#I have a soft spot for rangers

[ranger-danger]

Made a rough attempt at remaking some bg1 companions in bg3 (I was also going to do Khalid, Viconia, and Xan but for some reason didn’t?).

They’re not super accurate but it was more the concept than accuracy. Honestly I was more going for face structure than perfect accuracy. I wish I had a better hair style to give all of them. Regardless I tried my best.

Also something very funny that I made Kivan, but not three of the big companions. It’s like showing up to a world class restaurant and only ordering a glass of milk.

[mo-ok]

little guy saga continues this time with the biggest little guys you've ever seen 🤖

[ratatatastic]

youre telling me you had a mic on mikksy the entire time and the moment you captured is the one between him and chris in the handshake line... "good luck buddy you have to go win it" [insert the sounds of multiple wailing cats]

the ex ranger narrative compels me and chris craddling mikksys head to his shoulder and his gives him his well wishes...

new york rangers @ florida panthers game 6 | 6.1.24 (x)

[vincent-desharnais]

i keep thinking about braden schneider and his poor lost bottom teeth. he's a reverse clouder now ... does anyone care ...

[n0tamused]

Jiyaaaan request coming your way~

While training his soldiers, one of them accidentally calls him 'Dad'. This leads to the reader teasing them but Jiyan teases back by calling them 'Mom' (or the gender neutral for it?)

(Was reading tv tropes and Jiyan had the 'A Father to his Men' tropes in his character tab lol)

A/n: Anon this request was so sweet, thank you sm for sending it in! Jiyan the father of an army fr.. I do hope I executed it well. Enjoy!

Content: Jiyan x F!Reader, fluff and playful stuff, nothing more

The morning sun had long since shifted its axis towards the center of the sky, blazing down through cotton clouds that sailed the azure skies. Below them, in the open fields, west of the main base cacophony sounded, consisting of commands, groans and other sounds of effort as the Midnight Ranger performed their training. And today Jiyan had come to overlook the session himself, although it wouldn’t be the first time. He was often so preoccupied with tasks at the front lines that he didn’t have the time to be leading drills too frequently, but when he did get the chance to do so he would take it. While it wasn’t a full reprieve from the battle, it was still a stark contrast to the grotesque and twisted fates he’d see daily on the battlefield.

Jiyan was noticeably more disheveled by the end, hair messy and hanging in strands and clinging to his sweaty forehead, hands on his hips as his voice rose to meet all ears present. You have just been passing by, helping carry supplies that just came in, and loading old and empty boxes back to be refilled in the city. For once there was no rush that would make your legs ache or your lungs hurt, allowing you all the precious time to bask in the views, the soft chatter and, of course, your dear lover.

The sun caught his figure and formed a golden aura around him, his skin glistening, and you couldn’t help but take a seat at one of many big boxes at the side of the training grounds after you had finished your task. In passing you caught a few looks, and a few smiles of the soldiers you knew from before. They looked much  more lively, despite the rigorous training they just went through. It made your heart warm seeing them in better spirits, wishing nothing more than to see them prevail and be happy. And just as you had recognized a bunch of familiar faces did Jiyan conclude his small speech, about to dismiss everyone with advice of rest hanging on every word. He had spotted you from the start, when you were going by with supplies in arms and soon he’d have a chance to speak to you too, he thought.

“General Jiyan! General Jiyan, a word or two- if I may?” 

It was a voice of one of the new recruits, Jiyan noted as he gazed at the face of the youth, a boy of twenty or so years by the looks of it, and eyes full of curiosity and admiration. He had come up to Jiyan just as he had turned towards you, prompting him to stay rooted in his spot a little longer. A few more young rangers came up behind the recruit, sharing the same curiosity but also being aware of whatever the recruit had on his mind.

“Yes? Is there something you need?” Jiyan questioned, looking at the young man. From his peripheral vision he spotted you moving down from the boxes and joining his side, staying quiet after a short word of greeting towards his Rangers, but your presence felt like a cool breeze under this sun, and he appreciated it all the more.

“I just wanted to say how great today’s training session was, we learned so much more than we did with our drill sergeant” he praised, smiling up at Jiyan all the while, “And I just wanted to ask whether or not you’ll be leading our training session tomorrow as well? Or any other day that is, we would really benefit from your teaching. I mean, you've seen it all for yourself at the front lines!"

The other few with him nodded along, prompting a small smile of pride to form on your face from seeing their fascination with Jiyan. To them he was everything they aspired to be - strong, enduring, tough but not lacking kindness or knowledge. There were times where they were scared to approach him, not knowing how he’d react to their questions, but from observing his interactions with others they warmed up to the idea and plucked all their courage. 

A polite smile curled up on Jiyan’s face as he regarded the youth with gentle golden eyes. His presence as the drill sergeant today wasn’t due to his availability, but a simple coincidence and necessity to fill the shoes of their drill sergeant that had been injured due to Tacet Discords, and Jiyan just happened to be able to be there. “Ah, you have my thanks, rangers. If a replacement for your drill sergeant does not arrive tomorrow and I am not required to be at the front lines, then I will be leading your training tomorrow as well” he told them, which pleased them greatly to hear.  “Although I’m sure Sargent Jin’xi has much more to teach you, something much more important for your sound development in this profession. You cannot take his method lightly. He has seen everything I have, as well. His knowledge is as valuable to your growth, and even more so than mine. You need the good foundation he can give you” He was aware of how confusing or hard it could be to listen to Jin’xi, as the sergeant had quite the eye for details and slow progress in lessons due to his meticulous nature - but that also made him all the better for his station. He was observant and could pluck out bad behavior and mistakes like weeds, and that is better to be done here, than in the middle of battle.

“We know, general, but sergeant Jin’xi is just so hard on us.. sometimes it really seems like he has no limit” one of the women standing behind voiced, earning a look from Jiyan that spoke of his understanding but also his disagreement with the subtle message they were trying to send - please, replace sergeant Jin’xi, or, save us.

“Yeah! One time I accidentally mixed up the weapons in the storage room and he had me do everything on my own again, saying how such mistakes can’t happen on the front lines, how it all means life or death” the first young man said, brushing his fingers through his hair and sighing. “I understand it, but we just got here..” he added and looked at his comrades. 

What was supposed to be a short chit-chat turned swiftly into a gossip galore about Jin’xi. Had Jiyan been any different from the man he was currently, he would’ve scolded them, taken offense at how they spoke about his colleague, but he was in their shoes once, always on edge around the higher ups, and he wished not to bring that same unease to them. He didn’t fail to remind them to not speak like this in front of everyone, and to respect sergeant Jin’xi when he does eventually return, and they gave him their word.

The first young man that approached looked at Jiyan after their discussion, both hands on his hips and looking more relaxed. “We won’t forget that, I promise on my last name! Still, we appreciate your kindness, and one more thing dad- I MEAN- GENERAL!” His entire face crumbled into a look of terror, and all eyes of the group shot to him, looks of surprise and amusement appearing before several of them erupted into laughter after taking a wary glance at Jiyan - who was not offended.

“General Jiyan! Oh god- I apologize, general, I don’t know where that came from-” he stammered, shaking his head and his hands, face flushed from sheer embarrassment. More choked words tumbled out of his mouth, desperate to excuse himself and forget about this. 

Jiyan can’t help but chuckle, the corners of his lips twitching in a failed attempt to hold back his smile. “At ease, recruit. You have not done any crime” he nods at the other, his eyes softening and not showing any sign that he’s about to dish out some punishment - that’d be ridiculous. 

You can’t help but crack a laugh too, covering your lips with your hand as to stifle the sound, but your mirth was evident in your eyes. “Have I missed a chapter? I didn’t know you had kids, general Jiyan” you teased, earning a few shocked but heavily amused looks from the group. Giggles erupted once more, all stifled as they waited for Jiyan to respond to the quip.

Jiyan turns his head to look at you, his eyes boring into yours and questioning your intentions - you can read the thoughts going through your head and your smile only widens in a silent call to a challenge of wits. He didn’t expect you to say something like that, but he could only huff, hiding his amusement under an abrupt guise of confusion.

“Kids?.. Why, I had hoped you’d recognize your own kids, Miss (L/N)” he shot back instantly, making your jaw drop at his rebuttal, a gasp flying past your mouth. “General” you said, accusations plenty heard in your tone as the atmosphere melted into one of jest and play.

Many eyes flickered between you and him, taking in the easy way you conversed with one another.

“Yes? What’s the surprise for? The recruits look up to you too, if you fail to notice. You can confirm with them right now” he is shifting the spotlight to you, and the recruits are quick to jump in too. “It is right, miss. Personally I haven’t been around you for long, no longer than I interacted with the General, but you two are alike, you treat us new ones with a firm but kind hand” a young woman said, smiling at you, and you feel your heart climb into your throat. 

“Can we really be surprised, they’re always together too-” "Aren't they married?" Whispering is heard amidst the group, and Jiyan looks amidst the faces to catch the one that said that but fails to do so, or refuses to weed out the individuals, and his eyes go back to you to catch your response. It’d be a lie to say your relationship with him was a secret, everyone knew there was something deeper between the two of you, something you didn’t show in public due to the war and status, but it was undeniably there. Still, hearing it loud and clear like this was like a splash of cold water. Despite their chatter, the group remained respectful, sweet in their musings.

“Ah, quiet, I do not want to hear it. This is about you, General”

“Ah, don’t run from it now. You’re the one that started this” he commented, rolling his eyes as he folded his arms over his chest. “Anyway, you’re all dismissed. I have a word with.. mother over here. Off you all go. I will see you all in the morning for another training drill. Get some rest” he speaks to the group, gazing upon their faces, only to see how they looked at him with some sort of childhood wonder, and that’s when he realized he must be flushed too. A sheepish smile bloomed on his face. 

“Alright! Awesome-” “Yes, sir!"

“Have a good day, General! And you too, Miss!” 

He watched them leave, bidding them all farewell, and when he turned to face you again he saw you pinching the bridge of your nose, hiding away the biggest smile of the day, the apples of your cheeks redder than before. The Midnight Rangers were undeniably close in connection, having spent so many nights and days huddled together for warmth or laughs or protection, and this small exchange only warmed Jiyan’s heart, to witness how positively they felt around him - and you. 

“Didn’t think we’d become parents so soon. Have we gotten that old already?” Jiyan commented, tone softer in a way he only addressed you when you were alone, and there was no one near the training grounds to hear you.

“Oh, shut up, Jiyan-” you playfully snapped, biting your lip as you looked up at him, stifling a giggle. “You are unbelievable!”

“Hm? Did you expect me to stay quiet today or ignore your quips?” he smiled bigger and you have to admire the little dimples in his cheeks as the smile reaches his eyes, making them squint at you softly.

“I don’t know what I expected, but your response was certainly the last thing I expected” you replied and shook your head, as if that would shake off the redness tinting your skin, imitating him now by crossing your arms. The two of you were looking at each other, wordlessly admiring your red faces while throwing these little quips at one another. 

“Ah.. you’ll get used to it, dearest wife”

Ⓒ n0tamused. Do not repost, translate, edit, and/or copy any of my works. Likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated.

[yuumenakaiser]

How to give proper affection; guide by Y/n

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆. Boothill x gn!reader

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆. Lots of fluff ♪⁠～ a bit crack ♪⁠～ not edited yet-

Step 1 : locate the boothill

Today will be a special day, a really special day. A day where you are going to learn how to give affection to Boothill. The proper way of course. So whoever needs to know this. It's our special day of teaching! Well you already have a good prepared plan and it will work for 100%. It's bullet proof, you tested it. How you may ask yourself, you don't know yourself. Great. So-

Cough.

To start this operation you first need to check your weapon. Your hands and lips, what else? Perhaps a pokeba-

Whatever. Your eyes scan the surroundings, the area where boothill should linger around. His favorite place to be alone at sometimes. But today will be different.

And mhm! There he is, you spotted the innocent Boothill who has no clue about all this. He was relaxing on a field eyes closed, letting the sun tickle his face. The only part where he could actually feel touches.

Crouching down between the bushes and carefully moving towards the galaxy ranger without making any noises.

"no one can hide from my sight." you whispered before you leapt forward to attack him. Boothill was now pressed against the grass, his eyes opened and a chuckle escaped his lips. Making you feel the vibration on his chest. His Cowboy hat has fallen off from your attack.

"whoa there! Watcha up to again pumpkin? Tryna trick me with yer sly games again?" Boothill caressed your hair and gave you one of his sharp smiles.

Now it's the right time to begin the second operation! You completed step 1 successfully what a proud feeling.

Step 2 : touch the face of boothill

Moving on to step 2. It is time to get serious, sit down on his stomach so there is no chance to escape at all for him. Boothill blushes slightly from your action and as you refused to let him go but that doesn't matter right now. What matters is that you show him the love he deserves!

"a successful hunt! It's time to move to plan b." You whisper yelled to yourself and let boothill pick up on that you really are playing your games.

"y/n sweet pie I should be the hunter not yer-"

Before he could finish his tricking sentences, you cup his face with your hands and start touching it. Sto

Stroking his cheeks with your thumbs in a rhythmic motion. His cheeky grin faded into a comfortable soft smile and let you do your little plans. He leaned into your touches and moved his head to the side grabbing you by the wrist and placing a kiss on it.

Your face slightly heats up from his affection towards you. This is failing, he should be the one to blush and not the other way around.

"hold still or I have to take stricter measures!"

Boothill furrowed his eyebrows and looked at you a little confused but plays along with you.

"is that so y/n darling? Watcha got in petto." And here he started grinning again and giving your wrist more kisses. You gasped "the prey is trying to charm me, im repeating the prey is trying to charm me I need to move to step 3!"

Boothill let out a deep chuckle again and buries his face deeper in your hands.

"mhm and what is yer step 3?"

"a secret! A full missionary secret!"

Step 3: face cuddles and kisses

You almost failed the operation but you planned everything of course and this next step will totally make him flustered. He won't take the advantage anymore this is your guide and attack of how to give boothill proper affection.

You are slowly using your secret weapon for this. You took a deep breath, placing your hands onto his shoulders. Leaning towards his face and then pressing your cheek against his one. He raises a brow and wraps one of his arms around you and with his other hand he touches your free cheek.

With this position you begin to rub your cheek gently against his and cuddle his face. Smiling proudly and pressing now the other side to rub yours with his as well.

His hand moves to your hair, stroking and playing with it while you do the face cuddling.

"Why yer being so cute today? What's with all these touches on me? Missed me that much, have ya?" Without answering him only humming you move to step 4!

Step 4: ultimate kisses

It is time...for the real weapon...the one everyone would fear...the ultimate kisses.

A huge grin appears on your face, pulling away from rubbing your cheeks against boothills.

You grab again his pretty precious face in your hands. "Are you ready for this Boothill?" He tilts his head lazily and stares into your eyes. Giving you a wide smile again that reveals his sharp teeths.

"ready for anything love."

And with that you start to place kisses all over his face. First off starting to kiss his forehead, moving down to his eyebrows, nose and then cheeks.

Kissing his chin and then you spot his lips and place the ultimate kiss on his lips.

"my my~ look at my dear being the sweetest."

Satisfied with your operation you roll away from him and happily yell "mission completed!!"

But little did you know that boothill will not let you go so easily after that. A shadow appeared in front of you.

"where do yer think ya goin huh? Now we will play my game my sweet prey."

Okay but the end wasn't planned! Now you need to try to escape from him. Time to move to step 5- well actually it has no use anyway there is no way you can escape his hungry eyes.

Upsies.

[teachailattes]

sweet mushrooms ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

tighnari x afab!reader

— ౨ৎ summary: at the time, it seemed like a good idea. something to tease him after he neglected you to finish his countless piles of reports and work. and the pretty glistening pink cap of the mushroom had been so so so tempting. but now, as the heat started to pool between your thighs, you were starting to think that this might’ve been a mistake.

— ౨ৎ cw: smut 18+ MDNI, sub!reader, dom!tighnari, aphrodisiacs, fingering, praise, he’s a lil mean, reader is slightly whiney

— ౨ৎ wc: 1442

you stumbled down the path to tighnari’s home, drunk on the idea of relieving the throbbing between your legs. it was late at night, so there were barely any forest rangers around to see you in such a disheveled state.

he smelt it as soon as you appeared at his door, the sickly sweet scent immediately surrounding his home but he didn’t think much of it until he turned from his desk and saw your blissed out expression.

“‘nari!” you exclaimed, making your way to his desk and clutching his arm desperately. “please please please help me…”

his face morphed into one of concern immediately as he pulled you into his arms and placed his palm on your forehead but even the slightest touch from him had you jolting and letting out a small gasp.

“y/n? what happened? what’s wrong?” he asked, quickly setting you down on his bed, the cool material of his sheets immediately relieving the uncomfortable heat that you were radiating. you squirmed around, trying to strip off the clothes that were feeling suddenly a bit too tight.

“it’s hot…” you whined. you shrugged off the sweater you were wearing, the one that tighnari had purposely given to you to protect you from the chills of the forest nights.

tighnari side-eyed the sweater that had fallen onto the floor and sighed, already having a feeling of what happened but wanting to hear it from your mouth.

“tell me what you did this time.” he asked with a hint of disappointment in his voice, his hands on his hips and his ears flattening.

“a mushroom! it was a…a pink mushroom!” you explained urgently before breaking eye contact with him out of embarrassment. “i…ate it.”

“you did what? it didn’t have white spots on the cap did it?” tighnari snapped, clicking his tongue but the slight ashamed nod from you had him seriously consider kicking you out right now. he knew you knew which mushroom that was and what effects it had because of your giddy “look ‘nari, it’s pink!” when you two had discovered it, so why would you willingly and consciously consume it?

“i knowww” you whined. the constant throbbing was becoming unbearable at this point and your head was becoming more muddled by the second. the only thing rotting in that muddled brain of yours was to relieve the aching pain. you could deal with the consequences and lectures later, you just needed tighnari now.

tighnari took one more look at you before starting to come closer. he was used to your antics already, but he really didn’t think that you would be this much trouble. he could certainly leave you in this predicament and have you learn your lesson by dealing with it yourself, but having experienced some unbearable heats before he wouldn’t want you to leave you to this suffering alone. and he loved you. that too. despite how many times you make him want to rip out his tail sometimes.

and so, begrudgingly, he gave you what you wanted.

with another click of his tongue, he took your hand and guided you onto his bed. you bounced on the soft mattress with a slight “mmph!”

he sighed again as he held himself up with one arm while the other found its way onto your waist. his touch sent shivers up your spine and you tried to arch into his touch, to feel more of it but he only held you down.

“calm down. you’ll get what you want. but you won’t learn your lesson this way.” he mumbled as he focused on the growing damp spot on the cotton underwear you were wearing.

when his finger pushed against your clit and started rubbing slow circles through your underwear you let out a loud whine and your hips immediately shook from the sensitivity.

“shh..you don’t want everyone in gandharva ville to know of your mistake now do you?” tighnari whispered into your ear as his fingers continued rubbing teasing circles onto your clit, pushing against the fabric.

“mm..!” you jolted, only causing tighnari to let out an amused chuckle at your predicament. you could hear the sloppy wet sounds at your pussy and most definitely could feel the stickiness pooling around your hole. you felt so hot, oh so hot.

“hm. what a mess.” tighnari mumbled, sliding down your panties before spreading your folds apart now and slowly inserting one finger. “maybe i should rewrite the ‘avidya forest survival guide’.…or maybe not since i doubt anyone would be as silly as you to eat mushrooms they know the effect of.”

“aah~! this is…” you can barely comprehend his words, completely blissed out from the feeling of his touch right against your most sensitive spot.

“don’t worry, you’ll feel better soon.”

you needed more. this was nowhere near enough. letting out a soft whimper, you grabbed at his arm and tried to quicken his motions.

“haah…aahn~! feels…so..good..mm!”

sighing, he let you set your pace as he added another finger. your mind was so fuzzy and it was like your senses had intensified tenfold. all you could hear was him, his scent, his heavy breathing next to your ear. you could tell he was enjoying this as much as you were.

his fingers reached a sweet spot inside of you and you cried out, body shaking.

“..’nari.. more~!”

“you don’t even know what you do to me sometimes.” tighnari breathed out.

you could feel the pleasure in your stomach start to increase and your legs shook as he continued to pound his fingers into your pussy.

“mm-! sooo hot…‘nari…’nari i’m gonna…” you moaned out, hand still holding onto his arm for support. by now, his eyes held a fire to it and he started to move his fingers faster.

“it’s okay. you can cum, you’re doing fine.” he praised, angling his finger up again into your sweet spot and his other hand started to rub at your clit again.

his praise mixed with his ministrations on your clit was what sent you over the edge.

“aaah~! mmm~~! ah! ‘nari..!” you leaned forward into his chest as you reached your peak, hand clutching on his arm to keep your shaking body stable.

“hah…so tight.” tighnari groaned, feeling you clench down on his fingers. he let go of your clit and wrapped his arm around you, bringing you closer into him as his fingers continued to help you ride out your high.

you started to push lightly at his arm when the sensation became too much and it had started to hurt.

“..sensitive..” you mumbled tiredly, collapsing into him. he got the hint and slowly brought his fingers out. you felt drained and the heat that was unbearable a few moments ago was slowly fizzling away now.

tighnari was breathing heavily as he leaned backwards with his other arm supporting him.

“oh jeez.. you’re quite something you know that.” he sighed as he lifted up his hand and moved his fingers to show you the wet strings attached.

“do you feel better now?” he asked, his expression softening.

you nodded quietly, the blush from your release intensifying with the embarrassment you felt seeing your essence on his hand. the intense heat was gone now and your head felt much clearer.

