed, but not as disappointed as he thought he’d be. There was part of him that felt a little relieved, but as soon as he acknowledged that feeling in his head, he was swamped by a wave of guilt. It was selfish. Magnus was sure Alec wanted to go home. He knew Alec missed his family and Magnus did too. Magnus missed his friends dearly. He knew Ragnor would be in a foul mood, thinking he’d died and he owed it to Catarina to go save her from it. He wanted to go home.

But he also wasn’t too upset to learn they didn't have the choice to go home, the same way they didn't have it last week. They didn’t have to talk about how things would change. They didn’t have to jump into the uncertainty of the future. All they had to do was stay here because that was the only option available to them.

Magnus wasn’t sure if Alec was disappointed when nothing came from the radio. If he was, he didn’t show it and he definitely didn’t want to talk about it.

Magnus was sprawled alone on the couch, drifting in and out of sleep, aware of the cold absence of a body next to him. He rolled over onto his stomach, pressing his face into the hard excuse for a pillow. It was just then that he became aware of someone speaking, someone who was distinctly not Alec. He was grateful that Alec was missing from his side because he jolted up so suddenly that he only narrowly avoided falling off the couch, catching himself with an outstretched hand.

Alec was already awake. He sat on the sofa across from Magnus, looking as pale as a ghost as he stared over at the radio console. The radio console that was crackling with the sound of someone calling their names, over and over again.

Magnus couldn’t even comprehend what he was hearing. He was glad it seemed like Alec was listening, because he definitely was not. His thoughts were scrambled. All he could think was that someone had heard them.

Someone had heard them and they were responding.

“-please respond with your status.” The message restarted after a few moments of silence. “Crew 108, we have received your-”

Alec jumped to his feet. He rushed over to the radio and hit the button to respond before Magnus could even move.

“This is Crew 108,” Alec barked into the receiver. “Our condition is stable. We have enough food for approximately fifty days. We found a water source. This is Alexander Lightwood speaking, and next to me is Magnus Bane. We are the only survivors of the crash.”

Alec let the button go. The message they had received began replaying again, but neither Alec nor Magnus moved to turn it off. They just listened in shock, letting the words repeat over and over again.

“They heard us,” Alec whispered finally.

Magnus put his hand on Alec’s arm and squeezed it. “They’re going to come get us,” he heard himself say. Half of him was still somewhere deep in his own head, trying to figure out what exactly that meant.

“It’s going to take a while. They never do anything quick.” Alec responded.

Fifty days. They had fifty days left of food, fifty days for mission control to launch a rescue mission. Fifty days left here with Alec.

“My sister is going to kill me,” Alec said as he laughed soft and relieved.

Ragnor, Magnus thought with a jolt. He was going to see Ragnor again. He was going to see Catarina again. He was going to see Raphael. He was going to see his home again. He was going to see New York again. Part of Magnus still didn’t think it could possibly be true.

“They better still have my cat,” he said finally. Magnus was going to kill Ragnor if he’d gotten rid of his cat.

The response came quicker than Magnus had expected.

Mission control was putting together a rescue mission to come get them as soon as possible. They hadn’t announced when they’d be launching yet but the goal was to get them before their food ran out, which was good for them both. Magnus cringed as he imagined trying to eat the sticky translucent leaves outside.

After that mission control had a million questions about the planet they were on and how exactly they had survived. Magnus told them about Apollo and was thrilled by the excitement he received from the other end of the line. It was exceptionally fulfilling, considering that Alec’s first reaction to discovering they weren’t alone on the surface of the planet was trying to kick Apollo out.

Knowing they’d be rescued and his data would be useful, Magnus set out to document as much as he could before they were picked up. He took photos of everything, from the plants outside to where they’d been sleeping, to Apollo and even a couple selfies, with Alec rolling his eyes in the background.

Magnus looked through his notes, knowing now that people would actually be seeing them. He ripped out the page where he’d written to Ragnor. All of this would be heavily documented the second they were picked up. Magnus wouldn’t doubt if it was scrutinized in classrooms and research facilities across the globe. The last thing he needed was for Ragnor and the rest of the world to know exactly how teary eyed he’d gotten at the thought of never seeing him again. Ragnor would never let it go.

Ragnor would also never let it go if he saw exactly how emotional Magnus had gotten when they’d been forwarded messages from their families but thankfully, Ragnor was completely unaware of that one. If Ragnor asked later, Magnus would insist he was completely unshaken by Ragnor’s snarky message about how Magnus owed him money for the funeral he’d arranged. Magnus was pretty sure his funeral was paid for by the government but he’d hash that out with Ragnor when he actually saw him.

They also learned that there had been a monument built for their ship and all the crew that had been lost with it. Ragnor explained that it would have been a pain to scrape Alec and Magnus’ names off it, so apparently the plaque was being amended to show they hadn’t actually died.

Magnus asked Alec if he wanted to see the monument with him, when they returned to Earth. Instantly, Alec said no. He thought it would be weird to see a bronze version of himself, but both he and Magnus knew they would probably be forced to visit it in the endless press conferences they’d have to attend. Magnus could hear the book offers now.

Though Magnus’ question had been a joking one, they hadn’t really talked about what going home meant for either of them or what it meant for them together. Magnus thought that perhaps, they’d both been pointedly ignoring the conversation they very clearly needed to have.

“So-” Magnus started without prompting. “You’re not out,” He finished. He’d wanted to be a bit more tactful with how he brought it up but Alec didn’t seem offended by Magnus’ abrupt question.

Instead, he took a deep breath. “No but I think-” Alec hesitated for a moment and that alone made Magnus nervous. “I think I want to be.” He said at last. “Everyone thought I was dead. If there was any better time to do it and have my parents' sympathy, it would be now.”

Magnus nodded. That made sense. If he had any grand secret to reveal, it would be a good time to do it but that wasn’t exactly the question Magnus had wanted to ask or have an answer to. “And what does that mean for us?” He asked, only meeting Alec’s eyes when he forced himself to. He didn’t want to look like a coward or like he was as nervous as he really was.

“Well,” Alec began, a soft flush coming over his cheeks. “I think it would be nice to, uh, continue this, if that’s… if that’s what you want to do as well.”

It took a moment for Alec’s words to sink in but Magnus found himself smiling as they did. “I would like that,” he said. “We’ve gotten rather close-” Alec laughed softly. Close seemed like a great simplification for what they’d gone through together. “-but there's still a lot I’d like to learn about you.” Magnus admitted, his words coming in a little bit of a rush now. “Like which side of the bed you sleep on. If you leave dishes in the sink or if you clean them right away. What your favorite restaurant is. If you can cook.”

A slow smile stretched across Alec’s face as Magnus spoke. “It almost sounds like you want to know what I’d be like to live with,” he said.

Magnus blinked. That wasn’t what he’d been trying to imply, but that was exactly what he’d described. “Well,” Magnus tried to force down any embarrassment he felt bubbling up. “-after everything settles down, maybe we can test it out and go on a vacation somewhere. I’m planning on using all of my time off after this.”

Alec looked up at him. He searched Magnus’ face, like he was trying to see if Magnus was serious. It was the same exact thing he’d done when he’d kissed Magnus so many nights ago, like some part of him was still expecting Magnus to change his mind about him. At last, he nodded. “I’d like that a lot. It’d be nice to pick our destination this time.” Alec looked away for a moment, almost as if he was imagining it, and then he admitted softly, “I was worried once we got home you wouldn’t want anything to do with me.”

Magnus’ own doubts flashed through his head. He’d been so worried that Alec would abandon him the moment they stepped foot on Earth again, or maybe pull him aside on the ship ride home and explain to him quietly and surely that they weren’t going to work, not beyond the surface of their new planet. Now, that all seemed so silly.

Magnus found himself suppressing a smile, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t bite it back. “Of course not,” he said. “I’ll have as much to do with you as you’ll let me. I plan to make you sick of me by the end of this.”

Magnus was teasing but Alec’s response was entirely serious. He didn’t laugh and when he spoke, there was nothing joking in his tone. “I don’t think I could ever get sick of you.”

Magnus leaned into Alec’s side, letting his head fall onto Alec’s shoulder as they lapsed into silence. He felt a gentle wave of relief wash through him as their conversation sunk in. For the first time in months - for the first time since the crash - he could see the future before him. His and Alec’s future. He couldn’t wait to take Alec out to eat. He couldn’t wait to eat something real. He couldn't wait to take a shower, preferably with Alec by his side.

“Do you think Apollo will miss us?” Magnus asked after a moment.

“Yes,” Alec replied, much to Magnus’ surprise. “But I think he’s growing up too and he’ll move on quickly. He latched onto you when he was a baby, but he’s getting bigger. He’s gone more independant. He’s even changing color.”

It was true. Apollo was turning blue now, much like the fully-grown creature they’d seen out on the water, the first day they ventured to the lake. Small talons were starting to sprout. Apollo came back to the ship less and less and, some nights, stayed out until the morning. The first night Apollo didn’t return had been the night after they regained power, and Magnus wondered if Apollo didn’t like the hum of electricity and the bright lights of the ship’s console, but maybe that was just an excuse Magnus used to make himself feel better.

The truth was probably a lot more simple: Apollo was moving on, just like Alec and Magnus would soon. Magnus had planned to say goodbye to Apollo before they left - he wanted to cuddle his companion to his chest and pet his head and hope that Apollo understood just a little how much Magnus had grown to care for him - but Apollo hadn’t returned to the ship in days now, and a part of Magnus knew he wasn’t coming back.

It was almost like Apollo knew they were about to leave, but Magnus still wished he’d been able to say goodbye.

The ship that came to get them was smaller than their own, but after spending so long cramped together in a single room, it seemed huge. Still, Alec and Magnus spent their first night onboard not unlike they had most nights in the weeks before. They laid curled together in their room, murmuring to each other and exchanging soft, quiet touches as they talked about what would happen now.

Though, some things had changed. For the first time in months, they had an actual bed they could share. It was small and technically, only made for one person, but it was still far bigger than anything they had shared before. They had pillows and blankets now and they even had a window that looked out into the void of space, along with a TV on the wall and anything they could possibly want to access on the ship's extensive database.

Compared to before, they were living in luxury. Even the food - condensed and vacuum sealed as it was - tasted like heaven after so long of eating flavourless protein bars.

Alec had tentatively informed everyone that he and Magnus were together now. He had clearly expected some reprimand from mission control but it never came. Magnus supposed it wouldn’t look good on them, especially after they had abandoned Alec and Magnus on an alien planet and left them to die. Besides, Magnus wasn’t sure if they were technically employed anymore, or if the rules even applied to them now that they were rescuees.

Magnus wondered if he’d have to reopen his bank accounts on Earth, since he and Alec had been declared dead. He wondered what Ragnor had decided to do with the loft, if he’d sold all of Magnus’ worldly possessions the moment Magnus was declared killed in action. They had talked, of course. Magnus had called Ragnor the moment he could, but he hadn’t asked about his money or his stuff. He’d even forgotten to ask about his cat. The sound of Ragnor’s voice on the other end of the satellite link had left Magnus watery eyed and anything else he wanted to say was easily forgotten. It didn’t matter. There would be time to talk about the little things later and Magnus would have the chance to be furious at whatever Ragnor had decided to do in his absence.

Alec had talked to his family too. Magnus had given him some space - even though space was something they now had plenty of - and left him alone to dial his two brothers and his sister. Magnus wanted to give him room to breathe, but there was also a part of him that was curious about what Alec was saying.

