#LAST SEEN IN THE LITTLE BLACK DRESS WATCH OUT FOR THOSE EYES CUZ SHES ARMED AND DANGEROUS LIKE BOWWWW

[lesbiradshaw]

Monica Barbaro for Bvlgari

September 4, 2024

[descendantofthesparrow]

Shuffle Playlist - Rewrite - Part of Your World - Harry Hook x Reader - Part 15 - Sleepy mornings and try outs

*this is pretty much just a filler chapter srry if its boring*

=

You woke up to the sound of your alarm going off, Harry groaning into your neck as you smacked it to make it shut up. You peeled open your eyes, letting out a harsh breath as the sun just barely peeked through the shut curtains. “what time-“ you glanced at the alarm clock, harry yelping as you suddenly sat up and knocked him off your torso “WHAT THE FUCK ITS 9 AM?!”

You tried to remember what time you and harry had gone to take your nap…you got back to your room at like, 1:20 pm, Harry took a thirty-minute bath, it was twenty minutes doing his nails and-2:10pm that’s when you and Harry went down soo that was…19 fucking hours of sleep holy shit.

“What's wrong?” Harry's groggy voice finally broke through your bewilderment. You turned and let out a soft sigh, smiling at his slightly grumpy look, his eyes almost completely closed and his hair a fluffy mess.

“We slept for nineteen hours hun” you chuckled, bursting out into laughter as Harry just stared at you for a moment and then pushed his head into your pillow and tried to pull the blanket over his face. “Harry no, we have to get up, we missed lunch and dinner, we need to eat” you pulled back the blanket, leaning down to press a kiss to his cheek “Come on”

He made a grumbled complaint but obeyed, slowly sitting up only to rest his cheek on your shoulder and lean heavily into you. You rolled your eyes with a fond smile on your face as his arms wrapped around your waist and tugged you into him “Yes yes I know, cuddles are great, but Saturday pancakes are even better” he peaked up at you again and seemed to consider your bribe before closing his eyes again and tightening his grip. “Alright, then I guess I’m going to breakfast alone and leaving you here in this warm bed that’s going to turn cold without me here to cuddle you~” Harry groaned and finally sat up, pouting as he dragged his feet to his room to get dressed “Thank you!”

He let out a small grumble and opened your door, shaking his head to wake himself up more. The door closed behind him as he stepped out and you jumped off your bed to get dressed.

You decided on a comfy red long-sleeved shirt that you had also commandeered from Harry a few weeks back, your most comfortable pair of jeans, and some black sneakers.

You freshened up in your bathroom and sighed, grabbing your key to lock your door when you saw a note on your corkboard. You walked closer to it and took it off the board, holding it close to read.

-Thank you for helping me design yours, Harry’s, and Gil’s outfits, it saved me a lot of brainpower I needed for other things :3

-Evie <3-

You smiled and set the note on your desk, grabbing your bag and checking inside, nodding as you spotted your sketchbook, pencil, eraser, and some snacks inside. You grabbed your phone from your desk and walked out of your room.

As you locked your door you heard Harry's dorm room door open and close, arms wrapping around your waist moments later “Hi love” you hummed, turning in Harry's grip and pecking his nose, smiling at the small grin that came from your affection “Come on, let's go get some food, we need the energy for today” He gave you an odd look before he remembered

“oh, righ’ cotillion” he grumbled, hands sliding up your waist and trailing down your arms, intertwining his fingers with yours. You squeezed his hand and walked down the halls with him, humming to yourself as you walked towards the cafeteria.

“So how are you feeling today?” Harry thought for a moment, rolling his shoulders and tensing his arms, then shrugged.

“Not sore anymore, I think the bath helped with tha’” you nodded in relief.

“That’s good, I wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable the entire day, soreness is not good for dancing” Harry rolled his eyes at that and snorted.

“Yes, because that’s all I’m goin’ ta do, dance” you gently pinched his arm with your free hand “oi!” you snickered at the noise he made and pushed open the cafeteria doors, the smell of pancakes, waffles, French toast, eggs, bacon, and many other breakfast foods invading your senses.

“Yum,” you hummed, squeezing Harry's hand one last time before moving to get in line for your food “find a table for us?” Harry nodded and looked around, spotting the vks sitting around a large rectangle table with two more spots open. He walked towards it and plopped down next to Carlos, who shifted to the side a bit to give harry a bit more room.

“morning~” Evie sang, giggling a bit as Harry crossed his arms on the table and laid his head down on them “oh someone’s sleepy~”

Harry just grunted and lifted one of his arms from below his head and placed it over his face, hiding the light from his eyes. “I haven’t seen you or (y/n) since the talk…where the heck have you been?” Jay asked through a stick of French toast, reaching forward and poking at Harry's bedhead.

“When I went to go drop off (y/n)s dress they were asleep…I think It was like, four-thirty? So, I think they’ve just been sleeping the entire time” Evie laughed, turning and smiling as you passed around the table and set a tray in front of Harry and sitting down across from him. Harry parked up, licking his lips as he looked at his pancakes, sunny side up eggs, bacon, and strawberries. “so, where have you two been for the last day?”

You snorted, facepalming a bit “we slept for nineteen fucking hours Eve” the table stared at you in shock as they snickered at the absurdity of your words “I know I know, but one moment it was two-thirty the next it was nine am”

Carlos sighed, shaking his head “you two are not going to be able to sleep for two days” Harry grunted through his fork as you rolled your eyes.

“Whatever, I have a fucked-up sleep schedule anyway not like that’s going to do me any worse” Harry snorted at that, pausing the inhaling of his food and gulping down his apple juice.

Evie clicked her tongue in disapproval and stood, taking her empty tray with her “I bet you’re happy that summer vacation is soon, then you can sleep till your heart's content without missing class” you grinned at her as she walked away towards the trash cans.

“When’s summer vacation start again?” Gil asked, shoving a hard-boiled egg in his mouth, nodding as Carlos answered for him.

“Monday, I think yesterday was the last day of school but I think we were all a little busy doing something else heh” you hummed, tapping your finger on your cheek.

“I think yesterday was a start of a three-day weekend, FG said something about letting everyone get a day of rest before cotillion” Carlos squinted a bit and nodded.

“Yeah, I think I remember her saying something like that, well, at least we won't get in trouble for missing algebra” the table snickered a bit, Harry pushing his empty try towards you and laying his head back down on his arms. “Geez you two sleep for nineteen hours and he’s still tired.”

“Well, I don’t think he slept on the isle, plus sleeping too much can make you even more tired, Harry come on, you can’t go back to sleep” you shoved at his shoulders, giving him a soft smile as he glared at you “I’m sorry love, I’ll get you some coffee from the café how bout that?” he kept glaring for another moment before it softened.

“Mocha-Caramel frappe” he flopped his head back down and his shoulders rose and sank in a quick motion.

You stared at him for a moment before looking at the others “those don’t have a lot of caffeine, right?” Mal shook her head “okay you answered that way too quickly” she snorted and smiled at you.

“Just order with an extra shot of espresso, that’ll keep him for the day and through cotillion” You mentally noted that and thanked Mal, turning back to Harry and pushing at his shoulder.

“Harry, come on, go with Gil to the amphitheater, I apparently have some people to watch try out for the team” he let out another grumble, pouting as Gil stood from the table, handed you his tray, and hoisted Harry from his seat, carrying him in a fireman's hold before Harry forced Gil to put him down. You giggled as Harry grumpily made his way to the amphitheater with Gil just behind him, hopefully preventing Harry from running back to your room to get more sleep.

“When did you learn ‘bout the new ones?” Jay asked through a mouthful of waffles, swallowing them down with cafeteria coffee.

“When I woke up to a text from Fergus, get this, we have ten people who signed up for the team” Jay and Carlos’ jaws dropped “I know right?”

“Probably cuz you kicked off Chad, right?” Mal guessed, popping her last strawberry in her mouth and laughing as you winked at her.

“yep, I’m fully betting on that” you took yours, Harry’s, and Gil’s empty trays and walked towards the trash can, raising your brow as you saw Evie was still standing there, now talking to some of the girls who had gotten their dresses asking styling questions.

“oh, I would do a natural look with some rouge lips, it would make your eyes and dress pop a bit more” Sophia; Robin Hood’s daughter, nodded and pulled out her phone, going to look up make-up references before you pulled Evie away.

“Sorry girls, I’ll be stealing the princess now” the others whined as you set your trays on top of the can and pulled Evie by her arm back towards the vks.

Evie let out a sigh of relief and slumped against you “thank you (y/n)! I would have been stuck there for ages! I love helping style but I’m still not fully awake and ready to deal with all that” you hummed in response and let go of Evie as you arrived back at the VK table.

“alright I’ll see you guys later, I gotta go look at R.O.A.R tryouts” the four VKs nodded and engaged in their own conversation.

You spun on your heel and walked out of the cafeteria building, making your way back towards the main school to get to the amphitheater inside. Passing by a couple of students who were grabbing the last of their school supplies before summer vacation started.

You pushed the doors to the amphitheater open and nodded to the group that was standing just to the side of the main ring, they nodded back and you walked over to Harry, Gil, and coach, the latter handing you a clipboard with the names of the those who were trying out.

Amra Triton

Raven Loxley

Kuzo Emporia (made up last name don’t come for me)

Ellie DunBroch

Alvin Oldenburg

Yuan Yao

Adrian Liddell

Tyron Maldon

 Eva Fitzherbert

 Pax Darling

You nodded to yourself as you looked over the names, you glanced up from the clipboard and let out a piercing whistle, the new recruits immediately falling into line. “alright! We’re gonna do this tournament style! The last one standing gets the spot! Any cheating and you’re permanently banned from even trying out for the team. Line up just in front of the boxes, two lines please!”

The recruits obeyed and lined up, two lines of five in front of you.

You started to call the match.

“Ressembler!”

“salute”

“lower the point”

“masks down”

“en garde!”

You waited a few tense moments before letting out another whistle, the chaos of the fight almost immediately deafening the room. Ellie quickly took out two others, flipping over Pax and landing behind them, spinning on her heel and smacking their butt. Pax quickly spun around and blocked another swing of Ellie's sword, the two quickly delving into their own match.

You looked over at Tyron and Yuan, the latter of the two easily kicking the former's ass. Tyron let out a yelp as he fell to the floor, sword sliding across the ring and hitting the wall.

“Tyron; out! Stand behind the line!” the teen smiled at Yuan and hopped up from the ground, jogging over to the line that was behind you and coach and continuing to watch the mini-tournament.

Amra and Adrian’s swords were flung out of their hands, coach quickly calling them out of the ring. They moved to stand by Tyron and watched the rest with rapt excitement.

Ellie finally managed to disarm Pax and caught the sword she had sent flying with her free hand. Pax let out a sigh and ran over to the others who had been called out.

Ellie turned to Raven and the two immediately began to clash swords, the others still in the match stopping for a moment to watch with wide eyes as the two girls easily matched the skill of the other and blocked and parried so hard the blades shook.