“what? nothing to say now?” tighnari quipped before smiling and leaning in to press his lips against yours. you melted into the sweet kiss, savoring the softness of his lips.

when you both pulled away, you directed your gaze to the ground. “sorry ‘nari..i got carried away.” you admitted.

“don’t worry about it, i’m used to you after all. if it really did bother me i wouldn’t be here with you right now anyway.” he said affectionately. “what matters is that you feel better now and it wasn’t anything serious. hm, although i do wish you would stop trying dangerous things just to get my attention.”

you looked back at him, beaming. so he did know! That’s your smart boyfriend!

“hehe, it’s fun don’t you think?” you giggled proudly, with your hands on your hips.

he scoffed. “i’m surprised you still have so much energy after all that. perhaps i should send you to cook meals the entire week.”

“whaaat? noooo don’t!” you whined. “okay i’m sorry, i’m sorry!”

“what i get for falling in love with you i suppose.” tighnari mumbled with a soft smile as he patted your head with his clean hand.

“awww! you’re so sweet! i love you more~!”

“if you do, then you better let me finish up my work.”

“bleh.”

— end ౨ৎ 

[chukys-mouthguard]

What if?

Genre: fluff

Word count: 3,229 words

Featuring: matt rempe x female reader

Warnings: drunk guy being an asshole at the bar, aggressive/protective Matt

Note: okay, this is the first thing I’ve written in years, please be kind 😅 I just got a thing for this man now idk…feel free to send in some requests or let me know if you want more to this story? Not sure if it will be a one off or a little series

“Okay, how do I look?” You walk down the hall of your apartment, stopping to pose for Matt so he can give you his stamp of approval. He eyes you up and down, as if he is going to deliver some harsh critique. Your outfit is nothing crazy; jeans, a gray long sleeved bodysuit, black heeled boots, and a small cross body bag. With the New York City weather still chilly out, you figured it would keep you warm along with the alcohol you’d be consuming.

“Beautiful as always. But let’s try and keep the collecting of guys' phone numbers to a minimum tonight huh?” You laughed as you playfully smacked Matt’s arm. Making your way to the fridge to grab your High Noon you’d started sipping on before getting dressed. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous Matthew Rempe.” He shot you a cocky smirk as he leaned on the kitchen island next to you. “Me? Jealous? Never. Because I’m the one in your apartment and not them.” You rolled your eyes as you swallowed down the last bit of seltzer before unplugging your phone from the charger nearby. “Okay Mr. Chauffeur, let’s hit the road.”

You loved having Matt in NYC playing with the Rangers. The two of you had been best friends since you were teenagers, though you’d lost touch a bit once you moved to New York. Matt’s stint in Hartford allowed the chance to slowly reconnect, but having him now with the Rangers was even better. The two of you often spent nights at each other's apartments, going out to dinner, and of course you attended every home game you could to see Matt play.

You’d always had a soft spot for Matt. Sure he was a bit intimidating being practically 7 feet tall, his knuckles cut up or bruised half the time, and a black eye never seeming to catch you off guard anymore. But you’d gotten close enough to see the side of him most people don’t experience. Though you never imagined your relationship being anything more than what it was. Friends, and nothing more than that. But you couldn’t deny the way you had paid attention to how he’d grown into a man. He had outgrown his awkward phase, and you now looked at him and saw him as handsome, not cute or adorable like he was when you were growing up.

You constantly find yourself thinking, what if you weren’t just imagining things? When he spends the night and walks into your room wearing just a towel after a shower. The way he hugs you and lingers longer than just a friend would. The way he takes care of you when you’re drunk. Or nights like tonight, where he’s willing to stay up late to be your designated driver when he’s got an early morning skate and a big game tomorrow night.

Just one day, one day you’d love to kiss him and see what happens. Or flirt a little extra and see if he takes the bait. But you also don’t want to lose your best friend in the process, or be turned down and embarrassed for thinking he’d ever feel that way about you.

“So what’s the plan for tonight?” Matt asks as he puts a hand on the back of your seat as he looks over his shoulder, backing out of his parking space. It’s such a cliche action, but boy does he look good doing it, and your heart certainly skipped a beat.

“The typical routine. Start at Tucker’s. Then move on to 1989. Then finish-“ “At Coop’s?” Matt smirked as he looked out at the road. One hand on the wheel with the other resting on his thigh. He was literally in jeans and a hoodie yet somehow he looked just as good as he does in a suit on game day. “Either that means I go out too much, or you’re finally starting to pay attention when I tell you things.” “Definitely not paying attention, it’s you going out too much.” He laughed as you playfully punched his arm, pulling out your phone to text your friends that you were a few minutes away.

“So Cooper’s closes at 2:30, but I honestly don’t think I’ll last that long. Especially because someone has a big game tomorrow! And I wanna be well rested. So let’s plan for like 12:30/1? Is that okay?” You looked at Matt a bit apologetic, knowing he’d have to be up early for morning skate. But he was always adamant about driving you, no matter what time it was.

“Of course, you know I’ll be here no matter the time. I’ll plan to be at Coop’s around 12:45. I’ll come in to get you too, it’s gonna be cold and dark out. I don’t want you walking to find me.” You put a hand to his cheek as you make a joking pouty expression. “Aww, such a gentleman Matty.” He smiled at your touch, almost leaning into your hand as he looked back at you, “Anything for you. Now go on, I know the girls are waiting. Text me if you need anything, and I mean anything y/n. I’m not that far of a drive.” You let out a sigh as you undid your seatbelt, “Honestly Matt, nothing to worry about, I’ll be fine.” You blew him an air kiss as you exited the car, heading into the first bar of the night. Matt sat and watched you show your ID to the man at the door, waiting until he saw you get inside safely to drive away.

As promised, Matt arrived at Cooper's around 12:45. He was thankful that you and your friends chose to end your nights at a bar that wasn’t too crazy, but also not too crowded that he might be recognized. Just to be safe he threw on a hat to shield his face as much as he could, though the bar was so dark he doubted anyone would be able to make out his face in the crowd.

He handed his ID to the bouncer before making his way inside. He texted you a simple “I’m here”, you would know his typical meeting place and where to go. You were in the restroom when Matt texted, quickly replying “bathroom, be right out” before you sighed as you stared blankly at the wall. The line in the girls restroom always 100 times longer than it was for the guys.

Matt didn’t mind waiting, he checked some scores on his phone. Assuming that the line was long since girls love to use the buddy system when going to the bathroom. He scanned the crowd and enjoyed people watching, nodding his head and smiling softly as your friends gave him a wave from across the bar. He checked the time again, before glancing over towards the hallway to find you pushing past a crowd of girls to exit the restrooms. He chuckled to himself as he saw the frustration on your face, knowing you probably waited 20 minutes just to pee. He started to walk towards you but fell back as he noticed a guy stop you in your tracks.

“Can I help you?” You looked at the man a bit confused, you’d recognized him from the crowd of people, but hadn’t interacted with him much. He was out with a group of guys for someone’s birthday. You only knew that because they mentioned it to you and your friends at least 30 times. Definitely trying to help the birthday boy get laid. “I noticed you’d left your friends, I thought maybe my shot at getting to buy you a drink was gone.” You chuckled to yourself, why does this have to happen in front of Matthew?

“Oh, yeah, I’m actually on my way out. So, maybe another time. Sorry.” You try to excuse yourself but he moves with you, cutting you off. “Oh come on, one more drink isn’t gonna hurt anyone. Or if you want we could go somewhere else, just the two of us and get a drink.” He had a cocky grin on his face as you looked at him in disgust. He was clearly drunk, and wasn’t keen on taking no for an answer. You looked at Matt standing just a few feet away, a concerned look on his face as he wasn’t sure what was going on.

“Look, I’m not interested, okay?” He scoffed as he seemed to be a bit insulted by your comment. “Not interested, you and your friends were dancing right up against our group all night. I saw the way you were eyeing all of us guys, I’d say you were interested sweet heart.” You gagged at the smell of alcohol on his breath as he got closer to you. “Yeah news flash buddy, it’s a small fucking bar. My option was dancing right next to people or on the bar.”

As you tried walking past him to get to Matt, you felt a tight grip on your wrist pull you back, “That sounds hot, can you put on a show just for me?” His hands attempted to grab more than just your wrists but before you could react Matt was already stepping in, pulling the guy away from you and pinning him to the wall by the collar of his shirt. “Don’t you dare fucking touch her like that.”

You were a bit taken aback at the way Matt stepped in. Sure he’d protected you from dumb drunk guys before, but never like this. His jaw clenched as his grip tightened on the collar of the man’s shirt. “And what the fuck are you gonna do about it huh? What are you her little brother or something? Ain’t no way you’re banging a bitch like that.” Matt’s grip tightened on his collar as he pushed him harder into the wall, “what did you just call her?!” His voice louder, drawing a bit of attention, thankfully none yet from the bouncer.

“A bitch, and what are you gonna do about it?” The drunk dumbass laughed in Matt’s face and you knew this wouldn’t end well.

Before you could step in, Matt’s fist connected with the guy's jaw, causing him to stumble to the floor. Before pulling himself together and running off to the restroom.

“Fuck!”

Matt shook his hand as he winced, immediately realizing he fucked up but his anger got the best of him. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” You grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the door. Thank god no one seemed to really notice the altercation that just took place.

The walk to the car was quiet as Matt was still fuming, you simply climbed into the passenger in silence. He gripped the steering wheel tight with his good hand as he peeled out of the parking lot. You sat next to him, studying his face to see when it might be a good time to say something. Blue and purple started to appear across the knuckles on the hand that threw the punch as he let out a large sigh.

“I’m sorry.”

You let out a soft laugh as you rested a hand on his thigh, softly holding his bruised hand, careful not to hurt him. “Sorry for what? You didn’t do anything wrong? You stepped in as I would’ve hoped you would the second that guy put his hands on me. Don’t be sorry for that!” He seemed to relax at your touch, so you kept your hand on his, slowly brushing your thumb over his skin to attempt to calm him down.

The rest of the car ride was quiet, the two of you heading back to Matt’s apartment since he had to be up early for practice. You kept your eyes on him, studying the look on his face, wishing you were in his head to know what the heck he was thinking. He took your hand in his as you two walked through the quiet parking garage, then headed up the elevator.

You knew your way around his place, first going to his room to grab an oversized t-shirt to throw on before heading to the bathroom to take off your makeup. Matt was sweet enough to go out and buy you your own toiletries to keep at his place. Including your makeup remover and even your 4 step skincare routine.

Matt came to join you in the bathroom as you brushed your teeth. He smiled at the sight of you as he leaned against the wall: your hair in a messy bun, his oversized Seattle Thunderbirds t shirt covering you up enough while still giving him a good view of your legs. “What?” You chuckled as you tried not to choke on the tooth paste threatening to fall from your lips. He just shook his head, “Just glad nothing bad happened to you tonight. I’m glad I was there.” He took your hand, his fingers fiddling with yours, “I just kept thinking what if i wasn’t there, I couldn’t handle it if anything would’ve happened.”

You looked at him in the mirror, relief and exhaustion covered his face. “I’m really glad you were there too, but I really hope we don’t end up with a possible scandal on our hands.” You started laughing as you exited the bathroom, Matthew following suit. “New York Rangers rookie Matthew Rempe gets in a bar fight over a girl.” You spoke in a sarcastic newscaster voice as you made your way to the freezer, grabbing a bag of frozen peas to tend to Matt’s fist bearing the proof of his heroic actions at the bar.

Matt chuckled along with you before wincing at the feeling of the cold bag on his hand, “If it happens, so be it, I was ready to knock that son of a bitch out after what he said to you.” You shot him a glare, “Matthew Rempe. Absolutely not, I am not worth you getting in trouble with the team because of a dumb bar fight.” He walked over to you, now the one shooting you a glare. His arms rested on either side of your waist as he gripped the edge of the counter. “Y/n, yes you fucking are.” You shot him a look as he swiftly picked you up and sat you on the island in front of him. A cocky grin coming across his face at how caught off guard you were, gripping his biceps tight as his hands now moved to rest on your thighs. “I’d fight 20 guys at the bar if they put their hands on you and said shit like that guy tonight.” His tone now more serious, his smirk fading as you two stared at one another for what seemed like an hour. The voice in your head screaming at you, this is your what if moment. Take it or leave it, but it may never come again. What if he’s trying to confess his feelings, what if he’s trying to make a move but he’s too scared. What if you just beat him to the punch. What if-

Before your brain could even rationalize a thought or an action, you felt Matt’s lips crash into yours. His hands cupping your face as yours snaked up his neck to grab a handful of his hair. The kiss like fireworks and a weight being lifted off your shoulders all at once. He began to smile into the kiss, before pulling away with a slight laugh.

“Oh yeah, that’s exactly what every girl wants. The guys she’s been dreaming of kissing to pull away laughing!” You rolled your eyes and frowned at him as a look of shock washed over his face. “Been dreaming of kissing huh??? I knew it!” You immediately turned red, covering your face with your hands, though Matt found it extremely cute.

His hands gripping your thighs before lifting you off the counter, “It’s okay, i get it. I’m sure there’s lots of girls out there who dream of kissing me.” “Matt! Shut up!” You laughed as he carried you down the hall into his room, tossing you on the bed while he finally changed out of his jeans and sweatshirt. “Hey, listen…if you’re interested, maybe we could work something out so that you can be the only girl who gets to kiss me from now on. How does that sound?”

You barely heard him, too busy staring as he stood in just his underwear in front of you. Your eyes tracing every detail of him before his laugh interrupted your thoughts. “Damn, one kiss and all of sudden you’re just head over heels huh?” You pull a pillow over your face out of embarrassment as you feel the bed sink beneath his weight. Matthew now hovering above you as he pulls the pillow away from your face.

He brushed some hair from your face as your fingers play with his chain hanging from his neck, “you really want to kiss me and only me from now on?” You blushed as he shook his head laughing at you, “of course you goof! That’s all I’ve wanted for like the last 5 years, probably even longer!” You felt yourself trying to fight a smile, though you were sure your cheeks were bright red, letting Matt know you liked his response.

He laid next to you as you continued to play with his chain, now resting on his chest. His thumb tracing circles on your thigh as you smiled like a dork to yourself, your heart bursting with excitement that all your what ifs had come true.

“So if I agree to this-“ you say up, trying to pull a serious face as you looked down at him. His hands still glued to your thighs, as if he couldn’t get enough of touching you now. “Do I get a cute custom Rempe jean jacket or something to wear to your games? Like I wanna be decked out and I want people to know that I'm the only girl you’re kissing from now on.” Matt rolled his eyes and laughed at your change of tone, as you babbled on and on about your ‘conditions’ should you agree to this. But he loved the thought of you in a Rempe jacket at his games, getting to see afterwards and kiss you like crazy after a big win, to have you be his biggest fan cheering him on every night. Even though you already were, now it would be more special.

“Listen.”

Matt cut you off as he pulled you into his lap, his hand pulling your face to his as he kissed you. This time the kiss was soft, as he took his time to really take in the feeling of finally getting to kiss you and be this close to you. “If you be my girlfriend, I’ll get you whatever jacket you want, I’ll get you the best seats at the Garden for my games, you name it. Just make me the happiest guy ever and be my girlfriend!” You laughed at how he begged like a little kid who couldn’t contain their excitement.

“Yes-“ you peppered his face with a hundred kisses, “Matthew Rempe, I would absolutely love to be your girlfriend.”

[goldengleams]

hiii pookie 😙 i've never requested anything so, feel free to do anything you want but w matt rempe pls? 🩷 ily!

come back to bed | m. rempe

hope you enjoy sof!!! love you my cutie!

You rolled over in bed, having just woke up from a dream and wanting to reposition yourself in Matt’s arms. You let out a soft whine when you realized he wasn’t next to you in bed.

“Matt?” You whispered. You lifted yourself up on your elbows to squint at the alarm clock on your bedside table. 3:29 AM.

Reluctantly arising from your warm bed, you quietly walked down the hallway. You carried a blanket for Matt in case he was asleep on the couch, which wasn’t uncommon if he was watching hockey. The bathroom light wasn’t on, nor was the light near your television. In your sleepy haze, you heard a glass clinking as it was set down. Bingo.

Finally, you spotted Matt sitting on a stool by the kitchen island. His hunched figure was shrouded in darkness, illuminated only by the candle that was lit in front of him. The scent of vanilla entered your nose as you drew closer.

“Matt, why are you up? It’s three in the morning,” You called in a whisper. He whipped his head towards you, startled by your presence.

“Geez, you scared me Y/N,” he chuckled softly. Matt’s hair was strewn about, the product of him running his hands through it incessantly and his leg bounced up and down.

“Sorry,” you mumbled sheepishly, stepping closer to him to wrap him up in the blanket. “I woke up and you weren’t there.”

“Yeah, just couldn’t stop thinking about today,” he sighed, mumbling a soft thank you. He was looking at you with an expression you couldn’t read. Your sleep-addled brain was not ready to comprehend big feelings, but you wanted to be there for him.

“It’s finally happening,” you said, smiling. “I’m so excited for you.”

Matt nodded, focusing his attention on the cup in front of him. He traced the rim with his finger, lost in thought once again.

You were overwhelmed with a sense of deja vu as you watched him in the ambient light. You and Matt had met two years ago. At the time, you were a college student in Connecticut and Matt was playing hockey in Hartford. You had met through a dating app and while it didn’t seem like you had anything in common, Matt had won you over pretty easily. Both of you were set on living in New York City-you wanted to do more schooling and Matt was hoping to be called up by the New York Rangers. After many date nights, hockey games, and one graduation, you were both closer to living your dreams. You had been waiting for the day that Matt came and stayed at your apartment while preparing to play for the Rangers.

But, it was never without some bumps in the road.

You knew you’d never understand what Matt went through as a hockey player, but for the past two weeks, you had tried to be there for him. He’d received the call from the Rangers in the beginning of February to play, but he hadn’t gotten any playing time. That would change today when he made his debut.

“Your family is so excited too, I can’t wait to sit next to Steph and Alley and cheer you on,” you tried again. It was true, in a few hours, you would be driving with Matt’s family to MetLife Stadium to watch his NHL debut. You couldn’t be happier for him.

“I can’t believe it,” he muttered. “It’s everything I’ve ever wanted and it’s, like, here. Feel like I’ve waited for so long and I just want it to go well. Especially today.”

“It’ll go well, babe. You know that,” you said. You made your way to sit next to him at the other stool. Matt and his family had been thinking of his Dad who had passed away and you knew that it would be a huge deal for him to make his debut on his anniversary. You reached out for his hand and gently traced a pattern onto his palm.

“You’re going to make your family so proud, Matt. Especially your Dad.”

Matt released a shuddering breath he had been holding in for far too long. He pulled the blanket tighter around his broad shoulders, a chill running through him from the seasonal February weather.

“What if I’m nobody?” Matt whispered it so quietly you’re not sure you would’ve heard it if it wasn’t silent. The doubts of not being good enough swarmed in his mind.

“First of all, you won’t be nobody, Matt. And I know that the people in your circle wouldn’t care if you scored a hundred goals or zero, or ever played with the Rangers. You’ll always be somebody to us,” you said softly. “You’ll always be someone to me.”

You brought his knuckles to your lips and gave a soft kiss. You watched the tension leave his shoulders and he quickly reached over to give you a kiss. He leaned into you easily.

“There’s my boy,” you said against his lips.

“Thank you,” Matt said. “And thanks for listening to me at 3 in the morning.”

You chuckled. “Technically it’s 4 now, so you should come back to bed and cuddle me until your stupid alarm goes off at 7.”

Matt blew out the candle and stood up from the stool. You made grabby hands at Matt, which he quickly took and led the two of you back to bed. You both climbed in bed and Matt wrapped the blanket around both of you to keep warm.

“Love you baby,” he mumbled, already drifting off. His hair tickled your ear as he moved closer to you. “Gonna score for you tonight.”

“Yeah and you better not get in any fights, Rempe.”

“Mmm, no promises.”

——————————————————————

Enjoy this Matt Rempe blurb and go request more in my inbox! 😋😋

[bitter-me]

Platonic Boothill with a male reader who is like Arlecchino from genshin impact

Male reader is Boothill's long lost brother

The Water is Fine

Boothill | M. Reader as Arlecchino [Genshin Impact] (Platonic)

----------

"Blood runs thicker than water.."

----------

The children gather in one room as they hear their mother's story. They all look at her in awe, she had told them the story multiple times, but it never gets old. Their mother's story was always wonderful. Once she finished her gaze scanned the children before furrowing her eyebrows. "Where's [Name]? Didn't he want to hear the story?"

"'Scuse me, mother! He's doing a funeral for his spider!" One of the children raised her hand, answering her question. She lets out a sigh at the child's words, her expression showing her concerns. "That child... maybe his curse is flaring up again."

Meanwhile, [Name] crouch down in front of the makeshift grave he had for his beloved spider. How sad.. he looks at it with a blank expression until suddenly someone put a hand around his shoulders. "Hey, [Name]! I bought us cake!!" The other claimed, grinning from ear to ear. In his hand was a box filled with two slices of cake. It looks delicious. "You must know spiders don't eat cake.." "Of course I know that!"

The days spend in the orphanage were always nice, peaceful, quiet. One of the siblings favorite activities were playing tag in the garden. The trees makes great terrain for free running and parkour. Always trying to one up the other. The younger was always full of energy, seemingly excited to explore the world, while the elder was reserved, cold, maybe even cruel but he will have a soft spot for the younger.

Stealing cake from the kitchen, picking fruits straight from the tree, playing tag. Life is.. simple.. fun. The world felt so big..

