#I may or may not have a meeting with her if she has time before her train so I should probably be ready to get some answers | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ressjeon · 3 days ago

Note

I tried to make something cohesive.

Date: Yoongi

Genre: Pragma

Row: 9, Seats 2 & 8

Snack: Sour Patch Kids

pairing: prince!yoongi x witch!reader

summary: his return to the kingdom brought many surprises but nothing could've prepared Yoongi the moment he met you.

genre/au: angst, fantasy, drama, soulmate!au, romance

warnings/content: suggestive themes, implied smut, mentions of alleged witch hunts

a/n: and i appreciate you very much for doing so 😭 i badly need to turn this into a oneshot, i was battling on how to shorten this for the longest time so i apologize for it being this late. today is also the 25th birthday of my dearest @agustdakasuga, ilysm bb 🥺

☞ part of @btsgoldnetwork’s two hearts, one love valentine’s day event in 2022 🎞💓

🍿 bangtan theatre presents: impossible 🍿 purchases for movie tickets and snacks are now closed!

For the longest time, Yoongi refused to believe in soulmates. It didn't matter when the people around him seemingly found their match. His older brother, the crown prince, has wedded right away as soon as he found his soulmate. Meanwhile, Yoongi hasn't found his, leading him to believe that it must've not been real at this point.

More like he gave up on waiting for his own soulmate.

The thought of finding his perfect match used to daunt Yoongi since he was little. Even if his parents were also united through the bond, Yoongi was having a hard time believing it was through being soulmates alone. There has to be another way but at that time, he was pretty open to the idea.

His parents have talked a lot about how they met, how they felt the instant connection even before the marks appeared on their skins. It used to excite Yoongi a little because both his parents and his brother found theirs quite early on in life.

As time goes on and Yoongi still hasn't found his soulmate now that he's in his late adulthood, his hope of finding her decimates.

"son, do you have any good news now that you're back here in the kingdom?" his father queries, curious if Yoongi had found his other half while travelling across foreign lands.

"no, father" he tries to sound indifferent but his father quickly recognized the defeated look in his eyes.

"perhaps it's time to consider other options?"

The king had no ill intent but it had an effect on Yoongi, pronouncing his current predicament to the table. His mother looked at him with worry so he smiled at her curtly, hoping it's enough of a response for now.

"if you'll excuse me, i'd like to explore beyond palace grounds"

His father nodded and Yoongi immediately exited the throne room. He feels suffocated all of a sudden, wanting to be away from the palace for a breather. He hopes that exploring the rest of the kingdom will ease his mind for the time being until he figures out his answer to his father's question.

Agreeing to take over your aunt's stall for today means that you'll have the chance to see the town market once and for all. She had prohibited you to leave anywhere farther than the house for the fear of your life.

Because of what you are.

Your aunt is the same and has trained you since your gift came into fruition when you were a child. She raised you like her own when your parents passed, part of the reason why she's overprotective over you. Up to this day, you had suspicions that it may be related to your mother being a witch but your aunt has rebutted your theories each time you ask.

That was probably why she tasked you to look over her stall while she's away for an important trip to the neighbouring kingdom. She didn’t give any details but you saw the fear in her eyes and the urgency in her voice.

Everything has been great so far. You've lost count of how many people you've met since you opened the stall. Regulars of your aunts came by to visit and were pleased to finally meet you. Some customers are tourists who are looking for immediate herbal remedies to refill their supply.

However, one particular customer has caught your attention while attending a group of travellers. He's wearing a cloak but your eyes are glued to his form due to the way he's moving seamlessly through the crowd.

It's also because you felt a slight sting on your left rib as soon as your eyes spotted him. He couldn't possibly be..?

"are you alright, miss?" one of your customers asked and a feigned smile graced your lips.

You've finished up the transaction at a lighting speed, eager to talk to the hooded man from afar even though you have no idea how to approach him. You'd have to check where the pain is to make sure but by doing so, you could lose track of the man and you can't let that happen.

Yoongi sees someone approaching him and curses internally, hoping the person would not recognize him. It shouldn't be possible unless they work with his family since Yoongi does not leave the palace grounds often growing up.

"would you like to try our new herbs today? it's of no cost" the woman smiled at him and Yoongi was taken aback. You don't recognize him or maybe you do and this is just a pretence.

It’s a common tactic but there would be no harm to take one if it would get you off his back. Besides, he's here to explore his own kingdom and has never noticed the stall you’re in until now.

He didn't say a word and followed you, asking him to try other herbs on display and he nodded. He has not really looked at you again since your first encounter, noticing that he avoids eye contact even when you converse with him.

"i'll fetch something from back if you don't mind"

"not at all" he replied curtly, scouring the glass bottles on the pile.

You hurriedly look for a mirror, untying your corset to check your left rib. There you find a fresh mark on your skin, a sign that you have found your soulmate and it could be the man waiting for you outside.

Immediately rushing to go back and invite him to return went better than you expected.

"we have a new brewery every week so feel free to visit again!" you smiled enthusiastically, hoping he'll accept your invitation. This is the only way you'll get to know him without outright telling him that he's your soulmate.

You don’t want to scare him. He smiled at you for the first time and relief pours through your veins.

"i will"

Yoongi has visited the stall every week ever since. He doesn't even know why but it's a good excuse to get out of the palace whenever his parents corner him about his next plans. You don't ask why either and he feels comfortable with you, finding it fascinating how you have so much energy in everything but never seem to point it to his way.

As for you, convincing your aunt after he returned from the said trip had not been easy. There are unspoken rules you follow but you can’t be cooped in your hut any longer.

You've argued but in the end, she lets you be despite her fear.

"there must be a reason why you suddenly want to take over the market now" your aunt teases but you dismiss her. You want to keep the whereabouts of your soulmate as long as possible. The time will come when they will meet, not while you’re still testing the waters.

When he revealed his name to you, that's when you knew that it's the proper time to show him how you feel. You're hoping that you haven’t been that obvious but Yoongi's little smirk when he thinks you're not watching tells you otherwise.

"i haven't been honest with you" you start as you pour the tea on Yoongi's cup.

It's been a few weeks since you first met him and the both of you developed a routine of having tea time after he chooses the herbs for the week.

"as am i" he declares after finishing his cup. There is hesitance in his face and the waver in his voice only increases the swirling thoughts in your mind.

"what.." you reply, a bit nervous that you almost dropped the porcelain teapot that Yoongi brought as a gift.

"why don't we both say what we need to reveal at the same time?"

You nodded and took a deep breath after placing the teapot on the table. Looking straight into Yoongi's eyes, the fear of him finding out what you truly are diminishes when you see the nervousness in his gaze.

"i'm a witch"

"i'm a prince"

Silence rules after the declarations of your true identities to one another. You're just staring at each other's eyes, your gazes doing all the talking. The eyes are windows of one's soul so you hope that Yoongi can clearly see what he means to you. His eyes were unreadable at first but as the silence went on and the familiar gummy smile appeared on his handsome face, you realized that nothing will change between you.

Yoongi's dreading meeting you today. He couldn't say no when you sweetly ask him to meet somewhere to have a proper brunch other than the areas around the market. He should’ve felt the opposite of what he’s feeling but instead, his chest tightens of what he’s about to do.

"i won't be able to meet you anymore" he whispers and the smile on your face vanishes.

“is it because i am merely a witch, your highness?” your defeated voice threatens to break Yoongi's composure. He knows how his words hurt people. He never should’ve let it go this far.

He's already trying to hold himself up because of the stinging he feels on his shoulder.

“n-no. forgive me but i must go” he mutters, his face wincing and in any other circumstances, you'd notice right away but you're too broken to do so after hearing his scathing words.

He's leaving you because of what you are. Being a witch must be the only reason because you genuinely thought he felt the connection too. Granted he was distanced at first which is valid and you understood more after knowing he’s a prince.

Had you known that your soulmate would eventually break your heart with the truth, you should've held on to the truth longer.

You’ve clearly misread him, thinking he was different, that he saw things eye to eye and understood that being a witch was not something you chose to be.

“you cannot even look me in the eye?”

Yoongi can't because not only will he take back his words but his focus is on the person he recognized from the palace staring at you both. He spotted them right before telling you what he’s here for. He cannot let his parents find out that it could be you, not even this way.

This is what he feared since giving up on waiting for his soulmate.

Why he was hesitant to confirm the connection in the first place.

"i am to be wed fortnight as of today. that was the reason why i wanted to talk to you" he rushes as he stands up, clutching his upper arm and that's when you notice.

That’s also the other reason. He’ll be dragging you with him if he keeps holding on you and that will put your life in danger. He hasn’t even met your aunt yet, the one who you talk to him about often and he’s already exhibiting an unpleasant impression.

"meet me again once last time, a sennight from now before the bell rings, then i'll leave you be"

Without giving any indication if he'll show up or not, Yoongi leaves and you finally break down into tears. It crushes the prince to leave you but he knows right then and there that he has to leave you for your safety.

He hopes that you know him truly by heart, what his answer is. He had to leave that way to make sure you won't leave first. Who knows how many people from the palace are around witnessing the two of you together.

Yoongi enters his room right away as soon as he arrives, tearing his clothes off and sees the mark on his shoulder, confirming his suspicions. If that person reports to his parents what he saw then..

"your highness, his majesty, the king and the queen request your presence in the throne room" the guard outside his chambers announces and he closes his eyes.

He was too late.

Knowing his parents, there's a slight chance that they already figured out Yoongi's secret. His mother can read him like an open book and even though he’s been avoiding them, the Queen sees that as an answer to their questions.

"who is she?" his father starts and Yoongi keeps his face collected.

"someone i commissioned for a recipe, father" his voice was void of anything but that’s clearly not enough.

None of his parents obviously bought his excuse and Yoongi's running out of things to say.

"what family is she from?" his mother adds.

"i do not know, mother"

"enough of this talk. we shall have your wedding sooner to avoid any of these nonsense rumours circulating around”

The new date is more than a week from now, which means a day or two after the time you asked to see him. Yoongi knows that he'd have to marry the princess from the neighbouring kingdom but he doesn't know what to do.

All he wants right now is to see you.

"i shouldn't be here" he grunts, finding it hard to stop himself from roaming his hands around your body.

Yoongi is scared. He has been since he locked eyes with you the first time you met. Even before the mark on his shoulder emerged, he knew that the only way for him to be married with another is for his soulmate to die.

The bond had to be broken and his parents began the hunt as soon as Yoongi refused the offer. He tried his best to intercept the information being delivered to his bride to be’s family but he overheard from the servants that his father ordered to confine him in his chambers.

That’s when he knew that he had to flee to make sure you’re safe.

"hey, you're here with me alright?" you tug him to bring his attention back to you.

He’s worried no matter how much he hides it. The bond doesn’t exactly pinpoint but you feel the weight in his chest and that was enough.

"it'll be alright my prince. answer me one thing"

"anything"

"do you feel it?"

"since the day i first met you"

Your heart melts to know that he felt the same thing when you first saw him. Maybe that’s how soulmates are supposed to work, to feel that instant connection on your first meeting.

He accepts what you are. He didn't think lowly of you like you initially thought.

You’re sleeping soundly beside him and Yoongi couldn't stop staring at your face. It's a miracle that he's even here with you, he got lucky that he escaped the palace grounds tonight with the help of servants that held an affection for him.

He rakes down your bare figure, committing everything in his memory just in case he won’t be able to see you again. His eyes continue to roam until they spot the marks on your ribs. With his callous fingers, he traces it delicately, causing you to squirm a little.

He waits until he hears your breath even again, afraid that his touch woke you up.

"then be with me" you groggily call out to him, fighting your slumber. Your ears caught some rustling and woke up out of instinct, finding Yoongi preparing to leave.

Again.

"i can't"

"why? you don't know what i can truly do. i can protect us, i'm powerful enough so we can go far away from here yoongi" you try to convince him but he won't meet your eyes.

Yoongi has broken too many royal rules by meeting with you again so he's torn with your offer to elope.

But how would the two of you live then? His parents are going to retaliate by punishing you and your aunt. They won't even have to do it directly because aside from the bounty, revealing your true nature of being a witch would make townspeople do the job themselves without a cost.

And Yoongi wouldn't be able to do anything but watch.

He has to make a choice, to be selfish or to be selfless? Can your soulmate bond truly withstand all the challenges that you're both going to face together? It’s not that he undermines your abilities but you’d essentially be running for your lives, desperately yearning for that freedom to be together.

“with or without your powers, i am with you always”

He’ll always be terrified of what tomorrow may bring but none of it matters so long you’re by his side.

e/n: fr i might re-write this and expand cuz 😩 thank you regardless for reading!

84 notes · View notes

selunesdreams · 21 hours ago

Text

Eating Crow - Chapter 21: Crow Killer

He turned, his hand instinctively gravitating towards her leg. Behind his eyes, the spirit of determination’s presence hummed with impatience, desperate to touch her as his fingertips brushed her thigh. “I’ll follow you anywhere, Rook. As whatever you want me to be.” She touched her thumb to the cut on his bottom lip before letting her hand fall away. “Have you ever just done something you wanted? For your own sake?” Lucanis leaned back against the couch, toying with a loose thread on the frayed hem of her nightgown before raising his head to meet her gaze. “A couple of times,” he said with a coy smile, “In recent memory.”

Pairing: Lucanis x Fem Rook/OFC x Spite???

Summary: Lucanis plays the role of damsel in distress.

Word count: 4.7k

Things of note/warnings: 18+ fic, MDNI! warnings: sexual content, blood/gore, graphic violence, death, angst, Dellamorte Drama™ notes: if you have not read Teia/Viago's story in Tevinter nights, there may be some missing context, and I highly recommend reading it if you can! If you need a summary, its in the AO3 summary. Please read on AO3 if you need to track warnings, they will be inevitably detailed better there (or just want to be real sweet and give me hits/kudos/comments).

Read on AO3

─── ⊹⊱♤⊰⊹ ───

Citizens ambled through the busy Cantori Diamond, occasionally brushing against the shoulders of Rook’s coat as she weaved through the crowd on her way to Viago’s office. Scowls and shouting came from betting tables, while in the darker corners of the casino, men inconspicuously received handjobs or head. Behind her, a drunk was thrown out by the collar of his shirts.

What a lovely place to conduct business.

Reaching the security staff in front of the stairs, she nodded with impatient acknowledgment. With a grunt, two men stepped aside and let her pass before resuming their post.

Lucanis had disappeared after their talk in the kitchen, save for a brief interaction where Spite found her in the courtyard, feet dangling over the edge into oblivion. She hadn’t needed to recognize the familiar gait behind her.

“Hello, Spite.” “You. Have a prison. Like Lucanis.” He had said. “Shame. Loneliness. Resentment. Crows. Hurt you.” “They hurt Lucanis, too. ” Spite went silent then, eyes shifting back and forth as he stared into the nothingness below, searching for a way to articulate his thoughts. “He is afraid. Of losing. Rook.” “I belong to no one.” “Lucanis. is not. Prison!” Frustrated, the demon began to pace. It couldn’t be easy, Rook thought to herself, for a spirit to possess so much knowledge, but have such difficulty communicating through its host. Was he searching through Lucanis’ thoughts like one would a stack of files? Was every motive shared, or could there be secrets kept between the two? “Lucanis let you in. To HIS prison . Now YOU let HIM in!”

After the outburst, she quickly excused herself from the encounter and went to bed, eager to think about anything else. To her relief, Spite had not followed. Three days had since passed, and when Bellara hadn’t noticed even one stray coffee mug during that time, Rook had a sinking feeling something was terribly wrong.

“Fi!”

As Rook reached the top of the stairs, Teia jumped down from where she’d been sitting on Viago’s desk, pulling her friend into a tight embrace. Over her shoulder, Rook scanned the room, noticing to her dismay that Lucanis wasn’t present, but his cousin was. Legs crossed on a nearby couch, Illario cocked his head with interest as their eyes met.

“When are you coming home?” Teia asked, pulling back and gripping Rook by the front of her coat. “You can’t just abandon me here with these two again!”

“Eventually…” Rook glared at Illario until he shamefully redirected his attention to stare at the opposite wall. Carefully, she pried Teia off of her and glanced around the room. “Has Lucanis been by?”

“A contract came in two days ago requesting him specifically.” Viago said, flipping through a newspaper on his desk. “The money was too good to turn down, and he had the time. Apparently, you don’t keep him busy enough.”

“What kind of contract?” Rook asked warily, “Hopefully not one your new assistant is involved in?”

“You think I set him up?” Illario called from his seat, smiling and feigning disbelief as he uncrossed his legs and leaned forward.

“Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Enough.” Teia chastised, stepping between them and putting a hand on each of their shoulders. “Illario is being rehabilitated. Don’t provoke him.”

“I didn’t know you took in strays.” Rook said innocently, returning Illario’s scowl with a mocking smile. “Tell me about Lucanis’ contract.”

