#-i could do it. hopefully this is coherent enough if i think of a way to phrase it better or of any additional points ill add on again

[ourceliumnetwork]

apparently we're not out of the woods on holiday trauma responses just yet - i'm hoping we're on the tail end of it but like. good lord.

[brairslair]

Hii! I hope you've had a great day so far, could i request a trafalger law × fem!reader who's like super horny all the time and just begs for law's attention and his cock all the time? Do what you want with the request, I just want this to be the basic premise, also i would like a friends with benenfits relationship kinda thing, but they do like eachother but just arent together yet!

Thank you, and have a great day! Please remember to take breaks, don't rush yourself and to take care of yourself!

@kyokikia thank you so much for this request ml! so sorry for the actual insane wait 🙏🏻

EVERYONE IS 18+ (minors gtfo)

a/n: idk why i struggled so much with this prompt, but i think i got something kind of coherent? definitely not my best work and a lil short, but hopefully you enjoy reading what i came up with!

don’t forget to like, reblog, comment, and follow to support my work! it always makes my day mwah

“made me wait enough”

Your mouth waters as you watch Law lean back in his seat, legs spread, head thrown back in a frustrated groan. His hands drag down his face and a sliver of skin peaks out from where his shirt rides up, and you almost moan. Your fingers buzz with the desire to touch him.

It’s been torture all week. Law’s been absolutely drowning in work, to the point where he’s been sleeping through the nights in his office chair instead of his bed.

Usually, you were admittedly pretty needy; something Law liked to tease you for. Constantly running your mouth, begging for him to give you a drop of his attention, to take care of you and ease the ache that seems to always be present when he’s around. It’s absolutely agonizing to give him space, but you’ve always respected his work ethic and ambition, and would never want to get in his way.

However, he’s been making it inexplicably difficult for you to keep to yourself. He’s barely said a word to you or the rest of the crew that wasn’t a captain’s order. You’re starting to feel actual physical pain from the distance.

You’re used to spending much more time with him, having been best friends for the better part of the last four years. If anyone has the right to be frustrated with his absence, it’s you.

You miss talking to him.

You miss his company.

You miss the way he looks at you when you cling to him.

You miss the way his hands feel when he touches you.

Your legs discreetly press together where you stand, hovering at the entrance to his office, mug of hot coffee in hand.

Coffee usually helps stoke the flames when his energy starts to dwindle, so you figured you would bring him the much needed pick-me-up before you make your way to bed. Alone.

You didn’t factor in how difficult it would be to keep yourself from jumping his bones.

Seemingly unaware of your ogling, you clear your throat to make yourself known before stepping in, setting the steaming mug on his desk.

��Thought you could use it.” You smile awkwardly, trying to conceal the filthy thoughts swirling in your head while he looks up at you through half lidded eyes. You could strangle him for making this so difficult.

He glances at the mug, then back at you, muttering a soft “Thank you.”

He looks mesmerizing when he’s tired. Hazy, far off, and soft around the edges. Your chest is aching and your throat burns with hidden desires clawing their way up your throat.

“Is there anything else you need, Captain? I’m heading to bed.” You mutter softly, praying he’ll take the hint and decide to join you.

His eyebrows twitch but he simply shakes his head, “This should do.”

His eyes burn through to your soul.

Usually you would have caved long ago, whining and begging for him to let you touch him, to take care of you the way he knew you needed it, but you wouldn't cave this time. You needed to remind yourself that he's an important man with important duties to attend to, and you would rather suffer than hold him back.

Instead, you force out a curt “Goodnight”, turning on your heels before the dam breaks and you start babbling nonsense.

Before you can take a step towards the door, you’re halted by a gentle hand around your wrist. The touch makes you shudder, biting back a whine. You missed his hands.

“You’ve been different.” Law states quietly, though you know it’s meant to be a question.

You can’t allow yourself to look at him yet. You know you’ll cave.

“You’ve been busy.”

Law hums in understanding and disappointment, gently tugging your arm to face him. Your legs feel like jelly under his gaze.

The longer he looks at you, the more aware you are of how dry your mouth is suddenly, how your stomach feels tight with restraint, and how he’s looking at you like he can read your every thought.

Law soothes his thumb along your pulse, stopping to feel your heart race beneath his fingertip. His sharp smile twists into your gut.

It fascinates you, the patience and temperment Law expresses so easily, things you’ve never been able to harness.

With a shaky sigh, you finally let go of your tongue, unable to hold back any longer.

“Please, Law? I need you.”

His hands are on you in an instant, smoothing over your curves like butter as he pulls you to straddle his hips. The second his lips touch yours, you can’t stop yourself from pulling and twisting at his shirt, seconds away from ripping it to shreds. Needy whines flow freely as you desperately rock your hips.

Law rubs a calming hand against your back, and you can feel the corners of his lips twitch with a smile against yours.

He teasingly nips at your bottom lip, and is pleased at the lewd noise it draws from your throat.

“There she is.” He grins, and you groan when he pulls away to trail down your neck. His fingers dance under your shirt, leaving goosebumps up your back as he makes work to unclasp your bra.

Your skin feels like it’s on fire, melting into him like molten lava. Every touch sends your brain into overdrive, and you need to feel more.

“Please, Law, don’t tease me.” You whine, hips stuttering, struggling to keep up with your head, “I’ve been so patient. I didn’t wanna disturb your work, but I can’t help it.”

You ramble into his ear, already barely coherent and digging your nails into his shoulders to steel yourself.

You press yourself against his chest, kissing and licking at his jaw, “I’ve missed you.”

Law cradles your cheek to sweetly kiss the corner of your mouth, dotting a feather light trail across your cheek. It’s his way of saying “I missed you too. I’m sorry.”

Your hand trails down to the zipper of his pants, but he stops you, pulling your wrist to his lips before placing it back on his shoulder. You protest as tears start to dot at your lash line.

“Let me feel you. I need to feel you.” You’re begging now, trembling against him as your patience dwindles. “I need you so bad it hurts.”

Law kisses you softly, like an anchor pulling you back down to him, grounding you. He tugs at your shirt in a silent order, and you pull away only to throw it carelessly on the floor beside you, along with your bra.

His cold hands immediately trail your exposed skin, not leaving an inch untouched. You’re practically limp against him at this point, overwhelmed and sobbing into his chest.

“Just fuck me already, made me wait enough.” You plead, tugging at his hair as you whisper filth in his ear, “Need your cock, Law, so bad. Please.”

A groan rumbles in his chest at your words, twitching in his pants. His fingers press into the fat of your hips, slowing your rocking motion to a slow rumble, rolling your clothed core against the tent in his jeans at an agonizingly perfect pace. His eyes darken when you gasp and whimper, already crumbling in his hands.

“Cum for me like this and I’ll give you anything you want.”

asks are open!

[shizunitis]

No, ur absolutely so right about Bingcest. Preach louder because like. It’s just so fun. Any reason why they would be doing it is so fun. Is Bingge fucking Bingmei to show him how he needs to fuck Shizun? Is it a domination thing? What crazy kinks would Bingmei learn from Bingge? How would he try and incorporate them with Shizun? So many questions. I want Bingge to bite Bingmei’s lips when they kiss.

anon i love you and am willing to go through the abyss for you empty-handed and with my hands tied. will give you my firstborn. thank you for letting me talk about this please never leave me

now that the bingmei rp is over, and keeping in mind that i am forever sleep deprived, in a vaguely bingge mood, and also very sorry for what that means for any passersby, here’s my answer. horniness and thoughts (hopefully coherent enough) under the cut

though i find the shizun sandwich version of bingcest to be extremely tasty and a great apperitif, i feel like the pure bingge-bingmei storylines my brain throws at me every now and then are so fucking good (read: hhNnNg) on their own.

a non-exhaustive list of some ideas i didn’t ever think too deeply about but like for reasons:

what if bingge is bingmei’s shizun.

what if bingmei gets stranded in pidw.

what if bingge accompanies bingmei in the abyss.

what if instead of only having bingge and bingmei, we also throw in oo!lbh into the mix and make this the worst throuple to have ever existed.

what if the system fucks up and there’s two binghe’s from the very beginning, twins or clones or whatever, and they brave the world on their own so as not to strain the washerwoman’s already precarious situation further than they did the first time around.

what if bingmei wishes very, very hard for a father during his disciplehood, and the system plops bingge into his world when shen yuan is mia.

what if bingge goes out and tries to find the svsss world again but ends up in oo!pidw.

what if bingge and bingmei live to the ends of their lives and meet after the universe is wiped as cosmic beings and they have incomprehensible sex to soothe the pain.

what if bingmei suspects bingge came back to steal shizun during the monthly wifeplots, and just jumps the gun and goes after the fucker directly.

what if modern au.

what if modern au where they’re separated at birth.

what if actual lab clones of each other!

et cetera (many more examples. none of which i can think of right now and if i’m being honest? half of these i thought up on the fly, so i was lying. fibbing. other words. never ever assume i know what i’m talking about)

in any and all these situations shen qingqiu and/or shen yuan could and perhaps should be integrated, but for my purposes he can take a moment to breathe. i’ll return him his husbands shortly.

back to the point: i love every iteration of bingcest.

bingge and bingmei being very alpha vs. alpha about fucking and literally fighting for dominance. bingmei being horrible at kissing and bingge getting annoyed with the teeth thing and showing him how to actually bite someone (stealing your desires as they perfectly align with mine, anon) and then finding out that what bingge would consider lowly and ignoble (is that how you use the word? probably not), bingmei blushes and whines for so prettily.

exchanging blood and it fails to do anything but induce arousal in the other and then using that as a way to torment each other.

i want the snapping teeth and the clawing and the violence. the almost-tangible, suffocating hatred and frustration. them choking on their leashes tied together without their knowledge. choking on them where the’re tied to opposite ends of the bed as they try to get to the other. and so forth

but soft bingcest works beautifully too. don’t know how they’d end up in that situation but i’m picturing it and it’s very nice.

bingge’s vanity and desire to be perfect projected onto his own self staring back at him, bingmei’s bratty disobedience challenging bingge’s desire to subjugate and conquer and take, all of this culminating in the two of them understanding their differences but also loathing them in a way. why is he different, he’s me, why can’t he understand, why isn’t he doing what i would, why does he hate me, the likes

oh!! bingmei should yell that at bingge actually. or growl it while he pins bingge down to get him to listen to him. and bingge should want to say, “are you stupid?” but holds back because now isn’t the time. where did the brat even get that idea from? he’s done everything he could to make him stronger, to make him realise that the world is a shit, cruel place and they only have each other in the end, and yeah it’s a shit hand to be dealt, but is it? is it really?

hm. don’t really know where that thought ends up but i’m pretty sure it ends up with both of them fucking unbearably tenderly (by their standards) in a forest somewhere.

anyway.

i don’t mean to exclude shizun because. i wouldn’t fucking dare? but bingcest is. it’s dear to me. i’m a bingcest purist if you’d like, but bingcestqiu/yuan is second on the list. third is mobingcumplane/moshangbingqiu but that’s another thing altogether

(i have no actual clue if there’s ship names for these already. surely there are?)

BUT. adding shizun into the mix is wonderful. i’ve rec’ed it before but through the eye of a needle is SUCH a good fic PLEASE give it a read it’s my favourite fic ever ever in the history of ever

i love the idea of shizun trying to tame these two idiots and failing miserably. i also love the idea of him succeeding. i want bingmei making bingge drink some ‘respect shizun’ juice and i want bingge to give bingmei some much needed ‘fuck shizun’ lessons. i want shizun to direct their every movement while he casually drinks his tea and pretends like he’s not foaming at the mouth seeing the two protagonists being “forced” to go at each other like they’re passionate, devoted lovers.

just.

bingcest…

there’s so much i want from bingcest. i want the guilt, and the confusion, and the rage! i want the angst! the territorial spats, the dick measuring contests (literal and metaphorical). the comfort! the. idk man they should be allowed to be horrible to each other, it’s not like they can die.

(holy shit what if one of them dies. fuck i’m exhausted but please. kill one of them and make the other revive him. somehow. maybe we can make regret of chunshan reality but it’s bingcest, if you understand)

but mainly i want the two pretty idiots humping each other’s thighs like teenagers. making bingge crawl for bingmei is also a very fun thought that would make him (plural) react in a very entertaining way. getting bingmei to power bottom is chef’s kiss when bingge’s on the other end. teaching bingge about the beauty of surrendering to his own self, which he does not trust with anything but also understands more than he’d like or wants to acknowledge is also neat. they would get up to degeneracies that i can’t speak of. i’m shy and also inarticulate about them

oooh also lebingcest. exactly the same as before but it’s better. because lesbian yaoi

[sluttywonwoo]

OMG! congrats on 12k, i’ve been following you for a while and with all the effort you put into your blog every day, you totally deserve it.

for the celebration, i’ll go with cheol and the prompts “i can’t get enough of you” and “is this okay?” hopefully they make sense together haha, i guess it’d be fluff + smut

congrats again!

you’ve never seen seungcheol so nervous.

he’s laying on his tummy between your legs, looking up at you with pleading eyes and pouty lips. you think you’d give him anything asks for right now. anything he wants. lucky for you, you already know what he wants. you.

