#'member bread bridge?

[map1e-1stru3]

{ Beginnings - Abundance }

Here is the second prompt! It *is* supposed to be done by 12nd, but things happened and I decided I will upload it after the sunlight/moonlight one. Also, I am trying to make both prompts fit in one drawing!

(prompts by @ink-ghoul)

[reidmarieprentiss]

Bridges to Belonging

Part One Part Two Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Seven

Summary: Penelope texts Y/n, Rossi has a dinner party, Y/n and Spencer meet

Pairing: Spencer Reid x fem!reader

Category: Fluff

Warnings/Includes: mentions of virginity and sex (16+), playing never have I ever, teasing from friends, consuming alcohol

Word count: 3.7k

a/n: i am cranking this story out it is going to be finished so fast dear goddd ,, hopefully y'all like it!!! probably like 5 ish more parts is my guess

main masterlist

Y/n was settling in for the night after a long shift at the hospital, kicking her feet up on her coffee table with a glass of wine in hand when her usually dead phone vibrated. 

Hey, Y/N! 😊 It's Penelope from the BAU. Hope you don't mind me texting! Just thought I'd check in and see how my favorite child psychologist is doing. 🌟

Hey, Penelope! Of course, I don't mind :) I’m doing well, just busy with work as usual. How about you?

Busy saving the world, one computer at a time! 🖥️💪 So, tell me, are you still too busy to date, or have you finally joined us mere mortals in the quest for love? 💘

Haha I guess we’re getting right into it. I suppose I am feeling ready to dip my toes back into the dating pool. But I’ve been avoiding it for a while 😅 Awkward first dates are terrifying!

Ooh, exciting! 🥳 But I totally get the fear. Blind dates can be the worst. You never know if you're going to meet Prince Charming or... well, not. 😬

Exactly! And I've been so focused on my career that I haven't really thought about dating in a while. Plus, all my undergrad flings made me a bit wary of anything serious.

Understandable. Sometimes you just need to have fun, right? But now that you’re settled, maybe it’s time for a change? 😉

Yeah, maybe you're right. I wouldn't mind meeting someone who shares my interests and gets my sense of humor.

OMG, that sounds like a dream. Let me know when you find them and send me one too. 💖

Ha! If I find one I will let you know. How does one even go about meeting new people nowadays?

Well… You remember Rossi, right? He’s having a pasta and wine night at his mansion this Friday at 8 pm!! 🎉

Pasta and wine?? Sounds perfect. Thanks, Penelope! I’ll be there, I appreciate you thinking of me :)

Anytime, Y/N! Can’t wait for you to meet the rest of the team. I’ve got a good feeling about this! 💖✨ 

—

The rest of the team? Y/n thought to herself. She had assumed she met everyone already when she went for drinks with Aaron and the team. Maybe they added a new member. Regardless, she's excited to do three of her favorite things, eat pasta, drink wine, and let rich people pay for everything. 

—

The evening sun dipped below the horizon, casting a soft glow over David Rossi’s expansive estate. Nestled in the Virginia countryside, the elegant home exuded both charm and sophistication, a perfect reflection of its owner. The team arrived one by one, greeted by the welcoming scent of freshly baked bread and simmering marinara sauce that wafted through the air, promising a feast of Italian delights.

As Y/n stepped into the house, they were embraced by the warm ambiance of the living room, where a crackling fire in the stone fireplace added a cozy touch. The room was tastefully decorated with leather-bound books, framed photographs, and art pieces that told stories of Rossi’s travels and experiences. Soft jazz music played in the background, the soothing melodies mingling with the lively chatter of the guests.

The dining room was a vision of elegance, with a long mahogany table set for the evening's festivities. Flickering candlelight danced across the table, casting a gentle glow on the polished silverware and delicate china. Each place setting was thoughtfully arranged, complete with fine crystal wine glasses waiting to be filled with Rossi’s carefully curated selection of wines.

On the far side of the room, a sideboard displayed an array of antipasti: olives, cured meats, marinated vegetables, and various cheeses artfully arranged on rustic wooden boards. A large bouquet of fresh flowers served as the centerpiece, adding a splash of color and vibrancy to the room.

The kitchen bustled with activity as Rossi, ever the gracious host, put the finishing touches on a variety of homemade pasta dishes. Large pots simmered on the stove, the fragrant aroma of garlic and herbs filling the air. A pan of lasagna bubbled in the oven, its cheese topping perfectly golden brown. Fresh basil and parsley were sprinkled generously over platters of spaghetti aglio e olio and creamy fettuccine alfredo, each dish a testament to Rossi’s culinary skills and passion for Italian cuisine.

In the adjoining patio, strings of fairy lights twinkled overhead, providing a magical canopy under which the team could relax and unwind. Comfortable seating areas were arranged to encourage conversation, and a small fire pit offered warmth as the evening grew cooler. The gentle rustle of leaves and the distant chirping of crickets added a serene backdrop to the lively gathering.

The evening at Rossi’s house was in full swing. The room was alive with laughter and conversation, and the clinking of glasses mingled with the soft strains of jazz music. The warm glow from the fireplace and the dim lighting created a cozy, inviting atmosphere that wrapped the team in a sense of comfort and camaraderie.

As the doorbell rang, David straightened his jacket and moved toward the entrance with a welcoming smile. He opened the door to reveal Y/N, who stood on the threshold, looking radiant in her deep green dress that highlighted her curves and complemented her confident demeanor.

“Y/N! Welcome!” Rossi exclaimed, stepping aside to usher her into the house. His voice was warm and genuine, filled with the kind of hospitality that made his guests feel immediately at home. “I’m so glad you could make it. We’ve been looking forward to this evening.”

Y/N’s face brightened with a warm smile as she stepped inside. “Thank you, David. I’m excited to be here. The house looks wonderful.”

Rossi gave a hearty laugh. “It’s all thanks to the amazing team I have. Let me introduce you to everyone.”

With a graceful wave of his hand, Rossi guided Y/N into the living room, where the BAU team had gathered. The room buzzed with the energy of friends reconnecting after a long day. Rossi’s arrival with Y/N caught the attention of the group, and they turned to greet her with friendly smiles and nods.

Spencer, who had been deep in a conversation with Derek about a recent case, felt a shift in the atmosphere. His gaze followed Rossi and Y/N as they entered, his attention abruptly captured.

Spencer’s breath hitched slightly as he took in Y/N’s presence. The warm lighting seemed to highlight her natural beauty, and the graceful way she moved across the room was both captivating and disorienting. The rest of the team offered her friendly waves and greetings, but Spencer was fixated on her, his curiosity piqued.

Hotch, noticing Spencer’s focused attention, decided it was time for introductions. He approached Spencer with a friendly, knowing smile and gestured toward Y/N.

“Spencer,” Hotch began, his tone calm and reassuring, “I’d like you to meet Y/N.”

Spencer turned to face Hotch, his heart racing a bit. Hotch continued, “Y/N, this is Spencer Reid. He’s one of our most brilliant team members here at the BAU.”

Y/N extended her hand with a warm, welcoming smile. “Hi, Spencer. It’s nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”

God, even her voice is beautiful. 

Spencer, momentarily taken aback, felt a flutter of nerves as he took her hand. “Hi, Y/N. It’s, uh, nice to meet you too. I’ve heard a lot about you as well,” he replied, his voice tinged with both shyness and genuine interest.

Y/N’s gaze was kind and her smile reassuring, making Spencer feel more at ease. “I hope it’s all been good,” she said with a playful glint in her eye.

Spencer managed a small, tight lipped smile, as he tucked his hair behind one ear and his nerves started to settle. “Definitely,” he replied, feeling a warmth that contrasted with his usual social anxiety.

Y/N leaned in slightly, her eyes meeting Spencer’s with a genuine curiosity. “So, Spencer,” she began, her tone light and engaging, “what’s one thing you’re passionate about outside of work?”

Spencer’s eyes lit up as he considered her question. “Well, I’m really into chess,” he admitted. “I’ve been playing since I was a kid. It’s a great way to exercise the mind and challenge myself.”

Y/N’s smile widened. “I didn’t know that. I used to play chess with my grandfather when I was younger. It’s a fascinating game. Do you have a favorite opening strategy?”

Spencer’s face brightened, and he leaned in a bit more, his enthusiasm evident. “Yes! I’m a big fan of the Queen’s Gambit. It’s a classic and very versatile. What about you?”

Y/N’s eyes sparkled as she shared her own chess experiences. The conversation continued, the two finding common ground and enjoying each other’s company.

Hotch observed the interaction with a pleased expression, satisfied with the introduction. He stepped back, allowing Spencer and Y/N to continue their conversation. The team resumed their chatter, though the undercurrent of excitement about the new connection was palpable.

The evening had progressed into a more relaxed phase as the team retreated to Rossi’s lush backyard. The gentle clinking of glasses and the murmur of conversation blended with the soft rustling of leaves in the warm night breeze. The group had moved outside after enjoying a sumptuous Italian feast prepared by Rossi and Penelope, and now they were settling into comfortable chairs and sofas, each with a glass of wine in hand.

Spencer, still a bit on edge but feeling slightly more at ease, had decided to join in on the wine, especially since Y/N had done the same. The rich, full-bodied wine paired perfectly with the after-dinner atmosphere, adding to the relaxed ambiance of the evening.

Derek, always the instigator of fun, leaned back in his chair with a mischievous grin. “Alright, everyone, I think it’s time for a game. How about a round of ‘Never Have I Ever’?” He looked around the circle with a gleam in his eye, clearly excited about the prospect of the game.

Emily raised an eyebrow playfully. “Oh, this should be interesting. Let’s see who’s willing to spill some secrets tonight.”

Y/N looked intrigued but a bit hesitant. “Sounds fun. I’m game.”

The group settled into a comfortable rhythm as Derek began the game. “Okay, I’ll start. Never have I ever... gone skydiving.”

A few people sipped their wine, including Emily and Rossi. “Guilty as charged,” Rossi said with a chuckle. “Skydiving is quite the adrenaline rush.”

Y/N, who had taken a sip, smiled and said, “I’ve always wanted to try it, but never had the chance.”

Spencer, still holding his glass, observed the interactions with a mix of curiosity and caution. He had never played this game before, not having ever been invited to parties in high school or college, and while he was intrigued, he wasn’t sure how much he was ready to reveal about himself.

JJ leaned forward, looking at Y/N with a grin. “Okay, your turn. What’s something we’d never expect from you?”

Y/N thought for a moment, then laughed softly. “Alright, never have I ever... been to a strip club.”

This time, the whole team, including Penelope, sipped their wine. “Oh, I mean we all have been on multiple occasions for a case,” Penelope admitted with a grin. “It’s a rite of passage.”

Spencer watched Y/N closely, noticing how easily she blended with the group, her laughter and easy demeanor making her approachable. He found himself feeling more comfortable, the game serving as a welcome distraction from his usual reservations.

As the game continued, Derek took his turn. “Never have I ever... gone on a blind date.”

Spencer, who had been carefully sipping his wine, hesitated for a moment before taking a sip. He caught Y/N’s eye and saw her smile warmly. “Well, that’s a new one for me,” she said, clearly amused.

Hotch, enjoying the playful banter, decided to chime in. “I think it’s safe to say that a lot of us have had some interesting experiences with blind dates.”

The game continued with a mix of laughter, surprises, and the occasional sip of wine. As it came around to Spencer’s turn, he took a deep breath, deciding to take a small risk. “Never have I ever... read all the books in a series before the final book was released.”

Y/N’s eyes widened in surprise, and she laughed. “Oh, I’m guilty of that too. I get too impatient for the next installment.”

Spencer felt a small spark of connection, his nerves easing as he realized they shared a common interest. “It’s the only way to avoid spoilers,” he said with a smile.

The conversation flowed easily as the game progressed, with everyone sharing stories and bonding over their revelations. Spencer found himself more relaxed, the warmth of the wine and the easygoing nature of the game creating an environment where he could be himself.

The group settled into their seats even more lubricated with wine, ready for the real revelations. Derek went first, his tone playful. “Never have I ever... been to a nightclub and partied until dawn.”

Y/N, Emily, Penelope and Derek took a sip, with Emily laughing. “Oh, I’ve done that more times than I can count. Nothing like a night out on the town to blow off some steam.”

Spencer seemed slightly more at ease with each revelation. “I’ve never been to one of those. It sounds like an experience.”

The game continued with more revealing questions. Emily, with a mischievous glint in her eye, asked, “Never have I ever... had a one-night stand.”

Spencer was visibly surprised when Y/N took a sip. Y/N gave a small, slightly embarrassed smile. “It’s a part of life’s experiences, but I guess I’ve been more focused on my career lately.”

Spencer nodded, a hint of understanding in his eyes. He was keenly aware of the fact that he was still a virgin, and while he wanted to connect with Y/N on a deeper level, he found himself struggling. She had undoubtedly had more romantic and physical experiences than he had. The thought that someone as stunning and sophisticated as Y/N would be interested in a novice like him seemed almost inconceivable. He was trying hard not to let his insecurities cloud his mood. The way she smelled—like a wet dream—was both intoxicating and overwhelming. Her laughter, so genuine and carefree, only accentuated the gulf between them. Spencer tried to shake off the discomfort, reminding himself to stay engaged.

Derek, sensing the shift in the conversation and relishing the opportunity to provoke more personal revelations, threw out another provocative prompt. “Never have I ever... gone on a vacation just for the sake of hooking up with someone.”

Penelope and Emily took a sip, with Penelope letting out a soft laugh. “Sometimes you just need to get away and see where the night takes you,” she said, a playful glint in her eye.

Y/N, now visibly more at ease and enjoying the shared camaraderie, leaned in slightly, her voice carrying a teasing edge. “I’ve always found travel is more about the sights than the romance. But I suppose the adventure can include a little... spontaneous connection,” she said, letting her words linger with a hint of allure. Her gaze flicked towards Spencer briefly, a subtle challenge in her eyes.

Spencer felt a slight flush creeping up his neck as he realized Y/N’s playful comment was not lost on him. The conversation had taken a decidedly more personal turn. “I’ve never really mixed vacation with... personal pursuits,” he admitted, his tone tinged with shyness. The idea of combining travel with romantic endeavors seemed foreign and somewhat intimidating.

As the game continued, the topics grew more intense and revealing. Rossi, with a knowing smile and a glint of mischief, asked, “Never have I ever... been in a relationship where both partners had different kinks.”

Everyone, even Hotch, took a sip, with Rossi adding, “Sometimes those differences can make things... particularly exciting.”

Y/N, engaging more openly with the group, nodded thoughtfully. Her eyes sparkled as she spoke. “It’s definitely something that can add a layer of complexity to a relationship,” she said, her voice taking on a more intimate tone. “It’s all about finding that balance and exploring what truly works for both partners.”

Spencer, taking a sip and feeling the warmth of the wine begin to loosen his nerves, found himself caught between curiosity and shyness. “It sounds like navigating those differences can be... challenging,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. His gaze remained fixed on Y/N, trying to read the subtle nuances in her expressions. The vulnerability she displayed in her words made her even more intriguing.

Y/N’s smile widened slightly, a mix of empathy and flirtation in her gaze. “It can be, but it’s also part of what makes relationships interesting,” she said, her voice soft but laced with a suggestive undertone. She met Spencer’s eyes with a confident yet gentle look, as if inviting him to share more of his thoughts.

Spencer swallowed hard, feeling a blend of attraction and apprehension. The way Y/N spoke, her casual yet intimate revelations, made him want to know more about her and, perhaps, reveal more about himself. The game had opened a door to a new level of connection, one that both excited and intimidated him.

The night had drifted into a mellow haze as the stars began to twinkle in the sky. The soft hum of conversation and clinking of glasses had subsided into a relaxed murmur as the team lingered in Rossi’s backyard, enjoying the cool night air. The rich aroma of the evening’s wine lingered in the air, adding a heady undertone to the tranquil setting.

Spencer had been engaged in a conversation with Rossi, but his mind kept drifting back to the playful exchanges he’d shared with Y/N. She had been captivating throughout the evening, her laughter and teasing remarks sticking in his mind. He found himself drawn to her energy, even as he struggled with his own insecurities.

As the night wore on, guests began to trickle out, and the ambiance of the backyard shifted to a quieter, more intimate atmosphere. Spencer watched as Y/N, her cheeks flushed with the warmth of the wine, made her way towards him. Her movements were graceful, and there was a certain confident allure in her stride that made Spencer’s heart skip a beat.

Y/N approached Spencer with a mix of determination and vulnerability. She cleared her throat gently, her eyes locking with his in a gaze that was both direct and inviting. The faint glow from the string lights above cast a warm halo around her, highlighting her striking features and the subtle sheen of her skin.

“Hey, Spencer,” she said, her voice soft but laden with an undeniable edge of sincerity. “Can we talk for a minute?”

Spencer, caught off guard, nodded. “Of course, Y/N. What’s up?”

Y/N led him a little away from the remaining guests, her hand brushing lightly against his as she guided him to a more secluded corner of the backyard. Spencer found he didn’t mind the contact too much, he might still wash his hands after. The quiet of the night enveloped them, the sounds of the party fading into the background.

She took a deep breath, her eyes searching his with a mix of hesitation and resolve. “I’ve really enjoyed talking with you tonight,” she began, her voice a touch more vulnerable than usual. “And I have to admit, I’ve been thinking... I’d like to see you again. Maybe for a coffee or dinner sometime? I’d love to get to know you better.”

Spencer’s heart raced as he took in her words. He felt a rush of warmth at the idea of spending more time with her, but the reality of his inexperience and his nerves threatened to overwhelm him. He managed a small, nervous smile, his mind racing through a whirlwind of thoughts.

“I’d like that,” Spencer said, his voice trembling slightly. “I’d really like that. I... I didn’t expect this, but I’m glad you asked.”

Y/N’s eyes softened, and she reached out to touch his arm, her fingers lingering for a moment. “Good,” she said, her tone taking on a more intimate quality. 

