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fayemarvels · 3 years ago

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Backseat rider

Peter Parker x fem!reader (She/her)

Inspo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU9lOKWFG54

I tried to write this in the second person so please tell me how you like it.

Summary: Inspired by the wonderful song Backseat Rider by Sara Kays, with my little twist on it, and with a happy ending.

You and Peter have been friends for a long time, and he promised you the first ride in his car. When you come back from your Europe trip, MJ is sitting in the passenger side. The fact that you are in love with him doesn't really help.

Or: Peter promised you a ride in his car and his stupid plan fails because he is jealous.

Warnings: angst, fluff, bad writing, grammatical mistakes,

Word count: 5.1k

English isn't my first language so please don't mind the grammar and sentence structure mistakes and stuff. If you have any suggestions on how to improve my writing, please let me know.

! Please don't repost my work anywhere without my permission. Thank you!

My masterlist *******

----

9. September 2013

It was the first day of school and you were standing at a bus stop just a few blocks from your new apartment. You and your parents just moved to queens and you were starting in a new school.

With your new schoolbag which you got for your 12th birthday just 3 days ago slung over your shoulders, you tapped your foot nervously against the concrete under your newly polished shoes.

You were so excited to start 6th grade in a new school, away from the people in your old one. You were always a shy kid and some of the kids from your previous school picked on you just because of that.

The school became hell and you started making excuses as to why not to go in. At first, your parents were annoyed thinking you were just lazy. But you later opened up about your struggles and they started to take action.

But before much happened, one of your parents got a job opportunity in Queens, New York, and without much thinking, took it. When you left the school, you felt like you could finally breathe. A huge boulder fell off your shoulders and you were so excited to find some new friends and meet new people. To get a new start.

Due to the traffic, the bus came with a 7 minutes delay. And as the bus rounded the corner to arrive at the bus stop, a frazzled-looking boy came crashing into you.

Before you could crash to the ground, he caught your hand and pulled you towards him in an effort to save you from crashing into the hard ground.

“I am so so sorry, I didn’t mean to I fell asleep and burned my toast and spilled toothpaste on my shirt, and ” he took a deep breath before he continued with his rambling.

“Oh god I am so sorry, I’m rambling” He scratched the back of his neck.

“It’s alright, truly. But I would really appreciate it if you let me go.” You said quietly and the boy’s eyes widened in horror.

“Sorry, sorry” he kept apologizing and mumbling underneath his breath.

“Please stop apologizing, nothing much happened,” You laughed lightly and he breathed out in relief.

“I’m Peter, by the way, Peter Parker,” he introduced himself more calmly. Now, that he wasn’t rambling and frantically running his hands through his hair, you could finally focus on his features. He was slightly shorter than you, with curly brown hair and chocolate brown eyes that were still tinted with sleep.

“Nice to meet you Peter my name is (Y/N) (L/N).” You introduced yourself and you stepped together into the bus. You looked around for two places to sit, preferably together.

“There,” Peter pointed to the back of the bus. You pushed through the crowd of people standing and made it to the seats. Peter let you sit beside the window and sat beside you.

“The public transport in new york is so horrible,” Peter whined and you raised your eyebrow.

“Is it? I just moved in like 2 weeks ago so I didn’t have much time to explore.”

“Oh, so this is your first day of a new school.” His eyes widened in realization and you nodded.

“What school are you going into?” He asked and you could see the excitement in his eyes.

“Palm tree elementary school.” You answered and Peter jumped in his seat.

“Oh my, me too, that’s so exciting, Ned will be so happy,” he squealed you smiled widely.

You talked the rest of the ride to your stop, and through the short walk to your school. This boy might just make this school much more exciting than you thought.

20. August 2019

“Okay, just wait for me outside of your apartment building I’ll come and pick you up,” Peter said into the phone and you hummed in acknowledgment.

“Okay Petey, I’ll be waiting, I missed you so much throughout the summer, I’m sorry I didn’t call” you apologized feeling guilty.

“It’s okay, I get it, I was the one to suggest it. Okay, I’m leaving, I’ll be at yours in about 10 minutes. ”

You and your family went to Europe for the majority of summer. You tried to keep in contact but of course, it was hard the time difference made it very difficult to find a time where you both can call and don’t lose sleep.

The first person to stop trying was Peter. On a rare call one night, he informed you that he didn’t want you to lose sleep just because you wanted to talk to him

“Don’t worry, you’ll tell me everything when you get back, just don’t forget to bring me souvenirs.” Peter teased and you laughed sadly. You missed him so much and the heavy feeling in your heart wouldn’t go away.

“Okay, just prepare yourself because I’ve gotten you a souvenir from every single location we went to.” You sniffled.

“Hey, don’t cry, everything will be alright nothing will change I promise.”

10 minutes later, Peter pulled up to your parking lot and your heart skipped a beat. Your smile widened and the butterflies in your stomach fluttered. This was the first time you saw Peter after a month and a half. You returned from Europe only 4 days ago so you used that time to get rid of the jet lag.

Your smile dropped when you saw a shadow sitting on the passenger side. You shook your head and moved closer to the car. Peter stepped out of the car and you flung your arms around him. He tensed for a bit before he wrapped you up in his arms and breathed in your scent.

“I missed you so much, you have no idea,” he mumbled into your neck and you pressed your lips into his hair.

“I missed you too, for the last two weeks, my parents were a pain in the ass,” you complained and Peter laughed. Then he got serious.

“Well, at least you have parents.”

“...”

“I’m just kidding, don’t worry bug,” he giggled and you hit his shoulder lightly.

“I hate these jokes,” you complained.

“I know, that’s why I make them.” He giggled and you rolled your eyes.

“Okay. C’mon, I have my classmate MJ here, I wanted to introduce you two he stepped away and you wrapped yourself around yourself.”

Peter opened the back door for you and you thanked him. When you got into the car he closed the door behind you and quickly got into the driver seat.

“So MJ, this is (Y/N). Bug, this is MJ.” He introduced you two and you waved awkwardly.

“Hi, I heard about you so much, is so nice to meet you.” MJ greeted and you smiled.

“I would like to say the same but Peter has never talked of you,” you scratched your neck shyly and MJ waved her hand.

“It’s fine, me and Peter only started hanging out about 3 weeks ago, but we’ve gotten a lot closer.” She explained and you nodded.

“So, Peter told me you are in an art school,” Mj started and you shuffled to the edge of your seat so you could hear better.

“Yeah, I do interior design, color pallets, and furniture designs.” You explained and MJ nodded her head.

“That sounds really cool, you’ll be the first I’ll contact when I’m furnishing my house” MJ laughed and you giggled.

“Yeah sure, just give me a call,”

But then, it got quiet. You just relaxed against the seat behind you and closed your eyes for a few moments.

“So, I saw the star wars movies the other day, it was so good,” MJ exclaimed and Peter laughed out loud.

“I tried to get this lady into it but she hated it. The same with star trek.” Peter said, pointing at you.

“Yeah, I hate it so much,” you chimed in but they didn’t respond. They just continued laughing and talking without you. You couldn’t help but think that they looked so much like the two of you looked when you talked about both of your favorite things.

----

MJ sat in the passenger seat for the next five weeks. When you traveled to school, from school, or even during the weekends.

She was there every single time Peter came to pick you up. And to be honest, it hurt just a bit more every single time you saw her sitting in the front seat of his car.

-----

You and Peter were supposed to go to see the new astronomical exhibition today. You were getting ready in your room when your eyes drifted over a framed picture on your vanity table. It was taken last summer, before he got his car, before MJ. You had taken it with your Kodak disposable camera in a parking lot in front of your local Target. You remember it like it was yesterday.

21. July 2018

It was around 10 p.m. when you and Peter left the target with a plastic bag of candy and a brand new disposable camera that you found in the sale aisle. You tore the safety tape away from the box and pulled out the instruction manual.

“I’m so excited; I’ve never had any of these.” You exclaimed and Peter chuckled at your happy face, threw his arm around your shoulder, and pulled you in closer to him.

“You are going to love it, it’s so fun. Especially because you have no idea how the photos are gonna turn out.” He smiled and you nodded.

“I always watch the tiktoks of people’s reactions to the developed photos, and they always look so happy, I want to try it.” you declared and pulled the camera out of the box.

“First things first bug, just a quick info, you need a lot of lightning for the photos to turn out good,” Peter explained and you waved your hand mindlessly, messing around with your temporary camera.

You quickly pulled out your phone and turned on the flashlight. You put the phone on the ground in front of him and he looked at you puzzled.

“Will you do me a favor and be the first photo on this camera’s film?” You asked him and Peter nodded, acting very posh and snobby.

“It would be an honor, my lady,” he faked a bow and you burst out laughing.

“Okay smile for me,” you giggled and Peter smiled widely. He was so beautiful. Hair messy, and a hoodie a little too big on his body, with the long sleeves making cute sweater paws.

“Come onnn take the picture so we can eat the sweets,” Peter whined and you quickly snapped the picture of him. He bent down, took your phone from the ground, and turned off the flashlight.

“Come on I even got us and your fuzzy socks so your toes won’t get cold,” he said and you hugged him from behind.

“you are the best, you know that?” you mumbled and he shrugged.

“Might’ve mentioned it a few times before” You let him go and he pulled out the blanket from his backpack.

“Come on let’s sit here,” he pulled you towards the curb a few feet away from the spot you were standing at. He sat down, wrapped his arms around your legs, and rested his face on your stomach.

“Let’s sit here and eat all these delicious candies” he looked at you with wide eyes and you dragged your fingers through his hair, scratching at his scalp.

“Okay Doll, let’s do this,” you teased and he blushed hard.

“Stoop you know I blush when you call me that,” he complained and you laughed softly. You gently unwrapped his arms from your legs and sat down next to him.

“So, let dig in,” you rubbed your palms together and he put the bag between you two.

“I want the Reese’s,” you said and Peter handed them to you.

----

“Smiile,” you smushed your cheek against Peter’s and he smiled into the camera. The flash had gone off and you smiled to yourself.

“I bet this one’s gonna be so good.” He said and you nodded.

“So, as I was saying, May told me that she wants to buy me a car for my 18th birthday. I don’t know how she wants to do that but I’m not complaining.” Peter gushed and you wrapped your arms around his middle.

“I’m so happy for you, you deserve it.” You smiled and Peter continued.

“I want to take you on a road trip when we finish school. All around the US. From New York to L.A,” he looked at you hopefully and you smiled at him widely.

“That sounds so good, we can go to grand canyon and Zion and so much more, Oh my God, we will need so much more of these disposable cameras. Peter, we need so much food and tents and sleeping bags and maps.” You took a deep breath before you continued.

“We should make a checklist, we should start preparing, Peter why are we sitting here?” you asked and Peter gently shushed you by putting his pointer finger on your lips.

“We still have 2 years bug, no need to overthink it, everything is gonna be fine.” He assured you and you nodded.

“Come here,” he pulled you towards him and your head landed on his chest. You snuggled into his chest and breathed in his scent.

----

You were pulled back to reality when your phone rang. It was Peter.

“Hey (Y/N), we are nearly here, only about 4 minutes.” He informed and your breath got stuck in your throat. ‘WE’. MJ is coming with you. He didn’t ask, he didn’t inform you beforehand. He just invited her.

“Ummm Pete I’m suddenly not feeling very well, I think I should go and lay down, maybe you should go alone,” you mumbled and he hummed.

“Okay, get better alright? We can go somewhere tomorrow.” He suggested and you hummed in agreement, as you couldn’t do anything else without breaking down.

“Okay (Y/N) goodnight, get well soon. I’ll see you tomorrow” He didn’t wait for your response before he hung up.

You stared at the phone as the tears cascaded down your cheeks and you put no effort into stopping them. You slowly wiped off the makeup you put on just a few moments prior and threw out the cotton pad.

You stood up from your vanity and moved over to your bed. You couldn’t understand it. What have you done wrong? Just a few months prior, Peter would drop everything to be with you when you weren’t feeling that well. Now, he didn’t even ask what was wrong.

You cursed yourself as you tried to keep your sobs at bay. You lost him and it was all your fault. If you called more often or at least texted and kept in contact during the summer, everything would be fine. He wouldn’t be in his car with someone else but with you. But the more you thought about it the more your mind betrayed you,

‘Wait, he was the one to suggest that you two would stop the contact, did he get tired of you? Did he want to get rid of you? Is he sending signals by hanging out with MJ every single time they should be hanging out alone?’ the thoughts in your brain were running around before they suddenly stopped.

“He didn’t call me bug,” you realized. He always called you bug, never (Y/N). He only called you that when he was annoyed or angry with you. You started thinking back to every single hangout you had in the past 5 weeks to see if you could stumble upon a memory where you angered or annoyed him. Nothing.

Your shoulders sagged and you put your face in your hands.

“What should I do now,” you asked yourself as you tried to remain calm and not to let any more sobs out. As you looked around your room, slowly calming down, you saw a piece of Peter’s hoodie peeking out from your closet. In a rage of fury, sadness, and anger, you quickly gathered every single piece of clothing Peter ever gave you and put them in a cardboard box.

Taking out a piece of paper, you took your favorite pen and started writing a little note for your now ‘ex’ best friend.

Dear Peter, returning your clothes, maybe you can give them to MJ, now that she is your best friend and you don’t care about me. Could’ve at least told me you didn’t want me in your life anymore, instead of sending mixed signals and hurting me by that. Fuck you. – Love, (Y/N)

You signed it with fury coursing through your veins and closed the box with duct tape. You swiped the stray tears that fell down your cheeks and threw on a hoodie.

“Going out for a few minutes!” you shouted to your parents and closed the door, before hearing their response. After putting the hood up, you opened the window to the fire escape and you threw your legs over the window sill, taking the full cardboard box with you.

“Let’s do this,” you mumbled to yourself and dropped down to the ground.

----

The walk to Peter’s apartment didn’t take long, only about 10 minutes. But the walk felt so much longer this time, maybe because this would probably be the last time you would ever make it. You started tearing up just at that thought. You didn’t think this is how it would end. Six years of friendship ended just because you were too annoying. You shook your head and continued walking; you couldn’t afford to burst into tears in the middle of the road.

You stopped in front of Peter’s apartment and let out a shaky breath. This is it. You knew May would be at work, so you let yourself in with the key, underneath their doormat. You stepped into the apartment and closed the door behind you. You rushed into Peter’s room and threw the box on his bed. You didn’t want to linger around and experience the pain of remembering all of the memories you and Peter shared in this room.

You looked around one more time, and your eyes watered when you saw your favorite t-shirt thrown over his chair. You really wanted to take it but decided to against it. ‘He can do whatever he wants’ you thought and closed the door behind you.

The walk from his apartment wasn’t much better. But it was a bit shorter than the one before. You hadn’t had much time to think this time. You just came out of his building and in a few seconds, you were laying in your bed with tears streaming down your cheeks.

Now, that you calmed down a bit and your head cleared, you laid in your bed, looking at the ceiling, face blank of any emotion. You got pulled back into reality by your phone vibrating. You sat up and moved the phone closer to your face. It was Peter.

You had 6 missed calls and 26 unread messages from the curly-haired boy. But you decided to ignore them and turned on the airplane mode. You curled up into a ball and snuggled up into your fluffy blanket. It was going to get better, you will get better, the pain will subdue, the anger will not.

You were so damn angry at him. How could he do this to you, string you along when he doesn’t want you in his life anymore? Letting a few tears slip, you let your eyelids droop and let your mind wander into the darkness of sleep.

----

“I don’t understand, what does she mean by a new best friend? What does she mean by not want her in my life anymore?” Peter asked as he paced around his room, with your note crumpled up in his right hand.

“I think you did the opposite of what you wanted to do you know?” MJ interrupted him and he looked at her horrified.

“This is all my fault, I’m the reason she feels like this,” he mumbled and continued pacing in circles.

“Remind me why you wanted to do this again?” MJ scoffed and Peter stopped to think.

“To make her jealous,” he mumbled and MJ stood up and hit him across the forehead with a rolled-up engineering magazine she found randomly thrown under his pillow.

“You are so stupid, Peter. And I can’t believe I helped you. But at least I got the cute girl’s number,” she mumbled the last part and Peter ran his shaky fingers through his hair.

“I fucked up,” he announced and MJ glared at him.

“Yeah, no shit genius. Remind me how this started again. In detail and soak in just how stupid you are,” she growled out and he got lost in the painful memory.

----

It was around 3 weeks after his best friend left for Europe, he was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram when he saw a photo she posted just 4 hours ago. He went to like it but his thumb froze before he could double-tap. It was a photo of her smiling, looking as beautiful as ever, on a beach with a sunset behind her. But it wasn’t her that made him freeze, it was the boy that was standing behind her with his arms wrapped around her waist. She was grinning at him, her smile shining brighter than all of the stars in the night sky.

“Who the fuck are you?” Peter mumbled to himself as he looked over more of the photos in the post. As he scrolled, the pair of them only grew closer on the pictures. Them sharing a meal, them in the sea, them on a carnival with a huge green teddy bear in her arms. Just from the last picture, it was clear that the boy won the plushie in one of those shitty scam carnival games Peter couldn’t play even if he really wanted to.

But what really got him, was the post from her private Instagram, the boy from the previous photos was kissing her on the corner of her mouth. Tears gathered up in his eyes as he exited the app and ran his shaky fingers through his hair.

‘Could she have a boyfriend? But she didn’t tell me,’ his breathing got quicker and he had a sudden urge to puke. Before he could stop himself, he opened his contacts app and scrolled to find MJ’s phone number, she could help him.

“Hey, I know this is a lot to ask but I need you to help me make my best friend jealous.” Those words came from his mouth before he could even think about them.

----

“I told you before you started with this stupid plan of yours that it won’t work out,” MJ snapped him out of his mind. Peter stared into the distance before he snapped out of it.

“I need to go and see her, I need to explain,” Peter rushed out before MJ stopped him.

“You need to give her some time, she wouldn’t want to see you, and only get angry or even more upset.” She explained and Peter nodded in understatement.

“You are right, I will let her cool off for a week, and then talk to her,” Peter concluded. MJ blinked in surprise.

“Are you sure you want to give her a week? I was thinking more like 2 days, not 7,” MJ said cautiously and Peter huffed out angrily.

“God, why are you so cryptic, why can’t you just tell me and help,”

“Because this is your relationship, that is on line, not mine. And you want me to solve this for you,” MJ raised her voice and Peter rolled his eyes.

“God, this is useless” he mumbled and the girl in front of him scoffed.

“I can just leave if that’s what you want,” She stood up to leave but Peter grabbed her forearm gently.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m just really anxious and I want to see her. But you are right, I shouldn’t leave her without explanation for such a long period of time,” Peter apologized and MJ nodded.

“I need to go, mum wants to watch this new movie she saw in Target, I’ll text you okay?”

“Okay bye, enjoy the movie,” Peter mumbled and MJ walked out of his room.

“Great Parker, just great,” he mumbled to himself as he watched her leave through his window.

----

2 days later

Peter was standing in front of your school, waiting for you to finish. The last two days have been torture for him and he couldn’t wait to talk to you. When he heard the bell ring on the inside of the building, he stood up from the bench he was sitting on and moved closer to the main entrance, just a precaution and so he wouldn’t miss you walking out.

He started to get worried when he didn’t see you walk out even after 15 minutes.

‘Maybe they had some science lab and are cleaning up or something he thought to himself to calm down a bit. Then, he saw one of your friends, Bee, walk out and he waved at them.

“Hey, she isn’t here today,” Bee said to Peter. He only frowned. That’s weird.

“Okay, thanks Bee, do you think she could be at home? Is she sick?” Peter asked and Bee frowned at him.

“I thought you were best friends, you don’t know where she is?” Bee asked him and Peter looked down looking very guilty.

“We had a fight,” he mumbled and Bee scoffed.

“Well, I guess you fucked up pretty bad because she never misses school.”

“I know, I fucked up and I hurt her, but I just want to make it better, I gave her time to cool off and now, I need to apologize,” Peter explained and Bee nodded their head.

“Okay Parker, last chance, if you hurt her to this extent ever again, I’ll kick you in the balls.” Bee threatened and Peter nodded.

“Don’t worry, this is the first and last time this has ever happened, won’t hurt her ever again, I promise,” Peter said and Bee could tell his words were genuine.

“Fine Parker go, and if she is not at school tomorrow, you are a dead man, I’m telling you that right now.”

“Don’t worry Bee, I’m going to make this right,” Peter promised as he walked away from your school.

----

“Honey, someone is here to see you,” Your mom called out and you looked from under your blanket. You couldn’t function correctly for the past few days, the loss of your best friend being too much to bear.

“Tell them to go away please,” you mumbled and she shook her head sadly. You stopped crying a while ago, no tears left in your body.

You heard a gentle knock on your door.

“Hey bug,” You whipped your head towards the voice, and the tears you thought ran out, welled up in your eyes. He was there, even after he exchanged you for someone else.

“Pete,” you whispered and he quickly walked towards you and sat on your bed. You threw yourself into his arms but then quickly pulled back and furrowed your eyebrows.

“What are you doing here?” you asked and Peter shook his head.

“I came to apologize, I hurt you by my actions and made you think something, that isn’t true at all,” he explained and you tilted your head, reminding Peter of a cute, confused puppy.

“I will just tell you the truth, and hope you will be able to forgive me.”

“I was jealous. It’s simple as that, and now that I’ve said it out loud, it sounds so stupid.” He took a deep breath and slowly tangled his fingers in yours.

“The truth is, I have feelings for you. You know what? Scratch that, I’m in love with you and have been for a long time. When I saw you with the guy in Europe, being all cute and sweet together, I just lost it.” He confessed and looked up to see your face. You had an unreadable expression on your face.

“Fuck, he even got you a huge teddy bear from the carnival scam games, I could never do that for you, and I know you love that corny stuff.” He said with a shaky voice and could feel the tears push into his eyes.

“I wanted to make you jealous, but I hurt you instead and that hurts me even more than seeing you with that boy.” He said and then kneeled on the floor beside your bed. He took your other hand into his and kissed your knuckles gently.

“I’m so sorry Bug, please forgive me,” he begged as he put his forehead against your hand. The tears that gathered in his eyes flowed freely down his perfect face and it hurt you to see him like this. You took your hand away from his and you could see the quick flash of pain on his face. You caught one tear with your finger and whispered.

“Please don’t cry, I’m going to cry too,” he quickly looked up and smiled sadly, when he saw your sunken and tired face.

“I forgive you, Peter.” You said with a crack in your voice.

“And you know, it actually worked out, I was so jealous when I saw you with her.” You confessed.

“I love you too Peter, I always have” you whispered and Peter’s face lit up with joy.

“You, do?” He asked and you nodded with a slight smile on your face.

“I do, so so much,” You caressed his cheek, shuffled closer to him, and kissed him on the forehead.

“Come here and lay with me,” you demanded and Peter chuckled.

“Well, what my lovebug wants, she gets.” Peter teased and you hid your face in the blanket.

“I kinda like it,” you whispered shyly and Peter laughed lightly.

“Scoot over love, let me lay with you.” You shuffled over and Peter slipped under your blanket. He laid down and slowly maneuvered your body, to lay comfortably on his chest.

“We’ll talk more tomorrow, we’ll work it out, I promise.” You mumbled and Peter nodded and kissed the top of your head.

“I love you, Peter”

“I love you my Bug,” It was quiet for a bit before Peter spoke once again.

“So, who was the boy in the photos?”

“PETER!”

-----

I'm sorry I kind of disappeared for two months, but I had an extreme case of writer's block, but I am back. But I still have no ideas so if you have any ideas, I would be forever thankful if you pitched them to me.

I would also like to thank you for 97 followers, it's unbelievable.

I would really appreciate it if you gave me some feedback and told me what I can change.

Thanks for reading

- Faye xxx

134 notes · View notes

nicknellie · 4 years ago

Text

@sunset-reggie requested: A fic based off Reggie getting electrocuted that was mentioned in Snap.

Physics is my joint worst subject at school so for the purposes of this I might have made up my own rules for electricity? Maybe, I don’t really know. The issue was that in the US the mains voltage is 120V which won’t really do a lot (here in England it’s 230V but again you’ll probably be fine) so I made some shit up and I’m pretending I know what I’m talking about. I did research taking care of electric shock patients but sorry for anything that’s wrong. Still, thank you for the prompt, it was a lot of fun!!

Zap

Some nights, Reggie Peters would sleep like a log. The moment his head hit the pillow, he would be out cold, not waking up the whole night through and feeling happy and refreshed in the morning. Those good nights usually followed good days – days spent jamming in the studio with the band, days helping out at the rescue shelter and playing with his favourite animals, days he would hang out with his friends and laugh until their sides hurt and they couldn’t breathe. After a good day, the night was peaceful.

This was not one of those nights.

It hadn’t been a good day. In fact, it had been a decidedly bad day. When Reggie had woken up that morning, it hadn’t been to the sound of his alarm but to the echo of shouting from downstairs. He had guessed immediately that it was his parents fighting yet again – sighing haggardly, he had pulled a pillow over his face and pressed it hard against his ears, trying to block out the noise, but to no avail. Well and truly awake, he had grudgingly got out of bed and started his day.

School had been dreadful. In biology, the teacher had surprised them with a test. Reggie was a naturally high achiever, good in biology as he was in all his subjects, but that day luck wasn’t on his side. He hadn’t done any revision and his head was swimming with addled thoughts, cluttered and unfocused, and he could not for the life of him remember the different stages of meiosis. Throughout the whole test he had sat there, scratching his head, trying to remember that one little detail that was on the tip of his tongue, but before he knew it time had run out and he had only answered three questions. It had stuck him in that bad mood for the rest of the day.

He had thought that band practise would cheer him up like it usually did. For a while, he was right. In the Molinas garage, plucking the strings of his bass, Reggie felt his dark mood brighten. Perhaps the start of the day hadn’t been one for the history books, but he could salvage it by relaxing and playing his music with his wonderful friends.

“Let’s take it from the second verse,” Julie declared halfway through their run-through of Stand Tall, scribbling a note to herself on the bottom of her sheet music. “Reggie, can you up your bass a bit? I can’t hear it but your line is really great here and I think we should showcase it a little.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Reggie said, saluting. He fiddled with his amp for a moment (twisting the dial harder when it got stuck) to up the volume and struck a long, low note. Julie nodded, satisfied, and they picked the song up again.

It didn’t take long for things to start going downhill. At first, Reggie thought he was imagining the smell of smoke; after all, candles had been banned from the studio long ago after an incident with Luke and one of Alex’s favourite hoodies, so there shouldn’t have been anything burning. But after a moment, Julie’s face scrunched up in disgust and her singing dropped away as she glanced around the studio.

“Luke,” she said, reproachfully. He shot her an innocent look. “Did you bring in another scented candle? Even after what happened last time?”

“I never did get that replacement hoodie,” Alex grumbled.

Luke shook his head, sniffing the air like a dog. “It’s not me! I don’t know where that’s coming from.”

“It has to be something,” Reggie said, looking around. It smelled almost overwhelmingly strong near him – the others, whether they realised they were doing it or not, were all heading in his direction, sniffing the air for the source of the smell.

It was Alex who noticed.

“Reg, you’re smoking!”

Reggie shrugged. “I know I was kinda killing it, so thanks, but I think we have more important things to worry about right now.”

“No, no,” Julie said, eyes wide, pointing to Reggie. “Reggie, you’re smoking! You’re on fire!”

“Okay, I get it, thank you both, but we should focus on–”

“Reggie,” Luke all but yelled, “you are smoking! As in, there is smoke coming from you. Dude, do something!”

Reggie looked down at himself, immediately swatting at his clothes. It was weird – he didn’t feel like he was engulfed in flames. In fact, it didn’t look like he was either. Reggie was decidedly not on fire. But his bandmates had been correct about the smoke; it was rising around them, looping through the air and collating in a thick black cloud right above their heads.

It was then that Reggie had a horrible thought. If the smoke was coming from behind him, then it might have looked to his friends as if he were the one on fire. Slowly, dreading what he might see, he turned around and was met with a catastrophe.

It was his amp, sparking through the speakers, harsh smoke swirling into the air from its every crevice, cutting void-like black lines across the studio up to the ceiling.

“Not me,” he said, stricken, “it’s my amp. My brand-new amp. It’s broken.”

“What happened to it?” Julie asked, edging slightly closer. She placed a gentle hand on Reggie’s upper arm but he remained stiff. He barely even registered the touch.

“How can it have broken so fast?” Luke added, leaning probably too close and inspecting the amp. He jumped back and ducked behind Julie with a little yelp when a spark leapt at him. “You just got it two weeks ago.”

Alex pushed to the front, wafted his hand back and forth to clear the smoke, and squinted at the amp. For a moment there was an anticipatory silence, and then Alex said, “Ah. I see.”

“What?” Reggie prompted. “What went wrong?”

“What went wrong?” Alex echoed, straightening up and raising a condescending eyebrow. “I don’t know, Reg, maybe it was the fact that you tried to turn it up to a volume that doesn’t exist.”

