#I was going for that resigned kind of dead inside look

[unordinary-diary]

Blyke in Season 3.

This is my prediction. With the way Season 2 ended, I think they’ll find Blyke months later looking something like this.

Shit happens to people in prison. Terrence was murdered in his cell, Rein was worried about being killed by other inmates, hell, Blyke’s already pretty banged up in the finale and he’s been there for 2.5 seconds. Not to mention that the Authorities seem to have no problem torturing kids *COUgh* Keon.

Perhaps it’s a bit pessimistic, but the story’s been getting a lot darker lately. I doubt Blyke’s getting out of prison without a little extra trauma at least.

Latest Chapter as of Prediction: Side Story — Triple Threat (1)

[sinful-mind-joyful-thoughts]

𝕿𝖜𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝕿𝖊𝖒𝖕𝖙𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘 | 1

Read Chapter two - here [MASTERLIST]

screencaps and gifs: Pinterest

Pairing: dark!Joel Miller x Fem!reader

Warnings/tags: MDNI 18+, DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT, BLOOD, Auctioning people, talks of BDSM, talks of virginity, talks of STD and STI tests, Dom and Sub dynamics, underage drinking (20), THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT YOU CONSUME

Summary: 20,000 dollars in student debt can lead to irrational decisions, like engaging in a questionable discussion when a friend who is knowledgeable about BDSM mentions an auction she's attending.

WC: 3.6K

A/n: the first of the new and improved version of my mister miller fic🫶🏻

For notifications follow - @sinful-mind-joyful-fics

Cold and heartless, Dr. Richards, your financial aid advisor, was a stern woman. You had expected that, considering the difficulty of having to inform hundreds of students about whether they could afford to continue their college careers or not. Last week, you discovered an unpaid dues notice from the school when you were looking through your financial reports. You had thought that all your dues were covered by a creative writing scholarship and financial aid.

Dr. Richards set your papers down and sighed, taking off her glasses and looking at you with an unexpected hint of pity. "Would you like me to be kind or blunt?" she asked, her voice steady but softened by the weight of bad news.

Your hand slapped to your forehead instinctively as dread pooled in your stomach. "Blunt," you muttered, bracing yourself.

"You're $20,000 in debt," she continued without missing a beat. "The total cost of your first year was $40,000. $20,000 was covered through financial aid and the scholarship, but if you wish to continue, the remaining $20,000 has to be paid by the start of next semester."

Shock and anger twisted inside you, making your vision blur. "Three months?!" you exclaimed, your voice rising with panic. "How am I supposed to afford that? I can barely afford anything as it is."

Dr. Richards leaned back, her eyes holding a mixture of sympathy and resignation. "I understand this is difficult, but the reality is, you need to find a solution quickly. Perhaps a private loan, more scholarships, or even a part-time job."

The office walls seemed to close in around you, the air thick with the weight of impossible choices. You stood up, feeling the urgency of time slipping through your fingers. "I'll figure something out," you said, your voice a brittle whisper of determination.

As you stepped out into the corridor, the gravity of your situation bore down on you. The campus buzzed with the usual life of students, oblivious to your internal turmoil. Every step you took felt heavier, each echoes a reminder of the $20,000 chain now dragging you down.

Night fell as you wandered the campus, lost in thought. The familiar paths seemed alien, shadows stretching long and menacing under the flickering streetlights. Once you made it back to your cramped dorm room, you opened the door and flopped onto your bed without even glancing at your roommate, Faith.

"Whoa, are you okay?" Faith asked, concern lacing her voice.

You lifted your head from the bed just enough to reply. "Remember the financial notice I got last week? Turns out I'm $20,000 in debt, and I didn't even know. Ugh, I should have read the papers more thoroughly." You sunk your head back into the thin, scratchy comforter on your bed, feeling the weight of the world pressing down on you.

Faith sat down on the edge of her bed, her eyes wide with concern. "That's... a lot. What are you going to do?"

You sighed deeply, the sound muffled by the comforter. "I have no idea. Three months to come up with twenty grand? It feels impossible."

Faith was silent for a moment, the tension in the room thickening. Finally, she spoke, her voice a mix of determination and desperation. "We'll figure something out. There has to be a way."

You nodded weakly, and Faith gently moved your shoulders to get you to sit up. She sat next to you and nudged you playfully. "Maybe a sugar daddy? You're a hot 20-year-old with a banging body," Faith joked, her mischievous grin breaking through the tension.

You managed a small smile, though part of you wondered if she was actually being serious. Faith was always open about her sex life, unlike you. You were a virgin, but the thought of a sugar daddy did sound appealing in your desperate situation.

"Yeah, right," you replied with a chuckle, though the idea lingered in your mind longer than it should have. Faith's laughter filled the room, a momentary reprieve from the oppressive worry.

Faith stood up abruptly before walking to her laptop and bringing it over to you. "A Twilight marathon isn't going to fix this," she cut you off, her tone serious, as she settled beside you.

"I know, I know... but," she hesitated, her expression grave, "well, I might have a solution." With a look of persuasion, she showed you her laptop screen, displaying a website named 'Twisted Temptations.'

"Your BDSM club?" you blurted out, taken aback.

"Okay, okay, listen," Faith hurried to explain, sensing your shock and disapproval. "We're doing this auction... You get 10% of whatever they bid for you."

You stood there, frozen in disbelief, waiting for Faith to continue. "How do you think I paid for college and..." she paused, choosing her words carefully, "most don't even want sex. You should at least look at the application."

You shook your head, doubt clouding your thoughts. "I don't know, Faith. This is so out of my comfort zone."

Faith moved closer, her expression softening with concern and determination. "Listen, I wouldn't suggest this if I didn't think it was safe. The club is strict about boundaries. You set the limits, and they are respected. Plus, I'll be there to guide you through everything."

You glanced at the laptop screen, the application form open and waiting. The prospect seemed overwhelming, yet there was a glimmer of hope—an unconventional solution to your daunting financial problems.

Faith sensed your hesitation and continued, "I know it's a big step, but think about the benefits. You need the money, and this way, you control what happens. You set your limits and preferences, and everything is mutually agreed upon with your partner. Trust me, you'll be safe."

You took a deep breath, considering her words. "But what if something goes wrong?"

Faith smiled reassuringly. "It won't. The club has strict rules and procedures to protect everyone involved. I'll help you with everything—filling out the application, setting your boundaries, and making sure you're comfortable. You won't be alone in this."

The weight of your financial troubles pressed down on you, and Faith's unwavering support felt like a lifeline. You sighed and sank onto the bed next to her. "Alright, I'll do it, but you have to help me. I don't want something to go wrong."

Faith's eyes lit up with excitement. "It won't," she assured you confidently. "Let's get started." She quickly filled in your name, age, and other essential details, then looked at you with a reassuring smile. "Okay, now we need to talk about your preferences and limits. This is really important."

You nodded, feeling a mix of apprehension and curiosity. "What kind of preferences?"

Faith glanced at the screen, scrolling down to the next section. "Let's start with the basics. Are there any absolute no-go areas for you? Things you absolutely won't do?"

You bit your lip, feeling a flutter of nerves. "Well, I'm a virgin, but I'm ready to...you know, not be. I just don't want to do anything I'm not comfortable with."

Faith nodded, her expression serious but supportive. "That's totally okay. You can specify that you're new and what your limits are. Many people in the club respect that and will help you explore at your own pace."

She typed as she spoke, checking off boxes and filling in fields. "What about things like light bondage, sensory play, or role-playing? Have you ever thought about those?"

You blushed slightly, feeling a mix of excitement and fear. "I've never tried any of it, but I guess I could be open to light stuff. Nothing too intense to start."

Faith smiled encouragingly. "Perfect. We'll start with light bondage and sensory play. You can always update your preferences later as you get more comfortable."

She continued filling out the form, asking about your comfort levels with different activities, safe words, and any medical conditions or allergies. You answered as best as you could, relying on Faith's guidance and the snippets of information she'd shared with you over the years.

"Remember," Faith added, "most of what you like and don't like is decided mutually between the dom and sub. Communication is key. You'll discuss your limits and preferences with your partner beforehand, and you can always say no if something doesn't feel right."

Faith noted your availability and reviewed the application one last time. "Alright, I think we're all set. Ready to submit?"

You took a deep breath, nerves, and excitement swirling within you. "Ready."

Faith clicked the submit button, and the screen flashed a confirmation message. She turned to you with a grin. "Welcome to Twisted Temptations. You're going to be great."

As you sat there, a mix of relief and apprehension settling over you, Faith squeezed your hand. "Remember, you're in control. This is about exploring your boundaries and discovering what you're comfortable with. And I'll be here every step of the way."

You nodded, and Faith smiled. “The auction will be held next week. You’ll need to get an STD and STI test done, and you desperately need to get something sexy.”

You gasped at Faith. “I own sexy clothes?”

Faith giggled and walked over to the closet. "Well, maybe not yet, but that's what I'm here for."

She flung open the closet doors and began rifling through your clothes. After a moment, she pulled out a baggy hoodie and a pair of sweatpants, holding them up with a look of mock horror. “Unless you plan on seducing someone with the allure of ‘Netflix and no chill,’ we need to do some shopping.”

You couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay, okay, point taken. But where am I supposed to find something sexy?”

Faith’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “Leave that to me. We’ll hit up the mall tomorrow, and by the time we’re done, you’ll have an outfit that’ll make jaws drop.”

You felt a mixture of excitement and dread. “Fine, but no leather. And nothing with feathers. Or sequins. Or—”

“Relax,” Faith interrupted, still laughing. “I know just the thing. You’ll be sexy, not sparkly.”

As Faith closed the closet doors with a flourish, she turned back to you, her expression turning serious. “But seriously, the tests are important. We need to make sure you’re safe and everything is in order.”

You nodded, the gravity of the situation sinking in again. “I’ll make an appointment first thing tomorrow.”

Faith grinned and flopped down on the bed beside you. “Great. Now, let’s watch a terrible rom-com to celebrate your big decision. It’ll be our last bit of normalcy before you become a sex goddess.”

You rolled your eyes but couldn’t help but smile.

Faith and you decided to Uber to the auction. The city lights blurred past the window as you fidgeted with the hem of your newly purchased dress. Faith noticed your nerves and squeezed your hand reassuringly.

“Alright,” she said, her tone both calming and excited, “let me walk you through what’s going to happen tonight.”

You nodded, trying to focus on her words instead of the churning anxiety in your stomach.

“When we arrive at the venue, we'll check in at the front desk. They'll hand you your papers and auction number,” Faith explained. “Then, we can mingle and meet some of the other participants. It's like a real auction party, so don't be shy about striking up conversations.”

You took a deep breath, feeling slightly reassured. “And when does the bidding start?”

Faith grinned. “Bidding starts at 10 PM sharp. That's when the real excitement begins.

As the Uber came to a stop outside the venue, I looked out the window at the unremarkable building that awaited me. Faith led the way, exuding confidence as she stepped onto the sidewalk.

Stepping into the venue, anticipation swirled around me like a gentle breeze, mingling with the soft melodies of background music. The interior whispered of understated elegance, with dim lighting casting enchanting shadows across the polished floors and plush furnishings. Faith guided you towards the check-in desk, where attendants bustled about with papers and pins. You exchanged a nervous glance, excitement bubbling beneath the surface as you approached the desk.

“Welcome,” greeted the attendant with a warm smile, “may I have your names, please?”

You and Faith exchanged introductions before the attendant handed you each a set of papers and pins to attach to your dresses. With a playful grin, Faith nudged you and held up her pin, wiggling it teasingly.

“Alright, partner in crime,” she said, her eyes twinkling with mischief, “let’s get these on and make sure we’re looking sharp for the auction.”

You chuckled, feeling a surge of affection for your friend as you both leaned in to help each other attach the pins to your dresses. 

With your pins securely fastened, you and Faith made your way toward the main ballroom. The air seemed to buzz with an undercurrent of excitement and anticipation. As you approached the entrance, the grandeur of the room came into view.

The ballroom was a striking blend of opulence and decadence. Crystal chandeliers cast a warm, golden glow over the space, illuminating velvet drapes in deep, sensual hues that lined the walls. The polished marble floors reflected the ambient light, creating an almost surreal atmosphere. Guests mingled in clusters, their laughter and hushed conversations weaving a tapestry of sound that filled the room.

At one end of the ballroom stood a grand stage, draped in rich, crimson fabric and adorned with luxurious golden trim. The stage was set for the auction, with a sleek podium at the center and rows of plush chairs arranged in front, ready for the evening’s main event.

As you stepped further inside, the scene grew more intense. The guests were an eclectic mix, their attire ranging from sophisticated evening wear to daring, barely-there outfits that left little to the imagination. Leather, lace, and latex dominated the fashion choices, with some attendees adorned in intricate harnesses and collars, their outfits hinting at the BDSM theme of the event.

Faith squeezed your hand one last time before she was swept away by a familiar face, her confident stride never faltering. You stood there for a moment, feeling a sudden pang of anxiety as the crowd seemed to close in around you. The noise, the lights, the sheer number of people—it was all too much at once.

Your heart raced as you tried to navigate through the sea of faces, each one strange and intimidating. The grandeur of the ballroom that had seemed so captivating just moments ago now felt overwhelming. You took a deep breath, attempting to steady yourself, but the sensation of being out of your depth only intensified.

The guests were like nothing you had ever seen before. A man in an immaculate tuxedo strolled by, a jeweled mask obscuring his eyes, while a woman in a full-body latex suit and stiletto heels sauntered past, her movements deliberate and commanding. A couple nearby caught your eye: the woman wore a sheer, flowing gown, her partner trailing behind her on a leash, wearing nothing but leather shorts and a collar.

In one corner, a group of people had gathered around a figure suspended in a rope harness, their intricate knots both artistic and functional. Soft moans and murmurs of appreciation floated through the air as the person twisted slowly, lost in the sensations the ropes provided. Another attendee, dressed in a sharp, tailored suit, held a riding crop, playfully tapping it against their thigh as they chatted with a scantily clad submissive whose eyes never left the ground.

Guests lounged on plush sofas, some openly engaging in power play dynamics. A woman in a sleek corset held a leash attached to a submissive kneeling beside her, while another couple whispered intimately, their hands exploring each other's bodies with practiced ease. The atmosphere was charged with an erotic energy, a palpable sense of anticipation for what the night would bring.

As you continued to weave through the crowd, searching for a familiar face or a quiet corner, the overwhelming nature of the evening began to settle heavily on your shoulders. The mix of luxury and raw sexuality, the boldness of the guests, and the anticipation of what was to come all blended into a dizzying mix that left you feeling adrift.

In that moment, you longed for Faith's reassuring presence, her confident guidance. But she was somewhere amidst the throng, leaving you to navigate this new and intimidating world on your own. You felt a prickling sense of vulnerability, the realization that you were truly stepping into uncharted territory sinking in as you tried to steady your breath and find your footing in the extravagant chaos surrounding you.

So, like every college student in a social bind, you made a beeline for the bar. "Shit," you muttered, realizing you had left both your fake and real ID back in the dorm. Trying to muster some confidence, you approached the bar, hoping your outfit might be convincing enough. You sidled up next to a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair, dressed impeccably in a well-tailored suit. You could catch the faint scent of pine and campfire from his cologne.

Putting on your best flirty face, you addressed the bartender. He was the complete opposite of the man beside you—average height, slightly taller than you, skinny, tattooed, and wearing an ill-fitting button-up uniform top. His head was shaved clean. "One shot of Tito's, please," you said, playing with your hair in an attempt to seem older and more sophisticated.

The bartender chuckled. "ID, please?"

You leaned forward, arms together to emphasize your cleavage. "ID, really?" you said, trying to be as seductive as possible.

The bartender looked tempted but quickly shook his head. "No ID, no alcohol," he said firmly, turning away.

You groaned in frustration, which caught the attention of the man next to you. He smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. He was older, that was clear, but he looked good. His stubble was neatly trimmed, his curly hair slicked back in a way that seemed both effortless and intentional, and his eyes were large and expressive.

"So, no ID?" he asked, his voice warm and slightly amused.

You smiled back. "No, but a girl can try."

He set down his glass of whiskey, the amber liquid catching the light. "Well, how old are you then?"

"Twenty," you admitted, locking eyes with him.

Before you could continue the conversation, Faith appeared, grabbing your arm and pulling you away from the bar. "What were you doing talking to Joel Miller?" she asked, her voice a mix of shock and concern.

You glanced back, watching Joel as he turned back to his drink. "Just chatting. Why?"

Faith handed you a pamphlet and opened it to a specific page. "Page four," she instructed.

As you skimmed the page, she continued, "Joel is... intense. He's someone to shy away from until you're more experienced. Trust me on this."

Your eyes widened as you read the details. "Intense" was an understatement. "So, who's the safe bet?" you asked, feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Faith's face softened. "His brother, Tommy. He's more laid-back and a better choice for someone starting. You'll find him much easier to talk to."

You sighed, glancing back toward the bar. "Guess I dodged a bullet, huh?"

Faith smiled. "Yeah, you did. Now, let's find Tommy and get you introduced. He's around here somewhere."

Joel suddenly appeared as you and Faith navigated through the crowd, stopping you both dead in your tracks. "Tito's," he said, handing you a glass with a wry smile. He glanced at the number pinned to your dress before walking away, leaving you stunned.

"What was that about?" Faith immediately questioned, her eyes wide with surprise.

Before you could respond, a voice boomed from the auction podium. "May all the products please make their way backstage."

Faith turned to you, her expression shifting from curiosity to urgency. "We'll talk about this later. Right now, we need to get backstage."

Your heart pounded as you nodded, clutching the glass of Tito's Joel had given you. You downed it in one gulp, hoping it would calm your nerves, then handed the empty glass back to Faith. She gave your hand a reassuring squeeze. "You'll be fine. Just remember what we talked about. You're in control."