“is this okay?” he asks.

he’s so close to you that you can feel him breathing, soft exhales against your skin. it kind of tickles but it also makes you warm with want. knowing what’s about to happen, knowing how badly he wants it, the anticipation is killing you.

you answer him with a nod and that’s all he needs. you expect him to start slow but he dives right in, immediately making out with your cunt like he’ll never get another chance.

you fist the sheets in surprise and your legs tense up around your boyfriend’s head but he’s quick to push your knees down and hold them there. you’re not sure what to do with yourself so you try to just lay there and take it, whimpering and panting as heat builds in your stomach.

seungcheol fucks you open with his tongue, working it inside of you like he wanted to taste your arousal straight from the source. he occupies your clit with his thumb for the time being but before long he swaps them, laving his tongue over your clit while he fingers you until you’re trembling.

seungcheol is the first partner you’ve ever let go down on you. no one’s ever known you in this way before and it’s all very overwhelming but also so fucking good that you’re not too worried about stringing together coherent thoughts.

“i can’t get enough of you,” he groans when he comes up for air. his eyes are wild and his chin is dripping with you. you don’t think you’ve ever seen him look hotter.

“i could say the same about you,” you murmur, propping yourself up on your elbows to get a better look at him. then, you beckon him forward, suddenly filled with the desire to taste yourself on his lips. “come here. show me more of what i’ve been missing.”

12k celebration

[ax-y10]

mopey and majestic

in which; wilbur has plans for the night you come home sad and upset

requested by 🎧 anon; wilbur x reader go on a romantic picnic wilbur set up at your favourite field after you were upset (not the full request) linked with; picnicking together in a spot where couples usually picnic together. “we’re defying the norms,” character a says while being all snuggled up in character b’s comforting embrace

about; reader is upset, physical touch, 'killed' is mentioned once - i didn't do field because i had an idea for the beach but i hope this is still alright.

word count; 813

celebrate here;

wil <3

4:18 pm hey sweetheart, i'm starting dinner now. see you soon

5:42 pm dinner's ready. be safe on your way home for me. i love you

6:57 pm darling, how long will you be? your dinner is in the microwave staying warm. let me know when you'll be home

7:25 pm work finished at 5:30, what's happened?

---

he knew something was up when you wouldn't respond to his messages. he could understand that you wouldn't reply to his first message because you hadn't finished work, but he was weirded out by the fact that you hadn't responded to any after his second message.

the dots suddenly started forming a coherent reason. you were upset. you needed comfort as soon as you got home, and you were probably walking around the seaside to calm yourself down.

grabbing your dinner from the microwave and putting it in an air-tight container, he made his way up to your shared bedroom. he grabbed a comfy sweater of his and a beanie, alongside a small backpack and shoved the items in.

he grabbed your dinner and pretzels for himself, also stuffing them in his backpack, and called you.

after a few seconds of waiting, you picked up, sniffles sounding through the call.

---

"hey sweetheart, where are you right now?" he quietly closed the door and started walking towards the beach.

"um, i think i'm near that one cafe on the beach. why? do i need to be home? i can go hom-" he cut you off and shushed your rambling.

"no no no, don't worry. can you go to that one spot on the beach we went yesterday with tommy?" he panted a little, quickening his pace.

"uh yeah. it's hard to see but i'll go there," right now, it was best that you ignored your worries and got there on the beach safely.

"okay, thankyou," he went quiet and created a soft environment on the other end of the call.

---

quick footsteps were approaching you, and you panicked, until you saw his dark figure sitting down next to you.

the light of the moon and the street lights illuminated his face perfectly, outlining every dimple and curve on his face with a golden glow, a halo where his hair was poofed up, and his smile was highlighted by the soft glow of the moon. he looked ethereal. he calmed down your entire being from just standing there, and he may have noticed.

"hello" his gentle voice filled your ears, accompanied with a small smile. he looked absolutely beautiful and you couldn't get enough of it. it was not the right time to try for a kiss. he was here to hopefully comfort you and calm you down.

"come here" he leaned closer to you and stretched out his arms, inviting you into a warm hug.

"thankyou. for being here," only now did you have the chance to check his messages.

you had headphones in, and your phone was on silent. you were still in your scratchy work uniform, and all you needed was to keep your head warm, a headache creeping into your skull. but as you looked at the messages, everything else was forgotten. you probably stressed him out so much, and your dinner was probably cold, and he probably thought you got killed.

"give me a second" he reached into his backpack and pulled out his sweater and beanie, laying the items on your lap. he helped you pull the sweater on and pulled the beanie over your eyes, causing you to erupt into a small fit of giggles.

he then pulled out his bag of pretzels and your dinner, still tightly sealed in the container.

you almost cried when he pulled out your dinner, you having not had a chance to eat all day, and being caught off guard from a warm dinner presented to you, having not been eaten for almost two hours at this point.

still being rested and warm in wilbur's arms, you had started eating dinner, listening to the waves crashing against the shore and wilbur's obnoxiously loud chewing. everything was so much better now that you had wilbur right next to you and being wrapped up in his comfy clothes.

you were snuggled up into his side, your shoes inside his backpack, and his head rested on yours. his arm was wrapped around your middle, tracing soft circles into the soft skin of your waist. his free hand was fidgeting with the hair tie on your wrist, being careful to not accidentally snap it against your wrist.

"we're defying the norms" he spoke into the blue, not expecting an answer. he just wanted to let his thoughts out to someone, and that someone was you. but he got a whole hearted laugh from you, and you both packed up and headed home, opting to fall asleep in a bed and not on rocks.

taglist; @phxntomsdusk (ask to be added)

[butchreg]

puppy ! regressor ( teen ) shauna shipman headcanons !!

requested by anon winky face . methinks there are a few sillies who would like some puppy ! shauna thoughts so i am here to provide ! featuring jackieshauna and lottieshauna / butcherqueen if u squint tehee ^_^ hopefully coherent but not proofread && it's nearly 6 am && i've yet to sleep so apologies if there's any errors .. yellowjackets masterlist here , upcoming list here

puppy shauna following around her friends . she's nat's little guard dog when he's out in the woods , and even will sit by mari when she's cooking hoping for some scraps . puppy shauna is very much a companion she gets really upset if left by herself , she'll start whining and howling if she's alone for more than five minutes .

shauna trying to keep her regression a secret from the team , thinking she's sooo slick when really everyone can tell they just don't want to embarrass her by saying anything outright . nat offering her praise more readily , "nice one shipman ." tai letting shauna lay her head in her lap , petting her hair like she might a real dog.

shauna's a bit of a feisty pup . around those who she knows know about her regression she'll nip and bite playfully . barking up a storm when she's fussy or wants attention or to be included . growling when she doesn't get her way or if someone seems to pose a threat to her , whining like crazy if she hasn't gotten enough pets . a very vocal puppy .

lottie knitting shauna paw gloves when she catches onto her regression which surprises and embarrasses shauna . leaving the gloves right where she left them after being gifted them , tail between her legs hulking and sulking in the corner . oh she's reaal dramatic . now everyone's gonna know and it's not fair and why would lottie waste time on making something for her when she's been not very nice to lottie and there was the whole thing of her practically beating lottie to death... why does she have to be nice when shauna's mean it's dumb and confusing ... but they're really nice gloves .. jackie makes a comment about how much she loves them and then "shockingly" they end up with shauna's stuff later that night .

she can get super energetic if she's deep in puppyspace . shauna getting all rowdy , jumpy and playful , chasing anything that moves and fetching things without being asked or even being needed . silly puppy shauna sticking her nose where it doesn't belong , putting things she knows she shouldn't into her mouth , chewing everything in sight up . nat whos outside a lot will sometimes be tasked with watching over her while she runs around everywhere outside . just a little pup with the zoomies !!

the team teasing shauna to make her tail wag , she tries to act all angry and broody but her tail is wagging , giving her away .

when she's puppy regressed shauna's even more protective than usual over jackie especially . growling when someone gets close to her , barking and biting if anyone says anything mean about her . making sure to walk ahead of jackie to protect her from anything that could be ahead .

she's super obedient to jackie , nat , and tai only . if anyone else gives her a command she'll do the exact opposite . mari or lottie will get too cocky , "that's right . stay put , pup ." and all of a sudden no matter how tired she is shauna's moving about , wandering all over the cabin . she's such a stubborn girl .

jackie writes a bunch of rules for her . she's supposed to listen even if it's someone else enforcing it if it's one of jackie's rules but shauna's not always the best listener . "what's that ... oh no ... shauna , spit that out . shaunaaa.." shauna will just giggle , chewing even more aggressively on whatever she's got in her mouth this time . if jackie comes and finds her though it's a whole different story .

"hey ! shipman , what's that ." shauna whimpers , turning her head away . she doesn't want jackie to see her being naughty . "shauna...." jackie will say in a warning tone . "show mama right now ." shauna will spit it out , hiding her face and whining . jackie will lecture her , and shauna will flush red , she's so embarrassed . she apologizes to jackie in a voice hardly above a whisper , sounding very small . sometimes she'll cry , "m'sowry mama , m'bad ." jackie shakes her head , shushing her little pup . "shhh , you're not bad , shaunie . just a silly little thing , hmm . mama's silly puppy ."

[idontknowreallywhy]

Estera Ch 36 - Lost

What went before

If you’re new to this madness It might make sense to read at least chs 28 & 29 to meet Bez and find out what Scott’s deal with dogs is… and maybe 35 as that happens literally just before this and will explain why he’s wobbly. Alternatively, yolo - dive in and see if you can make any sense of this mad little scene which wasn’t even in the plot outline but once I pictured it refused to be left out. ☺️

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Despite the early hour, the streets were busy with folk on whatever missions drew them out into the late spring sunshine. Most of these appeared to involve heading downhill, towards the seafront, but at a frustratingly ambling pace.

Bez carved a path through the crowd and Estera weaved her way behind while Scott, unused to feeling like the bulky member of a duo, tried to follow in her wake before the gaps closed after her. He found himself continually apologising to the various beach-equipment-laden people he bumped with a shoulder or an elbow.

Of course if he considered them a trio, he’d arguably have to concede the majority of the bulk was with the four legged one… even without the floof, the Pyr was a wall of muscle that even Virgil might think twice about opposing.

Despite that, and despite the extreme drool and (he suppressed the urge to shiver at the thought) the perfectly-normal-amount-of-teeth-for-his-species… Scott was beginning to genuinely warm to the creature. Not least because in the half hour following Scott’s embarrassing wobble and their ‘moment’ of understanding over his drool-soaked peace offering, Bez had barely left Scott’s side.

Though he would deny it vehemently to most anyone who asked, it was kind of comforting being shadowed by a giant teddy bear. Solid, mostly immovable, but enthusiastically (overwhelmingly) affectionate. As long as you didn’t try to make him do anything he hadn’t already decided to, Bez was pretty much benign. Kind of a cross between Virgil before 9am and Gordon on a sugar high, he mused, only rather hairier and maybe marginally less coherent…

Yeah it was going pretty well. The faint scratching at the edge of his consciousness was ignorable. Hopefully if he could handle a dog this size, then others would become ok too and he would get back to a place where they didn’t even have to be a consideration. He just needed to get enough of a grip on himself not to completely fall apart when he was taken by surprise…

He felt a hot little prickle of shame flow through his face as he recalled Edith’s concerned face at the window. It had barely registered at the time but she must have heard Estera call out to him. If only he’d managed to get inside before… ugh. Strangely he couldn’t find he was so bothered by Estera seeing that kind of weakness in him... perhaps because she had before. But other people… he couldn’t afford for other people to know. It wasn’t… just… no. He needed to be stronger than that.

He was sure he hadn’t made a sound but Estera suddenly gave him a look over her shoulder, a mildly raised eyebrow and then a slight frown as if she could hear the direction his thoughts were taking and disapproved.

He gave her his best reassuring smile.

She smiled faintly back, clearly unconvinced, but was forced to return her attention to not falling over a large pushchair that stuck out across their path.

Maybe she was right. Maybe he was being too hard on himself… after all it was always going to be a tricky day. Perhaps the trickiest in a string of hard days in the hardest season - the time of year when he was less able to ignore the quiet truth that despite being rescued there was a little part of him that had always remained lost.

But the rest of him was alive and so was she. And the air was warm and the sky was blue. He took a deep appreciative breath then mumbled another apology as he twisted sideways to edge past a person hefting two enormous drinks coolers and a large rucksack.

Anyway, he refocused his wandering mind, it was good to have Bez there, because any passers by who might have any attention to spare them were looking at the enormous white dog-mountain and not the awkwardly tall man with the face people often seemed to find oh-so-familiar. As ever, he was hiding behind his beloved aviators and a nondescript baseball cap but for once he felt perhaps he didn’t need to. That felt good too.

He chuckled as Estera put on a sudden spurt of speed, dragged forwards by her beloved hellhound then startled as they unexpectedly veered to the right down a side street. Scott, unable to change direction in time was carried along by the crowd for a few moments before he was able to battle his way back up the narrow sidewalk, apologising still more as he pushed against the flow.

He found his friend crouched in front of a tiny child who was sobbing out a garbled explanation of why she’d let go of her brother’s hand and how badly she wanted her mama and daddy. Bez had curled himself around her back and she seemed entirely unworried by this despite the dog being taller than she was. In fact Scott could see a small hand clinging tightly to the longer fur by the his neck.

Scott dropped to his knees next to Estera “Hey there, we’ll find them for you. What’s your name?”

The little girl peered up at him and wailed:

“T-T-Twaceee. I’s Twacy an’ ‘m lost!”

Huh. What were the chances of that?

He looked at Estera and she nodded agreement. Leaving them there, the little girl having buried her face back in Bez’s furry shoulder while Estera chatted soothingly. The cars were moving fairly slowly and he rated his chances of being seen reasonably highly, what with the height and all. He hopped off the kerb and jogged down the road, calling out to people as he passed:

“Excuse me, has anyone lost a Tracy?”