Eva took the chance of the distraction and took Kuzo out of the match, the latter pouting as they stomped over to the others.

It was down to five; you let out another whistle, making them split apart and stand at attention.

“stand around the blocks and wait for the signal” once more they obeyed and stood around the ring, just next to the parkour blocks.

You and Gil watched with rapt attention as the last five started at each other with giddy looks, Eva and Ellie flipping their blades to release some of their energy.

You let out another whistle, laughing a bit as Ellie launched herself at Alvin and took him down within seconds. The boy huffed to himself and scooted out of the ring, sitting crisscross on the floor and leaning back on his palms with a grin.

Now only four left, it was two versus two for a moment before Yuan kicked Eva out of the ring, leaving just the three girls to battle for the spot on the team.

Ellie jumped back as Yuan swung at her, the latter blocking a stab from Raven in a swift motion before spinning into a crouch and kicking Raven's feet out from under her. Yuan kicked Raven’s sword away and ran towards Ellie as Raven was pulled out of the ring.

“last two” Gil muttered to harry, mentally wishing he had popcorn, this was better than those action movies Ben had shown them. Harry let out a low grunt, while the fight was exciting, he was still pretty tired and was just wanting to go back to bed until cotillion.

Ellie and Yuan quickly clashed swords, the two evenly matched as they danced around each other.

Swing, parry, block, thrust forward, block, flip over parkour block, parry, swing, miss, flip, block, repeat.

Then, at last, Yuan’s foot slid just a bit more than she was meaning to and Ellie took the chance, placing her foot behind Yuan’s and sliding it back, throwing Yuan’s balance off.

Ellie ducked under Yuan’s arm and hoisted her up, flipping her over her shoulder and slamming her into the ground.

“call it!” Coach yelled out, the two girls halted in their fight and stared at each other, their chests heaving with heavy breaths.

You walked into the ring, holding out your hand to Ellie who grinned and eagerly took it “congrats Ellie, welcome to the team!”

The others who had been defeated cheered and walked over, ruffling Ellie's hair and congratulating her “and great job to the rest of you, if there's ever another spot open, I want you all to try out again!”

They call cheered in agreement, setting down their gear and walking over to coach as he called them over.

You walked over to Harry and cupped his face, tilting his head up to you and smiling at him “hey sleepy baby, how bout that mocha-caramel frappe now hm?” he gave a soft smile and nodded, grabbing onto your offered hand and pulling himself up, wrapping his arm around your shoulder and leaning towards the doors “Okay okay we’re going, see you guys!”

Ellie and the others waved back before turning back to coach.

You, Harry, and Gil walked out of the school and headed to the campus café.

-

It was only two hours to Cotillion. And Uma was pacing around Ben’s room, she had spelled the king only 10 minutes before, but now she had to wait the two hours till 6 pm to even do anything, lest anybody get suspicious.

Luckily Ben had let her stay in his room at the castle and informed everyone that his room was not to be entered till after cotillion. Possibly; that it could have also created suspicion but Uma was not aware of Ben's habits enough to know that it would or not.

But she would have her revenge on Auradon, and do what had been promised 5 months ago.

The barrier would come down.

And Harry and Gil would regret betraying her.

-end part 15-

Srry again if this one was boring but at least it ended interesting?? Anyway, cotillion starts next chapter!

permtaglist

@queer-cosette​ @sephiralorange​

@lunanight2012​ @daughter-of-the-stars11​

@musicarose​ @descendantsobsessed​

@random-thoughts-003​ @remembered-license​

@verboetoperee​ @rintheemolion​ @thecaptainsgingersnap​

@imtryingthisout​

taglist

@thesailbells​ @beccad10x​

[interstellarrambles]

I’ve never requested anything from anyone but I’m in desperate need for a billy x goth!reader. Idk just how he noticed her in school cuz she is the only goth person and always asks her out and they flirt but she always rejects him until one day she agrees. Idk if that makes sense but thank u :)

a/n: so I dont know how to feel about this, I might edit and come and change it because I'm not sure of the ending, but if you like it, let me know! I tried to make it sweet at the end but this is definitely out of character for Billy, but I'm soft for him so idc. @savvy7392 I really really really hope you like this im sorry it took ages

harsh, confident and undeniably cool: everyone at Hawkins High knew not to fuck with you - you'd forged your own path in previous years and showed no signs of slowing down any time soon. there was just something about you that made people want to simply observe from the sidelines. known for dark makeup, brash music and taking no one's bullshit, you were somewhat of a divisive figure: people either really hated you and tried to make your life misery (to not much avail) or desperately wanted to befriend you.

somehow, along the way you'd made friends with the likes of Robin and by association, Steve, but you were happy with your small group of friends and didn't really care all that much for your hometown and what (or who) it had to offer.

therefore, when a fresh faced californian boy toy entered Hawkins High, you couldn't deny there was a certain allure to his cool demeanour and newness. unluckily for you, Billy found his place with the current popular kids sucking up to him and soon the rumours about you began to surface again. whenever you caught his eyes within the first few days of his arrival, his gaze would be quickly diverted by Tina or Carol as they glared at you or threw insults. that's why you decided it really wasn't worth getting involved with Billy Hargrove, even if he did have an amazing taste in music.

but God did you misunderstand the lengths to which this boy would go for your attention.

the first few days, Billy would opt for a smile sent your way, enough to make you weak at the knees but not quite enough to make you wander over to him. group projects would be announced in class and when he tried to subtly join you, you'd amble to the opposite end of the room to be with a bunch of kids you didn't even know, just to avoid him. and Billy knew you did it on purpose since after sitting down with your respective groups, you caught his eye and simply winked at him.

almost dropping his pencil in surprise, he was genuinely unable to believe you had successfully ignored him in such a blatant way. smirking back at his gaping mouth and sparklingly amused eyes, you simply laughed it off, sparking a conversation up with the boy next to you as easily as you had rejected Billy. shaking his head in disbelief, he made a promise to himself he'd make you friends with him if it was the last thing he did.

another day, you arrived at school with a too-short black skirt on and Billy felt his heartrate quicken at simply catching one glimpse of you, his blood rushing just a little faster than usual. he would never have the guts to tell you, but he absolutely adored the way you dressed and how good it made you look.

unexpectedly, you treated him to an actual wave this morning, something that fuelled his pursuits. all day, he pestered you in class, forcing those who would usually take the seat next to you to move elsewhere so he could be closer to you. deep blue and bright with attraction, his eyes would drop down to your thighs and the way they looked so amazing in the skirt you were wearing. desperately, he wanted to say something about it to you, but he knew he'd trip over his words; already he had blushed intensely when you caught him staring, though at least he could tell you were enjoying his gaze.

rather annoyingly, you did like the attention, smiling to yourself when he would ignore other people so he could walk you to your next class even if he was rambling to himself the whole time. curls falling in his face and a cheesy grin playing on his cheeks were enough to make butterflies swarm your insides and you had a terrible time trying to hide it.

in reality, you really didn't want to be cruel since it appeared he didn't really have anyone that cared about him much past the muscles and cute eyes, but you also were not about to walk straight into a heartbreak with both eyes open. billy was definitely a bad influence, even to you, the resident goth of Hawkins High, and whether he meant it or not, you knew you would eventually get hurt.

the next time, he plagued your locker with letters and notes and waited next to it, a permanent grin locked onto his features.

a red shirt clung to his biceps, tan skin visible due to the multiple buttons left undone and a silver chain dangling and catching in the light. strong and slightly overpowering yet undeniably attractive, his unique smell of cologne and liquor and maybe a little something else invaded your private space, making you way too nervous to deal with him this late in the day.

weeks of notes and smiles and blue eyes meeting yours way too often had weakened your resolve and if it didn't disgust you so much you would be able to admit Billy was slowly turning your heart to mush. you couldn't listen to mötley crüe without thinking of him and every time you picked out an outfit, you wondered if he'd think you were beautiful or if he'd like the band on your shirt. his compliments and soft gestures like driving you home and giving you his jacket when it was raining (even if it didn't fit your look) had grown on you massively. now you would even go as far to say you enjoyed his company.

"heya baby girl," he drawled, the curl of his plump lips breathtaking in the worst ways, "fancy coming along with me for the evening?"

even though he exuded pure confidence, you didn't miss the way he resembled a kicked puppy when you smiled and responded, "I've got assignments pretty boy, no thanks," shovelling the letters into your bag and turning on your heel to walk home.

unfortunately, this wasn't quite good enough for Billy, hence why he followed quickly, his voice echoing after you, "what's with the ignoring me constantly y/n? you stand at parties and complain about the music and watch me all night and yet you walk away when I come up to you. I've seen you staring at me in class sometimes or at lunch when I'm not bothering you and whenever I catch your eye, you leave. you watch me all the time and yet every time I think you'll come over, you ignore me. if you don't like me, that's okay but I need to know now."

cheeks burning with embarrassment, your eyes dropped to the ground as he pulled you away into privacy. you didn't know what to say.

"billy..." you managed, still unable to meet his chaotic gaze as he stood only centimetres away, breathing hard while he awaited your response.

"what is it? just give me a reason." he almost pleaded, relaxing slightly when you gave him a smile and finally met his eyes.

"do you realise how badly your friends hate me? because I dress weird and I listen to music they don't and I've always been different and you hate that they don't like me. I can't spend five minutes with you in public before you get nervous, I'm sick of you hiding me away! you're fine with me unless there's someone around and I don't understand it and it is tearing me apart," your outburst pulled at him, making him feel terrible for calling you out prematurely.

"I like you Billy but I can't deal with that. I like my little life of listening to bad music with my friends and dreaming of getting away one day and hanging at the mall with Steve and Robin. I love sitting in your car and sharing those moments you don't let anyone else see. I do. but I wont let you pretend I don't exist."

shifting on your feet slightly, you realised how ridiculous the whole thing was and all you wanted was for billy to scoop you up in his arms and make the world better again. you wanted him to let you do his eyeliner and you wanted to feel his hands on your hips, his touch driving you wild. you wanted him to kiss you right now in the hallway and tell everyone else to screw off.

but life isn't a dream.

so you settled for Billy whispering his sorrys and offering you his hand, which was enough to nearly make you cry since he would never usually be so open in public. content, you followed him as he led you to his car, all the while promising he'd change things for you, only stopping to talk properly when you reached it.

"promise me something Billy?" after confirmation from him, you continued, leaning against the hood of his car, him stood only centimetres away "you'll never be ashamed of me?"

"never doll, there's nothing to be ashamed of," he leaned in, holding either side of your face ever so gently, and when the kiss finally broke, he whispered, "now how about a date?"

"okay pretty boy, you name it."

that was a good enough start.

[anonniemousefics]

Stars In The Darkness

Originally posted on AO3

Fandom: Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom | Kaz + Inej

Word count: 9,042

****Rating: NSFW (aged up characters)****

This is the conclusion to The Trouble With Wanting series, companion piece to Wildfire

TW for PTSD, heavy angst. An obligatory quarantine fic cuz I was in quarantine when I wrote this, lol.

