#I took a nap immediately after and woke up with a migraine which is so rude

[saltyfilmmajor]

Amazing what food can do, I feel like a person again

[idontplaytrack]

✧ If you hold me

AJ Campos x fem! reader

Warnings: MDNI, mature themes— angst, domestic violence/abuse, coarse language, disordered eating?, undiagnosed medical condition. Reader discretion is advised.

"If you hold me without hurting me, you'll be the first who ever did."

— Cinnamon Girl, Lana Del Rey

AJ and Gabi were out tonight, the sisters decided to go to a pub and just hang out— just the two of them. It’s been a while since they got to do that. Everything was going great until her phone continuously lit up with messages from you. Then, you’d called her. Dropping her half-eaten mozzarella stick into the basket, “Excuse me, Gabs.” She picks up your call.

“AJ?” You hiccuped, “Where are you? Can you come— pick me up please?”

Her blood ran cold, fingers trembling and nearly dropping the device.

“Where are you, baby?” AJ took a deep breath to calm herself down,

You were crying. “I— there’s the gas station on 12th?”

“Okay, I know where you are, stay put. I’m on my way.”

Hearing the whole conversation, even just AJ’s side of it, Gabi was ready to bolt out the door with her after quickly leaving a fifty on the table.

“She must’ve stopped by our place and no one was home.” AJ sighs, checking her phone periodically in case you’d texted. She wanted to be able to know immediately that you did and not miss anything.

Pulling up at the gas station, they didn’t see you outside so AJ got out of the car and ran inside. There immediate relief when she saw you sitting right by the checkout on a stool, but then she was swiftly hit with anger and worry when she saw the red handprint around your neck. “I wanted to call 9-1-1, hon. But she wouldn’t tell me anything,” The worker, a lady likely in her 40s, told AJ.

“Thanks, I’ll uh, I’ll do that.”

‘Does she even know I’m here?’ She thought to herself.

AJ walks up to you, “y/n.” You blinked profusely, slowly turning your head to look at her. “Let’s go, I got you, baby. Come on.” She says quietly, taking your hand. You just followed her lead, barely able to stand up straight.

You held your tears in until you got to AJ’s room, purposely ignoring Gabi’s questions knowing you would not be able to answer them without bursting into tears again.

“Did your Dad hit you?” AJ went right for it.

“More like I was trying to get my mom away and got dragged into it.”

“So yes.” AJ grabs her phone again, ready to make the phone call to the authorities.

“He punched her, threw things at us. Then he shoved me against the wall and did this.” You said, gesturing to your neck. Taking in an unsteady breath, “He got— he got so mad at me for taking a nap because I wasn’t feeling well. I tried to take pain medicine because I had a migraine and my damn stomach hurt but he threw it out. Then he just punched me in my stomach.”

AJ tried to keep a straight face but she was fuming at this point. Quickly making the call, she was back to checking on you. “Do you want to go to the hospital? I can take you, baby.”

You were adamant on not going, so she didn’t push it. “Which one were you taking?”

“Huh?”

“The pain meds.” She clarifies, an arm gently wrapped around you.

“Tramadol?” You sniffed, “It’s prescription. I don’t have my prescription— and fuck, I need— it hurts, AJ.”

“We have Motrin, would you want to take that and see if it helps you a little bit?” AJ asks, stroking your cheek. You nodded, agreeing to do so. She got up and exited her room, going downstairs to retrieve the medication— along with something to drink, and eat. She knew you hadn’t.

You were curled up in her bed, zoned out when she returned. “Here, eat something, okay? I don’t want the meds to hurt your stomach.” She hands you a granola bar, you took it hesitantly.

“He didn’t want to let me have dinner.” You revealed. “Sent me up to my room and I fell asleep. He woke me up and started yelling at me then all of that happened.”

She just held you close, whispering words of reassurance into your ear as you rested against her nibbling on the granola bar in hand. Once you had finished that, she took a pill out of the bottle and gave that to you followed by the glass of water. “Do you want anything else? I can cook something up for you.” She asks, taking the glass from your hand and placing it on her nightstand. “No.” You muttered, she pulls you closer carefully. You snuggled against her chest while she massaged your scalp for a bit, eventually settling on just having her arm around your waist.

“I doubt they’ll do anything, really.” You admit, “I tried.”

“Don’t think about any of that right now. And you’re staying here with us.”

You didn’t nod, you didn’t say anything and just laid there, completely exhausted, defeated. “Where does it hurt?”

“My lower left side. They’re all saying it’s all in my head.” You told her, “It’s not— there is something there. I feel it when I press it, the doctors did too.”

“I’m sorry that’s still bothering you, my love.” AJ wanted to scoff. She knew exactly what you were talking about— she felt the same thing they all did when you had her check it awhile ago. It angered her so much that your doctors have not been listening to you and just tried to shut you up with painkillers. But of course, she didn’t. She stayed composed and just cuddled with you, making sure you knew you were safe here with her and Gabi. Well…that not so little area where your Dad had punched you in? It was as good as pulsing non stop, sending wave after wave of sharp, stabbing pains radiating through the surrounding area.

“It still hurts…” You groaned softly, shifting yourself a little to get more comfortable. You knew it would take some time for the Motrin to kick in, but you just got the urge to say that. You didn’t even think, you just felt it and the words were flying out of your mouth.

“Do you want me to get you a change of clothes?” She kisses your cheek tenderly, “Or just some shorts that are looser around the waist?”

You nodded, “Yeah, shorts.”

“Okay, I’ll be just a sec.” She slowly moved away from you and went to rummage through her closet for a suitable pair of shorts.

She was thoroughly stunned by the injury, how that bruise was starting to form. AJ bites back a heavy sigh, quickly going up before you to keep you steady. “You wanna sit down and change?”

You only shook your head no and continued to put on the shorts with a bit of a struggle. You were okay after all, AJ made sure you were. Before long, you were back in her bed, in the security of her arms. You couldn’t sleep though, you just didn’t really feel like it. “We can watch something. Whatever you want.” She grabs her laptop.

“I dunno.” You answered.

“That’s okay, hm? We can find something together. If not we’ll just snuggle. That’s fine.” She promised.

You apparently started to cry again and you had no clue why you were crying. The pain meds have already kicked in prior to this. It freaked you out, desperately trying to stop it but AJ wasn’t even fazed. “Hey.” She squeezed your shoulder, “Hey. Look at me, baby.”

“‘m sorry.” You babbled, avoiding her eyes.

“Baby…it’s okay.” She hushed, “It’s okay. You’re alright, I promise you.”

“Why?”

AJ squinted at you, but you didn’t see that of course. You were too busy staring at the stripes on her duvet cover, avoiding the eye contact like your life depended on it.

“Why do you care? Why do you love me? They all just hurt me and think I can’t be bothered by it. They never care. So why? Why do you? I don’t deserve it.”

Aaaand cue AJ’s heart getting stomped on.

“Because I can.” She answered, “Because I have it in me to give you the world. As long as I can do it, you will get whatever you want. You…y/n, I have fallen so in love with you. More and more every day, and I don’t even hesitate to do whatever helps you. Whatever it takes to see your smile. Baby, you deserve a love that is calm, that is healing and safe. Don’t you dare tell me you’re hard to love, because you are not. Falling and being in love has been the easiest thing for me— no doubt about it. It’s not like school, it’s not like track. I don’t have to live up to others’ expectations of me. I just do what feels right for you, for us. You are so loved, so so loved, honey. Never forget that. I will always be here just like I have been.”

You then turned to look at her after she’d finished talking, feeling the impulse to give her a kiss. So…you did. You leaned in, and she naturally went with it without a moment of hesitance. “I love you.” You broke away from the kiss, cheeks stained with tears, “I love you so much. Thank you for being so patient and gentle with me. It means more to me than you know.”

AJ pulls you back in for another kiss before you both resumed your previous positions and continued to cuddle. Now, you were starting to feel the sleepiness creep up on you. AJ notices, “Close your eyes…and just go to sleep. I’ll be right here, not gonna leave. Okay?”

“Okay.” You nod, head against her chest.

“Good.” She wraps her arms around you tighter, “Sweet dreams, preciosa.”

🏷️Tag list:

@ashecampos @auliisflower @cheesysoup-arlo @frogs00 @ludoesartnstuffs @pda128

💭A/N: Y’all got another drabble bc I just somehow can’t get into the mood to write a full fic rn. Literally don’t know why I even decided to finish this draft but well…a post’s a post.

[clowningaroundmars]

thanks to the amazing @starcut-sand for the inspo, i now present to you all... a new multi-chapter adventure! this time featuring our beloved gwen stacy and miles42 :)

no, it's not a ship fic lol but i hope to keep you all entertained nonetheless

this one will update much faster since i've plotted it all out and have drafts written already. so stay tuned for new updates coming soon!

general content warnings: canon-typical violence, mentions of blood, kidnapping, drugs, poisoning, death, bullets and explosions, teenagers being teenagers

without further ado, let's get into it!

part 1 of 4 >>

Gwen woke up in a small, dark room not knowing how much time had passed since she was knocked out cold.

And she knew she was knocked out cold, of course, because even she knew never to take a cat-nap in the middle of a mission.

That she was on currently… if memory served her correctly.

Slowly, painstakingly-- with knives in her ribs and her left shoulder still sore from her earlier encounter-- she sat up. Flicked through her watch to make double-sure that the migraine throbbing in her brain wasn’t tricking her into a vivid hallucination of some kind.

Earth-42 stared right back at her, bright green digital letters dancing and blurring in and out right before her very eyes. When she reached up to touch her forehead in a spot that itched, her glove came away with a bit of dried blood on the white fabric.

Shit.

Gwen could not let Jessica down under any circumstances, especially since this was her first mission since… well, since Miles Morales from earth-1610 came in and single-handedly caused the collapse of the Spider Society as everyone knew it.

Which wasn’t really a bad thing in the end, but it did mean that poor Jess had to step up as the leader shortly after Miguel was forcibly dethroned.

“I’m the interim leader right now,” she would say to anyone who called her “boss” or “CEO” or any variation of the word. The poor woman already had enough on her plate as it was with a newborn and a new family life to tend to, so Gwen understood 100%.

It was also why the pressure was on her shoulders to complete this one tiny, manageable task that was given to her.

Gwen wasn’t stupid. She knew she was on a sort of probationary period after her first blunder on earth-1610. And the fact that she turned her back on the Society to break a couple of rules, help Miles, save the multiverse... well, all of that didn't help matters much.

She ignored the looks cast her way every now and then by other Spiders when visiting HQ, but she knew. She tallied up those glances whether anyone knew of it or not.

But then there was also the stupid feeling of… sentimentality hanging in the air, keeping her chained to the Society when most of her other Spider friends had already abandoned the group.

Yeah, her relationship with her father was… repaired, for the most part. But damn it if she didn’t take a liking to Jessica Drew, too! Sue her.

So here she was, on a mission to visit earth-42 and investigate an anomaly that seemed to threaten the very fabric of space and time. Again.

Gwen was already starting to regret her very dumb, not-very-well-thought out decision to volunteer for this one, though.

No time to complain right now though. We’ve got a problem to solve, Gwen mused, forcing her annoyance, frustration, and panic deep down for the moment.

Her aching brain switched over to Work Mode once again, and she immediately slid into compartmentalizing and sorting every bit of detail that she could manage to remember in the present moment.

Her head was bleeding and throbbing, which meant she sustained a brain injury of some kind. She wobbled unsteadily to her feet, wiggling them and checking on her balance. Her head complained louder, but she seemed to be able to walk just fine.

Okay. Good. It wasn’t a bad injury-- and if it was, it seemed her enhanced healing factor already took care of the majority of it in her sleep.

Alright, time to examine her surroundings now.

While she did so, she found it pretty irritating that while her injury didn’t put her out of commission, it seemed to wipe her entire short-term memory instead.

She eventually sat down on a crate in the corner of the room that she was imprisoned in and with her head in her hands, started sorting even harder through her mental files.

… Nothing.

Well, nothing past the memory of flying through the designated portal she opened back in Jess’s office shortly after receiving her mission assignment. And then landing on top of a familiar-but-not-so-familiar building on earth-42's Brooklyn.

She vaguely remembered the late evening sunset, almost choked out by the various plumes of smoke reaching up to the heavens from the fires that still raged on in parts of the city.

... And then? Nothing else.

Gwen remembered how it was like when earth-1610’s Miles-- her Miles-- ended up in this strange world for the first time, a time that seemed like it was eons ago to Gwen, but couldn’t have been more than a few months ago. The fires were much more numerous, news helicopters everywhere and crime seemingly never-ending.

She couldn’t speak on the crime rates per se, but the place looked a little bit less like the mess she and her Spider Band stumbled into at first.

She distinctly remembered thinking to herself-- before swinging down and heading towards the reports of the anomalies-- that she was glad that the Prowlers seemed to get some things under control. If it was them battling the crime in the first place, that is.

But now there was no time for such thoughts. Wherever the Prowlers happened to be now, they were most likely nowhere near her location. Calling Miles-42 up on her watch would be… distasteful, especially this early in the game.

Especially when she had no idea if he was even available or not. Hm. Maybe she should’ve let Jess ping him and let him know of her arrival as per the usual protocol, but. Oh well.

Too late for that now.

So she stood up again, massaged her shoulder and rolled her neck, and blinked the stars out of her eyes. Time to get to work, for real this time.

She eventually happened upon a door that seemed to lead to the outside, which was really well-hidden against the four walls that enclosed her inside.

The room she was held in wasn’t very big, but it was dark. There was only one tiny little window high up near the ceiling that offered a glimpse up into the night sky beyond.

So it was well past sunset… better than not knowing anything at all, right?

The exit was seemingly hard to get out of, unfortunately. Try as she might, Gwen’s strength alone couldn’t get the giant metal door open. She pushed and pulled on the edges, tried sliding it left and right, tried kicking at it. It didn’t budge.

Whoever trapped her in this… storage closet seemed to know exactly what they were doing, who they were dealing with… whoever they happened to be.

Sinister laughing echoed in the back of her mind as she recalled her run-in with the bad guy but… couldn’t for the life of her remember who he was! So frustrating!

Still, this was earth-42. The baddie could’ve been anyone at all, anyone from the Sinister Six Cartel that she knew still held power on the streets here.

Even with their power slowly slipping from their collective grasps, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that one of those assholes still owned a high-security compound out in the middle of nowhere. It also wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for one of them to have enough tranquilizers to knock out ten elephants, and use that drug on her to drag her out here.

For all Gwen knew, she was probably miles and miles away from Brooklyn, too. Just great.

No time to despair. Time to concentrate.

Okay, so she couldn’t really get past this gigantic metal door that seemed to be made of some titanium alloy or whatever. That left the small space up high on the wall that probably served as ventilation for the room, only sporting thick metal bars to prevent things from getting in… or out.

Gwen quickly scaled the wall and eyed the dimensions of the space before deciding that if she got the metal grating off of the concrete wall, she might be able to squeeze her shoulders through and possibly achieve freedom.

Assuming as well, of course, that the security in this building was easy to get past.

But she would rather take her chances with evil police-drones and bumbling goons than sit another minute in this prison waiting to see who exactly captured her.

Gwen got to work, using her super-strength to painstakingly detach the grates corner by corner, trying to stay as quiet as possible. She bent a few bars in the process, but what was a little property damage to a Spiderperson? No big deal.

If the bad guy who kidnapped me wanted his compound to be spotless and damage-free, he shouldn’t have kidnapped me in the first place, Gwen reasoned.

After what felt like hours, the grating was off. She was free! Now all she had to do was--

Gwen’s heart almost leaped out of her throat and into her mask when glowing purple and white eyes suddenly came into view. They narrowed into slits.

“Jesus Chr--!!! What the…” her brain fully booted up this time, taking a second to stare right back into the glowing eyes of...

“Miles?” She gasped, once it hit her.

The glowing eyes blinked once before finally nodding at her. He raised a metal claw to his mask’s mouth in a universally-recognizable gesture.

Shhhhh.

Gwen’s own giant white eyes blinked back at him before shifting out of the way to allow Miles to extend a begauntleted arm into the room through the window and shoot out… something.

A spark of purple lit the room up, and shortly after, a clattering of glass and plastic resonated through the room before the place fell deathly quiet once more.

“There was a camera in there with you, most likely recording audio, too,” Miles offered as an explanation.

“… Oh. Well, thanks.” Gwen said awkwardly.

So she was wrong. Somehow, in the middle of the night in this odd prison she woke up in, Miles Morales happened to find her anyhow.

She wasn’t used to… this other Miles, and they hadn’t spoken much after their first meeting months ago.

He would join the Spider Band on their own missions sparingly. As far as she knew, only 1610’s Miles hung out with him with any sort of regularity. The kid was a complete mystery to everyone else otherwise, and whenever he was brought up around 1610, the topic was usually brushed off as casually as possible.

Gwen had no clue why 42’s Miles didn’t seem to take a liking to any of the members of their little motley crew. She figured he probably had a hard time keeping up with super-powered heroes and just left it at that, even though from what she could see of their encounters-- however far and few between they were-- the kid seemed to have talent. He was able to keep up with them on most days without barely breaking a sweat.

So all in all, a total mystery to her. Even if this guy shared the same face as her best friend and ally Miles Morales, he... moved differently. Acted differently. Like Miles Morales, but in a different font.

He started to shimmy his shoulders into the room to get past the tight constraints of the window. Gwen stared at him with a cocked head the entire time.

He used his sneakers to cling onto the wall for a little bit, reaching right back out of the window once inside. He pulled in a backpack through the opening and promptly dropped down onto the cold hard floor of the room.

“Uh, hi? Wait. Weren’t we supposed to both escape through that window instead of you, y��know, coming inside?”

Miles-- well, 42--shook his head as he threw his pack back on in one swift motion. “I checked the perimeters, and we’re a long, long ways away from the city. Even if we managed to get past the millions of goons and cameras everywhere, they got dogs doing night shifts out in the woods.”

Gwen’s heart sank. Shit. Her earlier thoughts were coming true. They were far away from Brooklyn, which complicated their escape plans even more.

“I mean… ugh, I-- we can climb the trees! Right? If we just--”

“The guards, Gwen. They got guns loaded up with bullets. But you know what I got? A plan.”

Gwen blinked back at 42 yet again. “You do?”

