#Jack gets handsy when he's angry and stressed

[megsblackfirewrites]

Our Bond is Stronger Than Death: Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Jack’s fists rained furious blows into the punching bag. It had been specially reinforced just for him so that he didn’t bust the thing open after a few punches. His enhanced strength made regular workout equipment break before he was even giving it half of his potential. He grit his teeth, glaring at the punching bag as he tried to work his fury out.

There wasn’t a lot he could do for his husband and it infuriated him. He couldn’t force Angela to help him; she was positive that there was nothing more to be done. She would have let him die if it suited her. It wasn’t fair; Gabriel had given his life for everyone in the organization. He shouldn’t have had to go to someone like Moira in order to save someone like his husband.

“Jack,” Jesse called as he walked into the training room. “Hey, how long’ve you been in here?”

Jack grabbed the punching bag to keep it from slamming into his face and grit his teeth. “Does it matter?” he demanded. “I’m just staying in shape.”

“Jack,” Jesse’s voice was cautious as he walked over and rested a hand on Jack’s arm. “Come on, you need to stop before you hurt yourself.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jack snapped.

“What, you think you beatin’ the shit out of somethin’ is gunna help Gabe?” Jesse demanded. “Whoa!”

Jack whipped around and grabbed Jesse by the front of his shirt. He hoisted the slimmer man off of his feet and quietly reveled in the fear in Jesse’s eyes. Finally, something that would react to his fury. A punching bag couldn’t give him a reaction; Jesse could.

“Do not think to tell me how to deal with my husband’s current state,” Jack growled. “You don’t know anything, Jesse.”

Jesse stared before he swallowed and lifted his chin. “That don’t mean you get to treat me like shit,” he hissed. “Yer outta line, Strike Commander. Gabe wouldn’t approve of that.”

Jack’s hands tightened in Jesse’s shirt before he set him down. He took a deep breath and looked away, pushing his fingers up into his graying hair. He was so out of line that he didn’t know what to do with himself anymore.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I….”

“I get it,” Jesse said shakily. “I…I don’t have a bondmate. Probably never will. I can’t understand what yer goin’ through, Jack. But…I’m here for you. No matter what.”

Jack shook his head and rubbed his palm into his eye. “Jesse, you don’t want a bondmate,” he said softly. “It sounds romantic, but it’s nothing like you could imagine. It’s pain and misery and happiness and joy and…and everything. Your thoughts aren’t your own anymore. Your emotions aren’t your own anymore. They’re shared. They’re yours, both of yours. And there is no moment where you aren’t aware of them.”

“So…everything that Gabe’s feelin’ right now…?” Jesse swallowed.

“I’m feeling it too,” Jack said before he turned his attention back to the punching bag. “And the only way to alleviate a pain that isn’t yours is to make a different one.”

Jesse’s hand settled on his arm before he could start throwing punches again. He glanced at the younger man and Jesse smiled sadly up at him.

“Hey, come get lunch with me,” he said softly. “Genji’s finally able to taste sauce and he can’t wait to drink it straight out of the bottle.”

“That kid is going to burn his stomach,” Jack managed a sad smile before he followed Jesse out of the training range. “He needs a keeper. A fulltime babysitter that can parkour just as good as Genji. That should keep the brat out of trouble.”

Jesse laughed as he kept a hand on Jack’s arm with his right hand, the left one still only covered with a skeletal frame of a prosthetic. Jack reached out to touch the prosthetic and nodded his head. It would do for now. It would all do for now.

“Pain?” Moira asked as she set another sticky pad onto his chest.

“Six,” Gabriel grit his teeth. “Fucking six.”

“That from the serum or just bed pains?” Moira asked as she hooked a wire to the pad and made sure it was transmitting.

“One for the bed pains,” Gabriel said. “Five for the rest.”

“I’m still amazed that you can differentiate between the pain,” she shook her head as she lifted a datapad and tapped on it. “Okay, heartrate is normal. Deep breath…and lung capacity is top tier. Fill up your diaphragm. Yes, just like that. A little under preforming, but it is right beneath where the muscle is growing, so that’s normal.”

“Yay,” Gabriel grimaced. “So…?”

“Well, I’ll have to administer another dosage,” she said. “Your cells are regenerating a little faster than I anticipated, but they are still perfectly healthy. No signs of deterioration.”

“Good,” Gabriel murmured as he looked at the ceiling. “I’m so sick of this bed.”

“Understandable,” she chuckled as she checked his bed pans.

He was a little surprised by how dedicated Moira was to her job. Most doctors did not like having anything to do with the dirty part of caring for a patient, but Moira didn’t seem to mind dealing with his excrements. He knew she was using it to gather further information for her serum, but he didn’t care. Someone was helping him not smell like piss and shit and he appreciated it.

Angela stepped into the room with one of her nurses in tow. She pressed her lips together at the sight of Gabriel with pads on his chest, but turned her attention to Moira. This was going to be interesting.

“And how is the patient?” she asked.

“You could just ask me,” Gabriel commented. “Sitting right here, Angie. My stomach injury didn’t make me mute.”

Angela’s blue eyes flicked towards him in annoyance before looking back at Moira. Moira ran her fingers through her hair, pushing the red strands back into the swept-back bob she kept with meticulous care. She gave herself a small shake and smiled.

“He is recovering rapidly,” she said. “A few days ahead of schedule, but I expect that to level out soon. Would you like a sample of the serum, Angela? I would love to see what your nanomachines could do with it. Imagine the possibilities!”

“I would like a sample to make sure that it is within legal boundaries,” Angela said. “I know how you have no qualms about subjecting others to your unethical treatments.”

“I have the Strike Commander’s okay,” Moira glared at her.

“Who hasn’t been into the medical bay to see the Commander since he assigned you to his care,” Angela said with a tight smile. “This is my medical bay. You have access to the supplies, but all procedures go through me.”

“You,” Moira started to say before Gabriel lifted his hand.

“Do as she says, Moira,” he said. “It’s her medical bay. I expect her to do the same if she were in your labs.”

He saw the way Angela bristled at the suggestion that she would be caught dead in the Blackwatch labs and did his best to keep his satisfaction off of his face. Moira didn’t look impressed, pursing her thin lips together as she shot him a glare, but did as he ordered. It was best to placate Angela while he was still in her territory. Jack’s animosity towards her was really starting to bleed into him, it would seem. They’d have to talk about that.

Moira collected a small sample of her serum from the container it was agitating in and handed it over to Angela. Angela nodded before turning and heading for the door. She paused at the threshold, clearly wanting to turn around and say something, but was deciding on whether or not it was wise.

“I hope this isn’t a mistake, Gabriel,” she said gently. “I don’t want you to regret it.”

“I live with my mistakes, Angela,” Gabriel replied. “It’s what makes me human.”

Angela nodded her head and left. Gabriel shook his head and settled back against the pillow, swallowing as Moira worked on whatever it was she was doing with her information. He dozed for a little while, sinking down into blissful oblivion before he jolted awake with a grin.

“Jack!” he laughed as his husband stepped into the room. “You look like shit, old man.”

Jack gave him a tight smile before he nodded to Moira. “Some privacy, doctor.”

Moira blinked before she gathered her notes and left the room, shooting a curious look at the Strike Commander as she closed the door. Jack was in his workout slacks and a loose t-shirt that was covered in sweat stains. His hair was ruffled and greasy, his eyes a little bloodshot, and the stubble around his jaw looking tragically white. He looked like a normal, everyday man that was trying to deal with his spouse’s unexpected illness. It was as attractive as whipped cream and cherries.

“I take it back,” Gabriel grinned as Jack walked over to him. “You look hot.”

“You’ve got a bad case of cabin fever,” Jack said as he sat down in the chair beside him.

Jack reached out and took his hand, running his thumb across Gabriel’s knuckles. Gabriel watched him for a moment before tilting his head to the side.

‘Black thoughts on a black day?’ he asked.

‘I’m sending Jesse and Genji away from the base,’ Jack said. ‘Indefinitely.’

‘Oh?’ Gabriel blinked.

‘Something’s coming, Gabe,’ Jack murmured. ‘I don’t know what or when, but the air’s charged with something. I don’t want them here when it happens. I don’t want our boys getting hurt. I already arranged for Lena to be sent to the base in Gibraltar with Winston to continue her work.’

‘Hmm,’ Gabriel frowned as he lifted Jack’s hand to his lips and gently kissed over the large knuckles. ‘I approve. You’ve been restless lately. I can feel it when I’m sleeping. You’re always moving and I know you’re starting to get surly.’

‘I don’t like what we’ve had to do to save you,’ Jack murmured. ‘I…I don’t want you to suffer, Gabe.’

‘Suffering means I’m alive,’ Gabriel smiled and shook his head. ‘I knew it was going to hurt. But, Moira is doing everything she can for me. I appreciate it. She’s…well, she’s ambitious.’

‘And without scruples,’ Jack shook his head. ‘Hell, I’m scared she’s using you for tests that she couldn’t get to work on her animal subjects.’

‘If it saves others?’ Gabriel asked. ‘Isn’t that worth it?’

Jack looked away, but his agreement pulsed between them. Gabriel smiled and reached up, running his fingers over Jack’s cheek. He sent a gentle teasing wiggle through their bond, rubbing his thumb over the white stubble.

“Getting old,” he teased.

“Been getting old for a while,” Jack smiled at him. “We can’t all age like fine wine.”

“Jack, you’re like fine whiskey; you only get better with age,” Gabriel laughed.

“You’re only calling me that because whiskey can be made from corn,” Jack shook his head. “Asshole. Everyone makes the corn jokes because of that one picture of me in ‘Farmer’s Monthly’. I was ten and proud of the corn I’d grown. How was I supposed to know it looked like a dick?”

“Aw, but I love you no matter what, my cornbread,” Gabriel pursed his lips teasingly at Jack and made a kissy noise.

Jack laughed and shoved his face away. The break in his melancholy mood was a relief; Gabriel knew that Jack would be back in his rut soon enough, brooding over Gabriel’s condition. For now, though, it was the old Jack he knew and loved.  

[marcykinsmaki]

Since you write for all games can you write a s/o who at first couldn’t stand byakuya, mondo, kazuichi, and fuyuhiko but they comfort the s/o after a trial and they go from rivals to friends to lovers <3? Up to you if the guys disliked the s/o at the beginning too! If that’s too many characters the ones that really matter to me are byakuya and kazuichi! Thank you!!

HEYYYYY IT’S FINALLY DONE AAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAANDAMDALKMDWAD cough cough cough. anyway. i only wrote byakuya because this piece is almost 5k words i hope you like it please love it anyway here it is.

Byakuya Togami x Reader.

Words: 4,365 (long)

CW: Mentions of suicide, heavy angst in the beginning, some suggestive moments.

Rating: Mature

--

You have to be kidding. This can’t be real. I thought he was bad before, but this? This is an entirely new low. He’s a jerk, a complete asshole who does nothing but make everything harder for everyone and laugh in our faces about it. Saying shit to hold us back, to make us confused and scratch our heads while he holds something we don’t. But messing with a body. A dead person’s corpse, for the sake of what?

