#I’ll get to the ones I can reply to soon/when I get energy to properly respond

[teeth--king]

really sorry if this ask sounds rude/condescending in any way, i have absolutely no intention on coming across like that, i just wanna offer some advice in hopes that it maybe helps you be less stressed: if you see posts that are distressing (like that last one abt food, god knows i have paranoia around food contamination) you are not under any obligation to put them on your blog- personally it would just make me more anxious to have to see it every time i scroll thru my blog

obviously it's not good for ppl to just bury their heads in the dirt and ignore all the bad things happening, but you are absolutely allowed to ignore and block anyone/any posts abt things that just make you more upset and scared about the future

I promise the future is not doomed. we can and will get through this like we always have

No you’re right about that, its just an anxiety response to reboot stuff like that to share my thoughts and share with others. I am going to keep it up for now until I find a less anxiety mongering(intentional or unintentional) post about food safety as it’s something we don’t talk enough about in America despite it being so blatant and is causing people like me(stomach issues and sickly) to continuously have less and less safe foods to eat. It does sadly fuel my anxiety over food safety, especially since I don’t get to choose what I buy at the moment, so I do understand the worries. Also let me know if people want me to tag stuff like that. Also also sorry if this is rambling, I have a headache and stomach ache haha, brain working even less because of that.

[cursingtoji]

Omgggg pls tell us more about cult leader suguru and blind reader 😩😩😩😩

IM SO GLAD YOU ASKED OKAY HERE IT GOES

cult leader!suguru met blind!reader when he visited a remote village that an intel told him had many curses

indeed it had, from how toxic and filled with hate that place was, it was no surprise to him the amount of spirits born from it

he decided it would be easier to set the village on fire, let his curses devour the villagers and gather the remaining curses for himself

the plan was already in action when he spotted a little house over the hill that had a light on, he didn’t want to leave any witnesses behind so he went there by himself

right as he passed by window he saw you, for a second he thought you were praying, eyes closed looking down

as he saw the entrance of your house he realized something was wrong. there were many offensive words sprayed on your walls, broken vases and eggs by the door too.

he entered the house quietly, noticing the white cane and the braille books by the table

“just take what you want and leave” you said, moving your head in the direction you heard the steps.

“you can’t see” he took a step closer noticing your breath getting more intense, in your hand there was a knife, a kitchen knife.

geto understood that was probably not the first time something like that happened, you had a few bruises on your arms and hands. on your forehead cut that wasn’t treated properly. how truly despicable was that village?

he approached you, holding your hand as soon as you raised the knife and screamed at him, he could so easily turn that around and stab you in the neck. no curse would need to be used for this one defective human.

so why was he gently taking the knife out of your hand and putting it back on the counter?

“please—“ your lip quivered, the smell of intense burning was reaching your house now, he watched as your nose scrunched with the scent.

“were you born like that?” his thumb ghosted your eyelashes, “open your eyes” he watched your eye moving beneath your eyelids before your lashes rose and he saw only white. there was definitely cursed energy there

“i was attacked by an animal, when i was kid” you said through a shaking voice. geto smirked, the cursed energy traces lead him to believe it was no animal, but a cursed spirit.

could you be considered a monkey if you had cursed energy even if you weren’t born with it?

he took your hand, noticing how jumpy you got when touched, he placed your hand in his face, wanting you to feel at least a bit more comfortable with him

he bit his lower lip, “come with me, okay? i’ll watch over you”

your cold palm touched his cheek, thumb running over his high cheekbone, he closed his left eye so you could trace it while watching your expression with his right one, seeing how you became a little bit more relaxed exploring his face. suguru wondered how many times you touched a face before.

“geto-sama” you retrieved your hand when a second voice surprised you. geto turned around annoyed, “all cursed spirits were captured, even the small ones. we can leave now”

“i’ll be there in a minute” he replied, dismissing the messenger.

“geto-sama” you repeat the name in a whisper, your hand closed near your chest

“call me suguru” he took your hand once again, waiting for you to wrap it around his. he guided you out, taking your cane on his way to abandon the house, to let it burn with all the awful memories you had in that village.

[horoscope1078]

It was one of those rare nights during summer break when everything seemed perfect. The warm air, the thrum of the city nightlife and the excitement of being out with your best friend, Ruben, gave you an electric buzz before you even set foot inside the club. Ruben had just finished a long, grueling season with Manchester City and you could tell he was more than ready to let loose.

"Finally, a night where you aren’t thinking about tackles and clean sheets!" you teased as the two of you walked into the upscale club, the music already pulsing around you. The moment you stepped inside, the energy was contagious. People were dancing, laughing, drinks in hand and the lights bounced off the walls in a dizzying array of colors.

Ruben grinned at you, his dark eyes twinkling mischievously. “Hey, I can think about more than football, y’know.”

“Oh really?” you shot back, playfully nudging his arm. “Because last time I checked, all you talked about were formations and ‘shutting down the opponent’s offense.’ ”

He laughed, shaking his head. “Tonight’s different. No football. Just fun.”

You raised an eyebrow. “Is that a promise?”

“That’s a guarantee.” he replied, grabbing your hand and leading you straight to the bar. “First round’s on me. Let’s get this night started properly.”

The next few hours flew by in a haze of drinks, laughter and dancing. Ruben, despite his towering presence on the football pitch, was surprisingly light on his feet and the two of you quickly found your rhythm on the dance floor. He spun you around, his grin wide as you laughed, feeling carefree and completely in the moment. The alcohol loosened your inhibitions and soon enough, you were moving closer to him, your bodies brushing against each other as you danced to the beat of the music.

At one point, you leaned into him, your mouth close to his ear so he could hear you over the loud music. “You’re not bad at this, Dias. Almost as good as you are at defending.”

He smirked, his hands resting casually on your waist as you danced. “I could say the same about you. But I’ll bet I’m better.”

You narrowed your eyes playfully. “Better at what? Dancing?”

“Anything.” he said, the challenge in his tone impossible to ignore. “You name it.”

“Oh really?” you said, your competitive side flaring up. You’d known Ruben long enough to know he couldn’t resist a good bet. “Alright, tough guy. Let’s make it interesting.”

“I’m listening.” he said, leaning in, his breath warm against your ear.

You grinned, already feeling the thrill of the challenge. “Let’s bet on something and the loser has to give the other a private striptease.”

Ruben’s eyes widened slightly in surprise but then he burst out laughing, the sound deep and rich. “You’re joking, right?”

You shook your head, holding his gaze. “Nope. I’m dead serious.”

He looked at you, clearly intrigued. “Ok.. but what are we betting on?”

You glanced around the club, trying to come up with something on the spot. Your eyes landed on the dance floor. “First one to get someone’s phone number. And it can’t be from someone we already know.”

Ruben raised an eyebrow, clearly confident. “Alright. You’re on. But don’t get mad when you lose.”

You smirked. “We’ll see about that.”

With the bet set, you both headed in opposite directions, scoping out the crowd. The alcohol had given you a good buzz and though you were feeling confident, you knew Ruben was charismatic and charming enough to make this bet interesting. Still, you weren’t about to go down without a fight.

You moved through the crowd, chatting briefly with a few people but nothing that led to an immediate phone number. You kept glancing over your shoulder, trying to see how Ruben was doing but you couldn’t spot him in the sea of people. Time was ticking and you were starting to feel the pressure.

Suddenly, you spotted a guy standing by the bar, looking relaxed and approachable. You struck up a conversation, keeping it light and casual and within minutes, he was handing you his phone to put your number in. Success!

Grinning, you thanked him and quickly made your way back to the dance floor, looking for Ruben. You found him standing near the edge of the floor, his arms crossed, a knowing smirk on his face.

“Well?” you asked, trying to keep the excitement out of your voice. “How’d it go?”

He held up his phone, showing a new contact saved in his phone. “Easy as pie.”

You groaned dramatically, though part of you wasn’t surprised. “Ugh.. I was so close!”

He chuckled, stepping closer to you, his hands once again finding their place on your waist as the two of you resumed dancing. “Looks like you lost, amiga.”

You bit your lip, trying to think of a way out of it but you knew there was no escape. “I guess a bet’s a bet.” you sighed, your voice teasing.

Ruben’s grin widened. “Don’t worry. I won’t hold you to it. I know it was just a joke.”

But now, you weren’t so sure you wanted it to be. Maybe it was the alcohol or the way he was looking at you but suddenly, the idea didn’t seem so ridiculous. You leaned in, close enough that your lips almost brushed his ear. “What if I don’t mind?”

You felt him stiffen slightly against you, his hands tightening on your waist. “Are you serious?”

You pulled back just enough to meet his eyes, your heart racing a little. “I mean.. you did win.”

For a moment, the playful atmosphere between you shifted. The tension that had been building all night seemed to reach a peak as he looked down at you, his expression caught between surprise and something else, something deeper. His hand slid up to the small of your back, pulling you closer until there was barely any space between you.

“Careful what you’re offering.” he murmured, his voice low and teasing but with an edge of seriousness.

You swallowed, feeling the heat of his body against yours, the music pounding around you, making everything feel more intense. “I can handle it.” you said, trying to sound braver than you felt.

Ruben chuckled softly, his breath warm against your skin. “I don’t think you know what you’re getting into.”

Before you could respond, he leaned down, his lips brushing against your ear as he whispered “Maybe we should head back and settle this bet in private.”

Your pulse quickened at his words and suddenly, the playful bet didn’t feel so lighthearted anymore. You glanced up at him, meeting his gaze and the look in his eyes made it clear, this night was about to take an unexpected turn.

[jerzwriter]

Thank you to @snoopdogcone for this prompt for @choicesprompts Angstgiving event. The prompt is highlighted in the text below.

Book: Open Heart (Book 2) Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x Casey MacTavish (F!MC) Rating: Teen Words: 3,363 Summary: Ethan's back from his mission in the Amazon rainforest, and it's time to face the wreckage he left behind.

A/N: Please note, this story is not part of my Ethan x Kaycee headcanon; it's part of my Casey MacTavish world where they are not end game.

@choicesmonthlychallengenov2024 - apology, regret

Casey was laser-focused on her task as she meandered through the packed maze of tables in Donahue’s beer garden. Nothing was going to come between her and her friends celebrating tonight’s victory properly, and securing a table was part of that goal. The place was packed, abuzz with the vibrant energy that seemed to define Boston during the final days of summer when the warm nights carried just a hint of the autumn breeze that would soon usher star-filled nights like this away. It seemed everyone had the same idea as they tried to soak in every last minute.

In the midst of clinking glasses, laughter, and the hum of dozens of conversations, Casey finally claimed victory. She flashed a bright smile when she spotted an empty table, waving furiously at her friends to join her. “Hurry up!! Hurry!” she beamed. “It’s almost time!”

Everyone quickly assembled, slipping onto the benches with their drinks in hand; the excitement was palpable. “Should we do a countdown first?” Elijah asked.

“Too late for that!” Casey replied. “It’s midnight!!”

 “Yeah! We made it!” Elijah howled with a raised glass. “Intern year is officially over!”

“And I say good freaking riddance!” Jackie chimed in. “We made it, and we did it with our medical licenses intact to boot!”

“Jackie!” Sienna frowned. “Don’t even joke about that! I was so scared Casey was going to have to leave Edenbrook! That’s one part of the intern year I want to forget!”

“I wouldn’t mind forgetting that part either,” Casey agreed. “But despite the low moments, I’ll still look back fondly on this year. After all, it’s when I met all of you!”

“Awww,” Sienna smiled, giving her friend a quick squeeze.

But Jackie wasn’t as moved. “How many of those have you had?” She laughed, motioning toward Casey’s empty glass.

Casey affectionately embraced her mortified friend. “Just enough to spill my emotions all over this table!”

Bryce arrived at the table and claimed the seat next to Casey, wrapping his arm around her waist as soon as he placed a fresh round of drinks on the table. “Well, it that’s where you are now, I’ll have you dancing when you finish this one.”

“As if getting me to dance is a struggle!” Casey chuckled. “But this is my last drink. I have a big day ahead!”

“Sure, rub it in!” Jackie smirked. “Now I can admit that part of me was hoping you’d lose your license because I would have swooped right in and taken your spot on the diagnostic team!”

“Not if I got to it first,” Elijah laughed, but his bright smile faltered when he glanced over Casey’s shoulder. “Speaking of the diagnostic team...” He nodded toward the entrance, and everyone’s heads turned.

Sienna looked like she saw a ghost. “Oh my gosh! He’s back!”

While her response may have been a bit dramatic for Sienna, it didn’t begin to express the turmoil stirring in Casey. The average person wouldn’t have noticed; she did her best to remain composed even as her body went rigid and her heart pounded in her chest. After two long months of absence, Ethan Ramsey was back, walking toward them like it was any other day, as if he hadn’t ripped Casey’s heart out just months before.

“He looks... different,” Sienna observed.

“Well, two months fighting an outbreak in the Amazon will do that to a person,” Jackie replied. Her eyes flickered in his direction, attempting to warn Casey that he was near.

But it was too late. He was already standing beside her, nodding a polite greeting to all, before his blue eyes locked on Casey’s for the first time since he had promised her they’d find a way to work things out.

“Rookie...” he stated, his expression unreadable.

If his presence flustered Casey, she hid it well. “You’re a bit too late for that, Dr. Ramsey,” she replied with a bravado she didn’t know she had. “As of sixty seconds ago, I’m not a rookie anymore. I’m officially a resident now.”

“Is that so?” he replied with a hint of a smile. “Then I take it you won’t be making any more rookie mistakes.”

“Well, I’m not sure about that,” she shrugged as her irritation began to crack her unaffected veneer. “If I’ve learned anything recently, it’s that everyone makes mistakes, world-renowned attendings included.”

The table went silent, the friends exchanging nervous looks as Sienna bit her lip. But if they were surprised by her candor, Ethan was not; it was one of the things he had come to admire in her. Clearing his throat, he replied calmly.

“I see,” he mumbled. “Well, I’ll let you and your friends get back to celebrating.”

A hush fell over the table when he turned and made his way toward the bar. Casey’s eyes followed him as her friends remained in a state of shock. Jackie was the first to break the silence. “Well, that wasn’t awkward or anything.”

Bryce tightened his grip around Casey. He knew this had to impact her more than anyone. After all, he was the one who had sat beside her night after night, listening to her cry and wiping away the tears that never seemed to stop. “Hey, are you OK?” He whispered.

Casey looked at him with a forced smile and patted his knee. “Yeah. I’m... fine.”

Sensing her friend’s discomfort, Sienna quickly steered the conversation, and the friends continued chatting as if nothing happened. But Casey couldn’t forget. Her eyes kept wandering back to the bar where Ethan sat in his usual spot – a seat so synonymous with him that it had remained conspicuously empty during his absence.

His expression was distant, and there was a heaviness to him that wasn’t there before. Even Reggie’s lively banter didn’t seem to impact his mood. He looked older... tired, as though the mission had taken more from him than anyone knew. That’s what Casey assumed it was as she looked his way. She may have been a brilliant diagnostician, but right now, her assessment couldn’t have been further from the truth. 

The night went on, and before they knew it, Reggie’s voice rang out. “Alright people! Last call. You ain’t gotta go home, but you can’t stay here!”

“Already?” Casey groaned, her voice tightening. “No! It just hit me... I’m starting on the diagnostic team tomorrow!”

“Rub it in, why don’t you?” Elijah laughed as Bryce offered Casey words of reassurance. 

“Well, I’m not starting on the diagnostic team, but I still need some sustenance to get through,” Jackie announced. “You guys want to hit the diner on the way home?”

“Why don’t you go ahead,” Casey replied. “I think I’m going stay behind and touch base with Ethan about tomorrow.”

She stepped inside the bar cautiously, so quiet that Ethan didn’t notice her until she took the stool beside him. “So... that last call thing doesn’t apply to you, huh?” she asked.

He turned to her, his eyes heavy with emotion, though his voice remained light. “Reggie and I go way back. We have... an arrangement.”

“An arrangement?” She half-laughed, her arm crossed protectively before her. “Is that what most people would call friendship?”

“I don’t have friends, Casey,” he stated flatly before downing the remains of his drink. “But I wouldn’t mind you joining me if you’re so inclined.”

Casey sat in stunned silence. She had pictured the moment when he would return in her head all summer long. Through the heartbreak and tears, she had practiced the words she planned to say like a mantra. She had perfected them. Each word a unique piece of ammunition designed to pierce his heart the way his silent departure had shattered hers. She had dreamed about finally having the chance to unleash her fury. Letting him know just how much damage he had done, but now, sitting beside him, the words that were in her heart and mind refused to travel to her lips.

With an inaudible sigh, she diverted her eyes. “Sure,” was all she could manage to say.

Ethan nodded with a look of both relief and fear in his eyes. He reached over the bar and grabbed a half-empty bottle of the bar’s finest Scotch and two glasses. “Hey, Reggie,” he yelled. “We’re going to borrow this.”

“Why don’t we take this outside?” He said. “Winter will be here before you know it; we might as well enjoy it while we can.”

“Sure,” she said again, angry at herself for her inability to say more. He hurt so badly and ran off to avoid the fallout left in its wake. He deserved to hear them. Yet, here she was, rendered silent, following him like a loyal pet shadowing its master.

They settled into two chairs beside the fire pit, its flickering light casting a warm glow between them. Ethan poured two drinks, handing one to Casey. When his fingers brushed hers, the simple touch sent a jolt through both of them. Casey wanted to down her drink in one gulp. But, if she wanted to be sober for this conversation, a sip would have to do.

“You look great,” he said with a tentative smile.

“Thank you. You look... different,” she replied, taking him in.

“Different?” he asked, his smile morphing into a full grin. “Different good, or different bad?”

“Just... different.”

“Well,” he admitted with a faint chuckle. “I’ve been through quite a bit.”

“I’m sure,” she said, swirling her glass nervously. “We all have. But, it was brave of you to go on that mission.”

Ethan choked on his drink, reflecting silently for a moment. “That... that wasn’t bravery, Casey.”

The look in his eyes launched a swell of emotions in Casey: anger, sympathy, fear, pain, and mingled with something else - something she thought she already buried. No wonder she couldn’t lash out at him. She didn’t want to feel it; she didn’t want it to be there, but love was never something Casey MacTavish let go of easily. At that moment she knew, despite the anger and hurt, she knew the truth: she couldn’t pull the trigger on him if she tried.

Eventually, the reality of the situation hit her like a wave. After all this time, he was here – sitting in front of her - and she deserved answers. Her voice shook as she spoke, each word filled with pain she had been carrying.

“You left,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “You left without telling me. Ethan, you didn’t say a single word.”

His expression crumbled, the weight of her accusation hitting him. He knew this confrontation was inevitable, but that did nothing to lessen its sting. Leaning forward, he braced himself; it was time to face the reckoning he always knew would come.

“Casey,” he started, his voice filled with regret. “I have no excuse to offer. I was... a coward. I didn’t know what to do, so I ran... I had to. I knew that if I saw you... if we had talked...I...” His words trailed as he turned away, unable to face the look in her eyes.

“If you came to me, you knew I wouldn’t have let you go with so much unresolved between us,” she replied. “I would have supported your choice if you wanted to go, but I wouldn’t let you use it as an excuse. I wouldn’t have let you run away. You would have had to face things... face me.”

“Yes,” he smiled sadly, “and that’s why I just... left.”

His words felt like a slap on the face. Insult added to injury. Casey was done shielding him from the damage his actions had caused. It was time for him to see it all. A bitter laugh escaped her, echoing through the empty space.

“Yes!” She shot back, her body trembling and her voice filled with rage. “You just... left. Left me! I stood in a conference room with all the other interns when Naveen announced your departure. I got to hear it like I was just anyone else... like I meant absolutely nothing to you!” She shook her head, eyes burning. “You told me we’d figure things out! You insisted we’d find a way to make it work, and I believed you! Then you were just... gone, without so much as a goodbye! Do you have any idea how much that hurt me, Ethan?”

“Casey, I’m sorry,” he repeated, his voice and eyes filled with regret. “I know that was wrong. There is no excuse I can offer to make it right.”

“You knew it was wrong?” she seethed. “You knew! But then you remained silent the whole time you were gone? Two months, Ethan. Two whole months! I left you dozens of voicemails... I stopped counting how many texts I sent! Did you even listen to them? Did you hear the pain in my voice and choose to ignore me? Or did they mean so little that you just deleted them without a second thought?”

“Casey, don’t say that,” he pleaded. “Nothing you say could ever be meaningless to me.”