Magnus had already told Ragnor about Alec and secretly, Magnus wanted to know what Alec would say about him in return, but he didn’t want to eavesdrop. Instead, he decided to explore the ship, wandering the maze of empty gray hallways and stopping to gaze through the porthole windows out into the darkness beyond. He hadn’t taken the time to look before. When he and Alec had first been brought aboard, their first thoughts had been food and sleep. Their second thoughts had been each other and their families.

Magnus hadn’t even considered checking out the ship. As he walked around, the thought brought a small, knowing smile to his face. One would think that after so long together, he and Alec would want more moments like this, away from each other, but alone for the first time in a long time, Magnus felt the urge to wait and ask Alec to come with him. It was odd, seeing other people who weren’t Alec and it was odd walking around without Alec right there at his side, ready to jump in front of him should he get attacked by a vicious blue-skinned alien.

Eventually, Magnus found himself sitting alone in an empty corridor. There were no benches, so Magnus sank to the ground. If anyone found him, he’d have a hard time explaining why he was on the floor, but Magnus couldn’t find it within himself to care.

Maybe, he just needed a moment to sit on the ground and reflect; a moment away from the warm press of Alec’s shoulder against his, or from the dizzying array of stars beyond the window and from all that they had left behind on that strange planet. He had a lot to reflect on, now that he thought about it. They were famous on Earth, or so Magnus had heard. Everyone back home knew they were alive by now, that they had survived on an Earth-like planet for months without proper food, water, or radio contact.

Ragnor had explained that they had been on the news almost everyday this week, which Magnus found a little incomprehensible. His entire life story was broadcast on the TV: his early life, his journey into the space academy, his previous missions, all the same segments repeating over and over again, and now, his experience with Alec too - what once had been something shared between just the two of them, stranded on a lone planet halfway across the galaxy with no-one but each other for company, was now common knowledge among everyone back on Earth. Magnus wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but either way, he imagined his life was going to be very different when he got back home, in more ways than one. He thought of TV interviews and press conferences and then of his neglected social media, which had been extremely popular once upon a time. He hadn’t had time to post anything new since their rescue.

Magnus sighed, leaning back against the wall. He wanted to post a photograph of him and Alec perhaps with Apollo, but mission control would want to approve everything first; the first photographic evidence of their new planet would have to be carefully chosen, and not a photo of Magnus gazing longingly at his ex-captain while they were waist-deep in lake water. The longer he thought about it, the more Magnus realized that he was fine waiting. He didn’t need to rush to reconnect with the world so suddenly.

Ragnor was far more than enough for now. He would talk to Catarina and his cat soon. Maybe, he’d try calling Raphael but Raphael was always a bit of a hard person to handle over the phone. Either way, he had Alec and his family. He didn’t need much else.

Magnus glanced up at the sound of someone else coming down the hallway. He moved to stand, planning in his head to make a show of having dropped something so that he wouldn’t be caught alone on the ground, staring at a wall, but when the figure came closer, Magnus realized it was Alec.

Alec paused when he saw him, a frown appearing on his face. “Why are you on the floor?” He asked softly, clearly as concerned as Magnus had expected someone to be. With anyone else, he’d be embarrassed but with Alec, Magnus found it hard to care.

Magnus shrugged his shoulders.

Alec pressed his lips into a thin line, thinking about it for a moment, before he moved to sink down against the wall next to Magnus. “Okay,” he said slowly, looking to Magnus as he settled beside him. It reminded Magnus suddenly of them both outside their ship, in the sun on the ground together. “What are we doing?” Alec asked after a beat of silence.

Magnus laughed softly. “Just sitting,” he murmured as he took Alec’s hand in his own. He would think about what he’d share with the world later but for now, he was happy here, in this empty corridor, away from Earth and away from the chaos it would bring. He had Alec next to him, willing to sit with him on the ground if he wanted.

He didn’t need much else.

Read on ao3 - Masterpost.

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paladin-andric · 6 years ago

Text

Blackheart, Chapter 33: Heart of Darkness

(This is the final chapter, but not the complete end. Expect something soon...)

Alexander shook his head, voice quivering. “No...no, not you…”

The dragon’s twisted grin only widened. “Do you feel fear? Regret? Sorrow? Do not dwell on it. What you have experienced pales in comparison to what you will be feeling shortly.”

“Tourthun...Tourthun, it’s us. We can purify you, we can bring things back to the way they were. You just have to fight it, you only-”

The knight’s words were silenced by Tourthun reaching forward and slamming his claws down into him. Screams rang out from the others, but…

Alexander could hear the screams?

He had been crushed by a dragon. He should have died instantly.

Only...he didn’t.

“Words will not sway me. ‘Tourthun’ is dead. In his place, is your new God.”

He lifted his claws from the ground...and found Alexander, who should currently be a pile of mush, climbing back to his feet.

“What?!” Everyone, even Tourthun, cried it at the staggering knight.

Alexander wasn’t unharmed. It had hurt, and he felt like a horse had just kicked him in the chest...but he was alive. As he wondered why, it came to him.

The stone.

The “special ward” that woman mentioned. It had protected him.

“It’s gonna take more than that,” Alexander spoke calmly, sword raised. The dragon quickly recovered, breaking into a grin once more.

“Whatever you did to survive that was a mistake...you will wish you had died soon enough.”

“We’re shattering the anchor. Tourthun, get a hold of yourself!”

“A hold? A HOLD?!” the dragon broke into laughter. “Ho, you simple-minded fools...you know not the forces you meddle with. You see, I was too resilient to break through the normal process. That dullard who promised to return failed. My ‘love’ was too strong for him to warp, apparently.”

The dragon looked gleeful as he recounted what the group had missed after fleeing the cave. “They needed me broken, and they needed it quickly. Thus, they did something even they feared...they unsealed the heart of a long dead god, and forced it into me. They thought the dead god would possess my body...what fools! Now, I have infinite power, and the understanding of the darkness! I am God, now!”

“Tourthun-”

“SILENCE, WORM! You continue to exist because I wish it so. Not for any love...but because I wish to see you suffer. I wish to see you ALL suffer!”

“T-Tourthun?” Senci asked, quivering, “I don’t want to hurt you...please stop...we can help you…”

The dragon stepped forward, still grinning. His head craned down as he loomed over them, his visage striking fear into their hearts.

“I do not want your help. I want your misery. And what better way to gain it, than to show you just how hopeless you truly are?”

Leaning back, the demon-dragon’s forelegs rose as a dark force filled the room. What felt like...suction was filling the air, the group quickly covering their faces as wind began to whip violently around them.

It felt like Tourthun was sucking in the very air they were breathing...but after a few moments, it became clear that was a far cry from what was truly happening.

Alexander watched in amazement as several chunks of the room appeared to...tear away. They weren’t being torn up and sucked in by Tourthun, they simply...ceased to be, a black nothingness left behind by them.

This persisted, more and more of the room fading away, until, in a flash...there was nothing.

The knight looked around to see what was there, and...the others and Tourthun remained. That was all. The room, the stone, the anchor, the hallway, everything...it was all gone.

They were in a black void of nothingness. There wasn’t even a floor, yet they stood somehow.

“What...what’s happening?” Senci asked.

“I have erased the world,” Tourthun answered simply, “All is gone.”

“W-what?!”

“I told you...I am God. Reality begins and ends on my whim. All existence besides us has been undone.”

Lexius looked around at the void. “But, the others...the city...everything we’ve worked towards…”

“All gone,” the dragon announced, sounding like a parent telling their child something was out of stock.

“No...everyone else...everyone who ever lived...you can’t have…”

“I can, and I have. Now…” Tourthun leaned down and grinned at the four warriors remaining. “...what to do with you?”

Senci growled, sword pressed against his chest. “M-master Andric...Vok...you...you’ll pay for this!”

The warrior bellowed and charged forward, sword raised as he rushed to avenge all life.

“Oh, how cute. Farewell.”

A bright light blinded the group, and as Alexander opened his eyes…

Senci was nowhere to be seen.

“Wh-where...what have you done?!” the knight demanded angrily, the dragon still grinning like mad.

“He has joined his precious friends in non-existence. He never lived, as no one has. All that is and will ever be are you and I.”

Alexander stumbled backwards, reeling. This was worse than death. Senci, Razorwing, all of them, everyone who had ever been...all of them were gone, having never even been born. The world itself was never made. It was only them, and the void.

Leianna moved forward.

“Wait, don’t!”

The cleric ignored Alexander’s words. She marched resolutely, mace in hand. She didn’t charge like Senci had. It seemed she understood that there was no hope, and yet she faced their foe down anyway.

“Yes! Come, come to your demise!”

“Leianna, stop! We’ll...we’ll think of something!”

The cleric continued her march, looking at the dragon with a cold and fearless expression. She finally came to a stop, standing directly in front of the grinning dragon.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” she asked, grasping onto her mace with both hands.

“Waiting? I am waiting for you to accept your end!”

She cocked a grin. “I’m not accepting anything. Come and get me.”

The dragon shifted, standing up straight. “Very well...perish in darkness!”

Tourthun rose a leg and, as he did so, Leianna turned to look at Alexander. She smiled at him, one last time, before Tourthun was upon her.

The knight averted his eyes as his claws crushed her. Why...why? What was the point of any of this?

As he lifted his claws, there remained not a body, not gore, but...ash. He held them up and blew across them, the mist scattering to the winds, vanishing into nothingness.

“Erased,” he said, gleeful malice in his voice, “Now...it seems you two are the last beings in existence besides me.”

Alexander shook his head. “Why…? I thought...you served the demons.”

Tourthun laughed. “Me, serving?! You stupid fool. I am a God. Why would I kneel to those fools? They merely unleashed me, they hold no sway over me any longer. Yes, they too have ceased to be. There is nothing but you, I and the endless abyss...the place where you will learn true fear.”

He stepped towards them, the darkness within him sending shockwaves through them. “Now begins an eternity of suffering henceforth unknown to you. Your entire being, for all of eternity, will know only pain.”

“Alexander.”

It was a low whisper, from Lexius. The knight turned to face the priest.

“You...you have to distract him.”

For the first time since his journey started, Alexander didn’t see what resisting would accomplish.

“Why? What’s the point?”

“I think…” Lexius swallowed hard. “I think I know a way to make him stop.”

He was familiar with purifying corruption...maybe he really was onto something?

“I’ve never attempted such an act. Alexander, I can’t help you, but...if you buy me enough time...we just might make him understand.”

That was all he needed. Something, anything to hold onto, to believe in.

A reason to fight.

“I’ll do my best.”

“Good luck, Alexander.”

Tourthun was grinning. “Oooh, a plan? Yes, struggle helplessly. See your final hopes dashed, and fully submit to despair!”

Alexander moved towards the dragon, hunched over and filled with dread. “Why are you doing this? What’s the purpose of doing any of this? You can make anything happen...and you erase all reality? Why?”

The dark dragon chuckled at the knight, twisted malice in his voice. “The world wronged me. Now, I shall cast it away, and return its hatred tenfold. You will understand the extent of the world’s cruelty, and crumble before me.”

The knight shook his head. “Tourthun...that’s outrageous. You feel bad about what happened to you, about all you’ve lost? We’ve all lost people. That’s part of life.”

“I tire of your words,” the dragon said, disinterested.

“What about your father?!” he cried, “What would he think of this?! You think this is what he wanted?! He’d be ashamed of you!”

A twinge of pain, of fury and hatred. Alexander could see it in the dragon’s visage, as alien as it was. The demon reeled back and slammed his leg into Alexander, sending the knight flying.

