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firstofficerwiggles · 4 years ago

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Chapter 4: A Rather Indecent Proposal

Links to other chapters: Chpt. 1, Chpt. 2, Chpt. 3 Chpt. 5

Pairing: The Mandalorian x female reader

Rating: T

Warnings: Jealous!Din, a little bit of canonical violence

Word Count: ~9900 (I know it’s long, but it felt better as one chapter instead of split into two.)

Author’s note: Happy Mando Monday! I hope you enjoy this new chapter! First though, I need to apologize if the man you love or you yourself are called Eugene, but please don’t hate me for thinking it’s an unsexy name. Also, apologies to skinny men everywhere, you might not be my type, but I’m sure someone is into you.

“Do you think you could come with me for a business meeting? I could use your language skills.” Mando surprises you with his request. So far, he’s always conducted any business on his own, and except for a few weeks ago when you asked him about his bounty, he hasn’t shared any details of his work with you. But as always, you’re eager to help him if you can.

“Of course, I can. What do you need?” You’re actually kind of excited at the chance to accompany him.

“The client comes from the Unknown Regions and I hear he prefers to use Sy Bisti when possible,” Mando explains, “He’s also known to be very particular, so anything that can impress him would be helpful.”

“Absolutely, I can be your interpreter,” you agree, “When is this meeting?”

“As soon as we get to Canto Bight in a couple of hours.” He tells you. Oh, you look down at your lounging-on-the-ship comfy clothes; you’ll need to get yourself pulled together for a business meeting.

“I better go get changed into something more presentable then. Can you watch the little guy?” You ask him.

“Why? You look fine.” Mando is such a guy sometimes. You just give him an incredulous look with a small raise of your eyebrow as if to say really? “I mean, sure, I’ll watch the kid if you want to change.”

“Thanks. But, yes, I definitely need to change before we meet your client,” you reply and head down to the hull; you’re almost out of earshot when you hear him mutter to the child, “Don’t get it, she always looks fine to me.” It makes you smile to yourself that he thinks that, yet there’s a part of you that’s eager for him to see you dressed a little nicer for once.

For about the millionth time you tell yourself that you shouldn’t have a crush on Mando, but that voice is getting drowned out more and more by another one that keeps telling you to enjoy it. After your trip to Crucival, you know that he finds you attractive at least. And Maker knows you’re even more attracted to him now that you know him even better. Plus seeing him almost naked was hard to ignore! So what if he considers you just a friend, as long as you don’t let things get out of hand, or say something stupid to him, you might as well have fun with your silly little fantasies.

You rummage through your clothing and pull out a nice black dress. It’s stylish but without being too fussy and you think, it will be perfect for a meeting with a client. Besides, if you’re going to Canto Bight, you know most of the women there will be dressed to the nines so you want to make sure you’re helping Mando give off a good impression. You take the time to style your hair and put on some make-up too. You give yourself a once-over in the small mirror in the fresher and, even in the harsh industrial light, you have to say that you look pretty nice. You knew that being a nanny to a toddler was never going to be a glamorous job, but the chance to clean up like this is fun every once in a while.

“We’re landing soon, you need to come sit down!” You hear Mando calling to you, so you quickly make your way back up to the cockpit.

“Thanks,” you say as you get back to your seat, but before you sit down, you turn to Mando with a little flourish and say, “See, much more presentable for your client now.”

Din stares at you in the elegant dress; you’re literally taking his breath away and he can’t even speak for a few seconds. Finally all he can think to say is, “You look good.” And he immediately chides himself for not being able to come up with a better compliment. Thankfully, you seem pleased with his pathetic words and just give him a happy smile before buckling yourself in. He’s still staring at you, taking in the pretty hairstyle you’ve created and looking at whatever it is that you’ve done to make your lips seem redder and fuller. It isn’t until a sensor on the control panel starts beeping loudly that Din snaps back to reality and focuses on landing the Crest.

“Wait, what about the child, do we bring him with us?” In your excitement, you’ve forgotten your primary job, as you’re getting ready to head out into the hustle and bustle of this flashy city. You look at the little one’s big eyes and like his father, he also seems to be fascinated with your done-up appearance.

“Sure, I have a satchel he can ride along in. And he’s plenty old enough to get into the casino; the age to get in is 18.” Mando chuckles as he maneuvers his 50-year-old toddler into a small brown shoulder bag. Mando’s cape partially obscures the little one making him less noticeable. You suppose he’ll be all right, it’s only a meeting in the restaurant of a casino; it’s not as if you’re taking the little one to the gaming tables. Although if you’re honest, you wouldn’t be surprised if Mando said that was perfectly ok too, so long as he’s safe. You give his tiny hand a squeeze and he coos back at you seemingly eager for your little adventure.

You follow Mando off the ship and through the throngs of men in sharply tailored evening jackets and women beautifully attired in chic gowns. Everyone looks very cosmopolitan especially against the stunning background of the decadent casino. You have to admit that you were expecting something a little more garish based on the descriptions you’ve heard of Canto Bight, but this particular establishment is quite nice with marble floors, crystal chandeliers, and unique modern art pieces strategically placed throughout the large lobby. With Mando in his beautiful beskar armor and you in your fashionable dress, you make a dashing pair as you pass by the colorful lights of the gaming machines.

Din leads you to a restaurant entrance and tells the maître d’ that he is here to meet a Mr. Omseki. The man seems slightly taken aback by the presence of a Mandalorian but when his gaze lands on you, his face softens and in a crisp accent he says, “Right this way, Madam” and then he barely glances at Din, as he says, “Sir”. It’s not surprising that the man would rather keep his eyes on you with your eyes shining in delight as you take in the scene around you. Din’s never cared much for Canto Bight and its rather pompous atmosphere, but he’s finding some charm in this place as he watches your reaction to it all. Not to mention, Din knows he would have received a much frostier welcome here without you by his side and he’s very glad you came with him. As you reach the client’s table, this feeling is renewed, as Mr. Omseki is all smiles as you greet him in the unusual language. Despite not understanding the words, Din can tell by the man’s animated speech, that he is positively delighted at the prospect of meeting with a beautiful woman and not just a Mandalorian bounty hunter. The man also seems happy to see the child and he gives him the flower from his lapel to play with as a small gift. Din listens as you interpret the client’s words and you all begin to exchange some welcoming small talk. Greef Karga had been the one to pass on this client to Din as a lucrative off-the-books bounty, but the man he described was temperamental and moody. Mr. Omseki is anything but moody tonight and if Din didn’t know better, he’d swear the man was flirting with you. He doesn’t love that idea, but if it helps this meeting go smoothly, it will be worth it.

Mr. Omseki is a charmer and he is thrilled to be speaking to you; he’s told you several times how pleasant it is to talk business in an ‘appropriate’ language and how overjoyed he is to speak to you. You suppose it must have been a while since he’s had the opportunity to speak Sy Bisti and perhaps that’s why he’s enjoying himself so much now. You’ve felt a little abashed at times, as you’ve interpreted his rather flowery praise of you to Mando although at least some of it has also extended to him. However, this client seems more interested in just chatting with you than he is in talking business with Mando. You try to steer the conversation back to Mando’s work, but each time you do, Mr. Omseki manages to ask you another question about yourself. Mando must sense your worry that you aren’t doing a good enough job and he drops his hand down to cover yours where it is sitting on the table. He gives you a reassuring squeeze and you continue making polite conversation with the client. You figure this must be part of his business negotiations.

Din leaves his hand covering yours in a clear message to the client that you belong with him. It’s a subtle gesture, but one that Mr. Omseki is shrewd enough to understand as shortly afterwards he shifts the conversation to the bounty that he wants Din to capture. He listens carefully as you interpret the details and he begins to formulate a plan for the hunt. Din almost has all the pertinent information, when a sudden commotion interrupts the conversation. He immediately pulls his blaster and shields you behind him. A man in a disheveled suit is pushing past the maître d’ and several waiters as he stumbles towards your table. Din realizes disappointedly that this man looks exactly like the quarry that was just described by Mr. Omseki.

“Mr. O-Omseki, I have it, I have all your m-money and the in-interest,” the man stutters out as he begins pulling out bags of credits from his coat.

“Well, well, Mr. Sanditore, looks like this is your lucky day,” Mr. Omseki drawls out, “I was just about to send this Mandalorian off to kill you.”

“Th- thank you Mr. Omseki, thank you, I promise you won’t have any trouble from me again.” The disheveled man is practically shaking with gratitude.

“Well, I am sorry Mr. Mandalorian, it was delightful to meet you and your most lovely interpreter, but I am afraid I no longer have need of your services.” Mr. Omseki says to Din. Then he turns to you and speaks in Sy Bisti in a soft voice. Din obviously can’t know what he’s saying but the mild look of surprise on your face is enough to raise his concern. Whatever it is though, you handle it gracefully and end the conversation with a pleasant tone before shifting back to Basic to say good-bye. As you exit the table, you reach for Din’s arm, threading your hand around his elbow. He is surprised by your touch but says nothing as you walk towards the large bar near the center of the restaurant.

“What did he say to you?” Din wants to know.

“He asked me if we were romantically involved, because if we weren’t he wanted to know if I was free for the rest of the evening.” You reply looking a little embarrassed.

“What did you tell him?” He really wants to hear this answer.

“I lied and said that we were. It seemed like the best solution.” You’re slightly looking away from him as you say this as if you’re worried about making eye contact.

“Good.” Din’s pleased you lied, and it’s petty, but he likes the idea of that rich man thinking that Din has something that he wants and can’t have.

“I’m sorry about the job though,” you’re saying to him now, “I know you must be disappointed.”

“It’s alright,” Din sighs a little though, “these things happen.” He sees you look around the bar area with a wistful look and realizes that you’re not ready to leave. “Besides, now we have time to stay and have a drink, just the two of us, well, us and our little sleeping bundle here.” The baby has curled up and is napping in his little satchel.

“Really?” You look so pleased that it makes Din smile to himself. You settle into one of the stools at the bar and Din motions to the bartender to order your drinks. He orders one for himself too, asking for a straw in his.

“Wait, so you do use straws?” You ask with a small laugh.

“Sure, it’s the easiest way to drink in public.” He shrugs matter-of-factly, but that just seems to make you giggle more. “What’s so funny?”

“I don’t know,” you say between giggles, “but there’s something so cute about you using a straw.”

“Cute?” He says, sounding slightly insulted.

“Oh stop, I mean it in a good way,” you say and light push his shoulder in a playful fashion, “It’s probably just because I’ve never seen you use a straw before.”

“So when you see me do something new, it’s cute to you?” Din is playing up his affront to the word cute because he’s enjoying teasing you.

“No, not everything new.” You roll your eyes at him. “It’s just when you do something ordinary, I guess, because I tend to think of you as extraordinary.” You let your lashes flutter a little as you say that last word, flirting with him.

“Extraordinary, huh?” He cocks his helmet to the side as he looks at you, “I like that better than cute.”

“Whatever, you’re still cute too.” You give him a wink and then turn to the bartender who has your drinks. Both glasses have a straw and you make quite a show of using yours, so much so that Din can’t help but let out a laugh. You’re both enjoying the moment so much that neither of you notice a thin, lanky man approach you.

“Ex-excuse me?” The man is trying to get your attention. Mando shifts back into alert mode almost instantly as he says, “Yes?”

The man is about as tall as Mando with very fair hair and pale skin. He looks to be in his mid-thirties and seems a little out of place here in a casino. Although, like the other men here, he’s wearing an expensive suit, but everything about him looks slightly uncomfortable and it’s as if he doesn’t quite know what to do with his body, like the way he holds his shoulders and moves his hands looks anxious.

“I’d like to hire you for an evening,” the man says, but weirdly he looks at you instead of Mando, but you figure that’s because he’s probably too intimidated to look directly at the Mandalorian.

“What sort of work do you need?” Mando asks in an even tone.

“Oh?” The man turns and looks at Mando directly, “I- I didn’t mean you. I want to hire her for an evening.”

Mando’s reaction to this statement is so swift you almost miss it. He instantly pulls his fist back and punches the man square in the face, knocking him to the floor. Mando looks down at him and grits out in an angry voice, “She’s not for sale.”

Well, this is a first. You thought you looked pretty nice tonight, but apparently, you look like a prostitute.

“Wait, wait, I’m s-sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.” The man cowers on the ground but tries to explain himself, “I didn’t mean to insult her, or you.”

“So what did you mean?” Your curiosity has gotten the best of you.

“I just need a beautiful woman to pretend to be my girlfriend for an evening, that’s all.” He says.

“Exactly how is that different?” Mando is still towering over the man in a very threatening manner.

“Just to attend a party with me, and help me look good,” the man says quickly, “I promise nothing s-sex related at all.” He holds his hands up in a defensive posture. He looks back to you with pleading eyes, “I can pay you really well, and all you need to do is go to a party and wear a pretty dress.”

You admit you’re intrigued by the idea and you know that with Mando losing out on this latest bounty, any extra funds would be helpful. You put your hand on Mando’s bicep in what you hope is a calming motion as you say, “It can’t hurt to hear him out, Mando.”

“Are you serious?” Mando asks you in a low voice.

You shrug, “If we don’t like what he has to say, you can punch him again.” The man on the floor lets out a little whimper at that, but Mando gives you a small nod and backs away from the man.

Tentatively, the man picks himself up off the floor and extends a hand out to you, “I’m Eugene DeWitt, I own a company that creates high-end gaming machines and I develop algorithms for those machines.”

You shake his hand briefly, and give him your first name. “So, Mr. DeWitt, why do you need a pretend girlfriend to go to a party?”

“Please, call me Eugene. It’s the annual celebration for the casino owners and it’s my best chance to network with them. I’ve been to the party the last three years, but I haven’t been able to barely get a word with any of the important owners.” He explains.

“What makes you think I’d be able to change that?” You’re not sure what effect your presence would have on his ability to do business.

“I need to find a way to catch their interest and impress them, and I think a woman like you would be the best way to do that.” He tells you.

“I’m flattered, but I think you might be overestimating my appeal,” you reply, “besides, why don’t you just ask out a woman you want to date?”

“I’ve tried,” Eugene admits, “but honestly, even if they’d said yes, I know they wouldn’t have the same effect as you; you’re drop dead gorgeous.”

“He’s right,” Mando says softly, almost under his breath. Your head snaps to the side to look at him after that comment. You don’t have any time to process it however because Eugene is still speaking.

“I’ll pay you 20,000 credits just to go to the party with me and pretend to be my girlfriend.” He offers.

What?!? Is he serious? Suddenly this job has real potential. But you’re still skeptical that he wants you to just attend the party, it feels like that amount of money would come with additional stipulations.

“Let me get this straight, you want me to just go to the party with you and pretend to be your girlfriend, but you’re not expecting sex or any other sexual favors?” You state this outright because you need everything to be clear.

“Yes,” he confirms, “I would need you to be affectionate towards me, but only in an appropriate way in public.”

“Define what you mean by affectionate.” You want to make sure you know precisely what he wants.

“Hold my hand or arm, let me put my arm around you, dance with me, maybe let me give you a small kiss?” He suggests.

“No kissing.” Mando interjects all of a sudden.

“O-Ok, no kissing,” Eugene agrees, “But would you be alright with the rest of that?”

“Yes, I can do that.” His terms seem reasonable and honestly, that much money to just attend a party? You’ve had way worse jobs.

“I’m going too,” Mando states and from his tone of voice this is not up for debate, “I’ll be your bodyguard for the evening.”

“That’s a good idea,” Eugene is intrigued by the prospect; “A Mandalorian bodyguard would also be impressive.”

“Good, then you can pay us 40,000 credits for the evening,” you counter-offer. You know it’s ballsy to ask, but truthfully Mando’s skills are worth a lot and he should be paid as well.

“That was uh more than I was hoping to spend,” Eugene says.

“Maybe so, but now you’re getting both of us to help you impress these future clients,” you smile flirtatiously and look him right in the eye holding his gaze.

“I can do 35,000,” Eugene offers.

“Alright, 35,000 and you buy me a new dress and shoes for this party.” That last part is really only because you don’t own any other dresses that would be suitable for his event, but also part of you wants to see if you can get him to give in to you.

“Can the dress be red?” Eugene asks.

“Sure, I’ll get a red dress, if that’s what you’d like,” You’re totally fine with that.

“We have a deal.” He says.

“One more thing,” Mando speaks up again, “Pay her half the credits now.”

“How do I know you won’t just take my money and leave?” Eugene asks.

“You have my word as a Mandalorian.” His tone is serious and just intimidating enough that Eugene capitulates. He takes out a holopad and asks for your information and just like that, 17,500 credits are in your account. It’s more money than you’ve ever had.

You finalize all the arrangements for tomorrow, with Eugene offering to have his mother watch the child for the evening. Mando is a bit reluctant at first to have someone else watch the kid but he realizes it will be hard to pull off looking like a bodyguard with a baby in tow. Likewise, you can hardly play the role of trophy girlfriend if you have the little guy. You wait until Eugene takes his leave of you for the night before you turn to Mando to exclaim over this crazy turn of events.

“Oh my, Mando, can you believe it? 17,500 credits for each of us, just for one night of going to a party?” You can’t help the excitement in your voice.

“Hmm, yes, it’s a lot,” he says, with a lot less enthusiasm, “but it’s all your money.”

“What?” He catches you by surprise, “No, Mando, I’m going to split it with you.”

“He only wanted to hire you,” he states firmly.

“Yes, but I was never going to do this without you. I was going to suggest you come too but you beat me to it.” You explain to him.

“Were you really?” He sounds a little skeptical, but there’s a small note of hope in his voice too.

“Absolutely. I’m not so naïve that I would agree to go to a party with a total stranger without you there to protect me.” It feels so natural to you now that of course he would be there to watch over you. “Besides, I know that you being there will keep Eugene from getting too handsy.”

Mando makes a little snorting sound, “Yeah, I could do without the affectionate part.”

“Don’t worry, I can do just enough to make it look believable without letting it get out of hand.” You link your arm through his and lean a little onto his shoulder, “C’mon, Mando, be a little happy about the money with me.”

He reaches up and pats your hand where it holds onto him. “Alright, since it means that much to you, I’m happy.”

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

The next day you are in a swanky boutique recommended by Eugene where you are on a mission to find a red evening gown for tonight. You tried to tell Mando that his presence was not necessary for this, but he insisted on coming along with the child in tow. It’s been an adventure already because as you were looking over possible dress choices with the saleswoman, the mischievous toddler managed to climb out of his satchel and onto a table in the lingerie section. When you caught him, he was playing in a pile of lace thongs with one pair dangling off his ear. Even more amusing was Mando who was trying to extract the kiddo from his panty pile while trying hard not to touch any of the thongs. Thankfully, the saleswoman thought it was all utterly charming and laughed right along with you. Now Mando and the little guy are sitting together looking only slightly out of place on an elegant velvet sofa while they wait for you to try on dresses.

It’s been so long since you’ve shopped for anything this fancy, you were feeling a little intimidated at first. Yet the more you viewed the beautiful gowns, the more excited you became at the prospect of wearing one for the evening. The selection in this shop is lovely and since you know Eugene is paying, for once you’re not worried about the price. You slip on the first dress and can’t help but smile at your stylish reflection. This first one is a slinky satin gown that hugs your curves. You step out into the main area of the dressing rooms where Mando is waiting and where there is also a large three-sided mirror.

“Oh that looks very nice on you,” the saleswoman says.

You turn to look at yourself in the multiple angles offered from the mirror, “I’m not sure, what do you think, Mando?”

“It’s fine,” he says flatly. Well, with that lack of enthusiasm, you know this dress is out.

The next dress is more of a ball gown style and it’s kind of a lot with a beaded bodice and a full tulle skirt. Still you figure you should see it in the better mirror for the full effect.

“Oh no, I look like a red powder puff!” You say in dismay.

“I like it better,” Mando says, and then under his breath you just barely hear him say, “You’re more covered up.”

“I can’t wear this and be taken seriously.” It’s on to dress number three.

As you adjust the straps for the third dress, you find your face heating up at your reflection. This dress screams trophy girlfriend as it is super sexy. The deep sweetheart neckline shows off a lot of cleavage and there are thigh-high slits on both sides of the skirt.

You’re barely out of the dressing room when you hear, “Absolutely not.”

You can see Mando’s visor trained on you and it feels like that black T is boring a hole into your body.

“I don’t know, I think I look really good in this one.” Wow, when you turn around you can see that this dress is practically backless.

“You look fabulous! Very hot!” the saleswoman coos at you.

“Go change.” Mando’s voice sounds deeper somehow and he’s using his this-is-not-a-request voice. A little naughty part of you wants to argue back with his demand, but you did tell him that you didn’t want Eugene to get too liberal with his definition of affection, so you figure Mando’s probably right.

When you head back to the dressing room, you’re down to just one more dress and as you slip it over your head, you know that this is the one. It’s made of a soft, floaty chiffon with a bodice that accentuates your bust and your waistline. The skirt flows down your hips and legs gracefully and while there’s a slit in this dress too, it’s more hidden and only offers a glimpse of leg as you move. When you step out of the dressing room this time all you hear is a soft murmur of approval from the saleswoman.

You smile at your reflection as you twirl a little in the mirror and imagine how nice you will look with your hair styled and with your evening makeup.

“This has to be the one,” the saleswoman is saying to you now, “Doesn’t she look enchanting?” and she turns to Mando for his approval.

Mando nods his helmet slightly, but remains quiet. You didn’t really expect him to say much, but you were hoping for a bit more than that. At least he isn’t disapproving of this gown though.

“I have the perfect shoes to go with this dress. I’ll be right back!” The saleswoman tells you.

Din waits until she is out of earshot and then says softly, “You look beautiful.” He watches as your face lights up with his compliment and you thank him, reaching out to grasp his arm briefly as you do. That seems to be a thing you do now when you’re particularly pleased with something he’s done. You turn back to the mirror to inspect the dress more and he lets his gaze roam over you.

The truth is Din thought you looked beautiful in all of the dresses, even in the silly puffy one. He didn’t want to encourage you too much with the first dress because although you looked great it in, the style was fairly revealing and he disliked the idea of Eugene seeing you in it. But then, that third dress, Maker, he almost had a heart attack when he saw you in that. It was so sexy he wanted to rip it off you right there in the middle of the store. There was no way in hell any other man was going to see you in that. This dress you’re wearing now is more sophisticated and gives off more of a sensual elegance than outright sexiness. He still hates the idea of Eugene seeing you in it and what’s more thinking that you chose the dress special for him. This whole job is stupid, but he can’t deny the money is too good to pass up. Still he doesn’t trust Eugene to have such pure intentions as he claims and he knows he won’t let the man have a single moment alone with you if he can help it.

You’ve finished choosing the shoes and now you’re heading back into the dressing room to put on your regular clothes. Din breathes a sigh of relief at seeing your normal self again and he feels himself relax a bit. He follows the saleswoman to the register station and watches as she carefully places the gown in a garment bag. You’re about to give the woman Eugene’s account information, when Din hands over his own credit chip to pay for the dress and shoes.

“Mando, what are you doing? Eugene is going to cover the cost of this.” You voice conveys your confusion at his actions.

“I’m not letting another man buy you a dress,” Din mutters.

“Why not? It’s only to wear for this party tonight.” You’re looking at him completely perplexed.

“Because I want to buy it for you,” he says more firmly this time. Din sees a flash of something in your eyes that he likes; it’s a mixture of respect and awe, and perhaps a touch of desire too if he’s not being too hopeful.

“Well, if you’re certain,” you reply softly still looking at him in that new way.

“I am.” Din takes the garment bag from the saleswoman and motions for her to charge everything to his chip. “You’re sure you didn’t want the big puffy dress, though?” And even though you can’t see the smirk on his face, he’s fairly confident you can hear it in his tone.

“Thank you, Mando, but I think this is the best choice.” You let out a light laugh and give him that beaming smile again that he loves to see. You follow him out of the store and then grasp his arm again as you say, “I really do love that dress, thank you for buying it for me.”

“You’re welcome,” Din tells you, wishing that it would just be the two of you going out tonight.

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

“You’re sure you want to do this? We could still turn around and leave.” This is the second time Mando has asked you that. The first was when you came out of the fresher after finishing your make-up and he saw your completed look for the evening. He didn’t compliment you again, but the long pause he took to look at you and the way he tilted his helmet to the side made your insides flutter nonetheless. Now you’re standing outside Eugene’s door and it seems he’s still having second thoughts.

“It will be fine, Mando. Just remember that this money means you can take a break from hunting and spend some extra time on finding the Jedi for the little guy here.” He sighs in response and knocks on the door.

You shift the toddler in your arms and you look down at him. He’s been having fun playing with the soft material of your dress and he’s got a big handful of your skirt in his little claws right now. The only worry you have is about leaving him with a stranger tonight. Eugene’s mother will probably be fine, but you’ve grown so attached to the child you’re feeling more anxious about being away from him that you anticipated.

“You’ll be a good boy tonight, won’t you, buddy?” You say to the child as you carefully extricate your dress from his little hand. “Mando and I will miss you but we won’t be too late.”

The door opens to reveal Eugene in a tuxedo with a red flower on his lapel and next to him, a cheerful looking older woman.

“Good evening, you look spectacular,” Eugene greets you enthusiastically.

“Thank you, you look dashing yourself,” you respond with a slight flirtiness to your tone. You figure you might as well get used to your role now.

“Oooh! Is this the sweet little baby I get to watch tonight?” The woman seems kind and the child coos at her with interest.

“Yes, thank you for doing this,” you respond pleasantly. You give the little guy a hug and a kiss on his forehead before handling him over to her.

“What a little charmer! You don’t have to worry about a thing, my dear. I’ll take good care of your baby and you take good care of mine.” She says with a wink towards Eugene.

“Th- thank you, mother.” Eugene sounds embarrassed and you try your best not to snicker. “We should get going.” He extends his arm to you and you lightly thread your hand around his elbow.

This whole time Mando hasn’t made a sound and is standing so still you’d almost think he was a suit of armor on display. But when you take Eugene’s arm, Mando lets out a little grunt that sounds like disapproval. You turn to look at him and mouth, “It will be OK” and give him as encouraging a smile as you can. The nod of his helmet to you is slight, but you know he understood.

Eugene leads you out onto the city walkway with Mando following close behind. The party is being held in the largest casino and it’s a short walk from Eugene’s home. Once again, the streets are filled with fashionable people ready for a night on the town. You feel the soft swish of your skirt against your legs and smile again at how nice it feels to be dressed up like this. You make small talk with Eugene, getting comfortable with him so you can make this look like a real date. You resist the urge to turn back and look at Mando though because you know if you do, your feigned interest in Eugene will falter.

By the time you reach your destination, you’ve managed to perfect a nice light laugh at Eugene’s jokes and you feel comfortable enough to lean into him in an affectionate way. As you enter the opulent ballroom of the casino, you paste a brilliant smile onto your face as if you’re simply delighted to be there. Eugene has told you he wants you to help draw the attention of various men in attendance so you figure you’ll sort of openly flirt with the room and see who notices. You catch the eye of a well-dressed older gentleman, and your technique works wonderfully as he comes right over.

“Good evening, I’m Mr. Belvers, the owner of this casino; it’s so very nice to have you here, my dear.” He greets you with a small bow and flourish of his hand.

“Why, thank you!” You respond warmly, “It was so nice of my boyfriend to bring me here tonight. You must know him, Mr. Eugene DeWitt of Advanced Gaming Enterprises?” You introduce Eugene with a smile.

“Oh yes, of course, Mr. DeWitt, how nice to see you again.” With the introductions made, Eugene launches into conversation with Mr. Belvers. You listen as best you can to the business talk and smile and nod like the perfect trophy girlfriend. It’s boring, but really easy when you realize that not much more is expected of you. Finally, with a promise to dance with Mr. Belvers later, the conversation ends and you breathe a small sigh of relief that if anything at least you got Eugene a few minutes with the owner of this place.

“That was incredible!” Eugene is saying excitedly, “I’ve never even met the man before but he acted like we were old friends. You are fantastic!” He gives your hand a squeeze and pulls you a little closer to him. He steers you deeper into the ballroom, eager to make another contact. You turn your head to look at Mando and give him a smile and a subtle nod, which he returns.

The pattern continues throughout the party, you spy an older man, make eyes at him, and reel him in for Eugene. When you’re between conversations, Mando has taken to checking in with you to make sure everything is going well. All in all, it’s about what you expected and you have to admit that Eugene was right; apparently, these men are all easily swayed by the look of a pretty face. You’re please to see that Mando’s presence is having a good effect too. These bigshots are very impressed that Eugene has a Mandalorian for his private security. Several of them have even asked Mando if he’s available for future security jobs too. Who knows, maybe Mando will come away with some business contacts of his own at the end of tonight.

As the evening continues, Eugene seems to be growing more confident, and you’ve noticed he’s taken to placing his arm around your waist. It doesn’t bother you, but occasionally his hand does seem to be a touch low. He also leaned in just a moment ago and let his lips brush your cheek. It wasn’t really much, but still you’re surprised he dared to try it.

“I said no kissing.” Mando’s voice is hard and direct, causing Eugene to flinch and instantly put more space between the two of you. “Keep your hands above her waist too.” Your heartbeat stutters at Mando’s protectiveness and you look at him with a grateful smile. When you’re sure no one else is looking, you give him the flirtatious look you’ve been using all evening and then top it off with a wink. You notice that he clenches his fists as you do this and then gives you a deeper nod in response.

I hate this, I hate this, I hate this. Din’s mantra for tonight is not a pleasant one. He’d much rather be hunting down a bounty right now than having to watch you flirt and simper to every man in the room. He’d rather be slogging through a swamp or crossing a frozen tundra to catch a quarry than have to watch yet another man ogling you or touching you. And then, there’s Eugene; Din would like to punch him in the face again. The man keeps getting bolder as the night progresses. Din’s caught him staring at your breasts and your ass several times, and he’s clearly getting too handsy. The only thing making this night remotely bearable is the way you keep looking over to him with such sweet glances, as if you’re sharing a secret with him. Although the way you looked at him just now made him want to sweep you up in his arms and haul you out of here as fast as he could. If you do that again, he doesn’t know if he can be responsible for his actions.

Din groans to himself, and prepares for this night to get worse because Eugene is leading you out onto the dance floor. There’s no way for him to follow close to you while you’re dancing and he’s willing to bet that Eugene takes advantage of that opportunity. In an attempt to stay in Eugene’s eye line as much as possible, Din stalks around the dance floor following your swaying movements. He can’t help but watch the graceful way you move as you dance, noticing the soft arch of your back and the delicate glide of your feet across the floor. As he sees Eugene’s arms pull you in closer, Din feels a deep burning anger in his stomach and once again thinks about breaking Eugene’s nose with his fist. This is the worst job ever.

Dancing with Eugene isn’t so bad you decide. It’s a nice break from all the forced flirting and extremely dull conversations you’ve had to put up with all evening. And despite the fact that you’d much rather be dancing with someone else, it’s still a pleasant activity. Moreover, after Mando’s warning, Eugene is back to being a gentleman and keeping his hands in polite territory. He does seem to be enjoying the dancing himself, quite a lot by the expression on his face, although every once in a while his confidence seems to fade for a moment.

“May I ask you a personal question?” Eugene looks at you quizzically.

“Alright,” you agree, curious.

“Are you and the Mandalorian involved? Romantically, I mean?” He looks nervous as he asks this.

“Do you think I would have agreed to this date if we were?” You deflect his question somewhat because you find that you don’t really want to admit that there’s nothing between you and Mando. Especially because it feels like you’ve been growing closer. You think about when he insisted on buying you the dress earlier today, and how special that felt, definitely not something a friend would do. Even tonight, there is this energy between you and Mando that you can’t deny, nevermind that you’re technically on a date with Eugene.

“He seems extremely protective of you.” Eugene replies.

You shrug lightly, “He is.”

“You know, if you wanted something else, a different life, I could make that happen for you,” Eugene looks at your earnestly, “After tonight, I’m going to be an even wealthier man. I would treat you like a princess.”

“Eugene,” you sigh, “I appreciate the offer, but-”

“Don’t answer yet,” he insists, “Think about it. Please.” He pulls you in closer to him so that you’re dancing cheek to cheek. You know he means it to be romantic but you feel nothing. There’s nothing to think about.

When the music ends, you feel relieved that you can put some space between the two of you. You’re turning to look for Mando when unexpectedly you hear a loud crash followed by blaster fire. As if he materialized out of nowhere, Mando is at your side pulling you to the floor and covering you with his body.