With a deep breath, you joined the other "products" making their way to the designated area. The backstage was a flurry of activity, with organizers checking names and numbers, and participants adjusting their outfits one last time. The air was thick with anticipation and a hint of perfume mingled with the scent of leather.

An organizer approached you, checking your number against his list. "You're number 3, correct?" he asked.

"Yes," you replied, your voice barely audible over the din of conversation and last-minute preparations.

"Great. Just wait here until you're called," he instructed, pointing to a row of chairs along the wall.

You sat down, your mind racing. Faith's words echoed in your head: "You're in control. You decide your limits." The reality of what you were about to do began to sink in, but you steeled yourself, determined to see it through.

As you waited, you couldn't help but think about Joel. His unexpected gesture with the Tito's, the way he had looked at you—something about him intrigued and unnerved you. But Faith's warning was clear: he was intense, someone to be cautious around. Your thoughts were interrupted by a tap on your shoulder.

"Number 3, you're up next," the organizer said.

You stood up, smoothed out your dress, and took a deep breath. As you stepped towards the stage, the curtain drew back slightly, giving you a tantalizing glimpse of the auction room. The ambient lighting cast a soft glow, illuminating the expectant faces of the bidders, their anticipation palpable in the air.

Stepping into the spotlight, you felt a surge of adrenaline coursing through your veins. The auctioneer's voice echoed in the room, commanding attention as he announced, "And now, presenting number 3, starting bid at $500."

[gigabyte-flare]

There's No Escape (Part 4)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Summary: You inadvertently discover one of Leon's trauma triggers, piquing your curiosity as you to try to figure out why he is the way he is.

Pairing: yandere!Leon Kennedy x fem!reader (afab)

Word Count: 3k

If any of the warnings below trigger you, please kindly pass on this fic 

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, actions depicted in this story are not condoned in real life; if you feel this way, please go touch grass. You are solely responsible for your own content consumption

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT OR I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL YEET YOU INTO THE GODDAMN SUN. Thank you!

Warnings (may not apply to all parts): Sex, gaslighting, swearing, stalking, acts of violence, blood, dubcon, kidnapping, pet names (baby, doll, angel, sweetheart, etc.), PTSD triggers, unprotected sex, forced breeding, daddy kink, manipulation, oral (m and f receiving), choking, overstimulation, knife play, gunplay, masterbation, drugging. Long story short, DEAD DOVE: DO NOT EAT. More warnings could be added in the future.

Tags: @lipglossanon, @ghostkennedy, @explorevenus, @nexyswrites, @ilookatlater, @shroomietrip, @dollrxst, @lomaeuwu, @aliet, @luniaxifics (Shoot me a message or an ask if you want to be added to the list!)

A/N: Holy shit you have no idea how happy I am to finally get this out. I had originally written out something completely different from what this ended up being, but I hated where it was going, so I changed it. Definitely like this better. It does get pretty intense in this one, but then it gets kind of fluffy and then there's some angst. As always, please excuse any grammatical errors. Enjoy!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

You awoke to the most intense feeling of pleasure washing over you. A tongue swirling over your sensitive clit along with at least two fingers digging inside you, hitting your g-spot oh, so right. You arch your back as you push your head back into the pillow, your eyes still closed as you let out a soft moan. 

You open your eyes, sit up on your elbows and look down, seeing Leon kneeling at the end of the bed, your legs draped over his shoulders as he ate you out and fucked you with his fingers. In that moment, the recollection of where you were and how you got there rushed at you all at once, causing you to tense up completely. Leon stops what he’s doing and looks up at you, his lips drenched from your juices and the remnants of his release from the night before.

“Oh, sorry princess! Did I wake you?”

You think about giving him a good kick in the face, but you were so drained, plus you weren’t keen on getting put in timeout and chained to the wall again. Resigning to your current situation, you lay back down, giving him a wave of your hand for him to continue. Instantly you feel his lips sucking on your clit, causing your legs to twitch as his fingers continue their assault on your g-spot.

As much as you hated this man, there was no denying that he was extremely good at taking care of you, knowing exactly which buttons to push. It’s likely why you tolerated his sick, demented mind for as long as you had before escaping.

Your whole body begins to tremble as you inch closer to your release, your legs clenching to his powerful shoulders. Your right hand runs through his hair as you let out a loud moan.

“D-Daddy… I’m so close!” you cry out, your fingers digging into the back of his head.

You feel him smile around your clit as his fingers begin to pound into you, and in an instant you snap, soaking his fingers with your release as you cry out. You feel him pull his fingers out of you, you sit back up to look down at him.

“What a good girl,” he purrs, licking your juices from his fingers like it was candy, “Daddy’s going to get cleaned up, then I’ll make us breakfast, ‘k pumpkin?”

You watch him stand up and go into an adjacent room, which you assume is the master bathroom. You hear the sink run for a couple minutes as you get up from bed, your legs extremely unsteady between last night and this morning. You approach the closet and open it. You don’t see your clothes, however you do see a large navy blue t-shirt you could use. Pulling it out, you see the faded letters say ‘R.P.D.’. Pulling your sweaty t-shirt off and tossing it into the laundry basket on the floor in the closet, you pull the new t-shirt over your head.

It didn’t quite cover your lower region, so you found a pair of his boxer shorts to put on with it. You felt gross wearing his clothes, but it was better than being naked, which you figured Leon would enjoy way too much; you couldn’t have that. Turning around, you find Leon standing in the doorway of the bathroom, staring at you in awe.

Maybe you were better off naked…

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

Later that afternoon, you were in the living room trying to hook up your game console as Leon worked on paperwork for his job in an adjacent office. His only instruction was that you weren’t too loud. Once you got it hooked up, you sat on the floor, cross-legged, as you went through the small pile of games that Leon had grabbed from your apartment prior to bringing you here. 

You decide to put in a game called Dead Rising, a game about a photographer stuck in a mall infested with zombies that you could grab pretty much anything you could use as a weapon to kill the zombie horde with. You needed an outlet for your pent up frustration at your situation. As you boot up the game console, you make note of the clicking sounds coming from Leon’s office, letting you know he was distracted with his work. 

You get the game booted up, and immediately you get to work killing as many zombies as possible. You catch yourself smiling, this is the most normal you have felt in over three months. You pause the game for a moment to adjust yourself on the floor, one of your legs is starting to fall asleep. You happen to glance down at your shirt.

You wonder what R.P.D. stands for…

P.D. clearly meant police department, and given Leon’s current occupation of ‘government agent,’ you wouldn’t be surprised if Leon had been a cop at some point, although he neglected to mention that when you first met him. Odd. You unpause the game and continue your undead killing rampage, that smile of content returning to your face as you let out a sigh, completely oblivious to the fact that the clicking of Leon’s keyboard had stopped.

The TV suddenly explodes in a burst of sparks, loud bangs ringing in your ears as you sit there in complete shock. As the smoke clears you see three holes in the TV which you immediately recognize are bullet holes. Before you’re able to process what just happened, you feel Leon’s hand grab you by your hair, forcing you to your feet, he practically drags you out of the room.

“Ow, son of a bitch, Leon! What the hell?! What did I do?!”

“Out of all the games you could play, you had to pick one with fucking zombies in it,” Leon growled, pulling you towards the timeout room.

“No, no, no, NO! I’ve been so good, why are you putting me in timeout?!” you cry out, trying to struggle against him.

He whips the timeout room door open, tossing you onto the bed, slamming the door behind him. He grabs you by your throat, bringing you up to the collar, making short work of clamping it around your neck. He didn’t bother with the other chains.

“Will you at least tell me what I did wro--”

You are suddenly smacked across the face with a very heavy object, your vision blurs for a second as your head rings. You feel blood start to drip out from your mouth; you must have bit your tongue when you were hit. You realize quickly that the heavy object was one of Leon’s prized pistols.

“For starters…” Leon growled, once again grabbing you by your hair, pulling your head back as you felt the muzzle of the pistol under your chin, “you didn’t call me, Daddy. And you swore at me, again.” 

“D-Daddy I’m sorry! I just don’t know what I did wrong!” I sob, tears streaming down your face as blood trickles from your mouth. 

“You just had to play something with fucking zombies in it!” Leon shouted.

You can’t help but raise an eyebrow at him. You’ve seen Leon angry before, but you’ve never seen Leon this irate, and about a zombie video game of all things. 

You swallow hard, “Daddy… zombies aren’t real… it was just a video game…”

Much to your surprise, Leon lets out a boisterous laugh, “oh sweetheart, what I’d give to be as ignorant as you.”

“W-What are you talking about…?”

“You have no idea what I’ve been through, princess. How much I have lost.”

You stare at him dumbfounded, having absolutely no clue what he’s referring to.

“I promised myself, I would never lose anything ever again. And that includes you, princess.”

You feel Leon move the muzzle of his pistol away from your chin, causing you to release a sigh of relief, but watch in horror as Leon proceeds to lick the barrel of his gun.

Oh my god, he’s completely lost his mind… as if you had any doubt of that before.

“When you left me, do you have any idea how much that crushed me? Did you even think for one second how that would make me feel, after everything I have done for you?”

Your throat is so dry from the blood running down your throat, but thankfully blood is no longer dripping out of your mouth, however, dry bits of blood coat your lips.

“I-I’m so sorry… I… I had no idea…”

His grip on your hair tightens as he stares down at you, his blue eyes wide and wild for a moment before his expression softens. You are relieved when he lets go of your hair.

“You know what, sweetheart? You’re right. How could you have known?”

He places the pistol on the bedside table before climbing on top of you, kissing you deeply.

“Let Daddy play with you and you can come out of timeout, ok, sweetheart?” 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

Leon hated hurting you, but you made it so fucking hard not to when you would constantly misbehave. But truly, how could you have known how deeply scarred he was from that night in Raccoon City? The public had no clue what had happened. They knew the city was sectioned off due to a mystery outbreak and rumors flew around how the government fired missiles at it.

If only people knew the truth.

You nodded at his request, instantly warming his heart, pushing the nightmares away from his mind. He removed the collar off your neck and he made short work of pulling his old Raccoon Police Department shirt off over your head and tossing it aside. His hands latch onto both your breasts, squeezing tight before rubbing both your nipples between his middle fingers and thumbs, causing you to squirm. 

He pulls his boxer shorts off you, and he takes a moment to admire your soaked hole. He loved how much your body clearly wanted him. He reaches down, his middle and ring finger slipping inside you easily as his thumb gently rubs circles into your clit.

He watches in delight as you arch your back, moaning loudly as you reach your arms up, gripping the pillow behind your head. He continued to expertly fuck you with his fingers, a smirk overtaking his lips as he watches you clearly enjoying this. 

“D-Daddy… please.. Inside!”

“Oh?” he couldn’t help but smile, “you want Daddy inside you now? Oh what a good girl you are!”

He hadn’t heard you ask him to fuck you since you first moved in with him and it absolutely thrills him. Pulling his own shirt off, followed shortly by the rest of his clothing, Leon undresses himself and climbs on top of you, settling his hips between your legs, his cock slipping inside you with ease.

Because you were made just for him.

He moves his hips rhythmically, pushing deep inside you rather than flat out pounding into you. You were being such a good girl for him and he wanted you to enjoy this as much as he was. He looks down at you so lovingly, cupping your face in his hands before kissing you.

He’s immediately taken back to his first date with you. He had taken you to a fancy restaurant in D.C. before you both went and saw a movie together. Afterwards, he dropped you off at your apartment on the other side of town, but you invited him inside. It didn’t take him long to coax your clothes off you and let him have his way with you; just like it didn’t take long for him to convince you to move in with him, that way you were never out of his sight. You were so perfect, and you were the only one that could hold the demons of his past away.

He began to move his hips more aggressively, eliciting more loud moans out of you along with a generous mix of ‘Daddy’ and ‘Leon.’ You drape your arms around his shoulders as he continues to kiss you eagerly. 

“Daddy… Pl-Please let me cum…!” you moan into his kiss. 

“Of course, my princess, you’ve been such a good girl, Daddy will let you cum.”

You cry out as you cum all over his cock, he can feel your juices coat him as he pushes into you, coming undone himself as he lets out a low growl. He collapses beside you, rubbing your belly as you cuddle into him. He wraps his arms around you, kissing the top of your head. 

“I love you so much, babygirl,” he says softly, inhaling the scent of your hair. 

It doesn’t take long until you are fast asleep in his embrace, it comforted him knowing you felt safe falling asleep in his arms. 

He is so happy you are finally starting to give in to him.

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

You wake up to the sound of Leon climbing out of bed, immediately disgusted at yourself. You had given in to his advances last night, he hated how he could make you feel so good. You rub your eyes before sitting up, watching as Leon gets dressed. You realize you’re still in the timeout room.

“I have to run into town to get a new TV to replace the… one that I shot. Can I trust that you’re going to be a good girl while Daddy’s gone?” Leon asked as he finished putting his clothes on.

“Y-Yeah…” you say, your eyes still heavy-lidded from just waking up.

“Good,” Leon replies, “I brought in your clothes, I had them in the Jeep. They’re in the closet in the bedroom.”

You climb out of bed and follow Leon out of the timeout room and into the master bedroom where he opens the closet door, showing you that your clothes were indeed there. 

“Alright, I gotta go, I’ll be back as soon as I can ok?” He kisses your forehead before leaving you in the bedroom.

You don’t move until you hear the front door open, then shut, and then lock. You grab one of your t-shirts with a pair of jeans along with a set of underwear. Once dressed, you walk into the living room and find Leon had already taken care of the very broken TV. You then immediately notice his office door is open.

He had an office in the apartment in D.C., too, but it was never open. Mustering your courage, you slowly approach the office, you see papers scattered all over the desk, you pick them up and read them, most of it government nonsense that you didn’t care to understand. There are drawers in the desk, you open one of them to find a series of files. One of them immediately caught your attention.

It was labeled ‘Raccoon City Incident.’

The manilla folder had a large CLASSIFIED stamp on it but that did not deter your curiosity. The folder is stuffed full of different documents, you quickly glance over them, quickly growing mortified at the contents that you skim through.

Hundreds of thousands infected… viral outbreak… undead… T-Virus… G-Virus… nuclear sterilization… 

“What the fuck…?” you say to yourself in complete disbelief over what you were reading, this is some video game bullshit…

Suddenly, a photo fell out from the documents face down. You quickly pick it up and turn it around. You gasp; it’s a photo of Leon. He clearly was a lot younger in this photo, wearing damaged tactical gear that had ‘R.P.D.’ printed on the front. It suddenly occurred to you what the print on Leon’s shirt stood for.

Raccoon Police Department.

Your eyes widen at this revelation as you look back down at the photo. Even though he clearly went through hell, he had a light in his eyes that was nowhere to be seen now, it honestly broke your heart. You put the manilla folder back together and put it back into the drawer with the others. However, there’s another one that catches your eye, this one is labeled ‘Kennedy Report.’

You sit in the office chair as you open the folder, reading through the documents. This one talked about a parasite rather than a virus and how a cult leader had infected an entire village plus the president’s daughter that had gotten kidnapped by the cult and… Leon?!

You had to re-read the sentence a few times to make sure you had read it correctly. Leon was infected with this parasite? You start to wonder if there’s a chance that he was still infected when you read that he and the president’s daughter successfully removed the parasite from each other. You low key hoped he was still infected, it would have at least explained his demeanor. You continue to read the report before you suddenly hear the front door open.

“Sweetie, I’m back!”

“Oh shit!” you say quietly as you carefully put the folder back in the drawer, making sure to close the drawer silently. 

You scramble out of the office, making sure to shut the door. Just as you step away from the office door, Leon comes into the living room with the new TV, placing it in the spot where the old TV was and plugging it in.

“There we go, all better!” he says, turning around to look at you, “and there’s my good girl.”

You give him a weak smile as you nod. You can’t help but look at him in a different light, now knowing the darkness of his past that you were almost certain he did not want to you to see.

Part 5

[fishareglorious]

In the wake of the new pizza hut collab and that one specific emote of schneider threateningly looming behind pizza hut regulus with a gun, I got possessed and created an au where ezra, matilda and regulus work with each other in the same branch.

May or may not have gotten carried away with it. AU below.

matilda is the long suffering branch manager that doesn't even want to work there. this poor french girl is really going through it (customer service)

alas she stays because of a certain redheaded customer. sonetto visits sometimes to check on regulus and that the store is relatively close to where she lives.

matilda constantly five seconds away from firing everyone and handing out her resignation but then sonetto walks inside and suddenly everything is good (sotheby just accidentally created ketamine in the back)

she hates her job because all the people that visit here are fucking lunatics.

ezra is the least problematic of the employees and he sometimes supplies the mushrooms because of his mycology hobby, but one time he accidentally switched up the button mushrooms with similar-looking hallucinogenic ones and matilda put a stop into it because a customer got high (desert flannel)

kanjira is their one and only delivery driver and while she drives matilda up the wall by always stealing from the cash register, she'd terrifyingly efficient and fast with her deliveries (at the expense of being a menace in the highway)

regulus works as an all-rounder but sometimes takes kanjira's place whenever she's not around. she always gets a traffic ticket. she and kanjira are in a competition on who can amass the most

apple is here and is the only other voice of reason working in this place. matilda respects him because he's the only one that can rein in regulus

The one story that started this whole AU. sorry schneider's dead in this universe

one day vertin comes around to catch up with regulus. regulus was on the process of serving pineapple pizza when suddenly someone appears behind her to chop her in the neck and curses her out in the most horrific ear-bleeding italian. vertin catches a glimpse of regulus' attacker, then crumples into the floor in shock because its her dead mafia girlfriend.

matilda comes to the scene only to see regulus passed out and vertin silently weeping on the floor.

someone still has to serve the damn pizza. fucks sake.

after the pineapple pizza incident there's now a ghost haunting the store that really really has an agenda against pineapple pizza. at this point matilda is very much inclined to blackout the hawaiian in the menu just to placate the damn ghost.