“We have a little girl called Tracy back there, does anyone know…?

“I need to find Tracy’s parents?”

“Sorry, I’m looking for Tracy’s Mom and Dad?”

“Tracy’s Mommy and Daddy? No?”

“Tracy? I have a lost Tracy?”

Some sympathetic looks but not a glimmer of recognition. This wasn’t working. And he was getting too far away. He stopped and waited for a cyclist to swerve around him then yelled at the top of his voice:

“I NEED TRACY’S PARENTS!”

Scott paused, suddenly overcome by a hollow feeling in his gut and a bitter taste on his tongue.

He huffed a small laugh to himself. Didn’t he just?

He rounded a corner and came upon a kerfuffle up ahead as people tried to bypass a blockage on the sidewalk. In moments the blockage resolved itself into a wild eyed and clearly panicking couple dragging an overladen trolley and a slightly older child in a large sunhat who was dragging his feet with an air of mutiny. He didn’t really need further confirmation but the man’s gasp of “Did you say Tracy? Thank God!” provided it anyway.

Excited giggles greeted them as they rounded the corner and then at a high pitched cry of “Skacz! Łapa!” Bez leaped into the air then landed on all fours and shook himself vigorously.

“Well done! He likes you!” Estera patted her on the back and little Tracy clapped in delight. The smaller of Scott’s companions pushed past and ran over to join them.

“Bez! Miss H!”

“Oh hello, Jeff!” She looked up and smiled warmly. “Is this your little sister?”

“Your kids are Jeff and Tracy?!” Scott’s reaction slipped out before he could stop himself.

Belatedly recognising the young lad from the rescue and worried he might recognise him in turn, Scott tugged at the peak of his cap and slouched a little. Fortunately Jeff was entirely absorbed by ruffling Bez’s ears.

The father laughed and tilted his head with a fond smile towards his partner who was fussing over their toddler. Tracy seemed disinclined to be parted from her new bestest fwend and the pouting bottom lip trembled as Estera called him to heel.

“The missus is a bit of a fan.”

Scott summoned the pleasant, professional smile he used time and again when forced to pretend to strangers that he was entirely comfortable with the topic of conversation.

“He was a great man.”

“He’s not dead.” The woman cut in forcefully without looking up.

Scott blinked.

“I’m sorry?”

“Don’t say ‘was’. He’s definitely still alive. That leaked explosion footage was a deep fake. The GDF were trying to silence him before he exposed widespread corruption in the World Government and so he had to go undercover to escape. It’s pretty common knowledge, is all over the internet.”

Well. That… that was a new one. Scott made a mental note to have a little chat to John about what filters were being applied to his weekly media summaries.

How on earth to respond though? Should he correct her? Agree? Laugh? They should have a Line for things like this. He should definitely say SOMETHING but all words escaped him and the best he could do was force a generic interested noise around the lump in his throat. The dog brushed against the back of his legs and pushed a damp nose into his limp hand.

“Now love, not everybody is as committed to the conspiracy websites as you are.”

“They aren’t conspiracy sites!”

Estera coughed and interrupted to apologise but said they had an urgent appointment. When had her hand tucked around his arm? He wasn’t sure but was grateful it was there - at least now despite the sudden light headedness he might not float away. He echoed her hurried goodbyes and they returned, side by side this time, to the busy main street.

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

[wordsaresimple-imnot]

Drunken Confessions - Bill Guarnere x F!Reader (1st POV)

Summary: The boys and reader are out for a night of fun and drinking that leaves the reader with little to no memories of what happened after she had a drinking contest with Babe. As things slowly start to drift back to her, she remembers one thing clearly; she spilled her true feelings about Bill to someone. But who did she tell?

Warnings: none really, cursing per usual. No use of y/n or physical description. She/her pronouns.

A/N: I have the biggest respect for the real life heroes of WWII (and all other wars, past & current), this work & all other works is based on the actor(s) and character(s) portrayed in the Band of Brothers series.

A/N pt2: This turned out longer than I thought it would starting out, but I let the fanfic gods guide my fingers and here we are, haha. If anyone likes this enough, I have an idea of a next day smut part 2 I can write. Comments, likes, and reblogs make my day. Thanks for reading!

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I wasn't sure what made me wake up. Maybe the skull splitting headache, or maybe the sun shining through the blinds hitting my face, or maybe the way I'd sell everything I owned for water or maybe my bladder being so full that a single sneeze would cause a mess. Whatever the reason, the barest of movements to open my eyelids made me want to die instantly. The only motivation I could grasp onto to get up was to empty my bladder. Dying from a hangover is one thing, dying in my own piss is not something I could ever live with. The logic of my thought made no sense, but what the hell did I care as I practically crawled to the bathroom.

Once I was relieved and able to draw the last bit of strength I had to splash water on my face and half-ass brush my teeth, I made it back to my bed with a little more dignity. Okay, it was still on my knees but at least I wasn't crawling. A win is a win. A full glass of water on my bedside table catches my eye and I down it quicker than I've ever done before, well except for maybe the drinks last night. How did this get here? No way I was coherent enough to pour a glass of water for myself to wake up to.

As I got more situated in the bed, very much facing away from the windows because I couldn't bring myself to gather any more will power to close them more properly I couldn't stop thinking about the glass of water. And then it hit me that I was not in my dress from the night before or even just my underwear but pajamas. Being aware of how little my brain and motor skills actually worked together when I'm more than tipsy, these things stood out. What the hell happened last night? I tried to focus on my last memories of the previous night hoping that would shed some light on my current situation.

~~ last night ~~

"Oh come on! Are y'all scared to lose to little ole me?" I smiled sweetly to the table, making my southern accent a little heavier to hopefully sway one of them to take on my challenge.

"None of us would lose against you, doll. We just don't want to deal with you tomorrow morning." Toye said, motioning around the table before pointing his finger directly at me. I rolled my eyes and leaned a little closer over the table.

"Nah, I'm sweet as pie darlin'. I think y'all don't want the news spreading that someone in Easy Company lost to a little farmer girl." I smirked at Toye and the rest of the men, daring them to deny it.

"Fuck it, I'll do it." Babe shot up from the end of the table and made his way over towards my section. I beamed at his cocky smiled and made shooing motions to Luz and Perco to make space so he could sit across from me. With a nod to Liebgott, I watched him go off to grab us our first rounds of beer.

As Liebgott made his way back holding two beers, I see Bull, Martin, and Bill following him from the bar.

"The fuck are you doing?" Bill's eyes bounced back and forth between me and Babe. Unsure of who was directing the question to, I shrugged and decided to answer.

"Babe thinks he can handle a drinkin' contest with me." I shoot Babe a wink as he narrows his eyes a little at me. I look back up to Bill when I hear him curse and turn more fully to Babe.

"Haven't I taught you anything? Don't start shit you can't win." He's poking Babe in the chest with every other word, making the other bat his hand away.

"Who says I ain't gonna win? Look at her, she's like a flower. This will be over by the third beer." Babe sits up straighter, setting determined eyes on me. He starts to look more annoyed than ever when Luz, Bull, and Tab start laughing.

"Anyone else, I'd say you had a chance. But she," Tab throws his arm over my shoulders, jostling me into his side, "has come the closest out of all of us to beating Bull. She lost, but damn it was amazing to watch." I give Tab a playful shove, righting myself back to a sitting position.

Babe's face has paled a little but somehow manages to look even more determined to see this through. "I'm still in."

"Perfect!" I smile at him, raising my glass to cheers him. "If I win, you have to be my shadow all day tomorrow to take care of me. If I win, you can get my cigarettes for the next two supply packages."

"Deal." Babe cheers me back, and we take our first sips of beer simultaneously. Bill looks beyond annoyed, muttering 'It's your funeral' and starts back to the bar. Bull sends me a wink, Martin a smile, and then follow behind Bill.

"Buckle up, Philly boy. You're in for a ride." I shoot a final wink at him, and then start inhaling my beer. Babe's shocked face and scramble to follow my lead is the last full coherent memory of that night.

~~

I groan in frustration as the rest of the night seems to dissolve from my mind and I can't comfortably say I know what is fiction and what really happened. I have a vague feeling dancing with Tab, Luz and Toye probably happened. Drinking usually turned to dancing in my case. I prayed that singing at the bar with Malarkey and Muck was fiction. It feels like a huge gap is missing after that (please be fictional) memory and then slivers of different memories start floating out. Suddenly I'm in a cold sweat as bits start floating in.

"He's alright but doesn't hold a candle to Bill. When he actually smiles, it's like seeing the sun shine."

"You can't tell him any of this. Swear it."

"No, I know his eyes and yours are too dark. His are warm and beautiful with small flecks of gold in them. I could drown in those eyes forever."

Fuck me, fuck my parents for having me, fuck my grandparents and ancestors for having them, fuck fuck fuck. I take it back, I'd happily sing drunk songs with Malarkey and Muck for the rest of my life if I can take those words back. And just when I thought my life couldn't get worse, I shot up in bed and another fact hits me...I don't know who I said all of those things to. FUCK!

Hours later, I'm still in bed trying to make myself remember anything about my mystery companion or at the very least come up a way to turn back time. Just as my stomach growls for the fourth time, there's a knock on my door and then it's swinging open. I jump up again for the second time that day.

"Hey sleeping beauty, how's the hangover?" Luz asks, all bright eyes and smiles as Babe follows behind him looking exactly how I feel. I shift up the bed to make room for Luz to sprawl out at the foot of the bed while Babe just curls into a ball next to me, back to the window and sunlight.

"I feel like death." I manage to croak out. It's the first time I've used my voice since passing out last night and you'd swear I smoked like a chimney from the sound.

"You look it too." Luz narrowly dodges the pillow I throw at his face. The movements cause Babe to give a pathetic whine and he curls up even more. "I don't know who pissed in your coffee, but this is not how a winner should be acting." I roll my eyes, smiling briefly as I get confirmation that I did win last night. My stomach growling again wipes it from my face.

"I'm starving. And if I won, that means you're my personal shadow all day today to help me feel better." I give Babe a small nudge, just enough to make him crack an eye open to look at me. "Y'all head down to the mess hall and get me two of everything while I get ready and meet you there."

After a few seconds of Babe making no moves to get up, Luz jumps up and all but starts dragging him towards the door. "Come on, Babe, you heard your mistress." Because his hands are full with Babe, he can't dodge the pillow I throw and gives out a low 'ow' as it connects with his face.

Just as they were about to close the door, I blurted out the question I've been trying to figure out. "Hey, who helped me home last night?"

"Not sure doll, I was playing darts with Martin, Bull and Babe." Luz almost had the door closed when he poked his back back in. "Why do you ask?"

I shrug, praying it comes out nonchalant while I'm dying inside. "Just needed to ask them a question. I think I lost something on the way home and just wondered if they knew about it." Something being my dignity. "Don't worry about it, I'll figure it out. Thanks." With a nod, Luz closed the door and left me to agonize alone.

The rest of the day was the most frustrating day of my life. Not because of the hangover, that started feeling better after I got some food and water, with a splash of hair of the dog, in me. Babe started to perk up too but was still definitely battling it so I took mercy on him and let him go back to sleep until his turn for patrol that night. I had the day off from helping Nixon censor mail and finalize reports so that didn't add to my frustrations. No, all of my frustration was because I spent the whole day tracking down the guys and asking who helped me home. They all gave the same answer: wasn't me.

Through my investigating, I was able to piece a loose timeline of the night. Once our game was over, I started dancing with Tab, the next song went to Luz, and I somehow managed to drag Toye out for the one after that. Once they all declined another song, I went to the bar to get another drink and ended up singing two bar songs with Malarkey and Muck, who afterwards started up a card game with Toye, Tab and Penkala that went on the rest of the time. I apparently stayed at the bar, chatting with Bull, Martin and Bill till Luz and Babe came over and got them to play darts the rest of the night. Liebgott kept me company at the bar, making sure I started on water but eventually left to start flirting with the barmaid that kept making eyes at him. My last hope was Perco but someone told me he left before I did to get some sleep before his morning patrol.

Just as the sun started to drift down, I was at my wits end. As a last ditch effort, I decided to write up a timeline diagram to triple check that everyone was accounted for. Surely one of the guys was lying to me and waiting to use my confessions as leverage for something. I move everything on my desk to one side and start making my diagram. By my third review of it, I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something. So I write all of the men's names down and start checking them off as I mentally go over the stories again.

Luz...check. Bull...check. Perco...check. Babe...check. Liebgott...check. Tab...check. Toye...check. Muck...check. Malarkey...check. Martin...check. Penkala...check. There's no one left. I was just a lunatic talking to myself and somehow managed to get myself home and in bed like a sober person? Just as I was about to commit to believing that I realized I left one name off the list that didn't show up in anyone's story long enough to be crossed off. Bill...fuck.

I crumbled the paper and practically sprinted to my room, dodging soldiers and helpers like a madwoman. There was more foot traffic as the morning and evening patrol were switching foxholes and dinner was currently going. I managed to catch Babe on his way towards the mess hall and made him swear to tell everyone I was still feeling sick and would be in my room the rest of the night. Thankfully he was still feeling sick, so he took me at my word and didn't pay attention to my erratic behavior.

Back in my room I couldn't decide what I was more humiliated about; spilling my secret feelings about Bill TO Bill or being so drunk I don't know it was Bill I was even talking to. With a belly flop I landed on my bed, pressed my face into my pillow and let out a full body scream. Just as it ended there was a knock on my door.