“The motive of my actions is irrelevant.” I stared at him with a gaping jaw. “The thing we should be doing is figuring out the true killer. We know it isn’t Genocide Jack and now we know that it isn’t me.” Like that makes me feel better. He looks over to me, the sting of tears growing behind my sinuses. “Please, Y/N, keep yourself together. You’re going to catch flies if you keep that mouth open so wide.” He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and my hands grip themselves into tight fists, my body shaking with rage.

“Y/N, it isn't worth getting angry at.” Kyoko interrupts me before I could do something. “I think we’re all upset at this reveal, but we have to continue. It was an intrusion that no longer stands in our way. Let’s continue.” She replied before continuing on.

Eventually, Mondo slipped. Makoto caught his lie and called him out. The rest of the trial was a haze. We all watched Mondo get strapped to the motorcycle, ride into the cage and eventually come out as… that. Some sick fucking joke that is. We all stood after, looking at each other as we tried to hold ourselves together.

“Chihiro was a good person.” I finally broke the silence. They all looked to me. My eyes were locked onto the floor. I couldn’t stand to face anyone. “He didn’t deserve someone like you to be touching him and moving around his body so we could all get slaughtered for your stupid half second decision. And for what?” I muster up the courage to face him. “What was running through your head that this was a good idea? You know that you would’ve died, too. You’re all for other people speaking on your behalf or whatever stupid thing you have going on,” I began to step forward towards him. “, whatever God complex you fucking deal with. You are so far up your own fucking ass that you were willing to drag us all down for your dedicated fanboy shit? You hate when people mess around like low lives yet you built your own coffin, dug your own grave, locked yourself in your stupid little box, and buried yourself.” I eventually was face to face with him. The room was still silent. Even Monokuma didn’t say anything. Byakuya stared at me with the same unnerving judgemental gaze he held for everyone. “Stop circle jerking with yourself and get with the fucking program. People’s lives are at stake here, Byakuya. Take a drill and screw that into your head. I’ll even do it for you if you need help, because obviously you can’t see that we’re all hurting. I know you don’t give a rat’s ass, but you are a fucking asshole. And I hope one day that big ass ego dildo falls out of your gaping rectum.” I spat at him, turning and exiting the trial room. He looked disgusted by the time I turned to walk away, the silence failing to fall again as I walked out, tears streaming down my face and the pain in my chest and throat from the stress of this all finally settling in. I began to sob as I walked out and straight to my dorm. Chihiro was a good friend. He didn’t deserve this bullshit. I felt bad that Mondo died and his trauma or whatever, but Chihiro was just an innocent boy in a killing game that he didn’t deserve to be in. None of us deserved this. I found myself in my room eventually, the hallway down to my room seeming smaller than normal. I swing my door open, slamming it shut behind me and locking it. I quickly approach my bed, my body breaking down as I fall onto the mattress. My chest hurts from the sobbing, tired and exhausted from the excuses. My hearing diminishes and I relax, falling into a deep sleep.

“Y/N? … Y/N.” I hear a soft voice calling out to me. I slowly come-to and my eyes flutter open. A soft hand is on my back. My eyes fix to the figure standing in front of me. Hina. “Hey, you’re awake! Thank goodness, I’ve been standing here for like 10 minutes trying to wake you up.”

“Oh.. hey, Hina. Sorry, I guess I was just really tired.” I slowly sit up, looking up to her. She shrugs with a big smile on her face.

“No biggy. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. New floor opened up and we were all waiting for you, but no one wanted to check… just, you know.” She shrugs.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Sorry, again. I’ve just been stressed lately.” Pain settles in my throat, a hand raising to rub my neck.

“Will you plebians please hurry up?” A familiar voice sounds from behind Hina. I notice my door is open now, my eyes shooting up and Hina turning to see… Byakuya. We stand in tense silence for a few moments. “Don’t stare at me like dead fish, hurry the Hell up so we can get this done and stop being lazy.” He calls out to us again from my door, staring me down with an intense gaze before turning to leave us alone again. Hina turns back to me.

“Jeeze, I hate him so much.. Why is he always like this? Can’t he just be a team player for once?” She huffs. “Anyway, let’s hurry up so you can eat something. Not good to explore on an empty stomach!” She holds a hand towards me with a smile. I nod, reaching up to her and helping myself up, still in my clothes from yesterday and not bothering to change. Doesn’t seem to bother either of us.

--

After getting something to eat, I walk up to the next floor, reassuring Hina that I’ll be fine on my own after several minutes, watching her leave with Sakura. I began to walk out on my own, looking around and passing a random hallway I’ve yet to explore as I feel someone grab my arm and pull me aside, putting a hand over my mouth and nose, holding me close to them in silence. I struggle, and feel a hand grab onto my hips. My cheeks heat up.

“Quit struggling. It’s only me.” A calm, yet annoyingly familiar voice sounds out again. Byakuya. I quickly stop, my heart still racing. He can’t kill me now.. Way too early. He peels off his hands from my body. I quickly turn around with rage.

“What the Hell was that for, asshole?!” I retaliate. He chuckles a bit, only making me angrier.

“Keep that vulgar language out of your mouth. It doesn’t suit you, ruins your face.” He teases. I’m so confused, why is he acting like this? “My motivations for doing that isn’t important. What we should be doing is exploring the rest of the floor.” He nods, walking away as if nothing happened. I shake my head, trying to make some sort of excuse, turning the corner to give him a piece of my mind. But before that happens, he’s already too far gone for the effort to be worth it. I sigh to myself, just continuing forward and searching. I mean, what… what? Why? Suddenly he’s being all handsy with me, giving me no reason? Wonder what happened the last time he said that. Whatever.

--

Another body. Another trial. Jesus. My heart drops to my stomach. I was never really close with the two of them, but you can’t help but feel bad that after all that chasing and that fiasco that this is the outcome. A frown finds its way to my face. I feel someone tap on my shoulder. 

“Y/N. You will be accompanying me on my investigation.” Byakuya spoke behind me. I could feel his presence suddenly get closer to me, instinctively turning and backing away. He has a smirk on his face. “I’m not taking no for an answer, so wipe that petty look off of your face, Y/N. Please.” I immediately shake my head a little in disbelief.

“What?”

“What do you mean what? You’re going to be conducting the investigation with me. Now.” He refused to explain further, as always. I’ve gotten used to this, but him saying the word please. I never knew it was part of his vocabulary voluntarily. I follow behind towards the first body, my heart beating in a way I never knew it could before. At least, not for someone like this. I must be going crazy. I must be hearing things. Someone pinch me. “Hello? Must you be incompetent right now? We have a case on our hands and we need to finish it, L/N.” He almost snarls at me. I roll my eyes and join him, a smirk taking over his face for a split second only he and I could see. I feel the same invasive heat flooding my cheeks, unable to stop the red blush filling my face afterward. I feel a tap on my shoulder.

“Hey, are you okay? You look really…. Red.” I hear Aoi speak behind me. “Are you hot-”

“No, Asahina, they’re coming with me. Thank you very much, I can assure you that they are fine.” Byakuya interrupts her. She huffs towards him, puffing her chest out with dominance.

“Whatever. Please stay safe around him, Y/N. He can be… dangerous. I don’t trust him that much.” Hina looks to me with a concerned expression.

“I can handle myself, don’t worry. I won’t let him do anything.” I reassure her. She smiles and nods, as I return to Byakuya’s side. I feel like a damn puppy, walking by his side and coming to his beck and call.

“Well? Get to work. I don’t want to be here long.” He speaks softly to me. My body stiffens, nodding as I go down and begin my investigation. The rest of this goes on in silence, his eyes burning holes into the back of my head. It sent chills down my spine when I would look up to him from the ground, which he actually made me do, but was completely unnecessary. He just looked me up and down, and shrugged, every single time I asked if I was done. He physically would not let me leave. I never understood why he did that, and I don’t think I ever will, but eventually, we had succeeded, a wide smile on my face from finishing.

“Finally! God, I thought I’d be on the floor all day.” I sighed, joining Aoi and Sakura’s side, which I had made good friends with by now, being a kind of trio at this point since the first trial. But before I could join them, to our collective dismay, Byakuya cleared his throat.

“I didn’t say you could leave.” He kept his eyes off of us, refusing to look at me, having this long look of betrayal on his face. I sighed.

“Sorry, Hina; Sorry, Sakura, he’s been like this since the investigation.” I apologized profusely, the two looking at Byakuya intensely as I joined his side. He looks over at me one last time before we all went onto the elevator, going down to the trial room.

--

The trial was long, and the execution was brutal. Kinda funny, but brutal. I quickly join Aoi and Sakura after, Byakuya giving me a dirty look. I shrug it off, joining the girls for some quick after-execution down time, Aoi quickly suggesting donuts and tea,  Sakura making sure she doesn’t go overboard, knowing how she can get with this stuff. We laugh at each other, and I swear I see someone out of the corner of my eye. I turn my head, and in a split second they’re gone. But I’m used to seeing things after stuff like this, just my brain messing with me.

... Right?

Later that night, I returned to my room after about an hour of talking out our feelings with the other two. I’m just hanging out, resting my eyes until I drifted off, only to be interrupted by my doorbell ringing. I sat up, stretching a little, scratching my head and approaching the door. I open the door, and it’s suddenly flung open, which makes me step back in defense.

“Don’t fret, it’s only me. You should really be more careful of who you open the door for, I could have been a wild maniac coming to rip your throat open.” He makes his way into my room, without even asking. Which for him is in character, of course. I groan, rolling my eyes all the way back into my head, hoping they’d stay there. “Oh come now, don’t act like you aren’t surprised.”

“Trust me, Byakuya, I’m not, now what do you want?” I close the door behind him, staring at him with intense fury. 

“I’m here to propose something.” He turns to me, arms crossed against his broad chest. I sigh, shifting my weight to one leg, my eyes now being washed over with exhaustion.

“What.” The words fell out of my mouth carelessly.

“I wish to form an alliance with you.” My eyes widen. The same smirk returns from before. He knows how to get under my skin. He began to approach me, slowly. I back up at the same pace.

“An alliance?” I tilt my head a little. He nods.

“You help me in my every day life, like an assistant, and you help me during investigations,” He continues towards me, me not paying attention as I suddenly feel the heel of my foot against the door. We were already at a distance, him continuing his approach silently, and soon getting close enough to where he places a hand next to my head. “, and then I’ll gift you with certain information and grace you with my presence and willing conversation.” He speaks in a lower tone now, a rasp in his voice and rumble in his chest I’ve never heard before brushes against my ears. The unwelcome yet obscenely familiar warmth comes to my cheeks. He chuckles, bringing a hand and brushing some hair that’s sitting in front of my face. “Do you think you can do that for me, Y/N?” I squint up at him, trying to think of a way to escape. He looks at me with some tone under his eyes that I can’t read. After a few passing moments, I finally answer.

“Fine. Yes, whatever, can you leave me and take your weird antics with you?” I spat. He squints.

“Be ready to get up earlier. When you serve me, you must address me as Mr. Togami. Otherwise, you can just call me Byakuya. Please present yourself nicely, you are beginning to represent me, now, so your expectations are even higher coming from me.” He assures me, finally letting me go, backing up so I can step away from the door. I quickly grab the handle, opening the door oh-so-graciously for him. “Be up by 7, at least. And be in the cafeteria by 8 to 8:30. Sharp. I don’t tolerate tardiness.” He nods, exiting finally. I slam the door behind him, grunting loudly to myself. Thank whatever God is watching over me that these walls are soundproof.

