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heyhoeudoin · 29 days

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TIMES SENKU TALKED ABOUT YOU

"I will always be by your side."

pairing: senku ishigami x fem!reader

words: 9.2k

genre/s: fluff, mystery, storytelling in the third perspective (special ep, s3, s4), slight angst

warning/s: she/her, swearing, ambiguous/not direct ending

synopsis: there is always someone next to senku, all the time.

masterlist ; loyalty built from love (part 1)

a/n: jokes on you guys, i was already writing a part two even before i got many requests for it. also, i wrote part 1 like months ago and it took months to write as well, so when i re-read it for part 2, part 1 was so ambiguously written good that even i have no idea what the hell i was going for.

also, don't be shy to give any comments, because i am reading those and i love them all <3

anyone could tell that senku misses you

like a lot...

to the point that he mentions you

a lot...

it was rather endearing to the people around him

it's cute that senku still remains the habit of talking about you whenever you're not physically with him

yuzuriha always liked that habit of his

she will never not be bothered by it, she's used to it after all

he would always at least mention you once a day

he just loves talking about you

it's really endearing and an adorable side to the usually unaffectionate friend of hers

"the first balloon that humanity took flight in was made of hemp cloth," shared senku as gen let out an awed noise. "the one massive ordeal to overcome is..."

"right..." yuzuriha raised her hand. "you need a crap ton of cloth, don't you?" she asked with a slightly painful look on her face, already knowing the work she's going to put into.

"oh, look!" senku pointed at yuzuriha with a devilish expression. "i totally didn't realize! we've got the crafts club here!" yuzuriha jabbed a fist at his chest.

senku and kaseki then got onto the floor and bowed, performing a dogeza. "the science team will commit itself to designing the passenger basket," senku explained in a robot manner.

"we'll make any tools you need," kaseki tells her, raising his head.

"can i leave the cloth making to you? to the yuzuriha crafts team?" senku confidently asked, raising his head.

yuzuriha nods as senku stood up and the two shared a high-five. "of course you can!" she exclaimed with a peace sign.

"i could've had y/n help you with this. well actually, i think she would've helped immediately without me saying anything, but..." senku trailed off, but yuzuriha understood what he's trying to say.

she placed a hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner. "i know, senku. it's fine! i've got it handled."

later on yuzuriha asked senku and kaseki to make a loom to get things going a bit faster and easier. as she waited, senku called, "hey, it's done." she turned around expecting a simpler loom, but it was not. she let out a surprised noise, falling onto the ground. a pleasant surprise, she was given.

"was this not what you were expecting, yuzuriha-chan?" kaseki asks, a bit worried.

"we didn't have much time," says senku, looking a bit worried too. "did you want an electric one? maybe i should've. y/n would have my head seeing i didn't immediately make an electric one for you."

yuzuriha hurriedly dismissed their worry. "no! no! i appreciate it a lot!"

"they're the senku department store's first high-end products. it might be a while before they start selling," says gen, looking at the racks that held an assortment of clothes and the people that looked around the new place.

"y/n would've love this," senku absentmindedly mentions. "she would've easily volunteered for that fashion show too."

gen turned to senku as if he grew a head.

"oh, also, hand them out to anyone who works," senku then tells gen. "we have a living manifestation of greed who'll buy just about anything."

that was first time gen heard senku talk about you as if he's some clingy boyfriend that misses his girlfriend, he thought he was finally going insane in the stone world

he genuinely would have never thought that senku's the type to be like that when it comes to relationships

which was already shocking in of itself

he truly never expected to have "senku" and "relationship/boyfriend/girlfriend" in the same sentence

are you two really just boyfriend and girlfriend though?

it doesn't seem right to call you and senku, girlfriend and boyfriend

it feels like the two of you have something more

ryusui never met you

of course because when the fuck would he ever

but he has been in the same room as you a few times

people from the "rich, noble, important" families would hold these galas for the "high-class", and you attended some of them for connecting purposes

he, on the other hand, attended most of these which made it possible for him to have seen you in person a few time

though, he never dared interact with you

he only stared at you from afar in awe

it was also an added bonus that because of one of these galas, your family ended up connecting with his family through buying yachts

though, other than that, the nanami conglomerate and the l/n family has no other connection than a business one

and so when senku mentioned your name...

he didn't know what to think when senku mentioned you as if you were an old friend

and judging by chrome's reaction, it seems that the scientist has mentioned you a few times already

"we're in the sky, protected by nothing but our own skin and flesh. you don't get this kind of extravagance anywhere else," he says, looking on the horizon they are given from the air balloon. "not this unique sensation."

"yeah," senku agreed. "y/n would love to be here right now, but sucks to be her for not being here." he cackled out a laughter as chrome turned to him and gave him a light jab.

"seriously?" he deadpanned, but then got distracted by a flock of bird, flying pass the balloon. "we're with the birds!" he exclaimed.

actually, did he even refer to you as if you were an old friend?

it almost felt like he referred to you as if you were dead...

and in a manner that only a really close friend has the rights to do

ryusui didn't believe that though

i mean, how could he?

you dead?

it's ridiculous (utterly ridiculous)

he can see the reasons on why senku has survived and thrived

he also knows the reasons on why you, too, are just as capable of surviving and thriving

so where are you really?

"it's as good as bread from a popular modern shop," senku says after taking a bite out of the stollen that francois just baked. "it'll last to the other side of the planet, and it's good as hell. a perfect food that i've been dying to have and we've got it now!"

"greed equals justice," is all what francois says.

"y/n's really missing out," senku absentmindedly called out. "she would've devoured these so fast, well, as much as her stomach can handle." he smiled fondly at the thought

gen turned to him and asked, "does she like bread that much?"

"loves them even more so than the average person," senku says with a tired expression from just thinking about it. "that girl dragged me around the globe just to have a damn bread tour."

francois wasn't sure if they had heard the scientist correctly

did senku just refer to you like you two are old friends?

you?

a member of the most powerful family in the entirety of japan?

the eldest of the said family?

the next in line?

the hidden treasure of japan?

it was strange

they were confused on why senku would have connections to you

and judging from gen's casual follow-up question, your name has been brought up more than once by senku

but it wasn't their job to be curious and to question the lives of others

their job was to serve ryusui-sama

and for the sake of the nanami conglomerate, ishigami senku is an absolute want

minami, being the journalist she is, are one of the only few people that knows you a bit better than most

after all, she was handpicked by the l/n family to be one of the few media representation for your first ever media debut

it was groundbreaking for her career

and it also broke the entirety of japan

you had revealed then that you will not be accepting any courting, and offers of marriage because you had already found the person you'd spend your life with

no one knew who you were talking about

she remembered the massive wave of investigation happening shortly after the publication of that interview done by... everyone, really

no one ever figured it out who this person was

...or is

maybe she's the first amongst reporters to finally figure it out

"at least let me take the first picture for memory's sake!" exclaimed minami with an embarrassed expression.

"perfectly fair," voiced ukyo and gen.

ryusui laughed, raising his hand in the air. "i'm buying the photo, model rights, and all!" he declared.

minami turned to him, angry, baring teeth. "why should the first photo be yours?!"

"what are you talking about?" he asked. "it's a record of the beginning of technological civilization. it should be senku, obviously. am i right?"

senku owlishly stared at ryusui and minami.

"an exhibit at the nanami museum, representing the history of the new world." ryusui walked over to where senku stood with all the other cameras.

senku stuck a pinky into his ear. "what are you talking about?" he asked. "if anything, the first picture should be y/n." a wave of silence rose amongst the revived people. they know fully well that what senku had said was absolutely correct.

but they also know that it won't be possible right now.

the scientist sighs, breaking the silence. "it's too bad she's frozen shut right now," he mocked casually with a teasing grin.

"i think you're the only one who can joke about her like that," gen commented with a slightly awkward chuckle.

in the end, senku had the honors of being the first person photographed in the stone age, posing the famous einstein pose and minami had the honors of photographing the first picture in the stone age

but that wasn't the only thing that she got from this

she's always listening, you know? and there was one thing that stood out from the banter around her

no one in japan would have the courage, the boldness to joke around your name like senku had just did

not to your face nor behind your back

and yet senku, being the man of knowledge he is, is bold enough to do so

why is that?

was gen right?

that senku really is the only person who can joke about you like that?

since the surrender of tsukasa, there were many rumors she had heard about the two of you and it was all the same thing

that you and senku have something going on

she refuses to believe those rumors

she's a journalist—she shouldn't be believing in those rumors!

her motto is to find the truth

and the truth she will find sooner or later (when she gets the guts to ask you)

when they found the oil, obviously they had to test it out

gen was the one conducting the test drive (because he's the only one with drivers license)

then taiju dropped by, getting a whiff of that oily smell

"hey! it's the love potion," commented taiju. "are you going to give it to someone, senku?"

the people there were confused on what taiju had meant. "what are you talking about, taiju-chan?" asked gen.

"you made some for me that day, remember?" taiju says as his mind took him back to the day it all started. "so that i would have the confidence to confess to yuzuriha. you also said it worked out for you and y/n because of it. it was the last moment we had before we all got petrified."

senku ended up cackling afterwards. "i did! i said that! i told you it was a love potion! you still believe that, you meathead?! that was gasoline!"

"what?! it was?!"

"also, no way in hell would i ever use something on y/n unless she forces me in another of her batshit insane experiments," senku deadpanned. "but if you think it smells the same with no prior knowledge—"

now, gen is totally one to assume

and what senku said kind of sounded like an implication...

in both that way and a completely different way

although, if it was that way then, knowing senku, he would have never mentioned it

so it was probably an actual batshit insane thing

why does gen feel like his image of you will be changed while they're here

a small moment of reference when yo was whispering some shit to gen, pinning senku as some sort of mad lad

well, he kind of is but...

"i'm pretty sure he's wack," whispered yo to gen. both sweating.

"nah, y/n's the one who's wack between she and i. i've still got my mind intact, just barely," senku retorted, looking back at the two.

when valentines came, gen had an interesting answer to his question

"ah, valentine's day," mused gen as kohaku repeated it, confused. "yeah, events are important. for the drago—i mean, for the morale."

senku and yuzuriha went out of the laboratory, handing out the chocolates. gen turned to senku with a question in mind. "do you give chocolates to y/n-chan, senku-chan?"

senku shook his head. "nah, y/n doesn't really like them," he answered which shocked gen. "she'd rather have things that she could wear or practical gifts."

see

look at that

that gave a lot to gen

senku practically confirmed that he gives gifts to you!

and also does so on VALENTINES

if that's not confirmation of being a couple, he doesn't know what is

but then again...

like he had thought before, it doesn't feel like the two you are just boyfriend and girlfriends

but what other kind of relationship would still condone in the valentines romance gift giving?

shouldn't there be some kind of answers by now?

then after they took the group photo with the finished ship

senku looked a bit... down? contemplated?

it was strange to see

why would he be feeling down?

it was quite obvious as well

"are you unsatisfied about the pictures, senku?" asked minami, holding her camera.

"nah, i don't care about that," answered senku.

"then what's got you so down, senku-chan?" asked gen.

senku stared off in the direction of where the tsukasa empire was with a somber look. gen immediately understood from that alone. "take lots of pictures when y/n comes back, journalass," senku told her as he walked off towards the ship.

everyone knew that you barely had any pictures

after all, you were called the hidden treasure of japan

you probably told senku how you felt about it, and he remembers

gen thought it was sweet

minami felt herself gushing about it

when ryusui called upon the people who were needed on the expedition, it was gen's turn to come aboard.

and, to be perfectly clear, tsukasa was left behind by choice because he felt obliged to protect the kingdom of science since most of the battle team were coming along to the perseus

"uh, you don't need me, do you?" asked gen, frantically. "i've got the strength of a bean sprout."

"we don't know what kinds of enemies we're going to meet. what good is a mentalist if they aren't there when that happens, dumbass?" explained senku. "i'd have y/n instead of you if she wasn't being frozen away like a piece of salami."

the modern people felt cultural shock at the casual way of senku playing around your name, but at the same time they feel that they should get used to it.

"ah so i'm just a second choice, huh?" mused gen as he trekked up towards the ship.

"of course you are," senku answered without thinking. "it's always y/n first to me."

the crowd who watched the take off of the ship awed at the display of loyalty senku accidentally announced. gen started grinning, knowing full well that he caused senku to slip like that. senku then grimaced at what he said even thought it's true.

maybe senku should dial back a bit...

ryusui also knows now that you're very much alive somewhere in the kingdom of science

he just doesn't know why you're not physically present

also, did his ears deceive him or did senku just practically confess his feelings for you?

but it wasn't that...

judging from the way the people present cooed at his confession and how gen was smirking like he set it up on purpose

was there something else between the two of you?

this time, it was yuzuriha who shared something about you

"these kinds of people are always dying to show you the machines they tuned the hell out of," says nikki, looking sympathetic.

"they won't let you go until their done," kohaku added.

"i'll be alright!" yuzuriha clarified, making kohaku and nikki shocked. "i always sat through senku-kun's five hour rocket lectures and stuff."

"we have a veteran here!" exclaimed nikki, still looking shock with kohaku.

yuzuriha laughs at that. "if you think i'm a veteran, then y/n must be something else! she always did listen to him..." she mused with a fond smile.

senku smiled as well from that comment.

yuzuriha may not be as close to you as she is to senku, but she completely adores you!

...after getting over the fact that you're the y/n l/n

you were like... any other person, just a bit clueless in other areas

actually, you were a lot like senku in a lot of ways

it's a good portion of the reason why the two of you have the relationship that you two have grown to have

this time, gen was the one to first mention you to amaryllis

albeit in a more... implied upbringing

despite not actually knowing if you two are intertwined or not

but he's very confident that you two are

"that kind of attack isn't going to work on senku-chan," he says. "he's already married, you know?"

and then he went scummy

to which kohaku shouted and hit at him for

and then she later scolded herself after forcing a kiss on senku to save her own ass

she kneeled on the ground and slammed her head on the floor in a dogeza position, facing the direction of ishigami village. "i am sorry, y/n. i will be held responsible for this action, and i will allow you to give me whatever punishment is deemed necessary."

senku sighed, sticking a finger in his pinky, looking exasperated. "y/n's reasonable, calm down, she won't be that mad." his eyes looking far away in the same direction as if thinking of something himself for you.

while senku was making conditioner for kohaku, he mentions you

"y/n's actually been nagging me about making hair stuff for a while now," senku commented while making the hair products. "she always had this specific routine for her hair."

amaryllis didn't know who you are. "is she the one who's married to him?" she asked gen.

"yes," he answered. "y/n-chan is a very powerful person. she's probably even stronger than the strongest soldiers here on the island."

"really?!"

senku glanced at the implied threat gen displayed with an unamused look, but let him does so anyways. it's true, after all.

when amaryllis tried to girlie-fy the boys,

"you know, y/n would actually be impressed that you could fake being a girl like that," senku mentions, crossing his arms on his chest after washing off the makeup on his face.

"really?"

"she'd probably even call you—in her words—a tall baddie." senku made a grimace as he said that.

then when the two girls and one boy dressed like a girl left, gen mentioned your name to start a conversation

"if only we have y/n-chan, huh?" gen comments.

senku shook his head. "nah, she wouldn't do that," he says. "although if she was here, she'd probably go all stealth instead."

"are they really..."

"i'm not answering any questions you have about them."

"so you do know!"

gen was inspecting the earpiece, amazed and shocked by how simple it can be done

and then, of course, senku mentions you

"it was y/n who actually taught me how to make that," senku commented. "i don't know why she bothered learning to make one when she could literally buy the best one, but she said she liked how simple and cosmetic it can be if made like this. though, i'm glad she taught it to me now because it certainly useful for this."

"of course this is y/n-chan's design, not yours," says gen, holding it up in front of him.

as senku looked through the pile of gold dust

as the pile of platinum grew

it was the first time he felt vulnerable since you had been frozen shut

he isn't one to be all emotional, but at moments like these... it really showed just how much care byakuya had for him

senku scoffs. "if y/n was here, she'd be bawling her eyes out," he says, his eyes a bit glassy himself.

"you counting seconds all that time, and your papa collecting sand for decades..." gen looked wistful. "you two are alike."

once the team were able to make the revival fluid, the thought of reviving their stoned comrades were first in the list

senku ordered kohaku to cleanly cut the greedy captain when given the chance

afterwards, ryusui's stone parts were delivered to them

"i've always known you're ridiculously rational, but... but still you're practically psycho at this point!" screamed gen after figuring out what's happening.

senku shook his head with a smirk. "nah, y/n's the psycho one between us," he corrected. "if she was given parts like these, she'd be experimenting, mix-and-matching them. i'd be the only one to get her to stop."

"every time you say things about y/n-chan that she's a psycho and all, it ruins the image i have of her and i can't help but not believe you," gen bluntly replied. "except you're the only one that knows who she really is, so i have to believe you."

senku cackled.

when kohaku was fighting against moz, all she could think about was how he's nothing compared to you

"i like strong girls, too, as long as they have a pretty face," he says as he took out the machete out of his weapon. "what kind of men do you like, kohaku-chan? how about me? i'm strong as hell."

the girl let out a sigh, then tied her hair up to her usual ponytail while crouching down. "strength is strength of mind," she states, making him slightly confused. "to be able to continue hammering a wedge for as long as it takes to carry out one's will. that's the kind of person i'm drawn to."

her pose changed to a battle stance. "well~ this is a problem, moz. you seem to be the exact opposite," she tells him. "and compared to him?" she scoffs. "actually, compared to her? you're nothing. literally. she's stronger than both of us combined, actually, stronger than anyone else on this island."

"i don't know who you're referring to, but you're cute, kohaku-chan. just not cute enough though."

did kohaku just imply something

AND

maybe come out of the closet?

maybe

maybe not

who knows

but she really wasn't lying

moz really is nothing compared to the people she admires and respects the most

as the parts of the gun was laid out on the table, the people from the 21st century had recognized it

of course they did, after all,

"this is what made men and women, young and old, all of humanity, all of homo sapiens, the apex predators. it's the invention of the gods and demons, and even then, humans who owns these rank higher than what we can see on the pyramid," senku states as kaseki finished the building of the gun.

"we, humans, may be on top of the food chain, but once given some source of power? we become our own enemies. and we all know who's at the top here in japan." he lets out a teasing smirk as some let out a sigh, knowing who he's talking about.

"tools are neither gods nor demons," ukyo says. "it's up to the person to determine how it's used."

"then let's be damn glad that our rulers didn't use these to become demons," cackled senku as he just had to make a joke.

both gen and yuzuriha let out a loud sigh.

ukyo decided to ignore the misplaced joke, and continue with what he was going to say anyways.

then later on when ryusui asked who would wield the gun...

senku turned his head towards the stoned yu. "if i had continued my gun lessons with y/n, maybe i can, but compared to the only police officer? yeah, he's better off with it." then he hummed, turning to his two childhood friends. "how about you two? any of you comfortable wielding a gun? i know you both got lessons from y/n also."

yuzuriha shook her head. "well, it's best to just leave it with yu... my lessons with y/n were more of for self-defense," she says.

"i also think it's better for yu to handle it. he's the professional," taiju says. "y/n tried to teach me, but i just always end up using my hands during the mock fights."

gen, ukyo, and ryusui turned to the trio in different waves of shock.

"i wonder how those lessons went knowing your non-existent strength, senku-chan," gen mused.

the scientist rolled his eyes.

it was actually pretty shocking to hear that the trio had gun lessons with YOU

like what an honor??

but it also makes sense for none of the trio to pick up on it since they've already had pretty different skill sets; a gun just didn't fit within it

it was also kind of scary to think about it

everyone knows that the l/n family are all skilled and powerful people

each person had a different skill set honed and trained to the absolute perfection, and that the regime it took to get there was of on a entirely different level

to hear that you had taught those three a small part of your regime,

just how hard was it?

it was an honor, but at the same time, no normal person can probably handle the regime of a l/n

when the team saw that the islanders were getting evacuated

it was a sign that ibara planned to petrify the entire island

"w-we're in huge trouble!" exclaimed suika in a panic.

"nah, just the opposite," senku says with a confident smirk. "when the going gets tough, the tough get going. we might be able to take all of it. the enemy, the kingdom, and the medusa!"

he starts cackling. "oh, y/n, you could've been so damn useful here, why'd you just have to go and get punctured," he sighs with a shake of his head.

ukyo looked at senku in nervousness. "why does it seem like you always have to insult her situation?" he rhetorically asks.

yuzuriha chuckles. "you'll get used to it," she says with a sympathetic smile. "it's his way of showing his love to her."

ukyo thinks that he'll never get used to it

he was one of the people that didn't know the dynamic between you and senku since your accident had happened right when the stone war ended

it's not like he doesn't believe that you two are together, it's just that he's the type to have to hear/see it to believe it

he still have that image of you in his head

that you're someone like tsukasa, except way dangerous and way scarier

it also doesn't help that you and your family are probably the only people that can get past his enhanced hearing

it's easy to say that he's afraid of you

which is why every time senku goes and makes fun of your accident, it gives him whiplash

this time yuzuriha was the one to think of you as she stared at the broken stone fragments of the master of the island

"it isn't over yet," she says. "we have to keep thinking, and keep going; that's what i learned from him... her... from them! we still have some adhesive senku-kun made for us in the kingdom of science." her eyes glistening as she darted from piece to piece.

you and senku are one of the most goal-oriented people she knows

senku will not stop until he completes what he needs to do

and you will not stop until you get what you want

it's almost scary

and when senku freed hyoga as their last resort

"we weren't cornered," senku tell ibara with a smooth confident voice despite the sweat dripping from his face. "we had you corner us into this particular room." with that, he dropped the glass of revival fluid.

of course, gen felt like he needed to mention you to get hyoga to fight for their side. "also, don't forget that if anything happens to senku, y/n-chan will have you head," he whispered out, loud enough for hyoga to hear. "i wonder what'll happen to you after seeing her dearly beloved bleeding out."

senku sighed and shook his head at the shit gen is saying, but he can't oppose to it because it's true.

the only reason hyoga was able to inflict a critical hit on you is because you were protecting tsukasa's sister. and so what if you weren't protecting anyone AND anger engulfed you?

it's safe to say that no one wants to feel the true wrath of a member of the l/n family, much less from you

"i'm alone," senku says out loud as he watched the sun set off in the distance. his back heavy from the phone, his body aching from tiredness, and his shoulder throbbing with dried blood. his eyes glistened in nostalgia as his memories of the early stone world passes through his mind. "again. i'm alone again..."

the phone rings, shocking him out of his pondering.

"can you hear me, senku-san?" called ruri from the other side. "how are things over there, senku-san?"

he stared at the phone in front of him. a smirk slipping through his lips. "no," he changes his mind. "i'm not alone this time." he then quietly added,

"i also have someone i need to go home to."

as the topic of ruri and the mainland was brought up while they ate, taiju had lots to say

"is this ruri girl chrome's girlfriend or ex or something?" amaryllis asked francois, excited to hear some juicy details about her new allies/friends.

"no, i'm told that she is senku-sama's former wife," they answered.

taiju looked absolutely shocked, shaking from the news. "what?!" he exclaimed, really loud. "when did you get married, senku?! weren't you going to marry y/n?!?!" he shook the scientist by the collar.

senku had his fingers in his ears the entire time, not phased, but annoyed. he's used to the loudness of taiju after all. "just for three minutes! we got divorced right away," he explained.

that only fueled taiju more, shaking the scientist once again. "what?! when did you get divorced, senku!? was y/n okay with this?!"

"okay! okay!" senku exclaimed as he took the hands off of his collar. "i just said we got divorced right away! also, y/n was fine with it! it was ages ago."

now, francois isn't one to oblige in gossip especially when it's related to you

but when taiju implied that you and senku are betrothed, they can't help but wonder

are you and senku really engaged to each other?

they had seen how normal engaged couples are, but the two of you don't seem to act like that

but then again, you're, y/n l/n and he's, senku ishigami

not one is normal

the small group now stared at the trashed upper control room located on the perseus

chrome was fuming. "those assholes made a damn mess! they didn't even know what they were dealing with! bastards!" he ranted as he stomped onto the floorboards.

"now's not the time to be getting all salty," senku piped up as he stuck a pinky into his ear.

"actually, i've never seen senku truly angry," taiju says, smiling at his comment.

"no, i get angry. i'm not a saint. i'm just too busy to," interrupted the scientist. "and y/n definitely seen me angry a few times."

later on, when they finally de-petrified kohaku and ginro

instead of giving ginro a hug, kohaku ran to senku, giving the scientist a hug

ginro was mad about it, but who cares about him and his pervy ways

kirisame was blushing at the sight of kohaku hugging senku. albeit, him not reciprocating that, but receiving it with a smile and soft eyes anyways.

"oh right. kirisame-chan, you think they're in a legit relationship, don't you?" gen says. "senku's actually in a relationship with someone else. kohaku's actually breaking a lot of rules doing this."

"i don't think that's what that hug is about," says amaryllis. "not between those two."

"it better not be," screamed gen, purposely gaining kohaku's attention.

kohaku broke the hug off with senku. "i almost died!" she exclaimed to gen. "let me be relieved of surviving!"

then she kneeled to the ground and made a dogeza once again at the direction of the ishigami village. "i also assure you, y/n, that that hug was nothing. i would never do you like that. i would choose you over him any day," she stated as senku rolled his eyes while both gen and nikki laughed.

"you got that right, kohaku!" nikki hollered.

later at night, once the team finished de-petrifying the islanders and the rest of their people, a party of celebration was happening at the deck of the perseus

ginro and suika found senku and his team down at the lower half of the control room where the comms are

as senku bluntly asked what ruri needed, amaryllis was shocked

"eh?? isn't this your first time talking to your former wife after all that's happened on the island?" she lets out.

"that's senku for you," is all kohaku says.

"who cares about the former wife, he's already got a current wife to think about much less than a former one," retorted gen, making kohaku hit his head.

"that's my sister you're talking about."

on a cliff, some of the battle team gathered

kohaku and kirisame stood in front of each other

ginro, kinro, nikki, and kokuyo were stationed at the side, as the audience

"now that we know why-man is our enemy, our job as the battle team is no longer to investigate," kohaku announced as the leader of the said team. "it's to train for the inevitable battle!"

ginro lets out a frightened screech. "we just defeated the petrification kingdom! this is even scarier!"

kohaku and kirisame took a stance, then lounged for each other. the two neck and neck in skill. those watching couldn't help but be in awe at the sight of the dance.

"they're evenly matched!" exclaimed nikki.

"they're both incredible," kokuyo lets out.

"you're strong," kirisame says in between strikes. "you were holding back the last time we fought, weren't you?"

kohaku scoffs. "i wasn't going easy on you. i would never be disrespectful. i apologize. i was simply not accustomed to moving around in a dress."

ginro then bursts out a scream that he held in during the entire duration of the spar, freezing the two girls in shock. he then also ran away.

kohaku shook her head at ginro. "i won't be able to teach you more than you already know since you and i fairly the same in combat skill. the only person who can teach all of us more techniques is y/n, and hopefully when senku heals her, she'll continue lessons."

"y/n? is this the person you were apologizing for?" asked kirisame.

"she's better than all of us combined," is all kohaku said as her gaze stared at the direction of the ishigami village with a sparkling look in her eyes.

a small blush slowly flushed on kirisame's cheeks the more she stared at the way kohaku looked.

it was quite an intimate look that kohaku gave

kirisame noticed it was the same one she had gave to senku

after building the windmill, chrome looked around and wondered for senku

it took a while for him to figure out where the mad scientist could have gone, but he finally found senku

opening the door to the mobile lab, chrome immediately asked, "yo, senku, what the hell are you doing all by yourself?"

senku managed to let out a chuckle. "working on an exhilarating craft," he managed to say pass his crusty lips.

"oh, shit!" chrome screamed at the shocking sight of a dehydrated and crusty senku.

senku downed a few bottles of water which made his complexion slowly come back. he lets out an exhale after drinking. "completely forgotten about hydrating. got too used to having y/n take care of that for me," he absentmindedly mentions.

senku and chrome continued to talk about the plans that senku had for later during the night.

chrome could tell that senku missed you

how could he not have noticed?

everyone practically knows also!

senku always somehow mentions you at least once a day

he never thought senku could be so damn clingy...

it takes him back to the times he witnessed the two of you intimate moments

they really need to come and revive you already

he could never get used to that empty space next to senku

later at night, a small festival was being held at the beach

the lights dimmed, gaining the attention of all

"do you hear me, all?" chrome exclaimed from the speakers. "we're gonna show you something that's going to leave the whole of treasure island speechless and wanting more! rainbow bridge, max level!"

a few seconds later, fireworks shot out into the sky.

senku stared at the night sky that bloomed an array of fireworks, imprinting their colorful displays for all to see. his eyes glistened with nostalgia, a memory popping into mind.

