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thosewickedlovelies · 4 years ago

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Into the Woods: chapter 2 | Frankie Morales x GN!Reader

Summary: Instagram stalking ensues. Will you run into Frankie again?

Tags: no warnings AGAIN this is weird for me too but as mentioned I do have some smut planned for these two if anyone needs more incentive to read lmfao

Word Count: 2,783

A/N: As always, endless love to @yoditorian for this idea and her supervision of my writing about a social media platform I do not use 💗💚💗

Backstory / chap 1 /

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Later that night, Frankie sits at his desk, poring over maps both digital and physical. Where could you live to have traveled to the same point in the forest as him within a day? He’s hiked along the edge of his side of the woods, and knows that unless he’s missed some major construction, you can’t be there. So now he studies the other side of the treeline, looking at the closeness of the towns, any tiny side roads that could lead to individual houses like his own. But his frustration is growing.

There aren’t any. Not any within feasible walking distance, at least. And you hadn’t been grubby enough to have been camping. Frankie frowns, tracing the small highway which cuts through the forest. There, not far from the turnoff to his home, was a parking lot at the start of a web of trails through the woodland. If you started there and completely ignored the predetermined paths, heading a course straight for the pond...

“Huh,” Frankie murmurs. It wasn’t much further of a hike than his own. So that means you don’t live within walking distance- he shakes off an odd twinge of disappointment at that- but he does have an idea of your hiking range, if he felt like trying to seek you out.

He shakes his head. Don’t be weird. That was something Santiago might do- deliberately roam where he knew you regularly went in order to find you again. Frankie isn’t nearly so forward. His style is slower, less aggressive. What he’s already planning is his next cooking trip to the pond. Plants need water, and you forage for plants- he figures it’s a likely spot to run into you a second time.

Frankie hadn’t spoken to you again after you’d parted today. Only caught glimpses of you through the trees, from where he had dutifully remained by his fire. But at some point between the twisting of the campfire smoke from one way to another you had vanished, and not long after, Oso had returned to him, flopping down on her side with a satisfied huff.

He snorted. “Well, I’m glad you got to make a new friend.” Frankie rubbed her belly with only a little jealousy.

Now, feeling restless, he decides to upload the pictures he took today. He’s almost immediately distracted, however, by a string of likes from a new follower- concluding with a familiar photo of Oso and Gloriana. A prickle of excitement runs through him at a reference to foraging in the username. No way.

Frankie leans forward in his seat, straining for a closer look at the profile picture. A grin spreads across his face when the page finally loads.

It’s you. You, mid-laugh, perched comfortably up on a sturdy tree branch. He quickly scrolls down to confirm; but this is definitely you. Lots of photos of plants, and woodland that looks remarkably familiar. Your bare feet in a stream. A busy street at afarmer’s market, you smiling with a stall owner.

Frankie laughs out loud at the sheer absurdity of it. Here he was, worried about coming off as a mega-creep, and you’ve already shamelessly checked him out on instagram. He’s never hit ‘Follow Back’ so fast in his life.

You try to quash the squirmy anticipation in your belly as you pull on your pack, organizing yourself for the walk ahead. There’s no reason to get excited, you scold yourself. Even if you do see Frankie again, you still don’t really know anything about him.

You’d tried to stalk him online, but there wasn’t much information to go off of from his instagram photos. The pictures themselves spoke volumes, though. You’d always thought you could tell a little something of people’s personalities from what they posted, especially from pictures with their friends. Frankie’s main group of friends had a certain look about them- military maybe, a sort of cocky surety in their posturing. Despite this, they’re often grinning in candid moments, a relaxed, unself-conscious affection between the men which endeared them to you. Them, and Frankie. It’s a shame he doesn’t post more photos of himself. You recall again the sight of him in the woods, shafts of sunlight striking his expressive features, illuminating his kind smile and earthen eyes.

Then you shake your head. Too much time alone with your ever-churning thoughts have you romanticizing your meeting, when in reality you have no reason to expect to run into him again. He’d said he was out there all the time, but you’d never spotted evidence of any fires, or of a giant dog gallivanting around the place. Maybe he didn’t mean the pond specifically, but the forest in general.

“Argh!” Looking around, you stomp your foot in frustration. In your distraction, your walking pace had slowed, and you weren’t as far along in your hike as you should have been. Resolving to focus on your surroundings (because you won’t see Frankie again if you don’t get to the pond in good time), you splash some water on your face to refresh yourself and stride onward.

As you get closer to your pond, you slow down again, this time deliberately. All your senses strain for any sign of Frankie, but you don’t hear or see anything out of the ordinary. Then you smell it.

Smoke.

For a moment you panic. Is it wildfire season? Can you run away from a forest fire? Who do you call for this??

Then you smell something else- something familiar and edible- and you nearly pop yourself in the forehead. Of course you smell smoke, you idiot. What did Frankie say he did out here?? Cooked. You were literally just thinking about his instagram.

What is that smell? You have got to see this.

You step carefully to avoid making too much noise in the brush. Now that you’re looking for it, the gray haze of campfire smoke is obvious as it drifts through the trees. You give its source a wide berth, hoping for a chance to observe Frankie without him knowing.

Your wish is granted. You’ve come at him from the side, and now have an excellent view of his profile, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he stirs something in the heavy-looking pan in front of him. After a minute he looks satisfied, and retrieves the pan’s lid from behind him, arcing his arm carefully over the flames as he places it. Frankie sits back, a gusty sigh blowing from his lips. As you watch, he tosses his cap to the side, running his hands through loose curls and scratching his fingers across his scalp. You bite your lip in a smile at the sight of his moment of self-indulgence.

You scan Frankie’s setup and the area around him, searching for-

“Ruff!” The dog you were looking for crashes through the bushes beside you, and you yelp in surprise, automatically stooping to soothe her.

Dammit, how does such a large animal keep sneaking up on you?

“Oso?” Frankie calls. He’s standing now, still hatless, a few steps closer to you than where he’d been sitting. He glances uncertainly between the fire and your approximate location. You hear him try your name next.

You swear quietly. “No, not you,” you add to Oso.

“It’s me,” you reply, straightening. “Sorry, Oso got me again.”

The pleased, upward tilt of his lips reverses as he shakes a stern finger at his dog, whose ears perk happily at all the attention. “What did I tell you? No more accosting strangers!” he scolds, though he doesn’t sound the least bit upset.

With a expectant glance at you, Oso trots back over to him. Frankie ruffles her ears, definitively undermining any negative impact his words might have had. You regard each other tentatively.

“Hi,” you say lamely.

His face crinkles back up into a smile. “Hi,” he returns. “Fancy seeing you here.”

Every possible conversation you’d mentally practiced since your first meeting flew right out of your head. “Well, you know.” You shrug lightly. “A person’s gotta eat.” Inwardly you cringe.

But Frankie is unphased. “I’d be really interested to hear about the kinds of stuff you find out here. This is almost ready, if you don’t feel like foraging for your lunch today.” He gestures behind him to the pan on the fire.

You hesitate, and Frankie seems to sense your uncertainty. “Only if you want.” He holds his hands up in a universal ‘no pressure’ sign, even going so far as to take a step back in emphasis.

You tell yourself to stop being so paranoid. This is what you wanted, after all. All your curiosity comes surging back as the wind shifts and the smell of his cooking sets your stomach growling. “Okay,” you agree. “Yeah, that would be nice.”

“Great!” Frankie beams. He turns- and promptly trips over Oso, still sitting beside him.

“Fuck!” He curses, hands hitting the ground on the other side of his dog.

You clap a hand over your mouth to muffle your laughter. Is he always this prone to falling over? “Are you okay?” You make your way over to them.

“Yeah.” Now upright, Frankie seems flustered to find you so much nearer than before, his gaze flitting over you before he remembers himself. He turns to crouch by the fire again, snatching up his hat and re-securing it on his head.

You seat yourself a short distance away and observe. Oso has reclined on her belly on Frankie’s other side, her eager gaze fixed on the pan as he prods the food. Apparently deeming it finished, he retrieves three paper bowls from his bag and fills one each for you, himself, and Oso. With a small flourish and a nervous smile, he presents yours to you.

“Thank you.” You feel like maybe you should say something else, but he’s already moved to face Oso, murmuring something to her while he gives her her bowl. You decide to let the food do the talking.

And are glad you did when fresh, vibrant flavors flood your tongue. Your eyes flutter wide with surprise. “Wow, this is...incredible. How did you..?” You look between the steaming pan and his rucksack, unable to reconcile the feast of flavors in your bowl with how much you’d have to carry out here to achieve it.

The man blushes at your praise, gaze lowering briefly to hide his pleasure, but he looks back up at your question. “Trade secrets,” Frankie says solemnly. Then he drops the expression with a little laugh, his confidence clearly bolstered by your amazement.

“Just kidding, I’ll tell you. If-” he points his plastic spoon at you “-you tell me how we haven’t crossed paths before.”

That’s a fair deal, especially if it means you get to learn more about him. “I’ll do my best,” you promise. In between bites, you outline your gradual exploration of your surroundings upon moving into a nearby village a little over two years ago. This year, you decided to strike out into new territory- this forest.

“I found this pond pretty quickly and saw the blackberry bushes right at the end of the season last year. I’ve been coming here ever since, keeping an eye on it I guess. But this whole wood is really a gold mine.”

Frankie looks fascinated. “I had no idea. I know some plants, but I couldn’t even begin to guess what all is out here.” His mouth opens to ask more questions, but it’s your turn now.

“What about you?” you quiz. “How have I not seen you before if you’re out here ‘all the time’?”

“Well, I’ve been working my way over from the other side of the hill.” Frankie explains, gesturing to the gentle ascending slope behind him. “I only found this place earlier this year. Didn’t know it was someone else’s territory.” He offers an apologetic grin, and you duck your head, feeling a silly, pleased warmth in your cheeks.

“Anyway, I moved into my place over there about five years ago? But I had a lot to do at first. I made a ton of improvements to the house, I was starting a garden. The hiking was kind of a refuge from that at first, a way to quiet my thoughts when I was stressing myself out.” He admits this last part without looking at you, as if his stress is somehow something to be ashamed of.

“But then I realized that I actually enjoyed it, and it made me feel safer to know the woods in so much detail. So I made it a hobby. Started taking longer walks, mapping where I’d been. Brought whole meals instead of little snacks,” he adds wryly.

You laugh as his humor registers, completely engrossed in Frankie’s tale. He seems to notice this suddenly, and shuffles a little under your attention. “So that’s me,” he concludes, clearing his throat self-consciously.

Any foraging you intended to do today has long been forgotten. You’ve been sitting with your backpack on long enough that your shoulders have begun to ache, and you sling it off impatiently. Frankie seems to further relax himself at the sight of you settling in, leaning back on his hands, his empty bowl given to Oso to lick clean.

There’s one question that hasn’t been answered. “...so how did you end up on instagram?” you probe.

He laughs outright. “I wondered how long it would take you to ask,” Frankie teases. His lopsided grin suggests he knows the impression he gives off. His mirth is infectious, and you find yourself grinning back at him, although you refuse to be embarrassed. He was the one who had thrown his phone at you, after all. And he had stalked your profile right back.

“Well, I’m no photographer,” he begins. “But I like the act of taking pictures. Really stopping and looking at what’s around you, what captures your attention. I was in the army before this, and it was just in-and-out of so many places, not actually experiencing anywhere for real…” Frankie watches you from the corner of his eye, speaking slowly, as if reluctant to say something which might change your opinion of him.

“My friend’s wife- the one whose kid I’m godfather to- suggested I use instagram as a way to organize my photos, but also ‘so they know I’m still alive out here.’” He chuckles. “I kinda like it now- it’s like a public diary. Mostly it was a relief to find that I’m not the only weirdo out there who likes cooking in the woods.”

You breathe a laugh reflexively, but your mind is turning over his words. I keep an instagram, he’d said before. Like a diary. Well, that’s...really cute, actually.

“Well, that makes me feel really shallow,” you joke, unable to think of any deeper response to his unexpectedly meaningful answer.

“Nah.” Frankie dismisses your quip with an easy smile. He asks you about yourself, then. How you got into foraging, other questions inspired by the pictures he’d seen on your page.

For awhile you converse with the uncomplicated lightness of two strangers who know absolutely nothing about each other, but want to. As a dessert offering, you take out the tub of blackberries you’d gathered earlier. Frankie’s eyes widen at their size, fatter than any berry he’d see in the supermarkets.

His freely shared emotions- fascination, curiosity, delight- continue to confirm your impression of him. Safe. His mouth works as he savors the sweet fruit, lips puckering, head nodding in close-eyed approval.

You will yourself not to stare. Looking elsewhere, you glance up at the sky- and the angle of the sun sends you leaping to your feet. “Shit-”

Frankie startles. “What’s wrong?” He tenses, but remains seated. Oso jerks to wakefulness where she’d been dozing by his side.

“I’ve got to start back if I don’t want to be out here at night.” Hurriedly you check your phone to be sure of the time, your heart rate slowing upon seeing it’s not as late as you thought.

Frankie stands now to hand you back your container, still mostly full of berries. You pause. “Keep it,” you tell him. “Make yourself a campfire dessert.”

His lips part in surprise, but you step back before he can protest. “Or at least take them as a thank you. For the food...and the company.”

He purses his lips. “All right. I’ll save making dessert for next time, though.” He subtly searches for your reaction to his implied invitation.

Anticipation lightens your limbs, but you keep your feet firmly planted on the earth. “Next time.” You’re not sure you manage to smother the excitement in your smile.

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Taglist: @thirstworldproblemss, @leonieb, @computeringturtle, @tobealostwanderer

#frankie morales x reader #francisco catfish morales x reader #triple frontier fic #frankie catfish morales #frankie morales x you #pedro pascal #pedro pascal characters #triple frontier imagine #outdoors insta frankie

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thhimble · 4 years ago

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baby don’t hold out(it’s cold outside), ii

Henry cavill x reader

part i: here

Warnings: none yet. A bit more cheese. A bit more nerdier. I tried to keep the reader as blank as possible, but i think she might be a bit of a nerd, so a heads up for that. Hopefully it doesn’t throw anyone out of the fic too much.

Tags: @harrystylesholland, @spideysimpossiblegirl , @laurakirsten0502

baby don’t hold out (it’s cold outside), ii

It’s not a big deal, you tell yourself, standing outside of room 208, your nose and ears burning from the warmth inside compared to the cold outside… from how long you spent lingering in the snow, trying desperately to figure out a solution that you knew, really, wasn’t there.

Clara was right, after all, you did help make the lists, you helped write and organise and plan… and your options are—

Henry pops into your head, pitch a tent? Camp out in the lobby?

Your options are basically zero.

And you’re an adult not a pre-teen girl screaming over a hot boy. You can do this. You can absolutely do this. He isn’t fucking Adonis.

With a snort, you bury a laugh into your scarf. He’s just a guy. Just a really attractive guy. With really nice hair. And shoulders. And eyes. And—

Ugh, you think and blow out a breath, staring down the tauntingly-silent, somehow loopingly-mocking numbers staring you down from the upper middle of the door.

Fuck you, 208.

If numbers could personally offend, 208 was well on its way.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt personally victimized by 208.

208 stays silent, cursive and nailed to the door.

You resist the urge to lift your hand, yes, hi, I have. Let me introduce myself—

With another snort lost to your scarf, you close your eyes and pull in a steadying breath—

And lift your hand.

“You got this,” you mutter into your scarf. “You totally, absolutely got this.”

You’re a rock. Captain America’s shield. Mithril.

Sam carrying Frodo up the face of Mount Doom.

You knock.

There’s a noise inside, a shuffle—

You are absolutely not at all interested in running away.

You glance at the stairs you came up.

The door opens.

You feel like Frodo, holding the One Ring over the lava.

Henry’s in the same soft, dark blue sweater, but the dark of his hair is a little softer than it was earlier and his sleeves are pushed up over his forearms and he’s in socks and it’s all so— so—

No. You’re totally Samwise.

“Hullo,” Henry says with this slow smile that absolutely does nothing to your insides. “Thought maybe I lost you to a tent after all.”

“It was a close call,” you lie, swallowing around your heartbeat. “But the ground’s frozen. For you know. The tent thingies. That go in the ground.”

You make a weird hammer motion with your hand, it doesn’t at all look like a jerking-off motion. It doesn’t.

His smile goes crooked, his eyes flicking from your face down to the shift of your hand. You tuck it back into your coat pocket and decide you hate him. Him and his stupid, crooked smile.

“Stakes,” he says, with that stupid smile that looks like he’s trying not to laugh.

“Yup, those,” you say with a forced laugh. “Tent thingies.”

He snorts a laugh, but steps back, his hand spreading wide on the door, the thick of his arm holding it open for you as he tilts his head into the room.

“Come on then, girl scout. In you go.”

You hesitate before you remember you’re totally Samwise Gamgee and you heft your metaphorical Frodo and push past him into his— your— whatever— room; ignoring the heat of him, size of him, smell of him, so close to you.

(You’ve been here before, anyway, in the bar that first night, with his mouth to your ear; buy you a drink? But it’s somehow, no less staggering.)

Objectively, it’s a nice room, from the zero-point-one second you glance over it before your eyes land on the bed—

The bed you’ll be sharing with him—

No, nope. There’s no way you can get into that bed with him, you think. No way you can lie down and pretend that you’re not… at least a little bit attracted to him.

Like, a bit.

You glance down; the floor is a tanned-wood colour, but there’s a nice grey rug spread out in front of a gas fireplace, that’s not all that thick, but maybe…

Henry clears his throat behind you and you startle a little, lost in the maybe of camping out on the floor.

No stakes required.

There are plenty of pillows on the bed, you think, with a quick glance. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

“About earlier,” he starts, and your eyes dart up to his, startled out of your thoughts again. “I know you’re not…” he huffs something like a laugh, crossing his arms. “Well. You aren’t thrilled, yeah? But listen, I’m not in the habit of being a prick, so I’ve made a few calls, and there’s a chance one of the other hotels a town over can bring a spare cot by. They’re going to give me a call back. But until then, I have no problem sleeping on the—”

“I can take the floor,” you interrupt because really, he’s not— it’s not his fault, is it? You were the one dicking around outside and avoiding— not avoiding, just… circumventing the inevitability of him and what he does to… a large portion of the human population. Regardless of gender or orientation. Apparently.

What he might, maybe, sort of, does to you.

It’s not his fault, exactly. (Maybe his parents though, maybe you should write in a complaint, a strongly-worded letter: dear Mrs and Mr Cavill, how dare you?)

Henry pulls a face and scoffs. “You’re not. Don’t be daft.”

“I’m not daft,” you parrot back, pulling your own incredulous face. “I’m serious, you’re,” you wave a hand over him, a vague Henry-shaped circle. “All you, like. And I’m… good with a little pillow-pile on the floor. It’s like, you know, girl’s sleepover. But—”

But in the bedroom of a totally-not-Adonis.

“All me like?” he questions, his brow tilting up.

You make a noise in your throat. Pressing your lips together beneath your scarf. It’s too hot in here, you think, with the gas fire on and the whole— whole man in front of you in this stupid small room with its stupid one bed.

“You know. You’re like. Big.”

“Big,” he says with a slow-widening smile, and crosses his arms. It does nothing at all to his biceps. You totally do not look.

You roll your eyes, because muscles don’t just happen, and— and you know what? It is his fault, you think, he made the very conscious decision to become a brick shithouse.

That’s absolutely on him.

(Your metaphorical Frodo gets a little lighter, you think you might actually make it.) Blaming someone else usually helps lighten a load, doesn’t it?

This is his fault. Who cares what Clara says?

“Yup,” you say and pop the p with a finalizing sound. “So that’s settled then, yeah?” you say, copying the way he says the word, and step away from him to unwind your scarf and drape it over one of the two chairs in the room that sit in front of the fireplace and little coffee table; they’re actually sort of soft-looking, maybe you really could just sleep in that. You aren’t six-foot-whatever like he is, you have a much better chance at fitting into it in a comfortable sleeping position in one of them.

He absolutely isn’t going to out-nice you. No way.

Chair-bed or bust.

“This chair looks nice, look, the pillows are soft too,” you press your hand onto the cushion, it’s not as soft as you hoped but the pillow fairs better; it’s soft and there’s a nice little decoration of holly and ivy, too; the words Merry Christmas stitched in a looping cursive in the middle of it.

“You’re not sleeping on the bloody chair,” he huffs behind you.

“Well,” you start, floundering for something to say, unzipping your jacket and turning to look at him to buy time. “That’s your opinion.”

He doesn’t roll his eyes, but you think it was a very close call. “Listen,” he starts and pulls in a breath. “There’s no way I’m sleeping in that bed with you sleeping anywhere else. I promise I can sleep anywhere, benefit of having a big family an’ all.”

You shrug off your jacket, stealing a moment to gather your thoughts, moving back towards the door to toe-off your boots, thankful they were dry from the amount of time you spent lingering downstairs and then in the hallway before finding the nerve to even knock.

“And I promise I really don’t care about where I sleep. The tent? Totally could do it. It’s just the ground—”

“Is frozen, yeah,” he finishes for you. “I got that bit.”

You meet his eyes, it’s mostly an accident, you weren’t avoiding it, exactly, you were just… lowering the probability of eye-contact with him by avoiding his general upper face-area.

“Please take the bed.” His face does this… this honest thing that does something to your insides and you think, damn, he might out-nice you after all.

But screw that.

“Is this you trying to be a gentleman?”

He blinks and then grins, standing a little straighter. “I am a gentleman.”

You burst out a laugh and then cover your mouth to catch the pitch of it, grinning behind your hand. “Sorry,” you snort and shake your head. “I mean, okay. Sure.”

“I am. Private school, got all the lessons. Pulling out chairs. Door-opening. Arm-offering. Know all the proper forks and everything,” he teases and you can’t help but laugh as he grins at you. “My mum would literally kill me if she ever found out I took the bed and made a girl sleep on the floor.”

“Ah, so it’s a sexist thing?” you tease back, trying to kill your smile with a tsk. “That’s not very gentlemanly.”

“What? No,” he blinks and frowns. “That’s not— that’s not what I meant—”

You try to bite back a smile, but he must see it flickering on your mouth and huffs at you. “Very funny.”

“I thought so,” you say with a grin and step around him to look for your bag, which you find by the bed, of course. Because he’s a gentleman, apparently.

You lift it up and over your shoulder, following where Henry points out the side tables with drawers and the closet near the door.

You set your bag on the bed, pulling out your toiletry bag and trying to ignore the feeling of him looking at you.

He pushes out a breath. “We could also just… be adults about this and share the bed?” he hedges, crossing his arms again and looking at you like he’s gauging you for something. You meet his eyes for a too-long moment where something prickles warmly inside your stomach before he shifts again, his lips quirking. “Then my gentlemanly ways would remain intact and neither of us will end up on the floor— or a chair—with a sore back.”

You hesitate, eyes flicking to the bed and then back to him.

“I snore,” you lie because the bed— any bed with him in it, is still a big, fat nope. “And I’m a cover-hog.”

He snorts, scrubbing a hand over his face and shaking his head. “Impossible is what you are.”

“It’s a character flaw.”

Henry huffs a laugh, pushing his hand through his hair and shaking his head. “How about we just wait to see if I can get a cot from another hotel? If I can get one, then this is all rather moot, isn’t it?”

Moot, you think. Probably.

Just like any and all attraction to him. That’s moot. Pointless. He’s probably so used to people looking at him like that, that he doesn’t even register it.

It makes you feel a bit better, honestly.

You shrug because you don’t want to keep arguing with him when ignoring him generally works so much better for you.

It’s a tried-and-true solution to the Henry-Problem.

“Sure. You think you’ll get one?”

He shrugs, tugging a hand through his hair; you like it, you think, the loose, slightly curling bits you haven’t seen before. He’d had his hair different last time, a bit shorter, a bit straighter.

“I promise I’m doing my best?” he offers with a half-wince.

That, and the lift in his voice carries enough meaning.

Not sure at all, then.

Well. He still isn’t going to out-nice you.

You’re Samwise fucking Gamgee.

The bathroom is nice, a bit small, but nice. You plop your toiletry bag on the vanity and glance at Henry’s stuff, already neatly set on one side of the sink. You touch the edge of a cologne bottle, resisting the urge to pick it up to smell it.

Yes, your brain supplies. Absolutely.

That would be creepy, wouldn’t it?

The bathroom already kind of smells like him, anyway; it’s distracting and you let your finger slide off the cool glass of the cologne and look at yourself in the mirror, instead.

There’s nothing going on tonight, no real distractions until tomorrow— you and Clara had planned it that way. It seemed like such a good idea at first, hadn’t it?

Arrive, unpack, relax. Explore a bit. Give into the comfort and mood of the holiday season at the inn while watching the snowfall from a safe, warm distance.

Have a bath. Read a book.

You stare at the shower accusingly.

You’re sure your room had a bathtub.

You mourn a little for the lost opportunity of your quiet room and your e-reader with a hot chocolate or a bit of wine and a bubble bath, before pulling in a breath and righting yourself, fixing your clothes before reaching for the door.

Back out in the room, Henry’s sitting in one the chairs by the fireplace, looking mostly relaxed, watching the fake-glow of the flames, his knees spread in that manspreading slouch so many guys do. You want to hate it on principle, but his thighs are—

Thighs, you think. They’re thighs, get a grip.

Henry looks at you, you look at him. The moment stretches out.

His eyes are… your belly does a little flop and you take a step backwards.

“I’m going to check on Clara and Sam,” you say and take another step back towards the door.

“Already did,” he says from the chair, a little frown between his brows as he sits up. “I thought maybe we—”

“Yeah, but I’m the Maid of Honour,” you interrupt and force a smile as you slip towards freedom. The room is way too small and warm, isn’t it? Unbearable, almost. “It’s like, my job.”

(You know the room isn’t that small. The whole place is rather decently sized. It’s why it won out, after all. The reigning champ of all the hotels and inns and lodges that had been potential venues over the months of planning.)

But it still feels too small. And he’s all you can smell.

You’re definitely not running but you ignore his countering: I’m the Best Man! that follows you out the door— because it just doesn’t suit the narrative of your excuse.

If he noticed your e-reader in your hands, he was nice enough not to say anything.

Ugh, you think as the door shuts behind you lean against the door for a stretch of a moment, standing in the quiet hall and hoping no one comes out of their rooms to see you standing there.

Thankfully, you’re granted that moment of quiet before you push off the door and head down the stairs and towards the main sitting area.

The stair railings are covered in garland, set with twinkling lights and you let yourself relax the further you get from the room and the problem you left in it.

See, you think, ignoring a problem always works.

Downstairs in the main lounge area, there’s a little area set up with carafes of coffee and hot water and hot chocolate.

You pour yourself a mug, slip into one of the over-large sofas in front of the burning, crackling, stone fireplace and wiggle your sock-covered toes towards the fire.

I can totally do this, you tell yourself, and pretend, for a moment, that you’re way more sure than you feel.

#henry cavill fanfic #henry cavill x reader #henry cavill x you #baby it's cold outside

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frostsinth · 4 years ago

Text

Lost Time - Pt. 1

- MasterList -

Dear Gods; Its been a long time without having an active and open orc story. SIX WHOLE DAYS LORDS! So I decided to rectify that immediately. .. With a new orc story. Sincerely... Me.

I have... 3 open stories now, not including the Reptile Monster One-Shot and the OctoMer One-Shot I was thinking to continue... But I missed my orcs. I need an orc story at all times. So enjoy!!

Likes, comments, and reblogs are my sustenance. Check out my MasterList up there ^^^ to read more of my stuff. Feel free to BuyMeACoffee while you’re there. Oh, and don’t forget to check out my Monster Match Giveaway! Closes 9/4!

