#((so that makes me think that the 'last known copy' that burned up in the mgm vault fire))

[theheadlessgroom]

@beatingheart-bride

At this question, Dorian let out a little laugh as he flashed Emily a charming smile, saying laxly, "Oh, don't you worry about that, my dear friend-if there's one thing I can say I've inherited from my parents (and can feel proud about), it's the ability to multitask in even the smallest windows of time!"

Last-minute party plans? Juggling them with planning the wedding of the century? No problem: The Gracey's had a number of contacts that could and would drop everything in order to put together a quick little shindig that would appear as if it had been planned down to the most minute detail. Caterers, decorators, musicians, entertainers, all of them would jump to the Gracey's aid, in order to make their party the most magnificent and memorable, as well as never let on to the guests that it was more or less a last-minute idea.

Still, as lavish as it would no doubt be, it would also be no doubt very stuffy, very boring-in some ways, it'd be less about celebrating the happy couple and more about keeping up appearances to the neighbors, but that was nothing new to Dorian-he too felt it could still be a last hurrah before their departure, a celebration within a celebration, right under his family's noses!

And who better to invite to such an occasion than his very bestest friend...

[mysteria157]

Fic Masterlist

Pairing: Nanami Kento x Black Female Reader

Genre: Fluffy Smutty Romance, Unplanned Pregnancy/Sort of Enemies to Lovers AU

CW: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Baby Daddy Nanami Kento, Unplanned Pregnancy, Slow Burn, Minor Character Death, Angst/Hurt/Comfort, Smut, Vaginal Sex, Vaginal Fingering, Oral Sex, MINORS DNI

©mysteria157, all rights reserved. DO NOT copy, plagiarize, reupload, modify, or translate (without permission) my work to other accounts and platforms.

Summary: 

You probably shouldn’t have slapped him.

But you didn’t care. He deserved it after days of dismissive remarks and hard glares to everything you worked so hard for.

“I’m pregnant. I don’t want your help. I don’t need your help. The fact that you’re the father is more than enough to keep me away from you.”

or: Despite your differences and frustrations with one another, you share a drunk but passionate night tangled in the sheets. But now, five weeks later, you and Nanami Kento have no choice but to navigate a rocky relationship while also embracing the new responsibilities of parenthood that lay ahead.

Author’s Notes: This is my very first fic and a WIP. I have two more chapters left. This entire process has been a journey and there will always be things that I can improve on. But for now, please enjoy. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I love writing it! <3

~Those Moments In Between - moments that take place during and after It Had To Be You.~

Chapter Summaries:

Thank you all for coming on this journey with me. Feel free to leave a comment to let me know your thoughts. Or send me a message if you want! Love you all <3

Chapter 1: Your life comes to a startling halt when you realize the abrasive and dismissive man you shared a passionate but drunken night with is now the father of your child.

Chapter 2: That first day when you meet him, you’re bright eyed and ready to work alongside him, filled with so many ideas that will benefit the company. Him, Nanami Kento, a highly esteemed director that always made your stomach flip in desire. But it turns out, he’s not what you thought. Flashback

Chapter 3: When it comes to work, Nanami likes to follow a specific code for people like you. And he would like to think it’s working so far. But one too many drinks and things change. Flashback

Chapter 4: When you think you’re a step ahead to keep Nanami out of your way, your world comes crashing down and makes it harder for you to decide to break the news.

Chapter 5: You want nothing to do with him. Nanami wants to make the right decision. 

Chapter 6: You catch subtle glimpses of another side of Nanami. You both come together to meet the life you have created together. A traumatic part of your life makes itself known. 

Chapter 7: Pregnancy hormones get the best of you. You are given a big opportunity in your company. But it’s not what it seems.

Chapter 8: You deal with the fallout. An unexpected visitor puts your life in jeopardy. Nanami tries to pick up the pieces. 

Chapter 9: You make a life change and show a side of yourself that you never wanted to entertain. Nanami asks you to dinner. 

Chapter 10: You catch a glimpse of the growing life within. A home cooked meal and a searing kiss.

Chapter 11: Nanami gifts you with something that sets a new course in your life. When confessions are finally laid on the table, you both give in.

Chapter 12: A vulnerable moment with each other. A baby shower. An accident that throws Nanami’s life in disarray.

Chapter 13: You and Nanami navigate through grief.

Chapter 14: A birthday, a confession, and a new addition.

Chapter 15: You and Nanami navigate through the first months of parenthood. Nanami gives you an amazing birthday gift. A surprising encounter with someone from Nanami’s past makes you unsure of yourself.

Chapter 16:  The last person you ever wanted to see pries into your life. Nanami makes a life changing decision. Your hard work finally pays off.

Chapter 17: You work hard to bring life to something dear to Nanami.

Chapter 18: You help Nanami on the anniversary of Yu's death. Nanami finally works up his courage during a warm day of Sakura season.

Chapter 19 (Epilogue): Things finally come together.

**Do not plagiarize any of my works or translate without my permission!**

[missmists]

First bookbinding project a success. I think that my cat approves because he would not stay out of my photos. Five months in the making, but I couldn't be more pleased with the results.

I started with @armoredsuperheavy's amazing fanbinding tutorial to create a typeset of each work in @erisenyo's Burning Bright AU published on Ao3. Then had to reread the works in the new format and edit as I went to make sure everything was formatted correctly, (combined word count somewhere around 1.3 million) that took over a month all by itself.

I picked up a copy of Introduction to Bookbinding & Custom Cases by Tom and Cindy Hollander from my local library, to look at some detailed how to images and get multiple perspectives on construction methods. Excellent book, I do recommend.

My hunt for materials included a trip to Detroit with a side stop at Blick to look at decorative papers in person. Blick and the fine people at Hollander’s ended up having everything I needed to make covers. So between my brother kindly 3d printing me a punch cradle, making a DIY sewing frame of my own invention (courtesy of scrap lumber and a trip to the Lowe's hardware department), and three reams of late night printing, I managed to amass all my supplies.

Folding three reams of paper into signatures (the little bundles you sew together) takes about five days if you don't want to lose your mind or your place, and longer if you discover you need to fix things because that definitely happened. Then you get to unfold them to stab holes in them which is as terrifying at first and therapeutic by the end as it sounds.

Next came weeks of sewing books together, a magical process. I learned three new knots, repeatedly stabbed myself (because all forms of creation forcibly demand blood sacrifice) , and felt like I was roleplaying a monastic librarian from the time of Gutenburg. That's 600 years ago, 24ish generations, over 8million ancestors since then (by geometric progression, which excludes the possibility that any of my peasant ancestry is from small towns which is you know likely but I digress) and here I sat sewing pages together in a basement because story is the most sacred of human arts as it binds communities together and shapes perceptions of the self and our brethren, of outsiders allies and enemies, of the world as we know it and as it may come to be. Did I mention sewing books felt magical.

Then came the glue. So much glue. Multiple types of glue. All sticky. all stuck to me. I smeared glue with my fingers like a child.

At last it was time for the covers. Choosing combinations of the decorative papers and bookcloth and making sure I could get enough out of each material for what I needed. Precise cutting so many thanks to the architecture school professors who showed me how to properly cut chipboard. Then measuring and gluing, and more measuring, and more gluing. At last press a little groove by the spine and repeat eleven times.

Then I get to impress all my people with my latest and possibly coolest maker skill unlock, I am a book binder.

Bottom to top in the stack or left to right at the bottom are: These Things Written  These Things Unsaid with Without Consent These Things Known with A Third Chance (or a First) Oh, The Way Your Makeup Stains My Pillowcase That Love You've Been Looking For  All I Need Is To Be Struck (By Your Electric Love) To Open Every Door to Night, To Meet Each Rising Sun (my favorite) Love Is In the Hair (fanart of this one originally lead me to read the series, thanks @ash-and-starlight) Lessons in Proper Asset Management Tangled Up With You  To Be Named, To Be Known (To Be Loved)

[introspectivememories]

at the center of gotham, lies its oldest public hospital — gotham general. it’s staff are kind and compassionate, if a little intolerant of bullshit. the city may not care about the crimes that occur in it but the people certainly do. gotham’s emergency services are renowned throughout the nation as one of the best. 

the ER nurses at gotham general love to gossip and their latest is about how their ever-reliable EMT bernard dowd, who'll rush into burning buildings if he thinks he can save one more person, who smiles so brightly and brings them cupcakes on his days off but has such sad eyes, seems so lonely. they determinedly decide to find a date for him. maybe dr. zacharia thomas, their latest trauma surgeon? yes, yes! he's only a few years older, bernard knows him, they get along, and most importantly, he's got a stable job. he'll be perfect for their bernard!

and then, literally only days after they decide to set up dr. zacharia and bernard on a date, head trauma nurse marissa santos comes running in with a copy of gotham daily, clutched in her hand.

"look! look! nakita mo ba ang balita?" she whisper-yells, "did you see the news?!"

instantly they're all crowding around her, trying to see the paper. covering the front page is a blurry photo of a black-haired man engaged in a passionate game of tonsil-hockey with someone who is unmistakably their youngest EMT. he's still wearing his uniform for christ's sake! in the largest font known to man, "WAYNE'S NEW PARAMOUR?" is written at the top.

"he's dating the wayne ceo!" marissa gushes excitedly.

"isn't he a little too old for bernard?" someone pipes up from the back.

"not the father, you idiot! the son! timothy!"

that's way better than their candidate. everyone is stoked. by nightfall, everyone in the ER knows that bernard dowd is dating timothy drake-wayne, the youngest ceo wayne enterprises has ever had.

when bear stops by, at around 2 in the morning, dropping of the last patient from his shift, he's immediately accosted by the nurses.

"whoa! hey!" he exclaims as they lead him to the nurse's station and sit him down in a chair, "what's going on?"

marissa slams the paper down in front of him, "spill."

bernard groans and turns cherry red, "oh my god tita. don't you guys have patients to attend to?"

"already taken care of." nurse gu says.

"what about mr. gomez, the one with third degree burns that just came in?" bernard tries desperately.

"dr. zacharia is already on it." dr. esperanza responds, "so spill."

their youngest tries one last time, "how do you even know if that's me?"

"there are like 10 blonde people in the EMT department and considering all of them are older than you and none of them seem to have the three ear piercings that kid in this picture does, we're gonna have to assume it's you." dr. farah nasim, one half of the head of the ER, says.

bernard turns on her with a betrayed look.

"sorry kid," she snorts, "also, you're still wearing your uniform in the photo. it says 'dowd' on the shoulder."

"im too old to be bossed around like this." he mutters before sighing, "alright what'd'ya want to know?"

"tell us everything!" marissa says, "how did you two meet?"

"we were friends in high school and we fell out of touch after junior year. he hit me up on insta 6 months ago and we reconnected."

"oh my god!! they're high school sweethearts!" nurse gu squeals, "that's so cute!"

"tell us more! who asked who out?"

"okay well, technically he asked me out but he didn't know he was asking me out. but we went on this date at this restaurant and it got attacked by some villain and red robin, but he was going by robin at the time, rescued. so i told robin, 'hey if i make it out of this, tell tim drake, i would've liked to finish our date'. and then, tim, shows up at my door the next day and says 'i don't know what this feeling i get when i'm near you is, but i'd like to find out'. and the rest is history."

"bernard, what the hell?" dr. esperanza says shocked, "that's the most rom-com-esque story i've ever heard."

"what?" bernard blushes, "no it's not."

"bear," esperanza says slowly, "he showed up at your door and said 'i don't know what this feeling i get when i'm near you is, but i want to find out.' that is something straight out of the notebook."

"no, no! he's such a dork!" bernard assures them frantically, "he does this thing, when he laughs too hard, he snorts and it sets him off again and it just keeps going. and you should've seen him in high school, the biggest skater boy to ever exist. he's teaching me..."

and bernard goes on and on for the next 15 minutes, trailing off only when he notices them all smiling at him.

"what?" he says shyly.

"you're in love with him, aren't you?" dr. farah says.

bernard chokes, "what?! no! ...maybe?"

everyone shares a look between each other. marissa steps forward, "well on behalf of the gotham general ER staff, i can assure you, we all approve."

"thank you?"

"bring him around sometime!" nurse gu says, "we'd all like to meet him."

"why? so you can give him the shovel talk?"

"of course!" dr. farah says, smiling widely, "he’s dating our youngest! we have to threaten him!"

bernard's voice is suspiciously wet when says a few moments later, "thanks guys."

and so on it goes for the next few months until marissa comes back after her break, deathly pale. everyone worries but she refuses to tell anyone what's wrong. and then a few weeks later, nurse gu goes on his break and comes back shocked. and then a month later, dr. zacharia comes back from a quick step outside, lips sealed shut.

and on it goes until there is one glaring truth the gotham general ER night staff cannot ignore:

bernard dowd is dating red robin. open relationship or cheating, to be determined.

a year after the news about tim drake and bernard had been released, and half a year after the, what the staff has taken to calling it, Red Robin Scandal™ began, dr. farah calls a night staff meeting.

the staff meeting is boring as usual until the end when dr. farah opens the conversation to the staff to voice their concerns.

"are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?" dr. esperanza asks.

"i think bernard might be cheating on his boyfriend!" marissa blurts out before slapping her hands over her mouth, horrified.

“oh thank god.” esperanza sighs.

"wait you saw them too?" nurse gu asks.

"in the narrow walkway," dr. zacharia starts.

"between the ER and jacobson building." dr. esperanza finishes.

"exactly!" marissa says.

"i caught them in the parking lot once." dr. farah admits, mouth pressed into a grim line, "they were pressed up against the fence in the back — y'know where the light doesn't shine? — kissing each other like they'd just come back from world war 2."

"ay, how could that boy be so stupid?" marissa sighs, "getting caught up with a vigilante?"

"maybe it's like polyamory?" esperanza says, ever hopeful.

"whatever it is," farah says, "he should know better than to get involved with those people. we have to talk to him."

they pull bernard into an unused conference room, just the 5 of them, 3 weeks later.

"hey, hey!" bernard exclaims as they shove him into a chair, "what's going on?"

nobody speaks.

"guys?"

"are you cheating on tim drake?"

"what?"

"are you cheating on tim drake?" marissa repeats.

"no! why would you think that?"

"everyone on the night staff has caught you kissing red robin at least once. wanna try that again?" farah says.

bernard sighs, "is that what this is about? doc, i swear to god, i'm not cheating on tim."

"so he knows?" zacharia asks.

"yes zach, tim knows about me and red robin."

"and he's okay with it?"

"yes. tim doesn't mind me dating both of them." bernard says, a smile playing on his lips.

nobody speaks for a while.

"so..." bernard breaks the silence first, "are we good here? do you approve?"

"no." esperanza says, "we don't approve."

"what?"

"he's no good for you." nurse gu says.

"you don't even know him." bernard says incredulously.

"oh and you do?" zacharia says scathingly, "he's a vigilante bear. how much do you really know?"

"more than you zach!"

pleadingly bernard turns toward farah, "c'mon doc, you don't agree do you?"

"you know, when you first started dating tim drake, i had my reservations. rich people and all that. but i figured with all that money, if you ever got roped into rich people problems, tim's money would help out. you'd be taken care of and he clearly loves you, so i didn't mind too much."

"but this..." farah trails off, "i can't accept this."

turning towards marissa, "tita, please."

"don't do that, bear. wag kang tanga. it's not good to be with him."

"he loves me! is that not enough?" bernard near-yells, "i thought that's what you wanted. someone who loves me!"

"enough to quit being a vigilante?" esperanza asks.

"quit being a vigilante? are you guys hearing yourself?" bernard asks angrily, "he saves the city on a near-nightly basis and you want me to ask him to give it all up because what? he's dating me?"

"so let him save the city without you." nurse gu says, "why does he need to drag you into it?"

"he's not dragging me into anything! i am a full consenting adult! i chose him! what’s so different about what he and i do anyway?"

“well for one, our job is legal. and two, there are safety measures put in place so that you don’t get hurt. so that your coworkers don’t get hurt. your man walks into the joker’s lair with an inch of kevlar and a prayer on his lips.” zacharia says.

nurse gu sighs, "look. nobody here is mad at him for saving the city. everyone here knows somebody who has been saved by the bats. but the deal is that they save the city and they don't drag anybody else into it."

"the bats, whoever they are? they chose that life. for whatever reason, they chose that life and all the dangers that go with it. you’re not stupid bear, don’t get involved with whatever he has going on. pick literally anyone else.” farah says.

“you need a third person that badly? take zach! the ER was planning on setting you up with him before we found out about tim, anyway.”

“what?” zacharia says, rounding on nurse gu.

“you know what?” bernard says, pinching the bridge of his nose tiredly, “ i don’t have to explain myself to you guys.”

“you can’t marry him.” marissa says.

“who said anything about marriage? i’m 22!”

“you clearly love tim. you two seem like you’re going to last a while and if you love red robin they way you love tim, them somewhere along those years of being together then you’re going to start thinking of marriage. what then? how are you going to explain red robin to the people you love?”

“we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

“look, bernard,” farah says gently, “we’re not doing this cause we don’t want you to be happy. you mean a lot to me, i think of you as my son. we just-”

“you’re not my mom.” bernard snaps out, “you’re not my mom, you’re not my aunt, my uncle, my brother. you guys aren’t anything to me!”

he turns and walks away.

“farah do something.” marissa hisses.

“let him go. he said he’s an adult right? then let him make his choices.”

“but,” she says, raising her voice so bernard can hear her, “if anything goes wrong, and i mean anything at all, i hope he knows that adults don’t have to do everything by themselves. that they can ask people for help.”

bernard’s hands still on the doorknob. “thank you.” he says voice rough, “nothing will happen, but thank you for the offer.” and he walks out the door.

bernard dowd, is 22 year old EMT that has too much heart and not enough brain. he’ll rush into burning buildings if he thinks he has even a minute chance of saving someone. he’s kind and he’s sweet and more importantly, he’s dating timothy drake-wayne, ceo of wayne enterprises.

if you ask the ER night staff at gotham general, after a lot of prodding, they might tell you that bernard dowd was one of the youngest EMTs to ever join the gotham county emergency medical services. they might tell you that bernard dowd has been wondering if he should become an AEMT or a paramedic. they might tell you that as the major receiver for all patients, bernard saw them all the time and imprinted on them like a baby duck. and if you’re really close they might, tell you the ER’s biggest secret: bernard dowd is dating both timothy drake-wayne and red robin. or they might just let you walk in on them making out behind the ER. whatever comes first really.

(if you get close enough to a certain group of people on the ER night staff, they’ll tell you that bernard dowd has two hands and he uses them to hold onto his boyfriends. 

they’ll tell you that tim drake is a nice boy and they’re a little worried about their bernard fitting into the circles a wayne walks in, but he’s a nice boy who clearly loves bernard, so they’re not too worried.

they’ll tell you that that red robin character is no good for their bernard and has no business getting so close to their youngest. that red robin is going to get bernard into trouble one day, the kind of trouble that you don’t come back from.

and if you get really close to them, they’ll tell you over lunch breaks and muttered whispers, that both boys are going to break their youngest’s heart. and that if they had to pick, red robin will do it first. that their bernard loves a little too deeply and that they're worried that it’ll break bernard.

but they’re not too worried, they say. because bernard has them and if that bastard red robin breaks his heart, then they’ll pick up the pieces, they’ll sew him back together if they have to. after all, bernard stitches up half of gotham every night, this is the least they could do.)

[ideasarestuckinmyhead]

The song "Suger Daddy" by Qveen Her by kinda reminds me of Auron and Rook in a way.

If possible could you do a one shot based on this song of Auron and Rook, if not that's fine.

-☯ Anon

Give me the card, please?

When Auron and Rook's relationship got out finally every magazine and paparazzi asked them if they were his sugar baby. They answered no obviously, they didn't really get gifts because they didn't want him to spend money on them. They fell in love for his personality not his money, plus the gifts they did get were full of thoughts of them and to their preference like if it was a clothing piece. The type of fabric, cutting, and size was tailor to them and if wasn't their preference he'd just buy another.

They thought it would give the public their fill on their relationship but no. Of course it didn't people are nosy, like these fucking trophy wives at this gathering. Rook was in a simple classic outfit that Auron made for them, matching set and it looked so sexy on the both of them. Rook didn't care what these people thought of them but these fucking ladies and men even kept asking them questions.

"Well how much does he spend on you?" Looking up and down the lady in front of them was decked in Gucci. Rook simply said enough to make them not look fake, unlike that ladies dress. It got them a huff and the lady walking away from them.

"Child he has all that money and you don't wanna use it?" Greedy eyes looked at them, these one piss Rook off. They told the man that they had so much money they didn't know what they wanted to use it on. Happens when your partner has so many comas in his bank and loves to spend it on you when you wish. His jaw got clenched at those words and simply nodded.

"By the way you act so coldly to us I'd think Auron simply has you to fuck." Everyone hushed at those words, Rook turned slowly and saw some nepo baby looking back at them. They seemed a year younger than them, Rook didn't even flinch as they got in their face. "Your not a sugar baby, your just a slut he gets to use when needed." Gasps and 'oh's' were heard as the crowd parted for Auron to come to Rook.

"Mrs. Goldburg, I think I misheard you. Did you just call my partner a shameful name?" Glaring down at the blonde copy and paste bitch who tried to look innocent. Her name, what was it again? Rook wondered as they downed their glass of champagne.

"Oh, your name is Aubrey. Aubrey Goldburg, your family has been doing business with Auron for a while, yes?" Questioning the younger woman as they gestured a bus boy to them to place their glass down. Aubrey, surprised Rook even known her name nodded watching their moves.

"You will no longer be working with us. A shame really, your father was a respectful man when I met him last year when making the contract. I actually was the one to introduce him to my lover." Nonchalantly saying as they took another glass from the bus boy they saw Aubrey blink rapidly.

"W...Wha-" She was cut off abruptly by her Father rushing to the scene. His face grew pale as he saw who was in the middle of the crowd with his daughter. Richard really needed her on her best behavior, but of course she had to act out in their family name.