Baffled, Reggie took Alex’s position, waving the smoke out of the way. He had been careful when Julie asked him to turn the volume up, he could have sworn that he hadn’t cranked it up any higher than ten. But lo and behold, the volume dial was twisted further than its highest volume, almost back at one.

“How did that happen?” Reggie wondered aloud. “All I did was turn it up, then it got kind of stiff, so I turned it harder and– oh.”

“I think when it went stiff it was because it wasn’t supposed to turn any more than it had,” Julie said quietly. She tugged Reggie away from the amp as a spark flew uncomfortably close to his face.

“Would that really do so much damage?” Luke asked sceptically, eyes narrowed.

Alex shrugged. “Looks like it.” He put a consoling hand on Reggie’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay, Reg. With the money we make from our next gig we can get you a new one, right?”

Reggie sighed heavily. After the nightmarish day he’d had, with this as the icing on the cake, he felt as if he’d had his very heart ripped from his chest. There was a weight there, a hefty, immovable boulder settled right where his heart should have been. He shrugged Alex’s and Julie’s hands from his arms, fed up and tired.

“I guess,” he mumbled, “but unless I’ve got an amp I can’t play that gig anyway, so you’ll be without a bassist.”

“I’m sure it’s fixable,” Julie reasoned, forced hope in her voice. They watched the amp cough out another jet of black smoke. Julie’s smile faltered. “Like, eighty percent sure.”

Alex checked the time and then patted Reggie on the shoulder. “It’s late anyway, we should stop now, get home. I’m sure we can get it fixed before our next rehearsal, don’t worry.”

“Yeah, and Reggie,” Luke added, swinging an arm around his shoulders, “don’t feel too bad, okay? If worse comes to worst we can just borrow an amp at the venue. It might not be as good as yours but it’ll be something.”

Reggie nodded. “Sure,” he said, “thanks.”

He checked the time for himself as the other three began to move about the studio, packing up their bits and pieces. It was almost ten o’clock – he hadn’t realised they’d been going on so long. He was exhausted, his limbs heavy with emotion and his head swimming with nothing much at all. No part of him thought he’d be able to walk himself home and on a day like this he didn’t want to take his chances in a car being driven by Luke.

“Hey Julie,” he said, tapping her on the shoulder. She smiled up at him as she put her microphone stand away. “Can I stay here tonight?”

“Of course,” she said as if it should have been obvious. “I’ll make up the couch inside–”

He shook his head. He wanted to stay in the studio – that was where the most comfort was. “No, no, in here is fine. Thank you, Julie.”

“Any time,” she said, beaming.

Not long later, Reggie and Julie said their goodbyes to Alex and Luke, who clambered into Luke’s beat-up car and sped away, over the speed limit by an amount that made Reggie’s head spin. Reggie waited in the studio while Julie went to get some pillows and blankets for him, his mind turning with thoughts of his parents and his bad school day and his amp that was still smoking in the corner of the studio.

Hence, tonight was not a good night for Reggie.

Eventually, Julie came back down, helped him make up the couch, and then they said their goodnights. When she left, Reggie shucked off his jacket and his jeans, then burrowed himself into the covers, clamping his eyes tight shut in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to catch sleep by surprise.

It didn’t work. He lay there for what felt like hours but couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes, tossing and turning, switching which end of the couch his head was at, sticking various limbs out from under the blanket, trying to find some magic position that would get him to sleep. But nothing worked, and eventually he gave up.

The smell of smoke was enough to drive him insane. He didn’t want to have to wait to get the amp fixed – he wanted it fixed now, he wished it had never broken in the first place. Or rather, he wished he’d never broken it. He could have kicked himself; in hindsight, it was obvious that when the dial stopped moving the volume couldn’t be altered anymore – Reggie cursed himself for forcing it.

A thought struck him then. A crazy, stupid, reckless thought that Alex, if he were there, would have immediately forbidden. But Reggie thought that if it was his mistake then he should be the one to fix it, and the amp was right there, and he couldn’t sleep anyway, so he might as well…

He swung himself out from under the covers, flicked the studio light on and made his way over to the amp. It was still emitting a steady stream of smoke, sparks flying now and then. He inspected it a little more closely, yanking off the front to see the mechanics inside. He could see where the damage was and some cocky part of his brain decided that he could definitely fix it.

Lost in his thoughts, he was brought back to Earth by the grounding sound of rain falling on the flat roof of the studio. It was soothing and soft – Reggie had always liked rain, always found it calming. He wanted nothing more than to be outside right then, soaked to the skin, relaxed and carefree.

So his crazy, stupid, reckless thought developed and before he knew it Reggie was wheeling the amp from the safety of the studio to the wet and windy outside.

It was freezing and he regretted not bringing his jacket from the studio, but he couldn’t bring himself to go back inside now. The rain had him drenched within seconds, the amp too, and Reggie finally felt some of the tension in his muscles drain away.

He began to work.

Now, Reggie wasn’t to know that the amp was still plugged into the mains back in the studio. And he wasn’t to know that a power station half a mile away had just malfunctioned, letting a surge of electricity course through its wires, overwhelming every system and sending far too much electricity to every house in the nearby area. And he wasn’t to know that if he hadn’t been touching the amp then he would likely have been absolutely fine.

But the power surged through the mains, through the studio, through the amp, was worsened by the rain, and reached Reggie as he clutched the wires.

Zap.

Reggie was flung back with the force of the current, landing in a heap in the studio, finally asleep (if not in the way he’d intended to be).

He woke up. That was a good sign. His head was spinning as he tried to ease himself into a sitting position, raising a hand to his throbbing temple, but something pushed him back down. Reggie peeled his eyes open, but blinked at the harsh, too bright light and closed them again.

“Dad,” came Julie’s voice from somewhere above him, “he’s woken up!”

“That’s good,” called Ray’s voice from somewhere indeterminable, “is he okay? I’m still on the phone with the doctor.”

Reggie tried again to open his eyes and managed it, just barely. He was back on the couch in the studio, the lights were on but it was still pitch-black outside. He had been tucked into the blanket so tightly that he could hardly move, and perched on the edge of the sofa, clutching his hand like she was superglued to him, was Julie.

“Reggie,” she said gently, reaching out and brushing a lock of his dark hair away from his forehead. Her fingers were cool against his skin, soothing his headache that little bit. “How are you feeling?”

“Like hell,” he croaked. Just those two words felt like they were ripping his vocal chords out. He cleared his throat a little as Julie sent him a sympathetic, sad smile.

“Do you remember what happened?” she asked.

Reggie thought for a moment but found that it hurt his head to do so. He shrugged, then said, “I wanted to try and fix my amp so I took it outside and then… I don’t know.”

Julie gave him an exasperated smile. “In the pouring rain? Did no one ever tell you that water and electricity don’t mix?”

“Well, I know that now,” he grumbled.

“If it’s any consolation, you probably wouldn’t have been too hurt if the power station hadn’t gone wrong at the same time. The current was way bigger than it should have been – my dad’s talking to the doctors right now to see if we should take you to the hospital.”

“How long was I unconscious?” Reggie asked her, closing his eyes again.

“Well, when the power surge happened, I saw this massive flash outside my window and heard what sounded a lot like a teenage boy being thrown off his feet across a garage,” she told him matter-of-factly. “So, I came down to check on you and you were unconscious, so I got dad. But the whole thing hasn’t been more than twenty minutes. Does your head hurt?”

Reggie nodded, then winced. The movement ached.

Julie frowned. “That doesn’t seem like a good sign.”

At that moment, Reggie heard Ray say to the phone, “Okay, thank you very much for your help.” A moment later, he was crouched down beside Reggie, his kind face streaked with worry.

“You doing okay, kiddo?” he asked quietly.

Reggie sighed. “No. Everything hurts. Do I need to go to the hospital?”

“Well,” Ray began, “I just spoke to a very lovely doctor. She said that seeing as you weren’t in contact with the source for too long, and luckily the mishap with the power station wasn’t too bad, your situation could be a lot worse than it is. But we do have to keep an eye on you because it was an alternating current, which is more dangerous than direct.”

Reggie shuffled a little bit, trying to pull his blanket tighter around him for comfort. He felt Julie place a hand on his chest comfortingly, and he would have smiled if smiling didn’t hurt so much.

“Oh, and she gave me a list of things to ask you about,” Ray said, fishing a scrap of paper out of his pocket. “I wrote it down here, see. Loss of consciousness – obviously. Muscle spasms?”

Reggie should his head and Ray gave him an encouraging smile.

“That’s good,” he continued. “Any numbness or tingling anywhere? Or any breathing problems, or a headache?”

Reggie paid attention to his body for a minute. His legs felt numb, like they wouldn’t support him if he tried to stand up. And he had what was probably the worst headache of his entire life. But his breathing seemed fine to him. He reported his findings back to Ray, who made a few checks on his list.

“Problems with vision or hearing?”

“No,” Reggie said, “none.”

“Good. We checked you for burns and luckily there’s none. Seizures, well, we’ll have to keep an eye on you. Irregular heartbeat – Julie?”

It was only then that Reggie realised that Julie’s hand placed on his chest had been to check his heart. Slowly, he moved his hand out from under the blanket and covered Julie’s with it, wanting to keep the comfort close, stop her from leaving him. She smiled down at him gently, and put her other hand over his too.

“His heartbeat’s fine,” she said. “Normal speed, regular.”

Ray nodded, making a final check. “Excellent, excellent. Okay, Reggie, I’m going to call your parents, let them know what’s happened. It’s not a good idea to move you around too much; do you mind staying here for a few days?”

The thought almost made Reggie smile. The studio (and the rest of the Molinas’ house) was like a second home to him – he felt comfortable and at-home there like nowhere else. He had countless memories surrounding him, a thousand things to keep him preoccupied, even if that was just being lost in his own head.

“That’s fine by me,” Reggie said, trying to smile.

Ray beamed, then gently tousled Reggie’s hair as he stood up. “Good. Great. Okay, I’m going to make a call to your parents, you just let me know if you need anything. Night, Reggie.”

“Goodnight, Ray,” Reggie called after him as he left the studio. “Thank you.”

As Ray closed the door behind him, Julie stood up and made her way to the back of the studio where they kept all their equipment when they weren’t using it for rehearsal. Reggie watched in fascination as Julie dug around for a moment and then pulled out a TV on a wheeled stand, incredibly old and outdated. She blew a thick layer of dust off it then coughed when it flew right back in her face.

“When Carlos and I were little,” she began, tugging the stand closer to Reggie, “my mom used to watch old tapes on this with us. Mainly it was old home videos, or sometimes the tape of her and dad’s wedding, but we should still have some actual movies somewhere. I’ll find the DVD player and set it up, we can watch something together.”

Reggie was a little confused. “You’re not going up to bed?”

Julie looked offended at the suggestion. Reggie shrank back a bit from her glare. “Of course not! I’m staying down here with you for as long as you need me. I don’t want to leave you alone, Reggie, especially not when you’re like this.”

She rummaged about in the back of the studio for a little while longer. Reggie watched her collect an ancient DVD player and a stack of DVD cases, sorting through them and selecting a few. He knew he wasn’t alone in loving Julie – after all, she was an angel on Earth and it was hard not to love her – but right that moment he felt he couldn’t have treasured his sister any more. Just the fact that she was willing to forgo sleep to make sure he was safe meant more than he could describe. The moment she had finished setting up the DVD player and had put on Kung Fu Panda (knowing it was one of Reggie’s all-time favourites), she came to sit in front of the couch on the floor, and Reggie looped his arms around her neck in a weak hug. She held his hand tightly as the movie’s opening scene began to play.

Julie was truly a blessing. She stayed with him all night, not getting a wink of sleep herself because she wanted to make sure nothing bad happened to Reggie while he slept, and the next day she took turns with Ray and Carlos to keep an eye on him, waiting on his every beck and call. Reggie felt bad asking them for things so tried to do it as little as possible, only occasionally asking for a glass of water or another painkiller. But Julie, being Julie, seemed to know exactly what he didn’t want to ask for at all times and was more than happy to fetch anything.

Eventually, she had needed a break. Not by her own choice, but by Reggie’s.

“You’ve done so much,” he said at about midday, just as Julie came in to take over from Carlos again. “I’ll be fine by myself for a little, it’s not like anything that bad can happen.”

She shook her head. “You heard what my dad said. Something bad could happen, so someone needs to make sure you’re alright.”

“It doesn’t need to be you,” Reggie reasoned. “No offence, but you look worse than me right now. And you’re not the one who was electrocuted twelve hours ago.”

It was true – Julie didn’t function well on a lack of sleep, her eyes were heavy and she was teetering from side to side slightly as if she was going to fall over. She rolled her eyes at him but couldn’t deny what he’d said. She pulled her phone from her pocket with a sigh.

“Fine,” she said grudgingly. “Dad’s just taking Carlos to Little League, so it can’t be one of them. I’ll call Alex. Hopefully, he’ll be able to get here soon.”

Reggie listened to the one-sided conversation as Julie spoke to Alex. She sighed with relief, thanked him, and then said to Reggie, “He says he’ll be here in ten minutes. Do you need anything until then?”

Reggie thought for a moment, then let a grin split his face apart. “Can you sing for me?”

Julie huffed a laugh. “Really? That’s all you want?”

“Yes please,” Reggie returned, shuffling over to look at her, giving her his full attention. “Can you sing something by Johnny Cash?”

“Of course,” she replied with an easy smile. Reggie was privately proud of himself – he was the only reason Julie knew any of Johnny Cash’s country classics. She picked up Luke’s acoustic guitar (which he had forgotten to take back to his house the last fifteen times he’d been at the studio) and struck the first chord. “Love is a burning thing…”

Ten minutes later (or three performances of Ring of Fire, because it was the only Johnny Cash song that Julie knew the whole way through) Alex shouldered the door to the studio open, letting in a blast of cold air but also a delightful smell that Reggie would recognise anywhere. It was the aroma of Alex’s famous triple chocolate cookies, the kind he only made for special occasions like birthdays; it seemed that electrocution counted as a special occasion too.

He let the door fall shut behind him, shook his shaggy hair out of his eyes, and held a large Tupperware container aloft triumphantly.

“I brought cookies,” he announced.

He sat himself down at the end of the couch by Reggie’s feet and opened up the box. The already gorgeous smell doubled and Reggie groaned hungrily. Alex smiled, holding the box out towards him – Reggie took three cookies and tried to shove them all into his mouth at once.

“Alex,” he said around a mouthful of chocolate. “Have I ever told you that you’re the best cook I know?”

“Every time I make you food,” Alex replied. He extended the container to Julie who took one cookie, a lot less greedily than Reggie.

“Well, he’s right,” Julie said, beaming. “This smells amazing, Alex.”

“Tastes it, too,” Reggie added, licking the crumbs off his fingers.

Julie laughed, but then poorly stifled a yawn. Reggie ordered her to bed again, and with a tired little wave she left the studio. Settling down further on the sofa, Alex took one of his own cookies.

“I hope you weren’t doing anything important,” Reggie said, poking Alex’s side with his feet.

Alex shrugged and looked away, suddenly so interested in the studio’s ceiling that it was suspicious.

“What?” Reggie prompted, narrowing his eyes. “What were you doing?”

Alex seemed to be trying his hardest to act casual but wasn’t doing a very good job of it. Avoiding eye contact, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck, Alex said, “I was hanging with Willie, actually. But this is more important.”

Reggie felt his mouth fall open. He smacked Alex’s arm. “Dude,” he exclaimed. “That is way more important than me!”

“My love life is more important than your near-death experience,” he deadpanned, frowning disbelievingly.

“Yes!”

“No.”

“Come on, man,” Reggie said, prodding him with his feet again. He still couldn’t feel his legs so he wasn’t sure that his way of getting Alex to talk by nudging him was really working, but judging by the way Alex shifted away from him he was doing a good job. “Tell me everything!”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Alex said, raising his hands in something like surrender. But when he lowered them again, he shrugged and said much quieter, “He kissed me, though.”

“Nothing to tell?!” Reggie almost yelled. “Dude!”

Alex had a dopey smile on his face, a blush creeping across his cheeks. He ducked his head abashedly, his smile growing. “Okay, maybe there’s a little to tell.”

Reggie was about to press him a little more, get him to open up about what he’d been up to with Willie (the two of them had only made it official a week or so ago and Reggie would be lying if he said he wasn’t extremely invested in their relationship – Alex deserved someone who made him truly happy and Willie seemed to do exactly that) but all of a sudden he felt his abdomen contract and shake painfully. He doubled over, clutching at his stomach as the muscles squeezed, rapidly relaxing and pulling taut again.

Alex stood up abruptly. “Reg? What’s happening, what do you need?”

Reggie couldn’t answer. The pain had stopped (it had been brief yet sharp) but he was out of breath, breathing hard and fast. He shook his head, dreading another burst of pain, and tried to get a hold of himself.

Alex crouched down beside him and grabbed his hand. “Reggie, listen to me, alright? I’m going to try and get your breathing back to normal, okay? Breathe with me – in for four. One, two, three, four. Out for six. One, two, three, four, five, six. Great job, let’s go again, buddy.”

Reggie breathed in tandem with Alex, feeling grateful that he had such an amazing friend by his side. Alex didn’t let go of his hand once, getting his breathing back to something steady and safe. When he finally felt relaxed again, Reggie opened his eyes (he hadn’t realised how tightly he’d had them scrunched up and they watered when he opened them) and smiled smally at Alex.

“Thank you,” he said, “I’m okay.”

“What was that?” Alex asked, sitting back a little.

“Ray said something about muscle spasms,” Reggie explained, thinking back to the list Ray had mentioned before. “I guess that was one. It felt like someone was trying to shove my organs into a tin can.”

Alex nodded, though his expression said he had no idea what Reggie was talking about. “Okay. Was that the first time it’s happened?”

“Yeah. Hopefully, the only time it happens too.”

“You need anything?”

Reggie’s throat felt dry. He could feel it like sandpaper every time he swallowed. “Could you get me a glass of water, please?”

“You got it,” Alex said, hopping up. “I won’t be long. Have another cookie, you deserve one.”

Reggie took another cookie and silently thanked Alex for being so helpful. Alex had always been the most collected and resourceful of the group, so Reggie was glad it had been him there for this scary new side effect.

When Alex got back Reggie thanked him out loud, but he waved it away, saying it was what he had to do, no biggie. Reggie sat himself up and swung himself around, leaning against Alex and hugging him tightly. Alex rolled his eyes, but Reggie didn’t miss the way he smiled and hugged him back.

That evening, Luke arrived unannounced. He was in a complete and utter panic – it seemed that in all the chaos, nobody had actually told him about Reggie’s accident. When nobody had shown up to the busking session they’d planned down by the pier he had called Julie to find out what was going on and then made a mad dash to her house.

“I’ll take it from here, Alex,” Luke declared, marching into the studio, yanking Alex from his seat and shoving him out the door, shutting it behind him. Through the small window, Reggie could see Alex looking through, utterly bewildered. When Luke locked the door, Alex shrugged defeatedly, waved goodbye to Reggie, and left.

“Buddy,” Luke said to Reggie, sitting on the edge of the couch. “Reggie, dude. Bro. What happened to you, man?”

“Got electrocuted,” Reggie returned simply.

Luke rolled his eyes. “Well, yeah, I know that now. Julie told me. Eventually. Did you at least manage to fix your amp?”

Reggie sighed. Luke’s arrival had brightened his mood, but the mention of the accident and his amp had kind of ruined it. “No. Julie and Ray checked earlier but I think I made it worse. It’s beyond help.”

“That’s great!” Luke exclaimed. Reggie furrowed his brows, confused.

“No,” he said, “it’s not.”

Luke shook his head. “No, it’s fine. After I called Julie and she told me what happened, I mentioned it to my parents. And they immediately went online and ordered a new one, an even better model than the one you broke!”

“What?” Reggie said incredulously. “For real?”

“For real!”

“But they hate the band,” Reggie countered. It didn’t make any sense – the amount of times Emily and Mitch had explained to Luke and the others that they didn’t think the band was worth it didn’t exactly line up with this act of generosity.

Luke shrugged. “I know. But they felt bad, and they didn’t want us to spend all our money on getting a new one for you. Bro, you’re going to sound out of this world!”

Luke raved on and on about the new amp. Reggie made a mental note to give Emily and Mitch the biggest thank you and the tightest hug the next time he saw them. The amp he had broken hadn’t been cheap and he hated to think how much they were spending to get him an even better model.

But eventually, there was something else on his mind.

“Reggie,” Luke said, cutting off his own rant about a new song he was working on. “You okay? You look weird.”

Reggie grimaced. “I have to pee.”

“There’s a bathroom right over there,” Luke said with a shrug, pointing to the little door on the other side of the studio. Reggie just frowned deeper. Luke’s face fell as some sort of realisation dawned on him. “Please don’t say what I think you’re going to say.”

Reggie said it anyway: “I think you might have to take me.”

Luke groaned and fell back, covering his face with his hands. “Dude. Why?”

“I still can’t feel my legs,” Reggie explained, slightly desperately. If he didn’t get to a toilet soon he was sure there’d be an accident – and Luke would have to be the one to clear that up too, something Reggie was sure he wouldn’t like the sound of. “I’m not going to be able to walk without support!”

“What if you rolled across the floor instead?” Luke suggested.

“But then how would I get up to pee?”

Luke took a deep breath, steeling himself, then nodded and stood up. He swung his arms back and forth by his side then said resolutely, “Okay. Let’s do this.”

Reggie threw an arm around Luke’s shoulders, swung his dead legs off the couch and let Luke pull him to his feet. He couldn’t feel where his feet touched the ground and was letting Luke do practically everything movement-wise. Unsteadily, Reggie dug his fingers into the thin fabric of Luke’s shirt.

They entered the bathroom and Luke grimaced. “How do you want to do this?”

“Titanic-style,” Reggie decided.

Luke gave him a flat look. “What?”

“Like that scene in the Titanic,” Reggie explained. “You know, when Jack and Rose are on the bow of the ship and Jack holds her waist and she throws her arms out and–”

“How is this at all similar to me helping you pee?” Luke interrupted.

“You’ve gotta hold my waist and make sure I stay stood up,” Reggie said. Luke nodded and positioned himself behind Reggie as he did what he needed to do.

When he was done, Luke helped him limp to the sink to wash his hands, again clutching his waist to stop him from crumpling to the ground, and then they hobbled back to the couch in the main studio. Luke gently laid Reggie down and tucked him back under the blanket.

“I hope you never electrocute yourself again,” Luke said distastefully. “I don’t want to do that a second time.”

Reggie raised an eyebrow. “That’s the only reason you never want me to electrocute myself again?”

Luke shrugged. “Of course, bro. And, you know, the fact that you’re in horrible pain.”

Reggie laughed. It was the first time he had done that properly since he’d been shocked. It made sense – if anyone could tease a laugh from him then it had to be Luke. He raised his hand for a fist-bump and Luke indulged him with that tiny teasing smile.

Two weeks later, Reggie was back on his feet, everything back to normal. He had never counted himself so lucky to have such wonderful friends. Julie, who put him miles before herself; Alex, who had ditched all his other responsibilities and helped Reggie when it mattered most; and Luke, who had proved that he really would do anything for Reggie.

Perhaps the whole situation had been born out of a bad day, but Reggie had his friends there to remind him that things would always be okay in the end.

67 notes · View notes

justsomewritingblogg · 4 years ago

Text

Avatar:TLA (Part 19 of many)

Request: None

Requested By: Nobody

Pairing: Zuko x reader

Summary: Bitter Work

Warnings: Mild peril

Word Count: 1K+

Last Chapter - Next Chapter

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

You were awoken but a weight suddenly landing atop you……again. Your eyes shot open, seeing Sokka on top of you, still in his sleeping bag.

“This keeps happening.” You muttered, voice groggy. Sokka leapt up, still in his sleeping bag, and hopped over to Aang, mumbling something about “running around”. He hopped over to Toph, muttering something about “making noises”. Frankly, it was incoherent. Sokka hopped away, still muttering to himself. Aang jumped, landing next to Toph.

“So, what move are you going to teach me first?” He asked. “Rockalance? The trembler? Ooh! Maybe I can learn to make a whirlpool out of land!” Aang exclaimed, doing hand motions for each move. Toph held an arm out, signaling for him to stop.

“Let’s start with……move a rock.” She suggested.

The Avatar clapped. “Sounds good. Sounds good!”

Toph led him away, going somewhere where you presumed it would be easier to earthbend. Katara followed, interested. You on the other hand, were more interested in getting more sleep. That whole instance with Azula a few nights ago was still taking its toll on you. You were still exhausted.

You heard a shout and sat up, seeing Aang had crashed into Appa. A small chuckle was heard moments later. You turned, seeing Sokka still in his sleeping bag, leaning up against the wall as the sleeping bag came over his head.

“Ha! Rock beats airbender.” He joked quietly.

“I don’t understand what went wrong. He did it exactly like you did.” Katara voiced.

“Maybe if I come at it from a different angle…” Aang wondered, beginning to move around the boulder. Toph grabbed his sleeve.

“No. That’s the problem. You need to stop thinking like an airbender.” She told him, hitting his forehead lightly. “There’s no different angle, no clever solution, no trickity-trick that’s going to move that rock.” She told him, pushing him over. “You’ve got to face it head on. And when I say head on, I mean like this!”

Toph jumped into the air, head-butting the boulder. It smashed into pieces. Your jaw dropped as your eyes widened in terror.

“Uh…..I don’t think I can do that.” Aang admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You need to be blunt. You have to show the rock that you’re the boss, and you’re not afraid.” Toph told him. “And actually, that gives me an idea. Wait here.” She instructed. You watched as Toph used earthbending to get up the side of the cliff. She did a few hand and feet movements, creating a sort of slide in the mountain. She created a boulder, sitting it at the top before sliding down. She approached Aang. “This time we’re going to try something a little different.” Toph informed. “Instead of moving a rock, you’re going to stop a rock.” She spun around, facing him. “Get in your horse stance!” She demanded. Aang quickly widened his stance, getting lower. “I’m going to roll that boulder down at you.” She told him. “If you have the attitude of an earthbender, you’ll stay in your stance and stop the rock.”

You could see the look of terror settling on Aang’s face as he looked up at the massive boulder. “Oh boy.” You muttered, placing your head in your hands.

“Like, this.” Toph demonstrated.

“Sorry, Toph. But are you sure this is really the best way to teach Aang earthbending?” Katara asked, stepping forward.

“I’m glad you said something. Actually, there is a better way.” Toph grabbed Aang’s cloth around his waist, pulling it off and tying it around his eyes. “This way you’ll really have to sense the vibrations of the boulder to stop it.”

The look of surprise and fear on Aang’s face showed you that he didn’t approve of this method. Toph continued anyway. “Thank you, Katara.” She spoke.

“Yeah. Thanks, Katara.” Aang told her, a snappy tone to his voice. Toph, using earth as a launch-pad, threw herself to the top of the cliff. She pushed the boulder down. You watched as the large rock rolled, getting closer and closer to Aang. You chewed the inside of your cheek in stress. When the boulder was close, Aang jumped over it, the rock flying into a nearby wall. Toph came running down, no doubt about to scold him for not standing his ground.

“I don’t want to hear this.” You told no one in particular, standing and leaving, trying to find Sokka. “I wonder where he could have gotten to.” You muttered, wandering around a nearby forest. It wasn’t really a forest, per-say, but there were enough trees that you could get lost in it. You stopped walking when you heard a voice.

“-didn’t work out that way. I admit it, you’re cute.”

Silence followed. You recognized the voice as Sokka’s. You crept forward, seeing a small, brown creature sitting on your friend’s head.

“Okay….you convinced me. If I get out of this alive, it’s a comically correct, vegetarian existence for me. No meat. Even though meat is so tasty.”

The creature hopped off of Sokka’s head, running away. It was then you noticed that he was stuck in the ground, and couldn’t shoo away a fly that had landed on his head. You walked forward.

“Wow, did I hear that right?” You teased, emerging from the trees. Sokka whipped his head around to face you. “Sokka’s giving up meat?” You taunted, crouching down to his level and brushing the fly off of his forehead. The creature came back before he had the chance to respond.

“Hey! Looks like my karma’s already paying off!” He exclaimed. The creature dropped an apple a few feet in front of him. “It’s okay, I got it.” Sokka assured. He tried to pull his arms out of the hole to reach it, only resulting in several pained grunts and his boomerang getting squeezed out of its sheath on Sokka’s back. Sokka pointed at the weapon. “Now, come back, boomerang.”

You chuckled, picking up the apple and wiping it off, holding it up so Sokka’s mouth. He gratefully took a bite, chewing quickly before taking another bite. He acted like he hadn’t been fed in weeks. He finished the apple in record time, looking over at you as you tossed the core away.

“Do you think you could get me out of here?” He asked. You looked down at him, observing his predicament.

“I don’t think so.” You admitted.

“Well, could you please try?” He pleaded. You brought water out of your canteen, pouring it into the hole. “Not to question your methods, but what’s the plan here?”

“Will you wait?” You asked, looking up at him. You turned the water into ice. “Hopefully this will make you more slippery, so you’ll slide out.” You suggested. You reached forward, grabbing his hands. “On three. One, two, three!” You tugged, causing him to yelp in pain.