A comprehensive list of all the weirdos that come in here:

there's an absolutely pleasant and nice lady that sometimes eats here but the thing is she has this thing where she puts yellow bug things in her pizza as some kind of condiment and its so damn weird because those things are still ALIVE. but she gets a pass because she's done no trouble and is nice to everyone

one time the store had a break in and for some reason all the greens in the inventory were eaten. everyone checks the security cameras. it was. it was a fucking deer.

(yes, jessica is an actual deer here.)

constantine came here once only to pull the "i demand to speak to your manager" thing

pickles at one point ordered something here by himself. in the words of regulus: what the dawg doin?

ezra's collegemates (the laplace crew) sometimes visit and its a hit or miss depending on who is it

the last time x came here the stove got legs and sentience then it left pizza hut and never came back. some say it became a famous track and field runner

medicine pocket was banned like. years ago even before matilda started working here. does it stop her? no. he caught wind of sotheby's ketamine thing and tried to recruit her at one point. matilda chased them off with a spray bottle.

mesmer jr is the least chaos-inducing person of the group but at the same time because of the childhood friends that have baggage with matilda the tension between then is. frankly you could cut through it with a knife

one time she, vertin, and matilda were in the same proximity and regulus passed by and started asphyxiating

sometimes their research advisor enigma gets dragged here because someone has to feed him something other than his twentieth cup of black coffee. matilda has beef with him for some reason.

the only people matilda remotely respects that has entered this pizza hut is shamane and kaalaa baunna

but at the same time she has witnessed kaalaa stumble here at an insanely late/early hour with three giant cups of coffee then proceeded to chug all of it down then order something. she is visibly shaking from the caffiene. matilda is scared.

matilda called shamane 'dad' once and after that she has sworn to never show her face to him again

pavia exists here but keeps a wide berth of pizza hut because it contains the insult to italian cuisine

one time a foreign singer (isolde) came here to have lunch with her wife then got possessed by schneider and started angrily lambasting and threatening to haunt everyone from the grave if they've ever dared to eat pineapple pizza. she later passed out then woke up all normal again

lilya is also on the pizza hut blacklist because she crashed her motorcycle into the windows trying to pick vertin up

broke as hell researcher windsong stumbles into pizza hut with the biggest smile on her face as if she won the lottery (she did. it was the amount of the cheapest thing in the menu) then proceeds to hork down her food like she's starving (she probably was.) fun fact this is inspired by her voiceline that is basically the same story

bear with me on my vilasong propaganda for a sec.

local schoolteacher vila comes into the store because her student wandered off and is now talking windsong's ear off, and then the two have this weird but sweet meetcute that's almost the same as canon

windosng tells her "oh god hey i swear im not a child abductor" then vila just laughs and fucking sniffs her and says "yeah i know you don't smell threatening at all."

they are both so strange. next time they come together hand in hand.

matilda is malding can't she have a nice meetcute like that with sonetto (minus the whole. child abduction statement. and the sniffing thing. actually she just wants a normal nice meetcute)

37 came there with the aperion gang and all she did was calculate the precise circumference of the pizza and then tell the matilda it was an imperfect circle. matilda then says 'do i look like i give two shits about whether or not this is a perfect circle. fuck you want me to do' but in customer service language

would arcana even step inside a pizza hut.

a knight sometimes comes here and he and apple are the investments in pizza hut's old men yaoi stocks.

hofmann and marcus came in once and marcus was the one trying to order but the poor thing kept stuttering so badly that hofmann heaved out the most world-weary sigh and ordered for both of them

besmir came in there once while vertin was there and vertin shot up from her seat and went 'MOTHER???!?!??!?!?!!!!!!!!" and thus came the most awkward family reunion that happened. (regulus screamed out "SO YOU HAVE A MOTHER" while the two were watching each other awkwardly not knowing what to do)

[hyenahunt]

Obbligato: Epilogue - 4 (END)

Writer: Akira

Season: Winter

Characters: Hiyori, Jun, Tatsumi, Nagisa, HiMERU

Proofreading: Remi + 310mc (JP) & Skyress (ENG)

Translation: Peace & hyenahunt

Tatsumi: Amen.

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Hiyori: Haha. Yes, do continue to lavish your praise upon our Jun-kun!

...Honestly, when I was first shown around Reimei Academy, I found myself feeling as though we'd gotten the short end of the stick.

At that time, we had nowhere else that we could go, so we'd no choice but to resign ourselves to it. That before we could escape from Hell, we'd continue to be trapped in its depths for a while longer still.

Hiyori: But you see, as I walked along preoccupied with such melancholy thoughts, I happened to look out the window, and there I saw Jun-kun, dutifully practicing in silence all on his own.

The atmosphere of Reimei Academy at the time was truly dreadful — everyone seemed either dead inside, or they glared at each other with pure resentment.

Jun-kun was the only one with none of that air about him — instead he aspired only to improve himself.

Hiyori: And what a beautiful sight he was... Of course, telling him that to his face would be too embarrassing — it'd go to his head and he'd never let me hear the end of it.

It was while watching this boy that I found it in myself to believe my decision hadn't been made in vain. That if there was even one person like him here, then perhaps it wasn't all so bad.

And so that's why I made the decision to enroll at Reimei Academy, with Jun-kun as my goal. Honestly, I was there initially to scope out Shuuetsu Academy, a school made up of nothing but Special Student elites.

But I found myself believing that I should start all over again at rock bottom and covered with mud, just like Jun-kun.

After all, when you're up somewhere so lofty and high, you'll fail to see what's truly important.

Jun: And just what have you been so cheerfully badmouthing me 'bout, huh~?

Hiyori: Goodness, I wasn't badmouthing you. You're simply being paranoid.

Jun: You swear?

Tatsumi: That's right. I believe that you're rather important to Tomoe-san, Jun-san.

Hiyori: It's true! You rank right after my family, namely Nagisa-kun and Mary!

Jun: I rank below a dog, huh?

Hiyori: If that bothers you so much, then climb your way up! Come now, put your all into it and work ever harder for my love!

Jun: Shut it... It's not like I'm working hard for the sake of your love, y'know~?

I'm working hard so that I can be a better version of myself. Maybe my life looks all kinds of unfortunate and pitiful besides yours, but...

That's precisely why I wanna become the best and strongest idol, so that someday I can declare that's who I am, loud and proud.

It's then that the hard work of my past self will finally all be worth it.

So I'm gonna work hard, right now. I'm gonna give it everything I've got — 'cause giving it all that I've got is all I can do.

Tatsumi: That's right. Fufu, you truly do have no need for God's divine protection.

Jun: You got that right. I don't need no God to save me — 'cause I'm gonna be the one who'll save myself.

Tatsumi: .......♪

Nagisa: ... Shall we stop this idle chatter and begin recording, everyone?

... Though we could simply just rehearse today, and leave the actual filming for another day…

... We don’t have another day to spare, do we?

HiMERU: HiMERU agrees. There is no time to be looking back on days gone by.

We must look towards the future instead, and live earnestly.

So long as we are allowed to do so.

HiMERU: (Kaname. My poor, pitiable little brother. I shall take your place, at least for now.)

(I hope that one day, when you are able to walk once more, you will be able to live a little happier than before.)

(I'll arrange an environment in which you can, and secure a place for you in it as well.)

HiMERU: (I am your older brother, after all.)

HiMERU: (When you awake, when you're able to walk once more…)

(I won't fail this time. I'll make your wish come true.)

(Long have I lived alone, void of any dream at all — and now what was yours has since become my own.)

Tatsumi: (... Ah, even though this is the same place as then, the same Reimei Academy…)

(It feels different. Right now, I feel so refreshed and full of energy.)

(Are you the one I should thank for that, God?)

Tatsumi: (Our Father who art in heaven, you have always guided my life with your hand.)

(Dear fate, dear faith, I thank you for leading me to where I stand today.)

(We have faced much sorrow, despair, and tragedy.)

(Nonetheless, I stand enveloped in the warmth I had always craved. If this is reward for my piety, O God, then I truly could never detest you.)

Tatsumi: (Even if it happens that God does not exist, and this is nothing but a series of coincidences…)

(Then I shall call those coincidences miracles, rewards, and love you all the more.)

(Amen.)

(Fufu. I shall do as Tomoe-san did and use Jun-san, whom he loves so much, as an example; I'll begin at the very bottom, crawling my way through the mud.)

Tatsumi: (No matter how often he gets knocked down, how often he collapses, he still stands right back up.)

(I am forever grateful for that. Not only do I have God on my side, but friends as well.)

(Such invaluable friends who support one another…)

(Who share their warmth, and move forward with happiness in their hearts.)

(We shall walk together on this road, step by step.)

Tatsumi: ♪～♪～♪

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[transsongtaewon]

"Hey, Hamin."

Yoojin is sitting slumped in a beaten up garden chair, fiddling with his lighter. He can't smoke in here but there isn't anywhere to sit outside and he really can't stand that long today. Go figure.

"Hm?" Do Hamin is sitting on an equally beaten up chair, guzzling a mana potion. He's had to actually do his job today for once and is very unhappy about it.

Not that Yoojin is any happier, he can already tell it's going to rain later by the pain crawling up and down his leg, and he'll need to be on public transport for at least another hour to get to his flat. Hamin will have to cope with being his distraction from misery.

"How do you even become a furry?"

Hamin chokes on his potion, clearly expecting anything but that. "What?!"

"Oh come on, don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about. I've slept at your place before." It was a deeply disturbing experience to get up at three in the morning for a piss only to stumble across a giant hamster head. Yoojin almost died of a heart attack before he figured out what that thing was.

Hamin is red in the face, partially from embarrassment and partially from breathing in potion.

"How do you get into anything? You see it around and think it sounds kind of fun, I guess."

Yoojin shifts in his seat, trying to find a position that isn't immensely painful. "Yeah but like specifically. You don't go from 'nice art' or whatever to the whole, uh-" He waves his hand in the air.

"Fursuit?"

"Yeah, that. I mean, there have to be steps in between, right? Those things look fucking expensive."

Hamin sighs, apparently resigned to being Yoojin's Furry Insider. "They are. Bought or self made."

"Wait, you made that yourself?"

"Mhm, took fucking ages. But worth it for Hammie."

"Hammie?"

"My fursona."

Yoojin clicks his lighter open and shut again. "That's a nice name."

Hamin scoffs. "You don't have to pretend to be nice, I can hear you're judging me."

"No, no!" He is. "I think it's nice you're having fun and stuff."

"You just wouldn't get it."

"That's why I'm asking, I don't know what there is to get."

"I don't know what to tell you, it's just fun. The art, the lore, the community. No idea what else you want from me." He shrugs.

They sit in silence for a bit, Yoojin chewing on his lip. Surely, if he only pulls off all the dead skin, what stays behind will be soft and nice.

"So, about the porn."

"I hate you sometimes, you know that?"

"Get in line. But about the porn."

"What about the porn?"

"Just. Are you into it?"

"You're horrible. Why do I even talk to you. No, not personally. A lot of the art is really good though, can't scoff at that."

"I don't know, I don't love the cartoon style."

Hamin rolls his eyes. "You're not even a furry, how would you know what there is to appreciate?"

"Are you gonna show me?"

"And have you laugh at me? As if." Hamin whisks his empty potion bottle away, back inside the inventory, and gets up to dig a bottle of beer out of the mini-fridge he has in his office. The true height of classiness. "Want some?"

"Yeah." Yoojin pulls out his keys to open the bottles with the edge. "I wouldn't laugh at you, I'd just appreciate the artistry."

"Right, and pigs can fly."

"I'm sure there's some flying pig furries. Not that I'd know, because you refuse to share."

Hamin lets out a deep, beleaguered sigh. "If you want you can come to a furcon with me next month. But only if you promise to be nice."

"Really? I'm always nice! How much are the tickets?"

"Like seventyfive thousand won."

"Oh god. Sorry, I don't think I can become a furry anymore."

"That's what I thought, asshole."

Written for Sctir Pride Week Day 4: Free Day

[deezbignutz]

Redacted characters as musical songs because I'm a sucker for musicals :))) + some lyrics cuz why not 🤷‍♀️

Guy abt Honey - "Never Ever Getting Rid of Me" From Waitress. He is a simp and he makes sure they know it. Kinda yandere coded, but womp womp ig. (yandere Guy? 😳😏) "Such a stubborn man, you'll likely never meet another." "Oh, I'm gonna love you so." "I though it was hilarious to call a cat a kind of fish."

Damien abt Hux - "When He Sees Me" From Waitress. Damien just overthinking about going out Hux even before knowing him all that much. "I stick with real things, usually facts and figures. When information's in its place I minimize the guessing game. Guess what? (What?). I don't like guessing games or when I feel things before I know the feelings." "What scares me the most. Is what if when he sees me, what if he doesn't like it? What if he runs the other way and I can't hide from it? What happens then?." "Or even worse, he could be very nice, have lovely eyes and make me laugh, come out of hiding. What do I do with that?" Also literally the entire song ngl. It's very Damien coded in my opinion.

David & Asher - "For Good" From Wicked. Just wholesome, very platonic love and friendship shared between two friends. (No, I'm not trying to be sarcastic. They're just very good friends) "I've heard it said, that people come into our lives for a reason. Bringing something we must learn." "Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I knew you, I have been changed for good." :')) "You'll be with me, like a handprint on my heart."

Young David & Asher - "For Forever" From Dear Evan Hansen. Just two friends. On a perfect day. :'))) "All we see is sky forever. We let the world pass forever. Feels like we could go on for forever this way, two friends on a perfect day." "He looks around and says to me 'There's nowhere else I'd rather be.' And I say, 'Me too'." "And I see him come to get me. He's come to get me, and everything's okay." witerally the inversion

Imp!Lasko to Imp!Freelancer - "Meant to be Yours" From Heathers. I don't think I need to explain this one, it just speaks for itself. "You chucked me out like I was trash, for that you should be dead." "You were meant to be mine. I am all that you need. You carved open my heart. Can't just leave me to bleed. Veronica, open the, open the door, please. Veronica, open the door. Veronica, can we not fight anymore, please? Can we not fight-" yada yada yada, you know the audio

Freelancer (?) - "The Wizard And I" From Wicked. It's just them being pumped to go to DAMN and to get to learn more abt their weird and foreign powers. "This weird quirk I've tried to suppress or hide, is a talent?" "No father is not proud of you, no sister acts ashamed." 🙂 "And this gift or this curse I have inside. Maybe at last, I'll know why."

Asher + werewolf bois - "I Feel Pretty" From West Side Story. Broski is on cloud 9 after meeting Baaabe, and the others are just there to witness his delulu. "It's alarming how charming I feel. And so pretty, that I hardly can believe I'm real." "Have you met my good friend, Maria (Asher)? The craziest girl on the block." "I feel dizzy, I feel sunny, I feel fizzy, and funny, and fine. And so pretty, Miss America can just resign!"

Gavin - "Noel's Lament" From Ride the Cyclone. Just a gay little guy dreamin up his gay little fantasies during work because workin in 7-Eleven is too boring. 👍 "Good girls call me 'The Town Bicycle'. Don't knock it 'til you've tried my life of sin." "He said, 'I think I am in love with you' I've heard that lie a million times before." "'My chils, do you have any final words to the Lord you'd like to say?' 'Oui, tell him that, like him, I coose to burn out rather than fade away!'" get into it, queen.

Avior & Starlight - "What Is This Feeling?" From Wicked. This is how I feel like their first reaction to each other when they're in hell went. "For you see, my roommate is: Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe. Blonde!" "What is this feeling? Fervid as a flame. Does it have a name? Yes. Loathing. Unadulterated loathing." "Ev'ry little trait, however small, makes my very flesh begin to crawl."

Caelum to Freelancer - "Popular" From Wicked. Hear me out. He doesn't mean it in a bad way, he just wants to help Freelancer out in their new, scary school. "And even in your case, though it's the toughest case I've yet to face. Don't worry, I'm determined to succeed!" "So let's start, 'cause you've got an awfully long way to go..." "Now that I've chosen to become a pal, a sister and advisor. There's nobody wiser!" he's just way too excited to show the magical world to them

Shaw Pack - "Jet Song" From West Side Story. You could also debate that this is also kinda like the Solaire Clan, but the Shaw Pack suits it better cuz of how laidback and playful the song is. "When you're a Jet, if the spit hits the fan, you got brothers around, you're a family man." "When you're a Jet, you're the swingin'est thing. Little boy, you're a man; Little man, you're a king!" mmmm, Solaire Clan vibes "Someone gets in our way, someone don't feel so well!" Quinn? That u?

Any and all immigrants moving to Dahlia - "America" From West Side Story. Two perspective on how livin in Dahlia is like. "Buying on credit is so nice One look at us and they charge twice." ✨racism✨ "Life can be bright in America (Dahlia) If you can fight in America (Dahlia)" "Here you are free and you have pride Long as you stay on your own side."

Marcus - "Cool" From West Side Story. Anxious little technician anxious about being found out and fired. :)))) "Don't get hot, 'cause man, you've got some high times ahead." "Breeze it, buzz it. Easy does it. Turn off the juice boy. Go man, go. But not like a yo-yo schoolboy." idk with this one, it doesn't really have much lyrics anyways :\

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk :))))

[cross-my-heartt]

Alright folks, now that Solitary Clone and Outpost are out and we have more insight into Crosshair’s character, I thought it would be interesting to revisit some of the things he said on Kamino at the end of season one.