"Aubrey, dear, what did you say to them?! Rook, my friend I deeply apologize to you for my daughter." Richard knew he needed to kiss ass so bad right now but also knew that Rook would ignore him so he looked at Auron. Which was a bad idea because he was glaring down at the man who he was just sharing a drink with a minute ago.

"Richard, look. I'll be nice since I do see you as a true friend of mine I met when i first came into the public like this. Your contract with us will be suspended, Auron?" Not looking at their partner they knew he already notified Trish to fucking burn it if necessary.

"Of course dear, I will be exterminating that contact as soon as we get in the limo." Everyone began whispering and gossiping about the two Goldburg's in the middle as the power couple of the high society shot them down from fame with simple words. Rook didn't even show any emotion as Aubrey began to cry because her family contract with Auron was everything. A long tried sigh was heard by everyone as Rook threw a glass by Aubrey.

"Auron, take me home. This girl ruined my mood to enjoy this party." Annoyance was heard in their voice as they began walking to the door gesturing the coat man to get their coat quickly. Auron followed right behind them as he talked quietly with them. These actions caused everyone to talk about what just happen and sadly Richard was trying to calm his daughters cries but she started to just scream random things.

"And Richard?" The said older man snapped his head at them as the room quieted to hear them, "I'll have Auron recontact you if your daughter is properly taught etiquette of how she should act to the people who help her. Good night everyone." Leaving swiftly with Auron to the limo their words shook the high society that attended that night.

In the limo Auron was looking at them in his lap as they slumped into him. Tired form having to keep their guard up around those fucking assholes, but ripping that bitches life apart in front of her made it worth it.

"Are you okay, dear?" Softly spoken as Auron pet their head, and kissed their head. Rook nodded, feeling like being nonverbal was the best choice by speaking so much at this event. But then an idea came to them, how about they show those asshole's a real sugar baby?

"Auron, I want to spend money. Can I have the card, please? For tomorrow?" Sweetly asking and this clicked quickly in Auron's head as he nodded smiling a them.

"Of course dear." Happily saying as Rook doesn't usually use his money to throw at their problems. No matter what they bought the money would come back as quickly as it left.

"Thank you, sir." Seductively saying as they kissed his cheek. Giving a giggle as Auron kissed them in return, this turned in to them having a bit of fun in the back seat. As Rook woke up they saw a Black credit card by their table side, smiling at the note Auron left saying 'buy anything dear, I'll cover it.' Rook got dressed up in the most expensive outfit Auron bought them and went straight to a big mall. They even invited Aubrey and some of the people from the party Rook actually enjoyed talking too.

"Hhmm, Aubrey where should I shop at? I want to just spend money because I can." She took them to Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and other stores Rook couldn't bother remembering. While shopping Rook sighed in annoyance as no one was trying to help them, didn;t these people know who they were?

"Hi, I was here for a while can I have someone help me please?" politely asking a worker who huffed and went to get a manager. Who rudely told them that they would't have anything for them, Rook pissed off then decided to ask. "How much can I buy this mall for?" The manager started to stutter asking them what they mean. "Ugh never mind I'll just ask Auron." This caused the manager to sweat more.

Ringing up Auron Rook looked at their entourage and smiled "I'm just going to buy this all so I can just take what I want whenever you know? Just sssooo much easier on me!" Then turning to talk to Auron about buying the mall. After a few minutes, Rook closed their phone and walked back to the manager. Giving him a big smile as another man rushed to him, greeting Rook first before telling him quickly.

"Sir, this Mx is now the owner of our shop. It is nice to meet you Mx." Sweetly saying as he tried to seem composed in front of them. Rook just nodded as the other manager looked shocked as everyone looked at him to see what he would say.

"Mx I apolog-" Rook held up their hand and sigh deeply before looking around and stopping at the new man that rushed ot them.

"Your the new manager now, got it? And you your fired get the fuck out." Everyone looking was staring at the now ex manager. Who simply nodded and walked to the back of the store, because what do you do in this incidence?

Aubrey looked in awe as Rook commanded five people to help them choice something to wear. Rook threw things they thought were ugly to the workers that were rude to them. And giving tips to the workers that were nice to them, showing to them that if they ever try Rook again they'd make their lives hard.

"I'm tired of this shop let's go somewhere else. I think I want a smoothie." They yawned as they wore a fur coat and had a whole new outfit that fit them perfectly. And just like that Rook had the best shopping spree as they walked in to a shop and grabbed whatever they wanted. Who would stop them? No one, even when there was paparazzi asking them why they bought the mall when walking out to their new limo.

"I just wanted to shop. Why? You have something to say?" This caused the paparazzi asking them questions stumble over their words. Rook shrugged them off as they got into the limo, after giving commands to the men holding their things to take it to the pent house. While in the limo they fanned themselves and started to complain how shopping made them tired.

"We should go to a spa!" One girl said Lizzy, she was really sweet telling Rook the options there. Rook nodded and told the driver to go there, everyone was chatting as they got in. Enjoying their time gossiping about the couples and drama between families. Then it was 6 pm, Rook sighed deeply again everyone looked at them as they pouted.

"Sorry everyone, I'm tired from having so much fun with you all. I think I'm going to go back to my lover now. I'll have limo's drive you home. Hugs and kisses to all of youu!" Rook said as they got in to a separate limo. They smiled as they saw Auron in the limo, giving him a smile as they showed off their outfit.

"Don't I look amazing? Too bad it'l probably only be wore a few times after this. Oh well!" Giggling as they leaned on Auron getting their battery recharged with him. They then asked about Auron's day, he went on about doing a recontact and how Richard was groveling the whole time. They fell into a silence as they felt this hectic day come to a end as they got back to the pent house.

While they enjoyed their time inside tabloids and articles were going insane how "Sugar Baby to the cold CEO rich man spent so much money in one hour alone." Rook had a feeling that they would be enjoyable to read so they decided to leave that for tomorrow for when Auron had a day off to make fun of them with Rook.

[bookofbonbon]

cycles - rafe cameron.

Pairing: Rafe Cameron x Reader.

Warnings: Implied abusive/toxic relationship.

Summary: This cycle of love is not a happy one.

Word Count: 545.

A/N: Previously: all of my happiness/greatest pain. A rewrite of an old fic so, it'll read familiar to some of you.

The night air is cool against your skin, hair sweeping across your face with the wind, skin becoming irritated as the strands stick to your wet cheeks and remind you of your earlier fight with Rafe.

Yet another one to add to the endless list...

The pool water that sloshes around with the wind eventually stills and you’re no longer able to drown out the sound of your own thoughts.

You weren't sure when it all went wrong, began to fall apart. Maybe it was somewhere between high school and the beginning of his drug use? Or perhaps between when he dropped out of college and the end of your relationship...

You breathe a laugh, biting down on your bottom lip as a lump grows in your throat.

If someone asked, you'd never be able to them.

That's what you told yourself at least. You had to. It was too painful to admit that your relationship with Rafe had always been doomed from the start.

“What are you thinking so hard about over there?” Rafe calls from where he stands in the doorway.

He leans against its frame, making circles in the air at you with the knife he holds in one hand; the blade being used to cut up the apple he holds in his other hand.

Your eyes trail Rafe, watching as he pushes himself off the frame.

He walks slowly, purposefully, closer to the edge of the pool as he pushes a piece of apple between his lips and chews lazily. His eyes never straying from yours as he takes a seat in the pool chair directly across from you on the other side of the pool.

"Hm?" he prompts, cocking his head.

“I wish I could leave you,” you tell him, voice hoarse and eyes watery. “Put you behind me and never look back.”

A flicker of hurt shines through the cracks in the wall Rafe had put up between the two of you, a slight and sharp inhale through his nose that you would've missed if you hadn't known Rafe for as long as you did, as intimately as you do.

"Then go," Rafe sneers.

Your lips curl inwards, face crumpling as you look away to wipe at your fallen tears. The feeling burns your cheeks but, it was one you had become all too familiar with.

The long silence that hangs between the two of you eventually broken by the clatter of a knife and a quiet fuck.

Warmth soon wraps around you, Rafe finding his place behind you and gently pulling you back between his legs to lean against his chest, his arms encircling you in an embrace.

“I love you,” Rafe mumbles, pressing a kiss to your temple.

“You’re not supposed to hurt the people you love,” you remind him with a hiccup.

“I know,” he sighs. “I’m sorry.”

Your breath hitches, broken heart breaking just a little more than the last time. The familiar apology signalling the restart of the same cycle you had been stuck in with him for as long as you had known him.

"Me too," you whisper, only for your own ears.

An apology to yourself as you tilt your head back, looking up at Rafe with shining eyes and forgiving him.

-

All fics are my own work - I have not posted my work anywhere else.

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters/places mentioned above.

Do not copy. Do not translate. Do not repost.

© bookofbonbon 2023. All rights reserved.

[absurdthirst]

The Bodyguard: My Protector {Dave York x F!Popstar!Reader}

Rating: Explict

Word Count: 18.5K

Warnings: Enemies to lovers? Teasing, angst, creepy photographers, controlling behavior, oral sex (female receiving), vaginal sex, rough sex, unprotected sex, obsessed fans, stalking, violence, mentions of blood/blood broken bones, death, mentions of marking

Comment: As a pop star, you are being kept in the dark about the threats that surround you. Your security being led by Dave York, one of the best in the business. Driving you crazy as he restricts your freedom and still makes you burn for him.

Co-written with @pedropascalsx

**Follow @absurdthirst-writes and turn on notifications to stay up to date on all new fics.

|| MasterList || Dave York MasterList ||

A/N: The mood board below is not meant to indicate the race or ethnicity of the reader. Mood board by @pedropascalsx

Click Keep Reading only if you have read the Rating and Warnings and understand the warnings may not be complete to avoid listing spoilers. As AO3 says 'creator chooses not to use warnings'. You also agree that you're the right age to be consuming anything here.

‘You speak to me. Through every word you sing. ‘Take my heart and cherish it forever, I’ve never known true love until you’. I know you wrote that for me. Baby, you know I would never do anything to hurt you. You are my world, my soul. I don’t understand why you didn’t see me last time, maybe your people were rushing you by too quickly? I screamed your name and told you it was me, but you just need to tell your people to let me in backstage. I can just wait for you there.’ 

“Jesus.” Dave slaps the copy of the rambling, startlingly concerning, letter down and sighs as he leans forward and reaches for the scotch bottle that he had hoped he wouldn’t need. “This 'Martin' sound fucking insane.” He snorts to himself. Resnick, his right hand man, was on his way downtown with the original copy, to take it to a lab that was willing to run an analysis on it. Dave York didn��t gain a reputation as one of the best bodyguards in the business by cutting corners or being sloppy. Now he’s protecting, you - one of the newest and hottest performers - and his gut feeling is that this person is fucking dangerous.

He’s doing it again, you think to yourself as you roll your eyes. The rest of the team are being let in on some secret he has clearly made them agree to keep from you. His eyes dart towards you a few times before he passes something to Resnick, and you have to fight the urge to stomp your feet, charge over there and find out what it is. He’s keeping something big from you and you’re not going to stand for it much longer.

“You keep your fucking eyes out.” His tone brokers zero room for error. “No one without a picture ID pass gets by you.” That had been one of the first new rules that he had implemented on your tour. There were pictures on every badge around everyone’s neck or they don’t get near you. He’s seen too much to risk it. “And you keep your fuckin’ mouths shut around her.” His job is to worry, your job is to get up on the stage and perform.

‘Asshole.’ You mouthed as you watched him order everyone around. Your father had insisted on hiring him about a year ago after an incident involving a ‘fan’ climbing over your  gate and somehow going undetected. Thankfully you were out of town visiting family, but seeing the security footage of him sleeping in your bed made you physically sick. After that day your father took control and hired Dave York. Signing every contract Dave produced without even discussing how much and how impacted your freedom would end up being.

You hated him. He was rude, demanding, controlling and the thing that made everything 100x worse? He was the most attractive man you’ve ever seen. The competence and effortless way he captivated a whole room was mesmerising to watch. 

You found yourself riling him up on purpose on a few occasions just so you could secretly watch the way the material of his shirt would get all taunt across his strong shoulders and back. But most of all you wanted to hear the way his voice got raspier and raspier as he got angrier. The sound of his voice going straight to your core as dampening your panties as he cursed out your bratty behaviour.

Dave looks around the room, his eyes meeting every one of his team and he finally nods. “Okay.” He grunts, motioning them to leave. “Get the fuck out of here and do your jobs.” Every single man on his team had been carefully vetted by him and he only took the best. Men who wouldn’t hesitate to kill if necessary and die when warranted. Some scoffed at the idea of dying for some pop star princess, and they had quickly gotten their pink slip.

“How am I getting to my photoshoot this afternoon?” you asked your PR manager who was furiously tapping on her phone screen, “I’m happy to drive myself.”

Dave walks up to you and the vapid woman who runs your PR. He swears that woman would sell your fucking soul for a good headline. He hears the end of your comment about driving yourself and chuckles. “Funny, princess.” He tells you dryly. “You’re not driving yourself anywhere. I’m taking you.” He doesn’t know what it is exactly, but you aren’t going anywhere without him.

You turn to face him and scoff, “No. You are not. I am fully capable of driving myself and I am not a princess.” The urge to storm away grows stronger but the look on his face tells you that he wouldn’t let you if you tried.

“Oh so US Magazine didn’t call you ‘this summer’s bonafide pop Princess’?” Dave taunts, rolling his eyes at how fucking immature you can be at times. He’s never had a grown ass woman so willing to fight him on *everything*. “You are capable of driving yourself, doesn’t mean you’re going to.”

“Didn’t realize you were such an avid reader of trashy magazines, Dave, you should have said! I would have signed a copy especially for you.” You counter back to his mocking. “I don’t need you to drive me, so I will be driving myself.”

Dave’s eyes narrow and he shakes his head. “Not today, princess.” He growls, his voice low enough to have most cautious men stepping back, but you aren’t a man and you aren’t cautious.

“You’ll have to take me kicking and screaming,” you grit out from behind your teeth. Your lack of freedom since Dave's takeover has started to really piss you off. If it isn’t him that’s always a stone's throw away it’s one of his goons and you’re tired of being treated like you're incapable of looking after yourself.

“I’m a grown woman, if you haven’t noticed. I don’t need a babysitter.”

“Obviously you do.” Dave snorts, stepping closer to you and sending you a withering glare that would make most men cower. “Otherwise daddy wouldn’t have hired me.” It’s better that you hated him than started playing fast and loose with your safety. As much as he wants to drag you over his knee and spank your ass until you can’t sit down, he cares about your well-being. “Just…let me drive you. It’s my job.” He’s noticed you’re all woman, but he can’t think about that now.

“Fine,” you say through gritted teeth, “But I have to make a few stops on the way.” You hate the way your stomach twists at the way he’s looking at you. If you weren’t 100% convinced it was hatred you might have considered it was a hunger burning in those dark eyes. “And by the way my Daddy doesn’t tell me what to do.”

“No?” He quirks a brow up and gives a low chuckle, knowing your father controls everything to do with your life, including your career. “Too bad, although what you really need, I doubt your daddy would be up for giving you. He's too…soft to do it.”

You raise a brow to match the expression splashed across his face and take a small step forward until you’re toe to toe and ask him, “And what is it that I really need, Mr York?”

“A firm hand.” Dave smirks. “Applied liberally and quickly to the bottom of your spoiled ass.” He could get fired for talking to you this way, but you won’t. Your father wouldn’t allow it because he knows that Dave is needed, even if he keeps you in the dark on why.

“I’ll make sure to tell my next hook-up to pay special attention to that area just for you,” you reply with a sugary sweet smile. “We have to leave in an hour.”

Dave huffs, watching you turn and flounce off, trying to pretend that you didn’t get under his skin. You sleep with such pretty boys. None of them are even remotely capable of being able to protect you beyond making sure you don’t drop your purse. He huffs to himself, turning around and striding out towards the garage. He needs to make sure your SUV is ready for your little errands.

With less than an hour to get ready and get out of the door you bounced off to your bedroom and locked the door behind you. Resisting the urge to take care of the pulsing in your little bundle of nerves that had been steadily growing since he felt the need to involve himself in your discussion.

Instead you had a very quick shower, throwing on a quick outfit that was cheap and worn enough to not worry about it getting ruined in hair and make up and grabbed your purse before making your way back downstairs and towards the front door.

Dave is waiting for you when you come downstairs, on his phone and scrolling through the different emails that he has already sent to the lab about the letters. Another letter fired off to your publicity to screen all your mail and any more from that person should be brought to his attention immediately. Your popularity is growing and with it, the number of security threats.

“Let’s go,” you simply murmur at him as you push past the door and make your way towards the waiting car.

You slide into the passenger seat and immediately go to plug your phone into the aux cord.

Dave shakes his head, huffing under his breath. No matter how many fucking times he tells you, you refuse to sit in the back unless you are arriving at an event.

“Any requests?” you ask with a grin, knowing full well that he’s pissed at you for sitting in the front. Also remember I wanted to stop off somewhere first, I have a craving for a milkshake.”

“Yeah…” Dave shuts his door and grabs his seatbelt. “Move to the back and buckle your fucking seatbelt.” He knows you won’t, so he is already starting the engine.

“Temper temper, Mr. York,” you reply as you switch on a random playlist. You look at the window and watch as your house gets smaller and smaller as he makes his way towards the studio. “I have no idea what magazine this is for.” You admit and you start pulling at your sleeve.

“They didn’t tell you?” He asks, not even taking his eyes off the road. “Figures. Do you want Baskin Robbins or Cold Stone?” He asks, acknowledging your desire for a milkshake. “Or McDonalds?” He doesn’t tell anyone about your craving for the fast food milkshake even if he knows Arby’s is better.

“Nope. I just get told where to go and when to be there.” You reply with a shrug, “Anywhere closest with a drive-thru, please. Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” He doesn’t turn towards you, just scanning the road for the closest restaurant that has milkshakes before he finds one about a quarter of the mile up the road.

“Weren’t you like a Marine or something? Why would you want to waste your time doing this?”

“Would you rather I just killed people?” He asks, tossing you a glance as he pulls into the parking lot to circle around and enter the drive through. “It’s not wasting time protecting someone. Just traded my country for a person and use the skills they taught me.” He smirks. “Plus the pay is better.”

“Ohh please,” you scoff back, “You hate this job. You hate me. You’re keeping god knows what from me!”

“I don’t hate the job, or you.” Dave pulls the car up to the window and turns towards you expectantly. “Chocolate or strawberry?” He demands, wanting to know what flavor you are craving.

You scoff again, “Sure, you don’t. Strawberry.”

Dave turns back towards the window. Once the person behind the speaker finishes their greeting, Dave orders your strawberry milkshake. Pulling forward when directed and instead of using the credit card he’s supposed to use for any purchases for you, he slips his own to the bored teenager at the payment window. It’s something he’s done when you just want a bit of junk, knowing your dad would object to you eating like crap when you are on tour. He doesn’t see Dave’s personal credit card bill and you’ve never noticed, so it’s his little secret.

“Thank you,” you say as he passes you your drink and you immediately take a large sip. The moan that leaves your lips is sinful as you indulge yourself in the sweet treat.

“You’re welcome, princess.” He pulls off from the window and moves to the exit. “What other errands do you need to run?” He demands, still unsure why you think he hates his job. He’s gruff, doesn’t take shit, but he’s never taken anything out on you. He’s just….rigid in his methods.

“You want a sip?” you offer, slightly annoyed he never orders anything for himself. You move the cup in front of his mouth and place the straw on his lips. A smile curling up on yours as await his reaction. “No other errands today. Just this goddamn photoshoot.”

Instead of pushing it away, Dave wraps his lips around the straw and sucks. Groaning at the sweet taste of the strawberry milkshake bursting on his tongue, he takes another gulp before leaning his head back. “Photo shoot, got it.”

“Taste good?” You ask as your thighs clench together at the way his tongue pokes out to wet his lips. “Yeah! Get ready to sit around and be bored out of your mind for three hours.”

“Tastes good.” Dave can’t say that he particularly cares for the photo shoots, a lot of the shit is just pretentious bullshit to him, but he does like seeing you in the little outfits. “I have plenty of emails to go through to keep me busy.” He tells you as he starts to drive towards the studio where the shoot is taking place.

“Mhmm,” you hum back at his tone. Clearly ignoring your attempts to flirt or at least make the atmosphere a little less… boring. “Sounds like you've got it all figured out.”

You spend the rest of the journey in silence, occasionally sipping on your milkshake and tapping on your thigh. The studio is in a surprisingly residential part of LA, tucked away somewhere quiet and away from the flashes from the herds of paparazzi that swarm the busier parts of the city.

He orders you to wait and you roll your eyes as he rounds the car to open the door. He ushers you into the studio and immediately starts asking a million questions about how can or can’t access the studio and ensuring that no one without a keycard or pass will be able to get in.

You offer the receptionist a small smile and mouth ‘sorry’ as he continues to whittle off all of his demands. Never before had someone been so thorough… Even he seems to be a little over the top today, you think to yourself as you stand quietly next to him.

Dave is moderately satisfied when his questions have been answered but he’s not thrilled at the security for this place. Instead of working on those emails like he had claimed, his head is going to be on a swivel. Finally, he turns back towards you and motions you over. “We’re ready.”

“Hair and makeup?” you ask the receptionist and she dutifully points you in the direction. You glance over and Dave and he nods his head as you make your way down the hall. “I wonder what the hell I'll be wearing in this one.” You say with a smirk.

“Maybe they will actually put some damn clothes on you.��� He grunts, appalled at how little clothes they wanted you to perform in. You were a fucking singer, not a stripper.

“Doubtful,” you say with a shrug as you make your way to the makeup chair. A hoard of people immediately emerging towards you with thousands of dollars worth of makeup that’ll make you look almost unrecognizable when they’re done. “Enjoy your emails.” You shoot back at him over your shoulder.

He huffs, slowly following you but keeping his eyes out for any potential issues. You don’t seem happy with this photo shoot, and if he needs to, he will tell them that you are leaving. You are a pain in his ass, but you deserve consideration. It should have been your choice to be here to begin with.