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The pounding in my head wouldn’t reside, despite how long I kept my eyes closed. I squeezed them tighter, finding my hand in the swirling, spinning pain that was my brain, and willing it to come up to palm my forehead. The smell of dirt filled my nostrils as I did, and I managed a groan. What the hell happened?

Last thing I remembered was… well, that was a blur. A foggy shadow clouding my thoughts. At least, what thoughts I could distinguish amid the blinding pain and dizziness.

I laid my head back against… something, and waited. Nothing else to do for it. Hopefully I wasn’t in any immediate peril, or someone was watching over me. My head hurt too much for me to even consider trying to differentiate between the different sounds assaulting my ears.

The minutes ticked by like hours until slowly the throbbing and swirling subsided. There was still a dull ache behind my eyes, and a stabbing pain at the back of my head. But I found the courage to crack open one lid. Blinding light hit me square, but a few timid blinks had it clearing into a smooth wash of emerald green.

Trees, I realized. Or, more specifically, a canopy of leaves with sunlight splashing through them. As my brain took in that realization, it connected the sounds of rustling leaves it had previously dismissed. The smell of dirt now washed with the smell of greenery and bark. Pine, I thought, though I was sure there were others that were less distinct. The general expected rumblings and trappings of the forest filtered through as well; bird song, a squirrel chittering. And someplace distant, branches snapping.

I managed to sit up a minute or two later, but cradled my head in my lap as a fresh wave of dizziness struck me. I breathed in carefully, in through my nose, then out in a rush through my mouth. Felt the pain subside once more like a cool compress to the back of my head to allow me to look around.

As I might have guessed by the trees and birdsong, I appeared to be in a forest. Though I had absolutely no recollection how I got there. I tried to blink and fight my way through the fog in my brain, but the more I did, the less I could recall. And the more the back of my head throbbed.

I reached with tentative fingers, and found a damp patch in my hair near the base of my skull. I jerked at the touch, pulling my hand back to see the tips coated in drying blood. Well, that explained the pain then. Perhaps the memory loss too, if my limited understanding of such things was to be believed. I realized then that my hands were coated in dirt too. Looking down at myself, I found the rest of me equally disheveled. Had I fallen? I glanced around, but I seemed to be in a flat area. No hills. No rocks. I supposed it was possible I had fallen out of a tree, but didn’t seem particularly close enough to any to surmise that. And why would I be climbing a tree?

Had I been struck then? I gingerly touched the wound again, to see if it would yield any more clues. I winced, but managed to trace its edge. It ran about the length of my hand right at the back of my skull. It wasn’t deep, nor particularly wide. And as I certainly was no expert on wounds, or weapons for that matter, I found no reasonable response.

I dropped my hand, defeated, looking around again. Did I know this place? I asked myself. There was no strong answer if I had at some point been familiar with this wood, then again, there was no strong answer that I had never been here before either. Regardless, I found I was happy just to know the words “tree” and “forest”. I honestly otherwise couldn’t say much else about my time in the world. Nor, a few moments of quiet contemplation later told me, did I know where I was supposed to be.

I was surprised how calm I found myself. Looking around, turning things over in my still throbbing head. Trying to piece together the puzzle that was literally everything about me. It was… oddly comforting. The fact that I knew nothing about myself. I knew words, I knew my approximate age, I knew I had blue eyes and blonde hair without checking. And that was all I needed to know for the moment. I wondered if I had been missing patches and holes rather than the blanket of memory that was gone if I would have been more panicked. Because I would have enough reason to be.

Instead, I found my feet, brushing the forest floor off my pants, and looked around again. The sun overhead was bright. So probably about midday, I would hazard to guess. I didn’t seem to have any supplies with me, therefore I reasoned I couldn’t have come from far away. Right? I mean, hopefully I wasn’t the kind of stupid idiot who tended to go wandering deep into the woods without any overnight gear, food, water, or even a coat. But what direction to go? Picking the wrong way could send me further away from help. And there seemed to be no strong indication that one direction would be better than another.

The loud snap of a branch pulled me out of my contemplations and sent a shiver down my spine. I was suddenly reminded of the fact that it wasn’t just birds, squirrels, and myself that existed in the world. There were other, much larger, much more dangerous things as well…

I turned towards the sound, and found the hairs prickling on my arms. Warning me. A memory? No, it didn’t feel familiar. More like instinct. A response to the realization that something large was moving through the underbrush.

Another snap, this time from my left. I spun again, my heart now racing in my chest. I hoped it was just a deer. But not knowing for certain one way or the other put me on edge. I made up my mind quickly. I would head away from whatever was hiding amid the trees. It seemed a pretty safe bet overall.

I turned, practically running as fast as I dared between the trees in the opposite direction of the last snap. Making an effort to make as little sound as possible as I fled. I kept glancing over my shoulder, as if I would be able to tell if whatever had been snapping branches was following me. Which perhaps was not the productive way to move through a dense forest.

This point was accentuated as my foot caught an errant root, sending me blundering through a particularly large bush. And smacking straight into something quite large. I fell back from the impact, landing on my backside with a soft “oof!” My eyes shot to the warm body that I had crashed into.

He was much larger than anything I would have ever expected to see moving amid the loosely packed trunks of the forest. His torso was at least as thick as the largest of the trees, and I wasn’t entirely certain the dark hair piled on the top of his head and spilling down his back was not scrapping the canopy above. I craned my neck back to look up at him, my mouth inadvertently falling open. He had broad shoulders, armored with layered, plated leather whose thick straps ran across his muscled chest. His skin was a deep green, so dark I wouldn’t have been able to identify the color save for the sparks of emerald that flashed as the sunlight brushed over him. He turned to consider me, eyes narrowing beneath a thick, hooded brow. One side of his face was distorted by lighter scar tissue. It was knotted and torn, twisting his lip and eyebrow as it passed from his hairline, over his pronounced brow and temple, all the way down to his chin and thick neck. My eyes widened even more as they moved from his scars to his mouth, where four prominent tusks protruded from between thick lips.

I didn’t need my memory to decide that this was not a creature I wanted to mess with. I scrambled backwards, away from his great, lumbering form as he took one long stride towards me. He lifted a broadsword as big as I was tall as easily as a child might a stick, resting it on one muscular shoulder as he scowled down at me. He towered over me, looking me up and down with a look on his face that made my stomach lurch in fear.

Having seen more than enough, I managed to jump back to my feet and bolted back through the underbrush. I heard something from behind me, perhaps a growl, though it almost sounded like words. I didn’t pause to try to figure it out. Crashing back through the brush. My shoulder hit a tree painfully as I tried to dodge quickly between them, but I didn’t slow. Nor did I care to try and quiet my progression, favoring speed over grace. After all, I reasoned, he already knew I was there. I hoped my smaller size would allow me to navigate between the trees and brush quicker than he could pursue, and my pounding heart insisted that he would.

Once again, I made the fatal mistake of looking over my shoulder. Perhaps I would have learned my lesson had I not still been nursing a throbbing headache. But that was likely wishful thinking; it seemed to be becoming a character flaw. One which I considered heartily as the ground suddenly dropped out unseen from under my feet.

I gave a shout of alarm, then slid and tumbled down the broken ground. It seemed a storm had uprooted the trees, or perhaps it was an ancient riverbed. Either way, my hasty retreat had me careening off its edge and rolling through the dirt once more. I felt my foot catch on something as I fell, jerking me sharply off course. I smashed heavily into a large tree near the bottom of the incline, jarring my already sore head. I closed my eyes in defense against the sudden barrage of pain, my arms having instinctually curled up to protect myself during the fall.

A minute later, I shook my head, clearing it enough to come back to the present once more. My ankle thrummed now too, and a quick jerk found it painfully stuck between two roots. I wrapped my hands around my calf, trying to tug it free. But merely managing to send another wave of pain coursing through me.

I heard and felt the ground shudder beneath monstrous steps, and yanked harder. Barely stifling my cry of anguish at the sharp searing pain that shot through me again. Panicked eyes looked up, and I nearly swooned at the sight of the huge beast standing at the top of the hillock. For his part, he glared down at me for a moment, before bending to catch the edge of the drop in one big hand and jumping down. In that single movement, he had covered half the distance between us.

I struggled against the roots, trying to loosen their hold, my heart racing in my ears. Another stride and he was upon me. I jerked back, unsure if I should try to roll to the side or raise my arms in defense. A puny defense it would be; the man could likely snap through both of them and my spine with one single blow and still sink his sword into the ground behind me up to its hilt.

I jumped in surprise as he dropped down to one knee, tossing the broadsword to the damp leaves beside us instead of bringing it to bare down on my head. His big meaty hands grabbed either offending root, and with a sharp twist and a loud crack, my foot was freed.

I quickly tugged it backward, dragging myself away from his crouching form which still looked like it might be taller than my standing one. But I found the reaction more wary than fearful. After all, had he wanted to harm me, he certainly didn’t have to free my foot first. Perhaps he liked the challenge of an unbound prey? My heart skipped at the thought.

His eyes watched me, still narrowed and darkened by the shadow from his heavy brow. I could see now they were a brilliant copper, and I swallowed nervously as they appraised me. Again came that strange sound. Deep and guttural. Easily mistakable for a growl. But this time, I was sure they were words. I frowned at him, glancing over my shoulder as if checking he was actually talking to me. When I looked back at him, he seemed to be waiting patiently. Though for what, I couldn’t begin to fathom.

I shook my head, unsure what else to do. “I-I’m sorry,” I stammered, “I don’t understand.”

His big head cocked to the side, and his scowl deepened. I ascertained he also did not understand. Though the intelligence in those simmering copper eyes was now unmistakable. I suddenly felt incredibly foolish for being so frightened of him before; of thinking him some mindless monster or beast. I couldn’t help but remain wary though. After all, he could still mean me harm, and even if he was harmless, why had he pursued me? Why not just shrug and go on his merry way? Certainly it couldn’t be completely out of the goodness of his heart to follow up on me. Though, I wondered, perhaps he had been headed this way anyway. And it was simply coincidence he had come upon me again.

His eyes studied me for a moment longer, then he let out a loud snort. I jumped again as he put his hands on his knees and pushed off, straightening back up to his full height. I had had the impression that I was tall, at least of what I could remember (which granted, wasn’t much). But compared to him, I might as well have been a mouse.

Less panicked by his sudden appearance than before, I used the moment to appraise him further. His arms were thick and muscular, as was his exposed abdomen and chest. Despite his broad shoulders, he had a somewhat narrow waist, but his legs were as big as a tree trunk each. He had layered fur armor like a kilt around his hips that reached to his knees, and tough looking boots that seemed ready to break with each flex of his huge calves. Other than the armor, he was adorned with a huge belt around his hips, a small pouch on each side. My attention was once more drawn to the scar that took up most of one side of his face all the way down his neck, and I saw him turn slightly. Presenting more of his better side. As if sensing my eyes on it and seeking to hide the unsightly skin. I swallowed nervously again, not entirely soothed by my fresh assessment.

But he gave a grunt, then made a very obvious gesture that I should follow him. He reached down and picked up the broad sword, resting it on his plated shoulder once more as he looked down at me. It didn’t seem a demand; I certainly could just… refuse. I wasn’t sure if he would stop me, as he waited so patiently, and I felt my twisting nerves abate a little more. I hesitated, glancing around. Yet it seemed as good an option as any, even though the idea of going anywhere with him still made my knees knock together. What were my other options? Wander haplessly about the forest? Perhaps this creature at least could lead me to its edge. Bolstered by that thought, I worked to get my feet back beneath me and moved to stand.

I was promptly back on the ground, clutching my ankle in pain, as soon as I tried. It felt hot to the touch, and I could already feel it swelling. I heard him grunt, and then grumble something in his own tongue. He extended one hand, bending down a little. I glanced at it, unsure what to make of it, and after a moment he slowly pulled it back. I gritted my teeth, gathering my good leg beneath me and carefully standing. Balancing all my weight on one side with my bad foot lifted. One hobbled, hopping step made me realize walking like this was not likely to be an option.

Another hearty growl preceded my soft “eep!” as I suddenly found myself hoisted into the air. My heart alternated between racing and skipping about frantically and my breath caught in my throat as my hands frantically searched for purchase instinctively. They latched to the straps of his shoulder plates, and I felt suddenly hot as I realized how tightly I clung to him. Tense for the fear of being dropped what seemed like quite a long way down and surprised at having been picked up at all. The man’s burly arm cradled me against his chest, as unbothered as if I were less than a feather to him. I didn’t doubt I was, but was unsettled by the proximity of him. He smelled heavily of pine, moist soil, and wood-smoke, as well as his own musky scent, and his skin was warm against me. I felt a flush rising to my face, and my mouth opened and closed useless. But a glance to his face made me realize he wasn’t looking at me anyway.

With surprising speed and grace, he turned and with a single flex of his thick legs scaled up the broken ground. Bringing us back to the top of the crater and reorienting himself to then follow along its edge. Certainly not the direction I had originally been travelling, though I couldn’t be quite sure where that had been. In my flight I had lost all sense of my positioning, and looked around to try and gather my bearings again.

“Where are we going?” I asked him quietly, unable to keep the nervousness from my voice.

I didn’t expect him to answer, and he didn’t, but it made me feel better to ask anyways. He carried me quietly with one arm, his other hand still holding the broadsword tucked against the shoulder opposite me. I wrung my hands nervously over the straps, feeling his skin brush against my knuckles lightly as I did. Perhaps he was bringing me back to civilization. I was certain he would do so quickly if that was an option, as he didn’t seem eager for my company based upon the deep scowl still on his face. It made the knots of his scar seem more prominent, and deepened the lines. Again, he turned as if he felt my eyes on it. The other side of his face suggested that perhaps he was not very old, not yet middle aged from what I could tell. Certainly an adult, though I had no basis for standards of what that would mean in regards to… whatever he was. I wondered if it was my lack of memory that I had no name for such a green skinned behemoth. Or if perhaps I simply had no experience or knowledge of them. The speed of my pulse suggested the latter, and there was certainly no familiarity about him.

A small, amused part of me wondered if we were of the same race. Perhaps I had just forgotten the gender dysmorphia due to the knock on my head. Which would make my actions prior seem quite ridiculous indeed. It almost made me smile to think that he was just a typical male, and I was the one acting the fool. Which led me to wondering if he found me attractive, and what exactly he meant to do with me.... I quickly pushed the notion aside, as it sent blood rushing to my already throbbing head and brought some sinful thoughts to my own consideration of him. Not to mention the improperness of him cradling me against his half bare chest if that were the case. He didn’t seem very interested in me though, other than a mild, annoyed concern for my existence. Perhaps escorting lost people was simply his job; maybe this happened to him all the time, which was why he seemed so familiar with the proximity.

I resolved to try not to worry too much, as I didn’t have much control over it anyways. The light between the trees was beginning to fade, suggesting a fast approaching night. And given the state of my ankle, I wasn’t exactly in a position to be traipsing off by myself again. Even if I did have some sense of where to go. The conscious decision was not enough to slow my heart though, and my breath still came in nervously shallow wisps.

My hopes that he would bring me to civilization (or at least someone who spoke the same language) were dashed after a long quiet walk as we approached what appeared to be a campsite. It was more permanent than that, I realized, based upon the perimeter of spiked sticks and the separate smoking and tanning racks set beside a stone fire pit. There was a cave, formed amid a copse of dense trees and a prominent pile of rocks. It didn’t look particularly deep, but it was tall enough that the man likely wouldn’t have to bow his head much to service it. A thick fur was pulled back from the entrance like a curtain, and I could make out dark piles of things beyond. A house? I reasoned. Shelter at least, and with night almost upon us, it seemed as good a place as any.

He stomped through the small opening between the makeshift wall, and deposited me unceremoniously next to the fire pit. I opened my mouth to try to communicate with him again as I released the straps of his armor, but he was already off. Gathering logs from a huge pile beside the cave. He set his sword to lean against the rock and brought over an armful of the wood. Dropping it into the pit and crouching down. He drew a flint stone from somewhere beside the fireplace, and with a handful of dried leaves gathered from within reach, he quickly had a smoking flame beneath the pile.

I listened to the sound of the crackling and snapping build as the fire sparked. Watched it lick and bite at the first log hungrily. He bent low to blow some air onto the glow, fueling it’s growth.

“Excuse me,” I braved politely as he leaned back. His copper eyes turned to consider me at the words, even though his frown suggested he still didn’t know them, “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but ah… what are we doing here?”

He watched my lips move, and his own thick lips scrunched together around his large tusks. He appeared to chew at the inside of his cheek, then shook his head and grumbled something in that foreign tongue. No luck then. Still not understanding each other. I sighed quietly, reaching down and rolling up my pant leg to take a better look at my ankle. I removed both of my shoes, rubbing my hand carefully over my foot and joint.

It was painfully swollen now, and I winced as I touched it. I didn’t suppose I was in enough pain for anything to be broken, but knew (somehow) that a sprain could be as bad as any break if not treated properly. I started slightly as the big man grunted and rose to his feet. I watched him out of the corner of my eye moving near the cave entrance, and glanced up at him as he came back over to my side. He dropped down to his knee again, and swatted my hands gently away with one of his. Surprised but wary, I leaned back. I jerked as a cold cloth dropped around my ankle, and I drew in a thin breath as his big fingers slowly eased it to wrap around my joint. A particularly rough movement had me instinctively grabbing at his hand in pain to stop him. I froze as his copper eyes jumped to my face and his movement paused. We stayed like that for a moment, until I couldn’t hold his curious gaze and dropped both my eyes and my hand from his. He began wrapping the cool cloth again shortly after. But I noticed he moved more gently, more cautious of the tenderness of it. He leaned back when he finished to admire his own handiwork.

He said something else in the strange, guttural tongue, then glanced at me again from the corner of his good side. I offered him a weak, thankful smile. Hoping the meaning would get across. He gave a grunt, shaking his head and standing once more.

As he went back to the cave, I was glad for the heat from the fire. The night was quickly forming around us; lengthening the shadows of the trees and bleeding the color from the forest. And with it came a chill that threatened to reach my bones. I eased a little closer to the flames, listening to him rustling amid his things in the cave.

He returned not long after, a piece of rolled up paper in his hands. He showed it to me as he crouched down next to me again, then swept one palm across the ground to clear away leaves and debris. Spreading out the parchment, he grunted again, gesturing to me then the page. I leaned over, frowning, until the dark lines and shapes registered to me.

“A map.” I exclaimed, understanding.

Another grunt, and he pointed to me with one big finger. Then to the map. Speaking in his own language. I looked down at the lines and ridges. I saw mountains and forests and rivers neatly marked. I could identify the names of each of these things, as well as the labels for what appeared to be villages and towns. But a pang of disappointment hit me as I realized I didn’t recognize any of it.

I looked up at him, waiting for me patiently, watching my face. He frowned as I shook my head, and I tried to look as apologetic as possible. He pointed to me again, then the map. I shook my head again, and he growled something in his language. I supposed perhaps he was getting frustrated. I sighed, disappointed, shaking my head a final time. Trying to figure how to explain to him that I wasn’t stupid (at least as far as I knew); I just couldn’t remember anything. He seemed to be getting increasingly impatient, and I shifted nervously as he gestured with one hand almost angrily at me.

He seemed to notice my unease as his mannerisms became more intense, and stilled himself. Instead, sitting back on his ankles and rubbing the back of his neck. His movement reminded me, and I reached my own hand back, touching the still throbbing, tender spot at the base of my skull. I winced, but found the dampness again and pulled my blood stained fingers around. I held them up in the firelight to show him, trying to look appropriately apologetic again.

His copper eyes widened slightly and his thick brows raised. He scooched closer and leaned his big bulk over me. His shoulders were so broad, I felt as though a ceiling had been drawn over my head. I drew in a sharp breath as he reached out and caught my chin in one big palm. His hands were huge, each one bigger than my face, and rough to the touch. But despite the firmness of his grip, he moved gently. Turning my head to the side and down. He spoke as he moved, and the tone was softer. Soothing, almost. I felt the fingers of his opposite hand brush through my hair, and my skin tingled on my neck. I resisted the urge to wince as his thumb brushed the tender flesh around the wound. His nostrils flared and I heard him draw in a huffing breath.

He grumbled, releasing his hold and sitting back on his ankles again. I glanced up at him to see him rubbing at his chin, seeming to be thinking it over. He turned back to the map, and pointed to a forest there. Then gestured to around us, before pointing back at the same spot. I leaned closer, studying the area to see if anything sparked a memory. I couldn’t help feeling a little sad as well as disappointed as I had to shake my head again. I ran my fingertips over the spot, trying to concentrate, my brow furrowing. But my head merely throbbed with the effort, and I reached up with my opposite hand to palm my eye in an attempt to ease it.

I started as his big hand swallowed up my wrist, pulling my hand away from my face. I looked up at him again, swallowing nervously. But despite the heavy set curl of his brow and the deep grooves of the scarred half of his face, I decided he didn’t look too frightening right then. And I realized he never really had been. Every movement and gesture had been slow and careful. Every touch had been gentle... and kind. I had looked at him the first moment I saw him and scared myself, but he had never once given me a reason to justify that fear. He growled something I didn’t have a hope of understanding, then released my wrist to brush his fingers through my hair, pushing it back out of my eyes.

He froze suddenly, his big fingers lingering by my temple. I looked back and forth between his copper eyes, as he seemed to consider something he saw in mine. I saw him shuffle, then clear his throat. He mumbled something else in his language, then turned his head to the side. His long hair fell about his shoulders and I let out my breath as he dropped his hand. He cleared his throat again. Then planted his palm against his chest and gave a hearty grunt.

“Njord’roshan.” He rumbled. I looked at him in surprise. He smacked his breast. “Njord’roshan.” He said again, firmly.

“Neeyord-ro...?” I echoed uncertainly.

He nodded, cocking his head to the side and chewing his lip. Then smacked his chest again. “Njord.” He offered instead.

I smiled slightly as I realized his intent. “Oh! That’s your name. Njord.”

He grunted, nodding his big head as he recognized my understanding. Then gestured to me. I winced, and my face must have fallen again, because he titled his head slightly. Looking at me from the corner of his good side. I shook my own head, giving a little shrug of my shoulders.

“I-I don’t know…” I told him, the realization hitting me then as my hand went instinctively to the back of my skull.

I dropped my eyes to the side, feeling a strange emotion welling in me for the first time since I had woken in the forest. It was… hollow. As if everything about me was wrong. As if I was somehow out of place; a missing piece in time. It made me feel almost suspended from the moment, like the body I was in wasn’t mine. I didn’t even have a name...

Perhaps it was this strange, ethereal concept of myself that kept me from starting as his hand came up again. Brushing thick fingers lightly along the edge of my jaw. His language came from his wide mouth again, and I strained my ears, longing to understand him.

It was a long string of the guttural words, thick and heavy. But softly spoken from between his thick lips, and I watched them move to form each sound. He tucked his knuckles lightly under my chin, and the corners of his lips curled upwards slightly. I found his touch oddly comforting then, and had to fight myself not to reach up and run my fingers over his knuckles. Even as my hands itched to do so. I felt a lump forming in my throat, and tried to swallow it away as my heart skipped a beat.

“Shikobakin.” He told me after a moment’s silence, tapping my chin with his thumb. His lips twitched at the corners again, and he brought his hand to his chest. “Njord’roshan... Njord.” Then reached back out, touching the tip of his large index finger back to my chin. “Shikobakin.”

I returned his smile, though it felt heavy by the time it reached my eyes. “Did you just name me?” I asked, my voice peppered with a hint of amusement.

I thought his returning expression might have been a small smirk, and his copper eyes seemed to glimmer. He patted his chest once more. “Njord.” Then tapped my chin again. “Shikobakin.”

I placed my hand on my own chest. “Shikobakin.” I echoed the strange word, but it felt warmer as I accepted it as my own. I smiled, then reached out and lightly touched his chin with the tips of my fingers, as he had mine. “Njord.”

He stiffened slightly at my touch, and his copper eyes darted down to my hand. He brought his own big hand up, wrapping it around and engulfing my tiny pale one. The big beast gave a pleased sounding grunt, soft and distracted, nodding as he gently pulled my hand from his face. He shifted, angling his head to the side. Turning his scar away again.

After a breath too long, he released my hand, then brought his pinched fingers to his mouth. “Di’chin yiya?” He asked softly, miming eating and patting his stomach.

He didn’t wait for an answer, standing and going over to the smoking rack. He returned a moment later, holding out a large piece of meat to me as he dropped back down next to me. I took it gingerly, offering him a small smile. Our fingers brushed as I took it, and I thought I saw him stiffen. But it must have been my imagination. After all, why would a small little human make such a big creature anxious.

I sniffed at the meat, taking a small bite. I quickly recognized it as fish, and seemed to find I liked it. I smiled up at him as I chewed, pleased I had learned at least two things about myself now. I had a name. And I knew I liked smoked fish. I saw his brows raise slightly as he considered me, and again he turned his head slightly to the side.

We finished the smoked meat in companionable silence, watching the fire bite and lick at the logs. I shivered as the darkness fully settled around us, and hunched up my shoulders against the chill of the night. My ankle and head throbbed in an offset rhythm, and I felt my eyes growing heavier with each passing minute. Especially as the salty fish settled in my stomach.

He passed me a waterskin, which I drank from thankfully. When I lowered it back down, I noticed him watching me from the corner of his copper eye. I couldn’t read the expression on the untouched side of his face, but felt a strange tickling in the pit of my stomach that had me turning my attention to my bare feet. I shuffled them and shifted, kneading the skin gently between my palms before passing it back to him. He cleared his throat, placing the skin to the side. Then smacked his hands together and moved to a crouching position next to me.

He spoke more of his language, jerking his big head towards the cave. I looked up at him, surprised to find his hands reaching out to me. Waiting. I barely nodded my permission before he quickly scooped me back up in his arms and carried me over to the shallow cave. His chest brushed my shoulder, and I found his skin pleasantly warm after the chill of the night. I couldn’t help leaning into him slightly, even as my heart skipped in my breast.

The cave was too dark for me to see, but he seemed untroubled by it. The air tasted damp, though slightly warmer than the outside air. He moved purposefully, bringing me to what I could make out as the far back wall before crouching down once more. I started slightly as he lowered me into something soft and plush. A moment later, I recognized the furs for what they were, and shuffled amid them. I felt his big hands come around, dragging what appeared to be more furs and blankets, making a pile near the foot of the bed. Gingerly, he took my injured ankle and rested it on the elevated lump. I could barely make out his silhouette in the dark, but saw him reach out. Felt his hand brush my cold shoulder. He muttered something, then pulled more furs to wrap around me.

“Thank you…” I told him softly as his motions quieted.

His face turned towards me in the dark, and I tried to trace its outline. I couldn’t see his features, but imagined he must be peering back down at me. I felt a sudden bolt of electricity shoot down my spine as I wondered where he was going to sleep. My stomach twisted at the thought that perhaps we would share the furs…

After a moment though, he leaned back, giving a pleased grunt.

“Wet’hay tlee, Shikobakin.” He breathed, and I found his deep voice a pleasant comfort in the dark. I watched him stand, then turn and head back towards the cave opening.

“Goodnight, Njord.” I called softly after him. I saw him pause in the entrance, his huge, burly body carved out from the night air by the orange glow of the fire. His head turned, glancing over his shoulder at me. “And.. thank you again…”

I knew he couldn’t understand me, but I hoped he understood at least the meaning. He didn’t give a response, and after lingering a moment longer, walked back over to the fire. I couldn’t quite see him anymore, and relented to burrowing a little deeper into the furs.