“I wasn’t privy to details,” Viago said irritably. “Enzo Cortez requested a meeting.”

“If it’s so easy, why hasn’t Lucanis completed it yet?”

“Vi, after what happened at the summit with Emil, you don’t think a request for an audience with the First Talon is a reason for concern?” Teia asked.

Her cousin paused, placing a finger on the news page to hold his place.

“Enzo doesn’t share his grandfather’s ambitions, and he’s half the assassin Lucanis is. Unless you think his passenger could cause issues.”

“It’s not Spite I worry about,” Rook said, glancing at Illario. “Does the Cortez family ever dabble in blood magic?”

He examined the tip of his glove disinterestedly. “They prefer being mixed up in Antaam business.”

“You failed to mention that.” Viago growled, shaking his head and taking his cloak from where it was draped over a nearby chair. “Forget professionalism. I’d like to check in on this contract .”

“Wait up.” Teia said, grabbing her knives from the desk.

“You coming?” Rook asked Illario.

“Is that an invitation?”

“It’s an order.” Viago said, thumping the back of his skull and falling in step beside Teia.

─── ⊹⊱♤⊰⊹ ───

“For someone who claims to have cut ties with the lowlives of this city, you knew exactly where to go,” Rook muttered as Illario led them through Treviso’s warehouse district.

“It’s in the contract, Fiammetta. Unless you’ve forgotten how to read. Is that why you had to change your name to Rook? Fewer letters?”

“Enough. Both of you.” Viago shoved between them and cracked open a metal door. It creaked loudly before falling off the hinges onto the stone floor, sending a resounding slam throughout the rest of the warehouse.

“Announcing your arrival? I like your style.” Teia said, stepping over the rubble and checking the perimeter of the room.

“It’s too quiet here.” The Fifth Talon unsheathed his daggers. “This was supposed to be an easy job.”

As they rounded a corner, they were greeted by several bodies. Rook nudged one with her foot, noting that despite being in full rigor, the corpse hadn’t been cold for more than a day. So, Lucanis had passed through here…but where had he gone after?

“Over here.” Illario hissed, peeking through a crack in another door. Rook joined him, stepping out onto another rooftop and watching her breath in the cold night air as she surveyed the horizon. She followed Illario’s outstretched finger to a beam connecting two unstable platforms and suppressed a groan of annoyance. Lucanis was never one to take the conventional way in. Which was what made it even more surprising he could be caught at all. Why was this the job he fell short on?

One by one, the four Crows held out their arms for balance and crossed the beam, hopping off and descending a trellis to the streets below. A large manor towered over them, illuminated from within.

“This was Emil’s former residence.” Viago noted, dragging a gloved finger over the house number. “Perhaps the warehouses were used by the Antaam.”

“Let’s not bother knocking.” Rook said, pressing her ear to the door and ensuring there was no one on the other side before picking the lock. With a soft click, the knob shifted, and she turned it and slipped inside.

The Cortez villa held the same strange eloquence that its members carried in their personalities, beneath its state of decline. Lit candles lined the halls, where hand-painted wallpaper peeled where it met the water-stained ceiling. The wooden floors were scuffed and cracked, and the house smelled as if its condition had been deteriorating for some time.

Silently, Viago motioned for them to follow down a vacant corridor to the right. Daggers drawn, he descended a set of stairs that creaked softly underfoot, no matter how expertly each of the Crows stepped. A damp, sour smell permeated the air and when Rook pulled her hand from the railing, she noticed a smudge of something green and moldy on her gloves. With a grimace, she wiped it on Illario’s jacket, earning herself a dirty look.

Water dripped from the support beams above their heads into puddles strewn across the floor, causing the foundation of the home to rot. Rainwater and canal overflow had been seeping through so long she wasn’t sure how the house was still standing at all.

Suddenly, Viago stopped in his tracks, staring at something against the wall.

A support beam on the ceiling had given way at some point, collapsing in a corner. Wrists chained to it, Lucanis’ unconscious form was prone on the floor. As Rook tried to dart forward, Viago caught her by the arm and shook his head.

“It could be a trap.”

“Then you deal with it.” Rook said, tearing herself from her cousin’s grasp and rushing to Lucanis’ side.

On her knees beside him, she pressed her ear to his chest, feeling its ragged rise and fall and the crackling sound accompanying his every breath. Rook cupped his face in her hands and examined his injuries. He had a black eye and a gash along his cheek that she reached for apprehensively. Lucanis roused at her touch, his eyelids fluttering open, widening in recognition.

“You…shouldn’t be here.” He rasped.

“I thought you were untouchable.” She said, blinking back tears as she ran a thumb over his bloodied bottom lip. Her hands moved over his torso where his shirt was splayed open, revealing a bruised and lacerated chest in the dim light.

“Got sloppy.” He said, as he winced, staring over her shoulder at the stairs to where the others stood. “Enzo Cortez’s men are upstairs. And Antaam.”

Rook looked back at Teia and Viago, who nodded and retreated to the second floor, dragging Illario along with them.

“We have to stop meeting like this,” Rook said, propping him up and fumbling with the chains binding his wrists. His chin dipped as he lost consciousness, Spite surfacing under a veil of violet. Slowly, the demon lifted his head, his presence visible in Lucanis’ irises as he assessed her impatiently.

“Body. Too weak to FIGHT .”

The demon sounded like a caged animal. It only made sense, after all. A powerful spirit was only physically as strong as its host, and Lucanis had suffered far too many blows and lost too much blood to even stand on his own.

“I don’t need him to fight.” Rook said, her voice cracking as she carefully melted a rusting link in the chain with her fingertips. “I need him to live.”

Upstairs, she heard scuffling against the floorboards and cries of surprise that turned to silence just before a fight broke out. The link finally snapped, hot metal singing her index finger before she flinched and threw the chains across the room. They scratched against the baseboards as she cursed and squeezed her fist tightly. She pulled Lucanis’ arm around her shoulders and struggled to her feet, staggering under his weight until she was able to brace him against the doorframe, smoothing his hair from his face. His skin was clammy underneath her palm.

“You’re supposed to run away from danger.” He turned to spit blood onto the floor. “Not towards it.”

“I thought you knew me better than that.”

He huffed weakly, barely mustering the energy to open his good eye to look at her. ”You’re right. You never do what you’re told.” He tried to push her away, but failed, letting out a sharp breath and clutching at his broken ribs. “Most Crows die from mistakes like this.”

“Not you. Not today.” She said, maneuvering him towards the stairs. “We still have a contract.”

“Is that…all…we have?” he asked, his words punctuated by gasps of pain.

“Lucanis…” she warned, leaning on the wall with his weight against her while she caught her breath. “Don’t do this here.”

He winced again, bracing a hand on the eroding bricks as he reached for her face with a bloodied palm.

“I’m…sorry.” He pulled back as he examined his filthy hands. “I should have told you…about Caterina…”

The sound of perfectly cobbled boots echoed down the steps and their heads snapped towards Illario, smirking down at them as he leaned against the railing.

“Cousin, you’re still making Fi do all the work? Is this how you plan to lead as First Talon?”

Lucanis groaned, his body trembling with the effort to remain upright. “What is he doing here?”

“Helping, believe it or not.” Rook murmured.

“You used to be strong, cousin. Look at you now. Relying on Fiamma to carry you out of here like a damsel in distress.” Illario crossed the room and wrapped his cousin’s arm around his shoulders. Lucanis tried to resist, but Illario delivered a sharp jab of his elbow to his ribs and he coughed, relenting.

“I’ll take him to the Villa and call for a healer.” Illario said, eyes sweeping over Rook’s body. “Meet you there.”

“You expect me to trust you? ”

“Looks like you’re lacking alternatives.” Illario’s smirk faded as Spite’s presence flickered in and out of Lucanis’ expression, displeased by his rescuer. With an irritated sigh, he waved one hand towards the chairs. “Go, I’m not stupid enough to choose the losing side twice.”

Rook clenched her jaw. “If he doesn’t survive this, I’ll ensure Caterina doesn’t have a single heir.”

Illario smirked. “Careful, Fiammetta. Don’t reveal all your cards just yet.”

Rook gave him one last stern look before tearing her gaze away and venturing deeper into the house in search of Viago and Teia. It wasn’t difficult to follow the trail of blood.

When she reached the two of them, Emil Cortez’s eldest grandson sat calmly in a chair behind his desk as Viago leaned over it with a menacing snarl.

“Your House’s reputation was already in the dirt, you just ensured it would be buried.” Viago said through gritted teeth. Teia stood behind him, arms folded as her eyes flicked towards Rook with concern when she passed through the door.

“I care neither for House nor reputation.” House Cortez’s heir countered, “Only justice.”

“This is your idea of justice? Luring, imprisoning, and torturing your First Talon?” Viago spat. “You and your grandfather were fools for even looking in the Antaam’s direction.”

“How are you enjoying your gift from the summit?” Enzo nodded towards Viago’s sleeve, where his grandfather’s Death Adder had infamously bitten him a few summers ago.

“Cousin, accompany Illario while he takes Lucanis back to the villa.” Rook said suddenly, a warning in her voice as her eyes lingered on House Cortez’s heir. “I will handle this.”

“This is Crow business.” Viago snapped, “You do not outrank me, and you’re in no position to give orders.”

“Vi. Let her.” Teia said, reaching for his bicep. “If you’re the one to end an entire House line, you’ll be accused of conspiracy by the other Talons.”

He flinched, but removed his hands from the desk, rocking back on his heels. Viago was almost as wary of politics as he was of poison.

“So I should let my kin do it instead? How would anyone even know if it was me?”

“Fi is already acting outside of Crow custom. It’s revenge, or insurance, for Lucanis, whatever way you want to see it. She gains nothing, politically. As Talons, however, you and I could be accused of setting up a coup.”

The two exchanged a long look before he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

“Formalities.” he said, glaring at Rook from the corner of his eye as he left the room, the heels of his bloodied dress shoes clicking against the hardwood. “Do what you must.”

“You made a grave error tonight, Cortez.” Rook said, pulling her sword from her belt and letting the golden hilt catch in the light. Crow Killer, perhaps that would be a fitting name for it. She’d have to write the title down before Viago used it to name one of his poisons.

“I do not fear death.” Enzo said, sitting up straighter and crossing his legs. She watched him, anticipating a sudden movement or trap, but there was an air of acceptance around him, rather than smugness.

“Will you humor me then?”

“Sure. I always liked your father, Little Flame. He knew how to work outside the constraints of politics to get things done.”

She ignored what he surely meant as a compliment and traced the blade of her sword with one finger.

“Just two questions. Why? And how?”

“To carry out my grandfather’s legacy, of course.”

“And what legacy is that?”

Cortez snorted. “Amongst the Antaam, you will find a man named the Butcher. I think he would like you. And I think you would find his love for Treviso transcends any Crows’.”

“No Antaam gets to claim love for my city.”

“A small-minded approach, but I can’t fault you for it.” Cortez replied. “Tell Lucanis I send my regards, and that this was nothing personal. My grandfather always adored Caterina. If they would have just let Illario become heir, this could have all been so much simpler.”

Rook exchanged a glance with Teia.

“As for how…” Enzo continued, “The Demon of Vyrantium is notoriously good at what he does. But now he has weaknesses.”

“Spite.” Rook said instinctively.

Enzo shook his head and grinned.

“No, no. The spirit is an asset . But you … ” his voice suddenly took on a note of saccharine sweetness. “All I had to do was mention your name . He hesitated - just for one second - and that was all I needed to incapacitate him. No blood magic, no traps. Just… you .”

Rook froze, unable to keep her expression from falling.

“Every House witnessed it at that shit show of a meeting that Illario called. Love is weakness, my dear. A man with a target on his back knows it better than anyone.”

In one swift movement, Rook slid her sword into Enzo’s throat, holding it there as he sputtered and smiled, blood staining his teeth as his face slackened and paled. She tore the blade out of his neck, half decapitating him and sending long streaks of blood in every direction. Maroon splattered against the walls and painted her face.

“A waste of such a nice jacket,” Teia lamented, rubbing her sleeve between her thumb and forefinger where blood splatter had reached it. Rook swept the back of her hand over her face, and it came back wet and dripping in what remained of the Cortez line. Her kills were always messier when she was angry.

“You get it all out of your system?” Teia asked.

“Yeah.” Rook said, wiping both sides of her blade on Enzo’s jacket and sheathing it at her waist.

“Let’s get out of here.”

─── ⊹⊱♤⊰⊹ ───

Lucanis lost consciousness somewhere around Heart and Central, and woke, to his surprise, in his room at Caterina’s villa. With a grunt, he pushed himself into a seated position, staring down at his chest. Without his shirt, he could see the faint scars left behind where someone had magically repaired a gash in his abdomen. His ribs no longer felt like shattered glass, and he suspected that if he checked his reflection, he’d find only traces of the black eye he’d sustained from where his Antaam captors had struck him in the face with the chains they used to bind him.

Torture was nothing new, but Lucanis hadn’t expected to survive his injuries. The Venatori kept him captive because he was useful to them alive. To House Cortez, his death would have been a strategic, political gold mine.

“They. Threatened. ROOK!” Spite said, referencing Enzo’s casual comment that the Antaam were looking for her. It had been enough to distract Lucanis, for his insides to clench with terror and his body to instinctively freeze. It nearly cost him his life.

Lucanis shuddered and ran a hand through his hair, trying to shake off the last remnants of his disorientation, before crawling out of bed. In the bathroom, he scrubbed a layer of dirt and blood from his skin, carefully working a brush under his fingernails as well, before he dressed in a pair of clean trousers and a button-down shirt. Shrugging on his cloak, he retrieved his weapons from the nightstand, strapped them to his belt, and ventured downstairs.

In the den, he found his cousin staring with a bored expression at the fire, one leg casually crossed over the other, left cheek resting on his fist. He didn’t acknowledge Lucanis when he entered the room, but from the way his body tensed, it was clear he’d sensed his arrival.

“Caterina’s letting you back inside her house already?”

“She couldn’t just turn me away. I had her favorite grandson in tow.”

Lucanis took a seat in the chair across from him, resting his elbows on his knees and leaning forward.

“Where is she?”

“Caterina? In the kitchen with Viago and Teia.” Illario stood up and crossed the room, clasping his hands behind his back as he stared through the window at the moonlit gardens outside. He spared a glance over his shoulder and grinned. “But you’re not asking about our grandmother, are you?”

Lucanis’s answer came in the form of a withering glare.

Illario shrugged and returned his attention to the window. “She stormed in about an hour ago announcing she’d ended the entire Cortez line with one slip of her blade and gave Caterina a look I’m surprised didn’t earn her a throat slitting on sight. After she checked your condition, she left without another word.”

Lucanis braced his hands on his chair arms, but Illario was faster, shoving him back into the cushions before he could leave. Invisible bruises on his chest ached in protest as he coughed, glaring at his cousin.

“Don’t leave just yet. We haven’t had a chance to catch up. Why don’t you tell me how I couldn’t best you, but Emil Cortez’s idiot grandson could?”

“Still plotting your revenge?”

“I’m past that.” Illario said, releasing his hold on his cousin and adjusting his sleeves. “Time away from bad influences has really made me rethink my choices.”

The sound of Caterina’s cane thumping against the floor cut their verbal jabs short, and Lucanis slumped in his chair as Illario stepped away.

“An embarrassment to our House.” Caterina pounded her cane against the floor for emphasis. “This is the reputation you want as First Talon? That you can be captured and held hostage-“

Lucanis held up a hand to cut her off.

“If I recall, someone in this room held you hostage for weeks, and none of the Crows batted an eye about your reputation.”

Caterina’s mouth fell open, and she raised her cane menacingly. “Ungrateful-”

“Don’t fall for the act, Lucanis.” Teia said, appearing in the doorway with Viago. “She was beside herself with worry before the healer got here.”

Lucanis stood and gestured down at himself.

“Well, I’m healed. So I’ll be on my way.” He said, walking towards the door.

“We are not done here!”

“I think we are.” Lucanis said, passing his grandmother without so much as a second glance.

“That demon inside of you makes you reckless! Your actions are not befitting of a First Talon!”

“Feel free to take it back,” Lucanis said casually, pulling the front door open. “But I thought you liked when they called me a demon.”

The door slammed shut behind him, and Lucanis closed his eyes as the cool night air hit his face, feeling Spite’s presence flare up in excitement at the prospect of finally being able to leave the cramped villa.

He made it about one city block before Viago’s voice carried through the open air, calling out his name. Lucanis turned into an alley and waited for his fellow Talon to catch up.

“If you give up your seat, who is going to pardon Fiammetta for killing a Talon?”

Lucanis scrubbed a hand over his face. “It was a personal matter. Caterina wouldn’t pursue it.”

Viago stepped closer, pressing a finger into the center of Lucanis’ chest.