He slammed into the...what acted like ground, in a heap. Once again pain wracked his body, but the sorcerer’s gift saved his life. He rose as the dragon snarled at him from far away.

“You know NOTHING of pain!” Tourthun cried, “But I will teach you...soon, you will know…”

Off to the side, Lexius was hunched over in prayer, conducting what appeared to be some grand spell.

He had to keep going. He had to stand against Tourthun, no matter what happened. He’d seen it, in the dragon’s face. He’d heard it, in his words.

There was an inkling of the old him. Of something the darkness hadn’t destroyed yet. And if there was a sliver, no matter how small...it could be pulled back to the surface.

“TOURTHUN!” the knight screamed, pointing his blade at the beast.

“Alexander…” the demon grinned.

He took a deep breath.

“I am just a man. I doubt I will survive this. Even so…I am not afraid. My dear friend…the corruption hasn’t erased you yet. I can hear the hesitation in your voice. The regret in your eyes. Within your demonic form I hear the cry of the pure-hearted dragon I once knew. Tourthun...I will save you if it kills me!”

Tourthun shifted his stance, his grin becoming a furious snarl. “Believe me...it shall.”

The dragon surged forward, Alexander throwing himself at the beast as well. He was knocked over as it barreled into him, but he quickly recovered. As Tourthun stared down at him, Alexander raised his sword, and swung down on one of the beast’s legs with all his might.

The blade made contact, and bounced off of the dark dragon’s scales harmlessly. It laughed, and laughed and laughed. The monster sent Alexander flying once more with a swipe of its tail.

“Do you see yet, fool?! I am immortal, invulnerable! I cannot be harmed, I can erase and rewrite reality with a mere thought! I am GOD!”

Clambering to his feet again, Alexander huffed and raised his sword at the dragon. “You...you can still be saved...”

“You have trouble listening.”

“There’s still time,” the knight spoke breathlessly, “Time to make things right. Time to return things to the way they were.”

The dragon’s wicked grin flashed once more. “You cannot save that which enjoys damnation.”

The beast crept forward, horrid visage still plastered on its face. “I ended the lives of your friends, of everyone you ever cared for. I plunged the world into an abyss so dark, the plans of the demons seem wondrous by comparison. Fool...can you see yet that I am your master, your tormentor?! Your pitiful words hold no power.”

The knight hesitated. He was furious. He was saddened. The beast had ended all life, all existence. All those he worked so hard to help, who he cared about and who cared for him in return...they were gone. Geralthin was gone. The sky was gone. All of the earth was gone. All because of him.

But that was what he wanted. Tourthun wanted him to give up. He wanted the man to hate him, to loathe and despise him.

Thinking back to that brief moment of hesitation on Tourthun’s part...it seemed like he was trying to keep him at a safe distance emotionally...so that he couldn’t compromise the dragon’s fury. As if the beast himself knew some part of him was still fighting whatever was controlling his actions.

“I don’t hate you,” Alexander said, “You know that. I just want to help you, Tourthun. I know how difficult it was for you. I know it seemed like the whole world was against you...but don’t you remember everything that happened after we met? The people who dropped everything to help you? The ones who cared enough about you to encourage you and ensure you were alright?”

“You left me to the darkness!” Tourthun snarled, “Do not speak of caring!”

“You begged us to leave! You forbade Senci from staying with you!”

“That would not have stopped you if you truly cared…” The dragon caught himself, shaking and snarling. “You...you DARE attempt to manipulate ME, your God and master?!”

With a guttural roar, Tourthun lunged forward, crushing Alexander again. Yet another time, the ward saved him, but he was deeply pained, his chest aching.

As he tried to get up however, the dragon pinned him back down with a claw. “Not this time. Now, you will know pain.”

The dragon, for the first time since they had met, incanted a spell. He showed no knowledge of magic before, so this must have been something from the forgotten god…

Alexander felt a blinding, searing, horrific pain fill the core of his very being. For only a brief moment, he felt a pain so unbearable that he couldn’t think, or see, or feel anything but the pain.

After the pain left him, it took a moment for his mind and body to catch up with reality, the knight screaming in the meanwhile.

As he came back to reality, he turned his head to look at the predatory demon grinning down at him.

“Just a split moment. Only a brief, passing moment. Imagine that pain. Imagine it going on...forever. That is your existence under me. That is what you will feel until you a broken, mindless thing.”

Alexander clawed his way back to his feet, glaring at the dragon. “I won’t...give up…”

The beast’s grin...the monster’s horrid grin...it flashed a gleeful, sadistic grin.

“I was hoping you would say that.”

With blinding speed, the dragon snatched him up, rose him up, and slammed him into the abyss with murderous force.

It hurt. Oh, God did it hurt. Still, the knight knew it wasn’t over, that he could-

“No.”

The moment he moved to get up, the dragon grabbed him and flung him, the knight flying and crashing back down into the darkness, rolling a bit before coming to a stop.

He barely had time to recover from the shock when a massive tail slammed down into him, hurting him further.

How long could the ward protect him? Sure, the damage slipping past it was but a fraction of what was truly inflicted, but how long until it gave out under the demon’s relentless assault?

“Oh, are you hurt? That is a shame. I have barely even begun.”

This process repeated itself, Alexander getting tossed and slammed effortlessly by the dragon. Each time he crashed back down, his pain worsened. His chest and stomach were on fire. His limbs were weak. His head spun.

I just...have to hang on...a little longer…

The dragon ground him into the darkness, sliced at him, bit down, and threw him about like a ragdoll. By the end of it, he could barely even move.

He was thrown, collapsing near the priest. He cried in pain, writhing in the abyss, before screaming out for help.

“Argh...LEXIUS!”

The priest was still performing whatever ritual it was that he planned. He look half-dead, eyes sunken and pale and sweating, just like when he had healed Tourthun.

Alexander, somehow, went on. He shakily climbed back to his feet, weaving and wobbling as he threatened to tip over.

“Impressive,” the dragon spoke deeply, “But pointless. Here it comes, Alexander...do not worry. If you die, I can bring you back. This suffering will persist for all eternity.”

The knight felt fear creep through his heart as the dragon reeled back...and spat his fire at him.

The flames were all wrong. They were discolored, green and evil-looking. The pillar of fire flew forward, and soon enough, Alexander was enveloped.

The fire boiled and burned, charring him and coating him in searing pain. He could feel his skin bubbling and nerves dying as he was covered in a sea of fire.

At last, it ended. The flames dissipated, and Alexander collapsed.

He felt the pain of a thousand pyres overwhelming him. He could feel his flesh melting away. In these moments, there was nothing but torment.

And yet…

The dragon’s laughter ceased as the knight’s arm rose...and pressed against the darkness beneath him. His other did the same, and soon, he was pushing, rising up into a kneeling position.

The knight’s armor was in ruin. Entire sections had melted. The entire thing was blackened. The boots were warped and no longer fit him properly. His helmet was a mangled mess, with a twisted visor, and one side almost entirely gone, leaving the burns on his face exposed for what was left of the world to see.

“What?!”

Alexander gasped, his voice low and raspy. “Not...yet…”

The knight was kneeling, panting and shivering as he struggled to hold on. It took all he had not to collapse back into the darkness and let it swallow him forever.

He moved his leg. It hurt. Oh, God, it hurt. Each movement brought terrible pain, and a sharp desire to stop...but he kept going.

His leg rose up and he planted his foot down, moving up and propping himself up on his knee. He breathed heavily, this shift from a kneel to a crouch feeling like a superhuman effort.

He willed himself on, using his leg muscles to move his quivering body upwards, until at least, he was at his feet again.

The dragon growled, fury in what remained of his eyes. “You WORM! You prove NOTHING! DIE!”

Another blast of flames. Alexander had the forethought to cover his face with his arms, though the effectiveness of this while being entirely engulfed in fire was dubious at best.

The flames swallowed him again, but this time, it hurt less. It was still burning him, he could feel that much, but...something was different.

There was a warm glow radiating from his hip. Not the searing heat all around him, but a pleasant warmness, a sense of safety and comfort.

He realized that was where the stone was.

It was getting warmer as the flames persisted, and after they died it, the heat emanating from it didn’t go away.

Alexander remained standing, leaving an even more shocked demon than before.

“What...what trick is this?!”

The knight took a slow, labored step forward. Then another. Soon, his body waved from side to side, his feet shuffling forward at a slow, steady pace. He looked like a walking corpse.

“Tourthun…not yet...”

The shock on the dragon’s face was barely registered by the knight. All he could think of was holding on, just a little longer, just to keep going no matter what.

The demonic dragon tensed up, growling. “You...will perish!”

Another blast of flames from the dragon’s maw, shorter in duration this time. He continued marching. Another. He kept going. Yet another. Still, he persisted.

The knight grimly marched on as the furious dragon continued to bathe him in fire. Each time, the stone got warmer and warmer, becoming scaldingly hot and being actively painful to keep on him.

Was it the ward struggling to keep up? Was it the magic it was absorbing threatening to overwhelm the enchantment? Was the knight’s only source of life about to give out?

Alexander felt fear, regret, sorrow and pain...but he marched on. Always, he marched on.

Step after step, pain all-encompassing, terror of the unknown, his last effort fading away into an eternity of unending torment…

A loud, thundering explosion brought all of his thoughts to a halt. Tourthun too was stopped in his tracks by the noise. Alexander struggled, but he did manage to turn around to face the source of the noise, his legs still wobbling unsteadily.

Lexius was covered in a white mist of divine energy, which promptly poured out all around him before dissipating into the darkness. This left only the priest with his hands in the air, head raised to the sky, motionless.

“It...is done. He...has arrived.”

With those words, Lexius collapsed in a heap, unconscious or dead. Alexander couldn’t tell which.

There was a pause. There was no more noise. There was no motion, no magic. Nothing happened.

Tourthun broke into uproarious laughter, cruelly spiting the knight with harsh words.

“He has failed! YOU have failed! Nothing has come of your pathetic plan! All hope is LOST! See now, and wallow in despair!”

For a moment, Alexander believed him. He was right. They failed. Nothing could stop him now. The new master of the universe would rewrite existence as he saw fit for all of eternity.

“Nothing has failed. I am here.”

The knight’s eyes widened as a new voice entered the area. It was a voice he had never heard before. It was a voice as soft a silk, as ethereal as a chorus of angels. It was a voice of love, compassion and understanding.

Alexander and the demon both turned to the source of the new voice, and standing before them...was yet another dragon.

This one, however, was not a true dragon...at least, not truly with them. It was semi-transparent, made of wavy, blue lights. His visage bore a soft, kindly smile, and he looked at them expectantly.

“W-what…?” the knight stared at the spirit in confusion. What was this? What had Lexius done?

“Tourthun…” it spoke, sounding almost ready to cry.

The corrupted dragon stood in shock, until he too finally spoke. His voice was different now. It was not the dark and insidious voice of a mad tyrant.

It was the voice of a frightened child.

“F...Father…?”

“My son...how I have missed you so.”

It all came crashing onto Alexander in a tidal wave. A profound understanding of Lexius’ plan. THIS is what he had put into motion. To summon the ghost of the one who meant the most of him, to shake him out of his madness…

“Tourthun...stop this. You must stop this. Come back to me, Tourthun. I know you still have it within you to regain yourself.”

The demonic dragon shook, head shaking. “No...NO! You...I will…!”

He fired a jet of his unholy flames onto his own father. Alexander watched in disbelief, his surprise only growing as the flames went out to show the other dragon, unharmed.

“My body has long since died, Tourthun. You know that better than anyone.”