The motion kicked up their scent, and I was suddenly washed in the deep odor of pine, wet earth, and wood-smoke. And another scent, one I had smelled on him each time he had carried me, though the musky, masculine smell was stronger here. My heart leapt again as I realized that I was, in fact, in his bed. A pang of guilt shot through me. I hoped he would not think me an imposing guest. I certainly would have been fine with just a mat and a fur in the corner. Though the memory of the chilly night air had me pulling the furs tighter about myself in denial of that silent offer.

I brushed the soft fur against my nose, drawing in his thick scent. It soothed me, strangely, and my eyes felt heavier. Warm and feeling better than I ever had in what little time I could remember (which surmounted to that one day), I snuggled down. A few minutes later, I was fast asleep.

...

To Be Continued

#monster x human #terato #exophilia #orc x human #orc lover #orc boyfriend #slow burn #monster lover #monster boyfriend #monster romance #orc romance #Lost Time #oc #new story

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nelllraiser · 4 years ago

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sharks and strippers | group birthday chatzy

LOCATION: a frozen pond in the forest. PARTIES: @chasseurdeloup, @divineluce, @beatrice-blaze, @whatsin-yourhead, @connorspiracy, @phoenixleah, @notsoharsh, @corpse--diem, @detectivedreameater, @letsbenditlikebennett, @halequeenjas, @walker-journal, @seizethecarpe, Jack SUMMARY: nell’s birthday party has a surprise guest.

It was technically still two days until Nell's birthday, but with that actual day of celebration stuck right in the middle of the full moon and during the beginning of the work week, it had made much more sense to have the party today. The three Vural girls had pooled their magic to freeze over the pond they'd found to make a suitable outdoor ice skating rink, and hired someone to rent out skates for those that needed them. Fairy lights were hung around the perimeter of the new ice rink, and not all that far away was a bonfire pit already stacked with wood and marshmallows for s'mores nestled into the surrounding snow. Somewhere nearby was a speaker to play some music to skate along to, but perhaps most important was the little tent and table where guests could find an assortment of alcohol. Whoever said intoxication didn't mix well with ice skating hadn't watched their friends hilariously fall on their asses countless times. The spicy aroma of mulled wine and hot toddy filled the air along with irish coffee. In addition to the winter drink staples there were also the typical options for the more traditional. As she waited for others to arrive, Nell paced by the edge of the rink, realizing perhaps a bit too late that a magical invitation might not be all that intuitive for everyone receiving it. "You don't think they'll get lost, right? I mean- if you saw a golden trail come from an invitation you'd follow it, wouldn't you?" she asked.

Kaden wasn’t really up for a party, but this was for Nell. And the invitation was from Bea. So he’d make a brief appearance. Plus, it was a decent distraction. Might as well. And he knew it would be a sight to see. He ripped the invitation, followed the golden light and ended up in the middle of the woods. Of course they made it a magical invite. It took a while to get there, but none of it felt like the middle of the woods. It was decorated to the nines, as expected. He dropped his present off at the table that looked like it was meant for that sort of thing and saw the set up for alcohol. His first stop. Easily.

Luce leaned against one of the tables that had been set up, her hands tucked in the pockets of her jeans as she stared at the ice skating rink she and her sisters had put together. The effort had taken more out of her than she'd thought it would and, right now? She just wanted to sit down. She didn't even really want to be here. But, after all the shit she'd put Nell through, she had to be here. It wouldn't be fair to Nell if she wasn't here at least pretending like she was enjoying the party. Wandering over to the drink station, she made herself an Irish coffee and took a sip from it. Fuck that was good. They might not have access to the family bank account anymore, but they could still throw a good party. "We're witches. They'll figure it out." Luce said with a shake of her head. "Happy Birthday, Nellie." She added, doing her best to smile in a way that she hoped was convincing.

"I think you're overthinking things," Bea told her sister with an amused smile. "If they don't find it with that, they'll hear the people eventually. Or they can just call one of us. They have my phone number." She went over to the tent with the alcohol,"What do you guys want? I'm getting an Irish coffee." She would be skating drunk later and no one would be able to convince her not to.

The invitation was a little strange. Remmy had fiddled with it for a while before realizing that it was asking them to literally rip the piece of paper in half. As soon as they put that together, they realized that was definitely a very Nell thing to do. Or maybe it was just witches that would do stuff like this. They wondered if Morgan had ever done a fancy invitation thing like this, as they followed the trail through the trees and came upon a lake, frosted over. Nell was there, and they spotted Bea and Luce as well, waving over to them and giving a slow trot over. "Hey! Happy birthday Nell!" they said, trying their hardest to stay bright and happy. They didn't need to think about other stuff right now. Held out the card they'd made her. "Sorry it's not much."

Connor had been happy to receive the invitation to Nell's birthday, but that had led to his tiny dilemma of what to get as a gift. He'd asked Bea for some ideas and brainstormed based on what he knew about her. She seemed the sort of person who would just get whatever she wanted regardless. Ultimately he'd decided on a punny t-shirt that had a cactus on the front with 'Don't Be A Prick' written under it and a six month cactus subscription service so Nell could try out a bunch of different types. He wrapped up warm, like Bea had suggested, following the trail to the party. He put the gift on the gift table, looking around for someone he knew before heading to the bar where he ordered a simple beer. "Hey," he greeted, recognizing Kaden, and recognizing Bea's photo from her online account.

As the invitation led Leah to Nell's party, Leah couldn't help but feel equal parts excited and anxious. It was always a blast to celebrate with the Vurals, but the rumors that they were going to be ice skating had her worried about exposure. She wasn't cold at all, but she was still wearing her heaviest coat, gloves, and a hat. She made her way right to the alcohol tent, knowing full well that's where Bea would be. "Surprise me", she said with a grin, still holding Nell's present under her arm. "Where's the birthday girl?"

As people began to filter towards the party, it seemed that Luce's and Bea's words had come true. With an instantaneous wave at those arriving, Nell greeted everyone with a wide and eager smile, just happy that people had showed up. "Hi guys! Thanks," she said to everyone that greeted her, already bouncing towards the bar where people were seeming to gather. "I'm glad you guys are getting your alcohol before you get on the ice. Then it can be my gift to watch all of you fall." In a moment she was grabbing her own drink in the form of a hot toddy, having already asked for it before the festivities began.

Harsh lurked in the shade, waiting for the sun to dip just a bit more. At least it was getting dark earlier and earlier now. He wouldn't have to wait too much longer to grace Nell's party with his presence. He ripped open the invitation, blinking at the sudden spill of golden light. Witches, they always had the best toys. He followed it, careful to still stick to shady patches where he could find them, just in case the setting sun had it out for him. It didn't take too long to wander his way to the end of the golden path. He dropped his small, neatly wrapped present off with the others before glancing around, grinning when he spotted Nell. He lifted a hand in a little wave before heading over to inspect the booze.

Kaden gave Connor a small wave as he ordered a hot toddy. "I see you all went all out," he said to the sisters. "I expected nothing less." He recognized a number of familiar faces and expected more would file in as the night went on. "Have to say, I'm worried about the ice skating. Did you bring magical first aid kits out here, too? You might need them."

“There’s no location,” Erin pointed out as she inspected the invitation. Keys in hand, jacket on, present in tow, she was ready to head out the door when she realized this one crucial piece of information. How did she miss that when she’d originally received it or when she had made the initial RSVP with Bea? She started out the door anyway, pulling her phone out, hovering over the older Vural sister’s phone number again. “Are you ready to go?” She called back to Marley, narrowing her eyes, scanning the invitation for the fiftieth time. With all the heaviness surrounding them lately, Erin had actually been looking forward to this. She dialed the number and shrugged at Marley as she waited. “I think there’s a typo or something. I'm calling Bea now,” she said, holding it out to her.

Marley picked up the invitation handed to her and read it over once, before rolling her eyes and looking up at Erin. "It literally says right here to rip it in half," she answered, not waiting for Erin to say anything before taking the paper and ripping it straight in half. She handed the two pieces back to Erin before pulling on her jacket. "There better be alcohol at this party," she mumbled, "I don't do parties without alcohol."

Connor smiled over at Nell. "Darling, people are going to be falling arse over tit by the time this is over. If watching people fall is your idea of a good time, you're gonna have a hell of a birthday." He spotted Leah, giving her a grin. "Hey, thanks for the book help the other day." He glanced around. People were still trickling in. "I hardly know anyone here. Some of Nell's friends are kinda old."

Bea grinned at Kaden as her phone rang. "Hello, this is Bea, if this is about the party rip the invitation in half. It'll guide you to us. Bring a jacket too!!" She answered chriply.

Ariana had followed the little lights from the invitation with a fascinated look on her face. While magic was over her head, she found it to be too cool all the same. The little glowing lights led her up to an outdoor ice skating area. She could hear the chatter before she approached and smiled when she saw some familiar faces. She waved in Nell and Connor's direction and brightly greeted, "Happy birthday! Hope you don't mind- I dropped your gift off by your house because it would have been a pain in the ass to carry home. You'll see what I mean."

There were too many people by the alcohol. And, when Luce's choice of who to talk with were between Remmy, Kaden, Leah, some random white boy who was calling people old? Christ. No fucking thanks. Slipping away from the crowd of people, she took her steaming cup of Irish coffee and made her way over to the fire that was roaring off to the side. She didn't care much about the heat or the smores, she was just glad to be out of the fucking away. She'd hang around and make sure the fire was going. She'd do her part to make this a nice birthday for her sister. Glancing across the fire, she pointed at the sticks that were left for people to stab marshmallows on. "If you want smores, go nuts."

Nell waved over at Harsh as he greeted her, hoping the sun would set a little faster so that he'd be able to join the festivities a bit more freely. Nevertheless, she waved him over to the bar where everyone was. Laughing a little she quickly said to Connor, "Why do you think I specifically chose an ice rink? Watching my friends make fools of themselves is my dream." Then she was grinning at Ariana, waving yet again with vigor. "It's that big?" Nell chuckled curiously. "So are you gonna skate with me?"

Connor raised an eyebrow at Ari's mention of her gift. "Bruv, what do you mean? Too big? What'd you get her? A life-size sculpture of Greg the dog?" he asked with a chuckle. He lifted his beer in a small toast. "Happy birthday to Nell, happy party-day to everyone else. I'm Connor, by the way."

Jasmine decided she maybe should have worn more practical heels for this little follow the light to Nell's birthday venture. Normally, she was all about the whole being extra thing, but today, her feet were not particularly feeling it. For Nell, it was all worth it. She'd had a gift in hand that she set down on the table as she approached. She gravitated toward Bea and huffed, "Leave it to you to go all out down to the invitation, Beatrice." She scanned the crowd and waved at a few familiar faces.

Ariana tried to muster her most serious face as she answered Connor's joke. "Obviously. What else would I have made Nell for her birthday?" At Nell's mention of skating, she lit up. Given most of her skating past had included playing hockey, but skating just for skating's sake was always fun too. "You don't have to ask me twice. I love ice skating."

Harsh glanced around, finding a few familiar faces. Huh, it really was a small world. Or a small town, whatever. He followed Nell's wave, casually keeping himself out of the sun. There were enough shadowed spots that it shouldn't be too obvious. "Thanks for the invite, it's pretty cool out here." Trying to catch Kaden's eye, he gave him a little nod. "Hey man, didn't know you were gonna be here. I really need to get out more, I can't remember the last time I went to an actual party."

Remmy,confused, watched Luce slink away and over to the fire pit. They furrowed their brow, but chose to ignore it for now, and smiled at Nell. Moose was already rolling around in the snow, happy as ever. The one person Remmy didn't recognize yet introduced himself as was Connor and they waved. "I'm Remmy," they said, nodding, "and I think I'm gonna try skating!" They backed away and headed over to the table full of skates to rent and picked out their size. They plopped down, put on their boots, and stood up. They hadn't been skating in ages, but how hard could it be? They gave a pointed glance towards Luce at the fire pit before stepping out onto the ice, watching Moose tentatively test it out before deciding to sit happily in the snow at the edge.

"I do have some magical first aid kits, just so you know. I'm prepared for a few scraps," Bea told Kaden. She looked over at Jasmine with a shrug,"You remember how her birthdays were as a kid. She deserves all out." Bea and her friends had always been the few people who came to Nell's birthday parties when she was young. Her classmates, and even the kids in the coven, had avoided Nell. Her sisters had to give Nell a good birthday, especially after how this year has gone for them.

Connor nodded, giving Remmy a smile. "Nice to meet you, mate. Once I've finished this beer, I might grab a pair of skates myself. Hopefully still got enough of my ballet co-ordination to not make an absolute dick of myself." He edged a little closer to Nell, lowering his voice. "How do you know the old people?"

Erins’ mouth gaped as she literally tore the invitation. “What are you--” Almost at the same time, Bea answered and confirmed her question before she could even say anything. Lights appeared out of thin air. “Oh. Thanks. See you soon.” Of course. Magic. That was pretty cool actually. She hung up and led the way. “We’re going to a 24 year old’s birthday party. If there’s not alcohol, I’m leaving,” she joked. Kind of. But if she thought the lights were cool, the frozen pond that definitely shouldn’t be frozen in this weather was just as cool. She moved towards the first familiar face she saw, surprised to see her realtor with Bea, as well as a few others that were less pleasant surprises. “Oh, great,” she mumbled to Marley when she saw Kaden, waving towards Bea and Jasmine. “Please tell me you see the alcohol.”

Ariana snickered to herself as she heard Connor whisper about the old people.

Leah R Sipped her sangria, eyeing the rink cautiously as she walked closer to Bea, Kaden, and Jasmine. "How good are those first aid kits at healing broken bones?" she teased playfully. There was no way she would be out there skating today, but it would be fun to watch her friends tumble over each other. She glanced at Kaden, giving him a short, tight smile, before she looked back to her friends. "That stripper dude that came to your birthday isn't coming, is he? I think it's probably too cold for a stripper."

Luce wasn't surprised by the way Remmy looked at her and she let out a sigh. This wasn't the time or place for drama. Taking another large drink from her cup, Luce looked at the fire and nudged it with magic. The flames turned a slight blue color as she helped it burn a little higher. Glancing over the firepit, she watched as Jasmine, Erin, Marley, and a few other stragglers made their way into the party. What the fuck kind of shoes was Jas wearing?

It took a quick moment to lace up her skates, and in another second Nell was making her way to the ice with her drink still in hand, beckoning the others along. Nell's snicker was quick to join Ariana's before she said, "You know old people need attention, too. If you don't pay attention to them that's how they get wrinkles." Her tone was purposefully loud enough for anyone in the vicinity to hear."

"I sure do," Marley answered, because she'd scouted out the bar table the second she'd gotten there. There were a few familiar faces around, including Langley, of course, but she really didn't care. She didn't exactly want to be here in the first place, but Erin had bullied her into going, and she did kind of like the littlest Vural. Even if she was annoying. Mostly. She split away from Erin and headed towards the bar table, not waiting for her, sunglasses snug on her face. The sun was bright and it was making her head hurt to look at, and this place had just the cure. "Mexican coffee," she said, pointing at the tequila and then the big pot of coffee. "Put a little extra love in it, too."

Jack hadn't expected to be invited back to an event by a Vural after the last time, and definitely not socially rather than as a performer. As he eyed the ice and his breath curling in the cool air, he was kind of glad of that though. He couldn't quite show off his incredible abs and biceps to the crowd in his coat, but there was no amount of clothing that could hide his immaculate silhouette. He slid over to the bar with a casual grace. "Hey Bea, how are you doing?"

Jasmine nodded as she remembered Nell's birthday parties when they were kids. She never quite understood why other kids didn't show up but she was glad Nell got to have something this special now. Even if she did have to walk out here in heels. Skates would actually be a nice change of pace. "Point taken. Next time just warn a girl and she'll wear chunkier heels." She nudged Bea's arm jokingly and gave Kaden a wave. She was just going to gloss over the fact she thought he was a stripper up until a couple of weeks ago. She smiled brightly as Erin approached and said, "You could not be more right, Erin. I need a glass of wine."

Kaden gave Harsh a nod back. "Yeah, I've been friends with Bea for a while now. Nell's had to put up with me at enough dinners over at their house. Guess that earned me an invite." In truth, he cared about Nell, too, but admitting that was different. "How do you know the Vurals?" He blinked in confusion as he saw the stripper from the last party walk in. It was... outdoors. And cold. There was no way they were going to be subjected to this again. At least no one was asking him to strip. Again. For now. Putain. "I think I'm going to need more alcohol for this."

Connor snickered, lightly elbowing Nell. "Oh, better make sure you give them all the attention then. Especially that truck-sized man over there." He could see the sheer size of the man's muscles even beneath the layers of clothing. "Is that Remmy person cool? I'm trying to decide how long is socially acceptable to wait before I ask to pet their dog."

"Not good at all," Bea replied. She wished she could drag her friend out there, but the risk of her breaking wouldn't be worth it. "You could hang out of the edge of the pond? We could try to skate around there if you wanted." She let out a soft laugh as Leah spoke,"I invited him actually. He's sweet and here he comes now!" She grinned at Jack,"Hi! I'm great, so glad you can come! How are you?" She looked over to Jas quickly,"Try the mulled wine! Jack, do you want something to drink?"

Harsh couldn't bite back a laugh. "Wait, you had a stripper at your party? Okay, I clearly need to party with you more often." He turned his smile toward Leah. "Hey, don't think we've met, I'm Harsh." Looking back toward Kaden, he shrugged. "Nell and I hang out sometimes, I haven't spent too much time with the others though. I guess now's a good time to change that."

Jasmine laughed al Nell spoke more loudly. "Yeah, if you don't believe in the old people. They just wither and wrinkle away." She shot a glance over in the area Kaden, Erin, and Bea were standing. She shrugged and looked over to Remmy and asked, "Hey, do you mind if we pet your dog?"

Ariana laughed al Nell spoke more loudly. "Yeah, if you don't believe in the old people. They just wither and wrinkle away." She shot a glance over in the area Kaden, Erin, and Bea were standing. She shrugged and looked over to Remmy and asked, "Hey, do you mind if we pet your dog?"

"Oh hey!" Nell exclaimed as she spotted the enormous man seemingly appear out of thin air which was...quite a feat for someone so large. "Have you met, Kaden?" she asked, pointing towards the man in question. "I think he's actually looking into the stripping business if you have any tips for him," she said in a hushed tone to Jack. Then she turned back to Connor. "Yeah, Remmy is great! And if Moose isn't working I'm sure they'd be fine if you asked to pet him. He's a good boy." Then she turned to Ariana, trying to tug her friend towards the ice with her.

Leah shrugged, not at all put off by not being able to participate in the more physical activities that her friends enjoyed. She was used to it, honestly. "I'll just hang onto the side if I get the urge", she teased, right before her eyes went wide at Bea's next words. "You, invited him? Are you buds with an immaculately sculpted stripper now?" Leah felt heat rise to her face at the idea of it, remembering how forward the man had been at Bea's party. A stranger's introduction was the perfect excuse to calm herself down from the embarrassment. "I'm Leah,” she said with a smile, shaking his hand. She wondered if her body heat crept through her gloves. "I'm good friends with Nell's sister, haven't missed one of her birthday parties yet." She smiled as she looked around at the other members of the party, most of whom she'd met at least once before. "Everyone here is pretty cool, mostly anywhere. There are a few stragglers", she said, her gaze falling to Kaden.

Connor nodded a hello to the other person close-by that he didn't know, who had introduced himself as Harsh. Ariana, in true form, wasn't shy about asking about the gigantic Leonberger. "Well, I don't see a vest on him, so I guess it's okay to ask." People were heading towards the ice, so he decided to go and rent some skates too.

A long, elongated shadow moved under parts of the ice, bumping against the ice occasionally.

Bea pointed at the ice and laughed, "Look, a shark."

“You and me both,” Erin grinned at Jasmine. “I didn’t know the whole town knew the Vurals.” She wasn’t surprised to see Marley already ordering something for herself and followed suit to the table and ordered a glass for herself. “I thought this was supposed to be a kid’s party?” She joked, watching the crowd. Not that she was complaining. She leaned closer to Jasmine, smirking, lowering her voice like she was sharing a secret. “Also, did I overhear someone say there’s a stripper?”

Luce tossed a fresh couple of logs onto the fire and brushed the bits of bark off her hand. Walking away, she made her way back towards the ice, moving past Leah, Jasmine, and Bea. Raising an eyebrow at Leah's words and pointed glance at Kaden, she raised her eyebrows. As she neared the edge of the ice, Luce frowned. There was a dark shadow under the ice-- what? What the fuck was that? Looking over at her sister, Luce rolled her eyes. "It's probably just a piece of driftwood." She said, though she kept her eyes focused on the strange shape.

Connor turned his head at the mention of the word 'shark', furrowing his brow. "Oh, nah, not more White Crest bullshit. It's a birthday party, bro."

Nell saw the shadow moving beneath, and for a quick second wondered whether Ma'al's tentacley ass had decided to make an appearance. Was that cult appropriate? "Maybe it's Squidward," she chuckled, remembering the demon who had lived in the lake.

Jasmine tilted her head and gave Leah a questioning look as he gaze implied Kaden wasn't cool. She barely refrained from asking about it in the moment. Instead, she smiled brightly at Jack. "It's nice to have you here as a guest." Though she did slightly prefer his stripping attire. "Mulled wine it is." She agreed with Erin and said, "They really do, but it's good to see a familiar face. How do you know the Vurals?" She laughed at the mention of there being alcohol and a stripper at a kids' party.

Remmy stopped in the middle of the rink at the mention of 'shark' and glanced around their feet. They noticed the shadow swimming around under them then over to the edge. "Is that, like-- possible? Is he okay? Do you think he's scared?" they asked, skating over to the edge back near Moose and trying to scrape away some ice with the pick of their skate. "Should we do something!?" they asked worriedly.

Kaden rolled his eyes at Leah's pointed comment towards him. What he did to piss her off other than existing, he didn't fucking know. At least he knew why Marley and Erin disliked him. That was good and earned. His brow furrowed at the mention of a fucking shark in the pond. "Only in goddamn White Crest. What is it?" he asked as he approached the ice, drink still in hand but reaching for his knife, just in case.

Bea laughed,"Are you shocked that I became friends with him? He was fun at the birthday party and I love having connections with performers." She kept her eye on the shadow, "Luce's right, it's driftwood, but I'm also right and it's a shark. Driftwood shark. Sharkwood?"

Luce glanced over at Remmy, blinking at their question. "I really don't think that it's a shark. Bea's joking. Or hitting the irish coffee too hard." As Kaden walked up, hand going to the knife on his belt, Luce scowled at him. "Stand down, Ranger Rick. It's nothing. We would have noticed if there was a damn shark in the pond." Right? They would have noticed, right?

Connor hadn't even got to the skate rental booth. He'd turned to watch what was happening with the shark. He doubted it was spiritual in nature, so an exorcist wouldn't do any good. Instead, he stood at the edge of the pond, a little ways back. "Of course Kaden's got his knife." He wasn't complaining when the guy had helped with his Snicker Snacker problem, but at a birthday party? Only in White Crest.

With everyone distracted, maybe Marley could just slip away and go home. Erin seemed to be having fun with her actual friends, anyway. The woman she was with was one Marley recognized from somewhere. Like...a post sign or an ad for something. Marley squinted at her, luckily her gaze hidden behind her glasses, but she wasn't exactly being subtle about it. She sipped her coffee and plodded a little further away, sitting near the fire pit but away from most of the others gathered around it. Where the _fuck_ did she know that woman's face from?

Nell took note of her own knives that were nearly always on her person, not pulling one out but all too willing to take a tease at Kaden despite the hypocrisy of it. "It's the only way he knows how to make friends." It was...actually somewhat true considering all the people he'd to mistakenly hunt and then befriended.

Harsh returned Leah's handshake, more than a little grateful that her gloves probably hid the fact that he was a little colder than he should have been. "Nice to meet you. If they throw a lot of parties like this, I've got to get myself invited to more." The word 'shark floating around turned Harsh's head, his brow furrowing. Well, it probably wouldn't be a White Crest party without some kind of insane nonsense. He casually sauntered a little closer to the ice, trying to catch a glimpse of the supposed shark. "Well, if it's not hurting anyone, or itself, maybe we should leave it be for a bit."

Ariana looked down at the ice and tried to decipher what was underneath it. "Doesn't look like a shark." She peered over the ice as she tried to get a better look before shrugging and deciding to skate anyway. "Come on," she motioned for Nell and Connor to join her while also laughing at the joke's at Kaden's expense.

Leah shook her head with a laugh, grinning. "Listen, I don't know why anything shocks me anymore. As long as you think he's cool and he won't give me a lap dance, I don't mind getting to know him." She tilted her head as the attention turned to a figure under the ice. "A pond shark? It's pretty unlikely". It was more likely a Selkie or a mermaid, here in White Crest. She hoped whoever froze over the pond checked for anyone alive underneath, first. She nodded at Harsh's comment. "Yes, let's let it Bea. It's probably just, uh... saying hello!"

The shadow swam another lap of the pond at unbelievable speeds, banging its tail against the ice where the crowd was.

Remmy shrugged, then, looking at Luce and then everyone else who just didn't seem to care about what was under the ice. Whatever it was, it probably was okay under there. Still a tad nervous, Remmy stood back up and skated backwards, slowly, away from Luce and towards the middle again. "Should we at least give it a little place to get out?"

Erin should have been better prepared for that question. Any which way, her connection with the Vural’s was wildly illegal. “Oh, just family friends,” she shrugged, taking a hearty sip of the mulled wine. And then another when there was sudden talk about a shark in the pond. “Sharks and strippers. Why does this feel appropriate for a Vural party?” Maybe she should have been more worried about whatever was floating down there but she couldn’t bring herself to do more than drink again. Erin glanced over at Marley and narrowed her eyes. “Are you…good?”

Connor wandered over to Jasmine, almost like a child returning to a mother's side during a time of crisis. "Hey, do they have pond sharks in White Crest?"

Jasmine vaguely noticed one of the women staring at her. It wasn't entirely uncommon, her outfit did look great. She decided to stay at the table with the alcohol at the mention of a shark in the pond. It wasn't surprising to see Harsh check it out more closely. Ever the hunter that one was. She stayed close to Bea as she had no need to see what animal was in the pond. "I don't know what it is, but I think I'll let someone else figure it out." Not a ghost, not her problem was her mentality for today. Especially with a hunter present. She still felt eyes on her so she opted to smile and wave.

Luce jumped back as the shadow moved under the ice and began to smack against the ice. "Fuck!" She swore, startled by the sudden movement and noise. Glancing over at Leah and the random dude next to her, Luce glanced around at the people who were gathered. Pond shark, or whatever the fuck it was, didn't wanna be in there. At Remmy's words, she nodded. "Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. Outta the way, people." She said before raising a hand. A small flickering blue flame appeared on the ice and began to melt through. As a hole began to form, Luce snuffed out the magic and then drove the heel of her Doc Marten into the weakened section of ice. Kicking at the ice, she broke open a small area of water and looked down at it. "Uh... shark? You there?" She asked, feeling real fucking stupid as she did.

Harsh grimaced. Alright, that probably wasn't normal. Pond sharks were one thing, but aggressive, turbo, pond sharks were probably worse. He glanced around. "Alright, maybe it's time to get off the ice." He drew a little closer, watching as Luce took charge. "We should give it some space. If it's confused, it might bite anything it gets close to."

Bea watched as she sipped her coffee. It was mainly whiskey, but she was happy with it nonetheless. Pond sharks were exciting and people seemed to be intrigued by it. "I gotta thank whoever put the shark in the pond, this is fun," She wondered if Luce did it as a surprise like Nell had hired Jack for her party.

