#I eagerly await having my own bed and stuff because it was all pretty new | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

starryeyedweeb · 4 years ago

Text

Valentine’s Day with BNHA

A/N: I know it’s late for Valentine’s Day, but this is about the fifth time I’ve tried posting this because every other time it never got a single note even though all of my other stuff does pretty well??? So not to be that person, but if you see this I’m begging you to give it some love because it’s one of my favorites!

*DISCLAIMER*: As I’m over eighteen, I write all underaged characters aged up to be eighteen or older.

Contains: As always, sickly-sweet fluff; gender-neutral

Characters Included: Todoroki Shoto, Bakugou Katsuki, Yaoyorozu Momo, Shigaraki Tomura, Dabi/Todoroki Touya, Aizawa Shota

Valentine’s Day with...

Bakugou Katsuki

As expected, Bakugou thinks that Valentine’s Day is kind of ridiculous and isn’t too keen on celebrating

When his friends ask him what he’s planned for the holiday, it results in a bit of a rant

“Valentine’s is a shitty holiday for shitty partners to try and make up for being shitty. I take them on dates and spoil them all the time, so why should I make a big deal about a random day in February?”

But because he wasn’t a shitty partner, he knows he has to do something for you

“Oi, do you want to go hiking?” he asks shortly on Valentine’s morning, already dressed for the occasion. “We can go to that spot you’ve wanted see for a while.”

You agree- eagerly.

You honestly weren’t the biggest fan of hiking until you started dating Bakugou, who’s obsessed with it

It’s like meditation to him- one of the best ways for him to find a calm and clear mindset- and the two of you always have your best conversations when you’re out on a hike

Plus he looks amazing in his hiking clothes

The trail in question is further outside the city than most, and when you arrive, it’s pleasantly deserted

With backpacks swung over your shoulders, the two of you start down the rough path, which cuts through a thick forest

When you first started hiking, you could barely keep up with Bakugou, but you had gotten much better at it over time and are now able to comfortably keep pace with him, even holding his hand part of the time

The trail is mainly uphill, though, and periodically he will all but force a water bottle into your hands

“Get a drink. I don’t want you getting all dehydrated on me.”

When you reach the peak of the trail, which is a flat clearing overlooking the city below, Bakugou indicates for you to sit down and pulls out two bento boxes that he had packed prior to the event

Though there’s nothing heart-shaped nor unnaturally red or pink inside, the box is sweetly filled with all of your favorite bento foods

And of course, they all taste amazing

“Katsuki, this is so good!”

“I know.”

“Come on.” You playfully push his arm, feeling his muscles rippling beneath his jacket. “Seriously, though, thank you. Life has been so crazy lately, and this little break was perfect.”

“So you’re not upset we didn’t do anything more, I don’t know...” he trails off, furrowing his brow and running a hand through his hair, “...on theme?”

“Of course not. Stuff like that is for shitty partners who use a holiday as an excuse to make up for being shitty. They’ll go right back to their behavior the moment the day is over.” You interlace your fingers in his and hold his arm with your free hand. “This was perfect.”

Bakugou can’t resist a smirk and short chuckle at your sentiment, realizing exactly why he’s with you

“Hey, what’s that look for?”

“Nothing.” He shakes his head. “Kiss.”

You reach up and press your lips to his, and his arms wrap around your body, holding you close

When you pull away, you cast a glance out at the tranquil cityscape below and reluctantly check the time.

“Do you think we should head back down?” you ask.

“No. I want to stay here a little while longer.”

Todoroki Shoto

As one of the top heroes, Todoroki Shoto is a hard man to get alone, but you have high hopes for Valentine’s Day.

On the morning of February 14, the two of you check into the luxury hotel he had booked for a romantic staycation, awaiting an entire day of activities planned around the resort: lunch and dinner reservations, a couple’s massage, seeing the hotel’s nightly show...

Only for it to all be completely foiled before it even starts when Shoto gets an urgent call about a villain incident gone badly wrong, with as many heroes as possible desperately needed to help.

“Go ahead and do everything we had planned,” he urges as he’s leaving, rushing through a parting kiss. “I’ll be right back.”

But you know that it’s not going to be as simple as “I’ll be right back.”

The moment the door shuts behind him, you can’t help but turn on the TV and flip to the news, trying to find out just what Shoto had gotten himself into

The danger of the situation makes you sick with anxiety, and you have to turn it off almost immediately for the sake of your own sanity

Trying to follow his wishes, you go through the motions of the day you had planned, but instead of reaping the intended benefits of rest and relaxation, your brain is completely clouded with worry for Shoto’s safety

Which is only amplified when the hotel lobby has the news on with a crowd of people clumped together before it to see what’s going on, and the receptionist approaches you to ask if you’re alright

Dark falls with no sign of Shoto, but your heart leaps when you get the news notification that the battle is over

You turn the news back on for live coverage of the heroes that participated being interviewed about the events, but your stomach knots once again when you see no sign of Shoto

They haven’t mentioned any casualties, you wonder, but have they missed him or something?

When a knock echoes throughout the room, a cold feeling of dread washes over your body

You freeze and merely stare at the door, sure you’re about to receive the news that’s the worst nightmare of any partner of a hero

Until the door opens, and reveals Shoto holding a bouquet the size of his torso, looking a bit battered but otherwise alright

You launch yourself across the room, and he drops the flowers to engulf you in his arms

“God, Shoto,” you sob. “No matter how long I’ve been with you, waiting and worrying never gets any easier.”

“I know, I know,” he murmurs back, stroking your hair. “But I’m here now. I’m fine. I ran here the moment I could get away.”

When you finally allow him to pull away, he hands you the flowers, and you call room service for a vase and a first-aid kit

You sit Shoto on the bed and tend to his minor wounds, then order some of your favorite comfort foods for a very late dinner

Shoto is never one to discuss his missions right after the fact, so instead you just talk about nonsense things, like the most recent episode of your favorite show to watch together, and where the two of you wanted to go on your next vacation

Afterward, the two of you lay in the dark, so tangled together that it’s nearly impossible to tell who’s whom

Neither of you are tired at all, realizing fully that the privilege of getting to hold each other like you are was almost taken away that day

You feel your eyes start to well up at just how much you love the man next to you, realizing how much you need him

Shoto seems to sense that you’re going to a dark place, so he traces his fingers lightly against your cheek and breaks the silence.

“I forgot to tell you. I extended our stay here so we can still celebrate like we were planning to. I’m sorry I had to go today.”

“Shoto, you don’t have to be sorry.” You cup his cheek back, a few tears spilling out of your eyes as they meet his. “I’m just so glad you’re safe and that you’re here with me.”

Yaoyorozu Momo

Recently, an adorable little paint-your-own-pottery studio had opened on yours and Momo’s route home

You two had always meant to go for a fun date, but never really had the time, so when a Valentine’s event is announced, you both leap at the opportunity and reserve your spots right away

When Valentine’s Day arrives, you and Momo show up half an hour early for the event, wearing coordinating shades of red and pink

Laughing at your accidental matching, the two of you kill the time until the event begins by taking a million photos together

When the doors to the shop open and you’re finally allowed in, Momo’s eyes nearly pop out of her head in excitement, and you just know it’s going to become a regular date spot for the two of you

The shop is decorated like a romantic tea shop straight out of a cheesy movie, with lace doilies marking work stations, faux roses as centerpieces, and red, white, and pink balloons covering the ceiling

The special event involves painting spindly teacups with handles shaped like hearts, the workstations supplied with punch and sweets, all colored and shaped for the holiday

“Look at these!” She exclaims, picking up the ceramic cup at her workstation. “What should we paint on them?”

“Why don’t we do a matching design?” you suggest. “That way we can remember this even better.”

“Yes, let’s do that!” she agrees. “What design should we do, then?”

You two decide to keep it simple: paint the mugs solid baby pink, stamp tiny red hearts all around, and then Momo would use her elegant handwriting and paint both of your initials in calligraphy on one of the faces.

You ready your stations and sit shoulder-to-shoulder as you work, chatting and giggling the entire time, occasionally nudging each other playfully with your legs

“Could you hold the cup at this angle for me while I do the calligraphy?” she requests, which gives you an excuse to sit even closer to her, the scent of her rosy perfume engulfing you

“I wish I had handwriting like that,” you whine, watching her paint the graceful swirls of your initials, followed by the date below.

“I can teach you,” she offers, coming to stand behind you. “Here.”

She puts her hand over yours, and guides it along in the shape of the letters, her free arm looping around the front of your shoulders in a casual hug

“See? You’ve done it!”

“It still doesn’t look nearly as good as yours.”

“Well, my heart stamps don’t look nearly as good as yours. I don’t think I applied enough pressure.” She returns to her own seat, stares at you for a few moments, then giggles. “Speaking of, you’ve got paint on your face. Come here.”

You lean forward so she can wipe off the paint with a gentle touch, and she places a kiss on the now-clean spot.

“There. All better.”

When the two of you finish painting the mugs, you turn them into the counter so they can be finished in the kiln, then sit by the window of the shop to enjoy your sweets while you wait

“I’m very excited about these cups,” Momo says, reaching out for your hand. “They’ll be a lovely little keepsake.”

“Me, too,” you agree, resting your head on her shoulder. “It’ll be nice to have tea in them every evening.”

“Exactly. And if there’s ever a time when we have to be separated, whether it be for hero work or some other reason, we can bring our cups with us to remember that the other is always there, waiting to come have tea together.”

Shigaraki Tomura:

Despite his villainous ideals, in romance, Shiggy is actually quite sweet, if not a little clumsy

When you first became close to him, his unhealthy lifestyle and lack of self-care worried you, so you made a habit of cooking for Shigaraki, and leaving a week’s worth of nutritious meals in the League’s fridge for him

He had never revealed this to you, but he appreciated it so much, and wanted to return the favor

When Toga mentioned something about Valentine’s Day, he knew that it was his perfect opportunity, and made his plans by ordering everyone of the League to get out and stay out for the night

He then did some research about something good to make you, wracking his brain to try and remember what you’ve mentioned liking, until he remembers a very important fact:

He can’t cook.

At all.

Has never even once tried.

Which poses an obvious problem.

He panicked for a few moments, until he landed on a new, and possibly better, idea

When you arrive for the date, dressed comfortably (because, as much as you love Shigaraki, you know that there’s no way you’ll be going out for Valentine’s Day), you’re a little bit surprised to find him standing in the kitchen

“Shiggy?” You approach the counter warily. “What are we doing tonight?”

“I can’t cook. I want to know how.”

“You want me to teach you how to cook?”

“Yes. I want to know how to make your favorite meal.”

“Okay. That’s simple enough.” You make to join him in the kitchen, but he blocks your path.

“No. I want to make this for you. Just sit down and...tell me what to do.”

That proves to be quite a bit more difficult, as you never truly understood just how hard it would be to explain cooking to someone that has never used more than a microwave before

The music you had put on in the background was quickly drowned out by his frustrated swears, and you can tell that there are times when he almost loses his temper, but holds it together for the sake of your Valentine’s gift

A couple of utensils do fall victim to his decay, though, and he subtly tries to sweep the remains away in embarrassment.

At one point, his poor knife technique leaves a decently sized cut on his finger, and you jump into action, running for a First-Aid kit

“I’m not a child,” he mutters as you clean the small wound, avoiding your eyes.

“I know,” you reply lightly, pressing a playful kiss to the bandage you had just secured.

As Shigaraki comes close to finishing the meal, you raid Kurogiri’s stores for your favorite bottle of wine, pouring two glasses and setting them out on the table.

“Does this look right?” Shigaraki asks once the final timer goes off, warily holding out his creation.

“You tell me,” you answer. “I’ve made this for you before. It looks the same to me.”

When the two of you sit down and portion out the meal, Shigarki neglects his own plate as he watches you take your first bite

You fight to keep your face neutral, because honestly, it’s god awful, even though you had been right there the whole time, telling him exactly what to do

But you really didn’t expect anything more from a first time-cook, and even though the flavor is completely wrong, you still enjoy it, because you can practically taste how much this prickly mass-murderer actually cares for you

And as twisted as your situation is, you wouldn’t change it for the world

“Is it good?” Shigaraki mumbles from across the table, pulling you from your thoughts.

You take a sip of your wine. “Thank you so much, Tomura. This was such a thoughtful gift. I really appreciate it.”

“I knew it. It’s shit.” He pushes his own plate away in frustration. “I just wanted to pay back a favor and I can’t even do that right.”

“Shig, what did I just say? I appreciate this so much.” You round the table to his seat, rubbing his shoulders and planting a kiss on the top of his head. “Of course your first attempt doesn’t work. But that gives us something new to do together. For tonight, we’ll order some takeout, but starting tomorrow, I’ll give you another cooking lesson, and then another, and another, and another... as many as it takes until you can make a whole meal for me by yourself. Deal?”

He meets your gaze with a puppy-dog expression, placing his palms over where your hands rested on his chest.

“Deal.”

Dabi/Todoroki Touya:

Let’s just say that Dabi isn’t one to ignore traditions.

He’s one to very openly and dramatically oppose them.

You were anxious if not a little worried to see what he was going to have planned for Valentine’s Day- but, honestly, as his partner, you’re equally as unconventional in your own ideals

And he doesn’t disappoint, coming home with tickets to a ghost tour at the most haunted spot in town.

“Do they even do these on Valentine’s Day?”

“Obviously. That’s when I got the tickets for.” He shrugs. “Apparently it’s a thing that people do.”

“Hopefully not very many people. You know how we hate crowds.”

“And hopefully it’s not overtly themed for this asinine holiday.” He takes your waist and whispers the next words in your ear. “The idea of a dark room and an invisible audience is romantic enough.”

“Oh, stop it.”

“I just made you more excited, didn’t I?”

“You’ll have to wait until the day to find out.”

When Valentine’s Day arrives, you dress for the occasion and meet Dabi at a glamorous hotel in an older part of town

Before the tour begins, the guide allows the guests to go to the bar for some drinks, and begin to tell the story of the hotel and the paranormal activity that had sparked the attraction

Dabi seems uninterested, taking in the architecture of the historic buidling and peering down random hallways

“I’m getting bored of this,” he mutters in your ear. “I’m ready to see something interesting.”

“Shh, Dabi, I’m trying to listen,” you whisper back.

He responds by pinching your ass. “So, are you in a naughty mood tonight? Noted.”

“Stop it,” you mutter, lightly pushing him away, but your flushed skin is a dead giveaway to how you truly feel about the situation.

When the tour actually starts, you and Dabi round out the end of the group as it descends into a long, dark hallway.

Eventually, you feel Dabi’s hand leave its spot around your waist, but you’re so distracted listening the tour guide tell stories at the front to even notice.

Until cold hands grab you from you behind and give you a violent shake, growling animalistically in your ear

You let out a terrified scream, but the laugh that comes after is all-too-familiar

“Dammit, Dabi!” you gasp, doubling over to your breath and quiet your heartbeat.

“Aha.” His hands trail down your sides and squeeze your waist. “Gotcha.”

You eventually reach the main event of the tour, which is an old storeroom that had been unused for years due to the intense paranormal activity

Dabi actually stood still next to you with his arm slung around your shoulders, interested for the first time that night as the guide used the ghost box and actually got answers from the spirits that occupied the room.

Though there are a few times when you have to stop him from pulling some prank to scare the other people taking the tour, trying to convince them that they’re actually in immediate danger of possession

When the event is over, however, and the guide is ushering people back down the hallway, Dabi pulls you into a closet, igniting a small flame on his palm and pressing a finger to his lips

When the noise of the crowd filing out is gone, he presses forward forcefully and starts to bury you in deep, passionate kisses

“Wait, wait.” You pull back once you realize what his idea is. “Isn’t this a little...scary?”

“Isn’t that what makes it fun?”

Aizawa Shota

Valentine’s Day happened to fall around one of Aizawa’s busiest times at UA, and he was so tied up and tired that you had barely seen one another lately.

So, when he remembers what’s coming up and drowsily asks you what you want to do for Valentine’s Day, you surprise him.

“I’ve already made plans for us,” you reveal, handing him a printed itinerary. “I booked us a spot at a day spa. Those are all the treatments we’ll be doing.”

“Why’d you choose this? I’m curious.”

“You need some time to relax, and I want to spend time with you when your mind is on something other than which one of your students is going to get broken next.”

“Fair enough.”

On the morning of, the two of you check into the spa, and are instructed to go change into the fluffy bathrobes they provided

“Do I really have to put this on?” he complains, holding it as one might hold a dirty diaper.

“What’s wrong with it?” you ask, already changed into yours.

“I don’t know how I feel about my chest being out on display like this.”

“Well, I’ll like it.” You snake your hand up his shirt and rake your nails down his skin. “C’mon. We’re going to be late for our couple’s massage.”

Once Aizawa has reluctantly changed, the two of you start off your day with massages and facials

You had arranged for him to get a special eye treatment, and the small sounds of relief from his table reveals that your gift is very much appreciated.

“Are you relaxed?” you inquire as you move on from the massage room to your next destination.

“More relaxed I’ve been since I stepped through the doors of UA for the first time.”

“Well, are you relaxed enough to get a hair treatment?”

“Honestly? Bring it on.”

When Aizawa is laying back in a chair, a towel wrapped around his head and a styling cape draped over his robe, you can’t help but snap photos of the slightly comical scene

“Are you taking pictures?” he grumbles.

“Do you mind that I am?”

“Just as long as my students never see it.”

“Noted,” you reply, adding the photo to an album of embarrassing pictures you planned to show them at the end of the term.

After finishing the hair treatment- Aizawa’s hair looking better than you could ever dream yours would- and moving on to a high-tech infrared light treatment, you finished out the day with a soak in the spa’s top-rate onsen, reserved for just the two of you

You sit in comfortable silence in the hot water, bodies pressed close to each other

Shota’s arm was draped around your shoulder, and you loosely held the hand that fell across your body

When you lay your ear on his chest, you notice that his heartbeat is the calmest you’ve ever heard it

“So, did the spa serve its purpose?” you ask, tilting your head up to gaze at him.

“It did. Though I think it was less the spa’s doing, and more the fact that I spent an entire day with you.”

You hum happily, reaching up and tapping his chin. “Nice and well rested now, are you? You sure look pretty.”

He chuckles lightly, running a hand through your hair. “So do you.”

“Well, there’s still about an hour left until our dinner reservation,” you observe, noticing the clock on the wall. “Is there anything you want to do to kill the time before then?”

“We’re both sitting in hot water, naked,” he replies matter-of-factly. “The answer should be obvious.”

254 notes · View notes

iam93percentstardust · 3 years ago

Note

hey alle, so for the prompts i'd love some cute and funny winteriron with bucky wanting to impress tony with his cooking, but tony being a very picky eater. which leads to a lot of frustration on bucky's side, and obliviousness on what is even going on from tony's. if you feel like it. thank you! <3

Here it is! The long-awaited His Girl FRIDAY remix! I hope you love this as much as I do!

As always, everything I write is on ao3 too

The first time Bucky left food in Tony’s workshop and come back to find it untouched, he’d figured it was a fluke. Tony had probably been caught up in a zone—like Steve had warned him about when Bucky had decided he was going to woo Tony with food—and hadn’t noticed the food was even there.

The second time, he made sure to catch Tony’s attention as he was dropping off the plate—lasagna because Natalia had said Tony’s mother was Italian and Bucky made a pretty decent lasagna if he did say so. Tony had glanced at him and then at the plate before turning away with a slightly bewildered frown. Bucky had taken the frown to mean that no one else had ever bothered before to take care of Tony, which was a fact that had just about broken his heart, and left the plate there. He’d gone back later that night to find the lasagna untouched. That had been a little harder to explain away, but he’d eventually decided that maybe Tony was one of those food snobs who only liked Italian food made by actual Italians.

The third time he made oatmeal with a little bit of honey and cream, perfect for someone with as much of a sweet tooth as Tony had, and brought it into the workshop for Tony, who had spent the entire night working on new arrows for Clint.

“Tony?” he called softly, not wanting to startle him. Tony was uncomfortable enough with all the new people moving into the tower after everything with SHIELD and Hydra; being Hydra’s pet assassin, he didn’t want to make it worse by sneaking up on him. “I brought you some breakfast.”

Tony popped up from underneath a table, visibly brightening. “Oh good,” he said cheerfully, making grabby hands at the bowl. “I was just starting to get hungry.” His hair was mussed, two perfect rings of black smeared around his eyes, likely where the goggles currently perched on top of his head had been resting earlier.

Bucky smiled at the adorable display and held out the bowl. Tony eagerly grabbed it, only to blink at it as soon as he saw what was in it.

“Oatmeal?” he asked delicately.

“I thought you’d appreciate having something a little more delicate after not eating for a while,” Bucky explained.

“…Oh.” After another awkward moment, Tony said carefully, “Thanks.”

Satisfied, Bucky left him to his work. This time—this time—Tony would eat it all and then he’d see what an amazing cook Bucky was and how he would absolutely be able to provide for Tony and then he’d swoon into Bucky’s arms and demand that Bucky take him right there.

Okay maybe not right there—the workshop didn’t seem like the best location for amorous activities—but that was why they called it a fantasy, right?

Too bad Tony punctured that fantasy like a balloon.

Bucky went back downstairs long to pick up the bowl after Tony had come up to the common areas, yawning widely and telling everyone he was heading to bed for the next twenty-four hours so don’t bother him unless New York was on fire. It had been a bit of a disappointment that he’d just nodded at Bucky without saying anything about the breakfast or about his everlasting feelings for him, but not nearly as much of a disappointment to walk into the workshop to find the bowl as untouched as all the other meals he’d so painstakingly prepared.

“I don’t get it,” he whined to Sam later that day. “I’m a good cook.”

Sam gave him an unimpressed look. “Are you sure? It’s been, what, seventy years since the last time you made anything. Maybe you’re not as good as you used to be.”

Bucky gasped dramatically. “You take that back!”

“No. You promised me you’d offer dating advice with Natasha and instead you’re sitting here mooning over Tony’s ass again so I’ll say whatever I like about your cooking.”

“Sorry,” he muttered guiltily. Sam was right. He had promised that. Or, rather, Steve had promised advice and Bucky had taken one look at him still pining over Peggy and feeling weird about his current interest being Peggy’s niece (a valid way to feel) and declared him hopeless before telling Sam that he would help him out instead. After all, he remembered Natalia from the years she’d spent training with him during her childhood. Who else would be more qualified to teach Sam how to woo her? Well, besides Clint obviously, but he was taking some personal time away from the team.

“She likes the ballet,” he said. “She wanted to be a ballerina when she was younger, said they were as graceful as any Widow only they didn’t have to kill.”

“And you’re sure that won’t just make her sad?” Sam asked dubiously.

Bucky glared at him. “I might not like you very much—” Sam rolled his eyes—"But I like Natalia a whole lot. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. Take her to the ballet and take Steve and Sharon while you’re at it. A double date will help her feel less trapped and maybe Steve will stop moping and ask Sharon out.”

“It’s a little weird, you know.”

“Sure, but he kissed Peggy once and it’s not like he’s ever gonna go back to the war and live out the rest of his time there, so he might as well move on.”

Sam laughed. “Guess that’s true.” He sighed, smile fading away. “I don’t know why Tony’s ignoring your meals. Sorry about that though. It sucks.”

“If I may,” JARVIS cut in. Both of them jumped, though Bucky would deny to his dying day that he yelped. Sam, on the other hand, shrieked like a kid and Bucky reminded himself to go back and access the audio footage so he would have blackmail.

“Sorry, JARVIS,” he apologized. “Keep forgetting you’re up there. Didn’t exactly have AI back during the war.”

“Or even in other houses,” Sam added.

“My apologies,” JARVIS said, and he’ll be damned if JARVIS didn’t sound extremely apologetic. It was incredible, really, how much life Tony imbued in his creations. “I only wanted to offer my advice about Sergeant Barnes’ attempts at wooing Sir.”

“Oh yeah?” Bucky asked. “Go right ahead. Can’t be any worse than any of the other advice I’ve gotten.” Seriously, Clint had even suggested truth serum, like that wasn’t the worst idea ever suggested.

“Sir is an extremely picky eater,” JARVIS explained. “He does not enjoy cooked tomatoes, ricotta cheese, or the texture of oatmeal.”

…All of which had been in at least one of the meals he’d prepared for Tony.

“Fuck.”

JARVIS wryly said, “Indeed.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

“You requested that I remain inactive on your floor while you were recovering. But you’re in Sergeant Wilson’s quarters at the moment so I may share my expertise.”

He had said that, hadn’t he? It had been in the early days when he was still having trouble remembering what he’d said moments earlier, but he had a vague recollection of being overwhelmed by the idea of constant monitoring and asking if JARVIS could be turned off.

“Wow, way to go, Barnes,” Sam commented, hiding a grin behind his hand.

“Fuck,” he said again, more emphatically. “Best tool at my disposal and I’m not even using it. JARVIS, I bet you could tell me all sorts of things about Tony.”

He got the impression that if the AI could sniff, he would have. “I would not dare to air Sir’s ‘dirty laundry’ so to speak.”