The interview is brief, she sits and asks the questions whilst you’re poked and prodded in hair and make up. Dave had set a few more ground rules than usual and banned them from asking ANY questions about your personal life and the interviewer is clearly pissed at the lack of artistic freedom she’s left to work with and after about twenty minutes of generic questions she pretty much gives up and announces that the majority of the interview will be focusing on the new album rather than gossip.

You roll your eyes as you're presented with your first outfit of the shoot, it shows more than you’re comfortable with but you don’t have the energy to argue. So you pull on the almost see through body con and make your way into the studio.

The photographer wastes no time walking up to you and grabbing at your waist, pulling you in for an uncomfortable hug.

Dave always tries to hang around the edges of the photo shoot. Keeping a cup of ridiculously expensive - yet somehow horrible tasting - coffee in his hands in order to keep from looking like a hulking thug. He is there to be intimidating, yes, but it does no good to make people try to skitter away and hide. He frowns when the photographer’s fingers dig into your waist and he takes a step forward. His job is to protect you from unwanted threats and fans, but he has no problem telling a self important prick to get his fucking hands off you. “Okay.” He snaps. “Take the damn pictures. We don’t have all day.”

You spend the next ten minutes being contorted and molded into the most uncomfortable positions known to man. Your eyes seek Dave as the photographer makes a comment that makes you shudder and your stomach twist, before sending you off for your second outfit change. 

“Jesus,” you murmur as you look at the two piece swimsuit that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. It was supposed to be ironic, the set decorated like it was the middle of winter and you’re parading around in summer gear.

You squeeze your eyes shut and take a deep breath before putting on the swimsuit and covering it with a robe and making your way back out to the studio.

Desperate to keep away from his judging glare you kept Dave out of your line of sight and dropped the robe with a grimace and exhale that screamed, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ The material had barely hit the floor before the creepy photographer was making a beeline straight over to you.

Dropping the coffee into the trash, Dave can see how uncomfortable you are. His face twisting into a deeper scowl as he charges forward and reaches you right as the twerp reaches you and grips the waistband of your outfit to yank the hips holes higher to show off more of you and damn near exposes your fucking cunt. “You’re done.” He spits, grabbing the man’s hand and twisting it around so that the fucker is helpless to move any way but where Dave directs him - which is away from you. “This is fucking done.” He growls again, ignoring the shouts and curses from the photographer and the people rushing over. “Go get dressed, princess.”

You nod your head at Dave and almost run back to the dressing room, unable to hide from the sound of Dave and the photographer yelling at each other.

You pull off the swimsuit and quickly dress back into your casual clothes before stepping out the door and calling Dave’s name. You know you’re about to be in for a world of hurt when your PR team and your parents hear that you didn’t complete the shoot, but you push down those worries and start making your way to the exit.

“- I don’t give a rat’s ass who the fuck you think you are.” Dave shouts, not backing down from the prima Donna in front of him. “You don’t fucking touch her. The shit you were making her do was boarderline sexual harassment and you aren’t going to do shit about it. Otherwise the local PD might get a tip about the fucking pound of coke you gave in here.”

You stand by the desk in reception waiting for him to come to you. “Dave,” you yell back towards the studio before deciding to go wait by the car.  The air feels thick and you’re not ready for the fall out that’s to come.

The photographer jerks back and Dave smirks a very pleased smile. One that says he’s gotten his point across. “Use what you’ve got, or fuck off. And don’t worry, I’ll tell her people myself.” He turns around and strides off, rushing towards the door to find you.

The sound of the studio door slamming makes you jump, you turn around to see Dave making his way over to you. “I’m so fucked,” you say as you pull on the door handle seconds after he unlocks it with his key fob, “My dad is going to be so pissed. He worked for months to get me a photoshoot with him.”

“He is a fucking coked up pervert.” Dave snarls, snatching the door from your hands and watching as you climb into the seat. “I’ll take the heat, don’t worry, princess.”

“Good luck with that,” you sigh, “Thank you though. I’ve learned to accept that kind of behavior and it was nice to have someone on my side for a change.”

"No one will touch you like that while I'm working to protect you." Dave promises darkly. "Fucker is lucky I didn't break his arm."

"Yeah?" you ask with a slight smirk, "You'd really protect me, huh?"

Dave rolls his eyes and turns to look at you when he goes to shut the door. "It's what I'm paid to do, princess." He reminds you, shutting the door and walking around the SUV.

You watch him as he rounds the car, before opening the door. "Is it too late to run another errand? I'm sure there's some dry cleaning we can pick up somewhere before dealing with this." 

He snorts and tosses you a smug smirk. "Someone's not ready to face daddy?" He asks mockingly before he starts the car. He doesn't answer you, but he pulls out of the parking lot and turns the opposite way from your house.

"Nope," you say putting extra emphasis behind the 'P' "You wanna go eat?"

Dave chuckles and looks back at the road after glancing at you. "It won't be five stars, Princess, but l'll take you to eat the best fucking food you've ever had in your life.”

"Sounds good." You say with a smile before looking over at him, he seems the most relaxed he has all day and you wonder if it's because you're not at his throat for once.

It's not an incredibly far drive, but Dave pulls off the main boulevard and enters a gated community, slowing at the wrought iron fencing and pressing a button on the little pad inside the SUV to allow the gate to swing open silently. Nodding to the man in the guard shack as he drives through and down the street.

You raise an eyebrow as you take in the rows and rows of houses with meticulously kept lawns, "Where are you taking me, Mr. York?"

"Oh it's Mister York now." He snorts. "Told you, I'm taking you to have the best damn food you've ever had in your life." He reminds you. "At my house."

"Something tells me you like being called things that assert your authority." you giggle, "Do you cook? Or do you have a secret wife you've never mentioned?"

He rolls his eyes again and drums his fingers on the steering wheel, reconsidering this entire thing. It was stupid to bring you to his house. "You think I have a wife?"

"I don't know," you say with a shrug, " know three things about you. Your name, your job and I learned today that you like strawberry milkshakes."

Dave grunts and pulls up to another gated driveway and presses the next button on the panel. "Now you know where I live."

You hum in content. His house is beautiful, the lawn is meticulous and clearly he takes pride in every aspect of maintaining his home. "It's a beautiful house.”

"It's secure." Despite the fact that Dave took pride in maintaining the type of home he had always dreamed of when he was a boy, the security was the most important thing. It takes some doing to get to him. The car pulls up into the garage and he cuts the engine after closing the door behind it. "Let's go inside."

You climb out of his car and follow him into his house. It's just as meticulous inside and as it is outside. "You have a beautiful home Dave. What's for lunch?"

"French onion soup and grilled cheese sandwiches." It doesn't sound fancy but he learned it from the girl he had been sleeping with when he was in France and he would never eat it a different way. The soup was already made, he had done that last night and it would be quick and easy to reheat it and make the sandwiches. 

"That sounds incredible," you say as you take a seat, "Never pegged you as a cook." You look around the room and note that lack of personal touches, no photos, nothing to indicate a wife or kids. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

"When would I have time for a girlfriend?" He asks, striding over to the fridge to start pulling out the necessary ingredients. "I'm with you, and when I'm not with you, I'm reading reports that says I need to spend more time with you"

You hum in response, "Does that bother you?" You ask as he hands you a glass of water. "You must get... frustrated."

"I get frustrated when you are mouthy and obstinate. Not caring about your own safety." Dave grunts, removing his jacket and showcasing the double pistols under each arm from the holsters he wears.

"Fuck," you say out loud. "Is that really necessary?" You try to ignore the way your clit begs for some attention at the sight of his broad shoulders stretching the material of his shirt.

"What? You want perverts grabbing you and trying to kiss you?" He asks, lifting a brow. He knows you don't know about the stalker so he keeps it generalized. "Rooting through your trash can for your used tampons?"

"I don't think anyone's rooting through my garbage." you say with a shocked giggle. "I appreciate that you care... about the job that is.”

"That's because I had them change the procedures." It's shocking how much was being kept from you, but that was his job as well.

"What procedures?" You ask before taking a sip of water. And taking another glance around the room. 

Dave sighs slightly. "All your...intimate trash is either taken off property and disposed of, or incinerated. Personnel are monitored to make sure that they aren't taking items and selling them."

"Oh." You take another small sip of your water, your throat feeling extremely dry all of a sudden and then you raise an eyebrow, "What else are you keeping from me?"

"Do you really want to know all the details of your tour, princess?" He asks sarcastically as he spoons soup into bowls and shakes his head. "No, you don't." He answers for you.

"No wonder my Dad wanted to hire you," you murmur under your breath, "Two peas in a goddamn pod." You're pissed but you can't ignore the way your stomach growls at the smell of the soup, you can't remember the last time you had a meal that wasn't green and crunchy.

"I'm more dangerous than your father." Dave tells you simply as he slices a loaf of sourdough so he can make the sandwiches.

You scoff loudly and roll your eyes at him, "Right."

"Think what you want, princess." He huffs. "I doubt your father has a body count."

"A body count?" You ask with a confused look in your eyes, "What's yours?"

Dave turns around and levels a bland look at you. "I've killed more men than you'd want to know, princess."

"When you were in the military?" You ask. Surprising yourself at how calm you are after his shocking admission.

"Before I started protecting wealthy celebrities." He chuckles. "Pays better."

"Mhmm," you hum back, "Can't imagine protecting 'spoiled princesses' gives you the same thrill though." Your fingertip coats around the rim of your water glass as you watch him finish up the grilled cheese sandwiches. "Tell me something else about you."

Dave snorts and rolls his eyes. "Less people shooting at me." He offers dryly. "Well, you know I've killed people, I cook, what else do you want to know?" He tilts his head curiously. 

You giggle at him. The serious expression paired with the adorable head tilt makes your insides heat up, "I don't know. What do you like to do when you're not working?"

"I don't have much free time." He's with you nearly twenty hours out of the day and only had a few days off a month. "A lot of the time is spent in bed."

"Oh," you mumble. You know you're pushing it, and you know he's likely to completely ignore your question or scold you for being so invasive but the question slips out before you have time to stop it, "Not just sleeping I suppose?"

Dave snorts and shakes his head. "When would I have time to find someone to fuck, princess? I can't just pick someone out like you can." He growls, unhappy with the lackluster choices in men you've paraded through your bedroom. Discreetly, of course, so daddy wouldn't find out.

Your laugh loudly at that, "Like it would take much. I can't imagine you're short of offers," you hate the twang of jealousy that you feel at the thought of anyone throwing themselves at him. "You probably walk into a bar and before you can sit there are multiple women begging you to take them home.”

"I don't go to bars." Dave knows what you're trying to ask, but he just keeps on avoiding telling you what you want to know. Enjoying the increasing look of frustration on your lips.

"Okay, so you use hook up apps?" You ask. Intent on not letting this go.

"Hell no," Dave snorts, shaking his head. "I don't fucking use those things, they invite trouble."

"Bullshit," you snort, "You're telling me you're not inviting a new lucky lady into your bed every night?"

"Why?" Dave smirks at you in the most condescending way possible. "Is the princess jealous?" He laughs, shaking his head. 

"Curious. Not jealous," you say ignoring the heat rising in your cheeks. "So, you're what celibate?"

"Not celibate." Dave turns back to his sandwiches and flips them over in the pan. "I do alright when I want to.

"Anyone I know?" You ask, unable to hide the jealousy in your voice.

"Miranda makes it easy enough to get together when we need to release a little steam." Dave shrugs and doesn't even look over at you. He knows your face will be a sight but he wants to see what you say about him fucking your tour assistant. She was a beautiful woman and knew that it was just sex, so it worked.

You're pretty sure he saw the exact moment your heart stopped. "Miranda?" you croak out. "Wow. I guess you do make an attractive couple.”

"Couple." Dave scoffs. "No, we aren't a couple. We just fuck. Scratch each other's itches."

"Why her?"

"Convenience." Dave looks over at you and notes how you look like you're going to cry. "She wanted to cum and so did I, so it works when we want it to."

"So what? If someone wants to cum you'll provide that service as well? Or is it just my assistants that you feel the need to fuck?" Jealousy drips from every word spilling from your mouth.

"Did I hit a nerve?" Dave asks mockingly. "Someone's feeling neglected?" He knows you have a weird attraction to him despite hating his guts.

"Nope," you spit back completely unconvincingly, "Just interesting to find out what I'm paying you both to do."

Dave chuckles. "We fuck off the clock, princess. I don't steal time from you." It's laughable since he's not an hourly employee.

"Whatever," you mumble with a shrug. Annoyed with yourself for being so affected by this. He's made it clear that he doesn't have any desire to fuck you and you chide yourself for letting it bother you so much.

Dave snorts and just hums as he pulls the sandwiches off the heat and starts to plate them up. The last thing to do is melt the cheese on the soup and it will be done.

You reach into your bag and pull out your phone, ignoring the list of missed calls from your Dad and your PR team. You scroll through your unread messages and your fingers linger over an unopened text chain from a guy who you were briefly seeing, Chad, and you consider asking him if he's free to hook up later than afternoon. 

Needing to blow off some steam and try to rid yourself of the jealousy that has made itself home in the pit of your stomach. You're pulled out of your thoughts by Dave calling your name.

"Come eat." Dave slides the plate and bowl in front of the stool at the island.

"Smells good," you say before digging in. "Oh wow," you say with a moan after taking a large bite, "This is phenomenal."

Dave smirks slightly and stands across from you. "Of course it is." He murmurs, even though your praise makes his heart quicken.

"Holy fuck," you moan as you taste the soup. You're so used to eating the same thing pretty much everyday that you have to internally remind yourself to slow down. "This might be the most delicious thing I've ever had in my mouth."

Dave smirks and doesn't say what he is thinking. He can offer you something better, but he just hums and nods as he dips his sandwich in his soup. 

You stir your soup a few times before looking up at him. "Why not me?" you ask before dropping your spoon, "Why don't you want to fuck me?"

That makes him pause for a moment, staring at you and waiting for you to laugh. When you don't, he tilts his head and instead of answering you, he asks his own question. "Why would you want me to fuck you? I'm an asshole."

"Wasn't it you who recently said that all the guys I fuck are assholes?" you reply with a smirk. "You don't find me attractive?"

Dave grunts, knowing this is getting into dangerous territory. If you know how sexy he finds you, you will try to manipulate him, so his answer is just a shrug of his shoulders. "You wear too much fucking makeup."

"I can take it off," you say, looking directly in his eyes. "I can take anything you want off."

"Are you that desperate for a good fucking, princess?" Dave taunts. "You'd be a good girl and so anything I'd say so l'd fuck you?"

You feel conflicted. Your clit pulses with need from his words, but he's clearly mocking you. "You're a fucking asshole, Dave." The urge to get up and storm away from the table grows steadier but you refuse to give. Instead your eyes burn into his as you await whatever taunt he has next.

"I am a fucking asshole." Dave's grin is smug and cocksure as he leans in closer. "But obviously you like an asshole and I'm a bigger one than any of the little pussies you fuck." He shakes his head. "You let fucking losers touch you."

"Go fuck yourself," you spit back at him. Hating the way your body betrays you and despite his words being cruel they make you drip with arousal. "You know what... I'm pretty sure I heard Miranda talking about some limp dicked asshole she fucked once, I wonder who that could have been." You lie, wanting to piss him off in return.

Emotion slides off his face and his eyes flash with anger before they go carefully blank. You're trying to rile him up and you’re doing a good job. "Good thing she begs for my cock every chance she gets." He sneers. "Believe me, you'd feel my dick for days.

"I'm sure she does," you say with a roll of your eyes, knowing how much it pisses him off when you do so. You scoff loudly at him, "Is that what you tell yourself after you give whatever poor soul that finds its way into your bed a shitty orgasm?"

Dave growls for a second before he shakes his head. He knows you are trying to taunt him and it's working. "Keep it up, princess." He warns, jaw rocking in anger.

The growl he makes goes straight to your throbbing pussy, and despite the look on his face that tells you he's not playing with you, you can't help but throw out another jab, "How old are you now, Mr. York? Are you able to keep it up?"

It's the desire to shut your smart mouth that makes him snap. Coming around the island before you can react and grabbing your arms. "You want to find out, princess? I'll make that voice of yours raspy and hoarse for your next show."

"Fuck," you moan as he presses you up against the table. "Yes... Fuck, yes. Show me." you half whimper half plead as his body boxes you in.

This should be the point where he pulls back. Rejects the idea as impossible and takes you back to your people to rail about him being ridiculous and overbearing. But he doesn't.

Not when he sees the naked need in your eyes. Instead, Dave crushes his mouth against yours in a kiss designed to punish both of you.

The kiss is almost bruising, his hand twists around your hair as the other one possessively digs into your waist. He swallows every moan that you let slip into his mouth as his tongue battles yours from dominance. It's too much but not enough at once. You've never been kissed like this before and the only thought you're able to pull together is that you never want it to end.

He likes that you are still fighting him. Even if it's the stroke of your tongue against his. Demanding more of him, and pushing him. Growling into your mouth, Dave slides his hand around your hip and plunges it inside your stupid sweats that you are wearing and into your panties to find you hot and already wet.

You whimper into his mouth as he slides a finger into your slit, seemingly avoiding your bundle of nerves on purpose. "Fuck me," you murmur against his lips before reaching up to start undoing the buttons of his shirt.

His chuckle is dirty, leaning in and nipping the skin behind your ear to make you shiver as he slides his finger back to tease your entrance. "Maybe I can keep it up." He huffs in your ear right before he sinks his finger into your tight cunt.

You almost scream his name as one of his thick fingers pushes inside of you. "Fuck," you manage choke out as he curls it up inside of you. You're pretty sure it must be hurting him with how deep your fingernails dig into his arms, desperately grabbing onto him as your legs threaten to give way beneath you.

He chuckles and hums his approval for how vividly you react to him. "You want to go into the bedroom, princess? Stretch out on my bed and let me have you?"

"Yes, please," you mumble as your face nuzzles into his chest. "Ne-need you to fuck me."

He gives a dirty chuckle and pulls his finger out of you, enjoying the way you whine and your hips chase his hand. He doesn't guide you to the bedroom, instead he scoops you up and tosses you over his shoulder like a heathen claiming his prize.

You yelp at the man as he manhandles you, taking the stairs with ease before laying you down on his large plush bed. Something tells you that you should wait for him to give your permission to speak in here, so you look up at him all wide eyed and patiently, your teeth digging into your bottom lip.

"Why don't you put those stage moves to use? Strip for me." Dave growls, wishing you didn't have that fucking makeup on, but he's not going to make you wash it off right now.

"You want a show, Sir?" you tease, as you move to kneel on the bed. You slowly reach for the bottom of your shirt and inch it up slowly.

"You gonna tease me, or strip off so I can fuck you?" You've already started unbuttoning his shirt so Dave finishes it, shrugging out of the jacket and shucking the shoulder holster for his guns.

"Both," you reply petulantly before pulling your shirt the rest of the way off, and sliding off your bottoms. "I want you to taste me.

"Fucking brat." Dave growls, shaking his head as he peels off his shirt. Always trying to dictate things. "Taste you." He sneers. "You mean lick your cunt? Eat your pussy? Tongue fuck you?"

"Aw, have I struck a nerve? Does Daddy not like being told what to do?" You ask with an exaggerated pout, "Yes, Dave. I want you to lick my pussy."

He rolls his eyes and scoffs. "Bet none of those pussies actually made you cum, did they?" He challenges.

"All of this talk, Dave," you tut, "Yet you're doing nothing to prove you're any better."

"I’ll gag you." He threatens, even as he's kicking off his shoes and reaching for his belt.

"Bullshit," you counter back, "You wanna see if you make me scream your name too badly for that." You remove your bra and slowly remove your panties, making extra effort to bare yourself to him. Before laying back and spreading your legs for him. "Hurry. Up.” 

"Keep it up and you'll not even cum." He growls. "I'll fuck your throat and blow my load all over that pretty face of yours.”

"Doubt I'll cum anyway." You know you shouldn't keep pushing him, but you can't help yourself. "Sounds like that's not the first time you've thought about doing that, Dave. Would you want me to eat it or just lay there covered in your cum?"

"Eat it." Dave grunts, pushing his pants and boxers down in one swoop. "If you were just wearing it, I'd want to take a picture of it. And that can't happen."

"Oh wow," you gasp at the sight of him, and you don't need to look at his face to know he's wearing the smuggest smile right now. "I'd let you take a photo." You admit quietly whilst biting down on your bottom lip. 

"Never let anyone take a picture of you like that, princess." He growls as he stalks over to the bed. "Not even me.”

"I wouldn't let anyone else, but I'm just saying that I'd trust you. Are you going to touch me now?"

"Brat." He kneels on the bed and slaps your inner thigh before grabbing your ankle to drag you closer to him, instead of lowering himself to the bed, he is pulling your legs up over his shoulder to bring your cunt to his mouth.

Your hands scramble to find purchase on the bed as he lifts your hips up towards him, "Dave," you moan as he breath coats your inner thigh, "Please." The second his tongue licks a wide stripe through your folds, you start to lose it, chanting his name over and over and he dives into you like a man dying of thirst.

There's never a civilized way to eat pussy and Dave doesn't even try to pretend there is. His sole goal is to make you eat your words and make sure you never forget when he touched you. Sucking your clit into his mouth while he reaches down and slaps one of your tits.

"Don't stop," you plead as he does something magical to your clit, you whimper at the sharp stinging on your breast but you want to beg him to do it more. You brokenly sob out a pitiful 'please' as he brings you closer to your high. 

Dave doesn't acknowledge you beyond a grunt. Doubling down on the flicks of his tongue and watching you. This can only happen once and he isn't going to deny himself seeing you shatter for him.

"I’ve wanted this so bad," you croak out before everything goes black. Pleasure ripping through your body as his arm tightens around you to keep you still, his tongue continuing its delicious assault on your bundle of nerves as you're reduced to a whimpering mess.

Your choked cry of pleasure is loud, ringing out and he groans against your clit. Slowing his tongue down and working you through the buckling of your hips with the most profound sense of smug pride that he could have. Watching your face as it rapidly cycles through expressions as you cum.

