#'but he literally jump-started the apocalypse' & he looked hot while doing it

[mariatesstruther]

okay hear me out modern au where Tommy and Maria first meet in a club in their 20s and they bump into each other while dancing and just start dancing together and they just hit it off but in the end they both forget to give each other their numbers so both of them go back to the same club the next week to hopefully meet each other again (also Tess and Maria definitely go clubbing together because I love them as best friends)

cowboy!!!! yes yes YES i LOVE this. and u could extend this meet-cute into like a whole thing where tommy and maria keep trying to meet at the club and exchange information, but something gets in the way everytime!!!! kid emergency!!! bar fight!!! cocaine bear on the loose!!! zombie apocalypse—who knows????

im thinking the first time, tess drags maria to a bar she likes because she’s been trying to get the attention of this hot dilfy guy at the bar, but he’s always tailing along with his friend. by tess’s design, maria and tommy meet and and hit it off and dance (to maria maria by santana) the night away. they fall in love and decide they want to go home together, so maria goes to the bathroom—but joel randomly comes up and is like “tommy, hey sorry selena’s mom called, sarah had a nightmare and she wants us both to pick her up, we gotta go” and in true miller dad-uncle panic they BOLT. by the time maria comes back, tess is like “idk dude, mine got a call so they had to go. seemed like an emergency. bummer” and they assume thats that

on the flip side: everythings okay with sarah, but after tommy and joel tuck her in tommy’s suddenly just like “fuck—fuck!!!!!” and joels like “what? what???” and he’s like “i didn’t get her number :(:(:(:( fuck” and so joel’s like “it’s okay, i see her friend there all the time” and so tommy’s like “omg :D do you have her friends number?” “well… no” “joel… what the fuck man.” so they make a plan to go back next week with the hopes of at least seeing tess and getting maria’s number from there—tommy also wants to get tess’s number for joel, but he doesn’t need to know that

little do THEY know, tess and maria are already plotting for next weekend. they show up to that bar looking fine as FUCK—they quite literally turn heads walking through the door. of course the miller brothers are there, sitting in a booth all the way in the back and waiting, making eyes. tess and maria are not shy, so they start making their way over. unfortunately, some drunk asshole decides to try to get handsy with tess on her way there—which results in her punching him in the face, which results in him trying to punch her in the face. she dodges, of course, but it starts a full-on bar brawl that the miller boys jump into without hesitation (joel manages to tackle and land a few good ones on og drunk asshole too so. slay.). none of them get arrested or anything, but they definitely don’t get eachother numbers on account of joel and tommy having to duck the cops

so i guess they gotta keep trying ;)

[coconurt]

For the writing prompts hi :3

38 :3

Whoops, my hand slipped *yeets this at you and runs away*

Rottmnt movie spoilers, Raphsandra, cw for head injuries and minor blood

~~~

Way up here, perched next to Raph and the others, Cass had a great view of her two ex-bosses and the rest of the clan.

They got there just in time to hear the tail-end of the mandatory Evil Speech and Plan Exposition.

"-We shall follow the Kraang as they lead the Foot clan to glory!"

Dumbasses. The whole lot of them. If Shredder didn't teach them their lesson, nothing would. What part of "don't keep summoning world-ending bad guys; it won't end well for you", didn't they understand? They were just asking for the ass-kicking they had coming their way.

Then out of nowhere, Leo's voice made them all jump.

"Booored."

Busted. An angry shout of, "You!" came from below.

"Leo!"

"What? I was waiting for a good spot to jump in, but they just kept blabbity blab-ing."

Cass rolled her eyes. Children. She worked with literal children.

Then the new kid — Future Boy, the scrawny teenager that shared her name and dark hair, the boy she had a sneaking suspicion might be her future son — piped up.

"There it is! That's the key!"

"Get them! Don't let them interfere with the ceremony!" Her old sensei screamed out. Cass's muscles tensed in unison with Raph and the others', and they jumped down as one into a melee waiting just for them.

Now this. This kind of fight was where Cass really felt the most herself. They split up, each taking out ninja after ninja. With a savage yell, she kicked some poor sap in the stomach at the same time Future Boy called out.

"No! It's started! He's unlocking the doorway!"

Huh. That was… real fear in his voice. Enough to make her pause and look over. Wow, he really must not have been kidding about the whole fire-and-brimstone, end-of-the-world Kraang situation.

"We need to get up there right now," he insisted.

"Casey, go. We've got you covered." The blue one slashed his katana, and his unsuspecting victim dropped through one of his portals and reappeared on top of the platform with the ominous looking pedestal. As she threw punch after punch, she watched out of the corner of her eye as Junior trounced her old boss. She had to admit, the sight was quite satisfying. Cathartic, even.

Just as she was starting to feel confident about their odds of stopping the apocalypse, purple light suddenly burst from the top of the platform and spilled throughout the room, and she knew they'd lost.

Junior was thrown back down, and they all regrouped in formation around him in time to watch a glowing portal open.

"Oh no…" he said, his voice hushed and horrified. "They're here."

"Then let's make sure their visit is short and sweet," Raph said, then launched himself forward and up onto the platform. Cass had to bite her lip to hide her smile. As much as she insisted they were stupid, she really loved her boyfriend's dumb one-liners.

… she could do without the butterflies they gave her, though.

Raph reached the top just as the monstrosity the Foot had been trying to summon crawled its way out. Her stomach turned, as her chest heaved with exertion. This is the thing that took over the world?

It was… disgusting. Huge and slimy, built like a tree trunk, with purple skin and the orange eyes of a predator. And then it spoke.

"I'm finally free!" It boomed. "The people of this planet will pay for what they've done to me!"

Well. That sounded reassuring.

"Welcome to Earth! I hope you don't enjoy your stay-!" Raph yelled, and lunged at the creature. Quick as a flash, it whipped a tentacle out, grabbing the snapper around his neck and beginning to choke him.

Cass felt her blood go cold, then hot, and she and the others sprung into action. Mikey and April swung their weapons at the creature, only for their attacks to backfire. She, Junior, and the rat were up next. They advanced from the sides, while she leapt in the air and aimed her hockey stick right at its big ugly eye. She had a perfect shot.

"CASEEEEY JO—!"

Then the next thing she knew, a huge tentacle broadsided her. She flew a few yards before slamming hard into a stone wall. Her head connected with a solid crack, and black stars exploded in front of her eyes.

Distantly, she heard Raph roar her name, followed by an angry shout from the Kraang. Through the ringing in her ears, she heard it start to make a horrible noise. She managed to lift her head, and although her vision was wobbly, she could make out huge bursts of orange, crimson, violet, and cerulean being extracted from the brothers, the energy crackling and angry like wind from a solar storm.

"No…" she whispered.

…

She must have blacked out, because when she blinked again, the colors were gone and the monsters had multiplied. She squinted and focused, hoping it was the double vision. It wasn't. Now they had three to deal with.

They were saying things, but it was all too murky to make out. Suddenly, there was a flurry of action she couldn't follow, then a part of the ceiling collapsed, taking the rat and Raph down with it.

Gritting her teeth, she tried to gather the energy to get up and go help, but Raph quickly freed himself and went straight to his father, who now laid unconscious and injured.

Raph looked up and away, an agonized expression on his face. Cass followed his line of sight, to the others still fighting a losing battle against the Kraang, then looked back to him in time to hear that one awful word she'd never heard him say in all the time she'd known him.

"Retreat!"

The blue idiot protested, because of course he did. After a brief back and forth, purple activated the escape pods and him, Orange, O'Neil, Future Boy, and the rat all got rocketed away.

She thinks she might have blacked out yet again, because the next thing she knew, Raph was sliding into a kneel at her side, his eyes wild and panicky.

"Casey? Can ya hear me? We're gonna get you out of here, okay? Just hang on." Carefully, and with badly shaking hands, he reached to cup the back of her head and winced when she let out a pained hiss. His hand came back bloody.

Slowly, and yet as fast as he could without hurting her further, he helped her into her pod. He hesitated for half a heartbeat, then leaned down and kissed her quickly, just the briefest touch of lips. More like a promise than an actual kiss.

"I'll be right behind you, okay? We'll regroup back at the lair," he assured her.

You better, if you know what's good for you, she thought, but she wasn't sure the words left her mouth.

She instead hummed a vague acquiesce, then the escape pod finished closing around her head. She only saw Raph's face through the window for a few more moments, then it was lifting off, taking her away to safety.

She passed out again somewhere along the way, but it was with the feeling of absolute surety that he was coming, too. They lost this one, but they would all live to fight another day. They could still win this.

…

She only realized otherwise after Leo emerged out of his brother's pod back at home.

[mechawolfie]

listen i know chanda is like a murderer but also hes kinda um. well uh, well. um. well.. 👉👈

[harcove]

i do hava an oc whos in the stars, shes the younger one, so maybe a leon x reader au in which leon falls in love with stars member reader? (in case, leon goes to his first day and all there's no apocalypse)

I love love love this cause I love the idea of another younger S.T.A.R.S member, and lowkey its reminding me of my own OC who, while she doesn't join S.T.A.R.S she joins the BSAA later in life. So this was super fun to write.

I kinda got carried away with a like first meeting thing so it's kinda open ended... But I hope this is good-

Length: 1.3k

Request: in the ask

Warnings: nope! Maybe that this is an AUish thing oop

Leon Kennedy x Reader AU: The Rookie

The police station was more abuzz than usual; not that it was ever entirely to exciting in a small town like Raccoon City. But it was really abuzz that day, and everyone knew why. There was supposed to he a new recruit coming in, a new officer, and that hadn't happened  in a while apparently, especially not one as young as the guy coming in.

All you knew was he was around the same age as you, was a boy, and that his name was Leon. You couldn't help but also feel a bit excited to have the RPDs little family grow bigger. Though you weren't sure how much of him you would totally see, being part of the S.T.A.R.S unit.

Your hands reached up as high as you could stretch them, holding the letters on cardboard paper up so you could pin them up above the office for the officers. Behind you, you heard Chris Redfield bite into an apple.

"It's crooked," he said amused as he leaned against the wooden railing by one of the doors that led to the main hall of the RPD, watching you, bemused, "and you spelt Welcome wrong."

Your eyes bugged out of your head as you whipped your head back to your fellow S.T.A.R.S member, who also happened to be not just a friend but also a real pain in the ass sometimes.

"No its not," you said half trying to convince yourself, leaning back, almost falling off the table you stood on to look at the sign you had almost fully pinned up.

"You're right," he took another bite from his apple and chewed on it thoughtfully before continuing, "you spelt it right, that was a test."

"A test for what?!"

"To see if you could win a spelling B," he shifted his weight from on leg to the other as he crossed them behind him.

Rolling your eyes, you grabbed a piece of tape off your arm where you had placed a few pre cut pieces before for easy access, you started finishing placing the sign up.

"You're hilarious," you said, "no really. I'm so glad you're here to make jokes instead of helping me put this up."

"I'm eating," he stated, "and I am helping- move that a little to the right, it's not even."

You obliged reluctantly.

"Jill would never do this to me. She'd help," you pouted.

"Jill babies you."

"Jill just likes me more than she likes you," Jill wasn't THAT much older than you and neither was Chris.

Chris didn't bother responding to that last statement as he threw the core of his apple into the trash bin by the door, and held his hand out for you.

"I'll finish," he said, looking between the sign and you, "you keep making it crooked."

As much as you wanted to get down and stomp on his foot for that one, you opted on just rolling your eyes as you took his hand as did a little jump off the table, steadied by Chris' hand.

"Just hurry up," you watched Chris get up onto the table and take the tape you had, "I want one of those donuts Barry brought into our office this morning before they're all gone."

You managed to get your donut, Chris finishing the sign hanging in record time. With a glazed donut in your hand you decided to head back downstairs to the entrance before work caught back up with you in the S.T.A.R.S office, and mainly to see if the new guy had arrived yet.

Hopefully the sign was nice. It wasn't your idea alone; when Wesker had mentioned in the office one day that the main force was getting a new member soon, you had decided to ask them yourself, curious and interested. Rita, one of the female officers, had told you that it was true- not that you hadn't already believed Wesker, and that she thought it would be a nice idea to do something to make him feel a little more welcome in a completely new place with seasoned officers. So came the idea of the sign.

You weren't paying attention when you bumped into a strong body and almost dropped your donut.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry-" you choked a bit on the donut in your mouth as you started to apologize to the person, only to meet eyes with a man you didn't even recognize; but his eyes were so captivating and something about him felt familiar. Like you could trust him already.

"No, no," the young man started, cutting you off. He seemed a bit nervous, and you noted the uniform he had on; RPD officer, "I wasn't paying enough attention, I'm new here and-"

"Leon?" You only realised after you'd said it how weird that must've sounded, knowing the name of a guy who had never even met you till now and vice versa. It was plain as day on his confused face, so you quickly continued, "we all heard a new officer was coming- so your name, that's how I know!"

His face softened a bit but his brows were slightly furrowed like he was a bit worried, no, nervous. A small smile played on his lips, "word travels fast here then?"

"Well," you cleared your throat, "in a small place like this, yeah, kinda."

His eyes scanned the museum turned police station before coming back to meet yours, an eyebrow raised.

"Small?"

"Well," breathing out a laugh you swallowed, "it's a big station, but not a huge force. We're not the biggest city."

"Ah, makes sense," he smiled amused at you, seeming to relax a bit more, "so you're one of the officers?"

"Um, kinda. I'm part of the S.T.A.R.S. unit. Special Tactics and Rescue Services. We're kind of... A branch off of the main force, and smaller. With a different office, upstairs."

"No uniform for you guys then?" He sounded a bit disappointed at the realization you had a different office.

You looked down at your outfit, the only thing really indicating you were even part of the police, and S.T.A.R.S being the badge on your hip, "ya... Not yet. We have some ideas for some but, I'm not a big fan. Between you and me, I'd like to not have to wear a uniform. Uh, no offense."

"None taken," he chuckled and you found you liked that sound, "You know my name but I don't know yours...?"

"Oh, right," you reached your unoccupied, and clean from donut residue, hand out to shake his, "Y/N L/N,  member of the S.T.A.R.S unit, and also the best member. Don't let Chris tell you otherwise when you meet him."

"Of course," his hand was much bigger than your own, "wouldn't want anyone to sway my opinion."

"Of course not-" your voice was cut off as you heard the receptionist not too far from the two of you clear her throat and call out to you.

"L/N, Mr. Wesker is asking for you upstairs; something about a report..." she trailed off as your eyebrows lifted considerably.

"Oh... Shit," a report you had neglected in favour of literally anything else, and mainly with that sign you had put up in the office, "I'm sorry to cut this short Leon, but uh... Duty calls! You're gonna fit in here great, don't let any of the others push you around, it's all in good fun but they can be real pieces of work sometimes! I'll see you around?"

"Yeah, of course," he felt his ears turn hot.

You left the new rookie cop to stand in your dust as you raced to get upstairs, preoccupied by a report you had only half finished. But Leon couldn't take his eyes off of you, or where you had been standing. A bit lost in thought.

He didn't wanna admit it, but he might've already been falling for one of his colleagues. And he knew he'd be seeing you a lot. He'd been so nervous, and you had made him feel welcomed from the start. You were something special, something he was definitely going to hold on to if he could.

[artemis-pendragon]

wait if you have the time would you mind expanding on the parallels between achilles and patroclus and the ships you mentioned?

OH GOD YES I WOULD LOVE TO THANKS FOR ASKING!! The English Major in me jumped out so here's an absolute novel lmao:

Hannibal/Will:

Hannibal and Will are the easiest to draw direct parallels to because they are textually compared to Achilles and Patroclus in canon. Hannibal draws himself as Achilles and Will as Patroclus, then (because apparently he’s never heard of subtlety) shows it to Will.

Hannibal says that hiding and revealing identities is a major theme in the Iliad. Will asks Hannibal to reveal himself to Jack Crawford; in the same episode, Hannibal begins to suspect that Will has betrayed him, hiding his true intentions behind a façade to bait Hannibal into being captured by the FBI. However, Will isn’t even sure himself what his real intentions and identity is, and eventually betrays the FBI and runs away with Hannibal.

After Hannibal realizes that Will betrayed him (which is also the episode after he talks about how they’re like Achilles and Patroclus), he stabs Will in the stomach. Patroclus was killed after being stabbed in the stomach.