“Ow, ow!! He complained. You stopped, looking over at him. “Wait! I think I budged!” He exclaimed. “Try again!” He instructed. You reached forward, but hesitated.

“You sure?” You confirmed. He nodded. You chewed on your lip, reaching forward and pulling him some more, sliding him further out only slightly. You pulled with all your might.

“It’s starting to get cold!” He whined. You opened your eyes, (they were squeezed shut from the strain), seeing that he was slightly blue. You turned the ice back into water, bringing it back to your canteen.

“It’s getting dark.” You noticed, looking up at the sky. The creature, who you now know as Foofoocuddlypoops, was tugging on his ‘warriors wolf’s tail’. Sokka was getting desperate.

“Okay, karma person, or thing, or whoever’s in charge of this stuff. If I can just get out of this situation alive, I will give up meat, and sarcasm.” He pleaded. You cocked an eyebrow at his antics. “Ow!” He exclaimed as Foofoo pulled out his hair tie, letting his hair go wild. “That’s all I got! That’s pretty much my whole identity. Sokka: the meat and sarcasm guy. But I’m willing to be Sokka: the veggies and straight-talk fellow.”

You rolled your eyes. “That’ll be the day.” You muttered.

“Aang! Thank goodness! Have you got any meat?” You heard Sokka shout from beside you. You turned, seeing Aang rush over.

“Sokka! Are you okay?” He asked, grabbing Sokka’s hands and pulling.

“Ow! Stop! Stop!! You’re gonna pull my fingers off, but I don’t think the rest of me is coming!”

“Hm. I bet I could airbend you out of here.” He placed his hands on the ground as air flew out of the crevice Sokka was in. When the dust cleared, Sokka’s hair was straight up, until his weapons fell on his head, flattening his hair again.

“Seriously Aang, I know you’re new at it, but I could use a little earthbending here. How about it?”

“I can’t. I can’t do it.” Aang admitted softly.

“Well, if you can’t earthbend me out of here, go get Toph.”

“I can’t do that, either.”

“You can’t? Why not?”

You rolled your eyes, venturing back into the forest to see if you could go find Toph. If Aang won’t, someone has to get Sokka out of there. When you finally made your way back to camp, you found Katara. “Where’s Toph?” You asked, approaching her quickly.

“I’m not sure.” Katara replied. “She said she was going to find Aang.”

You rolled your eyes. “Fantastic.” You mumbled. Katara’s eyes lit up, prompting you to raise your eyebrows in confusion.

“You found him!” Katara exclaimed, rushing forward and hugging Sokka. You turned, seeing Aang and Toph with him. You smiled, seeing your friend out of the hole.

“The whole time I was in that hole, not knowing if I would live or die, it makes a man think about what’s really important.” Sokka began. You cocked an eyebrow, placing your hands on your hips. “I realized-”

“Hey, Katara! Look what I can do!” Aang interrupted. He turned to the side, making some movements. A chunk of rock flew off of a pillar.

“You did it!” Katara exclaimed. “I knew you would!”

Appa suddenly roared loudly. Aang rushed over. “Appa! I can earthbend now! The key is to be completely immovable, both mentally and physically.”

The large bison licked Aang, knocking him over. You chuckled, shaking your head.

“You’ll get the hang of it.” You assured.

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

A/n: Sorry it’s so short!

Tag List: @pizzamelon7384, @rissa-doodles, @chewymoustachio, @exo-nova, @90skid018, @hitsugayarose, @samanthadegaro, @casedoina, @bri-brithebumblebeee, @beeposstuff, @lunashaw57, @aamcqueeny, @anactualvelociraptor, @dnarez, @theferretkids, @fancyapricotcalzonepersona, @hyuckcherie, @bitchtits15, @rintheemolion, @panbelle, @littlemsrantsalot, @lovelyfuckingcunt, @h3llbunni

#Avatar #Avatar: The Last Airbender #A:TLA #Avatar: TLA #Zuko x reader #x reader #reader #reader insert #Zuko #Mara's works #My works

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ms-rampage · 4 years ago

Text

Eden’s Gate: Aftermath Chapter 6 - The Man Who Sold The World

Warnings: Swearing, slight violence, some Kate and Wheaty cutensss, usage of drugs (Bliss)

Word count: 4.3k

Summary: In the penultimate chapter, Paige, Kate and Mandy finally meet face to face with Joseph Seed, but there will be bloodshed, and maybe a few sacrifices the family will have to make.

Guest OCs: Just the usuals.

Guest Characters: Archangel Raphael [Supernatural: mentioned], God/Chuck [mentioned], An Archangel? [read until the end]

Note: One more chapter!!! Then New Dawn begins.

*****

Another few weeks have passed, October is here and that means Fall in Montana is beautiful. The fallen leaves, the crispy cool breezes, orange, red and yellow leaves. Fall colors.

Pumpkins, hot chocolate, sweater season, blood shed, violence, and crazy fucking Cultists.

The Winchester-Smith compound has never looked more alive. The trees on the property with their orange, and yellow leaves.

The threatening words of graffiti on the gates of the compound. Sinner. The Father. The Power of Yes.

John Seed’s followers tried to retaliate, and avenged his death, but the Winchester family is always 10 steps ahead of them.

7:00 am. A letter arrived at their front door for the 3 females of the Winchester family that morning. From the man whom they’ve been looking for, The Father Joseph Seed himself.

Telling them to go to his church at 5:30 that evening. He didn’t say for what, or why, but they weren’t gonna let this opportunity slip.

“It’s clearly a trap” Kenny tells his wife.

“What if it isn’t?” she asks.

“Why would Joseph send you a letter telling you to go to his church?!?” Nate asks, as he pours coffee in a cup.

“I don’t know, but we’re going” Kate says.

“You two are pregnant!!” Kenny exclaims, “You aren’t going”.

“Okay! Then who else is gonna take our place?” Paige asks.

“I’ll take your place, Mandy and one of the guys can go” he replies.

“Joseph asked us, and us only to go. We aren’t risking you two going, and probably getting killed” Kate tells him.

“What if he kills you guys?!” Mark asks.

“Remember the letter he left us? When we killed his brothers? He said that we were forgiven for all the shit we’ve done” Paige informs them.

“He could be lying!” Mark adds in.

“Joseph is telling the truth” Mandy steps in.

They all turn around to face her, “How do you know?!?” Kenny asks.

“I spent 6 months with him. I can tell if he’s lying or not. Writing or speaking I can tell” she says.

Paige looks down at the letter, “So what do we do?!?”.

Mandy takes a deep breath, “When 5:30 comes we leave for church. Whatever happens, happens. This is where it all ends”.

They all stare at her in anticipation.

“I just got the chills when you said that” Mark mutters.

“Yeah for real” Adrian says, looking at her like she just gave him life changing news.

****

A few hours later.

10:00 am, everyone had just eaten breakfast, Paige is feeding Cristina 2nd her morning bottle.

Kate just threw up, morning sickness and she hates it.

She called Wheaty, and they’re gonna hang that afternoon. Not telling him about the letter from Joseph to meet at his church.

Kenny, Mark, Nate, Cody, Marty, Adrian and a few others finished putting up one of the 2 houses. Rachel is having a panic attack, knowing that Joseph knows she’s living with the Winchesters. Mandy sitting in her room, blinded by her thoughts. Wondering why Joseph wants the 3 of them to go to his church.

What could he possibly want?. What is the meaning, or purpose of this?. Is he gonna kill them? Does he want to make peace with them?. Is he gonna surrender himself? What is he gonna do?.

Paige is sitting on the front porch swing, holding Cristina while “Fade to Black” by Metallica plays on her bluetooth speaker. Humming along with the song, with Cristina falling asleep in her arms.

****

2 hours have gone by, 12:00pm.

“Things not what they used to be. Missing one inside of me. Deathly loss l, this can't be real. I cannot stand this hell I feel. Emptiness is filling me. To the point of agony. Growing darkness taking dawn. I was me, but now he's gone.”

Kenny steps outside, and sees this. A huge smile grows on his face. He takes a seat next to Paige on the swing, putting his arm around her. She leans closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder. He places a kiss on her head, rests his cheek on her head.

Lightly swing back and forth on the swing. Little moments like this they love. They don’t need to go out to fancy restaurants every weekend, or a weekend get away for the both of them.

Cristina falls asleep in her mothers arms, letting out soft nasal snores, making Kenny snickers at this.

“You know I still don’t like the plan” he tells her.

“I know you don’t” she responds. They sit in silence for a moment.

“If you could guess what Joseph wants. What would you guess?” he asks.

She sighs, “I don’t know. Maybe make peace with us, or make some sort of treaty between everyone in Hope County”.

“Your mom seems to know a lot about Joseph. Like how he thinks, or what possibly goes through his head.” he tells her.

“Yeah, my mom is really good at reading people, even if she’s not trying to. It’s like a power she has. Growing up I couldn’t even lie to her, and I’m really good at lying, but she knew. She always knew. Kate takes a lot after her, they both try to see the good in people even if they don’t deserve it. I take after my dad, he didn’t trust anyone outside the family. Like if he was still alive, and all this shit that happened, like Rachel turning on the Project, he wouldn't trust her either. Even if she had a change of heart, he wouldn’t trust her at all”.

Kenny zones out as she’s talking, still being able to hear every word she says. He places his hand on her 9 in half weeks pregnant belly.

“You think your dad would’ve liked me?” he asks, looking up at the sky.

Paige looks up at him, looking into his blue orbs and smiles “If he knew I trusted you, then he would’ve trusted you as well”.

He looks down at her, and kisses her forehead.

Paige sighs, “My mom-” she says before getting cut off by a soft “mom” from the infant in her arms.

Her and Kenny look at each other wide eyed, then down at Cristina who is half asleep.

She picks her up, having her stand on her lap.

“Say that again” she tells the 11 month old in her hands, “Say mom”.

“Say mama” she tells her again, “Say mama”.

“Say dadda” he jumps in.

Paige glares at him, “This is my moment”.

“Say mama” she tells her again slowly.

“Mama” Cristina mutters her first word, very softly that it sounds like a mumble.

Paige gasps loudly, her eyes widened “She just- she. She said mama. She said her first word!!!”. She gets up from the swing, and goes inside the house.

“Mom!!!” she calls out as she goes inside.

*****

Kate went on her date with Wheaty. She wanted to go hunting, but since she’s 7 in half weeks pregnant, they changed their date plans. They decided to go to the camping spot where they first met a few years back.

“It looks the same” she jokes.

“Camping spots usually never change” he replies. They sit near the water, on some boulders.

“So how’s the pregnancy?” he asks.

She looks down at her belly, chuckling “I threw up this morning. I’m peeing a lot but my mom and sister said that's normal, other than that it’s going pretty good”.

“Thought of any names?” he asks, putting his arm around her.

She thinks about it for a brief moment, “If it’s a boy his name would be either Gabriel Joel Eddard, or Samuel Dean Rhaegar. For a girl Daenerys Arya Brienne, or Lyanna Pamela Cersei”.

“What is up with you and these Game of Thrones names?!” he laughs, kissing the side of her head.

“They’re nice names!. It’ll give them character, plus Pamela isn’t a name from Game of Thrones, and neither is Samuel, Dean, Gabriel and Joel” she laughs.

“Don’t be surprised if little Daenerys asks for a dragon, or 3 for her birthday, or an Iron Throne” he jokes.

“And if she does I’ll be very happy about it, and I’ll get her a stuffed dragon. One of those giant plush ones that are like 5-6 feet tall”.

They talked, they laughed, they made out. They enjoyed their time together, holding her in his arms as they watched the lake. Watching the boats, and jet skies go by.

Even the subject of marriage and kids came up on their date. Even though they've started dating back in August but have known each other over 2 years.

She starts reminiscing back when they first met. She still remembers that night very clearly. She still has the photos.

"I still remember that day when we first met" she tells him.

A smile appears on his face, "Yeah me too".

"I never had a crush on anyone until I met you" he tells her. She looks up at him.

"Really?" she asks. He nods his head, she moves closer into his arms. Enjoying every single moment of it.

Kate knows this might be the last time her and Wheaty ever hang out again. Their last date together, and they don’t know it.

Resting her head against his shoulder as they sit by the lake. His arms wrapped around her.

"Also I wanted to give you this" he says, getting something out of his pants pocket. He pulls out a bracelet, similar to the ones he wears and puts it on her wrist. She smiles as he puts it on her, holding her hand in his. She looks up at him, and kisses him.

***

4:15 pm Kate is still on her date with Wheaty. Her sister and mother prepare themselves as they wait for her.

“Where is she?!” Paige asks, getting annoyed.

“We still have a whole hour” Mandy tells her, “She’ll be back. Soon hopefully”.

15 minutes later Kate pulls into the driveway.

She enters the house, “It’s about time you show up” Paige tells her.

“Well sorry!” she responds sarcastically, “I had a date with Wheaty, and I wanted to see him before we’re killed!”.

“We’re not gonna get killed” Mandy steps in, “Because we’re not going”.

They all look over at her in confusion. Mandy was having 2nd thoughts about confronting Joseph, and she made the decision not to go to the church.

“What do you mean we’re not going?!?” Paige questions her, “You literally said a few seconds ago that we’re going. Implied it”.

“We’re not going. We’re not gonna give Joseph what he wants” she tells them.

“Mom?!” Kate mutters in disbelief and confusion.

Paige scoffs, shaking her head “Mom, this is our only chance. To get rid of Joseph. Put an end to the Cult, and kill whoever is left”.

Everyone, Paige, Kate, Kenny, Adrian, Martin, Cody, Mark, Nate, Barbara, Rachel, and everyone else in the house look at Mandy. About 30, plus, eyes staring back at her.

“We’re not going” she tells them, “I don’t care what Joseph wants. We’re not going”.

Paige, scoffs at her mother, “Why?. Why the change of heart all of a sudden?!?”.

Mandy glares at her eldest child, and says “You wouldn’t understand”.

Kate stops her older sister from doing or saying anything else to their mom.

She still plans to go and confront Joseph. All the damage, pain. suffering and bloodshed he had caused. It’ll all end that evening, nothing will stop Paige from ending The Father.

5:20 rolls around, Kate and Mandy have no intentions of leaving for church.

The youngest Winchester thinks they should go.

“Mom?” she asks.

“We’re not going Katella” she says, not looking up at her youngest daughter.

Paige comes downstairs, and is immediately out the door, and goes to the Impala.

“Paige?!?” Kate exclaims, going after her. Too late she’s already driving like a maniac off of the property. Leaving behind a cloud of dirt.

“Son of bitch!!” she mutters, “She’s going after Joseph”.

They grab the keys to the Monte Carlo, and drive after Paige who is probably already at the church.

****

Church of Eden’s Gate

Paige enters the compound, breaking down the front gate with the car. She stops the car, exits it. Pistol ready in her holster. A few peggies on the property staring at her. She ignores them, she’s there for Joseph. She’ll handle the hillbillies later.

“Joseph!!!” she shouts his name, echoing in the sky “Joseph!!!”.

Approaching the church, the man himself Joseph Seed steps out. She stares at him intensely. He looks up at the sky, closes his eyes and says, “And the lamb broke the 5th seal, and I saw under the altar the souls of Martyrs. Slain because of the Word of God”.

Pointing to Paige, “You. You turned my sister. You poisoned her mind with your wretched words”.

She pulls her pistol out of its holster and aims at him, “I didn’t change her. She finally saw your monstrous ways. She changed on her own”.

“Lies” he hisses, “Your disgusting words against God, and his word”.

She turns off the safety on her pistol, “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right here. Right now”. Her voice filled with anger, and violent intentions.

He walks around her, she follows his movements. Gun still aimed at him.

“I told you. Your mother. I told you that we were living in a world on the brink. Where every slight. Every injustice. Where every choice reveals our sins”.

Paige narrows her eyes at him, her pistol still aimed at him, not lowering it once.

“And where have those sins led us?, Where have those sins led you?”.

The sound of tires screeching, breaks Paige’s concentration, she turns her head and sees her sister's car drive on the property.

Kate and Mandy get out. “Paige don’t!!!” Mandy exclaims, running towards her.

She turns back to Joseph, and aims her gun at him again.

“Paige what are you doing?!?!” Kate exclaims.

“What does it look like I’m doing??!” she replies sarcastically, “I’m ending it all”.

Joseph stares at Mandy, “Paige, you can’t do this” she pleads.

“Uhh, sure I can” she replies back. Rolling her eyes.

Mandy gets in between the gun and Joseph. “No, I mean you can’t kill him”.

Lowering her gun, glaring at her mother, “What are you talking about?!?”.

Before she could explain herself, Joseph speaks up.

“Mandeline”, his voice so calm that it sends shivers up her spine. Giving her goosebumps.

She closes her eyes, sadness and shame written all over her face. She turns to face him. Her eyes meeting his. He stares at her with so much intensity that you can almost feel the anger radiating off of him, and the fear radiating off of her.

“You betrayed me, my family, my flock, and God. You dare to show yourself to me” he tells her, slowly approaching her.

“Joseph, I’m sorry, but I had no choice. I couldn’t stand by and watch everything happen” she explains to him.

He points at her, “You turn my family into Martyrs. And I plan to do the same with yours”. He walks around them, and they see their friends Mary May, Nick Rye, Pastor Jerome, Grace Armstrong, Jess Black, Tracey Lader, Wheaty, and Tammy Barnes all under the influence of Bliss holding Kenny, Mark and Nate hostage.

“Wheaty!!!!” Kate cries out, seeing her boyfriend drugged up with Bliss.

“Kenny?!?” Paige says under her breath, “How the fuck did you get to them!?!?!”.

“Joseph let them go!!!!” Mandy yells.

He turns to her, and says, “Your friends, and family have been taken and torture, and it’s your fault. Countless people have been killed, and it is your fault. The world is on fire, and it’s your fault. Was it worth it?. Was it?”.

“You motherfucker” Paige mutters angrily, “Me killing you will fucking worth it, and I can promise you that”.

The followers on the property gather behind the 3 Winchesters, blocking them from escaping.

“Kenny what happened?!? Was it Rachel?!?” Paige asks.

“No!” he mutters.

“The others are fine. They got us, Rachel took off when they showed up” Nate wheezes.

“Paige?” Mandy mutters softly.

“Not now” she responds, “Joseph I swear you better-”

“Paige!” she yells, breaking her attention from him.

“Mom!. Now's not the time” she tells her.

“You can’t kill him” she tells her almost in a whisper.

She looks at her, eyes furrow, “Yeah I can, he has our friends and family hostage!!”.

Mandy looks back at Joseph then back at Paige, “No I mean you can’t kill him”.

“What do you mean I can’t-” She stands in front of her once again, blocking the bullet from hitting Joseph.

“Raphael” she mutters, interrupting her.

“Raphael?!?” Kate whispers, “The Archangel?!?”.

She nods her head, “Yes, I was told by Archangel Raphael that Joseph had to be protected, and I was the one to do it. That’s why you can’t kill him.”

Kate and Paige look at their mother in disbelief, and confusion.

“Because Chuck spoke to him” she whispers to them, “About the end. You can’t kill him because if you do everything, everyone will die. Cease to exist. The end of life as we know it”. They both glare at her with mixed emotions.

“You knew this whole time?!?” Paige yells, “This whole time!!. If Joseph gets killed, hurt and harmed in any way. Chuck will drop a bomb on all of humanity?!?”.

“Why didn’t you tell us?!?!” Kate asks, betrayal in her voice.

“I couldn’t say anything. Raphael forbidden me from saying anything to anyone!!” she says.

Paige lowers her pistol, putting it back in her holster.

Shaking her head, “I can’t believe you. He could be playing him for all we know” she tells her.

“Let them go” she orders Joseph, pointing to Kenny, Mark and Nate.

Joseph stares at her, “Are you deaf?!? I said let them go!!!” she orders him again.

Mandy holds her back, “Let me handle this”.

She turns to face Joseph, and pleads with him “Joseph please, let them go. We don’t want anymore bloodshed. Please let them go, and we’ll leave”.

“Wheaty too!” Kate shouts.

“You betrayed me. Betrayed God. I forgive you for what you’ve done to my family, but that I can’t forgive” he tells her, stepping close to her, “Your family will pay for what you have done”.

The few followers grab Paige and Kate shoving them onto the ground, taking their guns and other weapons away.

“Don’t fucking touch me!!” Paige yells, struggling.

“Get off me!!” Kate shouts, fighting to be let go.

“Joseph, it’s not their fault!!. It’s mine. Let them go, and you can deal with me” she pleads with him again.

He grabs her shoulders, “This is where it ends” he whispers to her. Tears stream down her face.

“You peggie fuckers!!. Pieces of fucking shit!!” Paige mutters as a peggie pushes her face first into the ground.

“Get the fuck off of her!!” Kenny yells at him.

Tears streaming down Mandy’s cheeks, if only she was honest with her family. If only she had told them the truth. All of this wouldn't have happened. Her family was gonna be killed because of her. Her own greed.

“When are you gonna realize that every problem cannot be solved with a bullet?” he asks her.

“It doesn’t have to end this way” she pleads with him.

Two of his followers, grab her. Preventing her from stopping whatevers gonna happen.

One of his Chosen has a sharp knife in hand. Almost like a miniature machete, holding it in front of her eldest child.

“Really Joseph? You’re gonna kill two pregnant women!” Paige yells. Grabbing the Father’s attention.

He stops them, having Paige’s full attention. He looks at her with a questioning look on his face.

“Yeah” she says, a smug look on her face “I’m pregnant. So is my sister. She’s carrying your little brother's kid. John”.

He looks over at the youngest sister, and she nods her head. “It’s John’s kid, Joseph. You kill us, you kill your nephew/niece, but keep in mind we’ll never be family”.

He looks up at the sky, backing away from them. His back to all of them. “Let them go” he says. They free the family of hunters, showing them all mercy.

“Wheaty?!” Kate cries, trying to snap him out of it, “Wheaty please. It’s me, Kate”.

She holds his face, cupping it, hoping to get him back into reality. All their friends drugged up, blind from reality. Paige grabs her arm, “Come on, we have to get out of here”.

She resists, shaking her head “No, Wheaty please snap out of it. We have a child on the way” she cries. The Bliss has taken over his state of mind that he can’t comprehend anything.

Mark and Nate practically dragged Kate back into the car. Her, her mother and sister in the Impala, Kenny, Nate and Mark in the Monte Carlo. They all drive back to the compound.

*****

Little did they know they’re not the only ones that have had an issue with Joseph, and the Cult. The new Deputy has had their fair share of issues with the Seed family, and their followers.

Liberating their outposts and destroying their properties. Making the Seed family look like a family of psychopaths they need to be locked up.

When Faith took off, she went to her gate and met with the Deputy. They put up a fight against her and they ended up killing her.

Faith. Rachel would’ve been the adopted sister to the two sisters. Rachel Winchester would’ve been her name.

****

They all arrive back at the compound. Kate in tears, Paige in shock.

The others come out, and see all their friends alive. Their children and wifes stand at the front porch.

“Holy shit!!” Cody says relieved, “You’re all alive!!”.

They all nod, “Yeah, yeah we are” Mandy mutters.

“Is Joseph alive?!?” Adrian asks. They all nod in disappointment, “Yeah, the fucker is still alive” Kate mutters angrily.

“Where’s Rachel?” Kate asks them. The others shrug, “We don’t know, she fled the property when the peggies arrived”.

“So now what?!” Mark asks, shrugging.

Paige shakes her head “I don’t know, we’re gonna have to-”.

As she’s speaking, it’s almost like God himself was making a huge entrance. Lighting up the entire sky.

A bright white light blinds them all, covering their faces from the burning brightness.

When the bright light clears, a giant mushroom-like cloud in the distance fills the sky.

“Oh my god!!” Nate mutters in horror, “Oh my god!!”.

A huge storm flies at them, causing the entire ground to shake violently. Making them stumble, and fall. The trees, and land go up in flames within seconds. Animals running to seek shelter. The whole sky orange, everything is a fiery orange red.

“Shit! he was right!” Martin screams in horror, “He was right!”.

“Damn it Chuck!” Paige mumbles angrily with a hint of fear in her voice.

Realization hitting hard, “Wheaty?, I have to get Wheaty!!” Kate yells.

She gets stopped by her mother and brother in law, “Kate no!!”.

“I have to go back for him!!” she cries, trying to get to her car.

Paige tries to hold her back, “It’s too late for him!!. You’ll die if you go back!. Kenny! Adrian! Get the cars underground. Everyone else get the children, pets and go down to the bunker”. They get the cars underground to the bunker garage. They get all their kids, pets, and all go down to the bunker.

Everyone settles underground. Fear, anger. So much emotion in one room. The distance rumbles of explosions going off, making it sound like the king of all thunderstorms is happening right above their heads. Paige looks around the main room of the bunker to see if everyone made it down. She counts everyone that was on the property.

Herself, her daughter, Kate, Kenneth, her mother, Barbara, Mark, his wife and 2 kids, Nate, his wife and 3 kids. Cody and his wife, Martin and his fiancee, Adrian and his wife.

“He was right” Kate mutters, playing with her bracelet, “Joseph Seed was right, and we didn’t see it coming. God, the Collapse, this sort of thing is right up our alley, and we didn’t believe him!!”.

Paige sighs in disappointment, “It’s not that we didn’t believe him. He didn't believe us, which is not surprising. It’s that he claimed that he spoke with Chuck, and for all we know. He couldn’t been played by him”.

Kate is about to say something when a fluttering sound, and a loud thud a few rooms away throws her off.

“Did you hear that?!?” she asks the others. The others stay back while her and Paige go to investigate it. Kate then sees a single golden, brown feather on the floor.

“Hey, look a feather” she says, pointing at it. Paige, who doesn’t see it, looks at her in confusion.

“Where?!?” she asks, looking around for it. They get to the source of the sound, and see a man with his back to them, kneeling on the floor.

Paige pulls out her pistol, and aims at the intruder.

They both see the same man, but Kate sees a little more. Tattered up golden, brown angelic wings. They approach the man, and stand in front of him. He lifts his head to look up at them, and they see the wounded, beaten up Archangel.

“Gabriel?!?” Kate mutters.

____

When the bombs fell

Not long after (The Angels fell)

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therainroguefanfiction · 5 years ago

Text

❉ 139 Dreams (Molag Bal) Fascination

📑 Table of Contents

Genre: Angst, Suggestive 16+, Romance ☁

Word Count: 3,629 ☁

Pairing: Reader x Molag Bal ☁

World: Skyrim ☁

Author’s Note: Am I thirsty as fuck for Molag Bal? Yup. Do I regret writing this and showing off how thirsty I am for Molag Bal? Nope. Highly inspired by the sexy ass images found here. And yes, I know technically none of the Daedric Princes have been given definitive genders, but I don’t care. I view them as men and if you want to see them differently, you do you boo.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

Thunder boomed loudly overhead, making you take pause as your eyes slid toward the darkening sky. You were currently on your way to Whiterun from Solitude, delivering an order of fancy clothes to Carlotta Valentia, who was hosting a party soon. Your mother had ordered you to do so, often using you as a free delivery service and offering you no choice nor reward for your efforts despite traversing dangerous roads in her name. You had mentioned borrowing the family’s horse in order to make the deliveries faster, but she didn’t want to risk her baby getting hurt.

‘Yet she sends her child across Skyrim with no protection,’ you scowled, kicking a rock to vent your frustrations. ‘What sense does that make?’

Thunder boomed again and with it came a sheet of rain. You cursed, doing your best to shield the bag of clothes with your body as you ran for cover beneath a large tree just off the road. What were you supposed to do now? If you continued on your journey, the clothes would surely be damp and possibly ruined, something you were sure Carlotta would not pay for. On the other hand, if you didn’t show up on time, she would report that to your mother who would then take out her anger on you again, which you knew would also happen if you delivered wet clothes.

‘No matter what, I lose here.’ You leaned your head back against the tree, closing your eyes as a headache began to throb at your temple. All you wanted was to be free, happy, but that was just a dream, you knew. If you ran away again, she would find you and make you pay dearly for wasting her time. The last time you had attempted to flee, she injured you so badly that you weren’t able to walk for a week.

A soft breeze ruffled your hair and you opened your eyes toward the sky. Despite the thunder still rumbling, the sun was now shining down on Skyrim. You waited a few moments to see if the rain would start up again before you decided to continue on your way, picking up your pace to make up for the lost time.

You made it to Whiterun without further incident. Though the bag had been a bit damp, the clothes inside of it were completely dry, much to your relief. You pocketed the two-hundred gold and started the trek back to Solitude but the closer you got to home, the more depressed you felt.

You had just reached the halfway point of your journey, just before Markarth, when you suddenly paused, turning your eyes to the sky. The sun was shining brightly, making you squint. “I don’t want to go home,” you muttered sadly.

“Then don’t,”

The deep, husky voice of a man startled you. You whipped around, eyes scanning around you for the source of the voice, but there were no signs of life, not even a deer or a rabbit. Your brow furrowed in confusion.

‘Have I gone mad?’ you wondered before shaking your head with a bitter chuckle. ‘No, my mind could never think up such a sexy voice like that.’ You continued on your way when the wind suddenly kicked up ominously.

