#I know some are looking into surgery's to get their tubes tied

[the-fandom-crossroads]

Everyone is suggesting stocking up on morning after pills in case they get banned. And Yes! do that! But also if you do not plan to bare a child in the next few years look into long term birth controls.

Even Missouri never banned long term birth controls. They just make you take a pregnancy test before being prescribed it. So as long as you are not currently pregnant and want to avoid having a child during the next 4 years get on long term birth control.

Call Planned Parenthood today because the wait list is usually a month out for the earliest appointment. If they plan to attack abortion and birth control options day one you want to get prescribed them before jan. In case they make it incredibly hard to get prescribed it. But one doctor visit and they can prescribe you the Depo shot for a year. Depo is the least invasive option. If you go for one of the inserts those last years on their own. They just have the risk of slipping and you not know it until after you've become pregnant.

Depo; lasts 3 months, stops or lightens most periods, and income based PP charge 0-20 dollars for low income people to get it every 3 months. You qualify for low income even/especially without insurance. At full price it's 70-90 dollars every 3 months. but if you make less than 30k a year you qualify as low income.

TLDR: Long term birth controls are less likely to be banned and at least will take longer to ban compared to abortion pills. Conservatives don't want to "kill the embryo" which is what they see morning after pills as doing. Long term birth controls stop the embryo from even forming. Look into the Depo or other options before Jan and get prescribed it so you are at least set for the next year.

[yan-lorkai]

https://www.tumblr.com/yan-lorkai/720655214474035200/good-evening-if-you-dont-mind-id-like-to-hear

Okay so what about this but the reader got a hysterectomy or got her tubes tied before they met without him knowing? How do you think the boys would react? Like let’s say they didn’t have the (new) surgery where you could transplant another woman’s uterus to get pregnant. What would they do if they found out she couldn’t get pregnant anymore?

☆ A/N: Interesting concept, I hadn't thought about it before :o. Wrote this for Malleus, Leona, Rook and Riddle. Let me know if you want a part 2 with other characters, darling!

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Warnings: Yandere content, pregnancy talk, hysterectomy, afab reader (no pronouns used).

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Malleus would be indifferent - not because he doesn't want a child with you. But because it is still possible for you two to have a biological child without you necessarily being pregnant, as dragon fae eggs can only be brought to existence through pure love. Though not in the conventional way, your child will be born as he did once, hatching from an egg, nurtured with the love you both feel. But, in the scenario that this possibility also couldn't happen, he would be devastated. He really wanted to have a family with you and it's just not possible anymore. His dreams are shattered and he needs a moment to recompose himself, you can hear thunders for days on end. Deep within he wished he had met you earlier, that he could keep you from making this surgery. But what's done is done. Though he wonders, could he regrown your uterus with his magic?

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Leona is apathetic about it. It was not a priority as he liked having all your attention on himself, but even someone like him had imagined how your child would look like. Would they have your eyes and his smile? Either way, when you tell him that you got a hysterectomy due to health problems and couldn't get pregnant, he just kinda nods and goes on as if he hadn't heard that at all. It's not really a big deal to him. If you want a child so bad then you can always adopt one or two, even three or four.

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Rook is so dramatic about it. He write many melancholic poems in your honour for some reason, coming from a big family you figured he would be more shocked or something. But he is chill with the news, just affectionately annoying you and draping himself all over you. After all he knows he can still tie you to him even without a baby. However he does daydream about you, fuzzy face from sleep and with bed hair, holding your baby at night, singing to make them sleep. He kinda wishes it was possible though, he wanted to be with you through each and every stage of your pregnancy. A pity.

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Riddle is clearly unhappy with the news. Like, it is true that there are some diseases and syndromes that require partial or total removal of the uterus or cutting of the uterine tubes. Whatever your reason for having that surgery, Riddle respects that, he even asked you if you were suffering from something. But he still feels sad knowing that he won't be able to have children with you, though he will never tell you that to not burden you with his unnecessary thoughts. But it's noticeable, the way he sighs and stares at the wall for several minutes, or how happy he is when he can take care of his friends' children. It's obvious even. Every happy couple have a child but you two. So if you can't get pregnant, Riddle wants to adopt.

[professional-benaddict]

next part of the omegaverse au 🤍🤍 link to previous part. everything will be up on AO3 as well, so keep an eye out for that😌😌 @winterspiderpurrs

A month has passed, and Tony has not gotten better. He hasn’t gotten worse either, which Peter sees as a bonus.

The Alpha is still overly aggressive due to his high testosterone levels, and the doctors they have been consulting do not have any straights answers. The only thing they can offer is that Tony takes some pills, in the hopes of it slowing the testosterone production and thus helping Tony’s overall health.

But, Tony has not been consistent when it comes to taking the pills. And since they are dealing with hormones, it will be weeks or months before the medication will work properly. It is hard to stay focused and motivated to take them.

Besides, the Alpha is too busy tending to his Omega and his family.

Peter has been scheduled for surgery to have his ovarian tubes tied, which will leave him sterile. It will be done laprascopically, so he will only get a few small scars on his belly. The recovery time is drastically shorter than if he were to have his entire uterus removed.

Peter is happy with his choice. Tony and Peter are more than ready to settle for the three kids they have. Besides, Peter’s body could not handle another pregnancy. Nor does it seem like Tony can handle the extra pressure of another child.

Tony takes time off from work for Peter’s surgery, and for the week after. Ben and Harley do not have classes on Peter’s surgery day, and they both said they wanted to come with to support their dad. The boys also promise to visit often to help out, but they do have some classes they cannot miss later in the week. Morgan will be staying with Pepper and Happy again, at least for a few days.

Everything is settled and ready, and Peter, Tony and the two boys head to the hospital.

The Omega gets checked in and soon enough he has his own room to wait in. Tony helps him get changed into the gown.

“You nervous?” Peter asks his Alpha.

Harley and Ben went to get some snacks, so they have a moment to themselves.

“No. I mean, yes, but you’re the one going under the knife. Aren’t you nervous?”

“No, not really. It’s just a few snips, they said. And I’m excited to have one less thing to worry about, you know?”

“Yeah.” Tony sighs, leaning down to smell at Peter’s neck. The Omega leans into the touch and rubs at his Alpha’s neck. “I just want this over. So we can be okay.”

“We will be okay. We’ll get you fixed too.”

Peter feels Tony stiffen and pull away. But, before he can ask about it, the boys return with snacks. And a short moment later, a nurse arrives saying she will take Peter to get prepped.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to wait here, so say your goodbyes. Just for now.” The nurse smiles gently.

Tony, Ben and Harley all kiss and hug Peter.

“I’ll be back soon. Don’t worry!” Peter smiles brightly.

Harley, Ben and Tony remain behind, watching as Peter is wheeled out on his bed and away from them. Ben gives his younger brother a pat on the back, then looks over at their father.

“Papa, he will be okay. Yeah?” Ben says.

But, Tony’s not listening. The blood rushing in his ears is too loud.

[catofthecanals289]

Femur for the wip game? ❤️

well some of you know i am a sucker for medical drama so tis is essentially that, written ages ago

--

“Daniel, please,” Max finds himself whispering.

It’s not the first time. He’s said it countless of times over the last three days, ever since the doctors told them  just how far the infection had progressed, that really, even with pumping Daniel full of all kinds of antibiotics, chances were that it wouldn’t heal.

They’d talked about sepsis, about necrosis, the bone dying, about Daniel dying, about-

-about another surgery. A third one.

About amputation.

And Daniel had said ‘no’, stubborn and proud and stupid, and Max hates him for it, more than just a little.

Please,” he repeats, louder this time, stroking Daniel’s sweaty curls away from his forehead, his voice breaking over the word. “Please, just let the doctors do it.  Please.”

Daniel’s eyes flutter open, pupils dark and glassy and a little bit unfocused, even as he shifts to look at Max, a soft sigh coming from his mouth.

“Maxy, the antibiotics-”

“-are not working,” Max cuts him off, desperate, vision getting blurry yet again. He takes Daniel’s clam hand, pressing his lips to his knuckles. “They are not. We tried, we gave it time, but it is not- It is not working. So please.”

Please let them save you.

Please let them make you better.

Please let them cut off your leg.

“Max,” Daniel just says, voice quiet, barely there.

His eyes are closed again, talking and having them open too much with the infection wreaking havoc on his body. It’s too much. There are so many tubes connected to the line leading into Daniel’s neck, that scary looking system of IV lines and pumps and still they can’t get the fever to go down, they can’t make Daniel stronger, can’t make him better. Can’t keep him alive, they are saying, unless they amputated and Daniel doesn’t want that.

“I do not understand, Daniel,” Max says, a first tear, silent and unseen rolling down his cheek. “Why you won’t let them. It is just a leg. It is- It is not as important as you. As you living, I do not-”

But Daniel believes that the antibiotics will still work. That it’s going to be okay, somehow. That this won’t kill him even if all the people in white coats and scrubs are saying that it will. So Max has been begging him, just like Grace, like Joe, like Michelle, like Michael. But Daniel says he wants to give the medicine more time, says he wants to keep his leg, that the wants- That he wants to live.

“Then why are you being stupid,” Max whispers, tears dripping from his chin to the bedding below, words barely audible over the labored breath Daniel takes. “I love you. I love you so much, I do not care how many legs, I do not- Please. Daniel, please.”

He kisses Daniel’s knuckles again, wishing Daniel would open his eyes again,, would tell him okay, would tell him yes, would agree, would- would make him not a liar.

It’s Grace’s idea, Grace’s and Joes and Max hates it, but selfishly, he doesn’t want to lose Daniel.

"We’ll tell them that he said ‘yes’,” Grace had told Max just this morning, brown eyes so much like Daniel’s sad and determined. “When he’s no longer- When he can’t tell them ‘no’, we’ll say that he told us ‘yes’. And it’ll be okay then. It’ll be okay.”

“Please,” Max repeats, voice barely even there as he closes his eyes. Please forgive me.

[mcl4r3n]

coming out of horny jail to present u with … lando riding max while danny fingers lando’s pussy … danny calling lando a slut for begging for both of their dicks at the same time ….. and then sliding in alongside max from behind, tilting lando’s head back and kissing away his tears and swallowing his moans…. if someone does not write this im gonna go insane 😵‍💫

So uh. Hey anon.