“I’ve got you,” Mando says, holding you close with one arm as the other holds his blaster. Your heart is racing and you hear the commotion of many people shouting, rushing feet, and general mayhem. You pull yourself tighter under Mando, squeeze your eyes shut, and try to keep as still as you can. Suddenly, Mando lifts off you slightly and fires three shots in rapid succession.

“It’s alright,” He tells you, “I took care of them. Everything is alright.”

“You’re sure?” Your voice comes out shaky and high-pitched.

“Hey, look at me, come on, look at me” Mando’s voice is soft and comforting, and you tip your head up and open your eyes to look at his visor. “You’re safe, no one will hurt you.”

“Thank you, Mando,” you breathe, feeling relief flood your body. Even though you can’t see his eyes, you know he’s looking back at you and it’s soothing.

“You have to let go of me now, cyar’ika, so I can help you up off this floor.” His voice is still soft and you can hear a lightness to it now. You hadn’t realized but you have a death grip on the material of his thick protective shirt on the side of his body. Chuckling weakly at yourself, you release him and he climbs off you before reaching down to pull you back to your feet.

“That was incredible shooting, Mando!” Eugene can’t hide how impressed and excited he.

“I’ll say it was!” the casino owner from before, Mr. Belvers, is coming over to offer his praise to Mando too. He gives Mando’s hand a hearty shake and then raises his voice to address the party, “Folks! Everything looks to be all safe now, thanks to this heroic Mandalorian!”

The partygoers erupt in applause and for the next several minutes, people are coming up to thank Mando personally. You’re glad to see Mando get appreciation he deserves for saving everyone, but from his body language, you think he seems a bit embarrassed by all the attention.

“Who were they?” You turn and ask Mr. Belvers.

“Some thugs who have been plaguing the casinos for weeks now. I think they came here tonight trying to rob people of their valuables. By the way, there is a reward for their capture and I’ll see to it that those credits are yours, sir.” He says this last part directly to Mando.

Din thanks the man and gives him a small card with his guild information, explaining how best to pay him. Now that the danger in the room has cleared, quite literally by casino workers who’ve come to take away the bodies of the dead men, people are starting to go back to the party. These people are so wealthy and spoiled that these violent men and the Mandalorian who dispatched them are already just an amusing anecdote to be shared over cocktails. He is so ready to leave this place. Din looks over to you and sees that while you’re calmer now, you are still visibly shaken from the intrusion of the would-be robbers. He wonders sheepishly if maybe he scared you a little too by yanking you to the ground so quickly, but it was pure instinct to protect you. Nitwit Eugene is rambling on about what an exciting evening it’s been to whoever will listen, completely oblivious to your discomfort. Din decides Eugene’s gotten more than his money’s worth and he’s taking you home right now.

“It’s time for us to leave.” Din’s voice is stern as he steps closer to you and Eugene, not caring that he’s interrupting the man.

“So soon, the party is still going-” Eugene tries to protest, but when he sees Din’s rigid posture, he trails off.

“I am rather tired, Eugene,” you say, and then lower your voice “Besides, it will be better to leave them wanting more.” Din watches as you bat your eyelashes at the man and give him a soft smile, and then like magic, Eugene is agreeing to leave. Din does have to admire your skill at using your feminine wiles to get men to do your bidding. He also knows that if you ever choose to try that with him, he’ll be putty in your hands. He smiles at the thought, but it’s short-lived as soon as he sees Eugene slide his arm around your waist again as he steers you towards the exit. Din tromps after the two of you, at least this stupid job is almost over.

You’re close to Eugene’s place and you’re feeling quite glad that this fake date is almost over. You just want to get the child and hurry back to the Crest so Mando can fly you away from here. Eugene is wittering on telling you how great you were and what a wonderful pair you make, but you’re only barely listening to him. Blessedly when you get to Eugene’s door, Mando is all business.

“It’s time to make the final transfer of credits,” Mando tells Eugene.

“Of course,” Eugene replies, taking out his holopad and completing the necessary functions. “Thank you again, you were both very impressive.”

Eugene opens the door and you and Mando wait for a few minutes until he returns with the little one who is sound asleep. He hands the child to Mando and then turns to you, “I’d like a moment alone to speak to you before we say goodnight.”

“Eugene, I think I did everything you wanted tonight, but our fake date is over.” You say pointedly.

“Please, it will only take a moment.” He looks at Mando, “Please.”

“Fine,” you say and give Mando a small nod. He doesn’t exactly give you any privacy, but Mando does take a few steps away and turns his body slightly so he’s no longer facing you head on.

Eugene takes your hand in his and says in a soft voice, “Please, tell me that you’ve thought about my offer?”

“There’s nothing for me to think about; I belong with them,” you tell him as you pull your hand from his grasp and gesture towards Mando and the child.

“But there’s so much more I can do for you, I can give you more than he can. I can give you a safe home, beautiful clothes and jewelry, you’ll never want for anything.” Eugene must think you’re completely shallow and nothing but a gold digger. “And, I would worship you.” He’s really piling it on thick now.

“Eugene, you don’t even know me, and if you did, you would know that I’m not interested in that life,” you state firmly, “I think it’s time to say goodbye. I wish you all the best with your business.” You turn to go but Eugene reaches out for your arm. Fortunately Mando is already back at your side and he brushes Eugene’s arm away roughly as he says,

“She said no.” Din turns to escort you away, placing his arm around your waist, mimicking Eugene’s earlier touch. It means he’s holding you much closer to his body than he has before when he usually just places a palm on the small of your back. He feels you relax into his touch and for the first time this evening, he feels a sense of rightness. Still though, Eugene’s words I can give you more than he can are ringing in his ears and his self-doubt makes him sigh.

He waits until you are far enough away so that Eugene cannot hear him and in a small voice, Din forces himself to ask you, “You’re certain you don’t want to stay? He did make you a good offer.”

“What? No, I absolutely don’t want to stay with Eugene.” Your answer is swift and a bit shocked.

“I would understand if you did.” Din says, his voice still soft and trying to hide his emotion.

“Mando, do you want me to stay?” You stop and turn to face him so you can look directly at his visor, your face openly displaying your displeasure at his words.

“No,” he says strongly, “I don’t. Not at all. But it would be wrong of me to hold you back if you wanted to leave.”

You slip your hand into his and look at him with soft eyes as you say, “Mando, I don’t want to leave you, or the child. I’m happy with you both, happier than I’ve been in a long time. Eugene is wrong; he doesn’t know what you can give me.”

Din’s heart pounds at your words, as he says, “I’m glad,” he pauses just for a second before he tells you, “I don’t want you to leave us.” He gives your hand a small squeeze and turns to continue walking.

“Besides, there’s no way I could stay with a man I’m not attracted to in the slightest.” Your voice has a lighter tone to it and it breaks a bit of the tension.

“He wasn’t that ugly,” Din shrugs and you laugh in response.

“No, it wasn’t really about his looks, just the overall way he carried himself. I prefer a man with more confidence.” You say.

“Confidence is attractive.” Din agrees with you.

“Yeah, it is. I like a man who can walk into a room and earn everyone’s respect just by the way he holds himself. That’s incredibly attractive.” You give him a slight side-glance as you say this. “But if we’re being shallow, then I also wasn’t physically attracted to Eugene either.”

“Why not?” Din’s curiosity is peaked.

“He was much too skinny.” You wrinkle your nose a bit as you say this.

“You like chubby men?” Din chuckles, and while he’s not chubby, he thinks of his own stomach which isn’t quite as flat as it used to be when he was younger.

“I like bigger men,” you clarify, “Men who are broader, more muscular. Although chubby is cute too. When I cuddle with a guy, I want something to cuddle in to.”

“Is that so?” It’s not lost on Din that what you’ve just described is essentially him and he can’t deny how much he likes hearing that. Plus, now he’s imagining what it would be like to cuddle with you. He doesn’t have time to dwell on that thought however, because you’re giggling at something.

“Well and then there was the worst part, his name,” you say rather playfully.

“What was wrong with his name?” Din’s never thought about a name being part of someone’s attractiveness.

“Honestly, I don’t think I could seriously moan out Eugene in a moment of passion.” You’re consumed by giggles at the idea.

Din is stunned by what you’ve just said and all he can think about is what your voice might sound like if you were to moan out his name, his real name. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to need to respond to you as you’re still wracked with laughter.

“Oh no!” You stop laughing and gasp, “I didn’t think.”

“What?” He has no idea what could be bothering you.

“Your name isn’t Eugene, is it?” Your eyes are wide as you look at him.

Din lets out a loud laugh at how comically horrified you look at the prospect. He’s still chuckling as he tells you, “Hell no.”

“Thank the Maker,” you mutter under your breath, making Din laugh again.

You’ve made your way back to the Razor Crest now and it isn’t until you have to let go of him so that he can open the ramp, that you realize you’ve been holding Mando’s hand this entire time. It felt so natural and easy to walk holding his hand, and you hope he felt the same way. You watch as he tucks the child into his pram for the night. You should probably go get yourself ready for bed, but you want to keep talking to Mando.

“May I ask you a question?” You say as he turns back towards you.

“Of course.” He nods to you.

“Why were you so adamant about no kissing tonight? I mean not that I wanted to kiss Eugene,” you make a face at the idea, “But, it seemed to really bother you?”

“Oh” Is all that he says and then he looks away slightly. You wait patiently but for a while it seems as though that might be the only answer you get, until he finally says, “I didn’t want to see him kiss you. I don’t want to see any man kiss you.”

The air between you feels suddenly charged, and you look into his visor where you think his eyes are, and you can’t help yourself from asking, “Why not?”

“Because I can’t kiss you.” Mando admits.

“Do- do you want to kiss me?” You can’t believe you’re daring to ask him that but you need to know.

“It doesn’t matter what I want,” he says and you can hear frustration in his tone, “I shouldn’t and I can’t.”

“I would like to kiss you, but only if it’s something you want too,” you admit to him softly.

“I do want to kiss you,” Mando sighs and he moves towards you slightly but then holds himself in check.

“So Mandalorians don’t kiss? I just want to understand, I don’t want to pressure you to do anything you don’t want to do or that goes against your beliefs,” you explain, wanting him to understand that you respect his creed. You can’t deny how much you want to feel closer to him and show him how you feel, but the last thing you want is to make him uncomfortable or do something he’ll regret.

“They do, there are… loopholes, but I- I’ve never-, I want to, but-” Mando shifts his feet and looks down.

“It’s ok, I understand.” You’re quiet for a moment and you think perhaps you should just drop this. But then you can’t stop yourself from asking, “What about the Keldabe Kiss? Didn’t you say there was something softer?” Your face heats up as you remember that moment well; you’ve thought about it often.

“You remembered that?” Mando says in a low voice.

“It was pretty unforgettable, Mando,” you reply with a smile.

“There is a softer version. I could show you. If you’d let me.” His voice sounds hopeful.

“I’d like that.”

He steps closer to you then and seems to stare at your face for a long moment until you decide to close the distance between you two. You’re so close you can hear him breathing. He reaches up and places his large hands on either side of your face, holding you still, as he slowly brings his helmet down to touch your forehead. When he finally makes contact, you hear him let out a shaky breath. You bring your hands to his waist and pull him in a little closer to you as you maintain contact with him. While this isn’t what you pictured when you thought of kissing him, you can’t deny how intimate and special it feels. Just from the deliberate way that Mando is holding you, tells you how important this is for him. You stay like that holding each other and feeling suspended in time.

“I know this isn’t the same as real kissing,” Mando says, “but I like holding you like this. I’ve thought about doing this a lot.” His voice is so soft you almost feel like you imagined his confession.

“I like it too,” you tell him. You’re about to tell him how much you’ve thought about being held by him as well, when suddenly the child’s cries fill the air. Just like that, the moment between you and Mando is gone and you hurry over to pick up the little one and soothe him.

“I guess I should go get us on our way. Besides, he always sleeps better when we’re in hyperspace.” Din takes a step towards the ladder, but then pauses before coming over to you and dropping his helmet down onto your forehead again for just a few seconds. It’s a small gesture, but his heart soars at being able to do it. He gives the child a comforting pat on the back before turning away and heading to the cockpit, his head full of thoughts of you.

P.S. Don’t think that you missed hearing him call you cyar’ika, you’ll be sure to ask him about it later ;)

--------‐------------------------------------Thank you for reading! Here's the link to Chapter 5 Please let me know if you’d like to be tagged in later chapters.

Tag list: @im-the-nerdiest-of-them-a11 @theravenreads @nicotinebirds @boomtownboy @nova646 @wandering-storm-lost-shadow @becks-things @sleepwithacommunist @mackycat11 @som3thingcr3ative @punkdalek @pinkninja200 @s-unflowxr @ladyjenny19 @peppywitch @haley7242

#the mandalorian #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian fanfic #din djarin x reader #din djarin fanfic #the mandalorian x female reader #din djarin x female reader #the mandalorian fanfiction #din djarin fanfiction

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amayawolfe · 4 years ago

Text

It's Good to be Home (Hisoka x Fem.Reader)

(Warning: some harsh language, mild fluff, mild angst, and just a touch of NSFW mostly towards the end)

Word Count: 5616 (wwaaayyyy longer than I intended for a first short story...)

(Summary: You're a Hunter who's been Hisoka Amorou's beloved and trusted life partner for the better part of six years. After being together just past two years, the two of you found yourselves expecting a child. Maybe it was a slip up, or maybe one/both of you planned it; either way, nine months later you two have a baby girl.

This short story is a "slice of life" type of story. You finally had enough of being the "stay at home mom" and get away to go on a mission leaving Hisoka at home to watch your daughter. What you find when you return is not what you expected...)

~ ~ ~

You pulled up next to your life partner's car in your own driveway. A small, tired smile touched your lips. You loosed a sigh and rubbed your face and eyes with your gloved hands. It had been a long drive home from the airport, but it was the last leg of your return trip. Moving your hands to your neck you rub it a bit and tilt your head from side to side. Feeling, as well as hearing it, crack and pop as you did so.

Your phone suddenly vibrated and pinged at you from the passenger seat where you had tossed it at the beginning of the drive. Reaching over you picked it up and turned the screen towards you; it's a text from your long time friend/associate and business partner for the mission you had just finished, Illumi Zoldyck.

Illu: Did you make it home?

You partially removed your gloves so that only your thumbs were exposed and texted a reply.

You: Yeah, I literally just pulled into the driveway. Haven't even gotten out of the car yet.

Illu: Okay, good.

Illu: Next mission I should contact Hisoka, correct?

You: Unless my skills are more suited for the mission, other than that, I would say "yes".

Illu: Very well, good night, (y/n).

You: Take care, Illu, and thanks again.

Up until just now, you had not gone on a single mission since your pregnancy and the following birth of your daughter just over three years ago. It was your life partner, Hisoka, that took off for weeks at a time either for missions on his own or with Illumi.

This hadn't bother you one bit when it was just the two of you. While he was away, you would take a mission as well or travel until about the time he would usually return. Not to mention you really did treasure your alone time playing video games, watching movies or shows, working on your hobbies, or simply relaxing in the silence of an empty apartment.

Then there was the fact that after a while you would need a recharge from Hisoka himself. You truly loved and adored your life partner and wouldn't trade him for anyone or anything in the world, and you were relatively sure it was the same for him with you. However, Hisoka was, well, Hisoka; he had a tendency to become mentally, not to mention physically, exhausting from time to time.

Ironically, it was the love and need of your own independence and alone time that made you and a person like Hisoka work so well. That and a truck load of patience.

He had stayed home during most of your pregnancy, only leaving when you were on the verge of literally killing him. But he would be sure to stay close to home, traveling no more than a few hours away in case something came up and you needed him. Hisoka was actually there for the birth of his daughter and stayed home for the first few months. But once you and (d/n) were settled into a good routine on your own, he started taking missions once more.

Hisoka was a surprisingly good father when he was home and constantly spoiled her with gifts he collected while he was out. He made sure to give (d/n) lots of love and attention, watching and playing with her whenever you needed a nap, shower, some alone time or went out for training. And, of course, he would make sure to give you attention and affection as well. Attention and affection you more than enjoyed returning just as much as receiving.

Well, most of the time.

For the last few months you had started to become extremely restless and moody. You were a Hunter, damnit. Not to mention a powerful and skilled nen user. You missed going out on missions. You were also concerned with how little training you were able to get now a days. Both you and Hisoka had your fair share of enemies, and you wanted to keep your skills and senses keen for as long as your possibly could.

You had tried more than once in having a serious, yet calm, sit down with Hisoka over the matter while your daughter was down for her nap. But, as usual, when your life partner didn't like what was being talked about he would poke and tease you or change the subject entirely. This usually lead into a heated argument that was comically kept to shouted whispers so as to not wake (d/n). The argument would usually end with the both of you laying in bed hot, sweaty, and spent. This always seemed to be your daughters cue to wake up, ending any further discussion of the matter for the time being.

So, having gotten no where on the subject, you had decided to take matters into your own hands. You contacted Illumi, asking him to not contact Hisoka for the next mission and that you would like to go instead. Illumi seemed more than willing to work with you. You guessed that he needed a little change up as well when it came to his business partner.

Your travel bag was packed and hidden in the bedroom closet before Hisoka had even returned home. All you needed was Illumi to tell you where to meet him and you could bolt out the door. Of course, you felt a little guilty. And you knew Hisoka was going to be very annoyed, if not angry, but this was for your own mental well being.

You had tried to imitate the same mood you had been showing the last few months. But Hisoka's keen intuition was telling him something was up, and he watched you with curious interest over the course of a few days.

"You've been checking your phone more than usual, love~ ♣" he had finally commented from the kitchen where he was leaning against the counter drinking his morning coffee, "Is there something I should know about?~ ♠"

You had shook your head and had set your phone back down on the table.

"Not really, just expecting a text from a friend," you had answered honestly. Hisoka only hummed into his coffee cup in response, eyes still upon you as you where now horribly failing in defending your waffles from your ravenous toddler.

When you had finally gotten the text from Illumi, your mind switched to "Hunter Mode". Quickly and quietly, you grabbed your travel back and set it by the door. You then entered the living room and scooped up your daughter, giving her kisses all over her little face as you headed in your life partner's direction.

He had been sitting on the couch reading something on his phone when you caught him by surprise in leaning down and giving him a deep, loving kiss while passing (d/n) into his protective arms.

"I'm heading out," you had told him, "I'll be back in a while." The look on Hisoka's face was surprised and curious. You usually told him ahead of time when you where planning on going out for errands or training.

You gave him another quick kiss on the forehead and turned for the door.

"(y/n), wait, where are you going? ♠" Hisoka tried to grab your wrist but you dodged him easily. (d/n) was now clinging to him and becoming fussy, thinking it was Hisoka who was about to leave. She would get that way sometimes. Something you had hoped she would do to take Hisoka's main focus away from you just long enough for you to slip away.

You heard Hisoka call your name again as you grabbed your bag and practically ran out the door. Not wasting a single precious second, you were in your car on your way to the airport. You breathed a sigh of relief then giggled with excitement. That had gone smoother than you could possibly hope it would.

But then your phone began to ring, playing the ringtone Hisoka had picked out himself. Your heart picked up it's pace a little as you answered it and put it on speaker.

"Yes, love?"

"(y/n), darling, what's going on... ♠" A chill ran down your spine. It wasn't a question, it was a demand. And even though it was worded nicely, the tone spoke volumes. Hisoka was not happy.

"Easy love~," you stated calmly, "I'm just going on a mission with Illumi. I'll be back in a few days. A week at most. I promise."

There was silence on the phone for a moment. You could almost feel Hisoka's blood lust starting to come through the phone.

"What... ♠" Yeah, he was pissed. But you were never one to back down to Hisoka's rage. Your own anger flared up in response and you put your game face on. You had mentally prepared yourself for this.

"Amorou," you said sternly, only ever using his last name when you were serious and/or angry, "Before (d/n) was born we agreed we would take parenting duties on equally. That we would still be equal partners in this relationship. It hasn't been that way for quite some time and I feel like I am trapped and stagnating. I need to take this mission or else I feel like I am going to go fucking crazy!"

You could now hear the tv in the background signaling he had moved back into or near the living room. Hisoka remained was quiet. You knew he was listening, thinking. So you took a calming breath and continued.

"I'm a Hunter, just like you. And just like you I have... needs. And as amazing a sex god you are, those needs can't always be satisfied in the bedroom, love." You heard Hisoka smirk. Picking up on his thoughts you spoke again before he could.

"Or the shower, or the kitchen counter, or the back seat of the car, or the couch... Am I missing any where?"

"~Yes. ♥ In fact, you're missing several places.~ ♥" Now you could hear the smirk in his voice causing you to smirk as well. Hisoka was still annoyed, at the very least, but you knew he was calming down.

"I guess you'll have to refresh my memory when I get back."

"Mmm, I think I can handle that.~ ♦"

You chuckled. Oh, I know you can.

"Since this is your first time watching (d/n) on your own for more than a few hours, I left you some notes underneath the cereal on top of the fridge to help you out. Call me if you need anything and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

"Very well,~ ♠" Hisoka said with a pouty sigh, "You said you may be gone for a week at most, right?~ ♣"

"Yes, and I promise to be sure and update you as I go along." It was only fair seeing as it was the only thing you really asked of him while he was out on missions. To simply let you know he was alive.

"Alright, but don't think we're done talking about the way you went about this,~ ♠" he almost cooed, "We're going to have a long, serious discussion when you get back.~ ♦"

Tingles went up your spine and you felt a slight knot form in your stomach, causing you to squeeze your thighs together a little. You knew exactly what he was saying, and it had little to do with actual talking.

"Sounds fair to me," you smirked.

"Take care, kitten. Be safe.~ ♥"

"I will, love." And with that you hung up the phone.

And it seemed that was that. It had gone easier than you thought it would over all; and oddly enough, that gave you a feeling of unease. Hisoka was not one to give up easily. But in truth, there wasn't much he could have done. There was no one he trusted enough to watch (d/n) on such short notice, and it's not like leaving her home alone was an option. Quickly packing her up into the car to chase after you wasn't exactly the wisest of ideas either.

You held your word about keeping in touch. Letting him know when you reached the airport, landed at your destination, met up with Illumi, and so on and so forth. You had put your phone on silent during the mission, as was protocol, but checked it and checked in when the two of you had completed the mission and were safe.

Hisoka would sometimes reply, but kept it short. Nothing abnormal for him. He also sent pictures like how you did for him while he was away. Some were cute, like the one where he made spaghetti for dinner and sent a picture of (d/n) happily enjoying her food with sauce all over her face. And some were more private, like the one he sent of himself standing in front of the full body mirror completely naked and at "full mast" with the message, "wut ur missin 2night 💕😜💞😘 💓"

The last message you had sent him was after you had landed at the airport, telling him you would be driving home shortly. He had simply replied with "i'll be waiting 😍💕🥰💓😘 " The man really did love his emojis...

You really didn't know what to think of this with it coming from Hisoka. As it sounded both sweet and foreboding...

Sitting in your car that was rapidly cooling down from the cold wintery night air outside, you mentally prepared yourself for what ever your life partner may have awaiting you.

The chill of the night immediately nipped at your nose as you got out of your car. You collected your travel bag from the back and turned to walk up the pathway to your front door, hitting the lock button on your car remote as you did so.

Your house windows were dark, making you wonder if Hisoka hadn't managed to stay up in waiting for you after all. Upon reaching your front door you quickly looked about out of sheer habit, making sure that no one was waiting to rush in on you as you opened the door.

Feeling that it was safe, you unlocked your door and walked across the threshold. Not even two steps in you nearly tripped and fell over something, barely catching yourself on your front door handle in time. Righting yourself, you took a step back and looked to see what you had tripped on.

It was one of your daughter's large stuffed animals. A stuffed dog, to be precise. (d/n) would put it there saying that it was guarding the house, despite you telling her not to leave her toys on the floor like that.

With a sigh you shoved the toy aside with your foot, making a mental note to pick it up later. You finished entering the house with closing and locking the door behind you. But when you turned and took no more than five steps into your dark home you trip over another toy and nearly fell again. It was your daughters toy car for her dollies this time.

"What the hell?" you whispered to yourself. Reaching over you flipped on the light to the foyer and your heart clenched. From what you could see, the house was a complete mess.

Toys and clothes were littered all over the floor. There were even some dirty dishes here and there. There were sloppy, childish drawings all over the walls. You took immediate notice of the drawings that were most definitely to high for your child to reach on her own. Your jaw and fists clenched in rage.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me..." you spat through clenched teeth.

Setting your bag down you started to slowly make your way through the house, taking care in where you stepped so as to not trip and break your neck. As you started to pass the kitchen you dared to look in. Your blood started to boil.

It looked like every dish you owned was dirty, piled high in and around a filthy sink. There was food and sticky dried drink all over the counters, splattered over the floor, what looked like burnt marshmallow on the stove top and you didn't even want to know what was on the ceiling!

It wouldn't surprise you if there was a blood vessel now protruding from your forehead at this point. You had to look away from your once beautiful kitchen to take a deep breath and focus on In so as to not leak to much blood lust and risk harming your daughter.

"(y/n)? ♠" a familiar voice called out quietly from the living room down the hall.

"Amorou," you snarled and turned in the direction you heard the voice come from. Your strides were swift and determined as you stepped around the mine field of toys in the hall.

The glowing, shifting light that was spilling from the living room into the hall told you the tv was on. You turned and upon entering the living room you quickly noticed that it was in just as bad of condition. You turned again to face your so called life partner, fully prepared to chew him out for what he allowed to happen to the family home. Hell, you were actually mad enough to fight him and do some serious damage at this point.

But the moment you looked down at him and saw the sight that was laying on the couch, nearly all your rage evaporated.

Hisoka was laying on his back, head slightly turned upward as he looked over at you with tired eyes. His hair was an absolute mess. And not the sexy, messy way he would have it when he wore it down. No, it was an actual mess mess. There were a few stains on his shirt and his sweat pants like he had worn them for more than a day or two. You nearly laughed when you noticed his mismatched socks. It was then you suddenly remembered that in your haste and excitement over finally going out on a mission you had forgotten to do the laundry before you left. He had probably run low or out of clothes.

His ultimate saving grace from the tongue lashing you had been so ready to give him was the form of your daughter sleeping tummy side down on top of Hisoka's chest. She had her favorite blanket draped over her and one of Hisoka's hands was resting lightly on the middle of her back to make sure she didn't roll off him onto the floor.

As cute as the scene was, you couldn't help but think Hisoka looked a little... pathetic. A little defeated even.

You stifled a laugh and tried to keep a stern face, but the corners of your mouth kept twitching as your lips betrayed you, wanting to smile. Sure that he had sensed your blood lust a moment ago, you were ever so slightly hoping that he thought you were still furious. You moved closer to the couch and squat down so that the two of you were eye level.

"Amorou," you feigned a quiet, angry voice. A voice you usually had just before you lost it and tore someone to pieces. "What did you allow to happen to our home?"

Hisoka tried to shift into a better position but cringed when it caused (d/n) to stir. It was obvious he did not want her to wake up. You glanced at her then looked back to him.

"Did she just get to sleep?" Hisoka nodded.

"She wanted to wait up for you with me. ♠" You raised an eyebrow at this and he continued, "I was going to straighten up a bit before you got home." You rolled your eyes, not really believing him on that one. "But (d/n) started to throw a tantrum and would not stop until I laid down with her... ♠"

You felt your face soften a bit, Hisoka's voice sounded so tired. But despite his defeated condition, you couldn't help but poke fun. After all, he had done so many a time to you.

"Hisoka Amorou," you jeered softly, "Hisoka the Magician, The Grim Reaper of Heaven's Arena, defeated by a three year old." You looked at your sleeping daughter again. "I'd say it was a flawless victory."

Hisoka glared at you, lips pressed tightly together into scowl. A sly grin raced across your own lips when you saw the look on his face.

"Keep looking at me like that and I'll just leave you here for the night and have the bed all to myself."

He pressed his lips together even more tightly and looked away.

"You can be so cruel... ♠" he mumbled. You chuckled softly, leaned forward, and kissed his cheek.

"I've learned from the best, love."

Turned your full attention to your daughter, you signaled for Hisoka to slowly move his hand as you laid your own in it's place. You started to hum a soft lullaby as you began to gently rub (d/n)'s back; doing this for a couple minutes until your daughter took a deep breath and let out a sigh of pure relaxed contentment. Her breathing slowed even more, signaling she had slipped into a deeper state of sleep.

Now it was safe to move her. Slowly. Carefully. Gently. You slid your daughter's head to your shoulder and moved the rest of her body to your chest. Still humming the lullaby, you freed your life partner and started to move towards (d/n)'s room. Having to carefully step over toys and other random objects, the time getting her into her bed was taking longer than you would have liked.

Making it to your daughter's room you nearly stopped humming upon seeing the state of it. It was in a much worse condition than what it normally was and her bed was covered in toys.

This child has way to many toys...

Thankfully Hisoka had been following you and noticed why you had stopped. Slipping past you with the stealth and grace of a cat, he quietly cleared (d/n)'s bed of all but her blankets, pillows, and favorite stuffed animals.

Giving him an approving nod, you laid (d/n) down in the same manner you had picked her up and continued rubbing her back while humming for a few minutes. Once you were sure she was settled in you slowly stood up and, while still humming, made your way out of the room with Hisoka close behind you.

The two of you tiptoed down the hall and into your shared bedroom. Before you even had a chance to speak a single word your life partner turned you around, slipped his arms around your waist, pulled you tightly into himself, and buried his face into the crook of your neck. You wrapped your arms around him and buried your face into his neck in return.

"Did somebody miss me?" you teased. He only hummed a response and continued to hold you close.

After a couple minutes, Hisoka broke the hug and pulled back a little. You looked up into his eyes as he took you chin into his hand. Some of his energy seemed to have returned. It gleamed in those beautiful amber eyes you loved so much. He leaned in and kissed you softly on the lips.

It started off sweet, with multiple little kisses on your lips. Then his hands moved down to your bottom and he gave a firm squeeze, pulling your hips tighter against him. He started to kiss you more deeply and you felt his tongue start to push against your lips, begging to be let into your mouth.

"Mmnn!!" you noised suddenly and pushed away from him. Hisoka gave you a look of surprise at your sudden action. You pointed at him sternly.

"Despite how calm you may think I am, Amorou, I am still mad at you and you are not getting any sex from me until you help me clean this house to my satisfaction tomorrow."

You turned away from him towards the bed and froze in mid-step.

"Are you fucking serious?!?!?!" you hissed.

Sure, the bed wasn't made, but that wasn't what angered you. What angered you was the half eaten plate of spaghetti on the bed, what looked to be cookie crumbs all over the sheets, more of (d/n)'s toys, and a spilled juice cup.

You snapped your head in Hisoka's direction and glared daggers at him. You swore you could feel your eye twitching.

"I'll help strip and make the bed.~ ♣" he stated with a smirk while he held up his hands defensively.

"Damn right you will, " you growled through gritted teeth.

His smirk widened. He went to the closet to get the fresh sheets and blankets as you removed the dishes and toys, setting them aside to be cleaned up tomorrow. As the two of you stripped the bed Hisoka decided to say his piece.

"You know,~" he started, "the list you left me never did say anything about cleaning up.~ ♦"

You stopped in middle of tossing one of the dirty blankets aside and blinked.

Is.. Is he seriously messing with me right now?!

Feeling your blood lust starting to rise to the surface once again, you slowly turned your head in his direction. But as you opened your mouth to say something he held up a single finger.

"However, I must say I do commend you.~♣ I never really realized how much you did until I had to take care of (d/n) on my own for the week.~ ♠"

You turned your body towards him fully and crossed your arms under your chest. "Go on."

Your life partner smirked then shrugged. "You're an amazing mother to our little girl, (y/n); and this house would not be a home with out your touch. But most importantly of all, you love and put up with me.~ ♥"

You smirked and narrowed your eyes at Hisoka. "Who told you I loved you? I'm sorry to say this, Amorou, but someone has been lying to you."

Hisoka placed the back of one of his hands to his forehead and the other hand went over his heart in a dramatic like fashion. He emitted a small noise like he had been wounded

"Ugh, Queen of my heart, how could you be so cold? ~ ♠"

You snickered and whipped a pillow at him that he easily batted away back to your side.