Jasmine nodded. "Family friends, good stuff." She gave Bea a smile and explained, "I've known this lovely lady since kindergarten." Her attention turned to Connor as he approached and she gave him a pat on the shoulder, "I know the lake used to have a squid. Don't know about pond sharks."

Connor was too stupid to be scared of whatever was in the pond, and instead opted for excitedly intrigued. He sensed he was about to watch one of the Vural sisters do some magic and was thrilled at the prospect. "I love that."

"Wait, I wanna see what it is!" Nell told Ariana as she tried to skate away. "Maybe he just wants a drink..." she mused before tipping a bit of her drink onto the ice as if she were making an offering. "Here you go, Shark-Boy."

Jasmine pouted and scooted up towards the edge of the ice. "It's probably just a fish!" Maybe not in White Crest, but she wanted to skate. "Oh my god," she laughed as Nell poured out a drink on the ice. "You're really giving a whole new meaning to pouring one out for the homies."

Marley felt like her name was right on the tip of her tongue, the mystery lady at the table, but she couldn't figure it out. Grumpily, she sipped more of her coffee, finishing it off before standing up and heading over for another. While she waited, she looked at Erin, then to her companion. "I know you from somewhere, don't I?" she asked, rubbing her eyes briefly before glancing sideways at Erin. "Peachy keen," she said with a grimace, "I've got coffee and alcohol, what more could a girl want?"

Ariana pouted and scooted up towards the edge of the ice. "It's probably just a fish!" Maybe not in White Crest, but she wanted to skate. "Oh my god," she laughed as Nell poured out a drink on the ice. "You're really giving a whole new meaning to pouring one out for the homies."

Jasmine tilted her head and tried to gather if she recognized the other woman. "I don't think we've met, but I'm Jasmine. You've probably seen some of my advertisements around town." She raised her glass towards the woman and said, "Good to meet you."

Bea inched closer to the crowd, she wanted to see the shark. "Do sharks like coffee?"

Luce scowled as Nell leaned over and poured her drink into the ice. "Don't do that. You might... drown it? Can coffee drown sharks? Or is that poisoning?" She asked, looking around for anyone who might have more than a high school freshman biology background.

Adam busted in late pretty sure his ass was grass for getting 'delayed'. However when it turned out that the lady of the hour was peering as some shark circling beneath the ice, siblings and dumbasses in tow, Adam promptly decided to take a swig of birthday wine earlier

Connor couldn't hear all the conversation that was going on surrounding the shark, but he'd decided to forgo getting his skates for the time being. He put his empty bottle in the recycling and ordered another drink. "Well, whatever it is, Kaden is about to go all Crocodile Dundee on it's arse, so I'm not worried about it.”

Leah glanced toward Bea as she inched closer to the pond, pressing her lips together. "I don't think they do... but are we sure that's even a shark?", she wondered aloud. She sipped from her sangria again, she was far too sober for this.

Remmy skated over a little closer to the hole Luce had made and watched with the others, wondering what might come out of the hole. "It-- I...don't think sharks can drown, Luce," they said, a little confused. Could they? "Don't they like...breath water? They've got gills and stuff..." They looked over at Luce and Ariana, pouring stuff onto the ice and into the hole for him. "Maybe we're scaring him by all standing around. SHould we give him some space?"

"It's a shark for sure, I have a degree in this," Bea told Leah seriously, though they both knew that was a lie. "Do you think the shark can get caffeinated?" Seeing Adam, she waved,"Adam! There's a shark here!"

Jasmine took a sip of her mulled wine and looked towards Kaden. Crocodile Dundee? She trusted Harsh to handle it more if it was really needed. "Right, well, he can have fun with that then. I'll be over here enjoying my wine away from the wild life."

Adam threw up his hands and said. "People told me NOT to bring my guns to a party! What the Hell!"

Jasmine shook her head at Nell's gun nut boyfriend.

Connor had watched Adam stroll in. He hoped the guy had brought Nell a bloody good present for turning up late. She didn't seem too upset about it though. "That's Adam. He's just... special."

“Oh, I remember the squid,” Erin shook her head. Boy howdy did she ever. “Jasmine’s the one who got me set up in my apartment, actually,” she added, glancing at Marley, though it was hard to keep her attention off of the group circling the hole in the lake. Leaning against the bar, she ordered another drink. “They look like they’ve definitely got it under control.”

Luce raised an eyebrow at Adam's outburst before returning to the hole. There wasn't anything going on at the moment, but that didn't mean it wasn't gonna pop out of the ice and try and eat them or something. Poking at the water with her boot, Luce looked at Remmy. "Shark's got stage fright? I mean, I've heard weirder shit, so you might be onto something there." She said before shuffling back a bit.

One minute, Dave had been scouting out whether there was any Gryndylow in this tiny pond, beating the pond bottom with his fin to disturb whatever was down there and get a feel for it. The next, he was resurfacing and had banged his head against a lid of ice. No way in hell had it been anywhere near cold enough to freeze over the entire pond in the ten minutes he'd been down there. But it had. Dave had swum around and around, looking for any gap, and had bounced his body against it to try and break the ice until he had a headache. It was only then that he began to worry, the oxygen in his arteries slowly running out. When he'd noticed shadows moving over the ice, he'd tried to get their attention, banging on the ice. Suddenly part of the water warmed up, and he felt the ice crack through his whiskers. Dave swam up quickly, poking his heavily scarred snout out of the water to breath deeply. Imminent threat of death solved, he now had to address the seal in the room: that there shouldn't have been a seal in this pond, and that there definitely shouldn't have been a loose leopard seal on this side of the equator.

As soon as the seal's head broke the ice, a look of slight disappointment came over Nell's face. "Oh. It's a seal." A shark would have been cooler.

"Oh, yes! Right! That's where I've seen your face! On the bench outside the precinct! You're the realtor gal, Jasmine Hale," Marley said, excited suddenly, that something, finally something could come to mind without hours of sitting and thinking about it. She sighed with audible relief and grabbed her next drink, sliding up next to Erin, suddenly much less moody than before. She leaned against Erin as she held her hand out to Jasmine. "Marley Stryder. Nice to meet you. For real. You're like half a celebrity in this town, considering your face is everywhere."

Adam looked at Bea with a scowl that betrayed just a hint of disappointment that a deadly predator hadn't shown up at a social occasion. "It’s a fuckin seal.”

It struck Connor that he'd been the first to ask how Nell knew all these old people, but now he was the one hanging out with them all while the rest of them were skating. "Jas and I only met after I'd found my beach house, but she's pretty good at her job. I bet your place is sick." He turned his head at the commotion as the shark - which actually now revealed itself to be some type of giant seal - emerged from the icy water. "Don't stab it! Or shoot it!" He called, stepping closer to the ice. "Just... I dunno, let it wobble off or something."

"Well, it looked like a shark!!" Bea isn't sure why anyone believed her, but it was nice to know her influence. "Do seals like coffee? Or whiskey?"

Ariana stopped skating as she saw a seal emerge from a hole in the pond. A seal. In a pond. Was it Ricky or Skylar? She'd never actually seen them as seals before so she skated closer to the opening. She eyed Adam and Kaden to see what their reaction would be. "See, it's just a seal. No reason to not skate."

Kaden was waiting for a monster of some sort to pop out from the hole in the ice. It was absolutely the sort of thing that would happen in White Crest. When he saw a seal, a leopard seal at that, all he could say was "putain de merde." There was no reason a seal like that could be in a pond unless it was a selkie. He really should stab it. He would have a year ago. But for now, he sighed and put the knife away. "Leave the seal alone."

Harsh glanced at the weirdo yelling about guns. "Yeah, I still don't think shooting it is the best idea. But I think we should all give it some space, like they said," he noted, nodding at Remmy. His eyes went wide as a seal poked its head up out of the ice. Well, that was new. He moved closer carefully, kneeling near the open hole. "I think it's alright, but uh, I wouldn't give it any alcohol."

Luce swore as the ice was broken and a big fucking animal poked its head out of the water and huffed. "What the fuck is that thing doing in our pond?" She asked. Looking over at Nell, she realized her sister was right. It was a seal. And now Adam had figured it was a seal. Okay, apparently everyone was a fucking zoologist or whatever. "Yeah, what the pasty british kid said. No one attacked it. Just stay away from the hole and let it have room to breathe or whatever."

A seal? Wait-- it wasn't-- Remmy blinked and focused on them. No, not Skylar. Sighing with relief, they skated back over, still keeping a distance. "Umm, are you okay mister seal? Or um-- misses seal? I can't-- I don't know seal genders..." they looked over at everyone else, up to Luce, shrugging. "Maybe they got stuck? Do you need help? I think there's a river close by..." But no one else seemed to be moving to try and help the surprised looking seal. "Should we help them?"

Leah laughed at Bea, shaking her head. It was definitely not a shark, then. But a seal, which meant it was a selkie, which meant they probably needed some room to breath. "Maybe we should leave it alone", she said, agreeing with Kaden for once. She was surprised that he wasn't attacking it, didn't hunters hate selkies, too?

"Big seal," Bea observed. "I'm kind of disappointed that it wasn't a shark, but a seal is cool too." She considered her little sister's friends for a moment, before speaking to the crowd,"Don't try to pet the seal too."

Adam disappeared off to the greenhouse for a time and returned with some plywood planks. Merrily slide-swearing his way out to the pond, Adam proceeded to cover the hole so people didn't plunge in.

If Dave had been able to hear the reaction and thoughts of everyone there, he would have been offended. As Immo's most murderous character, he was definitely more dangerous than the average shark.

Connor couldn't even be upset at the pasty British kid comment, considering it was true. "Yeah, see?" He swallowed another mouthful of beer, deciding he was actually going to get his skates now. He joined the others on the ice within a few moments, but not too close to the seal-hole. "Come on, mate. Weirder shit happens in this town than pond sharks and pond seals. As long as it isn't eating anyone, it's fine." He looked over at Adam, who'd returned with some planks. "Dude, I know you're a football player or whatever, but you know seals need to breathe, right?"

As the wood covered the hole, Nell tried to pour a little more of the hot toddy through the planks of it, figuring the seal should also have a good time. "It's okay- maybe he just wants a drink."

Adam peered down at the seal whose hole he was boarding up, give him a long "Dude we gonna do this or naw?" stare.

Luce shrugged at Remmy's suggestion, shaking her head as she stared at the seal that still had its head poking out the hole. "I'm not about to try and get that thing outta here, I'd get my hand bitten off if I tried to help it out." Watching as Nell moved to pour more alcohol on the animal, Luce grabbed her sister's arm. "C'mon, don't fuck with the wildlife." She chided. "How'd you like it if someone dumped a hot toddy on your head after you got out of bed or whatever?"

Dave carefully considered his options, breathing deeply. They'd forget this, right? Regular humans would talk about the weird fish they'd seen. Just as he'd gotten enough air for half an hour, that fucking kid he'd met in the underwater cave that one time began boarding him up. I damn well saved your neck back then he thought aggressively at Adam, slowly slinking back into the water. As a hot liquid was poured on him, he jerked back in clear discomfort, diving back under the water. He'd have to wait until they fucked off before leaving.

Erin raised a skeptic eyebrow at Marley, her mood suddenly brightening. Didn’t have time to question it as the creature was revealed to be a seal. “Aw, a seal?” Wait, a seal? Her first thought went to Skylar. She doubted it was her but she started gravitating a little closer. “Jesus Christ, Nell, stop pouring alcohol on the seal!” She yelled.

"Aww, oh no," Nell said as the seal obviously didn't like her offer of a drink, not having meant to pour it on the seal. "Sorry!" she called down into the hole even after the seal had disappeared. "I can get something colder if you want?"

Adam murmured "Hey uh Nell....did you like...brain-warp this seal in here..or?"

Remmy frowned, a bit sadly, as Adam started boarding up the hole the seal was in. What if it was a selkie, like Skylar and Ricky? What if they were worried or scared? But they didn't have too much time to contemplate this, as the seal recoiled and dove back under. "Ahh, wait-- oh," they sighed, "bye seal." Waved at them before standing up again and looking down at Luce. "Are you gonna sulk by the fire pit the whole time, or?" they asked, raising a brow. "Don't tell me you don't know how to skate."

Nell considered the question for a long-moment in her inebriated state, wondering if she had actually Summoned the seal here. "...maybe? I don't think so. No- if it was me it would have been a shark. A shark would have been cooler," she lamented once again.

Kaden shouted out at Nell, "What did I say? Leave the sel-- seal. Leave the seal alone." He grumbled and went to refill his drink. He was going to need a lot more to deal with this.

Harsh rose as the gun weirdo moved to board up the hole. Well, crisis apparently averted then. He so needed a drink. Hands in his pockets, he wandered back over to the drinks table to grab something strong.

Adam gave Nell a helpless 'babe your crazy is hot but it scares me' grin and stood up to awkwardly scoot his way over to actually get some skates

Ariana kept skating around the ice and her features brightened up as she saw Adam grabbing skates. "Finally."

Bea looked over at the older crowd around her, "Do we want to get on the ice too?"

Luce looked over at Remmy, squinting as they waved "bye seal" to the weird fucking seal chilling in the pond they'd commandeered for the party. Okay then. Well, that was enough excitement she could take sober. She needed some real fucking alcohol. "I do know how to skate, but I'm sure not gonna do it when that," She gestured to the recently vacated airhole, "is swimming underneath us. Did you see those teeth? It'd fucking bite off a leg. I'm gonna drink is what I'm going to do."

Leah glanced at her friends, deciding what might be best to do. "I'll just walk on the ice, not skate. That's way less chance of me falling in, right? Walking and holding onto the side." Somehow, the drink in her hand was already empty, and a warm haze surrounded her vision.

Jasmine took another long sip of her wine and happily said, "Absolutely. Now that I know nothing in the pond will try to eat me, I'm game."

Connor skated around with Ari and Nell and Leah and now, Adam. "Are you the only one underage?" he asked Ari, giving her a little smile. "Don't worry. Fuck pre-gaming. We can post-game at my house now that it's not infested any more."

Kaden sighed. "Are you going to make me?"

Adam looked back at Connor with a frown, wondering if the infestation was ghosts or cockroaches or satan or something but decided not to ask. He tied up his skates and began breaklining across the pond, perhaps unsure of what 'casual skating' was.

Remmy shook their head. "Scaredy cat," they teased, before skating away. Moose had been following them along the outside of the pond, running back and forth, making sure to stay away from the hole. Finally, he settled into the spot next to Luce, laying down next to her as he watched Remmy skate away. They were choosing to have a good time, Luce could stay behind and be grumpy all she wanted. They skated up to Nell. "Wanna race?"

Jack was better in high heels than skates, but he got on the ice with enthusiasm. "I don't know what all the fuss was about that big fish," he said with a shrug, flexing his gorgeous muscles as he skated about with perfect grace - even when he lost his balance and fell on his ass.

Ariana knew Remmy wasn't talking to her, but couldn't resist a good race. "Hell yeah she does. I'm getting in on it, too."

Marley took another long sip, watching as everyone finally dispersed once the seal was gone and the hole was boarded up. She looked over at Erin, who had started walking towards the pond as well, yelling at Nell. "Ah, leave her alone," she said, grabbing at Erin's arm, tugging her back, "it's her birthday. Let her be crazy." Besides, she wanted Erin to stay with her. "Wanna roast marshmallows? I hear those are supposed to be good or whatever." Plus, she'd never done that before, and she kinda really wanted to try.

Connor was more than happy to join in one the race, provided they all stayed away from the hole. "Oh, I'll play too, but can I please pet your dog after? He's so cute."

Bea put on her skates and waved to all her friends. "Come on! Have some fun! See Jack is having a great time!"

Adam zipped to the far side of the pond and produced a 'flag' from the jersey under his jack, holding it up high for the races to take their places.

For the rest of the evening, Dave would periodically resurface in that tiny hole to breath, and spent the rest of his time judging everyone at their ice skating skills.

Erin winced when the muscle-y hunk of a man she could only assume to be the stripper hit the ice hard. She wanted to skate but she got the impression Marley wasn’t ready yet. “Sure, marshmallows sound good. But don’t think you’re getting out of getting out there with me,” she said pointedly before following Marley to the open fire.

Seeing Remmy come up beside her, Nell didn't hesitate to answer. "Hell yeah I do!" she echoed Ariana's sentiment. "I can start us off." Then she began a countdown. "Three...two...one...go!" On the word 'go' she didn't hesitate to playfully shove both Remmy and Ariana as she took off and Adam worked his makeshift flag, trying to get a cheap head start by throwing them off kilter. Then she called back to Erin and Marley. "Yeah! Leave me alone!" she laughed as she skated on, carefully avoiding the hole in the ice. Despite the seal, and perhaps even in conjunction with the seal, the warmth of the party had her grinning as she raced around the rink, unable to think of anything she'd trade this party, company, and seal for.

#sharks and strippers #chatzy #wickedswriting

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wonderful-writer · 4 years ago

Text

08 - Hallucinations

Summary: As Y/n, Bellamy, and Clarke embark on a day mission to visit an aid depot, tensions run high when Clarke attempts to talk with Bellamy about the exodus ship and Jaha. As Y/n and the others hallucinate, she talks with someone she hasn’t seen in a very long time.

Word Count: 3.80k

Based Off: 01x08 “Day Trip”

You were healed enough to start walking around, but Bellamy made sure that you knew you couldn’t do any heavy lifting. So you were on food duty with Jasper and Monty, who kept eating the Jobi nuts as a snack while they worked.

“You know, if you did your job instead of eating our supply, we might get this done quicker.” You commented with a raised brow.

Clarke came to check up on you for the second time that day as Monty and Jasper talked about the grounder, leading you into your tent. “How are you feeling?”

“Bored out of my mind.” You admitted. “Bellamy won’t let me do anything besides pack away and sort through the food and I’m dying to do literally anything else.”

Clarke laughed at your words as she wiped down your wound and replaced the bandage. “Well, I won’t be in camp today, and neither will Bellamy. Get Jasper to clean around the wound before you go to sleep if I’m not back, okay?”

“You’re leaving camp? Where are you going?” You asked, hopeful that you could tag along.

“They gave us coordinates to an aid depot that could keep us safe throughout the winter.”

“Can I come?” You asked and Clarke immediately protested.

“No, you’re not healed enough.” You begged her even though she kept saying no.

“Look, you’ll be able to check my wound and replace the bandages while we’re there, and you can help if anything happens to me. I promise I won’t carry anything too heavy, I can bring the food and medical supplies so you won’t have to.” She sighed at your words but nodded anyway.

“Fine. But if you rip your stitches, you’re going to be in a lot of trouble. From both me and Bellamy.” You hugged your friend in thanks and started to stand up with her help.

Just then, Bellamy poked his head through your tent’s flap as you let go of one another.

“Clarke, let’s go.” He pulled his head out of the tent and you grabbed your pack, heading over to the food as Clarke stalled.

“Why are you taking the food?” Monty asked.

“I’m going out with Clarke and Bellamy,” You replied simply, taking a small sac of Jobi nuts and showing them into your bag.

“No you’re not.” Jasper cut in protectively.

“Don’t worry, Jasper. Clarke is gonna be with me the whole time, and if anything happens she can help me. I’ll be fine.” You assured him. You grasped his hand tightly before letting go and walking over to Clarke and Bellamy.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Bellamy asked defensively.

“With you and Clarke.” You said casually, strolling along until Bellamy caught your arm.

“No, you’re not. It’s dangerous and you haven’t fully healed yet.” He bore holes in your face with his eyes, but you ignored it.

“I asked Clarke and she said it was okay, so I’m going. I have medical supplies in my bag in case anything happens, and I promised I wouldn’t do anything that could rip my stitches.” You pulled your arm from his grip and walked with Clarke as he sighed and trailed behind.

You made your trek in silence, snacking on the Jobi nuts you packed with you, until Clarke spoke up.

“You know, the first dropship is gonna come down soon.” She said, swallowing a jobi nut. “Pretty sure you can’t avoid Jaha forever.”

“I can try.” Bellamy snipped, ducking to avoid a branch.

Clarke pulled out a map as you looked at the wasteland of what looked like a part of a city. You tucked your nuts back into your bag as Clarke said that the depot was supposed to be in the area.

“There’s gotta be a door.” Bellamy guessed.

“Maybe he’ll be lenient.” Clarke suggested.

“Look, I shot the man, Clarke.” Bellamy snapped, fed up with her talk of Jaha. “He’s not just gonna forgive and forget.”

“Let’s just split up, cover more ground. Stay within shouting distance.”

As Clarke moved down the hill and Bellamy moved in the opposite direction, you caught his arm. He turned to look at you, his expression tired.

“Hey, are you okay?” You asked, tone genuine.

He sighed, but answered with a hesitant, “Yeah.” Before walking off again, leaving you to turn and explore the other side of the hill.

Not long after, Clarke called out to you and Bellamy. “Over here! I found a door.”

You slid down the hill and walked over to where they were to find Clarke trying to pull on the handle. “I think it’s rusted shut.”

Bellamy broke the lock with his axe as they pulled the heavy door open. You went down after Bellamy, Clarke handing you and him flashlights.

“Do you really believe this place hasn’t been touched since the war?” Bellamy asked.

“You never know,” You responded honestly. You trudged through the insanely dark aid depot in relative silence, aside from a sigh and the sound of footsteps. As you went down the stairs, Clarke caught sight of a skeleton.

“Hell of a place to die.” Bellamy commented. You said nothing, but quickly brushed past the body.

“So much for living down here, this place is disgusting.” Clarke stated. You nodded your head, knowing that she couldn’t see you.

“Anything left down here is ruined.” You said, taking note of the water damage.

“They must have distributed most of the supplies before the last bombs went off.” Clarke said. You all opened different containers, Bellamy’s had glow sticks and Clarke found some blankets.

When you opened yours, there wasn’t much in it. Just a few empty ration packets and a sword. It caught your attention, so you picked it up. You unsheathed it, the sound catching Bellamy and Clarke’s attention. You smiled at the weapon, shiny and in pristine condition.

You looped the sheath around your belt, just above where your daggers still rested on your thighs. Bellamy tossed the glow sticks down the hall to help light the way as Clarke told him that at least it was something.

“Well how about a canteen or-or a medkit or a decent fricking tent?” Bellamy raged. He slammed his hand down on an oil barrel, noticing the sound it made had indicated that it wasn’t empty. He opened it and saw that it was full of some liquid that he hoped could be water for us to drink, but upon sticking his fingers in it he realised it was grease.

Angry, he kicked over the barrel, hearing something fall out of it. You all turned your attention to it, Bellamy shone his light on it to reveal a shit ton of guns. The three of you took the guns out of the water and cleaned them off, making sure none were damaged. Bellamy painted an x on one of the blankets and hung it from the ceiling as a makeshift target.

“This changes everything. No more running from spears.” Bellamy said as he made his way back to you and Clarke. “Ready to be a badass, Clarke?”

“Look, I’m not gonna fight you on bringing guns back to camp. I know we need them but don’t expect me to like it.” She told the man.

“We’re lucky the rifles were packed in grease. The fact that they survived means we’re not sitting ducks anymore. You need to learn how to do this.”

You sighed and picked up a gun. “I mean it is pretty cool. I, for one, like the protection of a gun. Beats getting stabbed at close range.” You joked with a smirk, and Bellamy turned to you, taking the gun from your hands with a stern look on his face.

“You aren’t going anywhere near a gun until you’re healed. Understand?”

You scoffed at his words and moved to the side, leaning up against the container of blankets. You felt upset at the fact that he was keeping you from learning how to properly learn how to shoot a gun and let Clarke have one even if she didn’t want it.

You didn’t see a problem with having a gun before you were healed, but apparently Bellamy did. You watched him and Clarke as he got really close to her, and it unnerved you.

“I’m gonna get some air, this place is stuffy.” You told them, walking away and ignoring their weird looks.

You grabbed your bag and walked up the stairs and down the dark hallway, back up the main staircase and into the fresh air. You walked deeper into the woods than you probably should have, but you didn’t care. You didn’t understand anything anymore.

One minute you were in the woods and the next, you were in darkness. You couldn’t comprehend anything, reaching blindly out into the void. “Bellamy?! Clarke?!”

You ran around, panicked, until a spotlight came down on you, and then someone you thought you’d never see again. “Mom?”

She smiled at you and held her arms out for a hug. “Hi, honey.”

You ran to her, but as you tried to hug her, she vanished. You turned again and there she was.

“You’re not actually here,” You concluded. She nodded sadly and walked closer.

“You’ve grown so big,” She noticed, small tears glistening in her eyes. You nodded at her sentence before she spoke up again.

“Listen to me, Y/n. I don’t have a lot of time.” She warned.

“But I’ve been watching over you. And I know you’re upset at your father, and you have every right to be. But he’s worried for you. He heard about your wound and he’s scared.” You scoffed and rolled your eyes, but let her continue.

“Y/n, don’t blame him for what happened to you, please. He loves you with his whole heart. He didn’t trust himself to take care of you after I was gone, he couldn’t. He loved you and he didn’t want to screw up.” You felt her hands on your cheeks, even if she wasn’t there.

“And that boy that you’re friends with, Bellamy? Do you trust him?” You nodded at her.

“I trust Bellamy with my life, mom.”

“Good. He’s good for you. And you’re good for him, I can see it.” She gave a big smile.

Tears leaked out of your eyes and she began to speak again. “Bellamy is a great man, stay with him. You need each other more than you think.”

There was a knowing look in her eyes and you nodded again. You felt her start to fade away as she told you one last thing. “I love you, bug.”

“Mom?!” You called as she faded with a smile. “Mom, come back! Mom! Please!” You fell to your knees and let the tears fall.

You closed your eyes and when you opened them back up, you were in the forest again. It was much darker than before, the sun completely set. You heard talking nearby, and you assumed it was Bellamy and Clarke. “Bellamy?”

You stood up and made your way to where you heard the voice, still a little bit loopy from the vision you just had. When you made it to the clearing you saw Bellamy lying on the ground and Dax standing over him with a gun to his head. He attempted to shoot Bellamy but his gun clicked. Bellamy reached for something you couldn’t see, but when he held his hand up, there was nothing there.

You noticed Clarke standing a few feet behind Dax with a gun of her own, and got her attention quietly, then signalled for her to wait. You then ran as fast as you could, picking up speed as you went, then running into Dax’s body as hard as you were able and sent him toppling to the side. You straddled him as he put his hands out to push you off, but you managed to fight them off and punch him twice in the face.

It was then that Dax got the advantage and rolled over, so that he was now on top of you, with a knee to your chest. He grabbed the discarded gun and stood up, kicking you in your left side before moving over to Clarke. She tried to shoot him as he explained that Shumway said no witnesses, and you held onto your wound as you struggled to stand up.

Your hands were wet with your blood as Bellamy attacked Dax and fought him off, but Dax had the upper hand and hit Bellamy with the butt of his gun before attempting to choke him with it. Clarke ran up to Dax and tried to get him away from Bellamy, but Dax kicked her down before she could try anything.

As Dax did so, Bellamy had a window of opportunity and grabbed the bullet that fell from Dax’s gun and shoved it into the side of his neck, effectively killing him. Bellamy panted at his actions and went over to you, hoisting you up by your shoulders and dragging you to the tree Clarke rested herself on to recover from being winded.

You were sitting between the two of them and were reminded of their actions, but didn’t think about it much as you remembered that you ripped your stitches. Groaning in pain, Clarke turned her attention to you, even though she still needed a few minutes to recover herself.

“Stop, Clarke, I’m okay.” You protested, but didn’t move when she lifted your shirt.

“You’re okay, Bellamy.” You told your friend, but the look on his face said otherwise.

“No, I’m not.” He disagreed. “My mother… If she knew what I've done, who I am- she raised me to be better, to be good��”

“Bellamy-”

“And all I do is hurt people.” He cut you off. “I’m a monster.”