“I’m not willing to put my cousin’s life in your grandmother’s hands. And if you… care for her, you wouldn’t be either.” He snarled. “Fiammetta can defend herself against a rogue assassin or two. But if someone pointed every Crow in her direction? You, me, Teia - we couldn’t possibly stop them all. Hold your seat. At least until we know what the future holds for the Crows.”

Lucanis narrowed his eyes, gaze dropping to Viago’s finger. When he raised his head, his voice was low and measured.

“Are you threatening me?”

“I’m giving you advice.” Viago lifted his hands in the air and took a step back before adjusting his gloves. “The second you put Fiammetta’s life in danger, I won’t waste my time with threats. I’ll take action.”

─── ⊹⊱♤⊰⊹ ───

Footsteps in the meditation room woke Rook from her sleep on the couch, and her dagger slipped from her fingertips where her hand had been hanging over the side. Disoriented, she jolted forward, leaning over and scrambling for it as it clanged against the floor.

In the darkness, Lucanis moved slowly, with his hands up in a placating manner.

“Just me.” He said, eyes drifting from her blade to her face.

Rook blinked away her disorientation and set the knife down, resting a palm on her forehead and catching her breath. For a moment, Lucanis stood above her, hesitating, before he joined her on the sofa, angling himself so he wasn’t directly facing her.

“You were drug into my mess again.”

“I sought it out this time, actually.”

A beat of silence passed between them before Lucanis spoke again.

“Rook. I owe you. For my life, my freedom. Again.”

He reached out to touch her, but redirected the movement and rested his palms on the couch cushions, staring at the floor.

“You deserved better. Still deserve better. From the Crows, from me. Things will change, or I will leave Treviso with you. I give you my word.”

Rook folded her legs underneath her and leaned forward as she blinked in disbelief, wondering if this was a dream.

“Hold on-”

“I’ll follow you anywhere, Rook. As whatever you want me to be.”

She touched her thumb to the cut on his bottom lip before letting her hand fall away.

“Have you ever just done something you wanted? For your own sake?”

Lucanis leaned back against the couch, toying with a loose thread on the frayed hem of her nightgown before raising his head to meet her gaze.

“A couple of times,” he said with a coy smile, “In recent memory.”

She watched him for a long moment before shifting her position, crawling over him and straddling his hips. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she leaned forward and rested her head in the crook of his neck. Lucanis stiffened in surprise before letting his hands drift to her waist, fingertips lightly trailing across the silk back of her nightgown and digging into the fabric as he buried his face in her hair. He let out a slow, warm stream of air through his nose and lingered there, cherishing the moment.

“I don’t want First Talon. I never have. But I want you. To be by your side. I am in your debt.”

Rook nuzzled the place between his neck and shoulder, shaking her head. “There’s no debt-“ she protested, her words muffled against his jacket.

Lucanis lifted a hand, wrapping a dark lock of her hair around his fingers and toying with it.

“You’re going to argue with me now that you got what you wanted?“ he chuckled, tilting his head to the side to give her better access. “Just give me time to figure out how to tell Caterina, mm?”

“You want to follow me all over Thedas?” She asked, nipping at him gently. The stubble on his neck was rough against her lips, his facial hair soft where it rested just above her cheek. “And here I thought we were just good friends.”

“Mmm.” Lucanis responded, his hands slipping lower to tug her forward so that her hips were pressed flush against his. “I’m not sure friends is going to cut it, mia amata. ”

Rook bent down to kiss him, feeling him suppress a flinch as her mouth grazed a cut in his lower lip. She pulled away and brushed a thumb along his cheekbone instead.

“Sleep here?”

Lucanis raised his brows, his gaze drifting down and lingering on the swell of her breasts in her nightgown. “With you? Like this?”

“Did you have something else in mind?”

His eyes followed the curves and planes of her body, the silk of her nightgown sliding softly under his touch. Hands on her thighs, he inched the fabric of her gown higher.

“A very prolonged gesture of appreciation.”

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patchouii · 1 day ago

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She looks so gorgeous, all dressed up just to marry me, Will thought. The quiet tendril of guilt that curled around to marry me was easily stifled by the scents of bunch after bunch of flowers around the wedding gazebo, the glowing expressions of Molly’s friends and family, the flash of the photographer’s camera.

Will took her hand in his. The officiant— an elderly friend of Molly’s family— polished his glasses and began his recitation, but it was background noise. Will smiled as he held her gaze, and Molly’s responding smile was wide and radiant.

He thought about how her lips tasted, how they felt. Petal-soft and sweet, currently lined with red lipstick that complimented her eyes nicely. He wondered if it would smear across her cheek if he kissed her like he truly wanted to kiss someone he loved. How it would look, a painted streak of red.

Wrong. It would look wrong, of course… another clutch for balance, Will? How drastic. Pity I couldn’t send you flowers…

He squeezed Molly’s hand tighter, and smiled wider.

“Do you, William Graham, take Molly Foster to be your lawfully wedded wife, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, to love and to cherish until death do you part?”

The feeling was reminiscent of walking blindly down a road, the path laid before you, half-caught in a dream and knowing that something was so very wrong— but knowing that it was reality. Knowing it was happening.

Will knew the feeling intimately. “I do.”

“Do you, Molly Foster, take William Graham to be your lawfully wedded husband, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, to love and to cherish until death do you part?”

“I do.” “I now pronounce you husband and wife, joined in eternal union. May joy and love fill all the days of your lives… Mr. Graham-Foster, you may kiss the bride!”

A cheer went up from the crowd. Out of the corner of his eye, Will could see Molly’s mother was crying happy tears, her friends clapping and whistling, and her son Walter already heading for the dessert table with the other children.

Molly stepped in close, smelling of warm skin, crisp lace and amber perfume, and Will looped his arm over her shoulders, fingers winding gently into her hair as their lips met.

Joined in eternal union you and I have begun to blur did you believe you could change me as I changed you I already did we’re conjoined I’m not sure if either of us could survive separation if I saw you every day forever Will I would remember this time every crime of yours feels like one of mine I wanted to run away with you I wanted you and wanted I wanted I wanted—

And for a moment— with a hand braced against a shoulder and another around his waist, fingers in someone’s dark blonde hair, dipping slightly in a warm embrace with the glint of silver between them— a darkened kitchen materialized under his eyelids. Lemon and parsley instead of heady florals, the slickness of blood coating his arms instead of a silky white dress shirt, a broader palm and heavier breath, the glint of a karambit knife.

I will use a gutting knife meant for precision in case my hands are unsteady, I wouldn’t want to cause any truly fatal damage… this is only a vengeful lesson in kind. They will be unsteady. He has always unsteadied me. I cannot bring myself to end that, despite everything. This is my design.

Will made a weak little half-gasp, and the soft, dewy retreat of Molly’s mouth and the fond laugh that filled the space made him ease his eyes open to meet hers. “That happy to be hitched at last, sweet man?” Will simply nodded and held her arm as he led her back down the aisle, flower petals tossed from either side.

This would be like a perfect dream come to life, Will thought, but I’m not the perfect man for this. And the dreams I have have never been and will never be anything like this…

The wedding cake Molly had him cut for her was beautiful, decorated in vanilla buttercream frosting with chocolate swirls and cut berries. The guests clinked champagne glasses, laughing and chatting, and took plates to grab a slice. Will sunk the knife in gingerly, and the cake inside was a red so dark it was almost black. Rivulets of sticky red ran down the blade of the knife, a droplet catching between Will’s thumb and forefinger.

Molly took his hand in hers and kissed it clean, lashes low and playful. “Raspberry’s my favorite, you know.”

Will swallowed hard.

Dawn was almost breaking by the time he drifted off that night, lying still beside his newlywed’s sleeping form in the tousled sheets. He stared at the ceiling and thought of seven doors and their keycards, guard rotations and tray meals and the sting of sodium thiopental in the veins. The recent penchant for red lipstick on another woman he’d once kissed and the clack of a cane. A lithe, loyal guardian with her hunting rifle and the princely sum that sat deposited in his bank account as something akin to a taunt.

You know that nothing matters without me. You and I bestowed the finishing touches on the landscapes of each other’s worlds…

I think you’ll be happy to hear that the voice in my head still sounds like you. It’s only fitting.

Will smiled into the darkness of the room, and let the soft clip-clop-clip of shadowy hooves on the hallway’s hardwood sing him to sleep.

Wanna bet that Will thought of Hannibal when saying his wedding vows for Molly?

#hannigram #mini fic #hannibal fic #hannibal lecter #will graham #hannibal nbc #inspired by above post #hannibal textposts #hannibal

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blu3haw4 · 22 hours ago

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Happy Clexaweek everyone! I bring to you today a new idea born from... such a random post. An anon sent me a prompt for introvert college gamer Clarke and Lexa and I couldn't resist. I build up their characters through asks and I've been having a lot of fun with it, So

Here's... (already on AO3)

The Sex Life Of Gamer Girls

Summary: Clarke and Lexa are introvert college student who unknowingly attend the same school. They both love gaming and they meet online, they love chatting with each other, and there's lots of flirting online as well. After learning they attend the same school -and a little awkward silence- they make plans to meet up.

“You’re still in your underwear!” Octavia groans, closing the bathroom door forcefully behind her.

Lexa turns to frown at her, despite knowing that attitude is more than justified. She’s changed too many times to count, and they don’t really have that much time until they must be at the theater for sound check with the rest of the orchestra.

It’s just… that she has a few options. Three pairs of pants and three blouses give her room to try them all a few times in different combinations, and that’s not even adding the jackets, which may change the outfit completely-

“Why are you so worried, I though Sky was just a friend”

“She is! And it’s Clarke-”

“Not the point” Octavia rolls her eyes; she knows Clarke and Sky are the same person.

“That she’s my friend doesn’t mean I don’t want to impress her” Lexa deadpans.

“Okay, and you don’t think the master solo you’re playing tonight will do the trick?” Lexa just huffs at her and turns to examine her clothes again.

Octavia groans again.

“Just tell me what’s up” She rolls her eyes falling into her bed. They both know what’s up, they’ve been best friends for too long and roommates for what feels like even longer to not know what is up.

Still, neither would say it.

“You’ve never cared about your looks other than the prize and brand of your clothes-“

“That’s not true”

“Yes, it is”

“No it’s not”

“And understatement then”

“Overstatement”

“Whatever!” Octavia growls and Lexa can’t help the triumphant smirk “If she’s really just a friend go black dress-pants, black shirt and the grey vest. You look cool, you dick”

Lexa’s smirk falls, she utters a response about the word sounding like dyke just to keep Octavia talking as she turns back to her clothes with a frown.

She knows she looks cool with the vest, profession even, some might say. The colors, or rather shades, are fitting for the play and she knows it’s going to be comfortable on her seat. And she knows Clarke is just her friend, her online friend that she’s going to meet in real life for the very first time. After a year of playing together and recently after an awkward couple of months since they found out they go to the same school, but ultimately, just her friend,

But she might be more, closer than expected, they flirt a lot, or at least Lexa thinks they do, sometimes, not that she has ever asked or acknowledge it with her, she doesn’t want to or would admit it -right now-…

“What if…” She sighs through her mouth, sitting down on Octavia’s bed and avoiding eye contact with her “cool… is not… what I’m going for”

A second goes by, then another. She counts to three before gazing over to Octavia. She’s narrowing her eyes and it’s clear she’s trying to tame the smirk raising, Lexa can’t help but join her.

“If… you would rather, let’s say, look… hot. Go with the leather pants and the green knitted sweater with the… big crunch turtleneck” Octavia hums “Your figure does “Woop!” She says, making an hourglass silhouette with her hands and winking at her.

“I don’t have an hourglass figure” Lexa rolls her eyes at Octavia’s defiant laugh. She stands to get the sweater regardless. It wasn’t within her first options, but it should work, she can envision the outfit in her head and… yeah, she does look hot in that.

“The tight ones?”

“No, the others. With the belt. You could also do heels.”

“I’m not doing heels” Lexa rolls her eyes, putting on an undershirt before grabbing the sweater.

“Your ass pops with heels. Sexy as fuck”

Lexa pauses, with the turtleneck half over her face, considers for a second and turns to look at Octavia. She’s already smirking, Lexa huffs as she pulls the sweater the rest of the way down revealing her own smirk.

“I’m just saying, Sky is going to love it, she would have to be blind to not want to kiss you”

“It’s Clarke” Lexa corrects as she slides the pants up and bounces to get them past her hips. She ignores most of the sentence and refuses to acknowledge the blush rising to her cheeks.

“It’s the same person! We both know who I mean”

“But I need us to get used to calling her Clarke”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve been calling her Sky since we met, and she asked me to please call her Clarke when we see each other”

“Okay… but why?”

“Because it’s her name!” Lexa rolls her eyes. And okay, that is maybe a bullshit answer, but she doesn’t have to explain everything to Octavia.

---

There’s no need to, really, when Octavia has heard it all already. From the first time Lexa realized they never addressed each other by any names, through teasing when she heard ‘princess’ coming out of Lexa’s mouth for the first time, all the way to a few days ago when Clarke asked to "please, for the love of god, don't you dare call me Sky.”

It was a funny thing, a few memories that Lexa held dearly, close to her heart.

The first time they talked they greeted each other with ‘hi there’s and ‘hello’s and continued to talk directly about the game, they told each other coordinates and gave each other directions, they were the only two playing so there wasn’t any real need to clarify who they were talking to.

It went like that the first few times they played together, just greeting each other with ‘hi’s and ‘hey there’s while Lexa started to realize there were only two ways she could think of to call her new duo and one of them was ‘Princess’.

The first time she called her Sky wasn’t even talking to her, Lexa was telling Octavia all about her new online friend and she went with it and it just kinda… stuck. She still didn’t bring it up to Clarke for another while, Clarke hadn’t brought it up either, but they’ve talked once about potentially playing in teams of four which would inevitably force them to talk about it.

“We were just talking the other day that it would be fun to play squad but” Lexa tasked, she didn’t know why she felt so nervous “I mean, I would have to ask her a name or something, right? If we’re going to be talking with more people, I mean… But her username is SkyPrincess… and I’m not about to call her Princess”

Octavia eyed her suspiciously, because of course she noticed Lexa’s nervousness, she could’ve brought it up directly to this Sky, but instead she asked her best friend for advice.

So, it was her job… to tease her.

"I mean if you wanted to” she said suggestively.

"Octavia! No" Lexa blushed, because… maybe she did. A little. Secretly.

"Okay, but keep it in mind" Octavia winked at her before tasking and turning more serious “Just ask her. I mean it’s not like GaHeda gives any indication of your name. It translates to Girl Commander”

“She could think of calling me Heda”

“Didn’t you already tell her what it means? She would be having the same argument we’re having with her friends”

Which might as well be the case, she didn’t ask, but she got a better grip on her emotions by the time the subject of playing squads was brought up again.

“Should we play with open mic?” She asked.

“I mean… sure, it would be fun. Does it matter?”

“Uhm not really I just… I would need to know... how to call you, so we can communicate better.” Lexa paused. “Cause I’m not gonna call you Princess"

“What if I am an actual princess?”

“I... you aren’t- are you?” Lexa stutters, not that she believed so, but… could it-

Clarke snorts, unable to keep up her own lie “no… but I could've been” she joked, oh so pleased with herself.

Lexa snorted and rolled her eyes “Can't imagine a princess using Fornite’s open mic”

“Are you a princess? How would you know?”

“I could be. And that's the reason I wouldn't call you a princess”

“…You just stepped on your own lies” Clarke giggled out after a second.

“Whatever!” Lexa rolled her eyes again, she was smiling though, Clarke always made her laugh whether she was trying or not “Can I call you Sky or are you going to tell me your name?” She tried, smiling through it, no longer nervous.

“Will you tell me yours? Because I don't want to call you "Heda" now that I know it means commander... even though you are bossy” Clarke started laughing,

“You are bossy!” Lexa laughed with her.

They calmed into a few giggles “Okay, okay. I must admit I do like sky…” Clarke chewed her lip and considered for a second before adding “but uhm, my name is Clarke”

“Klark” Lexa tried out, and it made her smile.

“Mmh, sure, click the K however you'd like” She couldn’t help but murmur, trying to tame her smile.

“I'll stick with Sky then” It’s the tasked respond she gets, making her laugh a full belly laugh. She could almost imagine the eyeroll that accompanied it, if only she knew how Lexa looked.

“I should make you call me Heda just for that” Lexa huffed while she was still laughing.

“I'll call you Gabe if you don't tell me your name” She shot back, still giggling when she answered, not missing a beat.

“Noo! Iugh, that's awful” Lexa sounded truly disgusted “It's G-AH not G-ei-b. You're not trying to say g-ei-m. It's like g-ah-m-ah” she clarified, it was a different language after all.

Before Clarke could come up with a joke she added “aaand! My name is Lexa”

It paused Clarke. It’s pretty, it fits her in a way that she can’t fully understand. She tested it in her head for a second, mouthing it as her eyes roamed her screen, dreaming of putting a face to the name.

“Lex-ah” She smiled, unable to be serious for too long “... not lex-ei?”

