#I mean to be fair diana did say she she felt it was on her to raise the spare and make up for any unfair treatment | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

0nlythrowharrybeaux · 2 years ago

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Wonderful World - Part 9**

Hello Friends, here's the next part! I hope you like it! Things are happening!

Series Masterlist

Warnings: steamy kissing/making out and a little dry humping moment

WC: 10.5K

Celeste had been sitting silently before Harry for a couple minutes now as she attempted to start talking a few times but would stop. Diana, as promised, was outside in the waiting room, so she shouldn’t have felt any pressure to not share. But as he sat before her he recalled that Diana said she had been upset at her. So maybe she just had a lot on her mind.

“Are you not sure where to begin?” He finally asked and she nodded. “OK, are you feeling overwhelmed? Scared? Disappointed?” He asked throwing out some ideas.

“Ummm…confused and disappointed.” She said with a furrow in her brows.

“Is one more intense than the other?” He asked and she sighed.

“I think I’m more disappointed than confused.”

“Alright, let’s tackle the smaller one first.”

“What are you confused about?”

“My feelings…my feelings about Megan.” She said to Harry who hummed.

“Right, so I take it you’re having mixed feelings if you’re confused. Is that a fair assumption?”

“Ummm, yeah. I’m angry at her, of course but…she gave me this letter to apologize and she…she likes Geri, that’s why she was being mean to me. She thought Geri and I like each other.”

“Oh!” Harry said with surprise. He wasn’t expecting that.

“Yeah…and she said some stuff about her parents not being OK with it and how no one knows about this. I almost…” she sighed already feeling so guilty for even thinking of what she was gonna do, “I almost posted it online, a picture of the letter where she…says she likes girls.” She said shamefully and Harry frowned.

“Oh my god.” He said softly and she started to cry.

“I just want to get her back so bad! And I feel awful about it! But I shouldn’t because she deserves it! And I just don’t know what to do now!” She whimpered and Harry leaned forward and grabbed her hand.

“Look, you didn’t actually do it.”

“But I wanted to.”

“We all think of doing crazy things sometimes.” He said softly, “But you stopped yourself and that could’ve been really bad, yeah? Because that’s something private of hers that she’s entrusted you with all to give you the explanation you wanted.” He said and she nodded, “I’m proud of you for not going through with outing her. That can be very damaging.” He said to Celeste.

“I can’t believe I actually thought about that.” She said sadly.

“You’ve got to give yourself a break, Celeste. It’s only natural to want retribution after you’ve been wronged.” He said and she sighed as he let go of her hand, “What made you stop?”

“I just…know that it’s not right to do that to someone. And just thinking about that whole thing with her parents…it made me…sad for her. And as much as I want her gone…I just, don’t want more bad things to happen to her.”

“What Megan did to you was really, really bad. So if she gets expelled it’s not because of you. They’re her own actions. Your testimony is just going to help the board members context. And if you forgive her-”

“I don’t forgive her. I just feel bad for her.” Celeste clarified.

“Alright, that’s OK for now. But if you think you can move on from this and still be together in the same school then you can say that. But if after she’s apologized and explained you still don’t feel safe then you need to say that, even if you feel bad for her.”

“I think now that I know why…it’s ummm, it’s different. I thought she wanted to threaten me again when she was just trying to give me her letter…I think I just need to think about it some more.” She said and Harry nodded.

“Well if you need to talk about it before the meeting next week, you let me know. OK?”

“Ummm, actually I was wondering if you could ummm, go. T-to the meeting?” She asked nervously.

“Yeah, of course. If you want me there, of course I’ll be there.” He assured and she nodded.

“Thank you.” She said softly.

“S’what I’m here for. So now that we’ve kind of resolved that one, what’s the second thing about? All this disappointment?” He asked and she sighed.

“Megan said in her letter that she tried to kiss Geri one time and she rejected her, and then threatened her not to say anything. Since she got rejected, that’s what made her think Geri and I liked each other. So she knew why this whole time! And she never said anything!” Celeste raised her voice, “No wonder she was so invested and pushing me to tell someone! It’s so she could also get off the hook if Megan got in trouble!” She vented and Harry nodded as he listened, “Why would she do that? I mean, after everything that was going on and happening to me she never even told me! We could’ve both confronted Megan or something! But things didn’t have to go this far!” She said angrily.

“I see your point, but maybe Geri was also scared.”

“So she lets Megan take all her rage out on me to save herself? That’s called being a bad friend.” She said crossing her arms and well, she was right about that.

“Well, I mean, you’re right.” He said and she nodded.

“I know I am. I thought about it all weekend long.” She said and he grinned. If that wasn’t something she got from Diana.

“Well, you’re upset at Geri. You feel betrayed and maybe lied to. Do you still want to be friends with her or what would make it better?” He asked and she sighed.

“Of course I want to be friends with her still but I’m angry at her and I just…need space or I don’t know. I just can’t look at her without expecting an apology and it seems like she doesn’t think I need one.”

“Well, she doesn’t know that you know what Megan did and said to her.”

“That’s…true.”

“If any relationship is worth saving you need to speak about things before it’s too late. I know how you feel when you say that you want payback, I’ve felt that way before, maybe even your mum has.” He said and she sighed, “It’s especially hard when we feel that way towards someone we care for and trust, they’re human too and make mistakes and can hurt us.” He explained, “We’re responsible for our own feelings though and Geri is now probably sensing that you’re upset with her and you need to tell her why. If you want to be able to move past this with her and keep building trust you need to trust her with your hurt. And you need to trust that as someone who loves and cares about you, she’ll want to make it right.”

“What if she doesn’t?”

“Then maybe that’s not the kind of person worth having a friendship with right now.” He said honestly and she sighed. “Accountability matters, Celeste. If there’s anything I wish I could tell my teenage self it would be that - it would’ve saved me a lot of heartaches. And sometimes, when we’re hurt or angry we forget about that and just want to take matters into our own hands or if we’re the one who hurt someone we’re in denial that we’ve caused someone harm and so we just ignore it. And I’m not going to lie, it takes a big person to own up to a mistake when they realize it or get called out on it, give Geri the chance to do that.” He encouraged her and she nodded.

“I will.” She said back and he smiled, “And well, it’s kind of the same thing with my mom…I mean, she knew why Megan was doing the things she was and…she didn’t say anything to me.” She frowned, “We said no more secrets and she lied to me.”

“Well, maybe that’s something that she felt wasn’t hers to share. Just how you didn’t want to out her, maybe she felt the same. And it’s not necessarily out of protection for Megan, but just respect for her journey.” As Harry said this Celeste sighed and shook her head.

“That’s true… I don’t know why I get mad at my mom so much. She never even does anything to upset me.” She sighed, feeling so dumb for it and Harry chuckled.

“You’re 14, you’re supposed to be mad at your mum all the time. S’what teenagers do.” He said and she smiled.

“Were you mean to your parents?”

“I was a bit mean to them, yeah.” He nodded with a chuckle, “They were always so busy working and one year they forgot my birthday, so the next day I cut the power from the house and made them really late for an important work meeting.” He shared and she laughed softly.

“It felt good at first, seeing them in hysterics like that, but unfortunately it was a rather important meeting and it ended up causing them some complications.” He explained shamefully, “I never told them it was me.”

“Well maybe you should.” Celeste said and Harry smiled.

“Yeah, I think I will.” He confirmed and she smiled, “You know, we do this thing with the people who love us, especially parents; we push them away and we lash out at them and we sometimes put them through hell because we know that no matter what, they’ll always forgive us and they’ll always love us. Especially when you’ve got really great parents, like your mum, she’s a great parent from what I’ve seen.”

“Yeah, she’s the best.” Celeste smiled.

“It’s something we all do and we’ll do for as long as we have them in our lives! So it’s also important to show them your appreciation for loving us through everything, you know? So if you feel you’ve been particularly rough on her lately just say thanks or do something nice for her to make her feel appreciated.” He said and Celeste nodded.

“Yeah…I think I’ll do that soon. Maybe my uncle can help me.” She wondered allowed.

“That’s right, your uncle’s coming!”

“Yeah, he’s coming on Friday, we’re all gonna have a week together!” She said excitedly and Harry smiled.

“What’s your favorite thing about him?”

“Well, he does get me a bunch of stuff.” She confessed and Harry chuckled, “But mostly it’s that mom get’s really happy and she just seems less worried when he’s around. He like…makes her more fun in a way?” She said in a bit of a question, “I don’t know how to explain it, but like when he, Grace, and mum are together it’s just a lot of fun.” She explained and he was kind of jealous, he wanted to see that side of her.

“So everything is looking up then.” He smiled.

“Yeah, I guess it is.” She smiled back. For the rest of the session they talked a bit about her depressive symptoms just to ensure that she was dealing well with them and thankfully she was. Afterwards she paid him and as Harry was printing out the receipt for her to give to Diana he recalled a very important detail.

“Oh, by the way I’ve adopted Misty!” He said looking up to her and Celeste smiled and her eyes brightened.

“The little cat from outside?”

“Yeah.” He smiled, “I’m gonna pick her up tomorrow actually. No one had adopted her so I decided to listen to your advice and have her here at the office.”

“Good choice.” She said with a smile as she grabbed her backpack from the floor by the couch as Harry chuckled.

“Yeah, I’m excited.” He said.

“I can’t wait to see her next week.” Celeste said as she made her way to the door, “Have you bought her toys?”

“Not yet.”

“Well I’ll bring her one.” She said as Harry opened up the door for her and as they stepped out Diana started to stand from the seat she was on, “Mom, we need to get Dr. Styles a cat toy. He adopted a cat.” She said as soon as she saw Diana.

“Oh, congrats! Welcome to fatherhood.” Diana joked with a smile and he chuckled.

“Yeah, thanks.” He responded as he looked into her eyes. His pupils were getting wider and his heart was racing as he thought about the kisses they shared just two days ago. Diana bashfully looked away and down at her shoes.

“So ummm, does this cat have a name?”

“Celeste called her Misty, so I just stuck with that name.” He said and Diana looked to Celeste.

“I think she’s just living vicariously through you.” Diana chuckled and Harry laughed and then Celeste looked at her.

“What does that mean?” She pouted.

“It just means that you’re like experiencing what someone else is doing through them. Like you’ve always wanted a cat, so now you’re really excited about Dr. Styles’ new cat as if it were happening to you.”

“Oh.” She said as Diana explained.

“Yeah, will this cat be here?”

“Yeah, she’ll be here.”

“Oh perfect.” Diana said and Celeste smiled, “I give you full permission to tell her to clean out the litter box when she comes in.” She said and Celeste giggled.

“I wouldn’t mind.” She said to Harry and he chuckled as he just hugged Celeste into his side without really thinking about it. She was a bit surprised at first, but then easily rested into his embrace, which is when Harry realized that he had hugged her.

“Oh! I forgot something!” She suddenly gasped and pulled out of his hold and started to dig through her backpack, “The jazz band is gonna play a few songs at the spring concert and I just wanted to invite you so you can see me play guitar.” She said handing him the little invitation flyer that had been sent home with all the band students.

“Oh, thank you. I’ll check and see if I’m free that evening, OK?”

“So you’ll come?” She asked excitedly.

“I’ll try to.” He assured with a smile and that seemed good enough for Celeste. Of course he wanted to go, but he felt like he should talk to Diana about this first, just to make sure it was alright, “And ummm, Diana I just wanted to let you know that Celeste asked me to go to the board meeting with you guys. I hope that’s alright?” He asked. They had talked about this before, but he just wanted to run it by her again.

“Yeah, of course.” She assured and he nodded.

“Perfect. Well, I’ll be seeing you next week.” He said to them both and soon they were off. But not without Harry and Diana stealing a final glance and she smiled at him as she made it through the door. Harry bit his lip to minimize the smile on his face. He was pleased that she didn’t seem to regret what happened between them.

Harry spent some time going through intake paperwork for 3 more referrals he’d just been sent and before he knew it, it was nearing 9pm and he sighed at how the time had escaped him yet again. Before leaving for the night he had to rearrange some of the furniture in his office to be able to bring up the things he had purchased for Misty that were in his car. He had to pick her up tomorrow and he would see how she liked this space. When he’d kept her overnight that one time they found her and he took her home she just hid somewhere for the night. She even got lost in his house that morning, it wasn’t huge per se, but it was large for her, so he’d try having her at his practice primarily. He spent most of his days there anyway. It took him more time to set up the tower and the self cleaning litter box, but it had to get done tonight. He was just getting back on his feet after tightening some screws on the tower when his phone dinged with a text notification. He walked over to his desk and set down the screwdriver with a smile when he saw Diana’s name. He immediately opened it up. And he smiled as he read the message where she said how Celeste had been talking about inviting him to the spring concert for a few weeks now and that she knew he had class, but she was OK with it if he decided to go, to just let him know so that she saved him a seat. He bit his lip as he typed out his response.

***********

Diana was now laying in bed, it was nearing 10pm and she just wanted to talk to Harry. He had looked so handsome today in his button-up and slacks. His facial hair was also a bit longer than when she had seen him a few days prior and it just made her want to see what kissing him like that would feel like. She was eagerly awaiting a response to her text and was surprised when seconds later her phone chimed with his response.

Harry:

Are you just saying yes so that we have another excuse to see each other?

Y/N:

Of course not! But it’s not a bad secondary effect:)

She then saw that he had started typing and then stopped and then 15 minutes had gone by and he still hadn’t responded to her. She was disappointed, truly. So she sat up and finished the last bit of tea that she had been sipping on before bed and set the mug back on her bedside table, blew out her candle, and proceeded to go brush her teeth. When she made her way back into her bedroom she went over to shut the curtains to her balcony when suddenly a little clank sounded against the glass and she gasped at the startle it gave her and then it happened again. When she opened the door to check it out she saw they were little acorns from the tree in front of her house. And she glanced over the balcony and saw none other than Harry in her back yard with a smile on his face. Her heart started to race and she laughed quietly at the surprise of seeing him there.

“What are you doing?” She whisper-shouted to him and he shrugged.

“Just wanted to talk to you a little more I guess.” He responded and she shook her head with a smile.

“Give me a sec.” She said before heading back inside and then peeking her head out to the hallway. Her bedroom was a bit more secluded from Celeste’s and the guest room, but Celeste’s light was off and so she made her way towards her room and peeked inside and saw that Celeste was asleep with her headphones on. She felt guilty for a few moment as she took Celeste in, sleeping peacefully. Harry made her happy though. She hated feeling like following her heart was wrong, but she literally felt a void without him, he made her feel fully alive again and that wasn’t a feeling she had experienced in a long, long time. At least since Celeste had been born. She sighed and closed the door quietly before making her way downstairs and over to the kitchen. She switched on one of the low lights and it allowed her to see Harry already waiting at the patio door and she smiled when their eyes met as she unlatched it and quietly slid it open just enough to let him get inside and then she locked it back up before turning around to face him. “You’re insane for this, you know that?” She whispered with a disbelieving smile and he grinned as he stepped closer and held her face as he started to lean down towards her.

“Yeah? Am I?” He asked lowly as he invaded her space; his delicious cologne was wafting around her now and his warmth around her bare shoulders was so inviting. Diana swore that she was about to melt in his hands. She nodded and he smiled, “You make me feel like I can do whatever, whenever I want.” He whispered as their lips hovered over each others and just as they were about to meet his stomach grumbled loudly which made them both snigger quietly. “Sorry, I skipped dinner because I was building the little tower for Misty.” He explained and she hummed.

“I made lasagne, can warm you up some if you want?” She offered as she peered up at him and as if on cue his stomach growled again and she smiled, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Yes, please.” He whispered and she soon was taking the container out of the fridge and serving him a generous slice per his indication before putting it in the microwave while he put the container back in the fridge.

“So what’s this unexpected visit about?” She asked him and he smirked.

“You made lasagne! I couldn’t pass that up.” He joked and she rolled her eyes at his antics. But he soon reached for her hand and came up close to her again, “In all honesty you just looked really pretty today and I wanted to tell you in person. And I wanted to see you.” He said quietly and she smiled coyly as her eyes stayed on his own. “You look pretty.” He said, “And you also did earlier in your work outfit, but this is nice too.” He complimented and she licked over lips nervously. Being so close to him made her feel like she was electric, every exposed part of her skin was standing at attention, yearning to feel his hands on her. Just as he started to create a steamier environment the microwave dinged to alert her that the food was hot.

“Oh, let me get that.” She said as she hurried over to the drawer to grab him a fork and then his plate out of the microwave.

“God, that smells divine.” He said softly and she smiled as she turned back to him and handed him the plate. “Should we go upstairs, you know in case Celeste wakes up or something?” He asked and she smirked.

“Are you just trying to get into my bedroom?” She asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion and he chuckled.

“No! I’m just looking out for you.” He assured with a mischievous grin and she shook her head before grabbing two water bottles out of the fridge and leading them up the stairs quietly. When they finally made it into her room Harry hummed as that familiar scent of the same candle they had permeated the air. Almost as if she had burned it recently. The light coming from her bedside lamp was rather dim and he got another look around as he toed off his shoes and she rounded the bed to get on it. She then padded the spot beside her and Harry smiled as he handed her his plate of food as he got comfortable.