--

8 a.m. came faster than I wanted it to. I was up by 7, out of the shower by 7:15, ready by 7:45. I arrived earlier than expected, Byakuya looking up to me in the cafeteria from the open book in his hands, us being the only ones in the room. I approach nervously, hoping this is up to his expectations. Why is my heart beating so fast for a man that doesn’t give half a damn?

“Good morning.” I fill the open air. He looks back down to his book. I squint at him. “Good morning.” I repeat. I’m confused. I stand staring down at him, and after a good while I finally realize what I’m missing. “Good morning, Mr. Togami.” I force, rolling my eyes. He frowns into a disappointed look.

“Finally. Good morning to you, too. Watch your tone next time.” He snaps back at me. “Do you know how to make coffee?”

“Kinda.” I shrug. He sighs.

“Thank God they are competent enough to give us the proper technology for it to be easy. Go and figure it out. Keep it plain black. No creamer, no sugar.” He doesn’t look back at me. I make myself keep up the tolerating demeanor. I approach the kitchen and finally manage to make something. I bring it back and hand it to him. I see him mumble something before he takes a sip. I cross my fingers, not wanting to deal with his whining.

“Not bad. Go fix something, the others will be here in about an hour and I don’t want to be here for it. We’ll be off after we eat.”

I make myself some breakfast and finally get to sit and eat, finishing before the others get here as to not piss Byakuya off more than he already is this morning. I put our dishes away and return to him, as we retreat to the library.

“Mr. Togami?” I decided to comply to his commands for now, it’s easier for him to respond to me. Ego.

“Yes?” I hear a pleased twang in his voice. It strikes me surprised.

“Why am I doing this again?”

“Doing what?” He doesn’t look back at me as I walk behind him.

“This whole thing. Getting up at 7 in the morning, dressing up all nice, addressing you as Mr. Togami, being your servant? Is this really all necessary for an alliance if all you’re going to do is sit there.”

“I know things you do not, being the head of the Togami Corporation. You will sit there and be pretty for me and do as I say,” The pretty part made my heart skip a beat. God, we’re barely two hours into this and I’m already catching feelings for a spoiled brat. “, and I will assist you during investigations and let you in on bits of information.” He nods, swinging the library door open, failing to hold it open for me as I catch the door before it closes on me. I quickly follow behind, as he reaches down for a book sitting neatly next to a chair already pulled out by a random desk. “Glad we’re on the same page now. You’re free to do as you wish in here.” He looks up to me for a split second as he sits in the chair, crossing his leg and the air around us is still with silence much more. I sigh quietly, rolling my eyes internally as we spend a majority of our day in the library.

--

The next days are mostly the same. I started to read new books and would run small errands for him. I would try to make small conversation, but not a lot worked. He’d smirk at some of my jokes (that he tried to mask), and reply sometimes, but he wasn’t a very social person anyway. Another body discovery passed, and it was heart wrenching. This investigation was more painful than the others, seeing one of my close friends pass away right under my nose. And for Aoi for be lying for her? Behind my back? I get she’s as upset as me, and we don’t have to experience another execution, but it… gets under my skin more than I expected. Aoi looks to me with sorrow after the trial, but I just shake my head as I exit the room with teary eyes. I’m backstabbed… again? Twice, in the same day? They explicitly kept it a secret from me. Why? I shut out Aoi’s voice behind me. I stormed to my room, slamming and locking the door behind me as I enter. It’s been a long day. Byakuya’s been giving me shit all day for not being fast enough. Sorry I didn’t know Sakura killed herself, asshole. I flopped onto my bed. The only thing that kept me safe during these times. I had a moment or two to relax and let myself cry before I heard my doorbell ring.

“What.” I call out carelessly.

“Do you think you should be talking to me like that?” Byakuya speaks from behind my door. I know that tone, so I push myself up and open the door for him and let him into my room, but he stands there. “Well?”

“Do you think you should be talking to me like that?” Byakuya speaks from behind my door. I know that tone, so I push myself up and open the door for him and let him into my room, but he stands there. “Well?”

“No. Sorry, Mr. Togami.” I mock. He shrugs and enters.

“Good enough. Sit.” He pulls up a chair and places it next to my bed. He sits on the chair, waiting for me. I sit on my bed, looking up to him with puffy and teary eyes.

“Why are you here.” I stress.

“Because Aoi is whining to me about how bad she feels for lying to you. She begged me to come in here and convince you since I’m the only person I’ve let you see. She said I’m your friend for whatever reason.” He shakes his head. I keep my eyes on him as he speaks. “Anyways, can you please take care of her? She’s pacing all throughout the hallway for no reason. I’ll be waiting in here.” He leans back, waiting for my departure. I stare at the door, slowly pressing myself towards it and opening it, looking past it to find Aoi. She turns to me with a broken smile, tears falling down her tan cheeks. She sniffles.

“Hey.” She speaks to me silently. Almost in a whisper.

“Hey.” I return it.

“I’m really sorry, but I couldn’t tell you. I promised her. And I know it would have gotten us killed and you all would have suffered, but she was hurting being here. I hope you can forgive me.” She looks at me with glassy eyes, puffy from crying. I stand there for a moment.

“Yeah, sure. I’m sorry for flipping out on you instead of listening to you.”

“Hug?” Aoi began to open her arms for a hug. I nod, walking to her and hugging her tight. She whispered into my ear lowly. “You know, I think Byakuya has a crush on you or something. Or maybe he’s obsessed.” She giggles. The same nervous feeling returned to my heart. I shake my head.

“Absolutely not. What makes you even think-”

“Maybe the fact that he treats you nicer than the rest of us. Has more patience with you. Speaks to you in a less serious tone. Actually talks to you for more than 5 words without insulting you. Wants to spend time with you a lot. I don’t know, I’m just saying, maybe you should think about it being a possibility.” She shrugs, pulling back to look at me with a glint of hope in her eyes.

“Hmmm, let me think about it; a big ego-centric dude with daddy’s money and balls big enough to lie to his classmates whos lives are in danger. No thank you.” I pull away completely now, smiling. She smiles back.

“Oh come on. I don’t like the dude that much, sure, but it’s super obvious. The way he looks at you, it’s insane. Now go on, your prince charming is waiting, Y/N~” Hina winks, turning and walking back off to her room. I shake my head, returning to Byakuya in my room. He’s sitting in the same position as last time.

“Welcome back. I’m assuming it went well.” He stood, approaching me. Maybe too close. Hina can’t be serious..

“Yeah. We made up and stuff.” I nodded, crossing my arms.

“I’m sure you did. Same time tomorrow, Y/N. And please, call me Byakuya now. You’ve graduated from Mr. Togami.” He walks by me to the door. My jaw drops, turning to watch him.

“Oh wow, thank you so much, Mr. Togami, how can I ever repay you for such a lovely promotion. I have been training so hard for this my entire life. I am eternally grateful.” I stare into the back of his head. I swear I hear a chuckle before he walks out of the door, softly closing it behind him… that’s new. I shake off the thought by moving before it could even come to me. Exhaustion catches up to me, and I yawn as I sleep to the next day.

--

A.N.// I got really lazy. I’ve been writing this for weeks and I’m exhausted. So sorry I didn’t write more friendship content but I wanna keep this moving so here we go.

--

The biggest trial of our lives come. Junko Enoshima herself has revealed herself to us. She’s even more egotistical than Byakuya, and that’s saying something. She parades herself around like her shit doesn’t stink and basically blames this killing game on us. Which is entirely untrue, no matter how she words it. But after a good while of debating, looking between all of my friends, and determination to survive, we persevere through her antics and take her down, leaving us only to leave to the outside world that awaits us, no matter how fucked it may be.

“Finally, I never thought we’d make it this far..” Aoi sighs, the final seven of us approaching the gate.

“Seriously, I thought we were toast back there…” Yasuhiro’s still a little shaky from it all.

“Well, we’re here now and we’re finally escaping, so let’s focus on that first. Y/N, come, please.” Byakuya adds, only to look at me. Toko is giving me the death glare. If looks could kill. I turn to Byakuya and approach him. He’s looking back at me to someone. I try to look back, but before I can he grabs my chin and guides my face to his, pressing a kiss to my lips. A deep, unexpecting one, in fact. I can feel the smile on my lips, the same mischievous smile he’s always held. I slowly return it, and Toko’s now screaming up a storm as Aoi holds her back.

“Don’t worry! Totally not saving your guts right now! Just forget about me!” She sighed frustratedly, Toko crying her head off. We finally part, my chest pounding away like a heavy drum as he stares into my eyes.

Byakuya Togami, an ego-centric asshole who kisses people to overwhelm them when he has feelings for them he won’t admit to himself. What an enigma of a man.

//

OKAAAAYY OH MY GOD IT’S FINALLY DONE. thank you so much for your request!

[imagineaworlds]

I Love You (Part Nineteen) -- Aaron Hotchner

Written By: @desperately-bisexual​

Request: None.

Warnings: Cursing. Mentions of smut. Mentions of Dom/sub relationship. Talk of murder, sexual assault, kidnapping-- literally everything Criminal Minds.

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Greenaway!Reader

Word Count: 9119

Timeline: A few days after part eighteen.

As far as Jack was aware, Hotch and I had some time off from work, which was why we were around more often. Jack spent a few nights at Haley’s house during the school week, but when he started throwing tantrums about not getting to stay over at our house, Haley had to give in and call us to see if it was alright if he stayed the rest of the week. Of course, Hotch and I were ecstatic to have Jack over more. Considering how often we were away from him and our time with him was never guaranteed, we wanted to utilize every second Haley would allow us to have him.

It had only been a few days since Hotch and I argued, but we still hadn’t discussed it again like we promised. I think that deep down, the courage I mustered before to think about going to Strauss and asking for a transfer, it all immediately disappeared once my anger subsided; and Hotch was just as scared to bring up the topic again for fear of riling me up, which would cause us to have the same argument. There was a point where I asked myself if I should have just snuck out of the house and gone to talk to Strauss anyways, but Hotch and I made a promise, and, like I said before, I trusted him. If he thought that waiting to see how our evaluations would turn out was best, then I was going to wait. But if there was any chance in hell that he was going to get fired because of me, I was going to rain down hell on Erin Strauss.

On Tuesday of the following week, eight days since my suspension, I picked up Jack from school while Hotch was busy cleaning up from our… afternoon activities. I had sub dropped shortly after we were done, and he felt horrible about it, even though it had nothing to do with him. The relief that came from being out of control and being under him was exactly what I needed to forget about all of the stress we were under, but when we came back down to Earth, it suddenly all hit me like a train again. It took about an hour of Hotch holding me, kissing me, and talking to me in order to calm me down. By the time I had relaxed, I looked over at the clock and realized that one of us needed to pick up Jack while someone else needed to pick up the house— yeah, the whole house. It was an entire afternoon of going through the black box, alright. He offered to do both, that it wouldn’t matter if he was a few minutes late picking up Jack, but I told him that I would rather get a Superman hug from Jack than sit around doing nothing.