42 took confident steps back as he put some distance between them and then triple-tapped the side of his mechanical mask. Gwen watched with awe as the front of the mask sectioned itself up and off of his head, revealing a laser-focused expression on Miles’ handsome face-- er, his regular, normal, totally-not-good-looking face!

From somewhere on his mask, a bright purple hologram was projected between them, suspended in mid-air. The lights cast the entire room in a hazy purple glow.

The hologram projected a 3D blueprint-like map of the entire building-- all 5 stories of it. Each floor was meticulously detailed, down to the various entrances and exits and relative dimensions of the many, many rooms the building held.

42 tapped his mask again, this time on the chin, and a maze-like structure materialized, all of it hovering on top of each other and weaving themselves in between the floors… a maze-like structure that seemed very, very familiar.

“Vents!” Gwen snapped her fingers once she recognized them. “You have the blueprints of all the ventilation shafts in the building!”

42 nodded, the projection bobbing along with his movements. “Yeah, I do. I’m a Prowler, right? We always stay prepared.”

Gwen squinted at him. “I guess...? How’d you get stuck in this place if you’re always prepared, then? Did you get kidnapped too?”

“Nah,” 42 answered easily, a corner of his mouth quirking up for a split second, “I followed you here.”

Gwen blinked at him for what seemed to be the umpteenth time. "What."

42 sighed. “You got knocked out by this dimension’s Doctor Octopus. He threw you into the back of a van and ordered his goon squad to bring you back up here, to a secret location he’s got surrounded by energy dampeners and signal blockers. Most likely? He knows you’re not from this dimension and wants to experiment on you. But me? I’m here ‘cause me and my uncle have been lookin’ for this place for months. It’s… top-secret, this compound. Classified.”

“Oh. How did… how did you know he’d bring me to the place you and your uncle have been looking for this whole time? What if he brought me to another building?”

42 smirked, the purple lights of the holograms twinkling in his eyes. “Doc’s assets are being… uh, slowly compromised by us with the underground resistance. Not many places for him to throw his unwilling science experiments into nowadays.”

So it wasn’t just Gwen’s imagination. This dimension really has been steadily cleaned up by the Prowlers and their freedom-fighting allies. Well, that was good to hear. Still didn’t provide much relief for their current situation considering this was Doctor Octopus they were talking about here, but it was still nice to know.

“Well. That’s great to hear, then. What’s the rest of your plan, after ducking out of here through the vents?”

42’s mask re-formed back onto his face and the glowing purple and white eyes came back online. “We’re not ducking through the vents. Well, yet. I came here on my own mission and I gotta complete it before leaving.”

Gwen sighed softly. “Which would be...?”

Getting the whole story out of this version of Miles was like pulling teeth! Was it always going to be like this? Because if so, this wasn’t going to be a very easy mission to pull off after all.

“I can get you out of here first, if you want,” 42 glowered at her, voice distorting behind his mask’s voice-changing technology. His tone seemed impatient, too. “I can stay behind ‘til I’m done.”

Gwen shifted her weight onto one leg. “No, not a chance. I have to stay here and make sure Doc Ock doesn’t turn you into minced meat. Plus, you’re the one who has all the blueprints and cool glowing tech thingies. I’m sticking with you until we can both get out of here!”

This seemed to satisfy 42, because he gave her one unreadable nod in her direction. “… If you’re sure, then let’s go.”

He moved swiftly, much more gracefully than Gwen was used to seeing a Miles move. He walked almost silently, crouching down near one side of the wide metal sliding door thing that Gwen was trying to unsuccessfully pry open earlier.

He reached back into his gear that was saddled on his back and pulled out what seemed to be a small metal object with tiny purple lights on the outer edge. It attached itself onto the door and then 42 was sliding a hidden panel that Gwen had completely missed.

Gwen eventually sidled up to him and clasped her hands behind her back. “I see we’re sticking real well to the branding here. Purple lights, purple holograms… very cool,” was her lame attempt at lightening the mood.

“Yeah, it’s a family thing,” 42 muttered as he worked on… what seemed like some electrical circuitry built into the door. It glowed a soft green. “Been passed down for a couple of generations.”

Gwen hummed. “Oh, I see.”

A beat of silence as 42 continued his work.

Gwen checked her watch once more as she leaned on a wall. “Soooo… should I be doing something while you… y’know…?”

“Yeah, you should be quiet.” 42 answered.

“Ouch.” Gwen replied back as flatly as she could. “Look. I don’t wanna step all on your toes or anything while you do this whole… Prowling thing, but we’re a two-man team here! I’m at the very least trying to make conversation,”

“Okay, sure,” 42 replied easily, never taking his eyes off of his task. “Why are you in my dimension in the first place? Since you like to talk so much, maybe you can tell me that.”

Gwen sighed loudly. Great. Here she was trapped in a bad guy’s compound in the middle of who-knows-where, with the meanest Miles in the entirety of the multiverse. Just her luck.

“I was sent here on a mission. By Jessica. You know, the other other Spiderwoman? Who’s now in charge of the Spider Society, by the way? Yeah, we detected anomalies here in this dimension and she sent me to check it out. But… well, I kinda already screwed that up so I guess I can go and kiss my Society membership goodbye for good this time. Happy?”

42 glanced up at her then, his mask as unreadable as ever, the darkness enshrouding much of his body language. He slowly stood up and backed up, silently gazing at Gwen all the while.

She stood there glaring at him with her arms crossed.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m happy.” 42 finally replied coolly. “Now keep quiet, we don’t know if there are guards out here on patrol. My mask is still calibrating its infrared heat sensors so I can’t see ‘em yet.”

Infrared heat sensors? God, is this kid packed to the teeth with high-tech spy gadgetry or what?

Gwen begrudgingly did as she was told, taking a couple of steps back as 42 lowered the brightness of his mask’s glow.

The door rumbled open with a mechanic hum, and that’s when it hit her; Gwen couldn’t have possibly gotten the door open by herself, because it wasn’t just locked… it was hooked up to a main power source and sealed that way.

Damn. Looks like she really did need to rely on this guy to escape this place, after all.

Well then.

They poked their heads out of the dark room and quietly surveyed the expansive maze-like hallways of the compound. Pipes running the entire length of the ceiling as far as they could see told them both everything they needed to know.

42 took a quick step back to update his mask’s digital blueprint and map out exactly where they were.

Gwen glanced back at him. “What’re you doing now?”

“I'm marking where we are...” He then drops his voice to a near whisper, eyes still methodically scanning the area around them. "This compound's built into the side of a steep hill, which is how I climbed in. We must be on the north side, then."

He tapped his mechanical claws on the tip of his chin and started thinking aloud. “Which means… what I’m lookin’ for has to be underneath the ground, towards the south. I’m lookin’ for a room not on the blueprints. And... and I think I know exactly where to start.”

“You think you know? I thought you had a plan!”

“I do,” 42 threw back. “An escape plan. But you’re stickin’ with me, so now we’re gonna do some Prowlering. Unless you changed your mind?”

Oh, right. This game. Well, this kid wasn’t getting rid of her that easily, that was for sure.

“Oh no, no. Just making sure you’re capable of getting out of here, is all,” she offered innocently.

42 might’ve rolled his eyes behind his mask, but it was hard to tell.

Together, they moved through the halls as silently as possible, straining their ears for any sign of human life-- or robot life, really-- as they quickly made their way down several wide corridors.

All of the halls started blurring together since they all looked completely identical to Gwen, save for the numbers on the various doors they passed by changing and getting smaller as they advanced.

After several minutes had passed, Gwen wanted to open her mouth and ask 42 where exactly they were heading to since it didn’t seem like their trip was even coming anywhere close to an end, when he suddenly grabbed her and pulled her around a corner they had just walked past seconds earlier.

Gwen made a slight noise of confusion and then sucked in a breath when the sound of metal clanging and machines whirring echoed all around them. 42 was closest to the corner, head turned over to where she suspected the intruders were coming from.

Sure enough, a pair of heavy work boots stamped gracelessly down the halls and the casual back-and-forth between the men that suddenly came into view could be heard more clearly.

“… Can’t believe he’s got us down here working doubles now, man! Sucks,” one of the men grumbled as they made their way past the two vigilantes and opened yet another giant metal door with a keycard.

Gwen’s vision zeroed in on it as the man reached behind him to tuck it back into his pocket, and her split-second reflexes allowed her to time her web just right.

She snagged the card and held a breath as the door whirred shut right behind the men, both of them none the wiser.

“Whew,” she said after a second of tense waiting, and smirked at 42 who held a metal claw out for the keycard. “Look who’s got a plan now! Aren't you glad I stuck around?”

42 chuckled, the sound warbling slightly under his voice modulator. “Yeah, that was pretty cool. I can admit that. Now that we got this, we might be able to use it to get into the room I wanna get into once we find it.”

“Right,” Gwen pipes up once they continue their descent deeper into the bowels of the compound, “about that. You never told me what it is that you came here to find. In fact, you’ve been pretty cagey this entire time. Like, about everything.”

42 made an undecipherable sound. “Uh, yeah. This is my recon mission, not yours. You’re not even from this dimension, this doesn’t really concern you.”

Gwen grunted. “Gee thanks. If that’s how you feel, then I’ll be having my keycard back!”

42 shook his head and laughed. “I didn’t mean it like that, man. I meant… just don’t worry about it. It’s info we’re looking for to eventually take down Doc Ock. If I said it out loud here, it might jeopardize this whole thing me and Aaron have planned. I'm in work mode right now, I'm sure you get it,”

Gwen relaxed a bit more. In a way, she did get it. She even understood 42’s hesitance to have her aboard to work with him, since working on group projects wasn't exactly on her own list of top ten favorite things… especially when the project itself concerned the very fabric of the space-time continuum.

Gwen was a solo hero, and maybe since 42 was here on his own, he finally graduated into being a solo hero, too.

Actually, on that topic…

“Does your… does your uncle know you’re here, then? If he does, maybe he can help us get out of here?”

42 helped himself to a healthy pause. “Yes, and no. Aaron’s not… here, near the compound. But he does know I’m out on a mission.”

Gwen stared at him. “Sooo… call him? I’m sure he can get past security, right?”

42 laughed yet again, shaking his head. “Guess you didn’t hear me back in the other room when I told you there are blockers all over this compound, huh.”

Gwen cocked an eyebrow at him and their lenses met.

“What I mean is,” 42 continues, “tech down here doesn’t work very well due to all the interference the Doc’s put up to conceal this place. Again, top secret. Super classified. My own mask took a little while to come back online, and some stuff is still… coming back online. Kinda."

“And your communicators wouldn’t happen to also be on the fritz, would they?” Gwen asked, fully knowing the answer she was going to get.

“Mmnnyep, communicator’s offline. I dunno what the hell Doc’s got this place running on, but it’s not electricity. I’m not too concerned about the details, though,”

Here, they came up to a wide metal door marked in bright caution-tape stripes with several warnings plastered on its surface.

“... ’Cause I got my eyes on the prize,” 42 finished, swaggering up to the door’s keycard panel and successfully getting the thing to slide open.

They both fell into fighting stances in case anything behind the door leapt out at them and attacked, but… there was no one and nothing in the spacious cave-like room beyond it.

Nothing except… a humongous collider!

Gwen gasped as she lowered her fists and advanced forward, making her way over thick wires and past computers to get closer to the giant dimension-ripping machine in the center of the room.

It looked… not quite as high-tech as the one in her dimension, or Miles’-- er, 1610’s collider, that is-- but it was completely unmistakable. The form never changes, neither through space nor through time. It was indeed a collider built by none other than the infamous Doctor Octopus, even if it didn’t quite look as close to being complete.

There were still various wires draped on ladders near the edge of the lab, scissor-lifts located below the platforms parked for the night, and several components were missing that seemed to lay underneath odd-looking bulgy sheets on top of several tables nearby. Gwen made her way over to a computer and woke it up, balking at the password-locked screen in front of her eyes.

Damnit. Damnit! It wasn’t just an anomaly that the Society managed to detect… it was the energy signals from this collider, most likely having gone through some initial tests before advancing to this final stage of construction.

If this was it, then Gwen needed to get back to Jess with this information ASAP!

She fiddled with her watch a bit, but it still looked to be on the fritz somehow, not letting her switch to any other dimension or access the other features Hobie had installed into it. Weird.

She straightened up and glanced behind her, hoping that 42 had some kind of tech or knowledge that would help crack this computer open so she could take a look through the files to gauge just how far along this little pet project was… only to find that she was alone.

... Alone?

"Miles?"

Silence. Her heart jumpstarted a bit and started hammering away in her chest as she hurriedly made her way past rows of tables, science equipment, and computer screens of all sizes, only to find a pair of legs sticking out from underneath a weird car-shaped machine set aside in the corner of the gigantic lab.

She stood there for a bit with her hands on her hips, quieting her thoughts and watching as 42 tinkered away at whatever the hell he was tinkering away at.

She eventually kicked a purple Jordan gently and smiled bemusedly at 42 shuffling his way out from under the machine.

“Having fun down there?” She said as casually as she could manage.

42’s mask was off slightly, still framing his face, but now Gwen could see his slightly exasperated expression in full view.

“Yeah, actually, I was.” He gave her a full view of his snarky attitude too, while he was at it.

He laid back down and pushed his way underneath once more.

“Is this gigantic collider in the middle of this room not a huge concern to you at all?”

“Not really.” 42 answered from under the machine.

“Can I ask why? You do know that if the Octopus gets this thing done and booted up, that your entire dimension is at risk of collapsing just like every other dimension that’s had a collider in it before?”

“Really? Ya don't say,” 42 replied sarcastically, clinking and clanking away. The machine rattled a bit. “That’s nowhere near done right now and I gotta prioritize my priorities. I’m getting to root cause of the problem rather than just climbing in here and smashing stuff up.”

“… Are you now?” Gwen deadpanned.

A mighty metallic scraping sound jolted its way through her eardrums suddenly, making Gwen jump slightly. After a second or two, 42 slides out once again with a big sunny grin plastered onto his face, holding up what looks like a small motherboard with a bunch of metal wires still attached to the metal casing it was screwed into. He only wore one gauntlet, she noted.

He quickly took his pack off and got to work inlaying the computer part into a panel in his pack that she had never noticed before.

A total tech marvel that thing was, really. Even Gwen had to make a noise of approval when with a few purposeful jabs and swipes, the whole pack disengaged and unfolded itself open, much like his mask. No tools required.

He made quick work of the task at hand, using one metal gauntlet as a makeshift toolset, his other gloved hand working to set the entire component into the rest of the pack’s inner workings.

Once that seemed to be done, all of the circuitry glowed purple for a beat before going dark once more. 42 tapped at his gauntlet, bringing up more info on the inside of his wrist, which he seemed to approve of.

“All set?” Gwen probed, still standing a little ways away from him, watching as he seemed completely engrossed in his little side-mission.

He reached back under the machine and pulled out his other gauntlet, springing back up once it was in his hands.

“Yeah. Better than all set, ‘cause now my pack’s online! I can use my climbing gear again.” At this, 42 unlatches a reel of rope from behind him, his grappling hook dangling on one end as he swings it in circular motions through the air. “Hell yeah,”

Gwen stared at him once again. “Your climbing gear wasn’t working? How did you climb into my window, then?”

42 gave her a bit of side-eye. "I got other gear besides my rope, you know that, right?"

Gwen huffed, clearly annoyed. "No, actually I don't. I've been following you this whole time and you haven't really been saying much at all,"

42’s mask slid back into place as he rolled his shoulders and readjusted his pack. “You ask too many questions,”

“You don’t provide too many answers,” Gwen bit out dryly. “Seriously, dude, we are in the middle of giant evil lair of some kind with no way to communicate with the outside world and you’re swaggering through this whole ordeal like it’s a walk in the park,” she huffs. “Why can’t you just tell me like, anything?”

They’re both face-to-face now, mask-to-mask, very obviously frustrated with each other if the electricity in the air was as thick as it felt.

Two teenagers butting heads in the middle of a giant lab, trapped in the lair of their greatest enemy… it would embarrassing if it wasn’t so absurd, but here they were, glaring each other down anyways.

“I am telling you things, you just don’t listen! Probably ‘cause you think your powers make you all-powerful and omniscient or something, that you think you don't need to listen to a word I'm saying,” 42’s words dripped with venom. “Seriously, staying with me to make sure I don’t get myself killed? Gimme a damn break. If sticking with me is soooo boring and you know more than I do, you can get yourself up out of here, then.”

Gwen bristled. “Listen here, jerk. I never said that I was better than you. Kinda telling on yourself there, don'tcha think?” She jabbed a finger in his direction. “I was perfectly capable of letting myself out before you fell in here and got us all turned around! I had it on my own, I could've gotten myself out of here ages ago!"

“And who’s stopping you?” 42 threw his hands up in the air. “Use your little spider powers to bust up out of here, and just leave!"

Gwen stepped back, seething. With fists clenched by her sides, she shoots 42 more daggers his way, hoping her mask’s lenses would convey the message.

Wordlessly, she turns around and shoots a web up to one of the ventilation grates high up in the cavernous room, sticking to the wall.

She works the grating off while 42’s Jordans pace right out of the room and into another side room, leaving the lab completely silent.

Fine. If that was how things were going to be, then fine. This was hardly the worst situation Gwen’s ever found herself in, and it most likely wasn't going to be over anytime soon. But she’s gotten herself out of stickier conundrums on her own, so this was just going to be yet another one of life’s little tests. Just a bump in the road.

A small, insignificant little bump.

As Gwen quietly seethed and crawled her way through the ventilation shafts (completely blindly, since she didn’t really bother to memorize the absolute maze that was whatever 42 showed her earlier) she came upon a vent opening that overlooked a room filled with monitors and… guards.

It looked to be a security room not too far from the collider room, and the men inside were armored to the teeth, only slipping off their helmets and masks to chat some shit over takeout containers and coffee cups.

The rest of the room was covered in tv monitors that showed various different CCTV camera feeds, all of them stationary. Most of them were pointing to the outside, though, hardly any of the screens showed views from the basement level’s numerous corridors, curiously enough.

Gwen doubted 42’s earlier claim that this building ran on some other form of power, since she didn’t think it would be very economic on the Octopus’ wallet to buy so many cameras and monitors and computers that ran on alternate power sources.