Hannibal and Will’s blurring identities is a major theme throughout the show. Just as Patroclus takes on Achilles’s identity on the field of war, Will takes on Hannibal’s identity in many ways—both intentionally, and unintentionally.

Patroclus dies wearing Achilles’s armor. Will is accused of being the Chesapeake Ripper, imprisoned, and could have been executed for Hannibal’s crimes if Hannibal hadn’t interfered.

Hannibal is a god-adjacent character, while Will is his more human counterpart. Will is Hannibal’s tether to his humanity, just as Patroclus is Achilles’s.

Just like Achilles couldn’t stand to be parted from Patroclus, Hannibal chose to let Will pull him off a cliff to their (probable) deaths. Hannibal would rather die with Will than live without him.

There is a significant amount of water imagery in this show. Will especially has a lot of ties to water: he likes to fish (his mind palace is initially shown to be a stream); he’s knowledgeable about boats and sailing (he sails across the Atlantic to find Hannibal); his dreams and hallucinations often include water and/or blood; he pulled Hannibal off a cliff into the ocean in a last ditch attempt to kill them both; etc. The story of Achilles also has lots of water-related motifs since Achilles’s mother, Thetis, is a sea nymph/goddess of water.

Hannibal didn’t become overtly vicious and violent toward the Great Red Dragon until he threatened to kill (and then actually stabbed) Will. Then he went totally feral and (literally) ripped Dolarhyde’s throat out. This reminds me of Achilles losing his mind and killing then mutilating Hector after Hector killed Patroclus.

Steve/Bucky:

Steve and Bucky have the “legendary beloved heroic superhuman soldier” and “childhood friend turned war companion” parallel down to a T. Steve is like Achilles: he is a born soldier who wants to fight for his country, starting out idealistic and becoming worn down and jaded by war over time. Bucky is far more reluctant to go to war but follows Steve back onto the battlefield because he believes in Steve and wants to keep him safe—especially from his own reckless righteousness. This is very similar to Patroclus’s desire to follow Achilles to war mostly out of a desire to protect and guide him away from his self-destructive, hot-headed tendencies.

Just as Patroclus put on Achilles’s armor to fight (and die) in his place on the battlefield, Bucky picks up and wields Steve’s shield just before he falls off the train to his apparent death.

Steve starts out saying that he doesn’t want to kill anybody, but after Bucky “dies”, he vows not to stop until every member of Hydra is either killed or captured. This is similar to Achilles’s reaction to Patroclus’s death, where he goes mad with grief and kills everyone in his path to get to Hector, who he then violently kills.

Additionally, after killing Hector, Achilles continues to fight recklessly until someone kills him. Similarly, Steve keeps fighting to stop Hydra but ultimately goes down with the aircraft carrying the bombs, allowing himself to drown/freeze. There’s probably ways he could have gotten out of that situation, but instead he kind of just gives in and lets himself “die” (at least that’s my interpretation).

The Captain America movies also have some interesting water imagery. Bucky falls to his “death” in a ravine, most likely falling into the frozen stream. Steve “drowns” after he crashes the plane into the ocean; in The Winter Soldier, Steve falls from the helicarrier into the Potomac, and Bucky jumps in after him. Again, the story of Achilles also contains water-related motifs due to Achilles’s mother being a sea nymph; I’m sure I could write an entire essay about these parallels before I figure out how to verbalize why this is interesting, but I’m too lazy to right now lol.

Arthur/Merlin:

Again, just like with Steve and Bucky, this is an obvious case of “famous royal golden hero of legends” and “less well-known but ultimately extremely important companion who follows him to war”. Like Achilles and Patroclus, Arthur and Merlin meet before Arthur is a famous warrior and become friends long before the “big war” that ultimately tears them apart.

Arthur and Achilles might be the famous warriors, but Merlin and Patroclus are the kind-hearted, brave, fiercely loyal companions who serve both as a fellow warrior on the battlefield, and as a moral compass. Just as Achilles looks to Patroclus for advice and as a tether to the humility and importance of humanity in the face of a great destiny, Arthur looks to Merlin.

Both Patroclus and Merlin seem at first to be ordinary men who (in the eyes of most casual observers) aren’t worthy of Achilles/Arthur’s friendship. However, they both become legendary figures of their own, without whom their legendary heroic counterparts would never have survived.

As I mentioned in the section about Hannibal and Will, the theme of hiding and revealing identities is very important in the story of Achilles and Patroclus. One of the biggest plot points in Merlin is that Merlin can’t reveal that he has magic; he doesn’t do so until the last episode, once Arthur has been mortally wounded.

Just as Patroclus always believed that Achilles would live up to his great destiny, Merlin always believed in Arthur. And even though Arthur didn’t know about Merlin’s true potential and role in his rise to the throne, Arthur believed that Merlin was one of the best, most courageous men he’d ever met. This reminds me o Achilles referring to Patroclus as Philtatos (in The Song of Achilles), meaning “best of men”.

In an inverted parallel, Arthur is the one who is stabbed and ultimately dies. Although Achilles does eventually die in war, it isn’t until after Patroclus dies. It is then implied that they will eventually meet again someday, just as Achilles and Patroclus would meet again in the afterlife after their ashes were mingled together.  

Dean/Cas:

In this relationship, Dean is very much the “reckless hero with a pre-ordained-by-the-gods destiny who is actually very flawed and carries a lot of self-doubt” and Cas is the “companion with a heart of gold who is almost embarrassingly devoted to the hero and will do anything for him”.

For Dean/Cas, there is also the parallel of struggling with a toxic parental figure who demands too much while also being emotionally absent and manipulative. For Dean, this is John Winchester, and for Achilles, this is Thetis. Cas also struggles with his relationship with his father (who is literally God lmao) and his desire to be a good soldier vs. his desire to do what’s right and to protect the man he loves.

Patroclus strives to help Achilles see that he’s more than just a weapon, and Cas and Dean both do this for each other: Dean helps Cas realize that he’s more than just another emotionless soldier of heaven, and Cas helps Dean realize he’s more than “daddy’s blunt instrument” (the phrasing of which I will still be laughing at in my grave. Thanks, CW.)

Dean’s godly destiny as Michael’s vessel is determined before he’s even born. Achilles’s godly destiny is also determined before he’s born, and neither one really has any say in it.

Patroclus ultimately dies in Achilles’s place, and Cas does the same for Dean many times. When Cas decides to help Dean escape heaven and try to save Sam and stop the apocalypse, he sacrifices himself to help Dean get away. Of the many times Cas puts his life on the line, it’s usually either to help Dean, or to save him. This is reminiscent of how Patroclus did almost everything not in the name of winning the war, or even the greater good (although he was obviously a good person), but to protect Achilles and keep him from getting himself killed.

Whenever Cas is dead, Dean’s mental health visibly deteriorates. He becomes more violent and unpredictable—a worse version of himself—just as Achilles did after Patroclus died.

Just as Patroclus acts as a tether to humanity for Achilles, Cas and Dean both act as tethers to humanity for each other. Cas pulls Dean out of Hell, restoring his humanity, and Dean helps Cas shrug off his emotionless angel identity and find some humanity of his own.

TLDR: Reckless blonde hero (or villain) with a legendary destiny/reputation and badass fighting skills + their viciously loyal brunette companion-slash-lover who's willing to die for them at a moment's notice = good shipping material

[aerltarg]

Maybe this is a stupid question, buuuuut:

I just can't imagine a world that Rhaegar comes back from the Trident, wins the war and becomes king. No, I'm not a anti Rhaegar, matter of fact I like him very much, I'm just can imagine how would Lya, little Jon, this whole affair, would settle in the capital. The norm that fics (at least those I read) tend to follow is to make Rhaegar:

1. A douche, paranoid and destiny-obessed king.

2. Completely incompetent, aloof monarch, that deep down has a heart of gold, but can't really be understood.

I mean, isn't he supposed to be a scholar since he was a kid? What's are your thoughts about it?

oh, yeah, i can totally understand this! it's is the whole point in canon actually, "the wrong man came back from the trident". you would expect a hero win against his antagonist and have a happy ending w his lady love but it doesn't happen. instead the subversion happens to them with rhaegar being killed by robert who becomes obviously a shitty king and lyanna dying after him. they were never supposed to have happy ending, they were created as tragic and doomed and dead from the beginning for the whole plot to start, jon to have his parentage mystery and dany to take the passed baton as the last dragon, prophesied savoir and the heir who has to carry entire house on her back now.

as for the realistic rhaegar wins aus that's the difficult question. tbh we just don't know enough abt their situation, plans and wishes. you see, e.g. in agot we can be right in ned's head and see his motivations, what he was thinking abt, what he was planning, what he was hoping to do. but if his story was told the way rhaegar's was i bet he would have his own crowd of haters and ~intellectuals~ jumping out every two seconds w their "hot takes" how actually all hints abt what rlly happened (ned being a good man w his own sense of honour, justice and experiences affecting him and the deal w cersei's children) doesn't matter and he was an ambitious prick, planned to grasp the power by being joffrey's regent and make his daughter sansa queen. (you can actually insert there any bullshit and still don't reach the level of stupidity of such "hot takes" this fandom loves so much lmao). also he would be blamed to the hell and beyond for being too stupid and not foreseeing the future and actions of other ppl bc ofc after everything happened it's so easy to say what was so obvious to notice. also they would say that the deaths of his men and horrible fates of his kids are 100% his fault and even straight up say he killed them lmao. i can rant abt it for hours so yeah. this is a situation w too many unknown variables bc it depends too much on actions of too many characters we don't know enough abt. the only thing it's possible to tell for sure is the fact that there couldn't be any perfect solutions since things got too complicated at this point.

such fics as you've mentioned tho are just a part of this dumb fanon where rhaegar is "too prophecy obsessed"/"incapable of love"/shrodinger's rhaegar both smart and stupid at the same time/whatever/all of this combined lmfao. the man was notably intelligent from the early age as you've absolutely rightly mentioned, his guesses abt himself being tptwp have nothing to do w egocentrism as some parts of the fandom would want us all to believe unless he wouldn't be so reasonable abt it and later on, after so many years, wouldn't have changed his mind and thought his son could be tptwp.

and literally fuck all antis that think you shouldn't consider prophecies that hold real power in this fantasy world lol. you know, aegon the conqueror was said to be motivated (or at least partly) to unify westeros by the prophecy and still got the treatment of perfect/maximum close to perfect figure of a leader everyone should look up to from the narrative and grrm. prophecy obsessed much, huh? i don't even talk abt all these parallels between him and rhaegar grrm put there not for bitches to ignore them completely! and i will never get tired of reminding that dismissing prophecies is UNWISE for targaryens of all people. the house whose story is built on the dream of young daenys and her father aenar that listened to her despite common sense (or what local "anti magic"/"anti prophecies" clowns consider to be common sense). targs would be as dead as the rest of dragonlords if not for daenys the dreamer. who else in the world has as many reasons to take prophecies seriously as them?

yet antis out there act as if rhaegar is one dimensional weirdo whose every character trait is abt mf ~prophecy obsession~. like how can they miss one of the main points so badly?? the game of thrones distracts ppl from the real danger beyond the wall, yk, the one rhaegar was aware of and meant to deal with. there wouldn't be such a problem if he became king and had as many years of head start before ice zombies apocalypse as ignorant bobby b did. rhaegar had to die just for westeros to sink in shit and our main heroes to save everyone to make this story more epic LMAO

so yeah, too many ppl portray rhaegar as this one dimensional robotic creature without any knowledge of what feelings are idk even for what reason. it seems these ppl can't read for real bc rhaegar was not only intelligent af as well as dutiful ("it seems i must be a warrior" but "he loved his harp more than his lance") but also. ugh emotional?? my boy had constant emo sessions w brooding at ruins of summerhall, sleeping out there beneath the stars all alone and writing songs that made all women cry. does it sound as someone who "isn't capable of love" lol? folks act as if he was completely heartless from the day he was born (bc he didnt play w other kids ig??) but in reality their emotional range is less than the one of a spoon in comparison to rhaegar's lol. i'm not even gonna address the horrible attitude of demonizing him for his implied depression, vile clowns never listen to themselves when they talk abt targaryens and their "madness".

tldr; these fics are mostly lame af and suck at characterization if they're making rhaegar like that lol. anyway his character isn't abt being a good or a bad king, it's abt being a would-be-king for characters in books and readers in reality to sigh over his tragic aura and pretty aesthetic abt how it could've been. however, grrm clearly doesn't write rhaegar as evil or incapable as some parts of the fandom would want to try to persuade others. realistically speaking in the scenario where he wins there couldn't be any perfect decisions but it's a territory of speculations on thin air and lit nothing more since canon doesn't provide us with enough information to rlly theorize anything instead of building biased headcanons some ppl call "analysis".

but remember what barristan said about rhaegar while practically watching him all his life, from a literal baby to the man grown:

“I know little of Rhaegar. Only the tales Viserys told, and he was a little boy when our brother died. What was he truly like?”

The old man considered a moment. “Able. That above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded.” (ASOS, Daenerys I)

“Prince Rhaegar’s prowess was unquestioned, but he seldom entered the lists. He never loved the song of swords the way that Robert did, or Jaime Lannister. It was something he had to do, a task the world had set him. He did it well, for he did everything well. That was his nature. But he took no joy in it. Men said that he loved his harp much better than his lance.” (ASOS, Daenerys IV)

[anythingbutmar]

Lonely

Diego Hargreeves x reader

Summary: You love Diego, but you get tired as he keeps ditching you to save the world. Fortunately, he knows how to make it up to you.

Prompts: 21.“Shut up.” “Well why don't you come over here and make me?" 23."For the love of fuck.” “Yeah that's me, I love to fuck."

A/N: THIS IS MY FIRST TIME WRITING ACTUAL SMUT AND I’M SCARED, also, this is the longest thing I’ve ever written and I’m so proud! I love getting more and more Diego requests.❤

Warnings: unprotected sex, drinking, angst.

You know how you're still quite sensitive a few days after your period is gone? You told yourself that was the reason why you were sitting on your livingroom floor, drinking a wine bottle by yourself and crying your eyes out. But you knew the real reason had nothing to do with your cycle.

Diego had failed you, again. Maybe failed was too strong of a word, but he was late to your dinner for the third time in a week, and you truly wanted to understand him, but it was so damn hard.

It had been exactly a month and nine days since the day that he had stormed in your apartment rambling about JFK, 1963, the apocalypse and a commission. It took you a week to process the whole thing not only because it was incredibly hard to believe it, but because he kept adding details here and there like an excited little boy, except he wasn't excited at all, he was just mad at himself for not being able to save a president that had been dead for almost eighty years.

And so, he freed himself of his anger the only way that he knew: on the streets, which usually took him away from you for a few hours, but it was already one in the morning and he wasn't answering any of your texts and phone calls, so you drank and you weeped while listening to Toni Braxton.

You could say that Diego had changed for the better. He was no longer blaming his disgraces on his siblings, he told you he wanted things to get serious because of how much he missed you and you could see even more kindness in his eyes, but it still wasn't what you wished. You had always wanted him in every possible way, but this time you were asking for more, because even though he was your entire world it seemed as if you were never enough for him, given how he preferred to fight criminals over sharing one meal with you.

If you wanted to, you could have kept replaying depressing thoughts in your head, but you were tired already, so you laid your head on the couch and drifted away, holding onto an empty bottle.

And that is exactly how Diego found you half an hour later. He truly felt sorry, but he didn't want to wake you up, and he didn't want to fight, and in general he just didn't want to face you knowing he had disappointed you and a complete country, so he grabbed you in his arms, wanting to carry you to your bed, but even as you slept rage kept burning in the pit of your stomach, and it was that rage that woke you up, right as he was lifting you off the floor, so of course, your natural response was aggressively wiggling your way out of his arms until he accidentally dropped you. You could notice that he was about to laugh until he saw the terrifying look in your eyes and stopped himself.

Diego was no mirror, but you could almost see yourself through his expression. Messy hair, ruined makeup and wine stained lips. He might as well have called you Madremonte already, because you knew you must have looked just like her, same anger in your gaze.

"Where were you?" The alcohol could have blurred your vision but you could see him quite clearly, and it made you wanna cry because you loved him so damn much and you just wanted him to love you back.

"You know it's not a specific place, I just go around town."

"I'm not a jealous person Diego, but I'm not stupid either, and you can't expect me to be waiting for you as you're out there every night saving god knows who. It sounds ridiculous, but I envy an entire city because everyone in it gets to spend more time with you than I do."