Spencer felt a surge of excitement mixed with his usual apprehension. The way Y/N looked at him, with that blend of confidence and genuine interest, made him feel like he was worthy of her attention.

“Absolutely,” he said, feeling more confident. “Let’s definitely make plans. I’d like that very much.”

Y/N’s smile widened, a mix of relief and satisfaction crossing her face. “Great. I’m looking forward to it.”

With that, she gave him a warm, lingering smile and a light touch on his arm before heading back towards the group to say her goodbyes. Spencer watched her go, with a brand new phone number in his pocket, feeling a renewed sense of hope and excitement. The evening had taken an unexpected turn, and he couldn’t wait to see where this new connection with Y/N might lead.

[cressidagrey]

Glorious Sunrise - Chapter 2

Summary:

So what happens after the mating bond snaps?

Well-meaning interfering family members, deep conversations and nights spent brooding on the roof like some kind of gargoyle…this one has it all.

Warnings:

People, being horrible, horrible self image, mention of child abuse, acidic burns and broken bones

(thanks to @cafekitsune for the super pretty dividers!)

She got a kiss on the cheek from Azriel as he bid his goodbyes, going to do gods only knew what for the day. 

He hadn’t volunteered and she hadn’t dared to ask, especially not over breakfast, not when her Aunt was mustering both of them with these knowing brown eyes and Galena was quite sure that Madja knew everything. 

“We didn’t do anything,” she finally said quietly when she could hear the door close downstairs. 

Nothing. She hadn’t even gotten a proper kiss, for cauldron’s sake! 

“I know,” her aunt responded calmly. Right. She would have smelled that from a mile off. And there had been nothing. Not the thick cloying scent of arousal or sweat or sex. Nothing.  

“But it would have been alright if we did?” she asked, staring down at her bread covered with marmalade. 

It was…

She wasn’t even sure if she was ready for it. They had time, of course, they had…but the want to touch and to kiss and to hold and to…she wanted him as near to her as she possibly could, she wanted to feel those scarred hands on her own scarred skin…she wanted him to kiss her and to touch her and she wanted to taste him and she wanted…

It was startling her with the pure intensity of it all. How it had hit her…

“You are an adult. That means that you can manage your own, adult relationships with everything that entails,” Madja said, her voice still carefully even. 

Her aunt hadn’t offered a single…comment about her mate, not after it all had gone down. They had talked…a little bit. About how Galena hated to go to the Palace of Bone and Salt…of how Madja sometimes forgot that she wasn’t 12 years old anymore…that she had learned and studied and grown up…and how staying in the house and not wanting people to stare at her was a valid choice, even if Madja disagreed. 

But still…

“You also are a healer. I trust you know how to brew a contraceptive draught. You also know exactly how basic anatomy and sex works,” Madja pointed out. 

It was true, but Galena just…maybe she just wanted some reassurance. That she wasn’t fucking this up. That she was doing the right thing. That this wasn’t…That this wasn’t wrong that she was feeling that way, this bone-deep want that settled in her gut when she looked at Azriel.  

Of course, she knew how sex worked. She had studied to be a healer. She knew that.  

But she had never…she had never really…

She had never thought that there would be any male that would ever be interested in her. 

So she had made her peace with the fact that she was going to die a virgin and that was it. 

She would never lay with a male. And touching herself…for decades she had cringed away when she had ran her own hands over her own scarred skin. She wished it was pale and flawless and not covered in scars and dips and…finally, she had just stopped trying. 

And now Azriel was there and he made pure desire roar to life within her…and he wasn’t even aware that he did that. 

“We should probably refresh the noise-cancelling runes on your doorframe if you keep inviting him in from the cold though,” Madja quipped then and Galena’s eyes shot up at that, at her aunt watching her with a small smile on her face.  

“Galena. You two have every right to be intimate with each other. I am not going to say a single thing against it, because that is not my place. And furthermore, that’s a decision the two of you make, and that I have absolutely nothing to do with,” Madja advised her quietly. “But don’t use sexual intimacy as some kind of replacement for difficult conversation or to build intimacy. Don’t use it to bridge a gap you are feeling.” 

She wanted to disagree���wanted to open her mouth and tell her aunt that that wasn’t the case and…

But Madja was right. 

She was. 

They were both tip-toeing around both their traumas, not trying to scare the other away. And that wouldn’t be enough. 

“You have never had a romantic relationship, Galena,” her aunt said calmly. “Don’t rush it. Take every bit of time until you feel safe and secure in your relationship and you both want to take that step.”

It was good advice. She did want to savour it. There was only ever going to be him after all. Just him. Her whole life, her whole love, her whole heart...only for him. 

“There never was anybody that didn’t see these,” Galena said, splaying one hand across her own cheek.  

“I know,” Madja agreed, pain in her voice. 

“He doesn’t. He looks at me and…He wants me .” Her. Not anybody else. She was his mate.  Nobody else. “And I want him, Aunt Madja. I want him, ” she admitted hoarsely, feeling her blood burn in her veins with her desire for him.   

“You can have him, Little Mouse,” Madja told her with some amusement. “Nobody is taking him from you.”

May the cauldron have mercy on whoever would try. 

Still…all of it was slowly ruminating in her brain as she did the exact type of work that day that would keep her busy and productive and didn’t really need her thinking. 

It was better that way. She didn’t want to accidentally kill anybody with a sleeping potion, just because she put too much of one ingredient in there. 

Still, she carefully stirred her batch of bruising balm that evening as she listened with half an ear to Silas closing up the shop and then heard somebody enter…this time through the front door. 

It was accompanied by the lightest of tugs from the shimmering gold thread tied to the very heart of her. 

“Let him in, Silas!” she called loudly before Silas could turn Azriel away for coming after they technically closed. 

Madja was out that evening, probably for a performance in a theatre with one of her many, many friends and so it was just Galena. 

“One moment,” she told Azriel, hearing his footsteps enter the stillroom, not taking her gaze from her bruise balm stirring thrice more counter-clockwise, watching how the mixture all came together, thickening beautifully, and then she lifted the whole pot of the stove and covered it with a square of clean linen. 

“Sorry, I needed to finish that or I was going to ruin the whole batch,” Galena apologised as she looked up to find Azriel still standing in her doorway. 

“It’s alright,” he waved her off, even as she grabbed her cane to say hello to him properly. 

He was just so cupping her face, as Silas cleared his throat behind him and Galena just managed to stop herself from glaring at him for interrupting them. 

“Ah, Galena?”

“Yes?” she responded drily, turning her head to look at him. “You can lock up, Silas.”

“Are you sure? Shouldn’t I lock the register and…” he asked, and her forehead crinkled because Silas was normally really not in the mood to do more work than strictly necessary. And the register had never been his work in any way. Galena did that. 

“Go home, Silas. Thank you,” she waved him off. He stared at her. She stared right back. 

“Madja said…” he started to protest, and then Azriel moved…she had thought it wasn’t even on purpose until she realised that his wings twitched menacingly and she bit back a smile at Silas cowered without a second thought. 

“...I am…going - Goodbye!”

“Goodbye,” she responded drily, waiting until she heard the front door slam into the hinges. 

“Pleasant Fellow,” Azriel commented. She could nearly taste the sarcasm in his words. She rolled her eyes. 

“Madja hired him to man the till while Cosima is on maternity leave,” she said drily. “It was either him or me and I am more likely to scare customers away than get anybody to buy some bruise balm,” she commented with a snort. “Though to be honest, customers day in, day out, would annoy me to no end.” 

She liked the quietness of the stillroom 

“I brought you food,” he said suddenly, holding up a back that she hadn’t even seen. “From Sevinda’s…I thought we could have dinner?”

That was the best proposal that she had heard today. 

She grinned, leaning up to press a proper kiss to his lips, allowing herself to lift one arm to twin around the back of his neck and enjoy the taste and the feel of him, of her mate, of…just Azriel. 

“You brought me food?” she whispered softly. 

“I did,” he agreed. “Good enough to get you to leave the stillroom for the day?”

“Always,” she agreed. “Let me just grab the register.” 

She dropped that up in her aunt’s warded safe and then let Azriel up to the attic. 

She was surprised to find his shadows fussing at her as soon as they were in relative privacy, untying the apron she still wore to save her dresses from getting completely dirty while doing her work and looking through her cabinets for cutlery and plates and pushing Azriel around so that he pulled out a chair for him. 

“They are being…” She didn’t even have the words for it. 

“Fussy,” Azriel said with a sigh. “They are being fussy. Probably wasn’t helped that they thought I was an absolute idiot for sitting around on your windowsill.” 

She held back a snort at that, letting Azriel put food on the table…

“I thought we could have dinner…and then we could have a talk,” she said, over a bite of absolutely lovely chicken in some spicy red sauce and she watched how he hesitated for just a second. “Nothing bad,” Galena assured him, reaching out over her table to take his hand in hers.  “I just…I owe you some explanations.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” Azrile disagreed. She sighed. 

“I owe us the truth,” she told him with a smile, the good corner of her mouth ticking up. 

She waited until they finished eating and after she had stolen a bar of chocolate from her own cabinets, she led him over to her couch, letting him sit first, wings splaying over the low back of it, so that she could curl against his side, holding out the bar of chocolate for him to break a piece off of. 

He took that invitation.  

“I always feel better if I get to eat chocolate,” she told him in the same tone of voice that she would use if she told him a big, bad secret and he laughed, the sound so beautiful that she wanted to hear it more often. She wanted to see Azriel smile, wanted to see the corners of these hazel green eyes crinkle up, wanted to see that dimple that was there on his right  

“I have the biggest sweet tooth of any creature I have ever encountered,” he gave back in the same tone of voice and she grinned at him, taking a piece herself, chewing and swallowing…letting the sweet taste of that chocolate brush away all the horrible things she was going to bring up soon. 

“My mother…My mother is Madja’s younger sister. Sofiya,” she started there because she didn’t know where else to start. The woman who had given life to her, probably was as good a start as any. 

“Is,” Azriel repeated questioningly and she shrugged. 

“Oh, she’s still alive…She was banned from Velaris. But still lives somewhere in the Night Courts Borders,” she explained with a wave of her hand. Unless of course, she had died in the last 150 years, which of course was perfectly possible…

“I was born to her and her mate. I was their only child. And for the first decade of my life…everything was perfect,” Galena continued, her voice quiet. “I had a mother and a father that loved me…And I was really good at school…and everything was just…as it should be.”

She had never thought then, that it would end like it did nowadays…then she had had skin the colour of peaches and cream and big brown eyes…and she could run as fast as a rabbit and not worry about her thigh or her hip giving her trouble…she had been able to do all of that. 

“And then my father died. Killed by some idiot in a bar fight. He was a musician…he was just there as a favour to a friend…” she trailed off and Azriel reached out to hold her hand, pressing it slightly. 

“I am sorry.”

She just shook her head. 

It was fine. It was a century ago…she had dealt with her grief to the best of her ability…it was just….“I think his death killed my mother too,” she said darkly.  “She was still alive of course…but she was an empty shell…and then met her second husband.”

And that…that had been the beginning of the end. 

“If I ever met a monster…he was it,” Galena whispered softly. “He was a monster. It didn’t matter what I did or didn’t do…It was never good enough… It started small…bruises…then it…changed.”

It got worse. It was unspoken, but she hung onto Azriel’s hand as she stared out of the window, over the roofs of Velaris, towards the Sidra… 

“He was a hunter, a forager…He knew plants…not as well as Madja or me…but well enough…” She touched her face, and felt the texture of her scars underneath her fingertips. “These were a punishment,” she explained, her voice forcibly calm…”Just like my leg…” 

“For what?” Azriel demanded his voice cold death. 

“Breaking a dish,” Galena said quietly. “I was supposed to clean it, but the water was hot and soapy and I lost my grip and…He was furious. He broke my leg…shattered it in fact…up to my hip. So badly that it would never heal quite right…over and over again…” 

She pushed those memories down and away from her, not letting them overwhelm her with the grief she was feeling. It wouldn’t help anybody. It wouldn’t. 

“He kept this massive cauldron over the fire… If you boil giant hogweed it can turn into acid…if you add this and that…” she trailed off, letting him come to his own conclusion. “That’s what he did. And then he upended the cauldron over me.”

The scars hurt her with an echo of the pain she had been in then. 

“I don’t remember the rest.” Not what had happened afterwards. She didn’t want to remember. It was better if she didn’t. 

“Galena.” 

“Lost my sigh from that too. Only can see dark shapes with the bad eye,” she continued, blinking away sudden tears.  “I lost my mother. Because she thought that if I never broke that fucking plate then he would have never needed to hurt me in the first place. And she wouldn’t have lost her second husband.” 

The growl that sounded from Azriel at these words should have probably scared her but all it did was make warmth blossom in her chest. 

“Madja spent the next 6 months healing me,” she said softly. “I was in so much pain…I was up here in the attic and sometimes I just spent days screaming myself hoarse…” 

She didn’t like to think of that time either.  

“I stopped doing that…it wasn’t going to help me…and when I returned to school…the stares and the words started…and I learned that being silent was…it could be my peace too,” Galena recounted quietly. 

Her peace. And so after school, she had found her peace in that still room. And even if sometimes it stifled her…it was still safe, still peaceful…her own oasis of serenity, without anybody staring at her.  

“I am sorry,” Azriel apologised to her, his voice hoarse. She finally turned to look at him. 

“It’s not your fault that this happened to me,” she disagreed. 

It was not. He had absolutely nothing to do with it. 

“Why tell me this today?” he asked her, looking at her, his eyes soft and she hesitated for just a moment. 

“Because I don’t want you to find out through somebody else. I want you to hear the truth, my truth, through me.”

This was a conversation the two of them should have. And nobody else. 

She wondered what he would say next, watched his expression shutter and he started at their joint hands, the matching scarred tissue…his skin darker than hers by only a few shades. 

“I was born as the son of an Illyrian camp lord…and his long-suffering mistress. I was a bastard…he ripped me from her arms when I was still a babe. When his wife found out.  I spent the first 11 years of my life… imprisoned under his keep in a dark cell.”

She had expected a lot, but that wasn’t it. 

This was so much worse. This was...

How could anybody do this to a child? How dare they?!

She could just stare at him, his gaze still on their entwined hands, not looking into her face.  

“Azriel,” she whispered. 

“I was allowed out one hour a day. I was allowed to see my mother one hour a week…” he continued. “I…I have two older half-brothers…When I was 8, they decided to see how fire and oil mixed. My hands were the sacrifice for that particular experiment.”

Everything in her very being locked up at that. 

His brothers had tortured him? His brothers had…they had done that to him? 

No wonder Cassian had said that he would rather run a sword through them than let them decide anything about Azriel’s healing.  

“The shadows came to me after that…they kept me company. They kept me sane,” he explained, as a shadow curled itself around their entwined hands. “Mostly at least. They tried,” he added, some amusement bleeding into his voice. 

“Didn’t succeed?” she quipped and he shook his head. 

“They get bloodthirsty,” he recounted with a snort. “I killed my father later on,” he admitted to her, his voice quiet… ”I let my brothers live…their mother too. But him…him I killed.”

He said that so matter of factly, but she understood it. If she could have killed her monster, she would have. 

“I was young…arrogant, stupid…I was just over twenty…After I was eleven and they had realised what I was becoming..a shadowsinger…the fact that I could be valuable to the Court and the then High Lord through my very specific abilities…they dumped me into another war camp and made me learn . That’s where I met Cassian and Rhys…and Rhys’ mother, who took me under he wing because she used to know my mother,” he said, and for the first time, he seemed mostly at peace as he told her the story. “We survived the Blood Rite…together. We were warriors…fully fledged soldiers…and I went to kill my father.” 

“Did it make you feel better?” she asked, curiosity colouring her voice. “I used to wish I could do to him what he did to me…Make him live with the same pain I live with every day,” she admitted quietly. “I used to wish I could do that to my mother…make her understand what her precious second husband did to her daughter…” 

“I felt very pleased with myself when I felt his blood drip down my hands,” Azriel admitted quietly. “I never regretted it if you mean that…I don’t know if I would do it again, but…” 

“I once healed a male without pain relief because he was a grown man bullying a little girl…Since then Madja thinks I lack empathy sometimes,” Galena admitted, making him snort.  

“Do you?” he asked her. 

“I don’t think so…I would still do it the same way. He started it. He needed to learn that eventually, people would reach their breaking point and fight back. I would never do that to an innocent fae…but he wasn’t innocent,” she explained. “There is…a line that shouldn’t be crossed…but…” She tried to explain it to him, but he understood it, unspokingly. 

“I have done…a lot of bad things in my life. I have killed so many that I lost count…but if I sit still and close my eyes I can still see their faces…I have tortured for information and followed the orders of a madman because I didn’t want to die. I am not proud of what I have done. Not of everything…I regret a lot of that…but…” 

“But you did it for the Court,” she ended his sentence and he just nodded. 

“It’s alright,” she promised him. They both had a twisted idea of what fair judgment was. 

Dark Hazel eyes lifted and he stared at her. 

“How can you say that?”

“Not a lot of homicidal maniacs are as beloved by their family as you are,” Galena quipped. Azriel just stared at her.  

“Thanks, I think,” he gave back drily. 

“I can live with it,” she promised him. “That’s what you are worried about, isn’t it? I am not going to run away screaming the first time you come home covered in blood.” 

“You don’t know what you are agreeing to,” Azriel told her tightly, but she hung onto his hand. 

“My aunt has been working for Rhysand for centuries,” she disagreed. “I can live with it,” she promised him.  

“Can you?”

“If I get you, yes. If I get you, I can live with nearly anything.”

Maybe she shouldn’t have said these words, because he nearly pounced on her. But then, if the result was her stretched out on her couch and him kissing her…then she could live with the results. 

Oh, she definitely could. 