KAZ

No mourners. No funerals.

Kaz Brekker leaned over the new porcelain sink in the bathroom attached to The Slat. He clutched both sides, sweat pouring from his forehead.

No mourners. No funerals.

He’d been saying the phrase so long, it had started to lose its meaning. For that he hated himself. Did anyone at all even understand what it meant? Had he ever even told anyone?

No mourners. No funerals.

Jordie had died alone, forgotten. No funeral. Not a single mourner. And he’d loved Jordie. His big brother had been his hero, his whole world, and no one else knew what the world had lost.

This alone should have crushed him. It would have. Instead, he made it his calling card. Jordie Rietveld, the original Crow. He didn’t need mourners. He didn’t need a funeral. No one did.

Because if the world hadn’t mourned Jordie, why should it mourn anyone else?

His stomach was threatening to heave again, and he white-knuckled the sink, breathing hard. Fuck. It had been years since it had been this bad. He stared at his bloodshot eyes in the mirror, demanding he get a fucking grip on himself.

No mourners. No funerals.

He thought he had been free. He’d spent well over a year on the puzzle of Inej Ghafa, and he thought that could have been enough. She loved him, she’d said so. And, gods, he loved her.

He’d been a fool to think that would be enough.

Now reality was sinking in with every toll of the plague alarm. He hadn’t banished any ghosts. He hadn’t buried any bodies. All he’d managed was to condition himself like a dumb lap dog, performing a trick so he could get a treat. And all the while, the dead had waited. And all the while, Jordie had watched.

And now Ketterdam would have its pound of flesh. Because he could blame Pekka Rollins until he was old and grey, but what had killed Jordie Rietveld had always been the plague. And there was no fighting the plague.

No mourners... No funerals…

It sounded insane now, because what the fuck was he supposed to do when the plague took Inej, too? Was he really going to stand there, stoic and unmoving, while the bodymen took her away? Was he really going to go on living, knowing her final resting place was a mass grave?

He’d been a fool. Such a damn, stupid fool.

And now he really couldn’t breathe. He was a fish out of water, his vision blurring as his throat closed around every inhale.

“Kaz!” Someone was pounding on the bathroom door. “Kaz, let me in.”

How many days until the bodies started piling up? How long did he have? Was there any way to get them out of the city? They all needed to get out. Inej, Jesper, Wylan. Anika, Pim, Rotty, Roeder. It was the only way. The only way to keep from losing everything again.

“Kaz, I will break down this door. Answer me, damnit.”

The king of Ravka owed him favors. Maybe it wasn’t too late to call them in—

INEJ

Fuck it.

Inej threw all of her weight into a massive kick, just above the bathroom doorknob. The door rattled and bowed, and the flimsy lock ripped through the doorframe as the door swung open.

Inside, Kaz staggered back from the sink, pale and perspiring. She’d never seen him looking so sloppy in her life. He hadn’t changed out of his dark sleeping trousers from the morning, but had managed to throw on a white undershirt that was now sweat-stained. And if he was startled, it lasted only a moment before he glared at the broken doorframe.

“Did you forget how to pick a lock?” he growled.

“Did you forget how to unlock a door?” Inej retorted. “I’ve been here almost an hour – how long have you been in here?”

But when she took a step towards him, he flinched back, holding a hand out to keep her away, and it was like they were nothing but street trash teenagers all over again. A knife twisted in Inej’s chest as she saw how his breathing labored, his gaze wouldn’t meet hers. For nearly a year, he’d made slow, steady progress with touch – so much so, she’d almost forgotten what his suffering looked like.

Now, it was worse than ever. He was pressing himself back against the far wall, clamping a hand over his mouth like he was trying not to be sick.

“Breathe,” she told him, calmly. “Just breathe, Kaz. We’re here, together, safe in The Slat. Breathe.”

Kaz clenched his fists at his sides and drew in a stubborn, fighting breath through his nose. Outside, the plague alarms tolled.

“Those goddamn bells,” he rasped.

“I know, they’re awful,” Inej agreed. “When you’re feeling better, I’ll climb up and dismantle them.”

He opened his eyes long enough to shoot her an irritated glance.

“They serve a crucial function, Wraith.”

“Ok. I’ll leave them alone.”

“They’re preventing the spread of disease.”

“I said I’d leave them alone! Take a breath.”

And Kaz slid his back against the wall until he came to sit on the floor, defeated and spent.

KAZ

He was equal parts relieved she was back and terrified she was here with him. When he’d told her to get as far away as she could, he’d meant it. If she could get away from the necrotic infection that was his Ketterdam, she could live, and he could live knowing at least she was safe.

And now he was angry because why couldn’t she just listen to him? What did she know about firepox? What did she know about surviving a mindless, faceless killer?

He tried to heave a deep breath, but his throat felt like it was closing in. Bloated, dead flesh crowded against his ribs, his arms, his face, dragging him deeper toward the cold, unyielding darkness. He couldn’t stop shaking.

“I went to the docks,” came Inej’s calm voice. He was aware that she’d sat on the tile floor across from him, and he wasn’t sure yet if it made it better or worse. Just that morning, he’d had her bare and in his bed, writhing in his sheets and calling his name, and now he could hardly look at her without imagining her dead.

“You went to the docks,” he echoed, trying to find the present.

“Made sure the crew could find safe lodging for the foreseeable future,” Inej went on. “They’re saying it started in West Stave. Twelve new cases since yesterday. But I think our chances are pretty slim at this point. You’ve been chained to your desk for weeks, and I only docked yesterday. And we spent the evening arguing and pouting instead of going out.”

“I don’t pout.”

“It was me. I was pouting.”

“This is helping. Keep talking.”

“Bad news is they’ve shut down all businesses, so The Crow Club’s empty.”

“Fuuuck.”

“Good news is you and I now have unlimited liquor for the duration of this quarantine. And you look like you could use some. I’ve wanted to learn to mix drinks anyway. I could make you that fruity pink thing Sturmhond got sloshed on.”

“Dirtyhands doesn’t get sloshed on fruity pink things.”

“No one needs to know.”

His throat had opened up, and Kaz drew in a long, deep, shaking breath. The darkness had stopped its impending approach, and he was suddenly exhausted. His eyelids felt swollen when he opened his eyes again and looked over at Inej. His brave, brilliant girl. She was cross-legged in front of him, still dressed for the sea: tight olive-green trousers and a loose white blouse, her hands in her fingerless gloves and her long, oil-black braid resting over one shoulder. She was beautiful and commanding and alive, and it made his heart ache.

“Can you tell me what’s going on?” she asked. Her voice was softer now; she’d exchanged her light-hearted ribbing now that Kaz was no longer a gasping mess.

Kaz rubbed at his eyes. His mind was a fog, every thought spread out in disarray. He could only say the first thing that bubbled to the surface.

“You deserve so much more than this.”

“An admirable deflection, but that’s not it.” Inej slit her eyes at him, reading him like a book. Annoying. This wasn’t something he’d considered when she’d told him to take off the armor. He’d wanted to get laid; he didn’t want a damn mind reader.

That wasn’t exactly true, though, was it? But maybe it was a necessary lie. He was too attached, and this loss would not be one he could survive.

“You’re being a fool, Wraith,” Dirtyhands rasped.

INEJ

“Am I?” Well, well, well. So, this is how it was going to be, was it? Inej knew Dirtyhands when she saw him. She could tussle with this bastard all day. Sometimes she even liked it. “How so?”

Kaz’s pale face was set in a glare; he wanted a fight. And if he hadn’t tried this before, it may have even rattled Inej.

If anyone had seen their first kisses, they might have mistaken Kaz and Inej for an old married couple. The only kind of kiss either of them could handle was merely a brief peck on the cheek or the lips, as chaste as a greeting between relatives. Their bodies wouldn’t even brush. It had to look ridiculous, but Inej told herself it was good practice. Someday, they could have something like a real kiss, she told herself. For now, this was enough.

The last night before Inej was to set sail again, they sat opposite each other on the windowsill of The Slat, propped up against the frame, while Inej coaxed crows with breadcrumbs and made sure Kaz didn’t fall out the window. He’d had a couple drinks too many with Jesper and was more than a little amusing.

“I have a secret,” he slurred. He leaned his head back against the open window frame, his shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows.  

“Just one?” Inej quirked an eyebrow. Kaz gave a drunken chortle.  

“Good point.” He pointed at her. “Clever, clever Wraith.”

“What’s your secret?” Inej asked, with an amused smirk. Kaz gave a sloppy nod.

“It is terrifying to me that you live on a boat,” he confessed with a slow blink. Inej frowned.

“You bought me the boat,” she said. Kaz kept nodding, wide-eyed.

“I did,” he said. “A whole damn boat. And it looks so good on you, Inej. So good.”

“Thank you.” Inej tried to hide a laugh.  

“But I spend every day trying to convince myself that you’re not drowning. It’s – it’s not fun, Inej. It’s the opposite of fun – what’s the word?”  

“There are many to choose from,” Inej shrugged. “Is this fear because of…?” She wasn’t sure how to bring up the subject. The night he’d told her about nearly drowning, of using his brother’s body to swim to shore from Reaper’s Barge, had been the first time she’d ever seen tears in his eyes. She wasn’t proud of it, but it had startled her. It had thrown the balance of her world off so harshly that she’d tracked down Pekka Rollins that very night and carved his skin until she felt the scales tip again.  

“Probably,” was all Kaz would admit, and he rested one cheek against a gloved fist.

Inej considered this while she threw crumbs to the crows. She cared for him, so very much. And any time she thought of him as that abandoned little boy in the harbor, her insides crumbled.

“You should come out on the water with me,” she told him. “Let me show you it’s not what you remember.”

“Pass,” Kaz announced, a little too loudly.

“We could start small,” Inej persisted. “Take a little skiff on the canals.”

“The canals are disgusting.” Kaz practically looked petulant, like she was forcing vegetables on him. “Do you have any idea how many drunks piss in those canals? I’ve taken a piss in those canals.”  

Inej grimaced with a groan, but she wasn’t giving up on this idea now that it had seized her.

“I’m a sea captain, Kaz,” she said. “I’ve got you. You will not fall into the canals unless I decide you’re going to fall into the canals. And I haven’t decided yet; it depends on how nice you are to me.” She gave a prim little tilt of her chin as she shot him a coy glance. He was smiling like a silly fool.

“I want to kiss you,” he declared, and even though she knew he was drunk, her face still burned.

“Maybe you should,” she dared.

And for a moment, he sat still and stiff against the window frame, and she thought he would change the subject. But then, he swung his legs back inside the room and limped to where she sat. He towered over her, leaning against the window frame as he gazed over her face, and Inej watched the darkness in his eyes, holding her breath, praying that this time it could go differently.  

Then, slowly, he lifted one gloved hand to her chin, tilting her face up just slightly. She shivered at the brush of leather, missing the warmth of his hands but conceding this for now. And it hardly mattered considering the way he looked at her, his eyes like languid pools of chocolate, melting her.