Maybe… if he was wrong… then maybe she could even use her watch to open up a portal in an empty room somewhere and just peace out!

Tell Jess what she found, because by now she’d pretty much done her job. Leave the rest to a more capable task force put together by the Society and just go back to her normal, boring, definitely not eventful life.

But then… as tempting as the thought was… she’d be leaving 42 behind. 42, sure, but a Miles nonetheless… a friend.

From what she could gather, the poor guy had very few friends, if any at all. If he wasn’t communicating to her properly, maybe isolation from his vigilante work was to blame, rather than a fault of his character.

Gwen propped up her chin in one hand and ruminated on all of these thoughts, arguing with herself over whether she should stay or go. She glanced at her cobbled-up watch, a permanent reminder of her best friend Hobie Brown, and laid on her back to mess with it one more time.

Her thoughts sunk down into the bottom of her stomach as she fiddled with it, continuing to get error messages as she tried to scroll through the various dimensions she knows she’s saved to her little watch, coming up with nothing even when she dared to try and open a portal in the middle of the vent shaft.

Nothing, nada. No dice. No portal whatsoever happened to materialize. It gave small sad beeps instead, really hammering home that… she really was on her own this time.

Damn.

Gwen didn’t know why, but this thought kind of depressed her.

At least on previous missions and patrols in her dimension, she was always acutely aware of how much rested on her own shoulders. She always went in with confidence and some sort of game plan, content enough to just let her quick thinking and powers get her out of any fight, any problem.

But ever since landing here on earth-42, she seemed… discombobulated, not entirely in her element. Everything in this dimension seemed to work against her at every single turn.

She’d have to bring that up to the other Spiders, ask if they’ve ever felt anything like she was feeling before.

If she could get out of this building in the first place, that is…

A loud, jarring alarm jolted her violently out of her wandering thoughts, and she almost hit her head on the ceiling of the vent, rolling over quickly to peer down into the room below her.

The guards were pulling helmets and masks on, scrambling up from their previous positions and pouring out of the security room door as quickly as they could.

In the midst of the sudden chaos, Gwen’s wide eyes honed in on one particular screen, which was pointed directly at the collider room’s interior…

... And directly at earth-42’s Miles Morales himself.

[idowhatiwantspock]

The night before my wedding I slept over at my Person of HONOUR's place with her and her wife.

Her wife had set up a beautiful little display for my arrival and joined us after her show was done for the evening.

We worked on last minute art tasks, and I wrote down my vows

(definitely made my fingers cramp but so worth it for the ceremony)

We ate snacks and smoked together outside and I helped them finish painting a bench for their dining table. It was such a relaxing and love filled evening after a busy afternoon and before an early rise and loooooong day.

Woke up at 8 a.m. for one last pick up that required my signature and then back for a bath and some breakfast before heading out late to go to the venue.

My (now) husband got a migraine after dinner the night before so their morning, while as early as mine, was much less pleasant and consisted of hugging a fancy hotel toilet bowl, lots of different liquids, and a long nap before also heading to the venue late.

When we got to the space I immediately got to work helping set up and do last minute tasks and delegation. Took zero photos, that's why we hired a photographer.

The ceremony started almost an hour late but Elliot was feeling much better and all of our guests were happy to listen to the amazing pianist play while they waited.

Photos were a little rushed and I got the most anxious I had felt all day after waking up the calmest and most certain I've ever felt. But communicated really clearly and we got to the reception only about half an hour late!

The cake cut and first dance were quiet and very well documented by everyone around us. And I grabbed the instax camera Elliot had got for the wedding and started taking photos of as many guests as possible. We now have a STACK of photos to enjoy while we wait for the professional ones to be edited.

We stayed till the very end of the evening and I barely helped with clean up because they were doing so well without me. I felt a little lost but in such a supported way.

We got a ride home and spent a lovely grounding moment with Elliot's sister and boyfriend before staying up way too late unpacking and re hanging our bedroom art and looking at the unexpected number of gifts and cards we received.

We slept till the afternoon and had a slow day with some friends who dropped off an apple pie for us (and an early birthday gift for me) had a much needed, very hot, bath for our aching joints. And finished out the evening by watching Pride and Prejudice (2005) which I love and my husband had never seen.

I feel so incredibly lucky and so excited for this next chapter of our relationship.

Tomorrow two of my boyfriends are marrying each other and on Wednesday Elliot and I leave for our honeymoon! I am so looking forward to resting on the west coast with them after such a busy last few months.

[lostusagis]

''Mui. . . . . ?'' When she referred to him as that, he could only look at her with confusion, not realizing it was a nickname she used for him. Kamui assumed it was his actual name, since he hadn't known otherwise. The only thing he knew so far about himself was that it was painful being under the sun for too long, he hadn't been aware for just how long he was knocked out. The whole time he spoke to this woman, nothing came to mind in regards to her. At the very least, he was grateful he seemed to have stumbled upon someone who knew him. Which was a relief.

The thought of being alone seemed to persistently bring about anxiety, but this helped settle it. Plus, she seemed fond of him.

''Namida. . . .?'' The name rung no bells at all. Kamui would only tilt his head with a frown. Then his head would shake, ''I don't remember, I'm sorry.''

He really wished he remembered her. She seemed distraught over his memory loss, which made him curious as to their relationship. Then she showed him her bracelet, and put it next to the one on his wrist. Kamui hadn't even noticed it until now.

''So. . . we were best friends. . . .'' The melancholy was truly seeping from his features, and his words. It seemed wrong to not remember her. Yet, he was unable to control that. He wanted to remember so badly. A solemn sigh leaves him.

''. . . . . I really wish I could remember you. I'm really sorry, Namida.'' Frustration ensues, dreading this situation he's found himself in.

This was frightening. He really hoped his memories returned. But this woman expressed such kindness towards him, reassuring him that she'd help him. Although, he couldn't help the discomfort when Namida took his hand. She was kind, but he still didn't know her. It was weird and uncomfortable having his hand held by her. Kamui hadn't spoke up about it at first since she was bringing him to meet his sister. He was curious on what kind of family he had. When they did arrive at the place Kagura lived, Kamui ends up retrieving his hand from her grasp. The discomfort was all over his face. Then he'd look over at the person he assumed was his sister.

''Eh. . . . ?'' She had just woke up from a nap, only to hear the bomb her friend just dropped when visiting with her brother.

''He what?'' When she stopped rubbing her tired eyes, Kagura gave her brother a weird look. Maybe those two were playing a practical joke on her, adults could be cruel after all. She'd go up to her older brother, hands on her hips when looking up at him.

''You better not be messing with me baldy.''

That insult usually always pissed him off no matter what, so she'd wait to see his reaction. Kamui only blinked in confusion at her. He also wasn't annoyingly talkative either.

''Woah, okay. . . . you were serious. Sorry for doubting you.'' She awkwardly rubs the back of her head, trying to figure out what to do. This has never happened before to either of them. They were Yato too, so it was pretty hard to injure their heads enough to trigger amnesia.

''I'm at least glad to know I have a sister as cute as you though.'' Hearing that come from her brother of all people left a shocked look on her face, which immediately warped into disgust.

''Be quiet.'' She was used to him calling her ugly, not. . . . that. Yikes. Kagura had to clutch her head, this was giving her a migraine.

''The last thing I remember was us talking yesterday, Kamui was in a really pissed off mood and said he was going somewhere to deal with something. He didn't tell me any details though.'' Kagura wish she knew what happened, maybe that could help in getting his memory back. For now, she'll figure out other alternatives. She brought her brother to sit with her on the sofa, then pulled out her phone.

''Look Kamui, these are pictures from the first time we hung out together after everything that happened.'' Kagura scrolled through her photo gallery, showing various pictures the two of them took together.

''Oh yeah. . .'' She lifted up her phone to show the rabbit charm on the bottom, ''We also got matching charms too, that day you took me to an arcade, that was the only thing we were able to get despite all the tickets we won.''

Kagura would watch his reaction, but he still expressed confusion. Then she tried another idea. She swiped on her phone over to a picture her, Namida and him all took together which had the bunny filter included too.

''Don't you remember this? We got into a fight that day because you kept saying mean things and the first photo we took came out super blurry.'' Kagura looked at him with a desperate, yet hopeful gaze.

''Wow, I must have been a really horrible brother.'' He looked really sad when saying that, which made Kagura swallow thickly.

''That's. . . . . .That's not. . .'' She struggled to finish her words, chewing on her bottom lip. He used to be an asshole brother, but he really changed a lot, she couldn't say he was a bad brother and actually mean it.

Kagura ends up burying her face into her hands after placing her phone back into her pocket, ''What the hell. . . Who was even able to hurt him enough that he ended up like this? I'm going to give THEM amnesia when I find out who they are. I hate this.''

             ❝ 𝑶𝒏𝒆. 𝑻𝒘𝒐 𝒂𝒂𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒏𝒅... 𝑼𝒉-𝒐𝒉. 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒊- 𝑶𝒉! 𝑷𝒉𝒆𝒘~ 𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆. ❞ Namida had been counting for three specific mochi doughnuts in separate boxes within her grocery bag. One matcha flavored for Namida, one strawberry flavored for Kamui and one pickled flavored for Kagura. It was unusual seeing that last one, but then again she HAS seen pickled mochi ice cream before. Kagura sure likes strong flavors like her favorite Sukonbu snack. Namida wasn't sure if Kamui would be visiting her today, but she bought a mochi doughnut for him anyways. If it turns out he wasn't there, she'd just save it for him. She knows how much he loves strawberry. She couldn't help but to buy it for him when she saw it at the store. 𝐇𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝. Like. There were other snacks and candy in her grocery bag that they could share together too. Namida beamed a smile down at her goodies, at the thought of them spending time together, she hadn't noticed there was someone walking towards her who looked just as distracted. ❝ 𝑨𝒉! ❞ They bump into each other, but the collision had no effect on the person compared to Namida who had fallen on her butt. Some of the snacks in her bag peeking out.

             Wincing a bit in mild pain, she looks up at the person and... ❝ 𝑴𝒖𝒊𝒊𝒊𝒊𝒊𝒊~! ♡ ❞ It's her favorite person: Kamui! Her grin shining as bright as the sun because of him, she giggles as she excitedly takes his offered hand. He was speaking to her like a really polite gentleman; as if she were some stranger. She thought it was funny. Was he trying to be playful? ❝ 𝑬𝒉𝒆𝒉𝒆𝒉~! 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏~! ❞ Namida replies back with an exaggerated lady-like voice as she stood up straight again. She even curtsies for him; as if it were the old times. Her day just got so much better seeing him. Before she continued to converse with him about how she got him a strawberry mochi doughnut, she takes a quick look at her grocery bag that's hanging from her arm; digging her hand inside to make sure everything was still in there and wasn't on the ground. When she turns back to look at him, she noticed he was quiet for a moment. 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐝𝐚𝐳𝐞. She blinks at him a few times curiously, before eventually her cheeks slowly increase in saturation; becoming pink. Sometimes he'll give her this enamored look and it'd make her feel embarrassed. His expression was similar, but more so like there was something on her face. A hand brushing her black and pink bangs in case perhaps the fall she took messed up some strands. Her eyes shyly switching between him and the passersby. ❝ .... 𝑬-𝑬𝒓𝒓... 𝑫-𝑫𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒊𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒐𝒌𝒂𝒚? ❞ However, what he says next left her dumbfounded. He doesn't remember? What's he talking about? Namida's face washed blank with confusion. Every muscle of her body just froze; unable to compute with what's happening. It takes some time for her brain to find the words to adequately express what she's feeling right now. ❝ ...... 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕?... ❞ There was the idea of laughing it off with a "haha stop messing with me," thinking he's joking with her, but it isn't like Kamui to make up something like this to her so out of pocket. Those beautiful sapphire eyes of his gazing at her with nothing but unabashed honesty... Namida can tell he was being genuine. That's how he always is with her. Always. Of course she'd be able to tell that much. She's his best friend. A friend who... loves him so, so very much.

             Her heart felt like it sank the more he spoke. She stares at him with a shock that registers on her face before she could even realize. He's being serious she almost couldn't believe it. Her distress was suspended for a second, the shock protecting her feelings on the matter, until it shattered like glass. ❝ 𝑲-𝑲𝒂𝒎𝒖𝒊?... 𝑰-𝑰𝒕❜𝒔 𝒎𝒆. 𝑵𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒅𝒂. 𝑵𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒅𝒂 𝑺𝒂𝒌𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒖𝒄𝒉𝒊. 𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖... 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒆? ❞ There was desperation in her shaking voice. How did this happen? What happened to Kamui? Did he get himself too injured on the head? Worry over his wellbeing kept building up higher and higher. She's aware he likes fighting strong people, but... 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐊𝐚𝐦𝐮𝐢?! When she finds out who it is, they won't get away with what they did to her most precious person! Ugly dark thoughts blossom from the garden called Love. The anger was starting to boil, clenching her teeth, but she wanted to focus on helping him in any way she can right now. Her heart racing in a panicked state. Honestly? She felt like she could cry any second, but she didn't want to give up. She wanted to stay strong. She NEEDS to stay strong. For him. ❝ 𝑹-𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔? ❞ She raises her wrist to show him the handmade beaded friendship bracelet she made for them. ❝ 𝑾𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔. 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑰 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒅𝒂𝒚. 𝑺𝒆𝒆? ❞ She moves her wrist right next to his that adorned the same accessory and the two complete each other's. "BEST" and "FRIENDS." She manages to calm down a little though upon seeing his anxiety. He feels "all alone." Alone... Yes... It IS indeed a horrifying feeling. She knows this well. He reminded her of herself when she first arrived in this world. Everything was too sudden, strange, scary and too big for her. Namida didn't understand what was going on and didn't know anyone. Her features softening with sad tilted eyebrows expressing her empathy. ❝ 𝑲𝒂𝒎𝒖𝒊... ❞ Their roles are reversed, in a way. She'll become for him what she needed that day. He can trust her. He can feel safe with her. There's nothing to fear. She'll reassure him of that. Both her hands take hold of the one that isn't holding his umbrella and she offers him a compassionate smile. Her smile like a warm blanket that could send one's sadness to sleep. It mirrored her mother's when she would smile down at her in reassurance. A note of sympathy was in the soothing running river of her voice; speaking to him very gently. ❝ 𝒀𝒐𝒖❜𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆, 𝑲𝒂𝒎𝒖𝒊. 𝑫𝒐𝒏❜𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚. 𝑰❜𝒎 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝑰❜𝒎 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒑 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒐𝒌𝒂𝒚?..... 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒏. 𝑰❜𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓. ❞

             She didn't let go of his hand as they started heading in the direction of Kagura's place; not wanting him to get lost if he suddenly gets distracted by something. He's always protected her since the day that they met. Even when they weren't on good terms, Kamui took care of her when she was sick and went through the trouble of sending her to the hospital and even then... proceeded to stay with her and take care of her. He never left her. No matter what the reason for it was, he never left her side. Namida will do the same. No matter what, she won't leave his side. A never depleting repository of love. The duo finally get to their destination and Kagura was met with a mournful smile as they walk inside; trying her best not to look too sad. ❝ 𝑯𝒆𝒚, 𝑲𝒂𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒂... ❞ She averts her gaze to think. It took her a moment to say anything at first, but there's no easy way to put this. It's best that she just gets straight to the point. Kagura deserves to be the one to know right away. Namida returns her eye contact with the young Yato and her smile slowly turns to a frown. ❝ 𝑺𝒐 𝒖𝒎... 𝑰❜𝒎 𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚. 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓... 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔? 𝑯𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏❜𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒆❜𝒔 𝒂𝒕, 𝒔𝒐 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑? 𝑨𝒏𝒅, 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝒚𝒐𝒖❜𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊��𝒚 𝒔𝒐 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖❜𝒅 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆. ❞

[id-rather-be-an-outsider]

Cashmere and Cradles

Jean Kierstein x Pregnant!Reader

summary: y/n gets sick, and Jean worries sick. then, they’re both in for the sickest surprise of their lives.

word count: 3226

a/n: I was inspired to write this by the always lovely @quiveringdeer! this is also something close to home for me due to me incorporating my personal experiences, so plz be nice in the notes ya’ll (everyone always is but I like putting the disclaimer there for certain fics)

masterlist

I haven’t stopped being nauseous since I woke up. Is this really all because I had an anxiety attack from that one asshole? I already googled it, maybe it’s the fact that I drank a ton of water right when I woke up. I don’t know. I could barely touch the alfredo noodles we had last night, but I thought that was just me being anxious. Jean looked a little concerned at dinner, but I told him I was fine when he kissed me goodbye this morning. Just tired.

Really, I’m exhausted. I feel my stomach lurch, and I realize, I’m going to throw up. I run to the bathroom as fast as possible, nearly missing the toilet, and the last bits of undigested dinner from last night come up, along with bile and all the water from earlier. When I stop retching, I flush the toilet, and stand up dizzily. I brush my teeth to get rid of the remaining vomit, gargle a million times, and wipe my face, which has tears streaming down from the pain. Without fail, my body always feels like it’s been shoved into a trash compactor when I throw up.

When I’m finished cleaning myself up, I decide to go back to bed. The thought of trying to keep food down right now is an awful one. I text Jean to tell him I think I got a stomach bug, and he immediately texts me back asking why. I smile to myself, rolling my eyes a bit. He’s such a worry wart. Just puked, but I feel a lot better. Must’ve been why I was tired, I reply.

Do you need anything? He asks me, and I can imagine his furrowed eyebrows right in front of me.

You’re so sweet, baby. No, I just need sleep.

Have you eaten today?

No. If I eat right now I probably won’t keep it down. I never can after throwing up. I’ll eat when I wake back up. Love you xo

Ok, love you too babygirl xo

I smile to myself, then set my phone down on the nightstand. It doesn’t take long for me to drift off into a peaceful slumber.

I’m woken by my phone vibrating on the nightstand. “Hello?” I answer groggily, and am spooked by Connie’s annoyingly loud voice.

“Y/n! Someone’s pregnant!” He yells into my ear. I hold my phone far away from me, pinching the bridge of my nose. Somehow, he’s already given me a headache. “Who?”

“I don’t know, but Sasha said her mom had a dream about fish! And you know what that means!” He says. I do not know what that means.

I yawn, asking, “Does it mean she misses her son-in-law’s cooking? Niccolo should visit her again soon.”