"Go away, I'm dying." I moved my face to the side so whoever was there could somewhat hear me. It wasn't from drinking but hey, semantics at this point. The knock came again, this time more forceful. "Seriously, whoever is there just let me be." With a huff I push myself off the bed and swing open the door to reveal the cause of all my misery. Bill fucking Guarnere. Fuck me.

He's leaning against the door frame without a care in the world it seems and his signature smirk on his face. He'd never looked better. "You know my ma and sisters would come all the way over here and beat my ass if they ever found out I let a woman be miserable all alone. Especially without food." He raised a small bag to emphasize his point. Without waiting for me to answer, he brushed past me into my room and sat squarely on the bed, leaning against the wall, watching me.

Who knows how long it took my brain to send the right signals to make my body move, but eventually I broke our staring contest, closed the door and made my way to the bed. Because I was basically Nix's aid, I was able to get my own room but it was the barest of bare minimums. Side table, joining bathroom, and a bed against the wall. So the only place left to sit was on the bed with Bill, but I tried to put as much distance as I could so I sat crossed legged against the wall acting as the headboard and looked at the bag he still held.

"What's in there?" I decided the best tactic right now was to pretend nothing happened at all. So far Bill seemed to be of the same mind.

"Bread and some cheese. Didn't know how much your stomach could handle." He tossed the bag to me, nodding his acknowledgement to my quick thanks and I tore it open and started nibbling on the contents. After a few beats, he decided the best time to say something was when my mouth was completely full. "So...heard you lost something last night."

Next thing I know I really do feel like I'm dying as I choke on my bite of food, simultaneously batting away his hands that are trying to reach behind to pat my back. After I get small control over my breathing, I wipe the few tears that formed and down the rest of the water I had at my bedside. Two shaky breaths later all I can manage is squeaking out, "What?"

Bill looks at me with a sliver of concern that I'll start hacking up a lung again, but slowly his normal smirk starts to form and he leans back against the wall. "Luz said you were trying to figure out who helped you home last night because you lost something. Toye and Bull said you were pretty aggressive in your questions about everyone's activities last night. If you haven't figured it out already, I was the one that helped you get home from the bar but I don't recall you losing anything." His posture was relaxed, even lazy, but his eyes were hard and jaw was set. Challenging me to make the next move.

I cleared my throat two times, before I forced myself to speak. "Yeah, I actually figured it out a little bit ago." Bill inclined his head towards me, indicating that he wanted me to elaborate on the 'losing something' part. "I, uh, well I was just trying to figure out who helped me and didn't want Luz asking a million and one questions so that seemed the best answer."

"Why didn't you come find me once you figure it all out?" One thing about Bill Guarnere, he never pulled punches and was a hound dog when he set his mind to something.

"No reason...I, uh, well I just..." I turned all my focus on the crumpled paper bag in front of me so I didn't catch his eyes and completely spill my guts. Sober this time.

"Ah come on sweetheart, cat got your tongue now?" He moved to lean down on his arm, shifting closer to me. "Let me help you remember." With that damn, sexy smirk Bill started recounting the night before to fill in the blanks.

~~ last night, Bill POV ~~

I haven't taken my eyes off her all night. If anyone asked I'd say it was out of concern for how much she drank and watching out for a fellow soldier. That was partly true, but the majority was being jealous. Jealous for how easy she laughed and touched and moved with our friends. Don't get it twisted, we are friends too, closer than most of them but it's not as carefree as these moments I'm witnessing.

It can't be carefree because if I let my guard down for one second I'd spill my guts about how she makes me feel. How everything fades out around the edges when she gives that million dollar smile and her eyes crinkle a little at the sides. How I would do anything stupid again and again to make that little snort come out when she's laughing too hard and can't help it. How I want to protect her from this war so damn bad so I never have to see pain in her eyes. How I'd fight the entire Kraut army for the chance to kiss her just once and hold her in my arms.

But I can't say any of that because I'd rather suffer in silence than risk losing her from my life, even as just a friend. So I stay silent and keep watch as everyone around me enjoys their night without a care in the world, not knowing that my entire world is sitting at the bar alone.

She's just started on a second glass of water when some guy from Fox Company slides up next to her and starts talking. Whatever he said has her turning in her seat to point in the direction of Liebgott that left her for some barmaid. While she's focused on where Liebgott is, I'm focused on watching the guy shamelessly check her out. I down the rest of my beer, shove the glass into Luz's hand and march straight over to the bar before any of the guys can ask what I'm doing.

I make it over just as their hands connect and I can hear them exchanging names.

"I can't believe someone as beautiful as you is here all alone." I'm going to brake this guys jaw.

"She's not alone, private." I push myself to my full height and use my Sergeant's voice. This makes him stand up straighter and drop her hand.

"Bill!" She says my name with so much awe and happiness, as if she hadn't be around me in some fashion throughout the night. Being to drunk to care about policy or decorum she wraps her arms around me and gives me the prettiest smile.

"Hey sweetheart," I give her a soft smile back and wrap one arm around her shoulders, keeping her where she is. I look back at the private with a hard glare and raise an eyebrow. "Need something?"

"No sir, I just came to grab a drink. I'll, uh, I'll just get one over there." He practically runs to the other end of the bar, avoiding anymore eye contact.

A soft giggle, makes me look back down and smile again. "What's so funny, doll?"

"You didn't need to scare him, we were just talking." A piece of her hair falls against her cheek when she laughs again. I move it behind her ear, letting my finger graze her cheek before I answer.

"He wanted to do more than talk, believe me."

"What would I do without Bill Guarnere as my knight in shining armor." The smile she sends up to me is nearly enough to send me to my knees right then and there.

I wrap my other arm around her and drop a quick kiss to the top of her head. "You'll never have to find out, sweetheart. I'm always gonna be there." We stay like that for a minute, which isn't nearly long enough before I say, "Come on, lets get you to bed or you're gonna be dyin' tomorrow."

She manages to be get off the barstool and walk out of the bar so efficiently I wonder if she really is as drunk as I thought, but that hope is dashed once she stumbles over air and starts laughing. I can't help but laugh with her as I grab her hands to steady her.

"We should go dancing." She suddenly says and tries to get me to spin her.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Besides you probably want Tab for that, seems to be your favorite dancing partner. Always smiling at you and everything" I meant it to come out as a joke, but it sounded more bitter that anything. Thankfully she was in her own thoughts and didn't pick up the edge to my voice.

"He's alright but he doesn't hold a candle to Bill. When he actually smiles, it's like seeing the sun shine." She says it like it's a known fact and the most natural thing in the world for her say. It stops me dead in my tracks, which stops her because we are still holding hands.

"What did you say?" I tug her a little so she's turned around and looking at me. She gives a small shrug.

"Tab is cute and sweet but he's not Bill. I'd kill to dance with him and make him smile. It's so rare and makes my whole day when I can cause it."

"Sweetheart, you do know I'm Bill." I wait for the lightbulb to go off as she takes a step closer and looks at my face.

"No you're not, you're eyes are too dark."

"They're the same as they've been my whole life."

"No, I know his eyes and yours are too dark. His are warm and beautiful with small flecks of gold in them. I could drown in those eyes forever." She lets go of my hands and starts walking off to her billet. I know I have the goofiest smile on my face as I watch her, before it's wiped away by the realization that she can't remember who I am. Of course I finally get the girl of my dreams to confess her feelings for me and she doesn't even know it's me she's talking to.

Just as I'm catching up to her, trying to figure out what to say, she turns to me with a panic stricken face. "You can't tell him any of this. Swear it." She grasps my hands again, squeezing for dear life.

"Your secrets safe with me, sweetheart." I do my best to give her a comforting smile to ease her panic, which seems to work. We don't talk anymore the rest of the way to her billet but we do hold hands the whole way.

Once we are in her room, I can tell she's losing consciousness quickly. I find some pajamas for her to change into, helping just enough to make it easier for her change without seeing or touching anything inappropriate. As she finishes changing and crawls into bed, I fill up a glass of water and set it on the bedside table. I take one final look around to make sure she's comfortable and settled in properly before dropping a kiss on top of her head and heading to the barracks for some shut eye before my patrol.

~~ End of Bill's POV ~~

I feel my cheeks burning with embarrassment after Bill tells me the conversation we had. My eyes are firmly planted on the bag in my lap, that I've all but turned into confetti. I feel him shift on the bed again, so he's seated right next in front of me, but I can't bring myself to meet him gaze. His eyes never left my face the whole time he recounted everything and I'm too scared to look and see what emotion I'll find there. Amusement? Pity?

The decision is taken away from me when one of his hands cups the side of my neck and tips my head up to finally meet his gaze. There's a lot of emotion in his eyes, but I can't pinpoint what it is, which scares me even more.

"I'm sor-" I start to say but get cut off.

"Did you mean it?" His voice is soft but firm. He's not going to drop this and seems to be holding his breathe waiting for my answer.

"Yes." The word is barely more than a whisper but I know he heard it from the smile that takes over his face. Next thing I know he's leaning the rest of the way into my space, tilting my head to the side and softly pressing his lips to mine.

My hands reach up to fist his jacket, pulling him closer and the smallest whimper comes up when he nips at my bottom lip. My reaction seems to be all the go ahead Bill needs as he focuses on pulling me so we are flush against each other while taking possession over my mouth. At some point we rearrange ourselves to be laying on the bed, him draped over me like a second skin.

Our kisses between slow and languid to passionate and slightly frenzied. We don't know how long we stay like that, minutes or hours, but when we part our lips are swollen and we are breathing hard. Bill rests his forehead against mine and nudges my nose with his.

"Can I stay the night? No funny business, I just...now that I have you in my arms, I don't want to let you go just yet." He places soft kisses on both my cheeks and then my lips, looking at me with his heart in his eyes.

"I never want to be anywhere except your arms, Bill." I nudge his nose back and return the kiss he just gave. The smile he gives me has my heart melting and my lungs forgetting to breathe.

A few small kisses later, we've arranged ourselves into more comfortable positions; him on his back, me all but laying on top of him, our arms wrapped tightly around each other. Slowly we drift off to sleep with smiles on our faces thinking the same thing:

We have our whole world in our arms.

[justjesse116]

Can I pester you for your thoughts on Dabi and Hawks' respective canon endings (if you haven't posted em somewhere already and I've just missed it)

Oh yeah, I did say I'd touch on that and sure never did huh. I got so fed up that I just ignored the ending and didn't feel like acknowledging it with a post anymore.

But I do have an answer for you. It's gonna be a long one, buckle up buttercup.

As for Dabi's 'end'.

Ah yes, fantastic message Horikoshi, if you're not a perfect victim and don't shrink away and make yourself small and hide away from your abuse/abuser - if you get mad and lash out then you should just fucking die. Your ABUSER gets a second chance, but you can just go fuck yourself.

(For a better understanding on how I feel about Dabi's story as a whole I got, what, 2 sentences in and had to pause because I'm sick as hell right now and a little fucked up on cold medicine, and I got so mad my hands started shaking and my heart tried to do it's best impression of a wildebeest stampede in my chest. (Emotional regulation who?))

Dabi is my ride or die, because I came from a home where my sperm donor terrorized me my whole life for the crime of being alive and having the gall to take after my mother. I have an unfortunately personal understanding of how he feels, at least in part, and his end in the story is what bothers me most, and will continue to do so.

Did he go about it the best way? No, I'm not a fan of the murder (arson I couldn't give 2 fucks about, destroy that government property babey) but I can't blame him for turning out the way he did. He went through literal hell and came out the other side torn apart physically and mentally. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't fantasize about killing my sperm donor for all the ways he fucked me up every once in a while, so I can't blame him for that either. I think it's a natural reaction to want to eliminate a perceived threat, especially one as traumatizing as one of the people who are supposed to be guaranteed to love you turning on you the way Endeavor did.

But anyway, I'm rambling at this point so in a nutshell; FUCK Horikoshi and his wishy washy writing and bitchass cop out. The end to Dabi's story is insulting at best and harmful at worst. It's very obvious that he was over My Hero, since he bulldozed over anything that would resemble a satisfying ending in regards to multiple parts of the story, but his handling of Dabi as a character is the most egregious in my opinion. I have well and truly had enough of this man (derogatory).

So now I shall move on to the man, the myth, the legend, the love of my life - you get it. Hawks. And if I'm being honest I'm not very keen on his ending either.

First of all, what ever happened to giving heroes more time to kill?

Ahem. Excuse me, getting a little heated.

Fucking give me that man, he needs to be sat down in a plush fucking armchair, with a mug of actual coffee, not that canned shit, bundled in the softest blanket money can buy, just relaxing and reading or watching a show. LET THAT MAN REST. HIS ASS HAS NO BUSINESS BEING THE PRESIDENT OF AN ORGANIZATION THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABOLISHED AT THE END. THAT'S WHAT IT FELT LIKE HORIKOSHI WAS HINTING TOWARDS THE WHOLE TIME. GET RID OF THE HERO SYSTEM. BUT NOOOOO.

To be a little more coherent (hopefully) about it. It's not to say I don't think he could do it, I just think it was one fuck of a leap. That was some Olympic level stretching, at least in my opinion. I just think that man deserves to rest. He belongs in a quiet little house in the countryside and he has a part time job at like, a local farm or something and in his spare time he volunteers all over town and preferably Dabi is there as well 🙄. Give him peace and quiet, let him rest.

I honestly don't know what would have satisfied me canon wise for his ending, but HPSC president just ain't it. Again, I feel like it was Horikoshi catching the cooties for his own work; he just wanted to be done with it so he slapped together what he thought was the most likely of scenarios and just left it at that. In a word; disappointing.