“Then why?” she demanded, her voice breaking as she fought back tears. “Why didn’t you contact me? You reached out to Naveen. You reached out to Harper. But me? Nothing!” She took a trembling breath. “You just ghosted me... after everything we’ve been through?”

“It’s precisely because of everything we’ve been through that I didn’t contact you,” he replied. “You know the stakes, Casey! We’re going to be working together - you’re reporting to me. Your professional development and reputation... they’re too important. You’ve worked too hard to get where you are to let it all blow up because of me. I couldn’t let whatever we had between us put you at risk.”

 “Whatever we had...” she snickered. “Past tense?”

“Yes,” he said firmly. “And the past is where it needs to stay.”

Casey felt the resolve that his presence had softened returning to life inside her. It was all coming together: the sleepless nights, the heartache, hearing the whispers in Edenbrook’s halls, enduring the pitiful stares, the loneliness she felt as she picked up the shattered pieces of herself one by one without so much as a word from the man who had caused it. He owed her... he owed her better than this. She steadied herself before speaking again, her voice defiant.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” she scoffed. “The past is exactly where it will remain. But do me one favor,” she asked, her vulnerability peeking through once more. “Admit what it was that we’re losing. Tell me what “it” was, Ethan! Can you at least give me that?”

He leaned back, an exasperating sigh escaping him as he focused on the bright stars sparking in the dark sky. “Casey,” he murmured, trying to find the words. “What do you want me to say?”

“The truth!” she yelled. “I want you to tell me the truth! You shattered my heart, Ethan, and left me to cope with it alone. If you ever cared for me at all,  then at least have the decency to admit what it was. Don’t leave me believing I was just some... mistake... tell me! Did you... did you ever love me at all?”

Ethan turned to her, his eyes filled with a sadness he couldn’t bring himself to admit. Gently raising a hand, he tilted her chin toward him, relishing the feel of her skin against his, knowing in his heart that he’d never touch her like this again.

She couldn’t see his internal battle - a battle between the part of him that knew she deserved the truth and the part that needed to protect her... protect himself. She deserved to know that she wasn’t the only one who had spent the summer heartbroken. She deserved to know about the dozens of letters he penned, each one confessing the feelings he couldn’t bring himself to say aloud – letters he knew he’d never send.

But what if he told her? Knowing Casey, she’d forgive him and do everything in her power to make them work, even if it meant sacrificing herself. Would she quit the diagnostic team? Leave Edenbrook? Go to a lesser program? Knowing her, she just might. She’d fought tooth and nail to get to this place in her career, and he couldn’t... he wouldn’t let her sacrifice it, not for him, and not for something as fleeting as love.

“Casey,” he finally said, his voice shaking. “Love is nothing more than proximity paired with a rush of neurochemical responses triggered by heightened stress.”

She pushed his hand away, his words cutting deeper than a knife ever could. The memory of the first time he said those words to her came rushing back. At that time, she thought it was just his cynicism talking. It was almost comical. But now? After all, they had been through... he still believed that? Had their time together taught him... nothing.

She took a deep breath as she rose to her feet; this was it, this was the end, and she could feel the sadness giving way to relief.

“Maybe that’s all love is to you,” she replied. “But that’s not all it is to me. I spent the past couple of months so hurt, so angry at you, but right now... all I can feel for you is pity. You want a reset? Ethan... there’s nothing to reset. We were over the day you stepped on that plane. I know my worth, Ethan, and I deserve so much better than this.”

She let the words hang in the air for a moment, then, standing tall, she met his eyes. “I’ll see you at work tomorrow, Dr. Ramsey. I look forward to working with you this year.”

And just like that, she was his colleague and nothing more. He watched her go, her silhouette framed in the soft light of the doorway, and his chest ached with the overwhelming urge to stop her, to say something, anything to pull her back. But as the door clicked shut behind her, he sank back into his chair, knowing she was right. This was the end. They were over.

He closed his eyes for a long moment, the weight of regret crushing his soul. With a deep breath, he reached into the pocket of his leather jacket and pulled a weathered piece of paper, the latest in a long line of the unsent letters he wrote, and his eyes skimmed over the closing lines:

You’ll never know how much you’ve changed me, Casey. If only I had the courage to be a better man. You deserve someone who will meet you in the light instead of hiding in the shadows. I wanted to be that man for you, I did, but it’s not in me. I’ll always carry you in my heart, even though I have to let you go. I love you, Casey. Always -  Ethan.”

The paper shook in his trembling hands as he watched the flames dancing. Then, with a sharp exhale, he tossed it into the fire, watching as the edges curled and blackened before his words disintegrating into ash.

It was over. This chapter was closed.

@choicesficwriterscreations @choicesprompts @choicesmonthlychallengenov2024 @openheartfanfics

Tagging others separately.

[tickly-giggles]

Can we have a drabble for lee!Hawks, prompt 12, with his wings? I'm a sucker for lee!Hawks and especially ticklish wings! Only if you want to, tho!!

YES OF COURSE YOU CAN, ANON! Thank you for sending this in, I've been waiting for someone to send one!

A/N: Some sentence starters are a little awkward for me to put directly at the beginning, so this one is a little further down, but it's there! This isn't necessarily connected to my current DabiHawks tk universe, but if you wanna think of this as a little flashback type deal, then go for it! Also, I decided to make this a college AU, cuz I couldn't find a proper way to make it in the normal universe and have Hawks be struggling with something that has a deadline that he could fail on. So, college AU it is! A quick thought just popped into my mind, though, about renewing hero licenses, though I don't know if that's a thing. REGARDLESS, ENOUGH RAMBLING-

Warning: Tickle fic ahead!

Prompt: "I'm gonna fail if I don't finish before the deadline."

Characters: Dabi, Hawks

Shipping: Technically DabiHawks, I promise they'll get together soon, guys

Lee: Hawks

Ler: Dabi

Word Count: 1,072

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yet another sleepless night of never ending studying put Keigo into quite the irritated mood. He sat at his desk in front of his laptop, head in his hands, the screen displaying a document that currently only had three paragraphs written. Birds started chirping outside his window as light from the sunrise began streaming into his dorm. With a frustrated sigh, he looked up at his computer screen and glared at the document. He had never been this stressed in his life.

Keigo’s overthinking was abruptly interrupted by a low groan and the shuffling of bed sheets from behind him. Touya slipped out from under the covers and stretched, then he looked over at his roommate, who had his back turned to him and was still staring at the laptop.

“You’re up early,” Touya commented, shivering as his bare feet hit the floor.

“Haven’t slept,” Keigo replied curtly.

Touya frowned and stood, walking over to his roommate. Empty energy drink cans littered his desk, and a small pile of dirty plates sat beside his laptop. When was the last time he even moved from his chair?

“You gotta get some sleep, Keigo,” 

Touya said as he reached for the laptop. He huffed when Keigo swatted his hand away,

“When’s the last time you showered?”

“Like, last night or something?”

“Bullshit,”

Touya hissed, glaring at Keigo, who refused to look at him,

“I had a hard time getting to sleep cuz your sleep deprived ass wouldn’t go to bed, and that damn laptop is brighter than my fire.”

“Tsk. Whatever, I just need to get this done.”

“You need to look after yourself.”

“I’m fine, Touya.”

“You’re not fine,”

the hot head crossed his arms,

“Your wings are drooping.”

“Dude, I’m gonna fail if I don’t finish before the deadline,”

Keigo finally turned to his friend, 

“You know how important this essay is! It’s due tomorrow, and I barely have anything written down. I know how my quirk works and how I can use it in battle, but I can’t explain it!”

he growled and slammed his fist on the desk,

“Why is an essay gonna be the deciding factor of if I graduate or not?!”

Touya sighed and rubbed his roommate’s head soothingly, 

“Relax, birdbrain. It isn’t the end of the world. You still have a whole day to get it done,”

he then took Keigo’s hand and tugged gently,

“But you need sleep first. You won’t be able to think properly if you’re running on fumes.”

“I can’t sleep right now,” Keigo groaned,

“Please leave me alone.”

Touya glared at his friend, getting more frustrated as time passed. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head, and his annoyed expression quickly transformed into a mischievous one.

“Fine,”

he huffed as he walked behind Keigo and positioned himself at his wings that hung over the back of the chair,

“I guess I’ll have to make you.”

“What does that even me-HEEEHEHEAN! NONONO TOUYA STOHOHOHOP!”

Keigo shrieked with sudden, uncontrollable laughter. Touya smirked as he dug into his friend’s fluffy wings, then yelped when one of them flapped a little too hard and smacked him right in the face.

“You little shit,” the hot head grumbled.

“I-I’m sohohorry,”

Keigo whined, standing up and holding his hands up in surrender while his roommate approached him,

“Touya, please, I’ll go to sleep, just anything but this– TOUYA!!”

Touya wasted no time, pouncing on his winged friend and pinning him to the bed, then scribbling all ten of his fingers over his sensitive feathers. Ever since they were children, Touya knew Keigo’s worst spot was his wings. He loved tormenting him whenever he got on his nerves, or even if he was just bored. His friend never failed to provide an entertaining experience.

“Too little too late, Keigo,”

the hot head smirked evilly, savoring his trapped roommate’s screams of ticklish agony,

“You should’ve decided before I had to resort to this. ‘sides, you hit me with your wings. I deserve some payback for that.”

“IHIHIHIT WAS AN AHAHAHACCIDENT, YOU PRIHIHIHICK!” Keigo cackled, thrashing helplessly,

“YOU WERE TIHIHIHICKLING MEHEHEHE! I COULDN’T HEHEHELP IHIHIT!”

“Not my problem,”

Touya shrugged, moving his fingers toward where Keigo’s wings connected to his back, and he chuckled as his friend’s laughter became more high pitched and desperate,

“Poor little Keigo. Can’t handle it, huh? Is it too much? You poor thing~.”

“SHUHUHUT UHUHUHUHUP!!”

“Awww, does teasing get to you? Hmm? Does it make it worse?”

he leaned in closer to Keigo’s flushed face, still talking in that sickeningly effective baby voice,

“Do you like it when I tease you? Huh, little birdie~?”

“TOHOHOHOUYA, PLEHEHEHEHEASE!!” 

Keigo felt extremely hot, and he pushed at Touya’s face with one hand while covering his own with his other hand.

“Ohh~? Do you like that nickname, little birdie? Does it make you flustered? Ah ah ah, don’t cover your face,”

Touya huffed and quickly grabbed Keigo’s wrists, pinning them above his head and giving him a little breather,

“Or I’ll make you regret it~.”

The winged student swallowed nervously and stared deeply into his friend’s eyes while catching his breath. He’d be lying if he said this wasn’t exciting and fun, but he still had his paper to write. He frowned and averted his gaze.

“Can I go back to working on my paper, please?”

“Your paper will be there.”

“Touya, let me up.”

“Nope.”

“Touya–”

“That’s it.”

Laughter once again rang throughout the dorm room, only stopping when Keigo’s boisterous cackling turned into silent hysteria. Touya knew he wasn’t going to listen, so he had no choice but to tire him out enough so that he wouldn’t even think of anything but sleep. 

About an hour had passed when the hot head finally decided to let up, and his plan had worked. Keigo fell asleep almost instantly after the tickle attack, and Touya tucked him in gently. He smiled as his roommate snored peacefully. It was an adorable sight - his flushed face stained with mirth and a small smile resting on his lips. He looked so comfortable. Touya sighed fondly and ran his fingers through Keigo’s soft hair, his eyes lingering on his lips for longer than he would admit. Finally, he walked over to the desk and made sure to save his friend’s work before closing the laptop, and began cleaning up the mess. He was positive Keigo would do better once he got some rest.

Request a drabble~

[jake-whatthefisgoingon-kiszka]

Here is the epilogue I promised! Don’t let the new header fool you there is absolutely no plot to this… I hope everyone who read enjoyed this series and as a little treat for all we went through to get here this is one last look at where we ended up

Pairings: Jake Kiszka x Danny Wagner *slash

Tags and warnings: 18+ ONLY!!!, very NSFW, slight dom Danny, m/m sex, butt plug and facial… the babies being in love finally! very little editing

Word count: 2.6k

Jake had just finished lathering up his hair when he heard the door to the bathroom open. “I’m almost done” Jake spoke out into the openness of the shower, thinking Danny was probably wanting to get ready for bed soon.

It had been weeks since Danny returned from visiting Sam in LA and surprised Jake with a confession. What a relief it was to finally be able to tell Danny how he really felt now that he knew his feelings would be returned.

And returned they were, nearly tenfold. Danny being his boyfriend was more than he’d ever dreamed of. He was patient, caring, observant, though at the same time not too pushy or overbearing.

Honestly not much had changed between them other than their new bedtime ritual. They’d lay in bed together and both vent about their day, it was the way they decided to keep their work lives and personal lives separate, stay calm while at the restaurant and talk it out at home. No matter how riled up Jake would get about the supply truck messing up his order, or the cooks showing up late, by the end of his unload Danny would look Jake in the eyes and ask him “do you love me?”

Every night Danny would ask him the same thing and Jake would easily forget his worries. Instead he’d focus on coming up with a new way to tell Danny how much he loved him each time.

“I love you with all my soul”.

“I’ll always love you”.

“There isn’t a word to properly describe how much I’m in love with you”.

“My heart is yours forever”.

“My love for you knows no bounds”.

“All my love Danny”.

With every proclaiment of love Danny would smile and blush before giving Jake a kiss and they’d go to sleep together feeling absolutely content.

Jake looked forward to crawling into bed with Danny just like any other night, though when the shower curtain was drawn back and Danny stepped inside with him he realized he might be in for a little more.

“Don’t mind me, finish washing up” Danny smirked when Jake squinted through one eye as the shampoo washed from his hair.

“How am I supposed to do that when you’re standing naked right in front of me?”

“You prefer I join you in the shower clothed then?” Danny chuckled and reached forward to gently grab at Jake’s waist. “Here, turn around then”.

Danny used his grip on Jake to carefully turn him before grabbing his body wash and running his soapy hands across Jake’s shoulders and upper back, then lower until he slipped underneath his arms and started to wash his chest next. Jake closed his eyes and let his head fall slightly to the side, exposing a tiny piece of neck that Danny couldn’t resist leaning over to place his lips against.

Jake reveled in the the feeling of Danny’s hands and lips on him. Running a business proved to be exhausting, so neither of them had much time or energy to really fool around after hours. That didn’t mean Jake didn’t still think about it often though, and that showed in the way his body was already reacting to Danny’s touch.

“Jake” Danny spoke when his hands ran down his stomach and brushed against his hardened length.

“I know” Jake sighed in frustration and pent up needs, “just ignore it”.

“Jake” Danny spoke again, still rubbing his hands in slow circles across Jake’s lower abdomen, “I want to kiss you” he asked with his lips still connected to his neck. “Can I? Can I kiss you as much as I want?”

Jake turned back around and wrapped his arms around Danny’s shoulders, pulling him down closer to his level. “You can take my breath away if you wanted to” Jake replied before stretching upwards to connect their mouths in a passionate kiss.

Danny cradled the back of Jake’s head in one hand and let the other fall to the small of his back then took a step closer until their fronts were pressed together. Jake moaned slightly into his mouth at the contact, but Danny took it as an opportunity to slip his tongue inside and deepen the kiss. Jake’s knees went weak, but their hold on each other kept him upright as Danny continued to ardently kiss him.

Just when Jake thought things really would get heated Danny removed his hand from his back and reached behind them to turn the shower off. Without a word he disconnected from him and stepped out of the shower. Grabbing a towel he then turned to beckon Jake over before placing the towel over his head and beginning to dry his hair off.

Jake stood there while Danny worked the towel over him, obviously still worked up, and he would have been embarrassed if he hadn’t looked down and saw that Danny had gotten just as excited about their wet make out session as he had.

“Ready to get into bed?” Danny asked after taking the time to dry himself as well.

“I’m ready for bed, but not for sleep” Jake replied with a pout because Danny had ignited this fire within him but hadn’t shown any intention of putting it out yet.

“Don’t worry, I’m gonna take care of you tonight” Danny attempted to ease him.

“Oh, is that so?” Jake’s pout turned into a smirk because now he got what Danny was doing. He was trying to pretend like he wasn’t dying for a good fuck like Jake was. “Then by all means, take me to bed handsome”.

Danny continued to keep his cool as Jake followed him down the hallway to their now shared bedroom. The thought that Jake had no idea what he was getting himself into with all that Danny had planned gave him the drive to stay as calm and put together as possible.

It’s been way too damn long, Jake thought as he crawled into the bed, excitement taking over and pushing all other thoughts of work or how tired he was out of his mind. Instead the only thing that was left was the throbbing between his legs and the way Danny looked as he joined him, hungry.

Danny immediately connected their lips again and grabbed Jake’s wrists to pin them above his head. “I want to show you just how much I love you tonight. Is that okay?”

Jake swallowed hard, tugging his arms slightly against Danny’s grip and seeing he wasn’t planning on letting go so easily. He remembered this domineering side of Danny from that night on the couch together and it excited him that he was coming out to play again, though he knew it could also mean some trouble. Either way the offer was really enticing and Jake being held underneath him like he was wasn’t in much of a position to make any requests of his own right now.

“Okay, show me” Jake gave in, letting himself settle on top of the pillows.

With Jake’s permission now, Danny’s eyes seemed to darken as he leaned back and took a good look at the body he had laid before him, ripe for the taking. There was so much he wanted to do, so many ways he knew he could reduce Jake to a crying whimpering mess, but he’d already made up his mind what he wanted to do before he’d even stepped into that shower with him.

“Keep your hands here” he demanded, loosening his grip on Jake’s wrists he still had pinned above his head and trailed his fingers down his arms, watching the reaction his fingertips brought to the skin along the way.

Danny sat up, wedging his knees between Jake’s thighs and parting his legs so that Jake was spread open in his lap. Now that he had him in the position he wanted, he slipped his hand underneath one of the pillows to retrieve the lube he’d gotten out earlier.

“So you prepared for this?” Jake taunted, watching in amusement as Danny popped open the cap and warmed up the slick liquid in his hands.

“Oh I'm very prepared” Danny replied, unconcerned with Jake’s snarky attempt at rattling his composure. He was in charge right now, and soon enough he’d have Jake fully aware of just how prepared he was.

One lubed up hand wrapped around Jake while the other slipped between his legs to start prodding at his entrance and within moments of beginning his steady strokes he was already slipping a finger inside. Jake relaxed quickly into the feeling of being partially filled, and Danny knew he could take another soon.

With a second finger already inside Jake was wiggling his hips, trying to get Danny to find that spot, but instead Danny only tightened his grip around his cock and started really stroking him.

“Danny…” Jake groaned, stilling his hips and furrowing his brows, “You can’t jerk me off like that or I’ll-”.

“It’s okay, go ahead and cum for me”.

“But Dan-” Jake was cut off by a choked sob as he tried desperately to keep himself contained while Danny vigorously worked him. He started to panic a little when he felt the coil in his stomach tightening knowing it was inevitable it would snap if Danny kept going, but he didn’t want it to end so quickly.

Danny knew where Jake’s thoughts were, knew he didn’t want this to be over, but what Jake didn’t know was that Danny was just getting started. “I know Jake, you’re going to be cumming more than once tonight. Go ahead and give me this one and I promise the next will be even better”.

Jake shot Danny a look, a slightly terrified and also excited all at the same time look, and then he reached his first breaking point. Unable to hold it any longer he came into Danny’s palm immediately feeling how badly he’d needed to get off. Maybe Danny was onto something. There was no way he would have been able to last long no matter what they’d done, so he went ahead and got that one out of the way.

“Are you good?” Danny asked when he felt Jake’s body loosen up again after his orgasm. Jake nodded, looking down at himself now soft and glistening with the remnants of his climax. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you hard again”.

With only a few moments to gather himself, Danny was pulling his fingers out and inching forward on the bed until he was pressing inside slowly, giving Jake the chance to adjust before he started a slow shallow thrust of his hips.

Jake groaned at the sensation. Being fucked was a different pleasure, but with it being so soon after he was still boardlining on overstimulation. Especially when Danny pushed in further and finally reached his spot.

“Fuuuuuck Danny right there!” He cried out, moving his hands only to rake his fingers through his hair as his back arched off the mattress.

“See what I said, look at you” Danny gleamed, proud of himself as Jake glanced back down and saw he was already starting to harden up again. Then Danny gripped Jake by the hips and pulled him further into his lap as he leaned backwards and started a harder faster pace, absolutely breaking Jake further apart with each pound into him and against that bundle of nerves.