"Look!" He pointed at the shooting star from their window. His eyes seems to sparkle with joy, his gaze never leaving the starry skies. "One day, we're gonna explore the universe! Travel through the stars! Just you and me!" He says happily, hugging his older brother's arm, the two gaze upon the stars with hopes and dreams. What a beautiful sight.. the sky looks so mesmerizing. The world felt so vast and filled with the unknown. "The two of us could be like Rangers through the vast space! Exploring the universe and upholding justice!"

The elder can't help but smile at the other's words. It's sweet. The though is certainly wonderful. To explore the stars with his younger brother. That truly sounded like a dream. "Yeah, we could do that." "And we could find something for your curse too! Oh just imagine what we could find!"

A child's dream..

..is always so sweet..

So... sickly... sweet..

----------

"Run! And don't you dare look back!"

"But--!"

"GO!"

He ran.. he ran as fast as his legs could carry him.

He run and run.

Like the gingerbread man...

Why...

Why are they fighting..? And for what..? For the title "King"? What is that for? It's just a title. But it seems it means more than that... with his older brother's words. He run.. run as fast as he could. He's fighting isn't he? He's fighting the others isn't he? Why.. why must this be their reality..

He doesn't know what to do.. he wanted to stay with him. But he can't.. his brother told him to run and to never look back.. it's like a game of tag isn't it? Run as fast as you can.. and try not to get caught.. it's just a game.. a simple game... and yet.. and yet...

----------

"The Knave.. may I know why you're at Penacony?"

"I heard Aventurine had caused quite the trouble.. so I'm here to make this up with the Family. Though it could officially be considered a diplomatic conference, I prefer to see our meeting today as an ordinary tea party. I assume you see it the same way, Mister Sunday?"

"Right, of course. It is an honor to have you here.. Mister Knave.."

"Please.. call me, Arlecchino."

.

.

.

.

.

"What in the cosmos are these kids doing here?" The question come out as harsh, his accents sounded thick as he dodge an attack from one of them. Those three children.. fighting for what? Father was it..? That's who they're fighting for? What a load of Wubbabbo.

"Careful now.. you can't reason with an outlaw.."

"..Father..?"

A man steps out of the room, his gaze is cold, carrying himself in an elegant way that just screams absolute authority. Their gaze locked on each other for what felt like an eternity, a sense of recognition wash over them, until finally..

"You.. why are you with them?"

"Why? I thought you already know.. leave Penacony. The dreamscape is not meant for outlaws like you.."

Gritting his teeth, the other look at the man with betrayal in his eyes. How could he.. how could he side with the enemy? After what they've done... how could he just.. he could shoot him.. he could shoot him now.. he could kill him now.. and yet.. he can't... he can't just..

Even if he sided with the enemy.. he's still.. they're still..

"Come you three, our work is finish."

'Yes, Father."

The days spend in the orphanage were always nice, peaceful, quiet. Stealing cake from the kitchen, picking fruits straight from the tree, playing tag. Life is.. simple.. fun. The world felt so big..

The House of the Hearth...

.....that was their home...

..until it wasn't...

...it all happened at the same day...

where his older brother...

.....was crowned as "King."

...

Blood runs thicker than water...

..is that why it felt heavy when he saw his older brother walk away with three children by his side? One he had turned into soldiers for the House of the Hearth? For the IPC? Because ultimately....

They too once stand in those three children's positions.. soldiers.. unknowingly, that is..

And now... the "King" is continuing the cycle..

His own flesh and blood that he had looked up to.

[itsfeckinwimdy]

10 Types of Kisses

Various LOTR/TH x Reader

Pairings: Aragorn, Fili, Haldir, Kili, & Legolas x Reader (separately).

Pronouns: n/a.

Prompt(s): 10 types of kisses by @urfriendlywriter. You can find her post here. (I used 9/10 of them).

Word Count: 3.4k words (3415)

Warnings: No beta, we die like Boromir. open wounds (Aragorns + Fili's), marriage (Fili's), swearing (Kili's), mentions of battle + death + blood (Legolas).

Tree Speaks: I had a lot of fun writing this but it also went into territory that I'm not particularly comfortable with writing yet so we'll see how this pans out.

Translations: amad - mother, dwarrowdams - a term used for female dwarves.

LOTR + TH Masterlist

Published: 25/02/2023

1. Aragorn

soft kisses - where they're just lying beside you, hands playing with your hair as they trail tender kisses all over your lips

The two of you were meant to be sleeping of course, but the gloom of the mines made it hard to settle. You supposed that's why he pulled you away from the others slightly, to a spot just that bit further away.

Aragorn was on first watch as usual, having made it his task since the beginning of the journey, and always insisted that the hobbits and Gandalf got plenty of sleep. But with that came the usual knowing looks between the two of you as Aragorn knew his love wouldn't sleep unless he would.

So with that knowledge, and him sensing his love's rising anxiety at being trapped underground, it now brought them to this.

He tilted your head up from where it was resting against his chest, his hand cupping your face. Aragorn brushed a few loose strands of hair off your face from where it had fallen out of place as his own head tilted down towards yours. His hand gently entwined with your other, and he paused in his movements, allowing you to decide next.

You gently reached up, threading your hand through his long locks and gently pulling him down towards you. He pressed his lips to yours, mouth moving slowly, softly, intimately.

He pulled away, your lips chasing after his, a small smile gracing his lips as he pressed another kiss, and then another, and then another to your lips.

the type of kiss where you can't find words to say after, or the ones where your forehead lingers against each other's

Aragorn's horse trotted through helms deep, having just pulled him up from the river bed where if not found, he would've succumbed to his wounds. He dismounted his horse and received a scolding from Gimli before forcing himself up the staircases and into the deep.

Legolas rose from outside the doors, greeting his friend who believed him dead. The elf pulled him into a familiar embrace before pulling back and making a sarcastic comment about the ranger.

The elf turned a small smile gracing his face before yelling the name of a person. The ranger followed his line of sight. It fell on his love, you.

You looked up after the elf who yelled out to you, before seeing the man you mourned for standing with him. Abandoning your stuff, you ran to him, arms thrown over his shoulders and crushing him to your chest as a few sobs left you.

His arms encircled you as he leant his forehead against yours. He didn't care at that point about the mud caking him and he didn't think you cared enough at that point, so it made no odds on whether he was careful or not.

He pulled back slightly, raising his hand to caress your face before pressing his lips to yours. Tears left both of you as his mouth moved languidly with yours.

Aragorn pulled away, resting his forehead against yours. He wanted to say so much to you, fearing that he would never see you again but all thoughts left him as he wished to stay in this moment, longing for nothing but you.

2. Fili

messy kisses - curly hair, ruffled sheets and half-buttoned clothes as you just want more and at that moment, they're the most beautiful soul to you ever

The sun trickled in through the window, bypassing the curtains that hadn't been fully drawn across the night before. The young (ish) couple lounged in the bed, bodies pressed together as close as they could get with the few layers of clothes still between them.

He tilted your head up to meet his, his lips pressing against yours, moving languidly in the early morn. Fili reached up, hand caressing your courting and marriage braids that were still somewhat intact.

He groaned, feeling one of your hands gripping the hair at the base of his neck and the other slipping under his shirt across his chest.

Fili pulled back, eyes fluttering open to meet yours; your own half-lidded as you drew in a few stuttering breaths. It was a pleasant greeting from your love first thing in the morning, one that you would be against again.

You gazed up at Fili, the dwarf hovering over you, careful not to rest his entire body weight on you. The tressels of sunlight filtered through his hair, causing a glow to shine over him.

His eyes trailed over your face, memorising every detail as if it was the first time he saw you.

kisses on your body ♡ frail kisses on your shoulder! on your lower back, belly and trailing to your neck, collarbones, lips.

A cry of pain left your lips.

Oin pulled the blood-soaked cloth away from where it was pressed tightly against your side. The infection from the arrow had spread, the orcs having laced it with something deadly.

The pain wasn't something Fili wished on anyone, much less you. So he did his best to comfort you whilst the infection ransacked your body. His hands firmly held you, one holding the back of your head, and the other gripping your forearm to stop you from forcing Oin's hand away from the wound he was trying his best to treat.

After Oin had doused the cut in water, trying to flood any dirt that wormed its way in, Fili pulled you closer. The healer moved back to gather some more altheas and cloths, leaving you curled against your prince's chest.

Fili dropped his head down to your shoulder, as your tears continued to douse his shirt - not that he cared as it was covered in sweat, grime, and whatever else from the trip across middle earth - his hand on your head slipping down to the back of your neck, stroking his fingers in what he hoped was a soothing pattern.

He pressed a kiss to your bare shoulder, the fabric of your tunic had been pulled away, cut away for easier access. It would need replacing, he noted, but hoped that it would be enough to cover you until the sun rose again.

Fili continued his ministrations, pressing another kiss further up your shoulder. And then another at the junction where it met your neck. He considered pressing one to your neck, in that one spot he knew made you shiver, but with the way you were sitting in his lap you were already considered improper in public, so he begrudgingly decided against it.

Oin chose to return at that moment, pressing the churned-up altheas against your wound and then tying the cleanest cloth over it. You cried out in pain, more tears falling. It was like someone was driving a burning knife into your arm, over, and over, and over again. The pain rolling in waves.

Fili kept whispering words of praises and comfort, the Kadzhul translations lost in your mind as all you could feel was the pain, and him.

The knot was finally tied on the bandage. Fili slid his hand from the back of your neck to cup your face, pressing a chaste kiss against your forehead before leaning his own upon yours.

I'm here, you're safe now, I love you, the action spoke more words than Fili could find himself saying.

3. Haldir

lazy kisses as they admire you - fingers delicately trialing your jaw as they kiss your lips

"Haldir," you groaned, leaning back against his chest, head turned up to face him. A smile graced his lips, his eyes locked with yours, shining full of love.

It wasn't often you got to spend a prolonged period of time with your Marchwarden, especially with him being gone for months at a time to guard Lothlórien's borders. So any time you spent with him was precious, even if you knew he would be leaving at the end of it again.

The braid in his hair was loose, albeit from your hands running through his hair earlier, causing him to have a sexy, but dishevelled look. The thought of elves being supermodels no matter what state they were in flashed through your mind again causing you to chuckle slightly.

Haldir raised his hand, letting it linger under your jaw as he delicately leaned down to place another kiss against your lips. Warmth bloomed through you and as his lips moved against yours, all thought about him having to leave again in a few days retreated into the depths of your mind.

You were drunk off the taste of him, off his kisses as he stole your breath each time. And nothing would ever change that.

goodbye kisses - kisses lingering like liquor in each other's lips, bitter but sweet, "I'll always come back to you, love. you're my home after all."

The boats gifted to the fellowship had just finished being prepared and were packed full of provisions to last you a good while.

The thought of having to leave your home again haunted you but not just because it was where you lived. No, because this time you were leaving your love, not knowing when you were to see him again. He was your home.

The Marchwarden was allowed to see his love off, having been granted a week's leave whilst you and the fellowship recovered and stayed in Caras Galadhon, Lothlórien. After you were sent as an emissary to Imladris, Rivendell in the common tongue, and word had returned that you had embarked on a journey to destroy the one ring, Haldir was worried for you.

He knew the history of the ring, as did most if not all elves and was worried about the dangers you may face. He knew that you could protect yourself, having been a sparring partner against you for years, but the worry did not dissipate.

He met you at the shoreline, his hand over his heart in the traditional greeting before he held your hand in his. Sadness filled his eyes as he wished not to see you leave, but knowing that this was a journey you were willing to take.

Haldir leant his head against yours as he fixed the cloak hung around your shoulders, ensuring that the broach was attached properly.

His hands lingered on your waist as he prepared himself to say goodbye again. It was one thing being the one who was leaving, but now that he was on the receiving side for once, he now knew how your heart felt each time he went on patrol. That feeling of not knowing if you were coming back or not eating at his heart.

Your hand on his cheek stole his spiralling mind from his thoughts as your lips pressed against his. A tear threatened to leave his eye as he consumed your kiss like a drug. The fear bubbling in his chest soothing to make way for the love he held for you but the melancholy feeling at having to be parted from you made it more bittersweet than anything.

His lips lingered over yours as you pulled away, his hand raising to stoke a strand of hair back from your face. Haldir wished he could keep you here in his arms but understood the task you had undertaken would not be dropped lightly.

4. Kili

kissing and realising this is the person you'll always love, you'll always want to touch and snuggle with

Kili didn't think he could hold you any closer than he currently was.

You were practically melded into him, hands gripping tightly to the back of his jacket. The clothing was still damp from the thunderous storm you had walked through, but nonetheless had to still wear.

The terror that shot through him as the thunder giant collided with the mountain, believing that he had lost not only his brother but you as well, was something he never wished to feel again. His hands trembled slightly at the thought.

He shifted slightly, taking some pressure off his shoulder whilst pulling you upwards slightly so you were level with him. The ground wasn't pleasant to lie on, less so on his side, and even less so with damp clothes on, but Kili knew this was the company's best option right now.

Kili rested his head against yours, his eyes meeting yours. He nudged his nose with yours affectionately, giving you time to pull away.

It was something he always did, you noted. Every time he wanted to kiss you but couldn't find the words to say it, or was surrounded by too many prying eyes, he did that. Gave you that tell that allowed you to decide what happens next.

You tentatively leant forwards, tilting your head upwards ever so slightly, letting your lips press against his. There was no rush. No incessant desire to pull the other closer, just him.

Kili moved his lips slowly with yours, savouring every moment that he got with you. Fuck, he loved you. The realisation pulled at his heartstrings more, knowing that he could've lost you today.

prohibited kiss - you're not even supposed to be seeing each other but your hands are on his hair and his hands around your waist, lower bodies pressing into each other as you kiss

Laughter radiated through your body as you were pulled through the endless turns and corridors of Erebor. The stone walls were lined with torches and braziers all lit with fires burning brightly.

To anyone else, it would be a maze, a catacomb of tunnels that unless sense was made of them, would surely lead to your demise. But years of living there had engraved the pathways into your mind, and no doubt Kili's.

His hand dragged you to a secluded corner, himself coming to a halt. He could no longer hear the guards trying to follow the two of you. Pride flooded his chest as he gazed back at you, finally alone with his betrothed.

You were finally able to get a good look at him, now that he didn't have all the dwarrowdams fawning over him. Even if he wasn't "beautiful" by dwarf standards, he was still a prince and would have people trying to gain his favour.

But his title didn't matter to you. Kili did.

And by the creator himself, did you love the way he looked. His hair tousled from the running, and the short beard he was so desperately trying to grow accentuated his face.

But the ceremonial robes that hung to his body? You couldn't resist.

He found himself pushed back, pinned against the pillar. Kili's eyes locked with yours, the same fire of desire within him, burning through you.

Your lips pressed with his, mouths moving frantically with the others. Your hands that gripped onto the front of his robes slid up, trailing up his neck and into his hair, pulling slightly to press him into you more.  A groan left him at a particularly harsh tug before your hand moved to trace his courting braid.

He pulled away, panting, breathless, kissing you again and pulling you into him, arms gripping your waist, hands in his hair, your bodies practically merging into one. If his Amad caught him now, he wouldn't even have to face the scornful looks of Dwalin, he would already be lying in his grave.

But could he let you go? Fuck no.

5. Legolas

shy kisses - when you're the one pulling them closer, and they nuzzle their face in your crook after the kiss, hands around your waist as their ears get red

You were scared. If anything you were currently lustful, but you were about to fight in a war against ten thousand troops with an army of less than a third of that. So you were scared.

Legolas had turned to where you leant against one of the pillars, choosing to come and check all the fastenings on your armour. He was meticulous and methodical as he went to each and every one, adjusting where he deemed necessary whilst checking it caused you no discomfort.

A soft smile graced your face, as you watch his gentle movements before reaching out to cup his face in one of your hands. A blush, so subtle anyone who didn’t know Legolas would miss it, warmed his face, his head lifting and eyes locking with yours. It was as if he was staring straight into your soul, his piercing grey eyes full of love but fear.

You pulled him towards you, Legolas leaning his head down as his hand held over yours on his face, the other resting gently on your waist. Leaning up, you gently pressed your lips to his. Just once, mind you, the action as tender as possible, letting him come to you.

Legolas leant into you, pressing his lips back against yours, moving at a slow pace. He wanted to savour this moment as much as possible before the two of you walked to what could be your deaths.

ahem.

The clearing of the person's throat sprung the two of you apart, you mentally preparing for the endless stream of apologies to whichever passerby caught you, only for it to be someone you knew all too well.

"Aragorn." You spoke, heavily embarrassed to be caught with your lover.

The ranger looked between the two of you, his face being that awful neutral resting one making it so you couldn't judge his feelings on the matter. Aragorn must have read the panic starting to creep up in you as a teasing smile broke out.

“I have no qualms with this,” he began before looking over his shoulder towards the entrance of the armoury, “but the people of Rohan may not be as forgiving if you are caught.”

He turned on his heel, making his way up the staircase and leaving the two to their devices.

A moment passed and then a chuckle left your lips as a sigh left Legolas’. His head fell to your shoulder as the blush absconding his cheeks spread like wildfire tinting his ears a rosy colour.

At least it was only Aragorn, you mused, If Gimli had found you then he wouldn’t stop teasing your elf.

kisses of reassurance - saying that you're safe, still with them, that your heart is still beating wildly in your chest, that they couldn't get rid of you if they tried, that for some insane reason, you're not dead yet

Your chest heaved, trying to inhale as much air as possible as you sprinted up the mud-soaked hill. Aragorn had yelled for the soldiers to retreat into Minas Tirith and you were making your way as fast as you could until an arrow pierced your shoulder.

The doors were closed and sealed as you entered alongside the last few stragglers, a resounding bang from the wood hitting the stone frame. The room spun on its axis.

The throbbing pain in your arm continued, each ebb seeming stronger which was probably due to the adrenaline wearing off. Maybe you should've stayed fighting, it surely couldn't hurt as much as your arm did, you thought as your uninjured arm reached out to hold yourself up against the wall.

Giving up on keeping yourself upright, you slid falling somewhat ungracefully to the floor, blood dripping from your wound and soaking your sleeve. It was funny how much damage one arrow could cause.

You blinked.

The sun had risen, and from where you could see it, it was around mid-morning. Your eyes focused and you could see a worried face in a sea of platinum blonde hair. Legolas.

Ignoring the sound of the elf’s worry, you pushed yourself up into a seated position, as he gracefully knelt down next to you. His hands mindlessly moved to cup your face, as he had to pull his eyes away from your crudely bandaged arm. The arrow had been jagged and cut more as it pierced you, causing more blood to be lost.

Your hand covered one of his as Legolas moved to press his forehead to yours.

“I'm okay,” you whispered, breaking the silence between the two of you. Your thumb stroked the back of his hand absentmindedly, as you tilted your head up, meeting his lips with yours. It was one of desperation, longing and fear. A shuddered breath left you as the two of you broke apart.

“We’re okay.”

[instaspacenoodles]

Hello! I saw your asks were open and wanted to know if you'd be ok with this headcanons request: Wuthering Waves male characters finding out fem/Reader has a tacet mark in an embarrassing area (we have most characters with normal places like hand, neck, back, but what about when you can't show your tacet mark)? Have a great day!

✧₊⊹Finding Your Tacet Mark | Jiyan, Calcharo & Scar

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 — Fem!Reader, Suggestive, Light kissing, light NSFW

✧ 𝐉𝐢𝐲𝐚𝐧

Jiyan had you pinned against the desk in his office. Even though this was far from professional, he just had to let himself indulge in a small bit of you. It was rare to see you dressed in such casual clothes outside of your Ranger Uniform and the sight of you in that short skirt made him feel like a starving man. He didn’t waste any time pulling you into his office the first chance he saw, unable to take the temptation anymore.

The soft blush on your cheeks only encouraged his exploration. His strong hands sliding up your stocking clad thighs, propping your legs higher so he can see you in all of your beauty. The motion pushed your skirt up to pool around your hips, giving him a damn good view. Oh, but the man wanted more… so much more of you that he was slowly going crazy. One of his fingers hooked into the thin fabric of your stocking to slowly pull them down. Jiyan was like a kid unwrapping a present on Christmas morning and you can clearly see the anticipation growing in his eyes. A wave of embarrassment washes over you as he revealed what you had been hiding from him all this time - your tacet mark placement. His brow quirks up, interest flashing in his eyes at finding the unique placement on your thigh of all places. No wonder you always made sure to keep it hidden with your uniform - he wouldn’t know how to focus if you were constantly exposing this area.

Rough fingertips brush over the darken star shaped marks on your skin, tracing the pattern slowly with a hum of approval. You advert your eyes from the sight, mumbling under your breath how embarrassing it was for the mark to appear on your inner thigh of all places. 

“Don’t be embarrassed, love.” A low chuckle rumbles from his chest as he leans down to press his lips against the source of your power. His golden eyes flickered up as a shutter rushed through your body, his ears being rewarded with the sounds of your soft moans. He couldn’t help but be a little smug at finding another sensitive spot on your gorgeous body.

“I’ll show you how beautiful your tacet mark is.” 

✧ 𝐂𝐚��𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐨

Heavy footsteps echoed down the hall of the Ghost Hounds’ base as Calcharo chased after you. You couldn’t help but let out a mischievous giggle as your feet swiftly carried you around the corner. Excitement and anticipation coursed through your veins as the game of cat and mouse continued. It was only a matter of time before you were caught. 

The footsteps drew ever closer and you were running out of places to go. You turned left at another intersection. As you ran, you realized that this hallway was definitely the wrong choice to make your grand escape. You reached the dead end. It wasn’t before long a hand caught your arm and pulled you back with a gentle tug. Your body was pushed against the cool surface of the wall seconds later. You gaze up at Calcharo’s calculating stare with a semi innocent look on your face. 