“No, no,” Bucky said, waving his metal hand. The hand made a concerning grinding sound and he frowned. That wasn’t supposed to happen. He’d probably need to ask someone to take a look at it. Sam was capable of performing basic maintenance, and Bucky trusted him not to sabotage the arm, but anything worse and he’d have to go ask Tony about it.

“Not what I meant,” he continued. “Just that you could tell me what Tony likes and doesn’t like. Uh, how do I turn you back on in my floor?”

“Your request is sufficient,” JARVIS said.

“Great. I’ll meet you up there in a bit. We’re gonna make something so incredible Tony will have to fall in love with me.”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Sam said, kicking his feet up onto the newly vacated spot on the couch now that Bucky was standing. “I’m going to see if I can find reasonably priced tickets to the ballet.”

Bucky blinked. “I think you’re gonna have worse luck than me.”

Sam threw a shoe at him.

On JARVIS’ advice, he baked blueberry muffins because those were apparently Tony’s favorite fruit. Bucky didn’t really understand it. Frankly, he thought blueberries were almost as bad as bananas—nasty, taste-changing fruit that they were—but if Tony loved them, then he would be willing to have them in his kitchen for as long as it took to bake the muffins. Fortunately, he was just as good a baker as he was a cook, so it was a breeze to whip up a delicious batch that had him grateful he couldn’t get salmonella from the mix.

Unfortunately, Tony hated the muffins. Or that’s what Bucky gathered when he went to pick the plate up, hoping that it would be empty for the first time, and found it just as untouched as everything else had been.

“What the fuck, JARVIS?” he complained. “You said he liked blueberries.”

“I don’t know, Sergeant Barnes,” JARVIS said, sounding as baffled as Bucky felt. “Sir has always appreciated them.”

That, Bucky reflected later that night, was possibly to be expected. For all that JARVIS had the inhuman ability to remember literally everything he’d ever seen or heard, he was still just a program. He couldn’t necessarily extrapolate about preferences or tastes. For all either of them knew, Tony did like blueberries but didn’t like muffins or something. It didn’t really explain why JARVIS knew that Tony didn’t like cooked tomatoes, but maybe that could be explained by Tony mentioning it out loud and the other stuff, JARVIS had had to figure out on his own.

He sat up in bed, thinking about it. Maybe that was it: Tony didn’t like muffins. But there had to be other recipes out there that used blueberries that Tony would like. In fact, he was pretty sure he’d come across a blueberry cupcake with brown butter frosting recipe earlier that day. And Bucky didn’t know anyone who could say no to his brown butter. He was incredible at it, and that was being modest. Just the other day, Thor had declared the brown butter sauce he’d made for their chicken to be worthy of an Asgardian feast. Thor was a god. He probably knew things like that.

“JARVIS, you up?” he asked into the dark room.

“Always, Sergeant Barnes.”

“You don’t gotta keep callin’ me that. Bucky’s my name. I’d rather answer to that.”

“Very well, Bucky.”

“Could you pull up some other recipes with blueberries in the flavor profile please? Filter out anything that has something Tony doesn’t like and recipes similar enough to each other that they could be repeats, uh, let’s say anything with a higher than 85% similarity.”

When JARVIS was finished compiling his list, there was a lot less than what Bucky had hoped for, but it was still something he could work with. He looked through the list: cupcakes, pancakes, cookies, more than a few salads, something called a Panzanella. He starred the ones he thought would catch Tony’s interest the most, putting the others aside to possibly try later down the road. Content with his plan, he laid back down, falling asleep within seconds of his head hitting the pillow.

None of it worked. Despite his supposed love for blueberries, Tony continued to turn away everything Bucky made for him. So he branched out, trying other foods that JARVIS said Tony was fond of. Nothing came back with more than a couple bites taken out of it and Tony had taken to giving him worried looks every time he appeared at the workshop door with another plate. Bucky was starting to lose hope that he was ever going to woo Tony with food and that was… not great.

Traditional dates were pretty close to impossible. Despite his rapid recovery in the tower, going outside was still too frightening with the crowds of New York, the inability to pick out threats around him, and the lack of sightlines all driving Bucky back inside and to the highest floors of the tower where he could look out over everything.

And as for anything else, well, Bucky was an ex-brainwashed assassin with no money to his name and only half the social skills he used to have (Sam said he had more than he thought but arguing with Sam wasn’t like trying to get someone to like him). He didn’t have much else to offer other than making food and giving Tony a project to work on. The first wasn’t going well and the second made Bucky feel too much like he was taking advantage of Tony to use more than once or twice.

Disheartened, he made his way up to Natalia’s floor to ask her for advice. She and Tony got along almost as well as she got along with Clint. Maybe she would have insights that JARVIS wasn’t able to offer. As he neared her room, though, he realized that she wasn’t alone.

“—to kill me,” someone—Tony, Bucky realized almost immediately—was saying. He stiffened. Who was trying to kill Tony? Bucky would kill them first! Was murder a good way to woo Tony?

“котенок,” Natalia said patiently, “he’s not trying to kill you.”

“You don’t know that!” Tony exclaimed wildly. He sounded like he was pacing. “He could be! He keeps bringing me things everyone knows I won’t eat.”

And now Natalia sounded amused as she said, “Antoshka, I don’t think he’d be trying to feed you if he wanted to kill you. It’s more likely an honest mistake.”

“It could be poison.”

“It’s not poison.”

“You don’t know that. You haven’t tried any of it.”

“It’s not poison because that’s more my style than it is James’.”

Oh, they were talking about him. Tony thought Bucky was trying to kill him. “Fuck,” he said mournfully, leaning up against the wall. No wonder Tony wouldn’t touch any of the food he made for him.

“Well, I don’t see why else he’s bringing me food!” Tony said.

“Really? Not a single reason?”

“It’s food I won’t eat! He clearly doesn’t like me or he’d be bringing me actual food I like.”

“Does he know why you won’t eat it?”

“No, but why does that matter?”

“Tony, darling, have you ever once informed him that you have a sensory processing disorder and you won’t eat a lot of cooked foods because you can’t handle the texture?”

Bucky straightened back up. Tony has a what? He’d never even heard of that before. Why didn’t JARVIS say something? He thought back to when he’d been building the list of blueberry foods and how he’d wondered if JARVIS didn’t necessarily know about the pattern for Tony’s likes and dislikes in his food. Maybe JARVIS hadn’t known about Tony’s disorder, so he hadn’t known to tell Bucky about it. That made the most amount of sense to him though he couldn’t imagine why Tony had never told his AI about his disorder.

“Why would I tell him that?” Tony asks, sounding confused.

He could just picture Natalia shaking her head as she said, “Oh, Antoshka.”

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Armed with his new knowledge, Bucky crept away from the door, already planning out new meals to bring to Tony.

That very night, he went downstairs with a bowl of salad. It had nuts to provide a small amount of protein, though he’d also put some baked chicken in a Tupperware as well, in case that was something Tony could eat. Tony’s music was playing at a manageable volume by the time he got to the workshop, likely because he was drafting plans for some sort of irrigation system, rather than any sort of consideration for Bucky.

Tony caught sight of him before he got the doors open. Bucky watched as his face fell for a moment before he plastered on a bright, fake smile. Hydra’s programming was still too ingrained in him to do anything as obvious as wince, but he still felt a twinge of shame. Why hadn’t he thought to ask Tony what he would like to eat instead of relying on his own preferences?

“Uh,” he said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. In his other hand, he held up the Tupperware with the salad bowl on top of it. “I brought you some dinner. It’s just a salad, but I included some baked chicken on the side if you want that. I hope it’s something you like.”

Tony blinked at him. “What?”

“I—okay, I’m just gonna come right out and say it. I overheard you and Natalia earlier. I didn’t know you couldn’t eat anything I was making for you. I wasn’t trying to poison you or anything, just thought you might like some food since you’re down here all the time. Sorry for, you know, eavesdropping and making you think I didn’t like you.”

A cautious smile spread across Tony’s face. “You could have asked JARVIS,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, I did, but I guess he didn’t know you don’t like cooked foods.”

“What?” Tony cocked his head to the side. “No, he should know that.” He spun around in his chair, waving the glowing blue drafts of the irrigation system aside in favor of pulling up JARVIS’ bright golden code. It was a beautiful display, and Bucky found himself moving closer, mesmerized by the sight. He had no idea JARVIS’ code was so complex.

“J, buddy, what happened to your code?” Tony murmured. He reached out a hand, groping for Bucky’s shirt to tug him closer. “Gimme food.”

“So you like salad?” Bucky asked, relieved that he’d finally found something.

“And baked chicken,” Tony added. “But it has to be baked. Otherwise, the texture’s too rubbery for me.”

“I can do that,” he promised. “Do you like breading or marinade with the baked chicken?”

“Marinade, yes. Breading, no.”

“Okay. I’ll remember that.”

Tony paused in tearing through JARVIS’ code to give him a small, genuine smile that made Bucky’s heart light up. He returned the smile, which grew bigger when Tony’s gaze darted down to his lips, snagging there as though caught by the sight. He knew he had a nice mouth; he’d been told that plenty of times back in the forties.

“I have another confession to make,” he said once Tony’s attention returned to the code.

“Uh-huh,” Tony said distractedly.

“I was—”

“There you are!” Tony exclaimed. “J, who made those changes to lines 894 through 1036 in your code?”

JARVIS immediately said, “The last time those lines were accessed was in 2008 by Obadiah Stane.”

Tony’s face fell. “Oh.”

It took Bucky a moment remember who Obadiah Stane was. He’d appeared in one of Bucky’s mission files as the Winter Soldier. Back during the nineties, following Tony’s parents deaths, Tony had been planning on shutting down SI’s weapons manufacturing division. Hydra, who’d been buying black market weapons from Stane for years by that time, had ordered the Winter Soldier to assassinate Tony to give Stane complete control of the company. But before he’d been able to complete his mission, Stane had convinced Tony to see “reason” and Bucky had been put back in cryo. That unfulfilled mission had been one of the reasons he’d been so hesitant to move into the tower before his programming had been completely removed. Steve had tried to push for the move anyway, but before either of them could successfully argue the point, Tony had put out a call to the world’s top experts on brainwashing and three whirlwind weeks later, Bucky’s mind was programming-free. And just like that, without even meeting the guy, Bucky had developed a crush on one Tony Stark.

“Sorry, doll,” he said, dropping a hand to Tony’s shoulder and squeezing it gently.

Tony sighed frustratedly. “Every time I think I’ve taken care of everything Obie fucked up, I find something else he’s done. He was probably hoping I’d starve to death or something without anyone making food to my exacting specifications, that asshole.”

“He sounds pretty terrible,” Bucky agreed.

“J, are you able to access the last backup on those lines to restore them?” Tony asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay, let’s get those fixed, and uh—”

“And we’ll go out for dinner,” Bucky interrupted.

“Huh?” Tony asked, turning to look at him.

“Seems I owe you an apology and I figure taking you out for dinner is a little nicer than a salad. ‘Sides, if I take you out, I’ll have a better understanding of what you like to eat.”

“Careful there, Buckaroo, or I’ll start thinking this is supposed to be a date.”

Bucky would probably never know what possessed him to firmly say, “Yeah, that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be.” He certainly hadn’t planned to. He really had been planning on their dinner being a way to figure out what Tony liked so he could make it himself and continue with his wooing process from there, hopefully slowly easing Tony into believing that Bucky really did like him and wasn’t trying to poison him.

“Sorry,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “That wasn’t supposed to come out like that.”

Tony stared at him, then abruptly said, “Did you mean it?”

“Mean what?”

“That this is supposed to be a date.”

He could deny it and go back to his original plan. He’d probably even be able to pull off a lie like that. But there was a hopeful look in Tony’s eyes that stopped him from denying anything.

“You didn’t even know that I liked you until five minutes ago,” he pointed out cautiously.

Tony scoffed. “What, like you’ve never liked someone who hated you.”

“Uh, no. I’ve never done that.”

“Really?”

“Never.”

“Huh.”

“Are you… are you saying that you do like me?” Bucky asked.

“Well, yeah. You never mind that half of my engineering babble goes over your head and you bring me food even if you didn’t know it wasn’t something I could eat and you’re really fucking gorgeous when you’ve showered and your hair isn’t falling in greasy clumps around your face.”

“Look who’s talking,” Bucky said amusedly, reaching out to run his fingers through Tony’s hair, matted down with machine oil. Even filthy, he could feel how soft it would be when it was clean. Tony leaned into his hand, humming happily.

“So is that a yes on this being a date, Bucky babe?” Tony asked. “Cause I’ll be honest, I’m not usually left hanging.”

“Yeah,” Bucky said, nodding. “It’s a date.”

Tony grinned and turned his head just enough to kiss the inside of Bucky’s wrist, making Bucky shiver. “Let me get cleaned up.”

“You want me to join you?”

Tony winked at him. “Next time, honey.”

#winteriron #alle writes #alle answers #if you like please reblog

134 notes · View notes

kaeyas-beloved · 4 years ago

Text

Katsuki’s Born {Bakugou Family Scenario}

I originally wrote this for a Bakugou Sister Scenario Book awhile ago but I’m not really doing that anymore... Still, I though to post this since it’s finished and all :)

"A-auntie please, calm down a little..." I pat my mother's friend, Inko Midoriya, on her back gently, trying my damnedest to have her breathe a little. At the moment, both myself and Mrs. Midoriya, that I address as Auntie, are sitting in the waiting room at Musutafu General Hospital, patient as can be, awaiting news on my mother's condition.

"Do you think it'll be a boy or a girl (Y/N)?" Auntie asks, shaking in her seat. I slouch a little further in my chair, pondering my answer. I really wouldn't mind either, but if I had to choose...

"Boy, I like the idea of having a brother. Plus, he could be friends with your child when they both get a little older" She smiles at me, seeming to like the idea of her soon to be born and my sibling being friends. Most likely since both her and my mother are friends themselves. Auntie doesn't say anything after that, so a silence is laid out between us, the only noise being the computer at the front counter and some light talk between other visitors.

It's crazy how pretty soon I'll have either a brother or a sister. A sibling. One that I can talk and play with a little, one that'll probably make the house even more lively than it already is. So many questions come along with the baby's arrival too, will they have a quirk, if so what is it? Will they want to be a hero or not? Boy or girl? What kind of personality will they have... Oh god... will they pick up on mom's swearing like I did...? Doesn't really matter though, I'd love them either way, even if they were to become a villain in the superpower society.

"Mrs. Midoriya and Ms. Bakugou?" the sound of a nurse calling us snaps me out of whatever question filled daze I was in. Bolting up from my seat, I eagerly wait for what the nurse has to say. Briefly a negative thought crosses my mind, like someone didn't make it, but I shoo it away, not wanting to even think of that possibility. The nurse clears their throat, getting ready to talk.

"The deliver was successful, everything went smoothly. And visitors are now allowed in, please follow me." I help Auntie stand up and we both trail after the nurse. It doesn't take us that long to make it to the door of my mothers room, Auntie knocking softly, only opening it when a faint 'come in' is heard.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited, I mean who wouldn't be?? Though I'd also be lying if I didn't say how it's going to be a little bit of a weird process with adding a sibling to our lives. I've been an only child for about 13 years, now suddenly I'll probably have to share stuff which is never fun but oh well.

As the hospital room door opened, my parents come into view. Mom is laying up right on the blinding white bed while dad is seated right beside her, as close as he can get. They smile towards us and we both smile back.

" (Y/N), Inko, there you are. We were worried something might have happened, thank you Inko for picking (Y/N) up from school on such short notice." Dad says. Auntie nods, spewing how it was not a problem. Dad then turns to me. "Come here honey, come meet your baby brother"

My eyes widen, I get a brother. A little brother...

In this moment my chest feels light and my heart skips a beat. I think it's finally hitting my brain and heart fully that, yeah, I'm a big sister now. I step forward slowly, almost afraid to somehow mess something up. I didn't see before, but now that I'm standing beside dad I can. Mom's holding him, my new brother. He's wrapped securely in a small blue blanket with a little blue baby cap too. He's so small too, I can't help but just stand there and stare in awe.

Mom chuckles, "would you like to hold him, though I advise to be careful. The brat has already poked me in the eye and when your father went to hold him he somehow managed to kick him in the chin. Already born and he's so full of energy, I can just tell he'll be a handful as he grows older." I laugh softly with my parents at that. I can agree with mom though, if he's already acting like this I can already imagine what he'll be like when he's my age.

"Can I really? Hold him, I mean?" I check, wanting to make sure it's completely okay for me to hold him. Mom and dad nod, mom handing over the baby gently to me. She places him in my arms and I set him in a good position, his head up and in the crook of my one arm. Not going to lie, I'm a little scared that I might drop him, though I'm pretty sure I won't...hopefully...

All the moving around must have stirred the little one because as soon as I stopped moving him around in my arms he opens his eyes and looks up at me. I gasp slightly, his eyes are red like moms, even having the fieriness in them like her. But at the same time, there's a calm and gentle look in them like dad.

My brother and I, we just look at each other, eyes connected, red meeting (e/c). A sense of calm and ease falls over the room, for the first time I feel more at peace.

"Hey there little guy," I coo at the baby, "my name's (Y/N), I'm you big sister..." I smile down at him, what catches me by surprise is that he smiles back. He wiggles a little bit, taking out his small and chubby baby arm. I bring my own hand up, gently booping his nose and dragging the pad of my finger along his cheek. The arm that he took out reaches up and latches onto my pointer finger. My smile widens, now I'm thinking that mom lied, he's so precious I have no idea how he could be a brat. I giggle, rubbing his little hand with one of my fingers.

"What's his name?" I ask, not taking my eyes off the small infant.

My parents hum in thought. Did they not pick a name before hand?? I thought they did!?

"Your mother and I decided on the name Katsuki. What do you think?"

Katsuki. Katsuki Bakugou. I like it.

"I love it, it suits him" I tell them, but immediately go back to playing with the baby, who now has a name. Katsuki smiles up at me and I smile back. After a few moments I calm down a tad, though I'm still incredibly happy and filled to the brim with joy.

Suddenly another emotion floods my chest. It feels like a sense to protect the little happy bundle in my arms. I look around the room, Auntie Inko has since left to go home herself, mom feel asleep about half an hour ago and dad went to get some food for him and I. That means I'm alone virtually alone and it's just the company of Katsuki. I stare back down at the red eyed child, who's looking about ready for a nap.

"I promise to protect you, for all eternity, until the day I die" I whisper. My heart's beating in my ears but my chest has a light feeling to it. Katsuki gurgles, shuffling around into a better position. I laugh quietly.

I spot a free chair by the wall and go to sit on it. I make myself comfortable along with the baby. I watch him for a little longer. Katsuki yawns and his eyes start to flutter shut, hiding away the crimson coloured hues that resemble my mother's.

Moments later he falls asleep in my arms and when I know I'm holding him in a way that he won't fall or get hurt, my own consciousness slips, dragging me into a peaceful sleep, my new little brother tucked safely in my arms.

#sister reader #bakugou #bakugou family #platonic x reader #little brother bakugou #bakugou x reader #bakugou x sister reader

258 notes · View notes

coeurdastronaute · 4 years ago

Text

Essays in Existentialism: Kiwi 12

Previously on Kiwi

For three days the world was rampant with news of Lexa and Costia. It was a hot topic for speculation and Lexa realized she hadn’t missed that aspect of dating, nor did she truly crave that kind of pressure or notice any longer. It was pure distraction, and it could not end soon enough.

The reunion had its desired effect on the world. There were pictures that rolled all over the universe, or so it seemed, with headlines proclaiming all sorts of wild stories and theories as to the reason the bad girl model turned actress was seen paling around, post-show, with reformed and enjoying a successful third album world tour rock star. They hypothesized about the lost love and the rekindling, the cheating that might have happened, the whole entire thing. Two very distinct sections of the internet went bonkers for the pictures and news and fourth-hand accounts of their five minutes together in public since the break up.

Lexa hated all of it, but bore it because she was now someone who did good things or at least tried to do good things, even if she didn’t like those things. Costia needed it, Indra asked her, and so Lexa stuck to the line that they were just friends and didn’t answer any other questions. It was easier that way.

None of it mattered Lexa was too happy, feeling too good despite the normal trials and tribulations of the tour, and counting down the days until she would get unrestricted access to her girlfriend, her real girlfriend, her true and honest girlfriend who was currently squatting in her apartment back home.

So she ignored the tabloids and tried to focus, ticking off the days and existing as far away from Costia as she humanly could.

Even though there was a lot to get done for the show, even though there was a lot to run through and she should have hung around and helped her sister, Lexa was basically useless and dismissed relatively early in the day. She’d warned Clarke that she would have to send a car to get her, but there was suddenly free time.

Practically vibrating, Lexa tugged her baseball cap lower and adjusted her glasses. Nervously, she looked around and tried to blend in as much as possible as she anxiously awaited her girlfriend’s arrival. As far as she was concerned, she was absolutely being an amazing girlfriend. The best perhaps. And everything was falling into place in a way that she hadn’t expected or ever truly experienced.

Lexa saw Clarke before Clarke saw her, and she felt her heart sip a little. It wasn’t supposed to do things like that, and for an instant she was slightly annoyed that she was falling. It was a rare thing to have a moment to look at the girl with pretty lips without her knowing, but Lexa gave herself a few moments. And Clarke looked at her phone and smiled before Lexa felt her own vibrate.

I made it! I’m going to see you soon! Prepare yourself.

From a reasonable distance, Lexa followed along as Clarke moved to pick up her luggage, carefully apologizing for pumping into someone, smiling warmly at someone else.

And what should I prepare for?

It might have been slightly voyeuristic, but Lexa didn’t care. She was so used to being the one who was watched, that this felt rewarding in many ways. She would have never gotten to see the view of her girlfriend grinning at her phone and debating what to write, the casual glance around, as if someone was going to know or read it over her shoulder.

Me, your exceptionally horny and understanding and downright magical girlfriend.

When she got her bag and moved toward the exit, looking around for the ride that was promised, Lexa finally gave up her watching.

Bring it on, Griffin. Look at the car rental place behind you.

It took a few seconds for it to register, but Clarke turned around and searched before meeting Lexa’s eyes, hidden as they were behind glasses and beneath a ball cap. And though she felt her, the pull and the need to close the gap as quickly as possible, Clarke stared at her girlfriend and smiled, relieved and surprised and happy.

XXXXXXXXXX

“I missed you,” Lexa whispered.

“Did you?”

There wasn’t a wasted moment or movement. Lexa pushed forward until Clarke was pressed against the wall in the hotel room. She smiled, hovering near her lips, hesitating, teasing, waiting until she couldn’t wait again. Hands moved up from hips and Clarke moaned at the contact of lips on neck.

It was the closeness that did it-- the unwavering feeling of another body and hands gripping into muscles despite already being closer than close. Lexa liked that Clarke clung, that she grabbed and dug her nails into skin and her legs wrapped around hips. She was unable to lie with her movements. She liked the feeling of being needed so innately.

“You just popped into my life with a swipe and now I think about you a lot,” Lexa explained. “You made me someone who misses someone.”

“I’m a terrible influence.”

“You really are,” she agreed eagerly, kissing the girl in her arms once again before stumbling them toward the bed.

With a flop, they landed and Lexa made quick work of pressing into Clarke’s hips, spreading her legs even more.

“Can we do the slow and intimate after. I just--”

Hips canted and Lexa smiled down at the girl wiggling beneath her, cheeks flushed and hands gripping and pulling and tugging.

“What do you need?” she murmured, dipping her head to kiss her jaw and neck again.

“Lexa... “ It was somewhere between a whine and a command.

“Tell me.”

“Please.”

“Since you asked so nicely.”

XXXXXXXXXXX

Spent and sweaty, sprawled across the bed with arms wide and sheets tangled, Lexa sighed and ran her hand along her stomach. Clarke was in love with her knees and the point of her ankles. She was in love with the way her gangly limbs seemed to stretch and tangle themselves everywhere. And sometimes, without even meaning to, Clarke fell in love with all of those parts at one time and it was simultaneously soothing and overwhelming, leaving her startled and warm.

All within one body, she saw so many contradictions and in that, an overwhelming kind of affection that Clarke hadn’t experienced before with anyone. From her spot between Lexa’s legs, her ear pressed against her thigh, Clarke thought about it more than she ever had before, because she was across the world and it’d been nearly a year, and there was nothing more terrifying than realizing you were in love with something like the wind. With a sigh, Clarke kissed Lexa’s thigh before lifting her head and slouching her way toward her hip. Lexa took a deep breath and held it as she shifted, stretching and adjusting, compensating for Clarke’s movement. The ink on her ribs moved and shifted on the skin there. Clarke kissed her stomach, kissed the giggle that came at the base of her rib cage an instant later.

With a tiny smile, Clarke pressed her face into Lexa’s stomach and blanketed her hip. She ran her fingertips along the soft skin of her breast, over her nipple. Clarke fell in love with the sound of her lungs when she breathed and she fell in love with the piano keys of her ribs and she was surely in love with the slant of her wrist and elbow and shoulders.

