#Final Chapter

[fir-fireweed]

I have amazing news! I have finished writing Viatica! 🥳😱

Caveat… I still have to edit, code, and test it, but the core writing of the story itself is complete. It’s a little bittersweet to finally be done, but I’m excited to present my story in a complete form. I’m aiming for a publish date of December 24th. Setting a hard and fast date will force me to get it done, but also, my husband has promised to buy me DA4 for Christmas so I’m going to need some gaming time, lol.

The finish line is in sight! Eek!

[fast-moon]

Noragami Final Chapter

*wipes hands* Welp, there you have it. It's done. Chapter is translated and in the wild. Thanks to everyone who's kept up with the series until the end!

Couple translation notes at the bottom.

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Sample Images

Translation notes:

Page 20:

"Houki" (砲器) is a new shinki for Bishamon. Their name literally just means "cannon". Also, I don't remember Bishamon losing an arm and a leg since she seemed to still have all her limbs the last time we saw her, so I assume that's just the effect of the shinki glamor? Not sure what the "human" reading for 砲 would be, possibly "Nuiha" or "Zutsuha".

Page 25:

Teke-teke is an urban legend about the vengeful spirit of a girl who was hit by a train and cut in half at the waist, who drags herself around and kills people. There was a movie released in 2009 in Japan based on it.

Page 37:

A lot of the text on the signboard is unreadable, but the gist seems to be they're looking for a woman who knocked over a baby stroller on 7/10 (so since the final page says it's currently April, it's been a while). There's a jar of dead flowers next to the sign, so it's possible the ayakashi is the spirit of the baby, much like the spirit of the girl Yukine found early in the series.

[mey-star]

Please tell me you get it

[smok3r7]

They Always Come Back

Aaron Hotchner x f!reader

Explicit, 18+

So Much For, Dumb College Love

Main Masterlist & Series Masterlist - My AO3

Summary: You and Aaron met in college, Criminology Major, funny enough. Throughout your five years at George Washington College, you and Hotchner had this on and off again relationship; it was all fun until you started to realize that you loved him. After graduation the two of you cut ties and left it as dumb college love, going your separate ways. After a decade you finally land your dream job, a seat at the BAU; however when you notice the name copied on the email, you can’t believe your eyes.

Chapter Summary: Some souls are meant for each other and some aren’t.

Word count: 3.3k

The finale is here guys…I’m so proud of this story and am so happy that you guys love it! I hope this is all you guys hoped for, these two will forever hold a special spot in my heart<3

—

After a grueling week, working on one of the most challenging and traumatic cases you’ve encountered since you started half a year ago, the team decided to unwind with some drinks at their favorite dive bar - The Diamond. Tucked away on a quiet corner, the place is smaller than most bars, with just a jukebox to fill the air with nostalgic tunes.

The ambiance is calming but also lively, with the sound of laughter and chatter blending in seamlessly. The dim lights cast a warm glow, making everyone feel comfortable and at ease, as if they have found their own little sanctuary in the bustling city.

As you all sit around a table, the weight of the week slowly lifts off everyone's shoulders. Laughter fills the air as stories are shared and jokes, finding solace in each other's company. In this moment, surrounded by good company and good vibes, you feel grateful for them all and for the simple pleasure of being together in this hidden gem of a bar.

The bartender, Josie, is a gorgeous young woman they have come to know well and absolutely love; her radiant smile and effortless charm always make your heart skip a beat. With a flick of her wrist, she expertly pours out your favorite concoction, a Jack & Coke, the perfect balance of sweet and fiery that never fails to soothe your soul.

Especially after cases.

As you take the first sip, the cool liquid slides down your throat, and you can’t help but marvel at how Josie always seems to know exactly what you need. In that moment, surrounded by the comforting buzz of the bar and the soft murmur of familiar voices, even with all the disasters you and your team endure, this is the life you want.

The dimly lit bar provides a cozy sanctuary where you can forget about the horrors of the case, if only for a few hours. After a second drink, the team finds themselves opening up about their fears and struggles, forging a stronger bond in the process.

“Alright,” Garcia slams the last of her drink, “Enough dark nasty talk! What’s everyone’s plans for the weekend?” She’s never been one to keep up with the unhuman behaviors the rest of the team can, which is perfectly normal - and necessary. Sometimes you and the others can get caught up in the sad side of reality, when there’s so much more to life.

While J.J talks about how she’s going out with her two boys this weekend to her moms, you can’t help but notice the small glares from Aaron, the tension thick in the air. The conversation then moves to Emily, who says she’s going to Atlantic City tomorrow early afternoon and hints at her ‘Sin To Win’ weekend. You can’t help the small cheer that leaves your mouth before you chug the last bit of liquor and soda, clinking glasses with the girls while the guys chuckle to themselves.

But with a flash of light Derek, the observant one and jokester in the group, notices the brief glances between you and Aaron, he can’t resist commenting, "Love birds…will you two just give it up already?"

Suddenly, with the attention being brought to you guys, you can’t help but laugh at Derek, a genuine but terrified laugh. Then, you and Aaron exchange a sheepish smile, the air between you crackled with unspoken attraction, nerve-wracking more than anything. Laughter bubbles up, masking the underlying meaning, but the rest of the team observes, sensing a shift in the dynamics between you two but brushing off the fact of it all.

What began as a mature decision to work together now seems to be evolving into something deeper, more stirring. With each shared glance and lighthearted banter, it becomes increasingly clear that there’s a spark between you that refuses to be ignored - ever since the unplanned kiss. The realization dawns on everyone present, prompting knowing looks and whispered conversations.

As the night wears on, the playful teasing continues, but this time with a hint of something more meaningful. Perhaps the weekend drinks have let some of the team let their tongues loose more than normal, which you really don’t mind but you just wish that topic would change.

The main concern being that Derek saw you and Aaron kiss that night in Aaron’s office a few months ago. He hasn't treated you any differently besides making jokes here and there about you and Aaron, a lot like how Garcia and him do. It's not any of Derek’s business right now, especially when you don’t even know what the kiss means.

You try to push the thought to the back of your mind, focusing on work and daily tasks. But every time Derek cracks a joke or gives you a knowing look, you feel a pang of guilt and confusion. Was the kiss just a moment of impulse, or does it signify something more between you and Aaron?

You can’t help from the memory of the warm, familiar kiss from Aaron a few months ago lingering in your mind, you just can’t stop thinking about it or him. The music loud, the atmosphere vibrant, but all you can do is look at Aaron. The moment replays over and over, like a record.

You had longed to feel his touch again after a decade of separation, but now that he’s your boss, everything feels different. The forbidden nature of your desires adds a layer of complexity to your relationship. But it somehow makes you want more.

“Well,” Aaron announces, slamming the last of his scotch followed by the sound of the glass on the table, “I’m going to head home, you guys enjoy the rest of the night.”

The table erupts in sarcastic boo’s as Hotch backs out after just a couple of drinks, a familiar sight for you and everyone else. Despite his tough exterior, Hotch was always the first to leave after difficult cases.

It makes you wonder if he carries the weight of these cases heavier than the rest, or if he simply needs a break from the relentless demands of their job. Perhaps both reasons rang true in their own way.

As you watch him slip away into the night, a sense of understanding washes over you. In a world filled with chaos and uncertainty, sometimes the strongest ones need a moment of solitude to process it all.

“Bye man!” Derek raises his glass with a tipsy smile on his lips.

“Drive safe!” Your tone is a mix of giggles and seriousness, the liquor making you more bold than normal, but you instantly regret it.

The last thing you want is for the team to think you’re obsessed or pining over Aaron, even though you are, they don’t need to know that. The ache of unspoken affections weigh on you as you watch Emily and Garcia giggle at you as they take a sip of their beverages, you wish you could turn back time and keep your feelings hidden.

—

Stumbling towards Aaron's apartment, you feel disoriented and confused as the world spins around you in a hazy blur. You have no recollection of how you got here, or why you are in such a drunken state.

The memories from earlier in the night are fuzzy, but you vaguely remember drinking with Emily and Derek, the last remaining ones of the night. Flashes of laughter and camaraderie float through your mind, mingling with the haze of alcohol.

You drunkenly giggle to yourself while slightly bouncing from wall to wall down the hallway, making sure to miss apartment doors. Your blurry vision adds to the challenge, but you're determined to reach his apartment no matter what.

Each bounce brings a wave of laughter, echoing through the quiet corridor. The dim hallway lights flicker above, casting shadows that dance along the walls.

You stumble but manage to regain your balance, feeling a rush of exhilaration with each step. The sounds of your footsteps echo in the empty hallway, guiding you forward. Despite the haze of alcohol clouding your mind, you feel a sense of freedom and adventure in this moment.

With a mischievous grin, you continue your tipsy journey, eager to see where the night will take you. But then you feel something tell you to stop in your tracks, looking up from the floor you notice you’re in front of his place, F268. You stand outside Aaron's door, you realize the gravity of your situation - you have no idea what you’re here for.

With a headache forming and a sense of uneasiness, you reach out to knock on the door, hoping that Aaron will let you in. Your mind races with thoughts of what he’s going to say or even do when he sees you.

The lingering taste of alcohol on your tongue is a bitter reminder of the night's indulgence. Emily and Derek dancing, laughing, and singing with you till closing, the memories bounce around your pounding head. Your heels cause you to stumble, even while standing in one spot, causing you to giggle a bit louder.

What happened after the drinks and laughter? And how did I end up here, at Aaron's apartment? The answers elude you as you struggle to make sense of the night's events.

Knock, knock.

Next thing you know, he answers the door in nothing but dark blue plaid pajama pants, pleasantly surprised by you drunk in his hallway, he rubs his eyes, still trying to process your unexpected visit. The faint smell of alcohol lingers in the air as you meet his gaze with a mischievous grin.

"What are you doin' here?" Aaron asks, his voice laced with confusion and sleepiness.

You can't hold back a drunken giggle and blurt out, "Thought I'd surprise you."

His thick eyebrows shoot up in surprise, but a smile tugs at the corners of his lips. The dim lights in his foyer reveal Aaron's puzzled expression as he stares at you, a subtle smile plays on his lips, but his puzzled expression gives away his confusion. The tension in the air makes you feel uneasy, almost as if you have disappointed him in some way.

“Your place is closer than mine,” you confess shyly, leaning your back on the hallway wall behind you for balance. Aaron's gaze is piercing, making you squirm under his scrutiny, “I’m too drunk to walk to mine and I just figured you be okay with me-“

"Just come in.” He cuts your drunken rambling before you make even more of a fool of yourself, grabbing your wrist to pull you in, causing you to stumble on your heels. The room spins as you try to regain your balance, the smell of warm candles and Aaron overwhelming your senses.

You catch a glimpse of his intense gaze, filled with a mix of concern and frustration. As he calmly guides you to his warm toned couch, you mumble an apology, but he just shakes his head, a small smile playing on his lips.

"You need to slow down, dear," he says softly, his voice cutting through the haze in your mind, “I’m gonna grab a water, just- sit here, please.”

It’s easy for you to read him, even when drunk. You can tell he’s confused on how you even found his apartment, but he let you in regardless - because you know he really cares.

With the best of your ability, while he disappears into what you can only assume is his kitchen, you scan his living room. It's simple, like any man, but it’s got a sense of comfort with it. The worn-out armchair by the window, the stack of books on the coffee table and a bunch more on his shelves that fence the large tv, and the flickering candles creating a warm ambiance - all familiar sights that make you feel at home despite the haze of alcohol clouding your mind.

You catch a glimpse of old photographs on the wall, each telling a story of a moment frozen in time, then you stop. A picture of you and him in college hangs above a side table with a record player on it, the one of you both from the fair in your hometown, your breath catches in your throat and tears brim your eyes. He’s missed me just as much.

After all this time, he still loves you.

You always believed he was fine without you, but now you realize the depth of his feelings. The realization brings a smile to your face as you think about the moments you shared together. Despite the distance and time apart, there is a strong connection that still binds you.

"Aaron..." you mumble and get up from the couch, the room swirling slightly from the multiple Jack & cokes. Slowly, you make your way towards the familiar picture hanging on the wall. The golden frame catches the dim light, casting a warm glow on your smiling face next to his. Memories flood back as you trace the outline of his features with your fingertip, feeling the nostalgia strike deep in your heart.

In the quiet moment by yourself, surrounded by the echoes of the past, you feel a sense of peace wash over you. You remember the moments shared, the dreams woven together, and the heartbreak so many years ago. As you reflect on the times you spent together, you realize that Aaron will always be a part of you, no matter where life takes you.

—

“I couldn’t find anywhere in my heart to get rid of that.”

In the dimly lit room, Aarons smooth voice startles you, causing you to turn towards him. Your eyes fall on the two tall glasses of water placed on the coffee table, one for you and one for him. The alcohol coursing through your veins makes you feel comfortable yet emotional.

You struggle to utter any words, but ultimately they fail to escape your lips. Your gaze shifts back to the wall, a bittersweet reminder of the past, but you can't help from wondering how things could have been different.

A soft silence lingers between you and him, the weight of untold words hangs heavily in the air, filling the room with unspoken truths and lingering regrets.

“Do you think that- that this could work again?” You softly whisper as a small tear falls onto your warm cheek. Your feet hurt from the heels you’ve been in for hours now, causing you to sit back onto the couch, all while staring at him.

Aaron doesn’t respond, it's hard to tell if his silence is intentional or if he's just at a loss for words, either way a sharp pang of hurt pierces through you. You wonder if he even hears you, or if your words are falling on deaf ears. It’s really unsettling how much you don’t know him anymore, college you would know exactly this kind of silence means. But you don’t know.

The silence between you grows, it feels thick like a heavy fog descending upon the room, which starts to make you angry. You just asked him a simple, yet loaded, question and the least he can do is answer it. You look up at him as he sits down next to you, leaving a couple inches of space between you and him.

Frustration bubbles up inside you as you wait for his response, your patience wearing thin, faster than it normally does. The question seems to hang in the air, demanding to be acknowledged. You can’t understand why he remains so quiet, so distant.

Finally, unable to contain your irrational emotions any longer, you break the silence with a trembling, yet stern voice. "Why won't you fucking answer me?" Your words echo, pleading for some semblance of understanding.

But still, he remains silent, his eyes betraying a turmoil of emotions you still can’t decipher. Another few seconds of silence go by and you finally feel like you’ve had enough, so you push your hands on your knees and stand up. You try your best to balance yourself before you storm off, while telling him to fuck off.

Just when you think you are free to walk away, Aaron's sudden move catches you off guard. His grip on your wrist is firm, yet tender, pulling you close to him against your will. The intensity in his dark brown eyes sends a shiver down your spine, as conflicting emotions swirl inside you. You can feel the heat of his breath against your skin, his presence enveloping you completely.

In this moment, as you stand locked in a silent battle of wills, you realize that he’s head over heels for you just as much as you are for him.

“Yes,” Aaron loudly confesses, “I do think this can work again. You don’t know how hard this past decade has been for me, even harder the last couple of months having to work with you.” With his arms still around you, he purrs your name, “I love you more than anything.”

As his words sink in, the tension between you dissolves, replaced by a flood of emotions. The past grievances and misunderstandings fade away, leaving space for a new beginning.

With his dark eyes staring down into yours, he squeezes your body closer to him, "You make work enjoyable again. You make me comfortable in who I am," Aaron firmly tells you, "When you broke it off before we graduated, I felt like I lost a huge part of myself. But I know we wouldn't have lasted long after, it needed to happen."

The honesty in his words sends shivers down your spine as you realize the depth of his feelings. In the soft candle light, you see the vulnerability in his face as he speaks to you. His brows are relaxed but stern at the same time, revealing the rawness of his emotions.

His words echo in your brain, You make me comfortable in who I am. It's a simple statement, yet it holds so much weight. You realize, you have the power to ease his insecurities, to make him feel understood.

As you gaze into his eyes, you see a glimmer of gratitude mixed with a hint of fear of rejection. And in that moment, you know that you hold a piece of his heart in your hands—a fragile, precious gift that you vow to protect. And with that, you wrap your arms around the back of his neck and pull his face into yours in a gentle, yet needy, kiss.

The warmth of his touch ignites a fire within you, a fierce determination to shield his vulnerability from the world's cruelty, even with the cruel job.

As you hold him close, his heartbeat echoes in sync with yours, a symphony of love and longing. In the silent language of your entwined bodies, you find peace and understanding. Each kiss is a promise, a whispered vow of eternal devotion to each other, once again.

In this timeless embrace, you and Aaron are bound by an unbreakable bond, a fusion of souls that transcend words, ultimately meaning to end up with one another. Together, you forged a love story written in the stars, a tale of two hearts intertwined in a symphony of passion and tenderness.

[bluelockblog]

[lilacxquartz]

TO SAVE A BROKEN SOUL • suguru geto x cursed spirit f!reader

ao3 link • masterlist • << previous chapter

summary: freedom sure tasted sweet, but suguru wasn’t about to let you go.

warnings: violence, noncon, death and deeply disturbing themes

Final Chapter: Bittersweet

Learning how to live life alone back in the forest wasn’t too bad, you supposed. It didn’t take too long for you to get back into the swing of things at your own pace.

And given enough time, you could hopefully soon forget all about that strange man who wanted nothing more than to keep you locked up and hidden away from the rest of the world.

The forest quickly became your much needed sanctuary; a place where you could both breathe and be yourself once more. No longer were you shackled within the confines of his unjust prison, suffocated within the presence of a man who both hated you and wanted you alike.

But then something stopped you dead in your tracks, forcing you to investigate out of instinctual curiosity. It didn’t take you too long to figure out what caught your attention however as the smell of freshly cut flesh was strong in the air; seeping copper trickling down an open wound.