Here you go. :)

PWP very horny Max/Daniel/transmasc Lando for you. ♡ some cw: use of AFAB terms, mention of top surgery scars and mention of bilateral tubal ligation/getting tubes tied.

First time writing a trans character so if there's anything i messed up here please please message me so i can edit accordingly!

----

It's one thing to be wanted, Lando thinks, his mind going hazy. It's another thing to be wanted like this—

This, with his hands curling into Daniel's hair as he devours Lando's mouth; this, with Max's hands prying his thighs apart.

Lando's so wet he can feel himself leaking, can feel it drip down onto his perineum and coat the insides of his thighs. He's so wet that he has Max groaning it out loud, marveling there before Lando's screaming into Daniel's mouth, Max's tongue sliding firm and insistent on his clit.

He tries to breathe through it as Daniel's hands play with his nipples, the hard nub making him jolt with pleasure, the thinner skin of where his mastectomy scar casting a muted sensation before Max's tongue sliding into his cunt overwhelms him.

Lando loves summer break. He loves the hazy Spanish air that wafts through their open balcony doors. He loves the two men that touch him and kiss him like they're worshipping his body.

"He tastes so fucking good," Lando hears Max say, his voice raspy, before he puts his mouth back where Lando wants it.

"He always does," Daniel replies before turning his attention back to Lando, brushing a curl away from his forehead. "Don't you, baby? Always so sweet."

Lando knows it's a lie—he's tasted himself before, with the way Max loves to finger him and then force them into Lando's waiting mouth.

There's nothing sweet about him. Salty, almost bitter sometimes, but Max and Daniel never seem to mind. Sometimes it's almost like they compete to see who can make Lando come the most with just eating him out.

He winds his arm around Daniel's neck to kiss him again while he uses his other hand to keep Max's head where it is, gasping out now that Max has what feels like two fingers inside of him.

"Danny," he whispers when he pulls away for air. "Wanna—let me taste you."

Daniel always looks at him with soft eyes, and Lando knows that he's more than a little in love with him. The feeling is mutual.

"Anything you want," Daniel says before moving away to kneel beside Lando's head, his thighs splayed open, his hand keeping his dick steady before he feeds it into Lando's mouth, his tongue out.

This, Lando is good at. Has always been good at. He loves Daniel's cock, loves the feel of it, the shape of it, thick and just a little longer than average.

He keeps his eyes open, slanting his gaze to watch the way Daniel's pink, swollen mouth is suspended in an 'o' while Lando slides his tongue over the slit of his dick over and over again, mirroring exactly what Max is doing to his clit.

"Get him ready," Daniel manages to say, and without hesitation, he feels Max pull his fingers out of his pussy, and circle the ring of his asshole instead before pushing in slowly.

Lando's shout is dampened by the cock in his mouth but his body reacts regardless, his back arching off the bed, Max holding his thighs apart even though all Lando wants is to be filled up right now. His pussy clenches around Max's tongue, and his entrance around Max's fingers.

Daniel's hands are relentless, toying with his nipples, pinching hard enough that the pleasure borders on uncomfortable, but only just. He knows Lando's limits, knows how to work his body better almost as good as he knows how to drive the RB20.

Lando loses himself in all of it, sucking on Daniel while Max prepares him to take them both, desperate to come already. His thighs are so tense from every aborted orgasm, Max keeping him fully at bay.

He can't take it, can't wait anymore. He turns his head, Daniel's cock slipping from his mouth.

"Please, please, please, need you," Lando begs, pulling his right knee up to his chest while he tries to get Max to coax an orgasm out of him.

Max pulls away and Land would be disappointed if it weren't for the fact that Max is finally crawling up the bed to lie down next to him, his cock stiff and curving up to his belly.

"You can handle Daniel like that?" Max asks. As if there's even any doubt.

Lando doesn't respond with words, refuses to waste time anymore before he's turning in bed to throw his leg over Max, leaning in for a filthy kiss, tasting himself on Max's tongue before he's pushing up and rubbing his clit over Max's dick.

He feels himself get steadied with Daniel behind him, so Lando gets on his knees, straddling Max properly, before sinking down and feeling himself get filled up. It's almost like relief, being able to finally clench around him tight. He squeezes his walls for good measure, and Max's hand flies to his thigh before he throws his head back.

"Look at you, baby," Daniel says softly, his breath hot in Lando's ear, his hands cupping Lando's pecs, thumbs playing, gentle this time. "Such a perfect little slut for us, aren't you?"

"Only for you two," Lando huffs, his hips jolting when he feels Max's thumb press over his clit back and forth slowly.

Daniel's kiss on the back of his neck is almost chaste—so soft and at odds with the fact that he's rubbing the head of his cock on Lando's asshole, until finally—

"Fuck, yes, yes, fuck," Lando screams, when he feels Daniel slide in to the hilt.

He's completely full, and he feels euphoric, like his blood is laced with pleasure distilled now, and that's when Daniel moves, fucking into him relentlessly, the motion translating into him rocking back and forth while Max's cock makes his pussy throb with need.

Daniel takes control and he and Max are just along for the ride, the three of them losing themselves in a chorus of desperate expletives and the wet, primal sounds of bodies on bodies.

Lando falls back against Daniel's chest and he rests his head on Daniel's shoulder while Max continues his determined pressure on Lando's clit. They all move, Max fucking up into him while Daniel moans and bites into Lando's skin.

"Yeah? You like that? Have Maxy fuck a baby into you," Daniel says when Lando cries out at how good Max feels.

Max can't—neither of them can, he got his tubes tied when he got rid of his breasts—but it's still a fantasy the three of them like to pretend and play with. Lando's always loved being used and filled like this.

He feels them everywhere, feels his nerves come alive, and feels himself begin to crest over the apex of his own mounting pleasure, begging Max to not stop, to keep going, right there, right fucking there—

Lando sees stars when his orgasm hits him like a wave to his chest, his breathing erratic, his thighs quivering and tensing as he keeps coming, squeezing around the both of them and making them both lose their tempo, their hips now fallen out of sync, until finally Max is shouting as well, and Lando feels the wet, hot release trickle in disgusting squelches into his pussy that hasn't stop pulsating around him.

It's Daniel who comes last, his thrusting hard and sure and so fucking good while Lando stays safe and steady in his arms.

Lando comes so hard his hearing goes, the sound of their heavy breaths replaced by the ringing in his ears. He lurches forward slowly, and Max is there to catch him, lips on Lando's sweaty forehead almost immediately.

Daniel pulls out and Lando whines at the loss, at the way he's sure Daniel is looking, staring, really, as his and Max's come drip out of Lando.

"So good," Max whispers, his voice raspy now from all their shouting. "So perfect, baby."

Lando smiles into Max's skin, presses a kiss to the fat that layers over the tits that he adores.

He's almost asleep by the time he feels Daniel return with a wet cloth to clean all three of them up.

[luna-kipp-themothauthor]

I am an author and dumpster fire of a tumblr shitposter and I usually don't make posts like this, but I am making an exception this time because it's something that needs to be said.

If you are female bodied and do not wish to have children in your lifetime, I highly encourage you to look into getting a bilateral salpingectomy. This is a minor surgery with minimal recovery time that is covered by most insurance where your ovarian tubes are removed but all other reproductive organs are intact. It reduces your risk of pregnancy to zero and risk of ovarian cancer to almost nothing.

It is not getting your tubes tied or clamped, it is full tube removal and is permanent and non-reversible.

It can be difficult to get a doctor to perform female sterilization, but many more doctors who were neutral before are being open minded regarding this at the moment due to the current political climate. If you don't want children, I encourage you to do this sooner rather than later in case laws change within the next few years that limits access or attempts to outlaw this procedure.

Due to the added benefit of ovarian cancer chance reduction, it is easier to find a doctor willing to do this surgery than other types of sterilization and it is 100% guaranteed to prevent pregnancy forever unless you go and get IVF implantation intentionally.

If you are low income, when you receive your hospital bill you can apply for financial assistance through the hospitals website and submit your pay stubs and bank statement and often your bill will be forgiven between 75% and 100% (this is possible with most hospital bills actually depending on where you live. But ensure that you do not have a savings account at the same bank as your checking because this often can disqualify you)

You can often call a gynecologist office and ask the receptionist if any of the doctors perform female sterilization before you go, and they won't go into details but you are just asking if a service is able to be provided or not and they can usually answer that. That way you are less likely to waste time and money. Gynos that are stationed in hospitals are more likely to allow it and quickly get it scheduled rather than referrals.

For reference, reddit has lists of doctors in various states who allow anyone 18 and up to get the surgery, but it is not comprehensive and many are not listed so it is worth calling and asking or checking websites.

I know there might be many barriers for people to have access to this, but I wanted to lend some information to anyone feeling afraid by these new anti abortion laws and even some trying to go after birth control. At least I hope this can give you somewhere to start for info.

We are not fucking cattle to be bred and owned

[clickerflight]

Whump week: "Tell me how to fix this"

@week-of-whump

Masterlist

Part 1

I don't think I've written the actual prompts into any of the bits I have ready and written. Like, word for word. I enjoy dancing around the words. IDK why and I'm not sorry. The two characters in this bit are in the same world as the 1st prompt. I wanted to introduce the two pairs before they knew each other.

Content: Surgery in a non-hospital setting, lots of blood, missing limb, removing a body modification, restrained, I honestly don't know how to tag this one

.................................................

Matsu had known this was a bad idea even before he started the surgery by Ralph’s side, but this was so much worse than he could have been prepared for. 

The woman laying on the table, a blanket tied across her hips and around the table at her request, bit hard into another blanket, grunting. She had her head turned away from where they were working, sweat dripping out of her hair. Her hair was shifting between colors in her pain, as was her eye color as she squinted at the far wall. 

Matsu looked back to what they were working on. Matsu might have been trapped in a world where the most advanced technology to be found were a few aqueducts, but he originally came from a modern world, cars, phones, toilets. Stars, how he missed toilets. But even being from a place like that, this was different. Complicated. 

The woman’s name was Kira. She had found her way into the village, a blanket tied to hide what Matsu had assumed was her left arm. She asked around for the surgeons, the only ones for miles and had been pointed to Ralph and Matsu’s home. The old man had let her in, Matsu had been pulled in to learn something from whatever this woman needed help with, and then she dropped the blanket that had been tied around her torso. 