"I would have shown you some of my routines in how I do things had you listened to me in the first place," you stated as you finished brushing crumbs off the now bare mattress.

"I suppose you have a point. ~ ♣" Hisoka spread the fitted sheet across the mattress as you started to but fresh pillow cases on the pillows. "Do you plan on taking more missions from now on? ~ ♣"

"I told Illumi to contact you for the next one unless my skills are better suited for it." You picked up the flat sheet and spread it across the bed with Hisoka catching his side and shaking it out to lay it down evenly. "I would like to take every other mission or so. I never intended to pick it back up full time like you and I used to before we had (d/n). I just need to get out into the field and keep my senses and skills sharp. I'm not as out of shape as I thought I was, but I definitely could use some more training."

Hisoka tossed the comforter over onto the bed and the two of your started spreading it out together. He was silent in thought for a moment, then sighed

"That's fair. ~ ♣" he admitted. "Are you still willing to show me how you do things here? ~ ♦"

"Of course," you smiled, "as long as you're willing to learn that is. Did that list I left you help at all?"

"Ah, it probably would have had (d/n) not scribbled all over it after I left it on the table. ~ ♠"

You dropped the last pillow into place and quickly covered your mouth to keep from laughing to loud.

"If that was the case," you said behind your hand between laughter, "Why didn't you just text me asking for new notes? I could have done so while I was waiting for my airship to depart." He looked away from you to hide the sheepish expression that was now on his face.

Ah, I see, he was to prideful to admit he had let something go wrong already and have to ask for help. Typical...

Knowing not to push the matter you simply stripped out of all but your underwear and put on a clean sleeping shirt. As you slid into bed Hisoka stripped down to his boxers and turned off the lights, leaving a small night light on near the bedroom door. When he was climbing into bed you thought you heard a noise come from the hall.

You looked in the direction of the bedroom door and started to sit up when Hisoka suddenly climbed on top of and pushed you back down into the freshly made bed.

"Hiso-" your voice was interrupted when his lips came down onto yours roughly and his tongue took full advantage of your mouth that had been opened with words.

For a few seconds, you gave into his physical demands and kissed him back with just as much vigor. Your tongues wrestled each other for dominance and your fingers went up into his tangled hair. Lifting your hips you pressed your pelvis against his and could feel his rapidly hardening member through the thin layers of cloth that separated the two of you. Your action caused a moan to slip from his throat.

Another noise from the hall caught your sharp ear. It was closer to the door this time. You pushed Hisoka away from you just enough to break the kiss. He smirked down at you with lust dancing in his eyes.

"I thought I told you no sex until after you help me clean the house tomorrow," you panted. Your own rising desires made you a little short of breath. Hisoka's smirk grew wider as he lightly grinded his pelvis against yours causing your breath to hitch.

"Hmmmm.~ ♥ And what makes you think I won't be able to convince you otherwise?~ ♦" he purred. It was your turn to smirk.

"Because, three..." Hisoka blinked in confusion.

"Two..." Hisoka now raised an eyebrow, wondering why on earth you were counting down.

"One." You pointed over to the bedroom door just as (d/n) stuck her little head into the room.

"Daddy? Mommy home?" she called out sleepily. Hisoka let out a defeated groan and dropped down on top of you, knocking the wind out of you a bit and he buried his face into the pillow beside your head. You couldn't help but laugh at his reaction.

"Yes, (d/n), I'm here," you gently called out to your daughter. She started to make her way over to you and her father. It was obvious she was intending to climb into bed with you just as she had so many a time before.

You gently but firmly pushed your life partner off of you and to the side. As you did so you whispered to him, "Help me clean the house tomorrow and you can have your fill of me in what ever way you desire tomorrow night."

Hisoka let out a frustrated growl in response causing you to laugh out loud again. You turned to your side so that he was now behind you. You held your arms open as (d/n) climbed into the bed and snuggled up against your chest. Wrapping your arms around her you hugged her closely to you and nuzzled your face into her hair. Her silky red locks were so much like her fathers. In fact, she was nearly a perfect replica of Hisoka, minus the eyes that is. She had your fierce yet beautiful eyes.

"Did you miss me, munchkin?" you asked into (d/n)'s hair. She nodded a little.

"Mmhmm, and daddy missed you." You felt Hisoka tense behind you and you chuckled.

"Did he now?"

"Yeah, he said he missed you lots." Busted, Hisoka sighed and rolled over so that his chest was against your back and his face was in your hair. He then reached his arm over you and (d/n), hugging you both closer to him.

"I missed you and daddy, too," you said as you placed a kiss atop her head.

"Mommy?"

"Mmm?"

"Happy your home."

You hugged (d/n) again as you gently leaned into Hisoka's warm embrace.

"It's good to be home, munchkin."

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magnoliabloomfield · 4 years ago

Text

Gally Imagine 7

Part one Part two Part three Part four Part five Part six

The days had been getting hotter and I wasn’t fairing too well. One day I stood up from weeding the carrot patch and my vision went white, then I woke up in the infirmary. I had a cool, damp cloth on my forehead and along the insides of my arms to help with the heat.

Behind the fussing pair of med-jacks, Clint and Jeff, I saw Gally in the background looking worried. I was transferred from the track-ho team to the med-jack team to keep me in the shade and off my feet, so it was from the surprisingly gossipy pair I worked with that I found out what had happened.

Apparently before I’d even hit the ground, Gally had taken off at a run for me, that’s why he was the one to carry me to the infirmary than either Newt or Zart. That had set my stupid little heart all a-flutter.

That fluttering got quite frustrated after a while however. I think Clint and Jeff were on some pretty strict instructions to basically baby the hell out of me and keep me from actually doing much of anything. I was stuck inside for days learning my new job, memorizing where everything was in case of an emergency and what to do for the most common injuries and hearing about the strangest ones they’d had before too. But all that meant I wasn’t out there where I could see Gally.

Newt had come by once to see how I was doing, but since I’d be relegated to the med-jacks I hadn’t seen Gally except for at meals. He seemed really dejected lately, even downright moody at times and I wondered what was going on, of course worrying that it was my fault somehow. I got my answer the day he almost died.

Well, that’s a bit dramatic, but honestly when I heard how close it could have been it really scared me.

I had made myself comfy on one of the cots and was reading the notes Clint and Jeff had made on treatments and signs of infection and what not because I was honestly bored out of my mind, but still wanted to be good at my new assignment. That’s when Gally came in.

“Gally!” I jumped up, forgetting all about playing anything cool and letting him see just how happy I was to see him. But then I saw why he was there. “Gally!” I yelled in a completely different tone as I saw the bloody tear in his shirt. “Oh my God! Come here, sit down,” I took his wrist and led him to one of the cots. “What happened?” I asked him as I zipped around collecting the things I needed to help him.

He gave a heavy sigh. “The Greenie was goofing off and the axe head went flying off the handle.”

He saw me bolt straight up, dropping some items from my over flowing hands, and added “Don’t worry, it’s not that bad.” he assured me. “I got really lucky.”

“Oh my God,” I repeated as I regathered my things, feeling shaky at the thought that Gally could have been seriously injured if it had hit him in the head or something, the very thought making my chest feel tight.

When I finally had everything piled in my arms and turned to take it over to him he was slipping his shirt off. He grabbed the back of his collar with his good arm and just yanked it off. My brain was overloaded. I was still upset about the accident that could have hurt Gally badly, worried about the injury he did get, I was now confronted with him shirtless and also miffed at him for just stripping in front of me like it was no big deal.

“Wow, ok,” I said as I came over and set everything down.

“What? It had to come off anyway,” he raised a brow at me while shrugging with his good shoulder.

“I can’t bend over, but I’m glad you feel safe enough to just strip in front of me. Honestly though, you should really change how you do things, you never know how the girl will react,” I teased him.

He didn’t give me much of a reaction but I chocked it up to him being hurt and went about things. I soaked a cloth with watered down peroxide to clean up the blood and get a better look at the injury. I tried to be extra gentle, if I was honest it was the most careful I’d been with anyone. Gally kept his head down avoiding my gaze. After it was cleaned up I gently checked to see how deep the gash was that went from shoulder to chest at a diagonal.

“Are you ok?” I asked him, noting how he was giving off some major depressed vibes.

“Really?” He glanced at me and I saw his rose colored cheeks before he turned away again. “I’m in the infirmary with a big cut.”

I rolled my eyes. “I mean aside from the physical injury, are YOU ok?”

There was a pause as I got the iodine and dabbed it gently on the cut.

“Yeah,” he finally answered, quieter and not as sure as he usually sounded.

I prepared two special bandaids, securing them on opposite sides of the cut before using them to pull the skin closer together. It was second best to stitches and he really didn’t need stitches, thank god, I could not bring myself to sew up his soft, freckled skin. I was so focused on doing a good job, making sure it would hold up well enough to heal nicely and not get infected, I was startled when he spoke up.

“So, you don’t like being called Princess?” he asked, still not looking at me.

“What?” I blurted in confusion. “The heck makes you think that?”

“I heard you were trying to stop boys from calling you that,” he replied, bowing his head even further. I felt like I’d just kicked a puppy.

“Oh, that- yeah-well,” I stumbled on my words before deciding to just come clean. “I just like it when you call me that, it doesn’t sound the same coming from the others.”

I felt like I’d just given so much away with that but he didn’t even acknowledge me. I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to cheer him up and get the old Gally to come back. It was easier to talk when I was busy with my hands and didn’t have to try and hold eye contact or anything, so I kept going even after that as I secured the last few bandages.

“I wish it was under better circumstances, but I’m glad I got to see you. I’ve been cooped up in here so long, I was starting to miss you,” I dared to say just to see how it would go over, I needed some kind of reaction.

“You shouldn’t say those kinds of things to the boys,” He stiffened up but still didn’t look at me.

“I’m not saying it to the boys,” I stated clearly and waited for him to look at me before I went on. “I’m saying it to you.”

His face seemed to crumple and he shook his head. “Don’t do that. Not to me,” he said as if he were disgusted, but I could tell there was an underlying pain there. “Don’t tease me like that.”

“I-I’m not teasing, Gally,” I was taken aback. “I mean it sincerely, I wasn’t trying to tease you.”

He still shook his head. “I know what you’re saying about me, what you think about me-”

“Whoah, wait a second,” I interrupted, feeling upset now, not exactly at Gally but at whatever or whoever was causing some kind of misunderstanding between us. “What exactly am I supposed to be saying and thinking, and who the heck is telling it to you, and why the heck are you believing them? I think the only one who can speak for me is me.”

Gally seemed ashamed now, his ears red. The way he fiddled with his shirt in his hands and hunched over not looking up at me finally made me realize he was feeling insecure.

“Why would you miss me out of everyone?” He made it sound like a rhetorical question meant to put himself down.

I knelt in front of him. “Because you’re my friend. Because I like spending time with you the most. Because you’re funny. Because it feels like I know what you’re thinking just from the look you give me and no one else around here gets me like that. I like you, Gally. And you should take my word for it and stop listening to anyone who tells you otherwise.”

He still didn’t look at me. I saw his jaw clench though. I sighed and got back to putting his bandages on. “How’s that feel?” I asked as I gently ran my fingers over either side to make sure the bandaids had adhered properly.

I felt him take in a shuddery breath. “It’s fine.”

He went to put his shirt back on but I gently stayed his hand. “Leave that with me, I’ll have it cleaned up and mended for you by tomorrow when you come back to have your bandages changed.” I knew he valued useful acts of service the way I valued spending time with him.

He looked from my hand to my face and then gave a little nod, handing it over to me. He stood up and I tried not to stare at his very nice builder’s physique.

“I’m sorry you got hurt, but I’m really glad nothing worse happened to you, that you weren’t hurt more,” I said to him, trying to sound more serious and sincere, less cheery uppy than before.

He took a good look at me for the first time. “Me too.”

We both knew we were talking about more than just a cut.

Part eight

@poulterholland @anniemylennox @generallampdreamweasel

#will poulter #Will Poulter protection squad #Gally #tmr #the maze runner #maze runner #tmr Gally imagine #tmr gally #gally imagine

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falcor-thee-luck-dragon · 4 years ago

Text

Klaus x Powered Reader

Summary: Reader is part of the umbrella academy but came when they were 12 due to parents needing help for them, ya know controlling powers and whatnot. They can shapeshift into any animal and their senses are heightened n such.

Warnings: bloody, fighting bad guys, bit of Klaus fluff

You know that moment in a movie where they freeze frame and then the character says something like “you’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.”

Yeah with Klaus you have those moments more times then you could count. In fact, if you had a dollar for every time Klaus has gotten you into a freeze frame moment. (And you’ve thought about this often.)

You could probably afford a real nice apartment with actual food in its fridge. Instead of living at the Academy with some apples and Klaus’ latest alcoholic beverage.

But alas, here you are in a back alley as Klaus’ bodyguard waiting for some Italian mafia members to come get their money that he owes them. Well that’s what you’re assuming but Klaus insists they’re just some moody tough guys. Okay sure.

You watch Klaus as he paces back and forth in front of you counting his cash for about the 50th time in the past 10 minutes.

Klaus stops abruptly and turns to you with a smile, “You know what I love about you, Y/N, every time I think things could get worse I look at your pretty face and I know you got me.”

Sighing in knowing annoyance you look up at him, “Are you short.”

Klaus snorts, “No actually I’m pretty long.” He says with wink.

You look up to the sky trying not to crack, you couldn’t give him the satisfaction even if it was funny, not the time or place. Especially considering his dumbass is short some cash he definitely owes very soon.

You look over to Klaus again and raise an eyebrow.

“Alright how much?”

He twiddles is fingers while avoiding your curious gaze. “Oh you know...a couple hundred or so.”

“So that’s why I’m here, emotional support my ass”, You say rolling your eyes a bit amused nonetheless.

Klaus may be an idiot but he’s funny and kind and you love him. Also you do enjoy beating up gangsters or whoever these thugs of the hour are.

Folding your arms while giving Klaus a smirk you tell him, “Well your friends better get their asses here cause when they do. I’m gonna knock their teeth in for making us wait in this shit ally. I’ve been suppressing the urge to vomit for 10 minutes.”

He nods in agreement, glad you’re not about to rip him a new one for his latest antics.

“Wait, does it really smell that bad, I mean the dumpster is at the other end of the ally.” He says in confusion.

You put your hands on your hips glancing at the dumpster and then focusing on Klaus.

“I’ve got the whole animal kingdom inside me Klaus, I know you can kinda smell that dumpster from here, but listen. For me it’s 1000x worse and let me tell you it doesn’t smell like a bath and body works around here.”

Klaus laughs scratching the back of his head, “Right, right, sorry.”

Suddenly a sketchy looking black car rolls into the ally, coming to a halt as three angry looking men walk out. Clearly hiding something within their coats, the “leader” it seems steps up and speaks.

“You betta have that 1,000 you owe us right fucking now you little theif, I don’t appreciate you takin’ my mother’s gold necklace, rest her soul.” He growls.

Klaus raises his hands up, “Listen buddy, you stole that from your own mother at her funeral...and let me tell you she’s not to happy about it.” He says looking to his left where you assume this guys dead mother is standing.

The bald guy behind him shakes his head and says, “So fuckin what? We needed that shit for other important purposes raccoon eyes.”

Klaus now lost as to where this situation is about to turn looks over at you clearly needing assistance. While mouthing “help me”.

Walking past him you hold your hands up showing you have nothing to hide, “Now that’s not very nice, a real shit personality, your mother would be very disappointed in how you’ve turned out. Cause let’s be honest it’s not like your looks are doing anything for you either.” You say snickering trying to see how they’ll react.

The first guy smirks reaching into his coat to pull out a nasty looking knife. “See this right here, I’m a good old fashioned man, I don’t believe in guns.”

You raise your eyebrows at him, “Oh well in that case we should all be quite relieved then.”

Looking behind him you notice as his two friends pull their own weapons out, which consists of a hammer and some type of meat hook.

“Klaus couldn’t have picked an easier bunch of idiots to fuck up then these psychos.” You thought.

The bald one begins to move brushing past the first guy looking like he’s seeing red.

“Jesus, man I didn’t mean to offend, I’m just making friendly conversation.” You muse.

Baldy begins to charge holding up his hammer ready to strike. “Come here you bitch, that’s my husband you’re talking to.”

He swings as you side step him, tripping him as he falls directly onto the concrete. Conveniently dropping the hammer in the process. Klaus being the ever troublesomely fantastic sidekick, picks up the hammer and throws it at you.

Gripping the hammer tightly, baldy rises from the ground faster then you’d expected mouth bloody and boiling with rage.

But in a hot second his bearded buddy in crime sprints towards you with his meat hook seemingly out of nowhere.

Klaus yells for you to watch out but you didn’t even need to look, this guys heart beat is louder then a firework and you’re faster then a viper, your senses on overload. As you turn around in record time to grab the guys right arm with the meat hook.

With your left hand tight around this guys beefy one you hold on and push his assault giving him more power. Effectively fulfilling your plan and leading the hook right into baldys chest. Who was fortunately running towards you.

A split second later with the hammer in your right hand you swing it forcefully into the guys shins. Hearing a sweet sickly crunch sound and the wild howls protruding from your assailants throat.

“Sorry I didn’t know you were married.”

“Fuck you!” He screams.

You look up hearing the sting of metal being swung in the wind, to see a knife heading straight for your throat.

With lighting reflexes you grab his wrist, the knife inches from your vulnerable skin.

Klaus gasps in the background terrified and relieved at not getting your throat slit.

You turn your fingernails to sharp cat-like claws that dig dangerously into his flesh, causing hot blood to drip out. The man drops the knife and grimaces in pain.

“I don’t know about you but I don’t think my boyfriend owes you three motherfuckers shit.” You growl, eyes beginning to glow an electric blue while the whites of your eyes shift to black, something that happens when you start to use your power.

“Fuck you, and fuck that thieving piece of junky shit crying in the corner.”

Your mood darkens, “Wrong answer.”

Letting go of his bloody wrist you grip his throat with your left hand lifting him off the ground. He begins to choke and struggles against your tight grasp.

“I know you’ve heard of me from other friends of yours, so listen very closely. If you touch Klaus again or anyone else around here who’s just trying to survive in this city. I won’t be so generous next time. Or maybe I should rip your fucking face off right now.” You squeeze tighter drawing blood.

“Y/N.” Klaus says softly.

“Let’s go home.” He asks with pleading eyes and you snap back to reality smelling the iron scent of blood on your hands.

Sometimes you can get carried away feeling the rush of the hunt, a taxing side affect of your power, one you’ve always struggled to control.

Letting the man go he slumps to the ground coughing and sucking in straggled breaths.

“ Alright, me..me and the boys...won’t do nothing....you have my...my word....no bullshit nothing....I swear.”

“Good cause your friends are gonna need more then some stitches.”

You quickly leave the ally and start walking down the street towards the Academy.

Breathing heavily, you look up at Klaus who’s at your side as you start to feel a bit embarrassed that he saw you lose it a little.

He holds onto your arms stopping you, “Don’t worry, we’ll have a bath and watch some movies...hey you like that Museum one?”

“The Night at the Museum.” You say smiling still feeling off.

Klaus’ face lights up, “Yeah that one, with the big T-Rex skeleton and President Roosevelt on a horse.”

He links your arms together and you both begin walking again.

“Y/N, I’m not afraid of you, you know. I never have been, I actually find it pretty sexy of you to beat up bad guys for me and keep the neighborhood safe-er. Ben thinks so too, minus the sexy part of course. Only I get to enjoy that.”

You relax more into his side and once again start to feel a bit more at ease with yourself.

“Oh wait a second, here put these sunglasses on, your eyes are still playing mood rings with us. Don’t wanna freak out the civilians” He laughs.

“Thanks, I did wonder why that kid back there looked like he just saw a ghost.”

Klaus winks, “Maybe he did, cough cough..Ben...cough cough.”

“You’re an ass.” You say while rolling your eyes

“Yes indeed my love but remember I deal with the supernatural of all sorts, from ghosts to monsters, nothing phases me.” Klaus states proudly.

You laugh, “ Okay Van Helsing, this monster wants a bath with her hunter then.”

Klaus kisses your cheek, “That can be arranged my dear.”

Smiling up at him you hold him tighter and think to yourself how weird your life is, but you wouldn’t change it for anything.

- okay wow alright, first story ever I hope it’s good or at least some people like it. It was honestly fun to write ngl.

#the umbrella academy #the umbrella academy x you #the umbrella academy imagine #the umbrella academy x reader #klaus hargreeves imagine #klaus hargreeves x you #klaus hargreeves x reader #klaus hargreeves #number 4 #the seance #ben hargreeves #falcor the luck dragon stories #good enough hashtag to find my stories to right

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anobscurename · 4 years ago

Text

ocean eyes – chris evans

previous part: PART VIII — masterlist

concept: for your birthday, chris takes you to a burlesque club, where you reunite with anthony and sebastian. the first kiss. the slowest of slow burns. part nine of many.

pairing: chris evans x reader

word count: 5.2k

warnings: strip tease, kissing, aNgSt

author's note: nothing i can say will prepare you for the rollercoaster you are about to endure. i hate myself for doing this to you. ya girl really popped tf off on this one.

Looking at Christopher Robert Evans, you wouldn't expect him to be someone who happened to frequent burlesque clubs.

You also wouldn't expect him to have so many tattoos, but that's what a good long sleeve jacket was for.

It would be dangerous for anyone to assume anything about Christopher Robert Evans. And yet, assumptions were made... Just like how you had assumed he would forget your birthday.

It wasn't an unfair assumption, by any means. You had only been living together for about six months, of which he was only there for a few days at a time, before jetting back out to whatever location his film shoot was at.

You were close, but at the same time, not close at all.

It was hard to think of where you stood – neither one of you could really answer that question, and should anyone corner you both separately, you'd both resignedly sigh and claim "just friends."

That was why his gift surprised you on two different levels:

One, he had remembered your birthday. Perfectly friendly enough.

Two, he had gifted you something not quite friendly in the slightest... And that was where waters got murky. But you'd be fucked if you didn't admit just how willing you were to wade into those waters – murky or not.

The box had been delivered to the house late in the morning. Chris had been gone for just over a month this time – 46 days, you were unashamedly keeping count – and his absence didn't go by unnoticed.

Everything reminded you of him, even if he didn't spend a lot of time there.

The box had been from La Perla, and just the name – gold embossed on cream – elicited a visceral reaction of excitement.

You signed for it – a little too eagerly, given the delivery boy's eyebrow raise – before dashing inside to open it.

And now, there it sat, on your bed, silk ribbon still intact.

You weren't unfamiliar with the forever coveted – and forever out of your price range – Italian lingerie brand. But knowing it was from Chris... Your fingers inched towards the ribbon.

Your phone rang, rescuing you from letting your imagination run too wild. Checking the caller I.D., you faltered. It was him.

"Hello?"

"{Your name}! Hey." If you shut your eyes, you could see his smile. "Did you get the gift?"

"Yeah," you responded, a bit more breathless than you would've liked. "Looking at it right now, actually."

"And? What do you think?"

You hadn't the heart to tell him you hadn't opened it yet. "It's..."

You heard a familiar voice in the background. Two of them, actually. "Who's that?" "Is that {your name}? Hey, yo, {your name}! Happy birthday!"

"Guys, cut it out!" Chris laughed, the reciever crackling a little. You could only imagine what was transpiring on the other end: Chris trying to wrangle himself free from his friends all clamouring to get a word in over the phone he was holding just out of reach.

You giggled. "Is that Mackie?"

"Yeah, and Seb. I'm on set with them right now. Decided to drop by, say hi to everyone. Try and convince those two delinquents to come out tonight, but after they heard where I was taking you, it wasn't much of a task. Just managed to sweet talk the producers into getting them the night off."

"It better be great tonight, Kevin really wasn't impressed!" You could hear Seb's muffled shouts from across the room, followed by a "quiet on set!" from a voice you didn't recognize.

Silence was instantaneous from the clamour you had almost gotten used to from the other end.

"Hold on," Chris' voice was hushed. "Gonna get out of their hair before they start filming again..."

You found yourself perching restlessly on the edge of your bed as you waited for Chris to return to the call. There was some shuffling on his end, quiet apologies whispered to passing strangers he was trying to skirt past.

When he got back, he was speaking normally again. "About the gift. It's a bit much, I know. Not exactly Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge! but I know how much you love that film, so I thought it'd be fun if tonight... Well, if tonight we visited something close to it."

"You're not taking me to France, are you?" Your heart was in your throat, hoping he'd say no. Not that you wouldn't love to go, it was just that you weren't ready to make a trip that big any time soon. The panic of packing would be all consuming, and that was the last thing you wanted to be doing on your birthday.

His laugh was infectious. "God, no. In this economy?"

"So, where are you taking me, then?" Your eyes had narrowed in suspicion.

"Think Moulin Rouge, but smaller and more local."

"Oh..." There was one name that came to mind – Vulpecula, the Latin word for "little fox". A burlesque club, every bit as elite as the club you used to be a waitress at.

"Oh," he agreed. Even over the phone you could see the smug smile on his face. He had recalled you mentioning how you'd always wanted to go there, but could never get in. The moment he heard that, about four months prior, he had excused himself from the conversation – having given you some perfectly justifiable explanation at the time, reasonable enough for you to not suspect anything different – and promptly booked a front seat table there for your birthday. "So, listen, I'll be home in... Let's see, they have an hour left here before they wrap, from Georgia to L.A., that's four, maybe five hours...? So let's say no more than seven hours? I should be home by dinner, have a quick shower, and be ready to meet Seb and Anthony at Vulpecula around nine for the reservation. Sound good?"

That was in... One glance at the clock on your bedside table confirmed it. Ten hours time by the looks of it.

Ten hours was more than enough time for you to pick something Vulpecula worthy and get ready. You hoped. "Sounds good."

"Alright, see you in a bit."

You said your goodbyes, the thrill of finally going to a burlesque club beginning to rise. Your thumb hovered over the "end call" button, about to press, when Chris interjected one last time.

"Oh, and {your name}? Happy birthday."

———————

True to his word, Chris was home for dinner. "Dinner" being two pizzas balancing precariously in one scopic hand – held aloft, well out of Dodger's eager jumping reach – and roses clutched firmly in the other.

"You're back."

His face lit up at your presence, tired eyes becoming wide awake once more. "Hey there, birthday girl."

You let him put down the pizza and flowers first before you sprinted into his arms. The scent that you could only reconcile with airplanes from his flight clung to him, but if you inhaled deeper, the smell that was so distinctly Chris was there too.

He chuckled, hugging you back every bit as enthusiastically, even going so far as to pick you up and spin you around, Dodger yapping excitedly at the situation.

"I missed you, you asshole."

"I missed you too," he sighed into your hair.

You pulled apart. "You have no idea how quiet it gets here when you're not around. I almost feel bad for the shampoo bottles, they haven't heard you sing in a month now and it's– What? What are you staring at?"

A stillness had overcome Chris as he held you at arm's length, hands resting just above your elbows. He was looking at you.

"Just you," he affirmed softly. There it was again, that smile. "You look gorgeous. Doesn't she look beautiful, bud?"

Dodger, suddenly bored of the interaction, dashed off to go retrieve some chew toy or another.

"Guess he doesn't think so," you shrugged, suddenly shy under that molten ocean gaze.

"Don't listen to him. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

———————

Vulpecula didn't disappoint. Your eyes were wide in awe, almost wishing they were wider so as to take in as much as you possibly could. You were right by the stage, all of you seated in plush, velvet chairs. You sat around a gold and black vintage marble-top table cluttered with empty bottles and half full drinks.

Anthony and Seb – after showering you with birthday wishes and small gifts now residing in your discarded coat pockets – were reclined in their seats, drinks in hand, talking low to one another. You had heard a snippet of their conversation in passing. They had been debating how long you and Chris would last in this will they, won't they charade.

The very thought of a will they had your eyes rolling. As if that would ever happen. You didn't need to remind yourself: friends. Just friends, nothing more.

Sultry music, moody lighting, and the hint of wine and expensive perfume mingled with French cigarette smoke all invaded your senses.

"They look amazing up there," you whispered in reverence, eyes never leaving the dancers.

Chris leaned in, shoulder brushing yours. The natural magnetic pull he had on you snapped you out of your wonderstruck state, and you tilted your head to hear him better. His breath was hot against your ear as he struggled to be heard over the music. "Not as amazing as you look right now."

You shrugged the compliment off. It wasn't lost on you, the reason he enjoyed these types of clubs. "Yeah, but I could never do what they're doing right now."

"I don't know," he cajoled. "I've seen you dance before. You've got moves."

He was referring to one particular evening where you had decided to settle your differences over The Impromptu Never Have I Ever Swim™ – namely, who was at fault – with a dance battle. But that was nothing.

You quirked an inquisitive brow. "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

"No suggestions here," he said, hands raised in submission. "I'm just saying you've got moves."

At your scoff, he leaned in again. You weren't entirely oblivious; the implication of his words were crystal clear: "And you could out dance anybody in this room."

"Is that a challenge, Evans?" The smirk came easy to your wine darkened lips as you brought the flute of champagne to them for a sip. You had been rather indulgent in your mixing of alcohols all night, and compliance was becoming incredibly enticing.

"You can't compete where you don't compare, and these girls don't even come close."

The dismissive wave he gave the stage had caught the attention of Anthony and Seb, and they were now listening and watching intensely, both trying to hide their amusement behind their tumblers of whiskey.

"You are challenging me," you gasped in mock disbelief.

"If anything, it's a request," Anthony had attempted to disguise his commentary behind the whiskey glass, but had failed. The whole table had heard, earning him a slap on the arm from Seb and an amused quirk of your lips. "What? I'm just saying what we're all thinking. We're all thinking it."

"I'm not about to be sweet-talked into making a fool of myself by the likes of you, Christopher," you teased, turning your attention back to Chris.

He smirked. "I dare you."

"You really don't think I'll go up there." It was more a statement than anything. He knew the need to prove him wrong would heavily outweigh your dignity, and you hated that he knew that.

He shrugged, noncommittal, but still smirking. "I have no inclination to what you will or won't do."

That was it. The thread he'd been pulling at all night had finally unravelled, and it was probably the alcohol that had dulled your better judgement, but it was your birthday, for fuck sakes, and you felt like doing something memorable and insane.

"Guard my drink."

And then you were up, making your way to the dimly lit steps leading up to the stage.

If you had been there with anyone else, you would've been escorted out immediately. But that was the thing about loyal patronage, fame, and money... You could get away with almost anything. Your status was immediately elevated just by being in their company.

Seb watched you, mouth agape, as you sashayed to the front and centre. "Holy shit, she's doing it."

Uproarious applause met your arrival as your steps pulled the attention of the audience, but you could hear and see Anthony whoop in support above them all.

"How the hell did you pull this one off, Evans?" Anthony asked as he sat back down to enjoy the show, face laminated in a permanent smile.

"What can I say? I know my girl," Chris winked.

Seb sighed, digging some cash from his pocket. "You win, I guess," he grumbled as he handed over the money to Chris.

"That's mine, thank you." Anthony plucked it from Seb's fingertips. "You too, blue eyes. Hand it over."

"But I won," Chris all but pouted, confusion creasing his brow.

"You said you could get her up there with them in ten," Anthony corrected. "I said you could do it in five if she had the right amount of Moët in her. And would you look at that..." – he plucked the near empty bottle in question from the table to display to his friends – "the perfect amount of Moët."

Chris yielded. He fished some stray bills from his pocket and paid his fee.

The entire exchange was lost on you, however, as the song changed. There was a hush over the club as the music faded, and suddenly, there was a spotlight on you. The other dancers stood back, watching you in delight.

And then the music began to play.

And you began to move.

You were mesmerizing, incredible in your command of the stage. The sway of your rolling hips, the placement of your hands, roving over your body suggestively, but not overtly sexual. That was the beauty of burlesque – it was to sell sex without outright giving it, and it was as if you'd danced there your whole life, the way it flowed so naturally through you.

"Would you look at her up there?" Anthony breathed, something akin to pride in his eyes. Your relationship with the Falcon actor was strange – something close to siblings. Although, if you were to think about it, no big brother would ever be as proud as he was to be watching his little sister dancing at a burlesque club. It had been less about the dance, though – and all about the joy he could see emanating from you.

You liked being the centre of attention for one night. And you very much were.

The interaction at the table was practically forgotten as your friends stared up at you in admiration.