“You dare to ignore me, mortal?”

You swallowed, realizing that the voice was, in fact, not in your head. “Who…who are you? Where are you?” Instinctively, your hand went to the dagger at your belt. It was a poor excuse for a weapon, but it was all you had to defend yourself with.

The man chuckled in a sultry tone and you felt your heart skip a beat. “I am the Daedric prince Molag Bal, lord of domination, god of Oblivion! And I want your soul.”

“My soul?” You breathed out. You knew you should feel afraid but… honestly, you didn’t. It couldn’t be any worse than what your mother puts you through, right?

“In exchange for your soul, mortal, I shall free you of the chains your woman has so tightly placed around your neck.”

“From one prison to another, huh.” You chuckled bitterly. “Forgive me for saying so, but that hardly seems like a fair trade.”

“You have some nerve, mortal, to dare speak to me in such a way.”

Your eyes slid closed and you forced your body to relax. “Just kill me and get it over with. Please,”

The voice was silent for a moment and you briefly wondered if you had been imagining the whole thing, and then he spoke again. “Hmm, fine. Let us come to a more… agreeable deal, then.”

Your brow furrowed. Why would a Daedric prince be willing to make a deal? “Like what?”

A black and purple cloud materialized before you, making you take a cautious step backward. Was he going to appear from that black hole? “There is a man that needs to be slain in my name, for he has been destroying my alters and smeared my name. He is a follower of Boethiah,” he spat the name as the smoke cleared to reveal a rusty spiked mace. “Take my mace and end his life. Show Boethiah that my followers are absolute and can not be bested.”

As if in a trance, your hand lifted toward the mace, head tilted to the side. Your fingers wrapped around the hilt, the metal surprisingly warm against your palm. It was quite heavy, but nothing you couldn’t handle after constantly lugging around large bags of clothes. There was something… strange about this weapon, about this whole situation. You’d be lying if you said you weren’t fascinated, but there was something you just had to know. “This is a trap… isn’t it?”

Molag Bal chuckled, a deep sultry sound that reverberated in your head. “If you complete this task that I have assigned to you, mortal, I will allow you to walk away with your life. And then, you will be truly free, just as you desire. My mace will be yours, and with it, you will harvest the souls of every enemy you slay.”

Everything within you was screaming at you not to trust this Daedra. Anyone with half a brain knew better than to do so, but what did you have to lose really? Your hand tightened around the weapon. Despite how dangerous, how powerful, it felt within your grip, it also felt so right, like you were meant to wield it.

“Tell me,” you breathed out. “What is the man’s name?”

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

You stepped into the city of Falkreath, known for its expansive graveyard. The two itself was quite small, hosting only a couple of shops and homes. The guards watched you with weary gazes as you passed by, not knowing what your intentions may be. You offered them what you hoped to be an innocent-looking smile, not wanting any trouble from them.

You came to a stop in front of the inn, glancing up at the sign hanging above the door. ‘Dead Man’s Drink? How charming,’ The door creaked as you pushed it open, eyes scanning the inn. Only one patron was inside and he was passed out drunk against the table at the back of the room, snoring louder than anyone you had ever heard before.

Standing behind the counter was an Imperial woman with shoulder-length brown hair and matching eyes. She leaned forward on the counter, her hands flat on the wood. “Welcome to Dead Man’s Drink. We offer food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, and sleep for the tired.” The words sounded so rehearsed as if she had repeated that same line dozens of times before, but you hadn’t been aware of Falkreath receiving that many visitors.

You approached the counter. “Hello, I was hoping you could help me locate a man named Hans Coralian. I believe he came through here quite recently.”

“A lot of people come through here,” she responded, eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Why are you looking for him?”

You glanced over your shoulder at the empty Inn, raising a brow. ‘I feel like that comment is a bit of a stretch,’ Your eyes met hers as you went over the options within your head. “He… He’s my father. I’ve been searching for him for such a long time, ever since my mama passed away…”

Her gaze softened considerably and she nodded. “Yes, he was in here two days ago, talking to some woman about something they needed to find, talking in real hushed voices.”

“You don’t know where he went, then?” You questioned, shifting your weight from one foot to the other.

“Maybe,” She closed her eyes in thought, folding her arms over her chest. “When I brought them a second round of mead, I heard them mention Knifepoint Ridge, just northwest of town, but I wouldn’t go there if I were you. It’s supposed to be home to a group of Daedra-worshippers. Real dangerous.”

You offered her a kind, thankful smile. “Thank you for your concern, but I can handle myself. Good day.” As you stepped out of the inn, your fingers brushed against the mace attached to your belt. Something about having that weapon just made you feel so safe, so powerful. You hadn’t felt that way in such a long time and it was a welcoming feeling.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

You reached Knifepoint Ridge without issue.

As you climbed the hill, you quickly crouched down behind a large boulder when you heard people fighting up ahead. Peeking around, you noticed two men fist fighting in a circular ring surrounded by spiked wooden barricades. Several others stood around the ring and on the stone steps leading up the mountain, watching the fight with clear amusement.

“Who are you?”

You nearly jumped out of your skin, whipping around with your back pressed against the boulder. Standing before you was a Dark Elf female and a Nord male, their eyes narrowed suspiciously. So much for the element of surprise. “Uh, well, I… I’m an adventurer, and I believe I got lost…”

The woman hummed, folding her arms across the black chest piece she wore. “We are lord Boethiah’s faithful. If you dare, you may test your mettle and join us in worship.”

‘Boethiah… well, at least I know I’m in the right place.’ You glanced at the Nord man. ‘He matches the description of Hans, too. It might be easier if I’m on the inside. Perhaps I can befriend him.’ Hesitantly, you nodded. “I’ve heard… great things about the Daedric prince Boethiah and, since the opportunity has presented itself to me, I wish to join you. Fate has brought me here and I shall answer its summons.”

She smiled slyly, licking her lips. “If it is so, and if Boethiah appears, then we will welcome you as one of us. If you wish to gain Boethiah’s attention, you must slay a thrall upon his shrine.” She pointed to the right, where a set of stone steps slowly curved upward, stopping where a tall statue stood on the edge.

‘A sacrifice? Where the hell am I meant to find someone to sacrifice?’ Your brow furrowed as you cautiously approached the steps, but a sudden, angry voice boomed across the open area, making everyone take pause.

“Defiler!” Roared a feminine voice. Suddenly, the Dark Elf started to seize, dropping to the ground and clutching at her chest. She gasped in agony before falling still. Several moments passed before her body stiffly rose up like a corpse from the grave, limbs unnaturally stiff and face contorted in rage as she looked upon you. “You DARE to bring that thing near my shrine?!” She wailed, pointing a finger at the mace. “Do you have ANY idea who I am, mortal?”

You opened your mouth to respond, to try and calm the raging Daedra by spinning a tale that you had simply found the mace and had no idea what it was or who it belonged to, but she wouldn’t hear it.

“Silence!” She snapped. “Do you know what we Daedra are, child?”

“You’re a god,” breathed one of the star-struck followers, his eyes wide as he looked upon his lord with awe. “Your voice, it’s so… beautiful, my lady!”

“I am a man, you foolish mortal.” Boethiah scowled as he waved his hand through the air. An invisible force flung the man backward, his body pierced on the spiked barricade behind him. “We Daedra are far more powerful than any god. And among my brethren, I am the most feared!”

Deep laughter echoed loudly throughout the clearing before a black and purple portal materialized beside you. You didn’t even have time to back away before a man stepped from the portal, standing at least two feet taller than you. His skin was midnight blue, white symbols etched across his chest and arms, and two sets of curved horns, similar to a goat’s but much thicker, jutted out from either side of his head. Eyes the shade of red rubies shined under the moonlight as he looked upon Boethiah with amusement, placing a clawed hand on his hip. His hair was short and messy, and as black as a raven’s feathers.

You couldn’t help but stare at him, your cheeks turning red. ‘He’s so gorgeous…’

“Dear Boethiah,” He drawled. “You are the most feared? Don’t make me laugh. You’re the least feared among us and you know it.” The corner of his lips tugged up into a smirk as he witnessed the rising anger within his face. “You’ve been sending your foolish little followers to destroy my shrines, leaving me with only two left. Now I will do the same to you. While your chosen champion hides out deep within the mountain like a coward, my champion will destroy your influence!” His eyes snapped to you and you felt your breath catch in your throat. “Y/N, I command you to take my mace and destroy the shrine!”

Your body reacted on its own, turning and taking off for the stairs before your brain could comprehend what was happening. You pulled the mace from your belt when Boethiah screamed out in anger, giving chase.

Molag Bal intersected him and he sneered. “With only two shrines, both of which are so very far away from this location, your power is weak, brother. You can not best me, Molag Bal!” The body he was in started to expand and morph, growing until it was the same height as Molag Bal’s. His skin darkened to the color of the midnight sky with hair as white as freshly fallen snow, flowing to his knees like silk. His eyes, completely white and full of anger, snapped to you.

You were halfway to the shrine when he appeared before you, swiping at you with his hand, nails as sharp as nails. With a squeak of surprise, you barely managed to dodge the attack but your foot slipped out from beneath you and you hit the stone, your wrist twisting at an unnatural angle. It was painful, but the adrenaline coursing through your body like fire kept the pain mostly at bay.

You scrambled to your feet as he tried to grab you, his nails slicing open your arm as you dodged his grip, stumbling up the stairs like a toddler who had only just learned to walk. There was only one thing running through your mind – destroy the shrine.

‘Just as lord Molag Bal ordered,’ you thought. A part of you didn’t want to let him down, but you didn’t know if that was because you hoped he would save you from your mother, or simply because you had fallen under his spell. It was probably a bit of both, to be fair.

Boethiah grabbed the back of your leather armor and tugged hard, pulling you back toward him. You cried out, trying to grip the stone beneath you but he was much stronger than you and you no longer had feeling in your right wrist. “This is where you die, mortal!”

A thick red fog filled the air, making it impossible to see more than arm’s length in front of you. Boethiah howled in pain from behind you, his grip loosening on your shirt. You could feel the will of Molag Bal urging you forward and with a cry, you mustered up all of your strength and pushed forward, feeling the leather tear and the cool night air hit the exposed skin of your back. You were breathing heavily as you booked it the rest of the way up the stairs, the mace poised to strike as you zeroed in on the statue.

“No!!”

Just as the mace made contact with the stone, you felt a sharp pain in your side, a cry escaping your lips as blood splattered to the ground around you. Using all of your fear, the pent up rage, and now the pain coursing through you, you raised the mace and struck the statue again. Chunks of stone exploded from the statue, flying in all directions. You closed your eyes on instinct and continued to strike at it until there was barely anything left.

Boethiah screamed from somewhere behind you, a scream so loud it made your ears ring, and the last thing you saw was a brilliant explosion of light, and then nothing.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

“Ow, my head…” A groan slipped past your lips as you came to, slowly opening your eyes. The room you were in was small, lit by the soft orange glow of cream-colored candles. They were nearly fully melted, offering only a few hours more of light. You shifted your body, feeling straw and leather beneath you. ‘This is definitely a bedroom, but… it’s not mine.’ You struggled to remember the last place you had been, but your memory was coming up blank.

The wooden floorboards creaked as a man wearing a dark robe entered the room, carrying a tray with two mugs of milk and some steaming bread. You could just barely make out his smile from beneath the hood. “It’s about time you awoke. I worried you would sleep the whole day away.” His voice was deep and aroused something familiar within you. He carefully set the tray on the table beside the bed before resting his hand upon your forehead. “Your fever is gone, that’s good.”

As he pulled away, you noticed the rich blue tone of his skin. Your brow furrowed in confusion. “I… I’m sorry, but… who are you?”

He looked upon you with surprise. “Do you not remember me, my love? Well, no matter. I’m sure it’s just the side effect of your illness.” The man smiled charmingly and reached out to stroke your cheek. “I am your husband, Mikel.”

“Mikel…” you whispered, hoping if you tasted the name on your tongue, it would awaken your memory, but nothing happened. Your brow furrowed in frustration. “Where are we?”

“Our home in Markarth,” he answered, taking your face between his large hands. “Trying to force your memory will do more harm than good. You should rest.” You seemed unsure about this, so he leaned down and claimed your lips with his. It felt like a fire erupted within you, flowing through your entire body like lava and it felt… amazing. Like nothing you had ever felt before.

A moan slipped past your lips and he smirked as he pulled back.

“Rest, my love.”

Your hand shot out, tightly grasping his robe to prevent him from standing up. “No,”

“No?” he quirked a brow, red eyes shining with amusement. “You dare to defy your husband, Y/N?”

“Stay with me,” you begged breathlessly. The fire was beginning to face and you wanted more, needed more. “Please,”

His tongue slowly slid across his plump lower lip as he shifted to hover his body over your own. “How could I dare deny such a request from my most treasured?” His voice was husky and low, reverberating around your brain. You clutched at his body, trying to bring him closer but he didn’t budge. “Now now, my dear Y/N.” He chastised, pulling your hands away so he could pin them both above your head, easily holding them with one hand. He hummed, pleased at the way your body yearned for his touch, slowly sliding his hand down your side. “We should take our time and savor our first union together, don’t you agree?”

You couldn’t respond, too pre-occupied with the firey haze that had invaded your mind. No one had ever had such an effect on you before and your body couldn’t handle it. It felt like you were losing your mind.

He clicked his tongue before letting his hand dip between your legs. The way your body arched into such a simple touch fascinated him and he wanted to find every single tic your body would offer to his ministrations.

Leaning down, his lips brushed against your ear, warm breath creating goosebumps across your flesh. “Say my name, Y/N.”

“Mikel – ”

“My real name,” he growled, tightening his grip on your wrists.

You moaned as pain mixed with pleasure. Images flashed through your mind so quickly, you could only see bits and pieces, but a name stood out among all of the images. Your voice was breathy as you met his red eyes, shimmering with want and amusement. “Molag Bal…”

He smirked, showing off a set of sharp fangs. “You are mine, Y/N, in every sense of the word. Do not forget that.”

Your only response was a sharp intake of breath as his body pressed flush against your own, bringing his lips down to claim yours in a heated kiss. His body pinned you to the bed, making it difficult to breathe, but you had no objections to offer.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

📜 Read more by checking out my masterlist 📜

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bluemoon-writer · 5 years ago

Text

Childhood Friends AU: MariKim

Part 2- in which the class discovers the MariKim friendship

You can find Part 1 here

Here is background head canons about their families

-it started in the wake of a disaster

-Francois DuPont is a magnet for crazy shit, to the point that many students are starting to become immune to some of the more mild occurrences

-a giant boulder crashes through the window one day and rolls across the room and out the door, crushing the front row of desks in the process and passing inches from Ms. Bustier

-students scream and jump, more in surprise than actual fear at this point, but back away from the windows (Marinette and Adrien both immediately dash out of the room)

-all except Chloe, who didn’t move a muscle when the boulder flew through the window, and Sabrina lays praise on her like usual

“Wow, Chloe, you’re so brave. You weren’t shocked or scared at all when that boulder flew right past you!”

“Pff, Sabrina, I’m Queen Bee, the only thing that could shock me is if Ladybug turned out to be some weakling like Dupain-Cheng”

-The class is used to ignoring Chloe at this point

-Except Kim is high on adrenaline and doesn’t want to listen to Chloe insult his friend when she isn’t even here to defend herself

-Tells Chloe to shove it

“Marinette is super brave! Remember that traffic akuma from two weeks ago? she ran straight at it so the class could get away. Last week, Marinette literally saved you from the lunch lady you akumatized by throwing a chair at her. And bravest of all, yesterday when I accidently broke one of my mom’s sculptures, Marinette took the blame for me!”

-Chloe is not impressed, “Of course you of all people would come to her defense. If she impresses you so much why don’t you go back to being best friends with her instead of glasses over there?”

-Kim is visibly confused “I…what are you talking about? I never stopped being best friends with Marinette?”

-Chloe is more focused on the dirt that’s on her sweater at this point. She rolls her eyes and drags Sabrina off to the bathroom to makeout clean her sweater

-Alya, who had been getting ready to jump into the argument, is looking more confused than Kim.

“What do you mean you’re best friends with Marinette? Everyone knows that Max is your best friend, and Marinette is mine.”

(Alya is just a bit jealous, because she’s still the ‘new kid’ and while she gets along with the other girls in the class, she’s not super close with them)

-Now Kim is really lost. “Uh, Max isn’t my best friend?”

- :0

“Kim! How could you say that, he’s right there! Max are you okay?”

-Max is also confused. “Yes? Why would I not be? It would be illogical of me to expect Kim to call me his best friend when he is not mine.”

-the classes current mental statues: ??*confusion*???

-Nino is the voice of reason, “Who’s you’re best friend then Max?”

“Markov of course! I spent years programming him, he knows everything about me, and I know everything about him.”

-Markov’s eyes turn into hearts for a moment. “I concur, Max is also my best friend!”

-The class is fucking exhausted, Kim is beaming at Alya

“Wait, but that doesn’t explain how Marinette is your best friend! You never even talk to each other.”

-Nino is subtly trying to get Alya to stop, but when Alya hears something that doesn’t add up she pushes until she learns the truth. It’s great for a journalist, but it lands her in some embarrassing situations sometimes.

-Kim is flabbergasted. The idea of him and Marinette not being bffs is so foreign to him that his brain physically can’t process it. He opens and closes his mouth like a fish trying to figure out where to begin explaining their history

-Alix rolls her eyes and comes to his rescue. “Those two dorks have been tight since before primary school. Be glad they don’t act like best friends, trust me, I went to primary school with them and they almost burned the building down.”

“Hey! That was…Marinette’s fault.”

“What was my fault?”

-Marinette is back, the class was so absorbed in the drama they didn’t even notice ladybug defeating the akuma right outside the window

-Kim is a smug bastard. “Burning down our primary school”

“WHAT! I PREVENTED you from burning the school down. You lit a match in the art FULL OF PAPER MACHE SCULPTURES!”

“Uh-huh, and when you blew the match out you dropped it in the trash, that was full of paper. Which then caught on fire.”

-This argument lasts for several minutes while Ms. Bustier recovers from the shock of almost being flattened by a giant rock

-She decides she needs to medicate with a bottle of vodka, so class is cancelled for the rest of the day

-No one tells Marinette about the argument that happened just before she walked in

-Alya watches as Marinette and Kim walk into the bakery together

-Rose swoons, “That’s so sweet. Do you think they’ll date? It would be so romantic!”

-Juleka nods in agreement, secretly hoping they do so that she can ask them for pointers on how to ask out your best friend

-Nino been knew, so he doesn’t say anything and just asks Alya if she wants to go to the movies

-Adrien got back after Marinette and has no idea what is happening

-Likewise, Ivan was listening to music and didn’t even realize an argument happened.

-Nathaniel is hit with sudden inspiration for his comic and rushes off to write it all down before he forgets

-Max and Alix…don’t care. They already knew and are more surprised by their classmate’s surprise than anything else

-Lila mentally makes Kim her new target

Why the class didn’t realize Mari and Kim are such good friends:

1. Most of them didn’t go to the same primary school as Mari and Kim. The only people who went to their primary school were Chloe, Nino, and Alix. But even then, Chloe didn’t arrive until the second year of primary school and Nino didn’t transfer until the fourth year.

Alix was there the first year, but was constantly switching schools when she was younger due to her father traveling for work.She doesn’t come to Francois Dupont until the second year when her father takes a permanent position at the louve so that she can stay at the same school for a while

2. For the first two years at their Lycee they were in different classes.No one saw them interact much at school. They ate lunch together, but most of the time they went to Marinette’s house for it since it was so close.

and sure Marinette went to Kim’s games consistently, but no one else did so they had no way of knowing just how often Mari went. And the few times other students went to the games they just assumed Marinette was there for the whole team. Because Mari’s just nice like that.

3. Even when they were in the same class again, they didn’t hang out. This is partly due to the classes’ own perceptions, they already don’t think Mari and Kim are tight, but both are friendly people so they don’t find it strange when they wave at each other or have small conversations before and after class.

Plus they have other friends. The two years in different classes did them some good. They learned that they don’t have to constantly be hanging out.They see each other enough outside of school that they figure they can use their in-class time to hang out with their other friends.

4. The Class is Oblivious. This is almost the same as the previous point, but slightly different. Whether or no Marinette and Kim are friends doesn’t really matter, it wouldn’t change anything in the eyes of their classmates, so no one is bother trying to figure out how close they are.

They don’t see them interact much so they assume they aren’t close

This is gonna be the last part, but I couldn’t resist that Lila bit, so there’s gonna be a Part 3 ig lol

Also, look out for my upcoming post about Max and Markov’s deep friendship lmfao

#miraculous ladybug #mlb #mlb kim #marinette dupain cheng #le chien kim #marikim #ml headcanon #fanfiction #childhood friends au #miraculous ladybug au #ladybug and chat noir

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captainillogical · 5 years ago

Text

Distant Lands Ch.16

Stranded on a planet with toxic conditions and nothing but the clothes on your back, your only means of survival lies within the gem that got you here in the first place.

Spinel/Reader

collab with my lovely wife @firstofficertightpants

Running down the steep hill, your feet nearly slip on the wet grass as you slide in place - stopping with merely just your heels. You take a breath, turning around one last time to the person you left sitting against the single tree on the hilltop. Looking at her, you feel.. immense hesitation to leave her up there, all alone.

The rain pelts you from an angle, wind howling loudly and filling your senses. She doesn’t move, and you can see her faintly looking at you from over there. Water drips down your face. You don’t care. She looks so small and fragile, unlike you’ve ever seen her before. You’re so used to her being abrasive and stubborn, and to see her like this makes you scared and anxious. After another second you force yourself to tear your eyes away, and it takes every fiber in your being to leave her.

Your feelings in this don’t matter though, and she needs you. Desperately.

You break out into a sprint, and run as fast as you can to the line of trees out beyond you. It doesn’t take you long at all to get past them, and you try to find the clearest path through the jungle trees to the Spire.

Please hold on, for just a little longer.

Your thoughts are plagued with anxiety. A low hanging tree branch whips across your face as you run past, but you don’t care.

By the time you get to the Spire that’s towering ahead, the rain eases up a little and the wind is dying down. You run up to the doors, feet sliding on the mud, and pound your fist on the wall - panel opening up in front of you. You move to stand in front of the door’s access panel, letting it scan your gem, but it gives you an error noise with a red alert.

“Are ya’ fucking kidding me, come ON.” You hear yourself growl out in frustration, slapping your fist against the wall as you let it scan your gem for a second time. You notice your glove is covered in her blood, and look away from the splotches of red against the pink.

It gives you another error.

“I don’t have time for this.” You say as you ball up your fist, stress and anxiety fueling your actions - and punch the panel’s display screen with a loud crunch.

It fizzles, a bit of electrical smoke pouring out from the cracks. The door still doesn’t open.

“FUCK!!” You yell out, nearly about to scream. You quickly expand your fist to be the size of a boulder, and smash it against the door enough times for it to bend - creating a hole for your hand to slip through. You grab the edge of the door panel and yank as hard as you can, ripping it from its casing completely and throwing it off to the side.

You bolt inside, running to the staircase and taking several at a time. You run faster than you have ever run in your life up these stairs, stumbling several times, but your hands work fast at catching you. Anxiety propels you forward - and before you know it, you’re up on the seventh floor where the crates reside.

You don’t even hesitate smashing them open, filtering through all the pieces of splintered wood to grab a bundle of cloth - and placing it underneath your arm. You make sure you grab the needles, blades and thread, not caring to really account for how much you’re taking as you put them inside your gem for safekeeping. You can’t lose these.

Making sure you have enough cloth, you run back down the stairs at lightning speed.

Please be okay. PLEASE be okay.

Like a mantra, these are the only thoughts running through your mind as you race forward. Time seems to go by pretty slowly, your limbs moving as fast as they can to get back down to the bottom of the Spire.

Once you’re at the base of the tower you storm out of the entry and past the door you ripped off. Tightening your grip on the cloth in your arms, you break out into a sprint again back to the hill you left her on. Your mind is running miles a second, and you’re scared to death of the possibilities of what lies ahead.

You haven’t really had the chance to think about all the ‘what if’s’, and you refuse to let yourself dwell on those kinds of thoughts any longer.

You see the treeline up ahead of you, and sigh a breath of relief. You’re running, letting your legs carry you quickly to your destination. You see the hill up ahead, and yell out a “I’m back! Sorry I took so long, I’ve got all the -” and stopping when you’re within eyesight - you realize something is terribly wrong.

You stop in your tracks, looking at the base of the tree a mere twenty feet in front of yourself.

She.. she isn’t there.

Dread and panic bubbles up inside you, and you drop the cloth you’re holding to run to the trunk of the tree. Wind picks up again, surging around you - and she isn’t there. She isn’t there.

You look around the tree, and find nothing. No sign of her, except for the blood smeared against the trunk. Your breathing picks up in fear, and you whip your head around as the rain starts to get heavy again. She’s nowhere. Like - where could she have gone? You. You weren’t gone that long? She couldn’t have -

You call out for her against the wind, hearing nothing but the rustling of trees.

“Where are you? I was just here,” Your hands start to shake in anxiety, and you ball your fists as you feel tears forming against your will.

Spinning around, you run a couple feet to the nearest line of trees shouting out for her. You wipe away the wet hair that wants to cling to the side of your face, and hear a snap nearby, like someone is walking towards you, and you feel relief.

“Y/N!?” You shout as you turn around. “I’M SO GLAD YOU’RE OKA-”

You realize there’s nothing around you but yourself. Looking down, you see that you managed to step on a piece of wood - it’s in several pieces beneath your shoe.

You feel some kind of empty weight settle into your stomach, panic taking permanent resident inside your chest.

“No.. was I not-” You cut yourself off with a choke, feeling the hot tears roll down your cheeks. She can’t- she couldn’t have just disappeared. Where the fuck could she have gone? Where could she go? You don’t see a trail of blood anywhere - even though it’s raining, there would have been SOME indication that she went anywhere.

You spin around, looking everywhere around you for some kind of sign. She has to be here somewhere. There’s no doubt about it, because nothing else makes any kind of sense whatsoever. You wipe the tears and rain off your face, putting on a forced look of determination and swallowing your dread.

You will find her.

Hours pass, the rain has stopped long ago, and the crisp night air hovers around you in a thick layer of fog.

You still haven’t found her yet.

You haven’t stopped, and you aren’t planning to until you find her. Your heart is heavy and your head is filled with rapidly declining hope, but you won’t give up.

You continue searching.

Five days pass and you haven’t gotten an hour of sleep, you’re utterly exhausted, and you still can’t find the one person you’d spend another six thousand years waiting for - just to see her face one more time. You can’t stop thinking about how she looked when you last left her, or the fact that she promised she’d see you again.

Gems don’t need sleep. They can get tired, but sleeping was never a necessary function for them. You hadn’t really tried it until you came here, and now you find yourself unable to even sleep on your own. Not that you’d admit that out loud, it’s just - you tried to sleep a couple nights ago with failure, laying down on the tarps - only for when you close your eyes, you’re plagued with images of her looking at you with a badly-masked grimace. Trying to play off the hole in her stomach as not a big deal, as her blood drips everywhere. So you’ve mainly spent your time wandering the jungle in the areas where you last saw her, with no luck and zero clues to where she could’ve gone.

You don’t let the possible reality of the situation set in.

You’re pretty sure it’s like, day fifteen or sixteen, with no sign of her for sure whatsoever. You decide you’re going to stop searching for now, and give yourself a break. You go back to stay at the Spire, because if she miraculously shows up at this point, she knows where to find you.

You try not to dwell on any regrets you might’ve had, like what you had wanted to say to her before leaving her at that tree. Or asking why she had kissed you back in that moment. You can’t stop thinking about it.

You heavily consider seeing if it’s possible to make yourself sleep for days at a time, but forego that in favor of just sitting up at the top of the tower in wait. You won’t lie that you might’ve had a moment of weakness that you’re not proud of - you smashed the top of the rest of the Spire off at the ninth floor - but it’s not as if there was anyone here to witness you.

You wish there was, though.

Another week or two passes of you sitting up on the Spire, you’re not too sure honestly, you stopped counting a while ago. The days never really mattered anyway. You’ve spent much longer waiting on someone else.

It’s kind of funny actually.

You hear yourself laughing, even if you have no one to share it with, and find yourself crying again. You attempt to stop yourself - choking on a sob, but realize it doesn’t matter anyway.

You’re the only one here.

It’s the same as it’s always been.

You find yourself wondering if you should get up and go searching for her again, but your body tells you just lay here and stare at the stars indefinitely instead.

You thought that maybe, just maybe you were going to get off this planet with Y/N somehow. You feel so, so utterly stupid to think that after everything you’ve put her through, that you could’ve lived some kind of normal life with her. You don’t even know if she would’ve agreed to it, but you were going to try so hard to convince her. It would’ve been pretty easy.

You don’t think you’ve wanted anything more in your entire life. But now you’re alone again, and you have to wonder what you’re going to do from now on.

You convince yourself this is what you deserve for trying to kill Steven.

You’re sitting on the edge, considering a few things. Height, for once. And velocity.