“I’m disconnecting” Lexa sighed immediately through what Clarke simply knew to be a tamed smile.

“No wait!” She called out anyways, giving the seriousness Lexa was surely looking for… only for a little bit “Lex-aH is fine, Lex-aH is perfect, beautiful even"

She said without thinking, not realizing she put no filter in her words. She didn’t take it back, not embarrassed, no regrets. She hoped Lexa liked it… or at least didn’t hate it.

“You done?” Lexa asked in a dry tone that was just so… her. So used to be serious but hiding laughter behind it.

Clarke couldn’t help but smile knowing that she had got to know Lexa enough at that point to be able to tell those little details.

“If you forgive me, yeah” She tried with her brightest smile, knowing that even if Lexa couldn’t see it, she could surely hear it.

“Let's play then Sky”

“You're really not going to say my name again?”

“Noup” and there was laughter, slipping through a single word and making Clarke smile and giggle.

Clarke didn’t argue, she did laugh the first twenty times Lexa called her Sky, not caring that their different teammates couldn’t understand what was so funny.

Lexa continued to call her Sky every time after that day, and Clarke did end up calling Lexa Heda sometimes, mostly as a way to mock her bossy-ness, laughing at her -and maybe flirting a little- after Lexa described exactly what she needed to do.

Lexa got her turn as well, when Clarke was feeling serious and she took it upon herself to boss her around about weapon load-out and heals and locations, she would just throw in a “yess, princess!” not only making her blush but immediately disarming her.

It was annoying that she liked it so much.

Annoying that she liked Sky just as much, because no one else called her that, it was their thing, Lexa’s names only for her. There was always a specific tone that came with it as well, a tone to shifted and morphed through the months, when there used to be a teasing tilt now there was a softness to it, an affectionate tilt to the word, maybe a flirtatious one as well… or maybe Clarke was projecting.

There have been other names recently, proposedly thrown in there to test the waters on what exactly their relationship was about. It was a constant state of doubt, of overthinking and questioning if what she was doing was okay, if Lexa liked it or was just been polite, of whether she was actually clueless, and Clarke wouldn’t -couldn’t- blame her, she didn’t know what exactly she was doing either.

She couldn’t say that it had started recently, but it definitely felt like there had been a pause when they found out they went to the same school, and then they were back to it even stronger after the holidays.

It was a little over a year since the first time they played together when they talked about it for real. They both knew the other was a college student, but they didn’t know much else about it. They hadn’t really talked about it in depth, just the classic ‘oh I need to study for a class’ or ‘I have this group assignment’ and then they were back to talking about the game.

The only reason Lexa started asking more questions that time was because Clarke had joined the game three hours later than they had agreed, she was three hours late because a group meeting for a class she didn’t even like had run that late because everyone was knee on arguing with each other and they couldn’t agree on anything. Clarke was so tired and so pissed, Raven was out at a party with Nyilah and Echo had a terrible headache and Clarke just needed to complain about it to someone.

That night was the first time she shared about her career choice -by complaining about the classes that didn’t fit with it anymore- how she had only truly realized what she wanted mid semester and now she was stressing with a pair of classes that she didn’t like or care for, and it felt good to share with Lexa this new part of herself one she was really and recently excited about.

In turn, Lexa shared a little about her life as well, she told Clarke about the classes she was learning were not what she wanted, those subjects she learned she only liked as extracurriculars, she told her about her extracurriculars, and that it was very likely that anytime she said she couldn’t make it after class it was probably due to them, much more probable than her needing to study.

They talked about the different courses their schools offered and were surprised to realized they offered pretty much the same ones, they got suspicious when Lexa mentioned a science fair she attended a few day prior and Clarke remembered there had been one at her school as well. Neither of them really wanted to ask because they were afraid to be right; Clarke had never pondered the idea of actually meeting Lexa in real life, but suddenly it became all too possible when Lexa cleared her throat and reluctantly asked.

“Hey uhm… Clarke?” and that was already a change, Lexa calling her by her name always meant serious, though until this point nothing had ever been truly serious “are you… attending *Polaris University*?”

“I… am. Are you as well?”

“…Yeah”

They were in the middle of a game, so it wasn’t hard to shift subject and ignore the awkwardness, one that was born from… very confusing feelings. Because they both knew that if this was anyone else, they would close the game and block the person to never have to worry about it again, instead, because they liked each other so much they were caught in this limbo of what the fuck to do.

When they ended second place in their game and the options’ screen loaded in, Lexa asked “Ready up?”

“Yep, let’s go” Clarke answered, and they played for another hour before saying goodnight like any other time, only difference been not asking when they would get on again.

It was around the end of November so it wasn’t hard to use Thanksgiving as a self-told excuse to not play much -Lexa lying more than Clarke about not having the time, she retired back to other, offline, games since she wasn’t spending it with her family, and there's only so much time you can spend talking with your best friend when only one of you has a social life and you live together-

After Thanksgiving is finals time so it’s the same thing, neither ask the other to play and they don’t really chat over discord, but it still feels like they are giving out excuses even when they’re only in their heads. It’s around this time that Clarke finally tells her roommate and college best friend, Raven, about Lexa. Over the past year Raven has heard her name a few times, she’s never bother asking more though since Clarke also played with other people including her childhood best friends.

Clarke has no filter that day, she sits on Raven’s bed and asks for her help on her dilemma, she explains how she met Lexa and how great she is and how much she likes playing with her and how good it felt to tell her about her life and feel like real friends -she didn’t mentioned the flirting- but how that had led to finding out they were in the same school which then led to the awkward thanksgiving break that made Clarke realize she didn’t want to lose her but didn’t know how to move forward. Ultimately the answer was giving it time and Raven promised not to tease her about it… in front of their roommates.

Finals roll out and then winter break and they finally calm down a bit, Lexa has been playing on her own since Clarke hasn’t even started the launcher, but then a day before Christmas she gets on.

They’re both in their hometowns, it’s late at night for both and it’s easy to send a group request and play together, blaming their quietness on tiredness and just chilling in every game. Just like that, they start playing regularly again, Lexa confesses to being practically free all break long and Clarke jokes -and means it- that she’s going to use her as an excuse to get aways from too much family time.

They go back to school, and they go a few weeks playing without mentioning it, each pondering in their heads the chances of running into each other, of whether they would recognize the other and whether they would want that to happen.

It feels like they get to the same conclusion at the same time when they start tiptoeing around the subject. The flirting turns ON for real, silly still because that's who they are but oh so clearly there. It’s fun, and it’s easy to forget they were troubled by about a month with this when now it felt so easy.

Clarke starts very consciously saying "sorry, babe" and "babe, c'mon" during fights, Lexa leans much more into calling Clarke Princess, either while watching her clutch a 1v2, or when she's found her favorite gun and she’s bringing it over to her - Clarke misses snipers this season but will settle for the hunting rifle recently added- Lexa also sneaks a little "goodnight princess" every so often, that makes it impossible for Clarke to sleep those night, blushing and smiling like a fool while trying not to imagine other scenarios where Lexa could call her that.

The nagging feeling that it can all fall apart if she pushed too far is still there, and then Lexa brings up meeting up, very casually mentioning she’s going to be playing with the orchestra -because yes, she plays the piano- and she would like if Clarke could assists “I think you could like it, it’s quiet an epic set”

---

The doubts and questioning and overthinking only increased after they had agreed to meet up. And they are right there as Clarke changes outfits so many times, not deciding on color palette or style, and what she’s supposed to do for her make up, and her hair-

She tried to do all this freaking out during the week, preparing beforehand was a smart move, even though she wasn’t supposed to be stressing; Lexa was her friend… had to be, at least until they met for real and she figured out her feelings.

Hiding away from Raven … wasn’t her smarted decision. She Is, after all the only person who knows about Lexa, or how Clarke feels about her. She already knew her so well - sharing a dorm and a room together for a year and a half does that- of course she clocks Clarke’s internal struggle the minute she walks into their room, dressed and ready to be Clarke’s plus-one, and finds her in front of the mirror with three different tops on her hands, and none of them on her.

“Girl, really?”

Clarke turns straddled, wide eyes pressing the tops close to her body and blinks.

Raven closes her eyes and sighs, if she wants to laugh, she covers it perfectly, she drops her bags and massages her forehead before getting to work.

“Did you pick the bottoms?”

“Uhm-”

“Cargos, then, you look good, you’ll feel comfortable and they’re easy to match” Raven grabs one of the tops from her hands and throws it back to her bed “That one doesn’t. Are you going light or dark?”

“I… was thinking light” she swallows, she’s not intimidated… at all, it’s just that Raven is weirdly this serious and she’s unsure how to react. That’s all.

“Light blue one, I love those. These two don’t match though” Raven says as she grabs the remaining two tops and throws them as well. She finds Clarke’s cargos and throws them at her “Put them on” She says as she starts rummaging through Clarke’s closet.

“Ohhh look at you! you’re perfect” Raven gasps after a second “Listen I know you love cleavage” she says turning to face Clarke “but you don’t own this top for no reason” she smirks showing her a knitted, sleeveless crop-top color cream.

She doesn’t wait for an answer before she’s throwing it at her, she throws herself to her bed with a satisfied sigh and lets Clarke get dressed.

“I think you know you need to go with the combat boots, and for coats, just pick any of the high-end long-ass ones, I know you own a bunch but just don’t take forever. Actually, just go with the cappuccino one”

Clarke simply nods, going over her large selection of coats in her head as she finished dressing, confirming that, yeah, the cappuccino one is perfect. She’s a bit surprised at how… honest Raven’s help seems to be, she know Raven is a good friend and cares about her, it’s just that her help is usually accompanied by-

“I don’t know why you’re so worried about this- Scratch that I know why” Raven interrupts her thoughts, turning to her with a smirk.

Oh, there it comes.

The teasing.

“Obviously you’re like in love with this girl or something-

“I’m not!”

“-but I mean come on, you already know each other, she already likes you!”

“I’m not worried”

“And I’m not a genius, Griffin don’t lie to me!” She rolls her eyes “if you weren’t worried you wouldn’t have told me about her when you found out she was studying here” she raises her eyebrows, giving her time to say something even when they both know she won’t.

“You say she’s your friend, and you think she’s inviting you to this thing as a friend… but you don’t know if you want her to be more -Your words, not mine-”

“I know! Can you just… forget it, just today. Just be there, don’t mention it” Clarke pouts and then spins in place showing off her outfit to Raven.

“Hot” Raven nods and winks, and as Clarke walks to her closet to grab her coat and boots Raven sighs, long and tired “Fiiine, but only because I love you. And only today, I want all the details tomorrow. No gatekeeping!”

“Some gatekeeping”

“Only if you get lucky. I’ll forgive you wanting to keep the details of some gross love making”

“Raven!” Clarke scowls, blushing.

“Do we have a deal?”

“Ugh!” Clarke simply groans and walks out with her purse and phone.

It’s nerve wrecking, to stand backstage knowing Sk-Clarke!- is out there and will be able to tell who Lexa is immediately. It’s a little ridiculous that she’s not nervous about playing but about Octavia getting recognized by Clarke while popping her head out of the curtain to try and see if she finds her.

“How do you not know how she looks?” Octavia huffs as she closes the curtains for a third time.

“I told you, she just said she’s blonde” Lexa shrugs, she doesn’t want to stress out -more than she already is- trying to find Clarke in the audience, the chances of recognizing her were practically zero, she had no description, no picture, nothing.

“How will you meet up then?”

“I told her I play the piano, and that we can meet after at the… one of the exits, I don’t remember now” Lexa shook her head. Octavia rolled her eyes painfully and returned to her position between the curtains trying to see if she could spot Clarke.

She gets scowled at by their maestro and sent to her seat behind her drums a minute later and Lexa follows suit sitting behind the piano. She tries to focus on the sheets of music written in front of her, but her head is already running over any possible place Clarke could be sitting and how she might look from there.

‘So much for not stressing’ She scowls at herself, but it doesn’t stop her from spotting every blonde in the audience as soon as the curtains open. She closes her eyes a minute later as the greeting applauses quiet down and she takes a deep breath, focusing, tuning everything else out.

The music’s start with the piano and Clarke can’t comprehend how incredible Lexa looks leading the group. Raven asks which one is Lexa as soon as the curtains open and Clarke has to pause for a second, realizing she’s going to need a minute -or an hour- to process seen Lexa for the first time, so she lies, she tells Raven she doesn’t know. She’s honest when she tells her that they’ve never shared any social media or pictures of each other, but the reality is that there’s only one piano, and the pianist fits the description perfectly.

Lexa looks… majestic. The sweater is very feminine, the crunch turtleneck softens her broad shoulder, the light behind her accentuates her waist, as does the thick belt attached to the high wait of her pants that have no right making her legs look that good while sitting down. Clarke can’t tell from this far, but she wonders if the color of the blouse is a choice to accentuate that of her eyes. Her hair is tied back at the top by a few braids and the rest falls like a cascade over her back, her posture is pristine and relaxed, she moves with the music naturally and graciously.

Clarke can’t imagine how she’s supposed to stay friends with this girl.

The set ends with an explosive assembly, Lexa meets eyes with Octavia, both sighing heavily out before smiling brightly. As usual the standing ovation and exit of the stage is a blur, Lexa find Octavia out of the shared changing room, and they hug the rest of the adrenaline out.

And while still high on that feeling, on that excitement that is amplified by the thought of meeting Clarke, her stomach still crunches when she spots a blonde girl walking towards her with purpose at their agree exit. She’s looking at her, a smile growing bigger with each step, because of course she already knew who Lexa was, she had to have known from the moment the curtains opened and must’ve been watching her the entire set.

Lexa is breathless before Clarke can even reach her, because not even all the excitement in her body can make her heart cartwheel the way seen Clarke for the first time does.

Clarke is… gorgeous, she looks like a model striding towards her, the cappuccino coat gives her an air of confidence that matches her steps, the cargo jeans frame her hips perfectly, giving a teas of her tummy before the crop-top covers her from and reveals the slightest bit of cleavage. Her hair is loose, and her waves bounce with her steps. She’s wearing eyeliner, a simple strip of black line makes the blue of her eyes shine, or maybe that’s just the excitement.

When she’s finally withing reach, Clarke goes in for a hug; she lifts her arms before the distance is gone, shrugging a little as a warning to Lexa, barely missteps, cautions for only a fraction of a second, before she goes fully into it, deciding that it’s fine, because they’re friends, they have been for over a year now and it might be the first time they see each other in person, but this is how Clarke greets her friends, and she won’t apologize unless Lexa complains.

She doesn’t, she actually likes it, so much that it feels unreal. Lexa’s not a hugger, she only ever hugs Octavia but other than that she keeps physical contact to a minimum, and yet, she melts into the feeling of Clarke’s body fitting into hers. Clarke pulls her close and Lexa wraps her arms around her waist over the coat, she closes her eyes against Clarke’s shoulder and squeezes back when Clarke pulls her even tighter against her and sighs into her neck.

It's definitely a little too long before they pull apart and Lexa spares a thought to Octavia before she’s looking at Clarke again and all thoughts evaporate.

“Hey there!” Clarke breathes out as her eyes jump all over Lexa’s face, trying to take it all in at the same time.

They haven’t let go at all when Lexa laughs a little nervous “Hi”

---

It takes them both right back to the first few times playing together, all the excitement and nervousness to get to hang out again, the comfort of having fun with someone new, the insecurity of sounding cool that faded through time as they learned to be goofy with each other.

The very first time they played together was in the early morning of November first, Lexa had dropped Octavia off at the custom party of one of their soccer teammates before getting back home to play fornite -with her spookiest skins- She decided to play duos a few hours in and opened her microphone.

Meanwhile, Clarke came back from a frat party she went to with her friends -who all remained there or migrated to other parties- a little tipsy and knee on continuing to have fun she immediately opens the voice chat and starts playing duos.

Lexa is the first person to join the voice chat since Clarke started.

Clarke is the first match since Lexa opened her microphone.

They greet each other and Clarke is very excited to talk to someone, Lexa isn’t sure if she finds it endearing yet, but she plays along. At first all they say are technical stuff; where the other likes to land, with what strategies the other plays, which are you chosen weapons and such, better at shooting or building and such.

They communicate well during fights, and they actually win their first game. From then Lexa gets more friendly, she asks more specific questions about the game and preference whiting it, she laughs and tags along to Clarke’s idea of switching skins anytime they lose, Clarke asks her which are her favorite and they spend an entire game discussing old ones and new ones, Lexa can’t believe she agrees to put on the Christmas ones nor can she understand how Clarke convinced her to ‘go festive’ to ‘call for the Christmas spirit’

They learn through games and games what better strategies fit them better, Lexa is less coy -and maybe a little flirty, Clarke has a pretty voice- when admitting to feeling like a pro at building and editing them. In turn, Clarke’s confidence turns up as well going over the top to prove that her aim is unmatched.