And when your hands traced your curves, moving languidly to the zipper at the side of your dress, Chris' breath visibly stuttered. And when the dress was slipping off of you – straps slinking off the delicate slope of your shoulders to allow the pooling of the fabric at your feet – Chris leaned forward in his seat, entirely bewitched.

You were wearing it – the lingerie he had bought for you.

It was a pretty little number – light champagne coloured silk, trimmed in black lace. It fit you like a glove, hanging off your frame in a way that revealed enough to stir a desire to see more, but not enough to have you shying away in discomfort in front of all the onlookers. The neckline was low, and the skirt fell just above mid thigh.

And still you danced, motions slow to the music, toying with the skirt, the straps, your hair. For that single moment, you were seduction incarnate.

He couldn't look away. You were everything in his world, the only thing in it. You were his world.

When you made eye contact with him, out in the darkness at the edge of the stage, he could've sworn he'd forgotten how to breathe.

You sank to your knees, sensual, undulating, gathering your now discarded dress. The smirk you had – so often teasing – was beckoning, mirroring the intent in your eyes.

You slowly dragged your eyes over Chris, taking in the state of him. What you had rendered him. The hold you had over him was tangible – the awed set of his agape jaw, the way his eyes were glazed with such intensity and want. It stirred something in you, something in the pit of your belly.

You cast him a coy wink before you lazily tossed the dress to him as if you hadn't a care in the world.

Sebastian sucked a whistling breath through his teeth when the song ended. "Who was that girl?"

Chris shifted in his seat, trousers having grown immeasurably uncomfortable. He found himself dumbfounded. "I have absolutely no idea."

———————

The excitement of the stage was still coursing through you when you returned to the table.

Anthony, who had rightfully given you a well-deserved standing ovation, gave you a massive bear hug that lifted you off the ground and had you giggling. "Wow," was all he said. And then, louder: "Wow!"

Nearby patrons cheered in agreement, and you felt your cheeks flush. "Stop it," you rolled your eyes.

"No, he's right," Seb smirked. "Isn't that right, Chris?"

Seb had tilted his head to peer at Chris past you and Mackie, cocky at having caught Chris out.

Chris – having crossed his legs to conceal the effect you had on him – could barely even look at you. "Yeah," he cleared his throat; it didn't help chase the rasp from his voice. "It was quite something."

You exchanged a slightly annoyed look with Anthony. "I don't see what your problem is, I was only doing what you wanted."

You plopped down in your seat, immediately taking a sip from your champagne. Chris' eyes followed your action, attentative – even more so when you caught a drop at the corner of your lips with your deft tongue.

As if he wasn't already hard enough.

And then his undoing – you spotted your dress. It was still exactly where it had landed when you'd tossed it, splayed across his lap. Unthinkingly, you reached for it, your fingers grazing his crotch and–

His hand shot forward, intercepting you, seizing your wrist in an iron grip. He looked to almost be in pain. "Don't."

What happened next, you didn't blame the alcohol this time, or the thrill the stage had left you with, or anything else. This was all you.

The air had been thick with desire – that all consuming want – and there was a glassiness in his blown out pupils – a need – that had spurred you on.

You grabbed him by his shirt, pulling him to you. Tilting forward, you captured his lips in a hungry starving kiss. He stiffened, before melting, becoming putty in your hands, kissing you back with a passion that set your entire soul and body ablaze. It was sloppy, liquor heavy on both your lips. He moaned into you, hot tongue swiping against the seam of your lips, begging for entrance. Entrance which you granted, whimpering as he deepened the kiss.

You had clambered onto his lap in the frenzied urgency. The hiss of pleasure he gave at the slow grind of your hips against him was almost enough to make you come undone then and there.

Searing hands travelled your body, fingertips digging into soft flesh every time you rubbed against him just so. He traced your curves, encompassing all his hands could reach without ever crossing the line you so desperately wanted him to. He was a gentleman, first and foremost – although he kissed like he hoped to devour you.

Your own hands carded through his hair, tugging at the strands, eliciting throaty groans you never dreamed of hearing from him. His lips muffled every mewl of pleasure you emitted, and for that you were thankful, because once his hand came to rest around your throat, you knew you were done for.

"Fuck," he growled out against your lips.

You finally pulled apart, head swimming and breathless. "Let's get out of here."

He stared at you for the longest time. You, who looked so beautiful with your kiss swollen lips. You, who was sat in his lap, looking down at him, eyes telling innocence, but lips suggesting sin. You, who was finally his. "You must know what you're doing to me."

You stifled a moan as Chris tilted your head back, gently leaving a trail of featherlight kisses from your jaw to your collarbone. Your toes curled, and you knew that if someone were to ask you your name in that moment, you wouldn't be able to tell them. "And what's that?"

"Driving me fucking crazy."

———————

You were still in absolute disbelief, convinced you'd wake up and this would all be a dream.

But it wasn't a dream, and you were there, with him, and your lips still throbbed in the remembrance of that kiss...

"Hold on," you said. Chris reluctantly halted his steps, turning to look at you. "Just wait here, I need to go get my coat."

"Don't be long," he said, voice low and soft.

You gave him a goofy half smile, still kiss drunk. "No promises."

You dashed off to the coat check station, leaving Chris in the foyer.

Ten minutes, that was how long it took. That was the number you would put to the time it took for absolute devastation to occur.

It wasn't your fault there was a line at coat check. Just like it wasn't his fault he happened to run into a particularly gorgeous woman from his past in just those ten minutes.

"Chris Evans?"

He spun at the sound of his name ringing out in the empty foyer. The music of Vulpecula was still faintly going in the background, muffled by the gilded gold doors that granted entry.

"Hey! Long time no see," he grinned. "I haven't seen you since...? Wow, it must've been ages."

"Since we broke up, yeah," she nodded in slow agreement.

"How's," he snapped his fingers, hoping to jog his memory. "Don?"

"We broke up, actually. About a month ago."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that." He made his consolation known through a friendly pat on the shoulder, thumb rubbing circles on the skin revealed by her sleeveless dress.

And it was at that moment you returned, seeing him and the woman, too close to be entirely platonic. He wasn't guilty of anything, you knew that. But the hand on the shoulder...

He hadn't noticed you yet, so you were given ample time to dissect the unfolding situation.

It dawned on you exactly why it bothered you so much. The way he was touching her, it was how he had touched you. Not in Vulpecula, no, but every day leading up to it. And it could've meant one of two things:

The first was that it was friendly. Suggesting that he had seen you as nothing more than a friend before... Before you'd fucked it up.

Or the second... That he had seen you as something more all along, and that was what he perceived her as right after that kiss you had both shared.

And honestly, you didn't know which was worse.

"I'm going to be in town for the next few days if you wanted to grab a drink and catch up..." You had stalked past them in that moment, coat draped over your arm, catching her words in passing.

Chris' eyes followed you as he spoke, distracted by your shift in mood. "I'm actually here with someone..."

He trailed off, watching as you didn't even look at him as you brushed past. "Um, hold that thought," he said, already starting to follow you out. Her entire existence was dismissed by his need to get to you and discover why you were suddenly giving him the cold shoulder. "It was great seeing you again, tell Don I say hi – wait, no, scratch that–!"

He was practically yelling over his shoulder as he chased you down. "{Your name!} Wait up!"

You didn't stop, but you were at a disadvantage – your heels, his long legs – and he caught up to you easily. His hand on your shoulder was enough to make you flinch. Who knew you could read so much into the touch of a shoulder? "Hey, what's wrong?"

Your heart could've broken at the gentleness of his voice. Could've. You'd steeled yourself already, and it was glaringly noticeable. "Nothing is wrong, Chris, forget it."

"Just wait–"

You shrugged his hand off your shoulder. "I said forget it."

"I won't," he stepped closer. "Not when I can see something is bothering you."

"Well, I will," you stated, voice flat. You turned away from him to continue your retreat. "Can we just go home?"

When he refused to budge – instead looking at you with those mournful blue eyes of his, you sighed, exasperation and a touch of anger laced through. Why were you so upset, anyways?

"Chris, I just want to go home. I'm tired and I want to get out of this ridiculous fucking outfit so please. Please can we go home?"

He watched as you backed away from him, already pushing open the foyer door to step out onto the curb. His voice was so soft when he next spoke, you hadn't even heard him over the sudden symphony of noises from outside.

"Okay. Okay we'll go."

———————

"Hey, Evans!"

Chris peeled his eyes away from your silhouette to find new purchase on the person who'd called him. He'd been watching you try – and fail – to get a cab for a little over five minutes now. He was still trying to puzzle through your sudden tonal shift, and had ended up simply staring at you from afar for what felt like ages. His eyes burned. Had he blinked? He couldn't recall.

"What are you still doing here?" Anthony hollered from the other side of the foyer. As he drew closer, his voice lowered. "I thought you guys left a while ago."

"Is {your name} around?" Sebastian asked, still in the midst of shrugging on his coat that he'd just retrieved from coat check. "We wanted to say goodbye before we headed back to the hotel. Early flight and all that."

Chris struggled to find his voice, and when he did, it didn't sound much like himself. "She's outside, getting a cab."

"Oh, you guys are gonna go home and—" Anthony wiggled his brows suggestively.

Seb was quick to land a gentle slap on Anthony's shoulder, a silent hint to shut the fuck up. "I know that face. And that voice." Sebastian drew closer – approaching Chris almost like one does a wounded animal – and placed a consoling hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"I... I don't know," Chris sighed. His voice sounded strangled, even to him. "She won't talk to me. Wants nothing to do with me by the looks of it."

Anthony pursed his lips. "Well, what did you do?"

"Why?" Sebastian sighed in exasperation. The question was addressed to no one in particular – except maybe God.

Anthony ignored him. "Man, do I have to spell it out for you? She's crazy about you, giving you those big doe eyes everytime you come within a five mile radius. That is some love shit if I've ever seen it," he chortled to himself. Snapping out of it, he leaned in menacingly – big brother mode activated. "So what did you do?"

"Oh, man..." Chris groaned, trying to remember the events that had led to this point. "Well, she was getting her coat."

Anthony nodded slowly, showing he was following. "Right."

"And this girl I used to date, she came over and we started talking."

"You've lost me," Mackie said, still nodding.

"What do you mean?"

Lightning quick, Anthony smacked Chris upside the head. It wasn't hard, a love tap at most, but it still made Chris grimace. "What do you mean, what do I mean? Honestly, both of you are so clueless. Man, she's perfect for you. Literally, perfect. So what are you talking to your ex for?"

"It wasn't like that, Ant," Chris groaned, rubbing the back of his head. "Wait, do you think she thinks...?"

"I don't know what she thinks. What I think, is that you should fix it. As soon as possible."

"Guess I'm in the lead again, huh?" Sebastian slid his hands coolly into his pockets, rocking on his heels.

Chris frowned. "You guys bet on us?"

"Not with money. With something much more meaningful," Seb smiled.

Anthony nodded sagely. "The settlement on who the Black Widow belongs with."

Chris winced. "That's a lot."

"Well, I had faith."

"He's Team Chris-and-{Your Name}-Should-Get-Married," Seb nodded toward Mackie. "I'm Team Let-Them-Live-Their-Lives."

"Yeah, the names are still a work in progress," Anthony admitted.

Chris sucked in a deep breath, fatigue suddenly hitting him like a freight train. "Well, it's late. You guys should probably get going. I'll text you with an update tomorrow."

Anthony had already started heading out, Sebastian at his side. He swiveled to face Chris. "If I'm not scandalized by what's about to go down tonight, don't even bother."

Sebastian took Mackie by the shoulder, guiding him away. "I'm going to take him back to the hotel before he has an aneurysm," he smiled apologetically. "He hasn't planned yours and {your name}'s wedding in a little over four hours now."

As they departed the building, Chris could still hear Anthony calling out to him.

"I want to be scandalized, Evans! Scandalized!"

———————

"What part of forget it is not getting to you, Christopher?"

He leaned against the doorframe of your room, arms folded and legs crossed at the ankles.

"I just want to know what I can do to make it better. Tell me what I can do to make it better."

You gently removed your earrings, tossing them on your desk, before removing your coat. When you'd gotten home, you'd gone straight to your room, and, in a great imitation of Dodger, Chris had followed you there. "It's nothing."

"Tell me what I did wrong so I can fix it."

"That's exactly it, Chris. It's nothing. We were both drunk, and it will never happen again. It was nothing. So forget it."

You couldn't even look at him, instead choosing to speak over your shoulder. Because if you had seen him, been looking at him, you would've seen the hurt in his eyes, the pain in the set of his jaw. Your next words were a dismissal: "Thank you for the gift. Good night."

But it wouldn't be a good night, not for either of you.

You were too tired to cry, too tired to sleep, too tired to dream. You were just so... tired.

And Chris... He spent the night sleepless. Entirely unable to do what you asked, and forget. You had seared yourself into his mind, and he was entirely incapable of forgetting.

#dina writes #chris evans #chris evans fanfic #chris evans x reader #chris evans x you #chris evans/you #chris evans angst #chris evans fluff #anthony mackie #sebastian stan #ocean eyes #i really did this to myself huh

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missskzbiased · 4 years ago

Text

Getting a Roommate (3)

Hi, I’m back~

So I’ve stablished some kind of friendly relationship between Y/N and most of the guys. Next chapter I will probably begin to put some romance

Genre: Romance; Sugestive; College Au; Roommate Au; Love Triangle

Word Count: ~6,4K

Female Lead

Warnings: Language, Sugestive stuff (?) [I’m not sure what to warn people about yet kkkkkk]

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Final)

When Felix first asked you how was your new life going, now that you lived with two fuckboys you had to answer “It’s great! They’re just like anyone else out there, but with a very active sexual life” because well… It was the truth.

It was true to your first day there.

Even though Hyunjin was a pain in the ass on the first day, You’ve learned that He wasn’t all that bad, just a little bit… Well, He sucked sometimes, that was it. He got friendly enough, quite funny and overdramatic, but was cocky as hell. You wished you could wipe off the smug grin He has every day, looking at you like you’re a noisy little girl and He was some kind of untouchable hot stuff. Minho was just like the first day: Crude, friendly, and really nice. You didn’t expect to have any problem with him at all.

You should have expected it, though.

On your second day, Minho brought a girl home and you were on the couch, watching TV, like a normal human being. You were in shorts and a loose shirt since it was quite hot, and the girl eyed you like you were some zoo animal and smiled. She pity smiled you. Great! Just what you needed on a Saturday night. You got your cellphone and checked your messages: Not even a single message from Minho saying He would bring a girl tonight.

“Did you know He was bringing anyone home?” You asked when Hyunjin came to the kitchen, pouring some water in the glass.

“Why? Jealous already?” He asked giving you no attention.

Scratch your previous thought, Hyunjin will always be a pain in the ass, period.

“No, you moron” You rolled your eyes “It would be nice to know… I could have dressed better” You shrugged.

“Why? Are you going to fuck her too?” He joked, looking at you. You glared at him but didn’t respond. You could talk to Minho about it later. The later would have to be on the third day, though, because you soon found yourself sleeping on the couch.

Your third day began with a backache.

They could have ordered that damn bed earlier, You thought grumpily.

“Good morning, sunshine” You heard Minho’s voice and you smelled the breakfast He was making, which smelled really good.

“Good morn—“ You started to say, but another voice made their way with yours. A girl's voice. “Oh” You let out when She came into the kitchen. It was pity girl, pitying you all over again. Great!

“Morning, Sir” She grinned and He smiled at that.

“Hey” Hyunjin said coming to the living room and sitting on the couch, looking at your embarrassed self standing beside it. You soon sat down again, looking at the TV. When He offered her breakfast She denied, and you felt relief wash over you. You couldn’t stand her judging look and smug Hyunjin beside you at the same time.

She blinked to Minho, waved at Hyunjin, pitied you again, and was finally gone.

“What the fuck was that?” You asked, moody.

“What are you talking about?” Minho asked, eyeing you.

“Wha r yu talkin’ about?” You mocked him and scoffed “You didn’t warn me you would bring a fuck buddy!” You accused.

“I told Hyunjin to tell you!” Minho defended himself and you glared at him, When He felt you were going to snap, He raised his palm, trying to reason “She was eyeing my phone all night, I couldn’t message you!”

“You would be in your room!” Hyunjin uttered, looking at Minho “Besides, where would you go? You’re sleeping on the couch anyway!” He directed his look at you.

You sighed “Just let me know next time” You asked, tired, and went to the bathroom.

So your morning was tiring, to say the least. You woke up in pain, had to be pitied by someone you didn’t know, and stated Hyunjin was indeed a douche. Things you could easily expect, but you didn’t. When both of them announced they would be bringing someone later, you promptly called Felix.

“Are you free?” You asked hopefully.

“For you? Always” He answered and you smiled.

“You flirty bastard” You laughed “Wanna grab something to eat?”

“Are you even hearing yourself now? Of course I wanna eat!”

“They’re bringing people home and I don’t want to be here at the time” You complained “I only have the couch and the bathroom to stay, Lix” You whined and He laughed at you.

“You should have taken the bed offer, moron” He reminded you.

“I don’t want to sleep on their sex nest” You told him disgusted “But now I kinda wouldn’t mind… My back hurts so much!” You whined again.

“Stop complaining and get over here” He mimicked Scorpion, giggling “I will give you a massage” He promised.

Should you canonize Felix? Probably.

“Oh, god! Did I ever say that I love you?” You asked, emotional and He shrugged it off.

When you arrived at his place, Felix opened the door giving you a bright smile when He saw you had food with you, rushing you inside. The first thing you noticed was the music on the background, something that sounded really cool, whatever it was, and you grinned at Felix.

“Have you finally got good taste in music?” You teased and He scoffed.

“Shut up” He rolled his eyes “It’s 3RACHA” He explained.

“No, actually it’s barbecue” You corrected, showing the sauce and the fried chicken you got for yourselves.

“What? No! Jisung’s and Changbin’s trio. They’re called 3RACHA” He explained again “Their friend is over here, they’re making something new, I guess”

“Why did They call themselves Hot Sauce?” You asked amused.

“That’s because We’re hot, my dear” Jisung answered you, coming to the kitchen and laying on the wall like He was some flirty guy on a movie.

You laughed at that.

“Smooth, real smooth, Han” You mocked and He grinned at you. “That’s not loud at all! If you guys didn’t lie to me I would have stayed here and Felix would be with fuckboys” You whined.

“It’s quite loud, though” He noticed “Fuckboys? What?”

“Just my new roommates” You shrugged ”And good music is never too loud” You corrected him and He blushed, embarrassed

“Oh! thank you!” He uttered hyped “Do you wanna hear our songs?” He asked with shiny eyes, looking like a happy child.

“Hey, back off” Felix joked “She’s my best friend and this is the chicken I can only eat when she join me” He pointed at the food, making you laugh.

“I would love to hear your songs later, Han” You assured, “Let me eat with this starving boy I just found here at your kitchen and I will be there”.

That being said, Han picked up a big bottle and three glasses and went back to where He came from. You and Felix ate together and chatted a little bit, He told you He already knew Han and Changbin from a class they took with him last semester and you told him all about the girl that came last night to your place.

“Well, it’s a pity you were watching TV instead of playing games with me last night” He pointed out and you nudged him “You should see Han and Changbin playing! They suck at it, We can totally beat them up… We should bet food on it” He wondered and you laughed.

“You’re bad!” You poked him “But I’m in! I’m always in for free food”

When you finally decided to check out 3RACHA, you wished you didn’t because standing there with a focused look on his face was Dom boy. You stopped abruptly, making Felix run into you, confused, and of course, the guys heard you two being clumsy. You looked at Chan and blushed, embarrassed, and He blushed too. Awesome. You started to stutter and Felix nudged you, trying to help you.

“I think your friend has the hots for Chan” Changbin stated mockingly and you blushed harder.

“No! That’s not it! I… I… I wasn’t expecting to see him here” You tried to explain, but the guys weren’t buying it.

“Oh… So you know Chan” Han said suggestively.

“Yeah, I… Checked his place yesterday” You said averting your eyes.

That was all it took for Felix connecting the dots. He as your best friend could only yell right beside your ear, making you deaf for a moment, “OH MY GOD! CHAN IS DOM BOY?” He cackled, laughing so hard he was crying.

“FELIX!” You hissed at him, slapping him hard on the chest.

“Ouch!” He whined, but didn’t stop laughing “Oh my… Chan, I can’t believe you asked her if she liked to hear people having sex! Are you nuts?” He mocked.

“You what?!” Han and Changbin asked in chock, looking at their friend.

“How the hell did you get to that?” Changbin asked amused “Hey, I’m Chan! Do you want to be my roommate? Noice! Do you like hearing people having sex?” Changbin copied his accent and Chan nudged him.

“I don’t talk like that!” He whined and sighed “I’m so sorry about that” He apologized.

“No! Don’t be!” You reassured him “You weren’t a creep or anything like that”

“He kinda was” Felix noted and you stepped on his foot “Ouch!”

“Well, at least I’m not the creepy guy…” Chan laughed “I’m Dom boy” He arched a brow at you and you blushed.

“Well, it was better than calling you Daddy” You defended yourself and Felix laughed again.

Chan bit his lip holding up a comment and you snorted.

“You’re dirty!” You accused and He blushed.

“No! I was going to mock you! I didn’t think anything!” He assured and the boys laughed.

“Y/N, you made a good choice not living with him” Han assured you “He’s loud as fuck! I mean… He’s loud as He fuck. We had to kick him out from here! That’s how loud He was”

“I wasn’t being loud!” He protested “Did you hear me?” He challenged.

“Are you kidding me?” Changbin snorted “Do you want me to say the things I heard you saying?! It was like living with a porn star, for lord sakes! You and your companions were loud! Really loud!”

“That bad?” You asked amused.

“Shouldn’t be That good?” He joked smugly and you rolled your eyes.

“See what I’m saying?” Han whined “You did well to go somewhere else! I can’t even believe He can be like this” he pointed all over Chan “When He’s a soft goofball all the time!”

After They got tired of mocking Chan, 3RACHA showed some songs to you and you got pleasantly surprised. Their songs were great! You promised you would see them live and They smiled at you, happily acknowledging you like their fan. Soon You and Felix got to his room and you chatted through the evening, catching up. When it was getting late, 3RACHA stopped their music and Felix finally gave you that massage, you sighed contently while He did it, getting your back revived.

“Holy Shit, Lix!” You moaned, feeling like you just woke up from a good dream “Your hands work magic” You smiled, feeling the happiest you felt this weekend.

“I can’t believe it! Get a room!” Changbin yelled from the corridor and you both cackled.

“We’re already on mine, Binnie” Felix teased and you could hear him groaning.

“Don’t wanna hear you, lovebirds!” Han shot back.

“Maybe Chan wants it!” Felix yelled and you widened your eyes.

“What the fuck?!” You kicked him and Felix laughed.

“I would prefer to join” Chan joked and you whined.

“Don’t give him something to tease me about, for lord sakes!” You pleaded but it was too late, Felix was already on it.

“He’s so into you” Felix stated, grinning.

“No, He’s not” You disagreed “He’s just being friendly”

“Asking to join our imaginary sex? Right” He scoffed.

“He was joking!” You whined, “You were joking about it too, you ass!”

“But I’m your best friend and He’s the Dom guy” He said like you were three and couldn’t understand anything “Chan is pretty cool, I hang out with him last semester… He’s funny, shy, and hot!”

“Do you want me to get his number for you?” You mocked and He slapped your back.

“Stop it! You’re saying this because you want his number” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“I have his number! I checked his place out!” You rolled your eyes.

“So text him!”

“I don’t wanna text him!” You whined.

“You need to get laid!” He snorted “You’re whining a lot these days”

“That’s because everything went wrong! I can complain about my life!” You pouted.

“See? That’s what I’m talking about” He nudged you “You live with two fuckboys and you met a dom guy that is into you! You can’t say you don’t have an option”

“I don’t have an option that I want” You reasoned.

“I doubt that” He gave you a knowing smirk “What about sweet boy you couldn’t get as a roommate?”

“Seungmin?” You snorted “He’s not this type of guy” You assured “It would be easier to fuck you”

“You didn’t deny it!” Felix said as if He spotted something “You like Sweet guy!”

“Stop it!” You pushed his shoulder lightly “You’re sounding like my mom!”

When Felix was preparing to tease you about it you guys heard a knock on the door, “We’re going to play some games, do you guys wanna join us?” You heard Chan asking half-yelling from the other side.

“Into you” Felix whispered and you rolled your eyes.

“Please!” You agreed “Get me out of his range, He’s annoying” You said getting up from the bed and opening the door, eyeing Felix with a grimace that made him laugh.

“If I and Y/N win you guys pay the food” Felix announced.

“Deal” Chan scoffed.

Chan shouldn’t have scoffed, because He paid for your food later.

/////

You wanted to murder Felix, but you couldn’t.

When you picked up your stuff to go back home, He eyed Chan like the little snake he was and “innocently” suggested for him to give you a ride home since it was really dark outside. Bullshit. He always lets you go home by yourself at night! But Chan didn’t know that so He just smiled saying “Sure” dangling his keys.

And that was how you ended up alone in a car with Dom boy.

You tried to stay still on the seat, looking straight ahead, pressing your lips nervously. You started to notice the small things in his car, like the nice smell coming out from somewhere you couldn’t find and how everything was so clean and neat. While you were curiously eyeing his car, your looks met by accident and you found yourselves in an awkward situation. Chan cleared his throat and decided to put some music, a song you recognized to be 3RACHA’s. You hummed the song with him, feeling the silence between you getting uncomfortable.

“You were the first person to show up to be my roommate” He suddenly broke the silence “I was really nervous back then… I hope we can start over” He smiled unsurely and you smiled back.

“Of course” You agreed “I was just surprised… I… Hm… Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to hear them… I mean… Well, yeah” You rumbled and He laughed.

“I suppose I didn’t help it either by telling I wouldn’t mind having sex with you because you were pretty enough and then shading the way you would have wanted it” He laughed and you groaned.

“That was horrible!” You agreed “What the hell was going through your mind, dude?!” You laughed along with him.

That wasn’t enough to clear all the awkwardness but you felt better to be there singing songs with him, talking about useless stuff, and judging his awful Dad jokes. It was better than eyeing around his car in complete silence. When you finally arrived home, you got out of the car and bent down beside the window “Thanks, Dom boy” You smiled teasingly and He groaned.

“Stop calling me that!” He pleaded and you giggled getting to the door “If you want to call me something call me Daddy, babygirl” He flirted playfully and you scoffed.

“You wish, Daddy!” You yelled laughing, opening your building door “Bye, Dom boy” You waved goodbye and He scoffed before yelling back a “bye, babygirl!” waving back and driving away.

When you got on your apartment Minho and Hyunjin were sprawled on the couch in a very suspicious way, looking straight at TV and ignoring you. You noticed Hyunjin was holding the TV control upside-down and you saw Minho resting his hand on his mouth but you had a glimpse of his smirk and you knew you were screwed. You locked the door and arched a brow at them, waiting for them to say whatever they wanted to say, but they stayed quiet. You shrugged it off and made your way to your room to pick up some clothes, but Hyunjin broke the silence.

“Hey, Babyboy, can you give me some water?” He asked and you eyed him.

“Of course, Daddy” Minho agreed and you rolled your eyes.

“You guys are so gossipy!” You accused and they busted out laughing.

“Oh, Daddy! Thank you for giving me a ride” Minho uttered sweetly, intertwining his fingers in front of his face and flicking his eyelashes.

“Hey, babygirl” Hyunjin called you and you looked mindlessly which just made them laugh more “She responds to that!” He grinned “Oh my god… Such a good girl!”

“Fuck off” You scoffed, turning your back to them.

“Such a brat!” Minho yelled and you groaned.

“He’s not my Daddy and I’m not a babygirl” You yelled back “And I’m not a brat!” You added later, picking up your pajamas and going to the bathroom.

When you got out of the bath you put on your pajamas and left the bathroom, hoping the guys would just drop it. You left your clothes in the laundry basket and made your way to your couch. When you got there you heard Hyunjin giggling leaving the kitchen and you rolled your eyes. You would never hear the end of it. You sat on the couch and turned on the TV, hoping for some peace before you slept. Tomorrow you would have classes in the morning and you sighed, tired, you wished you had a good bed right now.

“How is your back?” Minho asked, sitting next to you.

“Pretty good not thanks to you” You reminded and He chuckled.

“Dom boy fixed it for you?” He asked and you groaned.

“Let it go!” You pleaded “But no, my friend did” You answered.

“Oh?” He seemed surprised “I thought you were on a date” He admitted and you snorted. They really thought you had a Daddy, didn’t they? You wondered if you should tease them with it, but decided not to. They would totally embarrass you in front of Chan later.

“No, I was at my friend’s place with his friends” You explained.

“Friends such as Dom boy?” He asked and you rolled your eyes.

“His name is Chan” You corrected “And yeah, friends as Chan”

“Hmm…” He smirked “Friends as Chan” He mocked you and you slapped him.

“You’re like an annoying brother, for lord sakes!” You whined and He smiled at you. Minho ruffled your hair and you noticed He did it a lot, maybe He adopted you like his little sister, who knows? You sprawled on the couch and smiled at him “Do you wanna watch some horror movies?”

“Are you trying to hit on me?” He joked and you kicked him lightly “Ouch!” He faked-pain, holding his arm as you had just stabbed him.

“You know what, Minho?” You muttered and He eyed you curiously “I’m glad I’m living with you even if you can’t buy a damn bed before announcing a place” that got him laughing and He sprawled on the couch across you, poking your belly with his feet.

“Let’s watch the movie, you clingy fox” He gave you the controller and you giggled “Try not to kick me when you’re scared, I need my balls” He asked and you cackled at that.

“I will let your balls live for today” You assured and started browsing through the channels “Oh my god!” You uttered and He looked at you like you were crazy “Please! Let’s watch Tangled!” You pleaded with puppy eyes.

“I can’t believe it” He rolled his eyes “Do you honestly think I would watch it?” He asked in a serious tone and you dropped your smile, getting back to the channels “Without a damn snack?!” He completed hyped and you kicked him annoyed.

“You son of a bitch! I thought you were movie shaming me!” He laughed and got up, going to the kitchen “Bring me something too” you shot to him.

And that was how you ended up watching Tangled with a fuckboy on a Sunday night, sprawled on the couch and eating potato chips instead of sleeping earlier to wake up feeling rested in the morning. When the movie ended Minho got up, offered his bed again and you denied, thinking about how He brought two girls in two days into that same bed, and you laid down tired, regretting your life choice of watching a movie so late at night.

You hoped your back could handle it for one day and slept through your worries.

When you got up on a Monday morning with two loud boys asking where their pants were and with your back hurting, you figured you shouldn’t hope for impossible things. You got up from your “bed” and sat down a little bit, eyeing them searching for their stuff. That was when you noticed something that shouldn’t be that important but you couldn’t help staring. Both of them were shirtless and were wandering around on their boxers. You choked, coughing, and averting your eyes from them. Well, you certainly had seen shirtless boys before, but these were your friends, on the beach, not your… Fuckable roommates in your living room. You felt your cheeks grow warm at the thought.

“Y/N?” Minho called you concerned “Are you okay? Is your back hurting?” He asked, coming to you. You got up from the couch and looked him straight into his eyes, focused on not looking at his chest. He arched a brow and shook his head confused, asking silently what was up with you. You couldn’t tell him you were flustered because they were shirtless, they would tease you so much about it!

“Yeah, but it’s fine” You smiled politely and He seemed to find it weird “I’m going to dress up”

“No whining?” Hyunjin snorted and looked at you “Daddy really lifted your mood” He teased and you looked at him ready to give him a retort. A retort that died on your throat as Hyunjin was a little bit taller than Minho and your eyes landed right on his collarbone and wandered a little bit down, just for a second, but enough for fuel his smug grin.

“What?!” You asked annoyed, looking at his eyes this time and He grinned teasingly.

“My eyes are up here” He grimaced and you heard Minho’s chuckle.

“Let her go” Minho said holding back his laughter “She never woke up next to two hot stuff like this” He mocked and you groaned, going to your room to get dressed. When you got back they were already dressed as well and Minho was fixing the breakfast. You sat down along with Hyunjin and waited for your food.