I see a lot of people saying he should have died, because out of everyone of the heroes his death would have made the most sense and had the most meaning or whatever, and I can agree with that, but I'm still glad he's not dead. It absolutely is fucked up how disproportionate the deaths were when it comes to heroes vs villains, no one can deny that. But dammit I need a win, I need a fave who ain't dead.

I think that about wraps up my thoughts without me writing a god damn dissertation. Thanks for the ask, it was a nice distraction.

[hauntingofhouses]

I was wondering, what do u think Taigen reaction to finding out about Mizu being a woman will be? Although I don’t think he will have a bad reaction I wanted to know what u thought about it?

OOH I like this question because the thoughts on this have been swirling around in my brain for a while and I don't think I ever properly talked about this, outside of maybe this post (which is barely coherent imo). There, I compared Mizu/Taigen to Mizu/Mikio, as well as to the main romantic couple in the movie Yentl. Then from both those comparisons, I tried to speculate on Taigen's reaction to Mizu's gender reveal, based on what would make the most narrative sense.

However, I didn't really analyse Taigen himself in that post, and neither did I ever come up with a concrete conclusion to what his reaction may be. So this ask gives me a good chance to speculate even further and hopefully come up with a proper and more in-depth answer.

Similar to you, anon, I don't think Taigen will have a bad reaction per se, though I guess it depends on what you'd define by bad.

Because this is Taigen we're talking about, I don't think he'd exactly be chill about it. He's very much a drama queen, especially around Mizu, as he's never afraid of stepping on her toes, and thus will vocalise his feelings to her whenever he's feeling them. That, combined with his short temper and his brashness, means that there's almost certainly going to be conflict when he finds out the truth. He will be shocked, and because he's immature, he'll be angry and upset because of this shock. Simply because he doesn't know, and hasn't yet learned, how to deal with his emotions in any other way besides getting angry.

So I think that will definitely be his first instinct. To get upset.

I don't think he'd immediately know why he's upset. Maybe only after a few minutes of angry questioning (think something along the lines of "Why are you telling me this now?!" and "You've been hiding this all this time?!"), he'd finally come up with some tangible cause for his anger.

What would the cause for his anger be then? Well, it could be several things.

Possible Reason #1

He feels "betrayed" because Mizu didn't trust him enough with the truth even after the two have grown close, and after Taigen has put his life on the line for her numerous times.

Possible Reason #2

He feels "cheated" because Mizu is not the man he'd believed she was, thus making it feel like their entire friendship was a sham. This is because the basis for their relationship, in the way he'd related to her, bullied her, envied her, admired her, allied himself with her, and eventually grown attracted to her, had been entirely based off the premise and belief that Mizu is his fellow man, his peer, comrade, and fellow samurai. Thus, discovering that Mizu is not a man would, initially, feel like all of that has been ripped away from him. And this is actually related to the third possible reason.

Possible Reason #3

This is a big one, and the reason everyone, including myself, is putting their bets on: misogyny.

Essentially, Taigen would find out that this whole time, the person he'd been envious of and struggling to beat in every single fight, is not a man, but a woman. And as far as he knows, even if women in feudal Japan could once be warriors (see: the Onna-musha), perceptions have since changed by the time of the Edo period. Furthermore, even if women could fight, men were still expected to be stronger, because men are supposed to protect women.

However, I believe that Taigen's particular flavour of misogyny is a little different, in that he does not view women as "inferior." Because remember, his fiancee was Akemi. This was a woman who took no shits! She was snarky and playful and intelligent, and moreover she was a princess, superior to him in every way, and he knew and respected all of that, and respected her as an individual who could make her own choices. When she'd told him the news of their engagement, Taigen asked her, "He's [your father] sure? You're sure?" And then, when she tried to seduce him in Ep 2, he asked her, "Akemi, are you sure?"

His respect for her is the only reason why Akemi had been so desperate to marry him in the first place. She did not love him, but knew he would be good to her. Because she could not guarantee that any other man would treat her nicely as he would.

Thus, with that being said, I don't think Taigen is some "alpha male dudebro" who thinks women belong in the kitchen etc. Instead, I think Taigen simply believes women are just... different from men. So it's not that women can't or shouldn't fight, it's that they just don't. It's not that women can't or shouldn't be friends with men on equal footing, it's just that they aren't. You get what I'm saying?

It's like, imagine your whole life, you're told, and fully led to believe, that a lamp can't light up. They're just meant to be in your house as decoration. And then suddenly, you find out that your lamp lights up! And you're like, "OMG a lamp is lighting up! How is it doing that?! I thought light only comes from candles and the sun! This can't be right, I thought lamps never light up! Isn't that a fundamental part of their design?"

Now, put aside that this is a pretty bad analogy because it's 1am as I'm writing this and I can't think of a better one atm, but I hope the point comes across, in that this is clear-cut misogyny (I'm comparing women to a piece of furniture here on purpose), but the lucky thing about this particular flavour of misogyny is that it's rooted in ignorance, and is not inherently malicious. It can be, but it isn't necessarily.

Ignorance can be undone through learning and educating oneself. And luckily for us, my friends, educating oneself out of ignorance is the entire point of Taigen's character! He represents the uneducated masses who blindly follow the flow of the fucked up system. This is in contrast to Mizu who has never had a place within the system to begin with, Akemi who has spent her whole life struggling to go against the grain of the system, and Ringo who has always tried to follow the system, but due to his disability, is denied full access to it.

Thus, we've already seen him take the first steps to unlearn his xenophobic and racial prejudice, and we've also seen him start shedding his massive ego and desire for glory, which are both used to mask his own insecurities. If Netflix gives us all 4 planned seasons, then we have 3 more seasons for Taigen to fully grow out these backwards mindsets and finally reach his full potential to become—not a good man—but a great one.

THEREFORE, whatever the reason for his upset at discovering Mizu's gender, I firmly believe that Taigen will get over himself in the end, regardless of whether his anger stemmed from his misogyny, hurt, confusion, or whatever else.

Because Taigen's short temper and emotional immaturity is born from him spending his whole life on the move. Unlike Mizu, who is always alone with her thoughts and meditates constantly to try to cleanse herself of her restless emotions, Taigen is used to surrounding himself with people (see:him in the Shindo Dojo) and ignoring his emotions completely (see:him trying to forget Kohama). Which is why, when he does feel anything, it's overwhelming, and he doesn't know what else to do with it except let it out, usually in an angry outburst. Only when given the proper chance to reflect in Kohama in Ep7, does Taigen finally go through some substantial growth and start feeling remorse over how he'd treated Mizu.

Hence, I suspect something similar will happen when he discovers Mizu's gender, in which he will get upset and shocked and confused first, but then he'll reflect and regret and try to make up for his past behaviour.

And this is what I meant earlier when I said that I don't think he'll 't have a "bad reaction."

Essentially, it is my belief that his reaction will not follow in the footsteps of Mikio's, but instead, directly oppose and subvert that. This is related to the points I referenced in the post I linked above, but also, more importantly, because Taigen and Mikio are narrative foils.

Thus, where Mikio had betrayed Mizu and left her for dead, I believe Taigen will, at the end of the day, remain loyal and continue to fight by her side until the very end.

Because the thing about Taigen, as a person, outside of all the attitudes and prejudices that have been ingrained into him, is his relentless devotion. He gives himself into everything he does, puts in his all, and does not do things halfway. That's what makes him such a good soldier. He does not lead, but follows. He is inherently self-sacrificing and driven by a desire to protect, and we see this in how protective he is of Mizu to the point of enduring torture for her and telling her to use him as a human shield; how his first instinct upon hearing Akemi had been dragged off to get married against her will, is to get up and try to go to her; and how, when hearing the shogunate is in danger, he immediately goes straight to Edo palace to try to warn the shogun, even if it might get him killed in the process.

I could go on about why I think this is what makes him so good for Mizu (because Mizu's arc, especially in Season 1, is literally about accepting help and opening herself up to others) but this post is already atrociously long, so I'll just leave it at that.

So, anon, I hope I answered your question! I'm sorry I can never give short answers though, but I think at this point, it's to be expected from me lol. Thank you for the ask btw! And on that note, my inbox is always open for more 👀

[hutahuta]

Desparate to get away from a creep that been harassing you, you rush to pavia despite not knowing each other yet saying he is your boyfriend what will he do? Plsss?

P.AGE OO.4 — 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐔𝐌 & NOBILITY : 交 ✦ ⏱

GN ! Reader — <3

this is probably gonna be long, who knows. i'm writing before i even started LMAO <3

edit; i dont like the way i wrote this idk,, maybe i'm getting a little self conscious of my writing and jdskkdkdkd i'm so sorry.. ;;

thank you sweetie, ilysm for requesting (๑´ ˘ `๑)

Running to safety hasn't always been your only option. Mostly because your friends encouraged you to carry weapons for your own safety, especially in these streets where you can competently get snatched, stabbed, mugged or any of the sort. In this era? Please. You think people could afford low quality security cameras, with a high price?

Weak hands trembled as you kept insisting that your time was not worth being spent on someone who was firm on the decision that you must simply travel with them to see the city's night scenery.

It's been at least 15 minutes at most with you trying to brush aside him or trying to speed walk out of the way, hoping he wouldn't go bother someone else but at least spare you the chance to get away.

Infuriating.

Fortunately, you were not the gullible sort. Whether you've encountered this for the first time, or you've experienced such shuddersome and nightmarish situations for god knows how long, it doesn't matter. None of this is fucking okay.

And you knew that.

Loathsome hands traced the outer space around your bare back, and much to your disgust, it was unbearable to not break their hand as of this second. You had to wait, just so you could still walk with said person and hopefully get the chance to outrun them when you see a nearby crowd flocking up to the nearest street.

' Come, I insist. '

' You've ain't got nothin' to worry 'bout. '

' Aren't you being stubborn? This is what I get for being a nice guy.. What's so bad 'bout someone tryna' treat you out? '

The same shit you'd hear time n' time again. It isn't always the easiest, especially when you'd think he'd carry a weapon on him just in case.

Think, be smart.

Ah, up just ahead, a crossroad catered towards the corner of your eye. Your head didn't turn around too quick, but you'd have seen the elderly couple steadily cross the walk just then. Following suit, a flock of crowds parked themselves up just ahead to watch the physical activities boarded up for their enjoyment.

Fuck.. Okay. Pace yourself.. Three, two, -

Before you knew it, you dashed immediately.

Wind blew and slashed against your face as you carried your burning legs as fast as you could. You didn't know what the hell this freak carried on him and you weren't planning on finding out either.

The crowd proved no use, as he could manoeuvre his way around, shouldering past people aggressively with the occasional loud grunt you can surely figure out that it etched from him.

Dammit, alright. It's fine. It's totally fucking fine, right? You couldn't tell where you were going. You crossed and turned at every corner, and just beyond your reach —..

Stood a man near the corner shop that sold the usual cigarettes and loaded beverages. Stuff that you'd only resort to having when your shift at work really sucked.

White to black hair, black sunglasses with a lavender shirt that had intricate patterns, but not interesting enough to pay too much attention to as of this time.

Please, for whatever God is out there. Offer you some strength. Fortunately, he was quick to stop you in your tracks by halting his hand in front of you, like how one would halt a nearby bus to indicate you're about to get on. However, he essentially demanded your entire body be impacted against his hand. Regardless, it made you panic in a hurry but your uneven breathing made it impossible to speak coherent sentences.

Pretty sure if you saw someone crying and running away like your life depended on it, wouldn't you stop by to help? Pavia was a mercenary, and a merciless one at that, but he wasn't entirely soulless.

' Now, where are you running off to in such a hurry? ' He had an accent. A lollipop stuck between his lips. What is it? Cherry? Strawberry?

Words. Just use words.

' Help, please.. Creep. Following. Behind me. ' Behind your uneven breaths, and horrid panting that caused a crack in the tone of your voice, he seemed to understand.

Or, somewhat get it. If it's anything staining this world, it's filth like this random person trying to inflict damage on innocent people like you who are just trying to get by their day. You look innocent to him. Exhausted, but innocent. Like a little lamb fleeing the slaughterhouse.

If it's one thing he hates, it's seeing the poor souls who resemble the innocence he once had. The chance that they could have to flee themselves from trauma, is the chance I believe Pavia would be willing to give. He must despise seeing the fear inside eyes that used to resemble his own when he was tucked away from the rest of society, forced to grumble under nothing but the deafening silence within the basement of his aunt's home after wailing out apologies and horrid voice cracks just to plead for his own freedom.

So. Seeing yours is no different.

Regardless, you do know the impact of you being outside.. especially during the evenings where it's dark and the sky turned into a murky ocean blue haze, gradients shifting darker by the hour and minute..

Gripping onto his shirt, your pleas to beg him to act as someone you might be familiar with, or perhaps even wear the stalker off with claiming that he is your temporary boyfriend, might strike something within Pavia..

Standing still, you rested yourself against his steady arm, holding you in place. Swiftly, he moved you against the wall, whispering a soft 'Then forgive me.' And yet, here were the thudding footsteps of your attacker. With a quiet look on your face, he stepped out of the shadow, amidst his hounds that surrounded his feet by seconds.

You couldn't believe it??

' Problem, amico? ' Resonated that voice of his, something to admire. Glistening under such beautiful moonlight, you could tell how the silver lining had outlined the steel plate of the metal cutting into the familiar shape of a pistol embedded within his pocket.. Huh- Shit— was he dangerous too? You only needed protection, not some bloodied out battle to settle for your freedom?? You're not looking to go to jail this early, anyways.

' I sincerely hope that you aren't getting aquatinted with my.. beloved? Huh? Lest I take that pretty little tie of yours to add into my collection. Divertente~ '

You didn't ask for his name, but your slender hands placed itself on his shoulder, still unable to catch your breath beneath these minutes that were unbearably silent to surpass.