Tears poured out again as you remembered the night you met him. You had just quitted your job and were too distracted with your worries to notice the robber creeping up behind you. Thankfully, Diego was there on his silly latex suit, and unlike you he had seen the guy, and he scared him before he could even touch you, freaking you out in the process, but he made it up by inviting you for a drink, and so, your "relationship" started, but it wasn't until that day when he showed up in your doorstep with longer hair and bigger problems that he'd actually adressed it as such. He had asked you to be his girlfriend, and you couldn't be happier to accept, you just didn't know it was going to be this hard, and thinking back to the days where he was saving you hurted like hell, because even though you didn't want to say it out loud, you knew you were alone now while he was saving everyone else.

Diego remained silent, he looked regretful, but that wasn't going to ease your pain.

"You don't have to say anything, I already know what you think. You regret this, you regret us." He frowned deeply, as if he expected anything but what you'd just said.

"What? Of course not!"

"You do! No matter how much you try to hide it it's the truth, you can't even stand to look at me anymore and I don't even know what I did!" Your breath escalated as you let out everything that you couldn't say before.

"Shut up Y/N, you don't even know what you're saying."

"It's not even what you try to tell me everytime! You don't think you've failed me, you just don't want me, so you go out to seek comfort on your fucking hero complex! You'll never learn that you can't save everyone and I don't understand why but somehow you resent me for it!" You screamed and it felt good even though he was right, you were just making up reasons for something that you couldn't understand, but he needed to know how much his absence harmed you.

"Listen to yourself! You're literally not making any sense! I've told you nothing but the truth since I got here because I want things to work between us, and when I say that I come late at night because I know I could have done more to protect you I really mean it. I can't face you when I fail at making you safe." He didn't even seem mad, he just looked frustrated, which actually made you sadder because you didn't want that to be the truth, you didn't want him to feel bad for something that he couldn't control.

"I should just leave, there's no point in arguing."

"No Y/N, you don't have to go, just shut up." He grabbed your wrist softly, letting you choose, and a devilish smirk appeared on your face as you got an idea.

"Well why don't you come over here and make me?" He looked surprised for a few seconds, but when the anger in your eyes turned into lust he mimicked your expression, more than eager to finish the discussion the right way.

He strengthened his grip on your wrist and he pulled you towards him so that there wouldn't be any space between you two, he looked down at you and kissed you passionately, playing with the hem of your skirt and gesturing for you to jump, and so you did, your legs hugged his waist and your hands tangled in his hair just the way he liked it as he walked to your bedroom, carrying you in a different way than he had planned earlier.

He sat you down on the bed and started undressing himself with quick clumsy movements that scattered his clothes all around the room, which might have not looked quite sexy to a normal person passing by, but to you, watching his back tense as he took his shirt of and threw it towards your nightstand was incredibly hot.

So you tried to do the same, to see if he would look at you the same way, but of course, you were still tipsy, and you almost fell to the ground for the second time while stumbling on your own skirt, but Diego’s arms were there to hold you once again, and much to your surprise, there was love and passion in his eyes, which only made you desire him more, but just when you were about to kiss him again, he stopped.

“You’re not sober baby, are you sure you want to do this?” He looked concerned and it made you soft because he was just such a good man.

“Diego Hargreeves, I’m not entirely drunk and I’m giving you my explicit consent.” You mocked him a little but you regreted it instantly, because as soon as you said the words he pushed you on the bed and removed your underwear, the last piece of clothing between you.

You reached out to kiss him and this time he kissed you back with the hunger of an animal. His hand went to your throat and pressed lightly, which gained a moan from you and allowed his tongue to finally meet yours, but it was too slow for you, you wanted more and more and more than you could take, so you turned the game and got on top of him, which he didn’t seem to enjoy as much.

Diego loved being in control, and by taking it away from him you were showing him what would happen if he ever made you feel lonely again.

You put your hands on his shoulders and eagerly lowered yourself on his dick, slowly taking it all in and getting used to his size before you started bouncing. It felt incredibly empowering to be in control and it made you drip with arousal.

He tried to help you by thrusting his hips but you pushed him down. You knew all about his games, he would start regaining his dominance bit by bit and before you knew you would be beneath him, begging for his mercy. But you weren't about to let that happen, not today.

“Damn.” He cursed both in pleasure and surprise.

You wouldn't even let him grab your hips, you fastened your pace by yourself and he was completely helpless, and the thought of him not being able to do anything he wanted made it harder for you to last. You had just started and you were about to cum already, all because it had been days since the last time he made you feel like this.

Apparently, your orgasm closing in was noticed by both of you, because the minute you got distracted in your pleasure he lifted you and helped you place yourself on his face, and when he was finally allowed to move he took advantage of it.

He ran his tongue across your folds in a painfully slow matter a few times before concentrating on your clit, licking and sucking fast and hard, the way he knew would make your knees shake in a matter of seconds.

“Oh for the love of- fuck!” He twirled his tongue around that extremely sensitive spot one last time before you came in his mouth.

You laid beside him, legs pressed together in adrenaline and a smile on your face, you had missed him in every possible way.

“Yeah that’s me, I love to fuck.” He laughed stroking your hair and pushing a few loose strands away in a loving matter. Diego was the absolute king of aftercare, he always seemed to know exactly what you needed, and he made sure you felt safe and loved before you both drifted off. “You do know that’s never going to happen again, right?”

“Oh it will happen over and over if you keep pissing me off, and I kinda liked being on charge for once.” You turned to face him but he wasn’t laughing with you. He wasn’t serious either, he was just staring at you as if you were an ethereal being, as if he couldn’t believe you were laying next to him, afraid that if he blinked or looked away you might slip from his arms.

“I love you baby, and I promise you will never ever feel alone again, and I’ll only leave when you want me to.”

You kissed him, a tiny peck on the lips to ensure him that you believed his words before you fell asleep, finally feeling how his warmth made your pillows softer, your bed more comfortable and your dreams more beautiful.

[yourcreepyneighborhoodelftwink]

Hcs on what ben was like when he first came to the mansion? Was there anyone he got along with right away?

(TRIGGER WARNING: Cult mentions, a suicide mention, controlling behavior, mental abuse, manipulation, spying/stalking, I'll happily add more if asked)

Lol rip you if you thought this answer would get something fluffy like "he was besties with Jeff right away" or love at first sight with Toby. BEN was NOT a good person when he first came to the mansion. He is an absolute NIGHTMARE to deal with for the first month or so.

Let's put this into perspective: He was born into a cult, a very controlling environment, and constantly suffocated within that echo chamber and basically told that the biggest thing he had to look forward to is a ritualistic suicide and/or the apocalypse. And I hc that while his cult was told that he had Ascended, that is not the case. In reality, he was asking a lot of questions, like any curious child would, and he shouldn't have done that because The Father decided that he was causing too much unrest among the Moon Children with his incessant questions. So he JUST so happened to hear BEN's Ascension date FOR him. BEN did not attempt to Ascend, he was SILENCED. It was foul play, he was murdered via drowning.

THEN his spirit was held captive for 13 lonely, isolated, LONG years in his cartridge. 13 long years of the same environment, nothing new happening, everything scripted, everything artificial, and a false moon constantly over his head, threatening to fall. MOCKING him. Have any of you seen the original Oldboy? Similar vibe (though the situation is obviously different). Held captive for years, driven absolutely MAD by isolation, all the time in the world to mull over what happened to him, and get BITTER over it. All the time in the world to think about the false prophet that killed him, the parents that allowed it to happen, the congregation that watched. The MOMENT that he was free, he was angry, he was bitter, but he had learned how to be patient, and he now had a hit list, and was ready to manipulate anyone as means to get to his ends, he was ready to strike down EVERYONE who had wronged him, anyone who foolishly stood in his way, and anyone who tried to subjugate him again. HE would be the one in control, now and forever.

Anyway, yadda yadda yadda, that was literally JUST context for his mind set, we're not gonna go into how he gets to the mansion bc that's not important. He's there now and being welcomed into the household (we're assuming it's all super sweet and fluffy and found family, too).

He's NOT a fan of Slenderman at first. In his mind, Slenderman is trying to gain his trust in order to use him. He's the one in charge around here, so he's an enemy. He would keep his head low for the first day or two, but he's absolutely beginning to plot from the very beginning.

He starts with very basic power plays and trying to strong arm basically everyone around him, but mostly Slenderman into doing things for him. A go-to move is breaking something important, such as the stove, and threatening to not fix or replace it unless so-and-so does XYZ. But he can get CRAFTY and trick people into doing things, too. A favorite of his came after he picked up on Jeff being a hot head. He'd bait Jeff into getting pissy when they were in the kitchen, and when he inevitably try to jump BEN, casually walk out as it happened so Jeff would get in trouble for jumping the new kid "for absolutely no reason".

He'd probably set up some cameras and bugs at first. He feels unsafe, like things are spiraling out of control around him, and being able to keep an eye on things helps him feel better. Probably only in common areas and the hallway outside of his room, really, he's not worried he'll be physically hurt, he just... Wants to keep an eye on the house. Find out how they all act when they think he's not watching. See if he can catch them talking about him behind his back.

BEN is not very social at first. He probably rarely leaves his room, and when he does is to be this ungodly demon terrorizing the house. He didn't really try to reach out to people, and was unpleasant enough that most didn't reach out to him, either. Slenderman tried his best to be patient, and called him to dinner every night.

Toby is an... "interesting" exception to this. He did his best to continue reaching out to BEN, even just sitting outside his door and asking how his day is. Their rooms were across from each other, so it wasn't difficult to try to strike up a conversation on the way to bed. The poor guy is a little naive, and while he's been through the wringer, he's still very optimistic and tries his best to trust.

And BEN absolutely took advantage of that.

It didn't take long for BEN to realize what a passive personality Toby is, and he's a sweetheart, but not too bright. He ruled pretty quickly that Toby was no threat, and allowed the reaching out to continue. It didn't take much time after that for him to realize that Toby is VERY eager to please, he had low self esteem and felt better about himself when he was helpful to others.

He's obedient. BEN likes that in a man~

He latched onto Toby fairly quickly. And to give full credit, he was genuinely kind to him, and genuinely enjoyed his presence. He even developed a very genuine crush after not very long. He wasn't ALL THE TIME 100% HORRIFIC MANIPULATION. Specifically, when he asked for Toby's help in his power plays, he would keep Toby in the dark, give him plausible deniability, and did try to build up his self confidence, he'd gently cradle his face and reassure him that how he was treated in the past was WRONG and he deserved BETTER.

But that doesn't mean his behavior was okay. While he'd leave Toby in the dark so he wouldn't get in trouble, that also compromised his ability to TRULY consent to what he was doing. If you aren't informed in something, you can't give informed consent, and he could and very well might have said "no" to everything if he was truly aware of BEN's intentions. And it put him in the awkward position of being a proxy that was doing things to disobey and cause problems for his boss. Slenderman was very understanding of it and didn't blame Toby, but were Toby the proxy of anyone else, it might NOT have been pretty, he got lucky to wiggle out of trouble.

And then the BIG one that's REALLY bad... BEN was very emotionally stunted at first. He didn't really know how to express himself. He was always hiding his face behind a mask, and he definitely behaved and spoke and thought a bit... Strangely. He was isolated for so long and in a cult beforehand.

Remember how I said he had a crush on Toby fairly early? That showed in WEIRD ways.

He dealt with some internalized homophobia at first and went on weird, cryptic rambles about how his feelings for Toby were "all wrong, this can't be Luna's will" and left poor Toby not really knowing what to do to comfort him.

He made a big deal about taking his mask off when alone with Toby, and getting frustrated when Toby expressed it was nice to see his face and maybe even that he liked said face, but it didn't lead to some magical anime moment that started their relationship.

And the worst, by FAR: He collared Toby and flat out told him he belonged to BEN now. Without asking. Without giving room for consent. This was his idea of a proper love confession. As far as Toby knew, they were just friends (he is a sweetheart that's pretty oblivious when it comes to romance). So he was SOOOOOOO confused by that one. BEN got really LUCKY that Toby was maaaaybe a little more okay with being bossed around by this twink than he wanted to admit, he absolutely would've said yes if he was ASKED, and he left it on, but it rightfully FREAKED everyone out when he couldn't really give a good explanation on it. Poor boy was horribly embarrassed by the role he played in it all, how easily his trusting and eager to please attitude was used against him, and how he was GENUINELY kinda okay with it, it left him REALLY confused about his own feelings.

Eventually, after enough frustration from his behavior, concern for the fact that no one could 100% tell if Toby was being mentally abused or not, and worry about what the HELL kind of emotional fuckery must be going on to have BEN acting out in this way, an intervention was had on the matter (I wrote a fic about it with Jeff doing it, actually), and he came to realize just how wrong what he was doing was, that he didn't need to be such a massive control freak, he wasn't in danger, he wasn't going to be used or hurt if he wasn't on top, and that these people genuinely want what's best for him, even now. He mellowed out pretty soon after, did his best to apologize and make up for his shitty behavior, try to genuinely allow himself to trust them, little by little, and yes, learn to express what he was ACTUALLY trying to say so he can say "hey, I like you, idiot" instead of trying to collar someone from the get-go and hope the message gets across. He was a nightmare, and genuinely the fucking worst, but he put in a LOT of hard work to change and do better, and that's what matters in the long run, and now he's surrounded by supportive people that forgive his past mistakes, and help him learn to forgive himself, too

[thefilmsimps]

Mad Max 2 (dir. George Miller)

-Jere Pilapil- 10/10 Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior is really where the legend of Mad Max as we imagine it begins. The movie starts with a montage of destruction that resulted in the world becoming a desert wasteland. Civilization is basically brought down to gangs and factions fighting over oil as currency. My wife is young enough that she thought it was ironic that they were “fighting over oil but driving all these gas guzzlers”, but in 1981 there was no other type of engine. There’s not much plot to Mad Max 2, but there is a whole lot of cool shit. The desert as photographed by Dean Semler is hot and vicious for as long as the film runs. The set design and costuming is legendary, influencing depictions of a post apocalypse for generations afterwards. Mel Gibson, that IRL piece of shit, is captivating as the mostly silence titular character (My wife said his Australian accent was bad, I told her that was his real voice because I thought he was Australian literally until writing this, so score 1 for her!). Finally, the action: it fuckin rips The plot is basically that Max happens upon a gyrocopter pilot (Bruce Spence), who leads him to an oil refinery/town being harassed by a massive gang called the Marauders. Here, Max is truly a mercenary: he bargains with the lone survivor of an assault on the outskirts of the refinery for a safe return and fuel, then later bargains with the head of the refinery for more fuel if Max can bring them a truck to transport the oil. Then, afterwards, of course, someone has to drive the truck while they transport the oil. Max is resistant to every step of the way, but plays along for his own benefit. This wafer-thin plot is all you need to set up a bunch of absurd vehicular action scenes that we’ll probably never see in film again. Every frame of this movie seems dangerous, never moreso when people are jumping from car to car or driving these monstrous modified cars with sharpened edges and armor. The stunts are wild, and every character is designed with a unique look that lets you keep track of who’s doing what. There’s so much clarity among this chaos of this movie. There’s so much invention here that it’s still intoxicating, four decades and countless imitators later.

[horrorunderground]

Chills (Michael Langdon Imagine)

Hello there, fellow humans! Or maybe not, I’m not sure. Anyway, this is my first fanfiction for American Horror Story and for Michael, so I hope you like it. This is nsfw, so please proceed with caution. I’ll put some warnings in, so if any of that makes you uncomfortable, then please do not read. My requests are open, so you can check the list of people who I write for and then send in a request!

WARNINGS: VERY SPICY bondage, blindfold, mentions of blood, knife , mentions of scars, hints of master and daddy kinks... hickeys and bites... yeah uh enjoy?

You know that one scene from Apocalypse when they had Evan Peters in that room? Yeah that.

———————————————————————

The piercing cold of the room was something that felt impossible to get used to. Rooms shouldn’t be allowed to be this cold, there should be some type of law against it. Your body shuddered, trying to warm yourself up, but there was no use. You were just going to have to be cold.

It didn’t help that you had chains attached to your wrists and ankles, spreading you out like the vitruvian man model, a perpetual jumping jack. Even as you pulled against them, the metal wasn’t going to budge, keeping you in place. There was only maybe a centimeter of movement, but not enough to pull your arms into your body to be able to free yourself. Face it, you’re trapped.

To top it all off, there was a blindfold covering your eyes. It wasn’t tied tightly, and it moved just a little, but you were still blinded for the most part. The material felt soft and silky, and it was difficult, almost impossible to see through the black cloth.