So that was how I ended up in front of Jack’s school while wearing a red v-neck shirt tucked into a pair of Hotch’s college sweatpants that had to be rolled up on my waist since he was so much taller than me. Yes, I was very aware of my new obsession, but it was his fault for leaving his old college clothes in a box in the back of his closet. They were just sitting there, practically screaming my name, begging to be shown attention again. How could I not throw them in the wash and then wear them around the house? It wasn’t like I could wear work clothes or my pajamas all day. Besides, Hotch seemed to like it. His eyes were starting to linger on my body more, and he was getting a little more handsy. That was how we ended up using the entire house in the afternoon, for example.

Jack came running up to me and immediately caught me in a Superman embrace. I loved that this was our new thing. There was a difference between getting a hug from a friend or otherwise and getting a Superman hug from Jack. Somehow, him strangling me by squeezing as hard as he could during our hugs was more comforting that anything else in the world. I loved how he strained to hug me as tight as possible, and I could squeeze him back, too. I liked how he hid his face in the crook of my neck while he did it so that he could focus on the hug and being as strong as possible. Those little moments and little details were what made it all worth it. It was a reminder of how much I loved him and his father, and that we should keep fighting for that happiness and these moments. There was no point in letting Strauss win, no point in letting her get to me and our personal life.

When we got home, the house was clean with no sign of how Hotch and I spent our day, but what was more noticeable than anything else was the fact that Hotch wasn’t around. Maybe he went to Haley’s house to pick something up for Jack, or maybe she needed something from us? Maybe he went to go get us dinner? Maybe he went to go pick up groceries? There were a thousand different places where he could be, but I wasn’t sure, so I told Jack to go to the dining room and start working on his homework while I called his dad.

When I flipped my phone open to dial Hotch, I saw that I had two missed calls from Morgan that I must’ve ignored while picking up Jack or driving us home. I figured that I would call Hotch first, see where he was and when I should be expecting him home, then I would call Morgan back to see what he needed. When I called Hotch, though, it went straight to voicemail. I furrowed my brows before trying his phone again. Still nothing. Well, he was probably just busy and he would call me back. In the meantime, I could at least call Morgan back.

“Why the hell did I just run into Hotch at the office only to hear that he’s requesting for a transfer?” Morgan asked curtly before there could be an exchange of niceties.

“What?”

“Yeah, I just passed him, like, ten minutes ago when I first tried calling you.”

“Ten minutes ago?” I looked at the clock on the wall.

If Hotch had already been meeting with Strauss about a transfer for ten minutes, that meant that some kind of decision had likely already been reached. Hotch… He left when he knew I was gone and couldn’t stop him, and he did exactly what I wanted to do a few days ago. That wsn’t fucking fair. I trusted him. I told him that we would wait to make any kind of decision until we could talk about it. Why would he do this? It should have been me. He knew that it should have been me. Fucking asshole.

“Y/N,” Morgan called my attention back to reality with a softer, worried tone. I hummed a “what” and he continued, “What’s going on? Why haven’t the two of you been at work? Why did you storm out last week?”

I sighed and put a palm to my forehead while my thoughts raced. “Strauss suspended both of us because of our relationship.”

Morgan scoffed, “That’s bullshit.”

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me, but then my face fell flat again. “I was the one who was supposed to put in for the transfer, but Hotch made me promise that we would talk about it later… He lied to me, Morgan.”

“I’m so sorry.” He sighed like he was annoyed with something else, “Listen, I’ve gotta go. We've got a new case, and Emily and Gideon are both MIA. I’ll call you later, chica. Hang tight. We’ll get this all figured out soon, don’t you worry.”

“Be safe.”

“You got it.”

I sighed as I hung up the call and put my phone away. Aaron Hotchner… What was I supposed to do? I looked him in the eye last Wednesday and I told him that I was going to wait because I trusted him and I believed him that everything would be alright. I told him that I loved him as we agreed to not doing anything about it yet. How could he lie to me like this? How could he betray my trust like this? Did it have to do with me sub dropping? Please… No… I told him that it wasn’t his fault. He did everything right and he did everything he could. It wasn’t his fault…

“Y/N! I’m stuck!” Jack called from the dining room. He must have started with his math homework, which was why he was having trouble. Shit.

“Alright, one second, little man!” I yelled back calmly.

It wasn’t common for me to sub drop— hell, I even told Hotch that to make sure he knew that it didn’t have to do with him. If that was the cause of his snap, he had to realize that it wouldn’t fix things, it would only make them worse. Me sub dropping shouldn’t’ve had anything to do with his job. Why did he have to be so damn stubborn all the time?

“Y/N!” Jack called again.

I sighed, wiping my forehead clean. Help Jack with homework first, argue with Hotch about how he was an idiot later. That was all I could possibly do. Feeling angry and helpless could wait, so I stepped into the dining room and sat down with Jack to take a look at what he was working on. Multiplication still, but this time with twelves, the demon spawn of multiplication. I didn’t blame him for struggling with it. Hotch and I were always there to help him if he needed it, even if he were to ever ask us what 2+2 was.

It took us about an hour to finish all of Jack’s math homework. Oh, to be a kid in school again where work only took about an hour or so and you could practically ask someone else to do it for you. Jack had it good, he had no freaking clue. Sometimes I wished that I were in his shoes, but what good would that have done me? After working on his math, though, he insisted that he could do the rest of it on his own in his bedroom, so I let him run off to be alone.

Hotch hadn’t come home while we were still working in the dining room, so I moved to the living room to wait for him. I didn't turn on the TV, I didn’t listen to music, and I didn’t even look at my phone. I just stared at the wall while lost in thought. Why did he do it? I told him that he was an essential part of the team, that no one could afford to lose him at the BAU. He couldn’t lose the BAU. He had everything to lose, and I had nothing, and yet he did it probably for me, and that made me feel like shit. I didn’t want him to give up everything for me. I know that in movies that always sounds so romantic, but knowing that he gave it up because he wanted me to be happy over all else… How was I supposed to live with that?

Hotch deserved the world. He deserved to be happy. He said it himself that his job, his son, and me all made him happy. What would his formula for happiness look like if we took away his job? What would it take to make him happy again? I was sure that he was going to come home and insist that all he needed was me and Jack, but that wasn’t true. At least I knew it wasn’t true for me, and we were eerily similar, so it probably wasn’t true for him either. My formula for happiness was Elle, Hotch, Jack, and my job. It took me a long time to be happy again after I lost Elle, but I did find happiness again because I had my job, Hotch, and Jack there to distract me. Our careers were a huge part of our lives. Without our jobs to distract ourselves, we were miserable— we had proven that much since our suspensions. Nothing, not even me and Jack, could make Hotch happy if he lost the BAU. And I was absolutely petrified to face that truth.

And then I heard a car pull up to the curb outside of our house. I knew that it was Hotch, probably having caught a cab or asked for a ride home from Anderson or something. I didn’t move, though. The wall seemed to stare back at me as I considered what I would say and how our conversation would go. I certainly didn’t want to yell at him because that didn’t get us anywhere the other day, but it was going to be damn near impossible to keep my cool.

“Morgan called,” I told Hotch when I heard the door open. Hotch stopped in his tracks when he realized that he had been caught. “He told me everything.” The door closed and Hotch’s keys hit the table. “So did Strauss give in? Is she transferring you?”

“I swear, Y/N, I was going to tell you.” he said regretfully as he walked around the couch and sat next to me. I looked up at him to see that he was wearing a work suit. “We were going to talk about it, just like we promised, but I saw that it was taking a toll on you, and I just had to put an end to it.”

“That wasn’t for you to decide, Hotch.”

“I know that you said it had nothing to do with me, but I was sick of sitting by while this ate at you.” He dropped a file he had been carrying onto his lap before grabbing my hands. “It’s done. It’s over. They have no reason to keep you suspended anymore. We’ll be getting the call to reinstate you any day now.”

I looked at the file he had brought home, “Does that have to do with your transfer?” I figured that changing the subject was better than arguing about something we couldn’t fix. And if I were being honest, I realized how little energy I had, especially for calculating jabbing moves required for an argument.

He followed my gaze, patted the top of the folder, then shook his head. “No. No. Garcia gave this to me on my way out. Apparently it’s the case the team is working on right now.”

“And she gave it to you?”

“Said she had orders to do so,” he shrugged. “There’s something else,” he told me as I grabbed the file out from under his hands to take a look. “Prentiss quit.”

I raised a brow. “What?”

“She came into my office while Strauss and I were talking. She’s leaving the BAU.”

“Do you know why?”

“She wants to work for the State Department, apparently.”

That didn’t answer my question. Why the hell was Emily quitting? She loved the BAU just as much as the rest of us. She had made it plain to all of us on multiple occasions that she felt like we were her family, and that she felt at home with us. It didn’t sit right with me that she was leaving at the same time as me and Hotch. But then I remembered something Morgan said on the phone. He mentioned that both Emily and Gideon were gone. Emily had now been accounted for, but no sign of Gideon? That was equally troubling. It seemed like of the eight members of our team, half of us were away from the office for an abundance of reasons. 50% of our team was gone, and yet Strauss didn’t see that something was wrong? Maybe someone should have had the balls to tell her that her bad leadership was what landed us in this mess in the first place. If Hotch hadn’t already gone in to request a transfer, I would have gone in myself to say it straight to her face since I didn’t get to last Monday when she suspended me.

“What about Gideon?” I inquired. Hotch only answered with a raised brow. “Morgan said that he’s MIA.”

Hotch’s face fell. “I had no idea.”

So Gideon was missing, Emily was leaving the BAU, I was suspended until further notice, and Hotch was getting transferred to… Where was he getting transferred to? I realized that I didn’t know, so I asked. Hotch lowered his gaze and shamefully admitted that he was being sent to a white collar crime division. Basically FBI hell. It was clear that he didn’t want to discuss it, at least not yet, so I didn’t pry.

“What about the case?” I asked, opening up the file.

“The team flew to Milwaukee. Four women have been killed so far, and another woman went missing two days ago. They’re all blonde, all married, have children, and don’t have any jobs. All of the bodies have been left in the same neighborhood, lines of lipstick tracing their bodies, and their hearts carved out.”

“Their hearts?” I turned to the first page of evidence photos. “Any signs of sexual assault?”

“None was mentioned in the reports, at least.”

“What about the neighborhoods they’re being left in? It’s near one of the largest public schools in the area.” I pointed to a map of where all of the bodies were found, and right in the middle of it was a huge public school campus— triple the size of Jack’s private school. It had multiple buildings, probably about two for elementary, middle school, and high school each. It was no coincidence that the school happened to be in the epicenter. “Maybe he’s preying on the mothers of students?”

“That would mean he’s probably a father who can blend into the crowds there.”

“Or he’s a student in the middle school or high school.”

“No,” Hotch shook his head. “A middle schooler wouldn’t have the strength to carve out a heart like this, and, statistically speaking, high schoolers are much more prone to sexual assault.”

“So he could be anyone.”

Our profile hadn’t changed at all. We had working theories, yeah, but without seeing the crime scenes for ourselves, or getting to talk to the detectives, or getting to talk to locals, there wasn’t much else to help us decide how to pinpoint our profile. Since he could be anyone older than seventeen, that wasn’t much help for the team. Even if we wanted to say that it could be a parent, how could we be sure that it wasn’t just some creep who managed to keep his head down and go unnoticed in the back of the parking lot or something.

“They should be finishing up at the crime scene. I’ll try calling Morgan, see if they found anything new,” Hotch offered, picking up the phone.

