#Hopefully Ash likes the suit

[smiley-notes-doodles]

Some GTLive fanart I made recently! I plan on posting it soon on Reddit under the GTLive subreddit. Hopefully, they might consider adding my art to their collection behind the couch!

I had a lot of fun making these, especially the microphone one. It was rlly interesting to experiment with lighting and posing, and I’m very proud of it!

[zepskies]

Lost on You - Part 1

Pairing: Soldier Boy/Ben x F. Supe!Reader

Summary: 1983 is a big year for you. You’re finally chosen to join the ranks of Payback, led by the most (in)famous supe in the world: Soldier Boy. He’ll never admit that he’s trying his damndest to figure you out. You’ll never admit that he’s actually growing on you. But the problem with this game is deciding who’s the predator, and who is prey.

AN: Welcome to Part 1! You guys have really warmed by heart with all the anticipation for this series, so thank you so much. I think it's going to be a fun ride. 😉

Song Inspo: “Magic” by Olivia Newton-John. And check out the full “Lost on You Playlist” here. There’s going to be lots of ‘80s music in this series!

Word Count: 4K

Tags/Warnings: SB being an entitled asshole (strap in for a lot of that), misogyny, bullying, and a “meet cute” of sorts…

🎙️ Series Masterlist || YouTube Playlist || Spotify Playlist

Part 1: Siren Song

April 3, 1983

“Why the fuck wasn’t I consulted about this?” Soldier Boy groused.

Arthur Cohen, otherwise known as “The Legend,” released a heavy puff of his cigar within the relative privacy of his office. Vought afforded him a great deal of luxuries, at the cost of days like this.

So, he’d offered the supe one of his most coveted Cubans to pacify him. Because true to form, he was edging closer to a temper tantrum by the minute.

“This decision came from on high, my friend,” Arthur said, with a smile that hid his inner anxiousness. He tapped some ash off his cigar with a finger adorned by a gaudy gold ring. “Stan Edgar, Stillwell, even the entire board of directors signed off on this one.”

“I don’t give a fuck who bought into this PR bullshit,” Soldier Boy postured, crossing his arms across his dark green supe suit as he leaned into the plush seat adjacent to Arthur’s desk. He raised a solid boot on the edge of the newly polished mahogany, and then another, crossing them at the ankles. His cigar was balanced between his teeth in the corner of his mouth.

“The last thing we need,” he said, pausing to inhale. Then he took the cigar from his lips to blow out smoke in hot annoyance. “Is another broad on the team.”

Arthur inclined his head. “I understand your concerns.”

“Do you?” Soldier Boy snorted. “Countess is bitch enough to deal with, believe you me.”

Arthur sympathized. He knew Crimson Countess’s attitude well, but he supposed Soldier Boy had license to say so more than anyone else, considering she was his girlfriend.  

“Look, I could give you the numbers: expected profit margins, demographics, etcetera, but you don’t get paid to hear that from me,” Arthur said, with a magnanimous hand gesture and a fair bit of old Jewish charm. “I’m askin’ you to trust me. This girl’s good, okay? Not just a wig and a pair a’ tits. Nah, she’s got talent. Got a set of pipes on her too, my God.”

Soldier Boy gave him a sly look. 

“Not like that,” Arthur said. He shook his head in amusement, but not with the face of a man who hadn’t already thought about the girl’s pretty mouth. He stroked his chin.

“She’s…interesting. Well, you’ll see. If she brings up the ratings the way we hope, we’ll be able to relocate Swatto. Hopefully to Siberia. He’s a fucking PR nightmare waiting to happen.”

“All right, the guy’s a moron, but he’s fucking hilarious,” Soldier Boy said, smirking. “Like one of the three Stooges.”

Yeah. Arthur wondered if that homeless man Swatto almost split open in Central Park after a sneeze thought he was funny. 

“And her powers. Really?” Soldier Boy went on. His brows drew together then, as he frowned. “Sounds like she blew something up someone’s ass to get this far, and it ain’t smoke.”

“Trust me, that’s the real deal too,” Arthur assured.

But he could see that Soldier Boy wasn’t convinced. The supe rolled his eyes and released another puff.

“Anyway. I’m fucking bored. What’s the next project?” he said. Arthur took an unfiltered breath and peeked at the files strewn across his desk.

“Well, Red Thunder is coming out this fall. We’re pretty sure it’s gonna be the blockbuster of the year,” he replied. “After that, we’ll see about writing a sequel.”

If it makes back the millions we spent in production going over budget, thanks to this asshole’s weekly benders, he mentally added.

“I don’t care about a bullshit sequel,” Soldier Boy said dismissively. “I want to do something new.”

“Something new,” Arthur intoned.

The supe raised a brow. Again, the cigar was balanced between his teeth.

“Yeah.”

He really must be bored, Arthur thought, if he actually wants to work.

“All right, let me brainstorm on that for ya,” Arthur said. “Matter of fact, tell you what. Give me ‘til the end of the week. In the meantime, we’ve got the security team monitoring the police scanner for potential saves.”

The supe didn’t look impressed. His brows furrowed, as if he was irritated that he didn’t get an immediate answer, but his slight nod signaled his agreement before he finally got up from his chair. His boots dragged off Arthur’s desk, knocking over a framed picture of his kids with it, and thudded heavily on the ground. He left the office thereafter.

Arthur heaved a breath of exasperation. He didn’t get paid enough for this shit. 

Fucking supes.

But he didn’t dare utter that thought out loud.

It was days before Ben finally crossed paths with the new girl. Not that he’d been giving the idea much thought.

After that day in Arthur’s office, Ben became engrossed in his own devices—namely one of the assistants, Joanna, his stylist, Angela, and Rachel, his maid, after Donna blew him off for dinner for the third night in a row. This time for some tree-hugging conservationist gala of some kind. 

Frigid bitch, he thought, shaking his head. 

On his way to the gym, he passed the T&T Twins gossiping. Just the sight of them irritated him. Tommy was a kiss-ass, and Tessa shared a brain cell with her brother, so she wasn’t saying much for her gender either. 

“Would you pick your tongue off the floor already! You’re so disgusting,” Tessa said, shoving her brother.

“What? She’s fucking hot,” Tommy snapped in defense. When they finally saw Ben coming, Tessa piped down with her attempt at a “demure” greeting.

Tommy came in hot with a too bright voice and a, “Hey, boss!”

Ben gave them a stoic nod, fully intending to blow past them.

“Have you met the new girl yet?” Tommy asked, with an unmistakable pop of his brows and indecent smile.

Ben nearly rolled his eyes. “No.”

And don’t fucking care, his tone conveyed. He continued on his way to the gym. Behind him, the twins gave each other a look, and a shrug.

When he got to the gym, Journey was playing overhead. Ben frowned as he saw Black Noir working out by himself. The young man wasn’t wearing his suit. Instead, he was bare-chested and running on a treadmill with a nearly 90-degree incline, sweat glistening on his skin. 

Fucking show off, Ben thought. 

Then there was Gunpowder, his young sidekick, practicing his archery. Ben went to him and slapped a hand on his back in greeting, none too gently. The teen stumbled, his arrow landing into the wall instead of the target. 

“Spot me at the bench, ey kid,” said Ben. “And grab me a towel while you’re at it.”

“Uh, sure,” Gunpowder replied, ducking his head as he went. Ben got settled at his usual bench press machine, sliding his back down the thin leather cushion. He waited for the kid to add on his fifty-pound weights on either side, until it reached two hundred pounds. That was just the warm-up. 

“You met the new girl yet?” Ben asked, after he began lifting his first rep. Gunpowder stood behind his head.  

“No, sir,” he said. “Haven’t seen her yet.”

“I haven’t either,” said Noir. He’d come over on his way to the showers, regaining his breath all the while. Ben gave him a sharp side-eye.

“Did I fucking ask you?” he said. 

Noir paused. He hid his frown behind a stoic front, since he didn’t have his mask to do it for him. He toweled off his face and chest as he left the gym. 

Ben shook his head, but he never broke stride on the bench press. 

You seemed to be mysterious. 

Barely anyone had seen you, and you hadn’t gone out of your way to ingratiate yourself with every member of the team, like Ben would’ve expected. Donna had set him in her sights on her very first day.

With fake demure in her hazel eyes, a flick of her long red hair over her shoulder, and a sultry smile, she’d let him take her hand and bring it up to his lips for a gentlemanly kiss. 

That same night, she’d accepted his invitation up to his suite and let him do some very ungentlemanly things. Ben smirked at the memory as he made his way down Vought Tower’s infinite hallways. She sure knew her way around some kinky shit.  

And she still did, the little minx. She’d just been putting the freeze on his balls lately, for whatever her reasons were this time. He didn’t pretend to care or keep track at this point. 

If people only knew what a royal pain Crimson Countess was.

Ben was only taken out of his thoughts when he heard someone singing in the breakroom, gently, but beautifully. He couldn’t make out the words though. He stopped and leaned inside the doorway, just to see who it was. It was early enough in the morning that he was surprised anyone but him was awake.

You were standing there at the counter, making some coffee from the percolator. Soft and dulcet notes fell from your lips in some kind of lullaby. Quirking a brow, the oddness of it managed to draw Ben’s steps into the kitchen. You were wearing a leather supe suit that molded to your every curve, not unlike Donna’s, except yours was black with violet trim lines.

You eventually noticed him with a smile.

“Good morning, sir.”

Ben gave you a charming grin, blatantly eying you from breast to toe before he noted that the coffee had finished percolating. 

"Hey there, sweetheart,” he said. “Pour me a cup, would ya?" 

You did so, and he admired the graceful movements of your hands, and the sweet sound of your voice as you continue to hum to yourself. 

"You're a little crooner, aren't you?" he asked, taking the plain white coffee mug from you. 

When your hand brushed his, he felt it.

Your power.

It threatened to overtake him, drawing you into him like the crash and current of a tidal wave, where he couldn’t help but be pulled undertow. There in that darkness, he craved your warmth as well as your body. The thought, the need gripped him at his core… 

He wanted you to devour him, body and soul.

And he finally registered that your eyes were glowing violet, along with your knowing smile. 

Then you blinked. The violet haze was gone, along with your hold on his mind. 

You went back to sipping your coffee as if nothing had just happened. Ben faltered, mentally and physically as he was forced to grip the counter. He even had to catch his breath as his mind reeled from the loss of connection. 

He covered his unbalance with a steely, angry frown. What the fuck just fucking happened?

He looked at you harder than before, drawing himself to his full height and towering over you. Still, you didn’t seem all that intimidated.

“What the hell did you just do?” he growled.

Your knowing, easy smile remained. 

“Nothing,” you replied. “Just a little smoke.”

Ben’s eyes widened.

“Sounds like she blew something up someone’s ass to get this far, and it ain’t smoke.”

How the hell had you heard about that?

He quirked a brow, but you just sipped your coffee with a gentle slurp. Your gaze moved away from him as you went to the fridge to take out a carton of eggs.

“Want some breakfast? I’m thinking of making some eggs, sunny side up,” you said.

Ben’s hand clenched at his side, but then, he forced himself to relax. Or at least, to look relaxed. You had some fucking audacity to try toying with him…but he had to admit, you were something new.

Interesting.

“What’s your name?” he asked, in a tone that demanded.

“Sirena,” you answered. Your superhero name, which he’d already known when Stan Edgar told him about you a week ago.

Ben’s frown deepened, but he reminded himself to retain some charm. He took your chin between his fingers. His grip was light, but his green eyes were intense, and focused on you. 

“No. Your real name, sweetheart,” he said, brushing your cheek with his thumb.

You blinked, but you obliged him with your name, and a smile that edged at flirtation.

“What’s yours?” you returned.

He had to smirk. He knew you knew full well who he was.

“Call me Ben,” he said.

Three Days Ago…

You tried not to be completely overwhelmed by the sight of this huge tower as you pulled your suitcase behind you. Vought-American was an institution of superhero production, and Payback was the face of it all. The absolute pinnacle.

I still can’t believe they chose me, you thought, but you tried not to let that show. You needed to make it seem like you knew what you were doing. You belonged here, and you were seizing this chance.

Madelyn Stillwell, the head of Superhero Public Relations, personally greeted you at the gate and showed you up to your room. However, you’d barely gotten a chance to step inside and look around before her pager went off. She wore a certain smile when she saw the number on the screen. She tossed a strand of strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder and glanced up at you.

“Sorry, sweetie. I have an appointment to get to, but the directory is there on your desk if you need anything. Feel free to get comfortable,” she said, gesturing at you with her pager in hand. “I’ll be back in an hour or so to give you a tour of the building.”

“Okay, thank you so—”

The door closed behind her before you could even finish your sentence. That deflated you a little, but you tried not to let that small exchange bring you down. Your apartment was huge. Or at least, it was much bigger than the shoebox you left in the Village, let alone the Brooklyn brownstone you grew up in, sharing with two other families on each floor.

You hefted your suitcase onto the bed and began to unpack your clothes, makeup, and toiletries. 

You also took out the only framed picture you had—one that housed your parents and your older brother Chris. You were both grown already, but in this picture, you were barely twelve years old. That little girl didn’t know that her entire world was about to change, when her powers manifested for the first time. 

That thought did succeed in dimming your mood for a moment, but you sighed and set the frame down on your new dresser. You’d have to remember to call Chris. His son was turning four years old in a few weeks. 

Though your attention shifted to a black shape in the corner of your eye. It was a garment bag hanging on the closet door. You went over and unzipped it, revealing your new super suit. It was all black leather and violet accent lines down the sides, along the collar, and down between the breasts in a V-shape. It was strategic to accentuate curves and bust. 

You whistled lowly. It was beautiful, but Jesus did it look tight. 

“Wow,” you remarked, trying out the zipper up and down. “They really like their leather, huh?”

Still, you itched to try it on. After a few minutes of struggling and wiggling, you managed to get into the suit. They’d taken exact measurements, so it did look good. You felt like a new person…a superhero.

You smiled at yourself in the bathroom mirror. But then, you forced the smile off your face and shook your head, schooling your expression into something less doe-eyed and pathetic. More in control.

There you are, Sirena, you thought. You had long ago trained yourself with that enigmatic look. You knew how it felt on your face. The easiest way for you to get what you wanted in this world, the way you’d gotten this far, was with this exact face.

Only show them what you want them to see.   

Almost two hours later, you’d finished unpacking your belongings and explored every corner of your new beautiful apartment, but still, Miss Stillwell wasn’t back yet.

You checked your watch and hummed to yourself. Your curiosity getting the best of you, you decided to leave your apartment and explore the tower by yourself. You took off the suit as well, so you could make your way around more anonymously. You were sure no one really knew who you were yet. 

Your theory was proven true when you walked through the halls, passing Vought employees without even a blink in your direction. That was okay though. Soon enough, all these people would know your face, as well as your name. 

You reached one of the top floors, where you thought you remembered The Legend’s office was supposed to be (according to the directory). Maybe you could meet him and get a jump start on your schedule.

You stopped short, however, when an office door slid open. Out came a slightly disheveled Miss Stillwell. Her blouse was hastily tucked into her gray pencil skirt, and strands of her blonde hair were a bit frizzy as they brushed her shoulders, as if she’d combed them down with her fingers. You plastered yourself to a wall around the corner, only peeking around after she passed by.

Your brows popped up incredulously when you read the name plate beside the door she just came out of.

Stan Edgar…holy shit. His signature was on my contract!

Along with Arthur Cohen, or The Legend, as Stillwell had told you when she welcomed you in. He was the Senior Vice President of Hero Management, so who the hell was Stan?

Well, whoever he was, he was giving it to the head of PR.

Okay then. You shook your head and continued on your way. At the end of the hall, you finally found the right office. You were about to open the door, when you heard male voices coming from inside—one older and dry, and the other deep and strong.

You reached out with your awareness and allowed your powers to engage, likely making your eyes glow with a violet hue.

Sure enough, you sensed two men in the room. And as the voices raised, you recognized one of them. It was unmistakable; you’d been taking the time to binge all of his movies for the past month, ever since you auditioned to get into Payback.

Soldier Boy. 

A smile spread across your face. For a moment, you were incredibly excited…until you actually heard what he was saying.

“The last thing we need is another broad on the team.”

Your mouth fell open in shock as your brows drew together. You carefully pressed yourself to the door and kept listening.

“And her powers. Really?” he said. “Sounds like she blew something up someone’s ass to get this far, and it ain’t smoke.”

“Trust me, that’s the real deal too,” Arthur assured.

You glared at the door furiously, as if you could burn lasers out of your eyes. You crossed your arms, but you breathed evenly as you strived to keep your emotions contained. 

Control, you reminded yourself. With another deep breath, you managed to let go of your ire, but the more you listened to the conversation, the more impossible that became. You turned away from the door and made clipped strides down the hall.

You knew you had to tread carefully here. You’d heard some of the real stories about Payback, because you’d taken the time to listen. You weren’t about to enter Vought Tower without having some idea of what you were getting into, and you knew you’d have to prove yourself as the rookie on the team. You just hadn’t expected their leader to be such a chauvinistic asshole. 

Though inwardly, you snorted. Well, the guy is from the ‘40s. Best generation, indeed.

You rolled your shoulders and shook it away, like water off your proverbial feathers. Your mouth set in a firm line as you held your head high.

The game begins, you thought.

For the next few days, you watched. You studied each member of your new “team” as you encountered them, and you quickly realized that this team wasn’t much of one. 

They looked out for themselves, and bickered amongst themselves, in the case of the TNT Twins. Crimson Countess had given you a lovely, polite face that still somehow mocked you when she walked away, along with the bounce of her red hair. 

Your powers didn’t allow you to sense or read women, but you recognized a diva when you saw one.

Clearly, she was used to being the woman on top, especially as Soldier Boy’s girlfriend. You wanted to roll your eyes at the thought. From what you’d heard (and the masculine cologne you smelled on Arthur’s assistant Joanna yesterday), Soldier Boy got around. His relationship with Countess was either very open, or it was well-crafted PR.

You had another growing, unsettling thought. The more information you gathered just by observing the team, the more you had a hard time believing that you were ever going to fit in around here. 

It was only your third day in the Tower though, you reminded yourself, as you got dressed for the day in your suit. That kind of negativity wouldn’t serve you here. 

So you left your apartment in search of coffee and breakfast at the breakroom and lounge area, exclusive to the team. You supposed these guys were either late sleepers, or they got their food brought to them. You were relieved to find the room empty, and you let out a deep breath.

Remember why you’re here, you thought. It’s not about you. 

It had never been about you. 

You rummaged through the cupboards in search of the one thing that would perk you up—good coffee. You found it near the top shelf and began to prep the coffee maker. You hummed to yourself while your hands moved on autopilot. The tune strengthened, deepening and then sweetening on higher trills. 

Suddenly, your spine prickled. Your mind buzzed faintly with awareness as you sensed a presence.

It was familiar and overwhelmingly male, with heavy, confident steps coming down the hall. You tilted your head and frowned. 

Soldier Boy, that asshole. 

But then, your lips curved upwards. This could be fun. 

When Soldier Boy walked into the breakroom, he noticed you. You pretended not to realize he was there, but you felt the heat of his gaze roaming over your body. You wanted to sigh. Predictable.

Right then, you made a quiet, firm decision. Today, this man was going to learn your name. And he wasn’t going to forget it. 

You turned to him with a smile when he approached—the most pleasant one you could manage.

“Good morning, sir.”

AN: Game, set, match. 😘💚 As many of you know, this story is expanding on this Soldier Boy imagine, which I wrote almost a year ago now. In the back of my mind though, I always thought this idea could be more someday.

So please let me know what you thought of Part 1! I'm so excited for you guys to see what's coming up next...