Slowly everything starts coming back into focus, your thighs still shaking from the way he just completely shattered with your earth. "Oh, that was... wow." You say with a giggle. 

"Thought you said I wouldn't make you cum?" Dave huffs with a smirk on his face.

You want to hit him back with a witty retort but it dies on your tongue, instead you push yourself up when he drops your hips and smash your lips to his. Moaning at the taste of you still clinging to his lips.

It's a little too easy to wrap his arms around you and kiss you. Letting you set the tone of this one as he holds you. Dave grunts and he cups the back of your head and pushes his tongue into your mouth just like he had to your cunt.

You moan into his mouth and sink your fingernails into his shoulder blades pulling him closer to you. His cock throbs against your stomach as you bite down on his bottom lip.

"Fuck me," you whisper against his lips, trying to ignore the way your heart is fluttering in your chest. The way you're unable to stop looking into his eyes already tells you that you're fucked, but you ignore that feeling and concentrate on just feeling him. 

Humming, Dave pulls away from you. Watching you for a moment before he nods and pushes you back down onto the bed. Climbing over you to straddle your waist and he looks down at you with his cock pressing against your stomach. "Beg me." He orders, smirking at you. "I want to hear you beg me to fuck you."

It's unbelievable to you how quickly you're at his mercy, the urge to please him outweighing the urge to challenge him and so with absolutely no fight you're like putty in his hands. "Please, Dave," you whisper, staring up at him through your fluttering lashes, "Please fuck me. Fuck. You can do whatever you want to me, be as rough as you need. Use me however you want. Please. Please fuck me. I need to feel you. I.... I need you. Please."

Reaching down, Dave squeezes your breast before he starts to circle your nipple with his finger. Flicking it over the peaked tip and making you moan. "You look good like this, princess." He shuffles back and pulls your thighs out from under him to wrap around his waist.

The noises he so easily plucks from you fill the room, as you continue to be entirely at his mercy. "Yeah?" you ask, keening at his praise, "You like me spread out naked in your bed, huh, Mr. York?"

"What do you think?" He takes his cock and grips it tightly while he slides it through your folds, teasing you with it. Making sure he presses against your clit as he wets himself with your cum.

"I hope so," you reply as he makes you hiss. Your clit is still pulsing and a little overstimulated from your orgasm. "You gonna make me beg some more or are you going to push that big fat cock inside my pussy, sir?"

Dave chuckles at the quick way you try to push him to fuck you. Debating on drawing it out, he decides against it. Instead, he lines up and rather than sinking in slowly, he snaps his hips forward and splits you open in the space of a heartbeat.

The scream of pleasure that falls from your lips as he fills you to the hilt is sinful. It's overwhelming, the thickness of him is something you've never experienced. Even the few toys you've experimented with haven't been as girthy as his cock, and it takes a few moments for your pussy to adjust to the size of him. You whimper as he grits something about how 'he knows it's a lot to take,' as you involuntarily clench down around him. You give him the signal to start moving after pressing your lips to his collarbone.

He grunts as he pulls his hips back, feeling the way your walls drag against his cock and you are possibly the tightest cunt he's ever fucked. He knows he hurt you, his cock is thick, but you're squirming under him and wanting more. "Such a little whore." He chuckles darkly, looking down and watching your lips spread wide as he moves. "Want me to wreck you? Make it hard to sit down, princess?"

You simply nod your head, unable to form a coherent sentence as he continues to stretch you out. You feel completely overwhelmed by him but in the best possible way. "Please, Dave," you beg as he notches against something incredible inside of you.

It makes him grin when he sits up so he can push your legs back. Change the angle even more plus it gives him the distance to keep from kissing you the entire time. Your fingers dig into his arms and he hums. "Hang on."

You feel a little disappointed that his lips are no longer hovering over yours, but the feeling is fleeting as it's replaced by something extraordinary. The angle of his cock rubbing up something inside of you that you weren't aware existed.

Every thrust pushes you further into the mattress, pushing you up the bed as he snaps his hips forward with a single determined goal, making you scream his name.

The room is filled with the sound of your moans and whimpers, "Please," you mumble over and over, not sure what you're pleading for but being unable to stop. You've never cum without clitoral stimulation before now, but the way his cock drags against nirvana inside of you has you threatening to fall over that cliff at any moment.

He grunts, shifting. his hips and he reaches down between the two of you. Rubbing your clit goes against what he wants to do, but he's overheard you talking enough that he knows it's what you need. "Fuck- fuck you keep squeezing me." He pants out, his thumb rubbing hard circles around your bundle of nerves. "You're gonna soak me. You know you wanna."

The added addition of his thumb on your pulsing clit makes you shiver with anticipation, your orgasm is already teetering and you know you're about to be thrown over the edge. "Kiss me," you plead and he simply shakes head no and increases the pace of his thrusts, his thumb doubling down on its efforts as you start to come undone beneath him. Your pussy clamps down around him hard and you scream his name as you cum, flooding his cock and soaking him as he demanded.

You have gotten to him. He's broken his own self imposed rules of never getting too close to the client. He was supposed to care about your safety, your well being. Not give a shit about your orgasms, or the way you look when you cum. He bares his teeth and takes it out on you. Speeding up and making sure that his thrusts are punching the head of his cock against the spongy cervix deep inside your cunt as he tries to fuck away the realization that he's in too deep.

He pounds relentlessly into you, chasing his own orgasm as he mindlessly starts to build another up for you. Every drag of his cock makes your legs tremble more and more. You never want him to stop and you want to feel him buried deep inside of you whenever he needs relief. "Fill me up," you plead as your third orgasm washes over you. It takes you both by surprise as you clamp down hard around his throbbing cock. As he continues to thrust into you the realization that he may have ruined all other men for you hits you like a tonne of bricks.

"Can't." Dave growls out, twitching at the idea of filling you up and the next swing of his hips nearly makes him cum, but he can't risk getting you pregnant. He would ruin you and he can't do that. "You- it's too- too risky."

"IUD," you whine in response, "Wanna feel all of you."

That does it for Dave, the sound of need rumbling in his chest as he flattens himself over your body and drills his cock as deep as he can work himself. Watching you as he starts to pump you full of his cum with a groan of your name.

"Holy shit," you pant as he fills you up, "That was... you're incredible." You giggle. He stills inside of you and you think you'd be content to stay here in this moment forever. You want to ask him to kiss you again but you don't, instead you just look up at him and bask in the afterglow. "No one has ever made me cum before," you admit with another giggle. "I thought I'd just have to rely on my vibrator forever."

He throbs inside you for another moment before he chuckles and starts to pull out of you. "Then you have been fucking the wrong boys." He groans at the sight of his cum leaking out of your cunt, taken by it. Wanting to push it back into your cunt and keep it there with his fingers until he realizes that he can't do this again. Shuffling back and standing, he runs his hand through his hair. "Use the bathroom or whatever you need, I'll get ready to take you back."

"Oh, okay," you reply, feeling your face fall at how quickly he moves away from you. You push yourself up off the bed and scramble around looking for your clothes. You pick up your sweatpants, bra and t-shirt and make your way into the bathroom. Once in the bathroom you clean yourself up and start to get dressed. Realizing that you left your panties somewhere in his room but deciding not to bother him as he clearly wants you out of his house. So you pull on your sweatpants, bra and t-shirt and make your way downstairs to find him. Forgetting about your discarded panties in the process.

Downstairs, Dave sighs, redressed in some clothes from the dryer and mentally trying to put back up the barriers between you and him. He needed to be objective, not emotional and he had realized while he was fucking you that you've gotten under his skin. You are his client, not his girlfriend.

"Hey," you mumble as you enter the kitchen and see him standing there waiting for you. "Did I do something wrong?" you ask before slipping on your shoes. He barely glances over at you as you do so.

"No." Dave continues to clean up the kitchen and load the dishwasher. "Are you ready, princess?" He asks, closing the door to the machine and turning around to look over at you. "We need to get you back."

"Yeah," you say quietly, "I'm ready." You pick your phone up from his kitchen table and follow him out to the car. Climbing into the passenger seat and waiting for his incoming speech about how it's safer for you to be in the back but it doesn't come. He doesn't glance over in your direction, he simply switches on the ignition and waits for you to click on your seatbelt and starts to drive away. 

The drive back is quiet. He doesn't look over at you but he feels your eyes on him every few seconds. Refusing to start a conversation with you when you clearly want to. It's better this way, especially since this cannot happen again.

Your fingernails dig into the meat of your arm as you glance over at him, unable to stop yourself from trying to gauge what he's thinking. His demeanor is stiff and you can feel tension flooding the air but you can't bring yourself to say anything to diffuse it. Deciding that you'll wait to see if he speaks first.

Once he has pulled up, Dave puts the SUV in park and cuts the engine. Getting out of the driver's side, he walks around the car to open your door, staying silent as he waits for you to start pitching a fit or yelling at him.

"Thanks," you murmur with a fleeting but polite smile before walking past him. The second you open that door you know you're in for a world of hurt so you take a large inhale before twisting the doorknob.

"Where the hell have you been?" Your father booms at you before both of your feet are in the door. 

"Avoiding this," you say with a small gesture of your hand, "I'm not going to argue with you. And before you mention it... that photographer was a fucking creep." You walk past your father and your tutting PR manager and up the stairs.Listening to the cruel taunts your father bellows at you and leaving Dave to deal with the fall out. 

"Before you say anything, the asshole you chose to photograph her was pawing her." Dave growls, scowling at your father. "It was disgusting."

You close the door behind you. You don't want to deal with this right now, you just want to get into your comfiest pajamas, so you do just that. Before climbing into bed and thinking about today, thinking about how his lips felt as he crashed them against yours. Since the drive home your pussy has started to ache from the way he fucked into you. You close your eyes and focus on the way you can still feel him.

"Do you know how long it took me to land that photographer?" Your father demands, puffing up his chest and looking at Dave in annoyance. As if the man thought he could actually intimidate Dave."Who fucking cares?" Dave hisses. "The contract you signed states that I have complete control over your daughter's safety and that includes killing any sessions or events that I see fit." He reminds him. "I think her being assaulted by a fucking man who couldn't keep his fucking hands to himself posed a threat to her safety. Or would you rather there be a story about how her manager and father wouldn't protect her from sexual assault because the photographer was popular?" Dave wasn't above leaking a story for you, another clue that he was too involved with you. 

You can hear Dave's voice echoing through the house. His words are muffled but you're confident that he's standing his ground and sticking up for you. Lack of sleep and the events of today catches up on you and you let yourself drift off into a comfortable nap.

Dave watches as your father turns around a strides off, unhappy with his decision but there wasn't a hell of a lot he could do about it. Not if he wanted to keep Dave protecting you and he knows he can't change your security. Not with the threats that he has been keeping from you. 

Instead of going to his office, he climbs the stairs to see what you are doing. Opening the door to your bedroom, he finds you asleep sprawled over your bed and he huffs. Smirking with pride at wearing you out, he walks over and picks up your throw blanket and covers you up. Watching you sleep for a moment before turning around and walking out. He can't have another lapse in judgment, not when your safety was in jeopardy. 

*

It's been three days. Three days since the disastrous photoshoot and three days since Dave. You weren't sure what to expect from him afterwards, not that you were expecting anything, but the way he's clearly avoiding and ignoring you makes your heart drop. You've seen him a handful of times, using finding an excuse to dip out of the room or watching him start a conversation with someone else. You sent him three texts and all three have gone unanswered. This morning you walked into your living room and he glanced over at you before making his way across the room to Miranda and your stylist Luna. All three of them then disappear from the room as you stand there awkwardly.

"Before she uses anything, you verify where it comes from." Dave has gotten more letters and the results from the lab have him on edge. There have been traces of poisons on the paper but they can't tell if it was from the sender or something that had been contaminated in transit. There was even something off about the postal marks. That was still being investigated.

"Every bottle of water, every coke. If it doesn't come from us, she doesn't get it." He glances between the two of them. "Luna....you need to make sure that no one has access to your supplies."

Eventually the three of them emerge from the room and Luna gestured for you to follow her upstairs. You were briefly appearing on some tv show via video link and she was there to get you all glammed up.

Dave doesn't watch you as you climb the stairs but he does grab ahold of Miranda's arm when she moves to follow. Holding her back until everyone is out of earshot. "Hey." He frowns slightly. "Tonight. Get a drink with me?" He asks, watching as the pretty woman breaks into a happy smile. She wouldn't if she knew that he is planning on telling her that he's not sleeping with her anymore. "What do you say?"

You make a deal to ask Luna to go light with the makeup. No smoky eye or bold lip today. Wanting to keep it light and natural. She works her magic with your hair and uses minimal makeup, only enhancing your natural beauty and glow. Just as she's finishing up your door swings open and Miranda comes bouncing in.

"Hey babe," she greets you with, before turning all her attention to Luna, "You remember that guy I told you about, the one I've been kind of seeing for a little while? He asked me out tonight." She gushes with a wide smile plastered across her face.

"That's great," Luna gushes back before going off on some excited rant about how she should wear some off the shoulder dress that some magazine had lent to you, because they'd never notice that it went missing for just one night.

You feel tears spring up in your eyes, acid rain threatening to spill down your cheeks and you bite down onto your lower lip to avoid them breaking free. Luna and Miranda are too busy excitedly chatting about her upcoming date to notice how quiet you are.

You slink out of the makeup chair and pull the outfit set out for you from the hanger and make your way into the bathroom to get changed. "Fuck him," you mutter to yourself as you look in the mirror, he'd only touched you once but you were hooked. Never in your life had you felt more comfortable, safer and more alive than you did in those moments that he made you his and you hate yourself for losing yourself in him so quickly.

Dave strides back to the office and closes the door. He's tried to stay away from you, afraid that he will reveal too much. This has gotten complicated and if there's one thing he knows is that complicated gets messy. Pretending to ignore your hurt eyes has given him problems and he's picking up his phone. "Resnick." He greets the other man as soon as he picks up. "Need you to watch the princess tonight." He grunts, looking down at his calendar. "Need to take care of something and she's gonna be here all night. Easy work."

The interview goes by smoothly, the late night host asking you a few questions about your upcoming tour and your plans for once it's finished. He teases you about your plans for a much needed break after it's finished and he reminds you that the last time you said that you'd dropped a surprise album.

It's early evening once you'd recorded your segment for the show airing later that night. You have a few texts from friends saying they're meeting up at a bar tonight and how you should come.

After realizing that Dave will be too occupied on his date, you text back one of your friends for the address of the bar and say you'll swing by after escaping your babysitters. You see the rack of loaned dresses still untouched from earlier and run your fingers across a few of them, settling on a short black backless number and tucking it under your arms before heading back upstairs.

Dave represses a sigh when he sees that Miranda has obviously taken pains with her appearance tonight. He recognizes the dress as one that had been brought in to loan to you, but he doesn't know if you might not have encouraged her to take it. You knew that he was fucking your assistant and you might not care. Instead of frowning, he reaches for her and gives a tight smile. "I thought we could go to a bar." He offers, the real reasoning is that it would be public enough to prevent a scene, something Dave despises.

Once the coast is clear and you're happy that Resnick is too busy to notice you slipping out, you grab your keys from the drawer and make your way to your car. Slipping into the drivers seat for the first time in ages and punching the address to the bar into your GPS. Once out of your driveway, you switch on a playlist and drum your fingers against your steering wheel, singing along loudly as you navigate your way through the LA traffic.

Blissfully unaware of the car that's been trailing behind you since you left your gated community.

Almost 25 minutes later you're pulling up to the bar your friends are in and searching for a spot in the parking lot out the back.

You groan a little when you notice the only available spot is the furthest one from the bar. You pull in and switch the ignition off, taking a few minutes to look in the mirror and fix your hair.

You grab your phone and purse before stepping out of your car and locking the door, taking a few steps forward and almost crashing into a person emerging from the back of your car.

You start to apologize but he just stands there, staring at you with a smile splashed across your face that fills you with unease.

"Did you get my flowers?" He asks, taking a step towards you, "I'm a little upset that you haven't been writing back to me, but I know that you've been busy, sweetheart."

Your heart starts to slam in your chest as he takes another step towards you, you scan the parking lot for signs of another person but you're all alone with him.

"What's the matter, sweetheart?" He asks with a frown, "It's me. It's Martin. I know you've been reading my letters. I hand deliver them to your mailbox everyday."

“I’m so glad that you invited me out." Miranda reaches out and touches Dave's arms, squirming on her high top seat at one of the last remaining tables in the bar. "I didn't think we would ever do this." The sex has been fantastic but it's only sex and she doesn't try to push for more since Dave isn't the type of man who is pushed around 

"Yeah." Dave's head is on a swivel, glancing around the bar as they both wait for the drinks that had been ordered. Frowning slightly at the rowdy group of people in the back corner. 

You remember the one thing Dave warned you to do if you ever found yourself in a situation like this. 'Do NOT panic. Try to remain level headed.' You take a small inhale and plaster a fake smile on your face, "Of course, Martin. Hi. How are you? The flowers, oh, they were beautiful. Thank you. What are you doing here?"

He tuts and takes another step towards you, "I saw you leaving, sweetheart, wanted to see where you were going to in such a hurry. It's been so long since you left your house without that guy," he snarls and you realize he's talking about Dave. "It's been so hard to get close to you.”

A shiver runs through you as his words bounce off your goose-pimpled skin. "He's not here now," though he says with a creepy smile.

"We should go inside," you say as he continues to inch closer to you, "We should get a drink."

You don't want to go anywhere with him but you figure the second you're in the bar your friends will spot you and you can signal for some help but he just shakes his head "Oh, sweetheart, it's so loud in there. We have so much to talk about. So much to do.”

You breathe out a shaky exhale before an anxiety shiver rips through you. "Just a quick drink and maybe afterwards we can grab a bite," you suggest. Trying to remain calm as he starts to box you in.

"I don't think so," he says before shaking his head, "We've been waiting so long to be together, angel, why would we waste our time with those losers in the bar. Don't think I don't know who's in there. I've seen their pathetic instagram stories... They're not your friends, they're using you... can't you see that?" He rants.

Your phone vibrates in your hand, but you don't look down at it. Instead you attempt to unlock the screen with your passcode. Keeping your eyes focused on Martin as not to draw attention to what you're doing. Your phone lightly vibrates a few times, letting you know that your attempt to unlock your phone had failed. You take another deep breath as he continues his unhinged rant and you enter it again. This time correctly.

Without looking down you tap the bottom left hand of your screen and pull up your call list, pressing one of the names at the bottom of the list knowing that Dave number occupies the majority of the list. 

His drink is wrong. How they could fuck up a whiskey on the rocks and give him a tequila and water, he will never understand but that isn't important. His hand curls around the drink and he leans forward as Miranda sips her. "Listen, there's a reason that I invited you out tonight..." He starts, huffing when the phone in his breast pocket starts to vibrate. 

"Of course." Her lashes flutter and Miranda looks positively smug. "You wanted to get laid again. Don't worry, you're getting lucky."

Dave ignores that and lets go of the drink to pull his phone out. Seeing your face pop up, he frowns, wondering why you are calling him. "Princess? What are -"

"-you got all my letters. What did you think?" Dave's eyes widen when he hears a voice that doesn't belong to you, sounding like it's several feet away and he can hear the background noise. Obviously not in the house.

His face snaps into a fierce scowl and the chair screeches against the hardwood floors as he stands. He can't shout to get your attention, you might just have the phone in a pocket. Instead he's placing you on speaker phone and immediately starts to pull up the tracking app he put on your phone as he looks at Miranda. "Call Resnick now." He orders her harshly. "Ask him where the fuck your boss is and why he isn't with her."

Your eyes continue to dart around the parking lot, searching for any sign of life as it becomes clear that you're not making it into the bar. You pray Dave has picked up the phone but you're unable to sneak a glance, terrified that Martin will notice and take your phone off of you so instead you ask him another question, something to placate him and keep him from trying anything. "Oh the flowers," you gasp, "Gosh, Martin, you are so thoughtful. How did you know they're my favorite?" You ask. Making an effort to emphasize his name.

"You told me, silly," he says with a laugh that makes you skin crawl, "On Fallon. You said that tulips were your favorite. I know a hint when I see one. Let's get out of here, sweetheart. We don't want the paparazzi getting sniff of you being in the area. I don't want you photographed dressed like that."

"Fuck...fuck...fuck!" Dave rages as he hears the comment about leaving. If it's Martin and he gets you into a car, Dave might never see you again. "Stall him, princess." He hisses, cursing the app for taking so goddamn long to pull up your location. Fucking cell service is shit downtown.

"Why don't you get in your car and I'll follow behind?" You suggest. Not wanting him to get in your car and definitely not wanting to get in his. "I don't wanna leave my car in the lot."

"Don't be stupid, sweetheart." Martin hisses, "We will take my car. The last thing I want to do is get stuck in some god awful LA traffic because you got turned around trying to follow me somewhere."

"I have GPS, I'll just punch in your address and if I lose you it's fine, I can just follow the navigation system.”

Come on Dave, you think to yourself, praying he's on the other end of the phone and/or coming to your rescue.

"But really I think we should go inside and get that drink before we go anywhere," you say again, desperate to hold off for as long as possible. But you see the impatience in his eyes, you see the way his eyes go dark as he realizes that you're stalling for something. For someone.

"I'm not an idiot, sweetheart," he snaps at you, "And neither are you. He will arrive any minute and take you away from me if we don't leave now and I know you don't want that. I hear the words you're singing to me in your songs and I can't bear to spend another night being kept away from you."

"Fucking finally." Dave growls, moving towards the door when he sees the dot pop up on the map. His eyes widen when he realizes that you are right here. In the parking lot. You are right in the fucking parking lot of the same goddamn bar he is in. He doesn't bother to say anything to Miranda, just shoving past people and running out the door as he listens to the increasingly agitated Martin start to scream at you.

Your stomach twists as you listen to the delusional words he's now screaming at you, occasionally quoting some of your own lyrics at you in between the unhinged ranting.

"Martin," you plead as he boxes you up against your car door, "We're friends, right?" you try to calm him down by saying but the sudden burst of rage that flashes in his eyes tells you that you've really fucked up.