“You don’t want to get in?” She asked as he just settled down over her covers.

“I do, but I’m in my street clothes.” He said.

“Oh, duh. Do you want a blanket?” She asked and he nodded. She handed him back his plate of food which became his main focus until she was on all fours, ass in the air right in front of him, specially in those flimsy little sleeping shorts she had on. She was trying to get the blanket from the storage bench at the foot of her bed without getting up. Harry licked over his lips as he focused on her bum right before him, he couldn’t see an underwear line anywhere under the material of her shorts and it made him start to feel hungry for something else. He looked away and just focused on his plate of food until a few moments later she was drawing back with a blanket for him to use and she laid it over his lap as he continued eating.

“You seriously made this?” He asked after swallowing a bite and she nodded, “It’s phenomenal.” He said before going in for another bite and she smiled.

“Glad you like it.” She responded as she laid down and turned to face him.

“Well, while I sit here and eat, tell me more about yourself. What’s your favorite song right now?” He asked and she hummed.

“That’s such a hard question.” She sighed before rolling on her back and thinking. She had been listening to a lot of John Mayer for some reason and one specific song she kept humming constantly, “I love them all so much I can’t possibly pick.” She gushed and he nodded as he swallowed down his bite of food.

“Yeah, it’s a great album.” He agreed, “I like it too.” He smiled. He liked it because there was a specific song that reminded him of her. And he wondered if it was the same for her; if there were things in her life that just made her think of him and smile. “So do you like to cook?” He asked her, “Or is it like simply parent duties?” He asked and she smiled as she rolled over to face him again.

“I enjoy it. It’s peaceful or me. Like it’s orderly and gratifying because you get to see your work pay off. And also creative, which is nice because I don’t have so much time to do creative things as much as before.” She said and he hummed in understanding, “Do you cook for yourself or do you have like a housekeeper who comes and spoon feeds you?” She asked teasingly.

“I cook! Really fucking well I might add.” He said and she giggled quietly.

“I believe you.” She assured with a smile and he rolled his eyes, “What’s your favorite thing to make?” She asked and he smiled.

“Mmmm, I make a delicious spinach puff pastry. It’s got cheese inside too. It’s spectacular.” He hummed.

“Yeah, that actually sounds amazing.”

“It really is and well, I make my own dough, so it’s better than-”

“Wait you make your own dough?”

“Yeah, s’not too bad.” He said nonchalantly.

“Harry.” She said seriously and he frowned slightly.

“What?” He asked in concern.

“Are you a baker?” She asked seriously before smiling and he smiled down at his plate of food.

“Yeah.” He confirmed and she cooed softly.

“That’s so cute!” She exclaimed quietly.

“Cute?” He asked and she nodded as he took his final bite of lasagne.

“Yeah, like baking is cute.” She smiled and he slightly frowned as he continued chewing his food, not realizing that in his rush to speak he had sauce smeared at the corner of his mouth and she giggled.

“Baking is anything but cute.” He said and she hummed in amusement.

“Yeah? Tell me more about that.” She asked, propping herself up on her elbow.

“Well, first off it requires a lot of skill. Technical, culinary, and patisserie skills!” He pointed out as he set the plate down on the bedside table on the side he was on, “More than that, it requires good instincts, it requires knowledge about whatever you’re making. Like you need to know the consistencies of things. It requires precision and focus and artistic skills as well. So a lot of imagination goes into it and-”

“Yeah, so it’s cute.” She said and he rolled his eyes.

“You’re really reducing the one skill I have to it being cute?” He said and she smiled.

“Yeah, because I can’t say all the stuff you just did every time. I’m not undermining you.” She assured and he glanced at her briefly.

“I don’t know…wouldn’t be the first time…” he teased pettily about their most recent argument and she scoffed in disbelief.

“Oh wow…OK.” She said trying to hold in her laughter, “I…deserved that.” She finally said and he chuckled as he got comfy beside her, facing her.

“I’m messing with you.”

“I know.” She smiled and he did as well, “Maybe I’m just a little jealous because I’m a really bad baker.” She confessed as she brought her thumb to the corner of his mouth and wiped away the sauce he had smeared there with a smile and turned to wipe it off on a tissue.

“Are you really?” He asked as she got comfortable again.

“Yeah, Celeste has guilted me about this since she was in like the 4th grade. For all the bake sales I always just bought something because…I’m a disaster.” She giggled and he chuckled. “She’s gonna have one for this little band camp trip they do over the summer and she’s already scoping out some of the higher end pastry places so I don’t bring in those little brownie bites from Vons for the 5th year in a row.” She snorted as she told Harry the story who was laughing along quietly.

“Too bad they don’t do lasagne sales.” He joked and she sighed.

“I know…” she pouted.

“I mean…you could take that. Technically it’s baked, is it not?” He asked and she smiled.

“It is…imagine me turning up to a bake sale with a lasagne.” She laughed and he giggled, “Celeste would kill me.” She chuckled and he did as well.

“I can literally picture her completely unamused expression.” He said and Diana sniggered, she knew what expression he was talking about, “Oh god, that’s too funny.” He sighed, “Well I for one agree with Celeste, you can’t take those brownies from Vons. And if you won’t be taking lasagne, maybe I can teach you to bake something? Or if you really suck that bad,” he grinned at her and she rolled her eyes, “I can make something for you to take. Ooh, maybe a baclava?” He asked.

“You can make baclava?” She asked and he nodded.

“Yeah, the hardest part is the flake pastry. But once you’ve got a good lamination technique down it’s not that challenging.” He assured.

“I think I’d have to sample first if you did want to contribute something to the bake sale.” She said and he chuckled.

“Yeah, anything you want I’ll take a stab at it.” He said softly as he tucked her hair behind her ear and she smiled, “I’m gonna kiss you now, OK?” He asked.

“Please.” She whispered and Harry quickly moved his body to hover over hers as their lips met slowly. Diana felt relieved as the warmth of his body seemed to melt over her the second their lips met. A kiss that started out sweet and gentle was quickly intensifying as he rested more of his weight over her body. Their lips moved together eagerly and Harry was buzzing with the way her fingers played with and weaved into his hair. He knelt up a bit to straddle her thigh and his hands found her hips. He wanted her, he wanted her so badly it was making him lose sight of any what-ifs or doubts he had about what they were doing. Their kiss was feverish, bordering on desperate as he sucked on her bottom lip as his knee brushed against her center. This tiny moment of friction made Diana tense up against him and her entire body grew hot and she felt Harry’s lips widen in a grin as he released her bottom lip and her eyes fluttered open to meet his.

“What is it?” He asked coyly and she bit on her lip as her cheeks flushed pink, “Hmm? Tell me.” He said softly. His lips barely brushed with hers as he spoke and then his nose lightly nudged her nose, urging her to respond to him. He was so smug it made her want to strangle him and kiss him at the same time. So she decided to pull his face lower to kiss him again and they easily fell back into their intimate moment as her tongue flicked against his lower lip. She could feel his grip on her hips tightening as his tongue teased her own. He pressed his knee up against her center again and this time her beautiful and breathy moan rang into his parted mouth. Diana’s skin was littered in goosebumps as the friction from his knee made her hyper aware of the throbbing of her clit and just how turned on she was for him. Harry pulled her down against his knee again by her hips and her eyes lazily blinked open to meet his own. Her pupils were blown wide as were his as he searched for any indication to stop in her eyes. “Again?” He asked her and she nodded as she bit her lip, bracing herself for the much needed friction and this time she ground into him as well.

“It feels so good.” She whispered and he kissed her heatedly and sloppily. They were breathing so hard and it was starting to feel hotter between them. Her hands were roaming the expanse of his back, she wanted to feel all the very well built muscles she had seen on him a few days ago, but it was a bit hard with the vest he had on. She parted their lips for a second, “C-can you get this off?” She asked as she tugged at the chest of his vest and he nodded and knelt up to yank it over his head before he dipped down to connect their lips. Harry smiled into the kiss as her hands roamed up and down his back, feeling the contours of his fit physique through his dress shirt. She wanted him so bad, she kept grinding down against the top of his knee, right below his thigh, and it was very quickly building her up. She hadn’t had a sexual relationship with someone in a while, but he seemed to press all of her buttons and she wanted more. She relaxed into his hold as his hands slid up to her waist and wrapped around her.

“Gonna flip us.” He warned her and she nodded as they rolled over and immediately started to make out. Y/N’s hands landed on his firm chest before sliding up his neck and holding his jaw as their lips smacked together quietly. She was hesitant to lay all her weight on him for fear of what she might do upon feeling his own arousal, but it was a need at this point. So she went ahead and just relaxed her hips to press against his own and she immediately felt the large outline of his erection straining in his trousers. It was tucked off to the side, but she could feel it against her inner thigh as she very gently rocker her body against his own.

Harry’s hands were very low on her hips and he was a bit nervous to push her too far too soon. He knew it had been a while for her and that she had so much going on, but it was hard for him to control himself around her, especially when he knew that she wanted him too. When she rested her full weight on him and pressed against his cock he wanted so badly to thrust up against her. His fingers were surely to leave bruises from how hard he was gripping her amid their torrid make out. He felt like he was on fire and his cock was leaking, he could feel it dampening his skin. He parted their lips for a moment and her eyes looked into his, all hazy and fucked out. His hands smoothed down the round of her ass and he held off from doing anything more than that before asking.

“Can I touch you here?” He asked and she nodded meekly as he started to smooth his hands over her bum. She hadn’t realized how big his hands were until they were covering a lot of ground very quickly. He then slipped them under the hem of her shorts and started to pat and knead at her bare bottom.

With more of a fire under her belly now she leaned in and started to kiss her way up his jaw. Gently nipping and sucking on his warm and smooth skin. As soon as she started to grind against his thigh he began aiding her movements and pace. She sighed in contentment at the friction being provided, she could feel him just fine through her flimsy sleeping shorts and it was making her lose her mind. She nibbled his earlobe carefully and he tensed up at the slight tickle from her breath against his ear.

“D’you want me to go faster?” She asked and he nodded.

“Please, baby. Please, just a little faster.” He whispered and she picked up the pace of her grinding over his cock and he exhaled shakily, “Mmm, that’s good. So good.” He panted. Her soft whines and whimpers against his ear were driving him absolutely insane. He wanted her to consume him, he would give her everything she could ever want or die trying, he just wanted her. He started to grind up against her as well, intensifying this already heated moment between them. They were both panting and relishing in the opportunity to be this close with each other, “Kiss me.” He whispered his request and Diana immediately put her lips back on his. This helped muffle their already soft sounds some more, but the messy and urgent kissing and dry humping were making her lose her composure, she wanted more. She needed more of him.

“Har-” she was cut off as her phone started to ring loudly from her bedside table and she shot up to grab it and silence it. They both sat quietly for a moment to ensure there was no movement in the house and she then glanced down to her phone and saw it was Grace. As soon as her name disappeared from the screen a text from her came in and Y/N frowned as she read it: “Please tell me you’re awake. I really need you. I may have ruined everything with Henry!”

“What’s the matter?” He asked as his hands smoothed up and down her thighs and she just handed the phone over to him as she slowly got off of his lap, “She texted again, she’s outside.” He said and Diana’s eyes widened.

“What?”

“Yeah, look.” Harry said with concern and she grabbed her phone and read the text at least three times before the words registered.

“Shit! I’m gonna have to sneak you out the way you came.” She said and he grinned, “Stop, this is serious! I’m lying to Celeste and now to Grace!” She sighed in exasperation and he frowned.

“Maybe don’t lie then.” He suggested and she shook her head and sighed, “I like you, you like me…what’s the crime in that?” He asked and she scoffed.

“Harry, Celeste is incredibly opposed to the idea of us even being friends! I can’t take this from her, I can’t take you from her.” She said with frustration and Harry sighed. She was right, what was he thinking, showing up like this and sneaking around with her like a pair of teens. It was irresponsible.

“You’re right, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have even come. I just wanted to see you so badly and I…I just can’t stop thinking about you.” He confessed to her and she frowned.

“I can’t stop thinking about you either.” She responded and he sat up and hugged her tight as she rested her head on his shoulder. “This fucking sucks.” She mumbled and he smiled sadly.

“I know, baby.” He sighed, “C’mon then.” He said as he rubbed her back and she pulled away from him and grabbed her phone texting Grace that she’d be down in a minute. Harry grabbed his keys, phone, and wallet and he saw that Henry had just called him, “Henry just called me.” He said and Diana frowned.

“Look, how about we just say that you were really worried over the board meeting next week? I’m sure Grace’ll understand that.” He suggested, “That way you don’t have to sneak me out.” He said and she bit her lip pensively.

“Yeah, that…that would be good. She tends to be suspicious when I’m evasive.” She said and Harry nodded. She grabbed his vest from the ground and he grabbed his empty plate and very quietly followed her down the stairs. He shot a glance at Celeste’s door feeling a tiny hint of remorse for what he had done tonight. He threw on his vest and ran his fingers through his hair as Diana went to let Grace in.

“Harry’s here by the way.” He heard Diana say lowly as they came into he kitchen and he just glanced up at them as they walked in.

“Hey.” She sniffled.“I kinda left Henry stranded at the bar, he might call you to come get him.” Grace explained and Harry reached down into his pocket remembering that Henry had in fact called him.

“Oh, he did actually.” He said and Grace nodded, “Are you alright?” He asked first and she nodded.

“Yeah, ummm…I just think that he feels like he’s wasting time with me.” She explained, “Or well, that’s what he said actually. I already explained to you why I needed to go more slowly and I was trying to get that across to him, but I think it came out in a way where it made it seem like I’m not serious and..ughhh. I’m sure he’ll explain it to you.” She said and Harry nodded.

“Maybe I can help clear things up.” He said with a smile and Grace sighed in some relief.

“If you could, that’d be amazing. It’s really lucky you were here.” She said and then her eyebrows creased. “Wait. Why are you here? I thought you guys were avoiding each other outside of therapy or whatever.” She said with confusion.

“I called him because I’m just really worried about Celeste. She finally read the letter the other girl gave to her and she explained everything that’s going on with her and I’m just worried about how that’ll affect the board meeting and…yeah.” She sighed and Grace nodded.

“Yeah, that’s gonna be interesting.” Grace said as she took a seat.

“Yeah, Celeste asked me to go to the meeting as well so I figured we should all be on the same page.” Diana nodded in agreement, “Well, I’m gonna go get Henry.” Harry said and they both nodded.

“Right. I’ll walk you out.” Diana said and he nodded, “Gracie, there’s water in the kettle if you want to turn it on for some tea.” Diana said and she nodded. Soon Diana was walking Harry to the front door and she stepped out, shivering as soon as she did and quietly shut the door behind her, “Geez, it’s freezing.” She complained and Harry smiled as he pulled her into his chest by her waist.

“You didn’t have to actually come outside.” He said with a soft chuckle and she smiled before she glanced up at him.

“I did. Need to give you something.” She said as she slid her hands up his chest and looped them around his neck and he smiled.

“Yeah? What’s that?” he asked coyly as he dipped down to skim his nose along her own.

“A proper send off.” She whispered and in seconds their lips melded together in a slow, mournful parting kiss. It was so hard to stop once they started, they both just wanted to keep kissing until they couldn’t breathe, but they didn’t have that luxury right now. So after a few more pecks she was letting him go and waving as he rushed out of the gate. She went back inside and found Grace looking through her selection of tea.

“Since when are you guys buddies?” She asked with a slight smile.

“Ever since we have one very compelling common interest.” She said and Grace raised her eyebrows up.

“That’s true…” she said, “Is he good with her?” She asked and Diana smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, she’s really taken to him. And well, just recently I’ve been more involved in everything. After the whole instagram thing happened Celeste asked me to join their sessions, but she had apparently felt pressured by me to do so and like…he talked to me about it because Celeste was like super evasive and shut down in the sessions and he basically said that I was the reason for her change in session. And I went off on the poor guy. Basically told him that maybe he just sucked at his job-”

“Oh my god!”

“I know…God, I’ve never been so crazy in my life! But he was so professional despite that. A few days letter is when Celeste ran off and we had a chance to really talk while we looked for her and like, he really cares about her, you know? And I apologized for what I said to him, like he just has her best interest at heart and it just really made me trust him a lot more.” She explained and then Grace hummed.

“I think he has a crush on you.” She smiled.

“Ha! That’s…not even…like he’s not an option anyway.” She said all flustered.

“Oh my god! Oh my god.” She said, “You have a crush on him!” She squealed quietly and Diana went all red in the face. Good thing the lighting was very low right now.

“He’s good-looking, OK? That’s all. Of course, I get flustered around him, are you kidding me.” She fibbed and Grace hummed.

“Yeah, he is quite handsome.” She concurred.

“Well enough deflecting. What happened?” Diana asked, shifting the topic from her to Grace.

