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vampirecatboy · 8 months ago

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late because i had a thing this afternoon, then my queue ate the first version of this post lol, so here it is, my third and final fic for Wyll week!

today's prompt was "alternate use for the tadpole," it's roughly 2.4k of plotless smut, and you can read it on ao3 right here

There was something about Wyll, something Kilian had noticed during their time spent on the road together.

Every word of praise he got, no matter who it came from, did something to him.

Kilian didn't actually notice until recently, as they started spending more one on one time together. Every time Wyll received praise, he practically radiated pride, Kilian could almost envision a wagging tail.

And when the praise came from Kilian himself, well… Wyll seemed to like it in a different way. The shy smile and glance away, the subtle but not quite subtle enough biting of his lip. It was all very cute, and it made Kilian want to hold him down and see just how far the praise could take him.

On a night like any other, Kilian got the chance to do just that.

He and Wyll would occasionally stay up together, drinking and sharing stories from their pasts, Wyll with tales of fearsome monsters and hard-won battles, Kilian with salacious stories of his early twenties. It was a bit underhanded on Kilian’s part, because on the one hand he wanted to respect Wyll’s desire to wait, but on the other hand, part of him really wanted to rile him up enough to let Kilian between his legs.

With his recent discovery of Wyll’s thing for praise, he wondered if he had at last found the key to Wyll’s proverbial chastity belt. It would just take a little storytelling and embellishment on Kilian’s part, but he knew he had it in him. What was embellishment if not lying with plot?

“Have I ever told you about the cleric?” Kilian said, having waited for a lull in conversation to voice his little fabrication.

Wyll took a swig of the wine they were sharing and looked at him curiously.

“No, I don’t think you have,” he said. “Is this another notch-in-the-bedpost story?”

“Mon ange, those are the only interesting stories I have,” Kilian remarked dryly.

“Not true!” Wyll furrowed his brow and gave a kind smile. “I quite liked the one about your sister and that, uh… he was a noble but I can’t remember what you said… ugh, what was he? Duke?”

“Marquis,” Kilian smirked. “And the fact that you cannot remember tells me it was not an interesting story.”

“Aha, but I remember that he gifted her a room of flowers she was allergic to, then her throat almost closed up and she had to be physically stopped from casting fireball to destroy them,” Wyll said, smiling all the while. “The nobleman’s title was inconsequential to the story.”

Kilian stared at him blankly, and Wyll just kept smiling. It was almost annoying how good he was at this. Almost.

“Tell me again how I don’t remember?” He nudged Kilian with his elbow.

Kilian grumbled and batted him away. “Do you want to hear the cleric story or not?”

“Sure, love, tell me about your priest kink.”

Kilian snatched the wine bottle from him as he laughed, and took several swallows of the tasty red.

“Gods, you are a pain in my ass,” he said. Any guilt he felt for taking advantage of Wyll’s little thing for praise vanished in that moment. Wyll wanted to tease him? Well, he would tease Wyll right back. “So the cleric… he was this cute little half elf. Lovely brown skin, gorgeous, dark red hair, and just the prettiest eyes, the color of sunshine.”

All true. Kilian had met this cleric through a mutual “friend.” The three of them shared many a steamy evening together, enjoying each other’s bodies. He would leave the third out of his story, Wyll didn’t need to know that particular detail.

“He was so sweet but had a voracious sexual appetite,” he continued. “I could barely keep up.”

“Based on your past stories, that’s really saying something,” Wyll chuckled.

“Make a man with no need to rest between orgasms and he will inevitably tire out those that do.”

Wyll’s brow furrowed.

“He had a cunt,” Kilian clarified.

“Huh,” Wyll blinked at him. “That would do it.”

“I took it as a compliment,” he said. “I was clearly satisfying him if he wanted it so much.”

“This is starting to sound like a brag,” Wyll said flatly.

Kilian cringed. “Pardonne-moi, I got carried away.”

Wyll waved his hand dismissively.

“To get back on track…” Kilian started. “He may have been running me into the ground in terms of frequency, but soon after we met, I discovered something about him that often gave me the upper hand during our late-night liaisons.”

Wyll put the wine bottle on the ground beside him and leaned closer. “Yeah?”

Kilian looked him square in the eye and said, “‘Good boy.’”

Wyll froze, his eyes widening almost imperceptibly.

“I- I’m sorry?” he stammered.

“I would call him a good boy,” Kilian smiled.

“Oh…”

“He loved when I praised him,” Kilian said. “It would always make him melt. Good boy , you’re doing so well , be good and come for me .”

With each word, Wyll looked more shy, and Kilian only grew more bold.

He pressed his hand flat to Wyll’s chest. “Can you be good for me? Hm ?”

He could feel Wyll’s racing heart.

“Kilian…”

“Yes, mon ange?”

“Are you… are you doing something to me?” Wyll asked.

“Is something I am saying affecting you?” Kilian asked in return. “Would you like to be praised?”

Wyll stammered, “I- well- I don’t- I don’t know, I-”

Kilian took his face in his hands and leaned in close.

“Because I could,” he murmured. “You are so good, Wyll. So, so good.”

Wyll closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.

“You like that?”

Wyll nodded, biting his lip

“Oh…” Kilian cooed. “My sweet boy.”

He pressed his lips to Wyll’s in a soft kiss, then another, and another. They could never do just one kiss, not when they were alone. There was typically a stopping point, but that night was different. Wyll was softer, more pliable, giving Kilian the perfect opportunity to swing a leg over his thighs and settle in his lap.

Wyll didn’t protest. In fact, he seemed to be very into it, wrapping his arms around Kilian’s waist and gripping his shirt as he continued to ravish him with his mouth. Their kisses grew more heated, and before long, Kilian was rocking his hips against Wyll’s, while Wyll slid his hands up the back of his shirt.

Feeling his warm, rough hands on his back had all sorts of filthy ideas running through Kilian’s head. Wyll underneath him, stripped naked, writhing and squirming and clawing at his skin as Kilian plowed into him relentlessly.

Or should his hands be tied? Kilian always did love a spot of rope in the bedroom. Maybe a blindfold too.

He wished he could show Wyll all of it, see what he liked, because as of right then, the only thing that he knew Wyll liked was praise. And Kilian himself of course.

No. There was a way to show him. They wouldn’t even have to take their clothes off.

“There is so much I want to do to you, Wyll,” Kilian whispered into his mouth.

“I- I… I want to know, but…” Wyll bit his lip and looked away.

“I can show you…” He pressed their foreheads together. “If you let me in.”

“Let you-”

Kilian tapped into the little wriggling guest in his head, reaching out to Wyll in an attempt to enter his mind.

“I will let you in too,” he said. “We can share.”

Wyll chewed his lip and held his stare, until finally, Kilian felt the barrier come down. He could see Wyll’s thoughts, loose images that, at the moment, were all Kilian.

“Good boy.”

A burst of elation and arousal. That boded well for Kilian’s plan.

“Do you want to see?”

Wyll nodded.

Kilian closed his eyes and concentrated on the scene in his head.

They were on Kilian’s bed, back at his family’s estate, stripped down to their chemises. Kilian teased a kiss, barely brushing Wyll’s lips, squeezing one of his pecs as he slid his lips along Wyll’s jaw, until he found the smooth skin of his throat.

Wyll sighed and carded his fingers through Kilian’s hair, but his soft, relaxed noises of contentment shifted as Kilian reached down and cupped him through his pants.

Kilian divested him of his shirt, and skillfully undid the fastenings of his pants before pushing him onto his back and removing his own shirt. Wyll lied before him, panting and disheveled, staring up at Kilian with a look of pure lust, pure hunger.

“Let me see you,” he said, running his hand down his chest and stomach, sliding it down, down into his underwear. “Show me what you’ll give me.”

“Mm, say please,” Kilian smiled sweetly, tilting his head.

“Please,” Wyll obeyed. “I want to see you.”

“Good boy.”

Kilian could feel Wyll’s growing arousal tickling the back of his mind. Time to turn it up a notch.

Ever the tease, Kilian slowly undid his pants’ fastenings, hooking his thumbs under his waistband, before pushing them down his thighs, along with his underwear. Wyll’s hand moved in a slow, steady motion between his legs, pumping his cock as Kilian revealed himself.

“Your turn.” With just those words as warning, Kilian reached forward, and tugged Wyll’s remaining clothes from his body.

At last, Wyll was laid out before him, naked, skin glistening with sweat, body ready to be taken.

And Kilian would take him, but only when he begged for it.

He pressed kisses to the insides of Wyll’s thighs, nipping and sucking, getting closer and closer to where he knew Wyll wanted it, skirting around his swollen cock, teasing and teasing until Wyll was shaking, his chest heaving.

Only when his fingers dug into the sheets did Kilian dive in and drag his tongue up his length.

Wyll cried out as Kilian took him in his mouth, fingers weaving into Kilian’s hair as he bobbed his head, groaning and gasping as Kilian expertly worked him over.

“Kilian…” he sighed.

He was leaking profusely, panting and squirming, moments from coming, so of course he let out a needy whine when Kilian abruptly pulled off.

Kilian hushed him, pressing kisses to his hip, stomach, ribs, making his way to Wyll’s chest and wrapping his lips around a nipple. He swirled his tongue around the sensitive bud, steadily stroking Wyll’s cock all the while.

Then his fingers trailed down, further between his legs. Wyll gasped when he pressed them to his hole, groaned as Kilian slowly pushed inside him. They went in easy, already slick, and Wyll spread his legs just a little wider.

Kilian thrusted into him, searching for that place inside him that would make him so, so wet. Wyll panted in time with his thrusting, until at last-

“Fuck-!” His back arched, his fingers dug into Kilian’s arm, he writhed and cried out as Kilian relentlessly fucked into him, zeroing in on his prostate. “Kilian! Kilian! Stop, I can’t-!”

Kilian pulled his fingers from Wyll’s body, leaving him gasping as he was robbed of his climax yet again.

Wyll looked up at him with hazy eyes, watched as he rose onto his knees, rid himself of his last piece of clothing and slicked his cock.

“Tell me you want it,” Kilian purred, rubbing his cock against Wyll’s hole.

Wyll groaned.

“Fuck me,” he said between breaths. “Please, fuck me.”

Kilian grinned, biting his lip-

“Good boy.”

-and slid his cock inside Wyll in one smooth motion.

He fell forward onto his hands, caging Wyll in as he rolled his hips. Wyll was silent, save for his heavy breathing, as he acclimated himself to Kilian.

“You feel amazing, mon ange,” Kilian said softly into Wyll’s ear. “It is like you were made for me.”

Wyll turned his head, their noses bumping as he tilted his chin up.

Kilian chuckled warmly, and pressed his lips to Wyll’s again and again as he thrusted into him. Wyll’s lips parted for Kilian’s tongue, eagerly meeting him with enthusiasm.

He cried out suddenly, throwing his head back. Kilian sunk his teeth into Wyll’s exposed throat as he thrusted harder, and Wyll clawed at his back.

“Gods…” Wyll groaned. “There… right there…”

Kilian fucked into him relentlessly, his pleasure only growing as Wyll fell apart beneath him.

Wyll’s moans grew in desperation, Kilian could tell he was close. He railed into him without quarter, chasing his high, seeming to hit Wyll’s prostate with almost every thrust.

“Be a good boy and- fuck- come for me.”

He clawed at Kilian’s back, gasped and panted as his pleasure grew and grew until at last, cum shot out of him, spattering up to his neck, the white contrasting beautifully with his dark skin.

Kilian was moments behind him, pressing as deep inside Wyll as he could as he came, filling him with his seed.

He opened his eyes as he severed his connection to Wyll, just as Wyll, too, opened his eyes. He looked at Kilian with a hint of something he’d seen maybe once before. Lust, hunger, need. And sure enough, when Kilian shifted in Wyll’s lap, he could tell they were in similar states of arousal. Wyll inhaled sharply.

“That was… quite the show,” he said, sounding out of breath.

KIlian smiled and pressed closer, wrapping his arms around Wyll’s shoulders.

“I wanted to give you a clear picture.”

“And… that’s what’s awaiting me, is it?” Wyll asked.

“I am open to edits,” Kilian said. “But yes, whenever you want it, mon ange.”

Wyll glanced away and bit his lip.

“And if I said I wanted it now?”

Kilian blinked. “I thought you wanted to wait.”

“I don’t want to wait anymore.” He took Kilian’s face in his hands. “I want you, Kilian. I really, really want you. We might die tomorrow, and I don’t want to die without actually… feeling you.”

“Well, when you put it like that…” Kilian put his hands flat on Wyll’s chest, pushed him onto his back, “I cannot help but agree,” and captured his lips in a deep, passionate kiss, filled with promise.

#stuff and things #my writing #wyll week #wyllweek2024 #i really hate tumblr sometimes lol #and i know it'll spit out the original post eventually but i want to get this out sooner rather than later #anyway i do want to do the other 4 prompts at some point #don't know when that'll be though #depends when inspiration takes me

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sissytobitch10seconds · 1 year ago

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Abhorrent

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy Summary: Marcus may not have been the best leader, but he's still better than whatever the fuck is happening with the Umbrella Academy. Ben could be better than their leader and he sure as Hell is a better second in command even if he and Marcus argue sometimes. Warnings: PTSD, panic attacks, canonical child abuse and torture, not Allison Hargreeves friendly Word Count: 5,991 Ship(s): Marcus Hargreeves/Ben Hargreeves/Viktor Hargreeves

Archive link!

A/N: So I've edited this quite heavily but I'm still not sure how I feel about this. The quality is lower than some of my other fics have been but I still want to get it out there. I feel like if I don't post this then I'll just sit and fiddle with it until I can't even look at it. So here it is! Thank you all so much for reading, I hope you like it! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

They were all sitting in the main living room at the Academy, staring at each other like it would make the other team explode. They had managed to soothe their differences and quell the rivalry that had been brewing between the two families for the time being. The Umbrellas were sitting on one side of the living room while the Sparrows took up the other side, though Sloane and Luther were sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace while looking between both sets of superheroes.

Ben was pacing back and forth between the couch with the rest of his family on it. Fei was reclining back with her arms folded so that she could pet the feathers of the bird on her lap while still looking as intimidating as possible. Alphonso was leaning back against Jayme’s legs where the other girl was positioned next to her sister. Christopher was rolling anxiously over the lamp next to the couch. Marcus was sitting on the chair next to the end table, a physical and metaphorical distance between him and the rest of the team. Ben hated how poetic all of their positions felt.

It seemed like the other team couldn’t go five minutes without arguing about something, including where they were going to sit. The angry one with mind-control powers flopped down into the chair closest to the door after they had guided her in. The one with knives was spread out over the couch with the girl that hadn’t been with them when they arrived perched on his lap. The one that looked as though he was a child was brooding on the couch beside them, muttering something under his breath. The one that had been running around with their father was splayed over the armchair opposite to Marcus and possibly sleeping or dead.

“Where is he?” a new voice demanded.

It had been hard to remember which of the Umbrellas was missing since the battle that they had was so chaotic, but Ben was sure that one was. Their numbers were finally complete as the missing member was walking into their space with Grace following behind him, likely having just brought him into the house.

Ben’s mind stopped the angry whirring long enough to take in what he actually looked like. The pronouns had naturally switched themselves in Ben’s mind when he took in the more masculine energy that the newcomer was projecting. He had cut his hair so that it framed his face and hung over his forehead. The brown color of his hair brought out the starkness of his eyes, which held a deep rooted sadness just barely behind the fire burning there. His clothes were rumpled and dirty, similar to what people looked like when they had just come from a fight of some kind. He had an inch long wound on his cheek that had very recently scabbed over. His chest was heaving for air and his skin was slightly luminescent, just enough that Ben noticed the swell of power in the air.

“Who, Harlan?” the mind control Umbrella asked as she rose from where she had been sitting. She crossed her arms menacingly over her chest as she stepped towards her brother.

“Yes, Allison!” the smaller hero snapped as he advanced on her. “What did you do to him?”

“Why didn’t you tell me what he did to us?” she retorted.

“What?” Viktor asked, looking genuinely confused and upset.

“Why didn’t you tell me, or anyone for that matter, that he was the one that killed our mothers and got us into this whole mess?” Allison demanded.

Ben stopped his pacing and walked over to the couch. He folded his arms and then leaned on it so that he could be closer to his siblings. “Ten bucks on the little one,” he muttered as he grabbed a chip from the bag that Jayme had open on her lap.

“I’ll take that. He beat the shit out of both of us when we were fighting him and she has trigger words she has to use,” the other Sparrow snorted as she mimed biting at his hand to get him to stop stealing her food.

The smaller Umbrella grit his teeth together hard enough that it looked like his jaw hurt. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think that it was fucking relevant, Allison! I also didn’t have a lot of time before you were pushing me out of the door,” he was talking with his hands as he got more upset. Something underneath his skin was beginning to glow pale white in a way that made him look ethereally beautiful.

“You don’t get to make that call for the family, Viktor,” the one that looked like a child objected, his brows furrowing together in anger.

He rounded on another brother, “And you do? You’ve all been hiding information from me and cutting me out of family decisions since Dad died so you don’t get to be upset that I’m doing it now! I was just trying to protect an innocent man that I hurt,” he turned back to Allison then. “You had no right to trick me into letting you kill him after you promised that you would help me.”

“I did help you. Until you started letting him kill you,” she growled. He rolled his eyes at that and took a step away from her. “I don’t know why I should help you anymore anyways. Everything that you do ends up hurting me in some way because that’s all you do!”

“How am I the one that ruined your life when I’ve barely seen either of them? Every time that you come back into my life you also end up fucking it up, Allison, so I don’t think that you get to accuse me of being that evil,” Viktor snarled at her.

“You killed Claire!” she shouted, her voice holding a kind of feral darkness to it that the Sparrows had only seen in their most dangerous foes.

Viktor took a sharp step back like he was expecting to be hit. “I didn’t kill Claire! I’m sorry that I don’t know how to get her back, none of us do. I don’t know how to bring her back or send you back to Ray, but that’s not my fault. I tried to help you-”

She cut him off before he got to finish. “Help me what? Help me mourn? Every single one of you has been trying to push me to just get over it since we got here. Do any of you even grasp what I’ve lost every time we’ve jumped through time?” Allison demanded, turning towards the rest of the Umbrellas while still keeping her eye on the rest of them.

The one with the ineffective powers shifted on his chair so that he was upright while still slumped back, his eyes narrowing slightly. He was toying with a pair of dog tags resting halfway down his chest with his fore and middle finger. He didn’t even open his mouth to try and fight her though, which let her keep going.

“You haven’t lost anything and you have cost me two families, Viktor. You’re conceited and dangerous and you don’t even fucking realize it. I can’t believe I ever thought that we could actually be siblings after all the shit that you’ve pulled on me that ended up making my life absolutely miserable,” she seethed.

“Allison, you don’t get to take the high ground here. You were one of the worst people in the house when it came to tormenting me and you’re the one that-” Viktor desperately tried to get a word in edgewise.

“Shut up!” she screamed. The air rippled with her power in a way that was honestly kind of impressive, especially since her power hadn’t been that strong when she had used it during their fight. Viktor’s eyes glazed over with foggy white for a moment and when they cleared he began to claw at his mouth.

Ben could hear him taking in ragged breaths through his nose as he tried in vain to get his mouth to open. The other Umbrellas immediately realized that she wasn’t going to hold back despite the good relationship the two had seemingly had prior. “Woah, Allison, that’s enough,” Luther protested from where he was sitting next to Sloane. When he made a movement to get up, the Sparrow pulled him back down and gave her head a little shake. It made Ben wonder what had happened that made Sloane so cautious about her new boyfriend being around his own siblings.

“I think we all need to calm down,” the one that looked like a child said as he glanced warily towards his brother. Viktor’s skin was still glowing a luminescent blue color and the foundation of the house was beginning to shake the stronger that it grew.

Allison completely ignored the kid, which he looked very frustrated about, though he still didn’t try to interfere at all. “I haven’t done anything to you! We should have left you in the fucking basement to rot,” she almost screamed.

“That’s enough!” Diego shouted before the last word had even finished passing through her lips.

It seemed to finally break her out of whatever angry trance that she had been stuck in. She blinked a few times and then took a half step back, which was apparently able to break whatever spell she had over Viktor. He gasped in a breath and then turned on his heel to rush out of the room as quickly as he could.

“Fei, you can handle this, right?” Marcus asked as he and his second in command shared a look. There was an expected animosity between him and Ben despite the fact that they had grown up around each other and the Sparrows were overall fairly close with each other. They had personas that they instinctively covered themselves in when they were around outsiders and strangers to protect their public image, but that wasn’t who they really were nor what they really felt about their teammates.

“Of course,” the blind woman nodded. The bird on her lap had turned towards the door that Viktor had left through, hopping a couple of times like she was tempted to go after the small hero to see for her master what had happened. She straightened out the raven as Marcus and Ben headed for the door. They closed it behind them so that the meeting could be held in relative privacy and people were less inclined to follow him.

Marcus glanced down each of the halls for any sign of the man that they were chasing after. “Any ideas about where he might have gone?” he asked.

The layout of the house had been changed quite a lot after they had started to drug their father. They had created a more cohesive space out of the amalgamation of buildings so that it felt more like one singular home instead of storefronts stitched together as Reginald pressured them out of their deeds. Some of the base hallways and rooms were the same since the Sparrows weren’t immune to the comfort and nostalgia that the space brought them. If the house had been changed in a different way than it had looked in the Umbrella’s timeline then it was very likely that Viktor was going to get lost quickly.

“We should get the bedrooms we had as kids first. If I had my sister bring up something super shitty and obviously triggering the first place I would go is my room,” Ben said as he began down the hallway towards where his and Marcus’ bedrooms still were. Some of the other siblings, like Sloane and Fei, had moved elsewhere in the house so that they weren’t always on top of each other once they became adults.

Marcus reached out and threaded his fingers together with Ben’s to try and remind the other man that he was there. The last time that they had worked with someone having a panic attack outside of their own family had been the Jennifer Incident. That had given Marcus his own helping of PTSD and issues, of course, but it had been far worse for Ben. He just wanted to make sure that his boyfriend was okay while they dealt with what was a serious situation for them both.

They checked through the empty guest rooms surrounding their own bedrooms before they heard a shuffling sound behind Ben’s door. They shared another look with each other before they both pushed forward. Ben’s room had been the first to get renovated after they had drugged Reginald enough to have full control of his bank account and property. It was curious that he had gone through the door that had been used as a storage closet between some of the bedrooms before Ben had absorbed it into his own.

“Viktor?” Marcus asked carefully as he stepped through the door. He had maneuvered his boyfriend so that Ben was behind him if the man ended up being anywhere as dangerous as it had turned out that Jennifer was.

The aforementioned man was sitting on the rug in the center of Ben’s room. He had a pair of headphones over his ears and was pressing the ‘play’ button so hard that Marcus was surprised that the walkman hadn’t broken. His skin was less blue than it had been while he was arguing with Allison, likely because he didn’t feel like he was being attacked when he was hidden away in Ben’s room. His hair was disheveled and this close they could both see that his clothes were marked with dirt and bits of leaves. He was shaking as he clamped his other hand over his mouth to try and stifle the sounds of his cries. The wound on his cheek was weeping again, though it was hard to tell because of the way that he had spread the tears around his skin.

Marcus took a careful step into the room and then knelt down next to the tiny hero. He reached out and pressed a hand to Viktor’s shoulder which got him out of his head, but also caused him to fling himself away from the touch.

“It’s okay, we’re not here to hurt you,” Marcus soothed, putting his hands up in a defensive posture.

Viktor removed the headphones from his ears so that they were hanging down around his neck and then pushed himself up into a standing position. He plucked the front of his shirt twice and then began to pull at the tips of his fingers. “I-I’m sorry, I know that this is someone’s room but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go,” he stuttered around the sobs that he wasn’t able to keep back. His eyes flitted from Marcus to Ben and then to the partially open window, though the outside was obscured by the bug screen that they had put in.

“It’s my room,” Ben replied plainly as he moved past Marcus so that they were standing shoulder-to-shoulder half a yard in front of the doorway. “You came in here to cry?”