You know it would probably take a lot more than that, factoring in a few things. The soil isn’t nearly dense enough to make any kind of impact, you’d probably have to actually go all the way over to the kindergarten. But then everything else feels like too much work, and honestly, you don’t want to move right now anyway.

So you just continue to watch the horizon.

More time passes and you’re not going to pretend you’ve kept count of how many weeks since you’ve last seen her face.

The moons happen to be out in full tonight, unlike the last week or so. There’s also no fog, but it’s cold enough that if she were here with you, she definitely would be complaining about it. You miss it, desperately. You can see the jungle all around you for miles, and it’d be a nice view if literally everything didn’t remind you of Y/N.

You’re standing there like you have been, for a while now, when you see something moving out of the corner of your eye up in the atmosphere. You stare at it for a while as it gets bigger, and you realize that it’s actually a ship? It’s pink.

That's Pink’s ship.

What? Your brain stutters as you watch it come down and get closer to the surface. You haven’t seen this ship in.. so long. It makes you feel awful, and- Oh, god.

Obviously that’s Steven’s ship. You know this. He must be coming for Y/N, but they don’t know..

You don’t know what to do. If they find you, you have a feeling that trying to explain yourself won’t get you far. They’ll think that you must’ve done something to Y/N, but how do you explain anything that has happened, when technically you don’t know? You have no proof of anything.

The ship lands about a mile or so away, giant legs sitting at nearly the same height as yourself. You can see faintly - several figures are coming out of the ship, but you can’t make out anything else. You start to panic.

Maybe you can go talk to them? No, they’ll just poof you - wait. That actually sounds pretty appealing right now. You see a figure running in the direction of the Spire, and anxiety mixed with dread fills you. Do they know you’re here?

You’re not ready for this.

You wait, frozen in place for several minutes as you try and figure out what to do. Should you try meeting with them?

Before you know it, you see a figure run out to the base of the tower and the only thing you can make out before they duck inside the entrance is that they have pink hair. A weirdly familiar shade of pink.

Who the fuck landed on the planet? Steven didn’t have pink hair in his broadcast from what you could remember, maybe it’s some other gem he happens to know? Why are they here, and not him? You’re in the middle of several lines of thought when you see another figure with darker hair run into the base of the tower, and now you feel like you should hide for some reason.

You should’ve gone down to the bottom when they landed. You’re stuck up here now, and unless they decide to not walk up to the top, you’re basically a sitting duck waiting on forced confrontation.

You’re starting to think maybe you should run down two floors to hide in the bundles of cloth, but you hear footsteps and noise behind you - you whip your head around, just to be seeing a familiar figure that happens to be tripping up the stairs.

They catch themselves on a step, looking up at you - and you feel your face drop. It’s as if time stops.

It’s her.

“You’re alive?” You hear yourself saying out loud.

#spinel #spinel x reader #su #steven universe #distant lands #my fic #tw: suicidal ideation

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mine-sara-sp · 5 years ago

Text

The memory of the observer [Ch4]

"I can’t believe I'm helping you." Grian heard his friend mutter under her breath.

"You always say that!"

He chuckled as he carefully placed the TNT around the room, creating a checkerboard pattern in the floor.

This was going to be hilarious. They would be so scared to walk around here!

"I always mean it," He heard a little bark coming from the door's direction as he placed his last bit of TNT.

"I'm gonna put Rufus outside, it's too dangerous in here for puppies!"

Grian smiled, of course, she would think about the dog's safety.

He turned in her direction ad saw her picking the dog up in her arms. The puppy barked and waved his tail happily as he tried to give her kisses on the face.

She laughed as she tried to open the door while holding the puppy away from her face.

"Aww! He likes you N--

Grian woke up suddenly in his bed, his heart was beating frantically and his ears ringing.

Almost instantly he tried to look at his watch to know the time, but he had to take a deep breath first and felt the smell of gunpowder in his nose.

That usually meant one thing.

He looked inside his inventory. Empty.

He had died. He had died while he was spacing out again.

He quickly looked at the main chat on his communicator.

Grian groaned. Of course It was a creeper! What perfect timing!

He saw a glimpse of some messages as closed the com but he would think about those later. If he was lucky they were talking about other things and not asking about his new death.

He didn't feel lucky today, not with this start.

Grian pressed the palms of his hands on his eyes for a few moments, trying to recollect what little he had remembered before thinking about what he was doing before.

He almost had a face, he almost had a name!

What was it again?

How was she?

She was.. she was nice. She was.. caring.

Grian's chest ached a little, a feeling he couldn't really pinpoint. He missed this person he couldn’t remember maybe?

What was her name?

Something with an N?

Something...

His thoughts got blurry quickly, he felt as if what little he was feeling and remembering was about to escape from his hands like sand. He closed his hands into fists as he felt frustration build up in him.

The wandering thoughts. Trap them in ink.

Grian jumped down from his bed, leaving it a mess and rushing to the nearest ender chest.

He quickly grabbed a spare elytra and clumsily put it on. It was slightly crooked. If the other saw him they probably would have scolded him for putting it on so badly, something about it being unsafe. It didn’t matter now.

He needed to get to his stuff quickly.

The took off was messy, he almost face-plants into the three line of the commune. The others would have been right telling him that flying with an elytra non-properly secured was a stupid idea. Still, he managed to fly off.

He landed at Hermitland pretty soon, tripping a little on his steps and feeling the elytra twists around his back uncomfortably.

Where was he before? Where did he die?

He should have looked for creeper holes while he was still flying, but didn't think it through properly. He was too preoccupied with landing without crashing.

He tried to remember.

What was he doing before spacing out? What did he need to do?

He was.. he..

The Sahara Eats stand! He was restocking it!

With a grin, he ran on the gray pathway in the direction of the mini shops.

He caught a glimpse of a familiar gray helmet peeking from the entrance of Dig straight down as he ran past it.

“Hey Grian-” He heard Xisuma call but he didn’t bother turning around, he arrived at the shop and saw the hole that the creeper had left.

The shop was slightly damaged but nothing that couldn't be fixed in a few minutes, he looked at his scatterer belongings and quickly jumped down the hole, grabbing everything but most importantly what he needed right now.

The book.

He flipped through the scribbled up pages until he got to a blank one.

He tried to put down what little he had remembered, but he couldn’t really find the right words.

She's caring, her name starts with N. She's a dear friend.

Grian felt frustration build up as he didn't seem to be able to add anything more to it. Nothing else.

He took in a deep breath and tried to let the emotion go away. Don't get angry, just think a little bit more.

What did her face look like?

She looks- her face- her smile-

Grian stared at the tip of his pen as a drop of ink fell on the messy page. The image he had in his head wasn't clear enough to put it in words.

Maybe words weren't the right idea.

He started scribbling messy lines, he wasn't exactly an artist but he did draw from time to time, usually building projects. It surely wouldn't do justice to this person but it was better than leaving the page blank.

In the middle of the page, there was now a drawing of a faceless figure holding a puppy.

Grian resisted the urge to rip the page out of the book.

"Is everything alright?" Grian instinctively closed the book before looking up at the voice.

Xisuma looked down at him from outside the hole, Grian didn’t like not being able to tell what his expression was like because of his helmet, he could only see his eyes when he wore that.

“Yeah! I just..” Grian clung hard on the book for an instant then stood up quickly, taking some dirt from his inventory, putting the book at its place. “Need to patch this up, and Sahara eats too! I didn’t hear the creeper.”

“I see,” X replied calmly.

Grian started filling up the hole, trying not to look at the admin. Which became a little more difficult when he jumped down the hole too and started filling it with him.

Luckily Xisuma didn’t say anything, just helped to fill the hole and then fixing the Sahara Eats stand. Grian was glad about it.

“Thanks.” He said, unsure if he was thanking him for not asking anything else or for fixing the hole. Probably both.

“No problem.” He was about to walk away but stopped, as he had remembered something.

“Say, did you see Doc and Scar around lately?”

Grian frowned, thinking about the last time he had seen the two of them. He was sure he had seen them work on the entrance of area 77 at some point a week ago… or was it two weeks ago? Still, he didn’t see them in a while. He assumed they were busy with whatever was going on inside the depths of the military facility.

"Not really, I think they have been working on the inside of area 77.." Probably on his time machine actually. "Why you ask?"

"Keralis asked me to go check on them, he seemed a little worried… I'll probably go take a look today."

Oh? Was Keralis paying more attention to them than he was? He knew that he had built his house in a place specifically chosen to look in the area, had he noticed something he and Ren didn't? Or was he just a worried friend?

Probably the latter, Keralis seemed like a very good friend, even if he had spoken very little to him, he had shown he was a very good person in those moments in the cave a few days ago.

Maybe he should visit him later.

"I'll keep an eye out for them. I should be doing that anyway."

Xisuma tilted his head to the side.

"Try to also sleep sometime. You could use those bags under your eyes as extra inventory space."

It sounded like a joke, but at the same time, it wasn't. Sleeping had been too difficult lately.

Grian instinctively brought his right hand under his eye. Was it so bad? It's true he was going on mostly 4 hours of sleep per night this week, but he didn't think it would be so noticeable.

"Well, maybe that was my goal all along!" Grian replied with a slight grin.

Xisuma chuckled lightly.

"Seriously, take care." He said softly before walking off.

"I'm trying to" it's what he wanted to say. But he held it back. He waited until the admin was out of sight to move, he didn't know why but he felt as if he was stuck in place until he was completely out of his line of sight.

He managed to finally restock Sahara Eats and fixed the straps of his elytra. He was about to fly back to the commune when he felt the low buzz of his communicator.

[Private message from MumboJumbo]

<MumboJumbo> Can we hang out today?

He looked at the message for a while.

Technically he should go back to work in his way inside area 77. He had started to dig a tunnel to get in there, but he had noticed that spending too much time in that tunnel made him.. space out more frequently. As long as he was inside of it.

He thought about the book in his inventory, he had managed to map out an entire room from his memories. A room he used to have, with tunnels everywhere going under people bases. He knew all the tunnels were supposed to be named, but he didn't remember the names yet.

That's what he saw the most when he went down there.

He needed Ren around to shake him up from time to time to actually work on the tunnel, and today Ren was busy building something else.

So maybe spending some time with Mumbo was a good idea.

Sure, if he didn't fall asleep on him.

He sent a simple reply and flew off to a nether portal.

---

In the main redstone room of the Sahara building, Mumbo smiled tiredly at his communicator.

[Private message from Grian]

<Grian> Sure! Where are you?

<MumboJumbo> Sahara

He signed in relief as if a giant boulder had been taken off his chest.

He hadn’t been able to calm down up until that point, he didn’t know why he felt such a rush of anxiety when he saw that death message.

Mumbo had twisted and turned nervously the little gold ring on his finger for minutes on end.

Was it an accident? Was it that again?

He couldn’t know. That’s probably what made him so nervous

He put had the communicator back in his pocket and tried to get back to work. He needed to get himself a little busier, but even working on the complicated redstone of Sahara didn’t help him much.

He had made a promise. And he intended to keep it.

But that promise didn't really have a clear definition.

Grian said he wanted to be treated normally, he didn't want to see their worry or concerns.

But Mumbo just didn't know anymore what would feel normal to Grian.

To him worrying was normal, he couldn’t stop. Even if he wanted to.

He wanted to ask if everything was all right, to go check on him so often. But he had to hold himself back.

He didn't know what was the limit.

How much concern could he show to his friend before he felt like he wasn't being treated normally?

What if he asked one too many times how was he doing and Grian shut completely?

What if Grian felt Mumbo broke his promise?

He couldn’t let that happen. He cared too much to risk that.

He thought about all the possible outcomes to every question and every conversation, he saw the worst first and then the most likely. He picked words carefully when he could.

Though messages it was easy, he could stare at the messages and read them over and over before sending them. Till they felt safe enough.

He had spent way too much time just writing “Are you okay?” or “Is everything alright?” and any other variations of these phrases, to just cancel them a few moments later.

This probably wasn't "treating him normally" but Mumbo couldn't help it!

He was scared.

He was so scared of what was happening to his friend, he was scared he would get farther and farther away from him if he didn't do something quickly.

He was scared he would stop talking.

Grian was right when he said that he and Iskall couldn't help. It felt so true, but they still tried! They tried so hard.

Mumbo took a deep, deep, long breath.

He was overthinking everything again.

Right now he needed to finish his work on the redstone circuit and then he’d be able to just..hang out with Grian! Nothing else.

If they could spend a day together without worrying about anything it would mean that everything was going mostly okay, no?

He hoped so.

It didn’t take much for Grian to arrive and the first thought that crossed Mumbo’s mind was that he needed a nap.

He looked tired, but Mumbo had seen him in worst conditions actually, which reassured him slightly. He remembered how he and Iskall looked when they were working on the G-Team base, they looked more dead than Cleo.

"Hey dude!" Mumbo called him from the top of the redstone contraption.

Grian looked up and gave a small and tired smile.

“Still updating the system?”

Mumbo nodded.

“Yeah, but I’m almost done, don’t worry about it!” He said as he speeds up the pace to finish his work.

He also realized that he didn’t really think of what to do with Grian yet, sure hang out, but what else? Maybe they could go play some of the games over at Hermitland, but Grian probably had just came from there! He should have thought about it better.

Maybe they would decide on something once he was done.

“How’s the hippie stuff going?” He asked without stopping his work on the machine.

“I’m trying to make a tunnel and Ren made a “shroom room”... I can still smell the mushrooms on my clothes!”

Mumbo frowned, unsure of what a “shroom room” looked like, then he grinned slightly and looked down at Grian, that was still standing near the entrance of the room.

“Ah, yes. I can clearly smell them too!” He said jokingly.

“Hey! I don’t stink that bad!” Grian gasped in fake offense as he held back a laugh.

Mumbo chuckled seeing his friend trying to hold back an amused smile and failing miserably.

“My nose says otherwise!” He added as he went back to his work.

He spent a few more minutes working on the circuit, it was almost done, just a few more blocks to be placed and then he just needed to check if it all worked, tho, even if it didn’t work he wouldn’t spend more time on it, he would fix it later.

“Is it because of your tunnel that you look so tired? Did you spend all night digging it?” He then asked hesitantly.

Grian didn’t respond right away and when he did it came out more very softly and hesitant almost as the question before.

“No… that’s not why.”

Mumbo waited quietly for his friend to continue.

He didn’t.

“Uhm, Why then..?” he asked as he placed the last piece of the machine.

No response. He fidgeted with the ring on his finger.

“Grian?” He called as he looked down.

For a moment his blood ran cold as he saw the familiar sight of Grian standing there, gaze fixated on an undefined place on the window.

He was about to jump down from the machine and go next to him but Grian seemed to snap out of his little daze very quickly.

It maybe lasted a minute or two then. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and then reached for something in his inventory.

A book and quill.

He sat on a nearby chest and started writing.

Mumbo let out a shaky breath and stopped fidgeting with his ring. This was fine, he was.. fine. He didn't even hear his question but it was okay, he would ask again later.

“What are you writing there?” Mumbo asked trying to peek from the height of the Redstone contraption. Not that he could see anything other than black splotches all over the page.

Grian seemed a little startled as if he was so concentrated on what he was writing that he had forgotten Mumbo was in the room with him. He almost let the ink fall down on the page but managed to stop the bottle from spilling and only get a few drops on his hand instead.

"Sorry.." He muttered under his breath, looking for something to clean his hand with. Then signed and put his hand on a blank page, leaving a few stains and probably deciding to clean the rest later.

He looked down at the page for a few instants then up at Mumbo.

"I've been trying to write down all I started to remember," He looked back down on the scribbled up page and added a few lines "It should help, I hope." He added speaking softly.

Mumbo rubbed his hands together to get rid of some of the Redstone dust and jumped down from the machine, letting his elytra activate to get near Grian in a swift landing.

"Can I see?" He asked holding back the urge to start fidgeting with his golden ring once again.

Grian's first instinct was to close the book with a quick and loud sound. Like he had done earlier when Xisuma saw the book. He had been contemplating whenever it was a good idea or not to show it to others and his guts kept yelling at him that "no" he shouldn't show it.

The amount of scribbled up sentences without rhyme or reason, the messy drawings and random words. In his mind, that would have made him look insane to the eyes of others.

But he too had made a promise.

He would talk.

He clutched the book tight leaving some ink stains on the cover. "It's messy..” He muttered before handing it to Mumbo.

Mumbo smiled taking the book. Seemingly relieved.

“If it’s anything like your base then be ready to catch me, ‘cause I will faint” He joked.

Grian chuckled slightly.

Mumbo sat beside Grian on the chest and opened the book.

The first thing that caught his attention was the phrase written on the back of the cover.

"Wandering thoughts are easier to keep track of if you trap them in ink?" He read out loud.

"It was already there when I got the book, it's just a way to say that I should write down stuff I remember."

"A very fancy way to say it."

"Yeah... At first, I thought it might have been by Joe, but I've seen his handwriting, he's not this bad."

Mumbo nodded looking at the way the message was written. Tilted to the side, heavy and not a single letter was the same size as another.

He remembered Doc having very bad handwriting, but it was worse like a "doctor" bad. Neat but at the same time unreadable.

Cub used to have really messy writing, but he got better at some point, Scar got tired of having to write down all the important stuff by himself to have it readable.

Mumbo started flipping through the pages.

The first few were not messy at all. Grian’s handwriting was pretty and a bit fancy at times like usual.

Mumbo still remembered when Iskall showed him the letter to join the Architech Grian left at his base, full-on calligraphy there.

The first notes were things that made very little sense to Mumbo, but they were the kind of nonsense that he noticed Grian would get confused over at the beginning of the season.

When he first appeared in their world.

The list ranged from “stairs should disappear on ice” to “Chunk Errors are useful, they should be a thing here!”, some things he already heard him talk about and others not yet.

“The chickens will not explode? That’s the egg thing isn’t it?” Mumbo looked at Grian and they both had a chuckle thinking back to the failed egg prank.

“I was so sure that they would explode everywhere!” He whined but with a smile on his face.

Mumbo went back to the book.

The more he advanced to the pages the more confused it became: Other than being written all over the place it was also written in every direction possible, he had to turn the book around a few times to read some of the words. The writing wasn't so pretty anymore but still clearly Grian's.

“I wrote most of this stuff while I was half asleep…" Oh, so this is what he's been doing instead of sleeping, thought the redstoner. "I didn’t bother with what direction the book was facing.” Grian continued.

Mumbo squinted as he tried to read some of the more messy words.

Some were clearly notes on buildings. Block combinations, room descriptions, and measures. Some drawings even.

Very bad drawings but still.

The one he seemed to have spent more time on was one of a large room with what seemed to be his face at the end of it and many corridors at the sides. There seemed to be some attempt at naming the corridors but any attempt had been scribbled on.

"I don't like this one."

Mumbo frowned and looked at his friend.

"Why?" He asked.

"These tunnels should lead to...to friends," He crossed his arms, clearly irritated. "There should be their names and I can't remember a single one!"

Mumbo nodded and turned pages. He wasn't sure what to reply to that.

He found a page mostly blank if not for a few phrases that didn't really seem to connect to one another.

"The mobs falling keep hitting me. "

"They put obsidian on my chests and called me greedy. "

"I promised him cake at the end."

Grian didn't say anything to this one so he quickly moved to the next.

There were not many phrases in the last pages, mostly random words or letters, and a few more drawings. Some of them repeated multiple times.

Empire was one of those. He had written it all over the edges of the pages.

On one of the last pages, there was a single drawing of a faceless girl holding what seemed to be a puppy. The drawing took most of the space of the page but there were some small notes around it.

She's caring. She's a dear friend.

Mumbo felt incredibly sad watching that picture. For a moment he imagined what It must be like to know you forgot someone and not being able to remember their name or face.

Being realistic he was sure that he had forgotten someone, everyone on the server probably did. But he wasn't aware of it, he had no idea if he had forgotten 1 or 100 people, while Grian seemed close but not close enough to know how many people he had lost when he arrived in this world.

He was close enough to remember how many and how he felt about some but nothing more.

He wanted to help him.

Mumbo closed the book and stared at its cover for a moment, collecting his thoughts.

Grian waited for him to say something at first but then decided that there had been too much silence in between that moment and when Mumbo had closed his book.

“I know, it’s kinda creepy at times," He started off while pulling at the sleeves of his jumper "It’s just that I remember stuff at weird times and if I don’t put it down quickly I--” “It’s not that weird...Well, I mean, It is technically. But hey! You are doing something none of us ever did!” Grian Blinked.

“I..am?” He said unsure.

“Yeah! None of us remembers a single bit of what was before coming to Hermicraft, while you are starting to remember something!.” Mumbo smiled and gave the book back to Grian. "Sure, right now you don't remember everything yet but you're working on it, no?"

Grian nodded and looked down at his ink-stained hands for a few moments.

“What if I can’t remember everything? What if I stay stuck like this with.. bits and pieces of everything?”

Mumbo didn’t respond right away.

"Why.. Why don't you try building?"

"Uh?" Grian looked at his friend that right now just seemed to have realized something. He quickly reopened the book and flipped through the pages.

"Hear me out, the first thing you always seem to remember is always build related."

He pointed at the pages with the building notes, the room with the names and other less detailed structures.

"It was made out of this or I made it in this style. You're a builder! Your brain works in terms of structures."

Grian nodded and stared at the room drawn on the page.

He doesn’t have a base just yet.

He doesn’t have all the names.

"Just...pick a block. A single material. Think of what you had to build with it."

Grian stayed quiet for a while and picked the book back from Mumbo. Maybe it was worth a try?

“Can you help me with it?” he asked hesitantly.

Mumbo smiled.

“Of course!” He said cheerfully “I wasn’t really sure of what we could do today anyway-” He then admitted sheepishly making Grian laugh.

The builder stood up and quickly put the book back into his inventory.

“Let’s go to my base, I’m pretty sure I have a little bit of every existing block.” Mumbo let out a strangled whine. “Do we really have to look into your storage?”

Grian grinned and sprinted outside of the room, grabbing a handful of rockets and flying off.

“There’s no escape from the chest monsters!!” He yelled as he took off.

Mumbo rolled his eyes to the sky and followed his friend with a smile.

#hermitcraft #hermitcraft fanfiction #the memory of the observer #tmoto #evo #grian #mumbo jumbo #xisuma #sp fic

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seagreen-meets-grey · 4 years ago

Text

When Lightning Strikes Ch. 13

When your life is nothing but a cloudless sky, lightning can come and strike you so unexpectedly, you won’t even know what hit you.

Or: When Hiccup and Astrid meet, it is as if lightning strikes.

[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7] [Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 14] [Chapter 15] [Chapter 16] [Chapter 17] [Chapter 18] [Chapter 19] [Chapter 20]

Crossposted on ao3 and ff.net

_______________

Astrid could hear the soft gurgling of the stream long before she saw it. Hiccup led her around several groups of trees, through dense thicket, over narrow footpaths so hidden, she wondered if he’d formed them himself or if he’d been here so often, he knew every single step by heart. Probably both.

Ducking underneath the low-hanging leaves of a beech and evading the thorned twigs of a blackberry bush, they arrived on a small meadow, blooming and buzzing in the warm sunlight. She breathed in deeply, filling her lungs with the sweet smell of late spring.

The stream was about ten feet wide, shallow water so clear she could count the pebbles at the bottom glistening in the light. She admired the way the current smoothly ran over and past the stones sticking out of the water, some big and round, some flat, serving as slippery step stones.

All around, leaves were rustling in the faint breeze, coming together with the humming and buzzing activity in the grass and the calming melody of the water in a soothing symphony.

The grass tickled her ankles as she slowly made her way to the bank of the stream, looking around and taking it all in. “This place is amazing.”

“It’s my favorite place in the forest.” Hiccup followed her and sat down on a small rock near the water. “Apart from the small cove my father used to take me to for fishing. It’s a bit further downstream, but last week I found a little fox family there and I don’t want to disturb them.”

She gently nudged him with her foot. “Scooch over.” When he moved to the side to make room on his rock, she settled down next to him. The surface of the rock was rather flat and not very big, just enough for two lean people to share without one butt cheek hanging over the side. It also meant that her entire side was pressed against his. He was warm and soft and comfortable. And maybe she leaned into him a bit, but only because she didn’t want to slide off the rock.

They sat in silence for a while. Astrid leaned back on her hands as far as she could on this surface and took in the scenery. Lining the meadow and the creek, knobby trees covered in ivy stood among straight trunks with white-gray pattern; overgrowing shrubbery, weeds and wildflowers nestled the ground close to their roots.

And there was green. Wherever she looked, everything was green, in different shades and shapes and sizes. When she breathed in through the nose, she could practically smell the luscious colors, along with the May bells and mayweed and the scent of fresh water in spring.

A gentle breeze brushed through her hair, harmonizing with the rustling of the leaves and the mellow mumbling and babbling of the water. Chirping and tweeting sounded from the trees, accompanied by the squeaking and cheeping of the baby birds hidden in the branches. A small, thin tree had grown low across the stream, its twigs hanging into the water, and she imagined the smaller animals using it as a bridge so they didn’t get wet feet or got carried away by the current.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a tuft of red and white swiftly disappearing up the trunk of a tree. A vole scurried through the leaves on the other side of the stream. Occasionally, a sudden ripple on the water revealed a glimpse of the activity below the surface. She knew that the longer she waited, the more the life of the forest would reveal itself to her. There was no traffic, no people, just her and Hiccup and their promised nature quality time.

Also belonging to the scenery was one dashing young man with the kind of chiseled jaw covered in stubble that could kill a man – or woman. He was focused on something unspecific in the water. In the sunlight, his hair looked like it would catch on fire any moment. Even his eyelashes were glowing. Was it possible to be hot in a dorky way? Apparently. She took a deep breath and followed his gaze to the mesmerizing dance of light and tiny waves on the surface of the water.

After a few minutes of silence, she started plucking at a long blade of grass until she held half of it in her hand. Staring at the stream, she absentmindedly ripped the blade in tiny pieces. “I’m afraid Eret’s cheating on me.” She opened her palms and the grass landed on her shoes without a sound while she waited. She didn’t even know what she was waiting for, or why she’d admitted to that in the first place. She suspected the peacefulness of this place had gained her trust.

Hiccup regarded her thoughtfully. “Why do you think that?”

She crossed her arms with a sigh. “He keeps talking about this coworker of his. How much fun they have at work. How they always get stuck after their shift ends because of their infinite amount of conversation topics. It’s always ‘my coworker’ this and ‘my coworker’ that. And then last March, on their department’s spring party, I met Dana. She kept going on and on and on about how funny he is, how capable and handsome.” She tugged at a whole clump of grass, in desperate need to rip something apart. “She was practically throwing herself at him.”

“Hmm,” Hiccup made. “Have you talked to him about that?”

She huffed. “Oh, I have. I confronted him two weeks ago. He didn’t take the accusation that well.”

“You… blatantly accused him of cheating? I don’t think anyone would take that well.”

“How else was I supposed to talk to him about it? Ask him nicely if he has a mistress?”

He shrugged with one shoulder. “Yes. No? I don’t know. I guess there’s a more delicate way to approach that subject.”

“I’m a straight-forward person, I don’t like to beat around the bush. So when he started his next sentence with my coworker and I, I just snapped. I was so sick of it.”

“What happened?”

“It escalated. We yelled. Then while he packed for his work trip, I packed to go live with my parents for a while. Said I needed some distance. He said I didn’t even need to leave the house for that, because I was already acting distant. I said that the same would go for him. And the yelling started again and then we left and… Well.” She vaguely gestured around. “Here I am.”

“Sounds like a real mess.”

“It is.” She bit her lip. “What do you think I should do?”

He looked at her in earnest, sincerity deep in his eyes. “I think you should talk to him about how you feel. And maybe this time, leave out the blunt accusations.”

She groaned and threw her head back. “I don’t want to talk about my feelings.”

“At some point, you will have to. Take it from a guy who as a teenager ran away from every single confrontation because he was too afraid of failure and an outcome more negative than the actual situation.”

The boulder was back in her stomach. She wondered what would happen if she went into the water now. Why had she brought up the topic again? Because she’d felt comfortable enough to do so? And weirdly, despite her old friend the boulder, she wanted to get another thing off her chest. Desperately.

“I took a pregnancy test last night.” She felt his eyes bore into the side of her head.

“Are you…?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Oh.” He opened and closed his mouth a few times, unsure of what to say. “Is that… I mean, did- did you… Are you- are you okay?”

Ripping out more grass, she scrunched up her face. “Yeah. I’m relieved, I guess. I mean, I always knew I wanted to have kids at some point, but…”

“But now’s not a good time,” he finished the sentence for her and she nodded. If she had been pregnant, then the whole situation would have been more complicated. She probably would have rushed back into a relationship that still needed more sorting out, ignoring any problems for the sake of the child. But that would have just made all parties involved more miserable.

She smiled at Hiccup. “Thanks. You’re good to talk to.” That was probably an understatement. It was somehow so easy to tell him about things she hadn’t even yet mentioned in passing around anyone else. They’d just started to really get to know each other, and she already trusted him completely. Her mother would call her naïve. But Astrid knew better, and so did he, judging by the meaningful look he gave her.

