#( he just fell hard for an earth woman and he's never recovered since. she makes him happy and thats all he wants )

[gazelessmenagerie]

Bro. Stop making Broly cute!

My heart can't take it with him and Mai! STaaap! XD

It's too cute! I've never seen a Broly melt like that before!

( never. )

( listen.. LISTEN....................... when he falls......... he falls hard bc he's a Beast type and Beauty is his natural weakness alfjldksjlknlgj )

[astral-mariner]

Vegebul headcanons: Vegeta fell for Bulma first

So lots of ppl in fanfic often write Bulma falling for Vegeta first. I see it the other way around.

The ship explodes while he's training, and he suddenly has all this downtime he never had while serving under Freeza. They've had surface-level conversations before, gotten at each other's throats over alien-human misunderstandings as well as serious moral and/or experiential differences. But while he's recovering, he gets a bit stir-crazy and just...finds himself around Bulma rather often, and they actually start to get to know each other.

Bulma finds him dark and mysterious---fascinating to her in an almost scientific way because he's so like a human but so different at the same time. She admires his tenacity; though he would never characterize himself as a victim, she knows he's faced grief and hardship, and carrying on with such clarity of purpose anyway is heartening in a way. Meanwhile, Vegeta just doesn't understand why this woman insists on talking to him, making sure he takes care of himself... He can understand her providing gear and housing---she and her friends need him for the upcoming battle. But the interest, openness, and basic kindness she displays baffles him, especially when he is a sworn enemy of Kakarot's. With Nappa and Raditz things were always complicated. So many roles and expectations with him being their prince. But with this Earth woman, there are no expectations at all. So he doesn't know what to do with her.

He won't let himself think of her as beautiful even if his eyes linger on her. He has just seen so few women like her. Certainly, he's never spent so much time with one either. Always on his way to a new planet. No real friends or consistency of any kind. That's not to say he regards her as a friend. Of course not. He tells himself that she's useful. She has resources, power. And she pursues her own ends with intensity and fearlessness---saiyan qualities he understands.

And then she's in his thoughts day and night. He thinks of her scent or her voice when he's trying to train, when he's lying awake and can't sleep. That sparkle in her eyes when he challenges her, but it doesn't shake her in the slightest. Her laugh, her little touches. He's head over heels for her long before they have sex, but he has no context for feelings like that. He just feels like he's losing his mind.

And it scares the shit out of him. How can he focus on transforming and defeating the one who took his birthright and Freeza's death from him when this woman is just fucking haunting him? He doesn't even know it's romantic attraction. He won't even accept that he's sexually attracted even though his body reacts to hers however fiercely he avoids looking at or touching her.

Meanwhile, Bulma has just broken up with Yamcha. She's not really in a place where she's thinking about a new relationship. She might want to have some fun here and there now that she's single, sure, but she's much more focused on the arrival of the Androids. Especially since she knows how hard her future self worked to warn everyone and give them a chance to have a different outcome than she did. And Vegeta is a powerful asset to have on her side. As much of a jerk as he can be, he works tirelessly to prepare himself for the battle, and helping him become stronger may make a difference in their survival.

Sure, it tickles her scientist brain to have an alien living on her property she can ask about space and otherworldly tech whenever she wants. And Vegeta himself has a fascinating (if dark and disturbing) personal history. He's not what she expects in some ways. Proud, and yet also very reserved and even shy. Aggressive and intense, but at the same time thoughtful, introspective, and so dedicated to his calling that she realizes it's a spiritual thing for him, perhaps even religious.

She finds herself enjoying his company even when she knows that she shouldn't. He's not exactly a true ally. He's not a good person. But he's just so...interesting. And he's more attractive than he seems to realize. She indulges a fantasy or two of what he might be like in bed. But it's not serious. She knows she shouldn't. It would never work out. It would be so fucking complicated and fraught for everyone involved. There's no way an alien man would have the same (or even compatible) ideas about relationships or sex. Even if Vegeta did, he'd never fucking tolerate having a frank conversation about it. He's really kind of a prude.

And yet...they spend more time with each other, and the tension between them just builds. Over months and months, it builds slowly but surely. And one day, it just fucking breaks. One evening, they end up closer than usual. Touching each other, and it gets really intense really fast. No time to really discuss where things are going or what anything means---they just need each other in that moment. And it works out. Somehow. It's almost too easy. Despite all the cultural differences. They have sex, and it feels...good.

For Vegeta, sexuality had previously always been something tainted with negativity. What's the point of having a drive for sex, after all, when you're the last of your kind, and fleeting pleasures are hardly more than distractions? But with Bulma, everything just felt so fucking right and good. Like finally getting to experience all the things he'd always wondered about and longed for even if he never admitted it to himself. Things he thought were impossible. Having sex in a situation where he had a real choice in the matter. With a woman when he had spent his whole life having to accept the fact that no saiyan women had survived. On top of everything, not only does he want her---desperately---but she wants him in return. How she squirms when he touches her, how her scent changes, how she trembles and whimpers when he gets to do all the things he never let himself want before.

It just completely and utterly unravels him, and he can't get enough of her. He thought that, just maybe, if he gave in and slept with her, she wouldn't fucking haunt him anymore, but it just gets fucking worse. He needs her like water. Like if he doesn't get to be in her presence and touch her, he will just fucking lose it even more than he already has. And it fucking terrifies him. He's only ever wanted one thing: to transform and make things right after Freeza destroyed everything. But now he's preoccupied, and he can't handle it. He doesn't know what to do. What any of it means. What he really wants out of any of it. And he has no idea what she wants either. Only that however many times he tries to stay away from her, they always end up tangled up again. He couldn't even tell her how he feels even if he wanted to because he's so clueless about what's happening to him.

Meanwhile Bulma is just absolutely floored by how intense everything is from the beginning. She wonders if it's a saiyan thing, or if he's just intense like that himself. She doesn't know what Vegeta's full history with sex is, but she knows it's complicated. All she knows is that he kisses her like it's his last day on Earth. That he fucks her like he couldn't resist her if he tried (and he does try). And she can't help but ride that high. She brings this mysterious, strong, and austere man to his knees, and her power over him is intoxicating. She knows she shouldn't play around with someone so dangerous even if she's convinced he'll become an ally eventually. She knows that most of her friends wouldn't approve. It's not like she wants to DATE Vegeta. But gods...his desperation, the way he almost worships her, how wild and even frightening he can be---she can't help but indulge herself at least a little bit even if it's against her better judgment. It's not serious, after all. It's not like Vegeta of all people would even want to be some kind of partner to her anyway. He just wants sex (right?), and that's all she wants too. So she proposes a friends-with-benefits situation that they are determined to keep on the down-low.

Vegeta's head is just spinning at all of this. He still doesn't fucking know what to do with her. He can't have an attachment to her---especially not now when his sole focus needs to be transforming---but imagining his life without her is just... So he just lets her call it whatever she pleases, as long as no one else is involved and no one else knows about it. The weakness all the more glaring and real if other people know about it. He can tell himself he is just having sex with her so he can stay focused on training. Nothing more than that. Certainly not.

Over the course of it, Vegeta's feelings for her just intensify. If he was head over heels before they had sex, the more time they spend and the more intimate they become, he only falls more madly in love with her. And while Bulma tells herself that feelings aren't really involved for her beyond the friendship she develops with him, she has little pangs of romantic longing that hit her out of nowhere from time to time. Almost hard not to when the sex is the way that it is. She wonders sometimes if he has feelings for her. Real feelings. But he just couldn't, right? She's just being a silly hopeless romantic like she was when she was younger, and she's over that. He's an alien with a tortured past, and he's not boyfriend material, and she's fine with that. That's not what she wants anyway. Certainly not right now with the end of the world around the corner.

We all know how things go down after this, though, don't we?

But yeah. I headcanon Vegeta falls first and harder, whereas Bulma falls gradually after they become involved. Bulma has experienced good relationships before, and she wasn't looking for a romance with Vegeta in the wake of her breakup. Vegeta, on the other hand, hasn't experienced romantic love or sexual attraction where things weren't fucked up and fraught in some way before. So his "relationship" (re: passionate affair) with Bulma means so much more to him even if he couldn't articulate it. It completely blows him away, but he doesn't have the context or emotional insight to make sense of it. So he just panics, lol.

[your-highnessmarvel]

From Bleak to Bright - Part Ten

All other parts on on my masterlist, link provided below.

AN: omg this chapter is so sad!!!

Warnings: angst, language

MASTERLIST - SERIES MASTERLIST

PART TEN

You cried so much that you forgot what it felt like to not have your breath caught in your throat, or tears in your eyes, wetness on your cheeks. Even if you’d barely spent a week with Loki, when he left you there, without even trying to get to you, the bond inside of you screamed. It’s even worse than when you couldn’t see him, when Natasha and Bruce were trying to get you to stay away. Now that’d you’d had a taste, you just wanted more, and the bond that had been a knot in your belly now felt like burning fire.

Thor took you in his arms and brought you back to a jet, but both the wound on your head and the one in your heart kept you from having any conscience of it. You were crying so hard it hurt, your stomach clenching, breaths hiccupping out of your lungs, eyes swollen.  

The last thing you remembered before they put you under, pressing a mask to your face, was the wretched sobs coming from your throat.

Your dreams were nothing but black. It was like floating in space, with no stars, with no air, and the suffocation of the dream left you even more anguished than Loki’s departure.

Why hadn’t he tried? Why hadn’t he at least tried to take you with him, instead of looking at you with those eyes, his mouth parted?

You’d remember that look until the day you died.

Death was more peaceful than this.

When you woke up, Bruce was all over you, acting like the mommy you both never had. He was in your recovering room 24/7, bringing you everything you ever wanted. And when they moved you out of the recovery room and back at the Avenger’s compound, Bruce was still on your heels like a leech. 

Nat kept her eyes on you every time you passed by the door, as if you’d pounce right back out there if she dared to leave you alone.

Steve kept giving you speeches about good and evil, how Loki’s bond with you did not mean what he did was right. 

Tony dropped by once in a while, asking you questions on Loki, but all you knew was what you’d seen while at the loft, and revisiting those memories made you want to scratch your eyes out.

When you stopped talking, just shut down, they brought in a therapist. But even she couldn’t make you talk. All that anger was the only thing that made you remember him. And the bond desperately wanted you to remember him. Every single moment spent away from Loki, the bond called to him. It gave you stupid ideas to reach out somehow, to runaway, to seek out a way to get back to him. 

But you couldn’t leave. Ever. The Avenger’s compound was on lock down, and you could not be left alone in it, ever. It was your own personalized prison. 

You wished so desperately, but so quietly, that Loki would come for you. That he’d bring an army and get you back. 

But the news you overhead - because they didn’t allow you to know anything about Loki’s whereabouts - suggested Loki couldn’t give more of a fuck about you. He’d terrorized more people across the Earth, all intent on “taking over the world” or whatever. 

“He’s got Selvig,” you heard Thor telling Nat. You were lying on the couch and they didn’t know you were there as they prepared lunch. “He’s going to open a portal and bring the Chitauri army here.”

“If he does that,” Nat said with a hiss, “then it’s going to get far worse than it already is.”

You knew what she meant by that. The Avengers already had to take care of you - Loki’s soulmate - and adding an alien war to the pile was not going to facilitate their game.

And if Loki wasn’t coming for you, you wouldn’t make any effort to get back to him. 

*** Eighteen days later, Three hours before the attack on New York ***

You didn’t like the movie. Nat had chosen it as the boys had taken over the gym to have “a boys workout” as they called it. 

Nat had been careful in avoiding any romance movies, and had picked an action packed, hot boy movie with no story line and a lot of explosions. The main character was good-looking enough to distract you from the actual plot, and the fact that you did not have a phone - actually, not allowed - made you even more concentrated on the character. 

It wasn’t long before the boys came back out, smelling like sweat and rubber. Lately, they’d all been hitting the gym often since Loki’s army was waiting to invade. Tony insisted on a seven-day a week training until they’d either caught Loki or killed him.

You swallowed the lump in your throat at the image of a dead Loki in your head. Thor’s presence didn’t really help either. He kept mentioning his brother as if you weren’t even there. 

“You okay?” Bruce asked, tapping your knee as he took a seat beside you.

You wrinkled your nose. “Ew, Bruce, you smell so gross,” you whined, pinching your nose. 

He smiled, the perpetual look of caution on his face he wore only around you dropping and softening his features. 

“Come on,” he drawled, “it’s not that bad!”

But before you could answer, Tony’s cell rang. Everyone went deadly silent. You could feel the blood draining from your face as Tony brought the device up to his ear, his face severe.

Your fingers curled into fists. Your blood ran cold, colder than you’d ever felt as you watched Tony’s face tighten. 

The first thought to enter your mind was Loki’s wellbeing. 

Please tell me he’s fine.

Tony hummed and hung up. “Suit up,” he said, his tone deadly, “Loki’s opened up the portal. They’re dropping armed Chitauri in the streets.”

The entire living room activated, as if everyone around you had just been waiting for Tony to give the heads up. Nat launched off the couch, running upstairs to get her suit, followed my Steve and Clint - which yes, they’d manage to save between all this time.

Tony turned into the kitchen, mumbling to JARVIS.

Only Thor and your brother remained in the living room, hard like statues, their eyes emotionless.

“Who’s gonna babysit, huh?” you mumbled, but your words felt like ash on your tongue. 

“I wager I should stay,” the God of Thunder said, pointing to you. “After all, my brother will attempt to get her out of here before he obliterates the planet.”

The soulmate bond would not let him leave you here to die.

Bruce shook his head, sweaty strands of hair sticking to his forehead. “She’s my sister,” he said. “And you’re more needed than me on the battlefield.”

You frowned, anger and heat crawling up your chest like sour vines. “Bruce, if he gets here and you’re the one standing between him and me, he will go through you,” you argued, crossing your arms over your chest.

“I can take him,” Bruce shot back. “And Thor will man the streets with the rest of the team. No one is going to take this planet and no one is going to take my sister! And until Loki is either dead or locked up until the end of your days, I will never allow you out of my sight!”

Thor knew better than to stay. He vanished from the living room even before Bruce had uttered the last words, either because of the look on your face or the privacy you and your brother needed.

Bruce had stood, towering over you, his face stricken with a mix of anger and annoyance, and you looked up at him from under your brows, heaving, feeling betrayal course through your veins. 

“Bruce,” you muttered, trying to keep a lid on your anger. “I’m a grown woman. I don’t need my fucking brother looking after me forever.”

Bruce’s lip twitched. “That’s what you made us all think,” he seethed. “That’s what we thought. That we could trust you. And then you literally betrayed us and went to him with arms wide open.”

“He’s my soulmate, Bruce!”

“I don’t care!” At this point, your brother didn’t care that he was screaming and that Tony could hear him in the kitchen. “You’re a threat to yourself.”

“He wouldn’t hurt me,” you gritted from clenched teeth.

Bruce’s eyebrows shot up. “I told you the bond is different for men,” he said. “He doesn’t care about love or passion or whatever he made you think! It’s about possession, owning what is meant to be his! And with Loki, there is no possible way the bond could be -”

“You don’t know that!” Now it was your turn to stand, facing your brother like you’d done so many times as kids, but this time, it was for something a little more severe. “You say all that shit about the bond for men but you don’t even know yours! You stopped yourself from knowing her because of the shit you did to yourself!”

You regretted the words before they left your mouth, but anger had made you open up your lips and spill anything hateful that would deter your brother. And it did. It so fucking did. His face fell from that angered scrunch to something more tragic, tormented. 

Bruce had always counted on you to understand that the Hulk was not - absolutely not - Bruce. 

And there you’d been, accusing him of creating this monster he hated so much.

Bruce took a step back, his eyes falling to the ground. “If you leave this house, I will not hesitate to use force.” And then he plopped himself on the couch.

You looked up, seething, spotting Tony leaning against the door to the kitchen. He shrugged, jerking his head to the stairs, silently signaling that maybe you should retreat to your room.

Feeling like a child who hadn’t gotten what she wanted, you ran up to your room, crossing Steve in the hallway and not even bothering with wishing him luck. For all you cared at that moment, they could all burn.

You felt like your insides would fall out as you tumbled into your room, slamming and locking the door. You sat on the edge of the bed, holding a pillow to your belly, hoping the pressure would prevent your insides from spilling out.

What had you done? Why had you gone and said those things? The image of Bruce’s face falling, that look of utter bewilderment and betrayal passing across his features, haunted you. You rocked on the edge of your bed, feeling the tears brimming behind your eyes, an odd sort of pressure building in your head. 

You knew he was there before he even spoke. The air shifted, like a soft wind inside a glass jar, and the sound of fabric against fabric echoed in your otherwise dark room. 

“He’ll kill you,” you said, biting on the edge of the pillow to keep from sobbing.

“I am not really here,” he answered.

Relief and disappointment. They would not be able to hurt him if they caught him in here. He wouldn’t be able to actually touch you. 

“What do you want?” you uttered, still clutching the pillow, facing away from him.

“I can come and get you out of here,” he said, his voice calm, leveled.

You frowned. “You left me,” you whispered. “You fucking left me, Loki. You didn’t even try. And even if I wanted to go with you, my brother would rip you to pieces before you even set foot in here.”

You could sense Loki’s anger, rippling from him even in his illusion form. “You do not want to come with me?” His voice was rough, as if fighting to stay even. He was sad. 

You clenched your jaw so tight it hurt. “No.” Then you straightened. “No. Leave me alone. You’ve caused enough damage in under a month of being my soulmate. I don’t want to see you again. Now get the hell out of my room before my brother has me put in an actual cell.”

You never got an answer.

When you turned to see if he was still there, the air was empty, dark, silent, as if he’d never even been there to begin with.