You watched Minho scrambling the eggs and saucing it peacefully humming some music only He knew and shaking his butt slightly left and right. You suppressed a smile and looked down, hiding your mouth pretending to look through the messages on your phone. Hyunjin wasn’t hiding his smile though, filming the unaware dancing Minho and you figured that being in the Dance Department was enough to make those silly moves seem more foolish than you thought they were. Minho put the eggs on a plate and picked up three forks as Hyunjin hid his phone and smiled brightly at his friend.

“Finally! I’m starving” He said, picking a fork and starting to eat. You scoffed and picked up a fork for yourself, fighting him on a particularly big piece of egg that ended up on Minho’s fork while He scolded you both for being childish. It felt nice to be there with them, eating and talking. Your old roommate wasn’t so friendly and you had to admit that you always wanted some friendly companion to watch TV and cook, say random stuff while laying down, and play around. Even Hyunjin seemed nicer this morning when He wasn’t being smug about you looking at him earlier.

Minho offered you a ride that you promptly accepted, picking up your stuff and following them to the car.

/////////

Your week was going really well if anybody cared at all.

Even though you were still a little bit flustered every time Hyunjin and Minho walked in only on their boxers, you were beginning to get used to them half-naked in your kitchen. Felix as the great friend He is promised you a back massage every day and made you promise him you would buy him some coffee every day to pay for it. That’s how you began to hang around the Dance department, that was quite far from your building but who cares? And that was how you discovered a coffee shop across the street that was really cute and not so expensive.

“Let’s get you some coffee” You told Felix on Tuesday, the first day of bribery.

The Café was really cute.

The facade was all in glass what made the place really bright, especially with all the plants hanging around and the yellowish walls on the inside. They always had calming music sounding on the background and the smell of coffee was just… Perfect. You liked to stay on the couch, beside the bookshelf, and get your back massage from Felix sitting there sipping your coffee in peace. It was the moment you lived for.

On Wednesday you learned that Jeongin worked there on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and you introduced Felix to him. That was the same day you discovered Seungmin also hangout there, just a little bit earlier than you would. You had a break on Wednesdays, so you went earlier to the Coffee shop and waited for Felix there. Every time the bell ringed you looked to see if it was Felix, but then you saw Seungmin coming inside with a bright smile on his face. He waved at Jeongin and looked for a table.

“Not-hag!” He greeted you as soon as he spotted you and you giggled at him “What are you doing here?”

“I’m waiting for my friend, I’m a little bit earlier and He is a little bit late” You answered and He grinned at you “Do you want to sit with me?” You asked and He nodded, putting his stuff on your side and going to Jeongin to ask his coffee.

“So? Are you in the School of Arts? I never saw you here” He pondered “I’m from the Music department, so I hang out here all the time, I would have remembered you”

“Oh? No, I’m not, but my friend is from Dance Department and He’s doing me a favor so I’m coming here so I can get a massage” You explained and He eyed you weirdly.

“A massage?” He snorted “Why the hell are you coming here for a massage?”

“Because I’m sleeping on the couch” You whined and He scoffed at you “My roommate didn’t plan things out… I’m sleeping on the couch for now, but my bed should be coming this weekend”

“You wish you had stayed with me” He joked and you chuckled.

“Nah!” You shrugged jokingly “I have two hot roommates and a best friend to take care of me… I’m good enough” You teased and He pouted.

“And here I was thinking We had a connection” He mocked you.

You heard the bell again and finally, Felix came into the coffee shop.

“Hey, sorry I’m late” He apologized, walking to you and eyeing the mysterious friend you had. He looked at you searching for any sign of discomfort and you glared at him, expecting him to say something embarrassing like ‘Oh, is that sweet boy?’, instead He took your glare in a completely wrong way and voiced “I��m Felix, her boyfriend” offering his hand for a handshake.

Nice.

“Seungmin! It’s nice to meet you” The boy greeted friendly. Felix’s face brightened up and He shot you a knowing smirk.

“Oh my god, Felix” You sighed “He’s just a friend! Felix thought you were harassing me, I guess” You explained and Seungmin laughed at that.

“I’m her best friend, actually” Felix presented himself again in a much more friendly way “Sorry” He smiled sheepishly.

“I’m glad you’re not her boyfriend” He said and you shot him a bashful look “No! I don’t mean it like that!” He rushed to say, blushing “What I meant is that I thought you were lying to me”

“Sure” Felix scoffed and you glared at him as He mouthed silently a “So into you”.

“Well, I’m better to let you guys do your stuff… Bye, guys” He said, waved to Jeongin and went out.

“So…” Felix grinned and you rolled your eyes.

“You think everyone is into me!” You accused.

“You can’t say He’s not into you! He said He was glad you didn’t have a boyfriend” He uttered and you shrugged it.

“And He said he was just glad I wasn’t lying to him right after that” You reasoned.

“You gotta be kidding me” Felix rolled his eyes “Did you buy that?” He scoffed “That’s why you can’t get a boyfriend! Guys are literally screaming they’re into you and you’re oblivious!”

“Who said I want a boyfriend?” You pouted “Are you trying to get rid of me, Felix?” You joked and He rolled his eyes.

“Shut up” He said, gesturing for you to turn your back for him “Hey, Han said they were going to perform somewhere Friday night. Do you wanna come?” He said while massaging your shoulders.

“Sure! It’s been so long since I have gone out” You agreed, feeling excited to finally have something to look after on a Friday night “Can I crash at your place if my bed don’t arrive until then?”

“Of course!” He agreed “You deserve a good night of sleep after a Friday night”

“Sure as hell I do!” You sighed and He chuckled.

You thought your Friday couldn’t be better.

Hyunjin had his classes canceled in the morning so He was staying at home which meant you had a peaceful ride with Minho. You were hyped about your night, texting Felix about it from time to time, asking if He wanted to come with you or if you’re gonna meet up there which He answered with “I have a friend who will give me a ride, I can ask him to pick you up” so you were beaming. Then the top cherry! Your professor got sick (Not that good to him) and your afternoon classes were canceled!

You were free at midday!

You called Minho asking if He still had classes, which He didn’t since He only had classes till midday on Fridays and you thanked god to giving you a lucky day for once.

You should have known better.

You and Minho got to the elevator, speaking about your luck. You said that maybe even your bed could arrive today and it would be the best day of the month by far! He chuckled at that and said that your life sucked. Rude! But true… You were halfway on the corridor and He said “Shit! My phone” rummaging his pockets and you mocked him.

“Whose life is sucking now?” You smirked and He shot you his middle finger.

Karma is a bitch.

When you got to your door you saw a sign hanging there “Welcome!” and you smiled at this. Hyunjin was being a sweet guy for once? What a surprise! You unlocked the door and opened it with a smile, just to drop your smile the second you laid your eyes on your couch.

A naked girl was riding a naked Hyunjin.

On your couch.

“Holy shit!” You shot surprised, covering your mouth right after.

As soon as you said that their heads snapped at you and Hyunjin let out a “Fuck!” you were not sure if it was horny or an angry one, but the girl was certainly into it because she looked straight into your eyes and came undone, without looking away.

Right. On. Your. Couch.

You slammed the door and looked in Minho’s way, He was looking at you startled and rushed to your side at the same time the elevator arrived at your floor. You stood there, mouth agape and your eyes unfocused. He held your shoulders, concerned, and then looked at the door. The “Welcome!” sign made his eyes light up with comprehension. Then He laughed right on your face, cackled up like a son of a bitch.

“He was on the couch?” He asked, wiping his tears away.

He knew?!

“I can’t believe it! His naked butt was on my couch and you knew it?!” You yelled, which didn’t help Minho to recover from his laughing form “His cheek butt, Minho! My cheek lands on his butt every damn night! I’m sleeping on Hyunjin’s butt! Oh my god! He was naked!” You uttered, dizzy by your thoughts.

“Well, that’s how you have to be to have sex” Minho reasoned.

“Minho” You called him seriously “Do you understand I have been kissing his butt all this time? I could say I had my mouth on his damn ass!” You whined and Minho busted out laughing.

“I wouldn’t say it like this If I were you” He advised.

“Who knows what else He’s been rubbing on the couch?! I may be sleeping on some unknown pussy! Or worse! In his cu-“ You were stopped by the door being unlocked.

“Please, come whine inside, you’re embarrassing me” He asked and you frowned at him.

“Why the hell you’re fucking on my bed?!” You yelled at him, coming inside and being followed by an amused Minho that didn’t care about his phone at the moment.

“That was the couch!” He retorted “And I clean it up after it!” He yelled back.

“Are you kidding me?! You know damn well I’m sleeping on this bloody couch, you son of a bitch!” You urged, enraged, poking his chest.

“I will clean it!” He groaned, mad at your poking.

“That’s not the point!” You groaned “Your ass was right where I lay my face at night, Hyunjin” You whined “Couldn’t you do it on your bed? At least until I get mine?” You couldn’t handle him anymore. You sighed, tired.

“Are you dumb or deaf?” He asked you and you shot him a glare “I said I will clean it up, damn it! Stop being a pain in the ass” He rolled his eyes.

“Minho” You called him and He eyed you, not finding the situation funny anymore “Please hold me” You asked.

“What?” He asked confused.

“Hold me before I lay my hand on his damn face and wipe off his damn smugness from it” Before you could finish, raising your voice by the time, Minho hugged you from your back, holding you still as you tried to kick Hyunjin enraged. “You son of a bitch! And He doesn’t even feel sorry!” You shouted, trying to get away from Minho “Let me go!”

“No, You will punch him” He denied, holding you tighter “Y/N calm down, He really cleans up the stuff, We buy the right products, I swear you weren’t sleeping on his butt”

“And you!” You accused, eyeing Minho as you could “You knew! And you let me sleep on the couch!” You tried to kick back, but Minho turned you around and pinned you against the wall, letting your legs apart, so you couldn’t kick him in the crotch.

“Oh” You heard the girl say, looking at you and Minho “I’m really sorry, sweety, If I knew you were sleeping there I wouldn’t have agreed to it” She said and You stopped for a while, smiling at her.

“Thank you! See? She understands it’s disgusting!” You groaned.

“And you’re more than welcomed to join us next time” She smiled at you and you gulped “You’re so hot and wild”

Oh my god! Hyunjin’s girl were hitting on you!

“I don’t think I would want it” Hyunjin spoke up and the girl arched her brow at him.

“I know few guys that wouldn’t mind” She shrugged him off “Let me know, sweety, Hyunjin has my number. I’m gonna let you fight them now” And then she went away. Just like this.

You calmed down a little bit and looked in Minho’s eyes “Let me go” you asked.

“Are you sure you won’t beat us up?” He asked unsurely and you nodded. When He let you go, you went straitgh to your room in silence, the boys following you and watching you picking some clothes and a bag. You put some other things you thought you may need and Minho frowned at you “Are you leaving?” He asked concerned and you didn’t respond.

“Are you going to leave because I had sex on the couch?” Hyunjin asked perplexed and Minho nudged him, you didn’t respond to him either.

“Hey, Y/N” Minho called you in a calming voice, but you were already zipping your bag and heading towards the door “Y/N, don’t go” He pleaded “Can we talk this through?”

“I’m not leaving, Minho” You stated, unlocking the door “When my bed arrives you can call me and I will be back” And with that being said you closed the door.

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evilbeanghost · 4 years ago

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Snapetober

Here is my participation #4: Day 8 Secret Injury.

You can also find it on AO3.

So, this is a little interlude in the universe of my current WIP "That Awful Snape Boy" (you can of course find it on AO3 too). I'm not sure it actually fits anywhere in the timeline of the main fic but it's like a mini-AU in the same world.

For those who are not reading it: basically, McGonagall ends up adopting Severus at the beginning of his 3rd years at Hogwarts. It's a long road for them, a difficult one but also full of love and care. This little moment would fit during their first summer holiday together.

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

Severus was trying to keep up with his guardian, fighting against the heavy limp he was now sporting. Damn leg! Minerva was pretty far away, zigzagging between the shop's aisles at what seemed to Severus like lightening speed. How could this woman move that fast?

She had taken him on an impromptu outing that morning, seemingly out of nowhere. While he admitted now that he enjoyed spending time with Minerva, he had been in pain all night, and anyway: shopping was definitely taking it a little too far… He had tried to stay at the cottage, but she was adamant that she wouldn't leave him alone for a whole day like that. Severus had replied that he was left alone at his parent's for days on end since he was three: it didn't seem to placate her… the suggestion only putting that little spark of anger in her eyes, as it often was the case when his biological parents were discussed.

Apparently, even fourteen years old were not to be left alone for that long? Severus thought she was being a little extreme with this: Lily and Petunia sometimes spent the whole day alone in the summer when both their parents had to work!

He tried not to look too much into his feeling that this was linked to the little sad moods he had been experiencing lately. She was worried about him and he felt like trash because of it. Why couldn't he just be happy? What more did he need seriously? He was a pathetic, ungrateful piece of garbage. A useless worm.

The pain flared up suddenly and, giving up, he stopped behind a jackets' display to let his leg rest a little. This was going to be a long day…

He only had himself to blame for this one, as usual. The day before, he had been running on the Scottish beach near the cottage – just enjoying the fresh hair, the calming music of the sea and the freedom of it all – when he had stepped on a treacherous rolling stone and twisted his knee quite badly. It had hurt like Hell at the time. Severus remembered having literally seen a white flashing light for a moment at the intensity of the pain. However, after having taken some tentative steps in the sand, it was still hurting of course but not as much and not to the point where he could not walk at all (he admitted now that it had been quite worse after having rested his knee all night unfortunately).

He had felt really bad about it, somewhat guilty too. It was like the universe was trying to remind him than freaks like him didn't deserve the mindless fun of a run on a beautiful, deserted, white-sanded Scottish beach. Those things weren't for disgusting kids like him, what had he been thinking?

To be honest, it was only mid-July and this first summer holiday with Minerva was already surreal. He had a room here too, to his stupefaction since he wasn't aware at all that she had made any preparation before they came together to spend the summer here, and hot chocolate was offered even more frequently than during the school year.

Severus, however, felt somewhat unsettled by it all. Everything was… weird? He didn't feel like he should have those things, like Minerva's kindness was deserved on his part. He also had moments when he just felt… empty? Sad? Like nothing really mattered and everything was just grey and not worth it. It was scary and it had been sapping his energy in waves since the start of the holidays. Without school to distract him from it, it was suddenly worse than it had been all year.

All of that made it even more critical that he didn't end up bothering Minerva with again another thing that would add to her already worried state. He just felt like she would be so much better without the like of him really… He was the worse thing that had ever happened to her.

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

The boy had been quiet all day, moody even. Minerva had tried to ask him what shop he had wanted to do next – it was after all his first outing in an all-wizards town in the Outer Hebrides – but she didn't seem to be able to have him engaged with their little trip.

It was a shame since it had been an excuse for just that in the first place. She was so worried about him… He had been moody, withdrawn and quite frankly sad since the beginning of the holidays and even his obvious joy at discovering the cottage and the magnificent scenery of her Harris' cottage didn't last very long.

Minerva sighed. The day had been a failure in the end… they were making their way back to the isolated little cottage, walking in the fine sand on the beach, with a magnificent sunset in the background; and yet their hearts were as heavy as the silence between them.

She turned her head to make sure Severus was still following her – he had been lagging behind all day – when she suddenly caught him grimacing in pain, his left leg giving way beneath him before he caught himself and tried to speed up with a set expression on his little face.

"Severus Snape, you stop where you are young man!", she said to him at once, alarmed.

Startled, Severus stopped in his tracks and looked at her with that worried expression of his, making her heart hurt for him once again. She felt like her anger at his parents was never going to fade away. Her anger at herself too, for not having seen, for not having stopped this three years before, when she first saw the scrawny first year entering the Great Hall for the first time. Too small, too thin, too intense and crafty for a child his age. How could they have missed it? That question was never going to stop haunting her.

The boy was looking at her, directly into her eyes with that defiant expression that used to infuriate her but that she knew now was just his way of being scared, and said nothing, waiting for whatever was going to fall on his head this time – there always was way too much resignation in his expression.

"Is your leg hurting, Severus?", she asked softly, using her newfound "motherly voice" in an attempt to reassure him that he wasn't in trouble at all. This script between them was certainly getting old.

"It's nothing, I can deal with it."

"It doesn't seem like it's nothing when it's making you limp and stumble like that. It looks painful too. What did you do?", Minerva asked, worried.

"It's nothing, really… just… I twisted my knee a little yesterday, I won't do it again I promise, please, don't be mad at me?"

"Oh, Severus. How many times do I have to tell you that I won't be mad at you for things that are outside of your power. Come here child, let me see."

She wanted to hug him tight, that smart, broken child; but she knew that he still wasn't always comfortable with physical manifestations of affection so she refrained herself.

Looking sheepish, he limped towards her, looking at his feet, like a criminal having been caught red-handed.

"Sit on the sand Severus, and pull your trouser leg above your knee please, I want to see what we're dealing with here."

And as often, he did just that. Minerva was still quite taken by surprise by this… and they all thought that he was a model of insolence just a year ago… The child was in reality quite mild on a teenager's antics scale. Or maybe she knew how to handle him now?

She crouched before him, her back protesting at once, and looked at his injury closely. His poor knee was blue and swollen, very painful looking. How on earth had he been able to walk on that all day was beyond her.

"Severus, child, why didn't you tell me? This is a pretty bad sprain I think… I won't be able to treat it right away… but really, you're not walking another foot on this, that's for sure."

"But…"

"No buts. I will cast a feather-light charm on you and carry you to the cottage. I should have some Every-Day-Destrainer-Cream there. Would that be alright?"

"Yes… but you don't have to, I can walk, we're nearly there anyway."

"This isn't a negotiation! What's the first rule for living with me, Severus?"

He looked suddenly annoyed, making her smile fondly, that for once so common manifestation of teenage rebellion at the prospect of any discussion about house rules was comforting. Her whole guardian experience was so backwards… Worried when her child was quiet, happy when he was being a reluctant teenager.

"I'm not allowed to do anything dangerous or that can hurt me in any way."

"Exactly! Now, don't move", Minerva did the wand gesture, casting the spell non-verbally on her young charge, "and it's done!"

They looked a little silly, the middle-aged witch carrying the gangly adolescent on her back towards their little cottage. Minerva certainly didn't mind.

That silly, moody child was not going to be in pain anymore, she sweared it. She was going to heal him, and not just the knee, damn it.

#severus snape #minerva mcgonagall #snapetober #TASB #my fic #I really enjoyed writing this one #I hope you will enjoy it too #especially those among you who have been waiting for the next chapter for some time #:)#snapetober 2020 #snapedom

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alexthepartyman · 4 years ago

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When I’m Saved (Part 1)

AN: This story is a loose and dramatised version based on a true event that happened to me. I have changed names and situations for privacy reasons. This will be a Tumblr and Ao3 exclusive fic. I hope you all enjoy laughing at how much of an idiot I am for getting into this situation.

“I’d like to thank you all for coming in on such brief notice, and I apologise for calling you all in this late.” Section Chief Mateo Cruz greets his tired team after the plane takes off. “You will notice, Dr Lewis is not here. She took a flight out to Peyton, Idaho to be the liaison for the La Byorteaux family. In the meantime, we have Dr Spencer Reid.”

“What exactly is the situation?” Agent Prentiss asks.

“Sixteen-year-old Dmitri La Byorteaux was reported missing from Disneyland at midnight, when the park closed. Park security and LAPD are still searching the park just in case he is still there. Dmitri was with his school group, the Peyton Panthers Marching Band and Colour Guard. The LAPD is taking copies of all of their records concerning Dmitri. The band directors are John Tremblay and Mark Wozniak, assistant leaders are Amy Tremblay, Jill Mellencamp, Nicholas Grace, Nicholas Vasquez, Lily Jones, and Arthur Wallace. There are parent chaperones, the one in charge of Dmitri is Ressa Kilburn,” the section chief explains.

“None of them know where he is or can get ahold of him?” Agent Jareau asks.

“No. These girls may know, though.”

“Adelaide Parker, Tessa Anderson, Emily McClane, Imogen Wilkinson?”

“His roommates. They were with him for every moment of the trip.”

“Roommates? Why would they room a boy with four girls? That sounds very strange.”

“Hello, crimefighters!” Ms Garcia cheerfully greets the team. “I’ve just been through Dmitri’s records that Mrs Mellencamp has provided. He didn’t have a seat buddy on the bus. He was in the back of the ‘orange’ bus, with Imogen and Emily in front of him. And Dmitri is on three medications, two anti-depressants and a thyroid hormone. He is also reportedly allergic to ibuprofen.”

“Two anti-depressants?”

“Yeah, fluoxetine and trazodone.”

“Those two together can create an effect called serotonin syndrome, which is an excess in the hormone serotonin, which is known as the hormone that makes people happy. Symptoms can range from headaches and myoclonus to hyperthermia and a drastically increased heart rate,” Dr Reid says.

“Dmitri’s phone is most likely dead, because I can’t track it.”

“Does he talk to anybody from the Los Angeles area?”

“I spotted a few Los Angeles numbers in his contacts. One belongs to a Hussein College. Another is registered to a man named Diego Castro, and yet another is registered to a Jacob Freeman. I’m sending contact information to your mobiles.”

“Castro’s a forty-year-old drag queen. Has the physique to easily overpower Dmitri.”

“Freeman is six feet tall, twenty-one-years-old, also has the physique to overpower Dmitri easily. Do they know each other? Did either of them know Dmitri or each other before yesterday?”

“No. I don’t even think Diego and Jacob know each other now, but I...I just found a picture on Diego’s Instagram, it’s from yesterday, and both Dmitri and Tessa are in it. Diego’s the one hugging Dmitri, the other men are friends of his.”

“That’s Tessa over there on the other side. And is Dmitri in a wheelchair?”

“Yeah, none of the band records mentioned a wheelchair or a mobility impairment, so let me just get ahold of Dmitri’s medical records…” Typing can be heard through the laptop. “Huh. There’s nothing for Dmitri. At all. Like, he doesn’t exist. I found a Rhys La Byorteaux, though, they have the same prescriptions, same hometown, same last name... same parents… the only thing different is that Rhys is a girl and Dmitri is a boy. They even have the same therapist.”

“Rhys and Dmitri sound like they’re the same person. When did Dmitri start existing?”

“Early 2017. That’s also when Rhys kind of started...not existing… yeah, they’re the same person, records from Dmitri’s clinic show Rhys is a legal name and that he is biologically female, but he is seeking treatment for gender dysphoria and uses the name Dmitri.”

“Oh... he’s transgender? Why weren’t we told of that?” Agent Jareau asks. “I feel like that would be important information to know.”

“I don’t know, but we’re still calling him Dmitri, right?”

“We should, to avoid confusion. How common is that last name?”

“Not very, sir, the only other people I’m finding in America with that last name are the acting brothers and Dmitri’s family... there is a birth certificate for a Luke La Byorteaux, born to Nathaniel La Byorteaux and a Maria Alvez, but I can’t find anything for Luke past 1989.” Agent Alvez looks to the laptop with his eyebrows furrowed.

“Did you just say Maria Alvez?”

“Yeah, she also kind of went missing, too.”

“Garcia. Focus on Dmitri.”

“Got it. Dmitri’s medical records look relatively normal until the age of three, then after that, it looks like he’s a frequent flyer in the medical field. He was born relatively healthy for being induced three weeks early, except for the part where his father, Nathaniel La Byorteaux, was removed from the delivery room for protesting when the doctor threw the baby at mother Eva Kelly’s chest, and also for refusing doctors access to newborn Dmitri, who was born anemic.”

“What kind of father refuses treatment for his newborn child?” Agent Simmons asks. “What started happening when Dmitri turned three?”

“A lot of appointments with specialty doctors, peppered in with ER visits. They referred Dmitri out to an audiologist based on concerns of multiple ear infections and being deaf. They found out he wasn’t deaf by scanning his brain waves when the regular test didn’t work out, and he was developmentally delayed, put in preschool at three, the youngest in his class. He ate a penny, went to the ER to have it pumped out, that’s like the one relatively normal thing that happened to him. Eva Kelly and Nathaniel La Byorteaux voiced many concerns about Dmitri’s never-ending ear infections and the strep throat that he would get constantly, and the frequent nosebleeds that happened nearly daily. He was admitted to the ER many times, covered in bruises from head to toe, bleeding profusely, dangerously high fevers, and they rushed him from the hospital in Ontario, Oregon to Boise, Idaho. CPS was called over concerns of Nathaniel abusing Dmitri, but charges were dismissed once Eva explained that Nathaniel wouldn’t actually beat Dmitri if he didn’t wake up, that was just how Nathaniel woke him up.”

“What? Nathaniel threatened to beat up Dmitri?”

“Yeah, I wish that was a joke. All of the tests came back that there were no platelets in Dmitri’s system. Anywhere. Zilch. He was given three bags of immunoglobulin and carefully monitored after that. Doctors determined that the only explanation could have been this rare disease called ITP, or-”

“Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura. The body mistakenly attacks and destroys platelets in the body, which are fragments of cells that help clot the blood when the body is wounded. It usually starts in children after a viral disease, and it usually resolves itself with no need for treatment.”

“Yes, Good Doctor. Dmitri’s condition was closely monitored after that, and then shortly after his fifth birthday, he was diagnosed with autism by a specialist in Salt Lake City, Utah. He went to the MayoClinic in Phoenix, Arizona for a month to have a splenectomy, and then that August, he and his brother Roger Kelly were nearly killed in a single-car rollover, and more blood bags were needed, both sustained concussions. Dmitri was admitted to the ER again later that month after he reportedly fell from the shelves in his closet during the night, that’s a concussion, and then again after he tipped over one of those old-person motor scooters onto himself, but miraculously, all he had was road rash and a bunch of scratches.”

“What? Where did he get a motorised scooter?”

“His dad apparently got it after breaking his knee on his stepson, Robert’s trick bike, when he collided with the garden gnome. Robert also split his chin open and had to get five stitches. Again, the garden gnome. No, I’m not making any of this up. Let’s see...no hospital activity until Dmitri got his tonsils removed at age nine, apparently that was the reason he got strep throat five times a year. He went through urgent care all the time for weird accidents, like one time, his face swelled up to the size of a grapefruit because of misusing acne wipes. He went through urgent care at fourteen for a concussion, was sent home, no further testing was done... and then two months later, he was admitted to the ER for a major concussion, tests showed no brain bleeding, he was sent home to recover from it, when to the ER three months ago because he had bled out during a panic attack...He didn’t go to the ER again until three weeks ago, and yeah.”

“How does he behave in school?”

“Uh...Dmitri is mayhem incarnate, constant behaviour issues. He’s noted to be moody, fidgety, stubborn. Quite closed off from his peers, distracted, impulsive. He does his work super fast and is noted to be quite intelligent but breaks the rules. He is known to be very messy, and he is regularly known to be very goofy, often covered in markers and other things.. He argues with teachers a lot, has his phone confiscated a lot, violates dress code a lot, has been involved in weird incidents, has a very filthy mouth, serves a lot of detention for being late, a lot.”

“He’s a rule breaker. You think he left on purpose?”

“He doesn’t look like he can in that wheelchair. It looks like a park rental. Garcia, check into that wheelchair thing. And check Dmitri’s social media. His emails and text messages, too.”

“On it. I’m going to update Tara.” The blonde woman ends the call, and the screen returns to a navy blue background.

“I’m going to call LAPD, tell them Dmitri has less time than we thought,” Chief Cruz says, pulling out his cell phone and stepping towards another section of the plane.

“How do you bleed out from a panic attack?” Agent Rossi asks. “Kid has got talents.”

“That entire family has talents. A garden gnome?”

“Less talk about the freak garden gnome accident, more trying to find Dmitri. He couldn’t have gotten far if he needed a wheelchair, so someone would have had to carry him out if he got far.”

“We have to figure out why he was in the wheelchair.”

“He had a concussion three weeks ago that went mostly untreated, he’s probably still showing symptoms, and he may have developed physical coordination issues rendering him temporarily unable to walk. He may also be extremely dizzy, or his limbs may be extremely weak,” Dr Reid explains.

“Someone would have had to take him. We should track down Diego Castro and Jacob Freeman, see what they know.”

“The girls would definitely know what happened to him. We have to talk to them. We should also talk to the chaperones that would know Dmitri the best, starting with John and Amy Tremblay.”

#david rossi #jennifer jareau #tara lewis #Luke Alvez #Matt Simmons #mateo cruz #emily prentiss #penelope garcia #spencer reid #Criminal Minds #Criminal Minds Fanfiction #DavidRossi

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elvendara · 6 years ago

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April Challenge 2019 Day 9

Answered this ask:

Hello! First Anon here. It's been a while. Anyway, I'm loving your Heart Road works. I am looking forward to your Lillie (did I spell it right?) and Jumin pairing moments. They're actually cute, imho. 😆 Also, Yoosung's birthday is coming up. How do you think Saeran would celebrate it with him? 😊 Always take good care of yourself! 😊

Hello my lovely First Anon! Sorry it took so long to answer your ask, but I wanted to save it for my April Challenge! I think next year I’ll do it in March to coincide with Yoosung’s birthday as opposed to Zen’s! LOL It makes me so happy that you’re enjoying Heart Road. I’m having fun writing it, even though it’s going slower than I would wish. I am trying to take care of myself, but you know how that goes! Sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Anyway, I hope you like what I’ve written =D

Order a mint swirl macchiato espresso slow drip at your favorite coffee shop. I adore you - Saeran

Yoosung grinned as he read the note he’d found on his nightstand. He quickly showered and dressed. Once outside his building it was difficult not to outright run to the café down the street. People watched him as he sped through the crowd, but he was too excited to care. He tossed out “I’m sorry’s and excuse me’s.” half hazardly as he bumped into everyone in his way.

He made it to the coffee shop in no time but was crestfallen when he saw the line. He waited impatiently until he made it to the front. Leaning over the counter eagerly he made his order.

“I’ll have a mint swirl macchiato espresso slow drip, the name is Yoosung!”

The girl at the register was taken aback at the excitement, but she smiled wide when he said his name. “Oh, it’s you. Of course, right away, it’s already been paid for.” She nodded and Yoosung’s heart fluttered. He pulled out the note Saeran had left for him and read it again. They had been together for almost two years now and the man could still make his blood heat up. This birthday gift had been unexpected, but a treasure hunt was proving to be fun and exciting.

He waited, attempting to watch the barista make his concoction but there was too much in the way for him to be able to see.

“Mint swirl macchiato for Yoosung.” She called out and Yoosung sprang for the cup before it hit the counter. The girl laughed and gave him a wink. “Hold on.” She stopped him before he could fully turn around. “This is yours too.” She placed a plate with a warm banana nut muffin on it, sliding it towards him. “Happy birthday.” She whispered.

“Thank you.” Yoosung breathed, taking the muffin with a smile. He turned the paper cup in his hand and read the writing on it:

Sit down and enjoy your muffin. When you’re done, head to the bench we like to sit at when we eat ice cream. You’re smile brings me joy – Saeran

Sit and eat? With a sigh Yoosung did just that, although he was eager to go to the next step. The muffin was good and the mint in the coffee somehow reminded him of Saeran. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was. He knew Saeran didn’t feel that he was much of a catch, but Yoosung couldn’t disagree more. The man was incredible. Intelligent, kind, honest, loyal, not to mention incredibly attractive. Yoosung blushed thinking about him that way. Not that there weren’t any negative aspects to the man. He was still moody, distant, too honest, and sometimes just plain exasperating! But they made it work.

Before he knew it, he was done and after disposing of his trash, he ran out the door and down the sidewalk to the park two blocks down. He passed the ice cream shop they frequented, and he glanced inside briefly, just to make sure his lover wasn’t in there watching. No such luck. With a sigh, he made his way across the street and into the park. It was a beautiful March day and he closed his eyes, enjoying the breeze, a chill still in the air, Spring not quite having arrived.

He spotted the bench right away. It was on the grass, facing the small pond where they liked to sit and watch the children play, or the sun set. There were many memories associated with that bench. Saeran had told him many secrets sitting there, looking out towards the water. Yoosung understood the setting made him feel at ease and all he needed to do was sit and listen.

He sat down, memories of the last two years stirring. It had been difficult to get through Saeran’s tough exterior, but once in, it would take a lot to dislodge yourself from his life, not that he wanted to. Saeran looked and acted hard, but he was really a mushy marshmallow inside and Yoosung loved teasing him about it. There was a small commotion from a crowd that was gathering from around the park, they all appeared to be looking and pointing upwards. Yoosung swung his head and stared at the sky as a plane flew what seemed dangerously close to the ground. Behind it, a large banner fluttered. Against a black background, deep purple words read:

Follow the path that leads to our hiding spot. You’re sexy - Saeran

Yoosung’s eyes widened and he laughed out loud. Their hiding spot had been an area where they had first made love in public. His hand flew to his mouth and he was thankful no one was looking at him to see how crimson he had become. He stood slowly and weaved his way through the crowd. People were muttering, wondering out loud who that message was for and what it could possibly mean.