He cupped her cheek, the pad of his thumb brushing her bottom lip, and she drew in a breath. His Adam’s apple bobbed with a nervous swallow, and she hardly dared to move as he slowly bent down, the tip of his nose brushing hers for a brief moment, before he brought his lips to touch hers.

And Inej wanted to pull him closer, to taste his mouth, to know that he burned for her just as she burned for him, but instead she waited, terrified this time that she could spook him with any sudden movements. And for a moment, it seemed to work.

For a moment, his eyes slid closed. For a moment, he held her there, brushing his lips over hers, dipping in to meet her mouth completely. Thank the Saints, she thought, her eyes closing, giving in. Thank you, thank you.

But only for a moment.

Because a moment later, his whole body went rigid, and he startled the crows away when he wrenched away with a gasp. Inej had to grab the window frame to keep from falling and really destroying the evening. And Kaz staggered backwards, crushing his eyes closed tight with a hand clamped over his mouth. Inej leapt after him before he could tip backwards, as unsteady as he was with drink.  

“Don’t,” he growled, pushing her back instead as he swayed and regained his balance. “Stay back.”

And as harsh as it sounded, it was still improvement. It was more than they’d ever had before, and he wasn’t vomiting or fainting, even with a fair amount of kvas in him. The kiss, as small as it was, left Inej dazzled. She stepped back from him, holding her hands out so he knew he had his space.

But Kaz wasn’t as satisfied. Far from it. In fact, he gave a frustrated roar and then turned and put his fist through the wall.

Inej barely had time to give a startled yelp. If he hadn’t have been wearing his gloves, Kaz surely would have torn his hand to shreds. As it was, he was holding it gingerly in the other hand, and Inej couldn’t be sure if he’d broken fingers or not.  

“Why do you come back here?” Kaz shouted when he whirled back at her, his teeth bared in fury. Inej clenched her fists.

“We have a deal,” she said, coldly. It was the language Dirtyhands understood.  

Kaz scoffed as he tried to move his injured fingers.

“To what end?” he spat, and ground his teeth in pain. “How long will it take you to realize there is nothing here for you to save?”  

“If you weren’t interested in being saved, you wouldn’t have struck the deal in the first place,” Inej shot back. If he was trying to push her away to save face, she wasn’t going quietly.  

“I have nothing to offer you,” Kaz gritted. “I can’t even--” but he couldn’t look at her.

Inej held out her hands toward him, offering to take his injured fingers in hers. He hesitated, the muscle in his jaw ticking.  

“All I have ever asked of you was your honesty and your time,” Inej said. “All I’ve ever wanted was for you to try.”  

And slowly Kaz turned, shuffling his weight off his bad leg, and put his wounded hand in hers, the leather dusted in plaster. She slowly started to pull back the leather to inspect the damage, and Kaz sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth.  

“I’m very drunk,” he complained.  

“I know you are.”

“This hurts.”  

“Don’t punch walls next time.”  

His knuckles were already swollen and bruised, but nothing looked broken. Nothing ice and a good bandage couldn’t fix.  

“Mati en sheva yelu,” he slurred in Suli. This action will have no echo. And the sincere, painful look he was giving her when she looked up at him in surprise made her want to kiss him all over again. “You know—you say it,” he tried to wave off her adoration.

“I do. I didn’t know you were listening.”  

“I’m always listening, Inej. Inej.” He sighed hard, looking longing at her lips. “It’s going to hurt so much worse than this when this is over.”

Inej looked up at him in surprise.

“Why would you say that?” she frowned.

“You wanted honesty.” Kaz swayed a little on his feet. “I’m giving you honesty. Nothing survives the Barrel. Not even me. Not even you. And now look at me--” He squared his wide shoulders, taking a shuffling step closer, close enough that she could feel his body warmth, smell the tang of wine on his breath. She found herself staring up at the painful depths of his dark eyes, the ache he let her see. “No armor now,” he said, his voice low.

For a moment, Inej’s knees felt weak beneath him, but it was that smell of the red wine that brought her back.

“You’re drunk,” she reminded him. He gave a petulant frown, and maybe that was the reason she found the courage to say the rest. “And if you’re trying to blame me for some unforeseen pain that may or may not even happen, in some misguided attempt to protect yourself from actually feeling something, well, then you’re far crueler than I took you for. And I will not tolerate your cruelty, Kaz Brekker.”  

And so she knew this strategy Kaz Brekker’s demons employed. And she stared him down on the bathroom floor, daring him to go on.

“How so?” she said again.

KAZ

Jordie would have been twenty-five. Jordie never got to dream, to build a name for himself, to live comfortably. Jordie never got to have a girl, to know what it was like to be adored, to wake up next to the same face you dreamt of.

Because of the firepox.

Why did I live? Why did I live?

Kaz was pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. Jordie was there, bloated, covered in sores, his vacant eyes glassy.

“How so?”

“The ship was your ticket out,” he rasped, finally, looking up at her. “I gave you the ship. I gave you your family. You were supposed to get far away from here before this happened again. You were supposed to leave.”

“I don’t believe you.” Inej shook her head.

“What do you want from me?” his voice strained, savagely. “Is it not enough to know that I love you and want you to live? You have to keep coming around here, endangering yourself and my crew--”

“Your crew?” Inej raised an angry, skeptical eyebrow.

“Look at me.” Somewhere under the fog of paranoia and haunted memory, Kaz knew he was nearing hysterics. “You are my weakness, a liability--”

But at that, Inej shot to her feet, and the very real threat of actually losing her was enough to shut even Dirtyhands up. She stared down at him, a glare laced with ice and pain and empathy all at once.

“I know you are hurting,” she said, “and I know this isn’t the reason. I know how impossible it can feel to find the source when the pain is all-encompassing. But that gives you no right speak to me this way. We have fought too long and come too far for this.”

The wash of guilt that followed crushed his chest, and Kaz sunk into the heels of his palms once again. She asked only for honesty, came a reminder from somewhere in his frenetic thoughts. Find the source, find the source. She was turning to leave the bathroom, and the dread of not having her voice, pulling him out of the dark, was far worse than any other horror his imagination could conjure up.

“Inej,” he said in a harsh scratch. His throat felt thick. She turned at the broken bathroom door, leaning her head against the frame. Waiting. Expecting.

He had to try.

“I can’t,” he started, and there it was. The source. His mind been twisting it all around in the fog, fumbling with it like a lock in the dark, when it was simple, really. “I can’t do this again,” he said at last, his voice breaking.

“Do what again,” said Inej, though she seemed to understand. She was going to make him say it.

He swallowed hard, his throat constricting.

“I can’t,” he pushed again, “I can’t lose everything to this again. I can’t do it.”

“You are not going to lose everything, Kaz,” Inej said, firmly, and she began to cross the tile back to him again.

“I can’t lose you to this.” He dared to look at her as she sat next to him, their backs against the wall. “Any of you. Jesper. Wylan. I can’t. I have so much more to lose this time.”

“You are not going to lose us.” Inej remained adamant, but Kaz gave a bitter, crooked smile even as he felt hot tears like pinpricks in his eyes. Jordie had made similar promises once. Jordie would have liked Inej.

“You can’t promise that.” His rasp was becoming a whisper. “You can’t promise any of that.”

And to her credit, Inej didn’t try to fight. It was firepox. It wasn’t a rival gang. There was no strategy. There was only the gamble. Outlast. Outlive. That’s all you could do.

Inej set her hand on his knee. He knew she would have liked to have done more, but he was grateful she didn’t try. This was enough.

“Then for tonight,” she said, “we’ll be scared. And we’ll be sad. And then tomorrow, we’ll pick up the pistols and the knives again. We’ll fight again another day.”

We. He didn’t deserve to be a We, but he feared the loss far more. And with a deep breath to summon his courage, he put his hand over hers. He had to wait a moment to allow the shudder to pass through him, but then he gave her fingers a squeeze in agreement. When he looked over at her, her big, brown eyes were glassy with tears.

“Kaz,” she said, softly, “tell me about Jordie.”

Kaz rested his head against the bathroom wall. There was so much to say about Jordie. He could have told her about the games he made up or the jokes he liked to tell or the useless toys he bought Kaz, just to see his little brother grin. He could have told her about his dangerous optimism or his blind ambition or his stupid hubris. He wanted to tell her how riding on Jordie’s shoulders had made him feel like an invincible giant, and what good were gods or Saints or Grisha if they couldn’t even protect a boy as deserving of life as Jordie?

Instead, Kaz Rietveld broke down and wept.

INEJ  

It was a long night, the first of many long nights. Inej wasn’t sure when Kaz finally fell asleep, but she awoke first and shuffled out of the attic in Kaz’s nightshirt, down to the empty kitchen of The Slat to percolate a kettle of strong black coffee. When she brought up cups, she found him sitting on the edge of the bed, bleary-eyed and disheveled. He couldn’t have slept more than two or three hours.

She handed him a cup of coffee without a word and noticed he avoided touching her fingers when he took the mug. She understood all too well how the tide of war against the demons of memory could shift dramatically with so little warning, and she was ready to tell him so when he let out a small, defeated sigh and leaned to rest his head against her stomach.

Had anyone ever seen the Bastard of the Barrel so broken? No one would ever know, the Wraith determined. She ran her fingers through the thick, soft hair at the top of his head, avoiding his scalp, and held him there against her. He gave no protest.

“I thought I had defeated this,” he said, after a long silence.

“The past can be tricky like that,” Inej replied. The dawn was golden over the tile rooftops of Ketterdam. “It has teeth, and sometimes it demands attention.”

“Suli proverb?”

“No.” Inej sighed. “Just the story of my life.”

Kaz was silent a moment as they both sat with their demons at the door. He lifted a hand like he wanted to hold her closer, but ended up tugging absentmindedly on the rolled-up sleeve of her nightshirt instead.

“You were ready.” The self-loathing in Kaz’s voice was palpable and twisted in Inej’s gut. “Yesterday, you wanted me to--”

“Kaz.” Inej stopped him and gave the back of his head a little tug so he’d look up at her. “Are you forgetting the terms of our deal? I want you. Mind, body, and soul. Those were your exact words. This,” she brushed back his sleep-disheveled hair with tender fingers and he closed his eyes, “this is all part of the deal. Your past, your memories, your fears – they are all a part of the man I love. I wouldn’t have you without them.”

Kaz was still beneath her fingers in his hair, but after a moment, his chest rose and fell with a sigh and he gave a little nod.

With the streets outside silent and abandoned, they spent the rest of the day in bed, sometimes sleeping, sometimes talking, always a safe distance from each other. When night fell, however, Inej woke up briefly to find Kaz’s bare hand fitted to her the slope of her waist as he slept, curled on his side. She smiled to herself in the dark.

KAZ

The plague bells continued to toll every day, a regular reminder of the reaper that spread like wildfire through the streets. The first three days were near-constant torment. Inej did her best to try to distract him with card games and books. She even got desperate and showed him knife tricks that made even him feel uneasy that she was going to hurt herself.

“Seriously, that’s enough,” he finally told her at one point. “I can’t go out and bring back a Tailor for you if you lose a finger today.”