“Well, over the weekend I was talking to Harry about what happened with my parents and how it’s kind of hard for me to just…allow myself to basically surrender to those feelings I have for Henry. Like I want to trust him and I want this to work, you know? I’ve never felt so much for someone in so long and it is scary to me. Like…what if he’s a bad guy and I like him so much that I can’t see any red flags and shit. And like I haven’t told him that I love him even though he’s said it. And like I explained to him why it’s taking me so long and that I don’t know if I even want to say that to him without really thinking it through properly and it upset him so much! That’s when he then said that not having any reassurance from me made him feel like he was just wasting his time, which hurt so much! And I just said that I was sorry for wasting his time and I just left.” She said tearfully and Diana nodded in understanding as Grace sighed loudly.

“Sometimes we can…talk ourselves in circles because we’re scared. Like I know that you know, that Henry is an amazing guy! And yes, it’s fine to take your time and take things at your own pace, but you also need to make sure that your partner’s needs are being met. And yeah, sometimes that requires putting your guard down, but the right person won’t view that as as sign of weakness, they’ll love and appreciate you trusting them with your vulnerability and maybe that’s what he needs from you. Just a sign that you do love him even if you’re not ready to verbalize it yet.” Diana explained and Grace looked frustrated.

“I said yes to being his girlfriend! I told him what a huge deal that was! You’d think that’s more than enough for him to know how I feel! And what about my needs and my past experiences? I also have a right to go through my process and to take as much time as I need.”

“You certainly do, but that’s not this. You’re just afraid and you’re holding back. And that fear is making Henry feel like you don’t trust him and that you don’t reciprocate his deeper feelings for you, which to be fair to him, can make him feel like he’s putting in all this effort for nothing. And he also has a right to walk away if he doesn’t feel loved or supported in your relationship - he might feel like he’s giving and giving, but getting nothing in return. You’re doing to him what you’re afraid of him doing to you.” Diana said and Grace immediately frowned.

“What? No.” She said defensively and Diana sighed.

“You are, Grace.” She said again, “I know it’s scary to put your heart and feelings out there after everything your family has endured, but when you look at Henry and feel anger or doubt or whatever else, you need to confront those thoughts with the hard fact and inarguable logic that Henry’s not your dad. No other man in this world is your dad except your dad.” Diana said and Grace’s frown softened.

“Maybe not but what if he turns out to be exactly like my dad and ruins everything?” She asked and Diana sighed.

“Well, that’s just a risk you have to take.” Diana said simply, “We take far greater risks every single day. And this person makes you happy. You’re so happy with him, Grace. Don’t let your fear take that away from you.” Diana said to her with so much zeal and sincerity. Perhaps it was because in a way she was also saying this to herself.

For the first time in years she had met someone who appealed to her on every level. His intellect, his physique, his way of challenging her, his manner, his care and protectiveness over Celeste - everything about Harry made her feel alive. And he wanted her! There were a lot of things holding her back from allowing herself to fall for him, but she was slowly losing that battle. She wanted to stop fighting, she really did, but it wasn’t the time. This was a boundary set up by her daughter and she needed to respect it for her own well being. It was painful, to relinquish her own happiness for her daughter, but that’s part of being a parent - sacrifice. She made that choice when she decided to keep her baby all those years ago and she didn’t regret it for a second. But right now it was so hard because letting someone like Harry pass her by just felt like a really huge mistake, she felt it in her gut. But being with him would cause her daughter harm and she would betray her trust, which was also wrong to do - they both just seemed like really shitty options and as Grace hugged her back she couldn’t help but feel her heart breaking as well.

*********

“I’m so sorry, mate.” Harry said as soon as Henry got in his car. He had told him to wait for him at the bar and not get an uber, they really needed to talk.

“S’fine.” He sighed as Harry took off towards Henry’s place.

“It’ not fine. What happened?”

“I just feel like I’m doing everything I can to show Grace that I’m not going to hurt her. I’ve taken it slow how she’s wanted but like…I’m in love with her, you know that. You know that I think she’s the one, but it doesn’t seem like she wants that and I don’t want to keep giving it my all and not get anything back. I told her that I felt like I was wasting my time with her…and I was frustrated, like I’m obviously not wasting time, I love her. But I feel like it’s kind of one-sided and that’s super shitty, you know?” He said and Harry nodded.

“Yeah, I can imagine. If she’s not ready to verbally tell you that she loves you, what would it take for you to feel like she’s still invested?” He asked and Henry sighed and shrugged.

“I don’t know…I mean, what else could make me feel like she loves me besides her saying it.” He chuckled and Harry smiled.

“Well, anything she could do? I don’t know, what’s your love language?” He asked and Henry grinned.

“Words of affirmation.” He said and Harry sputtered on a laugh.

“Well, you’re fucked with that one, mate.” He said and Henry chuckled as well, “I’ll affirm you with my words.” Harry said and Henry shook his head.

“Please, spare me.” He mumbled and Harry scoffed.

“You don’t even know what I’m gonna say!”

“If it’s something stupid-”

“It’s not! I swear!” Harry assured with a grin and Henry sighed.

“Fine, go.”

“Last weekend when Grace said she needed to ask me something, she explained to me that she knows that you’d never hurt her the way her dad did her mom but that she’s just afraid to put herself in the line of fire. She thinks you’re too good to be true and it’s just waiting for the bubble to burst. She gets really in her head about letting her guard down, I told her to trust her gut and she has a great feeling about you. I think she might even love you, she’s just hesitant and you can’t blame her for that. Do something for her that reminds her of that good gut feeling you gave her from the start, man.” Henry smiled at Harry and nodded, “Was that good or too stupid?” He asked with a grin and Henry scoffed which made Harry smirk as he turned back to the road.

*************

It was midnight now and Grace and Diana were in her bed watching a random romcom to make Grace believe that love conquered all. They were mostly quiet, just giggling every now and again when something funny happened on screen. That is until Grace glanced to Diana.

“Are you actually interested in dating or do you just do it because people bug you about it?” She asked and Diana giggled.

“I am interested, it’s just that it gets a little more complicated with Celeste.”

“That’s just an excuse. How is Celeste getting in the way of you finding your true love?” She asked with a smirk and Diana chuckled and thought, "Grace literally has no idea.”

“You know, the more I spend time with Harry the more I think you’d be an excellent fit. I mean, Celeste likes him if that’s what you’re worried about? And he likes her-”

“She’s his patient, of course he has to kind of like her.”

“But it’s more than that, you can tell he cares for her.” She explained and Diana bit her lip as she recalled how he was when she had that panic attack; he literally was beside himself. He himself just froze as if it were happening to him, the level of empathy was one even beyond that of a professional. And well, when she had run off and he found her and she so easily scooted into his side, and even today after session when he pulled her in for a hug without really thinking about it, it surprised her as well, but she once again fit easily into his side. But he said he didn’t want kids…he literally made sure he wouldn’t have any kids…she needed to stop being delusional.

“Well maybe he has a huge soft spot for kids because he’s told me he doesn’t want kids.”

“I mean…maybe he doesn’t want his own biological kids. Maybe adoption is something he’s open to?” Grace said and Diana rolled her eyes.

“You’re reaching so fucking far right now that you’re basically off the end of the cliff, by the way.” Diana giggled and Grace shrugged.

“A girl can dream for her friend, can’t she?” She said and Diana smiled, but then felt guilty for lying to her about all of this, if there was anyone she could trust it would be her best friend.

“Ummm, actually I have to tell you something.” Diana said softly as she sat up in the darkness and reached for the water at the bedside table.

“That doesn’t sound good.” Grace said as she turned to her, just how Harry had done just a few hours before. She got back and faced Grace as she sighed.

“It’s not bad per se, but it’s…a little messy.” She explained and Grace looked a bit confused.

“Go on…”

“So, Harry and I had met before you introduced us because of Celeste, I told you that.” Grace nodded, “But…from the start there’s just been this…pull that I can’t even begin to describe. Like it feels so good, but it makes my heart ache and yearn for the next time. And he feels it too. And we flirt and then we stay away because he can’t be dating a client’s parent, that’s just asking for a lot of trouble. And when we were at the concert and I went to the bathroom, he came after me and he kissed me-”

“Wait what?!” Grace gasped quietly with a huge smile on her face and Diana nodded.

“He kissed me and I…kissed back. And I felt so bad and that’s why I got all weird afterwards.” She explained, “And well, Celeste thought that we were dating and that’s why she took off the other week and when we were looking for her he just said all these heart-wrenchingly beautiful things about how he wants to know more about me, but given Celeste’s reaction to it, it would never work. But then we kissed again-”

“Wait, when do you find the time?” Grace asked and she giggled.

“Ummm this last one was on Saturday morning, I ran a little further than usual and ended up at a park by his place, just down the main street. Apparently he lives a few minutes away.” She explained and Grace smiled.

“And let me guess, you were not talking about Celeste earlier, you were just feeding him dinner and making out with him?” She asked with an excited grin and Diana blushed.

“Kinda.” She gushed and Grace squealed.

“This is amazing!”

“It could be but Celeste clearly feels very strongly about this and I don’t want to cause her any harm or hurt when she’s already going through so much, you know? Before anything Harry is her therapist, I can’t take him from her when she clearly doesn’t want that to happen.” She said and Grace sighed.

“Freaking Celeste.” She joked and Diana smiled.

“I mean, she’s not wrong. It’d be weird if your mom was dating your doctor or teacher or something and knew all the inner workings of you from a professional standpoint.”

“True…”

“Yeah, I just…I could really fall for this person. Like, he’s so wonderful and I like that he pushes me and challenges me, I like how he sees me and it makes me want to be kinder to myself. I mean, I think I’m a pretty great person you know, but he makes me want to be better. Isn’t that what we should all strive for? A person who makes us feel whole and like the best version of ourself?” She asked and Grace sighed.

“Yeah, that’s lovely, Di.” She agreed with a sympathetic smile, “I’m sorry it’s like this.”

“It’s not your fault or anyone’s really, but I just…feel a bit annoyed I guess that this is how this is. Like we’ve tried to stay away and one way or another we end up together again, like life just keeps pushing us back and I also can’t ignore that.”

“Then don’t. Maybe when everything gets resolved with Celeste she won’t care if you date him.”

“He’s her therapist, just because the bullying thing gets resolved doesn’t mean she won’t need therapy, you know?”

“Well find her a new one. A girl maybe, I’m sure it might be awkward for her to talk about some other things with Harry. I think that maybe right now she’s kind of guarding him because she feels like he can protect her. Not that you can’t, but I mean, maybe it has to do with her dad, you know? Like she’s missing that experience and she’s finding surrogates for what he would give her if he were here.” She explained and Diana nodded.

“Yeah, maybe so…Like I want to give her that, but when I considered dating Gabe she totally flipped out on me, so I don’t know.”

“Well what about Gabe, don’t you like him?”

“I do, like as a person, and he’s super hot-”

“I was just about to say.” Grace giggled.

“Yeah, but ummm…it doesn’t feel like it does with Harry.” She explained, “Maybe I just need to settle for a fraction of that, like not everything has to feel like some well orchestrated plan from the universe for you to be happy, you know?”

“That’s true, but why would you choose the mediocre thing when you could have the best thing?” Grace said and Diana sighed.

“You know, he’s adopting a cat that Celeste saw on his fire escape.” She said and Grace cooed, “I know. She started calling the cat Misty and he’s named it Misty, guess he’s picking her up tomorrow and he’s gonna have it in the office; he might say it’s for some other reason, but I’m like 80% sure it’s because of her.” She said and Grace smiled.

“He’s literally so cute! The cutest.”

“Yeah, he is.” Diana sighed with a sad smile.

As sad as this made her, she needed to be composed for next week. Her brother would be arriving on Friday evening and be spending a whole week with them; she hadn’t heard about her mother yet, but she had a feeling she would soon. She still felt weird about the Megan situation and she was sure Celeste did too. She wondered if she had even talked to Geri about what had happened with her and Megan…and what did Harry tell her in session today about all of it? There was just a lot going on and literally, the only person who had helped tone down the noise was him. When she was around Harry she felt like her 18 year old self-again, confident, lively, energetic, optimistic about the future…she felt like he was the kind of person who would alter her future.

Let me know what you think of this part!

Taglist will be resumed once shadowbanning is lifted!

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strawberryjamsara · 1 year ago

Note

I’m interested in your thoughts on ztd since you said you don’t think it’s that bad (I have never played a Zero Escape game btw)

Hmmmm. I’m probably gonna state some unpopular opinions in this but sure.

So I’m gonna start by saying I don’t think this entire game was one big asspull. There are several, but lots of stuff had been hinted at in earlier entries, and… unfortunately mind hack was foreshadowed in the very first entry. And sadly, it makes the twist that Cradle Pharmaceuticals was in the pocket of Brother which I didn’t like in vlr make more sense because it would mean Delta gathering more information on that. I think it’s the way it’s written that’s so infuriating. It’s essentially a last minute plot device that isn’t really properly explained, and doesn’t even have any bearing on the plot, which is better than if it was a huge inescapable part of the plot, but good lord it feels contrived.

I also heard a lot of decrying before playing this game that everyone was ooc but I… respectfully disagree. It felt more like a sense of not knowing the characters as well as I thought I did and trying to adjust my view. Akane is not running the game for the first time so it changes the way she acts. She’s vehemently against it when Junpei wants to kill everyone and yeah. Fair. She did kill people as part of the plan in 999 but for her, those were people who put her through misery and killed her. I can understand the shift in tone. She’s willing to kill to achieve her goals but she’s not bloodthirsty, and she’s in this timeline specifically to have the life she couldn’t in the others. She wants a fairy tale future, and she’ll even ruin another chance with Junpei to have this ideal. This is Akane Kurashiki, wanting things desperately to go back to normal after the nonary game, when they never can and never will.

Sigma I was expecting more mad scientist and evil vibes out of, but I think it’s more fascinating that he’s just himself but overly serious. He’s still a self sacrificial goofy dude, and knowing who he is and what he’s done makes it all the more stomach sinking when you see that, despite the change in tone, he IS Sigma. Sigma did what he did not out of any sort of malice or hatred towards anyone, not even for his children who suffered, but because he loved the world and everyone in it so much that it was worth everything he did to save it, which is so in line with his character in VLR, but to a horrific degree.

Also Junpei being emo. I’m fine with it. He went through a death game. Old man Junpei in VLR is a good person overall but he has had moments where if it came down to Quark or everyone else, he would choose Quark and this is the same but with Akane.

The new characters are where it starts to fall apart a bit…

So I think Diana was a good character and predecessor to Luna. I don’t really have much to complain about with her. She’s a kind person. Kind enough to kill six billion people. And that’s a brilliant premise of Sigmas love interest because, for the reasons listed above, she’s the perfect foil. Kind enough to save the world at the cost of people close to you and kind enough to doom it for the people close to you.

Carlos is also a good character. Sometimes all you need is a fun goofy dude who loves his friends and his little sister. I also think he’s a parallel to Aoi in a sense. Akane is close to some dude who won’t shut up about how important his sister is, and there’s moments where she directly calls to how he’d do anything for his sister, and all I can think is if she’s thinking of Aoi in that moments. Aoi would do anything for her. He doesn’t get much in the development department despite the fact that he’s one the only ones who remembers most of the timelines though, which is dissapointing. I liked that they took away the decision to have him shoot delta at the end. That was his choice in this world, and nothing else mattered to him at the moment.

Q is also a pretty good character. He’s a sweet kid, and I enjoyed his arc where he learns his role in the game and his nature, and still wants to form relationships and be happy.

And then you have the last two…. Mira and Eric

Mira had me fascinated when I learnt her backstory. A serial killer who wanted to know what a heart is. That’s cool! I can’t wait to see more! How she develops or gets worse! She has a deep sadness that she herself can’t understand, and she does love Eric, but not for him. She doesn’t even know what she wants or even seem to understand what she’s doing is wrong. It’s a beautifully toxic relationship. But we really don’t get anymore besides two scenes. I also thought they were gonna drop the reveal that she killed Eric’s mom because of the parallels between her first victim and him, but it didn’t really come out. Sad.

Eric is a character that I can see where a lot of the hate comes from, and I can also say he’s not a good person… but he’s a very interesting and sympathetic character. He’s gone through so much trauma, he has essentially become just like his dad, and he thinks love will fix him, because his dad was so happy when mom was alive, obviously this pretty woman will make him better too. We don’t really… get any conclusion though. He flip flops between finally calming down and being better to Q than his father was to him to rageaholic murderer, and the game ends with his kind send off to him which after all we’ve seen doesn’t feel like it’ll stick, and seemingly blissfully ignorant that his girlfriend wants to murder him. Again, like Mira, this was a character we could’ve watched get worse or better but we didn’t get anything.

So yeah the two extras on Q team didn’t really develop. I understand it’s hard to have characters in a story with multiple timelines have consistent development, but give us something man. Or better yet, just replace them with old characters who’d we already be able to recognize as full characters. Have Aoi there. It’d make the parallels to Carlos more obvious. And maybe Lotus, since this sort of mars mission seems up her alley. It’d also be very funny for these two to see each other again, they see each other on the base and spiderman point at each other. Oh, I actually love the idea of an Aoi Lotus Q team. I want this now.