Connie pauses. “Hey, were you asleep before I called you?”

“Yes. Very peacefully, I might add. I have the flu.”

“W-why didn’t you tell me?!” He yells at me, and I wince.

“Connie, shut the fuck up! I have a migraine because of you! And because, I thought it would be obvious!” I say.

“Huh?” Connie asks in exasperation. “It’s three in the afternoon! How am I supposed to know you took a midday nap?”

“I never took a nap…” I trail off when I realize that means I’ve slept for basically 14 hours straight, excluding my short time being awake this morning. “Damn. I didn’t think I was this sick.”

“I’m sorry for waking you up, y/n.” Connie apologizes, panic gone from his voice.

I wave him off, not realizing he can’t see me for a few seconds. “No, no, it’s fine. I needed to get up anyways, I have commissions I need to work on, sick or not. Anyways, what’s your point? About the fish and somebody being pregnant.”

“Oh! Right!” He exclaims. “So, dreams have meaning. There’s symbolism in them that rings true.”

“Why are you using the word symbolism? That has no business being in your vocabulary, it’s out of your intelligence bracket.” I say, snickering to myself when he pauses to process what I’ve said.

“Hey! I know things, okay?!” Connie defends himself after realizing I called him stupid. “Anyways, when someone dreams about a fish, it means someone they know is pregnant. And there’s always someone who’s pregnant.

“Mhm.” I say. “Well, if you figure out who that pregnant person is, tell me so I can congratulate them on making a terrible financial decision for the next eighteen plus years. I’m tired, so I’m gonna go back to bed.”

Connie says, “But didn’t you just talk about how much work you were gonna do?”

“Times change, Connie,” I respond, “That, and I just got even more tired than I was when I first answered the phone. I think you’re just exhausting me with your idiocy.”

Connie gasps, and I swear I can hear him clutching his imaginary pearls. “Hurtful!”

I sigh. “Goodbye, Connie.”

He groans, like I’ve just ruined his plans to gossip about pregnancy candidates. “Bye, y/n.” The phone hangs up with a beep, and I lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling as I think to myself. There aren’t many options, in all honesty. Ymir and Historia could have decided they wanted to start a family, Eren and Mikasa, Annie and Bertholdt, even Sasha and Niccolo. I’m sick as a dog, so I’m already counted out — can’t have a baby when you’re busy having stomach flu. Before I know it, I’m lulled back to sleep by the comfort of the plush mattress and cushy blankets.

When I come to, it’s sunset, and the offending noise that wakes me is Jean’s keys jangling in the doorknob. I would get up to unlock the door for him, but I’m too groggy to move more than a finger. The door squeaks open, and I hear him put his keys down on the counter, stepping out of his shoes. “Y/n?” He calls, concern laced in his voice.

“Over here!” I respond in turn, yawning and stretching a bit. Jean’s footsteps make the apartment vibrate. He’s not heavy, but the infrastructure isn’t immune to jiggle physics. He turns the concern and I can see the wrinkles forming in real time, all because of me. Then, I can see flowers and a card. “Baby!” I exclaim in surprise, “Is that for me?”

He smiles, and he’s no longer aged by seven years. “I couldn’t come home to my girl empty-handed now, could I? How are you feeling?” He sets the flowers down on the bed, along with the card, and gathers me into a gentle hug, kissing me on the cheek.

“Babe,” I argue, “Don’t, you’ll get sick.”

“And get to take time off to spend with the most beautiful person in the world? Sounds great to me.” He grins when I roll my eyes, then asks, ���Did you stay in bed all day?”

I nod. “Yea, I felt pretty shitty. No throwing up aside from the one time, though. Oh! And guess what? According to Sasha’s mom, somebody’s pregnant. The fish in her dreams told her so.”

He meets my eyes with a knowing look, his smile ever-present. “I am taking this so seriously right now, I swear. And who did we hear this fish dream news from?”

“Connie, who dared to wake me from my slumber.” I sigh, sitting up in the bed so I can be on eye-level with Jean.

Jean says, “I see, I see. Sounds like indisputable fact, if you ask me.”

“No, babe. We’re asking the dream fish.”

He laughs, and I laugh with him. “Okay, enough bullying people for being superstitious. You need some water, and soft foods. You probably haven’t eaten all day, have you?” I shake my head no. Jean says, “Well, I’m not Chef Niccolo, but I can make something pretty saucy. I’ll see what I can manage.”

“Do we have…” I start, but trail off, realizing it was a stupid question. Of course we wouldn’t have Kraft mac and cheese. “Nevermind.” I say with a smile at Jean as he looks at me inquisitively.

Fifteen minutes later, he brings me a bowl of noodles with shredded chicken in it. “Is this alright?” He asks me, and I can see he genuinely is worried I won’t like it.

I smile gratefully at him. “Of course, thank you baby. You don’t have to worry about me, the nausea seems to be the worst of it.” I feel a twinge in my stomach looking at the food, but I know it’s just me being finicky because I’m sick. I have to eat something if I want to get better.

He pats my back. “All right, I’m gonna hop in the shower. The door’s unlocked if you need anything, as per usual.” He kisses my forehead, then leaves me to handle business.

When he’s out of sight, I stare at my food like it’s insulting me. My stomach feels like it’s doing flips, and I would rather go back to sleep, but I know if I don’t eat anything, Jean will freak. His mom used to get sick all the time — bad immune system — so now, after everything I’ve been through, he watches over me like a mother hen.

And what is it that I’ve been through? Well… a miscarriage. And an eating disorder. It was for the better that the miscarriage happened, because neither of us were ready for a kid, but it was grueling. I only found out I was pregnant because of the miscarriage, and it left me even more physically and emotionally drained than I already had been for the month before. It explained the nausea, and the inability to eat most foods, but after the miscarriage, I continued being unable to eat. I lost a lot of weight, and when I finally went to the doctor’s office, they recommended I start eating protein bars to regain what I’d lost. I did, and I haven’t lost the weight again since then, but Jean fusses over me, because he knows my eating disorder is a daily battle, not one that just goes away. I tell him not to worry, that as long as I’m keeping my current weight then we have nothing to worry about, but it’s like talking to a brick wall. Or, for accuracy’s sake, it’s like talking to a magical brick wall that finds the most anxiety-inducing message in all of your words and echoes that back to you.

The miscarriage and the events after it happened years ago, but I remember it like yesterday, and so does Jean. Every now and then, we whisper to each other at night, talking about what might have happened if I hadn’t miscarried.

I don’t know why I’m thinking about all of this right now. Maybe it’s because the nausea I’m feeling now reminds me of back then. I shake my head, clearing my thoughts, then mentally prepare myself to take a bite of food. I stab the fork into my noodles and twist, twist, twist, until I have a reasonable lump of noodles around my fork, ready to be eaten. I lift it up into my mouth, and when I smell the noodles… it’s over.

I throw my fork down, quickly setting my bowl down on the nightstand and run to the bathroom faster than the speed of light. I nearly slam the door open, and start puking as soon as the toilet seat and lid are propped up. I hear Jean pull back the shower curtain as I heave, splatters of liquid and mush landing in the toilet. The room is already steamed up – he loves hot showers. We both do, to be fair. “Babe? Are you okay?” He asks me, and it takes literally everything in me to not snap at him and say that I’m obviously not okay.

I give him a thumbs up. “I don’t know why, but just smelling the food made me nauseous. What was the expiration date on the canned chicken?”

As water trickles down his bare chest, sculpted abs dividing my attention, Jean says, “I just bought that on Saturday. No way it’s expired. If you can’t eat, why don’t you try taking a shower? You’ve been in sick clothes all day.” I put the lid down and flush the toilet, slowly nodding as I stand up. I strip down, joining him in the spray as he holds his hand out for me to take. Always the gentleman. I’m sandwiched between him and the warm water, and I sigh, feeling some relief for once. He slides his hands around my waist, kissing my cheek and leaning his head against mine, sighing with me. “I’m sorry you’re so sick, baby.”

I turn around to face him, the water hitting my backside as I wrap my arms around his neck, looking up at him. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault.” I get up on my tip-toes to kiss him, and where nausea once was in my stomach, a fire suddenly rages – a fire of want, of desperate need. I close my eyes, deepening the kiss and pressing my body against his. “Baby.” I pant out, reaching down for his member as I feel the slick growing between my thighs.

He grunts, stopping the kiss and holding my arms, stepping away. “Not right now, y/n. You’re sick. It would just make you worse. Let’s wait until you’re feeling better, yea?” I hadn’t actually touched him yet, but I can already see that he’s clearly aroused.

I frown to myself. I’m disappointed, but he’s right. “Yea, right. Sorry.” I don’t know what came over me in that moment, but right now, I feel riled up for no apparent reason. What is happening to me?

We finish our shower, and he grabs out the silkiest pair of pajamas for me, helping me dry off and put them on before helping me into bed, and I note he removed the offending food from the area. I don’t know how I managed to meet someone as kind as him. “Hey,” He asks me, “Weren’t you supposed to start your period a few days ago?”

I think to myself, then nod in confirmation. “I think I was. No big deal, though. I’d probably be miserable if I had to deal with that and this at the same time.” He looks deep in thought. “What is it?” I ask him.

He shakes his head. “I’m just worried about you, is all. Why don’t you get some sleep and I’ll run to the store to get some hot cocoa for you to try?” Hot cocoa sounds delicious right now, I’ll give him that. It’s not usually something I crave, but maybe some sugar is just the thing I need after all of this bullshit.

I smile, then lay back in bed. “Okay, baby. See you then.”

When I wake up, it’s to Jean sitting at my feet, holding some kind of stick in his hand, eyes wide in shock, jaw completely slack. I look to my right and spot two mugs of cocoa sitting on my nightstand, one half-drunk. “Baby? What is it?” I ask him, unable to push myself up.

“I… I… I didn’t think… I only had an inkling of a hunch as to what it might be, but…” He stammers, more to himself than to me.

I sigh forcefully. “Jean. Baby. What is it?”

“Baby.” He says.

“Yes, I’m listening, Jean,” I reply, a bit annoyed that he isn’t listening. It’s not like him. “What is it?” I ask again, with more emphasis.

“A baby.” He says, and when he lifts up his hand to show me, I realize he’s holding not one, not two, but three pregnancy tests. And they all are positive. “You forgot to flush the toilet when you peed after getting out of the shower.”

Now, my face matches his. “What???” I say, suddenly jolting up into a sitting position, but not without a wave of nausea rolling over me. “I… what are we gonna do?” I say, panic setting in.

Jean answers, “We’re gonna do what you want to do, of course.” He leans over, setting the tests down on my nightstand and grabbing my hand, squeezing it. “If you don’t feel ready…”

“I–” I cut myself off when I feel my lip wobble. Tears suddenly well up in my eyes, and I fight the urge to let them loose. “Jean, I can’t.” I see the disappointment in his eyes, and I start to cry. “I can’t lose another one, Jean, I can’t. Please.”

He pauses, taken aback, but quickly hugs me to comfort me. “Oh, y/n, don’t cry, don’t cry. I’m an idiot, I thought you were saying ‘I can’t’ as in, you couldn’t keep it, I’m an idiot, ignore my initial reaction.”

I sniffle and wipe my eyes. “Wait…” I ask, “You mean you would rather me keep it?”

Jean laughs, and I almost puke from the vibrations alone, but I don’t care right now. “Yes, yes, I absolutely would rather you keep it, but I’ll support you either way.”

I start crying even more. “Oh, thank God, thank God, I thought…”

Jean pulls back slightly, but only to place kiss upon kiss all over my face. He pauses, looking me in the eye. “Put that thought away. It doesn’t have any place here.” He then places his arm behind my back, laying me back down on the bed. He starts unbuttoning my pajama top, just a few buttons from the waist up. He kisses my stomach, right below my belly button. “Hey, baby.” He whispers against my abdomen, and I lightly push him away with my arms.

“Baby. As cute as that is, please don’t. The vibrations make me nauseous.” I smile tiredly, but beckon him to lay next to me. He happily joins me, throwing an arm over my stomach and sliding under the covers.

Quietly, he says, “How does the cocoa smell?”

“Good.” I whisper.

He chuckles. “My mom said she liked that when she was pregnant with me.”

Sassily, I say, “Oh, so the baby has your taste, does he?”

And he says, “Possibly. Is it selfish of me to want them to be a girl? I’d love to have two of you around here. Plus, then Connie won’t try to make me name them after him in honor of him being the first one to share the news of your pregnancy.”

I roll my eyes. “Right, the fish gods.”

“I thought they were dream fish?”

“Same shit.” I scoff. “Can we just… never tell him?”

Jean hums. “Mmm… unfortunately, that might be a little suspect. We have to tell my mom first, anyways. Gramas always have seniority. Want me to wait a bit?”

I respond, “Maybe for a week, that way you can say I got you sick and you can’t go into work.”

Jean groans. “Babe, how are you so hot, so smart, and so pregnant with my kid, all at once? I feel so lucky right now.” He kisses my collar bone, laying back beside me like I’ve knocked him out with my grand idea.

I laugh, hand resting on my stomach. “You’re an idiot, Jean.”

“Just a fool in love,” He says, “Thinking about cashmere blankets and cedarwood cradles.”

[biggest-stupidhead]

So I was wondering if I could request something like Levi x reader where they get into an argument right before a expedition. The reader gets hurt on that expedition and Levi feels guilty. Kinda thinking angst and a bit of fluff at the end c:

I loved writing this sm! thanks for sending it in anon!

Summary: You grapple with Levi before a stressful mission.

Word Count: 2.3K

__

"Behave yourselves and enjoy this 'cause it cost the corps two months worth of our budget!" The chef announced as plates of meat were uncovered in front of the soldiers. Your mouth watered as you watched Hange slice the thick slabs of meat on the platter.

"Worth every penny." She hummed as she slapped a piece onto her plate. Levi rolled his eyes and looked up at Erwin, who was sat across from him. You elbowed him and shot him a dazzling grin.

"Lighten up cap, it's not often that we get to enjoy this stuff."

"It'll likely be the last for most." Levi grunted and your grin fell from your lips.

"So macabre." Hange snickered as she gnawed on a piece of meat.

"It's the truth." Levi's cold eyes were locked on Erwin who nodded in agreement.

"Well I plan on savoring it." You quipped, popping a piece into your mouth and chewing it dramatically. Levi scoffed and crossed his arms, ignoring his full plate.

"-Sasha! That's my hand!" Jean cried out, you had to cover your mouth in a futile attempt at hiding your amusement. Sasha had her teeth sank into his hand as Connie desperately tried to pry her from Jean.

"Sasha! Don't make me knock you out!" Connie pleaded as he caught her in a choke hold.

"Damn kids." Levi growled, as he glared at the teens from across the room.

"They're having fun! You should try it sometime." Hange kicked Levi under the table and you chuckled around another mouthful of food.

"I'm good." Levi's lip curled in disgust as Sasha was wrestled to the ground, the two boys finally subduing her.

"They're young, let them figure it out themselves." You assured him, gently resting a hand on his elbow. His eyes softened for a fraction of a second at this. Your touch was fleeting before your hand fell onto the bench between the two of you. He sighed loudly, finally grabbing his fork and picking at his potatoes.

The atmosphere was warm and made you feel so...whole. Even if you knew that Levi was right, tonight was likely the last time you and your comrades would dine together. But even if that was the case, you would be grateful for this happy memory. The peace was short lived however. Jean and Eren broke out into a fist fight, a rather pitiful one at that.

Within a few short minutes, the two were a sweaty mess, both huffing and staggering as they held their fists up. Levi got to his feet and stalked towards them, a deep scowl etched on his face.

With only two blows, the pair was on the floor, clutching their stomachs as Levi towered over them.

"Go to bed." He ordered. Jean vomited and Levi's lip curled in disgust.

"And clean that shit up." He added curtly as the dining hall murmured, recovering from the excitement. Sasha whimpered from her post as she struggled against her binds, feet kicking loudly against the wooden floors. As the soldiers filed out of the room, you made your way to her to free her. She sighed in relief as the gag was pulled off her mouth and the ropes slashed.

"Thanks miss." She gushed as she rolled her tense wrists.

"Don't mention it." You smiled as you reached into your pocket and passed her a loaf of bread.

"Did I mention how much I love you?" She grinned as she accepted the food and dove in for a hug.

"Actually, I don't think that you have." You giggled as she began eating the bread behind your shoulder as she hugged you.

"mf, well I sure do!" She exclaimed around a full mouth.

"You'd better go catch up with the others." You suggested with a firm pat on her back. She stood and jogged out of the dining hall, half eaten loaf in hand.

"You're too soft with them." Levi scolded from the doorway. You waved him off as you joined him, walking side by side out of the large room.

"They need it." You assured him, gently brushing your shoulder against his.

"The last thing they need is to be coddled." Levi argued.

"Levi, I think that sometimes you forget that they're fifteen." You paused outside of his office, leaning against the threshold as he unlocked the door.

"I haven't forgotten." He mumbled as he pushed the door open.

"Okay." You rolled your eyes, brushing off his especially sour mood.

"Don't you have formation plans to look over?" He asked as you followed him into his office.

"I thought we could go over them together." You shrugged, dropping down onto his couch.

"I'm not looking at them now."

"Then why should I be? Do you think I can't comprehend a simply formation we've used for years?" You were half teasing, but there was only so much crap you could take from him.

"Sometimes it seems that way." He agreed, falling into his desk chair. Your eyes narrowed and the food that had felt so good in your stomach moments before seemed too heavy.

"Why are you extra shitty tonight?" You asked even though you knew the answer. He always got moody the days leading up to missions.

"I think you know why." He looked up from his papers to shoot you a pointed glare.

"You need a nap." You attempted to rein in the easy banter, but Levi was persistent.

"I need you to get the fuck out of my office." His words stung, and you barely caught the hurt expression before it crossed your face.

"I'll see you in the morning." You said as you stalked across the small room and out of the door, closing it softly behind you. Levi groaned once he was sure you wouldn't hear him, his head hit his desk hard as he tried to fight off the migraine that had been creeping up on him since dinner.

__

As promised, the next morning he saw you. Or rather, he caught glimpses of you as you readied your horse and helped the younger soldiers make last minute preparations. The day ahead was going to be long and taxing. Mostly comprised of traveling out of the safety of the walls. Erwin had allowed for just enough time for the scouts to travel, timing it just so their departure from the gates would be well after sunset.