“Bellamy, look at me.” Your hand reached up to his cheek, forcing him to look at you. “You are not a monster. The things that you’ve done, Bellamy, you did to protect the people you love. And I understand that. You were willing to do whatever it took to find Octavia and to keep her safe.”

“You brought a grounder into camp and if you hadn’t done so, I would have died. Bellamy, you know that the chancellor survived and because of all that you’ve done for the camp, he might help you. And I can make sure of it.”

“How?” Bellamy asked tiredly.

You moved to pull yourself up, but Bellamy helped you instead. “My father can help, if I talk to him. I know, I hate him, but if it gets you out of being killed, I think it’s worth it.” You gave him a small smile as he asked who your father was.

You looked down at your wound as Clarke began to sew it up again, wincing. “My father is Marcus Kane. He can help -- that is, if he doesn’t hate me.”

“I doubt it.” Clarke cut in softly. “As soon as the radio was working he asked for you, if you were okay.”

You nodded and absorbed this information, thinking back to your mother's words. ‘He loves you with his whole heart.’

Clarke finished up your wound and replaced the bandages as Bellamy looked back up to the sky. His arm was still around your torso to support you, but you didn’t mind it. Once you all found the strength, you carried all the weapons you could find, along with blankets and whatever else was salvageable back to camp.

You only carried the blankets as Bellamy and Clarke dragged the guns. When you got back to camp, everyone was in a panic because the grounder escaped.

“Let the grounders come,” Bellamy interjected. “We’ve been afraid of them for far too long, and why? Because of their knives and spears. Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being afraid.”

You smiled at Bellamy’s words. You knew that he was talking about something entirely different, and you were happy that he was going to face Jaha instead of running from him. Clarke and Bellamy shared a look as they revealed the many guns they found to the camp, while the delinquents gasped in astonishment.

“These are weapons, okay? Not toys.” Clarke told the camp. “And we have to be prepared to give them up to the guard when the dropships come. But until then, they’re gonna help keep us safe.”

“And there are plenty more where these came from.” Bellamy resumed. “And tomorrow, we start training. And if the grounders come, we’re gonna be ready to fight.”

Later that night, you had Clarke set up a meeting for you and Bellamy with Jaha. She tried to protest and ask if you were okay with her going in instead, but you were persistent. “If push comes to shove, I’ll talk to my father. I won’t like it, but I’ll have to face him eventually, and if it keeps Bellamy alive and with the camp, then it’s worth it.”

She only nodded and went to go get him for you. You took a deep breath and wiped your palms on your pants, until Bellamy came up to you.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” He asked.

“I should be asking you that question.” You laughed, before heading into the tent.

“Mr. Blake.” Jaha addressed as you sat down and put your headsets on. “I’ve wanted to talk to you for quite some time now.”

“Before you do,” You spoke up. “I’d like to say something. When you sent us down here, you sent us to die. But miraculously, most of us are still alive. And a large part of that is because of him. Because of Bellamy.”

You looked over at him with a small smile before continuing. “He saved my life, among the many others here. He’s one of us, and he deserves to be pardoned of his crimes just like the rest of us.”

“Y/n, I appreciate your point of view, but it’s not that simple.” The counsellor said.

“It is.” Bellamy spoke. “If you want to know who on the Ark wants you dead.”

Jaha looked up from his hands and into the camera before speaking. “Bellamy Blake, you’re pardoned for your crimes.”

As the words left Jaha’s mouth, a dam of relief flowed through you. He wasn’t going to be killed. You got to keep your best friend.

“Now, tell me who gave you the gun.”

“Commander Shumway, sir.” Hearing the name gave you flashbacks, one you didn’t want to have. These kinds of flashbacks induced panic in you, and all you could see was his face. You whimpered in fear, the image of him beating you as his friends laughed striking fear in your heart.

You felt a hand on your wrist and in your panic, you screamed and shook it off, falling out of the stool you were in. Your breathing picked up and you felt a weight on your chest, causing you to start hyperventilating. There were hands on your cheeks and you didn’t fight them, you couldn’t focus enough to do so.

Everything in sight was blurry, memories of the Ark blending with your sights of the tent you were in. You felt a pull and then your face was pressed against something, but you still couldn’t tell what it was until Jasper’s voice filtered into your ears.

“You’re okay, Y/n. You’re okay. You’re on Earth, remember? You’re not up there anymore, he can’t hurt you. Just breathe with me and you’ll be fine.” You copied the movements of his chest and soon enough you were back on Earth, in Jasper's arms, with a panicked Bellamy in front of you.

“S-sorry.” You smiled awkwardly.

“Are you okay?” Jasper asked, and you looked up to meet his eyes.

“I’m fine now, Jasp. Thanks for helping me out. I haven’t had a panic attack in years.” You patted his arm and he released you, so you got up and hugged him before he left the tent.

Bellamy’s eyes were still locked on you and you tried to comfort him, but counsellor Jaha cut in. “I apologise, but there’s someone here to speak to Y/n.”

“Who?” You asked as you turned to the camera.

“Your grandmother.” Your heart swelled at the thought of speaking to your grandmother again, and Bellamy left the tent to give you some privacy. You slipped the headset back on and sat on the stool as your grandmother came on screen.

Tears welled in your eyes as she smiled warmly at you. “Hi, Nana.”

“Hi, darling,” She greeted. “How’s Earth?”

“It’s fun down here, Nana. It’s so green and smells fresh, you can plant the tree down here and it’ll grow nicely. The rain feels amazing, too.” You raved. Her laugh filtered through the headset and you almost cried. You missed your grandmother more than anyone else.

“I miss you, Nana.”

“I miss you, too. But soon I’ll be on Earth with you and we can plant the tree together, okay?” She proposed. You nodded gratefully and wiped the happy tears from your face as there was a comfortable pause.

“So, who’s the boy?”

“Nana!” You called. “There is no boy! I’m too busy running a camp full of teenage criminals to have any boys in my life, besides Jasper and Bellamy.”

A smile grew on her face as she looked at you knowingly. “Ah, so his name is Bellamy.”

“Nana, it’s nothing like that!” You spluttered. “Bellamy also runs the camp, and he’s just my friend.”

“Okay, okay,” She raised her hands in mock defense. “I’ll see for myself when I get there, bug. But it sounds to me like there’s a little more that’s going on than what you think.”

“There’s nothing to see, Nana. He’s my best friend, and he helps lead camp, that’s all.” You explained.

“I know there’s more to it than that.” Vera prodded.

“Okay, so he saved my life a few times, what’s the big deal?” You admitted casually.

“I knew there was more to it, there always is. A grandmother can always tell.” Vera smirked and you laughed.

“There isn’t anything more to it, Nana. Like I said, he’s my best friend.” You shrugged.

“I’m sure he is, sweetheart. They’re telling me I have to go now. Would you like to talk with your father?” Your eyes cast downwards at the mention of your dad, but you looked up to meet your grandmother.

“No, I’m okay. I’ll see him when he gets here, and I’ll see you then, too, okay?” You told her, and she nodded.

“Bye, sweetheart.” She blew you a small kiss and you returned it, seeing her small smile once more before she got up and left.

Taglist: @soullessbabee | @hyperion-moonbabe-art3mis | @dummythiccwitch | @sireddobrev | @gxvrielle

#bellamy blake #bellamy blake imagine #bellamy blake series #bellamy x reader #bellamy x you #bellamy x y/n #this is war series

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fletchphoenix · 4 years ago

Text

Change Of Plans

Chapter 3 of Hugo’s story - I’m thinking this is just the main 7k storyline but from Hugo’s (kinda) perspective! Hope you enjoy!

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Hugo groaned as Olivia rolled on the pillow beside his head, pushing the mechanical rodent away before immediately groaning in pain at the throbbing feeling in his shoulder. The hell was that? Oh. Yeah. Bullet wound. Mumbling, he pushed himself into a sitting position and flexed the metallic fingers of his prosthetic arm, glancing down at it and frowning at the reminder of his past.

He’d only just left the orphanage in town, not wanting to stay there and rot after he’d been tossed back and forth between orphanages and foster homes and just being abandoned each time by people. In his defence, he’d been needing parts to fix Olivia and the guy at the stall had his back turned - he really thought it would be an easy steal. Just get what he needed and go to his alley and fix Olivia.

But of course life was never that simple for Hugo, was it?

The guy had caught him, grabbing his arm and slicing it clean off until it was nothing but a bloody stump that cut off at his elbow. He was just a kid too - only just turned ten when the incident had happened, though that was the day he’d met Donella and been taken in by her. She’d done a lot for him, creating the prosthetic and training him in self defence, though it didn’t change or erase the memories that he was haunted with.

Hugo sighed softly, his hand sliding over his bedside table and picking up a few spheres full of alchemical compounds. After obtaining the spheres, he pressed a little button on the side of his prosthetic, a section popping up before he slid them into it and pressed it down gently to secure them in their hiding place.

Rising to his feet, Hugo changed into his clothes and stretched out, grumbling in pain as he, once again, hurt his shoulder. He pushed his glasses up his nose and reached out to take his hair tie, tying his hair back into a ponytail and heading towards the door.

Donella had said there was a mission for him, though he really wasn’t sure what she wanted. Hopefully it was just a short mission.

--------------------

It was not a short mission.

After an extensive explanation on her previous studies, which Hugo had almost fallen asleep in the middle of, she revealed where he was headed. Koto, aka one of his least favourite places to be, only topped by Ingvarr and the security there. Damn, Koto was terrible, and now Donella had doomed him to go there and make sure this..random child didn’t try to steal some ‘ancient totem’ because her ‘livelihood and career depended on it’.

He sat on a roof silently, watching as the two boys weaved through people in a crowd towards a rather large lion statue, the smaller of the two babbling and seemingly annoying the taller one. Hugo’s head tilted slightly as he examined the taller boy, leaning forward slightly with a satisfied grin. He was kinda cute if he was being honest, the way he was trying to calm down the younger boy mesmerising Hugo in a way that he couldn’t describe. Hugo could tell from afar that he had buck teeth as well, a smile creeping its way onto Hugo’s face as he watched him awkwardly smile and talk to different stall owners. He genuinely looked happy to be there.

So naive.

The smaller boy beside him seemed very overexcited, pretty much jumping like a puppy and wondering at his side. If he didn’t know any better, he’d assume the pair were mentor and mentee, not just some people who met on a farm out of desperation. Hugo silently watched as they turned a corner and went out of sight, obscured by one of the red, paper lanterns that hung from rope across the city.

“Shit. Well Olivia, looks like we’ve gotta scavenge, sweetheart.” Hugo sighed, exasperated as he carefully made his way down from the roof and shifted in between bodies stuck in a crowd, Olivia squeaking from her place in his pocket. He felt like he’d travelled through endless crowds trying to track down the pair, though he couldn’t find them whatsoever. Curse his targets being small. A groan left his lips as he moved to the sidelines, a hand running through his fringe. Why did he even say yes to this job in the first place? He could’ve just said-

“Okay I think the entrance is here.” A voice echoed down an alleyway, Hugo slipping into it and positioning himself behind a wall as he watched the two younger boys press a few buttons and head down a staircase hidden underneath the statue. His job just got a whole lot easier, the blonde sneaking over after a few minutes and heading down the staircase.

This was about to be the easiest job in his life.

-------------------------

Hugo easily stepped through the trials, the two boys providing him a clear path to his goal. It was almost heavenly, being able to do what Donella wanted so easily. His eyes studied the room he was in as he strolled through it, ears trained to listen out for any traps that might be situated in the room.

The space itself was..rather pretty. Red pillars rose to the equally red ceiling of the cavern, seemingly carved out from the earth itself, which was plausible considering how far down he was under the ground. Emerald dragons curled up the dragons, with golden details at the top and on the walls surrounding him. He smiled smugly as he strutted past them, his hand wrapping around it.

“Hey! That belongs to us!” The same voice from earlier exclaimed, Hugo turning his head to meet the blue eyes of the pretty boy from earlier, the grin on his face widening. This day couldn’t get any better - upon a closer inspection of the teen’s face, he could see all the little freckles that decorated it and made tiny constellations across his cheeks.

“Yeah, we earned it!” the shorter boy complained, Hugo paying him no mind as he lifted the totem to his face and studied it. There was an abundance of little intricate details that decorated the totem, notably a little fire symbol in the centre and a slight reddish tint to the wood and overall design of the totem.

“Huh, weird. Cause I’m sort of the one who’s holding it...so I feel like that sort of means that it belongs to me-” He began before being rudely interrupted by the pretty boy, his wooden staff pointed out at the blonde as his face twisted into an expression of anger and resentment towards the man. It wasn’t a good look on him.

“No way! We completed the trial, not you! Whoever you are..Hand over the totem!” he yelled as the smaller boy fished into his pocket to point a red tube over at Hugo. So they wanted to do this the hard way, huh? Well, that sucked. He really wanted the pretty boy to be less confrontational, but when does anything in his life go right at this point?

“I like your magic wand. S’pretty!” He declared simply before glancing over at the smaller child with a smile. “Ooh! And some fireworks! How fun! But, you two are adorable,” He shot a wink to the taller of the pair, smirking at his discomfort in pleasure, “but I’m on a schedule, so..” And with that, he raised his prosthetic, ejecting a sulfur-infused stink bomb from its chamber in his arm and rushing away under the blue smoke as the two boys coughed and wheezed.

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“You shoulda seen their faces, Cyrus! It was hilarious!” He laughed as the stronger, stoic man ushered him towards his boss’ tent. “Geez, couldn’t ya be a bit softer on a poor little orphan boy?” Hugo complained, Cyrus rolling his eyes and resorting to (quite literally) shoving the boy through the entrance and straight into his boss. “Hey Don. Got your glorified wood.”

“What took you so long? I thought I said it was a fast assignment.” Donella, as optimistic as ever, picked up the totem and examined it closely, something resembling a smile taking its place on her face before she glanced at the blonde again. “I’m waiting.”

“Oh yeah.” Hugo began, folding his arms and stretching. “Well, there were these two kids who were doing the weird little tasks in the room. One of ‘em was a tiny kid. Seemed local to the area and acted like a dog. And there was one with this long ass staff, a book and a blue streak in his hair.” His boss’ head shot up at that, her breath hitching for just a moment, though it was almost unnoticeable because of the noise outside the tent from her henchmen. “Ma’am?”

“Ulla’s boy.” She whispered under her breath as a hand raised to thread through her hair, Hugo’s eyebrow raising in confusion at the sudden change in atmosphere, before his boss raised her head with a smug expression.

“You’ve had a change in assignment. I want you to become...acquainted with those boys and finish the trials with them. Then, when you’re done, report back to me with all the totems. I’ll be willing to give you a generous raise in pay when you’re through. Enough to get you to the higher tiers of Pittsford. So. What do you say?” She grinned before pausing. “Hugo.”

Hugo stood in silence for a second as he raised his eyebrow at Donella skeptically. She was offering all he ever wanted. A home in the higher tiers of Pittsford, money, a life of luxury, and judging by the look in her eyes, she was being one hundred percent serious. But could he risk being away for that long with kids who have the potential to figure out he’s lying to them? “You aren’t kidding are you?” He saw a nod from his peripheral vision and a sigh passed through his lips. “See ya later then, boss. Don’t miss me too much.” He muttered as he left the tent, totem in hand and bag swung over his shoulder. Brilliant. Now he had to convince these kids that they could trust him.

It didn’t take him long to find the pair wandering through the forest aimlessly, carefully slipping in behind them. “Hey.” He began, a puff of smoke in his face as some kind of vial was thrown to the floor and a cloud of smoke filled his vision. He coughed and tried to move, glancing down at his feet. Some kind of pink goo kept him stationary as the pretty boy paced around him and looked him up and down. “Like what you see?” he chuckled at the flush on the boy’s face before the staff was raised to press against his throat. “Relax, goggles. I haven’t got any traps on me. Just wanted to return this with a proposal.”

Hugo reached into his bag to present the totem, the raven haired boy immediately trying to swipe for it before Hugo raised it above his head. “Ah ah ah! Patience. Me and the totem are a package deal. Let me come with you and get the rest of the totems.”

The trio stood in silence for a second before the taller boy spoke up. “Why should we trust you? And why the sudden change in heart?” He questioned, an eyebrow raised and lowering the staff a little, the wood now knocking against Hugo’s orange-tinted glasses that hung around his neck. Good. He was letting his guard down.

“Because i’m devilishly handsome, and I saw you two little helpless children and decided that I couldn’t leave two kids to suffer through such...strenuous trials.” Hugo glanced up to see two unimpressed faces staring back at him, letting out a frustrated sigh. “I felt bad and thought you needed someone to stop you from getting robbed. Oh, and the name’s Hugo. Don’t wear it out.”

The two boys locked eyes, silently debating for a few seconds, before finally the older relented and sprinkled a solution over the goo that covered the blonde’s feet. “I’m Varian.” He stated as he stood back up, “And the small one is Yong. Try anything and we’re taking the totems and leaving you in the nearest kingdom, is that clear?”

“Crystal.” Hugo replied as he began to walk forward. “Cmon then! We have some totems to collect!” he declared, a grin on his face at the sheer stupidity of the two teens and how easy this mission was gonna be.

His dream was finally coming true.

#tangled varian #varian tangled #tangled hugo #hugo tangled #varian and the seven kingdoms #rapunzels tangled adventure #tangled the series #tangled donella #donella tangled #yong tangled #tangled yong

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baseballbitch116 · 5 years ago

Text

Your Walking Dead - Daryl Dixon Interactive Love Story

A/N: The way this is designed is so that YOU get to choose how you would like to proceed through the story. At the end of every chapter, there will be 2 options. There will be different consequences to your choices! Every choice you make will change the outcome of the story. No two choices will provide the same outcome! YOU can determine who survives, where you go, and overall how your interactions with Daryl will go!

Introduction: Follow along on your journey with Daryl and the others throughout the series... You choose your actions... Will you end up with Daryl? YOU have the power to decide that!

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x reader

Setting: We begin in the Atlanta camp, before Rick has joined.

Word Count: 1420

Series Warnings: Gore, violence, strong language, potentially triggering content, sexual themes, death, mentions of drug/alcohol consumption and abuse...

Chapter Warnings: Brief mentions of violence, strong language

Masterlist

Send Me A Request! | Series Masterlist

[This idea was inspired by @twdeadfanfic, who is creating her own series with a similar concept!]

Without further ado... Let’s get into it!

To say that you had run from Atlanta would not be an exaggeration by any means. You quite literally ran through the streets of the once thriving city as the dead took over. Nothing could have prepared you for this. You had no survival skills whatsoever. You couldn’t hunt, fire a gun, build a fire... Fears overwhelmed your mind as you ran through the streets, dodging the dead as they tried grabbing you at every opportunity. You had nothing but a backpack of limited essentials.

Someone had broken into your apartment in an attempt to escape the dead chasing them, in turn allowing the flesh-hungry dead to get inside and force you out. You probably would have died if you hadn’t met Shane and Lori along the highway. You had no weapons, having lost your steak knife in the arm of one of the dead back in the city. Wandering down the stand still traffic on the highway, you were desperate. Lori spotting you as you stumbled down the road, dehydrated, out of breath and limping. You owed her your life for offering you a bottle of water that day a few weeks ago.

You are drawn from your thoughts by the sound of someone approaching. Glancing up from where you sat on the RV’s stairs, you shoot a weak smile at Dale. “Are you alright, Y/N?” The older man asks as you stand to move out of his way.

“Just thinking about... Everything.” You respond. Dale nods as he studies your face. You’ve had some conversations with the older man before about these sort of things - what the future might look like, what could be happening in other area of the world...

“Best not to dwell on it too much, I think.” He says, patting your shoulder as he passes you and enters the RV. You couldn’t help but feel like you weren’t pulling your weight around the camp, though. As you looked around, you saw most people doing one thing or another. Lori and Carol were washing clothes, Shane was cleaning his shotgun, Glenn was on watch for walkers on top the RV. You knew that if it weren’t for some of the others in the camp, you would not have food or a fire or weapons.

Deciding that you needed to find a way to earn your keep, you head over to Lori and Carol in order to help them with the laundry. It certainly wasn’t a task that you desired, and you found it slightly belittling that only the mothers in the camp washed clothes - but you needed something to do.

Striking up light conversation with the two older women, you got to work on hanging the damp clothes up to dry. You had grown close to Lori since she let you tag along with them out of Atlanta - feeling that you owed her and Shane. Who knows what would have happened if you hadn’t met them...

You felt a pair of eyes on you as you worked, making you glance around your surroundings in search of whoever was alarming your senses. A scoff escapes your lips when you spot Merle Dixon’s eyes on you from the door of the RV. The older man had been hitting on you from the moment you met him a few weeks back. He had to be at least twenty years older than you, but that didn’t seem to bother him as he continuously made passes at you.

You suddenly felt self conscious in your black leggings and tank top. The Georgia sun beat down on your skin relentlessly from sunrise to sundown, making most of you try to dress lightly around the camp to avoid overheating. You roll your eyes and huff, redirecting your attention to the conversation Carol and Lori were having. “What is it?” Lori asks when she spots your sour attitude.

“Just Merle ogling over there again.” You mutter to her, tilting your head in his direction lightly as you throw another shirt up on the clothes line. The two women shake their head in annoyance and mumble about how gross he is. You heard a rough male voice call out Merle’s name, regaining your attention from the women again. Your eyes landed on his brother approaching from his tent - Daryl.

You had not spoken to the archer more than once, finding him rather standoffish and hard to approach. He was good looking, that you could not deny. He was about the same height as his older brother, tan and well built. You admired his physique as he threw his crossbow over his shoulder. His muscular arms were bare and dirt stained under his green muscle shirt. His short shaggy brown hair contrasted nicely with his blue eyes. Daryl had by far interacted with you the least of any one else in the camp. He seemed to have little interest in being around anyone other than his asshole brother.

You had also taken notice of how minimally affected he seemed to the current state of the world. He built fires, hunted, tracked, and killed walkers as if he had been doing it his whole life. You couldn’t help but wonder what his life was like just a few weeks ago. What did he do for a living? What was he like under all that hard exterior?

Merle’s gaze landing on you once again made you quickly avert your eyes back to the women, hoping he had not seen you looking their direction. Both the Dixon brothers intimated you, for sure - but you for Merle revolting while Daryl intriguing.

You were only a handful of yards away from the brothers, easily able to hear their loud, raspy voices from where you stood if you blocked out Lori and Carol’s chit chat. “Ima go hunt. Found some deer tracks earlier.” A voice that you determine to be Daryl’s based on his comments, announces to his brother. Merle didn’t do much of anything around the camp, whereas Daryl always seemed to be preoccupied with one task or another.

You continue hanging the clothes that Carol hands you distractedly, eavesdropping on the brothers.

“Ain’t got nothin better ta do than chase rabbits around the woods, little brother?” Merle drawls with a scoff. You roll your eyes at his comments, wondering what he has to do other than ogle you and cause trouble around the camp.

“Like sit on my ass all day?” Daryl retaliates, his comment reflecting your own thoughts. A smirk tugs at your lips as you continue.

You glance up when Daryl walks past you guys, crossbow over his shoulder and large knife attached to his belt buckle. You briefly meet his eye, neither of you saying a word as he continued past you toward the woods. You dropped your gaze back to the clothes basket, mentally scolding yourself for being so interested in the man. He didn’t even acknowledge you, you shouldn’t be wasting time thinking about him.

The morning drug on slowly, like most others. This new life was very boring, you could only imagine how the kids were feeling. You missed your phone, the internet, television... As stupid and privileged as it sounded, you couldn’t help but feel like time slowed down and you had nothing better to do than wash clothes or gather firewood.

You had gone inside the RV for about fifteen minutes to cool down from the intense sun, the sweat from the sweltering heat trickling down your skin. You hated feeling sweaty - you felt gross. Stripping out of your leggings that were sticking to your skin, you tossed them into the clothes basket in the corner and throw on your denim capri pants in place of discarded item. You missed your shower - a pond or quarry would never replace a relaxing shower with actual soap and hot water.

When you heard numerous voices nearby the RV, you decided to get up and head back out - seeing what was going on. Slowly exiting the vehicle, you take notice of numerous people standing around one of the cars. “What’s going on?” You ask Glenn as he passes you. “Going on a run. Wanna come?” He asks, stopping and turning to look at you.

You had never gone with them on a run before, what exactly do you do? Would you just get in the way? But then again, you’ve been wanting to find a way to pull your weight...

What should you do? Choose your path!