Next Time:

“Countess, I’m not trying to replace you. I’m not trying to take anything from you.”

“Except my boyfriend,” she shot back. Finally she turned her head towards you with cool disdain. “You think I didn’t see you flirting with him last night at the afterparty?”   

You rolled your eyes, though you hid a sliver of embarrassment. You should’ve known she’d spot that.

“He approached me, okay?” you said. Maybe you were about to let your pettiness to get the best of you, but you couldn’t help it. You smiled slyly. “And from what I hear, I’m the least of your worries. Looks like Ben has quite the appetite.”

The cracks of Countess’s cool façade finally broke through to anger.

▶️ Keep Reading: PART 2

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[berfgrimm]

stellar | choi seunghyun (t.o.p) x reader

pairing: choi seunghyun (t.o.p) x f!reader

warnings: smut, heavy on the unprotected sex, oral, dirty talk, teasing, smoking, not really voyeurism but the threat of witnesses via phone call.

note: this one was a request, and I hope you enjoy it. I’m open to requests for thanos and t.o.p, so send them in. thank you for reading, sorry for the brevity and/or quality of this one. i’ll get you on the next one.

———————

Maybe your thoughts should be on something else beyond how nice your boyfriend smells but that’s the only thing you can focus on: Seunghyun’s smell, surrounding you. Laying in the bed of your hotel suite in Seoul, you had just showered, and already you miss the smell of him on your skin, so you pull the sheets closer around your body and stare at him through the window of the balcony. Seunghyun had a day off from filming Tazza, and he spent it with you. You arrived the day before just to make sure you were settled in to spend every second with him.

His back is to you, instead staring out at the night sky, but he’s uncharacteristically shirtless, only wearing some grey checkered pajama bottoms. You wonder what he’s thinking about, but you know that his thoughts are often more profound than you'd ever imagine. Still, you always ask and you always listen because you’re captivated by him in every way.

As though he can feel you looking at him, Seunghyun turns around, leaning against the balcony railing, looking straight at you through the glass. When he catches your eyes already on him, an intriguing smirk makes its way to his lips, lighting up his eyes. He takes a long drag of his cigarette, ashing it to the side as he exhales the smoke, never taking his eyes off of you.

It makes you shy, being trapped in his gaze, but you don’t dare look away — secretly you love it when you can’t figure him out. Sometimes, when you find yourself being inspected by him from afar, you try to make yourself look sexier for him, usually to tease just a little. This time, you can’t bring yourself to give him anything other than a small smile in return, which softens his gaze into something less mischievous.

Seunghyun takes a few short steps to the door, leaning closer to breathe out a huff of fog onto the glass. He draws an outline of a heart in the fog, tipping his head to the side so he could see you past his drawing. The quirky look on his face makes you laugh, so you press your face into the blankets to hide your face.

“No, no,” Seunghyun’s voice comes, along with the sound of the door opening. “That laugh was for me. You don’t get to hide it. Let me see you.” When you look at him, you find him halfway into the room, making sure to keep his hand that still holds his cigarette outside of the door. “Good girl,” he says, with a grin. “Don’t take your smile away from me like that; it’s stealing.”

“I’m so sorry about that,” you chuckle in response, watching him duck his head out of the door briefly to take the last puff of his cigarette then put it out in the ashtray. “You should apologize for staring at me. It’s very rude to stare.”

“You were staring first,” Seunghyun says, shutting the door behind him as he enters the room. “I was only returning the gesture.” He draws the curtains in front of the balcony to afford you privacy once again, before he gestures for you to give him some space to climb into bed beside you.

As Seunghyun settles into the sheets, allowing you to cuddle against his side with your head on his chest, he grabs the remote for the television and adjusts the volume for the B-movie that plays. You can feel the tension in his body begin to fade as he pulls his arm tighter around you, relaxing with a sigh.

“What movie is this?” you laugh, draping your leg over his to get closer to him.

“Not sure,” Seunghyun says, letting out a yawn. “It looks terrible. Hopefully I’m a better actor than this.” You laugh, shifting so you can get a better look at him. Seunghyun playfully pinches your side, a grin spreading across his face. You tease him by leaving another kiss, this time nearer to his nipple. “Mm,” he hums, tensing again from the contact. “Are you trying to work me up again?”

“Maybe. Unless you’re too tired.”

“What, three times wasn’t enough for you?” he asks, causing you to blush as you think of your activities earlier in the day.

“I didn’t say that,” you reply, kissing his chest again. He hums again, closing his eyes; you know he’s exhausted from his schedule, and still, he decided to spend his very limited time off with you until you wore him out some more. But you weren’t done with him yet.

You take your time to straddle his lap, watching his eyes open slowly so he can watch you move. When you settle on top of him, your thighs tight around his slender hips, you set your hands on his chest to keep yourself steady. Seunghyun’s eyebrows raise in amusement, a faint smirk on his lips.

“What if…” you begin, reaching to grasp his hands. “I want you to just lay back and relax, and let me take care of you?”

“You don't have to do that,” Seunghyun replies, his gaze softening.

“Yeah, I do. You’re my man, I want to treat you right.”

“You took care of me earlier, remember? I certainly recall it vividly.” Your fingers lace with his, holding firmly so you can very, very gently start to grind against him. “Mmm,” he hums and you bite your lip, working yourself harder against him. “The way you let me come all over you like that. You looked hot covered in me.” You fight not to blush at the image it conjures up, and you instead put that feeling into grinding just a little faster.

“Seunghyun,” you whisper, licking your lips. “What if I want you…to come inside me?” He groans, tightening his grip on your hands, and yanking you towards him, bent at your waist so you’re face to face with him. The way that he’s pressed against you through your thin panties, you swear you felt him get harder when you spoke.

“You’ve been thinking about that a lot?” he mutters, breathing steadily but hard.

“Yes,” you admit. “I want to feel you. Like, really feel you. All of you.”

“My girl—”

“Unless you’re too tired,” you interrupt, sitting up again, straightening your back. “I can hear it in your voice…that sleepy, raspy voice you get. Maybe I should let you sleep…” You begin to climb off of him, but he stops you quickly, pulling you back to your previous position with your chest pressed to his.

“You aren’t going anywhere,” he rasps. “Tired or not, you started something you have to finish. So, why—”

Seunghyun is interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing from somewhere across the room, and he lets out an irritated groan. You can tell he wants to ignore it, and you would love it if he didn’t stop what you were trying to work him up to, but you both know it could be important. He eases you off of his lap, pushing you softly onto the mattress as he gets up to track down his phone.

“Fucking phone,” Seunghyun grumbles, digging under a pile of clothes that was haphazardly discarded earlier in the day. The ringing gets louder as he tosses each garment to the side, until finally he finds it, quickly answering the call.

The look on his face changes to something more serious and he gives you a quick, apologetic nod. You hear him say something about ‘scenes’ and ‘call times’, and you realize that it has to do with the movie. Your gaze stays on him as he paces back and forth a few times, tugging at the elastic waistband of his pajama pants to get some relief from the semi that you’d given him. He quickly walks into the other room where he had deposited his work belongings, and you assume he’s looking for his itinerary or his script. You decide to regulate yourself, thinking calming thoughts so you won’t feel as wired when he comes back to bed.

Seunghyun talks quietly in the other room, and every so often you catch a word or two: reshoots, better location, train ride. You connect the dots, assuming that he’ll have to leave early the next morning and will need to get a good night’s rest tonight. You concentrate harder on your calming thoughts to climb down from your excited energy.

A few more minutes go by before Seunghyun enters the room again, sighing tiredly. He stops at the foot of the bed, staring at you for a moment, and you feel that familiar shyness when he examines you. With a small nod of your head, you pat the bed beside you, beckoning him over.

“We can watch something silly to fall asleep to,” you suggest, keeping your voice gentle and welcoming. “I know you’re tired, baby.” He sighs, climbing from the foot of the bed and crawling to lay beside you, pulling the sheets around your bodies so you can get comfortable.

“I love you, babe,” he whispers, kissing your temple, and pulling you closer, his arm around your shoulders.

You’re not sure how much time has passed before you started to drift off to sleep though you think it couldn’t have been that long. Still, you find yourself being roused by the sound of Seunghyun’s phone ringing again. The noise seems to have also alerted Seunghyun, who releases a ragged groan in his throat, and you briefly think he may throw a tantrum.

“Don’t answer it,” you whisper, bringing his hand to your mouth to kiss his knuckles. “You’re keeping me warm.”

“What if it’s the director?” Seunghyun asks, voice deeper than normal. You let out a slow breath, trying to focus more on the conversation and less on his husky tone.

“I guess you should check,” you relent, rolling off of his arm so he is able to climb out of bed and once again retrieve his phone.

You don’t listen to the conversation immediately, instead focusing on locating the remote to turn the television off. It takes a moment for you to catch onto the way Seunghyun sounds slightly nervous and giggly; you quickly turn off the television in an effort to get a better idea of who he’s speaking to. Fuck, why is his voice so deep?

“Oh, uh, great,” he laughs nervously. “Very rewarding. I’m learning a lot.” He looks at you, irritation clear on his face — it’s his bandmates.

You recall that he’d mentioned a variety show the other guys would be participating in, and you knew the hosts on these shows had a knack for calling the absent members to put them on the spot. Seunghyun isn’t thrilled, that much is obvious, but he remains as pleasant as he can be in his tired state.

“No, no,” he says. “Nothing like that.”

The way he stands at the foot of the bed, one hand on his hip, eyes fixed on the sheets as he tries to keep himself centered. You can hear a jumble of talking and laughing on the other end of the phone, but you can’t make out what they’re saying. You try to figure it out from Seunghyun’s responses, but he keeps them short and sweet.

“I haven’t,” he says, finally letting out a small laugh of relief. “The days are long. I rest where I can.” You smile when you can see him lose a little bit of tension in his stance, until he finally sits on the foot of the bed with his back to you. An idea starts to form in your head: maybe you can make him a little less tense.

Carefully, not to arouse his suspicions, you crawl to the end of the bed where he sits, resting on your knees behind him. You trace the letters of your name onto the expanse of his back, watching the way he straightens his back at the skin on skin contact. His head turns to get a small glimpse of you over his shoulder, a small smile visible on his lips.

“I love seeing places I haven’t been before,” he says into the phone, and you hear the others talking excitedly still.

You give a gentle scrape of your nails to tease him, and he responds with a small warning look over his shoulder. You don’t need his warning, instead you start kissing his back, near his shoulders and towards his neck. Your hands set on his sides, giving a soft squeeze, as you allow your teeth to scrape the skin of his shoulder, just delicate enough not to leave a mark but enough to make him twitch.

“My face is on it?” Seunghyun asks his bandmates, and you try not to laugh at the way he’s struggling to keep his voice mellow. You wonder what he’s talking about, but you don’t want to get distracted.

Your hands work their way around from his sides, fingers lightly trailing along the skin of his pecs and abdomen. The way his breath changes isn’t lost on you, catching in his throat and he tries to hide his arousal from everyone listening on the call. One of your hands starts to slide lower and lower until it meets the waistband of his pants; no sooner are you pushing your fingers into the elastic do you feel his hand quickly grab your wrist, stopping you.

You catch his gaze over his shoulder, you’re met with a more stern look, but still a small smirk of intrigue before he shakes his head. He apologizes into the phone, having missed the question asked of him.

You push a little further, leaning in to press a kiss to his neck. The sound of his voice and his quick inhale of breath drive you crazy, so you let your nails scrape at the skin of his pecs. He feigns a yawn to hide his small gasp, and he reaches his hand behind him to set on the back of your head to urge you to continue kissing — you smile against his neck, reminding yourself not to bite.

“I d-don’t know,” Seunghyun stumbles over his words with a huff of breath, trying to stay focused on the questions he’s being asked.

You get impatient, your need for him starting to grow to be unbearable. You'd like to determine why you can’t get enough of him after having gotten off so many times just a few hours before, but that’s a question for another time. You maneuver from the bed, resting on your knees on the floor in front of him, peering up at him front under your lashes.

“Oh, yeah…” Seunghyun’s voice is escaping him, and you haven’t even touched him yet, not really. You place your hands on his knees, rubbing higher and higher up his thighs, testing the waters. “Uhh,” he tries to find the words to answer his friends, but he’s not focused. “My eyes?”

You bite your lip, and his free hand cups your cheek to cradle your face, staring down at you with a jumble of emotions on his face. You tenderly take hold of his hand, pressing a kiss to his palm, but you catch yourself, knowing you don’t want tender right now, you want something hotter.

Maybe something a little different, you think, taking his index and pointer fingers into your mouth slowly.

Seunghyun’s breath shudders and his eyes go wide in surprise watching you gently suck on his fingers. For a moment, you keep a grasp on his hand, working his fingers in and out of your mouth slowly, but then you stop, hopeful that he’ll continue the action on his own.

“Mhmm,” he hums deep in his throat, and it sounds too intimate for him to let out on a phone call that would be released to the public. But he doesn’t correct it, instead starting to focus on sliding his fingers deeper into your mouth. You let out a small whine, and the corner of Seunghyun’s mouth quirks up in amusement. “That’s nice,” he says, and you’re not sure who he’s talking to this time so you smile around his fingers.

You take hold of his hand again and slowly pull his fingers from your lips. While he answers another question on the phone, you don’t pay attention to what he says, getting lost in the mildly panicked but completely overwhelmed with lust from something so simple. But he’s distracted now, locked into your gaze, and you take the opportunity to take hold of the waistband of his pajamas, tugging to signify you want them off of him.

Seunghyun looks torn; he needs to finish this call but he needs you, too. He doesn’t want to embarrass himself by accidentally moaning for everyone to hear, but how would he end the call? Still, he braces himself on the bed with his free hand so he can lift his hips, allowing you the opportunity to quickly tug his pants down his thighs.

If it had been your first time seeing the way his cock pops up over the elastic of his pants, you probably would have blushed, instead your mouth waters. You love the way he tastes as much as you love how he smells. The way he feels in your mouth, pushing down the back of your throat, the way he feels in your hand: heavy and throbbing, but Jesus, you can’t get distracted thinking about it and depriving yourself of getting a taste right now.

Grasping him softly, you drag your tongue along the underside of his length, straight to the top so you can get a taste of him. You notice the way his thighs seem to clench in response so you swirl your tongue around his head in a way you know drives him crazy. With a smirk, you risk a peek at his face, to find him taking deliberate, silent breaths, trying to keep calm, but he closes his eyes and shakes his head.

“Filming tomorrow,” he mumbles into the phone, his voice more desperate than you’ve ever heard it. “I have to sleep so I can…be rested.” He tries to find a reasonable excuse, you can tell he’s grasping for something believable, so you can’t help the way you giggle in response to his scrambling. “Thank you,” he continues. “I will, yes—thank you.”

As soon as he ends the call, he throws the phone behind him on the bed, letting out a needy groan that you would not expect from him. He focuses on you as your hand slowly starts to stroke him, a cheeky smile on your face.

“What, baby?” you ask, innocently.

“You need me that bad, do you?” Seunghyun asks, pressing his hands to the mattress just behind him, leaning his weight back onto them. “Are you that insatiable?”

“Only for you.” You spit carefully onto his length, stroking him a little faster.

“Jesus,” he whispers. “It better be just for me, because you belong to me. You’re mine.” He grins at you, watching as you slip him into your mouth, just past the tip, sucking gently as you work your hand over him. “I love your mouth,” he mutters. “So hungry for me, you couldn’t wait for me to finish my call before you had to touch me.”

You love when he gets this way: sometimes he just talks. It’s not necessarily dirty talk in the general sense of the word, but the breathy and deep tone of his voice sent sensations through your whole body that you felt everywhere. It was like he had to tell you every thought on his mind and you absolutely ate it up.

“Do you like the idea of everyone hearing me moan?” Seunghyun asks, setting his hand on the back of your head and urging you to take him deeper in your mouth. “It turns you on, doesn’t it?”

“Mmhmm,” you hum around him, already wanting to take him deeper into your mouth to get that feeling of him hitting the back of your throat.

“Fuck,” he breathes. “You’re trying to get me to come that fast?” You don’t respond, you only relax your throat and take him as deep as you can get him, grabbing onto his thighs for support. “Stay like that,” he mutters, breathing hard.

You keep him just like that for as long as you can, listening to him mumbling curses under his breath along with small whimpers that you don’t think he intends to release — he can’t fucking help it, he told you before that he loves to feel you trying not to gag around him. You finally find yourself unable to handle it anymore, so you lean back, allowing him to fall from your mouth. Taking a few deep breaths and coughs, you look into your boyfriend's eyes, heavy with exhaustion and arousal, but complete adoration.

“I love you,” you rasp.

“I love you, too.”

Seunghyun kisses you and you momentarily are reminded that a lot of other men don’t like to be kissed during or after oral. Not Seunghyun. He loves knowing that you can taste him in every crevice of your mouth and he doesn’t mind tasting himself on your tongue. This man is near perfection in more ways than you can count, but you are pulled back into reality when you feel his hands touching your arms.

“Wait,” you break the kiss, seeing Seunghyun’s hands making their way to your breasts. “This is about you, not me. I’m gonna make you feel good.”

“Touching you makes me feel good,” he says, smoothly. “So does tasting you.”

“I’ll tie you up if I have to,” you threaten, a smile on your lips.

“Well, in that case…” he says.

You’re surprised when Seunghyun leans over and grabs you around your ribs, quickly maneuvering so that he can switch places with you. He shoves you onto your back on the bed, pausing to push his pajama pants off completely then wedging himself between your knees.

“What if this is what I want?” he asks, that husky voice of his enough to push you to the edge already.

“Yeah,” you breathe out, realizing you no longer have the upper hand. “Fuck me.”

Seunghyun almost growls, pulling your panties to the side so he can slide himself inside of you. Now, it had been a few hours since you had last felt him like this, so you didn’t realize how tender you still were from just how hard he fucked you. On top of that, you’d never felt him bare before, as he always wore condoms up until this point and as much as you already loved that sensation, you can tell he’s practically on the edge himself.

“Jesus, baby,” he mumbles, holding your hips down against the bed so he can begin rocking his hips against you. “You feel incredible like this.”

“You do, too,” you whimper. “I want you to fuck me hard again, baby. Please.”

“Tell me if I hurt you,” he says, and your heart skips a beat, excitement and arousal flooding your whole body.

Seunghyun leans over to press all of his weight onto your hips to leverage and he speeds up. Long and deep strokes, the slap sound of your skin to skin contact echoing through the room already. He fucks with total concentration, trying let you feel every inch of him, his desire for you present with every stroke. But you can see he’s still focused on you —he has to please you first. You wrap your legs around his waist, pulling him all the way into you and holding him there.

“Faster, Seunghyun,” you beg.

There’s a change in his eyes, like a switch flipped. He unwraps your legs from his waist grabbing your shins and pressing your knees towards your chest, pinning them there. He resumes his thrusts but he’s so much deeper now, this angle getting him where he was desperate to me. You moan, grabbing his forearms, needing something to hold onto as he starts to move faster and faster. His hips snap harder against yours, plowing deeper into you with each thrust.

“If you don’t come for me, then I won’t come for you,” Seunghyun pants. “I want to feel you squeezing me. That will get me off. And I’ll come inside of you, like you’re so fucking desperate for.”

Seunghyun keeps you just like this, knees to your chest, deep and fast strokes hitting you in places you haven’t felt him before. You feel as though you can’t catch your breath from panting and moaning your throat raw earlier in the day. When you feel yourself digging your nails into his forearms, you have to check yourself, not wanting to leave marks when he has to film the next day. You can already feel yourself clenching around him as your climax approaches, but you still need something else.