Tourthun cringed, backing away from the soul of his father. “I...leave me...I am a god...I...I am…”

“You are my son.”

Those words seemed to shake the dragon to his very core. He froze, wide-eyed.

“Remember...you must remember. Remember everything I have ever taught you. Remember the love you have for this world, and its people. Remember all you have worked towards in your pursuit to make the world a better place. The darkness cannot swallow you whole. You are too strong for it.”

Tourthun’s breathing became funny. He stood in a strange pose that resembled a cornered animal. Even with the darkness warping his visage, Alexander could see the shame and heartache in his eyes.

“F-father…”

“I have always believed in you, Tourthun. I will never stop. Even as far as you’ve fallen, I know you will rise again. Your love cannot be contained by such foul entities. You are my son, and I love you.”

“Father…” his voice was comparable to the squeak of a mouse. “I...I…”

This quivering and shaking intensified, until at least, the dragon began to cry.

“...I am so sorry.”

“There is nothing to apologize for.”

“But I have...I tarnished everything. I have destroyed the world. I have brought untold suffering to my friends, to everyone who has ever cared for me! How...how could I? How could I allow this? How could I ever make amends for this?”

“Fight it!” his father pleaded. The dragon’s teeth were grinding against one another, the beast in clear distress.

“I-it hurts...I...I do not know if I can. Father, help me…”

The spirit bowed his head. “I am not truly here, Tourthun. The good priest could only allow my soul to travel here for a short time. I can offer nothing but my wisdom. There is, however, one still here to help…”

The knight could feel the eyes on him, having lowered his head as he struggled to stay upright. He looked up and saw both of their gazes fixed on him.

“Alexander…?” Tourthun asked fearfully.

“Tourthun…”

“I...I hurt you. I tried to end your life. I brought suffering to one of the few good people I knew. I...I understand if you cannot forgive me.”

“It wasn’t you,” Alexander muttered.

“I...could you...how could you help?”

“That is on you,” the spirit answered, “He does not hold the answer himself.”

“But...I can feel it again. Father, what do I do?”

“You said you were a god, correct? Tourthun...take that power, and use it for good. You know I mean, do you not?”

The dragon slowly nodded, comprehension dawning on him. “I...I do. I understand.”

“Good. That is good.” the soul closed his eyes, looking pained. “Tourthun...my time here comes to an end. I can feel it. The energy used to bind me here is coming undone. I will return to the heavens in a moment.”

“F-father, please…” Tourthun’s face was matted with tears. “Please...do not leave me.”

“I have no choice in the matter,” Tamis admitted, “Just as I had no choice the first time. Tourthun...before I leave, I want you to know that I am always with you. I have been watching over you, ever since I left this world. I tried so hard to reach you, to let you know I was there, and everything was okay. I believe I got through once. Tourthun, do you remember that dream, when you were a child…?”

Tourthun’s jaw dropped before he recalled the words spoken from his father. “I may be gone from this world, but I will always be above, watching you...”

“Be good for me...you have made me so proud already,” his father finished.

The pair stared at one another in silence, their faces saying all that needed to be said. The father and son stared into each other’s eyes for some time, a spark, an inseparable connection clearly there.

“I can feel it...I must leave, now…”

Tourthun shook. “I...I do not want to be alone...”

“You have your friends, still. Tourthun...do not give up hope yet. I know you can fix this. You WILL fix this. Tell me you will.”

Tourthun nodded hurriedly. “I...I will. I promise I will.”

“Good...that is good.” Tamis looked up to the other dragon with a smile. “Mother is with me too, you know. She has been watching as well. She misses you dearly, and is so very proud of who you are.”

“F-father...I miss her, too…”

“She knows that...but I will tell her. Tourthun...the end is here. I will continue watching from above. My son...make me proud.”

With that, the soul of Tamis began to waver, growing harder and harder to see.

“Father...father!”

“I love you.”

Those were the final words the voice spoke, until what was once Tamis was gone again, rejoining paradise.

Tourthun sat there, shaking, as Alexander stood in stock for quite some time. Eventually, the dragon turned and looked at the knight. Though he was still corrupted and unholy, his face had changed. What was once furious hatred and malicious glee was now the visage of a heartbroken creature.

“Alexander...I can never fully be forgiven for what I have done to you, and all the others…”

“I TOLD you it wasn’t you,” Alexander spoke sternly. “Although...I can think of something that could be done.”

Tourthun nodded. “What father said...this is my only chance at redemption. Alexander...abusing my powers, undoing the entire universe...I exhausted my energy. I am nearly spent. I could wait, only...the voices of darkness, even now, still scream at me. I...I cannot hold onto this clarity forever. Soon enough, I will go back to the horrible monster I once was…”

He looked at the knight, eyes narrowing. “Alexander...you would do anything to save the world, would you not? You would not hesitate to give even your very life if it meant it all came back...correct?”

“Of course.” There wasn’t a moment of hesitation. Tourthun nodded.

“Good, good...so would I. Alexander...I am going to attempt something great…but I am weak, now. I need your help.”

“Yes...anything…” the knight stumbled forward, careful not to trip. Still the pain engulfed him, and he feared that if he fell, he’d never get up.

“Alexander...I am going to use the last of my strength to rebuild the world...and it will not be enough. Lend me your strength, Knight Alexander, hero and friend, so that we may rebuild this world, together.”

“Yes…”

As the knight staggered over to the dragon, the beast moved his leg, offering the knight something to hold onto while their ritual went underway.

“There is a good chance one of us will not survive this. Perhaps even neither of us will make it.”

“I don’t care,” the knight answered, reaching out to the dragon.

“Sir Alexander. If I do not make it, if you return to the world and I am not there...remember me as I once was, not as what I have become.”

“I told you...the world will know of Tourthun, savior of Palethorn.”

The dragon smiled. “My friend...good luck. Long may life blossom in this great land.”

As the dragon stopped talking, something else happened. Alexander felt that...sensation, from before. From when Tourthun undid the world. That strange pulling sensation.

This time however, it was not the world around them that he felt being pulled...but his very being.

It felt like something was trying to tear the soul out of his body as the ritual began, immense pain and exhaustion flooding his body.

As the knight struggled to hold on, he looked and saw Tourthun appearing to be in pain as well.

The spell he was using was drawing their very essence for its power, using them as fuel to rebuild the world.

Alexander shook, and his teeth chattered. It was like his body was being stolen from him, his spirit being burned away and leaving him a hollow husk.

“Alexander...look.”

The knight looked up, trying to see what the dragon was seeing.

All around them, bits of the darkness were...fading away. While the abyss was still there, reality was bleeding back into existence. There were bits of green on the ground, and all around them the color of stone walls came into being.

“We are doing it...we are truly doing it, Alexander…”

Despite the horrific pain, the knight forced himself on. Despite everything he had suffered, he kept going.

This was the world, the future of all life. It wasn’t up to him whether he was allowed to give up or not.

“Hah...I grow weak…” Tourthun muttered, both of them being eaten up by the magic.

“Not...yet…” Alexander whispered, body wobbling.

He closed his eyes as more and more of the world returned from the brink, the knight feeling debilitating agony across every inch of his body.

Internally, his mind was spent. His will was stretched far past what he thought were his limits. He couldn’t think straight anymore, or do anything but simply be.

“Alexander...it is here...the world is here…”

The knight finally gave out, the last of him spent utterly. Before he could look to see if the dragon was speaking truth, he crashed to the ground, his mind already swallowed by the darkness.

…

Darkness.

It was all he knew.

It an endless void, his mind raced.

He couldn’t recall what had happened, or why.

How had he gotten here? Why was he in this place?

“Alexander…”

Somewhere, in the distance, a voice called out to him.

What was it? Who was there?

“Alexander…”

Again, he strained. Someplace, he could feel something. In another world, events were unfolding before him.

“Alexander!”

The knight snapped back to life, eyes opening. He gasped as air filled his lungs, the feeling of being alive a sweet nectar that egged him on.

He looked up to see the face of Leianna. She looked surprised, but then smiled.

“Ah...you’re alright.”

As she backed off, the knight instinctively tried to sit up. As he did so, he felt sharp pains all over him, eliciting a deep intake of breath from him.

“Easy, easy! You were half-dead when I got started…”

Forcing himself into a sitting position, he rubbed at his head, feeling warped and melted steel underneath his hands. “What...happened?”

“You did it, Alexander.”

Another voice. The knight turned to see a familiar face. A draconic visage, large and glittering a deep, ruby red.

“Tourthun!”

“The very same.”

Alexander shook his head. “But...how did you…?”

“Andric and Leianna. They purged me of the influence. I am...back again. It is all thanks to you and Lexius, my dear friend.”

The knight looked over to the others. All around him, his companions stood watching him with concern. Above them, Gira, Basilrin and Aurelio all perched over rooftops, watching the proceedings with vested interest.

He pointed at Razorwing. “What about...what happened to you? When you got caught behind…”

The bird crossed his arm-wings. “It’s the strangest thing. Crux and I were fighting the demons to cover your assault, when all of a sudden…”

“There was a bright light,” Crux answered.

Razorwing finished the statement. “...and when we came to, we were here, and everything was alright.”

The knight turned to look around him. They were in the square, the portal now a pile of rubble. The demons were gone, and there were no corrupted in sight. The army was all around them, and Alexander could see the rest of his friends in the crowd.

Wurie was patting a survivor on the back. Charles was watching Alexander with a wide smile on his muzzle. Senci was clutching onto Andric tightly, hugging him as if it was the last time he’d ever see him. The paladin was returning the hug.

All around them, the army and citizens smiled and celebrated, congratulating one another. The people were happy, and it seemed no one was unaccounted for.

Whatever they did, it worked. The demons were destroyed. The Blackheart was ruined. They had succeeded. It was all over.

The knight moved to stand up, but the intense pain returned, causing him to grunt.

“Hey, take it easy, dope!” Leianna shouted, “You’re lucky you’re even alive!”

“What doesn’t kill you…” he said with a shallow laugh.

“Argh! You need to relax! You nearly...your face…”

Alexander paused. He shook his hand free of his near-ruined gauntlet, letting his hand be exposed to the world. He pressed it against the opening in his helmet, and sure enough...he felt it. The waves and patterns now emblazoned on him. The permanent scars of horrid face-burns.

“Well...there goes my good looks.” he laughed again, shaking his head.

“Alexander...you still, I mean…”

“Don’t worry,” he said softly, cutting the cleric off, “...I’m sure it’ll grow on me.”

She offered no more words as he forced himself to his feet, his mangled armor and burned body mere inklings in the back of his mind. He was alive, as were the rest of humanity, and that was all that mattered.

As he climbed to his feet, he could hear something in the distance.

Church bells.

Someone had thought of the idea, apparently to celebrate their victory. While a token gesture, what happened next made it far more impactful.

It seemed to become brighter all of a sudden, and as Alexander looked up to find the source of light, he was stricken with wonder.

The fog above them, wrapping the city in an eternal darkness...was fading away. The wisps of fog thinned out more and more, until finally, as a hole in the dome of darkness formed...Alexander could see it.

The sun.

The fog died away, revealing a bright blue sky, the shining sun covering the city in a wondrous, warm light, all while the church bells rang.

Alexander could feel tears run down his face. He’d done it. They’d finally all done it. The nightmare was over. Dawn had come, and the world was saved.

All stared in wonder at the glorious sight as everyone came together, man and beast, to watch the sun burn away the darkness.

In that moment, all life was one. All shared in their struggle, their triumph. It was over.

It was finally all over.