“In the other world it was my room,” Viktor replied awkwardly. “Part of it was, at least. You guys did the same thing that Klaus did. I slept in this part and he slept in that one, but when I went to college he knocked a huge hole in it so Dad had to combine them. Made it awkward when I tried to come home for Christmas my freshman year.” He gestured towards the blue-painted feature wall that had been nothing but cinder blocks when they had been using it as a storage room.

“I’m sorry, are you saying that you slept in a closet when you lived with the Academy? I don’t think that would make you very mission ready,” Ben snorted. He had judged the Umbrellas pretty heavily when they arrived since they seemed to be nothing more than disjointed rabble that had basically been pulled off the streets. Marcus and Sloane had told him a couple of things about them that only cemented that idea, like Viktor’s claim that he had ended the world and Luther’s surprise at the closeness of the Sparrows.

“I didn’t go on missions,” Viktor cleared his throat. He tapped at the floor with the point of his shoe.

Ben looked even more bewildered than before. The Umbrellas were an enigma that he was wishing he understood the more that he learned about them. “Why not? You’re obviously the most powerful out of your siblings. You were able to take all of us down with one burst and we’re actually good.”

He sighed. “It’s complicated. You guys don’t want to hear it. I shouldn’t have done what I did anyway. I’m being selfish again,” he brought one of his hands up to his hair, a fist clenching around the strands on his forehead for just a moment before he fixed it naturally.

Marcus recognized it as a very subtle self harming gesture, something that they had to train Jayme out of when she was little and felt guilty about using her powers on people while they were on missions. It was one of the reasons that she was so closed off and jaded to everyone other than Alphonso now. “I don’t think that not wanting someone to die is selfish. I… If I’m being honest, the only reason that we wanted Harlan was so that we could have some kind of power over you all. It’s scary suddenly finding a team of people just as powerful, and in some cases more powerful, as you after all of our time being the top dogs. We haven’t had someone challenge us the way that you all did since we got Dr. Terminal in prison.”

“We have bigger problems to worry about. Allison-” Viktor tried again.

“Screw that bitch. What she said obviously bothered you and it’s not going to get off your mind until you talk about it. So talk,” Ben said. It was his way of safely telling the other man that he cared enough to listen to what he needed to say without letting him feel too guilty about it. He had never been very good about being heartfelt or showing any kind of vulnerability since their father had raised him to be Number One their entire lives, until that fatal mistake. Marcus recognized it and gave his hand a quick squeeze.

Viktor had long since stopped crying but the tears and snot were still wet on his face, so Marcus handed him a tissue and then motioned for him to sit down. The Sparrows sat on Ben’s bed, facing towards him while he sat down on the chair that had been tucked into the desk. “So?” Marcus prompted.

He fidgeted for a moment longer before he finally answered, “I wasn’t sent on missions because I was raised to believe that I didn’t have any powers. I don’t have great memories of it because of something that Allison did when we were four and that’s pretty fucking young for even non-mind controlled people. But essentially, Dad decided that my powers were too volatile and dangerous. He put me on this medication that he told me were for my nerves and he made sure that I took them my entire life. I only got off of them about six weeks ago.”

The Sparrows shared a look with each other. They knew about the medication that Reginald had made that would both sedate them and take away whatever was making their powers inside of them. It was the only thing that had kept Ben from dying during the Jennifer Incident and often helped Alphonso when his own powers began to get out of control. They had only ever had it used on them when they needed it, usually that was determined by Grace or Pogo when they were too young to consent, or when they were in a life-or-death situation. It had never been used for longer than a couple of days and never without them knowing what it was doing.

“Does that have something to do with you ending the world twice?” Marcus asked, a small smirk slipping over his face despite himself. He had never seen a display of power more errotic and terrifying at the same time than when Viktor had said that to him while, in a controlled manner, made the entire diner they were in rattle.

The aforementioned hero flushed and then ducked his head down towards the ground. He was still toying with his fingers to try and soothe his nerves but he no longer looked like he was going to burst into tears at any given moment. “It does. I had a… boyfriend? I don’t know if you could even call him that since we knew each other for all of seven days but anyway. I had a boyfriend that found one of Reginald’s old journals somehow and he used it to figure out about my medication. Long story short, he took me off of the meds and then it turned out that I had a lot of repressed power that I couldn’t control. I ended up blowing up the moon because I used my powers through my violin and it got out of hand really fast.”

“What about the second time?” Ben asked, genuinely curious. He was learning a lot of information that was really helpful to know about their enemy as well as just getting overall closer to a man that he found very attractive outside of his overall annoyance for new people.

“I got kidnapped by the FBI who thought that I was a spy for the USSR when we were in the sixties before we came here. They gave me a hallucinogen and then electrocuted me to try and get me to talk but the only thing that it did was jump start my powers. Five never fully explained how that was supposed to start the apocalypse but Diego mentioned something about the FBI building exploding, which had to be my fault since shit tends to blow up when I let my powers go too far. The apocalypse ended up not happening, obviously, but it was because of the ghost of you in another timeline,” his eyes flickered nervously towards Ben.

The Sparrow understood the trepidation that he had in bringing up Ben’s other universe self since he hadn’t exactly reacted well to it the last couple of times it had happened. This time it didn’t feel like an insult, like he was upset that Ben wasn’t that other version instead of just being himself. It carried too much guilt and anxiety with it to be mean. Ben wondered what kind of relationship that version of himself had with Viktor, especially if they had the same taste in partners if the fluttering in Ben’s stomach at being able to make Viktor blush were anything to go by.

“Wait, did you say that you were electrocuted? Like tortured?” Marcus asked, snapping the other man out of his introspection.

“Yeah, it’s not that big of a deal. Diego had to go through way worse when he was locked away in the mental institution and they all had to endure worse in their training,” he brushed them off.

The ease of his dismissal was what really worried both of the other men. They had encountered people even within their own circles that were very willing to blow off their own problems so that they could focus on others but Viktor’s excuse seemed almost practiced. “It’s still a big deal even if other people have gone through what you might think is worse. Trauma isn’t a fucking sport,” Ben growled. “Who made you feel like it was?”

“No one,” Viktor shook his head, which they could both tell was a lie. “I just… My siblings have gone through way more than I have. They had to go on missions and put up with all of that training. I never had to go through anything like that because Dad took away my powers. I lived a relatively quiet life and was ignored a lot so I didn’t even have to deal with harassment the same way that Allison did. I pitched a lot of fits and got disproportionately upset about a lot of things when they’ve all had to endure way more than I have. It’s not something I get to be upset about after all I put them through.”

“All you put them through? I think you meant to say the consequences of what our shitty father did to you,” Marcus corrected. “The second apocalypse was definitely not your fault, you can’t help the reaction that your powers have to that kind of trauma.”

“What happened during the first?” Ben asked before the man even had a chance to process what the other hero had said. He was curious and beginning to get angrier that the other team could treat one of their own the way that they had been. The Sparrows weren’t exactly kind to each other but they definitely had more compassion and understanding for their teammates that the Umbrellas seemed to.

“It’s kind of complicated. We should probably get back to the planning so that we can stop the end of the world,” Viktor mumbled as he slowly began to raise from the chair.

It was Marcus that stopped him that time, gesturing with his head for Viktor to sit down again. He did so cautiously, eyeing them like he was unsure that he wasn’t walking directly into a trap. “I… We all kind of went our separate ways as adults and it made me get bitter. I was left alone a lot when I was growing up but now I was literally alone and I didn’t quite know how to handle that. So I wrote a book about the kinds of things that Dad had done to me and I spilled a lot of family secrets. Allison in particular was riding off of the fame that the Academy gave her with her Hollywood career and she accused me of trying to ruin her image. I think I just hurt Diego’s feelings by talking about the way that Dad had hurt specifically him. I don’t know, I thought that it was a good idea at the time, but it turned out to be awful. My ex-boyfriend got ahold of the book and then used that with the journal that he found behind the house to abuse me.”

Viktor was staring down at his hands the entire time that he spoke. Both of the other men could see that he was shivering slightly with the emotions that were overcoming him. Regardless of what he was feeling, he pressed on, “He turned me against my family. Told me that none of them could ever truly love me even if some of them were trying to have a good relationship with me after our dad’s death. Then he tricked me to go cold turkey off my meds and convinced me that it was a good idea. It wasn’t and my powers were totally out of control. They still get a little messy if I’m really out of it now but it’s nothing like it was back then.”

Guilt crept over his face and he scrunched up his nose like he was trying to resist the urge to cry. “Then, um, Allison showed up at the house that he and I were staying at and we got in a fight. We were arguing because she remembered that Dad made her rumor me into believing that I was ordinary in all things for the duration of my life. At the time it felt like she was the reason that my entire life had been utterly miserable but I know that’s not true now. But I got scared because she tried to rumor me again and I cut her throat with my powers, channeling it through the bow of my violin. I… I felt awful, of course. She was my sister and not even Leonard-Harold,” he screwed up his face and shook his head.

He placed his head in his hands and tried to muffle the sound of the sobs that were pushing their way past his mouth. “Sorry,” he whispered after a moment.

Marcus slipped off of the bed so that he was kneeling in front of Viktor. He had always been at least a smidge more compassionate than Ben and was definitely better at showing it post-Jennifer Incident. “You don’t have to keep explaining if it’s putting you in actual distress. The more that you tell us the easier that it’s going to be for us to protect you, though.”

“Why would you want to protect me?” Viktor asked, sounding genuinely confused.

The two Sparrows showed a look at each other. Ben folded his arms defensively over his chest as he said, “Because you’re going to be a good fucking asset to our team. They treat you like shit, you’re very obviously powerful and talented. It just makes sense that you would want to come and work with us instead of staying with them.”

“They’re my family…” the Umbrella hero whispered with a minute shake of his head.

“Blood is thicker than water, Viktor. We were all ripped away from our biological families and lumped together like that was somehow going to bind us together. We won’t pressure you into it, but we would like to at least have some connection to you after this is all over,” Marcus whispered. He was trying to ignore the shy smile that was forcing its way onto his lips. Despite the content of the meeting, back when they were in the diner he was unable to completely ignore the fact that it felt a little bit like a date. He and Ben had already talked about it and if Viktor was at all willing, Ben had given Marcus permission to pursue a possible romantic relationship with him.

“I’d… have to talk to them about it. I couldn’t just leave them after everything that I put them through,” he sniffled. “But, um, the first apocalypse. I came back to the house and they locked me in the basement. Apparently there was a room that Dad had made especially for me, I think he put me in it when I was four and he was making the medication. But it was sound proof so that I couldn’t hear anything inside of it from the outside and it even muffled the sound of my own breathing.”

“That is quite literally torture. That kind of thing is illegal for the government to do to their prisoners and scientists aren’t allowed to study it besides small trials,” Marcus said, brows furrowed in worry.

Viktor shrugged. “My powers are to turn sounds into energy so that meant that I wasn’t allowed to have any sounds so that I couldn’t use them to break out of my prison.”

Ben scowled. He didn’t like what he was hearing and it was upsetting him more the longer that he listened to it. “So when that bitch said that she should have left you in the basement she meant that they should have kept you in a tiny, soundproof room until you either starved to death or found a way to kill yourself?”

The smallest of the heroes nodded awkwardly. “You know, the ironic thing is that they already did that. When Luther locked me in that room- and don’t go after him for that he was brainwashed by our father and thought that it was for the best until they could get me back on my medication- I begged for them to let me go. I was literally screaming so bad that my voice hurt for days afterwards. Granted I didn’t know what had happened in the days following that incident because I got hit by a car and developed amnesia, but it was really distressing. They were all just standing there and not even Allison or Five let me out. I thought that they were the two people that would see the most humanity in me, especially since Allison knew that I hadn’t meant to hurt her and it was an accident. I guess what she just said proves that she didn’t care or see the good in me.”

Marcus and Ben glanced towards each other for the millionth time that night. When someone spent their entire childhoods growing up alongside another person they developed a way of silently communicating, which is what they were doing currently. They both came to the same conclusion, Marcus rising so that he was standing beside Viktor. He cleared his throat and tried to look as much a leader as he could despite having very little practice in it. “We’re annexing you into the Sparrow Academy. Your own team treats you poorly and doesn’t seem to understand you. I can guarantee you that with a little time we can help you more than they can. I know that they’re your family and you love them very much, we’re not trying to replace them. We just want you to have the chance to flourish in a team that could really use your talents.”

In response, Viktor tilted his head down towards his hands and then took a deep breath. They could see him struggling not to cry, so gave him the space that he needed to cope. “I think I want that. I think that I want that so much.”

Surprisingly, it was Ben that took the step forward and wrapped him up in a much needed hug. Viktor grasped the back of his shirt so tightly that he wasn’t sure that he could escape even if he wanted to. The small hero hid his face in the crook of the other man’s neck and then began to sob so hard that his body shook with the force of it.

Once he had finished, the two heroes separated. Viktor turned to grab some of the tissues from the desk so that he could clean his face. It was terrifying how quickly he was able to make the distress disappear from his features. For a moment, Marcus wondered how often he had been forced to do that when he was young for him to be so practiced at it now.

Ben stripped his shirt off and deposited it into the laundry shoot next to the desk in his wall. When Viktor spotted him, rippling muscles shining under the natural light streaming through the window, his cheeks turned bright red and he angled his body away from the other man slightly. Marcus cataloged it as a good sign for the romantic relationship that they might be able to pursue with him once they learned a little bit more about his trauma and how they could help him through it.

After they were all presentable again, they walked back to the living room where the rest of their family was. Ben placed a careful hand on Viktor’s shoulder to steer him towards their side of the space despite Klaus’ attempts to drag him back over. The shock and confusion that covered their faces was satisfying in a twisted kind of way, like they were realizing that they had the potential to lose their brother to people that would love him more. Even Allison, despite all of her harsh words and bravado earlier looked offended to the bone that Viktor’s doe eyes had been turned towards Marcus and Ben and away from her. They were going to treat him better, they were going to worship him and appreciate him as the walking god that he was.

That much they were sure of.

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whisker-biscuit · 11 months ago

Text

The Lines We Cross: Chapter 24

The Thievius Raccoonus

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It must be difficult to be caught between their rules and mine. Their rules offer a confusing tangle of morality, whereas mine are so.

Very.

Simple.

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“I suppose I should begin by asking how much you know.”

Jing said the words carefully, studying the woman in front of her and trying desperately to find reasons to trust her – or to not. She had said she wanted to help Sly, but the panda had learned the hard lesson that what one wanted to do and what one was able to do were two very different things. It was just a single night ago that her own father’s confession and revelations had reaffirmed that lesson, and her heart ached as she remembered the way he had begged her forgiveness for failing both of them.

She shook her head with a pursing of her lips. This was no time to be distracted by any of that; not when there was someone here who could still be a threat to her family.

“I know that Sly had been working with – for the Fiendish Five before I met him.” The slip of the stranger’s tongue had been corrected without Jing even having to glare at her for it. The panda hoped it was a good sign. “I know that there’s something he’s stealing from each of them. Something they took from him…I think?”

Jing waited a moment longer, seeing how the inspector seemed to be collecting her thoughts. Sure enough, she continued with a pinched brow.

“And…I know now that they were the ones who murdered his parents, and then kidnapped him afterwards. I hadn’t been certain of that until what you just told me.”

“All of those things are correct,” the younger girl said, slow and thoughtful while she determined how to explain a lifetime of hurt within a short window of time. “And that was everything I knew, nothing more, until very recently as well. But there is so much more to this story, and I am still uncertain to tell you the rest.”

Inspector Fox gave her a sharp, upset look. “I already told you I need to know if I’m going to help both of you. Do you still think I’m lying?”

“No. Your conviction convinced me. It is just…” Her eyes drifted towards the dusty dresser, to the other picture frames which also contained cherished snapshots of her time with Sly. “It is not really my story to tell. I am trying to reassure myself that I am not betraying my brother by sharing these things with someone without his permission.”

So much had already been done without his consent by so many people. She hated the idea that she would be another, but she saw no other way to help him. If this woman was truly able to do what she claimed, then it was more than Jing had ever done.

She took a deep breath and then took the plunge.

“The Fiendish Five invaded Sly’s home and killed his family eleven years ago, and decided to let him live because they believed his skills as a Cooper would be useful when he was older.” She watched the fox shift her weight across from her, no doubt as to prepare herself for what they both knew was going to be a long and terrible story. “There were two other things that the Fiendish Five stole that night – the Cooper cane, and a special book called the Thievius Raccoonus.

“According to my father, the Thievius Raccoonus is a book containing notes from many people in the Cooper bloodline. It was passed on to each new generation to teach them the ways of thieving. He told me that the Fiendish Five used the knowledge they had gained from that book to great effect even in the modern age. It was split into five equal sections for each member of the group to use as they saw fit when working separately. The Cooper cane was kept in this stronghold, and they gave it back to Sly when he began officially working for them. The book, he was not allowed to see in any capacity, and they taunted him with that fact quite frequently.”

Jing stopped. Inhaled again, deep and slow, and continued.

“My father brought him to live with us so that he could grow up relatively safely until he was old enough to work for the Fiendish Five. He was with us for five years, primarily as my personal servant and playmate. I am amazed, now, that Sly did not harbor hatred for me as he did my father and the others who irreparably altered the course of his life. I do not know if it was because I was so young, or because he had no one else, or for a different reason, but he decided to trust me. We learned to love each other as we grew together – first as friends, then as siblings. But in all that time, he only mentioned the book and the cane once to me, and did not seem interested in them compared to his bigger goal of escaping the fate that loomed ahead of him.”

Inspector Fox frowned, a question clearly on the tip of her tongue, but she remained silent. It was a small relief, because Jing was starting to realize that if she stopped talking, she might not be able to start again. Already, her hands were beginning to tremble as bittersweet memories rose with her recounting.

“When he finally found the courage to tell me about the monstrosities that had been committed against him, I did not believe him at first. I knew he was working for us against his will, but I thought he was telling falsehoods because he was so angry at his own circumstances and wanted someone to blame. I could not imagine my own father partaking in such horrors. We had a terrible falling out and did not speak to each other for quite some time. I imagine I still would have remained stubbornly ignorant if not for what happened after that, on the anniversary of his arrival to this place.”

Jing paused again, not to find words that evaded her but to stop her body from betraying her with a shudder. It had been years since she had seen her father’s cohorts in person, but even the memories were strong enough to flood her heart with fear and fury.

“I suppose I should explain a few things about my father, first,” she said when at last she continued. “For most of my life, he would spend long periods of time away on ‘business’, as he called it. Sometimes it would be weeks, sometimes it would be months, but never more than a few consecutively. He was always very careful to leave me in the dark about the nature of it, and he never brought strangers here. When Sly came to live with us, my father stayed home for that entire first year, and I was overjoyed. I know now that it was to ensure that Sly wouldn’t hurt me or find a way to leave, but I was too young to understand or even care about the reasons behind his extended stay. Then, at the end of that cycle, he informed me that he would be entertaining guests for a weekend and that I was not to leave my room the entire time.

“You see, the Fiendish Five would meet once a year as a single group to exchange information and discuss business, among other things. The locations they chose always alternated between one of their personal hideouts; I do not know if my father’s stronghold was one of them before I was born, but I know that he refused to let them visit afterwards. I also do not know what reasons he gave them to refuse his home. Most of them did not know of my existence for many years, except for their leader.”

She bit her lip. Clasped her shaking fingers together in an attempt to calm them. Did not look up to meet Inspector Fox’s intense gaze.

“After Sly joined us, those annual meetings always took place here. I was ordered to shut myself in my room and never show my face until I was told my father’s ‘guests’ had left. Sly…was not given the same luxury. He was forced to join them for every meeting during that timeframe, acting as their only waitstaff. I do not know if the intent of this was to ensure his obedience or to slowly integrate him into the world that they were planning to force him into, but he was always stressed and distant for weeks after they had all left. He refused to speak of what went on except to reiterate that they were the ones responsible for his parents’ deaths, and that he was afraid they would finally decide for him to face the same fate. Sheltered as I was, I still could not wrap my mind around the belief that my father had anything to do with such things, but the change in routine and Sly’s behavior made my unease grow with every passing year.

“I desperately wanted to believe in my father’s innocence, but I also desperately wanted to help my dearest friend. I began looking for ways to help Sly escape as we grew older. I naively thought that if he left, he would be able to build his own life away from those wicked people, that things here would return to the ‘normal’ that I had known before, and I would not have to face any uncomfortable truths about my father. We started planning together; he taught me how to be quieter when I moved, as well as…other tricks, and I in turn used that knowledge to further our plans. I visited places he could not, learned the schedules of staff and guards alike, and searched for the easiest, safest path for him to get out. I asked my aunt to take me outside as much as possible, and I committed the layout of this entire place to memory.”

Jing closed her eyes.

“There was always one roadblock that we faced no matter what we tried, however, and it was that my father always had eyes on Sly. When he was home, it was his own eyes, and when he was out on business, it was those of his security which was always doubled for as long as he was away. We could never find a safe time for Sly to sneak out without bringing attention to himself – except for that single weekend every year when the Fiendish Five came to call. Security was lax because my father did not want to imply that he distrusted them, and he himself was too busy with them to watch Sly. It always seemed too dangerous for us to try at such a time, however, because of these powerful people present. The leader, in particular, was one who Sly was terrified of crossing. So, we planned and bided our time, hoping to find a different opening.”

She opened her eyes and finally looked at Inspector Fox again. Her voice was steady with resignation to tell the truth to its very end, as her father had a night and an eternity past.

“The choice was made for us anyway, six years ago, on one of the annual visits. And the fact that it failed was all my fault.”

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The Panda King opened the door of his daughter’s room to what had now become a standard sight – Sly Cooper, son of his former enemy, curled against Jing’s side under the strange shelter they had made out of spare sheets and blankets. He blinked, taking in the sight of bedding messily draped over furniture that turned the entire room into a mismatched tent, before turning his attention to the two children who had disappeared from sight of the door as soon as it had opened.

“No one is home today!” His daughter called, gentle even in her scolding. “Come back another day!”

“An exception will have to be made today,” he said, squatting in front of the entrance of the fort to peer inside. “You know why I am here. I cannot leave this room by myself.”

Both raccoon and panda huddled further away from him; the latter did the best she could to shield the former from his sight. She was nearly Cooper’s size, now, King noticed wistfully. Within the year she would be taller and then someday perhaps catch up even to her father. So much time and growth slipping out of his reach like sand between his fingers.

“Please do not make things harder than they need to be, children,” he chided softly. He waited without reaching inwards, knowing that patience was the best course to take at times like this. Forcing Sly Cooper out against his will often made him cagey and flighty, which put King in a bad mood to have to deal with; neither of which they could afford tonight.

His daughter looked crestfallen as her friend slowly uncurled himself from behind her and began to crawl out into the open side of the room. The child’s bushy tail was flicking in agitation as he got to his feet in front of King, betraying the blank expression already sliding into place on his face.

“It will be a short meeting tonight,” the fireworks master promised both of them, placing a heavy hand on Cooper’s shoulder as he began to lead him out into the hall. “My guests arrived later than expected today, and plan to retire early. You will be able to return soon.”

The raccoon didn’t say anything. He simply threw a glance over his shoulder at Jing before the door slid closed to separate them, then shuffled along obediently when King prompted him forward. There were no more words exchanged as they walked – a tentative acknowledgement of each other had formed between them over mutual love of Jing, but the crime lord knew that some wounds scarred too deep for real reconciliation. Sly Cooper no longer looked at him with hatred whenever they interacted. Just wariness and tired resignation.

That did not extend to the rest of the Fiendish Five.

They were all waiting in the large conference room that King had long ago built for this exact purpose, and barely spared the panda or his young partner a glance before returning to their food and hushed conversations with each other. Mz. Ruby and Sir Raleigh seemed to be having a quiet argument about the logistics of their next heist, Muggshot was spearing chicken on the ends of his chopsticks between great gulps of alcohol, and Clockwerk watched it all from his place at the head of the long table without engaging in either meal or speech.