I nodded and kept flipping through the pages of the files, while thinking to myself how much I was going to miss working cases with him. I liked how well we played off of each other, that if I had a thought or a theory, he would run through it with me to see if it made any sense. Like with this case, I thought that it was set in stone that the Unsub had something to do with the school, but Hotch saw that there were obvious holes in the hypothesis— holes that I couldn’t see because I had it set in my mind that I was right. But at least we determined that the Unsub was an adult, which could potentially save the team some time. Especially with only three of them working in the field, they would need all the help and time they could get. There was only so much Garcia could do from her computer, and Hotch and I were practically useless from our couch, all the while, Gideon was still somewhere unknown.

“Hey, Morgan,” Hotch greeted with the phone against his ear. “I’ve got Y/N here with me.” He hummed and nodded in agreement after a moment, then brought the phone between us while putting it on speaker. “What’s going on over there?”

“Well, Strauss criticized and offended the lead detective within the first 45 seconds on her first crime scene, and we’ve practically hit a dead end. So, just peachy. How about you guys? Did you find anything yet?”

“We’ve been looking over the files,” I began. “All of the bodies have been found within a ten mile radius surrounding one of the biggest public schools in the state. Each victim has been taken fifteen minutes after the last bell of the day, which is at 3:25. Two days later, they turn up fifteen minutes after the first bell of the day, which is at 8:10. We think that it’s very possible you’re looking for an adult male over the age of seventeen who has some kind of connection to the school. He might work there, he might currently be or previously been a student, he could be a parent, or he could be some kind of pervert. Regardless, he’s going to be at or around the school during drop off and pick up.”

“Do you know how he’s taking them yet?” Hotch asked Morgan.

“No. But this helps. Really, guys. Thank you. I’ll let you guys know what else we find. Hopefully we can catch up to him before he can take someone else.”

“You’ve got until 3:25, so, good luck.”

Morgan hung up the call before anything else could be said. I looked up at Hotch and handed him the case file so that he could review it again. We had helped as much as we could with the profile, and until they called back, we were going to feel entirely useless. Jack was upstairs, busy doing his homework since he knew that we were doing our superhero homework downstairs, and he wasn’t allowed to know about it since he was still a junior superhero. Hotch seemed antsy, though, about leaving the BAU and not being able to do more for our last case together. He got involved, and now he was desperate to see it to the end, and I couldn’t blame him. He didn’t want to do some white collar bullshit job. He didn’t want to do anything besides be the Unit Chief of the BAU.

“You know…” I whispered, putting my hand on his shoulder, “technically your transfer request hasn’t gone through yet if Strauss isn’t in the office to do it. It’s probably just sitting on her desk, waiting to be processed, which means that you’re, technically, still a part of the team. If you wanted to, you could go to Milwaukee to help with the case. And I actually happen to think that you should go.”

“What about you?” he asked warily.

I shrugged, “I’m still suspended, so I can’t go, but I’ll do what I can here; and maybe I can look for Gideon, too. It’s not like him to disappear like this, but there’s a chance that he’s probably just up at his cabin.”

“That’s not what I mean, Y/N.”

I bit my lip for a brief moment while I thought. There was no easy way to tell him that I wanted more than anything to go with him, to solve this case together with him one last time. Since I couldn’t admit that without guilting him into staying, I decided to lie and say what he needed to hear. “I’ll be fine here. Think of it like giving back up in the same way Garcia does… Just without the computers and the hacking skills.” I forced a faux, bright smile onto my face that made Hotch chuckle. “I’ll look for Gideon, you go to Milwaukee.”

Hotch leaned towards me and kissed me. “You’re the best,” he mumbled against my lips.

“I know,” I laughed before kissing him back. He leaned in a little further into our kiss, but I pushed him away with a palm on his chest to stop us before things could accelerate and spiral out of control. “Go get your go bag.” I pecked his lips again before practically shoving him off the couch and towards the stairs. 

When Hotch came back a few minutes later, he was carrying his go bag on his shoulder while lifting Jack over his head like he was an airplane soaring through the sky. Jack was making noises and trying not to laugh or move around too much because he still didn’t want his dad to drop him. I craned my neck back to take a look at them and I grinned.

“Incoming!” I exclaimed, holding my arms out. Hotch moved Jack side to side like a plane falling out of the air until he could carefully drop Jack into my lap. I groaned, catching Jack, and making an explosion noise with my mouth. Jack thrashed around and giggled as I started tickling him, earning a chuckle from Hotch, too. Jack pried at my hands, and I started to relent because he needed to say goodbye to his dad. “Alright,” I surrendered, throwing up my hands. “Go give dad a Superman hug.” I picked up Jack from my lap and set him on his feet.

Hotch kneeled and caught Jack in his arms. I pushed myself off the couch as they hugged each other as tightly as possible. Hotch lifted Jack as he stood, still hugging his son like he never wanted to let go. As I approached, Hotch held out a free arm for me, so I pressed against his side and hugged both him and Jack. Hotch kissed my temple and squeezed my shoulders with the arm he had wrapped around me. 

He moved his lips to my ear and whispered, “Try not to bother Gideon if you figure out where he is. If he’s really at his cabin, it just means he still needs some time after Sarah. We can give him that.”

I nodded and pressed into his touch. “Get back here as soon as you can.”

“I love you.”

“I’ll say it back when you come home without a single scratch on you.”

He squinted. “Come on.” He grabbed my hips and swayed me back and forth. “One more before I go.”

“I’m still mad at you, technically.”

“Come on.”

I bit back a smirk. If I could have, I would have screamed: “I love you, Aaron Hotchner!” at the top of my lungs a thousand times. But despite that, I was genuinely still mad at him, even though I was trying to mask it as well as I could. He lied to me. He betrayed my trust. That didn’t just go away. I know I acted like I was fine and I changed the topic to focus on the case, but I still felt a need in the pit of my stomach to yell at him and argue with him. Once this case would be over, I needed him to know the truth before it ate me alive. I needed him to know that he couldn’t just betray my trust like this and I wouldn’t care. I kept no secrets from him, even when they were painful to admit. All I asked of him was to show me the same courtesy. That wasn’t too far fetched, was it?

“I love you,” I feigned reluctancy. “Get back here as soon as you can.”

“I’ll be back before you know it.” He kissed Jack’s forehead before letting him down. Jack hugged his father’s waist, trying to make him stay, but Hotch had to pry him off. He had to go. “You’re sure about this?” he asked me worriedly.

“We’ll be fine. Go.” I pushed him towards the door gently. Jack hugged my leg since he couldn’t hug his father again. “I love you,” I finally admitted with sincerity.

Without me in the field with him, I couldn’t examine the threats out there, and I wasn’t sure if he would come home to me. I could hope and pray that he would come home, of course, but I wouldn’t be out there to take the bullet for him if came down to it. If something bad happened out there, I wanted to make sure that the last thing we said to each other was “I love you.” I didn’t want to have any regrets simply because I was mad at him. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t admit it before he left.

Hotch waved to us as he opened the front door, and Jack waved back as I picked him up. Hotch smiled at me one last time before closing the door and hurrying out for the cab he must have called while he was upstairs packing. When it was just me and Jack again, I kissed his cheek and gauged to see how he was feeling. He probably wasn’t used to saying goodbye to his dad and then being in the house without him anymore— at least not since Haley took him when they left Hotch. I just wanted to make sure that my little man was okay with saying goodbye to his dad. I was never around for the aftermath of the goodbyes, Haley was the one who had to deal with that. For me, I was so used to getting called in for a case, rushing to drop Jack off at his mom’s house, and then we would race to the office. We never stayed around long enough to make sure that Jack was okay because there simply wasn’t time. But now his dad was gone, and it was just the two of us in that house that was way too big for us.

An idea struck me. “Did you finish your homework, Superman?” I asked, wiping chocolate off his face that had probably been from lunch, and I missed it earlier while still dropping from subspace. He nodded. “Do you want to help me with a case?”

No, I wasn’t going to tell him about the case Hotch just left for. I wasn’t that bad of a parent. But looking for Gideon was important, and it was innocent, as far as I was aware. I figured that Jack would like to put his detective hat on with me for a bit to keep him occupied until dinner. Besides, Gideon was probably just at his cabin, just like Hotch said; but Jack didn’t know that. It could be fun to see how much Jack learned from his dad about being an awesome detective.

Jack nodded eagerly, so I carried him over to the couch and set him down. While he got comfortable, I went to the desk in the living room and grabbed some tape, a stack of flashcards, and two pens. I sat down next to Jack and handed him one of the pens before setting the tape down on the coffee table in front of us.

“Alright, so the case we’re working on is finding out where Uncle Gideon went and why.” 

I knew that as long as I played dumb, I could guide Jack towards the obvious answer that Gideon was at his cabin, but while Jack worked on that, I needed to figure out the why. If there was a reason like just needing some extra time off after Sarah’s death, then, alright, I wasn’t going to get involved. But if we found something out that was concerning, then I was going to drive out there and figure out if he was alright.

“We’ll use these cards whenever we think of something important, and we’ll put them up on the wall. When we put them all together, they’ll make a puzzle that we can solve. Does that sound fun?” I asked with a small smile. Jack nodded and grabbed a few of the index cards. “Okay. So what do we know about Uncle Gideon?”

“He’s smart,” Jack answered giddily. I nodded an encouragement for him to keep going. “He’s brave, just like you and Dad.”

“Alright, why don’t you write down everything you know about him on those flashcards and we’ll talk about it after?”

Jack clicked his pen open and started scribbling as fast as he could. Who knew that all it took to get him to do some work was to tell him that it had to do with a case. I mean, Jack always liked sitting in our office with us while we worked just because he liked to be included and spend as much time with us as possible; but it was hard to actually get him involved with anything we ever worked on because of how mature the topics were. We didn’t exactly want Jack hearing about murder, kidnapping, rape, and so on. We wanted Jack to stay as innocent as possible for as long as possible.

Back to what we were doing, though, while Jack was worried about solving what I already knew about Gideon’s disappearance, I needed to solve why he left. So what did I know about Gideon that would give me the answer? What happened recently that made him want to leave out of the blue and without telling anyone— even Spencer. Gideon and Spencer were the closest of everyone on the team, platonically, at least. Spencer viewed Gideon as a father figure, and Gideon took that to heart, considering what happened with his real son. So if he didn’t tell Spencer, then it meant that something was wrong and he didn’t want anyone to worry. 

There had to be a stressor beyond what happened to Sarah. Gideon waited too long after Frank killed her to leave. Though, he had been upset since that day. He had been quiet, isolating himself, his heart and mind not in the work that he loved to do. He loved to save people, a reason that he kept that journal with him that Frank stole. But he waited to leave. Why? The team got back from a case recently, maybe it had to do with that? But what could possibly happen in a case that would shake the great Jason Gideon?

Hotch told me about the case a bit. He said that there was an Unsub who was killing girls on a college campus, and they knew they had him, but they didn’t have enough evidence to put him away. After their seventy-two hours of holding him in custody for questioning, they had to let him go. When he was gone, however, a girl on the campus who was a fan of his, ended up killing him and then herself.

Why would that upset Gideon, though? What was so different about that case that we hadn’t seen before? A psychopathic teenage girl who killed herself? Why would Gideon care to this extent? Maybe it was something about the girl. Something about her past, or maybe Gideon connected with her somehow during their time on the campus. Or maybe… Gideon mentioned that Sarah was an old college friend of his, maybe— and it was a long shot— maybe there was something about the victims that reminded him of her?