But yeah then there’s the worst character of all… Delta.

Delta fucking sucks man. In 999 and VLR, Zero was the highlight, and now they follow up Akane and Sigmas act with this guy. The ‘complex motives’ stuff he keeps spouting is the kind of thing you put in your first draft with a ‘rewrite later.’ next to it. Like seriously? That’s what you come up with? You could’ve drawn from resentment of being abandoned by his parents, maybe have him bring up the whole ‘Timelines you shift to have the consequences left behind’ thing incorporated while he looks directly at Akane because he can’t shift and will have to deal with whatever choices his sister and father will make. I dunno. Do SOMETHING. Also why did he kill the dog? To make him more evil? Uchikoshi why did he kill the dog-

I like his design in the Zero costume though. It looks like a plague doctor which is very fitting. He’s still a dissapointing reveal of Brother though. And hey, if Dio was a clone of him why did he have blonde hair? Why did he have blonde hair Uchikoshi-

Also the models. They’re an improvement on VLR… but still bad. I’ll give them credit on how they stylized them a bit. They have defined lines that makes them look like sketches, and a very cool cell shaded style. When paused the game looks good! Only when paused though. The second these guys start moving it is laughably bad. Sigh. I miss the first games sprites.

But anyways. I think the game had a lot of stellar moments. Akane making her decision to save the world from R6 hurt, and I also adored all of c teams interactions. Diana giving the phone call that reveals she was the one in vlr who we heard declare she’d kill 6 billion had my heart in my stomach. Carlos telling everyone he was friendly while covered in blood… was hilarious.

I think overall the game had great scenes to set up VLR and while the near ending and villain reveal were incredibly bad, I think I liked where it left off. The characters make the decision to create their own future, and break free from the shifting and loops we always see, and for finality’s sake, Carlos pulls the trigger without any alternate routes. That’s a good ending. Delta still sucks but that’s a damn good ending.

So overall, I think the game has some dropped arcs and a woefully bad villain in a game that lives and dies by its villains, but it is NOT the worst ending to a series I’ve ever seen, go watch the dr3 anime and then tell me that this ruined the series for you.

#zero escape #ze #ztd #ask

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darklingichor · 2 years ago

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Spare, by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex

Let's get the obvious out of the way

I'm from the US, I've never really followed the royal family much. Though I'm about a year older than Prince Harry, so I grew up knowing about Princess Diana. I always liked her, thought she did the world so much good with the short time she had on it, and was shocked at the tragedy when she died.

My perspective on the monarchy is that, as an institution, and as a concept, it is outdated, and (from what I understand) is a drain on the British people. But, I don't feel like I can opine on that very much considering that I don't know enough, and don't live with it as a presence in my contry.

It goes without saying that the royal family has a massive amout of privilege and money.

I know the old saying that money can't buy happiness, isn't really true. Money helps because most people would be happier if they didn't have to worry about how their bills, family, and needs were going to be taken care of.

Taking all of this into consideration, I can't be angry at the princes for the life they were born into. I can't say that if I were born into money and such, that I would simply give it all up for ideological reasons. It's easy to insist that I would be like Siddhartha, or that I would fight to make things fair. But I don't *know* that. Especially considering that there seem to be a maze of rules to navigate.

Am I envious that these guys never had to worry about how they were going to pay for college, or about student loans, or do the "Shit, rent is due, but I had to go to the doctor" shuffle? Yeah!

But the flipside if that is that I never had to worry about whether or not my friends or anyone I may have wanted to date would have to be "approved" of by a committee, lead by my grandma. I didn’t have to worry about everything I did being photographed. All because of shit I couldn't control. I'm not going to go into any money stuff here.

So, now that all of that is out there, onto the book.

It's an interesting read. I don't know what I was expecting when I started it, but I was hoping it wouldn't be a gossip filled expose, I always feel sort of grimy when something I am reading takes that kind if turn. For the most part, I don't feel like this book is like that, what it is, is the memoir of a person born into an impossible family business, dealing with grief and expectations. It's a very human story.

I know that one of my friends expects this book to be nothing but Prince Harry bad mouthing all the other royals, and I figure that a least some other people might expecting the same thing. You don't really get that either. There is a fair amount of tension between the brothers, as they grew older. Not surprising considering royal succession added to the typical big brother little brother dynamic. There were serious disagreements and at least one fight, but I never got the feeling that the reader was suppose to walk away thinking that Prince William was a bad person. The same can be said about hhis father. Later in the book there are some unflattering things reveled about Charles and Camilla, but to me, it felt less like malicious gossip, and more like hurt resignation at the way his father reacted to certain things.

There is a lot of sweet remembering about Queen Elizabeth. It's clear that Prince Harry loves his family, and this book was not meant to be a club to swing at them. The real villains of royal life is the press. US tabloids are bad, paparazzi in any country is simply a gathering of worms, but the British press always struck me as more predatory and cruel on the whole. I mean yeah, Prince Harry did some epically stupid stuff. He addresses these things. He was dumb, uninformed, and he deeply regrets them, but the press won't let it go. Worse, they pursued him even into a war zone, risking the life of him and the people he served with, and for what? No good reason at all.

It's baffling that people would risk life and limb, theirs and others, for a story. It's not like they were looking for a hard hitting story, either, just gossip, this all sounds familiar, right?

Diana and the press looms large. Diana is a huge presence in this book, and understandably so. Prince Harry didn't process his mother's death until he was well into adulthood, and part of it was because the protocol of the royal family not showing emotion. Between the press and the rules and regulations of being royalty, what I kept thinking all while listening to this book was: They aren't allowed to be human. Then you add in the age old tradition of palace intrigue, with a modern twist (fewer daggers and poisonings, more newspapers) and each member of the family acting like an entity unto themselves, I can totally understand the decision to step back from royal duty.

Amid all of this very heavy subject matter, there are some very interesting stories where he was happy. His love of nature in general and Africa in particular lead to many loving descriptions of land, animals, and people.

As nasty as war is, his telling of his time in the military made it very clear he found what he was meant for when he joined the army. He doesn't sugar coat it, and he isn't gleeful about the horrors of war, but he found a place and work that he fit into. It is of little surprise that he chooses to fight for the people and animals of Africa, as well as the for wounded veterans.

And there are funny stories, in most of them, he us laughing at himself.

Guess I have to say something about Megan Markle. I honestly know very little about the Dutchess other than she's married to Prince Harry and she use to be an actress. She seems cool, It is clear that he is goofy in love and its nice to read about a happy loving relationship, after all the drama that surrounded his parents' marriage.

It's well written. The audiobook is read by Prince Harry, and he does a good job.

I'm glad I read it.

#books #book #book blogging 2023 #prince harry #spare memoir #nonfiction

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invisibleanonymousmonsters · 3 years ago

Text

Thanksgiving

description: The Waynes and Kents decide to have Thanksgiving together. But that's not even the drama of the day.

a/n: the version of conner kent/kon-el i use for this is from new 52.

Father of Mine – Masterlist

“OK. What’s wrong?” Y/N had enough of her boyfriend’s silence.

Jason’s grip tightened on his steering wheel. But he responded with, “Why would something be wrong?”

“You’re being quiet.”

Which honestly wasn’t fair. Jason might have sass, cleverness, and sarcasm… but he also loved comfortable silence – though, really only Y/N and maybe Alfred knew that about him.

So it wasn’t fair to attack his silence.

But Y/N also knew there was something behind it in this specific moment.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Jason shrugged. “Just…not really looking forward to this.”

“This being spending Thanksgiving with our family?”

Jason didn’t say anything, but it answered her question still.

“J,” Y/N’s voice was serious now. “If you’re that stressed about it, why didn’t you tell me? We could’ve spent the quietest and most boring Thanksgiving with my grandparents?”

As in her mother’s parents – who also happened to despise Bruce Wayne after how he treated their daughter.

Y/N fully believed if they knew Bruce’s secret, they would come to understand the situation fully like she had.

But Batman wasn’t her secret to tell – and somehow Bruce had learned to not care about people hating him for what they didn’t know.

“I’m not stressed,” Jason corrected roughly.

“Well, what exactly are you so worried about?”

He looked away from the road for a split second to give her a look. “You’ve never been to a Wayne/Kent function.”

Y/N squinted in confusion. “So? I’ve known Clark and Lois longer than I’ve known all of you. And Jon is such a sweetie.”

“Yeah,” Jason sighed. “Well, you haven’t met Conner.”

“Clark’s brother?”

He just nodded.

But they both knew that was not the real relation. Conner was a clone of Clark and Lex Luthor, making him half-kryptonian and half-human, with a genius intellect.

“I don’t know much about him,” Y/N admitted.

“With him and Tim, and then Jon and Demon Spawn, it’s gonna be chaotic.” His eyes flickered to hers. “I mean, like shit-show chaotic.”

Y/N smirked. “Sounds fun, honestly.”

“Not really,” Jason mumbled. “He’s probably gonna hit on you.”

“Hit on me?!” Y/N blurted out. “Conner?”

“Yeah.”

She rolled her eyes. “And how can you be so sure?”

“Because he’s hit on me. And you’re completely out of my league. Obviously.”

Y/N’s jaw dropped. That was not at all the answer she was expecting.

“What?” Jason asked when she didn’t respond. “He’s bisexual,” he added with a shrug.

“Yeah, and that’s fine. I just wasn’t expecting that answer.”

Y/N finally reached over and gripped Jason’s thigh. “It’s gonna be fine.”

Then she let out a heavy sigh. “To be honest, it feels weird going to a different Thanksgiving. It was always my mom’s side of the family. But all my cousins are married with kids and doing their own thing.”

“Sorry,” Jason told her softly. “I didn’t even think about how hard the holidays were going to be for you this year.”

“It’s OK,” she mumbled, but was frowning still.

“You miss her, huh?”

Y/N just nodded.

Jason gently took her hand that was on his thigh and placed a kiss to her knuckles. But instead of putting her hand back down, he held it with his right hand for the rest of the drive to Wayne Manor.

And she was grateful for it.

—

Jason was right: Wayne dinners were chaotic, but Wayne/Kent ordeals were even crazier.

It was a full house with Clark, Lois, Jon, and Conner. But Dick also brought Barbara with him. Meaning it was only 12 people, but it felt like three times that much with the loudness and the various boys running around.

Y/N was drinking wine with the adults when Clark looked around as if he were trying to find someone.

“Wonder when Diana’s getting here,” he thought aloud.

Y/N’s brow furrowed. “Diana?”

Somehow Y/N’s confusion made Lois and Clark even more confused. The couple shared a look with one another. As did Barbara and Dick. Y/N swore even Jason suddenly tensed at her question.

“Diana Prince,” Lois took pity on her.

“Sorry. I don’t know her,” Y/N muttered.

But a few minutes later, the extravagant doorbell of the manor rang and Y/N watched as Bruce hurried to the door.

Usually he let Alfred answer. So she was now intrigued.

As she tried to observe the new guest, a new face stepped in front of Y/N, blocking her view of the front door.

“You must be Y/N,” a young man greeted with a cocky smirk.

For being half-kryptonian, Y/N expected Conner Kent to be towering over her. But it was the opposite. With her height and heeled boots, she was looking down at the young man.

“And you must be Conner,” Y/N answered, and offered her hand politely.

But her eyes kept bouncing back to her father as he talked to a woman, whose face she couldn’t fully see yet.

To her surprise, Conner took her hand gently and brought it to his lips, kissing the edge of her knuckles and then giving her a flirtatious smile.

Y/N had no choice but to give the young man her full attention with such a gesture.

“Uhhh,” she managed to laugh out.

“Way to be creepy.”

Jason.

Y/N looked over her shoulder to see that Jason had moved close behind her. He must’ve been waiting for this moment, and stayed close to her since they arrived.

“Jason,” Conner greeted with a half nod. “I was just about to tell Y/N here how beautiful I find her.”

Y/N completely ignored him, too busy staring at her father.

Jason made a grossed out noise. “Aren’t you like 12? And you look like you could be her little brother,” Jason teased as made a point to look down at Conner, making his shorter height part of the joke.

“You’ve been saying Im 12 for years now, Jason. Get a new joke.”

“Well, maybe grow the fuck up and then I’ll stop.”

Conner looked Y/N up and down. “And for the record, I don’t have a problem with women being taller than me… or older.”

But she was not at all mentally present. Otherwise she would give Conner a piece of her mind.

Jason was actually surprised she hadn’t already. Even glancing down at his girlfriend, wondering what had her so quiet.

Then he followed Y/N’s gaze and realized she was too preoccupied with watching Bruce and Diana conversing.

Jason growled, “Leer at my girlfriend like that again, and I’ll put a bullet in each of your eyes.”

Jason wasn’t always around Conner, but when he was, he wasn’t very fond of him. Jason thought Conner was cocky and far to into himself. (Why couldn’t he hate himself like the rest of their generation did?) And if Jason were really being honest, he didn’t always like that people sometimes compared the two of them to each other. On the outside, they both looked like angry men who had mommy or daddy issues.

But Jason wasn’t some clone created in a lab by an evil genius. He was born and life struck him down every chance it got since.

Conner scoffed at the threat, “Did you forget I’m Kryptonian. As if your pathetic bullets could do anything to me.”

“Half-Kryptonian,” Jason corrected, and tilted of his head. “But don’t you worry, they’re Kryptonite bullets wrapped in lead. So you wouldn’t see it coming, would you?”

“Jason!” Bruce interrupted. “We do not threaten the Kents with Kryptonite!”

Clark had walked over as well, once he heard Conner and Jason going at it.

“He doesn’t have Kryptonite bullets,” Bruce tried to tell Clark gently, as if it would remedy the situation.

“Yeah, I do,” Jason countered lazily. When Bruce looked at him, Jason just shrugged. “What? Thought you were the only one who could hunt that shit down?”

“Comforting,” Clark hummed sarcastically.

Bruce cleared his throat and stepped to the side to reveal Diana.

Y/N had been subtly eyeing the two of them this whole time.

“Y/N, I believe you’re the only one who has yet to meet Diana,” Bruce told his daughter. “Y/N, this is Diana Prince. Diana, this is my daughter, Y/N.”

Diana immediately stepped forward with a bright smile that lit up the manor. She was tall, just like Y/N. And she didn’t seem to let it stop her from wearing heels, just like Y/N.

Diana offered her hand with warmth and eagerness. “Bruce has told me so much about you, Y/N. It’s so lovely to finally meet you.”

Y/N was speechless.

Why did this woman know so much about her and Y/N had never so much as heard her name before?

“Nice…to meet you,” Y/N finally managed to sputter out awkwardly.

If Diana noticed the lack of enthusiasm returned, she didn’t show it.

“If I didn’t know better,” Diana continued. “I would believe the rumors: she does look like an Amazon,” she glanced back at Bruce as she said it.

That’s when it clicked – why her face felt so familiar to Y/N.

This wasn’t just Diana Prince.

This was Wonder Woman.

Bruce’s eyes seemed to sparkle as he smirked back at Diana.

Oh.

Y/N looked around at everyone else. But no one seemed fazed by Bruce’s behavior towards this woman. Not even Lois, who often felt out of the loop with all of their loved one’s superhero lives – like Y/N.

“If you’ll excuse me,” Y/N mumbled before quickly walking away toward the bar.

She heard Jason on her heels.

“So, is alcohol going to make this worse or better?” Jason asked as he watched his girlfriend pour herself a double of tequila – no ice, no salt, or even lime juice.

“For me? Better.” She threw the shot back. “Don’t really care about everyone else right now.”

Jason wasn’t one to tell her to slow down. In fact, having his girlfriend wasted during this Thanksgiving dinner would just make it that much more entertaining. And he was not one to tell her what to do. He knew better.

“Are you going to join me or not?” Y/N snapped. “After all, you kind of owe it to me since you conveniently never told me that Bruce was in fucking love.”

Oop. There it was.

Jason was smart enough to look guilty and didn’t bother playing dumb. That never worked with Y/N.

So he took the shot of tequila from her and threw it back.

Alfred stepped into the den where everyone had ben congregating.

“Dinner is served,” he said politely, gesturing to the dining room the Waynes only used for special occasions.

Without waiting for him to finish, Y/N stormed past Jason and walked to the dining room with purpose.

“Fuck,” Jason sighed as he rubbed his face. “This should be interesting.”

He walked into the dining room to see that Damian had already sandwiched himself between Y/N and Jon. But the seat on the other side was open. Jason jumped into action when he saw Conner making his way to it.

With a light shove past him, Jason pulled out the chair to the left of Y/N and sat down. “You’re delusional,” he muttered to the superboy.

Conner just rolled his eyes and moved to the other side of the table.

Jon seemed very excited to be in the presence of Wonder Woman. Despite Superman being his literal dad, the boy seemed utterly unimpressed with his father – much to Clark’s disappointment. But once a dork, always a dork.

Jon asked his 10th rapid-fire question, “If Amazons aren’t born, how were they created?”

Diana took all the boy’s question seriously. “The goddesses decided to create a new race made entirely of female warriors from the souls of women who were killed by the hands of violent men.”