“You have something that belongs to me, doll. Now, my shirt please?” The man raised an eyebrow, his tone leaving no room for argument. 

Though, even with his stoic nature, you could clearly see the amusement in his expression- essentially with the small quirk of his lips. He had definitely enjoyed this little trick of yours. You gave him your best pouty face as he tried to remove the shirt, lifting it over your head. Though his motion froze when his eyes caught a familiar star shaped marking on your hip. You looked down to where he was staring and- oh. The tacet mark. 

Heat of embarrassment flooded your veins as you tried to squirm away. Too bad Calcharo’s hold on your wrist was unrelenting. “Seems like you've been hiding something else from me.”

Your mouth opens as you try to come up with an excuse, anything to explain why you never showed him the placement of that mark. Yet only a squeak escaped when his cool fingers brushed against it without warning. Oh that shouldn’t have affected  you the way it did. Amusement had definitely bled more into his expression - that rare, goddamn smirk pulling at his lips. 

“That’s it, be a good girl and stay still for me.” Your knees got just a bit weaker from his voice, “Let me investigate this mark you tried to hide from me.” 

✧ 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫

A sigh leaves your lips as you open the door to the bathroom, steam pouring out as you walk. There was a towel wrapped around your damp body, hair still dripping from the water. You have moved over to your drawers when warm arms suddenly wrap around your middle. A chin found its place on your shoulder and you could feel the person’s soft hair brush against your ear. You jolted a little in surprise at the sudden gesture but you knew exactly whose arms they belong to. There was only one person that would invite themselves into your house with no warning.

Scar makes a delightful hum as he presses against you from behind, his hands wasting no time in exploring the natural curves of your body covered by the towel. The man was always the touchy type no matter who was around and where they were. He made sure to find any situation to make you flustered.

“My, what an interesting placement” His tone was a smug one, like he had just discovered a rare, hidden treasure. It took you a few moments to realize what exactly he was talking about before you clutch the towel tighter in embarrassment. Your tacet mark, resting right above your breasts, was currently out in all of its glory. He was never meant to see it - you had kept it dutifully hidden for a reason! Now, he was definitely going to abuse that knowledge. You sputter trying to get an explanation out, your hands pulling the towel up higher to cover the dark, star-shaped marks from his sight. A laugh rings in your ears as he turns you both to face the mirror next to the closet. You can spot his signature shit eating grin in the reflection as his hands reach up to replace yours with his own. The towel, your last line of defense, fell to the floor with a thud.

“Oh no, don’t even think about hiding it now, little sheep” He mutters in your reddened ears, “I’m definitely going to have fun with you~” 

[freyito]

i read the umm boothil vidaharyda (i dunno if im spellung that right) peice you did and and HOTBJF FNF ABABABJGHYTUFHFHR?!!!!!!!!!!!! that was AMAZING!! if you did a part two it would be like, really cool!! i love the way you write sm 🫰

✭ pairing(s): boothill x male vidyadhara reader

✧ a/n: im glad you enjoyed my writing anon... i apologizing for being several months late... ahaha... ANYWAYS! i think this is a nice break from blue veins two... just some good ol fluff :P... it's also been so long since i've written for male reader it feels like @_@

✦ taglist: @fffrost, @shinysora

🗒 cw: male reader, vidyadhara reader, itty bit of lore building (made the vidyadhara look a little more like the yan siblings from arknights), hey you guys are married now!, lots more fluff. cause i said so., he's a little clingy, not proofread

✎ wc: 1.9k

[i , ii]

ꜱᴄᴀʟᴇꜱ & ᴍᴇᴛᴀʟ ; ii

Well, where did the time go? Suddenly, you find yourself lounging on Boothill’s ship, face down on a couch, as his fingers scratch at your scalp. Your tail wags shamelessly in the air as he hums, some tune he had picked up in his youth. Needless to say, you are content beyond relief right now. It had been a couple years since Boothill had first asked you out, and now what you are left with is bi-monthly ‘vacations’, and a pretty little ring on your finger.

Safe n’ sound in the vast expanse of space, stuck with a Galaxy Ranger that had vowed to keep you safe, love you with every single part of his being, bolts and all. It’s something he echoes near every day, even when he is several star systems apart from you. A normal day at the Skyfaring Commission for you could be a wild chase for Boothill, running from bounty hunters, taunting them anyway he can. While you worried over him to the point of running yourself ragged, he had always found his way back to you.

He spoiled you rotten, with every breath he took, every step he tracked, you were pampered. He was much like a penguin, bringing you rocks from whichever planet he had visited. Not just rocks, but all sorts of trinkets. He’d bring you food if he could, because he’s just so in love with the way your face lights up when you taste something new. The way your tail wags furiously, while you speak so fast you run out of breath.

He’s found that he quite enjoys living through you. He can eat, sure, but he can’t taste it. So to watch you enjoy new cuisine with such enthusiasm (or even the same food you’ve been eating since you first could), it brings him an odd sense of peace. That being said, dinner dates are always on the schedule. It’s more of him watching you with a lovestruck look on his face while you eat.

Little dates like that have been quite common ever since he first asked you out. And before, of course. The only difference is they are more frequent. No matter how far he had been, across the star system or on planets unknown, he has always found a way to show up after your shift, or sweep you away to his ship.

All of this, of course, leads back to the current moment. Tucked away in your own little slice of heaven, reading some fantastical mythologically inclined story, while Boothill pets you as if you were a lap dog. He does his best to steer clear of your horns, though you know he won’t for long. Regardless, in his eyes, you are simply so cute like this, all docile and happy. The way your tail waves with every pet, or wags faster when he nears your horns.

“Darlin’...” He whispers, the pet name falling from his lips languidly.

You don’t look up from your book, but acknowledge him with a soft ‘hm?’ nonetheless. You haven’t found a spot to pause, too deep into the page, and the next page didn’t start with the start of a sentence. You’d lose your place too easily!

Boothill, however, wasn’t happy with such simple acknowledgement.

“Heyyy, darlin’...” He drawls in a sing-song tone, twirling a strand of hair around his finger. “Look at me, pretty please?”

“One more moment,” You mutter, unphased.

He isn’t happy with that answer either. He slides his hand under your chip, cupping your face and tilting your head up. Your eyes track your book as much as they can, before inevitably meeting Boothill’s. He gives you a crooked smile when you make eye contact, batting his eyelashes like he didn’t do anything.

“There you are…” He purrs, low and sultry, his other hand continuing to pet at your hair. “Listen, I was thinkin’ we go do somethin’ real fancy.”

“For what occasion?” You cock your head to the side. You did your best to swallow whatever annoyance you had, as much as you were into the book, there was no need to point it out. Boothill would’ve gotten his way one way or another.

“I dunno. ‘Cause I wanna,” He shrugs, “I’m thinkin’ of takin’ you somewhere, maybe The Capital of Passion, maybe New Bethelhem. Somewhere nice n’ romantic. I’d take you out for one of the classics; dinner and a show. See if there’s somewhere showing one of those cheesy romance movies you like so much, eh?”

As he speaks, he leans down a little, pulling you closer. In the end, you shuffled up with a blush, huffing softly and turning your head away from him. You know what he’s doing, lingering a little too long, his eyes following your every little move. He either seeks to fluster you still, with simply asking you out on a date, or he’s scheming. The second thing makes you shiver slightly.

“I haven’t seen somethin’ like that in a long time, y’know, it’d be nice to enjoy somethin’ all quiet and peaceful like. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it?”

“... What are you up to?”

“Nothin’ sugar! Ah, that’s hurtful, you know! Always thinkin’ im up to no good,” Boothill shakes his head with a mock-disappointed look. “Can’t a man share his ideas?”

You sigh, doing your best to calm down your own bashfulness, as he shuffles closer, wrapping an arm around your shoulder and pulling you in close. With a soft sigh, he closes his eyes. His smile drops for a second, and that leaves an odd ache in your gut. When have you not seen him smile? But that worry is quickly washed away when he opens his eye, that familiar sparkle twinkling in his eye.

“I just wanna treat you good, yeah? I dunno… I don’t think I’ve gotten the chance to take you somewhere nice…” His voice wavers. Meanwhile, you’re trying to wrap your head around it. He’s taken such good care of you, so where did this come from? “When was the last time we had a date where you could get all dolled up and we’d have a night out on the town, hm…?”

“Well…” You do your best to recall, but you can’t necessarily remember. Mainly because he’s taken you on so many dates, it all tends to get lost in the mix.

“Exactly! That’s why I’m thinkin’ I ought to start acting like a gentleman.”

That statement makes you tilt your head in confusion. A gentleman? He was already one, really. He just hadn’t lost his roguish charm. He treated you so well and kind, showered you with gifts, compliments, and praises, and here he was saying he should act like a gentleman?

“Boothill… what do you mean by that?”

“I wanna settle down. For you, ‘n all.”

“SETTLE DOWN!?” You can’t help but raise your voice in shock. Your tail starts flicking ferociously, trying to make sense of what he had said. It was clear enough, but for the Boothill to say he wants to settle down? Ah. He must be insane. Something must’ve gotten into one of his neurochips and infected his system. That must be it.

“Woah there cowboy–”

Before he gets the chance to explain his reasoning, you pounce on him. You press the back of your hand to his forehead to check if he was running hot (like he could get a fever…), then stare into his eye for a moment, before lifting his upper lip with your thumb, before forcing the man to open his mouth. Well, how were you supposed to check a cyborg for any symptoms of a virus? You didn’t know. But his mouth seemed normal, his gums seemed normal, all seemed well. He chuckles as you shuffle down and press your ear to his chest, to see if his fans were kicking into overdrive. There was no sound out of the ordinary, the subtle humming of his fans and system working as intended.

Slowly, his hands fall to your shoulders as he pushes you up off of him. He lays beneath you with a soft smile, while you stare down at him, tail swishing like a predator ready to pounce. You still can’t get over it, there’s no way he’d say such a thing. He was spontaneous, if he stayed in one place for more than two weeks, he’d get antsy! Not to mention, he was wanted. He couldn’t really stay in one place regardless, even in some place as heavily guarded as the Loufu. Besides, you were happy as is! Married, with a stunning boyfriend to boot, who loved you like no other… even the thought of settling down with him seemed outlandish.

“Is it really such an insane idea? Think about it sweetpea,” He shrugs, maintaining eye contact. “Nice little corner of the universe to call our own. I’d make a good, honest livin’, tendin’ a little farm and what not.”

You give him another perturbed look, one that borders on disgusted.

Nicer light? What a joke, you think. You’ve seen him when he’s as dashing as ever, running from bounty hunters who had tracked him down on one of your little moonlit evenings. The way he looks just stunning no matter what, whether it be when he’s delivering some of your favorite food to you, or when he’s dragged you to his favorite shooting spot. The way the sunlight had always hit him just perfectly, the way his smile shines oh so bright, the way those eyes charm you to even do the simplest of things when he’s ‘too tired’.

Before you can retort, his chuckle turns into a deep laugh, hands falling to your sides.

“You believed me, huh?” He laughs, doing his best to shuffle out of your ireful gaze. “Was I that convincin’?”

Ah. He was playing around. Good. Still, that doesn't stop you from scolding him. You reach up and pinch his cheeks, earning a groan from him as he tries to wrench free from your grip.

“Where did that come from!?” You pitch, making sure he stays beneath you. “That’s scary you know! Suddenly jumping to a conclusion like that! Especially when you’re wanted!”

“Hey now!” Boothill protests. But you shut him up quick, leaving his cheeks and landing a couple of playful punches to his chestplate. “I ain’t goin’ nowhere– or, I guess I should– stop that!”

Before you have time to react, he’s reached up and grabbed one of your horns, causing you to yelp at the way it made you feel. The cold steel against your wonderful horns sending a white hot jolt of shock and something else, the feeling akin to when you’d bump your funny bone into something.

“Waha!” You whine, falling dramatically limp in his arms.

“Awh, now, I didn’t mean to do that baby,” He coos sarcastically, before turning to run his hand once more through your hair. “It was a joke, is all… can’t blame a man for having fun, can you? I’ll make it up to you, I promise!”

When you look up at him, he’s pouting like you had truly scolded him for something so nonsensical, before it turns into a cheeky grin. One that said ‘I didn’t really do wrong…’. You’d fight back, speak your mind, but not when he’s so close to your weakness. With a huff, you stay in his arms, cheek pressed against his chest as he hums, idling running his fingers through your hair once more. What a scare he had given you, and now he gets to act all normal while you reap the consequences..

© freyito, 2024 | masterlist | queue | kofi | discord server | star header by roseschoices DO NOT REPOST AS YOUR OWN, REPOST ON ANY OTHER PLATFORM, OR USE FOR AI/AI CHATBOTS.

[rurann]

Ruthless x Empathetic (Geshu Lin x Reader)

Chapters:

Next: Chapter Two

Tag list

Summary:

All you wanted was to help the wounded, to be a healer in a chaotic world. But after a fateful encounter with the cold and feared General Geshu Lin, your life takes a dark turn as he becomes dangerously obsessed with you.

[I made this because of the lack of Geshu Lin fanfics!]

Tags: Explicit

Love Triangles, Obsession, Obsessive Behavior, Stalking, General x Medic, Yandere Geshu Lin

[Tags will be updated as the story goes but I intend to have this story rated Explicit.]

Chapter One

The Ruthless General

Your dream was to heal as many people as you could. You had witnessed your older brother take his last agonizing breath in the clinic, and since then, you harbored the dream to become a medic and bring recovery to everyone.

It was probably due to your immense determination towards your goal that you soon became blessed with a Tacet mark and the Glacio attribute at a very young age. By the time you reached your older teenage years, you became a well-known, reliable medic in Jinzhou. This popularity aided you in getting a spot among the Midnight Rangers. As soon as you reached eighteen, you received the military letter of recommendation.

After undergoing the necessary programs, you were finally thrust into the real, harsh battlefield as a rearguard, a combat unit specializing in healing the wounded.

Wounded soldiers, who had faced the gruesome Tacet Discords in Norfall Barrens, came rushing into your tent. Each of them elicited their own noises of pain - either by grunting, groaning, screaming or wailing. You had seen and heard it all. It reminded you of your dear big brother.

After numerous waves of TDs, it finally stopped. All of you were given a chance to rest at the main base in Desorock Highland.

You dragged yourself to refill your bottle with water somewhere in the base. You almost chugged everything in that bottle in one drink. It finally dawned on you that you were sweating lightly all over.

“You may take a full rest if you need to.”

The masculine voice staggered you out of a trance. You looked over to see it was a man with rather long teal hair, tied high in a ponytail. You recognized him in an instant.

Jiyan. He was one year older than you, and he was very wise in your eyes. He impressed you so much at first sight. He was still a young adult and he already joined the Midnight Rangers as a doctor. His medical prowess and knowledge were astounding as well. He helped you a lot during your training as a newly enlisted soldier. It was safe to say that he was your mentor when it comes to medical subjects.

“Oh, Jiyan, it’s you…” you let out a sigh. You refilled the bottle again and addressed him. “I’m doing fine. How about you?”

He approached you calmly, his teal eyes soft with concern. “I've been through worse. But you… you've been working nonstop since we arrived. Even healers need to rest.”

You gave a small nod, though your mind was still racing with images of the wounded soldiers. “I know, but… I can’t. Some of them were so close. If I hadn’t…”

You trailed off, gripping the bottle tighter as your knuckles turned white.

Jiyan placed a reassuring hand on your shoulder. His grip was very gentle, the same way he’d guided you through your toughest moments during training. “You did more than enough. You’ve saved lives today. That's what matters.”

You glanced up at him, the tension in your chest loosening slightly. His presence was like a calming wind, as it had always been. Still, the weight of responsibility pressed down on you, relentless. “I suppose… but it's hard to shake off these images…”

Jiyan gave you a small smile. “That's the burden of a healer. You feel every loss as if it's your own, but you mustn’t forget the ones you saved. You need to take care of yourself, too. Otherwise, how will you keep saving others?”

You stared at him for a moment before sighing, your shoulders finally relaxing. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Other than being a knowledgeable medical healer, Jiyan proved to know how to get someone’s spirits up as well. As you watched him walk away, his words lingered in your mind, offering a sense of reassurance that you didn’t know you needed. He had a way of grounding you, reminding you of the balance between healing others and caring for yourself. You felt the tension in your body ease a little more, and for the first time since the battle ended, you walked with the weight on your chest lightened.

You went back to your tent and took the time to clean up and prepare for what little rest you could get. As you scrubbed away the grime of battle, you felt the tension in your body slowly ease, and for the first time in hours, you felt a glimmer of peace.

“General Geshu Lin!”

The sudden call outside snapped you out of your thoughts. You peered out of the tent to see a figure approaching—the renowned General of the Midnight Rangers, Geshu Lin. His presence commanded the space around him, with his flowing white hair and sharp amber eyes that seemed to cut through anyone who dared meet them. The subtle scar that crossed his lips only enhanced the intensity of his expression. Dressed in his signature black uniform, he was a striking figure, one that demanded both respect and fear.

The atmosphere shifted the moment he arrived. The rangers in the camp stood straighter, their expressions turning tense. Even the wounded seemed to gather some strength, driven by the authority that surrounded him.

“General,” one of the rangers stepped forward with a hesitant but respectful tone, “the Tacet Discord attacks have weakened significantly. What are your next orders, sir?”

Geshu Lin stopped in his tracks, his sharp gaze surveying the area before finally resting on the ranger who had spoken. His shadow loomed over them, casting a cold and imposing aura.

“We will seize this opportunity to strike them while their numbers are diminished,” he said, his voice as steady as it was commanding. “Prepare everyone within fifteen minutes.”

Your heart dropped at his words. The idea of going back into battle so soon, after barely having the chance to rest, sent a wave of dread crashing through you. As if reading your thoughts, another ranger dared to voice the concern on everyone’s minds.

“But, sir, many of us are still recovering. We’ve barely had a moment to rest.”

Geshu Lin’s expression darkened, his eyes narrowing with a cold edge that silenced any further complaints. His gaze cut through the ranger who had spoken as he replied, “If you value Jinzhou and your families, you will not question my commands. The enemy will not wait for us to recover. We must stand tall against all threats, no matter the cost.”

A few of the rangers straightened, their fear replaced by a grim sense of duty.

“Yes, sir!” they answered in unison.

You swallowed hard, feeling the weight of his words settle heavily in your chest. The call to battle had always been relentless, but with Geshu Lin leading, there was no room for hesitation. His resolve was as unwavering as the cold steel of his broad blade.

You and the other rearguard rangers sprang into action, accelerating your efforts to heal the wounded with a newfound urgency. Every second mattered now. The faster you worked, the sooner the vanguard rangers could press forward under General Geshu Lin’s command.

In no time, the vanguard rangers stood in formation behind the general, their faces set with grim determination. You watched from the side, heart heavy with unspoken prayers for their safety as they marched deeper into the Norfall Barrens. The barren wasteland seemed to swallow them whole, a black abyss that held nothing but danger. You could only hope that every single one of them would return.

As the vanguard disappeared from sight, you hurried back to your tent, located in a safe zone at the edge of the barrens. This area had been reclaimed just days ago, a hard-fought victory led by General Geshu Lin and the Midnight Rangers against a seemingly endless army of Tacet Discords. You prepared yourself for the inevitable—more wounded would be coming soon.

Minutes later, the first wave of injured rangers arrived at your tent. Bloodied and bruised, they stumbled in, collapsing onto the makeshift beds. You didn’t hesitate. With your Resonance abilities, you quickly got to work, healing torn flesh, mending broken bones, and soothing the aches that came from battle. But as you worked, you overheard bits of conversation from the injured, and your heart sank.

“They ambushed us,” one soldier muttered weakly, his voice trembling. “Came from every direction the moment we entered the deeper territory…”

“They were waiting for us,” another added, his eyes wide with fear. “We didn’t stand a chance.”

But what struck you most was the mention of Geshu Lin. The soldiers spoke of him with awe and… resentment. They recounted how he had single-handedly cut through half of the Tacet Discords in a single swing of his broadblade. His power was unparalleled, but he kept rushing forward. He did not glance at his soldiers as he advanced ruthlessly. Tears fell from the eyes of some as they recalled comrades who had fallen, struck down before they could even raise their weapons in defense.

Your hands moved faster, desperate to heal them all, to keep them alive so they wouldn’t be added to the growing list of casualties. Exhaustion began to claw at you, each burst of healing taking a little more out of you. Your arms felt heavy, and your vision blurred, but you couldn’t stop. No. Not yet. You mustn’t faint when everyone is relying on you.

The last ranger staggered out of your tent, his wounds healed, and you slumped against the side of the cot. Just as you were about to call for backup, your Terminal beeped. A message flashed across the screen: Mission success. We’ve reclaimed a large territory in Norfall Barrens. Casualties are heavy, but we’re retreating.

Relief washed over you, but it was bittersweet. The message confirmed their victory, but also hinted at the price they had paid. You knew you couldn’t relax just yet. There would be more wounded on their way back, and likely more stories of loss.

The relief of victory quickly vanished as you saw the true cost of the battle. As the soldiers returned to the base at Desorock Highland, their weary, hollow expressions told the story of a pyrrhic triumph. There were no celebrations, no cheers of success—only the quiet murmur of soldiers, weighed down by exhaustion and loss.

You moved quickly through the base, checking on the survivors as they trudged back from the battlefield. But as you passed by groups of rangers, you couldn’t help but overhear the low voices filled with bitterness.

“It’s the general, you know...”

“Yeah, he just charged forward, slaying monsters like nothing, but he didn’t even glance at us. We were left to deal with the Tacet Discords coming from all sides.”