“I am not going to lose a finger.” But she stopped anyway. He was grateful. Every moment of the day, his heart was pounding and his mind was racing while he watched for telltale signs. She’d grow tired first, then lose her appetite when the fever began to rise, and then would come the sores that would erupt all across her perfect body. It would rot her beautiful face. Sometimes, lying in bed, eyes closed, was all he could manage to do to keep himself from losing it completely.

But as the end of the first week drew near, they were both still healthy, and Kaz found he could go an hour without imagining her death. Each day grew a little more normal, and each day brought a little more freedom. He could show her card tricks and live entirely in the moment her face lit up in delighted wonder, no fear of the future. Each night, Inej would flit across the rooftops of Ketterdam to the Van Eck mansion, returning to The Slat with news that Jesper and Wylan were well and bored and sent their regards, and Kaz’s unease settled a bit more. By the second week, he could lie across from Inej at night, and his mind would fill with tender memories instead of horrors. Instead of her dying face, he thought of the sun shimmering on her golden brown skin, the harbor winds in her black hair, the rose petal-softness of her lips against his cheek.

How she convinced him to let her paddle him through the canals of Ketterdam, he’ll never know. Maybe it was partially his own fault. He was growing desperate to make progress, to hold her how he wanted to hold her, and it was becoming apparent to him that he had to confront what the waters brought up in him.

She’d stashed away her own money and bought herself a skiff, the first boat she’d purchased on her own, and her eyes dazzled when she spoke of it, and Kaz knew he wanted to see her captain it. He’d walked the decks of The Wraith with her, his heart soaring with pride as he watched her in her element. Kaz loved to see Inej happy. He loved nothing more.

But all of that couldn’t prevent him from sitting in the exact center of the skiff with his arms crossed in defense – against what? – and his body so rigid, the first harsh jostle of the skiff could snap him in two.

“You hate this,” Inej observed. She’d stopped rowing and came to sit next to him, facing the opposite direction. The canal waters were still as the skiff drifted forward. They were in a quiet part of town where the narrow streets were largely ignored. A shopkeeper swept the cobblestones in front of their shop; an old man smoked a pipe on the steps of a pub.  

“I never said that,” but Kaz didn’t look at her.  

“You didn’t have to.” Inej raised an eyebrow. “I’ll take us home.”

“No--”

“I’m glad you tried. That means a lot--”

“Inej.” He touched her wrist, his hands bare, and looked up at her face as she was about to move back to steer the boat. Her skin shone in the sunlight as the breeze swept strands of her hair across her face. Her eyes in the sunshine were like caramels. Kaz didn’t want to go back. That was the last thing he wanted.  

“I need new memories of the water,” he rasped. “That’s all.”

“Better memories,” Inej agreed, and she turned her hand, fitting her fingers through his. He closed his eyes while he took in the warmth of her palm against his, alive and perfect.  

And then it happened. His eyes still closed, he felt the soft brush of her lips against his cheek. His heart stuttered and warmed. It hadn’t felt revolting at all. It had surprised him, and he’d liked it. He’d actually liked it. He opened his eyes to her sweet smile, and he wanted more.

This was what he would always consider their first real kiss. He turned his body and wrapped one hand at her waist, holding her close. She didn’t flinch, didn’t shrink back. No, she leaned in. She wanted. He tilted his head to meet the slant of her lips and lost himself in her sweetness, with the sun bright overhead and the lazy lapping of canal water against the sides of the skiff.  

INEJ

“They’re lifting some quarantine measures,” Kaz told her over coffee one morning. Inej looked up at him, eager, as he scanned the headlines of the Ketterdam Ledger. The days had become routine in the microcosm of their world, and she desperately needed to tend to The Wraith.

“The harbors?” she asked.

“They’re not opening the harbors yet,” Kaz shook his head, then shot a glance at her, catching her frustration. “Not that that should stop us,” he said, folding up the paper.

A smile began to creep along Inej’s lips.

“Are you sure?” she questioned. In the first days of the quarantine, Kaz didn’t even want to leave the room. He’d laid rest to many demons since then, but his exhaustion was still fresh in her mind.

But the smile he gave back to her was a Dirtyhands smirk, and her stomach fluttered pleasantly.

“Figure out the quarantine guard shift change at the harbor,” he told her. “We’ll go tonight.”

The Wraith threw back the last of her coffee and made a mad dash for the rooftops, like a bat out of hell.

That night, they dressed the part. It was a little silly, Inej realized, strapping on her knives over her leggings, when this wasn’t anything like a real job. But a forbidden midnight dash into the cordoned harbor was far more entertaining than the same old card games, and Inej was mad for some excitement. As she watched Kaz suit up out of the corner of her eye, she suspected he felt much the same way. They were both ready for some semblance of normality.

They tied makeshift masks over their faces before slipping into the abandoned shadows of Ketterdam’s alleys. Kaz’s limp was more pronounced after weeks of being holed up in The Slat, and while Inej didn’t point it out, she still kept to the darkness so he didn’t have to rush. After a few blocks, his muscles loosened, and their pace quickened, and when they neared the harbor, Inej stopped them, her back against the brick wall of a building, and held out a hand for Kaz’s pocket watch. The chain clinked as he handed it to her, and she checked the time.

She pulled the mask down to her neck as she handed the watch back.

“We’re early,” she whispered up at him. “Few minutes still.”

Kaz nodded beneath his mask as he pocketed the watch. Suddenly, Inej’s heart thudded as she looked him over. It had been weeks since he’d worn one of his tailored black suits, and the thrill of seeing him looking like himselfagain overtook her.

When her eyes traveled up to his face, she saw that he’d noticed her staring, and he lifted his dark eyebrows.

“See something you like?” he asked, his rasping voice muffled behind mask. Inej pressed back a smirk.

“Cheeky bastard,” she shot back.

“You’re the one who likes cheeky bastards,” said Kaz, and took two shuffling steps closer, leaning on his crow’s head cane, so close their bodies were nearly touching.

“Just this one,” Inej replied, and gave a little tug on his mask to reveal his crooked half smile.

Inej drew in a breath as Kaz took one more step and she felt the brace of his body against her. She’d never say it, but she had ached for him all these weeks – so close to her, and yet so out of reach. To her delight, he leaned his cane against the wall and wrapped both gloved hands around her waist. She held on to his shoulders as he pressed against her, taking her lips, softly at first, and then with insistence.

Thank the Saints, Inej thought, not for the first time, and let herself melt into him.

She ran her hands up his shoulders and around his neck, crossing her wrists behind his head, and let him press her back against the wall. It was as if he was making up for lost time, and his touch drove her mad, in the best way possible. He parted her lips with his tongue, and a soft moan escaped her throat as his fingers twisted in the fabric of her vest.

“Gods, I’ve missed this,” Kaz rasped when they broke apart finally, lungs aching. His chest was heaving, breathless, as Inej dragged her fingers under the lapels of his jacket, over the hard muscle beneath, pulling him closer.

And she gasped as he dipped his head and pressed his lips to the soft bit of skin just below her ear, and she was ready to forget the world entirely when his teeth grazed her neck, his hands roaming her hips, except at the last minute, she remembered the time. While he cupped her ass, she slipped her fingers into his waistcoat pocket.

“Now,” she said, pulling back, suddenly. “We have to go now.”

“Did you just pick my pocket?” Kaz realized, a little dazed, as Inej replaced his pocket watch. But she was already soundlessly running for the docks.

The Wraith waited at Fifth Harbor, looking no worse for wear, as they scaled its sides in the dark and leapt aboard. Inej walked its decks in the moonlight, shining full beyond the tall masts. She knew that weeks in the water with no maintenance, the list of chores that needed to be taken care of had grown long. For one thing, the decks were covered in bird shit. There were sails that needed mending, hulls that needed shucked of their barnacles, cannons that needed cleaning. She at least needed to take stock of the work ahead, so she could quickly divvy up the load among her crew when the quarantine was lifted.

She could sense Kaz’s eyes on her, almost hungry since their exchange in the alley. And now that they had evaded the quarantine guards, she found she liked it. She gave him a provocative glance the next time she noticed his predatory gaze.

“You picked my pocket,” he repeated, slitting his eyes. His dark eyes in the silver moonlight made her heart skip. She turned to face him at the base of the mizzenmast.

“And whatever will you do about it, Brekker,” she challenged.

He tapped his cane against the wood of the deck three times.

“I have some ideas,” he rasped, a quirk of a smile on his lips, and Saints she wanted him to press up against her again.

It was as if he read her mind. He let his cane drop with a clatter as he took her in his arms, pressing her back against the wood of the mizzenmast, and she lifted onto her toes to hungrily take his lips with hers.

He wasn’t slow and methodical now. He was like a drowning man gasping his first breath of air. He was kissing her as much as he could, her lips, her cheeks, her throat, his hands digging into the back of her shirt, nearly lifting her off her toes. She brought her hands to either side of his face to hold him still, to kiss him deeper, to breathe in his scent like she hadn’t in weeks. Her Kaz. He wasn’t gone. He could fight his way out of any hole, no matter how black. And how she loved him for it.

One of his hands slid from her back, raking up her rib cage to cup her breast, and she gasped into his mouth as he kneaded it with his long fingers. There was warmth pooling between her legs, desire like a steady tide rising in her veins. She pressed her hips against his and found he was already hard. Her cheeks warmed. More, she needed more.

“I want you,” she gasped. She’d let go of his face, running her hands over his shoulders, as he left a train of kisses down her neck.

“You have no idea how much I want you,” he groaned. And it was all the permission she needed: she started pulling at the buttons of his waistcoat, his white shirt, tearing some, pushing her fingers through to his hot skin and muscles underneath.

He wasn’t running. He tore at her shirt, his lithe fingers dancing through buttonholes as her blouse fell open to him, and he bent his head, pulling at the center of her back, to bring his mouth to her cleavage.

“Take those damn gloves off,” she demanded, and, as he did, she threw off her shirt and the useless mask from her neck and undid the bindings that held in her breasts. Kaz’s shirt was still hanging open, his hair he’d finally worked hard to put in place now falling in his eyes, as he stepped back to her, running his bare hands up her back, over her neck, to caress her breast.

She nipped at his earlobe, raking her hands down his torso, to that fine line of hair at his beltline. And as he kissed her again and again, she undid the black leather belt. He drew back with in a sharp breath as she pushed past his wiry curls and wrapped her fingers around his hard length.

“Is this what you want?” he rasped, as she began to stroke him. He released a low breath and leaned a little harder against the mast at her back.

“I want everything,” she told him in a husky voice, and he looked at her with those half-starved black eyes, lips slightly parted, before slipping his own careful fingers into her leggings.

Her head fell back against the mast and she tightened her grip on his cock as she felt his clever lockpick fingers slid over her clit. Her breasts heaved with a deep sigh, and Kaz let out a stuttering breath when she did, his eyelids fluttering.

“Careful,” he groaned with a gasp. “I don’t know if I can – shit, Inej, really, you could end this too soon.”