He made his way down the sidewalk until he came to a dense area where the trees grew so close, they created a canopy overhead. He pushed through some bushed to a small clearing, barely large enough for two people. The tree branches covered most of area overhead, but the leaves were not full enough to make it dark. On the grass there was a picnic basket and a note, held on top by a rock that had been painted with a face. One eye was a brilliant mint green, the other was winking. A tongue stuck out of the slash of a mouth and atop was a chaotic array of orange red. Yoosung shook his head and picked up the rock to get to the note.

Take the basket with you and ask the annoying one to let you sit in his favorite baby. Love to kiss you - Saeran

Saeyoung’s! Next step was Saeyoung’s place. He took off again, annoyed that he would have to take the bus to Saeyoung’s and it would take at least an hour to get there. He was still excited, but not too happy about having to shlep across town. While he walked automatically to the bus stop, his head down, he heard a familiar honk. His head snapped up and he saw MC waving at him, a huge grin on her face.

“Get in birthday boy! Your chariot awaits!” she laughed, and he obliged instantly.

“How’s it been so far?” she asked as she drove off.

He hugged the basket to himself as he told her about his adventure so far.

“I’m so glad! Saeran was afraid you would think it was silly.”

“Silly? I love it! Do you know how many more stops there are?” He asked anxiously.

“I have no idea! He wouldn’t tell us.” She shrugged.

They talked about the twins as they made their way to Saeyoung and MC’s house. Saeran might not like it, but he was a lot like his brother, and Yoosung was happy to see this side of him. It was a side he rarely cultivated, but Yoosung loved. He might groan about doing ‘romantic’ things, but he enjoyed them as much as Yoosung did.

They made it to the house in no time, Yoosung not even bothered with the dangerously high speeds MC employed, it had apparently rubbed off on her from Saeyoung. Once they were parked, he got out and went to find Saeyoung.

Bursting into his office he accosted the red-head. “I need to sit in your favorite baby!” he commanded.

“Whoah whoah! Hello Yoosung. Happy Birthday. Nice to see you. Nice to see you too Saeryoung. How are you? I’m fine, and you? Oh I’m good, thank you for asking.” He rambled.

Yoosung rolled his eyes but took a step away from the man.

“Ok, ok, I’m sorry. Hello Saeyoung.” he sighed.

“I’m just kidding!” Saeyoung jumped up and gave him a bear hug, which was painful as he crushed the picnic basket between them. “Come on!” he put his arm around the younger man’s shoulders and walked them back to the garage.

“Are you enjoying yourself? I tried to give Saeran some suggestions, but he didn’t seem to want to take any of them! Humph! No matter, I’m sure MC will love to fly with me to the space station, did you know they’re selling tickets for the first commercial flight?” his eyes twinkled with joy and Yoosung could only shake his head.

“Here we go, my very first baby!” he wiped an imaginary tear from his eye, then winked at Yoosung as he left him alone with the car. Yoosung opened the door of the bright candy apple red sports call, he wasn’t sure what kind it was, cars weren’t his thing, but it sure was beautiful. He sat on the soft leather seat and it seemed to caress his body. The key was in the ignition but he was sure he shouldn’t actually turn it on. On the passenger seat was a bottle of wine, the same kind they had shared on their first date. Tears sprang to Yoosung’s eyes. The man was going to kill him with all this romance!

A ribbon was tied around the bottle neck with a small card attached to it, his name written in gold calligraphy and he was sure Saeran had done it himself. He turned it over where more gold words appeared:

Turn the car on and follow the directions on the GPS. Dive into the basket if you get hungry. I Love you so much - Saeran

He gasped, had Saeyoung approved this? He didn’t have much experience driving, but it wasn’t as if he didn’t know how to. But what if he got into an accident? He must have approved it though, otherwise, why would the key already be there? He set the basket next to the wine and with a trembling hand, he turned the key. The car roared into life and the garage door opened. He glanced at the rearview mirror and both MC and Saeyoung stood, arm in arm, waving at him. Without another thought, he shot out of the garage, the wind ruffling his hair as the convertible almost seemed to slide across the road. He wasn’t even sure the tires were touching the road, it was so smooth.

The GPS turned on and a female voice began giving him commands. A playlist popped up and began to play. It didn’t take long for Yoosung to realize it was one of his favorite playlists. The drive was far into the countryside and he was beginning to worry that it wasn’t right. It took almost two hours for him to finally pull into a long and winding driveway. The house that appeared around the bend, that had been hidden by trees was small and quaint. He could see a lake behind it, the setting sun reflected of the small waves.

The house was made out of wood, painted a dark grey and weatherworn. The porch was large and wrapped around the left side. The porch lights were on and it looked like a fire was flickering inside. His heart skipped a beat as he got out of the car, grabbing the basket and wine. He climbed the short set of stairs to the porch and approached the door. On it was tacked an envelope, with his name, this time in Purple, written across it. He pulled the tack out, took the envelope, then pressed the tack back in. He opened it and pulled out a thick piece of paper:

Come in my love - Saeran

He slid the card back in the envelope and opened the door. It appeared to be a single room with one other door in sight. There was a small kitchen to the right, a kitchen table with four chairs next to it and to his left was a sofa facing a fireplace that was already lit and a full sized bed against the left wall. As he watched, Saeran stood from his place in front of the roaring fire and turned to face him.

“Happy birthday babe.” He smiled and opened his arms. Yoosung dropped the basket and wine on the table and ran to the man. He almost tackled him, tears of happiness falling down his face, unable to articulate anything as his throat felt like it was full of cotton and he couldn’t swallow enough to clear it. “Did you like your gift?”

Yoosung nodded, sniffling like an idiot. When he pulled away to look into Saeran’s beautiful mint green eyes, he saw they were wet as well, but his smile was brilliant. He leaned in and kissed him softly, gently, then more passionately. Yoosung moaned into the kiss, his arms wrapped around him.

Saeran pulled away reluctantly and shook his head.

“No, none of that, not yet, but don’t worry, I planned for dessert too.” He grinned. Yoosung’s eyebrows shot up and he flushed crimson.

“What’s in there?” he asked.

“Don’t worry, you’ll find out soon enough.” Saeran chuckled, running his fingers through Yoosung’s hair and pulling on it enough to bring his head back around to he could plant a kiss, a lick, a bite on his neck.

#My posts #Yooran #Yoosung #Saeran #Yoosung birthday #April ask #one of two #mysme #mystic messenger #love #it's in the air

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dammitadolfnomorecake · 5 years ago

Text

CSUAVS prt 9 start

Shiro didn't wait the asked vargas, calling him back within doboshes of Keith sending the message. Filling the screen on the cockpit, Shiro looked as if he'd been sleeping. His white hair sticking up in every conceivable direction, with drool crust to the left side of his lips "Keith? What's up?" "I didn't mean to wake you" Blinking away his tears, Shiro moved from where he'd been in bed with Curtis. The man's sleeping form visible in the background as Keith's vision cleared. It felt incredibly wrong to be betraying Lance, yet the image of the blade slicing through Lance's skin so easily refused to leave his mind. He felt sick to the very depths of his boots for walking away. For not tackling Lance down tearing that damned blade away from him. He knew Lance hurt himself. He knew it. He could have done something about it. He could have done something about it back before this. Back before Lance broke down further. Sniffling, more tears leaked from his shimmering purple eyes "No. It's fine. What's going on? Did something happen? You've been crying" "It's... do you remember what it was like to die?" Shiro wrinkled his brow, then winced as a bright light came down from above with the whirl of a fan faintly coming through. Great. Now Shiro was hiding in the bathroom, while Keith was fighting to bring his tears and emotions back under his control. He hadn't meant to disturb him. God. He was an adult. He'd seen so much. He should know how to help Lance "Keith... are you ok? Did you have a nightmare?" Shaking his head, Keith scrubbed at his eyes with right hand "No. No... Just a shaky day" "Wanna tell me about it?" "I... can't..." Shiro sighed softly "I'm fine, kiddo. I don't remember much from dying. I was dead before I knew what had happened, then onto the astral plain" Keith had had nightmares of fighting Kuron and losing. Of Shiro never coming back. Or them never knowing Kuron wasn't Shiro. They'd spent far too many nights reassuring each other over the experience "What was that like?" "Keith, I've told you all of this before..." "I know. I... Lance had..." "Lance had" what? It slipped out his mouth, and now there was no going back "Did Lance have a nightmare?" A waking nightmare that was called a hallucination of Allura "Yeah. Something like that..." "Is that why you're upset? Was it to do with Allura?" "I don't know how to help him. I keep stuffing it all up" Drawing his knees up, Keith felt more like a moody teen than half way through his 20's. The action far too comforting and familiar "I'm sure you're not. How is he? Have you two been talking? Have you told him how you feel?" "I... Shiro... it's... I don't think I can" "Keith, he's your best friend" "Then why did I fail him?! You haven't seen it Shiro. He's... different" "Of course he's different, people grow and change. We grow closer together and we drift apart. It's a fact of life, Keith" Shaking his head, Shiro wasn't giving him the magic answers he needed "That's not it" "Then what is?" "I... he... God. Shiro. It's a mess" "Keith, if you need me to fly out to where you are..." "No. No. That would make it worse. I got him into trouble with his boss, so we're not on Erathus. We went on a mission together today..." Shiro perked up, like Keith wasn't depressed "How did that go?" "Not great. No one died, but only because the Galra had been there first. They wouldn't talk to us. Hey, Shiro. Did you know people intentionally go after remaining sentries for their parts and their guns?" Shiro hummed for a moment "I've heard of it" "I hadn't really thought of it. There are so many planets out here. How many slipped through our fingers and were destroyed while Voltron was missing. It was three years" "Keith, you can't think like that" "Can't I? Lance does. He had a member of his team killed" "Shit. When was that?" "I don't know. I don't know if I can help him. I don't even know if he wants me to help him" "He wouldn't have asked you to be there with him if he didn't" "He's doing me a favour" "You're still there. Sometimes that's all it takes" "I think all I've done is make things worse" "You're his best friend. You're also the only one he's opened up to. None of us know what he's doing, and now you say he has a team?" "Yeah. He's a bounty hunter. Can you believe it?" The frown on Shiro's lips was severe "I thought Veronica said he was working in security?" "He works with the police on Erathus, or he did until I messed things up with one of Pidge's programs" "I'm sure it's not all that bad..." "People have tried to kill him. How do I fix any of this for him?" "It's not your job to fix things" "But I want to help him!" "Then tell him how you feel... Oh hey, Lance" Jumping up, Keith rose to stand in a kind of half-stand half-blot kind of pose. His heart hammering over Lance interrupting the conversation. He'd slightly forgotten Lance was paranoid over their communications being intercepted "Hey, Shiro. How are you?" "Good. Good. How are you? Keith was just telling me the two of you were hanging out" Lance nodded, his arms wrapping around his waist in a selfhug as he cautiously moved closer to the screen. His face was covered in a green face mask, that clashed with the jacket and jeans he was wearing "Yeah. You know how it is. Heard you and Curtis finally got together. Congratulations" "Thanks. It hasn't been easy, but Adam would want us to be happy" "You deserve to be. I didn't mean to interrupt..." Lance couldn't meet Shiro's eyes, talking to the corner of the screen rather than to Shiro's face. Sinking down in his chair, Keith was mentally worrying how much Lance had heard before walking in "You're not interrupting. We missed you when Keith came to visit. You definitely need to come with him next time. Hunk's been talking about you both non-stop" Thank god for Shiro. He made everything sound so natural "Yeah, man. That sounds good. We're a little busy at the moment, but I've missed his cooking" "Did Keith share the supplies Hunk sent him off with?" "Yep. Erathus tries, but they just can't get those spice ratios right like Hunk can" "We could call Pidge back and make a day of it..." "Uh. Yeah. I don't know what my schedule is like, but that sounds good. I might leave you too it..." "It's a date" Keith blushed at date, shooting a glare at his adopted brother "Sure. Sure. See ya, Shiro. Keith, I'm going to take a nap. We're still a few vargas out, right?" "Yeah. Want me to wake you when we arrive?" "Sounds good. Bye Shiro" Lance gave Shiro a wave before disappearing back out the cockpit. Shiro giving it a few long moments before sighing "That was awkward" "I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that. I thought he was going to start yelling when he came in. I'm not supposed to be on the comms" "Why not?" "Bounty Hunter security and stuff. Already had to call back to the ship as it was, so maybe it's alright?" "The ship?" "Oh, Lance has his own ship. You should see him, it's like he knows exactly who he is and what's he doing when he stands at the helm" "He deserves it. He always did his best to keep the team together, even after you left and Kuron was there. Coran said it was quite a rough time for him" "Coran said?" "Lance became quiet and withdrawn. Initially Lance wanted to hand the Red lion over when we returned to Earth. I'm glad he's found something he likes doing. I'm not so happy that it's bounty hunting on his own. Anything could happen to him" "I think it already has..." "What do you mean by that? Did someone hurt him? Keith, if someone's hurt him, I'll bring the full force of the Atlas down there..." There was the space dad that everyone knew and loved. He'd known Shiro would react like this. He knew how much Shiro cared for Lance. He was tired of going around in circles in his mind. Shiro hadn't give him the magical cure for Lance, and Lance already knew they were talking about him. "It's his nightmares. He... Shiro, I swear to god I will never talk to you again if you breath a word of this to anyone" "Keith..." "Swear it. I won't tell you until you do" "Keith, we're not kids" "Shiro, I need you to promise. Lance has made me a promise to explain things, but he won't if I break his trust" Shiro gave a grim nod "How bad is it?" "I think he's been tortured. I think something happened on Erathus and that he was tortured" "Tortured?" "He doesn't want to be touched. This is Lance. Since when does Lance not like hugs? His room is as far away from everyone else's as it can get... and his nightmares. He wakes up screaming. He looks like he's barely sleeping or eating. Today, a sentry landed a lucky blow and knocked me down. He lost it. He threw himself in recklessly, then had Kosmo teleported us out before blowing up the top floor of the building. The slightest thing sets him off... I'm scared for him, Shiro. Something really bad happened to him..." "Has he told you himself?" "No. I mean, I didn't think he looked like himself when I saw him. What he's doing out here isn't safe. But he's really helping people..." "Keith, if he's been tortured, then we should let Veronica..." "No! Weren't you listening to me? He doesn't want anyone to know. I don't know what to do. I don't know if he's worse or better because I'm here. I can't stand to think of what he's gone through alone, and I won't leave him again... but... I don't want him to hate me" "Keith. It's not your job to..." "I know I can't take the pain away. What I want to know is how I can help him when he's having a panic attack or he's scared. What I know isn't working, and it seems like they're getting worse" "Then you need to talk to him. Help identify his triggers and help him see you're not going anywhere" "He's scared I'll hate him" "If he didn't care for you, he wouldn't be scared. Do you think he's a danger to himself?" Keith bit down the bitter laughter that welled in his chest "Maybe? I don't know" "If he is, then you really should talk about whatever's wrong. If he doesn't open up to you, see if you can get him talking to his family? Veronica can take leave" Bringing more people into this was only going to make Lance shut down more. His crush always automatically jumped to thinking himself a burden. Bringing his family in was only going to make his anxieties worse "No. I better go. I still need to take a shower and change" "Alright then. Call me if anything changes. No matter what the time is. I'll try and get some information out of Hunk about how Lance was when we were gone, and how he was on Earth. Lance's family adores him" "Don't make too much fuss. Lance isn't going to like any of this" "Keith, I know how to be discrete" "Right. Do I need to bring up that time you and Adam were in the tea-" "Nope. It's fine. Goodnight, Keith!" "'night, Shiro" Keith wasn't sure if he felt better for having talk to Shiro. He'd betrayed Lance, and still wasn't sure that Shiro had given him advice worth using. Rising out his chair, he clicked his fingers for Kosmo to follow him. His left hand moving to rest of his wolf's head as they made their way through his ship and to his quarters. Keith's own anxieties were starting to flare. The voices in his mind dreaming up all kinds of horrible ways things could go if Lance was still awake. He could leave things until they reached the Telula, but he knew he'd be a mess if he did. He needed to know what Lance had heard, and to make sure Lance wasn't crying his eyes out secretly while Keith left him to suffer alone. Opening the door to his room, he found Lance sitting up on his bed, his communicator laying in front of him as he read some document that it was projecting. Smiling slightly, Lance closed the document "We can't be there yet" "We've barely left the planet, so no. I just wanted to make sure everything was ok back here" "It's fine. What did Shiro want?" There it was. Lance was jumping right into the conversation. It took less than a tick for the white lie to begin rolling off his tongue "Oh, he had a nightmare. He wanted to make sure I was actually alright" Lance visibly relaxed at the idea of Shiro reaching out to him, rather him running crying to Shiro "Nightmares suck. Is that why you were crying?" Lance had noticed he'd been crying? A small part of his pride felt wounded for having been caught "Old memories. We all suffer with the memories of what we went through fighting as Voltron. Shiro still gets, though I think they've gotten better as he has Curtis now. He's been able to open up about it all" Nudging the subject, Lance sidestepped it effortlessly "They're good together. That's good..." "Yeah. I'm happy for him. Adam would be too. They always got on really well, but when Shiro wanted to go to Pluto, Adam had a hard time. He was sure by the time Shiro came back, his disease would have progressed so far that Shiro would barely be the man he loved. He'd have stayed with him to the very end. Curtis said he regretted the way it ended. Adam let his jealousy over Shiro choosing to spend the last few quality months in space instead of with him, get the better of him in the moment. Curtis really helped. He talked him through everything that happened with Adam. And of course, that whole family loves him" "It must be nice to be loved like that... to have some one who has faith in you until the very end" "I'm sorry. I didn't mean..." He didn't mean to make Lance think of Allura leaving. He just wanted Lance to know that it was ok to reach out to him "You did nothing wrong, Mullet. What else did he have to say? I heard you yelling" "Oh. He wanted to know what we were up to and how you were. I... ugh said I wish I could stay and help you..." Lance snorted. Moving his comms, he started making a show of settling down for his nap "I believe Shiro said to "tell me how you feel". What does that have to do with sticking around?" So Lance had been listening... had he heard more than that? "There's the Blades and that to think of. But I'm tired of relief missions. You're out here making a difference, and I was thinking it time for a change..." Waving a hand at him, Lance climbed under the thin blankets "In the scheme of things we're barely making a difference. Space is too big to help everyone, and not everyone wants help" "Lance..." "It's still Leandro. We still need to be careful, especially with comm signals. You never know who's listening" No one was quiznakking listening. He'd called Shiro on his Blade's comm. The signal was encrypted. "Leandro. I'm serious" "So am I. Remember what I told Bob? You're the future. You can do more things by being on Daibazaal than you can out here" "But we could pool our resources. We could take on more missions..." "Keith, there are planets that actually hates Voltron. Did you know that? People blame us for disappearing. People died when we went to Earth, and during those seven months. We fought so hard, yet they hate us. I like working without a face. Without people knowing I used to be a Paladin. Most people see Voltron and Earth as this holy beacon of hope, but then there are those on tiny little planets who curse our names. They'd never take aid from the Red Paladin, but they will from a rebel faction. They will from Leandro. Can you stop being a Blade? You can't, can you? You need to keep moving, that's just the kind of person you are. I'm not going to ask you to stay and hold my hand. I don't need it held. I don't want it held. I like what I do, and I'm going to keep doing it. I also like napping, and I'm going to do that now" "Leandro... what if I want to stay?" "Then you have rocks in your head. No one would stay if they knew anything. Go clean your knives or something. Maybe take a nap? You didn't show me the other quarters so you'll have to suffer losing your bed" Keith balled his fists "I've missed you. I've missed this. Us. Being a team" "We made a great team. But I don't know if we can ever work together like that on a permanent basis again" Why not? It'd been fun creeping through the giant black building, elbowing each other and whispering as they did "I..." "You don't have to say anything. It's how things are now. Wake me when get to the Telula" "No. You don't get to say all of that without listening to me" Lance raised an eyebrow at him "What you did today was reckless. You could have been hurt. We could have been hurt. Then you act like it's all ok because we survived. It's not ok Lance. I don't know what's going on with you, and you keep coming close then pushing me out. I know I messed up as your friend. But you messed up too. Do you know how much it hurt that you didn't tell me you were out here? I was the only one thinking you were finally free and happy back on Earth with your family! You were my best friend. The one person I could trust to have my back. Now you're hurting yourself. You're lying. You have nightmares and won't let me help you. Why can't you just let me in? If it was me, you'd be saying the exact same thing, so stop looking at me like I've grown an extra head!" Well. That happened. Lance glared coldly at him "What do you know? What do you know about what happened? You don't know anything because you left!" "What? Voltron? I left to find my mother" "And I was happy for you, but..." "Are you seriously holding onto that? I thought we were ok?" "Gargh! You're not getting it. You don't know..." "I don't know anything, because you won't tell me anything! I care about you! I want to know what's going on! I want to help you" "You can't, Meteor. So just drop it. I told you I would explain after we visit the prison" "Meteor. My name is Keith. And you're Lance. I know... I know you were tortured" Lance gaped at him, before shaking his head as he echoed Keith's earlier move by drawing his knees to his chest. Resting his head on his knees, Lance sighed softly "I wasn't tortured" "Lance" "I wasn't tortured!" "Then..." "A lot of stuff happened ok. Between you, me and Allura. I can't tell you, but... whatever you have in mind, isn't what happened" "Then tell me" "I can't. Not yet" "Why not?" "Because I can't... why do you have to be so goddamn smart? Why did you even have to come find me to begin with? Things weren't great, but I... I didn't feel like a child with a babysitter" "I'm not trying to babysit you" "Really? You suddenly want to stay. You want to work here. You think we can do things better with you and your team around. Our ways aren't perfect, but we get the job done" "That's not it at all... I've missed you" "You might have missed me, but I was finally free. Free of Earth. Free of my family. Free of you and Shiro always being better than I am. Free of being the stupid, useless, unwanted Paladin who was only ever a place holder for you. I was free of all of that. And now you're back, and I don't know what to do. You've been trying so hard not to blurt out everything you just did, and now we're like this. I was... ok" "You were never useless" "You weren't there" "Then tell me!" "I had no one when you left! Kuron wasn't exactly the nicest of people you know. I wasn't what he wanted. Every single thing I did was never ever good enough for him. I spent months thinking that Shiro hated me. I spent months being pushed away by all of them! Even Coran was over me. I was so excited you were coming back, then you came back with your awesome space mom, and Kosmo. I worked my arse off trying to reach your level, only for you to be in a whole other league, and for me to be once again in your shadow. I was only promoted because left the Garrison. I was only promoted in Voltron because Shiro was missing. Red should have been yours. And when I tried to point this out, you tell me to leave the maths to Pidge. I never felt enough when we were in Voltron. I simply got better at hiding it. So forgive me if I want something for myself for a change. If I like my job. If I like my team. But between you all treating me differently because Allura was dead, Earth no longer being the place I held dear, and everyone at home giving me shit because they couldn't believe a fuck up like me actually did any of the things the others did, I needed out. And I found out that even without the Galra forces, the universe is a pretty shit fucking place to exist in. I really thought it would be different with you. That you wouldn't push. You wouldn't force my hand. That maybe you could see past all my failures and be my friend. But you can't, can you?" "I am your friend. You're my best friend. You're everything, Lance. Why can't you see that? Why can't you see how much you mean to me? Why do you think it hurt so badly to know you didn't tell me you were out here? I..." "Then where were you? Would you have come to Erathus just to visit me for me? Or would you all have kept talking about me behind my back?" "I would have..." Stray tears rolled down his cheeks. He didn't want to hear any of this. That tiny thread of trust had snapped so loudly that it'd taken his breath away. Lance... Lance could never love him the way he loved the Cuban. Not when he was still grieving over the loss of his childhood being stolen away. Not when he couldn't see how amazing of a person he was. All of these fears, he'd thought them gone. Lance had been good. He thought he was alright. Now he found he'd been stupidly blind to Lance's pain all along. He loved the stupid bastard with all his heart, but Lance... he hated him "You would have had a mission. Then another mission. Then another. That's how it works. It's how it works for everyone. None of us have time. We never had time when we were on the castle. We were simply stuck there. I missed my family so much. I used to day dream of returning to find Earth how we left it. I'd day dream we'd all sit around having drinks on Varadero beach. My family would have cooked up a massive feast. All my aunts and uncles, and cousins, and my nieces and nephews would be there. All of this would be left out here. We'd joke and talk about our time up here, and we'd all be happy. I was so stupid. I really believed it. I believed we were doing the right thing, but since Red left, I don't know anymore" "I didn't... Lance..." "It's fine, Keith. You didn't know. No one knew. No one bothered to know. I was never a great Paladin, but I felt good doing this. You should probably go. Before I make things even worse" "I don't want to... I... you're my best friend" "Things change Keith. I've changed. You need to move on. Now, I'll help you with Guile, but after that, I don't think we should keep in contact. You're asking something from me that I can't give anymore"

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forestwater87 · 7 years ago

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Who did they think they were kidding, anyway?

(Beta’d by @raenbowsofficial)

Summer 2017

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Gwen groaned, rolling over and pawing blindly at her phone. That was, what, her third time hitting snooze? That meant it was around 6:45, and she had fifteen minutes before breakfast.

Which . . . didn’t seem right. She sat up, double-checking the time on her phone with a sinking feeling in her stomach. Yep, 6:46 a.m., stark white letters against the New York City skyline that’d been her phone background for years.

David usually woke her up before now. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept in this late, without the gentle rap on her bedroom door and a sunny “Good morning, Gwen!” Of course, it could be a coincidence that the one morning he didn’t come to get her also happened to be the morning after he’d turned her down for sex and she’d had a major freakout. It could definitely just be unfortunate timing; hell, maybe David had overslept for once.

It was always possible, right?

And if he wasn’t in the main room of the cabin, and if his bedroom door was wide open and neatly put together and empty, then that was just another unfortunate coincidence.

Gwen wasn't very good at positive thinking, not like David. But she managed to wrestle her brain into something resembling optimism — or at least not blind, shrieking panic — as she stumbled through her morning routine, and was proud that she only felt slightly nauseous as she approached the mess hall.

David was standing by the breakfast line, overseeing the Quartermaster as he served the campers. (This was deemed necessary after he “accidentally” impaled the hand of a camper who’d been trying to steal an extra pudding cup. Poor Chucky never quite regained total mobility of his pinky.) Technically the counselors were supposed to trade off this job, but he always volunteered to take her “shifts,” because he liked the extra time to greet the campers as they came to the end of the line.

Usually she was too tired to give much of a shit about anything that was going on before her second cup of coffee, but this morning she couldn’t help but let her eyes linger on the back of the mess hall, watching as David playfully ruffled Max’s hair — easily dodging the boy’s sleep-clumsy shove — and asked Nikki about the caterpillar she was keeping in her overall bib pocket. His smile was happy and relaxed, effortless like it always seemed to be in the mornings. By the end of the day there’d be a bit more strain holding up that expression, but David was a morning person, of course. She’d hadn’t forgotten how much she missed seeing him first thing in the morning, but watching him put a hand on Space Kid’s helmet and comfort him over something QM had threatened, she was struck with a wave of homesickness so bad it felt like a weight on her chest, one that made her shoulders hunch up and her back bow. And for once that feeling wasn’t from seeing the city skyline on TV or from hearing a distant siren from town.

“Morning, Gwen.” David set her tray down in front of her — she hadn’t even thought of getting her own food, she was so used to him insisting — with a small smile that didn’t burn as brightly as the one he’d favored the campers with. “How’d you sleep?”

“Um . . . okay. Pretty well?” After curling up and crying with her teeth sank into her pillow so he wouldn’t overhear and wonder what was wrong. That kind of empty-your-insides sobbing was draining, and as awful as it seemed she actually had slept better than usual. “Overslept a little, I guess.”

She didn’t have the courage to be any more explicit than that, to come right out and ask if he was mad at her and that’s why he hadn’t gotten her up, but he nodded down at his breakfast like she’d asked anyway, twirling the gummy eggs with his fork and gnawing on his lower lip. “Of course. You must’ve been exhausted.” He swallowed, letting the eggs drip back onto the tray and coalesce back with the rest of the goo. “The first few weeks at camp are always pretty tiring, huh?”

His eyes met hers, then, and in them was that uncertain flicker Gwen had grown accustomed to lately, that waver of hope and nervousness like he was hoping she’d take the excuse he was offering and grant him some peace of mind. Just a little bit more, just to hold them together for a few more hours.

She nodded, dropping her gaze to her coffee and swirling it absently. “Yeah, it’s hard to get back into the swing of things.”

“It is!” And again Pavlov, that motherfucker, sprang to mind. Because it was just too automatic, mindless even. A reflex.

David smiled, Gwen felt better.

She felt better, she wanted him to keep smiling.

Which meant . . . lying. Lying until neither of them had the energy to buy it anymore.

But it seemed like the potency of their bullshit was starting to fade. Because that smile, the feeling better, only lasted as long as a quiet breakfast before David climbed to his feet, clapping to get the kids’ attention and beaming. “All right, kiddos! Why don’t you go brush your teeth and Gwen and I will meet you out on the activities field!”

She glanced up at him, confused. Normally they split up after breakfast so that she could watch over (and wrangle) the kids and David and QM would do dishes, but . . . “Who’s gonna take roundup duty?”

His smile didn’t falter, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes as he turned to her. “The Quartermaster agreed to supervise the campers so we can stay behind and clean up before morning activities. Sound good?”

It wasn’t really a question; the kids were already filing out of the mess hall, and QM had disappeared to . . . somewhere mysterious. Either way, this was clearly something they’d worked out while she was still asleep. So she picked up her tray and started to one of the other tables, snagging abandoned silverware and napkins and trying to figure out a way to avoid this conversation.

She had about five minutes to think, as they wiped down the tables and brought the dishes into the kitchen, as she scraped leftover food and campers’ experiments (and she couldn’t always tell them apart) into the trash and tried not to gag, as she joined David over the giant industrial sink and buried her hands in sickly gray-green suds and got to work. About five minutes of near-total silence, of clinking plastic and rustling clothing and not much else. In those five minutes, she failed to come up with anything to say.

But it seemed David had. "Gwen . . ." He swallowed, looking away for a second before taking a deep breath and forcing his eyes back to hers. "What'd I do wrong?"

It took her a second to recover, to swallow her surprise and meet his gaze, and it was just long enough to make every word that followed ring hollow. “You haven’t done anything wrong. Wh —”

Gwen cut herself off. Because what was the point in pretending that she had no idea where this question was coming from?

Instead she shrugged and returned to wiping out a glass with her washcloth. “Really, David, it’s nothing. It’s . . . I’m just —”

“Don’t say you’re tired,” he snapped, and it wasn’t quite angry but it was close, something anger-like but with a little wound in the center, bleeding frustration and impatience and a bone-deep weariness that felt too, too familiar. It was the same kind of pleading aching fatigue that she’d heard just over a year ago, in the words “times have changed, whether I like it or not.”

Times had changed. Whether they liked it or not.

She opened her mouth but he held up one soapy hand, bracing the other against the lip of the sink. “Please, Gwen. I . . .” He sighed, shaking his head. “I’m tired of you being tired.”

Something warm and barbed coiled in her stomach, and it was better than frigid dread or acidic guilt so she grabbed onto it with hands that would be lacerated bloody. He was tired of it? How the fuck did he think she felt having to live it every goddamn day? “Listen, David, I’m trying real hard to hide it and just be ‘happy sunshine camp counselor,’ but maybe it doesn’t come so fucking easily to everyone, okay?”

“Easily?” he repeated with a look of utter disbelief. “Who ever said that anything about . . . who said any of this was easy?”