Behind him, your body rested upon his, one hand eagerly coiled warmly against his waist like vines on a old pillar.

The stranger didn't wish to be aquatinted with you in any sort at first, but he was a playful hound of a man. With eyes that looked at you, then back at your stalker. Maybe talking with you a little more after this wouldn't hurt, right?

' You know, amico. ' He approached.

' There is something quite thrilling to have the echoes of thuds of dead bodies fall flat against the surface when you hear that deadly gunshot linger in the back of your head, huh.. You know, my boss tried the same thing. '

And yet, it feared him in some way. Your eyes replicated that of a lost puppy. Those puffy cheeks, reddened and exhausted from running ever so much, oh my.. Something sparked inside of him.

Compared to his gaze, that had his pupils dilated so small, it reflected insanity upon them. He whispered a quiet ; ' I suggest you surrender before it gets ugly? aha.. '

All it took—; was the slow movement of his slender, yet ringed hands to reach into his lower pocket-

And by the second.

They left. You heard grumbled apologies.. and shuffling. But that was mostly it.

The stranger dressed in purple didn't bother to turn to look back around at you to see if you're alright or not, but there was a smirk on his face. A smile on it that he could only turn his head to the side which he could witness your breathing slowly starting to become tolerable; that lollipop twirled itself around his fingers.

Maybe a factor of it played into it because he just saved you, but some part of you could tell a fraction of him enjoyed teasing you with his playful gaze. As if you knew what he were to already say.

The public here avoid trouble but when they see terrible news on the media, they flock together like birds to ready themselves into war. It's nearly impossible to fight against society's norms, but you suspect that's why nobody but him offered such help.

And you were lucky.

Seems like it won't be the only time you'd meet this stranger by the looks of it. He said nothing more than patting your shoulder softly, then moving back inside the building.

Pavia wouldn't be the best at trying to offer comfort but he knows better than anybody else on how events like these tend to fuck you over. The shit people put up with on a daily basis makes him want to spit on lowly people for even thinking they have the right to breathe the same air as you.

Pavia merely reached his hand towards your trembling figure. He seemed to contemplate whether it was a good choice to get to know you, but under these circumstances, that stalker could still be lingering about. What better to do than to have him offered to sit beside you until you feel safe to go on your own again.

After all, maybe it's the safest option..

And who knows? You'll become acquainted with this stranger soon enough with time.

[slashingdisneypasta]

Cruella De Vil x AFAB!Assistant!Reader || Smexcerpt

Plot: You find out what your dumbass co-worker has been doing to further her career- you decide to take a leaf outta that book.

Warnings: Smuty. Employer/Employee. References to pussy eating. Unedited.

Imagine walking up to Cruella De Vil's office to hand in some of the designers' works for her to review, all enclosed in a pretty leather-bound folder with straps to tie it closed, and when you approach the door you hear...

Well. Noises.

Immediately your eyes widen, like, oh fuck is that?-

Moaning!??

And what the h e l l is that... wet sound??

The door is ajar. Casey, Cruella's other assistant, was always sloppy about things like that- you did not understand why that whiny little bint got all the good tasks. Going to fancy parties and shows with the Mega Bitch while you stayed in the office doing paperwork. Going through the designs with the Mega Bitch while you got them coffee and dinner orders-- even though she s u c k s at her job!! You are objectively way better, you have the eye just like Cruella does and the confidence to speak up to her. All the designs that Cruella ends up picking, you pointed out. All the outfits Cruella wears so successfully to those events and shows?? YOU PUT THEM TOGETHER!-

... But now, peaking and seeing what's inside the Mega Bitches office- you finally get why.

Your mouth falls open, seeing Casey on her knees under the huge folder Cruella's flipping through- and between her legs. The moans are from her, Casey, and the wet noises??

Those are coming directly from your bosses cunt.

... God. Damn., you think, eyes wide and partly outraged.

If that's what it takes you certainly could've fucken done that!! And better, too. If Casey licked pussy as bad as she did everything else but where a skirt, you knew you could do it better.

Holy shit-

~

The next day you get yourself totally worked up in the bathroom during your break, right before Casey's; ever-so-slowly rubbing your clit between your folds, over your underwear. You got your pussy unbelievably drippy- and you did it thinkinh about the Mega Bitch, your horrible boss, Cruella. Who woulda thought?

Then you slipped off your stockings, sent Casey for her break, grabbed the designs you forgot to hand in yesterday due to the boiling hot career outrage (and, alright, lust- ) with shaky hands, and headed confidently (Determindly) to Cruella's office.

Knock knock, "Ma'am? I have those designs."

She doesnt even look up from her paperwork, speaking surprisingly coherently around the cigerette stick tucked between her molars. "Mhm, you know where they should go Y/N. Hurry up and put them there and get out- I need a coffee. Now."

"Right." Awkwardly, you set them down in the organiser tub labelled designs. When you don't leave after that, instead hovering at her desk (nervous, and unbearably horny), Cruella rolls her eyes, groans, and straightens up with an irritated gait.

"?? Coffee?? Now?? Where bloodywell is it!?" She snaps, such a familiar tone to you. Hopefully that will change, after this, you think with an eye roll.

With that thought, enough to push you forward, you carefully rest your hands on the desk; Leaning down and speaking lowly to the woman. "... Look. I saw what you had Little Miss Short Skirt doing in here, yesterday."

If you expected Cruella to be surprised, ashamed, or flustered in any sense, you were wrong. Good thing you weren't expecting that. Not out of her- you've been her assistant long enough to k n o w the bitch. In the face of your revelation, Cruella just raises an undaunted eyebrow. "... so?"

"I think you and I both know I'd, uh, how should I put this?... perform that particular task, better." Feeling the heat still throbbing inside your underwear, you go on. "And- and I want to."

"... you do?" Cruella sounds deadpanned and uncertain; disbelieving. After a second, she rolls her eyes and goes on, looking back down at her work. You're losing her. "Y/N, I thought you were a serious girl. You took your career seriously. I know that, and so-- that's how I've been treating you. You have potential, don't squander it."

She thinks you have potential?!! She wouldn't say it if she didn't believe it, so- Then how bloody come she's been giving you all the g r u n t work!????-

You know what? Whatever. Keep calm, keep going.

"I won't. I would never." You admit. It's true- you wouldn't do anything to jeopardise your future (Fashion is everything to you and you will make it in the industry.), but you would do anything to make it. "... that's why I'm doing this."

Then you slip down to your knees on the floor, creeping under the table and between the older womans thighs.

It's funny, you've known her so well for so long (as her assistant) it feels half natural to be doing this finally. Like it was building up to this, your lips on her glistening cunt; Your tongue inside her.

It's evident she feels the same, because its no time before her clawed fingers dig into your hair, scraping against your scalp, dragging you deeper against her pussy.

[graciereadshannigram]

Hi! You don’t know me, I’m not a mutual and I’m new and essentially inactive so far on Tumblr aside from setting up my profile, so please prepare for an extremely random interaction. I’m clinging hard to the anonymous function here. I’m a somewhat new writer on ao3 in the Hannibal fandom. I’m mid 30s so maybe that’s part of it, but I know no one in the fandom world at all. Not in person or online. I just finally decided to try out writing after many years of reading and I’ve been loving it. Like you (based on your pinned post), I’ve historically mostly written academically and professionally, and flexing those muscles in this way is such a pleasure. I’ve read a lot of your stories on Ao3 and I loved them all. And you pop up a lot on the Hannibal dashboard on Tumblr and seem to be a pretty kind person, so I thought you might be someone I could ask this somewhat awkward question without judgment: how did you go about building your fannibal community (I’m just going off of tumblr comments in assuming that you have a fannibal fam)? Now that I’m writing, the urge to chat about random Hannibal thoughts or bounce ideas is overwhelming, and I get the impression most people have their fannibal crew as an outlet for that. Right now I’m just annoying the hell out of my completely disinterested partner who thinks I’m losing my mind lol. So I’m trying to figure out if there’s something I’m missing about how people connect in this world or if it’s just Tumblr and Ao3 and a stroke of luck? If you think this is weird, please feel free to leave me on read lol. No hard feelings at all, I feel weird enough about this as it is. But if you have any advice and wouldn’t mind sharing, I’d welcome it. Thanks and thanks for all your great writing!  

omg hi, this is such a sweet ask! genuinely honored that you'd reach out to me at all <3

funny you should mention annoying the hell out of your partner because SAME lolol that's what drove me to start this account in the first place.

so. i'm going to attempt to give a coherent response here, please bear with me.

when i first started out, i pretty much mass followed anybody who had a hannibal-related account and then just started interacting with people. it was mostly just commenting on or reblogging other people's stuff, and i felt wayyyyyyyy out of my comfort zone because, historically, i've been a massive lurker.

then i decided i wanted to do my monthly hannigram fic rec posts because i was tracking that data anyway and i just wanted to do something with it other than just letting it all rot in the spreadsheet never to see the light of day again. and turns out, a lot of people like to ask for and give fic recs! so that was a cool way to find cool myoots.

and then i got the itch to write and started to post Reciprocal Alchemy and was utterly blown away by the response people had. off the top of my head, @incidentsofunknownorigins, @coffee-in-rain, and @serri-i were all very vocally supportive from the jump and i pretty much was like, "hi we're going to be friends, no you don't have a choice, no i'm not sorry" lolol

and then i just kept writing and more people kept engaging (i'm still geeking over the fact that so many people enjoy my writing and are kind enough to make sure i know they like it <3) and here we are?? i think it was helpful that i linked my tumblr at the end of every chapter or fic that i post so people who find me on ao3 can come say hi here as well.

oh and i posted an insane amount of content in a very short amount of time for a popular event (kinktober was almost the death of me lolol) and that resulted in a wide variety of people seeing and reading my stuff.

all that is to say, you're pretty spot on with the tumblr/ao3/stroke of luck combination!

i have no idea if any of this was helpful for you, but hopefully something in here is :)

also, would love to be mutuals!! some of my best fic ideas come from random conversations i've had with other friends and writers, so let's go insane over these gay cannibals together!

all of my love, Grace

[nataliescatorccioapologist]

idk if it's still controversial or not, but hearing from the writers how they always planned for Nat to die by Misty's hand (with the foreshadowing in the pilot), makes me mad at the way ppl were treating Juliette after Nat died. Blaming her for ruining the character, saying it felt rushed, etc etc, when I feel it was a poetic end to Nats journey 🤷🏻‍♀️

Nat spent her whole life feeling like she doesn't belong. We know that the wilderness gave her purpose, but we also know it further destroyed her psyche. Then, coming back from the wilderness, she carried all this guilt with her. Specifically drawing the queen card and Javi dying in her place.

Then, when she finally is starting to get her life back together, she dies protecting someone else, a selfless sacrifice that completed the full circle of the drawing of the queen to the death of the person that drew it.

Furthermore, it being Misty that killed her only made it more tragic and poetic. Misty, who killed someone that she believed was her only true friend, and Natalie, who had spent her whole life searching for retribution.

idk this could all be barely coherent (running on 2 hours sleep lol) but but tldr is that Nats death will be a catalyst for the events of S3 and I think her death was played out in a way that her character would have wanted it to be played out.

I totally agree that the way people have treated Juliette Lewis due to Nat’s death is not okay. Even if she did decide to exit the show, that doesn’t justify the way people treated her. And it is clear that her death was planned and foreshadowed from the beginning.

I have had my own issues with Nat’s death (none of them related to JL). Of course I am biased because Nat is my favorite character, but her death did feel a bit rushed narratively to me. I like the completion of her arc (not letting Lisa die in her place the same way she let Javi die in her place) and the resolution of her survivor’s guilt through her death. And it will be so interesting to see how Misty handles her death (and the guilt of killing her) next season.

I just feel like not enough time was allotted for Nat’s character development in Season 2. She went from hopeless, ready to commit suicide, and extremely cold/guarded to a Birkenstocks-and-socks-wearing cult member encouraging everyone to practice self-care, forgiveness, and vulnerability in the span of like 2 episodes (and a week or two in the show’s timeline). And this was after being sidelined for most of the season in the adult timeline. I wanted to see her make real, genuine, believable change before her death, and, personally, I didn’t see that in Season 2.

And I do worry about the effect Nat’s death will have on her storyline in the wilderness going forward. I would have loved to see Nat’s arc as the new leader in the wilderness paralleled with her storyline in the adult timeline, but we unfortunately will never get to see that. And with the audience knowing exactly how Nat’s story ends, I worry that some tension will be removed from her storyline in the teen timeline. I also worry that the writers will not give her as big of a role as a result. I will definitely feel the absence of Nat’s character in the adult timeline, I think she was, in a lot of ways, the heart of that group, and I just can’t shake the feeling that they shouldn’t have killed her off so soon. But that’s just me! Hopefully they will make her death worth it in the next season.

[bookshelf-dust]

colors

dad!eddie munson x gn!reader

word count: 2,717

warnings: swearing, single dad!eddie, mentions of money problems, fluff

a/n: so this is very new for me! i should preface this by saying that i do not have children, and my experience with them is limited. i’ve also never written super young kids or parent characters before, so i hope it turned out alright. i did my best, and tried something different. i’m being brave and stuff. maybe you’ll like it. maybe. hopefully. also you can thank @clovermunson for being my enabler. love you! :)

————

“How’s that one, huh?” Eddie asks. The little boy perched on the counter nods, curls bouncing every which way. Eddie tried to tie up the front portion in a little bun, but now he just looks like Pebbles Flintstone. “Better? Good.”