They win countless games, and they go on for hours until the sun rises and they’re both shocked that they’ve been up so long. Joking and laughing they promise to get on another time and try playing ranked since “Clearly we’ve found ourselves the wining duo”. They disconnect with quiet goodbyes and go to sleep with untamed smiles.

For months to come they play together often, they get each other’s discords to be able to invite each other more often and the audio is often better as well. They keep playing for months and months, through winter, spring and summer all the way back to fall.

---

Octavia, who has known about Clarke all along, and is casually standing behind Lexa, can’t help but think “Friends’ my ass” as she tries not to react at Lexa’s very unusual response to a hug. She stands there for even longer than she expects after they part from the hug and just hold each other.

Eventually they seem to remember they’re not the only people in the world and Lexa turns to look at her, finally -and maybe reluctantly- letting go of Clarke.

“Uhm, Sk-Clarke” Lexa slips for a second and Clarke’s eyes widen even while her smile seem to grow “This is Octavia, my best friend” she finishes, turning to Octavia with a blush raising from her chest up to her cheeks.

“Hey, I’ve heard a lot about you… and heard you a lot” Octavia winks as she extends a hand.

“Sorry about that” Clarke breath a laugh while Lexa frowns at her. Before they can fall into some awkward argument or silence Clarke continues “Well, I would love to introduce you to my roommate, who so kindly joined me” she give Lexa a look, a smirk is there and Lexa’s eyes shine with hers “But she has abandoned me as soon as we stepped out”

“Oh no, were we that bad?” Lexa jokes, still smiling, unable to stop. She can’t explain it and doesn’t want to think about how Clarke’s mare presence makes her so happy.

“Oh no, god, you guys were amazing! It was honestly so enchanting, it felt magical”

“Thank you” Lexa and Octavia answered automatically, they could both hear the genuine tilt of happiness in Lexa’s voice though.

“Raven’s probably off trying to find a party” Clarke added after a beat of smiling at Lexa.

She just couldn’t help it, Lexa was… so pretty. Beautiful, and hot and just- so attractive, but specifically pretty, her gaze had a softness that complimented the sharp angles of her jaw, and her smile? The way her eyes lit up with it and her nose seemed to crunch a bit as if she was used to taming it down, she was just so pretty, and Clarke didn’t even want to pretend. She was sure that after a few more conversations she would say it to her, just like she told her she liked listening to her voice after only a few times playing together.

“I’m uhm-” Lexa turned only for a second to look at Octavia “I’m pretty sure some of the boys are from a frat house, they surely have a party or something planned”

Lexa finds herself saying, unsure why and not really bothered by the implication that she would go to something like that. She doesn’t get the chance to clarify anything or for Clarke to ask her because Raven joins them, all cheerful jumping into Clarke’s back and shouting a ‘hey-yoo’ as a greeting.

Lexa’s eyebrows raise up to her hairline, her smile is too bright to fully fall, but there’s definitely a different feeling in her gut now.

“I landed us an invite to the celebration with the musicians! I already texted the girls. Did you find your chick?”

And now she is blushing -she’s not sure which is responsible, the implication that ‘your chick’ is more, is different, not necessarily a friend or that ‘your chick’ is said with familiarity, like Clarke talks about her like she’s… hers.

“Raven!” Clarke hisses, blushing as she pushes her off her “Don’t jump on me” she says trying to cover up for the phrasing. Because she’s not ready to process any part of that sentence, even when it’s only two words “Be nice This is Lexa, and her best friend Octavia. This is my roommate Raven”

“I’ve been denigrated to ‘roommate’!? You’re repaying me with extra shots tonight. Hi! It’s nice to meet you, I’ve heard a lot about you. Great play back there, by the way, gave me chills, for real!”

Clarke sighs, she tries her best at not closing her eyes -or rolling them- at Raven’s extra extrovert greeting. Lexa remains still, smile frozen and eyebrows still raised. She looks like a deer caught in headlights.

Clarke moves to try and say something, salvage the situation, but it seems to be all Lexa needs to recover.

“Hi. All good thing I hope and… thanks, we’ve been practicing a lot, it was very exciting. The crowd’s reaction was great” she says fluidly. Strongly, confident.

Clarke swallows, she sounds different than she’s even heard her, natural but also monotone like she’s used to it, like she knows how to handle it, she sounds… very sexy. And her smile is still there, her eyes don’t shine as much until she glances at her briefly, and maybe Clarke is protecting, but she smiles again, even if Lexa isn’t looking at her anymore.

Lexa sees her smile in the corner of her eye as Octavia greets Raven and they start talking about the party, sure that she’s no longer needed in the conversation she turns back to Clarke. She’s smiling, wide like she can’t be bothered to tone it down and it makes Lexa feel validated, because she’s so happy, she’s so excited to get to be with Clarke in person and she’s still too stunned to know what to do with herself.

“Y’know…” Clake stars, needing to stop the racing thought in her head “when you told me you played the piano, I didn’t imagine you would pull a solo like that, it was truly incredible”

“Thanks…” Lexa blushes, it’s not that she doesn’t know she’s amazing in her solo, it’s just that Clarke… noticed- “I mean you’ve seen my skill building and editing…” She adds, smirking a little, leaning closer “Did you really think I don’t explode this talent”

She doesn’t mean to flirt -or so she tells herself- but the implication of how far her talent extended wasn’t lost to her once the sentence left her mouth, and she won’t bother with clarifications.

Before they can gather their thoughts, their friends tell them to start moving. There’s a slight pause after Clarke asks where they’re going, and Raven rolls her eyes “Obviously to the party I just mentioned”

Octavia looks at Lexa and she doesn’t know what to say or do so, she looks at Clarke instead, who’s already looking at her with a questioning gaze. She doesn’t look hopeful nor disappointed, a little worried maybe but Lexa doesn’t even question it when the next sentence out of her mouth is “Sure, let’s go”

Her hopes of not making it a big deal go out the window when Octavia jumps on her back, letting out a strangled “Really?” before she’s squeezing her tight and vibrating with excitement.

“Okay, people this is not a drill! Let’s get going before she changes her mind!” Octavia says as soon as she jumps off her, she grabs her hand in the process and pulls at her while Lexa blushes furiously.

Raven turns to Clarke with raised eyebrows and all Clarke can do is shake her head with a shrug. She laughs when Raven grabs her hand with a shrug of her own and pulls at her in a similar manner.

She doesn’t let her anxiety take over, it starts pushing her to wonder if Lexa doesn’t actually want to go to this party, instead, Clarke takes a deep breath and waits until she’s alone with Lexa again -it happens fairly quickly, they catch up and Raven replaces her with Octavia, before they resume their own conversation.

“I take it frat parties aren’t your usual?” She asks even while Lexa still isn’t looking at her, she does smile at the question though.

“Not really” Lexa concedes and braves a look at Clarke “Parties in general are not… my usual- but hey! Neither is making friends online and yet here we are” She smiles bright, renew excitement over the topic.

Clarke smiles with her, likes the way Lexa shrugs and lifts a conspiratory eyebrow, still she can’t help but worry “We don’t…” she swallows “We don’t have to go, if you don’t want to- we can do something else or… go somewhere else” it’s Clarke’s time to shrug.

Lexa’s smile softens, and she has to look away from Clarke because really, quit it with the blushing! “It’s fine, really” she reassures “It’s not that I’m not a fan of parties per se” she smirks just thinking about it “I just… don’t particularly like people” she grimaces but her smile is too bright for it to look genuine.

Clarke snorts, like she doesn’t mean to laugh but can’t help it “You and me both” she hushes leaning closer as they giggle “I’ve heard… that alcohol helps a lot with it though” she says after a bit and it’s Lexa’s turn to snort.

“Oh I know” she nods her head, leaning into Clarke as well, because she can, and it feels good and Clarke isn’t complaining “I do know it tends to... become a problem later on as well”

“Touché” Clarke nods “Good thing we can leave whenever we want” she winks, reassuringly, she thinks, she wants Lexa to know that she can be honest anytime she’s not comfortable. And so what if it’s also a little flirty? It’s harmless.

They make good use of that statement in the end.

When they arrive at the party, the frat house is packed, there isn’t a line yet, but a couple of boys are out talking, planning a head of that moment. One of them is the guy Raven talked to, he shamelessly flirts with her and looks shocked to realize Octavia and Lexa are coming with her, he invites them in and promises to find Raven later.

All throughout Lexa eyes Clarke with a slight frown, she just keeps shrugging and shaking her head lightly, it’s a normal thing, typical Raven behavior.

Octavia grabs Lexa’s arm inside and they make it to the bar. Her best friend is giddy she gladly takes two shots from Raven, Lexa doesn’t even look at Clarke as she dedicates the first of whatever is in the tiny plastic cup to Octavia.

Lexa turns to Clarke when Raven places a second round and Clarke smiles, she leans in to be heard over the music and tells Lexa that she’ll take hers if she doesn’t want it. Lexa in turn raises a challenging eyebrow clinks it with Raven’s before taking it.

Octavia hugs her again once their grimaces are gone and Raven offers to pour them a mixed drink to last them a while, Clarke wants vodka and Octavia asks for rum for her and Lexa, she winks at her discreetly and then hugs her again.

“You’re not even drunk, stop being so clingy”

“I’m just excited that you’re here!”

“And I’m excited that you’re both here!” Raven cheers downing her drink quickly and pouring another “Which one of you is going to introduce me to the rest of the music bros?”

Clarke tries not to laugh as Lexa turns to her alarmed, she shrugs just for the sake of it and then Octavia is speaking, Clarke can’t hear it very well over the music, but she assumes she’s offering because a minute later they’re both gone.

The butterflies come swinging back to her stomach and a smile rises without her consent when Lexa turns to her again.

“Do you wanna go somewhere quieter?” Lexa leans in, a smile of her own adorning her face.

It takes them a minute to move around the packed house and then some to find a pocket of air with less noise. They end up sitting in the nook of a window by the corner of the huge lounge room, they’re farther from the dance floor than they were in the kitchen, and they both sigh a sigh of relief followed by giggles as they lean back.

They sip their drinks, suddenly a little awkward, not sure how to start a conversation and afraid to keep on just looking at each other. Clarke is the brave one at first, asking about Lexa’s drink choice and how Octavia answered for her.

“I’m don’t usually drink so… I tend to not care what I am drinking” Lexa shrugs, she takes another sip and braves a look at Clarke “Is Vodka your usual?”

“Yeah” Clarke smiles “It’s… tasteless enough, I think it makes it easier to mix. I’ve learned to drink tequila in mixed drinks with Raven, though, and there’s just… nothing like it”

“In a good way?”

“Yeah, it’s so much better. Specially with sweet drinks… but it’s more expensive and it’s quick to give a hangover”

Lexa laughs “Oh yeah, I’ve had my fair share of tequila hung overs”

It’s easy to move the conversation around, it feels nice to ask the questions they avoided before, those that felt too person for two friends that only talked about the game they were playing. Lexa shared about her friendship with Octavia going all the way back to sophomore year of high school, Clarke tells her how Raven quickly scaled from roommate to best friend and how her childhood friend met her the summer before, and they were so jealous.

They talk about all their classes and possible majors, Clarke just about figured out before break that she’s really interested in biochemistry, and she’s excited to see where it might lead her, Lexa joins in excitedly to talk about science since one of her many extracurricular is focused on chemical experimentation, she explains to Clarke that she has a lot of extracurriculars, always has had, from sports to chess, to science and music, all her passions have led her to a variety of classes, but she’s mostly find them boring or overly specific.

They talk a little bit about high school and how each of them moved around the bizarre social hierarchy of it, they maybe throw in a little hint about their dating game and maybe it’s a little flirty, maybe it’s a bit of a joke but so easily not.

Throughout their conversation Raven comes over a few times to check in on them and Octavia comes over to hug Lexa anytime she sees her, Lexa accidentally calls Clarke Sky a couple of times and it may become a little less intentional once she realizes Clarke blushes every time.

They’re constantly leaning on each other and talking closely, and giggling all the time.

They refill their drinks and ‘babe’ enters Clarke’s vocabulary full force, she ignores Raven’s looks from across the room and can’t help but blush any time she catches Octavia winking at Lexa, for her part Lexa downs her drinking faster than Clarke, too happy and too comfortable to care about any of it.

Their friends drag them into a game of beer-pong with shots -warm beer is gross and it’s not like most people here aren’t rich- appealing to their competitiveness to lure them. Octavia and Raven team up against them, swearing that they’re the sober ones and thus will win. Clarke and Lexa are content to stay glued to each other, leaning into the other as they wait for their friends to shoot, holding the other as they drink their shots and calling out sweet encouragements before every shot.

They end up winning against their friends, barely, and as celebration the crowd makes them down the remaining of their shots. They chose to grab some water next and return to their little nook. With liquid courage they get even more comfortable in each other’s personal space, they flirt a lot, smirking every other sentence and talking about anything that comes to mind.

Clarke calls Lexa Heda jokingly making her drop a few Princess’ in between, they’re not blushing as much anymore, just enjoying it and leaning into it, so much that they don’t mind Octavia’s side eyes and Raven’s raised eyebrows, they just keep trying to find ways to make the other call them pretty names.

They start talking about fornite at some point, they recall Winterfest and how they sped through levels to get every reward possible, they agreed, now that it was over, that it was kinda… ‘meh’, the year before had been better and it mostly had to do with the addition of the OG maps and all the hype about that taking away the attention of the holidays.

“The collaborations were insane though!” Lexa rolled her head back and the sideways to rest on Clarke’s shoulder.

“Right?!” Clarke turns to her even when she knows she won’t be able to see her, it’s nice to have their faces so close together “Like what do you mean Snoop Dog, The Shack and Marya fucking Carey all have matching Santa skins?”

They both break into laughs and Lexa leans heavily into her. They sigh in unison with smiles on their faces, content to watch the party for a minute- that is until a group of frat boys not too far from them start… barking?

Lexa quickly lifts her head off Clarke’s shoulder and turns to frown at her, Clarke shrugs with a shake of her head and it’s not long until they start laughing again. They giggle the remnants of their cringe out while looking at each other and then Clarke smirks a mischievous little smirk.

Lexa tilts her head, and Clarke does the same in the direction of the exit, she doesn’t take her eyes off Lexa and her smirk grows when Lexa imitates her, they continued tilting their heads and nodding them until they can’t keep from laughing anymore.

The frat boys are still barking when they stand up and start looking for their friends, they tell them they’re heading out and make a quick job of leaving, they both take deep breaths a block down the house and sigh out giggles.

“Where should we go?” Lexa asks, and she doesn’t care that she still hasn’t let go of Clarke’s hand.

“Don’t call me crazy-” Clarke uses their joined hands to pull Lexa closer and whisper conspiratorially “but… we could… go… play”

“Oh, this is why we get along!” Lexa throws her head back and Clarke reigns her back in when she loses her balance for a second.

“Let’s go then Heda”

“Lead the way Princess”

They agree to go to Clarke’s place first, Octavia will be staying with a friend so they can have the room to themselves, thus they’re going to pick up Clarke’s laptop and go. The walk is full of talking and laughing and flirting, it’s silly, so unserious but so… them.

“This’ me” Clarke nods to their right as they approach the dorms wing of campus.

“Really?” Lexa huffs “I’m right over there!” she points to their left, two buildings down from Clarke’s.

“For real? That is so crazy!” they laugh and decide to ignore that before today -okay maybe form a month ago- that information would’ve been scary as fuck.

They enter Clarke’s dorm quietly, not remembering that her roommates were all at the party they just left, Clarke hesitates before letting Lexa into her room, but it’s hard to think when she turns her head and Lexa is right there, practically glued to her and so giddy.

They’re a little drunk, so Clarke is stumbling a little, throwing her coat over her bed and trying to get her laptop, she’s also trying to make sure her -half- of the room is presentable or close enough to Raven's to pretend. And Lexa is all excited for apparently no reason other than being in Clarke's room, and the flirting hasn’t stopped and it’s making them both a little dizzier.

So when Clarke stands up and Lexa is standing too close, neither of them move.

They're breathing unevenly and they stare at each other for a long moment, trying to decipher what's going on, looking for the answer in each other’s eyes.

Lexa is all too happy to stay right where she is, she knows in a few minutes or less she’s going to want to touch Clarke in some way, grab her hand or her wait, kiss her or worse, lean her forehead to hers, but she can’t be bothered right now, because Clarke is really pretty and she’s really happy that she was brave enough to invite Clarke to her orchestra, because she’s really happy to be there with her.

Clarke is a bit more antsy; she’s looking up because Lexa us wearing a bit of heel, and she was already a bit taller than her and her lips are right. There. So Clarke has enough. She leans up and touches her lips to Lexa’s softly. She doesn’t mean to capture her lower lip in hers, she’s just a little clumsy, at the moment, and Lexa-

Lexa is kissing her back.