He kissed her properly, his mouth fused to hers, and she curled her fingers in his dark locks, gasping against him, feeling the current of his wings thrumming in the air behind him…

She could taste him, could taste chocolate and him, that taste that was Azriel through and through…

Her mouth opened in a gasp, and his tongue slipped in, her whole body shuddering…even as he let her gasp for air and kissed down the side of her neck. 

“There’s one more thing,” she gasped out. He left off her neck, leaning his forehead against hers, and she stared into these beautiful green-brown eyes, flecked with pure gold. 

“What do you mean?” he asked her and she could feel the blush tint her cheeks. 

“I…” she was searching for the right words…“You know how I don’t really leave the house?” she asked him and then cringed, because as far as segues went…that was horrible. 

“Yes?” Azriel asked her nonetheless, eyebrows furrowing. 

“I…I have never done this,” she blurted out. 

He stared at her, still not understanding. 

“This, Azriel,” she waved between them. Still no recognition. “I have never laid with anybody,” she finally said, spelling it out, watching his eyes widen. “If that bothers you…” Galena trailed off, no idea what she would do if her lack of experience did bother him. 

“Why should that bother me?” Azriel finally wondered. 

“I don’t know,” she admitted. But if it did. 

“I am not,” he told her drily, still balancing over her, the position not even putting any strain on him in any way…he wasn’t squishing her…his weight held securely on his forearms above her. 

“What?” she asked. 

“I am definitely not a virgin,” he told her calmly and she stared at him. 

“I didn’t expect that?” she gave back questioningly. This was just… That hadn't even crossed her mind. 

“If that bothers you…” he trailed off and only then she finally got it. She glared at him, even when he pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose, a grin covering his features, the most playful she had ever seen him. 

“Be serious,” she requested in a huff. She had worried that he would care about her lack of experience, but it didn't seem to matter to him at all. 

“I don’t care, Galena,” he promised her fiercely. “We’ll figure that out. We’ll take it slow. Everything at your pace.”

Something inside her loosened at that.

“But you’ll stay the night, right?” she requested shyly and he nodded. 

“I’ll stay the night.” 

“And you’ll kiss me?”

“I’ll kiss you every damn day.”

[lucysarah-c]

Backfire

Warnings: mentions of sex, sexual life, sex talk, menstruation. This is basically a sex education class guys. Paring: Levi x reader. Words: 7025

Summary: Erwin insists that Levi should educate his squad on certain topics proper of their age. Levi isn't really convinced but Commander's orders are Commander's orders... however Erwin didn't specify on what he should educate his bratty cadets about. Levi and YN give a sexual education class. Levi x Reader stablished relationship.

@feelingsandemotionsnotexplored I know you requested for this a LONG time ago and I know you asked for Levi and Yn having separate chats with the cadets and also a Sexed class but honestly, I couldn't fit all in one oneshot so I tried my best. I've this is up to the request <3

Levi as a Captain had dealt with many obstacles as part of his job and life dedication. He had taken care of many cadets, rookies or whatever you pleased to call them but usually it was more of a distance treatment or occasional.

Levi was a captain and had his own squad, as we know, and all his members were hand picked by him. Usually those members were professionals and well trained soldiers with quite the years behind them already in the scouts, hardly the newbies made it to the team.

Dealing with teenagers as a vague responsibility that didn’t surpass calling them out if they let their still childish nature shine through by running on the corridors, cutting some occasional fights in the mess hall or training, scrolling them if they broke the curfew, etc.

The daily basis activity of looking after the newbies wasn’t his, training them wasn’t his, dealing with their still reckless and hormonal attitudes (proper of their age) wasn’t his either. Levi received and trained his team members when they were already adults. That was the main difference with his new team, in Levi's eyes (even if they were still quite capable as they had shown) they were kids, brats to be precise.

He was known for being a calm and cold headed person but his team had an amazing capability of driving his patience thin, really thin, sometimes. The captain forced himself to keep in mind that yes, they were soldiers indeed, but they were still teens. Teens with hormones, with mood swings, with bratty fights and even brattier ways of solving those fights.

Levi felt the necessity of sharing meals with them, usually he would have them with Y/N in his office but he knew that bonding with your team was an important part of developing loyalty and trust. He wondered, as those exhausted dog mothers whose cups follow her everywhere, if one day they would learn to have a meal quietly or at least in a lower voice.

They were messy eaters and even messier speakers; some of them with their mouths full and complaining if this one stole a bread that wasn’t theirs or that one is too close. He put pressure on the bridge of his nose and sighed loudly, wondering to himself if he recalled Isabel’s teen days so chaotic and exhausting. ‘She was a fucking handful sometimes, too… but it was only one,’

Added to that, a lot of scouts’ higher ups had suffered the consequences of the recent expeditions or sadly felt in battle. So the overwhelming number of newbies compared to superiors was another fact to keep in mind. His squad wasn’t only getting used to being under his command, that wasn’t any easy or laxed, but also as being part of the scouts.

The inner rules that differed from the training groups, the new activities, the lack of a clear resource of dependence as Shadis was. All that made that, even when they were not directly under Levi’s command, they reached out for him as some sort of power figure.

“Can we do that? Can I go there? Can I feed my horse that? Can we do that today in training? That superior said we should do that but should we? should we wait for you Captain? There’s no water to shower in my room. Jean took my blanked. Sasha ate my protein bars,”

Y/N that wasn’t in direct command of a squad because she had other responsibilities, reassuring him that they were going to grow fast, that it was a matter of a few months.

"They are still too wet behind the ears, gave them some time to adjust," To what she later on, after giving all the cadets a first aid class during expeditions, added “Most of them are orphans, you as a permanent adult figure make them cling to you stronger. Shadis had too many kids under his command, you’re the first closer thing to a guardian that they have in a really long time. It’s natural for them to want your attention, they are still very young,”

Levi felt somehow guilty that she had to endure a permanent venting about the topic. But with Erwin busy in the capital, Hange spending more and more time in the industrial city to develop new weapons and Mike gone, Y/N was the only one somehow around when she wasn’t at the capital with Erwin.

“Stop saying nonsense, how many times have you endured me venting about the useless highers in command from the military board? I don’t mind it, plus it’s somehow my work,” his longtime girlfriend replied before evolving her arms around his neck and giving him a quick kiss.

It was late, both were done with their showers and ready to go to bed. Night was deep in already, as the fire from the candle of the night stand shinned mellow. She had come back from another trip to the capital as her usual more administrative role in the scouts demanded her.

The usual tea leaves that she brought from Levi’s favourite tea shop wasn’t the only gift she brought with her. Much to Levi’s surprise, she had done his entire paperwork saying, while she showed to him the work done, “Now there’s no excuse for you to not come to bed with me, sir”

The squad section wasn’t just better on paperwork, she was actually faster than him. Levi took no shame in admitting that her better education and facility with works made her more capable than him in that department of their work. “I kick titan’s asses, you make sure that those assholes from the capital allow me to go out and kick titan’s asses. Teamwork,” he would say.

However, Y/N’s presence in the field recently made the teens extra fussy in Levi’s opinion. Not just his squad, the cadets in general. Especially since winter was around and colds weren’t missing. With the lack of a proper nurse, Y/N was taking over the responsibility.

The captain wondered if they, his own squad, realised he could hear them. The questions, the doubts, the assumptions. Sasha saying “I bet they fuck like 10 times per day,”. Mikasa concluded, “Doesn’t it fall if you use it too much?” and let's not even talk about the boys.

���They are fucking obsessed over you,” Levi mocked almost, slightly loud since he was in the attached bathroom shaving “That’s why I’m telling you to not believe every shit they say, they’re fucking desperate for your attention,”

Y/N shook her head slowly while chuckling in the sofa of the office “They are kids, they are probably just enjoying someone who treats them nicely,”

Levi clicked his tongue, annoyed “They’re 15, not 8 years old little brats. I know what was going on in my mind when I was fifteen,”

She smiled and looked at him “Oh yeah? what was going on in your mind?”

“You don’t want to know,” He replied as he grabbed her face from the back of the couch and forced her face up to plant a kiss on her lips.

It was random, the first time. Early in the morning when both were getting ready to afront the duties ahead when a few shy knocks echoed in the silence of dawn. They did a little exchange of looks, confused, and Levi raised a hand as a silent gesture of “I go, you stay here,” as if the abnormal situation could be dangerous.

Levi opened the oak door with confidence but precaution, trying to keep the inner space that the crack of the door could share as minimum as possible. Frowning as he lower his guard when he found a timid Sasha on the other side. The brunette was quiet, foreign nature for their.

“What do you need, brat?” Levi questioned.

“Hm…,” the teen hesitated,

“So?” the man insisted as he changed to rest his weight on the door frame.

“I-I was wondering if squad leader Y/N may come over to our room. Mikasa is not feeling well,” the girl said with a voice as thin as a thread and Levi got the message almost immediately.

Turning around and giving a look to his girlfriend that was done getting ready and quickly walked away with the teen.

If the message wasn’t clear enough, it was crystal clear that when Y/N made it through the chambers they shared it with the two girls behind her. Ashamed and quiet, not even doing eye contact that was weird for the other Ackerman. It was when Levi was done getting some stuff ready for the training and had already got breakfast, ready to start the training with his squad. The couple exchanged a brief glance.

Then the older female spoke up “The girls are going to help me with my chores today, I hope you don’t mind that I steal them for a day,” Even when both teens were taller than her, the squad leader had each arm around their figure as some sort of hug as she smiled a bit.

“Alright,” Levi didn’t question, it wouldn’t be the first time that their shared office would turn into a “girls’ talk” place and he somehow knew it wasn’t going to be the last one. The captain grabbed his jacket, put it on and walked out of the door. Leaving the place for the ladies.

Y/N followed his boyfriend across the room with her glaze, once the door was closed she turned once more to the teens. “I’m going to make you a chamomile tea, get comfortable,” She announced while smiling tenderly.

Coming back with a full kettle on and a tea set ready to go on a tray, only to find the two girls sat down awkwardly and looking back at her as lost puppies. Their big, shameful eyes said more than anything else.

Each had a teacup in front of them, Y/N took out some cookies that she had saved in the chambers that Sasha quickly accepted. Mikasa was less eager and offered to the raven girl a hot water bottle and a bed scarf around her shoulders.

“The painkillers should start to kick soon, the tea and the warmth will help,” She announced as trying to ease the mood “Don’t need to be shy, we are all women here,”

Both teens looked back at the door as if the Captain's presence was still somehow manifesting through it.

“Believe me girls, Levi is the last of your worries,” Y/N confessed while grabbing her cup, took a sip and kept going once her words didn’t seem to convince the others “Did you know? Levi kinda raised a girl when he was younger, before the scouts. He knows more than you think. Plus there’s nothing shameful in this, boys may freak out a little bit but men take it for what it is, a normal process in our body,”

That finally made the girls relax, somehow.

“Is it… normal to hurt so much?” Mikasa spoke up, not even looking up. Far from her usual confident nature, she appeared so confused “I usually get headaches but…”

“Oh I had the worst periods when I was a teen, your body is dealing with a lot more than just this. Your hormones are all over the place and your body is doing what it can,” Y/N shared a bit of her knowledge “Is it your first?”

The raven girl shook her head, while Sasha devoured the cookies.

“Shouldn’t I be training?” the brunette asked with her mouth full.

“I thought this could be a good time to bond, to share some wisdom,” the squad leader said while trying to appear friendly and accessible. “I’m not sure how your upgrowing was, but mine was…” she chuckled in the middle “kinda the handful for this topic. I wished someone would have been more open to me,”

“You’re from Sheena’s wall,” Sasha said between a question and an affirmation.

“Indeed. It’s the accent, isn’t it?” Y/N replied friendly “Don’t worry, Levi makes fun of it all the time. Not just him, everyone, including Erwin.”

Sasha appeared ashamed of what the leader added “I don’t mind it, I actually like it. It’s part of who I’m, own your uniqueness and nobody will be able to use it against you,”

That somehow cheered the brunette as the older raised the tea cup as if it was a drink for a cheer and then drinked, that made both younger girls chuckle.

“How was growing up there?” Mikasa questioned curiosity as her sweet tooth started showing on while she grabbed more snacks.

Y/N sighed tiredly before summarying “Traditional and orthodox, strict. I was really naive, I was lucky that Levi was patient with me, otherwise my life would be different. So, I’m here to make sure you don’t have to find stuff across the way as I did,”

“Is it true that you can’t get pregnant if you do it while you’re on your days?” Sasha was quick to shout the question, way bolder than the other teen. "Growing in a farm truly helps to lose the fear," the older thought while watching the other girl dying from inside.

Y/N chuckled a bit before replying “It’s less possible but not safe. The only safe option and it still has some probability of failure, even when it’s really low, it’s condoms,”

The winter brought not only heavy snow and rain, forcing some exterior activities to be cancelled. Usually, Levi tried to force some sort of training anyways but when the weather was way too much even he had to settle for indoor activities like go over protocols in case of an emergency, the formation for expeditions, among others.

The facilities were feeling crowded with all the new cadets around and, much to Levi’s disapproval, the floors were messier than usual when it seemed that keeping the mud from the rain outside the building was too much to ask.

“Oi, Erwin, give me permission for a full cleaning session today. The place is shittier than a toilet after someone with diarrhoea,” Levi, who was told Erwin was looking for him, said while coming inside the commander’s office.

“Maybe tomorrow, I’ve some tasks for you and Y/N today,” Erwin calmly said while still focusing his attention on the paperwork on top of his desk.

Levi clicked his tongue and sat down at the desk chair on the opposite side of Erwin’s, arms resting on the back and one leg resting on top of the other. He had the uniform on but not the harness since they were not going to be doing 3dmg practises. “So, what do you want?”

“I’d been thinking that each squad leader could have a talk with the cadets, the barracks are going crazy with so many teenagers together,” 

“Why her? She’s not part of my squad?”

“So you get the point across, if you know what I mean, and her to make sure you don’t traumatise the poor kids?”

“Why don’t you do it if you’re so concerned?” Levi insisted, the idea felt unpleasant.

The loud tired sight from the blond echoed and then the tired glance filled the space between the two male superiors.

“Because my days of giving classes to the cadets have been long gone,”

“I thought you wanted to feel relatable to them,” Levi brought up a sort of middle life crisis that the Commander had had a few weeks ago.

The Commander just grabbed a pile of papers, handle them to the Captain and concluded “just do what I tell you,”

Each of them, all six members of Levi’s squad, sat down spread in the empty classroom. It felt absurdly big for the amount of people inside the room. The auditorium lecture classroom created the perfect environment for “Formation lectures” but the six teenagers sat down around, trying to look casual by not being one next to the other.

The green board behind the main desk on the front part of the room. Y/N sat down on top of it, waiting patiently.

“Squad leader?” Arming shyly raised a hand, claiming attention “What are-”

“We are waiting for Captain Levi so we can start a little explanation,” She quickly replied.

Grave silence, until the door squealed under the pressure of him pushing it open. Levi took confident large steps until being in front of the desk, left a box there and then rested his weight against it. One leg on top of the other and then crossed arms. Dead expression as grey eyes checked on each member of his own squad.

“how do we do this?” She wondered from his left “I start?”

Levi nodded, giving up the floor for her to take.

“Well, you see,” her confidence wasn’t the one she hoped for but she tried anyways “You find yourself at a certain age where you start to feel and experience new sensations which may lead you to have feelings for someone else and then-”

“Oh, so we are doing this Sheena’s wall style, got it,” Levi commented casually making her stop immediately to dedicated him her best ‘what are you implying’ look “Basically the church of the walls says that if any of you fuck before getting married you all are going to burn in the flames of hell, congratulations,”

“Levi!”

“What?” He wondered unfaced.

The cadets remained quiet, unsure what's going on but fearing the worst out of this class.

“Fuck this,” Levi complained opening a drawer of the professor’s desk and took a piece of white chalk “We are doing this my style,”

Covering her face with her hands while sighting loudly “Oh god, here we go” she murmured.

“Alright brats, listen up” Levi’s deep voice loud enough to make sure everybody would listen without forcing his voice “You are at that age that you” he turned around to point generally with the chalk between his fingers to Jean’s direction and then go back to write on the greenboard ”are hard 24/7 and any hole is a good hole. And you” once again turning around to the only two girls of his squad on the right of the classroom ”at the age that sticking things up seems like a good idea. So the rules are easy,”

His pale hands moved hastily on the board as he wrote, YN  decided to abandon the safety of her place on top of the desk. She also searched for another piece of chalk but this time with any colour, only two small pieces of a pink one and a yellow one. She erased Levi’s writing a bit to add it once again but with colour, dots with numbers and highlighting words by adding a small underline. He had taken the lead and she simply accepted, only adding to his explanation.

Once done, Levi faced his squad that were in grave silence and looking horrified. Pointing at the stated information on the board with his knuckles “Rule 1, you wrapped.” Moved to the other pink coloured dot  “Rule 2 the only possible answer to the question "you want my dick?" is a yes, all the other ones are wrong"

Pointing to the other list under the second dot, where Y/N was adding little arrows to create a sub list “If the other person replies a no, it's a no. If it's a maybe, it’s a no. If the person is drunk, it is a no. If the person is drugged, it's a no. If the person is fucking unconscious, its a fucking no. Understood?”

Silence, the colours kept draining from the teens on the seats who were curling as if they could hide under the desks. Y/N stood patiently on the side of the board, waiting for the following decision of the Captain.

“Understood?” Levi repeated, demanding.

“Y-yeah” They replied as one.

“The captain of the special operation squad was losing no time and was going straight to the point, almost painfully blunt about the information. His stylish and clean handwriting shining in the green board as he insisted on keeping information organised and tidy. Once again his knuckles making the sound of the small knocks against the surface echoed in the room.

"Rule 1; the church of the walls says its illegal and it is but we don't give a fuck, condoms had been sold illegally for generations and won’t stop now.” Levi moved to grab a broom that was peacefully resting on the corner of the room and dragged him to the centre. He opened up the box he brought with himself and took off a shiny almost metallic square package.