DON’T WORRY! I KNOW WHERE THIS STORY IS GOING. I HAVE A PLAN ;)

tags:  @subtlemalice @yallgotkik @buckyandlokirunmylife @kaz11283 @legolas-bromance @shylittlemountain @tofeartheunknown @feelmyfckngsoul @kind-of-crazy-butthatsokay @caffiend-queen @tomhollandsslilslut @lady-loki-ren @nathan-no @rosaline-black @abundanceofcarolines @my-own-oracle @it-was-all-a-beautiful-dream @marvelouslovely @drbaureid @bored-as-hell-666 @youhavemyfantasticbeasts @theinfinitenerd @toe-vind-ek-jou @ink-and-starlight @blank-bakabane @sunshineonloki @holaamishamigos @palegoopbearlight @heyarely16 @pleaseexecuteme @athalahild @help-i-need-a-social-life @tapismyforte @coloursforyourportrait @celestialstarshadow @fukyouthink @lust-for-pan @thic-thor 

[monoxiid]

can you do headcanons for gojo falling in love with a childhood friend and she’s like very kind 😌 and sweet (maybe like smol too) please 🏃🏻‍♀️

hey! I would be happy to make your request! thanks for your ask ❤️

❛ 𝘎𝘰𝘫𝘰 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘶 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 ! . . . ꒱

▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄

┃𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 : none, only fluff

┃𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 : i didnt know if you wanted him to fall in love with s / o as a kid or seeing her again when they are adults sooo let's just say he loves her since he was a kid-

▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄

⌇𝐆𝐎𝐉𝐎 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐔❜

as a child, the one considered today to be the strongest shaman on Earth was just a daring little boy. he was pretty, of course. a little glance was enough for the ladies to come and pull his cheeks, for the boys to want to invite him to play football with them, for the girls to dream of being his lover.

but he chose you. and there was nothing surprising about it. anyone seeing you would want to be your hero. and he, like a fly tangling in a spider's web, did the same. I mean ... you were so nice, so charming, so sweet! he often imagined himself flying through Tokyo with you in his arms, clutching at him -with a cape, because he saw that on TV. yeah... Gojo Satoru definitely wanted to be your hero.

every time you walked into the room he was in, the little boy would feel his heart float, and at the height of his seven years, he never gave someone such an intense gaze before you. his eyes reflected a mixture of admiration, desire to protect, hope and of course love as pure as a kid could give. you never looked at it, so you didn't see the hint of desperation that was there too.

but all he had to do was hear your crystalline laughter, see your sweet smile or just your presence for his day to be remade. Satoru knew he couldn't let go of his feelings. He also knew that even as an adult, he will always love you - if not, you might as well slap his future self.

but, it would be sad to say he fell for you just because he found you amazing beautiful, wouldn't it?

and because on top of that, you were the nicest girl in the world ?? how could he consider letting you go if you became the woman of his life?

you didn't judge anyone, you were calm, patient and attentive to everyone, no matter who you spoke to. you had this facility to make people feel loved and important. besides him, of course. because he never knew how to approach you in a cool way, until that day.

it was cold, he had this scarf encumbering him and you, you only had your light coat to cover yourself. why not jump at the chance?

❛❛ Hey, I don't need it. Take it. ❜❜

❛❛ Eh, no! I would feel guilty if you caught a cold because of me! ❜❜

his eyes softened. you were so cute.

❛❛ But, I said I really don't need it! ❜❜

Seeing yourself torn by the idea of ​​having to so firmly refuse help from someone so caring, or having to accept the offer at the expense of their health, has made it over to one thing. you were really adorable.

with a small chuckle, he wrapped the piece of wool around your neck.

❛❛ Just take it already, you moron. ❜❜

愛┊𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀. . .

❛❛ Ne, don't you think Gojo-sensei is in the clouds today? ❜❜

❛❛ I know how to recognize a man in love when I see one! And believe me, I am sure it is! ❜❜

❛❛ What do you even know about men, Kugisaki ?! He's got a hangover, that's obvious! ❜❜

❛❛ Huh? Gojo Satoru, drunk ?! Ahah, I would like to see that! ❜❜

All day long, it seemed their teacher I was never going to give them his full attention. And that worried his students. The little one with the orange hair thought hard as iron that he thought of the chosen one of his heart, who must be a woman surely as annoying as him. The one-head taller boy thought he'd abused the bottle the night before and was recovering from that drinking session. The more mature one simply believed that the other two were idiots who meddled in anything that didn't concern them, that fact annoyed these comrades.

How do you feel about knowing the truth?

well actually the three were right. on the one hand, it didn't include them at all. on the other hand, something happened yesterday!

As rarely, a few healers sent to other areas, and coming from high families, were repatriated to lend a hand to the school infirmary in order to organize more precise auscultations.

And you were of them. A young doctor. It wasn't that shocking. You were at fault for taking care of others, after all. And this afternoon in September, a little cold before the next arrival of autumn, Gojo Satoru fell in love with you for the umpteenth time.

you don't grow up too much -boi is 190-, but you were always so beautiful.

Nobara was right, he was very much in love.

[𝘂𝗻𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱]

[jaycewrites-192000]

The Rest Of Our Lives

Levi Ackerman x Reader

It had all finally came to an end, the world could finally try its best to heal from years upon years of death.

Speaking of healing, he had gone through the worst of it over the years. And finally, he has the rest of his life to heal.

But he can't do it alone...

(Spoiler Warning!!! This story contains spoilers for the end of the Attack on Titan manga!!!)

It had been three years since that fateful battle. So many lives had been lost that day, good and bad, friend and enemy. Even the majority of the human population, eighty percent to be specific, had been wiped out just for the slim chance of peace, and even then, it wasn't completely guaranteed. But for now, all was calm. That day, was the battle between titan and human, heaven and earth. The day the dreaded rumbling had began, and soon ended. It resulted in many deaths and plenty of injuries, the worst landed upon Levi Ackerman. Humanity's strongest soldier was nearly killed, but he wasn't given that title for nothing. He was still living today, though missing a few fingers, a working eye, and finally his permanently damaged leg. It wasn't too much of a problem, as there were no longer any titans to fight. Though, it was somewhat, shameful in his eyes. That after everything, a busted leg is what holds him down. He wasn't even elderly, and yet he needed constant help. He grateful for the help however, though he wished he didn't have to burden people with his problem so much.

But, it wasn't a burden or a problem to her.

She was there by his side for as long as he can remember. She fought by his side during expeditions, comforted him during his low points, and even risked her life over and over to keep him safe and alive. He can't say he's never done the same for her. Maybe it was her constant attention and care, that made him fall in love with her. At the time, it was horrible. He fell in love with someone he could so easily loose, but now in a world free of titans, he could love her as much as he wanted. And the same goes for her. They both confessed their love for each other shortly before the rumbling began, then he proposed to her after everything settled.

And so, here they were, in their own little cabin next to a beautiful lake, surrounded by tall pine trees. They both were outside today, rested on the bench that sat right before the lake. Hand in hand, her head leaning on his shoulder. Their gentle breaths in sync with one another. The calmness of the quiet air, aided to their ease. For once in their lives, they felt no need for worry or panic, or when the next attack from the titans would be. And they would never need for such worries again.

Her eyes slowly opened, she smiled as the first thing she saw, was her soon to be husband. Even with the scars, he was still as handsome as ever. Though, his eyes were distant and somewhat empty. Why? "Levi?" She spoke softly. "Are you ok?" Levi finally blinked, sighing softly he looked down at you. "I'm fine. Why do you ask?" She sits up to meet his gaze. "You seem, a little distant. Are you tired?" Levi shakes his head before placing his hand on his scar. "Just thinking." He muttered. Was that what this was about? This would happen every now and then, Levi would just stare at himself in the mirror. Well, less himself and more at his blinded eye, the two long scars that covered it. It started from the top of his eye down to his lip. He considered himself lucky, that explosion Zeke Yeager caused could have just killed him all together. But it only costed him an eye and a few fingers.

Still she wondered, did he hate how he looked now? He never commented on it before, so she just assumed he didn't care. But the way his overall expression would falter anytime he saw it, or tried to lifted his hand, or even when he tried to stand. "Levi? You know I didn't think less of you because of those scars." She placed her hand on top of his damaged one. "Or your hand. Or your leg. I still love you. I always have and I always will. This doesn't change a thing." Y/n say softly, trying to reassure him. "I...I know that Y/n. But....it's not that...not this time." Levi looks up at the sky. It was a soft orange, signifying the end of the day. "Every time I wake up, I wonder when it will happen." Y/n blinks a few times, not really understanding. "When what will happen?" She asks. "When they will come back. The titans. Before, at any moment, we could die at the hands of those giant bastards." Y/n would be lying if she said she hadn't felt the same at sometimes.

"But Levi, that was before. They're gone now. There are no more titans, we're safe." She explains to him.

"For how long?"

The panic in his voice was clear. Y/n took both of his hands and held them in her own. Her eyes full of sincerity as she spoke. "Levi, I know how you're feeling. But, you were there that day. We both were, the titans are gone. They died along with Eren." It still pained you to say it. Though in the end Eren was acting rash and out of hand, you still remembered him as the same young boy with hope in his heart that one day, the world would be a one without titans. It was a shame that he let it go to his head, and because of that, he was responsible for nearly exterminating all of humanity. Therefore, he had to face the consequences of his actions and pay the ultimate price. Poor kid...

"There are no trace of titans left. We're safe. You're safe. And you will never have to worry about stuff like that ever again." You bring his hands up and kiss them gently. Making sure he felt your love, even through his missing fingers. "And I won't ever leave your side. I'll always be here for you Levi. To care for you, to love you, for the rest of our lives."

A sudden wetness on your hands made you flinch. You look up to expecting to see rain, but instead, you saw Levi, crying. He sniffles a few times before leaning closer to you, until his head rested on your shoulder. You smiles and rub his back in a soothing manor. Through his sobs, you could make out a feint "thank you" from Levi.

You meant every word. You will always be there for him. And he in return would always be there for you. You two will always have each other, for the rest of your lives.

Another year has come to pass, Levi and Y/n had finally married, and proud to call themselves Mr and Mrs Ackerman. And Mrs Ackerman was expecting and due to deliver soon. There were congratulations given all around. From Armin, Jean, Connie, Annie, Reiner, even Falco and Gabi. Even Mikasa. It was a bit surprised that she came to visit. Mikasa had became distant ever since Eren died, she was the one that killed him after all. She had been by Eren side for many many years, and in the end, she was the one that put him to rest. It took quite a toll on her. But she was recovering, slowly but surely.

Y/n wished so desperately that Hanji and Erwin could have been here today. Though, she bet that Hanji would have been pretty sad without having anymore titans to experiment on. But deep down she knew, that they were still here, even if she couldn't see them. Levi knew it as well. They would both regularly visit their graves to pay respects and generally just talk about what's going on in their lives. Hanji would have been so thrilled to know that Levi and Y/n settled down to start a family. From the very beginning, Hanji had always hoped you two would get together. She even went as far as teasing her and Levi, which would normally result in a kick to the back from Levi. Not too hard though, he didn't want to break her spine. And Erwin, he would just be happy to see Levi happy with someone. And of course Levi's former squad would be happy that he was at peace with himself. They all would be so proud of him.

When it came time for Y/n to deliver, it was one of the most stressful and wonderful days of Levi's life. Fortunately, Y/n was just fine afterwards and gave birth to a healthy and beautiful little girl. She resembled Levi the most, with her black hair and her grey-blue eyes. She had some of Y/n's features as well, like her skin tone and her facial features.

"What should we name her?" Y/n spoke softly as she held her baby close. "We haven't came up with a name for her yet?" Levi mutters. They were spending more time preparing themselves for a new addition to their small family, that they hardly had time to think of one. Levi gently stroked his daughter's cheek, she gave a tiny smile in return before her face returned to a more sleepy one. It made Levi's heart race. This was his daughter, he made that! Well, really Y/n did, but it meant just as much to him. Never in his wildest dreams would he ever think that he would have children. Then again, he never thought he would meet someone like Y/n either. Levi's stone expression dropped, a smile of his own made it onto his face.

"Levi, I've actually had one in mind for a while. But, I wasn't sure if...you would be ok with it." Y/n spoke hesitantly. Levi held her hand, such a small gesture, made sure she knew she didn't have to keep anything from him. "I know how close you were to Farlan and Isabell." Levi's breathing halted for a second. "More specifically, how much Isabell looked up to you. I know she saw you as a brother, but...what I'm trying to say is, what if we named her, Isabell?" Y/n looked down at her baby, who was sleeping peacefully in her arms. It was true, Farlan and Isabell were like family to Levi, it was devastating the way they died. He wasn't there to help them, if he was, maybe they would be here today. He missed them dearly...

When Levi didn't respond, Y/n became worried. "I-I mean, we don't have to. I was just-"

"It's perfect." Levi cut her off. "Our little Isabell." He says with another warm smile. Y/n returned the smile before kissing her daughter's head. "Welcome to the world, Isabell." She whispers.

With this, Levi knew he was living for so much more. He had a woman who loved him with all her heart, despite how he looks now. And now, he had a child. Though this world was without titans, it doesn't mean there won't be another danger that was out there, just waiting to snatch his happiness away from him. But Levi wouldn't let it. Levi swore this very day, to protect his wife and daughter with everything he had. Despite injury, despite age, he would never let anything or anyone harm his family. Because for now on, it will be only them, together.

For the rest of their lives.

THE END

(This was not stolen! This story was reposted from my Wattpad account!)

[thran-duils]

From All Sides (P.1)

Title: From All Sides (Part One) Summary: Fem!Reader x Dark!Pirate Tony. Tony is obsessed with a certain barmaid at port and showers her with gifts to try to bring her to his bed. She is resistant to his advances, her eyes elsewhere, specifically on her coworker, the cook. Although, that love is unrequited and always will be. The reader is forced into close quarters with Tony unexpectedly and sailing the sea, she slowly bends to his will. And he plans to give her all the affection he can to make sure she stays. Words: 2,279 Warnings: Eventual smut, violence, angst, possessive behavior Author’s Note: Song inspiration

Part Two || Masterpost (mobile) || Fanfic masterpost

It was loud tonight. As fall neared, it always brought more to port. Many were tired from long summer excursions and were looking for reprieve. At least it was nightfall now and the heat was melting away to the breeze of the ocean.

You were walking up the street back towards the tavern where you were expected back. Your boss Evan had sent you down to fetch the breads the baker was going to throw out to make sure there was enough for the crowd when they were ordering their meals.

“Miss Y/N!” A voice called out and you sighed, stopping. You turned, keeping the basket close you were carrying, smiling.

Adam was coming through the crowd, looking ecstatic to see you. He was carrying a bouquet of flowers and you felt your stomach clench. He was quite smitten and so very sweet; you were just not sure if you should commit to him. You had not found the way to get him to understand that yet, that you wanted some space, even with your polite declines to his dinners.

“Hot night,” he commented when he reached you. His smile was warm, his eyes alight at the sight of you.

“It is,” you agreed, matching his energy as best you could.

He held out the bouquet and said “I got these for you. I was hoping you would be at work though so I could ask to have dinner on your break?”

“I’m already on my break,” you lied easily. “Going back to work right now.”

His face fell. “Oh.” He recovered quickly, “Well, I will accompany you back?” He held out his arm.

Against your better judgment, you took it, allowing him to guide you. He was cordial, making small talk as usual. How someone as pure as him stayed at port was beyond you. But he had somehow found Peter too, just as kindhearted as him. The two of them made a pair. Although, Peter had been making an unsavory choice in alliance the last time Tony was at port... you had scolded Tony for a good ten minutes about how he should leave Peter be safe here at port and not on his dangerous voyages. If you were not mistaken, you had seen Tony jealous you cared so much for the boy.

The tavern you worked and lived at was packed. You weaved your way through the crowd, dodging people on instinct as they stumbled, Adam following your lead. You had worked here long enough to know the twists and turns of a drunken crowd.

Adam was close by as you moved behind the bar and he stayed by the entrance to the bar, waiting patiently. You left him knowing he would still wait, walking to the back, and handed over the basket to the cook, Eloise. She nodded in thankfulness.

You loved her smile, the way her lips formed. They were soft and you wanted to press your own to them.

“So many orders tonight,” she stated. “Tilda is doing well to keep them on the main course but there are others requesting other things.”

“Are we charging more for that?”

“You know it,” she winked. Your stomach fluttered at the gesture. “You better get back out there. Tilda is getting swamped! And poor Elizabeth is getting handled by a few tables. She needs to be more assertive, that girl.”

“I need to deal with Adam first,” you muttered.

“He’s back?” Eloise laughed, a twinkle in her eye. “My, he’s almost as persistent as Tony!”

“No one is as persistent as Tony.”

“He’s here, so you know. He ordered his usual dinner. One of the ones going off my menu!”

You almost groaned. You did not want to deal with his pawing on top of Adam’s doe eyes. Tony was easily provoked in his jealousness when it came to you, even though you had never let him between your legs, despite his best attempts to pursue you.

As you feared when you emerged from the back, Tony was hammering you to the spot with a piercing stare from the back of the tavern in a booth with some of his crew. He flicked his eyes to Adam before landing on you again you made note.

You had always brushed off his advances. Skirting around his smooth words and adjusting just out of the way where his lips were going to fall. Sometimes so close you could feel the brush of his lips against your jawline. He was a charmer.

Normally.

Tonight, he looked like a hangman, the way he was glowering at Adam. He already had a pint empty on the table and another by his bowl to replace it.

You liked Tony well enough — he was handsome, devilishly so — but it was Eloise you hung your heart on. Even if you knew she was never going to reciprocate the feelings. It was a terrible feeling to know that and still be invested. You wished you could turn your feelings to Tony even if you thought him fleeting.

Tony was known for being promiscuous and you thought he meant to get you in bed once and then be done with it. Despite all the gifts he brought you, trying to woo you, you could not help but to think he would easily discard you. Still... on the other hand, his persistence reminded you of Adam. He did not just bring you flowers either. He brought gems, jewelry, even a gown once. And not a cheap one at that. He was persistent in his chase and did not skimp on his treasures.

His last gift you wore now. It was beautiful. A seashell that seemed to glow in the light. It was on a simple cord but it was magnificent in its own right. And it settled perfectly on your chest. When he had given you it when he was here a month ago, he had been more than willing to be the one to clasp it around your neck. His fingers had flittered along your shoulder blades but he had pulled away at the last moment before you thought he was going to brush lower. He was persistent but he was also mindful to not push too hard; he did not want to lose you.

Sometimes you thought just the mere sight of you was enough to satiate him.

You pretended you did not notice Tony’s icy glare though, your eyes on Adam who was looking at you adoringly. You took the flowers from Adam and said, “I’ll put them in a vase in my room.” You took a long breath; he had actually remembered your favorites.

“I’ll bring more next week so you always have a fresh bouquet to look at,” Adam vowed.

“Oh, Adam. That’s not necessary,” you told him.

“It is for you,” he stated.

Tilda interrupted, coming in between the two of you facing you. “Hello, Y/N! Earth to you! I need help! The men are getting a little out of hand! You’re far more competent than Elizabeth!”

That poor girl. She still struggled with brushing off handsy men as she collected dishes.

You smiled at Adam over Tilda’s shoulder and said, “Sit at the bar. I’ll bring you a bowl of Eloise’s stew as soon as I can.”