Your loving boyfriend has a knack for reading your body, because as soon as you even think about touching yourself, Seunghyun releases his grip on one of your legs, wedging his hand between your thighs to rub your clit. It’s like a jolt flows through your body, sending your head backwards against the mattress and your hands trembling, grabbing his biceps now to get him closer as he thrusts.

“I’m so close,” you whine, your body tensing.

“Me too,” he admits. “Please, baby, let me feel it.”

When your climax hits, you can’t stop yourself from letting out a loud moan, Seunghyun’s name mixed with expletives and just pure noises. You can feel just how tightly you contract around him, and how his final few thrusts feel ragged and out of control until finally he comes. The feeling is unlike anything you’ve experienced and judging from the expression on Seunghyun’s face, he feels the same way.

It takes you both a few moments to ride out your highs, bodies trembling throughout, until finally Seunghyun pries your legs apart to get himself between your thighs, pressing against you fully. His hands grip your face, pulling you in for a sloppy kiss; with your arms wrapped around his middle, don’t want to let him go.

“Let’s stay like this forever,” Seunghyun breathes out, kissing your neck.

“That sounds good to me,” you reply. “Fuck, I love you.”

“I love you, too,” he mutters, giving you a small bite to your neck.

You stay tangled together for several minutes, silent and staring into one another’s eyes, until finally, your leg begins to go numb. You gently nudge Seunghyun, and he takes the hint, carefully pulling out of you with a soft hum. He sits beside you, craning his head to get a view between your legs; you chuckle at the way he smiles.

“That’s a beautiful sight,” he says, a tint of pink hitting his cheeks. He reaches between your thighs, using two fingers to catch what had leaked out, and brings it to your lips. You take his suggestion, almost too excitedly, and lick his fingers clean, tasking both of you mixed together like that for the first time. “Let me see,” he mutters, kissing you passionately, slipping his tongue into your mouth.

When Seunghyun breaks away, he grins, licking his lips clean. You become so lost in his gaze again, you jump when you feel his fingers fixing your panties back into place. The next few minutes are back to silence as he helps you into bed, and pulls his pajama pants on once again.

“I’ll be right back, baby,” he whispers, leaning over to press a kiss to your temple and tug the sheets around your body.

You watch him pull the curtain back from the exit door to the balcony again, stepping outside and lighting up one more cigarette. This time he only watches you, not bothering with the lights of the city below. He looks mesmerized and in love, and you hope that your expression conveys the same emotions. He finishes his smoke faster than normal, hurrying back inside to join you in bed.

As Seunghyun pulls you against his chest, wrapping his arms around you tight, you breathe him in again. You wonder if your scent is as powerful to him, if it’s as intoxicating. Does he find himself wondering what hair products and perfumes you use? Maybe you’ll ask him another time. Instead, you replay the day in your head, wondering how you ever got so lucky to have someone like Seunghyun in your life. Someone so kind, and sexy, and fun. Someone who smells so good.

[sundew199]

Watch yourself for me

a/n: sorry about the delay to anon who requested this!! <3

tags: reiner x jean, mirror sex, top!reiner braun, bottom!jean Kirschstein, anal sex, anal fingering, riding, post-rumbling, handjobs, oddly kind of intimate, friends with benefits situation

kinktober day nine: mirror sex for anon

The cabin door slammed harshly as a forceful hand pushed it back, no care in their actions as what was in front of them was ten times more important. Reiner fisted his hand into the ashy locks of the man he was backing into the single bed in the room, panting into his mouth like he were his only source of air. Jean groaned, letting his legs buckle when they hit the side of the bed, sitting down with a plop and breaking from the hungry kiss.

Reiner heaved above him, disheveled already from devouring his mouth and attempting to walk back to one of the cabins without breaking away. His hands shakily came up to start undoing his tie, suit jacket long forgotten in the lounge area of the ship, where all of this began.

"How do sailors go weeks or months without getting laid, this is ridiculous." Jean huffed, glancing at the nearly empty glass in his hand once filled with bourbon.

"They find other outlets, obviously." Reiner huffed back but with more of a laugh, ashing his cigarette prior to taking another drag, letting the inhalation of nicotine fill his lungs.

"Didn't I tell you to quit, you can't heal anymore dumbass." Jean, who was already irritated from being pent up, attempted to snag the cancer stick from between Reiner's fingers to toss it over the railing into the ocean.

Predicting the other man's movements, Reiner moved the half-smoked cigarette to his other hand, laughing and flicking the end to keep it from burning too fast.

"I'm working on it." Taking another inhale just to spite the man next to him. "Why do you care so much?"

Jean couldn't help but roll his eyes at the comment and the continued drag of the dwindling cigarette between Reiner's fingers. His question is what irritated him the most, 'why do you care?' was the answer not obvious? Jean cared for Reiner, maybe even more than just friends but that wasn't something he wanted to dive deeper in.

"Stop asking stupid questions." Bringing the glass with the gulp of bourbon left to his lips, throwing the last of it back.

Reiner let out a sputter of a laugh, but leaving the conversation at that, feeling as if he had poked at Jean enough as is. Silence fell over both of them, letting the light breeze fill the empty air as the ship they were own made it's way to the next destination. All of them had wrapped up in Paradis a couple weeks ago, headed to the next to give a similar speech to hopefully bring everyone together, stomp out any lingering animosity from the atrocities that occurred three years ago. The work was about as entertaining as watching fish swim, robotic and mundane, but they all were in it for the long haul for the time being.

A long purposeful sigh came from beside Reiner, stubbing the end of his cigarette and looking over to give Jean the attention he was seeking. The brunette was slumped in the chair, head hanging over the back with his hands crossed over his abdomen, right above his belt buckle. Reiner reluctantly held back from grabbing another cigarette, even though the craving for nicotine was strong at the moment.

"Need to get laid that badly huh?" Bringing the topic of conversation back to the off handed comment Jean made moments ago, unable to hold back the laugh as Jean rolled his neck to look at Reiner annoyed.

"Shut up." Grumbling and adjusting lower in the chair, huffing through his nostrils and watching the clouds pass by. Reiner cleared his throat, crossed one leg over the over and slouched a bit in his chair as well, mirroring the taller man.

"Previous offer still stands from last time." Reaching for his barely touched glass of bourbon, debating if he should indulge or offer it to Jean instead, looking like he needs it more than him.

Nothing came from Jean, much to Reiner's surprise, expecting a smart comeback or a mumble of an answer. This much time to themselves and half of it being on a ship going from one place to another, both of them have taken to relieving each other's stress. Best way to put it since neither of them really had a good idea of what to label their agreement of sorts.

Taking the initiative, Reiner stood to stand in front of Jean's chair, trapping him with both hands on either side of the arms of the chair, blocking the sun. It was hard not to let the half smile crease in his lips as Reiner silently asked the question again, raising a cocky brow and purposely wetting his lips. All Jean could do was let out a sigh that bordered on a laugh before sitting up just enough to meet the blonde in a soft kiss.

They both hummed and parted their mouths further apart to swallow one another, no need for build up with it being a month since the last, desperate and hungry for the other. Jean began to stand without breaking from Reiner, pushing the khaki suit jack from his broad shoulders, watching the way it pooled on the deck to be left behind.

Now Jean sat on the edge of the bed in the room Reiner hurried them into, still catching his breath and fixating on the deft movements of the blonde's fingers undoing the buttons of his shirt, gradually exposing the broad chest dusted in pale blonde hair.

Pausing, Reiner dropped his hands from undoing the buttons and untucked the shirt, stepping closer to the transfixed man watching him.

"Need me to undress you?" Taunting and breaking the trance of the other man, tucking his bottom lip into his teeth as Jean hurried loose the knot of his tie just enough to pull it over his head, proceeding to undo the pearly white buttons on his own shirt.

Stopping him when all of them were undone, Reiner thumbed over the crisp collar, looking down at Jean with the thoughts of how he was going to fuck him this time swirling in his mind. His careful fingers slipped under the fabric, enough to push it back and off his shoulders, watching Jean's long arms come out of the sleeves.

Something hung in the air as silence settled between them, looking at each other with emotions unspoken, expressions unreadable besides the lust and want. Reiner could feel his throat running dry the longer he looked into the light brown hazel eyes, how they were like his but warmer.

"Don't tell me you're shy now?" The man below him quipped, letting out a snort, leaning back on his palms, idly pushing his belt buckle into the air, an invitation for Reiner.

Shaking his head, breaking out in a familiar smirk, Reiner hummed low in his throat. His sights were set on the dusty pink nipples on the toned chest before him, fanning hot air over the buds and appreciating the way Jean shivered and hid the groan. Rolling his tongue out, gliding it up the center of his sternum and to the right, Reiner watched Jean's features turn from lighthearted to lustful, breath low and steady as his eyes followed the flat pink tongue getting closer and closer to his nipple.

There was something so intoxicating about the way Reiner could shut Jean up, for the both of them. How his mouth had the power to turn the bold outgoing man into nothing but pleas and whispers, hands tangled in the back of his hair in desperation. The very end of his tongue flicked over the bud, lightly and just enough for Jean to go limp in his own hold, unable to keep himself from watching.

Reiner is surprised there hasn't been anything said, no comments, no expletives of how good it feels, just careful slow breaths as his tongue laves and swirls over Jean's nipple. His hands began to wonder from where he held him at the waist, hooking a finger to pull the leather belt from the buckle, undoing his trousers just enough to palm and squeeze the half hard cock hidden behind fabric.

Then the groan comes and the slow tipping of the taller man's head, his hips instinctively raising to meet the large palm running side to side at a maddening pace, teasing the stimulation Jean so suddenly craved. Reiner's mouth and hand work together in tandem, providing separate points of stimulation at once, working the pent up man even more than he already was, desiring to hear the soft spoken pleas and begs.

He begins to whine under Reiner's touch, gasping to the nips to his sensitive nipple, becoming more aware of the twitch in his hips the longer his hand gropes his throbbing cock. All he needs is relief, and could bring himself to admit that he wanted that relief from Reiner, in his head that is.

"Want me to suck you off?" Asking as if his own cock wasn't throbbing and begging for the warmth of a mouth or tight walls, staying on track to alleviate the pent up hormones in his friend. He faintly kissed the swollen red nipple he spent so much time on, breaking the tiny string of saliva connecting to his lips.

"No," Breathing out through barely parted lips, turning down an offer that may of been too good to pass up on if Reiner asked ten minutes ago. "Rather you be inside me."

A plush bottom lip was wetted by a tongue at the answer, expecting it but not at the same time. Usually one of them would have a dick down the other's throat before having the other inside them. But the yearning for relief was glazed over in those warm hazel eyes Reiner stared back into, unable to help the laugh that tittered out of him.

Moving to stand between the man's legs, knocking them apart just enough with his knees, and forcing Jean to lay flat off the edge of the bed. Each side of Reiner's open shirt provided a curtain as he hovered over him, planting his hands on either side of Jean's head, looking down at him with an equally hungry look.

"Need to prep you then." Uttering low, whispered almost with the intimacy of just looking at each other. Jean sighed patting his pants pockets and coming up empty, meaning one of them was going to have to retrieve the oil bought in Hizuru a couple months back. Like he was able to read his mind, Reiner slipped his hand into his own pocket, revealing the vial of clear liquid and saving them from having to break this moment.

Jean smirked with a laugh, lifting himself from the bed just enough to reach Reiner's soft lips, tilting his head to avoid knocking their noses together. The blonde melted into the kiss, pushing into it further with a knee now on the bed between the long lanky legs of the man under him. It was quiet enough to hear the echos of lips moving and colliding, the inhales each of them took when barely breaking apart for air, the unhurried desperation of it all.

With the vial resting on the bed beside their bodies, freeing both of Reiner's hands, he made quick work of pulling Jean's trousers off, leaving him in just briefs. Jean only found it fair that Reiner shed some clothing as well, pushing the sleeves of his crisp shirt from his shoulders to reveal the broad chest and arms. Even after loosing the power of the titans, Reiner's body remained chiseled and toned, with the exception of the healthy layer of fat concealing some of the muscle. Jean like him like this, evidence that he weren't bound by a curse or his own mind, that he was happy and healthy, like he deserved to be.

"Lift your hips."

A muttered command against his lips breaking his thoughts, a hand dipped behind the waistband of his briefs, needing assistance to get them all the way off. Jean complied, lifting his hips just enough for Reiner to yank the last piece of clothing from his body. The blonde sighed, breaking the kiss and admiring the bare body below him, wasting not even a second to let his lips descend down his body, hands running down his sides until reaching his groin, stopping to gather the bead of pre on his tongue.

Jean arched to the action, sinking his teeth into his bottom lip and trying to return to being relaxed as Reiner spread his legs at the knees, beginning to kiss his inner thigh gently.

"Shit-" Words shaking on his lips as he reached the puckering hole rather quickly. A tongue flattening over it and ascending to his balls that twitched to the touch. Jean felt the shutter of anticipation run up his spine, prickle his skin at the continuous laps and swirls from the muscle.

Enjoying himself, Reiner briefly peered over to right, spotting the floor length mirror propped against the wall of the room he hadn't noticed until now. The reflection of Jean's body from the torso down staring back at him, prompting his cock to twitch at the idea forming in his head. Storing said idea for later, Reiner patted around for the vial, unscrewing it as he came up from his crouch, generously applying more than enough on at least two of his fingers. He returned to hovering over Jean, chest to chest as he circled and teased his middle finger.

"Remember to stay relaxed or it'll take longer for you to cum." Joking with Jean as he eased the tip of his finger in, smiling at the way the other's rebuttal died in his throat, leaving his lips parted and eyes hooded. Reiner sighed, kissing the scruffy chin and eventually along his jaw to keep him distracted as he worked more of his thick finger inside of him.

"Fuck that's good." Barely able to say as his voice shook, reaching up to hold onto Reiner's shoulders, staring up at the cocky man working him open. The blonde chuckled deeply, waiting until he adjusted and relaxed to start moving, locking him in another distracting kiss. Jean groaned into it, biting down on Reiner's bottom lip the moment his finger moved in and out, sensing the eagerness to open him up and fuck him numb, which was all Jean could ask for at this point.

"Want you to ride me, fuck yourself on my dick baby." Panting into the warm mouth that occupied his, slipping in the second lube slick finger and swallowing the reaction immediately with another kiss. Jean's leg kicked out in front of him, the pain and pleasure of Reiner's actions sending his body into a flurry of sensations, drowning in him with no sign of breaching the top.

"Thought you liked bending me over?" Snorting back through a groan, the arch in his back increasing with every pump of the two fingers, every stretch around them and amplifying his need for the other.

A laugh fanned over his teeth bitten lips, golden eyes clouded in lust blinking slowly above him. "I do, but need you to see how good you look with my dick stuffed inside you, want you to watch yourself for me."

Be it the delightful sting of a third finger entering to prod along inside him or the bliss of the heat encircling the body above his, Jean didn't quite catch on to what Reiner was implying, rolling his eyes back into his head and moaning. All that did was surge the heat through Reiner's veins, hurry the hand working at his own belt to free himself, fumbling with adrenaline to get inside the inviting hole.

Kicking his trousers and briefs off, Reiner increases the pace of his fingers, holding Jean down at the hip as he writhes and tries to run away from the heated pleasure stretching him open. He knows he's brushing past the deepest part of him, the gland that makes him dig his nails into his shoulder and the pre leak from his tip, Reiner knows and continues to aim for it.

"Fuck! You want me to cum on your fingers or your dick?" Asking with exasperation as Reiner continues, making Jeans legs quiver and tingle, signs of a potential orgasm.

Instead of giving him an answer, Reiner yanked his fingers out, relishing in the surprised whine from Jean at the action. Grabbing the vial and sitting on the edge of the bed facing the mirror, he tipped his head him to come here. Even while catching his breath, Jean found it in him to grumble something under his breath, sliding off the bed and coming to stand in front of the blonde. Reiner glanced up with a knowing smile, spreading the clear liquid from the vial over his neglected cock, grabbing the taller man's hip and turning him around.

Reiner didn't have to see Jean to know he was rolling his eyes, hearing the long sigh and catching the 'bastard' that slipped out at the end of whatever he was saying. All that did was turn Reiner even more eager, leaning back on his palm just a tad and guiding the other back with the hand already on his hip. Slowly Jean brought himself to hover over the flushed angry cock, hissing when the tip poked and began to protrude at his hole, steading his breathing before proceeding.

A long pleased groan vibrated in Reiner's chest once his cock was passed the tight ring of muscle, bruising his fingers into Jean's hip to keep himself from slamming him all the way down. God, even after all his prep it was tight, but inviting and warm, hugging around his shaft with just enough of a vice grip. Jean swung one of his legs over Reiner's, groaning the more he lowered himself and eventually seating himself all the way.

"What's the point of this, I can't even see you?" Jean asked out of breath, throwing his head back and slightly rocking his hips on top of Reiner.

"Don't want you to see me," Coming off from leaning on his palm to press his chest into Jean's back, letting the palm of his hand run across the muscled abdomen, teasingly near the other's twitching cock. "Want you to see yourself, like I said earlier."

Jean scoffed, teething his bottom lip again and not taking into account of the mirror he was perfectly situated in front of until the hand running over his torso cupped under his chin to bring him to see the reflection.

Arousal and lust ran anew in Jean's body, seeing himself seated nicely in the blonde's lap, the thick thighs spread underneath his and the way he quickly grasped the motivation behind Reiner's choice. Just being the two of them, it was scandalous, dirty even and it made Jean's hips move to rise and sink back down, basking in the sputter of a groan coming from behind him, the way the hand fell from holding his chin to land on the bed.

Sucking in a sharp breath, Jean rocked his hips forward repeatedly, allowing Reiner's cock to poke and prod the deepest parts of him, aiming for his own pleasure with his movements. Reiner adjusted behind him, grabbing the leg that wasn't already thrown over his to match, spreading Jean wider in his lap. They both moaned in sync, though neither of them were moving much but still gaining something from the friction of their bodies pressed and conjoined.

"Fuck, you feel good." Reiner whispered, griping one of Jean's hips and lifting him enough to where he could slowly thrust upwards, keeping it tame at the moment.

Gasps spilled past his lips at the thick cock stretching him further with each thrust, the burning pleasure turning him into putty, griping tightly onto one of Reiner's forearms. A sweaty forehead pressed into the back of his neck, puffs of hot breath cascading over the thin sheen of sweat painted onto his skin.

"Faster-" The request coming out heavier with desire than he intended, hearing the almost arrogant chuckle from Reiner and knowing he was going to do anything but what he asked. Fucking dick.

"Are you watching yourself?" Sending one sharp thrust into him, keeping Jean steady on top of him, moving to hook his chin over his shoulder, shivering at the fucked out expression on Jean's face. His hair a mess, muscle tensed all over with his eyes nearly rolled back into his head as he inhales deep breaths.

"For fuck sake Reiner-"

"C'mon, I'll do all the work if you just watch." Lightly kissing the shoulder his chin was hooked over, lips curling into a smile at the whine of compliance from Jean, hooking his arm under his leg where his knee bent, giving him enough leverage to fuck up into the man.

The once slow moderate thrusts turned faster with each one, skin meeting skin with an echo, urging Reiner each time. Jean forced himself to watch in the mirror, watch the way Reiner's dick would appear and disappear each time, watch the way his neglected dick bounced with each thrust. Surprisingly, he didn't cringe at the way he looked taking the blonde's dick, so focused on the hips below him and the heavy grunts and breathing from behind. It was all so overwhelmingly good, exactly what he needed after a month of having nothing.