Eddie pats the boy on the knee—a knee currently covered in Garfield pajama bottoms—but continues to keep watch over the tooth-brushing that’s happening before him. James is getting much better at brushing his teeth on his own, but he still needs a little help from Eddie occasionally.

Tonight they’re trying strawberry flavored toothpaste because the bubblegum was not a winner. The boy pulls the little green toothbrush from his mouth, brandishing it upwards with both hands like it’s a sword. 

“Help. Please.” He’s got a mouth full of foam, so it comes out sounding a little more like “pwease.”

He does this when he can’t get his back teeth right or if he just wants dad to do it instead. Eddie will take what he can get.

“Open up, bud.” James yawns first; it’s the same kind of slow and lazy yawn he’s had since he was born. It pulls at Eddie’s heartstrings, but he powers through, doing his best to clean those little teeth. 

When he finishes, Eddie is careful to take James’ hair down and wipe his face clean, which the boy doesn’t enjoy. 

“So, what’s the verdict? Strawberry the best?”

He taps James on the nose with the tip of his pinky. It makes him grin, chubby cheeks going all rosy. “Good,” James says.

“Yeah? Would you say it’s berry good?” Eddie’s hands find his boy's sides, tickling away. The giggles follow immediately, and Eddie takes his chance to heave James up and over his shoulder, little fingers tangling in his mess of curls. 

“‘S berry good!” James squeals, clearly pleased with his dad’s joke. Eddie tries to soak up as many of these wins because he knows the jokes probably won’t be funny forever. 

He pats the boy on the back, hand big enough to cover the entire expanse of it. Eddie lowers him onto the bedroom floor, watching as James waddles towards his bed and flops down on it, scooting up towards the pillows and the mountain of stuffed animals he insists join him in his slumber.

It doesn't seem to be anything special, the bed. But Wayne built it for his grandson, so it means more to Eddie than any toddler bed he could’ve found at the store. And the mattress is currently made up in Scooby-Doo bed sheets, which James is very fond of. 

Eddie settles on the floor next to the bed, knowing damn well it could never support his weight. He tries to lift the covers up, but there’s a little grunt of irritation, signaling that James doesn't need his dad’s help.

Eddie tucks the blankets in faux-aggressively against his son’s sides, making him grin, but it’s a very tired one at that. 

“You know, I don’t even think you’ll make it through a story tonight, kiddo. Y’seem pretty sleepy to me. And if you wanna go to the art store in the morning, well then you gotta get some shut eye.”

James looks up at him, big brown eyes blinking ever so slowly. Eddie isn’t entirely sure he’s coherent enough to understand the words being spoken to him right now. 

Eddie brushes the curls back from the little boy’s face, all pale skin and freckles and these insane eyelashes. His hair is a little too long because Eddie still hasn’t taken him to get a haircut, but last Eddie asked, James was still content with his hair. It’s well past his shoulders at this point, maybe twice as wild as his dad’s. 

He’s asleep now. Totally knocked out. It amazes Eddie how he can just pass out the moment his tiny head hits the pillow. “Goodnight, Jamie.”

Eddie stands and stretches, yanking the chain on the bedside lamp, and he moves to creep out of the room—one lanky step at a time. 

————

Eddie Munson never pictured himself being a dad. 

Hell, he never really had the time to think about it. Eddie’s dad was a piece of shit, and so he busied himself trying to do enough to make Wayne comfortable–especially since Wayne hadn’t ever signed up for being a father.

But here he is: essentially working two jobs with a three-year-old boy tottering around after him like he hung the moon and stars himself. 

Wayne opened up an auto repair shop after the plant shut down, having saved enough to get a good handle on things. It’s where Eddie works pretty often now, but really he doesn’t have to. Corroded Coffin makes plenty of money now, money Eddie could live off of whenever he so desired, but that’s not how his brain works. He knows it won’t last forever, and he was raised to at least be somewhat careful with his money. 

And there’s Jamie.

Eddie loves that boy more than he ever thought possible. He such a cool fucking kid.

He’s pretty shy, yeah, and it takes a lot of encouragement from Eddie and Wayne, but he’s a tough kid. And he’s so creative. Jesus. 

That creativity is how Eddie finds himself getting his ass out of bed on a Saturday morning to take Jamie to the local art supply store. It’s like an indie, but for art, he’s decided.

Eddie is pretty well off at sketching. He took a few art classes in high school and had a thing for charcoal, and of course he’s drawn up maps and characters for Hellfire—he still does that—but art wasn’t something he actively did in his freetime like it was a passion.

Eddie is also not a morning person, so he isn’t sure where James got it from. But the boy does respect this, seemingly not wanting to wake dad up, some part of him understanding that dad isn’t ready to get out of bed. 

James is ready to get up though, so he waddles down the hall, little fists rubbing at his eyes. 

He pushes Eddie’s door open, which is usually left open just a crack for these instances (or if there’s an upset tummy in the night), and he pulls himself up into the bed. Eddie’s always been a heavy sleeper, but now it’s like he’s attuned to the little added weight to his mattress, to the shift of tiny knees. 

The funny part is that James won’t get upset that his dad isn’t up yet. He just wants to be near him, to hang out. And lucky for Eddie, James is quite the snuggle bug. 

The boy stops inches from his dad’s face, and somehow Eddie just knows. He stretches, arms going over his head, and James takes the opportunity to sneak under a limb and face plant into Eddie’s chest. 

“Mornin’ Jamie.”

The boy grasps at Eddie’s shirt in greeting. “Mornin’,” he sniffs. 

James is wide awake, puffy eyes staring up at Eddie, and while the latter feels like he could sleep for another twelve hours, he doesn’t have it in him to doze off with a kid on his chest. A kid who is much too cute for his own good. 

“How are you this morning, my child?” 

James sits up, clearly confused. He shrugs, little shoulders rising up towards his ears. 

Eddie snorts, proceeding to imitate the shrug. “You dunno?” The boy repeats the movement, a small smile making an appearance on his face, a face that remains to have pillowcase imprints on it. 

Eddie gets his hands under James’ arms, pulling him up and onto his stomach, though trying to be careful of fragile places. 

“Still wanna go to the store? Yes or no?”

James nods vigorously. “Yes, please.”

A large and calloused hand pats him on the back. “Solid. Let’s go then.”

By the time Eddie gets both himself and James ready, out of the house, and across town to the art store, the place has been open for a whole twenty minutes. Eddie figures the only people up at this point might be the elderly. He’s also quite grateful for the quiet of the store, knowing how crowds can make Jamie nervous. He supposes it tends to be one too many of the big people compared to his little body. Quite nerve-racking.

Eddie realizes suddenly that he has no idea how to navigate an art supply store. “Uh, Jamie, do you have something you wanna look at first?”

He looks up at his impossibly tall father. “Colors?”

“Okay. We can do that.” 

Paint. Eddie can find paint, right? Why didn’t he bring Wayne? Wayne’s the one that’s been supporting this hobby anyways. Fuck. 

He’s frantically looking around at the signs when a voice breaks him out of his stupor.

“Can I help you find anything?” You ask, just as nervous as they probably are. You’ve never been very good at having to ask the customers this, but it is your job to assist them.

You keep your hands behind your back, that way they can’t see your insistent fidgeting. 

James is quick to move behind Eddie’s leg, and he knows the “stranger danger” alarms are going off in his boy’s head. Eddie doesn’t think you’re scary, though. 

“Hi. Yeah, actually. We’ve never been here before, and I really have no idea what I’m doing.”

Your grin is the sweetest damn thing Eddie Munson has ever seen in his life. Aside from Jamie, of course. 

“That’s okay. I can show you around if you need, or if there’s something specific you’re looking for. We aren’t very busy right now, so I don’t mind.”

Eddie releases a breath he wasn’t even aware he’d been holding. “That would be greatly appreciated. All I’m working with right now is that he wants to look at colors, which means paint. Other than that, I’m at a loss.”

You chuckle. “I can do colors. They’re not far.” You start to walk away, and Eddie moves to follow, James holding tight to his hand. 

“It’s okay, kiddo. They’re helping, alright?” James’ eyes look more watery than usual, and if he doesn’t let up, Eddie will break. 

You’re quiet most of the way, but at one point, in a hushed tone, you ask, “Shy boy?”

“Yeah,” Eddie smiles. “Definitely.”

“I get it. I was the same way.”

“Oh, yeah?” 

Dammit. Why is this the day he proves to have a vocabulary consisting of “yeah” and “okay?” 

“Yeah,” you smirk. “Here we are. All the colors. Watercolors, acrylics, more big kid stuff. There’s also washable paint, if you feel that’s necessary.”

“Shit. Sorry. Wow, I meant to say. That’s a lot.”

“Anything he normally likes?” By this point, James has seen the pastels and let Eddie go. You watch him patter towards a set of watercolors that are placed at just his height.

“All he’s used so far are watercolors, my uncle bought them for him, and he’s said he likes them. I usually just ask him what he wants to try.”

You’re smiling at him again, and he catches the way your fingers fuss with the hemline on the little smock you’ve been forced to wear as a uniform. “That’s a good strategy. Seeing what he’s most drawn to, you know?”

Eddie’s hands are sweating. Someone hasn’t flustered him this much since freshman year of high school.

“Works most of the time,” he tells you. Eddie moves closer to James. The boy is holding a little paintbrush with a blue handle, and his eyes are glued on the same set of watercolors he’d seen when he walked down the aisle. 

“You like those ones, bud?”

“Yep. Pretty.”

Eddie looks up at you with a smile on his face, like he can’t believe this is his kid, and it makes your heart swell. Usually the families that come in here are much more rowdy, mothers holding expensive purses and telling their kids not to scream. There’s a difference between the people who want to make art versus those who use it to keep their kids busy because they don’t want to parent. You can tell Eddie cares about his boy, that he’s his whole world. 

Eddie pulls the set out: a silver tin with two rows of square pans, each filled with a different color. They aren’t the obnoxious ones you get for cheap, the ones only covering the bright rainbow shades—these are the ones that would let you paint a little more of a picture. He flips the tin over out of habit to check the price. It’s not as bad as he’d thought.

He holds it up to you. “What do you think about these?”

“I like those ones. I’ve used them before, and they’re very easy to work with. They’re pretty pigmented, so they’d allow him some room to sort of figure out how much water he needs and how he wants to use them. And there’s a good range of color, so he won’t get upset about missing too many.”

Eddie is in awe of you. He knows it’s your job and all, that you’re getting paid for this, but he thinks he could listen to you talk about paint for the rest of his life. 

He’s grinning at you and you’re suddenly worried you’ve said too much. “What?” you ask, your mouth ticking up just as his is. “Too much of the art nerd?”

He stands up. The full height of him is much too pretty. You think he might even be too pretty for his own good.

“No. Definitely not. That was very helpful.” James has migrated to stand between the both of you. He hands you a brush, which you take gratefully. He smiles, cheeks all pink and freckled. 

“What about brushes?” Eddie asks. “The ones he’s got now shed like crazy.” 

You run your thumb over the one you’re holding, thinking on it. 

James follows you when you crouch to look at some. You set down the one he’d given you, hoping he won’t be too upset. 

You find the beginner ones you’d been looking for, and hold them out to him. “Do you like these?” The handles aren’t blue, but a dark green color. 

“Mhm,” he hums. “Very cool.” 

You turn to face his dad. “Cool,” you mouth. It makes him laugh. 

James takes the brushes from you and holds them up to Eddie. “Can you buy? Please?”

“Yeah, Jamie.” 

“That’s a sweet name,” you remark, standing up. 

“Thanks. It’s James actually, but y’know. Oh, I’m Eddie, by the way. I realize I never actually said that.” You tell him your own name, assuring him that it’s okay. 

You spend a little more time with them, wandering down a few more aisles when James says he’d like a sketchbook. You find him a spiral bound one, that way it’ll be easier on him to turn or rip out pages. 

You ring them up, and almost start to feel sad about their departure. You move around the counter, and James walks up to you. “Thank you for helping,” he says. 

“You’re very welcome, sweetheart.”

Eddie watches your exchange, and he can’t help but feel like you’ve made a connection with James. Like you understand him.

“Wanna come paint?” he asks, big brown eyes looking at you hopefully. You realize he wants you to come home and paint with him. Your heart shatters a little at the wholesomeness in his request. 

Eddie puts his hand on James’ shoulder. “I think they’ve gotta work, squirt. Maybe another time though?” He looks up at you. They’re both looking at you now and you’re afraid you could never deny them anything. Not with those big doe eyes and wild lashes. 

“Yeah, sure. I can paint anytime. Given that’s okay with your dad.”

“That’s more than okay with me,” Eddie tells you. “But don’t feel pressured.” 

He doesn’t say that this has literally never happened before, that James usually avoids contact with others. He doesn’t tell you that this is groundbreaking shit. 

“I promise I don’t. We could set something up, yeah?”

“Yeah. Totally. Thanks for today.”

“Anytime, Eddie.” 

You exchange numbers, and suddenly they’re out the door, matching curls flying in the wind, hands interlocked as they work through the parking lot. 