The poor six teens that were in the grades started to look away ashamed, red cheeks shining bright as they squirmed uncomfortable in their place. The guys crossing legs one over the other.

“Why do we have to listen to this bullshit?” Jean murmured to Connie next to him, making Levi raise his attention back at the two boys quickly. Shocked open eyes trying to escape the hawk preying eyes of their squad leader.

“Oi, Jean if you’re so fucking smart and know it all why don’t you come down here and do it yourself?” 

Silence and then stuttered apologies and excuses, combined with chuckles from Sasha and Eren entertained that one of their companions was put under the spotlight.

“If you know shit, then shut up and pay attention. That goes for all of you,” his deep voice commanded, forcing the boys to be extra focused, the girls seemed less interested “Oi, you two too,”

Mikasa who was braver to reply to her squad leader commented “isn’t this a boy’s thing?”

Levi, who wasn’t a person to hold back on his comebacks quickly replied “If you’re expecting men to be the only ones in charge of contraceptives you’ll end up knocked up sooner than we retaking wall Maria,”

Y/N placed a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder, trying to slow him down on the bluntness. Smiled tenderly to the teens who seemed terrified “What WE are trying to say is that there’s no such thing as boys or girls knowledge. Think of this as important information to face this upcoming new chapter of your life, knowing as much as possible from both sides will make the experiences more enjoyable and, importantly, safe. Remember, there’s no such thing as stupid questions,”

The emphasis on the ‘we’ and the strong squeeze on his shoulder gave him enough clue to slow down. Her sweet calming, almost maternal tone made him sight. ‘This is what Erwin was talking about,’ he thought. ‘Not my fault,’ he thought, information in the underground was there for you to take since you were a kid and nobody had any holdbacks about it.

A clear of his throat to resume his previous intentions. Package between his fingers, broom resting against the desk and the explanation started “You upon up, fingers no teeth you may break it and there goes all the purpose of it.” He took it off, and she raised the bin close enough for him to throw the wrapping there.

“Thanks,” he murmured when he realised that she was holding it for him, she smiled back. The complicity didn’t go unnoticed by the other people in the room.

“You make sure it is right side up, you pinch the tip,” Levi kept going step by step as he grabbed the top part of the broom’s stick “And you rolled down until the end. Easy, when you take it off, make sure the dude is still hard and that it doesn’t spill. The you tied it up and throw it,”

“Any questions?” Her interrogation pierced the room as the teens shook their heads as if replying out was too much to ask “As we say it’s important that you’ve this information because maybe the person you decide to have sexual activities with may not know or even for your own protection. Remember prioritising your own health is always important and valid,”

Connie raised a hand, making both adults quickly turn to the left side of the room patiently waiting “Yes?” her voice echoed.

His hand lowered down “... so we put a condom on a broomstick and we won’t have babies?”

Her sweet smile slowly turned into a forced one as she tried to remain unfaced, Levi, however, raised a hand to his features in disbelief.

“And you said that there’s no such thing as stupid questions?” Levi whispered just for the two of them to know.

“No, on your dick when it gets hard. No in the night stand, no under the pillow, no on the broom, on a cucumber or banana. On your dick, it goes on your dick, brat” Levi insisted, making Sasha and Jean laugh loudly and Armin just chuckled next to Eren in the centre. Meanwhile Mikasa remained stoic but with a soft blush around her features trying her hardest to not make eye contact with Eren who was looking extremely concerned in the middle of the room. 

Another hand softly raised in the centre this time, quieter than the previous one. The blond boy with big round eyes waited silently.

“Yes?” “May I ask why you pinch it?” Armin politely inquired.

“On the tip goes your cum, if it has air it leaks” Levi quickly resolved all the doubts “Next question?”

“Isn’t it uncomfortable to have something on while you’re doing it?” Jean didn’t raise a hand and straight up went for it.

“If you think that having your dick covered is too uncomfortable to handle imagine pushing out a fucking baby,” their captain replied to then ask them back “Do any of you know why you have to wrapped?”

Silence, Arming raised a hand.

“Just reply, Arlet”

“To prevent a pregnancy?”

“Yeah and what else?”

To this new question, there were no volunteers.

“Do any of you know what’s worst than a fucking brat?” Levi inquired again, no answers so he continued “A sexually transmitted illness. Getting a chick knocked up can be solve, an STI is for life,”

"... babies can be solved?" Mikasa wondered in disbelief.

“It’s called an abortion, kiddo”

The captain moved to grab the box that was quietly resting on the top of the professor’s desk and then casually moved to the desks. All of them, the teens, quietly and ashamed as he gave each one two condoms.

“So don’t be stupid, wrapped. Girls, if a dude says “iT IS ToO BiG”” Levi mocked the expression without intentions to sound respectable to those who used that excuse “it never is and usually it’s the opposite, kick him in the balls and leave. Believe me, it's never worth it.”

Then they moved to another section, she decided to take the lead to start explaining how puberty can affect them differently and at some point they reached menstruation cycles. Most of the members of the squad were boys who were putting disgusting faces to the idea and the explanation. The squad leader who was trying her best to make the explanation as enjoyable and inclusive as possible felt the amount of shame that the only two girls were facing.

“Oi, cut it” Levi interrupted to call out the boys without any restrictions “If you like a woman to keep your cocks warm and wet, you also have to like it when it’s on the rags. Or you like it all or you don’t like it, man up and deal with it”

“This is a nightmare,” Eren commented to the blond next to him as if this couldn’t get any worse.

“You could be having this conversation with Squad Leader Hange,” Y/N turned around to do eye contact with the titan boy, raising her eyebrows to his dead expression “Yeah, that’s what I thought,”

When the main explanations were over, both adults decided to go for a round of general questions, to ease out any curiosity the younger ones could have. There was an awkward silence until.

“Is it… normal that you have dreams” Armin wondered, breaking the quietness finally.

“Yes! Of course, it could be about someone you like or maybe even someone you don’t even know. Everybody has them, even adults,” The female squad leader replied optimistically to finally start the discussion.

“What if I don’t want them?” Eren did his first real intervention, unsure.

“Jerk off, usually you cum while you sleep because it's a necessity to your body. With dreams or without them,” Levi didn’t hold back and this created a whole new debate.

“I heard that bad and we shouldn’t do it,” Eren quickly commented confused and concerned that his captain would recommend something like that,

“I heard that if you do it too much you can end up blind,” Connie added, confusing the brunette even further.

“You’re an idiot” Jean confidently called out as if he knew any better the other boy only to reply “How could that affect your sight? It falls off, that’s what happened”

All the guys jumped to defend their respective information until Levi’s quiet voice put an end on it “You’re all wrong. Yes, it's alright to do it but privately and clean after you get it done. It’s important the fucking part of privately, I’m tired of walking in the barracks and see you doing it under the blankets as if I wouldn’t notice.”

Eren pushed Jean to a side bothering him as Connie laughed loudly, recalling when that happened. The other kid was melting on the spot as the girls put disgusting faces.

“No, it won’t fall off. No, you won’t end up blind. The worst thing that could happen is that you hurt the skin for doing it too much,”

“Ew Jean! I’m never letting you touch me again!” Sasha quickly shouted out and Mikasa shook her head trying to erase the mental picture.

“It’s actually really normal, it’s good for your health and to feel comfortable with your own body,” Y/n tried to calm down the sort of locker room talk that was deviate from educational to judgmental extremely quickly “Despite what the church of the walls or anything could talk about virginity or anything about it, its extremely natural that girls feel aroused and want to masturbate too. Maybe it doesn’t come as natural to us because our anatomy is a bit harder to understand or because of the tabú around it but it's perfectly alright,”

Despite her way softer approach to it, both of them seemed far from convinced.

“How do women touch themselves?” Connie, who lost any awkwardness shut up quickly.

“They stick stuff in their hole,” Jean replied.

“But if they open that hole, how do they not piss themselves?”

“That’s because they hold it in, idiot. That’s why when they feel good, they can’t hold it and they get wet” Jean once again showed off as if he had any idea on how it worked.

“I don’t want to be pissed on when I sleep with someone,” Eren murmured.

Levi at this state was drawing his eyebrows even deeper together, confused on how they could arrive at this conclusion. YN was trying her hardest not to chuckle to their creativity.

“Those are different holes,” Levi’s voice pierced through the conversation with the actual knowledge “One for the piss, the vagina and the asshole. None of those are the same one,”

“Why do women have so many holes?” Armin murmured confused.

“So where do I put it?” Jean questioned, overwhelmed by the idea of it being way more complicated than he imagined.

“Easy, the first one it’s almost unnoticeable and it doesn’t fit there. The one where it actually goes in and the asshole is too far away. It’s not rocket science or let her guide if you have no fucking idea,”

“So when they bleed it’s not the same one they piss with?” Eren wondered about going back to a previous topic.

“No,”

Silence as they processed the information.

“I always thought they pissed blood,” Connie commented to Jean who nodded in agreement.

Sasha raised her hand confidently and rushed as she smiled bright. Both adults looked at her direction, silently asking her to start talking.

“Captain Levi, can you tell Jean how to stop getting hard during practises,” The girl questioned obviously with the intention to put her friend in the awkward position. The ash blond opened his mouth in disbelief and looked back at the girl in shock.

“Why would you tell him that?!”

The other boys laughed loudly as they obviously remembered those moments. Mikasa chuckled, making the poor boy even more ashamed.

Jean, who wasn’t taking the situation easily, decided to deviate the center of the attention to someone else “Well in that case, Captain why don’t you tell Eren where do guys fuck because he was wondering the other day,”

“No, I didn’t!” Eren screamed from the top of his lungs, quickly shifting from entertained to furious.

Suddenly the room was filled up with screams and complaints, calls out and laughs. It was overwhelmingly loud, echoing in the walls and making it harder to concentrate. Levi already felt a headache coming.

“Guys, guys. Calm down!” Y/n tried her best to go back to the sort of civilised debate.

However one personal question developed into a whole childish fight of “he said, she said, i did, you did”; it got louder at any passing minute. The Captain remained quietly as he dedicated tired death eyes, waiting for them to catch the clue and drop it.

Armin was the first one, tapping Eren’s shoulder and so it followed. All of them were terrified of unleashing Humanity's strongest soldier. The place was quiet once more.

“I think it will be better if questions are anonymous from now on,” The squad leader murmured, turning around to grab a pile of papers and cut them into small pieces with a ruler “I’ll give all of you a couple of papers with a pencil so you can ask all the questions you please. This way we won’t know who did the question and neither will your classmates. Don’t be shy, your question could be the question of someone else.”

“As if we didn’t know their handwriting” Levi murmured, feeling the pedagogical practices of his girlfriend pointless. He contorted in pain as she pitched his right side, shutting him up and making him frown deeper.

She moved closer to them to distribute the papers with a pencil for each when Connie raised his hand again. Both adults were confused this time that he wasn’t waiting to write down the question.

“Yeah?” Levi from the front insisted.

"Don't women feel empty? like... don't they feel they are missing something with the open hole?"

This time even the captain was perplexed as if the question was even unthinkable in his brain. His usual deadpan expression changed to a plain confusion one.

"... do you feel your ass empty?" Levi questioned back, referring to another part of the anatomy.

"No.."

"There you go, brains are nice use them for fucks sake"

Once she was returning to her position at the front, Levi stood up to walk away.

“Where are you going?” Her panic was almost palpable under the imminent fear of being left alone to deal with it on her own.

“I’m making myself a linden tea, because I’ll fucking need it,”

She didn’t reply right away but yet added as he was about to cross the room’s door “Make it two!”

Back to the beginning, both of them were at the front desk. She sat down on top of it, cup of tea resting peacefully in the space between her legs and Levi restin his weight against the corner. Tea on his hand as she shock a bit the box that had been empty since Levi had shared the content and now was filled up with the written pieces of papers.

Her hand reached out for one as if this was the lottery and then read out loud.

“What do I do if I get excited while looking at a girl that I like? What if other people notice it?” 

Levi sighed loudly understanding that it was probably his place to answer that one “It’s normal, everybody gets hard. Male anatomy works like that, too much friction while using the 3DMG, a girl you want to fuck, anything. You could think of something you dislike like… I don’t know your grandmother getting fucked or tug it under the belt until it goes away,”

A quiet sip to his tea as Eren murmured “Is it really that normal?”

“Yeah, brat, don’t overthink it. Everybody gets them. Better that it gets up than it doesn’t, think of it like that.” Levi insisted.

“Even you?” If there was something that the captain despite even more than dirtiness was sharing personal information, he had to gather all his mental peace to allow himself to be slightly more vulnerable “Even me,”

Once the question felt completed, she extended the box for him to pick up a question.

“The medical service asked me if I have done it already, I felt ashamed and I said that I’ve not. Nobody else seemed to have done it, what if they think I’m dirty?” Levi's monotone voice read out loud and it felt absurd to hear those concerns coming out of him.

“It’s perfectly normal to feel judged or overwhelmed but think of this as a natural process our body goes through. Almost everybody experiences this soon or late, it’s not a race. The medical service wonders because they are concerned about your health, nothing else. No judgement. Plus, almost all adults have sex,” She replied calmly and tenderly, trying to create a safe environment.

“Even you?” Jean was quick to shoot that question. Making Levi frown, doubting the innocence behind that question.

“Mh, yes even me”

“How many times do you do it?” Connie insisted with no social filter at all, making her grimace conflicted.

“Oi, you’re crossing a fucking line,” Levi interrupted.

“Ehm, let's go back to the questions,” She tried her best to switch the topic as she grabbed another paper “What do I do if a boy that I like doesn’t like me back?”

Y/N took a sip of her tea to clear up her throat, straighten her back and replied “It's important that you understand that a person not liking you back doesn't mean anything bad about you, your persona or your body. As you like that person, that person may like someone else or nobody and that's perfectly alright. It's important that you understand that forcing this person to like you back it's not ok but also it doesn't define you. Alright?”

"... That and maybe the brat likes dicks as much as you, it's always a possibility" Levi added before reaching out for another question.

“Does it hurt the first time?” Levi read outloud unfaced “Maybe, probably you’re nervous and then you’re tight so it hurts a bit. It shouldn’t hurt too much, if it does tell the other person and talk that shit out”

“Yes, indeed. It’s important that you feel ready but even if you’re ready, it’s normal that you feel nervous and therefore it may hurt. It’s important, guys, that you’re patiently” Y/N added as the female opinion on the matter.

“Did your first time hurt?” Sasha wondered.

Y/n blushed slightly doing a quick eye contact with the Captain “Ehm… A bit, I was a bit nervous but it was enjoyable,” She knew they knew that they were together.

“Was it with the captain? What if I don’t stay with the guy that I’ve my first time with? Will other guys like me later?” Sasha shut one question after the other.

“Well, yes it was with him. But you shouldn’t be scared of that, how many partners you have before shouldn’t matter” Y/N tried her best to draw a line between teaching and personal information.

“That doesn’t count, he’s short that’s why it didn’t hurt '' Mikasa's clear ongoing bad blood with her captain show off, making Levi slightly chock on his tea.

They all chuckled and Levi frowned deeply.

The captain’s girlfriend decided to take the lead and not allow the dragging of his partner “It will surprise you. I quickly learned to not judge a book by its cover,” She casually commented making even Levi turn around surprised “I can only say that all my friends were really jealous of me,”

“Enough of this” He reached for another question to read “Does it grow? How can I make it bigger? Yes it may grow as you keep getting older or not. It doesn’t matter that much at the end, there are plenty of more shit to do than just putting in and out your dick a couple of times,”

“Like what?” Jean inquired.

Levi quickly checked the clock of the room, they didn’t have much time left and it made him smirk “Like fingering, eating out. Some people are into other shit like tie up your partner, toys, public places. Some people are more turned on by uniforms, like the rich women on the captain that would donate only to get fucked up by Erwin with the uniform on,”

Their young faces were covered in complete shock. Lips parted to talk and ask the first question but they couldn’t formulate it. Time up, the class was over. Levi left the tea cup on the desk before closing up this extremely uncomfortable situation they all went through “Just do what we taught you and enjoy. We are all someone’s else weird kink, if you don’t believe me half of the donations we get are from bored rich women who have money to spare,”

“Erwin is going to kill you,” Y/N whispered as they walked away only to hear the cadets revolt in the classroom they left behind. Nothing good could come out of that.

“He should have come and give the class himself,”

[smallidarityfan]

Joel keeps bringing up the limited life sacrifice bit for Jimmy i don't think he ever left that bread bridge guys

from Jimmy's/Joel's mcc practice stream yesterday

[bluegalaxygirl]

Amnesia (KidKiller X Reader) P8

Plot: After an explosion reader wakes up in a hospital with no memory of the past few years, her parents want to take her home so she can recover and get back to a normal life while the Kid pirates want her back on the ship where she belongs.

Warning: Bad language, Medical stuff, family issues and Violence.

Reader is Female, Poly Relationship, established relationship, Kid X Reader X Killer, Reader is a member of the Kid pirates and is in charge of the money, Budgeting and negotiating the best price.

< Previous part ….. Next part >

After taking the pills you got washed and headed straight to bed, today was eventful to say the least but your glad you at least got somewhere with figuring out what is going on. Groaning you roll over onto your side while rubbing your head, it's still hurting but hopefully the pills you took will take the pain away soon but until then you need sleep. Closing your eyes that image from before comes back making your head hurt more but your eyelids are too heavy to reopen so you can't do much other than let your body and mind fall into a deep sleep. After finishing the mountain of paperwork at the local bakery you finally have enough money to buy what you need to fix the fire damage to your ship, the only problem is your gonna have to fight to get the right price. The town's people here are more than happy to over price an item to outsiders, heck they'll over price bread if it'll make them more money but over the past month of being here you've managed to come to a compromise with the bakery, a free piece of bread and a bit of money in exchange for you doing their taxes, its better than nothing but you still wish it was more. Walking into the parts shop you spot the rugged shop keep talking to two people you haven't seen before, both were quite tall and thin but muscular, they differently weren't normal travelers, maybe bounty hunters or pirates? One of them has red hair that sticks up, something black strapped around his head but from the back you can't make out what they are, he has a long black coat on with a red feather collar and gold spikes on his shoulders. He seems to be getting more and more angry at the price the shop keeper is giving for each item but the shop keep wasn't budging on the price. The other man sighs with his arms crossed over his chest, his black and white poker dot shirt slightly open, even though he was more side on you can't see his expression with that white and blue striped mask covering his head. His blonde hair is extremely long, longer than yours before you cut most of it off, It stretches past his knees but looked well taken care of, it amazes you a little.