Not one thing existed-- the world was not at all composed at all of anything other than the bed and the night and the two bodies. Lexa’s fingers slowly tapped a rhythm on her own chest while her other hand swirled through Clarke’s messy hair.

Sometimes it was too much; all of the feelings and such, and Clarke didn’t know how to explain or feel them or say anything. Words didn’t seem needed in the moment. And so she lifted herself once again and slithered lower until she could taste Lexa again, because she desperately needed to communicate and she needed to express, and she had no way to do it other than to make Lexa arch and grip the sheets and swear. It only made it worse, that Lexa gave all of herself over. But Clarke was in love with a live wire, and she knew that sometimes.

When all tension that had been worked into her muscles left in an instant despite Clarke’s desire to prolong it, and the body in the sheets was once again pliant and spent, Clarke laid once more on her thigh and kissed her there before closing her eyes and listening to Lexa catch her breath.

It was possible to fall in love with a moment, and it was possible to fall in love with a dream-- what Clarke wasn’t sure of, was if it was possible to fall in love with a person who navigated through those moments and those dreams. She wanted to reason her way out of whatever it was that was plaguing her, but deep down she knew that it wasn’t something she could do, and she was presently stuck with it. The only choices left were to nurture it and let it grow or ignore it and let it strangle her.

“I missed you, too,” Clarke whispered.

XXXXXXXXXX

“Wake up please. I want to go look at castles.”

Clarke groaned in complaint before yawning into the pillow. A body settled near her, sitting on the edge of the bed as it rustled this way and that. The sleeping girl pushed the hair out of her face and watched as the rockstar typed on her phone before tossing it on the desk and pulling her shirt over her head.

There was a tray of fruit, coffee, and scones on the table, and lit in the morning sun from the window, a shirtless girl ate a strawberry and surveyed the land outside before turning back toward the bed.

Clarke just smiled and grabbed her phone before groaning once again at the time, enjoying the smile it garnered from her girlfriend. It was still early. Too early.

“Did you already work out?”

“Sure did. Ordered us breakfast, too. Already checked in with Anya and Indra for the day, and returned a few emails.”

“Are you always like this?”

“What?” Lexa asked, flexing slightly in the mirror before taking a sip of her coffee.

“So perky in the morning?”

“Honestly, just when you’re here. You’re a good reason to want to get stuff done. I want to waste a whole day with you.”

“You left me alone in bed though.”

“Yeah, or else I wouldn’t have gotten anything done. Can we go see some castles now? I’m very excited. I’ve been waiting til you got here.”

“Can we shower first?”

“I guess. If we must.” But Lexa didn’t move. She sat and began her breakfast. “I got your coffee ready, darling.”

Only then did Clarke find it incentive enough to heave herself out of bed. She wrapped the sheet around herself and moved toward the table, careful to lean down to kiss her girlfriend’s cheek then neck then shoulder as she did.

“Are we going to grab dinner before your show tonight?”

“Definitely. Anya has already picked out a spot. I thought tomorrow we could grab something just us. I mean… the weather is going to be nice. I found a place-- It’s already set. You’re fed for the next two days at least.”

“Good. Because I broke down and bought very unhealthy food to contaminate your kitchen and I need proper sustenance.”

“You’re a growing girl.”

“Exactly.”

XXXXXXXXXX

“You really like castles.”

“They’re so cool. I feel a bit like I’m in a Jane Austen book or something.”

There was always a surprise with Lexa, and Clarke wished she could predict it, or at least figure out a way to be less blown over when Lexa said things like enjoying Jane Austen books and still, as a full adult, dreaming about owning a castle.

“I can barely fathom squatting in your loft let alone, so please don’t go buying a castle anytime soon.”

Goofy and happy, Lexa smiled and shook her head, carefully slinging her arm over Clarke’s shoulder as they perused.

“I try to read a book by an author from every country I visit. I made myself read Emma, and I’ve been a bit of a castle fan ever since. It was genuinely the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time.”

“And what are you reading now?” Clarke asked as they walked along a rather drizzly path along the grounds with the other tourists.

“I went with something called The Guts, about rock music and junk. I’m a cliché.”

“You never told me you were a big reader.”

“I don’t like to advertise it too much.”

“God forbid people think you’re clever,” Clarke rolled her eyes and teased, earning a kiss on her temple.

“I don’t know if you know this or not,” Lexa chuckled. “But I’m a high school drop out.”

“You’re--”

Aimlessly walking and enjoying the mildly warm day despite the spitting rain, the pair was interrupted by the growing murmurs of people noticing. Clarke felt Lexa’s arm tighten slightly on her shoulders, guiding her away from someone else.

“This is going to happen, huh?” Clarke sighed. “And we were having such a good time.”

“I’m sorry.”

“If you weren’t so damn good looking and you know, sang those songs, and gyrated your hips a little less…”

Lexa burst out into a laugh, unable to contain it. The cameras caught it, snapping pictures and documenting every move. For most of it, Clarke forgot to be too nervous. She couldn’t be completely distracted from the people following and stealing their moment, but Lexa did her best and it worked in its own way.

On the way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner, Clarke scrolled through her phone while Lexa chatted with some friends on a scheduled call. She paused when she recognized herself and Lexa from just a few hours ago, paired with the picture Lexa posted of the two of them on her account. There were a lot of comments about them, speculation about who she was, linking to the previous pictures.

For the moment, Clarke felt her heart race and her cheeks blush. She wasn’t sure what to say, or what to do or what to feel about it all. Suddenly, the privacy of a castle didn’t seem like a terrible life.

XXXXXXXXX

There was something fantastic about a concert behind the scenes. There was something absolutely magical about watching Lexa onstage that simultaneously made the incident with the cameras seem better and worse.

But for a while, it was gone and Clarke was infatuated with the girl on stage who had twenty thousand people hanging on her every word and song. During a song, Lexa looked over and winked and Clarke was certain that there was nothing better.

Fingers moving up and down the guitar frets, Lexa leaned into the microphone and sang to her heart's content. She turned and looked at Anya and smiled. She moved and danced with the rest of the band. She chatted up the crowd, holding them in the palm of her hand, keeping them hooked. An entire stadium sang back her own words to her, and Clarke was in awe of the whole display. She wondered if the amazement would ever go away, or if she was doomed to be bowled over by Lexa every other night.

Slightly sweaty and still high from her show, the lights went black and Lexa appeared close to Clarke, earning a hug.

“You looked good out there, Woods.”

“She never does this well,” Anya teased. “We should bring you along more often.”

“I didn’t do anything special,” Lexa disagreed, enjoying the kisses she received.

The crowd chanted and begged for more and Clarke knew what was going to happen. She saw Lexa soak it up a little bit more. She enjoyed the mood and the contagious feeling of it all.

“I have to go back out there for a bit longer. You good?”

Earnest and eager, Lexa waited for Clarke’s answer and nod. If Clarke would have said no, she knew that Lexa wouldn’t have gone back out, and that was something. So Clarke hugged her once more.

“I guess I’ll chant your name later,” she whispered.

She expected a smile or maybe a moan, or something inherently Lexa as a reaction to a comment like that-- something cocky and interested all at once. Instad, Clarke earned Lexa’s eyes and a very set jaw.

“I need you to understand what I mean when I say this,” Lexa insisted, her forehead pressed against Clarke’s, the rest of the band already taking the stage for the encore. “I've come here to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is, and always will be, yours.”

She hadn’t meant to hear the words, and she certainly hadn’t expected such brutal honesty in such a sweaty and loud and public moment. Still pressed together tightly, Clarke felt a tear roll down her cheek because she was completely blindsided by such a confession.

“I understand,” Clarke nodded.

Lexa smiled and Clarke knew only because her cheeks crinkled near her eyes. The music started, but Lexa wouldn’t move. Clarke tapped her thumbs against her girlfriend’s chest.

“You should go finish work.”

“I should. Chanting my name, huh?”

Lexa kissed Clarke quickly and disappeared back on stage before she could answer.

150 notes · View notes

moonbeambucky · 5 years ago

Text

Ho, Ho, Oh No!

Pairing: Lance Tucker x Reader Word Count: 2312 Warnings: fluff, implied smut

Summary: Plenty of gifts will be exchanged as you and Lance celebrate Christmas but you’re not prepared for a certain surprise

A/N: Thank you as always to Sam @buckyofthemyscira for beta reading 💕 gif not mine (x)

It’s peaceful in the morning without the sound of an alarm going off, a rare occurrence left for Sunday’s only, when there are no obligations besides dreaming cozily under your comforter. That’s a half lie, there is a very important responsibility to tend to, the one whose paws are swatting at your face, forcing you awake.

“Okay, okay Kip. I’m up.” You rub the sleep out of your eyes, tempted to roll back over until you see the sweet face of your little tabby begging for food.

Not so reluctantly you sit up, stretching your arms above your head and yawning so loudly you scare the poor cat.

“Sorry buddy, mommy’s tired,” you apologized, whether he could understand you or not.

Staggered footsteps take you to the kitchen where you open up a can of cat food. Kip weaves through your legs in a delicate dance you’ve learned to be aware of as he eagerly awaits his breakfast.

It’s not like he was starving by any means, dry food still sits in his other bowl but he wants the good stuff. His face is in the bowl before you set it on the ground, and you ignore the way your own body cracks as you stand up again. You need a massage and honestly you can’t wait until your other half gets home so you could have one.

Lance was due back today after traveling with the gymnastics team he coached and you missed him like crazy. Facetiming was just not the same although he made a point to do it every day he was gone.

You had been dating for a year and a half, living together for just a few months now and life was practically perfect. You fell in love with him and his rescue cat, and when you found out Lance named him after a gymnastics move your heart filled with even more affection for the suave athlete that was really a secret dork.

The warmth of the shower relieved your aching muscles and smelling the container of Lance’s body wash eased your mind knowing he would be home soon. He had been gone for too long and you had a plan in mind to welcome him back.

A few hours later Lance walked through the door, bright blue eyes standing out against wind bitten cheeks, bundled up in a heavy coat littered with melting flurries.

“Y/N?” he called out, taking off his coat and hanging it in the front closet.

Kip greeted Lance with a hearty meow as he was bent over to take off his boots. He lifted the cat in his arms, scratching his ears as Kip purred under Lance’s touch.

“Where’s Y/N?” he asked Kip who rubbed the top of his head against Lance’s face.

Lance placed Kip on the floor and he grabbed his suitcase, as he headed for the bedroom he wondered where you could be. Your car was in the driveway but there was a chance you had gone out, although after a long trip there was nothing more that Lance wanted than to cuddle up next to you.

As he entered the bedroom Lance froze in place, more than surprised to find you on your knees in the middle of the bed, wearing red baby doll lingerie with white marabou trim. The Santa hat you wore flopped to the side when you tilted your head to greet him. Feeling himself twitch in his pants he instantly thought of another thing he could possibly want to do with you.

“Welcome home baby,” you cooed, a coy smile pulling at your lips as you seductively licked the candy cane in your hand.

“Is it Christmas already?” he asked, his weight dipping the mattress as he crawled towards you, laying you back on the bed and nudging your legs apart with his own.

You traced the candy cane along his lips, watching as the blue of his eyes retreated to a thin line as he sucked on the minty treat, humming sinfully.

“Only for naughty boys like you.”

His lips were on yours in an instant, tingling with sweet peppermint kisses that lingered on every part of your skin. That night Kip waited just a little bit longer for his dinner.

It was hard to focus on the task at hand, with Lance on the floor shifting the base of the Christmas tree you just brought home. His ass looked amazing in those sweatpants, so beautifully plump you couldn’t help but stare.

“Stop, it’s perfect!” you beamed, shifting your gaze back to the tree once it was centered in front of the window.

Lance pushed himself up and you took his hand, pulling him into an embrace. Leaning your head against him, you inhaled his intoxicating scent that combined warm cinnamon and light citrus. Every cell in your body loved Lance Tucker more than the last. You couldn’t believe you had met this amazing man, who was so unlike all the rumors said about him.

Lance was a tough trainer but never mean. He pushed his students to work hard but he could easily see when they needed a break. He was preparing them not only physically but mentally to be able to handle all that comes with competition.

It was after the Olympics Lance’s own reputation became slightly tarnished but he recovered and was thankful above all that you gave him a chance.

You tilted your head towards him and Lance felt the simmer of your passionate gaze. Your lips found his, soft and sweet, and you felt him smile against you.

“Sweetheart, we can move this to the bedroom if you want…”

His tongue swept across his lips and he raised his brow looking for your answer. You smiled, pecking his lips with yours knowing that as much as you wanted to continue this right now was the only time you had to put up decorations. Work had become increasingly busy and it was rare if you found yourself home on time. It was now or never if you wanted to decorate with Christmas being only a few weeks away.

“How about we decorate this tree and then… hop in the shower together?”

He detached himself from your embrace with comic speed, rushing over to the boxes that held ornaments, garland and all of your other decorations, frantically pulling off the lids in a hurry to get them up.

“Lance!” you whined playfully, “Come on. I don’t want to rush this. This is the first Christmas we’ll be celebrating in our place together and I want everything to be perfect.”

He set down the tangled cord of string lights to lift your chin, “Are you worried about the decorations or that your parents are coming to meet me?”

You sighed, unable to help the smile on your face because Lance knew you too well. You were very nervous about your parents coming for the holidays. They were eager to meet the man that stole your heart and every second leading up to their arrival date has added to your anxiety.

There was nothing to worry about, you knew this. They would easily see how kind and charming Lance is, but still in the back of your mind was this nagging voice that persisted, convincing you that everything had to be perfect. A gorgeously decorated tree, stockings hung just right above the fireplace, tinsel, wreaths and Lance’s favorite, the mistletoe.

Lance could see your mind was running like a hamster on a wheel, and all that spinning was making you even more panicked. Your name fell softly from his lips and you snapped out of your thoughts, finding peace in his calming irises, an ocean blue gaze that lapped like waves against the sand, washing away your worries.

“Everything’s gonna be fine, I promise. You’ve got nothing to worry about.” His lips pressed a kiss softly to your forehead and Lance cupped your cheeks as you stared back at him.

You were trying desperately to believe him, forcing your fears aside. “I know they’ll love you because I love you.” Lance grinned, pressing his lips to yours again. It was a quick kiss because of course your worries couldn’t stay away for too long.

“But I am worried. They’re predicting a bad storm the week my parents are supposed to come, what if their flight gets cancelled?”

“How many times has the weather been wrong before, huh? Just last week they said we’d have a foot of snow and what did we get? Flurries.”

You nodded your head. “You’re right. I’ll try not to worry.”

Your lips pulled into an innocent smirk and Lance chuckled, shrugging his shoulders because you both knew you would still be worrying about this. Not that he minded, because any time you needed reassurance he would be right there to hold you close until all your worries dissipated.

Lance smiled as his phone lit up with your text message. It had far better news than the previous one that said you’d be late again. He was used to it, every night in the past week you had come home late and exhausted.

Often he had to force you to eat a little something despite you wanting to go straight to bed. Your job was extra stressful in the week leading up to Christmas but soon you’d have time off and he couldn’t wait. Although he was pretty excited by what your message said just now.

You: Hey babe. Finally on my way, hopefully not too much traffic but I can’t wait to see you soon… I have a surprise 😘

It was the kissing emoji on the end that really made him smile. The last time you had a surprise for him he found you wearing very sexy holiday lingerie. He questioned for a moment if this surprise might be along the same lines.

All of these late nights were taking a toll on you; sitting too long at work, eyes straining from staring at a screen, your back aching from poor posture. Before bed Lance would rub your shoulders, knead his thumbs into your sore muscles, kissing the aches away as he worked on the knots that littered your back.

He couldn’t stop thinking about the kissing emoji. Maybe work wasn’t so bad today. Maybe you had extra coffee and were able to move around a lot. Maybe you missed him as much as he missed you, wanting those nightly massages to turn into something more.

A smirk pulls deeply across his face as Lance comes up with an idea. He sets the mood, lighting the fireplace, dimming the lights to a glow as the crackling wood begins to drench the room in warmth. The blinds are closed, the tree is lit and Lance rushes to the bedroom to find the perfect sexy outfit to surprise you when you walk through the door. It doesn’t take long before he picks out the perfect one.

Lance stands in the living room, fingers slipping under the Santa hat he’s wearing to scratch his head. He adjusts the hat again, blowing out a nervous breath as he waits in silence.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said to Kip who hopped up onto the nearest table, staring curiously at Lance.

Within a few minutes Lance perked up as he heard the key jingling in the lock. He stood up straighter, adjusting his stance; transforming his giddy smile into a seductive smirk, his eyes falling into a half-lidded, lustful gaze.

“Oh Laaance,” you sang from the door, accompanied by a lot of noise. Perhaps the pulling off of boots and removing your coat, he thought. “Guess who’s– oh my god!”

Your jaw fell open at Lance, standing stark naked in the living room, only wearing a Santa hat with his modesty covered by a stocking. No, worse, it was inside of the stocking. On any other day you this would be a welcome surprise, but not today not as your…

“Don’t look!” you screamed, remembering your parents that were right behind you but it was too late.

You watched as your father spun his head around so quickly he might have given himself whiplash. Your head was buried in your hands as you felt waves of embarrassment wash over you. This was a complete nightmare, one you wished you could wake up from. You regretted not telling Lance about your surprise, that your parents decided to fly in early because the storm that was predicted was definitely happening.

Lifting your head you saw your mother continue to gawk at Lance who had become nearly as red as the stocking he held. His mouth fell open but no words came out; he’s not sure what he would have said any way, not when he wished the floor would open and swallow him up.

“Mom stop!” You raised your hand to block her view but she was determined to get a good look at the man you were dating. “Lance would you put some clothes on!”

He was snapped out of his frozen state, holding the stocking extra carefully as he shimmied backwards. Lance was too embarrassed and preoccupied to realize Kip had left his previous spot on the table and was trying to weave himself through Lance’s legs.

The unexpected fur against his ankles made Lance gasp and stumble wildly as he tried not to step on Kip, nearly dropping the stocking as he found his footing. Your mother watched the whole thing, getting a perfect view of Lance’s bare backside, his buns jiggling as he was finally able to run into the bedroom to put on clothes.

“Well, Merry Christmas to me,” she smirked, fanning herself with her hand as she moved towards your father, as you hoped for a true Christmas miracle, that their memories could be wiped.

#lance tucker x reader #lance tucker fanfiction #lance tucker x you #lance tucker one shot #lance tucker

605 notes · View notes

marvelbbyx · 4 years ago

Text

And they were roommates! (College AU: Mason Weaver x Fem! Reader)

Summary:

You discovered that you liked girls when you were very young, knowing how others would react, you kept it a secret from your loved ones. Hiding from it well into your adult years.

Starting college, you expected yourself to keep your head down, get good grades, and stay out of everyone’s way. That is until you were roomed with Mason Weaver, a bold and intrepid individual that surprised you the moment you laid eyes on her. Certain feelings arising between the two of you, in order to try and put a stop to it, you distance yourself from Mason.

Until she realizes what’s going on and urges you to tell her how you feel.

Author’s Note: This is for the @versdan writing challenge! I chose Mason Weaver for this because there is a lack of Mason Weaver FICS on this platform. But if you’d like me to write more I will! Enjoy! ☺️

This fic is also based in the ’60s.

Prompt:

“I don’t get why you can’t tell me how you truly feel.”

Song featured: Leavin’ On Your Mind- Patsy Cline

Warnings! A little lengthy but that’s it.

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

Sunday

August 8th, 1965

You set down your last box in the corner of your side of the dorm before plopping yourself down face first on your new bed. Your arms were sore and worn out from carrying all of your stuff up and down the stairs, thankfully you were finished now and could rest a bit before you unpack everything.

You were mainly excited to unpack your record player, a powder blue 1964 Dansette Tempo—with four speeds. After begging for one for years, your parents got it for you as a graduation gift. Eventually starting your horde of record albums. Your favorites were: Doris Day’s Day by Night—Connie Francis’s Who’s Sorry Now?—and Patsy Cline’s single Leavin’ On Your Mind.

Besides your impressive collection of records, you also own a vast majority of books. Books have kept you company since you were very small. When you hit the age of twelve, everything seemed to have made sense quicker than you realized, beginning to show more romantic feelings towards your childhood friend, Caroline.

As you were moving stuff into your room, you couldn’t help but hear whispers and murmurs as you walked. The paranoid side of you thought that they were about you, but you knew that you were just overthinking it. Even if they did know about you, the comments would be just as hurtful. But you couldn’t do anything about it nor wanted to. That would cause more problems on your part, especially if it got one of the deans involved. So you decided that it was best to keep to yourself and not stir up any trouble for you or anyone.

Your head perks up when you hear the doorknob turning, automatically; you surmise that it’s your new roommate and await the worst. You see a girl walk through the door carrying a large box, wearing high-waisted denim jeans and a button-up red flannel shirt. Her hair cascades down her shoulders in long dark blonde waves.

She shuts the door behind her, her hazel eyes darting up to look at you. “Oh wow, I’m sorry, I didn’t think anyone was in here. Were you sleeping?”

You shook your head vigorously. “N-No, I was just resting. My arms are tired.” You say meekly.

She breathes out a laugh, making your heart flutter inside your chest.

“I’m Mason, Mason Weaver.” She extended a free hand towards you, keeping the box close to her chest with the other. You were rooted to your spot, unable to stand or reach your arm out to hers. Even if you did you’d probably melt all over the floor.

Mason’s eyes scan you up and down curiously, “Ya know when someone introduces themselves it’s common courtesy to do the same.”

“Y/N...Y/N L/N.” You say quietly, sitting up and lifting your hand to shake hers.

“Oh, she does have a name,” The blonde jokes with a grin. You nearly turn red at her words, the cool drawl in her voice causing your stomach to do somersaults.

Mason turns her back to you and sets her box down on the bed opposite to yours. Sitting down next to it and kicking off her boots, you tried your best not to stare at her but something about her held your gaze. You felt warm, you wanted to think because of how hot it was outside, but you knew it was because of her.

You saw her start to unpack her box, the contents inside weren’t exactly what you had expected to be inside. You anticipated something like toiletries or old books. Instead, she took out 35mm film rolls and a Canon Demi.

“You take pictures?” You ask softly.

You see her nod. “Yeah, I’m majoring in photography, so I have to take a lot of pictures. What’s yours?”

“Biochemistry.” You reply ducking your head down. “It sounds lame compared to yours.”

Mason shook her head. “Not at all. It’s different, I like different.” She beams over at you.

The overwhelming heat now scorched your face, you felt faint and light-headed. You needed to leave as soon as possible or else you’d pass out right then and there. You quickly rose to your feet, the dizzy feeling only intensifying. “I’m-I’m gonna go check out the library.”

“Oh, o-okay.” She gives you a small wave as you dashed out the door, beating yourself mentally for acting a fool in front of her.

You could only imagine how tomorrow would play out...

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

Monday

August 9th, 1965

You were the first one to wake up the following morning, it was surprising that you didn’t wake up Mason with all of the noise that you were making. You raced out the door before she could wake up and greet you. You had three classes today, the first two blowing by fast. You couldn’t wait to be done for the day. That way you could go back to the dorm to listen to your records and unpack everything.

Upon arriving to one of them, you were asked to sit in the front row, your professor claimed that it would make an example of yourself to the students in the back. Instead, the front happened to be an ideal shooting range for paper hornets from the two boys sitting behind you.

A few hit the back of your neck as you were taking notes.

You were now seated at one of the far lunch tables on the outside of the cafeteria, reading your textbook for your next class, Math. You stopped once you heard someone sit down next to you, lifting your head up slowly to see Mason sitting across from you.

“Hey roomie,” She breathes, giving you a soft smile.

“Oh, hi.” You say softly, looking back down at your book to mask your now flushing face.

Mason wipes her forehead with the back of her hand, emitting another sigh, “God, I’m beat, I can’t wait to head back to the dorm and rest a bit after this next class.”

You hummed in response, flipping onto the next page of your textbook.

“So...how was the library yesterday? I assume it was good since you were gone all day, and you left so fast this morning I didn’t even get to talk to you.”

“I’m sorry if I woke you up,” You murmured.

She waves a dismissive hand. “I had to get up early anyway, the best pictures are at sunrise and sunset.”

You lifted your eyes from your book once more. “Because of the lighting?”

“That and the colors in the sky are absolutely gorgeous.”

There was sunshine in her smile and her eyes. The brown orbs showing a glimpse of her soul when she smiled, the honeyed hues twinkling in the sun like a rich topaz. They were safe and welcoming, perhaps that was the best way to describe them. And though you never saw them yourself, you could assume that Mason’s pictures were damn near incomparable to her.

But what had confused you was the fact that someone as pretty as her was carrying a conversation with you. Though you hardly exchanged any words back—she still talked to you. You wondered if she knew about you, maybe she didn’t. Or maybe she did and just didn’t care. Or maybe she did and she was just being nice to you out of sympathy. Whatever it was—it had started to scare you.

“My next class is two hours long,” Mason comments as she takes out the list of her classes. “College Mathematics with Dr. Mayfield.”