The Panda King gave the boy a nudge towards the large food cart that had been placed against one wall, waiting until he was situated beside it with a drink pitcher in hand before taking his own place at the owl’s right side. He was very careful to stop paying any attention to the young Cooper and instead tuned into his cohorts’ heated debate.

“We don’t have that kind of reach,” Raleigh hissed at Ruby across the table. His tongue slipped out of his mouth in irritation, more reminiscent of a reptile than the amphibian he was. “If I wanted to become a shipping baron, I would have learned trains instead of ships. This idea is asinine.”

“You just ain’t thinking big enough,” the alligator shot back, picking up pieces of her meal and swallowing them whole without a single press of her jaw. “Ships have plenty of reach. We can easily form an agreement with the folks that have land on lockdown. Twice as much power with a simple business venture!”

“Dealing in spice is beneath us! I am not stooping to the level of such low-brow, brain-dead scum that are just as often doped up on their own product as they are selling it!”

“I dunno, it sounds like a pretty good deal ta me,” Muggshot finally chimed in. King watched a bead of alcohol slide down his chin and drip onto his plate with a single pull of his mouth. “What’s not to like about more money and more power and all that? I ain’t above anything that gives us more of that.”

Raleigh snapped his fingers and held his empty wine glass out to the side. Sly was there in an instant to refill it, and the frog sipped at it again without even glancing in his direction. “Of course, you would think that we should do it. Trust a dog to chase the next easy target like he chases his own tail.”

“Say that again and it’ll be your legs on my plate next!”

King looked over at Clockwerk, who was idly tapping his foot against the floor in thought as he considered the points being made on either side. Whatever the leader’s opinion was, he kept it to himself, leaving the rest of the group to squabble without coming to an immediate resolution. Eventually, the idea was shelved for tomorrow’s fuller discussion, and everyone turned their full attention to their meals. It was clear they all were tired from travel and this evening meeting was only a formality until they could retire for the night.

Out of the corner of his eye, the fireworks master watched Sly Cooper stand silently against the wall as far away from the table and its inhabitants as possible. The stress around the edges of his mask betrayed his carefully-neutral posture every time one of the Five snapped for him to refill their drinks, or clean a spill, or retrieve more food from the cart. It was a yearly routine that he had learned to form himself into, and King resolved to himself to ask the head chef to make the kit’s favorite food in the morning as a subtle recognition of his obedience.

Of course, it was at that exact moment that the routine was disrupted and everything subsequently fell apart.

Clockwerk, who always kept his eyes trained on Sly for as long as the boy was present, had never called him over. Not once in the five years that they had done this annual performance had he ever addressed the raccoon in any way, shape or form except to stare at him with that cold gaze that he had only ever reserved for Conner Cooper. Tonight had been shaping up to be that way as well, right up until the owl suddenly lifted a claw and crooked it towards the child.

All activity stopped. No one uttered a word nor continued to eat as they watched their leader command the boy to approach him without a sound. Sly’s fur puffed up within a single blink, but he didn’t dare disobey. Slowly, he began to shuffle forwards towards the owl, still silent even in his terror.

When they were about a meter apart, Clockwerk turned his talon around in a gesture to stop, and the kit froze. With a calculating tilt of his head, the ancient bird leaned forward until he was so close to the trembling child that one wayward movement from either one would make them touch. The raised claw lifted Sly’s head by his chin.

“He has grown more than usual since last we were here.”

The Panda King removed all traces of emotion from his entire being. It was never a good omen when the owl spoke without outside prompt. “He is thirteen now, as of this morning.”

Clockwerk let out a low, metallic hum. The raccoon remained deathly still under the touch of that talon.

“Damn. Has it really been that long already?” Muggshot asked, really looking the young Cooper over for the first time in the entire meeting. “Dunno how you could tell, boss. He still looks like a scrawny little runt ta me.”

“Everyone looks like a runt next to you, Tony,” Mz. Ruby said, watching the interaction between Clockwerk and Cooper as raptly as King was. It was impossible to read her, as always. “But Clockwerk is right; our little kit has definitely had a growth spurt or two. He hit puberty yet, King?”

“He is in the process, yes.” The panda did not like the sudden gleam in their leader’s eyes. Neither did Sly, who was starting to tremble under the weight of it. “…But I can assure you that he is not ready to join us just yet.”

Four heads turned to look at him, Sly included. Even Clockwerk tilted his gaze sideways towards his right-hand. The question burning in that gaze felt more like a challenge than anything else.

Convince me that he’s not ready, it said. Give me your best excuse, and we shall see if I find it good enough.

“It is true that he is growing faster than usual, but that growth has come at a price.” King’s words were slow and steady, and he was careful to keep his eyes on the ancient bird and no one else. “He has been clumsier as he has struggled to coordinate his longer limbs. Last week he dropped a stack of plates and shattered most of them.”

That was only half true – plates had indeed been shattered, but it had been from a cook’s carelessness as she ran into the boy. In fact, if Cooper hadn’t been the one holding them, they would have lost the entire stack. He had caught many before they could hit the ground.

The only person here who could call out his lie appeared to be wishing he could turn invisible instead. The raccoon’s eyes were squeezed shut; head tilted almost up to the ceiling by the claw at his neck.

“Once Cooper has adjusted to the changes in his body, he will be ready,” King promised. He hesitated only a moment before pushing his luck. “I am certain that will be the case by our rendezvous next year.”

Clockwerk narrowed his eyes, and for several agonizing seconds, it seemed as though he could see through the panda’s indifferent façade straight into his heart. Just when King feared that he would be called out for his weakness, the bird removed his talon from under Sly’s chin and returned to his previous posture at the head of the table.

“Very well. I trust your judgement in this matter, King. If you believe Cooper is not yet ready, then we will wait.” Those burning yellow eyes turned back to the boy who appeared afraid to retreat. “But no more than a year. We do not want him to think he does not have a debt to repay for the courtesy of sparing his life.”

His giant wings nestled in closer to his body, a sign of relaxation, and the raccoon took it as a safe dismissal to finally back away to the wall. His fur was still standing on end down to his tail and he was clearly struggling to maintain his blank expression in the aftermath of the heart-stopping scrutiny. The Panda King turned back to his food, as did everyone else after a few more beats of silence.

They all retired soon after that. He did not dare give Sly Cooper a single glance for the rest of that time.

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

Jing looked up at the knock on her door, right before a servant slid it open and gently pushed Sly back into her room. He stumbled forward with an unsteadiness she had never seen before, his face pale under his fur and his hands gripping his elbows so tightly that she was afraid he was hurting himself.

“Sly?” She stood up and rushed over to him, terrified that he had finally been harmed by those scary strangers like he had always feared. “What is wrong? Are you injured?”

When she touched his shoulders, he flinched as if hit and gave a sharp, shaky inhale. “No. I’m okay. I’m okay.”

The trembling of his body under her fingers said otherwise. Carefully, the panda led him over to their blanket fort and steadied him as he slowly sank to his knees to enter it. He was still hunched in on himself and she wondered if there was an injury there.

“Please don’t lie, xiǎo gē,” she pleaded, starting to gently pull his arms out so she could make sure he wasn’t hiding anything he shouldn’t be. “I want to help you, but I cannot do that if you lie.”

The raccoon grimaced, eyes squeezing shut for a long moment. When he finally opened them again to look at her, his shoulders drooped in resignation.

“I’m not hurt, I promise. But you can’t help me with this, Jing. It’s – they’re going to – I’m running out of time.”

She frowned, not understanding his meaning. Sly’s grimace grew deeper and he looked down at the bedding beneath them.

“They’re starting to talk about taking me away,” he murmured. “They think I’ll be old enough to join them. To…work for them. Your dad convinced them to wait a little longer, but it’s…it’s still going to happen soon. Within the year, they said.”

Jing’s breath hitched in her throat. “That is…why would they do such a thing? You do not like them, and they do not like you. I don’t understand.”

“It doesn’t matter that they don’t like me. They think I owe them for letting me live.” The raccoon wrapped his arms around his knees and drew them up to his chest. “They’re going to make me do horrible things for them, and if I refuse, or I mess up, then they’ll just – they’ll –”

He swallowed. She did not ask for clarification.

“I don’t know what to do.” His confession came out as a whisper as he buried his face into his knees. “There’s no way for me to escape this place, no matter how much we try. They’re going to take me away. I’ll be trapped like this until I die.”

The panda felt tears welling up in her eyes and blinked them away before they could fall. Crying wouldn’t help her friend when he was already in despair. She wracked her mind, desperately trying to think of how to help him in the face of such a terrible fate.

A plan came – one that they had always considered impossible, but now seemed like his only option.

“…Not if you leave tonight,” she whispered back, as if afraid that saying it out loud would bring her father to the door. “We could do it tonight.”

Sly lifted his head to stare at her, looking shocked by the very idea. There were stains on his cheek fur. “I thought – that’s too dangerous, Jing. For both of us. We can’t risk –”

“It is very dangerous,” the girl admitted, “but what other choice do we have? It is the only time that my father lets his guard down, but if we wait until next year, it is very likely they will simply come and take you immediately. They will expect you to run in your last few days here, but not right now. And – and I am willing to take the risk for you, Sly.”

He swallowed, seemingly torn by her reason versus his terror of being caught escaping with all of the scary guests visiting. Eventually, the realization that his fate would be unchangeable within a year if he did not take the leap now finally won out, because he gave a shaky nod. She did not smile as they crawled out of their fort together, for there was no reason to; this was not a victory until he had gotten away forever.

The raccoon stood behind her as she carefully opened her door and peeked her head out. A staff member was waiting at attention, as she knew would be the case. Someone was always there to retrieve things for her during these times to ensure she had no reason to leave the safety of her room.

“Excuse me?” She asked him in a timid voice, making her eyes big and pleading like what she knew worked with her father. “Can you please find me something to eat?”

The servant nodded and walked off, leaving the hall blessedly empty. Jing felt Sly wriggle forward under her arm to listen for the man’s retreating footsteps and anyone who might be incoming. When he confirmed it was safe, they both crept out and tiptoed off.

At every corner they came across, they would both stop short of it so that the raccoon could make sure there was no one ahead. They made slow but steady progress this way – waiting out distant sound, hiding wherever they could to avoid approaching staff, and keeping their senses sharp for signs of the Panda King’s guests.

The entrance at the base of the fortress was the only official way in and out, and it was always watched over carefully by a dozen armed men. With the Fiendish Five present, however, that number had been dropped to four. All were still alert and attentive, which would normally make slipping through impossible.

But Jing had another ace up her sleeve; one she had discovered just a few short weeks ago on one of her outings. A series of vents ran through the entire statue to heat it during the coldest months. Most were only connected to two or three rooms at most, and did not have an external exit. There was a single place, however, that did do such a thing – she had watched a group of guards standing under it as they smoked, letting the smog drift up and through the small opening to the outside. It was small and very high up, and Jing didn’t know exactly where it led out, but it was the only option they had.

All four men were standing just inside the entrance and staring outwards. No one thought to look behind them, because there was no reason to. Even so, the panda was as careful as she could be with every step she took, following Sly’s exact path as he crept to the single vent that would be his way out.

When they reached the wall it sat in, they shared a glance and came to the same conclusion. Jing was still a little shorter than the raccoon, but she had filled out considerably in other ways and could easily carry him. She did so now, helping him scramble up her back and onto her shoulders where he stretched his arms in an effort to grab the vent’s grating. It wasn’t quite enough; he was still a few centimeters short.

Gingerly, hyper-aware of the guards right around the corner, the panda grabbed Sly’s ankles and began to lift him higher. He wobbled at first, which made her wobble, which nearly toppled them, but then he found his balance and corrected himself before disaster struck. His fingers found the vent and he pulled out the makeshift lockpicks he had created out of a few of her hairpins, starting to pick at each individual screw in the grating.

All too soon and yet an eternity later, he was able to remove the cover and carefully opened it. With a single glance downward to give her warning, the raccoon crouched and jumped out of her hold and into the vent. His lower body wriggled wildly as he fought to pull himself inside the rest of the way. The entire time, Jing wrung her hands and listened for oncoming footsteps, terrified that they had made too much noise and would be found out.

But no one came, and Sly made it into the vent. She watched as he turned around to close the cover behind him – impossibly small in an already small space – and gave a shaky smile when he pressed his palm against the grate in a silent goodbye. He disappeared out of sight, completely silent as he headed towards the outside.

And that was that.

Jing headed back the way she’d came, trying to be mindful of every trick Sly had used to sense others and avoid detection. The elation that she’d just helped her best friend escape his prison was overwhelming. It overrode all the other messy emotions she was still avoiding about her father and the entire situation, and she couldn’t help beaming with pride at what she had just accomplished.

She was just turning into the hall where her room was when a different kind of thought occurred to her.

When her father and his guests realized that Sly was gone – hopefully not until tomorrow, when he’d have plenty of time to run away – they would be searching everywhere for him. Her father would be furious with her if he learned that she had helped, and he would probably not let her outside again for weeks after the guests left. Going outside was her favorite thing in the world; she couldn’t bear the idea of losing her best friend for probably forever and then immediately being trapped in the fortress until her father’s wrath finally subsided.

Everyone was supposed to be asleep by now. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to visit one of the big windows before she returned to her room. One last glimpse of the mountain before she was in trouble for the rest of her life.

Mind made up, Jing turned the opposite corner and headed instead for the observatory at the top of the statue. It didn’t take very long to get there as she found she didn’t have to avoid anyone the entire time; these halls were strangely empty of both guards and staff, even for this time of night. Instead of unnerving her, however, it only made her certain that fate was smiling down on her and wanted her to reach her destination.

When she finally crept into one of the two rooms that made up the observatory, the panda ran straight for the giant windows at the other end, where she pressed her nose up against the cold glass so that she could stare down at her father’s territory. It was always active down there no matter the hour, and she could see tiny people moving under the glow of spotlights. It was like watching ants, and the thought made her giggle.

A sudden, strange feeling went down the back of her neck. A foreboding sense of danger, as though she were being watched, and Jing turned around with her heart pounding in her chest; afraid that her father had caught her where she was not supposed to be. When she looked, though, there was nothing in the doorway, and no one else in the shadowed room.

Still feeling uneasy, she slowly looked back out the window, past the lights and buildings to the dark mountain beyond. She couldn’t see Sly from here no matter how hard she squinted, which she supposed was the point. He needed to be very sneaky indeed if he was going to escape. She wondered if he had made it past the outer wall to the trees yet.

It hit her, then, that she would probably never see him again. He would run away and never come back, and he’d finally be able to live his own life, but that meant he would no longer be in hers. Tears grew in her eyes and fought to fall past her eyelashes. She kept them trapped because she was supposed to be mature, and to cry over someone leaving would be incredibly selfish.

“Oh, Sly,” she whispered, leaning her cheek against the window, “I hope you’re safe out there.”

“I believe we both share that sentiment.”

Jing gasped and whirled around as a great shadow fell over her from above. She looked up, and up, and up, until her eyes met those of a burning, terrible yellow. The person – no, the thing – standing in front of her was so tall that its head nearly brushed the high ceiling. Its body looked like nothing she’d ever seen before, all metal and shiny and so, so big. She shrank back, pressed to the glass, and had never felt so small in her life.

The thing tilted its head. “You are Jing King.”

“I…” the girl swallowed. “How – how d-do you know that?”

“I know many things. Despite what your father may think, his home is not as secure as it could be. I have known about you for quite a few years.” The thing let out a sound that Jing thought could be a laugh, before it leaned down towards her until its frightful eyes were all she could see. “What I don’t know, however, is why you seem to think that Sly Cooper is currently outside. Would you care to tell me what I’m missing?”

Jing trembled under the weight of the monster staring her down. She opened her mouth, not knowing what to even say, and found that her voice had fled from her entirely.

“How curious. I had expected my associate’s child to resemble him, but it appears that only extends to the physical. Since you seem to have lost your courage, perhaps someone else can return it.”

The thing lifted its head and opened its beak, letting out a screech that had Jing throwing her arms over her ears in pain. It was loud and metallic and so very ghastly, and for a moment the panda wondered if this thing cornering her was actually an evil spirit. Nothing could make a sound like that – nothing could exist like that – and be of the living.

Within minutes, several pairs of feet came running up into the observatory. The girl couldn’t see them because of the thing blocking her sight of the rest of the room, but she could hear her father’s labored breathing among the rest.

“What’s goin’ on, boss?” A gruff voice called out, sounding the least winded out of all of them. “I ain’t ever heard you screamin’ like that before.”

Jing was so focused on the thing’s eyes that she did not see the giant clawed foot until it clamped around her shoulders. The grip was cold and firm yet somehow gentle, as if it knew exactly how to hold the panda without hurting her. She was pulled away from the window to stand next to the monster, where she saw the rest of the guests that came here every year, all out of breath and looking confused and irritated.

And her father among them, who had just gone very, very still.

“Cooper may no longer be in the fortress,” the monster announced. It was speaking to everyone but was staring at her father. “I found this child wishing him well as she was looking out at Kunlun.”

The Panda King took a halting step forward with his eyes locked on the talon around Jing’s shoulders. “I can send for someone to find him. He was locked in his room for the evening. He should still be there.”

Jing held her breath, shocked by her father’s small lie. Sly never slept in his own room when these people visited; he stayed with her until long after they left, when the nightmares finally stopped. She didn’t understand why the older panda wouldn’t tell them the truth, but she did not dare challenge it in front of the monster.

“It would be much easier to simply ask her, wouldn’t it?” The thing sounded like it was about to make the laughing sound again, but the girl didn’t know what was so funny. “Unfortunately, I have already tried, and she will not tell me what she knows. I think one of you would have better luck.”

Her father took another step forward, steadier this time, but she could see the fear in his eyes even though his face was very stern and angry. The people behind him were watching, and something about them was almost as scary as the monster.

“Jing,” her father started, very quiet with a tone she’d never heard from him, “Tell me why you are out of your room, and where Sly is.”

She stared up at him, feeling eyes on her from everywhere and suddenly afraid in a way she’d never experienced before. These were the ones who had hurt her best friend; who he was so scared of that he had risked the harsh mountain at night just to get away. If she told them the truth, then they would hurt him again.

Jing didn’t answer.

“Daughter,” the Panda King said, even quieter than before, and he kneeled in front of her to put his hands on her shoulders, in the space between where the giant claws sat and her bare neck. “You must tell me. It is the most important thing I will ever ask of you.”

Jing didn’t know if the way she was shaking was from her own body or her father’s hands. He looked at her as though it would be the last time that they’d ever see each other. She felt the talons squeeze very lightly against her skin as if to encourage her instead of scare her.

“I…I’m scared, father,” she whispered, hoping that the monster could not hear her. “What is going to happen if I tell you?”

“Everything is going to be alright.” One hand reached up to cup her cheek, and this time she knew for sure that it was him who was trembling so terribly. “Please, qiān jīn. Do this for me, and I will take care of things.”

The girl stared at him. He looked as afraid as she felt, but there was also the promise of safety in his gaze. He would fix things, surely. He would protect her, and Sly, and not let these people harm them.

She trusted her father. She had to. She still believed he was different.

“I helped him leave the fortress,” Jing said, not looking away from him even as the claws around her shifted at the confession. “He wanted to leave, so I helped him. He is not going to come back.”

The talons squeezed, so sudden and painful that the young panda cried out, before releasing her entirely and pushing her into her father’s waiting arms. She pressed her face against his shoulder as he enveloped her as completely as he could.

“I suggest you take your daughter back to her room and then return here immediately, Panda King.” The monster’s voice was icy with fury. “We have a very short window of time to fix this mistake, and I will not let the sentimentality of others ruin that.”

Jing’s panicked breathing hitched as her father picked her up for the first time in years. He held one hand to the back of her head to keep her face tucked away as he left the observatory, but she could still hear one of the others jeering at their backs.

“This is what happens when you show mercy to children, King! Even the bloody waif knew to exploit you for it!”

The Panda King did not respond, nor did he say anything to his daughter as he hurried away. He did not put her down all the way back to her room, and she could feel the haste of his wide, quick strides. When they finally arrived, he set her carefully down just inside the doorway, looked her up and down very briefly for injury from the monster’s claws – her arms were bruised beneath her fur, but the skin had not been broken anywhere – and then shut the door without another word. She didn’t even have the chance to say anything before she heard the clink of him locking her in from the outside, and then he was gone.

Jing stood there, stunned by everything that had just happened and struggling to process it. She shivered, still feeling the touch of that freezing metal, and then shivered again as she realized Sly had to face the monster every single year.

The monster.

It had been so angry over what she’d done. Her father was very strong, but he had seemed so scared, and she was suddenly unsure whether he would be able to win if they fought each other. If the panda won, then Sly would be safe, but if the monster won, then what would happen?

The chill was still in her body and her heart was practically in her throat, but Jing forced shaking hands up to her hair, where several tiny pins had been stuck just out of sight. She had promised her brother that she would help him escape, and she had to make sure she didn’t break that promise even if she didn’t know how. She would just have to take things one step at a time.

Growing up with someone like Sly meant that she had learned things. He had taught her how to get herself out of trouble, and no one had ever suspected that Jing could do any of the things that he could. It had worked to their advantage before; it would work for her now.

A locked door was child’s play to the sister of a thief.

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

The Panda King returned to the observatory with the speed of a runner and the dread of a man on death row. The Fiendish Five were waiting for him at the window, which had been swung wide open in his absence to let in the cold evening wind. None of them said a word to him, although it was clear that they all wanted to, and instead looked towards their leader, who was perched on the windowsill to stare out at the mountain.

“It seems you’ve lost Cooper.”

King tensed as Clockwerk swiveled his head around to look at him without ever moving the rest of his body.

“I have not lost him,” he said, watching him carefully. “He has escaped.”

“Is it not the same thing? You took responsibility for him, and he has fled from under your care. Of course,” the owl turned his head back towards the open air, voice dangerously unreadable, “if you truly want to argue semantics, it was your daughter who caused this.”

King closed his mouth and glared at his leader’s back. His fingers twitched at his side, wishing desperately to reach for the fireworks stashed under his belt, but he did not dare turn on the ancient bird even if he were not outnumbered by his colleagues.

“Should we continue this argument, or would you prefer to rectify the mistake you’ve let happen?”

“…Let us move on,” the panda replied through gritted teeth. “Allow me to contact my men down below. They will find the boy within the hour; there is no way he has left my territory yet.”

Clockwerk didn’t immediately respond. He had leaned forward to study the compound, and the windowsill creaked under his weight. When he finally spoke, it was razor sharp with triumph.

“No need.” His wings began to unfold from his body. “I have already found him.”

The owl launched off of his perch and into the air, leaving the rest of the Five to rush to the open window to watch. King tracked his movement with a terrible sense of foreboding.

“How much you wanna bet he’s gonna kill the kid?” Muggshot said as he elbowed Mz. Ruby in the ribs, making her scowl at him.

“It would be a waste of time if he does,” she growled. “All of us thinkin’ of things for him to do when he finally joins us and then it doesn’t matter in the end. I might as well bring him back as a zombie to get some use out of him.”

Clockwerk was making lazy circles in the air, high above any of the buildings. It went silent for a few moments as they watched their leader hunt. Cooper wouldn’t know he had been found until the owl was already bearing down on him, and by then it would be too late.

“You’ve made yourself look like a fool, you know,” Raleigh hissed at King. “Giving us some bollocks speech about the waif not being ready while he’s slipping out from under your nose. If I had been the one raising him, this never would have happened.”

“If you had raised him, he would cower at the slightest raised hand.” The panda gave him a frigid look, aware that now was a dangerous time to throw barbs but needing to turn his anger at a target. “He would have been useless in our line of work.”

The frog’s lips curled up into an awful smile. “Better than him being dead, right?”

Before King could respond, Clockwerk finally dived. Everyone fell into a hush. The bird disappeared farther out than expected, somewhere just inside the northern wall of the compound. When he came up again, he was clutching something small and struggling between his talons. Clockwerk rose into the sky, higher and higher until he was nearly eye-level with the fortress.

Then he dropped his cargo.