"hey, senku, do you think you could show these back in mainland?" asked kohaku who now stood next to him.

senku turned to her, the memory fainting away. "maybe, we'll see," he replies.

"would you change your mind if i mention that you could see these again with y/n standing by your side next time?" she retorted.

he hummed. "i was just thinking about her," he revealed, quietly. "the first time she saw fireworks, she was with me and byakuya. i could already see her whining about not being there for the first fireworks in this stone world." he scoffs, then lets out a sigh. "fine, we'll do it again at mainland."

kohaku smiled a teasing grin.

a little later, after the firework show, senku stood in front of the treasure tree. he heard footsteps behind him that got closer, and closer. "why are you here?" he asked without looking back.

"just an early morning stroll," answered kohaku. "is it not the same for you?"

"thousands of years ago, byakuya and the other astronauts set foot here for the first time in an utterly deserted new world," senku quietly says as his eyes glistened. "though they've long since turned to dirt, aside from a few fragments of rock."

kohaku scoffs as she quickly and easily climbed up the tree. "that's not true!" she exclaimed as she walked over to where the treasure laid. "you, i, and everyone else will someday die and return to dust, but their will is passed down, refined, and carried on into the future."

senku stared at kohaku who now stood at the small entrance way of the treasure. "isn't that what humanity calls 'science'? that's what you and y/n taught me, senku," she says, looking down at him.

he chuckled, feeling a bit lighter. "yeah, that's right. we're going way farther than those goofy astronauts. we're going to the moon," he stated. "and y/n will be stoked to hear it; she always did love the moon."

kohaku jumped down from the top of the tree, now standing on an elevated root. "it's not true that byakuya and his team left nothing behind. in fact, they connected everything for us," she mentioned.

senku didn't reply, but instead added, "typical, i mean, he's always done the connecting."

kohaku didn't understand what senku had meant when he said that

there are many things about senku... about you that she doesn't know about

some day, she'd like to know more about the two of you

the perseus landed

people started talking about the missing cracks

chrome immediately showed the medusa

"does that mean that mean she'll finally wake up?" tsukasa asked, stepping forward.

senku chuckled as he walked down. "yeah, let's get her out of that damn cold sleep already. our hidden treasure of japan, y/n l/n." the scientist may have not said anything else regarding you after that, but they all knew how much he wanted you to stand next to him again.

"we say cold sleep, but really, we just froze her..." commented gen.

"yeah, like an ice cube," cackled senku. "i bet you she wasn't even asleep most of the time, but suffering from the cold. she hates the cold."

gen sighs at yet another tease towards you.

"that's not the real problem though, is it? you can always trust a sailor's gut," ryusui piped up, then his eyes narrowed on the scientist. "when ibara jabbed you... senku, given how pragmatic you are, you would have healed yourself immediately with the dr. stone set. am i right? yet the crack in your forehead is still there. in other words, you didn't use it. you saved it for... y/n. why?"

"oh right, you don't know, ryusui-chan?" gen asked. "y/n-chan and senku-chan are intertwined. of course, he'd rather heal his y/n-chan over himself."

some people silently laughed knowing that it's true. ryusui, however, looked shocked. there were many implications, but never a confirmation. senku didn't say anything regarding his relationship with you, though, instead he had a different reason.

"actually, the medusa is out of battery."

that gained everyone's attention.

"that thing runs on batteries?!" exclaimed taiju, next to senku.

senku chuckled. "dunno," he says. "and we don't exactly have the luxury of smashing it open to have a look-see inside. but it is using some kind of energy. the one thing that could never happen is for it to make energy out of nothing."

he turned his head to a certain girl. "kirisame," he called out. "is the petrification beam's area specified in radii?"

"yes, why?" she answered.

"when i stoned ibara, i specified five meters. but the petrification beam barely made maybe a meter and a half."

kirisame looked taken aback. "that's impossible!" she argued. "it's never deviated in size..." then her eyes dilated as some form of realization dawned onto her. "...it's out of energy?" she lets out in shock.

here they are in the cave where you were put to sleep

senku, chrome, kohaku, taiju, yuzuriha, gen, ginro, kinro, ryusui, nikki, ukyo, and matsukaze

chrome lifted the lid of the makeshift freezer making the cold fog explode that slowly dispersed to the floor, revealing your pale cold body.

senku walked over to stand next to you. he stared at you as his eyes glistened with memories. he absentmindedly raised his hand to your face, leaving a lingering touch. his thumb caressing your cold cheek.

the small intimate moment of affection really caught ryusui off guard

senku's eyes always held conviction

after all, his eyes are the most transparent part of him

yet ryusui never saw it that soft and so full of love before

he honestly thought that gen was messing with him

but this?

seeing it for himself really changed everything

kohaku approached and stood next to senku, holding the medusa. the two turned to each other, their eyes making contact. no words were exchanged. senku gave a nod as kohaku then bent down and placed the medusa in the space of your clasped hands.

taiju walked over and took senku's hand and placed it on top of yours. "senku! hold y/n's hand with all you've got!"

senku looked taken aback. "what?" he lets out.

"i see!" exclaimed kohaku. "if you hold her really close to the device, it might give her just a little more of the light."

"that's seriously not going to make a difference," senku retorted, but a small smile formed on his face. "fine, whatever, and if i get caught in the beam, it'll heal my wounds and cracks too; perfect."

yuzuriha then walked over, standing next to taiju. she placed her hand on his shoulder, giving him a smile. then she removed it and placed it on top of yours. kohaku and chrome, too, placed their hand on top of yours.

"one meter, one second."

the green light engulfed you as your skin slowly turned to stone. the others pulled back their hands while senku immediately took the vial of revival fluid and pours it on you. the stone skin cracked and fragments fell, both stone and ice.

you sat right up as you screamed, "senku!" then you stood up and out of the freezer, tackling him into a hug.

"did they hurt you?" he asked as he pushed away and cupped your face with one hand.

your eyes widen as a big smile formed on your face. the others were confused by what senku had meant. "no, no, i'm okay," you answered as you placed a hand over his. "did they hurt you?"

"who cares."

"i do!"

you and senku then bursts out laughing.

"sorry, what just happened?" gen managed to ask. "what was that?"

taiju and yuzuriha were chuckling as well. "every time they reunite, they always reference steven universe," yuzuriha explained. "i think it was one of the first things that y/n watched with senku."

"that gem cartoon from the states?" gen asks, but then he immediately hums afterwards. "no, wait, that makes sense."

you turned your head to kohaku with a smile and soft eyes. her eyes glistened as she stared at yours. you extended your arms as she ran into them. nuzzling her nose into your chest while you tightened your hold.

a second later, you pulled back and turned back to senku. "so what's our situation now?" you asked.

"she only just woke up," says matsukaze in awe.

"i've heard around that that's how she is," commented nikki. "always working like him."

"although, i think that she's more serious and formal than him," ukyo mentions. ryusui nods his head, agreeing with ukyo.

"we're attacking the moon!" exclaimed senku with a not-so-serious face.

you owlishly blinked at senku, then a huge excited toothy wide grin formed on your face. "ah! no way really?!" you squealed as you clasped your hands together which caught the others off guard. "senku, darling, it's your dream!" you engulfed the man into a tight hug that lifted him off the ground. if anyone caught onto that affectionate name, no one mentioned it.

he pushed you away. "we've got company, y/n, calm down," he tells you with a lazy smirk on his face.

"who cares about the company!" you retorted. "tell me: are we blowing up the moon?" you asked looking like a child that just got permission to do something they've always wanted to do.

"what?! no!" screamed out senku. "this is a mistake. maybe i should make tsukasa the soldier for the moon."

"wait, honey, no! i'm kidding!"

"i take back what i said," ukyo says in absolute awe and shock with ryusui, nikki, and matsukaze also looking hella shocked.

"yeah, my image of her is completely ruined," mentioned gen.

it was then you caught sight of new faces. "oh, hello," you formally greeted with a short bow. "i don't think i've met you guys yet. although, your face is familiar. i apologize, but could you relay your name to me again?" you gestures your entire palm at ryusui.

the four felt a wave of whiplash at the sudden change in tone and demeanor of the person in front of them; a very important person they may add.

"h-hello, i'm nikki," she greeted, really nervously.

"ah, you're the woman on the phone. i'm glad to see another woman on the battle team." you smiled at her as she nodded, freezing up and pink dusting her cheeks.

"i'm ukyo," he says, raising his hand up.

"yes! the one with good hearing. i'm pleased to see you on this side now," you tell him as he gave a loopy smile, his cheeks a bit faint of red.

"ryusui nanami," he bowed, taking your hand into his and giving a light peck on it.

your eyes widen at the familiar gesture and at the name. "ah, one of the sons of the nanami conglomerate," you acknowledged, then you realized something.

"wait!" you turned around to senku. "you guys built a boat?! just how many things did i miss?"

this time, gen spoke up, "i'll tell you all about it."

"hello, gen," you greeted with a slight smirk. "you're not walking on eggshells around me anymore," you stated as you looked him, up and down. "what changed?"

gen shook his head as he chuckled. "senku ruined your image for me," he says, making you coo.

"aw, senku, you still have that habit?"

"shut up."

this is when ginro decided to speak up. "senku, i just figured it out!" he exclaimed, his face being way too overly arrogant. "you hurried back to y/n because you were worried she was going to spoil in the freezer, right? i know you hate all that mushy stuff, though!" his elbow jabbing into senku's neck.

"he's absolutely tackless!" says kohaku.

"well, if he just wanted someone super strong, he could've taken my top student—i mean, guard, matsukaze-kun." ginro really got carried away.

matsukaze stared at you

he was wondering why you were considered the strongest

he honestly thought it was that tsukasa man

that man was trained to the absolute limit, he could tell with one look

but you?

you didn't look like you were trained like tsukasa was

he stepped towards you and gave a bow, staying in that position. "my name is matsukaze," he greeted. "y/n-dono, if it would be all right, i would like to challenge you once you are well."

you looked at the new face in glee. "oh? then how about now? let's go outside," you tell him. "oohh~ this is fun! i never had anyone challenge me before."

"gee, i wonder why," mused gen, already knowing the outcome of this fight.

matsukaze now understands why you're the strongest here and not tsukasa

you had defeated him with a single finger

a single finger that you used on his forehead to stop his lunge and forcefully push him to the ground

your leaking bloodlust and monotone stare caused him to freeze on the ground, too speechless and afraid to move

you blinked your eyes and your demeanor changed, reverting to what it once was before the fight. "oh my, i apologize, matsukaze," you tell him as you extended a hand to him. "you challenged me," is all you say.

he politely took your hand as you helped him up. he bowed down to you and say, "i am defeated."

"you're a very capable man, and i'm glad to have new members for the battle team," you tell him.

ginro is now humbled

"since the device is out of battery, senku's crack will never go away now," says suika as she walked over to in front of him

"no!" you exclaimed with a huff as if you were child who were having a tantrum.

people slowly turned to you. senku sighs, feeling like he knows what you're going to say.

"i like the stone cracks!" you announced as you walked over to senku. you then traced the lines on his forehead. "it gives him character and he looks... really... good with them."

"y/n..." senku called with a warning tone. "did that freezer like give you a damn concussion or something?"

you laughed as you just give him a hug. you arms around his shoulders, your head burying into his neck. he sighed and hugged you back with one arm that rubbed your back in a comforting way.

this is when gen was like "why should senku-chan get all the fun?" leading to everyone else getting back their petrification cracks

you included of course, after you had stopped clinging onto senku like a koala

although some people didn't forget the small public display of affection you and senku shared, in fact, it really caught them off guard

ukyo, ryusui, nikki, and tsukasa aren't used to it

you were acting like a clingy girlfriend that hadn't seen her boyfriend in months

and senku is acting like a boyfriend who's nonchalant about his girlfriend's clinginess, but everyone knows just how much he missed you!

two people with the most specific personality and a reputation to uphold, and yet here they are soft for each other

it's strange

but at the same time, it felt right

ukyo was down at the control room, double checking everything in case the islanders from treasure island had touched anything else

he thought no one else was on board besides some who would drop of supplies then leave afterwards

but then he heard you

...and senku

he looked around and saw that no one was on the surface, so the two of you were probably below nearby, in one of the rooms

"what was with you awhile ago?" senku asked.

"what do you mean?" you asked back.

"you..." ukyo could hear the hesitation in senku's voice. "did you not think that we... that i—!" a tremble in the scientist's voice. "were you... unsure of ever waking up?" he finally managed to ask. his voice whispering by the end.

a pause. all ukyo could hear was the breathing and the beating of two people. he could hear the anxiousness from each one.

"senku..." you called, softly in a whisper as well. "you need to understand that..." your voice trembling. "that i wasn't expecting you to find the medusa that quick. those months in the cold dark, i was preparing myself not to see you again for who knows how long."

you inhaled a shaky breath. your heart beating rapidly. "i know that those few months were nothing compared to the time we were apart in stone, but at least we both knew that the other was alive—!" your voiced cracked.

"just when you and i were together again, the stone world takes it away once more. how cruel is that?" you let out a shaky fake laugh.

"i could have died in my sleep, senku," you croaked out to him, sniffling and trembling. your breathing became rigid as senku's became heavy. you were probably crying at this point.

both of your hearts were beating so fast as well.

"no," senku says with full on denial. "no, y/n, you would have not died. y/n, you would have not fucking died!" he screamed out.

"what do you know?!" you screamed back at him. "i was the one in that damn freezer. i know what my body felt like throughout those damn fucking months. you know how my—" you took a deep breath. "my body felt like it was on it's way to death!"

"hah~ shit," you exhaled a shaky breath. "maybe i have already died, and i'm just wishing that you were next to me." a thud to the floor then rapid footsteps, ukyo heard.

"y/n, y/n, shit— don't do this— fuck! i'm here, y/n, i'm real. dammit y/n—! i'm right here!" senku screamed out in reassurance.

then ukyo heard a desperate kiss shared between the two.

ukyo left the perseus in a daze at what he heard

he could hear the emotions the two of you felt during the entirety of that

it was strong

to the point that he could feel it as well

"ukyo-chan?" called gen. "did something happen on the perseus? why are you crying?"

ukyo raised his hand and wiped his cheeks. it's true, he's crying. "um..." he hesitated. "senku and... y/n-san are..."

gen widen his eyes then it softened. "let's leave those two be for now," he says. "it must've been hard for them both. i've never seen them apart from each other for that long."

ukyo fully believes it now

that you two are together

even before the kiss had happen

masterlist ; loyalty built from love (part 1) a/n: i'm actually not as proud of this one compared to part 1, but that last bit? yeah, i like it part 3 will happen when the next season comes

142 notes · View notes

heartpascal · 2 years

Note

FATHER FIGURE JOEL, I’M LOVING IT. Can you make some comfort from father figure joel, pleaseeee???

so far from it

▹— joel miller x platonic!reader

▹— summary: you get into some trouble, luckily, you know who to call for help.

▹— a/n: aghhh i don’t like it!! but gotta give yall something while you wait for the part two’s! ALSO IM SORRY THIS ISNT AS MUCH COMFORT AS I MEANT FOR IT TO BE

▹— warnings: father figure joel, violence, blood, swearing, reader gets attacked, needles, stitches, a smidge of comfort at the end

masterlist

∘₊✧───── ───── ───── ─────✧₊∘

Ever since you had joined Tess and Joel’s operation, things had been going pretty smoothly. Though they had argued on multiple occasions over your age, having various disagreements over your capability in this job, you had proven yourself time and time again.

It didn’t faze you. Nothing did, really. You could shoot an Infected point blank in the head without batting an eye, could dig through dirt and muck to find supplies you needed, could travel for hours upon end and Joel and Tess wouldn’t hear a peep coming from you.

That was life in the apocalypse, you supposed, the complete lack of any remorse for what could’ve been had you just been born a few decades earlier. This was your life.

Sometimes, it was a life you didn’t particularly want, but you continued, especially after working with the adult duo for so long, it had become increasingly clear that they needed you. You could get into places they couldn’t, your small size allowing those tight squeezes, and the strength in your arms helped towards moving things away from blocked entrances.

In return for your services, Tess had formed an agreement with Joel, that you could stay at their apartment with them, sprawled over their couch, and they’d provide you the ration cards you needed to survive. A roof over your head and food was more than generous, and you had known even back then that you’d be an idiot not to take it.

Especially when considering the power that Tess wielded in the QZ, with a network of informants spreading all throughout it, and with Joel, you knew nobody would dare look to steal from you. Everybody who was anybody in the QZ knew what the two of them were capable of, and considering your affiliation with them, you were sure nobody would even attempt to come for you.

You had prided yourself on being smart for a very long time, smart enough to survive in this world, smart enough to escape FEDRA school despite having no parents, smart enough to team up with adults who held some sort of power. You had never considered that that pride would be a bad thing.

But today, whilst out with Joel and Tess, you had decided to head a little further away from them than you would usually go, determined to use your ration cards for something you wanted. It was stupid, really. You wanted a dumb book, and thought your smarts were enough to trade the dealer for it, thought you were smart enough to avoid any tricks or cheats.

You knew there was something very wrong when two men stood behind you, one leering over your shoulder as you looked down at the object of your desires, and you repressed the urge to turn your head towards him.

Instead, you kept your eyes to the table, and shoved your hands in your pockets, one going to grip on to your ration cards, the other holding the handle of the knife Tess had given you.

It was when the seller nodded at the two of them that you knew you were fucked.

Trying to pull the knife out backfired, and the blade ripped your coat as the man on your right grabbed your arm, twisting until you felt your grip involuntarily weaken, and then the seller snatched it from your hand. The man on your left grasped your other arm, squeezing so tight you felt the bruises forming beneath his hand already.

It didn’t take a genius to realise you were in some deep shit, especially after being disarmed so quickly, and so you did the first thing that came to your mind.

“Joel! Joel, help—” Your yells were cut off by the left man slapping his hand over your mouth, and you bit his fingers, spitting as he hissed and pulled his hand away. You struggled, opening your mouth once more, but you were stopped before you could even begin again, as the right man grabbed your head, slamming it into the rickety table below.

Your vision swam, and you could only just register being pulled away from the street, down an alley nearby. Your ears were ringing, like they did when you fired your gun, and you weakly tried to reach up and hold your head, stopped by the hands grasping onto your arms even now.

The duo dropped you to the floor, and you just about managed to put your arms out to stop a second blow to the head, that would most likely have ended in a concussion.

Hands digging into your pockets were the next thing you became aware of, and your attempts of pushing them away went pretty much unnoticed.

“Fuck you, man.” You spat out, your voice garbled as you realised your mouth was filled with blood, and you could feel it oozing out of your lip and cheek. The metallic taste was disgusting, and it made you feel sick.

The two men pulled you to sit up against the brick wall, and you spat at the one you recognised to be righty, a glob of bloody spit landing on his knee as he crouched beside you.

“This fucking bitch,” He began, but was cut off by lefty, who shook the man’s shoulder with a sense of urgency as he looked towards the end of the alley.

You drew your gaze in that direction with some effort, and felt a grin light up your face. “Oh, you’re so fucked.” You laughed, blood still dripping from your mouth, and even the dizziness that overcame you couldn’t wipe the smile off of your face as the two men realised they’d dragged you into a dead end, and their only way out was blocked.

The fighting was a blur, if you were honest, the adrenaline leaving you as your body recognised that you were safe, Joel was here. It was only when his face was looming in front of you that your awareness came back, blood still pooling under your tongue.

“Shit, c’mon, kid. Let’s get you home.” Joel murmured, hands placed on your cheeks as he looked at your head injury, a wince on his own expression. Your head lolled, about to fall towards your chest if Joel hadn’t been holding it up, the weight feeling impossible all of a sudden.

You tried to help them stand you up, Tess having arrived at some point during the commotion, but you were likely more of a hindrance than a help. With an arm over either of their shoulders, you stumbled your way out of the alley, the FEDRA guard across the way turning his head to look away from the three of you.

You couldn’t remember much of the journey back to the apartment, which was probably good for your pride, as you could imagine it wasn’t easy. You probably looked like an idiot, unable to keep your own head up half the time, but Joel and Tess got you back safely, which you had never doubted.

“Concussion?” Joel asked Tess, after the two of them had settled you down on the couch, your neck resting against the arm of it, holding the weight of your head up for you.

“Let’s hope not,” Tess replied, handing Joel the bottle of alcohol and the rag that was left on the counter for times just like these. “I’m going back out, gonna go find those pricks and see what the fuck they were doing.” She announced, shouldering her backpack once again and frowning at you, before she turned and made her way out.

You could almost see the anger rolling off of Joel, the one emotion he never bothered to shy away from, and even as he tried to be careful, you still cringed and pulled away from the rag he was attempting to disinfect your injuries with.

“Sorry, kid, it’s gotta be done.” He grumbled, sounding the slightest bit sorry, and pressed the rag against your forehead, wiping away the blood that was still weeping from there.

You sighed, the taste of your own blood still lingering in your throat, but the wounds in your mouth had stopped flowing now. You couldn’t recall spitting out the rest of the blood, but you figured it must’ve happened on the journey back.

“Got me pretty good, huh?” You asked, your words slurring even though you were thinking of them with no problem, and you blinked your eyes shut in annoyance.

“Could’ve been worse.” Joel muttered, his hands moving your face to check it over for any further injuries. You could feel your eye and eyebrow swelling up now, and frowned at the sensation.

You should have never gone to buy that stupid book. It wasn’t smart, and you were always smart, so you couldn’t quite understand what had happened. That was childish, you realised, the feeling dawning on you suddenly, the shame, the embarrassment.

That was one thing you had always made sure to deny yourself of, those childish feelings, the spontaneous decisions that came with naivety, those were things that you couldn’t risk in the apocalypse. You couldn’t afford to — clearly, you had gotten too comfortable here, the impending doom that came with living in a world like this had started to feel far away, with Tess and Joel at your side.

It was embarrassing, having shown such a weakness, and for a moment you were worried it was going to cost you everything, but Joel finally returned to your side, having been to put away the alcohol and rag he’d used to disinfect your injuries. He was quiet for a few moments, and then started pulling something out of his backpack, the crease between his eyebrows deep.

You looked over at him, your brows drawing together when you saw the book he’d pulled from his pack, the blade of your knife stuck between the pages like some kind of violent bookmark.

The two of them were far too observant, and you swallowed nervously, frown growing deeper as you looked away from the book you had wanted so badly. That part of you, the childish part, the one that got you into this mess in the first place, wanted to reach out and pull the book from his hands, but you pushed that desire away like you should’ve done to start with.

“What? This not what you were after?” Joel asked gruffly, something like confusion catching in his tone.

“It was stupid,” You said in response, feeling anger warm your chest the longer you thought about the whole thing. From here on out, you were never gonna give in to such childish wants. “I was stupid.”

Your admission seemed to surprise Joel, if the way his eyebrows raised told you anything. He remained in silence for a few moments more, before he put the book down on the table to the side, and turned back to you. “You weren’t stupid,” Joel denied, about to continue before you cut him off.

“I was!” You said loudly, the words the clearest of any you’d said since getting back to the apartment, and you blinked away tears, blaming the head injury for making you more emotional. “I didn’t think. I put myself in danger because— because of what? A damn book? How childish is that—”

“You are a child.” Joel said, stopping you before you could continue your rant, your words getting more intelligible as you went on. You stared at him, the tears filling your eyes once more, and he carried on at your expression, “That’s not a bad thing. You’re allowed to want things.”

“I want to stay with you.” You told him, voice shaking and watery, “I don’t wanna have to leave because I act like a kid.”

“You ain’t goin’ anywhere, kid.” He spoke firmly, and with a bit of a hesitation, he reached out, moving the hair on your head away from the cut that had started to bleed once again. “Swear it. We’re gonna sort those guys out, and nobody’s ever gonna come after you again.”

You nodded, feeling the slightest bit relieved at his words, though no less ashamed of yourself.

“Alright?” You nodded once again, “Good. I’m sorry for this, kid, but that’s gonna need stitches.”

Your face fell, and he sighed through his nose, understanding your pain. He held the suture kit in his hand, and you realised he must’ve gotten it when he put the alcohol away earlier on.

He grabbed your hand, squeezing slightly, and kept his grasp on you when he started stitching, letting you grip on to him tightly each time he pushed the needle through your skin. “I hate getting stitches.” You murmured, when he was finally done, letting him take his hand back to put the suture kit away.

“I know.” He acknowledged, and ruffled your hair as he stood up. “Sit up.”

You did as he told you, swinging your legs so you were sat only on one side of the couch, and you furrowed your brows as Joel got comfortable on the other side. You finally realised what he was doing when you watched him reach over to the rickety wooden table and grab the book he’d taken from the seller.

“C’mon, let’s see what this fuss is about.” Joel grumbled, pulling the knife out of the pages and handing it to you, making you smile lightly even despite the pounding of your head.

“Thanks, Joel.” You told him, eyes still watery.

“S’alright.” He responded, letting you settle at his side as he looked through the book that had caught your attention. “Puns, really?”

You laughed at his less than pleased reaction, setting your head against his arm as you looked at the jokes in the book, laughing to yourself over some of them.

He just shook his head, pushing down the smile that wanted to rise to his lips as he listened to you laughing.

#joel miller x you #joel miller x reader #joel miller one shot #joel miller imagine #joel miller fluff #joel miller angst #tlou imagines #tlou one shot #tlou imagine #tlou angst #tlou fluff #joel miller father figure #joel miller fic #pedro pascal angst #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal imagines #pedro pascal fluff #pedro pascal one shot #joel miller x platonic!reader

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starstruckmiraclekitty · 2 years

Text

Innate Desire to Protect

Simon Ghost Riley X Reader

Synopsis: Reader puts themselves in harms way to protect Simon.

Warnings: violence, swearing, blood, mentions of death, angst

Note: As promised here's the ghost version of reader sacrificing themselves to protect him.

If anyone has any requests please let me know, I'd be happy to write them!!

Still new to writing, so apologies if these aren't super good!!

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

It was a few hours before 141 had to ship out for a mission, and you found yourself still locked in Simon's embrace in your bed. It was peaceful, and you knew to take advantage of moments like these, before going out into the field.

“Ready for today?” Simon asked, rubbing small circles on your back.

“Ready as I can be. Always makes me nervous, missions like these. We are grasping at straws, trying to find intel we don’t even know for sure exists.” You huffed in frustration.

The mission was to infiltrate a small gang’s hideout near the Russian border. Laswell had told the team that she received a tip, that the gang had possible intel leading to the whereabouts of Makarov, the current notorious criminal your unit was investigating. Needless to say, it was hard not to question the validity of this “tip” Laswell was going off of, as she wouldn’t disclose her source to the team.

“I get it. But I trust Laswell, I know she would never put us in harm’s way, if she didn’t think it was vital.” Simon said, trying to soothe your increasing worries.

You hummed in response, burying your face into his neck, breathing in his scent of old musky cologne, stale cigarette smoke, and sweat. This always brought you calmness, and allowed you to step away from your anxieties.

You both stayed there for a while longer, the silence that engulfed you was comforting. Like all good things, you knew this small piece of sanctuary had to come to an end. You looked over to the clock on your stand and saw that it was time to prepare for the mission.

You looked over at Simon solemnly, “ Alright, suppose it’s time to get up and face the music, yeah?”

“From the way you’re talking, one would think you hate this job , love.” Simon chuckled, making his way out of your small bed.

“Oh hush, I wouldn't be here if I didn’t enjoy it. Just some missions have me more on edge than others.”

“I know love, just messing with you.” Simon replied, kissing your temple. “I’ll see you out there, okay?”

“Of course.” You said, standing on your toes to give Simon a kiss, which he gladly returned.

“I love you, Simon.” you said softly, pulling away from the kiss.

“I love you too Y/N.”

Later on, Price was giving a debrief as to what was to be expected on the mission. It was simple enough, two teams, Alpha and Bravo would be infiltrating the two buildings held by this small gang. Alpha would be infiltrating building A, Bravo team would be infiltrating building B. You, Soap, and Ghost would be on A: Price, Gaz and a stand-in from Kortac would be on team B.

Price dismissed you all, and sent everyone to the chopper. Ghost fell in step alongside you, and you struggled to not grab his hand for comfort. You looked over to him and gave a small smile, which was returned with a hard glare from underneath the mask. You realized this was no longer Simon you were interacting with, this was Ghost. You would find little to no comfort in this man until hours after the mission was completed, when Simon would finally show his face again.

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

On the ground, you and Soap were trailing behind Ghost, who was taking the lead on infiltrating the building.

“Reaper, Soap, clear those two rooms ahead, rendezvous with me once they are clear. I’ll push ahead upstairs.” Ghost said, walking away from you two. The authority in his voice made it clear there was no questioning his orders.

“Copy L.T.” Soap replied.