I’ve been meaning to make this analysis for a while but I’m glad I’m doing it now because season two gives us a lot more context and material to work with. (Let’s hope the rest of the season doesn’t make me look like a clown by throwing us a curve ball lol.)

Beware this is a quote heavy analysis.

Right off the bat I want to look at his motivations because that’s one thing people often use when they try to dub him as a villain. The thing is, Crosshair’s speech does often makes it sound there’s some more sinister ideological beliefs behind his actions.

“Crosshair, I've seen what the Empire's doing, occupying planets and silencing anyone who stands against them. You know it's not right.”

“You still don't see the bigger picture, but you will.”

But when we look into it, I think the ‘bigger picture’ for Crosshair is something much more pragmatic and cynical than it seems.

To put it simply Crosshair sees the Empire for what it is, he knows how dangerous it is and that stopping it at this point is nigh impossible (and let’s be real, if Luke had caught a stray blaster bolt at any point, the Empire wouldn’t have ended anytime soon.)

He’s even more aware of it than most because he’s on the inside so when he talks about it there’s almost this resigned fatalistic quality to it.

“They did what needed to be done. Kamino, regs, the Republic... that time is over. The Empire will control the entire galaxy, and I am going to be a part of it.”

There’s no reverence here. Compare it to the way any imperial baddie talks, Rampart, Tarkin, Sidious, etc. and you’ll see that this isn’t praise, this is just reality as Crosshair sees it. And Crosshair’s realism is really neat because it’s so uncomfortably close to the truth sometimes.

“Send her on a shuttle off-world.”

“Crosshair, don't.”

“It's for her own good. And yours.”

“Omega belongs with us.”

“Living among fugitives where she's in constant danger? You want to protect the kid, then let her go.”

___

“Blind allegiance makes you a pawn. A real leader protects his squad.”

“Look where that's gotten you. They're all going to die here because of your failed leadership.”

It’s in these moments of rationality that we see Crosshair’s perspective as someone who’s trying to protect his family at all costs, to the point where he’s almost begging.

“It's time to stop running.” (Running is too dangerous, I know the thing that’s hunting you and you can’t defeat it.)

“Don't make the same mistake twice. Don't become my enemy.” (Don’t pick a fight you’re going to lose.)

Of course coming from him, it all sounds like a threat because not only does Crosshair not sugarcoat things, he also finds the most brutal and even cruel ways to say them.

“If I wanted you dead, you would be. Not that it wouldn't be justified.” (I could have killed you but I didn’t. You did things that put you in danger of being killed.)

And because of his tendency to do that, you can easily make wrong assumptions about his character. The most uncomfortable parts of his speech are where he sounds eerily like a supremacist, like all of those officers who serve a bigoted and elitist empire.

“Because the Empire will be phasing out clones next.”

“Not the ones that matter.”

___

“We're not like the regs. We never have been. We're superior.”

But is that really supremacism? If it was would Crosshair treat the people around him as he does? Think about the way he treats Echo, Cody (especially in The Solitary Clone) and of course Mayday. That’s not the behavior of someone who finds other clones unworthy of friendship and kindness.

This is Crosshair being all bark and no bite. And it’s also that toxic coping mechanism that’s been hammered into his head: if you’re good enough, if you’re better than everyone, you earn the right to live and be safe and protected.

The batch’s life has always been about proving themselves, they’re an experimental unit, so it’s no surprise that a mentality like that has festered into something more insidious with Crosshair.

“You all are meant for more than drifting through the galaxy. It's time to stop running. Join the Empire, and you will have purpose again.”

Purpose? Ideological purpose? A higher purpose? Or just purpose in the sense of use, the thing that’s always kept them safe.

What’s funny here is that Hunter follows that line with “You really don't get who we are, do you?” because Hunter struggles with the same dilemma of ‘keeping my family safe’ vs ‘doing the morally right thing’ throughout the show and in most cases he needs an extra push from either Omega or Echo to choose the latter.

He as a leader knows firsthand how difficult the balancing act between those two is with how much grief it causes him.

Crosshair is on the extreme end of that dilemma. That protective side that sometimes overrides morality is much stronger in him and that coupled with his cynicism can make for a dangerous combination.

To Crosshair there will always be an unfeeling higher power that he has to please in order to earn its favor and protection. Once upon a time it was the Kaminoans, then it was the Republic and most recently it was the Empire – they’re all the same to him.

“The Empire can't protect the galaxy without strength.”

This is what the Empire is doing in his mind, the same thing as the Republic before it. It’s enforcing its will for the sake of peace and you needn’t look further than Cody’s own lines from episode three to realize that this is what things look like from most clones’ perspective, at least at first:

“The Empire seeks to establish peace and order throughout the galaxy. […] Listen, we both lived through one war. Let's not start another. Too many people have died already. We can resolve this without more bloodshed. Please, do this for your people.”

We also see that Crosshair doesn’t think all that highly of the Republic either:

“You betrayed everything we stood for. And for what? The Republic?”

And I think that’s because these big abstract entities hold little meaning to him.

His contract with both the Republic and the Empire is simple: protect and provide for me and my family and I will do what you say. You could even say he was conditioned to think that way. Ironically it’s Hunter who voices where Crosshair’s loyalties really lie when he says they're "loyal to each other and not some Empire" (and accidentally manages to be a bit hypocritical in the process).

And that’s true for Crosshair as well: his relationship with the Empire is not quite loyalty but more like a symbiotic relationship. It’s necessary but not personal:

“That's your problem, Hunter. You take things too personally.”

DBB put it best when he said “his job is not only to hit things from a stealth distance, but I think he also views the world and other people from that distance, as well”. (Remember that line about the bigger picture? Yep, Mr Baker knows his material.)

That’s why serving under Rampart seemed easy for Crosshair, we never once see him question or defy him. But then along comes Nolan who breaks that contract because suddenly things are personal, his hatred for clones is personal, he represents the part of the Empire that’s not just unfeeling but also actively goddamn awful and he makes the mistake of directing that cruelty at someone Crosshair cares about.

That’s both an eye opener and a deal breaker for Crosshair and we see what he’s capable of when things become personal, just how raw and human he can be.

That humanity, I think, is also why we see him split from the batch on Kamino. It might seem counterintuitive at first, but it starts to make sense when you see it from his pov: if you’re someone who’s so deeply devoted to the people you care about, the most painful thing that could happen to you is to be abandoned and rejected by them.

There’s a lot of hurt in what Crosshair says on Kamino:

“And here we all are, together again.”

“You betrayed everything we stood for. And for what? The Republic?”

“You weren't loyal to me. I was one of you. You may have forgotten, but I haven't. And it's why I'm going to give you what you never gave me: a chance.”

“Think of all we could do together. We were brothers once. We can be again.”

“All those missions together and you threw it away.”

And all that doesn’t just go away like that. It’s his pain that pushes him into making a decision that will later haunt him.

At the end of the day, Crosshair’s biggest virtue is how loyal he is to the people he cares about. He’s not like Rex or Echo or Omega, who selflessly put themselves in harm’s way for a cause that’s bigger than them (not for now at least) but you can bet he’ll tear himself to shreds to protect what’s valuable to him.

And you can love or hate that about him but I think it makes for a very interesting character. To quote DBB again: “He's not pure evil. He’s ultimately a rational guy, and there's some humanity in there, too.”

[howtowhumpyourhiccup]

Mind & Heart

Summary: Augusnippets 2024 Day 31. Set in a Modern AU, Sci-fi AU. Mind Full AU. Toothless can feel what Hiccup is doing.

Warnings: Implied/Referenced near Death

Rating: Teen and Up

Dead Dove: No

Words: 483

Prompts: Bonus Day - Write whatever you want.

Fandom: How to Train Your Dragon

Characters: Hiccup, Toothless

Pairing: /

Author's Notes: And so "write whatever you want" is what I did. :) My final day for Augusnippets, posted on time! An immediate follow-up to Day 30's "This Choice Is His".

Enjoy!

-XOXOX-

Toothless hated the humans, he hated them. After the loss of his tailfin, he should be glad that he’s alive he supposes, but he couldn’t even bring up that much. He’s a downed dragon, he’ll never touch the sky again, he’s meant to die. And if it wasn’t for these humans keeping him captive in this sorry excuse for a man-made den, he would be already. His suffering and shame would’ve ended, they should’ve just let nature take its course.

Hiccup thought differently.

In the middle of the night, when Night Furies are supposed to be the most active, he sneaks into his den. Toothless growls, already disliking the boy. The humans think he’s so weak, so bad at being a dragon that they think this small boy is nothing to him?!

“Ah, ha-hey, um…” But Hiccup is rightfully anxious, fumbling with a lengthy roll of paper in his hands and keeping his wide-eyed gaze on the Night Fury. He’s scared and yet he’s here.

Toothless can tell that he’s like his mother, there’s a pull to him that he usually only feels with other dragons. It’s untapped, like a barrier. Humans would consider it a plastic wrapping someone should poke a hole into to get to whats inside.

“I-I made this and, uh…” Hiccup unrolls the roll and shows it to him from far away. Toothless grows silent as he takes a look. Not bothering to get up until he thinks he recognizes what’s on it. It looks like his tailfin.

“I-I have this mentor and he- and he- and he teaches me things and, uh… I think I can help you fly again.” Hiccup explains, anxiety growing as the very dangerous Night Fury quietly steps closer.

Toothless reaches out to him, grabs hold of that unseen pull, pokes a hole through that proverbial plastic wrapping and finds only genuine intention. Hiccup doesn’t want him to waste away in this fake den, a fate all the other humans have already resigned him to. There’s a brilliant head on his shoulders and he wants to use it for good.

Toothless hasn’t let go of that pull since. He’s kept tugging and tugging, until they’re able to practically read each other’s minds without even trying.

-XOXOX-

Five years later in the middle of the night, Toothless shoots awake. The cause? A debilitating emptiness in the corner of his self reserved just for his human. Something is wrong, he knows there is. That spot fills with a kind of dread he has never experienced before.

He begins clawing on the door and the one-way window, he needs to get out of here. Something is wrong and he needs to fix it. He charges up a plasma blast strong enough to tear through the mostly iron hull hidden by fake foliage. He can feel Hiccup slipping away and nothing will stand between him and saving his human.

[most-tragic-character-tournament]

So I'm afraid starscream will lose so here's some starscream propaganda.

(Spoilers for transformers IDW, shattered glass, earthspark, prime, and animated, etc)

First of all, before the war he was a scientist with his best friend Skyfire. They go on an expedition and Skyfire straight up gets lost in earths orbit and frozen. Starscream cannot find him and is forced to stop looking, essentially abandoning skyfire for millions of years.

During the war he joins megatron as a promising aerial expert. Now, as you can see he is now abused and tormented by megatron through nearly all the continuities. In the comics he loses his mom, but he finds her! She tries to take his body to do homicide, so he leaves her too.

At some point in the comics megatron and starscream swap bodies, while starscream is the ruler of Cybertron. So since he enjoys starscreams pain he sets his world ablaze and basically sets Cybertron into ruins.

In his time as the ruler of Cybertron, starscream is depressed, and basically lots of bots hate him. Windblade comes along, yadda yadda, he finds out his true form (he was cold forged, his spark was set into a pre built body which gives him body dysmorphia ) and after the whole ordeal he confesses his past crimes and resigns, going to jail.

Shattered glass, where everything good is bad and vice versa. Starscream is shunned by the rest of the bots for being with the decepticon cause and is stuck between staying with his friend skyfire or joining the decepticons. He chooses the latter. Later in the war rhe decepticon troops have dwindled and all are fending for themselves. Starscream looks for megatron, with success. They catch up and starscream convinced him to keep fighting. It is revealed that he has coding that can connect to a titan he dug up with skyfire years ago. He is captured by autobots and goldbug (bumblebee) rips out his spark (with the codes) right in front of skyfire. They fight over his still beating spark and skyfire gets it back! So now he keeps it around him while he travels or whatever he's doing now. (This summary is kinda unclear bc I read SG a while ago and don't remember it, but I summed up the tragedies pretty well)

Now into the series'. Transformers prime, he experiences torture physical, mental, and emotional under megatrons command. He is repeatedly beaten and is forced to beg for mercy. He gets his arm blasted off, makes clones whose pain he feels and they eventually die painfully. He starves a lot so there's that.

Transformers animated, he's a devious bastard but megatrons still tough as him, just not in the transformers prime way. He dies and becomes immortal, experiencing death many more times. And then his immortality gets taken away so he's dead for good.

Transformers Earthspark. Megatron is now an autobot working with ghost, and had abandoned all the decepticons, including starscream. Starscream is captured by ghost and is subjected to Primus-knows-what kinds of torture and experiments. He escaped but still remembers all the trauma megatron has caused him. Megatron is clearly not gonna apologize, made clear when he is eager to send starscream back to prison and full body tackles him. At which point starscream is freaking out, fearing for his life with all his previous trauma triggering emotions inside of him. After the whole ordeal is resolved, the terrans (earth born transformers) are the only ones who understand him (specifically hashtag) and he leaves, stating he will never feel safety around megatron.

Alright this is all I know, but let me assure you there is a lot more than this and I have barely scratched the surface of starscream's tragedy. Hopefully other people can add.

NOMINATE STARSCREAM AS TUMBLRS #1 TRAGIC CHARACTER!!!

[Propaganda]

[1tsjusty0u]

can i present you with a random scenario. what would happen in an au hypothetical where only one of the champions survives the calamity. idk like what would happen for each champion im curious

ywah you can!!

ok this depends on if you mean like. taking links surviving role or surviving alongside link. in my au the former would be.. a bit more complicated? actually that could make for a really fucked up scenario of which i shant say as . probably spoilers? actually no . in wotb link actually dies early (a recent development meta-textually). so basically if hes already in there and a champion has to be put in their instead theres two routes. one he could never be put in there at all, already gone by the time they find the SoR. or two he Is in there but something just Fails Really Badly. it just.. wouldnt heal him. so its a last ditch effort to put a champion in there.

long text below Be Warned.

so while we’re on the topic of that scenario!!! lets start with it!! 1 mipha. she would send out an ok signal to the other champions, and she’d either check on her people first or try to get vah ruta to the nearest champion to help them. or hell she might check on zelda first. i think the plan without link would be to either say fuck it we ball and impa would take zelda to the castle, Or just go straight to kakariko instead as a safety thing. i think she’d actually check on zelda as she’s seen as the most important, then try to reach the champions. i think she’d have the same problems the champions descendants have getting into the divine beasts honestly, though vah naboris would be easy theres no water close enough. vah medoh is not only too high but has an actual shield. vah rudania walks around too much and causes way too much damage to death mountain. she could fire her shot at one of the divine beasts, but that would kill the champion inside it, wouldnt it? so she just resigns to help zelda and impa. she can take care of guardians well enough honestly. her cause of death would probably be either malice or trying to heal zelda or impa While Being Fought at. shes put in and boom 100 years later. i dont know how scales work but i think they wouldnt regrow in the SoR and she’d be left with scarred skin. either rhoam or a zora she knew would greet her on the great plateau. rhoam… wouldnt exactly be happy about. link not being there. mipha being able to defeat her blight is proof to him that shes capable, but also he really has no other options. who else is going to help zelda? mipha had defeated one of his creations.. so she could defeat him. she kind of has to, master sword or not- she’s the only one left. if a zora she knew was there instead i think itd reflect on her personally more? like her healing, her tendency to look after others instead of herself, how she’s dealing with this. the zora wouldnt force her to help zelda, maybe not even telling her. but yeag. still amnesiac, and things go mostly the same as canon besides some.. hiccups. going into zoras domain would have her literally not be able to leave, let alone go to zelda or any of the divine beasts. dorephan and muzu would gush over her because well. they havent seen her in 100 years!! and shes alive!!! she’s been martyred which would be. uncomfortable to her. because she doesnt know who that statue is, even if it looks like her. sure shes calm and nice, but the statues face.. it looks. serene almost. calm. lifeless, dead. vah rutas been protecting the place, and vah ruta would also say hi!! she’d get a memory of herself here which could include her little self or her pre cal self Hiding Things, like vulnerability. itd make her uncomfortable as well!! AND SIDON. sidon would have mixed feelings, but he would absolutely hang out with her in a more.. chill manner. just like. camping and eating. frog hunting. showing her how to ride a waterfall like she taught him. they get to know each other better like. well like siblings. she might do a pre cal and when she suggests leaving while doing a chill hangout she’d do That Smile. the hiding something smile basically, or ‘im the mature sibling’ smile. and sidon would be like ‘youre making that face’ >:( and shed go (sweating) ‘what’. but yeah. sidon would either go with her and travel with her or establish a mail system no matter the cost. They Will Talk damnit. going into other regions is hard when you cant really handle many temperatures that arent in the water. im ppretty sure zoras domain has chillfin trout in it so i think she’d do better in colder weather rather than hot, which sucks because two divine beasts are in hot weather. she’d probably still need at Least a ruby circlet though because hebra is probably too cold, or just sucks because of the snow. death mountain she’d have to put. so much flame resistance elixrs on. she’d also wear a sapphire circlet all the time there even if its not in the flaming zone. she doesnt like the hot springs </3. yunobo and her would-