The warmth in the pit of his stomach slowly returned as Jake moaned and writhed until Danny was suddenly slowing to a stop. Jake began to question why Danny was pulling out already, but he was silenced with another demand, “stay there”.

Moving from between Jake’s legs, Danny grabbed the bottle of lube again and Jake watched in confusion as he squeezed a few more drops into his hand then swung a leg over Jake’s waist.

“Danny wait are you... but you haven’t-” Jake became concerned when Danny reached behind him to lather Jake up again, though it only lasted a moment because then he felt Danny feeling around for something else. Danny let out a sigh, then leaned forward and revealed a small purple object, a plug.

While Jake was in the shower Danny had actually already taken the time to ready himself, then he’d put the plug in to stay stretched. With it removed now he sank down onto Jake in one fluid motion and they both moaned at the new connection.

Before Jake’s brain could even catch up to the stimulation he was feeling now Danny started bouncing up and down, tossing his head back and letting his jaw fall slack. Danny knew he wasn’t going to be able to last long either, not after all the work he’d already put in, so he started stroking himself until Jake decided to take over.

“Did I say you could move your hands?” Danny tried to maintain his dominance, though the way his thighs began to quiver and the tension in his lower stomach built he knew he wouldn’t have been able to keep it up for much longer anyways. So instead he gave in and let Jake touch him, planting his hands against Jake’s chest to get better control. “I’m so close” he cried, unable to stop his riding until his own orgasm began to wash over him.

“God Danny, don’t stop” Jake moaned, digging his heels into the bedding and taking over fucking Danny until he was shaking and collapsing over onto the bed next to him.

Jake used his cum coated hand to start working himself now that Danny had rolled off him. He’d been promised another orgasm and he was too far gone now to even care if Danny saw him finishing himself off.

“Jake come here” Danny begged, sitting up onto his elbows and pulling on Jake’s arm. Jake looked over at him through heavily lidded eyes, he was so close too he just needed a few more tugs… “Jake” Danny pleaded again, earning his full attention this time when he tugged on his arm again and opened his mouth.

Jake quickly got onto his knees and crawled over to where Danny laid waiting for him. “You want my cum?” He purred using his other hand to cup Danny’s cheek and slip his thumb inside his mouth.

Danny nodded and closed his lips around Jake’s thumb, giving it a suck and a swirl of his tongue before Jake grunted and pulled it out. He inched closer and Danny opened his mouth again, sticking his tongue out as well this time just before Jake painted his face.

Danny was right, he came harder this time than before, partially because it was the second time in one night, though mostly because he was so turned on by all of Danny's lewd acts.

“Since when did you get so kinky?” Jake panted as he fell back down onto the bed next to him, spent and chest heaving.

“Since I started dating the very sexy Jake Kiszka” Danny replied, turning onto his side and throwing an arm and a leg over his boyfriend. “Do you disapprove?”

“No no, absolutely not!” Jake hurriedly replied, taking Danny’s hand in his own and giving it a squeeze. “This was an unexpected treat, thank you”.

“Are you ready for sleep now then?” Danny settled next to him, knowing eventually they’d have to get up and clean off again before getting under the covers, but for now they were satisfied with just holding each other.

“Mhmm” Jake replied, his eyes already closed.

“Just one more thing” Danny continued, waiting until Jake peaked one eye open at him.

“Do you love me?”

[xarrixii]

Chapter_03 : "Acquisition" ━━━━━━━━━━━━━

CW: drinking previous chapter | beginning | masterlist

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“So, yeah. That’s pretty much it.” Alph had been reluctant to wake up and start today. When they’d woken up, they still hadn’t found the words to properly explain what had really happened.

“If this is your version of a joke, it’s not very funny.” Urban stared at them for a few irritatingly long moments. “You said you weren’t going to continue doing this much longer. Your apprenticeship ends in like, a few months.”

“I know.”

“There’s really no other way to get the money?”

Alph picked up a whiteboard marker, spinning it around in their hand. “Either way this could’ve gone, we were fucked. Those assholes who tried stealing my truck or my mother. There wasn’t much of an in-between. Just, believe me when I say I think this is the better end of the deal.”

“How is this the better end? Shit, Raiden, I probably could’ve covered up a murder if you really needed me to. It’s not like we haven’t before.”

“How was I supposed to explain the truck to my dad? He knows when I’m lying straight to his face.”

“How do you exactly expect to tell him that you’re now roped in—in whatever your mother’s going to make us do? I mean, Jesus, the only hint you’ve ever been given is that she’s walking on an illegal tightrope much higher above the ground on six-inch platforms.”

With a sigh, Alph leans back on the couch. “Arguing over my mother has always been a waste of energy. We’ve got time to kill until she gets here, so…”

“You want to play Flash Fire?”

“I want to play Flash Fire,” Alph gives off their cheekiest grin.

“I’m going to beat you one day. I know I will.” Alph nudged Urban, eliciting a quiet laugh.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“He’s right,” Alph’s mother says, opening the garage door. “And I made a promise for you two to be the reason someone rises the ranks today. So get in the car.”

Alph and Urban went silent, Urban standing up with unusual elegance before relaxing again. He waited for Alph to get up and go with, making sure to turn the light off behind them both.

“It’s Amaterasu.” She holds out her hand for Urban, who responds by keeping his own close to his chest.

“Pleasure.”

The insincerity was surprisingly plain, Alph’s mother—better as Amaterasu—getting into the passenger seat. And it was way too quiet. Alph stopped before they’d fully gotten into the car. “You said you would explain it more here, at the garage. Where are we going?”

“A bar,” their mother replied in an instant. “More private than your junkyard.”

“Something tells me you’ve never been to a bar you couldn’t buy out.”

“You do seem to hope you can place more dissonance with me than you already do, don’t you? It’s not a real bar…” She hesitated, thinking. “...Raiden.”

“We get to keep at least something, then.”

“Get in the car.”

Alph didn’t move.

“Rai, just, come on. Let’s go. Get it over with as soon as we can.”

They grumbled, finally stepping into the car and closing the door. Damn thing sped straight into gear before they managed to get buckled in. Smoothly rolled into a parking space later, though.

“I thought you two were at least semi-competent, managing to conceal yourselves for this long with so many public records. Seems all you really do in your free time is prance around playing video games you stole names from. In hindsight, I should have expected as much.”

“Yeah, thanks. You too.”

“Therapy expenses are included in being part of Cinder, if it convinces you any further.”

“Cinder?” Urban cut in. “That’s what you’re calling it?”

“That’s what it’s always been called.” She beckoned them over through the empty bar to a booth, a few sheets of paper sprawled out.

“Hate to burst your bubble, Mum,”

“They aren’t legal documents. They detail your living quarters, missions, and supervisor. Who I’ll let take the reins now.” She strolled over to the bar, leaving them and Urban with whatever blonde prick had been driving the car.

“Listen, usually Cinder gives off their whole spiel, y’know, welcome to our not-so-legal crazy murder psycho condemning organization, it’s a real big opportunity, but I don’t think you two really need to hear that. I know you’re picturing this whole year-long contract thing, but it’s really just dependent on how much you fuck up within that year. More you fuck up, longer you stay, yadda yadda. You’ve been expected to fuck up a decent bit like most starter operatives. I hope I didn’t shatter your ego because my telepathy doesn’t put that back together. Capiche?”

“A name would be nice,” Urban picked up a few of the papers strewn along the table.

“Liam. Bauer. Don’t try to look it up anywhere, you won’t find it. And congratulations, you get to skip the entire Cinder training program and hop straight into your first objective, which is what this lovely briefcase is for over here.” Liam slammed the briefcase not so lightly onto the table and clicked it open. “Did you two understand anything I just said in the past minute or so, or do I have to say it again in a slightly more monotonous voice?”

Alph’s grip on their arm was tighter than they’d like it to be.

“Fantastic. Your first objective is to not kill yourselves integrating into Cinder for the first time after your training program, which you, again, did not do, but alas. Any questions?”

“Yeah, are you gonna continue?” Urban shook a hand through his hair. “We’ll just cut in on your monologue when we want to speak. Kinda how conversation works nowadays regardless who you’re talking to. Especially in the whole rich ass society department.”

“You’re smarter than you look, kid. I’ll give you that.”

“Right.”

Liam cleared his throat. “Well, first things first, credit cards. Designed for when you’re on the job. There were a few incidents years back where agents had to buy things while they were out and about. Like, for example, a hydrokinetic buying a water bottle makes sense. Warning, they do look at your history. They once got mad at me because I bought a few bagels. Please don’t go off the rails, they have two hundred each before they cap out.

“Second, fake ID cards. It would really suck if you got arrested because you got pulled over and couldn’t prove your identity to an officer. Don’t use them until it’s been confirmed we’ve gotten you into the system⸺”

“Woah, what?” Alph put their hand down on the ID cards, standing up. “How the hell are you supposed to do that?”

“Pardon my security efforts not to explain that to you. Your little seeking justice for everyone who’s never wronged you thing is spilling out of your mind like you just slashed through the Jager Dam. The more you use these, probably the better. Makes it less likely anyone looks into you.

“Third and finally, your Cinder sleeves! The design represents you being under good old Amaterasu’s branch of the organization. Don’t lose these, it gives you access into Cinder complexes.”

Alph watched Urban grab his from the table, examining it. 

“At least it’s not spandex,” he said wearily. Urban had definitely been more tired than usual today. He always studied little things the more tired he was. “Would hate walking around looking like some generic supervillain whose only real goal is to take power.”

“One,” Liam kicked their feet up onto the table, leaning back as much he could. “Not Cinder’s goal. Two, there is a separate uniform, but we’re not going to mug you while you’re sleeping for your pant size.”

“How noble of you,” Alph replied, smile finally forming on their face again. “So what is Cinder’s goal, exactly?”

“To keep generic supervillains in check, in the simplest version. It’s just easier when you don’t have to follow the law to do that, so we paint ourselves as criminals. Don’t worry, you probably won’t deal with many cops. People we fight aren’t exactly their best friends either.”

“So you’re the neutral pilot force controlling the galaxy.”

“No.”

Alph leaned forward, taking their sleeve and whisking it up their arm, flexing their fingers. Then they looked over at Urban, who had also pulled theirs on after taking off their glove that had been there. Calmly, “Ours are red and black, assuming that means we’re pyrokinetic. Yours has green and purple. What kind of shit color scheme is that?”

Liam glared over at Urban. “If I had an answer to give you, kid, I’d give you it.”

“So there’s two colors for telepathy?”

“No⸺ Green is telepathy, purple is telekinesis.”

Urban scrutinized Liam’s face for a moment before grabbing the other stuff Liam had thrown onto the table and putting it away.

“Given the telepathy, please don't go writing fanfiction in your head near me. Especially since neither of you have learned how to set up blockades past religiously thinking about marbles.”

Amaterasu strolled back over, setting a few bottles of alcohol and empty glasses on the table. “I hope he’s finished his monologue so I can detail you on making yourselves look mildly competent in front of your soon-to-be colleagues.”

“If you think we’re that useless, why’d you employ us in the first place?” Urban moved the empty glass in front of him to the side.

“I think you misunderstood my intentions. I think that you are useless, darling. Raiden has the kind of potential I’m looking for, you’re more or less here so you have less excuses to run down to your local police department.”

“Mum,” Alph’s patience was running thin.

“He’s legally a D-class. Pardon me that he can’t do anything without a flame to manipulate.”

Alph generated a small amount of fire to blossom in their hand, putting one foot onto the table before Urban put a hand on their shoulder. “It’s not worth it, Rai. She’s right.”

“Yes, now get your feet off the table. Both of you.” She flicks Liam’s arm, who shrugs, chuckling. “Recently, Storm—well, I suppose. Storm has been a long dormant enemy of Cinder, and they’ve recently been jumpstarted by some of our old personnel. We’re trying to deal with it as fast as we can. Without the resources we have, they rely on other factors, like businesses in plain sight. They can’t put all of their money into one checking account or a few measly dropoff points, not if they’re smart.

“That’s how we found the bank they’re running. Little kickstart just off main. Bunch of falsified accounts, spread out money, and they can get it all insured. You two are going to help take it down. Every part of it.”

“Wait, Hayton Deposits?” Alph snatches the file from their mother’s hand as she’s setting it down. “Seriously? But⸺”

“I know it’s a major upgrade from terrorizing loan sharks, but you’re also not alone anymore and you’re not going to fit in very well if you’re sitting recon all the time. Make it out of this alive, and you’ll integrate into Cinder. Nobody would ask any questions from there. I’d like to make it clear this opportunity is a privilege to quickly get you in.”

“So fighting your jumpstart enemies and the cops is considered a privilege?”

“Told you they wouldn’t take kind to that, Matty,” Liam is quieted with a glare.

She clears her throat, pouring a glass of champagne for herself. “It’s this or a prison cell, Raiden.”

Alph glances over at Urban, who began picking at the edge of his sweatshirt. Then they bit their lip and suppressed their anger into a clenched fist. They couldn’t keep putting Urban into rehab, and they couldn’t get on too bad of terms with their mother.

“I take it you understand that premise?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Meet Liam at the armored truck parked in the vertical lot on 34th after your apprenticeship this Tuesday. Text him when he needs to be there.” She gestures at Urban. “If it helps, I’m the only one who wanted you on the mission. I’ll be your enemy number one.”

next chapter

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i'm writing story content for... tumblr. what am i worrying about as i write it out on google docs first? page count. (help)

[helicrazy]

“He’s offline right?” A steel sports car queries when striding over to the hanged-up copter. Keeping their distance to avoid the puddle of energon underneath and trying not to retch at the sight. “Like his nerves won’t twitch and give one last jump scare?”

“You need to stop watching horror films.” The midnight pickup truck rolls his optics and sighs as he moves to cut the Combaticon down. Then takes a step back to watch him collapse to the floor. “You going to help this time?”

“Yeah by grabbing a bottle of nightmare fuel for you doing all the heavy lifting.” The smaller vehicle replies while leaning in closer, then sticks a pede out to nudge one of the copter’s rotors, and vents a relief when getting no reaction.

The pickup tsks when kneeling down to grab the teal mech by the chest then hauls him over his shoulder as he stands back up. Not at all caring about the bleeding abdomen leaking down his frame. “You better.” He glances over to the other before making his way toward the exit.

The steel mech follows from behind, keeping his vision away from the teal copter dangling lifelessly from their partner's shoulder. They step away from the door only so they could open up an access panel to shut off the lights in the warehouse. It takes a couple of tries but the sound of something shattering and hitting the floor with a ‘thud’ makes him look back to see that a couple of lights have broken in the process of turning off. “Ugh. Another thing we’ll probably have to take care of and don’t worry...” The sports car begins to state as he strolls back over to the exit, the only source of light shining into the wide-open warehouse. “I’ll do it considering your fear of-”

They freeze in the doorway. Optics widened at the scene of the midnight-colored mech on his back with a rotor pierced through his chest and multiple stab wounds to his throat causing serious amounts of energon lost. His servos grasping at his neck in a pathetic attempt to stop it. The copter sits on top staring down at him with a bloody blade in one servo. Staring down at the mech below as he gasps and coughs at the blood building up in his mouth.

“Holy fragging-!”

----------

I look inside of myself and try to find someone else Someone who's willing to die just to watch you crying for help I know that blood will be spilled, and if you won't, then I will My grave will never be filled, it's either kill or be killed So let heaven be told that some may come, some may go

Vortex is dazed as he wakes up to the sound of music playing, thinking at first that the target put it on like how he does when playing with his victims, but soon realizes that it’s coming from his one audial. He attempts to shut it off though it doesn’t respond to his request. Not that it really bothers him besides his other audial not working properly due to the one side of his helm receiving most of the punches, but he can’t seem to send comms out either. Only accept them. 

His vision is in the same situation. With his visor off everything has turned blurry and the dim lights don’t help as he struggles to figure out who people are and if they’re here to help or finish him off. He gets his answer when no one saves him from falling into his own puddle of blood after he gets released.

It’s very fortunate that his voice box is damaged as he can’t make any unbearable sounds when being flung over someone’s shoulder. His energon levels have not reached a dangerous level yet due to him playing dead, and his self-repair system desperately doing what it can to lessen the bleeding. So he’ll have to be careful knowing that the more he moves, the more energy he’ll burn. The massive wound on his abdomen is constantly bleeding out and though most of it is still in still intact, a good amount of cables ruptured, and a missing fuel tank is not an easy situation to work with.

Where I'll end up? I don't know, but I ain't dying alone I keep on asking the question, can I be saved by confession? You see this blood on my hands? At least they're still reaching to heaven I gotta pick up the pieces, I gotta bury 'em deep And when you look in my eyes, I'll be the last thing you'll see

Suddenly the area gets brighter and Vortex can see the shadows of his rotor blades still attached to him. Oh, the fools. If he got a shanix for every time someone did not remove them thinking they weren’t a weapon.

Vortex reaches up to grab a rotor, pulls it out of its slot then stabs it into the back of the enemy. It doesn’t go very deep, he doesn’t have the strength for that, but he has another idea in mind when being suddenly dropped to the floor. He quickly grabs and yanks a leg so the mech falls backyard. Directly on top of the rotor handle making it stab right through the mech’s chest. The teal copter pulls out a knife as he hops on top of the stranger and viciously begins to plunge it into the throat until a majority of the cables are sliced. A softer area that didn’t require too much strength. Then stops to stare into their optics, he could easily finish them off, but watching them succumb to their injuries is always a pleasant show to watch.

“Holy fragging-!”

I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die I don't wanna die, so you're gonna have to I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die No, I don't wanna die, so you're gonna have to

He glances up at his next victim, clearly unarmed or just completely terrified at the scene as he would have been shot by now. The Combaticon stands up while holding the blade tightly in his servo, and the moment he steps off the mech below him the other takes off into the darkness of the warehouse. Vortex can faintly hear them bumping into things when stepping into the doorway. A smile forms on his face when realizing that they don’t have night vision, and neither does he, though his rotors will help track them down.

The teal mech takes a step forward only to pause when making out the sound of things being pulled out, as if the mech was frightfully searching through their subspace to find something, then reaches behind him to grab the door and close it shut. Fully cuts off the only source of light inside the big room and follows the noises to the best of his abilities along with his rotors twitching often. The smile is turned into a wicked grin, and if he could laugh he would to show the stranger just how fragged they are. 

Blood is getting hotter, body's getting colder I have told you once, I'm the only one who holds her I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die I don't wanna die, so you're gonna have to.

This is going to be a fun little game.

[billysgirllol]

rolling her eyes to herself, again, it’s just an excuse. the songstress doesn’t even waste her time replying to him, not a single breath or another shred of energy to waste on him about how he couldn’t make it in when she’ll stand by the fact he could’ve borrowed money from her and just paid her back later if he really felt the need. he’s just got all these weak excuses but every ‘valid’ point for revenge. “i wasn’t thinkin’. if you knew anything about me, you’d know that’s just what i do when i can’t handle pressure and hurt anymore. or when i get scared. my mind just explodes and i have a flight response. but that proves you don’t really know me.” she’s tired of him blaming her and not understanding her, coming to conclusion she doesn’t want to romantically be involved with someone who doesn’t understand her. he couldn’t figure out why she cut her hair, why she came here in a dress, why she ran off last night. he clearly doesn’t understand her. “now you’re twistin’ my words around? no one can wait until they get hurt— i SAID IT because it’s the only thing that’ll prove to you how you’ll be wrong because you won’t LISTEN to me. as per usual.” it’s not her fault he’s taking it wrong and trying to be manipulative. “i remember tellin’ you i didn’t do anything with him, though. so what’s with the sudden case of amnesia?” it’s like he just wants to believe she’s a whore to make himself feel better or something. “he’s not a fucking gentleman and yes, i am havin’ to defend myself against you. he wants to fuck every girl who breathes near him, i believe i found that out quick. but it doesn’t mean i did it, just because he did, asshole.” burying into the blankets deeper, wishing she could fall back asleep and be done with this day before it even begins, block billy’s badgering out and wake up to somewhere different before a stupid ding is back in her ear. she quickly rolls over to see what else jesse is texting, grabbing his phone and promptly reading the texts on the screen. what is she reading? this ain’t jesse. “hi, i know this is unexpected but i’ve been thinkin’ ‘bout you a lot lately. i don’t like how things ended between us,” she recites it all out loud, her heart dropping, her stomach painfully twisting, “and want to apologize ‘bout my behavior the other night. you stormed off and locked yourself in the bathroom and i didn’t know what to do with myself,” brows crease at the info she continues to quickly absorb, “i felt ignored like i didn’t matter at all to you. i know that it wasn’t supposed to be serious. but i really like you billy. i don’t want us to be strangers. and— i really did have FUN that night. i’m free next week if you’d like to come over. smirk emoji. for dinner, of course. i’ll serve somethin’ spicy.” and then she goes silent, the nightmare proceeds to go on. and her brain? has no way of knowing how to properly cope with whatever the hell she just read. besides angry tears starting to well, “hmm. yeah, billy, are you goin’ over as soon as you get back? one to call me a whore when it looks like you’ve been a whore yourself. strange how the universe works, isn’t it?” she gives a fake smile that’s quickly faltering, her face contorting in all the hurt and anger swirling in her stomach as she sits up and opens the rest of the texts. typing in, ‘who is this?’ before hitting send then opening the camera up to snap a picture of herself with her face half way in the frame to attach with it to let her know he must be cheating on her too.