His morning was shittier than usual, Hange had been annoying, and Erwin had been stubborn as ever, continuing to dismiss his lack of an arm and insisting on joining the corps on the mission. So when you didn't brush up against him and crack one of your shit jokes during the long ride, he knew that he had royally fucked things up.

He still hadn't spoken to you when the lifts hoisted the scouts over the wall and into titan territory, or when the lanterns were the only light that guided them through thick trees.

When the first rays of sunlight fell onto the abandoned city of shiganshina, you stood stoically beside Hange and Moblit. He had missed his window, now it was time to focus on the mission. He could only hope that both himself and you survived.

__

As the morning wore on and the battle turned from bad to worse, you knew that chances of survival became slimmer. The only thing you could do was trust in Hange, Erwin and Armin to form a plan to defeat the Reiner and the beast titan. The colossal had yet to show his face, making you more uneasy. The small victory of bringing down Reiner was short lived as a barrel flew over the wall and the sounds of distance explosions echoed through the walls.

"Bertolt is in there!" Armin screamed as you watched the barrel fly overhead.

"What do we do!?" Connie cried as you flew through the rooftops.

"If he transforms, there will be nothing we can do!" Armin yelled over the wind. Eren's titan jogged ahead as you made your way towards the center of town.

"We have to do something!" You yelled, desperate for a solution. Luckily he didn't immediately transform, instead rushing to Reiner's side and addressing him first.

"I'm going to regroup with Hange!" You said, as Bertolt zipped towards you.

"Hurry!" Jean yelled after you as you flew away, pouring on the speed.

You reached Hange's team to find them struggling with some dysfunctional thunder spears.

"(Y/n)! I'm glad you made it! Was that Bertolt inside of there?" Moblit asked as you landed heavily on the tiled rooftop.

"Yeah, it's him. We don't have long before he transforms. We've got to get back to the kids!" You informed them and they all leapt off of the rooftop, rushing back in the direction that you had come from. You only made it about half way there before a blinding mushroom cloud and a clap of thunder overpowered your senses. Hange reached out for you, snagging your wrist. Moblit pushed the two of you down and you screamed as the blast took him in a blinding light. You and Hange fell down a well, a mess of limbs and tangled gear. You couldn't tell if it was your blood or hers as the two of you laid motionless in the shallow well.

"Hange!" Your ears rang as you shook her desperately. Her face was covered in blood, you could tell that her eye was missing already. You began clawing through your pockets in search of gauze, the taste of iron made you want to gag. With shaky hands, you wrapped her head, covering her exposed eye socket. She woke moments later, hands shooting out to grab you.

"Your face." She groaned, hand falling to rest on your chin as she slowly sat up.

"What's wrong with-" You froze mid sentence when you realized that was why you tasted blood. She dug into her own pocket and produced a needle and some suture. She sewed the large gash, which ran from the apple of your cheek to the corner of your mouth.

"We need to check for survivors." Hange grunted as she bit off the remaining suture, you nodded in agreement.

__

As you stood on the rooftop staring at the two lifeless bodies, you knew immediately who had to be chosen. Hange clutched Mikasa to her chest as the girl cried, tears running off her pale cheeks.

"Levi." You whimpered, his bloodied face turned, eyes wild and tortured.

"Get back, I'm giving the serum to Erwin." He ordered. Floch hauled Eren away from Armin, who's charred skin smoked in the late afternoon sun.

"You can't." You cried, tears stinging the wound on your cheek.

"I will." Levi growled.

"Now leave!" He pulled the syringe out of the case and filled it with the opaque liquid and your chest squeezed painfully.

"But-" Jean's hand closed tightly around your bicep as he began pulling you towards the edge of the roof.

"Let's go." Jean's voice was strangled, and you realized that all of you felt this loss deeply. He needed you to be an adult here, needed some reassurance. So you leaned into him and allowed him to pull you off of the roof, wrapped securely in his arms. As you hugged him and Connie a few rooftops away, the sound of a titan crashing through buildings made you look up. Levi landed near you, head hung low and empty syringe in hand.

The thin beast shoved the screaming boy down its gullet and you gasped when you saw its face. You knew it was Armin, and you felt ashamed at the surge of relief that flowed through you.

__

The sun beat down on your shoulders as you sat beside Sasha on the wall. Levi and Hange had gone with Mikasa and Eren about an hour ago, leaving you in charge of the remaining kids.

"Here they come!" Connie called, pointing excitedly at the group as they used the last of their gas to scale the wall. Levi didn't bother joining the group, instead favoring to walk in the opposite direction. You rushed after him, legs pumping as you ran across the wall. You snagged his wrist and tugged on it gently.

"Levi." You had no words, only able to form his name in a raspy voice.

"I should have chosen Erwin." He said numbly, too weak to even try pulling free of your grasp.

"It's over. We reclaimed Maria. You made a hard choice, I can't say it was the right one but.." Your words failed you as he turned to face you. You had never seen him look so hopeless, lips glued into a frown and eyes searching for validation.

"You did what had to be done." You assured him as you took a step closer, the tips of your boots touching his.

"Did I?" His brows knitted together as your hand slipped into his.

"Yes. You did, you gave us a chance." You slowly leaned forward, wrapping your arms around him. You were surprised when he melted into you, his body pressed close, breath tickling the skin behind your ear. Your hands gripped the harness on his back in an attempt to ground the two of you. He sighed and breathed you in, his own hands coming to rest at the small of your back.

"We'll figure this out." You said into his neck, lips brushing the skin there unintentionally.

"I'm glad....that you survived." He said into your messy hair, which was falling from it's hold. His hand slid from the small of your back to rest between your shoulder blades.

"Me too." You let out a small laugh half sob, allowing a few more tears to slide down your cheeks.

"Let's address those shitty kids." He said as he pulled back, and you nodded, giving him a watery smile as the two of you fell into a matched pace once more.

[simpurnatural]

any fluff about jack, techno, or punz?

I’ve thought real long and hard on how I could incorporate all three of them into just one thing. So I decided on…

DSMP HC - WHEN YOU’RE SICK

“When you’re sick” Pt. 1 || “When you’re” sick Pt. 2

In which how each content creator or character reacts to reader feeling a bit under the weather.

CC!JackManifoldTV x Reader, C!TechnoBlade x Reader (Platonic), CC!Punz x Reader

WARNING ⚠️: Swearing

Any writing errors? Point them out! Love some helpful feedback! <3

REQUESTS ARE OPEN!!!

JACKMANIFOLDTV:

All of yesterday was filled with getting content for your latest YouTube video

Then continued to pull an all nighter to edit it

That was the routine for the past month

So obviously, your lack of self care would catch up to you

And now you were collapsed on the sofa in Your’s and Jack’s shared flat

The sun was up so that meant he was up too

Trudging into the kitchen, he sees an arm flailed over the sofa arm rest

He jumps but tip toes quietly to your sleeping self

“Hey”

groan

“Oh you’re alive”

You’re body was aching every time you tried moving to get comfortable

“Why didn’t you head to bed?”

more inaudible groaning

Only when your eyes fluttered open did you realize how annoying sun’s presence was

On this day particularly

So you shoved your face further into the cushions

Jack left a glass of water and pain reliever pills

Making sure to not make a loud sudden noises

It was probably the late afternoon by the time you got up

Jack applauds

You glare at him as you take the pill

He looks away immediately

“I feel like death”

“-Er you look like death,”

That was true

Skin more pail than usual

Bags under the eye more apparent than ever

“Get some rest,”

“I have to stream,”

“No you need a break,”

“But I-“

“No, not having any of that.”

Jack basically dragging you to your room

You flopped on the bed, not bothering to get under the covers

But Jack assists you and closes the blinds

“I’ll be back with dinner,”

“Dinner???”

“It’s seven,”

“Seven!?”

You shoot up like a rocket but regret it after

Jack pushes you down gently and shuts off the lights

“Night night,”

groan

TECHNOBLADE ft. Philza:

“And another,”

“Tech-“

“You’ve basically led a trail of tissues in around my house!”

With a waste basket in hand, Techno was picking up all your used tissues

And had a remark for every time you needed one

You weren’t sure if he was being helpful or annoying

Pretending to be fine, you shoved more up your nose and continued with your day

But at such a sluggish pace

A pickaxe that would’ve taken a minute or two to craft took you twenty

Of course Techno offered his skilled services

Mainly to not have you touch everything while being sick

“Do you need-“

“No.”

He called for reinforcements

Philza AKA Dadza

A cold breeze hit your face as you opened the door for him

Phil jumped at the sight of your pale face and cherry head nose

“Holy fuck,”

“Hey Phil!”

You go in for a hug but one of his crows squawk

“You alright mate?”

“Just a lil tired,”

You hoarse voice was almost unrecognizable

“How about you take a nap?”

“Okay!”

“HEH?” “I’ve been telling them to do that the whole day!”

Phil chuckles as they guide you up the stairs

You slip under the covers and shut your eyes

“No Ah thank you TechnoBlade for picking up after me blah blah blah?” the piglin hybrid asked in a high pitch tone

“Thanks Philza,”

PUNZ:

You stumbled into Your’s and Luke’s shared room after your 12 hour subathon

Downed one iced coffee and two monsters to last you the entire stream

But your head was pounding from the forced all-nighter

Not that you didn’t enjoy it

You’ve played late night monopoly and pummel party with your friends many times before

It’s just that you were just so physically exhausted this time

From all the subgoal dares and eyes just glued to screens made your head woozy

You went to sleep hoping that rest would make the sea-sick feeling with migraine pain would go away

You woke up and felt just as shitty as you did when you went to bed

Luke took notice right away and put you on bed rest

Bringing you food, water, and a book to keep you occupied

Of course you listened

“I’m gonna go stream’ll be back in an hour or two,” “Text me if you anything,”

“M’kay thanks,” “love you!”

“Love ya too,”

You tune into his stream

And listen to him explain why you weren’t gonna stream today

“They just needs a break from that long ass subathon, chat” “They deserve one for working so hard,”

Then chat floods with agreements

“Oh so true!”

“Well deserved!”

“Hope they’re okay!”

You blush at his support

“Thanks babe :)”

Luke looks at chat and winks into the camera

…

[vivvyinvienna]

Dad!Draco admiring you with the baby and toddler

baby, baby (draco malfoy)

A/N: heyo! Back again w Dad!Draco, who i am an absolute sucker for. I had to google “how to play with a baby” before writing bc i don’t rly understand children. To the nonny who requested, i hope you enjoy xoxo

Word Count: 1.3k

Summary: Dad!Draco has to take a couple of sick days from work but that also means he gets to spend more time with his beloved family. Fluff :))

Warnings: unedited, baby scorp cuteness, mentions of pregnancy, stomach flu?

----------

When Draco started rousing from his nap, it was already late in the afternoon. His body’s natural inclination to turn towards his wife took over despite his still dozing mind. After being married to Y/N for seven years and sleeping in the same bed for even longer, every time he woke up Draco felt this physical yearning for the warmth and intimacy that only being intertwined with her could provide. But today, he was disappointed. The cold sheets to his left brought him fully out of his sleep-induced haze.

Once Draco was fully awake, he used the bearing magic that was embedded into the intricate blood wards of their family home to locate his wife and child. It only took a second before he knew that Y/N and Scorpius were in the living room. Normally he wasn’t one to nap for hours while making his wife be solely responsible for their son, but Draco was still recovering from an exceptionally brutal stomach flu. He had stayed home from work for the last three days, trading his job at Malfoy Inc for saltine crackers, stomach cramps, heating pads, and an overzealous number of bathroom trips.

He stood up from the bed and padded out of the room in search of his family. When he neared the entrance of the rosy-tinted living room, he was graced by the sound of his child giggling and his wife idly talking. Standing in the doorway, he breathed in the sight of the two people who he loved with every inch of his battered heart. The floor-length French windows were slightly ajar, letting in the breeze of summer and the scent of peaches. The sunset coming in painted the room with the blush of a rose petal and the bloom of sedation. 

You were sitting on the creme-colored couch, bouncing Scorpius on your knees. He had just turned one-year-old a couple of weeks ago, and already he was starting to lose some of his chunky baby fat which you and Draco both adored. But he was still the cutest baby in your eyes, with or without his chubby baby legs. With his cherub cheeks, bright eyes, and wispy tufts of the distinct Malfoy hair, no other baby could compare. You sat with your back facing the doorway, so you didn’t notice Draco until Scorpius started squirming away from you and let out a very enthusiastic “Da! Dada!” 

Draco let out a jovial laugh when he saw the big toothy grin on his son’s face. He immediately held out his arms to steal Scorp from his mother. 

“Hey buddy!” Draco responded to him with the same amount of energy. “What have you been up to today?” He talked to Scorp like an adult, treating his noises as real answers. 

Scorpius babbled. 

“Oh really? You know, I took a pretty good nap too today.”

More babbling. 

“Well, why don’t we go to the pond tomorrow?”

Scorpius continued.

“Of course buddy, it’ll be warm out tomorrow.”

He moved to sit down next to you, giving you a pillowy kiss and wrapping the arm that wasn’t holding a toddler around you. Draco couldn’t help but stare. The fading sunshine glowed upon you with romantic affection. You were ethereal to him. He looked at you the way every girl dreamed of being looked at. And the depth of his eyes held promises. Promises that there was no one in the world he would rather see and be with than you. 

“Hey mama,” his soft words reverberated with the utmost tenderness.

This time you leaned over to kiss him. As your lips touched his, he felt a murmur of enchantment somewhere in his body. It felt a bit like healing and a bit like elation, but he was too peaceful to bother pinpointing. 

“How are you feeling, sweetheart? Is your stomach still hurting?” you were still concerned over his health despite him looking much better than before he went to nap. 

“I feel better, I think it’s run its course,” he answered matter-a-factly. 

Your conversation remained brief because Scorpius let out a whine. Probably because neither of his parents was giving him attention.

You turned your attention to your son. You danced your fingers on his cheeks, making him let out a precious giggle. As Draco watched, he felt the bells of sunshine ring in his heart, a feeling only explicable by the child in his arms and wife at his side. 

The two of you moved to the floor of the couch and continued to play with Scorp. It wasn’t before long though when he decided that his favorite ferret stuffed animal was more entertaining than his parents and crawled away to play with it. With Scorp occupied, Draco decided this was the perfect time to talk to you about something he’d been ruminating over.

“I have something to talk to you about,” he started. 

You took in an over-exaggerated gasp, “Are you breaking up with me?” you said with no real distress. 

He went along with you, “That’s actually the second thing I want to talk to you about.”

“Ok well, what’s the first?”

He took in a deep breath, as if slightly nervous. “I think I want to step down from Malfoy Inc for a little while and spend more time at home with you two.” 

You turned to fully face him. You were elated at the possibility but a bit hesitant in case he hadn’t fully thought it through yet.

“I’d love to have you home more, I’m sure Scorp does too,” you paused, “but you love your job.”

“But I love you guys more. A lot more actually,” there was no wavering in his affirmation. 

“You won’t get bored being at home all day?” you pushed a bit more. 

“I was planning on picking up some of my old alchemy projects. And you remember all the notebooks Severus left me?” 

You did.

“I think it’d be good to finish some of his potions research.”

You agreed. 

“I’ve honestly been thinking about stepping down for a while and being at home these last three days just really reminded me of how much I miss every day. He’s growing up so fast. And I miss being home with you and Scorp.”

“I miss having you home too, I miss you all the time.” You almost laughed at how clingy you sounded. “So if you want to step down, I won’t be the one to stop you.”

He gave you that smile, the one that was reserved only for you. “I guess I’m quitting my job,” he sounded nonchalant but the excitement was obvious in the smile lines of his eyes. 

“One stomach flu and you’re ready to quit your job. I’d hate to see what a migraine does to you,” you teased.

“Shut up,” he feigned offense. “Merlin, Y/N I threw up so much I finally understand how you felt when you were pregnant.”

You gave him a questionable look. “For some reason, I doubt it.” The room filled with Draco’s laughter again. 

“Speaking of pregnancy…” he shifted closer to you, slowly gliding his large hand onto your belly. “I want to put another baby in here.”

“You are just full of ideas today.” He was about to open his mouth to persuade you further, when you continued, “But I can’t say that’s a bad one.”

A boyish grin took his face. 

Then, taking you both by surprise, a loud grumble came from Draco’s midsection. You both stilled and looked at each other for a couple of seconds before he groaned and started whining. Pulling his hand away from your belly, he moved to cradle his own. And you laughed, you laughed an absurd, charming little laugh because you couldn’t get over how Draco’s whining sounded exactly like Scorpius’.

[cuddlepilefics]

Migraine

Fandom: GOT7

Sickie: Mark

Caregiver: Jackson & Jinyoung

Prompt: @sicktember

No one’s POV.:

Being the quietest member certainly had its perks, Mark realized when he woke up feeling off. He didn’t know what exactly was wrong, so he didn’t want to worry his friends. Throughout breakfast, the oldest had been quiet but nobody thought much of it, as he was always quiet. What Mark didn’t know was that his roommate had noticed. Jackson knew the older very well, as you do after living together for years. He could tell his hyung wasn’t feeling himself, though he couldn’t tell exactly what was wrong or what had given it away. It was more like a gut-feeling, that something wasn’t right. Jackson was relieved that they’d spend the entire day at the studio because he couldn’t imagine Mark would be up for dancing today. They’d have a lot of recording to do, which wasn’t too stressful and consisted mainly of revising lyrics and waiting for their turn to record. Maybe the oldest could take a nap until he had to record and would be fine with just a little more rest. Going back to their room to get ready to head out, Jackson got only more worried. It was his hyung’s clothing choice that stuck out to Jackson like a red flag. Mark had that extremely old and washed-out hoodie, which he had brought from the US when he first came to Korea to train. By now, it was far from fashionable and served more as a comfort item, which the rapper usually wore when he didn’t feel well or was home-sick. Him putting it on now, confirmed the younger’s suspicions.