-get along i think. she’d probably be slightly annoyed at how scared he is but other than that no complaints. he’d be really nice without being a pushover and i think she’d relate/admire that. she’d eat smotherwing butterflies. daruk would be really happy to see her. getting into gerudo town sucks so so soo badly. sand keeps getting under her scales, its Dry, its Hot (during the day), and theres not like. an elixr for her scales. the only real place sand Isnt on her is the lake in the kara kara bazaar. i think she’d put on flame resistant elixir there just so it protects her scales. or she gets some armour to help her with that. otherwise she’s let into gerudo town. vah naboris would be a nightmare for her. she’d have to have like. a hazmat suit for that one. and the yiga!! she wouldnt like them the moment she hears of them, which has to do with link pre cal but saying too much is spoilers. honestly though. i dont think theyd try to kill her, at least not Nearly as much. after all shes Just Some Zora. no sword, no divine intervention. after getting the thunder helm though theyd go after her probably. but yeah she does Not like them and will actually fight them the first chance she gets. this caused problems for the thunder helm stealth mission. urbosa and revali would be impressed to see her but also worried (revali) and defeated/giving up almost (urbosa). she and paya would get along really well and she’d clean with her Instantly. though paya would tell her that she doesnt have to + she should. be doing other things. she’d buy links house which. weird feelings about it so she doesnt really live in it but its just. There. like a memorial. she’d also be annoyed at purah teasing her about having to get parts but she’d mask it. she’d like indexing fish and birds in her compendium, and the sanke carp Fascinates her. she’d like kass’s music and really just sit and listen to him play. she’d also try to tell him what the shrine solution was once she figures it out. though i dont think he’d tell her the calamity legends. impa does however. she’d find lurelin and would So Badly want to go into the sea. however its too much salt. she’d probably fish there honestly, fishing rod and all. also though seafaring is dangerous for her so. no eventide unless a good boat rather than a dodgy raft. she.. tries to make it into korok forest. but she doesnt know how, and if link ever told her how he did it she cant remember. also its Super haunting for her i think she’d minorly see horrors in the mist so. yeah no forest for her. she’d defeat ganon though, and she’d probably live in zoras domain but take zelda with her. OH ALSO HER MEMORIES…. zeldas photos wouldnt help her too much. only 1 has her in it. so she’d get memories based on her surroundings, like how link gets snippets of the champions. seeing her trident would get a memory, the veiled falls shrine would have a memory, goponga village would have a memory, maybe the east post would have one?, and she’d have a zelda memory somewhere in zoras domain (maybe with those history tablets, or in an area with wildlife). and if link has a grave thatd also have a memory. she’d also get a memory of impa because hell yeah. im tempted to make link a spirit that follows her like the other champions honestly. but yeah post cal sidons been set as the ruler so. she can do what she wants. she’d mostly help zelda though.

in the scenario she lives alongside link, she’d tend to him on the great plateau and generally help out purah and robbie. she’d have to be at the domain most of the time though, and she’d be next in line for the crown rather than sidon. she’d grow older and do her best to help with the side effects of the calamity. she HATES yiga even more here than the last scenario. she also hates guardians, but she can take care of even the stalkers now. she’s there to greet link instead of rhoam, and helps him recuperate. she doesnt have a paraglider at first so for him to get down he’d need to climb down. or she couldve made a river system into the great plateau so if he holds his breath he can dive in and out. he still has to do the shrines zelda let mipha know that he has to. she might also travel with him honestly. she’d also spearhead the guardians on the great plateau when she finds out some are active. things would tense between them as time goes on but thats another story. basically old lady who may want to kill.

if revali survived!! uhh first scenario. he would fly all the way to the other champions first, and would check on zelda last. he’d also try to see how the village is doing before he flys to the champions. he cant get to naboris or ruta because he cant see anything, and rudania is at a Really painful angle, and with death mountain erupting.. its a pipe dream to make it there. he dies also to malice, or maybe to a guardian shot. same deal as mipha, either rhoam or a rito he knows greets him. rhoam has the same feelings (+exasperation because of all the champions, it was revali. and he’s a lot more of an old man to him with like changing the deal and teasing him. they would probably fight if not for the fact they dont hate each other). if it was a rito theyd focus more on flying than anything else. actually. he can get off the great plateau. i mean unless he forgot how to glide/one of his wings couldnt work he could. simply get down there. so for plot lets say he forgot how to fly and glide. once he learns how to again he goes to kakariko, and once he learns of rito village hes goes straight there and almost never leaves it. its His Hometown damnit!!! the nostalgia would get to him. though not knowing anyone would be… weird to him. but he’d still love the village. he and medoh would banter but theyd miss each other. he has to get to vah ruta by walking and hes SO mad about it. he would absolutely fight muzu if muzu hated him like he hated link. maybe muzu would doubt his skills and insist no outside help is needed. mipha would be sad probably. not to see him but just to see her family. but i think her and revali would be friends like pre cal and theyd have fun just with now looming dread. the flame resistant stuff would suck to put on, but he isnt going to drink it so he suffers instead. he would probably like yunobo. he’s able to reassure him better and yunobo is like you mentioned more reasonable in general so. yeah!! OH YEAH also he and sidon.. hm. i think sidon would tease him/punk him a lot. be more mean but thatd be why theyd get along in the end. frienemies. vah naboris. would be awful. sand in his feathers the same way mipha had sand in her scales. itd be Doubly hot for him, so he’d have to go at night but rito have terrible night vision so it sucks, and he cant even get into town. he spends a good minute arguing with the guard, not about wanting to be let in but to do Divine Beast things. eventually riju has been summoned and, while exasperated, she believes him. he still has to get the thunder helm, and hes more neutral on the yiga than mipha is. he sees them as a threat but like. he doesnt despise them. if they werent threats itd be fine. i think hes also slightly scared of them. he sneaks through, master kohgas defeated and the yiga are after him, and actually doing naboris hed also need a hazmat suit for. though its a bit better because ARCHERY YEEAAHH 🔥🔥🔥🔥💶💶💶🦅🦅🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹. urbosa would feel the same like she did with mipha, except more exasperated and defeated because Its Revali. daruk would be happy to see him though still. link may or may not be a spirit here? itd be tense at first but i think itd mirror their friendship arc pre cal (of which i need to answer that ask i am sorry) except the roles would be swapped. youll see. anyways yeah. payas meh to him, doesnt like impa a lot but doesnt hate her, would debate purah probably Somehow. he wouldnt buy links house probably. memory locations: his bow and arrow, the flight range, the tabantha village ruins, tanagaar canyon/dinraal, mabe village perhaps, one of zelda same with mipha, links grave, and maybe one of impa. also possibly one at the secret hot springs. post cal he’d constantly help rito village and thats it. Maybe help zelda if she sends a letter but yeah. he’d have to find a hobby though

living along side link. he would also help purah and robbie, though less so. he’d be forced to greet link but in the meantime he’d protect his village and basically become the elder. seeing a young link whiles he old would be… disconcerting. he’d probably feel a mixture of guilt and anger. same deal as mipha though he has a paraglider for him. he wouldnt kill the guardians however and would just find a route for him to avoid them. he’d also be straightforward about what happened to link as opposed to mipha, so their relationship would be less strained as time goes on. he travels with him up to rito village and no more. i think he’d also visit the champion descendants to do his best to help them out.

daruk!! he’d go to the champions straight away. vah ruta is isolated in water which he cant get to (and also has a shield), vah medohs way too high up, and naboris wont stay still, and though hes mighty he can absolutely get crushed by naboris’s legs. god how would he die. yiga misfire maybe???? malice once again?? probably just an accumulation of malice. hed try to instantly leave the plateau (no fall damage like majoras mask goron rock ball form) and while rhoam (if he was there) would try to tease him he’d have to just tell him ‘hey. you Have to do this. Its important. please’ or would straight away tell him the truth. if a goron spirit was there . shrugs. theyd probably focus on strength and building enough to get ganon. goron city, hailed as hero though hes a bit uncomfortable about that and tries to both take it and be mature(?) about it if that makes sense. like hes more comfortable with it than mipha, but it still puts him off a little. vah rudania would hate to see him (rudania missed him so much its unbelievable). vah ruta would be. one Hell of a divine beast to do. he’d have to use a thunder sword instead of arrows, and he’d be A Test to sidons strength as a whole. OH ALSO yunobo would love him !!!!! him bludo and yunobo would probably hang out post cal. anyways. vah naboris he would simply slam into their legs instead of bomb arrows. still would need the thunder helm. master kohga would respect daruk enough however business is business and right now theyre enemies. daruk would not like the yiga like mipha . closer to the hate scale than revali but less than mipha. he’d be pretty pissed at them and wouldnt realize why for a while. the yiga have to get inventive when he becomes wanted which means new weapons methinks!! also he’s let into gerudo town. gorons r genderless so. hell yeah. and. ok so daruk cant get up to vah medoh theres. not many options. either he’s chucked from hebra peak at all of medohs batteries and is finally chucked on board, Or if youve seen klerics 10 ways link can make it up to that divine beast on his own he does that. also also urbosa would have more hope with daruk than mipha and revali. revali would secretly be happy to see the guy. link might be a spirit as usual. memories! his stone smasher, death mountains peak, military training camp, the place where link saved him which he mentions in his diary, the hot springs/springs near the base of death mountain, honestly probably meeting mipha (maybe trading fish) ((where no clue, though he has memories of the other champions like all of them of which they arent the samw memory locations in botw. like miphas statue doesnt trigger a memory for daruk and anyone else ok sorry)), uhh zelda, impa?, links grave, and maybe some place in akkala.

the second scenario he would constantly try to help the descendants rather than link as he figures purah and robbie got it covered, but he visits them while they do great plateau things and they chat!! maybe try to take care of guardians. he would be the most straightforward with link, both in helping him gain strength but in his memories. he’ll offer to travel but wont force it on him. other than that he’d stay on death mountain with rudania. most things wouldnt be a threat with daruk around honestly. just a support beam basically. kind of sad because i. dunno what kind of character arc he would have in most of this. </3

urbosa!!! she’d take a quick glance at her people but go to zeldas and the champions aid. its hard to tell which she’d go for first.. like on one hand she’s biased towards zelda but she just went through a blight and can hear the SOS signals of the others. maybe multitasking? getting naboris to zelda as fast as she can, picking her up/dropping her off (which could lead to some chatting on the way), and then to a divine beast, maybe realizing about a quarter left of the way that theyre already dead and theres no point now. mipha would have a similar revelation probably just.. later. but urbosa dies helping zelda and impa, either distracting something or getting ambushed. great plateau, you know the drill. if rhoam was there theyd have some, “lovely” chats (theyd be So petty against each other. she’d find out her smiting power by trying smite him. though they are friends and have fun and would drink with each other.) and once her whole deal is revealed they have a little heart to heart, and this becomes even more serious to her. she’d go straight to the castle or would reluctantly go to kakariko taking rhoams suggestion seriously. if a gerudo was there it’d probably be more fighting training/regaining strength, plus. warnings of the world beyond this plateau. anyways. impa and her would be besties (though impa would be.. too lax for her). and she’d enjoy paya a lot, maybe try to flex on her to tease her. zoras domain dorephan and her would get along i think AND OH WAIT. SHE HAS LIGHTNING POWERS. if she can get the thunder helm she could finish vah ruta in one strike (though it Does worry the zora a bit). she may throw shade at muzu for his hate of hylians and of the shekiah tech (especially the latter i think). sidon and her would be battle buddies i think, theyd constantly try to outdo each other but still respect each other to have Actual Teamwork. dynamic duo that will kill you. also she makes fun of him sometimes. anyways. mipha would be pretty happy to see her! death mountain. either drinks the elixir first and then realizes most people apply it on their skin so. oops. but she doesnt really care so she keeps drinking it like its champagne. chugging. despite being used to the desert she still doesnt like the heat. yunobo and her would also get along i think!! she would just immediately kill whatever hes afraid of and he looks in. slight fear. though the mines was a workout for her and shes making sure he knows he Owes Her for that one. anyways daruk would be ecstatic to see her theyre Instant Besties. new ghost pal perhaps as well. he’d yell like a sports fan everytime she beats the blight/gets a hit. its chaotic that time the energy is just net positive despite the circumstances. hebra. honestly. she might be ok with it? the desert is cold at night and she lives next to snowy mountains. nice change of pace. teba gets her up there pretty easily, maybe bow troubles? slices the targets with her sword as teba watches in surprise yet defeat. revali and her would, once again, be very petty. however revali would still worry with the blight but she’s fine. i think she’d hate the rotating angle of vah medoh. aaand naboris!!! no freeing to do she just gets to see a long time friend of hers (naboris). she’d love riju and riju may feel a bit of pressure, but over all she’s welcomed back with open arms (maybe some new locals not recognizing her which would be interesting). though she’d have to clear the yiga. now on the hate scale, she probably wants them annihilated (i am so sorry). like riju would have to pull her back saying ‘heyheyhey yeah they suck but dont??? kill them??? or their entire clan????’ which would only barely stop her. she wouldnt even try to sneak through she’d fight them and threaten kohga for the thunder helm. kohga lets her have it without fight and makes a retreat, though he probably lays low? if he hunts her afterwards is debatable because on one hand she Is a threat to them and ganon, but also she Can kill them before they teleport and retreat. so a bit of a choice. also hateno, purah and her wouldnt be-

too much of friends but theyd get along well enough. same with robbie. she wouldnt get links house to her its not her problem. or maybe she does but because she’d think itd be a nice place for zelda. kass and her would just be diplomats to each other. link spirit maybe shrugs . memories!! sword and shield, kara kara bazaar, southern oasis?, shield surfing champion shrine that she did, patricia maybe?, digg dogg suspension bridge, a spring memory with zelda, flora and fauna with zelda, links grave, impa, the champions yadda yadda. the memory numbers probably dont match up between all the champions sorry

second scenario!!! exclusively helps zelda and either stops her from letting ganon eat her or tries her best to fight ganon before retreating and he eats zelda. then she just. wanders. purah probably helping her cope or just. do things. she might even stay in kakariko for a bit, and she moves out of gerudo town. she’d say goodbye to everyone of course. but ywah. also maybe guard kakariko from yiga of which cado would fear her immensely. she’d either greet link or let rhoam do it and just meet link at kakariko and be Cryptic and Vague like he was but push him towards helping zelda, maybe even traveling with him. however she’d probably try to have him stay On Track constantly which would go. poorly. either that or she silently judges him but doesnt say anything. she’d only really hammer in to Go To Castle once all the divine beasts are free. they probably split off though, urbosa going to either chill or help in some way just elsewhere. like helping robbie light his ancient oven and getting guardian tools. also she has more wrinkles now shes super super old

if link isnt revived but the champions arent put in the SoR itd just be a mix of the two scenarios, slowly chipping at the divine beasts while helping out globally and getting old and having to cope with everything afterwards because they still have their memories

this . may not have been what you meant. i am sorry. however. thumbs up

ALSOALSO wanting the yiga dead is not a morally pure/correct course of action for them. it is not morally right thing to annihilate an entire group of people this isnt a bug its a feature. them wanting the yigas dead is not good. just in case.

[pastelwitchling]

I love the way you write Michael so much

He's protective and jealous and possessive but he's not controlling

They're codependent but not in a toxic way

Like you write a real relationship not some 2 dimensional crap

Kind of a prompt? I loved your one shot that was Alex being bait for a the military guy, but Michael and alex WERENT together yet. It would be so cool to see your take on a similar situation but now they're married, bonus if Kyle is also overprotective and just as mad as Michael

@brittz-2123

***

                “No,” Michael demanded. “No way.”

                “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Kyle groaned, arms crossed, “but I agree with Guerin.”

                “Told you they’d love it,” Alex said dryly from where he was bent over a table, studying something on his laptop screen.

                “Alex, no,” Michael argued. “We’re not using you as bait for some Project Shepherd military freak.”

                “Besides,” Kyle chimed in, “you destroyed their entire underground op years ago, what’s one stray soldier going to do?”

                “Plenty,” Eduardo sighed, standing at Alex’s side, his eyes also narrowed at the screen. “Project Shepherd’s entire objective was to destroy the alien race from the inside. One wave is all it takes to start a flood.”

                “Fine,” Michael growled, “whatever, but why does Alex have to go?”

                “Because I’m the only one they’ll trust,” Alex said, voice frighteningly hollow and eyes even more so as he said it. “Word might’ve gotten around that Gregory was the one who shot dad, Clay’s off the grid as usual, and Flint’s just starting to get his head on straight, so I don’t want him near this.” He met Michael’s gaze, a sad smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “I guess it doesn’t matter what I call myself.” He looked down again as his smile dimmed. “I’m still a Manes. Nothing’s changed.”

                Michael clenched his jaw. He hated this. He hated that Alex sounded so empty, like he knew that the Manes family name would follow him around forever and was resigned to the burden. He hated it worse that he couldn’t do anything about it. No matter how tightly he held onto Alex, however many kisses he pressed into his skin, how fiercely he promised him he loved him—especially on Alex’s worse days—Jesse Manes’s legacy kept following him around.

                Even when he was dead, the bastard was still giving his son orders.

                “That’s not true,” he said, and came around the table to grip Alex’s shoulders. “Everything’s changed, Private. For one thing, you’re not fighting this damn battle alone anymore. I’m right here, every step of the way. You’re not doing it alone, Alex.”

                Alex’s expression softened, and he took hold of Michael’s wrist. It felt like a reassurance to the both of them. Like Alex was trying to calm the distress in Michael’s heart as much as his own. Always protecting him, always looking after him, always there for him.

                That, Michael realized miserably, is what he needs from me right now.

                “Say . . .” he started slowly, “say I’m okay with this. Would we be close by? And I mean seconds away, if that?”

                “We’d be watching him like a hawk,” Eduardo promised, “with men on the ground, too.”

                “Then that’s where I’ll be,” Michael said. “The ground, right next to him.”

                “Guerin,” Alex shook his head, “that’s too dangerous—”

                “I’m invoking my husband card here, Private,” he argued. “We either do this together, or not at all.”

                Alex’s eyes warmed, and he chuckled under his breath. “Michael . . .”

                Kyle sat on the edge of the glass table. “And I’m invoking my best friend card.”

                Michael pointed, mouth already opened to argue, then deciding it wasn’t the time, merely said, “Later.”