“I want you to feel what you make me feel,” she breathed, slowing her strokes.

“But I don’t want this to end,” Kaz gritted out, and looped his spare hand around her wrist, pulling her hand back. And just as she was about to protest, he slid both hands beneath her leggings at her waist. He wanted her bare again, she realized, and she was desperate for release.

She helped him slid her leggings to the deck, and before she could wonder what he was going to do next, he knelt before her, one hand on either thigh. With his careful eyes watching her always, he took one of her legs over his shoulder, bringing his soft lips to kiss her folds.

His breath was hot against her, and Inej raised her arms over her head to grab the mast behind her to keep her knees from crumbling under her.

“Where did you learn this?” she gasped, her heart racing. She shivered as he ran a hand over her core and her navel, stroking her tense muscles.

“A magician never reveals his secrets,” Kaz mumbled against her cunt, and the harsh rasp of his voice sent a wave of pleasure through her.

“I have to know--” Inej could hardly finish her sentence as he stroked his tongue slowly up the strip of her pussy. She would know, but it certainly didn’t matter now. Her legs were giving out under her, and he wrapped his strong arms under her thighs as she held onto the mast, his hair, anything to ground her.

“Don’t stop,” she begged, and he certainly seemed to have no intention to. He used one thumb to caress her clit as he sucked and stroked her folds, and her whole body was alight at his touch. The tension was building low in her abdomen, and she couldn’t hardly believe this was happening right here on her own ship. She gazed down at her Kaz, his perceptive eyes trained on her, the eyes that saw her and saved her and endlessly loved her, and she brushed his hair back as she felt the wave of orgasm nearing.

The trapped girl she’d been in the Menagerie could never have dreamed this could be her life. The trapped girl in the Menagerie might have slept easier knowing this day was coming.

“Kaz,” she breathed out his name in a soft moan as she came, wave after wave of sensation rolling through her core. “Thank you,” she was whispering, again and again. “Thank you.”

She was catching her breath as he straightened himself to his feet, kissing her softly while she came down from her high. His belt buckle was still undone, and she ran her fingers around the bare skin at his waist.

“How did you learn how to do that?” she asked him as she looked up at him, dreamily. He just shook his head with that sneaking, crooked smile. Well, fine. She could get him to talk.

She looped her hands through his belt and turned him so that his back now pressed against the mast, and then dropped to her knees.

“Fuck,” she heard Kaz whisper, and she quickly undid his trousers, dropping them to his ankles.

She’d seen him naked many times before, but this was the first time she’d decided to do something about it. His length stiffened just from her proximity, and when she glanced up at him, he looked like he was hardly daring to breathe.

She slowly brought the tip to her lips. Kaz drew in a breath.

“Tell me where you learned how to do that thing with your mouth,” she whispered with a smirk.

“Oh, that’s how this is going to be?” Kaz looked confident, but she saw how he already gripped the mast behind him. She dragged her tongue up his length, and he cursed again.

“You should tell me.”

“Holy fuck, Inej.”

This was going to be fun. Inej wrapped her lips around him, and he let out a low sound she’d never heard from him before. She worked her mouth up and down his length, relishing the pleasure she brought him, how she could turn this dangerous man into a gasping mess.

His thighs were already tensing as he struggled to hold himself upright. He’d been right; this wasn’t going to last long. He’d leaned his head back against the mast, chest heaving, and once he looked like he was going to cry out something, but instead he came with a grunt and a shudder, his fingers curling in her hair. She swallowed the heat that filled her throat, watching him quake and moan as she did, and only then did she release him.

“Nina told me.” Kaz was gasping, eyelashes fluttering as Inej stood up. “I wrote Nina for advice, and she told me about the thing I could do with my mouth. Holy shit, Inej.”

“You wrote Nina?” Inej wasn’t sure if she should be horrified or laugh. “I wrote Nina.”

Kaz opened his eyes at last, looking unconcerned.

“Well, I wasn’t about to ask Jesper for advice. And Wylan’s never even seen a vagina.”

“We will never hear the end of this.”

“She’ll raise us from the dead just to talk about it again.”

Inej thought for a moment before concluding: “Worth it.”

And because they were bored of The Slat, they curled up for the night in Inej’s captain’s quarters, the full moon filling the porthole window and lighting up the night. Sometime in the night, Inej awoke, caught a glimpse of the sea from the window, and poked Kaz in the side until he woke up.

KAZ

“What is it?” he whispered.

“The sea,” she told him.

He wanted to whine. He rarely slept soundly, and had she really just woke him up to look at the damn sea?

Of course she had.

She brought him above deck and shimmied down the ropes to The Wraith’s rowboat, gesturing for him to follow. Kaz felt like he was moving through a dream, but even in dreams, he would follow his girl to the end of the world.

She took the oars of the boat and told him to lie down in the center of the little craft. Kaz gave a relinquished sigh and did as he was told, letting her row them out into the dark harbor, slipping past guards’ watch lanterns, and out into the still waters of the open sea.

He’d long past given up on worrying about Inej’s decisions. If there was a reason she wanted them out in open waters in the middle of the night, it had to be a good one. He closed his eyes and listened to the lapping of the water, willing back old memories and thinking of Inej. His sea captain. He wouldn’t fall to the waters as long as she had him.

Eventually, she stopped rowing, dropped an anchor, and came to lie beside him in the center of the boat.

“It seems like I’m supposed to understand what’s happening,” Kaz said, their shoulders next to each other.

“I wanted you to have a new memory,” Inej said. “Just be still and look around.”

And Kaz raised himself up onto his elbows to look at the sea around him. It was at that moment he understood her love of the sea.

The black sky wrapped around them as far as the eye could reach, glittering with countless stars from horizon to horizon. The surface of the water stretched out all around, a perfect mirror of the sparkling lights in the heavens. Kaz drew in a breath in wonder, suddenly without words. If there was ever magic in the world, this was it.

He looked down at Inej, her hands under her head, as she gazed up at the sky, the picture of contentment.

“Maybe now you’ll think of this, too, when you remember the firepox,” she said, as she gazed softly up at him.

He would. Oh, he would.

He bent over, cupping her cheek, and kissed her fully. His girl. His Inej. His magic. His whole heart. She turned to him on her side, wrapping her arms around his waist, pressing her breasts against his chest, unbound beneath her thin shirt. Desire coursed through him as he felt the puckered drag of her nipples across his body. His fingers slid through her loose hair, deepening the kiss, and blood rushed to his cock for the second time that night. What surprised him more was her hand dipping down, pressing against it through his trousers, as if she could coax it out.

“Again?” he wondered aloud, and kicked himself for it immediately. But Inej smiled against his lips and touched her nose to his.

“Better memories,” she whispered.

She slipped off her leggings while giving him a pointed glance at his tented trousers. It took a moment to understand her meaning. She wanted him to take them off.

He slid out of his trousers and then the rest of his clothes as Inej did the same, the cool night air brushing against her nipples and hardening them. He wanted to lose himself in them again, kiss them and taste them and –

Just as he was imagining the many things he was about to do to her breasts, Inej pushed him down again onto his back at the center of the rowboat. Slowly, she crawled on top of him, and his cock throbbed, begging, pleading.

This had to be a dream. Surely this was a dream. He only ever had dreams this good.

But the sigh she let out when their bodies connected was very real. And her tight heat sliding over his cock had never felt so good in his sleep. She guided herself down slowly, her hands on his torso, and Kaz released a shaky moan.

He’d convinced himself for years that this was impossible. The angry monster he’d been had locked every fantasy of this away. The broken boy he’d been was sure he’d never deserve this.

Here he was anyway.

Inej rocked over his length above him, taking her time, leaving slow, languid kisses on his mouth. He fitted his hand to the curve of her waist, her long hair brushing over his fingers. The desperation he’d felt on the decks of the ship had passed, and now he could float among the stars, his mind blank, giving his body wholly to the girl who loved him.

Every grim eventuality Kaz had conjured in his mind about the future seemed to dissipate there beneath the stars. He could be wrong. They would have time. They could live like this for years. There was nothing in their way. He had time. He had time.

When Inej quickened her pace, she was as slippery and wet as a minnow, and soon Kaz couldn't help writhing beneath her, arching, exulting, her name on his lips, his heart in her hands. He loved her; he’d love her til the end of time, and he said so, and he was nothing if not true to his word. And when he crumbled beneath her, he was unaware of anything but her her her, and when the wave subsided, there were stars all around her.

She kissed him again and again before lying beside him and mussing up his disheveled hair, grinning up at him with eyes that glittered in starlight.

“That was unexpected,” he panted, and looked over at her. “You’re not worried about – you know--” He gestured at her womb, fumbling for words.

“Nina told me how to prevent it, don’t worry.” Inej was breathing hard, too.

“We have got to stop talking about Nina when we’re naked. It’s getting weird.”

“Agreed.”

And though they knew they’d have to return to the ship before first light, Kaz tucked her close to his body anyway, tracing her curves with his fingertips, watching the stars above them. As he did, he thought of the future once more, only this time, he didn’t see death.

He saw an expanse as limitless as the infinite, starry horizon, as open to him as the sea.

[mab1905]

More Fitzjames content? Yeah... here’s a playlist for ya’ll...

These are songs which I think describe him at different points in his character developement or simply different aspects of his personality. Somewhat James/Crozier (Fitzier) but all about James.

(25 songs, 1 hour 33 min)

Song List + Most Character-Relevant Lyrics:

Fancy — Orville Peck

We didn't have money for food or rent / To say the least, we was hard pressed / Then Mama spent every last penny we had / To buy me a dancin' dress / Mama washed and combed and curled my hair / And she painted my eyes and lips / Stepped into a satin dancin' dress / That had a slit in the side clean up to my hips / It was red velvet trim, and it fit me good / Starin' back from the lookin' glass / There stood a woman where a half-gown boy had stood / ... / It sounded like somebody else that was talkin' / Askin', "Mama, what do I do?" / She said, "Just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy / They'll be nice to you" / "Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down / Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down / Lord, forgive me for what I do / But if you want out, well, it's up to you / Now don't let me down now / Your mama's gonna move you uptown"

gold rush — Taylor Swift

What must it be like / To grow up that beautiful? / With your hair falling into place like dominos / ... / At dinner parties / I call you out on your contrarian shit / And the coastal town / We wandered 'round had never / Seen a love as pure as it / And then it fades into the gray of my day old tea / 'Cause you know it could never be

The Name Of The Game — ABBA

Your smile, and the sound of your voice / And the way you see through me / Got a feeling, you give me no choice / But it means a lot to me / So I wanna know / What's the name of the game?