“Reaper, I’ll clear the left, you clear the right, copy?” Soap turned to you.

“Copy.” You said turning to your right. You peered around the room checking every possible hiding spot for anyone to be. “Soap, Ghost, it’s eerily quiet here. Has me a bit concerned that we haven’t seen anyone yet.” You said into your mouthpiece.

“It’s fine Reaper, keep your head up, and weapons -.” Ghost got cut off before he could finish his sentence.

“Ghost?” You asked.

Soap came into the room you were in, and met your concerned eyes. Then you both heard a loud bang and shouts from above.

“Shit, he's probably being ambushed. We have to go assist him!” You cried out, going to make a move.

“Hold on, we need to be smart about this. If we go rushing in there, it may not end well for any of us.” Soap said grabbing your shoulder, preventing you from running to Ghost.

“Okay cover my 6, we will go up the stairs and assess before charging in.” You said, making your way to the stairs.

“Careful Reaper, we don’t know what’s ahead of us.” Soap whispered from behind you.

You made your way up the stairs, and peered around the corner. Ghost was engaged in a fight with three armed gang members. His gun had been knocked from his hands, and from the looks of it, he was taking a pretty good beating.

At that moment, everything started to go in slow motion for you. Seeing the love of your life being brutally beaten triggered an innate burning desire to protect him, no matter the cost. You rushed into the fight, taking out two of the men each with a shot to the head. Ghost used this to his advantage, and tried to stand up to take the final man out. In doing this, he left an opening for the final man to lift his pistol to Ghost’s head from a few feet away. Without thinking, you threw yourself in front of Ghost, the minute the gang member pulled the trigger.

From there, everything went hazy for you. Next thing you knew, the gang member was on the floor, a shot to the chest taking him out. Soap came in right after, and inspected the bodies of the gang members, making sure they were out of commission.

“Y/N!” Ghost called, running over to your collapsing form. “This is Ghost, we need an evac NOW! Reaper’s been hit.” He said into his comms.

“Shit, what did you do?” Soap exclaimed, assessing your injury.

You looked down, and saw the bullet had hit your side, just where your vest didn’t cover you.

“S-Sorry, I wa-asn’t thinking.” you stuttered, struggling to get the words out.

“No shit you weren’t thinking! Why would you have gone in like that? There were so many better ways that could have been carried out!” Ghost yelled, his voice booming.

“Ghost, maybe this isn’t the place?” Soap said, trying to calm his Lieutenant down.

“Mind your place, Sergeant.” Ghost snapped back.

Soap put his hands up and slowly walked to the window, checking for the evac, every so often looking over to check on you.

“Simon, please look at me.” You said, trying to get the man holding you to show you some sort of comfort.

“It’s Ghost.” He replied, his voice eerily cold.

“P-please. I’m sorry. I couldn’t take it… seeing you on the ground like that. I couldn’t think at that moment, my body moved on its own.” You cried softly, tears starting to fall down your cheeks.

You could see the internal struggle in his eyes, he wanted to stay mad at you, you were careless and needlessly got hurt just to save him, but you were hurt nonetheless which was a sight that broke his heart into a million pieces.

Just as Simon was starting to appear underneath the mask that was Ghost, Price called out on the comms. “Evac is approaching, get Reaper outside now, Bravo team will meet you there.” At this, Ghost immediately went back into soldier mode, any trace of your Simon vanished once again.

“Soap, help me move Y/N, have to bring them down to the evac point.”

“Copy L.T.”

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

“How is she?” Price asked as the three of you approached the Evac point, Soap and Ghost holding either end of you as gently as they could.

“Bullet got her in the side, where the vest didn’t cover. She has lost a lot of blood.” Soap replied.

“Get her on the gurney, we will leave at once. Hang in there kid, no dying on our watch.” Price said, patting your head gently, his eyes showing the worry he was trying to hide.

As they placed you on the gurney, you felt yourself growing unbearably weak. You reached for your lover’s hand, which he just started at.

“Simon, please.” You begged. You were scared beyond belief at this point, and wanted nothing but the comfort only Simon could provide.

He softened at this, and grabbed your hand, giving it a tight squeeze.

“I’m s-sorry. If I make it through this, give me whatever lecture I know you have brewing in your head.” You said, trying to ease some of the tension.

“Believe me, love, it will be more than just a lecture you’ll get. You’ll make it out of this, just keep your eyes on me, yeah?” He replied, giving your hand another squeeze.

“O-oh yeah? What is this other thing you, you…” You slowly were losing consciousness. The darkness pulling you under, no matter how hard you tried fighting it.

“Y/N? Y/N! Love no, please don’t leave me.” He called to you, his cold facade disappearing completely now. He was desperately shaking you to keep you conscious. But it was too late. You had already slipped under.

—---------------------------------------------------

Note: I left this ending open as well! If anyone wants a part two, let me know! I'm not sure if I'd make the part two super angsty or fluff!

Thanks for reading!!😊🖤

#cod imagine #ghost mw2 #simon riley imagine #ghost x reader #simon ghost riley x reader #simon riley x reader #konig x reader #simon ghost riley #ghost imagine

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websterss · 2 years

Text

SURPRISE — EVAN BUCKLEY

SUMMARY: Buck tries to call you but ends up receiving no answer. Left with worry, he runs to the sight of you walking into the fire station startled.

WARNING(S): Angst, some fluff

WORD COUNT: 1,139

PAIRING: Evan Buckley x fem!Reader

A/N: Hope you guys enjoy it! ♡ Feedback is always welcomed!

MASTERLIST

You threw your head back gasping as you and Buck finished riding out your highs. “Still got it!” Buck said smugly as you laughed.

“Being cocky never suited you well, Evan.” You wrapped your arms around his neck.

“And screaming my name never sounded more sexy.” He leaned forward taking your lower lip playfully.

“Well I’d thank your well endowed friend, but your ego is already stroked too much.” You smirked.

“It wasn’t just me putting in the work, Y/L/N.” Buck caressed the side of your thighs.

“Well you know what they say, it takes two to tango.” You moved your hair out of the way.

Buck smiled as he let his eyes roam over your face. He knew he was risking his job big time, but getting in a few minutes with you was worth it.

“I missed you.” You stopped trying to adjust your shirt and looked down at him. A smile making itself on your face.“

“Missed you too.” You stroked his hair back. “I hardly see you nowadays.” You softly giggled. “Have you still thought about my offer…” He tugged you closer. “About moving in together. It’d be easier for us because of our jobs. I’d get to come home to you each night.” He offered a laugh.

“Buck-”

“Look I know you’re still working things out with your last job, but I’d want nothing more than to wake up and see you each day.”

You bit your lip contemplating on telling him about your new job, but you knew that the wait would be worth it.

“Can we get dinner later, after your shift?” You leaned down and pecked his cheek softly.

“You still didn’t answer my question.”

“I’m still thinking about it…” You looked away. Evan noticed your hesitance and let it go.

“Why don’t you come by the station. Bobby’s making dinner for us tonight, says he has something important to tell us. I want them to meet you.” Evan’s eyes held hope that you’d say yes. As soon as he saw you smile, he knew he got his answers. “I’ll see you then, okay?”

“What? I didn’t even give you my answer.” You scoffed hitting him playfully.

“Didn’t need to.” He leaned forward. “Your smile.” He pecked your cheek. “Says it all.” He nipped at your sweet spot causing you to squeal in delight.

“Buck.” You gasped.

“I know.” He mumbled against your neck. “I’m stopping.” You leaned back and started adjusting your outfit.

“As much as I’d love a round two. You are still on shift, and my lunch break is over.” You smirked as his shoulders fell. “Oh don’t look so sad babe. Good things come to those who wait.” You pecked his lips once more and made your way out of the firetruck. “Call me when you’re off your shift, okay. I love you.” You smiled up at him from outside the truck.

“I will…and I love you too.” He leaned against the side of the door watching you turn and head towards your car.

Later that night, Buck had been waiting by the front entrance waiting for your arrival. His lingering around the firetrucks caught the attention of his team.

“Twenty bucks, he’s ready to get his firehose on.” Hen watched from up on the second floor. Chimney eating a piece of bread as he stood next to Hen.

“Maybe he’s got a girlfriend we don’t know about.” Chimney suggested.

“My money’s on family problems.” Eddie suggested. “Is Maddie coming over Chimney?”

“Of course, she wouldn’t miss Bobby’s cooking.”

“Buckaroo keeps checking his phone.” Hen motioned to him glancing down at his screen. “Think lover boy got stood up?”

“Hey it’s me. This is like my tenth time trying to get a hold of you. Please call me back. I’m worried about you.” Buck frowned. You hadn’t been picking up his calls since his shift was over. “I just need to hear your voice okay.”

“B-Buck.” His head rose as he saw you walk in. He sighed in relief as he saw you enter the station, but it wasn’t until he saw your face in the light that he noticed your busted up lip. Any smile he had went away in an instant. Blood covering the side of your face.

“Y/n…” Worry rose in his chest as you seemed to stare off toward nothing in particular. “Baby, hey.” He walked closer to you.

Your sudden appearance alerted Hen and Chimney as they watched you stumbled towards Buck.

“Y-Y/n!” Buck rushed to prevent you from falling.

“I was mugged. T-They took my bag. I woke up...on the ground.” You could feel the room spinning.

“Woah hey, no no. You have to stay awake now okay.” Buck shook his head as he helped you climb the stairs to take a seat on the couch. The team grew worried as they watched Buck sit you down. Bobby immediately came over, while Hen and Chimney grabbed their med kits. “Buck what happened?”

“S-She said someone took her bag on the way here.” Bobby knelt down to take a look at your head.

“How many fingers am I holding?” You spared Buck a glance asking him silently if he was serious.

“T-Two.” You sighed.

“I think you just have a minor concussion. Chimney, hand me the flashlight…follow my finger sweetie.” Your eyes moved right then left.

“Pupils are responsive. I wouldn’t worry too much about the bump on your head, but my wife Athena can help you make a report tomorrow morning, sound good?” Bobby patted your knee gently.

“Sounds good.” You slightly chuckled.

“So much for surprises huh?” Bobby shook his head.

“Surprises?” Buck grew confused.

“By his confusion, I’m guessing you didn’t tell him.”

“I was working on it.” You cringed.

Bobby eyed you playfully.

“Y/n, what’s he talking about?” Buck took a seat next to you. “You two know each other?”

“R-Remember when I said I got a new job.”

“Yeah…but what does that have to do with you and Bobby knowing each other.”

“She’s are new recruit.”

“Recruit?” He looked up at Bobby.

“I start my first day here tomorrow. I’m gonna be a firefighter just like you Buck.” You caressed the side of his face.

“Are you serious?” Buck’s smile made you smile.

“Yeah. Not only will we get to go home together, but we’d get to work together too. I’m all in if you are.”

“Home?” Buck’s eyes gleamed.

“I think I should start moving my things over to your place.” You laughed at his shocked reaction. “We can start tomorrow. Right now, I’m gonna kiss you.” Buck shook his head and cupped your face bringing you in closer to connect your lips.

“You owe me twenty bucks…” Chimney smiled smugly holding his hand out to Hen who rolled her eyes.

#evan buckley #evan buckley x reader #evan buckley imagine #evan buckley x fem!reader #evan buckley imagines #my gif #writings by juls

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riizegasm · 4 months

Text

Through The Fire || B. EJ

❀ pairing: &team byun euijoo x fem!reader (ft. nicholas)

❀ genre: bffs to lovers!au, angst, minor fluff

❀ word count: ~6.2k

❀ warnings: explicit language, reader has a house fire, slight possessive behavior, lots of introspection

❀ summary: Stability is a luxury that isn’t afforded to everyone. However, you’re lucky enough to have your best friend, who has remained as the one stable factor throughout your whole life, even through the fire.

❀ A/N: I'm so so excited to share my second work with you all! I think this is one of the fastest times I have ever written a piece, which I think just shows how much I really love it. I hope you all love it too! As always, likes, reblogs, and replies are always welcome :)

masterlist

Red. Blue. Red. Blue. Red. Blue. Red—

“Y/N!”

You blink, no longer blinded by the flash of cop cars. A quick glance across the parking lot reveals a familiar silhouette trying to cross the yellow caution tape, only being held back by a policeman. You release a shaky breath, trying to find your voice for the first time all night.

“It’s okay,” you call, praying your voice is loud enough. “He’s here for me.”

For once in your life, your voice is actually heard, the police officer nodding once before lifting the caution tape. Euijoo manages to duck under, his large frame only stumbling once before rising to his full height. His long legs allow him to move quickly, pulling you into a hug before you can even blink. From your sitting position, your face ends up pressed into the hard plane of Euijoo’s abdomen. You can feel his thundering heartbeat beneath the skin.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he breathes, leaning down to press his cheek into the messy mop of your hair.

When the two of you part, you wince at the few black streaks that have transferred to Euijoo’s t-shirt. You know that ash is likely still coloring your face, the scent of fire and burning fabric clinging to your skin. Although the flames have been put out, there is still residual smoke pluming from the building behind you. You cough twice, as if wisps of clouded air are still swirling around your lungs.

Euijoo squats down, finally eye level with your seated form as he searches your face. You let your eyes flutter shut, telling yourself that you’re still dazed from the fire. In reality, you know that making eye contact with the man before you would be too painful. He has always been too transparent, emotions freely swimming in his brown eyes.

“Were you able to grab anything else?” Euijoo’s voice has fallen to no more than a whisper.

You just shake your head in response, not bothering to acknowledge your purse and laptop that are placed next to you. Everything else, as far as you know, is gone. Euijoo sighs.

“They said that tomorrow, we can come back to look for things,” you whisper, swallowing back the sob that threatens to escape your throat. “But they told us not to get our hopes up.”

Euijoo is silent for a moment, staring at you with those deep dark eyes. You can feel the intensity of his stare with your eyes closed, having been on the receiving end of that same gaze many times. You know he pities you, but that’s the last thing you want right now.

“I’m taking you home, back to my place. You can stay there for as long as you need.”

Your eyes pop open, meeting Euijoo’s gaze for the first time that night. “You don’t have to. I can get a hotel or something for the night.”

“Absolutely not. When you moved out here, I promised your parents that I would take care of you, so that’s what I’m going to do.” Euijoo stands again to his full height, reaching out a hand that you eye warily. “Now let’s go home.”

. . .

Euijoo’s body wash smells of wood and cinnamon, the smell filling the bathroom and replacing the scent of fire and smoke that had previously seeped into your skin. Even his body lotion has a very specific scent, one that you are all too familiar with. The aroma clings to his clothes, along with a faint hint of laundry detergent, filling your nose as you slip into one of his shirts and a pair of shorts. They both hang incredibly long on you, shoulders in the shirt sagging while the shorts are snug around your hips.

Your wet hair has been pulled back into a bun, which you know will be a mess to tame in the morning. But Euijoo didn’t have any of the right hair products, and you would rather die than ask him to buy you something at the moment. Even when he offered, you shut him down, letting him know that anything he was missing would be a problem for the next day. After all, it was already well after midnight.

Euijoo’s eyes soften around the edges when you finally emerge from the bathroom, smiling timidly at you from the couch. You plop down unceremoniously next to him, hugging your knees to your chest as you back into the corner of the couch. Its leather creaks with the movement, a familiar sound after all these years.

“I ordered some food, just in case you haven’t eaten,” Euijoo says, inching further into your space. It’s impossible to fight a flinch when he places a hand on your bare knee, right where his shorts have ridden up your thigh. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine.”

Without looking, you know that Euijoo is rolling his eyes, the tiny hint of sass that he’s harbored since childhood peeking through.

“Well, I called your dad, and he said you only texted your parents briefly. He wanted to talk to you but I told him that you were showering and probably didn’t feel like talking.” Euijoo gives your thigh a firm squeeze. “But I was hoping you’d at least talk to me.”

Your heart lurches at the thought of Euijoo speaking to your family, even though you know it has been a regular occurrence since you were teenagers. Your parents had always been fond of him, the picture-perfect image of the boy next door. And as you grew older, Euijoo had basically been absorbed into the family. Even though he’s been your best friend since you were children, you don’t know why the thought of talking to him right now is making your stomach swim.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” you mumble, shrinking further into the couch cushions.

“Y/N…just…look at me, please?”

It takes all your strength, but you manage to tear your gaze away from your knees to meet Euijoo’s own. His rounded eyes are sparkling like they always are, a hint of sadness dampening their brightness. His lips pull up into a small smile at the eye contact, plush cheeks dimpling. His warm hand is still placed firmly on your thigh, large enough to span most of its circumference.

“There you are,” he coos, beginning to rub light circles on the exposed skin of your thigh. “Listen, I know you. I know you’re going to keep saying everything is fine because you don’t want anyone to worry about you. But your entire apartment building just burned down. You’re feeling something. You have to talk to someone about it. Even if it’s not me, you have to let someone in.”

You blink, and when you reopen your eyes, your vision is cloudy. Fat, hot tears spill over, leaving scalding trails down your cheeks. You can barely make out Euijoo’s smile dropping before you are pulled into a tight embrace. When you both were younger, you used to hate when Euijoo would use his overwhelming strength against you. But now, you are grateful for it, knowing you wouldn’t have hugged him otherwise.

“I was so scared, Juju,” you sob into the crook of his neck. “I was just in my room and when I opened the door, everything was in flames. There wasn’t anywhere I could go! I was trapped on the balcony until they came and got me. I thought I was gonna die.”

Euijoo just squeezes you tighter at the outburst, placing a kiss on the crown of your head. “I’m so sorry. But you’re okay now. You’re safe here with me.”

The two of you are quiet for a few moments, the only thing interrupting the silence being the occasional hiccup or sniffle. It feels like ages until you have finally calmed down enough to pull away. But when you do, you notice the tear tracks drying on Euijoo’s ruddy cheeks.

“Why are you crying?” You ask softly.

Euijoo just shrugs, chuckling sadly. “I don’t like seeing you upset.”

You don’t have enough time to respond before the doorbell rings, signaling the arrival of your food. Euijoo excuses himself to go answer it, allowing you to admire the long lines of his legs as he retreats. You can’t help but feel embarrassed, as you always are around the man. But you hate the way he leaves your heart hammering in your chest as you stare.

It’s not like you are unaware of how attractive Euijoo is. After all, the first time you ever laid eyes on him at seven years old, you swore he was the most beautiful thing you’d ever seen. Despite the childish attraction, you had grown to love him in a much deeper way, the kind of love that only develops when you know someone inside and out. Euijoo grew taller, older, buffer, more handsome, and you had found a million ways to love him differently, love him deeper. The love you had for Euijoo surely changed, which leaves you hating the way your body heats up and your pulse picks up speed as Euijoo rounds the corner.

His wide smile is paired with crinkled eyes and you feel a piece of your heart turn heavy like lead.

“I’m like 90% sure they got some of our order wrong, but there’s still plenty of good stuff in case you’re hungry.”

You don’t bother looking at the takeout bag, too busy guiltily feasting your eyes on the sight before you.

. . .

Falling into a routine is unfairly easy. The two of you will wake up from your shared bed, at Euijoo’s insistence that you don’t sleep on the couch, and begin to get ready for the day. You cook breakfast as Euijoo gets ready for work, cherishing the fact that your job has permitted you plenty of personal leave. You watch him leave in a crisply pressed suit and daintily patterned tie, off to his accounting job for a few hours.

Then you sit in silence, ruminating over everything that has led you to this exact moment. You replay the moment that you were confronted with a wall of flames, feeling heat lick at your toes the same way it did that night. You let your shoulders shake in terror the same way they did when you were trapped on the balcony, fearing for your life. You cough like the billowing smoke is clouding your lungs, even though the air in Euijoo’s apartment is crisp and smells faintly of lemon-scented cleaner.

Then Euijoo comes through the door, and you slap a smile on your face. Sometimes he returns with takeout, bag overflowing with all of your shared favorites. Sometimes he comes with a bag full of groceries, which the two of you unpack together while Euijoo recounts his day. You’re quick to shoo him away as you begin to cook.

It’s the only thing that makes you feel like less of a parasite than you are.

You’re both following that exact routine until you reach your first Saturday, and Euijoo practically vibrates in excitement at the prospect of spending the day together. Despite living in the same city, the two of you have rarely spent full days together, work or other personal engagements always getting in the way.

“I was thinking of having a few friends over tonight,” Euijoo mentions over a bowl of cereal. “I feel like you haven’t met enough of my friends.”

“It’s your house,” you shrug, burying your nose into your own bowl so you don't have to face the disappointed look in his eye.

“Y/N, you gotta stop with that.”

“With what?” You snap.

You know you’re being difficult. You know that all Euijoo wants is some positive input from his best friend, but you can’t. It hurts deep in your core to give him what he’s wanting when you know you are already taking so much. You shouldn’t be here, and you definitely shouldn’t have a say in whether or not Euijoo has his friends over tonight. Yet, he wants to hear from you.

Like he thinks you’re important. Like he thinks you matter. Like he thinks you’re more than just a virus, invading a host for selfish gain.

You have nothing to gain, you remind yourself.

“I’m sorry, Juju,” you sigh, brushing a stray piece of hair away from your face. “I’m not trying to be a bitch. I mean it.”

Euijoo’s spoon falls into his porcelain bowl with a loud clink. “I know you’re not. You’re just going through a lot right now. But I just want to help you.”

“You’re doing way more than just helping me.”

“I feel like I’m not doing enough.”

You sigh. “What do you mean? You’re already doing so much by just having me here and I can’t help but just wonder why.”

“Because I love you.”

The way he says it jumpstarts your heart, hotwiring it so it’s moving at a million miles per hour in your chest. You know he doesn’t mean it the way you want him to. He loves in the way a best friend loves, in the way family loves, that much is clear.

But there’s something in his open expression that has your heart clinging onto a maybe. Maybe he has loved you the way you have loved him and hated yourself for. Maybe he knows that being loved is all that you have ever wanted but is simultaneously your greatest fear. Maybe he knows that all of your belongings disappearing right before your very eyes while he was the only thing that remained meant something to you.

“You’re my best friend.”

Or maybe it meant nothing at all.

Euijoo sighs, leaning back in his chair before addressing you across the table from him. “It’s impossible for me not to worry about you when you won’t talk to me, or to anyone! You don’t leave the house and it just scares me. I want to help you, but I can’t do anything until you let me.”

You swallow, your bite of cereal feeling too thick as it travels down your esophagus. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Euijoo mutters as he pinches the bridge of his nose. “Just let me in.”

“I’m trying.”

“Are you?”

You’re not, and you both know it. If anything, you’re doing the exact opposite, trying to close yourself off as much as possible. You shrink into spaces, making yourself so small that Euijoo will forget that you’re there. It never seems to work, though. The other man sees you no matter where you attempt to hide.

There’s a moment of silence as the two best friends regard each other. Silently, you mourn your cereal getting soggy in your bowl even though you have lost your appetite. Euijoo’s own is empty, his metal spoon resting against the pure white bowl. For a moment, you catch a whiff of cinnamon. You’re temporarily perplexed, only to have your own question answered when the neckline of Euijoo’s shirt shifts against your collarbones. Despite not wanting to feel parasitic, you can’t refuse the comfort of literally living in his clothes.

“I just want you to be happy and have some fun tonight, so I’m going to have some people stop by.” Euijoo doesn’t once break eye contact as he speaks. “It’s not going to be big, but it will be good for you to talk to someone who isn’t me.”

You suppress a scoff, knowing that you don't really talk to Euijoo either, not in the way he desires. “Fine. Like I said, it’s your house.”

You don't stay to hear the exasperated sigh that Euijoo lets out, choosing instead to dump the remains of your cereal in the trash. There isn’t much other space to retreat to, so you make yourself comfy on the sofa, just barely out of Euijoo’s sight. It’s only a moment before the man joins you, hoisting your legs onto his lap.

“Movie?” He questions, thumb rubbing small circles into the bare skin of your ankle as if all is forgiven.

You just make a small noise of affirmation before sinking further into the cushions, letting yourself get comfortable as Euijoo puts something on.

Euijoo’s touch used to fluster you, back when you were in that awkward stretch of preteen and early teen years. No guys touched girls the way that Euijoo touched you unless they were dating. The girls in your classes would always try and convince you that it had to mean something more, that he had to feel something more for you than just platonic love. He loved loved you.

It didn’t help that you loved him way more than you should have.

It was enough to make you flinch when he wrapped an arm around your waist and pull away when he trapped you in a hug. You avoided holding hands on the way home from school and refused to share earbuds when the two of you sat next to each other. It would all make your heart pound too hard and your palms so sweaty that your phone would slip through your grasp.

You were just friends; that you knew. It didn’t matter that Euijoo loved to play with the loose pieces of hair that framed your face or that his hand outgrew yours to the point where your fingers swam in the spaces between his. It didn’t matter that your chest constricted every time his right cheek dimpled or that your face burned every time he called you by your name.

Because every boiling pot eventually cools to a simmer when the heat dissipates.

As you two grew into late teens and early adulthood, you eventually relaxed into the affection that Euijoo would display. The constriction relaxed to a minor tightness and the burn became more of a minor glow. You became more confident that this is what friends feel for each other, a love so vast that it fills your core to the brim but never fully encompasses you.

You would gladly let him encompass you. But until he does, you’ll have to make do with his scent.

You find yourself using Euijoo’s body wash in the shower before the party, even though your own has made a home right next to his. You also use his lotion, rubbing the scent of him into your skin. As much as you contemplate wearing his clothes again, you know that it will only be right to put on your best for tonight. Your makeup and hair are done for the first time in a week, and you feel a bit more like yourself again.

You feel like a girl anyone can look at and not know she’s screaming inside. You consider it a win.

The few friends that Euijoo invites over arrive in waves. It gives you enough time to introduce yourself and make some small talk before having to do it time and time again. By the fifth or so introduction, though, you’re feeling a little worn out, even with the booze that helps ease your nerves. You grab another seltzer from the fridge and squeeze into the corner of the sofa. You only have a few moments of peace before the leather dips beside you.

“Mind if I join you?”

Deep, piercing eyes are only barely visible behind overgrown black fringe, the rest of his hair falling down the back of his neck. Nicholas’s smile is welcoming, extremely warm and familiar for someone you have just met a handful of minutes ago. Despite the assortment of clunky rings, silver jewelry, and thick eyeliner, he seems pretty soft and pleasant.

“Go ahead,” you mumble, taking a long swig from your can.

“You know, It’s nice to finally meet you, the infamous but ever-illusive best friend. Euijoo literally talks about you all the time.”

You wish you could say the same, but Euijoo has always been notoriously quiet about others when you two speak. It used to bug you, not knowing anything about who your best friend chose to spend his time with. But throughout the years, you were forced to let it go.

“Good things, I hope.”

Nicholas chuckles softly. “Great things, actually. But something tells me it still doesn’t compare to you in real life.”

“You don’t even know me,” you scoff. “How would you know what I’m like?”

“Well, if your personality is anything like your beauty, then I think Euijoo just barely scratched the surface.”

The snort that you let out genuinely takes you by surprise. You rush to apologize, free hand coming up to hide your grin despite the way Nicholas is smiling as well. He looks pretty like this, you note, with his cheeks twisted upwards and eyes shining with mirth.

“I’m so sorry,” you giggle. “But that was a crazy line.”

Nicholas shrugs. “Listen, making pretty girls laugh is an art form. I had to say what I had to say. You honestly looked like you were going to commit murder just sitting here.”

Now it’s your turn to shrug, the smooth beats of Euijoo’s playlist soothing the silence between the two. The brief moment of respite is enough for you to feel a pair of eyes on you from across the room. When you turn to face Euijoo, though, he just shoots you a calm smile.

“I don’t think he likes that I’m talking to you.”

“Who? Euijoo?”

Nicholas doesn’t respond, choosing instead to take a long swig of his drink. The silver rings on his fingers reflect the minimal light in the room as he tilts his cup back. You struggle not to trace the movement of his throat with your gaze as he drinks.

“Why would he not want you to talk to me?”

“I think it’s because you’re off limits, sweetheart.”

Before you can respond, a warm body plops down on the couch next to you, instantly pressing into your space. The woodsy scent of Euijoo’s cologne is confirmation enough, but the way his hand instantly finds a home on your thigh is a dead giveaway. When you look over to regard the man, his eyes are trained away, locked on Nicholas instead.

“And what are you two chatting about?” He inquires with an overly saccharine smile.

Nicholas just smiles. “See what I mean?”

He’s gone with little more than a wink and a subtle tip of his cup.

. . .

Sunday morning brings a welcome mundane energy. You and Euijoo stand side by side at the sink, sudsy hands working on washing sticky juice and lip gloss off glasses from the night before. There’s soft music playing from Euijoo’s phone, a pleasant melody filling the silence along with the sound of flowing water. Despite the serenity, you can’t help the question itching in the back of your brain.