Lois finally interrupted her son before he could continue, “Jonathan, why don’t you let Diana relax and eat her food.” She gave Diana an apologetic look for good measure.

Jon took in a shaky breath and looked disappointed, but listened to his mother.

However, Diana seemed unperturbed by the boy’s excitement and appeared more than happy to humor his curiosity.

“Diana should be used to it,” Dick chimed in with a smirk on his lips. “Especially after having to deal with Jason…”

That caught Y/N’s attention.

Jason growled, “Oh, shut it, Dick.”

But Y/N was amused now. “No, please go on…”

Dick sat up straighter at the request, eyes bright with mischief and excitement. “Jason had the biggest crush on Diana when he was a kiddo.”

Jason gave Dick the biggest death glare Y/N had ever seen.

“Whenever Bruce brought him to League meetings, he’d follow her around like a little puppy. He even asked Bruce to take a picture of them when he first met her.”

“I remember that,” Diana commented with a fond smile.

Jason groaned.

“Clearly, he has a type,” Dick pointed out, looking between Diana and Y/N.

“OK. That’s enough,” Jason finally snapped.

Clark and Lois changed the subject, subtly saving Jason from further humiliation.

“Guess I have my Halloween costume for next year…” Y/N muttered into Jason’s ear so only he could hear.

But she didn’t take into account all the people with super hearing.

Jason choked on his turkey a bit, but recovered quickly.

Clark suddenly blushed, proving that he both her the couple and the sexual innuendo that Y/N had implied.

“So, Diana, how long have you known Bruce?” Y/N asked sweetly.

But everyone else at the table – beside Diana, Conner, and Jon –caught how much Y/N was playing it up. Some even shifted in their seats awkwardly.

Bruce eyed the full wine glass in Y/N’s hand, silently acknowledging that he’d noticed her heavy drinking that night.

But Y/N gave Bruce a look, daring him to say something about it.

“Well…” Diana looked at Bruce as if she needed help remembering. “We kept running into each other through…”

“Work,” Bruce finally offered.

Diana smiled. “Yes. Something like that.”

The two of them locked eyes just a little bit too long. And Y/N immediately caught it.

Just as her anger was rising, she felt Jason gently grip her thigh under the table, trying to calm her down and comfort her.

Y/N then asked, “Where do you usually spend Thanksgiving, Diana?”

It was more polite than asking, ‘Why are you here instead of with your own family?’

“Well, we do not exactly celebrate Thanksgiving in Themyscira. But it’s become one of my favorite holidays. Bruce didn’t want me to spend it alone, so he was kind enough to invite me to join all of you.”

With the amount of people at the dinner table, Y/N’s frustrations and pointed interest tin Diana were easily overlooked. With the chaos of so many conversations happening, no one seemed to get stuck on Y/N watching Bruce and Diana.

But Bruce felt Y/N’s energy. Maybe it was fatherly intuition.

The rest of dinner continued without much drama, just a bit of bickering from some of the boys. But that was nothing unusual. Y/N managed to control herself and not start a scene or express her emotions any more than she already accidentally had.

After dinner, Y/N had avoided the rest of the adults, not wanting to be forced to continue observing Bruce and Diana’a obvious relationship.

Instead, she sat playing Uno with Jon, Damian, and Conner.

Meanwhile, Jason was nerding out about literature with Lois.

As they continued playing cards, Damian caught his sister eyeing their father in the other room.

“What’s wrong with you?” Damian finally asked her bluntly.

Y/N snapped her gaze away from the couple. “W-What?”

“You’ve been short with father all night and you’re staring.”

“Do you not like Diana?” Jon asked with an upset frown.

“I like Diana,” Y/N quickly shut down, almost sounding exasperated.

Then her gaze moved to her brother. “None of this is new to any of you. They’ve been like this for awhile.”

It was mean to come out as a question, but Y/N already knew the answer: everyone in their family knew about Bruce falling in love.

Well, everyone except her.

Damian shrugged. “They’ve been…involved for awhile.”

“Awesome,” she answered sarcastically.

“It’s not as if father discussed it with any of us,” Damian tried to defend. “It was just rather obvious.”

“So everyone’s known about this…except me,” Y/N muttered quietly.

But Damian caught the anger in her eyes.

“How long?” She asked.

“What?”

“How long has this been going on?”

Damian shrugged. “I don’t know. Six months? But they’ve always flirted with one another. It’s disgusting.”

The next second, Conner won that round of cards.

“Alright, kiddos,” Y/N sighed as she got up. “I’m out.”

“You’re leaving?” Damian blurted out, catching Jason’s attention.

“Yep.”

Damian quickly stood. “But we haven’t even had pie yet!”

Jason moved to his girlfriend’s side, reading that she needed out. “She doesn’t really like pie, Demond Spawn.”

“Who doesn’t love pie!?” Jon cried out in shock.

Y/N and Jason started saying their goodbyes to everyone, giving warm hugs. And they purposely avoided Bruce and Diana until the end.

Jason immediately saw Y/N’s posture shift. He recognized it all too well. He had been on the receiving end of such coldness a few times before – and mostly he was just relieved not to be this time around.

Y/N forced a polite smile at Diana. “It was nice meeting you, Diana.”

But she didn’t step forward to offer a hug like she had with the rest of them.

Diana didn’t seem to mind. She was smart enough to pick up on the strange tension between Bruce and his daughter.

So she simply answered with, “It was nice meeting you, too.”

Y/N then shifted her gaze to her father. But it wasn’t really a gaze anymore, but a cold and harsh glare. “Thanks for having us,” she told Bruce evenly, no warmth to be found.

Y/N walked away before Bruce even had a chance to answer.

Diana gave him a sympathetic look.

Jason was left alone with the couple now and glared at Bruce. “You couldn’t give her a heads up?”

Bruce said nothing, which only made Jason angrier.

“Today was already tough for her. It’s the first thanksgiving she’s spent without her mom. But you probably didn’t even realize that.” He scoffed, “Typical.”

But his eyes softened when they moved to Diana and Jason gave her a quick hug. “Nice seeing you, Diana.”

Then he was gone, too.

Diana crossed her arms and faced her boyfriend. “I take it you never told Y/N about us.”

Bruce shifted his weight and his head bowed a bit. “No. I did not.”

“Bruce,” Diana sighed, shaking her head in disappointment.

——————

2 Weeks Later...

Y/N was driving Damian back to the manor. The two of them had decided to go see a new exhibit at Gotham��s Museum of Art.

“Are you still mad at father?” Damian asked while they listened to his favorite classical music.

Y/N sighed.

Damian had been distracted enough by all the art and getting to spend time alone with his sister that the tension from Thanksgiving hadn’t been brought up. Until now.

Jason had been treading carefully, as well.

“I didn’t know he hadn’t said anything to you. Honestly. It had just – I don’t know – become the norm for the rest of us, that I didn’t even think to bring it up,” he had insisted during the drive home after the strange Thanksgiving dinner.

Y/N had answered back, “I’m not mad at you, Jason. It’s not your job to give me updates on Bruce’s personal life.” And she had been sincere – furthermore, that extended to everyone else that had known about Bruce and Diana’s relationship.

“A little bit, yeah,” Y/N finally admitted to Damian after thinking about her answer for a few seconds.

“I think Dick may have said something to him,” he told her. “Jason’s just been mean.”

Y/N couldn’t help but laugh a little at that. “Yeah, that sounds about right.” When Y/N was upset, Jason was upset. And if he knew the person who hurt her, he would go out of his way to torment them.

They pulled up to the main entrance of the manor.

“Pennyworth told me he has pastries for you and Jason,” Damian explained, clearly have been forced to relay the message.

Y/N sighed, but smiled, putting her car in park and turning off the ignition.

She followed her brother up the steps to the front door, to which he had keys for.

But just as he opened the door, Diana was leaving.

“Oh…hi,” Y/N blurted out while Damian moved around her with a simple, “Hi.”

The two women were left alone in awkward silence.

“I owe you an apology,” Y/N finally said softly. “For being rude to you on Thanksgiving. I was upset but it may have been misdirected.”

Diana gave her a sympathetic look. “No apology needed. After I realized Bruce had not told you about us, I truly believe your reaction was justified.”

Y/N finally relaxed. “Thank you for…understanding.”

Diana stepped a little closer and lowered her voice. “I think he wishes to speak with you.”

She sighed. “I’m sure he does. I have a knack for making him feel bad.”

Diana laughed. “I think you and I have that in common.” She stood up straight again. “It was nice seeing you again, Y/N. I hope we can get to know each other more now.”

Y/N smiled. “I would like that, yeah.”

And with that, she was gone.

Y/N tried to walk quietly to the kitchen. Her plan was to grab Alfred's pastries and get out of there. While she had no beef with Diana, she was still frustrated with Bruce.

The universe clearly had other plans, since Y/N walked into the kitchen to find Bruce eating a late lunch.

“Is there even any pastries?” Y/N asked. "I feel like I’ve been conned.”

Bruce couldn’t help but smirk at his daughter. “Alfred has many talents. I wouldn’t put it past him.” Then he got up and handed her a glass container with her and Jason’s name on it.

“Thanks,” she mumbled.

“I’ve been wanting to talk to you,” Bruce continued.

Y/N sighed. “Yeah, I could tell by all the phone calls and texts.”

“And the reason for not answering those?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I was mad at you and being petty.”

“And are you still mad at me?”

“Yeah, actually.”

Bruce took in a deep breath. “I should have told you about Diana.”

“Yeah, you should’ve,” Y/N spat back.

“I wasn’t thinking.”

That was the wrong thing for him to say.

“See, now that’s bullshit, Bruce.”

He seemed taken aback by her response.

Y/N crossed her arms in defiance. “Because you’re always thinking. You’ve always got a plan. And you don’t do anything without intention. So you were thinking.”

“You’re right,” Bruce confessed.

“I know I’m right,” she shot back. “Do you have any idea how it made me feel to see that everyone knew about you and her, except me?”

Bruce stayed quiet. Because he didn’t know.

“I’m not a vigilante, Bruce! You and Jason have kept me away from that part of all your lives – and I’ve respected that. But Batman is so much of you, despite all of us trying to prevent that.”

Y/N ran a hand through her hair. “I’m not mad that you’re dating Diana, Bruce. I’m mad that it’s one of the few things about your life that you can share with me and you decided you didn’t need to – or want to – honestly, I don’t even know anymore.”

“You’re right, Y/N. And I’m sorry,” Bruce finally said. “If I’m being honest, I probably wouldn’t have said anything to the boys either. Clearly they figured it out since they saw it happening in real time. But that’s not an excuse for blindsiding you like I did.”

Y/N took in a deep breath, trying to figure out if she should ream him further or let it go.

“Jason told me you were already upset before coming to Thanksgiving.” Bruce’s voice was gently. “Missing your mom.”

That took Y/N by surprise. “Umm…Yeah. I always miss her…but the holidays are…rougher than I expected, I guess.”

“Y/N… you know, you can talk to me about her. I might not have seen her in quite some time before she passed. But I still knew and cared for your mother.”

Y/N knew Bruce was right. He was one of the few people in her life who knew her mother. And maybe it would be nice to remember her with someone who also knows just how amazing she was.

Y/N was getting emotional as she thought about it, so she just nodded to his offer. And then she realized that wasn’t enough and pushed forward to give her father a hug.

“Think Jason will ease up on the animosity now?” Bruce asked as he hugged her, causing Y/N to laugh.

She could only imagine the rude comments and sass Jason had been giving Bruce during patrols.

She pulled away with a smile. “I honestly don’t know. He gets a kick out of it. And you know how overprotective he is with me. But I’ll do what I can.”

–––––––––

Please let me write me a book report. I need it.

#father of mine #father of mine universe #father of mine bonus content #jason todd x reader #jason todd x tall!reader #tall reader insert #tall!reader #dad!bruce wayne x reader #dad!bruce wayne #batdad #bruce wayne x daughter!reader #diana prince #wonder woman #batboys #batfam

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thequeenofsastiel · 2 years ago

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Pete's Tattoo

I’ve been meaning to do some meta about Pete’s tattoo since the moment I saw it and just haven’t gotten around to it until now. Forgive me if someone else has already said what I��m about to.

I recognized Pete’s tattoo as a Shakespeare quote initially, though I didn’t have any context because all I knew was that it was a Shakespeare quote. I didn’t know from what. But the fact that it was intrigued me greatly. Why would Pete have that?

So I did some research. Again, apologies if this is well documented.

The quote is from a play called “All’s Well That Ends Well”. I did some research on interpretations of that quote and ended up reading the whole play, because I felt like many of the interpretations were somewhat lacking. And I’m glad I did read it, because honesty is a theme throughout the play, but in a subversive way.

The play is about a woman, Helena, who’s in love with a count, Bertram, who wants nothing to do with her, since she’s a commoner. However, the king is sick, and none of his physicians have been able to cure him. Helena is the daughter of a very talented deceased physician, and, with the help of Bertram’s mother(who essentially adopted her when she was younger, and is known only as the Countess), manages to obtain an audience with a king. He’s resistant to Helena's help, because he’s a classist, sexist shit, but she promises that should she fail to cure him, she’ll consent to the most excruciating death imaginable. But, should she succeed, he’ll grant her the hand of any man of her choosing. She succeeds, and picks Bertram, who’s an asshole to her and flees the country to Florence to participate in a war before consummating the marriage. Not that I blame him, really, because being forced into a marriage sucks. Though admittedly I rather dislike that the only complaint he levied against her was that she was low born. Before leaving, he gives her a letter which says he’ll only consent to be her husband if she can manage to get his family ring, which never leaves his hand, off of him, and becomes pregnant with his child, both of which are things she can’t do if she never sees him again, which is his plan. He writes “Till I have no wife I have nothing in France,” implying that he won’t return to France unless she annuls the marriage or dies. So she fakes her death and follows him to Florence, where he’s seducing every virgin he can find. She meets up with one that he’s trying to woo, Diana, who’s having none of his bullshit, and promises her and her mother a lot of gold if they’ll get the ring from Bertram, and somehow help Helena trick him into having sex with her and think it’s Diana. So Diana persuades Bertram to part with the ring, Helena rapes him(though how this is achieved is never explained), and becomes pregnant. Bertram returns to France, is pardoned by the king, but then there’s a very weird scene which involves a whole lot of deceit simply so Helena can have a dramatic reveal. Bertram randomly declares that he loves her now, and the play ends, somewhat abruptly.

There are a few references to honesty throughout the play. Helena’s father’s skill as a physician is described by the Countess as “almost as great as his honesty”. She then says that Helena’s “dispositions she inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity—they are virtues and traitors too. In her they are the better for their simpleness. She derives her honesty and achieves her goodness.”

The next time honesty is mentioned is in the quote being discussed. The context of it is interesting. It’s in a conversation between Diana and her mother, in which they’re discussing the importance of virginity. The reason they’re doing that is because Bertram and his douchey friends keep promising to wed virgins so they can have sex with them. The full quote is “The honor of a maiden is her name, and no legacy is so rich as honesty.”

My basic interpretation of this quote is that the “name” being referred to is “maiden” AKA a virgin woman, and “no legacy is so rich as honesty” means that since your worth as an unmarried woman is tied to your virginity, calling yourself a maiden can’t be a lie. If it is, if you aren’t a virgin, it lowers the chances of you marrying someone wealthy, and thus your “legacy”, which I infer means children, won’t be rich.

Shortly after this conversation they meet Helena, disguised as a pilgrim, who wheedles information about Bertram out of them. They bring up the fact that Bertram was married against his will, and Helena badmouths herself, yet adds “All her deserving is a reserved honesty, and that I have not heard examined.” Given the conversation that just took place, I think the “honesty” being referred to may be virginity.

Then they see Bertram, and Diana talks shit about him, saying he isn’t honest. Twice.

Later, when Helena is apologizing to Diana for using her to get Bertram, Diana says “Let death and honesty go with your impositions. I am yours upon your will to suffer.”

Finally, towards the very end of the play, the king describes what Diana did for Helena as “honest aid”.

So honesty seems to have a few different meanings in this play. One, it refers to the actual definition of the word. Two, it refers to virginity. And three, as doing something which achieves ostensibly positive ends, regardless of if deceit is involved.

Which leads us to the title of the play itself. Helena says those words exactly twice during the play, both times in reference to everything she’s doing to get Bertram to finally agree to be her husband. All of this is basic utilitarian logic—the ends justify the means.

Which is why it makes perfect sense for Pete to want to have a quote from this play as a tattoo. In his conversation with Porsche, he justifies beating up a man at Kinn’s order by saying that there are no heroes or villains in reality, unlike what he thought as a child while playing with friends. Pete doesn’t want to be a villain. He doesn’t want to be evil. So he has to justify working for the mafia in his mind. I imagine that his grandmother likely has something to do with why he’s there in the first place—he wants to take care of her, just as Porsche came there initially to take care of Porchay.

But why specifically that quote? Why a quote whose original meaning is about how important it is for a woman to stay a virgin until marriage? What is it about that quote that does it so much for Pete?