Matsu had registered the metal socket on her shoulder where a prosthetic arm supposedly attached, the metal woven into the skin, it seemed, and he had also clocked the redness around the metal and the tightness around Kira’s eyes. 

“Usually, I’d get readjustments every few months with doctors to keep this from happening,” she’d explained. “But they don’t even have a steam engine around here. It’s going to kill me. I need it removed.”

She couldn’t be put to sleep for the surgery because she would need to help them get it out since she knew a bit about how it worked, and any other pain numbing mixtures and potions they had would make her woozy, so they gave her what they could, rubbed in ointments to numb the area a little, and started cutting. 

“Steady, Matsu,” Ralph said gruffly. The old man was laser focused on the task in front of him and Matsu nodded. The metal was almost threaded into Kira’s flesh, woven in deep enough that the numbing poultices couldn’t touch it. There was blood everywhere. 

“Alright,” Ralph said carefully. “I can see some of the inner mechanisms. I’ll reapply the numbing potion. Please explain to Matsu how to proceed.”

Kira spit out the fabric, teeth bared like a wild thing. “Matsu, what do you see.”

Matsu pulled the flesh gently down to look, holding his breath despite having a mask on to keep from breathing into the wound. “There’s a bar with screws going into the bone. I see a tube with some wires in it.”

“Do you see a little lever at my armpit?” she hissed. 

“Yeah.”

“Press that.”

Matsu did and there was a soft click. The exposed half of the socket folded up on a hinge so he could get to the screws and wires inside. 

“You’ll have to cut the release out of me,” Kira said, now looking at the socket, her expression now fierce, but Matsu could see a hint of fear in her eyes. 

“We’ll numb it so it won’t hurt as much-”

“No, I’m not worried about that.”

“What are you worried about?”

“Those wires,” she said, eyeing the tube. “I’m trying to remember what order they need to be pulled out in so we don’t damage my spinal cord.”

Matsu stared at her. “What, are we playing ‘defuse the bomb’ with your ability to walk!?”

“Unfortunately.”

She groaned as Ralph started dabbing the numbing potion into the wounds. 

“Let’s start with removing the catch here. Then, we can sort out the wires.”

Matsu nodded and soon they cut the catch out. Kira panted on the table, foamed up spittle forming at the corners of her mouth as her eyes glazed over from the pain. 

“Hey, hey,” Matsu said, and with great effort she turned her attention to him again. “Tell me how to deal with the wires.”

She huffed, a faint smile on her face. “You’re cute when you talk like that.”

Matsu wrinkled his nose. “Really? Is now really the time for that?”

“Habit.”

“Habit? You flirt when you’re nervous?”

“Oh, shut up. What colors are the wires again?”

Matsu grumbled as he wiped off the tubing. “Uhh, green, black, and yellow.”

He glanced at Ralph who shrugged. “I’m color blind, this one’s on you.”

Matsu wiped his face with his forearm and sighed. “Kay. How do I get this tubing off?”

“It should unscrew.”

Matsu gently coaxed the tubing around until it came off. He pulled the tubing back, watching it fold along prepared lines as he pushed it back. He then looked down at the wires. 

“Do you know…”

Kira bit her lip. Her chest was rising and falling very quickly and reached out, grabbing Matsu’s hand. He held hers for a moment, watching her close her eyes, tears running down her face. 

“‘M Scared,” she whispered. 

“I know,” Matsu said gently, “I’ll get you through this. Just give me somewhere to start.”

She nodded. “I-In techno magic black is command, green is soul, and yellow i-is body…..” She took a few breaths and opened her eyes. They settled on something in between red and orange and Matsu realized she was matching his eye color. “I’m a techno mage. I studied this, I know this. Or, I can at least guess my way through this.”

He nodded encouragingly. “It…. needs to be disconnected from the soul first, Tug on the green one, gently. And please, please don’t pull any of the others out yet. There has to be a cool down between each one, I think.”

Matsu nodded and released her hand. He turned and touched the purifier amulet to clean his hand and turned back again, reaching in. He pinched The black and yellow to hold them in place and tugged the green out. He froze, listening as Ralph said, “Can you still feel this?”

Kira nodded.

“Which toe am I touching?”

“Pinky toe. This one,” she said, wiggling her foot. 

“How long do we have to wait between each one?” Matsu asked. 

She licked her lips. “You’re good to do the black one, I think. We’ll have to wait longer in between the AH AH oooh hssssssssssss.”

“What?” Matsu asked, looking up from the black wire he pulled out. 

“Felt weird,” she whimpered. “I think you touched it to something. I’m fine. Just…. Ahhhhhhhh.”

“Sorry.”

“‘S Okay.”

He put his hand on her chest, feeling her heartbeat as Ralph said, “Which toe am I touching, dear?”

“M-middle toe. Foot farthest from you.”

“Good.”

They waited in silence, Kira’s hand on Matsu’s wrist. 

“You wanna go on a date after this?” she asked, eyes slitted.

Matsu rolled his eyes. “Oh sure. I’ll be up to help bandage you every evening. So romantic.”

She chuckled, closing her eyes. “Oh, it’s fun when they play along.”

“You dated many medics before?”

“Oh no. No. Was rescued by a … a…. What do they call them in this language? Guard? Had a bad client and he rescued me. We dated for a bit before he moved.”

“Guess it’s a habit for you, then. How much longer till the next wire?”

“A few more minutes.”

Kira continued to breathe, slowing her mind down and waiting in silence. 

“Alright, pretty boy,” she said eventually, making Matsu chuckle. “Last one. Ralph, you might have to hold me down. Pull it out hard and fast.”

Ralph came over, holding her over the shoulders and watched as Matsu took hold of the last wire. He didn’t count, he didn’t warn her. He yanked it and stepped away. 

She screamed, writhing on the table, though it seemed her legs were still working as Matsu almost took one to the side. 

She calmed down, twitching slightly. “Ooooh, not fun,” she whispered. She looked at the socket and sighed. “Should be easy now. Unscrew from the bone and cut it out… in my bag there is a panel. When you cut the socket out there will be a place where the wires were plugged in. Put that panel on there and close me up….. Can you knock me out now?”

“Can do,” Ralph said, walking over to grab a potion. “Relax now, dear. We’ve got you.”

……………………………………………

Matsu knocked on the door and heard Kira call him in. He opened it to find her laying in bed. He sighed internally with relief. He had been worried that she was the type to refuse to stay in bed and, at this point, he wasn’t sure if he could say no to her. 

She almost purred when she saw him, her eyes turning vibrant colors. She was on a hefty dose of painkillers, but the reaction still made him flush.

“You here for our date? What, this has to be the third one now,” she said, reaching her hand out to him. He took it and was surprised when he was jerked forward. She kissed his knuckles and he stared at her, his mind resembling nothing so much as tv static. 

“I think I might have to try out dating a medic.”

...............................................

Part 3

Thoughts from the writer/artist

[teenmomcentral]

Here are some of the major (and minor but interesting) ‘Teen Mom’-related things that happened over the last week or so…

Kail Lowry Says She’s Getting More Plastic Surgery; Wants Her Butt Reduced

Kail said she regrets letting Dr. Miami inflate her rear end with a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) years ago, and now wants to get the procedure reversed.

On Friday’s episode of her Barely Famous podcast, Kail talked about the plastic surgery she’s gotten over the years, including a tummy tuck, Lipo 360 and the BBL she had done live on Snapchat by Dr. Miami in 2016. She told her friend Bone that her posterior has grown too big for her liking.

“In January, I am going to start looking into surgeons for a butt reduction,” Kail said. “Because it is so outrageously big. It hurts, it’s uncomfortable, it doesn’t fit into anything.” 

Kail admitted that she was told when she had her 2016 BBL and other surgeries that if she gained weight post-surgery her butt would get bigger. (If you’ve managed to somehow block out the memories of Dr. Miami carving up Kail’s caboose live on Snapchat, allow The Ashley to remind you that Kail had the surgeries after her son Lincoln was born. She has gone on to have five more kids since then.) 

During the podcast episode, Kail told Bone that she is afraid to try to lose weight through diet and exercise.

“I don’t know how crazy [my butt] is gonna look if I start losing weight,” she said. “Is my butt going to sag? So I need it to be, like, surgically done.”

Back in June, Kail mentioned that her BBL results were less-than-stellar.

“I love plastic surgery,” Kail said on the Dumb Blonde Podcast. “The only regret I have is not waiting until I was done having kids. I had the Mommy Makeover after my second son and I could definitely go for another.”

She said of all her cosmetic procedures, her BBL has aged the worst. 

“I don’t love [my BBL]. I want it removed immediately,” she said. “Gravity is kind of pulling it down a little bit….Dr. Miami did mine and I asked him about it. He said when you gain weight, you’re going to gain wherever your fat cells are. He moved [fat cells] to my butt. My butt has grown exponentially.

“When I did the BBL and I did the Lipo 360 I wanted everything to match because I felt like, ‘I can’t have a huge butt and then have my waist be small and my arms big.’ So I had it in my arms. My butt and my arms have grown insane. But now what? I don’t know what I can do about it. Gravity pulls down your butt a little bit and it just looks crazy and I can’t find jeans that fit me.”

Kail said in June that she didn’t want to have any more surgery until she was (finally) done having kids. (She recently stated that she wants to get her tubes tied now that she’s birthed her twins— aka Babies No. 6 and No. 7.)

“I maintained it for a long time, but I got pregnant the same year that I got my Mommy Makeover. So that was my biggest mistake,” Kail said. “I should have had all the kids I wanted to have and then got it.”

Farrah Abraham Calls Out Jenelle Evans For Latest CPS Drama; David Eason Accuses Farrah of Letting Daughter “Tag Along” While “Tricking” 

Let the battle of bad parenting–- featuring fired ‘Teen Mom’ stars–- continue! 

Less than a week after fired ‘Teen Mom OG’ star Farrah Abraham and fired ‘Teen Mom 2’ star Jenelle Evans took swipes at each other over social media regarding their respective parenting decisions, the Backdoor Teen Mom and Lady of The Land are back at it. 