Jean nearly lost all balance when Reiner hit his prostate, shaking and moving to hold onto the meaty thighs for support. Reiner smiled behind him, knowing he hit right where intended, doing it again, dropping Jean's leg to wrap around his midsection, coming up to speak into his ear.

"Finally get to see how good you look, get to see what I see." Nipping his ear lobe with a shaky breath, finally reaching down with the other hand after sitting up to wrap around Jean's throbbing dick. His head falls back on his shoulder the moment he does, releasing a sort of pitiful whine, like he was begging for something he couldn't quite say.

Knocking his shoulder forward to move Jean's head off, Reiner runs his hands upwards until his fist is enclosed around the head, thumbing over the leaking slit, spreading the pre around the angry tip. Jean's entire body tensed, grappling for a sense of stability as he was being toyed with. Breathing deeply, he twisted just enough to face Reiner, throwing an arm around his neck, burying it in the back of his hair and smashing him in a kiss.

Surprised but pleased all at once, Reiner coaxed his fist down from the tip to about halfway before coming back up, stroking the man slowly even if he thought it was mean. And his theory was correct with the way Jean's fingers gripped and pulled at his roots, harshly nipping at his bottom lip.

"Focus big boy." Regaining some of his confidence with the jab spoken into his lovers lips, reminding him that his thick dick had ceased all movement.

"Yeah? Then what?" Snapping his hips hard enough to send familiar shivers down both of their spines, catching the way Jean's lashes flutter from the impaling below.

"I'll let you suck me off." Snickering at his own comment and meeting Reiner's thrust with his own downward ones, not ashamed to let the groans spill into the other's mouths, still breathing heavily into one another.

"Let me?" Shaking his head with a small laugh, moving his hand faster along with his hips. "You've got the wrong idea if you don't think you're coming on my cock baby."

Even if he knew that would've been the answer he received in response to his 'offer', Jean still moaned and clenched around Reiner, appreciating the way he responded with another snap of his hips. Jean breathily laughed into his lips, humming and using his own legs to bring Reiner's closer together, thanking himself for his height as he was able to plant the balls of his feet on the floor to move up and down easier and faster.

"Oh fuck-" Exclaiming in delight at the increased motion and rhythm, groaning to the point it sounded like a growl as he hurriedly held onto the meat right above Jean's hip, diving in for his mouth again.

They both groaned and panted into each other, so lost in the bliss that had filled the small room, the heat of their arousal mixing with the humidity outside the ship, fogging the single porthole window. Jean shuttered harshly, calves straining and desperation growing for release. Reiner felt the same but couldn't find himself ready to part, the greediness of the hole sucking him in over and over outweighing his body's natural instinct to cum.

"Shit don't stop - I'm close." Jean confessed, losing momentum to keep riding the cock that continuously stretched him out, combined with the tight hand fisting up and down his own cock rapidly.

"I'll keep going, if you let me cum inside you." Almost sneering the request, beginning to take over once he notice the falter from above, the fatigue from the position the taller man was in. Jean clenched his teeth, let his head fall back and then forward, pressing his sweaty forehead to his and giving a small nod.

"yeah - just please don't stop."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Smiling back in a sweet manner, moving to pull on Jean's bottom lip with his teeth, gathering the last of his energy to slam upwards. Jean shakily whines, almost like a sob from the pounding he was taking, the grip around his cock, all being so much and so good simultaneously.

The closer he got, the louder he moaned, forgetting that the chance of someone walking down the hall, passing by the room they were in was still there, but so gone to the point Jean didn't care. He felt so good, Reiner made him feel so good and it wasn't an odd thing to admit to himself anymore. They were once friends, then enemies, then allies and now friends with an agreement that was never spoken, and whether or not this went anywhere beyond where it was now, Jean new it wouldn't do any damage to the bond that was mended between them.

"Close, fuck m'close." Moaning quietly into the space between their faces just inches apart, calves screaming and legs quivering from an ache of more than one thing.

"Me too," Reiner responded, looking on the verge of snapping, the ungodly stamina he still possessed wearing off at this point and drowning in the other, shamelessly. "Watch yourself for me yeah?"

Without even having to question what he was talking about, Jean huffed and twisted his body forward to the mirror, focusing on the hips below him and the fist around his cock still. Whether Reiner knew this would send him over the edge or not, it worked, Jean croaking out a cry and thrusting into the hand around him, ropes of white shooting into the air and landing on Reiner's hand and wrist. Jean could feel him shaking beneath him, thrusts turning sporadic and uncoordinated, eventually landing one or two final thrusts before stilling completely, the warmth of his release spilling inside him.

Neither of them moved for a moment, so out of breath and somewhat drained. Still seated on Reiner's lap with his slowly softening cock, Jean pushed the hair sticking to his forehead back out of his eyes, letting his head stay tipped back.

"Almost forgot how good of a fuck you are, thanks for the reminder." The blonde's comment bringing him back to look at him, witnessing the shit eating grin stretching across his face. Rolling his eyes, Reiner chuckled, bringing the hand where Jean's cum had landed to his mouth, cleaning it up with his tongue, on purpose of course.

"Shut up, Jesus Christ." Ignoring the new knot of arousal tightening in his stomach at the sight of Reiner's tongue eagerly cleaning his cum stained hand.

Slowly, Jean began to lift off of Reiner, ignoring the wince that came with being empty once more. A stream of the other's cum instantly rolled down his legs, so much of it released inside that it couldn't be contained. A flop and creaking of springs indicated Reiner had either laid back or gotten up, Jean focused on finding his clothes thrown about the room to care to look back. But the hand pulling on his arm and back onto the bed forfeited his effort, abruptly landing on Reiner's chest and locked into a kiss. It was slow, languid and almost passionate the way Reiner's lips moved with his. His arms wrapping around him at the shoulders and the ends of his fingers crawling up the nape of his neck into his hair.

"Won't be docking for another week, and all our meetings with the others are finished for the day." Lazily remarking as he pushed some of the loose strands of Jean's hair out of his face.

"Yeah and?" Trying not to sound too annoyed with whatever Reiner was eventually going to ask, keeping his expression neutral.

"I can suck you off, plenty of time." Tucking his bottom lip into his teeth with a soft laugh, sneaking one of his hands down to slap Jean's ass.

Now truly annoyed and also quickly getting turned on again, Jean sighs, attempting to sit up but failing from the strong arm keeping him in place.

"Horny bastard."

"Could say the same thing about you Kirschstein." Rumbling in another laugh and moving to sit up and get out from under Jean, shooting the other a wink and shuffling over to lock the door, ensuring no unwanted interruptions were to come for however long they decided to claw at each other in this room.

[the-kr8tor]

I'm sorry about the last one I just got way too excited to express my admiration for your works, I forgot to check!! But I've checked now and I saw The "Imagine if Hobie was prowler" that actually sounds really cool!! I was thinking if you could write something about that, maybe Reader is someone who he cares a lot for but it turns out they're also fighting against each other, (I haven't actually tackled the whole Universe of spiderman so I was genuinely just thinking of Reader as someone with powers TvT) but yeah I got a bit curious about that, I'm not sure if you wrote about that yet since I haven't went in all the master list and hopefully I don't finish it yet cause I'd be left with the deep emptiness (I love all the series so finishing it while it's ongoing would devastate medhdhx) but if you did you can discard my message or if this is too much, that's alright!!

Oh and I'm really happy I didn't make you Uncomfortable it's my first time writing something to a writer and I got anxious TvT I hope you have a great day!!

No worries! You're good! I put my own spin on it, I hope you like it! ❤️

Pairing: Hobie Brown x gn! Reader/ Prowler! Hobie Brown x gn! Reader

Word count: 1k

Tags: No use of Y/N, no specific physical description of the reader, cw blood, cw violence, cw injury, tw death, Prowler! Hobie, Venom! Reader, ANGST.

ʕ⁠·⁠ᴥ⁠·⁠ʔ

The air runs cold, and your breath staggers in your throat. The fighting around you hasn't stopped, nor all the screaming, and bleeding flesh. But everything seems to cease when you see him. The noises deafen, debris and blood stilling in the air— Hobie in all his glory, covered in metal and crimson iron. Hobie, whose face is obscured by steel plates over his familiar face, purple smoke ebbing out of his suit. And yet, despite his rough and intimidating exterior, despite his sharp claws and sharper gaze, your heart still longs for him. He still feels like home.

Home, you haven't thought of it in years, the trees that dance in the wind, soft lavender wandering through the air. And your little house in the middle of the fields you once shared with him. A house that now ceased to exist, burned to ashes, nothing left but dark soot and blackened smoke that seemed endless. Ever burning, flames still snaking along the lavender fields, forever burying your memories with him under the red hungry flames. Those memories still live with you, deep down. You hope it still lives with him. If not, you'd rip it from your heart and hand it to him in your waiting ruby drenched palms.

“H-Hobie?” You ask in a broken tone, even though your soul knows him from where you stand. In between gore soaked bodies, bodies you've ripped and chewed yourself— he stands there motionless. You wonder if he still bears the warmth you used to hold in your arms.

The metal bridge creaks and squeaks, hinges about to give up from the stress of the fighting in its steel embrace. Tethering close to devouring every soul standing on its last life. You've felt the earth collapse years ago. If the ground fell from under you, would you notice?

Hobie doesn't answer, you see his chest rise and fall, gauntlets leaking blood. You don't know if it's his or someone else's, you just know it's not yours. Not yet. Would he hurt you?

You stand there, all worn out, arms bleeding and throbbing, legs trembling from the sheer pain. And yet, your eyes never leave his own mechanical mask, as if you can see the worry behind the steel curtains.

He stands there, heart ripped out, still beating atop the bodies laid out in front of him. He stands there, but he should walk towards you, run towards you and hold you. Hold you like he once had in that lavender field he once called home, hold you as if he didn't lose you all those years ago.

To live in his delusion, to never leave from the haze of the past. He longs for it, to stay where he once held you.

But the blackened tendrils coming out of your wounds is the one that he's fighting against. It curls around you, wrapping you in its mass. White eyes in place of your own that he sees in his dreams, sharp claws and lolling tongue— he doesn't see you anymore. Can't see you underneath the obsidian flesh of his enemy. He wonders if it's still you under it.

With a gutteral screech from the large mouth of the alien mass inhabiting your body, he takes his guitar from his back to pluck its strings. The noise could kill you, or it could liberate you. So he decides, and he plays.

The sound reverberates around the bridge, the creaking pauses for a moment, replaced by the ear piercing shrieks from the venoms. Hobie sees you crumble to your knees, tentacles of black slime ripped apart at the seams.

Your face is revealed under the mass, contorted into pain, the light in your eyes slowly fading as the creature feeds on your very being. Your nails dig into the slimy flesh, desperately trying to rip it out from your body. Eyes meeting with Hobie's, you nod for him to continue despite the blood spilling from your ears.

With bated breath, he strums again. More shrieking, more screaming, flesh torn apart, teeth chattering above the sound. His eyes never leave from your suffering as tears prick from his eyes. Grief snakes along his stomach up to his chest, pressing hard on his heart.

“Again!” You yell, ripping and gnawing at the agony filled venom. He follows, another strum, and another, one by one, venoms leave their hosts, and one by one, the bridge's wires collapse. But your own demon doesn't yield, it clings to you like a babe, holding onto you like a lifeline.

“C’mon!” Hobie stalks closer, plucking his strings over and over again despite your screams that would haunt his dreams. The venom wraps around you in its cold embrace, your own screams stifled with its arm over your mouth, choking you. “No!”

The bridge crumbles, someone tries to yank him away and take him to safety. But he shrugs them off, even if it means his own death.

“Hobie!” You manage to yell, “run!” It has you in a chokehold, dark veins ebbing from its touch towards your skin. It's killing you with it. Swallowing you in darkness, drowning you.

He abandons his guitar to dig you out of the mass. He rips out a chunk but it's immediately replaced and healed. Your muffled breaths can still be heard from under, he doesn't leave you. He won't leave you to die in the arms of the thing that took you from him.

Claws cutting and tearing, he heaves, breath stuck in his lungs. Yanking his helmet off, you see his face from the last pinprick of light. You wish there was a smile on his face instead of the desperation and fear. Still, you wished for home and you got it.

He pleads, and he calls for you, and his face is the last thing you saw before you fell into the suffocating depths.

The bridge collapses from under his feet, and he falls with you, holding onto you, plunging into the icy tides below. In the water, venom dissolves into nothingness, and he could finally hold you again as he joins you on the other side.

[sanctum-of-ramshackle]

🕷️🕸️The Chaotic Adventures of Spider-Mage✨🌟

[TWST AU]: The MC/Yuu may not be only one who encountered an unexpected turn of events.

[Synopsis]: In this timeline, an unknown stranger gets bitten by a spider that actually gave them spider-based magic to become Twisted Wonderland’s Spider-Hero.

[Gender Neutral!Spider!Reader]

[(A/N)]: Happy New Year! I’m sorry I haven’t been posting much on my TWST blog. Been busy IRL and stuff like that. I hope this makes up for missing out and enjoy reading.

So…about the Arachnohumanoid Polymultiverse- This is a stupid name. I don’t know why O’Hara chose this over the Spiderverse. That name makes more sense and easier for people who can’t decipher scientific names right away…

Anyway…

There are many variants and other dimensions who have their own spider like protectors.

There’s one particular Spider who has an interesting upbringing with their situation.

Maybe it’s better to let them introduce themselves to the people reading this…

[Y/N]: “My name is [Y/N] [L/N]. I’m a Second Year of Night Raven College and part of the Ignihyde Dorm. One day during last year, I get bit by an experimental and magical arachnid which granted me spider-based magic. I became to the public as “Spider-Mage”.

“I climb up on flat surfaces, having a Spider sense to alarm me for potential danger, the usual things.”

“I created an algorithm to alert me for crimes occurring and use my newfound powers by casting web-like portals to reach to that specific location.”

“Following my backstory: I was raised by my aunt and uncle, Aunt Mei and Uncle Benji. However, Uncle Benji passed away due to saving someone from an Overblot attack. He asked me if I were to become somebody having great magic, listen to his advice. With great power, comes with great responsibility.”

♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️

[Chapter 1]

OB!Riddle: *On a rampage* YOU ALL WILL BE OFF WITH YOUR HEADS!!!! *Throws a rose bush towards MC/Yuu and Grim*

MC/Yuu & Grim: *Gasps and embrace for impact*

[Then a mysterious figure jumps into action. They cast a magical web barrier to protect MC/Yuu and Grim from the thrown plant.]

Spider-Mage: *Looks back at the two Ramshackle students* It’s okay. I got you two.

OB!Riddle: WHAT IN THE QUEEN’S NAME? WHO ARE YOU?!

Spider-Mage: Hi! I’m Spider-Mage. The friendly arachnid type magic user you hear people talk about. Y’know, you have some serious issues and hopefully seek anger management after this.

OB!Riddle: *Throws another bush at them*

Spider-Mage: *Shoots web at the bush and triggers a fire spell to burn the plant to ashes* Bad idea, buddy.

♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️

MC/Yuu & Grim: *Running late for class*

MC/Yuu: *Carrying Grim in their arms* You just have to try sleeping in.

Grim: It’s not my fault I was studying late!

MC/Yuu: You were cramming for an exam today!

Spider-Mage: *Just saved some people from a robbery* Huh? The Prefect and their familiar?

MC/Yuu: Spider-Mage? Hey! We’re late for our morning class and it’s at the other side of the building.

Spider-Mage: Need a lift?

MC/Yuu: Of course! Thank you.

[Cut to a scene where MC/Yuu and Grim were dropped off to their class and have messed up hairdos from all the swinging around.]

♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️

[Ignihyde Dormitory]

[Y/N]: *Crawling back into their dorm without disturbing anyone* *Lands on their feet from the ceiling and stalks over through the hallways*

Idia: Ortho, did you get my- *Stops mid-track and eyes widened at them* …

[Y/N]: …It’s not what it looks like. *Deactivates their suit*

[Y/N]: *Looks down at their body* Shit.

Idia: Y-Y-You’re Spider-Ma-

[Y/N]: *Shushing him* Don’t say another word. I’ll explain everything somewhere private.

[Back in Idia’s room]

Idia: You’re Spider-Mage.

[Y/N]: Yes, I am. I got these abilities last year and then bam! I’m a magic superhero.

Idia: You kept all of this from me?

[Y/N]: Well, I tried to explain everything to you since you’re my Dorm Leader but duty calls and assignments.

Idia: …I still can’t believe one of my dorm members is Spider-Mage.

[Y/N]: It’s alright. It’s a lot to take in.

♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️

[Rose Queendom]

Spider-Mage: *Shooting webs and swinging around the city* *Lands onto of an apartment complex’s rooftop*

Fan 1: Oh my Seven, It’s Spider-Mage! *Pulls out their phone* Hey Spider-Mage, can you do a flip?

Spider-Mage: *Does a flip*

Fan 1: *Recorded the whole* Thank you, Spider-Mage! I’m showing this to my friends.

Spider-Mage: No problem! Tell your friends I said hello!

♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️

[In the hallways]

Kalim: Hi [Y/N]!

[Y/N]: Oh, hey, Kalim! Uh…What’s up? How was your break?

Kalim: You wouldn’t believe who came by. Spider-Mage came to rescue Jamil and everyone. They were amazing! They shot their magical webs and swung around kicking off the ‘Blot!

[Y/N]: Really? That’s crazy. “Great Seven. I’m jealous of myself…(T . T) Fuck me…”

♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️

[Monstro Lounge]

[Y/N]: *Working there to fill in a deal*

Floyd: [Y/N]-chan/kun~ *About to squeeze them*

[Y/N]: *Spider sense triggered and kicks back at Floyd in the stomach*

Floyd: OOF- *Crashes into Jade*

[Y/N]: Crap! I’m sorry, you two. I’m just on edge today.

Azul: What is going on here? *Sees Floyd and Jade on the ground*

[Y/N]: I’m so sorry, Azul. I’m just super anxious today and Floyd was about to squeeze the shit out of me.

Azul: …Why don’t you take a half day off? You claimed you’re anxious enough to beat the two most valuable people in my dorm.

[Y/N]: Yes! That’s true and I’m going now. *Sprints out of the restaurant* “Fuck me and my Spider sense! I need to lie better.”

♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️

[Afterglow Savannah]

Spider-Mage: *Battling against a weird-looking guy with lightning bolt accessories*

The Shocker: Well well well, love the new look Spider-Man.

Spider-Mage: Uh…Who? I’m not Spider-Man.

The Shocker: Oh, I see. Playing dumb to distract me.

Spider-Mage: Great Seven. Dude, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let’s just get this over with. I have clubs to attend.

[The Shocker charges at Spider-Mage throwing rays of electricity at the magic user.]

Spider-Mage: *Shoots their web casting a Water spell to absorb the attack* Think fast! *Shoots the water spell at The Shocker*

[The water spell webbing was effective to short circuit the electrified villain.]

Spider-Mage: Now I can leave.

[Then a portal opens in front of Spider-Mage.]

Spider-Mage: What the…

[Three people appear out of the portal and they’re picking the unconscious Shocker anomaly.]

Spider-Mage: Uh… *Spider sense triggered*

???: Wow. Another Spider variant in this dimension.

???: Yeah, and explain what we’re doing here.

???: While also grabbing the anomaly who’s waking up. *Knocks The Shocker out*

♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️

[After [Y/N] was taken to the Spider Society on Earth-928, everything was explained to them and how their Canon Events will happen.]

[Y/N]: Y-You can’t be serious. I couldn’t let it happen. There has to be another way.

Miguel O’Hara: There are no other ways-

[Y/N]: You’re wrong! The multiverse is wrong! I’m doing everything I can to prevent any more disasters back in my already chaotic world. I can’t lose him…

Peter B. Parker: Kid, everything’s gonna be alright.