“I’m just dealing with a lot of shit,” she said, forcing herself to take a deep breath and a few steps back, wiping her hand on a rag she really hoped had always been gray. “I’ve got a lot going on —”

“Like what, Gwen?” They both froze, realizing what he’d just said at the same time, and no sooner had the words left his mouth than he was covering it, ignoring the brackish water dripping down his fingers and wrists. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like — I just —”

“It’s fine.” It wasn’t, and her lips felt almost too numb to form the words, but it wasn’t David’s fault. She could hardly hate him for understanding how it was with her — how little it took to leave her moody and overwhelmed and a terrible girlfriend. How “a lot of shit” sometimes consisted of a few sad thoughts that clung to her brain like spiderwebs and gummed up everything that was supposed to make her work like normal people. An idiot would’ve noticed something as obvious as how pathetic she was, and despite his other faults, David wasn’t an idiot.

David shook his head, all the anger leeching out with the tears that threatened to spill over his eyelashes. “No, Gwen, I don’t . . . of course you have plenty going on, I just . . .” His voice dropped almost to a whisper. “I want to be a part of it. I miss you. I’ve — every time we aren’t together, I miss you. And since we’ve been back, even though we are . . .”

God, he was sweet. Sweeter than she deserved, sweeter than was good for him. And even though it was the worst way to respond, even though the Audree in her head was furious and wailing, she tightened her grip on the thorns of anger and dug her nails in, asked herself if she was honestly supposed to believe that he missed being teased and complained at by a bitch like her. He might be a closet masochist, but even he had limits. What kind of misguided hero’s complex kept him trotting back to her side, when her side was full of bad manners and a hideous apartment and no friends and a miserable family, a miserable life, a miserable person?

The same hero’s complex, she realized with a sickening lurch, that kept him chasing after Max. Another joyless, caustic fuckup who didn’t know what to do with such blatant affection and who almost compulsively had to throw it back in his face. Someone with so much potential, if only he had a friend who’d believe in him. A project to nurture and feel good about at the end of the day, a success story that probably only existed in David’s head, a DIY he was still working on.

Did David see her as a project, too?

"Please." She snorted, crossing her arms and feeling the barbs shred through another layer of skin. "You just miss having someone to fuck."

"Wha — ? I . . ." His lips hardened into a thin line. "That's unfair and you know it."

They were jolted back to earth by a shrill beeping, the Camp Campbell theme song that signaled the end of the free period.

He glanced down at his phone, then at the half-finished dishes, and sighed, wiping off his hands without meeting her eyes. “It’s time for the morning activity.”

This wasn't one of their busiest days — Harrison had a magic show, which meant most of the afternoon was spent on the rough wooden benches facing the camp stage — and under normal circumstances the two of them would take the downtime as an opportunity to talk, plan for the rest of the week or mutter snarky comments (while David tried to keep her quiet and pretend he wasn't trying not to laugh), their fingers would find each other's. But he kept his face turned toward the stage and his hands in his lap, so she followed his lead and kept her mouth shut, watching Harrison unfurl a flower from between his fingers with her face blank and her mind racing.

By the time the curtain fell to lukewarm applause, the anger had completely leached out of her, and what was left was cold and sick and sad. By the time they’d sat through a dinner full of stilted small talk and playing with food neither of them were interested in eating, Gwen was pretty sure she was going to throw up the next time she opened her mouth.

By the time they’d returned to the cabin after putting the kids to bed — no stilted, pathetic attempts at small talk, not this time — she was close to a nervous breakdown. Calm down, she told herself, focusing on keeping her breaths steady and regular. This is fixable. You were a cunt, so just apologize and try harder to not be so . . . yourself all the fucking time. David’s forgiving. You’ll be fine.

Probably.

He held open the cabin door for her, as usual, but as she slipped through his fingers caught around her upper arm. “Um, Gwen?”

Her stomach clenched.

Oh god.

David cleared his throat and let her go, stepping inside and locking the cabin door behind them. “Could we . . . talk? I think we need to.”

Oh god.

She was going to be sick. If she opened her mouth she was going to throw up all over the hallway and then she’d have to spend the evening scrubbing partially-digested broccoli out of the carpet and at least that’d be better because then they wouldn’t have to have The Talk — David couldn’t possibly break up with her if she was sick, so vomiting was starting to look like a better idea by the minute . . .

“Yeah,” she said, and she wasn’t sure how she sounded so casual, like she wasn’t talking around a throat thick with acid. “Probably a good idea.”

No it wasn’t. It was an awful idea. It was the fucking worst idea she’d ever heard of.

She followed him into the cramped living room, perching on the edge of her armchair. He didn’t sit down, to her surprise; he just started pacing back and forth, rubbing at the narrow pink scars on the backs of his hands. A nervous habit.

The knot in her stomach grew just a bit tighter.

The silence stretched for almost a full minute, broke only by the light scuffing of his boots against the floor, when she cracked. “Listen, David, I was a total bitch earlier and I’m sorry, I —”

“Wait.” He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. H- . . . how to say it. So please, just let me — I just need to get it out.”

She wanted to interrupt, drown whatever he was about to say in apologies because there was nothing good coming next, but his eyes popped open and focused on her just long enough to sever her vocal chords before he resumed pacing, wringing his hands and looking everywhere but at her.

“I’m . . .” His hands kept clenching into fists and releasing, like he was trying to grab the words long enough to force them out. “I’m not happy,” he finally said in a rush of breath, and it was like the tension had been sapped out of him. His shoulders slumped, relaxed, and his hands unfurled. When he turned to look at her, there was something like relief on his face. “I’m not. And — and I don’t think you are, either.” He paused, glancing at her like she hoped she would respond, confirm or deny or make still more excuses.

She didn’t. She didn’t know what she’d even say. Because she wasn’t happy, not even close. But she hadn’t been happy since graduating college, so what the fuck did it matter? And she couldn’t explain that, not to someone like David, someone who’d never understand, so she pressed her lips together and stared down at her thighs and idly wished they were smaller, more girly. As if having skinnier legs would make him want to be with her.

“This is . . . it isn’t working, and it used to. At least, I think it used to. And I don’t know what’s changed, if I did something or if you — or if maybe I was just misunderstanding things? And now . . .” David sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I don't know how you feel, about anything. Gwen, I'm trying so hard to be patient, but . . ." He shook his head, running his hands through his hair. "I mean — goodness, do you even actually like me?"

He looked up at her again, all big eyes and sincerity, and it didn’t make sense because the words coming out of his mouth were so goddamn stupid, but he was looking at her like they made sense, like he believed them. Like he thought she didn’t . . . that she could possibly . . .

He was waiting for an answer, she realized after a moment. The speech was done, and it was time to explain herself. But what was she supposed to say when she didn’t even understand what the fuck he was thinking? "That's — don't be — I —"

That's ridiculous.

Don't be crazy.

I do. Of course I do.

I like you so much I don't know what to do with myself.

"Gwen?" She snapped back to herself and realized that she had clutched the neck of her shirt and was crinkling it in one sweaty fist. Forcing her hands to relax, she avoided his eyes, because if she looked at him she'd shatter into pieces.

He wasn’t happy. David, the happiest person she’d ever met, the only man who could be tied to a spit-roast and smile, was unhappy. And she’d done that to him. All of this desperate clinging, excuses and being “tired” and half-smiles that must’ve looked as hollow and dead as she felt — it was for her benefit, and it was making him unhappy.

It was selfish, her wanting to be with him. If she had a heart she’d cut him free.

"Listen, David, I . . . like assholes. Guys who are self-involved, who make me feel like shit and who leave. That's my type." She shrugged, feeling oddly weightless. "This has been, I dunno, a fluke, an anomaly, whatever. It was bound to end sometime."

This was better. A dramatic speech, a tearful departure, maybe a little crying in the moonlight; it was downright Byronic. But most importantly, it was her leaving him. If it had to happen anyway, if the right thing to do was make it happen, she wanted it to be on her terms.

She'd been dumped by a lot of people, but she didn't think she could stand being rejected by David.

"Bound to end? I don't . . ." He moved closer, reaching out to take her hand. "Gwen, please —” oh god, his voice cracked and with it her resolve, “— just tell me what’s wrong. We can . . . can’t we talk about it?”

Goddamn it. Goddamn it, goddamn it, goddamn it. She couldn’t do this. She had to get out.

She had to say whatever it took to get out.

"I almost fucked someone else!" The words exploded out of her, totally unbidden; she covered her mouth but it was too late, they were in the air and they'd reached him, he'd heard them, she could see it in the way color bled from his face, making his freckles, usually almost invisible against his pink complexion, stand out in stark relief. And now that she'd started she couldn't stop, blurting out more and more things she'd never wanted to say. "I wasn't even that drunk, he kissed me and I let him, I thought about going home with him seriously thought about it, David! Okay? All this 'we can talk things out' bullshit? That only works with someone who — who —" Who works right in the first place .

For a second he just stared at her, frozen and white like a statue, all bloodless lips and wide eyes and hurt . "Wh . . ." He swallowed, licked his lips, looked down at his toes. "Why?"

His voice was so small. She'd never, ever heard him sound that small.

And that was painful, so she dug the knife in deeper, twisted it with everything she had as though it wasn't her own chest she was stabbing. "Because I make terrible decisions," she spat; he flinched away from her voice, wrapping his arms around his ribs like he needed a hug so badly he'd give one to himself. "It's fucking obvious! It's why I'm stuck in a job I hate, with an education that doesn't do shit for me or anybody else, and dreams that . . . that don't . . . matter." Her voice dropped, almost without her noticing. "All I do is make mistakes," she finally muttered.

Because when God was putting together all the little boys and girls of the world He must've dropped her, something was broken inside her chest, something was missing and there were monsters rattling around in that empty jagged space and everyone she'd fallen in love with left, because she could only pretend to be whole for so long before the rattling became loud enough that everyone could hear it, and no one could sleep next to that kind of racket. Even if they could, even if like David someone managed to ignore it or not hear it — the monsters brought out their claws, because it was a hell of a lot harder to avoid scratches and they wanted her all to themselves, to eat up all her insides and walk around her body.

And that all sounded good, but it was bullshit because Gwen knew there weren't any monsters inside her. She could blame God or her parents or whatever she wanted but she was the only one inside her head and she was the one who kept fucking up, and she was the one who knew David was too good for her and she went and fell for him anyway like the selfish idiot she was. Because if there was a monster it was her, and the only person being hollowed out and destroyed was him.

And there'd been a part of her that'd known that, and it hadn't stopped her.

"Oh." For a second he just looked at her, reading her face and she hated it because she didn't know what he was seeing but it couldn't be good. And she hated even more that his eyes still made her shiver, even looking at her the way he was she still preferred it to him not looking at her at all, even when she was trying to cut him free she still wanted to hold on as tight as she possibly could. "Okay, then!"

She didn't know how to respond, because his voice was taut and too bright, to the point where she glanced around to see if any of the kids had snuck into the cabin without her noticing and he was pretending everything was fine.

But it was just them, and it wasn't fine, and he wasn't pretending.

"I'm sorry," he said after another moment, still strange and cheery and broken, like she was watching a movie that'd been dubbed over badly, and nothing sounded like it came from where it should. And he wasn't smiling, his face was terrifyingly neutral but he straightened his back and squared his jaw and looked away and continued. "I didn't mean to be a mistake. I . . ." He trailed off, swallowing thickly, and now she couldn't look at him either and this was the longest they'd ever gone without eye contact and it just felt so wrong, "I'm going to go check on the campers."

Gwen wanted to leap forward and take his arm, touch his shoulder, say something because he didn't understand, but she just nodded and he left and then all she could hear was her own ragged breathing.

It wasn't fair for him to think that, not when the truth was just the opposite, and no small part of her wanted to chase him down and explain that dating him had been one of the few things she felt like she'd done right — for herself, anyway. Maybe not for him, because how could anything be right if it made him this sad?

And that was what kept her rooted to the ground, and when she eventually started walking it was what directed her toward her bedroom.

The thing was, if she told him he wasn't a mistake he might think they could still work out. Because he was too good, he didn't understand that some people weren't fixable and weren't meant to be happy and there was nothing he could do about it, but if she gave him even half a reason to hope he would try, try until his fingers were bloody and there was nothing left of his smile, and she wasn't going to let that happen.

She'd had her heart broken before and she was still here, and David was a lot more resilient than her so he'd be fine. It'd be a rough few months, he'd probably be sad for the rest of the summer but then he'd go home and next year she wouldn't be here, not even if this was the only job available and Campbell offered her a raise, because she couldn't do that to him and she definitely couldn't do it to herself. She couldn't watch him move on.

He would, of that she had no doubt. He was cute and sweet and sunny, and it was only a matter of time before someone scooped him up, some pretty girl with an easy laugh or a broad-shouldered guy who could give him hugs that'd swallow him. Someone else with the same tenacious optimism, who was so happy they made David look gloomy and short-tempered in comparison, with his favorite-colored hair, pink or green or yellow maybe, that didn't get tangled or knotted or kinked when he tried to play with it but fell through his fingers like cornsilk and reflected the light. Someone he could love effortlessly, without thinking. Someone considerate and perceptive who didn't insult him or push him away, who knew how to say they appreciated him, who never let a day go by without making sure he knew he was good, and special, and important.

Gwen wanted that for him. She wanted him to feel so loved he could drown in it.

She just didn't want to watch it happen.

#rest of the chapter under the cut #campcamp #cc david #cc gwen #gwenvid #my stuff #guess who hates this piece of shit chapter?#it me #because i can't writeeeee #forestwriting

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inloveandwords · 5 years ago

Text

Happy Almost-February everyone!

It’s time for another one of my TBRs which is really just a ‘suggested list of books I may or may not read,’ because I’m such a moody reader.

This month I’m planning on participating in Contemporaryathon, so I’m going to include that TBR here, too.

Contemporaryathon Round 6 Info

Dates: 2/10 – 2/16

Hosts:

Chelsea from Chelseadolling Reads

Julie from Pages and Pens

Natasha from MyReadingisOdd

Challenges:

read a contemporary book with green on the cover

read a contemporary from a new to you author

read a diverse contemporary (keeping in mind that it is Black History Month!)

read a backlist contemporary (something that has been on your TBR for over a year)

read a dark/hard-hitting contemporary

read a contemporary with an illustrated cover

read a contemporary that is beloved by a member of the book community (and shout out the creator!)

Books I’m Hoping to Read:

Credence by Penelope Douglas / book with green on the cover I keep seeing this book around and the hype has absolutely gotten to me. I’m dying to read it and it’s on Kindle Unlimited!

Tiernan de Haas doesn’t care about anything anymore. The only child of a film producer and his starlet wife, she’s grown up with wealth and privilege but not love or guidance. Shipped off to boarding schools from an early age, it was still impossible to escape the loneliness and carve out a life of her own. The shadow of her parents’ fame followed her everywhere.

And when they suddenly pass away, she knows she should be devastated. But has anything really changed? She’s always been alone, hasn’t she?

Jake Van der Berg, her father’s stepbrother and her only living relative, assumes guardianship of Tiernan who is still two months shy of eighteen. Sent to live with him and his two sons, Noah and Kaleb, in the mountains of Colorado, Tiernan soon learns that these men now have a say in what she chooses to care and not care about anymore. As the three of them take her under their wing, teach her to work and survive in the remote woods far away from the rest of the world, she slowly finds her place among them.

And as a part of them.

She also realizes that lines blur and rules become easy to break when no one else is watching.

One of them has her.

The other one wants her.

But he…

He’s going to keep her.

Thirty Day Boyfriend by Whitney G. / new-to-you author This is one I have on my Audible Escape wishlist. It’s only a couple hours long, so it’s perfect for a readathon. I’ve also never read anything by this author, so it works for the prompt.

I should’ve never agreed to this arrangement…

Thirty days ago, my boss—Mr. Wolf of Wall Street, came to me with an offer I couldn’t refuse: Sign my name on the dotted line and pretend to be his fiancée for one month. If I agreed, he would let me out of my employment contract with a “very generous” severance package.

The rules were pretty simple: No intimate kissing, no actual sex. Just pretend to love each other for the press, even though I’ve secretly wanted to knock that sexy smirk off his face since the first day we met.

I definitely didn’t need to think twice about this. I signed my name and started counting down the seconds to when I would never have to deal with his special brand of ass-holery again.

I only made it to one minute…

We argued the entire four-hour flight to his hometown, failed to make a convincing impression with the welcoming press, and right when I was about to knock that arrogant look off his face in real life? He purposely dropped his bath towel in front of me, distracting me with his nine-inch cock to “show me who the bigger person was” in our relationship. Then he gave me his trademark smirk once again and asked if I wanted to consummate our marriage.

Tragically, this is only day one. We still have 29 more days to go…

Behind the Bars (Music Street #1) by Brittainy C. Cherry / diverse contemporary I’ve been absolutely obsessed with Brittainy C. Cherry lately after discovering her last month. I’m determined to read her backlist and this one just happens to be on Audible Escape!

When I first met Jasmine Greene, she came in as raindrops.

I was the awkward musician, and she was the high school queen. The only things we had in common were our music and our loneliness.

Something in her eyes told me her smile wasn’t always the truth. Something in her voice gave me a hope I always wished to find. And in a flash, she was gone.

Years later, she was standing in front of me on a street in New Orleans. She was different, but so was I. Life made us colder. Harder. Isolated.

Caged.

Even though we were different, the broken pieces of me recognized the sadness in her. Now she was back, and I wouldn’t make the mistake of letting her go again.

When I first met Jasmine Greene, she came in as raindrops. When we met again, I became her darkest storm.

The Infatuation (The Josh & Kat Trilogy #1) by Lauren Rowe / backlist book I actually can’t believe I haven’t read this trilogy yet because I’ve been dying to hear this couple’s story. Just in time for the Reed Rivers Trilogy coming out in Feb.

It’s a war of wills between stubborn and sexy Josh Faraday and Kat Morgan. A fight to the bed. Arrogant, wealthy playboy Josh is used to getting what he wants. And what he wants is Kat Morgan.

The minute Josh Faraday meets feisty, vivacious Kat Morgan, he wants her. Not for a relationship, of course. He doesn’t do those. He wants her in his bed. But, to his shock and extreme frustration, Kat won’t play by Josh’s rules like all the others. No, this stubborn woman declares she won’t so much as kiss Josh until he divulges some highly personal information . . . But it’s something Josh has never told anyone, and won’t be telling Kat. Not over his dead body, no matter how gorgeous and sexy she is.

But the chemistry between the pair is explosive, scorching hot electricity like nothing he’s felt before. Oh, God, he’s got to get a taste. He figures all he has to do is wear the sexy woman down with is patented “playboy razzle dazzle”—show her the hotness she’s missing out on and she’ll cave, like all the rest . . . The only problem with that strategy? It’s Kat’s strategy, too: she plans to wear Josh down and get what she wants by showing him the hotness he’s missing out on.

It’s a war of wills. A match to the bed. Who will crack first? And when they do, will either of their hearts be on the line?

Disgrace by Brittainy C. Cherry / hard-hitting contemporary Brittainy is known for writing hard-hitting books, and I’m sure this one will be no different.

Each day I prayed for my husband to love me again.

After fifteen years together, he walked away from me, and into the arms of another.

I didn’t know how to cope. I didn’t know my worth. I didn’t know how to exist without him by my side.

All I wanted was for him to come back to me.

Then, Jackson Emery appeared.

He was supposed to be a distraction for my mind. A summer fling. A confidence boost to my bruised heart.

We were perfect for one another, because we both knew we wouldn’t last. Jackson didn’t believe in commitment, and I no longer believed in love. He was too closed-off for me, and I was too damaged for him.

Everything was fine, until one night my heart skipped a beat.

I didn’t expect him to make me laugh. To make me think. To make my sadness somewhat disappear.

When our time was up, my heart didn’t know how to walk away.

Each day I prayed for my husband to love me again, yet slowly my prayers began to shift toward the man who wasn’t right for me.

I prayed for one more smile, one more kiss, one more laugh, one more touch…

I prayed for him to be mine.

Even though I knew his heart wasn’t destined to love.

Get a Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert / illustrated cover This has been sitting on my Kindle, haunting me as I hear everyone rave about it and I’m excited to get to it ASAP! I’m really looking forward to the chronic illness rep as well.

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamourous family’s mansion. The next items?

Enjoy a drunken night out. Ride a motorcycle. Go camping. Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex. Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage. And… do something bad. But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.

Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…

The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club #1) by Lyssa Kay Adams / loved by a member of the book community It’s not just one member of the book community that has been raving about this book, I’ve heard SO many people gush about it and I’m so excited to pick it up!

The first rule of book club: You don’t talk about book club.

Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott’s marriage is in major league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him.

Welcome to the Bromance Book Club.

Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville’s top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it’ll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife.

Here are the non-readathon books I’m hoping to read this month:

Rage (Stormheart #2) by Cora Carmack I finished Roar, the first book in this series in January and this book happens to be on Audible Escape, so I’m planning on finishing it.

Princess or adventurer.

Duty or freedom.

Her Kingdom or the Stormhunter she loves.

If Aurora knows anything, it’s that choices have consequences. To set things right, she joins a growing revolution on the streets of Pavan.

In disguise as the rebel Roar, she puts her knowledge of the palace to use to aid the rebellion. But the Rage season is at its peak and not a day passes without the skies raining down destruction. Yet these storms are different—they churn with darkness, and attack with a will that’s desperate and violent.

This feels like more than rage.

It feels like war.

Call it What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer After reading and falling in love with the first two books in her Cursebreakers series, I decided I really want to give her contemporaries a try!

When his dad is caught embezzling funds from half the town, Rob goes from popular lacrosse player to social pariah. Even worse, his father’s failed suicide attempt leaves Rob and his mother responsible for his care.

Everyone thinks of Maegan as a typical overachiever, but she has a secret of her own after the pressure got to her last year. And when her sister comes home from college pregnant, keeping it from her parents might be more than she can handle.

When Rob and Maegan are paired together for a calculus project, they’re both reluctant to let anyone through the walls they’ve built. But when Maegan learns of Rob’s plan to fix the damage caused by his father, it could ruin more than their fragile new friendship…

This captivating, heartfelt novel asks the question: Is it okay to do something wrong for the right reasons?

Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women #1) by Evie Dunmore I’ve heard so many good things about this book – particularly that it is great for people who don’t normally read historical romance. I also happened to get it as my Book of the Month book in Jan.

A stunning debut for author Evie Dunmore and her Oxford Rebels, in which a fiercely independent vicar’s daughter takes on a duke in a fiery love story that threatens to upend the British social order.

England, 1879. Annabelle Archer, the brilliant but destitute daughter of a country vicar, has earned herself a place among the first cohort of female students at the renowned University of Oxford. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women’s suffrage movement. Her charge: recruit men of influence to champion their cause. Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery who steers Britain’s politics at the Queen’s command. Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can’t deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for.

Sebastian is appalled to find a suffragist squad has infiltrated his ducal home, but the real threat is his impossible feelings for green-eyed beauty Annabelle. He is looking for a wife of equal standing to secure the legacy he has worked so hard to rebuild, not an outspoken commoner who could never be his duchess. But he wouldn’t be the greatest strategist of the Kingdom if he couldn’t claim this alluring bluestocking without the promise of a ring…or could he?

Locked in a battle with rising passion and a will matching her own, Annabelle will learn just what it takes to topple a duke….

Hunted by Meagan Spooner I feel like I keep almost reading this book, but never quite do. It’s a beauty and the beast retelling and I am always here for those.

Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them.

So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance.

Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

The Beginning of Everything (The Rising #1) by Kristen Ashley This is a full-cast narration that I am SO excited for. It’s available on Audible Escape.

From the unparalleled imagination of New York Times best-selling author Kristen Ashley comes an enchanting new audio-first fantasy romance series that will sweep you away!

Once upon a time, in a parallel universe, there existed the continent of Triton. The land was filled with beauty, but it was also splintered by war. Out of the chaos grew a conspiracy to reawaken the Beast, a fearsome creature who wrought only tragedy and devastation. The only way to stop him was to fulfill an ancient prophecy: Triton’s four strongest warriors must wed its four most powerful witches, binding all nations together and finally bringing peace to the land.

This is the story of their unions: the quiet maiden Silence and the savage king Mars. The cold warrior Cassius and the fiery witch Elena. The steadfast soldier True and the banished beauty Farah. And the pirate king Aramus and the mysterious queen Ha-Lah. Their unions will not be easy, but each couple must succeed, for the fate of their world is at stake….

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid It’s been a while since I’ve sat down with a Taylor Jenkins Reid novel and this is one of her backlists that a friend of mine recommended.

In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure.

On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.

Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again. When Emma and Sam get engaged, it feels like Emma’s second chance at happiness.

That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and he’s been trying all these years to come home to her. With a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants, while trying to protect the ones she loves.

Who is her one true love? What does it mean to love truly?

Emma knows she has to listen to her heart. She’s just not sure what it’s saying.

Heartbreak Warfare by Heather M. Oregeron, Kate Stewart I picked this book up at the recommendation of many people who attended Shameless Book Con, and I’ve heard others talk about it as well. It’s supposed to be super emotional, so if I’m feeling like that kind of romance, I’ll be reaching for this one.

Briggs,

Remember when we parted ways in Germany? It was the day I broke your heart. What you didn’t know was that I was breaking mine too.

I thought they’d be enough–my husband and my son. That I’d get home and everything would go back to the way it was . . .

Before the war. Before the ambush. Before you.

But, no matter how hard I try, I can’t erase the trauma we shared. I can’t seem to forget the way my heart beat in time with yours.

The truth is I’m lost without you.

I thought the nightmare was over when they pulled us from that hole in the ground, but nothing could have prepared me for the war I’d face at home. I know it’s selfish of me to ask, but, please, I have to see you one last time. . .

All my love, Scottie

The Right Swipe (Modern Love #1) by Alisha Rai I’ve heard a lot of good things about this and I found it on Scribd!

Alisha Rai returns with the first book in her sizzling new Modern Love series, in which two rival dating app creators find themselves at odds in the boardroom but in sync in the bedroom.

Rhiannon Hunter may have revolutionized romance in the digital world, but in real life she only swipes right on her career—and the occasional hookup. The cynical dating app creator controls her love life with a few key rules:

– Nude pics are by invitation only

– If someone stands you up, block them with extreme prejudice

– Protect your heart

Only there aren’t any rules to govern her attraction to her newest match, former pro-football player Samson Lima. The sexy and seemingly sweet hunk woos her one magical night… and disappears.

Rhi thought she’d buried her hurt over Samson ghosting her, until he suddenly surfaces months later, still big, still beautiful—and in league with a business rival. He says he won’t fumble their second chance, but she’s wary. A temporary physical partnership is one thing, but a merger of hearts? Surely that’s too high a risk…

Passion of Park Ave by Lauren Layne Lauren wrote my all-time favorite Friends-to-Lovers romance: Blurred Lines and everyone has been raving about this series. It’s available on Scribd!

From the author of the New York Times bestselling Stiletto and Oxford series, the first in a sizzling new series following the unlikely friendship of three Upper East Side women as they struggle to achieve their dreams and find true love and happiness in the city that never sleeps.

For as long as she can remember, Bronx-born Naomi Powell has had one goal: to prove her worth among the Upper East Side elite—the same people for which her mom worked as a housekeeper. Now, as the strongminded, sassy CEO of one of the biggest jewelry empires in the country, Naomi finally has exactly what she wants—but it’s going to take more than just the right address to make Manhattan’s upper class stop treating her like an outsider.

The worst offender is her new neighbor, Oliver Cunningham—the grown son of the very family Naomi’s mother used to work for. Oliver used to torment Naomi when they were children, and as a ridiculously attractive adult, he’s tormenting her in entirely different ways. Now they find themselves engaged in a battle-of-wills that will either consume or destroy them…

Filled with charm and heart and plenty of sex and snark, this entertaining series will hook you from the very first page.

Love from A to Z by S. K. Ali Not gonna lie, I’m a little scared to read this one because there is Multiple Sclerosis rep in it that is supposed to be pretty heartbreaking, and I’m not sure if I can’t quite handle it, but we’ll see.

A marvel: something you find amazing. Even ordinary-amazing. Like potatoes—because they make French fries happen. Like the perfect fries Adam and his mom used to make together.

An oddity: whatever gives you pause. Like the fact that there are hateful people in the world. Like Zayneb’s teacher, who won’t stop reminding the class how “bad” Muslims are.

But Zayneb, the only Muslim in class, isn’t bad. She’s angry.

When she gets suspended for confronting her teacher, and he begins investigating her activist friends, Zayneb heads to her aunt’s house in Doha, Qatar, for an early start to spring break.

Fueled by the guilt of getting her friends in trouble, she resolves to try out a newer, “nicer” version of herself in a place where no one knows her.

Then her path crosses with Adam’s.

Since he got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in November, Adam’s stopped going to classes, intent, instead, on perfecting the making of things. Intent on keeping the memory of his mom alive for his little sister.

Adam’s also intent on keeping his diagnosis a secret from his grieving father.

Alone, Adam and Zayneb are playing roles for others, keeping their real thoughts locked away in their journals.

Until a marvel and an oddity occurs…

Marvel: Adam and Zayneb meeting.

Oddity: Adam and Zayneb meeting.

February TBR/Reading List: including #contemporaryathon picks! Happy Almost-February everyone! It's time for another one of my TBRs which is really just a 'suggested list of books I may or may not read,' because I'm such a moody reader.

#Reading List #TBR

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iameverything · 5 years ago

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A Conversation: Featurette

“Featurette are Toronto-based duo that was formed by singer Lexie Jay and drummer, Jon Fedorsen. Like their synth-heavy dream pop contemporaries Phantogram and Tove Lo, FEATURETTE are influenced by the emotionally charged, heavy hitting electro-pop sounds coming from Northern Europe and New Zealand.”

First off, you recently released your new music video 'White Rabbit' and its damn mesmerizing, from the colors, to the costume (the rabbit costume kind of looks similar to the rabbit that was in The Masked Singer) How has the reception been for the video so far? The reception has been spectacular! Literally the story behind this one was my friend Sharon and I were sitting on a couch and I asked her what could we do that would be one idea, easy to do, that would be super memorable and dark. After much spitballing we came up with grave digging - and the rest is history! People have seemed to really connect with our post apocalyptic/area 51universe we set up so I’m pretty stoked on that :) For a couple of dreamers with 4 hours to shoot, a minimal budget and a crew of 3, I’m honestly so proud of the video. It’s punchy and striking and hits all the high notes!

Are you guys subtly hinting at a Joey Fatone of NSYNC collaboration soon (He was the white rabbit in The Masked Singer)?!!! OMG I’ve never even seen that!! I just looked it up how crazy!! We’re not, unfortunately haha! It was a dream all our own that I think landed in a very different space! Spoiler alert, the masked rabbit was Jon haha

What was the writing process like for 'White Rabbit'? What inspired it? One of the things that occupies the most space in my brain is the state of our planet right now. I’ve written political and environmental warrior songs before, but this has been by far the most impactful. Of course we masked it with some striking alien visuals to cast a wider net in the video, but really the concept was just about setting the scene for digging a grave for humanity. The lyrics for this one were just like writing poetry for me, it really flowed and came on quite fast - the song itself came together quickly, but then the production was obviously an absolute undertaking. It’s very involved. But what’s neat with that is the further we went down the *cough* rabbit hole *cough* the more inspired we became and the further we pushed the vocal recording. Some of those choirs we built for the background just stack up for days - the outro for example, totally inspired by production because we wanted to create extreme contrast to the electronic heavy-hitting production. The result was pretty striking, it’s something we’re really happy with.

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The first time we met, it was an interview you did for JUNNNKTANK (RIP) 2 years ago, when you released the song '//Bang//'. It's been too long, how has it been going since then? RIP Indeed! So much has happened - it’s been fairly internal for us, we’ve been writing non-stop to finish up this album coming out in Jan, 2020!! To recap the year: We released Million Things and the cat-filled 90’s dance troop music vid to back that up in the spring, followed by some shows. Then came the single Don’t Know Me Without You followed by the GORGEOUS black and white music video, followed by a fall tour supporting that. Then came White Rabbit and the aforementioned music video for that which we paired with the sold out Mother Mother show at the end of our fall tour. What a blast!! Now we’re staring down the barrel of the release and I’m stoked!!!

2016 was the last time you guys released your debut album 'Crave' and I must say, as like any other fan, we are 'craving' more albums. When should we expect the next? How is that writing process going? Dude. It’s here - we are like WEEKS AWAY!!! January 2020, PREPARE YOURSELF!! Spoilers in my insta story RUN, DON’T WALK!! hahaha More teasers to come in the coming weeks!!