“Anytime.”

Before she could change her mind, she leaned her head on his shoulder. She could feel him freeze for a moment, but then he relaxed and slowly leaned his own head against hers. The boulder inside her dissolved.

A woodpecker joined them somewhere on their left, a cuckoo called faintly in the distance. She closed her eyes. The sun warming her face and the songs of nature were like a lullaby, luring her in for a nap. She’d almost drifted off when a gentle nudge brought her back. Looking up at Hiccup, she opened her mouth to say something, but he shook his head and pointed ahead.

There, on the other side of the stream, a deer poked its head out of the underbrush. It stood still for a moment, its nose quivering, before it slowly stalked towards the water. With one last check of its surroundings, it lowered its head and started drinking. Astrid didn’t dare to move a muscle or make the slightest sound.

However, a low gasp escaped her when a second deer came onto the meadow, then a third. One of them set its gaze onto the two humans on the other side, regarding them, and after a good twenty seconds of staring decided they were no threat. It was an incredible feeling. Her hand slowly reached for her phone, but before she could take it out of her pocket, Hiccup closed his hand over hers and shook his head. "Shh," he made, so quietly she almost didn't hear it. Her heart was pounding.

When the breeze suddenly picked up and carried their scent over, the deer tensed, holding their noses up in the air immediately. From one second to the other, all three of them leapt up and bolted, the snapping of twigs in the underbrush growing fainter by the second. The woodpecker, bumblebees and gurgling of the water slowly came back into focus. She and Hiccup looked at each other with a spark in their eyes.

“Thanks,” she whispered and he raised his eyebrows in question. “For taking me here.”

“Ah, you’re welc–” His voice died when she suddenly leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek. With wide, green eyes he stared at her, and she assumed her expression mirrored his. Her lips tingled, warm and exciting. The sensation wandered down her arm into her hand and she managed to break away from his gaze to look down. He followed her eyes and when he realized his hand was still holding hers, he gulped and slowly pulled away, the nerves under her skin longing to chase his touch.

“We… We should probably get going,” she feebly suggested.

“Yeah,” he agreed, voice an octave higher than normal. “That’s exactly what I was gonna… Get going.” Looking anywhere but at her, he scrambled up from the rock and orientated himself. “There- let’s… Uh, let’s go there.”

For some reason, her knees needed a moment before they let her walk after him. Whatever that had just been, she should just forget about it. She followed Hiccup through the trees, no paths directing the way. All she could do was trust him that he knew where he was going, and she did. He led her up a small hill, leaves and twigs crunching under their steps.

“Hey, your shoe is untied,” she noted. He stopped to look down and a soft oh escaped him. It was cute.

While she readjusted her socks that were slowly slipping from her heel, he bent over to relace his shoes, giving her a good look at his backside. From her point of view – which was completely neutral, of course – he had a nice butt. When he stood again, she jogged past him and gave it a light slap.

“Astrid!” he exclaimed in surprise.

She just smirked at him. “Come on, slowpoke!” Then she sprinted down the other side of the hill.

“Oh, you!” she heard him call before he took after her, chasing her through the woods. She made it down the hill, past a group of birches and around a thick beech when he came around the other side of it, throwing his arms around her and lifting her up. “Gotcha!” He immediately let go of her after, walking further down the invisible path only he could see.

She had to catch her breath for a second before she fell back in step beside him. From the sprint. “Just so you know, I let you win.”

“No, no you didn’t!” he countered in a chipper tone.

“Because I was tired of playing catch.”

“Nope, you weren’t.” She stuck her tongue out at him, making him laugh. “You’re so mature, Ms. Hofferson.”

“That’s because I’m older than you.”

“By two months! Hey, watch your step, there’s a lot of vines here.” Naturally, he promptly stumbled over one, catching himself on a tree.

“Watch your step, there’s lots of vines here.”

He shook his head. “Well, aren’t you a little smartass.”

“Takes one to know one,” she shrugged.

“Eh, can’t argue with that.”

She brushed her fist along his arm again and caught his grin.

All too soon, she began to make out traffic and chatter in the distance again. It felt like leaving a different, peaceful universe, where the rest of the world and its problems didn’t exist. It was kind of disappointing. And if that wasn’t enough, on their way back to the cars, her phone started ringing with a very familiar name filling the screen. She sighed. She didn’t want to deal with that right now, but knew that ignoring his call wouldn’t make anything any better.

She threw Hiccup an apologetic look and held her phone against her ear. “Hi.”

“Hey.” There was an awkward beat of silence. “I’m on my way home and uh… I just wanted to know if you’re there.”

“No.”

“Are you… still in Berk? At your parents’ place?”

“Yes.”

“Do… Do you know when you’ll be coming back?”

“No.”

When her answers didn’t become more elaborate, Eret cleared his throat, and after years of being with him, she could tell he was about to say something he’d rather not say at all. “You, um. You were right, by the way. About Dana.” Bright red warning bells rang in her mind at that name. “She kissed me last night.” He cleared his throat and gulped audibly.

She stepped past the last line of trees and onto the gravel of the parking lot, and leaving the woods had never felt this sobering. “I fucking knew it,” she mumbled through clenched teeth.

“Astrid–”

“I knew it!”

“Hey, hold on, please let me finish!”

She walked a small distance away from Hiccup and any other people in the near vicinity. No need for them to overhear her personal drama. “Fine, I’m listening!”

“Like I said, you were right, she wanted–”

“Did you kiss her back?”

“No–”

“So there’s nothing going on between you and your coworker?”

He didn’t immediately answer and his hesitation stung. “Will you just let me explain?!”

“You didn’t answer my question!” She was yelling and she knew it. People were turning their heads so she glowered at them.

“And you didn’t let me speak in the first place! You know what, my mother’s right, sometimes you really do act like my personal dictator.”

Astrid’s jaw dropped to the floor. “WELL, FUCK YOU TOO!” she screamed and it took everything in her to not fling her phone across the parking lot. Instead, she hung up and forcefully kicked at a large pebble on the ground. It whirled up dust and gravel and hit a stranger’s car. She couldn’t care less. Everything inside her was fuming. How dare he? How dare they?!

With a frustrated growl, she turned around and walked back to Hiccup. He had given her some space and was leaning against his car.

“Everything alright?” he asked carefully at her aggressive body language.

“I was right! Eret just told me! He and his stupid fucking coworker!”

“So… He admitted to cheating on you?”

“Well, no, not in those words, but…”

“So he didn’t?”

“He was telling me the story of how he and Dana had fun last night, but I just...”

“You avoided the topic.”

She opened her mouth, closed it, then huffed. “I didn’t need to hear any details.”

“Hm,” he made, thoughts scurrying across his face. “Are you sure there isn’t more to the story than you think? Maybe you should talk–”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” she interrupted him, the words breaking out of her on their own.

He held up his hands in defense. “Geez, sorry. I’m just trying to help.”

Something churned inside her stomach, between all the raging knives, something akin to guilt. Seeing his expression, her shoulders untensed a little. “No, sorry for yelling at you. I’m just so– ugh!” Her fist punched the next best thing, which was the metal pole of a parking sign. A flash of pain shot through her knuckles and she shook her hand out with a hiss.

“Hey, can I say something?” Hiccup asked, caution coating his voice with his eyes set on her aching hand.

She shrugged. “As long as it doesn’t include the word overreaction.”

He shook his head, brows furrowed in contemplation. “I might be going out on a limb here, but… Do you think that, maybe, you want it to be true?”

“Why on Earth would I want that?!”

“Because… Because you’re not happy in your relationship and- and this way, you can put the blame on someone other than yourself.”

“EXCUSE ME?!” The blazing wall of fire burned every shred of guilt and sympathy she felt.

He held up his hands again. “I’m just saying, you accused him of cheating, kept yelling at him – I’m assuming offensively – and now you yelled at him again instead of hearing him out. Is that what happened or am I totally off-base here?”

“Are you taking his side?!”

“No! If it were up to me, I wouldn’t be involved in this at all!”

“Then why are we still having this conversation?” She crossed her arms tightly over her chest as he sighed.

“Because I care about you. And I hate seeing you digging yourself deeper into this mess, so I’m trying to help you realize what to do.”

“Really? Then what is it I should do?”

“Let him give you his side of the story. Without any yelling.”

She leaned against the pole, suddenly very tired. “I…”

“You know,” he said when she didn’t continue, avoiding his searching eyes, “for someone claiming to be so straightforward, you sure like to run from truthful conversations.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked, voice rising again.

He looked at her for a moment, then shook is head. “Never mind.”

“No, if you have something to say, then say it!”

After a short contemplating glance, he stood up straight. “Fine. You say you don’t like to beat around the bush, but how come we’re not talking about what happened on your wedding day? Or at Dagur’s party? Are we just going to ignore all that until we die?”

“What- I don’t- We-” she stuttered, her stomach dropping further than the ground beneath her feet. At once, she felt exposed, vulnerable, and confused at the same time. Her mind decided on the next best defense mechanism. “What is there to talk about?” She could see the small change in his eyes, a gray curtain falling, tired, disappointed, sad.

“You’ll keep denying it, won’t you.” It was more of a statement than a question and that somehow hit even harder.

“What is there to deny?”

Suddenly, he took a large step towards her, until he was so close, their noses were almost touching. She could feel the heat of his body, smell his deodorant, make out every tiny hair on his face and the miniscule change of skin tissue at the edges of the long, white scar on his chin. Her breath hitched, heart pounding rapidly, her entire being longing to close the remaining gap between their bodies. Her knees weakened. It was hard to not get mesmerized by his eyes, a deep, green galaxy right before her. She tore her eyes away from them, only to latch onto his lips. She couldn’t breathe.

Like detaching himself from a magnet, he slowly stepped back and the air found its way back into her lungs. She could hear her heartbeat in every cell of her body, had trouble making sense of her surroundings, like waking up in a dark room with only a sliver of light coming from an unknown direction. By the time her feet touched solid ground again, mere seconds could have passed, or entire lifetimes.

“You’re right,” he said, strained voice cutting right through her chest, “there’s nothing to talk about. You dropped your phone, by the way.” With that, he got into his car, reversed out of the parking spot, and drove away. Even after he was long gone and the sound of his engine had faded in the distance, Astrid was still rooted to the spot, staring in the direction he had disappeared.

It took her a while to reassemble herself, clear the fog in her mind, will her heartbeat to finally slow down. On autopilot, she picked her phone up from the ground, wiped the gravel off the screen, saw the new variation of tiny scratches on the back but didn’t truly see anything. Her mind was still drowning in the sudden proximity to Hiccup Haddock, which shouldn’t have shaken her as much as it had, considering she’d sat close to him merely an hour ago.

Only when she was back in her own car, weaving her way through Berk’s rush hour traffic, her fingers stopped twitching at the memory of being almost skin to skin with him. As the fog was clearing, her confusion began settling, the puzzle pieces setting themselves back together, and a fist of steel closed around her still thumping heart.

It remained like that for the rest of the day. She managed to smile, make small talk, be present enough to get through the conversations with her parents, avoiding too much eye contact, especially with her mother. She probably noticed her mental absence but knew it would be futile to try and get anything out of her.

Astrid went to bed at ten; she tossed, turned, buried her face in her pillow until long past midnight. Now that she was alone with her thoughts, lying in the dark in her old bedroom, there was no place to hide from her mind. It insisted on replaying the whole day over and over, gnawing and nibbling away at her from the inside. When she closed her eyes, she saw green irises, a storm of freckles dancing across her retina, lips so close her fingers twitched to touch them, her own lips puckering. And even though it’s been several hours, she could still feel his hand on hers, warm and gentle and setting a blazing fire to her core.

He kept haunting her, occupying her every thought, every beat of her heart. Her ribs were aching from the steel inside her chest, pressing cold and heavy against her heart and lungs ever since her fight with Hiccup. She felt terrible. All he’d done was be honest, something she had not been with herself for a very long time, and she’d lashed out at him just like she had at Eret and her mother.

She grabbed her phone from the nightstand and squinted at the bright screen. Opening the right messenger app, she drafted an apology message, deleted it several times, all the time hoping he wasn’t looking at his side of the chat right now and saw her typing. Because in the end, she’d gone through at least ten versions of the same text and didn’t send any of them. None of them sounded right, didn’t fully convey the sincerity of her feelings. Instead, she got lost in her thoughts again, staring at the ceiling, phone forgotten beside her with the screen gone dark from long inactivity.

Gazing down at her was a pair of eyes. Lighter towards the middle, a dark green ring at the edges, and depending on how the light hit them, either forest green or a brilliant shade of emerald. It was so fascinating to watch him, to survey the everchanging expressions on his face, his emotions an open book most of the time. The way his eyebrows dipped, the corners of his mouth twitched or the crinkles around his eyes deepened, eyes always the most telling. How his features changed with every new thought, every new idea, and the way his shoulders and hands could carry half the conversation for him.

The sound of his laugh, sometimes dorky, sometimes sassy, sometimes charming, and always so uniquely Hiccup. That lopsided smile of his that could turn into a smirk when he thought of something witty to say. How he listened to her, even when all she was spouting was a bunch of mundane bullshit. How he showed interest in everything she said and did. His kind nature, his honesty, his spirit. The way he could turn her insides to mush and her soul to dangle freely a few thousand feet in the air by just a look or a simple touch. How he inspired her to be herself.

Never before had she been this intrigued by someone, never had she wanted to discover every little thing there was to know about another person. Wanted him to know her better than she did herself. Wanted to know him better than anyone else. Wanted him with her here, next to her, right now. Wanted to feel his warmth, his touch, his breath ghosting over her lips, over her skin, before tracing every line, every patch of skin on her body with his tongue. A deep, longing sigh escaped her as she imagined all the things she wanted him to do to her, everything she wanted to do with him. Craved him more than she ever had anyone else.

But above all, she couldn’t keep running from the truth any longer, especially since it was blaring in her face like a trumpet. As soon as she opened that gate, the steel in her chest melted, glowing and smoldering as it encased her heart. A giddy thrill coursed through her, as well as fatigue, as she finally gave in, let the wall crumble brick by brick. By the time the first choked sob rocked her body, the tears were already flooding down her face, hot and salty, paired with incredulous laughter.

Fuck. This was it, wasn’t it? She was undeniably and irrevocably screwed.

#httyd #hiccstrid #fanfiction #hiccup haddock #astrid hofferson #eret son of eret #when lightning strikes #modern au #a bit of angst with a dash of drama #or the other way around #maja writes #ff #fanfic #how to train your dragon

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evening-starlight · 4 years ago

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Chances {Chapter Twenty-Four}

Final Chapter babes

Wtf do I write now?

Master List

Fin

Word Count: 1659

I met him on a hot and sunny day in Lower Los Angeles, six months after I broke up with the man who showed me what love really was. I was on the phone with Robbie, walking down the street with coffee in one hand and eyes on the ground.

"Robbie, I'm telling you, Thor and Loki are totally fine," I say with a heavy sigh. "They're animals, and they get along just fine. So go have fun with your family."

"Let me talk to them. You're with them, right?" Robbie asks in a slight panic after seeing a cat that looked like his across the country in Maine. Naomi and Robbie's family got together for a family reunion after getting engaged a month ago up at Robbie's grandfather's property in Maine.

After releasing our second album and a quick third album by my own design, the band took a break. Heather is backpacking across Canada while Robbie and Naomi are on the east coast. I stayed stationed in LA, taking care of the couple's pets.

"Robbie, I'm getting coffee. They are totally fine." I hear Naomi nagging him on the other end. "I love you, but you're a helicopter parent." He sighs and hangs up with a quick goodbye. I almost have my phone in my back pocket before it rings again.

Guilt and anxiety settle deep in my stomach like a boulder as I read the name over and over again. I go to decline it, only to have my shoulder bumped, causing my phone to fall onto the pavement. I bend down to pick it up at the same time the stranger does. "Bloody hell, I'm so sorry, ma'am." I freeze with my hand just above the phone at the voice. It couldn't be him. We haven't seen each other since the breakup.

He picks up my phone, glancing over the screen to assesses the damage. He pauses and looks from the phone to me. "Stella?"

"Hi Tom," I say, offering a small smile. He laughs and hands me my phone before offering me a hand to help me up.

"I didn't recognize you. You're blonde," Tom's voice is light and cheerful as he points out that my long black hair is now short and blonde. "And you're wearing a bloody dress." I laugh with a nod, tucking my hair behind my ear. "It's been a long six months, hasn't it?" I nod again, looking over Tom's face. He hasn't changed since the last time I saw those beautiful blue eyes. They shine the same way they did when I first met him.

"It's good to see you," I mention after a few seconds of silence. "You look great."

"Speak for yourself. You're glowing, Stella." I laugh. "I was actually calling because I've been thinking about you as of late, and I wanted to see if you'd be up to talking?" Tom shuffles on his feet, nervous about my answer.

"I'd like that very much, Tom." His smile lights up his entire face. "I know a park just around the corner we could sit at and talk." Tom nods and follows my lead to the park I was already making my way to.

We talk on my favorite bench about all the little things that have gone on in our lives. Tom talks about finishing his new show down in Atlanta, about his reading list, and about all the traveling he's been doing since we've been apart.

I tell him about Robbie and Naomi's engagement, about them naming their animals Thor and Loki - which he found hilarious - and I tell him about the new wardrobe change courtesy of Heather.

"I heard your songs," Tom mentions while I take a sip of coffee. "They're outstanding. Not that I thought they wouldn't be," He defends. "You're really good at what you do, Stella." I blush and look away from Tom. "I also heard the second album." My attention snaps back up to him from my coffee cup while I cover my mouth.

"I'm so sorry. I was going to ask your manager for permission to add those voice memos, but production went faster than I expected, and suddenly it was out." Tom laughs and sets a hand on my knee, my skin immediately erupting in a fire.

"I'm okay with it. It was nice to relive those days with you. I didn't know you recorded so much, however." I chuckle with a shrug. Our eyes meet, and I can't pull myself to break the contact first. "I've missed you terribly, Stella," Tom admits.

"I've missed you too," I say. "And what I did, I wouldn't be upset if you never forgave me. I have no excuse for why I did it. PTSD can really fuck up your perception of life." Tom nods as he runs his thumb in circles on my leg. "I really did love you. I still do, if we're totally honest. I'm still so ashamed."

"I understand, and I forgive you," Tom says, scooting closer until our hips touch on the bench. "Jared came by two weeks after it happened and told me everything. I needed some space to heal, but I've never missed someone as much as I have you in these few months."

"Jared told me he told you. He talked to me, and I finally got the closure I've been trying to find. He hasn't been in my life since it happened. It's... weird. I don't have to look over my shoulder every day." Tom smiles and squeezes my leg.

"I'm glad, you deserve that." Tom leans closer, resting his forehead on mine. "I've missed you so bloody much. I felt like I was dying every time I had a second alone. I love you so much, and I would love to start over again if you'll have me."

Any coherent train of thought left the station the minute Tom's skin met mine. I felt like I could finally breathe again. All the weight and stress I felt lifts off my shoulders. I felt as light as a feather for the first time in six months. I could get used to this feeling.

I lean in to connect our lips, which Tom happily repays with a hand on the back of my head. After a second, I pull away to look Tom in the eyes. His are still shut as a smile dances across his lips. "I will always have you, Tom," I say as his eyes meet mine. "Always."

After intense couple's therapy for a month, Tom and I made it official again. We still have things to work on, but we have healthy coping mechanisms now. Tom is the best thing I ever took a chance on, and I will do whatever work it takes to make this a lifetime commitment.

I saw Jared for the first time two weeks after Tom, and I made it official. He was on a date in the same restaurant Tom and I were on a date in. It wasn't awkward or scary. We made eye contact, smiled, and let it be. I haven't seen him since. A part of me wants him to go through hell the way I did, the way he did to me. But a bigger part wants him to be happy, the part that will always love him. He was my first love, as toxic and abusive as our relationship was. It was love.

Robbie had me as his best man at his wedding; Heather was Naomi's maid of honor. Tom was my plus one and at the reception, asked me to move in with him. We moved everything out the following week.

We still have dance-offs, singing competitions, and trips to the beach. Tom taught me the violin, and I taught him the art of relaxing for more than an hour. We sit and read together on lazy days, and on rainy days we dance in it.

Bobby came into our lives the day after I told Tom I wanted a dog. A beautiful chocolate brown Cocker Spaniel who I can honestly say I love more than Tom most days. I'm sure Tom feels the same.

The band and I have weekends together, going to clubs and doing normal young adult things. Heather found a partner when she was in Canada who now lives in LA with her. They're the cutest couple I've seen in my life, including Tom and me. We're all now a happily taken band.

I understand my cheating was shallow, especially when you use the lens of sex insecurities. But it was so much more than that. Jared had a hold on me, and I was weak around him. He was the only person I had for so long, so when I was scared, insecure, and frustrated, he was the first person my brain told me to go to. I was a child when I met him, and I'm still working on that tangled mess he made inside of me. I genuinely wish him the best, but I don't want him in my life.

Now that we're nearing the end of the book, I'm sure you're all wondering why it's called Chances. It's simple, really. If I never took the chance to start my band, I would never be where I am today. If Tom hadn't given me a second chance, I wouldn't be sitting in bed, with him snoring next to me, feeling like I finally belonged in my own story.

As horrible as my story started, I wouldn't change it if it meant I couldn't end up back here, right now. With the love of my life next to me and my dog resting his head on Tom's chest. Where my band is going on a world tour in 2022.

So that's it. That's Stella Thompson's fucked up mess of a life.

By the way, Tom snores really fucking loud.

Taglist: @queenofallhobos

#tom hiddleston #tom hiddelston imagine #tom hiddleston fanfic #tom hiddleston fanfiction #i got 99 problems and tom hiddleston could fix everyone of them #Jared Leto imagine #jared leto #jared leto fanfic #jared leto fanfiction #love #romance #fiction #fanfic #fanfiction #chances #og #oc #Original content #original character

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jawritter · 5 years ago

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A Thousand Years...

Chapter 10

Heart beats fast. Colors and promises. How to be brave. How can I love when I’m afraid to fall. But watching you stand alone. All of my doubt suddenly goes away…..

Summary: A soulmate’s purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master. – Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

A new town, a new job, and a new life, one that you didn’t even expect……

Pairing: Jensen Ackles x Reader, Jensen Ackles x Danneel

Word Count: 1756

Warnings will include… Smut, language, unrequited/ requited love, cheating, and possibly more. This is brand new, so I will add to it as I know. Chapters will have warnings of their own if need be….

A/N: So my little cousin was watching breaking dawn in the living room, and I was folding clothes in the guest room… When the credits rolled and this song started, this fic hit me right in the face… I couldn’t escape it.

Fic Based on the Song A Thousand Years, by Christina Perri

Missed it so far or just want more in general? Check out my masterlist!!

*****MASTERLIST*****

****SERIES MASTERLIST*****

"Danneel?"

Sure enough, there she stood in all her glory.

Jensen didn't let go of your hand, in fact, he pulled you tighter against him, snaking his arm around you while she just stood there like she had every right to, and smirked at the two of you.

"What do you want?" Jensen asks her, his voice tight with annoyance. His whole demeanor seemed to shift at just her very appearance.

"I see you've wasted no time in moving your little slut in Jensen. That's got to be some sort of a record. What? It's only been a few weeks?" she sneered at him.

Jensen was fuming next to you. You could almost feel the anger rolling off of him.

"You've got three seconds to tell me what you want, or I'm calling the cops and having you removed from my property," Jensen threatened, not moving an inch or letting her inside at all. He was practically growling at the woman that was standing there completely unfazed by the rather large and angry man holding you tight against him.

Whatever happened between the two of them, it must have been bad, because you had never seen Jensen act this way. You thought Steve said they were still going to co-parent, and they were still going to run the brewery together? From where you were standing right now it didn’t look like that was even possible.

"Arrow forgot her blanket here, I came to get it. I didn't expect your little whore to be here already though what a pleasant surprise," her gaze turned to you, and Jensen pushed you behind him, stepping in front of you.

"Y/N, go get the small little throw blank out of the twin's room. it's the only one hanging over the rail of the bed. You should be able to see it as soon as you walk into the room," Jensen instructed, his eyes never leaving Danneel like he didn't trust her at all.

"What makes you think I want your little fuck buddy to touch anything that belongs to my child?" she asked Jensen, her voice level, but if looks could kill you'd both be dead.

"I don't give a fuck what you want Danneel. You lost the privilege of having an input on what goes on in this house, what I do with my free time, or who I'm sleeping with a long time ago. So Y/N will go get the blanket for you, you're going to take it, and you're going to get the fuck off my property." Jensen's voice was laced with venom, and it even scared you a little bit. You had never heard him so harsh, especially with her, but apparently, he was right about one thing. You didn't know anything. So you kept your mouth shut as they continued to tensely bicker at the front door while you went to get Arrow her blanket.

You knew this wasn't going to be easy, whatever this was between yourself and Jensen, but whatever this was just got a whole lot harder, not only did he have three children, but a soon to be ex-wife. You knew you were going to have to find out what went down between the two of them really, but today was not that day. You were still feeling a little vulnerable and confused from last night's events, and you didn't want to go there, not even a little.

Once you'd retrieved the blanket you made your way downstairs, things had grown eerily silent, and you wondered if he'd knocked her out or something because by the time you went to the twin's room you could hear them yelling at each other.

When you made your way to the front door they were both still standing. Danneel looked as if she wanted to murder not only him, but you as well, and Jensen just looked every bit of done you could imagine.

About the time that your foot hit the floor next to the stair, and Jensen turned his head slightly to look at you, Danneel reached up without warning and hit him hard enough in the face to make him take a step back, grabbing the side of his face.

You were momentarily so shocked that all you could do was freeze. Before you had a chance to register what came next Jensen came over to where you were standing, grabbing the blanket from your hands he threw it in Danneel's face.

"Anything else you want to pack out of this house will only be done under court order, and know this bitch, I will see my kids again; you can't keep them from me. You will be hearing from my lawyer no later than tomorrow. Your nothing but a lying little whore. You said we were going to do this civilly, and not get the courts too heavily involved for the children's sake, but here you are, nothing to do but stir the pot until we're standing here. This isn't all my fault Danneel remember that. You have 24 hours to change your mind, which if you were smart you would stand down, and bring those kids to see me next weekend. If not you WILL regret it."

Not giving her a chance to argue back Jensen slammed the door in her face, leaning against the door frame with his back to you, and his shoulders squared. You wanted to reach out to him, comfort him in some way, but you didn't know exactly what your place here was, and you didn't want to cross any sort of lines.

"Jensen?" you said, slowly taking a step towards him cautiously, keeping your distance. Upon the sound of your voice, Jensen let go of the door frame, turning to face you, leaning his back against the door.

"Hey."

"Are you okay?" you ask him, so angry now you were shaking a little when you wrapped your arms around his waist, taking into account for the first time how thin he really was.

"I'm okay. I just... I need a few minutes by myself okay? I have to make a phone call. Why don't you go get settled in, and put on something a little more comfortable? Then we will settle down with a movie or something and do nothing for the rest of the day. That sound okay?" he asked you.

The unreadable look on his face made you uneasy, but you didn't really know him well enough to know if he was telling the truth about being okay or not, so you just nodded and made your way to your room with your mind a thousand miles away from the room you were standing in as you changed into some of your favorite PJ pants, and an oversized T-shirt.

You couldn't believe she had the gaw to hit him and to do it when he wasn't even looking at her. It made you really wonder about this marriage. What really happened here? Was that the first time she'd ever hit him? Was she abusive? How do you handle that if she was? I mean you, didn't exactly come out of the world's most healthy relationship yourself, but your ex had never hit you. He was manipulative and controlling, but he never raised his hand to you.

You didn't want to ask him. You two had already got whatever this was off to a rough start. Between him kissing you while still being married to Danneel. Then coming over to your apartment to give you a whole fucking car. Then fucking you against the back wall of the taproom. You didn't need to add abuse to this too.

Then it made you wonder if that was what was wrong with him all along. He told you in your apartment the morning he gave you the car that you didn't know everything you needed to know about that marriage. That you didn't know what you thought you did.

You felt like a boulder had been sat down in the pit of your stomach. You couldn't understand why anyone would want to hurt him? Was he at your apartment that morning trying to reach out for help, and you pushed him away? Sitting down on the foot of your bed after you put the last shirt in the dresser that you'd bought from your apartment you wanted to kick yourself.

Your mind was racing. Now that you saw it happen it was all very clear to you now. He was so thin... You had watched enough Supernatural by now and watched enough cons on youtube to see that he wasn't always that thin.

He had gotten hard over the years. You thought it was just an act, part of the character that he played, that doing it at cons to entertain the fans. But what if it wasn't?

A knock on your door made you nearly jump out of your skin.

"Y/n! You okay baby?" he called to you through the door, and you hurried to the door to open it for him.

"Hey, sorry, I was putting some things away before I came down," you told him, stepping out into the hall with him. He'd changed into his PJ's and a black henley. The first thought that crossed your mind was, “God he was so thin,” but you shoved it down because you couldn't tell at this point if you were just being paranoid, or if you were making something out of nothing because of what you just witnessed.