He beamed at the offer as you turned around to put the flowers in a safe spot behind the bar until you could bring them upstairs.

<><><>

You had asked Tilda to take the booths, making sure to stay away from Tony’s booth although you had caught his eyes multiple times. He was not in good spirits, and you knew why. His gaze was layered with envy. Why did he have to come on the same night Adam decided he needed to try to court you? Adam had not left the bar stool yet and unlike Tony, his nose was not buried deep in a fourth pint, so he had a lot of life left in him. He was happy just to be in your presence.

Peter had joined him and was finishing his first pint. Great. You needed to keep an eye on him now to make sure he did not interact with any captain — especially Tony.

Much to your dismay though, his first mate made the plunge when you were away from the counter.

Steve had his arm around Peter’s shoulder, grinning friendly. Disgruntled, you quickly cleared plates, taking orders for more ale before coming back to the bar.

Steve met your gaze, grinning wickedly.

“Do you need to order something? Tilda was just at your table,” you said stiffly.

Steve shook his head. “No, no. Just following up with dear Peter here. He showed interest in sailing last time we were at port and he says he’s a fine cook. Ours could use an apprentice.”

“You can find an apprentice anywhere,” you snapped.

“Now, Peter, does she speak for you?” Steve asked, turning his attention to Peter.

Peter shot you a look and you saw him hesitating. It was an unfair position that Steve was putting him in. Peter respected you but he also knew the repercussions of if he let a woman make his decisions, especially in this crowd. And especially to a man who may be a ticket to his dream off this island.

Peter sucked his cheeks before saying, “You know, the room is actually spinning. Adam? Could you.... I think I need to go home?”

Adam read the signals quick and nodded, “Yes. Yeah, of course. I shouldn’t have let you have that second pint so quickly. Especially since you refused the delicious food from Eloise.”

The two of them stood quickly from their stools, Peter making quick to stumble a little before grabbing the bar to steady himself. He smiled at Steve and said, “Excuse me.”

Steve stared at him for a few seconds intently — he looked so disbelieving of Peter’s antics — before he smiled, “Of course. Go right ahead.”

He stepped out of the way and Peter met Adam before they made their way through the crowd. Adam threw a look over his shoulder at you and you gave a quick tight-lipped smile before turning your attention back to Steve who was watching you like a wolf.

“My my, you’ve just got your little claws in everyone’s hearts, don’t you?” He jeered.

“Do you need something?” you repeated, standing your ground. “I have tables to attend.”

“Two shots of rum,” Steve said, leaning on the counter.

You turned from him and grabbed the bottle and finding two glasses. You placed them on the counter in front of him and poured them out, his eyes searching. You corked the bottle back up and said, “Will they be on Tony’s tab...?”

“Hasn’t he given you enough treasures to warrant complimentary rum shots?” Steve pouted mockingly.

You ground your teeth for a few moments before waving him off. “Fine. On the house.” Steve winked lasciviously, “Much thanks, love.”

Annoyed, you turned away from him and went back to your business. The hours were doing nothing to calm the crowd yet and you begged for the impending witching hour and superstitions seeping into everyone’s psyches.

Handing some dirty glasses across the window from the bar to the back, you spotted your flowers in a vase again. You smiled softly, a moment’s reprieve. They were lovely. You leaned forward, eyes closed, and took a long inhale.

“If I knew picking a simple bundle of flowers by the shoreline would catch your attention so aptly, I would’ve saved myself a lot of trouble,” Tony said, barely above slurring his words from behind you.

You collected yourself before turning around to face him. He was leaning on the bar, slowly twirling his empty pint glass on its edge. He has long shed his coat, standing there in his leather vest over his shirt, unbuttoned just enough to expose his chest hair.

“Do you need water?” you questioned, trying to keep the condescension out of your tone and be concerned. It was hard knowing he had sent Steve up here to try to coerce poor Peter just to get into your sights.

Tony smiled broadly, looking charming as ever. You hated yourself for feeling the flutter in your stomach at it. “Sure. Thank you for being concerned for me, dearie.”

You turned and fetched him a glass of water and brought it over to him. He was close to you as he leaned on the bar, his eyes trailing down from your own gaze to your lips.

“I missed you all night,” he said, gripping the glass and bringing it towards himself. “It’s like you were avoiding me for that little pipsqueak.”

“He’s nice,” was all you offered, offering the new glass. He held out the empty and you traded him. His fingers brushed yours, longer than was necessary.

“Am I not?” Tony questioned, cocking his head.

“No. You’re very brutal — ruthless even. You’re only nice when you want something. Which is why you’re always so overly sweet to me,” you quipped without missing a beat.

Tony’s lips curled into a smile, staring at you with admiration. “I’ll always be sweet to you, love. Overly so too. Always.”

“Because I’ll always leave you wanting,” you quipped again, pushing away from the bar and walking off to go tend your tables, tossing his dirty pint glass into the bin.

“That necklace suits you. Still. I have matching earrings if you would just come to my cabin to collect them,” Tony called after you.

He would not be held at arm’s length forever. And you were not sure you wanted him to be.

~~~

Marvel tags: @coconutqueen21 @undecidedsworld @holl2712 @agustdowney​

[let-the-dream-begin]

When the World is Free

“There'll be love and laughter, And peace ever after, Tomorrow, When the world is free.” — The White Cliffs of Dover, Vera Lynn, 1942

The world is free again, the war has ended, life starting anew. But for Claire, it’s all over. Jamie’s plane was shot down, leaving her pregnant out of wedlock with nowhere to go. But John made Jamie a promise in their bleakest moments, and he intends to live up to it.

An Echo/MOBY retelling set post-World War II.

Chapter 1: Carry Me, Carry Me Now

Read on AO3

It was a marriage of convenience for them both.

John’s bride was quite well aware of his sensibilities, his preference for the non-female sex. And he was quite well aware of the precariousness of her situation. The tragedy of it as well.

Even if he could forget, it would have been impossible. She was constantly twisting the silver engagement ring she’d been given, constantly resting her hands on her stomach, whether she realized she was doing it or not.

Perhaps the bloke signing their marriage license at the courthouse noticed as well, because he smirked at John with a raised eyebrow when she stroked her flat abdomen for perhaps the millionth time since they’d arrived. John had pursed his lips together for an uncomfortable smile. His assumptions weren’t incorrect, of course, but there were many pieces missing.

The child, for one, still invisible and yet still so enormous in its mother’s heart already, was not John’s. And neither was the ring that lived on her right hand, something he would never ask her to remove. 

The wedding band on her left hand seemed to weigh her down, like a ball and chain pulling her deeper into the black depths of her sorrow.

He drove them home from the courthouse to his flat, or rather their flat. He should start referring to it as such. It was her home now, after all. Their home, the three of them.

Well…four of us, really.

He hung between them like a thick cloud of smoke, solid as a brick wall, at all times. They didn’t speak of it aloud; they didn’t need to. He lived in these rooms rent-free without even needing his name spoken into existence.

John knew that the man who was gone had been the love of her life, her one great love.

And John knew that he was his as well.

He’d confessed it in the black of night, half-buried by rubble when he was sure he would die. They’d gone through basic training together, becoming good friends almost instantly. He’d defended John’s honor when the teasing started; he told him that John was more manly than those other clotheids would ever be. John kept those words, and the gentle touch of his hand that came with them, close to his heart.

“I love you, James Fraser. I love you more than I’ve loved anyone in my life.”

Unfortunately, he hadn’t died.

John had recovered rather quickly from his injuries and proceeded to avoid Jamie at all costs. Jamie was angry as a bull when he’d finally confronted him.

“D’ye think I give a damn, John? D’ye think it’s ever made a difference to me before? I bloody knew before ye said something, ye damned fool.”

John hadn’t realized he’d been that obvious.

“I’m only sorry that I canna be what ye want me to be, a charaid.”

Jamie held him while he cried, and if he hadn’t been mad, he could have sworn he felt Jamie’s tears soak into his hair as well.

Sitting at the kitchen table in his flat across from his new bride, John teared up at the mere memory.

He’d been so ashamed…and Jamie hadn’t given a damn. He was actually sorry that he couldn't return his affection. Instead of John’s confession wrenching them apart as he’d been so terrified of, it brought them even closer.

He watched his bride stare into her teacup as the liquid inside quickly chilled in the November air.

“Are you cold? Should I put on a fire?”

Her hands remained fastened around the teacup and her eyes remained locked inside it as she nodded silently.

God, she had changed.

The first time he’d laid eyes on her was only in a photograph, and even then he’d been astonished by her beauty.

“This is her,” Jamie said as he produced the small photograph that he kept in an inside breast pocket at all times, his face melting into an adoring gaze that took John’s breath away. “My Sorcha.”

She was giving the camera a smirk, eyes sparkling even in black and white, wild dark curls blowing in the wind.

She looked so alive, and that was just a photograph.

When he’d finally seen her in person, he understood quite well why his friend was so drawn to her. She was exquisite, even in her combat nurse uniform. She was radiant, so full of love and life. Her eyes were liquid honey and solid amber all at once. When she laughed, she tossed her head back and smacked whoever was closest, usually Jamie.

If they were beautiful apart…they were a glorious masterpiece together.

Even in the dirt and smoky haze of the camp, when John looked at the pair of them, he could have been looking at a painting. The rest of the world fell away when Jamie had his Claire back in his arms.

It was the most beautiful thing John had ever seen.

A woman was a rare thing in camp, being that most men met their wives elsewhere when they were on leave. But Claire had to be on leave as well if she wanted to see Jamie, and being that they were not yet married, the army wouldn't be bothered lining up their leaves.

And so they’d followed each other. They’d travelled from one battlefield to another, from one hellscape to the next just to be with one another. Even during what was meant to be a reprieve, Claire could be found tending to all sorts of illness and injury around the camp, Jamie trailing beside her like a lost puppy.

Jamie had told John they’d been handfast the night he’d been drafted, an old Scottish tradition that allowed young couples to be married in every sense of the word except in the eyes of the law. There hadn’t been time for a wedding before he was to leave, so that was the best they could do. What mattered to Jamie most was their marriage being seen by the eyes of God, and handfasting accomplished that to his liking. And so for all intents and purposes, Jamie and Claire were married. John could hear it quite well when she was in camp; she was not exactly very quiet about it.

When John returned from starting a fire in the hearth with the intention of leading her into the room to warm herself, she’d replaced her teacup with a glass of whisky and was tossing the entire thing back. She topped her glass off again and then filled a second one. She handed it to him with a sardonic smile, her eyes hooded. There was no trace of that lively youth she’d had when he met her.

“Thank you, my dear,” he said warmly. “The fire is ready, if you’d like to move.”

“Thank you, John.” She stood up and made her way out of the kitchen, taking the bottle with her. Apparently, his bride did not intend to remain sober today. He wondered if she thought that he was going to force her to consummate this marriage, which was just about the last thing on his mind. She should know that he was more than capable of pretending for everyone else, but perhaps he should make himself clear.

“Claire,” he began as they settled into opposite armchairs in front of the fireplace. “You know that I don’t plan to — ”

“Jamie said he kissed you.”

John felt like he’d been smacked in the face with a frying pan. He cleared his throat.

“I beg your pardon?”

“He said that you shared a moment together, and that he kissed you.”

She was staring at him intently, but she didn’t look angry or accusatory. If anything, she seemed possessed by nothing more than morbid curiosity.

“Well…yes. That’s true.”

“We kept secrets, but we didn’t lie,” she said softly, taking a sip of her whisky. “I saw the way you looked at him from the very first time I met you.”

“I’m sorry — ”

“Please don’t be.” Her eyes held such sincerity that he almost wept as he had when Jamie had said just about the same thing. “I just…I wanted to know. That…that last night. The night that we…conceived.” Her hand rested absently on her abdomen again. “I asked him if anything had ever happened. And he told me you shared a kiss.”

“It…didn’t go any farther than that. I wouldn’t have let it, even if he wished it.”

“I know,” she said, taking another sip. “I wasn’t angry. I’m still not. I understand the need for that intimacy in such a hopeless place. And I understand that you…you were very close.” Her voice tightened, and she swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. “I was glad, really. I was grateful to you for being there for him when I couldn’t.”

John didn’t know what to say. He nodded curtly and took a long drag of his whisky.

“What did it feel like?”

He almost choked on the liquid.

“I know it sounds mad. But I…I want to hear you talk about it.” Her chin trembled, but she maintained her strong facade. “I want to hear because I…I want to remember with someone. What it was like to…to love him.”

John blinked back his own tears and ran a hand down the length of his face. He needed a bit more liquid courage before he dove into the details of how Jamie tasted and how he felt beneath his hands. Claire seemed to understand, because she allowed a long silence to pass between them before John finally spoke.

He poured his heart out to her, detailed the feel of Jamie’s lips like he was dictating poetry, described the way Jamie’s short-cut curls felt between his fingers, recalling the way he smelled.

“Like...silver from the gunpowder...but he also smelled vaguely of...aftershave. I remember wondering how on earth he’d come into possession of such a thing. I breathed it in so deeply it made me dizzy.” He closed his eyes and breathed in through his nose, and he could swear he smelt it again. 

“And then the rest of the world fell away...even the gunpowder and the smoke...and I just smelt...him.” Eyes still closed, his tongue farted out to lick his lips. He’d wanted so desperately to run his tongue over Jamie’s lips, but he’d been afraid, paralyzed with shock that it was even happening.

“I was so overwhelmed by the...the feeling of him. His lips were so warm and so solid and so timid...and it was over so quickly, but I...” He opened his eyes, blinking back tears. “I saw an...an entire lifetime between us in that kiss. I wanted to...to fold myself into him and stay there forever.” His voice broke, and he anxiously ran a hand through his hair.

He could almost see the man right in front of him again, could almost feel him warm and alive in his hands again; he could feel the shuddering whisper of whisky breath on his lips and chin and nose, and he brought trembling fingers to rest over his mouth, as if to trap the feeling there. He looked up, seeing the real world again for the first time in several breaths, and his heart leapt into his throat to see that Claire was shuddering with silent tears.

“Claire…” he choked out, leaning onto his knees with his elbows, terrified that he’d gone too far. “I’m…I’m sorry…”

She shook her head, putting down her whisky on the table beside her chair. “That’s…that’s exactly it.”

He blinked dumbly at her, and she abruptly leaned forward with a tiny sob, clasping his hands in hers.

“That’s exactly what it felt like,” she said, something in her eyes that was almost desperate. “Thank you…thank you.”

She leaned forward and pressed her lips to their joined hands, hot and soft and wet. She kept her face atop their hands in John’s lap, and she fell apart. It wasn’t long before she slipped out of her own chair and was kneeling before him, sputtering hysterically into his lap, squeezing his hands until her knuckles were white.

John was stunned, but he did the only thing he could do: he gave her comfort. He stroked her hair as she wept, rubbed her back, squeezed back on her hands. Somehow, he ended up on the floor with her, leaning against the seat of the chair and holding her trembling form to his chest. His own tears dissolved into her curls, and soon he was holding onto her for dear life as well.

“We are the only two people in the world who share this pain,” Claire said against his neck, her voice thick with hours of tears. “This pain…of losing Jamie.”

John nodded fervently, tightening his grip on her tiny body yet again.

“We’ll carry it…together,” John whispered into her hair, and then pressed a kiss there. He felt her nod into the crook of his neck and nuzzled in closer.

More and more hours passed, and more and more whisky emptied from the bottle, and then a second bottle, and then a third. It was well past suppertime, but neither were capable of preparing anything to eat in the state they were in, and their empty stomachs only served to send the alcohol straight to their already muddled brains.

They spent hours going back and forth talking about the mutual love of their lives, weeping and clinging to each other, and then they would laugh their drunken heads off, Claire swatting at him as she howled.

John had loosened the top buttons of his shirt and removed his belt, and Claire had undone the top buttons of her dress as well.

“God…I’m melting…” Claire sighed, pulling her dress over her head and revealing the tiny white slip underneath. “You don’t mind?”

John burst into hysterical laughter, and Claire soon followed.

“Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ!” Claire sputtered. “Of course you don’t bloody mind. I could be stark naked and you wouldn’t bat an eye!”

They howled again, and she swatted at him.

“Not to mention I’m bloody married to you!”

They howled a bit more until Claire had spilled her whisky onto the rug and fell over into John’s lap.

“I think we should get you into bed, my dear.”

She giggled, biting her lip, and John was briefly mesmerized by the way a blush bloomed down her neck and into her chest. He heaved her to her feet, and they laughed together as they both swayed their way into the bedroom.

“You’re going to have quite the hangover tomorrow.” John was attempting to make more lighthearted conversation, but as he looked down at the woman in his arms, he was taken aback to see something he could only describe as hunger in her eyes.

“Would you…” He struggled to think through his drunken haze. “Would you like a nightgown, my dear?”

He made to pull away from her and go to the wardrobe, but she fisted his shirt in her hands, not ready to release him. She pressed her face into his neck and hummed, vibrating the skin there, and it gave him gooseflesh.

“Claire…” His tone could have been a warning, or pleading. He wasn’t at all sure.

Her small tongue darted out of her mouth and traced a line from the bottom of his neck all the way up to where his jawline began, and he shuddered violently. She giggled all the while her tongue was hanging out of her mouth, creating a lusty, wanton sound.

John gently took her face in his hands and pushed her away just enough to look in her eyes. They were hooded with drink and glassy as a porcelain doll’s. He thought he detected the slightest bit of fear, and it broke his heart.

“It’s alright. We don’t…we don’t have to.” He gently took her hands off of his chest and held them loosely between them. “I didn’t expect you to. We don’t have to.”

She gave a heartbreaking little whimper and began nuzzling her face into his chest, practically leaning her entire body weight on him. “Please.”

He didn’t think he’d heard her properly at first.

“Really, we can just…go to bed. On separate sides.”

“Please.”

It was almost a moan in its intensity. She began pawing at his clothing, pressing desperate kisses into his neck.

“I need you,” she groaned. “I need this. I need you, Jamie.”

His blood ran cold, and it would appear hers did as well by the way she froze completely. She practically went cool to the touch.

“Claire.”

He firmly took her chin between his fingers and forced her to look at him.

“I’m not Jamie.”

She could hardly stand on her own, could hardly focus her bleary eyes on him.

“I’m not Jamie,” he said again, more gently, moving his hand off her chin to cup the back of her head. “I can’t…I won’t have you like this. You’re drunk and…you’re not thinking clearly.”

She welled up with tears, looking very much like a wounded animal in response to his apparent rejection.

“I’m sorry, my dear. I know how much you’re hurting.”

God, did he know it.

“And you know that I…well…you know me.” He didn’t feel the need to speak it aloud again.

“You want to,” she sputtered. “I can feel it.”

She very suddenly and very firmly palmed him, causing him to jolt. And damn him, she was right. For some reason, some ungodly, horrific reason, he was aroused.

“It’s…it’s not you, Claire,” he said softly after regaining his composure, though he made no move to remove her hand. “It’s…it’s him. I’m standing here wishing it was his hand.”

“Good.” She tightened her grip, and he groaned involuntarily. “Because I’m standing here wishing it was his cock.”

She kissed him then, sloppily, heavily, lapping her tongue over him.

“Make love to Jamie, John,” she panted between kisses. “You make love to him, and so will I.”

“It’s not…it isn’t right.” He firmly seized her wrist and removed her grip from him, pinning her hands away from him.

Hands or no, Claire was never one to give up. When she wanted something, she would get it, consequences be damned.

She began gyrating her hips against him, and God help him if it didn’t make him even harder. It wasn’t long before he released her hands and finally surrendered to her, allowing her to pin him to the bed and have her way with him. He could have stopped her if he’d truly wanted. He could have tossed a bucket of water over her, given her a light but firm smack, shouted at her, gone to sleep in the living room. But, God…he wanted this, needed this as badly as she did.

He reached out and sought purchase in her skin as she rode him, soft in all the places where Jamie was solid. She was wild, a mad look in her eye as she tossed her head back in delicious ecstasy, and yet she was entirely lucid, he was sure of it. Perhaps the moments leading up to their joining were hazy, but now she was more than aware.

Her hands were all over him as well, small and yet hard and demanding. She even gripped his hands at one point and directed them exactly where she wanted to be touched.

She cried out for Jamie as she came around him, and God help him if he didn’t do the same as he spilled into her.

It was filthy, it was shameful, and he was disgusted and confused and terrified.

But when she collapsed onto his chest and wept like a broken child, everything faded but the need to comfort her, to protect her.

“I need ye to promise me something, John.”

“Anything.”

“If anything should happen to me…”

“God, Jamie, please don’t talk like this.”

“Ye said anything, man. I need ye to mean it.”

He looked into those steel blue eyes, his pupils shrunken to tiny pinpricks. John nodded, though his heart hammered with terrible foreboding.

“If anything should happen to me…I need…I need ye to promise me that ye’ll look after Claire.”

John took a moment to blink back his shock.

“I ken she’s strong as a stallion and stubborn as a mule. She’d have ye think that she doesna need any help. Truth be told, I ken she doesna. But just…fer my peace of mind. Will ye swear to me that ye’ll look after her?”

John swallowed thickly, unable to stop the rush of tears.

“She means more to me than anything in this world. And I’m entrusting her to ye, my dearest friend. And in return, if ye want…I would be willing to…”

John's eyes widened, unblinking.

“If ye want.”

John’s mouth hung agape, and he stammered incoherently for a moment.

“Are you actually offering your body to me in payment if I promise to look after Claire?”

Jamie’s jaw hardened, and he nodded once. “Aye.”

“Dear God…” John shook his head, and he actually started laughing. “That I should live to hear such an offer!”

Jamie blinked rapidly, and John could have sworn he saw tears gathering there. “Ye dinna want me then?”

“I shall probably want you ’til the day I die!” John exclaimed, and then lowered his voice to a whisper, remembering that tents were thin, flimsy things. “But tempted as I am…do you really think I’d accept? I should feel my honor most insulted, save that I know the depth of feeling that prompted it.”

Jamie wet his lips and nodded, averting his eyes and staring at a stain in the tent. “Aye. I’m…I’m sorry. I didna mean tae insult yer honor. I just…I thought to…to give ye something of what is most precious to ye in return for protecting that which is most precious to me.”

John placed a comforting hand on Jamie’s knee, desperate for his friend to not feel ashamed. “I understand.”

Jamie nodded again, and then forced himself to look at John. “Besides, I…I wouldnae ha’ offered if it wasna something I could bear.”

Despite how fiercely John blushed, how much he wanted to tear his eyes away, he didn’t. He held Jamie’s gaze as he whispered, almost inaudible: “You could…bear it?”

“Aye,” he said without hesitation. “I could.”

Then before John knew what was happening, Jamie’s lips were on his, and his soul ignited. It was sweet and chaste, and gentle and beautiful.

Jamie was beautiful.

He pulled away after about three seconds, and the two men maintained their intense eye contact.

“You have my word, Jamie,” John whispered fervently. “God forbid you are taken from us, I will keep safe what you love most. And I am…most grateful for such an honor.”

“Thank ye.” His steel blue eyes welled up with tears, and he clutched at the back of John’s neck. “Thank ye, John.”

John had sworn it with everything he had to give in his heart and soul. She was the most precious thing in the world to Jamie, and he’d left her to his care. It felt like an honor he was not worthy of. He was not worthy of the man as he lived, and he was certainly not worthy of the woman he’d loved and the child she would bear. Perhaps Jamie hadn’t meant for him to marry the woman if something should happen, but what else was he to do? Leave her unmarried and childless in a world so cruel?

No, he’d sworn on his honor that she’d be safe with him, forever and always.

And as he held her, naked, broken, and sobbing to his own naked form, trembling like a leaf with the force of her tears, John could feel her seeping into the cracks that Jamie had left in his heart. He could feel her already becoming as precious to him as she’d been to Jamie…as precious to him as Jamie had been to him.

Don’t fret, Jamie, love. I’ve got her.

I’ve got them both.

[storiesforallfandoms]

see you again ~ loki;marvel

word count: 1582

request?: no

description: when she goes back in time to try and recover the reality stone, she finds her late lover instead, and has a hard time going back to her own time

pairing: loki x female!reader

warnings: angst, sadness, mentions of death

masterlist

The feeling when traveling through the quantum realm was hard to describe. It felt like you were falling but also being pulled in every direction at the same time. I was spinning as I fell, making it hard to really see anything within the realm. Before I knew it, I was on flat ground in the castle in Asgard.

I pressed a button on my suit and made it disappear, taking a deep breath when I was free from the helmet.

“Well that was an adventure,” Rocket commented. “Do you know where that former flame of yours is, tubby?”

“There was a room we gave her,” Thor said. “I...I remember where but I can’t remember...I’d know it if I saw it.”

“Right, because I’m sure it’ll be easy to find one room in this giant ass castle,” Rocket muttered.

“That’s enough, we don’t have much time,” I told them both. “We have to find Dr. Foster, get the Reality Stone and go back to our time before anyone here notices us. Remember, we can’t do anything to change this timeline.”

“Yeah, yeah, we know,” Rocket said. “Lead the way, God of Guilt Eating.”

I couldn't help but look around in amazement at the castle. I never got the chance to come see Asgard. Loki had always told me he wanted to take me to see it, but, for obvious reasons, he wasn’t exactly the most liked there. He couldn’t walk around as himself, it wasn’t safe.

If only I had been there on better circumstances.

We turned and began moving down a bright hallway filled with open rooms, guarded only by what looked like holographic prison bars.

“Is this your version of a prison?” I whispered to Thor.

He nodded. “The bars are electric. If a prisoner were to try and escape or to touch them in any way they’d be shot with a million painful volts. Only the lucky would survive that.”

“Maybe that’s what we needed to contain the grape,” Rocket muttered.

While I didn't believe these prisons would be able to hold Thanos, I did agree we could use these types of cells would definitely come in handy with some of the people we’ve fought.

As we passed the prison cells, I happened to look over to see what Asgardian prisoners would look like, I stopped in my tracks noticing the prisoner in the cell directly in front of me.

Loki.

I was sure I was dreaming. It couldn’t be Loki, Loki was dead. But then I remembered it was 2013. Loki had just been taken prisoner after what happened on Earth in 2012. I hadn’t seen him in a year while he was a prisoner. I was sure I’d never see him again until he showed up on Earth without anyone on Asgard knowing he was gone.

Rocket and Thor were well ahead of me by now, but I had abandoned my pursuit of the Stone. Instead, I was approaching Loki’s cell.

He was lying down on his prison cot, throwing a cup in the air and catching it effortlessly. He didn't notice me approaching at first. He heard my footsteps first I figured, as he lazily turned his head to look at me. When he realized who I was, he shot up quickly.

“(Y/N),” he breathed.

Hearing his voice after all those years, I couldn’t help but smile. Using my powers, I teleported into his cell with no problems.

Loki cupped my face in his hands. “It is you.”

“It’s really me,” I confirmed.

He smiled and pulled me to him, gently pressing his lips to mine. Tears started falling down my face as I melted into his familiar embrace.

“What are you doing here?” he asked as he pulled away. “How did you get here?”

“I - I can’t really say,” I told him. “I shouldn’t even be talking to you right now.”

“What does that mean?” Loki asked, furrowing his brow.

I pulled away from him, shaking my head. This was a mistake. I shouldn’t have spoken to him. This could mess up their timeline and create a parallel timeline. We were told specifically not to do that before starting our adventure.

Loki looked at me with concern. He cupped my chin and made me look up at him. “You look different. Like more than a year has passed. How long has it been since I’ve been to Midgard?”

I tried to look away but I couldn’t. Those eyes, I had always loved those eyes. It had been five years since I saw those eyes. “A year, but in my time it’s been five years.”

Loki let go of me, looking at me in shock. “You’re from the future.”

I nodded. “Ten years in the future from now.”

“What are you doing here then? What do you need from Asgard in this year?”

“We’re looking for the Reality Stone in order to reverse what Thanos has done in our time.”

Loki flinched at the name. I had forgotten that his attack on New York in 2012 was a part of Thanos’ original plan.

“He succeeded, then,” Loki said, running a hand through his hair. “His plan, he succeeded despite my failure on Midgard.”

“Unfortunately so,” I sighed.

Loki sat back on his cot, completely in shock. I couldn’t look away from him. I never wanted to look away. If I could, I’d stay here and look at him forever. How could I ever return to my time knowing he wouldn’t be there?

“What has he done?” Loki asked. “What was the outcome of his insanity?”

“Many deaths.” Your death.

“That’s what he always wanted.” He looked up at me then. He took my hands in his. “There’s something else, something troubling you. What is it? Did he kill your friends?”

“Some of them, yes.”

I tried not to give too much away on my face, but no one knew me better than Loki. “Did he kill me?”

My flinch was the only confirmation he needed. Loki pulled me down so I was sitting on his lap. He took my face in his hands again and brought it to his. He kissed my nose first, something I always loved that he did, then both cheeks, causing me to giggle. He smiled at me before pressing a kiss to my lips.

“What if I stayed?” I whispered against his lips.

“What do you mean?”

“What if I stayed in this time? I could break you out, we could run away. I could keep you far away from Thanos, I could keep you alive.”

“What about the you of this time? The one waiting for me on Midgard.”

Was it selfish of me to take him away from someone else if that someone was just...me?

“You have to go back to your time,” he told me. “You have to reverse whatever Thanos did, and you have to stop him from destroying any other lives ever again.”

My cheeks were wet with tears. I knew he was right, but letting him go knowing what was going to happen to him was so hard.

I got off Loki’s lap, keeping hold of his hands for just a moment longer. He looked up at me and squeezed my hands slightly. “I’ll find you again, I promise.”

I knew there was no way he could, but I nodded anyways.

“I love you, (Y/N).”

“I love you, too, Loki.”

Before I could talk myself into staying, I let go of Loki’s hands and transported myself to Rocket, who was watching a woman I recognized as Jane Foster. Rocket jumped at my sudden appearance.

‘“Where the hell did you go?” he asked.

I wiped away my tears, refusing to look at Rocket. “I got distracted.”