Your back stung, the pain burning, and if given the chance, you were sure you could trace the raised marks on your back. Let’s just say that some people hadn’t taken too kindly to how... close, you seemed to be with the new visitor from The Cooperative. This displeasure had now taken the form of raised lines along your back, left exposed to the cold air of the chilling room. The cold and hot sensations were conflicting, adding a new level of discomfort here.

Any thoughts you’d been having were interrupted, the sound of boots hitting the concrete floor echoing through the space. You couldn’t exactly see it, but with the way it echoed, you had to be in a larger room. Involuntarily, your body shivered, this time not from the temperature. You could tell who was now in front of you just based on how he walked, to you, the sound was unmistakable.

Nothing was said for a moment, and you could feel his eyes gazingover your figure. Currently, you didn’t have on a shirt, courtesy of Ms. Venable and Ms. Mead, but at least you still had underwear. But was that a blessing or a curse? Because that’s really all they’d left you.

You could hear the sound of Michae’s breathing, and soon you could feel it ghosting over your skin, the air warm against the places it made contact. It was almost as if his hands were hovering over you, but not quite touching. Not yet anyway.

He let out a low chuckle, and you could almost hear the smile in his voice when he spoke. “Lovely. It’s a pity I don’t get to see you like this more often.” He let his hand gently trail down your side, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

You laughed slightly, the sound almost bitter. “You can’t keep trying to capture me. I’m starting to think this is less about some evil plan and more because you’re lonely.”

He shook his head, grinning at you, even if you couldn’t see. “Lonely? No.” He moved his hand to trail down your chest, moving painfully slowly as he stopped just above your waistline. “You just look so beautiful tied up for me, and it’s hard to resist seeing,” he mused, and his body just felt closer to yours.

The words made you blush, and everything in you wanted to hide yourself, but that was literally impossible at the moment. The best you could do was turn your head to the side, as if that made any difference. But soon you felt his strong hand on your jaw, pulling your face back to him.

“Oh, don’t start with this now, darling,” he sighed. “You know I don’t like it when you look away.”

“I can’t even see you, so what difference does it make?” you snapped, and you knew that would probably get you in trouble, but you were feeling ballsy. Even if you were tied and couldn’t move, but that goes under the rug.

“Oh, so you want to talk back, do you?” he asked, laughing a little. His one hand moved and cupped your cheek, his fingers tracing your jaw line. “That just won’t do.” His touch disappeared, and you could hear his footsteps slowly circling to be behind you.

It felt like ages, but it was merely a few seconds. His body was just hovering centimeters from yours, but his presence was almost overwhelming. Your body shuddered, just waiting for him to touch you.

Your wish was finally granted, and his chest pressed into your back, his one arm snaking around your waist to pull you close against him. His other hand moved, but you couldn’t feel it.

That is, until a cool metal pressed against the skin of your throat, trailing just a little, but not enough to cut.

You swallowed, trying your best to hold your head up so that your skin wouldn’t get sliced from the blade. His hand around your waist gave a hard squeeze, stilling all of your motions.

“Now, don’t move, sweetheart,” he growled in your ear, making your breath hitch. “Because if you move, this will cut you, and I would hate to have to clean your pretty blood off the floor,” he added, his tongue flicking out to lick the shell of your ear for just a second. “And we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

It took you a second to realize he wanted you to answer, but when his knee gently pushed the spot between your spread legs, you got the message.

“N-no sir,” you whispered, the words strangled as you tried not to move too much.

“I can’t hear you,” he taunted, knowing damn well that he could hear you loud and clear. The room echoed after all.

Damn him. “No sir,” you repeated, this time loud enough for it to echo for a second or two.

“That’s my good girl.” With that, he moved his hand to trail down the lashes you had on your back. The skin was still tender and sensitive, and your body spasmed for just a second each time he touched it. You grit your teeth, trying to still your motions, but the actions were involuntary. You just made sure to not move your head.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you,” he whispered. He moved to place small kisses on each of the raised lines, inevitably moving the knife away from your throat. You took the chance to catch your breath, still trying not to flinch, otherwise he’d get angry.

He let his knife rest against your side, the cool metal pressing into your bare skin. He let it trail down to the backs of your thighs, occasionally leaving little nicks, enough for you to gasp each time.

“You like that?” he asked, his other hand traveling to your underwear line.

“M-maybe,” you answered, squirming just a touch at the contact. His hand traveled a little lower, making you gasp at the contact, attempting to lean into his hand some.

“I think we both know the answer to that one,” he said, letting his fingers travel where he wanted them to. Each touch made you whimper, desperate for more, wanting more of him. All of him.

You just whined, trying to press your body into his hand, but your chains made it hard to do that, and it was just you desperately pulling against them. He laughed, moving his hand away, making you groan with frustration.

“Be a big girl, use your words,” he teased, pressing a kiss into your shoulder. “Tell me what you want,” he ordered.

You sighed, shaking a little bit with the suspension. “P-please, I want you to touch me,” you started, your brain picking up speed as you just got desperate. “I want to feel you and I want you inside of me. Use your hands, use your knife, I don’t care,” you begged. “Please, daddy,” you added, knowing that it was his kryptonite, “make me feel good.”

Michael made a low sort of groan, moving his body back to push into you. “How could I say no when you ask so nicely?” he replied. He moved to position his head closer towards your neck, the spot where it meets your shoulder. You felt his teeth sinking into your flesh, making you cry out. He left a big bite mark, this one deep and you knew it wouldn’t heal for a while. You also knew it was only the first of many to come.

His hand moved back down to your underwear, pulling it a little. Considering he couldn’t pull it all the way down your legs, he used the knife to cut the fabric off, tossing the garment aside. Now, you were completely exposed and at his mercy.

“I’ve got you chained up, and I have you all to myself for hours,” he mused, his hand slowly creeping towards where you wanted it to be. “Are ready for me?”

“Yes sir,” you answered, your body clenching as you just waited.

“Good girl,” he said, and then he finally gave you the contact you’d been desperate for, causing you to moan and you could hear it echo through the room, back to your own ears.

He really did spend hours in there with you, taking absolutely no breaks. This man would keep you on edge for god knows how long, and then he’d blow your brains out. Your chest heaved, your nipples red and swollen, your body so far past exhaustion that you were sure you were headed to delirium. At some point, the blindfold had been pulled off, and you could see it on the floor somewhere. You could feel the combined juices running down your legs and dripping to the floor below you. There were a few blood droplets, too, and you had some new scars to add to your little collection, along with more hickeys that littered your body and bruises from grips that were just a little too hard.

The sound of both of your breathing filled the room, and you tried desperately to keep your eyes open, but you could feel sleep trying to overtake you. You were expecting that your wrists and ankles would soon be freed, but that wasn’t happening. You could hear Michael dressing, and you turned to look over your shoulder at him.

“Are you going to let me down?” you panted, completely spent. Even if he did let you down, you had no clue if you even had the energy to walk all the way back to your room, let alone get dressed.

“You need help getting down?” he asked, as if he didn’t realize you couldn’t free yourself.

“Well, duh,” you said, shaking your chains a little bit.

He walked over in front of you, grabbing your face and tipping your chin so that you were looking at him, and he pulled you in for a kiss. When he pulled away, he let go, smirking a little. “I’m sorry, darling, but I can’t. I have some business to attend to upstairs.” He started to walk away, stopping after a second. “Who knows? Maybe Mrs. Mead will find you and get you down. Or I’ll come back before she can,” he suggested.

“Wait, wait, you can’t just-“ but he was already gone, his footsteps receding down the hallway.

You yelled, screamed, but your voice was already hoarse from earlier. You tried desperately to wiggle free from the chains, but it was just as useless as before. You hung your head, your eyes just happening to see the little puddle of fluids on the floor, and you sighed.

That meant that someone else was going to have to find you like this, and the thought sent a flush of embarrassment to your face. But you didn’t have too much time to worry about that now, because you were falling asleep. You closed your eyes, and sleep overtook you. While you slept, you were left there, just waiting for someone to come find you and maybe help clean you up, and maybe walk, because damn were you sore.

[ohmyitsfaith]

50 days of learning love/Part 1

Pairing: Five Hargreeves x Reader

Summary: After surviving the apocalypse, you try to survive in the dusty and lonely world. But it has been five years and you’re losing hope of ever living normal again.

Warnings: It’s fucking long. Also language. And slight angst.

Word count: 3.1k

A/N: Hey! I was bored on online class, so I decided to write. Hope you’ll like it :)

You never expected to see an apocalypse in your time on Earth. You thought you’d be fine. That your family would be fine. But none of that happened. For some reason you were lucky enough to survive. How? You don’t even know it yourself. But you were fine, living on Earth, only by yourself. Not a single soul on the horizon. Just endless destruction.

That went on for weeks. Or months. Or years. After a while you lost count. Everyday was the same. Nothing has changed. Except for maybe the fact that the fires stopped. But you were still alone.

Until one day, when you started losing hope permanently. You saw a dark dot moving in the distance. You stood up from your little seat and squinted, hoping to see better. You kept your breath in as you waited for the dot to get closer. And as it got closer, it became clearer. It was a teenage boy, not older than you. Around maybe 17 or 18.

You were shocked to see someone else here after all those years, spent alone. But you were more than happy. As the boy came closer and closer, you went to see the miracle for yourself.

“Hello there” you said with a raspy voice from not using it for so long.

He looked at you with fire burning in his eyes.

“Who are you?”

“A survivor?” you asked taken aback.

“Congratulations. You’re alive. What do you want?” he asked.

“Woah, hey buddy, it’s been five years and haven’t seen a human since. Don’t you think you should be nicer since we’re literally the only two beings alive?” you said now mad.

“I don’t have time for this” he said dismissively.

“Oh, yeah you have! There’s literally nothing here. It’s the end of the world! You have all the time in the world!”

“No, I really don’t! I have to get back!” he argued.

“Oh, really? And how do you plan on that?” you asked not believing him.

“Time travel” he said.

“How?”

“You don’t have to know that.”

With that he continued his way. You stood there for a bit, but then you followed him.

“You seem familiar” you tried to start a normal conversation.

He sighed, clearly irritated.

“Wait! Of course! You said time travel, so you must have some kind of power! Say, aren’t you from the Umbrella Academy?” you asked.

“Wow, you’re so smart” he said sarcastically.

“Well, rude” you rolled your eyes. “Which one are you?”

“Can you just leave me alone?” he asked.

“Would you rather be alone in this ruined world than have someone else on your side keeping you from going totally insane?” you asked shocked.

“Frankly, if the only person is this annoying, yes” he said.

“Well I’m gonna tell you the harsh truth. You’re not the greatest company either, but guess what? We’re the only ones in the whole world. So either you need to get used to it or get out” you said seriously, looking deeply into his eyes.

“Fine” he said angrily, staring into your soul.

You two stared into each others eyes, until he decided to turn away and continue his way to… somewhere.

“Asshole” you muttered just loud enough in the deafening silence for him to hear it.

“It’s Five!” he said back.

You rolled your eyes and went back to your place for the night. But you couldn’t sleep. Your mind was racing about Five. He was definitely from the Umbrella Academy, but what could he do? You thought about the fact that he mentioned time travel, but surely, he wasn’t that smart. Although you couldn’t know that of course.

Meanwhile Five only got like 300 meters when he stopped and thought about your words. Truly you guys were the only ones on Earth. Maybe it was worth a shot. And so went the first day and night.

On the second day’s morning, you started your routine. You got up, got your bag, that you found sometime after the fires stopped and went on the trip to find food and some water.

But this day, you were stopped by a very grumpy, very serious Five.

“If we stay together, you’ll need to listen to me. There are limited amount of food and water on the whole Earth and we have to be smart. Every week or so we need to change our location to make sure to get every last bit of it. Not too much talking, otherwise we’ll go on each other’s minds” he said.

“Good morning to you too” you rolled your eyes. “And what do you think what have I been doing for 5 years? I’m not dumb” you said and walked around him to continue your way to wherever that day would take you.

You heard Five sigh and you fell back as he spatial jumped in front of you. As he did that, he almost collapsed, being truly exhausted.

“You… you can teleport?” you asked, shocked.

“Li-listen here. I don’t know when we’ll get out of here. Or if we get out of here. But. We need to stick together. We’ll never get out if we don’t” he said panting.

“Wait, so if you can teleport, then… you can time travel too? This is how you got here!” you realized.

“Yeah” he nodded.

“So you can just get us out of here!” you looked at him suddenly more hopeful than ever in those 5 years.

“It’s not that simple! I can’t just jump back! We can mess up the time-space kontinuum and we’ll never fix that! We need to… I need to work out the equation. Then I can maybe, just maybe! Get us out of here” he said seriously.

You nodded and swallowed, taking it all in. Then you got up.

“I’m Y/n” you said softly.

Five nodded and got his trunk and you guys started on your trip to find food and water.

After walking for hours under the bright sun and finding nothing, you stopped for a bit after finding a bit of shadow. You got out the small flask from your bag and offered it to Five. Five looked at you and took the flask. He drank a few gulps of water and gave it back to you.

“Thank you��� he said.

You nodded and drank a bit from it too. Then put the flask back to the bag. You looked up at the sky and just watched the sky for a while.

“What happened?” you asked.

“I messed up” he confessed. “I got into something I wasn’t ready for at the time. I acted on impulse, without thinking.”

“And now you’re stuck” you nodded.

“Yeah. What about you?”

“I don’t know. It just happened. I don’t remember anything. My first memory was waking up and seeing the world on fire. It was hot. And I saw so many…” you stopped, not wanting to say it. “I couldn’t do anything. I was stuck there, alone.” you looked at him.

“Well that must have sucked” he said.

He understood it and offered you sympathy. In his own… Five way. You nodded and looked back in front of you. Then sighed and got up.

“Come, we need to find food.”

He nodded and got up with the help of you and you continued on you way. You walked for hours again, before finding a bit of food, just enough for the two of you. The sun was still up, only being halfway on its route, you guys continued searching, hoping for anything. Clothes, food, water, anything.

And you found exactly that. You found a day’s worth water, enough food for the day for you two to not die and half of a blanket. You didn’t complain though, that was more than you hoped for. And when night came, you guys got back to the place you stayed that week.

And so went the second day and night.

The third day started with the difference of Five being next to you in the dust. You sighed and looked back up to the sky. It was very early and in a normal situation you wouldn’t have woken up. But this wasn’t a normal situation.

Five’s groan made you look at him. He was waking up.

“Good morning” you said as he turned towards you.

“Good morning” he mumbled.

“We’ll have a sandstorm today” you said casually.

“How do you know?” he asked.

“Look at the sky on the left” you pointed. “The bottom of it is grey with a bit of brown. It’s coming, so we should probably start to get going.”

“Then let’s get going” he said, sighing.

You both got up and got your few belongings. Your first thought was that you should go to hole where you survived your most sandstorms. But Five thought differently. He thought you should find the most stable building ruin and stay there until the storm ends.

“But what if we don’t find anything? Then we’re stuck out in the fucking sandstorm! Five! Would you just think for a second?” you asked, totally mad.

“Yeah, but we have more luck in surviving in a fucking ruin than surviving in a hole!” he said irritated.

“Give me one good reason why I should trust you” you looked at him.

“Because if we do this, we survive. We’ll have a bigger place, than in the hole.”

“Well at least if we die, I’ll blame you” you rolled your eyes, have had enough of the arguing.

Five rolled his eyes and started walking. You didn’t speak a word and walked as fast as you could to find shelter before the storm caught up to you. But when the sky started to darken, you looked up at the sky, worried.

“Uhm… Five?” you called his name.

“What?” he asked.

You grabbed his arm and pointed at the sky. His eyes widened and he grabbed your hand and started running. The sandstorm got closer and bigger. It towered over your heads like a huge wave. You were running as fast as you could, to get somewhere safe, before tragedy struck. Five reacted fast, when he saw a good enough place and  to the ruin. You did everything to make it as safe as it can be. I was just in time, because the sandstorm reached you. You sat down on the ground and looked up at the ceiling. Five was double checking everything.

“I hate this” you murmured. “I really fucking hate this.”

Five looked at you.

“Yeah, well we’re stuck. The only choice is to survive.”

“What’s the point? Huh, Five? What if we’ll never get back? This Earth is doomed! Just like we are! We might as well just die now and save ourselves the pain!” you looked at him seriously.