Spectrum — Florence + The Machine

And when we come for you / We'll be dressed up all in blue / With the ocean in our arms / Kiss your eyes and kiss your palms / And when it's time to pray / We'll be dressed up all in grey / With metal on our tongues / And silver in our lungs / ... / And when we come back we'll be dressed in black / And you'll scream my name aloud / And we won't eat and we won't sleep / We'll drag bodies from the ground / So say my name / And every colour illuminates / And we are shining / And we'll never be afraid again

Dreamy Bruises — Sylvan Esso

How can we question / What we knows feels right / Black eyes turn to marigolds / In the morning light / Ohweeohweeoh kids move so slow / Shaken all over like some dogs at the pool / Ohweeohweeoh kids move so slow / They’re kicken all the records over acting like they hanging water / Ohweeohweeoh kids move so slow / Down in the basement where the sun don't show / Ohweeohweeoh kids movie so slow / Naked dollars wonder piles dreamy bruises rotten lovers / And they say I want you / To bend me back in two / To make me sing your tune / To make those words so smooth / Fill me like a song do

Wolf — Sylvan Esso

But no birds nor beast does he eat / He only wants the tenderest meat / And oh the sounds he makes them speak / Under all different patterns of sheets / ... / The modern wolf, the modern wolf / Drippin' in all the lives that he took / He'll go on home, try to wash them off / But when he shaves, he hears them call

Francis Forever — Mitski

On sunny days I go out walking / I end up on a tree-lined street / I look up at the gaps of sunlight / I miss you more than anything / I don't need the world to see / That I've been the best I can be, but / I don't think I could stand to be / Where you don't see me / And autumn comes when you're not yet done / With the summer passing by, but / I don't think I could stand to be / Where you don't see me

James — MGMT

James / If you need a friend / Come right over / Don't even knock / And I'll be home / The door is always open / And we both can say, "Who's laughing now?" / Oh, James / My little doll / You just go outside and you call / Oh, James / Oh, you're never too far off / If your fire's out / There's no need to shout / I'm always home / And walk on in / I'll make you tea and breakfast / And we both can say, "Who's laughing now?"

South London Forever — Florence + The Machine

I drive past the place that I was born / And the places that I used to drink / Young and drunk and stumbling in the street / Outside the Joiners Arm's like foals unsteady on their feet / With the art students and the boys in bands / High on E and holding hands with someone that I just met / I thought it doesn't get / Better than this / There can be nothing better than this / Better than this / And we climbed onto the roof, the museum / And someone made love in the glass / And I'd forgot my name / And the way back to my mother's house / With your black cool eyes and your bitten lips / The world is at your fingertips / It doesn't get better than this / What else could be better than this? / Oh, don't you know I have seen / I have seen the fields aflame / And everything I ever did / Was just another way to scream your name

Oh! You Pretty things — David Bowie

I think about a world to come / Where the books were found by the Golden ones / Written in pain, written in awe / By a puzzled man who questioned / What we work here for / All the strangers came today / And it looks as though they're here to stay / Oh You Pretty Things (Oh You Pretty Things) / Don't you know you're driving your / Mamas and Papas insane / Oh You Pretty Things (Oh You Pretty Things) / Don't you know you're driving your / Mamas and Papas insane / Let me make it plain / You gotta make way for the Homo Superior

Venus As A Boy — Björk

His wicked sense of humor / Suggests exciting sex / His fingers they focus on her and touches / He's Venus as a boy / ... / All across your lips, oh, then until / Well be that it's a little now, until / He believes in a beauty / He's Venus as a boy / He believes in a beauty and gentle

Winds Change — Orville Peck

Had a lover but I lost my patience / Gonna get a song on a radio station / Got a fire but you just can't use it / I don't mean no lies, baby, please don't lose it / Lost my way on the other side / I know why, I don't know when / From the way that we said goodbye / I knew I'd never see you again / Left my mind in the Salt Lake City / Met a lot of men who would call me pretty / Pack of reds, watch the days get colder / Don't it make you cry, how we're getting older?

Fluorescent Adolescent — Arctic Monkeys

Oh the boy's a slag / The best you ever had / The best you ever had is just a memory / And those dreams weren't as daft as they seem / Not as daft as they seem / My love, when you dream them up... / Flicking through a little book of sex tips / Remember when the boys were all electric? / Now when she's told she's gonna get it / I'm guessing that she'd rather just forget it / Clinging to not getting sentimental / Said she wasn't going but she went still / Likes her gentlemen not to be gentle / Was it a Mecca dauber or a betting pencil? / Oh the boy's a slag / The best you ever had / The best you ever had is just a memory / And those dreams weren't as daft as they seem / Not as daft as they seem / My love, when you dream them up / Falling about / You took a left off Last Laugh Lane / Just sounding it out / But you're not coming back again.

Cheerleader — St. Vincent

I've had good times / With some bad guys / I've told whole lies / With a half smile / Held your bare bones / With my clothes on / I've thrown rocks / Then hid both my arms / I've played dumb / When I knew better / Tried so hard / Just to be clever / I know honest thieves / I call family / I've seen America / With no clothes on / I don't know what I deserve / But for you I could work / Cause I don’t want to be a cheerleader no more

Queen Bitch — David Bowie

She's so swishy in her satin and tat / In her frock coat and bipperty-bopperty hat / Oh God, I could do better than that / Oh, yeah / She's an old-time ambassador / Of sweet talking, night walking games / Oh and she's known in the darkest clubs / For pushing ahead of the dames / If she says she can do it / Then she can do it, she don't make false claims / But she's a queen and such a queen / Such a laughter is sucked in their brains / Now she's leading him on / And she'll lay him right down / Yes, she's leading him on / And she'll lay him right down / But it could have been me / Yes, it could have been me

Boys Keep Swinging — David Bowie

Heaven loves ya / The clouds part for ya / Nothing stands in your way / When you're a boy / Clothes always fit ya / Life is a pop of the cherry / When you're a boy / When you're a boy / You can wear a uniform / When you're a boy / Other boys check you out / You get a girl / These are your favorite things / When you're a boy / Boys / Boys / Boys keep swinging

Caterpillars (Of The Common Wealth) — Will Connolly

You know you'll always be my valentine / Now swear to god that you will never tell / They're streaming every indiscretion live / For caterpillars of the commonwealth / Gotta go / You can stay / Make yourself at home / Gotta go / This campaign / Don't run itself you know / You've got potential little parasite / I tie your hands so i can wish you well / Cuz i'm a gentleman and you are like / A caterpillar of the commonwealth / Gotta go / I said no / You need to know your role / Gotta go / I said no / It's all under control

Imposters (Little By Little) — The Fratellis

You wear your mask, I'll wear mine / They don't come cheap, but they fit just fine / You can be her and I can be him / We can both sink when the rest all swim / ... / We can pretend that our fates were entwined / A beautiful lie is the beautiful kind / Everybody knows that the sun still sets / And everybody gives and everybody gets / ... / I could be the one that you just can't shake / Till you swear that your eyes go blind / We can disappear till the sun burns a hole / In the life that we left behind

Sweet Painted Lady — Elton John

I'm back on dry land once again / Opportunity awaits me like a rat in the drain / We're all hunting honey with money to burn / Just a short time to show you the tricks that we've learned / If the boys all behave themselves here / Well, there's pretty young ladies and beer in the rear / ... / Forget us we'll have gone very soon / Just forget we ever slept in your rooms / And we'll leave the smell of the sea in your beds / Where love's just a job and nothing is said

Super Trouper — ABBA

Super trouper beams are gonna blind me / But I won't feel blue / Like I always do / 'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you / ... / So I'll be there when you arrive / The sight of you will prove to me I'm still alive / And when you take me in your arms / And hold me tight / I know it's gonna mean so much tonight

Babooshka — Kate Bush

She sent him scented letters / And he received them with a strange delight / Just like / His wife / But how she was before the tears / And how she was before the years flew by / And how she was when she was beautiful / She signed the letter / All yours...

Paris is Burning — St. Vincent

I write to give word the war is over / Send my cinders home to mother / They gave me a medal for my valor / Leaden trumpets spit the soot of power / They say, "I'm on your side / "When nobody is, 'cause nobody is / "Come sit right here and sleep / "While I slip poison in your ear" / We are waiting on a telegram / To give us news of the fall / I am sorry to report / Dear Paris is burning after all

Dream of Sheep — Kate Bush

Oh I'll wake up to any sound of engines / Every gull a seeking craft / I can't keep my eyes open / Wish I had my radio / I'd tune into some friendly voices / Talking 'bout stupid things / I can't be left to my imagination / Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep / Ooh, their breath is warm / And they smell like sleep / And they say they take me home / Like poppies, heavy with seed / They take me deeper and deeper

Hunger — Florence + The Machine

At seventeen, I started to starve myself / I thought that love was a kind of emptiness / And at least I understood then, the hunger I felt / And I didn't have to call it loneliness / ... / Tell me what you need, oh, you look so free / The way you use your body, baby, come on and work it for me / Don't let it get you down, you're the best thing I've seen / We never found the answer but we knew one thing / ... / And it's Friday night and it's kicking in / In that pink dress, they're gonna crucify me / Oh, and you in all your vibrant youth / How could anything bad ever happen to you? / You make a fool of death with your beauty, and for a moment / I forget to worry

[nahimjustfeelingit-writes]

Imagine:

I”m gonna do two imagines at once because I figured these two can go hand in hand

The reader face-riding Erik and Erik holding the reader’s hips down and overstimulating her/ Erik telling the reader “lemme dig in that pussy one time”

This shit here... WHEW!

Nasty smut per usual.

“Happy birthday you fine ass Sagittarius.”

Y/N’s boyfriend, Ace, was gliding his tongue like the black mamba snake along her exposed neck. He had just taken her to a fancy dinner and now they were headed back their place to finish the night off just right. Ace looked over at his woman dressed in a satin mini dress colored sage. Her braided hair was twisted up into a bun and her skin shimmered from all the body glow she had put on.

“Thank you, Baby,” Y/N squeezed Ace’s hand, interlacing her tiny fingers with his long slender ones, “Now, are you gonna tell me who you’ve been texting all night talking about it’s a surprise?! I am fucking dying over here.”

“What I tell you? Save that begging shit for later.” Ace looked at Y/N with sly eyes, “Sexy ass.”

Y/N wanted to savor this moment as much as she could while her man was home from the military. He would be leaving again in about a couple of weeks. She pouts like a baby, folding her arms over her 36 C cup breasts. Tiny whimpers escaping her mouth, Ace adjusts himself in his seat, trying his best not to react to her seducing sounds. He’d missed every ounce of her. Every curve, every noise she made, the way she smelled, how soft her skin was. Being away and seeing all that death, Ace had to keep a positive image of Y/N in his brain.

They both pulled up to a gated community. This is where they both live. A big house built from the ground up. An accomplishment he happily came back to when he could. Pulling up in one of the spots of their three-car garage, Ace turns off the car, not yet getting out as his phone was in his hands again. Y/N had her Pink Whitney Amsterdam Vodka bottle resting in her lap ready to be opened. Ace was driving her crazy!!! She wanted some of that good dick. She just knew he would beat her pussy up like he’d been locked away in jail for 30+years. She needed a hurting on her good pussy.

“Wassup, E,” Ace acknowledged the man on the other line with a grin, “You here already? Where? I didn’t see you when I pulled up.