I made sure that Jack was still working on his notes about Uncle Gideon as I grabbed my phone and stepped out of the room to call Garcia. She picked up immediately, which caught me off guard slightly. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear your voice,” she raced through her words.

“I haven’t even said anything yet,” I laughed.

“You just did, and that’s good enough for me. Morgan told me what happened with Strauss. Do you want me to—”

“Garcia, no!” I kept laughing, this time more nervously than humorously. If I would have given her the go ahead, Garcia definitely would have done something to ruin Strauss’s career and life, and while the thought was certainly appealing, we couldn’t actually do that. “I’m just calling out the last case the team worked on.”

“The Arizona one?”

“Yeah. Can you tell me about the victimology?”

“Any particular reason?” she asked while her keyboard clacked away.

“Just humor me,” I shrugged.

“As you wish, my love… Let me see what I’ve got here.” She paused for a beat while she searched through her computer for the information I needed about the team’s last case. “Alrighty, here it is. Nathan Tubbs was the suspected Unsub, and it seemed he had a thing for skinny, gorgeous, white, brown eyed, brunette, college girls. Pretty boring, if you ask me. He was stabbing the victims in the chest and then posed them post-mortem—”

“Wait,” I stopped her. “Brown hair and eyes?”

“Yeah. Why? Does that mean something to you?”

Besides the fact that people with brown eyes made up about 70% of the population, and people with brown hair made up about 20%, yes… It actually did mean something. Sarah had brown hair and brown eyes. While that wasn’t exactly special, just as Garcia pointed out, the victims of this case probably reminded Gideon of Sarah. The case was just digging into an already painful wound. Not to mention the displayal of the bodies, which referenced that Tubbs felt remorse for his victims.

“How were the victims displayed?” I asked.

“It looks like they were on their backs, their eyes closed, feet together, arms crossed over their chest— kind of like a mummy, if you will.”

So not only did Tubbs have enough remorse to pose the bodies, but he did it in a way that showed empathy. He saw them as angels, almost. If Gideon saw these victims as mirror images of Sarah, then he probably saw the contrast between Frank’s brutality and Tubb’s empathy. Again, just pouring salt on the wound that Gideon was trying to heal.

“While I’ve got you,” I said, “can you trace Gideon’s cellphone?”

“Already did it earlier when he didn’t show up for the Roundtable meeting this morning.”

“And?”

“It looks like he’s at his cabin,” she said flatly.

Just as I thought, Gideon was out there, trying to escape his problems. And just as I suspected, it was about Sarah. “Thank you, Garcia. If you hear from the team, say ‘hi’ for me?”

“You got it, sweet pea. Now, be free, I must work!” She hung up on me and I buried my phone in my pocket again.

As I walked back into the living room, Jack seemed worn out and bored already. I thought about chuckling, but I decided to keep it to myself. Jack loved his dad and the job we had, and I was sure that Jack was probably going to end up being a cop like his dad; but as a kid who just wanted to have fun all the time, I understood why his attention span didn’t exactly allow him to sit around just writing notes like we were in school or something. He probably expected being a detective and an agent was a little more exciting than this. He wanted the car chases, the shootouts, the bulletproof vests, the on foot Unsub chases, and all of the other entertaining aspects of being a cop that you would see on TV. The reality was, however, that before we could even think about getting to that exciting point, we always had to start with the boring stuff like this. And I think that it disappointed him slightly, which was why he got bored so fast.

“We’re going on a trip, little man. How does that sound?” I asked after my approach caught his attention

 Jack perked up. “Did you find Uncle Gideon?”

I nodded. “Grab your tablet, ‘cause it’s gonna be a long drive.”

He jumped off the couch and ran upstairs to grab his tablet and his favorite red dinosaur toy. Meanwhile, I grabbed my purse from the table by the front door. My phone buzzed again and I took a look at the text I got. It was from Hotch, letting me know that they just solved the case and were heading back to the local police station to process the Unsub. I told him that I’d be waiting for him when he would get home. “I love you,” he texted, and I quickly returned the favor.

Jack was already trying to buckle himself into his seat in the car when I sent the last text to Hotch. Before I was even settled in the driver’s seat, Jack was already asking me to turn on the radio. I asked if he had anything in mind, and he said that he wanted to listen to his dad’s favorite station. I obliged, switching the channel until I hit the right one, then started carefully backing out of the driveway.

As we pulled up to the cabin in the woods on the dirt road, I turned down the radio and took note of how none of the lights were on outside or inside, even though it was getting dark enough to need them— especially out in the woods. 

After parking the car just out front, I turned around in my seat to get a look at Jack. “Stay here, little man. I’ll be back soon.” Jack nodded and looked down at his tablet to continue playing his game.

I got out of the car with the windows cracked a bit for Jack. Since the sun was practically gone and night time was beginning, it wasn’t warm enough to worry about Jack overheating, but still. Besides, I wasn’t planning on being inside for too long. If Gideon was there, I was going to ask if he was alright, talk to him a bit, maybe even see if Jack could sit inside while we talked. If Gideon wasn’t there, however, there was really no point in staying at all.

As I approached the front door, I looked over my shoulder to get another quick glance at the car to make sure that it was still there and Jack was still alright— as if something could have possibly happened within the past ten seconds or so. When everything seemed fine, I looked back to the front door and knocked a couple of times before taking a small step back to wait. A minute or so passed, yet no one came to the door. So I tried again and waited. Still nothing, so I tried the doorknob to see if he had locked up at all.

The door was unlocked and opened with ease as I carefully pushed in. I glanced again over my shoulder to look at the car and saw that Jack was still looking at his tablet. When I looked at the door again, I instinctively reached for my gun on my hip, only to find that there was nothing there. For a moment, I cursed Strauss and this damn suspension.

“Gideon?” I called his name carefully after taking a step into the dark cabin. I reached to the side and blindly searched for the lightswitch on the wall, but even as I found it and flicked it, nothing happened. The power hadn’t been used in a while. “Gideon?” I called again, using my phone’s screen as a flashlight. I should have brought one with me, or used the one from the emergency kit in the car, but I really wasn’t that smart to put it together yet. “It’s just me, Y/N.” Still no response. I shuffled over to the sofa where there was a camp lantern sitting on a table, and turned it on. It was a miracle that I finally had a more powerful light than just my flip phone’s inside screen. “Gideon?” Holding the lantern out in front of me, I walked into the kitchen area.

Sitting on the table ahead of me was a vase of dead flowers with Gideon’s credentials and gun propped up against it. Trapped beneath them, laying right against the table, was an envelope. I cautiously approached, just to triple check that the scene was what I expected it to be. Between the flowers and the gifts, I knew that Gideonn was long gone. He had set up the cabin for someone to find these things and understand that he wasn’t coming back. That was why the power was out, too. He had been gone for who knew how long, and we all just thought that he needed some space. I never in a million years thought that Gideon would just up and leave like this.

I grabbed the envelope, pulling it out from under his badge and gun, and lifted it up to the lamp to get a look at who it was addressed to. Spencer Reid. Of course. Like I said before, Gideon would never leave without telling Reid, that was how close they were. And while Gideon hadn’t given any heads up— probably because he didn’t want to be stopped— he left one last goodbye for the kid he considered to be a son to him. It was a letter just for him, and I had no right snooping, despite the urge to do so. I had my answers about Gideon. I knew why he left, I knew that he wasn’t okay, but I also knew that I would never be able to find him… and even if I did, was there a point in going after him? No. He wasn’t going to come back, no matter how much any of us begged and pleaded.

After I put the letter back down just as I had found it, I turned the lamp off and slowly made my way out of the cabin. The contents in that letter and the gifts that were left were for Reid, no one else. If Gideon wanted it that way, then that was how it was going to be.

I sighed as I got back into the car and flipped my phone open to call Hotch. He was probably already on the jet home, but I figured that I should tell him about Gideon as soon as possible, and that Reid should come out to the cabin, too. Jack was dead asleep in the back seat as I caught a glimpse of him through the rearview mirror to make sure that he was alright. His mouth was open, drool dripping onto the seat belt he was resting his head on. I chuckled quietly at him and made a silent promise to myself that I would get him home as soon as possible.

The call rang a couple of times as Hotch was likely digging around in all of his pockets to find his phone. After a few moments, the ringing stopped and I heard Hotch whisper a “Hello?” into the phone. The team must have been asleep on the jet and he was trying to be courteous by not waking them up when answering my call.

“Hi, baby,” I said into the phone, picking at the leather on the steering wheel to occupy myself.

I heard Hotch sigh with relief. “I’m so glad to hear your voice.” I could practically hear him smiling through the call. “I was going to call, but everyone crashed as soon as we took off. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I just wanted to let you know that Jack and I are out at Gideon’s cabin, and he’s not here.” I looked through the rearview mirror again to make sure that Jack was still asleep. “He’s gone, Hotch. He left a note for Spencer and he ran. I don’t think he’s coming back.”

“Because of Sarah?”

“I didn’t read the letter, but that’s my best guess.” My gaze was still trained on Jack. “I don’t blame him…”

“What do you mean?”

“If I lost one of you, I wouldn’t want to go back either.”

It was true. Hotch and Jack were my life now. Even if I had my job back now, if I lost one of them, I knew that I could never go back to work without being completely… lost and empty. Even worse was if I were to lose them to an Unsub, just like Gideon lost Sarah to Frank. If that happened, how was I supposed to trust myself to do my job— which was saving lives by putting bad people away— if I couldn’t even save those closest to me? If I didn’t have Jack or Hotch suddenly, I wasn’t sure if I would even be able function. Just being away from Hotch for the day while he was gone on his case felt like the end of the world. I couldn’t imagine having to be away from him any longer than that. I’d probably stop breathing altogether.

“You’re not going to lose us,” Hotch promised quietly, like he was feeling the same aching in his chest that I had. It hurt to even think about the worst. “I won't let anything happen to our family. Do you hear me?” I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “I love you.”

It hadn’t dawned on me quite yet what he said. Subconsciously, I processed his words and found comfort in them, but it wasn’t until he told me he had to go, and we exchanged one “I love you” each, then ended the call that I suddenly realized. It hit me like a train, hearing his words echo in my mind over and over again. Our family. He said that he wouldn’t let anything happen to our family. Deep down, I knew that I was his family, I guess, because I knew that him and Jack were mine, but to hear him finally say it aloud, I felt some kind of weight lift off my chest. I felt lighter and happier as I ran through what he said again. Our family. It felt like joining a club of sorts. Dating someone who already had a family was odd at first, because I felt like the outsider who had to find my place in the mess; but I liked how things turned out for us. Hotch and I seemed unbreakable and inseparable, I loved Jack like he was my own, and Haley and I actually, somehow, liked each other. There was no tension between me and Jack’s mother, which was probably a bigger relief for Hotch and Jack than for me. But I liked the dynamic, I liked our family. I liked that Hotch finally included me in the club, even though I technically had a membership for the past couple of months.

Was I crazy to be so in love with Aaron Hotchner? He was older than me, he had a son, he was my boss, he was entirely vanilla until he met me, and we seemed glued to the freaking hip. We hadn’t even been dating for that long. Everything happened so fast. I had only been working for him for a month, and suddenly we were going out, and a few months later, I was meeting his son and moving in with him. Were we moving too fast? Was that really why he didn’t want to talk about having kids with me in St. Louis? Perhaps I was a little too blinded by love to see that we were jumping the gun.