“that you’re doin’ a lot of reckless things lately.” lucy gray answers, wondering how it’s hard to figure out. “but you had time to call up jesse and company to cause bigger issues, though.” she gives a skeptical HM. while thinking she could have found him a plane ticket there and back, it’s just an excuse. “i think that’s best actually, people do it all the time to keep their mental health sane.” he did it to her but has a problem doing it to jesse? it’s funny how that works. “can’t wait until they prove you wrong and they do start harassin’ me.” now it’s just worry and stress she’s got to deal with once the snowstorm is over and she makes her way back home, he guesses he has no idea what it’s like sitting up all night worrying if someone’s going to come barging into your house. “i’ve known you my entire life and the second we decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend, i didn’t take my clothes off for you, did i? i’m not the whore you THINK i am and yeah, you might as well be callin’ me that cause that’s what you’re implyin’. that i’m easy when i ain’t.” he’s just saying this shit to piss her off and make himself feel better, she begins to think. “because of YOU accusin’ me of doin’ things with him i haven’t done and even if i had— it’s really not any of YOUR business. you can’t guilt me for this.” brows angrily pinched, she doesn’t even know what she cares what he thinks. she’ll just him think what he wants to. “i’m actually bein’ MY defense attorney,” she corrects, then quickly nods in agreement, “mhm. yeah. i’ve noticed.” pulling the blankets back up over her frozen arms, she rolls over onto her side and closes her eyes that are tired and to ease the throbbing off her temples from this anger, stress and lack of sleep. it’s better than being near him to prevent beating her fists into his arm every time something new flies out of his mouth to infuriate her.

[cjsinkythoughts]

The Conversation

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Reader

Word Count: 7661 (Don’t come at me - you guys asked for it)

Warnings: !FATWS Spoilers!, Cursing, Fluff, Feelings, I Dunno What Else, This One’s Pretty Chill, Except The Ending, But You’ll See When You Get There

A/N: Here it is! I was hesitant about posting it because that means we’re getting closer to the end and I’m such a nostalgic bitch! I’m definitely gonna cry next week when the last episode comes out! Anyways, I’ve got a few things to talk about:

I think this is one of the most important chapters I’ve written and I’m excited to see your reactions to it. It is longer, but you guys asked for that, so you got it! Also, I’m loving the Asks, Comments, and Reblogs. I try to respond to all of them. I have work in a little bit, so I won’t be able to until after, but I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Ask me anything; about my series, the show, any of the movies, personal stuff, I really don’t care. If you’re not comfortable, that’s totally fine! Every like means so much to me!

I know it’s not the end yet - we’ve got one more episode and a list of One Shots to get through - but there’s a definite feeling of this series coming to an end, and I just want to thank you all for the support and love you’ve been giving it! I’ve really enjoyed writing these characters and this story! It’s very, very special to me and I’m glad I’ve been able to share it with you lovely people!

On that note, be kind to yourselves and others! Thank you again for reading! Excuse any mistakes - this isn’t beta’d! Enjoy and stay tuned!

FATWS Masterlist

cjsinkythoughts Masterlist

!SPOILERS UNDER CUT! (Sorry for the gifs I just love them so much and he’s so pretty and this part is technically two parts so...you get four!)

“Louisiana.” Bucky hummed, looking around the airport.

You rolled your eyes. “You’re not gonna find anything interesting about Louisiana in here, doofus. Let’s call an Uber.”

“An Ooper? What the hell is an Ooper?”

You giggled, shaking your head and grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the luggage carousel. “Uber. It’s like…a taxi service. But there’s an app on your phone to get a driver instead of waiting for one on the street.”

“Oh.” He blinked, tilting his head. “That’s…helpful.”

You laughed again, stopping in front of Carousel 3, where your flight from New York was assigned. You went back to New York to grab a bag with clean clothes and other necessities, along with taking a real shower for once. It was nice to be back in the States, as much as you loved traveling. It’d been a crazy few weeks and you were ready to just relax.

“Do you think there were any problems with Sammy’s present?”

Bucky shook his head. “Nah. Especially considering they know who we are.”

You snickered at his slight grumble. They had had…problems at the other two airports - first the one in Sokovia then JFK in New York - considering Bucky’s entire arm was metal. It’d taken a full hour before they actually let you go, and by that time they had to give you a new plane because yours had left.

“Seriously. Who else has a fucking metal arm and has 1917 listed as their birth year on their Driver’s License?” You giggled again. That was also true. They thought he was messing with them. It wasn’t until you stepped in a few minutes after they asked Bucky to step to the side, seeing Bucky get frustrated, that they realized Bucky wasn’t pulling their legs.

“Well, we’re here now and that’s all that matters.”

He nodded in agreement, watching for your bags, his hand finding yours when he realized how many people there were. “Do you know where he lives? I didn’t even think about it.”

“Yeah, don’t worry. He invited me over once. I declined, but I saved the address.”

“He…invited you over?” Bucky frowned.

You gave him a look. “I’m sure he invited you, too. You just never checked his texts.”

He licked his lips, tilting his head. “Yeah, no, I know, but I mean…why didn’t you go? Weren’t you two just talking about how you wanted to meet his nephews the other day?”

“Yeah, but I had gotten a tip on Wanda at the time and I didn’t want to miss the chance that she was there. He told me it was fine. I still felt really bad. I could tell he was a bit disappointed. I think it was one of the boys’ birthdays. Or something. I don’t remember. Is that bad? Yeah, probably. I really should remember. Maybe I should keep track of birthdays on my calendar or something.”

“Doll.” You looked up to find him giving you a magnificent smile, teeth and all. “You’re rambling.”

“Oh. Am I? Sorry. I didn’t realize.”

He shook his head quickly, squeezing your hand. “Don’t apologize. It’s cute. I’m just not used to you talking so much. You kinda did on the phone sometimes.”

You shrugged, pushing down the heat crawling up your neck at his words. “I rambled a lot to Steve.”

“Oh.”

His face fell, making you scrunch your eyebrows up in confusion, nudging him slightly to grin at him. “It’s nice to have someone to ramble to again, though.” There was that smile again. You were stopped from saying anything more when you noticed some kids pointing and chattering excitedly at a gleaming silver box coming around the corner on the conveyor belt. “There it is.”

He looked over his shoulder, dropping your hand and stepping over to grab it, lifting it effortlessly. You didn’t know what was in it or how heavy it was, but you were sure it felt like a feather to him.

“Alright. Got our bag, sweetheart?” You lifted up the duffle in answer and he jerked his head towards the doors. “Let’s get outta here, then. Call that Booper or whatever.”

“U-B-E-R! Ub-er!” You threw your hands up, following him as he started walking towards the exit. “What’s so hard about it?!”

He just gave you a little smirk over his shoulder.

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

Bucky kept asking the Uber driver questions about his job. The guy was super nice and patient the whole time, a thick southern accent lacing his answers. Southern hospitality was no joke and apparently had no limit as Bucky asked about his experiences, listening intently and telling him his own stories of taxi drivers in NYC.

When you got to Sam’s sister’s house, Bucky, being Bucky, tipped the driver half of what you paid for the ride, thanking him for his time and energy, before getting out.

“You’re so adorable, you know that?” You teased him as you stepped up the porch stairs and knocked on the door.

He rolled his eyes, a tint of pink dusting across his cheeks. “He was nice.”

You hummed at his defense, the smile never leaving your features. After a moment, Bucky raised his fist to knock again. “Jesus Christ! Don’t fucking knock their door down!” You grabbed his wrist and lowered it.

“Sorry. I forget sometimes.” Bucky informed you absentmindedly,  tilting his head to peek in the window. “I don’t think anyone’s home.”

“They’re probably at the docks, then.”

Bucky raised an eyebrow. “The docks?”

You nodded, gesturing for him to follow you. “Yeah. They have a boat, remember? He talked about it last week.”

“Oh right. The one he’s trying to convince his sister not to sell.”

“Yeah.” You confirmed. “I’m pretty sure it’s that way. I don’t know how far, but we can call the Uber back-”

Bucky scrunched up his face and shook his head. “Nah. I don’t wanna bother him again. We can walk.”

You gave him an incredulous look. “It’s literally his job to drive people around.”

“Well, yeah, but what if he’s got other people to drive?”

You lifted his metal knuckles to your lips. “Trust me, Buck, I’m sure he’d rather drive you than anyone else.”

“Thank you?”

Swinging your now linked hands, you gave a firm nod, letting him know it was, in fact, a compliment. “You are so very welcome.”

The walk was a lot longer than you thought it was, and you ended up on Bucky’s back after he kept complaining about how you “shouldn’t be walking this long” and you were “injured” and you “needed rest’”. You’re not sure how a shoulder wound affected your ability to walk, but you relented and let him carry you the rest of the way to stop his whining.

“You forget, you did pull your thigh.”

“That was, like, three weeks ago! Yeesh!”

You finally got to the docks, which were bustling with people. Bucky set you down and raised an eyebrow which you shrugged in reply to, before heading over to where you spotted Sam with a few other older men.

“How do we get it off the truck?” You heard Sam ask, pointing to a large boat engine part in the bed of a beaten up truck. Scoffing as Bucky lifted it up without breaking a sweat, you leaned against the truck. Bucky grunted and set it down, looking at Sam.

“You’re welcome.” What a punk. “Just dropping this off.” Bucky lifted the case and set it where the engine was previously, Sam coming to stand on the opposite side of the truck as you. “You can sign for it and I’ll go.” You snorted, shaking your head, making Bucky shove your shoulder - the uninjured one - playfully. “I called in a favor from the Wakandans.”

Sam looked at you curiously. You shrugged and shook your head. “Don’t look at me, Sammy. He wouldn’t tell me what it is. He’s all hushy hushy about it until you say so.”

Before Sam could reply, there was a squeak and hissing over at the boat where steam was coming from a few pipes.

“Sam!” You knew that was Sarah from pictures Sam showed you. You stayed up by the truck, pulling yourself onto the bed while Sam tried fixing the pipe, Bucky butting in to show him how to do it properly.

“Why didn’t you use the metal arm?”

You saw Bucky lift up said metallic limb. “Well…I don’t always think of it immediately. I’m-I’m right handed.” Letting out a laugh, Bucky turned around and scowled teasingly at you. “And what’re you laughing at?!”

“Nothing!”

“Well then get your ass over here!”

You rolled your eyes, hopping down from the truck as Bucky asked if Sam wanted help with the boat. You leaned against a wooden post, grinning when Sam looked at you.

“I don’t have any plans.”

Sam gave a small smile, jerking his head back. “Yeah.”

You jumped down onto the boat to follow him, looking over your shoulder and stopping with an amused eyebrow raised as Bucky introduced himself to Sarah. “I’m Bucky.”

“Ah…Sarah.”

“Sarah.” Bucky repeated her name, before walking towards you, a grin still on his lips.

“Careful, Barnes. That playboy Steve warned me about is coming out.” You nudged him with a smirk, ignoring the feeling of your stomach dropping.

He rolled his eyes, kissing your head as he passed you and Sam to go where Sam was gesturing. “Don’t worry, Y/N. You’re still my doll.”

Sam raised an eyebrow, falling into step besides you and lowering his voice. “Conversation?”

“Hasn’t happened.” You informed him through clenched teeth as he groaned.

Sam gave you a list of chores that needed to be done to clean up the boat, giving you a quick tour and letting you know where all the tools needed where. You set to work immediately.

Sanding down, replacing old parts, cleaning, polishing and painting over the things that didn’t need replacing. They didn’t let you do any heavy lifting because of your stupid shoulder, but you were still able to help.

Sam had turned on some music for you to listen to, so you danced around the boat while cleaning. Turning your head when you felt a pair of eyes on you, you smiled when Bucky snapped his head back down to the wood he was sanding down.

“Gonna dance, Barnes?”

He looked back over, shaking his head. “Nah. I’m good watching you.”

Rolling your eyes, you got back to work, continuing to bop to the music, fully aware that he was watching you now.

A little while later, you were repainting the edges of the boat orange, when you looked over and noticed Bucky playing around with a paint scraper…sitting right on the edge that you had just finished repainting a few minutes ago.

“Buck!”

He looked over, eyebrows raised. “Yeah?”

You bit your lip, trying to hold back your mischievous grin. Shaking your head, you waved dismissively. “Never mind!”

He gave you a confused sort of pout, before shrugging and continuing to fidget with the tool. It wasn’t until later when he got up to help Sam tear the metal plating off the edge that it came to light with Sam chuckling and raising an eyebrow.

“Sit in something there, Barnes?”

“What?”

Bucky craned his neck back, eyes widening when he saw the orange paint on his ass, contrasting with his jeans. You let out a cackle and he whipped towards you, pointing at you accusingly, although the small uptick of his lips let you know he wasn’t really mad.

“Y/N!”

“No, no, no!” You laughed, sprinting across the deck, shrieking when he grabbed your waist and spun you around. You gasped when he grabbed a paint brush and painted an orange stripe right down the front of your shirt. “James!”

“Justice, sweetheart.” He breathed in your ear with a chuckle.

You shook your head, wiggling out of his hold. “This is a nice shirt!”

“You should’ve thought about that before.” He smirked, crossing his arms. Your eyes caught sight of Sam behind him, who raised an eyebrow and the bucket of paint he was holding. You nodded with a little giggle, making Bucky’s eyes narrow. “What’s so funny over there, do - holy shit!

You guffawed as orange paint dripped down his head, Sam standing innocently behind him with the now empty bucket behind his back. “Samuel!”

“Oops?”

“I’m gonna kill you!”

“Try me old man!”

“Fuck!

“Doll!”

“Oh my God!”

Paint, orange and white since those were the only cans they had out, flew across the deck, paint brushes being used like fencing swords.

You found out too late that wet paint was a little bit slippery and you slid on a huge puddle, sending you, not onto the ground below, but over the side of the edge into the water. 

“Doll!”

“Cher, you good?!” 

The three of you looked at each other, stunned for a moment, before bursting into fits of laughter and you nodded. “I’m good!”

The boys helped you get back up onto the dock, Sarah appearing with towels she conjured up out of thin air. “Let’s get you into dry clothes. Do you have-?”

“We’ve got some. We got a bag.” You told her with a grin, facing the guys. “You two should clean up some, too. Sammy, you’ve got a little something right there.” You pointed to your cheek, his own having a giant white splotch from his temple to his jaw. “And Buck?” You sniggered, gesturing to the whole of him. “You’ve got a lotta something right there.” 

“Ha. Ha.” He looked down. His top was practically tiger print, drenched in orange with white here and there, and his ass still orange as well. His hair, which had been plastered to his forehead, was starting to dry now, and it only made you laugh some more thinking about what a pain it’d be to get it out. For him, at least.

“God. Can’t even have a relaxing day on the boat with you two.” Sam jested once you finished up and joined him and Bucky, who had just finished dumping out some water buckets. Bucky had changed his shirt and it looked like they tried wiping their faces, but Sam still had small lines of white down his face. “How ‘bout a couple of drinks? Surely you can’t ruin that too.”

“Ruin?” You gasped in mock offence. “Sammy! I just made the day more…interesting.”

Sam chuckled, ruffling Bucky’s hair, which still had orange streaks in it. “Let’s go get some beers.”

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

You chatted for a bit, mainly you and Sam with you asking how Sarah and the boys were while Bucky with your legs in his lap, just listening to you two and sipping at his bottle. You had his hand in your own lap, wiping it down with a rag due to the paint that got on it.

“You’re lucky this is vibranium, you know.” You commented off handedly. “If it was your other one, it’d definitely get stained.”

“And who’s fault is that?” Bucky shot back with a teasing grin.

“Sammy’s.”

Sam spluttered. “Wh-what?! You started it!” You laughed, shaking your head.

Falling into a comfortable silence with just the water and birds chirping as your soundtrack, you downed the rest of your drink, which Bucky took as finished. “Well,” you moved your legs to let him stand up. He leaned forwards to clink his bottle against Sam’s and you stood up and stretched. “Gotta catch our flight tomorrow. Get a hotel room for the night.” Sam gave you a look to which you rolled your eyes at as Bucky set down his bottle and grabbed his jacket. “Crash, you know?”

“So you’re just gonna set me up like that, huh?”

“Well I don’t wanna make it weird for your family.”

“Just stay here.” You laughed as Sam babbled on about how nice the people were here, grabbing the jacket Bucky handed to you. It was getting a bit chilly from the breeze on the water and the sun going down. Plus, that water was cold.

“But don’t flirt with my sister.”

You cackled at Bucky’s face, that turned serious, his head shaking. “No.”

“‘Cause if you do I’ll have Carlos cut you up and feed you to the fish.”

“Can’t hold back the dog, Wilson. It’s been stuck in a kennel too long.”

Bucky turned to you, grabbing your jaw and squishing your cheeks together. “You know what? You need to shush. You’ve been snippy all day.”

You just smiled as innocently as you could with your lips being held by his metal fingers. “You’re too fun to mess with.”

He pecked your nose. “As long as I’m the only one you’re messing with. I’ll be right back.” He let you go and spun around, maneuvering around the boat in a way only a trained assassin could do.

“Oh my God, please! Please just put me out of my fucking misery! You’re killing me, cher.”

“What?” You gaped at him.

“Don’t act innocent!” Sam huffed, giving you a pointed look. “If I have to watch you two make googly eyes at you one more fucking day with neither of you doing anything about it-”

You rolled your eyes. “Oh come on, Sammy-”

“Don’t ‘come on, Sammy’ me! And don’t come at me with that ‘he doesn’t like me back’ bullshit. If you think for a second that boy wouldn’t follow you to the depths of the fucking ocean, you’re blind as a bat, woman.”

You shrugged, pushing up the sleeves of Bucky’s too big jacket. “It just…hasn’t come up.”

He deadpanned, shaking his head and standing up. “That’s it. I’m done. You two are driving me insane. I’m gonna lock you in a room until you have the conversation that needs to be had the next time either of you does something stupid.”

“Yikes. That’s gonna be quick.” At his look, your smile dropped and you nodded. “Okay, okay. I’ll…I’ll bring it up later.”

“Tomorrow or nothing.”

“Sam-”

Sam tilted his head, brow creasing. “Is it still Steve? Is that what this is still about? Because he’s gone, and he’s been gone and you need to get over it-”

“No. It’s not…” You sighed. “It clicked the other day. When we were hanging out. Steve left and, yeah, I might always love him, but Bucky…God…I love Bucky, Sam.”

The man grinned proudly. “I’m glad to finally hear you admit it. So what’s the problem?”

“It’s still complicated, right? I mean…he’s his best friend and I’ve never dealt with stuff like this before and-”

Sam’s smile dropped and he groaned again. “Imma head out. I can’t take this. Dumbass and dumberass. I swear to God.” You sniggered a bit as he grumbled, walking towards the ramp to climb off the boat, just as Bucky reappeared.

“Hey-”

“Nope! Not right now, Barnes! I can’t handle it! I can’t!”

Bucky gave you a weird look. “What’d you do?”

You chuckled, shaking your head. “Nothing.”

“Well, c’mon, doll. Sarah said she’s gonna make gumbo for us, whatever that is.” He held out his hand as you walked over. 

“You’re such a city boy.” You teased lightly, taking his hand and letting him help you pull you onto the dock. You shoved the sleeves of his jackets up again since they slipped from the first time. “Let’s go get some dinner. I’m starving.”