~~~~~~

Reversing what Thanos did and defeating the Titan once and for all came with great losses; Tony and Natasha, and in a way Steve as well. It brought about uncertainty within the Avengers, if they even existed as a team anymore.

I found myself sat by the pond that was behind my house. I always wanted to live by the water, and after Loki’s death, Tony, the only person who knew about our secret romance, bought me my dream home to try and cheer me up.

I felt so alone. I love my lover and members of my family, and currently was not in constant with the members that were left. I may as well have sacrificed myself, instead of Tony. I had nothing else left on Earth.

“(Y/N)?”

I turned to see Loki stood behind me, the glowing blue Tesseract in his hands. I quickly jumped to my feet.

“Loki? How - ?”

“I stole the Tesseract after being freed from prison,” he explained. “Instead of hiding it like I planned, I used it to travel through the universe until I found you - the you that visited me all those years ago when I was imprisoned.”

My legs moved before my mind could comprehend what I was doing. I ran into Loki, knocking him over. He laughed as we both hit the ground, tangled in each other’s arms.

“I told you I’d find you,” he told me.

“You did,” I agreed. “I just...I’m so glad you did.”

He pressed his lips to mine. I held him so tightly I knew if he were a normal mortal I’d be crushing him. This was real, he was real. My real Loki, I finally had him again.

[whump-town]

if this is okay, for the suggest a fic thing, how about an au to minimal loss where hotch sent his agents into the building, but like gideon and adrian bale, they didn't come out again, or if they did, they couldn't be field agents because of the injuries?

"He failed his gun qualification." 

Derek Morgan's head snaps up from where he's staring at his paperwork. Everyone's been on edge since the accident but today the air feels unbearably thick. Enough to cut. "Dave, " he calls to the senior agent's receding back. "How bad?"

Rossi stops and stands for a moment conjuring the best words to describe the situation. He turns on the heel of a foot, looking over his shoulder he simply shakes his head. But that alone says enough. Dave's been unwavering with support. Strong. The only level head in the face of everything and now he's communicating that it's pointless. 

Things can never go back to the way that they were before.

Before the explosion.

Aaron Hotchner’s scream is swallowed by the crack that shakes the world. 

By the bomb that upsets his entire life.

He surges forward. That’s what his training has taught him, what his life has prepared him for. To keep moving forward regardless of what waits ahead. To move into the danger. Besides, his team is in there. His family and he’s-- he’s got to get in there. He has to-- Arms snag his waist and he knows just from the way that he’s stopped in his tracks who it is. “Derek,” he barks the other man’s name out like an order and it is. 

Except he isn’t released. He becomes increasingly desperate and he comes free only because irrational rarely looses to logic. This time, the earth splits and Derek Morgan’s shout pulls them all down. His voice cracks and he watches his boss’ receding back. 

What are they to do?

Nothing. Except follow.

Dave’s voice sounds through the chaos but Derek is deaf to the orders. All he can do is stand and stare in shock as Hotch runs into the scene. As he breaks protocols and puts himself into danger.

Derek Morgan hadn’t been there when Adrian Bale bested Gideon and killed their team. Aaron had been. He’d been preparing the trail the first team in, leading more local police into the scene. Hotch had spent two weeks in the hospital recovering from the shrapnel wounds embedded in his upper torso. The fact that he had only nearly died set him apart from the others. So he never complained because it could have been worse. 

So much worse. 

"No--" Derek sees the first responders collect his boss. Forming a line between the distraught unit chief and the men and women trying to do their job. 

"No!" Hotch's voice is a frustrated strangled sound. He's bigger than the line of people. Desperation forms an all new type of strength and breaks through the line. The smoke and scent of carnage punch him in the gut.

Failure.

God… Good Lord this is what failure smells like. 

"Hotch!" 

Too much has happened in such a short amount of time. 

"You okay, man?" Morgan meets Hotch at the elevator. He knows where the older man is headed. He's become easily predictable. 

Hotch doesn't so much as blink in response. 

Morgan wants to be pissed. He wants to flip the desk and punch a wall. He needs to do something because they just keep losing. They can’t seem to win. And, as much as he can understand, he can’t comprehend how unwilling to fight Hotch is. How hard is it to pass a gun qualification? The man is a god-damned sharpshooter. One of the best and he can’t even… He can’t do this one thing.

It’s not even hard.

They stop in the hall and Morgan refuses to look. He can’t but he still knows what he’ll find: his best friend’s faces memorialized behind glass, smiling for the rest of eternity. 

They found Emily in the hall. She’d been holding the body of another woman to her chest, pulling them both to what she thought was safety. The other man was dead, from what they can tell, but Emily refused to leave her behind. She was three feet from the exit when Cryus blew the compound up. Three fucking feet. 

Somehow, it had been smoke inhalation that did her in. Her legs broken beneath the debris that fell onto her body and yet, she’d laid on her back for three hours before she met her death. She was savable. They could have saved her. Instead, she died in a cult leader’s basement trapped under debris all alone. 

Spencer had gone quickly. Immediate. 

There was blood pooling on his lips as he’d smiled at Cyrus. His death had looked like defiance and he knew that as the hammer of the gun struck, Hotch would have been proud. It took balls to argue with Cyrus. To back the leader into a biblical corner but his words had struck a new rebellion: doubt. 

Cyrus had leveled his Glock to Ried’s temples and torn his genius brain to shreds. 

But Reid had never known strength as he did in that moment.

The bomb didn’t even leave them a body to bury. 

Morgan can’t even look at their pictures. 

“Cyrus killed them,” Morgan reminds Hotch gently. This has nothing to do with Hotch or his orders. This is about an unhinged cult leader and a bomb. This wasn’t Gideon and Adrain Bale. There was no way for Hotch to know. He had done what any of them would have: the job. That’s what Reid and Prentiss were doing that day. 

The day the earth stood still.

At night, Morgan wakes with cold sweat soaking his back. All he can hear is Hotch’s broken shout for Prentiss and Reid. The only time he’s ever heard the other man so desperate.

Morgan steps around debris, lowering his head in defeat at the way the emergency personal look at him. This isn’t shame… it’s Derek Morgan realizing he has no idea what to do. No idea what he’s supposed to say. Because there is nothing he can conceive to make this better. To give this moment a commodity of normalcy.

In the middle of it all-- a sea of black body bags, each one measuring out their failure-- Hotch is crouched on the ground. In his arms… Emily.

“Man…” Morgan had fallen to his knees right beside his boss. His oldest friend. “She’s gone,” he manages because that’s what the emergency crew had told him. What they kept saying as they explained that someone needed to come to get Hotch so they could take her away.

Morgan can’t-- Emily had always been so pale. Her dark hair and dark eyes had all been so striking to her pale beauty but he’s never seen her so still. A broken doll in Hotch’s arms. 

“We have to go,” Morgan says and he’s not sure he can do much more than repeating the words that other people have been repeating to him. He’s incapable of thinking past just how broken Emily is. He’d just spoken to her. The flashing light and her boot in the window.