No.

We were happy. We were in love. I had never, ever felt this way before, and I wasn’t about to start ignoring those feelings. Why would I impede something that was so perfect? We deserved happiness. We deserved what we had. We deserved to move at whatever pace we saw fit, because Gideon and Sarah were proof that nothing was guaranteed. Something horrible could happen to us at any given moment, especially considering our career choice, so it made sense that we would want to have all of each other as fast as possible in order to not miss out anything.

Jack suddenly started snoring, earning a laugh from me as I broke away from my train of thought. I loved him so freaking much, there weren’t enough words to describe. When it came to loving Hotch, it was a fiery passion where I needed to feel, see, and hear him at all times. I needed to be around him 24/7 or I felt like a piece of me was missing. I know that’s, like, anti-feminist ideals— but it was true. Hotch completed a part of me that I didn’t realize I was missing, and without him around, that hole in my soul was impossible to not notice. When it came to loving Jack, though, it was in the kind of way that a mother bear would protect its cub. I knew that Jack wasn’t really my son, and there was always a chance that he could grow to hate me because he could think that I was trying to replace his mother— which I wasn’t, of course— or if Hotch and I ever separated for any reason, I wasn’t required to see Jack ever again. But I knew that I would protect him like he was my own. I would love him like he was my own. He was my family, afterall. He was our family. It felt so freaking good to admit that again. Our family.

Honestly, if I didn’t get my job back at the BAU, it didn’t sound horrible to just spend my time looking after Jack whenever we would have custody of him. I liked how we worked the case together. It was like doing junior detective work— or like he would call it “junior Superhero homework”.

As I started the car and turned on the headlights so that we could get home in time to meet Hotch, I heard Jack waking back up. I checked the rearview mirror again to see his eyes fluttering open. He wiped his eyes and looked around to see what was going on. “Are we going home?” he asked tiredly.

“Yeah, little man. Try to get some sleep.”

He nodded and nuzzled up against the seatbelt again. “Hey, Y/N?” I hummed a note that told him I was listening. “I love you.”

My shoulders slumped, my eyes softened, and my heart melted in my chest. “I love you, too, little man. I love you, too.”

[rheyninwrites]

Just wondering if you do any hcs for a uh horny Arthur, ik his drive would be really low but I just wonder what he would be like if he were really turned on. Love your writing btw ❤

First, I don’t think he actually has a low drive, I think he’s repressed it for fear of rejection. If the right person came along, he’d be going nuts. But it would have to be someone who he was not only REALLY physically attracted to, but also who he saw as a really kind person as well. If it was just someone attractive, he’d probably just jerk it a couple of times and get really angry and move on. But a kind person could probably break down his walls.

Before SO

The first time he lays eyes on you, he feels like he’s been hit by a train. He’s never been so instantly attracted to someone in his LIFE.

But he’s Arthur, so he does what he usually does anytime something brings up emotions he doesn’t want to deal with- he does his best to ignore it.

Then he starts to see how kind you are, the way you play with Jack, how you help Kieran with the horses and spend time with him even before the others accept him.

You’re even nice to MICAH. Even if you do make faces behind his back. Actually, that might be his favorite part.

Soon he finds he can’t get you off his mind. Your smile, your eyes, your hair, your voice- it’s all stuck in his head constantly.

It all becomes too much to stand when he starts having dreams about you, ones that have him waking up rock hard and breathing heavy, wanting you so much it hurts.

He wakes up just before dawn one morning, hard for you again, and decides to slope off into the woods to take care of things.

He feels terribly guilty, stroking his cock while thinking about you, but he desperately needed some kind of relief. Besides, he’s a bad man anyway, what’s one more thing?

He comes harder than he ever has before, barely able to stop himself from screaming your name, stumbling to lean against the nearest tree for support.

Soon he’s chasing that high again and again, looking for any and every opportunity to be alone, intentionally taking longer when he’s away so he can set up camp somewhere secluded and take his time, moaning as loud as he wants.

He craves you so much that soon he’s taking chances, even heading into the woods during the day at times because he can’t get you out of his head

He’s almost gotten caught more than once, and he know he should stop, but you just make him feel so crazy, and it feels so good when he’s thinking about you

Then one day, he’s just finished and sitting collapsed against a tree, face still flushed and chest heaving, and he hears footsteps. The next thing he knows, you’re looking down at him, concern in your face, asking him if he’s alright.

To say he’s mortified is a gross understatement. He’s positively humiliated. He’d literally JUST put himself away, and he’s really hoping you don’t notice the sticky mess that’s just beside your foot.

He jumps up and practically runs away, which makes him feel even worse, because you were just worried about him.

Now he can’t even look at you in camp without feeling his face get bright red.

You finally ask Charles if he’s mad at you, because he keeps leaving anytime he sees you and won’t even return your greetings

When Charles asks him about it, at first he doesn’t get why you think that, then it hits him, and he hates himself for it.

He tells Charles he just can’t get you out of his head, you’re so attractive, etc.

Which Charles tells you, and of course, you’re over the moon

So is Arthur when you ask him to spend time with you, letting him know you like him too

Post SO

Arthur has a hard time believing you’re actually attracted to him at first, and he doesn’t want to push you into anything you don’t want to do, so you’ll have to take the lead at first

But once he gets that you really do like him, you find him attractive, and you actually WANT to have sex with him, you’d better be prepared

He will want to be all over you all the time. ALL THE TIME. He’s got a lot of catching up to do, after all, too many years spent lonely.

Watch him closely when in camp. He has no qualms about sneaking up behind you and starting to touch you, especially if you’re busy with chores

He’ll try his hardest to make you come without anybody noticing, letting his cock press against you to remind you how much he wants you.

He will volunteer the two of you for any and everything that will get you out of camp, just so he can fuck you as long and loud as he wants

And, trust me, he loves it when you’re loud, when you moan and call his name

It makes him happy to know he can make you feel like that, that you LET him

Plus he loves the faces you make. He honestly thinks the face you make when he makes you come is the most beautiful thing in the world.

If the gang’s on a job and the two of you can end up alone together while waiting, he’ll have no issues with taking you then & there, covering your mouth if he has to.

Something about the stress of potentially getting caught for both things at once does things to him, especially when he sees the flush of your cheeks from running, reminding him of other activities that make you look like that.

Be careful when he’s drunk. Not because he’s particularly handsy, but because he has a habit of spilling juicy details of the things you get up to. You’ll know it’s coming because he’ll look at you with a goofy grin and start that deep, throaty chuckle of his. Last time he even had Karen impressed.

The best thing to do if he starts is keep his mouth busy, or whisper in his ear about the things you’d like to do to him in the future. But know that, despite his usual drunken memory problems, he won’t forget what you say.

Despite how eager he often is, sometimes he feels like renting a room for a night or two.

He’ll pay for you both to have a bath, because he loves the warmth of your bodies together fresh from the bath, and the way your still damp skin feels against his lips.

These are practically marathon events, where he takes his time, kissing every part of your body, telling you how gorgeous you are, how happy you make him.

He’ll keep you in bed for hours at a time, wringing every drop of pleasure out of you, making sure you come for him again and again and again before he even THINKS about himself.

Expect to be completely exhausted in the best possible way, and probably walking funny for a few days.

[nimi0us]

La Squadra Strip Club AU

Considering the bullshit rate La Squadra is paid for their contracts, it had me thinking which side gigs each of them would have to make ends meet. This somehow devolved into something of a Strip Club AU, where the club is still under Diavolo/Passione's influence but all of La Squadra manages the club to some degree. I have no idea how this happened, but it was fun to write!:

Prosciutto 

One of the Bartenders of the Club

Uses his gig to listen in on information, especially info about or from potential targets

On slow nights, or when money is tight, he'll use Grateful Dead on customers so they'll keep buying drinks and keep his tip jar fat. 

If customers get too handsy with the dancers or harass them, he'll use Grateful Dead to make them so thirsty they'll have to come to his bar. He doesn't even greet them when they walk up, just gives them an ice cold glass of water and calmly explain how they are going to act when they go back to their seat if they want to enjoy the rest of their night. God forbid they don't give him a response he likes, he will personally throw them out of the bar.

Customers tend to ask him for clothing & relationship advice. He hates when customers come to him with their relationship problems, but he'll entertain discussions on clothing if it doesn't get in the way of his work (and monitoring) too much.

There's a rumor among the dancers that he's amazing on the pole. The few people who have seen him dance have been sworn to secrecy and refuse to confirm or deny his talents.

Risotto

One of the many Dancers of the Strip Club

Works on his own terms, meaning he absolutely refuses to wear anything that isn't made of leather & has his own music he wants to hear when he dances.

Dances to a mixed tracklist of sensual Doom Folk songs & rapid Industrial tracks. 

Has an absurdly large collection of leather harnesses, chokers, thigh high boots, and opera gloves for his look.

His music & clothing choices can be unsettling to the customers unfamiliar with his routine. Regulars tend to know which nights Risotto is coming in based on the sudden change of music so they can either grab a drink in the meantime or run to where he's working. Either or is likely. 

Dances either slowly & sensually, languid moves and body close to the pole like a lover, or like he's been completely possessed by sexual desire and rage. There's no in between.

Has a dedicated following of regulars who keep the money flowing.

Melone swears Risotto uses Metallica to arouse the customers so they pay him more, although if he does no one knows for sure.

Metallica has repeatedly saved him from particularly bad injuries from riskier moves on the pole.

Pesci

The club's beloved DJ. Works with the dancers to create a tracklist they can work to & occasionally remixes tracks with Melone when certain tracks just don't flow right. 

Dancers tend to vent to him on bad nights, finding him to be a kind ear during stressful moments. This ends up fostering long term work relationships between the dancers & Pesci over time.

Helps clean up the club on very slow nights & during the day. This usually results in him getting roped into many behind the scenes pictures with the dancers when they catch him. 

Can get Prosciutto to attend to any angry or fussy customers with a quick look of desperation. Prosciutto will tell him how to handle things on his own later but, whenever he witnesses Pesci's visible distress, he goes into protective big brother mode immediately. 

Some unsettled customers beg Pesci to change Risotto's track list, with Pesci promising to have a talk with Risotto when he gets a chance. He never does.

Melone

Wants to be a dancer but his skills, both on and off the pole, leave something to be desired

Manages the club's webpage & social media with Ghiacco, mainly the advertising & social media portions

In reality, maintaining the advertising for the webpage just gives him a chance to be extremely voyeuristic and take as many videos & photos of club nights as humanly possible

His eye for beauty really comes through in his photography, although there's an unusual amount of pictures of the dancer's feet

Prefers to work in one of the VIP booths when he's managing the social media pages or editing photos. When he's not doing that, he routinely dresses like he's one of the dancers while taking photos and videos around the club. He occasionally gets propositions and offers while wandering the club and, depending on the person, he'll either accept their offer and find a nearby (relatively private) room or brush them off. 

Some customers will ask for him, figuring he must be one of the dancers of the club. It irritates Risotto & Prosciutto, figuring his vices will result in future problems & confusion, while Pesci will point to where Melone currently is to get them out of his hair.