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

“We have the couch and a mattress we can pull out, I just have to make Sam get it from the attic-”

“That’s alright. The couch is fine.” Bucky waved dismissively while you nodded in agreement.

Sarah raised an eyebrow at you two. “For both of you?”

You blinked, exchanging a look with Bucky, before shrugging and turning back to her. “Yeah.”

“Don’t fight it, Sarah.” Sam peeked out from the hall. “They’ve got a weird relationship.” You stuck your tongue out at the man while Bucky rolled his eyes, dropping your duffle bag by the couch. “How mature, Y/N.” Sam mimicked your action.

“Uhm…okay. Let me set up the couch for you then.”

Once everything was set up, you and Bucky thanking her for dinner - delicious and you’d never seen Bucky smile so much, the boys having kept him highly entertained throughout the meal - and for letting you crash, Sam and Sarah headed to their rooms, the boys already having been tucked in for the night.

“Are you gonna sleep on the floor?” You asked quietly, sitting down on the couch and doing the things for your night routine you didn’t already do in the bathroom.

“I think I’ll be okay.” He sat besides you. “I’ve been doing fine the past week or so.”

You smiled at him. “That’s good. Alright.” You stood up and stretched. “Let me just make sure everything’s in the bag and ready-”

You yelped when his arm wrapped around your waist, pulling you into his chest, shifting down to lay against the couch’s arm. “Do it in the morning.” He yawned, looking up at you tiredly. “I wanna go to sleep.”

“Then go to sleep, Buck. I’ll be right back.” He shook his head, his hold tightening as he sunk deeper into the couch.

“No. I fall asleep better with you.”

You rolled your eyes but grinned, settling down with your legs between his, your chin resting on his sternum so you could still look at him. He beamed, but you could see the exhaustion settling in, and he grabbed the blanket Sarah left over the back of the couch and draped it across your back, over both of your legs, before his arms crossed snugly under the covers at the small of your back.

“Dinner was nice tonight. I haven’t had a meal cooked like that in ages.” You hummed.

He nodded in agreement. “I think that’s the first time I’ve sat around a table with a family since the 40′s.”

You raised an eyebrow. “Did you like it?”

“Yeah...kinda makes me wish I had my own.”

“Your own what?”

“Family.”

You bit your lip, shyly avoiding his gaze. “You’re my family, Buck.”

A light kiss was pressed to your forehead, his fingers bringing your gaze back to his. “There’s no one else I’d rather have.” The room lapsed into silence again, the clock ticking on the wall, the low sound of crickets outside.

“You have really pretty eyes.” You mumbled, tilting your head slightly as you studied them. They always held so much emotion in them, especially in contrast to when you first met him as Soldat. They matched the water you fell in, and you wouldn’t mind falling over and over into them.

“Yeah, well, you’re just really pretty inside and out, so I think you’ve got me beat, doll.” He whispered back.

“You know who else is pretty? Sarah.”

He nodded with a hum. “That’s true. But I meant what I said. You’ll always be my doll.”

“So you’re not gonna ask her out?”

He gave you a weird look as you traced his sharp jawline absentmindedly. “Nah, sweetheart. It’s just…some harmless flirting. Except on Sam’s part.”

You gave a soft huff of laughter. “Yeah…he’s gonna strangle you. It is nice to see you like that, though. Flirty. Relaxed. Happy.”

“You make me happy, sweetheart.” He hummed, nosing your temple. “The road trip helped. I’m learning everything from you. Maybe not the flirting, but the carefree part.”

You blinked at him, finger stopping for a moment as you thought. “Oh…”

You felt his fingers dance up your spine, making you shiver slightly. “What I would give to know what’s goin’ on inside that pretty lil’ head’a yours, doll.”

“I just think it’s funny you’re learning how to be carefree from me…when I just started learning how to do it myself.”

“Oh yeah?”

You nodded, your finger continuing its path down his jaw. “I think it started with the goats.”

“The goats?”

You nodded again, resting your cheek on his chest, watching your finger move up from his chin. Once you got to the end of his jaw, you lightly scratched his scruff. “In Wakanda. Our goats.” You weren’t looking at him, so you didn’t see the way he physically melted at your words, his eyes going soft, his lips turning up slightly.

“Our goats, huh?”

But your tired brain wasn’t really processing what he said, instead focusing on the features your finger was now tracing - over his lips, up his nose. “You’re pretty too, Buck. Did you know that? Inside and out.”

He craned his neck to kiss your forehead. “Go to sleep, cuddle bug.”

Nodding, you nuzzled into his chest, finger feeling over the bumps and indents on the dog tags resting near your head. You tried going to sleep, but you kept shifting, your mind not shutting off.

“Hey, sleepyhead, I’m trying to, you know, sleep.”

“Sorry.” You apologized meekly. “I just…I dunno. I can’t.”

“Are you comfortable?” He peeked open and eye to look at you questioningly. You nodded. “Is it too hot? We can take the blanket off. I know I’m a walking furnace-”

You shook your head. “No. I don’t know why. I just can’t sleep.”

He licked his lips thoughtfully, before cradling your head and guiding you back down to his chest. “Lay down, sweetheart. Relax.” He stroked your hair, moving his head down to rub circles in your back muscles, pressing down harder when he felt knots. 

You hummed, your eyes closing. “That feels good.”

“Shshsh. Just go to sleep.” His lips pressed against your head once more, lingering a bit longer than they usually do, as you felt yourself drift off. You cuddled his side, throwing a leg over his waist, before nodding off, only barely hearing his words. “Attagirl. There we are.”

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

“Doll?” You felt a shift underneath you and groaned, your eyes barely cracking open. “Hey, sleepyhead…it’s okay. I’m just gonna slip out from under ya, alright? Gonna go help Sammy with somethin’.”

You raised an eyebrow, letting him move you against the cushions as he sat up on the edge of the couch. “Sammy?”

“Yeah.” He bent over and kissed your cheek. You stretched out your limbs, about to rub your eyes, when he stopped you, kissing the inside of your wrists. “No. Not you, doll. Go back to sleep.” 

“Bu’...’m gonna help.” You slurred out, looking at him with confused, squinty eyes.

He chuckled, shaking his head. “It’s okay. Rest. You can help when you wake up again. Okay?” You mumbled out an “okay”, bringing the covers up to your chin and snuggling deeper into the cushions. “There ya go, cuddle bug. Good girl.” There was another kiss, one to your temple this time, before you slipped back into unconsciousness.

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

The next time you woke up was because of a clatter in the kitchen. You yawned and sat up, stretching, eyebrows furrowing when you realized Bucky wasn’t with you. It took you a moment to remember your conversation, which you half thought you dreamt.

“Boys!”

“Sorry!”

You chuckled at the shouts, rubbing your eyes. “I am so sorry!” Sarah apologized, looking over at you from the stove. Trying to make the boys breakfast before school. Do you want anything? Eggs? Cereal? Toast?”

“Uh, cereal’s fine.” You stretched out your back again, before throwing back the covers and standing up, a little shakily.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where Sam went, would you?”

You raised an eyebrow. “Uh, I think him and Bucky went to fix something on the boat. I don’t for sure, though.”

Sarah groaned. “He probably went to fix the stupid water pump which doens’t need fixing. Dumbass.”

You chuckled, padding over into the kitchen. “Yeah. I just work with him. I can’t imagine growing up with him.”

“Trust me; some days you want to throw him in a box and send him out to sea. Bowls are in that cupboard.”

You snickered, moving over to grab a bowl from the cupboard she pointed to. “That’s how I feel with Bucky. Sam is less often, but when those two get together…it’s a full zoo.”

She laughed at that, nodding as she got out the milk and a few boxes of cereal for you to choose from, handing you a spoon. “That I believe.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course.”

You started pouring your cereal, watching in slight amusement as she got the boys ready for school. “Bus is here! Get out the door! Bye! Love you! Make sure you take those extra lunches to-!”

“Yeah, mom! We know! Love you too!”

You gave a slight smirk as she huffed, looking around the kitchen at the pans and dishes left out. “Kids, huh?”

She gave you a smile. “Yeah. They’re a handful, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything. How about you? Any thoughts of kids?”

“Me?” Your eyes widened, nearly choking on your food. “Oh God no. Not right now, at least. I don’t even have a solid house right now. My life’s too off the walls for that.”

“And Bucky?”

You raised an eyebrow as she leaned on the counter. “Bucky? What about Bucky?”

“Does he want kids?”

“Uh…I dunno.” You shrugged, clearing your throat as you remembered your talk last night. “Kinda makes me wish I had my own.” You quickly pushed his words aside. “He hasn’t told me.”

“Wait, wait. You two…aren’t together then?”

You blinked, your eyes widening again. “Together? Me and Bucky? No…why? Did Sam say something?”

Her expression morphed into one of disbelief, crossing her arms. “Sam didn’t say anything. You guys did. Are you seriously expecting me to believe you aren’t together?”

“We’re not! I mean - he was flirting with you yesterday-”

“Right, okay. Honey, that’s flirting. And it’s harmless. The way he follows you like a puppy and you look at him like he hung the stars? That’s feelings. And that’s a lot more impactful than flirting.”

You frowned in contemplation. It was really that obvious? You were really that blind? This whole time? You knew Sam knew - but you just figured that’s because he’s been there since it started. And Sharon knew for the same reason. But Sarah? The woman you just met the day prior and had barely had a conversation with?

“It’s, uh…” You chewed on your cheek, swirling your cereal around. “It’s complicated.”

Sarah didn’t look impressed. “Do you like him?”

“I’m kinda in love with him-”

She shrugged, not letting you finish your bashful statement. “Then I don’t see what’s complicated about it.”

And that was that. She turned to clean up breakfast, leaving you alone with your thoughts.

You thought it was more complicated than that. I mean…you were in love with your best friend. Who left you. With the guy you had feelings for who just so happened to be your best friend/crush’s best friend. And now you were completely in love with your best friend’s best friend, but your best friend still had a piece of your heart.

But…you loved Bucky. And he was here. And Steve was not. And when you put it that way…you guess it wasn’t so complicated after all.

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

You snickered as you walked up behind Sarah, the woman berating the men for not leaving the water pump along like she asked.

“Hi, Sarah.”

Sam shot Bucky a warning look, who grinned, but you were surprised to see Sarah ignore him, sending you a knowing glance instead, before turning back to Sam. “I told you specifically that the water pump was not the problem, and yet, here you are.”

“Yep, Samuel.”

You chuckled, Bucky shooting you a wink. “Yeah, Samuel.”

Sam narrowed his eyes at you, turning to Sarah. “In our defense, you were supposed to be done long before you woke up.”

You nearly facepalmed at his “defensive” and you were trying so hard to hold back laughing as she told Sam off, sending them away.

“I don’t wanna hear a peep from you.” Sam pointed at you, but that only made your chortles come out, and you didn’t even bother hiding them. “She’s a very mean person.”

“It’s tough love.”

You giggled as they started arguing, slipping an arm around their waists, their arms instinctually coming up to your shoulders.

“Oh my God. A prowess?”

“Yes, Y/N. A prowess.”

“You know, maybe if you someone let me help-”

“Hey, woah! You were tired! I let you sleep! I was being nice!”

“Too late now. I’ll be lucky if Sarah lets me within a hundred feet of it!”

“She got you so good, Sammy!”

“I agree with Buck for once! You’re too snippy right now! And c’mon man! Stop flirting with my sister!”

“It’s my natural charm.”

“Charm? What charm?”

“Ouch, doll! That one hurt!”

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

“Okay.” You stepped out of the bathroom, walking over to the couch and setting the bag down on it. “I’ve got everything packed. We’ve got a little over an hour until we need to head out which gives you two time to go set something up for Sammy and maybe even a bit or training before we leave.” 

Bucky frowned. “You’re not gonna come out?”

“I will in a bit. I just got a phone call I need to take.”

Sam narrowed his eyes. “Government call?”

You gave a mocking smile. “Can you guess what they want to talk about? It’s okay. I’ll survive. It’s only a phone call, so I can always hang up. Pretend I didn’t have good service. I do it all the time.”

“I’m sure you do.” Sam chuckled. “In that case, I’m gonna go grab some stuff and get the shield.” As he walked out, he made sure to mouth at you behind Bucky’s back ‘conversation’ making you swallow thickly. You were planning on talking to Bucky anyways, and with Sam’s insistence…

“Okay, so, I was thinking when we get back-”

“Can I talk to you?”

Bucky stopped digging through the bag, blinking at you in surprise at your sudden burst. “Uh…well, we already are, so yes.” He chuckled, straightening and crossing his arms.

“I wanna have the conversation.”

He was left stunned, once again, his mouth opening and closing and his weight shifting form one foot to the other. “Like…that conversation? R-right now? Are you sure?”

You winced at her nervousness. “Sorry, sorry. I know it’s kinda…I just…I need to talk about it. Now.”

“Okay, okay. No, that’s fine. Don’t apologize. I just wasn’t expecting it.” Bucky cleared his throat. “That’s all.”

“Okay…” You breathed with a small nod. You opened your mouth, but Bucky shook his head.

“I hafta say this first; I didn’t mean to hurt you by telling you about Steve. I-I dunno what I thought. That it’d give you closure or something. I dunno. But it hurt you and I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intention.”

“Buck-”

“I was jealous. And guilty. And mad. And upset. I still am. Kinda. I guess. I dunno.” Bucky shook his head, running his hand through his hair and all you could do was gape at him as he started confessing to you. “Remember when we danced? In Madripoor? Doll…I don’t wanna dance ever again if it’s not with you. I fucking love you, Y/N. And not in the way we’ve said it before. I’m in love with you. I have been for-for a while now. I just - you were Steve’s. Steve loved you and you loved Steve and that was that and I was just the broken childhood best friend. But Steve left and he told me to take care of you and I didn’t know what to do with that, because you still love Steve. I think. I dunno. And I didn’t want to break what we have because you’re all I have left of him. You and that stupid shield. You’re my family. My home. I really meant it when I told you that. And that’s why I couldn’t tell you. Because it means too much for me to break what we have because I fell in love with my best friend’s girl. You know?”

He looked at you with pleading eyes, begging you to understand, but your brain was still trying to process what he was telling you.

“Oh God…” He groaned. “And now I just told you everything and you’re looking at me like that wasn’t what you wanted to hear and now I’m thinking this wasn’t the conversation you were thinking it was going to be-”

You were moving across the room before you could stop yourself, pulling him by the teal Henley you knew was comfortable having worn it to bed before when you visited him in New York, and slanting your lips over his.

His breathing hitched and he froze, and for a hot second you thought you made everything worse, but then he was kissing you back and his hands were on your hips and he was pulling you closer and it felt so fucking good you didn’t want to pull back for air.

“Shut up.” You muttered when you finally did pull back, your forehead against his, your eyes clenched shut. “Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up.” You pulled back to look up at him, chests heaving against each other, your eyes prickling. “I’m not good at this. I’m not good at opening up. I only ever was good at it with Steve but Bucky…I’ve been doing it with you. This whole time and I didn’t even realize it until the conversation in the car.”

He reached up to cup your cheeks, wiping away the relieved tears that were falling from the weight you were finally getting off your chest.

“I love you. I’m in love with you. How could I not be? After all that time in Wakanda? I was never Steve’s girl, Bucky. I wanted to be. Dammit, did I wanna be, but I wasn’t. Not really. And he’s gone. But you’re not. And I don’t know why it took me so long to see that. That you’re the one in front of me. You’re the one who held me when I needed it once he left. You’re the one that would listen to my rambles that I’m just realizing was most of our phone calls. You’re not just the broken childhood friend. Don’t ever think that. I don’t pick up the phone at five in the morning after searching for a friend until two for just anyone. Even Steve’s best friend. And I’m such an idiot because I’ve been pushing away my feelings all these years for Steve and then I let them out with you at the wrong time, because I love Steve, Bucky, but I’m not in love with him. Not since I fell in love with you. And I know it doesn’t make sense, but Steve was the first one I cared about and that’s just how I feel and I can try to explain, but-”

His lips crashed onto yours again and you could taste the salty tears that were pouring down your cheeks, but you didn’t care. He was holding you and he was kissing you and it was even more perfect than you thought it’d be.

“You’re adorable when you ramble, but Jesus Christ, shuddup, doll.” He breathed. “Just tell me you love me. Tell me you love me just a fraction of how much I love you.”

You looked up into those ocean eyes, your own shining with earnest affection. “James Buchanan Barnes. I love you.”

“That’s all I need to know.” He murmured against your lips, holding your head against his, still wiping away your tears. It felt like with each one that fell, you felt lighter and lighter. Like they were taking away every fear and anxiety you held within you for the past six months.

“Alright! I was thinking we could just set up in these trees out here - holy shit! Is it done? Did you do it? Did I miss it? Has the conversation been had?”

Bucky chuckled as you giggled. “He has the worst timing.” The last two words were loud enough so Sam could hear, although the man heard the whole sentence. 

“I’m gonna take that as a yes!” Sam cheered. “Halle-fucking-lujah! Finally! I was that close to locking you two in the attic.”

You shook your head at Sam’s personal celebration, drowning the rest of his words out as you looked at Bucky, who swept his thumb over your cheek catching one last tear, before pecking your lips.

“I finally get to kiss where I really want to.” He spoke softly, kissing your lips again. “Are you mine, doll?”

“I thought you said I’d always be your doll.” You answered cheekily. He grinned, kissing you again, pulling you against him by the hips.

“Okay, okay! That’s enough! We get it! You’re in love, finally, but I don’t wanna see it anymore! Now will you come help me with this shit?”

Bucky left one more lingering kiss on your lips, before you pushed him away reluctantly. “I’ll be right out.”

He nodded, moving over to help Sam carry the things he’d gathered.

You watched them put it all up from the window, gnawing on your cheek as you spun your phone in your hands. Coming to a decision, you tossed your phone in the duffle bag and walked out with it just as the boys finished.

“That was a quick phone call.” Sam raised an eyebrow.

You shrugged. “Didn’t call them. If they really need me, they’ll find me.”

Bucky grinned as you set the bag down under a tree, pecking your lips when you got close enough for him to grab by the waist to hold you against him. You rolled your eyes, shoving him playfully away and giggling as Sam let out a groan.

“Alright. Let’s see what you’ve got, Sammy.”

~

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

Bucky knew he needed the tough love talk Sam was giving him. He needed to hear it. Because, deep down, he had known it all along, he just refused to believe it. He tried doing it. Making amends. He knew he wasn’t though. And of course he knew immediately who that one person would be.

“And hey.” Bucky looked at him. “Let me tell you what. Telling my girl all that you told her? That’s a good start. I’m proud of you. Both of you. You’re already happier. I can see it in your eyes.”

Bucky chuckled, shaking his head as he thought of the gorgeous woman he nearly let slip through his fingers. He looked over to the house, where she was inside somewhere getting ready after suddenly deciding she needed to shower before they left. “I was stupid.”

“Yeah you were. You both were. I’m so relieved it’s over.” Sam nudged him. “Treat her right, Buck. She deserves it.”

“I know…I just hope I can.”

Sam shook his head. “Uh-uh. Don’t do that. You were just starting to use that cyborg brain of yours! She chose you. And before you say anything,” Sam cut Bucky off from speaking as he opened his mouth to object. “She chose you before Steve left. It just took her dumbass this long to realize it.”

Bucky nodded, a small smile on his face. “Yeah…okay…” Before he could say anything, the goddess herself stepped out, jogging over, looking absolutely amazing in her jeans and his t-shirt. “Good talk.”

Sam laughed at his quick ending of the conversation as she came up besides them. “Talking about me?” She asked cheekily, eyes shining. Bucky couldn’t help but take her under his arm, pecking her lips. Now that he could, he didn’t think he could stop. He was addicted to say the least.

Throwing Bucky a wink, Sam shrugged. “Just all the things that get on our nerves.”

“Ha ha.” She rolled her eyes. “We better get going.”

Bucky and Sam clapped hands. “You know Karli won’t quit.”

Bucky smiled. “Ah. You call us when you have a lead and we’ll be there.”

Y/N stepped forwards to give Sam a hug. “Anytime, Sammy.”

“Eh. Anytime between noon and midnight.” Bucky corrected. “Or noon and ten. Noon and five…you better just call at noon to be safe.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Sure, sure.”

“Not necessarily as a team.” Bucky continued, grabbing the bag, getting Y/N back in her spot at his side under his arm.

“Nope!”

“We’re not that good.”

“Definitely not.”

“We’re professionals.”

“Definitely.”

“And, uh, we’re partners.”

Sam snapped, pointing at him. “Coworkers.”