Turning your eyes away from the two you head over to the shelves close by looking for what you need. The man with red hair sighs as the shop keep tells them the overall price, it's way higher than it needed to be and you didn't blame the red haired man for getting angry, you want to help out but with the shop keep right there you knew it's a bad idea, the man wouldn't sell you anything after losing money because of you. "At least throw in some scrap metal for free" The red head growls slamming his hand on the counter causing what metal parts are on there to shake violently, he glares down at the shop keep who doesn't seemed fazed by the man's gaze or out burst. With a heavy sigh the shop keep nods "Fine, I'll grab all you need and add some scrap metal for free" The shop keep then turns leaving the room and heading into the back "This is fucking ridiculous, 50,000 just to fix the ship's engine?" The red haired man sighs pinching the bridge of his nose. You truly feel sorry for them now, they were in the same position as you, with a ship that won't work and people who are unwilling to give you a decent price but maybe if you help them they could give you a ride to the next island, maybe then you can buy a better boat and leave that shitty one here. It would be much easier than spending another month earning the money needed to fixing it up. There is a chance that their pirates but all you have to do is be useful and not let them know about your past and who your parents are, it should be easy since you hate your parents and want nothing to do with them so not talking about them won't be a problem.

You take a second to compose yourself not wanting to show any kind of weakness to the two. "He's overpricing you by 30,000" You call out earning a Huh of anger in response from the red haired man who turns to look at you "What the hell you say?" Turning to look at the two pirates you can now see the red heads face and that strap thing on his head are goggles, you move your eyes down to look at the counter and point to the giant cog "Its takes 500 Berries to make a cog like that but their sold to places like this for 1,000, the market price after that is 2,000 to 2,500, but he's selling it to you for 5,000." You state before moving your eyes to look at the red haired man who raises a brow at you before looking down at the cog on the table. "Let me guess he gave you a deal too? Don't worry he does that with every newcomer" You sigh only for the red haired man's eyes to burn with anger his hands gripping into fists as he growls but the man next to him places a hand on his shoulder to stop the red haired man from destroying the shop in anger. "We should just go somewhere else" The masked man tried to calm his friend down but you let out a sigh catching their attention again "Sorry to be the barer of bad news but every shop around here is like this, even the bakery, you could try intimidation but i find blackmail or outsmarting them to be more effective" you smile at the two hoping to built up some kind of rappor with the two before offering your deal but with how the red haired man shakes with anger your starting to think he might destroy the shop before you can help.

The masked man turns to look at you then turns to look at the red head who glares at you, the two seem to think for a moment before you sigh and step closer to them "I can help if you want but i'm gonna need something in return" You state earning a low growl from the red haired man who shrugs his friends hand off his shoulder before stepping closer to you almost towering over you "First i don't need your help and second like hell I'd give you any kind of money, I don't even know if your telling the truth, now back off pip squeak" His stare and looming presence is scary you have to admit but you've dealt with people like this before, keeping calm and maintaining eye contact you raise an eyebrow at him "Who said anything about money? You have a ship right? All i want is to get to the next island with a village, you can keep your money" you state crossing your arms over your chest. The red head looks you over trying to decide weather he should trust you or not until the masked man walks over placing his hand back on his friends shoulder "You just want get to the next island?" The masked man asks which you nod at unfolding your arms "One with a village yes. I don't want to be dropped off on an inhabited island, i'm not stupid" You let out a small laugh hoping to lighten the mood but to your surprise the red haired man chuckles before throwing his head back in laughter. It catches you off guard and little so you raise an eyebrow at him not understanding what's so funny but too afraid to ask at this point.

Looking back down at you the red haired man stop laughing and places a heavy hand on your shoulder before leaning down to be eye level with you, "Fine pip squeak you have a deal but you'll have to work on the ship, i'm not having you lazing around" With a smile you nod agreeing to his terms just as the shop keep comes back out with a large crate of parts and a few small pieces of scrap metal "The hell?" The red head yells storming over to counter and grabbing the small pieces of scrap metal "This is all i can spare" The shop keep shakes his head while crossing his arms over his chest, with a sweet smile you walk over placing your hand on the counter "That's not very nice of you Mr Conway" You state getting the man to look at you, he bites his tongue knowing what your like, you always fight him for the best deals so doesn't want you involved "I'll be with you in a minute" He waves his hand at you hoping you'll go away but you stay put "You and i both know you have way more in the back, i mean didn't you just come back from salvaging a ship wreck?" you ask knowing that isn't the case. The masked man walks up behind you crossing his arms over his chest as he watches you work while the red haired man goes through the parts checking their quality. "Its all gone, i used it to make other parts" The shop keep says through gritted teeth his body starting to stiffen, You were going to wait to use the information you gathered from the bakery later on but now that you'll be leaving the island you might as well use it now.

With a sigh you lean on the counter looking up at the shop keep with a small smile "Mr Conway, do you know what I've been doing the past week?" he raises an eyebrow at you and shakes his head wondering what your up too "I've been doing the bakery's taxes and funding reports. Miss Kelly is your wife's best friend right? So imagine my surprise when finding that you sent her a check for 10,000 which was spent on a weeks vacation for her and… someone else" His eyes start to widen as you talk, realizing that you've caught onto him "Its kinda a coincidence don't you think that she would go away at the exact same time as you and come home at the exact same time" you tilt your head to the side giving him a knowing smile "Yes, its just a coincidence, you have no idea what your talking about" he glares at you as his breath catches in his throat trying to remain calm, you know now is the perfect time to strike so you stand up straight "Really? Because the boat tickets and hotel recites say different.. Both have your names on them. Now I could give you the benefit of the doubt and say your not having an affair with your wife's best friend but it's hard to explain away that you two stayed at Deplar Farm for a week" You state seeing his eyes widen in shock, It's a well known and expensive romantic hotel, mainly filled with honeymooners and engaged couples. You can see his breath quicken at you knowing but his eyes turn to anger.

Before he can start an out burst you lean closer to him "Take 30,000 off the bill or I'll send your wife the recites and conformation of the check." Your smile drops showing how serious you are about it, The red haired man next to you leans on the counter his smile wide as he watches you work but your eyes stay focused on the increasingly angry shop keep "You fucking Bitch, you wouldn't dare… I'll fucking kill you before that happens" You don't flinch at his threat, you know his type all too well, he's a coward who likes to act tough but when it comes to fighting he'll let someone else do it. The masked man behind you reaches for something but the red head next to you holds out his hand signaling to his friend not to do anything. Reaching into your pocket you pull out a thick folded up piece of paper "Mr Conway, i'm not stupid, The stuffs already in the mail just waiting to be sent out, now i can cancel it but… i have to be alive to do so" You know he'll assume the piece of paper in your hand is conformation from the post office "Fine, 30,000 off the bill" he states getting the red haired man to smile more and let out a laugh "I appreciate that but i'm still hurt that you would threaten my life so, i hope you can make it up to me by giving us the rest of the scrap metal in the back" you act hurt while placing a hand on your heart, the shop keeps eyes widen at that but sigh and look at the piece of paper in your hand "Tell you what in exchange I'll give you the code that cancels the postage, its on the letter" The man growls at you but nods looking down at the paper in your hands before walking off to the back to get what you want.

Once he's gone the red head slaps you on the back forcing you forwards with a yell of shock and slight pain "Fucking hell girl, You've more than earned your place now" He laughs as you rub your back and look over at him with a groan of annoyance "Kid" The masked man sigh shaking his head at his friends actions but the red haired man who you know is now called Kid waves his hand at his friend not caring that he might have hurt you "Kid.. I'm Y/n" You smile at the red haired man who turns to you at his name, you hold your hand out for him to shake but instead he folds your finger in to make a fist, so he can fist bump your hand instead. You laugh a little at it before turning to the masked man who holds out his hand for you to shake, you take it and let his firm grip shake your hand "Killer… Thanks for the help" he states before letting go "No problem" you smile at the two before the shop keep comes back with a much bigger crate of scrap metal, Kid slams the money down on the table and grabs some crates starting to walk away as Killer grabs the rest, you hold out the paper to the shop keep who snatches it out of your hand and gives you a death glare "Thanks Mr Conway, it's a pleasure doing business with you" you wave while walking with Killer out the door, Kid goes to say something to you as you three walk away, when the shop keep starts yelling profanity's at you while seeming to throw a fit inside the shop. You can't help but laugh as the noise gets further and further away "The hell?" Killer asks as you managed to calm down "I never put the stuff in the post… The paper i gave him was my shopping list" you hold back your laugh as Kid throws his head back in laughter and Killer's shoulders shake.

The morning sun hits your eye startling your body awake but you can't sit up since there's something pressing on your head, with wide eyes you look around the room soon spotting the doctor next to you his hand on your forehead keeping you down "There you are… You had us worried" He states with a smile but now your even more confused, something to your right gets your attention so looking over you stop another male doctor although he looks a lot younger. "Wh-what?" You ask unsure of why there are two doctors in your room when you feel fine, your not in pain and your headache is long gone. "You had a Seizure but its over now… Its seems the seizure medication we've been giving you isn't enough, so we're going to have to up the does" The main doctor tells you before helping your sit up, with a gasp the young doctor runs over from where he was tying back the curtains to quickly grab a tissue and hold it under your nose. Cold red liquid drips from your nose and onto the bed sheets before the young doctor can react but you manage to catch most of it with your hand before taking the tissue and pinching the bridge of your nose. "I-I think i remember something" You state but your voice sounds very stage as your fingers stay attached to your nose, the main doctor sighs before handing you a small paper cup with three blue pills in them "There's a chance what you saw was a seizure dream as we call it, your brain making up strange occurrences that don't make sense so please take it with a grain of salt. These are the seizure meds, you'll take three, twice a day along with your other meds."

Pulling the tissue away from your nose and letting your finger slowly release the bleeding seems to have stopped so you take the paper cup and a glass of water the young doctor hands you. The main doctors words confuse you but you shrug it off and take the pills making the two smile while standing up straight "We'll take our leave, the nurse will check on you in half and hour" The main doctor sates before turning and walking out the door followed closely by the young doctor. Placing the glass down you sigh and rub your head while trying to think about what just happened, is it normal top feel perfectly fine after a seizure? Yes you had a nose bleed but other than that you feel fine. There's also what he said about the memory you had, there's a chance what he said is correct but it wasn't confusing, it was clear as day and made sense, Kid and Killer look at lot different than they did in your memory but you didn't get a look at yourself so have no idea how old you might have been. Maybe you should bring it up to the two and your parents separately and see what answers you get, although you doubt your parents will give you even a second alone with the two men. Sighing you get out of bed and head into the bathroom deciding to get a wash and changed, it's the first time you've been alone and awake enough to look at yourself without prying eyes so taking the time you look yourself over. Your glad your hair's somewhat short still, having it as long as it was would be a nightmare, how does Killer do it?

Laughing to yourself you shake your head wondering why he popped into your head all of a sudden, looking over the rest of your body there are some tattoos on your thighs that are intact giving you an idea of what you have been into or what you liked but the two that stuck out made you blush. On your inner left thigh is a red kiss mark tattoo , there's a slight gap between the bottom and top lip but no cupids bow, there's also hardly any lines on the ships making them look smooth. For some reason Kid slips onto your mind making your cheeks go bright red and your stomach flutter. Shaking the thought of him out of your head you continue to look over only to be surprised yet again by a kiss mark tattoo on your inner right thigh directly opposite the other one, It's different to the other in many ways though for instance their thinner, its color is a pale purple and the cupids bow is very defined, the peeks coming to a point instead of a curve. This one doesn't bring any kind of image to mind so you continue looking, over your stomach, your chest and your arms, removing the bandages you look over your scared, tattooed and stitched up sink before placing the bandage back around you. They'll be replaced again today anyway so there's no point in trying to put them back the exact same way to hide what you've been doing. The scars are old while the cuts and stitches are most likely from the explosion but the tattoos are expertly done, showing that you went to someone who knew what they were doing, not just some random person who decided to tattoo one day.

[joifee]

Joifee's life series pixel gifs

Over the last two seasons of Life Smp, namely Limited Life smp and Secret Life smp, I created some pixel-art to celebrate it.

Why did I do it? I just had bought Asperite and wanted to learn it and what wouldn't have been better than a new series I adore? I also just had started drawing fanart so that was exciting!

Here is a collection of those gifs (+ some gifs I drew of other season out of season) This is obviously a WIP

Limited Life Limited Life Episode 1 recap Wheres Tilly Martyn? Look Grian! Martyn vs Joel Limited Life Episode 3 recap I am in danger scott RIP Bad Boys Bread Bridge Explosive Bday Party This is a death game

Secret Life (what if secret life was a videogame?) session 1: interface session 2: dialog box session 3: minigame session 4: mission interface session 5: decision interface session 6: Cut scene session 7: virus / bug session 8: minigame 2.0 session 9: boss fight - winning

Other Traffic seasons They are for your secret soulmate... (DL) Rancher Pagedolls (DL) Traffic members iys A collection

[beans4eyes]

Anybody else remember the Sadder Badder Ladder Podcast?

This is a MUCH older piece that… is honestly still okay. (I peaked with this and can never return) Design notes under the cut!

Sooo in the image there’s a bunch of little details from the Bad Boys’ time on the server!

Parrot wings are for Grian

Canary wings are for Jimmy

Joel gets nothing (skill issue /j)

Red, Yellow, and Green hearts are for the 3 lives

spikes are for the spiky jackets

3 pairs of sunglasses, one for each member!

Bread for the Bad Boys Bread Bridge

Ladder bc this is the Sadder Badder LADDER podcast

That’s all folks!

[sugurusdiscordmoderator]

Levi one shot (cont.)

A/N : merry christmas to those who celebrate and happy birthday to our lord and savior Levi Ackerman. I’ve been working on this for 3 days and did everything in my power to finish it today for his bday 💚 starting the third part now

Here is the link to part 1 but you don’t need to read it to make sense

MDNI 18+

cw: giving head, penetration, praise kink, alcohol, spitting, showering together, being sore from sex, being a shy little bbygirl

You were adapting well to squad Levi after your first day. Captain Levi took things a little easier on you and you were able to prove your talent through the other integration trainings.

It was the cold season so the scouts weren’t going on exploratory missions, but rather impromptu help needed near the walls.

Erwin approached you one day and asked if you Petra and Hange would be interested in planning the Scout’s winter solstice party, a new tradition he is starting since he is now basically second in charge. He explains that he wants you in charge due to your great work ethic and your work on projects in the past with the scouts and paperwork etc.

“Yes sir! I’d be happy to.” He leans on the door frame of his office while you’re standing in the hallway. “Are there any particular guidelines? A dress code?”

“There is a pretty fancy abandoned scouts camp that looks like a castle. I was hoping we could get it cleaned up and spend an evening there. Give members an opportunity to wear something outside of the ol’ uniform for once.” Erwin winks at you. “If you need any additional help please let Captain Levi know and he can allocate some of your team as resources.”

You blush at the thought of having a non-work conversation with Captain Levi after what had happened previously but graciously agreed and thanked Erwin for selecting you.

Walking back to your room, you are engorged in the map that Erwin have you with directions on how to get to this party location. You round the last corner to your hallway and bump into someone solid with an “oomf”.

“L/n, what is this?” Captain Levi looks disgruntled at the collision and grasps the paper out of your hands.

“Hi Captain, my apologies sir, I just got delegated planning the winter party for the scouts. Erwin would like to have it at the location on the map.” You crisply respond avoiding eye contact.

“I’ve been there before. Do you need some help?”

Your jaw drops and closes before you know how to respond. With a little too much excitement for him, you answer, “That would be so great Captain!” Smiling brightly at him as he maintains a deadpan expression.

“I’m sure it will need cleaning. It’s been abandoned since I was a new recruit, they don’t take a lot of people there. The whole squad will go tomorrow. I’ll command cleaning and you can get all the guys to.. uh.. help move things.” He presses his lips together as a tiny smile takes over the corners of his lips.

“Yes sir thank you so much.”

“Stop by my office this evening and we can go over details.” He quickly breaks eye contact after this last sentence, a tinge of pink brushing across his cheeks to his nose.

“Yes Captain,” you smirk at him, and nod your head slipping around the corner and float to your room as quick as you can.

Little do you know Levi watched you as you walked away shaking his head and smirking.

—

As dinner comes around you sit with your usual crew of Petra and Hange chatting over some soup, chicken, and bread. The two grow quiet as you finish talking about some ideas you have for the party. Petra clears her throat which signals you to stop taking, “Good evening Captain Levi,” she addresses and Hange follows with a “good evening.” You turn around to look up and greet him. “Hi sir, uh how can I help you?” He can’t help but notice the way your big doe eyes look up at him and what other act you may do for him looking up at him on your knees.

“Evening ladies,” he nods at the two across from you, then looking down at you over the bridge of his nose he struggles to keep eye contact as he asks “I was going to see if you’d like to walk back to my office with me.. for the um meeting we discussed earlier?” You notice a hint of bashfulness in his tone as you struggle to maintain your cool as well.