————

please let me know if you liked this! feedback is always appreciated!! comments and reblogs mean more than you know. <33

[heartilywrites]

The fic of reader being varrick’s actress was so good i loved it so much!! Now i was thinking what about a korra fic with an earthbender reader who claims to be the best earthbender? And because she thinks shes the best she tends to act recklessly during missions but gets upset and overprotective when korra gets into even a little bit of danger 😋 when korra tries to get to the bottom of why reader is so reckless she finds out reader is just used to no one caring about her and during a really risky mission reader tries to sacrifice herself and tells korra “take my heart—take everything i have” angst to comfort plsplspls

Sorry if this is a weirdly specific request its just been on my mind for so long😔😔 LOVE U HAVE A GREAT DAY🩷🩷🩷

،، 𝓔verything I Didn't Say ; Korra

request guide | masterlist

resume: where your overprotectiveness for Korra takes a dark turn.

content warning: comfort ; angst ; gore explaining situation (wounds and blood descriptions) ; dysfunctional family descriptions ; korra x fem and earthbender!reader ; eye color description ; no use of y/n

wc: 3.1k

a/n: hello gorgeous!!!! im so glad you loved the actress fic <33 this one took me a bit 'cause i needed to add coherence to my own plot for the attacks, but hopefully i met your expectations!! LOVE U TOO, ENJOY :D

“ As long as I got you, I'm gonna be alright. As long as I got you, I'm not afraid to die.

Sounds of chunks of earth crashing against the floor while grunts, electric shocks, fire roaring and metal cutting air was everything anyone could hear from meters away.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Where the fuck is she!?” the firebender's voice asked with desperation while defending himself from the attacks of the enemy group. “Who was the last one to see Korra!?”

A loud bang was heard from behind followed with a couple of curses and a stumbling silhouette of you walking to them was seen. With the metal strips that you always attached to your arms waiting to be used you got the last opponents making your friends turn back to you amazed with how easy you made it look. A quick move of your hand pinned the three benders to the floor.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “I had him.” Mako said, you chuckle nodding with a sarcastic face.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “'Course you did,” you looked around and frowned when only three heads were counted. “Where's Korra?”

Everyone opened their mouths only to be interrupted by a suden lightning. From the three, you were the quickest one to react and look for the source.

When arriving to the scene, Korra's image was quickly followed by a bender shooting lightnings at her, you felt your blood boil and were fast to act. The avatar stopped surprised seeing a piece of rock bigger than her being thrown at her attacker, not fast enough to hit them, but it made them run to dodge it.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “I got this!” you screamed running beside her and being quick to attack again both with earth and metal.

Korra looked at your way of attacking, impressed with the boldness and agility of your movements, almost hypnotized until she forced herself to land back and help you. Not even five minutes after, every single person in the criminal group was captured and were being handed to the police officers. You were taking your metal strips to have them put back in place when everyone reunited.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “You were amazing... As always.” the waterbender began.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Told you, the best earthbender this city has ever seen.” you shrugged with a proud smile, arranging the pieces of metal.

She smiled while shaking her head. “Yeah, but that was stupid. You could have ended up hurt.”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “But I didn’t,” your eyes looked up to hers. “I'm the best at what I do, stop worrying about me.” the last part came out in a soft tone, Korra sighed.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Yeah, but we are a team! That's why we fight together, so we can have each other's back.” she argued again.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Drop it, Korra, I'm fine.” you finished.

Before the girl could even continue with her lecture, you changed the subject to something else, getting your friends to join and talk as a whole. The avatar had a little bit of a bad mouth taste after that little confrontation, but paid no attention to it.

On your next fight, it almost seemed as if two of the attackers were targeting you. With a big cut on your leg you were still fighting with everything you had, once again the whole team was victorious. While you were doing a tourniquet on your –not that deep, in your words– cut, Korra walked to you furious with a frown.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Are you fucking serious!?” she started, you were way too calm. “I told you we are a team! You don't need to fight alone!”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “I don't know if you saw what I saw, but they attacked me first.” you shrugged.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “And why did you stopped us from helping?” now her arms were crossed on her chest.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Because I got them!” with a little bit of difficulty, you stood back up. “Stop babying me around! I know how to fight and defend myself! I don't need you to be all on me everytime we fight.” limping, you got closer to her. “If you wanted me in the team it was because you knew what I was capable of, you need to understand that I don’t need anyone to look out for me, I'm fine.”

Her ice blue gaze fought for a couple of seconds with your emerald eyes before you walked pass her. Korra sighed frustrated while pulling her face a little bit with her hands.

She didn’t understand your obstinacy, Asami had said you were a little bit of a stubborn when she introduced you to the team, but also said how you were such a good fighter and... That was it! Asami! She had to help Korra on her try to understand you.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “What do you mean?” the inventor asked, taking a sip from her cup of tea. Korra had asked her to speak in private, while everyone else was practicing outside.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “You know,” she looked for you to name you. “She's... Something.”

In the distance your scream of victory was heard while Mako whined for a rematch.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “I told you she was hot-headed, didn't I?” Asami answered with a giggle.

You and Asami had known each other for quite some time now. She met you in the beginning of your teenage years while you were still perfecting your metalbending and she was the first friendly face you have trusted in so long.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “No, I know, but why?” Korra frowned a little bit. “There's no way she's like this just because.”

The non–bender licked her lips with a thinking face, she didn’t how to explain you. Her amber eyes looked at you beating the brothers and smiled a little bit.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Her parents,” she began, not looking away. “She had them in the house, but they never wanted to be parents, so they never took care of her.”

Now Korra looked at you, even if the scene of you sitting on top of Bolin's back while having Mako suspended in the air with a metal piece in his wrists was funny, she made a grimace with her lips. Frowning them a little bit.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “For what I know she was on her own pretty much since she can remember... Both parents didn’t care if she lived or not, they would scream at her for literally anything and everything,” Asami shifted a little in her seat. “That's... uhm, that's why she is so good at attacking and defending, daughter of two earthbenders.”

Korra looked at Asami, flabbergasted to what she was implying. Golden eyes met her with concern.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “They made her feel like she was on her own for so long that is merely impossible for her to ask for help, she has always been either invisible or a perfect blank for them.” the engineer's voice sounded soft. “There was a time she lived in the streets too when all her parents wanted was to fight with her. They never looked for her either, not even now.”

The avatar blinked slowly, her friend shrugged.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “That is also why she is so overprotective of us... Of you, specially.” now the southerner had a confused look. “She wants to give people what she didn’t have for so long: a protector.” she explained and Korra took a deep breath in.

If Korra was about to be honest, the talk did helped her to understand you better, but not enough to get why even if she assured with everything she had that you could trust her and the team, you just didn’t see to believe her.

The next days she stopped picking up fights with you and concentrate more in making you trust her fully, it did make some difference, not the biggest changes she expected, but little steps were better than anything. And then, the attacks became more often; one followed by another until the group knew what was happening: a new affiliation of benders trying to take out the avatar because of the whole spirit situation, they wanted to "make the world back to what it was".

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “We need to be careful,” Korra was saying on the passenger seat while Asami was driving. “We don't know what they are capable of just to win.”

You felt the blue eyes look at you. You knew what she tried to say, 'be careful, don't do anything stupid, that's why we are going as a team', your shoulders shrugged.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “They can try.” you murmured, smiling.

Not even going as a surprise the group was able to have advantage over the association. In a matter of minutes they had you cornered in a hiding spot, defending yourselves as much as you could.

A grunt came from the avatar at your side and your reflexes were quick to catch her in time before her body could hit the floor. A clean cut on her arm bleeding was more than visible, you looked to the other side were the two brothers were already looking tired while throwing rocks and flames over to the attacker while covering the inventor who couldn’t help as such distance. Bitting your bottom lip you looked back to Korra who had a grimace of pain, tearing a bit of your shirt you tied it up over her wound.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “You have to trust me.” you said out of nowhere while doing the knot, she frowned confused and nervous emerald orbs looked at her. “You do trust me, right?”

Her head nodded, still confused. “I do, but what–”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “I love you, Korra.” the interruption made her forget her words. “I know Asami told you about me, please know that all I want is to protect you, I want you to be safe even if that means I need to give myself up.”

Her sky colored eyes were looking for an answer in yours, but you were occupied trying to burn the memory of her face in your brain.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “I trust you more than anyone else, I want to give you... I want you to take my heart,” you corrected yourself, shaking your head. “I want you to take everything I have, everything I own, because I know you will treat me like I need to be treated.”

A tiny whisper of your name fell from her mouth. “I know what you're trying to do, don't.”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Guys! They're near!” Bolin's scream got in the way, Asami and him were covering Mako who got hit by a lightning on his shoulder.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “I got this.” you said in a chuckle, before taking a deep breath in. “I'm sorry.”

Without having the southerner notice, you had imprisoned her hands in one of your metal pieces. When she tried to stop you and realized her hands were tied, a scream of your name in such an angry and worry tone came from behind you.

Almost tripping on her own feet, she got to the other side with her friends and asked with desperation to Bolin to get the metal strip off of her with his lavabending and while the guy was working her eyes looked for you only to see you already bleeding and getting hit with rocks, but never giving up.

Even with blood and bruises, you were able to take down a big number of them. Some ran to hide to catch their breath leaving you with just another metalbender who was giving you a good fight. Looking to the ceiling, a plan was fast thought and giving everything you had to them you were able to make them step back down over a construction made of metal. A couple of metal strips were thrown their way to distract and after that, you tried to bring down the whole thing on them.

Even if it was working, they were able to take the metal strips off and shoot them back at you; since your arms were already occupied, you weren't fast enough to stop them and two of the metal pieces inserted into your abdomen.

Two voices mixed up in a scream, yours in pain and Korra's calling for you. A tired Bolin worked as fast as he could to get his friend out of the imprisonment.

Your opponent smiled with satisfaction and walked a couple of steps, having the metal deeper in the cut, with a little bit of momentum and all your strength left, you were able to tear down the construction on them; killing them or just making them unconscious it didn’t matter, the metal was way deep in your muscles that you couldn't feel any pain, just the way your hot blood was dripping down to your inferior part, soaking your shirt and part of your pants.

Once the avatar was freed, she got into the avatar state to finish the job of taking down the rest who was just appearing or got back into the field.

Too weak to take the metal out of you by bending or just pulling, you fell to your knees coughing blood. Your eyes were shifting, trying to focus on anything, scared that it could mean your last moments. You felt warm arms wrap around you, preventing your body from touching the cold floor. The southerner screamed for someone to get water.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Hey, hey, stay with me, don't you dare close your eyes.” Korra said in such desperate manner, you were way too weak to say anything back. “Why doesn't anyone has water when I need it!?” she screamed while her friends were running to get water. “You're not alone, I'm with you.”

Unintelligibles whispers sounded on your mouth in such a soft manner that Korra thought at first you were only moving your mouth. Blood stained, a weak smile was painted in your lips and the avatar's eyes began to tear down.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Don't leave me, please, just hang on a little more.” she pleaded with shaky voice, slowly your hand was raised to brush her cheek, she didn’t matter the stain.

Your eyelids felt heavy, even if you could show much emotion, Korra could feel how scared you were. She was too, she didn’t want to lose you this way, not when she was able to stop it.

In a matter of moments, Bolin and Asami appear with a little bucket of water each just in case. The avatar felt a little bit more relieved and looked back at you, your eyes were fixated on the ceiling while they blinked in a dreamy way.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “I'm sorry, it's going to hurt.” she said to you, you slowly got your eyes to focus on her and not even a second before, Korra bended the metal out of you having a high pitched scream as a response.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “My spirits, I feel sick... I'll go see Mako.” Bolin said after witnessing everything.

With fast hands she waterbended over your wound while mumbling, your eyes closed suddenly and both girls feared for the worst. Korra couldn't feel your pulse for what it felt an eternity, she kept bending while tears built on her eyes and when she felt life signals from you and heard how you took a breath in, she relaxed herself and giggle a little bit.

After Korra stopped healing you when she knew it was okay to do so, everyone went to the Air Temple Island where Korra left you in her room. She had bandaged your whole torso and kept healing you every once in a while.

You woke up a whole two days after the events, your whole body felt like it was ran over and not to speak about your torso. Disoriented, you looked around, you were alone. With a bit of struggle you tried to sit yourself up between grunts and moans, letting your back rest in the headboard for a couple of seconds.

You were ready to stand up completely when the avatar's voice scolding you stopped any further movement.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “What the fuck do you think you're doing?” she asked, your eyes looked up at her and discover a frown. Her hands left the tray of water and bandage she was carrying on the nightstand. “Lay back down if you don't want another wound on you.”

She helped you get back in bed and was quick to take the water bowl. You looked at her hands moving over your bandages.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Korra...” you called hoarsely, she was way too fixated in what she was doing. “Korra!”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “I told you you didn’t have to fight alone!” she exclaimed back at you, shutting you up. When she looked back at you, she was teary-eyed. “You have no idea how scared I was when... when you didn’t respond.”

You stood in silence for a moment before speaking again. “I'm sorry... I just wanted to protect you.” she sniffed, taking one of your hands in hers.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “And I just want to protect you.” she said back, your heart skipped a beat. “You have to be the most important thing I have right now, I love you in such a way that all I want to do is protect you from anything and anyone.”

For the first time in a long time, you were at a loss of words. Smiling in such a ephemeral way, a small grip was given to her hand.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Well, that means we have something in common.” you tried to joke with her, when trying to laugh it ended in a complaint because of the pain.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Don't think you're safe from any punishment.” your smile dropped, making Korra smile herself with malicious. “You're to stay resting for at least a whole month and no missions for two.”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “What!?” your eyes widened. “That's just playing cruel with me now.”

The southerner kneeled beside you and left a soft and shy kiss on your lips. Your hand cupped her face, when trying to deepen the gesture and have her nearer to you, Korra distanced herself.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “If I get to have more of those I can stay a whole year resting.” you said smiling again, Korra laughed before going for a second kiss, forgetting completely any fear or anger in her, opening the way for the love she started to accept for you.