Farrah told TMZ this week that, while she’s basically nailing this whole parenting thing, she can’t say the same for Jenelle, given Jenelle (and husband David Eason’s) latest drama with Child Protective Services (CPS). 

“I am not shading Jenelle but I think ‘Teen Mom’ fans or haters still get it confused at where I am at in my life,” Farrah told TMZ in her signature “Farrah Speak” style. “There is other teen moms who have CPS issues, like Jenelle presently. I think we need to leave some of that CPS messy stuff out of my family and out of my dating dynamic. That definitely upsets me.

“I work very hard to be the best single parent that I can ever be,” Farrah said before seemingly taking a swipe at Jenelle’s decision to stand by David despite him being charged with child abuse recently. 

“I can’t say the same for others and their dating lives and the men they choose to date who seem to be abusive,” The Big F said. “I’m not welcoming that into my life at all.” 

As The Ashley previously told you, Jenelle and David are currently under CPS investigation; however, just last week, it was Jenelle who took to Instagram urging for a “welfare check” to be conducted at Farrah’s home.  

David was clearly not happy that Farrah spoke about the CPS situation he and Jenelle are currently dealing with. He fired off some talkin’ words in the comment section of TMZ’s Facebook post, claiming (just as Jenelle recently did) that it’s Farrah who CPS needs to be keeping a watchful eye on. 

“I think CPS would love to know why Farrah let her child tag along while she was allegedly escorting or ‘tricking’ as some would call it,” David wrote. “I call it prostitution but hey, I only know what I’m told by close sources.” 

David’s comments come just a week after Farrah (sort of) debuted the new man in her life on Instagram, which resulted in haters speculating within the comment section of her post that her new boo was actually a “John”. (Farrah recently denied the claims that she was a paid escort, stating in an interview that “there are no illegal activities going on in my life.”)

Still, several commenters on the post suggested that CPS be called on Farrah for allegedly leaving her teenage daughter at home alone on Thanksgiving while she was living in up in the Caribbean with her new man. 

As The Ashley told you last week, the comments ultimately inspired Farrah to fire off a(nother) dig at Jenelle, seemingly due to Jenelle’s familiarity with the agency. 

Farrah has yet to respond to David’s latest accusation. 

Nathan Griffith’s Ex Ashley Lanhardt Dodges the Bullet Ties the Knot

Ashley Lanhardt, ex-girlfriend of former ‘Teen Mom 2’ dad (and former swolemate of Jenelle Evans) Nathan Griffith, is officially married. 

Ashley and her husband, Richard “Lee” Runion–- who announced their engagement in November 2022–- were married in a ceremony last weekend held at the Powel Crosley Estate in Sarasota, Florida. 

While Ashley mostly stayed out of the spotlight during her relationship with Nathan, fans of ‘Teen Mom 2’ may remember her appearing on a few episodes of the show. One of Ashley’s most memorable ‘Teen Mom 2’ moments happened during the Reunion taping in 2017, during which Ashley hugged Jenelle’s mom, Barbara Evans, resulting in Jenelle becoming enraged and causing a huge scene in the hallway backstage. 

The Ashley revealed in March 2021 that Nate and Ashley had gone their separate ways after more than three years of dating, with Ashley reportedly being the one who ended the relationship. While Nate initially denied that he and Ashley split, he went on to confirm the breakup four months later on social media. Nathan even gave a shout-out to the new man in Ashley’s life at the time. 

“He’s a very attractive guy,” Nate said. “Him and Ashley are together right now.” 

As of this week, Ashley and her man are together forever. 

Ashley spoke very HIGH! HIGH! highly of Lee in October while sharing a photo on social media of the two of them obtaining their marriage license. 

“ … I have never been more excited for anything in my life,” she wrote. “I can’t wait to marry this handsome man. God knew I needed him. I’m so grateful for such a patient, loving, reassuring person to spend my life with.” 

As The Ashley previously reported, Nathan has moved on from his long relationship with Ashley as well. Last year, he married May Oyola. However, it appears their on-and-off-again relationship may be “off” again, as May recently deleted all photos of Nathan off her Instagram account. In August, May and Nathan had celebrated their joint move to Las Vegas with a family photoshoot. (Those photos have since been deleted from May’s Instagram.)

Corey Simms Wins For ‘Teen Mom’ Dad of the Year

Ali Simms isn’t letting her Muscular Dystrophy stop her from doing anything she wants— and her dad, Corey, is right behind her to lend a helping hand, literally.

The ‘Teen Mom 2′ dad warmed fans’ hearts over the weekend when an Instagram video posted by his father, Jeff Simms, circulated the Interwebs. In the video, Ali (whose mom is Leah Messer) can be seen playing her clarinet with her school’s marching band during a holiday parade.

Ali, who usually uses an electric wheelchair to help her with mobility, was obviously unable to play the clarinet and use her hand to control the wheelchair, so her dad Corey stepped in to push her in a wheelchair during the parade.

“Corey has stepped up so much since they were babies; you can tell he’s had a great role model in Poppa Jeff,” one person wrote in the comment section of the video. “I’m glad she got to participate and if y’all don’t notice he’s perfectly in step with everyone else!”

“I’m so glad Corey was there, he sure is an awesome daddy,” another person wrote. “The girls are blessed to have him.”

Ali was diagnosed with a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy in 2014. Last year, Leah posted an update to Instagram on Ali’s condition, following her bi-annual checkup with Ali’s specialist Dr. Tsao.

“All great things- [Dr. Tsao] sees more of an improvement than he ever has, mind & body,” Leah wrote on Instagram. “He said what he sees is remarkable because she seems a lot stronger… He gave a lot of credit to her love, hard work and dedication to reaching horseback riding goals that she sets for herself.

“Reflex is still the same but strength is better- pulmonary is better- weight and growth chart is better than it has ever been,” Leah wrote.

[renee-writer]

Baby Girl Chapter 40

AO3

She comes to around the same time. Her eyes pop open. The ventilator won’t let her speak and she is alone.

“What happened?” she thinks, “Last thing I recall is going to kill her, that witch that dared to go after my man. Did I succeed? I don’t … why can’t I remember? What happened? “

 

Her eyes scan the room. “Hospital. I am in hospital but why?” Her body begins to feel the pain that the coma has kept from her. “That smarts. What is happening?”

 

She sees the nurse call button and manages to press it. A second later, it seems, the nurse is there. She frowns down at her patient.

 

“Welcome back. I will get the doctor.”

 

She gestures to the tube in her throat.

 

“He will remove it.” She presses the same button her patient had pressed. “Send Dr. Harold in. Miss Mackenzie is awake. Thanks.”

 

The doctor comes right in. He removes the ventilator and the nurse offers her a drink of water. “Why?” she chokes out. They share a look.

 

“You don’t recall what happened?” Dr. Harold asks. She shakes her head. “You were shot in the commission of a crime. We preformed surgery and you were in a coma for eighteen hours.”

 

“She die?”

 

“No, lucky for you. I see you need pain medicine. I will dispense some but Scotland Yard is waiting to talk with you. Then you can have more.”

 

They send Murtagh and Geillis. Both are soon frowning down at her.

 

“First, you are under arrest for the kidnapping and attempted murder of Claire Beauchamp and the assault on Agent Fitzgibbons here “ Murtagh shows her his stitches.

 

“Attempted “ she gets out, sounding disappointed.

 

“Oh you are mad you didn’t kill her. Consider yourself blessed lass. He would have shot to kill had you.” Murtagh gives her a look of pity.

 

“He loves me.” She says, glaring at the two.

 

“So you are going for an insanity defense. You know where he is right now?” she gives her a minute and gets a sneer in return, “at her flat. Making sure she is alright. He wasn’t sitting by your bedside, was he?”

 

She starts to cry. Neither feel any sympathy. “Was there anyone else involved lass?”

 

“No. All me. I drugged her and folded her into my car. Once there I used a stretcher to move her down. She woke tied up.”

 

“Alright. We won’t ask why you did it. You have told us. Just going to leave now. Leave you with the image of Jamie holding Claire. Oh, and knowledge this room is guarded by one of our officers and will be until you are taken to lock up “ They walk out and Murtagh rings Jamie to update him.

[southlandghost]

Day by the Pool

“Look, Harlow, here comes trouble.”

Harlow looked up after hearing Cooper’s words, confused for a moment; she smiled, though, when she saw who was coming into the back yard. 

A heavily pregnant Marcy walked out of the back door, a tote bag slung on her shoulder and Martin holding onto her hand, toddling beside her. Behind them followed Norm, who carried Martin’s pool float and a bottle of sunscreen. 

“I’m free!” Marcy exclaimed as she reached the poolside where her sister lay. “As of today, I am officially on maternity leave!”

“About time.” Cooper remarked from the pool, where he swam with Janey and Evie, who was in her own little pool float. “You look like you swallowed a watermelon seed. What about you, Norm? They let you off?”

“Kind of; I’m still working from home at the moment. That’s just until they induce her next week, though.” The younger man replied, absentmindedly taking Marcy’s hand as she sat down on one of the lounge chair. 

As he and Cooper continued chatting, Marcy lifted Martin and sat him beside her on the chair. “I can’t believe he’s walking, Harls. He took a bit longer than Evie, but damn… When I tell you I’ve chased him all over the house this morning, I mean it.”

“Don’t I know it.” Harlow sighed, pushing her sunglasses up and squinting. “Evie decided to play in Roosevelt’s food bowl this morning, so I had to give her a bath to get the dog food smell off of her at 7:30.”

“I know it’s a little bad to say,” Marcy lowered her voice. “But I hope and pray this baby is calmer than Martin. I was lucky and didn’t get sick this time around, but part of me is convinced it’s because this one is going to be even wilder.”

“I just wonder where he got it from.” The dark haired woman laughed. “I don’t know how you were as a kid, but I don’t see Norm as the type of kid who terrorized everyone.”

“Maybe having two mild-mannered parents makes it cancel out.” Marcy turned to her husband. “Norman, dear, hand me the sunscreen. And tell me and Harlow this: were you a good kid or a little hellion while you were growing up?”

Norm handed her the bottle, furrowing his eyebrows a bit. “I was good. Don’t try to pin Martin’s behavior on me; I blame the Schedler genetics.”