Without even thinking about it—you blindly rushed forward—your eyes blurring as the burning impulse to investigate coursed through your veins like spreading wildfire. You stumbled through the forest floor, clumsily stumbling and catching yourself on bristling foliage before uprooting yourself and closing in on the target at hand.

Red was all you could see.

Oozing vivid copper, gushing and creeping down like sanguine wine and goodness, just how intoxicated you were! Your vision remained hazy, blurring the person up ahead into nothing more than a shadow before you finally gave in and bit into them. The urge was overwhelming: quickly taken over by fading reason, a savaged push that forced you to surrender to the now familiar hunger.

It wasn’t long before you were deep in the middle of a feeding frenzy without quite realising just how you got there. You didn’t quite think about how your teeth sank deep into the already damaged flesh of the person who had no business being this far deep into the forest to begin with.

Meaning that, in such a frenzied state, you didn’t notice Suguru watching you from a distance either. You weren’t a human being, so your actions were a touch too predictable for his liking. You didn’t choose a random forest, nor did you attempt to escape to somewhere far away. Perhaps you thought that these woods were somehow different, or more dense or somewhere you could long get lost in—but they weren’t. Not as long as he had the bait primed and prepped in his hands, then he could coax you out with a temptation unlike any other.

Of course it didn’t take him that long to find you, nor did he have to be careful when he slowly crept up on you. The sight was odd to him, seeing you so out of control like that and for once, he didn’t have to read between the lines of what made you human and what made you a cursed spirit. It was obvious from the look of you; eyes wide and manic—fuelled by a murderous haze that was beyond any control, blood dripping down your chin, staining your skin with rotting red—stripped of any humanity you may have once had.

While lost in your untamed trance, you had just barely noticed him the second he crept up behind you. His footsteps were quiet, somehow evading the crunch of scattered leaves, stalking up to you like an invasive shadow. The realisation of what you had just committed and who likely planted such bait had finally hit you, sending you into a state of rising panic.

You sprang up, tearing forward in an attempt to escape him but in the midst of your blood lusted high, you moved just a little too slow.

An eerie glow formed as Suguru’s hands hovered parallel to one another, clasping around an empty space. Just as you barely processed what was going on, it was then that you felt it. A sharp, pulling sensation that tugged violently at your soul.

(Wait.)

An aching pain surged through you as you were forcibly drawn into the grappling pull, unable to resist the agonising confinement of his uzumaki technique. Cursed energy coiled around you, snaking around your body as it sought to constrict you, solidifying you within its suffocating embrace.

Slowly but surely, you were hauled into a glowing vortex—the most horrible pain ever imaginable—like slowly plucking flesh from muscle, like muscle from bone; disintegrating the markup of your very being into complete nothingness, yet into everything all at the same time.

It was a grim reality and one that you couldn’t escape.

Like a cornered animal that was once again hunted without cause despite roaming in its rightful element, you held onto what remaining hope you had as you finally slipped away. Forced to become something that was no longer you, that was you, that was just a mere fragment of who you used to be.

Fading away for good.

Until you were simply no more.

~~~

Suguru stared at the sphere that had finally formed into a solid mass. The ball took a good sweet while to materialise as it gathered every last drop of your essence, tightly packing whatever it could hold. Your tears were the last to follow, evaporating from the ground and fizzling away into the uzumaki.

His stomach churned again; finally realising what he had done as a result from anger and envy combined. So driven was he from his own corrupted desire to keep you all to himself, that he could just barely comprehend the gravity of what he had just done.

But it wasn’t like Suguru didn’t know what his technique did to cursed spirits.

So, why did he do that to you?

Albeit reluctantly and with a shaky hand, he bent down to pluck the uzumaki off the ground and wrapped his fingers tightly around the glowing sphere. He stared at it for a good half minute before shoving into his mouth, pushing it down his throat and swallowing, despite just how upset he was feeling.

And as the cursed energy flooded and settled and became assimilated within his senses, he found himself almost… pleasantly surprised by the taste.

Instead of rancid gasoline, your soul tasted sweet.

In that bittersweet moment, he warred at a deep conflict sparring deep within the depths of his mind. The consequences of something unforgivable finally registering, hitting him with a sweeping feeling of utter despair.

This seemed to be his tipping point; the moment of horrendous realisation finally accomplished.

Suguru sank himself to his knees as his palms secured the fall. It hurt, but he didn’t care. His body felt taut with tension as he choked out dry heaving breaths, unable to expel the turmoil that churned within. Tears streamed down his face, clouding his vision with an anguished blurr.

“…Why did I just do that?” he asked himself, hoping that an answer would somehow come and explain to him what drove him to do something like that.

Yet, as the minutes ticked by and nothing remained answered, Suguru was forced to face his actions and reflect. You were free and happy and instead of letting you go; he killed you and then absorbed you.

Why?

The question kept echoing itself in his mind, haunting him with his own unanswered obsession. Sighing deeply, rather than slipping away into rightful madness, Suguru instead bitterly swallowed away the remaining pain that had otherwise relentlessly gnawed at him before picking himself up from the forest floor. Finding that the day as he forced himself to endure, had passed in a numbing blur.

Maybe it was better that way.

Emotions, or… empathy for something inhuman was a ridiculous concept. Right? You weren’t even an animal; you were born from condensed negative energy and given a voice. Nothing more.

But as the night fell, he found himself bringing you back in the only way that he knew how—no matter how wrong it all felt—the desperation was surely there. With a hesitant gesture, he summoned your manifested form into his view but there was not a single hint of recognition behind those devoid eyes of yours.

What was once just glittering space, was now just nothingness instead.

Essentially, he had reduced you to no more than just a husk and it was a heartbreaking sight, despite him being fully aware of what he had done to you.

Suguru tried to touch you the same way as he did before, but the bleak experience hit him from your unresponsive form. It was a truly bleak experience as his fingertips settled and traced along the paths he already knew, yet feeling so barren and unfamiliar this time around.

He dry heaved again; feeling genuinely sick for what he was about to do, but he was also desperate.

Gently, he grabbed onto you by the waist before laying you down into the soft sinking mattress before climbing onto the bed too, crawling over your body and straddling over your hips. With a careful motion, he undressed the both of you, steeling himself for what he was about to give into.

Suguru’s hands roamed around your body, never once finding a single shred of comfort in your unreciprocated form. Pushing past the unease, he positioned his hardened length over the slick of your entrance, ready to push himself inside.

It was sick, he knew it. You weren’t yourself anymore and yet—he thrusted himself into you with almost violent fervour. His hips slammed into the marbled contours of your flesh, surrendering himself to an unforgiving rhythm while avoiding looking right into your eyes.

Oh no. No, no. This was neither a loving nor passionate fuck. Definitely not. This was purely clinical, almost. Driven by a wild desire to bring you back to him, to keep you forever, to never truly allow your soul to pass on and reincarnate as something else.

Suguru Geto was a man fully depraved, fully obsessed and perfectly aware, for in this passing moment, he didn’t care.

Gripping tightly around your hips to imitate the illusion of your own rolling hips, Suguru rutted into your core in a pace that bordered on manic, his thrusts bucking feverishly against your cunt. While he continued to rock into you, he tried to get you to bite him again—to feed on him—yet you didn’t do a single thing; just laid there blankly, staring at the ceiling with a vacant stare.

Such a realised sight was what had finally killed him as he surrendered to yet another cry; finding what little threads of sanity he had left barely contained, snapping and coming undone as the consequential weight of his actions had finally been realised.

With an almost pained final pump, he released himself into you and felt the hatred that he had otherwise reserved for himself finally settle and fester; unable to escape from his own mistake while continuing to ride out the last of his orgasm.

Suguru couldn’t help but weep into you as he finished; the weight of his actions finally settling.

This wasn’t you.

In fact, it was never going to be you again.

All because he was blinded by his own selfishness and now instead of burying you in the past or simply just letting you go—instead of releasing your soul and letting it move on—he held onto you.

If you were still in there somehow, then that’s a possibility that he couldn’t shake.

And so, Suguru would rather be haunted eternally by the reminder of you instead.

The sweetest poison that he ever drank, but a taste that he would never be able to savour again.

~~~

this was part 2 of lilac’s bite sized yandere nightmares

[vertigoartgore]

1991's Marvel Comics Presents Vol.1 #84 cover by Barry Windsor-Smith. The Last chapter of the famous Wolverine: Weapon X storyline.

[thatsmzbitchtoyou]

Sugar & Spicy Books FINAL Chapter 8

Summary:  Y/N is an accomplished writer who is newly divorced, and out of fear of the unknown, moves back to her small hometown she swore she’d never come back to.  She comes across her best friend that never left, who helps her out of a tough spot.  Will old feelings arise?  Or is she just too big for such a small place now?

Warnings:  language, smut

Previous chapter

13 months later

Y/N stared at the stick in her hand.  The black dots continued to blink, and she could feel her nerves making her more jittery than she already was.  Today was her wedding day.  Bucky had asked her to marry him shortly after their conversation about their future over a year ago, and as much as she was nervous about getting married since her first marriage hadn’t gone well, she was sure about Bucky.  She loved him, she loved Autumn, and she loved their new life together.  When he had told her he wanted a child with her, her heart felt like it soared, and all the questions she had about them and their future had disappeared.

She had stopped taking her birth control pills without telling him, wanting to see how well her body would adjust to weaning off of them.  It took a while, and for a moment she was worried, but lately she had been feeling off, and missed her most recent period.  So here she was, hiding in the bathroom as Autumn and Winnie were getting ready on the other side of the door.  

Y/N put the stick down, covering her eyes with her hands.  Staring at it wouldn’t make it go faster.  She waited, breathing deeply as she tried to calm herself.  It was okay if it was negative, but there was a big part of her that knew she wanted it to be positive so badly.  She uncovered her eyes and looked up at the ceiling, inhaling deeply, before looking back at the stick on the counter.

Pregnant.

She gasped and grabbed it, holding it close to her face.  She shook it out like that would somehow change things, and when it didn’t, she huffed out a silent laugh and looked at herself in the mirror.  Pregnant.  With Bucky’s baby.  And they were getting married today.  Her hand drifted down to her stomach, cradling it gently as if a bump would magically appear in the next few seconds.  It was happening. Y/N composed herself before washing her hands and leaving the bathroom, hiding the test in her dress pocket for later.

The ceremony was beautiful and small, with only a few of their closest family members and friends there.  They had both cried as they read their vows, and Y/N had vowed to Autumn to be the best mother she could possibly be for her.  She didn’t tell him about the baby yet, and instead focused on having fun on her wedding day.  The small group danced, sang, ate, and enjoyed their time together.  At the end of the night as they said goodbye to Autumn, who was staying with Winnie, to go on their honeymoon, they got settled into Bucky’s car and drove off to the sound of whoops and hollers from their high school friends.

They caught a flight to Puerto Rico, settling into their rented house, all courtesy of Y/N’s alimony, a fact that they both took a lot of pleasure in.  After a day of rest from hours of traveling, Y/N got ready for the day.  She holed herself up in the bathroom again, having grabbed a second test before they left the States.  She just wanted to be sure before telling him and getting his hopes up.  She waited for the second test results, smiling widely when it read the same as the first.  She put it in her pocket before leaving the bathroom.

When she entered the bedroom she started laughing, seeing Bucky laid out on the bed, naked and poised with one hand holding up his head, a leg bent showing himself in all his glory to her, and a red rose stem in between his teeth.  “Oh how romantic!” she giggled, approaching the bed.

Bucky huffed a laugh and sat up, crawling toward her on the bed before taking the rose from his mouth and handing it to her.  As she held it up to her nose to smell it he took her left hand and kissed her wedding ring.  “Just for you, Mrs. Barnes,” he smiled, sitting up on his knees so he was eye level with her, kissing her deeply.  “I know we had plans to go to the beach today but…it’s our honeymoon, and we haven’t officially consummated our marriage yet.”

“Well, we were exhausted from quite a fun wedding day.  And traveling,” Y/N smirked, subtly pulling out the test from her pocket and holding it behind her back.  As Bucky’s hands slid up her hips she nuzzled his nose.  “But I do have one more wedding gift for you.”

His eyes lit up in excitement.  “Oh really?” he asked, sounding intrigued.  “Is it something… spicy?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

Y/N laughed.  “It came from that,” she said.  Bucky gave her a questioning look, and Y/N took a deep breath before bringing her hand out from behind herself, holding the stick up in front of his face.  Bucky looked at it for a moment, a slight frown on his face before he gasped loudly, his eyes widening and his hands leaving her to take the test from her fingers.  He held it in his fingers gently as he stared at it for a long moment.  The room was silent, and Y/N wasn’t sure he was even breathing, making her start to worry about his reaction.  “Are…are you happy?” Y/N asked quietly.

  Bucky’s head snapped up to look at her.  He smiled widely and quickly hugged her, pulling her down with him to the bed.  He laid her down next to him and started kissing all over her face.  “Yes, honey!  Oh my god,” he said excitedly.  “Are you sure?” he asked, looking at her.  

“That’s my second positive test,” Y/N said, glancing at the stick in his hand.  “But we’ll need to go to the doctor to be sure.”  Bucky looked at the test again, like he was memorizing how it looked before tossing it on the nightstand and hugging her tight.  Y/N held him, rubbing his back when she felt him nuzzle the crook of her neck, then his shoulders shaking.  Y/N shushed him as he cried.  

“Y/N,” he sniffled.  “We’re gonna have a baby.”

“We are,” Y/N nodded, kissing the side of his head.  “You’re gonna be a daddy.  Again.”

“Again,” he chuckled and pulled up to look at her.  Y/N reached up and wiped his eyes.  They smiled at each other.  Y/N felt like it was a piece sliding into place, finally completing the puzzle that was their lives coming together completely.  “My wife,” Bucky said adoringly.  “Mother of my babies.”  Y/N fought back tears at that, giving him a shaky smile.  “My best friend,” he said quietly.

Y/N nuzzled his nose and kissed him all over his face.  “My husband.  Father of my babies.  My Sugar.  My best friend.”

THE END

Thank you all so much for liking, commenting, reblogging and following! You little darlings make me feel so loved. I'm closing my requests and asks for the next little while because I'm so behind on the ones sent into me, but I'll reopen them soon enough. You're amazing, dear readers. More to come soon!

[lunaatthezoo]

She'll Wait No Longer- Chapter 10 (The End)

SURPRISE, BISHES! I had to rip the band-aid off. I was losing my mind. Here is the final chapter of the work I have been pouring my heart and soul into. I hope you love this HEA for our Seer and Shadowsinger as much as I do. You can read my blathering weeping thank yous in the notes on the chapter, but an extra thank you to everyone here on Tumblr who has shared, reposted, liked, commented, supported me with kind words, etc. etc. You all mean so much to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I am not done writing- not even close! Preview below.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60399079/chapters/155939557

The moment Azriel winnowed into the Townhouse foyer, Rhysand stepped into his path. 

“Get out of my way,” Azriel snarled at him.

“Do not do this, Azriel,” Rhys said in his cool, collected voice.

Azriel felt something snapping within him again. Shadows whirled violently around his shoulders and head.

“Why? Why should that prick sit beside her in her most vulnerable state? How many times does she have to say that she doesn't want him, Rhys? No one has ever listened to her.”

His brother’s face was the immovable mask of the High Lord.

“This Court needs it's allies in-”

“Fuck you ” Azriel seethed.

Rhysand had the good sense to look taken aback.

“Fuck you for saying that, Rhys. This Court needs allies? Elain needs allies. She needs her family to hear her, to support her.”

Rhysand looked stricken at his words, but as Azriel made to step around him he blocked his path again.

Azriel bared his teeth at his High Lord.

“You're such a fucking hypocrite, Rhysand.”

“What,” his brother responded with menacing calm, his voice now edged with violence. Tendrils of darkness were leaking from him now, challenging Azriel’s roiling shadows.

“You heard me. You spout your bullshit about dreamers and freedom and choice to anyone who will listen. But when it comes to your political games, our right to choose doesn't really matter to you, does it?”

[thekingofwinterblog]

Man I wish your MHA prediction came true, cause, no spoilers, but the truth is so bad😂

atleast its finallly over... never reading a series when it hasnt finished serialisation again😂

It's not even a BAD manga ending... i have seen BAD manga endings before, i know how they look like.

No, what MHA's final chapter is, is a NOTHING Ending. An ending where it is so, PAINFULLY obvious that the Mangaka or his editor did not want to piss anyone off, or take risks in general, that for a whole host of characters, there is NO closure, or even worse, it negates what came before.

so, its not like there is nothing good about the chapter, as i like shoji's big declaration, and the fact that japans society is changing to help people deal with the quirks withouth having to become heroes... but other than that, even the stuff i liked had major caveats.

But by far the biggest issue is that there are so many characters who got NO closure for their respective relationships, and it is stupidly obvious why, and who.

and since this question was prompted by Aizawa and his development, lets start with mic and Aizawa.

This picture right here encapsulates how Aizawa has changed. This is where he was always planned to end up. It is his natural end point compared to where he started off his story. Having turned into a much more caring man, who helped Aoyama rise above his flaws and change for the better rather than the brutal and spartan teacher he was at the start.

Or as his Ex Girlfriend would have put it has learned the value of "A household where the laughter never ends.".

However, the problem is we get no chapter, or even an ATTEMPT at giving him any form of closure where this change is encapsulated, the way we got with Endeavor, spinner, and Uraraka.

And thats a problem, because it wasnt ONLY hjis character who was tied to this hypotetical chapter for closure.