Maybe that was the first time that ever happened. Sometimes when couples split up things get more heated than they ever did before. That doesn't make it right, but he may be thin for a role he's playing, and you're just making all this up.

Jensen always carried himself in any way that wasn't vulnerable. Could you be searching for something that wasn't there?

Whatever was going on here, you made your mind up as you lay on the couch with him, his arms around you, holding you tight to his chest as whatever he'd turned on Netflix played, that you weren't going to judge or jump to conclusions.

You were both two messed up individuals, that much was becoming apparent. Maybe that’s why you were so drawn to each other. You needed each other.

Whatever happened to him with her, when he was ready he'd tell you, and whatever was going on you'd be there for him.

Because regardless of whatever happened here between them, and however messed up it was that the two of you were lying here right now with his arms wrapped around you. It felt right like you belonged right here all along. You’d deal with whatever came your way. You just needed him to be okay, an for once you wanted both of you to be happy.

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

Tag List:

@deanwanddamons @imabitch4jensen @rvgrsbrns @bi-danvers0 @onethirstyunicorn @i-love-superhero @akshi8278 @alanegaming @magssteenkamp @lemondropirwin

Series Tag List:

@prettydeaneyes

@fangirlxwritesx67

@ricanqueen20

@xhannahbananax03

@backseat-of-deans-67chevy

@infinityspacesuniverse

@stoneyggirl

@dancingalone21

@perpetualabsurdity

@fuzzycloudsz

@maralisa124

@kalesrebellion

@winchestersuniverses

#jensen ackles #jensen ackles x reader #jensen ackles x you #jensen ackles fanfiction #jensen ackles fic #jensen ackles series #jensen ackles smut #spn #spn fanficiton #spn fic #dean winchester #a thousand years #jawritter

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junglejelly · 5 years ago

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Prompt fill - Xichen Week Day 7(+11): Himbo/Seachen

(On AO3)

One day.

Jiang Cheng just wanted one day of peace and quiet, away from home, away from his responsibilities, away from his idiot brother and his nutcases of a mother and father. Just a few hours alone — him and a boat and nothing else.

Clearly, that was too much to ask for.

His solitary little fishing expedition had lasted exactly two hours, and then everything went to shit. This day off must have been more sorely needed than he thought, because he had fallen asleep right there in his little boat, in the middle of the river, fishing rod hanging out the side and face baking in the morning sun.

As a man who grew up his whole life on a lakeshore, he should have known better — and he did, he did, goddammit, it wasn’t his fault that his stupid body betrayed him and abandoned him to drift on the currents like an absolute amateur, dead to the world, until his boat literally crashed into a clump of rocks.

That was half an hour ago. And now…

Jiang Cheng stomped angrily through the underbrush, slapping away any branches that dared cross his path. The fact that the ground was made up of dead leaves and soft moss only served to make him angrier, as they cushioned his steps so as to render them almost silent and thus robbed him of his god-given right to express his rage via the soles of his boots. Which, incidentally, were damp and squishing with every step. As was the rest of him. Because, as if getting stranded in the middle of a forest tributary wasn’t embarrassing enough, he obviously also had to be pitched overboard at the impact, lose his oars, and get his boat hopelessly stuck on the rocks.

So there he was, half an hour later, trawling the woods in search of a branch thick and sturdy enough to act as a lever and hope it would be sufficient to lift the (thankfully undamaged) boat out of its rocky trap.

He was having no luck so far, though. No likely candidates were presenting themselves on the ground, and any branches he had tried to pry loose from a living tree had resisted his attempts.

His stomach growled.

Well, great. It must be nearing midday. Good thing he’d thought to set up his net before leaving the scene of the disaster. Maybe, he if was lucky, some fish would —

Just then, a twig slapped him in the face, making him yelp and jump back in surprise.

That’s it, he thought vengefully, spitting out a mouthful of leaves, his pulse rocketing up in indescribable fury. Fuck this. FUCK it. I am DONE.

“Fine. FINE! Keep your shitty branches!” he shrilled into the forest.

The forest did not answer.

He whirled around and stomped (soundlessly, goddammit) back the way he came.

As he neared the bank again, a splashing sound made him quicken his footsteps. Finally, some good fortune! Judging from the noise, he definitely wasn’t going to go hungry in the next few hours.

Actually, it was a bit strange that he could hear it so clearly from all the way over here. Just how big was this fish, exactly?!

He stepped out of the underbrush.

… And stared. That’s it, he thought. I’ve finally lost it. Finally gone off the deep end. It had to happen eventually, right?

In front of him, the mermaid kept struggling.

After a few moments, when Jiang Cheng was sure this hallucination wasn’t going to suddenly disappear, he stepped forward and called out.

“Hey. You there. You, uh… you need a hand?”

The mermaid immediately flailed upright (well… the parts of it that weren’t a giant fish tail, holy fucking shit, anyway) and its eyes snapped to Jiang Cheng’s.

It looked… male? Probably? Hard to tell, with all that hair sticking everywhere and all those… well. Fins. And scales. (Scales! What the fuck!)

Jiang Cheng was spared from his imminent meltdown when the mermaid’s eyes creased in a smile and he (it? did mermaids even have genders?) exhaled in relief. “Oh, would you? I seem to have gotten myself in quite the predicament…”

Yep, definitely male, going by that voice. Jiang Cheng stared some more. Well, if this guy was going to act so chill, who was he to do otherwise?

“Right. Sure. Let me just… Hang on.”

Feeling like he was having an out-of-body experience, Jiang Cheng unsheathed his knife from his belt and approached, before a thought struck him and he stopped abruptly.

“Wait.” The mermaid looked at him questioningly. “Is this a trap? Are you gonna eat me?”

The creature tilted his head. “...Eat you?”

“Or drown me, or abduct me, or whatever,” Jiang Cheng amended hurriedly. Okay, that was dumb, nobody had ever heard of a mermaid eating its victims, but give him a break, he was under a lot of pressure here. He just said the first thing that popped into his mind!

Either way, the mermaid seemed offended. “Drown you? I would never!” He splashed his tail agitatedly. “We’re not savages, you know!”

“Well, forgive me for assuming,” Jiang Cheng muttered. “Never met a fucking mermaid before.”

“Mer, actually,” the mermaid — mer — corrected, politely but firmly. “Merman, if you must.”

“...Right,” Jiang Cheng managed, before he stepped closer (close enough to touch, and to see that tail right there in front of this face, what was his life) and attacked the thick netting with his knife.

It was, sadly, unsalvageable. Jiang Cheng didn’t even want to know how the… merman… had managed to get himself that badly tangled up into it, though it did use to be a good, strong fishing net, wide enough to get a generous catch in one go, if luck was in your favor. As it was, though, it was about to be turned into a pile of frayed rope bits. He could kiss his much-anticipated lunch goodbye, Jiang Cheng thought morosely.

“I was just trying to free the fish inside,” the merman said then, apparently feeling the need to explain himself and unknowingly adding insult to injury. “The poor things had gotten themselves trapped, I just couldn’t leave them that way.”

“Yeah, no, obviously,” Jiang Cheng forced out. “Wouldn’t want them to remain trapped in a fishing net, in case any old fisherman happening nearby could just lift them out and eat them for lunch, huh? No way, that’d be ridiculous,” he added, perhaps a little more hysterically than necessary.

“...”

Jiang Cheng didn’t look up, forcefully focusing on his task, but he could still feel the moment when the penny dropped and the merman gasped in realization.

“Oh! Oh no! Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t — I really… I simply thought —”

Obviously distressed, the merman continued to babble and wring his hands for a while while Jiang Cheng worked on the last few threads digging into his tail.

“Oh, how awful of me! How thoughtless! Of course it was your net, I didn’t realize…” He trailed off for a moment, then seemed to reach a conclusion. “I must make amends,” he declared. “I shall catch you some fish. Bigger fish. Better fish,” he added, nodding to himself.

Jiang Cheng snorted. “Isn’t that, like, fratricide for you?”

The merman looked miffed, but, considering the circumstances, he must have felt like he owed it to Jiang Cheng to tone down the disapproval. “Of course not. We do eat fish, you know.”

“You do? Huh. Well, either way, don’t bother. I don’t think I could even stomach it, at this point,” he replied dejectedly. “I just wanna go home. And then maybe sleep for the next three weeks and hope that’s enough to forget this horrible, horrible day.”

This appeared to distress the merman. “Truly? Then you must allow me to repay you in another way. Anything you wish, that I am able to offer you. Name it, and it is yours.”

Jiang Cheng laughed ruefully. “Can you magically lift my boat from those rocks?”

He couldn’t. There was no way. That boat was well and truly wedged in there, stuck in between jagged boulders and buried in a tangle of driftwood.

“Oh! Of course! I didn’t see it there,” the merman replied happily.

...What? Jiang Cheng checked again, to see if the boat had moved from its previous immovable position.

Nope. Still there.

“Listen,” he started doubtfully, “thanks for offering, but I don’t think anyone can move that thing. I’ll probably have to come back with a few people,” he sighed.

“Nonsense,” the merman smiled. “Just get me out of here, and we’ll have it down in a flash.”

Jiang Cheng still doubted that, but whatever. No skin off his back if the merman tried and failed to rescue his stupid boat from the stupid rocks.

“You’re pretty trusting for a mermaid — sorry, merman — aren’t you?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? Our peoples have coexisted peacefully for a very long time, you know. Just because meetings between us are rare, does not mean I should feel threatened by your presence.” With a wide grin, he continued, “Quite the opposite, in fact — I am delighted to have made your acquaintance! Circumstances notwithstanding, of course.”

Jiang Cheng considered that. “You know, I thought Wei Wuxian was shitting me all this time, but…” He observed the merman critically. The pretty face, the silky hair held back by a glistening white ribbon… “Are you… are you that Lan Zhan guy, by any chance?”

The merman perked up. “Wangji? You know my brother?”

“He’s your brother?” Well then. Small world, huh. “I don’t know him, but my brother won’t shut up about him.”

“Really?” The merman clearly found this piece of information fascinating. “Where do they know each other from? Do you know?”

“Sorry, no clue. Honestly, I thought your brother didn’t even exist until a second ago. All I know is that my idiot of a brother claimed to have met a mermaid a few years ago and hasn’t shut up about him since.”

“Merman,” the other corrected again, absently. He seemed to be absorbed by the revelation.

“So?”

The merman snapped to attention again. “Hm?”

“Your name,” Jiang Chengs reminded him pointedly.

“Oh!” He drew himself straighter at that, a sunny smile settling on his features. “My name, yes. My name is Lan Xichen. A pleasure to meet you.” He dipped his head.

Lan Xichen. How… mundane. Boring, even. It was almost offensive, that such an exotic creature could have such an utterly normal name.

The creature in question kept beaming, completely unaware of Jiang Cheng’s uncharitable inner monologue.

Jiang Cheng blinked, slightly perturbed by the (frankly alarming) degree of cheeriness being displayed by the man — Lan Xichen, he reminded himself — while he was still restrained and a total stranger was brandishing a knife near his delicate fish parts.

Whatever. This guy probably wouldn’t live past thirty, with survival instincts like those, but that wasn’t his problem.

“Right. Well, I’m Jiang Cheng.”

At that point, Jiang Cheng’s intense sawing efforts finally paid off, and the last knot fell loose. He carefully picked at the threads digging into the fragile-looking membrane until every last scrap of rope fell away. He had half a second to survey his work — some areas looked a bit bruised, but at least no blood had been drawn — before Lan Xichen retracted his tail out of reach and under the surface. Jiang Cheng thought he could see him swish his tail a few times, cautiously testing it against the current, checking it for injuries. The river water was clean and crystalline there, and the sun danced off the merman’s light, silvery blue scales in undulating patterns.

When Lan Xichen refocused on Jiang Cheng, his smile was blinding. “Thank you! You have my gratitude, and that of the Lan clan.”

“...Yeah,” Jiang Cheng managed, dazed by the combination of glittering scales and beaming smile.

“Well! Let’s get to it, then,” the merman said cheerfully, already swimming away. Jiang Cheng stared.

Now that the urgency was gone, he was struck all over again by how utterly bonkers the whole encounter was. Would people back home even believe him, if he told them about this? Well, Wei Wuxian would, at least, he thought manically, gawking at the delicate fins rippling all along the merman’s tail as he swam away.

Wait. Away? Was he leaving already?

He ripped himself out of his trance just as the merman broke the surface again, long hair plastered to his neck and shoulders, and hoisted himself up on a boulder near the stranded boat.

He hummed thoughtfully, prodding at the thing and testing his grip.

“Wait,” Jiang Cheng started, “be careful, don’t —”

Too late. Lan Xichen gave a mighty heave, and with a grunt, the boat slid free of the rocks.

“— ...hurt yourself,” Jiang Cheng finished lamely, once again reduced to staring idiotically as his boat rocked slightly from the momentum, scraped but unharmed.

Somewhere on his periphery, Lan Xichen laughed brightly. “See? I told you it wouldn’t be an issue.”

“You sure did,” Jiang Cheng replied automatically, still not sure if he should believe his eyes. What, did merpeople have super-strength, or something? Or was he just that dumb, and the damn thing was never actually stuck in the first place?

Oblivious to his distress, the merman slipped back into the water soundlessly and took it upon himself to steer the boat toward the shore where Jiang Cheng was still kneeling like a useless moron.

When it bumped against the grassy bank, Jiang Cheng unfolded himself enough to find the anchor and tie it to a nearby sapling — not exactly secure, but good enough for the few minutes it would take for him to depart. Probably. Hopefully.

“Thanks,” he threw at Lan Xichen. The words felt inadequate, but he wasn’t sure what else he could say.

The merman watched as Jiang Cheng bent to retrieve the sad remains of the fishing net. It was completely ruined, but hey, he wasn’t about to leave it here and litter the woods like a barbarian. He threw the tangled mess into the boat, where it flopped with a pathetic, wet thunk.

A low whine drew his gaze toward Lan Xichen. “I’m sorry,” the merman said in a tortured voice, looking for all the world like a kicked puppy — and wasn’t that a feat, Jiang Cheng thought, considering he was a fucking fish. “I’m so sorry.”

“Are you seriously apologizing to me right now? For a stupid fishing net?” He demanded. “You could have stayed stuck and literally died.”

The merman pouted. “Still.”

“I give up,” Jiang Cheng signed, stepping into the boat to investigate the damage.

No holes, no water accumulated at the bottom, not even any scratches bigger than a hand-span. A miracle, really. Or rather, just compensation for all the rotten luck, Jiang Cheng thought grumpily. As if to prove him right, he also remembered — the oars. Those were still gone. Ugh. Seriously, fuck his life.

As he walked around, he caught the merman tracking his lower body with interest. His legs, he supposed — must look pretty weird to him, really. “So, have you ever actually met another human before?”

“Not up close, no,” Lan Xichen hummed.

“And yet you let me approach you without a single misgiving.”

“Well… yes?”

Jiang Cheng couldn’t help it — he dropped his face into his hands. “Oh my god,” he muttered. “You actually have zero sense of self-preservation.”

“Hey!”

“Don’t ‘hey’ me, you weirdo! Seriously, what the fuck! How are you still alive? How old are you, even?”

“Twenty-nine,” the merman grumbled, sinking lower into the water until his nose barely peeked out over the surface, but otherwise taking the chastisement without protest. Something told Jiang Cheng that this must not be his first time being admonished for this particular reason.

“Twenty-nine! That’s older than I am!” (Barely by two or three years, but Lan Xichen didn’t need to know that…) “Even I know better than to be so trusting, and I’m not the one from a rare species and with a tail so gorgeous people would probably kill to get their hands on it!”

Lan Xichen popped back up. “You think my tail is gorgeous?”

“...!” Jiang Cheng was pretty sure he was about to burst a blood vessel somewhere in his brain. “That is so not the point! Are you kidding me right now? That’s your takeaway from everything I just said?!”

“You think my tail is gorgeous,” Lan Xichen repeated, his lips stretching into a grin so wide Jiang Cheng wouldn’t have hesitated to call it shit-eating on any other face. Not this one, though. It was much too pretty and delicate. “You like my tail,” he said again, looking much too pleased with himself, and then — “Thank you. I like your legs, too. They’re quite nice.”

Jiang Cheng spluttered. “You —!”

The merman laughed, a tinkling, delighted sound, before diving underneath the surface and into a series of gleeful rolls and spins and splashes.

Okay, Jiang Cheng thought resignedly, that’s fucking adorable.

He braced himself for Lan Xichen coming back up, but despite that, he was still slightly stunned by the sheer brilliance of the merman’s smile when he reemerged.

“I like you,” the merman said without preamble, effectively shocking Jiang Cheng into a stupefied stillness and thoroughly frying his brain, all in one fell swoop. “Can we meet again?”

“I — I, I, uh...” Jiang Cheng stuttered.

Lan Xichen just hooked his fingers over the lip of the boat and let himself float there, smiling patiently, his eyes shining with a gentle mirth. Golden, Jiang Cheng thought distractedly. They’re golden. Huh. He hadn’t even noticed that. How did he miss that? And since when was gold even a real eye color that actually existed?

“Jiang Cheng?” the merman prompted gently.

“What?” Jiang Cheng startled. “Yes? I mean… What?”

“Can I see you again?” he asked once more, hopefully.

“...”

Jiang Cheng was pretty sure he was dreaming, at this point — but in that case, he figured, might as well go all the way, huh? What could it hurt? Nothing, that’s what.

“...Sure. Yes. We can… do that. If you want.”

Lan Xichen’s soft smile grew into a full-blown grin again, his eyes almost disappearing into happy creases.

“But,” Jiang Cheng continued, trying to distract himself from the sight, “for that to happen, I’m going to need to go home first. Which is not looking likely right now,” he finished ruefully.

The merman tilted his head. “Why is that? Is there something wrong with your boat?” He drew himself from the edge and gave the boat an appraising look — not that he was likely to know anything about them, Jiang Cheng surmised. Silly fish.

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” he sighed, “except that it doesn’t have any oars. They got lost when I hit the rocks earlier. Probably floating somewhere far away downstream.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Well…” Lan Xichen hedged.

Jiang Cheng met his gaze. “What? You got another miracle up your sleeve?”

“Not a miracle, but…” Lan Xichen diverted his glance sideways, towards a fallen tree resting on the bank. Its long-dead branches hung halfway into the water, gnarled and sturdy against the current. “Would one of these do?”

“Already tried those,” Jiang Cheng replied. “Don’t waste your time. They’re way, way too thick, no one could possibly —”

— aaand there he went again. Oh well, Jiang Cheng decided, settling in for the show. Maybe at least this way he could get revenge for earlier. He would sit there and point and laugh at Lan Xichen’s attempts, because there was no way in hell —

CRAAAAACK!

Jiang Cheng knew his eyes were bugging out of his head, okay, he knew, but listen. Listen. This time, he was positive he couldn’t have made a mistake, like he might have with the boat. This time, the branches were obviously enormous and obviously very, very securely attached to their trunk. He had checked. He had gone and touched those branches with his own two hands, and he knew —

Lan Xichen came back then, and lifted the thing out of the water to present it for his appraisal. A huge fucking tree limb, the straightest and smoothest he could probably find on that dead tree, which he had just snapped clean off with his bare fucking hands. And was now bringing to Jiang Cheng, like a proud puppy with a ridiculously oversized stick. Seriously. Seriously.

Jiang Cheng wanted to scream.

Instead, he very carefully grabbed the branch to deposit it inside the boat. Damn, but that thing was huge.

“So, is this one enough, or do you need anoth—”

“Shut up.”

Lan Xichen’s mouth snapped shut.

Jiang Cheng held out his hand imperiously. “Give me your arm.”

The merman raised wide eyes toward Jiang Cheng, a confused little frown pulling at his lips. “What —”

“I said,” Jiang Cheng growled, “give. Me. Your. Arm.” When the merman just kept staring at him uncertainly, he burst out, “Oh my god, you ridiculous dolphin, just come here already!”

Apparently deciding to trust Jiang Cheng despite his obvious bout of temporary insanity, Lan Xichen slowly approached and extended one of his arms towards him. With a wary look, he mumbled, “Dolphins aren’t even —”

“Shut up! I know they’re not,” Jiang Cheng snapped. With a tug, Lan Xichen’s arm was promptly brought over the edge of the boat for closer inspection, forcing the merman to grab the rim with his other hand for balance. He took the rough treatment without complaint, looking perplexed.

Jianf Cheng started with his hand, working his way up to the shoulder progressively. He carefully examined the webbed fingers (hadn’t noticed that, either), then poked and prodded at the wrist (all normal, same rotation as a human’s), the forearm (pale and muscular), the elbow (yup, just a regular elbow), the upper arm… Hm. Well, outside of it being pretty thickly toned, he couldn’t find anything. Why couldn’t he find anything? There was clearly something funky going on with this man’s arms, because no one, human or merman, should be able to win a contest with a boulder or rip an entire trunk off of a —

The merman cleared his throat.

It was then that Jiang Cheng realized with horror that he’d been… he’d been groping the poor man for several minutes, holding him in place and squeezing his biceps and just generally pawing at him like —

He dropped the limb immediately, feeling his face heat up with a vengeance and trying to hide it behind a scowl. “What?” he barked. “Don’t look at me like that! You’re the one who’s freaky!”

Unruffled, Lan Xichen offered, “Perhaps if you told me what you were looking for…?”

Jiang Cheng gaped. “Well, your —!” He paused, then flailed in the general direction of the fallen tree. “That thing you did! Twice! With the tree, and the… the rocks!”

“Ah,” the merman nodded in dawning comprehension. “Yes. It has been said that we of the Lan family have been blessed with unusual arm strength.”

“Excuse me, ‘unusual’? More like fucking monstrous, let’s be honest here — but I, uh, mean that in the best way, of course,” he amended hurriedly when Lan Xichen sent him a stricken look.

The merman lowered his gaze, lips wobbling.

Ah, shit. Goddammit, Jiang Cheng had really stepped in it this time. Calling a merman a monster, not even two seconds after molesting him, and after he’d been so disgustingly nice to him, too? Pathetic. Disgraceful. Despicable.

“Come on, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry,” he tried.

A tiny sniff, barely audible behind the curtain of hair that fell before the merman’s bowed face.

Oh, no. “Lan Xichen, please,” Jiang Cheng coaxed, quickly getting desperate. “I’m sorry, I promise that’s not… It’s not what I…” He scrubbed his hands over his face “Ugh! I don’t know what to say,” he lamented.

Lan Xichen peeked at him shyly from behind his sleek tresses. “Maybe if you gave me another compliment…?”

Jiang Cheng opened his mouth, the words already halfway out, before he snapped it shut and squinted suspiciously at the merman.

He braced his hands on the edge of the boat and leaned even closer.

There! That glimmer in his eye, that was —!

“Lan Xichen! Are you screwing with me right now?!”

But the merman was incapable of answering, already howling with laughter, his façade collapsing in less than an instant. Jiang Cheng stared. Lan Xichen’s laugh was loud and uncontrolled, little snorts slipping out now and then, though he tried to hide them behind his slightly webbed hands — all for naught, as the crinkle in his eyes betrayed his glee with no hope of concealment.

Jiang Cheng was mesmerized. As Lan Xichen’s laughter settled into quieter giggles, he felt something take flight in his heart, or in his gut, or maybe in some other, equally ridiculous internal organ with asinine romantic connotations.

Whatever.

He felt like he should be mad — the little shit had emotionally manipulated him just now, and so skillfully too! He’d bought into his charade hook, line and sinker (ha!) — but no. He felt… proud, maybe? Fond, definitely. And awed, maybe, by this creature, by this meeting, by the improbable set or circumstances that had led to it.

He shook his head, his lips tugging up in a helpless smile, never taking his eyes off the merman now clinging to his boat once more.

“Lan Xichen,” he breathed, almost reverently, “you are something else.”

When the merman reached for his hand, he didn’t offer any resistance (turnabout was fair play, after all). Lan Xichen laced their fingers together over the edge of the boat, right in the middle, like a symbol. “But you mean that in the best way, of course,” he stated solemnly, his voice wobbling with yet more laughter.

Jiang Cheng couldn’t help the incredulous laugh that escaped him then, or the grin that settled over his face. He took a moment to marvel at that, and squeezed the hand clutching his. “Of course. The very best.”

#xichenweek2020 #mdzs fic #my fic #seachen #xicheng

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captainchrisfics · 6 years ago

Text

Oh, Baby

About: After finding out she’s pregnant with Chris Evans’s baby less than a year into their relationship, the first person pov narrator looks for comfort and advice from their fellow MCU cast members. Unbeknownst to her, Chris notices she’s shut him out and decides to confront her at the same time that she plans on letting him in.

Word Count: 4,070

Requested by: Anon

“Hey, I need to talk to you guys,” I said, trying to keep my voice level though I was sure I didn’t hide the panic in my eyes very well. Sebastian Stan stood outside his trailer, leaning against the wall while talking to Brie Larson. Exactly the two people I wanted to see. I was elated, just enough of a little thing going right can be enough of a relief. They were my fire extinguisher found in the middle of a blaze.

That was until they both turned, revealing Chris sitting behind them in a folding chair poised perfectly as if it was meant to keep him out of my view. Sometimes you realize the fire extinguisher is empty and you’re still utterly fucked, for lack of a better term. “Hey, babe,” Chris perked up with a smile, standing to greet me. He was in his Captain America costume, filthy from a fake battle with Thanos. That didn’t stop him from planting a kiss on my lips, which planted a dreadful anxiety that stemmed from the bottom of my nervous stomach. Chris pulled away, leaving my face sutty with makeup. “Hey,” I responded, hearing the high-pitched lilt in my voice.

Chris’s smile dropped for a moment the same way my heart did. “What’s wrong?” he inquired sweetly, reaching out to hold my hand in comfort. He played with my fingers, lacing our hands together. When I pulled away, Chris looked at me with pleading eyes while I wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans. “Nothing,” I asserted too forcibly. “Just need to talk to Seb and Brie about our scene,” I recovered quickly with the first excuse that came to mind. “That’s not in my script,” Chris said with a slight frown, sure that he’d gotten the actual one from the Russo’s instead of one of the many full of misleading scenes for the sake of spoilers.

I hated lying to Chris, but I just couldn’t tell him yet. So I shrugged, trying to find some kind of elaboration as to why I’d need to talk to them about a scene that didn’t actually exist until Brie got the hint.

“It’s in mine,” she corroborated my story. “Same here,” Sebastian followed our lead, his eyes darting between us before nodding reassuringly at Chris. My boyfriend shrugged it off, letting me off the hook this time. Still, it was clear he didn’t take the bait entirely by the suspicious look in his eyes, calculating how much innocence I’d need to be proven guilty.

Chris hesitated for a beat too long before leaning in to peck my cheek, choosing not to fight this battle right now. “Have fun then. Love you,” he said with a controlled smile. I nodded my head, picking my nails uneasily and failing to listen enough to realize I should’ve replied. Instead, I turned and walked away with Seb and Brie in tow.

Although we’ve only been working together on Endgame for a short time, Brie and I were fast friends. There weren’t many women around, so we were incredibly close. As for Seb, we’d been best friends since we met filming The Winter Soldier. Now, on the set of the last installment of our MCU era, we were all trying to make the most of it. Constantly around and hanging out together, even if all of us weren’t even filming that day, which I was more grateful for now than ever.

The three of us walked stiffly back to my trailer where we could talk privately, but even once we were there I couldn’t seem to push any words passed the boulder in my throat. Sebastian and Brie sat across from me over the small kitchen island, staring at me expectantly.

“Is everything alright?” Seb finally asked softly, reaching across the counter to hold my hand. He rubbed small circles on the back of my hand with his thumb, patient eyes on me while my mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. I gave up on speaking and instead pushed the two positive pregnancy tests I’d kept hidden in my pocket over the counter. I never thought something as small as the little, white plastic sticks could be so earth-shattering. That something so tiny, just a handful duplicating cells at this point, could feel so heavy.

Brie held one up as if she was checking that she was seeing clearly. I didn’t believe it either, but the second, faint pink line was really there. “If this is part of that prank war, I’m going to kill you,” Seb said incredulously, his hand holding mine falling limp as his jaw hit the floor.

“I wish it was,” I said with a dry laugh, tears starting to prickle the corners of my eyes. “I went to the doctor today. I’m only around six weeks along, but she took this anyway just to make sure.” I slid the sonogram across the counter. It was too early to see much other than the dark gap in the middle of my organ, hosting a blurry ring of white so small the nurse drew a silver Sharpie arrow to point it out.

Brie just sat looking at me dazed as if she thought this was a dream. “Do you know what you’re going to do?” she asked. She was careful when picking up the picture, holding it daintily from the edges.

“I don’t know,” I confessed. Saying it out loud made it that much more of a reality. I didn’t know what I was going to do. “I’m sorry to dump this on you guys like this. I-” I stopped when my voice cracked, choking back the tears threatening to fall. “I just didn’t know who else to talk to. I mean, I want to tell Chris so badly. I want him to be happy. But what if…” My voice kept growing quiet until it ceased, trailing off before I could indulge my newfound fears that simultaneously became my deepest. What if he isn’t? What if he didn’t want it? What if he didn’t want me? What if this ruins everything?