“So what was that last night?”

“What was what?” Euijoo’s eyes are endearingly round when he turns to look at the woman on his left.

You sigh. “That whole thing with Nicholas? We were talking and then you came in seeming all threatened?”

“Threatened?” Euijoo chuckles. “Why would I be threatened?”

“I have no idea. That’s why I’m asking.”

The smile that rises on Euijoo’s face doesn’t quite reach his eyes. His ears begin to bloom a brilliant shade of red, tipping you off to the lie he’s about to tell.

“I wasn’t threatened. It made me happy to see two of my closest friends getting along.”

The sound of the faucet running prevents you from responding, Euijoo having turned it on with a sense of finality. You decide not to push it, knowing that when Euijoo gets cagey like this, time and space are the only thing that can make him open up. You guess it’s what makes the two of you similar, your limited ability to be transparent with each other over the things that really matter.

You spend the rest of the day circling around each other like animals in an enclosure. You share space, following each other from room to room while simultaneously keeping as much distance as physically possible. When Euijoo sits on one side of the couch, you sit on the other. When you rummage through the fridge, Euijoo stands by the breakfast table. It isn’t until you both find yourselves in the shared bathroom, brushing your teeth over a shared sink that you speak.

“I think threatened is the wrong word for it,” Euijoo says with a foamy mouth. “I just know how Nicholas is, so I wanted you to be careful.”

You spit. “What do you mean?”

“He’s the player type, likes to fuck around.” Euijoo spits and swishes some water around his mouth before continuing. “I know he thinks you’re cute or whatever. But you deserve better than that.”

“Since when do you care about my love life?”

“Since forever.”

There it goes again, the feeling of maybe. You are left to wonder if he means that in the sense that you want him to mean it. You wonder if his attention to you comes from his Virgo nature or from his genuine care for you. You wonder if it comes from his love for you, and if it’s the same type of love that you have for him.

“You know I don’t date like that,” you mumble, folding your arms over your chest. You’re once again clad in Euijoo’s tee shirt, a tiny pair of shorts disappearing underneath its hem.

Euijoo sighs. “I know. But I also know that Nico doesn’t care about dating. That’s not what he’d want from you.”

“And who’s to say that’s what I want from him either?”

“I didn’t know you were that type.”

I’m not, you want to say, but the words swirl back down your throat like water down a drain. You don't get a chance to respond before Euijoo is leaving the bathroom, running a hand through his hair. It feels pathetic to follow him out, but you do anyway, trying to find words as you plop down onto his bed. Euijoo switches the light off before settling in next to his best friend.

“Look,” Euijoo says after a moment of silence. “If you want to go after Nico, then I can’t stop you. I’m sure he’d be happy to have you.”

“Would you?”

“Would I what?”

“Have me? In that way, I mean.”

The words leave your mouth before you can properly process what they mean. You want to rush to take them back, to let the words that hang in the darkness return to the safety of your brain. For some reason, you let them linger.

Euijoo releases a shaky breath, the sound seeming thunderous in the silent darkness. For a good moment, that’s all there is. You would be convinced that the man fell asleep if it weren’t for the odd rhythm of his breathing and the way his body shifts.

“Y/N, I could never.”

The blood in your veins ices over, leaving you frozen in place.

“Oh.”

Euijoo shifts on the bed, laying on his side so that he’s able to fully face you. “I mean there’s all of this. You’re in a vulnerable spot and we’ve been spending a lot of time together. I’m sure you’re just feeling a lot right now.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Euijoo sighs. “That’s why I also want you to think twice before going for Nico.”

You want to scream. How Euijoo could bring Nicholas up at a time like this is beyond you. You don't know how he can’t see that this isn’t about him. This isn’t about trauma or a fire or needing a warm bed to sleep in. This is about you, both of you. This has been about you way before the fire and will continue to be about you for years after.

But it’s no use, you know that much. In times of conflict, Euijoo has always been quick to skirt around the topic, always trying to obscure the truth through diversion. But there’s one simple fact that remains clear; Euijoo doesn’t want you. Or rather, he doesn’t want you to want him.

“I really hate when you do this, you know,” you spit.

You can almost hear Euijoo’s eye roll as he speaks. “When I do what?”

“When you try to tell me how I feel. You don’t know shit about how I’m feeling.”

“I could,” Euijoo retorts. “But you never let me in. So what the hell do you expect me to do?”

Even in the dark, you know the man’s face has turned red, hot with frustration. The knowledge is enough to keep you silent for a moment, carefully mulling over your words before you speak.

“If I tell you how I’m feeling, I’m going to end up telling you too much.”

“You could never tell me too much.”

You can’t help but sigh, letting your eyes flutter shut. “I just did.”

. . .

Cleaning the entire apartment is how you choose to put salve on the wounds of your friendship. You scrub away at the grime on the countertops, wipe the grease and stains from every mirror, and mop the floor until you can see your reflection in it. It’s not much, but it’s something to distract you from the red hot feeling that blooms in your chest when you think about the night before.

Bits of yourself seeped through the locked cage of your heart last night. And now that they’re out in the open, you’re not sure if they will ever return to you.

Euijoo returns home from work with a sigh, loosening his tie right when he comes through the doorway. The skin underneath his eyes has taken on a purplish hue, fine lines settling deep from exhaustion. He doesn’t even look like himself, despite looking everything like himself. You hate how you think he looks beautiful.

“Hey,” he greets softly when he strolls into the kitchen. “I didn’t have time to pick anything up, so I ordered delivery.”

You nod once, before tuning into the fact that the man has yet to look at you. “That’s fine.”

The silence that overcomes the kitchen hangs low like nimbostratus clouds, heavy with rainwater. It’s almost oppressive, the way Euijoo’s gaze remains down at his feet while you pick at your cuticles. Never in your decades of friendship have you ever had tension like this. You hate the way it makes your throat constrict, suddenly parched for a connection that won’t come.

“Are you okay?” You manage to croak out. “You look…stressed.”

Euijoo lets out a sarcastic chuckle. “Maybe because I am.”

“Why?”

Finally, Euijoo’s gaze snaps up to meet your own, eyes holding a sense of disbelief. “My best friend propositioned me last night and I turned her down. And when I turned her down, she lost it on me.”

“Juju, I—,”

“No,” he interrupts, voice scratchy from the thickness in his throat. “Don’t do that now. I’m just…what’s going on with you, Y/N? I don’t know what has changed, but it’s killing me. Why can’t you just tell me what’s been going on with you so I can help?”

Your eyes begin to sting as Euijoo speaks, the beginnings of tears welling up near your waterline. It takes a few seconds for you to swallow down the lump that sits high in your throat. Your hands are dry from various cleaning solutions as they flex and contract at your sides, looking for something to grasp onto. You just end up balling them into fists, letting your nails press grounding pains into your palms.

“I told you how much you’ve already helped me.”

Euijoo sighs, running a hand through his hair. “And I told you that wasn’t enough. So talk to me, tell me why I can’t help you anymore. Tell me why you asked me to sleep with you all of a sudden! Tell me why you’ve been so weird about this whole situation from the beginning!”

“Because I need you!”

You don't know when your voice gained enough power to come out as a yell, shrill and pained. But once it does, the dam breaks. You know you are helpless to stop it.

“I need you, and it scares me, Juju. You’re my best friend and I love you and need you in ways that you don’t need me. You provide me with everything and I’m just here as your best friend. I’m the friend you don’t even bring around much and the friend you don’t let anyone talk to! You make it so clear that you don’t need me and yet, here I am, living off you like some parasite.

“I love you, Euijoo. I’m in love with you. And knowing that you don’t love me back is one thing. But for you to take my love for you and throw it in my face as just another one of my vulnerabilities is cruel. You ask why I don’t let you in, and this is why. If I do, I’ll just tell you how I feel and you’ll pity me like you do now.”

Lightning strikes across Euijoo’s face as he listens, expression slowly twisting in pain. It’s a flash of a million emotions at once. Surprise, hurt, disbelief, and then it all mellows out into a calm nothingness.

“Have you only felt this way since the fire?”

You fight the urge to scream at the top of your lungs. “No. I’ve felt this way since forever, maybe.”

“Are you sure?” The man’s eyes reflect the light in the room, glossed over and twinkling with the first hints of unshed tears.

“You know what’s funny,” you bite out. “When I lost everything, there was only one thing that remained constant in my life, even through the fire.”

“Me?”

“My feelings for you.”

Euijoo sucks in an audible breath, shaky and laborious. It’s as if the confession finally sunk into his consciousness, as if he finally understood exactly what you meant when you said you loved him. His shoulders immediately sag in relief as the first few tears begin to trail down his cheeks. Despite the tears, he can’t help but smile.

“Y/N, I’ve been in love with you since we were eleven.”

“What?”

Euijoo just chuckles, sniffling twice before continuing. “I thought that you knew and that’s why you were shutting me out! And then when you just asked if I would sleep with you, I thought you were just rubbing it in my face. Either that or you were just emotionally a mess and needed some support.”

“Well, I am,” you respond with a watery smile. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t love you, too.”

Euijoo slowly approaches your tense figure, as if not to spook you. Even his hand movements are subtle as they reach for your dry hands. With just a small tug, you find yourself stumbling forward, far into Euijoo’s space. The height difference is enough to force you to crane your neck upwards to make eye contact, not surprised to see the man already smiling down at you.

Tears continue to stream down Euijoo’s face, the wetness dripping from the tip of his nose down to the floor. You know you probably look similar, despite having tried your hardest to fight back tears from the beginning. It’s no use now. Your walls have already come crashing down.

“I love you,” Euijoo whispers, as if sharing a secret not meant to escape your own personal bubble. “I always have, and I think I always will.”

You release a shaky breath, body trembling in Euijoo’s hold. “I love you, too.”

“Can I…?” Euijoo doesn’t finish his question, eyes simply darting down to your lips before meeting your gaze once again.

All it takes is a slow nod before a hand is wrapping around your waist, pulling you in closer and closer until—

When you were twelve, you had your first kiss. It was nothing more than a simple peck, shared on the back of the school bus on a school field trip. You remember the way your heart fluttered back then, palms clammy and body vibrating with nerves. You felt kind of gross afterwards, but giddy nonetheless.

When you told Euijoo later that day, he looked shocked. He floundered for a moment as he stood in place, frozen on their walk home from school. You remember lightly punching his shoulder, asking him what his deal was. It seemed to be enough to shock him out of his stupor, only snapping back to attention to say:

“That was your first kiss. They always say that’s the one you’re going to remember forever.”

Euijoo was wrong. If there’s one kiss that you will remember forever, it’s this one, with Euijoo’s large hands spanning the circumference of your waist. It’s this one, with Euijoo’s plush yet slightly chapped lips grazing yours. It’s this one, with the salt of tears mixing in with the taste of each others’ mouths. It’s this one, with Euijoo.

When the two of you part, Euijoo presses his forehead to yours, allowing your breaths to mingle as you pant. You can’t seem to quite open your eyes yet, simply basking in the sensation of Euijoo taking over all of your senses. You relish in the sound of his labored breathing. You love the warmth of his palms through the thin t-shirt you’re wearing.

You bask in the scent of him, the bold aroma of cinnamon, tinged with a hint of smoke.

#byun euijoo imagines #&team imagines #&team smut #&team fluff #&team angst #written in the stars #&team

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misguidedasgardian · 16 days

Text

Wildcats (Part XXVIII)

XXVIII. While you were gone

MASTERLIST

Summary: As you were being taken….

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Zombie apocalypse AU, living dead, zombies, guts, blood, guns, cursing, threats, hostage situation, hostage exchange, dark themes, might miss some important warnings, but you know what this is about

+18, MINORS DNI

Notes: Alright let get this party started! what will happen in this chapter and the ones to follow will be very OCC for many characters, but, this is my party, and I really want to make this work! muahaha

Daryl was in some sort of crossroads, he had two paths ahead of him, one, was influenced by his new friend Aaron, and his experience in Alexandria, said path, led him to help other survivors, people who he could deem worthy, to become as lucky as he had become, and bring them into Alexandria, where they could be safe, and become part of his family.

The other was influenced by his brother, Rick, and by all the awful things he had been put through, by the worst kind of people this sick world had created. That path led to not looking for more people, not helping anybody, and not bringing them inside the walls.

But then there was you, you brought in someone who kicked your ass and shot you in the shoulder, and he had turned out to be a brilliant addition to the community. Daryl even started to feel safe with the man, and even more? to trust your security in his hands too.

So when he encountered three people in the woods, two women and this guy, even after they pulled a gun on him, he came back for them and offered them help. He offered them to go back with him to Alexandria, because they were running from people like he had encountered before. Bad people

The debate of who were bad people and who were good was long gone, for Daryl, his family was the good, and anybody that tried to harm them were the bad, as simple as that.

But again, when they pulled the gun on him again, even after he helped them hide from those guys, he was debating again.

He should have let them die, get caught by that group.

They took his bike, and they took his crossbow. He thought twice about fighting them, the thought of you in his mind, not because you’d think bad of him for killing them, but because he didn’t want to risk it, of getting himself killed and never seeing you again.

The very thought terrified him.

Now he knew what being in love was, what being loved felt like, and he was not going to throw it away.

He walked back to the town, a bit defeated, but with a renewed thirst for revenge now.

This is the second time they encountered these guys… he knew they belonged to the same group the guys in the bikes did.

This is something they will need to take care of. Find out more about.

He walked back to where the truck was, he hoped you were doing better than he did. But that took him a while, hours, several.

“Daryl!”, he turned back quickly when he heard Carol calling for him, “DARYL!”

“What’s wrong?”, he asked frowning

“They took her!”, she said quickly

“Wha’?”

“Some guys, they took (y/n)!”, his world stopped spinning in that very moment.

“WHAT!?”, he said, looking all around, already esperate

“I saw it as they took her, they were four of them”, she said. Daryl’s heart seemed to have dropped to his very feet, “when I got to her, she had ran out of bullets, they were four of them, couldn’t get a good shot”, she said urgently, “they said they worked for Negan”

As Daryl didn’t know what to do, Carol went into the truck and grabbed the walkie.

“Team A”, she called into the walkie talkie, “Team B here”

“Yeah, Team A here, what’s going on?”, asked Rick

“They took (y/n)”

“What? repeat that”

“The saviors took (y/n)”, she repeated into the walkie

“We are on our way to yours”, he said, “Team C and D, stay in your tasks”

“Team D here, negative”, said Abraham, “we found a crate, and we are coming to you”

“Team C here”, said Glenn, “us too”

“Rendezvous on B”

“Which way they took off?”, he asked, looking everywhere, to every direction, and road

“It was a while ago”, she said, “From that school at the end of the street”

“DAMMIT!”, he tried to get into the truck, but Carol stopped him.

“You will never catch them in this can!”, she said, “we need to wait for the others”

“Hey!”, called a voice they didn’t recognize, so they both turned quickly, Carol pointing her rifle at the man who had just spoken, “I know who took her”, in front of them was a thin, tall guy, with bear, long hair, and blue eyes, young…

“Who the hell are you!?”, Asked Daryl, grabbing his knife, Jesus put his hands up, with one he showed him your ax

“My name is Paul Rovia, but my friends used to call me Jesus”, he said, passing him your ax, “I met her in that gym over there”, he said, pointing, “there was only one way out, so she decided to surrender to those guys before they found us both, and they took her”

“Surrender?”, asked Daryl with your ax in his hands. Carol didn’t stop pointing the gun

“A group that called themselves the saviors took her”, he said, “have you met them yet?”, he asked

“A couple of times”, he mumbled, sharing looks with Carol

“I have to assume you are part of a community”, said Jesus, “I am too”

“Do you know where they took her?”, Carol asked

“No, not sure”, he said, “but she helped me, so I will try to help her”

“Our people are coming”, Daryl warned. But Jesus wasn’t going anywhere.

In an hour the four groups gathered in the truck

“Who the hell is that?”, asked Rick, as he pointed at a tied up Jesus sitting in the open back part of the truck

“I’m Paul, but my friends call me Jesus”, he said, untying himself quickly, Daryl and Carol just looked at him impressed

“They took my… (y/n)”, said Daryl, “they freaking took her”

“Alright, which direction did they take off in?”, asked Alex

Carol pointed.

“Making of the truck? colour?”

“I don’t know, it was… white?”

“Make? no?”

“the one with a T in front…”

“A Toyota”, he mumbled

“It had a mounted machine gun in the back”, she said

“So it has to be a Tundra or a Tacoma with that weight…”, he said, “and four people you say?”

“Tell us what you know”, Rick demanded out of Jesus

“They took her, because they want to know where she came from”, he said, “they want to know where her community is and once they know… they will extort you for supplies, guns and food”, he said, “They came to my community, killed a 16 year old boy”, he muttered, “and we give them half of everything every month”

Rick placed his hand in Daryl’s shoulders, who was about to lose it

“We are going to get her back”, he promised

“I know”, he said, nodding, rubbing his face, “I wasn’t with her, four guys we could have easily taking them down!”, he said, angrily

“You can’t do that, not now”, said Alex, who was taking control of the situation, “the fact is they took her, and we need to get her back, do you know where these assholes have their base?”, he asked Jesus

“I… no… not personally…They will keep her alive”, assured Jesus, “because they will use her as a ticket to get into your community, you wouldn’t refuse her at the door, would you?”

“No, never”, said Rick

“So we need to get ready”, muttered Alex

“We need to get her back!”, said Daryl

“Do you know how in the movies there’s this heroe that they torture for information? or this unreadable, badass villain? They never break? well, that’s just fiction, all of them start singing before the pliers even touch the tip of their finger, and this is a fact, she will talk, I’m saying this because we need to be ready for when she does”, he said firmly, “there is no blame to her, but… they will come when she tells them”

“Daryl is right we need to put every effort into rescuing her”, said Rick

“Never said the opposite, but we need to leave people in Alexandria who knows what they are doing”

“They aren’t ready”, said Michonne

“Where’s Smith?”, asked Alex, looking around

“Send him back home”, said Rick, “to warn the others”

“Fine”, he said. “You said that not you personally, you might know some people who do know?”, Jesus nodded.

“Look, I don’t know you guys, but you look like decent people, she could have… well… try to kill me, but she didn’t, she could have let those guys find us both, but she protected me, so I’m going to… go on a leap… I’m from a community, called the Hilltop…”

They regrouped in Alexandria, from where they were preparing to go to the Hilltop, as Jesus spoke to Rick and Deanna about their chances to trade and other things, and to speak to people that might know where to find you. Daryl was spiraling quickly, at the lack of urgency (to his parameters) of the rest of people around him. He wanted to grab his bike and took to the road, looking for you, building by building, but he did not have his bike.

If he had his bike he could have catched up to them, if you never split he could have killed the assholes, if he…

“Hey”, said Alex, when they were preparing the RV to go to the Hilltop, grabbing onto Daryl, he tried to jank his arm back but he didn’t let go, “she brought me back to life”, he said, Daryl looked back at him, “I was ready to cash in, I was losing my mind, all alone, in that city of the dead, and then you came along, and even if I beat her up, and shot her in the shoulder, she decided and convince you all to bring me here, she gave me a purpose, a life worth living”, he said, “We will get her back, even if that’s the last thing I do, I will bring her back to you”, he promised, and Daryl looking straight into his eyes, noded

“Yeah we will”, he said. You were right about him, and he was right to remember that, the example you had set, he couldn’t lose hope to still find decent people.

They spend two days negotiating with the Hilltop, they spend the next two… trying to hatch a plan. Daryl spent all that time pacing, listening, being a thousand miles an hour.

In the Hilltop, they discovered that a big group of saviors operated in a satellite station. Instead of attacking it, in fear that they might hurt you, they waited, as a group of saviors left the premises.

It had been four days and Daryl was about to start climbing walls, especially when they discovered that the Satellite station wasn’t even the Savior’s main community. It was just an outpost. So the quantity of men that they had was still a mystery to them. It took them a day to capture the saviors, the trickiest part was catching them alive, and another day to squeeze the information out of them, especially the one that you were not in there, in the outpost, you were somewhere else.

That’s how they found out about the Sanctuary, where this Negan person lived.

Daryl, Alex, Rick, Rosita, Sasha, Abraham and Michonne, were the ones to pursue your tracks, the others had gone back to Alexandria to prepare it for whatever was to come, either saviors, hostiles or whatever.

Daryl was right next to Rick when he spoke in the walkie, when they were finally going to know for sure if you were alright, he knew you were still alive, there was no doubt in his mind, but he needed to hear your voice. The walkie that the saviors had, and he heard your voice, you were alive… and when he heard you, he felt like he could breathe for the first time since he found out they took you.

Alex had taken control of the situation, leading each step of the process that required the abstraction of the saviors, and the way to make them break. He didn’t like to do it, he thought it was behind him, but he’ll do it for you, he had to, so he did it.

During all this time Daryl knew he had the full support of Rick and the rest of the group. And that made him extremely happy, together him and his family, could do it all

And now, they were getting ready to take you back, in Alexandria, with Jesus, and Smith, and the rest of them.

“I want Sasha in that roof”, Alex said, pointing in a map they had drawn, of the layout of the place, “I want the toughest of us in the playground dealing with the exchange, so…”, he looked around the table, “Rosita”, he called, “I want you with our RPG right here”, he said, pointing to the other side, “Tara will assist you, twenty steps”, he said pointing at her, she nodded, “we need to make sure we have that distance, that’s the range of the explosion, if anything goes wrong, we secure (y/n), and then we blown them up”, he said, she nodded, determined, “Sasha I trust you”, he said, “I want the scope on the leader, or whoever is holding her… nobody else”, he said, “If I raise my left hand in a fist, you blow ‘em up”, he said pointing at Rosita, “if my hand is open, you shot whichever of the two”, he said to Sasha, “now, down in the playground, Daryl”, he called, “I want you to be the one to receive her, only if you manage to keep your cool, hostage exchanges are delicate, a wrong look, or a gun a degree too high and things can get very sour very quickly, think you can handle it?”, he asked, Daryl nodded.

“Yeah”

“Our objective is to get her back, no casualties”, he said firmly.

“What about after?”, asked Rick

“We will sit tight, wait for them to leave before we move… It can get tricky, they know we know where they are, but they might not know where we are, the fact that they hadn't come makes me think she really managed to keep the location of Alexandria a secret”, he said, ”which its formidable, on her part”

“Yeah but if we get her back… let’s blow them up”, said Rick, Alex looked at him

“I understand why you think that”, he said calmly, “but because of what we know now, we know there are much more of them, if we take, what? twenty out? they will retaliate, this is how you start a freaking war, and Alexandria is not ready, we let them go”, he said, “hear what she has to say”, Rick didn’t like it, but nodded, “this is a big operation, we need to act cautiously, we deal with them later, when we know more, right now, she is the priority, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make a show of strength”

He looked around the table, everyone nodded, this Smith guy was smirking and nodding, understandably. Alex didn’t like him, not at all, but… he had spent the same amount of time here as he has, so it wasn’t like he had something over him.

“Now… I want Abraham, Daryl, Rick, Michonne and me handling the hostages…”, they organized the whole thing, making Daryl a bit more relaxed.

The priority was you, taking you back home, he believed Alexander, he believed Rick, and he trusted them.

They spent the rest of the afternoon polishing every detail, everything that could go wrong, and they recruited more people from Alexandria, those who could hold guns at least…

Denise, Rosita and Carol sneaked a sleeping pill into Daryl’s water, who had not slept in days, barely a couple of hours each night, and they needed him sharp in the morning, so at eight he fell like a log, the women knew he was going to hate them in the morning, but that is something they were willing to deal with.

He was the first to wake up, at six he was already preparing himself, not aware of what happened to him the night before.

He spend every second of his days thinking about you, he knew you were alive, he always knew, you were tough, tougher than you looked, tougher than he wanted to admit, a badass, so he always knew, he was going to hold you again, it's the mere second that led him to it that almost drove him mad.

He knew the kind of sickos that went about in this fucked up world, he knew, how bad you could have it, surrounded by men, by armed men, he flinched just thinking about it…

But now, he was getting you back, today, and if you were hurt, he was going to kill every single one of them.

Everyone else was on edge too, so they were ready at seven sharp, and they departed to the zone where they took you, to set everything up. Alexander was creepily calm, making sure everyone was in position, Daryl, already losing his patience, draw out of the van one of the saviors, as did the rest

They were particularly nasty, this men, so he could only guess what kind of people the others were

“Oh I bet they did a number on her”, laughed one

“Shut up”

“You’re trading five of us, for whatever is left of her”

“Shut the hell up, if you don’t wanna lose all your teeth”, he had been held at gunpoint, he had been robbed of his crossbow and motorcycle, they had took his girl, and he had been forced to hear shit for two days, he was done, weirdly rested, but so done.

The meeting point was that esplanade, between a highschool and its gym, and there is where they stood while they waited for the saviors to come.

They heard trucks soon after 8:45, you all guessed they wanted to get this over with as well as they did.

There were five vehicles on their part, each with four men. As Alexander predicted, but they were only six, on the ground, next to their hostages. and being supported by Morgan behind them, who had insisted, and then they had three more on the roof, Tara, Rosita and Sasha.

Simon got out of the truck first, with a sickening smile on his face

“Well hello there”, he said, “a pleasure to make your acquaintance”, he said

“Where is she?”, asked Rick

“Wow! I’m sorry, I like to know who we are dealing with first”, he said, “I’d like to know who had the balls to attack my compound and take my men hostage”

“I’m Rick Grimes”, he said finally.

“The name is Simon”, he said, with a big, unsettling smile.

“You took our person first”, said Rick. Alexander was watching the entire entire interaction, he also watched each of the men, posted in the back of their trucks, and around.

“And where is it that you hang your hats, Rick?”, asked Simon

“That is of no concern to you, I want to see her”, he then took out his Colt Python and pointed at his hostage’s head.

“Wow! no need for that”, at the words of his leader, all of his men went out of their trucks, big automatics in their hands, in a violent demeanor.

“Yeah, there isn’t”, said Rick, at his words, dozens of people appeared on the sides of the buildings nearby, holding guns as big as the saviors’, all of them pointing at the hostile group. Rosita appeared with the RPG in her hands, as did Sasha pointing with her rifle

“...But that doesn’t mean we can’t make a show of strength”

Simon did not like this at all.

He opened the back of the truck he had arrived in, and grabbed you. Your head was covered with a sack of some sorts, and Baer got out of the truck behind you, so he was going to be the one to handle you during this negotiation.

Simon took out the sack and Daryl sucked in a breath when he saw you.

You were barefoot, with dirty cotton pants and a single plain white t-shirt. Your arms were bruised, that is what they could see, your face too, only in the cheek, a bandage around your left forearm, everything about you screamed that you had been through hell…

Rick was so mortified that he didn’t even move.

You were going through things of your own. you never liked being barefoot, nor walking barefoot and now when your feet were on the concrete floor you winced.

“Let’s go princess”, mocked Baer, “look what’s happening because of you, uh?”, he kept going. Grabbed you roughly by your arm, and dragged you forwards.

“I expected nothing less from a stuck up bitch”, of course Arat had to be there right behind you

You took a long breath when you saw all the people, your people, there, they had come for you for your rescue. Daryl’s figure stood out amongst all others, and he was there.

“Tell me something, which one of them is your boyfriend? uh?”, he teased, looking at the group ahead of you.

“Shut up”, you growled, he squeeze your neck more, teased a gun into your head, draw his mouth too near your ear

“See? You do need a strong man to protect you”, he said, “I count at least five over there, look at them, taking five hostages for your exchange”

“I’m sorry that I do have a group that gives a shit about me”, you said simply, “and Baer, if you don’t cut it… I’m going to have to kill you”, he laughed in your ear, as did Arat, making you flinch

“You keep telling yourself you can sweetheart”, he mumbled

When they saw you, you could see it, their horrified, surprised faces. Rick tried to keep it cool, but you could tell, even from a few meters away, he was trying to keep it together, trying to contain his now famous anger.

“Let’s do this”, invited Rick

Simon was not pleased, not at all, but he signaled Baer to bring you along, and the three of you walked until you met right in the middle. like 10 meters between you and your group.

Abraham and Daryl were flanking Rick, the two toughest guys, to assert dominance you’d gather, and then there was Alex and Michonne.

Daryl brought one, Abraham another, as did Alexander, Michonne with her katana, and Rick had the leader.

It took everything in your power not to release yourself from Baer and run towards Daryl, and you could tell he wanted the same thing, the very same thing, your eyes never left his not for even a second.

“A big mess you made, Rick, just to get her back”, said Simon

“Shut up”, demanded Daryl, pushing the man he was guarding forwards, “let’s trade already”, Simon looked at him, smiling, and then he looked at you

“Him? Really?”, he asked, “damn”, he muttered.

“Simon?”, you asked, he looked back at you, “I really hope that someday soon, you find yourself, barefoot, in a desert of legos”, you offered with a smile, he frowned.