We do have to keep in mind that English isn’t Pete’s first language. Hell, it’s mine and it still took me some time to parse the sentence because of the antiquated and poetic nature of it. So there’s the possibility that he didn’t understand the actual meaning of the line. And of course he might not even have read the play at all, simply saw the quote out of context and liked it. Which means that there are two ideas to consider.

If we operate under the assumption that he DIDN’T understand the original meaning of the quote for whatever reason, what is it about Pete that would make him like that quote so much that he’d get a tattoo of it(the only one we’ve seen on him thus far)? Given how obsessive the main family is about keeping their bodyguards on a tight leash, he probably got it before working for them. Perhaps before he even considered working for the mafia. When he still believed in the idea of heroes and villains. After all, heroes are usually shown as being honest. So maybe he valued honestly deeply, and wanted it to be what people remembered of him.

But what if he DID understand? If so, I think the timing of when we first saw it is actually crucial to understanding the meaning of it. The episode in which we see it is the same episode in which we see him start to enjoy being tortured and demeaned by Vegas. When his submissive and masochistic tendencies are revealed. Perhaps he was, on some level, always aware of his desires. And perhaps he hated them. It would make sense, given the way he was raised. So he read that quote, and got it as a tattoo to remind himself to never indulge in those desires, because if he did, he’d lose his worth.

What do y’all think?

#kinnporsche #vegaspete #vegaspete meta #pete meta #my meta #also I'm pretty sure I devoted more effort to this than I ever have to any of my papers on Shakespeare's plays in school #Shakespeare #all's well that ends well

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robinofgothamcity · 3 years ago

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♡ scenario: connor losing his mind when you're hurt and charging into the fight recklessly.

♡ pairing: connor kent ( superboy ) x fem! reader

♡ note: not checked for grammar or spelling mistakes / i'm sorry but i'm living for these angst to fluff moments rn especially bc i rewatched reign of the superman and forgot how much i loved connor in it.

Connor watched as you were completely slumped on the side of the building, no longer clear headed and struggling to stay awake. what was supposed to be a clean and easy mission turned out to be more than what the league expected.

he had requested for back up and while they were already trying to fight off the thugs that were attacking Connor, he could still see that you were fighting to stay alive and he had no idea if you were even going to come out of this fight alive.

"what the fuck?" Connor whispered, seeing you now slumped on the ground. he turned to the person who attacked you, eyes fully red with no intention of holding back. Clark could sense his song was a second away from committing murder as he saw Connor charge into the heart of the battle with no game plan, just murder.

"SUPERBOY NO!"

you waved shyly to the group of league members as you hid behind Wonder Woman. you were new to the scene of sidekicks and had no idea how to even introduce yourself without sounding like a complete idiot.

"woah new girl!" you heard a male voice say as you stood in your place petrified. you had no idea who it was as Diana had yet to individually introduce you to everyone, "i call dibs!" you heard the same voice say.

Diana turned to you before grabbing the boy who was charging towards you by the head and tossed him back to Superman, "she's not up for 'dibs' Superboy. she's my newest apprentice and you will treat her as such," she threatened.

you giggled behind her as a few of the sidekicks introduced themselves. you knew them as the Young Justice team and although you weren't formally with the team, you figured Diana was training you to become apart of them in the future.

"( your hero name ), this is Superboy," Wonder Woman said, "he associated to the Super family," she explained as he pushed up his dark circled glasses and flicked his hair back, "pleasure is all mine," he muttered, shaking your hand.

you returned a tiny smile before she continued to introduce you to Robin and Impulse. you noticed how Superboy kept his eyes on you. you had no idea if it was because he liked you or he disliked you but every time you turned to look at him, he was already staring at you.

after introductions and the cliche 'your real identity is sacred' conversation ended, Diana felt it was for your own good to get used to your new 'teammates'. she wanted you to make sure you weren't uncomfortable around any of the YJ team even if that included Superboy.

"so, what do you like to do for fun?" Wonder Girl asked, sitting down next to you and handing you a bowl of popcorn. you shrugged, "uh, not much. I like to watch tv and read for the most part. no one really invites me to do things with them," you admitted, scratching the back of your head.

she laughed, putting her arm around you, "well that ends today! we should all do something fun! how about we go to the county fair? doesn't that sound fun?" she asked. you shrugged, not really opposed to the idea, "I call all the rides with ( your hero name )!" Jinny replied.

you smiled, following her and Wonder Girl out the door as Robin, Impulse, and Superboy followed behind you. Robin looked at him, "you like her don't you?" he asked, already calculating the minute Connor had fallen in love with you.

"well she's apart of the team, i'd like to hope we'd all like her," he replied as Robin shook his head, "no, you get what i mean by that," Robin pressed as he could see Connor's face fall with realization. he didn't reply but he could tell what he was tell Connor's real answer through his face.

as they arrived to the fair, they all booked it to the first food stand they saw. Robin offering to pay for everyone being Bruce Wayne's son had its benefits. you ordered a simple coffee as you didn't want Robin to spend too much on everyone.

"what ride should we all get on first?" Jinny asked excitedly. you pointed to the tallest ride, it was one of those high rides that sat two people at the top and had them spinning around, "oh I can't do that. it's way too scary," both Keli and Jinny said.

Superboy smiled at you, "I'm down if you are," he said as he grabbed two tickets from the worker, "cool," you replied as the two of you walked to the line, sweat already building up from nervousness.

once they sat the two of you and made sure you were both buckled in, you stared at Superboy nervously as the ride started up and pulled you up before immediately starting to spin. you stared at Superboy, screaming for you life. you unintentionally grabbed his arms, not realizing you were holding onto him as you continued to yell.

Superboy chuckled, finding your reaction cute.

after the months passed and you finally grew closer to everyone on the team, you were particularly close with Jinny and Superboy. you and Jinny shared a lot of common interests as she showed you how to shoot a gun and Superboy...well, everyone could tell the two of you were just seconds away from actually dating.

you walked into the YJ lair, sipping on hot chocolates with Jinny as the weather was turning cold. she was cracking some cringe dad jokes, trying to make you laugh as you tried to contain from choking on the hot chocolate.

"hey, where we yall at?" Keli asked. you turned to Jinny before giggling, "just doing a few errands we had to run before I had patrol with Superboy," you said, not really clarifying on what you both were actually doing.

although everyone could see how much you liked Connor, Connor himself thought you had a thing with Jinny. he knew she was particularly close with you and felt as though he was practically competing with her for your attention.

"do you have my phone?" you asked Jinny as she dug into her pocket and handed it to you. you grabbed your phone before quickly snatching her hat and putting it on, "yee-haw," you giggled into the mirror as Jinny started chasing you down the halls.

as you turned a corner, you bumped into Superboy and fell flat on your ass, "oh, I'm sorry Superboy, I didn't see you there," you groaned as Jinny grabbed her had and put it back on her, "you've yee'd your last haw," she said, making you laugh harshly.

Superboy's eye couldn't help but twitch as he gave you his hand, "ready for patrol?" he asked sternly. you looked to Jinny who crept away from the angry Kryptonian and left you to deal with him, "yeah, let me just freshen up again and I'll meet you outside," you murmured, going into the bathroom.

you quickly used the bathroom before checking if you had everything. you opened the door and walked into the lair's common area. Connor had yet to drop the angry attitude and everyone was eerily silent as you walked in. he grabbed you by the arm and practically rushed you out the door.

"weird," Jinny told Robin as he shrugged, "what isn't weird about him," he replied making everyone laugh.

patrol started extremely awkward. you hadn't felt this weird since you first started on the team and you had no idea what was wrong with Superboy since he wasn't telling you.

the two of you walked on top of roof, scanning the empty roads before you turned to look at him, "what's up? you seem bothered," you asked him as you both sat on the ledge, "seriously? you seem annoyed at me or something so at the very least you can try and tell me what's wrong," you pressured again.

he looked at you with eyes of determination before grabbing you by the collar of the shirt and pulling you into a very heated kiss. you were taken back by surprise but let him continue to kiss you. a part of yelled at Connor pulled you close but another part of him was still screaming at him that you still could've liked Jinny.

"I had to do that before Jinny officially took you away from me," your eyes fluttered in confusion, "uh, what do you mean by 'take you away from me'?" you asked, not knowing what he was talking about.

Connor sighed in frustration, "I see the way you're around Jinny and figured that she likes you and vice versa," he finally admitted as he stood up, not wanting to hear your response. you quickly stood up and grabbed him by the wrist, "hey wait," you said.

he stared at you, "I'm really not in the mood to get rejected ( your hero name )," he ran his fingers through his hair annoyed. you shook your head, "I don't like Jinny nor does she like me. we're just really close friends Superboy," you whispered, bringing him into another kiss.

this time, he was the one taken back but he melted into the kiss, all his negative emotions washing away as you continued to kiss him. he wrapped his arms around your waist as you him in closer by the neck. Connor was definitely not expecting this tonight.

"so does this mean that we're like....together together?" you asked playfully shy. Connor let out a laugh before lacing your hands together, "clearly. I can't let Jinny steal you away from me," he jokingly replied.

Connor ran to the three different henchmen as his strength was to the point of killing, not caring if he died in the process. he was recklessly dodging bullets, knowing they wouldn't do anything to him. he grabbed the first man and threw him against a wall as it collapsed around him. Connor only hoping that it did enough damage to unalive him.

the second one he managed to choke him out enough to the point where he passed out but that wasn't enough for him. you were on the brink of death and if he had to see you die, he was going to make sure the men who possibly killed you got what they deserved.

"SUPERBOY!" he heard his father scream again. Connor paid no attention to him as he grabbed the third henchman and slammed him to the ground, throwing punches left and right, "listen to me," Clark screamed at him.

he could see the tears coming down Connor's face as anger, fear, and sadness clouded his mind, "this is not you! pull out of it!" he yelled, shaking Connor's shoulder, "you're about to kill this man. I get that you're angry but you don't get anything out of hurting him. all you get it consequences and your girlfriend needs you right now more than ever!" he continued.

Connor finally shook himself out of his trance as he heard his dad telling him to go to you. Connor nodded and ran to you, seeing you unconscious and hardly breathing, "I'm taking her to the hospital," he yelled to Batman before hauling your body into his arms and flying towards the nearest hospital.

once he finally reached the emergency doors, he shoved everyone out of his way and to the front desk, "she needs help...NOW!" he yelled to the poor receptionist. the girl jumped up from fear but nodded and screamed for a bed and a few doctors.

the doctor asked Connor to place you on the bed before the doctor told him that he could follow them inside. a part of Connor wanted to straight up move the doctor to follow you into the OR but he knew that he'd get into more trouble with his dad and the MPD if he hurt anyone else.

for what felt like hours, he was waiting inside of the room they had told him you'd be in once you got out of surgery. he had already gotten the lecture from his dad about the consequences he would've gotten if he actually managed to kill the three men earlier.

"she's going to make it," the doctor told Connor as he walked into the room while they adjusted you to the bed. Connor nodded, "she'll be out of duty for months. she sustained a lot of injuries to her body that'll take weeks to recover and she got a nasty concussion so you'll need to play doctor for the next few weeks to make sure she's okay," he explained.

Connor nodded as the doctor told him that you should be waking up within the next few hours. Connor adjusted himself on the seat and got comfortable as he had no intentions of leaving your side until you were awake and ready to leave the hospital.

you woke up a few hours later, your body killing you from all over as you saw balloons all around the room. you knew you had landed in the hospital but you had no idea how long you were asleep or in a coma even. you turned to see Connor passed out next to you, his body slumped awkwardly.

"Kon, Kon wake up!" you whispered, shaking him softly. Connor jumped up in a fright as he immediately realized you were awake, "how do you feel? are you okay? do you need anything?" he immediately asked as you couldn't help but laugh at his frantic attitude.

"Connor, I'm okay, I promise," you whispered as you brought him in for a kiss, "my body just hurts and i'm still kinda tired," you murmured as Connor nodded. you managed to wiggle yourself enough to make space for him, "babe, it looks like you haven't slept in days."

"I had to make sure you were okay so i haven't exactly slept in a while," he admitted sheepishly. you shook your head, "you're too much sometimes," you giggled as you put your head on his shoulder, "but you love me regardless," he replied.

this was the first time the L word had came up in the relationship, "yeah, I guess I do but now you need to sleep," you said as you closed your eyes and felt Connor pull you closer to him, "I love you too by the way," you whispered, giving him another kiss on his partially exposed chest.

#dc #dc x reader #dc imagine #connor kent x you #connor kent x reader #connor kent imagine #connor kent #superboy x y/n #superboy x reader #superboy imagine #comics #dc comics

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shemarmooresfedora · 4 years ago

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Rebuilding Family

Summary: Y/N and Spencer were college sweethearts at Cal-Tech but once Spencer got accepted to the FBI Academy, he ended things deciding it was not fair to make Y/N wait for him. When they meet again years later, he discovers something unexpected.

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem! Reader

A/N: i may have a little surprise for you guys tomorrow... (not related to this fic)

Masterlist

Chapter 15

“Jo! Please bring your suitcase downstairs so Daddy can load it into the car,” you called up the stairs.

“How high does the plane go up in the air? Who is the pilot? How fast does it go?” Jo asked as she walked down the stairs.

Jo had been asking a lot of questions about planes recently since you told her that you all were taking a little trip. You were going to Las Vegas so Diana could meet Jo.

Spencer was ecstatic about it so you tried to hide your growing anxiety to not kill his mood. You had already met Diana multiple times when you would accompany Spencer on road trips home on long weekends in college and she seemed to love you. But that was before you had her granddaughter and didn’t tell her or her son for six years. Not to mention the fact that you and Spencer were now dating again and living together.

“Those are questions for Daddy on the ride to the airport,” you ushered her out the front door, locking it.

Jo repeated her questions again once in the car.

“The plane will fly at about 5.9 to 7.2 miles up in the air. I don’t know who the pilot is but we can ask. Commercial planes fly at about 547 to 575 miles per hour which is about 14 times faster than the speed we are driving right now,” Spencer informed her.

“Woah,” Jo exclaimed, “I’ve never been on a plane before.”

“Yes you have, Baby J. You were just too young to remember it. You and Mommy flew from California to here,” you said.

Once you made it through check-in and security, you were waiting in the terminal for your flight to start boarding. Spencer came back with coffee and breakfast sandwiches for you both and a chocolate milk and donut munchkins for Jo.

“Thanks, Spence,” you gave him a quick kiss before unwrapping your sandwich.

“Jo, look!” Spencer pointed to a woman in a uniform, “I think that’s our pilot. Do you want to go say hi?”

Jo nodded shyly. She seemed to be a little starstruck.

“Come here, Princess,” Spencer lifted her up and walked over to the lady.

You watched from afar as the woman nodded her head to Spencer’s first question so she must be the pilot. She seemed very enthusiastic to answer any and all of Jo’s questions. She knelt down to her bag and gave something to Jo, waving goodbye.

“Mommy! I got wings!” Jo held up a little wing pin.

“Oh my gosh, sweetie! That is so cool!” you smiled, pinning it to her sweater.

“Do you want to be a pilot when you grow up, Jo?” Spencer asked.

“Yes,” she beamed.

“You can be whatever you want, Josephine,” you smiled, kissing her cheek.

It was the middle of the night. You couldn’t possibly sleep, knowing you were going to have to face Diana in the morning. You were expecting the cold shoulder from her at the very least.

You were sitting on the cool hotel bathroom floor, silently crying with your knees pulled up to your chest and your head tucked in between.

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” Spencer quickly rushed over to you, sitting down beside you.

Either your crying was louder than anticipated or he just woke up to use the bathroom because you forgot to lock the door.

“Your mom hates me and I know how much her approval means to you,” you sniffled, not looking up.

“Baby, can you look at me please?” he whispered.

You hesitantly looked up to meet Spencer’s sympathetic gaze. He used the bottom of his t-shirt to wipe the tears from your face, pulling you in for a hug.

“She doesn’t hate you, I promise. She is overjoyed to meet her granddaughter,” he assured you.

“What if she’s just not telling you, Spence? She is seeing Jo for the first time at the age of 6, I honestly wouldn’t blame her for being pissed,” you were crying again.

Spencer pulled back and cupped your face, wiping away the fresh tears with his thumbs.

“I’m really sorry, I got so excited I forgot to consider how you’re feeling. I can take Jo alone tomorrow if you don’t want to go,” he said.

“No, I want to go,” you replied with no hesitation.

Spencer smiled softly, “If you feel uncomfortable at any point, we will leave but I swear she is not harboring any animosity towards you.”

“Does she know we are living together and dating again?” you asked softly.

“Yes, she does. Let me tell you she was not happy when I broke up with you the first time so I can assure you she approves of us getting back together,” he chuckled.

He elicited a quiet giggle from you.

“Would you like to go back to bed?” he asked softly.

You nodded and Spencer helped you up off the floor and back to bed. Spencer wrapped his arms around you and you snuggled into his chest, finally getting some rest.

“Dr. Reid! Diana has not stopped talking about this visit all week! She is having a wonderful day!” the nurse at the front desk chirped.