“I have that class too.” You managed to speak out.

A grin plays on Mason’s lips. “Really? Well, this day just keeps getting better. I’m glad I’m not going in blind.” She stands up from the table, your eyes following her form. “I finally have a walking buddy.”

“You wanna walk...with me?” You questioned innocently.

“Yeah, is there something wrong with that?”

“I-I don’t know. I just—“

“Come on.”

Mason takes your hand, pulling you out from the seat. You quickly collect all of your stuff before walking with her—your hand still in hers. Butterflies fluttered within your stomach, no—all over your body. To your surprise, you were shocked that she couldn’t feel your pulse racing while your hand was clasped on hers.

Even when you two were inside of the building she still held your hand, earning disapproving looks from students as well as some teachers in the hallways. But Mason didn’t seem to care about that. She appeared to not care about a lot of things.

~~~~~~~~

The second the two of walked into your dorm room, you dashed over your box full of records. Forgoing your backpack and all of the contents inside. Mason gave you a quizzical look until she saw what you had pulled out from behind your bed.

“Is that a record player?” She asks.

You nodded eagerly. “Yeah, my parents got it for me when I graduated high school. I’ve been dying to listen to it all day.”

You took out the powder blue chest and set it up on your bed, then you took the Patsy Cline record and gently placed it over the spindle, you then turned the power knob until you heard it click, after that you adjusted the tone arm, setting it down on the record as it spun around. Soon the music began to play and Patsy Cline’s beautiful voice filled the dorm.

If you got leavin' on your mind

Tell me now, get it over

Hurt me now, get it over

If you got leavin' on your mind

“You like this song too?” Mason asked excitedly.

Your eyes lit up, “Yes!”

“Not a lot of people do,” Mason chirps. “But I’m glad you at least have taste.”

You blush. “I have more, if you wanna listen to them.”

“Do you have The Beatles?”

You bit your lip and nod. “Mm-hm,”

If there's a new love in your heart

Tell me now, get it over

Hurt me now, get it over

If there's a new love in your heart

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

It had been a few weeks now, and since that day you and Mason have gotten closer than ever. Everyday after your classes you would head back to the dorm and listen to your records, dancing in your room and failing your arms around like no one was watching.

In that time you now realized that you had fallen for Mason, and hard. Everything that she did had sent your heart in a frenzy, you were drowning and sinking deeper by the second. But you didn’t know if she felt the same and it pained you everyday. One day after Mayfield’s, you saw her talking with a guy, you thought nothing of it until she gave him a hug. Not a buddy hug either, a good hug. A hug that you desperately wanted to receive from her. Which hurt even more.

Since then, you decided to distance yourself from her, exchanging only a few words such as: ‘Hi’ and ‘Bye’. Keeping to yourself from the time you woke up to the time you went to bed. Mason had tried to talk with you as you were doing homework or studying, but you had just given her the cold shoulder. Ignoring whatever she tried to say.

And that made her angry.

You didn’t want to ignore her, in fact, you wanted the opposite. You wanted nothing more than to talk to her all day long, basking in each other’s presence, and to press a light kiss to her lips without a care in the world. But that guy—that guy you saw hugging her. Hugging the girl you loved. Killed you inside.

~~~~~~~~

Monday

August 23rd, 1965

You had been in the library for two hours now, you weren’t studying or anything, you just wanted to pass the time until Mason went to sleep. She had to wake up early tomorrow to develop her photos. So you decided to stay a little longer until the library closed, then you would head back to your room and go to sleep, doing the same thing tomorrow morning.

You felt guilty. Guiltier than normal. It started to make you sick, your stomach bubbling up with bile. Why was it so hard to talk to her? Why was it so hard to take away this pain? Distancing yourself keeps you from getting hurt, right? If so, then why wasn’t it working? Why wasn’t anything working? It hurt so much and you could only imagine the way Mason was feeling right now.

With that, you decided to leave the library and head back to your dorm. To your surprise Mason was waiting up for you, sitting at the edge of her bed, Leavin’ On Your Mind playing in the background. She looked like she had been crying, swollen eyes an irritated shade of red, crinkling slightly as she managed a weak smile for you.

“Hey,”

“Hey,” You say.

“Can we talk?”

“Yeah,” You nodded, making way to your bed.

Don't leave me here, in a world

Filled with dreams that might have been

Hurt me now, get it over

I may learn to love again

Your hands patted a rhythm on your knees, as you awaited what Mason was going to say. You heard your heart thudding loudly in your ears, a thick gob of spit in the pit of your throat made it hard to swallow. Please...say something. You thought.

“Did I do something wrong?” Mason asks hoarsely. “If so, can you tell me?”

“You didn’t.” You mutter.

“Then why are you ignoring me? I must’ve done something if you’re not talking to me anymore.” Tears streamed down from her eyes. “Y/N, can you please tell me?”

You shook your head. “If I do then we won’t be friends anymore.”

Mason sprung off the bed and onto her feet, “You’re acting like we’re not friends now!” She boomed. “You’re my only friend here, and you’re treating me like I did something wrong. Like I’ve offended you in some way. Why?”

“Because...” You trailed off.

“Because what, Y/N?” Mason cried. “I don’t get why you can’t tell me how you truly feel!”

“Because I love you!” You shout at her, warm tears spilling down your face. “For so long I had to hide myself because I was afraid of getting hurt by somebody I loved. You brought out those feelings—Mason—feelings of complete and utter happiness. I never wanted to be around someone more than I want to be around you...and I’m so sorry I did that to you. But I know you don’t love me, so that’s why I stayed away from you!”

If there's a new love in your heart

Tell me now, get it over

Hurt me now, get it over

If there's a new love in your heart

“Did you think that that would work?” Mason questions harshly. “That ignoring me for a long time would help you?”

“But I saw you with that guy the other day. I assumed that he was your boyfriend and I just—it hurt so much watching that. So much that I couldn’t bear to be around you anymore.” You explained with a sob.

“Boyfriend? No, he’s one of my classmates from photography! He found my camera in the darkroom after I left it there accidentally.” She tells you. “And he’s not important to me because it’s you that I want!” You felt Mason’s hands cup both of your cheeks, inching her face closer to you. “It’s always been you. From the very beginning.“

The next thing you knew, her mouth was pressed firmly against yours, knocking the wind out of your lungs and making you lose balance. It was the most incredible feeling you had ever known.

So you kissed her back, desperate and eager, your hands finding their way around her neck and into her beautiful hair. Mason’s hands fell to your waist pulling you in closer. You eventually pull away from each other, your chests rising and falling fast as your struggles to catch your breath.

A blush crept over your cheeks. “So...does that mean you love me too?”

Mason laughs and nods. “Yes, Y/N. I do love you too.” She wipes your tears with the pads of her thumbs before kissing you again, the kiss soft and syrupy this time.

Hurt me now, get it over

If there's a new love in your heart

#versdan800wc #mason weaver imagine #mason weaver x reader #mason weaver #mason weaver imagines #kong skull island #kong skull island imagine #brie larson

48 notes · View notes

prue84 · 4 years ago

Photo

Tumblann twitter: Arthur's profile

Fandom: BBC's Merlin (post-canon, modern magic) AU AU: The battle of Tumblann Series: Tumblann twitter

Arthur's Twitter (no specific year, october)

Arthur doesn't live with the smartphone in his hand but perhaps he does, judging by the counter of his tweets. One would expect that the Once and Future King would have a very institutional Twitter, but Arthur Pendragon has never been a conventional king, so you get comments about fanfictions he read and complaints about his life of young man saddled with the duty to care to King of Snarkiness Merlin.

———————————————————————————————

Eventually, Magic allows the return of Aithusa, some kind of second chance for both her and Merlin (who failed her). Her egg pops up out of nowhere and Arthur and Merlin will raise her. Aithusa will decide on her own that Arthur is her "papa dragon". Arthur certainly doesn't spoil her because Pendragons don't do spoiling, everyone knows that.

———————————————————————————————

Yes, I did write a fanfic for Arthur and Merlin as dragon dads. Be my guest.

More about the AU under the cut.

———————————————————————————————

About the AU It's the 21th century like we know it, but magic is widely spread and has long since become part of everyday life. The legend of the Once and Future King is real and the people of England are eagerly awaiting for his return. Officially Merlin (with the appearance of Dragoon the Great) is known to hide somewhere and it's said that he will reveal himself when his king will be back; for now Merlin lives his life as the young Professor Gaius de Bois, teaching Medieval History at the University of Avalon and being a renowned historian for his expertise in the Matter of Britain. When Arthur finally emerges from the Lake of Avalon, he can live his new modern life without changing name nor hiding his true identity, while Merlin returns and keeps his two identities: the official old warlock and the young Professor, claiming that the young Gaius is his nephew. Although the fact they are lovers is just a rumor, and they've never given any hint that the rumor is true, Arthur and Merlin are in a romantic relationship so they do share the royal bed. Intrigued by the fact people had told his story, Arthur - without a kingdom to rule and generally something to do with his time - embarks on the quest to read all books and see all movies and shows about him, to either laugh or wonder what exactly Merlin had done in all these centuries when people twisted the true story about Camelot into something that has little to do with the original. He eventually discovers social media and becomes pretty much addicted to it. He will go down the Hell path when he will eventually sign up to Tumblr, but that's another story for another graphic...

———————————————————————————————

I haven't really decided in which year (or even decade) Arthur would return (either in this AU and generally in every return!AU of mine. I only have this vague idea it would be near the debut of BBC's Merlin, most likely after the Season 1 aired. To pick the joining date I just made an homage to Bradley James’ Twitter, from which I've also taken the numbers of "following" and the idea of the linktr.ee (because Arthur clearly has more than a mere Twitter account).

———————————————————————————————

Tec stuffs (aka Behind The Manip) Twitter graphic made all by-hand, with much moving/copy/pasting. I worked from a screencap of Twitter made in 2017, so this doesn't reflect later changes over Twitter. I liked better the square icons over the rounded (they are also easier to make) so I decided to keep the old graphic.

Crossposted Livejournal: prue84.livejournal.com/74889.html Dreamwidth: prue84.dreamwidth.org/67143.html Deviantart: deviantart.com/prue84/art/Arthur-Pendragon-Twitter-profile-858691163

#Merlin BBC #Arthur Pendragon #Aithusa #Merthur #AUs (Merlin)#AU: The battle of Tumblann #Series: Tumblann tweets #Graphics

12 notes · View notes

thotsforvillainrights · 4 years ago

Text

~Pivitol~

Summary: The long awaited first date arrives for both you and Kai, and the elders in your lives offer some meaningful advice (no matter how pesky). When the date finally comes, you and Kai find some common ground and interest, opening a doorway to an intense relationship to come. (In other words...the first date went great!)

Chapter: 8

Warnings: None

With your bosses blessing and Yuko’s help, you got off work early today and that gave you some time to prepare. You still hadn’t given Kai a certain time to come over, so any time tomorrow was fair game. With him being a germaphobe, you had to make sure your place was in tip-top shape upon his arrival. You would spend the rest of the day cleaning and then get some sleep tonight. You’d even squeeze a little self care in there somewhere so you didn’t have to look like a monster when he came tomorrow. Halfway through thinking up a game plan and digging out the broom from the supply closet, there was an interrupting knock at your door. You opened it and looked down, smiling when you saw it was the landlord Ms. Yumine. “Oh dearie would you mind if I came in? I’m walking around all the units today and checking the air vents. Some of the maintenance reports tenants sent in have been complaining about poor air and heating. I just wanted to see if I could help the maintenance man before he came over.” She asked you sweetly. “Of course!” You stepped aside and let the old lady enter the apartment. “My oh my, you seem a little distressed dear? What seems to be the issue?” You chuckled and shyly rubbed the back of your head with your free hand while still holding onto the broom in the other. “I’m having someone important over for dinner tomorrow and he doesn’t like germs very much. I’m cleaning up now but I’m still worried about how this is going to go and I just worry that maybe he might-”

“Pardon my interruption, but I think I know what’s biting at your heart. This man is important to you yes?” She turned and asked you. You nodded while feeling your skin burn with embarrassment. “Have you spent a bad moment with this boy ever before?” Ms. Yumine continued to press on. “Well no, but-”

“No butts then! If you feel comfortable with him, then that shouldn’t change now either. Just relax and stop trying so hard dearest.” She reassured you before going back to inspect the vents. You slowed down your cleaning efforts and bid her a goodbye when she was finished. Afterwards, you finished off the rest of your cleaning, showered and laid down for bed. As quickly as your eyes closed, they opened again at the sound of your alarm a few hours later indicating that the new day had begun.

Meanwhile, Chisaki was scrubbing his skin like never before. He had to assure himself that he was clean enough for you. After his VERY hot shower, he got out of the steamy bathroom, put on his white suit, and began to vigorously spray himself with cologne until he heard the sound of a throat being cleared at his bedroom doorway. He turned to see Pops smiling (very obnoxiously might I add). “What do you want, old man?” Pops simply held his hand up in defense and chuckled. “Oh nothing, it’s just...well you’ll end up poising her/him/them at that rate if you don’t go easy on the cologne.” Kai scoffed at the elders words and proceeded to brush his hair in the bedroom mirror until he sighed and put the brush down. He turned and glared at Pops, old man still widely smiling. “Pops, what do you want? Are you going to stand there all day or something?” Kai was annoyed but also embarrassed, knowing that Pops was going to tease him one way or another. “Of course not, my boy! It’s just...I’m so proud of the man you’re becoming. It feels like yesterday I was watching you be rebellious and here you are preparing for your first date. Let me enjoy this moment since I didn’t get to see you have this in elementary, middle, or high school.” Kai blushed lightly and quickly turned away to check his appearance in the mirror. “Oh, I also have a gift to give to you! In fact, I left it in the glove box of your car. It might come in handy later on.” Then without further explanation, Pops sauntered off somewhere else in the house to do old man stuff. Kai sighed in relief having finally being given the moment to be alone before the date. He waited at least another hour or two, googling tips on his phone and watching helpful YouTube date videos. Finally he decided it was time to go when you texted him your address.

He left the base and got into his car, pausing to curiously see what Pops must’ve left for him in the glove box. Once he pulled it out, he choked and quickly tossed it in the back seat, before reading the note that was also left in the glove-box. ‘Safe sex is essential to a relationship, so I got you this condom while I was out yesterday. I know you’d rather hear the talk from YouTube or the classes you took in high school, so I’ll leave it at that. Good luck!’ Kai crumpled up the note and tossed it in the middle console of the car before turning on the radio and drowning his embarrassing thoughts with music. In no time he had arrived and was standing outside of your doorway, pausing with his hand at the door. He wasn’t even sure how to knock properly until you opened the door and jumped back at seeing him. “Oh! You scared me there! I was actually just about to check the mailbox but I’m glad to see you here. Come in, come in. I tried to clean up as best I could by the way, so I’m sorry if it’s not up to standard.” You rambled on nervously behind him as he entered your apartment and looked around. “No, it’s just fine. It’s actually just like I imagined you to decorate and everything. Do you mind if I...take a seat here?” He asked you and you nodded. Kai removed his coat and hung it on the couch arm before taking a seat on the couch and looking around some more. You scrambled off to your room and checked your appearance one more time before coming back to the living room and sitting in the recliner next to the couch. You grabbed the remote and turned the TV on. “I know this isn’t what you had in mind for dinner but it’s a bit early for that and I also wanted to catch the newest episode of my favorite show. Is that okay?” You asked him and he nodded. About 5 minutes through the show he was calling out the plot line and picking the actors apart ruthlessly. He stopped his over-analyzation when you started laughing. “Oh my God Kai, it’s just a show for enjoyment. If you think too much into it then you won’t have a good time watching. Haven’t you ever followed a series before?” He took a second to think before shaking his head. You gasped and dramatically picked up the remote. You scrolled through the menu and found the first episode of the series. “I’m only on like episode 8, so I don’t mind starting from the top for you. Let’s watch it together okay?” He smiled under his medical mask and nodded in agreement. It didn’t take long to catch up.The episodes were only 30 minutes a piece anyway, so of course it didn’t take that long. Now that he finally understood the story-line he was hooked. “When do the new episodes come out?” He asked you eagerly. You laughed and stood up from your spot on the chair to stretch. “Every Wednesday...so today as well, but we burned through it pretty fast. Hey, do you wanna just get together and finish out this first season with me every week? I mean only if you’re okay with that and all-”

“Yes! I mean...yes, of course.” He cleared his throat and turned his attention away to something else. You smiled at his enthusiasm before heading to the kitchen and washing your hands. You began to gather the ingredients and supplies for dinner when you noticed he had gotten up to join you. He eyed the stuff curiously and you felt your nervousness kick in again. “Is everything okay?” You asked him shyly and he nodded. “Yes, it’s alright. I’m just curious is all. Would you mind me helping? I feel bad about you having to do this all on your own.” You agreed and Kai showed you just how awful he could be in the kitchen. The only upside to the venture was that you got to see his beautiful hands without any gloves on. With dinner now burnt and Kai furiously apologizing for said mistake, you had ordered take-out instead. After consoling him, and sitting down to eat the take-out with him, you two had settled to finish the night off with a horror movie. You noticed 10 minutes into the movie, Kai was being really fidgety and kept glancing over to you. Finally you decided to grill him on it. You paused the movie and looked over at him. “Is everything alright Kai?”

“Yes but well...no. I mean, you are sitting over on the chair and there’s so much room here on the couch. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sitting by me?” Your eyes widened a bit and you looked away for a second. “Well it’s just that I know you’re germaphobe and all. I was keeping my distance because of that. I didn’t want our first date over here to be considered too much and-”

“Date?”

“Oh!!! No! no no no! I’m so sorry for calling it that! I mean, I understand that this was supposed to be us hanging out with no strings attached and all! I’m so sorry if I messed that up!” You rambled on and on with apologies, completely blind to the way Kai’s face was burning red with excitement. (Lucky for him the room was dark for the movie). “No! I...wanted this to be a date and I’m ashamed I didn’t ask you first. Would this be okay?” He asked shyly. You sheepishly nodded and headed over to sit on the couch next to him. You unpaused the movie, blinked and yawned in the middle of it, and woke up to Chisaki gently nudging you. “Oh shit. I’m so sorry Kai. Did I fall asleep on your shoulder? I know that must’ve been so uncomfy for you. I’m glad you woke me up.”

“Actually I let you sleep through the rest of the movie. I mean...you don’t bother me as much when it comes to germs. I rather enjoy your company.” You two stared at each other for a little bit after that. The intense curiosity as to what his lips might have felt like under that mask made you jump back a bit and quickly withdraw from the situation.

(Little did you know he was wondering how your lips felt too.)

“It’s uh...getting late. I don’t mean to kick you out but I’ve got a meeting tomorrow and...yknow.”

“Oh no, of course. I also have work as well so I’ll be going but...thank you for inviting me. I hope to see you again soon.” To show you he trusted your touch, he hugged you goodbye (a shocking moment for himself as well). Once home again, Pops was waiting for him in the living room. “How was the date?”

“It was fine, and Pops?”

“Yes, my boy?”

“DO NOT LEAVE ANOTHER SINGLE ‘GIFT’ IN MY CAR EVER AGAIN.” Kai stomped off to his room leaving Pops a laughing mess on the couch. That night he couldn’t really sleep because his heart was too busy fluttering with excitement and happiness at the thought of you...his first date.

»—————————–———————————————————–✄

TIp Jar: https://cash.app/$YuTakeyama

#bnha #mha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #overhaul #kai chisaki #chisaki kai #bnha overhaul #yakuza #mha overhaul #shie hassaikai #pivitol #pivotal #fanfiction #fanfic #overhaul x reader

35 notes · View notes

freddiesaysalright · 5 years ago

Text

Peace Like A River Part 4

A Gwilym Lee x Reader Story

Summary: Reader is a stand up comic with a pretty dark past. She has a three new lights in her life: her daughter, Violet; her anonymous correspondent, Dear Friend; and Gwilym Lee.

Word Count: 3.2K

Tag List: @psychosupernatural, @someone-get-a-medic, @bensrhapsody, @deakyclicks, @crazylittlethingcalledobsession, @minigranger, @simmisblog, @assembledherethevolunteers, @lookuptotheskiesandsee, @readinghorn, @riddikuluslypotter, @doingalrightt, @misslolasworld, @lemurian-starship, @ravenedges-lies, @painkiller80, @imgonnabeyourslave If you’d like to be added let me know!

A/N: Alright, the big reveal! I hope you guys enjoy it! Don’t worry, there’s still some shit to go down before this story is over!

Part I Part II Part III

Part 4 here we go!!!

“You’re going to meet him right?” Stacy questioned.

You trembled at the thought. This man, Dear Friend, was probably the love of your life. To meet him would mean to take actual steps toward being happy. That terrified you. The last time you put that much trust in someone, you got burned. Sometimes quite literally. Logically, you knew that Dear Friend wasn’t like that. He couldn’t be. But your body remembered all too well. So did your heart.

“I - I want to,” you managed to say. “I just don’t know if I can.”

“But, Y/N, what if it’s your only chance?” she pressed. “He lives in the UK. Who knows when you’ll have another opportunity to meet without a hefty expense for one or both of you?”

“You’re right,” you admitted. “But the truth is, I’m a coward.”

Stacy sighed and looked at you in disbelief.

“Are you serious?” she questioned. “You’re one of the bravest people I know. You left your husband and kept him away from you. You’re raising your daughter all on your own. And you took a shot at a career in comedy, which is highly competitive, especially for women. And look how it turned out for you!”

“This is different,” you said.

“How?” she demanded.

“It just is,” you insisted. “It involves love, it involves another person.”

“Do you want to hurt him?” she asked.

“No, of course not,” you said.

“Then go,” she replied. “If you don’t, he’ll be crushed.”

You looked at the letter again, hesitant.

“Take a chance, Y/N,” she pressed. “You deserve to be happy.”

You opened your mouth to respond, but the bathroom door beside you opened and Violet poked her head out.

“Mommy, I’m ready for my bath now,” she said.

“Right, sorry, baby,” you returned, shaking your head. “I’ll be there in one second.”

“Okie dokie,” she replied, and closed the door again.

You turned back to Stacy and handed her the letter. “Put this on my desk. I’ll answer it once Violet’s in bed.”

She sighed. “Alright, then.”

You didn’t answer and went into the bathroom to help Violet in her bath. The water was full and warm and you’d added bubbles like she liked. You lifted her up and placed her in the water as she giggled. You reached for her shampoo and began lathering it in her curls. She was talking to you, but your mind was on Dear Friend. Were you really ready to take that step?

“Mommy,” your daughter said seriously, calling you back to her. “Are you hurting somewhere?”

“No, honey,” you replied, brow furrowing. “Why?”

“You seem sad,” she said simply.

You brushed her cheek with your thumb. “You are very sweet to worry about me, but you don’t need to. I’m okay.”

“Do you miss Mister Gwilym?”

You blinked with surprise, but recovered quickly, and smiled.

“A little,” you said. “You like Mister Gwilym, Vi?”

She answered with an exaggerated nod. “I do. He’s nice, and when he’s here, you smile a lot.”

“He is a good man,” you agreed.

Without warning, she slammed her toy boat into the water with a massive splash. Bubbles and water freckled your face before you could draw back. You sputtered to get the suds out of your mouth and gaped amusedly at your daughter. She giggled mischievously.

“You rotten girl!” you teased and tickled her sides.

She shrieked with laughter and splashed around some more as you tickled her. You stopped and she caught her breath. You pinched her cheek gently.

“Mommy, can I have a mohawk?” she requested.

“Sure thing, sweetie,” you returned and used the suds and water to style her hair.

“I love you,” she said suddenly. “I want you to be happy and smile all the time.”

Your heart melted. You were surprised there wasn’t a puddle on your chest.

“I love you too,” you told her. “More than anything in the world. You’re my biggest reason to smile.”

She beamed at that. “But you should have other stuff too! I don’t know what Miss Stacy said you need to do, but you should do it if it makes you smile!”

It really was that simple. You couldn’t let fear hold you back. To get what you wanted, you needed to be as open hearted and trusting as your three-year-old girl. You kissed her wet forehead.

“You’re right, sweetie,” you said. “I will.”

“Good!” she chirped. “Is my mohawk ready?”

“Yeah, check it out,” you said, grabbing the hand mirror from the counter.

She made an angry face in the mirror before breaking into fresh bits of laughter.

“I look funny,” she said, giggling.

You hummed in agreement. “Come on, silly girl. Time to dry off.”

You wrapped a towel around her and carried her out to the room to get her clothes. She picked out her favorite pajamas and you helped her get them on. Then you had her brush her teeth while you combed her hair. Then you got in bed and she snuggled close so you could read her a story. As you read, you thought how crazy it was that she had imparted such simple wisdom on you.

When she was asleep, you went to your desk to answer Dear Friend. Your pen shook in your hand as you wrote.

Dear Friend. It is time we meet. Perhaps by fate, I’m going to be in Atlanta for work that week. I know a place there that has great coffee…

You organized a date, time, and place. It made you feel in control which eased your nerves. You also decided how you were going to know it was Dear Friend. You would both carry a copy of Pride and Prejudice with a pink carnation in it. You were going to meet Dear Friend. See his face. Hold his hand. Maybe even kiss him. With all the worry that clouded your heart, excitement began to peek through.