Hotch tears his eyes away and up to Morgan. There are tear streaks on his dirty face, “I can’t.” He looks back down at Emily and holds her closer. Daring Morgan to take her away. “She--” the words get caught in his throat. “She didn’t think I trusted her.”

Morgan shakes his head but… it’s true.

“I do,” Hotch says. His chest heaves as he pulls in a broken sob. “I trust her.”

Morgan nods his understanding and places a hand on Hotch’s shoulder. “She knows,” he promises. “She knows, man.”

That day claimed more than it ever gave. 

They lost Reid and Prentiss. 

Hotch had been torn by his inability to be a p0lberrier but he’s been unable to stop the tremble in his hands since that bomb went off. His grip was too weak.

“Dave told me you failed your gun qualification,” Morgan says softly. Slowly, he raises his eyes until he’s at Reid. He’s never going to turn thirty. Never going to fall in love. 

Hotch doesn’t say anything which shouldn’t be as surprising as it is. He doesn’t talk too much anymore. 

“It’s not a big deal,” Morgan scratches at the back of his head. “You don’t need to go out in the field.” Hotch shouldn’t be anywhere near the field. Not for a long time. Morgan can’t take another Gideon. He can’t watch another friend unravel. He’s tired of losing people. 

He accidentally looks at Emily and feels the wind get knocked from his lungs. Clenching his teeth, Morgan forces himself to breathe steadily. Forcing the image of Emily’s still body in Hotch’s arms as far from his mind as he can. “Come on,” Morgan says, knowing that Hotch will follow. 

His hands tucked in his pockets, hiding their intense tremble, Hotch mindlessly follows. That’s all he’s really capable these days. His hands tremble. His eyes scan. He stays silent, broken. 

“We’ll be okay,” Morgan tells him, as he holds the bull-pens door open. Morgan just needs to work on convincing himself that as much as Hotch. 

They’re never okay.

[amethystpath-writes]

Can Only Move the Eyes

Original Work

Can Only Move the Eyes

@badthingshappenbingo

Small Description: an immortal sorceress is trying to rid herself of immortality by taking the life of the one she loves.

******

You're strong, the lady's voice said, but not strong enough to counter my powers.

If Tysin could growl, he would have, but he couldn't move. Even his breaths were controlled by the sorceress at his side.

Have you had training? Defense against magic? the sorceress, named Giladiasana- Sana, for short- asked Tysin in his head. He could answer if he wanted, think a response loudly enough that she would hear, but he didn't care to talk to a woman who was about to bleed him dry.

Sana pushed a hard barrier on his mind, causing a sharp sting, one that would have made Tysin take a sharp intake of breath and even hold his head, but all he could do was squeeze his eyes shut. That was meant to happen differently, she whispered in his head.

When Tysin opened his eyes again, he glanced around, head unmoving, but eyes darting about. There was glass everywhere. Mostly bottles full of discoloured liquids. Other pieces of glass- colourful ones- dangled about on strings. Tysin assumed it was sea glass. The sorceress's hut was an alcove by the beach so it made sense.

You're ignoring me. Very nice. Sana purred in his mind and it felt to Tysin like it wrapped around his brain. He felt dizzy despite being entirely still.

Why shouldn't I? he finally replied. You pretended to be a friend and now I'm paralyzed. He laughed mentally and added, But let me guess. I should be grateful that I can move my eyes, right?

The sorceress crossed the room. She left Tysin's field of vision as he was laid down. Still, she reached out to his mind. How powerful was she? Depends, Sana sighed. Would you feel better if I kept your eyes closed while I did this?

In truth, he wasn't sure if not seeing was better or worse. Sure the sorceress' home was somewhat fascinating to look at- even if his vision was limited- but wouldn't it be a taunt when she finally dragged a blade across his arm and he began bleeding out? He'd rather see the sky while he died than a bunch of dried roots, twigs, and strange shapes made of clay.

Why are you doing this? Why me?

Which should I answer first?

Sana entered Tysin's sight again. If he could have, he would have lunged at her from his table. Just answer.

You're angry, she observed first. You don't have to be. I don't intend on killing you. I like you.

Tysin would have scoffed at this, except he couldn't imagine scoffing without his chest huffing, and his chest couldn't move. It was like his mind forgot what scoffing was without actually having the action. Whereas laughing was mostly a sound, scoffing required an attached feeling. He didn't have that feeling. It was odd. He blamed Sana.

As for why you...well it's what I just said. I like you, and I don't want to get rid of you. If you had been someone else, I might have killed you to complete my goal. But... Tysin rolled his eyes. The sorceress needed to stop pretending she had any amount of feeling for him. She was cleaning a damn blade so that she could cut him open. She didn't like him. She was keeping him, like a pet. You knew I was different from the moment you met me. You're observant like that. You knew there was something dangerous about me, but you still befriended me.

And this is how you repay me. Again, he wanted to scoff, but the concept was absent. Will it hurt? he asked instead. When I bleed out, will it hurt?

The cut would hurt, but I'll make sure you don't feel it, she said. Tysin was pissed hearing the genuineness in her voice. He refused to believe she felt any remorse for this. And anyway, I'm not bleeding you out, not fully. I'll have to do this a few times. The worst to happen is you'll feel faint and get a few headaches, but I have herbs to help with the latter.

Tysin didn't reply. He was confused- and angry, but mostly confused. Because she did sound sincere. She did sound like she cared, and like she didn't want to hurt him. But if she didn't want to...then why was she? What do you need me for? Why my blood? What are you using it for? He wanted to ask again, why him? Why not some other man or woman she'd met? Why did it have to be someone she apparently cared about? There were too many questions, and it seemed like there weren't enough answers. What she was doing was heathenish and no explanation could be enough.

I'm selfish, Sana told him. There was a long pause and Tysin's chest rose suddenly as the sorceress' did, too. She must have accidentally projected her own actions onto him. His eyes went wide at the swell of feeling. At the same time his chest had rose, he felt something ripping in his arm.

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean-

The pain in his arm increased and he screamed, his arm jerking to his chest. The skin on his chest felt warm, and he discovered he had mobility in his neck again as he looked down. Sana's control over him had slipped and he felt the pain she caused. She'd stuck the knife in his arm and it was bleeding now, bleeding through his shirt and settling on his skin.

"Tysin, I didn't- I'm sorry. I meant to numb you, but I- What am I doing?" sana sounded angry with the last question.

She rushingly put a hand on Tysin's shoulder, and he fell still again. His arm stung as it slammed against the table. He would have grunted but Sana had control again. His eyes were stuck in a pained squint. They burned as he couldn't blink.

"I've never-" Sana paced beside the table. Tysin didn't see the knife anymore. Had she dropped it. "I don't want to do this," she stressed. "But it's all I want, too." Was she sniffling? "You can still feel. Shit."

In the next moment, the pain in Tysin's arm was gone, and so was the warmth of his own blood on his chest when he cradled his arm. His eyes could move again, too, and he found himself actually be grateful that she'd decided to let them move unlike the rest of his body.

"You know what, I'm just going to say it." Sana took a deep breath. "There's a lot to it, but I'll simplify it as much as I can." Another breath. "I'm not just a sorceress, or a witch, or whatever you want to call me. Before that, I was- you'll never believe me..." Sana sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I'm a god. Or was. I was a god before I was made a sorceress on this Earth. And I'm immortal. I know it sounds crazy; I'm not even sure that you believe in the gods, but they do exist. The gods are real and they're the reason that I'm here as I am.

"I wanted to be mortal. I didn't want to be a god anymore, and they called me cowardice for wanting to abandon my powers and control. But I...life isn't worth living if you can't die. Why should I like to create if what I create has an expiration date and I don't? I want to die, Tysin. I don't want to live forever."

What does this-

You can talk. Sana nodded at him.

Tysin let his lips part before licking them. He tested his jaws, opening and closing his mouth and letting his teeth clack together. He ran his tongue along the backs of his teeth and along the skin of his cheek.

Finally, he spoke, "What does any of that have to do with me?" he asked. He didn't say whether or not he believed her outlandish story.

She swallowed. "They punished me," she explained. "They put me on a land of mortals and made me into another immortal, a one-of-a-kind. They made me into a target on this land. Witches were a scary tale created by mortals and the gods made it real, made me into that fictional form. I still want to die, so they surrounded me with death, and made it so that I can still never die."

Tysin gave a blank look. This still had nothing to do with him. She was avoiding the answer.

Sana caught onto his impatience and nodded, getting on with it all. "They have given me a choice. I still value the mortals as my creation. They are precious to me. So..." She sighed like she had done so often today. "I can obtain a mortal life for myself, but only if I kill a mortal I love." Sana walked closer to the table so that she could look Tysin in the eyes. "And I love you, but...I can't kill you. I won't." Her brows pinched together. "But I have to." Sana shook her head.

"You asked if it would hurt and before you asked that, I was still considering following through. I'm selfish, I'll say it again. But when you asked me that...I couldn't let you die. So what I want to do now is..." She grunted in aggravation. "There's so much playing into this. Okay, there are about 5.7 liters of blood in a human's body. And since blood is what allows for life, I must take yours for myself- drink it. What I want to do now, because I won't kill you, is I'll take 5.7 liters of your blood, but over a course of time. I'll take some today, let you recover. Take more another day, recover. And I'll keep doing that until I have enough to equate to one life."

Sana smiled, for the first time today. "Then we can both be mortal and I can love you until we both die. I won't have to be afraid of the person I love dying and therefore having to live on my own without them."

Tysin was almost in shock at the overload. "That...wasn't very simplified."

She gave a huff of a laugh, eyes bright.

"Let me get this straight. You want to take my life so that you can experience death?"

"In a way. I'm not actually taking your life because I won't be killing you, but yes. I am taking your blood so that we can be together."

What makes you think I want to be with you? Who was she to believe he would just be okay with her taking his blood? Sana was out of her mind! Sure she was a sorceress; he believed that in full. But an immortal god? One that needed his blood to overcome a neverending life? No. No, she was crazy.

But, he supposed, this is more up to my own selflessness now.

Sana could find another person to love. Love was limitless and could be presented in many forms. There's motherly love and platonic love. Romantic and admiration. Sana could make a new friend and do this to them instead of Tysin, but it didn't seem okay to do that. This was now a test of Tysin's morals, not the sorceress'. Could he be as selfish as her? Put someone else's life at risk or have them bled out day by day like Sana was proposing she do to him? No. Absolutely not.

"It's okay," Tysin said to the sorceress leaning over him. It wasn't okay. Not at all, but he wouldn't risk someone else's life for his own. Wouldn't make someone else go through being cut open ever day or week or however often it might happen to him. Tysin considered asking Sana to go ahead and kill him, but he knew she wouldn't do that. She loved him so much that she lost control even when she'd first hurt him with the knife. "Do what you must."

******

[valhallasubstitute]

Yours, and Only Yours

--Sihtric x Virgin!Reader

After travelling with Uthred for many months the fact that you’re still a virgin is revealed in a drunken confession, from that moment on Sihtric can’t help but thinking of making you his. 

Authors note: Hey guys so this is my first time ever writing a fic so go easy on me.  If you liked this let me know, constructive criticism is welcome as is general thirst :) x

part two

WARNINGS: Slightly smutty, mutual lusting?

wc: 1684

It was dark, it was late and you were drunk. The five of you surrounded the fire, Uhtred and Osferth   sat either side of you, the fire acted as both warmth and a shield from Finan’s jokes. The fire also shielded you from Sihtric. Quiet, impulsive and beautiful, you’d be lying to yourself if you said you weren’t attracted to him.

And that just made it all the more embarrassing when it came tumbling out of your mouth. ‘It’ being the fact that you had never laid with a man. The ale that you shared had made you relax and your tongue loose. Finan had been teasing the baby monk, nothing out of the ordinary but you couldn’t help yourself when lack of experience came up. You really couldn’t help yourself, it just fell out. As soon as the silence had settled sobriety hit you and heat rushed to your face.  Finan and Uhtred shared a look, a mix of shock, amusement and the knowledge that they now had infinite ammo to torment you with, a favoured past time. The monk at least had the decency to look down,  his own embarrassment evident, even in the low fire light. And then there was Sihtric, you could feel his eyes. You wanted the Gods to open up the earth and swallow you whole but no such luck. As long as he wasn’t sympathetic, sympathy would have been the worst case scenario. The man that made you feel the most unholy of things looking at you with pity, like a little girl? It would haunt you far more than any joke Finan could make.  You couldn’t take it. His eyes were fixed on your own as soon as you looked up, the amusement was there, as was quiet surprise. But what else you found you couldn’t quite fathom and it sent an entirely different type of heat through your body.

Sihtric couldn’t figure out what had shifted and it bothered him. You had recovered quickly from your drunken outburst. Finan, and on occasion Uthred, exploiting it as far as you would allow them, but you were a Dane and the threat of your blade acquainting itself with their balls soon silenced them. But no number of threats could put an end to the dreams he had been having. He had dreamed of you before, even before the official dissolving of his marriage. The sight of other women on long rides were rare and he was not blind to your beauty. He often found himself admiring the way your thighs spread across your saddle or the simplicity of watching droplets of water run down your throat as you drank. Now he was free to dream of you and since your confession he couldn’t help but let his dreams slip into his waking life. He wondered if your laughter would be as light and breathless with his head between your thighs, his beard brushing against your soft skin. He wondered if you’d give yourself so fully to the act of love making as you did sword play. Even now, after a full days ride he watched you splash water on the back of your neck and wondered if you’d make the same content sigh as he pushed himself into you. He took one final look before adjusting himself. He could have you in his dreams but first he needed a drink, you all did.

The ale house was warm and inviting, a table becoming free just as the five of you stepped through the door and you didn’t miss the way each of your companions glanced towards the sky; a small blessing from each of their gods. It had been a hard ride through Mercia, despite this a room filled with Saxons was a welcomed sight. There was music, whores and plenty of ale.

It took all of half a pint before Finan had a woman in his lap. She had large green eyes that fluttered in delight at the flirtation from both the man whose lap she sat on and Uhtred from across the table. Sihtric watched Finan caress her curves and let his mind wonder to you. He wondered if you’d enjoy it if he nipped at your neck just as Finan did to his busty whore, if you could take such a public teasing. He enjoyed the thought. He enjoyed watching you dance too.

You’d had no desire to sit and watch your friends get drunk, the more they drank the harder it was to reason with them it became and you certainly had no desire to spill any more of your secrets. You didn’t want to convince any of them that they couldn’t afford the women who they so desired and you certainly didn’t want to watch your boys go home with them. Well, you thought, you didn’t want to see only one of them go home with someone that wasn’t you.

But that wasn’t an option, so you danced.

You had grabbed the hand of a young serving girl and took her to the middle of the floor. It was obvious that you were a Dane but no one seemed to mind as you spun together, breathless and giggling, letting the world around you filled with violence and enemies melt away. Your face was already flushed when you caught Sihtric’s eye over the brim of his mug, you knew he well enough to see that he was enjoying himself but that look was there again, the one you didn’t understand. He was half facing you, half facing Finan and began laughing at something that was said. He broke his gaze as he did so, eyes creasing with joy and you took this as an opportunity to move away from the dance, the desire to drink and admire from afar becoming too strong for you to deny.

It had taken you some time to earn everyone’s trust but that was just their way, now you just enjoyed admiring what you considered to be your family. And Sihtric. It felt impossible to draw your eyes away from him, even if you couldn’t see his face. You could admire what you could see and by the gods did you admire it. His neck, the expanse of his back in light armor and his arms on full display. Gods, his arms. While the touch of a man wasn’t known to you, your own hand was no stranger and the idea of those arms pinning you, to anything, had your fingers twitching with anticipation. It wasn’t until a cough interrupted your fantasy that you realised just how intensely you had been staring. The stranger took your blush as interest and your interest as an invite into your bubble of existence. He wasn’t unattractive but had a distinct plainness to him, one you weren’t accustomed to given your chosen company. His smile was easy and his eyes heavy lidded due to drink and when his hand met your waist that’s when you knew you were headed for trouble.

Drinking didn’t usually clear Sihtric’s head, in fact it usually clouded it enough he lost half his sense and half his coin but tonight the single glass he’d had made him realise something. As he watched you allow another man to lay a hand on you he realised that he didn’t like it. It made his blood race just as it did moments before battle. The stranger’s hand on your waist was enough to make Sihtric realise that you were more than a favoured daydream and friend, that he liked you distinctly untouched.

Sihtric had never been any woman’s first. His first had been a slave girl, older than him and wiser when it came to sex. He’d lasted longer than she had expected and as a boy he took pride in that. As he grew he was no stranger to alehouse women and their ways. He’d married one and while he had loved her and believed in her love for him, he was not shocked when she returned to her previous occupation once he wasn’t there to provide nor satisfy her needs. She had never truly been his, nor where any of the women he had shared his bed with. But you, you were untouched by any man, untainted by disappointment and countless hands. And he wanted to be the only man to touch you. To let him touch you. Not for sliver, not for protection or for the amusement of fucking Kjartan’s bastard. Simply because you wanted him just as badly as he wanted you. And by the Gods did Sihtric want you. The fact that you had saved yourself for this long when so many men had tried their luck flipped a switch and his desire seemed so blatant now. He would have turned to ask the advice of his friends but the sight before him kept him transfixed. The Saxon bastard didn’t try to hid his roaming eyes and Sihtric could see you losing patience. Your smile was beginning to falter and you had placed down your ale. He felt although his jaw was about to break from how hard he was clenching it when the man placed his hand on the back of your neck. The Saxon was pulling you in and Sihtric’s axe would already be in the mans torso if it wasn’t for the brief flash of steel in the candle light.

Sihtric watched you push your dagger deeper into the man’s thighs and he could imagine the uncomfortable pressure that must be building. The satisfaction he felt watching you deal with this almost rid him of the burning desire to remove the mans hands and eyes and cock for even thinking about touching you. He felt another desire growing, not just from looking at you. The room was filled with Saxons, no friends, no allies, bar himself and the three men that sat with him, and despite this you chose to draw a weapon to defend yourself from an unwanted advance.

He watched, awe filled and hardening, as you slipped from the alehouse.

[genshin-impact-fics]

To Protect

Pairing: Kaiser x Albedo (OcXCanon)

Warning: If you haven't done the "We Will Be Reunited" chapter of the story know that this fic is kind of spolierish.

A/N: It's been a while since I've written a fic so I'm a lil on the rusty side. I'm also thinking of writing an alternative route/ending of this story which will go one of two ways I have in mind :3

It seemed that the Abyss Order was hunting down any sort of lead of powerful beings that the prince/princess could utilize to rid the world of the archons and gods alike from this world. It seemed like their latest target was a certain alchemist that spent his time up in the cold mountains of Dragonspine.