Go on the run | Stay at camp

~~~~~~~~~~~

And that is the introduction!! The two links above are different parts that will change how you proceed in the story and you will see how just one little choice will drastically change the events that follow! A simple decision like going on a run or not... Is going to set the foundation of this story and all of the choices you are going to need to make following it!

Please leave me some feedback on what you thought of this first part and let me know in the comments which option you chose!! I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s reactions to this series!!! ♥

If you want to know when this series has been updated, feel free to turn on my notifications and ask to be added to my taglist! ♥

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rheyninwrites · 5 years ago

Text

Night Swimming

(I don’t usually post things this long, but I couldn’t cut it back!)

The sweltering Lemoyne air hung heavily, oppressive even at night. Though the sunset had provided moderate relief, the sweat was still pouring down your back as you and Arthur made your way back to camp. Finally, Arthur had enough .

“That’s it. It’s too damn hot and I’m too damn tired to keep going. We can make it back to camp in the morning.”

You nodded, then pointed to a shaded area some distance away in the woods. “How ‘bout we make camp up there? Looks a bit cooler, anyway.”

Arthur agreed, and you followed him as he made his way into the woods. He was just about to start setting up camp when you grabbed his arm, putting a finger to your lips. His eyes met yours as his body tensed, his hand drifting to his gun, but you quickly shook your head, then cupped your hand behind your ear, pointing. As Arthur tilted his head to hear better, a smile spread across your lips, and soon Arthur was smiling as well. He quickly grabbed the few things he’d unpacked and followed you as you lead your horse deeper into the woods and alongside a ravine. As it shallowed, the sound you’d heard earlier became more clear, louder, until you found what you were looking for.

At the end of the ravine there was a small swimming hole, fed by a creek that ran out to the river, a few miles in the distance. It was sitting in a small depression, almost completely surrounded by trees, with a bank to one side that was just big enough for a campsite. The water was beautifully clear, with nothing but a few small fish swimming in it, and, judging by the breeze that traveled along the ravine, it was nice and cool.

You sighed in relief, mock collapsing as you stepped to the water’s edge. The horses had already started drinking their fill as you squatted down beside them, dipping your hand in. It was exactly as cool and refreshing as you’d hoped, and you wasted no time in gulping some down and splashing yourself thoroughly. From where he stood beside the tent, Arthur laughed at you.

“You keep going like that, might as well jump on in.”

You tilted your head, looking between him and the water. “It ain’t the worst idea you’ve ever had. I could probably use a bath anyway, all this sweat and dust.”

He stopped what he was doing, looking at you like you were crazy. “You serious? You ain’t even got a change of clothes!”

“Okay, first of all, my damn clothes are already soaked with sweat, and I really doubt they could get worse by jumping in a swimming hole.” You said, stepping towards him. “Second, who in the hell said I was planning on wearing clothes, anyway?” You poked him in the chest sharply, making him draw back. If you thought he’d looked at you like you were crazy before, this was ten times worse. You shrugged and rolled your eyes.

“It ain’t like I’m suggesting we strip naked and waltz through town! This place is hidden, deep, and it’s in the middle of nowhere. Ain’t even any signs anyone’s been here recently!” You threw your hands in the air, turning your back to him. “You don’t like it, don’t get in.”

He scoffed. “You were expecting me to get in too! What the hell is wrong with you, woman?” He stepped to where you were, moving to stand in front of you. “Have you lost your goddamn mind? You forget that you and I are slightly different in certain ways?”

“I ain’t forgot nothing.” You unfolded your arms, gesturing wildly as you spoke. “I’m hot, Arthur. Been hot all damn day, and this is nice, cool, clean water. Don’t you think it’d feel so good to just jump in and cool down? To hell with all that man woman business. Would you hesitate if it was John?”

“John can’t swim.” Arthur pointed out the obvious, partly to distract you, or maybe himself. How was he supposed to tell you that the reason he was so damn desperate to keep you from stripping down was because he knew he wouldn’t be able to take his eyes off of you? He’d known you now for six months, and for nearly all six, he’d been trying to convince himself he wasn’t attracted to you, hoping it’d be true. Instead, it had just made him pine for you harder. He was only beginning to be able to admit he kinda liked you, more than the average woman, and not like he liked the guys.

While Arthur was busy fretting and arguing with himself, you’d already headed to a spot in the edge of a shadow and started undressing. He looked on helplessly as you unbuttoned your shirt, stretching backwards as you peeled it off. Then you reached up and shook your hair free, and reached for the front of your pants. As you pushed them down and shimmied out of them, Arthur whimpered to himself. This was torture. He’d done some pretty nasty things in his lifetime, and even enjoyed a few of them, but he still couldn’t imagine what he’d done to deserve this torment, especially when you moved to get into the water, stepping out of the shadow and into the shaft of moonlight breaking through the trees.

If he’d taken the time to sit down and draw what he thought was the perfect shape for a woman, it wouldn’t have been half as perfect as you looked at that moment. Your back was to him, giving him full view of the arc of your hips, the way they softened down into the delicious curve of your ass. Then there were your legs. God, how he wanted to part those velvet thighs, nestle himself between them as he pressed his face into the tender sweep of your neck. To feel the brush of your hair against his face as he moved his hips against yours, the gentle embrace of your arms against his skin.

By the time he got a grip on his thoughts, you were half submerged in the water, and his cock was straining at the front of his pants. It would be impossible for you to miss, if you happened to look his way, and something had to be done about it. At first, he tried turning his back, sitting down to ignore you. The problem was that it was more than a little uncomfortable, and when he tried to readjust himself to make it better, he ended up stroking himself through his pants, still thinking of you, and made the problem worse. Plus, if you were to get out, he wouldn’t see you coming, and the thought of you catching him made his cheeks burn bright and hot.

He sighed. Maybe he should just give in and join you. Obviously he wasn’t going to be able to avoid you wrapping around his thoughts and getting stuck in his head, and maybe the water would cool him off a bit, literally and figuratively. If not, he might have the opportunity to relieve himself in other ways, even if the thought of doing that while thinking of you when you were so close made him feel like a filthy old man. He probably deserved to feel bad about it, anyway- it’s not like you’d have him, and he wasn’t going to waste his time deluding himself.

Resigned, he stood up and tried to hide the bulge in his pants the best he could while attempting to casually walk to the same shaded area you’d disrobed in. After glancing towards you to be sure you were distracted, he started taking off his clothes. He’d gotten his shirt off and his pants pushed halfway down his thighs when he heard you calling out to him, splashing your way over.

“You decide to join me after all?”

Arthur made a valiant attempt at a good natured chuckle. “S’pose so. Do you, uh . . ,” Arthur swallowed. “Would you mind turning your back until I get in the water?”

Once you’d turned your back, Arthur finished undressing and waded into the water, covering himself with his hands the whole way. He swam over to an area far from you, deeply shadowed by trees. The water was nice and cool, and felt good on his body after the heat of the day, but wasn’t cold enough to take his mind off of you, or to do away with the result of his thoughts. He ducked his head under the water, wetting his hair and pushing it out of his face, then looked over at you. You had resumed swimming on the other side, maybe a hundred feet away. A decent distance, but not nearly far enough, not for what he needed to do.

As he watched, you leaned back, relaxing into the water and floating up on your back. Though most of you was still underwater, he could clearly see the arc of your breasts in the moonlight. Thoughts of cupping them in his hands and taking them into his mouth came unbidden, making his cock ache with want.

“Jesus Christ, woman, what you do to me . . . ,” he muttered under his breath.

His hand snaked slowly across his hip as he took hold of his cock, eyes riveted on your shape. As his hand slid slowly down his length, he told himself that it was just this one, just to take the edge off, and then he’d stop. When he reached the end of his stroke, he let his thumb glide over the tip, teasing himself. You looked so tempting, he couldn’t help himself, and before he realized it, he was running his hand along his cock in long, languid strokes. He pictured your full, soft lips, tongue running over them flirtatiously as you held his gaze, your naked body ready for his adoration. How he’d love to spoil you with his attention, kissing every inch, praise pouring from his lips. He’d get down on his knees at your feet, worship you if that’s what you wanted.

He was lost in his fantasy, eyes closed as you slipped through the water towards him, and he didn’t notice when you crept up beside him. You watched him for a moment, eyes wide as heat coursed through your body. For a second, you wondered what you should do, and in that second, Arthur’s eyes opened. He jumped back, cursing as he covered himself with his hands and tried to think of a good excuse.

“I swear, it ain’t . . . I mean, I’m not . . . it ain’t what it looks like!”

You raised an eyebrow at him. “Well if it ain’t what it looked like, what is it?”

Arthur’s mouth opened, then closed again. He could think of a hundred things to say, and not one of them was believable. Finally he sighed, his shoulders drooping.

“Alright, it was what it looked like. I’m real sorry. It was stupid of me.” He shook his head. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go hang myself.”

He turned to leave, but you grabbed his shoulder to stop him, giggling. He looked at you, pleading, desperate to be freed from this awkward predicament. To make matters worse, he was still hard, his erection between the two of you like an exclamation point.

“Arthur . . ,” you tried, gently, “I ain’t upset.”

He looked at you like you’d grown another head. “The hell you mean, you ain’t mad. Of course you’re mad. You got every right to be.”

You shook your head. “I tell you, I ain’t mad.” You swallowed hard. “But I gotta ask you something, and I wanna know the truth, alright? You owe me that much.” Arthur nodded as you put your hand beneath his chin, forcing him to look in your eyes. “What was it you were thinking about?”

There was a long pause as your heart pounded in your chest, desperate to know. Arthur shook his head, trying wordlessly to convince you to not ask, but you gave him a stern look, holding his gaze as he tried to look away. Finally he gave in, figuring that he’d ruined yet another of the few good things he’d had. His eyes softened as he breathed out a single word, barely audible even in the stillness of the night.

“You.”

He cast his eyes downward, resigning himself to your fury. It was quite a surprise to him, then, when you ducked beneath his head and pressed your mouth to his. He was so shocked, he didn’t even respond to the kiss, making you worry for a second that you’d crossed a line. When you leaned back, brow furrowed, he looked at you with his eyes wide and his mouth half open for a moment, then pulled you into his arms, his mouth crashing against yours. He was desperate, hungry for you, and you were more than happy to oblige. As you threw your arms around his shoulders, he lifted you, wrapping your legs around his hips and carrying you out of the water. Any thoughts of modesty were forgotten, lost in the passion of your mouth against his throat as he crossed the bank to where the tent was set.

He lowered you carefully, kneeling in front of you to spread kisses along your hips and thighs as you stumbled backwards, trying to feel your way to the tent. Arthur was relentless, grasping desperately at your hips to pull you back against his mouth. His hot kisses turned into gentle nips, then hard bites that left marks along your skin, until you tangled your hands in his hair to pull his head back. A grunt of harsh pleasure left his throat as he looked up at you from his knees, eyes closing as you tugged his hair again. His hands traveled over your hips, sliding up across your sides as you kneeled in front of him, planting a soft kiss on his lips.

You backed into the tent, leaning on your elbow as you beckoned him forward. Obediently, he crawled towards you, his body hovering over yours as he drew in a sharp breath. He ran his calloused fingers over your collarbone, trailing down over your breast and making you shiver with pleasure. Slowly letting the weight of his body descend on yours, he trailed soft kisses along your throat, inhaling your scent and whispering against your skin.

“You’re so goddamn perfect.”

“Speak for yourself.”

A breathy laugh turned into a moan as he pressed his hips against yours, grinding against you and spreading your wetness down the length of his shaft. You were warm, so slick and full against him he almost wanted to finish like that, spreading his cum across your stomach as your bodies moved against each other. Instead, he lifted his hips as you slipped your hand down between your legs. You found him slick and eager as you lead him to your entrance, hooking your foot around his calf.

He hesitated for just a moment, until you grasped his arms and lifted your hips against him, a soft whimper of lust breathed in his ear. He tried to still himself, to be calm and gentle as he pushed into you, but desire took over the second he felt your warmth around him. He needed you, craved you, and drove into you hard and fast as you gasped. Your fingers gripped the flesh of his shoulders, nails biting bloody crescents into his skin.

He was wild, desperate, hips pounding against yours while his mouth left mark after mark across your neck like he was laying claim to your body. The faster he moved, the more you came apart beneath him, his primal sounds of pleasure pushing you closer to the edge by the second. As he hit the deepest part of your core, you cried out his name, loosing a deep growl from his chest as his teeth pressed into the tender flesh of your shoulder. You could tell by the way his moans turned desperate, hips beginning to falter in their steady rhythm, that he was closing in on his release, and closing fast. Once again you put your hand between your legs, this time to take him out, angling him to slide against your clit in rapid strokes. Soon your thighs were clenching tight around him, head thrown back as you cried out his name, pleasure ripping through your body.

It took no time at all for Arthur to add his cries to yours, his cum thick and hot against your stomach as he collapsed over you. His body was covered in a fine sheen of sweat that somehow made him look even sexier than he had before, though he scoffed when you told him so. You took his face in your hands, pressing your forehead to his.

“I need you to understand this, Arthur. I. Want. You. Only you. I want your face, I want your skin, I want your body. I want your heart, and I want your mind. All of you.” You kissed him softly and slowly before continuing. “I happen to think you’re a damn fine specimen of a man, and I won’t hear nothing else. You keep saying mean things about yourself and you’re gonna break my heart. You wanna be responsible for my poor broken heart?”

He chuckled, nuzzling into your neck and placing a kiss there before propping himself back up to look at you.

“Now what the hell kinda man would I be if I let my woman’s heart get broke?”

#rdr2 #rdr2 fandom #rdr arthur #arthur morgan/reader #arthur morgan smut #arthur morgan x reader smut #arthursty #arthur morgan nsft #red dead redemption 2 #red dead redemption #rdr #arthur morgan #rdr 2 #arthurmorgan #r

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chilling-seavey · 4 years ago

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More family outing scenes 🥺🥺🥺 going to the beach, picnics, camping and stuff :D

Oh my gosh, ok listen; growing up, Daniel and his family went hiking and camping and canoeing a lot…I mean what do you expect when you live in Vancouver? It’s like living inside a postcard photo. So it’s no doubt that when his own kids are grown up just enough to enjoy it, he wants to take them camping too. But the Seavey daughters were nothing like he and his siblings were and they only ever tried camping once since it went so horribly...

Daniel had a week off work in the summer and they packed up the car with camping supplies, stocked coolers, and plentiful bug spray and sunscreen and headed up north. Daniel was thoroughly excited for that week and he was absolutely radiating excitement, filling the drive with stories of when he would go camping with his family as a kid. Florence was raised in a household that never did any sort of family bonding activities so she had never been camping before either, a bit hesitant to sleep outside but Daniel’s thrill was certainly rubbing off on her on the drive up.

They arrived at the park an hour and a half later and Daniel parked and headed into the gatehouse to check in and pay. The girls in the backseat were staring out into the surrounding forest silently and Florence glanced back at them, “How are we feeling?”

“Fine.” Penelope answered quietly.

“It’s gonna take some getting used to, I’m sure, but we’re gonna be excited for Daddy, okay?” Florence whispered.

The girls nodded.

“I’m actually excited so I don’t need to pretend.” Clementine retorted.

“That’s very good.” Florence chuckled, turning back around as Daniel got back in the car. He drove them through the park over gravel roads to their campsite which was literally a clearing of grass with a firepit and a picnic table surrounded by trees.

“Okay, let’s set up!” Daniel jumped out of the car and pulled open the trunk. The girls climbed out carefully, hesitantly, and started to look around their area.

“Stay close, okay, girls?” Florence told them before starting to help Daniel unpack the car.

“Where’s the hotel?” Lucy asked softly, standing to the side of the car as she watched her parents stack the coolers and things on the grass.

“We’re sleeping outside! That’s what camping is.” Daniel said.

“Yeah! Outside with all the bears.” Clementine grabbed her youngest sister’s shoulders, making her scream.

“There aren’t any bears.” Florence assured her. She turned to Daniel, dropping her voice, “There aren’t any bears, are there?”

“Sometimes.” Daniel answered.

“Oh my God, Dani.” Florence gaped softly.

“Relax, we’re not gonna be eaten by a bear.” Daniel chuckled, carrying the folded up tent farther down the clearing and set it down on the grass. Clementine rushed right over to help him and he showed her how to pitch the tent and soon it was standing solid and the girls climbed right in to check in out.

“Shoes off in our house, little ladies.” Daniel said, watching three pairs of running shoes get kicked back out onto the grass. He smiled as they talked excitedly and laughed together inside the tent, exploring every little corner.

Florence had finished unloading the car and was setting up their things around the picnic table and he walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed a kiss to her shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Florence giggled, leaning back against him as if waiting for a kiss but she pulled off his hat and placed it on her own head before pushing him off to continue working. “When do we want to start dinner?”

“5:00 sounds fine. We can explore a little bit first.” Daniel suggested, checking his watch quickly.

“Daddy! I have to pee!” Clementine shouted across the campsite and she came running, nearly tripping over her shoes as she tried to put them back on. “I had that huge slushie in the car and I really have to pee. Where are the bathrooms?”

“On it! I got the map. Let’s go, ladies.” Daniel herded all the children up and all five of them headed down the path towards the bathrooms. Florence was a little hesitant just leaving all their things out in the open but he assured her it was fine and pulled her along. Nearly two minutes later and Clementine was already getting impatient.

“Dad. I’m going to pee my pants!” she groaned, holding onto his arm so he could pull her along.

“Almost there.” Daniel took them across one more pathway and they were face to face with a row of outhouses. All four girls stopped dead. Daniel turned back, “What?”

“What the hell is this?” Florence frowned distastefully.

“The experience.” Daniel said, pulling Clementine after him.

“Nuh uh.” Clementine pried his hand off of her arm. “I don’t have to pee anymore. I don’t have to pee ever again.”

“Oh, come on.” Daniel said, crossing his arms over his chest. “It’s not a portal to hell, it’s a bathroom.”

“It’s smells yucky.” Penelope frowned, hiding being Florence.

Daniel sighed, pressing a hand to the bridge of his nose, “We’ve been here thirty minutes and you guys are already complaining. It’s not a big deal, okay? It’s just a hole in the ground.”

“Ugh!” the girls groaned.

“We’re here for a week you can’t just not got to the bathroom.” Daniel challenged.

The girls stared blankly back at him.

“Flora.” Daniel pouted, desperate for some sort of back up. She sighed, looking down at her frightened daughters and then back up to her husband.

“Fine. To prove I won’t get sucked to the depths of hell, I’ll give it a go.” Florence grumbled.

“No, Mommy!” Lucy shrieked, clinging onto her leg.

It took way too long to convince the girls to finally give the outhouse a try that by the time they had all gone, it was dinner time and Daniel was already exhausted. The trek back to the campsite was sort of an awkward one.

“There weren’t any campsites with plumbing?” Florence asked lightheartedly as she linked her arm in his.

“The experience.” Daniel pouted, resting his head against hers as they walked.

“At least the fire and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows will be a fun experience after whatever that was.” Florence sighed.

“It’s fine. Just one hiccup.” Daniel shrugged, leaning in to kiss her once as they made it back to the site. The sun had started to set and the girls got their chairs around the firepit as Daniel bent down to start the fire��by hand.

Florence gathered their food supplies too cook dinner and set them in her own chair as she watched Daniel crouched by the pile of wood and kindling trying to start a spark. The girls glanced at their mother after a moment.

“Sweetheart,” Florence set her hand on Daniel’s shoulder, “Why don’t you use the lighter?”

“No, no. I can do this. My dad taught us when we were younger.” Daniel assured her, turning back to his work. A few minutes passed.

“Daddy, I’m hungry.” Lucy whined.

“Dammit.” Daniel sighed, pushing his arm across his forehead tiredly, staring down at the lack of fire in front of him.

“You can be a boy scout later, right now we have to feed our children.” Florence said, clicking on the lighter and resting the flame against the kindling. Mere seconds later, there was a good fire going and Daniel was sat on the grass pouting. Florence pulled his head back to kiss him upside down and gave his cheek a quick pat before handing out the metal sticks to the girls.

“Can we have spaghetti?” Penelope asked.

“We can’t have spaghetti, Penny. We can only eat what we packed.” Florence said. “We’re having hot dogs tonight.”

“Aw.” she frowned as her mother stuck the uncooked hot dog on the end of her stick.

“Can we order McDonalds?” Lucy asked.

“No, we can’t order McDonalds, princess. It doesn’t work like that.” Daniel cracked a small smile as he got himself a stick to make his own dinner.

“Why not?”

“Because McDonalds doesn’t deliver outside.”

“Then we can go inside.” Lucy said matter-of-factly.

“I think I burnt it.” Clementine broke the gradually annoying conversation of the six-year-old as she held up her stick with a charred black hot dog on the end.

“Let’s get you a new one.” Daniel chuckled, passing her over a fresh one.

The parents helped the girls roast their hot dogs and stick them safely in buns to eat. When dinner was over, Florence brought over the marshmallows and passed some down the line to make smores. Daniel stuck with Lucy to make sure she didn’t burn her dessert since she was only six; it was a cute sight with her sitting on his lap with both of them holding the metal stick towards the fire, matching concentrated faces making Florence smile and snap a picture.

It was finally peaceful and Daniel was back to feeling that family love and excitement he had when they first arrived, surrounded by his sweet daughters and beautiful wife. They shared little stories around the fire before bed and then got into pyjamas in turns in the privacy of the tent. The girls were tucked into their sleeping bags on the tarp floor of the tent and Florence got herself into her own sleeping bag on the double air mattress they brought for themselves. Daniel said the parents always got better sleeping arrangements…part of that experience. Of course, Penelope was ready to challenge that statement with her annoyed shifting and uncomfortable whines against the ground.

“I can’t get comfortable!” she cried, finally flopping on her back to shoot a pout in the direction of her father who had yet to even try to get into bed.

“Just…don’t think about it as sleeping on the ground. Think of it like sleeping on a really lumpy mattress.” Daniel suggested.

“Daddy’s punishing us.” Lucy grumbled from behind him from her spot beside Clementine.

“What?” Daniel gaped down at her. “I am not!”

“Why do you get the air mattress?” Clementine protested.

“I don’t like this!” Penelope whined louder from the other side of the tent, kicking herself out of her sleeping bag. “It feels weird on my feet!”

“It hurts!” Lucy groaned.

Florence simply glanced up at her husband who was in clear distress as his three children complained; one about the unfairness of the sleeping arrangements, one about the feeling of the sleeping bag, and one about the lumpiness of the ground, and he sighed loudly.

“Fine.” Daniel said, throwing his hands up. “Nell, get up here with the normal blankets we have. Give your sleeping bag to Lucy so she can lay on it like a mattress. Clem, just…relax, okay?”

The girls huffed with annoyance but didn’t put up any more of a fight as Daniel helped them re-settle and got into bed himself, Penelope tucked up between him and Florence. The family shared their ‘goodnights’ and tried to sleep. The girls were already pretty exhausted so they thankfully fell asleep easily, even Florence, but once Penelope was asleep she turned into a full on starfish and Daniel ended up with a hand in his face and a foot uncomfortably close to between his legs and once she moved and actually decked him in the nose, Daniel was getting up. He grabbed one of the blankets, making sure the others were tucked around the ten-year-old and then he was left to sleep on the tarp floor with a single fleece blanket.

It was no doubt that by morning no one was well rested, especially Daniel, but he was the first one awake and struggled off the ground before heading out to make breakfast. He had poured the bowls of cereal at the picnic table by the time the girls were awake and the family gathered quietly around the table.

“How long have you been up?” Florence asked softly, leaning down to kiss her husband before taking a seat beside him.

“All night pretty much.” Daniel answered flatly, but still sent a small smile to his daughters as they thanked him for breakfast. He lowered his voice again to speak with his concerned wife, “I slept on the bare ground because Penelope turned into a starfish and punched me in the face.”

“Oh.” Florence couldn’t hold back her giggle, leaning her head against his. “I’m sorry.”

The family ate their cereal together and then got dressed for the day with a quick stop to the bathroom before heading for the beach. Canoe rentals were open and Daniel jumped at the opportunity to try one out. Florence stayed on the beach with Penelope while Daniel took Clementine and Lucy out on the lake first, the oldest absolute thrilled about the idea of rowing a whole boat on the lake. Lucy wasn’t terribly thrilled, sitting on the floor of the canoe as Daniel pushed them off the sand and into the water before hoping in with them.

Honestly, God bless Clementine for being the more sane and tolerable out of the daughters as she was incredibly invested in the rowing and was eager to point out all the little things she saw around the lake as they went on. Lucy was frowning, her lifejacket pushed up to her chin with how she sat and she wanted nothing more than to go back to the beach to play in the sand.

Daniel was too busy with Clementine to notice his youngest pouting but he certainly noticed when she shrieked and jumped up, screaming at the top of her lungs, “A bug bit me!”

“Lucy! Sit down, Princess!” Daniel tried to grab onto her as she flailed her arm around.

“I’m gonna die! I’m gonna die! It hurts!” Lucy scratched desperately at her arm, the canoe rocking a bit too much in her panic.

“You’re not gonna die! Sit down!” Daniel assured her desperately.

“Lucy!” Clementine shrieked, holding onto the side of the boat as it swayed.

“It hurts! It hurts! Make it stop!” Lucy cried, jumping a little in her dramatic desperation, too preoccupied to even notice that they were still in the middle of a lake. She lost her balance and flipped backwards over the side of the canoe right into the water. Clementine screamed in fear that her sister just died and Daniel swore loudly before jumping in after her. Lucy broke the surface absolutely silent with shock and Daniel grabbed her quickly and held her close.

“You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay.” Daniel whispered more to himself than anyone as Lucy clung onto him in the water.

“I wanna go home!” Lucy sobbed, her arms around his neck and tears pouring down her cheeks with the lake water.

“Me too.” Clementine grumbled from still inside the canoe.

Daniel sighed and helped Lucy back into the boat and get her sitting where he was before he carefully climbed in too. It was a silent ride back to shore and you can only image Florence’s face when they returned soaking wet and miserable after leaving so excited and ready for adventure.

She jumped up right away and rushed over to them with concern all over her face, “What happened?”

“She fell in.” Daniel replied, scooping up the six-year-old and setting her steady on the sand.

“Oh my gosh, are you okay, baby?” Florence bent down to Lucy’s height and took her face in her hands as her daughter cried louder and threw her arms around her mother’s shoulders.

“I wanna go home! I hate it here!” Lucy cried, earning a few glances from other families around the beach.

Florence looked up at Daniel over their youngest’s shoulder and he simply shrugged tiredly. Daniel helped Clementine out of the canoe and she trudged over to Penelope farther up the beach without another word to her parents. Daniel sighed in defeat as Florence got a crying Lucy out of her lifejacket and then picked her up, petting her wet hair out of her face and held her head against her shoulder.

“Okay. If you want to leave we can leave.” Daniel mumbled.

“I’m sorry, my love.” Florence whispered, pressing a hand to his cheek and pulled him in for a quick kiss. “I know you wanted a fun week.”

“Yeah. It’s fine.” Daniel frowned lightly, glancing past her to the oldest two girls on the sand as they dug with their little shovels, looking absolutely miserable. “Don’t want to torture my family anymore.”

“You’re not torturing anyone.” Florence laughed lightly, pushing his soaked hair back from his face. “Now come on, you return the canoe and I’ll bring the girls back to the site to pack up.”

After their campsite was packed up – ensuring another screaming fit from the girls when a large spider was found on their tent – and the car was loaded, Daniel had to suffer the embarrassment at the gatehouse to ask for a refund for checking out early after only one night. When they left the park, they stopped at McDonalds for lunch much to the girls’ excitement and then hit the highway to head back into the city.

Daniel had been mostly silent since they left the park and the girls had fallen asleep in the backseat after lunch, tired out from an uncomfortable night on the forest floor. Florence set her hand on Daniel’s thigh comfortingly as he drove, “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Daniel shot her his best convincing smile, but it wasn’t very believable.

“Sorry it wasn’t what you expected.”

“It’s fine.” Daniel shrugged. “We’re definitely not doing this again though.”

“Nope.” Florence agreed.

Daniel set his right hand in hers on his lap and linked their fingers together, “Maybe having three girls is different than my parents with three boys.”

Florence scoffed lightheartedly, “You think?”

#daniel seavey #anything but mine #why dont we #daniel seavey imagines

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theangriestpea · 5 years ago

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Road Bumps | Sweet Pea