[Y/N]: Tell that to “Leader of the Spider Society”. I’m going and won’t stop until everyone’s safe.

[[Y/N] casts a spell to disappear from everyone’s sight.]

♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️ ♢🕷️

Arachnis: No no no Miguel. *Blocks his path* Do not chase the teen like last time with Miles.

Miguel: They can’t interfere with the Canon Events. Their world would already start falling apart.

Arachnis: Miguel, you don’t know that. Remember when I saved you from your supposed event? My Canon Event overlapped with yours which should interfere but didn’t, preventing your untimely death. What if [Y/N] can save their friends and loved ones like us? We almost lost everyone when we were against The Spot.

Miguel: *Glare softens and sighs* I don’t want this kid to make the same mistakes.

Arachnis: I know. It’s tough to accept the possibility, but we been through this before. Doing everything we can to help others. Hey, look at me.

[As the Spider-Man of 2099 and Arachnis share an intimate moment, [Y/N] ran back because they dropped their Magic Pen.]

[Y/N]: Uhh…Is this a bad time?

Arachnis: Kid, I’m gonna shoot your ass if you don’t rush back to save your world.

[Y/N]: Right! Sorry! *Sprints out of their sight*

✨[Reblogs helps creators and creates for more content]💫

[Tagged]: @windblume-wishes @hhurric4ne @theladyheroine

[tommydarlings]

'till death do us apart | a.b

pairing: husband!austin x wife!reader

warnings: none

check this out: my masterlist <3 // my ko-fi to support me! <3 // my PayPal to support me! <3 // my Patreon to became a member! <3 (get access to +20 works) // Save a Life carrd made by me! <3

austinbutler

Liked by y/n_butler and 1,492,011 others

austinbutler gave you my hand, my heart and finally my last name ❤️ I love you 'till death do us apart y/n butler, that’s what I’ll promised you in church and what I’ll promise you now. ❤️❤️

View all 803,091 comments

y/n_butler ❤️❤️❤️

carterjenkins congrats man! 🎉

austinbutler thanks cj!

ashleytisdale BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE!! thank you for letting me be a part of that wonderful day!! 🥹

bazzzzyluuuuhrman344 I AM OBSESSED WITH THESE PICTURES OH MY GOD-

lizzycazzy The things I would have done so I could have been at their wedding 😭

bradypeoq @lizzycazzy SAME 😭😭

ashleytisdale

Liked by austinbutler and 590,379 others

ashleytisdale I can’t tell you in words how thankful I am to know you and be able to call you my best friend! 💕 wish you and austin the best, you two truly deserve it! 🥹💖

View all 330,010 comments

y/n_butler You’re gonna make me cry ash!! 😭 thank you so much for standing by my side during that special day 🥹💛 love you to bits 🫶🤍🤍

austinbutler love the picture 🤍

sassylydia00 ASHLEY AND Y/N's FRIENDSHIP IS SO SWEET 😭🫶

ashleytisdalefan19 @sassylydia00 FR, BEST FRIENDSHIP IN HOLLYWOOD!! 😭😭💖💖

y/n_butler

Liked by sydney_sweeney and 909,628 others

y/n_butler finally able to change my last name on here! 🤭😆 so thankful for all these girls staying by my side during this utterly beautiful day! 🥹🤎 you were the best!!!

View all 500,881 comments

ashleytisdale 💕🥹🫶 butler suits you better honey!! 🤭

zendaya thank you so much for inviting me and Tom and ashley is right!, butler definitely does suit you better! 😆🤍🤍

sydney_sweeney still in total awe with your dress, Mrs. Butler!! 😭🫶 (as you can see in the third picture…) 😅🤭

tomholland2013 hopefully you and austin will be invited to z's and mine wedding soon!! 😌

zendaya @tomholland2013 did you just ask me to marry you over the comment section of y/n_butler's beautiful Instagram post about her wedding?

y/n_butler I hope he didn’t…

austinbutler @y/n_butler me too, to be honest, Listen @tomholland2013 don’t do that man…

Dallaskoosa WILL THERE BE A ZENDAYA HOLLAND SOON?!?!?!

tinalovvi IMAGINE TOM AND ZENDAYA MARYING AND AUSTIN AND Y/N BUTLER GET INVITED AND WE GET FEED WITH HOLLAND AND BUTLER WEDDING CONTENT!!! 😭🥹😭

harryholland not my brother being in his spoiling era again 🤦🏻‍♂️

lifeisaloha my mate is not only spoiling movies, I see… 🤨🙄

bazluhrmann

Liked by butler!news and 420,591 others

bazluhrmann what an experience to see my boy getting married to the love of his life! 🥹🥹 never seen you happier, aus!! 💙 you two deserve all the love you get 🤍🤍🤍

View all 129,867 comments

austinbutler love you, baz 💙🤍

y/n_butler best dancer on the dancefloor 😆🤎

austinbutler @y/n_butler excuse me? I thought that I was the best dancer, sweetheart???

y/n_butler don’t take it personal Mr.Butler…

austinbutler But I actually do Mrs. Butler…

bazluhrmann Shushh, lovebirds. We don’t want y/n to have to take her old last name back, right austin?

austinbutler never, I’m never gonna let her go and let her change her last name, not in a million years.

jellyfish556 AWWWWW 😭😭

sarahmiller SCREAMING-

butler!news

Liked by tomholland2013 and 311,929 others

butler!news Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s official! We got a new Butler in the house!! Big congrats to Austin and Y/n Butler to finally throwing the wedding of a lifetime and sharing some of their most beautiful and special moments with us!! 🤩 pshh 🤫 you can find more pictures and videos of their wild and lovely wedding if you click on the first link on our profile! 😆😆 and for now, please enjoy how Austin butler is looking with a wide and stunning smile at his gorgeous new wife y/n butler! 😍🥰

View all 94,255 comments

elvisfan4ever LOVE HOW HE'S SMILING AT HER 😭😭🫶🫶

y/nbutlerfan44 you see how happy he is, I think I’ve never seen him smiling that widely :‚)

hannah-spenn prettiest Hollywood couple imo 🤭🥰

austin_elvis1999 If they should get a child one day, then it'll be the most beautiful kid in the entire world, that’s for sure

elvisfan4ever @austin_elvis1999 Imagine being able to say that you're parents are y/n and austin butler 😭🥹

y/nbutlerfan44 @elvisfan4ever OMG, RIGHT-

➽──────────────❥

[marigold-hills]

Dunes and Waters

PART 1 • NEXT PART

PART 2:

Here is the thing about living alone: the routines. Little patterns of behaviour, daily rituals. Like turning on the kettle for tea before going to brush your teeth. A cigarette smoked out the kitchen window while waiting for it to cool down. Cryptic crosswords in the morning paper.

Remus has been living by himself for six years, ever since his mum died and his dad decided he couldn’t live with the reminder, going off to travel the Scottish Highlands and never returning. And he likes it, Remus does; never mind if he’s in his tiny studio in London, his old university accommodation, or in this lovely hotel in Egypt. Being alone suits him.

This morning, his crossword is half (and incorrectly) completed. The water from the kettle emptied and not replaced. His cigarettes – of which he still had three, he’s certain – all gone.

Worst of all? Sirius Black, hair up in a knot held up with his wand, sprawled out onto Remus’ favourite windowsill smoking what must be his last cigarette.

He looks like a cover of an album. Framed by the morning sun. Velvet Underground would pay a fortune for a picture of him right now, dressed in a loose billowy shirt he’s procured from Merlin knows where, and nothing else but boxers. Andy Warhol would paint him like he painted Marilyn – obsessively, repeatedly. Immortalise how he flicks the cigarette, a bit of ash falling onto the windowsill. Runs a restless thumb down the line of his bottom lip. Hums to himself softly and Remus thinks I was right because even subdued like this, it truly is a voice to behold.  

“I didn’t know how you take your tea,” Black says in leu of greeting.

“With hot water, to start with.” The meaning (refill the damned kettle!) seems lost on him, as he goes back to watching the world outside the window.

Must be a strange thing, to be here. Yesterday, and for the last two months, he woke up in a tiny cell made even smaller by the range of the chain holding him down. The window too high up and too small to give sunlight or a view, and even if he’d managed to get up there, he’d only have seen the sunken walls surrounding the jail.

Remus refills the kettle (again) and turns it on (again).

“Might making me one too?”

And Remus is a polite person. His mother taught him to be. So he turns off the kettle. Adds enough water for another tea, and hopes that this time is the last time.

“I like it real sweet,” Sirius drawls, stretching his vowels like a cat after a sun nap. “Lots of sugar.”

“You can add your own.”

“So inhospitable. So cruel. I’m sick, you know?”

“Sick enough to smoke all my cigarettes. Did you take your potions at least?”

A sharp tiny smile, a break in the veneer. “Knew you wouldn’t mind, Professor. You look like a right standup guy. The kind that lends others his smokes and his tea.”

“Potions?” Remus doesn’t let the man derail him. It must be an insult, with the way Black says it, but the doctor asked him to keep an eye, and he promised.

Never mind that he really doesn’t want his work delayed if Black gets worse on account of his own stupidity. It’s too important. Too time-sensitive.

“Yes, yes. I’ve taken them. Scouts honour, Professor. Or should I call you Doctor, instead, hmm? I’m sure you have one of those as well.”

“A doctorate? No. Not yet.”

“Pity. Professor it is then.”

“Just Remus. Please.”

NEXT PART

NOTES:

So I’m not going with the prompts this month because they just REALLY didn’t fit this story, but should still have 500 word bits every day :)

im currently applying for jobs so can’t write as fast as I normally do (they all have tests! Or hackathons! So so long), but will keep updating hopefully as usual

i love love love cryptic crosswords. They’re confusing as hell and fry my brain in such a delightful way :):):)

how are we all surviving AO3 being down?

@tealeavesandtrash

@moon-girl88

@hoje--aqui

(let me know if you do/don’t want to be tagged!)

[i-am-minty-fresh]

To cope with the fact that I think Oda’s gonna kill Usopp, I will instead write it to, hopefully, lessen the blow. (Also happy birthday @certain-arcade-dinosaur!!!)

It’s all smoke and ash by the time the strawhats start meeting up again. The moments after war is never quite the time to celebrate, and that’s what this was…a war.

Enemies and Allies turn to piles of scorched flesh unless properly found, marked, and buried.

Luffy’s tired and after nearly 20 years of a good fight, now resting on the back of his helmsmen he should sleep quite soundly, but something keeps him fighting against the quiet of sleep.

They can’t find Usopp.

Granted they are without Robin’s Devil fruit, Zoro/Sanji’s observation Haki, and Luffy’s gravitational pull towards his nakama. The fight has left them all barely able to stand but, like always, the Strawhats have a hard time staying down even when it best suits them.

It ends up being Nami who finds him. Chopper follows the sound of Nami screaming to press a hoof to Usopp’s pulse and assure her that he is in fact alive. You wouldn’t guess that by the way that he looks.

Coated in blood, he looks sticky and uncomfortable. His face is clenched making his black eye look worse by comparison. Beside him lays the ever reliable Kabuto, matching the stubborn right to life its owner seems to have. He’s alive, but it’s bad.

By the time the rest of the crew gets to him he’s shaking, as thick tears fall down his face all while muttering something to Nami that makes her shake as well. Luffy worms his way to the ground from Jinbei’s back, and limps to his snipers side.

“Usopp! Usopp you did such a good job, I saw you taking on that guy with the big hat and it was so cool!” The pirate king places a hand on Usopp’s check so that they can meet eye to eye, “You had so many cool plants and explosions and I’m sorry I didn’t get to watch it all but you can tell me about it later, right?” There’s a waver to his voice making him sound much younger, a sound almost never heard before (dead brothers seem to draw something out of him).

Luffy looks over at Chopper, aided by Robin, who’s assessing the damage. The poor boy can barely keep himself up straight after the long fight, but something besides fatigue gets to him first causing him to collapse into Robin’s arms. He looks back at Usopp, “right?” This time it sounds even more desperate.

The crew erupts into arguments as everyone attempts to piece together what Chopper’s reaction might mean.

“We should take him back to the ship”

“If he’s really as hurt as chopper-bro is suggesting than movin’ him might not be a good idea”

“If his injuries surpass medical attention, bringing him to the Sunny might bring him comfort at the end-“

“What the hell, Boss?! You’re talking like he’s already dead! We don’t know that! We’ll find that Torao bastard fix whatever wrong! Until then, I’m with the mosshead, moving him to the Sunny has a better chance to stabilize him”

“If he’s too weak, which I think is what our young doctor is suggesting, calling Torao to our location might give him a better chance of success. I’ll see if I can locate him with my fruit-”

“luffy…”

All heads turn to Usopp, while Luffy’s foggy gaze clears up to meet his best friends eyes.

“luffy…”

His voice is scratchy, like he’s been screaming all day, and his hand shakes as it moves towards and onto of the hand against his cheek.

“luffy…”

It sounds like a prayer.

“luffy…was I a brave warrior of the sea?”

The crew’s eyes start to water, some of them looking away from the intimate moment to sob into the next closest cremate while others shake with their heads close to their chests. Nami and Sanji wail.

“Usopp-you-yes! You’ve always been so brave and I’m so happy we found you so you could have gone on all the adventures you told Kaya about and Yasopp was here too, I bet he saw how cool you were but my sniper has always been the coolest-“

“luffy…do you think I’ll see Merry?”

Zoro’s face sours as thick tears fall down his face.

“Cause…you know…she always-ways deserved a br-brave warrior to sail as her captain and you were too-o busy being king of the pi-rates-s” A bloody, shaky smile forms, “but n-n-now I can be th-tha-t for her! We’ll…find Gol. D. Rogers other treas-treasure now that this-this one has be-been found…thi-is time you…can-can be the sni-sniper, luffy! Don’t w-worry, I’ll teach you ever-every-everything I know!”

He looks over to the rest of his crew family.

“We’ll…mix it up thi-this time! Z-Zoro can navigate. Maybe we’ll-we’ll find a whole other b-blue! We’ll ca-call it the s-sword blue!”

The swordsman in question chuckles quietly. Tears still falling.

“Nami can be the-the helmsman…th-they are basic-basically the same job an-anyway”

Nami, who’s been holding his hand since she got to him, squeezes it playfully, “I outta charge you just for thinking that”

“But you won’t” He squeezes back.

She smiles fondly, “I won’t”

“Jinbei c-c-can be th-the historian…he’s old enough to ha-have lived th-through most of it anyway-“ a sharp cough cuts him off. The jostling of his injuries leaves him wincing as he settles.

“Rest, dear, help will be here shortly”

“Oh and Robin, you ca-can be the shipwright! All th-those hands you c-cou-could fix or b-build any-anything in no t-time!”

“What am I then, chopped liver?”

“Exactly! You can b-be the cook! All those mod-modif-mod-modifications you’ve got m-means you can be your o-own kitchen!“

Franky puts his big hand on Usopp’s calf, “on the go eatin’…that’s the way to live, brother”

“Don’t wor-worry, Sanji you’ll b-“ another harsh cough, this time followed by some awful wheezing.

“Usopp you have to rest, it’s not good for all your injuries” Chopper has finally calmed down enough to put one of his hooves onto the dying man’s chest. “Just wait till Torao arrives, okay?”

The hand, once covering Luffy’s own, travels towards the doctor, who moves a little closer so that Usopp doesn’t aggravate any injuries. A hand scarred with a harsh learning curve, and roughened by experience tucks itself so gently under the reindeer chin to lightly scratch at the soft fur there.

“Okay doc, you always…know what’s best…” his stuttering leaves just as quickly as his remaining energy. His body relaxes causing the hand under Chopper’s chin to fall into his lap. His eyes close.

“usopp…”

He did it. He completed his dream. He’s a brave warrior of the sea.

“usopp…”

He’s so thankful to have his crew with him. With Luffy as king, the rest of their dreams are finally in sight.

“usopp…”

He could see them all behind his eyelids. A map of the world covering the walls and floor of a house littered with tangerine trees. A bookshelf with skull and car detailing, that’s full of previously restricted history. A well-loved tome of healing whose cover is a pirate flag. A restaurant floats a top a clear blue sea, that glistens under the sun. A treaty from fishman island to the world government signed by a pink-haired admiral. Two swordsman beaten and bruised, while only one stands proud…smiling just like he used to. A whale chirping along to a conch shelf and an old friend.

“usopp…”

He wishes he could see Vivi again. He wishes he could see them all again. Vagapunk, the samurai of Wano, Leo and the Tontatto pirates, the G-5 marines, Hercules, the rolling pirates, The Franky Family, Mekao, Conis and her wacky father, Mont Blanc Cricket and the Saruyama Alliance, Laboon, the Usopp pirates, Kaya…

“usopp…”

A ring, carved by hand, sits on his desk in the Usopp factory…now left to collect dust. He hopes they’ll give it to her anyway. He’ll always love her, just like how he’ll always love them.

“usopp…”

Jinbei, Brook, Franky, Robin, Chopper, Sanji, Nami, Zoro, Luffy…

“usopp…”

Thank you for loving me

[writtenbymisunderstoodnerds]

It can't come soon enough (USWNT x ADHD reader)

Part one, two, three

Part 4 of the ADHD reader series! I love this series, but there will probably only be one more part after this, of course with the wedding!

Warnings: Brief mention of harassment and violence, implications of smut

Words: 6.7K

We didn't want a long engagement, we just wanted to get married as soon as possible. So after weeks of talking about it, it was time to finalize the date and send out the invitations. It wasn't the best brain day, but it wasn't the worst I had had recently. Ally chucked me my bouncy ball as I sat on the end of the bed, hitting it against the wall. We were next to some of the team which I knew were out so I didn't feel as bad about it.

"Okay so before we go find the invitations, we need a date because I know as soon as we start, I will lose your attention."

"Tomorrow."

Ally laughed, "We need to give people enough time to plan."

"Okay, next week." Ally gave me a look, her look that tells me that's enough and to be serious. "In all seriousness, probably 2-3 months right? Like I know longer is preferable and probably off season, but I cannot wait that long."

"Neither can I, end of April, early may? The weather is nice, hopefully most people will be able to make it."

We left the conversation there for the time being, deciding to talk to Ali and Ash later about the date and if it even suited them. Ally went to have a shower while I lay on the bed, overthinking the wedding, if people would actually want to come, if we were being stupid expecting people to be able to drop everything and come to a wedding in 3 months. Ally straddled my waist, lacing her fingers with mine, "I can tell when you're over thinking something, talk to me."

I sighed, pulling her so she was lying next to me instead, "Do you think people will actually come or be able to come? I know it's all last minute, 3 months isn't a lot of time for people to plan especially with it be-"

Ally ran her fingers along my jaw, pecking my lips to cut me off, "Look, I know it's last minute and there is a high chance that some people won't be able to make it. In saying that, your team loves you so much Y/n, they will do everything to be able to make it. We can always push it out until early next year. Give them more time to plan."

"I know it seems ridiculous, how fast we're moving. Most people probably think there's not much difference between being engaged and actually being married, but I just want to marry you Al, as soon as I can. I know it's silly, it's just this is something I never thought would happen, even for a while after I met you. I want to wake up next to you every morning, calling you my wife. That can't happen soon enough for me. I just can't imagine getting married without all the team there, my family there."

"It's not silly Y/n/n, it will never be silly. There is nothing I want more then to marry you as soon as possible. I don't want to get married without them either. I love your team, over the past months they have become my family too. Maybe there's a work around though. Why don't we talk to the team before we finalize anything, see if they would be able to make it at short notice. If they can, we get married as plan, if they can't then we can push it out until early next year, when the weather starts getting warm again. If that happens then maybe we can have that court house wedding we joked about, then celebrate a little later than planned."