“We’ll get back! Have a little faith, okay?” he rolled his eyes.

“How? You’re constantly exhausted because sleeping on the dirty, the half burn mattress is just as bad as sleeping on the floor! You can’t even spacial jump! You don’t have enough energy. So how would you have enough energy to time travel? Because maybe, you could get out, but I would be stuck here, no matter what! I don’t have powers like you or any kind of power for that matter!” you ranted, totally lost all hope.

Five looked at you with emotionless face, but you could see the fight in his eyes. But he didn’t say anything just sat down on the ground next to you. He sighed and looked around in the dark. You did the same too.

You sat there for hours, in the darkness, alone with your thoughts, until both of you fell asleep.

And so went the third day and night.

“We ran out of food. Also we really should try to keep up our hygiene as much as we can” you sighed.

The storm was still raging on as you both woke up. You felt more tired than when you fell asleep. Although the sky was still kinda dark, but it was better when it struck. You were bored and needed to go out even if it was dangerous.

“You can’t go out, it’s too dangerous” he sighed.

“But we don’t have food!” you looked at him.

“We’ll survive” he said, looking at you.

“No, we won’t! Who knows how long will the storm last! Come on Five, just think!” you said.

“Y/n, please stop. The storm won’t last too much anymore. We’ll have enough time” he looked straight into your eyes.

You stared into each other’s eyes until you broke eye contact and got your bag. You pulled the scarf in front of your nose and mouth and turned away from Five.

“Did you hear anything I just said?!” he called after you.

“I did. I simply don’t care” you looked at him for a sec, then headed out, carefully so the sand didn’t go to the hiding place.

You walked through the storm, breathing slowly and in the silence, the only thing that was in your mind was Five and his voice and words. He was right. You probably would’ve survived. But you couldn’t stand the awkward silence with him. At least out here the only thing that gave sound other than your thoughts was the storm. And you’d rather be alone than know that Five is next to you, but wouldn’t talk.

So you walked, and walked, until you found a small place, where you found some (not healthy nor filling) food. But it was more than nothing. So you headed back. The storm was still on and although it seemed like it was near its end, you knew that it would go on for a few hours, possibly until late afternoon.

While you were heading back, Five was fuming. He was angry, ‘cause you didn’t listen to him, but also he was scared he’d lose you and deep down he knew it, even though he wouldn’t have admitted it if you asked. He was pacing, when an hour passed and you didn’t arrive back.

“Why didn’t they listen to me?!” he mumbled. “Why couldn’t they just stay?”

Five of course knew that until some extent, you were right, but still! He was more right and that was what mattered.

So when you fell back to the safe place, he decided to give you the silent treatment. He was mad, that you didn’t listen to him and you were mad, that he was mad. It was a big bunch of madness. Like literally.

Your prediction was right. The storm stopped in the late afternoon and you guys headed back to your base, where you put down everything and cleaned off the sand as much as you could. Five still wasn’t talking to you and you guys ate in silence. Then you cleaned your face and hands in the small dirty puddle which kinda made it even worse, but it was more than nothing.

And so went the fourth day and night.

The fifth day started just like the others. You woke up, ate a bit, drank a bit and then put together your stuff and started on your journey. Five finally spoke to you, even if it was only the ‘thank you’ and ‘good morning’ that he probably only said, because he was raised to say them.

But as you walked through the town to find more useful stuff, you tried making a conversation…

“When are you going to give up the silent treatment?” you asked.

…only for it to fall on deaf ears.

“Come on, Five!” you pleaded.

When he didn’t answer, you decided on a different approach.

“Okay, then, I’m going to talk until you snap back, because I talk way too much. Did you know I was a grade A student? Most of my tests and exams were As or at the very least B+. Until the fucking Moon decided to blow up and set Earth in flames. That was epic by the way. Seeing as a big asteroid is coming towards Earth. But it was also scary, because, like it was coming towards us. Lucky, that you weren’t there. It was freaky. Anyway, I have no fucking idea why I survived. Maybe I was meant to help you here? Or maybe I was meant to keep you company. Or I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hey, did you know I was born on the same day as you? I-” you talked fast and about anything that got into your mind.

“Wait, what?” Five stopped you. “You were born on the same day as us?” he asked.

“Yeah October 1st″ you said smiling smugly.

“Which year?” he asked.

“2006” you said.

“But I don’t understand it” he shook his head. “Seriously, how did you survive?

“Oh, dear Five, like I said, I don’t know. But I did” you shrugged. “Ooh! Look!”

You stopped and pointed at a hole in the ground.

“What?” he looked at where you pointed.

“A box, you idiot!” you said. “Whatever’s in it, we have a win.”

“Y/n, no” he sighed.

“Y/n, yes!” you said, dropping your stuff on the ground and you climbed into the hole and opened the box.

“Told you not to” he said with an ‘I told you so’ look on his face, when there was nothing in it.

“Shut up Five” you murmured and tried to climb up.

“What was that?” he asked, looking down at you.

“Five” you whined.

“Hm, well if you don’t need my help…” he shrugged and stood up.

“No, Five, please, don’t leave me” you said, looking at Five with the puppy eyes.

“That’s real cute” he said, not answering to the look. “Still not helping you though.

“Come on, pwease, help me” you didn’t give up.

“What’s in it for me?” he asked.

“Uhm… um… you… can have my turn on the mattress!” you said quickly.

“Hm…” he looked down at you, like he was considering it.

“For the next… week! You can have the mattress for a week!” you said, hoping that it would convince the smug bastard.

“I don’t know…”

“Please, Five” you said quietly, almost whispering.

He sighed and he bent his knees and reached for you. With both of your effort, you were out of the hole and sitting on the ground.

“Thank you” you said. “I thought I was going to die in there.”

“Stop being dramatic and come on! We have stuff to do” he said and started walking.

You smiled and got up, grabbing your things.

And so went the fifth day and night.

[Masterlist] [Next]

[faithbetryin]

Five Hargreeves X Reader | 5

(from my Wattpad: @FaithBeLovly)

Part 5

Pairing: Five Hargreeves X Reader

Word Count: 2,229

Thunder cracks through the sky, a bolt of lightning illuminating the room. Your eyes flash open, your body jumping a bit from the loud booming outside. You feel yourself getting anxious, the loud sounds making you feel stuck to your bed. You don't want to move. It was like you couldn't, even if you wanted to. You started to get hot under the sheets, but couldn't find it in your body to take them off. You open your mouth to speak, but another crash of thunder cuts you off. You barely manage to squeak his name in a whisper, but then you try again, hoping even the smallest sound would wake the sleeping Number 5 on the floor. He looked so peaceful, sleeping so soundly and curled up in his blanket. You felt bad trying to wake him up, but the fear... You needed his help. You needed him.

"F-Five...?" You say, feeling worried he won't hear you. "Five..!" You whisper loudly, deeply relieved to see his eyes flutter open. You grip onto the sheets anxiously. His eyes look around for a moment before discovering you looking at him. He lifts his upper body up a bit before saying quietly,

"Why are you awake?" You don't answer. You were embarrassed to be this afraid of just a stupid thunderstorm, but it triggered something in you. You still couldn't move. You feel the pace of your breathing increase as another flash of lightning brightens his face. He then puts two and two together, realizing that the storm must be triggering your anxiety. He immediately gets up from the floor and kneels down next to the bed. He notices how hard you're gripping the sheets and puts his hand on top of yours.

"Hey, hey. What's wrong? Nerves acting up again?" You nod and start to feel your eyes get watery, feeling both embarrassed that he's seeing you like this and emotional that someone cares about you like Five does. He taps the top of your hand with his thumb a few times as if he was determining what to do.

"I can't m-move," you say quietly to him. His brows show concern, and then he stood up, walking over to the other side of the bed and crawling in with you. You don't move, relying on your hearing to listen for his movements. He slides closer to you and you feel your heart beating harder against your chest. He leans over you a bit and slides his arm under your back, turning you over and pulling you into his chest. He groans as he pulls you over, smiling down at you widely. "Alright," He says as he maneuvers your body so you're facing him now, held close to his chest. "There."

You find yourself feeling safer already, especially with his comforting touch. You snuggle against his chest as you get more comfortable. He rests his chin on the top of your head. Another thunderous boom disturbs the night sky, making you jump a little again, even though you should've known it was coming from the flash of lightning. Five grips onto you a bit, letting you know he's got you. You spend a long time in silence, just enjoying the soothing sound of his heart beating against your ear and the warmth of his body. You peer up at him a bit, even though you couldn't see much from under his chin.

"Five?" You whisper. His eyes were closed and he was breathing quietly and slowly, his body accumulated to the new position, ready to drift back to sleep. He doesn't answer for a while, but eventually gives you a delayed "Hm..?" You nuzzle his chest and gently hold onto the fabric of his white collared shirt.

"Thank you..." You say quietly. He sighs comfortably and then pulls away a bit to look down at you. His eyes explore your face, a slight smile inching from his lips. He didn't get told thank you. He's gone through hell trying to save his siblings from the end of the world, from each other. He's worked his life in a job he didn't get one thank you for, despite being their most elite assassin. No one thanked him. They just gave him crap about the means he would go to to make sure his family was safe. For screwing up the jump. As if he wanted to disappear for decades. To hear someone give him gratitude, it was... nice.

"You're welcome..." He says softly. Your eyes were locked onto his through the dark, and you didn't want to pull your gaze away. You liked him. Really liked him. You wanted to tell him, but you couldn't. He was so perfectly intimidating. You could barely keep your cool in a thunderstorm. How would you tell Five that you liked him?

"You know," Five starts, his hand rubbing your back gently, "In all those years, I thought I didn't need anybody, that I was too good for anyone else. Didn't need any help, any advice..." He thinks about how he directly disobeyed his father, and ended up stuck in an apocalypse because of it. Because he was so confident in his own abilities. "But... I was alone." You look at him, listening to how his voice spoke so genuine. "I found my siblings' dead bodies and then drank my sorrows away with a mannequin." You kept listening, even if that part was concerning. "Now that I'm back, I'm not alone. I'm surrounded by idiots, sure, but... You knocked at my front door."

"And now I don't feel  alone anymore."

You open your eyes and stretch your legs a little bit from under the sheets. You think about last night and find yourself smiling in Five's pillow. You turn over, but... Five was no where to be found. Just an empty space on the bed next to you. You yawn and sit up, wondering where he's gone now. Just as you start to stand up, a blue vortex opens up in front of you with Five now stumbling in front of you. He was holding a full cup of coffee in his hands, which was now a little less than full as some slipped out of the side of it from the jump.

"Whoops," he says, pushing the coffee mug in your hands. You take it now that you have no choice, considering it's already in your hands. "Rise and shine!" He says loudly, warping to the other side of the room. He pulls another school jacket out of his closet and pulls it around his shoulders. Someone clearly has a lot of energy today. You use the coffee mug to warm your hands as you watch him warp around.

"Hey to you too," you say. He then opens the door and bounces his antsy body up in down. You blink at him, only causing him to sigh and then lunge his arms towards you, pulling you up off the bed. You handle the coffee cup quickly, preventing it from spilling. "What is going on with you?" You ask, looking back and forth between him and the coffee cup. He marches you down the hallway by your arm.

"I've had a stressful morning and I don't want to be here any longer than I have to." You make a face out of confusion, attempting to take a sip of the coffee as you walk. He blinks you down the stairs, now causing the coffee cup to be only half full as it spills onto the floor.

"Hey-" You struggle, trying to get him to slow down for just a second. "You could at least warn me," He ignores your complaining and makes his way to the doors of the academy.

Luther then stands in front of it. "Oh no you don't, you're not going anywhere Numero Five."

"Oh yeah?" Five challenges, his eyes widening like he was insane, his smile quite wide and pissed off. He grips onto your arm as he bops his body up and down, preparing to jump. Klaus yells as he jumps at Five, and you pull out of his grasp, jumping out of the way while Five blinks a few feet from where Klaus was. He stomps his way over to Luther, pointing his finger up at the brute. Klaus lands on the hardwood floor with a thud and a slide.

"Klaus? Really? That's the best defense you got?" he asks Luther. Luther stands his ground at the door as Diego and Allison grab onto Five, holding him tight and lifting him as Five kicks and struggles in their arms. "HEY! GET YOUR GRUBBY FINGERS OFF OF ME-" You watch as you sip what's left of your coffee. This must be a normal sibling thing around here. Diego and Allison help each other pull Five into the living room. He struggles and elbows Diego in the stomach, causing him to wheeze and let go. Allison keeps fighting to keep Five contained. She then says over his struggling,

"I heard a rumor, that you went limp." Luther walks over to the living room to join Allison and a defeated Diego on the floor. Klaus gets up and takes the mug out of your hands, taking a big sip. You make a disgusted look just as he does when he says,

"Blagh, this isn't tequila." He puts it back into your hands and walks in zig zags to the join the others. You follow and watch as Five's body literally goes limp. He looks at you with HELP ME written all over his face. Allison then drags his limp body to the couch and sets him down onto the couch. His body falls over and Luther pushes him back up with his finger.

"So what's going on?" You ask blatantly. Klaus looks at you and shrugs.

"Five is being very sneaky is what's going on, right Five?" Diego gets up eventually and bumps shoulders with Luther as he walks by, sitting on the other side of  the couch next to Five.

"Low blow, little brother, low blow." He says to Five, poking him in the cheek. Klaus and Diego laugh at how he couldn't do anything. Klaus keeps poking Five after Diego does until Diego gives him an irritated look, clearly not finding it amusing anymore. You kinda felt bad for Five.

Allison fixes Five's hair, putting it back into place for him with careful hands. Five tries to talk, but no one could understand him with his jaw and tongue all loosey goosey.

"Aw, Allison. Now he can't tell us anything," Luther says, frowning. Five laughs evilly, but it was mostly slurred gurgling. Diego shakes his head at Allison.

"Nice."

Allison pops the back of his head with her hand for that comment. Diego's body reacts as he's hit and lets out a "oww!" Luther sits on the coffee table in front of Five, the coffee table creaking loudly. Everyone's eyes widen, expecting it to break. Luther makes a face and rolls his eyes as he ignores what he knows they're all thinking in his head about how he was too big to sit on the table.

"Ooo! Maybe I can translate for him. I'm all sluggish all the time, I practically speak drunk." No one opposes the idea, but no one finds it anything but stupid either. Luther sighs and goes back to interrogating Five.

"Five, we all happened to notice that you have been acting a bit, uhh-"

"Insane." Diego butts in, looking at Five with clear resentment after the elbow to the gut.

"Uhm, I was going to say unusual, lately. And we think you are hiding something from us." You watch with everyone else, now just as interested as they are. You didn't think Five was being weird- well up until this morning.

"Iiii ammnnnottslhidingg annyyyythiiiinnnnnggghh Lutwerrrr," Five utters. Klaus sits next to him on the couch.

"Okay, he says he's not hiding anything, but I think he's bluffing," Klaus explains.

"No shit," Diego says, shaking his head in annoyance.

"Then care to explain this?" Luther asks, pulling a photograph of their dad out of his coat pocket. Five closes his eyes and groans,

"Schhhhhhhhliitt."

"Shit. He just said shit. Little potty mouthed, sneaking, thieving, RAT, Five!" Everyone looks at Klaus and then refocuses on Five. You have no idea who the man was in the picture or anything about what's going on.

"Allison, how long will this affect him? Will it wear off?" Luther asks, turning to her.

"Yeah, he'll be able to move again if I leave the area, but how can we trust that he won't teleport away?"

"Ittthhh'ss nawwwwt theleporthinnnngggggghh," Five couldn't help but correct others even when no one could understand him.

"You're right, it's best that we keep him contained." Luther says with a serious look, getting ideas as he zones out.

"What is with you and locking your siblings up?" Diego asks, scoffing and standing up as he walks away from the couch and comes back to say his piece. "He can just poof away anywhere we put him." You didn't like the way things were turning out. They clearly didn't trust Five at all. But you had no place here to make a choice.

"Not everywhere." Vanya says, looking at them from the wide entryway of the living room.

[crashdevlin]

The Color in Your Leaves

Author’s Note: I haven't written Cas in a while. And I haven't written Endverse!Cas for a one-shot so...this goes for my Endverse!Cas square for @spnkinkbingo​

Summary: Y/n gets tasked with caring for Castiel when he breaks his foot. Y/n has strong opinions about the hedonistic lifestyle the former Angel lives, strong opinions about how everyone in the Apocalypse has allowed themselves to fall. Can she help him remember who he used to be?