You squeeze your eyes shut after his hand comes out and strikes you across your cheek. It's only after the immediate throbbing from the slap that you realize that you're crying. Tears streaming down your face as you attempt to placate him. You squeeze your eyes shut again and you let the one word that you've wanted to scream for the past ten minutes fall from your lips, "Dave."

The phone in Dave's hand falls to the ground but he doesn't even bother to pause. Too busy running towards the parking lot and he hears a sharp cry. Eyes narrowed as he spots you, a man pulling his hand back and Dave hisses.

"You fucking bitch! You're mine! You're mine, you're mine! You belong to me!" You cry out again when he brings his hand down, slapping you across the face as he screams at you.

Pushing his body to move faster, fury floods Dave’s veins and makes him scream out a yell as he barrels towards the attacker who is trying to hurt you. 

You whimper as you feel his hot breath coating your face as he moves closer and closer, screaming louder as he does so. You prepare yourself for another strike as he repeats over and over than you're his property, keeping your eyes squeezed shut the entire time.

Lowering his shoulder, Dave slams into the assailant like a freight train. Driving him to the ground and away from you in a burst of rage that has him immediately hammering his fist into Martin's sides as he pushes up off of him to get a better angle to beat the motherfucker to death.

It's over as quickly as it started. The sound of someone crashing into another, followed by a sharp cracking noise as a fist slams into a jaw. Shattering the bones at immediate contact. Your eyes briefly flicker open and close again at the sight of Dave. 

Safe. You think to yourself as you crumble to the concrete ground. The ringing in your eyes drowning out the sound of each blow Dave delivers to your attacker. You don't hear the sharp squeal of a car tire as Resnick, Ari and Kovak pull up in the parking lot. You don't hear Dave screaming in fury at them as they pull him away from Martin. You don't hear Miranda calling your name as she drops down to your side and gently caresses your throbbing cheek.

Dave's focus narrows to just the target. The ten inch by five inch oval that comprises Martin's face. Bloody now that he has hit him multiple times but he just keeps whaling on him, again and again and again despite the other man not fighting back. The image of your terrified eyes and the welts on your cheek that he had gotten a brief, split second glance are all he can imagine as he tries to inflict as much pain on your attacker as possible. Screaming and fighting when hands drag him away from his target. Lunging for him again and scrambling to shake off his team in his bloodlust to get back to the man who had dared to touch you.

You feel unfamiliar hands on you and you shudder before everything comes back into focus. Miranda. She's kneeling in front of you, your face resting in her hands as she checks out the painful welt throbbing on your cheek. 

It takes Dave well over a minute but he finally calms down enough that the team lets go of him. Jerking his shoulders free of their hold, Dave spit towards the prone man, "fucker." He hisses before he turns and rushes the few steps towards you and drops to his knees in front of where you are sprawled on the ground beside your car. "Move." He orders Miranda roughly, needing to see you are okay himself. 

"She's fine," you hear Miranda shoot back at him, still holding your face in her hands.

"Move." His voice is harder, more forceful and his own bloody fists push her hands out of his way. He wants to make sure of that himself and even then he will have a private doctor come and check you out.

"Dave," you mumble as he inches towards you, "I didn't... ! didn't listen to you. And I'm so sorry. All of this is my fault."

"Shhhhh shhhhhh it's okay. " He will yell at you later, when you aren't in shock. But for now, his hands are slow and gentle as he reaches for you. "You're okay. He's not going to hurt you."

"He's not going to hurt anyone." Resnick huffs, coming over to stand in front of you and Dave. "He's dead."

"Oh God," you squeak out, "He's dead because of me."

"He's dead because of himself." Dave tells you sternly, his dark eyes focused on you. He was the one who had killed Martin, and he would do it again. "He chose his own fate. He could have walked away. He died because he didn't."

You nod a few times just to acknowledge that you heard what he said, before a new stream of tears start to flood your cheeks, "I need to get out of here."

Dave can't leave. He’s killed a man. He will have to wait for the police so he looks up at Resnick. "Resnick is going to take you home." He tells you, starting to draw you up to your feet. "But don't shower. Don't do anything. The police will come and they will need to see you exactly as you are."

"Okay," you murmur, looking up at Dave. "Don't be long, please."

"I won't." He breaks, seeing the fear and sadness on your face. Leaning in and pressing his lips to your forehead briefly before he turns you over to his teammate and watches him escort you away to the waiting car.

You climb into the back of the car, knowing it'll give Dave a little peace. Resnick speeds out of the parking lot and towards your home. The journey passes in a blink of an eye and before you know it he's rounding the car and helping you out, leading you into the living room and onto the sofa. Before disappearing into the kitchen to grab you a bottle of water.

When the cops arrive, Dave answers their questions as succinctly as possible. The bar's cameras on the parking lot confirmed Dave's version of events and the team had scans of the threatening letters in the vehicle. It takes an hour to get the body loaded up and the crime scene photographed.

Dave tells them to follow him to your house so they can collect evidence from you and get your statement.

The rest of the evening goes by in a blur. The cops ask you a million questions, some over and over again as you're forced to replay the evening over and over. You feel drained, your face is throbbing and your hands haven't stopped shaking for hours.

Dave walks over to you about another hour of questions and breaks in. "That's enough." He tells them. "She's given you her statement, you can collect her clothes but we are done." He insists. "Any other questions should be directed through the legal team. She's been through enough tonight." 

It seems like eternity for them to leave. Even after Dave tries to hurry them up. Eventually you're ushered up the stairs by somebody as Dave answers the last few questions. Someone stands outside your bathroom as you pop your clothing into an evidence bag and pass it out to them through a slight crack in the door. Immediately closing it back up again and slipping into a much too hot shower. And letting the tears you'd been holding back fall freely.

Once the police have left, Dave sighs and locks the door and sets the alarm. He's sent everyone home and even had a short conversation with Miranda. It hadn't been pretty, but she hadn't really put up a fight after learning that Dave had killed Matin. Apparently the idea of a deadly man was more appealing than the reality. Trudging up the stairs, he opens the door to your bedroom and hears the shower going in your bathroom. You've held yourself together with nothing more than sheer determination and even though his hands are bruised and cut, bones obviously broken, Dave doesn't hesitate to start stripping outside of your bathroom and once he's naked he opens the bathroom door to join you.

You don't hear or see the bathroom door open. Your skin is sore from the way you've scrubbed it raw. Trying to remove every trace of this evening from your skin.

Opening the shower door, Dave steps into the shower and his heart aches when he sees you curled up on the bench. "Shit, come here, princess." He moves over to you quickly and scoops you up into his arms, taking your place on the bench and holding you in his lap.

You're not sure how long he holds you for, his voice gently soothing you as you sob brokenly into his neck. You feel him gently wash the conditioner out of your hair before lifting you up and out of the shower.

"It's okay." Dave murmurs, grateful that he's able to carry you instead of insisting that you need to walk on your own. The only time he lets you stand is as he dries you off. Gently rubbing the towel down your body and wrapping your hair for you. Picking you up again to carry you through to the bedroom and tuck you into bed.

"Stay with me?" You ask as he tucks you comfortably into your bed. "Please." You feel a twinge of guilt for asking, knowing that he had gone on a date with another woman a few hours before, ignoring the feeling that he doesn't want you.

“I’m not going anywhere." Dave promises, rounding the bed and climbing in beside you before he plasters himself to your back and wraps his arms around you to drag you closer to him. "I fucked up." He whispers into your hair. "I'm so sorry, princess. I didn't protect you."

"I ruined your date," you murmur into the pillow, placing your hand on top of his, "I got jealous and I fucked everything up." Tears spill out onto your pillow as you start to sob again.

It's news to Dave that the reason you were there was because you were jealous. He pulls you to him and turns you around so you are facing him. He doesn't care that both of you are naked, he's trying to comfort you. "You didn't ruin anything." He promises you, rubbing your back as you collapse against his chest to cry. "It's- it doesn't matter. Miranda knows now that I was ending our arrangement."

"I'm so sorry, Dave," you sob into his chest, wrapping your arms even tighter around him. "Promise me you won't leave, even once I've fallen asleep?"

"I'm going to be here, princess." Dave tightens his hold on you, just shy of squeezing the air out of your lungs. "I'm gonna be right here, I promise." He doesn't know how to soothe you, just rubs circles on your back and holds you tight, letting you sob out all your fear and anger and disappointment. 

Sleep comes quicker than you anticipated. The warmth of his skin seeping into yours as he holds you plush against him. You wake as the early morning light breaks through the crack in your curtains and beams down directly on your face. His gentle snores vibrate in your ear as you press a kiss to his shoulder. He kept his word. He didn't leave in the middle of the night as you feared. He looks peaceful, his usually tense shoulders slack and his brow not burrowed for a change. You slightly shift up and press a kiss on his lips, before nudging your nose against his.

"Hmmm." Dave frowns slightly and his hand slides up your back. "You're awake?" He mumbles sleepily, opening an eye and looking at you. He had anticipated that you would sleep for a lot longer but you look better. Your eyes have bags but you don't look like you are about to cry again.

"Mhmm-hmm," you hum across his lips before pressing another kiss down on them, "Your voice is sexier when you've just woken up.” Exhaustion still lingers in every bone in your body, your face still throbbing from the blows it took the night before but you feel safe. His arms still protectively caging you in from any harm and it makes your heart flutter.

He lets out a slightly rusty laugh, sliding his hand up and down your back protectively. "Because I haven't woken up enough to be an asshole yet."

You giggle back before pressing a third kiss to his mouth, still remaining cautious about the situation you're in but not wanting to ignore your need to touch him. "Dave," you quietly moan as you wrap your legs around his waist. 

"What do you need, princess?" Dave rasps out, his eyes opening again and focusing on you.

"You."

His cock twitches and his fingers dig into your hips. "How do you need me?" He growls out.

"However you want," you croak as he pushes the head of his already hard cock through your folds, "Just need to feel you."

You are sprawled on top of him and he shifts his hips, starting to fill you up as he pulls you down onto his cock. "This what you need? You need to sit on my cock?"

"Fuck, yes," you moan as you sink down onto him. He feels even bigger than last time from his angle, "I want to ride you, Mr. York." 

There's a moment where he watches you close your eyes and smirk. He slaps your thigh and pushes you down harder onto his cock. "Then ride me, Princess. Show me how needy you are for my cock."

"Yes, sir," you tease as you start to rock your hips. He's a lot more vocal in the morning and it makes you keen down around him. You find your rhythm after a few moments and slowly increase your pace, bouncing up and down on his cock as his fingertips dig into your hips, hard enough to leave little circular bruises.

"Good girl." He grunts, his hips starting to shift up to meet your pace. Making you bounce harder on his cock and enjoying the way that you clench around him.

  You grind down on him slowly after his praise, his words making your neglected clit pulse with need. You pull him into a fleeting but bruising kiss before you increase your pace again, dragging one of his hands up to one of your tits. "I want you to fill me up," you whisper as your hand grips the bottom of his chin, "Fill me up and then eat your cum out of my cunt, Dave."

He groans, grabbing your tits harshly and rocking his hips to flip you over. Losing control at the neediness in your tone. He leans in and bites down on your shoulder. "Hold onto the bed." He orders harshly.

You grip onto the bed ready to take what he's about to give you, you clench down around him as his teeth sink into you. "Make this tight little pussy soak that fat cock."

He already knows that your next concerts are going to be canceled. He's not going to allow you to perform until at least a week goes by. So he doesn't hesitate to bite you again a few inches over. Giving you a hard thrust of his hips as he slides back so he can put your legs on his shoulders.

"Marking me up?" You giggle before a particularly hard thrust knocks the wind out of you. His cock slamming against that spot inside of you that only he had managed to find and the room is echoing with a lust filled scream of his name. The position your in allowing him to fuck you even deeper than before and he continues to rut into you.

He doesn't give a fuck who hears, although there's no one in the fucking house. He would have gotten an alert on his phone. He knows it won't stay that way for long so he makes sure that his hips snap forward with a determination to make you shatter for him, watching you closely every time he rocks forward.

With every sharp snap of his hips you're being pushed closer and closer to that delicious edge and you know he can feel just how close you are. Your pussy flutters around his throbbing cock, sucking him back in every time he moves back. "Gonna cum," you garble incoherently as you start to fall apart beneath him.

Instead of slowing down, he rocking his hips faster. Hissing and grunting curses as he fucks you frantically. Loving how tight you get and how your legs go tight, just making him lean into you harder.

"Oh, fuck, Dave," you choke out as he fucks you harder and harder throughout your orgasm, ripping it from you with ease as you soak the sheets with your arousal. You clamp down on him hard as your body convulses with pleasure, every little sound that you're desperate to unleash getting trapped in your throat as the whole world goes black. And all you can feel is him.

He sees the moment where everything fades away. Where all you can do is feel nothing but pleasure. Groaning, he pushes deep one last time, reaching up and wrapping his hand around your throat, not to squeeze, instead he tilts your head up to press his mouth to yours as he pours himself into you.

“That may have been the best way I’ve ever woken up in my life,” you say honestly but with a giggle. Nudging your nose against his. “Thank you for staying.”

Dave gives himself another moment, kissing you again before he closes his eyes and starts to pull out of you gently, his fingers let go of your throat and caresses the skin softly as he opens his eyes and looks down at you. “I quit.” He announces, staring at the swelling on your cheek from where Martin had hit you. It’s gone down, but he can still see it. “I didn’t do my job, I didn’t protect you.” He shifts off of you and onto his back.

“Oh,” you utter, feeling the happiness that you’d been floating on fleeing your body and being replaced with hurt, “No. You can’t fucking… no. What is this? You regret this again? Just like you did last time? No. I won’t touch you again but you can’t quit.” You feel your eyes burn as tears spring into them, threatening to stain your already bruised cheeks. “I don’t want to feel unsafe.”

“I can’t do my job.” Dave hisses, hating the fact that he is making you cry. You have to see that he’s doing this for you. Sitting up, he cups your cheek, hating how it’s still swollen. “I did this. It’s because I had to have some clarity. To stop things with Miranda. I wasn’t with you. I should have been. But I wasn’t. Because I couldn’t keep sleeping with her when I wanted you.” He growls angrily.

“Bullshit,” you snarl back, pushing his hand from your face. “You want me? So the solution to that is to just leave me? Make it make fucking sense, Dave.”

“I-“ Dave’s breath shudders. “I was afraid.” He confesses softly. “Afraid I couldn’t get to you, afraid he would hurt you.” He closes his eyes. “I failed you, princess. Why would you want me here? You got hurt and it’s all my fault.”

  “Can you stop pretending like I’m not a grown woman?” You say with a scoff, “I made the decision to go out last night. Am I pissed that you didn’t warn me about him? Yes. I’m fucking furious. But you didn’t fail me. But if you walk out on me right now, you will fail me, Dave.”

“You would have frozen.” Dave argues. “Every fan that comes up, you would wonder if that’s him. Every time the doorbell rang. You would have become a wreck. It’s my job to protect you from that. To let you do your job and keep the monsters in the shadows.”

“And now you don’t want to do that job?”

“Why would you want me to keep doing the job I failed at?” Dave frowns, shaking his head. “You should scream at me, kick me out, tell me you hate me.”

“You didnt fail, Dave,” you scream back at him, “If you want to go, just fucking go, just don’t pretend it’s because of the job.”

Dave hisses, grabbing your arms and the only way he stops himself from yelling at you is by doing what he really wants to do. Kiss you. He kisses you roughly, every fucking fear and emotion he had last night pours into the kiss. Hard and unyielding until it isn’t. Until the softness breaks through and the other emotions show.

You attempt to fight him off for a few moments, your efforts futile and not convincing to either of you. Before giving in and sinking into his arms, letting his kiss consume you both emotionally and physically. “Please don’t go.” You whisper as he rests his forehead against yours.

“I’m not.” Dave admits, shaken by the depths of his feelings for you. “I’m not going anywhere.” He looks into your eyes and sighs. “I could never leave you, princess. Never.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” you murmur against his chest, terrified that he’s a flight risk. “Just please don’t push me away.”

“Princess, I love you.” He murmurs quietly. “I killed a man for touching you. I’m not going anywhere.”

Your eyes search his for any sort of sign that he’s not telling the truth, but the way they soften as the way he holds you tells you that he’s being honest. Your mouth crashes against his as his grip around you tightens, your kiss is possessive and messy and filled with hope. 

“I want to release a statement, tell the world what happened and then I want to take a much needed break. No touring right now.” Obviously some details will be left out but you want a brief statement out there. Something that’ll explain to your fans what happened, but keep the darkest side of how it ended hidden.

“Then that’s what you’ll do, princess.” Dave nods, knowing your label and your father will be furious, but he doesn’t give a shit. Your safety and well being is too important.

“Thank you for always being on my side. Even when you’re being an asshole.” You mumble into his neck.

He snorts and rubs your back gently, turning his head and kissing your hair. “I’ll always be on your side, Princess.” He promises softly. “That’s why I’m your bodyguard.”

**

Eventually, you had to get up and dress. Your entire team was going to descend on your house in a fury of questions and concerns. He had held them off for as long as he could but barely an hour after you had put on a pair of leggings and a sweater and Dave had put on his gym clothes, your father walked into the house, calling your name. “She’s in the kitchen!” Dave has you seated at the bar, drinking a coffee while he makes you breakfast.

“Hi,” you offer meekly to your father, whose face is twisted with fury. There is no concern for your well-being, no checking that you’re okay or asking about the night before. He just screams at you. Furious that you’d already posted a video on your social media account and gave as much detail as you could in regards to the night before and offered full refunds to everyone who had bought a ticket to the tour you had now indefinitely postponed. 

“What do you have to say about all of this?” He bellows at Dave after finishing his expletive filled rant and Dave just shrugs and makes a comment about it being your life before squeezing your shoulder gently.

After many failed attempts to placate him and explain what had happened the night before you simply shrug, and tell him to leave.

Dave is the one that herds him out the door, not even listening to the man as he screams that he hired Dave and he will sue him for breach of contract. He obviously didn’t read the contract, he can’t. Only you could fire him. When the door is closed, Dave shakes his head and turns around the walk back over to you, giving you what looks like a much needed hug. “It’s okay.” He promises again. “He can’t make you tour.”

“I know,” you murmur against his chest, relishing in the feeling of his arms wrapped around you. “Dave, he’s in control of all my finances. I need to figure so much out today.”

“So call in your business people.” Dave murmurs into your hair. “I can call in a lawyer I know. Have him look over everything.”

“I don’t know who to call,” you admit, feeling yourself get all heated from embarrassment, “I just got called into sign shit.”

Dave has participated in this, feeling guilty about it now. “He will treat you right. Get it all figured out.” He promises.

You take a step back from him and awkwardly giggle, “Guess you were right about me being a princess,” you try to joke to hide your embarrassment.

“You were concentrating on your music.” Dave argues. “Letting others take care of the details. I did it too.” He won’t deny that. “Now, you just need to decide how hands on you want to be.”

“Yeah,” you half heartedly agree with a shrug, “But mostly it just seemed easier to let other people deal with it.”

“So you still let other people deal with it.” Dave tells you. “Just have them answer to you.”

“Like you do?” You say with a raised eyebrow and a little smirk, “Clearly, I’m great at keeping you in line.”

Snorting, Dave shoots you an unamused look. “Just try it, Princess.” He warns darkly. “I’ll do exactly what I wanted to do the first time you pitched a fit.” He pauses for a second. “Throw you over my knee and spank you until you are crying.”

“Oh yeah?” You challenge him. “I think you’d do whatever I told you to do. No argument.”

“Not if it compromises your safety.” Dave will stand firm on that. Loving you will not make him just give in to you to make you happy.

You take a step forward and whisper in his ear, “So you’re telling me that if I said really nicely that you’re to wrap those thick fingers around my throat and rail me as hard as you can… you wouldn’t? Because you’re all for safety?”

“Shut up.” Dave hisses, narrowing his eyes at you as he pulls back. “You know what I meant, princess.” He growls. “Keep it up and won’t get my cock at all until I decide you can have it.”

“We both know that I’ll be getting it exactly when I want it, sweet boy.” You know you should be focusing on your never ending list of chores but teasing Dave is too much fun.

Dave doesn’t answer, instead he draws his hand back and slaps your ass harshly. “Go eat.” He demands. “I’ll start making calls.”

“Fine,” you mumble, knowing that he’ll want to get the ball rolling and that the ache in your pussy will have to wait. “I’ll eat and then deal with myself after.” You shout back to him as he makes his way to his office.

“No you won’t!” Dave shouts back, smirking to himself as he shakes his head. You are going to continue to be a pain in his ass, but he’s not quite as annoyed by it now.

You giggle as you take a bite of the eggs he cooked you. “Oh yes, I will,” you say to yourself as you think about the way his cock feels as it drags across heaven inside of you.

**

It had been a rough three weeks. Your father had dug his heels in and made everything as difficult as he possibly could. But Dave had kept his word, the lawyer he had put you in touch with had worked tirelessly and for the first time in your life, you were in charge of your future.

Your team had agreed that you were due a break, and agreed to let you take a few months to recharge. The minute it was final Dave had pulled out his phone and booked two one way tickets to St Lucia and found a private villa on the beach that had a chef come in three times a day to prepare your meals. He paid for everything, packed both of your bags and kept everything a total secret until you were pulling up to the private jet that would be flying you to paradise.

For the past three days that had been in heaven and he’d taken you more times than you could possibly count.

The first time on the flight with his fingers, then his mouth and finally with his cock.

“See Princess? Relaxed.” He groans, slowly rocking his hips up as you grind down on his length. Sitting outside in the warm sun, the breeze trailing over your skin, you look like a fucking goddess riding him on the surprisingly sturdy lounger by the infinity pool that overlooks the ocean. No boats were allowed in this private cove and you had free reign to do whatever you want. “Just like I promised you.”

“So relaxed,” you moan as you keep the pace slow. Loving the way he completely fills you up. Your walls hugging his cock as his thumb draws slow circles on your clit. “God, you feel so fucking good.”