Summary: After finding out that his girlfriend is pregnant, Sweet Pea decides to take her away from the dangers of Riverdale for a little while. Missing scene to where Sweet Pea was during the end of season 3 and beginning of season 4 <ao3>

Pairing: Sweet Pea x Reader

Rating: Teen+

Word Count: 2.7k+

Warnings: Teen pregnancy

A/N: This was requested by the amazing @sweetsfuckingpea! I hope you enjoy it, mom! When trying to think of motivation for Sweet Pea to leave Riverdale, pregnancy was the only thing I could come up with??? Probably because I currently have baby fever. x.x And I mean....who wouldn’t want babies that looked like Jordan Connor?

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” You asked for the millionth time as you sat across from Sweet Pea at a small dinner in a rural part of Pennsylvania. “With all that’s going on in Riverdale-”

“That’s exactly why we needed to leave.” He said seriously. “There’s too much drama there right now. We need to get away for awhile. Especially with the condition you’re in. I’m not risking your lives by staying in a town infested with mysterious seizures and drugged up rival gangsters.”

You let out a sigh, picking at your basket of fries. You hadn’t had much appetite the past couple of weeks. “My condition is exactly why we shouldn’t be travelling the countryside right now. We should be saving money! I told you I could have just taken out a loan and gotten it taken care of…”

Sweet Pea reached out, putting a steady hand on top of your shaking one. “Y/N, I know this is hard but we agreed not to do that. If you’ve changed your mind then I’ll support you, but I don’t want you to do it unless you’re absolutely sure.”

You withdrew your hand from his and hid it on your lap. “I don’t know what I want. It all just happened so fast. I haven’t had time to process anything.”

He sighed, wishing you would stop pulling away from him constantly. He went back to eating his food slowly. “Coming out here will give you time to think about it. Plus you told me countless times how you always wanted to road trip coast to coast. This might be your last chance for a while.”

A small smile formed on your lips, “you’re right, thank you, babe.” You leaned in for a quick kiss before going back to eating.

A week prior Sweet Pea had insisted that the two of you go on a road trip. Even though it was towards the end of Junior year, he said it wouldn’t matter since most of the time neither of you went to school anyway. You could always retake it the following year which didn’t seem so bad right now.

After many nights of not-so-careful screwing, you had wound up pregnant with only one possibility for the father. Sweet Pea was taking it amazingly well. You had expected him to punch a wall or make you leave or demand you get an abortion, but he did none of those things. Instead he sat in stunned silence for what felt like hours.

Eventually, when he did speak, he asked what you wanted to do. You didn’t know as you were still wrapping your head around the whole thing. You had suffered from a bad seizure months before and there was still no real explanation as to what caused it. Plus with increasing tensions mounting between the serpents and the gargoyles, Sweet Pea felt that Riverdale was no longer a safe place for you. Either of you. He wanted nothing more to protect you until you came to a decision.

You kept in contact with your friends back home as little as possible. It was too soon to tell them what was going on. Rumors flew by so quickly in the small town that you didn’t want to be known as the highschooler that got knocked up by a serpent. There were worse things to be said about you, sure, but it was still a sensitive subject. You weren’t even showing yet but who knew how long that would last.

“How does this spot look, princess?” Sweet Pea asked as he walked around a clearing in the small wooded area you had parked near. You had been camping out most nights, enjoying the sounds of nature with nothing to keep you warm but your boyfriend and your shared sleeping bag. It was nice, peaceful, and much less stressful than home.

You looked around, “are you sure there’s no bears around here? You know Archie got attacked by one once. He almost died.”

Sweet Pea rolled his eyes, “I’ve got my 12 gauge if there is one, come on, is this the place for tonight or what?”

Your eyes met his and you smiled lightly, “Sure. The ground is even at least and there’s that stream nearby.”

He came up to you and pulled you into a tight embrace, his head resting on top of yours. “Ready to get started or do you need to rest?”

You pushed him away gently, rolling your eyes. “I’m pregnant, Sweets, not disabled. Let’s go ahead and get started.”

That night, after everything was set, Sweet Pea had scoped out a local bar to go to. Naturally he had his leather serpent jacket on while you went with something a bit more classic. Skinny jeans and a low cut t-shirt. Nothing too risque as you didn’t pack anything too revealing to wear. It’s not like you had planned on going bar hopping any time soon since you couldn’t drink.

But currently you were in a food desert and really the only place to grab a bite was the bar about twenty minutes away from your campsite. It was remote enough that neither of you thought anyone would mess with your tent, deciding to keep a majority of your possessions locked in the saddle bags of his motorcycle.

You arrived at the bar, noticing the plethora of bikes parked out front. Naturally your anxiety started to rise. If they saw Sweet Pea as some kind of rival then things could get ugly. “Maybe you should take your jacket off.” You murmured to him, already seeing a few passing by bikers give him a tentative look over.

“A serpent never sheds his skin.” Sweet Pea said faithfully, “It’ll be fine, baby girl. No one is going to mess with us.” He got off of his bike and put an arm around you, leading you inside the small bar. “Just worry about whether or not the food here is any good.” He joked.

You couldn’t help but roll your eyes at him while you walked. He led you to a back corner and placed you at a booth there. “Stay here, I’m going to get some menus, okay? Stop looking at me like that, nothing is going to happen.” He said, giving your shoulder a gentle squeeze in an attempt to reassure you before he left to go to the bar.

He disappeared behind a sea of bodies, while the bar wasn’t super crowded, the dim lighting made it hard to see far away. You huffed and pulled out your phone, trying to quell your anxiety by mindlessly scrolling through social media. He had wanted to hustle some pool as well to get you both some extra cash.

Someone sat down next to you, “Back already?” You asked, eyes not looking up from the screen.

“No, sweet thing, I’m just arriving.” A voice said smoothly. Your head shot up to see a somewhat thin biker sitting next to you. You immediately moved as far away from his as possible, which wasn’t much in the small booth.

“My boyfriend is coming back, you should leave.” You said, trying to keep your voice from shaking.

“That kid wearing the snake? No, you look like you could use a real man.” He said, breath reeking of cheap beer and tooth decay. It nearly made you gag.

“I’m seventeen.” You replied, hoping the fact that you were underage would get him to go away. Unfortunately it only seemed to make him more interested.

He smirked, “Good, I like ‘em young.”

A scared look crossed your face, your heart sinking deep down into your chest until you saw a hand with a tattooed thumb grab the intruder by the shoulder. “I don’t believe the teenager is interested in your pathetic ass.” Sweet Pea seethed, ripping the man out from behind the table. He stumbled forward, catching himself before straightening up.

“Southside Serpent, huh? More like Southside Street Rat.” The man said, looking up at Sweet Pea. His inhibition from the alcohol made the much taller boy’s large frame unfrightening.

Sweet Pea quickly grabbed the man by the collar of his old t-shirt, yanking him up onto his toes. “Want to say that again?” He asked, voice low and even but nevertheless filled the rage. “Or do you want to hit on my girl some more?”

“Fuck off man, this is my territory. Not yours.” He said, eyeing the guys around him.

Sweet Pea looked at the men coming towards him, “You guys really want to defend a pedophile? Be my guest, I’ll take you all on.”

“Sweet Pea…” You mumbled, trying to get him to calm down and not make the situation worse. Especially since he was alone in a sea of bikers.

He glanced at you and you could tell he couldn’t really see you through his anger. When he saw red it was literally all he saw.

“Put him down, kid.” A much older, bearded man said as he parted the crowd. The man looked down at you, “was he bothering you, miss?”

“Y-yes.” You stammered, terrified of what may happen. Your hand instinctively went to your stomach and it did not go unnoticed by the newcomer.

“And you’re a minor?” He probed and you could only nod your head in response, your voice no longer worker. The man turned to Sweet Pea, “then I’ll deal with him. We don’t take kindly to our guys trying to mess around with teenagers.”

Sweet Pea stared at the old biker, contemplating whether or not he should comply. He let out a large breath out of his nose as he set the offender down. Multiple guys grabbed him before he could make a break for it. They pulled him away and back through a back door.

“Sorry about him, son. I have suspected his...tendencies for a while now but had no proof. Sit down, you and your bird’s food is on the house.” He patted Sweet Pea’s shoulder before signalling for the crowd to disperse.

You felt like you were going to faint as Sweet Pea sat down next to you. “You are one lucky son of a bitch,” You croaked to him as you tried to regulate your breathing.

Sweet Pea was still very much upset, now unable to take his feelings out on anyone. “You okay?” He said, his voice not matching the words. They sounded much too rough.

You put a gentle hand on his bicep, trailing it downward in an attempt to soothe him. “I’m fine, you got here right in time. My hero.” The last part was a joke in an attempt to make him smile. It didn’t work until you gave him a light peck on the cheek. “I’ll have to make it up to you tonight.” You whispered into his ear, knowing the thought of a reward later would make him cool down.

His cracked smile grew and he put an arm around your shoulders. “Oh yeah? You owe me big time.” He teased, hand dipping down to brush against your side. “I got us free food.”

“Pretty sure, I got us free food. But okay, you win.” You said with a light giggle, kissing him once more.

“I love you.” He said, seeming out of nowhere. You looked up to see his eyes burning with emotion that you didn’t quite recognize. “I never loved anyone the way I love you.”

A blush spread hot across your face. “Not even Josie?” The question came out in a mumble. You had always been a bit insecure when it came to his feelings for her. After all, he was still getting over her when you two decided to start hooking up. It had been difficult at first because he was obviously still in pain over the rejection, but eventually he moved on when you showed him that you were more than happy to be his full-time girl.

Sweet Pea pressed a light kiss to your forehead, “not even Josie.” He added softly, knowing how much of a sore spot it was for you. “That was just a dumb crush. You’re...different. You always have been but I just ignored it, not thinking you felt that way.”

You buried your head into his shoulder, clearly embarrassed. “You’re an idiot. I’ve loved you since Freshman year.”

“What? Really?” He asked, clearly surprised as he tried to pull you away from him but you had latched onto him much too tightly. He wanted nothing more than to look into your eyes and see that what you were saying was the truth.

“Oh yeah, I fell pretty hard after you beat up the Ghoulies that were trying to jump me.” You said softly into his jacket, enjoy the smell of him and the leather mixing.

Sweet Pea couldn’t help but chuckle lightly. There was no way you could have taken on all five Ghoulies that had cornered you but you looked like you were bound to try with a heavy textbook in your hand as a makeshift weapon. “You were so cute. Looking like a bunny trying to fight off some strung out wolves.”

“Idiot.” Was all you could say, trying to mask how mortified you felt knowing that you didn’t look intimating in the slightest. “You came in swinging like a giraffe out of hell. Ready to kick ass and take names for seconds.”

He rested his head on top of yours, his grip on you tightening as his body trembled with silent laughter. “Yeah, had to defend that cute little bun. She was way too innocent to let her get devoured by some mangy mutts.”

“So you wanted to devour me instead?” You asked jokingly and he only laughed more.

“You got me.” He murmured softly into your hair and you swear you had never felt more at peace in your entire life then you did in that very moment.

Over the course of the next few months, Sweet Pea took you all the way to the west coast. You stopped at kitschy little tourist traps and adorable mom and pop places. He hustled pool, darts, really any bar game he was good at just to get you some spending money. Eventually you started to forget about Riverdale entirely. In fact, it had been weeks since the town even crossed your mind.

Until you got a phone call from Toni. You had just arrived in the outskirts of western Indiana when you decided to answer. It was the fifth time she had called you that day, and you knew that it had to have been important. Sweet Pea’s phone was turned off for this very reason, he didn’t want anyone bothering him.

What she had to say left you feeling cold. Jughead Jones was dead and they could just make it to his funeral if they started driving tonight. Sweet Pea said nothing. He was eerily quiet as he packed up everything and hopped back onto his bike with you behind him. And he drove, only stopping when he absolutely needed to sleep. Distantly you wondered what everyone would say about your protruding stomach. You were only a month shy of being full term. That was why you both had started heading back. And now everyone would know and there would be no escape. Not again. You weren’t ready but you had to be. There was no other option.

After a rough night in a motel, Sweet Pea finally noticed your distress. His mind had been preoccupied on the serpents for obvious reasons. “Hey, Y/N, come here.” He whispered and you moved closer to him. He enveloped you in his arms and breathed you in, almost as if it would be the last time you’d get to be alone together. “Everything is going to be alright. We’ll get through his just like we’ve gotten through everything else that has been thrown at us. Remember when we thought there was a bear and it was really just a stray cat going through our garbage? This is just like that. It’s just a cat. Not a terrifying bear, okay?”

You let out a low sight, “yeah...okay.”

“Do you trust me?” He asked, his voice so serious that it worried you.

“Of course.” You muttered back, not understanding what he was getting at.

He smiled softly, “Then trust me to get us through this.” He kissed you once more before finally getting up to get ready for the last leg of the drive. You’d be in Riverdale by late afternoon and your road trip would unfortunately be over.

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#sweet pea #sweet pea x reader #sweet pea imagine #sweet pea fanfiction #riverdale imagine #riverdale fanfiction #sweet pea oneshot #riverdale oneshot #req #sweet pea as a baby daddy yesssss

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floatingpetals · 5 years ago

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Call Of The Mountains || Ch. 2

Pairings: Steve Rogers x Reader x Bucky Barnes (Werewolf AU!)

Warnings: Possible Trigger warning, *spoiler-ish* near-drowning depictions

Word Count: 2600+

Summary: (Werewolf-AU!Stucky x f!reader) Life had begun to overwhelm her. Work was insane and her life was a mess. There was a tug in her soul that called her to take this trip, deep into the forest away, where there was the peace and stillness of nature. She didn’t know why, but she knew she needed to listen. It was meant to be a relaxing trip, but one misstep on some moss sent her tumbling into the rapids of the flooded river. She thought she was gone and the earth decided it was time to reclaim her. She didn’t expect was to be pulled from the river nor the creature that saved her. Her entire world is turned upside down and all it took was an accidental step to the left. (18+ Only Story)

A/N: First things first, the end was supposed to be a cliffy. But I decided against that. Still, be warned b/c it might be a little triggering to a few people. It gets a little dark and pretty quick so tread carefully towards the end. That being said, I couldn’t leave it how it was and I’m so excited to get the next chapter done! Like and reblog, let me know what you think. more importantly! ENJOY!

The gifs are not mine, credit to the owner.

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Series Masterlist

Right as the sun began to peek through the trees, the sound of birds mixed with the leaves swaying above the tent gently woke Y/N. She blinked slowly, a tiny smile growing across her face. There was no worry about having enough time for breakfast, no worry over the agenda for the afternoon. It felt nice not having to set ten alarms to make sure she woke up in the morning. If only that could be a daily occurrence.

Y/N rolled over on her back, stretching with a happy moan before she exhaled noisily and melted into the collection of blankets she brought. She knew it would get cold at night but didn’t expect it to drop as low as it did. Fortunately, she had some forethought to throw a bunch of her favorite blankets in the car just in case. At some point last night, she woke because of the chill and had to make a quick run for the blankets. Along the way, she was stopped short by the distant howls of a wolf pack somewhere in the mountains.

Standing in the middle of the forest with just a flashlight in her PJs and unlaced hiking boots, a tendril of fear shot up her spine. However, the longer she stood and listened the less terrified she became. There was something hauntingly beautiful about their calls. There wasn’t a hunt, no urgency in the air. To her, it sounded as if the pack was just singing to the moon that hung full above them. After she grabbed the blankets, Y/N snuggled under the covers and fell asleep listening to the howls in the air. It never dawned on her that wolves weren’t supposed to be there.

Now she wondered if her hiking through the woods might mean their paths would cross. Shoving aside the concern, Y/N pushed off the blankets. First, food and coffee, then she’d worry about the wolves that would most likely never bother her. She changed into jeans, a tank top, and a button-down flannel before she unzipped the tent and stepped out into the cool dewy air.

Opposite to where she pitched her tent, there was a pre-dug firepit encircled with stone. She didn’t need the pit at the moment, but one she smoothed out the area of the leftover charred wood and kindling, it made a perfect spot for her to place the packable burner grill her mom slipped in the trunk. It took her two trips from the car before she set up the little stove and started boiling some water.

First, she filled her French press, which she was NOT going to leave behind, and then started with her oatmeal. Not her favorite breakfast in the world, but throw in some honey, cinnamon with dried cranberries and it wasn’t half bad. It was also a nice change in pace that she didn’t have to scarf her food down to run out the door. This morning she sat and munched contently while watching a family of robins high in the trees.

Now that she fed herself and had enough coffee to reboot her system, Y/N quickly cleaned up and put everything away before heading to get her pack from the tent. She double-checked she packed it right with her books, water, flashlight, trail mix, protein bars, and anything else she thought would come handy. Satisfied she’d be prepared to get lost in the woods for a while, Y/N zipped up the tent and made her way back up the trail towards the waterfall.

There was something in the air today, a buzzing of excitement that wasn’t there yesterday. Like the Earth knew thrilling things were going to happen and was impatiently waiting for it to come. Y/N hadn’t the faintest clue of its plan, yet as she grew closer to the water, she couldn’t stop the pep in her step. She had no idea why and didn’t really care at that point. She was in a fantastic mood and nothing was going to stop her high.

When she came up to the river, it was still flowing as strongly as yesterday. She was surprised the water level hadn’t dropped much. It must have rain harder up at the top of the mountain than further down here to keep up this flow. The waterfall was the same as well, still as strong and tremendous as yesterday. Nothing seemed to sway the charge in the air.

Y/N stood and stared in awe once again. Nature and it’s beauty never ceased to amaze her. Despite not being one for the outdoors in her younger years, as Y/N grew, she learned to love and adore the wonders of nature.

Readjusting her pack, Y/N went to go sit along a set of rocks, spotting one with a flat top that was large enough for her to spread out on but paused. There was that strange tug again. She frowned and stepped back away from the rocks, unconsciously listening to the tug as it pulled her somewhere else. Slowly, she looked around the area, but each spot her eyes landed on felt… wrong. It wasn’t until she spotted a tree with a soft mossy patch underneath that stood out to her. It wasn’t too close to the water, just far enough she wouldn’t have to worry about stepping too close to the edge but close enough she could feel the gentle spray from the water. Perfect.

Setting her bag beside the tree, Y/N sank to the ground with a comfortable sigh. She took a moment to watch the waterfall before digging in her bag for her book. She tucked the water bottle against her leg for later and picked up where she left off in the pages. It had been too long since she’d been able to just sit and read. Once she got into her groove, Y/N found herself lost in the pages surrounded by the ambiance of the water and the sounds of the trees. She didn’t pay any mind to the rest of the world until the sun was high in the sky and her stomach let out a low rumble.

“Crap,” Y/N muttered to herself and glanced up at the sun. “I don’t think I’ve ever checked out that long.”

Shrugging, Y/N set her book aside and reached inside her bag. She pulled out the bag of trail mix and a protein bar, munching happily on the food, occasionally digging out the M&Ms from the mix. Y/N was untroubled and content but still felt like something was missing. Or rather, someone.

Odd that was the first thought that popped into her mind. Maybe it was the fact that she spent all morning alone sitting under a tree with a book, or perhaps the fact the past few months she had been alone every morning, afternoon and evening. Y/N groaned and rubbed her temples. Okay, maybe a little bit of solitude wasn’t completely the best. Since now she wasn’t worrying about work and the stress that came with it, nothing was left to hide her perpetual singleness from her. The quiet was nice, but sometimes it was too quiet. It was clearly leading to problems.

Grumbling to herself, Y/N forced herself to ignore the voice. This wasn’t why she was here. Not like she could do anything about it anyways with literally no one around. She wasn’t going to wallow in her self pity and mope about not having a boyfriend. Nope. Not today.

Y/N tucked the bag of trail mix back in the pack and reached for her water bottle. As she tipped back the bottle, the same feeling from the night before came back. That prickling in the back of her neck, the feeling of a set of eyes on her. Curious and watching. Y/n froze, the water bottle touching her lips. Slowly, Y/N lowered the water bottle and squinted over the pond, searching for the owner of the eyes.

She herself was curious now. Maybe it was a deer or some other animal that was just passing through and caught sight of her. Perhaps a hiker that decided to go off-trail?

Hesitantly, Y/N began to stand, and the feeling of the eyes followed her every movement. The tug came back, willing her to get a closer look. Her feet followed blindly, as if in a trance, and her eyes never strayed from the trees. It wasn’t too thick, but the shadows seemed to all blend together. The trees swayed in the breeze, the mist from the waterfall made the distant hazy and difficult to see through. But as she stopped just short of the shoreline, her feet inches from the water, she could have sworn she saw not one, but two shapes in the shadows.

Tall and foreboding the shadows were much larger than any human beings frame. Y/N sucked air in sharply, the shock rattling her enough to snap from her bizarre trance. Her gaze snapped down to her feet and she stumbled backward, her mind reeling at how she willingly stepped without care. One more step forward and she would have tumbled straight into the water that would have unforgivingly pulled her straight in.

Rattled, Y/N didn’t even spare a glance at the shadows. Instead, she turned heel and snatched up her discarded water bottle. She shoved it into her pack and hastily stood. I have no idea what the hells going on, she thought, but I need to get the fuck out of here.

Stepping around the tree, Y/N began her trek back to her campsite, her insides twisting. That was too close for her comfort. There were a number of things going through her head and she was more than a little freaked out over the whole thing. Her mother always drilled it into her to keep an eye on your surroundings, especially around wildlife. They spook easily and can snap on a dime.

So if she had been paying attention, as her mother instructed, she would have caught the sound of angry screeches coming from two birds fighting in the air above her. She would have noticed when one dove to get away from the other, steering straight towards her. If she was paying attention, Y/N could have ducked and stepped to the left. Out of the way of the birds and away from the riverbank.

However, that’s not how Y/N reacted. Once more lost in her thoughts, she missed the birds and their shrill cries. The bird dove to escape, narrowly turning it’s small body away from her face by mer centimeters.

Y/N let out an unflattering scream that shook the trees and leaped out of the way before she was gouged in the eye by the second bird that chased after. It wasn’t until it was too late that Y/N realized her mistake. Her boot hit the soft wet moss on top of a rock, the grip on her soles not made for the slippery step. Her foot shot out from under her, and her pack that was heavy with the items she made sure to keep on hand for her survival, tipped her backward into the rushing waters below.

It all happened so quickly; Y/n had no time to react. The shock of the cold water seized her muscles, the water-filled her lungs as she let out an involuntary scream. She fought against the river, but it was as unforgiving as the weight of her pack. The rapids drew her down and under, towards the midstream where the water flowed the fasted and the deepest. Her feet couldn’t touch the bottom and the surface was feet above her.

The current hurled her further down the river at a speed that sent her mind reeling. Somehow, she managed to swim to the top, her arms screaming as they fought against the strength of the flow. She spat up the water and gasped for air however before she could let out a desperate cry for help, the river pulled her down once again.

Y/N struggled and fought, frantically trying to get back to the surface. But the river didn’t care. It threw her around like a rag doll, the light from the surface taunting her above in the frigid waters. Her lungs were screaming to get air, but she couldn’t take the breath she so needed. She was panicking, out of control and sinking. Her limbs began to give up, no matter how hard she struggled. Horror dawned on her, that this was her last moment. There was no way she could get out of this. As if to agree, the river decided the game was over.

She distantly felt something sharp slam against the back of her head, the pain far worse than the way her lungs burned from lack of oxygen. Lights exploded behind her closed eyes. Her arm was thrown back and slammed against the same sharp edge rock her head did as the river dragged her passed, the sickening crack of her wrist jolting her back to consciousness. She gasped in shock, sucking in water as she did. She was too tired to fight anymore though, her body going limp as she accepted her fate.

Y/N thought she was going to die that day, drowning in the river all because of a fucking bird. As she tumbled into unconsciousness, she missed the sound of something jumping in the water. The current was strong, but whatever grabbed the back of her pack was stronger. It dragged her up to the surface and back to the shoreline.

The Earth was impatient today, but not to take a life. No, it had other plans in mind, and it needed the young woman alive. The birds stopped their quarrel to watch from the trees above as the woman lay unconscious below them. The being that pulled her limp body from the water began compression against her chest, trying to force the water from her lungs the best way it could. Silence seemed to take of the forest as the creature worked, frantically trying to resuscitate the woman.

The being didn’t give up until Y/N violently began to cough up the water from her lungs. There was a sigh of relief in the forest, even the forest itself worried their game might have gone too far. The being nudge her to her side.

For Y/N, waking up was more agony than almost drowning. It felt like there was a fire in her lungs and throat, the water she swallowed burned as she threw it up. Her head throbbed and her wrist was screaming in pain. Everything hurt and yet felt so numb all at once. Her vision started to tunnel. Her body woke only long enough to expel the water from her lungs, but the biting pain was too much. Y/N heard and felt something behind her, warm and soft. Blearily, she rolled over to her back.

Y/N briefly wondered if the hit on her head knocked a few screws loose. Because that was the only explanation for what stood over her. Still dripping wet, her savior was a massive black wolf with startling grey intelligent eyes. It blinked slowly and lowered its muzzle to sniff her carefully. Nope, It’s the delirium from the pain, she reasoned as she fell into unconsciousness. The wolf whined low in the back of it’s throat with concern.

A distant howl called out, wondering where it’s packmate had gone. Looking away from the unconscious woman, the wolf threw it’s head back in answer. It didn’t wait for a response before it dipped it’s head to roll Y/N onto her stomach. It gently worked her on to his back with surprising coordination.

The birds in the trees chatter amongst themselves as the great black wolf turned carefully and disappeared into the thick forest towards the other wolves of it’s pack, somewhere in the mountains. They gossiped with each other, wondering the woman’s fate and as well as the strange vibrations in the air. The forest had things planned, and everything was going accordingly.

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justjessame · 4 years ago

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The Deal Chapter 5

I left Daryl at the RV so he could give Carol her hope. I went in search of Dad or Lori. Lori was jumpy and weird, so I looked for Dad. Luckily him and Carl were together in the sickroom. I watched while they did hat related things. Fun.

Knocking on the open door, I grinned as they looked up at me. “Is this a ‘been shot, got the hat’ members only meeting? Or is there room for me, too?”

“Course there’s room for you, baby girl.” Dad said, patting the bed for me to come sit. Carl was grinning and looking more like himself.

I sat and smiled at my baby brother. “You look so much better, Carl.” I reached over and tipped his new hat down. “And so do you, Daddy.” He did, his color was back and so was mine.

“Did y’all find anything?” So he knew Daryl and I went out alone. I sighed, knowing that Carl was getting to learn the truth now that he was out of the woods.

“We found a house.” I answered, laying back on the bed and staring at the ceiling. “It looked like she’d been there. It had a bed laid out in a closet, she’d fit, but just. Some recently eaten food.” I shrugged. “Looks good.” I said, with only slight hesitancy.

“That’s great, Jessi.” Carl said, smiling as big as the sun. “She could be close, right?”

I smiled up at him, and knew my dad could see that I didn’t share his and Daryl’s optimism. “It’s a good sign, baby brother.” I sighed. Laying in the room with Dad and Carl chatting around me, I could close my eyes and almost pretend my life was back to normal.

We chatted for a while, until I felt the urge to get out of the house. Dad called for me to wait up, and I stood on the porch and waited for him. We stood looking out over the farm and I wondered what this kind of life would have been like. The quiet country life, with fields and animals. Dad was squinting against the sunlight, and I heard him sigh.

“Jessi,” his voice was low, and I wondered why he was being so careful. “Are you and Daryl-”

“Together?” I finished for him. “We’re trying to be.” I looked up at him. I could see his worry, and his fear about Daryl. “Dad, you don’t know him.”

He groaned and gripped the banister in both hands. “Honey, I’m a cop. I know people like him all too well.”

I glared at my dad, feeling like he was being completely unfair and blinded. “You don’t know HIM.” I snapped, and turned away. “You’re not using your cop skills, Dad, you’re using your dad of a daughter skills.” I ran my hands over my face in irritation. “You’ve done this every single time I dated anyone.”