Pairing: Endverse!Cas x Reader

Word count: 4431

Story Warnings: Dean is an asshole, derogatory terms for lesbian, a bit of exhibitionism on Cas' part, 18+! HERE BE SEX!! DON’T READ IF YOU’RE A YOUNG’UN!!!, unprotected sex, fingering, angsty

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You had no qualifications for this. You weren't a nurse or a doctor. You weren't a caregiver of any kind. You were a weapons expert. You were volun-told by the boss man. General Winchester needed his right hand man back on his feet as soon as possible, which meant sending in someone to take care of him, keep him off of his feet until he healed.

There were two dozen women who went to the General and begged for the opportunity, the privilege, of caring for Castiel, but Dean Winchester was smart enough to see their desire to help as just plain desire. "Needs to focus on his health, not getting his dick wet. That's why you're gonna do it, Y/n."

"Because I didn't volunteer?" you questioned.

"Because you're a lesbian. You won't care about anything except caring for him and keeping him off that bum foot 'til it heals."

You were not, in fact, a lesbian. You were very attracted to men. You were just the only woman in camp who turned down Dean's advances so you got labeled. It wasn’t that Dean was unattractive, either, he was just an asshole. Most survivors were. Even the former Angel you were charged with helping used his aura of celestial wisdom to lure women into bed with him. It was disheartening. If this was what was left of humanity, then what was the point?

You knocked on the doorframe holding up the beads that were his front door. He went full hippie when he went full human. Drugs, women, indulgence, and 'why not?' you overheard him tell Chuck once. "Why not load up on this stuff? The closest I'll ever get to Heaven again is when I reach nirvana with the help of amphetamines and a good orgasm."

An Angel.

You rolled your eyes as he called out, "Come in!" You stepped through the beads and sighed. "Bedroom!" he shouted, answering your query of his location before you could ask it.

You twisted the doorknob and pushed the door to the bedroom open, gasping as your eyes fell on him and Nadia, both very naked and midcoitus. "Oh my god!" You twirled on the balls of your feet and slammed the door. As soon as the shock wore off, you were pissed. He had no fucking decency! She had no decency! The world might have ended but that wasn't okay! You don't call someone into your bedroom when you're in the middle of- "Our fearless leader sent me here to play nursemaid and specifically said he doesn't want you getting laid until you're healed, Castiel, so Nadia needs to get her damn clothes on and get the fuck out of here. Now!" you shouted through the door.

You could hear the grumbling from her as she grabbed her clothes. Castiel's voice was murmuring promises to her, but you couldn’t hear the words. Nadia glared at you as she stomped out of the room. "Bitch, don't even," you snapped before turning halfway toward the door. "Castiel, I'm coming in. Please respect that I have no desire to see your nakedness. Cover up, please."

“I’m covered,” he called, an air of amusement to his words. You rolled your eyes as you walked in and started gathering dirty clothes from his floor, avoiding looking at him on the bed just in case. “You know, modesty is such an archaic ideal to hold onto, don’t you think?”

“Well, modesty might seem archaic to you, but choice is not and I choose not to be indecent just because the world has ended. I choose not to sleep around the entire camp just because it’s easier to fuck everything away than it is to dwell on it. I think that’s being stronger than getting stoned out of my mind to ignore it like you do,” you snapped.

Blue eyes narrowed as he leaned forward, glaring slightly. You couldn’t help but notice the way that his chest hair showed through his open flannel. “You think you’re stronger than me because you choose to let everyone believe you’re a lesbian?”

A shock of indignation went through you as you rolled his clothes into a ball and tucked them under your arm. “I don’t see the point in correcting them. It’s not like I’m courting a relationship with any of these assholes around camp. You and Dean and Spencer and Tallman and all of the rest of the jerks around this place who think the surviving women are left to bring you pleasure and nothing more, what the hell would I want to deal with that for?” you growled. “Only downside is I get put on bullshit duties like this, taking care of a literal celestial being who couldn’t manage to land right after a second-story jump and broke his damn foot.”

You licked your lips and looked away from him. “I think I’m stronger than you because I didn’t lose myself as soon as the Earth went to Hell,” you answered his earlier question before looking away. “I hope you like oatmeal. I’m gonna go set these to soak and I’ll bring you your breakfast.” You stomped out of his bedroom, through the beads, and out to the laundry bucket outside. “Asshole.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You spent as little time as possible at Castiel’s cabin. You found other things to do, away from his prying blue eyes and the stench of cannabis and only went in to feed him, clean his cabin and bring in the basin of hot water for him to clean himself. After the fifth veiled request for you to help him bathe, you started dropping the bowl at the end of the bed and walking out without a word.

“How can you try to cling to what you used to be?” he asked suddenly as you handed him a bowl of beans and hot dogs. It was the first time he approached the subject without the judgment in his tone. “I’m curious.”

You sighed and rubbed at the back of your neck. “Lucifer, he...his whole thing is that we’re broken, right? Humans, we’re broken. We’re flawed and murderous and corrupted, that we were a waste of the Father’s time and effort. That He should have stopped after He created Earth or whatever. So, Lucifer took the Earth, set Hell upon us, and we all crumbled. We let fear and anger and hopelessness turn us into exactly what Lucifer said we were. We let him be right and that’s something I just can’t...I can’t let Lucifer be right about me.”

Castiel blinked a few times before looking away, a look akin to shame on his face. “You’re insightful.”

“Don’t think I don’t understand why it happened, though. I know why it’s enticing to be...selfish and chase pleasures of the flesh. I get the allure of...the baser things when you know that...but there was a time when…” You looked away and shook your head. “I’m just not okay with letting go of that.”

“That is…” Castiel sighed. “I feel I might be quite different if I’d had your perspective when I lost my connection to Heaven.”

“Far as I can tell, Castiel, I’m the only one alive with this perspective. Don’t feel bad about it,” you said, before nodding at his bowl. “Eat up. I’ll be back for the bowl in a while.”

You ducked out of his room before he could continue the conversation. Something about having an honest conversation with the Angel was disarming. The wall you put up to keep yourself from getting too close to the degenerates in camp felt like it was cracking and you couldn’t deal with that.

"What happened to your family?" Castiel asked when you came to retrieve the bowl.

"Same thing that happened to lots of families," you dismissed, your abs clenching, reacting to the question like a literal punch to the gut.

“Croats?” he asked, softly.

“No,” you said, looking down at the floor. “A group of large, angry, normal human beings who wanted the food we were more than willing to share.” You cleared your throat. “I’ll, uh, see you in-”

“How did you get away from the ‘large, angry, normal human beings’?” he asked, not relinquishing the bowl when you moved to take it.

You ran your tongue over your teeth and forced yourself to swallow down the feeling of rage that took you. “I was saved,” you answered.

“By?”

“By a man who...expected me to show my appreciation...said he only saved me because he couldn’t see wasting a body like mine.”

Castiel nodded knowingly as you started toward the door. “Lucifer was right about some humans, but…” You stopped at the door. “...you are an exception.”

“I wasn’t an exception when I put my last bullet through his skull,” you said, before walking out. You could get the bowl in the morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You could almost feel the change in the atmosphere when you showed up the next morning with breakfast. The old smell of weed lingered, but you couldn’t smell anything new. He didn’t smoke his morning joint, which was weird. Smoking was always the first thing he did when he woke up.

He was sitting up in his bed. His hair was combed, his shirt actually buttoned. He looked almost like he was trying to clean up a bit. He smiled as you entered the room, handing his bowl of oatmeal to him and picking up the bowl from the night before where he put it on the floor.

“Good morning, Y/n.”

“Good morning, Castiel.”

You nodded to him as he picked up the oatmeal. He chuckled. “You know, you can call me ‘Cas’. Everyone else does.”

“They do that because Dean has set an example. I follow my own lead. But if you want me to call you ‘Cas’, I’ll do that,” you offered, grabbing his shirt and pants from the day before off of the floor and hanging them over your arm.

“I’d like you to call me whatever you wish, Y/n. Profanities aside, of course,” he said, smiling a bit. You couldn’t help but smile back.

“I personally like ‘Castiel’. Nothing wrong with reminding you where you came from.” You shook your head and chuckled. “When I moved out of my parents’ place, my dad said ‘You can move on and grow big, but the ground you grew in will always put some of that color in your leaves.’ Sometimes, you gotta look at your leaves and remember the ground you grew in.”

He looked perplexed for a minute before nodding. “Heaven is the ground I grew in...and my name is the color of my leaves.” You nodded, smiling brightly. “Feathers might be more apt.”

You laughed. “Maybe, but then it wouldn’t be the thing my dad said. Enjoy your breakfast, Castiel. I’ll have your clothes folded when I get back.”

“I could help with that, if you bring them back first. I’m not doing much besides sitting here.”

You thought about it a minute before you nodded. “Sure,” you responded before walking out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You almost hated the fact that Castiel was so charming once you got past the drugs and indulgences. What other man could make you laugh while you were folding a pile of clothes? Or make your cheeks get hot from a lingering look? What man could make your skin tingle with a brush of his hand?

“He almost healed?” Dean asked at the end of the first month as you exited the beads. No pleasantries, no greeting.

“He can stand on it, but he’s still got a limp when he walks. He needs another couple weeks,” you responded. You were guessing about the length of time, but it seemed like the right number.

“He good, though? Hasn’t been sneakin’ chicks, I know that much.”

“Because you’ve been paying so much attention to your best friend?” you snapped.

He pursed his lips a bit and his eyebrows came together a bit. “And what is that supposed to mean?”

“We’ve talked a lot the last month that you’ve had me caring for him. I’ve seen pieces of the man, sorry Angel, he used to be. You let a perfect celestial being become a...a junkie.”

His eyebrows jumped up indignantly. “I let him? You think I let Cas become-”

“I think if you had cared a little bit more about him, he wouldn’t be like that. He wouldn’t chase skirts like you do and-and chase highs. I found what I’m pretty sure is heroin under his bed and you let-”

“Cas is a big boy. He can take care of himself, Y/n.”

You nodded and smiled tightly. “Then he can take care of himself.”

“That’s not what I-” Dean growled.

“I know it’s not,” you interrupted. You shook your head, sadness filling your eyes as you looked upon the great and powerful Michael Sword. “But he obviously can’t, Dean. He obviously needed help adjusting and you were all he had and you did let him fall to pleasures of the flesh and chemical indulgences. That’s on you.”

Dean looked at you with rage simmering in his eyes for a minute before he chuckled and bit into his bottom lip harsh enough that you thought he might start bleeding. “Here I was, thinkin’ you’re a carpetmuncher but you just don’t like me.” You looked away, your jaw ticking as he stepped closer, radiating the same sort of energy the first man you killed gave off. “Someone’s got a crush on our resident seraph, huh?”

“So what?”

“So now I know why Cas hasn’t had Tallman bringin’ him any of his weed crop the last couple weeks. Cas is tryin’ to do better for you...and I’m pretty sure the whole reason I gave you this duty was to avoid those kinda entanglements.” He took a step back and turned toward his own cabin. “You’re done. I’ll get someone else on Cas duty. Stay out of his cabin. Go find another place to make yourself useful.”

You didn’t even have a chance to argue it before he disappeared into his cabin.

You were livid. Not only because of the way Dean Winchester spoke to you but because you were taken off of the duty you lamented and because Dean knew you weren’t a lesbian as he assumed.

And Castiel was interested...enough that he wasn’t smoking as much as he used to. You refused to believe that you were the reason for that, but Dean seemed so certain.

It didn’t matter.

Nothing really mattered.

You went back to your cabin. It was good. It was a good thing that someone else would have to deal with Castiel. You would be able to put your walls back up. You’d be able to stifle that pesky emotion you were starting to feel for the junkie Angel. It was good.

So why did it hurt you so much?

You went back to work making bullets, cleaning and caring for the camp’s weapons. That was more your speed. Just you and the beautiful, intricate, deadly pieces of machinery.

You felt eyes on you more often as you walked through camp. You felt like people were judging you more now that the camp knew you weren’t a lesbian than they had when they thought you were a lesbian. Probably because they knew that you were judging them for their descent.

You were in your cabin working on a beautiful Colt .45 when a knock came to your door. No one ever came to see you. It just wasn’t done. You set the pistol on the table and stood, walking over to the door and opening it just a few inches. Castiel was on your little porch. His hair was clean and he was wearing clean clothes. He smiled a little when you opened the door a little more. “Castiel. D-do you need something?”

“Need? No. But I would like to come inside,” he said with a smile. You bit your bottom lip and stepped out of the way. He nodded and took two steps past the threshold, allowing you to shut the door behind him. The smell of weed followed him into your small space. “I wasn’t able to thank you for helping me.”

“It was a bit abrupt, how Dean sent…” You cleared your throat. “Tallman in to take over, but that was fine. I...I’m better off…” You licked your lips and walked over to the table. “I’m good with guns.”

“You were doing pretty good with me too, though, weren’t you?”

You swallowed and sat down in your creaky wooden chair, picking up your cleaning cloth. “Too good for our fearless leader’s liking.”

“Dean, he’s...he’s complicated.”

“Not really. He wants you drugged up and drowning in pussy because it’s easier for him to toss away his guilt if you’re enjoying the human condition.” You shrugged. “Or at least appearing to enjoy the human condition.”

“I’ve accused you of being insightful in the past, haven’t I?” he asked and you nodded, avoiding catching his eyes. You didn’t want your wall to crumble again. Not after spending two weeks building it back up again. “Well, I feel that you were very helpful and I-”

“You don’t need to thank me or any of that, Castiel. I was just doing what I was charged with doing. Just, um, stay safe next time you go out. Try not to jump out any windows.”

He scoffed and shook his head. “You seem to have completely tossed away every bit of goodwill you had toward me. Why?”

“Because I can’t like you. It’s that simple.” You set the cloth down on the table and started picking at a loose thread on the edge of it. “Not only is it a vulnerable position to put myself in, but the inkling of possibility that I might like you caused Dean to forbid me from entering your cabin. I can’t imagine what he’d do if he found out I disobeyed him and-”

“We’re not in my cabin, Y/n. You can be nice to me here.” You swallowed as he moved forward and cupped your face between both of his hands. "You're allowed to like me. I know you have strong opinions about the 'junkie Angel' but you don't have to feel bad about liking me."

"Yes, I do." The warmth of his hands on your skin made your eyes flutter closed. "Because you are a man who gives your body without even-"

"You're the only woman to receive my touch since Nadia, Y/n...and I would love for you to touch me." He chuckled and you opened your eyes to look up into his. "It just isn't as satisfying to touch myself to thoughts of you."

Any other man saying those words would have pissed you off. It would have disgusted you. But from Castiel’s deep gravel, it made you feel weak...and letting go seemed like the best option. You stood, wrapping your arms around his neck and pulling him down into a kiss. He smiled against your lips and started pulling at your t-shirt. He tasted like weed but you didn’t mind, for some reason.

It didn’t take long for you to be tangled up on your bed, tongues rolling across each other as your hands roamed your bodies. When the fingers of his left hand found your slit, you gasped into his mouth and put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s...I haven’t...it’s been…”

“I know. I’ll go slow, Y/n.” He kissed and nibbled at your shoulder as he started rubbing at your clit. "Your body is a gift. I'm humbled to receive it," he mumbled into your skin.

"Fuck," you whispered as his middle finger dipped into you. Too many years of celibacy made you oversensitive and touch starved. The whimper of his name was lost in his lips as you kissed him, pushing your hands into his hair and rolling your hips against his hand as he used that finger to explore your inner cavern.

"So wet. So tight. So beautiful," he praised as you dropped your head back into your pillow and stared up into his sapphire eyes. You were breathless as he slowly ramped you up with just a single finger working inside of you.

"Oh my god!" you squealed as he found that spongy patch inside of you that you barely knew the location of. "Right there, Castiel! Right there! Fuck!"

"It's going to be an honor to make you fall apart, Y/n. No other man here has had the privilege and you're granting me the-"

"You're not a man," you said, words rushing out of you clenched around his finger, arching your back.

He let out a soft gasp and kissed you, slow and sweet as he brought you to the first orgasm given to you by someone else in almost five years.

"You're the only one who still treats me like an Angel," he whispered as he worked you through the orgasm.

"You have a cult of foll-" you started, but he shook his head.