“If I’m sure of one thing,” Brie said, calm as you always cross your fingers in hope the sea will be, something I found comfort in. “Chris loves you. Tremendously and unconditionally. That counts for so much,” she assured with contagious confidence. Seb agreed with a nod of his head. “You know we’re always here for you and he is, too. Honestly,” Sebastian said with a stiff upper lip, “I think he’ll be over the moon.”

“We haven’t been together very long,” I said in protest, chewing on my bottom lip with anxiety. Although Chris and I have known each other for years, it wasn’t until only a handful of months ago we started dating. It was one of the many cards I realized were stacked against us as I stared at those sticks for what felt like forever as if they held the key to all of this. “What if he isn’t ready to do this yet? What if he doesn’t want to do it with me?” I spit out before I could decide to bottle up those poisonous personal thoughts.

Sebastian placed a strong hand on my shoulder, tethering me down to Earth. “Hey,” he said gently. “It’s all going to be alright. Chris is basically already a dad, save for the whole having a child bit. Until now, I guess.” Seb gave a half-hearted smirk, trying his crack at comedic relief.

“Yeah,” Brie agreed. “You’ve seen him with his sisters’ kids. And even on set, everyone’s families are always around. He adores kids as much as they love him, yours won’t be any different.”

The problem was that, in my head, I knew she was right. I knew Chris talked about how he couldn’t wait to settle down way before we got together. I knew he would never turn his child away. But, in my heart, I didn’t feel it. I felt scared. I felt like there were all of these other crushing ways he would react and partly irrational reasons for him to reject me and our baby. Our baby. I couldn’t tell if that had a certain ring to it or if it was more of a sound of alarm. “What matters is if you want this,” Brie implored, holding one of my hands between two of hers as she radiated support.

“I know,” I sighed, the defeat I heard in my own voice being depressing in itself. “I do. It just… wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” I choked out, finally letting a few tears slip. As quickly as the fracture in my dam appeared, the crack spread until it was all turned to rubble, allowing the crashing waves of tears to flood my cheeks without a hope to stop them. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, like the dam’s remnants were weighing heavy on my chest and caving my rib cage. Brie and Seb both swooped in to hug me, but they only suffocated me more.

“Everything alright in there?” Downey suddenly asked. His suspicious tone was accompanied by loud taps on the trailer’s door. “Swear I’ll kick Evans’s ass to the ends of the Earth if it isn’t,” he said, sounding every bit of the protective dad he is to me.

I nodded to encourage Sebastian, who was staring at me expectantly as he moved to the door slowly, waiting for me to stop him. As soon as Robert entered the room, his face softened with slumped eyebrows and a slack jaw. “We were walking by and heard some crying,” he explained gently. I noticed Tom Holland, who must have been accompanying RDJ to his own town of trailers, following in suit. Tom kept his distance, still so new around all of us he was trying to find his place among our family.

Robert took a seat next to me and leaned forward as he waited for me to speak. He grabbed my hands in his and waited patiently, for me to summon the courage he seemed to seep. Robery’s eyes trained on the stick I’m sure he recognized as a pregnancy test before widening with realization, but he continued to sit in suspense nonetheless.

“I found out that I’m uh...” I stopped to swallow the lump in my throat. “Pregnant,” I finally sobbed out. It didn’t get any easier. Downey broke out into a smile, jumping to his feet and pulling me up with him before drawing me in to a bone-crushing hug. “I know it’s scary as hell,” Robert whispered with the wisdom of an experienced father. His tone telling me he understood all too well how terrifying the instability of life when you needed it to be secure could be. “And it doesn’t feel like it now, but I promise this is one of the best moments of your life.”

“I mean, yeah duh,” I joked in a sorry attempt to lighten the mood. “It’s not every day you get a bear hug from RDJ.” He held me at arms length and looked me up and down slowly, though I couldn’t tell exactly what he was looking for. Until his eyes hit mine with a look of pride and I realized he was taking one last look at the small, helpless caterpillar I felt like before I entered my cocoon and emerged a much stronger, beautiful butterfly. “Really, I promise you’ll be proud of who you are when you come out on the other side and you’ll have this incredible little person with you along the way.” He caressed my cheek, wiping some tears with his thumb.

“Yeah,” Tom said from where he stood by the door with enough excitement for the both of us combined. His age didn’t allow for the kind of seasoned support Robert did, but his youth provided for a more optimistic outlook. He bit his bottom lip hesitantly, thinking over what he was going to say carefully. “You’ve become one of my favorite people and Chris has, too. It’s going to be so awesome having a little combo of you two running around.” Some may call it naïveté, but Tom telling me it was all going to be okay with the assuredness of someone who hadn’t seen how terribly wrong it could go yet was exactly what I needed.

“Thank you. All of you,” I choked up again. This time it was a tidal wave of love I was surrounded by that seemed to drown me, filling me from the bottom of my heart with a sudden inner peace until it poured out in appreciation for the friends around me.

Seb was the first to hug me, whispering congratulations in my ear as he buried his face in my shoulder as he hid the falling tears. “I can’t believe you’re going to be a mom,” he said solemnly.

“Me either,” RDJ remarked as he joined in, followed by Tom who hurdled into us like he just entered the atmosphere. Brie stretched as she tried to wrap her arms around everyone. There, in the middle of almost all the people I loved huddled together in a rally of support, I suddenly realized how my heart still ached for something missing. Someone, rather.

“I’ve got to tell him… But how can I do that?” I questioned contemplatively, thinking out loud more than anything. Considering the aftershocks I was still experiencing from the kind of quaking surprise that turned your whole world on its axis, I didn’t want to put Chris through the same calamity. My friends pulled away, though they all stayed close. “Ever seen Full House?” Tom suggested, causing the rest of us who were around when it was on air and immensely popular to break into laughter. Still, it got me thinking. Maybe the kid was on to something.

Chris stormed into the place we were renting out for the duration of filming earlier than I anticipated and with more aggression than I expected. I headed over here after everyone wished me luck and left, shooting Chris a text to meet me back here once he was done filming so we could talk asap. He opened the message but didn’t respond, which I would’ve taken personally if I didn’t know how much I’d pissed him off. Instead, he swung the front door open with an unexpected force almost half an hour earlier than he’d been scheduled to.

I sighed as I pulled the baby back ribs out of the oven so I could plate them along with the peas and baby carrots, knowing he was unhappy just by the rush of his heavy footsteps. Chris walked up behind me with crossed arms and a stern expression. His lips pressed together and eyebrows furrowed as he demanded, “What is up with you lately?”

I tilted my head and hummed in question, trying to play dumb. He called me out for it immediately, but I turned away from him. Facing the kitchen counter, I took off my oven mitts before returning to preparing dinner, gathering silverware and napkins.

“Don’t act like you don’t know how distant you’ve been,” Chirs huffed, hands on his hips.” Hell, you didn’t even bother to say you loved me too after you blatantly lied. That hurt,” Chris raved, his pain exploding into frustration and spreading shrapnel with a fevered wave of his hands around the kitchen. Sometimes it was hard to tell when he was really that vexed or a Bostonian by nature and nurture. Now, I had a feeling it was a dangerous cocktail of both I wasn’t prepared to stir. If only there was a bit more traffic coming home, all I needed were a few more minutes to get the table set.

“I’m sorry,” I said dismissively while compiling all the utensils in one hand and the plates in my other. “Be a dear and grab the water and some cups please,” I instructed before heading into the dining room.

Chris rolled his eyes dramatically, chastising me for ignoring him. “Y-you’re sorry?” he exhorted a bit dumbfoundedly, but he’d already lost his audience. “I’m not dropping this,” Chris grumbled, snatching the decanter from the fridge along with some wine glasses. “Sure you don’t want Merlot with those ribs?” he asked, unaware of his own innocence. Chris’s proposed pairing would’ve been great if not given my circumstance. He still sounded indignant, but his blissful ignorance nearly elicited a laugh I had to stifle with a cough before turning the alcohol down.

“It isn’t right of you to shut me out, worse of you to lie to me,” Chris continued ranting. He was right on my heels down the hall, clinging the crystal together in one hand sloppily. Knowing I’d break and ruin the surprise once I saw the hurt in his eyes, I busied myself with making sure the napkins were perfectly perpendicular to the table’s edge. “We’re supposed to be in this together,” he protested, just short of stomping his foot. “And now you won’t even look at me!” Chris snapped sharply. He slammed the contents of his hand down on the table with a harsh thud, unconcerned for the splash zone he created. He was running out of patience so fast he could’ve placed in the Olympics.

My eyes cast downward as I took my seat at our table nonetheless, trying to ignore Chris’s tantrum. He remained standing upright, stubborn and immovable. “Can you at least acknowledge me, damn it!” Chris yelled, striking the wooden table so hard the water quivered again. The veins protruding from his neck and forehead slowly started to subside with a few deep breaths as Chris realized he wasn’t going to get the screaming match he wanted. “All I want to do is talk to you,” he pleaded, the defeat of a battle that didn’t ensue evident in his voice.

“You’re right,” I said calmly, my eyes snapping up to his, overcome with surprise. “Sit down then and let’s talk.” I cut a carrot in half and popped it in my mouth, watching as Chris was taken aback by my repose. He came to a fight I’d already predicted, seeing the storm in the forecast allowed me to be prepared with an umbrella. Chris stood up straighter before pulling out the chair and sitting before the plate I’d set out for him. “How do you like dinner tonight? Thought I’d try something relevant-”

“The only thing relevant to this conversation is you telling me exactly what your problem has been and- wait, what?” Chris said in a flurry, going from exasperation to perplexion faster than a sports car from zero to sixty. “How could ribs, peas, and baby carrots possibly be relevant right now?” Apparently, he wasn’t just full, but overflowing with confusion to the point that his anger was completely diluted.

“I knew the peas would be confusing, but Sebastian insisted it was brilliant,” I explained. Chris spluttered, trying to make sense of my cryptic words. “You see,” I picked up a small pea, holding it in between my thumb and index finger and raised it up to be level with Chris’s blue eyes. “This is how big a fetus is at six weeks. They’re already growing up fast, huh?”

“A-a fetus?” he stuttered like it was his first time saying the word out loud. Chris’s eyes searched frantically from the pea in my hand to the pile on his plate along with the other things accompanying it. Puzzle pieces he started to put together, an image that he began to bring into focus. Once it hit him, Chris sat back in his chair and braced himself against the table by the heels of his hands like he was thrown back by the force of a metaphorical and literal shock.

This was the moment I’d been dreading. The terrible in between when it was all up in the air. When everything was out of my control and, for better or worse, in his.

“Oh, baby,” Chris said, his use of the pet name being soft and breathy. He closed his eyes as he leaned in toward me again. Placing an elbow on the table and resting his chin on his hand. His anger had brought Chris to a boiling point, but now he sat before me completely melted. Soft and gooey from the inside out, the irate lines of his cross face molded into crow’s feet by his smiling eyes and defined the apples of his cheeks as he broke out into a grin. “A baby.”

Chris said the word like it was a blessing rather than a curse. A sunny day instead of a storm. A solution as opposed to a problem. A miracle in lieu of an accident. Everything I’d hoped he’d feel, but the thought was too good to be true in the face of every other reaction. Everything I’d wanted to think, but what I couldn’t allow myself to believe out of the fear of getting my hopes up.

“I wanted to tell you,” I finally confessed. “I just wasn’t sure how you’d take it. Not that I don’t think you’d make an incredible father. Honestly, all day I’ve been thinking about you with our little bundle in your arms. I mean, we haven’t been together long and it’s a big step for anyone let alone-” Keeping things from Chris wasn’t something I was used to and now, with the brazen ability to share everything with him again, the words spouted out of me like an erupting volcano, full of excited energy and nowhere else for it to go but pouring out.

Until Chris cut me off with a kiss. Leaning across the table, his lips were still stretched in a smile when they met mine. He didn’t mean to shut me up because of some kind of antipathy to my side, but rather because he already understood. I didn’t need to waste air I could’ve spent kissing him on explaining myself when Chris comprehended it. Instead, he told me everything I needed without saying a word. He still loved me, but more than that he loved us. He still wanted me, but our baby as well.

Chris pulled away sooner than I wanted him to, but I could have lived in that moment forever if the world let us. Like nothing happened, he picked up a rib and took a bite out of it. Chris sat back in his chair again and nodded contemplatively. “I know it wasn’t planned but it just feels so…” He stared down at his plate like it held the answers.

“Right,” I finished his sentence, realizing that, with his support, it was. Chris nodded in agreement. “That’s it,” he said as he picked up his fork to reach for the meal that had already grown cold. “Right,” he said, meaning it more in a sense of agreement. “I’ve wanted kids my whole life and I’m grateful to have you as their mom,” he reached across the table to grasp my hand in his gently. “We’re speaking in plurals now?” I joked in deflection since I couldn’t properly express how he made my heart burst with anything other than a squeeze of his hand. Chris chuckled as he backtracked, “Maybe not yet, but I just can’t believe we’re going to be parents.”

“If you don’t believe it, you better see it,” I said, reaching for the folded photo I kept in my pocket and handing it to him so Chris could conceptualize his child with something other than carrots. “I think he looks like you.” Chris let his fork clatter to the table as he held the sonogram up and shook his head, still unable to completely find the right words. “How do you know it’s a he?” Chris asked, quirking an eyebrow up to which I shrugged simply. It was just a feeling.

Chris turned back to his plate, staring bug-eyed at the themed dish in front of him. “A baby,” he repeated in a whisper to himself, almost like a promise. “Gotta be really honest with you,” he said seriously, causing my breath to catch behind a lump in my throat. Chris turned to me with a pronounced tilt of his head, fighting back a smirk, as he said, “I feel kinda weird about eating the peas now.”

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another-sonic-blog · 5 years ago

Text

Stages: Shadow’s Day

Stages: Intimate Friends Pt.3: Shadow’s Day (Chapter 16)

3K2

Previous: https://another-sonic-blog.tumblr.com/post/190748251455/stages-secret-dance

"Your report on Amy Rose?"

"I'll have it done by this week."

The Commander nodded in approval as he pulled out a black file from his desk's cabinet.

"There have been some last minutes changes to the Star Festival mission."

Shadow sighed, annoyed but still rolled with it. "Now what is it?"

And that's how Shadow ended up with Omega and a new agent called Mia. Rouge, being the smartass that she is, decided to ask for a week off just before the Star Festival.

The Star Festival was an annual festival to celebrate the union between the United Republic and the Acorn Kingdom. The mission was simple, keep an eye on the president and the royals.

He was fine with the president, but taking care of the royal family could be a real hassle.

"If you don't pick up the pace, we will leave you." Shadow looked back at the girl who was walking behind him.

"Yes, Mr. Shadow!" The girl ran in order to keep up. Shadow noticed that she was still keeping her distance, acting shyly.

"Don't call me 'Mr. Shadow." He asked.

"Yes, Mr. Shadow!"

Shadow growled lowly, a bit annoyed. Since Rouge wasn't with them, someone needed to fill in her spot. Therefore, the Commander assigned a temporary member, Mia. She had just graduated from G.U.N's academy at the top of her class. Shadow remembered her name from the lover letter he received a few days ago. Hence her shyness towards him.

"Shadow, I have spotted Princess Sally."

Shadow looked towards the Mobian Omega was pointing with his metallic hand. Indeed, Princess Sally was already on top of her parade cart. An enormous parade cart just like her kingdom. It was beautifully decorated with tulip flowers, which was the kingdom's official flower.

"Good, the parade is about to start. Omega, you lookout for the right. I'll keep a look on the left." Shadow directed his attention to Mia and it took only one look to make her skin shiver. "You look out for the back."

Shadow was actually starting to worry about her. She was becoming too red. The brown-furred female hedgehog nodded, almost making her round glasses fall from her round nose. She pushed them back and bowed quickly at Omega and Shadow, making her two braided tails move back and forth by the moment.

Mia walked all the way back to the parade cart. Omega and Shadow shared a look.

"She likes you," Omega said.

Shadow simply responded, "I know."

With that, they parted ways. The parade cart was so big that Shadow wasn't able to look at his teammates.

He heard the trumps play and the parade began.

It was the usual thing, they were going to walk slowly for a kilometer. Princess Sally, on top of her cart waving to the people of the United Republic. The President was on his black limousine and followed at the very end of the parade line.

Shadow kept looking to his left, giving looks to the girls who waved at him and were screaming for him.

He kept looking at them but in the hopes that Amy was there as well.

Suddenly, he felt the need to look good. He straightened his back and walked with a strong posture, gaining the many sighs of girls in love. However, he wasn't thinking about them. He wanted to look good just in case Amy was looking at him.

He had moved out of the Resistance simply because he didn't want to bother Amy any longer. Shadow would see her less and less now. He missed her but if he was honest ...

He was avoiding her.

Shadow knew he was getting too close to her and although he didn't mind at the beginning ... He was starting to get scared.

The night he danced with Amy was everything to him and he wished he could do it more often but ... what if one day ... she leaves him too?

He knew it was selfish of him but the thought still haunted his mind.

It wasn't only that, but G.U.N. also had its eyes on Amy. It was better to keep his distance for now until that issue is done.

Ever since the Commander told him the news about what happened in Twinkle Star Village in regards to Amy Rose, he just plainly avoided her.

He believed in her, but he just needed more proof.

However, he still felt bad. He came up with the stupidest excuse not to see her. That he wasn't available, too busy, ignore her texts and even ignore her in public.

She did it for two weeks. For the third week, she stopped trying.

A small pain in his chest became apparent the moment he remembered her face.

The people passing by in the streets. A disappointed face as she slowly stopped waving at him.

He turned around and walked away.

He really wished he could see her. Even if it was just for a few minutes.

It was a beautiful day, a blue sky. Children were laughing and waved at people participating in the parade. Shadow wasn't too fond of loud music but seeing most people enjoyed it. Vibrant colors and Shadow looked over at the Princess's parade cart. The tulips were different colors, soft pinks, yellows, and blues. The smell coming off them unique, Shadow had never smelled something like that before. Maybe a smell compared to it could be Amy's natural scent.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

People began to scream and run around. Chaos overtook the parade. Shadow looked around, trying to spot where the shots were coming from.

Then he remembered the mission at hand.

He went to the back of Princess Sally's parade cart. He found Mia, looking lost. Nothing new.

"Agent Mia! Look over the Princess! I will check on the President and Omega will keep an eye on the other royals!" Shadow said as he prepared to run to get to the President.

"But-" she tried to say something but Shadow with his powerful eyes, made her stay quiet.

"No, buts! Do your job!"

Shadow arrived at the President's limousine were more than 20 G.U.N. agents were already protecting it.

"Agent Shadow, asking for a report."

The leader agent of the group broke his position in the circle and walked towards Shadow.

"Intelligence Department hasn't been able to locate the Mobian who started the shooting."

"The President?"

"He is alright."

"Agent Shadow, here agent Mia. There's an issue."

Shadow walked away as he paid attention to his wrist communicator.

"Whatever it is, fix it yourself," said Shadow. "I am going to go help civilians now."

Shadow turned off his communicator. He began to run again. This time, he kept looking left and right, trying to get any clues he could.

But nothing.

He helped civilians evacuate and children find their mothers.

Three bombs detonated and buildings were falling apart. Shadow was quick to run to the falling buildings and helped whoever needed it.

He picked up a large number of boulders, helping the people who were under them. A cafe, an apartment, and a clothing shop.

"Agent Shadow, this is Agent Omega reporting."

Shadow kept running through the streets just to see if there was anyone else who needed help.

"Shadow here." He responded.

"Mia Reported: Princess Sally was kidnapped."

"I hope we don't make it," said Shadow.

"Don't say that, please."

"Believe me, being dead will be better than the punishment we are going to get once we get back to headquarters."

Shadow and Mia were currently in the underground drainage tunnel of the city. They were following Princess Sally's GPS locator which was hidden in her wrist rings.

This could be two things. A trap for them or the one behind all of this was stupid.

Shadow perfectly knew that this was more likely a trap. This person was smart if they were able to trick G.U.N.'s Intelligence department.

"I think anything is better than this place," said Mia.

Shadow came to a sudden stop and he gave the girl an annoying look. "Rookies."

They kept walking. Oh, how he wished he could be with Amy right now. Talking about anything or just hanging out.

His mind wanders off again. He remembers the dance with Amy. Her tiny body in his arms, her intoxicating smell, and her green emerald eyes on him.

And all of a sudden, all of that was gone.

Shadow looked over to the girl. Mia was falling behind again. She walked slowly as she played with her fingers in a front and back motion. She had freckles in her face and even with them, Shadow could tell that she was blushing. Her pale complexion made the pink tint on her cheeks stand out and if Shadow didn't know better, she looked extremely anxious.

"Look, if we want this mission to be successful, I need you at your best," Shadow said he took a moment to fully turn to look at the girl. He knew that right now it wasn't the best moment to talk about the love letter but the girl was acting like a high school girl with a crush. He just couldn't have that in such an important mission. "I read your letter and I accept your feelings."

Shadow saw Mia's eyes light up and he decided to make it clear.

"But that doesn't mean I return them."

Shadow wasn't good at these kinds of things. He wasn't even one to read the letters but at the moment his curiosity had gotten the best of him. Especially because it was the first one he had seen with a name on it.

Now here he was, in a dark drainage tunnel with a brown hedgehog girl, saving a princess and denying the feelings of love.

The girl didn't look anxious anymore, she had stopped playing with her fingers and she looked relaxed even but her face became sadder as she finally dared to look at his face.

"I apologize," Shadow said, hoping that the girl didn't start to cry. "I am just not into dating right now."

Mia took a few moments to respond. "Is it because of the pink girl?"

"Pink ... girl?"

"Yes," Mia doubted for a bit but seeing that Shadow looked calm, she continued. "Everyone at G.U.N says you like her."

Shadow knew only one pink girl and that was Amy, he sighed. Could G.U.N's agents damn their own business?

"We are friends. That's it."

"I don't blame you if you do. I mean she is so pretty. A pink hedgehog! So unique! Not to mention that she was Captain of the Resistance." Mia took a pause.

She thought she was nothing compared to Amy. Mia didn't even know where she got the courage to write her name on that love letter for Shadow. She was just accepted as a G.U.N. agent a few weeks ago and had no ranking. She was very average and compare to the pink one or to anyone she was no one.

Or so she thought.

"You must think ... why is even someone like her confessing to me? She is so ugly and useless and-"

"I didn't say that. I said I accept your feelings. Isn't that enough for you?"

The girl felt a bit intimidated by Shadow's confident response, but once again she admired that about him.

She felt Shadow getting closer and Mia asked, "What do you mean?"

"It means that you can keep showing me your feelings. I don't mind," said Shadow.

"Wait ..." Mia added, "That means I can send you love letters and keep trying to make you ... fall in love with me?"

"Yes. Honestly, I don't want anything right now but if doing that makes you happy, then feel free to do it."

Shadow focused on the girl once again. Her face lightens up and she gives him a warm smile. Mia was content and Shadow was relaxed because finally, they could continue with their mission with that thought interrupting them.

"Now, " Shadow added, "Let's do this mission-"

"Ok, but why? Asked Mia.

"What?"

"Why are you letting me do this? I thought you weren't the type to like those things."

Shadow gave it a thought. He knew the truth but he just didn't want to admit it nor say it. At the back of his mind, he could see it. Mia slightly reminds him of Amy. Well, the old Amy who would chase after Sonic every day.

Even when they weren't friends back then, he hated seeing Amy cry for the blue one when Sonic would run away or deny her love.

Shadow just didn't want to be anything that causes or caused Amy's pain.

He just didn't want to be like the blue faker. Shadow wanted to be clear but also gentle towards the brown-fur girl.

"Honestly," said Shadow, "I don't even know myself."

It was very dark now and the two could hear the drip-drop of water droplets dripping from above.

Shadow tried really hard not to breathe. Mostly because his nose was very sensitive but a mission was a mission.

Finally, they found the place. Shadow's wrist communicator had many functions and one of them was serving as a locator. He looked at the small screen of the communicator where it showed a green and red dot. The green one was the princess and he was the red one.

She was above them.

Too easy.

Shadow looked around and nearby was a metallic door.

Alright, this definitely was a trap. No guards? No percussion? No fight?

"Alright, change of plans," Shadow said as he turned to look at Mia. "I am going alone. You go back to the surface and be prepared to call for back up in case I need it."

"But, this was my fault. If I had taken better care of the Princess, this wouldn't have happened."

"No, look, this is different ... All of this is strange. It's better if I go by myself."

"But-"

"That's an order. Go back, now."

Shadow raised his voice and the girl was shaken a little by his change of attitude. She nodded, turned around and ran away.

Shadow made sure she was out of his sight to focus back on the metallic door.

He walked towards it, a green light above it. Shadow closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Inhale and exhale.

BOOM!

Shadow kicked open the door. The door flew across the room and landed next to Princess Sally's cell.

"About damn time." Princess Sally said.

It was a security room, TV's covered the room except for Sally's cell.

"You have such a nice vocabulary princess. I'll take you out in a moment," Shadow said as he approached her cell. It was made out of iron, easy to break for him.

"But first," Shadow placed his face in front of the bars, looking at the tired-looking princess. "Did you see anyone?"

"Everyone was wearing masks."

"Of course." Shadow was fast to bend the cell's bars, creating a big opening for Sally to come out. "How many of them?"

"I don't know, no one was here when I woke up." Sally came out of the cell and added, "But, it was around three when they kidnaped me at my parade cart."

"Three uh?"

"Voice fully recognized: Start-Process Now."

Shadow and Sally looked around the room as the TV screens began to show a particular image. Some TV's had a count down of 3:00 minutes.

And the others ...

Shadow knew perfectly what was going on.

"Princess, get out of here now! Exit the room and keep going straight, don't turn back!"

Sally doubted for a second but trusted Shadow's abilities and judgment. It was a bit hard to run with her dress but she managed.

Shadow, on the other hand, was looking like crazy for the bomb. He didn't know if it was a bomb or a detonator.

Or something else.

He looked everywhere. In Sally's cell, on the walls, and he even broke some TVs he thought had a bomb inside.

"Where can it be?"

His thoughts were interrupted as he paid attention to the images that were presented on the TV. Usually, Shadow will be really calm.

But the tape on the TV made him shiver on the inside.

"I'll do you a favor. Carry me back to Tails and after this mission is done, you will never have to see me again. I promise."

"Deal."

It was a videotape of him and Amy on the day that they were at the cliff in Twinkle Star village. Right after they got the flowers that saved Tails' life.

Someone was watching them, all along.

Without noticing, Shadow had one minute left.

He began to think of the worst. Was Amy ok? Where was she? What was she doing?

What was going on?

30 seconds left.

"Mr. Shadow! Are you here?"

It was Mia. Damn it, Shadow had no time now.

15 seconds left.

Shadow picked up Mia and carried her in his shoulder. He ran as fast as he could. The tunnel was dark but Shadow had a good vision. He exited the tunnel with Mia in his shoulders. Other G.U.N. agents were already on the outside. Trucks, guns, G.U.N agents from side to side. Shadow looked to his side and he found Princess Sally being protected by her royal guards.

Shadow was quick to throw Mia on the ground. An angry look on his face. Mia, as she stood up was quick to ask.

"Are you ... angry at me?"

Shadow didn't want to pay attention. If there was a bomb, it should have detonated by now.

But nothing happened.

"Please ... tell me! I know I went against your order but-"

"Who is this person? No, detonations ... nothing. That video of me and Amy ... is she in danger? Did something happen to her? I will never forgive myself if-"

"Please, Shadow talk to me!" Mia then was fast to grab Shadow by his arm.

Shadow turned around as her touch triggered something on him.

"Didn't I tell you to stay?" Shadow began to raise his voice, "Didn't I fucking tell you to stay?!"

All eyes were on them now. Shadow wasn't thinking clearly. He didn't understand anything. He didn't know what was going on and the things he thought he could control turns out he couldn't.

The air became heavy and a few seconds passed, the agents went back to their work.

Mia was still holding back the tears. She was afraid that the small chance she had with Shadow was gone. The last thing she wanted was to disappoint him, but it seemed like she had done so already.

Mia stood quiet and she whispered, "I am sorry ... I was just worried about you-"

"An 'I am sorry' won't cut it! What if there was a bomb? I could have made it but you?" Shadow added, "You could have died! Do you think I can live without you, Amy?!"

Shadow was still way more than worried. His mind could only envision Amy. He wanted to leave and check on her, just to make sure she was fine. Even so, he couldn't.

Because as far as he knew, Amy was G.U.N's number one suspect at the moment.

Shadow still blinded with his feelings, looked at Mia in the eyes and said,

"Because I can't"

A/N: Sorry for the long wait. Soon we will be seeing Amy's day. Thank you again for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Also I recommend, reading me on wattpad. I publish there more often and there are stories there I don’t publish here: https://www.wattpad.com/user/H19990103

Next: Soon

#shadamy #shadamy au #shadamy fanfiction #shadow the hedgehog #shadow and amy #shadowxamy #shadow x amy #Amy Rose #amyrose #amy #sonic the hedgehog #sonic fanfiction #sonic fanfic

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