He chuckles, hearing those words every time he fucks you. You’ve become addicted to him being inside you and he’s not complaining. Dave’s other hand comes up and squeezes your tit. “Even more relaxed when you cum.” He coos. “Lay out in the sun and nap after?”

“Oh God, yes,” you say as you press a kiss to his lips. “As long as I get to lay on you.” You slightly increase your speed, wanting your high to come quicker. Needing to feel the warmth of his cum coating your walls.

“You’re like a leech.” He jokes, squeezing your breast again and pinching your nipple. He knows as soon as you cum, you’re going to collapse against his chest and fall asleep with his cock still inside you. It’s become your favorite way to sleep since that second night he had spent in your bed. 

“And you love it,” you say with a giggle, knowing that he loves the way it feels when you giggle on his cock. “Make me cum, Mr York.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Dave grunts as he leans in and nips your bottom lip. “Have to follow the princess’s order.” He lets go of your breast to grab your hip and braces his feet on the lounger slats to thrust up into you harder.

“Yes you do,” you giggle back. Your mouth captures his as he fucks up into you. You bite down on his bottom lip before licking your way into his mouth. He swallows every moan you unleash as you wrap your arms around him tighter, “I’m gonna cum,” you garble as he starts to lose restraint fucking you harder and harder as you come undone on his cock.

Watching you peak has become his favorite view. Watching your mouth open and your entire body spasm in pleasure while you cry out is what sends him over the edge himself. Letting you burrow your way deeper into his heart as he cums, filling you up with his cum until it’s pushing out with every shallow thrust to slide back down his shaft and pool in the curly hairs in his groin.

His lips press against yours as you come down from your high, and his hand rubs comforting circles into your back. The world comes back into focus and absolutely everything becomes clear, his dark eyes find yours before you rest your forehead against his. “I love you, Dave. I love you so much.”

It’s the first time you’ve said those words to him and he sighs softly, reaching up and cupping your cheek. “I love you too, Princess.” It’s only the second time he’s said the words, but he’s shown you how he feels everyday since that morning. “That’s why I’ll always protect you.”

“My protector,” you say against his lips. “Now, I think you promised me a nap.” You nuzzle your face against his neck and snuggle up to him. His softening cock still inside of you as you feel his protective arms wrap around you.

"That's right, princess." Dave rubs your back gently and leans back against the lounger as he brings you with him. Knowing that you will be asleep in minutes. "You sleep." He urges you softly. "I'll make sure nothing ever happens to you again." He promises, looking around even though he knows the two of you are completely alone. He's still your bodyguard after all.

[jadeylovesmarvelxo]

When love and hate collide

Part two

Summary; What exactly happened in the woods between Eddie and yn?

The Hellfire boys are confused and curious to find out because since the woods saga, there has been a truce between the pair.

Until there isn't...

Yn can't stand Eddie but his eyes are so damn hypnotizing, Eddie can't stand her but he can't get enough of her perfectly kissable lips.

Like a moth to a flame, they can't stay away...

Warnings; Eddie being a little shit, jealousy, the Hellfire boys are confused, enemies to... enemies who fuck ;) slow burn 18+, minors dni

64.media.tumblr.com

If you enjoyed this then pls consider giving it a reblog 💖

💖 I don't give anyone permission to copy my work.

This could very well be my first series on here so if that is something you want then please let me know and if you have any requests based on this story then send me an ask :)

💖

It had been a few days since what happened in the woods and still the Hellfire boys had no clue exactly what had happened to Eddie and yn.

It was a total mystery and what made things even more baffling is since last Friday Eddie and yn had been... quiet.

Nada, zip, zilch on the arguing front.

At first Lucas had thought that he had gone temporarily deaf because why else would Eddie and yn be silent all of a sudden.

It was unnerving, peaceful yes but still strange.

Then just as he was getting used to the peace and (tentatively discussed with the rest of Hellfire that maybe the weird feud between the two was over) the arguing started again.

So much for peace and quiet but still there was a sense of relief that everything was getting back to normal...

💞💞

Ignoring Eddie no matter how much it pained her to do so lasted for a fair few days because he seemed to be shunning her right-back.

It didn't last long though because whatever drew them together like magnets was inching them back together whether she liked it or not.

She squeezes her eyes shut as memories from last Friday are fresh in her mind. The way her and Eddie just seemed to fit together, how good he made her feel and the mindblowing orgasm that swept over the pair.

That tongue and his talented fingers... she thinks almost dreamily then huffs. Dammit she couldn't stand him yet he had made her come so good, made her feel things she has never felt.

She didn't like this one bit. Why couldnt it be Danny that made her feel like this? It would be so much easier if it was him that she liked.

It would be so much easier if she didn't want to rip Eddie's clothes off and ride him until he was moaning her name, kiss those tattoos or have him buried between the apex of her thighs.

Just her luck the one person she despised knew how to make her body experience pleasure she had only dreamed off.

💞

Meanwhile Eddie was stuck in the same dilemma. Now he knew how fucking incredible he felt being buried inside her, the taste of her that's all his mind could focus on.

Not that anything would happen again... he planned to stay far away from yn and not think about how mindblowing the sex was or the way she clenched around him.

Fuck... he was getting hard just thinking about her and he fucked his hand so many times yet still couldnt get her out of his head.

He should have known really that it would be impossible to stay away from her when they were like moths to a flame...

He tried entertaining Darcy Matthews, who should have been his type, she was into heavy metal, in a band, sarcastic and was friendly enough.

As much as he tried to engage with Darcy's flirting he couldnt because all he could think about was her.

Darcy gave up eventually and moved on to chatting to someone from band and he just could not bring himself to care.

In fact he was more furious that yn had this hold over him.

Then as if just thinking about her conjured her to appear, she was walking up to him, her eyes flashing furiously and then she all but tugged him into an abandoned classroom.

"What the fuck was that Munson?" he gazes at her fuming face and smirks. Shit. He forgot how much he missed winding her up.

"What sweetheart?" he asks innocent but has an idea what she means.

"Flirting with Darcy just to get a rise out of me! Dragging her into your fascination with making my life hell!"

Oh... now this was great he thinks deviously, she's jealous...

The thought pleases him more than it should and that stuns him for a minute until he is pulled back into the conversation by her little huffs of indignation.

"Aww princess, you jealous I noticed someone else?" he didn't-but it was fun to annoy her and the way her eyes flash furiously has him enjoying this very much.

"I am not jealous!" she shrieks and he grins.

"It's alright Princess. I won't tell anyone" her chest is heaving and she is glaring at him.

"You are the most infuriating man I've ever met do you know that Munson?" she moves closer to him and then grins, a wicked little smile that makes him wary.

What is she planning?

Nothing good from that little smirk he guesses and gulps. Shit...

"Guess I'll need to take up Danny's offer of a date, he isn't a pain in the ass like you"

💞

She doesn't know why she mentions Danny but she knows she wants to wipe that stupid, goofy smirk of his face and the minute she mentions him it's like magic.

Eddie's smile disappears, his eyes flash and he has her backed up against the wall.

"That's what you want huh? Some stupid butthead who fumbles around and can't make you come?" he scoffs and she cocks her head amused.

"Eddie. Oh, love don't tell me you're jealous" she slips out of his grasp but he pulls her back.

"Enough fucking games, both of us" he growls and his lips crash onto hers.

💖

"Dustin, Mike groans. We can't find Eddie again!"

Dustin peers up from painting the D&D figures for the campaign and sighs.

"Shit! not again" Mike nods and Lucas joins them.

"That's not the only thing, I only caught a glimpse of it but he was talking with yn again and they headed out of school together"

Dustin gulps then grows confused.

They were talking and not arguing. That was a first.

Mike contemplates this as well.

"Do you think we should go undercover and see what we can find out?" Dustin considers this and shakes his head.

"Better asking Gareth, he has the same classes as Eddie. Maybe he can find out what's up with him and why he's disappearing"

Whatever reason and why it was with yn was a mystery. Max who is passing by and hears their conversation rolls her eyes.

"Oh gee whatever could it be" she mutters and wonders how the three boys could be so blind to what was going on between Eddie and yn.

"What? Like you know any better Max?" Mike asks her annoyed and she shakes her head.

"You three are morons... Let's think why they might sneak off together maybe it's for some privacy...

Mike pauses as he considers this.

"Why would they need privacy?" Max gapes at him and sighs.

"Mike please tell me you aren't that clueless? How does El put up with you? It's so they can kiss or whatever" she doesn't want to think about the rest of it.

The three boys burst out laughing.

"That's a good one Max! Well done. You almost had me there" Lucas grins.

"That's... Ew no" Mike shakes his head.

"They can't stand each other" Dustin points out to Max who stares at them with a look of utter exasperation on her features.

They were hopeless. Idiots she thinks as she walks away and leaves them to their discussion.

She was absolutely certain she was right.

💖💖

He had to get back before the sheeples sent out a search party but he was too engrossed with the fact that yn was naked and on top of him to care much about anything.

His breath hitches as she leans down and kisses over his chest.

He knew sneaking away from his school with her and back to his trailer was a bit risky as anyone could see them but they got back to it without a sighting from anyone.

"I need to go soon Eddie and so do you, I have cheer practice, and your friends wi get suspicious if you miss a meeting"

He pouts but concedes, he'd happily spend all day buried balls deep inside her and hearing her gorgeous moans but she was right.

How can someone who drives him up the wall make him come harder than he's ever had in his life? He didn't understand it.

She drove him mad every single day but the sex was mindblowing, maybe it was all the pent-up tension that surrounded them or some shit like that?

Whatever it was and however much they annoyed the fuck out of each other he just couldn't stay away

[do-androids-dream-ao3acc]

BuckTommyWhumpWeek, Day 6 Helicopter crash

All the Pain, Chapter 6 | Read on AO3 | In this chapter (CW): Still trapped under the rubble, Buck's body is giving in. | @bucktommywhumpweek

(-> Chapter 1) (-> Chapter 2) (-> Chapter 3) (-> Chapter 4) (-> Chapter 5)

There's a traffic accident on the interstate at 2 a.m., and it's bad.

Six cars wedged into each other, plus a burning truck loaded with pork halves, half a mile of destroyed guardrail and a bunch of meat spread across the highway. One dead, a dozen injured. It's a battlefield with three units of firefighters plus air support to sort everything out. The helicopter is mainly used to monitor traffic, while several police units clear up the chaos on the streets. 

The 132, 217 and 118 are in operation. It's never easy to coordinate several task forces, but tonight, all captains quickly agree on Bobby because he's the oldest and has the most experience. Work runs smoothly, as if it were the catastrophe itself that welds everyone together – and often enough, it is. It's not easy, but every injured driver is freed from their wreck, and the paramedics quickly form a triage. 

The accident is still a difficult piece of work, keeping them busy for several hours. It’s long after the last injured was taken away in an ambulance that the first responders get to pack up. Adrenaline will soon fade, and once they’re back in station, they’ll be exhausted. They will still stay a bit longer to talk about what happened, Bobby will make sure of that. Captain Shore, who recently took over Harbor Station, shakes hands with him after radioing air support that the mission is over. 

“Very good work tonight,” says Bobby, and he means it. 

“Likewise, Captain Nash,” Shore replies with a smile. “Hold on a second...”

She taps her radio again and repeats her message, “Air Support, do you copy? Operation completed.”

The radio crackles into silence, which is admittedly unusual; it’s protocol to answer every radio message. Bobby and Shore gaze up into a night sky illuminated only by a few stars, but it’s empty of helicopters.

Hen, who’s loading the last emergency bag into the fire truck, asks, “Is Tommy on duty today?”

“You think he flew straight home to his boyfriend?” Chimney replies with a laugh, about to get into the vehicle. “He's off tonight, why do you think Buck was so keen to swap shifts?”

“It's Andrews, not Tommy,” Shore confirms, repeating her radio message once again. “But none of my pilots would return to base without confirming order. I swear, if it’s that gremlin technology again…”

“Dispatch, has air support reported back?” Bobby asks into his radio.

“Negative. Is this about the highway accident? Can't you get through to air support?”

“Does that happen sometimes?” Bobby asks Captain Shore, and she nods. 

“Harbor got a whole bunch of new tech gimmicks, but they keep breaking down.” Then she speaks into her radio again, “Dispatch, try to reach air support for me, please.”

She gives the helicopter’s labeling number and its last known position before turning back to Bobby with a grim face.

“Williams has been blowing me off for weeks, I keep trying to reach her. We can't work like this, not with devices that...” 

“Captain Shore, your helicopter has disappeared from our radar,” dispatch reports. It’s Josh’s rookie, Chrissy, the incredulity dripping from her voice betraying her inexperience. 

“What do you mean, disappeared?” Shore almost shouts into the radio.

“Hold on. Confirming last position according to your information, but no radio contact for about an hour, and the signal can no longer be found.”

“Does the GPS also cause problems?” asks Bobby, frowning.

“No,” replies Shore, ”but it can be difficult to locate, depending on the weather. Or when it’s blocked by trees...”

“You mean in the event of a crash,” says Hen, who, like the rest of Bobby's crew, has now stepped closer. 

“We would have noticed a crash,” Bobby remarks.

“We've been pretty busy,” Chimney interjects. “If the last signal was an hour ago, the helicopter could be practically anywhere now.”

“Why would it move away from the scene?”

“That's at the pilot's discretion,” Captain Shore explains. “There may well be reasons that are not so obvious to us down here.” 

“And air traffic control?” asks Hen, but Shore shakes her head, “Helicopters only have to sign in and out at their control centers. They don't fly anywhere near the altitude of airplanes, so they’re usually not subject to air traffic control.”

“But there's probably an app for that,” says Bobby. “To monitor helicopter traffic?”

“True. Never used it, though. I assume he’s just returned to Harbor.”

“Captain,” Hen reasons, obviously not convinced, “at least he would have called then, even if the radios were down. Especially then.”

“I believe you also think he crashed, Captain,” Chimney says, rummaging for his phone. 

“Even if I did,” she returns with doubt in her voice, “somebody would have noticed a crash.”

“This is L.A., I’ve seen tourists mistake an earthquake for a movie event. What’s the name of this app?”

“Captain Shore?” It’s dispatch again. They can hear it’s another voice now, Josh, who’s obviously has taken over the call. Shore clutches her radio and holds out a hand to Chimney, mouthing wait. “I think I know where your helicopter may be.”

 ●·○·●·○·●·○·●·○·●●·○·●·○·●·○·●·○·●

Buck is in a cocoon, just away from all the security that normally comes with it. 

There's nothing cozy or soft in his stone prison. He’s cut off from the world around him, so it might as well have gone under without him realizing it. Buck has been counting the seconds since Tommy left, but his mind keeps wandering, and it's getting harder to breathe. 

Maybe that's just it. Maybe the ceiling will collapse completely before Tommy manages to get help. Or perhaps the pain and blood loss will reach the point where his body can no longer handle either. Buck never delved too deeply into the tasks of paramedics. He knows the basics, but he's nothing more than an amateur who happened to help a baby into the world once, on his own couch. Apart from that, he knows just enough to realize things are not exactly looking good for him. He's not quite sure if his life is hanging by a thread, but his consciousness certainly is – he feels dizzy now even lying down, and the pain seems to have taken over his whole body, even in his head. He just wants to close his eyes for a minute. 

Perhaps the worst thing is the doubt. Buck is confused and hurt, but he's seen Tommy's face, and the man is guaranteed to have a concussion, if not worse. There's nothing Buck wants less than Tommy walking around in this state, but there's also nothing he could have done to stop him. He’s in crisis mode, something Buck knows all too well himself. Buck can only lie here, breathe in the dust and hope that Tommy still knows what he's doing, even with a bleeding skull.

He can't keep his eyes open. 

There's a helicopter not far above the house; it was approaching as they pulled into the driveway.

“Pretty low,” Tommy says with that admirable connoisseur's look, but Buck is more interested in him than in the helicopter, and he can hardly wait for the man to unlock the door. 

Once inside, he pushes him against the door, and the bag with the takeaway lands carelessly on the floor as Buck searches for Tommy's lips. He can never get enough of this. 

The kiss lasts just long enough to rasp up his voice as he says, “Dinner's getting cold. I'm gonna wash my hands real quick.”

“Really, Evan?” groans Tommy, but he picks up the bag as they pull away from each other. “One wonders what you like more, dim sum or your boyfriend.”

“I'll show you when I get back,” Buck grins and vanishes into the bathroom. 

He thinks he hears Tommy say, “That doesn't sound good at all,” but that doesn’t make any sense. He also hears sirens. Funny, Buck thinks, a lot of firemen claim that they can tell the difference between the sirens on their own fire engines and those on others, and that's actually nonsense because the department buys the same ones for every station. This one, however, totally sounds like the 118. What would they be doing at Tommy’s place? Buck leans on the sink and looks at himself in the mirror. 

There’s no reflection, and it startles him. He turns around, but there’s also no door anymore, which is quite confusing. Because if there’s no door, where’s Chimney’s voice coming from, calling his name?

“Buck! Open your eyes for me, will you?”

I didn't realize I had closed them, Buck thinks as he cracks his eyes open. Strangely enough, it's not so dark now. Maybe he’s just been here for a very, very long time, long enough for a new day to have passed its zenith. A second later, he realizes that headlights are illuminating his surroundings. Chimney kneels in the remains of the blue tiles and stones that were once the walls of Tommy's bathroom. He looks so serious, thinks Buck.

“Hey there, Sleeping Beauty. Let me see if I can hook you up on an IV, and then we'll get you out of there, yeah?”

Buck wonders, very briefly, why it’s not Hen doing this, but the answer is more logical than his aching head should be capable of: Chimney is smaller and more agile, and unlike Tommy, he actually manages to reach Buck. 

“Tommy,” he says as he tries to look at Chimney's concentrated face, not really feeling what he's doing anyway. “Where's Tommy?” 

“We'll take care of that once we got you out of here, all right? Let me check your vitals.”

“But he-he called you, didn't he?” asks Buck.

“Called us?” 

His brother-in-law's face is interesting when he's confused, Buck finds. His eyebrows almost creep into his hairline, as they do now.

“No, Buckaroo. We were looking for a missing helicopter, and the only call dispatch got was from one of Tommy's neighbors. Nobody really took it seriously, unfortunately,” Chimney says as he works on Buck. Somehow, that doesn’t explain anything.

“What helicopter?” asks Buck, confused. “Tommy wasn't in a helicopter.”

“Pretty sure he wasn't. It's a long and strange story, and I'll tell you all about it as soon as we get you out of here. Okay, I think we can try now…”

“Wait,” Buck interrupts him urgently, “where's Tommy?”

Bobby's face shifts next to Chimney's. He’s visibly having a harder time squeezing into this narrow space.

“We'll find him, don't worry, Buck,” he soothes. “Let's help you first, all right?”

“No, no, you don't understand,” Buck returns with urge, voice muffled with dust in his throat. If he waits a second longer, he'll suffocate and won't have time to tell them what they need to know. 

“Blood pressure's dropping,” someone says, and then there’s Chimney's voice from somewhere, “Calm down. It's going to be okay.”

“It's not," Buck chokes, “It's not gonna be okay. Tommy ran out to get help. He had a head injury. You must...”

“Buck? Hey. Stay awake, kid.”

“... find him,” he says, and then nothing more. 

(this chapter was beta-read by @lavenderleahy, thank you!)