Simon nodded towards Baer, and he pulled away his gun and pushed you forwards, you didn’t think about it any longer, you took shaky steps, slow steps, as you passed the five guys on your way, once you were into “Safe” territory, crossing about 5 meters, you jumped into Daryl’s awaiting arms.

“Are ya’ alright?”, he asked, caressing your cheek with his thumb, “did they hurt ya?”

“I’m alright”, you whispered nodding. He placed his hand on the back of your head and drew you in for a hug. You then split, and it was Michonne’s turn to hug you tightly, and then Abraham, who took out his army jacket, and gave it to you, leaving himself in just a tank top. He caressed your face, your bruised cheek and mumbled something about a cocksucking bastard, and then he placed Daryl and you behind him and Alex, who only looked at you and nodded, they protected you with their bodies.

Rick watched your interaction with eagle eyes.

“I notice my men don’t have their guns”, said Simon, “they were carrying heavy artillery”

“I notice that she doesn’t have her gun, her silencer, her pants, her jacket, her boots”, said Rick, stepping up until he was face to face to Simon, his hand on his colt Python, “we did the exchange, grab your men and get the hell out”, Simon laughed

“Want to end the party so quickly?”, he asked

“There’s gonna be plenty of time later”, Rick threatened

“Oh is that so?”, asked Simon. They shared defiant looks.

While you looked at your man, you noticed he had your ax in his belt

“Oh, my ax”, you said, grabbing it

“Jesus gave it to us”, he whispered. As you had your ax in your hand, you looked in front of you, until you found Arat, standing next to Baer, you showed her your ax and she wiped that smile off of her face.

You did promised you were gonna put it through her skull, so…

It was a small exchange, but Daryl grabbed you softly by the hip, to keep you right next to him.

Simon and Rick measured each other, then Simon looked at every single one of the people present, analyzing the situation at hand.

Yeah he had taken twenty of his men with him, the rest of the men in the outpost, and still wasn’t enough. He had miscalculated, they had a freaking RPG

“I looked forwards to see you in your nice community”, he said then, Baer smirked by his side, as they took a few steps back

“I looked forward to seeing you in your crappy satellite outpost”, said Rick then.

“I’ll see you soon”, threatened Baer pointing at you, and you gave him your finger.

“Who's that?”, asked Daryl

“Let’s just say I found my long lost member of my Atlanta group”, you whispered.

When they got in their trucks and left, Rick finally turned to you, he cradled your head with his hand and kissed you on the forehead

“Are you alright?”, he asked, looking at you all over, “did they hurt you?”

“I’m… fine”, you said, it hurt, everything hurt, but…you were fine, you wanted to go home

“We can’t stay here, group one! go!”, he said, many of the Alexandrians disappeared. You recognized many of… civilians, neither of them knew how to shoot, but you guessed, they could just hold a gun and pretend they did know, that was brilliant.

They did all of this, for you…

“Thank you”, you said, to RIck, and to Daryl, to everybody. And from one second to the next, all this feeling washed over you, like a bucket of iced water. Now that you had been rescued, your legs began to fail you, you were freezing because of your naked feet.

“Hey”, called Daryl softly, grabbing onto you

“Alex get her out of here”, demanded Rick, and Daryl grabbed you, and he and Michonne and Alex walked back to the HUMVEE. You with Daryl on the back, and you left.

You didn’t even realize when you started crying, tears flooding your eyes as you hold onto Daryl for dear life.

“You r’alright”, he whispered, hugging into you, rubbing soothing circles in your back, “ain’t nobody touching you or hurtin’ ya’ anymore, ya hear?”

But you couldn’t stop, it was like a well had been opened, specially when you still feel the burn in your arm, that had been quickly bandaged before they delivered you.

“Everythin’ will be alright”, he kept saying it, hugging you tightly against him. The relief you felt by being in his arms again also contributed largely to your tears, you had been suppressing all of the fear you had felt these days

He placed your legs over his, as with one hand rubbed your freezing feet.

Alex stopped the car on his tracks, the three occupants of the vehicle looked at him, impressed. He turned to look at you

“We can only imagine what you have been through”, he said, “The next following days you will face a side of you that you never thought it existed”, he said gently, “you will need to recuperate control of yourself, of your body…”, he said, “you will pass through stages, of grief, of rage, of anger, of sadness, of regrets”, he said, “but if you tell me yes, right now, I will turn this around and I will chase them down, and kill them all”, he said, firmly, but at the same time, softly, you calmed yourself, looking at him.

“No”, you said, “not yet”, he nodded, and started the vehicle again.

“Cry everything you need, cry it all out”, he said. And you just sniffed, against Daryl’s chest.

Everybody made it back to Alexandria.

But despite that, with how everything went down… left a sense of worry, not only inside of you, but with Rick as well… it had been too… easy… everything went well, and you wondered why you felt so…

Uneasy.

PCN: I made turns and turns around this chapter, didn’t know how to make it more “emotional”, really, didn’t know how to put Daryl’s emotions into here, I hope I didn’t disappoint.

Daryl doesn’t know what to call you haha, he had said twice “my…”, and then your name, he refuses to call you his girlfriend, the old school southern redneck in him wants to call you only “his”, hahaha

taglist❤️: @crazyunsexycool @capricxnt

#misguidedcats #the walking dead #the walking dead fanfiction #daryl dixon #daryl dixon x female!reader #daryl dixon x you #daryl dixon x reader #daryl dixon x female reader #daryl dixon x y/n #daryl dixon x oc #daryl dixon fanfic #daryl #the walking dead daryl #daryl x reader #daryl fanfiction #twd daryl #twd #daryl dixon the walking dead

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vidavalor · 8 months

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Hello dear,

Sweets are on me this time. Ginger hot chocolate?

Very interested in your opinion about this: What exactly do you think Crowley suddenly realizes after his conversation with Nina? It seems impossible to me that he realizes that he is in love…

♥️♥️♥️

Hi @margotmignard-blog! Hope you're having a good day today. :) Ginger hot chocolate!!! Do you know that I've somehow never had one of those? You've inspired me to try it this week. Thanks for the ask.

Imho, Crowley doesn't realize he's in love with Aziraphale when Nina's peppering him with questions about his and Aziraphale's relationship-- he's known that forever. He realizes he might want to consider again whether or not he should tell Aziraphale that he's in love with him using the whole real 'love' word itself here. That was actually what I think he was considering doing here, if Aziraphale had said yes to getting a glass and having a little date with him:

If you look at the scene with Nina and Crowley, Crowley actually admits to loving Aziraphale in which of her questions he chooses to respond to and how he responds, all of which proves he already knows he is at that point. In only really addressing the "bit on the side" bit, Crowley says that Aziraphale is "far too pure of heart" to be anybody's bit on the side, which is defending Aziraphale's honor from the accusation of him being willing to have an affair with someone in a committed relationship (very gentlemanly of Crowley :)) but is also at the same time admitting that he loves his pure of heart angel Aziraphale by describing him this way.

The irony of the conversation is that here's Crowley, right-- sweet, romantic Crowley-- who has spent the past week trying get Nina and Maggie together and doling out free love advice to everyone from Muriel to Shax lol and he and Aziraphale have been in love for millennia and use every word under the sun to describe what they are-- except for any of the words that Nina has just said... all of which are typical words for romantic relationships lol. In 2.06, Crowley is hesitating to say "couple" and turns into Merriam-Webster to speak around it-- "a team; a group of the two of us". Language is everything in Crowley and Aziraphale's insular world and it's not like they don't know how they feel about one another. They both know they're in love with one another. They use words around it because they've always been only a matter of time away from potentially losing one another forever.

That's even worse after S1 than it was before because at least back then they knew that they had "about 6,000 years" until Armageddon but after S1, Armageddon: Round Two could show up anytime. It could be tomorrow, it could be next month, it could be ten years later. They don't know. Their best source of information is Shax, who doesn't know that much and whom Crowley wisely doesn't really trust. It is hard to build a future when you're waiting for the world to end, right? Aziraphale is shown to be so on edge over it that his 1827 trauma has been triggered and he thinks every time he sees Crowley could be the last time he ever sees him-- but he's still terrified of just asking Crowley to stay because he's afraid to lose him if they were to get caught or when this all ends, which could be any day. So they're stuck running in neutral a little while trying to move forward together.

They're doing their bests by one another. Aziraphale's apology dance for his half of their argument in 2.01 is our car/our bookshop. It's to try to suggest that if they really want a life together, they both have to stop making unilateral decisions and make decisions together. During the week, to help Gabriel and Maggie, they both get pushed out onto Whickber Street a bit more and their relationship is reflected back to them by the shopkeepers. The Crowley and Nina "bit on the side" conversation, imo, causes Crowley to think about Aziraphale's our car/our bookshop moves during the week-- the way Aziraphale's really been trying hard to have it be their life and how he seems a little more ready for it than he has been in the past-- and it gives Crowley pause. Part of the humor of this moment is that Crowley can talk about love all day long when it's in reference to other people-- "just gotta get Nina to do the love thing with Maggie", asking Muriel if she's interested in learning more about "humans falling in love", etc.-- and enjoys doing so in front of Aziraphale as like a way of kind of skirting around the edges of the rules of their language and their relationship but get him considering again just saying "I love you" and this is about as far as he can get it out of his mouth lol:

He repeats "love" to himself a bit after Nina says "love lives" because he's struck by how easy it was for her to say it. Here he and Aziraphale are, in love for thousands of years, running around trying to matchmake the humans, and they've never said this. Crowley and Aziraphale are Earth's longest-running love affair. They are ridiculously old lol and so is their love but the coffee shop human in her late '30s has more experience with saying "I love you" than these two semi-immortal, supernatural beings who have been mad for one another since before the literal beginning of time do lol.

Cupid over here has never confessed he's in love before and Nina's words, plus the events of the week of S2-- namely, Aziraphale's actions during them-- lead him to think maybe he could and should make that fantasy into a reality. He's spent the week doling out solid love advice and matchmaking everyone else and now Nina is making him realize that he needed some himself as well.

Other people's love lives always seem more straightforward than our own is what Nina says and she's (rightly) shading Crowley a little bit for messing about in her and Maggie's love lives but she's also just expressing a bit of disappointment, in the sense that she really likes Crowley and Aziraphale's relationship. She wants what they have, which is why she was asking a million questions of Crowley. Ironically, Crowley and Aziraphale come up with plans to try to get Maggie and Nina together but what really does it is Nina just seeing them together and being like they are fucking adorable-- that's what I want. Both Crowley and Aziraphale are a little successful but fail at it a bit-- the vavoom is a partial success and so is the dance-- but it's really just *them* that helps Nina to see that it's Maggie that she wants.

Nina knows she's a Crowley and she's charmed by Crowley's faux-long-suffering thing with Aziraphale, how he follows him around and dotes on him, flirts with him, calls him "angel" and their sweet banter and how completely besotted they are with one another. Crowley's a snarky, jaded bastard like how Nina herself can be-- he radiates 'have been hurt, will bite, tread carefully'-- but he's also just as soft as Nina also really is underneath and she can tell that. She can see how he trusts Aziraphale enough that he's able to be unguarded with him, which is something Nina doesn't have with Lindsay but thinks she could have with Maggie. Nina can see the peace in it for Crowley that he himself expressed to Aziraphale earlier in S2 and she wants that for herself so she's asking Crowley a million questions to figure out how to emulate it. What are Crowley and Aziraphale? Nina needs to know because she thinks Maggie could be her Aziraphale and she feels a bit lost and needs a path. What she finds out is that Crowley doesn't have words she can understand for it.

It's not that he doesn't have words at all. He and Aziraphale have words-- have all the words but for the traditional ones. They love words. They mess around with language constantly and have for thousands of years, speaking a language that only they really speak. What is missing, though, are the words that they're afraid to say. What they said to each other at The Ritz at the end of S1 ("little bit of a good person"/"bastard worth knowing") was "I love you" in a roundabout way. Crowley has obliquely referred to himself and Aziraphale as humans in love but in an indirect way. Aziraphale has come just as close, maybe even closer-- he covertly referred to him and Crowley together as lovely in 1.01. But we know they haven't ever just said I'm in love with you or I love you because Crowley nearly hyperventilates just trying to say "couple" in 2.06 and admits that they've spent their existence pretending that they aren't one. Maybe a little less so "the last few years", as he says, but if Crowley can't say "couple", neither of them have ever called it "love" aloud directly before. That is what I think Crowley is thinking about when he repeats "love" to himself at the end of that conversation with Nina.

He thinks about how when he looked over at Aziraphale just a couple of days ago when he was doing that whole queer 'humans in love' dark joke about the police force that, even though Crowley was speaking to Muriel, was meant just for Aziraphale, that Aziraphale looked very into hearing Crowley refer-- even a little obliquely-- to their relationship in a way that aligned it with love.

That and Aziraphale's our car/our bookshop and everything the past week makes Crowley think maybe he should say the love thing and it's ridiculous in a way and he knows it, right? It's not like it's going to be breaking news to Aziraphale. They have been in love for thousands of years lol. They know it's love. They're long past any notion of wondering if it really is love in a way like the humans feel, if they're capable of it, all of that. All of that is bullshit anyway-- they've known all along, whether or not they were ready at different times to admit it to themselves. But saying it, when language is everything in their relationship, is still a huge deal and it's become even more of a thing since they've gone so long without doing so.

He and Aziraphale are both spooked a little by Gabriel showing up naked and memory-wiped-- it feels foreboding. If Gabriel can fall, the end of days seem to be circling closer again, so they're both going a little faster out of anxiety a bit so Crowley apparently decides he's going to tell Aziraphale right away and then has to think of how to do it. The next time we see Crowley-- minutes after the conversation with Nina-- he seems to have come up with a plan. He does always like a good plan. He'd probably rather do it in the bookshop but it takes a bit of the romance out of it to have to send Gabriel with a hot chocolate to his room for a bit for it lol and Crowley's thought of a better plan anyway-- Marguerite's.

They probably really do owe Justine the purchase of an expensive bottle of 1938 wine in exchange for her putting up with Aziraphale's French earlier lol but, more importantly, just look at the place, yeah? It's all romantic and lovely-- the ivy and the lights and the roses. It's French in the sense of their everything-French-is-romantic thing. It's a gorgeous little date spot and Crowley whistles Aziraphale over and tries for cool and does he want a glass? and Aziraphale, you absolute fool lol. You went for this place, closed, and The Metatron but you should have gone for it open, right here, and said yes to a glass and let Crowley tell you he's in love with you... The irony, of course, is that Aziraphale is working on his own romantic gesture in this moment and just doesn't want Crowley to know about it yet. The ball is really for Crowley-- the whole thing is to dance with Crowley. It's to take our car/our bookshop into we're having a ball.

Odds are solid that this Aziraphale above here was going to ask Crowley after the ball to stay and to stop leaving at night before everything went to hell and he went missing for the entire night and then the epic disaster that was the next morning happened but Crowley knows none of that back in the scene at Marguerite's and Aziraphale doesn't share it because he's planning for it to be later so the conversation at the restaurant goes quite differently.

Aziraphale not wanting to sit and have a glass of wine with Crowley leaves him disappointed. He makes such a pretty picture, though, and he looks upset, so Aziraphale does sit to talk with him. He tries to get Crowley to wait for him inside the bookshop and the "you like waiting inside" is both flirty and ridiculously married. It's a continuation of the bookshop-is-Aziraphale sexual innuendo but it's also like "sweetheart, why don't you go take a nap?" in tone, which makes the idea that Crowley is trying to confess love here all the darkly funnier as here's Aziraphale with a line that implies Crowley is just frequently in the bookshop when Aziraphale is out doing errands, etc., and they're all but living with one another now. They're married but forgot to say "I love you."

Crowley winds up telling Aziraphale that he was up all night with anxiety over Gabriel and that becomes the conversation topic, with Crowley still thinking about how maybe the timing isn't right for this after all-- maybe it's already too late-- because they're going to be distracted by Gabriel and Heaven and Hell and Armageddon and there might not be any 'after' after all of that. As they're talking, Crowley's dialogue (the way he talks about anxiety over Gabriel and then steers it towards the "smitten" flirting) indicates he might be thinking about the afternoon he wanted instead that maybe isn't really possible in the moment: Aziraphale sitting there, not having to look over his shoulder, having a glass of wine in the romantic restaurant with him, talking and flirting a bit and Crowley thinks that he could have gotten up the nerve to say it, if that had happened. You know he was rehearsing it in his head a little until he spotted Aziraphale and called him over. Instead, it lives underneath the flirtation when Aziraphale suggests he just talk to Gabriel and Crowley uses their love of wordplay and their language to set up the conversation so that Aziraphale will wind up saying "smitten" back to him.

'Smite' is in the same realm as 'wily' and 'thwart' in their language-- a word that has a dramatic, dark, religious meaning but also another, equal meaning related to love and/or sex. (Crowley, who totally wrote Aziraphale's entry in the guide to angels thing that Furfur had, wrote that Aziraphale was a known "demon-smiter", showing that the use of that word for them predates this scene in S2.) "To smite" is one of the rare verbs in English that has two, different past tenses, depending on which meaning of the word a person is using. Crowley flirts with Aziraphale by pretending that he can't remember the correct past tense of 'smite'-- but which one is correct depends entirely on the intended meaning.

"If Gabriel smites you, you've been... smited? smote?" Crowley starts.

'Smited' isn't a word at all and indicates that Crowley is flirting and does genuinely know the answer to the question. 'Smote' is the past tense of 'smite'-- if the intended meaning is in reference to being attacked with the righteous fury of an angel. Aziraphale teases Crowley in return by saying that the past tense of Gabriel smiting someone would be that his target is now "smitten, I believe"-- meaning, now a bit in love. This is both a play on the fact that Gabriel did try to smite both Crowley and Aziraphale in S1 but now it seems to have boomeranged back because, since the arrival of Jim, Gabriel is basically smitten with the two of them-- he's just a big marshmallow who hearts his new friends lol. It's also, though, really more of a joke on Crowley's unwillingness to try to talk with Gabriel, which Aziraphale has been trying to facilitate the whole week, because he knows that Crowley and Gabriel actually have a lot in common and could be good at helping one another through the similar traumas they've been through. He's joking that if Gabriel smites Crowley, as he tried to in S1, then the end result is that Crowley will wind up "smitten", not "smote", which is to gently tease Crowley about how Crowley is secretly big-hearted and warm and they both know he's going to wind up befriending Gabriel. It's also a joke on the fact that they both know that Crowley finds Gabriel attractive, which is part of the reason why Crowley takes the bottle of wine with him from the table when he goes to talk to Gabriel. Alcohol is sex in Ineffable Husbands Speak so if Aziraphale was going to leave Crowley to drink alone but now joke about how hot Crowley thinks Gabriel is while encouraging him to go to talk to him, then Crowley's taking the wine to Gabriel out of flirty spite lol. (And will drink it himself because he really just only has eyes for Aziraphale, as they both know.)

The end result of the wordplay set up, though, is one Aziraphale sees coming a mile away and indulges. He could have said "smote" but he knew Crowley was angling to hear "smitten", which is a word they've used to talk around how they feel about each other by using it in its Biblical euphemistic way while knowing they mean it in the "strongly attracted" definition. It's still not saying love, per se, and it's not the moment Crowley wanted but it was a sweet one anyway because Aziraphale's tone and expression indicated not just the teasing him over Gabriel but the fact that he is smitten with Crowley himself. It was meant to be Crowley telling Aziraphale that he's in love with him and it wound up being Aziraphale reminding Crowley of his feelings for him in their language.

In S3, though, you must allow him to tell you how ardently he admires and loves you, Aziraphale... (just with the second Pride & Prejudice proposal ending, please)...

#ineffable husbands #good omens #aziracrow #good omens meta #good omens 2 #crowley #aziraphale #good omens theory #crowley x aziraphale

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foxy-eva · 1 year

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Milestone Masterlist

I want to thank everyone who participated in my second Milestone Writing Challenge! I had so much fun reading all those stories and I'm more than happy to share them with everyone else.

Fics marked with * contain smut, so minors DNI!

Spencer Reid x Reader

The Mother Wound by @imagining-in-the-margins

Prompt: Nobody said healing would be easy but they had no idea it would be this hard

Summary: Spencer and Reader bond over having emotionally absent mothers

The image of them as children making it through the dark is very touching. It's a beautifully written, bittersweet story with the ability to bring hope to those who need it.

Crazy Ex by @c-m-stuff

Prompt: Person A needs to find B before it’s too late

Summary: You and Spencer are together. When you found strange pictures of the two of you, you knew, this wasn't good

This story depicts the emotions of Spencer's girlfriend really well. I also love the team dynamics, everyone is trying to do their best despite being terrified of losing Spencer.

Rumoured Nights * by @fortheloveofwonderland

Prompt: Someone has to unexpectedly share a hotel room with their favorite coworker - who apparently really likes to cuddle

Summary: A case in a small town in Alaska forces you and your favourite coworker into sharing a room and a bed. And according to Morgan, Spencer likes to cuddle.

This fic has everything I want for a prompt like this - mutual pining, a bit of awkwardness, everyone knowing except for them and then finally them acting on their desires. I also love the team dynamics you added to the story!

Emily Prentiss x Reader

Dar+ling by @leahseclipse

What a cute story! I really like how comfortable they are with each other. Even though Emily usually is more hesitant to show her feelings, she clearly feels safe around Reader here

Prompt: Person A finally confesses their feelings for B, who has wanted to do just the same for weeks

Summary: Emily finally gets the courage to confess their feelings to the reader, who has just wanted to do it too for a while

Emily Prentiss x Jennifer Jareau

The Way You Felt by @andiebeaword

What a wonderful story! I really like the way you describe their relationship without trying to sugarcoat it. I have a similar view on Jemily - they just weren't meant to have a happy end.

Prompt: Even though their love seemed to never be enough, Person A and B can't let go of each other

Summary: While on a flight to help Spencer, exes J.J. and Emily ultimately come to terms with their buried feelings

Emily Prentiss x Aaron Hotchner

Dance With Me by @pandorasdreamings

I really appreciate it when Emily's complex backstory is mentioned in fics. She is such an interesting person to explore further, especially in the context of her relationships with other characters.

Prompt: Person A thinks they are not worth being taken care of. Person B proves the opposite

Summary: Emily is trying to move on and be happy, but her past keeps creeping up on her. Maybe the solution to her sadness has been in front of her the whole time

Aaron Hotchner x Reader

4 AM by @hotchs-bitch

I absolutely love the softness and delicacy of this story. We rarely see Aaron's vulnerable side and you did a perfect job showing us just that in such a sweet way.

Prompt: Person A didn't know where else to go in a time of need, so they ring B's doorbell

Summary: When Aaron's marriage crumbles and he finds himself alone, there's only one person he wants to turn to

Aaron Hotchner x Haley Hotchner

Question of Timing * by @codename-mom

I always thought Hotch and Haley's relationship is very interesting but I never really considered what it would be like from her perspective. It's nice to get some variety!

Prompt: The couple decides to expand their family

Summary: Aaron finally agreed to make Haley a mother and she realised that the d-day is now. The issue is: how to convinced a husband afraid AF to be a father to do the last step?

Aaron Hotchner x Derek Morgan

Drown in my Dreams by @masterwords

I was genuinely moved by your story and your writing style. The way you show how vulnerable both men are in a difficult situation like that is very touching.

Prompt: Person A has never shown any weakness until they can’t hold back their tears anymore. Person B is there to wipe them away

Summary: After dealing with Mr. Scratch, Derek just wants to put Hotch on his bike and get the hell out of town. So he does

Aaron Hotchner & Penelope Garcia

Nocturnal Wandering by @codename-mom

I like the way you described the dynamics between Hotch and Garcia. I always thought that their friendship was really special (and very underrated).

Prompt: Person A has never shown any weakness until they can’t hold back their tears anymore. Person B is there to wipe them away

Summary: Garcia was about to leave the sixth floor of Quantico, late at night, when she discovered that someone else was still there. Someone who was not into a good mood and clearly need some help.

Please make sure to like and reblog these fics to show all those lovely writers some love!

#criminal minds #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds fluff #criminal minds smut #criminal minds angst #spencer reid #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid smut #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid angst #emily prentiss #emily prentiss fanfic #emily prentiss fanfiction #aaron hotchner #aaron hotchner fanfic #aaron hotchner fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic

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iwillrememberyoumarathon · 1 year

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Twenty years ago the I Will Remember You Fic Marathon (IWRY) was born. Originated by Leni, then passed on to Chrislee, to Dark Star, and then Angelus2Hot, IWRY has remained the premiere event on the Buffy/Angel calendar and the centre of the B/A fandom itself.

This year we are hoping to mark these two decades of fan creativity and storytelling by making it the biggest IWRY in years.

In this spirit, one of our team approached the current moderator to ask if we could join her in the running of the event. She did not feel this was necessary. We respect her decision and all the work she has put into keeping the marathon going these past years. We wish her nothing but the best with it now and in the future.

However, we believe IWRY is deeply rooted in our fandom as a collective and community experience. We want to create spaces and events where all who wish to participate can participate. It is for this reason we have decided to run our own I Will Remember You Fic Marathon.

Sign-ups for IWRY Fic Marathon are open now.

If you are a writer or even just writer-curious, please put your name down and join us as we celebrate all things Bangel. We will accept any piece of fanfiction, of any rating, that is 500 or more words long and focused on the relationship of Buffy/Angel (and/or Buffy/Angelus). If drabbles are your jam, we will be happy to include those among the Another Minute bonus stories at the end of the event.

We have also decided to open up the Marathon to other forms of art. All we ask is that it is centred on Buffy/Angel, and that you put your best foot forward!

We are now accepting submissions of artwork such as:

gifsets

moodboards

fanart

manips

videos

soundtracks

Please sign up for artwork submissions here!

If you are neither writer nor artist, fear not! We would love to have you join in whatever capacity is best for you. Some roles to consider include:

Beta reading

Supporting the writers with reviews & comments on fics

Taking part in our "Meet the Fandom" series

Helping us with the logistics behind the scenes

Promoting the marathon on your platform of choice

Anything we missed? Let us know!

If you are interested in participating in a non-writing/art role, email us at [email protected].

If you are a writer without an AO3 account, we have a number of invitations that we are happy to share. Just let us know on the signup sheet. If you are not a writer but would like to be active on AO3, just reach out to us directly via email.

The stories will be posted to a 2023 Collection on the I Will Remember You Marathon Archive. We will provide clear instructions about how to do this closer to the event.

Once again, we welcome you to the IWRY Fic Marathon and encourage you to take part in any way you can!

Please reach out to us here or at [email protected] with any questions.

IWRY Fic Marathon Organising Committee:

Supported by:

calenlily | Fluffernutter8 | MrsGordo | MamaBewear | Najae

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mirkwoodshewolf · 3 months

Text

No following; Planet of the Apes fanfic Chap. 8

*Author's note*

Alright now this is one chapter where a viscous swear word is used. It's around the start of the chapter and its the big P word. So yeah mostly just some intense rated TR swearing words but nothing graphic happening cause as we all know Carver is a troublemaker and a dick so there's definite tension b/t him and Lin. But I hope you all still enjoy the story nonetheless :)

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels

@gay-and-ready-to-cry

@psychosupernatural

@queen-paladin

___________________________________________________

At 0700 hours I was waiting for Malcolm and his team to arrive alongside the pack and within 15 minutes they finally arrived. All the members Malcolm said who’d be a part of this scouting mission were all there with guns in hand (minus Alexander and Ellie).

“Why the fuck is she here?!” exclaimed Carver.

“Lovely to see your fugly mug too Carver.” I said sarcastically.

“I told you Carver, we needed a guide to give us the best pathway through the woods and Lin’s the only one who comes here more than anyone in the colony.”

“But did she really need to bring those beasts of hers? It’s bad enough the apes killed off half the planet, those bastards will rip our throats out without a second thought.”

“Wolves are more frightened of people than you are of them. If you don’t give them a reason to fear, they won’t attack you. Tsume still hasn’t forgotten what you did to him.” I gestured to the hole above his left ear. “If we want to do this now, we better get moving. Most of the predators are still asleep at this time.”

“Forget it! I ain’t going nowhere with you yah psychotic bitch!” Carver exclaimed.

“Quit acting like a pussy and start walking! Before I tear your little body apart limb from limb!!!” my old soldier persona came out as I glared right at Carver, my eyes showing him that I meant business and that I would follow through on my word unlike all the threats he gives me.

The pack also backed me up as they snarled and snapped at Carver making him retreat backward. That’s the thing with this guy, most of the time he’s all bark but doesn’t have the balls to do what he says he wants to do. Just cause he thinks holding a gun makes him all tough, doesn’t mean he has the guts to actually shoot a human being. Meanwhile I—never mind.