“I don’t care what anyone else thinks. He’s the reason we lost so many this time.”

You swallowed hard, the murmurs sinking into your bones. It wasn’t the first time you’d heard whispers like this about Geshu Lin. His reputation was as cold as the steel of his broadblade. A ruthless leader, famed for his unmatched power on the battlefield, but infamous for his lack of concern for his comrades. Many admired his strength, but few respected the way he wielded it—without mercy, without hesitation, even if it meant his soldiers paid the ultimate price.

No one dared to voice these complaints openly, though. Despite the casualties, despite his seemingly callous leadership, General Geshu Lin was the strongest Resonator in the Midnight Rangers. He alone had faced and obliterated the Tacet Fields and Overlord Discords that would have otherwise wiped out entire battalions. His power was undeniable, and the Rangers needed him—even if it meant enduring his relentless, unyielding command.

That’s when you heard your name called sharply, breaking through your thoughts. You turned to see a familiar figure approaching—Changmin, a seasoned rearguard ranger. He was easily twenty years your senior, his graying hair and weathered face telling the story of decades spent in the field.

“The general is injured. I need you to heal him pronto,” Changmin said urgently as soon as you reached him.

Your heart skipped a beat at the request.

“General Geshu Lin?” you asked, and then you realized how dumb you might sound.

Changmin confirmed with a firm nod. “I saw it myself. A deep cut on his left arm. But, as usual, he’s refusing treatment.”

Standing beside Changmin, another senior ranger chimed in with a sigh, “He insists he’s fine. Says he doesn’t need any assistance. It might be hard for her to heal him without his consent.”

Changmin's brow furrowed deeply, frustration was evident in the creases of his weathered face. “He always refuses help. But have you seen the wound? If it isn’t treated properly, it’ll just add to the many scars he already has.”

The other ranger let out a weary sigh before looking at you. “Just do your best to convince him. If he still refuses… well, maybe he prefers handling his injuries alone.”

You nodded, feeling a growing unease in the pit of your stomach. The thought of approaching Geshu Lin, someone who exuded both power and distance, was daunting. You imagined him yelling at you the moment you stepped foot in his tent.

As you made your way toward Geshu Lin's command tent, the soldiers gave you wary looks, likely surprised to see you headed in that direction. It wasn’t often that anyone approached the general for anything outside of official orders.

When you arrived at the entrance, you hesitated for a brief moment, gathering your resolve. Then, with a steadying breath, you stepped inside.

The tent was sparsely lit, the faint glow of lanterns casting long shadows across the room. And there, seated at a makeshift desk, was Geshu Lin himself. His back was to you, but you could see the tension in his posture, the way his left arm hung stiffly by his side, the bloodied bandages around it doing little to hide the extent of the damage.

“General,” you called softly, your voice barely breaking the silence.

He turned slightly, his amber eyes locking onto yours with an intensity that made your heart race. For a moment, neither of you spoke. You could feel the weight of his gaze, sharp and assessing, as though he could see straight through you.

“I was told you’re injured,” you said, trying to keep your voice steady. “Please allow me to help you.”

“Go back to your station,” he replied coldly, turning back to his desk.

You threw a short glance at the bloodied bandage on his arm and said, “Respectfully sir, I can heal your wound almost instantly. It will take only thirty seconds.”

In his deep voice, the general replied, “Do not waste your medical equipment on me. I can do it myself.”

“I am a Resonator with healing Glacio abilities, sir,” you informed him. “I can heal you without any tools. It will only take seconds.”

He fell silent and for a moment, you thought he would refuse again. Then, to your surprise, he turned to face you fully. His eyes scrutinized you as if trying to gauge the degree of your determination. His gaze was intimidating, an invisible force that made you feel vulnerable under his scrutiny.

He spoke, “I don’t see a Tacet Mark on you.”

You got shy right away. Oh, so he was looking for my Tacet Mark.

With your eyes looking to the side, you answered with a pale blush, “I have one, but it’s just hidden under this uniform.”

“Your abilities can be better used on anyone else,” the general said dismissively, either ignoring your sudden bashfulness or not noticing it.

Feeling fed up by his stubbornness, you retorted, “Please, general. I insist.”

Then, there was a long moment of silence as he narrowed his eyes at you. The silence made you realize how rude you might sound. Uh oh, was I being forceful? Did I sound disobedient to him?

His eyes were like orbs of glacial fire, unyielding and fierce. With every passing second, your heart pounded against your chest. You couldn’t hear anything, not even the hustle and bustle outside of this camp, except for your own heartbeats.

“Fine,” Geshu Lin suddenly spoke up. “You have one minute.”

The relief washed over you like a wave, followed instantly by nervousness. Healing the general was not a small task, but doing so under his watchful gaze? That was a whole new level of pressure.

You moved swiftly, standing by his side, and began to inspect the wound. As you peeled back the bandages, you saw the deep gash—far worse than he had let on. You closed your eyes, took a deep breath to compose yourself and then began. Time seemed to still around you as you focused all your energy on the task at hand.

Summoning your Resonance ability, you felt the characteristic Glacio coldness spreading through your veins, reaching your fingertips and palm. You placed your palm on that large gash. A pale blue glow enveloping your hands illuminated the night air around you.

You observed as your Resonance skill utilized Glacio properties to heal the gash. The general would have surely felt the intense cold, but he remained stoic, his attention solely on your healing abilities.

The wound slowly began to close; the torn flesh seemingly stitching itself back together under the icy, healing touch of your hand. It was a spectacle that would have induced gasps from the onlookers, had there been any. But at that moment, it was just you and the general.

Suddenly, you felt a twinge of pain zip through your head. You barely winced, trying to withstand the pain so as not to alert the general. It was a side effect of intensive healing you had been doing that day - a reminder of the power you were wielding and the toll it took on your body.

“Enough,” Geshu Lin commanded out of the blue. Apparently, your wince did not go unnoticed.

He withdrew his arm away from your hold. You noticed the bright glow of your Glacio connecting from your palm to the gash on his arm, and you saw it stretched to nothingness as the general pulled away more and more.

You looked directly into his eyes, and in this close proximity, it looked as if you were scowling at him. You persisted with a tiny firm tone in your voice, “I am fine, general.”

You paused to grab hold of his arm and pulled it back to the previous spot where you could see it clearly between you two. You said, “It’s about to finish, so please do not move.”

The general’s brows furrowed in anger and you quickly averted your gaze to the gash. The Glacio properties were glowing and reconnecting your palm to the wound. It resumed its healing progress steadily.

Meanwhile, you began to feel intense warmth under the general’s intense glare. You could sense his burning stare. You could feel it burning a hole through your skull. Apparently, he was unamused by how forceful you were.

You couldn’t help but feel a wave of fear under his icy cold glare.

“Insolent,” you heard him murmur, but he made no move to withdraw his arm.

In your mind, you thanked the Sentinels above that he did not yell at you and kick you out of his tent. With that, you focused back on your Resonance skill.

In the dimly lit tent belonged to the general, the two of you were standing there closely with him leaning slightly on the makeshift table. He held his arm in the air between the both of you, and you had one hand holding his arm steady from below and another hand hovering over his wound, connecting your healing Glacio properties to his injury. You two were so close to each other, yet you both only focused on the healing process.

You channeled the last rush of your Resonance skill toward the wound. The flesh knit together faster under your touch, and within moments all that was left was a pale line where the deep gash had once been. The glow subsided around your hands, and you took a step back, pulling back both of your hands.

The general raised his arm close to his eyes, scrutinizing the healed injury. You clarified, “It is done. The pale line will fade away in a few hours, sir.”

Geshu Lin remained silent, his gaze still focused on his healed arm. A range of emotions flickered in his eyes, but not one of them was decipherable. It was as if you were looking at a painting crafted by a masterful artist who wove shades of emotions on a canvas too complex to discern.

The silence stretched on as Geshu Lin examined his arm. You stood there, your hands clasped tightly in front of you, unsure whether you should say something or simply leave. The tent felt stifling, the air thick with unspoken tension. For a moment, you wondered if he would dismiss you without a word, if all your effort to heal him would pass unacknowledged.

Finally, Geshu Lin lowered his arm, his sharp amber eyes locking onto yours once more. The intensity in his gaze hadn't lessened, and it dawned on you that perhaps you had overstepped by being persistent like a fly and grabbing his arm as if they were friends. You internally cringed.

“You’re persistent,” he said, his voice low but carrying the weight of an unspoken challenge.

Your pulse quickened, but you met his gaze with as much steadiness as you could muster. “I am here to do my duty, general. Whether it's healing you or the soldiers, I won’t back down from what’s necessary.”

For a brief moment, you thought you saw the corner of his mouth twitch—almost a smile, but it disappeared just as quickly as it came. Geshu Lin stepped away from the table, rolling his newly healed arm with a precision that spoke to the countless battles he'd endured.

“You’re bold,” he added, this time with a hint of something like approval in his tone. “Most wouldn’t dare speak to me the way you just did.”

You gulped down nervously. It had occurred to you once again that your persistence, bordering on defiance, might have come across as insubordination. Your heart raced again. You half-expected him to file a harsh complaint about you to a senior rearguard member of Midnight Rangers.

“If I overstepped…” you began, but he raised a hand, silencing you.

“You did what needed to be done. That’s more than I can say for most.”

He turned his back to you, his long white hair flowed briefly with his movement. For a moment, you thought he was dismissing you non-verbally. But then you noticed him turn his head to the side, indicating that he still wanted to address you.

“You fought me today,” he said, not looking back. “But don’t make a habit of it.”

There was no malice in his words, but the warning was clear. He would tolerate your defiance this time, perhaps even respect it. But that respect was something you’d have to navigate carefully.

“Yes, sir,” you replied softly, feeling utterly relieved.

The general turned his head to the front and said, “You are dismissed.”

With that, you bowed your head, turned and left. The rush of the past few moments finally caught up to you, and your knees almost wobbled as you rushed back into your tent. You zipped the tent fully closed and sat down, catching your breath, the weight of the interaction settling on your shoulders.

The general was unlike anyone you had ever encountered. His power, his cold demeanor, the way he seemed to carry the weight of the entire world on his back—it was overwhelming. You could understand why no one dared to lash out at him about his ruthless behavior on the battlefield. He was ruthless to the enemies and, according to the soldiers, also ruthless and uncaring to his allies if he felt they were too slow. And yet, he was okay with you. You had definitely overstepped your boundaries, but he disregarded it. Why?

As you sat there, catching your breath, a thought began to form in your mind. Maybe, just maybe, there was a reason behind Geshu Lin’s relentless nature—something that drove him to push others and himself beyond their limits.

But for now, you allowed yourself a moment of rest. Perhaps you were just lucky to escape his wrath unscathed. And hopefully, that would be your last interaction with him. You hoped so. You couldn’t deal with this kind of stress and nervousness again in your life. No way. That fear of overstepping your boundaries to a general was too much for you. All you wanted was to heal everyone.

[lemonmaid]

Imagine Alpha BootHill....

Warnings: gender neutral reader, pregnant reader. Fluff with small angst.

He meets you, a single unmated pregnant omega working like a dog at a saloon in the middle of nowhere, on a dusty abandoned old mining planet.

He is very interested in you right on the bat, I mean, you can say the same thing about him. It's not every day you see a cyborg.

He comes in everyday for the past month, from noon to closing. Always asking for you to serve him.

One night he asked you out for a date.

"Oh, come on, it will be fun! Just us two- three, I mean. " He smiles down at your stomach.

You hummed, "I mean if it meets your fancy... but where? Boothill, we are in the middle of a desert.....".

He smirks, "I know a good spot."

You raise an eyebrow at him, "you know a spot but you been here almost everyday?".

"Can't I be a gentleman?"

"Can't you do your job?".

Before Boothill could reply, a blonde hair man came storming in; blabbering about Boothill taking too long and dragging the cyborg out of the Saloon.

For the next week, Boothill didn't show up to the saloon, making your omega whine at the fact. One night after closing, you noticed him waiting for you at the door.

"Let me walk you home".

You nodded, taking his hand.

Thanks to the planet's atmosphere, the sky shined bright of stars and cosmos. It was so beautiful. What was more beautiful is how the three moons reflected off Boothill's metal body, the soft white glow, it brought out the white streaks in his hair.

"Here" you say in a trance.

Silence between you too, it was kinda awkward, I mean, here you are in the presence of an alpha.

"I wanna court you-"

"But, I'm-".

"I don't care about that, I wanna give you what you deserve".

You bit your lip, your scent filled with anxiety, "what about your job with the Galaxy Rangers?".

"I want you to come with".

"Space is no place for a pup to live in, it's too dangerous and unstructured".

"I still want you, that will never change love". Boothill sighed before taking off his hat, "I may be... a quarter of the alpha I used to be. I'm reckless, pin-headed, hell I don't even got a scent anymore, I can't even feel anything anymore. But I do damn know that you... your scent... it's making me feel something I haven't felt in a hot minute... so please... let me court you... we can make this work". Boothill grabs your hands, putting them on his face, wanting to finally feel ya, "please just think about it".

You nodded your head, allowing him inside of your small home. He wrapped his arms around you hugging you, almost crushing. "Thank you, thank you thank you". He mumbled. You rubbed his head, noticing a faint smell, you laugh.

"What?".

You smile, before taking a deeper whiff os the small and faint scent, "You say you don't have a scent, but right behind ya ear.... I smell you..... your scent is... comforting... stuipd cyborg".

Boothill went stiff before letting small tears poke the corner of his eye. He laughs too, joining your fit of laughter.

This was rushed, I had the idea had to write it down fast lol and I'm now getting into honkai 😭

[persevereforahappyending]

A Beacon in the Dark |11|

Pairing: Joey x Reader

Summary: Joey likes helping people, it's what she's best at. Hunting down the monsters of myth and legend might be the best way to save people.

Warnings: Death, Murder, Killing, Kidnapping, Guns, Shooting, Stabbing, Blood, Violence, A LOT of Violence

Word Count: 17.6k

Note: This chapter was always going to be long but turned out MUCH longer than expected. Probably should have tried breaking it up... but oh well!

Main Masterlist | Series Masterlist

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12

You rolled over with a groan, as soon as you opened your eyes you closed them, bringing a hand to shade them from the bright light. You rolled over again, blinking the spots away as you focused on the cool ground beneath you. You furrowed your brow, tilting your head as you looked at the cold concrete you were apparently laying on, there hadn’t been any concrete in the woods. Your head snapped up, your eyes going wide, the woods. You had been in the woods. Joey. Joey had been with you.

Your heart began beating out of your chest as you frantically looked around, you’d never forgive yourself if you hurt her. You finally looked down at your hands and saw them stained red. You shook your head, there was so much blood. You backed away, as if you could get away from it. When you looked down you saw your entire body was caked in dried blood.

You looked up when you heard a door open. You held your breath until you caught the familiar scent of Grace. You were home, you were in your cage. You remembered giving Joey the device, meaning she used it if Grace found you and got you back here. You had no idea what you did before that though, no idea how long it was before Joey pressed the button, what you did during that time before or after. Your eyes tracked Grace as she walked across the room to your cage before pulling out her phone and unlocking the door. The door swung open, she stood at the entrance, but you didn’t move.

“Did I hurt her?” You rasped out. Your throat was always so dry after changing, especially if you had killed. You couldn’t help the way your eyes filled with tears as you awaited Graces answer.

“No,” Grace whispered. She always spoke so soft after you shifted back, like she was afraid to spook you.

You let out a relived breath. “Who did I hurt?” You might not have hurt Joey, but you clearly killed someone, multiple someone’s from the amount of blood covering you. You knew it wasn’t an animal, you weren’t that lucky, besides, you could smell it.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does!” You roared. You pinched your eyes shut, this was why Grace treated you like this after shifting back, you were always irritable at best. “Who did I hurt?” You looked up, meeting Graces eyes for the first time.

Grace walked up to you; she brought a hand to your cheek, but you pulled away. She gave you a pointed look and when she caressed your cheek again you couldn’t help but lean into the touch. “The witches.” Your tear-filled eyes searched her face, trying to figure out if she was saying what you thought she was saying. “They were the only ones killed.”

You let out a shaky breath and ran a hand through your hair. You didn’t care about the blood, you were already covered in it, you would need a shower anyway. “The girls?” You ask hesitantly, just because you apparently didn’t kill them didn’t mean someone didn’t. You got ambushed by the witches and once you shifted everything was blank, you weren’t sure what happened, if the witches started the ritual before you killed them all or not.

“They escaped.” Your lip twitched, you wanted nothing more than to smile at a successful mission, but you couldn’t. “Were found by a park ranger, who got them help.” You nodded, your eyes drifted down to the concrete, all that mattered was that the girls were safe. “They didn’t see you; they just said a group of women kidnapped them. An investigation is underway, they’ll find the tunnel and the room the girls were kept in, but no bodies.”

You nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for.”

You mindlessly nodded. Every time an incident happened you apologized, and every time afterwards Grace said the same thing. You wondered what it would take for you to need to apologize. You couldn’t control what you did while shifted, you had no memory of your time as a wolf. Despite all that, the guilt never seemed to go away, you never knew what you felt guilty for, you just knew you deserved to feel that way.

“She’s in the living room,” Grace’s soft voice cut through the self-hatred. You froze, you weren’t expecting that, you didn’t know why Joey was still there, she saw you for what you truly were, she should have run back home where she would be safe.

“Why?” You asked, keeping your eyes fixated on the floor. You thought she was warming up to you, but you didn’t think you had developed the kind of loyalty where she would stay. She probably only wanted to get answers, learn the truth, learn why you lied to her, then she’d cut you off, tell you exactly what kind of monster you were. “She probably hates me.”

“I convinced her to stay.” You looked up, meeting Grace with tear filled eyes. “She deserves the truth.” She was right, Joey never deserved you lying to her. Everyone was entitled to their privacy, but your secret could have gotten Joey killed, or worse.

“What did you tell her?”

“Nothing, it’s your story to tell.” You nodded, it was never easy to talk about, the only one you talked to about everything was Grace and that was because she was the one to find you. You would tell Joey though, you would tell her everything, assuming she wanted to stick around and hear it. “Get cleaned up.”

You mindlessly walked out the door. You made sure to take a path that wouldn’t lead you past the living room. You listened for Joey’s heartbeat, hearing it was steady as she didn’t move from her spot. You didn’t want her to turn a corner and come face to face with you all naked and bloody, she might have already seen you at your worst, but you were hoping she didn’t see the aftermath.

When you got to your room you went straight to the bathroom. You didn’t have any clothes to peel off since shifting shredded them, so you just hopped right into the shower. You turned the shower on the hottest setting and let the water pour over you. You didn’t react as the water got progressively hotter, until it would burn a normal person, but you could take it, you liked the sting. It felt like the only way you could ever clean yourself of all the blood was by taking a scalding hot shower, you weren’t sure if it was because it hurt, and you deserved the pain or because the hotter the water was the more it felt like you were actually getting clean.

You kept your head down, your eyes staring at the drain as all the water going down was tainted red. After a few minutes of letting the water run over your body you finally grabbed your scrub brush and got to work. It took several minutes of scrubbing your entire body before it was finally not stained red. You tilted your head back, letting the water wash over your hair before running your hair through it a few times, making sure to get the clumps of blood and anything else out. When you didn’t scrub well enough you learned glops of blood or chunks of flesh tended to get stuck in places. Ever since the first time you learned to be incredible thorough with your scrubbing.

When you were finally cleaned up you stepped out of the shower, looking back to see the tile stained as well. You would have to bleach and spray it down when you got done with your talk with Joey. You went through this every month, you wished there was an easier way to clean the shower, you felt bad for always leaving it a mess, even though Grace understood and always said it was fine. You grabbed a towel off the rack wrapping it around yourself then grabbed another to run through your hair.

You made your way out of the bathroom, smiling when you saw Grace laid out a set of clean clothes, all nice and folded at the end of the bed. You slipped on the sweats and the t-shirt, not even bothering to put on socks as you walked back into the bathroom. You put an obscene amount of toothpaste on the toothbrush and began scrubbing your mouth, trying to get rid of the taste of whatever you tore apart out of your mouth. Not that it mattered, it was usually a few days before things went back to tasting normal. When you were finished you frowned at the toothbrush, seeing all the bristles broken and curved. Ever since you changed you went through a toothbrush pretty much once a month.

After tossing the toothbrush in the trash you gripped the edge of the sink and stared at your own reflection. There were dark circles around your eyes, you usually took a very long nap after shifting back but you didn’t have time for that, you needed to talk to Joey. At the thought of Joey, you gripped the counter tighter, the last time she had seen you you were a raging monster filled with bloodlust, you remembered the fear in her eyes when you started to change in front of her. You finally released the counter when you began to hear a crack, it wouldn’t be the first time you broke one of Grace’s marble countertops, but you knew it wasn’t cheap to replace, and it was always awkward trying to explain how it happened.

You shook your head, you couldn’t keep stalling, Grace got Joey to hear you out, she had been here long enough. You flung open the door and made your way out of your room, as soon as you got to the stairs you hesitated again. You didn’t kill her, but you didn’t know what you did do, if you hurt her, how close you came to hurting her, you knew you didn’t bite her, Grace would have told you that.

“Stop stalling,” you heard Grace whisper. Your head snapped up; she was probably in her office, if she wasn’t still cleaning out the cell, but you heard her as if she were standing next to you. One of the perks to what you were, came in handy on missions, but the benefits definitely didn’t out way the consequences in your opinion. No amount of strength, speed, heightened senses, none of it was worth it when you had to go through what you did every month.