"They idolize me but they don't see me," he whispered against your lips before leaning back and looking into your eyes. "To them, I'm nothing more than the...Apocalypse's last b-list celebrity. To you, I'm still divine. To you...I'm still the color in my leaves."

"You are, Castiel."

You leaned up and pressed your lips to his as he covered your body with his own. The warmth of a body weighing you down, the feel of lips against yours, the way his fingertips dug into your ass as he maneuvered your hips into the position he needed you...it was everything you dreamed it would be when you were trying to keep him out of your mind and he invaded your sleep.

His breath against your ear as he grunted and moaned, his beard rubbing your skin, pushing you closer to the nirvana you heard him talking about so many months ago, it sent shivers down your spine. It was perfect. He was perfect. He was divine.

"I'm almost...almost there," he grunted, sealing his lips over the bolt of your jaw and sucking lightly.

"Please. Angel, please. I wanna feel it." Those words and the whiny, mewling, small quality of them, they barely sounded like you at all.

"Fuck," he groaned, his hands tightening their grip on your hips and his cock twitching as he started to cum. He took gasping breaths to calm himself as he pulled back to look at you. "You were every bit as wonderful as I expected, Y/n."

Your cheeks were already warm from the sex but they turned burning hot from the way he was looking at you. "You...were amazing, Castiel."

He ran his fingers almost lovingly across your cheek. "I mean it. I've had women with much more experience who were not even close to as good as you."

"Thank you," you whispered, looking away from him. You didn’t want to be reminded of his many, many sexual partners.

He let out a gasp as he pulled out of you and dropped to your bed beside you. "You are spectacular," he said, pulling you to lie against his chest. You sighed contentedly and closed your eyes, taking comfort in his warmth.

Which was gone when you woke up.

"Hope you don't mind," Dean's voice cut through the haze of sleep to force you to wake with a jolt, immediately concerned with whether you were covered. "You're the only one with beer right now and I needed a few for the party."

"Party?" you asked, turning your head to look at him but keeping your body front-down on the bed. He was sitting in the chair in the corner of your room, a six pack of Coors in his lap.

"Cas' girls wanted me to throw him a little 'Welcome back' thing. I figure, it's the least I can do after cockblockin' 'em the last six weeks, ya know?"

Cas' girls. Cas' cultists. Cas' harem. Cas' far more experienced women.

"Right. Least you could do." You swallowed and bit the inside of your cheek. "I don't mind sharing, but am I at least invited?"

Dean sucked in a hissing breath and grimaced mockingly. "Ah, sorry, sweetheart. I would invite you, but you've gotta hit a supply run with Spencer into Detroit."

"Detroit? That's a fucking red zone! And I'm not a scavenger!" you exclaimed, sitting up and wrapping your blanket around you.

"You are whatever I say you are, Y/n, and I say you're going to Detroit so you're going."

"Is this punishment for not fucking you, Dean?" you snapped.

"No, this is a job," he answered, standing up, cradling the beer in the crook of his elbow. "And if I were punishing you, it wouldn't be because you didn't wanna fuck me, Anne Heche, it'd be because you're changing Cas. If I needed an Angel, I'd'a said yes to Michael. I need my right hand man and you're fucking with that so if I were punishing you, which I'm not, it'd be because you couldn't mind your own business for six weeks and someone's gotta teach you a lesson in Nunya."

He glared down at you. "If you make it back, you'll be on night guard duty at the gate and you'll get to hear Cas' moonlight orgies. But you won't get to come near him and you won't get to influence him anymore, you hear me?" He smiled and lifted the arm with the beer. "Now, if you'll excuse me. You gotta get ready to roll out to Detroit...and Cas and I gotta fuck a half a dozen crazy hippie bitches. I expect you gone in thirty."

You let out an indignant scoff as he walked out of your cabin. You hoped Cas would stop him, say something to save you, but as you stomped toward the gate twenty minutes later to join Spencer at his Jeep, you could hear music and laughter from Cas' cabin. Cas and Dean's laughter and giggling from his women. Too much to hope that you'd truly affected the Angel. Too much to hope that you were more than just a notch on his belt. Too much to hope there was enough green in his leaves to combat all the post-apocalyptic brown.

You didn't say a word as Spencer turned on the Jeep and drove out the gates, driving you to your death.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[prose-for-hire]

A magic moment

Pairing: Giles x reader

Request: Hi again, I love all the recent fics and think I got request thoughtout. Could we give Giles some love with maybe a shy gothic reader. Maybe they work part time at the magic box; perhaps they share a moment over books and magick based folklore or something. This is my first time making any kind of request so I apologize if I didn’t do it correctly>~>

Requested by: Anon

A/N: ‘gothic’ is an umbrella term, so I was vague with it. I worked a little on the stereotypical stuff, black clothing, etc but for the most part you can build-your-own-goth in your head!

Also I got trapped down a rabbit hole looking up English folklore lol💜

You were shy. You had hoped that a job in retail would help with this, but you didn’t have much luck. You were still shy, but at least the boss was cute. Plus, he didn’t mind that you liked to dress gothic, as much as you could get away with in a retail job. Which, much to your surprise, Giles was very encouraging. You had your own style, and he often complimented the hairstyles you tried out to match your look. You wore a lot of black clothing, as much as you could get away with. It was the way you expressed yourself, usually pushing it and wearing your most exciting outfits on a Friday afternoon shift.

It was actually Friday afternoon today and you had been reading. It was quiet, no demons or apocalypses threatening your shift and not even a ghost had deigned to haunt the shop. Time was going slowly, every time you looked up at the clock on the wall it appeared to be fifteen minutes earlier than you last looked. Time appeared to be going backwards, more hours stretching before you.

The only saving grace was that when it was quiet, Giles let everyone else go home and it would just be you and him on the shift. This made you smile a little in a way that you had been caught by him more than once and made you have to look away quickly, glancing around the room trying to make sure he couldn’t see how you were embarrassed for showing your glee at time alone with him.

It was quiet and you were comfortable in the silence that surrounded you, as if a blanket of mutual affection cushioning each of you in a familiar embrace that only appeared when you were around each other. You didn’t have to be brash and loud to keep his attention. He was extremely fond of you, even if sometimes you tried to stay at the back of the crowd. In fact, he identified with this side of you and he wished he had said something before.

He had been researching something and had been distracted, although enjoying your company, but he had even left the tea you had made him to go cold. A demon had been sacrificing children, but only specific ones – having left out a child that had been easy to take but he hadn’t. He was reading through a text that had foretold this would happen as he started to speak aloud. 

“Ah, but why the specification of a Childe of the Chime?” He muttered, having not heard this specific myth before. Some English folklore that had stuck in your mind from one of the many magic books you had poured over. It was a myth that was most likely now a reality considering you were in Sunnydale.

He wasn’t expecting you to reply, he liked to hear your voice but he understood you needed a little more time sometimes. You were often a person of little words, but catch you on something you were passionate about and you could reel off facts and interesting anecdotes with ease. Especially with him.

“A chime child is someone who was born at a specific time as church bells toll for monastic prayer, such as at midnight. Their abilities are said to range from being extraordinarily perceptive towards animals to being able to see ghosts. Chime children were often regarded as witches and were actually persecuted in the same way. Oh! Interestingly, it was also said that if chime children use their abilities for selfish reasons rather than for the benefit of others they are to perish “miserably and spiritually” so perhaps your children are being punished, uh, more… literally” You state, tailing off as you realise you had been talking for a while. He slowly moves his head from where he had been pouring over a book, looking at you in what could only be described as awe.

“Y/n, I was never aware that you knew of such things” he said, taking his glasses off, apparently in astonishment at your knowledge and the way you had spoken with such casual detail. He was falling even deeper for you, not only were you very attractive to him but your intelligence was making him smitten.

“Uh, misspent youth” You mutter, shrugging and moving your eyes from where they had been locked inside his. You had a keen interest in the occult from a young age and you knew some obscure facts as well as some apparently really useful information especially considering you lived in Sunnydale.

You shrug, as if this was nothing. But you were intelligent. Knowledgeable. You believed in the beauty of knowledge. In learning just for the fun of it. He loved this about you. He was incredibly fond of you. You’d be employee of the month every month if that was something the store did. This had re-confirmed it to him. You were special to him and he knew he had to act on it.

You lacked confidence, but you knew what you wanted. You knew you wanted to be in his arms. To hear his soothing voice. To compare notes on magical artefacts and various tomes. You wanted to share a life with him. It was strange really, you looked forward to work just so that you could see him. Be around him, even if you were just sat in silence waiting for customers or sharing a hot drink during a break.

His eyes couldn’t move from you, his glasses now firmly planted back on his face. The books laid out in front of you both but neither of your eyes could cast towards the page. He appeared to be weighing something up in his mind, a short nod to himself as he made his decision. You had been staring back, and when he spoke it made you jump slightly.

“Y/n?”

“Oh, uh, sorry-” you started, but he shook his head and your words dissolved into the air as you tailed off.

“Y/n, I was planning on closing early. You will still get paid, I was wondering however, there is this brilliant little occult bookstore that I believe you would love. It’s perhaps an hour’s journey from here, but I could drive us” He offered, stumbling slightly as he wanted you to be comfortable with his offer, hoping that he hadn’t misread the way you seemed to have warmed up to only him, “Uh, only of course if that was entirely appropriate, you can say no of course, it is only a suggestion-”

“Yes!” This was you at your most excited. And he could tell, your eyes shining at more than the thought of the rows of books. Spending time alone with him in your time off? It was a dream. You couldn’t stop squealing inside your head. You gushed in a way that nobody had seen since you were in nursery school/kindergarten. You tended to keep your enthusiasm inside when you were in public.

You beamed at him, unable to contain your eagerness. You closed up the store together and you all but skipped to the car beside him. He opened the car door on your side for you before walking over to the drivers side, unable to stop smiling at the way your mood had lifted at just the thought of the trip.

He had never seen you smile for so long, your cheeks were aching with glee. He couldn’t help smiling with equal enthusiasm, your smile was contagious in a way that he hoped he would never be cured. This was the start of something special. Of you and him.

[samwritesforyou]

Booked (pt.2)

Summary: you decided to go grocery shopping since the amount of people in your house significantly grew and diego keeps you company. after that crazy hargreeves family prompts you for a beach trip?

Warnings: gender-neutral reader

Wordcount: 2.1k

A/N: this fic is making me feel things, i cant quite place it. like... whenever i write it i feel weirdly at home?? idk :D feel free to share your thoughts either in tags or comments! its Very appreciated and motivating, actually! have a lovely day! <3

part one can be found here!

“Okay but if we kill them, nobody will have any questions, will they? We just bought a house and they moved somewhere far away!” was the first thing you heard, as you have awakened from your “nap”, deciding to keep your eyes shut just for a moment longer, not to lose it again.

“Five!” seems like everyone else said that in unison, grunting and groaning.

Okay, they don’t want to kill you. That’s great. You think it’s safe to open your eyes now.

You were laying on the king-sized bed upstairs, all siblings huddled up around you, watching intensely.

All the chatter between them came to a stop when they noticed that you woke up.

“So.. you’re like all superheroes or something?” you said tiredly, despite feeling rested.

Your mind still felt fuzzy from that info, hearing about such thing only from the tv series or sci-fi genres.

“Guess so,” Luther piped up, shrugging his massive shoulders and offering you a small smile.

Your eyes slowly drifted towards the kid standing by the frame of the bed, wearing a serious expression.

He sighed and frowned at you.

“To be clear, I’m not a kid and I’m actually older than all of you here. I’m a time traveller and I witnessed more in my life than any of you,” his passive-aggressiveness was directed at you, but by the choice of words it felt like he was talking to everyone who was present in the room, “There’s going to be an apocalypse by the end of the summer and our job is to stop it. We failed once, but we won’t fail twice. We rented this house, thinking it would be a good place where we can practise our powers without anyone interfering with us, so please,” his face turned into an exaggerated, wide smile, “don’t get in our way nor mention it to anybody. Thank you,” and as he finished his angry monologue, the blue colour filled the space around him as he disappeared in the thin air, right in front of your eyes.

Hm. Okay?

Only two seconds passed after that, when another sibling started talking to you.

“And I can talk with the dead!” he said happily, spreading his hands in the air like so monk preaching.

“We have a dead brother who’s named Ben and one day I will definitely let you two meet once I learn how to properly conjure him,” he concluded, very pleased with himself.

“Hi, Ben,” you just said with a warm smile on your face, somewhere into the air next to Klaus.

He literally cooed at your action, coming over to you and giving you a quick hug with a pat on the back.

“Okay, maybe we can reveal all our powers later, but let’s leave (y/n) to rest a bit, alright?” Allison proposed, rushing everyone out of the room and then just sparing you a wave and an apologetic smile, closing the doors and leaving you alone.

Maybe you can get used to all this madness. To this family.

You really rested after that.

A room had a roof-window, so laying on that bed allowed you to look up at the sky and lazy, white clouds that every so often rolled along with the blue background.

Soon enough you heard muffled chatter downstairs, this old house being absolutely the worst in being soundproof.

It all reminded you of simpler times, actually, no matter the crazy circumstances.

But enough was enough, and closer to the middle of the day you managed to get out of the bed and descend to the first floor by the wooden stairs, looking around.

Suddenly it seemed quiet.

You shrugged at that and just made your way towards the door, energetically jumping down the few stairs from the veranda and felt your feet hit the hard tartan surface.

Since it was six (plus one spiritually) more people than you were used to having in your home, you decided it was only logical for you to go and buy more food into the local store.

You almost reached the gate to go outside of your property as you heard some fast steps behind you, catching up to you.

When you turned around, you saw a man with longer hair and almost expression on his face.

“Uh... hey, you’re going somewhere?” he asked, brushing the back of his neck.

“To the market, why?” you asked, tilting your head sideways at him.

“Well.. don’t laugh, but I wanted to jog a little, but got concerned that I might get lost..” the end of his sentence was almost inaudible already as he lowered his voice, “so.. mind keeping me company?”

That kind of surprised you and as you slowly realised the meaning of the said words that came out of his mouth you bit the inside of your right cheek *hard*, just not to laugh.

What a silly guy. Getting lost in this hole?

But sure, why not keep him company.

“Be sure to catch up with me though,” you teased as you basically broke into the run, opening the gate and hopping straight onto your bike and starting pedalling really hard to get as far away from him, finally bursting out laughing at the significant distance.

“What?!” was the only thing you heard from him and then you felt the breeze from the hot summer air caressing your cheeks as you were passing your neighbours in the well-known road.

“You seem happier than usual today, darling!” some granny said to you from her garden and you just waved in reply with a huge grin plastered on your face.

After spending last years of your youth more or less alone, you couldn’t even phantom the thought of people your age living with you for the eternity of one summer.

You could never complain about a life you had here, it was all you ever wanted, but the connection with the people of the similar age to you was really lacking sometimes.

And the absolute joy that was washing over you right now was the witness.

You slowed your pace after some time, pretty soon being followed by jogging Diego, beads of sweat rolling down his muscular hands.

Your gaze lingered for a second longer than necessary and you quickly tore it away from him, a slight blush creeping on your cheeks as you now looked straight ahead of you at the road.

“I’m not the best runner, but also not the worst, hun,” he said between the breaths as you continued your ride/walk and you just smiled.

“Pretty decent, I’d say,” you finally stopped at the market’s “parking lot” where there were two spaces for cars and at least a dozen of handles for bikes.

You put yours into one of them, not even bothering to lock it. Everyone knows each other here and everyone knows you.

A young person in the village mostly consisted of people in retirement.

“Alright, what do we have here,” said Diego as he followed you into the store that reminded him of something out of the 70s, really old school design and brands that he never heard of before.

“Everything is mostly homemade here,” you answered, making your way towards the fridge with cold drinks, opening it and throwing him a cola can, “except these bad boys.”

“Hell yeah,” he smirked and then looked around, but his gaze kind of kept wandering back at you, while you were too busy picking the right type and amount of groceries.

Why would you live here all by your lonesome?

“So..” you finally heard him say, as you checked out and we’re both putting the groceries into the deep basket on your bike, “you seem pretty chill with us being.. abnormal.”

You briefly looked up at him when your fingers accidentally touched between the cans of soda and glasses of milk and then your hand moved the other way, eyes too.

“Well.. who’s to say what’s normal and what’s not in this world, honestly?” you jumped on your seat when you were done with loading and started your ride back.