Lexa’s hands move quickly to hold her -uncovered- waist, and sighs into Clarke’s mouth at the contact, she doesn’t question anything, doesn’t even think about it when she stars leaning into her, chasing her lips and that tongue that ever so softly teases her bottom lip.

Clarke sneaks a hand up to Lexa’s jaw and holds onto her -very… vert strong- bicep with the other, she takes half a step back and her ass meets the side of her bed, she has to sort of sit on it when Lexa keeps leaning because the bed is a little lofted for storage. She doesn’t move her hands from Lexa, which makes it so she can feel her bicep flexing when Lexa takes a larger step closer and pulls at her waist lifting her so she’s sitting fully on the bed.

The kiss is teasing and tight, but the moment Lexa wiggles her way between Clarke’s legs, parting them just enough to fit and pull her close, the kiss turns deep, Clarke doesn’t think twice when the new angle and closeness allows her to comfortably slide her arm around Lexa’s neck and swipe her tongue confidently into Lexa’s mouth.

Lexa moans in turn, chases her tongue and sucks on her bottom lip, she’s still leaning on Clarke, pushing her onto the bed. She extends a hand for leverage and snakes the other one around Clarke’s waits, leaning more fully into her. Clarke’s hand on her bicep flies back to hold herself as well when Lexa keeps on leaning until she’s practically on top of Clarke even with her feet still on the ground.

It’s outrageously long before they break for air, and when they do, they don’t part if anything they hold each other closer as if to make sure the other won’t leave. They press their foreheads together, but neither is brave enough to open their eyes, they breath heavily, drunkenly.

Lexa moves slightly, bumping her nose with Clarke and huffing a giggle at Clarke’s answering bump, she opens her eyes just in time to see Clarke open hers and the smirk adorning her lips reaches up to her eyes.

Over all the noise in Clarke’s head, questions and desires and also just mush, she can’t help but high-five herself in her head, she was right Lexa’s sweater do compliment her eyes, it’s a deeper shade of green than her grey-ish green eyes, but green all-the-same.

“Hi” Clarke’s giggle drunkenly.

Lexa smiles dopily “Hey there”

“You didn’t tell me you were such good kisser”

“I’m good at a lot of things” Lexa giggles, and she really doesn’t mean it flirty this time, but then Clarke’s pupils dilate and she’s thankful to her subconscious.

“Yeah?” Clarke bites her lip “Will you show me?”

Oh hell! She’s got game!

Lexa kisses her, she kisses her deeply and dirty because that was really hot, and oh so smooth and she doesn’t know what to say, she’s always been better with actions anyways-

She can’t help the smirk that gets kissed off by Clarke at her next idea; Lexa sneaks a hand under Clarke’s top and feels around the clap of her bra, she pulls away from the kiss with a wet sound and smirks at Clarke’s frown before she’s snapping the claps open with a simple twist of her wrist.

“Example number one” She giggles again and Clarke gasps at her with a smile.

“You should get my top off next” Clarke winks, recovering quickly.

It takes Lexa a second to swallow down before nodding her head “yep, great idea”

They make quick work with the crop top, and Clarke throws her bra to the side enjoying the way Lexa completely stops at the sight of her boobs.

“Like what you see” she bites her lips, one hand back behind Lexa’s neck and the other planted back on her bed, her back arches in such way and she knows she’s an spectacular view.

Lexa gapes, blinks once and then not for a long while which makes Clarke chuckle, she pulls slightly at Lexa’s neck, urging her to lean on her again and Lexa can only brace herself on the bed, still transfixed.

“Can I-” She clears her throat, her voice is hoarse, eyes dark with want as she looks up to her eyes. Clarke shudders a breath as Lexa swallows and tries again “Can I touch you?” she breath out.

Clarke could moan at the sound of Lexa’s desire, she bites her lip harder instead, takes a shuddering breath and nods her head.

Lexa’s eyes are back down to Clarke’s breaths, it’s not that she hadn’t realized Clarka had… such voluminous rack, she just thought she wasn’t supposed to care. And there’s a very big difference between clothed and enclosure boobs and… this.

She moves her hands to Clarke’s hips, enjoys the way her breath catches when she moves them to her waist and they make contact with her bare skin. Lexa licks her lips as her hands travel up Clarke’s ribs and move accordingly to fit the underside of Clarke’s breast in the cup of her hand.

They both sigh when Lexa presses up and squeezes the full weight of Clarke’s boobs.

“Fuck”

Clarke smirks, and Lexa can’t be bothered to recognize that she said that out loud, she plays with Clarke’s nipples for only a second before Clarke is pulling her forward into a kiss. She pauses her ministration, if only to moan into Clarke’s mouth as their tongues meet.

A hand snakes down her neck groping her tits over the sweater on its way down to her waist when Clarke pushes the sweater up to pull her closer still. She quickly pushes it higher util Lexa has to lift her arms to take it off, she does so reluctantly, not happy to let go of Clarke’s breast.

Clarke laughs at her when they kiss again, having regained her balance she kisses Lexa more comfortably, now sitting up, while making a quick job of Lexa’s belt, and consequently, her pants.

Lexa steps back to step off them and Clarke takes the chance to slide off the bed, ready to comfortably kiss all over Lexa’s body when she freezes. Lexa’s is wearing a matching set of linger. A dark shade of green, it’s not see-through but the artist in Clarke can recognize the work of the beautiful design over the lace.

She blinks when Lexa huffs a smirk at her, her gaze breaks the patter of bra-abs-panties to look at Lexa in the eye; she gives her a smirk of her own and pulls her closer by the hips, bending down to drop a kiss under Lexa’s sternum and dropping down to her abs.

While Lexa shudders at Clarke’s lips on her skin she can’t help the smile on her lips, it feel good to have this effect on Clarke, it makes her feel sexy and desired and she likes it. Clarke moves up her body grabbing a handful of Lexa’s ass to drag her closer and kisses her again, she’s still leaning on her bed and Lexa happily steps into her again, holding Clarke’s shoulder as they kiss and taking the chance to kick off her heel.

The first step down leaves her eye level with Clarke and their lips part at the change angle. Lexa moves her hands down to Clarke’s knees consciously through the holes in Clarke’s cargos, and Clarke wraps her arms around Lexa’s waist. She kicks her second heel off while they look at each other smiling.

“Come here” Clarke breaths into her leaning forward for a kiss and then back to pull Lexa on the bed.

They giggle and adjust so Lexa can climb on the bed, they kiss and tickle each other trying to get Clarke’s shoes and pants off. Clarke lays flat on her back and encourages Lexa to straddle her.

The sight of Lexa fluidly sliding down to kiss her is one Clarke’s sure she’ll never forget, she moans into the kiss and holds Lexa’s waits, she arches her back at the feeling of the linger gracing her nipples and she suddenly can’t wait to her Lexa’s bra off.

She’s a little distracted though, Lexa moves to kiss her jaw and down her neck, and Clarke’s hands travel up to Lexa’s ribs and then down to her hips and back to grab a handful of her butt.

They moan and sigh and they pull at each other for kisses while molding their bodies together. Lexa sits back to flick her hair, and Clarke follows her halfway up, chasing her lips, but stopping at the gorgeous view of Lexa straddling her. Clarke absently traces her hand up Lexa’s tight and while leaning on her elbows she sneaks her hand to cup Lexa’s cover core.

Lexa bites her lip to contain a groan as she rocks her hips into Clarke’s hand. She keeps going like that rolling her hips sensually, her hand holding her hair as she watches Clarke watch her.

“Fuck… I want to touch you”

“You are touching me, Clarke” Lexa smirks, enjoying the effect she’s having on Clarke.

Clarke pushes herself up and ghosts a kiss over Lexa’s lips “I’ll be more specific. I want to be inside you” her voice huskier than a second ago “Can I do that?”

The little whimper that crawls out of Lexa’s throat is not something she’s proud of, but she can’t ignore the glow of pure want the fill Clarke’s eyes after hearing it. She bites her lip, nodding her head and moves her hands into Clarke’s hair to draw her into a kiss that is all tongue and teeth.

Clarke wastes no time moving her underwear aside and making room for her fingers to explore. Lexa resists the urge to roll her hips into every touch while smirking at every one of Clarke’s gasps.

Clarke teases her entrance repeatedly, rubbing around her clit but never truly touching it, she bites Lexa’s bottom lip and licks into her mouth while using her free hand to encourage her rolling hips.

It’s not long before they both know Lexa is ready and Clarke enters her with a singular digit. They moan into each other’s mouths as Lexa stills and gasps, adjusting to the feeling, she moans again when she starts moving and Clarke follows suit, calmly going in and curling out. A second finger is added, and Lexa turns her head to hide in the hollow between Clarke’s neck and shoulder, she nibs and kisses the skin available as her arms go around Clarke’s shoulders, giving her more leverage to rock into her fingers.

Clarke sucks her neck and bites her earlobe as they move in sink and she gasps every so often, adjusting her hand to give Lexa a better angle to rub her clit over Clarke’s palm. It’s only the third time Lexa’s open mouth kiss turns into a shuffled moan that Clarke speaks to her.

“Lexa… you know we’re completely alone right? You don’t… need to keep quiet” she says, blushing. Because they concept of wanting to hear Lexa feels way more intimate than the position, they’re in, specifically since it’s an addition to it.

Lexa grunts lifting her head, she doesn’t stop the rolling of her hips and Clarke doesn’t stop the movement of her hand “These are paper-thin walls Clarke!” She scowls, heaving the words out, her face is flushed, and the crown of her head is damp from forming sweat -Clarke didn’t know she could get even more beautiful- “of course I have to keep quiet!” She groans.

Clarke kisses her instead of arguing, because she can, and she looks so pretty, and she can feel the moan she heaves into her mouth and it’s good enough for now. They continue kissing and huffing and moaning into each other until a particularly perfect moan from Lexa cuts off by her biting her own lip.

“Hey. Listen” Clarke huffs “quick floor plan description, behind me is the common room, currently empty. Behind you there’s a laundry room that is obviously closed right now, past my closet is the hallway, also empty, and out the window… you saw it was also quite empty”

Lexa closed her eyes hallway through the sentence, frowning and she kept moving and conflicted as to how Clarke could form such an elaborate sentence when all Lexa could think was-

“Fuck!”

She feels the smirk Clarke presses onto her neck, she bites her lip again and assumes her brain understood beyond her consciousness.

“That’s it, let me hear you, Heda”

She moans a filthy moan, Clarke smirks is wider, she bites Lexa’s neck, and she huffs in mild annoyance.

“Make me, Princess” she shoots between hoarse breaths.

She smirks when she opens her eyes to a gapping Clarke staring at her with lust, she closes her eyes quickly after when Clarke moves to lean one hand back fuck her harder with the other.

“Sky!” Lexa moans and immediately blushes.

It was loud, very loud. And the wrong name-

“Say that again” Clarke hushes, nibbing her jaw, thrusting up to meet her rocking hips.

“Sky…” Lexa… whimpers, she wishes she could call it something else, but it is what it is.

Clarke kisses her and they rock against each other in sync, Lexa moans and Clarke gasps and they’re both panting. Lexa closes her eyes, throws her head back, Clarke can’t keep staring. Their rhythm is thrown off for a second when they hear a creaking sound, they both blink and quickly realize it’s the bed protesting from the motion.

They smirk at each other.

They kiss messily while still smiling and pick up the pace, Lexa throws her head back again, moaning freely and Clarke latches her mouth to her neck. She moves her arm from behind her all the way around Lexa’s torso and pulls her close.

Lexa adjusts in Clarke lap, making her lean on her hand again and she takes the chance to push her by the shoulders back to the bed. Clarke lands with a huff and her hand flies to pull pillows behind her head when Lexa presses her hand over Clarke’s ribs, almost cupping the underside of her boob and starts rocking her hips firmly into Clarke’s hand.

Her moans grow louder, her eyes close and her breath heaves even more, her hips eventually start stuttering, moving erratically and Clarke holds her hip while thrusting up, helping her hand reach deeper.

“Fuck! Sk-mmhh, Clarke!”

They both know she’s close, she’s riding Clarke’s fingers with purpose, sighing and moaning and huffing heavily, all it takes is Clarke moving her free hand to press her thumb to Lexa’s clit and one singular undulating thrust for Lexa to frees in pleasure, strangled moan caught in her thought before she comes undone, shaking screaming out the end of her moan.

She leans heavily on her hand over Clarke’s ribs through her orgasm and eventually flops forward, laying half on top of Clarke with both pairs of hand trapped between them.

As Lexa lays there, completely spent, Clarke can't help but smile and move to kiss the side of her forehead. Her fingers are still wrapped around Lexa's warm walls and her hand is folded with her release. She leans to kiss her shoulder as well as she moves her hand out of Lexa and from between their bodies, she grabs Lexa's hand to move out from between them as well and can't resist the chance to kiss the back of it.

Lexa huffs a laugh and what feels like an audible eye roll. She lifts her head slowly and deliberately leans in to kiss Clarke. The kiss is soft and so deep, Lexa is fully leaning on her now and her weight make the kiss harder.

Lexa moves her kisses to Clarke's jaw, she bites her earlobe and sucks on her pulse point, she moves down to kiss her collarbone as Clarke huffs a shig, her breaths fastening. It is with only one slurry look, that Clarke arches her back, and Lexa starst devouring Clarke’s nipples expertly.

“Can I go down on you?”

“You, uhm- you don’t have to” Clarke breaths, heavily.

“I-" Lexa bites her lip, looks down and they slowly sensually up "I want to”

"Mh-mhh?" Clarke hums, high pitched affected not only by Lexa's work on her tits but also the look of pure desire on Lexa's face.

At Lexa's nod, Clarke nods as well and Lexa smirks as she starts making her way down to her core.

Lexa takes only a short moment to admire the glistening heat of Clarke's heat before diving in. Clarke moans loudly at the first swipe of Lexa's tongue, throwing her head back and grabbing onto her sheets. It spurs Lexa on, each new movement, new swipe or kiss to Clarke's can't grants her a series of different sounds and reaction out of Clarke that are simply too hot.

A thought of where and with how may people Lexa might've learn to be that good crosses Clarke's mind, but before she can get jealous of upset she remembers she's no one to judge. She doesn't dwell on it for too long either, Lexa is far too talented with her tongue for Clarke to be able to hold any thought for longer that two swipes of Lexa's tongue.

Eventually Lexa enters her with one finger and then quickly a second one when it goes in too easily. She looks up as she attaches her mouth to Clarke's clit a second later, smirking as Clarke whimpers a shudders below her.

"Fuck! God Lexa yes!" Clarke throws her head back, a hand jumping to Lexa's hair when she starts moving; both her fingers inside her and her tongue over her clit, circling it expertly..

It doesn't take too long before Clarke is coming apart, shaking and shouting out Lexa's name, shuddering away and up into Lexa's mouth, overwhelmed with pleasure.

She taps Lexa's head tiredly to signal her that she can't take anymore and still whispers when Lexa removes her mouth from her. Lexa smirks and moved to kissing her tight, pulling her fingers in and out slowly to draw out the last of her orgasm.

Lexa kisses her hip next, leaving a mark as her fingers continue moving and Clarke jerks and moan with the aftershoks, she moves to the other hip and pulls out slowly when Clarke taps her head again, she takes a long deliberate path up Clarke's body, kissing any skin aviable and diving right into a kiss to her lips once she reaches them.

Clarke moans at the taste of herself on Lexa's tongue and enjoys the way Lexa deepens the kiss and rolls her hips on top of her as a response. They make out for a bit, smiling and huffing at each other, bumping noses and rolling into each other as their hands roam mindlessly.

That is until Clarke slides a thigh between Lexa's and feels her wetness rub on her. She presses up, moaning as Lexa bites her lips and cants her hips mote firmly into her. Clarke leans up to kiss Lexa and in a swift and impressive move turns them around in the small bed to lay on top of Lexa.

"Fucking me turned you on, didn't it?" Clarke whispers against Lexa's ear, snaking a hand down her abdomen and bitting her earlobe.

Lexa breaths out, swallowing a whimper as Clarke grazes her fingers over her folds finding her freshly wet.

"You're very vocal" she eventually breaths out, her eyes are closed and Clarke is sucking a bruise into her neck as she toys with her can't lazily.

Clarke smiles into her neck, hums in agreement and bites her lightly. She moves her fingers as though she's going to enter her and lifts her head.

"Do you like that? That I'm vocal?"

Lexa opens her eyes while blushing, she bites her lip and nods slightly, she then throws her head back with a moan as Clarke enters her with two fingers easily.

"Good... because i want to talk you through this one okay?" She huffs a chuckle into her lips, and Lexa moans as Clarke pulls out hooking her finger on the way.

"Skyy!"

Clarke thrust into her with the help of her thigh and starts a rhythm, one that Lexa matches with her huffs and moans and curses and calls of her name, all the while Clarke prises her, and tells her how good she feels, how good she sounds, how beautiful she looks and how she can't wait to see her come undone again.

"Fu-fuck! Like that-SKY!"