You let out a shaky breath and took the first step. You had to get it over with. There was no doubt in your mind Joey would hate you, she would hate you for lying, for being a monster, for almost killing her, she’d never want to see you again. You slowly descended the stairs, completely lost in your mind, it was better this way, probably. Joey hating you was for the best, she would be safer, it’s not like you actually thought she’d ever like you back, this would just help rip off the band aid. Joey would be alive and safe with her son as far away from you as possible, and you were better off alone where you couldn’t hurt anyone.

You came to a stop once you hit the entryway of the living room. Your eyes instantly found Joey, she was sitting on the couch, hunched over and had her hands bawled into fists. Her entire body was tense, and it was all your fault. “Hey,” you whispered, afraid to break the uneasy silence.

The second you spoke Joey somehow tensed up even more. She slowly lifted her head, and you could tell she was cautious, she had no idea what she would see when she looked at you. You held eye contact for a moment, seeing the distrust all over her face. You walked across the room, her eyes tracking every move you made. You would normally sit on the couch, it was much more comfortable, but Joey probably didn’t want you anywhere near her, so you opted for the chair that was as far away from her as possible but still around the little coffee table.

“Ar-are you okay?” You asked. Your arms were on the armrest, but you gripped it tighter than necessary. You wanted to appear open to Joey, showing her there was nothing to fear, even though you knew that was useless at this point.

Joey let out a humorless chuckle. You couldn’t help but look away when she looked at you, the anger burning behind her eyes. “Am I okay?” She scoffed.

“Did I hurt you?” You whispered, gripping the armrest tighter. You would never hear the end of it if you ripped Grace’s chair, but you couldn’t relax until Joey answered the question, until you knew you didn’t hurt her.

“No.” Your grip instantly relaxed making you flex your fingers and let them hang loosely on the armrest again. “You certainly tried though.”

You closed your eyes. You wondered how close you got; how close you were to tearing Joey apart. “I’m sorry,” you rasped out. It didn’t mean anything, even if it was true, you still did it, you lied and almost killed Joey, an apology didn’t mean shit, it’s not like she’d forgive you anyway, it’s not like you deserved her forgiveness.

“You lied to me, from the very beginning. You told me we were going to hunt down monsters,” she let out another humorless chuckle. “You talked about how much you hated them. When all this time…” you flinched at her words, she never finished her sentence, but you knew what she was about to say when all this time you were a monster as well. “Why lie? Why put me on a mission when you knew what would happen?”

“I didn’t want you on that mission,” you said instantly. “I fought against it every step of the way. I wanted to go out there alone, it’s what we should have done.”

“Grace said she wanted me there.” You nodded. “Not for the witches or the girls but for you.” You let out a deep sigh, Grace was always trying to protect you, you didn’t deserve it. “Why? It’s not like I could have stopped you.”

You nodded, taking in Joeys question. You fought her on it but you knew exactly why Grace wanted her on that mission. “It was to give everyone else a chance,” you answered. “If I had gone alone, I would have torn through everything in my path.”

“You did.”

You looked up at Joey through tear filled eyes. “It would have been so much worse.” You looked back down in shame; you couldn’t stand the judgment coming off of Joey. “You alerted Grace, that allowed her to get to me in time before I could hurt innocent people. You being there also stalled me, the wolf only wants to hunt and focusing on the witches and then you kept the girls alive and Grace getting there stopped me from finding campers or who knows what else I could have come across.”

“So, I was just a distraction,” Joey scoffed.

“No, not exactly,” you quickly denied. “Grace always hoped that if I was around someone familiar when I was changed, that I would hesitate, that I might recognize them.”

“You don’t recognize people when you turn?”

You swallowed a lump and just shook your head. “I don’t remember anything after I shift. The last thing I remember before everything goes black is my bones breaking.”

You didn’t know why you didn’t remember. Every other werewolf you ever came across had control, they attacked who they wanted and left others alone, they had their human memories as a wolf and vice versa. You learned a few blacked out their first few shifts but you had yet to experience that.

“So, you know you don’t remember things and you left me completely defenseless,” Joey nodded along. “A heads up would have been nice, a way to stop you. I don’t know what kills a werewolf but-”

“Silver,” you cut her off. You looked over at her to see her eyes widen, as if she didn’t expect you to say that, or didn’t expect you to answer at all. “Anything made out of silver will hurt me.”

At that Joey furrowed her brow. “That knife,” she said slowly. “It wasn’t like mine; it wasn’t iron.”

You shook your head. “It was a precaution; I had hoped to use it to hold myself off.” You scoffed, “Lot of good that did.” You thought maybe having the knife would give Joey a better chance, but you never even got the chance to hand it off to her before the witches got you. “Silver will hold me off but a silver bullet right here,” you held a finger to your head. “Will kill me.”

“Is that how Grace restrained you?”

“Partly,” you nodded. “She had that trailer rigged in case anything like that happened.” Which it had happened more times than you cared to admit, but at least Grace’s invention was getting use. Despite the fact that it was literally meant to contain you, you had to admire the device, it was pure genius. “She avoided my head, but she did shoot me with silver bullets, then the trailer is metal, thick and strong enough for me to not instantly break through.”

“Meaning you can break through if you want?” Joey raised her eyebrows.

“Technically yes.” There were metals you couldn’t break through easily, like the cage downstairs but to use that for a trailer would make it too heavy and Grace needed to be able to drive you away, whether it be in the middle of the woods where you couldn’t hurt anyone or back home. “The spikes she shot me with,” you gestured to your shoulder where one of them hit you. “Are made of silver. Then once I was in the container, she released wolfsbane.”

 “Wolfsbane?” Joey raised her eyebrows at that. “That’s also real?”

You couldn’t help but smile. There were so many movies and shows about werewolves, like vampires, one didn’t know what was real and what was pure fiction. There were a lot of weird things fiction brought into the werewolf curse but the two things they always seemed to get right were silver bullets and wolfsbane.

“It’s a plant but it can be spread through the air or mixed in with a liquid, there’s a lot of ways to get it in the system,” you said. “It won’t kill a werewolf, but it hurts like hell, it burns us.” You winced just thinking about all the times wolfsbane had been used on you.

“Why are you telling me all this?” Joey asked. Despite what you and Grace told her about her questions being answered she clearly didn’t believe that would actually happen or maybe she didn’t believe you would be so willing to tell her how to kill you.

“So, you know what to do next time,” you shrugged. “Even if you don’t continue working with us, it’s good to know what’s out there and how to stop it.” You let out a deep sigh, if Joey by chance wanted to continue working with you, you wanted to give her a chance to escape next time. You also knew what else was out there, the kind of wolves that existed, not many of them were as restrained as you.

“You’re literally telling me how to kill you,” Joey let out a disbelieving huff. “Who does that? You kept this secret from me the entire time and now you’re just willingly telling me how to kill you.”

“Because I hate what I am!” You snapped. You closed your eyes then clenched your fist and slowly unclenched them. “I don’t want to hurt you, or Grace, or anyone.” You opened your eyes again. When you looked at Joey this time, it was through tear filled eyes. “If it came down to it, I would rather be killed then have to hurt you or Grace or someone innocent. That’s not who I want to be.”

You gripped your knees tight. When you slowly release your knees you stared down at your hand, it was still human looking. You had been getting better at control, there were times you’d grip your knee or clench your fist so tight that your claws popped out and you usually didn’t notice until blood was running down your arm or leg.

“How long have you been like this?” Joey asked softly. You weren’t sure if she was being kinder because of your outburst, and she was worried you’d rip her throat out or if she actually cared about not upsetting you.

“I was bit two years ago,” you rasped out. Looking down at where the bite mark was, you had forgotten about until it was all over, that night flashed through your mind.

“That’s how it works?” You looked up to see a spark of curiosity in Joey’s eyes. She might have been pissed at you, but she still had that wonder about all this stuff. “A bite?”

You nodded. “Not sure how it all started,” you shrugged. “There’s families who are born into this, but then someone can also be turned by a bite.”

“H-how did it happen?”

You sucked in a breath. You knew the question was coming but you still weren’t ready for it. “That’s a long story.”

“I know you promised me answers, but if it’s too much to talk about, you don’t have to.”

The corner of your mouth twitched up, even after lying to her, Joey was still so understanding. “No,” you shook your head. “You deserve to know.” You let out a long sigh as you leaned back in the chair. “It’s not a pretty story.” You looked at Joey until she gave you a nod to continue. Just because it wasn’t easy for you to talk about didn’t mean it wasn’t hard for other people to hear. “Two years ago, I was on my way home when…”

You walked down the street like any other day. You had just got off a late shift at the bar and were making your way back to your crappy apartment. You shoved your hands in the pockets of your jacket, trying to keep them as warm as possible. You really needed to save up for a car, the New York winters weren’t doing you any good.

Someone came up behind you, throwing a bag over your head. You tried whipping around but you felt strong arms grab you and hold you in place. Your eyes darted around, even though you only saw darkness. You could hear the squeak of brakes as, what you assumed was some sort of vehicle, pull up to your left. There was a click, a door sliding open, and the next thing you knew you were tossed into the back of the vehicle. You crawled around, trying to find your footing when you heard the door slide shut and a second later a car door close.

You reached up and ripped the bag off your head only to be met with more darkness. You blinked, trying to get your eyes to adjust to the little bit of light coming from the little lights on the roof of the vehicle. You were definitely in a van of some sort, you looked back and saw nothing but a metal wall blocking you from the front seat, there wasn’t even a window to see the driver.

You whipped back around when you heard whimpering. You squinted and could just barely make out a group of two girls and two guys huddled in the corner. With a shaky finger one of the girls pointed to the other side of the van. You followed her finger to see a large man in all black and a mask covering everything but his eyes and mouth. He jerked his head to the side, telling you to huddle together with the others. You couldn’t see any weapons, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have any and there were at least two more people in the front seat, so you did as he asked.

The two girls gripped onto you, pulling you into the huddle as soon as you got within reach. You could feel the others trembling against you, or it might have been you, you weren’t quite sure. You weren’t sure what was going on, you had heard stories of human trafficking and people getting kidnapped, you just never thought it would be you. Something about this felt different though, they were wearing masks, but they weren’t worried about restraining any of you, maybe they were just that cocky or they were confident that none of you would fight back. You could only stare up at the man in the back with all of you, his body jostled from side to side as the van continued to speed down the street. All you could see was his dark eyes when they met yours, you held your breath, waiting for him to say something but he just smirked.

You weren’t sure how long all of you were in the car before it came to a stop, sending all of you flying forward into the far wall. You heard the man chuckle and through the pile of limbs you noticed him get up. He was just a giant shadowy figure towering over all of you, then someone opened the back doors of the van, and the man was illuminated in moonlight. The man walked backwards, not bothering to turn around until he hopped out of the van.

“Let’s go!” Another man shouted, slamming his fist on the side of the van. You and the others froze, you were sure ignoring the man was a bad idea, but you didn’t know what would happen if you didn’t listen to him. “Now!” He pounded the side of the van even harder.

You and the others scrambled to your feet, most of you needing to crouch down so you didn’t hit your head on the top of the van. All of you hopped out of the van single file, with you making sure to stick towards the middle of the group, you wanted to bring as little attention to yourself as possible. You kept your head down; you didn’t know what would happen if you began looking around or caught the eyes of one of the men around you. You tried to sneak a peek through your lashes though, you saw three men near the van, most likely the ones that grabbed you, then you saw more boots further to the side, though you couldn’t make out whether they belong to men or women.

You tensed when you heard the wheels of another vehicle approach, you took a risk and looked up, seeing an identical van come to a stop. Two men hopped out of the van and made their way to the back, where the man from the passenger side opened the back doors, allowing a third man to hop out. They did the same thing as the guys from your van, they banged on the side of the van and ordered everyone to get out. A few seconds later a group of another five people, one girl and four guys, hopped out of the van and stood in a single file line, each of them with their heads down. You could practically see them shaking from where you stood. There was now a total of ten of you, with six masked men standing around all of you.

“Everyone line up!” A man shouted. Everyone seemed to freeze at the same time, you weren’t sure if your two groups were supposed to line up together, technically you were lined up, unless they wanted a different type of line. “Now!”

You all quickly scrambled, forming a long single file line. You all kept your heads bowed as the men walked up and down on both sides of you. You held your breath when you heard the crunch of boots getting closer. You weren’t sure where you were, but you were standing on dirt, you tried glancing out of the side of your eyes at your surroundings, but everything was so dark, the only lights seemed to come from the vehicles.

“March!” The man ordered. This time none of you hesitated to get moving.

You all marched in single file, some people moved too quickly and stepped on the heel of the one in front of them. You weren’t sure where they were taking all of you but eventually you crossed over onto a grassy area. You strained your ears to try and decipher anything that might tell you where you were, but you heard nothing, not even bugs.

Everyone bumped into each other as the line slowly came to a stop. There was a loud groan, like a latch on a metal door being lifted, then there was the sound of a large metal door creaking open. “Move!” Someone from the back shouted. You assumed whoever it was shoved the person at the end of the line because the person behind you stumbled into you, making you stumble into the person in front of you.

All of you shuffled forward, eventually leaving the outdoors and entering some sort of building. You couldn’t tell what it was, there were no lights inside, but when you passed by the door you saw it was indeed a giant metal industrial style door. The door had a large latch that had to be lifted up to unlock the door, and there was nothing to open the door from the inside. You had never seen a door quite like that, you knew a door that only opened one way was always meant to keep something in, though you couldn’t imagine what they possibly wanted all of you for, that would make them want to lock you all up.

“Along the back wall!” A male voice echoed throughout the room.

Since there was no light you all stumbled forward until you hit a brick wall. You kept one hand on the wall, feeling the cold stone beneath your fingers as you turned around. You kept your head down even though it was dark, for some reason you thought they’d know if you looked at them. You heard several pairs of boots shuffling away from all of you, indicating the men were making their way out of the room. A second later there was a loud sound of the metal door slamming shut, and then the latch being flipped back into place, locking all ten of you in the cold dark room.

There was only the sound of everyone’s breathing for several minutes. It seemed as though all of you were afraid to move. You were pretty sure not a single one of the people who had taken you were in the room, but you didn’t know what would happen if you moved. You weren’t sure what game they were playing, why they wanted you or any of these other people. For all you knew there were cameras or listening devices in the room and as soon as any of you started trying to escape someone would come in and take and do who knows what to you.

“What the hell is this?” One of the guys asked.

“I-I-I-I was ju-jus-just wa-walk-walking ho-home,” one of the girls got out. You couldn’t see her, but it sounded like she was hyperventilating or close to a panic attack, not that you could blame her for that.

“Me too,” one of the other girls whispered.

“Same,” one of the guys spoke up.

“So, they grabbed all of us off the street?” the same man who asked the question spoke again.

“Seems that way.”

“What do they want? Who the fuck are these people?”

“I didn’t even know they were there until they tossed a bag over my head,” another man said.

“Same,” you finally rasped out. “Two men grabbed me, tossed a bag over my head, I didn’t see anything, I just heard the car roll up before they tossed me in.”

“Someone had to see something right?” another girl spoke up, sounding more hysterical than the first one. “We were picked off the street, there’s cameras, witnesses, something!”

“It was the middle of the night,” the first man replied not unkindly. “I don’t know about all of you but as far as I know there was no one around.”

Everyone remained silent, everyone seemed to have been in the same position, you knew it had been the same for you. The girl wasn’t wrong about cameras, there were traffic cams, store cams, ATMs, there was some form of camera all over the city. The only issue was that if no one knew any of you were missing, or no one knew where you last were, then there would be no reason to check the cameras. You highly doubted some store owner checked the cameras to his shop every morning, unless he had a reason to, and even if by some chance they did, they’d also have to care. People had a habit of remaining quiet when something happened, usually not wanting to get involved, or not wanting to put a target on their own back. In this case you honestly couldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to talk about a van rolling up and grabbing someone, the speed and way it happened told you it was definitely not the first time for these people, they were professionals.

“Well, someone will miss us, right?” the girl asked again. “Family? Friends? Someone will definitely notice when we don’t show up to work!”

You let out a humorless chuckle. “I have no one,” you said with a careless shrug. You had a job but even if you didn’t show up your boss would only be pissed about the inconvenience, he might leave an angry message but otherwise he’d write you off, fire you without giving your existence a second thought.

No one spoke up, no one tried to say their friends or families would look for them, it seemed everyone was in the same boat as you. All of you were taken the same way, all of you were people that no one would miss. You furrowed your brow, for the guys who grabbed you to know all that it meant they had to be watching all of you for some time. They had to know when and where each of you would be to plan this so perfectly. You let your head flop back against the stone wall and slid down to the floor, something this big, with this much planning and so many people involved, there was no way any of you were getting out of this.

“What if we attack them when they come back?” one of the guys asked. “We can work together and as soon as they open the door, we grab them!”

“What about the other five?” the first man asked.

“Not to mention all the others,” you added. “No idea how many, but there’s a lot more than the six who grabbed us.”

“There’s still ten of us!” the guy continued to try and be hopeful.

“And who knows how many of them there are!” the first guy snapped. “They’ve clearly planned this all out. We don’t know their numbers or what kind of weapons they have.”

“I didn’t see the guy in the back of the van with a weapon,” the man said weakly, still trying not to give up on his argument.

“That doesn’t mean he didn’t have one.”

“Or that others don’t have one,” you added. “They’ve clearly done this before; it would be way to risky to take this many people and not have a way to keep us in line.” Even if all of you made it out of the room you had no idea what awaited you on the outside. You didn’t get a good look, but you had to be out in the middle of nowhere or on a large patch of property. You didn’t know the area so odds were if you ran, you’d get lost, it would probably be easy for them to catch you all again, or take you out, they might just shoot you in the back as you tried to run away.

“So, what do we do?” the guy asked.

You and the man didn’t respond, there didn’t seem to be anything you could do besides wait and meet your fate. When no one answered it seemed to take all of the fight out of him because you heard someone plop down on the floor with sigh. Hope was the strongest thing one could have in this type of situation, hope of someone rescuing you, hope of surviving this, hope of getting out, but none of you wanted to provide hope. As much as you wanted to fight back, you wouldn’t just roll over and let them do what they wanted, but it was still hard to find any sliver of hope that you would get out of this. If you were being honest with yourself, your only hope was that your death would be quick.

You remained against the wall, your leg propped up and your arm resting over your knee, while the other leg was stretched out. Your eyes had adjusted to the dark as best as they could, but it still wasn’t like you could see anything. Everyone had shuffled around the room, it sounded like someone was feeling around the walls, hoping for some sort of weakness, two of the girls were huddled together to the left of you and were sobbing as quietly as they could. You turned your head, when you felt someone slide down the wall and sit next to you, even though you couldn’t make out any sort of features on the person.

“Hey,” the guy said, and you recognized him as the one who first spoke up. “Are you the person who actually agreed with me?”

You huffed out a laugh. “Yeah,” you replied. None of you could see each other, you barely knew what anyone looked like. The only way to identify each at the moment was based on each other’s voice, and not everyone had spoken, there were still two guys who had yet to speak.

“My name’s Cody.”

You weren’t sure why he was telling you; you didn’t believe any of you would be alive long enough to warrant knowing each other’s names. “Y/N,” you told him anyway.

“What’s your take on all this?”

You let out a deep sigh as you gave it some thought, not that you hadn’t been trying to figure that exact thing out since they first grabbed you. “I have no idea,” you shrugged. “At first I thought maybe human trafficking.”

“It doesn’t feel like that.” Cody seemed to be thinking as he said that, he wasn’t trying to dismiss your thought, he just wasn’t sure he agreed with it. “I’m not sure I can explain why.”

“I know what you mean.” You let your head flop back against the wall again, you weren’t sure why, but you didn’t think the people who grabbed you would be coming back to transport you all again, you had a feeling that whatever was going to happen to all of you would be done here.

“Clearly they’ve been watching us,” you whispered, even though the room was empty, and you knew the others could hear your entire conversation. “There’s a reason they grabbed us, they didn’t pick us at random.”

“But?” he asked, clearly already sensing you weren’t done yet.

“But it also doesn’t seem like they care who they grabbed. They grabbed both men and women, but not an even number.” You furrowed your brow, there was ten of you and you’d normally think if they were kidnapping both men and women that they’d want an even number of each but that’s not the case, the number of men was higher than the number of women.

“Maybe that’s not what’s important to them. Maybe the most important part is people who won’t be missed.

“Then that makes what they’re planning even more concerning.”

Cody sucked in a breath, seeming to understand what you meant. They didn’t care about gender, that didn’t play any importance in their plan, that just meant the same thing was going to happen to all of you. That didn’t do anything to ease your worries, that only made them worse. You weren’t sure if the guys were going to come in an take you out one by one, take you out in pairs. Or do something to the entire group of you, there were endless possibilities of horrors they could put you all through.

“Whatever happens,” Cody whispered. “We need to stick together.”

You weren’t sure if Cody actually had some sort of hope that you guys could make it out of this or not. The way he spoke to the other guy made it seem like he knew fighting back would be pointless, but this kind of comment made it seem like he thought there was a fighting chance. Even if there was no chance, even if you all faced what was surely a guaranteed death, at least sticking together would mean you might not die alone, and maybe it would mean making things a little more difficult for your captors, which even if you did die would definitely be worth it.

Everyone fell silent after that. Sobs eventually died down, whether it was because they passed out or because they were finally gathering themselves you didn’t know. The guy who had been looking for away out kicked and pounded on the door, screaming in frustration until finally slumping to the floor, seeming to realize there truly was no way out. You weren’t sure how long all of you had been in there, no one ever came to check on you, no one ever came to drop off food or water, for all you knew it would be days before anyone ever came back. Eventually you found it hard to keep your eyes open and you fell into a restless sleep.

You shot awake, your eyes darting around trying to make out anything but only seeing darkness. “Hey, hey,” Cody said, his hand coming over to rest on your shoulder. “You fell asleep.”