[unknownarmageddon]

what if most love comes around second hand what if its a starving age what if you better take what you can

what if booze hangs limply on our rental suits what if we're fires we're burning bright what if we're breaking bottles and starting fights what if the evening has other plans what if they pull up with two more vans

what if there's hotel complaints and grievances raised in that kind of love what if there's damage ensued and tabloid news in that kind of love

what if i could find you in any life what if heaven is not fit to house a love like you and i what if i would not change it each time

what if when the meanings gone, there is clarity what if the reason comes on the common tongue of your loving me

what if i was born as a blackthorn tree what if i'd wanna be felled by you, held by you what if i fuel the pyre of your enemies

what if I'm scum what if I'm waste what if i'm what you want

what if you can call me what you like as long as you call me what if you could kiss the skin from my lips what if it makes you feel good what if i'm not sure if you want it what if i'm not sure if you need me too what if you can taste the beer on every guy who talks to you what if i'm not paranoid what if i'm a realist what if i know you're gonna kill me

what if i could wait here, by the west pier what if i watch the flotsam float, slowly disappear what if its oh, so happy, oh, oh, so happy what if only you knew just how much better things could be

what if you dont make a sound what if its all so incredibly loud what if im breaking down what if heartbreak was never so loud

what if we kiss like real people do

what if they find us in a week what if i'd be home with you what if we lay here for years or for hours what if we become the flowers what if two corpses we were

what if you were like an angel to me what if i could break beneath the weight of the goodness, love, I still carry for you what if i'd walk so far just to take the injury of finally knowin' you

what if when you move, i can recall something thats gone from me what if when you move, im put in awe of something so flawed and free what if you've nothin left to prove and nothin to lose

what if i'd be appalled if i ever saw you try to be a saint what i wouldn't fall for someone i thought couldn't misbehave

what if with you i got to be young and happy

what if you were the sunshine of my lifetime what if every lover's got a little dagger in their hand what if im sending my love from the other side of the apocalypse what if there's nowhere left for us to go but heaven

what if some part of me came alive the first time you called me baby what if some part of stayed alive each time you called me baby what if some part of me must've died the final time you called me baby

what if all things end what if just knowing that everything will end should not change our plans what if we begin again what if I have never known a silence like the one fallen here what if i've never watched my future darken in a single tear

what if we were young again what if we're just two slow dancers, last ones out

what if i copy paste the entire of To Noise Making (Sing) by Hozier

what if they simply just are, geddon, what if they simply just are, and that's all they ever need to be

Chair I think you’re legitimately going to kill me

[golbrocklovely]

i'm blocking out the accounts bc i'm not about to draw more eyes to them. funny enough, i went snooping on my own and found both accounts before this ask.

also this is just a warning, i'm running on about two percent battery brain power, so if this doesn't make sense and/or sounds like i'm an asshole, that's why. i'm not trying to be rude to you anon, so please don't think that. i'm just ridiculously tired of this situation and the ppl involved in it.

imma be so forreal, i kinda have to laugh at all of this. first off, both of these accounts are run by teenagers… and it's very obvious. it reads like a jealous little girl's diary.

also i can debunk all of their shit in a heartbeat. half of it is just them saying "see ! malia is a slut who had work done" and all i gotta say to that is… do you say that about amber? shea? stas? just curious. bc they all got work done, and they all have casual sex (most likely) or at the very least have hooked up with colby. so like???? keep the misogyny even if you're gonna go full pick me.

malia had an onlyfans, yes. she did technically lie in her response to a hater who said she had one. however, no one is owed an explanation to if and why she had one. and secondly, this fandom is full of young fans. if she admitted she had one, yall would just call her a creep that's promoting sex to minors or whatever. and clearly if she actually posted anything of her nude, it would be online. bc.. like these losers pointed out, the videos she did of her modelling bikinis for some brand got put on porn sites by creepy dudes. none of them are of her nude tho. it's just her in a bikini which surprise surprise isn't porn.

she got work done but liked a comment that called her a natural beauty….. do these fans really think they ate pointing this out?? she is naturally pretty, she just got some work done. again, would you harp on shea liking a comment that says that? or amber? or stas?? or how about a woman that's wearing makeup or a push up bra??

these fans really think they have her in this gotcha moment when reality is…. all they're doing it pointing out how pathetic they look. yeah babes, you're totally right. malia is a slutty porn star who got work done… and colby STILL decided to date her. you know why? bc he doesn't care. and you do… and yet here you are… still not getting the attention from colby you think you deserve. even if you were the last person on earth colby wouldn't choose you. and for all the hate you have for malia, you basically run a fan account for her since you know so much about her. but yeah… keep calling her a whore or whatever. you're doing such a good job at it lmao

i'll go thru the other ones these bozos pointed out fast:

colby likes his alone time, she made a tiktok saying she likes when guys are obsessive…. those don't even relate, but on top of that she made that vid before she was even DATING HIM

we have no proof malia made him unfollow anyone, they are just jumping to that conclusion

the cheating thing we now know is false

she didn't steal that hair color from amber………. are yall on crack? amber hasn't ever dyed her hair that color?? she uses a wig??? and just bc she wants to dye her hair a similar color doesn't mean malia copied. how would she have even known that?? jesus christ keep the schools open these kids are DUMB

the girls went to coachella a couple years ago or whatever but claimed the one they went to with snc was their first. oH mY gOd ThEy LiEd Or PoSsIbLy FoRgOt??? call the firing squad and line them up in the town square. burn the witches at the stake!!!!

malia called herself a slut and that's proof… she's a slut. sure. yeah. whatever you say, children. yall barely have had sex ed but please inform me how she's a slut. i'd love to hear it.

the girls in general are copying kat/amber. i mean… they literally aren't. they just cut and dyed their hair, two things NEITHER KAT OR AMBER HAVE DONE in a long time/ever. i would say you're grasping at straws but that would require there to be straws.

if you think malia or katelyn are bad ppl for having subscriptions about their lives where they might post their boyfriends, boy do i have news for you about shea and stas.

anything else they said is horseshit and tbh i'm over it. call me when the girls have been found guilty of something other than being kinda annoying and attention seeking on *gasp* the internet, of all places.

[raybyanothername]

I don't want to give you any trouble, so I'll just ask for a few: 🫂💋🦊👑😈😎

🔥🔥🔥 Keeping me busy! Love it!

🫂 Perfectly Capable

This particular snippet feels so disjointed on its own... but I'm nearly done with the transition point! ...I have decided this fic will need at least 1 more chapter after this though. 😅🫣

"Aegon and Jace will be fine," Rhaenyra assured her younger son. She cupped his face in both of her hands as she smiled, "They shall make up, once they've both had time to calm down. All shall be well again." "You're sure?" Luke checked, lips puckering as he searched her face. She nodded and wrapped him in another embrace, hugging him tight. Rhaenyra exhaled, holding the back of his head as his fingers twisted in her shirt. He sniffled and held tight to her side as she turned out the lights in the playroom and headed for her own chambers. She was not anymore surprised to find Joffrey and Tyraxes curled up in the middle of her bed than Laenor was to see Luke climbing in beside his little brother. "Older boys settled?" Laenor asked, gaze rising to meet hers as he reached out to brush his fingers through Luke's hair. She circled around to kiss his cheek. "More or less," Rhaenyra sighed, smile tight. She slipped into her bathroom. Her braids came loose with ease and Rhaenyra found herself staring at her reflection, considering all the similarities she could see between herself and her eldest. Her own face and Aegon's.

💋 It Only Counts If They Kiss

I wrote nearly 10k for this fic last week... the hyperfocus was *strong.* And apparently still ongoing. ^^'

Biting at his lip, Jace pushed a hand into his hair and nodded, "Part of it. I... I just figured, I've known the three of you a while, you talk about your lives. I should share more. We're... friends." He let the statement hang between them. Jace didn't exactly have many friends outside his cousins, his brother. Cregan really, that was it. "Right?" Jace checked, throat bobbing as he glanced up, watching the other man through his lashes. Brandon grinned. "Yeah, I was under that impression," Brandon chuckled, rocking forward to lean against the counter. He dropped his voice, snickering, "I won't tell Lannister if you don't." Jace agreed quickly, nodding emphatically, "He'd be insufferable."

🦊 Cry Like A Coyote

Finally past the bit I was stuck on!

Malia watched the antics with a decidely warm feeling in her chest. Something like joy, but softer. Lighter. A certain... contentment. She knocked Theo's shoulder with her own and grinned as he turned to face her. His eyes narrowed on her, chin rising, "What's that look for?" "Nothing," Malia kept grinning, lips twisting even wider as his brow furrowed. He sniffed, but found nothing amiss. Nothing suspicious. She smirked, "I just enjoy being right."

👑 Concubine Beats King

Oh dear... this one was a bit terrifying for me because I actually have an 'outline' for this chapter for once. I do not work well with outlines... ^^' But! Progress was made!

"Dracarys!" Daemon gave the command and Caraxes doused the ships beneath him in flames. Comparable sailors, the Ironborn, but their ships burned like any other. He let one slip away, let a single frigate flee back to the Iron Islands with singed sails and their brothers ash upon their face. Perhaps they would think better of challenging dragons next time.

😈 Less Evil, More of an Ass

"If I finish this do I get a reward?" Theo asks as he plops into his seat. Stiles is shaking with silent laughter, eyebrow arching as Lydia's jaw clenches. "You want a bribe?" Kira arches a brow. Theo rolls his eyes. In the next second, Scott is slapping his chest with a copy of The Dread Doctors. "You'll have to settle for my undying gratitude," Scott grins at him and Theo bares his teeth. That only earns him a laugh, "And I'll ask my mom about the peanut butter bars." Theo gestures wide, kicking his feet and making himself comfortable. He winks at Kira, "I prefer terms like 'compensation' and 'motivating factors,' just to be clear."

😎 The Omega Prince

I ended up writing like 500 words... but somehow the chapter isn't done yet. 🫣 Only including a tiny snippet as I'm probably going to rework a lot of what I've written after a nap!

"Come on," Baela grabbed his hand, dragging him with her as she started for the building on the right. The junior school. Stout and boring, made with red brick meant to mimic the Red Keep, but with signifcantly less luster. Jace hung back for a moment, watching his brother disappear into the building on the opposite side of the school yard. Luke paused in the door of the primary school and Jace waved at him. Neither Aegon nor Helaena would ever be so silly. His sister disappeared into the main building quickly in fact. Aemond glanced back to see Aegon strolling up to the central door. He tucked his arms behind his head and walking slowly, pausing to call out to people, to mock them.

[firsttimewriter92]

Everything Black Part 1.

This is a Post Azkaban Sirius Black x fem! reader (Muggle) fic I came up with. This is the first time I´m writing something like this and posting it, so let me know if you have any suggestions as to how I can improve my writing. I am not a native speaker so please keep that in mind :) Please, please don´t copy my work. If you want to repost, please do. I would love it if you tagged me, though :)

Warnings: canon typical violance, No smut or angst so far (will eventually happen) This is a slow burn, folks. Maybe because I am obsessed with details.

Word count: 1.800

Summary: One strange night, a man known as Albus Dumbledore decides that it was you, who was the perfect fit to make a certain someones life more comfortable. Your own life nothing but a grey veil, you decide to humor the wizard and let youself be introduced to a world so far away from yours.

_____________________________________________________________

Shoulders hunched and hands in your pockets, you ran across the cobbled street and up the antient stairs to a higher level street. There, in the safety of an overlooking roof you stopped to catch your breath. The ice cold wind was going right through you and you tried to keep your toes warm by lightly jumping up and down. As you pulled your hat lower over your freezing ears you could see other people hurrying left and right to get home as quickly as possible. You imagined their lives for a second. Were they going home to their families? Would they enter a warm, welcoming flat or house with people waiting for them; smiles on their faces? Or do they hurry back to a cold, fairly furnished flat with florescent lighting and a leaking water tab? Because that´s where you were headed.

With a sigh and your forehead in wrinkles you hunched your shoulders again to brace yourself for the cold and darted off again. Only three more turns and you would wind up in the dingey little alley where a small flight of steps would take you down to your lovely home. You scoffed at the thought. Being alone for most of your life, well we do not count the 16 years you spent with your emotionally absent father, you just did not know why a home should be any less than four walls to return to just to sleep. That is why you spent all day either working or wandering about the city. It was quite nice in spring and summer. And given, even the low hanging fog on a quiet autumn day gave this antient town a form of mystery that many a writer has already been intrigued by. But in winter, the harsh, cold winds and the rain that could not decide if it wanted to be snow or not, was nothing short of unpleasant.

You rounded the last corner to your flat when you saw something so unnormal, your feet rooted themselves to the ground. There, in your alley, adorned with rubbish cans and an ever present smell of anything old, stood tree people, two facing the other one. All three had one arm extended and were pointing…chopsticks at each other. Nonsense, you scolded yourself. Those cannot be chopsticks. Why would tree grown people point chopsticks at each other? Rather menacingly in fact. How absurd. The wind was howling stronger now and before you could ask those tree figures what in the devils name they were up to, you heard a loud crack. The very second you heard it, something green shot out the tip of whatever it was one of them was holding. Maybe fireworks? Those were your last thoughts before there, in your little alley all hell broke loose.

Suddenly you found yourself in a state of panic. You ducked behind a rubbish can as more and more cracks and loud bangs filled the air. Wherever these lights would crash into, something was destroyed. Some of them even ricochet off the walls causing debris to fall onto the street. You couldn´t think. The heat of the lights that crashed close to your hiding spot lead you to duck even deeper into the shadows and rubble. Now you even heard someone scream something. Almost like an order but you couldn´t make it out. And as suddenly as the lights appeared, destroying walls and trash cans, there was silence. No more lights. Smoke and dust clung to the air as you let down your arms that you had wrapped over your head for protection. As if that would have helped any, you thought. Knowing only one thing, stay where you are, your breathing was hard and you could feel your throat burn from not being able to make a sound. Or so you thought.

You heard steps coming closer. Oh that´s just grand. The other guy probably dead and now, it´s my turn. Why has no one sent for the police yet? Someone must have heard the ruckus. True, it was already late at night but still!

You crouched in your spot, waiting for something to happen. Your heart pounding in your ears, waiting. You could feel a presence right next to you. Staring ahead with wide eyes you did not want to look up at the person who was probably about to end your life.

„Excuse me, Miss. Would you happen to have a Mint?“

___________________________________________________________

Your head snapped up when you heard the question. Your eyes were met by piercing blues behind halfmoon spectacles and a kind smile. Before you stood an old man with a long white beard and hair. He was tall, wearing the strangest clothes you had ever seen. A long dark maroon robe clung to his shoulders and you could make out the trousers of a needle stripe suit. Dumbfounded, you blinked up at the man who was kindly smiling at you.

„What? “, you asked, still staring. „I was wondering if you have a mint on you. You see, problem solving tends to give me a bad taste in my mouth. “The man smiled and put both hands on your upper arms to help you stand up. Patting the dust from your legs you eyed him from the side. „Sorry. I´m afraid I cannot help you with that" you said in a bit of a wiry tone. The man just smiled. „Ah, a shame. Well, at least the problem got solved “. You looked around. The three people that just a minute ago were trying to end each other were gone. You looked the alley up and down but there was no sign of them. Thank the heavens but it also made you incredibly uneasy. What did that old man do? They quite literally vanished.

Said man was currently watching your every move. Already an idea brewing in his mind. He knew he had only two options with you. One of them solely possible because he was, who he was.

„What did you do to them? And what where they doing with those…sticks anyway? They nearly blasted my head off! “You turned to the man and with every word your voice got a little higher. „Yes, well. It seems these tree gentlemen had a disagreement and- “„Yea, no shit“, you scoffed. The older man's eyes twinkled at that. „And were dueling to see who would win the argument“, he said as if giving this explanation was his daily business. You raised your eyebrows. „Dueling? Like they did 100 years ago? Only with, I don´t know…laser shooting sticks? What in all the gods' names is going on here?“, you asked exasperatedly. The man chuckled. He knew now which option he would take. „I can assure you it has nothing to do with lasers. Although that would be an easy answer for you, no, that was not it. These men where dueling with…wands.“ He waited a little to end his sentence for dramatic effect. You looked at him incredulously. „Wands?“ you repeated in a low voice. Before he could answer you started grinning. This soon ended in you almost doubling over holding your stomach. Surely this was a joke, or the shock finally caught up to you.

The older man lightly laughed along with you. „Miss, I am delighted to see that you find this information only half as shocking as I expected you to, but I am afraid we need to relocate sooner rather than later“ he chuckled. „W-what do you m-mean?“ you asked still gasping for air and wiping your eyes. „You are absolutely bonkers. I am not going anywhere with you. I am going home! Wands…next thing you are going to tell me is that they were wizards“. Still wheezing a bit, you turned around and walked off towards your flat. „Maybe you should start believing in the unbelievable a little bit more, Miss. I am guessing working in a Bar and walking around the city can become kind of dull.“ You stopped in your tracks and slowly turned around. The feeling of having to prove yourself yet again made its painful way up your throat. „Sir, let me make one thing clear“, you sneered, taking a couple steps towards him. „I do not know how you know this about me nor do I particularly care. But I did not leave my old life behind for another old man to tell me how to live it! You want me to believe that magic is real? That I just witnessed it! Fine, fine. Prove it to me then!“ Why did you sound so desperate at the end? This was an utter joke.

The old man reached into his long robes and produced yet another wand. You looked at it skeptically. Without a word the old man flung the wand though the air. Your eyes widened when from the tip, silvery smoke erupted. First it was without shape, and it still could have been some sort of trick. But then in front of you, in the air made of silvery smoke, hovered a large bird flapping its wings slowly. It had very long tailfeathers. Slowly it rose above your heads and started to fly around you, gathering speed. You twisted and turned as to not lose sight of it. It was gorgeous. The next moment it was slowing down and disappearing into thin air. Your heart pounded, but not out of fear as it did a few minutes ago, but because of sheer excitement and childish joy. „Was that...? I only ever saw drawings. It´s a mythical creature!“ you whisper-yelled looking at the man. His eyes were fixed on you the whole time. „Mythical for you. Yes, that was a phoenix,“ he said calmly. „Believe me when I tell you, you were in grave danger when you entered this alley. And I cannot say if there are others about. So, I would like to see you save. And I cannot see you save here.“ He gestured to the rubble on the ground and the blast holes in the walls. You looked around as well. Was this your life? Did you want this to be everything there is? The answer was clear to you. The opportunity was standing right in front of you. So, you looked at the man with a stern expression, nodded your head once and took the last few steps until you were right in front of him. He smiled a brilliant smile and moved to stay beside you. „I am very relieved you see reason, Miss. Now, please hold onto my arm and close your eyes. The first time can be quite uncomfortable.“ You looked up to him with raised eyebrows and with a last, what in the gods' names am I doing here, you grabbed his arm. „I am _____ by the way“, you said quietly before closing your eyes. „It is my utmost pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss ____. “That was all you could hear before your stomach turned.

____________________________________________________________

Let me know if you liked it so far :) Should I post the second chapter? Many more beloved characters will be introduced in this one.

[anulithots]

Contrived tropes, the Kingdom of the Planet of the apes, and how to write a fallen civilization

Okay so the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

(I'm just going to keep using these gifs instead of the ones from the new one sooo)

How did you take an absolute masterpiece of a trilogy, crafted with internal conflict and nuanced characters and some of the best moral dilemmas I’ve ever seen in media, and create a movie so boring that I could barely sit to the end… IN WHICH YOU MAKE A WHOLE NONESENSICAL PLOT TWIST THAT MESSES WITH THE LAST MOVIE.

And I have thoughts, some ideas for rewrites, IDK I’m just so disappointed with western media I absolutely loved the other planet of the apes movies. (The war for the planet of the apes messed me up in the best and worst way possible for DAYS). I’m not going to claim myself as better than the writers here, but I am. I can do better. And I will. Suggestions are appreciated. Also note I haven’t watched the original planet of the apes movies. I’m only talking about the triology here.

Honestly the trilogy was perfect, and I want something original from Hollywood and it’s so sad that I have to ask that. Anyways watch indie animation; it’s amazing and here we go:

Noa, and how to copy Ceasar but badly

The wasted potential. What I will say is that they did make him cry. Love to see that.

Other than that, the first bit of this movie, with the trio and a bonding ceremony only for protagonist to lead the bad guys to the tribe, which causes all of them to either die or be taken away, leaving the protagonist to make a basic goal to make things right.

Does that sound familiar?

It’s basic middle grade fantasy. Not that there’s anything wrong with middle grade, quite the contrary, middle grade has some of the deepest writing known to humanity. But this? It feels like someone took basic tropes and shoved it onto a Save the Cat formula (did I mention how much I hate that book and want to burn it for what it did to wider storytelling?) then proceeded to pander it out for a good two hours. Honestly the poor sound design people. The music tried so hard to make me feel something. But I didn’t. Which juxtaposes the last movie and it’s visceral storytelling but I digress.

Now if you wanted to use the same structure, the same events, but have them rise to the same level of perfection as the trilogy, then here are some suggestions.

(a) Themes. Holy herbs the basic themes here actually rotted my brain. The ‘apes versus humans’ thing. In the original trilogy, these themes hinted at a question: at what lengths will you go for the people you love, and what havoc will that bring to the world?

(The entire decimation of the human race actually. Also, this is based off memory from years ago, my apologies if it isn’t completely accurate)

According to @myleesketches “the first three movies had so much more of a psychological exploration” Which yesssssss.

So for this movie? Simple. Keep the same theme. Although, the characters often mentioned the theme of trying to reclaim an old world, which is fine, and could prove to be interesting, so I’ll make an updated theme:

For what lengths will you go to preserve the people you love, and retain that safety for them, which will only backfire in the end? You cannot save them. Silly humans, silly apes, silly curse of intelligence, thinking yourself so powerful that you could change fate itself.

Okay actually that second half is interesting to me.

(b) Noa himself.

Siighhh he’s a basic protagonist. I’m sorry but he has so much wasted potential. Given a decent beginning then doomed to side quests for the rest of the movie.

So with this theme one can build a basic internal conflict. If I remember correctly, Ceaser struggled with the attachment form those he cared about, versus the needs/requirements society had of him. And he struggled with the initial rejection of his human family, the desire to keep his new family around throughout the entire trilogy.

So for Noa, we can use a slightly different angle. The idea of intelligence and control over fate perhaps? (IDK this movie showcased a new ape world, if you’re going to have a society replace human beings, might as well have a conversation on if human struggles are simply byproducts of intelligence, on if creatures cannot have intelligence without the problems it brings, on if, with evolution, it brings our own downfall.)

Listen it would be amazing.

Since they kept talking about how ‘Noa is so smart’, have him be that intellectual sort, with ideas for how to better improve things around him, and this sort of mentality, this need to fix things will drive him mad later. This can be his belief system, that he looks to the world and sees ways to make life better for those he cares about. (Yes I know this was the villain’s point of view here. That’s the point I have ideas.)

Then as far as a fear, or contradicting belief goes… hmm, perhaps we’ll bring control into this. How, compared to nature, the creatures within have no control of whether they live or die. This could be interwoven into that whole ‘clan law’ thing that they had. Nature is good, do not kill fellow apes, respect nature, don’t mess with it. (wouldn’t want to be like that last dominant species… wherever they are)

So Noa grew up with this belief, doesn’t like it because it contradicts his ‘intelligence’ belief, so it becomes his fear. He fears that, in the end, nature will make all his efforts futile. So in an attempt to counteract this, Noa often overcompensates with his intelligence to tame nature, and is quite paranoid over things he cannot control.

From here we get some ideas about what could happen in the plot:

-corruption of the clan, Noa cannot save them. They could still get stolen by some Ceasar cult… which is… fineee I guess. But let’s bring in some ‘brainwashing’ that is absolutely irreversible. Something that messes with everyone’s heads to such a degree that they aren’t the same anymore.

-okay and here you can parallel the first movie, the thing that started it all, trying to save the brains of those they care about. If Noa attempts to save them perhaps? IDK I’m throwing around some ideas. I do not want to write this entire thing but the ideas, they interest me.

-so human technology can save them? … hmm now how technologically advanced can the apes…

wait.

Okay so random orangutan guy? Has a human ‘pet’/companion perhaps? I’ll figure this out more later. Eccentric and technological but in the ‘reusing old human things in scraps’. Idk then something with that? … mmm I don’t love that idea. I might come back to this.

-also just. have. Noa’s tribe cherish the memory of Ceasar. If you’re going to have a Native American-esque tribe then do it properly. Otherwise do something original. In fact….. what I do for my non-human creatures and their culture is base it off of le science. So all. you. had. to. do. was base the new ape culture off of what apes already do, but tweak it for increased intelligence. In fact. I feel like you could do something interesting here. With these apes being aware of their human predecessors… and please have them be aware of it. The audience saw how the world got to this point, do not explain it to us again. Instead, have the apes have their own perception of what to do with the ruins, and how to continue. I don’t have any ideas for this as of now but I might IDK.