                Kyle shrugged, unimpressed. When Michael turned back to Alex, he saw him looking from him to Kyle. He smiled, touched and amused.

                He cleared his throat. “You guys know I can handle it by myself, right?”

                “That’s kind of the point, Manes,” Kyle said with a fond shake of his head, and Michael’s grip tightened on Alex’s shoulders.

                “You’ll never have to again.”

***

Happy Malex Monday ❤

[bloodxhound]

*gives his mom an origami sunflower and tells her ray needs to eat more vegetables* 😀😀😀

     𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐒 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐘 tend to draw attention. A circumstance that could’ve been avoided with a smaller workload or a more cooperative suspect. As lunchtime crept around the corner, the detective has remained tied up inside the interrogation room, prying for a confession, while his mother took it upon herself to acquaint herself with his workplace and anyone not too busy for a little chat. 

     And would you look at that; she sure has found the perfect candidate. Ray makes a face at the sight awaiting him at his desk.

     ❛❛ For me? You’re too kind. This is a beautiful work of art, ❜❜  beams the woman, twirling the paper flower between her fingers to admire its intricate design, from stem to petals.  ❛❛ Sunflowers are my favorite. Did Ray tell you that? ❜❜  Noticing her son’s arrival, she shifts a little to invite him into the conversation.  ❛❛ There you are! Isn’t this just adorable? ❜❜  She shows off her present with a smile.  ❛❛ Your friend is delightful. And so talented. ❜❜

     ❛❛ Uh-huh. ❜❜  He regards the origami with barely hidden disdain. What is this, if not some sort of ploy to worm her way into his mother’s heart and get her to spill all sorts of stories? So soon after an interrogation he’s not looking for another one. Time to cut this meeting short.  ❛❛ Anyway. Sorry I’m late. Took longer than I planned. Can we go. ❜❜

     Mrs. Barlowe exchanges a look with Suki, one that seems to apologize for her son’s lack of tact. Surprisingly, the forensic doesn’t appear at all fazed by his nonchalance though, taking it in stride and happily quipping back. There are some insights to be gleaned from this interaction. Why, she figures they must be quite close.  ❛❛ Is that true? I do keep telling him he cannot live off meat and raw eggs alone. ❜❜

     ❛❛ Yeah, ❜❜  he affirms halfheartedly, sensing an easy exit.  ❛❛ An’ since I’m so malnourished it’s high time we bolted, Mom. ❜❜  Hand laid on her upper back, he begins to steer her into the opposite direction, throwing Suki a furtive, spiteful grin. Nice try!  ❛❛ So long— ❜❜  he bids her, but his mother harbors different intentions.

     ❛❛ Would you like to accompany us? ❜❜

     ❛❛ She can’t. Real shame but she burned all her money on paper. ❜❜

     ❛❛ Please allow me to treat you. We would love to have you. ❜❜

     Stopping dead in his tracks, dumbfounded and alarmed, he mouths a say no to Suki. It goes ignored. Gleefully so, as he wagers. Robbed of any recourse, he resigns himself to the unavoidable, lunch with his nosy co-worker and his talkative mom. 

[sonicblueartist]

FORGOTTEN

❝𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗹𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘀. 𝗦𝗮𝗱𝗹𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝗿.❞

Part 4

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,

Masterlist

Have Fun!

Tails shouted as loud as his lungs would allow him, raising the green emerald in his hands, "CHAOS CONTROL!!!"

He coughed between the dark cloud around him, "Chaos Control!!"

"C-Chaos C-Control!" he shouted once more through his harsh coughs.

He wheezed out, "Chaos Control... Come on now come on! Work! Why don't you work? Sonic, Shadow and Silver can use you. Why not me? Please... I know I'm not worthy... but please, just this once. There's nowhere I can go or hide. I know I will die here. But at least help the kid inside, please. Please. If I don't return to the ship, many people could be highly injured or dead. Y/n won't leave without me. I know this. I-I... At least protect them. Take my life and help them. I don't have much time." He choked between his tears, "I'm begging you, whoever can hear me... please don't let anyone get hurt... Chaos... help her..." His ear twitched with a loud cracking voice and looked up, his eyes widened when he saw a column tear away from its place and fall towards him. He gave a shaky breath and tightly hugged the emerald, closing his eyes, resigned to his fate.

When you opened your eyes, you found yourself in a field full of beautiful flowers. You hesitate but start walking through them. Your mind was fuzzy. It was as if you weighed nothing at all. Your body moved through the grass as if it was moving on its own. The petals of the flowers felt so real on your body. You roamed around aimlessly. And then... you stopped. Your eyes were locked on his figure. You remembered instantly. There, there was the person you were looking for. He was lying in the flower garden.

Taking a deep shaky breath, you feel your body start to move again. You froze when you realized that you were near his side. Against the will of your trembling knees, you kneel on the grass. Your eyes never leave his peacull form. Afraid if you blink once he would disappear. Would he wake up this time?

The sweet words spilling from his soft lips were enough to get you back to your senses, "Y/n. You're here." You were here. Your eyes wells up with tears. You didn't know where 'here' was, but you didn't care either way. "You come back... thank you." Your tears were wetting his cheeks. You were with him once again. And that was all that mattered. "I am here." The words spilled from your lips so easily even though your throat tied with the pain you felt.

Hesitate, you reach for his hand, wanting to feel, wanting to know he was actually there, "And I'll never let go again."

He glances at your eyes, his sky blue eyes getting cloudy, and soon.... his lips curled into a frown as if he noticed something, "Ah... you find me... Leaving them all behind... Did the deaths of all those people satisfy you too?" The colorful flowers around you start to turn red, rotting away and burning, the sky turns darker shades of red. He let your hand go. His eyes closed. His body is going limp. Your breath quickened, you picked him up with your shaky hands and called his name, shaking him, "No no no no! Wake up!! Tails!! No! Don't leave me again! Please!!" You begged in agony tightly hugging his bloody form. Your clothes were stained with his blood as you sobbed loudly.

You notice his eyes staring into your very soul and jump back in fright. He launched on you, his eyes were bloodshot, reminding you of some kind of devil's eyes, glaring with hatred, he choked blood on your body and gripped your throat firmly, his face and body was unrecognizable from the way he burned, he screamed in your face showing his sharp bloody teeths, "You don't deserve this life. I WILL HAUNT YOU FOREVER!" You screamed in pain as his hands burned you along with the place.

You woke up quickly and sat up out of breath, you started crying before you could stop your tears. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I-I just wanted to--" You found yourself babbling. The breath you took was not enough for you. You began clawing at your throat and cheeks as if that would help get more breath into your lungs.

You yelled when your hands were harshly taken away from you and restricted. "Let me go please! I am sorry! Please don't hurt me! I-I-..." You freaked out when you felt a body on you. You tried to push him off and screamed at him to let you go. You were having a hard time breathing, noticing you are really exhausted and powerless to do anything against him, you only sobbed loudly for him to let you go. Until you felt a hand on your head gently caressing your head. You freezed your mind confused. Your shaky breath comes out as wheezes. Your heart slowed down. You felt a bit peaceful with the soft touches. Your sobs slow down.

You finally glanced up tiredly, your blurry eyes having a hard time recognizing who was the one giving you a hug. It was Vanilla. You knitted your brows with the sight she is looking at you, understandingly with eyes full of compassion. You closed your eyes letting your tears drop as you hid your head in shame. Your body shook while you cried on her lap. That was the other reason you didn't liked sleeping now. You were having nightmare all the time. Doctors said you were having night terrors. They offered psychological help from psychologists. But you refused.

You quickly find yourself surrendering to the arms of sleep once again. You sighed heavily. You are really tired, you hated seeing nightmares of him constantly but you couldn't refuse your body's needs this time...

─────

"You're saying his station is still the same but much better than when I first asked you? But when I first asked, you said he would be unable to walk, hear, see, move, or even calculate anything even a normal person can!! Care to explain a bit more, doctor?"

"What I told you was high explosive blasts can cause skull fractures, fractured bones, head injuries, or any traumatic injury -open or closed injuries, chest, abdominal, pelvic injuries, amputations, spinal injuries, et cetera. Structural collapse and entrapment can cause crush injuries and compartment syndrome."

"Yes, but you also said it was impossible for him to fully recover from this! But now you are saying he is absolutely fine. Then why isn't he awake yet!?"

"Impossible. At least for a normal person. And what I said was his condition is fair, which means his vital signs are stable. Not Good, Not Serious."

Amy was taken back by the doctor's words, but before she can open her mouth to ask further doctor continued, "There is no way he could fully recover from that... unless he has healing powers. Or someone close to you has one and is secretly doing their job without telling you. Which is if you look at it sounds childish but seeing the scientific results I start to believe it is highly possible in his case. Then why hasn't he woken up yet if he fully recovered? I'm sorry to say this but I don't have the answer to that.... at least not yet. Is this enough information to satisfy your curiosity, miss? I have patients to look after."

Amy swallowed, she was speechless and in shock. She knew Tails didn't had healing powers or anyone she know... then how? How else can you even explain his situation like the doctor said? Does this mean... he actually had them or there is actually someone else who have them? It sounds more possible if someone else doing it. But not from her team. Is it possible though? They let no one but familiar faces get inside. Is it could be the nurses? Amy's head fummed over this longer then she could handle.

Amy nodded quickly, and with a shaky voice she spoke up, "I'm done. Sorry... thank you..."

She turned around but before she could walk away the doctor called after her, "Miss, Rose. You said he never had this kind of power, right?" She glanced at him, "Don't worry, we will go deeper into this matter and find out its source. It's hard to say anything clear right now. But for now let's keep this as a secret between us to not worry anyone. His condition is already enough to create worry for your friends. And maybe consider the risk of one of your friends having this power. It can be a comforting reason for all terminally ill patients."

Amy stood staring as the doctor smiled and walked off, disappearing from her sight in the halls. Glancing around between nurses, doctors and patients she turned around automatically. With the help of the white walls she walked back the corridors and stairs she rushed in.

She blinked when she saw Vanilla getting out of Tails' room.

She approached her, Y/n's pale face rushing in her mind, she worriedly held Vanilla's arm, "How is she doing?"

Vanilla smiled at her and sighed, "When she woke up she was sweating. She must have had another nightmare, but she didn't wake up screaming like before so that's good. I told her to take a hot bath. Thankfully she didn't argue about it. I don't think she had the energy to do so. And I asked a nurse to bring her some hot soup. I made sure she eated all up. This will make her feel much better."

"Is she still in the room?"

"Oh, no. I know it sounds bad but it's better for her to stay in another room for now."

Amy sighed with a frown, "Being in the same room must have made her feel cramped."

Vanilla patted her hand with a smile, "I took her to another room to make her more comfortable. She slept a bit more peacefully there. Now she's sitting next to the window staring outside. I believe she is waiting for someone and just how expectedly she gazes and how energetic her stand made me sure. She's thinking of something real hard, but who knows what."

"Now I'm bringing her some hot tea if you don't mind Amy dear. Do you want some too?"

"Oh, of course. I can watch Tails and Cream in the meantime for you too."

Vanilla smiled thankfully, "Have you talked to the doctor?"

Amy paused, "Yes. There is nothing to worry about." She smiled back at her and quickly changed the topic, "What about you? Will you be okay?"

Vanilla knew she meant the nail marks and bruises on her arms. She wasn't mad at you for that, "I will be if she is."

─────

First his notebook - Tails holds all his schedule and writes down his inventions, lists and some important things that happened in the main day. - He never moves his belongings. He is an extremely organized person. I'm sure it will be easy for you to find the things in this list. You can take his notebook from the drawer next to his bed.

Espio acted quickly and took his notebook without getting involved or touching anything else in his house.

Second his favorite wrench - It's his favorite because it's always useful in nearly every situation. It's in his workshop. I'm sure you could tell which.

She was right, Espio made out which one Tails' favorite instantly. It was the first thing he laid eyes on the first step he took inside his workshop. How couldn't he? It was placed right in front of him.

Thirth is some oil and gasoline it's in his workshop, obviously.

Espio didn't mind why you would want something so absurd like these. Or what you're gonna do with them there. He stopped questioning you a long time ago. And it took so many more to be patient and give time for him to settle that in his head. Plans were already forming in his mind on how he could sneak these into the hospital quietly.

Fourth, get some mints from his cabinet, he stored it nearly every cabinet, you can find some easily.

And finally a USB. All his favorite classic music is stored in it. It's probably still plugged in his pc. Take it off and come to me. Thank you♡You're the best~

After getting out of Tails' house with all the items, Espio freezed, noticing a pair of shoes dangling from the roof. He gives it a better glance and instantly knows who it is, like she said he would be.

"Y/n said hi."

Shadow continued staring into the horizon, his crimson eyes piercing through the blue sky. The green emerald in his hold, tightened. He was thinking about something, it was obvious. Espio knew instantly, in his hold the chaos emerald Tails was found within the ruins.

"I'll tell her you said 'hi' also. You're welcome." And like that he rushed off without any more lingering there.

He knew Shadow was guarding his house for the emeralds sake. They were secured somewhere safe and hard to reach. But still, he understands Shadow wants to be sure. So he didn't question his doings. How could he anyway? He wouldn't say anything to him, if he didn't want to. Or maybe there was something entirely else going on with him.

[slytherhys]

One Night Only II

Chapter I

Elain huffed as the bedroom door closed behind her, her suitcase dropping to the wooden floors with a resounding thud – a death sentence if the way her heart was beating was any indication.

Just like the rest of the house, Feyre had decorated the room perfectly. It was covered in tones of cream and chocolate, a cosy rustic look that perfectly matched the view to the gardens, snow falling from the sky and covering the plants Elain had so caringly planted just a few springs ago. She was happy to know Feyre and Rhys hadn’t let them die.

The bed looked inviting; the heavy, fluffy covers the only thing Elain wanted to to think about as exhaustion threatened to undo her – if only she could lie under them alone. Elain groaned, silently cursing her sister for what was probably the thousandth time that night. 

Azriel had stayed behind, muttering something about whiskey and his brothers before disappearing into Rhys’s office with a resigned look on his face. She wasn’t complaining though – even if the look on his face was yet another dent to her pride, if the Mother was on her side, she’d at least be dead asleep by the time he even slipped in between the sheets. And tomorrow…Well, if Elain had to be up at 5am so as to not have to deal with whatever awaited her in the morning, she would. 

If push came to shove, she’d go running in the snow, claiming to have adopted some sort of new fitness regimen. Not that her sisters would believe her, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

It was almost a herculean effort to remember she was, indeed, an adult and that sharing a bed with a man didn’t have to be awkward. There was no reason for it really – they were both mature enough not to make it weird, just like Nesta had repeated time and time again (even if Elain had to pretend not to see the smirk on her lips as she said it).

Truth was, no matter how much she pretended not to be bothered by him, Azriel Rosehall was a thorn to Elain’s side; a constant reminder of how foolish a heart could be. But she was 26 years old, the proud owner of a successful small-business and someone who didn’t exactly have trouble getting a date (even if she did reject them all). She refused to let Azriel be the one to bring her down.

So what if he wasn’t her biggest fan? No one had ever died of unrequited love. No one that she knew of, at least.

Elain shook her head, frowning at her own thoughts. It was Christmas Eve. She was with her family for the first time in months and nothing would stop her from having a good time. Not even her foolish heart that stuttered anytime Azriel came close; that seemed to deflate inside her chest whenever he pretended she didn’t exist.

She could go back to caring about such things when she was back in her apartment alone, stuffing her face with way too many cookies and alcohol while watching The Holiday an unhealthy amount of times.

She sighed, feeling like a grouchy child as she took her Christmas pyjamas out of her bulging suitcase, quickly changing into them with quick glances to the door as if afraid Azriel would barge into the room unannounced, ready to find her undressing in a dimmed-lighted room. She looked in the mirror, wincing as she noticed her ragged underwear and her childish pyjamas. She definitely hadn’t come prepared to share a bed with anyone, let alone Azriel, who was certainly not used to going to bed with females wearing reindeer pyjamas. 

Elain refused to think about why the thought Azriel and other females had her stomach churning, choosing to lie in bed instead and doing her best to ignore the way her traitorous heart lurched whenever she thought about who would soon be lying next to her. Her brain was running with all kinds of scenarios, the thought of being that close to Azriel, to be able to feel his scent engulfing her, to feel his warmth close to her skin…

Mother, she needed to start dating again.

An all-too familiar voice rang up the stairs, followed by the groan of the wooden stairs giving in under someone’s weight. Elain wasn’t sure why she was suddenly so attuned with every sound the house seemed to make but before she could even wrap her head around what it meant, the door to her bedroom - to their bedroom - was opening quietly, making her snap her eyes close, and doing what was probably a lousy job at pretending to be asleep. She could only pray to the Mother he couldn’t hear the way her heart was beating, a heavy drum that seemed to announce all she had ever wanted to say to him– and all she had managed to hide.

She tried to stay still, tried to look as one does when they sleep while still trying to look somewhat presentable as she did it. The awareness of her own body seemed to make everything much worse, and she feared that if she dared open her eyes, she would find Azriel watching her with an unamused look on his face, a raised eyebrow and a look of suffering that had become such a frequent occurrence between the two of them.

Elain couldn’t but wonder why exactly he looked like he was in pain whenever she was around.

The sound of fabric on skin seemed to prickle her senses and Elain fought the urge to open her eyes as she felt the bed dip. She heard him exhale heavily, and it was all she could do not to demand answers. Why do you hate me? she wanted to shout, What have I ever done to you?

She wasn’t sure she was prepared to hear the answer.

She heard rather than felt him lie down, the weight of his body pulling hers into his orbit. She could do nothing but let herself go, all too grateful when she didn’t feel his skin on hers. Was he regretting coming up already? Was he considering sleeping on the floor instead? Elain wondered if he’d noticed the reindeer pyjamas.