The closure of the ENTIRE idiot trio from the previous generation, alive and dead was dependent upon whatever Hori had planned for this hypotetical epilogue chapter before he or his editor chickened out, leaving Kurogiri's death in the climax with NO sense of aftermath behind it, coming and going, and frankly feeling like an aftertought rather than the sad ending to the tragic tale of the man who died too soon.

It also leaves Mic the single worst off, because while Aizawa at the very least had his character development to fall back on as a final point, even if he didnt get a closure chapter or moment, Mic gets NOTHING.

and that's a big problem, because as im going to go over in my big analysis of the man, Mic's entire deal is that while Aizawa developed in a terrible, negative reaction to his buddy's death, Mic's reaction was to stop developing at all.

His entire life after the tragedy is being a background character in everyone else's life, the DJ who always tries to make everyones day brighter, but has no actual ambitions, dreams or goals of his own.

thats why he clings so desperately to his memories of highschool, because unlike everyone else from that time, those memories are all he has. Even Aizawa managed to have a girlfriend at some point, an actual relationship, that though it crashed and burned had meaning. Mic doesnt even have that.

He is the ultimate sad clown, who pretends to himself that he hasnt wasted his life, by embracing a role as a literal supporting character, that his teachers suggested he would turn out to be.

In other words, his role in a chapter dealing with the epilogue of the trio, would certainly have been to finally, actually begin living his own life again.

but withouth that, there is nothing to suggest he managed to change. he will just continue to waste his life, thinking he'll never be able to create great new times for himself, rather than actually living his life and making new, best moments of his life.

i might be more annoyed about Aizawa not getting that final closure with Miss Joke, but there is no questions that Mic got an even worse deal with the narrative than Aizawa.

He remained a background character to the very end.

he's not the only one though.

You know who else never got closure? The Iida brothers.

We NEVER got to see how Tensei reacted to his brother not only taking up his mantle, but actually surpassing him and all his deeds during the climax.

Tenya's great ambition was to become a great hero to live up to his brother, and we didnt get to see any of his family members reaction to him actually achieving this dream.

As for other members of class 1-A...

Hey, quick question for anyone who read this story, Did you think Mina and Kirishima's character stories ended with these two, small, not given very much importance panels?

No?

Well fuck you, youre wrong! this is where both of their characters ends. their relationship, and their character arcs in general ended here, and they get no closure whatsoever.

and finally we move unto Izuku and the bigger problem with him and where he ended up.

Starting with him becoming a non powered hero, using tech.

Okay, not a BAD ending... But i feel like... maybe... there was a plan for something with that. Maybe... Maybe something that happened, and would have eased his character into using tech, rather than All Might just showing up with it after he's been a salary man for 3 years... Maybe something that was foreshadowed for years, and years.... Oh right.

Izuku losing his lower arms.

Like, looking back, it is painfully clear that Izuku was originally meant to lose his arms for good, before the editor(as he did with bakugo's death) put the kibash on that.

I like the idea... but there was a much better and more logical road to him becoming Iron Man with him having to use robotic hands in the epilogue. it would also be the logical outcome of all that foreshadowing, and was probably the original idea before it was deemed too gruesome.

However, thats a missed what if.

And if you have read the final chapter, you know it's not the BIG issue with this chapter. The SINGLE biggest problem with this ending, that is going to haunt it forever afterwards.

The complete sinking of Izuku x ochako by making it clear izuku has no regular contact with his former classmates, and ending the story withouth anything to suggest these two hooked up at all.

Now, im going to be very blunt, and very clear, before i tear this entire ship sinking to bits.

I didn't like Izuku x ochako.

At all.

I thought it was boring, too drawn out, and i didnt find much enjoyment as a ship from their interactions. in fact i would say i found izuku to have better chemistry with pretty much every other female character he ever interacted with.

Izuocha is the epitomy of a safe shonen battle couple. pure, boring vanilla.

I want to get that out of the way, before i really delve into why the way Hori just... torpedoed this ship because he didnt want to deal with the aftermath, was such a slap in the face.

Lets start with the most obvious problem.

It was all a waste of time.

every single moment of shiptease, and uraraka pining after izuku...

was one...

gigiantic...

Waste of fucking time.

I didnt like reading about this couple. But i cannot make the claim the story was not building up towards it.

it spent the vast majority of it's story building towards this couple, and in the last 3 chapters it devoted two of them to seemingly resolving this couple's story, and setting up for the next step... that never fucking came.

meaning that every little bit of ship tease these two had was a joke, a waste of time, it didnt mean anything in the grand scheme of things.

It was one of the most annoying parts of this manga to read through, and to my absolute fury and disguist i was fucking -vindicated.

It was an objective, waste of fucking time that could have been devoted to ANYTHING ELSE! It could have been devoted to another, better pairing, more character development for 1-A, Inko, the league of Villains, ANYTHING!

If the story was not going to end up with these two, there were plenty of ways to do that too, like having Uraraka's decision not to confess backfire as izuku moved on and hooked up with Mei, or melissa, or anyone else! or maybe just have izuku have moved past her an her ending up being friendzoned because she didnt make a move early enough! Or maybe have Uraraka realize she was gay after everything with Toga!

Again, ANYTHING ELSE would have been preferable.

instead, even at the very end, even when the following pages kills the pairing dead, Hori STILL tries to shipbait these two!

fuck off.

2. Making Urarak look shallow through the worst fucking timing in the world.

so, here is a question for you.

if you were going to ultimately choose not to go through with izuku x ochako, when would be the worst, possible timing to do it?

because i sure cant think of any point worse, than during a timeskip, where izuku's quirk ultimately went away, leaving him powerless and a common working man for 3 years afterwards.

Now this is obviously not meant to be the actual reason in universe for why this pairing didnt happen... but the implication is there...

And it wouldnt have been, if Hori had actually had Izuku turn her down in one of the previous chapters.

but because he decided to chicken out of any and all romance to not get any shipper blowback, through the safest way possible, it's there.

It's ugly, and it's cruel, and it's mostly implication... but it is there.

3. It makes Uraraka's entire character growth with Toga WASTED.

So Toga's part of her and Uraraka's storyline is obvious.

The girl who was looking for someone, anyone who would want to understand her finally found somebody who would, and she decided to give it all for that person.

in uraraka, she finally got what she could not get in the league, amongst her old friends, or anyone else.

No the problem is not with that side of their shared development.

The problem with this is that it completely wastes Uraraka's side of this equation.

The thing that Uraraka envied about Toga, was her ability to smile as she wanted, uncaring about how the world might think of her, something the shy uraraka deeply wished she could do too.

Ultimately, as presented in the final war arc, her develoment from this relationship was her finally learning to be honest, to embrace doing what she wanted to do.

She wanted to reach out a genuine hand in compassion to Toga despite EVERYTHING, and so she did. uncaring about what the world might have thought.

FInally she could be who she wanted to be. the girl who had been defined so long about keeping her love and more emberassing feelings under wrap no longer cared about being judged for them.

It's a very beautiful moment.

Man... It sure would SUCK if later uraraka completely backtracked, was never able to tell her crush her actual feelings, and instead it went absolutely nowhere, meaning she reverted back to the same person she had always been. that she never really grew past this flaw of herself she disliked.

That would really, really suck, and cheapen her entire character climax from the final war arc.

Man, that would suck.

It would suck even more, if the reason that happened, was due to the author not wanting to piss off the shippers that shipped the target of her affection with his former abuser and bully who tried to get him to kill himself.

This was a terrible way to end the series, not due to directly sucking, the way Attack on Titan, or bleach's endings did... but instead due to committing SO HARD to resolving NOTHING, that it flipped all the way around to being INFURIATING in how much it REFUSED to give ANY character who's final resolution would probably have involved shipping, that its pisses you off, because it means that everything that these characters were building towards had no resolution.

The only real exception was Iida, and in his case its just obviously clear that Hori just did not care to give him a climax. for everyone else though?

Hori's decision to not wanting to go through what Kishimoto went through after Naruto's final chapter might be understandable, but it also means that his already rocky final arc ended wastly lesser in quality than it could have.

[aventurineswife]

Stages of Shadows: Final Chapter - The End... Or Is It?

The air felt thick with tension as [Name] and the other surviving contestant staggered through the backstage corridors, their feet pounding against the ground in a rhythm that was both frantic and heavy. [Name]’s grip on the other contestant’s arm was firm, pulling them along despite their shared exhaustion. Each step seemed to send ripples through their body, every muscle screaming in protest, but they couldn’t stop. Not now. Not when the weight of that memory—of the person they couldn’t save—was still fresh in their mind.

The blood. The agonizing helplessness.

The loss was unbearable, but they couldn’t dwell on it. Not yet. The vision of that face—still haunted them. They could still hear the echo of the gunshot. The coldness of it. The chill it left in the pit of their stomach. But there was no time for grief, no time for reflection.

They had to move forward. [Name] had made a promise to themselves, and to the others, that they would get out alive. And that meant pushing through the pain, pushing through the guilt.

The other contestant, equally drained, stumbled slightly as they kept pace. [Name] could feel their desperation, their shared desire to escape this place—this nightmare. But the reality of what had just happened pressed down on them like a weight. The person who had died…

They wouldn’t allow themselves to dwell on it. Not now. Not when there was still a chance for them to survive.

“Now, where do you think you two are going?” The voice was silky, but the weight behind it was undeniable.

[Name] froze in their tracks, heart pounding as the figure emerged from the shadows. The voice that spoke was cold, smooth, and laced with a hint of amusement, cutting through the tension like a knife.

A tall woman stepped forward, her appearance striking and enigmatic. Her long, wavy hair cascaded over her shoulders like a curtain of silk, and her pastel blue eyes—slitted like a serpent’s—glistened with a calculating gleam. She wore an extravagant ensemble, a mix of dark blue, white, and violet, with gold accents, adorned with ribbons, feathers, and jade pendants that seemed to sway with every movement. Her presence was commanding, and it was clear she was no ordinary figure.

“The surprise guest of honor, [Name], hm? And here everyone thought you went missing… after your round with Sunday.”

[Name] stopped in their tracks, a chill creeping up their spine. How did this person know who they were? Their mind raced for an explanation, but no clear answer came.

“Who are you?” [Name] asked, trying to mask the unease in their voice.

The woman smiled, a slow, knowing smile that barely touched her eyes. “Oh? My apologies for not introducing myself earlier.” She stepped closer, the sound of her heels clicking sharply on the floor. “The name’s Jade, Senior Manager in the IPC Strategic Investment Department and one of the Ten Stonehearts. Surely you’ve heard of me?”

Jade’s gaze was piercing, her eyes narrowing slightly as she watched [Name]. “If not, then no problem. But, you see…” She paused for effect, her lips curling into a delicate smirk. “You can’t steal something that doesn’t belong to you.”

The words landed like a blow, and [Name]’s heart skipped a beat. The weight of Jade’s presence was undeniable. There was an air of control about her—an aura that suggested she had everything figured out, and everyone else was simply a part of her intricate game. [Name] could feel their pulse quickening, the urgency of the moment building with every passing second.

“Steal?” [Name] repeated, barely able to keep the suspicion from their voice. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Jade’s smile grew wider, her lips curling like a serpent about to strike. “Oh, don’t be coy. You’re not just some innocent contestant, are you? You’ve got more ambition than that. And right now, you’re on the verge of taking something you have no right to.” She tilted her head, observing [Name] with interest. “But don’t worry, I’m not here to punish you… Not yet, at least.”

The air around them seemed to thicken as Jade’s gaze lingered, her next words heavy with implication.

“You see,” she continued, her voice smooth and measured, “I’m a patient woman. I’ve learned that some things take time. Some things… are worth waiting for. But when you’ve been as good at reading people as I am, you know exactly when the right moment has come. And trust me, [Name], the moment you’re in right now? It’s not one of your better ones.” Jade’s eyes flickered briefly to the other contestant, who was trying their best to remain unnoticed, before returning to [Name].

The tension in the room was unbearable, and [Name] felt the weight of Jade’s presence pressing down on them, as if the very air around her was charged with danger. They were trapped—not just physically, but mentally, caught in the web of someone far more powerful than they had realized. Jade’s every word, every gesture, seemed to make it clear that she was in control.

“You see, the person you’re trying to steal away from here, Aventurine…” Jade glanced over to the contestant trying to hide behind [Name], “…belongs to the IPC now. We made a deal after all. If he wins, he’s in our hands, and if he loses… Well, you’ve seen what has become of your friends already.” Jade chuckled lightly, a cold edge to her voice, clearly mocking [Name] for their failure to save either Robin or Sunday.

[Name] stiffened, their heart hammering as the weight of Jade’s words sank in. The reminder of their inability to protect their loved ones was almost too much to bear. Their gaze flicked from Jade to Aventurine, who still tried to shrink into the background, eyes downcast.

Jade stepped forward, she continued, “You see, it’s not about winning or losing for us. It’s about securing what’s ours. And right now, Aventurine? Well, he’s already ours. He’s simply… a part of the greater game now.”

Aventurine’s eyes flashed with a flicker of defiance, but he quickly masked it behind his usual calm façade. He didn’t want to draw attention, not yet. Not with Jade’s gaze so piercing.

[Name] clenched their fists, a surge of anger rising within them. “You think you can control everything? This isn’t over, Jade.”

Jade’s lips curled into a smile. “Oh, but it is. It’s all over, [Name]. You just haven’t realized it yet.” She glanced at her surroundings, almost as if inspecting them for the first time. “The choices you make, the people you try to protect… they’re just pieces on a board. You’re in check. But don’t worry, your move’s coming soon enough.”

[Name] took a deep breath, squaring their shoulders. “You won’t get away with this.”

Jade’s laughter rang out again, cool and insidious. “Who’s going to stop me? You? You, who couldn’t even stop the storm you walked into? You’re playing in our world now. And in our world… the cost of failure is far higher than you could ever imagine.”

“Though, it was a rather surprising… Sunday, the Leader of the Oak Family, who was winning the most just... gave up, for what? Or perhaps it was the Avgin’s curse.” Jade’s gaze shifted to Aventurine, a malicious glint in her eyes as she watched him flinch at her words. He didn’t want to leave, not when [Name] had just come to save him, to take him with them. But he was the one who had made the deal—to save his life, to secure his future. But now, standing in the shadow of Jade’s manipulations, was it really worth it anymore?

He hadn’t killed Sunday, he hadn’t wanted to, but Sunday had pushed him away. And now, as the weight of the decision pressed on him, the doubt settled deeper. What would happen if he chose to leave? Would it mean the end of everything? He couldn’t see a way out, not now, not with the deal already made.

Jade’s voice cut through his thoughts, cold and commanding. “Hand him over, [Name]. Or the consequences won’t be good. You’re alone. Your little group that you came with—well, they wouldn’t care if you were gone.”

[Name]’s heart raced, the tension coiling in their chest. Every word Jade spoke was a calculated strike, meant to break them down. They could feel her gaze on them, sharp and unyielding. She knew how to twist the knife just right, to make them question their resolve. But they couldn’t afford to give in now, not when they had come this far.

“I’m not going to let you have him,” [Name] replied, voice steady despite the storm brewing inside them.

Jade chuckled softly, almost pityingly. “You think you can protect him? You think your fragile little bond with him means anything here? He’s just a pawn in a game far bigger than you. I don’t think you even understand the consequences of defying me.”

Aventurine’s breath hitched at her words. His gaze flickered between [Name] and Jade, the conflict raging within him. He knew what he had to do, what he should have done from the beginning. He owed them nothing, but his heart… it was a different story.

Aventurine hesitated, glancing back and forth between the two. On one hand, he wanted to stay, but he couldn’t risk letting [Name] suffer because of him. So, he made the difficult choice: let them go, for good.

He hesitantly let go of their arm, his fingers slowly sliding away from theirs. The weight of the decision hit him like a crushing wave, but he refused to look back. His heart ached, but he knew there was no turning back now.

Jade’s smug smile returned, her voice dripping with satisfaction. “Smart choice, Aventurine. You may have just saved yourself from a far worse fate.”

[Name] felt their chest tighten as they looked at Aventurine, torn between anger and desperation. “Aventurine…” they whispered, their voice breaking.

But he didn’t respond, his gaze cast downward, as if ashamed of what he had just done. He could feel the eyes of both Jade and [Name] on him, but his thoughts were a whirlwind of guilt and resignation.

“You’ll regret this...” [Name] said, barely able to keep their voice steady. Their words were a threat, but also a plea, as if trying to make sense of the situation.

Aventurine’s lips parted, but no words came out. His body trembled as he faced the consequences of his actions.

“Could you turn away? I want to say my goodbyes properly.” Aventurine asked, his eyes narrowing at Jade.

Jade’s gaze flickered briefly as she observed Aventurine’s expression. She lowered her eyes slightly, her slitted pupils narrowing as she took in his words. Her voice, smooth and deliberate, drifted through the room.

“You wish to part with something precious, something irrevocable,” Jade said softly, her tone tinged with quiet amusement. “But I wonder, is it truly for their sake, or for your own peace of mind?”

She tilted her head, the feather in her hat swaying gently. “I understand the need to make such choices… but remember, there’s always more than one price to pay. What you choose to give now may echo in ways you don’t yet realize.”

Her gaze softened, but the quiet weight of her words lingered in the air.

“Do as you must, but know that every transaction, every decision, carries its own consequence. Even the quietest ones.”

Jade stepped back slightly, her presence still as commanding as ever, a knowing smile curling at the corners of her lips. “Take your time. After all, you’ve made your choice… haven’t you?”

Aventurine gently cupped [Name]’s cheek, his fingers warm against their skin as he leaned in closer. His voice was soft, almost a whisper, as he spoke, each word laced with raw emotion. “Thank you for being the victim of my shallow feelings. Thank you for being the light in this dark, cruel world of mine. And thank you for being My God, My Universe.”