The cry that rang out across the air was young and terrified. King watched in horror as Cooper went plummeting. He was too far away to see his face, but it did not take any imagination to picture it; Clockwerk had employed this technique many times with many enemies. It was one of his favorites for the disorientation and torment it caused.

Just as it looked like the boy was going to hit one of the temple roofs, the owl swooped down and plucked him right out of the sky. Cooper went silent again, but they could all see the way he kicked and flailed in the iron hold. Clockwerk lifted his prisoner high into the air a second time.

King closed his eyes before he could see the second drop. It did nothing to tune out the second scream.

When ancient bird caught Cooper again, he dropped down out of sight, right where he’d first dove after the raccoon in the midst of his escape attempt. The Five shared confused looks, unsure of why he hadn’t just returned to the fortress now that his fun was seemingly over. Just as Mz. Ruby began to lift her hands in an effort to contact their leader telepathically, a sound stopped her instantly and made King’s blood turn to ice.

It was not a shriek. It was not even a scream. It could only be described as a wail that tore across the compound, so loud that the panda’s employees all stopped in their tracks below to look for the source of it. It went on and on and on, rising in pitch and agony in an impossible climb.

And then it cut off in a chilling finality, leaving the world silent with horror in its aftermath.

Clockwerk lifted into the air for the third and final time, heading towards the observatory with a limp body in his claws. The Five did not speak another word until he landed and laid the bloody form of Cooper onto the floor among them.

King was no stranger to the atrocities committed against children. He had killed many in his efforts to build a ruthless reputation, and never once had he flinched away from it – not even after the birth of his little girl. But there was a stark difference between cruelty with a purpose and cruelty for sport, and he had never found satisfaction in torture even to his enemies.

The sight that gripped him now – this child with wide, unseeing eyes and blood leaking from his mouth, his chest torn from one shoulder to opposite hip by three colossal, hideous slashes – was not one he would wish on his worst.

“If you want Cooper to survive, I suggest he get medical attention,” Clockwerk said, emotionless, as he stalked off without another glance at either his motionless team or the motionless boy. His bloodied talons left a red trail across the floor all the way to his exit.

It was Muggshot who picked the boy up, the gentlest they had ever seen him act, and began to carry him out of the room. “King, you gotta first aid kit somewhere around here?”

“I – have an infirmary,” he stumbled on the words only once before finding his steel again. “I will take you there.”

They walked out as a group, each silent for very different reasons. Well, perhaps not all that different – the bulldog had a pensive pinch to his brows that mirrored King’s own face – but he did not assume mercy from any of them. What had happened tonight was a natural consequence of crossing the owl, no matter how gruesome it was, and they had known those consequences for as long as they’d been a team.

The Panda King’s personal medical staff was exceptionally trained and exceptionally loyal. They did not panic at the arrival of Cooper bleeding out in Muggshot’s arms, nor did they ask questions as they found him a bed and began working to save his life. The canine was directed elsewhere to wash the blood off his body, and the remaining members of the Five were ushered out of the infirmary to give the team space to work.

“Raleigh.”

Clockwerk’s voice from down the hall startled all of them; they had not seen him there among the shadows. He extended a claw still covered in red towards the frog.

“Come with me. We need to talk.”

Raleigh didn’t question it or even hesitate. He hopped off after his leader, throwing a single sneer over his shoulder at King as a final reminder of his utter disdain over the situation. They both disappeared out of sight, leaving the panda alone with Mz. Ruby.

“You really fucked this one up, cher,” she told him. It was matter-of-fact, with no inflection in her voice to betray her real thoughts. “You’ll be lucky if he lets you join a job within the next year.”

“I am well aware.”

“Cooper ain’t gonna be able to hide behind you after this.”

“He will not.”

The alligator squinted at him. Just as she was hard to read, so now was he. Eventually she sighed and gave up on the scrutiny with a shrug. “Well, here’s hopin’ you don’t get kicked off the team entirely. You’re the only one worth good company, far as I’m concerned.”

He stared down the opposite hall in the direction of the observatory and didn’t respond. Truth be told, the possibility had already crossed his mind. It would not be a blessing if the Five decided to cut ties – either he would be killed for the knowledge he carried out of fear of betrayal, or they would take something precious from him to keep him in line for the rest of his days. He did not need to put much thought into what that would be.

“Never seen Tony so shaken up,” Mz. Ruby changed the subject, seemingly callous to his inner turmoil. “Didn’t think he still had a heart inside that big muscled –”

The way she suddenly cut herself off caught his attention, right before the sound of tiny, rushed footsteps appeared and the door behind him slid open. He turned around just in time to catch the tail end of his daughter’s nightgown as she disappeared into the infirmary.

“Mā de!” He swore, hurrying in after her while Mz. Ruby remained motionless in the hall. “Jing! Do not go in there!”

But it was too late. He stopped in the doorway at the sight of her, frozen, standing at the foot of Cooper’s bed. The boy had been bandaged thoroughly, but blood was already seeping in through his dressings and he was laying slack and unconscious, dead to the world around him.

“Sly!” His daughter sobbed, falling to her knees at the end of the bed. Her hands hovered over the raccoon without touching him, and that restraint was the only reason he did not immediately remove her. “I’m so sorry, Sly! I’m so sorry!”

“Jing.”

She cried harder at King’s voice, shaking her head furiously against a request he had not even asked yet. “No! I won’t leave him! You cannot make me!”

The older panda hesitated. He glanced backwards once, where his colleague stood with her back to him – standing guard in an unspoken agreement until he solved the problem he had found himself in.

“Jing, you must leave him be.” He tried again, careful to keep his tone calm in the face of her despair. “He needs rest if he is to recover.”

She shook her head a second time and looked up at him. “What happened? What did they do to him?”

King could not find an easy answer. He remained silent. It was the wrong thing to do when she shakily got to her feet to face him fully with her hands balled into fists.

“Tell me, Father!” The girl cried. Anger began seeping into the grief. “What did that monster do? Why didn’t you stop them? Why – why are you so calm?!”

“You would not understand.” It was all he could say in the face of her accusations. Nothing would quell her furious judgement in this state. She would not believe him even with the truth. “Please, return to your room where you will be safe. I will let you know when he wakes.”

Jing glared at him with more venom than he had thought her capable of holding. She trembled head to toe in rage; a startling mirror image of the boy he used to be, who had once directed that poison at the nobles who had looked down on him. He drew a breath, shaken by the comparison, but before he could explain that it had been to save her life, she was already running past him out of the room.

He followed her out to the hallway and watched her flee in the direction of her room, hoping that she would come to realize the reasons for his actions on her own. Beside him, Mz. Ruby clicked her tongue in a way that could mean either disapproval or sympathy.

“She’s gonna remember this night for the rest of her life,” the mystic warned as he stared after his daughter but did not follow. “Them childhood scars last forever.”

King shook his head. “Not her. She is different from us. Loving and forgiving.”

“Here’s hopin’, cause otherwise you’re just perpetuatin’ that cycle all over again. Same as it ever was.”

He hoped desperately that she was wrong, but he found that he did not have much faith. There had never been a prediction by Mz. Ruby, supernatural or not, that had not turned out exactly as she promised.

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

Sly Cooper remained bedridden for two weeks. He woke up sporadically and only for minutes at a time, and his health wavered on the brink more than once as the medical team did everything in their power to stabilize him.

Within that time, Mz. Ruby and Muggshot returned to their respective territories to further their criminal exploits while waiting for further news. Raleigh remained both a constant guest of King and a constant visitor of Cooper. Clockwerk came and went periodically – never once checking in on the raccoon but always keen to hear updates of his condition.

Near the end of the second week, when the boy’s injury-induced fever broke and it was clear he would pull through, the owl disappeared for four days and returned with a large, unusual safe, which he placed in one of the observatory rooms – along with a single slip of paper holding the code to it, which he gave to King with no explanation except to keep the code well-protected and to never open the safe. The panda took it without complaint or question, painfully aware of the precarious state of his leader’s trust in him.

When Sly began to awaken for longer periods of time, cognizant of his surroundings, Clockwerk cornered the Panda King outside the infirmary with the Cooper cane in his talons. How he had found it when King had never shared the knowledge of where it was hidden in the fortress was another thing he dared not ask about.

“Once Cooper is able to move on his own again, Sir Raleigh will take him with him when he leaves. Cooper will work for us from now on. You will tell him this yourself.”

The owl paused, waiting for potential protest. King supplied none.

“Make no mistake, Panda King; this was fated to happen eventually. If not to you, then to any of the others. It may yet happen again. The Coopers have always had such a troublesome habit of crawling their way out of what they deserve.” His eyes were warm like molten lava as he held the cane up to study it. “But in the end, fate always catches up to them. It will be no different for this one.”

The fireworks master did not say a word. Clockwerk was never finished with his musings when one first expected it.

“I must admit, the only part of all of this that caught me by surprise was you. I knew of your child from the day she was born, but I had assumed it would not affect the way you handled yourself. You certainly had me fooled for longer than I would like to admit. I suppose that is just as much on me as it is on you. I know the trappings of empathy on the average man, and I did not look hard enough for the signs in you. That being said…”

He loomed over the panda, all pretenses of a non-threat gone in an instant.

“If you ever jeopardize the plan I have in place for the very last Cooper, I will burn down your precious fireworks factory from within until you have nothing left. I will ruin your criminal reputation so thoroughly that even the pettiest of thieves will scoff at the idea of working with you. I will destroy everything you built in a fraction of the time it took for you to make it. And then, at the very end, I will tear your precious daughter limb from limb while you are helpless to stop me.”

The Panda King held perfectly still under his leader’s promise. He did not shake. He did not even breathe. All that existed was Clockwerk and the horror that was his very existence.

“Do we have an understanding, Panda King?”

“…Yes,” he said, thinking of a bloody mess of fur that was not gray but instead black and white. “Yes, we do.”

“Excellent.” The owl backed off and pointed the cane towards the infirmary door. “Let us visit our disobedient child, then, shall we? I believe we have kept him waiting long enough.”

King entered the room with Clockwerk right behind him, feeling just as much a hostage as the boy sitting in bed. Sly’s eyes widened straight out of tiredness the instant he saw the ancient bird, and he began to tremble. The blanket around his lap he clutched high against his bandaged chest as if it could shield him from further harm.

“Sly Cooper,” the panda began slowly, feeling rather than seeing his leader settle in a corner of the room to watch. “The doctors have told me that you are recovering well, and are no longer at risk of death. They estimate that you will be able to leave this place within another week.”

The raccoon’s gaze remained locked on Clockwerk. There was no indication he had even heard the words spoken to him.

“Sly,” he said, harsher than intended, but it finally pulled the child’s attention towards him. “Once that milestone is reached, you will no longer live here in Kunlun. Sir Raleigh will take you for the foreseeable future.”

“Take me…?” Sly whispered, hoarse and confused and clearly struggling to connect the dots in the midst of his pain and fear. His eyes darted back and forth between King and Clockwerk; the former saw the exact moment realization set in.

“W-Wait. King, wait,” he pleaded, sounding every bit his age instead of the front he often put up. “I can’t – I’m not ready!”

“He will wait until you are well enough to travel.”

“That’s not what I meant! You know it’s not what I meant!”

The panda did not close his eyes in his attempt to block out the stressed pleading in the other’s voice. He remained the perfect representation of stoicism. There was nothing else he could be under the watchful eye of the ancient thing in the room.

“Rules have been established in anticipation of this change,” he finally continued when he was certain his voice wouldn’t waver. “You will follow every order given to you by all of us. You will not attempt to sabotage our work in any way. If you are ever questioned by outside forces, you will not share any details about us. If you are separated from us for any reason, you will endeavor to return to us immediately so we do not think you have tried to escape again.”

“No…no, no, I can’t do this! Please tell them I’m not ready yet!”

Sly was so beside himself with fear that he seemed to have forgotten Clockwerk’s presence entirely as he begged for more time When he made a move as if to climb out of bed, King lunged forward and pressed his hand flat against the raccoon’s collar bone with his thumb sitting just above his bandages.

The boy froze. There were tears in his eyes.

“It is not up to me anymore!” The Panda King’s voice rumbled through the room, loud and angry. “You did a terribly stupid thing and must face the consequences. We have all decided that if you are so ready to risk your life to flee, you are also ready to work for us.”

Sly was actively crying now. He searched King’s face – the man who had spared him from death, who had trusted him with his own child, who he had finally, finally started to trust on some level even if it was clear he would never fully forgive him.

He looked at him, searching for any kind of compassion.

And found none.

The raccoon slumped back against the bed, and the panda removed his hand. It was obvious to both of them that the fight had left him. The reality of his situation had fully set in.

“You will stay here and recover,” King said as he stood up to leave. “And next week, you will be a member of the Fiendish Five.”

Sly looked away as the man headed for the door. He didn’t turn his head even when he stopped in the doorway. The panda wanted to apologize for everything he’d done. Everything he didn’t do. He wanted to promise that Jing would see him one last time before he left, even if that was a promise that he wouldn’t be able to keep.

He wanted to say many things, but he didn’t dare in the presence of his leader. Instead, he walked out of the infirmary with all the steadiness of the heartless crime lord that Sly would now see him as.

Clockwerk did not come out with him. He remained in the room for quite some time afterwards, and when he finally left as well, the Cooper cane was no longer with him.

“If he escapes again, he will return to try to steal back the Thievius Raccoonus from each of us. I have already informed the rest of the Fiendish Five about this. It is a courtesy that I am telling you now.” His eyes burned as he stared at King. “If he is caught by us or arrested in the meantime, that will be considered failure, and we will kill him for it.”

“And…if he succeeds?”

Clockwerk was not capable of smiling. But somehow, looking at him now, the panda could tell that he was.

“He won’t. I have already ensured that.”

With the finality of that statement in place, the owl walked off, leaving King with a deep-seated uneasiness that he would never be able to expel.

Just over a week later, as predicted, Sly was considered healthy enough for travel. He swayed on his feet, leaning heavily on his father’s cane just to remain upright, but it did not concern Raleigh in the slightest as he stood beside him and said his goodbyes to the fireworks master.

“Oh, don’t look so glum!” The frog jeered, pinching the boy’s cheek in a mockery of affection. “I’m not taking you to your death. Only a lifetime of servitude! Think of it as switching custody with a new guardian!”

Sly flinched under the touch and tried to pull away, but Raleigh kept hold of him with a snarl. The raccoon looked up at King one last time; one last plea for him to change his fate before everything changed forever.

The Panda King felt cold yellow eyes on him from afar, and turned his back instead.

He regretted it six months later, when he was finally allowed to work with Sly again and saw a dark bruise ringing his masked face. He regretted it the year afterwards, as the begging in the raccoon’s eyes slowly changed to a burning, constant hatred towards him. He regretted it for every mission where the boy was forced to do more heinous crimes under colleagues who were either indifferent or gleeful about it.

He regretted it all the way to the news of Muggshot’s arrest, where the first spark of hope ignited for the young Cooper in a long time. And then he regretted it again, not long after that, sitting on the floor of his daughter’s room as he told her every shameful detail of the last six years and his part in cultivating it.

Most of them had come from broken lives, falling into the criminal world because it was the only place that accepted them for everything that they were. But Sly Cooper’s life had been broken by them and then shattered completely when he was forced into that dark world against his will, playing a game he could not win, all on the whims of a creature who saw him as nothing more than the name that he carried.

And no matter the circumstances behind it, the Panda King would carry that regret for the rest of his life.

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

A/N: HAPPY EARLY NEW YEAR

In celebration, how about the biggest chapter in the entire fic? Hopefully it was worth the wait! I've been waiting ages to reach this point, almost more excited for it than the reveal chapter. Lots of things finally understood, and perhaps a few more lingering questions....

Now that the holidays are over, I should be back into a weekly posting schedule (knock on wood). Only six chapters left!

#sly cooper #carmelita fox #clockwerk #fanfiction #the lines we cross

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countthelions · 2 years ago

Note

✨💫🕯️🍭?

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

hMM that's hard, but perhaps,,, Til Magnolias Bloom? It's a fic written about another fic so that already stacked the cards against it, but I thought the imagery was fun! I do think it'd be nice to rewrite some day now that I'm a bit of a better writer, really lean into the fear Fuku feels and the helplessness from both of the adults, then savor fully the relief of the trio waking up better rested than they'd been in a month. It's a fic that means a lot to me in its own way, for my heart is snagged on Tell God and the Devil for reasons I literally cannot name (I know why HR has my heart, but TGaTD?? literally no clue my dudes. I just adore it) and the gift giver I am, I had to write something for that tasty source material

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

Big analysis ones ;; if you've ever come across a comment I've left, it's easy to see how that style of commenting is something that I really cherish!! it means a lot to me to know that my readers are examining the text, getting excited about certain phrases or lines they enjoyed, or how the characters are, in a similar way that I've done too!! I know it's a bit of a time consuming comment to leave though so I don't expect it XDD

🕯️was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn't think it would take you?

Hard to write: Handspun Nerves. For as much fun as I have with darker tragedies, the catharsis of writing such a story is MUCH!! DIFFERENT !! I really really struggled with hurting Grillby and having his trauma - and then Gaster's later - explode in such a public place. I remember both groups of friends going "you can hurt him more!!" several times until I finally worked myself up enough to do so XD I know now that I could go even further with it, but that first step startled me quite a lot!!

Place I didn't expect: Pride. I fully intended to write a piece where Grillby got to be cool and strong and buff and impress Gaster and then was side swiped by something a bit more,, important I'll say. I didn't really want to put queerphobia into an AU of mine, but it's honestly been very important to me to have in there, and has opened the door up to explore a lot more grimy and personally uncomfortable topics in a place that feels very safe and supportive to me.

BNB AU now sideswipes me often btw bc I gave it that permission XDD There's an unfinished fic that, when I realized where it was heading, started legit crying from surprise. Not in a bad way, just a "ah, you're holding so much of me" discovery that I'm slowly leaning into enjoying the catharsis of writing.

🍭why did you start writing?

This recent(ish) stint of writing started because of the Umbrella Academy actually!! I was curious on what sort of conversations the characters might've had in the in-between moments, and set myself to writing some of those scenes out. It quickly lined up with my RP world, and how much fun it was to write there then just !! continued to spiral through the fandoms (mp100, bnha, now undertale!) and I'm having a blast still!!

#oops got a bit longer than expected XD #you got me writing friend!!!!#thank youu for these very good questions #ask meme

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sparklymanacakes · 2 years ago

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The break up was a short and sweet mention in the Reunion comic where she makes the call to end their relationship. As far as what happened - (short answer): she just wasn't in a great place emotionally for it.

5am essay answer: Imo, they were a good match, but an extremely complicated one, even without the wonky canon writing of it. That relationship began shortly after the Theramore bomb and Jaina struggled back and forth coping with that trauma. Kalec has his own trauma that he carries, but he deals with his differently than Jaina and to me, was further along in his healing process. They're together for awhile, things are...okay, I guess? It's hard to say because we really didn't get much canon insight into this relationship. It wasn't fleshed out well or at all, really. But from what little we did get, I got the sense it was a solid blend of loving/happy times and rocky times. But the foundation of deep love between both of them was definitely there. But Jaina was falling to hate, losing her battle against her anger/fear of the Horde. At some point Kalec realizes that his care and love can't force Jaina into healing. His heart is getting worn down watching her essentially kill herself slowly and he couldn't save her. She has to want to heal and while he can be a very supportive partner in that process, he can't do the work for her. He basically throws down an ultimatum of "it's our relationship or your anger/hate" (paraphrasing). He didn't tell her any of this with malice in his voice or heart but it really just wasn't a great time and the phrasing could have been much better imo. So yeah, Jaina took that info with a mostly silent 'ok well fck me but mostly fck you' and gets pissed (hurt) and basically shuts down on Kalec right there. This icy shut down pretty much remains intact until some other drama happens where Jaina almost dies (like less than 10% hp). The novel leads us to believe she comes out of this near-death experience with a sort of renewed sense of hope and a desire to heal. There's this scene where she runs to Kalec, rushing into his arms for her rare PDA moment, kissing him deeply. She wants to be with Kalec and wants to get better. She ends up falling towards hate again after Varian's death, which leads into her rage quitting on her Dalaran responsibilities, ultimately leading into her leaving Kalec and ofc that leads into the beginnings of finally being on a more hard set healing journey, going off to solo-kill demons, going back to Kul Tiras, Daughter of the Sea stuff, ect ect ((I'm leaving a lot of details out of what little canon we got and they are all important details. I don't remember anything about this ship being mentioned in game. It started in the Tides of War novel, was mentioned in Dawn of the Aspects, most of the drama of it was in the Warcrimes novel. The comic mentioned the break up bit and then there's like a one or two sentence part where Kalec asks about Jaina bc he's still in love with her in the recently released wedding short story)) A lot of people hate the ship, hate Kalec. Obviously I'm very fond of this ship so the way I tell you "what happened" is wrapped within my positive perspective of it, my fondness for Kalecgos and belief that he's a very good dragon-man. But a lot of Jaina fans disagree with that and if someone else told you "what happened" you would get it from the perspective of Kalec being awful. So it's probably one of those things you'd need to read the canon for yourself and see how you feel.

I don’t read the books, so can someone tell me how Jaina and Kalecgos broke up? What happened?

#jaina/kalec #jaina/kalecgos

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writethesleepaway · 2 years ago

Text

Suspicious

Summary: You and Steve had been best friends since, well, as long as the two of you could remember. You knew how to read him like a book, he could never hide anything from you. That is until he starts acting suspicious, and you can't quite figure out what's going on.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Y/N

Warnings: Swearing, kissing, that's bout it (this is fluff!)

WC: 3961

A/N: First Steve x Y/N post woop! that's really it okay bye love u all mwah (also still working on can't fight this feeling p4 lmao writing smut is intimidating)

(divider by @delishlydelightfuldividers)

To say that you and Steve were close was an understatement. Being neighbours since birth, you took your first steps together, although Steve would say it was more like him walking with pride and you falling flat on your ass. All throughout elementary school, you'd walk home together, holding hands as your mothers had instructed. Even after you were old enough to not hold hands, you did anyways. In middle school people teased you, always saying you and Steve were dating. You called him your brother. He called you his best friend.

Towards the end, you could tell there was a difference between the two of you. Steve had been titled 'King Steve', known for his looks, his smooth moves, and probably most of all his hair. He hung around popular people and was 'friendly' with everyone. You somewhat fell behind, choosing a smaller group of friends who were more close-knit. It's not that you weren't popular, you just weren't as loud about it as Steve was. Yet you still made time to hang out with each other every weekend. That was until highschool started.

You knew that you had drifted apart. He was focused on whatever date he was going on, you were focused on working and making money as fast as possible. It's not that you weren't friends anymore, at least you thought, but he didn't make the same effort he used to. It got worse when he started dating Nancy, you barely saw him anymore. Thankfully it all changed after everyone's first encounter with the Upside Down.

It was 3 am and you woke up to panicked tapping on your window, with Steve hanging off a tree branch waiting for you to notice him. Of course you let him in, worried as you had never seen him in such a state of panic. The boy completely broke down in your arms, crying out of fear, anger, and sadness, at having neglected you and your friendship. You didn't forgive him right away, but the weekend hangouts came back, and eventually you two became thick as thieves again, maybe even closer than before.

By now you had delt with the Upside Down multiple times. The group had just defeated Vecna, Steve and Robin kept their job at Family Video. You still had your job at the local library, but also kept a close eye on Max, babysitting her every once in a while. One day you decided to bake some brownies with her, hoping it would take her mind off of the recent events. When you realised you had made too much, Max suggested to take the left overs to Family Video, she knew Steve and Robin would appreciate them. You smiled down at her, admiring her selflessness.

"Robin? Steve?" you called out. Steve's head popped out from the back, earning you a quick grin, but his eyes widened as he ran back inside. Your smile dropped at his behaviour, not because you were upset, but because it was weird. He acted like some cartoon character, which was seriously unlike him. Two seconds later it looked like Robin was practically shoved out to the front desk.

"H-hey Y/N! What brings you here...?" Robin yelled from across the store, forcing a smile onto her face.