“I can’t believe it…”

Alexander heard the voice of the prince, breathless. He stumbled over, and tapped the man on the shoulder.

“Alexander…”

The burned man smiled. “It’s time to bring these people home, William.”

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stories-and-other-fun-things · 6 years ago

Text

A Time For A Feast

Final Part

A man and a woman walked into the Haven and straight up to Swarm.

"I demand to see Gregor Bane!" The woman said.

"I'm sorry, but Gregor Bane is dead." Swarm informed her.

"I demand to see Jane Mallow then!"

"She is also dead.

"Shaun Grey?"

"Alive and well."

"I demand to see him!"

"He's in the Council's Room with Morbius Dawn and Emilia." The man and woman walked into the Council's Room and threw open the two doors. They walked up to Grey.

"I demand answers!" The woman said to Grey.

"What do you need answers to Sharna?" Grey asked.

"We need answers as to why someone dug up our daughter's grave no more than twenty minutes ago!" The man shouted.

"Derek, what are you talking about?"

"A man just dug up our daughter's grave! We had a friend in the area and they saw it happen! This man dug it up, looked inside the coffin and then covered it up again!"

"Who would do this?!" Sharna demanded.

"I... I don't know..."

"We were assured that nothing would end up happening to our daughter's grave!"

"I know, but I don't know why someone would do this sort of thing..."

"Did your friend provide a description of the man who did this?" Morbius asked.

"He was wearing a hoodie with it up, he was tall and was wearing jeans. That's all our friend could see." Emilia's head shot up but she remained silent.

"We will look deeply into this matter I assure you." Grey said.

"The Council assured us nothing would happen! They assured us by only having the three members and each family member know where a grave was no one would do anything!"

"This is something that we did not think would happen. What would someone want with Alexia's body anyway?"

"We're not the bloody detectives here! You are!" Sharna yelled this at Grey.

"Sharna, Derek. We will look into this. Only the three of us shall do this. Now please, go home and try to relax a bit. We will bring you news when we have some." Sharna and Derek stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut behind them. Grey waited a little bit after they left.

"What was Wolfe thinking?!" He asked.

"Wolfe obviously must've been checking if her body was there or not." Morbius replied.

"How did he find out where she was?!"

"You know Wolfe, he has skills. Besides, you should've told him where all four of them were buried. They were his friends after all." Grey pinched the bridge of his nose. He then sighed angrily.

"Yes, he should've been told... Do you think she was there?"

"I don't know. Only Wolfe does."

"He wouldn't tell us if she was there would he?" Emilia asked.

"No, he wouldn't. Not yet anyway." Grey replied.

"Sharna and Derek will want answers, and you assured them they will get answers. They will want Wolfe imprisoned or killed." Morbius said.

"I know."

"Neither of them liked Alexia hanging around him."

"I know."

"So what are we going to do?"

"Well we can't let Wolfe get killed over this. Either we get him to apologise then lie about giving him a punishment, or we set up a fall person."

"Which is easier to do?"

"Neither." Both of them sighed.

"Grey, we'll have to deal with this once Wolfe gets back."

"Whenever that is... No luck with contact Emilia?"

"I leave him messages every day to tell him what occurred that day. I can just tell he listens to them but he doesn't reply."

"Make sure to tell him about this. If he will ever reply, I hope that it's to this." Emilia nodded. Grey sighed again. "Both of you are dismissed." He sank into his chair as they walked out.

"What will happen to Wolfe?"

"I don't know. He will have some reason as to why he did this. It better be good..." They walked to the garage and drove back to Morbius' house.

Emilia played with Max for a little while after they returned. She found Morbius sitting on the couch reading a book.

"Hey Morbius?" She asked. He looked up from the book.

"Hm?" He asked.

"Where does Wolfe live exactly?"

"Ah. He's technically homeless. He tends to spend every night at the Haven in his office. If he's not doing that then he's staying in hotels."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Reverend and I were talking about buying him a house near here but then stuff happened."

"So wherever he is now he would be in a hotel?"

"Correct. Don't try to go out and look for him though."

"I wasn't. I just wanted an inkling of an idea as to where he would be staying and how he would be."

"He would be stressed because he just looked inside of his friend's grave and either saw nothing or their skeleton."

"Yeah..." She was silent for a bit. "I miss him."

"I miss him too." She sat down on the couch, turned the TV on and snuggled with Morbius and tried to think about something positive.

Emilia was walking with Wolfe the Haven. They were holding hands and Emilia was wrapped around his arm. Wolfe said something which made her laugh. She looked up to him to then see Alexander. She let go of the arm in horror. Alexander walked towards her and went to give her a kiss. Emilia woke with a jolt. She was alone on the couch with a blanket wrapped around her and her head on a pillow. She shook her head as she tried to forget the end of the dream.

"It had started off so nicely..." She muttered quietly. She was really missing Wolfe. She picked up her phone and rung him. She got no answer. So she left a voicemail. "Hey, I know it's a bit late. Yesterday I learnt about the Strength Test and more about your history with Lament. I told Alexander to fuck off because he tried to kiss me. I also said that I had a boyfriend to make him back off so yeah. Also, Alexia's parents came in and demanded answers as to why you dug up her grave. Grey isn't sure what to do about this. But yeah, see ya. Oh, and I miss you..." She ended her message and sent her phone back to sleep. She woke it back up to check the time. It was 10:37 AM the next day. "I wonder if Morbius left without me." Then she heard something hit the floor in the kitchen followed by "Damnit." She smiled a small smile then walked into the kitchen with the blanket still wrapped around her.

"Mornin sweetie." He said to her as he picked up a number of forks that were on the floor.

"Morning Morbius."

"There's some pizza in the fridge if you want it."

"Hold up! Pizza?"

"Yeah... I ordered pizza last night..."

"Why didn't you wake me up?!"

"You looked pretty content sleeping. Don't worry, there's half of it left. And half a garlic bread loaf. It's meat lovers."

"Nice. Yeah, I'll have that."

"Alright. You finish my job of picking up these forks and I'll reheat it for you." Emilia gathered up the rest of the forks then waited for her breakfast to be ready. She began to eat it.

"What are we doing today?" She asked in between mouthfuls.

"We've got a free day. What do you want to do?"

"Can I get a car?"

"Sure. Got your license?"

"Yeah." She laughed. "I kinda meant it as a joke."

"Ah well, we can still get you a car. Eat up then get changed." He walked out of the room. Emilia laughed then continued eating.

"What kind of car do you want?" Morbius asked as they were driving around.

"I kinda want a black Dodge Viper." She replied.

"Hmph. Break my bank account then." Morbius did a U-turn. "I know a good place to get what you want." They drove for a bit longer then arrived at a car dealership. "Follow my lead. Also, you're my daughter."

"Uh, ok..." She got out of the car and followed Morbius to a black Dodge Viper. "Aw hell yeah, I want this one right here."

"Of course you do." They stood around the car and looked inside of it. It wasn't long before a salesperson walked up to them.

"How may I help you two?" He asked.

"Well my daughter here," Morbius motioned to Emilia. "She would like to be the owner of this Dodge right here."

"Very well, may I know your names?"

"Call me Mr Dawn, and this is Emily."

"Mr Dawn, may I have your first name?"

"Malcolm."

"Very well. Come with me and we can get the paperwork filled out and we can discuss the price.” They walked off and got that sorted on just under an hour. Emilia was holding the keys and was skipping back to her brand new first car. She got in, got used to where everything was and turned the car on. She loved the sound of it instantly. Morbius drove in front of her and she drove her car behind his and followed him back to his house.

Emilia walked into the house and went to her room. She had forgotten to take her phone with her so she was checking it in case she got any messages. She woke it up and she had seven missed calls all from the same unknown number. She dialled it and waited.

"Yeah hi, this is Emilia and I've received seven missed calls from this number. Who is this?" She asked once it was picked up.

"...It's me." Came the voice on the other end.

"WOLFE!"

"Hush. How bad is it?"

"The... Uh... What?"

"Alexia's parents."

"Oh. They're demanding answers and they'll want you to be punished and or killed."

"Very well."

"Why the silence until know?!"

"I needed some time to myself to gather my thoughts and find answers. I got both."

"Now what happens?"

"I search for Azazel."

"Are you going keep up this silence?"

"No. But if you ask me about what I found I will not answer you, not for a while anyway."

"Alright. What do I tell Grey to tell Alexia's parents?"

"Get him to tell them something that doesn't involve me. Set up a fall guy or tell them it was a grave robber or something."

"I'll try my best."

"Good girl. So, who's this boyfriend?" Alexia laughed.

"I wasn't thinking when I said that."

"He's lucky I'm not there. But seriously, who is this boyfriend?"

"Haha, no one."

"Very well then."

"Wolfe, I miss you..."

"I know Emilia... I miss you too. I will call you often. And tell Grey and Morbius I'll be heading to Morocco. That's where my lead is taking me."

"I will do that for you."

"Thank you. How are you feeling?"

"Sad to be honest. I want you here so I can hug you."

"I wouldn't mind a hug... I'm sorry Emilia, but I must hang up."

"Please! Don't go!" She said sadly with tears forming on her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I truly am. You'll hear from me tomorrow. I miss you." He hung up. Alexia hung up, let her phone slip out of her hand and fall to the floor then she curled up into a ball and began to cry.

It was forty minutes after the phone call had ended before she left her room. She went to find Morbius. Her eyes were red and sore from crying.

"Morbius, we need to go to the Haven." She said quietly to Morbius.

"Why? Have... Have you been crying?" He asked.

"Yes... We must go now... I'll explain once we're there..." She walked out the door to her car and got into it then waited for Morbius to get into his. They drove to the Haven and entered through the back way. They walked into Shaun Grey's office.

"Morbius, Emilia, how may I help?" He asked.

"You wanted to know if Wolfe ever contacted me right?" She asked.

"Right."

"He contacted me at least an hour ago."

"What?!" Morbius and Grey said in unison.

"Yes. He wants a fall guy set up for digging up Alexia's grave. He won't tell me what he found but I expected that."

"A fall guy... This is going to be hard to set up..." Morbius muttered.

"Did he say anything else Emilia?" Grey asked leaning forward in his chair.

"He's chasing Azazel and he's heading to Morocco. He also said he will call me often."

"Right..." Grey thought about this. "Very well. Thank you for bringing this to my attention Emilia. Both of you may take your leave." Morbius and Emilia nodded and left the room.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Morbius asked.

"I thought it was urgent... So I rushed to Grey." She responded.

"So why were you crying?"

"I wanted to talk with him for longer..." Morbius wrapped her in a hug. Emilia unwrapped herself after a while and walked to the gym to work out so she could attempt to keep her mind occupied. She walked into the gym and instantly broke down again. She fell to the floor and curled up into a ball and just cried.

She was found some two hours later by Rose. She was still crying when Rose picked her up and hugged her.

"Shh... It'll be ok..." Rose said to her and patted her on the back. Emilia nodded and kept crying.

"He's ok... But I still want to see him..." Emilia said.

"I know... We all miss him. Unfortunately you miss him more than anyone else here. But he also misses you. And even though Wolfe acts like an emotionless steel wall, he will feel the affects of him missing you. You will see him again. You will get to talk to him soon. Everything's going to be ok Emilia..." Rose kept patting her back and hugging Emilia until she stopped crying.

"God, I've been crying too much..." She muttered quietly.

"I know. But you've had good reasons to do so. Want to go do something like get an ice-cream or something like that?"

"I'll be alright."

"Fair enough. Offer is always there."

"Thank you."