With a quiet, almost reverent sigh, he pressed a tender kiss to their cheek, his lips lingering just a moment longer than necessary before he slowly pulled back. The weight of the moment hung in the air, the finality of it settling between them.

He hesitated, as though fighting the urge to say more, but the words wouldn’t come. Instead, he took a step back, his gaze lingering on [Name] for just a moment longer before he turned away, the silence between them deafening.

He joined Jade, his figure becoming smaller as he walked away, each step heavy with the burden of his decision. There was no turning back now. The path had been chosen.

[Name] stared at their leaving forms, the weight of Aventurine’s departure crashing down on them. Their knees buckled, and they collapsed to the ground, the floor cool beneath them as if to contrast the heat rising in their chest. A deep, hollow ache settled within them, something raw and jagged. They couldn’t tear their eyes away, even as Aventurine’s figure grew smaller, disappearing into the distance.

A single tear slipped down their cheek, their vision blurring as the reality of it all set in. He had made his choice. And they, helpless, were left to carry the consequences.

All of their friends were gone, except for them. The thought clung to [Name] like a suffocating fog. Who was the real winner of this game, they wondered, if all they had gained was suffering? They had fought so hard, endured so much, only to be left with this emptiness.

Was this show just a twisted spectacle for the amusement of others? A stage where lives were tossed aside like pawns, and the price of victory was the destruction of those who dared to play? It felt like the entire universe had conspired against them, a cruel joke at their expense. The lives lost, the bonds broken, were all just pieces of a larger game, one they never truly understood.

What was the point, if all they had was pain? What kind of world was this, where those who cared the most were left to suffer while those in control laughed at their misery?

The question echoed in their mind, unanswered, as the weight of loss threatened to consume them.

All of a sudden, [Name] felt the warmth enveloping them, a comforting presence they hadn’t expected. Their breath hitched, the overwhelming pain and confusion ebbing slightly as arms wrapped around them, pulling them close. It felt… so real, yet too surreal to believe. The embrace, gentle and steady, grounded them in a moment where nothing else mattered.

And then, that voice, familiar and tender, spoke.

“[Name], the dream… is over now.”

The words were soft, like a whisper of wind, but they hit [Name] with a force that left them breathless. Why did that voice sound so familiar? Why did it feel as if the world was suddenly shifting, like they were waking from a long, deep sleep?

And then it clicked.

“Robin…” they whispered, their eyes fluttering shut for a moment, as if the name itself could anchor them to this fleeting reality.

Robin’s presence was all around them, warm and safe, like the softest memory from before the world had shattered. She pulled them tighter, as if nothing had ever happened, as if the loss, the pain, and the fight had all been part of a dream—a dream they could now leave behind.

Her arms, a comfort in the darkness, held [Name] as if to say that, for this one moment, they could forget everything. Forget the pain, the suffering, the crushing weight of the game. It didn’t matter. What mattered was now.

As she hugged them tightly, her voice soothing in the stillness, “It’s just a sweet dream.”

And then, everything faded into a soft, dreamlike embrace—an illusion, a hallucination of the heart. Robin’s spirit was all that remained, a fleeting warmth in the wake of all that had been lost.

[Navigation]

[fast-moon]

Noragami Final Chapter Raws

It's here! It's the end! This chapter isn't numbered and is just called "final chapter", but it would technically be 109, I suppose. There's a LOT of talking in this chapter to tie up loose ends, but I also took the day off work to work on it, so hopefully I can finish it in a day, since it's twice as long as normal.

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[heavenlyraindrops]

♱ Father Forgive Me (For I have Sinned) ~Chapter Twenty Six ~FINALE ♱

Lucifer Morningstar x Angel!Reader Fandom: Hazbin Hotel Chapter Twenty Six Warnings: profanity How to find the other chapters in my pinned post.

♱Where the purest soul in Heaven falls for the Devil♱

[Chapter Twenty Six]

“[name]! Dad!” Charlie adjusted her bow, as you and Lucifer appeared in the hotel lobby. You cleared your throat, smiling nervously as she approached. 

“Charlie,” Lucifer said smoothly. He looked at you. “This is [name]. You’ve met.”

“Yes.” Charlie looked at you apologetically. “Look, I’m so sorry for what Alastor did. I don’t really know-“ she waved her hands around, “-the basics of the… situation, but I am sorry.”

“Whatever he did isn’t yours to apologize for,” you reassured her, and she smiled weakly. 

“Yes, well…” Lucifer looked around, face expressionless. “Where is he, exactly?”

Charlie laughed nervously. “Dad…”

“I’m just asking.”

“Don’t do anything, please?”

He didn’t say anything.

“Look, Alastor is still useful to the hotel! And… you know how he is.” She looked at you. “I mean, how was he meant to know- I mean, he always does this, right? He likes to stir up drama.”

You frowned. She was making sense.

Alastor didn’t know of anything prior to your fall. He couldn’t have. All he saw was a frazzled girl to take advantage of and pit against his rival. 

“This doesn’t mean you should forgive him,” Charlie said quickly. “It’s just, this hotel is about second chances. Consider this his second chance?”

“Redemption was his second chance,” you said stiffly, crossing your arms. Charlie looked dejected, but Lucifer cut in quickly.

“I won’t try and hurt him, Apple Pie.”

You both exchanged a look. 

You went over to the couch, where Angel Dust was strewn out, his limbs draped over the sides as he scrolled on his phone. He looked up at you. 

“Hey.” He sat up quickly. “[name].”

You gave him a wan smile, sitting down. “It’s been a while, huh?”

“I wouldn’t say that long.” He shuffled up the couch, drawing up his legs to make more space. “Sure does feel like a while, though.”

You hummed in agreement. “Say, where’s Alastor?”

Angel sat up straighter. “I betcha he’ll be out in a minute. Still sulking from that ass-kickin’ ya gave him.”

You both fell silent, and your phone pinged. You pulled it out to see Velvette’s number on your screen, a photo attached. You clicked on it. 

A selfie, her lips pushed together in a pout. In the background, Valentino was screaming at a very fed-up looking Vox.

The caption read: he got cancer in his balls. u ok now? xoxo 

A small laugh bubbled last your lips as you typed out your answer:

I’m fine now. Is that even possible with demons?

Her reply came immediately. idk. i dont think it’ll kill him tho :( he’ll prob just live w it forever. glad ur ok babes

“Angel,” you said, straightening up. He looked at you expectantly. “Valentino has testicular cancer.”

His lips stretched into a grin. “Seriously? Like, cancer in his dick?”

You snorted. “Yeah.”

You both burst into a fit of laughter, so much so that you didn’t notice when a static buzzing filled the air. You froze, looking up. 

“Alastor,” Angel said flatly.

Alastor smiled, although it was shaky, upon seeing you. “[name]!” He laughed, taking a sudden step back as you stood up, clenching your fists. Your nails cut into your palms. “What a pleasant surprise. I’m glad you’re alright after that unnecessary scuffle outside.”

“You…” your lip curled. “I’m gonna fucking kill you.”

You vaguely registered Charlie shouting desperately: “[name], no!” As you lunged towards him, forcing him down, hands closing around his neck. 

-

“You never fixed the window,” you remarked.

Lucifer looked at you, fondness still written all over his features as you picked your way around the empty room, careful not to step on any glass pieces. “It’s just the same,” you murmured. “This room.”

He stepped towards you, slipping his hand around your waist. “It is.”

It had been a week since you’d both left the hotel, no explanation given to any of the residents, instead replaced with an open, rather violent altercation with Alastor in the lobby. Charlie was certain Alastor had made a mistake, in his lust for “entertainment”, and hadn’t known the gravity of the situation. She was certain that he deserved a second chance. 

Despite all this, you’d still given him a beating that would keep him battered for at least a week. And on his toes around you for the rest of his afterlife. 

The light from the city filtered in, glinting off of the jagged remnants of the window pane, and bathed you and Lucifer both in red light. 

He turned to you. “[name].” You looked at him.

He sank down to one knee.

You stumbled back, hands flying to your mouth. “L-luci…”

“[name], me and you… we’ve known each other for so long. There’s been ups and downs- a lot of downs-“

You could feel tears springing to your eyes.

“But in the end, we’re still together.” He took in a deep breath. “Sometimes I was worried that it wasn’t meant to be- we were too far apart, too many bad things were happening to you, just because you were with me, but now…” 

He pulled out a small box.

“I know that’s wrong.”

A small golden ring glinted in the red light.

“[name], will you marry me?”

You stared at him in shock, knees going weak. “Yes. Oh my- yes!” 

He laughed, exhilarated and relieved as he stood up again to sweep you up in an embrace. You buried your face in his shoulder. “I love you,” he murmured against your skin. You pulled away, tears now freely streaking down your face as you looked at him. 

“I love you too,” you replied, and he took your hand, sliding the ring on. It fit perfectly. 

He grasped both your hands in his, looking at you, eyes brimming with adoration. You leaned over, pressing your lips against his. 

He let out a surprised noise, hands snaking around your waist as you cupped his cheek, both your lips moving together. You kissed him until you couldn’t breathe, until you pulled away, panting slightly. 

“I love you,” he repeated, as if saying it once wasn’t enough. You gave him a tearstained smile. 

“I love you too.”

-end-

[prettyshon10]

Major shoutout to the voice actors, because that scream Armin let out after he got his memories back…

[chiqelatasblog]

In the Middle of the Night 🌙

-> Ao3 link is here.

-> Part Five is here.

Pairings : Bi-Han/Sub-Zere x Reader, Kuai Liang/Scorpion x Reader, Tomas Vrbada/Smoke x Reader

Author’s Note : Hi guys! Sorry for the wait (again). I didn’t like how this chapter was going, so I changed and restarted writing halfway through. That’s why it took so long to finish. (It’s also my first time writing intimate scenes with four people at once.) I’m proud of this chapter. Thank you for your support and kind words! Hope you enjoy this chapter. 💕

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FINAL CHAPTER : (READER)

Life after death never seemed so… chilly, a little bit cold but not enough to be uncomfortable.

And hard.

As you slowly and softly emerged from the darkness, the first sensation you noticed was the coolness touching your skin. You could tell you were in contact with something hard, but your body was so heavy and full of pain that opening your eyes seemed impossible. As you tried to make sense of your surroundings, a vaguely familiar smell reached your nostrils, out of place with the darkness you had just left.

It was the scent of fresh snow on a cold winter day.

Bi-Han.

As you struggled for clarity of your thoughts, everything became more confused. Why was Bi-Han here? Your heart fluttered nervously, barely mustering the strength to open your eyes against the throbbing ache that gripped your body. Gradually, as consciousness began to seep back in, a soft, yellow light danced at the edges of your vision. With furrowed brows, a feeble moan escaped your dry, cracked lips, the pain a stark reminder of your ordeal.

"Shh, you're not fully recovered yet, àirén," Bi-Han’s deep voice came from right where your head was resting. It took you a few long seconds to realize you were lying on his chest. You could feel the weight of the covers laid over you to keep you warm. You couldn’t understand what was going on; your vision was still blurry, and everything seemed like a big blur of colors and lights. If you were fully conscious, you would probably start to panic, thinking you had done something wrong and hadn’t lifted the curse at all. But all you could do now was try to keep your eyes open, which caused you pain even with the slightest effort.

“Keep sleeping, your body needs it.” Feeling Bi-Han’s cool hand on the top of your head, stroking your hair, made you feel safe and calmed the ball of panic and anxiety that was waiting for an opportunity to rise. “I am here, àirén. I will never let any harm come to you. Go to sleep now.” Bi-Han kissed the top of your head, his voice sounding softer and more protective than you’ve ever heard before, was all you needed to close your eyes.

Although you wanted to ask him where Kuai Liang and Tomas were, if they were safe, and what was going on, the questions left your mind one by one as you drifted back into the darkness. Your breathing became heavy, and you fell asleep again, your body relaxing under the steady beat of Bi-Han’s heart.

***

When you managed to open your eyes for the second time, it was evening. Colors and shapes became clearer, and as you looked up at the familiar ceiling, you realized you were in your bedroom. Darkness enveloped the room, with the soft yellow light from the bedside lamp providing the only illumination.

Your body still felt heavy, and you were in pain, although not as intense as before. Nonetheless, fatigue weighed heavily on you, and the ache seemed to penetrate your bones, making you feel ancient beyond your years. As you shifted slightly, you felt the weight resting on your waist and the warmth it emanated. This body felt so warm, without any covering, enveloping you in its comforting embrace. You knew immediately who he was.

Kuai Liang.

As you murmured his name with numb lips, unaware, his powerful body behind you shifted. His arm around your waist reacted instinctively to your voice, pulling you closer to him, and you felt his warm breath on your neck.

“You should get some more sleep, tiánxīn. There’s a little more for you to heal,” he said.

Heal? When you attempted to turn towards Kuai Liang to see his face, he anticipated your movement and assisted you. Despite the slightest motion, your body rebelled, eliciting a moan as Kuai Liang planted a kiss on your forehead.

“I know, tiánxīn, I know. You’ll be fine, everything will be fine,” he reassured you, his voice warm and protective.

As you managed to tilt your head back slightly to gaze at Kuai Liang’s face, even in the dim light from the lamp, you could discern the expression on his face. His handsome features were marked by strong lines, and his eyes held tender, soft emotions, melting your heart as he silently watched over you. It was as if he couldn’t bear to look away. Yet, beneath the tenderness, you noticed dark circles under his eyes and other details that had escaped your initial notice. Besides the fatigue evident in Kuai Liang’s appearance, stress lines marred his features, accentuated by the deep scar between his eyebrows and the tension visible from clenching his jaw.

Your lips parted to speak, but exhaustion weighed heavily upon you. Your tongue felt heavy, your mouth dry, and even moving your lips left you incredibly tired. Kuai Liang noticed your silent struggles and placed a loving, soothing kiss on your lips.

"We'll talk when you're better, I promise," he whispered, drawing you closer until there was barely any space between you, his chin resting on the top of your head, enveloping you in his protective embrace.

As warmth and the scent of summer evenings filled your senses, a profound feeling of peace washed over you, and within seconds, you surrendered yourself to the arms of sleep.

***

When you woke up for the third time, soft fur tickled your nose, accompanied by the sweet sound of purring filling your ears. Blinking against the weight on your chest, you realized it was none other than Ninja, positioning herself snugly under your chin, her tiny paws massaging your chest as she rubbed against you.

"Ninja, what did we talk about? You're not supposed to bother her until she's better," came Tomas' familiar voice, his large form filling your field of vision. In an instant, a myriad of emotions flickered across the silver-haired assassin's face, too quick for you to decipher. Tomas stood there, his pallor nearly ashen, resembling illness. His eyes, red as if filled with blood, were sunken, encircled by dark circles contrasting with his pale complexion. You couldn't help but notice the way his clothes hung loosely on him, indicating weight loss. It pained you to see him like this, prompting questions about how long you'd been confined to bed and how long Tomas had been in this state. If he looked like this, what about Kuai Liang and Bi-Han?

"Tomas, what's going on?" Your voice emerged dry and hoarse, scratching at your ears. With a controlled expression, Tomas gently lifted Ninja and placed her on her paws. Then, he helped you sit up, propping you up with your elbows, and handed you a glass of water from the nearby jug. Though you managed to grasp the glass, a dull ache lingered throughout your body, a throbbing sensation that made its presence known. Consequently, your grip was shaky and weak, easily noticed by Tomas. He sat beside you, placing his hand over yours, assisting you as you drank. The water soothed your dry throat like balm, prompting Tomas to break his silence.

"I'm so angry with you for what you've done."

The tone of Tomas' voice was starkly different from what you were accustomed to. It was stiff, cold, and tinged with a hint of snarl. Yet, when you met his gaze, his expression betrayed his true feelings. Despite the furrowed brows and the anger simmering beneath the surface, his light gray eyes reflected a profound sense of resentment.

"I... I can't understand what's going on," Your gaze shifted from Tomas to your hands resting on your lap. There, you noticed the scar on your left hand, a reminder of the methods you tried to lift the curse weeks ago. As your fingers traced the wound, questions poured from your lips, each one tinged with uncertainty. “Hasn’t the curse lifted? Did I fail? Is that why I’m alive?”

A sound akin to a wounded animal escaped Tomas' throat as he enveloped you in his embrace with a speed you couldn't comprehend, planting a kiss on the top of your head and burying his nose in your hair. You weren't sure how long you had been confined to this bed, but judging by Tomas' condition, it had been quite some time, and you were certain you didn't smell pleasant. Yet, Tomas seemed unfazed by it all.

"Don't you ever, ever try anything like that again."

"Tomas-"

"Let me finish," Tomas interjected, cupping your face in his palms. His thumbs stroked your cheeks tenderly and carefully, as if he feared you would shatter at the slightest pressure. His gray eyes, bright as the full moon, bore into yours with such profound love that it made you tremble inside. Tears welled in your eyes at the intensity of emotion reflected in his gaze.

"The curse has been lifted. Lord Liu Kang will provide the necessary explanation, but I can tell you that if it weren't for him... right now... you..." Tomas' voice faltered, his jaw clenched so tightly you feared he might break his teeth. "Your heart had stopped. There was so much blood, and you weren't moving, you weren't breathing..."

"Tomas, my love, look at me, shh," you interrupted gently. You kissed Tomas first on the lips and then on both cheeks, desperate to reassure him that you were here, safe in his arms. The details of your return to life were irrelevant at this moment; what mattered most was calming Tomas. You knew the depths of his despair, having lost his family, and the mere thought of him experiencing such despair and fear again drained the color from your face. “I’m here, I’m with you.”