"I love it when you call me that, fuck"

"Yeah...? Fuck-" Lexa bites her lip.

The bed is creaking again, knocking against the wall as Clarke pounds her fingers into her cunt.

"Yeah, but... fuck. I want you tl say my name when you come. I want to hear you clicking that K like you always do-

"Fuck- ah! you" Lexa huffs a laughs and Clarke laughs with her, kissing her cheek and making her blush.

Becasue of course something like a kiss to the cheek after a joke would make her laugh, never mind that she's but naked, legs spread open and Clarke fingering her into an orgasm.

A kiss to the cheek is too much.

"Fuck Lex, you're so tight" Clarke hushes against her collarbone.

Lexa moans, because she likes the nickname, it's nothing special, but she likes it. And Clarke is doing ungodly things to her pussy, caressing her sides, saying all the right things and sucking on that specific spot right on top of her collarbone that drives her crazy, because she has her all figured out already.

And she is tight, she can feel it, she's so close, she can feel that familiar feeling in her lower belly, tugging at her, making her moan-

"Cla-ahrke!"

She comes so hard, for so long and Clarke keeps taking to her, she can't tell what she's saying because her brain is mush, but it's dragging her climax on and on until she can't take it anymore.

Still shaking she grabs at Clarke's bicep, squezing and whimpering, moving her hips away.

"No more?" Clarke whispers soflty. Lexa can't only shake her head "Okay baby" she kisses her jaw and if Lexa's face wasn't already red from coming, she sure as well would be blushing.

Clarke kisses Lexa's shoulders soflty, trying to keep her weight off her as she still breaths heavily. Lexa's eyes are closed and Clarke takes the chance to look at her. Her faced flushed a pretty fading shade of red, her lips parted sightly as she huffs her breaths out, her hair is a mess, sprawled around the pillow under her. Her collar bones and chest are red as well, adorned with a couple hickeys she can't help but to be proud of.

And then Lexa blinks her eyes open, heavy eyelids drop a couple of time before she can keep her eyes fully open. And then a smile raises slowly, and Clarke realizes as she tries to smile, that she was already smiling brightly.

"Hi" Lexa chuckles.

"Hey there" Clarke leans in to kiss her and Lexa moves her hands to hold her close.

They move a little messily, laughing as Lexa refuses to separate their lips, Clarke lays on her side and Lexa turns with her.

The kiss turns lazy when Lexa has no strengths to even coordinate her lips, her eyes close permanently. Clarke smiles and pulls back, kissing Lexa's nose just because and watching a smile rise slowly with a slow huffed laugh.

"Sweet dreams, Heda"

"Mmhh, g'night Princess"

...To be continued 😉😌

#Clexaweek 2025 #gamer girls au #Clexaweek 25 #10 years of clexa kisses #I put extra attention to their first kiss after these little trend 🙂‍↕️#clexa #clexa fic #writing prompt #my moodboard #I spent corporate hours on it 🙂‍↕️#i also wrote half of the smut while at the beach #which madame realize these two would absolutely fuck at the beach #add public place fucking to Lexa's bucket-list of kinks #bc these two would absolutely rent a beach house one summer and spend all days giving each other quiet secret orgasms #this was supposed to have a little bonus #ill add it later #you guy's it's here! 🥹🥹#i hope you like it

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bullet-prooflove · 1 day ago

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For Sale: Leroy Jethro Gibbs x Reader

Tagging: @kmc1989 @ilovemark1951 @love-affair-with-fandoms @clarasmoon @mishkatelwarriorgoddess

Companion piece to:

The Ice Queen - Gibbs meets The Ice Queen for the first time.

Break The Ice - A act of decency helps Gibbs to break the ice.

Grave - You and Gibbs bump into each other in an unexpected place.

Safe - You and Gibbs work through your grief in different ways.

Check In - Gibbs checks in with you after the night before.

Wait It Out - You and Gibbs wait out a threat to your saftey.

All Dressed Up - You and Gibbs have a frank conversation about an office event.

Right Here - You come home to find Gibbs waiting for you on your doorstep.

Revelations - Gibbs is surprised to discover a connection between you and Mike Franks.

Haunted (ft: Mike Franks) - Mike reflects on your prior history.

Lilies - Gibbs knows you're not fine.

Closure - Gibbs supports you in the aftermath of the arrest.

Save Me San Francisco - Gibbs is forced to confront his feelings when you leave for San Franisco.

Eurydice - Your relationship with Gibbs come to a head when you ask him a question he doesn't know how to answer.

Gibbs still runs past your house, it’s a habit he got into when he first settled in the area, one he maintains in your absence. Your sabbatical was supposed to be over a month ago but you’d extended it according to Franks. Gibbs knows it’s because of him.

You haven’t spoken since your last phone, not since you asked him that question, the one that keeps him up at night.

Do you want me Jethro? Do you want me the way that I want you?

He’d frozen in the moment, not been able to give you an answer and you’d taken it as a rejection, cutting off contact completely. The only reason he even knows you’re alive is because Franks still gets postcards of the landmarks you’ve been visiting. He sticks them to the filing cabinet with tape and Gibbs spends the hours in between cases trying to ascertain where you plan to visit next.

He's just starting to break a sweat on his run when he sees the For Sale sign propped up on your lawn. It hits him like a gut punch because he knows what it means, you’ve run out of reasons to return home now Violet’s murder is resolved. He cuts his run short, heads into the office early hoping to catch Mike Franks before anyone comes in.

“I ran past Maeve’s this morning.” He says, dogging the other man’s footsteps up the corridor. “There’s a For Sale sign outside her house.”

“Yea.” Franks says as he takes off his sunglasses, tucking them into the pocket of his jacket. “She asked me to help with sale, she’s been looking at some property in San Franciso.”

“So she’s staying?” Gibbs questions as Franks drops into his chair, shuffling through the night shift’s reports.

“Looks like it.”

Franks may as well have carved a hole in his chest, torn his heart out and stomped on it.

It’s later that afternoon he asks Franks if he can take some leave. He has a couple of weeks saved up and they don’t have anything on the docket so Franks agrees. He packs his duffle bag, snatching up one of the postcards from the filing cabinet before mapping out his journey from the front seat of his pickup truck.

It takes him nine hours to get San Francisco. He pulls up outside of a small grey house, with white trimmings, a set of steps leading up to the porch. His heart thuds in his chest as he takes them two at a time. He doesn’t make it to the top because the front door is already opening and there you are, stepping out onto the wooden slats clad in a light, navy blue skater dress that falls mid-thigh. Your hair is loose, flowing like burnished copper across your features and for a moment it feels like he can’t breathe because you, you’re absolutely stunning.

“Gibbs.” You say surprised, tucking your keys inside your purse. “Hi.”

“Hi.” He says as he stops on the step below you. “You look… You look god damn beautiful.”

You’re almost the same height at this angle. The fabric of the dress you’re wearing swishes in the nighttime air, brushing against his clothing in a way that’s almost sensual. His hands coming to rest on your hips as he looks into your eyes, drinking in that pretty shade of cornflower blue.

“I’m supposed to be going on a date.” You tell him and he shakes his head in response to your words because he didn’t come all this way to fall at the final hurdle.

“No Maeve.” He says, his voice thick with want. “We’re staying in tonight.”

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#leroy jethro gibbs #leroy jethro gibbs x reader #ncis origins #gibbs #gibbs x reader #austin stowell

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lesbianvaljean · 13 hours ago

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Hugo spends much of "A Tempest in a Skull" setting Valjean up to be crucified.

The name "Jean Valjean" is seen as a sentence in and of itself: "to ever hear that name pronounced... would be the end of all things for him." As Mellow has written the name derives from Pontius Pilate's presentation of Jesus prior to his crucifixion!

Hearing the name Jean Valjean causes a "rent veil" and an "earthquake", both associated with the death of Jesus.

Valjean is seen as dying to save another, and by that achieving new life: "to surrender himself to save that man [and] to become... Jean Valjean, that was, in truth, to achieve his resurrection."

The narrator emphasizes a binary choice between Valjean or Champmathieu ("a stranger.... whom destiny... was thrusting into the gulf in his stead") being sentenced, paralleling the choice Pilate makes between Jesus and Barabbas.

If that all weren't enough, Hugo twice explicitly compares Valjean to Jesus approaching crucifixion. First Valjean yields to a "mysterious power which said to him: 'Think!' as it said to another condemned man, two thousand years ago, 'March on!'". Then, the chapter ends with a beautiful long comparison of Valjean to Christ in Gethsemane.

So, we end Tempest in Gethsemane. Where next? Well, the Stations of the Cross, a traditional narrative of Christ's road to the cross which invites Christians to walk with Jesus from his sentencing to his burial, just like Jean Valjean is about to do.

All 14 stations, I think, show up somewhere on the road to Arras. Some of these connections are explicit, some are more tenuous — would love to hear folk's thoughts on these + any I might have missed!

There are 14 standard stations (which also would have existed in Hugo's day, although not sure about their ubiquity in French Catholicism at the time.) Lots of variations exist -- if you're curious, here's a standard liturgy and some Vatican reflections.) So these 14 certainly don't include all the possible parallels. Valjean is denied by his three convict friends, for instance, as Jesus was denied three times by Peter; in 1.7.5 Valjean eats and rejects bitter bread, which I read as a nod to Jesus tasting and rejecting the sponge of sour wine; and even Romainville references Rome, of course the empire under which Jesus was crucified. But I think the 14 give a good sense of how totally central the crucifixion narrative is.

Jesus is condemned to death - Javert is quite clear in 1.6.2 that someone will be condemned to die in prison under the name of Jean Valjean. This is expanded upon at some length by Valjean in Tempest.

Jesus takes up his Cross - Valjean begins his journey to Arras in the tilbury.

Jesus falls the first time - Valjean's first delay: the tilbury's wheel breaks.

Jesus meets his Mother - Valjean's mother does not appear here. But we do get a strange dream featuring his brother, which may represent a similar familial presence before an immense suffering. Like Jesus' mother, Valjean's brother cannot save him; he cannot even accompany him through the end of the dream.

Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross - The young boy helps Valjean find a new cart, which lets him continue his journey to Arras.

Veronica wipes the face of Jesus - We could read this as the old woman who lends Valjean her cart. The veil Veronica is said to have used to wipe Jesus' face took his image and was venerated as a relic for centuries as the true image of Jesus (Veronica means "true image"). So she is seen in the Church as a compassionate documentary witness to his suffering. I think there's a case to be made that the narrator might be taking the place of Veronica here, showing us the imprint of Valjean's suffering in the documents, like his journal, that Valjean produces.

Jesus falls for the second time - Valjean's second delay: the horse is exhausted and road work lengthens the way.

Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem - I think this station can be seen in the reaction of the courtroom spectators, who are transformed into "sympathizing hearts" as "capture all souls and turn witnesses into spectators" Certainly Jesus's reaction is appropriate: "Weep not for me but for your children"

Jesus falls for the third time - Valjean's third delay: the cart's whiffle-tree breaks.

Jesus is stripped of his garments - Valjean destroys his old clothes, in an attempt to strip himself of his identity.

Jesus is nailed to the Cross - Valjean arrives at the trial. Note that both the trial and the crucifixion are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. (Mark 15:25), although obviously the trial actually happens in the dark.

Jesus dies on the Cross - Madeleine confesses himself to be Jean Valjean, marking the death of the persona of Madeleine and this phase of his life, and saving Champmathieu. See Hugo's description of the crowd’s reaction: a silence like that of the grave." And, later: "the whole crowd, as by a sort of electric revelation, understood instantly... the simple and magnificent history of a man who was delivering himself up so that another man might not be condemned in his stead"

Jesus is taken down from the Cross - This is trickier, but I think we can read the unknown crowd member who opened the door for Valjean as Joseph of Arimathea, who took away the body of Jesus and opened the door of his own tomb for him. See the context Hugo gives here: “those who do certain sovereign things are always sure of being served by some one in the crowd.”

Jesus is laid in the tomb - The door closes behind Valjean and this section of the book ends.

#mine #les mis #les mis letters #lm 1.7.3 #christianity tag #very very curious people's thoughts in particular on the timing of the crucifixion/death moments #this is very strictly within the confines of 1.7!#jvj #meta #long post

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areanoodles · 2 days ago

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Miraculous Ladybug Rewrite

Finally posting this. My rewrite for miraculous.

Ive been working on it for a while and just adding to it slowly. So, this is what I have for it so far. I'm deciding that I'm most likely going to make a second blog for just my rewrites (I currently have two I'm working on). So there will probably be a more polished version of this if I make the second blog.

Without further ado, here is my miraculous rewrite (so far..)

●Marinette and adrien are still both the main protagonist

●Adrien will actually have more of a focus, if not being more of the main character than Marinette

●Adrien's vocals will be added in the theme song as backing vocals (like in the full version of the theme song)

●Chloe will have a redemption arch

●Marinette and Adrien's romance will sort of be slow burn still, but will happen a lot faster in a way. Instead of dragging it on, they’ll start off having more of a friendship/some platonic banter, and as it progresses they’ll slowly start to realize their affection for one another

●In the umbrella scene (in origins pt. 2), we know marinette develops her crush on adrien from there, but, for this rewrite, marinette may question if she truly loves adrien. She may think she has a little affection for him, but, her crush for him will only slowly develop over time

●so, from the umbrella scene, she won’t actually have a huge crush on him

●adrien will actually be the same since the umbrella scene. He’ll consider Marinette a friend at first, but as time progresses, he’ll also develop a crush on her. He may not recognize it at first when he actually has feelings for her. Marinette will be more likely to detect her feelings for Adrien once she has feelings for him

●Zoe may be given a role in the show if I can properly give her development or any type of character

●not everyone of marinette’s classmates will be given a miraculous (such as Marc, Nathaniel, Ivan, Sabrina, max, Zoe, Kim, rose(?))

●Ladybug and Cat noir will still be the main super heroes. But if they develop a group over time, they’ll have queen bee (chloe), carapace (nino), and Rena Rouge (alya)

●temporary holders that will be recruited time from time will be, viperion (luka), ryuko (kagami)(?), purple tigress (juleka)

●bunnyx will always be a miraculous holders regardless since she has to deal with the timeline and time travel and her as a holder is a lot older (before current alix gets the bunny miraculous)

●Not sure how ill do lila’s (or cerise) character, but I want to figure out what I could do with her just like Zoe

● Gabriel (hawkmoth) won’t akumatize every single day. I think it would be better if he took time to pause from doing destruction, maybe trying to improve his powers during these times he’s not akumatizing, or just doing his job as a fashion designer, or any other lore that could be explored of the agreste family. I also feel like those episodes or times where he doesn’t akumatize anyone, could also give us time to know adrien and marinette better as main characters, can give them more exploration in their civilian lives

●Since I’m most likely keeping zoe in the Rewrite, I might have something that’ll make her more interesting(?)

●Chloe and Zoe don’t know about their existence before they actually meet

●Audrey purposely never told any one of them that they had a half sister in a complete different country

●Audrey was there for chloe, then left to new york

●I guess I’d like to go with the idea Audrey cheated on Andre (since it’s not really explained much in the show)

●Audrey has zoe in New York

●I think Audrey would’ve been flipping back and forth between going to new york and Paris for both of them (while also telling zoe and Chloe that she has to leave because of work and for fashion shows)

●zoe is more cold in this rewrite ●She holds a huge grudge towards audrey for leaving her all those years (and neglecting her for when she was there)

●Zoe for the most part cares less about Audrey. She feels there’s no need to care about something that hasn’t been there for her. Chloe on the other hand is pretty similar if not the same to her season 2 counterpart. She wishes for Audrey to praise her, to acknowledge her. She grieves the mother she wished she had.

●Audrey was more in zoe’s life, but even then, was still neglected by her. Audrey barely paid any attention to her, and didn’t take any time to spend with her

●Chloe also didn’t have a parent to spend time with. Andre was always busy with something and barely took time to hangout with her.

●When chloe and Zoe do meet, they are kind of distant to each other

●Chloe holds a slight grudge towards Zoe cause she feels like she got the better end of the stick (having a mother figure with her, especially since all chloe’s ever wanted was for her mother to be there with her and acknowledge her existence)

●Though, she’s totally oblivious to how much Audrey has affected Zoe too, and that Audrey isn’t as great as much as she gives her credit for

●Zoe really left her boarding school because of the homophobia that she got

●The main reason why cockroaches were eventually put in her locker

●Master Fu dying

●Sometimes characters need to die, and maybe mater Fu being that one character during the time of the show

●I think this will really effect marinette even more than just master Fu losing his memory

●Maybe by the time Master Fu dies, the superhero group would be a thing (ladybug, cat noir, carapace, Rena Rouge, and queen bee), and it'll all greatly affect them

●this will take a toll on them, but marinette especially. The one mentor, the only mentor she had, is now gone, and she’s going through another mental spiral

●she began off in the series with no guidance, finding Master Fu, finally have some sort of guidance, now doesn’t have guidance anymore

●Maybe even the celestial guardian can be introduced this way. With Fu now dead, he presumes the miracle box is still out there, and then figures out a teenager is in possession of it

●this is obviously still close to in show canon, so its not too different

●But, instead, the miracle box isn’t passed down to marinette at all. So marinette’s put in this weird position where she has to take charge and care for the miracle box

●I do want to do something where Marinette/ladybug isn’t the only one taking care of these things, but also has adrien/cat noir to help

●I’ve also been thinking that at some point Zoe will know Chloe is queen bee (as well as the rest of the teams identities)

●Kagami will definitely know some how

Thats it. That's what I have so far, this is a really long post.