“But we’re also a couple of guys with a couple mutual friends.”

“Ones now gone and you’re dating the other.”

“So we’re a couple of guys…with a badass to help out.”

“I can live with that.”

“Perfect.”

“Oh my God.” Y/N let out that laugh Bucky could never get enough of, shaking her head at the two of them. “You forgot dumbasses.”

Sam shook his head. “Nuh-uh. That’s your couple name.”

“Dumbasses?”

“Oh yeah.” The three of them came to a stop, Bucky and his girl - God he loved confirming it now - facing Sam. “Thanks for the help, guys. Meant a lot.”

Bucky patted his shoulder. “Of course.”

Y/N shot him a wink. “Until we meet again, Sammy.”

“Until then, cher.”

Bucky couldn’t stop his grin as she wrapped her arms around his waist, the two of them starting to walk to the main road where she already ordered an Uber. He looked down at her, kissing her lips for the nth time in the past hour.

“I wish I didn’t wait so long,” he told her seriously. “But I’d wait a thousands more centuries if it meant I get to call you mine.”

She giggled, shaking her head. “You’re such a sap! But…” she moved up to kiss him and his heart stuttered. He knew he had a goofy grin on when she pulled back, but he couldn’t help it. Especially when she laughed again. “I have to agree with you on that, Buckaroo.”

[blu-joons]

The End Of The Long Shift ~ Kim Mingyu

“There you are,” Mingyu grinned as he tilted his head back in response to the sound of the front door opening. His smile widened as he watched you walk in, letting go of a groan as soon as you felt the comfort of home underneath your feet.

Your bag slipped down off of your arm, dropping to the floor with a thud as you shrugged your jacket off, keen to use as little energy as you could to sort yourself out upon your arrival.

After a moment, you looked across to Mingyu sat on the sofa. “Hi,” you replied, forcing a weak smile onto your face.

Through his many years with you, Mingyu knew the signs of exhaustion, recognising them straight away. Your shifts were long, and incredibly busy, you were on your feet for hours without a break as you made your way around the wards, making sure that everyone was seen to and taking care of.

“Allow me,” Mingyu offered as he walked across to greet you properly, kneeling down to the floor.

You were more than happy to stand as he pulled the ends of the knots in your bows, untying them before lifting your foot up, slipping your shoes off. Whilst there, Mingyu picked your bag back up too, placing the fallen items back into it.

“I’m guessing it’s been a long day,” he spoke, taking your hand as he stood up, guiding you across to the sofa, “why don’t you sit down for a while, let me take care of you.”

Your head nodded as Mingyu let you go so that you could drop onto the sofa. Your eyes closed as you felt your body mould into the cushion of the sofa, kicking your legs out and your feet up.

“There was a really difficult patient today,” you began to explain, throwing your head back to stare up at the ceiling, “honestly, I’m not too sure whether they’ll be there tomorrow.”

A big hand quickly held onto yours as you began to tell Mingyu the story of your day. Your voice faltered throughout, touched by the patient that you were taking care of, as ever, wishing that you could do more to be able to take his pain away.

As soon as you were done, Mingyu leaned across and pressed a kiss to the top of your head. “He’s very lucky to have you at that hospital taking care of him.”

“That’s what his wife said too as I finished my shift,” you murmured, remembering the moment perfectly, “she said there was no one else she’d rather have with him.”

A proud smile found its way onto Mingyu’s face, never failing to get used to the compliments that your patients gave you. “I know it’s hard, but why don’t we do something to stop you from worrying about work for just a little while?”

Your head nodded in agreement with Mingyu, keen to clear your head and relax for the few hours that you had at home before returning to the hospital again. You were snowed under, almost every bed was full, meaning that you were needed all hours of the day that you could work.

“I was thinking of ordering takeout anyway, but I think it’s what you need to give you a bit of energy,” Mingyu suggested as your head tilted to the side to look across at him, “I’ve got the evening to be able to drive you back to the hospital too.”

Your hand stretched out for Mingyu, allowing you to hold onto both of them, “you don’t need to do that, I’m thinking food, a nap, and then I’ll be good to head off.”

“If you think I’m going to let you drive when you’re as tired as this, you’re wrong,” Mingyu assured you, keeping his eyes on you, “I can pick you up in the morning too and drop you off before I head to the studio, then you can stay here and catch up on plenty of sleep.”

Your head nodded, too tired to argue with Mingyu, knowing that he wouldn’t let you leave the house without letting him drive anyway. “Can you decide what we’re going to order, I need to eat before I go anywhere.”

“Why don’t you decide?” Mingyu offered.

Mingyu let go of one of your hands so that he could pass his phone across to you, letting you decide what you wanted. You tried to protest, taking out your phone, but Mingyu had already made up his mind, he was treating you for dinner.

“Do you want me to get you a fresh uniform to wear later on too?” He offered, noticing the creases that you had in your shirt, “I’ve got some bits that I need to wash anyway.”

Straight away, Mingyu could tell by the look in your eyes that you were keen for your uniform to be washed, but what you weren’t so keen on, was having to take your uniform off and change, with your body far too exhausted to move to do so.

Luckily for you, Mingyu helped to sit you up before unbuttoning the shirt that you wore, taking your badge and lanyard off, placing them on the coffee table. After a few minutes, he returned with a fresh shirt to wear, slipping it around you and buttoning it up.

Once he was sure that the fit was perfect, he gave you the rest of your items back too, filling your pockets and placing your lanyard around your neck before proudly placing your badge back on, giving it a quick brush before placing it pride of place on your uniform.

“And just like that, we’re done,” he chuckled as he pulled away, slowly lowering your body back down across the sofa.

Your bright eyes looked across to Mingyu as he moved your old work shirt out of the way, “you are far too good to me sometimes, do you know that?”

“You do things like this for me too.”

“I’m a nurse, it’s my job to care for people,” you joked, watching on as Mingyu shuffled closer towards you, sitting as close to the sofa as he could. “I’d be pretty rubbish if I could take care of patients but not come home and take care of my boyfriend.”

Mingyu’s head nodded in agreement with you as he laced his hands back in with yours. “And because you do such a good job of caring for others, it makes people like me happy taking care of you in return for all of the wonderful things that you do.”

Every person that knew Mingyu knew that he was proud of the work that you did, whenever he told anyone about your job, he did it with the proudest smile. He knew you had tough moments, and for those, he was always there, but he knew too just how much you loved being there for people.

“My day has already been a rollercoaster without you being cute,” you teased.

Mingyu’s shoulders shrugged back at you, reminding you once again that he was never going to stop himself from being proud of you. Your shifts were long, but you never complained, returning always with a smile on your face.

At times he never got to see you, but he was still more than happy to share. Every time you walked out of the door, Mingyu knew that you were doing good for someone, and that was the only thing that mattered to him.

“I can’t help being adorable,” he smugly assured you, bringing a laugh out of you as the smile on your face widened, “you can blame my parents.”

Your eyes rolled at his smirk, squeezing gently against his hands. “I’m so lucky that I get to come home to you to make me smile.”

“There are hundreds of people who are very lucky to have you,” Mingyu smiled, “especially me.”

“You’re the sweetest, thank you Mingyu.”

---

Masterlist

[rhysdasiorarchive]

“Yes,” Rhys replied sarcastically, interjecting before Roland had a chance to finish. “Of course, this is all wholly unnecessary. I only suggested it to torment you further as you clearly haven’t been through enough in the space of one afternoon.” Shooting a stern glance in Roland’s direction as his voice trailed off, Rhys let his words hang in the air between them and hoped that Roland would at least attempt to factor a little logic into his comprehension of the situation. If he was going to whinge and whine, he could take himself and his problems elsewhere. “Don’t throw a tantrum now. We both know you don’t have the energy for it. You’ll only make yourself feel worse. You can complain as much as you like once we’re all finished here.”

It seemed as if he still had some complaint left in him after all. Stifling the urge to roll his eyes for what would have likely been the millionth time in Roland’s presence by now, Rhys watched on in muted exhaustion as the councilman rattled off a dozen unimportant observations. The only plus side to any of the ranting was that it seemed to outweigh the side effects of his suffering for a moment and fleetingly provided a glimpse at Roland’s usual self. At the very least, things weren’t as dire as they could be if Roland still had enough energy in him to launch into such a passionate speech. “I don’t necessarily consider it home, so it doesn’t bother me. As I said, it’s got a roof and walls. That’s enough. It doesn’t have to be more. It does the bare minimum for me and that’s all I need it to do. That’s all there is to it. For once, you’re the one overthinking things here.” Evidently, this wasn’t going to be something that Roland would let go. The thought of him attempting to change anything in here was a nightmarish one, but if agreeing to it meant getting this topic of conversation finished with, it was a necessary evil. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. We’ll discuss it another time, okay?” 

He watched Roland settle into place before stepping closer to gently encourage him to lay down properly. It wasn’t a necessary requirement but Rhys had been taught to always make the individual in need as comfortable as possible before imbuing them with magic of any kind, especially when it came to matters of healing. “I know it’s the least relaxing thing in the world to be told to do so, but I’d like you to relax as much as you possibly can. I’d tell you to keep your breathing slow, but… well, we both know that’s pointless.” Laughing softly to himself, Rhys leant down to press a kiss to Roland’s forehead before straightening up to gently rest both hands over the now-healed injury and allowed his restoration magic to properly flow through, a comforting warmth soon radiating through to seep into Roland. Regardless of how much it’d likely take out of Rhys, knowing that it would restore Roland to his prime and rid him of the chill that haunted him was worth the consequential dip in power for an hour or so. “That feel okay?” He murmured softly, tentatively tearing his attention from his work for a second. “If it’s too much at any point, let me know.”

As the last surge of magic settled into Roland’s system, Rhys took a small step back and steepled his fingers as he scanned his gaze over the councilman carefully to get a better read on his aura. So far, so good. “I doubt you’ll need it now, but I’ll throw a little purification magic in as we discussed, just for good measure. Might as well cover all the necessary bases while you’re here.” It was done with a simple flick of his wrist – there wasn’t need for any theatrics, not when such a miniscule amount was required. The restoration magic alone would provide more than enough aid. “Let it settle for a few minutes. Don’t move, just let it do what it needs to. If you decide to start launching into another gesture-filled monologue, you’re only gonna prolong it.” Moving to perch beside him, Rhys reached out to take one of Roland’s hands in his, giving it a gentle reassuring squeeze. “That being said, you’ve been a wonderful patient. I’m surprised by how charming your bedside manner is when you’re not talking.”

"I'm going to complain, you know I will. I hate doing things slowly unless it's really worth it and this hardly feels worth it. But I'll...try, I suppose." Roland made a face since the whole thing sounded unpleasant and like it would take far too long but Rhys seemed to think it was very necessary. He probably knew more about it than Roland did so Roland would just have to trust him. It was true that Roland very much disliked being told what to do in just about every circumstance and it often made him want to do the exact opposite. Apparently, it couldn't be helped, though. That was annoying but he would have to get used to it, at least according to Rhys. He was still going to complain about it, though, that was practically guaranteed.

Rhys didn't look very happy and Roland supposed he had a right. Roland wouldn't have been very happy if someone had come into his suite and begun criticizing his aesthetic decisions or decor. It was the general lack of both that Roland found particularly disturbing here, though. There was no personality! No personal touches really at all and it was just so...sad and horrible because of it. Rhys' explanation did nothing to soothe Roland's horror at the state of things. "But isn't this, for all intents and purposes, your home? Where you relax, get away, all those things? No wonder you spend so little time here when it's so...empty. There are no comforts!" That was clearly particularly horrifying to Roland. Rhys tried to divert them back to what they'd come to do and Roland sighed. "This is a very pressing matter, too. We'll have to do something about it at some point." Or maybe Roland would just do something about it. Looking around once more with a slight shudder, he made his way into the equally depressing and empty bedroom and sat down on the bed. "Come, then. Lay on hands or what have you. The horror of these barren accommodations can only distract me for so long." They were very distracting but he supposed he might get over it eventually.

[the-insomniac-emporium]

Bound Blood (Cassandra Dimitrescu/Reader, Soulmate AU) Pt. 3

Fandom: Resident Evil: Village Rating: T+ for language and violence Warnings: Choking (kinda) Summary: Local feral human makes a friend, tries to sleep next to local mean vampire, then gets a taste of their own medicine Previous Chapters: 1: Sharing Is (Not) Caring; 2: Bloodbath, Baby!

3: Haunt Me Dearly

What a lovely crimson mess I’ve made, you think, watching as the last of the bloody water drained from the bathtub. There were still several splashes of red along the sides, where you had leaned on or otherwise touched. Frowning, you considered whether or not to clean up after yourself. Surely it wouldn’t be one of your captors doing the cleaning? In that case, you think, I don’t want to make any enemies out of the servants. First you had to finish binding your wounds. Wouldn’t want to risk getting them dirty so soon after washing them, after all. Except you weren’t even sure that you could properly wrap them on your own, considering the positioning of your injuries.

“Ah, fucking hell…” You muttered, scowling a little. Then you remembered that Cassandra had sent a maid to wait outside the bathroom for you. Maybe they could help? Nodding to yourself, you threw on your new undergarments and pair of trousers, deciding to save the shoes for later. Once you were ‘decent’, you slowly opened the door, peeking out from behind it. Before long you were making eye contact with an unfamiliar woman, who looked very confused. “Any chance you could help me bandage my shoulder? I can’t do it without help, and something tells me Cassandra’s not going to lend me a hand.” With that said, you gave her a friendly smile, hoping to make up for the awkwardness of the situation.

“Of course! It is my honor to serve a guest of my Lady,” the maid- servant, maybe- said, giving a short curtsy. Admittedly you’re a little confused by her response. Still, you gladly welcome her assistance, moving back into the bathroom to grab the gauze. Although you intend to do as much as you can on your own, the woman is quick to take over completely. “Please, allow me,” she continued, carefully beginning to wrap your wounds.

“Are all the workers here so polite? I can’t imagine anyone actually enjoys working here, all things considered,” you mused, squinting at the middle distance. At that, the servant tenses up, clearly not expecting you to speak ill of her employers. Well, she had called you a guest. “Don’t be surprised, friend. Less than an hour ago I was fit to be consumed by ‘your Lady Cassandra’. Only reason I’m not dead right now is because of a stupid blood bond,” you explained, tone dripping with irritation. This time the servant doesn’t flinch at all, instead nodding slowly, taking a moment to let your words sink in. During this pause, you decide to introduce yourself, just in case the two of you might see each other frequently.

“I… see. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, no matter the circumstances of your presence here. You can call me Daphne, though I must warn you that I am not one for, ahem, gossip about my masters,” she replied, finishing her binding of your shoulder wound. Next she searched through the cabinet by the sink, looking for a medicinal salve of some sort. Once she found it she was right back to work. The substance stung a tad on your skin, but you could hardly complain, seeing as it would help fight off possible infections.

“You sure about no gossip? What if we call it ‘helping me get acclimated to my new situation’? I’m a fish outta water here, Daphne,” you suggested, turning your head to look her in the eyes. At first she ignored you, focusing on rubbing the medicine into your skin. Eventually she meets your gaze, briefly, and releases a quiet sigh.

“You are free to ask questions-” you start to celebrate, though not for long- “just as I am free to withhold answers. Though I may be more responsive if you can tell me one thing… Why was Lady Cassandra’s dress wet?” Daphne asked, making you freeze in place. Of course she wanted the one answer you didn’t feel confident about giving. She’s quick to notice this, though, and laughs to herself. “Well, I suppose some things must remain a mystery. Now let’s get your face cleaned up…”

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

By the time you make it to Cassandra’s room, the sun is starting to rise, leaking in through the castle windows. Exhaustion weighs you down, making you want to fall immediately into the nearest bed. As it stands, that was none other than your soulmate’s, though it was currently occupied. For a moment you hover in her doorway, contemplating whether or not you should steal her blanket. Floor can’t be too bad, you think, right? Before you can decide you notice Cassandra stirring from her sleep.

“What took you so fucking long?” She asked groggily. Now she’s sitting up, blanket clinging loosely to her body, and you realize that she’s not wearing a shirt. Though a blush rishes up your cheeks, you’re certain it’s too dark for Cassandra to notice. Or at least you hope so. Wanting to think about something other than what she was (or was not) wearing, you focus your energy on responding.

“Isn’t it obvious? I got invited to a sick orgy on the way back, and I wasn’t about to turn that down, so…” You trailed off, gesturing idly with your hands. The movement stretches your shoulder more than you’d like, resulting in an ache that lasts several seconds. It distracts you to the point where you almost can’t catch the object Cassandra promptly throws at you. “What the hell…?” It’s a shoe, as far as you can tell, that definitely would have hurt, had it hit its intended target. “Such a lovely gift, babe. I will treasure it for the rest of my days, forever keeping it as a reminder that you-” your tone shifts from a false joy to deadpan- “are a piece of shit. Now, seriously, where am I supposed to sleep? Is there a walk-in closet I can camp in? Or do I get the bed, while you sleep in a fucking coffin or something?”

Before Cassandra has a chance to respond, you’re walking further into her room, wanting to take a quick look around. There’s a large dresser that you quickly toss her shoe inside, as well as a window sill with a built-in reading nook. Trading your tiredness for sheer dickery, you throw open the curtains, letting the light pour in (and nearly blind you in the process). Half of you expects your soulmate to screech in response. Maybe even turn to ash. Instead, you hear her moving, and you turn to find her laying back down, facing away from you.

“When you’re done fucking around, come over here and sleep. I will knock you out if I have to,” Cassandra muttered, still sounding half asleep. As much as you wanted to know if she’d go through with her threat, you are exhausted. Begrudgingly you approach the bed. It’s certainly large enough for two people, even having enough room for you to be completely separate from each other. When you start to climb in, you find yourself overwhelmed for a moment, surprised at the quality of the sheet fabric. Exactly how rich were these vampiric assholes? This room alone seemed to be worth more than you had ever known.

This was, perhaps, the one bright side to your situation: A comfortable state of existence. Well, as comfortable as one could get in a place like this. So lovely on the outside, a muse worthy of a thousand artists, yet hiding far darker horrors within… much like the woman you now found yourself laying beside. Why me? Why her? What could possibly bring the two of us together, you think, other than a cruel fate? There’s a pain in your chest, dishearteningly similar to heartache. Damning the universe, and your blood bond, and yourself, you think ‘fuck it’ before sliding closer to Cassandra. One arm drapes itself over her waist, while you slowly lean your head against her back.

In an instant she’s tense, not even breathing, waiting for you to reveal whatever trick hid up your sleeve. But no trick comes, just your hand meeting hers, squeezing softly. Suddenly the tension is gone. None remains, not even lingering in the air, and the two of you soon drift off to sleep...

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

Shaking, body made a wreck through tremors, tears staining her cheeks. Breathing comes hard, each shift of her lungs bringing with it a mighty ache. Someone’s holding her, whispering sweet nothings in her ear, fingers tracing circles against her back. But she’s lost in her dream, eyes clenched shut. Visions flash before her gaze like lightning in a storm. There’s no time to process, no opportunity to prepare for the thunder that follows. Every strike is a punch to the gut she can’t ignore. When release finally comes, it is not a gentle kiss to her forehead, or a reassuring hand on her own, but rather an intense surge of pain that jolts her awake.

Cassandra nearly screams as she sits up, hands reflexively going to hold her head. One of them stings, bad, and she notices what look like bite marks on the side. For a moment her confusion acts as a welcome distraction. Then she’s looking next to her, and the puzzle practically puts itself together. There you are, one hand in your mouth, an eyebrow raised as you stare at her. Ignoring the lingering memories of her dream, she turns all of her rage towards you. Quickly she grabs ahold of your arm, forcefully yanking your hand out of your mouth, even though it makes your teeth dig in a little deeper. It takes more willpower than she wants to admit to stop herself from strangling you right then and there.

“I didn’t know monsters could even have nightmares,” you taunted. Before you know what’s happening, Cassandra is lunging towards you, pressing her forearm against your throat. There’s just enough pressure to make talking difficult. Both of her yellow eyes are filled with hatred, aimed right at you, but you can’t help but laugh. “Ya know, I did try to wake you up nicely. I should have known you only respond to violence. Next time, though, I’ll remember to stay a safe distance away.”