“I know,” he agreed, jogging way less intensely now as your pace appeared much slower, “but seven siblings all having some weird shit powers is... kind of crazy, don’t you think?”

That made you nod, “Yes, of course. But still, I’m not too baffled about this. What are the odds that a village person like me would even get into a situation like this?” you asked rhetorically, gaze fixed on the rocky-sandy road ahead, “You should accept life as it is! Confusion and denial are a waste of time,” you concluded and extended your left hand as you were driving past an apple tree and managed to rip two fruits at the same time, offering one to Diego - all while still riding a bike.

“I have my superpowers too,” you laughed a little and winked at him, making him flustered as he tried to hide it by biting into his apple.

.

.

“What do we have here?” Klaus welcomed both of you at the entrance to the summer house, topless and in a skirt.

“We just bought some groceries since we’re capable of eating the whole fridge out in a day,” Diego deadpanned as he - despite your protests - unloaded your bike storage and went into the house to put the bags there, his arms showing extra muscle that’s normally hidden when his body is relaxed.

Your stare lingered for longer than necessary and Klaus *definitely* picked upon that.

“Darling, if you want to get Diego, be a bit more straightforward with him. He’s a dum-dum,” with the last word he knocked on his own head with a finger and rolled his eyes, giggling playfully afterwards and smacking you on the shoulder.

You defensively did the same, blushing and looking anywhere but at Diego nor Klaus.

Hmmmm, such interesting trees you’re having at your own garden all of the sudden.

“But hey, we’ve all decided that before we start training for the inevitable doom of us all, we would take a break for at least a few days and just go to the beach. When we were coming up we noticed the sea behind all the forests, like.. four kilometres from here?” he looked at you with question, “Have you ever been to the beaches there? Could you guide us?”

You gave it thought only for a brief second and then nodded with a confident smile.

“Sure! I haven’t been there in a year or two but the beaches are still the same, I bet,” you answered and put your hands on hips in a cool posture.

“Thank god!” he impulsively hugged you and let go that instant, “otherwise Five said he wouldn’t let you go with us,” he pouted and then sighed, making his way towards their rusty turquoise-ish car.

You followed him, his words piquing your interest.

“Why does he hate me so much? And why is his name Five?” you narrowed your eyes, plopping yourself on the front seat and sat sideways so you could look at Klaus while talking to him.

“Well, darling...” he started, animatedly throwing his arms in the air, “Five was always a strict man, especially after he came from the future, where he spent like billion years and now he’s 50 year old and always shoves this fact into our young baby faces,” he clearly complained and with annoyed expression continued, “and he’s Five because my name is “officially” Four, but Five was the only one of us who disappeared from the house before our dad even bothered to give us names instead of numbers,” he finished but then remembered and continued, “Actually, it was our AI robotic mom Grace who gave us names,” now he was finished, from somewhere materialising a bottle in his hand and taking a sip from it.

“Anyways, beach trip, babeyyyy!”

“Huh..” you just blinked a few times at him as you heard a hoard of different voices going your way.

You wanted to get out of the car to let them sit however they wanted - you were the odd one out after all - but then they all hoarded in there so quickly that you couldn’t even react, being left in the front seat.

Driver’s seat next to you was empty for now.

As you looked back, Klaus was sitting right behind you, next to him Vanya and on the other side Diego, looking out the window.

Behind them was supposed to be a storage area but they apparently turned it into some diy seats as well, Luther and Allison sitting there, not minding the small space.

Soon the blue sort-of-teleport appeared next to you at the driver’s place and Five briefly threw his gaze at you, swiftly starting the car.

The whole inside of the vehicle roared and you were on your way towards the beach, with you as a main gps they had.

Lovely taglist: @radcloudenthusiast @spacenerdpascal @white-wolf-buckaroo @a-girl-who-loves-disney  @undead--ghost​

NEXT PART→

[wetalkinboutbooks]

New Year, New Review 🤩

A Sky Beyond the Storm by Sabaa Tahir

Summary: The long-imprisoned jinn are on the attack, wreaking bloody havoc in villages and cities alike. But for the Nightbringer, vengeance on his human foes is just the beginning.

At his side, Commandant Keris Veturia declares herself Empress, and calls for the heads of any and all who defy her rule. At the top of the list? The Blood Shrike and her remaining family.

Laia of Serra, now allied with the Blood Shrike, struggles to recover from the loss of the two people most important to her. Determined to stop the approaching apocalypse, she throws herself into the destruction of the Nightbringer. In the process, she awakens an ancient power that could lead her to victory--or to an unimaginable doom.

And deep in the Waiting Place, the Soul Catcher seeks only to forget the life--and love--he left behind. Yet doing so means ignoring the trail of murder left by the Nightbringer and his jinn. To uphold his oath and protect the human world from the supernatural, the Soul Catcher must look beyond the borders of his own land. He must take on a mission that could save--or destroy--all that he knows. (Taken from Goodreads)

Our Ratings:  

 → Geena:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 → Kae: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall: The final instalment of the Ember Quartet had us crying in the metaphorical club. It’s exciting, terrifying, and probably the horniest book in the series and we loved it!

~Spoiler-full discussion below~

The Good:

→ Elias and Laia

Geena: In the final instalment of the Ember quartet, Sabaa deprives us of an Elias POV and slaps us with the Soulcatcher instead… He’s very much an ‘emotions are bad’ type of dude, the opposite of Elias who always had so many… but both of them are so angsty? The Soulcatcher really likes to beat up trees when his memories from when he was Elias resurface which was so emo to me. Despite being possessed by Mauth he is also such a coward, especially around Laia, because Elias’ feelings for Laia scare him and every single time he is like *running emoji*. We were surprised that Sabaa let him remain the soulcatcher for so long, every chapter I was like ‘Okay, maybe this is where Elias breaks through…’ but no.. Elias remained buried UNTIL their night in the cabin… the Soulcatcher was like ‘k I’m out’ but ONLY for ONE NIGHT and that still makes me scream.. The Soulcatcher was like ‘you kids are too horny for me, I’m gonna take a nap for a bit and let Elias take over bc Jesus.’ 

Despite it all, the Soulcatcher’s chapters were enjoyable albeit painful because this man was so duty bound, like even Elias wasn’t that dedicated when he was a Mask. But near the end, when we finally get the chapter that starts with Elias…. Ngl I cried a little, and immediately wanted to reread the whole series (I feel like Sabaa did this on purpose to torture us). I want to fight Sabaa though, like she did an amazing job showing how Elias’ conscious and the Soulcatcher’s conscious were constantly fighting one another, and how Elias’ memories of the people he loved ultimately fuelled the Soulcatcher’s actions… even though the Soulcatcher was like ‘I’m doing this for the ghosts’ like okay… no ghost told you to keep protecting and kissing Laia but you still did it…  

Kae: Okay, so Geena summed up my boy Ilyaas pretty damn well. Also, we LOVE HIS ETHNIC NAME IN THIS HOUSE. But um, YES. Elias was a sad boy ™ the whole time while fighting his emotions and ultimately losing. It was so PAINFUL as a reader, seeing all of  his chapters except the ONE say ‘Soulcatcher’. But when it finally said ELIAS again, I too, started to cry. Because he was BACK. 

You can all thank the power of Laia’s determination to seduce Elias back to himself, because our girl was NOT giving up. She said ‘you gonna get this coochie, dammit’ and in the cabin, Elias was like ‘well i’ll be damned. I sure as hell am. I am BACK BAYBEEEEE’

Geena: Sabaa Tahir said horny rights like ksjdnfdsjknfsdk

Kae: AUFVAHLHVKJ. BUT YES. In the end, love won. And so did sex because everyone was doin it or TRYING to do it. I guess when the world is ending, you only get one last time to uhh…. Have a good time. So they made sure they did lmao 

Now, let’s get into Laia. 

Laia. My sweet little cupcake. My mug of tea with too much honey. This girl has been through literal hell and back, and yet, she kept going. She NEVER gave up. Laia woke up in book 4 like ‘Today i will commit crimes. Helene and I crave violence’ and they both just started kicking ASS and I LOVED THAT. I was really happy to see the progression of Laia and Helen’s friendship and how they genuinely grew to like one another and see each other as besties. They both deserved a girl friend and I’m glad they found a friendship within each other. 

Laia is the bravest character in this damn book. She went from poor scholar, to slave, to hero and she was brave because she had to be. Laia is strong and took on their entire world. She had help, but she did a lot of it alone and that takes some real guts. She is the most genuine, sweetest, bravest girl and I love her. <3 

Laia also single handedly brought the Ilyaas back from his Soulcatcher shit. During this whole book she was just like ‘You know what? I think I’mma go mess with Elias’ emo ass today to see if I can get him to kiss me or something’ THEN SHE PROCEEDED TO SHOW UP AT THIS MANS HOUSE (realm or whatever) BUTTASS NEKKID. And he saw her and immediately flew the hell out of there it was TOO MUCH and he LIKED IT but couldn’t admit it. 

Geena: You know what I love about that whole scene was like earlier she was like ‘He’s a lost cause idc’ and then Darin was like ‘Elias wouldn’t give up on you if that happened’ and Laia was like ‘you’re right, he would show up stark naked and try to seduce me back to my body’ and she did just that...

Kae: SHE DID. SHE SHOWED UP AND SHOWED OUT! Like, her entire mission was to bring Elias back while also planning on taking down the Nightbringer. But she was straight up like ‘okay but not before i get my man back through SEDUCTION’. Ugh, the mango scene?  Superb. 

Geena: Laia is hands down one of my favourite book characters to exist. Her journey from the first book being a scared girl with a missing brother, to being the face of a revolution… like the GROWTH. Like Kae mentioned, she and Helene end up as BESTIIEESSSS, and I was surprised at how natural they seemed. Because we went from them hating each other to close friends, but despite not seeing their development, it came off so natural? So, I loved that! 

Kae covered Laia’s character pretty thoroughly, she was both a horndog and a bad bitch. Like this girl has pretended to be a Slave for the Commandment to travelling a desert by herself and facing off a squad of Jinn… In retrospect, Laia is a unique case, she’s allowed to be kind and caring and doesn’t have to be a fighter type to be strong. She’s not the chosen one, which this book made clear, it could’ve been anyone to fight the Nightbringer… but only Laia was strong enough to love him AND defy him. And I just love her a lot… she was very much an anime protagonist with the power of love, family, and friendship… anyways I love her and that’s all I have to say

→ Helene 

Geena: The way I ended up liking and rooting for Helene this book? Came out of left field. To be honest, in previous books I didn’t feel much for her other than ‘stop chasing after Elias and Laia pls.’ But this book I wanted her to win, especially with the fight against the germanic-esque invaders. She goes through substantial development, no longer seeing Scholars as slaves and taking their opinions seriously.. Like Laia, Musa, and Darin were all a part of her crew. A stark difference from Book 1 Helene, who thought Scholars only had one role in the world and that was slaves. 

Helene… like Laia… really has the Ember equivalent of hot girl summer with Harper… all the time she spends denying it she is like *jumps on him the chance she gets*. The bath scene… Helene’s power was turning her tortuer into her MAN… But also Sabaa said that ‘yes she has changed, but she has to repent for her sins’ and that’s why Helene is basically left alone at the end (save for Laia, Elias, and Musa). 

Kae: So not gonna lie, I never actually disliked Helene. I saw her as the flawed character she was in the beginning. During her cat and mouse chase with Elias and Laia in the beginning, she would piss me OFF because like, that’s your BEST FRIEEEEEND. JUST STAAAAHP. But also, it was him or her and her family's death, so I get it. But I always saw potential in her to be better. And thank GOODNESS she went through all that character development. Because she was a damn menace in the beginning. 

Also like Geena mentioned; Helly and Harper finally hooking up? I swear the heavens opened up in that moment because EVERYONE could feel their tension. LIKE JUST DO IT ALREADY. You can’t fight love, baybeeee

Watching Helly grow as a person was really rewarding as a reader. Like Geena said, she went from hating scholars to being like ‘hmm, maybe my opinions are shitty?’ and straight up changed.  I also feel for her because she lost her ENTIRE family and like, honestly? I would’ve given up. BUT SHE DIDN’T. She’s a literal fighter, bred for this shit. So she FOUGHT. And I was really scared she was gonna get murked because y’all know Keris’ tiny evil ass doesn’t have a chill button. And when they were fighting? I was like LAWD PLS DON’T  TAKE HELLY. But instead he took Harper *upside down smiley face* SO THAT WAS FUCKED UP AND I WASN’T READY FOR IT. But a piece of me knew it was coming. 

The Bad:   

→ Darin and Harper

Geena: As Kae mentioned… Harper kicked the can in this book :’( His eventual fall came from loving and caring for Helene too much, which left him open and gave Keris the chance to stab him. Harper was basically Helene’s heart outside her body, and when he went down so did Helene. I had had a feeling when Book 3 ended that Harper wouldn’t make it, but I WASN’T HAPPY ABOUT BEING RIGHT FOR ONCE… Harper had finally met his brother (Elias) and hadn’t even had a chance to meet the real Elias and talk to him about their father or other sibling stuff. LIKE OF ALL CHARACTER DEATHS… AND THERE WAS A LOT… The other one that came out of left field was fucking Darin of Serra… DARIN… THE ONE DUDE WE SPENT TWO WHOLE BOOKS SAVING… DEAD WITH A SNAP OF HIS NECK!! I WAS SO MAD

LIKE SABAA HAD US THINKING HE WAS GONNA BE SAFE, SHE GAVE HIM A LIL GIRLFRIEND AND EVERYTHING BUT THEN SHE GOES.. AND KILLS HIM?? JUST LIKE THAT?? Then we had to read the scenes where Elias helps both Darin and Harper pass over into the afterlife and I was just *cries angrily* 

Kae: Well, THAT was sad. Have you ever just like, felt your heart break into a million tiny irreparable pieces? That’s how I felt when Darin and Harper died. Because like, they were both trying to save the women they loved. Darin to Laia, (foolishly so against the Nightbringer) but I would do it for my little sister too. And Harper with Helene against evilass Keris. Dude, that shit just sucked. It hurt to read. It hurt to imagine the girls feeling the pain of their deaths. They were both such good men. And DARIIIN. 

Darin didn’t have to go out like that, man. It was such a harsh death. No last words. It was just over and his body was just gone. I wish Laia would’ve been able to talk with him at The Waiting Place at least one last time. But it is what it is. I hated to see both of them go. Especially since Darin pretty much sparked this whole series. 

Sure, Laia, Helene, and Elias were the main characters. But Darin was the spark that started the fire. And he didn’t even get to see it’s flames extinguished. 

Geena: He was the ember in the ashes… literally like Sabaa uses that for Elias and Laia but it applies to Darin the most

Kae: LITCHRALLY gonna get teary eyed over here. Our boys deserved better :( 

Conclusion 

Geena: This was not at all a disappointing end to the series we’ve followed closely for so long. The different plot points and character arcs were tied up nicely, and Sabaa Tahir showed us once again why she’s one of the best fantasy writers on this side of the Milky Way. We didn’t even bother including a ‘The Ugly’ section because we loved it too much ksfmsd. The only qualm I’d have with the end was the empire remaining, Helene recognized the Scholars as equals but centuries of pain isn’t easily forgotten you know? SO THAT’S WHY I THINK WE DESERVE A SEQUEL SERIES… BUT I DIGRESS… OVERALL, I loved this book and the ending for all the characters ESPECIALLY FOR OUR GIRL LAIA <3

Kae: YES. I AGREE 100% WITH GEENA. It was such a beautiful end to the series. Sabaa is  GENIUS and her storytelling is phenomenal. I loved every little surprise she’s hidden in all of the books. ESPECIALLY WITH COOK BEING ALIVE? I DIDN’T SEE THAT SHIT COMING AT ALL. LIKE HOLY SHIT? So Laia had some remaining family afterall, and I think that’s very sweet. I’m really sad to see the series be over with and Geena and I are both *~HOPIIIING~* for an epilogue or some little crumbs or SOMETHING with the gang and how their lives ended up into middle adulthood or something. 

Geena: I would literally take a single paragraph… Ms. Tahir…. Blease…

Kae: But yes, in conclusion, Laia has a heart of gold and we LOVE HER. She’s brave and strong and smart, and was the only one out of THOUSANDS to stick for herself and defy the Nightbringer, and save the whole world. Helene has come a long way and she developed beautifully as a character. And Elias. Ohhh, Ilyaas. His continued self sacrifice and bravery and love still helped him live in the end and I think that’s beautiful.