Ghiacco

Does the majority of technical maintenence concerning the club's webpage & social media.

Banned from speaking with customers on the club's social media page because he's gotten into (and started) one too many flame wars. Luckily, he isolates too much to cause problems in the club itself.

Usually hangs in the quieter back rooms so he can avoid annoying customers & the shitty music he doesn't like.

Gets flustered around some of the dancers, which result in them teasing him occasionally. It pisses him off but he secretly loves the attention.

Besides a select few, nobody knows he's played a part in coming up with the club's more popular dishes & food offered to customers in the VIP sections. He figures that, if he has to suffer working in the club instead of the comfort of his home, then he deserves good food too.

Formaggio

Works with Sorbet & Gelato concerning routine club maintenance outside of their office, including security concerns. Fixing equipment, helping Illuso set up his complicated routine, calming down bar fights, helping remove customers with the bouncers (or Prosciutto), etc. He's the club's Jack of All Trades, keeping the peace by helping things run as smoothly as possible.

If Sorbet & Gelato are off on a mission or pulling off a robbery during club hours, Formaggio usually picks up the slack. Risotto & Prosciutto help as needed, with Prosciutto handling customer concerns & Risotto handling whatever the dancers need when he's personally not performing. 

Occasionally joins in on Sorbet & Gelato's robbery schemes. His stand makes him useful for getting in and out of spaces the average person can't.

Will use Little Feet to shrink down & monitor customers he think could cause issues. Whenever things go wrong, he's there before anyone else to fix things.

Illuso

One of the many other dancers besides Risotto. His routine involves him dancing on multiple platforms of the club, sometimes seeming as if he's dancing on multiple poles at once. 

Customers have been trying to figure out the magic trick to his routine for years, figuring the club used expensive lights/cameras, a very good set designer, and a light technician to make it all work. In reality, Illuso just uses the reflections from conveniently placed mirrors & the pole to rapidly move himself, and occasionally Risotto, in between the different platforms throughout the club.

Actually isn't an amazing dancer, but the creativity he puts into his routine keeps the customers coming. 

Frequently argues with Risotto over musical choices when he gets him to join in on his routines. This ends up with Pesci being roped in, to his dismay, and Melone settling things by coming up with unusual remixes to songs the average person wouldn't think of. Sometimes the remixes work, combining Risotto's love of gloom with Illuso's penchant for funk & electronic beats. Other times the remixes just sound like Prince going through a bad goth phase.

Risotto tends to be the one doing the more complex dances in their joint routines. Alone, Illuso prefers effective simple moves that can be used in his routine with minimal potential for injury. If it wasn't for his tricks with Man in The Mirror, more would catch on that he's only an above average dancer. He doesn't really mind, he considers his work an experience in itself regardless.

Sorbet & Gelato

Managers of the Club by day, casual Bank & House Robbery Duo by night

Particularly rich customers who raise a fuss, especially if anyone has to throw them out, may find themselves being their next robbery target

The sexual openness of the club, especially with the knowledge of their close relationship, fosters a sense of freedom for customers. Customers know they can go here for a good time without judgment or having their desires publicly exposed.

Generally prefers to hang out in their joint office handling any business concerning the club or messages handed to them via Diavolo's many proxies.

Regardless, they are sometimes spotted in a VIP booth enjoying each other's company over drinks, food, and the occasionally requested for dancer. 

[bioluminescentwriting]

So Nat @haroldjagger Allison @littlebird006 and Amina @alototalk all tagged me to do Piper and Harry for Leesh @mackabees‘s super awesome couple thing and because I’m a natural procrastinator it’s taken me like a week but here it is and thanks for tagging me, this ended up being a blast to write

rules: choose a couple of fave photos/gifs/manips/etc of your ship! copy and paste the questions down below! answer as if you’re the characters that have been tagged! then tag some more of your fave ships/characters to answer next!

pretty sure everyone has done this already so yeah, here we go

WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO:

Make breakfast: harry

Cuddle the other for no reason: piper, probably, but harry definitely doesn’t mind a cuddle

Sleep on the couch after an argument: piper would probably make a big show of pulling out the extra sheets and sleeping on the couch if they got into a fight but she’d be regretting it when she was trying to fall asleep on the hard couch and harry would come down in the middle of the night and find her shifting on the couch and she’d pretend she was still mad at him but when he held out his hand and said ‘come on, petal, i miss you in bed’ she wouldn’t hesitate to take it

Drive and who is most likely to ride shotgun: harry’s driving if they want to get wherever they’re going without him pulling out all his hair with stress over piper’s terrible driving

Choose the music in the car: it’s a back and forth between them

Get jealous: both; piper’s would be more obvious, and harry’s would probably get him a bit possessive and hot and bothered

Break the expensive gift rule: harry because he’s fucking loaded

Remember anniversaries: both

Sneak sweets in the shopping cart: PIPER

Hog the covers at night: bertie

1. What do you do when the other is upset?

Piper: Harry is the worst when he’s upset because he gets all broody and he never wants to talk about what’s bothering him so usually its easier to let him come to me. He just has to work through things on his own sometimes and when he’s ready he’ll come talk it through with me. i just give him the space he needs until he’s ready to let me know what’s bothering him and then I just offer him whatever advice or support I can.

Harry: Piper is probably at the other end of the spectrum. She gets very emotional about things very easily, whether it’s anger or sadness or someone hurting her feelings. Usually I try and talk her down a bit so she isn’t so swept up in her emotions and then just help her in whatever way that she needs, whether its just to talk, or to help her find a solution, or even just to give her a hug.

2. Who is more romantic? Give examples.

Piper: Harry is definitely more romantic than I am. He’s always doing little things, like making me breakfast in bed, or offering a back massage after a long day, or surprising me with a date. And he’s got this habit of saying these things completely out of the blue that make my heart just melt. Or my toes curl, but usually he’s whispering those little things in my ear instead.

Harry: Okay, maybe I am a bit of a romantic, but Piper has her moments too. I mean, sure, she’s not the greatest cook --

Piper: hey!

Harry: -- and usually her schemes for dates somehow go wrong in the end and she once threw my back out trying to give me a massage but she always makes the effort and that’s what really matters.

3. What do your families think of your relationship?

Harry: My family have only met Piper over video chat and not in person but she’s still managed to win them over completely, naturally. I’m pretty sure my mum was just happy that I’d found someone to be with who understood me and loved me because I was so resistant to relationships in the past because of my job

Piper: It’s the same for me. My mum loves Harry. She’d been on me to settle down for ages which was ridiculous because I was only 23 and how many 23 year olds do you know that are settled down -- anyway, I’m pretty sure the fact that Harry was the one that managed to trap me into marriage so young made him a god in her eyes

Harry: What do you mean trap you? Of the two of us, I’m pretty sure I was the one being trapped.

Piper: You’re damn lucky I trapped you, I’m a blessing

Harry: There’s no one I’d rather be trapped by

Piper: You are such a bloody softie, honestly.

4. If you had to wear a couples costume for Halloween, what would you go as?

Piper: Couples costumes!! I have the perfect idea!

Harry: ... oh here we go

Piper: We would definitely dress up as Mulder and Scully, which is perfect because I’m a redhead and technically a doctor too and Harry’s very... uh...

Harry: No, go on, finish that sentence. What particular quality of Mulder’s do I embody so perfectly in your mind

Piper: I mean, even you can’t deny that you’re a bit of a conspiracy theorist

Harry: I’m a spy, I’m supposed to be skeptical, it’s part of the bloody job description!

Piper: Okay but you can’t deny that’s something Mulder would say too

5. Are you both earlier risers? Or do you both sleep in? Or is there one of each?

Harry: Piper would sleep in until the evening if she had the option, she is definitely not an early riser

Piper: And Harry is inhuman and likes to rise before the sun basically every day

Harry: I just prefer getting an early start to my day and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Although, I can be persuaded to stay in bed a little longer in the morning. With the right incentive, that is.

6. Do you have any routines at night? Before bed, in bed, etc.

Piper: Nighttime routines can be a bit of an ordeal with the kids. They’ve gotten used to things being a certain way and some of them don’t like having the plans deviate. Basically, I’m in charge of getting Violet ready for bed and tucking her in and Harry tackles Jack and keeps an eye on Sara who insists on doing everything on her own. And we swap out story time with the kids so one week Harry will do stories with Sara while I do stories with Violet and then we’ll swtich. And Jack just usually goes along with whoever picks him up first because he just likes a good cuddle before bed. So does Harry, for that matter.

Harry: There’s nothing wrong with liking a good cuddle. It’s nice, sometimes, after all the hustle and bustle during the day at work and with the kids to just lie with Piper in my arms and just be together. When she’s not in the mood to read before bed, she sort of likes to just burrow against me and snuggle in and I really like that time. Except when she gets a bit handsy during cuddle time

Piper: Excuse you, you love when I get handsy during cuddle time because it generally means you’re going to end up getting off

Harry: Maybe, but don’t pretend you don’t have ulterior motives too

Piper: Oh, I’m never pretending, I always have ulterior motives and luckily for me, you’re very easy to convince.

7. What nicknames do you have for each other?

Harry: Piper will always be my petal

Piper: I don’t really have any nicknames for Harry, although every now and then I’ll call him ‘baby’ by accident and he never seems to mind

8. Say you had a child, who is the strict parent and who is the lenient parent?

Harry: I think we’re both pretty balanced actually. I wouldn’t say either of us is more lenient or more strict with the kids than the other one is.

Piper: I definitely agree. I think I always expected it to be me being the lenient one and Harry being the strict one, just because of our personalities, but the kids bring out a playful side in Harry that sort of mellows out the stricter habits he’s picked up over the years from his job, and I think I’m okay with being firm when I have to.

Harry: The important thing with Piper and I is that we’re on the same page with how we deal with the kids getting emotional or acting out. We’re all about talking in this family, rather than getting angry or upset, and I think that helps a lot

Piper: But we’ve got three amazing kids so it’s not too hard to keep it balanced. You know, I think, overall, we’ve done a pretty damn good job raising our family.

Harry: I couldn’t agree more.

9. Would you rather go to a fancy restaurant for a date or stay at home and watch movies with pizza?

Piper: I think movies and pizza is more common with us because of the kids so I always think its really nice going out to a fancy restaurant once in a while just to keep the romance alive.

Harry: I agree, I love taking Piper out. Seeing her all dolled up always drives me crazy and I always have a good time teasing her a bit and making her blush to get her all riled up so when we get back to an empty house and the kids are away, we can relive some excellent past dates we’ve had

Piper: Thank god Louis and El take the kids for the night because it’s always a struggle keeping quiet on date night

10. What first attracted you about the other person?

Piper: Obviously Harry’s incredibly handsome so that helped attract me to him but I think the thing that really sealed the deal was that he was so confident but that there was a gentle side of him underneath it. When we first met, I was a bit thrown off my how assertive he was but also thought it was incredibly sexy. But it wasn’t until I saw how sweet he was, how kind and tender and loving he was with me even though we’d only just met, how he cared about me and wasn’t ashamed to show it -- that’s when I knew it was love.

Harry: I was hooked on Piper after that very first phone call, just at the sound of her voice. All the way home from that mission, it stuck with me and I couldn’t shake it, and I just knew I had to meet her. And now here we are, years later, and I’m lucky enough to wake up to that voice every single morning.