“Oh uh, yes sir, captain!” You stand up from your bench lifting your empty tray to return it to the dirty pile. He awkwardly walks about 2 steps behind you until you leave the food hall doors. Looking back to see most of your fellow scouts starring at the fact Captain Levi is leaving with a girl. Hange throws a wink your way giggling with Petra as Captain Levi walks in beside you now on the way to his office.

The walk consists of mutual silence, neither of you knowing what to ask each other without making it too weird. Almost as if you both forgot orgasming by yourself to each other a few weeks ago.

As you reach his office door, he holds it open for you as a small smile splays on your lips. He pulls out two chairs for you to sit on across from each other.

“Could I offer you some wine or tea?” He stands back up making his way across his neat office to wear he keeps all of his personal beverages.

“Um… whatever you’re having sir, I’ll have as well.” You smile with your teeth showing and he looks back over, almost as if he was impressed with your answer, raising his eyebrows with a smirk.

“Can you tell me about your plans for this party?” He asks as he starts opening a bottle and lifts two wine glasses out of the cupboard. You start explaining, “well sir, it’s very new to me as of this morning. I know the location and I believe we’ll have it next Saturday the 25th and the dress code will be fancy so people can dress up not in uniform.” As you finish he walks back over setting a glass down in front of you with no emotion showing on his face. As he sits down and straightens his jacket he stares into your eyes intensely. “The 25th? And your sure this is just a work party?”

“Yes sir, a winter solstice party per Erwin, and it falls on the Saturday after the shortest day of the year so I thought it would be great.”

He nods, sipping his wine and you follow. You wonder if there is something wrong with the 25th to him.

“I don’t know what condition this abandoned castle is in, I appreciate you lending the squad to help-”

“Were a team. And I believe a team is only as valuable as their work ethic and cleaning,” he cuts you off.

“Yes sir,” you nod taking another sip of wine. You note that if this conversation stays this awkward your glass of wine will be finished in no time.

“Please L/n, you don’t have to call me sir or captain behind closed doors, unless you want to of course.” It seems he turned his flirty tone on that you heard the other night, but you can’t tell.

“Oh um yes sir. Oh wait sorry um whatever you say.” You giggle at your stumble of words, “I’m just so used to addressing my superiors like that, it may be a hard habit for me to break.”

“By all means, if you’d like to call me that you can. I’m just letting you know I respect my squad enough that they don’t have to.”

“I suppose you’re right,” your cheeks tinge pink in the candle lights of his office. “I feel too old when people around here call me ma’am.” You roll your eyes teasingly as you see him crack a small smile.

You take another gulp of wine, noticing how he is staring at his glass, swirling the deep red liquid around, thinking.

“How did you decide to join the scouts?” He says once again with little emotion. You can’t tell if he actually cares or if he’s going to judge you for your answer.

“Well sir,” you blush as the title slips out but continue your sentence, “I was getting to the age where my parents were pressuring me to get a job or marry off to become a house wife to someone in the interior, and I didn’t want either of those things. I wanted to make my own choices and it seems like the only place women are respected within the walls is in the military.”

He raises his eyebrows, “interesting.” And takes the last sip of his wine glass. He stands up as you follow suit and grabs your glass to go refill them.

“Can I ask you how you got here sir?” Your voice raises nearly an octave of nervousness, knowing he doesn’t like to get too personal with anyone at all.

He doesn’t turn around to acknowledge he heard you, merely standing there in silence filling the glasses, finishing the bottle between the two of them. He turns around holding the two studying your face before he starts walking back towards you. “You haven’t heard the rumors? Why do you need to know from me?” His voice has a slight punch to it, you’re not sure if he’s angry, disappointed or a mixture.

“I’m sorry captain, I’ve heard the rumors, I just would prefer to hear it from you since you heard my story.” You reply shying back into your seat as he sets the glasses down again.

“Nobody usually cares to hear it from me. They’ve heard it from the higher ups and that’s enough for them,” he says looking at his shoes and not daring to make eye contact.

You stand up and rest your hand on his that is resting near his wine glass, “You don’t have to tell anyone anything, but if you do want to I’m here to listen.” He looks up at you as you say those last few words, a more gentle expression on his face from 2 minutes ago.

Levi dares to look away from your eyes only to look at your soft plump lips that always seem to be curved upwards. He can’t help but feel an urge to press his lips against your own. He looks back up at your beautiful eyes, licking his lips. He slides his hand out from under yours to take another sip of his wine.

You feel that he didn’t want you touching him so you move to sit back down across from him. “So uhm, tomorrow..” you start looking at your hands in your lap thinking about his mixed signals, “what time would you like to leave here?”

Levi clears his throat to get your lips on his out of his mind, “it’ll take about an hour on horse back to get there. I think we should try to get the squad to meet at 8 at the stables and head out as soon as everyone is ready.”

“Sounds great.” You feel your cheeks warming up from the almost half a bottle of wine that you have drank in such a short time frame. You still don’t dare to look up again, thinking about how you saw him looking at your lips but also brushing your hand away.

It is now captain Levi’s turn to stand up, reaching over to touch your chin with his pointer finger and thumb. “What are you thinking about, l/n?” You feel sparks on your skin where his fingers are, trying to think fast to come up with a lie but your brain short circuits.

“You,” you whisper.

“Really?” He whispers back, leaning down now so he is eye level to you. “And why is that pretty little head thinking about me?” You can smell the wine on his breath with the proximity of your faces, and you know he can smell it on you as well.

Your face shys away from his trying to look elsewhere in the room. His grip on your chin and jaw bone tightens, “I asked you a question, don’t get shy now, huh?” The newfound sultry voice he was speaking in made you feel like there were sparks in your lower stomach and between your legs.

“Well sir, we still haven’t really discussed what happened a few weeks ago and when I am around you alone I find it just… intoxicating” you respond with a smirk, not knowing who is going to initiate the kiss first.

“Hmm,” he backs his face away standing up straight again. He walks around behind your chair, moving your hair behind your ear and picking up the remaining few sips of wine you have in your glass. “Intoxicating you say?” He asks, lightly gripping your jaw again to tilt your head backwards to look at him.

“Open.” He looks at your lips again, and that spark you felt in your abdomen earlier seems to ignite all over your body. You comply to his request opening your mouth and keeping eye contact. He tilts half of the wine glass into his mouth and the remaining he pours into your open mouth. He is watching you intently as your throat bobs and you reopen your mouth for him, not knowing the glass was empty. He leans over spitting the wine that he had just had in his mouth into your open hole and closes your jaw for you.

Realizing what just happened an immense blush comes over your cheeks he walks around your chair to your front, motioning you to stand up now. Mere inches from your face he whispers “Good girl.” You whimper as your knees almost give out now realizing how turned on by this you are. His hand wraps around the back of your neck as he begins to lean forward to kiss you. After your lips barely connect he leans back, “does getting called good girl make you weak L/n?”

You don’t respond initially, leaning in to deepen the kiss. When you break away again you pant “Please call me y/n outside of work,” taking your turn to flip the cards on him.

The lust in his eyes darkens from a steel gray to almost black as you notice a bulge in his pants.

“Cmere y/n,” he says walking towards the one door off the side of his office. You feel chills all over your body hearing your first name roll off his tongue for the first time and follow him like a lost puppy through the mystery door. It turns out his sleeping quarters are right next to his office, a large bed neatly made with a few plants and another desk, and a small couch which looks like it’s never been sat on. He grabs your hands, “you can look around later, eyes on me.” He sits on the edge of the bed pulling you closer to him between his manspread legs. You begin to kiss him again, deeper, more passionately this time. Initiating your tongue entering his mouth, he groans and rolls his eyes back making your kiss vibrate some. Your mouths fight for power, biting at each others lips and twirling your tongues around each other. He wraps his arms around the small of your back pulling you to straddle his lap. You stumble down trying to continue kissing him all the while. He pulls back, fully smiling for the first time you’ve ever seen. He looks so impressed with you although you’ve hardly done anything.

You adjust your hips as you straddle him so the bulge in his pants runs right against the seam that goes up the middle of your pants. He goes for your ear and neck, kissing and licking. You pull at his uniform jacket sleeves as permission to take it off him. He mumbles something along the lines of “go ahead” against your neck and you pull off the sleeves and throw the jacket further back on the bed. Your fingers reach to undo his cravat but he pulls away, hand grabbing the collar of your shirt. “Tch, not so fast my dear. You want to see me that bad? You desperate for your captain?”

It then hits you that you are currently hooking up with your superior and your eyes widen, regret filling them but the wetness in between your legs being too bad to ignore.

“‘Ts okay baby, if it makes you feel better this is my first time hooking up with someone in the scouts too” he kisses your collar bone and shoulders a few times and pauses again, “we can stop whenever you want.”

You shut your eyes whispering near his ear “Please Levi, don’t wanna stop.” With that he begins to unbutton your uniform blouse kissing along the seam as he goes down. “Good, me either,” he pants looking up at you as he kisses between your breasts.

You work your hands down again to try taking off his cravat and this time he lets you. He throws off your shirt after finishing the last button as he runs his hands over your curves and feels your ass over your jeans.

You begin unbuttoning his shirt, fingers shaking and fumbling with anticipation to see more of this beautiful man. He helps you, working from the bottom up. As your hands meet in the middle of his chest he rests his hand over yours. You nervously look down at his torso scared of staring for too long. He finishes taking off the sleeves as lays back on the bed with you still straddling him. “Go’n baby it’s okay if you stare,” he says plainly. You look over his defined stomach muscles and the various scars that cover his body where you can’t see in uniform. You softly run your nails up from his v-line to his neck, finishing with a kiss to his jaw and neck. You crawl off to the side so you are no longer on top of him, working to unbutton your uniform pants, knowing it takes a hot minute to undo some of the straps.

Levi sits up starting to undo his pants as well leaning into kiss you again while you both do.

As you’re there in your matching lace panties and bra and he’s in his black boxer briefs you can’t help put look to wear he pokes out and has a small wet patch of precum.

“Captain…can .. can I taste you?” You nervously look at him while rubbing his larger than average erection through his undergarment. His eyes flutter closed at the contact. “Please, yes please.” He practically begs and you rush to your knees in between his legs as he moves to the edge of the bed and pulls down his underwear. His cock is so veiny and large, it slaps up against his abdomen as you whimper slightly. Your noise makes him twitch and he reaches his hand out to help fix your hair, ever so gently.

You lean in, deciding to go for it before you get too nervous to back out. You take his cock head leaking with precum in your mouth, twirling your tongue to taste it. “Mmmm” you moan against him, causing him to cuss under his breath. You begin bobbing your head up and down reaching further down the shaft each time.

Levi’s cute moans, groans, and borderline whimpers send you over the edge, reaching down between your legs to feel your wetness. “Naughty girl,” he groans and draws your eyes up to look at him directly. “God I’ve thought about your eyes looking up at me for so long,” he admits. Your cheeks blush with his cock down your throat knowing your captain has thought about this before. You moan reverberates against his shaft as your fingers run over your folds and circling your throbbing clit.

“Can I taste you hmm?” He smirks down at you, and you bring the two fingers from between your legs to his mouth. He sticks his tongue out seductively before sucking each individually and then licking in between them while keeping eye contact.

“Fuck Levi, that was hot,” you take his throbbing member out of your mouth to whimper.

He holds your hand in yours, “please, can I taste more of you dear?” You hop off your knees a little too excited as he pushes you gently to lay back on the bed. He pulls down your panties throwing them with the other pile of clothes. With his right hand he fists his cock still moist from your mouth. He uses his left hand to run his pointer finger from your clit down to your hole before inserting it. Your eyes roll back in excitement, and he takes the opportunity to insert a second. You adjust to the second finger well, moaning loudly already.

“That’s it pretty girl, you’re doing so good. Do you want my cock in you?” He asks as his fingers pumping in your are in synch with his hand wrapping around his throbbing erection.

“Yes please sir,” you whine as you have your arm over half of your face embarrassed of the expressions you’re making out of pleasure.

He smirks up at you, “even still calling me sir when you have me in bed, what a polite little slut.” Your cheeks blush again as his words make you clench around his fingers. He leans his head down to begin licking and sucking at your clit and assisting the work his fingers are doing.

You do your best to hide how surprised you are at how talented he is with his tongue. He is flicking your clit with tiny licks at the perfect pressure and speed.

“Fuck, just like that, c-captain,” you moan out, unable to stop the whorish noises leaving you. He stops jerking himself now, afraid of cumming too soon. You feel your orgasm building up as he goads you on, “you going to cum pretty girl?”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, fuckkk Leviiii,” you moan out probably a bit too loud as his fingers continue curling up and reaching the perfect spots inside you. He sucks and licks at your clit a bit harder now, wanting you to lose it.

Your back arches and your eyes roll back as you warm feeling in your abdomen explodes and your toes curl. You’re a babbling moaning mess at this point, Levi still fingering you through your orgasm. It’s taking everything for him not to cum feeling the way your tight hole spasms around his fingers.

A beautiful smile comes across his face as he quits sucking on your bud to watch your face. You hold eye contact as your orgasm finishes, something about seeing him smile makes you want so much more. “Gooood girlll,” he says quietly, leaning over to kiss your forehead and then your lips and you cannot help but let out a meek “thank you captain” with flushed cheeks and trying to catch your breath.

“Do you want to keep going my dear?” He asks, looking down at his painfully hard cock.

“Mhm!” You answer a bit too excitedly making him chuckle as he helps position you on the bed so he can line himself up between your legs.

“Are you ready?” He whispers leaning over to your ear, leaving small kisses all over your ear and neck.

“Yes, sir” you answer and Levi groans at the way you’re so obedient. He grabs the base of his cock rubbing his tip through your folds gathering the wetness, before tapping your clit making you shudder. Once he is contempt with his teasing, he slowly pushes his tip into your wet cunt.

“Oh” you moan, forgetting how good it feels to have a cock inside of you, let alone one this massive.

A mix of expletives leaves Levi’s mouth as he fills you all the way up, feeling his tip touch your cervix. He slowly withdraws his cock to the tip before fucking it back inside of you, a little harder than the last. Levi picks up his speed as you moan with every single thrust.

“Fuck, your pussy is just so pretty and taking me so well, shit y/n” he says looking into your eyes, pupils blown out with lust. You unknowingly tighten at his words making him go further with his approval, “mmm, you like it when I praise you? Are you going to keep being a good girl for me?”

You can’t help but let out a particularly loud moan at his words, squeezing your eyes shut as he continues his thrusts in and out of you with more force now.

“Answer me, y/n. You want to be a good girl? My good girl?”

You open your eyes taking in the gorgeous man over you as your mouth drops open but you find a lack of words coming out. He gives a little slap to your clit to try to jumpstart your brain again, “cmon pretty girl, are you too fucked out already to answer?” His thrusts continue building up harder as you try to get the words out of your mouth.

“F-fucking shit, oh fuck - captainnnn, oh my god right there, yes yes yes I’m your good girl.” You whimper out as he rolls his eyes back in pleasure at your words. He grabs your right leg by the ankle pulling it up over his shoulder to get a deeper angle for both of you.

“I … can’t … believe … you’re … still … calling … me … captain … when … I’m … fucking … you” he says inbetween his powerful thrusts. This new angle has you a moaning mess, eyes watering from how good you feel. He licks the thumb of the hand not holding your leg and puts it down on your little sensitive clit beginning to rub, as he knows you’re building up to another orgasm.

“Leviiii, fuck yes!” Is all you can get out of your mouth at this point feeling your lower abdomen grow hot, you squeeze your eyes shut seeing stars. He moans watching your pleasure, knowing he isn’t too far behind you with his impending orgasm.

“Moaning like a slut, the whole barracks can probably hear you. They know you’re getting fucked by your captain, and you’re loving it.”

“Shit-yea, fuck captain, fuck me, fucking love it, please don’t stop-” you babble watching him smirk as you can hardly form a sentence after just a few minutes of his cock inside of you.

“Captain,” is all you manage to whimper out quietly as your orgasm washes over you, your tight hole clenching down on him making him curse and grunt. You look into his eyes the entire time as you grip the bed sheets, moans just falling out of your lips with no control. Your eyes water more, a few tears leaving as your high finishes, the pleasure just being too much.

You lay there panting as Captain Levi comes undone, watching his beautiful black hair with some sticking to his forehead with sweat and the way his eyebrows knit together as he bites his lip inbetween talking dirty to you. “God baby, so perfect, so tight for me” he mumbled as his hips start to lose their pace and stutter. He closes his eyes as he pulls out of your warm cunt and only takes a few stroke of his hand before he is shooting a massive load of his cum over your stomach and tits. “Y/n,” he nearly whimpers as the last of his cum lands on you, gently putting your right leg back down on the bed.

He bends over, kissing you with the longer pieces of his undercut running against your forehead tickling you. You smile into the kiss and he pulls away smiling, rolling over to lay on his side next to you.

“You have a really beautiful smile, you really should smile more.” You blurt out, embarrassed as that is the first thing that came to your mind after getting your brains fucked out. He sits up and walks through another door which you assume is the bathroom, grabbing a towel for you.

“Mhm sure, thanks,” he dismisses. “You want to take a shower?”

“Yeah but won’t people suspect if we go into the shower rooms together?” You giggle.

“Fine we’ll just pretend we happened to bump into each other on the way there,” he fake rolls his eyes, “you’re lucky I have a corner room so that the whole block didn’t figure it out from your moans.”

You pretend shove him, wrapping the towel he gave you before heading to the showers.

He is so gentle with you, washing your body in the shower and letting you wash his hair. His hands caress your every curve and if you didn’t know any better you think he might just bend you over right here in the shower.

You can’t help but get butterflies at this different side of the captain that you’re seeing this evening. Not awkward, being nice, smiling. Maybe all he needed was some pussy to stop being so gloomy. You both finish showering and decide to go to your room down the hall to get dressed. You think you see a little pout on his face at the decision but you kiss his cheek regardless. He responds with giving you a final kiss on the lips as your both drying off with towels.