A small, wet laugh escaped Tomas' lips, but it carried no joy, only pain and grief. "Look at me, when I should be the one calming you down, you're doing this," Tomas said, taking hold of your wrists with both hands. He kissed your palms in turn before pressing your hands to his face, inhaling your scent deeply. His actions betrayed a desperation to reassure himself of your existence, as if he needed constant confirmation that you were truly alive.

"Don't ever do that again. We can't bear to lose you. Neither I nor my brothers are strong enough to survive such a loss. You mean more to us than anything," he pleaded.

"I'm sorry, but if I ever have to make that choice again, just know that I'll do it without hesitation," you responded. Tomas' brows furrowed deeply, his mouth poised to object, but you gently silenced him by placing your fingers on his lips. "You mean the world to me as well, my love. I would gladly give my life for you. I only wish you hadn't witnessed that moment. I didn't want you to see it. For that, I'm sorry."

Tomas swallowed hard, bowing his head and closing his eyes as he pressed his forehead to yours.

"You're a selfless, sweet woman... I don't know what we've done to deserve you, but I thank fate," he murmured.

***

Exactly half an hour after regaining consciousness, you expressed a desire to take a shower first, despite feeling incredibly hungry. According to Tomas, you had been asleep for a week. It had become more of a necessity than a mere desire to rid yourself of the fatigue and grime, to reorient yourself a little. Your body still felt uncoordinated, as if your limbs didn't quite belong to you, and moving them as you wished proved challenging for more than a few minutes. Nonetheless, somehow, you managed to take a shower, albeit a brief one.

Once dressed, you leaned against the bathroom door, trying to catch your breath, drained from expending all your energy. As the towel you had loosely tied around your hair fell onto your shoulders, you squeezed your eyes shut, waiting for the dizziness to pass. You prayed silently that your legs would carry you to the living room, despite their violent trembling and the growing weakness that made it difficult for them to support your weight.

When you heard your name being called, you opened your eyes to see Bi-Han at the end of the corridor. With a few swift steps, he reached you and effortlessly lifted you into his arms, preventing you from falling.

"Why didn't you call us?" he asked, his voice laced with concern, as you rested your head on his shoulder.

"I was trying to manage on my own," you murmured softly.

A sarcastic grunt escaped Bi-Han, indicating his disagreement. "You look like you could faint at any moment."

You had no rebuttal to offer. You were exhausted, hungry, and, most importantly, you had returned from the brink of death. So you remained silent, relishing the comfort of being held in Bi-Han's arms. It felt miraculous to once again discern his scent, feel the coolness of his touch, and hear his deep voice, which never failed to make your heart flutter. In a way, that was all that mattered. Even though you were aware of everything happening around you, your brain still struggled to comprehend the fact that you had defied death and returned, unable to fit it into a logical framework.

Despite Liu Kang's best efforts, the sensation of the knife piercing your flesh, the warmth of the blood, and the searing pain that coursed through your body lingered in your memory. After experiencing it all, the mere act of breathing and moving felt like a surreal dream.

"I wanted to stay angry with you," Bi-Han said, pulling you from your reverie. Though his usual biting, harsh tone, it now held a hoarse quality, revealing a truth he seemed reluctant to admit. Even as you attempted to gauge his expression by turning your head, Bi-Han’s steely gaze remained fixed ahead. “If it weren’t for Liu Kang-”

"Tomas mentioned it," you interjected gently, not allowing him to finish his sentence.

"How could you risk your life like that? Did you think we would simply resume our lives as if nothing had happened?"

"I couldn't bear to see you return to that cursed life. You can ask me for anything, Bi-Han, but not that. I couldn't let you go back to that existence. If it had happened, do you think I could have lived happily?" The mere thought choked your throat and brought tears to your eyes. "I couldn't. Please don't be angry with me."

"I'm not, anyway," Bi-Han replied, taking a sharp breath. "When it comes to you... fuck." His gaze shifted from the living room to you. Despite his tightly clenched jaw, furrowed brows, and attempt to maintain a poker face, you could discern the faint pinkness that tinted his otherwise pale cheeks. "Do you even realize what you've done to me, àirén?"

"Àirén?"

Instead of answering, Bi-Han settled into one of the seats without releasing you from his lap. Moments later, Kuai Liang emerged from the kitchen with a tray in hand and joined you. When you glanced curiously at the contents, the pyromancer smiled and took a seat beside you.

"I've made some soup and bread. It'll be good for your stomach."

Your eyes widened in surprise. "You can make bread?"

"He's quite the bread maker," Tomas chimed in, joining the conversation as he entered the room with Ninja nestled on his left shoulder. "When Madame Bo first taught him how to bake bread, he became completely absorbed in it for several months. Despite his fast metabolism, he consumed so much bread that I recall our trainers, especially our father, complaining that he was starting to gain weight and slow down." Tomas chuckled, eliciting a small smirk from Kuai Liang.

"You can't blame me when Madame Bo's recipes are just too delicious. Even Bi-Han couldn't resist the ones with sun-dried tomatoes."

Bi-Han responded with a small grunt, prompting you to inquire curiously, "Who is Madame Bo? I don't think I've heard you mention her before."

"She was one of our former clan members. For a brief period when we were children, she served as our instructor," Bi-Han explained from behind you. His deep voice, coupled with the fact that you were leaning against him, sent shivers down your spine. "She excelled not only in fine dining but also in combat. As she grew older, she chose to leave the clan. Now, she runs her own restaurant in Fengjian, keeping herself busy."

"We definitely need to take you there! I'm sure you'll love her food," Tomas exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Madame Bo will adore you as well," Kuai Liang added, echoing Tomas' sentiment. "Now, come on, start drinking before the soup gets cold."

As Kuai Liang dipped a spoon into the steaming soup and brought it to your lips, your cheeks flushed, and your voice came out feeble.

"Kuai, I can drink it myself."

"You've just returned from the brink of death," Kuai Liang replied softly, yet his tone carried a firmness that brooked no argument. "You're still in the midst of the healing process. Let me help you. You've already exerted yourself enough while showering."

"I'm not too weak to drink soup," you protested again. However, no one took your objections seriously, and you had to drink from the spoon that Kuai Liang offered you, feeling your cheeks grow hotter and hotter. After a few moments, you came to the realization that the situation wasn’t as embarrassing as you initially thought; in fact, it was rather pleasant. The fact that these three men, each possessing frighteningly powerful and deadly abilities, were caring for you in this way made you feel extremely valued, special, and protected. It was impossible not to be swept up in this feeling.

The rich taste of the vegetable soup calmed your stomach, easing away any lingering nausea, while the sourdough bread infused with soft olives and thyme proved to be the most delicious bread you had ever tasted.

"This is the best bread I've ever had, Kuai Liang! You must teach me how to make it," you exclaimed, eliciting a chuckle from Kuai Liang. Grasping one of the hands resting on your lap, he placed a kiss on your fingers. "I'm glad you enjoy it," he replied, returning your smile as you tenderly stroked his cheek with your hand.

After finishing the soup in no time, the front door opened, and Sektor and Lord Liu Kang entered. As you cleared your throat and made a move to get up from Bi-Han's lap, he tightened his grip, preventing you from moving.

"Bi-Han, let me get up. Lord Liu Kang is here," you insisted, turning to him with a huff.

"Yes, I can see that,"

"How am I supposed to make eye contact and talk to him and Sektor while sitting on your lap? Bi-Han, please—"

"There's no need for that," Liu Kang's calm voice gently interrupted, filling the room. You turned your attention to him and Sektor, who stood beside him, both wearing understanding expressions. "It's quite understandable that they want to be as close to you as possible after what happened."

Your lips parted to respond, but before you could, Ninja wriggled free from Tomas's grip, darted towards you with a stressed meow, and leaped onto your lap, curling into a ball and burying her head. Sensing the kitten's trembling, your brow furrowed with concern, and you immediately began stroking her small, black fur in an attempt to soothe her. Your eyes scanned her carefully, searching for any signs of distress.

"Sweet girl, what's the matter? What happened all of a sudden?" you murmured softly.

"She's afraid of Lord Liu Kang," Tomas explained, addressing your question. "I think recent events have left her a bit traumatized."

"Oh, innocent baby," you cooed, continuing to stroke the trembling kitten in your lap. Liu Kang chose to remain in the middle of the room, as if to avoid further distressing the poor animal. An somewhat embarrassed expression flickered in his unusually bright eyes. As Ninja realized that the Fire God wasn't approaching, she relaxed slightly, though she remained pressed against you, clearly unwilling to move anytime soon.

As the kitten's tremors subsided, you turned your attention to the duo standing at a distance. After exchanging a brief nod with Sektor, your gaze settled on Liu Kang.

"Lord Liu Kang, why did you bring me back to life? I thought you couldn't interfere in such matters."

"That's correct. But occasionally, there are rare opportunities in life where I can grant people a second chance for compelling reasons. Your sacrifice due to dark magic was one such instance," Liu Kang explained carefully, his gaze unwavering on you. A warm, kind expression softened his strong features. "Your selfless sacrifice had a profound impact on the fabric of existence. Without the curse, none of this would have occurred. This provided me with a unique opportunity to intervene."

As Liu Kang continued speaking, you slowly stood up, carefully depositing Ninja into Bi-Han's lap, while attempting to muffle her protesting meows behind your back. Bi-Han let you leave his arms this time, making no move to hold you back.

"In return for your courage and compassion, I have bestowed upon you the flame of life. Thus, you are now under my protection and supervision, as well as that of the Lin Kuei," Liu Kang declared.

"I-I, uh-I don't know what to say, Lord Liu Kang," you faltered. The news of being under the special protection of a god was certainly unexpected. Hoping that what you did would not be perceived as disrespectful, you closed the distance between you and God in a snap and responded decently with a hug that showed your gratitude. "I don’t know how to express my gratitude, but thank you very much."

You could sense Liu Kang's surprise through the slight stiffening of his body. Though he was the God of Fire, his body felt strangely cool, though not as cool as Bi-Han's, and a distinct scent emanated from him. It was a scent that sent shivers down your spine, an otherworldly fragrance that seemed to hint at the presence of magic. It was a blend of raw, harsh wilderness and the smell of freshly extinguished ashes.

After returning the hug with equal kindness, the two of you stepped back. The Fire God placed his hands on your shoulders in a friendly gesture, a small smile gracing his face. "There's no need to thank me. I simply did what was necessary. Your sacrifice could not go unrewarded in the face of Quan Chi's curse. If anything, I should be thanking you," he replied.

"I would also like to express my gratitude," Sektor spoke up, taking a step forward and approaching you softly. As Liu Kang withdrew his hands, you turned your head towards Sektor. He made a fist with one hand and placed it over his heart in a gesture you had not seen before, then bowed deeply, bending his body almost halfway down.

"You have brought our clan back to us. As Lord Liu Kang said, even though you are under Lin Kuei's protection, I would like to offer my services to you as a token of our gratitude on behalf of myself and Lin Kuei," Sektor expressed.

Once again, you were silent for a few seconds, unsure of what to say. Then, to avoid stuttering, you cleared your throat slightly and touched Sektor's shoulder with one hand. "Please raise your head, Sektor. I appreciate your sincere words, but you don't need to offer me your service or anything as a token of your gratitude. There's no need for any of this," you said, turning your gaze from him to the trio, who had been quietly observing everything transpire behind you. Bi-Han wore a small, ghostly smile, while Kuai Liang and Tomas were clearly beaming with pride.

Though Sektor complied and lifted his head, his expression betrayed a hint of displeasure at your words. "There must be something I can do for you," he insisted.

"Well... we can be friends? I guess... I don't know if that's allowed in a clan that trains assassins, but—"

"You are a part of us now," Kuai Liang interjected, putting an end to any further debate. Rising from his seat, he quickly approached you with wide steps and planted a kiss on your temple, instantly filling you with peace. Despite standing near someone as powerful as the Fire God and possessing abilities that defied logic, being beside Kuai Liang, Bi-Han, or Tomas made you feel safer and more at ease. "Our home is your home too."

"I would be honored by that," Sektor agreed, right afer Kuai Liang. With a smile that stretched wide enough to make your cheeks ache, you felt a profound sense of happiness fill your heart.

***

It took you about three days to fully recover. Now, you could comfortably move around without needing to hold onto anything or anyone. Your body was completely free of pain, leaving behind three cut scars that stretched from your stomach to your heart. They stood out as old scars, paler than your skin color, as if years had passed since they were inflicted. Though the scars didn't bother you, each time one of the three men saw them, their expressions darkened, evident of the pain it caused them. To spare them this discomfort, you usually opted to wear clothes that concealed the scars.

Liu Kang had already left three days ago after bidding farewell to everyone. Sektor, on the other hand, had returned to China the day after that to make the necessary preparations in the clan. You didn’t know when Bi-Han, Kuai Liang, and Tomas would return, but you were sure that the time was near. Although you really wanted to go with them, they had been away from their clan and hometown for ten years, and although Sektor expressed that he had managed the clan as best he could during their absence, you were sure that they would have a lot of work to do and take care of when they returned. For now, you didn't want to be in their way while they sorted everything out.

Moreover, you had received a positive response from a job interview and were awaiting the second session and the review of your demo, marking the first step towards your dream. You refused to let the thought of being apart from them dampen your spirits. You had faith that everything would work out somehow. The worst was behind you, and the future no longer seemed as daunting. You could face it with hope.

"You have to knead it well, like this," Kuai Liang instructed, guiding your hands as he demonstrated bread kneading. His warm breath tickled your ear as his broad hands enveloped yours. Pinned between him and the counter, you struggled to maintain focus amidst the sensory overload of his presence—his powerful body, warmth, sound, scent—making it a miracle you managed to concentrate on this moment at all.

With the lifting of the curse, it had now transformed from a relentless, tormenting fire into a gentle whip that ignited your desire. As much as it felt great to revel in the details without the pain and intense pressure that once invaded your mind, you found yourself craving more. Yet, you were also afraid to cross that bridge because of their past. You didn’t want to do anything that might trigger them or that they wouldn’t like.

‘’I doubt she’s paying attention to what you’re saying, brother,’’ Tomas teased from the other side of the counter, his voice laced with amusement.

‘’She seem to have something else on her mind besides bread,’’ Bi-Han said, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed. Caught in your momentary embarrassment, you shifted in place, aware of Kuai Liang’s knowing chuckle.

‘’I’m aware.’’ The pyromancer gently guiding you as you placed the bread in the container and covered it to let it rest for a couple of hours.

‘’So, you were teasing me, were you?’’ You quipped, turning to face Kuai Liang.

‘’Not entirely,’’ Kuai Liang chuckled, turning you to meet his gaze. ‘’Okay, maybe a little.’’

‘’The expression on your face says otherwise, Kuai,’’

‘’I enjoy the effect I have on you,’’ Kuai Liang confessed with his usual honesty. ‘’You can’t blame me for enjoying that—‘’

Before he could finish his sentence, you acted on impulse, rising on tiptoe to plant a kiss on his lips. In an instant, his lips parted, his tongue delving into your mouth, deepening the kiss into something passionate and fervent. Excitement coursed through you, as if your body had awakened anew, blooming like a flower receiving water.

The bronze-skinned assassin effortlessly lifted you, placing you on the counter with a firm yet gentle touch, urging you to spread your legs. Welcoming his strength eagerly, you couldn’t help but feel a rush of heat each time you witnessed his power. It was undeniably arousing, the way his muscles flexed beneath his skin as he maneuvered you into position.

As Kuai Liang leaned in close, his body pressed against yours, radiating warmth and hardness that sent shivers down your spine. You arched into him, craving the contact. A soft moan escaped your lips as you felt the delicious friction between your bodies. Your heartbeat quickened, and your body responded instinctively, hips moving in small circles to intensify the sensation building within you.

A low, guttural growl emanated from Kuai Liang as a respond. Gripping your legs, he drew you closer, the weight of his body pinning you completely. You could feel his length, firm and hard and burning hot, the heat seeping through the fabric of his trousers. Despite being confined, his thickness was unmistakable, pressing against you with a delicious weight.

‘’Fuck.’’ Bi-Han’s deep voice snapped you out of your trance. Turning to him and Tomas, panting with flushed cheeks, you noticed their arousal, evident as day with the bulges straining against their trousers. Bi-Han’s dark eyes seemed almost black with desire, fixed on you like a predator eyeing its prey. Tomas’s cheeks held a faint pink hue, his desire mirroring Bi-Han’s intensity. ‘’To the bedroom. Now.’’

When Kuai Liang, obeying Bi-Han instantly, lifted you up by continuing to grab you by the legs, you automatically wrapped your legs around his waist and tried to calm your rapidly beating heart. Although it took quite a short time to reach the bedroom, it was as if time had suddenly slowed down, a kind of excitement that you had never experienced before had taken over your body. Your heart was beating so fast inside, it was like it was going to jump out and leave your rib cage.

The moment Kuai Liang released you onto the bed, Tomas materialized behind you, his lips trailing kisses along your neck and shoulder, his teeth grazing your skin, leaving behind faint scratches. As Kuai Liang captured your lips once more, the kiss ignited with a fervor and urgency that consumed both of you. There were more teeth than lips as he nipped at your lower lip, his tongue sweeping through to soothe it before plunging deep into your mouth, as if he was trying to claim you with just that kiss.

All you tasted was him. You whimpered out loud, your head swimming with raw want.

‘’It’s alright, kotê. We’ve got you. You’re safe with us,’’ Tomas murmured against your skin, his lips traveling your shoulder to your neck, pausing at your earlobe. With a gentle nip, he whispered, ‘’Do you allow us to touch you completely, lásko?’’

Gasping, you pulled your head back to answer his question. “In exchange for me touching you too, yes,” you replied. A smile graced Kuai Liang’s lips.