-what lengths does he go to? Well the usage of humans perhaps, in fact, perhaps Noa is the one who employs the slavery of humans for his goal? ANd he decimates the previous ape clan perhaps? Let him go to the lengths that not even Ceasar went to.

-like if humans are still intelligent and in scraps. And I’m talking absolute scraps. They live in tiny little villages, perhaps just a few, some old weapon stores, hidden away, and stories about what they once were. Resentment for apes has been built up for generations. So they could represent lost intelligence. Overall, they actually live pretty well, pretty comfortably. They have to live with the wild and survive, but there is peace. Less problems. Ect. ect. Yet still they crave for something better. -also apes keep some humans as pets. These pet humans are just barely intelligent. They are either treated very well or not so well.

Why. do. they. talk. so much.

That is all I have to say here. Bring back the sign language. That or have them make a mixture of languages… perhaps something where they use bits of words and sounds to accentuate a sign along with facial expressions. Sign language is a rich visual language and it would be perfect for beings who were not made to speak aloud to adapt into something of their own.

ALso more ape mannerisms. I loooveee when non-human characters have non-human characteristics. Make them act like apes. Make them act like smart apes. Please.

I miss Maurice. And side characters.

At this point the story would’ve been more interesting if Noa was a lone, angry wanderer, snapping at everything in his path on a search for his clan.

But also… le side characters. Also wasted potential here.

(My siblings and I are talking about the first three moves and I’m sobginggg they were soo good)'

I think his name was Raka? He died or something. I did not like him. He talked too much about things we’ve already seen. I did not miss him.

But I mean… if you want to have his theme be about preserving the intelligence of the past?

If you have his theme be about not repeating the sins of the past, of treading forward with caution, and remembrance of the past so it does not repeat? Could prove to be interesting.

Yes I do like the idea of someone who lives on the edge of civilization, collects things, and has opinions for how society should run. But Raka was just… executed so poorly.

So you could have him be generally quiet, and constantly collecting things, a bit aloof, getting lost, seems silly but if you ask or if prompted or if necessary then he’ll say the most wise thing to ever exist. He’ll basically serve as an unreliable moral compass. That does die we’re keeping that. Perhaps when this new Raka dies it symbolizes Noa throwing the dangers of intelligence to the side, and instead pursuing his goals with full force.

Okay now to talk about Mae.

I sob.

Everyone’s white with blue eyes and perfect skin and I am so tired.

The little. girl. in. the war for the planet of the apes. was. so. tragic. and. wonderfully. told.

But like… wasn’t she supposed to be the last human?

Sigh.

Anywho, if you will have humans here. Please. I beg of you. No more skinny white teenagers with blue eyes trying to survive a world that should have some more diversity other than: white and not tanned whatsoever. Yes, I will be salty about this.

Anywho, so if you do want to have humans in this, following Noa and co. around, then some options can be:

-someone older… either middle aged or some grandma that managed to survive and is like a cat IDK

-a parent/non bio parents or smth + children

-parents who have lost children

-a lot of younger humans. Perhaps siblings that follow the apes around. They can be around … 12 maybe? Then… you know… if Noa uses them for some purpose and it’s horrific then it’s just horrific and you know… storytelling. Let it be dark.

(no matter which human option you go with, they can all be dark. LET IT BE DARK! MUAHA-)

Especially because the humans trust these apes. Like very much so.

…. okay so perhaps Noa here somehow uses the humans to regain his tribe back?

That sounds very le science and I’m not sure how much I love that idea… unless you have this thing set up where Noa likes tinkering with human scraps. In fact, just have this world be riddled with old human things… then they come across this whole facility/hospital thing or something.

Then Noa has control of the Ceasar cult at this point, and also does horrific things with them. If he does manage so save some of his tribe - either his mother or one of his friends - then they are also horrified, and they reject being saved.

ALSO

Backstory is better than chronological fight me. Have Noa flashback to his life with his friends, eventually leading up to how he lost everyone. Have it start with him traveling to save everyone. SHow a fleshed out character and tease that there are reasons behind these actions. Show them. Pay off. You know… storytelling. wowow.

hmmm this is missing something.

… LE OPPOSITION!

What to do with the humans, rebellious apes, and suches

If you have some of Noa’s apes survive the Caesar cult, and stay behind to rebuild, then oppose Noa’s efforts, serving as the theme of nature’s simplicity. They have been living with nothing for awhile and there’s a comradery in that. There’s a peace in that.

Then Noa returns, not just clinging to the old world, but to a better one. And they know that this will ruin what little they have left.

Chaos ensues. Pain and angst and such

Yes so those are my ideas for now!

Erm this makes watching that entire movie better, I needed to rewatch some link click just to refresh my brain.

Any suggestions are much appreciated. Thank you for reading my rant <3

[suvidrache]

Forever & Always?

age in bio when interacting. minors do not interact.

Word Count: 697 / Read it on AO3 / Wattpad | Event List

Kabal had never really dreamed of marriage. He loved you, but it was just something that had slipped his mind. He wanted to get married at some point if the time ever came.

He had met you during his time as a cop. He had been heavily scarred after being burned by Kintaro, dragged into Outworld, given supernatural powers, killed off, and brought back from the dead.

He's been through a lot. Kano wasted no time brainwashing Kabal into thinking that he had worked with him before or he had saved his life. Whatever the excuse was, Kabal had become a criminal working with and for Kano. However, he still remembered you.

You were his. You stuck with him through it all. You loved him despite his scars. Despite how he wasn't the same man before any of the events had happened. He had changed, and you continued to love and support him.

Kabal knew that he wanted you in his life, for however long it may last again.

He wanted to marry you and possibly have a kid or two, but that wasn't really important. It was more important for him to marry you.

Although, one could say you were already married considering you never left him for anyone else, even when he had been hurt and later temporarily died.

He knew you wanted to make it official, and he wanted it to be official as well.

Kabal had been searching several stores looking for the perfect ring for you. Debating on whether to steal it for you. After some consideration, he'd pay for it. He couldn't get married if he was in jail.

Kabal had grown up in New York all his life, however, you hadn't. You weren't even from New York. You had visited on a vacation trip and met him along the way.

You wanted to stay in contact and so did he. He gave you his number, and you both texted, called, and kept in touch until you had enough money to move to New York.

He found you a nice place and somewhere that was safe. With him being a cop, he didn't want anyone to find and possibly hurt you.

After several more months, you moved in with him and from there, things were great. Well, sort of, his injuries, other things, and you continued to care for him through it all.

He wanted to find a nice place to propose to you, but he wasn't sure of the place. He wanted something romantic, something that would be pretty, something that, if you were into that, would make a great place for photos on your Instagram. He wasn't a social media person. He didn't even have any photos, let alone any social media accounts. Actually, he had one - Facebook, and that was it. Even then, it was mostly empty. No photos, nothing.

He liked his privacy.

He walked up the steps to the house, unlocked the door, and walked inside.

"Babe, I'm home."

And there you were.

Your eyes met his, and he smiled as you wrapped your arms around him.

He lifted you off the ground and kissed you.

He set you down for a moment.

"Welcome home, love."

"Thank you. I'd like to take you somewhere special."

"Where to?"

"It's a surprise." He said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

You quickly got yourself ready, and he led you to the place.

It was the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. A place filled with flowers, trees, and a pond.

He followed after you as you wandered around exploring, holding his hand.

He waited until you were in a beautiful spot. Your back was to him as he spoke and began to kneel.

"I've known you for a while now and we've been through a lot… I love you and will you spend the rest of your life with me?"

He finished as you turned towards him, your hands covering your face in shock.

You lowered your hands, nodding while saying, "Yes, I will."

He took your hand and slipped the ring on your finger. He rose and gave you a hug, a kiss and you returned the affection.

© SUVIDRACHE — do not copy, translate, modify, or plagiarize my work. reblogs are appreciated!

Tag List: @phantomheiko, @sunmoongoddess, @thevoidwriting / To Join My Tag List Apply Here!

[braveclementine]

Chaos on a Quinjet

Warnings: None

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OC Elizabeth Lightwood. I do not condone any copying of this.

You were nervous, following after Fury as he went to talk to Loki. You knew you weren't really supposed to, but you also wanted to see Elizabeth. She refused to leave Loki's side, and had even let herself go into the sealed container that they had put Loki into, despite everyone telling her not to.

Fury pretty much ignored you as he stepped up onto the platform. You stayed close to the shadows, eyeing the two inside the chamber. Loki was standing, looking almost unperturbed. You had a very bad feeling about everything that was going on. The fight had been to easy. You had seen the mans illusions.

He could fight well. He could've at least escaped you all by using his illusions on his own. So why had he surrendered?

"In case it's unclear." Fury started in that normal, almost angry voice of his. "if you try to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass," Fury allowed the bottom of the floor to fall out, showing the air vacuum below. You fretted nervously, wondering if Loki would risk anything with his soulmate in with him. "it's 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap." Fury shouted over the air roar. "YOU GET HOW THAT WORKS?"

"Ant," Fury gestured to the container that Loki was in, and then back to the console, "Boot."

You supposed it was something that the two of them had talked about before.

Loki started to laugh, and you started to chew on the nail of your thumb. It was a very bad habit of yours and you needed to break it. "It's an impressive cage." he gestured with his hands. "Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury said.

"Oh, I've heard." Loki sneered, and turned to look at one of the blinking lights. You wondered if the others were watching on the other side. You started to move along the side, closer to Fury.

"A mindless beast." Loki continued in a softer voice and you frowned. "Makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I?" Fury asked in a patronizing tone. "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh." Loki winced. "It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded of what real power is."

You glanced over at Elizabeth, who had laid out, with her paws tucked under her. You wondered why she was sticking by his side. Was she really so desperate for his affection and love? Was it worth risking her life for? And what did this mean for her? Usually people were soulmated because they were alike in souls. So if Loki was bad, that had to mean that to some degree, Elizabeth felt the same way as him.

But you had known Elizabeth your entire life. You knew she was kind and sweet, though she could have a brutal streak if she was riled up. But then. . . how could she possibly be soulmated to a dictator like Loki? It didn't make any sense.

"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something." Fury sneered, walking off and you quickly followed after him, after shooting one last look at the two in the cage.

🎃 :::::  🧡  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  🧡  ::::: 🎃

"I want to know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." You heard Steve Rogers say as you quickly joined them in the main part of the quinjet. Banner, Natasha, Thor, Maria, and Steve were the only ones there, and you wondered where Tony had gone.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Banner said uncertainly, his glasses in his hands. He and Thor were standing very close together and you thought their relationship was kind've cute. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak." Thor said, though his voice was lighter and kinder than perhaps any of the rest of you had said it. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is still of Asgard. And he is my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha spoke from where she was sitting. You took a chair next to the Captain, pulling out your pistol and knives to clean and repair them.

"He's adopted." Thor admitted uncertainly and a faint smile came over your lips.

"I think it's about the mechanics." Bruce said and you looked up when you saw that Tony was coming. "Iridium. . . what do they need Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony said and you slipped your pistol and knives back into their respective places, getting out of your chair to walk over to him and Agent Coulson. He muttered something to Coulson and then back to us. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D."

He wrapped his arm around your waist, kissing your cheek, before letting you go with a small squeeze. "No hard feelings, Point Break, you've got a mean swing." He patted Thor on his thick arm with the back of his hand and kept talking with his back to the rest of you lot, "Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long, as Loki wants. Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails." He said as he pirouetted in front of the crew. "That man is playing Galaga!" He pointed across the room and even Steve followed the line of sight.

"He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Tony sighed and you put a hand over your face. He put a hand over one eye and then looked at us, "How does Fury even see these?"

You snickered.

"He turns." Maria deadpanned.

You giggled now.

"Sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials," He walked up to one of the screens and just started tapping at it, "Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria asked.

"Last night." Tony snarked. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory paper. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

You raised a small hand and he winked at you. "I know you did bunny. We did it together last night in bed, under the covers-"

"Okay." Steve interrupted quickly and for some reason, he was blushing. "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"

"He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier."

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion-fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony sighed.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked, looking lost while the two science bros shook hands.

"He's taken." Thor growled lowly, but not enough for Tony to hear.

You winked at Steve. "Don't worry about him. He's like this twenty-four seven."

"Dr Banner is only here to track the Cube." Fury said, finally joining in on your conversation, and interrupting whatever Bruce and Tony were talking about. "I was hoping you might join him."

"I would start with that stick of his." Steve inputted. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube." Fury said. "And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys? I do not understand." Thor said.

"I do." Steve said, pointing with a red gloved finger. Bruce looked awkward and Tony actually rolled his eyes. You on the other hand felt pity, and smile encouragingly as he looked around and said in a softer tone, "I understood that reference."

"Shall we play, doctor?" Tony asked, looking at Banner.

"This way sir." Bruce said.

Tony quickly planted a kiss on your lips and then followed the other doctor out of the room.

You pulled out a notepad and paper. Steve wasn't leaving the room. You quickly jotted down Harry Potter (movies), Bones (TV show), Designated Survivor (TV show), TVD/TO (TV show), The Incredibles (movie), Jurassic Park (movies), Star Wars (movies) and Pink Panther (movie). The Starless Sea (book), City of Bones (Series), Matched (series), Harry Potter (series), IT (book), Lord of the Rings (books), and And Then There Were None (book).

You handed him the piece of paper. "The first set of lists are just some things you can watch. My personal favorite is Harry Potter and I think you'll realize that there are a lot of people who enjoy the Harry Potter series. Though I recommend reading it first. There are a lot more details in the books and I personally think they are better. But if you would prefer watching something right off the back, you should watch Bones first I think. It's my favorite show, it's murder mystery. But if you don't like that, maybe you should start with Designated Survivor."

"Also, I really enjoyed the Starless Sea. It was written so differently from other books-"

"Don't talk his ear off Agent Stark." Fury said in amusement.

"Sorry Director Fury." You blushed, quieting down.

"Thank you." Steve said sincerely, taking the list from me and showing me a black book he had. "I've been using this to write down new things that I should read, watch, and listen to."

"Ooh music." You sighed, trying to hold yourself back. "Hmm, I don't listen to, too much. Mostly a few rather political rappers that no one else seems to like, like Tom MacDonald, Bryson Gray, and Tyson James. But Imagine Dragons is pretty good. I don't think you'd like BTS or BLACKPINK though. Maybe OneRepublic or Maroon 5. Not sure. Umm. . . The Beatles and the Beach boys are pretty good."

Steve nodded and kept up pretty well with jotting down everything You rattled off.

"What is BTS and BLACKPINK?" He asked.

"K-pop." You answered.

He stared at you blankly.

"Korean pop. Asian music, etc."

He nodded now.

"What's it like? Having Stark as your soulmate?"

"Oh." You thought about it. "Different I guess. My life growing up was. . . rough. I felt very fortunate that he wanted me. And I love him a lot. I guess I'd kind've have to, to put up with his narcissistic butt." You laughed and then quieted down and replied sincerely. "He's good to me."

"Good." Steve said, looking far off through the windows.

You hopped off the table, squeezing his shoulder as you decided to go and take a power nap.

You wondered for a moment, if he was thinking about his soulmate.

🎃 :::::  🧡  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  🧡  ::::: 🎃

You found Tony, Bruce, and Steve in the lab when he came out. Steve seemed rather angry, Bruce was quiet as always, and Steve seemed angry about something.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Rogers was retorting to something that Tony or Bruce had said. Since he was angry with Tony, it had probably been Tony.

"Do you think I'm not?" Tony retorted back. "Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

You frowned a little. As an Agent, Fury was kind've your boss. You really didn't want to think badly of him. But you could admit that he could be very secretive.

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's 'the' spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging him too, isn't it?" He asked, gesturing to Bruce.

"Uh. . . I just want to finish my work here, and. . ."

"Doctor?" Steve asked sharply.

He sighed and then took off his glasses after a moment, "'A warm light for all mankind.' Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube."

"I heard it." Steve assented.

"I think that was meant for you." Bruce said, pointing at Tony. Tony held out a package of blueberries to Bruce, who took one, "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big, ugly building in New York?" Steve asked.

"Hey." You piped up with fake scorn at Steve. "That's six percent my baby."

Tony snickered.

"It's powered by an arc-reactor, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?"

"It's just the prototype." You and Tony said together.

Tony, of course, continued, "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."

"So, why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce finished. "What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.S secure files."

"I'm sorry. Did you say-" Steve started.

"Tony!" You cried out, exasperated. "Do you want me to lose my job?"

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D has ever tried to hide." Tony smirked. "Blueberry?"

"Yet you're confused about why they don't want you around." Steve snarked.

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't' stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them." Steve said.

He was sounding more like a soldier than anything else. But you couldn't blame him for that.

"Following's not really my style." Tony responded, popping blueberries into his mouth.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve asked.

"Of the people in this room," Tony said in mock consideration, "which one is, A, wearing a spangly outfit, and B, not of use?"

"Steve, Y/N, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you." Bruce implored us. Tony and Steve both looked at you and you hesitated slightly.

"Well," You said slowly. "Fury is my boss, alright? The last thing I want to do is go against him. . . but at the same time you're right Bruce. Tony had the arc reactor and the energy source. Why not seek him out for the project? Why an Agent like Barton?"

"Just find the Cube." Steve muttered, and he left the room.

You shrugged. "I'll leave you boys to it. Have fun."

"So," You said as you caught up to Steve, making him jump a little. "Where are we headed off to?"

"Tony will kill me if I get you in trouble." Steve said, stopping where he was walking. "And Fury will kill you if you're found with me."

"Ah, no biggy." You responded, "Let's go. Lead the way."

Steve sighed, but decided not to argue against you and continued on the path he had been going.

You went down into the lower parts of the ship, finding a almost empty corridor. Steve found a door that read 'secured storage' and he pushed the door open with all of his strength. You quickly looked around, and then the two of you stepped inside of the room.

There were rows upon rows of silver cases, kind've looking like something that might be on a director set, something that would carry microphone set ups and whatnot for a TV crew. You wondered what was inside them.

Steve managed to use the Super Soldier serum to leap up to the catwalk above the two of you, but you had to painstakingly climb up one of the metal shelves that were holding cases. You leapt to the railing, and Steve helped you over.

"Sorry," He responded quickly. "I should've carried you on my back."

You lifted a finger to your lips, hearing Agents talking on what seemed like the other side of the wall and the two of you headed down the walk.

Steve opened up one of the cases, and the first thing that you saw was a mask. It didn't mean much to you, so you looked at him. You looked closer and saw the symbol of HYDRA on the weapons.

"Steve!" You gasped.

"Let's go." Steve said in a harsh voice, yanking one of the guns out of the chest. He wrapped an arm around your waist and jump back over the railing. The two of you made your way back up to the lab. People gave the two of you stares, but no one stopped you, perhaps to afraid at the look on Steve's face.

Fury had joined Tony and Bruce in the lab and Tony was asking, "What is phase 2?"

Steve slammed the gun down on the table and you hovered by his side, looking anxiously between everyone, and especially Fury. "Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. using the Cube to make weapons." Steve said. "Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're making-"

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony said. "What were you lying?" He asked, turning around a screen to show some sort of weapon on the screen. Over the coms, you could hear Natasha informing you that Loki's plan was to unleash the Hulk. You glanced over at Bruce.

"I was wrong director, the world hasn't change a bit." Steve spat as Thor and Natasha joined the rest of you.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Nat and me.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha asked.

Bruce gave a laugh. "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Lok is manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what, exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." He grabbed the monitor and you started to slip around the edge towards the scepter. "I'd like to know, why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him." Fury pointed, but did not look at Thor.

"Me?" Thor questioned.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we alone but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor said.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you." Fury responded. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve asked.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies." Thor grumbled, "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"And we're not." You responded softly.

Tony moved across the room to pull you away from Steve's side and put his arm around you.

"A higher form?" Steve questioned.

"You forced our hand." Fury responded, ignoring Steve. "We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent." Tony responded. "Because that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark." Fury said.

You were pretty impressed that Fury wasn't caving to anyone. He was definitely strong and it would apparently take a lot for him to break.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep-" Steve said.

Tony interrupted, "Hold on. How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry. Isn't everything?" Steve snapped.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor snapped.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury responded.

"You treat your champions with mistrust." Thor responded right back.

You drew away from Tony's side. The scepter was making a weird noise, the blue stone inside of it was glowing. You frowned, drawing closer to it now. It seemed almost as though. . . was it feeding off the abrasive energy in the room? Was that why Loki wanted the Hulk to transform? Would that be abrasive or negative enough energy. . . but for what? What would the stone do?

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." Thor said.

"That's his M.O. isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no no, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb." Bruce said. He was still very close to the scepter.

"You need to step away." Fury ordered.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked, putting his hand awkwardly on Steve's shoulder, which was immediately thrown off.

"You know damn well why! Back off!"

"Oh I'm starting to want you to make me." Tony snarled.

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?" Steve asked.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, husband, father." Tony responded off the top of his head.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Steve snapped. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for, is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire." Tony snipped.

"Always a way out. You know you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

You were anxious now. This was not going how things should've been going. You felt as though you had realized something, but you weren't sure what it was. You were afraid to hold the scepter, but also afraid not to touch it.

"A hero? Like you?" Tony responded angrily. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Tony!" You protested, unable to keep quiet any longer.

"Put on the suit. Let's go for a few rounds."

Thor started to laugh. "You people are so petty and tiny."

"Yeah, this is a team." Bruce scoffed.

"Agent Romanoff would you escort Dr Banner back to his-"

"Where? You rented my room."

"The cell was just in case-"

"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know. I tried. I got low. I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back to this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You want to know my secret Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?"

You saw that his hand was reaching for the scepter and you saw that both Nat and Fury were reaching for their guns. You could either grab the scepter. . . you made a split second decision, grabbing his wrist.

You smiled kindly at him, "Sorry, but it's making a very weird humming noise. I don't think any of us should touch it right now."

Suddenly, a beeping noise started and you knew it meant that they could find the Tesseract.

But no one was paying attention.