“Be warned. The woods are perilous compared to what they once were. Creatures that hadn’t been in this part of the world for hundreds of years have come around so be on your guard. Nearly got caught by a mama grizzly bear just last month had it not been for the pack saving my ass.” I soon led them into the woods with the pack scouting ahead.

Having the strongest nose out of the four of them, Hige was the main scout and I’ve learned that if he lowered his head and his fur hackled, there was danger in whatever direction he was facing. If he let out two barks, he had found something, and a loud howl meant he was on the trail.

“How do we know she ain’t leading us to our death?” I heard Carver whisper.

“Will you knock it off Carver. I ain’t getting attacked by four wolves because of you!” hissed Foster lowly.

“It’s bad enough we got the fear of the apes and the flu getting to us now we’ve got to deal with her.”

“I’ve got PTSD, I’m not deaf. If you’d like to share something then please share it with the rest of the class!” I proclaimed turning around to face them fully. My posture tall and firm as I glared at them. “If you don’t wanna be here then go home. But if you don’t want to waste further time, I suggest keeping your mouths shut about me being here and let’s get this over with!” I turned back around and scaled up the steep pathway that led up the mountain.

We walked for a couple of hours further uphill until we finally reached the borders of the dam.

“This is it. This is it by god this is it!” exclaimed Carver.

“How much further till we get to the power station?” asked Malcolm.

“About another half hour give or take. It’s been so long I can’t remember exactly where the main entrance is to this place.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” I muttered down to Tsume who gave out a huffed bark.

“I’ll go ahead and see if something doesn’t strike me as familiar.” He then went on ahead of us and after a while the group followed close behind him. I looked to the pack and they each looked at me before we too followed the group, but the silence of the forest was soon broken by the sound of a gunshot.

Toboe’s ears bent back as he whimpered fearfully while Tsume, Hige and Kiba all snarled and barked frantically as they raced on ahead.

“Toboe come!” he raced right at my side as I caught up with the others. “Who shot first?!”

“It came from Carver up ahead!” Ellie exclaimed as we raced faster up the pathway until Carver’s shouts became more clearer.

“Stay! HELP! HELP! No! HEY! OVER HERE! I shot him, I shot him.” As we came around I was shocked to see that it wasn’t a bear, a cougar or even another wolf, no Carver had shot an ape. A young adolescent ape by the looks of it. The other one stood protectively in front of the one on the ground had blue eyes which is not common for chimpanzees.

“Did he attack you first?” I asked him.

“What does it matter?”

“It does matter if you’ve decided to play trigger happy you insolent baboon!” at that moment Hige and the rest of the pack all snarled in warning as echoing through the woods were hundreds of ape shrieks and calls. Soon coming from above the hill and through the trees were almost 100 apes all of them wielding spears.

Toboe stood close at my side, his fur ruffled and tail raised as he bared his fangs. Hige, Tsume and Kiba circled around Malcolm and the others and snarled defensively as the apes came closer to us.

Suddenly one appeared in front of us as it came and stood before the two young apes that Carver had encountered and shot at. Hige snarled at the ape but the ape let out a roar which caused Hige to back off practically right away and hide behind me.

“Real helpful Hige, real helpful.” As the apes finally finished showing us their numbers and strength, another chimpanzee soon came up and stood on top of a tree stump just above us. He held out his hands trying to cease the apes from advancing any further.

I looked at this chimp closely, he was older and had the same grim face that I now bore of someone who had seen and been through hell and back. I looked to the left part of his chest and there I saw the familiar birthmark….. no, it—it couldn’t be…..

The chimp who had frightened Hige now held the young chimp who Carver shot and started hooting frantically, all the while signing out.

‘They shot Ash! Shot my son!’

‘Rocket, wait.’ Grunted the ape who stood on the tree stump. Oh my god…..it really was him. Caesar’s alive! After all these years. While the rest of the men were aiming their guns at the apes ready to shoot if any of them makes the wrong move, I reached for my gun and put it down all the while keeping my eyes on Caesar. Slowly I stepped away from the group and saw as some of the apes tightened their grip on their spears as I started walking closer towards Caesar.

‘Caesar?’ I signed to him, deep down thinking that this was all some sort of dream or hallucination. Caesar’s eyes looked directly at me as his expression was stern and defensive. Of course he wouldn’t recognize me now, I was older than I was the last time he saw me. ‘Caesar it’s me, Lin.’

After I had signed to him my name, his harsh glare began to soften as he looked down at me with slight recognition but also denial.

“Put your guns down.” I told the group.

“You can’t be serious.” Said Foster as he aimed his gun towards Caesar.

“Do as she says.” Malcolm told his group. One by one each men lowered their weapons all but Carver of course. “Carver, put the gun down.”

“Hell no man.” Carver wavered.

“Carver I swear to god if you don’t lower that gun right now, I’ll have Tsume turn you into a eunuch!” I growled lowly as I glared daggers at him. At the threat of his manhood, Carver hesitantly lowered his gun as well. I turned back to Caesar but his face no longer held the recognition from earlier, once again the harsh and primal glare was etched onto his face. ‘We’re not a threat Caesar. Just hear me out.’

Silence once again weighed heavy in the woods as Caesar’s intimidating glare pierced all of us until he opened his mouth and spoke.

“GO!!!!!” his voice echoed through the mountains and sent a wave of both terror and awe down our spines. Now I alone knew that Caesar could talk because he spoke to me before he and the clan of apes had disappeared into these woods a decade ago. But to Malcolm and the rest of the group, they didn’t know this fact and were starting to get freaked out. Caesar hopped off the tree stump and trudged his way towards us.

“Okay, okay we’re…we’re going.” Malcolm assured.

“GO!!!” cried out a bonobo that was scarred on one side of his face and soon the apes all started hooting and hollering telling us to go. In a panic we all grabbed our guns and raced off back down the mountain. The pack racing on ahead and disappearing through the shrubs.

Once we reached back down the mountain, we got into our respected vehicles and drove away from the forests, but I couldn’t help but look back heartbroken. After all these years of thinking Caesar was dead, he was actually alive as well as the other apes and not only that but they seemed to thrive stronger than before.

We drove over the Golden gate bridge until we reached the security gate that was created at the border of the city at the height of the pandemic. The doors opened and we soon caught sight of Dreyfus coming out. He came over to Malcolm’s truck and asked him.

“Did you find it?”

“We need to talk.” Said Malcolm.

“What? What’s wrong?” asked Dreyfus.

“The um…the dam’s pretty much intact. It could probably start generating power for us within a week. But there’s a problem. Get in.” Malcolm explained. I revved up my engine ready to take off and leave these guys but Malcolm said. “Lin wait! You need to come with us.”

“Why?” I demanded.

“You’ve seen those woods more times than any of us at the colony. Did you know?”

“I am just as surprised as you all are Malcolm.”

“Yeah, then why’d you start making all those weird hand gestures at one of them?” sneered Carver accusingly.

“It’s called sign language you dumbass. You know the language that deaf people use to communicate.” I sneered back at him. Carver huffed as he got in the back with Ellie and Malcolm’s son, Alexander.

“Saw what? Someone tell me what happened up there in those woods?” Dreyfus demanded.

“Just get in and we’ll explain everything. Lin, you ride with Foster and Kemp.”

“What you don’t trust me to follow you?” I asked. Malcolm gave me a skeptical look and I huffed as I turned my bike off. “Fine you’re right, I wouldn’t have. No one touches this bike! I’ve managed to keep it running the last three years, I don’t intend on losing it now.”

“The border patrol will keep it hidden.” Dreyfus gestured for one of the border guards to come forward and collect my bike. I then went and opened the back door, startling Kemp and Foster.

“What the hell Lin? Scared the shit out of us.” Kemp said.

“Just follow behind Malcolm. And no questions.” I told them as I leaned my head against the back window. The second Malcolm drove off, Foster drove right behind him. The car ride was silent until Kemp had to speak up.

“I can’t believe after all this time, they were alive.”

“And how? I mean—I was a part of the regime that helped burn the redwoods to the ground. Nothing could’ve survived that.” My eyes widened at this new bit of information.

But I couldn’t let them know I knew of Caesar and his troop. God knows what Dreyfus and Malcolm are gonna do to me once we get back to the colony.

“Lin, did you know they were out there?” asked Kemp.

“I thought I said no questions.”

“Nah, nah, nah you don’t get to do that to us, not this time. You’re the only one who ventures deep in those woods. Did you know?” Kemp said as he turned to face me, his eyes burning deep into my soul.

“No. I thought they had perished in the fires. Like you said Foster, not even a roach could survive what you all did to that forest.” I spoke my last sentence with a distant, somber tone as I remembered seeing the news footage.

The woods I once remembered playing in with Caesar, exploring new things, playing my violin and dancing like a springtime faery. It was nothing but a blazing inferno, the trees like torches blazed with light, as a once proud monument was then (for a time) turned into nothing but ash.

We arrived back at the colony and I helped the boys unload their stuff when Carver ran up and said.

“Dreyfus doesn’t want us to tell anyone about what we saw out there.”

“What?” demanded Foster.

“Yeah, said he didn’t want to create a panic or whatever bullshit.”

“Then it’s best to do as he says.” I advised. Carver turned to me and he said as he came up to me, and growled as he shoved his finger into my chest.

“If I found out you knew about those beasts and didn’t warn us, I’ll—”

“Kill me?” I challenged. “The day you decide to do that I want you to do me a favor, you be sure to look me straight in the eye. Never forget my face, because I promise you, I’ll never forget the one who killed me.” I threatened as I got up into his face, my eyes filled with a cold, harsh stare.

Carver’s anger quickly turned to fear as he inwardly cowered beneath my gaze. Yeah, that’s what I thought. I grabbed some of the equipment and walked inside the colony building.

After helping them unload their gear, Dreyfus and Malcolm lead me into Dreyfus’ office where I was sat down and the two of them began interrogating me.

“And you swear you’re telling me the truth Lin? You had no idea that those apes were up there?” Dreyfus asked me.

“Like I’ve been telling you the last fifteen times you’ve asked me that question. I didn’t know.”

“This is serious Lin, I’m trying to ensure there’s no panic in the colony.”

“And I’m being serious too.”

“She’s telling the truth Dreyfus. She was just as shocked as we were to see them. You can’t fake that type of reaction at seeing the number of apes that we did up there.” Malcolm came to my defense. Dreyfus paced around a bit as Malcolm asked me, “But what Carver said back there, how were you able to communicate with them?”

“I noticed they were using sign language. Before the world went to shit, I took many classes back at school as part of my foreign language courses. Also I—had a little brother who was struck mute at birth. Sign just kinda came natural because of that.” Malcolm nodded in understandment.

“Alright, we’re done here. But until I decide what to do, I want you to stay inside the colony Lin.”

“What? You can’t be serious!” I snapped as I stood up.

“I am, and don’t try to defy my orders.”

“Okay let’s get something straight here, Dreyfus! I don’t work for you. I never have. Our deal was that I’d help you, you’d help me. That’s it!”

“Like it or not Lin, so long as you are in the colony walls, you will abide by our rules.” And with that he left his office without another word.

Rage boiled within me as my breathing began to sharpen. I punched through a window and let out a rageful scream before sliding everything off of Dreyfus’ desk to the floor and Malcolm reached out to try and calm me down.

“Hey! Lin, Lin!”

“DON’T TOUCH ME!!” I roared as I came down from my rageful high. I took several deep breaths before muttering incoherently to myself.

This is just like before. Back during the pandemic, during the civil unrest, my times with—them.

“You can stay with Ellie, Alexander and I. You don’t have to be alone in this place Lin.”

“Alone. We’re always alone.” Malcolm didn’t say anything after that. I took my sniper rifle, placed the strap across my chest and walked towards Malcolm’s place.

Later that night, I was cleaning out my rifle by taking it apart and letting it soak for a bit before reassembling it back together. I could sense that someone was behind me so I spoke up.

“Isn’t it pass your bedtime kid?” from the corner of my eye, I could see Alexander coming around and he said.

“Will your wolves come back for you?”

“As I said, they’re not my wolves.”

“Oh. Sorry, I just assumed that since they—you know are always with you, that there’s a loyalty to you.”

“It’s called a partnership. What most people never understood when getting wild animals is that they think they’re getting a prize. Something to be proud of or to stroke their ego with. Or even worse, trying to control them. That’s where you hear all those stories of them getting killed by their prized pets. I’ve learned that if you treat them with respect, and let them be who they truly are, there’s a chance of a bond happening.”

“How did you find them?” I gestured for him to sit down on the couch while I continued to reassemble my rifle.

“Hige I found trapped in a cage trying to get some food. Poor guy even after being freed, tried to go back into the cage to get the scrap of meat. I think that’s the only reason he sticks with me is because he thinks I’m a free food provider.” We both chuckled.

“And the others?”

“The red pup is called Toboe. Found that little pup abandoned in the woods. Frail and shivering. I feared he wouldn’t make it. But two weeks of rest and some food and water and he started thriving. He’s the one who seems to think I’m his mother, but he’s gotta learn how to be a wolf. That’s why I have him be around the others as much as possible when we go out hunting. He doesn’t help me catch the game, he learns by watching the others how to hunt.”

“What about the two that came with you yesterday? The grey and white one.”

“Oh those two boys. You talk about wild wolves, Tsume and Kiba are about as wild as any wolf I’ve met. They know exactly who they are, and I’ve got the scars to prove it.” I then showed Alexander some of the scars from the bite mark’s I’ve been given by each of them on either my legs or my hand and arms. “But with them, it was a debt to be repaid. I found the two of them just shortly after I had met Hige. Or well I should say Hige found them. Both of them barely alive after surviving an animal attack. At the time I didn’t think to believe it, but now after seeing what we saw today, I believe those two came in contact with the apes and were beaten to the point of death. Kiba was the one barely hanging on by a thread. Thought I lost him a few times, but he eventually came around.”

“Well they definitely show they’re not dogs.” I paused in assembling my rifle and I said to him.

“About what I said to you yesterday, I’m sorry. Sometimes I forget that you’re still a kid.”

“I’m 15 years old.”

“Still a kid though. I can’t imagine how growing up in this world was for you.” Alexander looked down sadly.

“I lost my mom to the virus. Dad was—he was so broken after that. When he met Ellie, I…..Deep down I think he’s just trying to replace her.”

“Now I know for a fact that’s not true. No one could ever replace your mom.” Alexander looked up at me. “Look, I know I don’t know you or your dad beyond my usual transactions of trading, but from what I can tell, he cares and loves you very, very much. And no one will ever replace your mom. But both him and Ellie lost people to this pandemic, and they were lucky to have found each other to heal their wounds and be able to love someone else again. Most people aren’t that lucky.”

“Did you—lose someone?” I closed my eyes and told him.

“I lost….everyone.” Alexander sat there shocked and in silence.

“I—I’m so sorry Lin.”

“Nothing you need to apologize for. You should get some sleep, you had a long, surprising day. And your dad would kill me if I kept you up all night with stories of my past.” He nodded and left me to resume my work.

Once my gun was fully reassembled and I clicked the magazine back into place, I set it aside and lay across their couch. I reached into my pocket and popped in a couple of the pills Ellie gave me yesterday before drifting off into another dreamless sleep.

Just the way I prefer it.

#planet of the apes #planet of the apes x reader #planet of the apes imagine #planet of the apes imagines #planet of the apes fanfic #planet of the apes fanfiction #dawn of the planet of the apes #caesar #caesar x oc #caesar x reader #caesar imagine #caesar imagines #caesar fanfic #caesar fanfiction

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makethatelevenrings · 2 years

Text

Day 31 - Threesome (Free Day)

Pairing: Dick Grayson x Wally West x f!reader

Warnings: dom/sub, dp in two holes, if you’re under 18 GO AWAY

Summary: Watching your lovers battle it out on the news was always difficult. You needed to make sure they were taken care of when they came home.

Kinktober Masterlist

You couldn’t tear your eyes away from the news replays of the battle on TV. There was something morbidly exhilarating about watching the heroes over and over again. The knot of anxiety that had choked you hours earlier loosened once you heard they were safe. Now, you were watching it to see the slender lines of Nightwing’s body as he leaped over some Joker goons and the blur of Flash as he took on Gorilla Grodd. You didn’t understand why the two assholes had decided to team up, but you were just glad that they were both back in captivity.

Any last vestige of tension in your shoulders bled out the second you heard the front door open. You were up and off the couch in seconds, your feet freezing from the ice cold linoleum of your cheap apartment.

“Dick.” His name exhaled out of you like a prayer when you saw him. His head raised and he dropped his duffel bag on the floor, his shoulders falling in the same relief you felt at seeing him unharmed.

“Hi sweetheart.” The endearment on his tongue made your knees weak and you gripped onto the wall next to you. You couldn’t relax fully. Not just yet.

“Where is he?”

There was no need to say his name. Dick knew exactly who you were talking about. He kicked off his shoes and ran a hand through his tousled hair.

“He had to run to Central to grab something. He’ll be here any second. I promise.” Dick wouldn’t lie to you, but this was one of those seeing instead of believing moments. True to his words, the door flew open and shut before you could blink and strong hands gripped your wrists. Wally yanked you into his chest and you melted into his touch, the unshed tears that you had been holding back all night finally bursting forth.

“We’re okay, pretty girl,” Wally breathed. “Everyone’s okay.”

A steady, warm body pressed up against you from behind and you shut your eyes with a shuddering breath as Dick sandwiched you between the two men. In their arms, the world quieted. All of the worry and fear dissipated as Dick drew circles on your hip and Wally whispered reassurance into your ear. Dick pressed closer to you and you could hear the soft kiss he planted on Wally’s temple.

You raised your face from where you had buried it against Wally’s chest and blinked up at the redhead. He grinned and cupped your face, bringing your lips up to meet his. A soft sigh escaped you as he ran his tongue along the curve of your lips. You could taste Dick on his lips and it just made you crave the touch of your lovers that much more.

Pulling away from Wally, you tilted your head back and swallowed Dick’s soft chuckle with a searing kiss. Wally hummed at the sight of you two, his grip tightening on your hips. One of his hands came up to stroke along Dick’s thigh, eliciting a sigh from the dark haired man that sent shivers down your spine.

“You never have to worry about us, pretty girl,” Wally murmured as he kissed down your shoulder. “Wing and I will always fight to come home to you.”

“I know you will.” You breathed in the scent of your boys. From friends to first kisses to fumbling hands, your boys loved you with all of their beings. You had been there for the serious injuries, the missing in actions, and the presumed dead.

But they always crawled home to you, bleeding and broken and your name on their lips.

You turned and placed a hand on either man’s chest. Dick’s blue eyes darkened as you trailed your hand down to rest against the waistband of their sweats. Wally inhaled sharply as your nails scratched lightly at the skin there.

“Well, I should leave you two to relax,” you said, pulling away your hands and stepping backwards. Their sharp, calculating gazes followed you as you inched back.

And then you were flying.

Well, not really flying, but you were standing in the entryway one second, and the next you were in your bedroom with a very, very horny Wallace West tugging you into a kiss. He yanked himself away, chest heaving with repressed exertion. Your boys were always keyed up after a fight, no matter how exhausted they might appear to be.

Which is precisely where you came in.

Quite literally…came.

“You better be naked before Rob gets in here,” Wally growled. You peeled off Dick’s sweatshirt you were wearing and instantly your nipples pebbled at the cold air. That’s what you get for not wearing a bra.

“Fuck, pretty girl. Strip and get on your knees.” Wally usually deferred to Dick’s control, but he was always dominant with you. You slowly pulled your shorts off, revealing the Flash panties you had picked up a few days ago. His tongue darted out to wet his lips and he watched as you tossed your clothes into the corner and then sank to your knees.

“That’s my pretty girl,” Wally cooed. He tucked his hand under your chin and cradled your face just as the door opened. Dick walked in, juggling numerous items that you knew would be for after he fucked you senselessly. Always a gentleman. Always a good dom.

“On the bed. Both of you.” He had his team leader voice on so you knew he wasn’t taking shit today. Wally dashed out of his clothes and took up his spot at the headboard. You moved to lay on the bed, your back flush against the scratchy cotton sheets that Wally insisted on.

You took a steady breath before opening your mouth, knowing what was coming. Wally looked to Dick first and once he got the nod, he slid the head of his cock past your lips. You shut your eyes, inhaling his scent and letting the feel of him consume your tongue.

Wally didn’t do anything but rest there. No thrusts. No jerks. Nothing. He simply let himself harden in your mouth surrounded by your warm, plush lips. You whined and flicked your tongue out across his slit, wanting to be used by him, and Wally groaned in response.

“C’mon, ‘Wing. She’s about to make me blow my load like I’m a fuckin’ teen again.”

“Patience, Wally,” Dick chuckled. You flinched at the touch of cold hands against your ankles, but you relaxed when you realized it was Dick. Lips pressed against your skin and then slowly made their way up, ghosting right over your cunt. You tried your best to not squirm, but you wanted Dick there so bad.

“C’mon, man. She deserves it,” Wally murmured from above you. You tilted your head up, slipping more of his cock into your mouth and Wally thrust shallowly into your throat. You gagged slightly and he paused, giving you a chance to breathe, and then started again when you gave him a thumbs up.

Meanwhile, a gentle kiss on your mound turned into a kitten lick across your slit. You sighed, your legs falling open further as Dick dove in. For a man who always used his tongue to sass villains, he certainly knew how to use it. You shuddered at the feel of his rough tongue dipping into your cunt.

As one of his fingers crooked into your pussy, you focused on making Wally come. You hollowed out your cheeks and licked along the underside of his cock, making his hips stutter and a garbled moan escape his lips. You would have grinned victoriously if Dick hadn’t taken that as an opportunity to start rubbing slow circles on your clit. The whimper you let out vibrated through Wally’s cock and he gasped, his thrusts picking up speed. You reached up one hand to roll one of his sacs in your hand, feeling it tighten under your touch.

Salty cum shot down your throat and Wally grabbed the back of your head, making sure you took every last drop and swallowed it down before he released you and pulled out of your mouth. Your cunt clenched around Dick’s fingers and you were so close…

He pulled his fingers out and moved to your head, sticking his soaked fingers between your parted lips. You obediently licked your slick off of his skin and gazed up at him. God, even when he was depriving you of an orgasm, he looked perfect.

“Up, sweetheart.” He grabbed your hips and manhandled you to your knees so you were straddling his waist. “Give Wally a kiss.”

Wally captured your lips with his just as Dick sank you down onto his thick cock. Wally’s tongue pressed against yours and he licked the combination of his cum and your juices out of your mouth as Dick lifted your hips, his cock dragging along your walls. Lips enclosed around your nipples and you whimpered at the touch. Dick suckled at one of your breasts while his fingers pinched and twisted your other nipple.

Pleasure surged through your core, but you knew that Dick wasn’t going to let you off this easily. Your jaw slackened as he bounced you on his cock and you were so focused on the stretch of him inside of you that you nearly missed the sound of a bottle opening.

Wally moved to kneel behind you, one of his lube-slicked fingers finding the tight hole between your cheeks. You gasped as he rubbed his finger along the pucker of your ass and then he slipped the tip of one finger in.

Pitching forward into Dick’s chest, you were pretty sure you went boneless as Wally slowly pumped his finger in and out of your hole. One became two and he scissored his fingers to widen the gap. You knew what they were planning and you welcomed it wholeheartedly. You wanted to feel the sweaty press of their bodies on either side of you. You wanted to be suffocated by their lust and love. You wanted to feel them fill you up and leave you dripping with their cum.

Dick felt your muscles tighten in your stomach and he immediately stopped bouncing you on his cock, settling you in his lap. His hands came up to cup your face and he studied your glazed eyes.

“You with us, baby?”

“Mhm. Yes, sir.”

Wally twisted his fingers, eliciting a shudder through your spine, and then added a third finger. The intrusion burned slightly and your breathing hitched for a second, but it quickly turned into pleasure as he shallowly fucked his fingers, adding depth with each thrust.

“Think you can take both of us tonight?” Dick asked.

“Please, sir. Want to feel you both.”

Dick chuckled, smoothing back your hair from your face. “Hear that, Walls? Such a good girl for us.”

“Just want to make you feel good,” you murmured. Wally let out a breathy laugh behind you and kissed your naked shoulder.

“You always treat us so well, baby. Think you’re ready for me?”

You wiggled your hips back, testing the stretch of your asshole with the girth of his fingers. You nodded and leaned forward so your ass was exposed more. Dick hissed as you clenched around his cock and you let out a quiet apology.

“Don’t you ever apologize for squeezing me like that, sweetheart. You were made to take our cocks, weren’t you?”

“Yes, sirs.” You felt Wally grasp your ass and pull your cheeks apart. He scooted closer and rubbed the tip of his dick, hard once more, against your hole. You greedily sucked in his tip and he sighed, as if he were seeing heaven. Dick adjusted onto his knees, sinking you further onto Wally.

They were splitting you apart from the inside, but you loved the burn. You could feel every ridge and vein of their cocks as they filled you up and settled you on their laps. Wally’s chest pressed against your back and Dick’s chest pressed against your own. You grabbed Dick’s shoulders and let your head fall back to rest on Wally’s as they started to thrust, one after the other so you were never ever empty.

They could feel the other inside of you as they alternated thrusts. Dick loved the feel of you clenching around his length and he savored the knowledge that Wally was right there, pressed against the two of you, and sharing in this pleasure. He never thought he would be able to have both of his loves in his life and in his bed, but the three of you made it work.

You were the perfect sweetheart, always eager to serve the two of you yet never taking their shit. You didn’t care if they were heroes. You only cared that they came home to you.

Sweaty bodies rubbing against one another, cum-tinged tongues meeting in the middle, and burning kisses along jaws and shoulders and cheeks were all proof that you three were alive and present and no one would be able to divide you.

You clenched around your boys and Wally looked to Dick for permission. The dark haired man nodded and Wally slid his hand down to where Dick and you connected. He found the bundle of nerves at the top of your cunt and pressed down on it, letting his fingers vibrate at a speed that he would consider to be a light jog.

You jolted, your walls fluttering around the two men as you came with a strangled cry and their names on your lips. Your vision whited out, muscles tensing and shaking with exertion and orgasmic pleasure. You were pretty sure your brain broke, because when you came to, you were lying on the bed, the feeling of sticky cum dripping out of both of your holes. Gentle hands stroked over your spine and you tilted your chin up to find that you were lying in Wally’s lap with your head on his thigh.

“Hey, princess,” Wally whispered. “How are you feeling?”

“Fucked out,” you answered bluntly. “Where’s Dickie?”

Another hand landed on your hip and the bed dipped as a glass of water appeared in your line of sight. “Right here, sweetheart. We might have been a little rough there. I’m sorry.”

You shook your head. “I wanted it. I would have used the safeword if I didn’t want it. And I know you two would have stopped.”

Because you trusted them. They were good men and good lovers and good doms. They were always on alert for anything that could go wrong.

“Alright, do you want a bath?”

You considered it for a moment, but you didn’t want to lose the warmth the three of you had developed. “Can we take one later?”

“Alright, but you gotta go to the bathroom, drink some water, and eat something for us. That sound good?”

You nodded and Wally helped you up and onto your shaky legs. He supported you to the bathroom and stood outside until you said you were done. The speedster appeared in the doorway with some clean clothes, already dressed himself in some plaid pajama pants, and he helped you into the clothes. It was one of his ratty old t-shirts and a pair of Dick’s boxers, but you savored the smell of them on the fabric. He bent down and picked you up, one arm around your back and the other under your knees.

“What’s on the menu, Chef Grayson?” you teased as Wally settled you gently onto the king mattress Dick had bought for the tree of you. Your boyfriends insisted on a fuck ton of blankets, even if Wally ran hot thanks to the fact that he literally ran hot. It came in handy for times like this when Wally bundled you up under a pile of blankets and settled a few throw pillows behind you.

“Bagel bites,” he answered dryly. “They’ll be ready in about eight minutes. Need anything?”

You beckoned him forward with a wave of your hand and he climbed into the bed on your left with Wally on your right. You curled up against your boys and rested your head on Wally’s chest, your legs tangling with Dick’s.

“Thank you for coming home to me,” you whispered. They shared one of those looks over your head. The look that meant they were discussing something without words. Wally reached over to the nightstand and pulled something out.

“I ran by Central to grab something. Today made us realize some things and well…”

The speedster held out a small velvet box and you glanced between your boys for a moment, words failing you. Wally flipped open the lid, revealing three rings stacked on each other.

“We can’t get married legally. But we can at least make it somewhat official,” Dick murmured. “You can marry one of us legally because if one of us doesn’t come home…Just in case…”

“Don’t say that,” you choked out. You picked up the slim silver band that rested in the middle of the two thick black silicone bands.

“Just in case, you will be taken care of legally and financially. Okay?”