"Hey Robin...? Everything okay?" you asked.

"Duh, I mean besides that this is Hawkins and nothing is ever okay, what would be wrong?" Robin joked. Your deadpan face did not convince her, she dropped her act.

"Don't tell him, but Steve is being stupid, and won't talk to you." Robin whispered. A VHS tape flew out of the storage room, landing at Robin's feet.

"I heard that!" Steve called out.

"Why? Did I do something?" Robin noticed the slight quiver in your voice. She knew of your past with Steve, especially how hurt you where during that weird time when you weren't exactly friends.

"No, no no no, Y/N it's nothing like that. He's just being, really, really stupid." Robin explained with a sigh.

"Oh... Okay well, I came over to drop off some brownies. Max and I ended up making way too many so we thought you'd like what was left over."

"Uh, duh? Thanks Y/N, you're the best! Hey dingus! Come out here and try a brownie Y/N brought!" Robin yelled behind her. Steve creeped out, once again, like some cartoon character walking into unknown territory.

"Hey Steve..." you muttered, wondering if he'd continue to act weird.

"Jesus, Y/N! I thought you had left!" he yelled through his teeth.

"Oh, I can go if you want. I just wanted to drop these off anyways." You spun on your heel to turn around when you felt Robin grab your bag.

"Nope! You're not going anywhere Y/N. You're going to sit here with us and eat a few brownies." Your eyes scanned over the two workers. Robin had a wide smile plastered on her face, a shit-eating grin you could say. Steve looked like he had seen a ghost.

"I don't think Steve wants me here, but thanks anyways." Robin grabbed your hand and wouldn't let go, effectively trapping you in the store. Steve still looked like he had seen a ghost. A sigh escaped your lips as you sat on the counter top, giving up to Robin's hold.

"Oh my god, I totally forgot, I haven't washed my hands! I'll be back!" Robin exclaimed as she stood up to go to the bathroom.

"Robin I've literally seen you eat an oreo cookie off the floor because it was 'too precious to waste'." Steve spoke, surprising you with his voice.

"Well all of a sudden I am scared of germs, be right back!" she shouted over her shoulder, already half way to the bathroom. Steve shook his head and looked up at you, hoping you'd be looking at where Robin used to stand, but froze when he saw you look straight at him with a confused expression.

"So... Y/N what's up?" he asked trying to feign innocence.

"What's up with me? What's up with you? Why are you acting so supsicious? And why is Robin acting so suspicious? Did I do something?" you asked, voice dropping in the last sentence. Steve's heart cracked, he couldn't act strange anymore if you were going to blame yourself for his behaviour.

"No, no, god no you didn't do anything Y/N. I've just... I've just been in a funk lately." he explained as he grabbed a brownie to eat. Steve's eyes widened as he took his first bite.

"For how long?"

"I dunno, like mph forever?"

"Ew Steve finish chewing before you speak."

"Can't help it, these are delicious!"

"Well if it's been forever, why am I only just hearing about this now? I thought we told each other things."

"No, Y/N it's not like that. I think it's a funk that I only realised within the past year? Like it's always been in the back of my mind but it manifested properly recently."

"Look at you using big words. Wanna tell me what's up?"

"No, I'm okay. I don't wanna bother you about it. It's not that big of a deal anyways!"

Robin skipped back into the area where the two sat on the counter. She snatched a brownie into her hand and ate it enthusiastically, smiling and nodding at you to show you her appreciation.

"Have you talked about it yet?" she asked.

"Have we talked about what?" you responded.

"Oh no! I forgot I needed to pee! Bye now!" she yelled as she dashed into the bathroom again.

"Okay, you need to speak up. The two of you are shit at hiding things." you explained as you crossed your arms defensively.

"Hey, we're not hiding anything at all! Robin is just, weird like that, y'know?" Steve explained as he avoided your eyes. With a sudden air of confidence, you grabbed Steve by the cheeks and pulled his face so that he was now looking at you. Shocks ran through his body from your touch, he definitely didn't expect you to do that, and he tried to hide his excitement at your hands on his face.

"Nothing! I swear, nothing is happening!" Steve said to the best of his ability with his cheeks still squished together by your hand.

"You're a liar, Harrington, a poor one at that too. Just tell me you don't trust me and I won't bother you about it." you spat, face softening when you realised you sounded more aggressive than you actually were. Steve rushed to grab your hand, a move he often did to console you.

"Look, Y/N, I swear it's nothing bad. It's nothing concerning, nothing to worry about, I just... I wanna try and figure this out on my own. It's not that I don't trust you, I just wanna try and solve it myself."

"Is that why Robin knows?"

"Robin knows because she caught me speaking out loud, trying to figure it out. I still think she's a spy, she stood behind me for 19 minutes just listening to me talk to myself."

"You're talking to yourself now? Oh god you must be in some deep shit."

"Yeah, you could call it that..." Steve muttered as he rubbed the back of his neck, trying to calm his nerves. He knew he was acting weird, he knew he was being suspicious, but it didn't matter as long as you didn't find out what he was dealing with. A part of him was suprised that you hadn't figured it out already, he wasn't exactly the most subtle person.

"'Okay well, I'm gonna go now, I wanna clean up before tonight. Tell Robin I said bye, when she comes back from her 10 minute pee."

"Wait, what's tonight?"

"My date? Remember? I told you about this a week ago..."

"Wait, the one with Tommy J? You're actually going on that?"

"Yeah? Why wouldn't I?"

"Because he's ugly? He won't treat you right? He's probably just looking for some quick sex..."

"How do you know? Last week you said you didn't really know the guy!"

"Well, I do now, don't go out with him Y/N, he's not good for you."

"Steve it's not like you're very involved in my life these days, don't tell me what's good and not good for me. I know what I'm getting myself into."

"Oka- wait you do? You know he's just into quickies and you're still going out with him?"

"Is that such a bad thing? Don't forget there was a time when you were like this y'know."

"Okay but this is different! I don't want you getting hurt because of him, god knows what he'd do if you did something he didn't like. I just think you should do this type of thing with someone more... special?"

"Steve I won't have sex with him. Happy? I just want to actually go out with someone who gave me their attention first. There aren't many guys in Hawkins who give me the time of day and I'm sick of it."

"Um, sure. Yeah, I guess. Just, be careful, please? Call me the second something goes wrong, I'll be there as fast as I can."

"Thanks Steve, but I don't need a knight in shining armour. Anyways, I'm out, tell Robin I said bye."

You left without looking back. Steve held his head in his hands, groaning at the pain of the awkward experience. He knew he had no right to dictate who you went out with, and he knew that no guy in Hawkins really gave you the time of day. It's because he either scared them off or they already avoided you because they knew your connection to Steve. Jealousy plauged his mind as he thought of what you and Tommy would do. What if it actually worked? What if Tommy ended up being a really nice guy who swept you off your feet, what if you started dating and it became serious, then you got married and moved to some other town, something less shitty than Hawkins, and had children and a life together?

"Earth to dingus, you with me?" Robin yelled as she waved her hand in front of Steve.

"Oh my god, Robin. She's actually going out with Tommy J. Like, it's actually happen."

"Well shit, there goes your window of opportun- Steve? Steve! STEVE WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" she yelled as Steve ran out the door. He just waved at her and ran to his car. Robin grabbed the walkie talkie that Dustin had given her to keep at Family Video.

"Dustin, come in, over!"

"Robin, hi what's up? Over."

"Your ride to Eddie's is no longer happening, over."

"What? What do you mean it's no longer happening, tonight is campaign night! Over."

"Yeah well, Steve might have actually had a single successful thought in his head. I think he's going to tell Y/N how he feels! Over."

"OH MY GOD, FINALLY! Wait but I still have no way to get to Eddie's! Over!"

"That's no longer Steve or my concern, good luck bye! Over!"

Steve was sure he had run a few red lights and speeded in school areas just to get home on time. His eyes would drop to his watch every so often. He knew the date technically wasn't for another 2 hours, but something told him he wouldn't exactly be fast in his confession.

"Oh, hello Steve! What brings you here?" your mother asked when she opened the door to see Steve sweating and panting against the doorframe.

"Hi Mrs. Y/L/N I really need to talk to Y/N, like really badly. Can I go see her?"

"I mean yes but, she's in the shower. You can wait in her room. Oh and I must warn you, she's got a date in about an hour!"

"I know!"

Steve practically threw himself up the stairs as he ran into your room. All the tale tell signs of you getting ready presented themselves. Clothes thrown everywhere, different bottles of perfume on the vanity, a bag half packed full of things. He chuckled to himself as he heard you sing in the shower. He wondered if this is how you act when you get ready to see him.

"Shot through the he- JESUS CHRIST STEVE WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" you screamed as you scrambled to cover yourself as best as possible. Steve instinctively screamed at the loud noise and felt paralyzed when he saw you. There you were, the girl he’s dreamt of for so long, standing in front of him, hair wet and dripping, skin fresh and slightly red from the warm water, with nothing but a towel covering your body.

"I- uh, well..."

"Turn around! Let me put on some clothes!"

Steve nodded and looked the other way, taking the silence and lack of ruffling sounds as a sign to turn back.

A heart attack. That’s what Steve was sure he was having. He couldn’t breathe, his fingers tightened around what he could grab, which happened to be his own hands, leaving crescent moons in his palms. His eyes were fixed on you. You had changed into an old tshirt he had lent you during a bad week full of tears and insecurities. It had little holes in the sleeves and the logo on the front was fading but ‘Harrington’ was still visible on the back. Your hair, now less dripping, was still wet, as you ran a towel through it. The tightness in his pants reminded him of your lack of pants.

"Are you going to tell me why you’re here? I’m going to be late, so I gotta get ready while you talk."

"Uhh, yeah that’s fine. I just wanted to talk to you about, my funk…"

"Oh yeah? Cool, whats going on?" you asked as you slowly applied some mascara.

Steve felt his words stuck in his chest as he watched you get ready. There was something so domestic about the scene, the idea of you in his shirt, getting ready to go out with him. But, it wasn’t him. It was fucking Tommy J who would do anything to get with a girl.

"Okay so, let’s say you like someone. And you didn’t think you’d ever like them, because you were past that. Like, way too far past that. You’re best friends, you can’t imagine your life without them, but you can’t help but want more. You want to be able to hug them, but then actually kiss them stupid until you’re both gasping for air. You wanna have sleepovers with them, but in the same bed, because you live together. Like I wanna do all the things I already do with them, but more, because I’m pretty sure I’m in love with her. Like, I don’t think I’ve ever been more sure."

"More sure than you were with Nancy?"

"Absolutely, without a doubt. Their smile makes me wanna melt, they are so pretty, so fucking pretty, Y/N. I wanna hold them forever, I wanna kiss them forever, the things I wanna do to this girl, oh my god I’d do anything for her."

"Jesus Steve how long have you been harbouring these feelings, these are intense…"

"Probably over a year now. It just kinda hit me one day."

«"Well damn, if they plague your mind that much, I think you should tell them. If they accept your confession, then I’m glad you can be happy together. If not, also good, because I’m pretty sure your crush on this person is strong enough to impair your ability to think and act like a normal person."

"You think? How should I tell her?"

"Depends, what kind of relationship do you have with her? Are y’all casual like that? Or do you guys always plan something in order to see each other."

"We’re casual, definitely casual, like go over to each other’s house casual."

You couldn’t help but feel confused. You were sure that you were the only one who Steve would be so casual with, but wondered if there was someone else he had not told you about. Maybe he was going back to his way of distancing himself again, and you didn’t know if you could handle that again.

Steve noticed the gears turning in your head, he knew you were starting to overthink. He knew that he didn't have much time left. So he did what any guy would do, act without thinking.

"Y/N, look at me."

You swiveled around in your chair and faced him, head cocked to one side as you finished curling your hair.

"It's you."

"What's me, Steve?"

"The girl. The girl that I'm so hopelessly in love with, the one who impairs my ability to think and act like a normal person, it's you. You're the girl of my dreams."

"Shut up, you're just trying to get me out of my date with Tommy, who'll be here in 20 minutes, by the way."

Steve didn't know what else to say, so he walked up to you and grabbed the curling wand out of your hands and unplugged it, setting it down on the table. You stood still in your spot, scared of what Steve would do. The closeness of your bodies definitely made you feel things that you didn't think were appropriate to feel 20 mintues before your date with a different guy. Steve ran his fingers through your newly curled hair, a tactic he had seen you do countless times.

"You, Y/N, are so pretty, you know that? I have three polaroids in my room, you are in all three, but two are just of you. One from when we went swimming and I had jumped in, you were upset because your hair got wet, but the sun came in behind you and I could swear you were glowing, like a goddess. I begged you to go get my camera and you didn't ask why. You didn't expect me to take the photo of you, but god, you smiling down at me like that? I died, right then and there. The other is when you fell asleep on me, after crying your heart out over that stupid fucking guy who stood you up, only to go for some random chick at the mall. I woke you up slightly, your hair was messy, but you were clinging onto me, like a koala, in the same shirt you're wearing now. I couldn't help but take a photo, you looked so fucking cute, even though your eyes were puffy and cheeks red. Y/N, I see beauty in you, in all of you. You make me fucking freeze, because of how much you take my breath away. I have not been able to act like myself, because every time I see you, I want to run up to you and pull you into my lap and kiss those soft lips of yours."

By this point your jaw had dropped, leaving you gawking like some sort of fish. You didn't care what you looked like, you were so surprised that Steve was talking about you like this. You had always harboured a slight crush on him but you shoved those feelings down whenever you saw him with a new girl, especially when he was with Nancy. Steve was still kneeling in front of you, now holding your hands, looking up at you with glossy eyes and a slight smile.

"Y/N, Tommy is here to pick you up!" your mother called from downstairs. Steve's smile faded as you scooted away from him and walked out the door. He fell back onto his butt and scooted until his back hit the bed, head dropping into his hands as he heard you yell "Bye!" and slam the door. Slow foot steps approached him, foot steps that presumably belonged to your mom, who had come to explain that you had left. When he saw your bare legs instead of your mom's, he looked up at you in confusion.

"Why are you here...?" he asked, voice shaking.

You stayed quiet as you pulled his kneeds down and climbed into his lap, shushing him as he stuttered.

"Did you mean what you said?" you whispered, even though you two were the only ones in the room.

"Every last bit." he whispered back.

With some nerve you didn't know you had, you grabbed his cheeks and slowly pulled his face closer to yours, eyes passing back and forth between his own for what felt like hours.

"Kiss me, Harrington."

That was all it took. Steve grabbed your own face and tilted it upwards just to the point where your lips met. It was sweet and soft, surprisingly innocent for the confession that had just spilled out of Steve. When you pulled apart, you blushed at the sight of Steve's own redness.

"I've wanted to do that for slong, Y/N. I don't think I can stop now."

"Please, don't stop. I'm yours to kiss."

"Mine huh? I like the sound of that."

You kissed Steve again, this time with more passion and hunger, as if you were trying to have him take over your senses. Your tongues and teeth clashed but you didn't care because it felt so right to kiss him with so much need.

"So, what happened to Tommy?" Steve asked after he pulled away to breathe, while stroking your cheek.

"Told him he was a prick and that he needed a serious wake up call, then slammed the door in his face. And said bye, because I'm sweet like that!"

"Of course you are, my sweet girl." Steve replied, grinning like a child in a candy store.

It felt right, to hold him, and to be held by him.

#steve harrington #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington one shot #steve harrington stranger things #steve stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things ships #stranger things s4 #stranger things x reader #steve harrington x y/n #vellarawrites #robin buckley #dustin henderson

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mochamamii · 3 years ago

Text

yandere!taeyong: no secrets.

▹ a/n : hello loves, I chose a really shitty title for this but whatever loll this is something I wrote in like a day, sometimes I write absolute filth for no reason, this is one of those times.

▹ triggers : yandere!au, detailed smut, unprotected sex + creampie, mirror sex, daddy kink but like not super heavy tho

▹ pairing : lee taeyong x chubbyfem!reader

▹ synopsis : keeping secrets from your yandere boyfriend probably isn’t the best idea...unlesss they’re lee taeyong (even then that’s risky bizness my friend.)

••

Taeyong sighed as he stared down at the text message on his phone, his grip on the steering wheel tightening until his knuckles turned white. He peered out the window of his car to glance across the street once more, staring at your apartment building.

He was parked across the street, his car parked far enough away that you wouldn’t be able to recognize his car from someone else’s.

Taeyong was immediately reminded of the lit cigarette he had in his other hand when the unflicked ash fell, slightly singeing the patch of skin on his leg where his ripped skinny jeans had left him exposed. He cursed under his breath, rolling the window down just enough to toss the still lit bud on the ground.

He was so distracted by you, more specifically, the blatant lie he had just caught you in that he completely forgot about his surroundings for a moment, causing him to let the cigarette burn almost entirely without ever flicking the ash.

You see, you and Taeyong have been dating for just a few months now. You were in that weird limbo stage where you were transitioning from casual dating to exclusivity. At least for you that’s how it was.

Taeyong had already moved past that stage months ago. He was serious about you, he was just being courteous by allowing you time to feel the same. But he was steadily growing impatient with you and all your sudden antics.

Things were going perfectly fine in the beginning. You were perfect, every bit of innocence and naivety that Taeyong wanted. You checked off all the boxes for him. And he didn’t need you to tell him that you felt the same way. Which is why it was pissing him off that you seemed to suddenly start pulling away from him slowly.

You’d begun acting strange. Avoiding him lately, whereas before you always obediently jumped at the chance to spend time with him. You also had refused to be intimate with him for a few weeks now, which wouldn’t have been a problem on it’s own. Taeyong was patient when it came to things like that and he was willing to go slow.

But in this instance Taeyong felt he had a right to be upset. Even in the few short months you’d been dating, Taeyong had managed to turn you into a full on nympho. Molding you into his perfect little sex kitten, ready to do whatever he wanted and whenever. What changed?

All of these things, amongst others, have led Taeyong to conclude that you obviously must be seeing another man. What else could it be? Things were going so well and then you suddenly changed up without any explanation.

And most recently Taeyong had caught you red handed in a lie.

He texted you earlier in the day to ask if he could come and see you. You replied back saying you had been at work. An obvious lie because Taeyong had been parked outside your house since last night, watching your front door to see if he could catch anyone coming in or out. He felt bad for stalking you, especially since he vowed to himself that he would try to be less invasive this time around.

He really liked you and didn’t want to scare you off.

So he left, giving up after nearly four hours of watching your house and not seeing anything out of the ordinary. He had only come back this afternoon in hopes that he might catch you on your lunch break. You worked nearby and it wasn’t uncommon for you to come home during this time.

He got excited when he pulled up to see your car parked out front already, the need to see you face to face building inside him. He hadn’t seen you in nearly a week, you claimed you were swamped with work and that’s why you didn’t have much time to spend with him like you normally did. Taeyong could tell you were lying to him, he had to stop himself from marching up to your apartment right then and there confronting you about your lies.

But he wanted to be sure. He needed concrete proof that he was right about what had been going on with you.

So he texted you a second time, asking if you had decided to come home for lunch today. He had seen you upstairs in your bedroom window, moving around, he knew you were home. If you texted him back with a different response he could confirm you were lying to him.

Unsurprisingly enough, you replied back, saying you were still at work and would probably be working late tonight.

He scoffed as he reread your message. Rolling his eyes in annoyance as he peered up at your bedroom window, straining his eyes to try and see what you were doing exactly.

Taeyong stayed put in the car for a while, trying to decide what the best course of action would be. He wanted to just march up there to you but he didn’t know what he’d even say.

Quite frankly, Taeyong was a little embarrassed. He wished he didn’t feel so affected by you. If it were any other girl he’d have dropped them a long time ago, deciding they weren’t worth the trouble.

But this was you we were talking about...His precious baby girl, the girl who he was actively trying to change for. He had been pegged as the crazy, overbearing, sometimes even violent boyfriend by nearly all of his ex’s.

They weren’t wrong actually. Taeyong was all of those things. But he was trying to suppress that kind of behavior just for you. He wanted you to want him too, he didn’t want to feel like he was trapping you into a relationship with him. Things were so different with you.

As angry and as hurt Taeyong was because of you lying to him, he still couldn’t bring himself to actually be angry with you. He was upset about the situation, but not at you. Honestly, once he saw you in person he wasn’t sure if he’d want to raise his voice and yell at you, or bury his head between your thick thighs.

God...it had been so long since he was inside you.

Only a week actually, but even that was too long for Taeyong.

Not wanting to sit and wrestle with his thoughts any longer Taeyong climbed out of the car. He jogged up the front steps to your door, trying to measure his breathing as he did so. He almost raised his hand to knock until he remembered you always kept a spare under a nearby potted plant.

He had to check under a few before he picked up the right one.

With your spare key now in hand, Taeyong could slip through the front door quietly. Even though during his stakeouts he never saw anyone go in or out of the house he still wondered if there was a chance you were being unfaithful. If not that, what else could it be?

Whatever it was, he was going to confront you about it today. No longer would he be left in the dark like this.

He unlocked the door, slipping in as quiet as a mouse. He pushed the door closed behind him, gently as not to alert you, wherever you were in the house. He kicked his shoes off at the door, knowing he’d be much quieter with sock clad feet instead of the heavy boots he had on previously.

Taeyong’s ears perked up as he heard you drop something on the floor upstairs. Considering the part of the ceiling he heard the noise from he guessed you were in the bathroom upstairs. Taeyong’s feet carried him up the stairs to your bedroom, the door was left open ajar already.

Carefully, he peeked through the crack to ensure you weren’t in the bedroom, even through the tiny space in the doorway Taeyong could see your figure standing in the bathroom connected to your bedroom. He pushed the door open enough to slip inside.

Taeyong stood under the arch of the doorway to your bathroom, watching you with curious eyes, your back was facing him so you were still unaware of his presence behind you, he could see you were struggling to open something.

Taeyong was about to speak up and announce himself to you until he took quick note of how your frustration turned to panic as you furiously twisted and pulled at the cap of…a pill bottle?

Now Taeyong was really curious.

With one last heave you released a large puff of air as the cap twisted off the bottle, Taeyong quickly sprung into action, taking two long strides across the expanse of the bedroom to get to where you stood in the bathroom.

He was too late though and you had already swallowed one of whatever those pills were.

“Taeyong?” You jumped, startled as Taeyong snatched one of your wrists to spin you around to face him.

Your cheeks turned red as you tried to inconspicuously hide your other hand that still held the bottle of pills behind your back.

“Give it.” Is all Taeyong said, his grip on your wrist tightening.

You shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other, whenever Taeyong spoke in that demanding tone of his you’d always instantly obey and comply with whatever it was he wanted, not wanting to piss him off further.

But this time…this time you just couldn’t. You were too embarrassed, your hand felt frozen in place behind your back.

Growling, Taeyong spun you around and pushed you against the bathroom counter, pinning your arm behind your back as he retrieved the bottle of pills for himself.

You nearly toppled over because of his quick movements catching you so off guard. His firm hold on your arm pinned behind your back, catapulted you into the bathroom counter, your breasts plopping against the cool marble countertop.

Taeyong squinted his eyes to read the tiny print on the bottle, “What are these?” He asked, unfamiliar with the name of the pills.

You glanced up at him in the mirror, his jaw clenching as he tried to decipher what the long complicated name printed on the bottle meant.

It was as if you’d forgotten how to speak. Everything had happened so quickly and your mind was still taking a minute to process it all.

You had spent months trying to keep this one secret hidden from Taeyong. You went to any lengths possible if it meant protecting your secret. Even lying to him when necessary, which had become pretty frequent as of late.

All of it was catching up with you now.

Today would probably mark the end of your relationship, you were sure of it, there’s no way Taeyong would even be able to stomach the sight of you once he knows the truth. He’d probably think you were pathetic, too pathetic to be his girlfriend.

And you just couldn’t bring yourself to look him in the eye as your tower of lies came crashing down around you.

Your head fell, hanging shamefully as you tried to ignore Taeyong’s burning gaze.

Taeyong was growing impatient with you, wanting answers and wanting them now. His fingers tangled themselves in your hair, gripping your roots not so gently as he pulled your head back to force you to stare straight ahead, so you were looking directly at him in the mirror.