"How did I get so lucky with you? This is why I love you, you understand me like no one ever did or ever will. We can talk to the team tonight. Would it be ridiculous to have a wedding a year after we actually get married?"

"We can do whatever we want. Should we go to the mall? Find some invitations or stuff to make them?"

I jumped up onto my knees, bouncing next to Ally on the bed, suddenly very excited. I loved being creative and making things. If it interested me, I could spend hours hyper fixated on creating it. "We can make them?!?"

Ally laughed before pulling me off the bed, "Yes we can make them, but you have to let me help."

"That I can do."

---

Ally wrapped herself up under my arm as soon as we got to the mall. Most people would just think it was her being cute, but in reality it was to stop me from running off. It was a bad habit when I got excited and Ally had figured out ways to keep me with her. I didn't mind seeing as I got to cuddle with her, "So do you have any ideas?"

"I was looking a while ago and there were ones that looks like an envelope, but it opens up into two or three pieces. The main one with the important information and the other with the RSVP and stuff like that. Sometimes they have a photo."

"Do you have a photo of them?" I quickly searched google, showing them to Ally. She looked at them for a second before nodding, "I like those. They look easy to make, we could do a two piece, but put a picture at the top of the main information one."

"Then we can close it with a ribbon or similar. Let's go!"

She pulled me back by my hand, wrapping her arm back around my waist, "Hold up, let's go get the photos printed first, they'll take a while."

We chose a picture of Ally on my back, looking down at me while I looked up at her, huge grins on our faces. It was one of my favourite pictures. After they were ordered, we spent the next hour finding all the stuff we might need. Given the number of pictures we were getting printed, they wouldn't be ready for another hour or so. We decided to get lunch while we waited. It was nice, spending time with just Ally. I loved the team, I loved that they loved Ally and wanted to hang out with her, but it didn't always leave us much time for just the two of us.

Once we got back to the hotel, I was super excited to start on the invitations so we snuck in avoiding the team for the time being. We moved the desk into the middle of the room, setting up the stuff we needed first. Ally was better at calligraphy and nice writing than me so she was going to do that while I made the envelope things. We stuck the photos on first and the rainbow striped border on each side of the card stock. That way Ally knew where to write. The invitations were just going to be simple black outside, white inside with a silver ribbon around it. Nice and simple, just like us.

"What do I do about the date?"

"Just leave a space until we have a chance to talk to the team tonight. Same with the RSVP."

Ally lent over the table kissing me, "Okay. Let's take a break. It's been two hours of leaning over this desk, it's not good for our backs."

"You can." Kisses were placed along my jaw and down my neck as hands slipped under my shirt and along the waist band of my shorts, "B-baby-"

I cut myself off when her hand slipped into my shorts, trailing along my thigh, before being pulled away, "Okay, you can keep doing this and I'll take care of myself."

I swung around, pushing her back onto the bed, Ally just smirked as I hovered over her. She knew exactly how to get me to do what she wanted, "Like hell you will."

---

Ally was sitting on my lap, giggling uncontrollably as I kissed along the back of her neck. It was the only spot she was ticklish so I took advantage of that. A few of the girls walked in to the meal room, somewhat disgusted looks crossing their faces, "Do you guys ever keep your lips to yourselves?"

"Sometimes when we sleep," I replied as Ally finally pushed me away, "Otherwise why would I want to when my fiancé is this attractive?"

They just rolled their eyes before going to claim their seats. Once everyone had come down for dinner, I got their attention. I was nervous for this conversation, there wasn't actually a reason to be, I knew they would come to the wedding. I was just overthinking. Ally laced her fingers with mine, squeezing gently. "Hey ladies, can we talk for a minute?"

"Of course, what's up kid?" Ali answered. Her warm smile bringing some comfort.

"So Ally and I were talking about our wedding, trying to figure out a date. Now we want to get married as soon as possible and were thinking the 6th May since there's no games planned, but we know that's not a lot of time to plan especially for those with kids. We don't want to get married without you guys there, so we were wondering realistically if you guys would actually be able to make it or if we push it out to next year."

"We wouldn't miss it for the world Y/n. If you choose to have your wedding this year then we'll be there," Christen answered, the rest of the girls agreeing quickly.

"We can't wait to see you get married."

"Okay awesome, you'll get the invitations by end of camp."

There was excited chatter about the wedding throughout dinner. They were speculating about the theme, what our clothes would look like, dress code, our vows and so much more. We didn't comment because quite frankly, we hadn't gotten that far. We knew the date, cake flavour, food and dress code. We hadn't thought about music, decorations, times or her dress and my suit. The cake would be red velvet since it was both of our favourite, food would be a potluck with a BBQ and they could wear whatever they wanted. It felt more intimate and casual that way. I know Ally had been looking at other ideas, but I could only properly focus on one thing at a time and actually be helpful so she hadn't brought anything up yet besides the invitations.

After dinner I pulled Ali aside as everyone was starting to leave the meal room, "What's up kid?"

"So, as you know my parent's aren't going to be at the wedding. Ally has her dad walking her down the isle and I didn't realise until we were talking about it that I actually want to be walked down the isle too. So um, will you walk me down the isle?" We had agreed not to do bridesmaids. There were too many people that I was close to and I didn't want to have to choose between them. Ally had been subject to my anxious rant about it and had suggested not to do them. Ali was probably the person I looked up to most, who I knew always had my back no matter what. There was no one else more suited to walk me down the isle than her.

Ali hugged me tightly, kissing my temple, "Of course I will, I'd be honored. Let us know when you think about decorations and we can help you out. Are you guys coming to the movie night?"

"Thank you Ali. We're going to skip it tonight and go work on the invitations instead."

"I can't wait to see what they look like. Have fun and don't stay up too late, we have training tomorrow."

---

I lent against the door, watching as Ally braided her hair. She was wearing a black skirt stopping just above her knee, with a white sleeveless blouse. It wasn't often that Ally wore skirts outside of work, but when she did, my god she looked stunning. I loved Ally in anything she wore, it's just when I saw her in things that she didn't normally wear, it drove me crazy. As she finished her braid, I wrapped my arms around her waist, kissing just below her ear.

"You look stunning baby. Where are you going, love?"

She turned, looping her arms around my neck, "I'm going to look at dresses with a few of the girls, is that okay?"

"You never ever have to ask to do things Al, you know that. Do I get to see your dress before the wedding?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I know we don't want traditional, but that's a part I kind of like."

"If that's what you want to do, then I'm okay with that. Just because we don't want full traditional, doesn't mean we can't have some aspects of it even if the suspense will kill me. Can I at least know which colour you choose so I can find a suit that matches? Because if I've chosen a bright blue suit and you've chosen an orange dress, those photo's won't be flattering."

Ally giggled before kissing me slowly, "I love you, you're amazing. I will definitely not be choosing an orange dress, but yes I'll tell you what colour it is. Have you thought about your suit yet?"

I shrugged, trying to act like I hadn't already spent hours looking at different suits, "I have some ideas. They're pretty basic, but I'm kinda obsessed with some of them. I'm heading out with Megan and Ash a bit later to try some on."

"Hmm you're going to look incredible. Do I get to see it?"

"I um I think I want to surprise you on the day as well. Is-is that okay?"

Ally played with the baby hairs at the bottom of my neck, making my knees go weak. It always did, "Of course it's okay hun."

I ran my fingers down her back, then dipping under her skirt and along the side of her thighs, "Do you have to go now? Because you look amazing."

Ally jumped up, wrapping her legs around my waist and connecting our lips in a passionate kiss, "You're a bad influence Y/n Y/l/n, we have half an hour. If you mess up my hair, you're in trouble."

"I thought we were meeting like 15 minutes ago?" Kristie questioned as we approached, eyeing the likely forming bruise on my neck.

---

Ally's POV

My face heated up and I knew I was turning red. Unsuccessfully, I tried to hide it by checking my phone, "Sorry, I lost track of time."

"I gathered. Y/n go away, Ally come on."

"Yes ma'am," Y/n jokingly saluted before leaving a lingering kiss against my lips. I fought the urge to pull her back in. I had always been drawn to her, wanted to be close to her, addicted to everything her, but since she proposed it was like that connection got stronger. Maybe it was the excitement of it all. I definitely wasn't complaining though, there was nothing wrong with having a strong connection with the person you were going to marry.

"Have fun. I might be out when you get back. Please send me photos of the dresses you aren't picking because I know you'll look incredible. I love you."

"I love you, I expect photos of those suits in return."

I was kind of nervous spending the afternoon with Y/ns teammates. Sure, I had spent time a lot of time with them, but Y/n was always there. This was new territory, I was nervous and excited at the same time. I was also a bit nervous about finding a dress. I wasn't the most girly girl, sure I wore dresses and skirts for work and occasionally outside of work, but they were simple. Nothing like what I was looking for in regards to a wedding dress. To be honest I wasn't even sure what I was looking for.

"Hey, you okay?" Ali asked falling back into step with me.

"No, I feel like a fish out of water. I own maybe three dresses and skirts. This is just a lot, I don't even know where to start."

Ali wrapped her arm around my shoulder, "Let's start with a simple question, are you sure you want to wear a dress?"

"That I'm sure of, but I don't think I want a traditional wedding dress. That's not me."

"Alright, why don't we just go try on some dresses and see if anything feels right. We have time to just explore different styles and colours."

We found a shop that had dresses for pretty much everything you could imagine. I didn't even know a shop like this existed. It was overwhelming, but the girls walked around with me as I just picked a few dresses that caught my eye. There were a few traditional wedding dresses in the mix, I knew I didn't really want one, I also didn't want to just discard the idea completely. You never know, I might end up falling in love with traditional.

It didn't happen. Every traditional dress I tried on, I absolutely hated. They didn't look or fit how I wanted to. There were a few dresses so far that I liked quite a bit, but didn't jump out as the one. A few hours had passed so far, I had tried on what felt like hundreds of dresses, keeping my promise and sending photos to Y/n. Her replies had started out innocent, telling me how amazing I looked, but they were now definitely moving towards R-18. I had fully expected it, Y/n had always made a point of telling or showing how attractive she found me. It was one of the many things I loved about her. Even after trying on all the dresses, none of them felt right. I knew it might take more than one day to find the right dress, but I was impatient. I wanted to find the dress now. 

We had gone for lunch and when we came back, I froze in front of a dress at the back of the shop. As soon as I saw the dress I knew it was the one. It was an ink blue, A-line scoop asymmetrical, satin dress with black lace covering the torso and lining the bottom of the dress. It was simple yet elegant. I stood in front of the mirror, admiring the way the dress looked. There were some adjustments that needed to be made so it would fit perfectly. For that reason I was glad camp was in our city, it meant there was no rush to get them done and I wouldn't have to try take the dress on a plane.

"I love it. This is the one."

"It's perfect Ally. You look absolutely stunning."

After sending Y/n a picture of the colour and paying for the dress, the person at shop started figuring out what needed to be altered. As that was happening, Kristie spoke up, "So how did you and Y/n meet? She never told us that story."

"It's nothing exciting, we met at the park, I was studying, she was running around with a ball and well kicked it at me. We connected pretty much straight away, hanging out, she would help me with my study and I would help her with her shots. It was obvious from the start that there was something more than friends between us, but she was so invested in her career that it took six odd months for her to agree to go out with me. She's been stuck with me ever since, not that she seems to mind too much."

The girls nodded, before Lindsey asked another question. I guess this was their chance for a little interrogation. They were protective so I wasn't that surprised, "Did you ever struggle with her ADHD?"

"No, it's part of who she is. Y/n wouldn't be y/n without it. It took a bit to learn about it, how it effected her and how to help. It was worth it though. It helped us grow closer, connect on a deeper level. I wouldn't change anything about the process or her. The only struggle was how she saw herself because of it. It hurts seeing her think she's a burden, knowing what her parents did to her, because she is the most amazing person I know. She's come a long way since I met her, I'm so proud of her for it. You guys should know that you're a big part of it, just accepting her for who she is, doing your best to help and try to understand what she's going through. You are the family she never had."

Ali smiled widely at the last part. I knew they had grown super close since they met and it probably meant a lot knowing Y/n loved them like family, "We love her so much. I know she has been through a lot, but she is still such a loving and kind person. You really love her don't you?"

A smile made it's way onto my face just at the thought of her. When Y/n and I first met, I knew I was screwed, but I never expected to fall as hard or fast as I did. There's not a day that goes by that I don't thank everything out there that I get to be the person she loves, that I get to spend the rest of my life with her by my side, "More than I ever thought it was possible to love someone, she means the world to me."

Ali eyed me for a second, making my nerves start to rise. It was a look I couldn't quite decipher. I knew Ali and Y/n were close, maybe she didn't actually like me as much as she said. "We never got to give you this speech when you two first started dating, but Y/n means the world to us, we love her as if she was blood. I swear if you ever hurt her, intentionally or not, we will make your life a living hell."

"I won't. She's my bestfriend, my person and I get to spend the rest of my life with her. Y/n has been through a lot, it's not easy for her to trust people. So the fact she trusts me to help her, that she trusts me with everything, it's special, it means the world to me. I wouldn't give that up for anything in this world."

"You are officially the best fiancé in the world."

The things I did for Y/n weren't for points or anything. She was the person I loved most in this world, I would do anything to make sure she was okay, that she knew how loved she was, "No I'm not, I'm just a girl who loves her fiancé."

---

Y/n's POV

It was safe to say I was overwhelmed and overthinking everything. There were more suit types and combinations than I expected, I was struggling to keep my mind in check. Megan and Ash were doing a good job at keeping me on track, picking out different suits for me to try on. I had to fight myself to not call Ally or ask her to come help. I loved Ally, I wanted her around, but this was something I wanted to do by myself. We had been messaging back and forth throughout the day, mostly sending photos to each other. Ally had kept her replies pretty neutral, mostly about how she couldn't wait to marry me or how the suit would look better on the floor. Ally knew that if she commented about one more than another, that I would start to overthink my decision, thinking she didn't like it.

"It's safe, it's nice, but I want to try that one."

I would normally go for black or dark blue clothing, it was safe. This suit however was a dark maroon 3 piece suit, black shirt and tie. It wasn't what I was used to, but I loved the way it looked. "Will this even match?"

"You're going to have to tell us what you're matching with."

I pulled up the photo Ally had sent me of the colour of her dress, "Here, she sent me a photo of the colour."

"I think it'll be perfect. Just like Ally said, don't get too caught up in if they match or not. Wear what you feel comfortable in. If you like it then get it."

It was probably five minutes of looking in the mirror at different angles, spinning around and posing different ways before I decided I absolutely loved it, "This is the one."

Ash snapped a quick photo before wrapping me in a one armed hug before a smirk appeared, "You look amazing Y/n/n. I know she won't see it, but you've been practically teasing each other all day, we'll be sure to leave you and Ally alone tonight."

There weren't many times that I felt truly confident with how I looked, I had always had some form of self confidence issues. They weren't always strong, but they were there. No one knew about them besides Ally, I had always been good at putting on fake confidence. This was probably one of the first times in ages that I felt truly attractive, "I do don't I?"

---

Ally cuddled further into me with a groan as her alarm went off. I chuckled, holding her close as I fought off sleep. We had a couple of days off, but unfortunately Ally still had work. "You gotta get up baby."

"Five more minutes," Ally mumbled, almost certainly falling asleep again. I knew she had another alarm set for 10 minutes, she always did. So I kissed her forehead and started falling asleep again. When her next alarm went off, she slowly sat up, but I pulled her back down. 

"Kisses." Ally laughed, lips connecting with mine. It was sleepy and slow, but it made my heart melt. They were some of my favourite kisses from Ally. "Oh hey, how do you feel about going out tonight? Some of the girls want to celebrate us getting married."

"Involving alcohol I assume?"

"Considering Kelly and Emily suggested it, I would say so. We don't have to if you're not up for it."

"I can handle a night of drinking in cerebration of getting to marry you. Now you go back to sleep, my first meeting isn't for a few hours so I won't wake you up. I love you."

I cuddled further into the blankets, already missing her warmth, "I love you."

When I woke up a couple of hours later, Ally was slumped over her computer, typing away. I watched her work, taking in the way her hair fell over her shoulder, the way she bit her lip in concentration and her wearing my sweat pants and hoodie. She would only change into something more work appropriate for meetings, but I loved seeing her in my clothes so I never complained, even though they were my favourite sweatpants. "Stop staring at me."

"You look adorable, I can't help it. Straighten up though, you're going to hurt your back."

"I can't straighten up, I'm marrying you." Ally retorted, but sat up straighter anyway.

"Come take a break." She went to protest, however stood up and made her way over to me instead. I opened my arms, kissing her softly as she straddled my waist. I could never control myself very well when she sat like that and she knew that, "You know this is a dangerous position."

Ally smiled innocently while her hip ground down slightly. She knew exactly what she was doing, "I know, but it's been a stressful morning and I could use some quick stress relief before a run of no doubt stressful meetings."

This wasn't an unusual occurrence. Ally had a high sex drive, she always had. Even though it was definitely higher than mine, I almost never turned down the opportunity to make her feel good even if I wasn't in the mood for anything in return which was quite often. So without another word I slipped the hoodie off, starting to work on her chest as my hand slipped into her sweatpants. 

15 minutes and a successfully destressed Ally later, she was cuddled against my side. I knew we only had a couple of minutes before she had to go back to work and I would get ready to hangout with the girls and leave Ally to work, "You are so beautiful Ally."

"You know I'm already marrying you right? You don't need to keep flattering me."

"Good thing I'm not just flattering you then. I mean everything I say, every compliment, everything. You deserve to know so I'm going to tell you."

---

It didn't take long for me to get ready, I had just gone with jeans, short sleeve off-white button down and black leather jacket. Ally on the other hand was taking a bit longer so I was sitting on the bed, watching her sitting on the ground in a bra and underwear while curling her hair. Then she moved onto make up. 

We didn't go out to clubs very often so when we did, Ally liked to go all out with everything. It was her chance to dress up for once in a way that wasn't appropriate for work. I loved it because well normally her outfit was pretty revealing and she looked incredibly sexy. It was cold though so Ally's outfit was a little less revealing then normal, but still sexy. Ally had chosen a pair of tight jeans that showed off her curves in all the right places and a black blouse with the first couple of buttons undone. I never got insecure or jealous when she dressed up like that. She was dressing up because she wanted to, because she felt confident, not because she wanted to impress anyone. Well except me anyway as she had drunkenly admitted one night.

"How am I expected to keep my hands to myself when you look like this?"

Ally smirked, arms wrapping around my shoulders, lips trailing along my jaw until they stopped at my ear, "You're not. This is all for you baby."

Before anything else could happen, there was a loud knock on the door, "You guys have 2 minutes before we break in so don't even think about starting anything."

Ally groaned, pulling away with a pout, "You are not allowed to kiss or touch me until we get back unless you are going to fuck me in the bathroom."

I smirked, fingers dipping down into her cleavage before pulling away, "That can be arranged. Now let's go before they actually break in."

The team had found a cute, medium sized club that was busy, but not overly busy. We found a couple of tables, pushing them together as Ashlyn, Megan and Emily came back with drinks for everyone. 

"To Y/n and Ally, the cutest and grossest couple we know. We can't wait to see you get married."