I await our meeting eagerly. I’m trembling now just thinking of seeing you. Touching you. Loving you truly. Until then, your Dear Friend.

You put the pen down and read it over again, making sure you had every detail right. This was the chance of a lifetime and you could not afford to mess anything up.

From Chicago, you went to DC, where you had two shows. From DC, you headed to Charlotte for one night and then from Charlotte you went to Atlanta. That city felt like the big leap. Every step you took, every mile traveled brought you closer to Dear Friend. On your night in Charlotte, you received a letter from him confirming that he would be where you suggested at the time you suggested. You could feel his excitement through the ink.

I can’t believe I’ll be able to hold you in my arms at last, he wrote. I desperately want to feel you close to me. To come together as our hearts already have. I love you. I look forward to seeing your lovely face. Yours, Dear Friend.

It would have been touching if it didn’t make you so nervous. And for the first time, you did not need to write a reply. That made you a bit sad. Was this your last letter from Dear Friend? It was the end of an era for you. But, who would need a letter when you had him next to you?

Violet also complicated things. You would have to tell him about her, and right away. You were fairly certain he would have no objections to your child. He knew you were married before, after all. But it was still a nerve wracking thing to go over in your head. What if it did change how he felt about you? It would be so easy for him to walk away at this point.

As you touched down in Atlanta, your stomach did a flip, and not just because of the shaky landing. This was really it. The place you would meet Dear Friend, and probably change your life forever. One way or the other.

You were meeting him after your second show in Atlanta. The whole evening, you felt like you were hardly present on stage. You heard the audience laughing, but you couldn’t remember by the end of it how it went or if you had even done a good job. You hated that you had probably let some people down, but you had this massive event hanging before you like a storm on the horizon. It was unavoidable.

After the show, Stacy was waiting for you. Violet was already in the stroller, asleep. The cafe was close to the venue, so you were just going to walk there. The weather was nice since it was fall, and you didn’t mind the exercise. It would help you to clear your head.

“Stacy, I can’t do this,” you said when you were about halfway there. “I’m gonna throw up.”

Really, you felt like your stomach was jumping around inside you. Any second now, you were sure you would lose your dinner right there on the sidewalk.

“Y/N, listen to me,” she said, taking your hand and making you look at her. “You’re going to be fine. This man, Dear Friend, has never disappointed you. You have something real. It’s worth exploring. It’s worth the risk.”

You remembered telling Gwilym back in Boston about risk taking. You realized now that was much easier said than done.

She held your hand all the way to the cafe. A large window was in the front, where you could see the customers, but you didn’t look. You turned your back and covered your eyes.

“He’s the one with Pride and Prejudice with a carnation in it,” you said. “I can’t look, Stace, you have to do it for me.”

Stacy scanned the patrons and then you heard her gasp. “There he is!”

Your mind and heart were racing. He was so close now. You could feel him. Somewhere, just feet away from you, he sat. Was he sipping a coffee? Was he just looking around waiting for you? Was he everything you’d ever imagined him to be? You thought you might explode from all the questions and emotions coursing through you.

“What’s he like?!” you squeaked out.

“Well, you find Gwilym attractive, right?” she wondered, and you heard concern in her voice.

“Sure, why?” you returned, narrowing your eyes at the street in confusion.

“Because…” she trailed off.

“Does he look like Gwilym?” you pressed.

“You could say that,” she answered vaguely.

“Stacy, just tell me!” you cried.

“Y/N...it is Gwilym.”

“What?!” you gasped, whipping around.

You gazed through the window and saw him. Your friend Gwilym Lee, alone at a table, a copy of Pride and Prejudice beside him, with the carnation. Worlds collided and for a moment, you were ready to leap with joy. Of course Gwilym was Dear Friend. It all made sense now! But, as quickly as happiness came, it departed. A voice that sounded like Henry’s ran through your mind and crawled over your skin. Unworthy, it hissed to you.

You recalled all the ways Gwilym had described the girl he was in love with. Smart, well-educated, lovely, beautiful. You couldn’t measure up to the version of yourself you had presented to him in those letters. All you really were was a disappointment. You were sure of it.

Stacy eyed you, a smile threatening to part her lips.

“This is great!” she said. “Right?”

Her happiness faltered when she saw it leave your face.

“What is it?”

“I’m not the girl he’s in love with,” you said.

“What the fuck?” she returned. “You’re Dear Friend, of course you are.”

You shook your head. “No. I’m not. I was who I want to be in those letters. Not who I am. I don’t…” you took a deep breath. A lump the size of a chicken egg had formed in your throat. “I don’t deserve him.”

“Y/N…”

“Take Violet back to the hotel,” you said.

“Are you going in?” she asked.

“Yeah, but...I can’t tell him,” you said. “It would only upset him.”

“I think he’ll be more upset to think he got stood up,” she said.

“I’ll work it out, just please, take Violet and go.”

With a sigh, she obeyed. You watched her disappear around the corner. You stuffed the book into your purse, and flower as well, ensuring they were deep inside and couldn’t be seen, even from a distance. You blinked back your tears quickly and heaved a sigh. It was time.

You walked in and strolled up to the counter casually, as if you were just popping in after your show with no real sense of purpose. You looked at your phone as you waited for the barista to acknowledge you.

“Y/N?” Gwilym’s voice came from the table.

“Oh, hey Gwil!” you said brightly. “I didn’t know you were in Atlanta.”

“I didn’t know you were,” he returned.

“When I get my drink, can I join you?”

He glanced at the book, then at his watch. A frown just barely crossed his mouth and then he smiled at you.

“Sure,” he said. “That’s fine.”

You ordered and when you had your cup, you sat across from him at the little table.

“Are you meeting someone?” you asked casually.

“How’d you guess?” he replied.

“Not exactly the most subtle check of your watch there, dude,” you teased.

He chuckled. “I suppose not. But yes, I am waiting for someone.”

“Your girlfriend?” you wondered, taking a sip.

He hesitated. “I suppose.”

“What’s up with the book?”

He sighed. “It’s all a bit silly, really. You see, the woman I told you about...I’ve never actually met her. We’ve been writing letters for a year or so now and we were supposed to finally meet tonight. I don’t even know her name. We call each other Dear Friend. Is that completely insane?”

It was like he’d taken a nail gun to the glass of your heart. It cracked and then when Dear Friend came from his mouth, completely shattered.

You looked at your hands around the coffee mug. “No, not completely.”

“I’m glad someone thinks so,” he said. “The guys have all been giving me hell for it.”

“They’re just jealous,” you said with a shrug.

“That’s generous of you to say, but I know that it’s sort of stupid for me to hope on a thing like this,” he said. “Unfortunately, she’s a bit late.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” you said. You meant this. He was about to get hurt and it was entirely your fault.

“I’ll hold out hope for a little while longer,” he assured you. “What about you and your man? Going well still?”

You swallowed and shook your head. “No. It didn’t work out.”

“I’m sorry, Y/N,” he said gently, and reached over to take your hand.

You looked into his beautiful blue eyes and almost confessed. But you held back as that voice returned and reminded you that you were undeserving of his kindness.

“Really, I hate that for you,” he continued as he squeezed his fingers around yours.

“Thanks,” you said, looking away again.

Your eyes welled up unexpectedly as emotion overwhelmed you again. This was not how this was supposed to go. But - as you considered it - you were so nervous because you knew that no matter who Dear Friend was, you were never going to feel worthy of him. Now that you knew it was Gwilym, a person you loved and respected outside of the letters as well, it only made that feeling all the more intense.

“Y/N?” he questioned. “Are you alright?”

You sniffled. “I am so sorry, Gwilym.”

“Hey, it’s alright,” he said soothingly, stroking the back of your hand with his thumb. “You don’t need to cry for me. If she hasn’t shown up, I’m sure it’s for a very good reason.”

It made you let out a sob because that woman didn’t exist. Instead, she was you.

“This can’t all be about me,” he said. “Is it your relationship as well?”

You nodded. “Yeah, sorry I’m so emotional. I just hate this.”

Your heart was breaking inside your chest. It was all over now. No more Dear Friend.

“Do you want me to walk you home?” he offered.

You shook your head and wiped your eyes. “No, you don’t need to do that. I’ll be fine.”

“I don’t like the idea of you walking alone,” he went on.

“Really, Gwil, I don’t need it,” you assured him. “I need the fresh air anyway. I love to walk. It helps me think.”

“Well, don’t overthink,” he said. “That’s where you’ll get into trouble.”

You tried to smile but couldn’t. You couldn’t believe this was it. The end of you and Dear Friend. And most likely the end of you and Gwilym as well. How could it ever be the same when you were in love with him?

It should have been obvious to you. That Tolstoy quote should have been a dead giveaway. When you thought about Gwilym and Dear Friend, it made sense that it was the same man. Gwilym was no one other than himself. You on the other hand, had a mask for every occasion. For the stage, for the letters, even for Violet. You took on the roles you felt each situation demanded of you. And in doing so, no one really knew who you were. You thought Dear Friend did, but realizing he knew you in another form made that line between your identities all the more clear to you. And he deserved someone whole.

“I’ll try not to,” you said.

You had to pull your hand away from his because it felt like he was burning into your skin. His pure intentions and goodness could sear a hole right through your layers. Even you weren’t sure what he would find if he made it through all of them.

“Well, I suppose it would look bad if she showed up and found me with someone else,” he said, trying to lighten the mood.

You forced a chuckle. “Yeah. I’ll head out.”

“I hope you feel better, Y/N.”

“I hope you find what you’re looking for,” you returned.

His brow furrowed at that, but you stood up, not bothering to explain yourself. It was true. You hoped there really was a woman out there like the Dear Friend you had created for yourself. That she was his perfect match and could give him the life he deserved. That she could match his wit and depth and gentleness of spirit.

You left him there in the cafe, and did not look back. You felt like you had just torn your own heart out. In a way, you had. Part of you wished for rain. A real downpour to hide the tears that streaked your face as you sobbed all the way back to your hotel room.

When you came in, Stacy was waiting up for you. You told her everything. Through it all, you were wracked with sobs and shivering. You could tell she was confused at seeing this side of you. You had no jokes to downplay what you were feeling. All you could do was wallow in this grief. She held you in your bed, stroked your hair, and whispered words of comfort to you until you cried yourself to sleep in her arms. As your heavy lids closed, you couldn’t help but wish it was Gwilym’s familiar embrace around you. Dear Friend’s arms.

126 notes · View notes

rwbyremnants · 5 years ago

Link

Really getting into it now! These two have a long journey ahead of them... are you going to be there for the ride?

=Chapter 2

Ruby found herself questioning her life decisions as she sat on the edge of Winter Schnee’s bed, swinging her calves and watching the elder woman cross the room to the wardrobe. This could go very well, or very, very badly, but the time had passed for hesitation and second-guesses. Winter seemed to care enough about her that, even if she wound up not liking what was going to happen next, she would take care of her and reassure her that everything was going to be fine.

"Alright, I'll show you a little something I got you. But do you want me to dress you up, or let you put it on yourself?" Even as she asked, Winter was reaching toward the wardrobe. “This is your show; I’m just the ringmaster.”

Putting her hand to her chin, Ruby thought on that. Although it would be easy to be in control and do it herself, the thought of Winter so intimately dressing her was alluring enough. So alluring that she said, "You can, if you want to?"

The easy smile turned just the tiniest bit wicked. Crooking her finger, Winter beckoned her closer as her other hand raised not to the door of the wardrobe, but to the top of it. "Then step right this way, Miss Rose. I'll prepare you for training."

And then Winter turned to the closet, the one that had lain innocently closed the entire time. Using a key she had apparently retrieved moments before, she unlocked and opened the mysterious door. Biting her lip once more, Ruby did just as she was asked. Hopping off the bed and walking toward the closet doors, she eagerly awaited to see what Winter had prepared for their evening together.

And what a sight to behold! It was full to the brim with various objects for different play. A lot of it suggested that she was a more submissive role the majority of the time, considering the rope and the carabiners that could attach to the anklets and gloves in there. But there were other, more suggestive items.

One that particularly caught Ruby's eye was a long tail, attached to an average-sized, tapered implement… one she could only assume was meant to go somewhere quite unusual. It may feed into her “bad puppy” fantasy, but the small girl could only hope Winter wouldn't ask her to wear that.

"And this… is you." Withdrawing from the clothing rack, she displayed a hangar to Ruby that held what looked to be a somewhat… furry one-piece bathing suit. Light tan in colour and featuring a white "underbelly", it really did seem to be something intended to make one's body look like that of an animal.

Ruby heaved a small sigh of relief. She could see that attached to the suit the other side, was a small tail of its own - one that wasn't very long in length, but did the trick. At least she wouldn't have to wear the plug. But when she looked back at the outfit again, she found her cheeks reddening. She really was going to look the part, besides the paws and the ears, perhaps.

"It looks super cute!"

"This isn't all of it," Winter informed her as she nipped it off the hanger, "but it's a start. We said we were taking little steps, right?" Then she put the hanger back on the rack and said, "Now… I will need to get rid of what you're wearing, as this will fit pretty snug. Besides, the leg holes are a little high-cut, and they would show. But I promise it's all I'm going to do. That alright?"

So she would be naked. Naked except for a furry costume. It was to be expected, given that she'd come knowing they were to engage in more for the evening. But now that the moment had arrived, it was more than enough to bring a bright blush to Ruby's cheeks.

Still, she nodded, taking it from her, then looking to the folding screen. "I'll try it on then."

And Winter didn't say a word. Even though Ruby had said she was going to let her dress her up, she understood; it was a bit different being asked to get entirely nude for the first time in front of a near-stranger. She merely handed over the garment and said, "Hopefully it fits as advertised."

Once walking behind the screen, Ruby made short work of the silk panties; tossing them over the top of the screen for Winter to quite easily see. Then came the task of trying on the furry material. It wasn't as nice against her skin as silk, in fact the material felt rather scratchy and itchy. But it was the knowledge that she would only have to wear it for an evening that powered her through, and she slid the straps over her shoulders to secure it in place.

Although there was a sudden gasp from Ruby. Something she hadn't noticed before was becoming extremely apparent. Reaching her hand down to pat between her legs, she noticed a feature in the costume that she didn't see before.

"Winter? There's a hole in this! D-downstairs. Maybe you should get your money back."

The answer she received wasn't terribly complex. "There's supposed to be one." Then there was a pause for effect, and for the meaning to sink in.

"Oooohhh…"

And then Ruby walked out from behind the screen. Yet again, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, looking up with bright red cheeks for her approval. The hole around her crotch felt huge, but in fact to anyone else, it was barely noticeable. Unless they actively looked for it.

In fact, from her vantage point, Winter couldn't see a thing. But she wasn't focusing on that, anyway. Instead, she was holding up a few other items, waiting for Ruby to get an eyeful. In one hand, a red leather studded collar; simple, a placeholder for now. In the other, a black Alice headband with two furry ears stuck on.

"C'mere, girl!" Winter said gently, as if she were calling a dog. Because now, she was.

For another moment, Ruby had paused again; getting a good look at the other items in her hand. Once more she'd began to blush, especially at the collar. That would be a real sign of ownership. But not wanting to disappoint, she attempted to play the role. Letting her tongue hang from her mouth and panting, she walked toward her. "Arf arf!"

"Good girl!" Winter cooed. If Ruby had been expecting her to laugh or poke fun at her, that was proven wrong as she reached out to stick the headband into her hair gently, adjusting it so that it sat as a normal headband would. Then she reached to just behind her human ear and scratched lightly.

"And how is my little…" Her voice changed back to its usual tone. "Did you want another name while in petspace?"

"I didn't think that far…" Ruby mentioned, leaning against Winter's hand as it lightly scratched at her ears. What could she name herself? Zwei would be too weird, even if that was her dog. As would Fido or Fluffy or any of those usual petnames. Perhaps something a little more refined…

"How about um, ‘Lady’?" At least that one was somewhat noble-sounding.

"Lady," Winter mused as her scratching ceased, though she left the hand there to support Ruby's head. "Yeah, that sounds just the thing. Hello, Lady."

"Hello- I mean… Arf." Oops, she had forgotten already! In order to try and correct her action, she rubbed her head still against Winter's hand affectionately, smiling all the while.

"It's okay," Winter laughed. "As I said, today is just a training session; you can mess up without being scolded or anything." Then she held up the collar and the tag jingled slightly. It was a blank tag, ready to be engraved. "Is Lady ready to put this on?"

"Y-" she had been about to answer vocally, but stopped herself before she managed to get that far. Instead she just nodded. That was allowed, dogs could nod. To further play into the act, she also raised her hands up, holding them in a begging position.

Winter's smile grew ever more, and she reached out to caress the side of Ruby's head with one hand briefly as the other brought the collar up. Nimble fingers undid the buckle and slid the leather strap free, guiding it around either side of Ruby's neck before she fastened it.

"Just whine if it's too tight," she whispered as she finished off, giving Ruby about a centimeter of wiggle room between her and the new collar.

No whine came. In contrast to the costume, the collar fit snugly and comfortably, with enough space for Winter to get her hands under and tug if she required to. Even if blank, the tag was a nice touch. A true mark of ownership. Looking up to her master, she smiled nervously, awaiting for her next commands. Or any further parts for the costume.

"Now," she sighed, reaching back behind her for yet more parts. These, however, were something she hadn't been expecting; kneepads. They were the same shade as the rest of the "fur". Kneeling down herself, she held one below Ruby's left foot and asked, "Step up for me?"

"Hmm?" It had certainly gotten her attention, what would she want Ruby to wear knee pads for of all things? But not arguing, she did as asked, putting her foot through the hole to work with her. Adjusting it quickly, her new master moved to do the same for her other knee. Then she picked up what was to be the final two pieces of the costume.

"Now," Winter said as she held out one of the fluffy paw-mittens. "Once these are on your hands, you're going to be a little more helpless than before. This is one of the 'play' conditions in which it's useful to remember the safeword, since you won't have your fingers free to reach out and stop whatever's going on. Not that I need you to use it today, since this is just practice, but you said you wanted to know how this stuff works."

"Oh yeah… That was something Qrow mentioned, when he attacked that Roman guy. Something about him ignoring them?" Judging by Winter's blank face at the mere mention of his name, Ruby quickly cleared her throat, changing the subject whilst she held her hand out. "Okay, so I say it when I'm in trouble, right?"

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Winter seemed to bring herself back around after a moment or two. When they opened again, she smiled gently as she began to slide the paw onto Ruby's hand. "Exactly. If you're in pain, or even if you're just very uncomfortable with what's going on. For today, you can also just tell me to stop the usual way and I will, but if we're both deep in play, especially in… consent play, a Dom might not take 'please stop' seriously." The last was said with some discomfort. "But the safeword is like the emergency brake."

"Okay, I get it." Ruby said with confidence, even giving a reassuring nod as she held her other hand forward. Giving a small test on how the paws felt, the main thing Ruby noticed was the lack of thumbs. Picking up anything would be nigh impossible in these. "Why don't we try it now, though? Like you said, this is a practice, so I gotta be ready."

"Alright. Let's begin." Stepping back, she put her hands on her hips for a moment, then pointed to the floor. "Sit, Lady."

"B-but we never-" Maybe she'd be told later. Choosing to obey her master rather than question it further, she did as she was told. Crouching down she placed her hands on the ground, putting herself in a doglike sitting position.

"Never what?" Winter asked. This really was a non-hardline session, as she was asking questions instead of scolding her for breaking character.

"We never, um… decided a word," she clarified, looking down bashfully. "Sorry."

Both of the woman's pale eyebrows arched. "Oh! Oh, right, that would be important… hmm. What's a word you wouldn’t typically say during sex, that you will definitely remember?"

"Hmm…" She had been about to press her hand against her chin, but instead was welcomed by the large plushness of the glove. Quickly recovering right after a nervous laugh, she spoke. "How about… 'Strawberry'?"

"Alright, strawberry. Strawberry…" She was repeating it to herself, not truly for Ruby's benefit. "Got it; the safeword is 'strawberry'. Now, let me see you beg."

Supporting herself on her knees rather than her feet, Ruby did as she was told. Reaching upward with her hands and curling them into a begging position as she sat upright, waiting patiently for any other commands.

"Good girl!" she cooed down at her with a big smile. "Shame I didn't think to buy some tiny cookies or something as treats. Ah well." Then she began to twirl her hand in the air. "Roll over."

"Maybe if we do this again?" she asked. Returning her hands to the ground, she immediately crouched low down, rolling to one side, and then sitting herself upright again straight after.

"Yes, I think so. I wanted to focus on getting the outfit right this time, of course." Winter snapped her fingers and lifted them, just like an actual dog trainer. "Speak!"

Looking upward obediently, she yipped as loudly as she could, continuing to sit patiently right after for more commands. Already the shame of being treated like an animal was making her cheeks heat up. And there was another result she didn't care to admit just yet - but Winter would likely find that out herself if this session continued.

"Very good, Lady, very good. Now, on your back! Go on!" The commands came so easily to her; obviously, Ruby was not her first pet.

Returning to the floor, Lady rolled onto her back. Holding her legs and arms up, she was still trying to make herself appear as canine as possible. Hands returning to the begging position, she also further played into the role by letting her tongue hang out of her mouth.

Reaching over closer, Winter began to rub up and down her belly, careful not to stray too far down. She did, however, caress her chest now and again. All the while, her gaze was calm and loving. Ruby blushed yet harder when the soft hands began to caress her chest. Even through the uncomfortable suit, it was a stimulating feeling, one that she hadn't felt in a while. Winter knew just where to pay attention, to bring out the best reactions in her.

"Does that feel good, girl?" After a few more scrubbings, she straightened and sighed as she began to push to her feet. "Now then, follow me into the kitchen. Come on!"

"O-oh, oka- um. Bark bark!" Yet again, she struggled to maintain her character. But getting onto her hands and knees, she followed Winter through the apartment, managing to just stay by her heel all the while to seem as obedient as possible.

Even the subtle action of crawling was causing air to hit her sex through the opening in the suit. A strange feeling, one that was making her wetter.

Once in the kitchen, the master reached up into a cabinet and withdrew a wide-bottomed black bowl. Then she carried it over to the sink and began filling it. Only once she had finished these tasks and began to lower it to the floorspace at the end of the counter did it become clear what she meant to happen.

"You must be a thirsty puppy."

Raising an eyebrow, Ruby looked down at the bowl questioningly. How on earth was she supposed to accomplish that task? It was completely humiliating.

But that was the whole point, wasn't it? She was supposed to be a puppy – a lesser being. Showing her willingness to obey, she leant in, trying her best to delicately lap at the water. She had little success.

"Awwww, puppy is having problems," Winter cooed in a sad tone of voice. "Shall I help her?"

There was no more forewarning than that before a light amount of pressure was being applied to the back of Ruby's head. It wasn't much; just enough to lower her head another half-inch or so.

"Wait wha-"

The rest of her words were cut off when her mouth hit the water. Though she could still breathe through her nose, she had a task at hand, so at least she didn't panic. Rather than lapping with her tongue, she did just as she was asked instead, drinking water as best she could by slurping it into her mouth.

The toes of Winter's foot flexed in Ruby's hair as she maintained perfect balance, one hand braced against the edge of the counter. "There, isn't that better? Lady was so thirsty!"

Once the bowl was half way down, Ruby was finally trying to retract her head, having had enough. From where she had accidentally managed to inhale some water she coughed, shaking her head to recover.

The pressure against her head vanished, and instead began to stroke down her back. "Now, does Lady need to go walkies?" Then she whispered, clearly not as part of their play, "Just to the bathroom, not actually outside."

At that Ruby's eyes snapped open wide. She'd had a drink of water, and knew well enough what walkies straight after that meant from having a dog of her own! Breaking the character, she asked, "You're not gonna make me actually go, are you?! I can't do that!"

"You can," Winter insisted gently, gazing down at her without any malice or irritation, nor any shame. But she was still coolly confident. "Of course, you might not want to today, and you won't be required. But other Doms who are into petplay might command you to go. You'll want to decide if you might at least consent to 'number one', or to tell them beforehand that it's one of your limits." After a heartbeat, she added in an undertone, "I was going to let you use the toilet, too…"

"Oh…" She hunched her shoulders. It was probably something she should have expected, considering it was one of the most common things dogs did. And yet, for a sexual situation, it was something that intimidated her. She was already intimidated enough by the thought of accidentally-

"I-I… think that's a limit," she quickly blurted out, looking down. "I can't… A-And I don't need to, anyway. Sorry."

Winter sighed before telling her with a gentle smile, "Quite alright. Would you like to come keep me company in bed for a while?"

Finally relaxing again, Ruby nodded, looking up with a grateful smile. At least she wasn't disappointed, again. That seemed to be Ruby's main concern. Determined not to disappoint any further, she got straight back to her hands and knees, crawling to Winter's side.

Once back in the bedroom, Winter quickly crossed to the bedside and patted the mattress with one hand. "Up!"