Once again Albedo was up in the harshly cold mountains working on a new experiment that should enhance a person’s resilience to the sheer cold in Dragonspine. If he could manage to create an effective formula then it would make traversing the cold land a little bit easier especially the knights that needed to be there; however the traveler was away doing commissions which meant he’d have to look for someone else which thankfully Albedo was able to once again request the help of his fellow knight member and friend Kaiser. The two were currently standing by a fire nearby the open area where the cyro hypostasis resides. “I’m not going to get sick from this one will I,” Kaiser asked while examining the liquid contents within the vile as last time he had her assist with an experiment, they quickly discovered that she happened to be very allergic to energy nectar. Albedo still felt terribly about that incident as he never wanted to harm others with his experiments though there just seemed to be some things that were out of his control; since then he’s made sure to not give her anything with any nectar in it, not wanting to see her suffer like she did again.

“I promise you that you shouldn’t get sick from this as I’ve taken the liberty of trying on myself first to ensure your safety. But because I don't get too bothered I needed someone who would best benefit from this,” he reassured her as yes after a prolonged amount of time he’ll get very cold so the data he’ll collect from this trail should give him a good understanding of where to go from there. “Right,” she said, opening it and drinking it all before handing back the empty vile. “So all I have to do is stay in the cold for however long until I feel like I’m freezing,” she reiterated to clarify what she was doing exactly. Giving a firm nod he gave a ghost of a smile before saying, “Yes you’re correct. I’ve mapped out areas with groups of hilichurl camps that you can take care of. If at any time you’re getting cold or don’t feel well we can rest at a safe spot and go over my findings.”

With that the two set out as Albedo led the way to the locations he plotted in advance. Things were going smoothly thus far as currently they were at the fourth location and Albedo watched in the short distance observing Kaiser fight the last frostarm lawachurl. Her movements swift and flawless, truly a beautiful sight to witness: the way her long black hair flowed in the chilled winds and flakes of snow, how the electricity she admitted danced around her, even the precision of her swordsmanship with her rapier. Albedo had the urge to take the time to draw this very moment to capture the elegance he saw in Kaiser, but stayed focused on keeping notes as he certainly had taken notice that her normal speed rate was decreasing possibly due to the cold most likely starting to take effect.

The frostarm lawachurl was finally defeated as Kaiser walked over rejoining Albedo and now that she was much closer he could easily see her cheeks and nose were a soft pink color. “How are you feeling,” he asked immediately as he was thinking of possibly calling this a stopping point so she could warm up not wanting her to over do it. “Feeling pretty cold but it isn’t unbearable. Shall we head to the next location? You said there were two more right so let's head out,” she said, turning to walk off but by instinct he quickly grabbed her wrist to stop her from going any further to which she seemed to instantly glance back at him with narrowed eyes. “I think we should at least to take a break and get you warmed up; you’ve surpassed the estimated time I initially hypothesized,” he voiced his opinion to the slightly taller woman. Letting out a small sign a puff of air came from Kaiser as she glanced at his hand that was holding her wrist before glancing back to him; he really was lucky she liked him because if this had been any other person she would have most likely beat the crap out of them by now. “I’ll be fine, besides it shouldn’t take that much longer right? Let’s just finish up and then I’ll rest,” she said persisting that they continue forth with the experiment. Much to his displeasure he decided to listen as he’d be sure to keep a little closer in case he needed to step in and finish the fight so he could get her somewhere warm and possibly mend what injuries she sustained.

For the fifth location they ended up in the open area that had a once active fighting mechanism as there happen to be a few hilichurls still hanging around. He watched as she went over to repeat her process of fighting enemies. His note taking didn’t last much longer as finally he succumbed to his urges of sketching Kaiser and even including the astonishing serpent made out of electricity that went around attacking the hilichurls. When it seemed like she finished off the last one suddenly more came running out of nowhere to attack. Not wasting a second he tossed his clipboard aside to assist her in fighting as surely she had to have been at her tolerant limit.

“I had it perfectly under control. I didn’t need help,” Kaiser said, looking over to Albedo after the last one fell. Her face was much more redder in the nose and cheeks as he could see how she tried to refrain from shivering; letting out a sigh he shouldn’t be surprised, she really does do everything to finish a job by any means necessary. Letting out a small sigh he now stood in front of Kaiser as he was grateful for her hard work but he also worried for her well being. “Yes I know but the way all those hilichurls came out of nowhere was very strange almost as if-” he was saying now holding his chin as he was speculating until suddenly there was a large and strange portal that opened up a couple feet away from the two knights. The two exchanged glances before looking at the portal as two abyss mages came floating out and another one came out that they’ve never seen before: a very tall being dressed in full armor that was dark blue stood between the two mages. “So it is true that the prince of chalk walks these lands. My highness will be pleased with our findings,” the armored being spoke.

Albedo was confused by what this being was saying, but regardless it didn’t sound good. Gripping her rapier tighter in her grasp despite the violent chills running up and down her spine she was prepared to fight. “You’re in no condition to fight,” Albedo said as he knew this fight would be pretty much unavoidable yet he feared that at this rate she’s at a high risk of falling ill and even possibly fainting during battle. “I’ll worry about it later,” she simply said before she was gone in a flash of purple electricity for him to see her already attacking the tall figure with whatever full force she had left in herself. Quick to join the fight he could only wonder if this was the same being that Jean mentioned from the incident that took place in Wolvendom not too long ago. The mages were the easier ones to take out; however, it seemed that even with the two of them against what they learned was to be an abyss Herald was surprisingly difficult. It was when a large burst of water sent them flying back some leaving a couple of feet that separated the two. In a fit of coughing Kaiser slowly pushed herself back up; her body feeling like she fell in the cold waters that surrounded the area, at this point it felt so cold that it was burning. Albedo also recovered from the knock back looking over to check on his dear friend who seemed to not be faring well and how the Herald was staring in her direction, that didn’t sit well with him. “What an interesting display of power,” the Herald said before turning his attention onto Albedo before continuing with “But onto more pressing matters.”

The Herald was beginning to speak in an old language chanting some sort of spell that soon enough right underneath Albedo a circle with various symbols began to appear in a glowing purple color. The glowing beneath him caught his attention causing his teal eyes to widen in surprise; his body standing still instead of moving to get outside of the mysterious circle trying to read the symbols. The glowing only seemed to grow stronger as more purplish mist came from the ground, he might have just left himself in a bad situation. The sound of running boots crunching in the snow didn’t register to him until he was broken out of his thinking when feeling hands harshly pushing him away as he heard, “Move it!” Feeling the cold snow that he landed in it fully brought him back to earth; the sound of rattling chains rung in his ears.

Quick to look over where he once stood to see what happened his eyes widened in terror; Kaiser was trapped completely binded by chains that had that eerily purple mist around it. “Kaiser,” Albedo called her name as once again she protected him from a dangerous situation. His stomach turned feeling nauseous and his chest stung as if it was being twisted. Kaiser looked like she was trying to struggle against the chains yet it was clear she didn’t have much energy to keep up the struggling for too long. “How unexpected,” the Herald said without much of a change in it’s tone. “Get out of here,” Kaiser said looking over to him from the corner of her eye wincing out of pain from trying to breath. Looking over to her he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, she was asking him to just… abandon her here? Shaking his head in a quick no manner he loudly claimed, “I simply cannot just abandon you here by yourself! I will do no such thing.”

“I’m not asking, I’m telling you to leave me here and head down the mountain!”

“But-”

���Can it! Go and alert the others, I’ll try to hold on for as long as I can,” Kaiser said internally knowing it wouldn’t be for that much longer before she blacked out. He’s never felt so useless in his life before yet here he was unmoving from his spot on the snow covered ground unsure of what to do. He was starting to blame himself for everything and there wasn’t a thing he could do to save the person he deeply cared about.

“For someone who holds so much animosity towards the world you still protect its people. Why? Why oppose the Abyss Order,” the abyss Herald asked as Albedo looked at Kaiser. He knew of her past from the stories she’s trusted him enough to tell him and so he understood her anguish… But he never really realized how deep the anger she harbored truly ran. “Just because I hate the world… Doesn’t mean I- have to hate… Everyone in… It,” she managed to speak through her teeth.

Out of nowhere did a tornado come flying through hitting the abyss member and causing him to be pulled away a bit. “You leave our friends alone,” the familiar high pitched voice of Paimon could be heard as much to Albedo’s relief as the traveler had shown up just at the perfect time. Watching the traveler fight against the Herald was outstanding. While the fight was progressing Albedo noticed the chains suddenly disappearing around Kaiser and her body starting to fall over he was quick on his feet and stopped her from falling into the snow. Landing on his knees he held her close feeling her trembling unconscious body against his. Her already pale enough skin now looked almost porcelain white, he couldn’t waste any more time; he needed to get her back to the safety of the lab. Adjusting her and picking her up into his arms he made a hasty escape, the two of them wouldn’t have been any help to the traveler in their condition, they would have just gotten in the way.

Thank the archons that he managed to get back to his lab in the cave safely, but this wasn’t the time to take it easy. Quickly but carefully laying Kaiser at a safe distance from the fire he rushed to get the first aid kit and whatever medicine he had on hand that could help with her recovery. Never had he felt this… Frazzled in his life. Albedo was always so calm and collected he usually was always able to think logically, but now his brain was racing. Cleaning and mending her wounds he wrapped her in two layers of blankets that they kept just in case for the nights if anyone was staying for the night to help warm her up. Sitting beside her to observe her condition though so far she was doing well: the color in her skin was slowly coming back, her breathing didn’t seem to be too strained or shallow, and thankfully nothing appeared to be broken though she may have a bruised rib or two at most. Gently running an ungloved hand over her cheek before brushing some of her black locks away from her face. “Oh Katherine, what am I going to do with you,” he softly questioned himself using her actual name; he thought her name was beautiful and befitting of her yet she didn’t agree.

Hours had passed until she finally awoken as a soft groaning escaped her lips. It took her a moment to register where she was as she tried to recall what happened since the last thing she remembered before passing out was a vortex of wind hitting the abyss Herald. “Please refrain from getting up. Your body needs rest, you put yourself under a lot more stress than you should have,” Albedo advised her while walking over to kneel by her to check on her. She didn’t heed his words as she proceeded to carefully sit up feeling the soreness of her body. “Katherine your wounds won’t heal if you don’t take the time to rest.”

“What did I say about using my name?”

“Well you did say that I can be permitted to call you as such when it was just us Katherine,” he said in a matter of fact tone unable to contain the soft sigh. “I hate when you do that,” she said with a soft narrowed look as though she may have sounded annoyed, but it didn’t match the slightly amused expression on her face. A soft chuckle left his lips as he felt a little bit better seeing she wasn’t acting much different from how she usually did so at least that was a good sign. The two ate the meal Albedo cooked for the two of them as he filled her in on what she missed and how he sent the traveler to go ahead back to the headquarters to report what happened to Jean. After having finished eating and her taking medicine the two sat quietly in front of the fire. The only sound to be heard was the crackling of the fire and the whistling of the cold winds outside of the cave.

“You can’t keep doing this,” Albedo’s words breaking the silence between the two, looking over to her with a soft expression. Looking over she raised an eyebrow confused.

“Doing what?”

“Almost getting killed for protecting me.”

“Albedo if I didn’t save you when I did you would have been captured by the abyss order for whatever they’re planning! One thing for sure is that they’d turn you against us,” she rebutted as sure being in dangerous situations was something she was used to before being brought into the Knights of Favonius. “E-Eh, hey wait why are you crying,” she said in a slightly panicked manner as never in the time she’s known him has she seen him cry; actually she was pretty sure that he had just about never cried yet here he was. He hadn’t fully noticed the tears falling from his eyes as he felt a rippling pain in his chest listening to her as the events from earlier replayed in his head.

“Even if they did capture me I’d at least know you were safe. I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself if that creature had taken or killed you,” he honestly spoke as calmly rubbing one eye and the tears just didn’t seem to stop. Surely he would feel even more guilty if he had been the reason behind her and everyone else he cared about suffered, but he knew if it came to that Albedo had faith that the traveler or Kaiser would stop him. The slight irritation she felt from the conversation at hand subsided while listening to him talk. Letting out a sigh she carefully moved herself before reaching her arms out to grab him as she said, “You idiot, come here.” Hugging him around his neck she held him close as there was a moment of hesitation until he wrapped his arms around her completing the embrace. “Everything is fine now, we’re both alive… I’m sorry that I overdid things again. If I had just listened maybe we wouldn’t have gotten into that mess,” she said, speaking in a much softer tone than her usual cold tone, her face turning a light pink color.

Albedo pulled away to look at his beloved friend who he had come to cherish so much; how the fire gave her a soft orangish red glow to her figure. “It wasn’t your fault, you were just helping me as neither of us knew that attack was going to happen… I really do value the time we get to spend together, so please promise me that you’ll continue to stay by my side,” he spoke freely taking one of her hands into his own feeling the slight roughness of her hand. For someone who almost never made any kind of expression that showed his emotion, the faces he made were pretty cute. “... Yeah, I pinkie promise,” she said letting out a small chuckle before leaning in to give his cheek a kiss before resting her head on his shoulder feeling the tiredness kicking in again.

“A pinkie promise?”

“Hehe, what can I say; us Snezhnayans take our promises very seriously.”

“Is that so? I’d be interested to hear more if you’re willing to share,” he commented as it was comfortable being cuddled up like this by the fire, Albedo found it very pleasant to be this close to the female knight. The rest of the night Kaiser shared the old nursery rhyme and stories of her past along with the things she’s encountered during her travels in the past until the two of them fell asleep in each other's arms.

[halcyonbound]

( SAMARA WEAVING, UNKNOWN, SHE/HER )  We opened the gates to the seelie court for CAMILLA DE' MEDICI and we are curious to see how the DEMON  ( PRINCESS OF HELL ), that is often described as the halcyon, will contribute to the new era ━ are they the hunter, the prey ; or are they just here to search for Cosimo de' Medici, their twin brother? We will find our answers in due time and until then, we hope that they can keep their little secret from getting exposed. It could be dangerous if everyone knew what we know… ( sab, she/her, 23, gmt+2 )

STATS .

( taken ) name :  camilla de’ medici . age :  unknown  ( stopped counting a long time ago ) . birthday : july 3 . nationality :  n.a. / italian . species :  demon  ( princess of hell / formerly angel ) . gender :  non-binary woman . orientation :  pansexual & panromantic . religion :  formerly catholic . moral alignment :  lawful neutral . occupation :  princess of italy /  trained seamstress . location :  cosimo de’ medici’s mansion .

PERSONALITY .

open, caring, compassionate.  she was always a little more ...  humane  than most of her siblings. her deep fascination with everything  living  and  moving  and  changing  extended to humanity - from the moment she first came to earth  ( still an angel then, and naively hopeful )  she had a sort of natural charm, always appearing approachable, friendly, and optimistic. while none of that changed, and she is usually  genuine  in all her feelings, there is a spark of  calculation ,  at times - she’s seen too much of the world to simply accept things at face value anymore.

loyal to a fault.  those she considers  family  are her everything, and she’d do  anything  to keep them safe. camilla generally strives for compromise and peace, for the sole reason that she’s  tired  of the fighting and the conflicts and the sorrows she witnessed in hell, but when the people she loves are concerned, all bets are off. whatever they need, she will provide  —  at whatever cost.

vindictive. it is hard to loose her good opinion  ( or amused tolerance, as it may stand )  but once someone does, they are in  serious trouble .  although she barely showcases her demonic powers, she  does  know how to use them - and to mess with a princess of hell is, quite possibly, one of the worst mistakes one could make. it takes a lot to get her going, but when she does, she’s easily lost in violence.  ( a touch of  hell-ish insanity  is hard to hide when it comes in so  handy  in certain situations. )

free-spirited.  spurns rules and regulations; and bounds of any sort. likes travelling, moving, discovering, trying out new things. incredibly curious about anything and everything and reacts with wholehearted  attempts  and a humorous  ‘ watch me ’  at someone telling her  ‘ you can’t ’ .

perfectionist with a limited attention span;  she has long since stopped trying to wrestle her mind into any sense of order, and tends to give in to impulses rather quickly. usually, they’re  positive  ones - new projects, interests, ideas - and it frustrates her a little when she cannot seem to finish any of them to her liking. it makes for ... interesting situations, however, when she does work for hell.

SKILLS .

trained  ( and talented )  seamstress.  her interest in clothing - and not just wearing, but  making  it - comes from that leftover angelic urge to  create ,  she thinks. it started when cosimo and her were taken in by teresa; the woman was of the opinion that a  princess  needed to have certain skills, and after starting with embroidery, camilla quickly became interested in and learned the other aspects of the trade, and the hobby has remained with her since.

pianist.  another one of these skills teresa so valued was  musical proficiency .  her singing, in their society’s general opinion, is no good  ( not that she cares; she’ll sing as loudly and falsely as she wants if it brings her joy, thank you very much )  and she never quite got the hang of string instruments, but she managed to turn into a passable pianist. then again, centuries of practice will do that.

good mediator.  ( when she wants to be. )

demonic powers.  elevated strength, speed, and agility; possession, levitation, teleportation, and the lot. as she’s a princess of hell, her abilities are much stronger than those of normal demons, although she ranks on the lower end when compared with her immediate siblings, as she does not practice as much and hasn’t in centuries. her powers manifest mainly more defensive aspects, and she has an affinity for telekinesis  ( as  that  is something she actually uses regularly for convenience ) ,  making her able to manipulate a large amount of objects or people at once and with surprising precision.