“Thank you. Is she in her room?” he asked.

“Yes, you know the way!” she said, gesturing down the hall.

You and Spencer stopped right outside her door, halting Jo’s movement as well because she was in between you both, holding each of your hands.

Spencer knelt down to her level, “Do you remember who we are meeting?”

“Your Mommy,” Jo said.

“So that makes her your Grandma,” Spencer smiled.

“I already have a Grandma,” Jo said, confused.

“You have two Grandmas now, Baby J,” you explained.

Jo still seemed a little confused and made a grabby motion for you to pick her up.

Spencer knocked on the door and opened it a crack.

“Mom?” Spencer said.

“Oh, Spencer!” you heard the familiar voice excitedly shout from inside.

You entered the room with Jo nuzzled into your neck. Jo tended to get very shy around new people and liked to cling to you or Spencer until she warmed up.

Once Diana finished hugging Spencer, she turned to you and Jo.

“Hi, Y/N! Good to see you! Let me see my beautiful granddaughter,” she chirped.

“Good to see you too,” you smiled, “Jo, can you say hi?”

Jo nuzzled further into your neck.

“How about if you sit in Daddy’s lap?” you whispered in her ear.

She nodded and you handed her over to Spencer, taking the seat next to him on the couch.

“Oh, look at her precious little face. She looks just like Spencer did at that age. Hello, Josephine,” Diana smiled.

“Jo, how about you tell Grandma what we did yesterday,” you prompted her.

“We went on a plane and I got this,” Jo pointed to the wings that she was still wearing today.

“Oh my, the pilot must have thought you were a very important little girl then,” Diana nodded.

Jo beamed as you reached over to your bag.

“Um we brought some of Jo’s toys if you want to play with her,” you asked Diana.

“Of course! I would love nothing more!”

“I have to pee,” Jo tugged at Spencer’s sleeve.

“Okay, let’s go,” Spencer lifted her up.

Shit. As much as Spencer assured you that his mom didn’t hold a grudge, you were scared of the ‘girl talk’ that would ensue when he left the room. You couldn’t really offer to take Jo because you didn’t know where the bathrooms were.

Once the door to the room clicked shut, you felt Diana’s eyes on you.

“So long time, no see,” she said.

“Yeah,” you chuckled nervously.

“Now I’m Spencer’s mom and I’m supposed to see him as perfect but one of the biggest mistakes he ever made was leaving you and I made sure I let him know that. And I didn’t even know you were pregnant at the time. You both just had this special bond that was so clear to anyone who was within twenty feet of you. I am so grateful that you gave him the opportunity to come back into you and your daughter’s life,” Diana spoke.

You were tearing up at how nice she was being. She didn’t blame you for any of it.

“Can I hug you?” you asked with watery eyes.

“Of course, my dear,” she opened her arms, “I am so lucky to call you family.”

Spencer returned to see two of the most important people in his life hugging and the third was in his arms.

#spencer reid fluff #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid x reader #spencer x reader #reid x reader #spencer reid x you #spencer reid #cm fanfic #criminal minds

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n1ght5h4d3-24 · 3 years ago

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Nach Mera Hero (Alfasl Althaani)

A/N: This story is based on my theory. I was already in the process of writing this story before I saw @jupitersmoon167 ‘s idea so I wanted to go ahead and get this out there so that no one thought I’d stolen their idea.

My MCU theory: We know that the Eternals arrived in 5000 B.C, which means they were around during the Egyptian Era. Osiris mentions, during the Council’s meeting in episode 3 that the Gods turned their backs on humanity because humanity turned their backs on them first, so what if the Eternals made their way into Egypt because there were Deviants attacking. The Eternals have been depicted as Gods/Goddess before, and they can be seen using their abilities unlike the Egyptian Gods/Goddess, who can only be seen by their Avatars. Humanity has a thing about seeing is believing, so what if the reason the Egyptians turned their backs on their God/Goddesss was because they got tired of believing in entity they couldn’t perceive when there was a group of people they could see.

-Previously-

After the tour was over, Steven led Diana to the museum's stock room as promised. There had to be at least over a dozen boxes inside.

"Alright, so the Ennead plushes should be in one of these boxes. We just have to find the one with the right label." Steven tells her.

They split up and started checking the labels of the boxes. Ennead posters, gummies, plastic Ennead statues, pencils, small notebooks, plastic bookmarks, erasers...no plushes. Diana felt like she had to have looked at a dozen boxes until Steven called out.

"Found it!"

Diana turned around and walked over to Steven, who grabbed the box off the top of others. He set it down on the floor and pulls his box cutter out of his pants pocket, slicing through the tape. He pulled the box flaps open and revealed Khonshu plushes. She smiles brightly at the falcon plush with a crescent moon headpiece on its head and picks one out of the box. She looks at it for a moment before reaching into her skirt pocket and pulled out her wallet then handed a couple of bills over to Steven, who took it from her and pocketed the money to put into the register once they made their way back to the gift shop.

"Thanks for the tour, Steven. I had a great time learning from you. You are very passionate about Egyptology." she tells him.

Steven's face flushed bright pink at the compliment, "Y-you're welcome. I was afraid that I was rambling too much. A-and I am but, Donna doesn't think I'm cut out to be a tour guide so she put me in the gift shop."

Diana frowns at that, "I'm sorry Steven, that's not fair. I think you'd make an excellent tour guide. You'd easily give me a run for my money."

"Y-you think so?" he asks in uncertainty.

"Most definitely. I'll be sure to tell her how you did today, giving me a tour and maybe she'll finally allow you to be a tour guide." she says.

He smiled bashfully, "Th-thanks. I-I'd really appreciate that...although y-you really don't have to. I actually don't mind working in the gift shop."

"You don't have to lie to me. I noticed how unhappy you looked as compared to when you were giving me a tour. I'm very observant." she tells him.

"Stevie!" Donna's voice called somewhere outside the stock room.

They both turned their heads towards the door before looking at each other.

"I-I should probably go." Steven mentions.