“What do you say, pretty girl?”

You picked up Wally’s left hand and slid one of the rings on his finger before doing the same to Dick. Finally, you placed the diamond band on your own. Holding your hand out, you compared it to theirs.

“I think if you keep giving me mindblowing orgasms, then I’m in.”

Dick burst into laughter as Wally rolled his eyes. “I love you boys.”

“We love you too.”

#kinktober #kinktober 2022 #dick grayson x reader #wally west x reader #dick grayson x wally west x reader #nightwing x reader #flash x reader #dick grayson imagine #wally west imagine

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winchesterszvonecek · 1 year

Note

Ok bare with me this idea is a little juvenile but it’s appealing to me for some reason 🤦🏻‍♀️.

Otis and Y/n just starting dating so they’re very much in that annoying honeymoon phase where they can’t keep their hands (and lips) to themselves, Cruz accompanies Otis & Y/n to a laser tag (or paint ball) outing but soon regrets it after he catches them making out instead of “properly” participating in (chosen) activity.

Brian ‘Otis’ Zvonecek x fem

Laser Tag - [ Brian ‘Otis’ Zvonecek]

Summary: Cruz gets fed up when you and Otis keep making out during laser tag

Word Count: 2079

Warnings: female!reader, suggestive tones, sex references, flirting

Masterlist | Otis Masterlist

When it came to laser tag, it was safe to say that you had absolutely no idea what you were doing. Sure, you’d been once or twice when you were a kid but other than that you were practically useless at it, which is why when Cruz asked if you’d like to join him and Otis at their weekly game, something he’d later come to regret, you were rather surprised to hear yourself saying yes.

Honestly you didn’t care much for laser tag, nor did you ever think about it or going to play it, but the reason as to why you agreed to a game you were more than likely going to suck at was because of one person and one person only. Otis.

You and Otis had just recently started dating after months of flirting and driving the others crazy. And the two of you were very much still in the “honeymoon” phase of your relationship where you couldn’t seem to keep your hands or your lips off one another, so any chance you had to corner him in a dark room so you could have a steamy little make-out session, then you would absolutely be taking it.

You stood next to the bench, your back to Otis who was gladly helping strap you into your laser tag vest, something that was taking him longer than necessary as his hands kept roaming across your body any chance they got, his lips ghosting over the skin of your neck as he eventually pulled the strap to fasten your vest on securly.

“Is that too tight?” Otis asked quietly into your ear, not wanting you to be uncomfortable or have anything sticking into you whilst you played the game, the one he knew neither of you would be so much as participating in. At least not properly.

“No… No, it’s perfect.” You whispered, spinning your body in his hold to face him, your hands trailing up the hardened biceps that hid beneath his shirt as your teeth hooked over your bottom lip, itching to pull him in for a kiss.

“The only thing that’s perfect here is you.” Otis said in a hushed tone as he leaned in, his lips barely brushing yours before a rather loud, seemingly annoyed, throat clear echoed throughout the room from behind you.

You rolled your eyes, Otis leaning his forehead against yours as he let out a soft groan before the two of you shifted to get a better look at Cruz, who was standing with his arms folded and looking as though he was about to scold the two of you like a mother who’d just caught her teenage daughter making out with a boy.

Cruz shook his head, muttering under his breath about this being a mistake before he grabbed his own vest and laser gun, strapping it to his chest before he focused his attention back onto the two of you, not surprised to see you both whispering sweet nothings into each other's ear.

“Can you two focus please?” Cruz sighed exasperatedly, your hushed whispers turning to quiet chuckles before you silenced, rolling your lips in a way that reminded you of being told off at school. “Okay, it’s us three and… those two.” He pointed, unamused, towards the two guys at the other side of the room, both of whom were stoned out of their minds. “Against the other team… Pretty much just us three, so if we want to win then I need you both to focus and please, for the love of God, keep your hands to yourselves.”

“Aye aye captain.” You saluted, standing tall as Otis chucked next to you, making Cruz mumble ‘we’re screwed’ under his breath before he spun on his heels and headed to the arena entrance. “What’s got his boxers in a bunch?”

“He takes laser tag very seriously.” Otis whispered into your ear as he threw his arm around your shoulder, leading you towards the entrance where as usual, the rules video was playing on a small screen off to the left, which was pretty much a waste of electricity at this point as no one ever paid attention to it.

Eventually though the game had started, meaning you were wandering aimlessly around a dark arena that was designed to look like a mediaeval castle for some reason. You had no idea why as it wasn’t like they used laser guns back in those days, if anything it should have been designed to look like some futuristic city but whatever, you didn’t care. All you cared about was finding Otis again as amidst the darkness the two of you had gotten separated and you’d very much like to find him again as truthfully, you didn’t really like the dark and you were finding yourself a little on edge about being alone.

Hearing footsteps coming towards, you ducked around a corner, your back pressed firmly to the wall as you held your gun out in front of you, which made you feel like you were pulled straight from one of those action movies Otis made you watch. Well, more like made you put on in the background whilst you occupied yourself with other, more exciting, things. You held your breath, listening as the footsteps got closer before you jumped out, ready to pull the trigger should it be the opposing team. But it wasn’t. Instead, and to your relief, the footsteps had belonged to Otis.

“Jeez…” Otis breathed out, his hand landing on his fast beating chest as you’d scared the crap out of him by jumping out at him. “God, baby… What are you doing jumping out like that? You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“I was preparing myself for an enemy attack.” You said jokingly, chuckling a little at the startled look on his face which quickly shifted, his jaw now tensing a little as his eyes began to drink you in.

“Enemy attack, huh?” He whispered, licking his bottom lip, his gun dropping to his side where it hung loosely by the strap attached to his vest. “Well how about for now…” He grabbed hold of your hips, pulling you closer to him at the same time as moving you both back, pinning you to the wall which had the blue LED lights on your vests clatter together. “You pretend I’m the enemy and we fraternise a little?”

“Mhmm, forbidden love…” You said playfully, biting down on your bottom lip as you trailed your hands up his arms, one heading straight to his hair where your fingers curled tightly around his shortened strands. “Risky… I like it.”

The second the flirtatious words left your lips, Otis’s were on them, kissing you with such passion and such heat that you were surprised there weren’t sparks shooting out from between you. His hand roamed up your waist, delving under your vest and t-shirt, making you twitch involuntarily from the sharpness of his cold hands against your skin. He’d almost gotten fully up your chest, the vest making it a little harder to move, before a bang on the wall next to you made you both jump and pull apart.

“Nice to see you two working so hard.” Cruz said, unamused as he crossed his arms over his chest, watching as you fixed your hair and wiped at your smudged lipstick before subtly fixing your askew t-shirt. “Come on… Oh, and less kissing, more shooting please. We’re already losing and there’s not long left to go.”

“Yes sir.” You mumbled, once again saluting which had Cruz simply roll his eyes before he turned on his heels, motioning with his gun for you both to follow behind him.

You and Otis managed to behave for a little while and actually scored some points for your team before you inevitably got separated from Cruz once again. And totally not on purpose so you could find a quiet spot to make out in before he caught you, something you knew would happen but still didn’t stop you from doing so anyway.

“Have I ever told you how hot you are?” Otis groaned softly against your lips, feeling your hips push up against him and sparking a fire deep with his chest.

“Only all the time.” You whispered, gasping quietly as his mouth worked its way along your jaw and down your neck, which you arched to allow him the best access so he could sink his teeth into your skin and mark you as his own. “Fuck… Baby… I can’t wait to go back to your place.”

“Why wait when we could do it right here?” Otis exhaled, trailing his tongue over the red mark he’d caused on your neck, making your legs wobble beneath you as your grip on his hair tightened.

“I’d have never taken you for the public sex type.” You said with curiosity, arching your eyebrow as you tried to get a read as to whether he was serious or not. As regardless of whether you were that type either, something about him right now had you wanting him to pin you against the wall and fuck you until you couldn’t walk straight.

“I’ve never usually thought about it…” Otis confessed, pulling your t-shirt aside and gently running his teeth over your collar bones which had you hum softly beneath him. “But when it comes to you… I just can’t seem to wait until we’re in private.”

Otis straightened, his lips attaching firmly back onto yours as your leg lifted, hooking around the back of his as you not so subtly began to grind your hips up against him, causing a low groan to rattle up his chest as the movements of his lips on yours slowed before an irritated voice caused you both to jump apart.

“Are you two for real?” Cruz exclaimed around a scoff, having you blush with embarrassment over being caught in an almost compromising position. Even if it was only Cruz. “Can you seriously not control your urges long enough to play a game?”

“Cruz, relax… It's just a silly game.” Otis chuckled, unsure why he was getting so annoyed. “Who cares if we lose? It’s not a big deal.”

“Otis, the last time we lost you sulked for an hour afterwards.” Cruz pointed out, his lips a little pursed as he stared accusingly towards Otis, who glanced quickly over to you just in time to see you smile before you rolled it. “Look, there’s only like a minute left and we’re only one hit away from winning, so can we please focus?”

Just as you were about to groan from annoyance at actually having to play the game you’d agreed to, a brief flash of red from behind Cruz caught your eye, making you squint a little to see further into the darkness. You could see a figure, lurking in the shadows, using the walls and wagons as cover to hide their flashing vest. Your hand tightened around your gun, lifting it slowly so as to not raise suspicion as you could tell whoever was creeping up on you from the other team had no idea you saw them.

Otis and Cruz were still bickering, something about Otis lacking attention skills now that he had a girlfriend, to which Otis responded with something along the lines of ‘at least I have a girlfriend’. But you weren’t listening, you’d learning to block the two of them out when they got like this and it was just as well that you did as just ten seconds before the game ended, the opposing team member jumped from behind a wagon, only before he could shoot Cruz in the back, you pulled the trigger.

The red LED lights covering the enemy’s chest flashed purple, an almost robotic sound emanating from it which had Cruz and Otis jump, the former spinning on his heels just in time to see the guy who’d given you the win groan in defeat. You couldn’t help but grin, a little smugly too and you turned towards your fellow teammates.

“Oh what’s that? Did I just give us the win?” You playfully blew at the end of your gun, flashing a wink towards a rather impressed Otis before you continued. “See Cruz, one thing you might not know about women is that we’re great at multitasking… Which means I’m pretty capable of both satisfying my urges and reigning myself the Queen of laser tag.”

Like this? Apply to my Otis tag list here!

tagging: @sancochillo @kellykidd @violetmacher @kiddbegins @neapolitantoebeans @alexxavicry @babyyoda89 @wandamaxim0f

Enjoy my work? Why not consider supporting me on Ko-Fi?☕️

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brynnterpretations · 2 months

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Hello! I hope you’re having a lovely day! I would like to ask for a ship request for my OC Magdalena (Maggie) with the Bowers Gang, please. She is a first-gen Mexican-American, 5’4”, with olive-toned skin and a curvier (mid-size) body. Her hair is dark brown, long, and fluffy, sort of like a lion’s mane, and her eyes are brown. She wears a lot of light colors, dainty floral prints, and feminine pieces, etc. Maggie gravitates more towards tank tops, dainty blouses, cardigans, skirts, dresses, loose-fitting jeans, flats, Mary Janes, and kitten heels. She is a very lively, friendly girl who cares for others more than she cares for herself. She uses humor and sarcasm to diffuse situations often. While she appears to be very easygoing, Maggie actually has very low self-esteem and bottles up her big emotions, which cause her to be very sensitive and defensive, making her especially catty and blunt during verbal arguments. Maggie was raised Catholic and is forced to act as the perfect, family-oriented, obedient daughter at home. She likes a wide variety of music, most notably Bananarama, Donna Summer, the Runaways, Dokken, Caifanes (Mexican goth rock band), TOTO, and the Beatles. Her hobbies include playing volleyball for the Derry High girls' team, sewing her own clothes (most of her closet is homemade), going to the record store, and nature walks in the woods or quarry whenever she has free time away from her family.

I apologize if I wrote too much. Thank you so much for taking the time to work on this. I truly appreciate your amazing work!

You didn't write too much at all! She sounds so interesting and if you write something with her I'd love it to be sent to me. Thank you for the kind words and sending this in!

I ship Maggie with...

Victor Criss

Maggie and Victor meet during fifth-period chemistry after being paired together as lab partners. Before then, the two hadn’t interacted much; while Victor always thought she was pretty, they ran in completely different social circles, so he didn’t know her well enough to form a romantic interest in her.

However, once they start working together, Victor falls — hard. He's very much attracted to soft, gentle, artistic types, and as he engages in polite small talk with her throughout their lessons, he becomes extremely interested in Maggie.

And, as much as Victor likes those aforementioned types, what he likes most is someone who has a bit going on in their lives, particularly because he can relate, and believes that the best relationships come through working through issues together. So, all in all: the guy's sold.

After learning more about her and taking her family life into account, Victor would ask her out in the most gentlemanly, Victor way by asking to meet her after class before laying the big question: "would you like to go on a date with me?"

The dates would be extremely thoughtful and sweet; the first date, Victor takes her to Derry's record store, and tries picking out records for her that she likes, learning her music taste in the process. While Vic has a pretty cut-and-dry post-punk music taste, he's extremely open-minded, and would make a point to listen to things she recommended.

As he learns her taste more, he makes her custom mixtapes, and will 100% jam out to Cafaines with her.

On that note, Victor is absolutely enthralled by her hobbies. While creative, he's not super crafty, and also... he is not a sporty person at all. He's very much blind to physical senses, so he loves watching her play, and finds a lot of joy and solace in being around her while she sews or goes on walks, even if the two aren't talking too much.

(Also, let's be real, Vic thinks she's really hot while playing volleyball).

Additionally, Vic would be pretty in-tune with the standards her family imposeds on her regarding religion. He grew up in a New-Age, spiritual household, and nobody can be blind to the effects of organized religion in Derry's heavily Catholic community. He wouldn't be pushy, but he'd definitely try to talk to her about her religion, home life, etc.

To that point, he knows what it's like to always have to be the "rock" for people, and while he doesn't have that gendered, religious aspect to his experiences, he understands that Maggie does, and he takes that very seriously.

Vic would be able to understand her insecurities, and would always put boundaries between people (*cough* Bowers and Hockstetter *cough*) and her. He specifically makes sure what is and isn't O.K. in the relationship (E.G. is it fine if he picks you up at your house? What compliments are O.K.? What compliments are not O.K.?) and is always very attentive to her.

However, the guy's a massive stoner, and will sometimes lose social awareness, which could possibly lead to discomforts in situations with other people; while he's Maggie's #1 guard dog and boundary-setter, when he's had two many hits of the penjamin, he goes into la-la land. I could imagine this causing some tension in the relationship, because he definitely would get too caught up in high-thoughts to realize what Patrick just said to Maggie, but not full-on arguments.

And, that brings us to the others boys. I’m going to be completely honest: Henry and Patrick are not good with people of color, particularly women of color. Patrick is more of a “casual” racist, who drops extremely offensive comments and "jokes" at the drop of a hat, while Henry… well, we know how he treated Mike.

So, Patrick would find every possible thing to say something offensive about when it comes to Maggie, whether it’s her heritage or her religion (and, since the ‘80s is when the priest scandals really started to hit mainstream, bro does not hold back). Henry, on the other hand, would probably not say much to her face, but make snide comments about her mixed ethnicity.

However, as he gets to know her more, he would warm up to her quite a bit. While I'd imagine Henry would say nasty things about Maggie concerning her heritage before her relationship with Vic — while they're in very different social circles, it's not hard to pick out a girl of color in a place like Derry — he would get at least ten shitty comments in.

I'm not gonna lie, the guy has two factors he uses to decide how awful he's going to be, and it's a) is she hot and b) is she the "standard woman": AKA quiet and likeable. If the answer is yes, he will somewhat cease his bigotry. On the outside, Maggie fits the "yes" to both, so she grows on him, and he would have at least one drunken bonding session with her.

That being said, as long as Vic isn't high as a kite, he will fight for Maggie. Our dude will go to war for Maggie. Even with the power dynamics in the group, Victor has made it clear he won't tolerate shit, and everyone respects that (even Hockstetter, in his own Hockstetter way, which... I mean, it's something, but he definitely still is a dick to her).

Belch, on the other hand, has a huge crush on Maggie. Like, huge. Embarrassingly huge. He tries his best to hide it, but he finds Maggie extremely sweet, funny, beautiful, and loves her taste in music — just because the guy's a metalhead doesn't mean he can't get down to some Beatles. Vic is his best friend in the group, so he tries not to let it show, but he always beams when he talks to her and makes an effort to be thoughtful, gentle, and kind to her.

All in all, while there are some canon-typical bumps (*more aggressive coughing* Patrick *even more aggressive coughing*), Victor and Maggie have a very good relationship, and the boys have accepted her (Belch especially). Have fun with them, Mags.

#ship request #bowers gang #bowers gang ship #henry bowers #victor criss #patrick hockstetter #belch huggins #it 2017

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popculturebuffet · 1 year

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Beetlemania Epilogue: Batman Brave and the Bold (Rise of the Blue Beetle, Fall of The BB, Revenge of the Reach and Meanace of the Madinks) (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy beetlemaniacs and welcome to the long delayed finale/epilogue to my look the blue beetle. So while I was working on this project which for those just tuning in was a look at all three men to wear the blue, Kev asked me to take a look at Ted and Jaime's brave and the bold apperances. Being a massive fan of both, enough that Brotoman asking me to do this retorspective in the first place was one of the easiest yesses i've made in my career, and absolutely loving brave and the bold it was an easy addition.

So for those less familiar with this cartoon, Batman: Brave and the Bold was a 2009 cartoon. Brave and the Bold is easily the most unique of the batman cartoons thus far: while each one has it's own touches, Bold decided to go against the usual dark and broody nature of batman he'd had in the 70's to do something a bit diffrent.

Instead BATB takes after the silver age of comics, a time of camp, innosence, and fun goofiness like batman getting his own dimensional imp, Superman and Supergirl having two pets with superpowers and capes a piece, and of course a bunch of kids from the future who still act like it's the 50s who come to grab a young superman, leading to one of my faviorite teams of all time. But not before you know making him cry because 50s. It was a time of brilliant concepts, bonkers carefree storytelling and superman in a pope hat.

And while some fans titled their head, some wailed he needed to be grim and gritty and I just said "oh cool plastic man's in this"... the change in tone was both brilliant and needed. We'd already had three fairly serious batman shows, each distinct: BTAS is a noir masterpiece, Beyond is neo noir putting someone else in the role and thus giving us a batman with school and family to juggle and an older bruce as the mentor, and The Batman was an attempt to really shake things up, using both a younger batman and wildly diffrent versions of his rogues. So while another likely would've worked, and as seen with Beware the Batman it did as likely will the caped crusader, I can't blame showrunners James Tucker and Mike Jelenec for deciding to do something entirely unique.

Thus while Batman's still stoic, instead of being a loner who slowly adds sidekicks and uses over the top silver agey gadgets, from having a jetpack and helmet in his suit, to being able to summon fighting gloves to having his batmobile as a transformer. It comes off as a child's idea of batman: a guy who can do anything and can use all those neat toy add ons you usually only see in his action figures. It's a batman that has a sense of fun about it: While he's stoic as ever, the world he's in is werid and he adapts to it.

The the other secret sauce here is the show's decision to be a team up show: instead of the batfamily, who still show up on occasion, Batman teams up with a fellow superhero in each episodes opening teaser as a fun one off adventure and then in the main story, another nod to the silver age in how many books would have more than one story, batman in particular. It's also telling that most of the main focus heroes are almost entirely b listers: Common sights include Plastic Man, Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel (aka Shazam, pre movie), Guy Gardner Green Lantern and Aquaman, the only a-list of the bunch and the main character. Some had shown up before in the DCAU, sure, but most hadn't gotten this kind of focus and some like Blue Beetle, our natural focus for today's, hadn't shown up at all thanks to rights issues. And even some like Aquaman got a revamp, with the stoic brooding 90's anti-hero of the DCAU replaced with a glorious large ham whose every bit as goofy as the silver age but every bit as badass as he is now. They also wisely kept his beard.

It provides a nice mix of actual silver age characters, and more modern ones like the Jason Rusch firestorm or Jaime that simply hadn't been adapted yet, as well as for whole teams like the Metal Men, JSA and Freedom Fighters to get proper first appearances in animation. This series is one giant love letter to dc and just about every hero they could cram in here and have it make sense is here> And if that wasn't enough, for me personally instead of doing a big 7 lineup of the justice league or just using heroes batman had teamed up with a lot like green arrow or plastic man, they just straight up decicided to recreate my faviorite Justice League Lineup of all time, the Justice League international, even bringing in Martian Manhunter just to make it as close as possible to the core lineup of Batman (Who was leader in those days), Martain Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, Fire and Ice. The only changes were changing the beetle from Ted to Jaime (to fit the shows continuity) and adding Aquaman as it'd be all kinds of weird to not feature the shows breakout star.

So with what the show is down that finally brings us to the Blue Beetle and his long overdue first animated apperance. The DCAU PLANNED to include him but rights headaches meant Ted was relegated to the tie in comics. And since Jaime was such a fan faviorite , when it came time for Brave and the Bold he became the primary beetle instead, providing the fun angle of batman having a teen sidekick.. whose far more powerful than he is, if lacking experince. We rarely see Batman mentor superteens, and it's an intresting concept: He has a partner he can order around and such but can't REALLY stop if Jaime wanted to operate without him. IT's something I hope gets explored again sometime.

That said while Jaime was the main blue beetle, and one of the most common recurring cast members, the series , like most adaptations didn't forget ted exists or to honor him. And while they sadly didn't give us the two beetles operating at the same time, something we didn't get in full blast until Blue Beetle: Graduation Day LAST YEAR (He did mentor Jaime for a while but weirdly they didn't have him resume the costume for a while), we do get one hell of an episode focusing on both beetles in the past and present, another hell of a heroic death, and a time travel episode with Ted's best buddy booster going back to see his friend one last time... and fucking it up because it's his superpower. So join me under the cut as we put on the armor and see the dawn of a new blue beetle and the legacy he protects one more time.

The Rise of the Blue Beetle!: Stinger: Batman teams up with Green Arrow to defeat clock king. Honestly my reaction to this version of Ollie is mostly

As he dosen't really have anything that makes him that.. unique or intresting. He's cocky and wants to one up batman. That's about it. I love Ollie, but this version is so boring. It dosen't help most of his spotlight episodes feature someone more interesting.

The opening however.. is solid, spotlighting the two's competitive nature with each other (and contrasting Ollie's open boasting with Batman being reserved and not showing his compettive streak outwardly), and fighting Clock King. And not the more grounded, awesome version we saw in Batman TAS, but the goofy silver age version complete with robes and a clock face.

Is it the best cold open they could've used? Probably not. But it gets across the team up theme of the series, and the important fact that most of the foes we face.. aren't batman's usual foes. Most of his Rogues are mia, and the only one who gets used a LOT is Joker, and even then it's in more creative ways like having him be Batman's team up for the mid season finale (And leading to the glorious scene in the final fight of him just running around with a mallet like a giddy three year old), teaming up with his own inspiration, or adapting emperor joker. Just like the team up format allows for a wide exploration of the dc's heroes, the antagonists are usually guys you wouldn't see or at least wouldn't see fighting batman.

The episode proper begins with Jaime and his best buddy Paco talking superheroes, with Jaime hyping up batman. It's here we get two big changes: the first is Jaime's personality: Instead of a kind, reserved, if with a biting tounge when called for it kid who just wants to help out his friends and family and who feels overwhlemed, this Jaime is a superhero fanboy whose super jazzed to have power armor.

This change is hit and miss for me: it does kinda miss a lot of the point of Jaime and his personality, a kid burdened iwth incredible power and responsibility who uses it not because he wants to but because it's the right thing.. but I get it for the context of this series. Here Jaime's being trained and mentored by batman, and thus having him be a bit more cocky and eager in places opens up stories more as otherwise Jaime would just be waiting at home. Not only that the series already had a reluctant legacy hero in Ryan Choi, the Atom, so at least one of them had to change personality a bit and it made more sense with Jaime. So while i'm not a huge fan of this change, I understand it enough to not be all that bothered by it, especially since both his Young Justice and Movie Counterparts hem closer to the comics.

A change I DON'T like at all.. is that Jaime's best friend Paco (his family and brenda don't show up).. has NO IDEA who he is. There is absolutely NO justification for this either. We don't see enough of Jaime's home life for him having a secret identity to have any impact and there's really nothing about his appearances that coudln't of been done without him knowing. In fact his next two probably would've been better had he known. It feels like the producers didn't know how to handle a superhero who doesn't have a secret identity.. despite Plastic Man and Aquaman, neither of whom have one and are just fine, being recurring characters. It's an annoying decision and one i'm not a fan of at all, especially since Paco doesn't seem to be in ANY other adaptations.

The rest of the episode is okay. Out of the episodes I had to rewatch (and in our last case watch for the first time) it's the one I was the least happy to see again as it didn't leave much of an impression. On rewatch it has some intresting ideas, but is mostly just a typical "supehero needs to not rely only on his powers" story mixed with a training the peaceful villagers one: Batman and Jaime are shanghied to a colony of admittedly neat looking little protoplasmic blob men woh put out an energy charge. They kidnapped Jaime to help because a previous wielder of his Scarab saved them from Space Pirate and justice league villian Kanjar Ro. Ro is part of why I largely forgot this one as i've never been a huge fan of the guy. He dosen't look terrible but other than space pirate there isn't much to him. The DCAU used him well but also had him as a simple criminal helping frame John Stewart. Here he works decently enough as he's intimidating ENOUGH to be a foe for Jaime, whose the real focus here, and give batman a fight, while still clearly being a villian of the week.

I do like that already, even before we get to ted, the writers of the show get that Jaimee. .is tied into legacy and It's a neat idea to hint at just who carried the scarab before Dan Garret, the first beetle, who for all we know very well COULD have been the person who fought Kanjar Ro before. It's just a shame this NEVER comes up again which is disappointing. It'd be neat to know if the Scarab had a host before the reach dispatched it to earth.

The rest of the episode is pretty by the numbers though, and while the idea of jaime getting cocky isn't bad... he's just not cocky Enough with his powers for the message to work. The episode has more clever stuff like batman hooking one of the little goo people up to a power cable to save them when kanjar leaves them all tied to a piece of debris to die, with the little guys later hooking their guns into themselves, using the fact Kanjar Ro harvests them for fuel against him. It's a clever chekovs gun and speaks to the message of the episode that DOES work: relying on one's self and the power of inspiration.

I"ll also say Batman is kinda.. fucked as a mentor this episode: While I get his logic, having Jaime pretend to be his predecessor to inspire these adorable blobs to kill their opressors, a good message for all, it's still mildly fucked up Batman is asking a children to lead a bunch of people to posisbly die in a war against a ruthless space pirate. I get jaime needs to be a symbol but maybe do't gloss over just how big an ask your asking bats.

Finally i'll say the episodes climax has a good idea: Jaime forced to rely on his brains.. and Kanjar Ro taking the armor. The problem.. is the latter RAISES A LOT OF QUESTIONS, especailly since later episodes go with the idea from the comics, that the scarab coudln't bond with ted kord and specifically choose jaime, making it come off contrived as all apokalips that Kanja Ro JUST SO HAPPENS to be a compatable host. It dosen't ruin the climax, seeing someone evil let loose with the armor is neat and Jaime turning the gamma gong, Ro's weapon he used to strip Jaime of the armor in the first place, against him is genius.

Overall an episode that's jus tokay. i'ts not a bad start to the series or Jaime's time on the show, but it's still clear they needed an episode or two before they started really cooking with gas. Thankfully that only took the first 4 or so episodes and by the time we next saw Jaime this season, the show was firing on all cyllnders with a true classic.

Fall of the Blue Beetle!:

Fall of the Blue Beetle! is more like it and while i'ts not where my obessesion with ted started, that'd be

This episode certainly didn't hurt. It is where Jaime started to grow on me though and where a lot more of his character from the comics comes from.

The biggest part of this.. is Legacy. We got a touch of that with the previous scarab wielder in Rise, but a key aspect of Jaime is that he ISN'T the first blue beetle. That he has to step into someone else's shoes. And it's something that fits dc like a glove as one of DC's bigger draws, one that they snuffed out for a while, is Legacy. Most heroes have more than one version and many have sidekicks, something marvel almost completely avoids thanks to Spider-Man's existence being a direct response to the concept, who more often than not later take up the mantle or find their own new one, leading someone take up THEIR old costume. Often you'll also get heroes sharring identities: it's why we have 9 earth green lanterns, three flashes, and two supermen.