“I’ll see you in the morning?” You say meekly

“Yeah sure,” he responds plainly.

“Hey, umm, thanks captain, for the sex, uh it was great.” He laughs and shakes his head as you make your way out the door, skimpering towards your door so nobody sees you.

—

The next morning you realize you left your uniform all scattered around Levi’s room and office and feel slightly embarrassed. Luckily you have more than one set of pants and shirt but that is your only tan jacket. You get dress hurriedly and put your hair into a low bun, and bust out your door in socks. You see your officer down the hall speaking with Miche outside of their rooms but he’s holding your things. You make your way over to him trying to make it inconspicuous, however Miche is one of the sharpest scouts there is. He has a superhuman sense of smell and all over just smart.

Levi’s eyes widen as he sees you approaching but he tries to keep his cool. He wraps up his conversation with Miche suspiciously fast as he opens his office door for you but the observant man already gives Levi questioning eyes. You hurry inside as the raven haired leader follows behind you.

“You have a huge hickey on your neck. Didn’t you look in the mirror?” You can’t tell if he’s gloating or angry.

You take your boots and jacket from him, sitting in the same chair as last night where he spit wine into your mouth. You strap up as fast as you can, not wanting to be late. You take your hair out of the bun and decide to braid it on the way to the stables so it will fall over your left side and hopefully hide the bruise. Nothing is said between the two of you as you make the walk there trailing behind him. You try to think is something to say but are at a loss for words at the time he used with you this morning.

You can’t help but think about the way he smiled at you last night and how he showered you so gently. Is he going to pretend like nothing happened? Your heart sinks as you think about that possibility. Do you have feelings for him? Was this going to be a friends with benefits situation? Or was it a one time thing?

He glances back at you, “hey” he says softly.

Your eyes go wide as he pulls you out of your train of thought. “Hey,” you respond sheepishly. “Don’t think too much into it.” He tells you before you both arrive to the stable so you can’t think about it.

As the squad finally arrives you all hop on your horses, as Levi leads and you are riding beside him. You can’t help but flinch a little at the soreness between your legs brought to your attention from riding.

You and Levi are far enough ahead that he doesn’t think people will hear him. “Are you um sore?” He glances at your face then down between your legs biting his lip.

“A bit, not too terrible,” you smile back at him letting out a little laugh to try to ease the tension.

“Good.” He says plainly although you can tell there is sincerity in his voice.

You ride mostly in silence, although you hear some of the squad behind you whispering and laughing and you can’t help but feel left out. Levi steals glances at you from time to time although you don’t want him to know you can tell.

You decide try to ease the tension asking, “That was really good wine last night, where did you get it?”

He scoffs over at you “Tch, wouldn’t you like to know. I may have to keep it a secret so you can come over to my room when you want it.”

You laugh at his joke, “Twist my arm, I guess,” as you dramatically roll your eyes.

The castle comes into your view in the distance and you can’t help but imagine how good it will look for the winter party.

“Don’t get too excited, we have a lot of work to do to get it cleaned up.” As if he read your mind Levi says also looking at the large building in the distance.

-

The squad enters the old dusty castle as the wagon carrying Levi’s cleaning supplies pulls up.

“L/n, are you good at cleaning?” Levi says in front of everyone. “I suppose?” You answer.

“Half with me and half with y/n. We’ll split the cleaning in half between dusting and mopping.”

You try your best to hide your blush as Captain Levi calls you by your first name for only the second time, and in front of everyone. The squad seems to only want to go with you, which ends with Levi calling about about 8 people to help him. You all gather your supplies and begin wiping down every surface from windows, ledges, railings, door knobs, lighting fixtures, and more. Your team finishes the main ballroom as you go over everything for a second time. You split them up to handle the other rooms and foyer earlier. It leaves just you in the large ballroom until you hear footsteps approaching you. You keep cleaning until you feel someone standing right behind you, arms on both sides of your head. You feel your ass rub against who you could only assume to be your partner from last night.

“Good work, L/n,” Levi whispers seductively in your ear, leaving a little bite and kiss on the right side that happened to be hickey free. Your breathing hitches and you find your fingers unable to continue with his close proximity. Right then he backs away and a few seconds later the door swings open with his team coming in. You turn around slack jawed at your interaction with captain Levi. One of the other men from your squad asks “y/n are you okay? Your face is kinda red, did you inhale too much cleaning product?” He elbows the man next to him attempting to make a joke, but it happens to be Miche who looks at you plain faced, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah I’m great! Just working a little too hard I guess,” you awkwardly laugh, ignoring the throb between your legs. Levi is standing so no one could see his face but you, begins smirking, thinking about how fun this will be to mess with you.

After a few hours the place is fully cleaned up to Captain Levi’s standards. He dismisses the men to make their way back to base and stays back with you as you sketch down ideas for decorations. He nods at each of your ideas, agreeing with all your plans.

“And everyone can bring dates and we’ll hire musicians from town, and we can drink and just have so much fun!” You ramble on about how excited you are as Levi looks at you with a slight upturn to his lips.

“Will you be my date?” He blurts out.

“Are you joking? Just because were planning this together doesn’t mean you need to have me as your date…” you blush looking down at your notepad.

“No, I’m asking you because I want to.” He says tilting your chin up to look at him, followed by him leaning in to kiss your lips.

—

Part 3 coming soon besties , thanks for reading ❤️💚

[wildstar25]

Many thoughts specifically about miqo'te having their own unique wintertime celebration akin to a festival of lights and/or warmth that would date back to the fifth umbral era (age of endless frost). It could be something that recounts their peoples' great crossing over the ice bridge during a time where days were short and nights were frigid.

The two tribes could celebrate it slightly differently, I think:

Seekers would focus on bringing light into their lives by gathering as a tribe around a big bonfire as the sun goes down. The eldest of the tribe recounts the blessing of fire granted to them by their goddess Azeyma. They mention the torches their ancestors carried along their journey never went out, no matter how strong or cold the winds became over the frozen ocean straight. The light of the flames kept their tribe together in the dark; it let them see the path ahead when the sun went down and was strong enough to be seen by even the slowest trailing members of the migrating tribes. Food is cooked by the flames as children run and play. Of Age Tias endlessly sing over each other, all trying to demonstrate how well they know their clan's traditional songs. The Nuhn keeps the fire going through the night, making sure it doesn't burn out until the light of tomorrow's dawn arrives.

Keepers would focus how the warmth of their family clans kept them alive where most other life perished in the cold. They would hold a large feast on the night of a full moon; stewed game, seasoned preserves, fresh loafs of sesame flour bread, roasted mushrooms and root vegetables would fill their bellies as the night festivities went on. Tokens of love and appreciation would be shared among clan members. As a rare occurrence in keeper life, wandering males would be invited in to partake in the revelry. Prayers would be sung in honour of Menphina, giving thanks bringing love to their lives and for guiding their ancestors together across the horizon. Arms would link together to create circles of dancing miqo'te. Hyms and cheers would carry through the forest for as long as the moon remained high in the sky. Love struck pairings might slink off to deepen their new connections while the remaining family members sleep in groups, sharing each others warmth for the night like those who crossed over into Eorzea so long ago.

Something like that!! Idk this is just off of the top of my head thoughts. Mostly just think that it would make more sense that the Miqo'te tribes and clans have their own cultural practises as they were/are a nomadic people that (in lore) are small in number and tend to keep to themselves. Stories of their people would need to be passed down in one way or another, why not make it a holiday??

[smallishbeansshouldwinplease]

Grian is right there.

Grian is right there.

Still, Joel doesn't look at him — runs straight past him even.

"I am willing to sacrifice my life for him." He told to BigB and Pearl. And he was, he would — he would do it in a heartbeat if it meant Joel would survive for another thirty minutes. The image of deserts and cactus lingers in his mind, but he shakes away the chilling comparison.

"Joel– Joel, kill me!" He pleaded, watching as Joel crumbles into himself, muttering whispers of murder as he faces against Scar.

"I will kill Scar instead, Grian!" And he can see how Joel's losing himself, losing sight of anything other than getting time. But he still manages to deny weakly, to not kill him, to not kill a Bad Boy.

But Joel sees how desperate his eyes were, he sees how he's practically begging him. And he relents.

The worry in his chest abates, he can see Joel get another kill on Scar and immediately, he can breath easy now.

If it was for the Bad Boys, Grian wouldn't mind.

If it was for the Bad Boys, It would be worth it.

But he hears Joel's voice near their respawn point and his heart almost breaks.

"I'm not killing you again, Grian — You need to survive." Joel rushes out, frantic and frazzled about the tick-tock-tick-tock that beats against his chest.

"Joel, you can kill me! I will give you — " Everything. I would give you everything if you would just asked. But it goes unheard as Joel runs on five minutes, sprinting with a weapon in hand on the remains of the original bread bridge.

In the end, Joel's loyalty fails him as he is pierced with an arrow. Grian didn't even see, he didn't even notice other than the cut off words. Instead of Joel, he sees lightning in its place.

He's out. Officially out.

"So, hey guys. I'm a Nosy Neighbor now." Grian immediately puts on a well-placed laugh. Nearing towards Pearl and BigB.

"Come on neighbors, let's go back to our base!"

So he goes into an unknown home, putting on airs of how Joel was a costly friend, an expense that was too pricey to keep.

But he would never forget in that heat of the moment where he was ready to sacrifice all of the time that he held, just to see another Bad Boy live through another day.

"Thanks Joel."

Instead, the plentiful hours sit on his chest, running slowly as ever. Whereas the clocks on both of his former members lay dead and unmoving.

Bad Boys could always try to sacrifice themselves for eachother, but it doesn't matter. None of it does. If the universe wills it to, it will be done. Whether it was Jimmy, dying first once more, sending Joel into a frenzy of "I was gonna give him more time—!". Whether it was Joel, running straight first into danger just to grasp onto a thin string of life, refusing to acknowledge the fact that Grian was right there with plenty of time to spare.

Grian tries not to let it show, how much he's mourning that fact.

[sgiandubh]

National personification

The UK has Britannia. France has Marianne. The US have Uncle Sam. National personifications, summing up supposed collective qualities and passing on a message, both to citizens and foreigners alike. Instantly recognizable by just about anyone. To be found everywhere, from city halls (busts, frescoes, tapestries) to subway walls (Army conscription posters - of course it rings a bell!).

Romania has this:

This is Revolutionary Romania, as seen by C.D. Rosenthal, an Austrian painter who found both friendship and an avid clientele among the Romanian young rebels who tried and failed to overthrow the corrupted Ottoman rule, in 1848. Following them in exile and probably also spying on their behalf, Rosenthal was finally arrested in Budapest and tortured to death by the Imperial authorities: a normal occurrence in troubled times. His memory went on and on and on, because the same friends were soon to come back home and become ministers, bankers, newspaper owners: a modern democracy slowly emerged.

This is his most famous portrait and it quickly became our Britannia of sorts. Ceaușescu had it placed in his office, for inspiration - it did not help much, though.

The woman painted by Rosenthal holds the red, yellow and blue flag and is dressed in a Southern peasant costume, as it was worn at the time. She gazes with strength, determination and confidence towards a future that spells free press, parliamentary elections, industrialization and capitalist speculation. In real life, she is Maria Rosetti, a personal friend and sponsor of his. The wife of C.A. Rosetti, an authentic Prince of Genoese and Greek stock, one of the leaders of both the rebellion and the future Liberal Party. Also a many times removed relative of this blogger - but let's not insist. 😉

There is a catch, however, in all this fine and dandy story. Our national personification, the woman I just mentioned, is Scottish. Her life begins in Guernsey in 1819, as Marie Grant, the daughter of Captain Edward Grant, a ship-owner businessman and member of the Clan Grant of Carron and Spey and Marie La Lacheur, a French Huguenot woman.

These people, who fought as Jacobites at Prestonpans and Culloden and whose motto was 'Stand Fast':

Marie came to Wallachia, or what is now the Southern part of Romania, around 1837, following her younger brother, Effingham Grant, who just managed to find a lucrative job as the private secretary of another Scot (Glaswegian, even), Robert Gilmour Colquhoun, the newly appointed British Consul-General. At the time, these were long term postings, not unlike a long sojourn on a space station of sorts: Colquhoun remained in Bucharest from 1835 to 1854, when he eventually was posted to Bosnia.

Because she needed to support herself, Marie found a well paid live-in job as a governess for the family of Ion Odobescu, a high ranking Police honcho (also a far removed relative, this time on my maternal grandmother's side - the world is really, really small). The rest was easy enough: having met Rosetti through her brother, they fell in love, eloped to Plymouth and got married there, for what was to become a life long equal political and business partnership. Because they owned several newspapers, she is our first female journalist. A truly remarkable woman, a philanthropist and an indispensable voice advocating for the dispossessed. Effingham went on to establish the biggest foundry in the country, along with a real estate company, a tobacco manufacture, an orchid greenhouse and a bread factory - all prospered beyond any expectations. A heavy traffic steel bridge in Bucharest still bears his name. Enduring legacies.

For those brave enough or bored enough to look for more, here is the best detailed account on her I could find, based on Guernsey sources (but not only): https://www.priaulxlibrary.co.uk/node/386 .

[kelly-clickspring]

I always forget how fun it is to paint space! Astrophel here is basically a living nebula, and I've never drawn him as such (I've done humanoid projections, but never actually explored this idea where he's more than a hallucinatory avatar). I couldn't not write a little scene to go with this, so read a short, fun little snippet under the cut!

As the ship helplessly drifts into the gravity well of the collapsing star, the captain and crew hold each other. Crying out goodbyes as the plating of the hull begins to singe: heat and radiation finally breaching the shields. Until suddenly, the relentless pull of the star ceases, as if it were gone. The ship lurches to a complete halt, leaving every crew member breathless and confounded in their expectation of death. 

“Oh my stars: brand new space explorers! I’m so glad I, uh, happened to be in the neighborhood. Can’t let this little incident stop you short of the stars,” the voice is everywhere at once, but comes from no one. The tones are ethereal and smooth as velvet, suggesting peace but giving unease as it somehow consumes all other sound to clearly resound in each crew person’s brain. 

The bridge crew sits awestruck as the fiery storm ahead of them suddenly disappears into a haze of green dust, and as if by magic, the ship materializes well outside the clutches of the powerful gravity well which nearly crushed them all into fiery oblivion. The captain’s cat-like ears bristle as they take a fiery jaunt around the bridge, searching for some source of this bizarre trickery on hundreds of monitors and feeds while the crew struggle to collect themselves. Some machinery is fried, the rest babbles garbled data which doesn't make a lick of sense. Where is the ship, the satellite, anything? They're in some cloud of unidentifiable substance drifting through space, full of strange, fluctuating energy signatures that baffle the sensors.

“SHOW YOURSELF!” The captain demands. 

“My, aren’t we brave? Giving orders to an extraterrestrial who is, well, a lot taller than you, and can project thoughts directly into your little brain is a bold move captain.” 

The furry creature’s jaw drops at the banter. Flustered, they resume their captainly facade with a huff. “Where is your ship? Where are you? And what is this nonsense?” 

“Peek-a-boo!” The voice prods with a mirthful tone, giggling at the captain’s serious insistence. 

The entire bridge crew is slammed dumbstruck at the sight that emerges from the darkness of space. The dust parts into what is the most massive eyeball any crew member has ever laid eyes on: big as the entire bridge and playfully glancing through the heavy composite view port right in front of the captain’s now stock stiff form. It's a gorgeous verdant green that glows softly, casting the bridge in otherworldly luminescence. Every crew member’s jaw is agape, and their rapidly beating hearts feel like they’ve sunken to their stomachs. In an incongruously smooth and gentle motion, the eye recedes to reveal an entire massive face, apparently made of celestial stone that softly glitters in the light from the now distant star. They’re literally in the hands of this creature: held up like tiny a toy and completely helpless. The glittering face shifts into a disgruntled expression. 

“Come now, you don’t get to be afraid after I saved you from certain doom. If I wanted you all hurt I’d have just left you to your own devices, that star could have chewed you up perfectly well if I hadn’t intervened,” the massive creature teases, it's mouth not moving at all as it speaks.

The crew loosens up ever so slightly until the massive face cracks into a playful grin, revealing astronomically large teeth like the beak of a squid. Imposing towers of stone that could pierce the hull as though it were made of bread. The sinking of dread is overturned abruptly as a soft tickle of euphoria wraps around each crew member’s consciousness. Not enough to challenge their lucidity, but calming their nerves like the beginning of an alcohol fueled buzz. 

“Gracious, I’m the first new life form you all have met if all your projected thoughts aren’t confused. Let’s skip the frightfulness, it makes me feel ill. I will make you feel better so we can have a pleasant chat,” The creature gives a playful wink. “I am Astrophel. Promise I won’t tell anyone about your little debacle, and you can test your instruments on me if you’d like! You can relax now, you’re out of harm's way. I’ll keep you safe until you’ve done necessary repairs and can get back on your way. We’ll be fast friends, and that’s exactly how I like it!”

[anurapoda]

Could you write some Grian + Etho? Don't care about type of pairing

HELLO ignore the fact it took me several months to write this, but I did it! I did a thing! I even had it beta read!! Just for you! The beginning and middle were written about 2 months before I got around to the ending, so if there's a mild shift in quality that's why. I haven't actually watched the episode where Grian enacts the sword so this isn't going to properly follow that AT ALL but it is inspired by it because at the time it was fresh on the ol' brain

Pairing: Grian + Etho Relationship: Platonic/Ambiguous Content Warnings: blood, injuries Words: 1335

The Sword

In Episode 8 Etho finds Grian exhausted, gravely injured, and without the supplies needed to heal himself. Instead of taking advantage of the situation and ending the last Bad Boy, Etho offers to enact the sword. Fluff ensues as the T.I.E.S member tends to the Bad Boys wounds.