I heard him chuckled. “And I was right, each and every time, Jessi.” He touched my shoulder. “I’m right now, too. You’ll see, but I’d rather you not have to go through all that again.”

I rolled my eyes. “Daryl isn’t like those other guys.” I knew it, I could feel it. “Look at him, Dad, look at the fact that every single other person in our group has given up on Sofia. He’s the one out there beating the damn bush every fucking day!” I turned and poked him in the chest with a finger. “Not Shane, oh no, Mr. Hero of the Year doesn’t even think we should!”

“Jessi.” He was trying to calm me, but I was done. “Sweetheart, you’ve got to listen to me.”

Shaking my head and stomping down the steps, I shot back at him. “No, Dad, actually I don’t.”

GREENE FARM~ LATER THAT EVENING

I’d found Daryl, looking as sad as I felt and pulled him to where he’d set up our tent. Sitting on a stump, surrounded by his early warning system, I held his hand while I calmed down. He knew me well enough to let me have a breather. As soon as he could tell I was ready, we talked.

“Ya gonna tell me what had ya stompin’ all over lookin’ like ya wanted to murder someone?” He asked, pulling me into his arms.

I sighed, feeling much better wrapped in his arms and feeling his heart beating against me. “Where do you want me to start?” I asked, wondering if now was the time to unburden ourselves completely.

“How ‘bout the beginning?” He offered, and I felt his fingers gently tracing across my skin.

I nodded. “The beginning. OK. You know I’m not Lori’s daughter, not biologically?” I felt him agree. “My mom ran away after I was born. Literally, she got as far away as possible, and her parents didn’t want me in their lives anymore than she wanted me. Dad, he was sixteen when I was born, but he stepped up. I mean, really stepped up. Him and my grandparents were the reason I wasn’t scooped out and dumped as a fetus.” His arms tightened against me. “This might not seem important, but you wanted to know everything, so here it is. Dad met Lori in college, they got married, and then Carl came along. Our family has always been very close. I’m talking front row center for everything that me and Carl have ever been involved in.” He needed to know how weird my parents were about not being in my loop. “Dad and Lori started having problems the last few years I was in high school. They married young, so hiccups are going to happen.” And here came the real issue from our closeness. “The only person as close to my Dad as his family is Shane. They’ve been friends since they were children.” I grabbed one of his hands in mine to hold. “When I graduated, my family insisted on throwing a huge party at our house. Food, cake, presents, and a hell of a lot of bragging from my family.” I chuckled at how great it was at first. “I started to feel overwhelmed, I guess, at the party. Fear of the unknown, you know?” He squeezed my hand. “Shane found me, I swear he can SMELL fear and uncertainty. Vulnerable, he thought I was easy pickings, he tried to-” I stopped and shivered. “He only kissed me, but that was more than enough. I tried to fight him off by pushing him away, but he liked that.” I felt Daryl tense up. “I ended up punching him in the nuts.” That got a gruff chuckle. “It’s why, while Lori and Carl worship at his altar, or did anyway, I can’t. I won’t. But I didn’t tell Dad.” I closed my eyes and wondered at my inability to confess to Dad the way I did to Daryl.

“Why not?” He asked, his breath rippling my hair.

“I don’t know.” I whispered. “They were partners in the sheriff’s department. They’ve been best friends forever. I could give you a million excuses, but none of them make sense to me.” I sighed. “That’s not all. Dad doesn’t approve of THIS, just like you expected.” His chuckle this time sounded more real.

“Course he don’t.” Daryl said, pulling me tight against him. “Does it matter?”

I shook my head. “No.” I turned to face him, pulling out of his embrace and staring up at his blue eyes, such a different shade from my Dad and brother’s. Cupping his cheek, I brought our lips together. A short, loving kiss, drawing back and putting our foreheads together, I asked for one thing. “No more hiding, Daryl. I want everyone to know I love you.”

He smiled down at me and rubbed his nose against mine. “Deal.”

We sat together for what seemed like hours, leaving only long enough to grab some food and come back to our tent. I watched the moon rise, and saw that it was almost full. “Daryl?” I asked, drawing his attention from doing crossbow maintenance. “Think the moon is bright enough now?”

His eyes moved from mine to the bright ball of light glowing in the dark. He tossed the crossbow aside and smiled. Biting his lip, he held up one finger to tell me to wait for him. I watched while he unzipped our tent and drug out both of our sleeping bags. He grabbed my hand and pulled me along behind him, toward a spot far away from the area that Hershel gave our people use of, away from the house, and away from our spotters. Finding a suitable spot, he arranged the bags to use beneath us and then, in the light of the moon, he turned to face me.

#daryl dixon x ofc #rick grimes daughter #negan x ofc #slow burn #eventual smut #angst #depression

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lovemesomerafael · 5 years ago

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Others Like Me Chapter 6: The Compound

Chapters 1-5 Read it on AO3

Bucky has a hard time adjusting to calling Marya by her name, but he’s determined never to call her “Eight” again. That was never a name. It was a dehumanizing designation and he’s not going to use it even one more time, if he can stop himself. Everyone else seems to make the transition easily, and Bucky thinks that’s a combination of not having known her as long as he has, and not wanting to call her “Eight” any more than he does.

Steve’s being careful. He’s entirely confident now that Marya is who she says she is, because Natasha is satisfied of that, and that’s good enough for Steve. But in the Compound, he’s not letting Marya have any weapons, or access to anything sensitive, until further notice. She’s unhappy about being unarmed, given her discomfort with being in a new and potentially extremely hostile environment, but she’s also been a soldier from childhood, with obedience literally beaten into her.

Bucky’s trying to keep Steve at arm’s length after what’s happened between them, which is insanely difficult for about a million reasons. No one else probably notices anything out of the ordinary – they’ve been struggling for a long time – but Steve’s longing stares have a renewed intensity matched only by Bucky’s determination to return to the easy brotherhood they once had, before they admitted their love for one another.

Bruce wants Marya to be wheeled into the Compound on the gurney but, when she complains, she gets support from everyone else on the plane.

“Quit bein’ such a mother hen,” Sam tells Bruce affectionately.

“Even mother hens let their chicks walk by themselves,” Natasha adds, then says in an aside to Marya in Russian, “He’s a man. He thinks we’d need as much time to recover as these boys would.”

“Isn’t he a doctor?” Marya asks her. “Doesn’t he know how much tougher women are than men?”

“Some of us speak Russian, you know,” Bucky mutters, trying to seem offended.

It’s the last light moment for a while, because Marya’s back to being afraid. Bucky expected that, and plans to stick close to her until she feels comfortable. He knows how terrifying new places and situations are for people like them when they’re unprepared, and he remembers his own introduction to the Compound. He finds himself charmed and gratified at the way Marya glues herself to his side, walking and standing just behind him but so close that he can feel her.

As soon as they arrive, everyone scatters to their own areas of the Compound. Steve tells Bucky to put Marya in rooms near his, which Bucky knows will sound to Marya as though he’s trying to make her comfortable by letting her be near Bucky. But Bucky knows better. The truth is, Steve’s own rooms are adjacent to Bucky’s, which means Steve will be in a good position to keep a close eye on Marya himself.

Bucky points out features of the place on their way: the kitchen, the common areas, the training building. Marya’s on extreme alert, but she unconsciously shows her trust in him by holding his hand, which he finds he really likes, in a protective if slightly egotistical way. When they reach the area where his and Steve’s rooms are, Bucky shows her which doors are theirs, before opening the door to the rooms where she’ll be staying. She’s interested in everything, and her expression says she likes the rooms, but the first thing she says is, “I’ll be so far away from you. From everyone.”

“I know, and I know you won’t like that at first. But maybe you’ll find that you like privacy.”

“Maybe. I’ll try.”

There’s a commotion in the hallway outside. He turns toward the sound and hears, “Barnes, I’m gonna kill you for-“

There’s a flash of movement past him and a thud in the hallway. Bucky sighs, knowing what he’s going to find as he takes the several steps to the door and looks out.

Marya’s straddling Tony Stark, her forearm hard across his throat and a knife held in her hand with the point about two inches from his left eye. Tony, being Tony, has an eyebrow raised and an otherwise bland expression on his face.

“Nice to meet you, Marya.”

“Let him up,” Bucky says sharply.

She keeps her eyes bored into Tony’s, and doesn’t move except to tilt her head slightly toward Bucky. “Why?”

“Because that’s Tony Stark.”

She still doesn’t move. “He said he was going to kill you.”

“He says that a lot.”

“He’s got weapons on him. They’re… weird, but they’re weapons.”

Bucky can see that Tony’s good humor is quickly evaporating, which he kind of can’t blame him for, knifepoint at his eye and all. He doesn’t want things to get any worse. If she’s going to work with The Avengers, she’s going to need to be on good terms with Tony.

“Soblyuday, Soldat,” he growls. He feels a little guilty about using such a loaded command, but he’s relieved to see it has the intended effect.

She immediately flicks the knife back into the sheath in her sleeve where it had been hidden and stands, gracefully using her momentum to pull Tony up with her. But she’s not happy about it. She keeps Tony fully in her sight as she turns a glare on Bucky.

“You’re not supposed to have a knife,” Bucky says to her with disapproval.

“THAT’S the problem you see here?” Tony shrieks.

“Relax, Tony. She’s just nervous.”

“Then let her fidget or talk nonsense, like the rest of us.”

There’s a tense silence as Tony glowers at Bucky and Bucky tries to think of something to say to defuse the situation. To both of their surprise, Marya gets there first.

“I owe you an apology, Mr. Stark,” she says, in an oddly stilted way as if she’s reciting lines. “I overreacted, and I’m sorry. I hope I haven’t hurt you. It won’t happen again.”

Tony looks from Marya to Bucky.

“In her defense,” Bucky tells him, “She only tackles people when she first meets them. Once she knows you, she’s very polite.”

“I often regret not killing you,” Tony says to Bucky in an offhand tone that’s almost fond. He then turns to Marya.

“Apology accepted. I like a girl with spirit. I am going to have to ask you for that knife, though.”

She quickly, though reluctantly, takes it out and hands it to him, handle first.

“A few house rules,” Tony says, in his usual rapid-fire style. “First, no attacking the host. That’d be me. Defend me, by all means. And you’re welcome to attack this one at will.” He motions toward Bucky. “Second, if Cap gives you an order, you follow it. He says no weapons, that means no weapons. You with me so far?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Tony looks toward Bucky. “You hear that? ’Yes, Sir’. I already like her better than you.”

Bucky smirks.

“Third, if anyone catches you anywhere you’re not supposed to be, they have orders to kill you on sight. That might strike you as a little rude, and I suppose it is, but no one’s ever accused me of being socially acceptable, and you did just knock me down and stick a knife in my face, so I think we’re even. Are we clear?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Oh, I could so get used to that,” Tony gushes to Bucky, then turns around and begins to walk away. “One more thing,” he says, holding up a finger and turning back toward Marya. “I understand you have a couple of Hydra’s toys, and that you understand how they work.”

“Yes.”

“We’ll talk.” With that, Tony spins back around and strides rapidly back down the hallway.

The next week is hard on both Bucky and Marya. One of the reasons is their rapidly escalating impatience. Nothing seems to be happening. Marya thinks constantly of her ‘brothers and sisters’ in the bunker, and can’t stand the idea that they might think she isn’t coming back for them. Bucky, too, is thinking of them. He doesn’t know them, so he can’t care about them personally the way that she does. But he knows enough. He knows what he endured. He knows that he cannot and will not leave them there.

Bucky’s also having nightmares like he hasn’t had since he first escaped Hydra and went to ground in Bucharest. He’s hollow-eyed and haggard, and he dreads the nights. Sometimes he wakes up soaked in cold sweat, tangled in his sheets. Those are the good nights. It’s the nights he wakes up screaming, stabbing at nothing and terrified almost to madness, that have him wondering whether it’s all worth it.

Sam tells him it’s a good thing. Miserable, agonizing, but a sign of progress. A sign that meeting Marya has helped him to be able to approach a well of memories and emotions he wasn’t ready to even acknowledge before. Bucky hopes so, because he feels like he’s drowning.

One night, he dreams he’s back in captivity, looking at a circle of flunkies aiming weapons at him while shithead Pierce spews megalomaniacal vitriole disguised as patriotism at him. He sees Rumlow, drooling and sprouting wood at the idea of what’s about to happen to him. Bucky’s aching for Pierce to shut up, but at the same time desperate for him to continue so that what’s coming next won’t happen. But it does. He feels the clamps, then the unbearable torment, like every nerve in his brain is being torn out separately and at the same time, and he wakes up, screaming and clawing at his head, bolt upright in his bed dripping with sweat.

He sees his shadowy room, and knows he’s safe in the Compound. He knows he’s going to blow that fucking bunker to kingdom come if it’s the last thing he does. He’s with The Avengers now. He’s not alone. He’s Bucky again. He’s not The Asset or whatever the fuck he was back then. But he also knows that he was that person. He did those things. That was real, and it happened, and it’s never going away. For the first time in a very long time, Bucky covers his face with his hands and cries.

That’s when he hears the soft rustle of fabric, and a whisper from the corner of his bedroom.

“Sergeant?”

He startles, but recognizes her voice. “Marya? What the hell?”

She steps away from the wall where she’s been standing and crosses silently to sit next to him.

“I’m here. Can I touch you?”

“Why are you… I…”

His surprise quickly drains away and, as it does, his despair returns. He hiccups and she reaches out, tentatively, to touch his metal shoulder. Bucky realizes that he wants nothing more than to let go. To give way, just this once, to the wretched tide of pain and grief and guilt and shame that will engulf him if he lets it. He knows how strong Marya is. As she turns to put a knee on the bed and shift herself so she’s kneeling next to him, he knows that the arms she wraps him with are sculpted with well-defined, hard muscle, and that she’s pulling him to her because she can take his weight, and the weight of his anguish. So he leans into her and lets his arms fall weakly to her waist. He lets her pull his head to her shoulder and starts to sob as she strokes his hair.

Once he starts, he can’t stop. He’s afraid sometimes that he’ll never catch his breath as he’s overtaken with wracking, shuddering cries that tear themselves from his throat. But he doesn’t fight it. He lets it have him. He leans on her with his whole weight, letting her keep him upright. He soaks the soft cotton nightshirt she’s wearing with his tears and probably snot and spit, too. He doesn’t care and she doesn’t even appear to notice. She just holds him, rocking him sometimes, stroking his back and arms and hair, kissing his head, his forehead, his cheeks and lips, murmuring soft endearments and comforting words in Russian and English.

It’s got to be an hour before his wails and sobs even begin to slow down into weeping. And he weeps for at least another hour. She’s crying, too, sometimes as hard as he is, but the whole time, she’s supporting and sustaining him, keeping him safe as he falls entirely apart and stays that way for hours.

Finally, Bucky’s completely worn out, drained of every bit of energy and strength he had. All of the filth and suffering inside him has, for the moment, been exorcised. She lays him down, covering him with the sheet and cradling his head to her chest. She wraps both arms and legs around him and he falls asleep clinging to her.

In the morning, he wakes up alone. He knows it happened, because his eyes are swollen and sore, and he can catch the faintest scent of her hair on his pillows. He doesn’t know quite how to feel about that. He’s grateful to her for allowing him the privacy to figure it out, before he sees her.

But it doesn’t take long. In the shower, he thinks through his dream, and the fact that she was there in his room, and her unflinching acceptance in the presence of his staggering, overpowering grief and rage, and he knows exactly how he feels. He feels grateful. He feels honored. He feels loved. And he feels love.

He’s disappointed when he finds that she’s not in her rooms. He was hoping to have the opportunity to see her alone, to talk about what happened. He needs to try to thank her, although he knows he’ll never be able to find the words to tell her how grateful he is.

He thinks about Steve, and Bucky’s already-raw emotions register instantly a sense of guilt that he’s shared with Marya, a woman he barely knows, all the things that he hasn’t been able to let his lifelong best friend see. The things that Steve’s been begging Bucky to trust him with. Bucky knows why it happened that way: Marya is who Bucky is. If Steve lives for another hundred years, he still won’t be able to understand what’s been inside of Bucky the way that she can. But Bucky also knows that he will have to take that knowledge to his grave. Steve would be destroyed to know that Marya could give Bucky something he couldn’t, and Bucky’s not going to do that to him.

In the large kitchen, everyone’s just finishing breakfast, sipping coffee and enjoying some camaraderie before going on to whatever they have planned for their days. Bucky sees Marya, sitting at a table with Clint and listening to him explain something about his bow. He grins, because he knows Clint must be ecstatic. No one else wants to hear him go on and on about what it can do, but Marya seems enthralled. She looks up at Bucky, and they share a small smile and a nod.

Steve’s sitting with Tony, just watching Bucky like a lion watching a particularly tasty-looking gazelle, when Tony sees him.

“Good morning. Catching up on our beauty sleep, are we?”

Bucky grunts a greeting and pours a cup of coffee.

“Bad news, Barnes,” Natasha says from the other side of the table where she’s reading some sort of printouts. “Not only didn’t it work, but we ate all the bacon.”

“Assholes,” Bucky mutters, and begins to take inventory of his breakfast options. It’s not long before Marya crosses the room to do something at the oven behind Bucky, then steps up beside him. She holds out a plate heaped with food, including a respectable amount of bacon. Bucky takes the plate automatically, and feels that it’s warm. He smiles wide, not only because of the gesture, but also because she looks adorably pleased with herself.

Clint’s offended shout cuts through the moment. “Hey! You said there was no more bacon!”

“I’m sorry,” Marya says apologetically to him as she returns to join him at the table. “I guess I don’t know the rules about bacon.”

When Clint looks away, Marya gives Bucky a secret wink. He’s delighted.

“Unpredictable and overly violent, but loyal,” Tony mutters to Natasha. “Shit. Now there are two of them.” Natasha smirks at her papers.

Steve crushes the coffee cup he’s holding in his hand, and there’s minor commotion as people scramble out of the way of the spill and try to outdo each other making fun of him.

After a while, people start to excuse themselves to start their days. Clint’s gone to the training building, leaving Bucky and Marya sitting together, a bit apart from the others. On the way out of the room, Tony says to Marya, “Come to my lab later.”

She goes instantly from relaxed and cheerful to rigid and bristling with fear.

“Gizmos,” Bucky says quickly, putting a hand on her arm. “Remember? It’s not that kind of lab. He makes electronic gadgets.”

Bucky looks daggers at Tony, who shrugs and says nonchalantly, “Yeah. I only experiment on myself. We’re just gonna take a look at that Hydra technology.” He looks at Bucky then. “You come, too, to make sure she doesn’t do anything.”

“Jeez, Tony, she’s sitting right here.”

“You know I have no manners, right, Marya?”

“Yes, Sir,” she says in a small voice, not looking at him.

It takes a while for Marya’s terror to bleed off, and Bucky’s aggravation with Tony lasts even longer.

Steve leaves the kitchen then, not having said a word to Bucky, and he and Marya find themselves alone in the room.

“Thank you,” Bucky says, hoping she can hear the weight he’s putting into the words.

“You’re welcome. I don’t know whether you’re talking about last night or this morning, but the answer’s the same.”

“I was talking about last night, but I gotta say, saving me some breakfast is pretty great, too.”

He likes her pleased smile.

“I don’t really want to make a joke about it, though. You bein’ there, letting me… vent, I guess, that was…” He’s been practicing how to say it, and still he gets tangled up in the words. “It helped me so much, and I just want you to know how much it means to me.”

“I’m glad if I could help. I’ve hated seeing you in such pain.”

“It’s been that obvious, huh?”

It’s been a while since Bucky’s seen Marya’s perplexed look, but she’s wearing it now. “Yes. You’ve been thrashing, and shouting, and…”

“What are you… When?”

“Every night since we’ve been here.”

“Are you telling me you’ve been in my room every night?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you sleep?”

“Not very well. It’s too quiet, and-“

Bucky grins a little. “You’re cold.”

“Yes. The first night, I thought I heard you, and it didn’t sound good, so I went to make sure you were all right. When I saw that you were having bad dreams, I worried about you. So I started coming in, so I’d be there if you needed me.”

“Wasn’t my door locked?”

“Yes.”

Bucky would laugh at that if he wasn’t such a wreck. “So you just watched me sleep?”

“No. I slept, too.”

“Standing in the corner of my room?”

“Sitting.”

Bucky realizes he isn’t really very surprised by this. He takes Marya’s hand and kisses it. “That isn’t necessary. But thank you.”

“It feels necessary,” she says. “I love you.”

It’s a straight, simple declaration, just like the time she told him in Lucerne that she wanted to have sex with him, and Bucky’s thunderstruck. Not knowing what to say or do, he squeezes her hand and kisses it again, longer this time.

“We should go to Mr. Stark’s lab,” Marya says softly.

The seeming chaos in Tony’s lab has always been incomprehensible and vaguely threatening to Bucky. Marya, on the other hand, is wearing an impossibly wide grin, and takes it all in with hungry, enchanted eyes. Tony’s asked them to give him a second, he’s having trouble with something and he thinks he’s just about there. Apparently, he’s not, because he keeps swearing.

After five minutes of slowly circling the huge room, eyes wide with wonder and interest, Marya steps behind Tony to see what he’s looking at through the powerful magnifier. It’s some kind of microcircuitry in a machine whose purpose Bucky can’t even guess at, but she’s intrigued.

Tony swears again and Bucky sees a tiny puff of smoke stream lazily out from where Tony’s working.

“That connector’s backward,” Marya murmurs.

Tony turns on her angrily. “What?”

She steps quickly away, reflexively taking a defensive stance and looking afraid. She doesn’t repeat what she’s said, just watches every movement Tony makes as he scowls at her and shoos her away. She hastens to Bucky’s side, standing just behind him and leaning just the tiniest bit into him.

Tony works for a while longer while they just watchfully wait for him to acknowledge them again. He pulls the tools he’s using away from the machine and it starts to do… something. He swears again and gives Marya another dirty look.

“Connector was backward.”

Bucky’s relieved to note that Marya wisely doesn’t respond.

The conversation that follows is wide-ranging and mostly incomprehensible to Bucky, but he’s always liked futuristic gadgets and gizmos, and it’s entertaining. The part that really catches his attention, though, is when they begin to talk about Bucky’s arm, and the fact that it was Marya who disabled it on the plane when they’d first abducted him.

“How did you know how to do that?” Tony asks, half fascinated and half seriously annoyed.

“I didn’t. But I looked, and it seemed like if I disconnected those two components, it wouldn’t work anymore.”

“Hmm. And how’d you fix it?”

“I didn’t fix it. I made a patch that would stick on the outside to draw the components back together again. It was the best I could do, and I guess I forgot to go back and repair it.”

“Well, let’s do that now, shall we?”

It doesn’t escape Bucky’s attention that Marya was terrified to come into this lab for fear she’d be experimented on, and he’d reassured her that wouldn’t happen. Now he’s the one sitting obediently while they mess around with his arm and talk in one of the few languages Bucky doesn’t speak. It’s a long morning.

That night, Bucky again finds himself dreading the prospect of going to sleep. He finds things to do, including having a fairly heated discussion with Steve about why they’re still not planning a raid on the Hydra bunker in Siberia. Eventually, though, he’s the only one still up, and he decides it’s time to quit procrastinating.

In the hallway outside his door, he makes a decision. He goes to Marya’s door, instead, and knocks. She’s wearing soft, grey leggings and a tank top made of the same material, which do nothing but accentuate the shape of her strong, graceful body and the obvious fact that she’s not wearing a bra.

“Are you all right, Sergeant?” She waves him in, but he stays where he is.

“I just wanted to tell you to stay here. Get some real sleep. I appreciate everything you’ve been doing, but you don’t need to. I’ll feel better knowing you’re here, comfortable, and not just hanging out in the corner waiting for me to have a nightmare.”

Marya looks hurt and a little confused. “I’m sorry if I did the wrong thing. You said people like privacy, so I shouldn’t have-“

“No. It’s not that at all. I understand what you did, and I appreciate it. More than you know. The thing is, I want you to be comfortable. You can’t just be watching over me all the time.”

“I understand.”

The look on her face is tearing at Bucky. “No, you don’t. I’m not mad…” He can’t not take her into his arms when she’s looking down with her shoulders slumped like that.

She hugs him back, but he can feel her uncertainty. After what she did for him, after all she’s done for him, and what they’ve been through together… “Marya, I’m sorry. I’m a chump when it comes to words. I’m trying to be nice to you. Maybe we could…”

Suddenly, the way forward is clear and easy. “What if you sleep with me? That way you can be comfortable, and you’ll probably sleep better than in here, anyway. And if – when – I have a nightmare, you’ll be there.”

She looks a little happier, but still uncertain. “But Natasha said it’s too intimate.”

Bucky kisses her. Intimately. “She was right. I know you don’t really associate sex and sleeping with eachother, but… we could do both. If you want.”

That gets the look Bucky was aiming for. He takes his arms from around her but keeps hold of her hand as he leads her out of her door and to his.

When they’re lying together on his bed, mouths tasting and exploring, this seems to Bucky like the best idea he’s had in a long time. The almost-shy, vaguely hesitant way she’s touching him, though, raises a question that he’s been wanting to ask since he first noticed how beautiful she is.

Bucky lifts up from Marya’s lips and slides a hand down to cover her breast as he looks into her eyes. “Do you… know what comes next?”

She arches up when he begins to tease her nipple with the tips of his fingers, but doesn’t break eye contact. “I think so.”

Bucky tilts his head in inquiry.

“We were children. No one told us anything. But then we got older and we… figured things out. I don’t know whether we guessed right, though.”

Bucky chuckles at that. “I’d bet a lot of money that you got it right. It’s pretty instinctive.”

“Show me,” she breathes. “I’ll tell you if we got it right.”

Bucky smiles and goes back to kissing her, enjoying the way she seems to respond to his tongue, and then try to repeat what he does. It’s bliss to finally get his hands on her bare breasts, and he yanks her tank top over her head at the first opportunity. The moan she makes at that goes straight to his cock, which she’s fondling gently. Too gently. He takes her hand and presses it into him, thrusting against it. He feels her smile.

She makes a tiny, frustrated noise when he pulls out of her reach to scoot down further in the bed, but she seems to feel better about things when he takes one of her breasts into his mouth. Bucky’s a sucker for sounds of pleasure, and Marya doesn’t hold back. He’s very surprised that, rather than find it funny when she calls him “Sergeant” as she’s exclaiming at how much she likes what he’s doing, he finds it ridiculously erotic. Just another of the endless variety of ways he’s fucked up, Bucky guesses. This one doesn’t bother him too much.

She cooperates enthusiastically as he pulls her leggings and panties from her, and gasps – actually gasps – when he touches her. “You all right?” He asks around a mouthful of her nipple.

“Yes, that’s just… feels so good…”

Bucky gets a little worried when he slides a finger inside her and she stops breathing. He lifts his head. “Marya?”

“Yes?”

“Everything OK?”

“Oh, yes!” She’s breathing now. Panting actually.

“You just… I thought you were holding your breath there for a second.”

“I was concentrating.”

Bucky laughs. He really likes that answer.

“But…”

He doesn’t like the “but”.

“What’s wrong?”

“You have all your clothes on. I want to take them off.”

Whew. Bucky crawls back up so they’re lying face to face again. “Be my guest.”

With a happy sigh, Marya takes hold of Bucky’s layered shirts and pulls. When the shirts are lying on the floor, she spends a long moment just breathing hard and marveling at his chest. “You are the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen,” she whispers, touching him in reverent strokes with the tips of her fingers, as though not sure she’s allowed to. It’s mesmerizing. Bucky just lets her admire him, watching her face and doing his own appreciative gazing at her chest.

Eventually, one of her awed caresses ends at the button of his jeans. She looks at his face. “Can I…?”

“Yes. I want you to.”

Once she gets his jeans off, Marya spends another mini-eternity admiring Bucky’s lower half. He has to grit his teeth to maintain control as she touches his cock like it’s a religious artifact. In the part of his mind that’s still thinking, Bucky realizes how conceited it is that he’s getting off so much on her naked appreciation of his body, and knows that Steve would be howling with sardonic mirth.

Nope, Bucky thinks, shutting that down in a hurry. Not gonna think of Steve right now.

Bucky surrenders himself to Marya, letting her touch him everywhere and plant open-mouthed kisses wherever she wants, which is pretty much everywhere, too. He’s too aroused to endure the way she starts to use her tongue on his dick, though. When he comes, he wants it to be inside of her.

“Marya, come here…” He groans.

“Am I doing that wrong?”

“Fuck, no. You’re doing it too right. I want you. I want my cock in you.”

Apparently, Marya’s very on board with that plan, and she moves with him when he turns them over so that he’s lying on top of her. “I want to make you come first, though.”

“’Come?’ Is that when that… explosion happens?”

“That’s what it is, all right.” Bucky rubs his cock against her, feeling her lips slide to accommodate him, and she uses her feet against the mattress to rock her pelvis against him. She reaches down to take his cock in her hand, using the head to rub exactly where she needs it, and it’s mere moments before she’s coming with a spectacular series of shudders and inarticulate cries. One might’ve been “Sergeant,” and Bucky kind of hopes it was.

He plans to wait, rubbing against her until she’s completely finished, but she moves her hips until the head of his cock is against her entrance, then wraps her legs around him. He doesn’t need any encouragement. He thrusts into her, both of them gasping with the sensation, and immediately begins to fuck her with a determined rhythm. When he feels her start to buck against him with her second orgasm, he feels the rush of pleasure roar through him and they’re both shouting as they come.

They both sleep soundly through the rest of the night, once they’ve agreed that Marya and the rest of the Hydra captives did, indeed, get it right.

#Bucky Barnes #Sebastian Stan #Steve Rogers #Captaini America #The Winter Soldier #The Avengers #Tony Stark #Robert Downey Jr.#Clint Barton #Jeremy Renner

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