Making an effort to impress, Ruby took a moment to crouch properly, wiggling her backside to shake the tail on the suit, before hopping upward and onto the bed. Even if the landing wasn't exactly dignified, she at least made it up without embarrassing herself too badly. Getting into a sitting position, she awaited for her master to join her.

Soon after, Winter settled herself into the bed, acting as if she were about to spend an hour or two relaxing there before drifting off to sleep. Pulling Ruby up toward her head by her collar, she reached to the bedside table and took up a remote, using it to turn on the wall-mounted television on the wall opposite the bed.

Laying by her side, Ruby barely dared to make a move. She hadn't been commanded to go anywhere, or do anything else. All Winte was doing was laying, seeming to be ready to watch TV. Despite the low volume, and the fact it could easily be background noise, Ruby didn't know what else to do. Whether or not to make a move.

So she whispered, "Is everything okay?"

"Well," Winter answered in the same tone, "I'm honestly not sure where to go from here. You're new to this, so I'm not ready to start in on you with everything I would for a more experienced sub. Do you… have any requests?"

In all honesty, she did not. She had experienced as much as she thought possible for the actual pet side. The rest was sexual contact, which was something she wasn't ready for, either.

Or… was she? Perhaps not toward herself, but on Winter? She knew that the dom was in control of both of their pleasures, and it was up to them what order things occurred, or how regularly. She could command Ruby at her whim, and she would obey.

"What about other commands?" she asked. "Like… Subs are meant to please their masters, right? I could maybe…"

At this suggestion, Winter leaned away very slightly to blink down at her. "Are you ready for that? Please say 'yes'," she added in a very slightly more suggestive tone, her voice husky as she allowed herself a hint of a smirk.

There was barely a moment's hesitation before Ruby nodded. But Winter needed to hear the words. She wanted to be sure Ruby meant it. And so, looking back into her eyes, she whispered, "Yes. I wanna try, at least."

The smirk only grew. "Don't forget, Lady… your paws won't be of much use here." Her thighs began to part very slowly, though she made no move to force Ruby down there with her hands. Merely stroked along her shoulder the way she had begun doing the minute they laid down together.

Slowly, she began to get on her 'paws' again and edged her face toward the inner thighs. She had been about to raise her hand, to nudge her underwear aside for access, but stopped when she noticed the massive paws again. She'd have to do this a dog way. So she headed inward, nuzzling the material to one side as best she could with her nose. It took longer than usual, but no doubt the effort Ruby made to get such an easy task done was enticing for Winter.

"Oooh," Winter sighed shakily with every blunt push up against her sex from the button nose of her pet. "My little doggie seems quite frisky today. Does she… smell something she likes?"

Satisfied with how far apart she'd nuzzled her legs, Ruby went in for the kill, letting out her tongue again to trail up and down between Winter's sodden lips. It was far wetter than Ruby first realised! But she lapped at it without any complaints, happy to taste her master.

"Oh goodness," Winter sighed, pausing to swallow and inhale a shaky breath. "You're not wasting any time… good girl, good girl!"

Right against Winter's sex, 'Lady' moaned. It had been a long long time since she and Penny were last intimate, and even longer since she was allowed to please her in this way. She more or less forgot what another's flower tasted like! But Winter was different from Penny. She couldn't say whether it was better or not, but it was different. And she enjoyed savouring her – so much she continued to hold her legs apart as she lapped more.

After she had grown used to the sensation, to the rhythm of Ruby's soft tongue, her hips began to buck up into the face nestled between her legs. She could already tell it wasn't going to take long if she was this skilled! A pleasant surprise indeed. Licking her lips, she began to let out gentle breaths of pleasure with every thrust up into the tongue.

The moans of pleasure were a good sign. Maybe Ruby hadn't gone rusty in the interim. She loved Penny, well and truly, but it felt good to have someone else to practice her skills with. To not only please them for her own delight, but to keep herself in top form on the once-in-a-blue-moon occasion Penny did want to do something. If only she could thank Winter for this chance.

Perhaps she would. With a satisfactory experience. Looping her paws under Winter's thighs, Ruby held her firmly in place, burying her mouth right against Winter's sex as she lapped at it over and over again, trying to press in as roughly as she could.

And Winter completely lost herself in the writhing and panting of her own performance, so pleased was she by the attentions being paid her fragile flesh. Perhaps Ruby was new to the BDSM game, but she was certainly no slouch in that department. Her technique might be rough around the edges, but the eagerness and thirst for the action more than made up for that.

Quickly taking a moment to peek up at her master's expression, she could only smile to herself against the flesh. She looked a picture of ecstasy. But it wasn't over yet, she was going to make sure of that. Finally her tongue trailed further upward, beginning to lap and lick at her sensitive clit. Over and over again she circled and flicked, using whatever actions she could to try and get her going.

"O-OH!" Winter burst out at the heightened sensation. Ruby really did know her way around a woman! Raising her legs up, she rested them against Ruby's back as one of her hands came down to clutch into her hair, hoping to encourage her to lap faster and harder, if she so chose.

Now that she had a hand firmly pulling at her hair, Ruby could moan once again. Making the last ditch effort, she continued to lap as hard as she could against her clit over and over again, hoping to send her rocketing to her finish. It would be an honour of she managed it, but only time would tell.

However, no matter how completely overcome with pleasure as Winter was growing, she was still a professional. "Ohhh, good GIRL, Lady! YES! F-finish your dinner!" She was so close - within arm's length of an earth-shattering climax! "A-almost done!" she reassured the girl.

If only her hands were free, then she really could finish Winter off in style, by putting something inside her while her clit was paid attention to. Too bad. Or perhaps she could anyway…

It would take some effort, but she moved her face again to adjust herself. This time, her nose was pressed in against the nub instead, where she continued to nuzzle while her tongue went back to lapping up and down for a moment, only for her to then wiggle it against Winter's entrance. With a little more perseverance, she managed to push it inside, in and out her wet opening as best she could.

A minute of that was all that was needed; Ruby had the right idea, and executed it perfectly. Panting louder and louder, Winter found herself squealing in delight, bucking up against the torturous tongue as her orgasm blossomed into reality, shaking all over as she panted and writhed. It was one of the better ones a woman had ever given her, that was an absolute certainty.

Allowing Winter to ride it out till the very end, she continued to push her nose right against the clit and her tongue in and out for a few moments longer. Finally when the screams of ecstasy had died down, she drew her face back, panting heavily herself now that she was free. She could still feel Winter's wetness over her lips, having to lick them to be rid of it. The taste of a satisfied customer, she thought.

"Was that good?" she asked questioningly, tilting her head once she looked up again. "Haven’t done that in a few months."

"Verrrry good," Winter drawled weakly as she panted to catch her breath. Her hand had fallen from Ruby's hair when she drew away, and now it drifted up and down her own stomach as she basked in the afterglow. "Ohhh, you're very accomplished, aren't you?"

Licking her lips yet again, she nodded rather eagerly, crawling further forward to nuzzle herself back into Winter's side again, just as they were before. At least now that had been done, they could cuddle up and relax for the rest of the evening. If Winter let her stay that long.

"I'm glad." Ruby replied happily. "Penny always said I was kinda skilled with my tongue. Guess she was right!"

Having caught her wind, she pushed herself up onto one elbow to better see her partner for the evening. "But you've said she doesn't enjoy your efforts? That's… I can't imagine that, to be entirely honest with you. Not after what you just did for me!"

Allowing herself the luxury of resting her head on the pillow, she backtracked, "She does when she's in the mood, don't get me wrong! But that's pretty rare for her to want anything. Like Shining Charizard card rare. Which is totally fine, of course; I still love her and all! I just… wanna be good for her when she does want it. Plus I got my own needs."

"Hmm… I have a hard time understanding that from a personal standpoint, but it does stand to reason. Not everyone has to enjoy this like I do." One palm pressed into her shoulder as she leaned over and kissed Ruby's lips, and not hesitantly at all. "Thank you for such good work."

Ruby smiled bashfully back at Winter, taking a moment to nuzzle into her again and bask in her warmth. "Anytime."

"And I don't mind telling you… it isn't as though I'm interested in you romantically, but I do find you quite attractive, so far as women go. Fun to spend time with, to play with."

The blush couldn't get any brighter from before. However, such a remark did bring about a giggle from her. "Y'know what'd be funny? If you and I did get romantic. It'd be like a role reversal of Yang and Weiss."

An awkward little laugh floated out of Winter's throat. "Maybe it should bother me more to mention them when we're lying here, wet and wild as we are. But it doesn't." She glanced over to Ruby out of the corner of her eye. "Does it bother you? Not Weiss, obviously, but mentioning Yang in that context."

She shrugged her shoulders. Yet again she thought back to the truth and dare games they'd all played together, and the various confessions in them. "Not really," she explained, shrugging her shoulders. "I mean, obviously I don't want to sit and imagine what she looks like when Weiss uses a strap-on on her like she told us she does, but it's nice to know that she's getting what she wants, I guess?"

A light blush hit Winter's cheeks as Ruby described the scene. "W-well, that's… yes." Clearing her throat, she adjusted her position up against Ruby and settled in more. "Guess pegging runs in the family. I've done it a few times. Wouldn't mind doing it to Yang, either, if it wouldn't make things awkward."

Seemed Winter was more bothered about that mental image than Ruby was. But for a different reason. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you had the hots for my sister."

"Couldn't I say the same thing?" But it wasn't said cruelly, more as an afterthought. "There is something about yours I can't put my finger on. Or in. But I'm sure you don't particularly want to talk about this."

"You're curious of what it's like sleeping with a chick with a dick. I get it." It was as if Ruby had said it a million and one times before. Then again, she probably had. After all, she would have had to offer some sort of explanation to her schoolmates when she suddenly had a sister instead of a brother. And one or two of those friends had brought up that aspect.

But realising it may have been mentioned too harshly toward Winter, she shrugged her shoulders, looking downward. "Sorry, that came out like an accusation. I just… I get pretty defensive over her. She can be an easy target for some creeps."

However, Winter didn't sound chagrined or irritated in the slightest. Her voice was perfectly calm and even. "Oh no, you're right. To be entirely honest with you… she was the first woman I ever allowed myself to entertain any sexual thoughts about. Probably because of that aspect. Of course, NOW I realize that's bad, turning her into a fetish in my mind, but I've moved beyond that in the years since then."

The feelings Winter seemed to feel were ones that were mirrored within Ruby. Not for the same person, or for the same amount of time, but it was very similar to her own attractions she had towards Weiss in the beginning. In fact, truth be told, if Weiss ever gave her the chance of one wild night, or even just a kiss, she would leap at it without question. Although she might be her sister-in-law to be, Ruby still viewed Weiss as one of her favourite people to listen to, even to look at. And when she thought of it that way, it was no different to what Winter was turning Yang into in her mind.

"I'm glad." She attempted to distract herself by talking. "Glad you um, evolved or whatever."

"Yes, that's been a long-term project," Winter laughed easily, snuggling up to her anew. "I went from loathing and mistrusting her completely, to fantasizing about her, to… well, okay, I do still fantasize, but a lot less. And it takes a back seat to loving her as part of my family. Is… does that make sense? Am I a terrible person for feeling that way?"

"No! No I… I totally get it." And she did. Thankfully now she didn't feel as bad about the odd intrusive thought she had about Weiss. The odd fantasy, the odd dream. She didn't care for her any less as a friend or as family, so what harm could it really do? Finally, she felt brave enough to snuggle back against her movements. "Hey, Winter?"

"Yes?" the woman whispered back, moving her hand down to Ruby's side as she began to smooth up and down along it, affectionate but gentle.

Shuffling back and forth a moment longer, she eventually gave in, confessing, "This suit is pretty itchy…"

Winter didn't respond or move for a moment. Then she let her hand slide around to her back, rubbing up and down. "Want me to take it off?"

Ruby shrugged again. She didn't want to disappoint her master, but the material was just so unpleasant! "Unless there's anything else you wanted to do? I can bear with it longer, if you want?"

"Oh, there is. Several things. But we can take it off if it's really irritating you." Her lips pursed. "Perhaps I can have it cleaned, soften up the material…"

"No no, I'll deal for now!" Ruby insisted. She was far more interested in pleasing her master than she was in taking it off. "It can be a reward for after, right?"

The smile was soft and bemused. "Yes, I suppose it can. Alright, very well; up on your 'paws' again."

She began to edge away slightly, to enable her to do so. Rolling back onto her front, Lady did as commanded. She returned to her dog like sitting position on her hands and knees, letting her tongue hang from her mouth as she faked panting again.

"Good girl," Winter cooed as she began to stroke up and down the back of Ruby's thigh. It would convey a certain intent… but she had not proceeded any further than that as of yet. She was still waiting to watch her young charge's reaction.

For the moment, Ruby only continued to pant and sit still. Winter's hand wasn't going anywhere particularly bad, just fussing over her. Perhaps that was all she wanted to do for the rest of the evening, fuss over her pet. But there was still a worry. In the back of her mind, she was still terrified that Winter would try and return the favour. She wasn't ready for that, not yet. Her only hope was to wait and see what Winter wanted.

"Does Lady wish me to… scratch her itches?" Winter breathed as the hand drifted higher with each pass. It never quite hit home, but began to come a lot closer to the mark.

The closer it got, the slower Ruby's panting was starting to get. Okay, don't panic, Ruby, she told herself, holding still as Winter stroked higher and higher. It doesn't happen every time, it might not happen here! Just let things keep going, it'll be fine.

"Oh… goodness, she seems to." The hand had drifted closer still - not close enough to touch her lips yet. However, a drip of Ruby's essence came away on her hand. Withdrawing it entirely, she raised to her lips and let her tongue loll out, exactly where Ruby could watch her take the tiny droplet into her mouth. "Mmm…"

Oh no. She can't put her mouth there! Ruby could only bite her lip as her nerves began to ramp up. Even if she had constantly reassured herself it would be okay, she continued to worry. If Winter really insisted on taking her, insisted on tasting her, she would be done for. Once Winter's hand finally hit home, she flinched away rather quickly, shutting her eyes tightly.

"Wait!" For a moment, Ruby panted quickly, trying to calm herself. She edged herself away from the hand again, looking back at it nervously. The very woman that had cuddled her in a warm embrace was now someone she feared the touch of. What was wrong with her? "I-I'm sorry. I-I just… I'm worried about.. I-I…"

"What are you worried about?" Winter wasn't moving, wasn't backing down. But she also wasn't advancing again. Her hands were pushing down into the mattress, far and away from where one of them had been teasing moments before.

Biting her lip again, Ruby looked downward at the mattress. She wasn't able to make eye contact with her anymore, only able to look down in shame. This wasn't how she wanted to spend the evening, not when it had been so fun already. But she couldn't just leave Winter with no answer either! Finally taking a deep breath in to try and calm herself, she spoke slowly.

"P-promise you won't freak out if I tell you?"

Tentatively, she placed a hand on Ruby's ankle. It was distant enough that she hoped it would be of comfort rather than unpleasant for her. "I promise."

Weighing the options in her head, Ruby continued to stare at the bed a little longer. Their entire experience together was a private affair, that was established before it began. And she had promised to keep calm no matter what it was. With another deep breath in, she finally looked up again.

"It's really embarrassing," she began, hunching her shoulders. "But when I finish? Something happens. Something… not very nice happens."

"Oh?" Unable to help but chuckle gently, she whispered, "It's happened to me, too. I mean… all those muscles down there relax, and sometimes you can't help it. But it's nothing to be ashamed of; everyone does it at some point or another, don't they?"

"Huh?" Ruby could only look on in confusion. It seemed that either Winter had thought of something else entirely, or Winter really had experienced the same thing. Still red with embarrassment, she went on, "But, Penny's never done it! It's only been me, but I feel so bad! Like when it's just me on my own I don't care, b-but when it's on someone else…"

"Of course! No one wants to be heard doing that in the company of others. But with all that gasping for air, it's bound to force some out… in other areas. Honestly, it's nothing to wind yourself up over, Ruby."

"Force- wait…" Ruby's eyebrow raised in confusion. Looking up at Winter again, she asked quietly. "What are you talking about?"

That brought her up quick. "I'm… talking about… well, breaking wind during sex. What are you talking about?"

"Ooohh…" While that was embarrassing enough to think about, it wasn't as embarrassing as Ruby was about to confess. "I-I was talking… a-about, um… something else."

"You were? I thought for sure you…" Waving her hand back and forth, she sighed, "Nevermind. I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions. What did you mean?"

"Okay. Most times when I finish… by myself, or with Penny, I-I…" Taking a few more deep breaths in, she couldn't look at Winter again, staring downward at the mattress and speaking so quietly Winter could barely hear. "I-I kind of… pee a little."

That sent both of her eyebrows arching upward. "Ah. Is that all?"

"What do you mean 'is that all'?!" Ruby quickly looked up toward her. By how red her face was and how quick her breathing had become, she had clearly been worried about this for a long time. "I know I couldn't go in front of you, but that doesn't mean I want to do it on accident, either! It's disgusting, humiliating! A-and I don't… I don't want to put you through that grossness!"

But Winter did not seem riled by Ruby's outburst. In fact, her composure remained at nearly the same level as she said, "You say this as if I haven't been peed on by a partner before. Or vice versa."

"Yeah, well I don't want to be that girl who- wait…" Had she caught that correctly? Looking back around to Winter, who still seemed perfectly unperturbed about her confession, she gasped, "For SERIOUS? You mean peeing is a thing?!"

One of Winter's silk-clad shoulders rose and fell, entirely nonchalant. "If it's onto another person, it's typically called a 'golden shower'. That's definitely not my thing; I don't mind it, but I've never had any strong desire to have it done to me, and I don't care about doing it to someone else, either. However…" Clearing her throat, she looked away from Ruby briefly. "Being commanded to do it in front of someone… it is thrilling somehow. I don't know why."

"I… Oh." She had gathered that Winter had done some very intense things from the amount of toys she had, and how her room was more or less built for these types of ventures. But the idea of someone experiencing pleasure from that was completely alien to her. "It's just… I hate doing it, but I can't control it! And I don't wanna squirt on people!"

Silence fell between them for a few seconds as her master mulled that over. Ruby really did seem to have herself a huge stumbling block; not one that couldn't be dealt with, but one that she had built up in her mind as something insurmountable. Something that made her a completely unacceptable bedroom partner. This might not be a thing they could fix overnight, but she could try to make headway.

Crawling upward, Winter wrapped her arms around Ruby from behind, nuzzling into her neck and kissing each stretch of skin with great care and desire. With as much gusto as if she were ready to be pleasured again. Once the hands looped around her, and she felt the kisses on her skin over and over again, Ruby gasped in surprise. Winter didn't… mind? It seemed not, from how the kisses continued over and over, leaving no part of her untreated. It was enough to bring a tear to Ruby's eye. She still wanted her, even despite her embarrassing confession, Winter still had a desire to please her and return the favour. And now, she was more inclined to accept.

Though Winter would take it a step further. As her lips lifted up toward Ruby's ear, she began to whisper earnest phrases in the most sultry of voices - and the woman was capable of quite a sultry one indeed.

"I want to feel you. I want to hear you calling out in pleasure. Your body to writhe under mine, your mind breaking from how good you feel." The tongue ran up the skin, only just. "And if you do leak a little by accident… if it happens, it happens. From a body as glorious as yours, I don't mind in the slightest. Christen me with your juices; I should be so lucky."

All Ruby could do was continue to gasp, leaning her head in all manner of directions to give Winter all the access she needed. Those lips just kept pressing against her body, over and over again, sending more and more tingles up her spine. She may still have been worried, but with Winter's reassurance, she could get past that.

And so turning her head, she managed to catch Winter's lips for herself, kissing her back hungrily. One shaky breath later and Winter was returning the contact, winding her fingers into her lover's hair and biting her bottom lip as they began to writhe up against each other again, slowly spinning Ruby just enough so that they could comfortably enjoy each other's mouths. As they did so, she allowed her hand to rest against the plane of her stomach - lying in wait. Needing only the green light to proceed downward.

There came no resistance. Ruby only continued to eagerly kiss back, embracing Winter closer toward her as she allowed her tongue to trace over hers on occasion. She was eager for Winter to keep going now.

That desire was seen to quite soon as the fingers probed downward, between the seams of the costume and into the fragile petals below. Winter's kiss became hungrier, more frenzied, as if hoping it would prove a distraction from what was going on below.

It was working. While continuing to lap at Winter's tongue with her own, Ruby was content with what was happening. In fact, she was encouraging it, parting her legs even further to give Winter more room to work with. At last, Winter broke away from the supple mouth - but it appeared she had a concentrated purpose in doing so. Perhaps it was part of their play, or perhaps it came from an earnest desire to calm her temporary partner. Likely a mixture of both.

"How sweet your body is," she whispered as her finger glided up and down the length of the folds. "So perfect and inviting. As wet as it should be, as I want it to be. What a good girl you are, Lady."

That last made it clear; they were still playing. Anything that happened was just part of their arrangement, and nothing for Ruby to fret over. Sighing softly with relief, Ruby had began to continually push her hips up against Winter's hand. Going back to a game for this occasion put her at ease. Although she had appreciated Winter's confidence building, that was something she still worried about: developing romantic feelings for another.

But now she felt silly. Winter was just a good friend, and they both needed to relieve each other's urges. At least, that's how Ruby saw it.

"She's such a good girl," Winter soothed her further as she added more fingers, pushing the middle one in between the moistened lips as the ones on either side teased them. "Knows who her master is, and that she'll take care of Lady. Yes she does." The tone of her words was halfway between "sexy talk" and "baby talk"; it was both odd and arousing at the same time.

Ruby moaned, relaxing more as Winter continued to tease and taunt her skin. With her skill, it was no wonder she was already beginning to feel her stomach tighten, and her legs beginning to shudder. She was close already, and Winter hadn't even gone inside! A simple consequence of her finishing Winter first: she was far more eager.

For a few seconds, Winter merely kept going, teasing up and down, worrying the flesh. Then she panted, "If I already asked this, I'm sorry, but… have you…" Her finger dipped in further, hoping to indicate what she was asking without verbalizing it directly. It wasn't a fun thing to bring up right in the middle of their play, but it would be very important if the answer was "no".

Biting her lip, Ruby opened her eyes again just to look at what Winter was doing. Was penetration what she was asking about? Leaning to give a small kiss to Winter's cheek, she reassured her, "I have a couple of times. Solo and all."

"Okay... okay, then." And Winter wasted no more time. They had spent so much time teasing each other that Ruby had to be dying to finish by now. Angling herself just so, she leapt straight from nothing to two fingers sliding through Ruby's defenses - not too fast, not too slow. A steady but unrelenting pace.

"OHHHH!" she called out yet again. One of her hands quickly went to grasp Winter's, using it in a vain attempt to try and tether herself. But no success. Those fingers were relentless, making her body quiver more and more as her muscles tightened. "WHOA! Yeah! Holy SHIZ, keep going! K-Keep… WINTER!"

"Yes, call my name!" Winter urged her, waggling the fingers back and forth once they were all the way inside. "Let loose - make as much noise as you like! Nobody will ever hear it outside these reinforced walls!"

For the next dozen seconds or so, Ruby panted and squirmed before shouting, "YES! Y-YEEEAAAAH!"

And that was about all it took before she reached her end. Anticipation and foreplay had done ninety percent of the work. Legs shuddering even more right by her hand, she felt her muscles tightening through the waves of pleasure sent around her body. Over and over again, her muscles clamped onto those fingers, trying to keep them for all they were worth.

However… they still had to contend with Ruby’s issue. Through the muscle spasms, there was a small amount of fluid released against Winter's hand. It was only tiny spurts of clear liquid, but that seemed to be what Ruby described.

"Ohhh," Winter breathed. It was her only true reaction to the spurting of fluid, but it was a reaction all the same. Her fingers curled up and into her a few more times, then stilled, waiting to see what Ruby would do, or ask.

A few spasms of her body later, and Ruby flopped back against the bed. Completely exhausted from their efforts. She had to regain her breath before she did anything else, before she cuddled Winter, before she got out of the-

The suit. Quickly looking downward to where Winter's hand was, she could already see Winter's hand glistening with liquid, and feel that the fur around her crotch was damp. Covering her face with embarrassment, she whined, "I did it again…"

"You did. Naughty, naughty puppy." But what Winter did next was the direct opposite of scolding or being angry. Her hand came up, covered as it was in both internal juices and the ones that she had shot forth upon her climax. Then she took a long, gratuitous lick from the heel of her palm to the tip of her middle finger.

By the time Ruby had ran her paw-hands down her face enough to see, she caught sight of Winter nearing the end of her lick. And right away gasped. "D-don't!" she insisted, blush returning to her cheeks once again in shame. "You don't want to taste that! It's nasty!"

"Hmmm…" Winter smacked her lips a few times. Having caught Ruby's expression, she decided to have a bit more fun with her and licked the palm again, sure to get the wettest areas. "It has a nice tart flavor to it; lovely bouquet. Delightful."