‘’Everything that defines us already belongs to you. You don’t need permission for this, tiánxīn,’’

In one fluid motion, Tomas’s hand journeyed down from your rib cage to your stomach, deftly unbuttoning your trousers and pausing at the edge of your panties. With a gentle touch, he lowered it a little until they reached your wet heat.

‘’Shit, you’re already so wet,’’ Tomas exclaimed, his long fingers teasing just below your panties, eliciting a string of curses in Czech. ‘’I need to taste you. Now.’’

A ragged moan escaped your throat. Tomas’s voice was so thick with want that it made you clench your legs reflexively and imagining his words made you even wetter. Though being sandwiched between two bodies was exhilarating, the heat was becoming overwhelming. Sweat dampened your skin, and breathing felt labored in the rising temperature. Your chest rose and fell rapidly, almost painfully, as you struggled to maintain composure. Then, Bi-Han’s voice cut through the haze.

‘’You’re going to overwhelm her. Give her space to breathe, you idiots.’’

‘’Clothes—‘’ Bi-Han’s warning prompted the two brothers to withdraw, allowing you to gulp down sweet oxygen several times in quick succession. ‘’There are too many clothes.’’

‘’We can take care of that.’’ While Kuai Liang helped you take off your clothes, Tomas assisted you in removing your pants. You watched with bated breath as all three of them started to undress, moving in perfect sync. Their bodies were a sight to behold—beautiful and strong, like sculptures carved from marble. You could easily see the years of training etched into their forms, along with the pale scars left behind by their duties. When your gaze involuntarily shifted downward, you felt your cheeks grow warmer.

It wasn’t the first time you had seen them naked. The first time they emerged from the book, you were too afraid to focus on anything but their faces, and your feelings for them weren’t as intense. Although you could now look at them comfortably, it wouldn’t be a lie to say that their size intimidated you a little. The three of them were similar in stature, their impressively large members standing upright and stiff, all for you.

‘’Are you alright, kotê?’’ Tomas’s nose rubbed against your cheek gently. ‘’Don’t hesitate to share your feelings with us.’’

‘’Yes, tonight, the only thing we ask is for you to communicate your limits openly. If there’s anything you don’t like, you will tell us immediately.’’ Bi-Han said. With Kuai Liand and Tomas flanking you, he reached forward, planting a kiss on your forehead before tilting your chin up with his index finger, locking eyes with you. ‘’Are we agreed?’’

Swallowing hard, feeling your mouth dry up, you responded with a thick voice, ‘’Yes.’’

‘’Perfect. Now tell me, which one of do you want first?’’ Bi-Han whispered toward your lips before withdrawing back, leaving you to blink in turn at each of them. Choose? The decision weighed heavily; each brother held a unique allure—Kuai Liang’s passion, Tomas’s sweetness, and Bi-Han’s watchful dominance. They were all so different, yet equally special— ‘’I can’t choose.’’

‘’If it’s agreeable to both of you, I can go first,’’ Tomas offered, prompting silent agreement from Kuai Liang and Bi-Han as they withdrawed back, giving space to the silver-haired assassin. You couldn’t comprehend how all of you managed to fit in the bed, since it’s just for two people. But somehow, you made it work, moving in quite harmony.

‘’You are so beautiful,’’ Tomas murmured, his kiss tender and deliberate, suffued with compassion. ‘’Thank you for sharing this moment with us.’’

‘’I’m yours. Every part of me belongs to you, I accept everything that will come from all three of you.’’

Somewhere nearby, Kuai Liang uttered something in Chinese, and Bi-Han’s breath caught sharply. Meanwhile, Tomas, kissing you once more, guided you to lie down on the bed, his weight comforting rather than oppresive. Propping himself up on his elbows, he hovered over you, his short, soft silver hair a tousled mess, cheeks flushed against his pale skin, lips glistening, and silvery gray eyes shining like stars.

“You are very beautiful,” Tomas’s words a gentle caress against your skin. “I can’t get enough of looking at you; it tugs at my heartstrings every time.”

As his hand trailed over your throat, then down to the first scar, you observed his furrowed brow and darkening expression. When he leaned down to kiss the scar just below your left breast, a shaky breath escaped your lips. His kiss held not only tenderness but also an unspoken apology.

“I hate to see you hurt. I’m grateful that you’re with us; I just wish there was a way to solve what happened in a different way,” he quitely spoke against your skin, his voice laden with regret.

“It’s all right now, Tomas, and that’s what matters. Let’s enjoy the moment; we all deserve it. Don’t you think so?”

“You are right.” He showered your stomach with kisses, paying equal attention to each scar, while you glanced at the other two brothers watching you. Kuai Liang sat regally on a chair pulled close to the bed, like a king waiting for the perfect opportunity to conquer, his powerful legs spread wide as one hand leisurely stroked his erection. When your eyes met, his amber gaze sparkled with pleasure, a small smile gracing his lips.

“We will all take care of you in turn, tiánxīn. Do not worry,”

You gulped at this words, your gaze then shifted to Bi-Han, who sat at the end of the bed. His intense desire burned in his eyes, evident in the veins that stood out on his neck and the icy vapor that escaped his nostrils. It was the first time you noticed the freckles scattered across his broad, muscular chest, rising and falling with each controlled breath.

It was exhilarating to feel and witness their raw emotions so palpably. To be wanted. To be desired. There was a hungry part of you that craved more, yet you weren’t quite brave enough to voice it yet. Bi-Han caught your gaze, rising from his place with a growl, and captured your lips in a kiss that stole your breath away. Unlike Tomas’s sweet kisses or Kuai Liang’s burning passion, Bi-Han’s kiss was dominant, demanding, and deep enough to make your toes curl. As his tongue explored the depths of your mouth, you clung to his shoulders, trying to anchor yourself to reality amidst the flood of sensations.

“I want to mark you,” Bi-Han declared, his teeth grazing your lower lip with a hint of pain that only added to the pleasure. “I want to see my marks on your skin, to claim you as mine. Do you allow me, àirén?”

“Yes. Yes, please,” you gasped breathlessly, surprised at how incredibly hot and sexy his want sounded. Bi-Han’s gaze darkened even further, if that were possible, a predatory smile dancing on his lips as his minty cool breath washed over your face.

“Don’t beg. You never have to beg for us, àirén. As much as you are ours, we are also yours. Simply expressing your desires is enough for us to fulfill them.”

“O-Okay. You have not yet told me what the words you say in your own language mean—Ah!” Your head fell back as Tomas bit into the soft, delicate flesh of your thigh. The ache between your legs intensified, your body trembling with electric anticipation from head to toe. Another whimper escaped your lips as you desperately tried to shift your legs to alleviate the ache, only for Tomas to restrain you with a firm touch.

“I know, darling. I’ll relieve you in a moment. Don’t worry.”

Tomas kissed the sensitive skin of your inner thighs, each touch sending shivers down your spine. Sometimes his teeth grazed your skin, eliciting involuntary squirms from you. His once gentle touch was now more firm and strong, leaving you sure there would be fingerprints tomorrow. Meanwhile, Bi-Han redirected his attention from your lips to your neck, catching you off guard with a sudden bite that drew an embarrassing squeal from your lips.

While it stung, it wasn’t unbearable; instead, it ignited a tingling flame in your belly, spreading warmth throughout your body like a wildfire. Being claimed in such a primal manner felt undeniably hot and intoxicating, reaffirming your belongingness to them.

“Are you all right?” Bi-Han murmured as he gently licked the bitten spot, to which you simply nodded in response. “If it becomes too much, you’ll let me know. I trust you to do that, right?” Another nod from you earned a smile from Bi-Han. He pressed a kiss to your shoulder, “Perfect. Our perfect woman.

“The sounds she’s making…” Kuai Liang’s groan cut through the air, his voice deep and thick with desire that it was almost impossible to understand the words. “I want to hear more.”

“So do I,” Tomas added, his voice joining his brother’s. As if punctuating his words, his mouth closed over your aching core, surprising and rendering you breathless and causing your entire body to stiffen.

“Breathe, àirén,” Bi-Han urged, placing kisses on your neck and grasping the side of your neck with one hand, offering an anchor for you to hold onto, his thumb grazing your pulse. As you took a deep breath, the cryomancer nibbled on your earlobe. “That’s it. As for the answer to the previous question, àirén means ‘my love’ in my language.”

“Tiánxīn means sweetheart,” Kuai Liang said, his voice taking on a growl towards the end.

“And kotě means kitten,” Tomas’ voice was almost unintelligible, muffled by his actions. You moaned as his tongue curled over that little bundle of nerves, while Tomas let out an almost feral, uncontrolled growl that made your body tremble. “Fuck— your taste is amazing, I could get drunk on it.” Adjusting himself between your legs, he lifted them over his broad shoulders to get better access, ensuring your stability with his hands, pinning you down easily. “And lásko means love.”

You wanted to say something in return, but the words seemed to leave you. You were caught between Bi-Han’s bites of a mixture of pleasure and pain and Tomas’s deceptively moving tongue. When one of your hands went straight to Tomas’s hair and the other found Bi-Han’s, a groan went up from both of them, which made it clear that they liked it, and set your skin on fire. The sounds you made were completely primitive and loud enough to make you blush, when you closed your eyes tightly, you heard Bi-Han growling.

“Open your eyes, I want to see and watch the pleasure we’re giving you.’’

‘’There is nothing to be ashamed of here, tiánxīn.’’ When Kuai Liang appeared on your other side, you wanted to reach out to him, but it was difficult to move your hands. Fortunately, Kuai Liang had no difficulty reading you, so he leaned right over you and made you relax, leaving little kisses starting at the corner of your chin until they reached your lips. ‘’You are too beautiful for words, don’t hide yourself from us. Even looking at you is a pleasure in itself for us.’’

You felt a small laugh climbing up your throat. Everything felt so comfortable, easy and most importantly, safe. You had complete trust in them, and it was such a trust that it made it easier for you to put yourself in their control. You knew that they would never hurt you, the comfort and peace you felt from their presence came first.

Although your lips were parted to thank Kuai Liang, the words remained stuck when Tomas rolled the small nub with his tongue and closed his lips on it, sucking on. Stars, literally golden stars appeared behind the eyelids that you closed without realizing it, a long moan left your lips. Tomas was kind, but also cruel. He knew so well how to use his tongue and lips, where he should touch and at what speed he should move, that in seconds he managed to turn you into a tight ball just begging for more.

You heard Tomas chuckle; you didn’t need to look to see the proud expression that settled on his face, you could imagine it clearly. Bi-Han took a break from his assault, and you trembled with another wave of pleasure as he stepped away, just like Kuai Liang. Tomas’s tongue was hot and strong, and when that clever muscle opened your lower lips and dipped into your warmth, you both groaned at the same time.

Tomas pleasured you with his tongue in a way that left you unable to keep track of time. He used his mouth so skillfully that it should be considered a crime. It was as if he was a man lost in a desert who had just found water. His tongue licked your lips, sometimes teasing that small bud to make your breath hitch, and then easily slid his devilish tongue into your wet channel. He was literally devouring you, guttural sounds leaving his throat matching the sounds you were making.

While Bi-Han was cursing, Kuai Liang asked in a hoarse voice, “Can you bring her to peak like that?”

“Yes. She’s so wet and hot and sweet—My Gods, may they have mercy on us.’’

‘’W-Wait, ah- a minute.’’ As soon as you managed to somehow get the words out, Tomas obeyed you in a breath and stopped. The only thing you felt was his warm breath that touched your wet heat. Kuai Liang asked, stroking the top of your head, in a gentle and careful voice that you could call worried, ‘’Are you all right, tiánxīn?’’

‘’Yes, I just… I don’t want to come this way.’’ Even though your face was cut red, you continued. ‘’It felt so good. Just—Some other time, but not today.” Because if Tomas had continued for a few more minutes, you would have come easily without even needing to feel his fingers or his length inside, and you didn’t want this to happen the first time without feeling them inside.

“Of course,” Kuai Liang leaned down and placed a small, loving kiss on the top of your head. ‘’Thanks for sharing with us.’’

‘’But you’re letting me stretch you on my fingers, right? I don’t want to hurt you.’’ Tomas said, in a voice so deep that it made you shiver inside. When you turned your gaze from Kuai Liang to him, your heart misfired. Tomas’ lips and chin were completely covered with your juices, shining. His hair was even more messy than before, some of the short tufts had risen into the air, his gray eyes were dark, and the raw hunger lying there had accelerated your pulse, you almost couldn’t hear them because of the buzzing in your ears.

Remembering at the last moment what you were asked, you mumbled a ‘’Yes.’’ Chuckles poured out from all three men.

“Perfect. You’re so perfect and good for us.” As one of Tomas’ long fingers easily slipped into your wet warmth, a wave of relief washed over you, soothing the ache that had been constantly building up. “Next time, I want to see the moment when you come apart just on my tongue. Your taste is addictively sweet.” While Tomas peppered kisses on the inside of your thights, his clever finger moved back and forth with an ever-accelerating rhythm. It felt good, but it wasn’t exactly what you craved. You wanted to feel more—fuller.

“Use your words, darling,” Tomas said, sensing your desire through your squirming. Swallowing the urge to express yourself by closing your eyes, you met Bi-Han’s gaze and forced your lips to move. “More. I want more.”

Tomas smiled, and when he pulled his hand back, your eyebrows furrowed, and you let out a little desperate whine as if in objection. This was not what you wanted, what you wanted—just as Tomas returned to your entrance with two fingers, Kuai Liang’s fingers also began to stroke over the small bundle of nerves, causing you to see stars. As Bi-Han’s mouth closed over one of your hardened nipples, your body stretched like a bow. Every sensation felt overwhelmingly good, especially the tension building up beneath your belly, dragging you closer to the edge.

Bi-Han bit the delicate bud before sucking on it to soothe the pain, while Kuai Liang’s other hand kneaded your other breast. Callused fingertips left a trail of fever wherever they touched, and as Tomas’s fingers moved in and out, coupled with the pressure on your core, you were on the brink of climax.

Realizing how stretched your body was, all three of them ceased their sweet torture. As Tomas donned the condom handed by Bi-Han, you took a deep breath, desperate for the oxygen you badly needed.

“Are you ready, lásko?”

“Yes,” you answered in a flash. ‘‘I’m ready, Tomas…Please—I—“

“Shh, what did my brother tell you, darling? Don’t ever beg to us.”

As his length, bigger and harder than fingers, pressed at your entrance, your legs instinctively opened to welcome him in. Slowly, Tomas entered your molten hot depths, and you whimpered, clinging to his shoulders, trying to adjust to the incredible fullness.

“That’s it, you’re doing great, beautiful. Just a little bit more.” When Tomas’s groin met yours, the silver-haired assassin leaned in, gently stroking your cheek as he gazed into your eyes. A small, sincere, and happy smile adorned his face, sending a tremble through your heart. “Are you with me?“

“Yes.”

“Feeling all right?“

You nodded your approval, and Tomas chuckled, his thumb stroking your lower lip.

“I want to hear it in words, lásko.”

“Yes, very much.” Then, as you reflexively squeezed your inner walls, the overwhelming fullness made your head spin, and you both groaned in unison. Tomas surged inside you like a pulse, strong, hot, and hard, filling you completely, beautifully. His length reached every part of you, leaving no inch untouched. “How do you feel?“

“More wonderful than I’ve ever felt.” As Tomas leaned down further, kissing you deeply, you tasted your own essence on his tongue, unable to stop yourself from moaning into his mouth. It felt as though flames coursed through your veins, while your heart raced and the tension under your belly mounted. “Our woman,” Tomas purred, kissing you once more. “Ours.”

“Yours,” you gasped.

Tomas smiled, but his grin was feral and hungry, just like a hunter. As he began to move his hips, a gasp then a thin moan escaped your lips involuntarily. The pleasure coursing through you was indescribable, urging you to squirm for more. Wrapping your legs around Tomas, you tried to draw him closer. Tomas and Kuai Liang chuckled simultaneously, their laughter devoid of mockery, sweet as honey, warm and loving. Bi-Han planted a tender kiss on your temple.

‘‘Shh, he will give you what you want, àirén.’’

‘’Certainly,’’ Tomas replied, smiling. The rhythm gradually picked up pace, smooth yet intense, making it challenging to restrain the sounds of pleasure escaping you. The warmth emanating from Tomas, the flushed pleasure on his face, the sexual harmony… Everything felt magical and uniquely special, filling your heart with love.

In this moment, it was as if you existed only with these three brave and strong warriors, ready to fight and spill blood for you without hesitation. You were enveloped in a sheltered bubble where time seemed to stand still.

As Kuai Liang took your nipple into his mouth this time, Bi-Han’s hand trailed down your quivering stomach. When his fingers found that sensitive spot and applied just right amount of pressure, sharp waves of ecstasy mingled with the pleasure, eliciting helpless whimpers from you. The impending orgasm approached faster than you anticipated. All three of them made encouraging noises, pleased with the sounds you produced.

‘’Gods, your voice… Fuck,’’ Tomas breathed heavily.

‘’You moan so sweetly,’’ Kuai Liang remarked, joining in.

‘‘I want to see you peak, I bet you’ll look divine.’’ As Bi-Han increased the pressure on your mound, you moaned helplessly. Tomas swallowed the sound with a low growl, his lips never leaving yours. ‘’Let us see, àirén.’’

You were just barely breathing, unable to focus on anything except the white-hot pleasure coursing through you. Tomas’ hand found your hair, effortlessly tilting your head back to dominate your mouth as he pleased, while Kuai Liang’s fingers toyed with your sweetly abused nipple, sending sharp but addictive pain coursing through you. And when Bi-Han’s touch once again grazed your core, the world slipped away for a moment. The tension under your belly reached its peak, finally snapping. Shaken with pleasure, you couldn’t breathe—maybe you screamed, you couldn’t tell. Time, space, even your surroundings faded into oblivion for a fleeting moment.