"Right, of course. Thanks again for the tour. I'll see you around, Stevie." she giggles before walking out, leaving a flustered Steven behind.

~~~~~

After taking some more time to closely look at a few of the Egyptian artifacts on display in the British Museum and reliving old memories, Diana headed back to her flat in a nearby building that was only a fifteen minute bus ride away. She climbed off the bus once it reached the bus stop that was around the corner from the building and headed towards said building. She heads inside and makes her way to the lift. She pressed the up button to call the lift and stepped onto it once it arrived. However, before the doors could close, she heard a voice call out.

"Hold the doors, please!"

The dirty blonde stuck her hand out, to prevent the doors from closing completely, and a familiar face stepped aboard.

"Steven! Twice in one day." she greets him.

"O-oh, hello Diana. You live here?" he asks.

"Yeah, rented out a flat when I moved here."

He takes a moment to look a the buttons on the lift and notices that his floor's button was already lit and then the lift started to move.

"Oh, your flat is on the same floor as mine." he mentions.

"Is it? I guess that makes us neighbors then." she tells him.

"Guess so." he agrees.

They rode the rest of the way up in somewhat comfortable silence. When the doors opened again, Steven allowed Diana to walk out before him. He followed behind her, down the hallway and he was pleasantly surprised to see that she moved into the flat across the hall from his.

"O-oh, we're across the hall neighbors. I live in the flat here." he points at his door.

"Cool! Already met a neighbor, who happens to be really sweet and kind." she compliments him.

Steven flushed immediately and fumbled with his keys. Diana watched him in slight amusement before he managed to get his key into the slot and unlock his door. He walked into the doorway then turned around to face her.

"I uh...apologize if I happen to wake you up or keep you up. I umm...have a sleeping disorder and get nightmares." he apologizes in advance.

"Don't worry, I don't sleep well either. So it won't be a problem." she tells him sincerely.

He gives her a nod and a half wave before closing his door. She enters her flat and closes the door behind her. The dirty blonde set her plush down on the table by the door before resting her left hand against the wall and used her right hand to pull off her flats, leaving them under the table before picking her plush back up and padded across the threshold of her flat, barefoot, to her bedroom. She sets the Khonshu plush down on the window sill then turns around and walks over to her adjoining bathroom, to take a shower.

After her shower, Diana changed into her pajamas but, she didn't go to bed. Instead, she walked over to her settee and took a seat. She leaned forward to pick up her journal and pencil before leaning back in the settee. She opened the ivory notebook with silver details and flipped through the already written on pages till landing on a blank page. She wrote about her day into her notebook. The Eternal had started keeping a journal since 1521 A.D, since her best friend walked away from her and the others, wanting to write down each of the important days should she ever see her friend again and since it had been a few centuries since that day, there were quite a few stacks of full notebooks.

Once recounting her day in her notebook, the Eternal closed it and set it back down onto the small coffee table, beside her glasses. Her green-blue eyes glance over at the tortoiseshell frames she had picked up to help her blend in even though she didn't need them. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before relaxing back into the settee. She wasn't sure how much longer she could continue doing this...being on her own. She had started considering moving in with Sersi ever since she found out that her friend lived in London but, at the same time she didn't want her friend to feel smothered by her presence. Perhaps she should attempt to get some sleep...yeah, sleep. The dirty blonde gets up from the settee and makes her way to her bedroom. However, yet again she didn't go to bed. Her eyes caught sight of her plush on the window sill and walked over to it. She picked it up and sat on the window sill, which was big enough to fit herself, before looking out her window and at the night sky.

Diana leaned against a sand dune after a meeting with the Egyptian royals, staring up at the starry night sky and taking in the waning moon. She could feel a presence beside her, one that wasn't any of her Eternal friends but, one of an ancient being. She smirked slightly before turning her head to the left and looked up to see a being with a bird skull, dressed in white bandages and holding a staff.

"Hello Khonshu," she greets him.

"Hello Litil Mun," he greeted in return.

She takes notice of the way his skull tilts downwards, his way of looking down at her.

"What are you thinking about?" he wonders.

She hums thoughtfully, "Not much. I'm just taking in the night sky after today. I've always found the night to be more peaceful than the day."

"It is. That's why the night will always be superior to day." Khonshu proclaims.

Diana laughs at him, "Of course you would think that."

"Am I wrong?"

"I think the both of us are a bit biased on the matter. The Moon Ennead and the Lunar Eternal...of course we'd prefer the night over the day." she's smiling up at him.

A silence falls between the pair of them for the moment, both heads turning up to look at the starry night sky once more.

"Litil Mun, what will happen once you and your friends defeat all the Deviants that have been showing up to Egypt?" Khonshu asks out of curiosity.

"Phastos has been keeping track of how many are around the kingdom. Once all is said and done, and we're sure that Egypt will be safe without us, we'll move on to the next city in danger." she answers truthfully.

The Egyptian deity turns his head to his companion once more, "You'll just leave?"

"Mm-hmm. There won't be any use for us once we ensure the kingdom's safety." she says.

"I'm sure you will be missed. Especially since the people of Egypt treat you and the others as Gods and Goddesses...turning their backs on the Gods and Goddesses they had before you arrived." Khonshu can't help the jab.

Diana sighs, "You know that was never our intention, Khon...we had no idea about the Egyptians beliefs before we arrived. We were only after protecting Egypt from the Deviants. We can't help how humanity works, believing so easily in something they can perceive over something they can't...other than your Avatars. Besides, once we're gone they'll probably start believing in you and the others again."

Khonshu seems to deflate just a little, "I'm sorry, my Litil Mun...I didn't mean to upset you. The others have been upset since humanity turned their backs on them and it's been annoying me. I didn't mean to take my annoyance out on you."

She gives him a small smile, "It's okay, I understand."

"Diana! Where have you gone?" a voice calls out for the lunar Eternal.

The duo turn their heads in the direction of the voice, and the dirty blonde gets up from leaning against the sand dune. She does her best to brush the sand off herself and bony fingers reach out to brush sand off the back of the Eternal.

"Goodnight, Khonshu. I'll see you around." she tells him before heading in the direction of whoever called her.

"See you, Litil Mun." he says after her.

-Next Up-

Taglist:

@megangst

#Nach Mera Hero #Marvel #MCU #Marvel Cinematic Universe #Moonknight #Eternals #Crossover Fic #Moonknight Imagine #Eternals Imagine #Marvel Imagine #Moonknight Imagines #Eternals Imagines #Marvel Imagines #Steven Grant x Eternal!OC #Steven Grant Imagine #Steven Grant Imagines #Moon Knight #Moon Knight Imagine #Moon Knight Imagines

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darwin-xf · 3 years ago

Text

Love is a Verb

His dick knew things.

In general, thinking with your little head not your big one got a bad rap.

But for him? The opposite seemed to apply.

Of course he’d been mortified when he sprung to life in her hand the night before, with Scully in full on doctor mode, acting so clinical and detached. While he was so very very exposed.

A wave of anger arose in the wake of his humiliation. At her. Which wasn’t fair. She was doing him a favor, after all. Examining him, because they were stuck in a crap motel in the middle of nowhere Florida, the day after a hurricane, flights snafued, roads clogged with debris. And him with a sea monster bite on his neck and an angry itchy red rash on his dick to match. She was caring for him, just like she always did. Even though neither one of them was exactly comfortable about the prospect.

But now, considering what that moment of vulnerability had led to, he was glad it happened. And hardly surprised.

And when his big head has been muddled and confused on a night a few weeks before? His dick had shown the way forward. When a different woman had laid her hands on him, slipped her tongue into his mouth.

He didn’t want her. He felt like a block of wood as she kissed him and touched him. And yet he let it happen. His mind filled with a fuzzy gray static as she whispered to him how she needed him, how she’d never stopped loving him, until she was kneeling on the floor in front of him. She opened his pants and he let her, hungry for something she was offering. He would think a lot about that later.

But then his dick was in her mouth. And she worked it, employed all her little tricks. And still it stayed soft.

Until, giving up, she stood. She crossed the room and poured herself a scotch. He tucked his junk in his pants and zipped up. Not even embarrassed.

“You love her,” Diana said, her back to him.

He nodded. “I do.”

“But Fox,” she said, closing the distance between them, sitting down next to him, “She doesn’t know you like I do. There’s so much I want to give you...”

She launched into the pitch he’d heard from her before. Since she returned, she’d been whispering to him whenever she could get him alone, offering him access. “There are so many things we can accomplish together, Fox. Why would you want to keep toiling in the dark when you can shape the future of the human race? You’ve more than earned your seat at the table. And your voice is needed there...”

Though he never really felt engaged in these conversations, his big head listened to what Diana had to say.

But the little one was more persuasive. Not to mention more persistent. The truth was, Scully had been the only one able to get him off for months. Though of course she hadn’t touched him.

His extensive collection of salacious videotapes these days stayed tucked in their hiding places, moldering in their cases. The magazines delivered to his door each month, Penthouse and Hustler and Escort and Razzle and Club, remained stacked on his entryway table, their spines uncracked, their pages unperused. Most with the black no-see-um wrapper still intact.

A fact Scully discovered while visiting his apartment a few weeks before. She turned up on the late side one evening, work on her mind, files in her hand, her body tucked dutifully away in some dark suit.

“Oh that,” he said when she placed her palm on the towering cache of smut, popped an eyebrow in his direction. She had spent enough time in his space to understand that this was a departure from his usual behavior, where his porn was concerned. Whereby he’d rip the covers off the mags as soon as they arrived and leaf through them, looking for anything particularly good. He’d turn down the corners of memorable pages then leave them piled haphazardly around his place: on end tables, under the fishtank, next to his bed.

The explanation was not something he was prepared to share. So he thought fast, and invented something on the fly that seemed remotely plausible. “Yeah, the boys tell me that those are going to be collector's items soon. Print is dead, Scully. Everyone making the switch from atoms to bits and bytes. Paper’s so pulpy and inefficient. I have a book on it somewhere...” He riffled through his bookshelf, glad to escape her excruciating gaze. He plucked out a book and handed her a copy of Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte. “He’s a smart guy. You should check it out.”

His effort to distract her was in vain. She put the book aside without glancing at the cover and continued to silently cross-examine him. He pretended to be interested in another book he’d pulled at random, but the moment stretched on uncomfortably. "I thought I could get more for them if they remained in pristine condition,” he said as he paged through the book he wasn’t reading. For all he knew he was holding it upside down. “You know how people keep their Star Wars toys in the boxes with the cellophane on?”

She shrugged, unconvinced. But she moved on, willing to let it go. Her stacked heels clacked obnoxiously against his hardwood floors as she slowly made her way into his living room.

He doubted she wanted to know the real reason. Though he was pretty sure he could turn the tables on her if he blurted it out. It would serve her right for the way she roamed around his apartment and let her eyes light on his stuff, storing her little data points in that mind, trying to figure him out. But maybe one day the tea leaves of his pitiable life she seemed so eager to read would finally speak to her. Maybe it would occur to her what was actually going on.

Which was that every time he touched himself, he imagined it was her hand. And he would try to switch things over, open one of his skin mags— his trusty strategy for years when it came to getting his thoughts off his partner and back where they belonged —but it wasn’t working anymore.

He’d listlessly page through the glossies, looking for a promising spread, land on some blowjob scene and eyeball it for a while. But when he got down to business it, was her mouth on him, warm and receptive, her eyes on his face, his hands in her coppery hair. He’d smolder for a while, thinking of her lips, her strong small hands, and always her eyes, then feverishly work himself up. And the magazine, forgotten, would slip away onto the floor.

On the bright side, his inappropriate intrusive fixation on his FBI partner was saving him two hundred bucks a month he used to spend on phone sex. The last time he dialed in he couldn’t even get it up. So he spilled his guts to one of his regular providers, droning on for forty-five minutes about how he had it bad for his partner, all the things she did that made him crazy, the reasons he couldn’t tell her. Realizing even therapy would be cheaper, and feeling like a terrible cliché, he’d quit calling those numbers.

His videos were his last line of defense. Their absorbing input had always been able to capture his attention, so he’d try one of those. It might work for a few minutes, but the real action was behind his eyes. In his mind it was her heels digging in to the small of his back as he plunged into her tight little cunt. She’d be beneath him hot and panting, open her mouth to moan and he’d stuff his fingers in, slide them wetly against her tongue. Soon he’d be picking up the pace... The television would blare fruitlessly in the background, rife with bad dialogue and silicone silo tits and oh babys. The money shot would come and go, unseen by him, and the screen would fade to black.

The reason porn had quit working was simple: in his fantasies, she always comes too. Usually more than once. He’d start slow, imagine he was taking his time kissing his way down her body. That could take a while. Then he’d tease her, rubbing the fat head of his cock up and down her slit. When she begged him to, he’d slip inside her and slam his hips forward. He’d hold there, bottomed out, and kiss her sweet mouth. Then he’d slide it in and out, looking into her eyes, feeling every inch of her.

Soon he’d need to fuck her harder, faster. He’d reach down to tease her clit until she was thrashing and pleading. Then she’d say his name, and her face would change, and she’d come on his dick. He’d watch her ride it out, humming with pleasure as her warm wet circles broke against him and travelled up his body in waves. Till his nuts and his gut and his heart and his throat and his brain were replete with her. Finally he’d come, imagining he was cradled by her hips and rocking, buried deep inside her, spilling his secrets into her ear.

In his dirty busy mind he’d already had her so many places and ways: in showers and motel beds, in cars and elevators, bent over his desk at work, the door unlocked, her skirt bunched around her waist, her drugstore pantyhose dangling from her ankle. Quick or slow or sweet or mean, acrobatic or missionary, rough or tender. Or both. God. Even boring. Just the two of them in his bed, nose to nose under the covers, whispering and giggling and whiling away a Sunday morning.

And the most pathetic and woebegone detail? Sometimes his fantasies contained no sex at all. He wanted to watch a movie with her feet parked in his lap. He wanted to shop for groceries with her and hold her hand on the walk home. To spend a weekend with her on the Vinyard and show her his old high school. He wanted to rub her back when she was sad and play footsie with her under the table during boring budget meetings. He wanted to gather her close and kiss her eyelids and hold her in his arms as she fell asleep. To watch her to rise naked from his bed and pull on his clothes she’d just stripped from his body. On red eye flights he wanted to leave the arm rest up and snuggle with her under those dingy felt blankets. To read to her while she soaked in the tub and find the nooks and hollows of her body where she was ticklish. He wanted to make her giggle, make her laugh, make her cry happy tears. He wanted to make her wet just with his voice. To lay in bed and watch while she got dressed for church. He wanted to kiss her in front of her idiot brother, maybe even slip her a tasteful amount of tongue. To shower with her before work, to soap her up and shampoo her hair. He wanted to stock his fridge with an assortment of her gross non-dairy yogurts.

Scully. Before she’d even descended into his office and introduced herself, he assumed she was a plant. Or a dupe, a patsy. Why else would a promising and talented young agent be conscripted to his lonely, disrespected division? Most likely she’d already agreed to keep tabs on him, to cast his work in a negative light. And even if she hadn’t, he was certain she’d be manipulated, using the lever of her obvious ambition, into doing so. He also suspected, since she’d spent most of her time thus far in the FBI in the lab or the classroom, that she was a house cat. The kind of agent who might hold romantic notions about working in the field, but who would soon balk at the grueling, unpredictable hours, the endless travel, the physical grind. And blanch at the dangers. It’s no kind of life for anybody who wants a life.

By the time their flight touched down in Oregon on that first case, he knew for sure that she was fun to spar with. And all kinds of smart. And even sort of cute. And while it can obviously be helpful to have a partner if things go sideways, he remembers hoping that didn’t happen to them before she washed out and retreated back to the lab. Because he suspected this itty bitty pathologist with zero field experience and impractical footwear? Would be more likely to become a liability than properly cover his flank.

After they’d worked a half dozen cases together, it was fair to say he’d reconsidered the hasty assumptions he’d made about Scully. Which is to say she surprised him at every turn. Except on the couple of occasions when she’d astonished him, leaving him flat-footed and slack-jawed in her wake. Against all odds, he had himself a partner. Which is not to say he fully trusted her. Not yet. And he doubted she’d hang around much longer.

But still. He’d learned that she was game. Skeptical and rational, but up for anything. She never complained about bad food or lumpy beds. And courageous, staring down firearms pushed in her face without blinking. She was fearless and cagy, and could take a punch or dish one out. And in the next moment she could soften, to connect with a suspect or a victim, to care for a child, or for him. She believed deeply in what she was doing. When he bumbled into trouble, which he seemed to have a knack for, she more than had his back. Yet when she’d sided with him and blew off her buddies from the Academy? It wasn’t loyalty to him she was demonstrating, but to the victims. To the truth. Above all, Scully was honest.

In some ways, he knew her so well. Yet all these years later there was there were aspects to her he could only guess at. Scully, he’d come to understand, was a deeply private person. Didn’t give pieces of herself away in idle conversation, like most people do. The fact that he was a trained and skilled profiler didn’t seem to help. In his fevered mind he’d become preoccupied with the things he didn’t know about her. Like how, exactly, does she like to be touched? He thought about that a lot. Is she a morning sex person? (God he hoped so.) Is she loud in bed? Or more quiet and intense? A little repressed, or wild and uninhibited? He could imagine it either way. Is she bossy? Submissive? A little of both? What does she taste like? Does she talk dirty? Will she like it when he does? (Because he definitely does.) How would he tease her? What are her kinks? Does she like it rough? And if he wanted to go down on her for hours, would she be okay with that?

So, yeah. He loved her.

That switch had been flicked for him on a steamy summer evening, a moment when he’d been staring down the real possibility of losing her. She walked away. He followed her, flew out his door like he’d been shot out of a cannon. Stormed up to her where she’d turned to face him in his hallway. Fists clenched, voice raised, he was in full on fighting mode. But he wasn’t fighting her. He was fighting to keep her. So instead of telling her off, as his body language suggested he might, he told her what she meant to him. How he needed her. Things he hadn’t even realized before they came out of his mouth. But all of it the truth.

She’d been girded and resolute, her body rigid and self-contained. But then she broke, like a marionette whose strings had been cut, she softened and stepped into his embrace. He looked in her impossibly blue eyes glinting with tears and realized with dreadful certainty that, Christ, he was going to kiss his partner. More than that, if she let him, he was going to pick her up and carry her back through the door of his apartment and lay her down and fuck her.

That plan had been derailed, but the urge for him remained. And not long after, he gathered his courage and, with all the earnestness he could muster, he’d looked her in the eyes and confessed.

So he’d told her that he loved her. But had he shown her?

That was a thorny question, and it made him uncomfortable to consider it. Because he had to admit that for the most part, he hadn’t.

It was strange, but once his feelings for Scully had shifted, his behavior toward her had become less loving. For one thing, he didn’t let her in on that fact that she’d become the only featured player in his secret late-nite fantasy theatre. But more than that, he found himself especially irritable with her. Dismissive. Self-centered. Sometimes even cold.

When he was looking for an excuse to be angry with her, he told himself a story that she’d rejected him. Because, oh brother. But he’d seen her eyes go wide for an instant, felt her animal panic. She’d pored over his hospital chart and had to know he wasn’t high. So he’d concluded that she didn’t want him. Didn’t love him.

And Fowley’d chosen that inopportune moment to skip back over the pond and make a play for his ass. And though he had no interest in rekindling that relationship, just having her around reminded him of all the reasons it just might be a bad idea to get tangled up sexually with your partner.

More than that, even though he knew that Scully felt insecure because of Diana for several legitimate reasons, he hadn’t bothered to reassure her that she had nothing to worry about. When Diana called him and invited him downstairs for lunch, he’d go. Mostly to be near his files, and to mine the trashcans for cases when her back was turned. But he’d steal away from the bullpen, not tell Scully where he was off to, or why. He let her twist in the wind, wondering who Diana was to him and what her reappearance meant for their partnership.

It would make sense that once you’ve discovered the person you love, the person with whom you want to spend the rest of your days (not even to mention nights), the person who is, quite possibly, it for you? That you would try to make that happen. To lock that down. And yet he seemed to be doing everything but.

Even after she’d been shot by Ritter, and he’d almost lost her again.

And why was that? How to explain this puzzling behavior.

Maybe she didn’t want him, and he was just protecting himself.

The thing was, when he was being honest, he knew that wasn’t true. When he’d been about to kiss her in his hallway, she’d looked confused at first. And then concerned, with real fear flashing in her eyes. But by the time his lips were hovering over hers? They were on the same page. She’d gone molten in his arms, and her mouth awaited his, wet and ready. His body remembered how she’d opened to him, with her sweet breath and her fingers on his neck. He knew in his bones how that encounter would have ended, if not for that stupid fucking bee. Recalled it every chance he got.

As a psychologist, looking at the situation objectively? He’d have to conclude that he was engaging in some epic self-sabotage. Yup.

That night in her apartment when Diana had made her intentions clear, he’d agreed like some kind of docile sheep to join her. To scrum up with the other chosen few at El Rico Air Force Base as Armageddon loomed and save himself at the expense of the rest of humanity. And Scully, even though he wasn’t by her side where he belonged, was still fighting. For him, For them. For the truth. For the future.

And to repay her for her steadfast faith in him and devotion to their work? He was flirting with the one thing that could tear them apart. With inflicting a betrayal that could send her packing for good.

They’d dodged a bullet that night. More than that, they’d gotten their files back, and were free to resume their work. And by any measure he should have felt relieved. But he woke the next morning with a hangover worse than any he’d ever gotten from liquor. He looked in the mirror to shave and realized he couldn’t even meet his own gaze. He was ashamed. And he had to admit that he’d been seduced by Diana after all. Not into bed, but into complacency.

Needing some time and space to think things through, he called Skinner and redeemed a few vacation days. He threw some clothes in a bag and set out driving, not sure of his destination.

On the road, heading north, armed with this new clarity, he mulled things over. How was he going to feel, he wondered, when he succeeded and chased her away? That seemed to be his end game, after all. He knew what he’d do. He’d track her down to wherever she’d absconded to and interrupt her as she attempted to reboot her life. Then, looking desperate and half mad, he’d profess his love.

But it would be too late. She would conclude, quite logically, that he only wanted her when she was leaving. And even if she loved him like he hoped she might, she would not settle for that. Not Scully. And it would be selfish of him to ask her to.

It hit him then, with complete and utter clarity, that he had no idea how to love someone. He’d had bad models and a dearth of life experience in that arena. He knew how he felt. But love is a verb. It’s about what you do. She had taught him that.

He was good with the grand gestures, sure. Tracking her down at the bottom of the world and fishing her out of an enormous alien vessel, for example. Then breathing life back into her and hauling her to the surface while sidestepping rabid lizard monsters who swiped at them with razor-edged claws? Check.

But she needed more. For him to find mundane ways to express his care and concern, perhaps. To show her how much she mattered to him. How much he valued her and all the ways she contributed to their work. To his life. She needed to see that he put her first. She deserved these things. She had earned them. And he knew wouldn’t let him glimpse her secret self, let him know her like he desperately wanted to, until he gave them to her.

He wasn’t sure he could do it. But he knew he had to try.

He decided to start right away. He’d been thinking of her all morning, of course. About celebrating their return by pressing her her against a wall in their office and pushing into her, fucking her breathless and senseless before lunch, to be exact. But he hadn’t thought of her at all, he realized. Not really.

Scully. She’d be there right now, in the basement waiting for him, their first day back where they belonged. Wondering where he could be with half the morning gone. Bewildered as to what might be keeping him from reclaiming his precious turf. Maybe she already talked to Skinner and knew he was taking a few days off. Maybe she’d be worried. Or pissed. Or worse, wondering if he was enjoying a morning lounging in bed with a treacherous leggy brunette.

At the next rest stop, he pulled off and powered up his cell phone. He was relieved to see that he'd missed a call from her. She hadn’t given up on him yet.

Rather than listen to her message, he dialed her back. She answered on the third ring.

“Hey Mulder,” she said.

“Hey Scully,” he said. “Are you in the office?”

“I am,” she said. “Where I thought for sure you would be. Skinner told me you were on vacation. What’s going on?” Her voice was brittle. Defensive.

“I will be, Scully. I’ll meet you there. And soon. But I need to take care of a few things first.”

“Okay,” she said thoughtfully. “What kinds of things?”

“I, ah, I need to get my head straight before coming back. I’ve been mixed up. About some stuff.”

“I see,” she said.

They were both quiet for long seconds.

“How are you?” he asked.

“Me?” The question surprised her. “I’m good. Enjoying the quiet. Working on expense reports. Glad to be out of the bullpen.”

“You sure? You were popular, Scully. I think Agent Kargoll was working up the nerve to ask you out.” Mulder would glare at him as he brought her a donut on a little plate in the mornings. He’d leave it on the corner of the desk if she wasn’t in yet, like an offering to the high priestess.

“Yep,” she said. “I noticed that too. Reassigned in the nick of time...”

“I did my best to scare him off...”

“He was persistent, I’ll give him that.”

“He seemed like a nice enough guy. You could do worse than landing a boyfriend who arrives bearing gifts every morning...”

“I could do better, too.”

“No doubt,” he said. “What would be better than that?”

“Hmm. Why do you ask?”

“Research,” he said.

“Research,” she repeated. “Okay. Let’s see. The bearing gifts is ok. But maybe someone with some sense of what I actually like?”

“Let me jot that down,” he said. She snorted a little laugh. Which warmed him all the way through. “It’s true, Scully, you’re not a big fan of donuts. I benefitted from his crush on you more than you did.”

“I tried to wait until he had his back turned before handing those off to you...”

“You’re very kind,” he said.

Just then a truck blew by on the highway, laying on the booming brake, rocking his car.

“Where are you?” she asked.

“I, ah, hit the road this morning. Just to think. Just to drive. But I suppose I’m heading home. To see my mother for a few days.”

“Everything okay?” she asked. He heard the concern in her voice, the fear that she’d be needing to tend to him trepanned and shocky, bail him out of jail. The usual.

“Yeah,” he said. “Or it will be. I really think it will be.”

“Allright Mulder,” she said after a long beat. “I’ll be holding down the fort. Drive safe. And keep in touch.”

“I will. And save me some of that paperwork, Scully.”

She laughed and hung up.

He had, in fact, visited his mother. She was glad to see him, and he stayed a few days, helped her out with some chores around the house. Got on a ladder and plucked the muck and leaves from the gutters, shifted some dusty furniture from the basement to the curb.

And he absorbed the silences of that house, his mother’s sadness, the way every possession, every exchange seemed steeped in a deep, abiding misery.

He remembered his mother different. Laughing, for example. Playing bridge with her friends, toying with her strand of pearls as she leaned in to gossip. Teasing him with a glint of joy in her eyes. Before Samantha had been taken.

It had broken her. Broken all of them. Now she ghosted around her own home, tending to her roses, watching television. Always alone. He lived much the same way. This was all that was left.

All because his father had been unable to protect them from the men he worked with, no matter how noble his intentions. The same men he had been tempted by Fowley to join up with, if he was telling the truth. Now they were reduced to ash. He had no idea what remained, but he knew he and Scully would find out.

By the time he climbed in his car to come home, he was committed to not making his father’s mistake. And to living differently. Less stubbornly solitary. To inviting some goodness into his life, no matter how strange it felt.

And last night, when it was actually happening, when he was wrapped up in bed with Scully in real life, it had been so vivid, so peculiar. As he rolled his naked frame against hers, time slowed down. In his head he heard the seconds ticking away distorted by doppler effect, whomp whomp. Felt his stiff prick slide against her buttery thigh, painfully slow. Pressed his ear to her chest. Imagined the steady squeeze and release of her heart beneath her breastbone. Heard the whoosh of her blood through her veins.

Looked up at her flushed face, this beautiful untamable breakable beast.

And he loved her.

He’d told her so.

Now he needed to show her.

Thanks for reading. Check it out at Ao3 This fic stands alone, but is also chapter 10 of Bedside Manner

#the x files #today in fic #msr fanfic #msr #mulder x scully #x files #fox mulder #dana scully #x files fanfiction #the x files fanfic

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