You let your head flop back against the wall and you closed your eyes as you let out a shaky breath. You had hoped everything had been a horrible nightmare, but it wasn’t, you were still locked away in some mysterious dark building. You didn’t open your eyes again until your heart no longer felt like it was about to beat out of your chest.

“Did I miss anything?” you rasped out. You cleared your throat; you couldn’t tell how much time had passed exactly but your dry throat told you it had been several hours.

“Nope,” Cody sighed.

All of you continued to sit in the dark, occasionally the sound of someone shuffling around could be heard but no one tried to find a way to escape again. You and Cody sat in silence for the most part, some of the others had whispered conversations but you didn’t see the point. There was no use in getting to know each other when you didn’t know what was going to happen, you didn’t want to build connections with these people, for all you knew this was some weird fight club and you’d be forced to fight and kill each other. That was doubtful in your mind but still, there was a chance something would happen, and you might have to choose between yourself and one of the others, or maybe they’d make you choose who lived and who died between the others, you had no idea what these people planned.

The sound of the latch being lifted had all of you perking up. You straightened your back but didn’t pull yourself back up to your feet again. You held your breath as you waited to see who would walk through the door, but no one did. There was a groan as the door swung open slightly, just enough to show it was open, but no one came through. It was dark outside, but a small bit of moonlight was enough to let a bit of light in the room.

You and Cody, both pulled yourselves back to your feet and glanced at each other. You each had the same suspicious look in your eyes, not quite sure if you should move and what would be awaiting you if you stepped outside. You finally got a good look at Cody, he hadn’t been one of the guys in your van, he had been in the second one. He looked about your age, his hair was dirty blond, he was in a blue t-shirt and jeans, each of which were rather dirty, and his boots were caked in dried mud. Cody definitely looked like he did manual labor, most likely working in construction of some sort.

“This could be our only chance,” the guy who kept trying to convince you all to fight back said. He ran to the door but turned around when he realized no one else had moved. “Come on!” he gestured with his arm.

“We don’t know what’s waiting for us,” Cody said.

“So, we should just sit here and wait to die?” you looked at Cody and saw the way his eyebrows knitted together. Cody seemed just as conflicted as you, if you stayed you were just giving up, waiting to let them do whatever they wanted but if you ran, it was an unknown, who knew what they’d do to you then, it could be so much worse. “Whatever,” the man scoffed. “I’m not sitting here to wait to die.” And with that he pushed the door open the rest of the way and took off out into the night.

You stepped forward and Cody instantly grabbed your arm. You looked back to see the worry in his eyes. You raised your hand, silently asking him to give you a minute, you could see the internal struggle behind his eyes but eventually he, although reluctantly, let go of your arm. You inched forward towards the door; you could feel everyone’s eyes on you as they waited to see what would happen.

You finally came to the threshold and couldn’t bring yourself to cross it yet. You peeked your head out the door and saw nothing and no one. You furrowed your brow, you could see the man still running at full speed towards the woods, but no one was chasing after him.

“What do you see?” one of the other guys whispered.

“Nothing,” you answered, shaking your head. “It’s just a giant open field and it looks like woods surrounding us.”

“I’m out of here,” he said and pushed past you and took off towards the woods.

You opened your mouth, but nothing came out before the other three guys pushed past you, taking off after the others. You looked back to see Cody had stepped forward a bit, but he still seemed cautious about leaving the room. One of the girls stood up and made her way to the middle of the room. “What are we waiting for?” she asked. “This is our chance!” when none of you moved, she just rolled her eyes and ran out the door as well.

You looked back to the two other girls, seeing one curled in a ball in the corner of the room, while the other stood on her feet, trying to get the other girl to stand as well. The other girl tried to coax the girl to get up as softly as she could, but the girl just sobbed and shook her head, curling in on herself even more. The girl eventually let go of the other one and took a few steps away, shaking her head as she made her way out of the room as well.

“What are you thinking?” you asked Cody.

Cody shook his head as he stared out the open door. “Something about this doesn’t feel right.”

“Agreed.” Someone clearly opened the door, they wanted all of you to run, but you couldn’t figure out why. You weren’t sure why someone would kidnap ten people only to just let them go. “But we can’t stay here.”

Cody gripped at his hair and groaned. He eventually nodded, seeming to reluctantly agree with you. “We can’t just leave her,” he pointed at the girl still in the corner.

You opened your mouth, but Cody was already crouching down next to the girl. He was whispering comforting words to her, trying everything to get her to stand up. It seemed futile though, the girl wouldn’t budge, she wouldn’t so much as look at any of you. It was harsh but you needed to leave her, you couldn’t stick around waiting for them to come and pick you off, all because you didn’t want to leave some girl you didn’t even know.

“We can come back for her,” you suggested. Cody looked up at you with a furrowed brow, clearly not liking the idea of leaving the girl here. “If she doesn’t want to come, we can’t do anything.” You were really jus trying to be practical, even if Cody wanted to carry the girl it would only slow the two of you down. “We can’t do any good if we don’t save ourselves first.” You didn’t lie, if you somehow managed to make it out alive, you would come back for the girl, you would send help, but you weren’t about to stand there and die for someone you didn’t know.

Cody slowly got up and reluctantly nodded as he joined your side. You grabbed Cody by the arm and pulled him through the door, he didn’t take his eyes off the girl the entire time. When the cool air hit you both Cody finally turned around. “Everyone took off that way,” you said, pointing towards the right where the woods were.

“Where the hell are we?” Cody asked.

The two of you stepped away from the box and spun in a circle. A box was the only way to describe what you were kept in; it was literally a giant box made out of stone and metal. There were no windows or ventilation of any kind, if you were all left in there, after a few days you would have all surely suffocated. There was nothing else around, there was a patch of dirt that you had all been standing on when you first arrived, but the rest of the area was just a large grassy field. There wasn’t even an actual dirt path the vehicles drove on, just tire tracks from them driving the same path over and over again.

Both of your heads snapped back towards the woods when you heard a howl echo throughout the air. Your eyes widened, you had never seen a wolf in the wild before but that was most definitely a wolf, though it sounded larger than you expected. A few seconds later a screamed ripped through the air, making your entire body shudder. You didn’t know who the scream belonged to, but you knew it was a man’s scream.

“We need to go,” you said. You weren’t sure why, but every fiber of your body was telling you to run. “We need to go now!” you took off to the woods and only looked back once to see Cody was following your lead.

As the two of you ran for the woods you heard several more howls begin to echo throughout. You weren’t sure where any of them were coming from, it sounded like they were surrounding you, yet nowhere near you. As soon as you hit the woods you came to a stop, every direction looked the same, you weren’t sure how far you were from civilization to begin with. You jumped back, Cody and you grabbing onto each other when you heard a girl’s scream pierce the air next.

“What the hell is going on?” you whispered. You hadn’t seen any of your captors, but you had a feeling this is exactly what they planned.

“Let’s just keep moving,” Cody said.

It was clear he was trying to come off as confident, but you could see the way he was shaking. You nodded and the two of you began making your way through the woods. Unlike the previous night it was now a full moon and lit your surroundings as well as it could, but there were still too many obstacles that prevented the two of you from taking off and running again.

You heard another girl scream, but this time it came from behind you. You and Cody both looked back in the direction you had come, each of your eyes widened when you realized there was only one person in that direction. Cody didn’t hesitate to take back off the way you had just come. “Wait!” you called after him, but nothing seemed to be stopping him. You looked in the direction you had been going and then back to Cody’s disappearing figure, you groaned, internally slapping yourself before turning and taking off after Cody.

You quickly caught up to Cody before he broke through the woods. The two of you slowed down as you approached the box again, the screaming had died down, but you could hear snarling and growling coming from the inside. When you got close enough you could see a large black wolf chomping down on something in the corner. You brought a hand to your mouth when you noticed the pool of blood now coating the floor and the human hand at the wolf’s side.

You must have made some sort of noise because the wolfs head snapped back and glowing yellow eyes were now staring back at you. You stepped back, nearly tripping as you realized it wasn’t a normal wolf at all, it turned around on all fours, but you could see that the creature definitely wasn’t just a wolf. It lunged for you, but Cody slammed the door on it. He kept his back pressed to the door, putting all his weight on it as he tried to keep it closed. Cody’s eyes widened as his feet began to slide and claws slowly started to inch their way out of the door. You shook yourself out of your shock and ran towards Cody, slamming your body into the door. The monster let out a whine as it pulled its claws back in and you and Cody flipped the latch, locking the creature inside.

“What the fuck was that?” you shouted, gesturing at the box. You jumped back when the entire box shook as the monster began throwing itself at the walls and growling.

“Who fucking cares,” Cody said. “We need to go!” He grabbed your arm and the two of you took off back towards the woods. This time neither of you slowed down when you hit the woods, you just kept running, jumping over logs and rocks as they appeared in your path, and ignoring the way the branches smacked you.

There were two more screams just like the others and if they met the same fate as the girl that meant there was only one more girl left and two more guys, plus you and Cody. Your numbers were quickly dwindling, and you were pretty sure you and Cody were the only ones paired up. You weren’t sure if the creature you locked in the box was the only one out there or if there were more, you also weren’t ready to admit to yourself what it was, all you knew was that it wasn’t a normal wolf.

You and Cody kept running until your foot got caught on a branch, sending you tumbling to the ground. You groaned as you pushed yourself up, but your eyes widened when you were met with the face of one of the girls. You scrambled back and snapped your head back when you felt a boot but quickly relaxed when you saw it was only Cody. Cody reached down and helped you back to your feet, neither of your eyes ever leaving the body.

“What the fuck,” Cody whispered. “She was torn apart.” You shook your head, the girls’ lifeless eyes stared up at you, the rest of her was ripped to shreds, her entire stomach look like it had been clawed open and her rib cage was practically ripped in half.

“You think this is from the same one?” you whispered. Almost as soon as the question left your lips you heard another howl, then another, and another, as if they were communicating.

You let out a shaky breath as tears filled your eyes. “They’re hunting us,” you whispered. Cody shook his head as if denying your claim, but he still couldn’t form the words to actually argue against it. You didn’t say it outright, but you implied that the people who captured you were these monsters, and they brought you out here to hunt you down. Which was insane, monsters weren’t real, the Wolfman, all of that, it was just fiction.

“We need to keep moving,” Cody whispered.

You nodded even though you honestly didn’t see the point. You trapped one in the box, but that was only because it was already in there. You weren’t sure how many of these things were out there, you had no weapons, there was no way you could outrun a normal wolf so you highly doubted you would be able to outrun one of these things.

“Come on,” Cody said, and gently led you over the body.

The two of you took of through the woods again, not as fast as you had been moving before but much more careful than previously. You tried to ignore the howls as you ran through the woods, none of them sounded close but for all you knew they were waiting and watching for the perfect time to attack the two of you.

Cody suddenly stopped, making you run into him. You furrowed your brow until you heard a branch crack, making you freeze. Cody scanned one side while you scanned the other, each of you holding your breath. Not even the insects were making a sound, you were just waiting to catch the glimmer of yellow eyes before you saw razor sharp teeth lunging at you again. There was another crack and then more, whatever was coming at you was coming fast. You and Cody both turned when you could determine the direction the sound was coming from only to see one of the guy stumbling out of the woods.

You both jumped back, it was the guy that ran out the door first. He was panting and covered in dirt and blood, you weren’t sure if the blood was his own or someone else’s. He looked around until his eyes landed on the two of you, there were tears streaming down his face. “It killed them,” he sobbed.

“Who?” Cody asked.

“The-the girl,” he pointed off in the direction he had come from, that meant all the girls were dead. “And two of the others,” he shook his head. That meant that there was at least one man still out there, you, Cody, and the man in front of you. You weren’t sure if the guy you heard scream was part of the one’s the man mentioned or if that had been two other men. “It-it just tore them apart.”

“What did?” the man was looking around frantically; you weren’t sure he had even heard Cody’s question. “Hey,” Cody grasped the man by the shoulders and forced him to look at him. “What was it?”

The man was still shaking, and tears were still streaming down his face as he stared right into Cody’s eyes. “Werewolves,” he whispered.

Cody let go of the man, giving him a forceful shove away. “Bullshit.” The man stumbled back but remained upright. “Those aren’t real!”

You stumbled back, grabbing Cody by the arm to pull him with you. Your eyes widened and stared above the man’s head when you saw a large grey wolf standing on his hindlegs as it towered over him. The man choked on a silent sob, seeming to already know what was behind him before he turned around. You and Cody could deny it all you wanted but there was no arguing that standing before you was a werewolf, there was nothing else it could be, despite how insane it sounded.

The werewolf swiped its large claws at the man. The man stumbled slightly as he slowly turned to face the two of you again. He brought a hand to his neck, and you could see blood gushing between his fingers. He opened his mouth trying to speak but nothing came out, nothing needed to though, you could see the word he was trying to form, ‘run’ that was all it seemed Cody needed to grab you by the arm and yank you off in another direction. You looked back over your shoulder to see the werewolf swipe up, impaling its claws through the man’s back before lifting him high in the air. The werewolf let out a monstrous roar and you turned back around, unable to watched what happened next.

As the two of you took off through the woods you heard another scream from a man, not too far away from you. The two of you slid to a stop, the scream came from just in front of you. You tugged on Cody’s arm to drag him to the right, you needed to keep moving, you already knew what awaited you if you continued forward. If your math was right, then you and Cody were most likely the only ones left. There was a small probability of one other guy was still out there, but for all you knew he was already dead, and if he wasn’t dead yet, it was only a matter of time before one of the wolves caught up to him.

The two of you continued to run until you broke through the woods. You slowly came to a stop, furrowing your brow at your surroundings, it was different than where you were previously. There was still a large patch of land but in the center of it was, what you could only describe as, a giant mansion. There was a paved driveway that led to the house, making a giant circle out front and to the right was a giant four car garage. There were no gates or walls around the mansion, it was completely open, and then surrounding the area was woods. It seemed the driveway led to the only road out of this place. You wanted nothing more than to run the entire way, but you knew if you didn’t get a car or weapons of some sort, the two of you would never make it.

You heard more howling, making the two of you turn back to the woods, it sounded like the monsters were all off, still trying to hunt you down, they probably didn’t know the two of you had reached their home. “Let’s go,” Cody said, nodding at the house.

The two of you took off across the lawn as quickly and quietly as you could. You tiptoed up the front steps, you and Cody shared a look before Cody rested his hand on the door handle and gently pushed it open. It was unlocked, meaning they certainly didn’t expect anyone to make it to their home. Cody slipped into the house first with you right behind him, you quietly closed the door as soon as you entered.

You strained your ears, listening for any sort of movement in the house but heard none. The house was gigantic though, so you knew you’d have to be careful, you weren’t sure how many of these people there were still. You followed Cody as he creeped forward, gently pushing open the door to the left before peeking his head in. He looked back at you and gave a small nod, indicating it was all clear.

The two of you moved through the house, checking each room before entering them. You hadn’t run into anyone yet and still had yet to hear a sound. Besides the werewolves hunting you outside, this seemed like a relatively normal mansion, well, as normal as a mansion could be. You finally pushed open the door to what appeared to be an office. Your eyes widened at the large oak desk centered at the back of the room, there were two oak chairs in front of it, then in the middle of the room was an oak coffee table, accompanied by two oak sofa’s, each of the chairs and sofas had matching lush red cushions, and everything looked hand carved.

“Hey, over here,” Cody whispered as he made his way towards one of the cabinets in the room. He tried to open the doors, but they didn’t budge, he groaned as he began searching the surrounding area for what you assumed was a key.

You started to make your way towards Cody when something above the desk caught your eye. You walked past Cody and made your way around the desk. You sucked in a breath as you stared up at the painting hanging on the wall. “Hey, help me look for a key,” Cody said. You were only partially aware of him beside you as he began opening the drawers of the desk. “What’s wrong?” he finally stood up and you could feel his presence behind you.

You were staring at a hand painted family portrait. If you counted right, there were fifteen people in the portrait. Several men and several women, standing side by side in matching outfits. Most of the men were large, anyone of them could have been the ones to grab you off the street. Your eyes landed on one man in the middle of the back row. You pointed your finger at him, as it tried to click in your brain as to how to recognized him.

“That’s the man,” you said. You looked at Cody who scrunched his eyebrows together before looking back at the painting. “He was the one in the back of the van.”

“Are you sure?” Cody asked hesitantly. “You said they were wearing mask.”

“He was but yes.” You turned to face Cody, absolutely confident that that was the man from the van. “He’s got the same stupid smirk,” you flicked a glare at the portrait.

“So, what,” Cody’s furrowed brow only deepened. “This is like some family bullshit? They kidnap us then hunt us down? Like, some weird sort of cult?”

“Like a pack,” you whispered, your eyes widening in realization. You didn’t know how everyone in the portrait was related but based on what you’d already seen tonight, you would say this wasn’t just some psycho family, it was a pack of werewolves, who seemed to like to hunt for their prey under the full moon.

“This is insane!” Cody shook his head.

“I know! But I got nothing else, do you?” Cody just closed his eyes, unable to come up with a better argument.

“There’s weapons over there,” he pointed at the cabinet he was trying to get into before. You looked over to see a large wooden case that had several types of guns and various other weapons locked behind it. “We need a key.”

You nodded and turned to help Cody continue digging through the desk. Eventually you found a small metal key taped under one of the drawers of the desk. You handed it to Cody, giving him a hopeful look. If the key didn’t work you would need to find another way to get the cabinet open, there was no way you’d survive without any weapons. Cody rushed over to the cabinet and after jiggling the key in the lock a few times there was finally a click.

You ran over to the cabinet, swinging both doors open so the both of you could look at everything together. You grabbed one of the shotguns and a box of shells. “Do you know how to use that?” Cody asked.

You opened your mouth then shook your head. “Never really been into guns or hunting,” you admitted.

“Here,” Cody took the shot gun from you. He opened it up and held out his hand and you dropped two shells into his palm. He placed the shells into the barrel of the gun and then flipped it up, snapping it back into place. He pumped the bottom part of the gun; you weren’t sure on the technical name, but you knew from movies that doing that meant as soon as you pulled the trigger the gun would fire. “It’s got two shots,” he handed you back the gun. “Then you’d need to reload. You nodded and slipped the box of shells into your pocket.

“Will any of this even work?” you looked at Cody. He grabbed one of the magazines and placed it into a handgun; after giving it a quick check he slipped it into his waistband. “It’s all we have.” He grabbed another handgun, doing the same thing but this time he handed it to you. You looked down at it before copying Cody’s move and slipped it into your waistband.

Cody pulled open one of the drawers and revealed several types of knives. You each grabbed a large hunting knife and another smaller one you could slip into your pocket. You opened another drawer, and your eyes widened as grenades lined the drawer. You looked at Cody who had the same look as you, you each grabbed a few grenades, and the stuff needed to strap them to your bodies.

Your head snapped up when you heard the creak of a floorboard. You both froze and heard nothing for a second until the floor creaked again. Cody held a finger to his lips and pointed at the door to the right of you. You inched towards the door with Cody following behind, neither of you taking your eyes off the door to the office. You turned the doorknob, flinched at the quiet squeak it made but sounded loud as it echoed throughout the otherwise quiet mansion.

You pushed open the door as quietly as possible and backed into the room. As soon as you turned around your eyes went wide. You stumbled forward when you felt Cody bump into you as he made his way into the room as well. You could hear him suck in a breath, telling you he was seeing the same thing you were. The entire room off the office was filled with werewolf stuff.

The two of you stepped further into the room that seemed to show the history of werewolves, or at the very least this family. There were paintings of various werewolves, none of which looked like the two you saw earlier, based on the clothing of who they were killing they looked older, possibly this family’s ancestors. Each of the paintings involved a werewolf standing over someone, based on the weapons strewn on the ground they were most likely a hunter. There was also a bookcase lining one of the walls and it was stuffed with, not books, but what appeared to be leatherbound journals.

Cody made a noise, making you turn around, he waved you over to a large table in the middle of the room. You furrowed your brow as you joined his side, looking down at the table when you got close enough. Your eyes widened, the table had a large map pinned down, it seemed to be the layout of the land, there was a red dot that you assumed represented the house you were currently in, then surrounding the house, as expected, was nothing but woods, then there was a large patch of land with a small yellow dot, which you assumed represented the box.

You found the driveway and ran your finger down the path, trailing it through the woods, then eventually finally hitting a road, which you followed down until you hit what looked to be a main road. You let out a scoff and shook your head, you were literally miles from civilization, you had to get onto a small two-lane road, then turn down a one lane path that led through the woods, then you would finally hit the driveway that led up to the house. You really need to find a car to get out of there otherwise the two of you would be walking for hours.

You felt Cody brush your shoulder and you looked to see him sliding photos and documents across the table. You scrunched your eyebrows together, they weren’t just any normal photos, they were photos of you, and everyone else that they had grabbed. The photos were taken from far away, like they just snapped the picture while you were walking down the street or coming out of a store. You noticed there was a single page document on each of you, each of the papers said the same things, some basic details about where to find each of you, what your patterns were, and that none of you had any family.

You shook your head and walked away from the table, needing a minute to process everything. It was one thing to suspect how well they planned everything; it was another to see all their plans and researched laid out on a table in front of you. You ended up making your way over to one of the walls that had the largest painting of a werewolf, it was standing tall, it had dark grey fur, its arms rested at its side, but the black claws glinted in the moonlight, and its glowing yellow eyes stared down at you, with the moon being partially blocked by the beast standing so tall. Unlike the other paintings this one didn’t have any bodies around the werewolf, it was just the creature itself, standing tall and imposing.