“You don’t know anything, dipshit. Anyone else would know better than to spout so much fucking ignorance, but nobody taught you how to behave, huh?” Cassandra growled, applying more pressure with her arm, leaving you unable to reply (for once). “You’re a goddamn mutt, aren’t you? Thrown to the street like the garbage you are, left to live in the gutter, feeding off of trash like a fucking cannibal. You should be honored to be allowed anywhere near me. You should be worshiping me, for fuck’s sake!” Black dots form in your vision, a dark halo edging into the corners of your eyes, as your lungs beg for air. But you’re grinning. You’re showing your teeth, bright and proud, knowing full well that you have won this round. As soon as realization dawns on Cassandra’s face she’s pulling herself off of you.

Still, you are left gasping, clutching at your neck as she hurriedly gets dressed for the day. By the time you can see properly again, she’s left without another word. Even as she stalks down the corridor, eagerly rushing away from you, she hears your laughter howling through the castle. It digs into her brain, taunting her. Soon enough you’ll stop, light headed, but she will still hear it echoing inside her mind. You’ll haunt her just as much as her wicked dreams. Hopefully more.

[kaeyasaki]

📹 — :; “face-to-face” GQ interview

-> inspired by the “face-to-face, A$AP rocky answers 18 from rihanna | GQ interview”, except i make the questions a little more personal because i don’t think anyone cares what gojo’s ‘fav curse word is’

-> ft :; gojo satoru

-> interview writing layout heavily inspired by @rintaroll

y/n: hey GQ! i’m here to do face-to-face with my co worker, gojo!

gojo: coworker? is that all i am to you?

y/n: be grateful i even acknowledged you.

gojo: you wound me.

y/n: yet you’re still smiling.

gojo flashes a playful frown to the camera as y/n roll their eyes before pulling out a stack on cards.

y/n: so first question, what’s the hardest part about working with me?

gojo: everything.

y/n: i’m serious.

gojo: and so am i, you make it hard for me to work with you because we never get anything done.

y/n: don’t make it sound like it’s my fault! we never get anything done because you get too distracted and drag me into it!

gojo: maybe you should discipline me more...

he teases and sends you a wink to which you dismiss quickly.

y/n: you’re a grown man, you shouldn’t need me to discipline you.

gojo: what if i want you to?

y/n: would you just answer the question seriously or i’ll really start to think you don’t think we work well together!

gojo: okay, i was kidding... you’re actually a pretty good teammate when we’re sent on missions together, i have fun with you... maybe a little too much fun...

y/n: don’t give them the wrong idea we’re nothing like that!

you cringe at him as he laughs before the camera cuts moving onto the next question

y/n: okay, second question, answer seriously from now on, got it?

gojo: anything for you~

y/n: you disgust me... anyway, how well would you say you take care of yourself?

gojo: you mean like... self care wise?

y/n: yeah, like self care!

gojo: hmm well, i’d say i take care of myself pretty well, after all, pampered men are attractive men right?

y/n: i mean sure, i think it’s attractive when a man takes care of himself but if that mans you... maybe not so much.

gojo: you don’t mean that! you must be somewhat attracted to me.

y/n: can’t say i am no.

gojo: lying is a sin you know.

y/n: you’re totally straying away from my initial question.

you groan and face the camera and gojo tilts his head and laughs.

gojo: sorry, well, i’d say i clearly look after myself very well which should be to your liking.

y/n: you’ll never be to my liking, but it’s nice to hear you take care of yourself well and that you’re not just an annoying man, but rather an annoying but hygienic man.

gojo: you’re so horrible to m-

the camera cuts as you start laughing and gojo starts whining.

y/n: we’re getting through these quickly now let’s keep it that way.

gojo: you know, we’d be half done by now if you stopped insulting me every chance you get.

y/n: i’m the quizzer, you’re the answerer, you answer when spoken to.

gojo turns to face the grinning camera crew behind the cameras on set.

gojo: now do you see what i have to put up with! i’m a victim i’m telling you!

camera man: no no, keep it up, you guys have nice chemistry

y/n: chemistry? not to be rude but you must’ve failed science, the only clear dialogue between us is practically conversation between an adult and child.

the camera crew laugh and gojo feigns offence before you clear your throat and look at the next card.

y/n: anyways, when was the first time you were majorly recognised as ‘famous’?

gojo: ah, a long time ago i need to think, give me a sec.

you pretend to yawn as gojo thinks about his answer before smiling at you.

gojo: my second year i think. that’s when i really started getting noticed for my talent.

y/n: practically a star since birth i see, how do you do it?

gojo laughs at your sarcasm as you grin back, evenly matched banter between the two of you flowing on set.

gojo: i’m handsome and gifted, i was made for this kinda life, it all comes naturally to me.

y/n: you know what doesn’t come naturally to you though?

gojo: hm?

y/n: that dress sense.

gojo: what’s wrong with my outfit?

y/n: bland, basic, and the way you chose itadori’s uniform was just straight up ugly!

gojo: he liked it!

y/n: the poor boy probably didn’t have the heart to express his disgust to your face.

gojo: well, until he does i’m gonna believe he likes it and my dress sense is more than up to standard.

y/n: if that’s what helps you sleep at night i guess...

the camera cuts with the two of you playfully bickering with each other, any previous speculation of hostility now gone as it’s clear for watchers to see just how your dynamic together works.

y/n: question four! what’s the first thing you notice in a person?

gojo: in general or when analysing to an extent?

y/n: in generals fine.

gojo: hm i would say looks, but i don’t wanna look too shallow on camera.

y/n: they would’ve just recorded you saying that. don’t be shocked if you’re trending on twitter later for it.

gojo: it’s fine, as long as i’m trending who cares what it’s about.

y/n: i can see the headlines already... ‘gojo satoru, top sorcerer, favoured teacher at jujutsu high and big narcissist’

you smile smugly at the man as he laughs along with you with the camera crew from behind.

gojo: yeah yeah whatever you say, but if i had to answer honestly, i’d say what energy they give off. i don’t let it bother me too much, but i’d say i’m pretty good at judging what someone’s like based off of what energy they’re giving out.

y/n: i’m shocked, that’s a pretty good answer... for you anyway.

gojo: i try my best for you.

y/n: mhm sure, keep that attitude next time we’re working together and maybe we’ll finish jobs quicker.

gojo snickers and smiles gently at you, his direction is no longer faced towards the camera, but rather solely directed at you as you clear your throat.

y/n: yeah anyway, good answer. that might just get you uncancelled.

gojo: i haven’t even been cancelled yet don’t speak it into existence!

y/n: i’ll ‘try my best for you’

you’re both smiling softly at each other after you mock one of gojo’s previous replies, there’s no speech cut off as a comfortable silence rests for a moment as the scene cuts.

y/n: okay, i want genuine answers only.

gojo: that’s what i’ve been giving you from the start!

you jokingly narrow your eyes at him before looking down at the next card.

y/n: well okay then, so, what was the first thing you noticed about me when we first met?

gojo: unusually bold question from you.

y/n: just shut up and answer, i was recommended to ask this.

gojo: sure, sure.

y/n: would you please just answer so we can get this over with?

gojo sighs dramatically and sits up properly and nods.

gojo: naturally, for anyone else i would say energy but for you, ah, i think it was your pretty face.

y/n: shut up, i said genuine answers only.

gojo: i am being genuine! aren’t i allowed to call you pretty?

y/n: you aren’t allowed to answer falsely, serious answers please.

gojo: you make me sound like i’m down bad, honestly, you’re very attractive to me, your energy was just a bonus, i’m serious, stop doubting yourself so much.

he smiles your way, not playfully nor forced, it’s a soft and genuine smile to calm your nerves, it’s a sign of truthfulness on his end. before you answer he clears his throat, slight hurry in his voice.

gojo: -of course, we were younger back then, since then you’ve gotten wrinkles and is that a few grey hairs i see? you also slouch-

y/n: -okay okay you can stop!

the two of you laugh as you gently kick his chair, the fact you’re being recorded and being watched by a whole camera crew totally forgotten about.

y/n: okay, last question finally!

gojo: admit you had fun with me.

y/n: i see you everyday, today was nothing special.

gojo: you wouldn’t say we’ve bonded more over this interview?

y/n: you’re still as irritating as before this interview so no.

you grin and gojo scoffs before shuffling in his chair a little before a sly smile draws across his face.

gojo: go on then, last question.

y/n: would you sl-

gojo: go on, ask it, we’re waiting.

gojo is leaning on the palm of his hand, teasing smile playing on his lips and y/n stares at the card in disbelief.

y/n: you definitely wrote this! i would never ask this! there’s been a mistake with the cards or something

camera man: ah no, they’re all the questions that were on your form you sent in prior to the interview, these are the questions you apparently wanted to be asked. sorry, you’ll have to make do.

y/n: i’m not asking that.

gojo: come on now, don’t upset your supportive fans.

y/n: i know you wrote this, you’re so infuriating!

you glare at him but not with complete hostility, the situation slightly humorous to you despite your protests.

gojo: i mean well.

gojo shrugs as you sigh and stare at the card before speaking.

y/n: fine then have it your way. would you... would you sleep with me?

gojo: how brave! asking me on camera in the middle of an interview! how could i dare say no!

gojo is laughing along with the camera crew as you fight back a smile, refusing to admit his interference was entertaining.

y/n: at least take me out for dinner first.

gojo: now you’re asking me to take you out? you’re really bold today aren’t you!

y/n: oh shut up! i didn’t mean it like that! this is totally your fault it’s awkward now.

you’re grinning at this point not caring that your flirtatious banter with gojo is being recorded and is soon to be edited and posted for the world to see.

gojo: i mean, i’m free tomorrow if that’s good with you?

y/n: what? no, i- this wasn’t even a serious question shut up!

gojo: i’ll shut up if you let me take you out... and maybe then i’ll sleep with you after if that’s your request.

y/n: i can’t stand you!

gojo: but you do everyday, that must count for something right?

y/n: i hate you.

gojo: quite the contrary, i’m sure i’ll get you to admit that by tomorrow though.

y/n: ...i’ll be waiting on it then.

the two of you are smiling at each other, laughter dying down as you once again softly kick gojo’s chair. he pays no mind to it as a moment of fondness occurs, viewers clearly able to see the evident bond between the two of you.

y/n: okay well... that concludes our face-to-face, GQ interview, thanks for watching and putting up with him!

gojo: maybe we’ll come back to do an interview about our date after i take you out, who knows, maybe i’ll get to ask you to rate me in bed!

y/n: gross. you sound like a fifteen year old boy.

gojo: am i at least a hot one?

y/n: i refuse to catch a case.

gojo cackles as you laugh too, the camera fades out with the scene of the two of you softly smiling at each other as the interview concludes.

[zhongliologist]

Shibari + Zhongli canon compliant nsfw

Pairing: Zhongli x Gender Neutral!reader

Genre: SMUT SMUT SMUT!! 

Words: 3.9k

AN: Hi anon!! Sorry this took a while! THANK YOU FOR REQUESTING THIS ONE!! I’m glad I had experience writing something like this before skajdha I decided I can’t fit this into a small drabble, so here’s like a really long version lmao my two itty bitty braincells are now in no-brain mode, so this might be full of typos or errors. 

*WARNING!! THIS IS PURE SMUT. IF YOU ARE A MINOR, IT IS UPON YOUR DISCRETION. PLEASE READ RESPONSIBLY*

***

When Zhongli first heard the word while on a stroll late one night, he had realized that there was indeed an artform he had yet to encounter or at least heard of. His curiosity peaked, it was only a matter of time before he finally had to give in and ask you what it was.

“YN, if I may,” he began, settling the cup of tea to the table. “There is something I wish to know.”

Attention caught, you raised your brows at him—surprised that there was actually something Zhongli has yet to know—as you took a mouthful of wonton noodles.

“Sure, ask away,” you replied, chewing.

“Well, this was several nights ago,” Zhongli recounted, his deep voice serious. “I was passing by a group of shipbuilders and I couldn’t help but over hear their conversation.”

You hummed, prompting him to continue while stuffing another serving of blackened bass in your mouth.

“Their discussion involved an artform popular in Inazuma, and apparently has spread all over Teyvat as well,” he continued. “Unfortunately, I have yet to hear about this certain artform. Could you care enlighten me please?”

Leaning your head to the side, you wondered what it was. There wasn’t any popular art trend nowadays which Zhongli doesn’t know, so you became to grow curious as well.

“Did you catch the name of it?”

Zhongli nodded. “Yes. It’s called shibari.”

You almost choked on the food you were eating.

“Are you sure that’s what you heard?”

“I believe it is what I have heard,” he replied. “Is there something wrong?”

Sighing, you were going to have a lot of trouble explaining it to him. It was painfully obvious how Zhongli is so out of touch from the pleasures of mankind.

Pinching the bridge of your nose, you decided it was best for him to know, before he does something unexpected.

“It’s kind of a sexual play,” you told him, but despite your words, Zhongli only glanced at you, eyes blinking.

Watching him, you noticed he had placed his hand over his chin—a habit he had whenever he was thinking. Whatever comes out of his thoughts, you were beginning to become nervous.

“I see. So, performing art during intercourse…interesting,” he mumbled to himself. “It is not too far off considering the fact that intercourse could also be deemed as a form of art, wherein it takes specialized honed skill to elicit a pleasurable result. To take two art forms and combine them in one act…I am astonished at the inventiveness of man.”

You took a bite from a dumpling, eyes jaded. “It’s not that grand, you know.”

“Now that I am aware of its existence,” Zhongli continued, paying no heed to your comment. “I wish to experience it myself. YN, I must request for your assistance.”

The dumpling you were eating fell back to your plate. “…what?”

“This…this shibari. I wish to partake in this now popular art form,” he repeated, but you only became more flabbergasted.

“Didn’t you hear me say that it’s a sexual play?!”

“I did. That is why it must be you,” Zhongli replied, taking your hand and placing it over his smirking lips. “You are my lover after all.”

Flustered, you had no choice but to agree. You knew of Zhongli’s immense curiosity and nothing is going to stop him from finding out what he wants to find out. Moreover, you wouldn’t really want him to experience it with someone else.

“F-fine,” you conceded, still nervous. “But give me a month to prepare. You should also ready yourself.”

Wondering why he had to wait and ‘ready’ himself, Zhongli leaned his head to the side. “Very well, but why a month?”

You scratched your nape as you averted your gaze somewhere. “I don’t have the right stuff, and I don’t have enough knowledge to do it properly. So give me some time.”

*

It had been a month since that conversation had occurred, and Zhongli began to feel a little bit antsy as the day drew near. It wasn’t common for him to feel this nervous energy, always maintaining his calm and composure. But it was different this time.

Since that discussion with you, you had banned any sort of sexual act from sex to masturbation, all except from small kisses; and as someone who had gotten used to your presence in his arms at night, Zhongli instantly felt withdrawal symptoms cloud his dignified countenance.

Zhongli inhaled sharply as soon as you entered his room, anticipation deeply running in his veins. You took a shower right after him, making him wait and allowing his imagination to run rampant inside his head.

“Sorry, did I make you wait?” you asked, making your way to the bed in nothing but a bathrobe.

“No, it’s alright,” Zhongli replied, his long hair now freely flowing after he had taken off his ponytail when he was taking a shower.

Running your hands through his dark hair, you admired the way they slipped against your skin as if they were made of silk. Absentmindedly, you began to braid his hair in a lose coif, making him relax underneath your touch.

“Um…er…YN, are we going to—”

You hummed, interrupting his words as you smiled. “Eager, aren’t we?”

“I fear that I may longer be able to contain my anticipation,” he confessed, feeling your hands on his back through the thin robe he was wearing.

Grinning, you knelt down and embraced him from the back; giving his temple a small kiss. “It seems like I don’t have to ask you if you’re sure about this.”

Loving how you felt so warm around him, Zhongli smiled as well as he intertwined his fingers between yours. “I do feel nervous, but it was I who wished to know; thus I must see it to the end.”

“Well, that settle’s it then,” you replied as you removed yourself from his shoulders. “Before we start, I need to remind you that we can always stop if you can no longer handle it, ok?”

Zhongli sighed. “I am confident that I can handle something like this.”

“Please stop being so stubborn,” you retorted back, annoyed that he really has to insist he wouldn’t need it. “Since it will take you forever to decide, I’ve picked one for you. It’s Rex Lapis. Say it when it gets too much.”

He scoffed. “You retaliate in the most absurd of ways, yet very well, I’ll keep it mind. Nonetheless, that does not mean I will use it.”

You grinned. “You’ll take that back soon enough.”

As you said those words, you shifted from your seat and faced him; hands cupping his chin. There was a look of surprise in Zhongli’s expression as soon as you tilted his head up to meet your eyes—too slow to react at the situation.

“Now, from here on out, I’m the one in charge. Any misdemeanor will warrant due punishment,” you began, voice firm and authoritative. “Are we clear, Zhongli?”

It took him some time to adjust at the sudden shift in the air; stunned at the tone you were giving him. This was probably the first time he had seen you take the lead, and it might’ve given him some sort of whiplash.

“Answer me,” you demanded, which made him jerk his attention back to you.

“I—uh…yes…”

“Very good.”

Smiling at his response, you removed yourself before him and sat just beside him with an easy expression. “Well then, why don’t you take off that robe? Just the robe though, leave your underwear on.”

Brought on by the awkward situation and the fact that you just ordered him to strip, Zhongli’s face immediately heated up to a few degrees. It was strange that he was feeling it for some reason—was this the actual appeal of the performative art form? Or was this simply one of your whims?

As he removed the silk tie tying his robe shut and slid it on the floor, you instructed him to quietly kneel down on the bed before you; hands neatly placed on top of his lap.

“Y-YN…? What is this…?” he asked, confusion marring his youthful face. It was embarrassing to sit on the bed that way, wearing nothing but his underwear, his dick beginning to form a tent.

Yet you only smiled at him.

“Don’t worry. We’re getting to the actual act,” you replied, crawling towards him before placing your hands on his bare chest. “If you can hold on till then, I might actually award you, you know?”

Leaning down, you immediately captured his lips in a deep kiss, moving softly yet sensually against his. Cupping his cheeks, you pushed your tongue inside and easily played with his. For some reason, this felt way hotter than the kisses you previously shared, with Zhongli unable to keep his hands to himself and began to wrap his arms around your waist.

You broke off the kiss with a click of your tongue; your thumb still on his swollen lips.

“YN…”

“What did I say about touching?” you asked, eyes holding nothing but pure mischief.

As soon as he heard you, Zhongli knew he had made a mistake and instantly rescinded his embrace; eliciting a chuckle from you.

“I—uh, forgive me…” he hurriedly told you, his voice beginning to lose their strength as he stuttered and tumbled at the words he used to be so eloquent with. As someone who has prided of his calm demeanor, Zhongli felt a surge of embarrassment at how he easily succumbed to your touch.

It was so adorable to see him like this; all flustered and nervous, making you want to see more of those reactions you have yet to see.

“Stay there. I’ll be right back,” you told him and stood up; an idea forming in your thoughts.

The moment you left; thoughts of things he might’ve done wrong kept repeating inside his head. He was scared that he might’ve crossed something which he shouldn’t have—the sounds of you rummaging through your belongings only exacerbated the nervousness that was already in his system.

However, you were not gone for long. He could sense you behind him, daring not to move or look back, and as soon as you draped a cold silk cloth over his eyes, he instantly realized what he had eagerly signed up for.

For one, as the Geo Archon, it was unimaginable for him to be in such a position, but for some reason, Zhongli found it incredibly arousing to have him at your mercy—to be restricted and ordered around; to be at the other end of the spectrum from what he was used to?

This is strange indeed…

“Don’t you agree that everything feels more vivid when you’re blindfolded?” you asked, now back on his lap; and despite being robbed of sight, he could tell you were smirking. “Does it feel good, Zhongli?”

“I…I cannot be certain…” he replied, the feeling of your intense stare sending shivers down his spine. “I haven’t experienced something like this before…”

At his hesitation, you could only giggle and gave him a small kiss. “Well, there’s a first for everything, but this one here…”

Your voice trailed off, your hand effortlessly finding his half hard dick and pressed on it harshly; eliciting a strangled moan from him. “It’s been feeling good for a while now, don’t you think so Zhongli?”

“I…I—!” He was at a lost for words; the pleasure he felt intoxicating his mind. You were right, the blindfold seemed to heightened his senses to such degrees of vividness.

“I can’t blame you really,” you told him, still toying with his member with your finger but not fully committing on pumping it up and down. “I did tell you to hold off for a month, of course, you’d be unusually sensitive and horny.”