Poor Ruby could barely stand to watch! Surely Winter couldn't experience pleasure from doing anything as disgusting as that? "You don't have to do that for me." she insisted. "You could have just run to the bathroom, I'd never ask you to do that with my p-pee!"

But Winter was chuckling quietly, and it grew louder the longer Ruby spoke. "Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn't. It's irrelevant, anyway." Grasping one of her wrists with her clean hand, she pulled it away from her face as gently as she could. "You didn't pee at all, silly girl."

"I-I didn't? Huh?" Once again she looked to Winter's wet hand, and then down at the costume again. The evidence was all there still, she didn't dream it. "B-but… I felt it. It's still on me now. I-I know I did…"

"You did squirt on me, yes, but… what you squirted isn't urine, Ruby." She was going to have to be patient. Caressing her hair as she went on, she asked, "Haven't you ever heard of 'female ejaculation' before?"

That did very little to ease Ruby's confusion. Her hands had lowered from her face, but she still appeared as though someone was explaining rocket science to her. "Sure, I've heard of it, but…" Then she shrugged her shoulders, looking down in embarrassment. "I thought that meant girls like Yang… Y'know."

Winter canted her head from side to side as she considered. "Well… I suppose that's technically what Yang's doing, but not what the term usually means. Some women, when they climax, produce a little fluid this way; it's partly from the bladder and partly from tiny glands inside of you. They're a lot like the glands that help produce male ejaculate; the watery part of it, anyway."

"…Hold on." Blinking a few times as she allowed the new information to sink in, her eyes seemed to dart from side to side for a moment, until back up to Winter's again. There seemed to be an odd mixture of both relief and embarrassment. "You mean all this time, I've been cumming, not peeing? That I can skeet-skeet like a guy can?"

"Not exactly the same, but it's similar. The reason your body does it is the same, and the fluid isn't too far off." Leaning down, she kissed Ruby's flaming-red cheek just to show her she was right there with her, entirely supportive and not even the slightest bit put off. "Now, this fluid still goes through your bladder, so it's coming from the same place as pee. But saying it's pee isn't very accurate. Do… you understand, or am I just babbling at you?"

"I… think I get it." It was still new information to Ruby. But one thing that had been sinking in was a fact that made her feel better about herself. It wasn't as filthy as she thought it was. Though beyond her control, it was something Ruby didn't need to panic about getting on the clothes Winter provided - or her hands, for that matter. Wiping her forehead in the end, she smiled. "That's… a relief, actually. Because I kinda got it on the suit."

Snuggling yet closer, Winter kissed her forehead, then her cheek again. "I'm glad. But even if it had been pure urine, I promise you - promise, promise - that it would have been fine by me. They’re just clothes and clothes can be cleaned. And you shouldn't be embarrassed; it's not exactly common, but plenty of women ejaculate."

"Okay. That's good then… cause otherwise, I would have been worried about seeing a doctor. No one wants to hear about that kind of problem…" Although she had been about to huddle up to Winter again, she looked down at the outfit again. And could already remember how it was feeling. Looking up bashfully, she asked, "C-can I, uh…?"

"Come with me," Winter chuckled as she began to rise from the bed. "Oh, and grab your regular clothing on the way."

Nodding, Ruby did as she was told. Hopping up and off one side of the bed, she quickly managed to gather up the clothes she had scattered over the floor, only just managing to get them over her arms with the clunky paw-gloves. But once that was done she followed again, still like a lost puppy.

Once in the bathroom, Winter turned to shut the door - and laughed when she saw Ruby's awkward grip on her things. "Put those on the counter for a moment and I'll get those paws. Sorry, I… actually forgot you don't normally have paws for a moment, Lady."

"Arf." She spoke the word this time rather than attempted it seriously as she finally put her clothing aside. While she held her hand out for Winter to do as she pleased, she took a good look around the surroundings of the bathroom. A large counter with the sink not even taking up a third of it, a large Jacuzzi and a toilet that looked fancier than any Ruby had ever seen. Giggling to herself, she smirked. "Even your bathroom is worth more than my house, probably."

"It's just a bathroom," Winter commented casually as she removed the second paw, then bent down and worked on the kneepads. Taking everything off was a lot quicker than putting it on in the first place. "But… well, my father insists on the best of the best." While down there, she left a light kiss on the inside of Ruby's thigh.

It was enough to send another shudder through her body. But now that her hands were free, they went straight to the zipper at the front. Cleverly hidden in the middle of the fur, she managed to find the pull and slowly tug it downwards, and eventually wriggle her shoulders out of the costume entirely. And she continued until it was off all the way.

But somehow, being naked in front of Winter didn't phase her at all anymore. In fact, she continued to talk as normal. "Best of the best is really fancy stuff, though! Like, I could live in here, it's big enough."

"You want to live in my bathroom?" Winter laughed aloud, standing back up once Ruby was revealed entirely. "You really are a puppy." Her eyes raked down Ruby's figure, both appraising and already pleased before the appraisal had been completed. "You really are lovely, you know. Don't let anyone tell you any different."

She had been about to grab her underwear when that was spoken, and she grinned to herself again, shrugging her shoulders bashfully. "I'm glad you think so, considering you're the one that suggested this whole arrangement. And then peed on you – or ejaculated or whatever."

"Suppose that's true." Winter bit her lip as she thought something over, eyes directed at the moisture still glistening on Ruby's thighs. Reaching a decision, she left the girl standing there to walk over toward the toilet. As she sat, she slid her underwear down to below her knees, letting them fall to the floor. Then her hand patted her thigh as she commanded, "Come here for a moment."

"Hmm- GAH!" When she looked back to where Winter was sat, and the fact she was sat down with her underwear to the ground, Ruby's first instinct was to cover her eyes, and so she did. "I'm sorry! Do you want me to leave the room?"

"No, I want you to come here," Winter repeated, suppressing a laugh. She knew this was not Ruby's area of comfort and was more than willing to be patient with her. "Have a seat, just for a minute."

"…While you're on the toilet?" Ruby repeated, allowing her hand to fall. When only a nod came from Winter she slowly walked forward, giving into her command as she went to sit on her lap. "Okay…?"

Nodding in satisfaction, Winter looped her hands around Ruby's waist to help hold her steady. "Good. Now, I want to ask you a couple of questions, nothing bad."

Still perpetually confused, Ruby's cheeks reddened as she made herself comfortable. "Okay? What is it?"

"Was there anything we did tonight you really liked? As in, stood out to you that you'd want to do again."

For a moment, Ruby had to really think about that question. There was the kissing for one, that had been interesting and a relief to get out of her system. Then there was the cuddling, and interestingly… "The commands were good." She smiled. "Even if I didn't stay in character very good, I did like that. It reminded me of a teacher I had back in school, this real strict one I had a huge crush on."

A knowing smile flitted across Winter's lips as she waggled both eyebrows. "Ah yes, you did mention that fantasy… but not that it had roots in reality. Interesting. You'll have to tell me more about her sometime so we can do something with that."

"Sounds good to me!" Ruby grinned eagerly. But yet again when remembering where they were, where they were sat, she asked, "Winter… What are we doing here exactly?"

"We'll get to that. Now, tell me if there's anything that didn't work for you. Not just in general, but specifics. This is important for both me, and for you for when you're with other Doms."

"Well…" That was more difficult to think about. The evening had gone well; very well even. Ruby didn't even have to use her safe word that they had set into place, which she expected to be using from the beginning. But there were a few things. "Ironic considering where we're sitting, but being told to go to the bathroom, that's a no. I don't do well with any of those bodily functions." Then she added in an embarrassed mutter, "Hence the freaking out when I thought it was pee."

"Well…" Finally, Winter shivered slightly, and there began a faint tinkling sound into the toilet. Her cheeks flushed when she caught Ruby gaping at her. "Seems I have my own hang-ups. Because I've been trying to get started ever since you sat down. I meant to show you how it's not such a big deal, and ended up showing you the opposite. Pretty silly, huh?"

"You're actually-?!" And Ruby had to continue to sit, cheeks flushing red as she looked off to one side of the room instead. All the while, she remained perfectly still, not daring to move. "I can't believe you did that," she began. "Or are doing that, even. Isn't it really icky to you?"

"No, it isn't. People do it all the time. Besides, it's sterile, you know; it's not as if there are germs in there or anything." The stream was going a little stronger now that she had pushed through that initial barrier of shyness, having another person in the room and so close. "I'm not trying to make you 'like' it, of course, just… it seems like you're almost… afraid of the act. And that won't do, not if I can help you get past that."

"Afraid of it in the bedroom, yeah," she admitted. Having to continue to bear with the sounds, she hunched her shoulders again, face a clear picture of embarrassment. "Look, I know you're trying to help but, I just prefer to keep pee private, you know? I was only scared because I thought I was gonna be doing that on everyone, and that's gross."

"Definitely understandable," Winter chuckled. About that time she finished, and she smiled up at Ruby. "Done. And you lived to tell the tale. Just… food for thought, I guess. I'm sorry if I upset you."

"No no, I totally get you, just…" Getting up to finally collect her clothes again, her shoulders remained raised, even as she reached for her panties. "Don't expect me to be whizzing everywhere on command is all. Definitely not right away."

"Wait, wait," she laughed, standing up and catching Ruby's wrists. "That isn't the only reason I asked you in here, believe it or not. Wouldn't you rather have a quick shower first?"

Freezing when her underwear was half way up, she looked over to the shower unit. Just as fancy as the rest of the bathroom, with plenty of different buttons for different functions. And she was a little damp down below. With that in mind, she pushed her underwear back down again, smiling gratefully. "Sure! That’s probably a good idea, yeah."

"I can leave you to it if you'd rather be rid of me now," Winter told her. It hadn't been apparent at first, but now it was much clearer that she was chagrined by Ruby's disapproval of doing her business in her presence. It was one of the few times she'd ever seen Winter not look like the elder, the one in control. She was nervous and uncertain.

So Ruby paused for a moment. Rather than say anything else, she wanted to show Winter that all was well between them. She wanted to show that she appreciated that Winter did want to help, even if it wasn't a thing Ruby would be enjoying any time soon. And to do that, she grabbed her wrist instead, pulling her toward the shower.

"C’mon, shower buddy! I need you to teach me how to use all this new-fangled junk, anyway."

The anxiety faded as she smiled gently, shifting her shoulders so that her kimono finally began to slide free. Pointedly ignoring the way Ruby ogled her revealed form. "That, I can do."

#Lady Stardust #ruby x winter #white noise #popstarverse #rwby fanfiction #rwbyremnants #nsfw-Text

4 notes · View notes

annavolovodov · 5 years ago

Text

ya girl saw the downton movie and has some Thoughts

if you followed me at all from 2011-2015 then you'll know i am firmly Team Downstairs and did not want this movie to happen, just so you all know what position i'm coming from here.

everything below is gonna be spoilery af. if you haven't seen it yet and want info just hmu. if you have seen it and want to talk about it please message me bc i’m always up for chatting about Downton.

okay but the title sequence with the music building and cresting as we come up over the hills and get our first shot of downton... goosebumps. tbh i don't know shit about film making but i can't fault the technical aspects (costumes, music, cinematography). the impact of the increased budget was felt from the very first second.

for the plot i’m gonna split things by character to make it easier. i’ll probably go to see it again and maybe after that i’ll have some deeper Thoughts but i missed being able to liveblog during the film so enjoy my rambling first reactions.

upstairs peeps

everything with violet was iconic. i'm glad that they didn't neglect her relationship with isobel and ofc maggie and imelda played fantastically off each other. pretty much everyone has already highlighted the scene with violet and mary at the end and it tied things up perfectly between them. violet and mary are so so similar and violet has been pushing for her to inherit since before S1. the movie showed us that mary is basically running the estate even if she doesn't get the the title and i can totally see why violet is confident in the future of downton now. that being said, i don't think violet will actually die. maggie has been talking about leaving since 2012 and fellowes obviously put this in as a get-out clause for her should she want to go, but i reckon they’ll convince her to do more. if carson's palsy can be mysteriously cured, so can violet's conveniently vague illness.

i already knew that robert and cora weren't gonna be in it much, but i wish we could've seen cora finding out what was happening with edith and helping her out. it wouldn't surprise me if there was a deleted scene there cause that whole storyline felt a little disjointed. i completely forgot that cora knew about the pregnancy and was so confused at how the queen foud out about it all. i don't think we got anything in robert and cora's bedroom, or anything with cora/baxter and robert/bates, which would've also been very welcome but i guess they can only fit in so much.

onto mary: this may be an unpopular opinion but god i miss her long hair. yeah i know it wasn't the style of the time but her wig in this one was tragic and they need to fix it. i absolutely love that t*lbot didn't exist for a solid 95% of this movie and mary got her rightful place ruling downton. i wouldn't say i’m the biggest mary fan but her arc felt like one of the more satisfying ones of the movie imo.

as someone who has been firmly #teamedith from day one i am delighted to see my girl happy and successful. literally all her outfits were A+ and not to be gay on main but those scenes of her in her nightclothes getting ready for bed gave me my rights. i’m sad that she seems like she's either given up her magazine or has less of a role in it now based on what they said outside???? she did seem unsatisfied with aspects of her position so hopefully she'll go back to doing some writing and publishing cause that was a good fit for her, and if edith and bertie are “modern” enough to travel without servants surely edith moving away from traditional grand lady duties and back to her magazine that wouldn't be an issue.

the mention of sybil being gone seven years? yeah. thanks for the pain. tom accidentally saving the monarchy on no less than two occasions is the ultimate "congratulations you played yourself" moment but the fact he thought the army had sent someone to check up on him is the level of republican i'm trying to be on. i'm a bit ehhhh on his relationship with lucy, mainly cause i'd rather the screentime given to the newbies had went to established characters. but like sybil/tom was a wholeass epic romantic slowburn spanning several years through a war and across class divisions n shit and meanwhile lucy/tom have known each other for forty eight hours and had three conversations in a hallway so like obviously that’s just gonna pale in comparison????? like it just is???? i guess i don't hate it but it just was a bit unnecessary and the time coulda been spent on better things.

isobel didn't have all that much to do on her own but i appreciated her scenes with violet and i love that she was the one to figure out that lucy was lady whatever's daughter. penelope wilton's facial expressions during some of the exchanges with violet were great. i see lord merton has also undergone a miraculous recovery from his apparently serious anaemia but he also didn't appear much which was a big win for me!

team downstairs aka the ones i turned up to see

as a downstairs supremacist who has watched the screentime distribution in previous fifty two eps of the show, it’s fair to say i had low expectations going in. i expected a grand total of 10 minutes for the servants combined and i think that's why i was unexpectedly happy with what we got. ideally we would've ditched the subplots involving the personal lives of the royals and all the stuff w imelda staunton and her maid but oh well it could’ve been worse and i'll take any breadcrumbs i can get. anyway i'm eagerly awaiting the team downstairs cut of the film one of yall will hopefully make when the dvd comes out. the only part that was far, FAR too upstairs heavy for me was the last sequence of the film after the royals left and i think we would've benefitted from rounding things off with team downstairs after the ball.

so i guess retirement magically cured the palsy carson had, but i guess after matthew’s miraculous recovery anything can happen at downton when it comes to health. Fellowes is getting a free pass for retconning this one cause i cba with more death/loss. mary going to carson for help and him immediately coming to her aid was very sweet. kinda wish we'd find out what he was up to post-Downton (except for his gardening) tho.

i was expected zero carson/hughes content in this movie and yet !!!! and yet!!!!!! we were somewhat well-fed. like carson (incorrectly) thinking he can control the other servants and mrs hughes' "oh that went well charlie, start as you mean to go on" hdjksjs i love them. and the lil scene in their cottage ugh. also we got more of them using their first names and yeah i guess that makes sense given they've been married for a while now but as i said, i had low expectations.

mrs hughes is still like the best person ever but wbk. her vs. the royal housekeeper = iconic. i kinda felt bad for royal whatsherface in some ways because she clearly didn't know who she was up against THE elsie hughes who has vanquished much scarier foes in her time. the other servants were never gonna win that battle.

the 0.5 seconds of baby bates *chef's kiss* perfection. god i am slightly bitter it was only 0.5 seconds given the fuckin multiseason journey leading up to his birth. tbh we should've ditched everything involving the personal lives of the rando new characters and let baby bates have some of that time but fellowes loves upstairs too much to let that happen. the small interaction was adorable though and i'm glad the mention of his name was subtle enough that we can retcon it cause i truly believe anna and bates would've came up with a more creative choice than that. genuinely i'm so curious about their whole living situation and how they cope with a smol child while working full time but i doubt fellowes even considered that so y’know. what can we do. i enjoyed the breadcrumbs but i wanted more.

i did go into this film with the mindset of "something awful will probably happen to anna or bates," cause that's what usually happens in these things but plot twist!!!! we saw them smile on multiple occassions!!!! what a nice change for us all! i swear every time anna bates smiles an angel gains their wings. her scenes with mary were good and i'm happy their friendship made it into the film. you know what else i was happy to see? the EXTREMELY UNDERRATED brotp between anna and baxter. there was a couple of moments with them standing next to each other or talking to each other and it warmed my heart. like yass two of my fave people are friends. it's a big win for me.

i'm sure i read something about brendan being involved in another project which meant he couldn't film too much (i'm curious to whether this impacted the lack of baby bates scenes?) and while it's true that bates didn't have a ton of scenes, i didn't feel like he was absent which was good.

thomas had the best storyline imo. i don't blame him for being angry that mary brought in carson and it was actually very iconic of him to go off in the library like that. i found it hilarious that while everyone else was panicking at downton he went off on gay adventures. i really wish we'd gotten this "thomas makes a gay friend then discovers the village's underground gay scene THEN gets a boyfriend" in the show cause that would've been SO MUCH BETTER than some of the other stuff that got stretched out across the last couple series (like the love quadrangle with daisy/ivy/alfred/jimmy). like, imagine thomas’ movie plot as a series-long arc. the impact. i liked the guy that was his maybe-boyfriend and i hope any continuation keeps that relationship going.

mrs p and daisy continue to be the mother-daughter duo of the century. i thought both of them were supposed to be moving to the farm post-S6 but i suppose that would've meant they wouldn't be in the film hence why it didn't come to fruition. i guess they could all move once daisy and andy get married. mrs patmore didn't get a great deal to do but i still feel like i saw her a fair amount. comrade daisy was awesome and is definitely me when i see any monarchy-related stuff. somewhere over the last few seasons she's developed into one of the most interesting characters in downton and we don't talk about that enough. andy trashing the boiler was immature af but at the same time i feel like it completely makes sense for daisy to take that as a compliment. it’s just such a daisy thing to do?????

now, there is one thing i kinda fucked up here. while i went into the film with low expectations for everyone else, i fully expected baxley to be A Thing because how could i not and boy did i come out looking like boo boo the fool. i guess baxter and molesley have continued the tradition of Agonisingly Long Downstairs Slowburns which would be okay if we were still getting one season per year but is quite frankly rude when we're on rationed content like this. the first half of the film i thought it was gonna be revealed that they were together or something but then that scene at the end implied they're dancing around each other and my god is it frustrating. i would give so much to trade tom and lucy's romantic subplot for a baxter/molesley one but once again i know that's an unrealistic dream.

definitely not enough baxter in general but that one shot of her, anna and mrs hughes standing in the same frame was worth the price of my cinema ticket. still love molesley even tho he's a monarchist.

in terms of the overall downstairs stuff, i'm euphoric at seeing all these people interact with each other again. as we all know, found family is the best trope and since the servants are literally the epitome of that every moment focussed on them is like chicken soup for my weary soul. was the revolution against the royal servants realistic? no. was it realistic for the two people who came up with most of the plot to be the ones who went to jail for doing literally nothing wrong and would therefore want to avoid stuff that could get them in trouble with an all-powerful family? also no! however, seeing downstairs all working together for a common goal is content that appeals directly to me and i am thankful.

shoutout to the last scene which is the best way the movie could've ended it for me. use of first names AND walking home together? thank u fellowes.

tldr; team downstairs fan who was strongly anti-movie, went in with low expectations, was pleasantly surprised. there are a shit ton of things i’d change but i just really loved seeing these characters who all mean so much to me again. obviously the only reason this film happened was for financial reasons rather than a desire to continue the storyline (cause the finale tied things up perfectly imo) but i wish they'd done a two-part miniseries instead to ensure everyone gets some screentime. two ninety minute specials every few years would work much better if everyone wants to keep downton going but i guess that doesn't bring the cash in like a movie does.

55 notes · View notes

britesparc · 4 years ago

Text

Weekend Top Ten #437

Top Ten Predictions for the Xbox Games Showcase

So I wasn’t going to do this. I had my “Games Month” in June; that was supposed to be me getting it out of my system whilst the various publishers and platform holders held their Not-E3 video livestreams. That was supposed to take the place of my usual semi-serious lists of E3 predictions; a variety of more generalised run-downs of Stuff To Do With Videogames rather than me saying “A New Perfect Dark” ten times.

But then Microsoft’s “Showcase” event turned out to be the back-end of July, the videos and livestreams kept on pouring in, and I found myself ever devouring more salacious rumours of what games were upcoming, especially for the Xbox Series X. I have even found myself reading – shudder – Reddit.

I know.

Anyway, from being a simple thought experiment of “I wonder what games will be out when the Series X launches?” through to me imagining a blow-by-blow runthrough of the July 23rd event, I guess you could say that I am excited despite my better judgement. I think my problem with videogaming as a hobby is that I retain my fanboy enthusiasm from when I was a ten-year-old eagerly awaiting the next issue of The One Amiga, frantically swapping all eleven disks of Monkey Island 2, but I’m a grown-ass man with a mortgage and two kids and I just don’t have the time. I love reading websites like Eurogamer, and going on forums and checking out Twitter threads and all that, devouring news and titbits about all manner of gaming ephemera, and I often think when do these people have the time?!

Now look, I know hobbies, if you commit to them, can be expensive in terms of money and time. I have friends who collect Transformers toys, and let me tell you, that shit ain’t cheap. But daisy-chaining triple-A RPGs together feels like a lifetime commitment. I’m still playing Mass Effect Andromeda and Titanfall 2. I’ve just started Breath of the Wild and I’m waiting to kick off The Witcher III once I complete something else. I operate about two to three years behind the curve, and with work and kids and other commitments I struggle to find space for the oodles of games I do have, especially because most of the time I just end up on Civilization VI again. And yet…

The lure of the new still excites me. I really want to play all those Sony games on a Sony console that I don’t even own. I’m fascinated by the divergent next-gen philosophies of the big three platform holders. I can’t wait to see what the games I already own will look like embiggened on a 4K TV thanks to a suitable next-gen console. And so I keep consuming this stuff, keep wanting to try the latest thing, keep wanting to be part of the narrative. I’m still excited.

Therefore I’ve decided, against my better judgement, to offer up a prediction list like I usually do at E3 time. This one is just focussed on the upcoming Xbox Showcase on July 23rd. I doubt I’ll do one for the two remaining big showcases in August – I believe both Sony and Microsoft are doing one apiece, where we might finally hear prices of these damn things – because I think by the end of the month all the big game news might finally be out there. Aside from guessing how far off £500 both machines land, I think we’ve probably heard all the major announcements. Maybe I’m wrong! I’m wrong quite a lot! But that’s part of the fun.

So here we go: ten things that probably aren’t going to be announced next Thursday!

Halo Infinite opens the show – and is playable: we know that Halo Infinite will debut some campaign gameplay. As more-or-less a known quantity (even if we don’t know exactly what it’ll look like or how it’ll play), kicking things off with Xbox’s biggest star makes sense and won’t deflate any surprises. What I think might happen, though, is the announcement of some kind of multiplayer demo or closed beta, maybe only for Game Pass subscribers or something. They’ve done it before with Halo, so it’d be nice to get a chance to play one of the year’s biggest games early.

Hellblade 2 in-engine trailer: Senua’s Saga looks amazing so far, with a phenomenal launch trailer that displayed vast landscapes, intense detail, and some truly awesome facial animation. There’s a lot of speculation that, whilst the trailer was apparently in-engine and running in realtime, it was a fancy cut-scene with “hero assets”. I might have missed a memo somewhere, but I don’t think Hellblade 2 has been confirmed as a “launch window” title; as such, I think it will end up a Series X exclusive (as in, not appearing on Xbox One) and be out Christmas 2021. As such we won’t see a considerable gameplay chunk as with Halo, but we will see some proper in-engine footage – not a cutscene – running on Series X hardware.

Fable IV is out next year: is it an open secret at this point that Playground Games is making a Fable game? I guess maybe they’re not. Maybe there’s not even a new Fable at all. But I think there is, and I think Playground are making it, and I think we’ll see it next week. I guess it probably won’t be coming too soon; maybe Christmas 2021? So I think there’ll be a launch trailer of some kind – hopefully a Hellblade-style in-engine one rather than a rendered movie – but it’ll be a pretty big to-do to close out the show (unless there’s some other surprise “…and one more thing”).

Minecraft ray-tracing: we’ve seen it before, and I’m not sure how much time it’ll take up in the run of things, but I think Microsoft will confirm that there will be a ray-tracing graphics update for Minecraft on Series X. It’ll be part of some other line-wide update, of course – maybe the fabled “Super Duper Graphics” update that was cancelled once before – but Series X owners (or PC owners with the right hardware) will get lots of lovely rays to trace.