“Hyung, are you feeling alright?”, Jackson asked, barely stopping the older from leaving their shared room. Mark turned around and looked at him confused, muttering: “Sure, why?” – "You’re wearing that hoodie. You always wear it when you don’t feel good”, Jackson pointed out. Glancing down his outfit, the oldest realized that his dongsaeng was right. He just hadn’t expected anyone to pick up on it. Shrugging, he replied: “I feel a bit off, maybe didn’t sleep enough.” Jackson nodded, not fully buying it but following his hyung to the living room anyway. They waited for everyone else to finish up and then headed out together. During their drive to the studio, Mark started to question himself. Jackson’s comment had sparked his worry. He hadn’t put on that hoodie deliberately, it had just happened on top of already feeling weird. What was going on with him? Being so deep in thought, he didn’t even notice how they pulled up in front of the company building. “Are you coming, hyung?”, Jaebeom’s voice startled him from his thoughts and Mark nodded quickly, wincing when the fast movement caused his head to ache. He quickly climbed out of the vehicle, stumbling a bit before he was able to get his footing. Watching him stumble, Jackson linked their arms and walked him up to their studio. The older couldn’t help but be flustered. He felt fine, right? He didn’t need help to walk.

Jackson was the first one to record with Jaebeom as the producer, so Mark sat with the rest of the members, revising his lyrics and warming up his voice. The headache he had gotten from nodding his head to fast earlier was still lingering, so he decided his voice was warmed up enough and quietly sat there, reading over his lyrics. Or rather, pretending to read over his lyrics as they were blurring together in front of his eyes. The rapper winced, massaging his temples. Maybe that was why he had been feeling off. He carefully reached for his water bottle and took a few sips before going back to revising. The headache only increased the longer he looked at the small-print, so he closed his eyes for a few seconds, quickly opening them again as he felt the room spinning. It took Mark a while to put the pieces together. Every now and again, he suffered from migraines and this felt like the beginning of one. The odd feeling this morning, the ache from moving too fast and the dizziness. It all made sense now. From this point on, Mark knew it would only get worse as the day progressed but what could he do about it? They had deadlines for their new album and he didn’t want to hold them back. He had to record now because they had a too tight schedule to postpone his recording. Anxiously glancing towards the recording booth, the rapper made up his mind. As soon as Jackson would be done, he’d convince the others to let him record next. He should get it over with as soon as possible before getting too useless and miserable later.

Mark tried to speak up when Jackson exited the recording booth but for some reason, he felt frozen in his spot. Jinyoung went in to record next as the oldest sat motionlessly in his seat. “You okay?”, Jackson mouthed, sitting down next to him and nudging his shoulder to get his attention. The older nodded before realizing his mistake and scrunching his face up in pain at the movement. Jackson obviously didn’t believe him after that, pulling out his phone to text Mark that he looked awful and was acting far from okay. Knowing he couldn’t look at his bright phone screen, Mark leaned closer to his dongsaeng and whispered barely audible: “’m developing a migraine.” He could see shock and understanding flash across the younger’s face within a split second before Jackson replied as quietly: “How bad is it yet and when did it start?” – “Started when I got out of the car and it’s not too bad yet. My head hurts but it’s bearable and my stomach’s starting to churn a bit”, Mark answered truthfully, aware that the younger would immediately assume the worst if he didn’t. "Do you want some water and do you have your medicine with you?”, Jackson worried. Closing his eyes, the oldest hummed: “Already had lots of water, my meds are at home.” He knew that he was supposed to take his medication with him for situations like this but somehow, he had forgotten and didn’t find the energy to scold himself for it now. He kept his eyes closed, as Jackson wordlessly started to massage his neck, helping him to relax.

When Jinyoung exited the recording booth, Jackson was quick to speak up, announcing that Mark was going next. He had taken care of the older on similar occasions before and was well aware that his hyung would only be getting worse from, especially without his migraine medication. Mark shot him a grateful smile before forcing himself up from the couch. He swayed dangerously for a moment before making his way into the recording booth on wobbly legs. His vision blurred as the rapper stood behind the mic. Just standing on his own two feet had made the pain a lot worse, the pounding being all Mark could focus on. He knew he couldn’t put anymore pressure on his head if he didn’t want it to explode but reached for the headphones anyway. His hands shook as he put them on painfully slow. He had torn them off again in barely half the time he had needed to put them on, crying in pain as he fell to his knees. His head spun and his stomach churned. At first, he didn’t even notice the hand on his back, which later turned out to belong to Jackson, who had barged into the booth the second Mark had cried out. He had kept a closer eye on his hyung ever since he admitted to suffering from another migraine.

The members felt helpless as their oldest cried in pain on the floor of the recording booth. Jackson held him, soothingly rubbing his back, but was unable to provide enough comfort. By the way Mark clutched his head, they knew he had a migraine, having witnessed it a couple of times over the course of their career, so Jinyoung turned off the lights and quietly approached the pair with a bottle of water. “Hyung, do you think you can stomach some water?”, he asked carefully. The older replied tensely: “I-I need to be sick.” Quickly scooping him up, Jackson tried to get to the bathroom as fast as possible without jostling his sick hyung too much. Mark had already turned a few shades paler by the time they made it there and relied on the younger’s support to keep himself upright in front of the toilet. His stomach lurched, causing him to pitch forward, and he was grateful for Jackson’s strong arm steadying him. The younger couldn’t help but feel his heart break at his hyung’s pained groans in between the heaves. It didn’t help that Mark had barely eaten anything during breakfast, so after all the water was out, he struggled to bring anything up. He was surprised his head was still in one piece as it felt like exploding over and over again from the strain. After what felt like an eternity, the heaves slowly tapered and Mark weakly slumped back against Jackson’s chest, who tightened his hold on the older. The younger gently brushed his hyung’s sweaty hair out of his eyes before reaching for some toilet paper to clean him up.

“Are you ready to go home now?”, Jackson asked quietly. He only knew that Mark was still awake because his face was contorted in pain. Tearing up, the older whimpered: “I-I can’t go home. We have deadlines.” – “Hyung, you won’t be able to record like this anyway. You look like a corpse and I’m afraid you might become one if you don’t rest soon”, Jackson retorted, “I finished already, I can take you home. Doesn’t your bed sound really tempting, right now?” – “It does”, Mark had to admit hoarsely. Still shaky on his legs, he allowed his dongsaeng to pull him to his feet and onto his back. Trying to keep his steps light, Jackson carried him back to the studio, so they could inform the others about leaving. “I’ll come with you, I’m done already too”, Jinyoung announced, collecting their belongings while Jaebeom called them a driver. Mark kept his eyes closed through all of it, reminding himself that gritting his teeth would only make the pain worse. Suddenly there was a gently hand on his head, stroking his hair, and he heard Jaebeom’s voice close to his ear. “Get some rest and don’t worry about our deadlines, I’ll reschedule the recording for you”, the leader hummed softly. Mark replied with a sleepy: “Thanks.” Then he felt Jackson move and Jinyoung instructed: “Keep your eyes closed, we’re almost outside and it’s rather sunny.” It wasn’t like Mark had any motivation to open his eyes anyway, so he let his dongsaeng’s take him to the car. Jinyoung got in first and helped Mark find his seat too. While he buckled the oldest’s seatbelt, Jackson got in on the other side, buckling himself up too before adjusting the air conditioning.

They spent the ride in silence with Mark resting on Jinyoung’s shoulder and Jackson holding his hand for emotional support. The older was so out of it that he didn’t pay any attention to the other two distributing tasks as they pulled up in front of their dorm building. Jinyoung unbuckled their seatbelts before going ahead to the dorm to let the other two in and Jackson helped the dizzy Mark out of the vehicle and onto his back again. They made their way to the dorm much slower than their dongsaeng, who took off Mark’s shoes while Jackson struggled out of his. He then carried the oldest straight to their room and lowered him on his bed. “Shorts or sweatpants?”, he hummed, opening his hyung’s closet. Peeling himself out of his jeans, Mark muttered: “Shorts please.” He changed with some difficulties before laying down and pulling his pillow over his head. While Jackson closed the blinds, Jinyoung came in with a bucket, some water and his hyung’s migraine medication. “Hyung, can you sit up for a moment? I’ve got your meds”, the vocalist whispered, gently removing the pillow. Before even trying to sit up, the older warned: “I-I might need to be sick again.” – “That’s okay, I brought a bucket but try to keep the pills in as long as possible”, Jinyoung assured, helping his hyung to sit up. Mark downed the pills with only a few small sips of water, afraid they’d come right back up. Jackson had ventured into the kitchen and collected two icepacks, while his dongsaeng helped Mark get under the blanket properly. “Wait”, he hummed lowly, returning to their room, “Lay your head on my lap.” Sitting down against the wall close to the headboard, Jackson settled the older’s head on his thigh and gently slipped one icepack under his neck before placing the other on his forehead. “Alright, you can go to sleep now, hyung”, the younger rapper smiled, playing with Mark’s hair. Jinyoung sat down on Jackson’s bed, whispering: “I hope you feel better when you wake up.”

[willadisastercry]

Part 1 of the: ‘Lance has epilepsy and gives everyone an absolute heart attack’ series

tw: epileptic content, migraine symptoms including aura symptoms, seizure activity

also (((( I do not have epilepsy but I am familiar with the condition from first hand experience with a friend, the content described consists of specific symptoms they experienced at one time or another due to several other outside factors and are used to convey a fictional circumstance. Nothing of ill intent here to belittle the condition!! ))))

Lance managed to successfully hide the fact that he has epilepsy from the doctors at the Garrison, telling them the hospitalizations on his file were for fibril seizures and that he’d grown out of them. His parents only let him do it because his condition had been under control for a while after he found the right balance of medication once he’d stopped growing. He hadn’t had a grand mal seizure in years. But he’d only had so many pills on his person when he got thrown into this mess of being a juvenile defender of the universe... and he’s officially run out.

Lance woke up from his nap with a start and winced.

His head was throbbing and the strings of light that flashed before him despite the darkness of his room were nauseating so he pressed his eyes shut, maneuvering shakily into a sitting position to try and steady his breathing.

His headache hadn’t gotten much better in the time he’d spent trying rest. He’d finally managed to fall asleep only to spend it thrashing around and getting tangled in his sheets, kicking them to the floor after he’d worked up enough of a sweat.

He knew this type of headache. By the time Shiro called it quits for training earlier his eyes had felt so strained and his brain had pulsed so angrily within his skull that when he blinked a blur had appeared at the bottom of his field of vision, like he’d had something in his eye making it tear. Except he didn’t.

It was a blind spot of blurred vision from the aura migraine his headache was developing into. But Lance simply wasn’t ready to admit what was coming next so he stubbornly convinced himself that he could just sleep it off.

Because he would be fine. The only other activity he’d had was earlier in the training session when he nearly face planted after succumbing to an absent seizure he’d been trying to fight. It was his turn to spar with the simulated sentry but his feet remained firmly planted underneath him, his mouth frozen in a slanted gape.

Hunk was at his side immediately trying to break the spell, assuring the team he had just gotten lightheaded and needed a minute. It lasted for thirty seconds tops but the amount of effort it took to finally make his feet work left him briefly confused and disoriented.

“You know you need to tell someone, right?” Hunk asked worriedly as his grip on his friends shoulder tightened.

All he could do was nod and promise to tell Shiro and Allura later. It took another minute to convince Hunk that he was fine to finish training, that he was out of the spell and felt a lot better.

But that was admittedly a huge mistake.

Because now his aura migraine had gone from mild and manageable to very concerning. He only ever saw flashes of color or light before he had a seizure and he didn’t even have rescue medicine with him so there would be no preventing it now.

He needed Hunk. He needed to get to his room before the tingling sensation that was making its way up his arms and legs got any worse.

He swung his legs over the side of his bed and waited while he woke up a bit more to get settled in with the orientation. Before the blood rush making his ears ring dissipated a pins and needles sensation crawled up his neck and his jaw clicked as he fought how it wanted to lock, the slow churn of anxiety in his stomach picking up as his head turned to the side without him wanting it to.

No, nope! Gotta move.

He scooted to the very edge of his bed and planted his feet firmly on the floor.

Your gonna get stuck for who knows how long and by then you could be seizing.

Gotta get up, gotta go.

His legs felt like jelly beneath him when he sent his body up into a standing position, letting the momentum of the push take him stumbling to his door. It whooshed open swiftly before the blood rush that hadn’t even settled from when he sat up in his bed could even dissipate, worsened by standing up so quickly, and he tumbled forward boneslessly. He was just able to snag a hold on the door frame when the bright lights of the hallway assaulted his eyes.

And then before he could even ride the nauseating wave of pain from the sudden exposure to such strong lighting he was met by a solid force that threatened to take him to the ground if they weren’t holding onto his arms so tightly.

“You know you’re supposed to have your eyes open when you walk, right?”

Keith.

It was Keith, it was anyone. Lance could’ve cried he was so happy to have quite literally stumbled upon someone who could help.

The other boy’s hands stayed holding Lance’s arms firmly as he fought his rapidly stiffening neck to attempt to look him in the eyes, wincing when he tried to open them and finding that he literally couldn’t.

“Wait, what’s wrong with you?”

He would’ve replied had it not been for the sudden overwhelming surge of blood from his head to his hands and legs. He was about to pass out, shit.

He fought desperately to wrench his jaws apart to speak, coughing and sputtering through pursed lips at the effort but eventually hearing a click and then launching into the renewed ability before it disappeared again.

“Need to sit, like now,” Lance spat urgently, his face paling almost in sync with his statement.

“The fuck—okay, okay, i’ve got you,” Keith started, Lance’s legs buckling not even a beat later, but his arms were around the other boy’s middle and guiding him to sit against the wall before he could even hit the ground.

He groaned pitifully as his head lolled to the side before it locked into position for the absent seizure he’d postponed, still conscious but frozen and battling the not so fun affects of being so very close to fainting but not actually.

“Lance what’s happening?”

Keith’s voice was pitched higher than before and his words came faster, his hand was on his forehead checking for a fever that wouldn’t be there. They then moved to his cheek and the other his neck, his pulse was strong but fast.

“Can you hear me?”

He could, but his face was stuck in a grimace. He made an annoyed noise through his gritted teeth and managed to flick his hand, Keith taking it up hesitantly.

“If you can hear me, uh, squeeze my hand...” he waited and gasped when Lance squeezed, well attempted to. The absent seizure wasn’t sticking which meant that he was going to have a grand mal like a lot sooner than later. He wanted to cry.

“Do you feel—are you sick? You don’t have a fever...”

He hummed and managed to move his head away and back into place, not really a nod but Keith got the idea.

“Okay... can you speak? Like I don’t know what’s wrong but it seems like—“

“Pillows.”

His jaw clicked again and he bit his tongue as he choked the word out, the taste of iron filling his mouth.

“Pillows? What? Why would...? Shit, wait does that m—“

“Keith... pillows.”

Lance didn’t have to ask again, Keith was in his room tearing the covers off of his bed and snatching up the abundance of pillows on Lance’s bed that would have confused him before but now made perfect sense. When he got back to the hallway Lance hadn’t moved except to lay on his side far from the wall, his face wet with tears.

“H-hunk,” Lance pleaded, his voice barely audible as Keith scrunched up the blankets behind him and then nudged him to pick up his head so he could place his pillow beneath it. He was pretty sure what was about to happen and he was terrified for his friend.

“I... I don’t want to leave you alone like this, your scaring me,” Keith said, the fear in his voice genuine and the care sincere. Lance didn’t have to have his eyes open to know exactly how Keith must look with how distraught he sounded and would’ve been really touched if he weren’t so goddamned scared himself.

“Get Hunk. Go now. Hurry.”

His voice broke on the last word and Keith took off in a dead sprint for Pidge’s workspace where he’d seen him last.

Lance wasn’t sure of how much time passed before darkness washed over him... but it wasn’t darkness, he wasn’t seizing yet... someone was here. With the cover of their shadow he managed to work one eye open to test if it would still be agonizing even with the shade.

It was Shiro. He looked more amused than concerned, but Lance couldn’t blame him.

“Lance?! What the fuck, bud?”

He almost laughed but found he couldn’t even do that, his body was too tense, stiffening up but not in the tonic stage yet because he was still conscious. It was getting close though, the seizure would happen soon but his body relaxed as much as it could knowing that Shiro was here with him and he wouldn’t be alone.

“Like I wanna ask, but then again I also don’t know if I want to know—Lance? Wh-Lance?! Lance what the—shit.”

Lance’s sensitive eyes flew open, wide and unseeing before they rolled back and he let out a strangled whine, head snapping back against the pillow so aggressively that the momentum sent him the rest of his body with it. Now rolled onto his arching back while his limbs straightened and stretched out, his middle rose steadily off the ground against his long legs digging into the floor.

Shiro paled and sat in utter shock for a moment before he seemed to snap right into action, realization hitting him in the gut as he wrangled the younger boy’s rigid form back onto his side, just in time for the drool to flood from his mouth in enough of a quantity to have had him choking.

“You’re okay, Lance. That’s it, you’re okay,” Shiro soothed as he scrambled over to his other side so he could use his body to keep him from rolling onto his back while he corded his hand through his now damp hair and rubbed circles between his tensed shoulder blades, this way he could still keep an eye on his face and where his hands were.

The tonic phase lasted a minute, maybe even more, but that was already too long.

Shiro heard footsteps just as Lance’s body shuddered, the prone boy groaning deeply and gurgling hard on more saliva, his hands now rising with speed towards his face but Shiro was quick to catch the fists before they connected, letting them settle at his neck after he’d stopped the force of what would have been a painful blow.

“No, no, shit!” Hunk ground to a halt and dropped down next to Lance, Pidge there a second later immediately rushing to resituate the pillows where they’d leave him with fewer bruises in the morning.

“When did he start seizing?”

“Uhm, literally a minute ago... well no. He started twitching right before you got here but he’s been stiff for a while... Hunk what’s-what’s wrong with him?”

“Well, nothing’s like wrong with him I guess-I don’t know... he just-he just—“

“He has epilepsy.” Pidge offered and Hunk sighed deeply before continuing, Lance’s twitches not letting up and his grunts getting louder.

“It’s been under control for years, once he’d stopped growing and gotten his medicine right, that’s why he was able to pilot for the Garrison. But he ran out of pills last week, god, I told him to tell you! He’s so stubborn... I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for Hunk, you’re a good friend. I’ll chew him out when he’s, uh, better.”