You noticed a little golden plaque at the bottom of the painting. The plaque had the name ‘Edward Whalen’ etched into it. Underneath the name plaque was another one, this one was slightly bigger and has an inscription on it as well. You bent down to get a better view, your eyes scanned over it and learned Edward was a rather infamous werewolf a long time ago, he was the original leader of this pack, known to be the biggest and strongest of all the wolves. As you read on you learned Edward was slain by a hunter, who used a spear to kill him.

You looked down at the case and noticed a painting of the man who seemed to be the hunter. There was a knife and a few other items that looked like they would have belonged to that period of time. You looked to the right where there was another display case, this one talked about how the rest of the pack hunted down the hunter and killed him. You nodded, those were definitely his actual items in the other case. You looked up to see there was a large spear mounted to the wall next to the painting of Edward, the little gold plaque under it confirmed it was the spear the hunter had used to kill Edward.

“We need to get out of here,” Cody whispered. You nodded and followed Cody to a door you hoped led back out into the hall and not to another room.

You held your breath as you turned the doorknob and waited, listening for any sort of movement. You hadn’t heard anything since the floors creaked, you figured that was just the house settling, it was old, those types of homes made noises all the time. When you heard nothing you both slipped into the hall, staying back-to-back as you check both ends, making sure it was all clear. The two of you slowly made your way down the hall towards the other end of the mansion where you knew the garage was located. You both froze as you passed the main entry when you heard a howl. You waited and listened, it still seemed like the wolves were out in the woods.

You continued to make your way through the mansion, eventually getting to the garage. You opened the door, your eyes widened, as it was in fact, filled with four vehicles. The two vans all of you had been tossed in weren’t there, you weren’t sure where they kept those. The garage was filled with two large SUV’s and two large trucks.

“Which one?” you asked.

Cody shrugged and pointed to one of the trucks. While Cody dug through the little key box on the wall to search for the correct key set you ran around to the passenger side. As soon as Cody unlocked the truck, you hopped in, and Cody jumped in the driver’s seat a few seconds later. He hit the garage door button and began backing up before it was up all the way.

Cody whipped the truck around and began speeding down the driveway. Before you could hit the edge of the woods a large brown werewolf dropped down in front of you. Cody jerked the wheel, making the truck swerve, trying to avoid the werewolf. It was no use though, the werewolf jumped onto the hood, and smashed it’s clawed hand through the windshield. You pushed yourself against the door, trying to avoid the claws and smacked around for your knife until your hands finally wrapped around the hilt. You stabbed the knife through the creature’s palm, making it let out a pained howl. Cody jerked the wheel back and forth, trying to regain control until you slammed into a tree, pinning the werewolf between the truck and tree.

The werewolf arched its back, letting out another howl. Cody slammed his foot down on the gas, pushing the werewolf harder against the tree. “Gun!” he shouted.

You struggled but you lifted the shotgun and stuck it out of the newly shatter windshield, aiming it right at the creature’s head. You pulled the trigger, the kickback making you groan as it pushed you back against the seat. The werewolf’s head snapped back, both of you held your breath as you watched the blood and chunks of fur drop down onto the hood. The werewolf slowly lowered it’s head, acting as if half its face wasn’t blown off by the blast, and then then it let out a growl right in your faces. You raised the gun again and fired at his head once again. Its head snapped back again but it slowly lowered it and showed all its teeth as it snarled.

“Go!” Cody shouted, already opening his door as he bailed out of the car. You followed his lead, running around the truck as you reloaded the shotgun just as Cody showed you. The two of you could only stand there as the werewolf gripped both sides of the truck, its claws digging into the metal as it began to push the vehicle away. Your eyes widened; it was slowly rolling back, but it was only a matter of time before the werewolf was free, then two of you would be dead.

Cody raised his gun and began firing at the gas tank on the car. You saw a few bullets go into the car but only gasoline poured out, nothing caught on fire. “Fuck!” Cody said.

A large grey werewolf jumped into the bed of the truck. Both of you stumbled back, your eyes now on the newcomer. All of them probably heard the howls of the one pinned, it was only a matter of time before they all showed up. The grey wolf looked to the one pinned and you could swear its eyes darkened as it slowly turned its head towards the two of you and let out a snarl.

You reached around and grabbed one of the grenades strapped to you. You looked down at it, pulled the pin and threw it. The grenade landed in the bed, making the werewolf look down. A second later the grenade blew, the reaction causing the back of the truck to explode, the bit of gas that leaked onto the ground catching fire. The grey werewolf caught fire and was slashing around its claws, trying to put itself out. Almost instantly the fire traveled to the front of the truck and blew up, setting the wolf that was pinned on fire as well.

The two of you could only stand there as you watched the truck along with two werewolves burn. The one pinned to the tree eventually slumped forward and the one in the bed fell forward out of the truck. Both of them were left unmoving in burning heaping lumps of flesh. You felt Cody grabbing at you and you turned and ran back into the house where the garage door was still open.

As soon as you got back inside Cody closed the garage door again. You furrowed your brow; you figured you were just going to grab another vehicle. “We’ll never make it,” Cody said. “Not with them still out there,” he pointed towards the outside. “We need to kill them.”

You let out a humorless chuckle. “Did you not see what it took to kill those two?” you asked. “I shot one in the face, twice!”

“And fire worked!”

“There’s at least thirteen left.” Cody furrowed his brow, you just shrugged. There were fifteen people in the family portrait and now two of the werewolves were dead, assuming there weren’t others in the pack and the entire family was out there tonight that meant there were thirteen left. “How can we possibly kill all of them?”

“We need a big explosion.” Cody looked up; his mind looked like it was running a mile a minute as his eyes darted around the garage. “There!” he pointed to a few gas cannisters. “We can pour this around the house, then light it up and…” he made an exploding motion with his hands.

You nodded, blowing up the entire house with them inside would certainly work. At the very least it might weaken them enough that a shot gun to the head would kill them. “That only works if they’re all in the house,” you pointed out.

Cody nodded. “They had to have heard all that,” he gestured towards the outside again. “It’s only a matter of time before they come running.”

You nodded and the two of you got to work, knowing you wouldn’t have much time. You each took two gas cannisters and began walking towards the door. The doorknob started to move as soon as you approached it. You dropped the cannisters and slammed your body into the door, closing it on whoever was on the other side. You stayed like that for a moment, tilting your head as you listened for movement on the other side.

A hard forced slammed into the door pushing it open. You gritted your teeth as you pushed back trying to keep the beast at bay. You screamed at you felt something sharp pierce your side, you looked down to see your shirt torn and blood already beginning to soak through. You didn’t have time to dwell on it though because on the other side of you a claws had burst through the door. You saw Cody flinch, raising his hand to block the woodchips flying at him. You saw Cody’s eyes widen before you felt something sharp stab you in the shoulder.

You were pulled through the door and dragged through the hall. “No!” you heard Cody scream as you were dragged further away from him.

You kicked your feet trying to catch yourself on something. You tried punching back at the beast, but it only made it dig its teeth into you further. You reached down and felt the hilt of the smaller knife you had grabbed earlier. You brought the knife up, stabbing blindly until you heard the creature let out a whine, finally releasing its hold on you.

The wolf was whipping its head around and then suddenly an axe came down, slicing right through the top of the creature’s head. Blood gushed from the wound, dripping down on to you. You felt a hand grab you and yank you back to your feet. You saw Cody looking at you with concerned eyes. You jumped when you heard something flop to the ground, you looked down to see the werewolf dead, an axe sticking out of its head. You then noticed you had stabbed the knife right through its eye, you bent down and pulled it out, swiping the blood on your jeans.

“Oh god,” Cody whispered. You turned to see him looking you over. You let out a hiss when his finger brushed over the wound on your shoulder. “Sorry.” You looked over to see blood was now soaking through your shirt over your shoulder and through the tears you could see the puncture marks of where it dug its teeth into. “Are you okay?”

You looked up, meeting Cody’s eyes. You could feel your hair sticking to your forehead and your body suddenly felt much more exhausted than a moment ago. “I’m fine,” you brushed it off. “Let’s end this.”

Cody looked at you for a moment then reluctantly nodded. You followed him back to the garage and picked up your cannisters again. “I’ll take the upstairs,” Cody nodded to the staircase.

You nodded and picked up your cannister and began pouring. You started at the garage and made your way down the hallway. You made sure to open the rooms you passed and pour some gasoline in there as well, though you didn’t enter the rooms all the way. When you got to the staircase you saw them already soaked with gas. You looked up at the balcony to see Cody making his way down the hall.

“Hey,” Cody whispered. “Look for a lighter.”

You nodded and continued on your way down the hall. You sat the can down when you got to the kitchen. You had already ransacked the office, so you knew there was no lighter there, the only other logical place would be the kitchen. You entered the kitchen, slightly taken aback by how large it was, there was a dining room with a large wood table off to the left of it. You shook your head and began digging around until you finally came up with a lighter.

You smirked to yourself as you twirled the lighter around on your finger. When you looked up you were met with glowing yellow eyes staring back at you through the window. You dropped to the floor just as its arm shot through the window, shattering the glass. You flipped open the cabinet under the sink and dug through it until you found a cleaning spray. You slid to the side and stood up, you raised the spray can and pressed the top, spraying the werewolf in the face. It shook its head, but you raised the lighter, clicking it a few times until a flame appeared, instantly igniting the spray and creating a small flamethrower.

The werewolf backed away from the window, clawing at it’s face but you knew that wasn’t enough to kill it, it wasn’t even enough to catch it on fire. You didn’t waste time as you ran over and opened the oven. You turned the knobs on the stove, making sure to turn everything on but not ignite the gas. You then hit the button to start heating up the oven even though the door was open. You dug around through the drawers again and pulled out all the silverware you could get your hands around, you shoved it all in the microwave and shoved the cleaning spray in there as well and slammed the door shut.

The door that led outside burst open and the werewolf stomped in, standing on its hindlegs. You hit the popcorn button and ducked down, barely catching sight of the werewolf snapping its head in your direction. The werewolf stomped around the island, and you ducked out of the way, making your way out the door. You looked back to see the werewolf look at the microwave just as it began to spark and make a popping sound. You slammed the door shut and took cover. A second later there was a loud explosion and a howl of pain. What followed was another bigger explosion that blew the door apart, sending wood pieces raining down on you.

You pushed yourself off the floor and peaked your head back in the kitchen, seeing everything charred black, small fires still going on the wood surfaces, and a werewolf laying dead and burnt on the ground. You picked up the gasoline cannister again, silently thankful the explosion wasn’t big enough to ignite what you had already poured.

You made your way into the office and actually poured a trail of gas all around the room. You dumped some on the desk and tossed some on the family portrait. You then made your way into the history or trophy room and poured more gas all around the room. You made sure to toss gas on each and every single one of the paintings and a good amount on the table with the map and all the files on you and the others.

You stopped at the display with the spear one last time. You weren’t sure why, but you ripped the spear off the wall. You figured if the spear was actually used to kill a werewolf before then it would surely work again. You poured the remainer of the gas out as you entered the hallway again. You dropped the cannister when you heard Cody scream.

You ran to the entryway and saw Cody on the balcony with a large werewolf standing over him. The werewolf raised its paw and swiped Cody across the chest, making him let out another yell.

“Hey!” you called out, but the werewolf didn’t even look at you. You reached for the handgun Cody gave you and fired, aiming for any part of the werewolf you could hit.

The werewolf whipped it’s head around and glared down at you. It seemed to forget about Cody as it stood up on two legs and launched itself over the railing. You fell to the ground as the creature landed on top of you, dropping the spear in the process. You turned your head as the wolf roared in your face. You pinched your eyes shut, preparing for the tearing of your flesh to begin but it never came.

You slowly turned your head and opened your eyes to see the werewolf still above you, tilting its head as it stared down at you. You let out a shaky breath as the creature raised its paw and gently pulled back your collar with its claw. The werewolf leaned forward and took a good whiff. You weren’t sure why it hadn’t killed you yet, you searched its face, it opened its mouth in what you could only describe as a smile.

You fumbled around until you could wiggle the shot gun out from under you and slide it around to your front. You raised the shot gun up, pressing it under the werewolf’s head. It looked down at you, so the barrel of the gun was directly under its chin. You stared into its yellow eyes and pulled the trigger, sending chunks of werewolf raining down on you. Its body slumped to the side and your grip on the shotgun only tightened. You looked over to see it was in fact dead. You guessed that at such a close range the werewolf couldn’t survive having its head half blown off. You wiggled out from underneath the creature the rest of the way and grabbed the spear.

You whipped around when you heard Cody stumbling down the stairs. You caught him, wrapping an arm around his waist and one of his around your shoulder so he didn’t collapse. “We’re not done yet,” Cody said through gritted teeth. “Down there,” he pointed to one of the doors.

“Let me,” you said. “You’re too weak.”

Cody shook his head. “I’m fine.” He stumbled as he moved away from you and let out a long groan as he picked up his second cannister. He shuffled on his feet towards the door and opened it, revealing a staircase that descended down into the dark.

You rolled your eyes as you went and grabbed your second cannister. You knew there would be no arguing with Cody, you would just have to make sure he didn’t bleed out. You followed him down the stairs into the darkness, making sure to pour the gasoline as you made your descent. As soon as your feet his the ground you brought a hand to your nose, even the gasoline wasn’t strong enough to cover up the wretched scent that was the entire basement.

There were flickering lights lighting the way as you pour gasoline behind you. You bumped into Cody when he suddenly came to a stop. You turned around, your eyes widening at the sight of cages lining one side of the room. You weren’t sure how you didn’t hear them before but there were five wolves, each of them locked in a cage. They were pacing back and forth, snarling and snapping at you and Cody.

“Keep going,” you said, nodding at Cody.

He got to moving and you each poured more gasoline, making sure to toss some into the cells, watching as the locked-up werewolves flinched away and growled at the intrusion. You weren’t sure what made these werewolves different, why they were locked up if the others got to roam free. Assuming these five were part of the same family, you began counting in your head, by your math there were only five werewolves still running around somewhere.

A large force hit you, sending you flying back. You coughed as it knocked the wind out of you. You pushed yourself up on your forearms to see a large werewolf standing in front of you. “Hey!” Cody shouted and fired his shotgun at the back of the monster’s head.

The werewolf smacked its arm back, not even looking as it hit Cody, sending him flying into a brick wall. Cody slumped to the ground, his shotgun falling to his side. You had just begun to pull yourself to your feet when the werewolf turned around and dug its claws into Cody’s gut. Cody tried to let out a scream, but it was more of a cough as he began to gag and spit up blood.

“No!” you yelled. You didn’t even think as your grip around the spear tightened and you ran to Cody. You jumped, raising the spear high and shoved it through the werewolf back, impaling it through the heart, and coming out the other side.

The werewolves in the cells began to howl and throw themselves at the bars of their cages as the werewolf slumped forward. You dropped down next to Cody, pressing your hands to his wounds to try and stop the bleeding. Cody coughed again, spitting up more blood.

“You need to go,” Cody rasped out.

“No,” you said, shaking your head. “I’m not leaving you.”

Cody’s bloody hand dropped onto yours, making you look up at him. “I’m done.” Tears filled your eyes, and you shook your head, this couldn’t be the end, you almost made it, the two of you needed to make it out. “I can at least do this.” You furrowed your brow then you looked down when you felt his hand move, you followed his hand as he reached for a grenade.

“No,” you reached up, covering his hand holding the grenade.

“You have to go.” He blinked his eyes a few times, you could see how hard he was fighting to stay conscious. “This has to be worth it.” You buried your head in his chest and shook your head, this was exactly why you didn’t want to care about the others. “I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”

You looked up at Cody one more time before pulling away. “I’m sorry,” you whispered.

“Go,” he ordered, getting weaker with each breath. As soon as you started backing away, he pulled the pin from the grenade but didn’t let go of it, he couldn’t risk it blowing until you were out, and the remaining wolves were in the house. “Hey!” he yelled with a burst of energy. “I’m down here!” he lifted his handgun with his other hand, despite all the shaking he fired a few rounds, hitting one of the wolves in the cell, making them cry out.

You wiped your tears on your sleeve as you realized what he was doing. You ran across the room and hid on the side of the wall when you heard the pounding of something big running down the stairs. You pressed yourself against the wall as you watched one wolf run into the basement, then another, then another, then another. Four. There were now four wolves in the basement, the last ones left. You looked back just as Cody pointed his gun at the incoming wolves, firing more rounds, even though he knew it wouldn’t stop them.

You took the opportunity, knowing Cody was buying you as much time as he could to run up the stairs. You heard an explosion just as you reached the top of the stairs, you didn’t look back, you could feel the heat of the flames as the fire quickly spread. You burst out the front door, not bothering to close it behind you. You barely got away from the house before a bigger explosion happened, the force of it sending you flying further away from the house and into the grass.

You stumbled as you stood up again, watching as the entire mansion was ablaze. You could hear the cries of the remaining werewolves as they slowly burned alive. You reached for your wounded shoulder, not even flinching when your fingers brushed over where the wound should be. You pulled your collar down to see the bite mark was still there but had completely healed. Your eyes widened and you lifted your shirt, only to see the gash that you had gotten was also healed. You shook your head and turned away from the burning house, you couldn’t think about what this could possibly mean as you began your long walk down the driveway.

“Eventually I stumbled upon a gas station,” you said, blinking away the tears that had started to fall during your story. “There was a bathroom around back and used it to clean myself up. Jumped in the back of a pickup as it left the station.”

You looked over to see Joey nodding, seeming to process your story. “That’s how you became…” she said but unable to finish her sentence.

You nodded. “Tried to pretend everything was fine, acted like everything was normal, and it was normal, for about a month, until…”

“The full moon.”

You nodded. “I had no idea what was happening to me. I was walking home from work when…”

You stumbled out of the bar. You had gotten a job at a different place because even though you were only gone twenty-four hours, as you had suspected, your boss had replaced you. You didn’t know what was wrong as you gripped the edge of a dumpster, you felt like you were burning up and you had been irritable all day. Customers were always jerks but for some reason you seemed to have a short fuse today.

There was a pounding in your head, making you bring a hand to it, trying to ease the ache. You pulled your hand away when you felt something sharp scratch your scalp. Your eyes widened when you held your hand out and you saw claws where your fingernails should be. You pulled away from the dumpster when you saw that hand looked the exact same. You shook your head and ran down the alley.

“No, no, no,” you mumbled to yourself. “This can’t be happening.” You tripped as you tried to cross the road, your ankle snapping in a direction it wasn’t meant to go.

You pushed your way forward, dragging your broken angle with you as more of your bones snapped. You eventually made it to the closest bit of woods you could find and collapsed to your knees. You pressed your palms into the ground, your eyes watching as your claws dug into the dirt. “No!” your growled out, your back arching as it snapped, forcing you to look up directly at the full moon.

The werewolf that stood over you played through your mind, it had peeled back your shirt, it saw the bite healed, it knew. You had been bitten and now you were one of them. Tears streamed down your face as more of your bones broke and reformed until everything went black.

You groaned as you rolled over, slowly opening your eyes only to raise a hand to block the sun shining down on you. You were squinting as you tried to get your eyes to adjust, the last thing you remembered was leaving work. You looked down and scrunched your eyebrows at the sight of leaves and twigs under you.  You brought a hand to your head, trying to remember what happened. Bones breaking flashed through your mind, you jolted backwards when you remembered your hands having claws.

You raised your hands to see they were back to normal, but they were covered in blood. You looked down, seeing the rest of your body was stained with dried blood. You shook your head as tears filled your eyes, you had hurt someone, you became one of those monsters and hurt someone. You collapsed forward, pressing your forehead into the ground as your fingers dug into the back of your head, you just wanted to wake up from this nightmare.

You froze when you heard the sound of a shotgun. You held your breath as you felt the barrel of the gun rest against the back of your head. You slowly lifted your head and came face to face with the barrel of the gun. Past the gun was a blonde woman, wearing jeans and a leather jacket, her eyes were unforgiving and trained on you.

“Please,” you whispered. Tears continued to fall from your eyes as you leaned forward, putting your forehead directly against the gun. “Please,” you pleaded as your body shook with sobs. You didn’t know who this woman was, but you wanted her to pull the trigger, you deserved it, you couldn’t live like this, you couldn’t hurt people like the monsters who hurt you. “Please.”

“That was Grace,” Joey concluded. You nodded, neither of you talked about that day but it never left your mind, you would never forget begging Grace to end it all. “But she didn’t shoot.”

You shook your head again, wiping away one of the tears that had started to fall. “Said she saw something in me,” you said with a little shrug. You still weren’t sure what made Grace save you, she had no reason to. She came across a monster covered in blood, and she should have put a bullet in their head, but she didn’t. “She took me in and said she’d help me.”

“And you’ve been with her ever since.”

You nodded. “I owe Grace everything,” you looked over at Joey.  “She saved me.”

You suddenly stood up, wiping your eyes as you refused to look at Joey again. “Now you know,” you looked down at the floor. “That’s my story.” Joey still hadn’t said anything, and you weren’t sure you wanted her to, you weren’t sure you could handle whatever she had to say. “I’ll send Grace in; she can take you home.” You knew there was no way Joey would want to be alone in a car with you ever again.

You made your way across the room and rested your hand on the entryway as you glanced back, but not enough to actually look at Joey. “I understand you probably never want to see me again,” you cleared your throat, you couldn’t breakdown again. “But it was an honor working with you, anyone would be lucky to have you as an employee or a partner.” You quickly left the room, not waiting to see if she’d respond as you went to get Grace.

Taglist: @thinking1bee @so-to-aqui-pelas-fic @alexkolax @thatshyboy1998 @chxrry-lov3

@bella423 @morganismspam23 @pianogirl2121