Marcy met Harlow’s eyes before they both burst out laughing, earning a laugh and some clapping from Martin, as well. Once he had gotten sunscreen on, Norm took him into the pool with Cooper and Evie.

Marcy sighed and rested her hands on her belly, smiling as she watched her husband and son. She still couldn’t believe she was a wife and mother. She remembered that just a few years ago, she scoffed at the idea of settling down and starting a family. When she looked back on her younger self, though, she realized just how hurt she had been and shuddered while thinking of what she would do to try and ease the pain she was going through at home. Moving in with Harlow quite literally saved her life.

“Are you scared?” Harlow’s voice shook her from her thoughts.

“Huh?”

“Are you scared? About the induction?”

“Oh. Not really? I guess? I don’t know. I’m kind of glad I’m being induced.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I’m glad the doctors will be more on top of things this time around. When I had Martin, I should have had a C-Section, but couldn’t have one because he was already in the birth canal. That’s why he had a cone-head.” Marcy laughed a bit, but cringed internally at the memory of the absolute trainwreck that was her first birth. “They said that if I go into labor before the induction, they want me to come in and they’ll go ahead and get me prepped for surgery. I’m getting my tubes tied after this, though. Two is enough for me.”

They were silent for a moment before Harlow spoke up again. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there the first time around.”

“It’s okay,” Marcy smiled back. She reached over and took Harlow’s hand in hers, giving it a squeeze. “You’re here now.”

They sat in silence for a while, watching the kids and listening to their husbands talk about movies. Finally, Marcy sat up and reached over toward her sister again. “Help me up, I’m gonna swim for a bit. Let me relish in my last days of being an incubator.”

“Okay, Mama Hen, whatever you say.”

With that, she stood and helped her little sister stand, too, and laughed as Marcy bumped her with her stomach. “I kind of miss it, Marcy.”

“Pregnancy?”

“Yeah, in a weird way.”

“I know what you mean.” They walked over to the pool steps so Marcy could get in safely. “Do you think you’ll have another?”

“I dunno. Ask Cooper.” Harlow meant it as a joke, but a look of shocked horror spread on her face when her sister began to yell.

“Hey, Coop! You and Harls gonna give this baby a cousin to play with?”

“HELL NO!”

[abishekmuses]

Marketing is seduction

Style is a virtue - it's an external indicator of the lens through which you view reality, events and situations. It's the "Frame" that you inhabit - it's an expression of your aesthetic ideals - it shows the world where you find beauty. It shows the world the internal cadence - the tempo that marks the beat of your movements through life. More importantly, it reflects your capacity to appreciate beauty and your commitment towards embodying beauty and the extent to which you are willing to go for beauty.

We are fart-bags that are filled with flesh that's slowly rotting. We emanate odours, burp and one day, we'll die. Before that, depending on how unlucky our lot is, we suffer a bunch of ignominies - injuries, heartbreaks, embarrassments - we shit our pants, we get hard for people that don't want anything to do with us naked - we get jacked up wanting to see people naked - people who themselves will one day get old and need diaper changes or surgeries where their shit comes out through tubes on their abdomens. Why am I painting this grisly picture?

Because none of this stuff is news - we all know this. This is the nature of our physical reality as humans and this truth isn't lost on most of us. However, there is still is extraordinary capacity for style that we possess - This capacity to appreciate beauty - to do things with a sense of aesthetic - to " present" ourselves as works of art rather than as stinking pieces of meat.

Beauty makes life beautiful - duh! Ok let me try another way. Beauty makes life tolerable. Why do any of the things we do if we don't do them beautifully? Every moment, a human has the choice to frame things in such a way - do things in such a manner - that it can be elevated to poetry.

Again, none of these ideas are new. We know how the act of drinking coffee can be an act of ugly compulsion - think lines of irritated, haggard looking people at an airport starbucks waiting to catch an early morning flight - or an exercise in love, style and aesthetic bliss - think of someone who wakes up, works out, showers, does his hair up just right - puts on a clean white tee shirt and crisply ironed chinos - and with meticulous precision, arranges his cup, his spoon, his milk jug, his coffee grinder - and goes about infusing as much love and devotion as possible into making that cup of coffee - pouring his attention into every single step involved - doing it with a sense of care like not getting a microscopic part of the process perfectly right would be the end of the world. That's what i mean by elevating actions - making poetry out of life.

i'm not speaking about OCD though. that's just as unaesthetic as being slapdash as far as Im concerned. Insouciance is attractive. Devotion with insouciance - now that's poetry.

I think seduction is closely tied to this. An expert seducer is someone who values aesthetics - he lives it and breathes it. He might not even necessarily understand it as such. But his movements, his life possess a quality of otherworldliness. a sense of cinematic allure. A sense of art. Something elysian, astral, supernal. A sense of something immortal and infinite. Something that isn't so immutably beset by the banal, the mortal, the rotting and the mundane.

I feel like marketing is very similar to seduction in this sense. marketing is all about framing things - It's about creating something a bit more ethereal around commodities/products/services -which are just banal things.

A product is a commodity. It belongs to the realm of flesh and bones. A brand is something undying - it belongs to the realm of demigods. It is something supernal. Something astral. Something that is nebulous, subtle and powerful.

I'm writing all this just to get down some ideas that I've been working with. This is an attempt to publicly post my process.

I came across the term public journal recently - I guess this is an attempt to have one of those myself.

Paralysed with potential - This is an itneresting idea

Best writers make errors -e diting is key

Excitement is actually a really subtle form of fear - when it doesn't allow us to settle into the present moment - I catch myself these days with a feeling that i would traditionally label as "positive" - a feverish sense of excitement - like hey "I'm pumped!!!" - but upon closer inspection, it's an attempt to move away from the present moment. It's a refusal to accept the intensity of a given moment and relax into it - accept it. It's using the mind to project an imaginary future where the intensity of internal state in this moment is used to create positive fantasies in the future - subtly suggesting to yourself - i'll be happy and fulfilled then" - subtly sowing seeds for waking up the next morning (or whenever) with regrets for not inhabiting that fantasy reality.

[aalt-ctrl-del]

it is very concerning how that the general public forgets that the argument on "abortion" and "reproductive rights" isn't isolated to the topic of "baby in the womb doing stuff".

The whole encompassing topic of body autonomy doesn't start or end at "womb" or "fetus". Those are the buzzwords that republicans love to throw around to simplify the morbid truth of this weird control train. It's what republicans prop up like a cardboard placeholder for the submerged iceberg of everything that they want to control on the topic of body and reproduction autonomy.

And this goes for men too. I know my boys like to pretend that they republicans have no interest in the peepee gun. But the republicans also think condoms and male birth control are the devils work, because dem bois are still killing babies. So when they get done with the ladies, they'll be looking at us all.

Which ties to my next point, aside from birth control measures being removed because it 'kills babies'. The whole topic is a mess because republicans idea of saving babies is for women to get married ASAP and start having babies. Messy. Topic. Bat. Shit. Insanity.

What is more batshit insane than gutting production of birth control and contraceptives, is the general focus on anything to do with the uterus or the ovarian things. Because this is the massive, whole encompassing issue here. In red states, it is difficult if not impossible to get sterilization surgery, regardless the reason. Women and people with uteruses struggle to get healthcare in red states, when their biology connected to the uterus fucks up. Even if the procedure is something that will benefit their quality of life, such as the case of Menorrhagia, Endocrine, Ovarian cysts, and various other illnesses that incapacitate or cause general disruption in health in those with a uterus. Some chemical birth controls help with managing these disorders, but sometimes that isn't enough. Some people go for a hysterectomy, but that all depends. But all of this medical hippa and body autonomy is infringed upon by republicans and red states, under the guise of "Saving babies".

These republicans put the quality and safety of a damn organ, above the person mental and physical health. It's bizarre. It's sick. People with uteruses lose full jurisdiction to their body, because by religious and state ordinance, the body is not their own property. Not fully. The uteruses may not be full of oil, but the republicans sure as hell want to stake a claim in it.

The topic is not a clear cut of black and white, regardless how simple the republican smooth brain schemes tries to posture it. It's dehumanizing and frankly, dystopian. Topics of health and wellness should be governed by no more than two people - the doctor, and the person seeking medical assistance for their body. Governors, Supreme Court, House Representatives - none of those people in those districts have a place in body autonomy regarding a singular organ. They HR, SC, Congress, whoever - they can have discussions of healthcare and affordability and the insurance coverage (which is a fuking nightmare). But when it comes to procedures that people seek to amend personal health issues, they cannot be governed by anyone not privvy to that information.

But that's just a reminder to anyone who thinks "abortion has nothing to do with me because I cannot get preggos". You miss the point it wasn't about babies or pregnancy or protecting/saving anyone. It was about controlling body health and emotional welfare.

You go to the doctors one day because you have heavy bleeding, and you get the results back from tests letting you know "there's a large tumor on your fallopian tube and it needs to be removed." It's not a simple case of scheduling the procedure, even if you have the assets to get this done and insurance that can cover it. Because there's suddenly the possibility you're actually involved in a nefarious plan to kill a baby, and everything about this procedure must be approved by your very red state, just to be sure you're not a heathen. Insurance might not even have jurisdiction to cover it, since this is happening in a red state.

But that's the gist of reproduction rights and body autonomy. It's never been about babies or saving unborn children.

[winchester-girl67]

Don’t Say A Word (Part 8)

Summary: The truce between you and Dean was nice while it lasted.

Masterlist

Pairing: Bodyguard!Dean x reader

Word Count: 1,087

Warnings: language, angst, arguing, minor injury, shark week, some pining, cuddling, slow burn, some fluff

A/N: This is a slow burn series... so one step forward and two steps back. What else did you expect ;)

_____

You shifted on the couch when your legs started to fall asleep. Dean's arms rested around your waist with your back against his chest as you watched some soap opera you'd never heard of. It was the only channel you were able to get in focus after playing with the bunny ears for close to an hour, but you didn't mind the background noise. Dean got really into it though and gasped when the main character got shot and collapsed. You thought it was kind of funny, maybe a little cute even and you turned your head to grin back at him.

"Shut up," he smirked back at you. "You know what? Maybe it was a twin, these things always have twins."

How often did he watch these types of shows, you wondered.