Your back arched instinctively as you stretched your body out to follow his hand, wincing slightly in pain as you did so.

“Tae…what are you doing here?-

You were cut off by Taeyong slamming his hips into your backside, pinning your own hips firmly against the counter as he trapped you under his weight. His hand in your hair moved to wrap around your throat from behind.

“I’m growing impatient with you Y/N. Tell me now and stop avoiding the question.” Taeyong said

“Tell me.”

Your eyes were slightly red, a little teary as you nervously glanced up at him once before parting your lips to speak.

Your eyes searched his black ones for approval, it’s like you were silently asking him without saying it,

Will you still want me after this?

Taeyong only softened temporarily as he took note of your reluctance, he used his free hand to rub small circles on your back to soothe you.

“T-They’re…appetite suppressants.” You answered shamefully.

Taeyong’s grip on you loosened as he listened.

“Appetite Suppressants?” He echoed, glancing down at the bottle and back at you.

Taeyong felt foolish and annoyed. You had been so secretive and sneaky lately, he was sure it was because you had another man in your life, not diet pills?

Taeyong screwed the cap of the bottle off with ease, dumping the rest of the pills down the toilet.

You had to swallow an audible groan. You had paid good money for those pills. They weren’t cheap over the counter pills, you had gone to your doctor to have them prescribe something stronger for you. Watching the pills be carelessly flushed down the toilet made you wince internally.

“You don’t need these. Stop taking them.” Taeyong demanded as he placed the empty bottle down on the counter.

“Understand?” He asked you, displeased with your lack of response.

“But…Taeyong. I need those.” You breathed softly, slowly raising up from the sink to turn around and face him.

“I need them Taeyong. I can’t just give them up, not yet, not till I’m-

“Why not?” He questioned.

Fat, ugly tears started to roll down your cheeks as you swallowed the lump in your throat, “I’m still not perfect enough for you yet.” You whispered softly.

It was hard to say it out loud but it was true. You constantly felt like a tub of lard next to Taeyong. You didn’t want to feel that way anymore. You wanted to walk beside him with pride. You couldn’t do that. Not yet at least. Not with your current body.

Taeyong really didn’t like that you were fighting him on this. You were so naturally submissive, always going out of your way to avoid conflict with people especially Taeyong, he could say almost anything and you would listen and obey to whatever he wanted or expected from you.

Mostly because it was just in your nature to be more on the submissive side, but also because you felt like you were incredibly lucky to have someone like Taeyong, who were you to be making demands?

Even when there were times that you disagreed on something and wanted to vocalize your opinion, Taeyong would whisper in your ear how much he loved you and how you just needed to let go and trust him.

Usually it worked too.

But Taeyong was in no mood to be that gentle with you, not that it would matter anyways. This is the one thing you know that you will always fight him on.

Your body.

Taeyong never entertained any conversations with you when it came to your weight and feeling insecure about your body. He waved them off as you being “silly” or something like that.

It wasn’t that Taeyong didn’t care. It’s just that he’s a yandere and has never known how to process any of his feelings in a relatively healthy way.

It’s easier for him to ignore the issue rather than confront it. He’s afraid he won’t know how to make you feel better. He doesn’t know how he can make you see the beauty that he sees.

“Don’t make me the reason that you’re desecrating your body this way.” Taeyong hissed, landing a harsh slap against your ass cheek for emphasis.

You yelped, already feeling the numb burning sensation spread across your afflicted skin.

Taeyong grabbed hold of your hair again, raising the top half of your body off the counter until your back was pressed flush up against his chest. He snaked one arm around your waist, locking you in place against him whilst the other remained tangled in your hair.

Your head fell back against his shoulder as you followed his hand to escape the painful friction at your roots.

You fell into place so naturally against Taeyong, your bodies molding together so perfectly.

Taeyong loved the way your body was so soft and squishy, he loved your thick full curves, your deliciously plump body is what had initially attracted him to you.

How could you possibly think that something already so perfect needed to be changed?

Taeyong pressed a gentle kiss to your neck, moving to nibble at your sensitive earlobe, “Darling. What’s it gonna take, hm?”

“What’s it gonna take to get you to stop obsessing over this?” Taeyong asked, his free hand beginning to roam your body.

“To stop…saying all these mean things about yourself?” Taeyong’s voice trailed as his hand slid down the length of your abdomen, his long slender fingers gliding across all of your rolls and stretch marks.

All you had on was an oversized t-shirt, Taeyong’s to be exact. One that he’d left over here before.

Seeing you in his clothes sent waves of electricity directly to the head of his cock, making him harden. He wanted you to wear his clothes all of the time, he wanted his smell to linger on your skin, letting everyone know you were his.

As much as he loved seeing you in his shirt he couldn’t wait to rip it off you.

Especially now with the way your hard nipples were poking through the thin cotton material, practically begging him to turn you around and assault them with his teeth and tongue.

He couldn’t wait.

He was going to do every dirty, lewd thing imaginable to you tonight. No part of your body would be left untouched once he was done.

He needed you to know that you’re beautiful. He had to show you just how in love with you and your body that he was. He didn’t know how to translate those feelings into words, just action.

Taeyong released his hold on your hair to be able to use both of his hands as he groped and fondled your body.

His hands moved up to your breasts, cupping them in his warm large hands through your shirt.

He kneaded them, moving to tug at your nipples through the fabric to make you mewl.

“Do you feel that baby?” Taeyong asked as he rolled his hips into your backside, his cock standing at full attention now, allowing you to easily feel his erection through his jeans.

“Do you see how badly I want you? Look at how hard I am and I’ve barely touched you.” Taeyong said , groaning as he rocked his hips against you once more. Loving the feeling of your round backside rubbing up against his cock. You were wet already and growing impatient with Taeyong’s teasing. Your clit throbbed painfully, desperately needing attention. You rutted your backside back against Taeyong, begging him to take you already.

Taeyong raised one of your legs up to rest on top of the counter, giving him perfect access to your pussy.

His shirt on you wasn’t long enough to cover the full expanse of your ass so as your leg raised up on the counter, your glistening folds were revealed to him.

“Do you think you deserve to cum? After all you’ve done, all the sneaking around and the hiding? Do you really think I should give you any relief?” Taeyong teased as he used his fingers to slide up and down your slick slit, collecting your juices on his fingers.

“Please…” You begged with a pout, pushing back against him as you felt his fingers on you.

“Aht. Aht. No moving around or I’ll have to pin you against the counter like before.” He threatened as he stopped you from grinding your hips down against his fingers.

Feeling defeated you sighed, relaxing into his touch as you tried not to think about how badly you wanted to cum.

“Don’t look away from the mirror or I’ll stop.” Taeyong warned.

You nearly turned your head away momentarily to peek at what he was doing but decided against it at the last second.

Taeyong knelt down until he was level with your pussy. His warm breath fanned your skin sending shivers down your spine.

Taeyong’s soft wet tongue licked a single stripe along your slit, stopping at your clit to give it a single kiss before enclosing his soft lips around your bundle of nerves.

Your mouth dropped open as a moan fell past your lips.

Taeyong’s tongue worked quickly, alternating between lapping at your folds and sucking on your engorged clit.

You gripped the edge of the counter for support. You wanted to pull away from him when the pleasure became too intense but he smacked your ass whenever you moved so much as an inch away.

He released your clit from his mouth with an audible popping sound as he did so. Standing back up at his full height Taeyong took pleasure in seeing the way your eyes followed him in the mirror, eagerly waiting for his next move.

Taeyong unbuckled his belt and tugged his jeans down just enough, his cock bouncing up and slapping his abdomen as he released it from the confines of his briefs. A bead of precum was leaking from his head. Taeyong teased you by rubbing the head of his cock against your folds.

“Do you want to come? Wanna come as I pound this perfect pussy of yours with my cock? I don’t think you deserve it. You’ve been a bad kitten lately haven’t you? Sneaking around, hiding things from me, saying awful things about yourself, and making me worry…” Taeyong said, resting his chin against your shoulder as he met your gaze in the mirror.

“I’m sorry…” You whimpered, grinding your ass back against him.

“Are you really though?” Taeyong asked, his eyes narrowing at you.

“Yes. I’m so sorry.” You whined, growing desperate for release.

“Are you ever going to do something like this again, kitten?” He asked, slipping his hands under your shirt to roll your nipples in between his fingers.

“I won’t. I swear.”

Taeyong smirked, loving the sound of desperation in your voice.

“Do you promise? Tell daddy you promise to never do this again and he’ll give you what you want okay?”

He didn’t have to tell you twice before you were repeating over and over like a mantra, “I promise I’ll never do it again, daddy.” You fluttered your lashes at him in the mirror, hoping he’d sense your sincerity.

That was all Taeyong needed to see before backing up and sinking his cock deep into your pussy.

He groaned as your walls hungrily sucked him in, greedily accepting every inch of him.

You arched your back, raising your ass even higher in the air for him.

Taeyong was relentless in how he fucked you. His nails painfully dug into the flesh on your soft hips as he held onto them for support whilst he pounded you from behind.

“Do you hear how wet you are? This pussy is practically milking my cock.” Taeyong moaned, his eyes never leaving yours in the mirror.

He was right. You were so wet, the obscene squelching noises your pussy was making around his cock bounced off the four walls of the bathroom.

“Taeyong…” You moaned.

He moved one hand off your hip to rest against your hand that was lying on the counter, he grabbed your hand to lace your fingers together.

“That’s right baby. Look at yourself, look at how well you’re taking my cock…such a good girl for me, my beautiful good girl.”

You could’ve come right then and there just because of how dirty the words coming from Taeyong’s mouth were.

You felt warm and happy as he praised you, calling you a good girl for taking him so well.

Taeyong continued drilling into you, never losing the rhythm he had set or the speed he was going at. He kept repeating in your ear over and over how pretty you looked and how beautiful you were.

Usually compliments like that went in one ear and out the other, you never liked to dwell on them for long because you just didn’t believe them.

But now…right here, right now. Watching yourself in the mirror as Taeyong fucked you, the faces you were making, and the way your body instinctively rolled and grinded back against him.

Even you couldn’t deny the beauty of the scene before you.

You could see him in the mirror, watching as his hands gripped and groped at your flesh, his desire and want for you evident on his face, evident in the manner at which he was thrusting deep inside you as if his life depended on it.

Thrusting with a desperation that matched yours, you needed this, to feel him inside of you, filling and stretching your walls with a subtle sweet pain.

“Taeyong, I’m gonna come.” You warned, feeling yourself clench around him.

The essence of your shared arousal started to drip down your thigh.

“Then come for me.” Taeyong answered, reaching his hand around your waist to rub your clit, propelling you further into your state of euphoria.

You rocked your hips back against him, chasing after your own orgasm.

You moved to throw your head back and rest it on his shoulder but Taeyong was quick to push your head forward, reminding you with a slap on your ass to not look away from the mirror.

“I want you to watch as you come on my cock.” Taeyong growled, determination clear in his voice as he unsheathed his cock completely from your warmth only to slam his hips back into yours.

You squealed as Taeyong angled his thrusts upward to hit your g-spot. Your eyes welled with tears, and your hand gripped the edge of the counter as you braced yourself.

It only took Taeyong a few more strokes before you were clenching around him uncontrollably, your pussy creaming on his cock. You collapsed on the counter, too tired to hold yourself up anymore. You winced a little as Taeyong continued to drill into you, the pleasure turning into a slight burn as he overstimulated you.

You wiggled your hips, trying to bring your hiked up leg down from the counter whilst also inching away from Taeyong’s thrusts.

“Stay still.” Taeyong grunted, pinching your outer thigh.

Taeyong abused your poor cunt until he was ready to fill you with his seed. He made sure he was stuffed deep inside of you when he painted your walls with his cum.

Once the two of you had caught a minute to catch your breath, Taeyong carefully pulled out of you, making a mess between your thighs as he did so. Your empty pussy was now clenching on air, inadvertently pushing Taeyong’s cum out of your hole causing it to run down your inner thighs.

Taeyong leaned down to kiss the back of your neck, whispering sweet nothings in your ear as you came down from your high.

Finally, Taeyong pushed himself off of you to allow you to rise up from the counter. He turned you around to face him so he could properly kiss you on the lips.

“Wait, where are you going?” Taeyong asked as you kissed him before untangling your limbs from his.

“To shower?” You answered, one hand already on the nozzle of the tap to turn the shower on.

You were a sweaty, sticky mess, in desperate need of a nice long shower.

Taeyong smirked, pulling you back into his chest, “We’re still not done here.”

Your face must’ve said it all because before you got the chance to whine about being tired Taeyong was already pressing you up against the wall.

“Spread your legs again. Nice and wide for me...Daddy’s going to make sure you get all clean again…”

#nct x reader #nct taeyong #nct smut #nct smut reactions #nct yandere smut #nct yandere #yandere smut #yandere nct #chubby reader #chubby smut #chubby!reader #lee taeyong #lee taeyong smut #taeyong smut #yandere taeyong

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husbandohunter · 3 years ago

Note

A Furry Predicament, but reversed (Reader turns into a cat)? Pretty please with a sweet lil cherry on top? (I recently stumbled across your blog and may I just say that I absolutely adore your works??) Thank youu and take care~~

A Furrier Predicatment [Genshin x Cat!Reader]

♤♡◇♧☆

Synopsis: It's your turn to be a cat after this incident.

Characters: Diluc, Kaeya, Xiao, Albedo, Zhongli, Childe, Venti

(A/n): Ah you did OwO that's very sweet of you. It's alot of fun to write, especially when your imagination is stunted and you just gotta spit out something silly.

=======================

[Diluc]

Any beloved pet owned by Master Diluc would be under the most high quality and meticulous treatement. Mostly for cats since they tend to be calm while elegant...to some extent. If they were dogs then he'll ensure that they also serve as a partner for sniffing out trouble such as a certain bard who'd might've sneaked into the wine cellars. But you weren't either, so to say, you were both a beloved AND a cat.

As he picks you up gently into his arms, Diluc would be a little baffled on what to do next. He has no idea how to care for delicate creatures as he never had one (other than a pet tortoise but that's different) in which he needed to look for help. But who? The staff? Certainly not, no one can find out that his partner turned into a pet (imagine all the scandals he'll be in). Jean? Anything but the knights of Favonius. And most certainly not his brother.

So Diluc ends up figuring everything out by himself (old habits die hard). All the sweets and regular meals you craved were no long in your menu, you were forced to have a proper cat diet because he believed it was healthier. Half of the time he has no idea what he's doing, since you were a cat and all you could do was "meow" (which Diluc forgets. He tries to have a mundane conversation until you stare at him with feline eyes. That was when he remembered).

"What would you like for tonight's dinner, my love?"

"Meow." He has alot to learn.

Though Master Diluc often gets very tired and he attempts to take a quick nap before killing himself over the next set of duties. That is, until you could help it. Being a cat has it's furry and comfy advantages. So you leapt up to the bed as quietly as possible and onto the side of your lover, circling a few times to see if he was really asleep. When he was you snuggled close to keep him warm, hoping it would lull him into a rest even deeper. He slept like a baby.

~xx~

[Kaeya]

If the Cavalry Capatain were to own a pet, they would either be charmed by him or snaring their teeth because of his unreadable and suspicious aura. Animal instincts are quite powerful. But your case wasn't the latter, thankfully and he could feel himself growing fond of this new found relationship. Almost. What should he do with you now that you're a cat, Kaeya wonders.

Belly rubs and a lot of them. He absolutely adores the way your cute little nose scrunches up while he runs his fingers on the center of your tummy (though he knows when to stop, Kaeya is rather gentle with you nowadays). You found that he absolutely adores the shape of your nose, would pick you up and boop yours with his own somehow knows how to be his flirty self despite your unusual form.

There was this one incident where you saw something shiny flashing over the wall. Slowly you followed it as the bright dot moved futher and further away, evetually gaining speed. Little did you know it was Kaeya who was watching you swipe your little paws up and down against the wall while he was just cleaning his sword. How could he help it? You were often so headstrong and independent, now you were just an adorable little kitten that loves to play with yarn and shiny things. It backfired him though, now there were a bunch of scratchmarks marring the surfaces (which he had to pay for repairs).

Takes you out to Windrise so that you could get some fresh air (also for you to find somewhere else to shed your fur other than his humble abode). Kaeya sits back under a tree while you either chase a butterfly or start slapping against the dandelions (only sneeze when they fly into your face). He wasn't sure if you were aware of what you were doing right now, if you were then he'll have lots of things to talk about once you turn back into human. If not, then at least he had the opportunity to witness such a soft side coming from you.

~xx~

[Xiao]

If any animal were to go close towards the adeptus, they would run away. Xiao isn't very good at interacting with others, pets included, usually they would run into the alleyway or hide around the legs of their owners while he glaringly, blankly stares at them (Even though he wouldn't admit it, Xiao thinks to himself, how soft is cat fur?) Now he gets to touch your cat form and turns out that fur is very ticklish yet pleasant against his skin.

Would be the most awkward conversationalist, the poor yaksha was already terrible with his words (often coming out harsh so he prefers to either keep away or say nothing at all) and even with you sometimes, now it was almost impossible to communicate. Xiao is not very good at reading a cat's body language. When you want him to hold you again, you'd walk in circles. He assumes you were hungry and leaps out the window to go fetch some fish...for the nth time there was a pile of raw salmon stacking upon the floor. Xiao thinks that maybe salmon species weren't to your liking, hence he does out to find another one.

As he plays his flute, you'd magically doze off on his lap. (There was one thing that you both can communicate with at last). Slowly but surely, he comes to learn the different gestures you make for certain situations. You often rub yourself upon his leg which he had heard to be a cat's way of claiming their territory. That was when Xiao picks you up, FINALLY. Though the real reason why it took him this long was because he was hesitant to hold you. He never really held a pet so naturally he has no idea how to hold a cat. Ends up cradling you in his arms because it seemed to be a safer option <3

"I never thought I'd be able to hold you like this," Xiao softly says to your lazy form, observing the way your ears perked up at the sound of his voice, "But I...forget it. We can stay like this for the time being, if you'd like. If not, that's fine too."

You stay.

~xx~

[Albedo]

The only pets Albedo had were for his alchemic experiments (plus they were put in cages too). Fact be told, he would make a terrible pet owner with the lifestyle he has now. The alchemist would be so absorbent into his work that he'll most likely forget that he has someone to feed and by the time he realized it, they would have already starved to death. After hearing glass bottles crashing to the floor, Albedo bursts into the rooms as the smoke fills it completely, finding a cat lost between it. The cat was you. He knows because he made the potions.

Sometimes he'd a little too scientific for his own good. Albedo assumed that when you turned into a cat, you've gone into cat mode and ends up treating you as such. "No, don't go near any bodies of water. You wouldn't like it." He almost forgets that you were once human which is very much like him if you had to be honest. Though when he does find out that you still carried human traits, Albedo must find ways to adapt things to your liking.

He makes your food himself. He's not a cook but he sure is good at everything he does, even if it's something he never did before. This goes for other areas too such as the size of your bed, if you need a little couch to stay on or maybe some tools to play around. (The only time when he is a good pet owner). In his sketchbook he'd have a bunch of blueprints and contraptions of what to make next. There's something enjoyable when spoiling you, those little reactions when you're pleased, like the twitch of your whiskers or the lift of your tail. Albedo finds is very cute.

On top of all that, he could also make you a potion to turn you back into normal. It seemed that it was the last thing he thought of on the list. Albedo was too occupied with treating you like a cat that it all flew over his head until now. Time flies when you're having fun.

~xx~

[Zhongli]

Unlike Albedo, anyone who has Zhongli as a pet owner would be considered to be a very lucky animal. He radiates a calm and serene aura that gives the perfect environment to have infinite nap times. People look at this man and wonder why his pet never gives him any trouble, especially when cats were considered to be both fiesty and needy. But they just didn't know that the cat was you (not like it would make a difference, any animal would know that Zhongli was no ordinary man).

How on earth does he know what you're saying? Maybe it's because he was once an archon. You could meow and he knows exactly what you would like to snack on. You could tilt your head, he takes it that you were curious on what he was currently doing (which was exactly what you were wondering), you can say nothing at all yet as if he could read your mind, Zhongli comes over to pet you with his gloved hands.

"How can I tell? Indeed it is because you're my lover, of course. Throughout this time we spent together, I've come to learn the way you speak through your eyes. They seem to hold true no matter what form you take. It's rather comforting."

Though there were many moments where you sneak up behind Zhongli. His hair, his ponytail- so long. Must play with. As you jump up and down with his thin strand swings side to side, it'll take a few seconds for him to decipher what your were doing. The minute he turns around he catches you with his hands midair and laughs heartfully. Cats were very endearing creatures.

~xx~

[Childe]

Back home in Snezhnaya, Childe would probably have owned a dog or two. They were mostly meant for hunting purposes, big and large furry creatures with thick skin suitable to endure the harsh cold. He has dogs because cats hate him for some strange reason. They either hiss or snootly turn their backs on him, one time he picked one up as a kid but his face bleeding after the cat scratched him with their paws. But of course you wouldn't do that to him. You would never~ he was your cutie pie anyways.

He was an obnoxious hugger, not gentle at all. Childe forgets his strength as a human man and when he squeezes you tightly against his chest, you'd spike out on all ends because by the archons, you're suffocating. But it was your fault for feeling so comfy and warm! Similar to Kaeya, they're both obnoxious but Childe deemed himself to be even worse. He'd rub his face against yours, commenting on how sensitive it sways. Tonia once told him that she wanted a pet cat instead, maybe he should also bring you back to his homeland now.

Yes he would love to play with you. Bring in the cat toys...or not. This was the eleventh Fatui Harbinger, what were you thinking? Normal cat activities? Not here. He's gonna teach you how to hunt like how he taught his dogs to hunt in Snezhnaya. You gave him the most deadpanned and dissapointed look with your large feline glare. Not only was he disliked by cats but he certainly was not good with them.

Though he can take it down a notch sometimes and just indulge in relaxing activities. When there was nothing else for him to do or when he was just tired after a productive day, he'd sit by the kitchen and you on top of the table. While you yawned and leaned down for a nap, Childe plays with the small of your paws to the soft edge of your nails. If he taps your nose, your whiskers twitch. Your ears are nice, maybe he should get you a headband version once you turned back to human.

You immediately wake up when he touches your tail.

~xx~

[Venti]

Achoo!

You sometimes wonder how is it that the anemo archon was able to live through 2000 years without getting beaten up by a cat. If andrius was a large cougar than a wolf, maybe he wouldn't be an archon now. Which is why you are to stay miles far far away from him unless you want the whole of Mondstadt to be blown away by the wind.

Wears a mask (as if this were the covid19 pandemic), although it doesn't take away all his problems, at least it'll minimize it. Venti always has a box of tissues ready but you can tell by the puffiness of his eyes that he's been sneezing alot. He really tries his hardest to pitch in every once in a while when Albedo was working on a cure for you to go back to normal. Though acts as if he was quarantined by staying all the way at the other side of the room.

"Ahahaha don't mind me. It's your local bard of Mondstadt dropping by to see how things are going. I wanna make sure how long it will take for you to make the potion? Just curious!"

No hugs, cuddles or anything involving close proximity. This makes Venti very pouty and impatient. Albedo finds it very hard to concentrate with all the sniffling and sneezing that he had no choice but to kick him out. It didn't help that the location was Dragonspine, now he was sneezing even more.

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aureatescars · 1 year ago

Text

Alexander blinks at Leon. This time he's the one caught off guard. He doesn't remember much from the moment after Leon pulled the trigger on him. Is sure the shock took most of his memories from before he woke up at the hospital, disoriented and in pain, and alone.

He knew of course, that Leon was the one who brought him in, he was told as much, but he didn't think to stop and consider that Leon had stayed around until after he was stable. He isn't naive enough to imagine the other man sitting anxiously at his bedside, but even in retrospect it still is an oddly reassuring thing to think that at the worst time of his life he wasn't alone, that someone cared, at least enough to hope that he'd survive, to check whether or not he did.