Everyone raised their glasses, cheering as they did then gagging as my lips connected with Ally's. At this point in knowing us, they shouldn't even be remotely surprised by it anymore. It's pretty much known that I will kiss Ally any chance I got. As the drinks flowed, everyone started breaking off either dancing or attempting to have conversations. Ally dragged me over to the bar, ordering shots for us then dragging me to the dance floor. Remembering her statement about not touching her, I had kept my distance from her throughout the night, only allowing a few kisses. I knew she didn't mean it, but I wanted to see how long it would take her to break. She lasted maybe three minutes before pulling me into her, hands buried in my hair as she tried to kiss me. I stopped her with a smirk, "I thought I wasn't allowed to touch you?"

"Y/n Y/n/n, if you don't touch me I swear to god I will look after myself for the next month."

"You couldn't handle that my love."

"Watch me."

I was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to handle no sex for a month, but I also didn't want to risk it so I gripped her hips, pulling her in for a rough kiss. Hands and mouths wandered as we danced, Ally grinding against me while I kept my hands in likely inappropriate places to keep her close. The team came and went, dancing and laughing along side us. I felt free for the first time in a long time, my mind was solely focused on Ally, the team and dancing. Something that hadn't really happened since I changed meds. It had taken adjustments, headaches and outbursts, but the new meds had definitely helped sort myself out. My mind was still all over the place more so then with the other meds, which was not my favourite thing, but it could be worse. 

When Ally started dancing with some of the younger girls, I took the opportunity to escape to the bathroom. I came back from the bathroom to find Ally dancing with some random guy. She looked happy and comfortable so I left her to it and went to get us drinks. Emily and Kelley were at the bar, we ended up talking for a while until I saw the guy plant his hands on Ally's hips.

My attention was fully on them now, waiting to see what Ally would do. She could take care of herself, I knew that, but I was ready to step in as soon as needed. Ally stepped back, saying something to the guy, He didn't seem to listen though, hand moving to sit lower on her hips. I slammed my drink onto the bar, anger rising to an almost uncontrollable level. Emily and Kelley must have noticed because I heard them mutter 'oh shit' before I stormed into the crowd. 

My arms wrapped around Ally's waist from behind, pulling her into me and out of his reach. He didn't back off though, trying to take her arm and pull her back, "We were dancing, fuck off."

"You were until you disrespected her and started trying to touch my fiancé, so back the fuck off."

He tried again so I pulled Ally behind me, standing almost chest to chest with him. He pushed me back, before swinging, his fist connecting my with my jaw. It didn't hurt, though it might leave a small bruise. I would almost never start the fight, but I would finish it. I swung hard, fist connecting with his jaw and knocking him to the ground. Once a few guys held him back, I turned to check on Ally, making sure she wasn't hurt before pulling her into my arms.

"Are you okay love?"

"I'm fine. Thank you baby."

"Like I would let anyone treat my girl like that."

We were pulled out of the club by Alyssa and Ashlyn. Ali was waiting with a disappointed look obvious on her face. "What the fuck Y/n? Do you have any idea the trouble you could get in?"

"He through the first punch, therefore it was self-defense."

"That doesn't matter! You shouldn't have engaged."

"Like fuck I was about to let him assault my girlfriend. She made it clear she wasn't interested, I made it clear she wasn't interested yet he kept trying to grab her. Then he swung at me, what else was I supposed to do Ali? Just let him keep trying to come at her? Over my dead fucki-"

A hand ran up my back and into my hair, scratching lightly, effectively cutting me off and calming me down slightly, "That's enough baby, Ali's not the one you're mad at."

My head rest against her shoulder, hand still working through my hair as I waited for the anger to fade before saying anything. "I'm sorry Ali."

"I'm sorry too, I didn't realise what had happened. It doesn't make it right, but your reaction is understandable. How's your hand? And your face?"

"My face is fine, he barely hit hard enough for it to hurt. My hand however hurts like a bitch."

Ally smirked, whispering in my ear, "Looks like your tongue will be doing a lot of work for a while."

"Something tells me it won't be complaining."

"Okay you two, that's enough of whatever gross stuff that is. Let's get back to the hotel."

Ally and I stumbled slightly into our room, having sobered up a bit, but still pretty drunk. Ali stopped by quickly to give me an ice pack for my hand, mumbling something about going to bed and telling us to have fun. I flopped down onto the bed, ice pressed against my throbbing hand. I didn't regret defending Ally, there was nothing I wouldn't do for her, to make sure she was okay. I did slightly regret hitting the guy though. It was self-defense, but there was the possibility for trouble or bad publicity for myself or the team. There was nothing I could do now though except damage control if it came to it. 

"You know you shouldn't have hit him right? I know it was self-defense, but I also know you were hoping for him to swing first."

I sat up to find Ally watching me, eye brow raised as if daring me to deny it. She knew me, she knew I wouldn't have started the fight, but I would likely bait someone into starting it, "I know, but when it comes to you, I don't care if it was right or not. And yes, maybe a part of me hoped he was going to try."

She rolled her eyes at me, a love filled smile appearing, "You're lucky I love you and your dumb decisions. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine love. My hand hurts a fair bit, but my face is fine, he didn't hit hard." 

"Can't say the same about him, I'm pretty sure you broke his nose."

I laughed, pulling her into me. I was worried about how this would actually affect her now that the adrenaline was wearing off. As far as I was aware, this hadn't happened to her before. Sure there were the occasional touches, but everyone had backed off when she told them to, "Are you sure you're okay Ally?"

"Honestly, I don't know. Everything happened so quickly, I haven't really had a chance to process it yet."

"I'm here if and when you want to talk about it."

"Thank you baby, thank you for protecting me even though I don't agree with how you did it."

"I'll always protect you Ally, no matter what. Come on, lets get changed, watch a movie and cuddle."

We quickly got changed before cuddling up under the blankets. Drops of warm water landed on my shoulder as Ally sniffled quietly beside me. Like me, Ally didn't cry very often, when she did it was best just to hold her until she was ready to talk about it, if she was even wanted to. So, I held her closer, hand running along her back as she cried quietly. I felt my own tears start to form. Seeing Ally crying hurt me more than pretty much anything else in this world. When she cried, it made me want to cry. I pushed them away as best I could, focusing on comforting Ally. She needed it more than I did.

Ally kissed my collarbone, mumbling, "I love you Y/n. I wouldn't have danced with him if I thought he wanted more. I'm sorry."

"Don't apolagise to me Ally. Nothing that happened tonight is your fault, it's his fault, he should have respected your wishes. I love you Al. I love you so fucking much. You light up my life like the moon on a dark night, you make me ridiculously happy, like love sick in a way that you only see in romcoms. Even after all these years you still make the butterflies go wild, my heart skip a beat when I see you. You're the first person I think of when I wake up, the last thing on my mind when I go to sleep and even in my dreams you're there. I love you."

Ally pecked my lips before pulling away giggling, "You're drunk baby."

Ally made me more sappy then I had ever been, but when I was drunk it was definitely over the top sappy, "Maybe a little. Do you at least feel the same?"

"Of course I do baby. I love you so much it hurts."

[chysgoda]

Evidentiary: Part One

A Desertwalkers Tale

Part One | Part Two

Lahabrea picked up the single bag he had brought with him when the train stopped at Stonewood. He’d need to spend the night simply because of the train schedules. He had no intention of staying beyond when the morning train returned to the city. That he needed to come out here at all was infuriating. Once he’d collected his granddaughter and his client’s property he’d leave this town behind.

He’d received a letter by a special courier from his best client that had informed him that his granddaughter had finally stooped to stealing accounting books. Bel wouldn’t be the first investigator to resort to unsavory methods when trying to crack a case, she wouldn’t be the last either. It was disappointing that a child he’d had a hand in raising would crack like that. Still, if he leveraged this correctly she would be expelled from the Landsguard and would have no choice but to give up what had been a wasteful use of her time in the first place.

A curt question to one of the train station attendants gathered the location of what the town called its best hotel. He mulled over the problems that this could cause for Gaius Baelsar. Evidence that couldn’t be used in court still existed. The Dawnservent had agents clever enough to tease out lines of investigation that were hinted at without depending on the tainted evidence. He would have to look over what was found and speak with Baelsar to determine the best legal strategies. Once he had two rooms secured he dropped his bag in one and then went to the sheriff’s office where he’d most likely find both his client’s property and his granddaughter.

The walk through the dusty street left him too much time to mull over the fight with Bel that would be on his hands when he stepped into the sheriff’s office. How she lived her life trying to fight volcanos was beyond him. Not just that, but she insisted on playing where she was always in danger. Hopefully it would blunt the youthful idealism, to have her work leave her with nothing but stark reality and ash.

When he stepped through the doors he surveyed the room and frowned when he didn’t see the yellows and purples that Bel favored in her clothes. He clenched his jaw and ignored the dread that wanted to creep in. There were many places that she might be in the town. (There would be nowhere else to find her if she was reviewing what she found.) Hephaistos’s long strides took him to the desk and the deputy manning it. He pulled a card from an inside pocket of his suit jacket and held it out. “I am Hephaistos Lahabrea, legal counsel for Gaius Baelsar. I’m here to retrieve my client’s stolen property and Inspector Bel Lahabrea.”

The deputy took the card and raised both eyebrows at the quality of the paper and printing. “You’ll want to speak with Deputy Bishop. The parrot would only work with him and the sheriff, wouldn’t give the rest of us the time of day.”

“And where is the inspector herself?” Lahabrea asked tersely.

The deputy shifted uneasily order the hard red eyes, “She’s in the clinic under Doctor Mathye’s care.”

For a moment the unfaltering hard stare cracked and reforged within the same heartbeat, “The clinic?”

The deputy in front of him had not looked up from the business card. “She stumbled in here with her jacket on fire and hugging a bunch of books. Good to see a parrot get its feathers singed…”

Lahabrea arched an eyebrow when the deputy looked up suddenly, looked down at the name on the card, and then went pale, “What I meant Mr. Lahabrea was-”

“Stop talking Carl,” a voice with an even tone called out from behind him. The lawyer turned to see a dark haired man with a white tattoo on the left side of his face. “Mr Lahabrea, I’m Deputy Augustine Bishop. The inspector warned me that you might pay us a visit.”

Lahabrea frowned at the tonawawta man that barely came up to his shoulder. The deputy folded his arms over his chest, his expression was flat. Lahabrea narrowed his eyes. “Gaius Baelsar has property here that was stolen. I’m here to retrieve that property for my client.”

“The only stolen property we have right now is a cheap flask.” Augustine stated firmly. “If you’re after the evidence the inspector collected you’ll need to take it up with officials in the city.”

“Taking items from someone’s property is theft, Deputy Bishop.” The lawyer stepped forward to loom over the other man.

“Take it up with the Landsguard.”

Hephaistos Lahabrea clenched his jaw and concentrated on keeping his teeth from grinding. Behind him the deputy at the desk began to shift uneasily. In front of him two different shades of blue watched him coolly. “You will be charged with conspiracy if you are aiding my granddaughter in concealing stolen documents.”

The deputy’s posture didn’t change, “Take it up with the Landsguard. If you haven’t got any other business here Mr. Lahabrea I’ll ask you to leave.”

Lahabrea forced himself to take a breath. The deputy was a problem for another day. “Where is my granddaughter?”

“At the clinic.” Deputy Bishop’s answer made the lawyer grind his teeth. This was like drawing blood from a stone.

“And where is that?” Lahabrea ground out.

Augustine Bishop looked him up and down for a long few moments, likely to raise his blood pressure Lahabrea thought, and then nodded to the doors. “I’ll take you there.”

Lahabrea pushed down dread and followed the deputy.

[clinicallyinsanedumpsterrabbit]

The Rot™

The Rot™ is your friend, The Rot™ keeps the ecosystem rolling, forfeit all your possessions to The Rot™ for it will take it anyway no matter how much you resist, The Rot™ owns all.

... I am very very sleep deprived

I like fungi a lot, they're fun, hehe

Oh and don't eat the bunni fungi, the bungi, or you will go on a trip so bad you'll see colours only the eldridge monstrosities can see, I am specifically looking at a certain someone. Don't. Eat. The Rot.. ™

But on a hopefully more understandable not that doesn't sound like I myself ate The Rot™ I do like this design for the feral side of daves soul a lot, he got consumed by the rot in the suit so he becomes The Rot™ when his body gets burnt to ashes, yayie, plus I love fungi bunny characters, and I wanted to draw one, double yayie!

Also here's a funny and totally not foreboding me me below with an eyestrain warning

Gee do I love The Rot™

[ya-zz]

Could you write a piece between Ramattra and another omnic who wants to join Null Sector and believes in what Ramattra is doing and like. First this omnic (who I would imagine as using it/its pronouns) is in Null Sector purely as a sympathizer and a member to help out but then Ramattra starts taking care of it and it gets flustered by him doting on it? Real soft fluff stuff while they work on human extinction

Apologies it took awhile but hopefully this works well for your request!

Ramattra x Omnic

[not necessarily a reader insert or OC insert]

Word count: 1149

Ramattra would rarely step foot on the asphalt below him, wanting to stay within the safe confines of his vessel to avoid detection but also to keep the dirt and grime out of his joints. He knew what he was doing when he finally chose to walk the streets, keeping to the walls and back alleys. Ash and debris littered the streets, smoke rose from the buildings that barely stood tall.

Within the rubble, there were muffled cries, static mixed with pain. Ramattra sought them out, optics scanning over the area, searching for a heat source, something to locate the cries. After pulling away several bricks and concrete, he finds a lone omnic, optics flitting erratically as they call out to him. 

At first, this omnic is confused. Why was someone out here? Everyone else had left them behind, both his own kind and the humans he thought were friends. Ramattra took pity on them, something tugging at his own heart when he realised that this omnic was injured because of him. 

He shook the feeling off as he pulled the omnic up, cradling them in his arms before returning back to a nearby vessel. Ramattra chose to take care of this omnic personally, especially after listening to their words.

“Everyone left me. You saved me.” The static was almost drowning out their words. “Null Sector is good, I wish to help. I see them, their beliefs. I want to help.” 

Ramattra holds them just that little bit closer to his chest. They were fading, lights flickering haphazardly and the hissing of their inner workings slowly got quieter. The leader had to be quick, get them up to the vessel and repair them before he truly loses the one omnic that wants to help. 

There was no need to indoctrinate them, they believe his cause despite being under the rubble that he had inflicted upon them. 

For a human, the time that had passed would have been unknown, but for this omnic; four days, seven hours and twenty-six minutes had passed since their system was last online. 

Ramattra had done what he could with their repairs. While some damage was severe, the larger omnic had the parts to replace the broken limbs. Wires were replaced, optics recalibrated and voicebox repaired all within those four days. Ramattra wasn’t there when the other omnic awoke, he was too busy looking over his plans and blueprints, too busy focussing on his liberation. 

When the omnic finally rose from the bed they were placed upon, their joints grind, wires were stretched and their optics adjusted to the change in atmosphere. At first, their systems run the usual diagnostics and everything came back in working order. Their head tilts at their new parts, from the silver and gold joints to white and purple, the comparison was almost startling. 

“Peculiar…” They spoke and then adjust their vocal frequency. They stood with a slight wobble before finding their feet, walking out of the room and following the sounds down the hallway. The omnic is clearly lost, but that doesn’t stop them from being curious. Room upon room was entered, their amazement for the technology on the vessel was astounding to them. Clearly the work of a genius.

There was one final room that the omnic hadn’t been in, and when the door finally opens, they’re met with Ramattra’s back turned to them as he watches the wall of monitors. 

“I apologise that the accommodations are not the best suited for visitors.” Ramattra speaks, turning to face the smaller omnic. “I also apologise for the change in your body.” His head cocks to the side as he speaks. 

The omnic shakes their head and raises a hand. “No apologies necessary. I quite like them.” 

Ramattra could feel the air shift around him, something calm and friendly. It was a nice change from the usual tenseness that surrounded him on a daily basis. His optics look down at the smaller omnic, analysing his movements, not there was much to analyse to begin with as they stand there. 

“Do you have a name?” Ramattra finally breaks that small silence. 

The omnic shakes their head. “If I did, I do not remember.”

“I see.” The taller omnic looks off to the side, something of guilt settling inside of him when he remembers the damage caused to their body and systems was his fault. “Perhaps in time you will find a name for yourself. One that suits your… uniqueness.” Ramattra wasn’t one to hand out flattery. 

The omnic before him shuffles in their spot, their wires burning up as an attempt in blushing. 

“Come, let me show you what is happening.” Ramattra gensures for the omnic to stand next to him before he motions towards the monitors. 

From there, The leader proceeds to explain in detail the who purpose surrounding Null Sector and his beliefs, watching the smaller omnic nod and look on. Ramattra can feel a sense of pride within himself; finally, someone agrees with him. 

—-

Months had gone by and Null Sector was still advancing. Their movements caused conflict among many nations and while Ramattra had seen some brother omnics stand with him below, humans still oppressed him and the ideals he wanted to share with the world. 

The fighting continued and Ramattra’s friend stayed by his side throughout everything. The successes were celebrated and the failures were spoken about in a civil manner… after some shouting and throwing of holopads. 

Ramattra had grown close to the omnic he had saved, taking care of them when they needed it the most. Sleepless charging times mixed with nightmares made Ramattra feel pity towards them. They had lost their home, their friends. They had nobody and Ramattra was the only one there for them. 

As the pair worked together their relationship was blossoming, one that even Ramattra had to admit he wasn’t expecting. The omnic beside him grew on his systems. 

While still nameless, the omnic enjoyed being a part of Null Sector. They enjoyed helping Ramattra and the praise they received after they did something good only made them feel closer to the leader. Everything was done in the best interest of the causes and Ramattra appreciated that. 

The smaller omnic would get all bashful, wires burning whenever Ramattra’s hand met their shoulder. Whenever Ramattra sought to repairs and gave the omnic his utmost trust to keep everything in working order, they would do their best to make sure that nothing went wong. 

A few hiccups occurred here and there, but Ramattra was never mad with them. How could he be? This omnic was someone he needed. 

It wasn’t before long that Ramattra realised that this omnic meant more to him than just liberation. He had someone close to him to protect.

Ramattra finally had someone to call a friend, perhaps more.

The omnic finally had a family. A home.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Don't Go Blindly Into the Dark

Summary:

To hide that he can't read, Jan Van Eck has been forcing his son to pretend he's blind since he was eight years old. Wylan is now attending Ketterdam University, and meeting Jesper Fahey may very well be about to change his life. But is he safe to tell Jesper the truth? And what will Jesper say if he does?

Jesper is struggling to weigh up his life in the Barrel and his life at the University of Ketterdam, and there's a good chance that his growing debt is about to make the decision for him. He hasn't attended class consecutively for months, but maybe that will change when his newest project includes partnering up with Wylan Van Eck. But can he really leave the Barrel behind him? And how long can he keep up the pretence of who he thinks Wylan wants him to be?

Tags: @justalunaticfangirl @lunarthecorvus

If anyone else would like to be tagged let me know :)

Content warnings for this chapter: implied sa references, violence, trafficking references

AO3 link

Chapter 13 - Nina

Nina left Inej on a bridge just North of the Slat, and began to walk towards West Stave alone. On the way to the Barrel they had watched the world come awake with the final dregs of sunrise - black-suited merchers, mediks, and lawyers appearing and disappearing as they rushed between the streets on their way to work, runners moving back and forth like lightning between the Exchange and the Financial District to update on the earliest news of the day - but here there was no need for the slow progress of early morning; here the streets were as bustling as they would have been at midnight and every hour after, performers and players and tourists shouting and cheering and exchanging that beloved coin. It was perhaps quieter than it would be this evening, but the only true lull in the Barrel came with the lazy hours of mid afternoon. Nina watched the outline of the White Rose growing on the horizon as she darted in and amongst the crowds, lavishing the thought of curling up on her little chaise and closing her eyes for the rest of the day. She didn’t doubt she’d be working this evening but hopefully being back unexpectedly early would mean there was little time to schedule and she’d have a lighter day. Nina didn’t make commission on her work altering moods, so unless there was a good Tailoring job lined up she didn’t feel the need to take on any more clients than was the minimum for her monthly quota. Her percentage cut of the Tailoring was upsettingly low anyway, but she’d take it over nothing. Money was too tight to complain; there was a tiny stash of kruge beneath one of her floorboards, on its approach to two hundred and fifty, and if she didn’t remain frugal for the next month she may be forced to dip into it. She really didn’t want to. That money was earmarked for other means, but if she got any closer to falling behind on her interest payments to Per Haskell she might have to temporarily prioritise her survival over Matthias’ freedom. 