It took a while for you to regain awareness, noticing Tomas’s hardness twitching inside you as he breathed heavily, trying to recover. ‘’Perfect, sweet lásko.’’ he gasped, kissing the tip of your nose. ‘‘You were wonderful. How do you feel?’’

Taking a moment to assess yourself, you realized you felt more than good—you felt great, alive, and fully satisfied. ‘‘I’ve never felt better,’’ you replied honestly. A bright, proud, and somewhat smug smile spread across his face as he planted a chaste kiss on your lips.

‘‘Can you go on?’’

‘’Yes, I trust you.’’

A growl of satisfaction emanated from all three at your response. As Tomas carefully withdrew, you took a deep breath, feeling a sense of emptiness after being full. While Tomas removed his condom, Bi-Han approached with a glass of water, and Kuai Liang helped you sit up. As you drank the cold water, surprised at your thirst, Kuai Liang peppered your shoulder with little kisses, while Bi-Han gently stroked the back of your head. If it weren’t for the lingering energy pulsating through your body, you could easily fall asleep like this. Their touches were gentle and caring, a stark contrast to the intensity before.

When you finished all the water in the glass, Kuai Liang asked, ‘’Would you like some more?’’

‘’No, this is enough, thank you.’’

Upon your answer, as Bi-Han rose to put down the glass, Kuai Liang arranged both pillows back to back, leaning them against the headboard. Then, he settled his powerful body against the prepared pillows and turned his amber eyes on you, bright as the sun. His sun-kissed body, rippling with muscles and adorned with a few scars, along with the flex of his scorpion tattoo on his arm, he was a sight to behold.

‘’Come here, tiánxīn.’’

Approaching him as instructed, you let Kuai Liang pull you towards him. His hair, usually gathered into a bun but now left in a ponytail, was scattered, its dark strands cascading over his broad chest, surprisingly soft to the touch. Kuai Liang effortlessly turned you over, making you lean against his chest, and you let out a shaky sigh as you felt his hard length, warmer than Tomas’, at your entrance. Though not as long as Tomas, Kuai Liang was certainly more well-endowed, the tip of his arousal flushed with red.

‘’Remember, if you don’t like anything, you’ll tell us. You are the most important thing to us, and we don’t want you to force yourself in any way.’’

‘’All right.’’ Turning your head to the side, you dropped a small kiss on the edge of his strong-lined chin. ‘‘Everything that comes from you, I already accept. There can be nothing that I will not like.’’

‘’You’re too sweet.’’ Kuai Liang returned the kiss on your lips. His hands slid from your waist to the back of your legs, parting them gently. ‘’Open up for me, tiánxīn.’’ As he pressed you down, his length entered you easily and effortlessly. Moaning softly, you rested your head on his shoulder, one hand curling up at the back of his neck while the other gripped the hand holding onto your leg.

‘’You’re perfect. You were made for us, tiánxīn. Wrapped wonderfully around me.’’

Kuai Liang, when he placed his teeth on the other shoulder that Bi-Han hadn’t marked, you shivered with another helpless moan. You’d never thought that pain could feel so sweet and good, or the happiness you’d feel when you woke up in the morning to see their claims on your body. While the pyromancer filled you inside with a strong and steady rhythm unlike anything you’d known before, Bi-Han came into view.

His hair was also disheveled like Kuai Liang’s, his black locks spilling over his chest, a stark contrast to his snow-white skin. From his perfectly lined muscles, your eyes trailed down to his painfully erect arousal, adorned with fine black hairs, and it didn’t surprise you that his size matched Kuai Liang’s.

‘‘You can always stop us,’’ Bi-Han said as he closed the distance between you. Without averting his gaze from you, one hand carefully descended, teasing your entrance with his fingers before slowly, very slowly, inserting one finger, eliciting a scream-like sound from you at the incredible fullness and stretching you felt. Kuai Liang licked the spot where he had bitten and reached towards your neck, while Bi-Han placed a kiss on the edge of your lip.

‘‘Are you all right? Is it too much?’’

“No. I’m good,’’ you said, gasping. Kuai Liang’s size was extremely endowed, and Bi-Han’s finger was definitely not considered small. Despite facing the kind of stretching you hadn’t experienced before, it didn’t hurt. Instead, all you felt was an indescribable pleasure that made you tremble uncontrollably.

‘’Can you take both of us?’’

‘‘Both of you… at once…?’’ As you responded to Bi-Han’s question with surprise, Kuai Liang planted a small kiss on your neck.

“He will prepare you carefully, tiánxīn. There will be no pain, only pleasure. Always pleasure. Don’t doubt it at all, but if you don’t want to, there is no problem in that. Whatever you want, we will fulfill it happily,”

All three of them carefully observed your every reaction, constantly checking your condition, trying to discern what you liked. ‘’I want to try,’’ you said in a voice that suddenly became shy. ‘‘I trust you. I know you won’t hurt me.’’

‘‘Never,’’ said Bi-Han in a harsh and sharp voice.

‘’We just want to give you nothing but pleasure, tiánxīn,’’ added Kuai Liang, joining his brother. Bi-Han leaned down and began showering your neck, collarbones, and breasts with kisses, occasionally sucking on your skin, while Kuai Liang continued his sweet torture on your neck and shoulder.

After a while, a second finger joined the first one. You didn’t know what you sounded like—a scream, a moan? It didn’t hurt, but it definitely burned now, the pleasure was overwhelming. You were sure you were scratching Bi-Han as you clung to his shoulders, drawing blood where you pressed your nails into his flesh. But you needed to steady yourself and do something with your hands. You moved as if you had lost control of your body, but under Kuai Liang’s grip as hard as steel, and with him impaling you, there was nowhere for you to go.

‘’That’s it. You’re opening so beautifully for me,’’ Bi-Han inhaled deeply while sucking on the spot where your throat met your shoulder. ‘‘Fuck, do you see how you’re sucking me in? So perfect.’’

You tried to babble something, his words making you blush hotly, but all that came out of your lips was a broken moan. You didn’t know if they could understand you, you weren’t even sure how you could still contain this much pleasure. As if you were about to fly away, your head fell to the side as the hot tension gathered under your belly spread in waves throughout your entire body once more, and you bit Kuai Liang’s neck, the only thing you could think of to suppress your uncontrollable moans.

Since Kuai Liang didn’t expect you to do this, his rhythm jerked for a moment, and an incomprehensible curses poured from his lips. As if it were possible, when his hardness, which was pulsating inside and burning like an ember, grew larger, you couldn’t stop yourself from moaning against his skin.

‘’I didn’t know you liked being bitten,” said Tomas, although his voice sounded close, you were not yourself enough to understand where it was coming from. You heard Kuai Liang take a sharp gasp.

‘’So do I.’’

At that moment, Bi-Han was completely focused on stretching you. His touch was gentle and extremely careful as he slowly pushed his fingers a little deeper each time, causing your whole body to tremble with it. After a while, when his third finger teased at your entrance, you tried to relax. Two fingers and Kuai Liang’s length were quite a lot, but you wanted this.

While trembling under Kuai Liang’s strong grip, you pulled your mouth back and gently licked the place you had bitten as a kind of apology, then looked at Bi-Han through your eyelashes. When his eyes, as dark as the starless sky, met yours, Bi-Han said, ‘’Breathe,’’ and then added his third finger to the others.

As you accepted him, all the air you could draw into your lungs flew away. You couldn’t scream, couldn’t even make a sound. When you opened your eyes again, which you hadn’t realized you had closed, you saw Tomas standing over you.

‘’Are you okay? Do you want him to stop?’’

‘‘No. I’m—I’m all right.’’ When you could breathe again, you continued in a weak voice. ‘’Just… Too full— oh, my god-too much.’’

‘’You’re doing great.’’ Tomas reached down and planted a kiss on the top of your head. “But if this hurts you-‘’

“No.’’ As Bi-Han pushed his fingers a little deeper, your eyes closed once again. ‘‘I’m all right.’’

The cryomancer growled, his fingers began to move back and forth a little faster and smoother as his grunts echoed through the room. After a while, you found yourself getting used to this feeling; to this fullness and the perfect harmony of hot and cold. When Bi-Han rooted his fingers and pulled them back without any warning, a confused, unhappy whimper poured from your lips. You wanted them back, just when you were used to it-

‘‘I know, àirén. I know, I’ll give you what you want.’’

When Bi-Han put on the condom that Tomas handed him and aligned his length, which was much, much bigger than his fingers, to your entrance, your heart started beating so hard inside that for a moment you thought you were going to faint. Kuai Liang leaned back a little more, pulling you along with him, while Bi-Han slowly began to insert his length through your entrance. Although you thought that Kuai Liang filled you too much and that Bi-Han would never be able to enter, Bi-Han carefully slipped into you within seconds, slow but sure, and—

You wailed, it was an absolutely overwhelming feeling, it was beyond fullness. But somehow, you stood up to it. It didn’t hurt, but it all seemed too much and too intense at once.

‘‘It’s all right, àirén. Shh, we got you. Breathe, yes just like that.’’

Bi-Han stopped when he settled down to the hilt, and while giving you time to get used to the feeling, he reached out to you and planted a kiss on your slack lips. Even though you tried to respond to him back, all you could do was moan and gasp brokenly into his mouth. Kuai Liang kissed you wherever he could reach, while whispering words of love and praise in your ear and caressing you with a broad hand that he slid over your belly.

When you finally managed to open your eyes, you came eye to eye with Bi-Han’s dark and hungry gaze.

‘’Are you ready, àirén?’’

“Yes.’’ You whispered.

When he bent down to kiss you with a feral smile that mostly bared his teeth, his long hair tickled your cheeks. Then when he started moving, you screamed and couldn’t stop yourself from putting your nails on his shoulders again.

Bi-Han snarled into your mouth, catching your lower lip with his teeth, as Kuai Liang also started to move, you completely gave yourself up to their control and mercy. Their movements were very harmonious, as if they were reading each other’s minds, one was on the way out, the other was inside, and they never left you empty. While Kuai Liang was warming your body from behind, Bi-Han was soothing you with his coolness with every part he came into contact with in front of you.

‘’Will you let us see you peak once more, beautiful?’’ Kuai Liang said as his hand on your stomach slid down. You moaned from where you were leaning your head on his shoulder, even the slightest movement was enough to make your eyes roll back. You didn’t think it was possible to survive such a pleasure if Kuai Liang touched you there—

‘’Kuai-’’ You said, gasping. Although it was foolish to hope that he would understand what you meant by voicing his name, you didn’t know at that moment how you could communicate otherwise. The hot tension in your stomach was so tense that you could have exploded at any moment. All you need is—

When Bi-Han, uttering a curse, grabbed your legs and placed them on his shoulders, burying himself deeper than ever, he touched a place in you that make sparks and stars appearing before your eyes, liquid hot electricity running through your whole body, making you tremble. As you contracted so hard that the two men took a sharp breath and snarled like predators. As Bi-Han pressed the same spot several times, his rhythm was smooth and relentless. All you could do was hold on to him. At that moment, Kuai Liang’s hand was resting on your mound, and you clawed his arm desperately, he stroked it once, twice, thrice, and then you came screaming. Your body stiffens, breath leaving your lungs, and your vision blurs into blinding white.

Although you don’t know how it happened, after a while, as your vision gradually clears, you find yourself curled up in Kuai Liang’s lap, gasping for breath. Your body still trembles with lingering aftershocks.

‘’Hey, there.” Kuai Liang gently stroked your cheek and kissed you. ‘‘Are you all right?’’

“Yes.’’ You said in a cracked voice. When Tomas appeared on the other side of you and brought the glass closer to your lips for you to drink water, you opened your lips with great satisfaction, grateful that you didn’t have to hold the glass because you were sure that there was nothing left in your body for strength.

You had some soreness, and after getting used to being full, you were feeling very empty now, it was a strange feeling. But other than that, you felt refreshed and great. A sweet tiredness that went down to your bones had settled on you, you heard Kuai Liang laugh when you yawned without being able to help yourself.

‘’Go to sleep, tiánxīn. You’ve earned that, we’ll take care of you.’’

With a sigh, you curled up on his chest, while sleep overtook you, you fell asleep in seconds because you had no doubt that you knew your men, that you were in the safest place on earth.

***

When you opened your eyes, the morning light filtered in through the window. With the fitness of having slept the best sleep of your life, you turned around where you were lying with the touch of a body behind you while yawning in the bed and met Tomas’s gaze, which was watching you with a pleasant smile. Under the morning sun, Tomas stood quite soft and relaxed, his eyes almost like shining stars.

He didn’t have a shirt on, so you could clearly see the marks you left on his skin—bruises and thin scratches scattered here and there. A faint heat flared in your belly at the sight of him, but you brushed it aside. It was early in the morning, and despite Tomas looking very handsome and enticing at the moment, you were incredibly hungry.

‘‘Good morning. Did you sleep well?’’

‘’More than enough.’’ You said it in a happy voice. Then, after taking a look around the room, you asked curiously. ‘‘Where are the others?’’

‘’They are in the kitchen, preparing breakfast.’’

‘’Both of them?’’

‘’Although he doesn’t show it, Bi-Han too, is a good cook. He just doesn’t like cooking very much.’’

‘‘I wonder why I’m not surprised to hear that.’’ You said with a chuckle. At that time, a meowing was heard inside the room, and then within seconds, when Ninja’s tiny body came into view, you pulled her to yourself with a hug.

‘’Good morning, little menace.’’ While placing a few kisses on the top of her head and scratching under her chin, Ninja let out happy purrs, then lying on her back, she exposed her round belly, which was obviously filled with food. You both laughed at the sweetness of the kitten, and when Tomas bent his head and tried to kiss Ninja’s soft belly, the kitten meowed and grabbed Tomas’s face with four paws, trying to gnaw and kick.

“Ninja, shh, we don’t show our love that way.’’ As you gently stopped the kitten and pulled her to you, you couldn’t help but laugh at the betrayal that appeared on Tomas’s face. “To touch the open belly of cats is a death sign, Tomas. Didn’t you know that?’’

‘’I thought she was getting used to us.’’ Tomas said with sad puppy eyes and a voice full of betrayal.

Some things are instinctive; don’t take it to heart.” After giving Ninja a bit more affection, as you straightened up to start the day, the cover slipped and landed on your lap. It was then that you noticed the array of purple bruises, bites, and fingerprints covering your body. To an outsider, you probably appeared as if you had been attacked. Tomas, with a quiet voice, voiced his concern.

“How are you feeling? Do you feel any pain anywhere?”

Finding his worries sweet, you kissed his shoulder instead of his lips, considering how awful your morning breath must have been. Despite sleeping deeply, your body, especially your lower half, was aching. However, it was a pleasant sensation rather than painful; you knew you would walk funny for a bit, but that was perfectly fine with you.

“I’m fine, Tomas, don’t worry.”

Tomas helped you out of bed and helped you get dressed after giving you one last worried glance. You made your way to the kitchen with Ninja trailing behind you, where you found Kuai Liang and Bi-Han arranging dishes on the counter in sync. The delightful smells instantly made your stomach growl, causing your cheeks to flush slightly. Tomas chuckled beside you.

“Good morning, my loves,” you greeted them softly. Their faces lit up as they turned towards you, and they each gave you a hug halfway and planted a kiss on both sides of your head.

Like Tomas, they also didn’t wear anything other than sweatpants to cover up below. Their skin bore your marks, and from the looks on their faces, they were proud of them, just as you were proud to display and carry their claim on you. It was primal, indeed, but it somehow satisfied something deep within you.

“It smells amazing in here. What have you cooked?” you asked as you approached the kitchen. Bi-Han handed you a mug of green tea, and Kuai Liang explained how they prepared a Chinese breakfast while you listened and sipped your tea with happiness.

The table was adorned with an array of dishes, from steamed buns filled with pork and vegetables to dumplings swimming in fragrant broth. Crispy fried rice cakes glistened with a sweet soy glaze, while golden brown pancakes dripped with honey. Fresh fruits adorned the table, adding a refreshing touch to the feast.

Soon, you started enjoying the breakfast laid out in front of you, accompanied by a lively conversation that had you laughing. The food was as delicious as it looked, and you couldn’t help but shower them with compliments. Bi-Han even stuffed a dumpling into your mouth at one point to quiet you, which almost made you choke with laughter.

As you took another sip of your green tea, a sound from your laptop caught your attention. Curious about the early morning email, you rose to investigate, careful not to trip over Ninja who was lounging nearby.

“Is there a problem?” Kuai Liang asked as he approached, reaching to take the kitten on his lap. Ninja immediately melted at his touch, her purrs filling the living room.

Opening the mailbox directly, when you saw where the message was coming from, your heart immediately began to beat with excitement. You held your breath, opened the message box with trembling fingers, and tried to read the message in a snap.

“Is everything all right? You turned pale in an instant,” Tomas said with a worried voice as he sat on the other side of you. A growl rose from Bi-Han. “Who do we have to kill? Give us the names.”

“Guys,” you blinked back tears of happiness, trying to steady your racing heart, “remember when I told you that the first round of the job interview went well?”

“Yeah,” they replied in unison, prompting a wet laugh from you, on the verge of tears.

“I passed the second round too! They liked the demo I sent them. They want to work with me! I got the job!”