"Now come on, let's get up off this floor hey?"

"Yeah..." They stood up.

"Now what do we do?"

"I don't know... I feel like going home and playing with Max..."

"Very well. I'll get the keys off Morbius and I'll meet you at your car. Deal?"

"Sure..." They met up five minutes later and Emilia drove home with Rose.

***

And it’s finished. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, thank you

#ending #first one is done #hunters story #time for a feast #more plot twists #funny moments #sad moments #angry moments #fantasy #action #short story #story on tumblr #writeblr #writing

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anatraart · 6 years ago

Text

Only Know You Love Him When You Let Him Go Part 10

Read it on AO3 HERE

Alexander awoke the next morning with a vague memory of being carried to bed and someone, most likely Thomas, laying down with him. When Alexander opened his eyes he then noticed nobody was in the bed with him now.

He sat up, relieved his head didn’t hurt it. With a quick glance at his phone, he saw it was only seven in the morning. The small immigrant slipped out of bed, walking over to the bathroom to knock on the door. “Thomas? You in there?” When he received no response he opened the door, surprised to see anybody in there.

The next place he checked was the kitchen, with no such luck. From there he checked the back porch, relaxing when he saw Thomas sitting in one of the chairs on the phone with someone.

“Yes, mom. I’ll see if he wants to.” a pause. “I know dad’s going to flip but he’s the one that suggested it.” another pause. “Alright. I’ll text you to let you-” Alexander watched Thomas’ eyes fall on him while he trailed off. “Actually, give me a minute.” He watched while Thomas muted the phone and set it down, standing to move over to Alexander.

“Who was that?” Alexander leaned into it when Thomas wrapped his arms around the smaller male.

“My mother. Apparently, James mentioned me being here with someone to his family, and they rat me out to my father, who now is telling me to bring you over for the rest of our time here.” Alexander nodded.

“You mentioned your dad freaking out though.”

“James never said it was a guy I was with… They assumed you were a girl.” Alexander gave him a small smile, hoping it would help calm the worry that was evident in the Virginian’s eyes.

“So? It shouldn’t matter. Besides, from what I remember of him he’d probably end up more pissed over the shit I say.” Alexander’s smile widened when Thomas let out a small chuckle.

“I mean you’re not wrong. He was pissed when a tiny immigrant was able to hold his ground against him.” Alexander pecked Thomas’ lips.

“If you wanna see you’re family I’m down to go. I’d need to let George and Martha, but it might be good for you to see your family.”

Thomas nodded. “Okay.” a pause. “Okay.”

»»————- ————-««

That night Alexander and Thomas were pulling up Monticello’s driveway. Before they got out of the car, Alexander pulled Thomas into a quick kiss. “Don’t worry, okay? Everything is going to be okay.”

Thomas nodded and got out of the car, Alexander following. The immigrant watched as an older looking woman strode out of the house and over to Thomas, pulling the much taller man into a hug. “Thomas! You made it!” She pulled away and turned to Alexander, grinning. “You also didn’t mention it was one of Martha’s boys!” Thomas gave a nervous laugh, and Alexander gave him a worrying look.

Alexander walked over and grabbed his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. He noticed the front door open and when he turned, recognised the two girls running out as Lucy and Mary, both of whom ran over and attacked Thomas with hugs. He let go of his boyfriend’s hand and stepped back, looking over to the now wide open door, where two men now stood. One of them he knew to be Thomas’ father. The other he assumed to be his older brother, Randolph he believed.

Peter, his father, have Alexander a look of surprise, then disgust. Alexander assumed he recognised him, and it made him smile. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad if Peter already knew Alexander’s willingness to fight back. Randolph seemed to stare at him, giving him a look that seemed to read ‘what kind of thing did you do to infect my brother’. The thought made him smile. He knew just how homophobic Thomas’ father was from when he had seen him interact with John.

Taking a breath he focused his attention back to Thomas, Lucy, and Mary. Thomas was smiling, although he saw he wasn’t really paying too much attention to his sisters. Alexander knew he was watching Peter. Alexander knew Peter was watching them closely, and it took all his energy not to walk over there and kiss his boyfriend, just to piss his father off. Peeling his eyes off Peter Alexander settled for moving back over to Thomas, leaning into his side.

He had half expected Thomas to distance himself, but relaxed when he felt Thomas’ arm wrap around him.

“So Alexander, how have you been! We haven’t seen you in years.” Lucy asked, giving them a smile.

“I’ve been alright. Something happened with…” Alexander bit the inside of his lip, taking a breath. “Something happened with John recently, but it's been getting better.”

Mary’s smile faltered. “What happened with John? Last time we saw him he was doing just fine. It wasn’t long after you two got together as well.”

Alexander felt the burning of tears threatening to fall, biting the inside of his cheek in an attempt to hold them back. When Thomas spoke up, Alexander almost sighed in relief. “I’ll tell you later.” Mary nodded and Alexander took a calming breath, thankful for Thomas’ arm around him.

There was a voice coming from the direction of the house before any more questions could be asked. “Alright. Stop all your yammering and come inside. It’s getting late.” Alexander looked to the voice, seeing Peter Jefferson looking annoyed, Randolph already gone. He felt Thomas let go to grab their things, Alexander following to help.

Everyone but Peter went inside, and when they went to walk inside, Alexander watched Peter grab Thomas’ wrist. Almost by instinct, he stopped next to him, turning to the two. “Go inside. This doesn’t concern you.” Peter looked at him like he wanted to strangle him, and Alexander gave him the smile. The smile he gave people that screamed defiance.

“I’m sure it does, sir. I mean even if I’m not here I’m sure I’ll find out what was said anyways.” Thomas gave him a concerned look, and Alexander returned it with a shake of his head, mouthing ‘it’s alright.’.

Peter scowled, and it only made Alexander grin. “I will only repeat myself this once, Hamilton. Go. Inside.” Alexander crossed his arms, which was a little difficult to do with his duffel bag on his arm.

“And neither will I. I’m not going anywhere, and if you recall the last time you tried making me do something, It did not end very well for you. I recall George calling you out for putting your hands on me, and Lafayette cussing you out in French.” Alexander heard Thomas snort, and it calmed Alexander’s anger down a bit. “I recall the words, “The next time you put your hands on either of my boys, I won’t hesitate to reveal your affair.” The Hemings one I assume?”

The look on Peter’s face was almost humorous. Alexander knew he’d lose much more than his perfect little family. It would affect his entire business. When Alexander turned to Thomas, he realised what he had just said. Alexander had only known of it because he overheard a conversation between George and Martha, Martha asking him if he’s really do it to the poor Hemmings girl and her children.

He felt begun to feel bad. He knew it was one of the things that would hurt Thomas if he knew the full depth of it. He hadn’t mentioned the children though. He was still slightly in the clear. “Forget it.” Peter looked at him in disgust and Thomas seemed confused. Alexander nodded and turned to follow Thomas inside.

»»————- ————-««

Once they were settled in the room, just relaxing on the bed, Thomas decided to bring what Alexander had mention up. “What did you mean earlier? You mentioned an affair…”

Thomas saw Alexander tense up while he was typing furiously on his laptop, slowing down. After a moment of silence, Thomas closed the laptop and set it on the nightstand. Alexander closed his eyes, and Thomas pulled him close. “Please…”

Alexander took a breath before speaking. “The first time we met. It was the day after I moved in with the Washingtons. The dinner. He had heard John and I making gay jokes in the living room, and came in and called us fags, telling John it wasn’t long before his parents disowned him. When I came here, John was the only person who I really trusted. I had gotten up and started defending John.

He was telling me to back out of it, and when he pulled on my hair, yelling how I was more like a girl anyways. George walked in on it, John with his face red from where he had been slapped and your father with his hand still pulling on my hair.” Alexander paused, and Thomas noticed he was crying. Thomas pulled Alexander closer to his chest, kissing the top of his head.

“George had apparently found out about his affair with a girl. Most of what I know is from what I overheard, but I do know there was a girl. Her name is Sally Hemings. She- there was two kids. I don’t know their names, but she had two children over the course of the affair. She was single, so there was- they were-” Alexander choked up, and Thomas just continues to hold him. SO he had two unknown siblings. That wasn’t what he had been expecting to find out.

“It’s alright. If anything, he deserves the shit. It’s good someone can tame him that quickly.” Thomas kissed Alexander’s forehead. “Not even my mother can get him to submit like that.”

It confused him when Alexander shook his head. “That’s not even what hurts about the thing though. He was right. I look like a fucking girl with my hair so long, and I shouldn't. I should look like a fucking guy. I shouldn't like to wear fucking dresses when I’m out with Peggy.” Thomas felt his heartache when he heard it. His father was so wrong, but he understood. Peter Jefferson had a way of making the stupidest of statements seem true.

“That’s so wrong Alex. Oh my god that’s so fat from the truth. You look beautiful with your hair long. I had no clue you wore dresses,” Alexander blushed when he mentioned it. “But it doesn’t matter. If fucking Peggy approves of an outfit, you know it looks amazing.” Thomas kissed Alexander’s nose. “I don’t fucking care if you wear a dress. I don't care if you look like a damn girl. It shouldn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.”

Alexander pulled him into a kiss, Thomas moving a hand to run it through Alexander’s hair. He grabbed a chunk of it at the base of Alexander’s throat, gently tugging on it. The small moan Alexander let out made Thomas smile. Taking Alexander’s bottom lip between his teeth he gently pulled on it before moving down, kissing along Alexander’s jawline, relishing in it every time Alexander would gasp, or dig his nails into Thomas’ back.

Thomas eventually pulled away, feeling bad at the small whimper Alexander let out. “Not while my sister is literally a room over Alexander.” With a small huff, Alexander nodded and got up to go change, coming out of the bathroom a few minutes later in one of Thomas’ shirts. The short immigrant came and plopped on the bed next to the Virginian, wrapping his arms around Thomas.

They stayed like that, holding each other until they ended up laying down, still wrapped around each other. It was silent, save their breathing. Alexander was the first one to speak. “You know what would piss your dad off more than almost anything?”

“Hm?” Thomas looked at Alexander, who was grinning. Looking at Alexander he thought about their future together. Whenever he thought about it he would usually get anxious, but somehow, with Alexander curled up next to him, giving him a smile that made him melt every time, he knew he couldn’t bear to lose him.

“If I were to wear a dress tomorrow. It would the hell out of him. Even more than my pure existence at the moment.” Whatever fear Alexander had seemed to have earlier had seemingly washed away.

“It’s up to you. Do you even have one? I mean, I’m sure Lucy or Mary would lend you one if not. They like playing the “who can piss dad off the most” game.”

Alexander muttered something, and when Thomas gave him a confused look, Alexander spoke up. “I mean I do have one Peggy convinced me to bring…” His face was turning a shade of red while he spoke. Thomas grinned and pecked Alexander’s cheek, sitting up.

“Lemme see. You up for showing me?” Alexander nodded and got up, just grabbing one of his bags and going into the bathroom. Twenty minutes later, Alexander was emerging from the bathroom in a ivory and red dress. It had an ivory lace top that was sleeveless, a blood red collar and skirt that went to about mid-thigh. Alexander had shaved his legs and was blushing furiously. Thomas gave him a smile and felt his own face heating up.

“You look fucking amazing,” Thomas said, and that seemed all the prompting Alexander needed before walking over to him and pulling the Virginian into a kiss. Thomas wrapped his arms around Alexander, who had gotten up on the bed to straddle Thomas. The kiss was gentle, and when Thomas pulled away Alexander was grinning. “Everyone else is going to die when they see Peter’s face tomorrow.”