BIO .

they barely remember their creation.  there was light ,  as it is said, and from  nothing  they became  something ;  one  thing among many. heaven was home, and that was enough  ( for a time ) ,  and they were one with their siblings  ( until they weren’t ) . their fledgling days are a blur, now ;  only a few memories stand out. cosimo and his tales of earth ;  their strive for  making ,  for  being ;  reprimands, restrictions, rules ;  their other brothers’ annoyance - then anger - then fury - with all of it.

falling  is much clearer in their mind ;  mainly because it  hurt .  worth it ,  they told themselves as their wings burned up and their grace shattered and split and warped itself into something  else  somewhere between heaven and hell. they left, less out of malice than curiosity ;  for the need to see, and to  become ,  to be more than heaven’s meticulously directed hand.  corruption ,  they knew their siblings called it.  freedom ,  they whispered as they stretched into their new form,  beyond  what god intended.

except they weren’t free ,  not really ;  there was a  price for everything, even  becoming .  hell was ... much the same as heaven, they found, except viewed through a mirror. the humanity they idolized sold themselves out, but despite sharing their sibling’s curiosity to see just  how far  they could turn, hell’s work held little joy for them. they did not want to see the result - they wanted  the process .  they wanted  life .

rising ,  in turn, was much easier given their position, they remember. at one point they simply left for an assigned task and didn’t come back - creeping through the cracks of the world, looking for ... something .

demon’s didn’t have  true vessels ,  she knew from those who frequented earth ;  but whatever was left of her grace, twisted though it might have been, recognized  something  in the girl. or maybe it was something  around  her - it mattered little when they took possession of the body. they were surprised, though, to reconcile that much with her - they  felt  her fear, her recent loss, her remaining love for a brother long gone ;  a brother they now recognized as their own. they didn’t even need to lie to swear they would protect him above all else before the girl let go.

she became camilla .  after recognizing cosimo’s grace in her vessel’s twin brother, her decision to remain on earth became final. it wasn’t just her promise to the girl ;  she’d missed her brother more than any of her other siblings, and he welcomed her to his side with open arms, accepted her more than heaven or hell ever had. for the first time since creation, she felt ... whole .  human. like she had choices ;  had the  freedom  to choose a home.

eventually ,  they ended up in italy, being  ‘ adopted ’ ,  of sorts, by the ruling family. the situation never ceased to amuse her, but she liked teresa well enough  ( it felt interesting, being  mothered )  and being once again styled  ‘ princess ’  opened the doors for a myriad of new experiences. this  was precicely the  joy of life  she had always craved.  ( and if hell came a’knocking, no one forced her to open the door. )

things took a turn  when cosimo decided to get married and fell in love - unfortunately in the wrong order, she thought then. illyria was … a special case. camilla didn’t particularly care for political marriages  ( the trend of the decade was  romance  and she’d read far too many novels on the subject )  but her brother seemed open enough to the idea. so for his sake, camilla made an effort to befriend her; she was intrigued by the dragon and enjoyed her company with others, but they never quite became confidantes - camilla bemourned her brothers’ heart too much.

when instead ,  he fell in love with one of illyria’s ladies, she was ecstatic - this  was what was meant to be. anastasia makes him happy, and so camilla is happy, too ; conversation was so much  easier  with her, and camilla came to love her like a sister and did everything to make her feel comfortable and supported in her new position as  mistress - especially with a child on the way.

who could have expected neglecting illyria could have such  dramatic  consequences?

good things burn as good things do ,  and when cosimo was called back to heaven,  something  didn’t sit right with her. that fear was validated soon after when ana and aurora were attacked ;  and with no way of knowing when cosimo would get back, she did what she could to help them.  ( it wasn’t much. it, arguably, might have made things worse ;  but it was the best option at the time. the  only  option. )  

when she heard from heaven next ,  however, it wasn’t from cosimo, but someone  else ,  with a very clear message. furious as it made her, she accepted the offered deal ;  but she’d never hated heaven more than the day cosimo returned with memories altered and something ... missing. she lied and laughed and tried to make up for forgotten happiness as much as she could ;  as much as was possible without raising suspicion ;  attempting to return to some form of normalcy. 

CURRENT SITUATION .

centuries later ,  with cosimo’s memories recovered and his family returned to earth safe and sound, they finally found some semblance of peace. camilla tries not to dwell on the past, but her role in all of it weighs heavy on her heart.

now, while they are ... mostly stable  in the fae realm, she tries to keep a low profile  ( fearing the past eventually catching up )  although she grows more and more  antsy  being stuck in the same place for so long.

she’s offered her services  as a seamstress, working from a little house in the village of spring ;  it’s a nice way to stay occupied and keep an eye on new arrivals and the general talk of the town.

IDEAS FOR CONNECTIONS / PLOTS .

LOVED AND LOST :  camilla loves to love. she gets along easily with just about anyone  ( if she wants to )  and collects hearts like other girls do necklaces - but she’s just as likely to give her own away. most of her relationships over the centuries have ended amicably, simply due to growing apart. her one and only engagement is the notable exception to this.

→  WANTED CONNECTION POST : ex-fiancé 

BLOOD OF THE COVENANT : throughout her life, she’s abandoned both heaven  and  hell, and while she still holds some affection for her  siblings ,  she’s stopped hoping for a friendly reception. besides that, she’s angry at heaven and hiding from hell, so that should make for some interesting dynamics.

BAD MOON RISING :  as a princess of hell, she was directly involved with creating more demons. i’d love to explore a connection to someone she met in hell and/or screwed with on earth!

any kind of relationship, really: platonic, romantic, antagonistic. whatever shennanigans you can imagine!

hi all, i’m sab and this is my chaotic friendly-ish demon babe. i’m also writing darcy, who you can find over  here .  if you’re interested in talking / plotting / just starting a thread based off of these ideas, hmu!! i’m always up to chat!

[wonderful-writer]

21 - Fight For Freedom

Summary: Y/n helps the rest of The 100 fight back as hard as they can against Mount Weather, stalling and waiting for Bellamy to come help them escape the mountain. After multiple attacks against the guard, the 47 are introduced to a group set out to help them hide from the people in the mountain.

Word Count: 3.90k

Based Off: 02x12, “Rubicon”, & 02x13, “Ressurection”

Feedback is always highly appreciated!

“We’ve been locked up for hours,” Miller sighed. “If it was Bellamy--”

“It was Bellamy.” You and Jasper said.

“He’s here, Miller. I came with him.”

“Why did you come back anyway? You were so keen to get out.” Miller snipped.

You were going to bite back with a sarcastic remark when Monty stopped you.

“It just doesn’t make any sense.” He sighed.

“I know what I saw.” Jasper defended himself. You were about to step in and help his case when the buzzer went off and the doors opened.

Armoured guards burst into the room and forced everyone back, Dr. Tsing following after them. Two of the guards tried to grab Harper, but Dr. Tsing said she needed time to recover. She pointed to one of the boys and he cried as they dragged him away.

“Stop.” Jasper said. “You can’t keep doing this to us.”

Dr. Tsing walked up to your brother, curious as to why he was attempting to stop her.

“President Walace said we could go.”

“That President Wallace is no longer in command.” She told your group. “He had to step down for health reasons. I’m sorry it has to be like this.”

She looked around at the group. “I hope you know you’re all incredibly special to us.”

As she turned and walked away you felt rage bubbling up inside you again, rage you haven’t felt since you arrived on Earth.

“You’re not sorry about shit, doctor!” You shouted, causing the guards to aim their weapons at you, but all you did was smirk.

“What are you gonna do? Kill me? You need me alive to suck the marrow from my bones and use it to get 7 people to the ground; you kill me and that’s 7 people that don’t get to see Earth, dipshits.”

The guards left you alone and you noticed everyone staring at you, but once you gave a harsh look they turned away from you and went about their business. You made your way to Jasper, Monty, and Miller.

“They’re going to come back, we need a plan.” Monty sighed.

“We could fight them.” Miller suggested.

“No, it's a waste of energy.” You interjected. “They have guns and armor, we just have our fists. Of course, if someone got me something sharp like a knife I could handle myself.”

“We could, maybe, form a wall of some sort.” Jasper suggested. “We could make a human wall, link up with our arms. Try as hard as we can to stop them.”

“Does this involve biting them? Because I’ll bite them if they get too close.” You stated.

“Uh, sure. Whatever you want.” Jasper sent a tight smile your way.

“I’ll let them know.” you nodded.

“Everyone. Listen up!” You addressed the room carefully. “The next time they come in here for one of us, everyone in the front needs to link their arms together, form a human wall. Keep together as hard as you can, and if they get close, do whatever you can to hurt them. Kick them in the legs, bite them, anything. They will not take us down.”

Everyone looked around, murmuring in agreement. You smiled at the delinquents and sat back down, waiting impatient for the guards to arrive. You sat with Harper until then, notifying her of what’s been happening at Camp Jaha.

The door buzzed loudly and the guards yelled at everyone to get back, forcing you further and further into the room, practically squished against the back wall. “Everyone! Just like we talked about! Link up!”

You linked your arms with Monty and another delinquent, who’s other arm was linked to Jasper, leaving you smack dab in the middle. Dr. Tsing walked up to you and a scowl painted your face as she pointed to behind you. “This one.”

You looked at the other linked delinquents as a guard shouted at your people, and when no one moved, one of the guards punched Monty in the stomach. You and the others began your retaliation as you kicked the guard in front of you as hard as you could in the shins, using your frustration and anger, along with the self-taught fighting skills, to your advantage.

The guard fell to his knees instantly, where you got the upper hand and kneed his face. He stood up within a matter of minutes, punching you across the face. Your head swung to the right at the force of the punch, distracting you. In your smallest moment of weakness, the guard ripped you from the human barrier and tossed you to the floor, grabbing the delinquent you fought so hard to protect.

After everyone left, Miller helped you to your feet and sat you on one of the beds next to Harper, who made a comment on the bruise forming on your cheek. “That’s gonna hurt later.”

“I’ve had a lot worse,” You smiled sarcastically. She laughed and looked over at Jasper as a crowd began to gather around him.

“Alright, listen up.” He started. “The guard that pinned me, that was Bellamy. He gave me this--” He lifted his hand to reveal a pistol. “--And told me to keep everyone safe while he worked on getting us out. We need to arm ourselves and we need to fight back harder.”

Everyone around you was muttering and murmuring in worry, when someone spoke up. “How are we supposed to arm ourselves? You’re the only one with a gun.”

“Trust me, there’s more than one way to arm yourself. And in situations like these, you use whatever you can.” You spoke up from the back of the crowd, arms crossed. You surveyed your surroundings to look for anything that could be enough, when the answer was right in front of your face.

“Hey, Monty, can you remove these pipes?” You asked, pointing to the beds.

“What pipes?”

You walked to the beds and felt underneath the top bunks. “These ones.”

“Of course,” Monty scoffed. “There’s more than enough beds for everyone to have a pipe, we just can’t take all of the pipes from one bed. It’s genius!”

You smirked at your friend. “It works, the pipes are long enough to hide behind our backs when they walk in, and you can remove enough pipes for everyone to have one and everything should still look normal.”

Monty broke the crowd and enlisted Jasper to help him arm everyone while you taught who you could on how to utilize the pipe. Mimicking hitting a person on the head, then swinging for their side, and finally going in for the knees. You knew you had to conflict as much damage as possible, but some were bound to not fully get the hang of it, as there was no real way you could practice without hurting one of your own.

As the last of your group got their pipes, you did one final practice, all together. You watched the group moving in sync, feeling proud of your fellow delinquents and of yourself for knowing you taught them as well as you could.

“What’s taking Bellamy so long?” Monty asked as he stood beside you, waiting for the guards to show up.

“Maybe they caught him.” Miller commented grimly.

“No,” You denied.

“He’ll figure a way out, I know he will.” Jasper hoped that his friend would come through.

“Jasper, it’s already been 4 hours.” You didn’t realize it had been that long. Training a bunch of teenage criminals to fight using a bunk bed pipe usually made you lose the concept of time. “The guards will be back any second.”

“They’re gonna take someone else,” Harper worried.

“Not if I have anything to do with it.” You said, gripping the pipe a little harder.

“You’re gonna take them on?” Miller asked, surprised.

“If it comes to it, yeah. You know I was never one to back down from a fight; you’ve seen me at the dropship.” You commented.

“Listen to me, everyone. We stick to the plan. They are not taking anyone else out of this room without a fight!” Jasper reassured everyone as the buzzer went off. “Get ready.”

You put yourself in a running position, the pipe placed behind your back. You were pushed back into the crowd as the others formed another wall, the guards coming towards you with their guns raised, telling your friends to break the wall. Dr. Tsing stepped forward again and pointed at Monty.

The guards harshly ripped him from the crowd as Jasper stepped forward, aiming his gun at the guards. “Get your hands off him!” He fired the gun at the vest of the guard, who immediately went in for the attack.

An all out brawl began between your people and the guards, Miller striking the guard that Jasper shot in the head. You raised your pipe and ran ahead, hitting the guards that were with Monty. The brawl didn’t last long, however, when your pipes were ripped from you and everyone had taken a few hits.

“Take him instead.” The doctor pointed at Jasper and you shouted at her.

“You bitch! Don’t you dare hurt him! I will end you if you even think about hurting him!” Though you had been in a similar situation before, the thought of Jasper dying had tears filling your eyes. Momentarily, you had Dr. Tsing’s attention and you made a split second decision.

“Take me.” You deadpanned. “Not him. Take me instead. I know you want to kill me already, so do it. Take me and leave my brother alone.”

The woman smiled at you and nodded to the guard behind you. You felt his hand grasp your upper arm, leading you out of the room as your peers verbally fought for you to not leave. You willingly walked with the guards as you felt like you were underwater. Everything was muddled around you, and your head was hung low. You were accepting it now, and you wondered how things would be after you died.

What would your father do? Your brother? How would Bellamy feel? Or Octavia, or Clarke, or Harper? Would your mother be there to greet you? Would you see Finn and your grandmother again? Or would there be nothing but an endless sleep? Would the gunshot be painful, or would you never even feel it in the first place?

These thoughts took center stage in your brain as they waited for the elevator. You were pulled from said thoughts when the guards who held you let go. Looking around, you saw radiation burns begin to form on everyone’s skin, and you knew this was Bellamy’s doing. You saw everyone start running towards you and you guided them to the dining hall, shouting over the alarm system.

Miller grabbed the guns from the bodies of the guards, while you noticed the elevator doors closing. You put your hand in between them and they opened back up again to reveal a dying Dr. Tsing.

“I hope you know that you’re incredibly special to us.” You commented sourly, repeating her previous words. She screamed loudly as the radiation burns consumed her face, making the doctor a little hard to look at, but you and your friends did so anyway.

After that, you followed everyone to the dining hall and began to arm yourselves even further. Jasper grabbed an emergency fire ax, Monty ripped out the key pad for the elevator so no one could get to this part of level 5 while it was radiation filled, and you grabbed the biggest kitchen knife you could see in case anyone tried to kill you. Again.

Jasper put you on getting water from the kitchen with Harper, and although it did confuse you, you listened and did what you could. Your knife was safely tucked in your jeans waistband for easy access as you helped fill pots with water and carry them back to the dining hall, wondering exactly why Jasper needed them.

Once that was done, all you could do now was pace and grip your knife tightly as you waited for Monty to tell you that the guards were storming the level. He didn’t need to tell you, however, when a blast echoed in the hallway. Stopping you in your tracks.

“Monty, what the hell was that?” You asked.

“Uh- they- they blew the stairwell door wide open.” He said, surprised at their move.

“Look, no guns. You were right.” Monty pointed out to his best friend.

“That’s because they can’t kill us.” Jasper said. “Not like this, anyway.”

Miller warned Harper to be careful with one of the guns he grabbed and Monty pointed out that a few of the guards weren’t wearing hazmat suits.

“What does that mean?” Miller asked.

“It means they’re cured.” You explained shortly. “The marrow treatments worked.”

The door ratted and you prepared your short range weapon as they hit the door with an alarming amount of force. You spun the knife once in your palm and stood protectively at the front of the group as you waited anxiously for the guards to storm the room.

The doors were ripped open as they threw cans of red gas in, causing people to run away from it. It didn’t take long for the gas to fill the room, and as it did you began to feel lightheaded. Jasper, however, knew to hold your breath, and everyone followed suit as he picked up the cans and tossed them into the water, eliminating all gas from the room.

Faking unconsciousness was something you’d done once before, but it came easily to you and the others. Your knife lay not too far away from you, just at your fingertips. Upon Jasper’s shout, you got up and attacked the nearest guard in a hazmat suit, slashing it and allowing the radiation to seep into his protection, killing him slowly.

A guard came up behind you but his heavy footfall caught your attention and you spun around, slashing at him. You managed to nick his neck, but nothing more. You saw him raise his fists to attack just moments before it happened, ducking and swiping his legs out from underneath him aggressively.

You stabbed his chest with your knife and began to fight another hazmat suited guard, slashing his throat roughly as you ripped his suit. The room was loud with the shouts of the others fighting the guards, yours mixed in with them. Your instincts kicked in quickly as one of the guards seemed to have the upper hand on one of the others, so you pulled it by the back of his hazmat suit and stabbed him roughly in the chest, pulling the knife out and going in again.

Blood was splattering the floor and front of your shirt, along with a few drops scattered on your cheeks from pulling the knife out. Once you were completely sure he was dead you moved on, looking for a guard to attack, but none did. Instead, they retreated and left, seeing a clear threat in you and your friends.

“We did it!” Shouts of victory followed Jasper’s announcement, you included, and as you got back to sealing the barricade in case the guards or anyone else came back, you heard Fox calling out to Jasper. Miller stopped him from going after the girl, even though he knew she would be dead within the hour.

You helped carry all the dead guards into one of the elevators so they wouldn’t crowd the room for the inevitable second wave of guards, overhearing Miller say that they would be coming in hotter next time on your way back.

“All we gotta do is hold the floor until Bellamy finds a way out.” Jasper muttered.

“We’re gonna need more than a bucket of water and 4 guns to do that.” Miller argued.

Before either you or Jasper could respond to his comment, one of the guard’s radio’s cut in.

“This is President Wallace talking to the people who just killed 10 of my men.”

Monty beckoned Jasper to him so he could see something on the handheld monitor while Cage continued to talk to the room.

“I thought we’d try something a little different this time. There’s only 20 minutes of oxygen in Maya’s suit.” You noticed she was in the corridor by the elevator, the handheld monitor showing you. “I know she’s a friend of yours.”

“In 20 minutes, your friend will either suffocate or burn…” Cage threatened. “But you can save her. All you have to do is surrender.”

You saw the conflict in Jasper’s eyes as he faced the situation. Surrender and save Maya, or refuse and let her die? You knew the gravity of the situation, and it was heavy. Jasper loved Maya with quite possibly all he had, you saw that, but he also had to think of the 47 people that he survived on Earth with.

For possibly the first time ever, you didn’t know what was going on in Jasper’s mind. So, without hesitation, you went into the hall and got Maya. “Y/n? You’re here? Did you come with-?”

“Bellamy? Yeah,” You lead her into the dining hall. “Jasper, I got her.”

Your brother pulled Maya into a hug and directed her to a chair.

“Listen to me. Fox is okay, Bellamy saved her.” She said with shaky breaths. “He’s gonna get some guns in here through the trash chute.”