[story under cut]

------------------------------

Grian's breathing was staggered as he clawed his way up the hill towards what was once The Clockers home, now abandoned with the once chaotic family that inhabited its walls dead somewhere in the small world they had called home. The blond knew he'd soon meet the same fate, the blood steadily running down his neck ensuring he’d bleed out if someone didn’t get to him first.

As his nails dug into the soft soil at the top, the avian pulled his body up and breathed deeply. Behind him, his wings hung limp, useless even if it weren't for his cut flight feathers.

Shaking some dirt from them, he didn't hesitate any longer as he made his way onto unsteady feet and dashed towards Bad Boys Bread Bridge and the mansion. There would be supplies there for him to heal. There had to be.

Limping as he made his way across the bad boys bread bridge, he thanked Mojang that no one else seemed to be around. Reaching the top of the mansion, Grian practically collapsed on top of the first chest he saw. Opening it with trembling fingers, he peered inside only for his heart to drop.

Moving to the next one he checked again, surely there would be food or medicine in this one! When the second was also empty he checked a third, then a fourth... his breathing only grew more unsteady as chest after chest yielded no result.

Frantically checking the chests once more, he didn't hear the footsteps approaching him from behind. Didn't hear the sword as it was drawn. Didn't hear the object swing through the air, making contact with his already injured shoulder and sending him tumbling to the side.

Gasping as fresh pain infected his entire being, Grian quickly caught himself on the dark oak roof and fumbled to draw a sword as he stared up at his attacker. Etho.

The man above him didn't give him a chance to stand, quickly bringing another swing down which nearly missed the blond's head as he rolled out of the way. With shaky hands he swung back but was easily countered, the diamond sword clattering to the ground as its owner tried crawling away.

A foot dug into the younger man's back, stopping him in his futile attempt at escape and cutting off much of his already shallow airflow as Etho bent down to whisper in his ear. A shiver ripped through Grian’s spine as he spoke.

"Hi, little birdy~" He sounded almost smug, waiting a moment for a response before giving a small laugh, "Cat got your tongue?"

No response still. No, Grian’s breathing was far too staggered to even dream of responding to the man above him. To the man who was about to end his life. His breathing only staggered more at the thought as splintered nails dug into wood, trying desperately to pull away from the constant pressure on his spine.

Etho seemed to move away from him, foot staying steadily on his back but at least now his mouth wasn’t practically touching Grian’s ear. Awaiting the final swing that would remove the head from his limbs, the blond closed his eyes.

But it never came. Instead, Etho sighed and evenly asked, "Do you want to enact the sword?"

The sword? Grian’s mind raced, what sword? He couldn't think straight, his mind racing far too quickly to properly compute anything intelligent. After a few moments of continued struggling as the pressure on his body only increased, it hit him. The sword!

"Y-yes!" Grian gasped between sharp breaths, immediately feeling the pressure lift from his back. Without a word Etho flipped the man over, checking his pulse as the younger continued to breathe irregularly.

"Ok bud, I need you to calm down, can you do that for me? One breath in," Etho said, taking a deep breath in as though to demonstrate.

Once Grian followed the motion, the white haired man breathed out, Grian did the same. After repeating this motion for several minutes, the blond's breathing evened out as well as it could. It was still rather shallow and not completely even, but it was far better than it had been when the encounter began.

Brushing some hair out of the younger man's face, Etho smiled, "Good birdy, got any healing supplies?"

Grian shook his head, opening his mouth to brush off Ethos concern only to be shushed as the white haired man reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of bandages. 

As the older man reached out for Grian’s shoulder the blond pulled away and shook his head, “You can’t use your supplies on me, you need them.”

Etho only tilted his head, giving the younger a smile through his mask as her cheerfully replied, “Don’t worry, I got more. Plus I’m not injured right now.”

“Right now.” He echoed, pulling away as the older tried to bandage his shoulder again, “What if you get hurt later, what then?”

Shrugging, the fox hybrid shifted his weight, “You don’t have to worry about me, just let me fix your arm.” He began reaching out again.

“No!” Grian almost yelped, trying to pull away once more only for the older man to snatch his arm up and drag the avian closer with considerable force. Etho barely acknowledged him as he began wrapping the shoulder, ignoring his various protests and pleas to save the supplies for himself.

When the fox finished bandaging the blonds shoulder he leaned back into a crouched position and studied his work with a faint smile before pushing himself to stand properly. Looking at Grian, he tilted his head, “Got any food?”

The avian huffed, staring up at the man with feigned anger, “You’re not giving me your food.” 

“Who says it’s my food?” Etho asked with a smirk, pulling half a stack of bread from his inventory.

Grian squawked, “You evil man! You stole our bread!”

Tossing the slightly stale loafs on the ground before Grian, Etho watched as the smaller scrambled to grab them before they got completely coated in dirt. The two stared at one another for a few moments before Ethos smile widened.

“Are you not going to eat?” The man asked, mischievous slipping through his words.

The avian stared at him skeptically, picking at a piece of bread as he asked, “Why are you helping me?”

“You enacted the sword,” Etho replied with a shrug

“Yeah but that just means you won’t kill me right now, we’re still enemies.”

“True,” The fox looked into the distance, eyes squinting as he focused on something just out of Grian’s sight, “But you’re still my friend, even in this hellscape. I’m not going to leave you when you clearly need help.”

Grian snorted, “But you’re ok with killing me?”

“No,” Etho gave a pained smile, turning his attention back to the avian, “But we both know what will happen if we refuse.”

The two fell into a silence after that. Grian finally popping a piece of bread into his mouth as Etho watched intently, eyes occasionally wandering somewhere else only to snap back to the smaller man. By the time two loaves were gone, Grian sighed.

“I guess this is where we part ways then?” The blond asked.

Nodding, Etho gave a small smile, “Just remember, there’s no sword left to enact - next time I will kill you.” 

The man said the words so nicely, as though speaking to an old friend, that they sent a shiver down Grian spine. He didn’t wait for a response before the fox hopped off the side of the bridge, the sound of water echoing from where he landed as Grian was left alone.

Taking a moment to gather himself, the blond gripped the fourteen remaining bread before stuffing them into his inventory. Getting to his feet, he brandished his weapon and continued on down the bread bridge. Next time he saw Etho he would win, he wouldn’t need to enact a sword.

[thethistlegirlwrites]

How We Fall

For @augustofwhump day 1 - food/risk/overexertion

Emmett swallows hard, blinking away the blurriness in front of his eyes. His hands feel like they’re not really attached to his body, and he can’t afford to make a mistake. He doesn’t have a spare piece of wood large enough to function as a replacement if he ruins this one. Not with the timber prices these days. 

The cinderpine boards are warm to the touch. A valuable feature in the northern provinces and one people are willing to pay a higher price to own, but one the carpenters who work with it pay for in ways other than a few coins. His fingers are constantly reddened and scabbed, small sores in between his thumb and finger where the sawdust collects. The dust burns his lungs and his eyes whenever he saws off a new piece. He pinches the bridge of his nose to stave off the headache and winces.

He has to finish this chair by the time the Cohort’s market wagon leaves tomorrow morning. Otherwise it'll be another week until he can sell this set. He and Carlo can't last a week without that money.

He swallows the ache in his throat from the dust in the air, ignores the hungry snarling in his stomach, and reaches for the small flat plane. There’s a rough edge on the back he needs to smooth over. People complain when their clothes get caught on their furniture. His reputation is the only way he’s going to keep making any sales at all.

Emmett slices a few small curls free before his hands shake so badly he nicks the wood about halfway across.

He sets down the plane and rests his head on his arms, trying not to cry.

It’s a small mistake. Something he can easily sand over and smooth out. Something people could possibly assume is a blemish in the wood, not a mistake on the part of the carpenter. But he’ll know. He’ll see it until he hands it over to the cart driver, and he’ll remember it for far longer. 

It seems like all Emmett is doing these days is making mistakes.

He can’t do this alone.

He can’t drive a bargain like his father, keep the house running smoothly like his mother, or take care of Carlo’s bruised knees and heartaches like Teresa. He’s good at what he’s good at. Working with the wood in his hands, tugging on its latent memories of life to twist it into new shapes and encourage it to hold that life long enough to mold to a new owner’s wishes. He’s good at finding quality pieces at the sale yard and frying fish and telling bedtime stories. It’s not enough. It’s never enough. If he manages to get one thing right, three more slip through his fingers in the same moment. 

His world is as off balance and unstable as a chair with three broken legs. 

The tears slip past his sniffs and blinks and slide down his cheeks anyway. He’s messing everything up. Nothing is going right and he doesn’t see that changing any time soon. Carlo cried himself to sleep tonight, a combination of missing the family members they’ve lost and the hunger gnawing at his stomach.

Emmett had tried not to let Carlo see how badly he wanted the small chunk of bread and the sliver of dry fish he’d dug out of the cupboards and put on Carlo’s plate before he went back to the workbench. He’d convinced Carlo, and maybe himself even, that he’d eat after he was done with this chair back.

But there’s nothing left for him even if he finishes this now. 

He’s so hungry. It hurt for a long time, then stopped, and now it hurts again, like his body is angry with him for withholding food and chewing him up from the inside out. 

The only thing worse than struggling to cling to a life that’s crumbling underneath him would be giving up. He can’t do that to Carlo. As long as his son is still breathing, Emmett has a purpose. A reason to keep dragging himself out of bed, to keep working through the days and half the nights. 

There’s a stack of sandpaper on the table against the wall. He stands up to grab a piece, and the room sways. He grabs for the edge of the workbench, but it looks like there’s two of both his hand and the plank top, and he touches nothing but empty air as his legs wobble under him and then the world around him goes black.

He wakes up to a hand shaking his shoulder. 

“Dad? Dad?” Carlo’s voice is frantic. “Dad, wake up, please!” 

Emmett blinks, or tries to. One eye opens just fine. The other is crusted closed with something. He struggles to sit, reaching out half blindly for the leg of his work table. He runs one hand over the side of his face that feels sticky, and it comes away red with half-dried blood.

He feels up across his forehead and winces when his fingers brush a tender gash. 

“Dad, there’s so much blood. I’m scared,” Carlo whimpers, hands clinging in white-knuckled fists to Emmett’s shirt, head buried in his dad’s shoulder.

“I’m okay.” Emmett wraps an arm around Carlo and pulls him close. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

He’s not sure if that’s a lie or not. His head is throbbing and feels like someone drove a nail into it just above his eye, but he’s fairly sure he would be dead if he had fallen on anything sharp. He uses his free hand to check the wound again, but it’s just a gash. His fingers brush away crusted blood, and a few spots start weeping fresh again. He pulls his hand away. 

“Are you sick?” Carlo asks.

“No.” Emmett knows Carlo is terrified of losing his only remaining parent the way they’ve lost everyone else. And the first indication they had that Theresa was ill was her collapse in the kitchen. “I just got too tired and fell asleep on my feet.”

“You’re supposed to sleep in the bed,” Carlo says with a watery laugh. 

“I know. How about we both go to sleep, huh?” Emmett says, struggling to his feet and following Carlo on shaky legs that threaten to give out all over again. 

Long after Carlo’s breaths even and deepen against Emmett’s arm, Emmett lays awake, staring at the ceiling. 

He’s running out of options. 

There are very few good ways to make a living in Rime. Emmett’s failing at trying to be a legitimate craftsman selling through the Cohort’s brokers. They take so much of the sale that he’s barely turning a profit. 

His other options aren’t any better. Judging by some of the comments and sidelong glances he’s gotten in the market, he could make some decent money if he was willing to tie a few ribbons on his sleeve and walk the streets at dusk, but he knows full well that people in that line of work don’t live long. If a sickness doesn’t take them, they’re more than likely to find a client’s knife in their chest. Emmett can’t do that to Carlo. Tonight scared him too much to risk dying every time he takes someone new to bed.

But the other option he’s considering is still a dangerous risk. 

The syndicates charge a little less than the Cohort for transport and sale of craft goods outside Rime. They can afford to because they make their money other ways, like managing the ribbon-clad prostitutes on half the street corners, or overseeing gambling halls, or shipping boats loaded with magically-altered caribou and mountain sheep and salmon to faraway places where they’ll die slowly from being trapped in a world they weren’t designed to survive. 

The syndicates aren’t good people trying to help honest people avoid the Cohort’s outrageous demands and choking fist. They’re trying to squeeze as much money out of Rime as they can too. They’ve just realized cutting a little off the cost of transport means they’ll have twice as many customers for their smuggling services as the Cohort will. 

There’s only one syndicate in town with the pull and the audacity to move large items like the furniture Emmett makes. The Star is a syndicate even the Cohort hesitates to cross. They’re old money and old blood, but their current leader turned them into what they are now by pulling out of the former alliance that kept the city’s syndicates more or less on speaking terms. Now it’s every one of them for themselves, and clearly Marcus Deahl knew the Star could hold its own. 

His people are the only ones who can move the kind of size and bulk of goods that Emmett will need if he and Carlo are going to survive. Emmett knows another woodworker who’s already selling through them. He used to live down the street, but a month ago he moved across the river into a house on the edge of the water on the High Quarter side. 

If he hasn’t completely turned his back on his old life, he might be willing to make an introduction for Emmett. Rumor has it the Star offers a good deal for anyone who recruits more people into their network of craftsfolk. 

It’s not a choice Emmett wanted to have to make. But looking down at the dried tear streaks on Carlo’s face, and hearing the snarls of both their stomachs, he knows he doesn’t have another option. 

If he does this, he’s making a deal with a dangerous man.

If he doesn’t, he and Carlo are going to starve.

Emmett takes a shaky breath, watching the first faint green flickers appear outside the window.

He chokes back another round of tears threatening to fall and scrubs the back of his free hand across his face.

How did he get to the point where his only options are awful ones?

@catwingsathena @nade2308

[girlactionfigure]

The Female Saboteur: Vitka Kempner

She bombed a Nazi train.

Vitka Kempner was a young Jewish woman from Poland who fought the Nazis as a resistance leader and fearless saboteur.

Born 1920 in Kalisz, Poland, Vitka was a bright and independent young woman. As antisemitism rose in Poland, Vitka joined Betar, a militaristic Jewish youth movement that taught teens self-defense skills. Vitka was the first girl to join Betar. After graduating from high school, she moved to Warsaw and studied in a seminary for Jewish students. She was proud of her dual identity as a Jewish Zionist and a Polish intellectual, and saw no conflict between the two roles.

Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 and the persecution of the Jews began. Vitka declared to her family that she would “not be humiliated.” She and her younger brother Baruch left their parents and fled to Vilna, Lithuania, where they connected with other Zionist youth group members and planned to immigrate to Palestine. The British, who controlled the Holy Land, made it very difficult for Jewish refugees to settle there. Unable to leave Europe, the young Jews hid their identities and found factory and farm work to support themselves.

The Germans occupied Vilna in June 1941. As in Poland, they immediately began arresting Jews for no crime other than being Jewish. Nazi soldiers brazenly murdered Jews in the streets. Vitka and the other young Zionists who’d escaped Poland were now in fear for their lives. They needed places to hide, and Vitka helped find safe locations and transfer others there.

Meanwhile, the Germans created a ghetto in Vilna and herded 50,000 Jews into it. Vitka joined FPO, a resistance group of Jews determined to fight the Nazis any way they could. Vitka snuck in and out of the ghetto through sewage canals. On her dangerous forays, she was able to obtain weapons and train Jews in self-defense, and even make explosives.

Vitka used a homemade bomb to carry out the first act of anti-Nazi sabotage on the eastern front. She affixed a bomb to a Nazi train line, leading to an explosion that took the Nazis completely by surprise.

In September 1943, the Nazis liquidated the Vilna ghetto. They transported thousands of Jews to a nearby forest, where they slaughtered them and buried the bodies – sometimes still alive – in mass graves. Vitka and some friends in the FPO resistance managed to escape the Gestapo and establish a secret camp deep in the woods outside Vilna. The camp grew to 600 people. There, led by Abba Kovner, the young Jews in the FPO, most of whom had already lost their entire families, carried out a remarkable resistance campaign. According to the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation, the brave band of resistors blew up five bridges, destroyed 40 train cars and 180 miles of tracks, and killed 212 Nazi soldiers! Vitka was integrally involved in the sabotage activities, as well as taking care of the fighters trying to survive in the frigid Lithuanian forest.

Vilna was liberated by the Soviets in 1944. As the ragtag FPO group emerged from their hiding place in the forest, they started singing a song in Yiddish about Vitka’s heroic exploits as a saboteur.

Now that Vitka and Abba Kovner were safe, their thoughts turned to revenge. Together they planned and carried out a shocking act of vengeance. They snuck into a bakery where bread was being prepared for thousands of German soldiers who’d been taken prisoner by the Soviets. Once inside, the two young Jews – who’d lost their families, communities, homes, and everything they held dear – poisoned the German POW’s by lacing loaves of bread with arsenic. 2280 inmates became ill but nobody died. Their act of attempted mass murder was ethically questionable, but perhaps understandable considering the situation.

Soon after the failed revenge plot, Vitka and Abba emigrated to Palestine, where they got married, settled on a kibbutz, and had a son and a daughter. Vitka worked in the kibbutz school, where she found her calling as an educator of special-needs children as well as those with emotional problems. At the age of 45, she earned a degree in clinical psychology from Bar Ilan University. She developed her own pediatric therapy methods, including “Non-verbal therapy by color” and trained other teachers in addition to continuing to treat children.

Vitka’s husband Abba became a prominent writer in Israel, widely known and respected for his poetry, philosophy and visionary leadership. He died of cancer in 1985, and for the next three decades Vitka continued working as a kibbutz child psychologist. She said of herself, “I lived life fully, actively, without dragging grievances and offenses behind me.”

Vitka died in 2002. After her passing, Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem called Vitka’s story “one of struggle, courage and determination, not only to survive but to triumph.”

For leading Jewish resistance efforts against the Nazis in Lithuania, we honor Vitka Kempner as this week’s Thursday Hero.