Alexander chuckled. “They better. I didn't fucking shave for nothing. Although I may or may not have stockings and flats that go with it.” Alexander was giving him a mischievous smile.

“Okay, now I have to see the full outfit.” Alexander nodded and slid off of him, making a show of bending down to get the flats and stockings that made Thomas blush. When Alexander leaned up, he slid the stockings on, then the flats. The stockings stopped just below his knee and were the same ivory as the top of his dress.

“Ya know it would probably look nicer if my hair wasn’t a rat’s nest.” Alexander crossed his arms, blushing.

“Your hair looks just fine dear.” Alexander sighed and started walking over, only to pause when there was a knock on the door. Alexander stopped and looked at Thomas, who pointed to the bathroom. Alexander hurried inside and shut the door, and Thomas slipped on a shirt before opening the door to reveal his Mary, grinning.

“Lucy and I are going to the bar, you and Alexander wanna come?” She leaned in his room, and Thomas let out a small sigh.

“Depends which one. If it’s the one by the mall no, if it’s any of the other ones, let me go see.” Thomas glanced over to the bathroom then to his sister, who he promptly pulled inside the room and closed the door. Before Mary could speak he went over to the bathroom and poked his head inside to see Alexander sitting on the counter, swinging his legs. “It’s just Mary. She says her and Lucy plan on going to the bar. You wanna come out?”

Alexander gave him a small smile. “Sure. Why not.” Thomas watched as the small immigrant hopped off the counter, opening the door more so he could slip out. The look on Mary’s face when she saw Alexander, still in the dress made Thomas smile.

Mary was smiling even more, and she ran over to give Alexander a hug. “Oh my god! You look so beautiful! No choice now. You two are coming. And no, Thomas we’re not going to the one by the mall.”

Alexander seemed to relax at Mary’s reaction and when they pulled apart, Thomas spoke up. “Good.” When Alexander gave him a look of confusion Thomas replied with, “It’s the one we went to the other day with everyone.” Alexander nodded and went over to the bed, sitting down on the edge.

“Well, if we’re going somewhere and I don’t get a choice, someone is doing my hair. I’m sure as hell not.”

Thomas and Mary laughed, and Thomas tossing Alexander’s brush to Mary. “While I get ready, you’re on hair duty.”

»»————- ————-««

The next morning Alexander had almost no memory of the night before. His head was pounding, and he was grateful when he felt Thomas shift behind him, pulling him closer. It was dark in the room, the curtains pulled shut and the lights off.

The bliss lasted all of five minutes before his phone started ringing loudly on the night table, not only making him groan in pain from his migraine, but Thomas waking up as well. Alexander checked who it was, denying the call when he saw it was just Lafayette. While he was at it, Alexander checked the time, groaning again when he saw it was already eight.

“What time is it?” Thomas mumbled, Alexander, feeling Thomas move his head to rest on his shoulder.

“About eight.” Alexander set his phone down and turned to face Thomas, pecking his lips.

“Shit. I give it under an hour for someone to come yell at us breakfast is ready.”

“But I don’t wanna move.”

“Tough. Now get up and get ready for the day.” Thomas kissed him, Alexander surprised at how something so simple could make him melt. Alexander pulled away and looked at Thomas’ face, deciding in that moment that he never wants to leave this man’s side.

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #jamilton fic #jamilton fanfic #thomas jefferson

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le-sejour · 7 years ago

Text

Hijacked

Words: 1200

Pairing: John Laurens x Reader, kinda

World: Modern

Warnings: Angst

Prompt from @dailyau: Someone keeps printing out cute cat pictures/messages on my wireless printer and I’m determined to find out whom AU

A/N: I... I wanted to write fluff because this was such a cute prompt. But I kinda wanted to try something different, so... c:

Enjoy~

Okay, you were seriously starting to get ticked off.

Two weeks ago, you bought a fancy new wireless printer after your old one decided to kick the proverbial bucket in the middle of printing out a report. That was all fine and dandy, the new printer was a hell of a lot faster than your prehistoric one, and the colors were clear and crisp.

Ironically, you never used colors in your reports. Your office didn’t exactly cater to creativity. At most, you did graphs and charts but they were few and far between. So how, exactly, did you find out your printer was as good as they come when using color?

Someone in your apartment building was taking advantage of the wireless aspect of said printer. You didn’t really know how, or even why they were doing this, as the bastard merely printed out various pictures of turtles and the occasional cheesy inspirational quote, but you were hell bent on finding whoever was wasting your ink.

You tried to look it up online, try to block out whoever was prancing around in the building with a turtle fetish, but the instructions just seemed too convoluted for you to try and tinker with it. You didn’t want to risk breaking something that cost hundreds of dollars, after all.

So now you were stuck with 10 pictures of turtles and 4 hipster quotes, one page for each day you’ve had your printer.

The printer beeped into life, making you sigh. Make that 11 pictures of turtles. You really had to go talk to the landlord about this.

Months passed by, and your elusive printer hijacker was still on the loose despite your efforts to call him out on the communal bulletin board by the lobby. It’s been months but they still used your printer whenever they damn well pleased.

You now had a box filled with random pictures and motivational posters, the hijacker broadening his scope and adding some puppies and kittens into the mix. You hate to say it, but whoever it was was starting to grow on you. They clearly had good taste in animals, anyway.

Recently, however, the prints got a little more… personal, if you could call it that. In the early days of your odd parasitic relationship, the hijacker would use stock images from google to print out on your device. But in the past few weeks, whoever it was was printing out pictures they took on their own camera, or phone. And, curiously enough, a few of them were prints of seemingly original artwork.

But they were still using up all your ink, and they needed to pay.

“Hey, [F/Name]!”

You looked up from your mailbox to see a familiar freckled face coming into view. You smiled, tucking a lock of hair behind your ear.

“Oh, hello, John.” You greeted casually as you perused your stack of mail. The bubbly brunet stood beside you and reached for his own mailbox, 5E. Just a floor above yours; 4E. “No friends wreaking havoc today?”

You had met John just a few months after your little printer problem, his friend Alexander bumping into you as you were putting up the first of your thinly veiled threat on the lobby bulletin board.

“Nope,” He snickered, popping the last syllable adorably. You willed your cheeks not to heat up. The man might not be as intuitive as his friends, but if you continued to give yourself away, he might actually catch on. “Sorry, it’s just me today. Alex and Laf were asked to help out on a case, and Herc was booked for a bridal fitting.”

You smiled coyly. You couldn’t help but admire the young man in front of you. He was fresh out of college when he moved in at the start of the year, all bright-eyed and bursting with motivation to do something bigger than himself. You yourself hadn’t been as enthusiastic as he was when you graduated two years ago, so seeing someone so eager was refreshing.

Of course, you did try very hard to ignore the fact that he was attractive. Or the way your chest tightened whenever he smiled at you, or how hot and bothered you got when you saw him in just a pair of sweatpants in the elevator once.

You couldn’t have yourself fantasizing about getting with your gorgeous upstairs neighbor with his boyish charms and chiseled abs. You already had a demanding job taking up your time, not to mention your fruitless search for the Printer Hijacker. There was also the possibility of him not reciprocating your feelings, as he and Alexander seemed far too close than normal friends, if you were honest.

“Hey, [F/Name], I-“ Easing yourself out of your daydreams, you gazed at him from underneath your lashes, halting his words right then and there. You tilted your head ever so slightly when you realized that he seemed to have lost his train of thought.

“Yes, John?”

“Er-“ He rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling, a slight blush blooming on his cheeks. “I was just… wondering about your printer thief situation. Any luck?”

He found himself smiling at your expression. You always did get really feisty when this unknown tenant was brought into conversation.

“It’s Printer Hijacker, and no.” You sulked, crossing your arms. “You’d think with a building this small, I’d have found them already. But no, no one’s apologizing for their acts of terror just yet.”

John slung his arm around you in a friendly gesture, a playful grin on his face. You only hoped he didn’t feel your pulse accelerating. Unbeknownst to you, he was hoping the same. “Well, you tell me if you find them and I’ll make sure they pay up, alright? No one terrorizes my downstairs neighbor and gets away with it.”

It was a year later, and things were vastly different from a year ago. Of course, you were still here, still in the same place, still stuck in the rut of your office job. But, just a little bit emptier

You stared silently out your window, a thing you seemed to find yourself doing for the past two weeks now. Your gaze was always trained on the streets below you but your brain didn’t really want to register anything.

They were all just a blur of dim colors and white noise, anyway. We all were, you supposed, a blur of dim colors and white noise, a smudge on the canvas but overall insignificant in the grand scheme of things

Things can happen so unexpectedly that all you wanted was for the world to pause for just a moment, let you gather your bearings. Let you breathe.

You laughed, hollow and far away.

The person who caused you so much trouble and ink every day since you first got your printer had finally stopped freeloading. You still remember the first time they didn’t leave a dumb little message on your printer tray; it was August 27.

Well, you got what you wanted. The unwanted printing stopped.

You smiled bitterly, clutching the pamphlet in your hands.

Celebrating the life of

John Laurens

(October 28 20XX – August 27 20XX)

Please join us at the memorial service on ….

#in all honesty #i wanted this to be cute and fluffy #LMAO im sorry #john laurens imagine #john laurens x reader #john laurens #hamilton #hamilfics #hamfics #hamiltrash #(also the title may also be a reference to how far this fic went from how I envisioned it lmao)

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mercuryze · 8 years ago

Text

Change Things

pairing: Daveed Diggs/Reader, Lin-Manuel Miranda/Reader

word count: 1897

warnings: angst, infidelity, mention of alcohol, mention of sexual relations, manipulation

summary: She wished she could have saved Daveed from the pain she had caused him.

She should have known that only chaos would come with this new job. The two were a package deal. She wanted to blame her work, her boss, and the world for ruining the beautiful thing she had. She needed a scapegoat more than anything, and yet, she couldn’t bring herself to throw anyone under the bus. (Y/N) knew that it was all her fault; the only one who could take responsibility was her and her alone.

If she could go back and change things, she would start at the fourth day that Jasmine had called in sick. As the “Peggy/Maria” standby, (Y/N) was scheduled to go on in Jazzy’s place. Between rehearsals and the previous shows she had been in, the actress was used to the physical affection that was in the second act. On that fourth night, however, her better judgement seemed to be absent. She was beyond hyperactive as Peggy, but that wasn’t much of a problem. Since Margarita’s character was younger than Angelica or Elizabeth, (Y/N)’s demeanor was acceptable.

If she could go back and change things, she would fix how she acted during intermission. (Y/N) was usually the first person to change costumes. That left her twelve minutes out of the fifteen they were given. She had light conversations with Daveed and Carleigh- those were the two people she was closest to. She knew both of them like the back of her hand. (Y/N) ruffled Daveed’s hair, believing him to be much cuter than when he had his little ponytail.

She liked to think that his hairstyles represented his moods. When it was loose, Daveed seemed to be more bold than he usually was. The man was more reserved when his thick locks were all tied up. (Y/N) adored his hair. She braided a small portion of it (with much difficulty!) and knowing Daveed, he’d most likely forget about it. Thomas Jefferson walked out on stage with a braid in his hair that night.

Seven minutes left. Daveed had left to take a phone call, and Carleigh had struck up a conversation with another ensemble member. (Y/N) wandered around backstage, anxious for the next number she’d be in. She needed to get all of this energy out. Her portrayal of Maria wouldn’t be as it was supposed to that night. (Y/N) was an incredible actress, but she often let her moods infect her performances. Alexander Hamilton’s mistress wasn’t meant to be too bright and happy.