If Zhongli thought his face was hot enough before, he hadn’t anticipated for it to feel full out burning as if his blood was set on fire. He tried holding off the sounds he was making whenever you pepper kisses on his shoulders, but to no avail. He was gradually becoming heady at the immense pleasure your hand was giving. By the time you continued talking, he was already panting heavily, skin flushed and hands balled so tightly into a fist, his knuckles turning white.

“Y-YN…” He wanted to say ‘too much’, but he didn’t want to stop you either.

“I’m impressed you can keep your hands to yourself,” you remarked playfully, rewarding him with a love bite just underneath his jaw. “Why don’t we move on to the actual thing itself?”

Even with the blindfold, Zhongli could feel you standing up; anticipation once again beating wildly against his chest. What were you going to do to him this time?—that was a thrill he had never expected to feel pleasure from.

You returned once more to his side, now with the appropriate items you needed, and brilliant grin on your lips to top it off. It was weirdly exciting for you as well, finally doing something as erotic as this to a dignified gentleman such as Zhongli. Which is why, you couldn’t help but talk him through it.

“I did tell you that shibari some sort of sexual play, right?” you began, as you seized both of his hand and pinned them on his back. “It involves tying someone up with rope, in patterns that are not only visually pleasing but are also designed to make you feel good.”

Zhongli could feel the roughness of the rope cling to his skin as soon as you tied his wrists together before doing various knots up his torso and down to his legs. It was incredibly strange—you were only tying him up but for some reason, he felt so exposed and so turned on.

“The reason why it’s so popular is because it gives a sense of security if you will,” you continued, remembering the patterns you had religiously practiced over and over again for the past month. “As if you were surrendering everything to that one person, trusting that they can give you security, give you pleasure. That is what this art form is.”

Every time he felt your soft hands brush against his damp skin as you tightened the rope around his body, he would control a shudder that kept on surging through him like a multitude of waves. This was beyond the ordinary, a situation Zhongli had not anticipated—you were right when you told him to prepare himself. He definitely did not heed your advice, and it came to him with a price, especially when you finally wrapped some rope around his dick as it stood straight and hard between his legs.

“If only you could see yourself right now, Zhongli,” you told him, pressing firmly on the ropes around his member before nibbling on his earlobe. “Aah, I just want to eat you up.”

With your sultry voice directly sending shockwaves down his lower parts, he could only dig his fingernails on the palm of his hands as the hemp ropes dug deeper in his skin. Even though they were not too tight, the restrictive sensation enveloping his body, plus the way you were touching him now was making him lose his mind.

“YN…YN…p-please, I—!”

He spoke between gasps as he felt your lips suckle on a sensitive point on his neck, his dick twitching as he tried to jerk up.

You hummed amusingly. “What is it, love? Where do you want me to touch you?”

Raking up your fingernails up his toned chest, you smirked as he groaned, unable to find any sort of friction he had been seeking for some time now. The way his long dark locks stuck to his skin because of how much he was sweating, or the way he trembled and shivered at every touch of his skin—you loved them all. As much as how Zhongli was intoxicated by pleasure, you were also heady with the power you had over him.

Not waiting for his answer, you crept your hands up and suddenly pinched his nipples—making him jolt straight up at the abrupt stimulation with a loud moan.

“Do you like it here?” you asked, now lavishing your tongue over a hardened nub; relentless and teasing.

“Ahh…! YN…! Wait, please!”

All of his thoughts had already vanished, replaced only by the sensations of your tongue on his now sensitive nipples, of the ropes wound tightly around him, of how painfully hard his dick was. It felt good, he had to admit it. It felt incredibly good.

“Do you want me to stop? I can always stop,” you asked, smiling. “If not, tell me where else I should touch you.”

Breathless as his chest heaved, Zhongli tried to find the words he wanted to say even as his lips trembled.

“Um…please touch….m-my…”

He was blushing furiously, the word seemingly unable to pass through his lips.

“Your what, Zhongli?” you asked him again, almost cooing but inwardly laughing at how he just can’t say the word ‘dick’.

Biting his lip to stop it from quivering too much, it seemed like he really has to throw every sense of dignity he had in him just to relieve his arousal.

“M-my…pe—ahh!!"

You pinched one of his nipples, pouting. “Don’t you dare call it penis, or else I won’t let you cum. Now, as you were saying?”

If only his head wasn’t too hazy from all the sensations stimulating him simultaneously, he would’ve made a mental note to make you suffer at a later date, but right now, his brain was being ran by his dick.

“P-Please…YN…! My—my…d-dick…I can’t…” he forced between pants as his sweat made the ropes feel even tighter and his underwear feel even more sticky.

Smirking at your victory, you pressed a kiss on his lips, your hands finally removing his dick from the constraints of his underwear. You could feel him groan on your lips as you began to move your hand up and down, and making sure to reach his most sensitive spots.

“Look at you, getting this hard after being tied up,” you whispered to his lips, a grin plastered on your face. “I didn’t know you were this dirty, Zhongli.”

“I-I’m…not!”

He tried to deny it but you kept his mouth shut by squeezing his cock tightly.

“Really now?” you asked, voice low as you kept on pumping him, his voice becoming nothing but dirty noise. “Are you about to cum?”

“YN…!” he growled, the ropes keeping his legs folded biting on his skin. “T-too much….! I’m…!”

Mercilessly, you continued to jerk him off as he crept closer and closer to climax. However, there he realized that the ropes around his member had gotten tighter, and the painful throbbing he felt was because he couldn’t cum.

“Oh? Did you find it out?” you asked, chuckling at the look of desperation so evident in his face. “If you can endure this in a few more minutes, I’ll reward you. How about that?”

“N-no, no….! YN…p-please, I c-can…no longer….” Most of his words were incomprehensible, affected by the pleasure and the pain on his cock.

You hummed playfully once more. “Do you want me to stop then? You can always say the safe word, you know?”

“No! W-wait…please! I n-need…I can’t…!”

“Then endure,” you replied, an idea blooming in your head. Your free hand then reached for the blindfold covering his eyes and unraveled it, allowing him to finally see.

However, he did not have time to recover when you immediately caught his attention.

“Look how hard you are, Zhongli,” you told him, his amber eyes blow wide by his current state. Yet strangely, the thought of him so aroused and at your mercy, only made him harder.

Laying down on the bed with your chest on the mattress, you looked up to him, his dick on your hands; your eyes reflecting mischief. “If you can hold on for a few minutes, I’ll let you cum, alright?”

Zhongli only gazed down on you, face as hot as the sun and as red as beet. He watched as you took his dick in your mouth and began sucking him off. At the sensation, he instantly threw his head back. This was totally different from your hands. This was just incredible.

With lustful eyes, you watched him convulse before as you assaulted him with your tongue—sucking and licking at every sensitive point you knew. The underside and the tip were particularly sensitive and that was where you concentrated.

“A-ahh…! Oh…shit…YN!” he groaned, his deep voice and the way he was now cursing sent you reeling as well. “T-too good…I’m…f-fuck…!”

You chuckled, the vibrations on your throat making his dick twitch as you kept on bobbing your head. Gazing up, you both exchanged glances as you kept on sucking the tip; his eyes tightly closing at the intensity.

“Are you going to cum?” you asked before diving in once again, your hands secretly making their way underneath his underwear and finding his hole. “I’ll help you.”

“W-wait…! T-that’s!” he jolted up yet unable to do anything but feel your fingers brushing around the rim.

Prodding at his hole, you enjoyed watching the pained yet lustful expression he was making on his otherwise stoic face. His eyebrows furrowed, his cheeks flushed pink, his mouth ajar as drool poured down his chin. It was fascinating, addicting. You can’t help but tease him endlessly, relentlessly as he kept on moaning your name again and again as if under a spell.

“P-Please….let me…I can’t…I’m going to….Y-YN…!”

Deciding that this was finally the limit of his first time, you cleverly untied the knot on his back which kept the rope around his pelvis secure, allowing it to loosen.

Still sucking him off and poking on his hole, you could feel him twitch inside your mouth, an indication that he was close.

“YN…! I’m….ughh…c-coming!”

In a few pumps, Zhongli climaxed in your mouth; his warm cum on your throat. It was a bit too much, and a little thick so you were unable to swallow everything, allowing it to drip down your chin.

Released from his high, Zhongli couldn’t believe he just had his biggest nut of his life after being tied up. It was in every ounce, shameful and embarrassing but it just felt too good for him to resist at all. Maybe it wasn’t too much of a bad thought to do this once in a while.

Eventually, you loosened the ropes that were still on him and took note of the rope markings on his skin, reminding yourself to give him that special balm you got for this exact purpose. As soon as you released him, you pulled him to a deep kiss which he gladly reciprocated.

Unlike your previous ones, this kiss was one of concern and care—asking and answering questions that were difficult to convey. As your lips moved against each other, your chest began to warm and float, glad that you were able to deliver his request. When you both pulled away, the normal Zhongli was back; his eyes warm and lively.

“I’m glad it felt good,” you told him, cupping his cheek. “I was afraid I might hurt you or something.”

He only chuckled and gave you a pat. “I did tell you I can handle it.”

You sighed in relief, loving the way he was touching you. “So, how about we sleep—"

Zhongli however interrupted you, pushing you down the bed, pinning your wrists. He was smiling but you definitely knew you were screwed.

“I reckon it is time for me take my revenge,” he gazed at you, eyes turning feral. “No one will be sleeping tonight.”

[nokkusu]

Sukuna X Fem!Reader - I killed them all

Type : One Shot

TW/CW : smut, blood, murder, submissive!reader, blood play, monster kink, suggested torture, degradation kink, slight mention of abuse, orgasm denial, dacryphilia if you squint

You’re sent to the King of Curses as an insult. You’re determined to make this act of rebellion backfire. 

—————————————————————

Sukuna was resting on his side, one of his four hands holding his head, another grabbing a glass of wine. He looked properly annoyed and nobody around knew why exactly. His piercing gaze didn’t miss a single movement around him, looking like a snake ready to strike and kill instantly.

« Your highness » said a man, visibly uncomfortable.

« What ? » Sukuna spat.

« Where... where are the girls? »

The King of Curses groaned and threw his glass away carelessly. The object shattered on the floor, leaving nothing but sparkling shards and a puddle of deep red.

« Dead »

Silence. Absolute silence.

He snorted and got up, readjusting his white kimono lazily.

« I killed them all. They were all so incredibly annoying, the only interesting thing they could do was die. Find me someone else. I’m bored, and you will not like seeing me bored. »

The man left the room in a hurry, looking desperate. That expression filled the king with contempt as he laid down again, impatient to meet his next victim.

A few hours later, the servant came back.

« Your highness, she’s here » he said.

Sukuna looked at him, terrifying red eyes scrutinising the silhouette hidden under rich silk robes and jewellery.

« Leave » he ordered.

The servant turned away in a hurry, slightly bowing down as he walked out of the room. The heavy wooden doors slammed against each other, and silence took back its rightful place.

The curse took a step forward, hunter lurking over his new prey. He felt it, the cursed energy oozing out of you... It was rough and uncontrolled. Sukuna laughed realising they sent him this little wonder of a woman hoping that it would scare him.

You, on the other hand, didn’t laugh. You knew what was coming and you couldn’t wait. You never understood why all these girls were terrified of the King of Curses. Actually, you hated them for that. He was all you ever wanted to be : feared, powerful, respected. You knew nobody would send you to him because of your abilities if something didn’t happen, but you were determined to change this act of rebellion into their biggest mistake. They sent you to him in hope that he’d murder you too, because you were a shame to the rest of the villagers. But you knew you had potential to make the King of Curses yours. You felt his fingers grab your chin to force your gaze into meeting his. You didn’t resist, too happy to look at him. He was as gorgeous as you expected him to be.

“Now...” he hissed.

You didn’t say a word, waiting for his next sentence.

“Why the fuck did they send you, hm?”

“They thought you’d regret killing all the other bitches if they sent you a cursed toy” you replied, completely honest.

Sukuna’s face went limp for half a second, not expecting you to be so... Shameless. A wide grin split his mouth open on his sharp fangs, twisting his blood red eyes.

« My, my... What a filthy mouth you have. »

He pressed his fingers harder around your chin, sharp black nails digging into your skin.

« I suppose you’re not so scared to be here, aren’t you? »

« Not at all, my King » you replied.

Sukuna sighed, his expression turning immediately into one of pure sadism.

« Well, it’s about to fucking change. »

*

Your wrists were sore from being restrained so tightly, but you didn’t complain. Completely naked, covered in sweat, cum and blood, you’ve never felt happier. Sukuna tied you up against a wall and fucked you for hours before leaving you there, alone, while he was taking a hot bath. You waited for him patiently, forcing your brain to replay the last hours in front of your eyes, calling back the feeling of his cock inside you, summoning his lips against your skin... You were already wet again. Sukuna probably wanted to test your will and ability to resist him, but you showed nothing but perfect obedience and he loved it. You opened your eyes when you heard him come back inside, and discovered with great pleasure that he was still naked and dripping wet.

« This bathtub is too big and too empty. I have to take my new fucktoy in, don’t you think ? »

You smiled shyly, bursting with joy.

« Yes, Master » you whispered when he was close enough to hear you.

He opened the metallic bracelets around your wrists and you felt yourself fall to the floor on all four. One of his hands grabbed your long hair to wrap it around his fist while another smacked your ass.

« Lead the way, slut »

You crawled, rolling your hips slowly, fully aware of his gaze on your bruised ass cheeks. Your knees against the cold marble floor was the only sound in the room until you reached the bath. The tub itself was a gigantic pool made into the ground and surrounded with candles, filled with hot scented water. You could smell cinnamon, and something more... Familiar. Blood. You turned your head to the side and saw them all. Fifteen bodies, slaughtered and laying in a pool of red sticky liquid, already turning brown from the coagulation. Fascinated by the view, you stopped crawling.

« You like that? » the curse asked, resting a feet on your ass.

« A lot, Master. »

His grin only got wider and filled with pride for his new plaything.

« Good girl » he said, releasing your hair.

«  Get in, and wash me. »

You obeyed, way too happy to get another opportunity to touch your King. As you got in the water, you saw the dry blood around the cuts on your hips and arms dissolve, turning the water light pink near you like an aura. Apart from his calloused palms, Sukuna’s skin was soft and warm to the touch, smooth and velvety. You gently rubbed a cloth on his arms and across his chest, your other hand following it closely to caress him, scratching dried chunks of your own blood off of him from time to time.

« I thought you’d pass out, to be honest » he finally said.

You smiled gently, shrugging.

« I’ve seen worse. And as I told you, my King... I like it rough. »

« Good, then. I’m not done with you. »

« I hope so... »

He arched an eyebrow, staring intensely at you.

« Why do you like me so much, your bratty bitch? » he asked, slapping your hands away from him.

You laid back in the water and started washing yourself, thinking about your answer for a moment. »

« Hm... Because you have power. Everyone is afraid of you, and you know how to get what you want. You’re passionate. »

« Not passionate, cruel » he corrected.

« All the same to me. You’re passionate for power and destruction. I wish I could get it all so easily. »

Sukuna’s hand hit you across the face, harshly. Your eyes filled with tears from the pain, but strangely... you understood his gesture.

« You’re too powerful to pity yourself like that. I don’t want a pathetic toy, like all of those corpses » he spat as he pointed them with a finger.

« I want a powerful toy. Someone who will make sure everyone does whatever the fuck I want, and will kill anyone trying to get away. You have that power, I can feel it. You’re literally covered in it. You can get it all. Obey me, and I’ll show you how. »

Your skin felt heavy. For the first time, you understood where that feeling came from. You were glowing blue, a thick coat of cursed energy pulsing in your veins, wrapping you tightly into a blanket of raw power.

« That’s it, sweet girl » he praised. « That’s how you do it. »

Sukuna’s lips crashed onto yours, sending electricity between your legs.

« I’ll show you power » he groaned against your mouth, biting your lip until the rusty taste of blood covered your tongue.

« I’ll show you fear »

Two of his hands lifted you to the border of the pool while the two others cupped your breasts, and the coldness of the marble made you shiver exquisitely. When his thumbs rubbed the hardened buds, a soft moan escaped your bruised lips. The curse shoved his face between your legs, his tongue sliding relentlessly against your wetness until you were just a screaming mess, begging for release.

« Are you going to cum for me? » he asked teasingly, looking up at your twisted face.

« Yes, yes please ! »

« What if I don’t want you to, hm? Will you hold as long as I want you to? »

« I’ll do anything for you, any-... Anything! »

You felt a clawed finger make its way into you, rubbing against your walls until it found that sweet, sweet spot. Sukuna couldn’t stop looking at your face as you tried your best to keep your orgasm to crush you entirely, appreciating your obedience and his name on your lips.

« Fuck me, please! » you repeated again and again, begging for more of him, as much as you could take.

Tears were rolling down your cheeks but you didn’t care. You just wanted to satisfy your king, the only man who ever saw your value.

« Beg again, whore » he grinned, another hand grabbing your throat so tight you almost passed out.

« Oh-please, p-please » you whimpered, shaking uncontrollably.

The cursed let a claw slide between your breasts, opening a thin cut that bled instantly.

« You look so fucking pretty covered in blood... Wait. »

His hands left your body, and all of a sudden you were cold. Nothing more than cold and wet. Sukuna got out of the bath and rang a bell in the other room, yelling at you to stay where you were. After a minute, he came back with the servant who came to your house to bring you to the temple.

« Is he the one who got the stupid idea to send you to me as revenge? »

You nodded.

« No !! No it wasn’t... Please your Highness I didn’t mean to offend you with her, she’s just a whore we found somewh- »

Sukuna hit the man so hard his jaw cracked and went limp. A muffled scream escaped from his injured mouth, quickly silenced by the king’s hand around his throat.

« I’m the only one allowed to call her a whore. She’s mine now and everyone will know it soon enough. You will die for her if I command so. »

He dragged the servant next to you, and asked you to lay down on the floor. You did, waiting patiently. Suddenly, the wet sound of flesh followed by an uncontrolled flow of blood resonated in the bathroom, and you felt it all crash onto your naked body. As you looked up, you saw your King ripping out the servant’s heart with a joyful smile, admiring your body covered in blood.

« So fucking pretty... » he whispered.

He threw the body next to the others and bent over, handing you the bloody muscle.

« Have you ever touched a heart? »

You shook no as you grabbed it with both hands. It was hot, and slippery. The flesh had a lot of different textures that truly fascinated you. Your thumbs pushed against the flesh, turning it to look at the veins, following their trail absentmindedly. The king rubbed your cheek lightly, smearing red all over it.

« I’ll fuck you covered in blood » Sukuna said. « The only right way to do it, don’t you think? »

He smashed the heart on the floor and forced himself between your legs. Your thighs found a perfect angle to wrap around him, just like your arms around his neck, hands grabbing his hair tightly as he pushed his cock inside you. You winced but took it all without hesitation, waiting for the pleasure to come through. And it did, faster than you expected. The curse’s thrusts were harsh and fast, fucking you deeply, burying his length as far as possible inside your creaming pussy, making you feel every vein, every inch of him. The sounds coming out of your mouth were so obscene you almost felt shame for half a second but remembered that being fucked by the King of Curses himself was nothing to be ashamed of. Instead, you locked eyes with him, not missing a single piece of his pleasure and he kept fucking you stupid, making you lose control over and over again, until your throat was sore from screaming so much.

« Cum around my cock, whore. Now » he panted.

Finally, you thought. It wasn’t hard to be submerged by your orgasm, with a cock inside you and your king expectantly waiting. It came in waves, making you shake and squirm, your slick mixing with the blood. Two of Sukuna’s hands cupped your face as his thrusts became less organised and finally... you felt his cock pulsing, releasing his seed deep inside, coating you in it as his shaft brushed against your cervix. A victorious scream climbed up his throat and out of his mouth until he fully unloaded, before crashing his lips against yours again, his tongue asking for more. The kiss left you panting, breathless. It was everything you ever wanted. Power, fear, and respect. Sukuna was right... You can get it all.

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End note : ...okay I’ll admit it I have a bit of a blood kink. Idk I feel like Sukuna has one too? I can totally imagine him fucking anyone in the middle of a pool of blood honestly. Totally makes sense. He’s kind of out of character but I mean... I don’t really care. I hope you enjoyed reading this 👀🖤

Edit 2 : YALL THANKS FOR THE AMOUT OF LOVE JFC

i also apologise for the typos, I think it’s all good now, but since English isn’t my first language any constructive criticism is welcome, I’m really trying to improve my writing 🙇🏻