'//Bang//' being your last video you put out 2 years ago before 'Million Things', what was that like to go back into 'lets make a video' mindset after so long? And what was happening within the middle of that time fame between the two videos? I mean it was a *year and a half* before Million Things if you want to get technical (LOL) but it was less ‘let’s make a video’ and more… we’re back. In the middle we were writing the album we’ve been teasing all year - three singles this year, and we’ll give you one more along with the album in January - we’ve climbed a serious mountain! I’m also (pray for me) aiming to make another music video for January. Fun fact, I did the production design and wardrobe/makeup for all videos we put out in 2019 - really love making them so I hope you’ve enjoyed watching them!!

Considering we all change as humans over a course of two years, so four years being a bigger change, and you guys being artists, so having to adjust at a quicker rate to new music trends or ideas, how much of a change from style and writing can fans expect for the next album? The album coming is very like the singles we put out this year. We tried to show as much breadth as possible - Million Things being the ‘indie pop’ side, with lots of punch, upbeat, fun etc. and then we hit the ‘deep album track’ end of thing with DKMWY. That one was darker, moodier, heavily electronic but still in your face. More recently we showed White Rabbit which was like our ‘art track’ for the album. You can expect more in each category of those! We’ve got 9 songs, and we honestly cover so much ground, while trying to maintain our sound. I think the sonic place we’ve landed is very much still FEATURETTE, but louder. More confident, more to say, we found our voice. You know?

Whats the secret to keeping content fresh and not falling within the loop of same old or losing inspiration? Omg I’m not even worried about that at all - Jon and I write all the time. We have maybe 50 songs we’ve written that are either waiting in the wings, or just something we had to get out after a crazy session at 3am haha! I think when you write all the time you can find what you start to gravitate too, and then working to develop those ideas you can start to find things that work. And those even inspire new songs! We don’t see this as our job, so we never get tired of it, which helps keep it fresh for sure.

Speaking of new, you guys released another music video titled 'Dont Know Me Without You' and you mentioned in another interview it was darker than your last single 'Million Things', is there certain head space you guys have to be in to write those kind of songs perhaps seclusion? How has the reception been from Fans and even music execs to that single in particular with its dark undertone? It’s honestly the opposite! I have to be in the headspace to write Million Things because I’m *always* in the dark headspace haha! It’s not a bad thing I just naturally gravitate towards darker music and minor songs. I think you still need the upbeat side, but I think if you listen closely to the lyrics, you’ll find they are still super dark. The track might be upbeat and major, but the lyrics are some of the saddest I write to balance that out. We’re a dark electro-pop band, we like it moody and creepy. What’s super cool is now there are the Billie Eilish’s of the world blowing up, which opens up a window for all us ‘creatures of the night’ to crawl through!

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You recently were on tour and ended your tour in Kitchener with Mother Mother. How was that to open for such a cool band? How did your tour go overall? Tour was great - absolutely fantastic vibes every night, we can’t wait to get back out there next year. Playing to large audiences though like the Mother Mother show - we T H R I V E on that. The more energy in the room the harder we’ll give it back. Doesn’t matter if it’s to 8 people or 800! We actually were able to write with Ryan from Mother Mother in the summer, so it was so great to follow up with a show with them! Amazing energy.

Whats the next tour you guys have planned? We’re cooking something up for 2020 - stay tuned!!

It's really cool and inspiring to see how far you have come from, singles like '//Broken//' to 'White Rabbit', as someone who has seen Featurette flourish from more than just a 'feature' to open up for a bigger act, to the act itself and the main event on a bigger stage, I'd like to think 2020, is the year bands like Mother Mother open up for you. How much growth have you guys been through since coming together as Featurette and have you guys ever had to overcome any doubt in the past of continuing as a band? I think any person who runs their own business or project of any kind will have doubts along the way. It’s human to doubt ourselves, but for me, it’s what I take from those moments and what I can do with those feelings that spurs me forward. How can I turn that moment into a song, because it’s so relatable right? Artists especially - it’s like the wild west! When you’re independent, you have no idea what we’re doing, or if you're doing it right or wrong. Every ’next level’ you get to you just find out how many more there are to go. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and honestly I think we’ve found our stride. When we put out Crave we were literal babies. Like the first thing we ever did was come out with an album we made all by ourselves, completely independently. That’s actually mind-blowing to me now! We could have shopped that around, built a team, but we were like: Here we are! And I love that about us. Now we’ve gone away, thought about what we want to put out in this world, and made something beautiful that I couldn’t be more proud of. I have no idea where it will take us, but I hope to have you pose the same question in a year or two and be able to give you the most insane answer about whatever ’next level’ we’re on by then. In short, we’re in it to win it, whatever that looks like for us.

Lastly, lets play rapid fire with five random questions give the answer that comes to mind first If you were not called Featurette what else would you want to be called? Futurette - because that’s what everyone thinks our band name is anyway :p… I should buy that domain… Favorite current song that isn't your own? Petit Biscuit - Wide Awake Worst question you dislike being asked? Are you guys a couple? Mind yo own beezwaxxx ! Little secret fact about you guys not many know? Alternate passions to music: Lex - Crazy Plant Lady Jon: Hockey-aholic Whats next? ALBUM TIME GUYS - JANUARY BAYBEEEE!

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wildstormoralhistory · 7 years ago

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Director’s Cut Material #9- Kurt Busiek

Kurt Busiek's acclaimed series Astro City- an anthology series that looks at the varied population of the super powered city was a long standing fixture of WildStorm's publishing history. After its initial series was published by Image Comics, it moved to Jim Lee's boutique imprint, Homage Comics. In addition to Astro City, Busiek also released many other very interesting titles through WildStorm like the Cliffhanger World War I fantasy title Arrowsmith with artist Carlos Pacheco and the ambitious crossover of the early Image Comics creations, Shattered Image which turned out to be quite the challenge.

Kurt Busiek (Writer): Originally, my thought was we were going to do Astro City on what I called, “The Sandman Plan” where Sandman early on, it was originally drawn by Sam Kieth and Sam dropped out after like six issues or so. And then they had Mike Dringenberg and they had different artists for different arcs. I thought, “That seems like a good way to do it.” I want to tell stories of all these different characters so we can get a guy who can draw great super team action for one story or we can get a guy who can do movie noir detective stuff for another story and I guy who can do a great romance story for another story and we’ll bring in guys as we need them. What I didn’t realize is the reason that was “The Sandman Plan” was they started with Sam Kieth and then Sam left. They never intended to do it this way. It’s just how it worked out. They went on with Mike and then Mike left. They brought in other guys as needed but it was never really the intent. It’s an editorial headache to do a book like that because you need to line people up months in advance so that they’re waiting for a script while the script was being written, blah, blah, blah. But that was my thought. I went to World Con, a Science Fiction convention in San Francisco that year. I wound up on a panel. We were talking about the comics and a guy in the audience was asking me questions. I thought, “Man, these are really specific questions. I like this guy.” After the panel, I was introduced to Brent Anderson and I thought, “Man, I’m happy to meet him.” He’s a terrific artist and since I’m planning on doing this Astro City thing, I asked him if he’d be interested in doing one of the initial six stories. He said, “Sure, I’d be happy to do it.” I went home and thought about it and realized that after the first six issues, our intent was issues seven to twelve was going to be the Confessor story that ultimately was issues four through nine of the second series. That was a moody, dark, horror, vigilante-type story and maybe Brent would be even better at that. So I called him and asked if he’d be up to do this six-parter. He said sure. At that time, we were negotiating with a company and they were interested in doing Astro City but they loved the idea of doing the series with rotating artists. Their thought was, “We’ll do a special or mini-series every time we can get a hot artist, we’ll do another Astro City project.” I said, “Whoa. Now, you’re making the series all about the artist. We don’t even publish it unless we get a hot guy?” I wanted to do the series ongoing and we’ll find the right guys, whether they’re hot or not. I didn’t make that deal and I thought, “You know, maybe I need a regular artist.” You know, this Brent Anderson guy, he can draw anything. He can draw super teams like Neal Adams and he can draw spooky stuff and he can draw mysteries and he can draw Kazaar-jungle action. There’s nothing that’s going to happen in the series that he can’t draw well. I called him up and asked if he’d be interested in doing the book regularly. He said, “Yes, sure.” He eased in to the series. First, doing an issue, then doing an arc and then, doing the whole thing. I kept asking him to do more. He decided he’ll do the book, I forgot whether he promised me five years or ten years. We’re coming up on 20 and he hasn’t quit on me yet so things look good on that front.

Re: The Wizard's Tale

The Wizard’s Tale was a project I did at Eclipse in the early ‘80s. It was going to be a three-issue, square-bound mini-series that we were doing because Eclipse had [done] The Hobbit adaptation and they wanted to do a Lord of the Rings adaptation. While they were negotiating for the rights to The Lord of the Rings, they needed to keep the artist Dave Wenzel busy. I was asked to maybe step in and do a project with Dave while they were working out these rights. Dave had these characters and I had a story idea. They kind of meshed together and we were able to take this one thing that he wanted to do for years and this other thing that I wanted to do for years and braid it together into the same story. We did that and three weeks before the first issue was supposed to come out, Eclipse went bankrupt. The book never came out through Eclipse. When I brought Astro City over to WildStorm, I said, “I had this other project too, The Wizard’s Tale.” At the time, the problem was that we had the rights back to the material but we didn’t have the art back, because the last two issues worth of art had been sent to Hong Kong for color separation. This was way back in the primitive days, this was color separation where you actually would ship full painted art to a place in Hong Kong and they’d do the scanning and the separation. Because Eclipse went bankrupt, the color separator in Hong Kong didn’t get paid for everything. They wanted their money so they didn’t want to return the art they had. We had kind of a nightmare going, “We can’t pay you for color separation because we’re not the publisher. You have to deal with the bankruptcy courts for that. But Eclipse doesn’t own this art, Dave Wenzel owns this art and you need to give it back to him.” Finally, I think what we did was this was going to be a co-publication between Eclipse and Harper-Collins and Eclipse didn’t exist anymore but Harper-Collins did. Dave visited Harper-Collins in New York and I was at a convention in London. I visited Harper-Collins in London which is where the editor who’s going to be working on the line was anyway. Eventually, we got Harper-Collins to tell the color separator, “Give them back their art.” We got the art back and I just told Jim and Scott Dunbier and John Nee, “I had this other project,” and I sent them some of the art and they said, “Yes, we want to publish that.” It took awhile because there were color separation issues but not the same ones. But eventually, we published that as a graphic novel though WildStorm. I think Eclipse had gotten the first issue lettered by somebody but the lettering had long been lost. We started over again and I rewrote the script a little. Instead of doing it as a three-issue mini-series, we did it as a graphic novel. It went through a hardcover printing and two soft cover printings at WildStorm before they figured that it had sold as much as it was going to and eventually, we got the rights to it back. That currently is in print from IDW with Scott Dunbier again.

Re: Arrowsmith

Carlos and I did Avengers Forever together. Carlos had specifically requested, when he was renewing his Marvel contract, “I want to do an Avengers project and I want Kurt Busiek to write it,” which was very flattering to me because Carlos was a fantastic artist. We had a very good time working together and around the time we were finishing Avengers Forever, I was involved with Mark Waid, Karl Kesel and other people in starting up Gorilla Comics, which ultimately published through Image. I talked to Carlos about being one of the Gorilla partners and we talked through ideas for what we could do for a book for Gorilla. We came up with Arrowsmith. My thinking had been that Carlos did such a good job, he gave the future technology of Kang the Conqueror [to] look so specific, building a culturally-cohesive world and giving him another world to design where it could be full of interesting weaponry and vehicle design, it would be a great way to make use of his talent. Doing this alternate world, World War I with fantasy grew out of that. In the end, Carlos wasn’t able to make the jump to Gorilla because we were all essentially working without the financial security net of Marvel or DC and Carlos needed that. We still wanted to do Arrowsmith [and] a few years later, Carlos was invited to do a book for Cliffhanger which was one of the other WildStorm imprints. Carlos said, “Oh, I could do this Arrowsmith that Kurt and I talked about for Gorilla.” He called me up and said, “Do you want to do this?” I said, “You betcha.” We made the deal with Cliffhanger and did a six-issue Arrowsmith series and that, we did directly with Scott [Dunbier]. It’s funny, I sometimes poke fun at Scott for it saying, “As far as I can tell, he never even read the plot.” He’ll glare at me and say, “Of course I read the plot. There’s nothing wrong with them.” He’d bug me about schedules and he talked to Carlos when things are coming in and things like that. I’d write up a plot and I send it to Scott and he’d send it to Carlos. I wouldn’t hear back from him. Carlos would draw the pages and I’d write the dialogue for pages and send it in. I wouldn’t hear back from Scott. The point at which I’d hear back from Scott was when we were going over final proofs, proofreading the lettering and making sure that the colors were right and text was right and things like that. Scott comes out of an original art background. He was an original art dealer. I think that he’s extremely focused on, “I want this book to print well and I want it to look great and I want to show off the beautiful art.” But in terms of what the story was, I don’t know. As far as I could tell, I was sending him the plot and he was sending them to Carlos like it didn’t matter. Now, he tells me, of course he read it and it was fine but I didn’t get any edits from him. I have no evidence that he read it. He swears to me that he has. I will take him at his word because he’s a fine man [laughs].

Re: Shattered Image

It was a nightmare. I honestly don’t remember a lot of the details so if somebody else says, “Kurt’s wrong about that,” take them at their word. My memory of it is Image wanted to do this crossover and I think the starting point for it was Jim Valentino. Jim wanted to do something that crossed everybody over and involved everybody. Or else, Image wanted to do it and Jim was tasked to make it happen. Jim offered it to me because I’d been writing Shadowhawk for him and I was the guy who had written more stuff. There were all different guys who’d written for Image but they generally wrote for one studio or another. I’d written at least something for most of them. Jim thought I’d be a good choice because I worked with him and I’d been talking about a project with Eric [Stephensen], even though it had never come up, and I’d worked for Marc [Silvestri] and I’d worked for Jim Lee and I’d worked for Rob. At the time I was busy, I didn’t have much time so I think that’s why we brought in Barbara Kesel as co-writer. I knew Barbara. Barbara lived locally [and] was looking for writing work and I thought, “This is something we can do together easily and have fun with it.” We co-plotted everything together and I did the first half of dialogue on issues one and three and she did two and four or the other way around. Then, we worked at each other’s stuff. But what I mostly remember is that we were doing this big crossover and during the middle of it, [Marc Silvestri's studio] Top Cow quit Image and we had to write all the Top Cow characters out. And then Extreme, Rob Liefeld’s group, they quit Image or got kicked out of Image so we had to write all those characters out. And then, Top Cow came back because part of the thing that Top Cow was angry about was a dispute with Rob and so when Rob got kicked out of Image, that solved the problem and Marc was willing to come back. As a result, I think in issue three, all the Top Cow characters disappear from the world. We’d gotten an okay that we could still publish issue three as long as we wrote them out. In issue four, we had to get rid of all the Youngblood characters. And then we got the word that the Top Cow characters were coming back. I may be remembering this wrong, but I think that on the last page of the last issue, there’s a long shot of planet Earth from space and a word balloon was coming from the planet saying, “We’re back.” Literally, that’s how we had the Top Cow characters reappear because we were messing around the timelines being broken and shattered and things like that. I’m sure that the story reads like a mess because the original place we were going with it was so derailed by partners leaving Image and coming back in and so forth so we were just hanging on by our fingernails going, “Okay, we've got to do this and we've got three pages left. There are three pages that haven’t been penciled so we’ve got that much room to make all the Extreme characters go away and all the Top Cow characters come back.” We can re-dialogue the earlier stuff but we can’t have it redrawn because there’s not time [laughs]. That’s how that happened.

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bartsugsy · 8 years ago

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The Robron Break-Ups : A Definitive Guide (Part Four/A Large Number)

Part One / Previous Part / All / AO3

And so we return again to what is ostensibly a Break Up Counter but is actually at this point just a general recap of Aaron and Robert’s entire storyline, because I literally have no self-control.

Fair warning to you - with this post we reach The Donny Saga and The Time of Chrobert and the first Proper Break Up, which is personally one of my least favourite eras as far as Aaron and Robert are concerned and I spend most of it wanting to silently and furiously throw sharp objects at my tv screen. I MAY NOT BE AS SUBTLE ABOUT MY DISLIKE AS I COULD BE, TO BE HONEST.

But still, this has been therapeutic, and has reminded me that we’ve lived through many a Dark Age before.

Anyway, everyone loves a good bit of low-key saltiness don’t they? And also, in amongst all the… Lachlan stuff… there’s still some really wonderful moments, because of course there are. It’s Aaron and Robert.

I love you all. Thank you for your kind comments and likes/kudos/general loveliness. Enjoy.

Part Four: The Real Deal

16. 15th April 2015

So we pick up with things happening with Lachlan that I’m not even going to pretend to care about. Robert is distracted, Aaron is back from the hospital and Paddy and Chas are both Very Unsatisfied by this whole goddamn bitch of a situation. Anyway - the important thing is, in among all this stuff, Lachlan’s dad Donny comes back, which is only enjoyable if you enjoy seeing Robert irrationally hate people out of sheer jealousy (which I do, so here I am).

In the midst of all this, Aaron and Robert are not actually talking, according to Aaron, who is staring sadly at his phone in wait.

(At the same time as this is happening, Vic and Adam agree to go on a double date with Finn and the bloke he’s seeing and I scream a thousand screams of actual agony because when will they go on a double date with Aaron and Robert what the ACTUAL HELL)

(…moving on)

Anyway, Robert rocks up at the Woolpack to visit Aaron, who is still annoyed that Robert has been ignoring his messages and expresses this. Robert explains that Donny has turned up, Aaron asks if Robert’s jealous and Robert pulls this great ~offended~ face, as if that’s not exactly what’s happening. Aaron teases Rob a little bit to try and lighten the mood but Robert still kind of looks grumpy, so Aaron gets the hump and tells Robert to call him when he’s ready to talk. As he leaves, Robert looks all sad and guilty. It’s so hard maintaining two romantic relationships at once, isn’t it Robert? Poor angel.

How long did it last? Less than a day. Probably minutes, honestly. Robert had probably text Aaron with a wink face and a flirty joke before he even got out of the door.

But on screen, the very next day we see them at the scrapyard, literally just standing around and making out next to a rusty old van. Robert checks his watch to keep an eye on the time (lest Chrissie get suspicious) and Aaron comments that Robert has yet to have a go at him today - an odd occurrence given how moody Robert has obviously been lately. Robert laughs and explains that it’s Donny (TO WHICH AARON REPLIES “IT’S AARON, ACTUALLY”. AARON DINGLE KING OF HUMOUR). Robert goes on to talk about his annoyance at Donny’s general presence, because he’s clearly jealous and worried that he’s going to start making moves on Chrissie. Aaron, understandably, is about as sympathetic as an imminently dying person might be towards someone who sneezed once 5 hours ago and points out the absurd irony that Robert is worried about Chrissie cheating.

Robert doesn’t quite dignify that observation with a response, but simply apologises because he’s aware that him moaning about his marriage to his lover is probably not the smoothest of moves. He dials the pretty charm up to 560 and tells Aaron that they should meet tonight and go on a big romantic date with food and drinks and that Aaron should wear a suit (OK HE SAYS “PUT SOMETHING DECENT ON” BUT THIS OBVIOUSLY MEANS SUIT IT’S ROCK SOLID CANON THAT ROBERT LITERALLY FALLS OVER HIMSELF AT THE SIGHT OF AARON IN A SUIT SO) and that he might even be able to wrangle them an entire night together. He leaves and Aaron watches him go, biting back the smallest little smile because he’s all excited. Well. That will disappear soon.

Who came crawling back first? I don’t know they literally went from Aaron walking out to the two of them snogging. It was obviously Robert though.

How little did they mean it? 0/5 I mean why even ask at this point

17. 16th April 2015 - 17th April 2015

So, Aaron goes home after work and gets ready for his date with Robert. He’s not wearing a suit and I’m upset about it. Probably for the best though, because Robert has literally gone home and immediately dragged Chrissie into bed because he is the dictionary definition of “insatiable”, with the intent of spending the night with her. Has he already forgotten what he just said to Aaron? Stop double booking your dates Robert, you literal butthole.

Robert sort of neglects to mention his self-inflicted change of plans to Aaron, who ends up waiting around in the Woolie and leaving an angry voicemail with Robert, who obviously still hasn’t turned up. Luckily, Chas comes along to provide an excellent distraction, when she reveals that James has cheated on her. Cain barges in shortly afterwards and both he and Aaron look ready to punch all the things.

Aaron walks out (or hobbles - he’s still on crutches following his accident) and gets almost accidentally pushed to the floor by Paddy. Paddy notices the Face of Thunder™ Aaron is wearing and asks what’s wrong. Aaron fills him in about James and just sort of looks fed up with life. To rub salt into an already gaping wound, Robert rocks up with Chrissie, heading towards the pub, for the date night that he and Aaron were supposed to have, because apparently it’s ASSHOLE WEEK AND ROBERT IS THE NUMBER ONE PARTICIPANT DO YOU MIND ROBERT YOU’RE MAKING YOUR BOYFRIEND SAD YOU FLIPPING BAGEL BITE OH MY GOD

It’s at this point that I’m remembering why I never rewatch this particular era in their storyline.

Anyway, Aaron limps off, even angrier still, and snaps at a following Paddy to leave him be. Back at the pub, Aaron bumps into James, who is going through the ‘collecting his stuff’ stage of the break up. James tries to apologise and Aaron calls him a little muppet, growls a bit and refuses to let him leave.

James snaps and says that Aaron gets a free pass with Chas for every mistake he makes, which he understands because Aaron is her son, but - to quote James - “boy, do you need it”. Well, James isn’t wrong. In perfect soap timing, Robert chooses this moment to walk into the pub with Chrissie, still on the date he was supposed to take Aaron on. Aaron and James’ fight escalates, Aaron follows him out into the pub and catches sight of Robert and Chrissie, James calls him a coward who can’t face up to his actions and Aaron just snaps, grabs an ENTIRE FUCKING WINE BOTTLE and bottles James over the head.

In front of a lot of witnesses.

James gets back up and they start arguing again, but Cain keeps them separate and forces James to leave. Robert gets up with the intent of “doing something” to help, having completely forgotten about Chrissie’s presence in the face of Aaron doing something stupid, but Chrissie immediately forces him to sit back down. Chas comes out, Pete rocks up, it’s a whole thing, there’s a lot of arguing and Aaron just really looks like he wants a fight. You’re on crutches son, be good to yourself.

Anyway, other stuff happens. Donny gets beaten up and Aaron gets questioned by the police because he literally assaulted James in front of like 50 witnesses. Luckily, James gives Aaron an alibi for the police and he’s free to go.

How long did it last? Bloody forever

Who came crawling back first? Robert. Obviously. Robert drives up to the village to talk to Aaron and apologises for standing him up the night before. It’s the worst apology I’ve ever heard and Robert seems mostly perplexed that Aaron doesn’t want to both forgive him and hear about his dramas with Donny trying to steal Chrissie or whatever.

A few days later, Robert goes to find Aaron at the scrapyard and apologise. This scene mostly exists for Aaron to tell Robert that he’s seen Donny for the first time and overheard a dodgy call, which sends Robert back to Home Farm to #expose Donny to Chrissie once and for all.

More stuff happens with Donny. Ross and Chrissie flirt and I cry over their absurdly good sexual chemistry. Other stuff happens with Donny and he tries to steal Lachlan from the village or whatever. Sadly, he fails. Chrissie takes this as a cue to have Donny brutally murdered or some shit and Robert finds this to be the best turn on in the world and god help me I literally love everything about them despite myself. They’re like the Ultimate Evil Scheming Power Couple of Emmerdale, except Robert is utterly in love with someone else and Chrissie deserves better.

Also at some point Bob makes Robert a cake and sings him Happy Birthday. I understand this has nothing to do with anything, but it felt important to point out.

How little did they mean it? I mean, as much as it didn’t even sound like a break up when it happened, a damn lot, a whole flipping 5/5.

The show has, at this point, basically decided that Home Farm week never happened and it’s Chrobert’s time to shine. At one point Robert goes to the pub while Aaron is there sitting pretty in the background and has a secret meeting with ROSS BARTON. They don’t even make eyes at each other, this era sucks.

Speaking of, Ross gleefully spills to Chrissie that Robert set up the Home Farm raid. She confronts Robert, he thinks she’s found out about Aaron, but nope. Just the original shit he pulled. She yells and then he yells and then Robert goes off to confront Ross and Aaron appears and Robert doesn’t even give him a flirty look and I just want this era to end.

Robert ends up with Diane, who insists that he stay with her in the pub. Aaron walks in to find Robert looking pathetic and STILL NOT TRYING TO BANG HIM

AND THEY ARGUE AS IF THEY NEVER WERE EVEN IN LOVE BECAUSE ROBERT IS ANGRY ABOUT LOSING CHRISSIE AND AARON IS ANGRY AT ROBERT FOR BEING A DICK AND THEN AARON THREATENS TO TELL CHRISSIE EVERYTHING AND ROBERT SAYS “YOU’RE NOTHING TO ME” AND EVERYTHING HURTS ME IT’S NOT EVEN GOOD ANGST™

They’re literally sleeping under the same roof and not talking OR banging.

It’s absurd and it’s offensive.

At the prospect of having to actually live with Robert, Aaron asks Paddy to borrow some money so that he can leave the village for a bit and get some thoroughly undramatic and much needed peace. He changes his mind though, and has a great chat with Chas about Robert and Carl and Aaron is absolutely resolute that he’s finished with Robert, regardless of whether he comes crawling back for more.

Later on, Robert has literally changed his tune entirely and tries to get back into Aaron’s good books. Aaron gives him a shove, tells him they’re done. Robert apologises, says he shouldn’t have pushed Aaron away, but Aaron stays true to his word and doesn’t give in.

Oh man, yeah. This is a Break Up.

Luckily, knowing what we know about these two, it may be Over For Now, but it is in no way Over For Good.

Honourable Mention #10: 11th May 2015 - 14th May 2015

Fast forward a bit. Robert and Aaron are still living under the same roof and still haven’t banged again, which is entirely unrealistic, but hey - good for Aaron. I guess. Speaking of Aaron, he literally grabs a paper and sticks it down in front of Robert, telling him to find his own place and move on. Robert, who is sitting at the bar looking thoroughly depressed, uses his Soft Aaron Voice and asks if they can go and talk somewhere. Aaron tells him to not be a prat and walks away.

CAN I JUST POINT OUT HOW GOOD ALL OF THIS COULD HAVE BEEN IF THE SHOW WANTED TO ADMIT THAT EITHER OF THEM EVER HAD FEELINGS FOR EACH OTHER BEYOND “NICE DICK” BECAUSE IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO. GOOD. INSTEAD, THEY DON’T AND I’M MOSTLY JUST MAD.

ON PAPER IT SOUNDS LIKE THERE SHOULD BE ALL THIS SEXUAL TENSION AND ANGST AND IT SHOULD BE BEAUTIFUL. IT’S NOT. DON’T WATCH IT TO TRY AND PROVE ME WRONG. ALL YOU’LL END UP WITH IS DISAPPOINTMENT.

The next day, Robert is meeting with Rakesh, because despite Robert’s best efforts, Chrissie still wants to divorce him. She’s still upset about that whole Home Farm break in thing. Bummer. Aaron walks in on the meeting and refuses to leave, gloats, gets a good couple of digs in… generally looks like he’s having a very satisfying time winding Robert up. Robert reacts to this all by getting steaming drunk. Aaron finds him and takes him back to the Woolpack, gets him a coffee and takes care of him, because Aaron is a good person and also still completely in love with Robert.

Robert apologises sincerely, talks about how much being alone terrifies him and tries to kiss Aaron. Aaron pushes Robert away and walks out. Chas sees the kiss and freaks out once more that Aaron and Robert are going to end up together. I’m telling you - give Chas a detective show or a psychic certification because she’s NEVER WRONG ABOUT THIS STUFF.

Chas and Paddy confront Aaron once more and he decides to sort out the living-with-Robert situation once and for all - and goes to pay a visit to Chrissie.

Blinding red herring - here we are, getting ready to see Aaron reveal the affair, but instead Aaron goes to Chrissie and basically convinces her to give Robert another chance and my heart shatters to little pieces because oh my god, Aaron just wants to be away from Robert, knows that if Robert stays they’ll end up getting back together and it’s just sad ok it’s sad and I’m sad.

The scene is amazing though. Aaron really sells it and it’s fascinating. He goes back to the Woolie to find a now sober and hungover Robert, who is absolutely not in the mood for Aaron to have it out with him again about moving out. Aaron explains what he’s done to Robert. Chrissie appears just in time to overhear their conversation. It all starts off great, then Robert starts bitching and Aaron admits that he flat out lied to Chrissie and ultimately, Chrissie locks Robert in a barn and pretends to set it on fire.

Seems reasonable.

Ah yeah and lest we forget - that’s exactly the way his mother died.

God they’re terrible to each other.

Anyway - a fascinating little sidenote to this particular honourable mention: Robert, in another desperate attempt to get Chrissie back, tells her that he knows he does stupid things, hurts the people he loves, manipulates, etc. and that he’ll change. She almost believes him, until he accidentally drops the massive cheque she gave him as a settlement and frantically reaches down to grab it, proof that more than anything, Robert cares about her money. There are so many similarities between this and the conversation Robert will have with Aaron about how he wants to change and be better for Aaron - except that with Aaron he honestly, genuinely means it.

He’s nowhere near there yet though. He does, however, go back to the Woolpack to find Aaron and they have a conversation - one of the first probably almost civil conversations since they split up.

Robert asks Aaron to run away with him. They’ll take the cheque Chrissie gave him and make a fresh start somewhere else, together. Aaron says that if Robert had been asking this a few weeks ago, Aaron would already be out of the door with his bags packed and ready to go. Now though - now he’s lost his trust in Robert and more than that, knows that wherever they go, even with Robert not being with Chrissie, they still won’t be able to be openly in a relationship because Robert still isn’t ready to come out.

Because, and this is important, Robert has spent all this time not with Chrissie, with Chrissie seemingly firmly out of the picture, and he and Aaron still haven’t become a proper couple - which is something I think Aaron had really put his hopes on, deep down - that the person getting between them was Chrissie, more than Robert himself.

Aaron asks Robert to go out into the bar and tell everyone, to “say it proud” and of course, Robert isn’t in the right place to do it. Aaron says that all he wants is for Robert to not be in his face 24/7 and tells him to “do one” (ah boy, I’ve missed that phrase) and storms off.

Honourable Mention #11: May 2015 - June 2015

FAST FORWARD SOME MORE. Robert and Chrissie get back together because Robert and Lachlan are like best buddies at this point and Lachlan helps out. It’s adorable in the sense that Ryan and Louise have lovely chemistry, but you know, whatever.

Robert breaks the news to Aaron and is all “no hard feelings” which Aaron quite rightly laughs off because What. The. Hell. Ah Robert, you dingbat. You can try to pretend like what you had with Aaron meant nothing but we all know the truth son. WE KNOW THE TRUTH.

He’s so good at lying to himself, isn’t he?

Aaron gets distracted by more Adam and Victoria drama, which is great. Anyway, on the day Victoria and Adam are supposed to move in together, Vic finds out that Adam had a one night stand with Vanessa and may have knocked her up. Aaron is a supportive friend and Robert appears to have the sweetest conversation with Victoria and be a supportive brother.

I say sweetest, but the whole thing is literally him suggesting she get her revenge.Whatever, it’s still sweet. Robert decides the best way to do this is to use some of his dodgy contacts to try and get Adam arrested because of course that’s how Robert responds to things.

Anyway, this is all to set the scene for Robert’s sudden and visceral hatred of Adam Barton. Vic and Adam reunite and decide to run off together with the intent of getting married. Robert… does not take this well.

So. Short and sweet (…in a way). I’m ending this here so that I can get it out of my drafts and move on to the next post, because this entire thing was written about two months ago and has been sitting untouched ever since. Tragic. So, onwards to the next part - which, coincidentally, is my all-time favourite era and also, let’s be honest, possibly the worst robron break-up to exist in this day and age so far.

(AND FOREVER MORE I DO NOT WANT LODGE PART TWO DO U HEAR ME UNIVERSE? NO. ONCE WAS PLENTY.)

That’s right kiddies. It’s The Lodge.

#the robron rejection compendium #robron #ed

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