Eventually, he nods. "I wasn't able to for the longest time," he says. "Two years of going in and out of doctor's offices, months upon months of physical therapy and in the end I only had a few seconds at a time to show for it. Standing, not walking, far from it." He shifts where he is leaning, subconsciously straightening his back, moving his hand from his pocket to the edge of the desk to take some strain off of it. He slightly angles his cane to indicate his legs, tapping the side of one lightly, a small wave of relief overcoming him when he actually feels it. "This is fairly recent—"

Alexander'sfaze shifts back to find Leon's and then his brows furrow suddenly, noting a slight shift in Leon's demeanor, as if a door was shut in his face. He isn't quite sure what he said to have warranted Leon shutting down like this, but in the end he can't blame him. Straight to business after all then.

"...Right."

Alexander fights the urge to sigh and instead uses his cane to stand, moving around his desk, this time to sit in his chair, putting him opposite Leon. He turns his attention to the monitor on his desk briefly, pulling up a few files. He turns the screen eventually so they can both look at the files.

"I'll spare you the details on how I came by these files. The important thing is that we've been monitoring the activities of this facility for a while now." Alexander pulls up a few screen captures from security cameras and files on a roundabout 15 employers to better illustrate his point. They're all of different age, ethnicity and professional background. At first glance there is no connection between them other than the company they work for now. Alexander sees Leon come to the same conclusion quickly while looking at the dossiers, raising a brow at him which Alexander takes as a prompt to continue.

"Their current employer isn't the only common thread here," he says and with another few clicks the 15 dossiers are shifted aside, each of their former workplaces highlighted and then pulled up on a bigger map of intersections, all of them branching out a few layers until they eventually lead to one name. Umbrella. "All of them were formerly employed by companies affiliated or funded by Umbrella and all of these people are now working in the same department at this new facility."

Alexander pauses, but one look at Leon provides him with enough reason to think he doesn't have to explain who or what Umbrella is, for the darkened expression on Leon's face is telling enough. A few more clicks. A few more images. This time there on the screen, sits a row x-rays of human bodies with the winding spindly outline of something that looks suspiciously like the Plaga parasite used during the Eastern Slav civil war firmly wound around a persons spine, if slightly different in appearance, mutated, deliberately altered even.

Alexander's brows furrow deeper, he can't help but stare at the parasites, the hairs on the back of his neck raise even just thinking about the sensations, the pain that came with being a carrier of these things. He clears his throat, forcing himself to focus. "I've forwarded information like this to the B.S.A.A. and the DSO before, but this is different. Them being a potential threat isn't why I invited you here."

His eyes flicker across the screen as he pulls up some video footage this time. "This is." For now, it's just an image of someone curled up in a cell of white tiles, wearing a hospital gown, knees pulled up to their chest, head burried in their crossed arms.

Alexander presses play, and at first it seems like he didn't, because the person remains still, but then there must be something moving or making noise off screen, because all at once the person's head snaps up, blue eyes, wide and afraid look straight at the camera from inbetween dark blond bangs.

Alexander pauses the video, then turns to look at Leon again, who now looks even more pale than before. "I take it this is not a younger relative of yours?"

The chime of the elevator announces the arrival of the man he's been waiting for. His gaze shifts from the scenery to his reflection in the window and then he turns meeting Leon's eyes for the first time in three years. It's an odd feeling. He isn't entirely sure what he would lable him as and judging from the way Leon sizes him up, he doesn't quite know what to call this either. They started out as enemies way back when. At least Alexander thought so initially. And given that the other is responsible for his injury most people would assume some kind of bad blood between them still.

The truth is, Alexander doesn't hold any of what happened against him, doesn't resent him for it. In the end, he had saved his life. He'd be lying if he said that he never wished he could forget what Leon told him that day, if only because giving up at any point would have been that much easier. And yet, he knew even back then that his injury was a burden of his own making, of his own choosing and that he didn't have anyone to blame for it other than himself. If it wasn't for Leon, then he wouldn't be standing here at all.

Now, even on those days where his body aches and his legs barely obey him, he's grateful for the second chance Leon's afforded him, so much so, that the open surprise that flickers over the other man's expression has Alexander's mouth quirk up into a small smile in turn.

Alexander watches Leon spawl in the chair with quiet amusement. His brash, almost cocky attitude is something he remembers well. He's punched him for pushing his buttons once and he's still not entirely sure it wasn't deserved after all, but as of right now the way he acts doesn't irritate him yet. In fact, it's a welcome difference compared to the stuck up people he has to deal with most days.

He makes a small gesture with his free hand, then shrugs. "For now," he answers cryptically, alluding to the fact he's not been the first nor will he likely be the last to hold this position.

Alexander moves around the table to lean against it, facing Leon. He puts his weight against the piece of furniture, moving one leg to easily cross over the other, the cane kept in one hand, the other shifting into the pocket of his pants, posture decidedly relaxed as he holds Leon's gaze. He is no threat to him, nor does he wish to pose as one.

"It's been... an eventful few years."

It's an understatement at best, and if Leon's appearance, especially the dark circles under his eyes, are anything to go by, then he didn't fare much better than Alexander did in the meantime. He seems ...different now than he was back when they first met. He looks not only tired, but weary in a way that cannot be entirely because of the travel time.

Alexander wonders briefly if he should have read the file labelled Leon S. Kennedy that's been stowed away in his desk for a few weeks at this point after all, or if he'd been right to put the documents aside the moment they were put upon his desk. It's a routine safety precaution to have his people gather all they can on any person that is supposed to step foot in this office, but despite his curiosity and really against his better judgement, Alexander had refrained from reading any of it.

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blu-joons · 2 years ago

Text

BEST FRIEND NCT A⇴Z HEADCANON ⇴ Huang Renjun

A ⇴ ATTENTION

Even though he was far away, Renjun still liked to have an eye on you. He would constantly text you, or text your family if he wasn’t able to get a hold of you to make sure that you were taking care of yourself well.

B ⇴ BICKER

Most of the time the two of you would bicker over text, for example if one of you tried to get the other to sleep then you’d protest and assure them that it wasn’t too late and that you could stay and talk, or when the other planned to ship something over, you’d bicker about not wasting your money on each other.

C ⇴ COMFORT

Any time that he spoke to you on the phone, Renjun could tell straight away when something wasn’t right. He would push and push until eventually you sat down and told him what the problem was, because as he liked to remind you all the time, he knew you a lot better than you ever gave him the credit for.

D ⇴ DISAGREEMENTS

The two of you hated wasting the limited time that you already had together by disagreeing, your texts and calls were limited at the best of times without spending it squabbling. If an argument felt as if it was brewing between the two of you, one of you would suggest hanging up for five minutes and going to get a drink before coming back onto the call and forgetting about what you had just spoken about.

E ⇴ EARLY YEARS

Neither of you could really remember not knowing one another, it just felt like one of those things that had always been a part of your lives. You were quite glad that you had met each other so young if you were honest because as you got older you wondered whether you would be as close with one another, both feeling as if the getting to know each other process would be a lot more awkward and trickier for you both.

F ⇴ FAMILY

Renjun’s family were the best, they took the best care of you and always were there for you when you needed them. They were constantly updating Renjun on how you were when he felt that you were keeping secrets from them, and if you weren’t able to get a hold of Renjun, they’d assure you that they had spoken to him recently and that he was just busy so that you didn’t have to worry that something had happened.

G ⇴ GETTING TOGETHER

Because of your different time zones, getting together was sometimes difficult, but you tried your best to align your days so that you had a couple of hours when you did call. One of you would have to stay up a little bit later than you wanted most of the time, but it was worth it to be able to talk to each other.

H ⇴ HABITS

The two of you had a habit of talking every day, even when you were both super busy, you’d still at least text one another at some point during the day. Even though you didn’t see each other in person, you still thought about each other a lot and made sure to keep the conversation going when you could.

I ⇴ INSIDE JOKES

You still had plenty of inside jokes despite the fact that you weren’t always together in person, mainly because of how you embarrassed yourselves a lot on calls. You had either fallen asleep on a call or fallen off your chairs when you called one another more than once which the other person made sure not to forget.

J ⇴ JEALOUSY

The thing that got Renjun jealous the most was the fact that you had other people around you who got to hang out with you as much as they wanted to, whilst he couldn’t. Whilst he loved seeing you having fun with your friends, at the same time he couldn’t help but wish that he was there too and enjoying the fun rather than having to sit miles away from you and be there only in his imagination whilst looking at the photos.

K ⇴ KICKS

Renjun got a kick out of surprising you, whether that be in person or sending gifts back to you from Korea without telling you. It was very rare for him to tell you when he was coming home for a visit, but what happened more often was you coming home to boxes being shipped with plenty of treats for you inside.

L ⇴ LOVE

He loved how you both still managed to make your friendship work seamlessly despite being miles away from each other. When he first moved away Renjun worried that maybe the two of you would end up slipping away from each other, but if anything, you made more of an effort when the two of you were far apart to make sure that that didn’t happen, talking more on the phone than you ever had done before.

M ⇴ MEETING

The two of you first met when you started school, you’d been together ever since the very start. You found yourselves sat together during one of your lessons, and over time you sat together in your other lessons too, soon being known amongst your other classmates for just how well you got along with each other.

N ⇴ NONSENSE

Whenever he was with you, Renjun always found himself letting go. You had lost count of the funny moments that you had witnessed because of him, knowing that he felt at such incredible ease when he was with you.

O ⇴ OBSESSION

Renjun was obsessed with how caring you were and how you always checked on him despite the distance. You never once lost interest in the things that he did, even if you weren’t able to see them in person.

P ⇴ PRECIOUS MOMENTS

There was no time that meant more to Renjun than when the two of you were able to see each other in person. He loved the feeling of being able to hug you and see the expression on your face when you talked rather than having to figure out how you were feeling through the dodgy pixels on his laptop.

Q ⇴ QUESTIONS

He loved to ask about you, Renjun loved asking about your days because you told him about home which often helped him, especially when he was feeling homesick and missing some of his favourite spots.

R ⇴ RANDOM FACTS

Both of you carried a photo of one another in your phone cases so that you always had your best friend with you. It was something that Renjun made you do when he first moved away so that you didn’t forget him, and even after so many years you both still carried the photos as your things for each other.

S ⇴ SUPPORT

One thing that always surprised Renjun was how you still supported him even from far away, knowing exactly when he had a broadcast or a show. He never thought that you had such an interest in his career, but you knew exactly what Renjun was doing and always made sure to at least text him a good luck message.

T ⇴ TRIPS

You were the one that he looked forward to seeing the most when Renjun made a trip home. As soon as his plane landed, and he got in the car at the arrivals lounge he was telling the driver to take him to you.

U ⇴ ULTIMATE

He felt incredibly lucky to be able to call you his best friend, Renjun would talk to absolutely anyone about you and brag about you.

V ⇴ VISITS

You would quite often visit Renjun when he was at work as you called him, getting to talk to the other members too. He always accepted your calls and got you involved with what was happening at the studio.

W ⇴ WISDOM

He would try his best to give you as much advice as possible, writing things down so he could remember to say them when he called.

X ⇴ XXXX

When the two of you did spend time together, you were very affectionate with one another. You always made the most of your time together and very rarely were more than an arm away from each other.

Y ⇴ YOU

You were his rock, even from afar Renjun always knew that you were there for him.

Z ⇴ ZZZ

He loved giving up his bed for you when you visited Renjun, he wanted you to be as comfortable as possible when you stayed, even if that meant him having to give up his bed so that you could be cosy and relaxed.

---

Masterlist

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loopy-froots · 3 years ago

Text

Childhood Friends

Brahms Heelshire x afab!Reader

Author: @loopy-froots

Word Count: 3261 (WOW wtf…)

Slight request by @leahromanof : small age gap (Brahms is 26-28 and the reader is 20)

Summary: The Reader grew up very close to the Heelshire family, as their parents were business partners with them. However, after the fire incident, Brahms and the Reader took some space from each other. While the Reader knew Brahms was still alive, they didn’t know under the circumstances he was. When a sudden tragedy strikes their family, the Reader is left with no home. The Heelshire family offer their home with welcoming arms, but much has changed between all of them since they have last seen each other.

Warnings: 18+ ONLY, swearing, slasher x reader, smut, virgin/unprotected sex (masc and fem), abusive parents (fem), insecurities (on both parts), slight age gap (6ish years?), a slight size kink (if you squint?), etc.

Author’s Note: I wasn’t too sure what to write for the age gap so I hope this is good enough!!! I also threw in a lot of personal needs I’ve been having, so I hope y’all don’t mind! Feel free to let me know your thoughts!!!

~~~

*2nd Person POV*

You couldn’t believe this was happening. You were finally going to see your beloved childhood friend, Brahms Heelshire, again after close to ten years of separation. You wished this was not under these circumstances, as you never intended to cause your family such turmoil.

“Y/n! Come in, why don’t you?” Mr. Heelshire exclaims as he opens his front door. He must have seen you walk up their driveway. You can see Mrs. Heelshire inside, but she shares a concerning expression. Trying to brush it off, you step inside and am greeted by the warmth of the house. It was a terribly chilly winter day, and the walk there exhausted you.

“Come, dear! Let me get you a cup of tea to warm you up! You look rather frozen!” Mrs. Heelshire snaps out of her funk and laughs al0ng with her husband. Their jovial attitude makes you feel rather welcomed and loved.

“I cannot thank you enough, Mr. and Mrs. Heelshire… I… I’m terribly sorry that this all happened… especially so suddenly…” You look down with embarrassment.

“Nonsense! We’re always happy to have you, Y/n! Our home is yours!” Mr. Heelshire smiles at you, but you get a somewhat urgent vibe from him. You’re not sure how to feel about it, but you figure since they’re being ever so kind you were in no position to question.

“Now, dear… why don’t you tell us exactly what happened… Perhaps we may help with your parents’ situation?” Mrs. Heelshire gently suggests, but you shake your head in disagreement.

“Unfortunately, I’m not sure that’s possible… you see, I recently came out to my parents as non-binary… they’ve never been overly supportive of that kind of stuff, but I knew I couldn’t hide myself any longer…” You explain shamefully.

“Oh my… that is a rather difficult predicament, hm? However, we want you to know that we fully support you… in fact, our own Brahms considers himself genderfluid,” Mrs. Heelshire shares, which honestly makes you feel less alone.

“Really? I… I had no idea… Thank you, but speaking of which… where is Brahms…? Does he still live with you?” You wonder.

“Oh, um… yes… he does, but he’s grown to be rather… timid… so he doesn’t always come out when people are visiting…” Mr. Heelshire explains swiftly, and you try to understand. You don’t fully know what he’s been through, so who are you to judge his social anxieties?

“That’s alright. Well, I just hope he knows how excited I am to see him again…” You confess, causing a surprised reaction from the Heelshire couple.

“Really? Well, that’s certainly wonderful! I’m sure he'll become more open to meeting you after he gets used to you being in the house…” Mrs. Heelshire states with a gentle smile, and you nod your head in agreement.

With that, you are then taken on a tour of the house. You’re shown areas you can and cannot wander to, and you mentally note each location that’s off limits. You’d never want to make the Heelshires uncomfortable, despite how curious you were. They show you to your room, which you immediately recognize as Brahms’ childhood room.

“Oh wow! This looks exactly how I remembered it!” You giggle.

“I’m glad you’re fond of it still, as Brahms insisted you take his room for your own… comfort…” Mr. Heelshire shares, but something tells you he’s not entirely being honest. However, you ignore the feeling bubbling up in your stomach.

“Well, feel free to unpack your things dear. As we mentioned before, we are planning on going on a trip within the next few days. So it will be just you and Brahms for a while…” Mrs. Heelshire reminds you, and you shiver slightly for some reason.

“Oh, yes… Well, I hope the two of you enjoy it!” You politely respond.

~~~

“Goodbye, dear! And remember, follow the rules and you’ll get no trouble from our dear Brahms!” The Heelshires bid you farewell and leave in their cab. Closing the door, you sigh in relief.

“Alright, follow the rules… I can do that… it’s the least I can do since they were so kind as to let me stay for a while…” You motivate yourself.

“Y/n…” A sudden familiar, childlike voice echoes through the house. You looked around to see who it came from, but you saw no one. It had to be Brahms, right? Who else could it have been, but where was he?

“B-Brahms?” You sheepishly call out. You hear no answer and suddenly feel quite stupid. Maybe you just heard the shifting of the house or imagined someone was calling your name?

“Alright, focus… first things first, making some lunch… hopefully he’ll come down to eat with me…?” You hope. You could’ve sworn you heard another childish giggle somewhere, but you try to shake the skittish feeling building up. You quickly make whatever you feel like for lunch, desperate to finish so that you can call Brahms down to eat.

“Um, Brahms? I… lunch is done… if you want some?” You yell throughout the house, but you hear no answer. Finally feeling defeat, you turn back to the kitchen and notice that one of the plates of food has disappeared.

“How did he get to it without me noticing?” You ask out loud. Every instinct within you tells you that something was wrong, but you tried your best to give the man some time to adjust to the new living situation.

“Y/n…?” In the middle of eating, you hear a now more adult version of the voice you heard earlier. You drop your fork in surprise and frantically look around for the source. You then see a tall and scruffy looking man standing at the end of the dining room. He was holding the plate that is now empty, and you figure that must be Brahms. He was very odd looking, in all honesty. He wore a porcelain mask that resembles the type of little dollies you used to keep as a kid.

“Oh, um… h-hello, Brahms…?” You try to be friendly towards him, despite the creepy feeling you got from him already. However, him not answering causes the suspicion to form again.

“Um… did you enjoy the meal I made for you?” You try to spark a conversation, but Brahms nonverbally nods in response.

“That’s good! I’m… glad…” You smile awkwardly at him, but his masked face remains expressionless. You shift uncomfortably in your seat, and Brahms notices the tense state you’re in. He begins to step closer to you, and sets his plate on the table. Sweating profusely, you wonder what he’s doing. He steps closer and closer to you until he’s directly in front of you. While you sit, he towers over you. You’d never admit it, but he’s very intimidating. However, you try your best to be polite.

“Is… everything alright, Brahms?” You ask innocently. He just stares at you, though, never saying a word. When you were about to get up and try to walk away, he grabs your arm and pulls you into him.

“B-Brahms…?!” You exclaim as he squeezes you in his broad arms. He’s rather warm, but trembling. Your heart relaxes when you realize he only wanted a hug.

“Y/n… nice to see you again…” He finally peeps out. Your cheeks heat up, but you lean into the embrace. The two of you just hold onto each other for a few moments, enjoying each other’s presence.

“Good to see you, too! I was worried you were upset with me for coming back after such a long time…” You try to pull away and look him in the eyes, but his grip keeps you there.

“Mm, no… not upset… lonely…” He breathes into your ear, sending a chill down your back. He was… lonely? That makes you feel bad… really bad… how could you leave him like you did after the incident?! It wasn’t completely your fault, as you parents were the main reason you stayed away. They told you what a dangerous person Brahms was, and they forbid you from being influenced by him in any way.

Additionally, your parents never liked how fond the two of you seemed towards each other, despite the slight age difference you had. Brahms was only six years older, and to you it didn’t matter for terms of friendship. However, your parents saw the attraction Brahms had towards you right away. As children, it only developed into a little crush, but the older the two of you got the more obvious it became, to the adults at least. You seemed quite oblivious to his attempts to woo you, as you had just thought he was being friendly.

“I…I’m sorry, Brahms… I should’ve… I wish I’d have… I’m sorry…” Tear well in your eyes as you look down from his gaze. Your focus then shifts to the ever growing bulge in his pants that you hadn’t noticed before.

“It’s alright… happy you’re here now…” Brahms strokes your hair with his free hand, and he leans into you. You feel him stroke your neck with his nose, seemingly trying to get a reaction out of you. Completely frozen, you felt unsure of what to do. All of the sudden, your head’s ideas clicked and made you realize the years of yearning he’d been doing for you.

You’d be lying if you said you didn’t still have feelings for the boy you grew up with. You always admired how protective he was of you. You never admitted your affection towards him, though, as you thought he might react negatively. To you, the age difference acted as a barrier, but to him, it seemed he didn’t mind in the slightest. All he’s ever known was his love for you, despite the age gap. However, is this still the same boy as before? You probably barely knew him anymore. Then why were you getting so flustered over this simple interaction?

“Brahms?” You look back into his eyes with a curious glint. What was he planning with you?

“Hm?” He nonchalantly answers.

“Are you…?” You start, but then feel too embarrassed to finish.

“Yes,” He agrees without needing you to explain. You feel him jerk his hips into your stomach softly, desperate to get some friction between the two of you. As intoxicating as he was being, you still felt unsure of your stance with him.

“I’m not sure I want to… I mean, this is so soon… don’t you think?” You try to reason mainly with yourself to try and stop this from happening. With that, Brahms stops and pulls away from you with a pout.

“No?” He questions with sweet eyes.

“I… yes…?” You try to stand your ground with yourself again, but it’s no use. Brahms’ heartfelt pleading turns you to putty in his hands.

“Please?” He begs. With that, you finally agree, and he’s onto you. Groping all up and down your sides, front, and back, he feels every inch of your body as if he’s desperate to find something in you.

“Brahms… wait…?” You stop him again, realizing you hadn’t seen his actual face yet. You politely ask him to remove his mask, but he visibly slumps.

“Why…? You… don’t want to see me…” Brahms insecurely explains, but you shake your head.

“I do! Please…?” You whine as he continues to feel up your back. Brahms hesitates slightly, then agrees. With that, he slowly removes the porcelain from himself. This leaves his bare, burnt, and uncertain face into your view. You’re unsure of what to say at first, as your feelings are conflicted. However, you quickly decide to go with what your heart felt.

“You’re so handsome, Brahms…” You confess with a sheepish smile. He doesn’t respond, though, almost as if he’s debating what to say as well.

“Mm!” You moan through a sudden kiss he placed on your lips, making Brahms smile to himself in the kiss. He loved the way you reacted to his touch. He quickly realized you were feeling the same towards him, and that gave him the confidence to continue. You rapidly grew a certain heat in your pelvic area, but the feeling was still unfamiliar to you. Only on the rare occasion did you allow yourself the pleasure, but you felt guilty for it every time.

“Slut… whore… useless daughter…” Your parents’ past words radiate in your head, and a panic washes over your body. Brahms senses your inner conflict again, and stops once more.

“Y/n…?” He gently asks to see if you’re alright. Tears well up in your eyes as the guilt of disappointing your parents consumes you.

“I’m sorry, I just… my mom and dad would be so upset… I just feel so… lost…” You admit, and Brahms wipes your cheeks with his calloused hands.

“Mm, screw them…” He chuckles darkly.

“But…” You try to argue, but he shushes you instead.

“They’ve never been good to you, Y/n…” Brahms shares, and it confuses you at first. They’ve always given you food, shelter, and anything else a child would need.

“But they… they mean well…” You try to reason it out, but he still disagrees.

“I’ve been watching, listening to how they treat you your whole life, Y/n… the way they scream at you, gaslight you, disappoint you… that’s not love… that’s abuse…” Brahms whispers with a broken heart for you. The pain of realization hits you, but you try to muffle your cries with your hands over your mouth.

“I’m so sorry… I know how hard it is… but I… I want to love you… really love you…” He kisses the top of your head sweetly. His words fill your heart with hope that you might not be miserable the rest of your life.

“Really…? I mean, I would love that… but I don’t want to force you into anything…” You self doubt yourself.

“Absolutely. I mean, hell… why do you think I was doing all of this?” Brahms wonders, and you suppose he’s right.

“Yeah, true… I’m sorry, I just feel bad… but thank you, I’d love to… y’know…?” You admit with a shy grin, which he immediately returns.

“Good,” He smirks and kisses you again. This time, the kiss was much more desperate for the sweet result. Brahms shows no mercy for you this time as he begins biting your lips. Your little gasps invoke a strong sense of pride within him. He was making you feel this way, and he alone would make you feel good.

“Hm,” His deep voice rumbles in his chest. Your eyes flutter open and shut, unsure of how to go about this situation. Squirming around awkwardly, you then feel Brahms grab your waist as he lifts you up and onto the table.