You laughed and felt Dean's hand shift on your lower stomach, holding the heating pad in place as he pulled you into a more comfortable position. He kicked his feet up on the coffee table and you popped a fistful of chocolate chips into your mouth from the bag next to you.

"Could be plastic surgery too, but my money's on a doppelgänger," you bet, chuckling at the irony.

You scooped another handful of chocolate chips and Dean playfully tried to steal them away by grabbing your wrist. But you winced and cried out at the contact, causing him to release you in a breath. He took your hand and gently tugged up the cuff of your sweater to examine your raw skin, doing the same with the opposite wrist and letting out a concerned sigh. You had taken off the gauze after your shower, thinking it was best to let the wounds from the zip ties dry out, but now the skin just cracked and bled at the touch.

"Ouch, that looks sore," Dean said, brushing the skin under your sores with his thumb.

"No shit, Sherlock." You quipped, pulling your sweater sleeves back down and hiding the red skin from view.

Dean pushed you forward and climbed off the couch. He disappeared into the bathroom and returned a minute later with a tube of antibiotic cream and some new gauze. He sat back down next to you and began tending to your wrists. You struggled a little, until he applied the cream and you sighed at the relief, easily feeling ten times less irritated despite the lawn mower in your uterus.

"Why didn't you say something?" Dean asked when he finished wrapping your wrists.

"I dunno. I don't usually use stuff like this so I didn't think to check the bathroom." You admitted, examining the tube of antibiotic cream. "Does it really help it heal faster?"

"Typically shaves a couple of days off, for me at least." He nodded, leaving the first aid supplies on the table and resuming his relaxed position beside you. Pulling you back into him and tossing the fleece blanket from the back of the couch over the both of you. "You never told me what happened. Kinda looks like they used zip ties."

"There's not much to tell, Dean. I just pulled too hard-"

"Pulling won't work, you have to force them apart by using your knee or back." You hated the way Dean mansplained as if he'd ever been zip tied before, which you doubted, and you rolled your eyes.

"I know that, genius. But once my wrists were cut, it hurt too much to break them that way." You argued, shifting away from him and the blanket on the couch, suddenly needing your own space.

You felt awkward now. You wished you'd never cuddled up to Dean Winchester, Executive Protection Agent, in the first place. You couldn't take it back and now he'd seen the softer side of you, while he got to come off as confident and all-knowing.

It pissed you off. You were self-sufficient, you didn't need him to tell you how to escape when you'd figured it out for yourself in the moment. And where was he the whole time, with his little tracking device, hiding out in the woods waiting for you to do the hard work.

Screw him.

The unphasable, stone-faced bodyguard that never needed anyone, never felt fear or pain or love. Because, let's face it, someone who can't let anyone in doesn't ever feel love in return. You can't love someone you don't know anything about. No wonder he never had a serious girlfriend, if he made them feel this way. It was a wonder he got anyone to sleep with him for more than one night. That is if anyone ever did come back for seconds, and you weren't totally convinced anyone had.

"I'm just trying to explain an easier way if you were to get tied up again." He continued in a gentle tone, but you still ground your teeth together at the sound of his voice. "So much for the truce, huh?... Y/N. What just happened? Why are you so pissed at me all of a sudden?"

"Because."

"Mind adding a few more words to your explanation? I'm not a mind reader, Y/N." He clenched his jaw, staring at you with those judgmental green eyes again.

"I'm just sick and tired of you patronizing me, and the manhandling, and- And this," you gestured at the cabin around you. "I want to go home, Dean."

"I know," he nodded, "and before you blame me for all of this again. I am not the bad guy here, princess."

"Stop calling me that," you whined, hitting him with a dusty throw pillow. He grabbed it away from you and tossed it to the ground.

"Hey, if the glass slipper fits." He quipped, raising his brow.

"That's Cinderella, dumbass."

"Still a princess in the end, sweetheart." He said, stoning his face.

"Now you're purposefully trying to get on my nerves." You huffed, shoving the heating pad away when your skin felt hot enough.

"Like you aren't doing the exact same thing to me." He argued, palming the scruff on his jaw and standing up. "I'm going to bed. Try to be in a better mood when I wake up."

"Fuck you, Winchester."

He just winked at you with a smug grin and plopped down on the bottom bunk, your bed. He really knew how to get your blood boiling. You bit your lip and turned your attention back to the TV. The main character was alive again, but you'd missed the explanation of how they'd brought him back. Great.

_________________________

A/N: Read part 9 here

_________________________ 
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[renlyslittlerose]

Time to get a little bit personal on my blog because I haven’t any other place to talk about my recent health issues~ Putting it under a cut because there are discussions of reproductive issues, surgery, and periods which I know can be triggering for some!

 Went in for some exploratory surgery at the start of October to positively diagnose endometriosis that I knew I had and was being treated for the past seven years. When I first went to my gyno back in 2016 about the pain and issues I was experiencing she diagnosed me with endometriosis right off the bat - she didn’t even feel a need to do a diagnostic laparoscopy because my symptoms matched almost perfectly. She put me on hormonal medication (not birth control) and I actually saw a major reduction in symptoms. Not everything was gone, but the worst of it was so I was content.

Flashforward to early 2022 and I went to visit my family doctor to discuss some health issues I was having - some of which were tied up with my ovaries and uterus. I was telling him that I was still experiencing some issues, that my medication sometimes feels like I’m damaging my body further (bone density being the biggest), and that I didn’t know what to do next. He suggested a hysterectomy. 

 So I went to my gyno who, while supportive, wanted me to be armed with as much knowledge as possible and suggested a diagnostic lap for the first time - just to see what was actually going on. So I went in for surgery (with lots of fun things happening along the way - like discovering that when I faint from seeing blood I actually have a minor fit that looks like a seizure l o l), got pictures of my insides, and was told to come back to my gyno in 6 weeks to discuss ‘my future’.

Six weeks later and: I’ve been officially diagnosed with endo and I’ve been given all manner of options. Remove my ovaries and tubes but keep my uterus, remove everything and enter early menopause, continue with what I’m doing until I enter natural menopause, continue what I’m going until I’m 40 and then have a complete hysterectomy and enter early menopause, go to see an endo specialist and have them remove what endo tissue they can. 

 And of course, all of these options carry huge amounts of risk. Entering early menopause, even with hormonal therapy, greatly increased a person’s risk of dementia, heart disease, and bone density issues (the latter which I already struggle with). As well, scar tissue has fused my uterus to my bowels, making the risk of surgery high due - if they puncture the bowel I could be on an ostomy bag. But if I do nothing I’m still abusing my body with another type of hormonal medication that’s got its own negative feedback loop. Not to mention the medication doesn’t work forever. It’s supposed to, but it doesn’t. And I cannot and will not have my periods again. It’s just not possible.

 So I decided to be put on the long waitlist to see the specialist, and hear what he suggests. In the meantime I’m going to spend the next year researching and running my brain in circles trying to decide my future, which is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I thought I’d go in, choose the complete hysterectomy and it’d be an easy one and done type thing. But it isn’t and I hate that it isn’t. I don’t want kids, I’m ace as fuck so I’ve never wanted sex so those aren’t issues for me. But it’s the potential to screw my body up even more that scares me. Like if I make the wrong call I’ll fuck myself over for the rest of my life.

 God I hate this disease. I hate that I have to have it. I hate that it’s cost me so much of my life, and that there is no quick, easy, painless fix. I hate that I had to even undergo invasive surgery to know what was really going on. It’s so stupid and useless and frustrating and I fucking hate it. 

 Anyways. I just needed to talk about it in detail. If you read this and identify with it, I’m sorry you’re going through pain as well. And a reminder: painful periods are not normal. Periods where you can’t leave your bed and you’re vomiting and shitting your guts out aren’t normal. Periods where you’re so bloated you think you’re going to break through the walls of your stomach is not normal. If you can, seek help. Demand answers. Advocate for yourself. 

💖

[kiame-sama]

28 Years (5th Pregnancy)- Yandere!Silva x Reader

Warnings; yandere relationship, yandere tendencies, yandere behavior, yandere, mention of past trauma, pregnancy, c-section, more arguing, vasectomy, Zeno is so done with his son's bullshit

"No. We are not doing this again. I won't allow it!" "Hey, I told you how to fix this from ever happening again." "I did use protection. It clearly didn't work." "I didn't say 'use protection' did I? I said you should get a vasectomy since it's clear that regular protection and emergency medication doesn't work!" "I shouldn't have to-"

"ENOUGH!"

You and Silva fell silent at the firm and loud command from Zeno, looking over at the frustrated elder assassin. He happened to be holding young Alluka in his arms while the infant whined and cried from all the noise, compelling you to take the young child and set to comforting the infant. Alluka quickly quieted once in your grasp and allowed you to return your attention to the matter at hand, the new heartbeat that originated from within you.

You had been trying to avoid a third pregnancy given your prior back-to-back pregnancies and your already fragile health, yet here you were with another infant growing within you. You assumed something like this would happen, given your past attempts with contraceptives and how little they actually worked. Naturally, you suggested Silva have a vasectomy as it was not only a surefire way, but also a reversible surgery.

Originally, you suggested getting your tubes tied despite the danger that came with it but Silva quickly shot down the idea with his usual explanation of not wanting to lose you. Silva knew somewhere in him that the typical contraceptives wouldn't work, given the fact that he had used several similar methods to trigger a termination of prior pregnancies you were unaware of. He had hoped in some way that your body hadn't built up a resistance to them, but he also knew it was going to happen eventually.

He did plan on undergoing a vasectomy when you had first suggested it, but he quickly forgot about it in favor of getting to finally fuck you senseless now that your body had somewhat recovered after your most recent pregnancy. He had just been so relieved you were able to be brought back from your cardiac arrest following his mistake of once again taking your child away, and couldn't help himself from indulging in his favorite pass-time; fucking you. It was clear to everyone how addicted Silva was to you, in the way he would always return to your side after a job, how he would guard you jealously from anyone other than himself.

He was so whipped for you.

But now, you had a serious choice to make for your future and the future of the life already growing within you. It wasn't hard to guess what Silva wants to have happen, and some part of you agreed after enduring all that you had. Yet... You still felt that maternal connection already forming, wanting to protect all of your children from Silva, even the new child within you that had yet to take even a first breath.