Gears Tactics on Xbox this Christmas: the Coalition said their piece about Gears 5 on Series X this week, so I don’t expect them to have a huge presence on Thursday (Gears 6 presumably being too far off), but I think we’ll get a trailer for the excellent Gears Tactics running on Xbox, and confirmation of a Christmas release for one of my favourite PC games of 2020.

Cyberpunk 2077 on Series X: all the footage we’ve seen of Cyberpunk thus far has been – I do believe – running on high-end PCs. CD Projekt Red should have a presence on Thursday, and I think they’ll debut footage – actual proper gameplay – of Cyberpunk running on a Series X. I think we’ll also see further evidence of a cosy relationship with Microsoft, as they announce something – maybe exclusive DLC – as well as just maybe some Cyberpunk-themed Series X hardware. I also think they’ll announce a Series X update for The Witcher III: Wild Hunt.

Big Double Fine blowout: Microsoft’s purchase of Double Fine really excited me, because I’ve been a big Tim Schafer fan for decades. Aside from Psychonauts 2, we don’t know a great deal about what they’re up to. So I think we’ll see a lot of Psychonauts, as well as confirmation of a Christmas release. We’ll also get confirmation of classic LucasArts remasters – Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango – as well as something else. I’m not sure what. A remaster of the first Psychonauts? Brütal Legend 2? Scurvy Scallywags Series X? what I don’t think it’ll be, however, is any kind of Banjo Kazooie game, because I don’t really think Microsoft bought them to work on existing IP. I think we’ll see something new.

Third-party shenanigans: aside from Cyberpunk, I think we’ll get at least one other extended third-party trailer. Maybe Destiny 2, given the first game’s apparent preference for PlayStation? Maybe one of those military shooters everybody likes but me? Splinter Cell, which is becoming the perennial white elephant during Ubisoft presentations (and obviously has prior as an OG Xbox exclusive)? Or maybe we’ll see something like the announcement of Red Dead Redemption 2 as a Smart Delivery title. That would be pretty cool.

Japanese presence: I’m not sure what exactly, but I think Microsoft will make moves to entice the Japanese market. Perhaps it’ll be like the early days of the Xbox 360, when they published the likes of Blue Dragon. Maybe we’ll see a Western release of some venerated Japanese franchise. Or maybe some other sequel or reboot. Maybe it’ll even be the rumoured announcement of some kind of exclusive partnership with Sega? Who knows? Regardless I think we’ll see evidence of Microsoft making more of an effort in Japan; I think this will be part of a strategy to encourage Japanese gamers to subscribe to Game Pass/xCloud rather than buy more consoles.

One last thing: there’ll be a surprise. Everyone’s predicting everything, but I still think there’ll be a surprise. After the dust settles, good old Phil Spencer (t-shirt prediction: Viva Pinata) will leave us with a little something… a tease, a subtle tease, maybe even just a logo or character reveal. It could be a returning franchise, it could be The Initiative’s debut game, but I’d wager it’s something unexpected, something we’ve never heard anything about. It’s something that’s a long way off, but it’ll have a style or a hook or a brand that instantly makes everyone excited, and will bring the curtain down. Microsoft has largely done a good job establishing itself as a solid platform the last three or four years, but it’s sorely been lacking in mic-drop moments as hardware news is teased and studio acquisitions have taken time to bed in. So whether it’s Joanna Dark, a Mech, Banjo, or something I can’t fathom, we’ll leave on a high.

There we go: ten relatively reasonable, moderately level-headed predictions. I don’t think there’s anything too crazy there. I’ve not gone all-in on a huge Perfect Dark blowout, or Viva Pinata returning, or Microsoft buying Sega or Warner Bros or whatever else could be dreamed up. I’m sure there’s other stuff too; probably some gameplay from previously-announced titles like The Medium or (hopefully) Scorn, that really show off Series X capabilities; no doubt a montage or two, probably of some ID@Xbox games; Forza Motorsport 8, I guess, and I’d wager some info on Flight Simulator on Xbox. I do hope they make the whole presentation look nice though; Sony’s one, where they finally revealed the PS5 hardware, was excellent, with just enough talking-head developer stuff and those lovely idents that served to whet the appetite and tease the eventual look of the machine. We know there’ll be no new hardware or discussion about evolving services, so really all we’ve got to look forward to are games, games, games, which makes a nice change from the reveal of the Xbox One all those moons ago.

Okay, so my absolute crazy just-for-me wish? Well, things are getting thin on the ground now, as the big things I always want from Microsoft – Fable, Crackdown, Perfect Dark – have either happened or are strongly rumoured. Viva Pinata is next on that list, but beyond that? How does Black and White Infinite sound? That’s right, baby, next on my list – Lionhead rebooted!

#top ten #microsoft #xbox #xbox series x #halo infinite #games #gaming #xbox showcase

1 note · View note

artificialqueens · 5 years ago

Text

The Little Vampire (Branjie)- athena2

Vampire Vanessa meets human Brooke and their relationship develops over the years. Loosely inspired by The Little Vampire. So I’ve been in a vampire/Halloween mood lately, and came up with this idea. I did change a lot from the movie, so you don’t need to have seen it to read this. It’s a little weird, but it’s essentially a fluffy friends to lovers fic with some minor vampire details.

I would really appreciate any feedback you have!

—

Brooke’s new room is too dark.

Despite the glow of her kitty-shaped lamp, the room is black as the midnight sky outside, shadows creeping along her walls. Brooke watches as they sway. Maybe they’re ghosts, or vampires, or witches, or–her mom told her they’re only shadows and the rest is her imagination. Even so, she’s sure someone is watching her.

She tugs the blanket up to her chin, holds her stuffed elephant against her chest, and closes her eyes. Please let me fall asleep, please let me fall asleep. She’s hardly slept at all the whole week since her family moved here, tossing and turning as the old house creaked and waking from nightmares where vampires flew by her window.

Something rustles against the window. Her eyes snap open. A long shadow curves outside, growing so that it devours the pale moonlight, surely on its way to devour her. It’s just my imagination. It’s just–the window rises with a squeak. Brooke’s heart starts pounding. A hand slides in and rests on her window pane, and Brooke squeezes her eyes shut as something thumps onto her floor.

“Whoa! Who are you?” A rough voice asks.

Brooke opens her eyes. Standing in her room, with her mouth wide open, is a girl. Brooke can just make out her all-black clothes and long brown hair in the lamplight. And are those–she squints–bat wings?

“Who are you?” The girl asks again, inching closer.

Brooke retreats into the corner of her bed and pulls the sheets over her head. “It’s just my imagination,” she says out loud, hoping her words will make it true.

“Did I scare you? Don’t be scared, it’s okay. I’m not your imagination, I promise.”

The girl hasn’t hurt her yet, and Brooke reasons that she probably would have done so already if she wanted to. She cautiously emerges from her blankets. The girl is smiling at her, and Brooke’s heart slows, warmth spreading deep in her stomach. She notices the wings are gone. Maybe she just imagined those too. But Brooke’s room is on the second floor; how else could she have gotten here?

“Did you just move in?”

Brooke nods.

“Oh. I come here to rest when I’m out at night sometimes. This house used to be empty. I’m Vanessa.”

“I-I’m Brooke.”

“How old are you?”

“Seven.”

“Me too!” Vanessa’s grin is wider than her face, and Brooke can’t help but smile too.

“Are you…are you a vampire?” Brooke asks, something about Vanessa making her brave enough to ask. “My mom says they’re not real.”

“I’m real,” Vanessa says. “You can even touch me and see if you want.” She reaches her arm out to Brooke, slowly, like you would to a fearful animal whose affection you wanted to win. Brooke touches her fingers to Vanessa’s cool skin and feels a tingle go through her arm all the way to her toes.

“You’re real,” Brooke confirms.

“I ain’t gonna kill you, if you’re worried about that. My family only drinks animal blood.”

Brooke nods. Maybe it’s her overactive imagination, or her young mind that hasn’t yet been dulled by adulthood, but Vanessa’s confession doesn’t startle her in the slightest.

“Does your elephant have a name?” Vanessa asks suddenly, pointing to the stuffed animal Brooke’s had since she was a baby, fur smooth from providing comfort to her worried fingers over the years.

“Peanut.”

“That’s cute. I have a stuffed wolf named Shadow.”

Brooke laughs, trying to keep it quiet so she doesn’t wake her parents downstairs.

“I should probably go,” Vanessa says, glancing over at Brooke’s clock. “You got school tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah,” Brooks sighs, already dreading what would await her.

“‘Kay, bye,” Vanessa waves as she heads toward the window.

“Will you come back?” Brooke asks, hoping the answer is yes. Somehow she had talked to Vanessa this whole time without her stomach knotting in fear, and she can’t help but think how nice it would be to have a friend.

“Yeah,” Vanessa grins. “I think I will.”

—

Brooke gazes out her window hopefully every night after that, but it’s 13 days before Vanessa crawls into her room again. This time, Brooke sees her wings before she retracts them, midnight-black with thin scarlet webbing in between, and she knows it’s not her imagination.

“Hey,” Vanessa says, voice casual, and Brooke holds back her excitement at having a friend, returning the greeting with a small smile rather than the ear-to-ear grin she feels inside.

“We could talk, right?” Vanessa asks. She sits in Brooke’s desk chair and Brooke knows she belongs there, like her room is a puzzle and Vanessa being there is the last piece to make the picture.

“Yeah. My parents are downstairs, so I don’t think they’ll hear us.”

“Okay, coo-”

“What’s it like to be a vampire?” Brooke blurts, unable to hide her curiosity another second, face growing hot. “Sorry.”

Vanessa laughs softly, and Brooke has a feeling she’s holding back her real laugh to stay quiet. “You’re okay. It’s pretty cool. I don’t have to sleep much, just a little during the day, and I get to fly around at night, and my parents teach me on their own so I don’t have to go to school or anything.”

“Lucky,” Brooke mutters.

“What’s it like to be human?” Vanessa inquires, bringing the chair closer to Brooke’s bed.

Brooke shrugs. “It’s okay, I guess. We sleep at night. If we want to fly we have to take a plane. They’re really big and scary. I go to school during the day, which isn’t that fun, and if you’re a grown-up you go to work, and it makes my mom and dad grumpy a lot so I don’t think that’s much fun either.”

“But you get to do human stuff, though,” Vanessa insists. “You get to really live, and that’s what I really, really want more than anything. You get to go outside in the sun and play during the daytime and stuff. And the beach! I’ve always wanted to go to the beach and pick seashells.” Her face looks dreamy, like she’s thought about doing those things several times.

“How come you sound excited about it?”

“Can I tell you a secret?” Vanessa whispers.

Brooke nods eagerly. She’s never had a friend to share a secret with and knows she’ll keep it with her forever.

“Me and my family are gonna become human. My parents said there’s a rit–rich–this thing we do, but we have to wait till I’m older. Like, 16 or something.”

“That’s like, forever from now,” Brooke whines, even a school day lasting for centuries when you’re seven.

“I know,” Vanessa agrees. “But someday, we could go outside and play together! I won’t have to come in your window at night!”

“That would be nice,” Brooke breathes, reluctant to hope but hoping all the same.

“It would,” Vanessa smiles, then heads out when they realize it’s well past midnight.

That night, Brooke dreams of her and Vanessa playing together under a bright sun.

—

Brooke grows to leave her window unlocked at night, sometimes opening it a crack even in the winter and just piling on another blanket in the hopes that Vanessa would come see her. Vanessa couldn’t come that often because she didn’t want other vampires to know where Brooke lived and put her in danger, but she crawled through Brooke’s window a few times a month, and nights with her were enough to get Brooke through almost anything the third grade threw at her.

“Where’d you get that from?” Vanessa points to the scrape on Brooke’s arm, which the nurse at school had rubbed with something that stung like a million needles.

“School. Some kids were making fun of me and one of them pushed me. He told the teacher we were just playing. He didn’t even get in trouble for it.”

“That’s not fair!” Vanessa swings her arm around in anger. Brooke knows by now how fiery Vanessa can get and figures this is all she can do without yelling.

Brooke shrugs, having long accepted the unfairness of school, an unfairness she figures will follow her afterwards too.

“How come they make fun of you anyway? You’re so nice.”

“I’m really quiet in school. Sometimes…sometimes I get scared when I talk and I mess up,” Brooke explains, face flushing with the memory of that morning, when the teacher called on her and she knew the answer but it got all twisted up on the way out her mouth and the kids’ laughter rang in her ears.

“They shouldn’t make fun of you for that!” A little line forms between her eyebrows. “What if we got them back?” she asks.

“How do you mean?”

Vanessa just winks.

Five minutes later Vanessa has her arms securely around Brooke as the cool night air bathes their faces and the moon twinkles above. Brooke holds the rolls of toilet paper Vanessa insisted they bring, and this high up, with Vanessa’s hands so close and making Brooke warm, everything that bothers her seems so small. She is free, her blue house with the doors the squeaked and the floors that creaked far behind, the school with mean kids and oral presentations just a speck. All that exists are her and Vanessa gliding through the air, Vanessa’s laugh, the real one, not the quiet one reserved for Brooke’s room, rippling in the night and leaving an eternal smile on Brooke’s face.

They swing around to Billy’s house, the meanest one, the one that had pushed Brooke that afternoon. They toss toilet paper over his house, hanging it from sparse, orange-leaved branches and laughing until they cried.

By the time Vanessa lowers Brooke into her bed, sharing a hug with only one heartbeat between them and pulling Brooke’s blankets up for her, she’s not even worried about school tomorrow.

—

“The house smells really good,” Vanessa says one night. “You have something good for dinner?”

“Beef stew,” Brooke replies. Vanessa must have some sort of advanced sense of smell, because Brooke couldn’t smell anything.

“Mmm,” she breathes longingly. “How ‘bout lunch? What do you bring to school?”

“My mom makes me peanut butter and jelly.” The sandwich had been in Brooke’s lunch box since she was five and ate in a crowded, noisy cafeteria, and is still a piece of comfort four years later as she takes her lunches in the open, quiet library.

“That sounds so good!” Vanessa exclaims, eyes wide. “Do you think I could try one?”

“Sure,” Brooke answers. “I can’t do it tonight in case my parents wake up, but come back tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay!”

Brooke went through the next day counting down the seconds until it got dark, legs bouncing as dusk crept closer, guaranteed to see Vanessa.

“You can eat human food, right?” She checks, shoving Peanut under her pillow as she plops next to Vanessa. Brooke still liked having the elephant to hold in her arms while she slept, and though she doesn’t think Vanessa would make fun of her, she doesn’t want it on display.

“I mean, nothing bad will happen if I eat it,” Vanessa answers, taking the sandwich into eager hands and chomping down.

“Brooke, this is amazing!” Vanessa declares around a mouthful of creamy peanut butter and strawberry jam. Her eyes are shining so bright it distracts Brooke from her worry that her parents will hear, and her attention pulls to watching Vanessa instead of eating her own sandwich. The only thing better than seeing that joy on Vanessa’s face is knowing that she put it there.

She gives Vanessa half of her own sandwich just to see it again.

—

Brooke is awake, has been awake the past two nights, when Vanessa arrives.

“Happy birthday!” Brooke exclaims as loudly as she dares. “I asked my mom to make cupcakes the other day, and I saved some for you.”

“You saved cupcakes for me?” Vanessa’s mouth falls open.

“You only turn 11 once,” Brooke insists, offering her the plate, rainbow sprinkles bright against chocolate frosting. Vanessa’s eyes sparkle and she takes a giant bite, sighing in delight.

“And, um, I got you a present.” Brooke pushes the box over to her.

“You didn’t have to get me anything.”

“It’s not anything exciting, it’s just…” she trails off as Vanessa opens it, running her hand over the seashells, softly clinking together.

“Brooke, I love them,” she breathes.

“I know how much you want to go to the beach.”

Vanessa picks up a large spiral shell. “Let’s listen to the ocean together.”

Brooke leans her head in. Their cheeks touch, Vanessa’s cool as Brooke’s warms up. Vanessa has no heartbeat but Brooke’s is beating enough for both of them. The shell roars in their ears, and Brooke imagines the two of them going to the beach one day, listening to the ocean for real.

—

Brooke rolls over, searching for a position that soothes the ache in her legs from the growth spurt that started when she turned 13 last month, when the window rattles, a groan following.

“Brooke, you gotta help me,” Vanessa hisses when she’s through the window, hand clutching her arm and face scrunched up in pain.

“What happened?” Brooke jumps out of bed, heart twisting when she sees the blood spreading down Vanessa’s sleeve.

“Some vampire that’s mad at my father attacked me.”

Vanessa is so kind, so human, that sometimes Brooke forgets she lives in an entirely different world, one where vampires that weren’t kind like her family flew around and did terrible things. She wishes she could keep Vanessa in her room forever, protect her from anyone that would hurt her. She takes a breath, forcing down the panic at seeing Vanessa like this. “Hang on, okay? I’ll get some stuff in the bathroom.”

Brooke tries not to make a sound as she rifles through the bathroom, drawers flying open as she thinks of what to get. She’s never had much worse than scrapes and bruises, and there was a lot of blood… she gathers the supplies in her arms, dodging the creaky spots on the floor as she hurries back to her room, Vanessa wincing with pain in Brooke’s desk chair.

“Okay.” Brooke tries to sound like she knows what she’s doing. Vanessa’s arm is soaked in blood and she cringes. Blood had always made Brooke squeamish. She quickly wrapped a Band-Aid around her finger anytime she got a papercut to hide the blood and had cried when they took a blood sample at the doctor’s when she was four, but she had to be brave. She couldn’t let anything happen to Vanessa. “Don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried,” Vanessa insists. “I think you are, though.” She grins and winks even as the bloodstain grows.

“I just don’t want you to be hurt.”

“I’m gonna be fine, Brooke. I have you, don’t I?”

The kind smile that accompanies the words give Brooke a rush of courage, and she tells Vanessa to take her shirt off, figuring that jumping in her stomach as Vanessa exposes her smooth skin is just concern.

For all the blood, there’s only two slashing cuts on her arm, and Brooke feels she can handle this. Maybe if she just thinks of them as two giant paper cuts, she can do it. She presses paper towels against her arm, whispering a sorry when Vanessa winces. She manages to avoid staring at the blood but can’t avoid how calmly Vanessa looks at her, how trusting those eyes are, like she would rather have Brooke’s hands on her than anyone’s.

Brooke dabs on antiseptic–the cream one, not the one that stings, thank you very much; Brooke doesn’t Vanessa to hurt anymore than she is. She winds gauze around her arm and secures it with tape, feeling like she’s secured her own heart now that she knows Vanessa is okay.

“Thank you,” Vanessa says, hand wrapping around Brooke’s.

Brooke nods. “D-do you want to stay here tonight?” she asks, this night bringing out every ounce of bravery tucked away inside her.

“I probably shouldn’t,” Vanessa’s voice is apologetic as she pulls her shirt back on. “I don’t my want my parents to worry, and you might get in trouble…”

“Right,” Brooke agrees despite the hollowness in her chest, not pushing it further because she’s all out of bravery.

“I really wish I could though,” Vanessa says before she leaves, and the room rings with her sincerity and regret until sunrise.

—

A teardrop splashes onto the math equation in her textbook. Her fingers are shaking so much she has to put her pencil down. It’s almost 1am and she should be asleep but she needs every second to study, even though she’s been working for over 3 hours and feels no less worried, shoulders tightening by the minute. The trigonometry test tomorrow is 20 percent of her grade, and if she doesn’t get this–

“Brooke, what’s wrong?”

Vanessa kneels beside her desk chair. Her eyes are worried and it only makes Brooke cry more to know how much Vanessa cares about her.

“It’s stupid,” she mumbles, face flushing at the thought of Vanessa seeing her this upset over a math test.

“I don’t care how stupid it is, if it’s making you cry like this I want to know, so I can help,” Vanessa insists softly, wiping one of Brooke’s tears with her thumb. “Tell me, please.”

“It’s-it’s my math class,” she manages. “I have a test tomorrow and if I can’t get this I’ll fail it, and then I’ll probably fail the class, and then–”

“Hey, hey, slow down. Just breathe a second.”

Brooke takes a deep breath, air flooding her lungs. Vanessa isn’t laughing at her, telling her not to worry so much, like her mother did, or scolding her, telling her to study harder, like her father did. She has that adorable wrinkle between her eyebrows that means she’s thinking, and Brooke’s body loosens just knowing she’s here.

“Okay.” Vanessa rubs her hands together and Brooke knows she has a plan. “Here’s what we’re gonna do. You pick out some problems you’re worried about and do ‘em, and I’ll look up the answers and you go over it if you don’t understand. But only for a little bit, ‘cause you need to sleep, Miss Thing. You look like you sleep less than I do.”

Brooke smiles. “Okay.”

Brooke renews her focus and picks out 10 problems, scribbling into her notebook as Vanessa reads answers and rants about how trigonometry is the most useless thing she’s ever heard of in her life.

The worry that had taken residence in her chest gets lighter as her eyelids grow heavier. She doesn’t remember falling asleep, but when her alarm wakes her hours later, she is tucked into bed with the blankets pulled up to her chin, Peanut wedged under her arm, and the textbook placed neatly on her desk.

She swears her skin tingles with the ghost of a kiss on her forehead, but it’s probably just her imagination.

—

“Wasn’t there some dance at your school tonight? I saw a bunch of kids leaving it on my way here,” Vanessa says as she slips inside and sits on Brooke’s bed.

“Yeah, the junior prom,” Brooke explains, putting her book down. “I didn’t go.”

“Why not?”

“No one I wanted to go with.” What she doesn’t say, what she can’t say, is that the only person she could have possibly braved something like that for is in front of her right now.

Vanessa stands up and holds her hand out, and Brooke is hit with a memory of the first time she did that, to prove that she was real. Brooke isn’t sure what she’s going to prove now.

“Will you dance with me?” Vanessa asks.

“Of course.” Even though her stomach is churning about what might unfold, she can’t deny how badly she wants to.

She rests her hands on Vanessa’s waist and Vanessa’s hands stroke her back as they sway around Brooke’s bedroom, past the bookshelves and dance ribbons and academic medals and tickets from midnight movies she and Vanessa went to, a room that has been most like home when Vanessa is in it with her.

“Brooke, I need to tell you something.”

“What is it?”

Vanessa takes a breath. Whatever it is, it’s scaring her, and Brooke holds onto her a little tighter. “The ritual to become human is next month, on the solstice, and I need to get ready for it, so I won’t see you before then. And the thing is, sometimes it goes wrong. If that happens, I might not remember you. So I…I wanted to come here tonight and tell you that I love you. I have for a while now, and I want to tell you while I can.”

Vanessa loves her too. But the joy rushing through her is derailed by worry. It might go wrong. For a minute, Brooke almost sinks into desperation and begs Vanessa not to do it, to stay a vampire as long as she’ll remember her. But Vanessa has wanted to become human since Brooke met her almost 10 years ago, and Brooke can’t ask her to put that dream aside.

“I love you too,” Brooke says finally. “And I’ve wanted to do this for such a long time.” She bends down and lets her lips meet Vanessa’s, and it’s something she’s dreamed about so often it’s hard to believe it’s really happening. Just like when she flew with Vanessa, the rest of the world fades and it is just them, Vanessa’s smaller body nestling against her.

Vanessa pulls away too quickly, but even at eternity would have been too quick for Brooke. “I have to go, okay? I promise I’ll do my best to remember you.”

She’s gone, out the window before Brooke even drops her hands, still holding on to Vanessa in her dreams.

Brooke crawls into bed and cries, hoping Vanessa won’t be taken from her.

—

Days go by outside her window, trees bright and green with summer, but Brooke feels a cold, dark winter in her bones. The solstice comes and goes, and it’s the middle of July when Brooke slams her window shut, not wanting to hear children laughing outside, the way she dreamed her and Vanessa would one day.

She’s tidying up her already neat desk one night when something pings against her window.

Hoping against hope, she pulls back the curtain and throws the window open. Vanessa stands in her backyard, rocks in hand.

“Hey, Brooke,” she calls up. “You gotta let me in the front door, I can’t fly anymore!”

Brooke sprints down the stairs, not even thinking of waking her parents. She can’t fly anymore. She can’t fly anymore, which means…

Vanessa is on her doorstep, flashing a brilliant grin and throwing herself into Brooke’s arms. Vanessa’s heart is dancing against Brooke’s chest for the first time. “It worked!” she yells. “And I felt really weird at first, but then I saw those seashells you gave me, and I remembered everything! I love you so much, Brooke.”

“I love you too.”

They tumble into bed together, and Brooke falls asleep to the sound of Vanessa’s heart beating.

#rpdr fanfiction #brooke lynn hytes #vanessa vanjie mateo #branjie #lesbian au #vampire au #fluff #hurt/comfort #athena2 #tw blood #tw mild injury #tw mild bullying #concrit welcome #submission

20 notes · View notes