When I said earlier in the post that adrien will have his vocals added to the theme song, I was in the thought process of if this rewrite were to be animated.

Question marks are put near certain names because I might be unsure of my idea for them for the rewrite

If anyone would like to see more, I can definitely make another post for this rewrite. I do have some more ideas but I will be adding them on slowly

Thats all

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lovesickrobins · 3 days ago

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Bat Family as One Piece characters

I’m writing this as I listen to the Flim Red soundtrack (Ado I fucking love you). Some of the bat boys may have more than one character just because I feel like some of them fit other characters as well. Also this might contain spoilers of the show so fair warning.

Bruce: Rayleigh/Whitebeard

Okay so the reason why I feel like Bruce can be Rayleigh and Whitebeard is because these guys are technically some of the strongest pirates. Like Rayleigh was Roger’s right hand man and one of the strongest swordsmen during Roger’s time. Rayleigh is still feared by the Navy even in his old age. He also decided to train Luffy to become the Luffy we know now. Bruce can be Whitebeard because his whole thing was adopting people that had nowhere to go and creating his own family (sound familiar?) Whitebeard was also one of the original Four Emperors before his death (basically one of the strongest pirates in the One Piece world that even their form of government couldn’t control them). While Bruce is the only one that, even the justice league, can’t take down.

Dick: Sabo

Dick would fit as Sabo because they both have a dorky personalities but are considered the best of the best. Sabo is the second in command in the Revolutionary Army and currently the holder of the flare flare fruit. Dick is his own hero, but is considered the best Robin. They both can hold their own even against stronger opponents (the first time Dick meets Damian, Dick was able to restrain a train assassin. Sabo in a room with the Gorosei, powerful haki users, and didn’t even flinch) They also care about their brothers, even if they didn’t have the greatest start with them.

Jason: Luffy

HEAR ME OUT! The reason why I feel Jason could be Luffy is because of their personality. Luffy, maybe a literal sun god, but he’s always the first to question why against the status quo. Jason is the same way, when he was Robin he would question Bruce on why they had to do things a certain way. They also could be considered a little obsessive (remember when Jason came back and saw Tim as Robin and he started to keep tabs on him and tried to have him come to his side?) well in Luffy’s case he’s obsessed with becoming the King of the Pirates (I said they could be obsessive but obviously their levels are completely different)

Tim: Robin

No pun intended but I do genuinely feel like Tim could be her. Miss Nico Robin (I love her so much) she’s the historian of the group and also the “smartest” one out of the group (I say “smart” because the other crew members are smart…well some of them). Remember that Tim was able to figure out Batman’s and Nightwing’s identity at nine years old… NINE! Robin has been able to read Poneglyphs (an ancient language that no one should be able to read in the One Piece world) since she was roughly about the same age as Tim. When the two year break happens in Once Piece, the one thing Robin wanted to do more than anything was to get stronger to protect her friends. After Tim finds out the Bruce=Batman and Dick=Nightwing he wanted to become stronger and be better not because he was after the title of Robin but because they inspired him to be better.

Damian: Zoro

So the reason why I feel Damian would be Zoro is because they both have that cold and intimidating aura. Before joining the Straw hats Zoro was a pirate hunter and basically didn’t care about other people (that’s a complete lie, Zoro did care, he just had a hard time showing it) Same with Damian,was trained to be an assassin and really didn’t understand basic human emotions. Then enter the people that showed them how to be “human” in a sense. Zoro has Luffy and the Straw Hats while Damian has Bruce and the rest of the Bat Family. Zoro has some demons of his own, so does Damian but with the help of the people around them, they slowly become more in touch with human emotions.

Let me know what you guys think, I would love to hear your take on this. I’m sure I miss some other characters that they could be. Anyways love you guys and I hope you enjoyed this!

#batman #batfam #tim drake #dick grayson #damian wayne #bruce wayne #jason todd #bat family #one piece

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bloodchapell · 1 day ago

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castle of sand — senku i. 7 : wishful dream

brief summary: all about the school festival

what to expect: implied s/h, underage smoking, emotional abuse (?)

your sword's note: chapter on the longer side, all past and future parts + playlist of this series available in my mistresslist

"Lucia, Lucia, my daughter, please talk to me." Taiju said with despair. He was somehow a really good actor. You were all on the school theater rehearsing the play, and Taiju and you were doing the scene in which you were crying after seeing your fiancé leave the dance with the commoner girl. It was all going well, your face was hidden in your arms by some cardboard fountain.

"No father, leave me at once..."

"Lucia, my child." Since the costumes were almost done, you were using the pink dress with gold accents and the heels, and you expected Taiju to be wearing his formal clothes with a coat. Following the stage directions, Taiju picked you up. As the previous rehearsals, it went flawless, but once you saw his face covered in a fake beard you broke in laughter.

"I am terribly sorry." You apologized as Taiju put you back on your feet, still feeling the pain in your abdomen from having laughed so hard.

Senku watched from the audience, having also laughed at Taiju when he saw him. The festival was only a week away. After he finished painting the mask you would wear for the dance, the homeroom teacher made Senku help with building the props that required precise measurements.

"I never knew you were so funny!" Taiju exclaimed once the school day was over.

"But I am really not." You shrugged.

"Yes you are!" Taiju said. "Look, this is our friend Yuzuriha, from the crafts club."

"Nice to meet you." The girl said and you greeted her. "You are Senku's friend right?"

"Hmm, not quite."

"More like part-time neighbors and full-time archenemies." Senku noted.

Taiju and Yuzuriha gave a look at each other (as if they were not in a worse predicament).

"I love your haircut, it really suits you." Yuzuriha ignored Senku and complimented you. "We are going to the mall after school, wanna come?"

"Uhm..." You looked at Senku without knowing what to do.

"She has never been invited to go anywhere, but she will go." Senku replied. "Go home and fulfill your Cinderella duties and we will wait for you, don't take long."

Senku, Taiju and Yuzuriha kept walking towards the apartment complex while you went to the store to get some ingredients for the food you were going to cook for your mom. After you bought the food, you stood by the alleyway and sat behind the dumpster. It was plain daylight but you felt that taking a smoke right there and then was appropriate, so you reached to your pocket and got the box and the lighter out. There was only a cigarette left, big sigh, by that point you already got the hang of smoking so you placed the cigarette by your lips with one hand and with the other placed the lighter by it to light it.

It felt nice, smoking felt nice, it also felt accurate to your character. It sparkled some feeling of pleasure when the nicotine tricked your brain into releasing dopamine, and it was the staple for misery (and some may say it even looked cool, but you didn't believe that).

When the cigarette was over, you walked home and made sure to wash your hands before cooking lunch for your mother, making sure to leave everything neat so she would not be mad once you were back. After almost an hour, you were done. Reasonably, you stank of nicotine so you decided to take off your uniform and wear other clothes.

"Finally, Taiju already fell asleep." Senku said when you knocked on his door. "I know you have not gone to the mall with other people but you didn't need to change."

"Don't be cruel Senku." Yuzuriha laughed.

"My uniform got a little dirty when I was cooking so I threw it in the washer."

The four of you then walked towards the train station, the mall wasn't so far. Pointless conversations started and you tried participating in your own way of course.

"During class she says things that sound really smart but it makes sense, like life being beautiful." Taiju said. Woah, that was a brick hitting Senku in the face. Big oaf here could get your words and not him, new level of low.

After that one time Senku broke his brain thinking about the bridge allegory, he started to unconsciously assign people to their stance on the bridge. Where would Taiju be? He was definitely full of joy but still knew about the pains of life since he had lost his parents at a young age, maybe he had some unconscious knowledge but remained somewhat ignorant to the bad things.

You didn't like the mall, it was a place full of people with their friends and you only went with your parents, but now it seemed like a different world. Yuzuriha was buying some materials for her class' haunted house and after she got what she needed, you all sat in the food court and ate some trash food.

"After the school festival is over, we should definitely go out more!" Yuzuriha said on the way back. "It is nice to have another girl here."

The school festival would take place during the last days of May.

"Could we go to the beach?" You asked and they looked at you with some curiosity. "I have always wished to build a seriously insane sand castle."

"Me too!" Taiju said enthusiastically and Yuzuriha nodded.

Once off the train, Yuzuriha and Taiju said goodbye since they had to walk in the opposite direction. Senku and you walked towards the apartment complex and also said goodbye at your door as always.

"Where were you?"

Your breath hitches when you close the door and you hear your mother's voice. "I break my back working to let you freeload here, and you can't even have warm food for me."

"I cooked lunch."

"A horrible lunch, yes, which I had to heat up myself after coming from work. You don't do anything around here and can't even help me with these stupidities, I should have let your father decide what to do with you instead of trying to help an ungrateful daughter. He brainwashed you into hating me, you don't care about anything that I care about..."

You stood there while your mother rambled. Your eyes losing focus of reality and your mind diverting to a place elsewhere, a colorless room with nothing but you, you wondering what was the balance between a joyful and fleeting event as going to the mall and the misery that accounted for the rest of areas in your life. You only came back to reality from your mind space once your mother shut the door of her room. Though your eyes watered you didn't actually cry, you walked towards your room and locked the door, siting in the floor and reaching for your computer.

The next week was spent rehearsing the play and building the props, unfortunately the philosophy teacher canceled the trips to the conferences until the festival was over and you were left to deal with reality without the solace of nicotine.

The festival started the two last days of May. The first day was dedicated to the stands and the second day was dedicated to the presentations. On the first day, Senku, Taiju and you went around the school and made sure to visit the haunted house of Yuzuriha's class, Taiju was fascinated by the decorations, Senku babbled about the reasoning behind certain fears and you simply walked getting startled by everything that jumped to scare you. After two hours, Yuzuriha's shift at her class' stand was over and she joined you too. You couldn't help but fawn at the radiance Yuzuriha expelled and wished you could also be like that.

"You need to come see us tomorrow!" Once the day was over, Taiju asked Yuzuriha. "We are both on the play as father and daughter... she is the daughter."

"It is clear she is the daughter, why would you be the daughter?" Senku shook his head.

The evening was tedious, you made sure that everything was ready and you went over your lines several times. The nerves were consuming you so much that you wished you had saved a cigarette just to ease it.

"I am doing overtime tomorrow, make sure to have some warm food for me and clean the house." Your mom asked in a nice tone from the living room.

"But I told you that I have that play tomorrow, remember?" You walked out of your room to remind her.

"What do you mean play? You always have some fucking excuse to not do the bare minimum around here. Now I have to buy lunch since you have the national school play that will pay the bills in this house."

The sense of impending doom flooded your chest, when things got that way, you felt that the only way out of feeling like that was dying.

"I will have the food ready, I am sorry mommy, let's not fight."

She had that face of utter disgust when looking at you, but when she walked to her room and closed the door, you knew that your words worked because the door was not slammed. You made sure to cook something before going back to your room and ditch the script for your computer.

"Excited for the play?" Senku said in the morning when you two walked to school.

"I guess."

He noticed, immediately as always.

"Here. I bought some stuff last night and the store clerk gave me this." His hand extended towards you held a piece of your favorite candy. He knew he had purposefully bought some to keep around, but it was best to keep that unmentioned.

Once at school, the cast of the play was assigned to change into their costumes, so with the other girls, you went to the changing room and got dressed. Your dress had several layers and some required to be tied on the back, so you had asked Yuzuriha for some help. You put on the tights and the camisole, and Yuzuriha helped you put on the petticoat and the dress. Her eyes caught a glimpse of the scars in your arms but she stayed quiet, maybe once you two had grown closer she would ask and try her best to help you.

The last step on dressing you were the shoes, the heels in which you had to spin for a good while. Walking through the halls created an echo which you liked. Back in the classroom, Yuzuriha sat you on a chair and put some makeup on you, eyeshadow that highlighted your eyes and blush on your cheeks, plus some lipgloss. Then brushed your hair in a way that the ends curled towards your face.

"You look so pretty!" The girl complimented you and you smiled looking in the mirror.

Once Taiju's fake beard was on, you walked with him backstage and Yuzuriha and Senku went to the theater and sat in the audience. The play started flawlessly. You had already appeared and you did good for the first scenes, but you were nervous about the dance and the monologue.

Most of the cast was on the stage when the masquerade started in the play, you were wearing the mask Senku had painted for you, walking confidently into the stage. You stayed by the side watching the people dance and then you noticed your fiancé dancing with the commoner girl, while the mask still covered your face you admired proud as your classmates got their own dance down after so much practice. Once their dance was over, the commoner girl took the hand of the fiancé and walked off stage, it was your turn. You slowly took off the mask, revealing an appalled expression, you let the mask slip from your fingers and slowly the rest of your classmates moved back to give you space to dance. Miserably you walked to the middle of the stage and raised your hand towards the direction they had left, then both your hands went to your chest, your face showing a deep pain. You started the dance once the track started to play, and you kept repeating to yourself to put on a good show, to keep a straight sad face and to move with despair.

"Immense has been my sacrifice to satiate every desire of your heart, yet your steps follow those of the unrefined girl. Have I not done everything in my power for you to rest your soft gaze on my wishful eyes. My heart ached and bled for your love, for your attention, for a single word from your lips, yet I am bestowed with this most disgraceful sight. It was naught but a mistake to deliver my heart to such a suitor, and now that it resides forgotten in within your realm, I am to suffer without it."

Once the monologue was over, you dropped to your knees and hid your face in your arms which rested by the cardboard fountain. It went smooth. Now the real challenge was not breaking into laughter once Taiju picked you up.

"Lucia, Lucia, my daughter, please talk to me."

"No father, leave me at once..."

"Lucia, my child." He picked you up and you had to hide your face when the laughter started to creep in. The scene was over and thankfully your laughter sounded as crying.

Once backstage you had to cover your mouth when Taiju let you on the ground because it didn't make sense that your "crying" when acting continued once out of the stage. The play continued and it was soon over.

"That was so good! You did amazing!" Yuzuriha congratulated you and Taiju. "Did you actually cry when Taiju picked you up? It sounded so real."

"I was actually laughing so hard... it is interesting that my joy is not much distinguishable from my dismay." You said with your hand in your chin, with your index finger under your lips and a slight frown.

"That is her thinking pose." Taiju whispered to Yuzuriha.

You sat in silence with Senku while Yuzuriha and Taiju went to drink something. The silence was never uncomfortable, it just sat there too. You had genuinely not much to say, after an eventful situation you would always sit and think about it, almost reflecting on what had happened and how it made you feel. Senku on the other hand sat almost trembling trying to expel his thoughts. She looks pretty? Not by a millimeter. Whatever she may look like doesn't matter, because when the day comes to it, she will be bald as hell, 10 billion percent guaranteed. Knowing you were going to be bald made him feel reassured, because it meant that one day he would stop thinking those wrong thoughts.

In philosophy class, the teacher had talked about how to state arguments. Example:

Premise 1: Senku finds the French film girl attractive.

Premise 2: You resemble the French film girl.

Premise 3: The most defining thing abut the French film girl is her short hair.

Premise 4: You have the same haircut as her.

Conclusion: YOU NEED TO GO BALD

Makes sense.

"You did good." He simply mentioned.

"Thank you."

"Did you like it?"

"It was exciting." You said with a smile. "I might be joining the theater club."

Hearing you say that was odd. You were against being in clubs (probably because you had no friends and the social interactions you had with other people developed into them nodding confused at your remarks on the majority), but he agreed without thinking too much about it.

"We are back!" Taiju announced.

"We got you this." Yuzuriha gave you a box juice and you thanked her. "Sooo, how about we go to the beach on Monday after school? I saw that the weather will be really nice."

"Really?" You said sipping from the juice. Yuzuriha nodded. Taiju agreed with excitement and Senku shrugged. You smiled nodding too. "Then June 3rd it is."

June 3rd, 2019, marked in your mental calendar as a day that you would never forget. You were excited, it felt as if your tormentous life had reached the bottom of the void and there was no other direction to go but upwards.

"We will build a scientific sand castle that defies every other sand castle and might place us as top architects." Senku said looking at you with his little grin.

"Yeah, what a wishful dream." You sighed content.

taglist: @thelonestarinthesky

#senku x reader #ishigami senku #senku #senku ishigami #dr stone senku #dcst #dr stone #drst #x reader #dcst senku #senku x y/n

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