When tears of happiness that you couldn’t hold back any longer started flowing down your cheeks, Tomas was the first to hug you. His huge body enveloped you, and he whispered how proud he was of you. Kuai Liang, who had dropped Ninja to the ground, hugged you in the same manner. He gently wiped away your tears and planted a loving kiss on the top of your head. Finally, Bi-Han didn’t hug you like the others, but he gave you a chaste, sweet kiss that lingered longer than expected. Then, with pure confusion evident on his face, he asked, “What the hell is a demo?”

“It’s a preview of the game that hasn’t been fully developed yet. I had been working on it for a long time, unsure about the storyline or characters, until I met you guys,” you explained, pulling up the files on your laptop to show them. Their curiosity piqued, all three leaned in to see the screen. As you navigated to the character screen, three names appeared: Smoke, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero, in that order, accompanied by their gray, yellow and blue appearances.

“Hey, these are our code names, and they look like us. Wait a damn second—” Tomas paused incredulously, and you planted a loving kiss on his cheek amidst his confusion.

“Yes, I know the graphics aren’t great, but everything will be improved. You guys have been my inspiration. Did you like it?” you asked, hopeful.

“This is incredible,” Kuai Liang said, eyes widening in amazement. “How did you manage to do this?”

“Well, I wanted to create a fighting game since highschool. My software was ready, but I was missing characters and a plot,” you explained.

“Are they fighting to the death?” Bi-Han asked, curiosity piqued. After your confirmation, he inquired further, “What’s it about?”

“Based on what you’ve told me, I might have drawn some inspiration from certain events. The main theme revolves around the power struggle between our world and other realms, with fighting tournaments organized to maintain balance,” you elaborated.

“This isn’t just inspiration; it’s reality,” Kuai Liang chuckled, trying to stifle his laughter.

“Why don’t you also call it Mortal Combat, to tie it all together?” Tomas suggested as a joke.

“Well, that’s not a bad idea actually,” you said at the idea Tomas had thrown out. ‘’I couldn’t think of a better name. But maybe with a K instead of a C, it’ll be more catchy,” you added with a smile, trying to read their emotions. However, as the silence stretched and they continued to stare at the screen, you began to feel apprehensive. “Are you… mad at me that I used the information? I can change it completely—”

Bi-Han was the first to drop his mask, a teasing smirk playing on his lips as his normally cold eyes held an amused glint. “Of course we are not mad. Military superiors, monks, and various criminal organizations around the world are already aware of the existence of Outworld and its tournaments. Making some changes in your game to avoid direct parallels won’t be a problem.”

“So you liked my surprise then?” you asked, glancing at them, and they responded with genuine happiness and pride. Tomas chuckled beside you.

“But you’ll pay us commission fees, won’t you? After all, we played an important part in this—” Before he could finish, you threw a cushion at his face, causing him to topple over. But just as he fell, he pulled you into his arms, laughing heartily before kissing you on the lips. “It was a wonderful surprise. Thank you for deeming us worthy of this,” he said, his voice warm and affectionate. “It’s a nice feeling to know that we are your inspiration.”

“Certainly,” Kuai Liang chimed in, joining his brother to kiss you on the shoulder. Bi-Han knelt down to get on eye level with you, lifting your chin slightly to plant a kiss on your forehead.

“We are so lucky to have you,” Bi-Han said sincerely, his voice calm and genuine. You closed your eyes with happiness, feeling content and loved. Everything felt perfect, and your heart was full of love and hope. Starting with Bi-Han, you answered back in a voice overflowing with pure happiness before kissing them each in turn.

“So do I.”

***

Author’s Note: You stuck with my silly idea and finished the story?! Thank you so much for reading it; I hope you enjoyed it!🥰 I know neither of them said "I love you" to the reader—I wanted to save that for an upcoming one-shot where each of them expresses their love to the reader separately. After that, I have a couple of interesting ideas where Quan Chi and perhaps Leilani will appear and have a plot in the next story. Hope you stick around! If you have any ideas, feel free to share them with me. Take care! 😘

[lilacxquartz]

A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES

part 3 of 3 • mahito × reader

summary: following through on his threat after you broke your promise, a whole world of hell awaited you.

tags/themes: body horror, psychological horror, dark yandere, reader insert, disturbing themes, dead dove, sad ending, hurt/no comfort

ao3 • masterlist • more series • < prev chapter

3. Entombed

Despite his warning to not move a single inch from where you were, you knew that staying put with this… this… thing(?) was far from ideal.

With your sight stolen from you; the prospect of escape was now heavily obscured and hindered and in spite of such a hiccup—you refused to give up, to let this thing win—no, you were going to take back your life.

But in order to do that, you had to act fast.

Maybe, just maybe you could still attempt to try your chances at a normal life beyond your inflicted deformity. You still had the luxury of touch, taste and sound to occupy your senses, so it wasn’t completely over just yet.

Believing him to be gone, you tore out of bed in a hurried attempt to find your way out. Your hands reached to hold on wherever they could, gingerly feeling around your once familiar space, now feeling foreign to your touch. Nothing made sense anymore as you were confined to this hellish void; it was as though you were swimming through a weightless sea of darkness with debris bumping into you from every stroke.

Yet, try as you might, you eventually did succeed. Finally, you found what you were absolutely certain was the front door, but just as you reached to fumble around with the locks… your heart dropped. A slight shuffling sound creaked on and off just outside, the all too familiar dread-inducing presence of his being invading your company. Even though your eyes were sealed shut, you couldn’t quite shake the foreboding concern that his existence inflicted. It was almost an instinctual sort of feeling by now, settling deep into your heart like a primal, innate fear.

His voice played into your ears like an out of tune violin—tilting your hearing with an almost jarring melody—with each thrumming spur making you recoil, “Aw, where do you think you’re going?” he asked you before continuing, leaving you zero chance to react. “Did you really think I would let you slip away so easily?”

He continued, not letting you speak up nor protest against him, “It’s honestly kind of funny, isn’t it? Did you really think I would leave you alone for too long? I mean come on, you were obviously going to try something stupid like escaping, weren’t you?”

“I-I was just looking for the bathroom,” you managed to stutter out, “I-I swear, r-really… I can’t really navigate t-too well—“

Yet he didn’t digest your lie at all, spitting it back up at you in taunting confrontation, “Honestly, it’s kind of cute how naïve you are,” he added, his voice sounding an octave softer, as though your actions were somehow endearing, “but let’s face it, you weren’t ever going to get too far… at least not with me around.”

You froze for a moment, unable to say or do anything for a good, long minute and then just as you were about to protest further, you were once again left speechless as he walked you back into your own apartment. Your mind blanked as you allowed for him to direct you back inside, guiding you back to what felt like your bedroom.

He then softly toppled you back over the bed, ensuring that you would land gently onto your behind. You internally cursed at such such a prospect, feeling sore and tired from being in bed for far too long at this point but you were in no position to refuse such a fate—because, try as you might—you couldn’t quite float against his anchoring press, sinking your body as far down as it could go.

“Look at you, still fighting back,” he hummed, sounding almost affectionate, “that’s kind of adorable, but honestly it’s all getting a little pathetic to keep watching you fail,” he added, casting you an amused glare as he focused on you writhing around and squirming beneath his touch, “but sure, by all means, keep on doing so if that makes you feel better… it won’t change a single thing.”

“I’ll be good, I’ll be good,” you frantically repeated, pleading for his mercy, “please, I won’t go anywhere again—“

However he cut you off, “—correct,” he quipped, keeping your body completely immobile underneath his hold, “because I’m going to make it so that you can’t even… try… to walk out on me again.”

His words hung in the air for longer than they had to, leaving you feeling more and more uneasy with each passing second. Regaining your stamina to fight back once more, you tried to push forward but much to your confusion, you couldn’t do a single thing.

It was as though something had changed (again)… but what?

Once again, you tried to lift up your arms and then your legs, finding that your mind allowed you to register some sort of phantom movement but without the familiar pull of muscle protesting against bone that came with amplified force, as though you didn’t have access to such a thing at all.

It was then that it hit you.

It felt so strange because you weren’t feeling anything to begin with. You couldn’t feel your arms nor legs move around because you physically couldn’t.

Pausing for a moment, you tried to fathom your situation once more. Not only had this thing changed your bodily anatomy from clamping shut your vision, but he had also altered your ability to receive touch. It was as though he was slowly taking away your ability to perceive the world, essentially entombing you into a living coffin and dooming you to drift a perpetual, unfeeling darkness.

“W-what is this…?” you asked, sounding desperate for answers.

“Aw, don’t sound so upset,” he soothed you, offering you false comfort. You tried to determine whether or not he was touching you, but you couldn’t actually tell at all. There was nothing that you could decipher beyond his voice that wasn’t the blank and suffocating embrace of the sudden paralysis he had inflicted upon you.

God. How absolutely fucking dreadful.

“H-how can you say that…?” you scoffed as you trailed off, trying to find the right words to appoint the blame. “How can you say that,” you repeated, “knowing exactly what you have done?”

“Don’t be like that,” he sung once more, “I’m going to take care of you forever, but… you have to stop running, okay? You wouldn’t want to make me chase after you again, would you? So how about you just… let… it… happen?”

Yet, ever still defiant, there was something you that kept refusing this life. “I-I can’t, I don’t want this…”

“I thought as much,” he replied, sucking on his teeth, “so how about I just… fix that, huh?”

Immediate dread swept over you in a violent wave as he let his words once again hang in the air. Fix that? Now what on earth could that possibly even begin to mean? To you, him fixing this meant to revert the damages somehow or even just release you, but you doubted that this was the direction anything was headed in at all.

“W-what are you talking ab—“

You tried to open your mouth to force your voice out and finish that question of yours, but no such voice came.

You tried to do so again and again but only silence followed.

Had he taken your hearing?

…Or, no. This was something more than just that. He had taken that and your ability to speak. Despite the silence, you could tell that this was an addition. Your words—or any sound at all—immediately lodged in your mouth like a choking weight that prevented anything beyond air to escape your lips.

Repeatedly, you tried again and again to fight back despite your stolen senses hindering your ability to do anything at all, but you couldn’t do a single damn thing. Instead, you were trapped in the darkness with zero sensation in the rest of your body, unable to scream nor hear what was going on around you.

Essentially, you were as good as dead but without the peace that followed after it.

It was a nauseating feeling. knowing that he was likely replaying that sickeningly sweet voice that once melted into your ears like venomous honey; that he was trying to hush you into forced compliance with his unsettling touch.

But then it all came back and so suddenly, too.

In a violent shift of events, a bright, almost blinding light had hit your senses. Initially you felt the sensation of fullness that immediately washed away again, finding that you were able to in fact blink awake. In complete clarity, you were able to see him once again, without a hint of blurred vision betraying the concealment of his true monstrous identity. Indeed, he was completely and utterly vile. Had your former lover been a clearer sight when you first saw him packed away in the fridge like that, then whatever sort of skin made up this… thing’s… biological markup(?) wouldn’t have been too different given how nearly rancid they looked. Like a living corpse, in fact. Stitches that were held up by shoddily packed sutures, putrid tissue plastered over bone and muscle like a fleshy paper mache.

His eyes once again betrayed nothing other than soulless, almost sinister wonder. You stared at him for longer than you had intended to do so, not quite quite daring to look away. Pitch black irises that locked onto yours, unadorned with the humane comfort nor warmth that was typically found in one’s soul. You tried to stare for as long as you could as though to demand a silent answer, to quietly ask him ‘why me?’ but no such response ever came. Even though all of your senses were back, he still kept you purposefully unaware and in the dark.

He couldn’t quite reveal the truth to you, after all. That in the midst of the crash that had gotten you into this whole mess to begin with, that right when you were plunged forward to collide with the poorly fitted (or perhaps, tampered with) glass, that he was watching the scene play off in the shadows. He couldn’t quite reveal that in the murky depths of the forest that your car had leaned into, that you weren’t in fact staring off into the void as you had thought, but none other than his own face pressed up right against yours.

That’s why when you looked into his eyes, the void seemed almost… familiar.

He couldn’t quite reveal how he was immediately attached to your soul, something so pure and not corrupted by anything too terrible. Oh, how rare was a soul that wasn’t yet jaded. As someone who was born out of the depraved depths of humanity, he couldn’t help but stare back at you with almost obsessed wonder, as though wondering where you could have fit into all of this. In short, perhaps unintentionally, he too was looking for an answer from within your eyes.

(So perhaps in the end, there was zero blame to be accounted for either party, because in that sense—it was your own fault for living your life without immediate conflict, of course this attracted someone like Mahito; a manifestation of lacking compassion and goodness in the world—was it really that surprising that he latched on like a parasite, after all? He couldn’t help but in the end but to readily feed upon whatever innocence he could slurp up, unaware that his own corruption had more influence than he knew.)

Indeed, Mahito had thought, that by keeping you right where you were and (albeit reluctantly) acceptant of the world around you, that he could latch onto this intoxicating sort of sensation forever. You were like some sort of toy that he couldn’t bear to break—at least not yet—with so much malleable potential left within you. Perhaps he knew that deep down however, that what he felt wasn’t anything close to affection in the same sort of way that ordinary humans could perceive, because truth be told, he simply did not have the required brain chemistry to accomplish such a thing… but, it was close enough.

He wanted to keep you close to him beyond his own understanding and that was the closest he had ever felt to experience even remotely close to mimicking human nature without putting on a show.

It was the closest he could feel towards being human in a way that didn’t result in tragedy and being ever the curious creature that he was, he couldn’t help but explore that strange yet exciting new direction.

So, rather than shrinking you down to keep in his pocket with idle transfiguration or even turning you into yet another grotesquely vile thing; he did the opposite.

He kept you exactly as you were.

Reliant and afraid, yet trusting out of necessity.

After all, he was all that you had.

“All better, huh?” he spoke up once more, his voice taking on a softer tone after his own self reflection. The back of his hand felt coarse against your cheeks as he smoothed them across, rubbing your skin close to raw.

“C-can you fix me…?” you asked, still alarmed by the sudden change but now locked onto the hope that he could reverse things.

He smiled, leaning back as a little as his fingertips trailed down towards the contours of your upper body, returning partial feeling back to your form. “I can do anything, actually. Anything and everything.”

You momentarily paused as you processed the sensation of feeling once more. You couldn’t quite sense anything below just the belt, but the fact that you could above it was a big enough victory after feeling so hopeless before. Suddenly, everything could be felt in ways you hadn’t even considered before. From the gravitational pull of your eyelids, almost mocking you with the prospect of sleep from the mounting exhaustion to the dry sensation of your mouth sticking to and unsticking from your lips and tongue, like a pocket of partially set glue peeling between paper. How your fingers slightly creaked as they bent. How your philtrum tickled hot air from just the way you breathed. How even something so benign and even boring, as your hair, sat over your scalp.

Suddenly, all of those silly and usually mediocre things felt like the greatest luxury you could have ever known; the ability to experience.

“W-will you let this much stay, at least?” you asked, finally also registering that your voice was also back in full swing. Perhaps in the midst of everything that was happening, it managed to simply just… slip by you.

Either way, you looked at him with such desperately appointed hope as you hoped, perhaps even prayed for him to be lenient for your sake, only to witness as the playfulness quickly washed away and back into something serious and cold. Silly doll. You weren’t being malleable nor complaint anymore. You were being demanding and even linear. That wasn’t the reason he brought everything back, you daft thing. He only did such a thing to begin with so that he could play with you. Wasn’t that much obvious to you by now?

He supposed not, given how often you challenged him again and again.

But worry not, he thought again to himself, internally plotting and cooking up a whole new future for you. All he had to do was take you back a notch, back to when you weren’t so adamantly curious of the world around you. Back to the version that almost favoured his company… before you started to become annoyingly suspicious.

(While being completely unaware that his own lingering influence had already long corrupted your soul from just the events he had inflicted upon you. Unaware that whether he had altered your body or not, that it simply didn’t matter. He didn’t have to use idle transfiguration to change your body nor soul anymore, that his own so-called ‘good intentions’ were more than enough to make you unravel all the very same. Perhaps he was the silly thing, unable to tell at all that he had already changed you into something slightly beyond human without even intending to do so for once.)

In a way, perhaps such a revelation was almost comical. Or ironic. One or the other, at least. He was so caught up in his own fun that he didn’t quite consider that because he was a mirror of humanity, that the reflection that looked him back in the eyes was just as far gone as he was.

(That his own mirrored doll wasn’t all that much different from him in the very end.)

Blinded you will be—if he can help it; physically or mentally otherwise.

And blinded he would be—lost to the thrill of keeping something sacred and safe.

“You know that I can’t do that,” he softly murmured, brushing his fingertips over your eyes once again, this time mercifully removing the sensation in your body before clamping down the eye sockets once more. It was just as sudden as it was before, but the all too familiar pitch black sweep of nothingness flooded your senses yet again had managed to this time, break something internally for you. All of your retained hope was otherwise gone, just like the light he had stolen. “We can keep trying any again though, my silly doll,” he added, “I’ll keep taking you out of the box when I think you’re ready to surrender and play, but if not, then I’ll tuck you back once again. Don’t worry though, you’re not a collectible to me, like all of those other silly humans. You’re one of a kind. Maybe soon enough, you’ll understand just how special that truly makes you?”

And with that, the loss of sensation followed through once more, confining you to your own living tomb; doomed to be locked inside your own flesh and bones, with the only prospect of freedom being the hope of even more imprisonment.

All the while Mahito couldn’t quite see it just yet; all of the corruption he had inflicted from pushing you again and again, beyond salvageable mortal limits.

Again and again.

Mahito who looked into the abyss in search of his own humanity found the cause of hope.

You, who looked into the void in search of a way out, only to find yourself trapped in hell instead.

A reflection of humanity, indeed—a sight for sore eyes—both seeking comfort in something that was no longer there.

And never will be, again.