Pidge squeaked when she caught a boney knee to her side after leaning too close to fix the blankets and Hunk shooed her back protectively.

“How long are these supposed to last...?” Keith asked worriedly as he hovered over the scene.

“Hmm, this is actually kinda long for him, they’re only ever a minute or two,” Hunk frowned.

“It’s probably because he couldn’t properly wane himself off of his medicine... he tried to but he kept getting auras and his arms would tingle and he told me, and I quote, that he needed ‘not tingling arms to shoot a gun’.”

“Well, it’s certainly helpful—“

“Hey, I think it’s ending,” Hunk interrupted as Lance slowly began to wind down into the pillows beneath him with steady shudders but not full on spasming, his eyes fluttering closed a minute later with a few residual twitches every now and then.

“What now?” Shiro asked.

“Now we should probably tell Coran and Allura, we need a new way to stop his seizures and until we do he’s going to keep having them,” Pidge said as she straddled Lance to get on his other side and then pushed him onto his back and laid against his side, nearly on top of him, with her hands in his hair.

“I’ll get them,” Keith stated before running off again, happy for the out because he was still rattled and just not good with the comfort stuff.

“We also need to see if we can rouse him, he’s probably gonna be confused when he wakes up... pressure helps him not panic,” Hunk prompted when he saw Shiro eyeing Pidge’s minstrations with confusion.

Hunk leaned down and started rubbing his sternum with his knuckles and whispering close to his ear.

“Come on hermano, open your eyes. It’s over, it passed. You’re okay now.”

His eyes fluttered open slowly but closed quickly and he winced as he turned his head to the side. Shiro moved to block the light like he had before and the pain seemed to wash away instantly.

Pidge cupped his cheek gently and turned his face back up. When he opened his eyes again it didn’t hurt and he softened back into the pillow... wait pillow, why’d his eyes hurt? He wasn’t in his room and Shiro was leaning over him and staring down into this soul but he was also upside down, what—

“Calm down Lance, you had a seizure. You’re okay now, it’s over, just relax,” Hunk soothed as his face came into view over Lance and he let out a small “oh” before taking a deep breath.

“Hey Pidge,” he said after a while and she smiled into the crook of his arm and he returned the sort of hug.

“Hey, stupid.”

“Ugh, rude. Give a guy a break, will ya?”

“Not until you stop being stupid!”

“Pidge has a point, you can’t just keep stuff like this from us. Coran could’ve helped! And what if we were on a mission and Hunk or Pidge weren’t with you to—“ Shiro stopped himself and sighed.

“You just worried us and the point is you should’ve come to us, but I think you get that now... yeah?”

He nodded sheepishly as Shiro bent down to ruffle his hair.

When he seemed less out of it Hunk pulled him up into a sitting position but he was uncharacteristically weak, even for just getting out of a seizure and slumped back immediately, Shiro quickly filling in behind him and keeping him upright. He squeezed his eyes shut now that his shade was gone and breathed through the dizziness.

“You’re eyes still hurt...? Hm, a migraine that long isn’t good,” Pidge mused sympathetically as she continued to run her hands soothingly through his hair and his face scrunched up in frustration.

“I think we should get him to the infirmary and have Coran check him out,” Shiro said as he shifted behind Lance to hold him better.

“Think you can stand or do you still feel weird?”

Lance shook his head slowly, careful not to move faster than he needed to with his head aching once again.

“That’s alright, I’ll give you a lift.”

Piggy back rides from Hunk are always welcome, but not like this. Lance was sad, also sort of embarrassed but mostly really tired. He wasn’t even aware he’d nodded off until Hunk deposited him onto a cot that Coran had set up in the infirmary.

“Lance! Oh, you must stop scaring us all like this!” Allura urged as Shiro placed a hand on her shoulder to ease her tension.

“Scared the crap out of me...” Keith chimed in, Hunk nudged him in approval for having done so well in handing such a bizarre situation given the circumstances.

Lance assumed that everyone was here but refused to open his eyes, his stomach was in knots and he didn’t want to test the stability of his stomach in front of everyone by trying to be a tough guy. Coran seemed to recognize the wrinkling of his nose and flutter under his eyelids for the internal debate that it was.

“Ah, my boy! You can open your eyes, we’ve turned the lights down considerably and have shaded bifocals—right, sun-glasses, for you to wear so you aren’t in pain.”

Lance opened one eye cautiously. The lights were in fact dimmed but even the muted brightness seemed to make his head throb so he reached for the glasses from Coran, grateful when they took the edge off the ache.

“This is better...” he sighed and curled up under the blanket that had been laid out for him now that he knew it was there, holding his arm out for Pidge to resume her position.

“You’re so cold, what the heck,” she fussed as she rubbed his hands aggressively, hoping the friction warmed them.

“It’s probably a side affect of stoping such a strong medicine cold turkey, you’ve probably felt somewhat ill the past few days too...” Coran provided as he hustled around the infirmary, getting supplies as Allura and her mice resumed typing away on a tablet.

“You should’ve told me you experience seizures regularly! Alteans have a similar phenomenon that’s easy to remedy... it might take some time to find the right balance for you, but I think I have several things that we can try, how does that sound?”

“Sounds good, anything so I can keep piloting Blue...”

“Oh... is that why you didn’t want to tell us?” Shiro asked sadly, “because you thought we’d replace you or forbid you from piloting?”

Lance didn’t answer, he only sunk somehow further into the bed but welcomed Pidge’s tightening grip around his chest and could feel Shiro’s hand on his leg as he sat on the edge of the cot.

“We never would have done that, Lance. We would’ve figured something out, tried everything before it came to that and even then how could we? You’re the blue paladin and there’s nothing that could change that.”

Lance was crying again, thankful he had glasses to cover his tears.

“Thanks, Shiro. S’pretty stupid.”

“Shhh, stop saying that. Only I can call you stupid!” Pidge grumbled.

“Aha, right. Sorry, thanks guys.”

“Don’t thank us, bud, it’s our job.”

[whitewitchdani]

Laters, Baby: Chapter 10

Read Chapter 9 Here

Word Count: 2598

Pairing: Winchester!Sister x Lucifer

Warnings: fluff, angst, mentions of sex, language

A/N: Chapter 10! Let me know what you think and if you’d like to be tagged!

Later’s, Baby Masterlist

You were pleasantly surprised that, although you had slept in Hell and on the way here, you felt tired almost as soon as your head hit the pillow. You had gotten more sleep in the last 24 hours alone than all three Winchesters combined got in a week. Though, with everything that had happened, could anyone really blame you? 

You snuggled deeply into the sheets of the bed and took a deep breath. Flipping over to your other side, you pulled the silk sheets up to your... Silk sheets? You opened your eyes to see red silk sheets in place of the white cotton ones that had been there before. What the hell? you thought to yourself. You were facing the door of the bedroom at Bobby’s house so you hadn’t left, what was going on? You returned to your left side and gasped as you were met with a pair of deep blue eyes. 

“I know you said red was cliché, but these are so much more comfortable than the drab that was on here before, aren’t they?”

You furrowed your eyebrows, “Lucifer?”

“In the flesh. Well, sort of.”

“But, how? How’d you find-” you paused and let out a small laugh, “I’m dreaming, aren’t I?”

“‘fraid so doll. I know you’re disappointed you don’t get all this in person but since my annoying little bro carved that warding into all of your ribs, I can’t find you physically. This is the only way we can talk.”

“Talk about what? Are you finally going to tell me what the hell is going on?”

Lucifer sat up against the headboard and you followed suit. He took a deep breath and pushed a piece of hair behind your ear. It may have only been a dream, but it felt so incredibly real to you; you felt his hand touch your face and the chill that went down your spine as a result. 

“I suppose it’s only fair that you know as much as I do. This involves you too.” He sighed and rose from the bed, beginning to pace in front of it. “You know, this whole thing is just as weird for me as it is for you. You’re... human. Your whole race is broken, flawed. And for some Dad-forsaken reason, I can’t bring myself to kill you. I’m developing feelings. It’s terrible.”

“Okay this is getting a little insulting...”

“But it’s not terrible, that’s the thing. I like it. I like you. I was there when Father created the soulmate connection for humans. It was beautiful, one of the only things I envied of your kind. It’s incredibly rare, but deep and powerful when it happens.” He moved to sit back beside you on the bed. “Why Father brought you to me, I am unsure, but I am glad he did. I am eager to complete the connection, because I know that once we do we will be incredible together. Powerful.”

“Complete the connection? What do you mean? And powerful? Lucifer I’m so lost right now.” 

He caressed your face, “Right now, we are only in the beginning stages of the connection. I miss you, but it’s tolerable. After we complete the connection, we will truly become soulmates. Our souls will intertwine and become one. The mixture of your humanity and my grace as a result will make us extremely powerful, BOTH of us.” 

“How do we complete the connection?”

Lucifer smirked, “That’s the fun part. I’ve never had intercourse with a human, but from what I’ve seen it looks extremely enjoyable.”

“Woah, woah, wait. What?? Okay, number one; please don’t call it intercourse. Number two; we complete the connection by having sex? Seriously??”

“Yes, angel. And when we do we will be inseparable. You will receive some of my grace, and I will receive some of your humanity, making us two of the most powerful beings in existence.”

“This...this is insane.” You leaned back and rubbed your temples.

“Trust me, I know. It won’t happen immediately, I’m not a monster.”

“You’re literally the devil.” 

“Yes, but like I said, I’m nothing if not one for the classics. All that old school romance stuff looks fun. Plus, it’s a rule of the connection, it cannot be forced in any way.”

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. For some reason you trusted Lucifer, but knowing those things put you more at ease regardless. You were lost in your own head when Lucifer suddenly stood, “I have to go.”

You stood as well, “Wait what? Why? Lucifer, I have so many questions.”

He walked towards you and brought you into his arms. It was strange; you kept forgetting this was a dream because everything felt so real. You could feel his cool arms around you and how safe you felt in them; you could smell him, although you couldn’t place it, as it was something completely Lucifer. You only knew two things in that moment: how much you missed Lucifer and how much you wanted him to kiss you right now. Both of those things were equally amazing and surprising to you. 

“You will wake soon. Come find me out there. Find Castiel, he will tell you the proper way to summon me. Knowing him, he is somewhat supportive of this since it’s Dad’s plan and will help you. The pain of the separation will get worse the longer we’re apart, so try to hurry,” he said with a smirk. 

He looked down and cupped your face in both of his hands. You swore your heart stopped; he was going to kiss you. He leaned in slowly and you closed your eyes, waiting for his cool lips to meet yours and...

You woke up abruptly, shooting up into a sitting position with a gasp. You sat forward so suddenly you almost knocked foreheads with Sam who was sitting next to you on the bed. Thankfully he was able to scoot back in time to avoid the collision, but you woke up so abruptly that even Dean and Bobby, who were standing at the foot of the bed, took a step back as well. 

You were sitting there breathing heavily for a few seconds before Sam broke the silence, “Y/N, what the hell just happened?”

Turning to look at your twin, you tried to come up with a deflection on the fly, “What do you mean? I took a nap and had a nightmare, not exactly a new occurrence.”

Sam turned to look at the two men at the foot of the bed before turning back to his sister, “Y/N/N we’ve been trying to wake you up for over an hour, nothing’s worked. When we finally gave up you woke up on your own.” He handed you the glass of water he’d placed on the bedside table when he first came upstairs.

“Yeah, so you wanna try the truth this time?” Dean snapped, folding his arms.

After taking a long drink, you dropped your head into your hands; everything that was going on your life was starting to give you a migraine. The last thing you wanted to tell your family was that you spent your time in dreamland with Lucifer. You rubbed at your temples while contemplating on how to explain what had happened, reluctantly deciding on the truth.

You looked to your family and began, “I came up here to lay down and must’ve fallen asleep because when I rolled over, Lucifer was there.”

Dean cursed and ran a hand over his face, but Bobby was confused. “I don’t understand. How exactly did that happen?”

“Angels can enter our subconscious mind while we’re dreaming. Cas has done it to Dean before and Lucifer did it to me soon after he took Nick as a vessel. Y/N, what did he say to you?”

“He explained the soulmate connection; what it takes to complete it and what will happen afterwards.”

“Yeah you complete it and you’re like, officially soulmates. Being separated from you wouldn’t weaken him,” explained Sam.

You looked at Sam and sighed, “That’s part of it.”

Dean walked forward, “Wait, part?? What the hell else is there? Cas only told us about the completing part.”

You looked at your brother incredulously, “Good to know you knew more about this thing that affects me than I did,” you fidgeted with your hands and took a deep breath. Telling your brothers the next part was not going to be easy, you partly expected Dean to actually explode. 

“According to Lucifer, we complete the bond by, well, having sex,” you continued, causing everyone in the room to cringe at your statement. “But after that, apparently something happens, something mystical. He said that once the bond is completed, I will receive some of his grace and he’ll receive some of my humanity, causing us to become two of the most powerful beings in all of creation.”

You looked up from your fidgeting hands to see three pairs of wide eyes staring back at you. It wasn’t really surprising; you did just drop a huge bomb in their lap. You were having trouble believing it yourself. 

Dean suddenly swiped the books that were on the desk across the room onto the floor. You flinched at the sudden outburst. It wasn’t too surprising though; you knew Dean would be pissed.

“Hey, some of them books are one of a kind boy. I know you ain’t happy but if you ruin one of them books, I’ll put a boot in yer ass.” Bobby moved to pick up some of the books off of the floor, “I was buildin’ up a collection of books on archangels and this is what I got so far. How about instead of getting all hot and bothered, we do some research and try to find out what to do about this?”

Before anyone could move, Dean exploded. He turned to you, looking madder than you had ever seen him. “How are you so calm?? You just dropped that giant bomb on us so nonchalantly. Are you, like, okay with this or something?”

You stood from the bed, “Of course I’m not okay with this Dean! I don’t think any of us are okay with anything that has happened in the past year. But after talking to him, I think that I am Lucifer’s main focus, not the apocalypse. If we become as powerful as he says we will, we can strengthen Nick and he won’t need to take Sam as a vessel! 

“And I’m human! Don’t you think maybe loving and being with a human will cause him to maybe not hate us as a species so much? Angels are real, Dean, which means God is real. I know this is a concept that both of us have struggled to come to terms with, but now? I don’t think we have a choice. He apparently made me for Lucifer and I can feel it. It’s not something we can just ignore and hope goes away. Being away from him much longer is going to start to be physically painful. We’re running out of options.”

Dean’s face was stone; he always was hard to read. You couldn’t tell what was running through his mind and you were worried. Bobby and Sam were silent near the door, watching the scene unfold before them. They had learned long ago to not get in between a Dean-Y/N fight; it was how Sam earned his first black eye as a kid. 

The stone face was beginning to turn red, “No. No we are not out of options. Our original plan could still work. We can still shove the Devil back in the box!”

“And how do you think that would affect me, huh? I can already feel how being away from him is affecting me. Imagine if we put him back in the cage, what would happen to me? We’re Winchester’s, this is apparently our destiny!”

Dean scoffed, “Destiny?? God can take destiny and shove it right up his ass. You shouldn’t have any part in this, Y/N. I should’ve made you stay at Stanford when Dad went missing. This isn’t your fight; you aren’t even really a Winchester.”

“DEAN!”

You barely heard Sam’s exclamation. Your eyes went wide and your chest tightened as your worst fear became reality right in front of you. Ever since you found out you weren’t really their sister this was your greatest fear, that they’d drop you like yesterday’s newspaper. 

The room was silent as they awaited your reaction. A single tear slipped down your face as you finally met Dean’s gaze again.

“Get out,” you said quietly. 

You were too calm. It would’ve been better if you had started screaming at him. Bobby started herding Dean towards the door while Sam remained in the corner of the room. Dean had immediately regretted what he’d said as soon as it slipped past his lips. He turned and paused in the doorway, “Y/N/N-”

“I SAID GET OUT!” You grabbed the glass of water from the bedside table and launched it towards your brother. It impacted on the wall near his head, Dean ducking out of the doorway in the nick of time. 

You were breathing heavily as the door closed. You walked up and leaned your forehead against it, tears streaming down your face when a hand landed on your shoulder. Spinning around you came face to face with Sam, who you had forgotten was still in the room. 

“Please, just go Sam.”

“Dean didn’t mean that, Y/N. He’s just upset and worried. You ARE a Winchester, no matter if John and Mary are your parents or not. Obviously, you were meant to be in our family and as Bobby always says, family don’t end with blood.”

You smiled at your twin who returned it. In that moment you knew what you were going to do about the situation at hand. But you knew you couldn’t without saying something to Sam.

“Sam, you’re the best twin any girl could ever ask for. You’ve been my best friend my whole life and you were there for me through everything. I love you, Sam. So much. But you can’t be there for me through this. I’m sorry.” 

“I love you too, Y/N/N. What’s going on? What’re you sorry for?”

“For this.” You opened the door and shoved your brother through, closing and locking it after he was out. To ensure your twin’s six-foot-four frame wouldn’t bust through, you shoved the dresser in front of it as well. 

Standing there for a second, you just listened to Sam bang on the door, calling for you and then for Dean and Bobby. You knew you didn’t have much time before the three of them would be able to get the door open.

You closed your eyes and for a minute the room was bathed in silence. When you opened them again, you waited expectantly. Suddenly, there was a whoosh sound and you turned to the figure that had appeared in front of the window.

“Y/N, your brothers are on the other side of that door and very upset. What is happening? Why have you barricaded yourself from them and called me?” Cas squinted his eyes and tilted his head at you, a trait you had always found endearing. 

“I need help Cas and I know you’re the only one who will help me.”   

“What is it that you need?”

You took a deep breath and took a step towards the angel, “I need you to help me summon Lucifer.”  

Read Chapter 11 Here

Tag List:

@lovesamwinchester​ @tomhiddleston-is-mischief​ @loco-latte​ @stuckinsaudi1​ @sugar-nico​ @potato-extra-pot​ @humbledarkness​ @the-fiery-ghost​ @jo-wayward​ @streetghostfighter07​

[love101imagines]

Canyon Moon

(osman | imagine)

Request: Heyy, I wanted to request something for the Osman with a artistic s/o post. So I think it would be sooo cute if the artistic s/o has an art block so the business is kind of not going well and Osman, the businessman he is, tries everything to help her get inspired again. Like surprising her and bringing her to the most beautiful places and giving her small presents and art stuff and the s/o doesn’t know how to act? And for Osman it’s no big deal but she is confused? Thank you for all!

tag: @trashofsth55 @girl-looking-out-window

(a/n): this !! this request gets it, this was so cute to write.