If she could go back and change things, she would prevent herself from entering Lin’s dressing room. It took three knocks before the door swung open. (Y/N) looked Lin up and down and admired the green costume he now wore. It suited him. She carefully watched as he wet his lips, the corners of his mouth tugging up to form a smile. Cute, she thought to herself.

“Miss Maria Reynolds.” He greeted her and welcomed her inside the small room. She gratefully stepped inside and took a seat by the vanity. Her eyes followed her co-star around as he grabbled a water bottle and brought the rim up to his mouth.

(Y/N) giggled and ran her fingers through her hair. “Mister Alexander Hamilton. Better start wrapping up. There’s five minutes ‘till we’re on.” She brought one of her legs over the other as she leaned forward and grinned at him.

He matched her joyful expression and leaned against the wall. “Six minutes left, actually.” He retorted with a gentle chuckle. The young woman watched intently as he crossed his arms over his chest. “But, yeah, I’m all ready to go back on.” Lin added.

“Mm, no, last time I checked, we had five minutes.”

At this, Lin pushed himself off of the wall and strolled across the room in order to pick his phone up off the table. He flashed the screen, which displayed the current time. (Y/N) noticed his phone wallpaper was an old picture of everyone in the company. She guessed that it had been taken on opening night. “Six minutes left,” She snorted, finding it funny to see a man use a cell phone while dressed in period clothing. “-just like I said! Honestly, Lin-Manuel, you should really work on your listening skills.”

The pair spoke and laughed together for another two minutes before their fun was interrupted by a stagehand barging in and reminding them of the time. (Y/N) stood with an irritated huff and smoothed her skirt. “Alright, I’ll go blow dry my face for a bit. This new lipstick they bought me won’t dry.”

“And that matters because…?” Lin pondered aloud as he took a few steps toward the dressing room door, meaning to open it so his companion could step outside.

Before she made her way toward the exit, (Y/N) grabbed a baby-wipe off of the vanity and squeezed it between her forefinger and thumb. “It matters because…I wouldn’t want to leave a nice red mark on your lips. I think Eliza would notice if her husband is wearing a lip shade that she doesn’t own,” She joked and grabbed onto the collar of Lin’s costume with her free hand. “Yanno, kinda like this.”

If she could go back and change things, she would have stopped what happened next. It happened too quickly- neither Lin nor (Y/N) fully realized what had happened. The actor was stuck in a sort of awe-induced trance, and the actress seemed to be running on autopilot. Her lips moved on their own. Lin didn’t couldn’t react. Before he had the chance to, a baby wipe had replaced (Y/N)’s mouth on his own. It was wrong; they both knew that.

And yet it still happened.

“Like I said: wouldn’t want to leave a nice red mark on your lips.” With that breathy comment, the woman clad in scarlet swiftly left her cast member’s dressing room and promptly ran into another one of her fellow actors.

She beamed at the man whose hair and heart she had grown fond of.

“Miss Maria Reynolds.” He mimicked the words that Lin had uttered only moments before. If there was any small amount of guilt that had bubbled up in her gut, she didn’t notice it in that moment. Daveed continued. “Good luck out there, babe, and don’t enjoy it too much.” It was an obvious joke, because there was no possible way that (Y/N) would even look at another person the way she looked at her boyfriend. Her eyes were always filled with a strong sense of adoration when he gazed into them.

“Good luck to you too, honey. Love you.” She bit down on her bottom lip as Daveed pressed a kiss to her forehead. The feeling of his lips lingered for a second or two even after he had pulled away. The small twinge of an emotion unknown was hastily repressed.

The rest of the second act ran smoothly, save for the number depicting Alexander Hamilton’s torrid affair. Every affectionate moment in the scene seemed more passionate than they had ever been. That fact had to do with (Y/N)’s strange mood on that day. Although her rendition of Maria Reynolds was more giddy than it should have been, it was also fiery and truly conveyed how scandalous the on-stage situation truly was.

She noticed the wariness in Lin’s eyes during their number. It came across as caution or even…restraint? She wished she could read his thoughts. His grip on her waist would tighten at times, a detail that (Y/N) payed close attention to. Of course all his movements were in their blocking, but (Y/N) couldn’t help but misinterpret them. The young woman had a beyond brilliant mind, but she wasn’t always the clearest of thinkers.

If she could go back and change things, she wouldn’t have lied to Daveed. Everyone had planned to go out to dinner after the show. Lin claimed to have been feeling under the weather and opted to go straight home after that night’s production. (Y/N) didn’t want to let him go.

She had made up an excuse and lied about needing to stay late. With an unforced smile, she stared straight into her boyfriend’s eyes and declared that she needed Carleigh to show her some steps that she had supposedly missed. (Y/N) prayed that Daveed hadn’t heard Carleigh when she, too, had cancelled on the big dinner plans and gone home.

He bought it, and bid his girlfriend goodnight with a big kiss and a promise to call her in the morning.

To say she rushed to Lin’s dressing room after changing out of costume was an understatement. Luckily (or unfortunately, in this particular situation), she had managed to catch Lin right before he had left the theater. Even after being in a musical that was over two hours long, (Y/N) still held an energetic behavior. Like everyone else in the company, she too had asked herself what had caused this mood. There was no clear answer.

If she could go back and change things, she’d stop herself from manipulating Lin. Lin…the poor man had too weak of a hold over his emotions. He often let them consume him and influence his actions. (Y/N) played off of that. She enticed him. His lust gained the upper hand that night.

After a few drinks, he was a complete mess. The young woman noticed he was a very tactile person. He liked to touch. She let him. What she did to Lin was horrible and selfish and she should have stopped herself while she had the chance. (Y/N) laughed while it was all happening, thinking their rather steamy night to be ironic. As the actors for Maria Reynolds and Alexander Hamilton, the two should have known not to let history repeat itself. Maybe this was meant to happen.

If she could go back and change things, she wouldn’t have brought him home with her. Daveed broke his promise of calling (Y/N) in the morning. Instead, he hauled himself all the way to her apartment with breakfast- her favorite. She had previously given him his own set of keys to her home. She should have anticipated how easy it would be for someone to catch her in her sick little game.

If she could go back and change things, she would have come up with a better explanation. A better apology.

If she could go back and change things, she would have taken the hint and stopped trying to call Daveed. She quit soon after.

It was a difficult process. (Y/N) knew that Lin was stepping down as Alexander soon anyways, but the tension between him and Daveed would still be sharp until then. She prayed that things would be alright with Lin and his own family.

She stopped talking to most cast members completely. Carleigh was probably the only one she normally spoke to, since the bond between the two couldn’t be broken easily. Not even if (Y/N)’s infidelity was thrown into the mix. (Y/N) needed support, and Carleigh understood that. It would be too embarrassing to sit under everyone else’s judgmental eyes. Everyone knew.

If she could go back, she would do so in a heartbeat.

If she could, she would.

#daveed diggs x reader #daveed diggs/reader #daveed x reader #lin manuel imagine #daveed diggs imagine #lin manuel x reader #lin manuel miranda x reader #hamilton imagine #hamilton x Reader #alexander hamilton x Reader #mercury writes

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vivekjv · 7 years ago

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"Before anything else, preparation is the key to success." - Alexander Graham Bell "The road to success is always under construction." - Lily Tomlin "If people did not do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done." - Ludwig Wittgenstein "Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world." - Harriet Tubman "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." - Thomas Jefferson "If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." - Jim Rohn "Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the 'someday I'll' philosophy." - Denis Waitley "Don't let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning." - Robert Kiyosaki "Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven't planted." - David Bly "Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a burning desire to achieve." - Wilfred Peterson "Whenever you see a successful person, you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them." - Vaibhav Shah "For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don't enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are you're not going to be very happy. If someone bases his/her happiness on major events like a great job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that person isn't going to be happy much of the time. If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness." - Andy Rooney "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in, and day-out." - Robert Collier "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." - Michael Jordan "The best revenge is massive success." - Frank Sinatra "Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in." - Napoleon Bonaparte "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain "Success comes in cans; failure in can'ts." - Unknown "Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." - Napoleon Hill "Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy." - Milton Erickson "The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me." - Ayn Rand "If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut." - Albert Einstein "If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax." - Abraham Lincoln "If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary." - Jim Rohn "The best way to succeed in this world is to act on the advice you give to others." - Unknown "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill "You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." - Martin Luther King, Jr. "We become what we think about most of the time, and that's the strangest secret." - Earl Nightingale "Our greatest fear should not be of failure ... but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter." - Francis Chan "A year from now you may wish you had started today." - Karen Lamb "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children... to leave the world a better place... to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be." - Zig Ziglar "Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again." - Richard Branson "Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time." - Arnold H. Glasgow "Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat." - Malcolm S. Forbes "Action is the foundational key to all success." - Pablo Picasso "The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny." - Albert Ellis "I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure which is: Try to please everybody." - Herbert B. Swope "You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction." - George Lorimer "Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill "If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it." - Olin Miller "The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do." - Roy L. Smith "Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world." - Lucille Ball "Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds." - Orison Swett Marden "Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time." - George Bernard Shaw "I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse." - Florence Nightingale "Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well." - Vincent Van Gogh "Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action." - Peter Drucker "You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else." - Albert Einstein "Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work." - Stephen King "Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle." - Abraham Lincoln "Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." - John R. Wooden "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." - George Bernard Shaw "Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much." - Erich Fromm "Spend eighty percent of your time focusing on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the problems of yesterday." - Brian Tracy "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." - Abraham Maslow "Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down." - Charles F. Kettering "The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success." - Bruce Feirstein "Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be." - George Sheehan "Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination." - Mae Jemison "Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced." - Swami Vivekananda "The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes." - Benjamin Disraeli "There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed." - Ray Goforth "Don't wait. The time will never be just right." - Napoleon Hill "You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives." - Clay P. Bedford "After every difficulty, ask yourself two questions: "What did I do right?" and "What would I do differently?" - Brian Tracy "Don't brood. Get on with living and loving. You don't have forever." - Leo Buscaglia "Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment." - Oprah Winfrey "Life's real failure is when you do not realize how close you were to success when you quit." - Rhett Power "If you're going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill "Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice." - Wayne Dyer "The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself." - Mark Caine "In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing." - Theodore Roosevelt "Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. Don't over-analyze your relationships. Stop playing games. A growing relationship can only be nurtured by genuineness. " - Leo F. Buscaglia "For success, attitude is equally as important as ability." - Harry F. Banks "Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost legendary. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent." - Calvin Coolidge "Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it." - Dalai Lama "Your work is discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it." - Buddha "People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy." - Tony Robbins "Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." - Henry David Thoreau "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." - Dale Carnegie "Success is largely a matter of holding on after others have let go and given up." - Rhett Power "Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism." - David M. Burns "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." - Arthur Ashe "Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." - Conrad Hilton "The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will." - Vince Lombardi "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain "Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom." - George S. Patton "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett "What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise." - Oscar Wilde "Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful." - Mark Victor Hansen "Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude." - Zig Ziglar "If you don't value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents. Value what you know and start charging for it." - Kim Garst "The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus." - Bruce Lee "Some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something: they're trying to find someone who's going to make them feel good. In reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take." - Anthony Robbins "Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all." - Peter Drucker "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." - Mahatma Gandhi "Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value." - Albert Einstein "It is not what happens to you that matters, but what you do about it that makes the difference. - Rhett Power If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. - Booker T. Washington What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do. - Bob Dylan

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