So the fact that Blue Beetle was ALREADY a legacy made ted fit right in long before Jaime had to follow him up after his fatal case of bullet to the head. And Jaime learns that early, and thus has to carry around the fact that not only did Ted die a hero.. but armor or no this could EASILY happen to him. He has to learn to think with his head and learns to appricate Ted as he was. It's not an overwhelmingly major part of the book but the fact Jaime is part of a proud legacy is still important and when he needs help for his final fight, it's Ted's grandaughter Dani and Ted's friends in the JLI who come to help... because they know it's what ted would want.

Brave and the Bold cleverly plays with this as while like his comics counterpart Jaime knows there were other beetles.. he dosen't know what happened to Ted off the bat and this episode brilliantly plays with that.

It also plays with another Key aspect of Jaime: his self doubt. At the end of the days Jaime is a throughly normal kid given great power. In the comics and movie a lot of it is simply not WANTING this power, but with no way to remove the scarab and live he does what he can with it anyway because it's the right thing. The poor kid teared up because during a fucking hurricane, made worse by a supervillian, the kid couldn't save everyone, with his vetran dad having to explain that.. you simply can't. And the fact Jaime was there still saved a LOT of people.

While this Jaime's way more happy in the roll from the off, being a superhero fanboy, the idea that he's not worthy of it still crops up here in a clever way: He and Paco have a campout, and when he recites the Hal Jordan Green Lantern's origin (Which he likely knew as he easily could've met Hal at this point as he DOES exist in this continuity), Paco is doubtful. For those whose attitude to green lantern lore isn't

Like yours truly, a quick recap: The Green Lantern corps are space cops, though thankfully not nearly as corrupt as that implies, who patrol sectors of space. When one dies, their ring finds a replacement. But in this case, dying Green Lantern legend Abin Sur didn't really have time for the ring to do it's thing so he crashed his rocket on earth near Hal Jordan, the nearest worthy canditate and gave it to him personally.

Paco.. dosen't buy any of this, thinking heroes aren't chosen and most dickishly that a hero.. is just their powers. It's just the RING that's special not the person.

Okay look I try not to go on tangents refuting a fictional character.... but given this kind of argument occasionally crops up in real life... no. While a heroes powers are cool and what allow them to do the job...it's the person that makes the hero. And the green lantern's are the biggest example of that. They were all chosen sure but each chosen because they can overcome great fear (Paco IS right that the idea of someone being WITHOUT fear is kinda fucked and the daredevil comics have gone into what exactly that means, it's why they changed it), nad because each one of them chosen brings something to the table. Hal Jordan can think on the fly like noone's buisness, Guy Gardner WILL never give up (Wether he actually should or not), John Stewart is a tactical and archetcural genius, Kyle Rayner has a boundless imagination and some of the best contracts, Jessica Cruz has deep and noble heart and empathy and the power to go on and Simon Baz has a drive no lantern can match. And tha'ts not even getting into Alan Scott, gay icon or the ones whole books I own but haven't read like Jo Mullen or Tai Pham, both of whom deftinely deserve it.

I do love the episode exploring this idea though as given it's something a kid watching this might've thought it nicely deconsturcts it.. and shows what hearing that would do to a person. IN Jaime's case he sprials and goes to his mentor for validation. And this brings us to one of the weaker parts of the episode as Batman is in Batdick mode this episode. Granted at FIRST it's a bit understandable: jaime interupts him during a fight with Doctor Polaris. That fight itself.. is a nice subtle nod to Jaime's history as in the comics, one big arc had him fighting the newest Dr. Polaris. It's really damn good for the record and I hope it gets reprinted. Later we can see batman having recently beaten the Squid gang from Ted's first solo issue. It's some nice background stuff.

Jaime is worried he wasn't chosen for a reason, and while Bruce not reassuring him at first is okay... bruce saying, and I quote "you are NOTHING like the blue beetle I knew" is a level of dickish only suprassed by this guy

Seriously bats, a teen comes up to you, is clearly going through something regarding being worthy of this. I get it, Bats was close to ted in this continuity.. but even in that context it's comes off pretty dickish to compare the kid to someone who had years more experince in the field.

Also yes, in this continuity Ted and Bats.. were besties. I had honestly forgotten that and it's a fun uniquely wholesome take. See in the original comics.. Ted and Batman weren't exactly FRIENDS. They were coworkers: Batman was the stern, often mean boss who expected everyone to do what he said without question, and Ted was the snarky guy in his cubicle who'd shut up when that guy said to but certainly would talk behind his back. It was a good comedic value. Even later, when ted was in his final hours in countdown, batman was someone he turned to.. and Bats didn't take him seriously.. and later deeply regretted it.

Here? The two utterly respect each other, and we get a lot of fun dialogue as the two talk about their gadgets: Bats is impressed Ted managed to get a mini laser working, he switched the coils, while Ted is suprised he can get smoke pellets on his belt because his always blew up. Bats then explains he had the same issue and the casing was ungodly expensive. Thankfully he just put it on the bat credit card.

As for how the two are interacting when Ted's a corpse in present day, that's where one of the episodes most clever aspects comes in: rather than have the intro be an unrelated cold open... the intro is Bats and Ted's on Ted's final case. We don't find out the last part till later, but it's a clever way to have ted around while still having him sacrifice himself in some way.

I'd also like to stop for a moment to talk about how great the voice actors are for our beetley buddies.. and this show in general. For Jaime we have vetran voice acting legend, feeeeee-hany fan, podcaster, and critical role hall of famer Will Fredidle, who does a great job with Jaime's wide eyed enthusasim, ocasional haminess.. but also his vunerablity and depth. You can sense at times in these episodes a kid who badly WANTS to be a good as hero as the heroes who inspired him, covering it up with a layer of jokes... just like his predecessor really. Granted this all comes with the necessary asterix of THEY SHOULDN'T OF HIRED A WHITE GUY TO PLAY JAIME.. which.. they really shoudln't have. It's.. not complicated and it shouldn't of taken till 20goddamn20 for that to be standard practice and not just what some productions did and other didn't. Given a cast this size they STILL coudl've cast my boy in a roll that wasn't racist. Hell he woudl've made a great booster (though who we got is excellent). So the casting decision dose'nt have a leg to stand on.. but Will still did a good job and I dearly miss his voice acting. He's still around granted: he's currently doing the podcast pod meets world with fellow BMW allums Danille Fischelle and fellow voice actor who really should be doing more of it these days Rider Strong. Seriously he was great in Star Vs. Maybe he's focusing more on his family, as he sometimes watches episodes of BMW with his son for the pod, and if so.. fair enough. I do miss these guys and I am glad Will at least is showing up in Legend of Vox Machina and that they have a podcast together.

The other will in the equation is will wheaton, star trek's scrappy doo turned geek icon. Will is a natural fit for ted and does him justice: this version's a bit more anlytical, but as we see later with boosters ep he can play the jokey side just as well and does ted really good. he's the bar that's set for whoever plays him in live action.. and i'm pulling for their top pick of Jason Sudekis. that is PERFECT ted kord casting and the only thing that could top this casting. If not.. will is old enough to still fit the part in the live action dcu. Just saying.

The freindship adds a nice layer to Batman's action: yes he's being bat dick... but it's clearly hard to talk about his best friend's death, someone who really got him as a crimefighter and he could relate to. Green Arrow uses similar methods.. but Ollie's ego's so big he's more concerned with one upping bruce instead of talking to him like a person. Given mots of Batman's partners defer to him in some way or form (and it's telling that for as much as his boisterous baffles our blue bat, he treats aquaman with respect), it had to hurt deeply. And as we'll see later the pain is still there and he's still not quite over Ted's death. It also explains why he's specifically mentoring Jamie: he wants to protect Ted's legacy. While the meteor mission in the last episode was to test of Jamie was ready to partner with him regularly with this ep it feels more like he wanted to make sure Jamie was worthy of his friends mantle.. and makes how proud batman was at the end all the sweeter. It also shows that despite batman using the worst possible phrasing, he DOES think Jamie is worthy.

It also adds a layer to Batman's

Behavior regarding what happened to ted, refusing to tell Jamie and then flying off in his batjet. Bats later fully admits he was worried Jamie coudln't handle it.. but it may be in part he simply didn't want to relive one of the worst moments of his life, when once again someone he loved died and he could do nothing but watch. He didn't want to saddle a teenager with his grief or the fact that in this job you CAN die. And that's something shockingly consitent about this series: Dead.. means dead. There's only three major deaths in the series: Ted's, B'wanna Beast's and the Doom Patrols, but all three stick. All are given weight and gravitas and all deeply effect bats.. not from episode to episode as this is more episodic but the moment still clearly shakes him.

Jamie isn't really happy with that explination and the scarab suggests checking the internet. Turns out ted has a fanpage run by a notboostergold. Who knew? It tells Jamie ted vanished a while back and is headquartered in Hub City, Ted's hometown in the comics though where he operates out of varried: he also operated out of Chicago, New York, el Paso and currently Palmera City alongside Jamie and his long lost slightly older sister we just met because the movies gave him one and DC thought "eh this could work". Which .. honestly it does, with Vicotria being more buisness minded and ruthless. Also sidebar but.. this.. this has happened with booster and ted right?

youtube

This had to have happened. We're alli n agreement, good.

Anyways Jaime heads to Hub City and finds Ted's old layer, covred with dust, something the movie ended up copying and I fully approve of. In fact it feels like the movie took some cues from this episode, turning Ted's adventure on pago island into a jamie story, having someone try and use the scarab to create robots, little touches like that. I don't mind as they did enough of their own thing with it and frankly more people are going to see the movie over this episode, so i'm fine with a good idea being used twice.

Speaking of which Jaime finds out the last cordinates were Pago Island. For anyone who knows Ted's origin that's a red flag. Quick recap for those who didn't read my review of Ted's first two solo issues: Ted worked with his uncle jarvis, found out he was a bad dude, and then brought dan to stop him. Good news: it ended terribly for jarvis with his robots sealed and him dead. Bad news: it ended with dan dead. Gooder news: Dan told ted to take up his legacy. So the fact Ted died on an island where nothing good happens cannot end well for Jaimie.

Batman DOES try ot make up for earlier, calling Jaimie.. only for Jaimie to tell Bats where he's going and where to stick it. Batman takes it like a mature adult and while flying ot rescue Jaime, mumbles "no more teenage partners"

This line.. just.. my god> I mean yes he says "adults got him into just as much trouble " right after.. but he still soley blames JAIME for this catstrophe. Jaime is screwing up yes.. but h'es a kid desperate to know he was chosen for a good reason and to live up to someone he found out went missing on his own because you coudln't take two bat minutes to try and explain things. Maybe tell him about ted without telling him what happened just yet. INstead you accidently told him he wasn't good enough then got mad when he was rightfully pissed you gave him nothing. His timing sucked, but you really should've brought up ted LONG before this.

And as a result.. it makes it VERY easy for Jarvis, still alive here, to con Jaime into giving him data on the scarab , claming he intends to improve humanity's lot and make things better. I get not telling him he was dead.. but maybe if you'd screamed "Ted kord was dead", as traumatizing as that would've been it woudl've at least stopped a villian you KNEW was still around fro mconning him

I"ll also say this.. Jarvis' scarab based tech.. looks amazing, very beetly and while I saw the twist coming... most viewers not familiar with jarvis' existance wouldn't. The tech all looks like something ted would make. It's something I give it over the movie where despite victoria kord's OMAC"s being based directly on the scarab.. they look NOTHIGN like the scarab armor nor the actual omacs. i'm fine with it being different enough to be visually intresting but the omacs and later caprapax armore are just.. boring. But that's a rant for another review.

The main takeaway is that Jamie has accidently given a mad genius an army of super fighting robots.. and by bringing up batman NEARLY caused the man's death. But not only does Jaime catch on the robots are weapons whne one spills i'ts bullets, Batman, being you know, the goddamn batman, is alive and well. He only gets tied up when Jarvis puts a gun to Jamie's head.. which i'm 90% sure is a bluff as the scarab can take on MULTIPLE green lanterns as we'll see next episode, but it speaks to Batman's character he doesn't risk it.

Jarvis.. is an excellent villain here, taken from your usual cackler to a guy who genuinely seems like his talk about wanting to make the world better is legit.. he's just willing to conquer it to make that happen. And a utopia forged in blood isn't rally a utopia is it? But Will does a great job as Jarvis too, making his voice similar enough to ted to buy him as an older ted.. but diffrent enough to hint at the twist.

With that Batman FINALLY is forced to explain what happened: Ted gave Jarvis the scarab because he genuinely thought he could help him use it. IN this continuity dan died another way. So when Ted found out from Batman that Jarvis was instead plotting world domination, he lept to stop it.

In the end though while they did beat Jarvis... he had one last play: launch a rocket full of his robots out to begin his world conquest. So much like with Countdown when backed into a corner.. Ted sacrificed himself to save the world, not telling Bruce exactly what his plan was till the was already on the rocket. As for how the Scarab got away that's easy: ted stole it back during the scuffle and put it on the rocket, so like the comics but in a much simpler way, it still got rocketed to el paso. Ted Kord once again died a true hero.

This dosen't help Jaime as he feels he failed Ted and his leagacy and was chosen just to do this. Batman explains the episodes aseop, similar to last times but executed better: it's not being chosen or what powers you have that make a hero. It's choosing to do the right thing> Despite not having the scarab Ted choose to use his intellect to fight crime. And while Jaime didn't chooose the scarab.. he choose to use it to help people and fight for good.

The two naturally escape, fight off jarvis, and fight the throng of robots, actually beating him this time and with Jaime setting it to explode. Our heroes win, Batman shows his pride and Jamie has his confidence back.

As you can probably tell.. I love this episode> it's one of brave and the bold's best and aside from the excess of bat dick, it's a compelling story of legacy and loss. If you haven't seen the show or are curious about ted and jaime after watching the film, this is an excellent watch.

Revenge of the Reach:

Revenge of the Reach is another banger episode. On first watch I wasn't really into this one and didn't really remember it but on rewatch it was a lot of fun. I'm also happy this episode is as good as it is... as this marks the final Jaimecentric episode in the series. The big reason for this is simple: The Justice League International.

For those less familiar with Ted and this show itself, the JLI was the first version of the justice league post crisis on infinite earths, the grandaddy of crisis crossovers and the event that brought Ted into the DCU. Writer J.M. Demattis finally got the gig writing the league after begging for it but the amount of stuff being reworked post crisis meant most of the vetran justice league was off limits. Demattis and his partner in crime Keith Giffen decided "Fuck it let's make this a sitcom", and used lesser known heroes including good old ted. The only vetrans to join the team were Black Canary (Who only stayed for about the first 12 issues) , Martain Manhunter, and Bats himself as leader before giving that headache to Jonn.

And since Brave and the Bold already had prominent spotlights for key members Blue Beetle (Jaime instead of ted), Booster Gold, and Green Lantern Guy Gardner, featured Fire as a guest star and had Batman as it's lead, it was easy enough to simply introduce Martian Manhunter and Ice. Also Aquaman was there since, as said before, he was their biggest star. The team showed up a decent amount in season 3 and likely would've more had the series not been cut so short, eventually adding other members from the comics like Rocket Red and Captain Marvel.

So with season 3 cut in half and the crew knowing the end was nigh, there was less time to give Jaime more stories, instead focusing more on stuff they clearly wanted to get in before the end: Stories with the league, a whole episode dedicated to Superdickery that's one of the most glorious things ever put to film, an origins episode for batman and his other recurring patners that weirdly didn't have jaime. Season 3 was just packed and had only so much time left. It also had powerless which objectively sucks and I will get to when we eventually do a JLI in brave and the bold retrospective, one of a few Kev's floated along with the Starro arc and Batmite (the latter I especailly want to do as I forgot the late great paul rubens was his voice. ) So this is Jaime's last hurrah. And lucky for him, he got a heck of a writer on board as J.M. Demattis himself wrote this one.

Spekaing of the Starro arc, our intro ties into it and i'll likely be covering again when I do that one. It features a jack kirby creation, THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, with the intro for the segment funly done in the style of a 60's tv show. THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN are a quartet of adventurers who well.. challenge the unknown, experts in their fields who survivied a plane crash, put on matching jumpsuits and took on weird cases for the pentagon. They , to my shock came BEFORE Kirby would move on to Marvel, and with the challengers not having got a lot of traction, and even in recent dc works mostly showing up for one off apperances, I wouldn't be shocked if he reworked the concept of four adventuerers with public identtites who fight weird shit while wearing matching jumpsuits as the fantastic four.

Anyways the quartet fight a weird creatue with batman... but where this connects to the eventual story arc.. is after batman leaves a bunch of mini starros popping out of the meteor to posses the challengers.

So let's move on. Our main story has Jaime going out to space for an unauthorized solo mission. I'd say it was suprising Batman dictated when he could save lives or not .. but he is batman. And TBF, Batman probably wouldn't chastise Jaime if say he stopped a local fire or helped out with disaster relief. I"m sure the kid does the basic heroing stuff daily to stay sharp, and Batman, for all his faults would never want someone to not step in and help when they could. He just likely dosen't want Jaime tackling super crime without him.

Jaime fights Evil Star, whose name isn't a joke from me, but an actual Green Lantern villian, fitting given the Corps plays a large role in this. With some unknowing help from Paco, Jaime does in fact win on his own merits. Batman however isn't pleased as he apparently has Jaime chipped and followed him out there in his bat space suit. What I like though is Bruce isn't mad and his reasons for keeping Jaime on a leash aren't dickishness like last time: he TRUSTS Jaime, he both likely worries about his young ward, especially after loosing ted.. and DOSNE'T trust the Scarab, knowing nothing about it.

The two take him to Oa to drop Evil Star off. Oa is the home of the Green Lantern Corps I mentioned earlier, where new corpsman are trained and the central power battery, the source of their power is stationed. It's there a squad of Lanterns comes to pick up the leftovers, lead by Guy Gardner

So quick backstory for guy: guy was the second space cop green lantern for earth, being a backup for Hal Jordan and only not picked because Hal happened to be closer to where Abin Sur could land. For a while he was an also ran who ended up in a coma.

Eventually though Steve Engleheart decided to make use of him. During his run Steve made John Stewart the main green lantern and had Hal depowered for being mad at the responsiblity and such. Standard angst. Many a fan was simply, as tends to happen in comics, waiting for Hal to come back. Steve however didn't want that and had a simple thought: "Why CAN'T there be more than one earth lantern? Ther'es thousands of others up in space". So he not only allowed John to remain in the role, hence John getting to be the GLC's rep for crisis, but also brought Guy back, this time as a jingoistic right wing loud mouth. According to wikipedia Steve.. regrets the decision a bit as other people around him weren't fond of it and he got no royalties as he didn't create guy. Which is sad as this version became the premiere one.

But while steve lit the spark, it was Demattis who turned him into the tire fire we all know and love, deciding to pick guy for the JLI, likely because out of the four lantern's avaliable, Guy fit into the dynamic the most. While the JLI was still fighting superheroes, it made sense for a more comedic group to have a resident asshole, someone within the group who generally tends to start shit. The person no one likes but they can't really chuck for whatever reason. So for the JLI, guy was that dick, swaggering onto panel demanding to be leader and pissing everyone off with his abrasivness and general dickishness, paticuarlyl Black Canary who, in one of JLI's weaker moments, was portrayed as a straw feminist, working best against guy as a chauvnist. It was essnetially if someone had given Steve Dallas a power ring.

While Guy has mellowed out slightly over the years, he's still largely the loud obnoxious older brother of the superhero set, mostly known for challenging batman to a fist fight with predictable yet hilarious results

Guy ended up as BATB's main GL, mostly because he fit the tone well and James Arnold Taylor did a pitch perfect job getting Guy down. He never got bumped up to the status of Jaime, Plastic Man or Aquaman of being as close to a main character as the series format allowed, but he was still a memorable part of it and they did him good.

Which is bad for Jaime as Guy's approach to the lantern's request to take JAIME in with his prisoner goes over like a lead ballon, not helped by Guy basically saying "Shut up and get in the van' While his fellow lanterns do fuck all to actually explain WHY the guardians want Jaime. A fight insues and it's easily the best part of a standout episodes. See with the Green Lantern's what makes them so awesome is that the power ring can make ANYTHIGN they imagine. Any thought can be a weapon. There's limits of course: some things can tamper with the vibration, the user needs to be able to concetrate, the rings have to be recharged by reciting the badass oath, stuff to keep the stories interesting, but even with those limits the ring is a deadly weapon in the right hands. It's also what makes the lanterns fun in comparison to other heroes who share the same power sets: while they all have the same ring, each person uses it diffrently: from Hal Jordan favoring planes due to his airforce background, to Kyle Rayner going with a lot of Manga style designs due to being a self confessed "Manga nut with a power ring". It's just some writers can't see the full potetial and just have it be a glorified ray gun or have them only reatrain people with rings and such.

Demattis.. dosen't have this issue, and also fully gets that Jamie's scarab is just aas formidable, leading to a dope as hell fight as we get two fighters both experinced, both with weapons that can do anything going at it with highlights including guy making a sword and shield and later armor for himself, befitting his brawler styles.

Batman eventually steps in and stops this, though I like that he dosen't chastise Jaime. While Jaime esclated, he was faced with a bunch of people wanting to take his incredibly dangerous scarab that he saw as a friend and not explaning why. Guy on the otherhand.. is guy and tries to get Bats to butt out.. only for Batman to remind him he punched his lights out in this contuity too. Yes folks BATB made sure to adapt that moment for Guy's debut. Guy wouldn't listen to batman on a mission, with Bats keeping him on a short leash.. so Guy decked him. While Guy mumble's it was a lucky shot.. it's clear he's cowed and the Guardians step in.

They explain things to the trio in private: the Scarab is, like in the comics a dangerous weapon of the Reach, intergalactic conquerers the Corps defeated years ago, with the scarab users being a false flag: heroes sent to help them.. to keep the planet alive long enough for said user to conquer later when the programming tookover. The diffrence here is in the comics, the Reach played the long game, planning to wait a few generations to sell the planet and use it's inhabitants for slaves, slowly making them docile so by the time they were ready for market, they woudln't fight back. IT's part of what made them such a threat: Jaime coudln't just punch them away, he had to outsmart them.

Here their more like the borg from star trek: a cold collective with but one purpose, a hive of insects planning to swarm. The false flag part remains, it's just less nuanced. And tha'ts.. okay. I didn't like it at first, but I get that unlike Young Justice after this... BATB simply didnt' have the real estate for that kind of story, so they codnsensed it.

The Guardians let Jamie go for now as they want to see if he can control it and trust Batman's words. Guy being guy.. isn't convinced.. and proves a broken clock is right once a day as the Scarab, now in position to do some damage way sooner, regretfully hyjacks Jaime. The one weakness of this one is it's hard to buy Jaime and the Scarab as friends given we've barely seen the two and don't really see them bonding. It just beeps behind him, with the comics, movie and young justice taking effort to show Jaime warming up to his metallic parasite.

Most of the ep is really just a large fight between a possesed Jamie and the corps, and unlike the comics, where their on an even keel, or when Jamie is in control.. this scarab easily mows through them without anyone holding the leash, and Jamie only gets to wake up for a secona nd panickedly try to fight it's control.

So we're left with two sides; Guy who, again, being a dick assumes Jaime is a willing traitor

And Batman.. who see has come a long way, now fully respecting Jaime and has all the faith in the world he can fight this. He gets blasted a lot but is ultimately p;roven right even as a small reach squad arrives.. and easily mops the floor with an ARMY of green lanterns who barely hold them back.

Jaime ends up turning the tide though, fighting his way free and proving himself.. and Guy decides to trust him because why not. How Jaime wins is also clever: he has the lanterns load him up with thier power.. but choose THEM for a reason: since the lanterns run on a user's will, it allows jamie to tape into the scarb's hosts an dresotre there,s disarrming the scarabs. The guardians not only thank jamie ut plan to destroy them... and Guy, as is necesiated by tv law, steps in and tells them not to include Jaime's, with Batman fully graduating his old sidekick.

Revenge is a solid ep. It lacks some of the depth of Fall, but is still a fun episode with some really tightly animated action and plays with the toys it has beautifully. So that leaves us with one last beetlecentric episode.. only this time.. it's Ted's farewell.

Menace of the Madniks!:

We end this retrospective still in season 2.. and this is a very close second favorite out of this pile. It's also the only one I hadn't seen, having not really tracked down most of the episodes I missed, apart from the Doom Patrol one.

The opening.. is the Haunted Tank. Now the concept of a possed wwII era tank, is awesome and the car chase is great. But for some reason not only did the original writers think it being a CONFEDERATE ghost was okay.. but so did the staff of BATB. I get this was long before BLM but.. come on. Just.. come on. He has CSA ON HIS HAT. WHy is batman riding shotgun with a racist confederate ghost? WHY IS BATMAN TEAMING UP WITH...

Menance builds on Batman's characterization from Fall of the Blue Beetle, having been one of Ted's closest friends and working hard to mop up the Madniks, the only member of Ted's rogues gallery to have staying power after his death. Their a bunch of artists, doodly doo, who want to peddle their weird anti-society ways man. Basically their what Steve Ditko thought beatniks were, but work because they have great designs that help cover up being created by an old man who yells at clouds.

Batman is trying to take them down in ted's honor.. but wasn't the ONLY one with that idea as we get the glory that is Booster Gold. Booster was ted's best friend in the comics, a janitor from the future who came back to our time to get rich being a hero, learned to be a hero, and spent most of his time in the league dragging Ted into get rich quick schemes

The two are joined at the hip, with Ted's death shattering the poor guy. Their also shipped a lot. Not really my thing in most cases but this episode is very much "the two guys into me have to hang out and neither likes each other", and I suppport it.

And tha'ts how they cleverly account for Booster and Ted's history not having been brought up till now: Ted was close with both bats and booster.. but made sure neither one knew about it, with booster only finding out when Batman berates him.

Booster being a time traveler also allows for them to cleverly bring ted back without undoing his sacrifice: While he is VERY dumb, Batman outright snaps at him later when he asks too many time travel questions a time traveler should DAMn well know, and Skeets, Boosters robot buddy voiced by voice acting legend billy west (Who along with Booster's va tom everett scott is reprsing his role from the DCAU, the only actors to do so here), is worried Boost just wants to save ted. He dose'nt know: while he'd LIKE to, he's again not THAT dumb and simply wants to see him again and wrap up the madmen as they were the last case Ted worked before Pago island.

It's sweet at first as we see how close the two are: Ted's super happy to see booster, glad to work with him, and only mildly confused his best friend is here after seeing him just a week ago. It speaks to the type of friends they are: wo goofuses who need each other and speak the same very dumb language. Ted is way more relaxed in this episode and it implies his more withdrawn manor with batman.. is simply matching bat's energy. IT's a nice way to have ted still be the awesome science guy.. but inject the fun back in.

The two go to stop the Madniks together, but booster makes an oopsie and shoots the gun their stealing. Their all imoblized by it but if you thought "a weird raygun backfiring and spraying red ominous energy over a bunch of c list villians" is going to end badly, your correct as Booster going back to the present.. finds it ravaged by three weird energy monsters who i'm calling the Meganiks as unlike booster, you can put two and two together. Booster tells on himself, and Batman, having not even REMOTELY suspected him, makes Booster take them back.

This leads to the fun part of the episode: Ted awkwardly having to navigate his VERY different besties, with batman being utterly shocked Ted spends time with such a goofus, not getting that not EVERYONE thinks fighting crime is the funenst thing possible. Seriously this episode has such "my best friend hates my boyfriend" energy and I love it. The two naturally bicker a lot with Ted trying to be civil before just telling the two to shut up and admitting this is WHY he didn't tell them about each other. Eventually the two DO end up working together well enough when Ted's in real danger.

And that's where the two sweetest parts of this come from. The first is when Booster finally admits he just wanted to see Ted again.. and Bats not only realizes he was a bit hard on the moron, accidently end of the world or no.. but that their friendship was as strong as Bats own with ted. I mean really.. who WOULDN'T want one last moment with a loved one, wether that loved one knew it or not. It bonds the two.. and in doing so gives ted something better than simply finishing his last case.. he gets to see the two people he cares about most actually get along. It's a really nice way to end it and when they get back to the present bats decides to invite booster to patrolw tih him. They may not really get each other.. but mayeb they can help each other move on.

So all in all one meh, early episode and a bunch of REALLY strong episodes. In general Brave and the Bold was really fantastic and only had maybe a few duds. It's a glorious celebration of the dcu and I wholly recommend checking it out especailly if you love those boys in blue

For now.. it's time to let Jamie and Ted have a rest. I'll go back there someday, I still want to cover the movie at some point, the rest of Jaime's run but for now we can simply watch as one flies and one swings off into the sunset, for more adventures, and a bright future. The bluest, and bravest, heroes there ever were. Thanks for reading.

#batman the brave and the bold #ted kord #jaime reyes #blue beetle #booster gold #guy gardner #will wheaton #will friedle #the madniks #the reach #the green lantern corps #green lantern

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