A nudge in your ribs woke you up abruptly from the “nap” you were having over your desk and angered your mood.

“Ow! What was that for?”

Osman seemed unfazed and folded his sleeves, an habit he had when he turned into the bussines man he was.

“I poked you shoulder and you didn’t move. You seemed dead for a moment.”

“That’s an exaggeration.” You replied lifting the blind of the window next to you to feel the sun in your face and wake up completely. It wasn’t the first time you had fallen asleep during recess as you spent most nights drawing but you were trying to brainstorm ideas on what to draw next.

Turns out, you had nothing now. And Osman knew it. That meant bussines was slower than usual.

“You haven’t drawn anything this week. This weekend you only did the few requests we had but nothing new. You usually come up with six or even ten new drawings.”

He laid back on his chair with that attitude that killed you but right know you wanted to kill him.

“I just haven’t have any inspiration yet. You wouldn’t understand, but don’t worry I’ll get something done.”

You checked your watch ignoring the stare he was giving to you. Right now, you only cared about the last two minutes you had to sleep. As you laid your head back in your folded arms you heard how he took out his bag of hazelnuts he carried everywhere. He ate one and handed you another, which you kindly took.

“I’ll tell the others that you are working hard on new landscapes which will be ready in a few days. Think about how much we’ll earn this week only.”

“I thought the cafeteria was doing well. You are one step from exploiting me.”

He chuckled lightly with a smirk. You were sure he was thinking about how much he had earnt this month with you and the homeworks he sold. Truth be told, he was thinking about how much your mood would be better once you found out the surprise he had prepared for you.

“That’s the exaggeration. You could do all of this pulling an all nighter, and I know this because I’m your-“

“You’re my boss, I know.” You interrupted him doing your best not to lose your temper, and being such a hot-headed that was hard with you.

You knew that was so uncalled for you immediately tried to fix it. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that, but it’s an art block. I need some time.”

The bell rang and you mentally groaned. You had a Maths test and Osman had Music, so he had to switch clases. You put your hair in a bun to feel ready for the test and even though you expected him to leave you alone, he only squeezed your shoulder.

“I’ll help you with that.” As students started to arrive at the classroom he got up ready to leave, not before handing you something wrapped in paper. “Wait for met after class. Good luck with your test.”

And with that he was gone.

Turns out you had finished the test earlier than expected, which had left you with enough time to see Osman’s gift. You almost dropped it when you noticed that they were pastel crayons you once mentioned you needed.

And now here you were, feet dangling off the beginning of a bridge staring at the towers of the Ortaköy Mosque. Osman sat next to you drinking a beer as you two enjoyed the view and listened the music coming from a nightclub nearby.

After school you had patiently waited for Osman who was finishing talking to another student he owed some homeworks. You weren’t sure why he had told you to wait for him, but he seemed to want to spoil you that day. Hence the gift, you two touring around Istanbul after having lunch and him paying for you, even though you insisted he didn’t need to but he didn’t mind.

“I don’t know why you’re so good to me sometimes.” You said tying your jacket around you waist.

He only shrugged. “Would you rather I threw you off this bridge?”

You kicked him, lightly, as you didn’t want him to fell either. “I’m going to laugh so much when you drop your beer on someone’s head.”

He pretended to almost drop it on the river, spilling a tiny bit of it and you only rolled your eyes. “And I’m going to laugh when your shoe falls off.”

You tied your shoelaces, acting offended but a small smile giving you away.

“You aren’t yourself when you don’t draw. It’s almost like someone cut off your hand and you don’t act as happy as usual. That’s why I brought you here.”

You nodded, grabbing a sip of his beer and stared at the towers in front of you. Osman voice snapped you out of your thoughts.

“Did you know that if you make a wish when you look at the towers lined up it comes true?”

You laughed. “I bet you wished I fell off.”

He elbowed you in the ribs for the second time in the day but you kept laughing.

“I know that if you fell you would drag me with you.” He replied and left his beer next to him.

You nodded, and for a while you just stayed there. You sketching the best you could and him making a few calls and finishing what was left of his beer.

He dropped you home after you had finished and the next day you handed Osman six drawings and a few sketches so students could make new requests. You might have the worst eye bags you ever had and a migraine, but it was worth it.

[bishiglomper]

UGh. I had a migraine this afternoon and by the time i would normally grab a snack I was too hurty and my stomach was cranky. I took a nap. Until after 5. Where I woke up with my heart pounding.

Which is the first symptom I get of being "low". I haven't checked much but i think my baseline was about 300. So when I woke up with a 170 I felt like shit.

I cannot stand lows. Probably half the reason I get so high. I will do anything to keep from ever being low. It takes my daily blah and amplifies it x10. And it does not resolve quickly. Even if I rectify it immediately, I feel awful for hours.

I really really really dont like it..

Not to mention its difficult to find food for myself between depression, executive dysfunction and lack of healthy choices. It's infinitely harder to do so when I can barely barely move my body.

[asherranceoftheheart]

First Meetings

Pairing/s: None, Platonic, General Character/s: Chase Brody, Antisepticeye, Mentions of other Septic Egos Genre: Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort Fandom: Jacksepticeye Warning/s: Mildly Implied Attempt of Suicide, Bullet wound, Soft!Anti Note/s: Sort of inspired by @beerecordings scenario where Chase and Anti ‘first’ meets each other. (AO3 Edition of the Fic)

The circumstance in which he and Chase first met each other after Chase came home from the hospital for the very first time after the day of his ‘birth’ truly shifted the dynamics of their relationship if Anti had to say anything about it. Anti was pretty sure that if they met in any other way, he would have treated Chase in the same way he treated the others.

Anti could still remember that moment playing out in his mind like some crystal clear film. The sound of Jack falling down with a muffled thump on the floor as a massive amount of energy was drained out of him in a matter of seconds as a result of Chase Brody’s creation, the scream for help from Marvin when the newest addition to the house appeared with a bleeding bullet wound on his head, Schneep’s controlled barked orders echoing through the house as he calmed everybody down, and Jackie’s rushed footsteps as he set about on assisting everyone into taking control of the situation… Anti had merely watched the entire situation on with an intrigued gleam in his eyes as the air of panic and adrenaline descended upon his housemates as they raced against time to save the newcomer.

It took Chase nearly an entire month of recovery before he was allowed to be discharged from the hospital under the careful eyes of Henrik. The others warned Anti to be on his best behavior and to avoid Chase if he doesn’t have anything good to say. They don’t want him to hamper his progress, they said. Anti scoffed at the way they seemed to treat the newbie like fragile glass that will shatter with the slightest harsh tone. Jack was the only one who didn’t treat him like a villain. Instead, he patted the demon on the shoulder with a silent knowing gleam in his eyes and murmured a quiet ‘be kind to him, please?’ before he went off to visit Chase again.

Anti huffed and rolled his eyes at Jack back then. Kind? Jack must have forgotten that Kindness never existed in his dictionary.

But as the day Chase was about to go home approached, the other guys became even more overbearing until he couldn’t take it anymore. He resolved to avoid the new guy like he was carrying the black plague with him when he came home. Anti would prefer not to gain a chronic headache that the nagging bastards would heap upon him as they fussed over the new baby of the house.

With that decision in mind, he skedaddled over to the Iplier’s Mansion to pester Dark and help Wilford and the other Iplier egos in their shenanigans to worsen Dark’s chronic migraine from herding his gang of bastards. He spent around an entire week playing with them before he got bored of pestering Dark and darted back into the Septic HQ before the goth-reject asshole took his head off.

It had been three in the morning when he sneaked back into the mansion and the moment he stepped inside the house, his nose twitched at the aromatic scent of warm freshly-baked cookies wafting from the kitchen.

‘Cookies…’ Anti hungrily thought as his eyes gleamed with greed.

Unknown to most of the egos, Anti has a very severe sweet tooth that caused him to engorge himself on whatever sweet thing he could get his hands on in the household or anywhere else. Jack was the only one who knew it (because the asshole knew him inside out just as well as Anti knew him even better than he does) and often bribed him for his good behavior with promises of sweets that he’d possessively hoard in his bedroom which was completely off-limits to everybody else.

He peered into the kitchen through the doorway and blinked at the sight of the newbie’s back. Anti raised an eyebrow, briefly wondering why the man’s awake at this godforsaken house before he shrugged to himself. It wasn’t that rare to find someone else awake at this time of the day since most of them would be up to something related to their own interests.

His eyes were drawn to the cooling plate of cookies on the counter and he practically drooled at the sight of the big chocolate chip cookies. He glanced back at the man whose shoulders were slumped as if he was carrying the weight of the entire universe by himself before snuffling forwards soundlessly to grab a bunch of cookies from the plate.

“You have to wait ten more minutes before you can eat them,” Anti did not jump when the silent man in the room suddenly addressed him without looking at him. “They’ll taste better with some milk.”

Finally, the man turned around and Anti couldn’t help but stare at the deep black bags under the man’s red-rimmed clear baby blue eyes, and the stained bandage wrapped around his head.

He refused to think about how similar it looked to the bandages that were wrapped around his own neck.

The newbie gave him a smile that looked more like a grimace when he saw him.

“Hello Anti, my name is Chase Brody. I’ve been hearing a lot of things about you since I woke up and I’m glad to finally meet the notorious man who’s been striking terror and frustration in everyone’s hearts,” Chase was tired and sad and looked like he was about to fall asleep any second now…

But the curiosity and glimmer of eagerness to meet him was so painfully sincere.

“Your head wound hasn’t closed yet.” Anti bluntly said, immediately hiding the awkwardness he felt when he realized that Chase truly wanted to meet him. 

Literally what the fuck, Chase Brody.

Chase’s fragile smile wavered and his eyes dulled slightly at his blunt observation before he visibly pulled himself back together.

“Marv and Hen’s trying to find a solution to it,” Chase casually said before he looked down at the plate of cookies and tapped some of them to check their temperature. “Still a bit too hot…”

“They won’t find it,” Anti narrowed his eyes as he seemed to look beyond Chase and into the distance. “It’s not something a simple spell or some medicine could cure.”

Chase gave Anti’s bandaged neck a meaningful, understanding look before he pushed the plate towards the demon in a wordless peace offering.

“I still have a lot more baking,” Chase answered the wordless question Anti gestured towards him with a tilt of his head.

“You’re not gonna sleep?” Anti asked as he grabbed a cookie and shoved it into his mouth. He moaned in delight as the flavors started exploding like fireworks in his mouth while the choco chips melted into a heavenly chocolate goo on his tongue. “The fuck kind of drugs did you put in these?”

Chase snorted and breathed out a laugh at the mystified, delighted look on Anti’s face as he chewed on his cookie slowly, cherishing every bite on its own.

“No magic. Just some heapings of love and care,” Chase cheesily grinned at the look of utter disgust that shifted into Anti’s face from his words. “And no, I can’t sleep right now so instead of mulling over my misery for hours I went here to stress bake.”

A calculative gleam entered Anti’s eyes as he thought of the implications of more heavenly baked goods coming from Chase that seemed like they could satiate his sweet tooth. He glitched one of the kitchen chairs behind him and he hopped on to it.

“Well, Chasey,” Anti sighed with a feigned mournful droop to his body that yielded a look full of amusement from the other man, “As someone who doesn’t need sleep, I suppose I could grace you with my presence as long as you pay me with food.”

The younger man laughed and turned around to bend over and take out some of the trays full of cookies from the oven after he heard it ring when the timer ran out.

“Or you could just ask me nicely if I’d make you whatever you like as long as you play nice with me,” Chase placed the tray on the table and smacked Anti’s hand with his own when he saw the demon’s greedy hands attempt to steal a cookie from the tray. “I’ve already given you your stash you complete child.”

It was odd. Anti should feel infuriated and defiant that Chase was scolding him like a child with sticky fingers but one look at those teasing eyes eased the fire in his chest and he settled down on his seat with a childish pout on his lips.

“Jack told you about my sweets addiction didn’t he?” Anti narrowed his eyes as he made a mental note to toss the bastard off the window tomorrow or well… later.

“There’s nothing wrong with liking sweets as long as it’s in moderation,” Chase chuckled. “Although I did hear from Jack that you have a monstrous appetite…”

The kitchen room was filled with light banter and teasing between the two. Anti watched as the weary set on Chase’s shoulders seemed to ease up the longer they talked to each other and the longer he was kept from drowning himself in his own thoughts. Chase could see the demon relax his guard slightly as he treated him without any judgement or nagging about his own harsher than normal personality.

It was nice, Chase thought to himself, to have someone who doesn’t seem to act like he’s going to break any second now.

It was… peaceful, Anti grudgingly admitted to himself, and he actually liked the light camaraderie between the two of them.

A few hours later, time finds Henrik staring with a flabbergasted look at the unlikely duo napping together on the couch in the living room with an empty plate full of cookie crumbs on the table in front of them. Chase was curled up into a ball on his side, head lightly pressed against Anti’s thighs, while Anti was sleeping while sitting on the couch, legs propped up on the table, a drooling mouth gaping open in his sleep, and his arms sprawled on his sides with one hand buried into the floof of Chase’s hair.

Jack, after getting over his shock at the sight of Chase actually sleeping and Anti showing one of his vulnerable sides in public, took a picture of the sleeping duo on his phone for memories and dragged a still shocked Henrik away to let them sleep more with a brilliant smile on his lips.

[angsty-violet]

Agony - Chapter 25

Agony Masterpost

@whumptober2020

Tuvok woke from his short nap with his ears ringing. He wasn’t sure what was causing it, but he was concerned. He had taken several blows to the head in his time here. He was at risk for there being permanent damage if he slept with a concussion. He pried his eyes open and looked around. There wasn’t anything noticeably different about his cell.

No chemicals were coming under the door. He had no recollection of a head wound in the past few hours that could cause the ringing. Although Tuvok had field medic training, he wasn’t qualified to diagnose what was causing it. Until he could get some real medical attention, he would just have to put up with it.

Tuvok stood to try and get a little exercise. He could tell his body was wasting away without the physical activity to keep it fit. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. He was trying to get as much movement in as possible between days. His resurgence in the will to live was demanding that he not be a complete invalid when he got out.

However, when he stood up, he immediately became incredibly dizzy. Black spots appeared in his eyes, and the world spun around him. He used the wall to steady himself and waited for it to abate. It did, but not before the ringing in his ears increased in volume. He swayed dangerously and finally slumped against the wall. He leaned against it until he was sitting on the ground. His ears still ringing, but the spots had been replaced. Instead of black, they appeared as colored arcs and circles.

He blinked his eyes to try and clear them, but they stayed where they were. Tuvok knew that he was in the beginning stage of a migraine—the aura phase. Tuvok’s migraines completely debilitated him. He would be incapable of taking any steps towards escape during it.

  Janeway watched as the planet came into view. She raised an eyebrow at the sight of it. They still didn’t have very much information on what was happening there. They knew that a madman was holding Tuvok and torturing him. They even knew roughly where the building was. However, they had no idea if this was happening with the government’s knowledge.

“Hail the planet. Let’s see if they are in on this.”

“We have a response.”

“Onscreen.

An alien appeared on the screen. He was reptilian with green scales.

“We are the Groanl. How may we help you, travelers?”

“We’re searching for our crewmember that we think might have been brought here. He’s been missing for several weeks.”

The alien looked surprised. “What makes you think he was here? We don’t get many alien ships through here.”

“We believe that one of your kind abducted him. He sent a message buoy from your planet a few weeks ago. That’s what set us on your course. We also encountered another who said that they were also abducted by the same man.”

The alien took on an alarmed look. “You must wait for one moment. If it is who we believe it to be, we will help you retrieve your crewmember with the knowledge that his captor will be sent to us for punishing.”

Captain Janeway inclined her head. “We have no intention to get between him and your justice system. We are only after our crewmember. As soon as he, or his body, are recovered, we will leave the rest up to you.”

The alien nodded quickly. “I will be back momentarily. We must move quickly. Every moment your crewmember remains, there is another moment that his life is in danger.”

  Once they had spoken to the supervisor, they had beamed down and made their way to the equivalent of a police station on the Groanl’s planet. They were led into a room that held numerous maps, charts, technology, and a lot of people. They were brought to the desk of an alien who looked up sharply when he saw them.

“My name is Selvent. Please, step into our conference room. I want to have this conversation in private.”

They followed him into a small room where he shut the door behind them. Then he scrubbed a hand over his face and looked at Janeway and the crew she had brought with her.

“You said that your crewmember was taken a few weeks ago. He looks like you?”

Captain Janeway felt a bolt of worry shoot through her. Had they found a body, and they needed an identification? She slowly nodded.

“Yes, the only external difference is his pointed ears. He’s got dark skin and brown eyes.”

Selvent looked relieved. “We haven’t found his body yet, which means there is a good chance he’s still alive. We’ve been pursuing Dr. Kell’an for almost a year. He has continued to elude us and take victims. It would go faster if we had a location to search for him and his partner, but we haven’t gotten anything yet.”

“We might be able to help you with that. We ran into another one of his victims a few days ago; they were on their way back to their home planet. They passed along the approximate location of the building Tuvok is being kept in. As long as he hasn’t been moved since then, we should be able to find them.”

Selvent looked hopeful. “If we could take this sadist down, we could keep him from hurting anyone else. If your crewmember has been there for as long as you say and survived, he must be absolutely incredible. I hate to tell you this, but the bodies we discovered have all shown signs of severe torture. It looks like they were tortured to a certain point and then murdered. You need to prepare yourself for what happens if you get him back. It’s not going to be pretty.”

“We are well aware of the possibilities. The crew has already taken the initiative to come up with ways to help him once we have him back.”

Selvent nodded in approval. “If he could survive that monster, then I gave no doubt that he can recover with your help. It might take some time, but anyone that strong is a true survivor.”

Janeway felt a tendril of hope within her, and for the first time since Tuvok disappeared, she didn’t squash it. Maybe she could afford a little hope, especially since they were so close to having him back. Although she didn’t know how awful it would be if they didn’t manage to rescue him. She didn’t even want to contemplate that thought.