“Ah! Brahms...?!” You yelp in surprise.

“Take off your shirt, Y/n.” He demands, already sliding his hands underneath. You timidly follow his instructions, removing your shirt and bra from your body. Brahms looks down from your face and onto your breasts. He adored them, so he ran his hands over them as he gave each nipple a cheeky pinch.

“Oh, Brahms…” Your eyes close in bliss, but he snaps your attention back to his eyes.

“Look at me,” He suggests sternly.

“O-okay…” You do as he wishes and stare deep into his icy eyes. He’s tender and gentle, but he still makes you feel so small next to him.

“You’re so pretty, Y/n… I’ve always loved you…” Brahms brushes a stray lock of hair out of your face, giving him a better view at your beauty.

“I have loved you for the longest time, too, Brahms… I just never knew how to tell you…” You try your best to express your feelings, but your past experience with doing so has never been easy for you. Each emotion you shared ended in an argument with your parents.

“I’m so glad… please…” Brahms pleads, leaning his forehead against yours. He didn’t have to finish for you to understand what he wanted.

“C’mere…” Your sudden burst of trust hits the two of you like a train. Brahms roughly attacks your neck with his lips and teeth, nipping at all your sensitive areas. Exploring each and every inch, he scopes out which areas you like best.

“Mm, Y/n…” He whimpers, rubbing his needy cock against your body. You had neglected it for far too long, and you wanted to give it some love too.

Lowering your hand down to his member, you stroke him through his pants. Pre-cum leaks from his tip and soaks through his underwear slightly. His moans fill your ears with sweet misery. The lack of being inside of you was killing him, but he wanted to take things slow for you.

“Ah, Y/n…! Please! I’ll be a good boy!” He begs you to allow him entrance, and you agree. Instantaneously, he pulls his clothes off and prepares his painfully hard cock to slide into you.

“Oh! You feel… so tight…!” He didn’t tell you, but this was his first time as well. The first feeling of being inside of someone, especially when that someone is you, was the best feeling he’s ever felt. He couldn’t help himself but pump in and out of you. He tried his best to go slow, but his selfish excitement got the better of him. However, you were far from upset by this.

“Ah! D-don’t… stop…!” You plead with him, and he obliges. Slapping his body into yours in a rhythmic motion causes you to quickly feel that coil in your stomach tighten around him.

“F-fuck…! You’re gonna make me…!” As quickly as it started, your love making ended. The two of you came together simultaneously, and everything felt perfect to you. However, Brahms felt a wave of guilt.

“I… I’m sorry… I wish I had lasted longer… and I shouldn’t have pressured you into this…” He goes on and on about all the things he could’ve done better, but you then stop him with a chaste peck on his lips.

“You were perfect. Thank you,” You lovingly look into his eyes. He searches for any sort of regret, but when he finds none he settles into your arms.

~~~

MY REQUESTS FOR DRAWING AND WRITING ARE STILL OPEN!! FEEL FREE TO SEND AN ASK/MESSAGE WITH YOUR IDEA!!

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modx-reborn · 3 years ago

Text

The first prefromance

Something I spoke of in a discord I'm in.

So here have Simpbur and CamGirl/Camboy reader doing a show with them after working his way into their close circle.

(Yes this plays off of the two cam asks I have gotten recently)

Also please know that real cam girls/boys aren't actually going to do this, this is purely fictional in its makeup.

SMUT UNDERCUT! MINOR DNI!

"That's it j-just like that, all the way like you should be taking me. S-shouldn't be here fucking my hand w-when I could be fucking you, such a pretty thing so good for me, but such a slut t-to let others watch you like this..."

That was the last thing he had said to you on your last private call, since then he had wormed his way further and further into your shows and even into a bit of your personal life, or well your on-screen personal life, as he had the phone number you kept aside for work, from your days as a more in-person performer.

And boy did he ever make use of the number, sending you little messages and photos whenever the thought struck him, peppering you in small doses of affection and savouring the way you called him sometimes when you skipped a stream, offering him to listen to you get off instead letting him hear when you spoke about the toy he had sent you. Sometimes even getting him to call and ask for you to listen to him, getting you to mutter things to him and work him that little bit closer to his end.

But now what you're calling for may just break your dear simp, having had all the fun you could with the silicon imitation he had made for you, that now your mind was thinking about how he would feel rather than the toy. 'S-shouldn't be here fucking my hand w-when I could be fucking you' his own words playing on repeat in your head after you close down your last stream, sending little thank yous to the top donators before moving to the call ping that was coming through.

It was him. Perfect.

"Ahh, there he is, my pretty top boy Simpbur!"

"That was quite the s-show, but what did you mean by you're w-working on something big with someone else?"

"Well, that's good that you asked my dear. You are always so good for me, sending those little messages and all those donations, I was thinking you may want to help me with the next stream..."

"Y-you want me to-"

"Mmhmm, didn't you say yourself that it should be you fucking me, or was it that you should be here in me rather than fucking your hand?"

It's easy to finish your sentence with a tilt of your head, tapping one of your fingers against your bottom lip as if you were actually trying to remember when truly you were just teasing the curly-haired boy staring at you wide-eyed through your screen.

"I. Yes. I-I mean I would love to if you want me to..."

With his agreement the rest of the call was spent hashing out the rough details and leaving him open to suggest what he wanted to do for the show, leaving him with a wink and a reminder to 'Keep it simple' before you logged out and started to pack up and clean down the space you had been working in.

There would be a few weeks between your last show and the next one, having all the platforms you used teasing the next stream with images of the silicone toy being front and centre in all the images, a tease for all your viewers but a reminder for your dear simpbur that he would be more real in your world in a few days. Even when he made up his mind on what he wanted it was still so very hard for him to not scroll back through the recorded calls and streams, take himself in hand and work through the building need.

But he managed to keep his hands off, having worked himself up even before the actual day of the stream.

When you call him, he picks up on the first ring as always chipper and shaky in the same breath as he says your stage name.

"There's my good boy! You ready for tomorrow? Your first time in the red light after all, just want to make sure you're still down and want to do this."

"I-I am. I'm good and... and ready for tomorrow."

With a laugh and a quick goodbye, you hang up, heading off to the regular place you booked for longer shows needing to set up lights and the cams now, otherwise you would likely not have time when your co-star finally made his way to you. And how right you were, the moment the time for the stream rolled around he was there at your door, hands fiddling with the bottom of his button-up, mask and beanie on as if you hadn't seen his face a million times before.

Welcoming him in is easy, but getting him to calm down just enough to have him read back what the two of you had planned took slightly longer. You had him keep his mask and beanie on, using them as a way to keep him from having his real-world life ruined from doing this one little show with you, the suggestion also seems to put some of his nerves to rest.

When the cameras do start rolling, the stream on a start-up timer for switching on to a live stage, your chat on a large screen hanging over your laptop that was actually hosting the show, messages flying past as people are lured in at the promise of a different kind of show and the tagline mentioning a guest star. When the cam starts showing the room you're seated on Simpburs lap, thighs spread wide over his with his hands holding you close while you do your intro, his masked face pressed into your shoulder as he mutters something under his breath.

Your form rocking back into him once you're were done, slipping a hand under his beanie and tangling in his curls, making him groan just loud enough that one of the many mics would be able to hear him, laughing and cooing at him as you reach down with your free hand to wrap around his cock, slowly running your fingers across the heated flesh.

"You'll be good for me won't you? So pretty and brave being here on cam with me, getting a treat that so many would die for..."

His voice falters when you shift your grip, tugging on his hair just as you start to actually move your hand to jerk him off, slipping your hand out of his hair you reach for a little remote, making the camera zoom in as you close your thighs around him, burying his cock between your thighs. Cooing at him once again as his hands are braced on your hips, using this to bounce you on him, head tilted back and panting as he fucks your thighs.

The exposed skin of his neck calling for you to leave a few marks across, a little gift for him to remember this day by, or well more than the stream recording of course, pink and purple marks blooming across his neck as he changes the pace moving you more and more until you can feel him throbbing between your thighs.

"Oh, sweet thing you're cumming already? Are my thighs that good? Can't even hold on for the main performance, or are you that eager for more that you would cum now and still keep going? Hmm, what is it, pretty boy?"

The only answer you receive is a deep groan and the warm feeling of his cum seeping from between your thighs, spreading your legs to show off the mess to your cam, letting everyone who was watching see the mess that he had made. Reading your chat gave you a wonderful idea, they wanted more and you wanted to see just how far you could push your dear simp till he broke and lived up to his wants to actually fuck you.

Flicking across the remote once again the camera angle changes, showing a side view of the bed perfect for what you were planning to do, the angle giving your audience the best show as you move off his lap and kneel on the floor. Holding his cock with one hand as you lean forward to lick a stripe up his shaft, cleaning his mess off with your mouth, taking him fully once most of him was clean looking up at him through your lashes once you have taken him into your throat.

Watching how his eyes go wide, hands shaking when they reach for your head, his eyes flicking up to the chat screen reading over some of the words telling him to fuck your face, to make you cry and drool all over him, and other wanting to be where he was, whining over text that they should have been the one there with you. The majority calling for him to do something, building a need to move in him, slowly he is moving his hips, still sensitive after having cum not moments before but the feeling of your mouth wrapped around him was spurring him on.

Before long his hips are moving properly, holding your head steady as he fucks your mouth watching how you look up at him every time he pushes into your throat, tears building and falling with how harsh some of his thrusts are, but the image just makes him groan. Throwing his head back once again as he works himself back up, trying to hold out and enjoy this feeling for a little while longer, only you had other plans pulling away panting as you take in the way he looks.

Flicking your hands cross the remote once again to switch cameras for the final time settling on one that would let your audience watch how good your dear simp was for you, let them watch how full he makes you feel and how pretty he looks when he cums, when he finally gets what he wanted.

"You ready pretty boy, ready to finally get what you want? What you told me about on all your calls? Take you all the way like I should be taking you?"

"P-please, fuck just please le-let me fuck you..."

In his rush to reach for you, his beanie had come off, brown curls falling out in a mess that you tried to cover again only to have your hands smacked away in favour of him pulling you up onto the bed with him. Throwing your thighs over his own reaching for the bottle of lube you had left waiting to be used, coating his fingers before pressing them into you working you open with one hand as the other is pressed to your shoulder keeping you from moving away from his probing fingers.

"G-God look at you, do-don't even need to work my way up to two fingers, already so r-ready for them... Ready for me."

To quick are his fingers gone replaced by the head of his cock, easing his way in as he moans, hands grabbing your hips to steady himself as he finally gets to feel what it's like to be buried in you just like his toy replica had been so many times before. There is little time between him being fully hilted in you and him starting to move, his hands moving from your hips to under your thighs ignoring the sticky cum still staining them, pushing them back and using the new angle to fuck into you as hard as he liked.

Wanting to have you drooling into the mattress and calling his name, making you remember him and him alone so that if you ever did another show like this, it would be his number you called. That if he did this good enough, fucked you good enough that it wouldn't be on camera the next time he got to fuck you, it would be at your home in your bed, him calling your real name not this stage name you work under.

He comes back from his thoughts when your voice cuts through them, high pitched and whining for him to let you cum, for him to keep going to let you have what you had given him earlier, to feel him cum in you this time.

"F-fuck you w-want me to cum in you? P-paint your inside with me..."

The chat if either of you could see it was still it was running a mile a minute, calling for him to do it, to cum and let them see how it will drip out of you. Others call for him to deny you, keep you begging for your release while he took his own, but neither of you could see those words and so your ends draw near.

"T-that's it, god feels so. So good around me, j-just like I thought you would..."

The rough pace he set becomes almost brutal when he cums, there will be bruises in the shape of his hands come the next few days but that thought paired with the sight of your dear simp losing himself in you was what tipped you over.

The end of the stream was much like the beginning, albeit with a mess of brown curls keeping the camera from seeing how the mask had been pulled down and soft kisses were being placed along your shoulders, the moment you had given the final thanks and turned off all the gear the hands that were wrapped around your waist were pulling you back onto the bed, keeping you as close as possible.

After all the pressure of performing for people falls away, it's easy to give comfort to the man curled around you, wanting him to be comfortable with what you had just done. Once again tangling your hands in his hair only this time to give comfort rather than tease, cooing soft praise until the grip around you eases slightly.

"You did so well, such a good boy for me..."

#c: simpbur #dsmp smut #mcyt smut #k: praise #k: exhibitionism #k: teasing #k: face fucking #k: overstim #k: thigh fucking #cw: sex work #mxad

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totebagchiqbarista · 3 years ago

Note

Heyy can i request a luka x fem!reader fic? Like you know how how luka is always calm and cool? What if he turns into a living mess after he meets reader? Like no stuttering or something but hes ranting about her to juleka all the time and cant concentrate when shes around??

what are you doing to me? // luka x fem!reader

request: anonymous

warnings: fluff, swearing?, Luka being a mess

pairing: Luka Couffaine x Fem!Reader

a/n: I really wanted to write some Luka stuff and this kind of stretched out to a good amount of words so I hope you like it! :)

"Dear God, Luka, stop talking!" Juleka shouted at her brother who entered her room uninvited for the 4th time today. She had understood he didn't have anybody really to talk to, but Lord was he getting annoying at this point.

"But I have to tell you something"

Pushing him out of her cabin one last time, Juleka stood at the door frame and stared at the blue boy. "Go out and find a life!" Of course, she didn't mean it like that, but before she could manage what she is doing, she slammed the door shut in front of him.

Luka was taken aback by the change in Juleka's attitude. He didn't flinch though. He was always that one collected and calm person in every group. Anger never fulfilled him in the ways it sometimes filled his mother, for example.

Anarka had never been the type to prohibit them of their freedom, but she tends to let her emotions take over her. When somebody mentions their dad, she turns red, wrathful at the memories that flow across her head. And it's never long until she completely lets rage form her.

But Luka was different. He was always the serene boy you would find in the back of the class writing songs, practicing riffs. When somebody took it out on him, Luka sucked it in, forgetting about the scene in a few days. He had never lost his temper, beat someone up, melted at someone's touch...

He didn't mind it, after all, there was nothing to whine about. He had all his emotions under control, and even though he would never admit it- it made him feel superior to others.

So Luka decided to go to the park. Whenever he had nothing to do, a simple solution always came to his mind- a warm walk through the park.

"Hi, Nino" he exclaimed seeing the familiar couple by the water fountain. "Hi, Alya."

Alya offered him a soft smile, taking a piece of Andre's ice cream. Nino lent him his famous handshake. "I'm excited for tonight!" said Alya, referring to the private hangout at Couffaine's that was yet to come.

Luka had completely forgotten about it. How could he do such a thing? Still, he kept his cool exterior, nodding his head in agreement. "Me too"

"Oh shoot! I forgot I was supposed to meet Y/n tonight" Alya looked back on her schedule.

"Who's that?" Luka questioned, having never heard of that name before

"An old friend of mine. She just recently moved here"

"She can come, too."

"Really?" Alya's face lit up in joy "You would do that?"

The blue-haired boy laughed "If there's one place in Paris everybody is welcomed, it for sure is the Couffaine's ship!"

"Great, we'll see you there soon!" Alya added before collecting her phone and her boyfriend, running to meet up with her long-term friend.

Luka was left alone by the fountain, staring faintly at the water drops in the pool. Hot summer day took a toll on him and his eyes closed slightly under the pressure of the beaming sunshine.

A wooden bench called out to him and so he sat underneath the cooling shade of the trees. Moments passed and Luka grew to be more impatient. Guests were to come tonight, maybe he should return and help Juleka set up for the evening hang out...

Just on a mark, a girl ran to the park, out of her breath. She seemed worn out as she breathed heavily from the excessive physical activity. She looked at the phone in her hands, it responding with a typical GPS lady voice.

"Shit" she mumbled as she frantically tried to get the directions from the small machine.

"Hey" Luka called out to her from his sitting position in the corner "Are you lost?"

The girl looked around, making sure the blue boy was talking to her. "Yeah, I guess I could say so." Just as she returned him the look, Luka was struck by her beauty. It seemed like such a cliché, really. And Luka hated clichés. Yet, he was mesmerized by the girl who stood before him.

"Right... Where do you need to go?" He asked, collecting himself by her feet.

"Uh," she let out an unknowing hum "Here"

The picture she showed was blurry but Luka figured the place. It was a place he liked to visit sometimes, too. He showed her the directions, making sure she knows all the tracks.

"Thank you so much" The girl beamed with happiness in her eyes "Thank you for helping me"

Luka nodded, and the girl turned around to leave in the direction he just showed her. Luka contemplated for a second before asking a question just as she was about to leave "Can I know your name, at least?"

Hope in his eyes, he stared at her for a full moment until she broke the silence. "We only just met. Besides, where's the fun in that?" Sending him one last wink goodbye, she disappeared into the streets of Paris.

Juleka wasn't a person one could easily talk to. Except for Luka. Luka knew his sister was quite an introvert and a rather shy soul. He respected it and grew to watch over her, protecting her privacy with others. But with him, she was sometimes an extremely cheerful and bubbly person. Hell, there were moments he wished she could stop talking!

So when the two of them collaborated in decorating the harbor for their friends, they finished rather quickly. In under 2 hours, the duo managed to make the best party ship anyone has ever seen.

"Alya is bringing a friend," Luka said as he and Juleka tried to put the last fairy lights around.

"Really? Who?"

"An old friend who just moved here. Y/n as I recall."

Juleka nodded, trying to remember the name "Oh yes, Y/n. Alya told us about her. I'm glad to finally meet her."

Soon enough, the guests started to gather and their home was erupting from chit chats and music. Luka talked to everybody, getting lost in the crowd. His mind always found its way back to the silhouette of the lost girl from the park. There was something he couldn't get enough of in her...

"Luka, could you play us something?" asked Marinette to what Luka only nodded, heading to his room for the guitar.

"Alya is here!" Rose exclaimed when she noticed her friend at the entrance. Next to her stood a girl, a girl Alya has told them almost everything about.

"Hi, guys! This is Y/n" everybody welcomed them, all eyes prying on the newbie.

Marinette came closer and hugged her "I'm Marinette" she addressed as she offered her a soft smile "I've heard so much about you!"

"I could say the same" Y/n returned the sweet gesture.

"What took you so long?" Nino asked looking at his watch and then back at them.

"My bad. I got kind of lost."

The moment Luka stepped on the ship, the last thing he expects to see was the girl he couldn't stop thinking about. The girl that has been playing in his head all day, since the moment they met. Well, not exactly met.

"You" he blurted without thinking as he set his guitar down.

The pair of orbs he remembered from this morning, looked up at him, as surprised as him. "You" she joked back, not breaking the eye contact.

"You two know each other?" Marinette asked looking back and forth between the two of them.

"Not really. He helped me find the way this morning" Y/n explained

"And she didn't even tell me her name"

"It's more fun this way, don't you think?"

Luka chuckled offering her a handshake. "I'm Luka"

"Y/n"

The night moved slowly and Luka found himself growing more and more nervous whenever Y/n was around. This can't be! He's always the calm one, the collected one, the untouchable one. No, no. It's just a mire admiration. Nothing much, really. He's as steady as ever...

"Spin the bottle!" Alya shouted out of nowhere

Numbers of confused faces turned to her in a moment. She proceeded, explaining her outburst. "Let's play spin the bottle"

The teens looked around, meeting with other's sights, nodding in agreement. Soon enough, the group was sat on the floor. Upon choosing a seat, Luka looked around. There were 2 left: beside Y/n and opposite of her. He wanted to sit beside her, really. Oh, just how he wanted to sit beside her, their knees touching... But he was so nervous. His palms sweat just for the thought and his heart raced with a speed unknown to man.

So he sat opposite of her.

"Right, so, we are playing spin the bottle combined with truth and dare. A person spins the bottle and they ask "truth or dare?" the one who the bottle has sat on." Alya explained.

Marinette went first, the bottle landing on Y/n. The bluenette smiled softly and asking the question. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth"

"Are you happy to be in Paris?"

"Very!" The two exchanged graceful smiles earning a groan from Nino.

"Where are the fun questions! C'mon dudettes!" he cried obviously disappointed in his friends.

Marinette looked at him in confusion "What do you want me to ask?"

"I don' know, something interesting. Like, describe your perfect type, or something"

Y/n laughed for a second. "Well I don't really have a type but guitarists hold a special place in my heart"

Luka looked at her in surprise but wasn't met with her gaze. That was it. He'll lose his mind because of this girl and there's no turning back. He'll be defeated, if only he wasn't already.

Y/n grew to be a great addition to the class and the friend group. And she grew closer to Luka's heart, more close than he liked to admit. When she was around, his mind was rollercoasters, when she was away her melody played in the back of his head. It was exhausting, really. Luka had never acted this way, especially not for a girl. It was all new to him.

It had been almost two months since Y/n's first day in the city of love. Never had she imagined that she would fall so in love with the people, the culture, the capital of France in general. She was standing on her balcony, looking at the most beautiful sightseeing- the Eiffel tower.

"Mom, Dad, I'm leaving, see you later!" she shouted as she closed the front door behind her. Juelka had invited her to help her out with band stuff. She was a bit surprised to say at least for Y/n wasn't much of an intellectual in that field.

The traffic was light and soon enough she stepped foot on the magnificent ship. The boy she already knew very well was strumming his guitar in the corner.

"Nice tune" she whispered, coming behind him

Luka jumped a little, taken aback by her unexpected figure. "Y/n? Why-"

"I invited her, I need some help," said Juleka from the door. "I'll be back in a second" and with that, she disappeared.

Y/n sat on a chair beside him, feeling the tension rise. Luka's melody became more insecure, more unsteady. It felt as if he was trying too hard.

"What happened?"

"I don't know" Luka answered, regretting holding the guitar now. It was true, when she was around, it was not much he could do. His mind always wandered elsewhere.

An uncomfortable silence took over them. Juleka was nowhere in sight. After some minutes of complete dull, Y/n stood up eager to leave. "Tell Juleka I'm sorry, but I just remembered I have to go."

Luka wanted to say something, but he couldn't. He was afraid of blurting out something way more stupid. So he nodded, regretting his decisions. What has she done to him? He can't even think straight, what to do, what not to do. He's a mess and it's all because of her.

"What are you doing you, idiot, go after her!" Juleka stormed out of the ship, scolding her older brother.

"What?"

"Go after her! Tell her how you feel! God!"

"What are you talking about?" Luka played it off dumb

Juleka's anger only grew "Oh please, mister untouchable, you're not so secretive about it. You can never concentrate when she's around, when I mention her, you grow all impatient. You talk about her ALL THE DAMN TIME. I can't listen to you anymore!"

Luka shifted in his spot "I don't talk about her that much"

"You literally stormed in my room last night talking about her humor and how cool she is. Go tell her how you feel, Luka"

He contemplated for a minute making Juleka impatient "Now! Go!"

The blue boy nodded, setting his guitar aside, and running as fast as he could. He ran the way he remembered Y/n to go. His legs could sprint only so fast but somehow he managed to run it all the way through.

Just by the bridge, she saw her walk by herself. It was already getting late, the sun was just around the corner, held by its fingertips to not yet say goodbye. She was looking to the river, calm and alone. "Y/n!" he shouted, putting all the energy he had to pull it through.

"Y/n!" he screamed once more to what the girl turned around. Just as she was about to ask what was happening, Luka panted taking her hand in his the moment he got the chance.

"No, no, I talk." He said taking a deep breath and looking right into her eyes. "Y/n from the moment we met in the park, I couldn't stop thinking about you. You took a tool on me, god, I'm wrapped around your finger! I can't focus when I see you, I lose all my senses when you smile"

Y/n smiled at the ongoing love declaration. "And no matter how hard I tried to cover up my feelings, to forget you, there just is no escape. I am lost, I'm losing my mind. God, what are you doing to me? I rant about you to Juleka, dear Lord. You made a mess out of me, Y/n, and I love, I love, I love you."

And before thinking, Y/n pressed her lips against his. She kissed him long and lovingly, making him melt under her touch.

"That makes the two of us"

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