"You're not keeping it." "Yes, I am." "No. I won't tolerate this again!" "Good thing you aren't the one who has to tolerate it. Last time I checked, its my body that goes through all the strain and effort of pregnancy, not your’s." "Are you doing this just to hurt yourself? To try and exhaust your body to the point of death?" "... Again, last time I checked, I wasn't the cause of my heart stopping." "..."

Silva stood silently, passive expression on his face as he wrestled with his own mind over the matter at hand. On one side, you were right; he was the reason he almost lost you, he's been the reason every single time. Even if it was complications during birth, it was still his fault entirely for getting you pregnant in the first place. On the other, he knew the immense toll another pregnancy will have on your body and the chances of you dying during birth increased with each one. The odds were not good.

It was then Silva spoke, his voice gentle and not at all like what you were expecting him to growl out with. It was the voice you scarcely heard on those far and few between days Silva would be truly gentle in every way, usually reserved for when he decided to honestly apologize to you for something. He was proud and cold, but there were those moments when that pride was set aside, when he would actually explain how he felt instead of leaving it at short sentences that never offered answers.

"(Y/n), don't do this again. Don't stubbornly hold on to this one. I know you already love it, as you love all of our children, and you will always fight for their safety no matter what, but for once you need to let me win. Let it go." "... If I say 'no', will you take it from me anyway?" "(Y/n)..." "Are you going to take my baby away from me again, Silva?" "..."

A soft sigh left Silva's lips as he frowned, knowing you were going to win the argument regardless of what he said or did. He knew he owed you more than he could give and there was no way he would force you to give the child up. If you truly wanted to keep it, he wouldn't be able to convince you otherwise. Still didn't mean he had to like it.

"There is no sense in saying the obvious or telling you the risks you run having another baby so soon after your two prior pregnancies." "I know..."

Zeno hummed in a contemplative way, knowing Silva would refuse to go out on a job while you are pregnant and he had already refused to leave the Zoldyck estate in favor of keeping an eye on you. Given how intensely and fiercely he protected you, Zeno knew the immense toll the pregnancies have taken on Silva as well as you. But no one in the family wanted a repeat of the events that took place after Silva had taken Alluka away from you without telling you.

It was going to be a long eight months.

~~~~Four Months~~~~

"You need to sleep, (y/n)." "But what if something happens?" "Nothing is going to happen." "You don't know that..."

Silva frowned as he watched you pace in front of the couch in your shared rooms, chewing on your lip as you cradled your youngest in your arms. The child had already fallen asleep in your arms an hour ago, yet you still held on securely and refused to set your baby down for even a moment. Silva had seen the way you reacted to Illumi being taken and the subsequent over protective behavior you showed once you got him back in your arms.

Your behavior now was similar to how you behaved then, refusing to let your infant out of your sight to the point of impacting your health negatively. Silva knew you were reacting the way you were because of how he had managed to take Alluka from you in the first place. He had taken Alluka while you were sleeping even though you slept with the infant swaddled in a pile of blankets in your arms, so now you refused to sleep in fear Alluka would disappear from your arms once again.

Now he had to face the lasting consequences of his actions in the form of soothing you to the point of trusting him once more. It was going to take a while, however, as Silva had broken your already fragile trust yet again by stealing away your newborn, so it was unlikely he would be able to get you to trust him completely any time soon. Instead of the trust he once had, he had to watch you slip away into anxiety driven behavior due to his careless and selfish behavior.

It was driving him mad to watch you slip into such frenzied behavior, especially given the fact that you were enduring your third pregnancy in a row. Not only did you need sleep now more than ever, but you also had been refusing food in favor of feeding Alluka instead. It infuriated Silva to no end, as he had no choice but to let your anxious behavior play out until you calmed down once more. He wasn't going to chance doing anything that may be upsetting to you, but that also meant he wasn't going to force you to rest no matter how much he wanted to.

"At least sit down, (y/n)." "With you? No. No, not again." "I swear to you, I won't take-" "You've said that before, and it didn't stop you from taking Alluka away from me." "I'm aware I made a mistake, but I assure you-" "No."

It was going to be a long four months until you gave birth again and potentially trusted him once more.

~~~~Six Months~~~~

You hummed as you looked down at where your darling Alluka slept, curled up and held securely in the arms of Illumi. Silva had reached a breaking point when it came to your anxious and stressed behavior, deciding to allow Illumi to be by your side consistently so you would finally relax and get some much needed sleep. The presence of your eldest nearby did wonders to soothe you, trusting in your son to take care of his little sibling and keep Silva from stealing the infant away.

Though Silva disliked the fact that he had to share your attention and affection with his eldest son, the alternative was far worse in his opinion. You had gotten to the point of rarely sleeping so you could ensure Silva could not steal your baby away, draining yourself immensely in the process to the point you were not only rapidly losing weight, but you were becoming far less coordinated by the day. When enough was enough, he consulted his father on what his next step should be and the answer was obvious; let Illumi help take care of your wellbeing.

Your eldest practically jumped at the chance to spend unlimited amounts of time with you, not even perturbed by the fact that he had to take care of his youngest sibling. An extra cot was added into the bedroom, allowing Illumi to be present for around the clock assistance in child-care and to give you the added comfort of having your most trusted son nearby. You ensured to teach him how to properly hold an infant and how to soothe Alluka's fussing relatively quickly, only strengthening your motherly bond with Illumi by allowing you to put full faith in him with Alluka's well-being.

For once, Silva's plan worked like a charm. Not only did you finally start catching up on the rest you needed, you began to eat your meals with Illumi and therefore began to eat regularly once more. Along with your physical health, your mental health began to improve as well. You started smiling and talking more, resting with surprising ease in the arms of the very man you refused to so much as blink around only weeks prior.

Thanks to your teachings, Illumi was a rather brilliant nanny in your stead. Alluka would hardly make a peep when held in the comforting arms of Illumi and similarly, Illumi would make little to no noise while caring for his sibling. Even if he had more responsibilities with taking care of Alluka, Illumi wouldn't trade that time for anything in the world. He could spend time with you, talk with you, relax in your maternal love and affection.