Azriel sighed gently, the silence in the room loud enough to make her ears ring. She opened her eyes slightly, just enough to see him lying on his back, a toned arm under his head and a very much naked torso rising and falling in time with his steady breathing. Of course the man would sleep shirtless because why would the Mother make things easier for her. She felt entirely too hot, the urge to put a healthy amount of distance between the two of them growing by the second. Was it smart to move this early on?

Maybe if she did it slowly, moving her body as slowly as possible so she could just turn and-

“You can stop pretending.” His raw voice startled her, making her jump slightly. She snapped her eyes open, embarrassed to find his already set on her. Well, fuck.

She scrambled for words. “I wasn’t-”

“Sure.” He said curtly, turning his head to the side in a dismissal that shouldn’t have cut as deeply as it did. Why was she even surprised anymore?

Elain turned – briskly, this time around – making sure she pulled the covers slightly to her side. Honestly, did he get off on being an unfeeling idiot? She had never been anything but nice to him. In fact, she vividly remembered complimenting him, asking him questions about his life. Was that what this was about? Some petty revenge because once upon a time she was interested in knowing more about him? Had he no regard for basic human interaction?

She adjusted her position more aggressively, huffing loudly just for the sake of it.

“If you keep moving, we’re going to have a problem, Ellie.”

“I’m moving because we have a problem.” She mumbled under her breath, pressing her eyes closed in another useless attempt at falling asleep. At this point, she doubted such a thing would even happen.

Her complaint was met with silence, and she was wondering if he had heard her at all when he spoke again. “Do-” He cleared his throat. “Do you want me to sleep on the floor?” His voice was quiet, gentle and it was so at odds with what she was usually expecting from him that Elain snapped her eyes open again, blinking at the darkness as her brain tried to understand what was that she heard in his voice that sounded so unlike Azriel Rosehall.

Insecurity?

No, it couldn’t be.

“What?”

Azriel sighed. “You’re clearly uncomfortable, I don’t mind.”

“I’m not uncomfortable.” She was, but probably not for the reasons he thought. “Are you?” She added meekly.

Azriel chuckled softly. “No, Ellie, I’m not.”

Warmth seemed to spread through her body at his raspy voice, and not for the first time Elain was grateful for the darkness that surrounded them. She turned to her back, Azriel a dark shadow by her side, his breathing sounding just a tad ragged – or maybe that was just wishful thinking.

“I know this is probably the last thing you wanted so I really-“

His dark laugh interrupted her and she felt herself bristle. She scoffed, sitting up and turning on the light before she could even realise what she was doing. "You could at least pretend to like me, you don't need to be so painfully obvious about your indifference." She scowled, but Azriel simply blinked up at her. She groaned, getting out of the bed and rushing to the door, not even caring if he noticed her reindeer pyjamas. They were cute pyjamas! Screw him.

“Wait,” he stopped her just as she was about to open the door, sitting up as well as he frowned. “You think I don't like you?”

Elain chuckled, not feeling gleeful at all. "Have you ever done anything to prove me otherwise?"

Azriel sighed, running a hand through his tousled hair as he got out of bed as well. Elain gulped at the sight of him wearing only flannel pyjama pants, crossing the room in her direction.

Wait, were those snowmen?

Elain's eyes snapped back to Azriel's face as she realised she had been ogling his pants, only to be met with an amused expression on his face that immediately made her scowl. 

However, his amused expression disappeared, his brows furrowing as his hazel eyes flickering between her own. "You think what I feel about you - when I'm around you - is indifference?"

"You barely talk to me." She added rather uselessly, her voice sounding entirely too whiny to belong to a 26 year old woman. 

A shadow of a smirk. "I barely talk to anyone." He stepped even closer.

“And yet you don’t seem as keen on keeping your distance to everyone else as you are with me.”

Azriel uttered a curse under his breath, running a hand through his hair yet again just as he stopped in front of her. “For a reason.” 

“I’ve gathered as much.”

Azriel groaned darkly, taking another step in her direction. Elain felt her breath catch at the heat in his eyes. “You think I don’t like you?” 

Elain shrugged, not entirely sure how to act when he was looking at her like that. Like there was a possibility he could like her, want her back.

He shook his head, laughing without mirth. “I keep my distance from you, Elain, because I can barely stand to be in the same room as you and not be able to touch you." Another step. "I keep my distance from you because you have the power to bring me to my knees with a fucking smile. I keep my distance from you because there's no guarantee I won't fucking kiss you every time you look at me," a mirthless chuckle. "and you think I don’t like you, Ellie?”

Wait.

What?

Elain could do nothing but open and close her mouth as if to say something, trying to find the words despite the white noise filling her head as she tried to make sense of what he was saying. Azriel’s breathing was laboured, his eyes dark as he stared at her from where he stood, little to no space separating them from each other. She could say nothing, do nothing but stare back. 

The world seemed to stand still, completely suspended in time as her own thoughts raced to keep up with what was unravelling right in front of her own eyes. And maybe time did stop - it wasn't like Elain would've noticed with the longing look on Azriel’s face as he watched her carefully - a look that she had longed for ever since she had first uttered a quiet Hello to her sister’s friend, many winters ago.

“Oh.” She said usessly - the only word her jumbled mind seemed to be able to grasp. Elain wasn’t sure if she’d heard him correctly or if she had fallen asleep watching The Holiday again and was having a rather vivid dream with a shirtless Azriel in snowmen pyjama bottoms instead. Stranger things had happened, she supposed, but Elain couldn’t help but suspect that this was, in fact, very real.

That the male staring at her was, indeed, just a few feet away from her, looking seconds away from unravelling completely. What he would do if such a thing happened, she wasn’t sure, but to say that she feared he would leave the room without a glance back was an understatement. 

I can barely stand to be in the same room as you and not be able to touch you.

“What does that mean?” She asked after a few beats, refusing to let herself hope. But as Azriel took yet another step, coming closer to her, Elain couldn’t help but accept that her heart was beyond any reasoning. 

“What do you think?” He muttered, eyes flickering to her lips for just a split second. And then Elain could see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing but Azriel Rosehall as he pressed his lips against hers.

Who moved first, Elain wasn't sure, but suddenly her legs were around Azriel's hips, his strong hands holding her ass in his hands as he blindly took her towards the bed. How he managed to not fall down she didn't know - she was beyond caring anyway. Mainly as she felt herself dip, the fluffy covers against her back as he laid her down gently on the bed. Mainly as his hands explored every inch of bare skin on her body. 

Elain was afraid to break away from Azriel; afraid of a spell being broken the second their lips stopped touching but Azriel was everything but fearful as he took his time, his body grinding against hers, his hands leisurely exploring her every dip and curve. Elain bit her tongue to fight the moan that threatened to break free as he pressed his hips against hers, the feeling of his covered erection pressing against her more delicious than anything she could've ever summoned in her own fantasies. 

“Can I make you feel good, Ellie?” He whispered against her lips and the raspy sound was nearly enough to undo her. As if he even needed to ask for permission - but Elain refrained from telling just how much she had wished to hear those words from him. Other words as well; definitely not ones meant to share on a night like this, when the heat of his body against hers seemed to eviscerate every rational thought from her mind. 

It took her a second to realise he was still staring at her, waiting for confirmation. Elain nodded once, her body unsteady, but it took Azriel no time to push her bottoms down, alongside her ragged underwear. Before Elain could feel a lick of embarrassment - before the thought of other females came back with a vengeance - Azriel was sliding down, his mouth peppering kisses alongside her torso, tracing a path that would no doubt lead to Elain’s ultimate downfall. She had no time to protest, to tell him he didn’t need to do that because Azriel’s tongue found her centre and all words simply ceased to exist. She could do nothing but take the pleasure he gave her, his wicked tongue licking and tasting her as if he were a starved man. Elain had never felt like this, as if her own body had no other purpose but to have him between her legs. She looked down, her eyes meeting his hooded ones and the sight of his tousled hair between her legs was enough to make her come on his tongue, her breath catching in her chest as she tried her best to be quiet.

She felt herself flush as Az raised his head, a smirk on his wet lips.

He looked absolutely delicious, his erection now straining against his boxers - when he had gotten rid of his pants she didn't know - and looking at her with an affection that had her heart clench inside her chest. Azriel raised to his knees and pressed a kiss to her forehead, lying down next to her with a pleased smile on his face. Elain frowned.

“What-” Mother, she was panting. “What are you doing?” She asked as he snuggled further into bed, his arm reaching for her as to pull her down next to him. Azriel stopped and looked up at her instead, a light to his eyes Elain had never seen before. 

“We are going to sleep.” He tilted his head, and Elain wasn’t the least embarrassed by the indignant scoff that left her mouth. Azriel raised his brows, amusement clear in his eyes.

“No, we’re not.” She said, not entirely sure where the confidence was coming from when she straddled his hips. But she wasn't complaining - and neither was Azriel, if the way his eyes darkened was any indication. 

“Ellie," He warned gently.

“No.” She leaned in to kiss him, feeling feral as his hands tightened around her waist. 

“Elain, you’re exhausted.” He grumbled, pressing a kiss to her nose instead. “Let’s talk in the morning, okay? We have all the time in the world.” 

Elain huffed, frowning and maybe even pouting a bit, something that earned her a soft chuckle from the handsome man under her. She was exhausted, but she was also exhilarated with the outcome of her night - but Azriel's steady gaze met and she knew nothing more would be happening between them. At least not tonight.

She deflated in defeat, letting herself fall gently onto his chest, her own body rising and falling in time with his breathing. 

“So you don’t hate me?” She muttered, butterflies erupting in her stomach as the events from today - from the last hour alone - replayed in her mind. Here she was, lying on top of the man that she had wanted for years, his arm draped around the small of her back, his lips pressing into the top of her head. It was Christmas Eve - Christmas day, she supposed - and her reindeer pyjamas were on the floor, right next to his snowmen pants. And the man she lo- she liked - liked her back. 

“I don’t do what I just did to you to people I hate, Elain.”

Elain smiled against his chest, refraining from giggling like a silly school-girl. “I don’t know what you do in your free time.” She said, delighted as she felt his chuckle rumble through his chest. 

“Think about you, mostly.” He said gently, eyes closed and a serene smile on his face. Elain couldn’t help but press a kiss to his chin, to his lips before resting her head on his chest again. “Merry Christmas, love.” He mumbled.

Elain closed her eyes, a smile on her face even as a lick of anxiety flashed through her body as she thought of tomorrow morning. Would it be awkward? Would he regret what they did, what he had said to her? 

We have all the time in the world. 

Elain looked out the window, the snow falling down from the sky. A quiet storm that raged outside - just as the one that brewed inside her own mind. They’d have to face their family tomorrow, explain whatever it was that had happened between the two of them when left to their own devices. Or would Azriel prefer to keep things quiet for now? She wasn’t entirely opposed to that idea - things between them felt entirely too raw, too new for them to be shared with anyone - even if they were the people closest to both of them. Scenarios and possibilities ran through her mind, flashes of a future that seemed so close to them that she could almost taste it. 

But then Azriel pulled her closer to him, wrapping his arms around hers as he snuggled into her neck and Elain thought of nothing more.

[anyon-else]

This Fire of Devotion (It Burns Me) (The Red Room pt.3) | You and Kakashi had let your guards down too soon after getting Sakura out of the Red Room. You should've known that this kind of peace and safety was too good to last very long. (Marvel AU) – spotify playlist | read on ao3

Pairings | Kakashi Hatake x Black Widow!Reader + Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, Naturo Uzumaki, Orochimaru, Kabuto Yakushi

Warnings | mind control, mentions of torture, discussion of themes present in Black Widow

Word count | 5.2k

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"I was a girl gulping a woman's grief."

Melissa Febos, "Call My Name"

Kakashi had resigned himself to a sleepless night the moment he decided to allow you to stay in the compound. He was self-aware enough to admit that his relief after Sakura's rescue made it much easier for her to sway him in your favor, but that didn't stop him from creating hundreds of worst-case scenarios as the hours passed. Each was more anxiety-inducing than the last, and he kept ruminating on your presence until he was too restless to stay in his room any longer.

He knew that nothing would happen. He’d seen the look in your eyes when you realized that Sakura was safe, but he had enough experience with betrayal that his cynicism wouldn’t let him close his eyes for more than a minute at a time. Every time he did, thoughts of Sakura dead at your hands intruded into his mind against his will, and each one became harder to ignore than the last.

After hours of this self-inflicted torment, he found himself perched on the balcony that neighbored Sakura’s room while giving him a view of the entrance to the compound. He laid down on the cool, stone floor, head pillowed by his hands and legs spread out in front of him. Now, at the very least, he would be able to hear if Sakura was in trouble. 

He let his eyes fall shut, finally silencing the paranoid voice in the back of his mind. It seemed equally satisfied with this arrangement, though it stayed alert and focused on the sounds coming from the room to his right. 

“Sakura, stop!”

His eyes snapped open after his body had already started moving. Instinct took over at the shout of your voice, distressed and terrified. The sound was too faint to be coming from Sakura’s window, and his eyes drifted to the room he’d given you for the night. The curtain was open and flowing inside from the push of the wind, and he quickly recognized the sounds of a struggle.

By the time he perched himself on your windowsill, the struggle was over. Sakura was laying with her head pillowed in your lap, unconscious but breathing steadily. You weren't actively attacking her, and your hands were gently placed on either side of her head to keep it stable, but instinct still made him dart towards you and lift the girl from your arms. 

He stood back before you could lash out at him, but to his surprise, you just watched as he pulled Sakura away, a kind of numbness in your eyes. Kakashi didn’t have time to reflect on that expression, and he raced from the room after one final glance in your direction.

No matter how many times you went over it, the facts of what had happened remained true, and the conclusion you’d come too didn’t become any less likely.

You wanted to stand. You wanted to follow Kakashi out of the room the moment he took Sakura—to demand that he listen to you before he took her anywhere. But for the first time in a very long time, shock and fear kept you rooted in place. 

Things had been going so well. In the hours since you’d seen Sakura, you thought you could rest easy knowing that she was safe. She’d told you enough about Kakashi that putting a face to the name helped you become less wary of him, and you'd felt content to leave her in his care.

But this changed things. This changed everything. 

You felt a distant terror seeping into your skin. The closer it crept towards you, the smaller you felt, shrinking to nothing in the vast emptiness of the room. At least, that was what it felt like. Like you were small enough to step on. And really, you were. Compared with what was happening now, you felt indescribably unprepared. How were you supposed to protect Sakura if he was already inside her head?

Orochimaru, from what you could remember, had always been fascinated with mind control. It was an unhealthy obsession that often kept him away from a decent night’s sleep for weeks at a time. Those were the only days when you saw him truly disheveled. In hindsight, it was those moments that provided the perfect opportunity for an assassination and subsequent escape.

Had you been less of a coward, Sakura never would’ve seen the inside of the Red Room. But, just like now, terror made ice spread through your veins the moment you saw him, freezing you in place while you let him do whatever he needed to do to make you the perfect spy.

And you saw him. You saw his eyes in Sakura's, his words in her voice, his actions in her body.

You thought he'd given up on the mind control project, under orders from H.Y.D.R.A to focus his resources on something more productive. But he'd ignored them, and the project had been a success.

And Sakura was his guinea pig.

You stood on shaky legs as Kakashi reentered empty-handed, arms crossed in front of him and shoulders tense. You glanced towards him for a moment, but it really wasn’t worth expending what little energy you had left to try and gauge his hostility level. He had obviously never fully trusted you, and this certainly didn’t help your case, but you hoped that you looked shocked enough that he would give you the benefit of the doubt. 

“What’s wrong with her?”

Kakashi’s voice was cold, but you could hear his tense frustration. You could hear the fear that he was desperately trying to mask. He’d just gotten Sakura back, and things were already beginning to fall apart.

You couldn’t blame him for his unease, but it still frustrated you to no end. His energy was wildly misplaced on you, and if you could only force yourself to articulate that, maybe you could start getting somewhere. 

“Did you hear me?” Kakashi’s voice was closer now. You’d barely registered his approach, which hadn’t happened in a long time. When you looked up, he was standing right in front of you, staring you down with wide, furious eyes. “I said what is wrong with Sakura?”

Your mind was a haze, and with that haze came a reliance on your reflexive instincts. The moment Kakashi took hold of your shoulder to try and force you to look at him, you had his arm pinned behind his back, immobilized and useless using one of the first defensive techniques you’d been taught in the Red Room. You reached for his free hand, but he beat you in speed and pulled it from your range.

Your chest was rising and falling at a rapid rate, and your hip was on fire as your stitches pulled at the broken skin. You closed your eyes in an attempt to slow your racing heart. He is not the enemy. He is not a threat. Let him go.

“Calm down,” he muttered after a moment. You couldn’t seem to gain enough control over your body to release him, and he wasn’t forcing himself out of your grip. You just stood chest-to-chest as you tried to gain back some movement in your limbs, "I know you didn't do anything to her. Just tell me what happened."

He said it like you trusted one another.

“Sakura has been compromised.”

“Meaning?”

“The current head of the Red Room and the Black Widow project is obsessed with mind control. I think he was using her as a test subject before we got out. I don’t know any more than that.”

You waited for him to drag you back to your cell and demand more information, but he just stood, quiet and tense. 

“And you don’t know if it’s permanent?”

“No,” you choked, thinking about Sakura alone and at Orochimaru's mercy. You’d been in the same situation enough times that imagination wasn’t required for you to picture the scene. You could see her in the same room as you had been in, attached to the same machines and being given the same tests. Only for Sakura, it was different. Orochimaru had taken her free will.

“Is she okay?” you croaked, feeling any fight you had left draining away along with your excess adrenaline.