“If we can get guns in, we can get you out.” Jasper said hopefully.

“No, we can’t.” Monty discouraged his friend. “I dismantled the chute. I’m sorry I didn’t think we’d be trying to open it ourselves.”

Seeing the sadness in the couple’s eyes, Monty put a hand on top of Maya’s and gained her attention. “I can fix it.”

Jasper told Miller to go help Monty while you stayed with the couple. Maya started crying as the harsh reality of her untimely death started to set in, and Jasper looked at his girlfriend.

“I won’t let you die.”

“I won’t let you surrender.” She breathed.

You watched the couple silently, slightly uncomfortable because you were intruding in their little moment so you went to help out with the chute and see if you could get it open. When you got there, there seemed to be little improvement or luck for the three people already working on it. You took whatever instruction Monty gave you until Jasper and Maya followed you over. As Monty struggled opening the chute, Harper alerted the group that Maya was almost completely out of oxygen.

“Don’t worry,” Jasper directed the words at Maya. “We’ll get it open, won’t we, Monty?”

“Almost there,” He informed the group.

“Almost isn’t good enough,” You commented, crossing your arms worriedly, shifting your weight from foot to foot.

“I just need to bypass the-- oh!” The electrical board sparked and Monty backed away from it before he ripped one of the wires out of it.

“What did you just do?” Miller asked the tech genius.

“Cut power to the motor. Help me.” Miller stepped up and they pulled as hard as possible on the garbage chute’s handle, hearing Monty groan, “We can’t get leverage.”

The room grew chaotic as Maya began to lose her breath and Harper noted that there was someone in the chute. As you rushed over to Maya to make sure she was okay, Jasper shouted that whoever was in the chute was coming into the room. The pair at the chute backed up and Jasper aimed his gun at the intruder. The chute’s door fell off and Bellamy revealed himself, wearing a guard uniform.

Before he was even out he beckoned Maya over to the chute, hurrying to get her to safety. You helped her over and into the chute itself, watching Jasper nudge you aside and follow them down. Stepping into the chute yourself, you looked back at the other three in the room. “You guys make sure everyone gets down there and fast. Send two at a time and wait a minute before sending more.”

They nodded and left the room as you slid down the dirty chute. You hit the ground with a loud thud, hurting your body a little from the harsh landing onto metal. Standing up, Bellamy was looking at you with relief before pulling you out of the metal tub and into his arms.

“I thought you were dead as soon as she saw you.” He whispered as you tucked your head into his neck before letting go.

“I knew you’d survive,” You commented. “You always do, even when there's no way. You always manage to survive.”

The man smiled at you and you smiled back before you went to hug Maya. She then introduced you to her father, Vincent, and then two bodies fell down the chute. You helped them out and dusted them off, explaining to the other 4 people the part of the plan you had to get them out of the mountain.

Soon enough everyone was down, the last two being Harper and Monty. Bellamy guided you down the halls of what you thought was level 3, clearing hallways. Jasper voiced his worries of being seen, but Bellamy assured him that Maya took out the cameras on level 5.

“Yeah but we’re still sitting ducks in a group like this,” Miller commented.

“You’re right.” Bellamy said. “So we’re gonna split up.”

“No.” Monty disagreed, grabbing Bellamy’s arm. “We do this together. We survive together.”

“Bellamy’s right,” You and Jasper agreed.

“Well, they don’t trust Maya anymore,” Miller stated. “Who the hell is gonna help us now?”

Bellamy just nodded and continued to lead the group down the hall to reveal a group of people as Maya stepped up, explaining that they were going to hide everyone. You were surprised that so many people agreed to help your people. Those that were helping you also didn’t agree with Cage’s methods and ideals. Vincent then took over the group and they were dividing everyone as they went along.

You stopped for a few moments, looking at Bellamy. You grasped his hand and caught his attention. “This is dangerous, Bell,”

“It’s going to keep you safe.” He said, squeezing your hand. “If you and the others are safe then it’s okay. Clarke is coming and we’ll get you out of here.”

“It’s not safe for me,” You emphasized. “Ever since I stepped foot back in the mountain, I’ve had 50 targets on my back. They find me and I’m dead, Bellamy.”

“Then don’t let them find you.” The hard look in Bellamy’s eyes mixed with his already upset and worried ones and you squeezed his hand once more.

“May we meet again.” You whispered.

“We will.”

You let go and Vincent directed you to the left, where you were put with Harper and from there you stayed with a nice older couple. Although the situation was very much leaning towards life or death, you were sitting ducks and there was nothing else you could do. The couple hid you in a large air vent and fed you both some bread and you thanked them quietly, anxiety getting the better of you as the small space and general worry overtook you.

You stayed quiet, though, and held out hope that Bellamy hadn't been caught and he would save all of you before you were caught.

Taglist:  @soullessbabee | @hyperion-moonbabe-art3mis | @dummythiccwitch | @sireddobrev | @gxvrielle | @hurricane-abigail | @holyhumorliteraturelight

[herkawaiinovels]

[SS] Chapter 40

WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT AHEAD

(skip to the next three asterisks if it makes you uncomfortable at any point)

           On a dark night, a log cabin at the foot of a mountain was brightly lit. Surrounded by the forest, the place was quiet as darkness eroded the sound. A woman's scream broke through the silence.

“Ahhhhhhh!”

Instead of his usual laughter, someone’s outraged voice could be heard.

“Just where! Where on earth are you? “

But a few moments later, Ralph's harsh breath and livid voice did not reach the woman's ear. He threw the sagging woman's body like a flimsy object and took off his dirty, crimson-stained gloves.

His deeply wounded left hand swept through his hair wet with sweat which glistened in the light. The wound looked so grotesque that it was obvious it was not just a minor injury.

The woman who couldn't stand his harsher-than-usual behaviour quickly collapsed. He grabbed and raised the fallen woman’s hair. The lifeless body was heavy.

The light in her brown eyes had already disappeared, nevertheless, he stroked her brown hair tenderly. He felt her matted hair at his fingertips. The blood dripped from her head and passed through the corner of her eyes, making it look like she was crying.

“Prillance Weiand.”

Ralph, who had released his pent-up anger after his meeting with Ben, suddenly lightened after recalling the fine brunette.

Her slender wrist had almost broken. And suddenly her hand stopped trying to reach Ver.

There was something about that gesture that left a person hanging. Imagining he was touching that rich hair, his face turned euphoric.

But soon he recalled Ver Grant, who had caught her, and grimaced.

After leaving his hand, the head thumped off the mattress and fell to the floor. The woman was stretched out like a deflated balloon. Ralph quickly changed his clothes and left the place without any second thoughts.

The woman's eyes which had lost its light would soon be buried somewhere in this mountain. For a very long time.

        ***

        As Prillance recovered, Ver soon returned to his daily routine. Immediately after the incident, the more intense training forced the knights to perspire profusely every day.

“Take a break.”

At Ver’s direction, the knights put down their sword. With their hoarse breath coming out, their clothes were all soaked with sweat.

“Thank you.”

Ver said, receiving a simple but well-packaged meal. Unbeknownst to him, many maids were longing to hear even just a single warm word from him. However, the chances of helping out the knights were limited.

“I’d like to ask you something. Will it be alright?”

“Y- yes!”

The servant replied without hesitation. She couldn’t believe she had the opportunity not just to give his food, but to talk to him as well. She thought today must be her lucky day. He was so popular among the maids that it was hard to get even a little bit of his attention.

“About the horse attendant.”

However, her thoughts were soon diverted, and she became flustered.

There was a command issued to never speak about what happened to the family.

It happened the day after Prillance returned to the mansion after being in an accident.

“I just wanted to hear what he was like.”

Adding that he didn’t know the attendant too well, he spoke cautiously. It was possible he didn’t know since he wasn’t at the mansion at the time and was saving Prillance that day.

Among the employees in the mansion, Ver was considered the hero and prince who saved the young miss. The first maid who greeted them that day said that he looked like a prince as he ran towards the mansion, and the knights who saw her rescue all spoke about how he looked like a great warrior who risked his life saving the princess.

The story of how Ver preciously brought Prillance to the mansion was a popular conversation topic in the mansion. The rumors grew steadily, and soon, Ver became the most popular man in the Marquis residence.

“Everyone in the mansion knows he frequented the gambling dens. In fact, it was because of gambling that his family went bankrupt.”

“What was he usually like?”

“He was always drunk. It is a wonder how he didn’t get himself into any trouble sooner.”

What she had said was similar to what he had heard other people talk about. Other than the mansion, people had stated that they either saw him at a bar or a gambling house.

Seeing Ver troubled over the situation, the maid’s imagination flew by itself.

The strong warrior who defeated the villain.

“Do you know if he met anyone at these places?”

“I know for sure the people of this mansion wouldn’t know. No one was close to him.”

At the end of her words, the servant went back to work as he was lost in thought.

For the past few days, he had been asking the people in the mansion about the coachman, however, nothing particularly special or helpful came out of it.

“I’ll have to turn outward for my investigation.”

The horse attendant’s personal information wasn’t of much use. Perhaps after learning that the man was working for the Marquis of Weiand, someone from the bar or the gambling house could have approached him.

Although the target was Prillance, it’s possible that the attack was aimed at the Marquis of Weiand.

He had a hunch that things were more complicated than it seemed. Truthfully, he wanted to kill the man who gave her such terrible memories. Whatever the maid imagined wasn’t far from his imagination.

        ***

        A man entered the gambling house. He took a seat and participated in a few gambling activities before standing up and wandering around, looking like he wanted to participate but did not have money to do so.

However, his gaze was different from those who gambled. He was an investigator who had come here under Jack's orders.

“If you don’t have money, do you want me to lend you some?”

“There’s not much interest.”

“If you pay it little by little every day, you’ll be able to pay it off quickly.”

The moneylenders who recognized the behavior he displayed soon surrounded him. The investigator followed them.

The place was swarming with men who eagerly displayed their strength.

Unable to recognize the lean muscles hidden underneath the investigator’s clothes, they pressured him to borrow money. However, the investigator lightly overpowered them and soon got to work. He tried to find out more about who the horse attendant met.

However, all the moneylenders stated the attendant hadn't gambled recently. They commented that he hadn’t shown up in the gambling hall since a few days ago. It did not agree with what he had heard from others who said he was constantly gambling.

Then, just as he was about to return after a fruitless attempt, a man caught his eye. Although he had covered himself up, the man was definitely Ver. The man was about to leave the gambling house as well.

“You have to investigate very carefully. You can't miss anything, not even a small detail.”

Jack's face and words suddenly came to mind. He trailed after Ver. Ver left the gambling house, and behind him, the investigator followed carefully.

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[twd-fangirrrl]

In Your Eyes|T’Challa (1)

-              Everything will be okay (y/n).

We’re in Wakanda. Today is my wedding with T’Challa, my boyfriend, future husband and the love of my life.

I’m in a couch hugging Pepper and crying. Today, the most special day of my life, and I don’t have Tony, my Father here with me.

-              Please don’t cry. Today is the big day.

-              Yes, but he’s not here.

Pepper caress my cheeck.

-              He’s with you. Now please don’t cry.

In that moment Morgan come to us.

-              Hey (y/n) look at my dress for your wedding with Uncle T'Challa.

I smile at her.

-              Gosh, you’ll be the prettiest girl in the party honey.

She smiled at me. Many people say that Morgan have a smile similar to mine.

We heard a little noise in the door. It’s Shuri.

-              Now Girl, it’s time to get ready.

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

Flashback

T’Challa and I are in Bruges, Belgium for our first vacations as a couple. While we’re holding hands we walk through the quiet and perfect streets.

-              I love this place very much. It’s my ideal place to be.

-              Yes, is very perfect.

T’Challa' voice came from my left. I look at him and I give him a little smile. Stoping our walking I kiss him.

-              I love you so much T.

-              I love you more (y/n).

We smile.

- I have a surprise for you (y / n).

Oh I love surprises.

- What is it?

-  Is a surprise my love. You have to wait. It’s in a special place here.

After a time, we're in a fancy restaurant. We're walking through the tables following a tall girl.

-  Where are we going?

-  Surprise love, surprise.

I roll my eyes and he kiss me.

-  Don’t be impatient. But I have to cover your eyes now.

-What?

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

-              Don’t be afraid love. I’m here to take you.

With my eyes cover, T’Challa lead me to the ‘secret place’.

-              Almost there, just a little bit.

We stopped.

-              And 1, 2, 3…

I blink a couple of times before recover my sight. And I get shocked.

-              Dad, Pepper, everyone… what is this?

-              The surprise love.

I’m seeing a big balcony that shows a beautiful view of Bruges, my favorite place on earth. Everything is with a decoration white.

-              Let’s take dinner. The surprise isn’t over.

While we take dinner I’m talking with Shuri, she’s amazing.

-              So… what you have to say about all this.

-              Sincerely, I don’t have idea why is this. I mean, my birthday is in three weeks.

-              Yeah, we know but… just wait.

Suddenly T’Challa start to speak.

-              So, family can I have you attention? Thank you. First of all I want to thank all of you for coming. Second, this reunion have two important things, the birthday of (y/n), my love can you please come here?

I stood from my place and get close to T’Challa. I took his hand and nod.

-              So, like I was saying, this pretty woman here is the main reason to make all of this. She’s turning 29 in some weeks so, what better than spend this time with all of you, in her favorite place on earth. But, there’s a very important reason. Love.

He turn to me with a huge smile on his face, I smile back.

- You know we we’re dating for some time now. And all I can say is that you are the love of my life. When I was a little boy, I remember that my Dad always told me '' You have to find the love, and then you have to make her the happiest person in earth, you have to love her, respect her, being her friend, boyfriend, husband '' and I told him '' How can I know that a girl is the right girl '' and he answer me '' You're going to feel it. You’ll fell that you’re seeing the stars in her eyes, and then nothing will be the same ’’. And, that’s how I feel when I’m with you, since the first day I meet you. Since that day I started to see everything in black and white, but you, You have the most wonderful colors in the world. You are different, unique, so special in your own way. You are strong, intelligent, leadership, you're wonderful, beautiful. And I love you and…

With tears in my eyes I see him kneeling in front of me.

- I want to spend every single second of my life with you. I promise that I will take care of you, I will be there for every ascending step you’ll give In your life. I'll be your biggest fan, your boyfriend, you best friend, your husband. So… will you marry me?

End flashback

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

      - Here we go.

Happy is next to me, he’s the man who besides my Dad, have been next to me since I was a girl. We’re walking through the long and beautiful hall. I’m shaking, nervous and full of happiness.

 And I see him. Full dressed in a grey and elegant suit, with that gorgeous smile in his face. He makes me happy. I smile back at him. I see Nat, Stephen, Pepper, my heart and soul Morgan, Shuri, Ramonda… Suddenly the fact that my dad isn’t here hits me. At that moment I’m in front of T’Challa. He gave me his hand.

-      Thank you, Happy.

-      Please, give her the whole world, King. she deserves everything.

-      I’ll do.

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

The ceremony goes perfect. Now I’m a Queen.

The party is going great, everyone seems so happy. I’m holding hands with my husband and talking to Pepper. Morgan is hugging me.

-              Now can I told you Uncle T’Challa?

-              Of course Princess, you can.

-              I love you Uncle.

-              Morgan, love I have to go and talk to everyone. Can you please stay here with T’Challa.

-              Yes, sis.

Walking to the scenario, I get the attention of the people.

-              Hey guys. I’m here to say some words. I haven’t planned nothing of this but, I really want to do it.

I see how Morgan is hugging T’Challa, both are laughing.

-              Miss Morgan, husband. You have to pay attention, I’m going to make some questions before this.

I heard a laugh from the people.

-              Well, like I was saying. I want to thank every person here tonight. We appreciate you want to spend this amazing step in our life. More for me, because I’m taking a huge step, now I’m involved with the Royalty. And I don’t have idea how to be as good as my mother in law. I’m only an engineer just like my father.

Pepper smirk at me, giving me confidence.

-              Okay. Thank you all. This have been the most wonderful and perfect night of my life. I just got married to the man I love. I remember, when I was just a kiddo, that my Dad used to told me ‘’ you’re my Queen ’’. Even in my 20’s he had still told me that, but now, this thing is real, and i'm nervous. -everyone laugh- My father prepared me for the life, he gave me love, funny times, and memories. Of course we lived hard times. And he teach me something ‘’ the love of your life will be there for you, doesn’t matter if is it in good of bad times, he’ll be there for you, he’ll be your light ’’. I had some dates with a few guys in my life, and it don't went good. I thought ‘’Oh,  I’m going to die alone, I’ll have a hundred of dogs ’’ I was just a few moments to stop from believe in love, until I meet that beautiful soul.

I see him.

-          I remember the first moment I meet him. I was like ‘’Hey, you handsome’’. Little I knew he was a Prince. Until I realize that his father was the King of Wakanda. Damn. I felt like a mortal next to him. Until, he start the small talk. And all of this thanks to my friend Steve and Buck. We fought together. I remember it was so stressful, so T'Challa decide to invite me to spend some time here. Away from the troubles we were pass. We started to know each other. I talked to my father many times while I stayed here. ‘’He’s interested in you’’ he said, but I was like ‘’oh, c’mon he’s a Prince and I’m not a Pricess or something’’. And then we had our first kiss, the firs dance, the first date, the first movie together, and then I feel so deeply in love. And now we’re here.

The people claps. And T’Challa is with some tears in his eyes, while Morgan is smiling.

-          Maybe my dad is not physically here, but is right here –I take my hand to my heart- and now with this, I can say my life now is complete.

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

I’m standing in the lake outside the party waiting for my husband.

-          So here’s my gorgeous Queen.

Oh his voice.

-          Hey pretty boy. How are you?

-          Very good right now.

We smile.

-          That speech was beautiful. Imagine I wasn’t there for the ‘’war’’, We would never have met.

-          I would found the way to meet you, love. You are my everything.

We kiss each other. He take me by my hips, and I take him by the back of his neck, Deeping the kiss.

-          I can’t wait to be in our honeymoon, to be alone with you. That’s all I need.

-          Yes, me too. You have to relax, to enjoy all of this, because you’re the King an you have responsibilities.

-          You’ll have the same, my love. You’re a Queen now.

-          But, I’m neeeeeew. I can wait.

-          No, we have to be together.

-          Buuuuuut…

-          No buts my Queen.

We laugh.

- Damn, I love you very much T.

- I feel the same for you. I can do anything for you. Everuthing, love. -another kiss-  Now, let’s go to dance.

- Ok my King, let’s show them we are the bosses in the dance floor.

xo