Truly it was a win for all three of you. Alluka was always cared for. Illumi was finally able to spend more time with you. You were able to relax for the first time in who knows how long. Even Silva had relatively few losses, given how much more affectionate you were with him now you knew your infant was safe.

~~~~Eight Months~~~~

Silva paced outside of the delivery room, looking up almost every minute to check the time before resuming his endless pacing. He was much like a caged lion or bear, pacing just to pass the time and to do something other than sit still. He certainly was far more dangerous than any of those animals combined, only serving to add a rather pointed reminder to any doctor of what their fate would be should they fail.

But that was the whole purpose of this endeavor, to ensure nothing failed. Surely nothing could have gone wrong with all the precautions that were put into place.

Surely.

Either way, the long time it was taking only served to make Silva more anxious and his presence all the more intimidating. It in truth had only been a few hours since you went under so the doctors could perform a c-section to safely deliver what would be your fifth child. After the close calls with both Killua and Alluka as well as the fact this was your third back-to-back pregnancy, Silva wanted to take no chances with your life.

A c-section was how Killua and Alluka ultimately had to be delivered despite the fact you were able to have a 'typical' birth with Illumi and Milluki, so naturally it would only make sense for your fifth child to be delivered via c-section. It didn't sit well with Silva, however. Nothing would sit well with him until you were safely out of surgery and in his arms.

But what was taking so damn long?

"For fuck's sake, Silva, sit down. Pacing doesn't make it go faster and intimidating the doctors will only make it more likely for them to mess up." "Their lives are forfeit if they so much as make a single mistake." "And they know this. They've known this. All you're doing is adding another element no one wants to deal with."

Despite his father's chiding words, Silva continued to pace and glare at nothing in particular. Where it always seemed as if the man had a scowl on his face, it seemed ten times worse given he was actually scowling. The moment the door opened, Silva was pushing past the frightened doctor and into the room where his wife lay motionless.

For a moment, Silva felt an honest pang of fear in his chest when he saw you were not awake, the ever present beep of the EKG soothed him to know you were still alive and merely unconscious. The doctors all scattered like frightened rats, scurrying away from the intimidating mountain of a man who silently pulled up a chair, sitting by your side and refusing to take his eyes off of you.

Zeno, Maha, Milluki, and Illumi entered the room in a much calmer manner as they also came to stand around you. Alluka had been moved into Zeno's care given the impending delivery of the new addition to the family, and Illumi stood ready to receive the newborn and care for it while you recovered. Everyone had been preparing for the newborn in their own way, from the butlers ensuring the utmost safety to Zeno taking over Alluka's care, it seemed everything was finally prepared for and taken into account.

Meanwhile, in the past month, Silva had finally undergone a vasectomy so there would be no further chance of yet another pregnancy threatening your future with him. It was possible that it could be reversed and so it was the only surefire way no unexpected pregnancy would happen again. Where Silva felt he would have no reason to reverse the change since he already had five children, the option was always still available should something ever come up.

Perhaps finally there could be peace in the house. At least, peaceful enough no sudden pregnancy could threaten your life. Now all that needed to happen was getting the new infant out before Silva could finally have you all to himself once again.

He could wait. He could wait as long as he needed to. Because in the end, you would always be his.

[five-rivers]

Changeling Chapter 1

A DP Fae Au fic. I've been promising you this for so long XD. I can hardly believe I'm finally delivering, even if it's only one chapter for now.

.

Chapter 1: In the Beginning, There Was an Offer

.

They studied legends. According to those legends, today, Beltane, was a time of renewal, of birth, of fertility.

It was not supposed to be… this. Their dreams weren’t supposed to be crushed today. Not under this sun, not under these blue skies and among softly blooming flowers.

This kind of news should have come with rain. It should have come with storms.

Maddie wiped tears out of her eyes and Jack patted her on the back. The air smelled sweet and dusty at the same time. The bench was uncomfortable.

“We could try adoption,” said Jack. He sounded shocked, too. Drained. His voice was pulled taught over a great hollowness. “Lots of people adopt. We can- can do some good in the world, maybe.”

Maddie sniffed and cried harder. She’d wanted her own children, and Jack knew it. Adoption was all very well and good, but at this point the suggestion felt like some consolation prize, and she felt terrible for even thinking it was, because Jack was right, it could be a good thing, and…

She wanted children. Her own children.

“Excuse me, I believe I can help.”

There was something about how he said that, about how the voice wound and slipped through her ears that had Maddie’s head snapping up. The man who stood to the side of the bench wore a long coat with a deep hood. Symbols, symbols that Maddie had spent hours, days, weeks, researching were stitched into the fabric. His eyes glittered in the shadows. The fingers of his hands, clasped in front of him, were too long, their coloring faintly lavender, as if they had been dipped in ink and retained the stain even after they’d been washed clean.

This was not a human.

“How?” asked Maddie, feeling hope drip back into her limbs even as Jack tensed behind her. “How can you help?”

.

“We shouldn’t have done that,” said Jack as they drove home. “We really shouldn’t have done that. Maddie, they’re evil, there’s always a catch and it’ll always be looking for a way to push us into it.”

“The catch is in the open,” said Maddie, leaning back against the seat of the car and closing her eyes. “It isn’t as if it’s in the fine print and we’re going to stumble into it. We have one, and then I get my tubes tied, or you get snipped, and we go on with our lives.”

“What if we have twins? Triplets? Maddie, we should have talked about this.”

“There wasn’t any time,” Maddie said defensively. “I had to decide right away.”

“What are we going to do if we have twins, Maddie?”

Maddie bit her lip, her eyes opening without her full permission as she thought. “We know how to deal with things like him.”

The car jerked just a little to the right as Jack failed to suppress his flinch. “Do you remember our work on motivations? On why they take artists, musicians, children?” he asked. He forged on without waiting for an answer. “Creative sterility, we called it. For this one to be able to cure sterility, he has to be powerful. I don’t think nails in pockets and inside-out clothing is going to stop him.”

Such protections were hit and miss to begin with. One faerie might hate bread, another might love it. The sound of bells would drive off one, and another would wear them in their hair. Even cold iron was no guarantee against them.

“We’ll have to find something better, then,” she said, firmly.

.

Maddie laughed. Not a twin. A single child showed on the ultrasound monitor. A girl. A beautiful baby girl. Perfect.

On the other side of the bed, Jack sunk into a chair, obviously relieved. “She’s healthy?” he asked the OB/GYN.

“Completely,” she said. “This is quite the miracle the two of you put together here.” She shook her head. “We must have gotten something wrong during our examination. I can’t even begin to tell you how sorry I am to have put you through all that, and I won’t blame you if you wanted to find a new doctor.”

“It’s fine,” said Maddie, patting the woman’s arm. “It happens.” Yes, being approached by a powerful fae just ‘happened.’ “The important thing now is to make sure there aren’t any complications.”

.

They made sure Jazz was born on a Sunday, with two middle names, one of which Maddie made sure to forget. They scheduled her baptism for as early a date as possible, even though both Jack and Maddie were as lapsed as it was possible to be.

Precautions.

Jack had his surgery only a month later.

They were safe. They had won.

The family of three snuggled together on the couch. Well, Jazz snuggled inasmuch as a newborn was able. They watched TV.

“Jack, dear,” said Maddie, roused to awareness by a news story about a rising young businessman. “Is that our Vlad?”

Jack blinked at the screen. “I think you’re right,” said Jack. “I haven’t seen him since college. I don’t think we’ve talked to him since college.” He frowned. “Did something happen? The three of us used to be so close… He was the only one in the whole folklore department that would put up with our theories, do you remember?”

“I don’t know,” said Maddie, trying to remember. “It was like he was there one day, gone the next.”

“Do you think he’ll mind us getting back in touch?”

“Only one way to find out.”

.

(As it turned out, Vlad did not particularly care to get back in touch.)

.

Jazz was not a normal child.

She saw too much. She understood too much. Her teeth grew in early. She learned how to get the milk out of the fridge at about the same time she learned how to walk. Her eyes were too large, even for her age. She didn’t start talking until she was almost two, and when she did, it was in complete sentences. She took to responsibility like a duck to water. No, she demanded responsibility, from waking up the family in the morning to answering the door. She loved rules and games, and the rules of games.

But they had never raised a child before. Perhaps this was simply how they were. Perhaps this was within the expected variety of humanity.

Most importantly, Jazz was theirs. Completely.

.

Maddie was not terribly concerned when her period missed a few days, or even when it was late by a week. But when it started pushing two…

She bought a test.

It came back positive.

.

Danny’s birth was different from Jazz’s in almost every particular. Instead of being infused with a sense of joy, proceedings were overshadowed by dread. Jazz had been born in a hospital. Danny would be born at home, behind every ward and protection Jack and Maddie could conceive of. The midwife they hired was more than used to odd belief systems and threw a few of her own traditions in as well.

It couldn’t hurt.

.

It didn’t help.

After the birth, Maddie held Danny in her arms. He’d been born in a caul, which had been slightly alarming, even though Maddie had known that it was a thing that happened regularly, and that, by most accounts, it was lucky.

He was such a tiny little thing. Smaller than Jazz. Which made sense, he was a little premature.

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” she promised him, whispering into the silky, wispy curls on top of his head.

Someone knocked on the door. Maddie jerked her head up, even though the front door wasn’t at all visible from the basement. Jack flinched hard enough to drop the towels he was holding. The midwife froze.

“Hospitality,” croaked Maddie. Those rules were always humanity’s first defense against the uncanny. Don’t want something in your house? In your life? Don’t invite it in.

Although, she had arguably already invited in the fae they were worried about. Hence all the other contingencies.

The knock came again. And again, louder.

Jack let out a sigh of relief. “It can’t get in,” he murmured. Then he smiled, broad and bright. “We just have to wait it out.”

Maddie nodded, tears in her eyes. The knocking continued. This was far from ideal, obviously, but she’d been half expecting the fae to simply rip through the wards like tissue paper.

Perhaps the theory that more powerful fae were more bound by custom, more vulnerable to their weaknesses, held water? She and Jack had always dismissed it as fanciful, but they’d never been able to gather evidence before.

Then, a sound that made her heart stop.

“I’ll get it!” called Jazz, childish voice muffled by distance and the obstacle of the floors above. She’d been told not to answer the door when Danny was being born, to wait patiently in her room, but for all her unusual maturity, she was only three.

Faster than she’d ever seen him move, Jack bolted for the stairs, pushing aside several pieces of furniture and medical equipment in his haste. He took the stairs four at a time and nearly taking the door off the hinges.

He wasn’t fast enough.

“Who are you, mister?”

“Me?” said a voice Maddie had prayed against ever hearing again. “I am your uncle, my dear. Did your parents not tell you about me?”

.

Jazz tipped her head to one side and stared up at the man, making her eyes extra big. She knew it made a lot of people uncomfortable when she looked at them like that, so she treated it as a kind of test.

The man smiled, kind and patient. He was kind of funny looking, but in a good way.

“No,” she said finally. “Are you Mommy’s brother or Daddy’s brother?”

“Ah, you already know about uncles, then. I was worried I’d have to explain. May I come in? I would like to greet your little brother, as your parents promised I could. I have gifts for both of you.”

Jazz liked gifts. “Okay,” she said. “But I dunno if Danny’s been born yet. Mommy said it can take a while. And I dunno if he can have gifts, yet. He’s gonna be really little. That’s what all my books say, and also the internet.”

“Jazz! Don’t!”

Jazz turned to see her Daddy skid around the corner, just as her uncle stepped across the threshold.

“Not quite on time, I fear,” said uncle. “Young Jazz has already let me in.” He patted Jazz on the head. She ducked away and stuck her tongue out, like she always did when Daddy did that. “Having greeted my niece, I would like to see my nephew.”

.

The fae did walk past the rest of the wards as if they weren’t even there. It didn’t even break them, just ignored them. Some of them he even commented on, as if approving.

He gazed down at Danny with his otherworldly eyes. The midwife had retreated to the corner of the room, refusing to look at what was happening. Jack had attempted to attack the fae with his bare hands, only to be pushed away with something approaching gentleness by an invisible wall. Maddie didn’t know where Jazz was. Upstairs, somewhere, hopefully.

“So beautiful,” the fae said, brushing Danny’s forehead with his off-color fingers. Faster than Maddie could react, he had a pair of scissors in his hand and was cutting off a lock of hair. “A lovely child.” The lock of Danny’s hair disappeared into the fae’s coat.

If Maddie didn’t know better, she’d call the expression on the fae’s face love. But she did know better. Love was as incomprehensible to the fae as fae laws were to humans, so she’d call it by its true name: avarice.

She tightened her grip on Danny, as if she could keep the fae from plucking him from her arms.

“Not now,” said the fae, after another moment. “Soon, I should think.” It ran a hand over Danny’s head. “Soon.” The fae looked up, meeting Maddie’s eyes. “I will return,” he said, “in one year.”

“For what?” demanded Maddie, unwilling to get her hopes up.

The fae blinked slowly. “For his birthday.” He tilted his head. “To determine whether or not he is ready. Perhaps, also, to visit my niece.”

“You stay away from Jazz!” snarled Maddie. “You have no claim on her.”

The fae merely shrugged, then smiled, slyly. “She does, however, have a claim on me. I promised her gifts, before your husband whisked her away.”

“Gifts,” repeated Maddie, hoarsely.

“For the sister of my child, yes,” said the fae, voice and face as calm and even as ever. “Would you ask me to forswear myself?”

“Then,” said Maddie, “you can leave them here, with us.”

“You will give them to her?”

“Yes,” said Maddie, through her teeth. She did not say how long she would let Jazz be in the presence of these ‘gifts.’

“Very well, then,” said the fae, pulling a number of boxes out from beneath his coat. “One year. Be prepared.”

And, with that, the fae faded from view, as if he had been an illusion all along.

Danny was still with them. Their son was still with them. Still theirs.

“One year,” she said, breathless. “Only one year.”

“One whole year,” corrected Jack, rushing to her side. “You’ll see, Maddie. Next time, that fae won’t know what hit him!”

“One whole year,” echoed Maddie, weakly.

“One year to prepare,” said Jack. “Look what we did with half that time! We’re Fentons! We can do it!”

“We can do it,” breathed Maddie. “One year. We’ll be ready.”

Jack nodded, firmly. “We’ll be ready.”