“Nah, I swear!” someone in the goggle-eyed mask of the madman shouted, as Nina slipped by, “I saw it, all splayed over the steps outside the House of Exotics,”

“You’re a damn liar, Al,” laughed his companion, her face hidden beneath the veil of the Lost Bride, “She’s ashes on the Reaper’s Barge by now,”

The same Suli girl from the Willow Switch was performing over the canal again - the swings this time, partnering with a lithe Shu girl in scraps of green silk. Neither of them could have been more than sixteen, and the only section of their arms not covered by glitter were covered instead by the dark ink of the Willow Switch tattoo. The Shu girl flipped in the air and landed upside down on the next swing, knees hooked tightly over the bar. Her long hair came loose as she twisted and fell in a black wave, dangling into the waters of the canal as she swung back and forth, the glittering pins that had held it in place flopping into the water with tiny ripples. The crowd gasped and Nina couldn’t tell if it had been an accident or part of the performance, to hold their intrigue. She hoped it was on purpose, but the brief flash of fear in both girls’ eyes made her doubt that it was.

For no real reason - and she probably shouldn’t have done - Nina stopped and watched the end of the performance. The Suli performed another trick and her hair fell from its tight spiral as well, spinning and shimmering as it unfurled, but Nina was pretty sure she’d seen her loosen the pins. Maybe she thought it would look better if they matched. They finished and landed on the side of the canal, bowing deeply to the crowd and accepting their applause. No-one seemed to notice that, once they’d finished their bow, they did not release each other’s hands. The Shu girl, eyes still frightened above the smile of an actor at the stage door, tightened her grip and mouthed something to the girl next to her, her lips barely daring to move. Even from this distance, it looked distinctly like I’m sorry. 

Nina kept walking. 

As soon as she was through the back door of the White Rose she saw Adrian and Elodie leaving the little kitchen, and as soon as they saw her they faltered. She didn’t notice straight away.

“Hiya, is Feliks in?” asked Nina, shaking the Ketterdam mists out of her sleeve cuffs.

She was already thinking about her nightdress and her blankets as she set down her trunk to briefly stretch out her arms, but if Feliks was at the house she’d let him know the job was done before she went upstairs. 

“Not for another hour yet,” said Elodie, softly.

Her face was slightly hidden behind the silver tea tray she was balancing on her palms, but even so Nina could see that her hair would soon need Tailoring again. Elodie was one of the few in the house that Nina knew for certain was there on indenture - even the salaried staff generally slept in the building just as Nina did, so it wasn’t always easy to tell - because she’d told her so the first time she Tailored her. 

“Will my eyes ever be blue again?” she’d asked quietly, looking up at Nina.

She could only be about twelve. 

“They will,” Nina promised her, “And if I’m still here when you leave then I’ll undo it for you, so you don’t have to wait for it to fade,”

Elodie had just stared at her blankly for a moment, then said “Oh”.

“What’s wrong?” asked Nina, gently coaxing the girl’s head back so she could continue working on her eyes.

Elodie gave a sort of shrug, as best she could from the position.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever leave,”

Now she was teetering slightly and Adrian caught the edge of her tray to level it.

“Go on,” he said, nodding towards the door as he helped her rebalance, “Mister Norell is waiting,”

Elodie’s cheeks flushed for a moment, and then she hurried on her way. Nina rolled her shoulders.

“I’m going to get some sleep,” she said to Adrian, “But would you mind bringing me a cup of tea?”

“Yeah, Nina, but-”

“I’ll make sure to come back down in a few hours, but could you let Feliks know that I’m back when he gets…” she finally took in Adrian’s anxious gaze and fidgeting, “…here - why are you looking at me like that? Oh Saints, don’t look at me like that,” 

Adrian blushed a little, but the nervous energy didn’t leave his twitching fingers or those wide, unnervingly pale eyes.

“Don’t tell me,” she sighed, and then a second of fraught silence: “Okay just tell me,”

“Five clients,” he all but squeaked.

“No,”

“And then the Geldstraat job again,”

“No,”

“The first client is going to be here in twenty minutes,”

“Adrian my love, I’m sorry but if you say one more word I will be forced to shoot the messenger,”

Adrian pursed his lips and Nina noticed that the colour was returning to them; she’d need to Tailor him again soon too. She tried to leave it as long as possible between sessions because Feliks charged them no less than he charged any of the other Tailoring clients would get charged for such a long job, and in the case of Elodie and several others it was added to their indentures. 

“Brekker hasn’t paid him yet,” Adrian but his lip, leaning the teeniest bit farther away from Nina as though she might actually lash out of him, “so he’s going to take it out of your cheque,”

Nina closed her eyes and took a very slow breath. 

“Saints give me strength,” she muttered, just on the off chance the old ghosts might be paying attention. 

“I’m sorry,”

“Not your fault, darling. You got a copy of the schedule?”

Adrian nodded. 

“I’ll bring one up with your tea,”

“You’re a star,” she turned towards the stairs, “See you in a minute,”

There was really very little time to prepare for her first client but luckily it was the third appointment with Langen, a merch from the Zelvar District who visited her once a month - she knew what the plan was, and he wouldn’t have complaints about her recent absence. Nina flung her travel bag into the bottom of her wardrobe, then changed and thrust herself into the uncomfortable fake kefta as quickly as she could manage. By the time Adrian knocked on her door she was sitting in front of the vanity, Tailoring the dark circles under her eyes as best she could in such a rush and running a brush through her slightly tangled hair. Even as she set herself to rights her mind was not yet on work - it was too busy being furious. Kaz must have already told Feliks that she was coming back early, which honestly pissed her off more than knowing he hadn’t paid him yet. But then again, why hadn’t he paid him yet? It seemed a very un-Kaz thing not to have done so. It probably had something to do with whatever money Feliks already owed Kaz; Nina didn’t know or care about the details.

Ah well, she told herself as she gratefully accepted the tea that Adrian had brought her, you can’t change it now. You’ll just have to keep Kaz’s money hostage until he’s settled everything. If there was one thing she could use to bend Kaz Brekker’s insanity to her will, it was cold hard cash. 

Nina had bare minutes to read through the schedule for the rest of the day and she salvaged every one of them. It wasn’t quite as bad as she’d thought it might be; a two hour season now, then no-one until four bells. Plenty of time for a cat nap. Why did they want her back at the Van Eck house so soon though? Nina might ask Inej to follow her again; she felt better knowing where she was going and why she was wanted, but the whole experience had left a strange sense of rotting in her stomach. And she’d have to watch herself now - no saying her name, as little talking as possible in front of Wylan. There was every chance he’d already recognised her voice when they were at the university, but if he had then he hadn’t been obvious about it. 

Nina sighed, finished the last gulp of her tea, then straightened the cuffs of her kefta and flicked her hair over her shoulders. Time to put on a show. 

Or it would have been, if the plan hadn’t gone out of the window very, very quickly. 

Nina glided down the stairs and into the lobby, hand poised on the bannister, mysterious wise Grisha smile setting into place. Langen was sitting on one of the white sofas, an untouched glass of near-colourless wine in front of him on the table. If he drank at all he had never done so in front of Nina, though she always offered and he was of course always given something whilst he waited. His eyes were drifting through the room but she knew that he had seen her, and she gave him a slow nod as she approached. He finally looked up when she was just a few steps away, and stood to meet her.

“Nina,”

“Mr Langen,” she gave him a brief, polite bow of the head, and the next step should have been to ask him to follow her upstairs.

As Nina lifted her gaze back to meet his, she stopped. Across the room she could see Elodie, still with her tea tray as she refilled the bone white teacup of someone who, though he had removed his mask to sip his drink and eat his pale little cake, was dressed in the distinct cape of Mr Crimson. What had actually caught Nina’s eyes was that the man had leaned forwards, close to tiny little Elodie, and his hand was slipping down her back. Elodie gasped and stumbled a pace backwards, then cried out as tea spilled from the pot and onto her hands. She almost dropped the thing and set it hastily down onto the table, rubbing her hand repeatedly down the front of her skirt. Attention turned vaguely towards her and then drifted away again just as quickly, but Elodie’s cheeks had turned scarlet and Nina’s head was crying alarm bells. She stood quite still for a moment, aware of Langen watching her, her eyes on the laughing Mr Crimson as Elodie apologised profusely and tried to reach back to the teapot with shaking hands. He said something Nina was too far away to hear, and then leaned forwards again. 

“Excuse me sir,” Nina said to Langen, “I will be right with you,”

Her tone shifted quite irrevocably as she marched across the room.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Mr Crimson looked up at her, grin not even slipping.

“Just a bit of fun, eh pretty girl? Why, you wanna join us?”

“Sir, I am going to very politely ask you to leave but I am only going to do that one time,”

His eyes flashed. In an instant he had grabbed Elodie’s wrist and pulled her towards him, the cup still in her hand spilling over her shoes as she gasped. 

“Well now I’m just intrigued what happens after that one time,”

“My patience wears thin quick,” she didn’t risk using her power - not yet, at least, though she wouldn’t hold back if she had to - but she clamped her hand onto the collar of his stupid cape and yanked him close to her, “And then things get ugly,”

He shook away from her, shoving Elodie to the floor and advancing on Nina.

“You think your boss’ll be happy with you talking to me that way?”

“My boss isn’t here right now so you will have to deal with me,” she hissed, raising her hands ready to make good on the threat if she needed to, “Get out,”

He made a fumbling grab for her shoulder and she dodged easily, then twisted her arm around his so he was stuck in place as she kicked him hard in the shin.

“Nina!” someone shouted in panic, she wasn’t exactly sure who. 

Everyone was looking at them now. One of the house girls had helped little Elodie to her feet and one of the other servants was looking at the burn on her hand, but Elodie was staring straight at Nina with wide eyes. 

“You get out of this house,” Nina hissed, releasing the man’s arm, “And you don’t fucking come back,”

He glared at her for a moment, eyes wilder than black seas beneath a storm in the night, and then marched through the open doors with a swish and billow of his ugly red cape. Nina breathed. Everyone was still staring at her. 

She took Elodie upstairs - Langen could wait - and sat her down on the little chaise. 

“Are you okay?”

“I ruined my shoes,” she whispered.

“Did you burn your feet?”

“No,”

“You can get new shoes. Are you okay?”

She nodded, a little shakily. 

“Can I see your hand?” 

There was a brief pause before Elodie slipped her hand into Nina’s, and Nina ran her fingers over the reddened skin until it healed. 

“Thank you,”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Nina told her, smiling.

“Not just my hand,” she whispered, “Thank you…”

She trailed away, but Nina nodded.

“I’m always here for that too,” she promised.

There was a brief pause and Elodie’s voice was anxious when she ventured:

“Will you, though? Nina… are you going to get fired?”

“I…” Nina tried to control the shake in her own voice, the real weight of what she’s just done finally hitting her over the head like a sack of bricks, “I don’t know,”

She had attacked a client. She had attacked a client. Oh Saints, she was cooked. What was she going to do if she got fired? Would Kaz be able to find somewhere else for her, or would she be stuck running deeper and deeper into debt with Haskell until… until what? There was no way out of this, not without going back to Ravka - maybe not even then, what money did the Triumvirate have to bail her out? And she couldn’t go back anyway. She couldn’t abandon Matthias any further than she already had. 

Elodie shuffled closer and Nina offered her an arm so she could lean in.

“I don’t like it here,” she whispered, resting her head against Nina’s side.

“I know you don’t, poppet,” Nina murmured, “I’m sorry. We’re gonna figure it out though, yeah? You and me,”

“Really?”

“Promise,” 

What a stupid fucking thing to say. But if it made Elodie smile, even for the briefest moment, was it okay to lie so terribly?

[rookerystories]

Star Trails and Ash Rails: The Ship Part 2

Her pilot was humming to herself when Rei got to the bridge.

“Good mood?”

“Always,” Vri said with a quick smile.

“Got an update for me?” Rei asked, straight to business, looking over the readouts.

“Ship’s in view. Looks like an old prison ship, like I thought. No external damage, but scans are showing some gnarly radiation levels throughout, except for this room,” Vri waved a finger at a small, square room near the top of the ship, “which is weird, but I’ve seen weirder.”

“Any life signs?”

“Rads are too high to get an accurate read. If anyone is alive, they’ve gotta be in there, whatever there is.”

“Warden’s office.” Rei said, matter-of-factly.

Vri raised an eye at her to which Rei shrugged. “Long story. Looks good for a core leak though,” she commed down to Karish and the others, “Boys, Yllis, set up in rad suits, we’ve got a core leak. Karish, you got everything you need to fix it?”

“Depends on what it is, but if I don’t, hopefully their engineering does.”

“Any life signs Dodger?” Dex asked.

“Too much interference to tell. But Dex?”

“Yeah?”

“Warden’s office looks clean.”

“Fuck.” Dex muttered and she heard the distinct sound of a round replicator whirring to life.

“I’ll meet you in the hangar,” Rei cut her comm and looked at Vri. “Keep a good distance, we’ll fly in. If shit goes off the rails Vri, blow us outta the water. I’m not going to a Parishi prison or a slaver pen. That’s an order.”

Vri was about to make a smart remark when she saw Rei’s face. “Sure thing, captain,” she said somberly.

Rei nodded and set off at a brisk pace to the elevator that’d take her down to the hangar. Adrenaline fought with her own willpower to make her jittery and nervous, flooding systems indiscriminately. Instead, she forced her mind to tick, to think. Chances were good the warden was dead; if they’d let their ship deteriorate this badly, it was one of the only answers. The others were… less ideal.

She walked into the hangar to see Dex and Yllis stowing gear on a small, agile transport and to hear Karish ask “Wait, what’s the problem with a Parishi warden?”

Dex looked grim, a face he usually reserved for pre-mission jitters and to fuck with green pilots. He nodded at Rei.

“What do you think, Dodger?”

“Right now, I don’t think a damned thing. But I’m hoping to all the hells the fuck’s dead.”

“It would explain the state of the ship,” Yllis signed rapidly.

“Exactly.”

Rei checked her own gear; a new Raptor 7 semi-automatic handgun loaded with high density ferro rounds and a nearly antique Cobra-9 assault rifle — a souvenir from her participation in the war. The rifle had been retrofitted to accept the new round-replicators that kept you from needing to reload, and she switched the device to craft static crumple rounds after ensuring its material load was full.

“Is there something I should know?” Karish asked, panic rising in his voice.

“Stay behind us, fix the core, and hope to whatever gods you believe in the warden is dead,” Rei said and climbed aboard the transport, sealing the rad suit she’d thrown on as she did so.

She strapped herself into the pilot’s chair and flicked the pre-flight checks, feeling a sense of serenity fall over her as she felt the Roc’s systems activate in tandem. Dex and Yllis had already climbed aboard and Karish, fighting panic, followed them tentatively. Rei sighed and turned in the pilot’s seat to the engineer.

“Look, Matthais,” she said gently, “it’s probably nothing, okay? But since you’re freaking out, I’ll tell you. The Parishi wardens are — were,” she corrected herself, “Cyborgs. Sort of. They still had some fleshy bits, but it was mostly tech. No emotion, no pain. And they were ruthlessly efficient. And I don’t know if neural programming can be mean, but if it can, they were the meanest fucks you could find. Didn’t even do it for pleasure. They’d torture a prisoner just to make the others watch. But they’re old. Haven’t been made since the end of the war. And they weren’t great on the self-maintenance thing. So, if we’re lucky, this one’s long dead and we don’t have to worry about it. But if it isn’t, you stay the fuck behind us, okay?” There was bite in the last sentence and Karish, who was pale but looked less panicked, nodded.

“Besides,” Dex added with a grin only Rei noticed was fake, “We’ll be lucky if we get there in one piece, considering Dodger’s flying.”

“Excuse me, which one of us held the record for walk-away crash landings six years running?”

“Least I walked away from my crash landings,” Dex fired back.

“That was one time, and it was only because I was upside down!”

“Whatever you gotta tell yourself, Dodger.” His grin this time was more genuine, but she could still see the tension in the line of his jaw. They both knew firsthand what the wardens were like.

Rei kicked the Roc out of the hangar before she could think more on those memories, feeling the inertia pull at her innards. It was a familiar, comforting feeling.

[ijustsmackedmynewtattoo]

Deducing With Disorders Pt. 1

Dissociative Disorders: TW - Mentions/Descriptions of Dissociation

Credit to @sleuth2k7 for the idea

So quick disclaimer: I am not a certified psychologist, I am giving generalized advice for deducing with disorders that I have been diagnosed with based on my personal experience. Nothing is one-size-fits-all.

When I was 15 I was diagnosed with derealization/depersonalization disorder. DR/DP is one of three types of dissociative disorders spanning approximately 1%-2% of the population, and as with all dissociative disorders, involves repeated episodes of disconnection from one's sense of self and surroundings. With DR/DP specifically, I experience long episodes of what I can only describe as having a VR headset glued on where you can only watch what's happening to your character, and you just have this certainty nothing in this world is real, occasionally being removed from the driver's seat entirely and placed further back in the VR world by some part of your brain that belongs to you on every count except your own.

TLDR: Am I real? Are you? How to deduce when you aren't sure if you're real is the question.

Answer: I personally do reality checks to start, and I incorporate deduction into that. Am I real? Well does 2+2 still equal 4? Do those baggy pants plus that ill-fitting suit still mean that this teenager is wearing his dad's clothes? Probably. Let's find out.

So when we're reconnecting to ourselves and our surroundings, we look for things that verify our experience as truly our own. Make it a game. Certain deductions are worth certain points, it can help to have a friend to play with. A profession is worth 5, a relationship status is worth 10, etc. No friend? No problem. The classic grounding method of listing 5 things you see, 4 you hear, 3 you can touch, 2 you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste can be built upon to be a more mindful exercise that you don't just run right through.

When listing your sensory observations, use your list to then deduce things about the person. For example, I used to smoke, quit like 2 or 3 years ago, but my ex would always be able to know I had been smoking when I was within 20 feet of her. She could see the nicotine stains, the smudge of ash on my thumb from flicking the cigarette, the lump of a crumpled cigarette pack in my pocket, and not just the obvious pieces of information, she saw the cologne in my bag, and the look on the faces of my friends who would smoke with me before school. For sound she may have heard the dry smoker's cough, the crackling of a lit cigarette, the spritz of a bottle of cologne before I walked up to her, and the click of a lighter in my fidgeting hands. She would reach out and touch the grainy bits of ash on my shirt, and feel the tremors in my hand, and the movement of the pack in my pocket. Obviously, she could smell the tar and smoke of the cigarette, even under the smell of my cologne. Even if I had brought a change of clothes, sprayed copious amounts of cologne, and washed my hands, she could always taste it when we kissed.

All this is of course the long-winded way to say that mindfulness is a invaluable tool when deducing with a disorder that separates you from reality. Hopefully, you can use these mindfulness techniques in conjunction with abductive reasoning to reconnect with yourself and your surroundings. I apologize for the brevity of the post, but rest assured the quality and frequency of posts should be back up to standard soon.