“She's still unconscious. A doctor is examining her.”

You had to force your gut reaction down, shutting off your immediate and subconscious instinct to find Sakura at any cost. It was an instinct you’d gained after you were first separated from her, and you knew that no amount of reassurance that you were out of the Red Room would erase it.

You realized after a moment that your grip on Kakashi’s arm had tightened, but he didn't move. You knew he wanted something more from you; for you to give him information that you didn't have. He was probably hoping that, in your vulnerable state and position, you'd let more slip.

“Why haven’t you interrogated me?” you asked suddenly. While you were appreciative that you'd been given a room instead of the cell, it all seemed far too easy. “You know I have information about the Red Room. Don’t you want it?” 

"That was going to be a morning problem,” Kakashi said, taking a step back when your grip slackened. When he had examined the distance between you and apparently deemed it appropriate, he met your eyes again. “I’ll admit that I’ve been more lenient towards you because I got Sakura back. It’s put me in a good mood, and so far, I believe that her trust in you is warranted.”

“You shouldn’t,” you whispered, “what happened to Sakura could happen to me at any moment. They could’ve done any number of things to me over the years, and I’d have no idea until they actually decided to use it.” 

Kakashi just watched you. His silence was starting to unnerve you, and if you weren’t so on edge, you probably would’ve told him to leave you alone.

“Maybe keeping me locked up would be safer,” you muttered.

Neither you nor Sakura had escaped the Red Room. You wondered if escape was even possible from something like this. You were a fool to forget the lesson that had been hammered into you time and again: you were not an agent over your will. You were nothing more than a tool, and whoever wielded you dictated your actions. You would never have control over your body, and now you realized that you might not have control over your mind anymore. This was what Orochimaru wanted: the perfect soldier, his to control wholly and completely.

“Maybe,” Kakashi shrugged. “By that logic, I should lock Sakura up too, but we both know that I’m not going to do that. And if I keep you in a cell, she’ll insist that I do the same to her.”

If she’s ever herself again.

“What do you want me to do, then?”

Kakashi wasn’t looking at you anymore. His attention had shifted to the door, eyes blank and somewhere far away.

"If you can help her, then you'll stay," he stated with a simplicity that made everything feel easier than it actually was. Like he had fooled himself into thinking that you had some magic cure that would bring Sakura back.

But the only person with that power was the one person you had never been able to face without bending to his every command.

When Sakura pried her eyes open, the first thing that flooded her vision was a blinding light. Muffled voices were scattered in the background, but all she could pay any attention to was attempting to focus her eyes on her surroundings and make sure she wasn't in the hands of the enemy.

She remembered being rescued, and she remembered Kakashi allowing you out of your cell. Her initial excitement as a result of your freedom hadn't allowed her much room to focus on sleeping, but after a few hours of laying awake wondering what her life would amount to now that she had so much say in her fate, everything had become blurry. She remembered voices, and she remembered there being some kind of struggle, but her mind was too hazy to pull any real information from the memory. Instead of trying to sort through any of it, she pushed the confused jumble into the back of her mind and refocused on confirming her location.

Restraints were digging into her wrists and ankles, though they weren't tight enough to be anything more than an inconvenience. As she continued to lay frozen on what she now recognized as a hospital bed, the voices came into focus, and her chest ached with relief when she recognized you and Kakashi among them.

She tried once again to open her eyes, this time accompanying her struggle with a groan of discomfort. Your conversation with Kakashi paused, and in the silence she was able to see past the light and finally get a glimpse of her surroundings. She recognized the compound's hospital before you and Kakashi entered her field of vision on either side of the bed.

"Sakura?" you asked quietly, voice wary. If Sakura didn't know any better, she'd even say that you sounded nervous.

"What's going on?" she asked quietly, blinking against the harsh fluorescent shining over her. Kakashi disappeared from view, and the light was off a few seconds later. A lamp on her bedside table provided a pleasant ambiance, and she sighed in as her eyes relaxed to the dim calmness of the room

"Do you remember what happened?" Kakashi asked when he returned to sit in a chair next to her bed.

"What do you mean?" she glanced between you and Kakashi slowly, "like, last night?"

"Sakura..." you began, opening your mouth to continue, but closing it quickly after. You looked away from her for a moment, eyes darting from her restraints to Kakashi. Kakashi gave you a nod, and you met Sakura's eyes with a heavy sigh. You looked exhausted. "Do you remember the mind control technology that was being tested in the Red Room?"

Oh.

Sakura remembered very clearly. How could she forget? She remembered watching girls disappear one after another to become Orochimaru's test subjects. She remembered some never coming back, and thinking that they were the lucky ones. The ones that did come back were...different. Orochimaru always called them failures, but positive steps towards perfecting his Widows.

"We think that you were a test subject. Two days ago, you attacked me in my room, but it wasn't you. And you obviously don't remember anything. You passed out before you could do any real damage," you added quickly when Sakura's eyes widened and darted over you to look for any injuries. When her gaze settled on the faint bruises around your throat, you lifted a hand to cover them. When she looked back at you, your eyes held nothing but understanding and pain. Pain for her.

"Was there any point while you were in the Red Room when you felt like you were missing hours or days, or felt anything like how you're feeling now?"

You and Kakashi were both looking at her so patiently. She knew by the looks in both of your eyes that any answer, even the most unhelpful one, would lead to nothing but this same kindness. It had been a long time since she'd been back at the compound, and that unconditional understanding was something that she would need to readjust to.

"No," she finally admitted, desperately wishing that she had anything helpful to give. Neither of you looked disappointed or even surprised by this answer. Instead, you just looked at one another, and Sakura wondered what had happened in the time that she'd been unconscious to make you this cooperative.

"That's okay," Kakashi smiled, his eyes crinkling closed above his mask as he began taking off her restraints. You gave her a nod, a small smile on your lips as you brushed some stray hair away from her eyes.

"I didn't..." she began, thinking carefully about her words, "I didn't hurt you badly, did I?"

You shook your head, taking one of her hands and folding it between yours.

"No, you didn't. Don't worry about that."

She was worried. If this had happened while she was still in the Red Room, it would've been different. Now she was with people that she promised herself she'd protect. If she didn't have control over her body anymore, then you, Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke were at risk just by being in her proximity.

"And you guys are...working together now?"

It seemed too good to be true. She was almost giddy at the idea, but she tried not to get her hopes up. Last she remembered, you trusted Kakashi about as far as you could throw him, and he was still hesitant to leave you alone with her.

Both you and Kakashi just stared at Sakura blankly, as if just now remembering your grudge against one another.

"We have a common goal," Kakashi finally said, little emotion in his voice, "so yes, right now we're cooperating."

"Which means," Sakura turned towards you, a smile growing on her face, "you're staying?"

You looked like you wanted to say no so as to not give Sakura any false hope in preparation for the worst case scenario, but you deflated when you saw the excitement in her eyes. Despite your unease about the whole situation and your lingering distrust of Kakashi, Sakura deserved this bit of happiness. With Orochimaru inside her head, anything that could ground her to her life and memories would only do her good.

"Yes," you finally answered, glancing at Kakashi to make sure that was the answer he'd had in mind too. His expression hadn't changed, so you continued, "I'm staying."

Sakura's excited smile almost made the half-lie worth it.

The plan you and Kakashi had come up with during Sakura's three days of unconsciousness ended up being a bit more complicated than you'd hoped. You kept forgetting that, for the first time in your life, you were free. You couldn't just request information and resources from HYDRA; you had to infiltrate, and you were hundreds of miles from your target.

Before, freedom had been a relief. Now that Sakura was unsafe, it felt like a burden.

You and Kakashi were planning on executing the mission alone. Kakashi claimed that it was too dangerous for his students, but you wondered if he was still wary letting Sasuke and Naruto near you.

The plan initially seemed simple considering the circumstances; one of HYRDA's archives in connection with the Red Room was located in West Germany, about twenty miles from the country's border.

You knew the whereabouts of many of the Red Room's affiliate strongholds and bunkers mostly because a portion of your initial assignments had been low-level security missions. One of those missions focused on retrieval, and you'd been given temporary access to your current target.

However, the archives were kept underground so as to not become a landmark and to avoid being picked up by satellite imaging. You knew the general location, as well as landmarks in the vicinity, but you didn't know the exact coordinates anymore.

"To enter, we'll need a code. It changes every month, and the sequence is automatic and random."

Kakashi was sitting in one of the eight chairs set up in the small conference room that you'd spent the better part of the day in. He was tapping a pen against his covered lips, eyes narrowed at your map where a circle surrounded the general area in which the archive was located.

"Alright," he leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, "who has access to the codes?"

"It's not a long list. Orochimaru, obviously, as well as his second in command. We called him the Headmaster, but his real name is Kabuto Yakushi. He was in charge of overseeing our training and stepping in when Orochimaru was absent."

"So he'd be our best bet to–"

It was a struggle not to charge towards the door when it slammed open against the wall. You tensed, knuckles turning white as you gripped the table and turned a sharp, calculated glare towards the door.

"Sensei!"

"Naruto," Kakashi sighed, turning his chair to gaze at where the boy stood with an embarrassed smile, "and Sasuke."

Sasuke was much calmer than his friend as he walked into the conference room, hands tucked in his pockets and expression cooly indifferent.

"We heard there's a mission!" Naruto grinned, pulling out the chair next to Kakashi. Neither boy had looked at you yet, and whether that was intentional or not, you still took the opportunity to sink into a dark corner of the room. There were certain things you weren't very eager to do, and meeting more people who probably saw you as an enemy was one of them. "It's to help Sakura, right? We don't really know what happened, but—"

"You're not going."

Kakashi's words were cold and definitive, but he barely glanced at the boys with that bored expression. You looked between the three of them carefully, and you felt your old habits taking over, forcing you to analyze their movements, their words, the way they interacted with one another. Anything to give you information on them. To give you leverage.

"W-what? Sensei, we have to go! You can't just go on a mission like this alone with..."

Naruto finally glanced in your direction, eyes low and filled with guilt as he cut himself off. Sasuke didn't add anything, but his scathing gaze in your direction told you enough.

"Naruto–"

"She's not one of us," Sasuke bit, glaring at you like you'd attack him and Naruto if he gave you a moment's rest from his cold gaze, "and we don't trust her to back you up. So we want to go instead of her."

You watched the three interact curiously, and you were mostly unfazed by their hostility towards you. Both were well within their rights to doubt your loyalties and intentions, and in all honesty, this was more your comfort zone. You'd started becoming wary of Kakashi's cooperation and willingness to go on this mission with you. While it made sense, and Sakura's safety presented a common goal, you still had a nagging feeling that things were going too smoothly.

This hostility somehow brought a bit of relief.

"That's enough," Kakashi sighed, voice tired and devoid of emotion, "I'll remind you that you're both still students, and this mission won't be short or easy."

Sasuke opened his mouth again, a protest on the tip of his tongue, but one glance from Kakashi had him pausing.

"If we're all gone, who's going to make sure Sakura's okay while she recovers? Who's going to make sure that HYDRA doesn't come here and take her back to the Red Room, hm?"

Naruto's eyes widened, gaze finally shifting from you to Kakashi. He looked horrified at this hypothetical.

"You'll both be staying here."

"And her?"

Sasuke was still glaring at you, arms crossed over his chest and voice full of venom. Kakashi rubbed a hand over his face. While you weren't sure how far you'd come in gaining the man's trust, you knew you likely hadn't gotten far enough for him to defend you to his students.

"You don't have to trust her," Kakashi finally said, "but you can trust me. I've been doing this a lot longer than you have."

"We know, but–"

"End of discussion."

Kakashi's tone left little room for argument, and both boys tensed at the force of his words. Naruto pouted, sulking as he trudged out the door, but Sasuke stood frozen in front of Kakashi. You could practically hear the silent conversation between the two. Sasuke looked furious, and from what you could tell, he had no intention of leaving the room willingly.

Kakashi glanced towards you, a tired brow raised in question. You shrugged, surprised he was even giving you a say in the decision. It made no difference to you whether or not Sasuke heard the brief of the mission. It only mattered if he came along and slowed you down.

"You can stay and listen. Maybe some assurance that there's an actual plan will keep you from being a nuisance."

Sasuke sat heavily in the chair behind Kakashi, glare shifting back to you as you stepped out of your dark corner.

"The first problem we'll have to deal with is getting to Kabuto. If he's going to be our target, then I'll be able to track him down, but getting close enough to get what we need is an entirely different story. His role as the Headmaster means that he's always either with Orochimaru or with the widows. Either way, he's constantly guarded."

You switched to a picture of Kabuto, glancing away from it quickly before images of matches to the death and reprimands for not killing other Widows could reappear in your head. You cleared your throat when you felt it starting to close up. You'd gotten soft in the short time since your escape, and your desensitization to routine violence was beginning to fade. If this was how you were reacting to a photo of Kabuto, you didn't want to think about what a confrontation with Orochimaru would look like.

Sasuke was studying you, watching your reactions with dull interest.

"The second problem will be finding the exact location of the bunker. And the third," you switched the screen to a general layout of the archives. It was massive, housing any non-digitized files from the time that the Red Room started to present day, "will be getting the information we need. Not only will we need to sort through years of files to find what we're looking for; in order to find it, we'll need to decode it."

Kakashi tapped a pen against the desk.

"What kind of code?"

"It's one of Orochimaru's inventions. All widows are taught how to decipher it during their training, and it's one of the more complex of HYDRA's ciphers. The fastest I could go when I learned it was three pages an hour, but that was a long time ago. Considering we don't know exactly what we're looking for, it might take weeks to sort through everything."

Sasuke's gaze shot to Kakashi, eyes narrowed in silent question. That was far too long for him to be away from his teacher, and far too long for you to be alone with him. There would be too many opportunities for you to kill him.

"I know what you're thinking, Sasuke–"

"This will take too long," Sasuke muttered, "and you won't have any backup. I know that Sakura trusts her, but..."

Guilt passed across the boy's face briefly, and his hesitation left behind a heavy silence.

"Sakura isn't in her right mind. Anything she said to vouch for this woman could've been HYDRA talking through her. And if that's the case, we're playing right into their hand. There is every possibility that she was sent here to kill you."

The assessment was fair. If you had been in Sasuke's position, with little information about the Red Room and Orochimaru's technology, you probably would've been presenting the same possibility. But you'd seen Sakura when she was under Orochimaru's influence. While the man was a genius, his technology couldn't imitate true humanity. The mind control technology that Orochimaru used was meant to create mindless obedience. It wasn't difficult to tell who was being controlled.

But coming from you, that opinion would likely have made little difference. If Sasuke had already convinced himself that you were a double agent, then nothing you said would convince him of your innocence.

Kakashi sighed, shoulders slumping from what looked to be exhaustion. Sasuke held his ground, staring at his teacher with a determination that impressed you. If he was more experienced, you probably would have encouraged Kakashi to let him come along.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take to help Sakura."

Sasuke's wince was barely noticeable, but the guilt that spread across his features was clear as day.

"I'm counting on you to take care of her and Naruto while I'm gone," Kakashi spoke softly, and Sasuke nodded, eyes downcast.

He left the room shortly after, head high once more as he shot one final, scathing glare in your direction. When the door clicked shut behind him, Kakashi turned to face you again.

"You know, it might be in your best interest to listen to him," you said carefully, knowing the thin line you were still walking. Kakashi remained a mystery to you, and every time you were with him, his decisions became more and more confusing. Sasuke's assessment of your loyalties did have some sense to it; if you were in Kakashi's position, you would have had plenty of doubts.

"Are you admitting to being a double agent?" Kakashi asked, though there was little accusation or hostility in his voice. He wasn't even looking at you.

"No. I'm just confused that you seem to trust me."

"Oh, don't get things confused," he spoke jovially, eyes crinkling shut as he smiled, "I don't trust you. But you're my best shot at freeing Sakura, so we're completing this mission together out of necessity. As much as it pains me to say, I can't save her without your help."

When his eyes opened, they had darkened considerably. You met his gaze carefully, confronting it with a blank expression.

"But make no mistake. If you are a double agent, and I find out you have any intention of hurting my students, I have no reservations about doing what I have to do to protect them."

When you left the conference room to speak with Sakura later that night, you weren't surprised to find Sasuke waiting for you at the door of her room. He glared at you as you approached, blocking the entrance while sitting in a deceptively relaxed position. He was resting his arm on a bent knee, his other leg extended in front of him.

"Why are you still here?" he asked, voice just as cold as before. He was strong-willed, you'd give him that, but stubbornness was almost a built-in quality of widows. If it was a battle of wills, you liked your odds.

Still, stubbornness and loyalty often went hand-in-hand when you were constantly under threat of capture and interrogation. Even now, giving up information about the Red Room set off alarm bells in your head, and you had to force yourself to ignore all of your instincts. Loyalty to the Red Room had been practically conditioned into you since childhood, and breaking free from those instincts was taking its toll on you. You were tired. You didn't want to deal with this.

"I just want to talk to Sakura," you tried. You knew you looked and sounded desperate, but you couldn't find it in you to care all that much about how Sasuke saw you. Once you and Kakashi were able to fix Sakura, he would never have to see you again.

"I don't believe you."

Sasuke stood, squaring his shoulders like he was getting ready to spar with you.

You were so, so tired.

"Fine," you muttered, feeling any fight you had left drain out of you. Like someone had punched a hole in your chest and let everything except pure exhaustion leak out, "just tell her that I'm leaving with Kakashi in twenty-four hours."

You turned when Sasuke just stared at you, eyes still narrowed like he thought this was a trap to get him to let his guard down.

As you turned and followed the path back to your room, you heard the door open and click shut gently behind you.

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Author's note | title is from "What Kind of Man" by Florence + the Machine