E? She looked behind her out of the rearview window, spotting a blacked-out G Wagon flashing its hazards to gain their attention. She turns back around in her seat, side-eyeing Ace. What was this nigga up to? He’d already bought her all the things she wanted, taken her out to eat, what else could he have in store for her? Y/N unbuckled her seat belt, turning towards Ace while he talked on the phone.

“Nah, I think she’ll remember you, bruh. Y/N got a good memory... yeah, shes giving me a look right now,” Ace laughs at Y/N’s annoyed expression, “Just come over to the house, let's make this reunion happen.”

Ace hung up his phone, pocketing it before taking his keys out of the ignition and getting out of the car. Y/N waited as he came around to her side, opening her door and grabbing the 24k gold and red roses he purchased from THE. MILLION. ROSES out of her hand with the bottle of Amsterdam Vodka. since Ace’s sports car was so low she had to duck while getting out. Y/N reaches out her soft manicured hand for Ace to grab, but it wasn’t Ace’s hand that took hold. She could feel a thicker, more solid hand grab hers, fingers covered in rings, very sturdy and overpowering her rather tiny one. Startled by the unfamiliar texture, Y/N placed her doe-eyes on a man standing at 6’3, braided-back dreads, black T-shirt on with a denim jacket, black ripped jeans and a pair of Vans on his feet. Gold around his neck, wrist, and fingers, even in his teeth when he smiled down at her.

Ace stood back, hands in his black and red plaid jacket pockets, watching the scene in front of him. Y/N was pulled from her seat, her hand reaching behind her to fix her mini dress since her ass was too much for it. Ace told her it was two sizes too small but she didn’t care. Now that she’s standing in front of E, she felt exposed.

“Wassup, birthday girl,” He spoke softly.

“E...Erik?” She finally recognized him. It’s been at least a few years since she saw him. He had a curly fro the last time they’d seen each other.

“It’s been a while I know,” his eyes trailed down her frame, “Still looking good I see.”

Y/N, perplexed that Erik so openly gave her a compliment in front of her man, looked over at Ace to see if he would correct his boy. To her surprise, Ace has this coy smile spread across his full lips.

“Can we go inside? It’s getting chilly out here,” Y/N tried to revert the topic of discussion. Ace hands Erik her roses and vodka while he leads the way to his front entrance.

“After you, ma” The gesture was simple but so...tantalizing. A shiver spread throughout her body at the thought of Erik checking out her ass as it swayed in her tight mini dress. The way her legs looked in her heels didn’t help situations either. Ace held the door opened for her, allowing her to walk past. Ace slaps her ass hard as hell, Y/N giving him a shy look before turning towards both men. Erik was smiling wide and dangerous at Ace before turning his hard, intoxicating eyes onto Y/N’s body. That entire moment made her ankles buckle a little and she hoped that she didn’t look crazy.

“Can I get comfortable before we have some drinks?” She rested her plush bottom on the grey velvet ottoman in their shared living room, taking off her heels. She flexed her toes, resting the shoes next to the love seat.

“Oh Nah, keep that dress on, girl.” Ace instructed her.

Y/N looked over at Erik who was helping himself to some Hennessy that Ace has at his living room mini bar. He had his denim jacket off at this point, all those muscles in his arms...his almond skin looked beautiful....

She froze.

Now she was beginning to think that Ace must have known how attracted to Erik she was. She had eyes, her man's friend is sexy as hell. It just overwhelmed her seeing him like this. More muscles, hair in those sexy dreads, gold in his mouth...

“Hey,” Ace’s lips were on her cheek, trailing down to her neck. Y/N took her hand, rubbing it against the shiny black waves in his hair. She placed her lips against the chocolate skin of his cheek before teasing him with her jeweled tongue.

“Mm,” Ace lifts her up, making her straddle him while he rested on the grey velvet love seat. Drink in his hand, he sipped while his other hand moved slowly over her arched back and ass. Y/N felt so nervous doing this in front of Erik. Erik was seated on the edge of the ottoman right next to them both, drinking out of his glass with those eyes on her face and only her face. She wrapped her arms around Ace while his soft lips attacked her protruding cleavage. Y/N held Erik’s gaze but it was a challenge with the way those whiskey-colored eyes surveyed her.

“Damn, shit don’t make no sense how much I missed you. Tell her Erik, my ass was going crazy.”

Erik smiles, “you had this nigga fantasizing about you. Every fucking day. And every fucking night. Couldn’t get this nigga to shut up.”

“Awww, babe,” Y/N grabs Ace’s chin, “Daddy, I missed you too.”

Erik made a sound at that, causing Ace to laugh and Y/N to blush profusely. What Erik didn’t tell her was how Ace shared all of their wild sex stories with him. Ace would tell Erik how bomb Y/N’s pussy is. Straight wet wet and nice and tight like she did kegel exercises. He even disclosed that she had a major head game too, jaws strong as a bitch.

She can suck a golf ball through a water hose that’s how he described it.

“Damn, bro. She got it like that? Just the thought of it is making my dick hard,” Erik said, laughing.

Another thing Y/N didn’t know but Erik and Ace did, was that she would be fulfilling her man's deepest, darkest fantasy. Give the birthday girl a real treat. From talks about how his girl put it down to Erik spotting Ace from time to time admiring nude photos of Y/N, he was thinking about fucking his friend's girl. He never told Ace, but now he didn’t need to. Ace hit him up about a week ago before Erik came home from a JSOC mission that he wanted Erik to fuck his girl in front of him.

“Say, bro, would you like to hit Y/N?” Ace had asked.

Erik was in disbelief on FaceTime with Ace. He couldn’t believe that he asked him that so openly, even though his brain was saying hell yeah I want that puss.

“Are you for real? Man, you are crazy, nigga.”

Ace’s look said it all.

“You are for real, Huh? Okay,” he said, letting Ace know he was game.

And Erik was down for whatever. Clearly, Y/N was too with the way she looked at him with those come fuck me, Daddy eyes. He’d fuck her real good too. That nigga Ace was in for a show. This fine bitch Y/N was about to give that pussy up.

“Are you having a good time, baby?” Ace asked Y/N, looking from her to Erik.

“Yes, this is really nice. I feel like a princess,” she stated, satisfied with the outcome of the night.

“It’s cuz you are a princess.” Ace said, praising her.

“You want some of your vodka, Y/N?” Erik asks. Y/N nods her head at him, watching Erik get up to retrieve her bottle and make her a nice cup of it. Ace whispers happy birthday in her ear, bringing his lips to hers and sucking on her bottom lip. She could taste the Hennessy on his warm wet tongue and feel the icy grill on his lower teeth. Right then and there she wanted his tongue dancing around her pussy.

“Daddy,” she moans.

“Yeah, girl?”

“I need you to fuck me now. I want your dick inside of me. Fuck me please.”

Y/N tried to be discreet and whisper that but Erik heard it all loud and clear while making her drink. He walked back over to the horny couple, standing behind Ace and handing Y/N her glass over the back of the couch.

“Thank you, E,” she takes a nice sip, eyelids fluttering from Ace’s slick tongue on her neck and his hand rubbing her juicy, hard clit through her satin thong. Y/N ground her pussy roughly against his hand, nonverbally urging him to plunge his fingers deep inside of her little pussy.

“Mmm,” Y/N moaned while stroking the back of Ace’s head. Ever so gently, while Erik stood there behind the love seat, lustfully gazing at Y/N and loving the sounds she made, Ace caressed her face and brought her lips to his once more, and gave her a nice sloppy kiss.

“I told my boy you have some good pussy, baby girl,” Ace whispered, informing Y/N that Erik knew of some of their sexcursions.

“Oh, really? And why would you do that, Daddy?”

That seductive look in her eyes said it all. Ace placed Y/N on the couch, adjusting his dick in his dark-wash denim jeans. He sat his empty glass on the black and silver coffee table. Y/N’s pussy was extremely wet and warm. The moisture probably made itself visible through her panties. Erik came over to seat himself next to Y/N while Ace was on her other side. Both men refilled their glasses, Ace reaching between Y/N’s legs to see exactly how wet his woman was.

“Damn,” Erik says, licking the liquor from his bottom lip, “that shit wet wet just like you said, Ace.”

Y/N lets out an airy sigh, face hot from the way Erik leaned forward with his elbows to see it all. He was seeing everything. The way Ace rubbed her wet satin thong, how the exposed skin of her pussy lips shined like she’d been oiled down.

“I told E how good your pussy tastes,” Ace whispered. “He wants to eat it for you.”

“E?” She asks timidly. Oh, it was written all over her face. That sexy helpless look on her face. E wants to eat my tight little pussy, Daddy, that’s what she looked like she wanted to say. Drink almost slipping from her hand, Erik takes it, placing it on the coffee table next to his. He swallows spit before biting his lip, preparing his taste buds for her pussy. Erik and Ace shared a look, both mischievous men smirking.

“Hey, bro,” Ace finally pulled Y/N’s soaking wet thong to the side. Erik let out a hiss, the sound causing Y/N’s toes to curl, “You wanna taste this pussy? I told you it was good. Come and get this pussy.” Inviting Erik to join in.

Without saying another word, Erik was bending over Y/N’s lap in a single bound and attacked her pussy like a flesh-eating piranha. Y/N was semi-naked and it wasn’t enough for Erik at all. He wanted to see her fully naked while he stared up from between her legs. Ace sat back on the ottoman, one hand palming his erection while the other held his glass of Henny. His voyeurism kink was finally going to come to life in front of him. Y/N looked overwhelmed by the way Erik licked her. She was squirming and shaking, looking from Ace to Erik with a bewildering look in her eyes. The soft-sounding moans that escaped her mouth seemed to grab hold of Erik’s dick because now he wanted to yank his jeans off and plunge into her tasty pussy. Erik sopped her pussy like it was a full course meal. This nigga was really eating it up and Ace couldn’t help the grunts that escaped his mouth.

“Take this shit off,” Erik demanded Y/N. Y/N timidly lifted her dress over her belly and up past her tits.

“Don’t be shy, listen to Kill,” Ace had his hands down his pants now.

“Kill?” She asked with a perplexed expression. Y/N felt Erik’s lips on her neck, his hands helping her the rest of the way with that dress. She was finally fully naked, her big juicy nipples all poked out and ready to be sucked up.

“Kill wants some of that pussy.” Ace reminded Y/N. She could feel Kill against her inner thigh. He was much thicker than Ace but they were around the same length. She wasn’t used to being stuffed and bottomed-out at the same time.

“Yo, this couch ain't doing it for me. Can we take this shit to the bed?” Erik asked while running his fingers between her pussy lips. He sounded so desperate and it made her bite her lip. She couldn’t believe she was going through with this. This was a surprise alright.

“Take it wherever you want, bro, as long as I get to watch the way you fuck her.”

That was enough for Erik. He picks Y/N up, throwing her over his shoulder. The action was rough and the way he slapped her ass didn’t help make it any less rough. Ace was following behind Erik, telling him where the master bedroom was on the second level. Finally there, Erik takes a naked Y/N and laid her softly on her back on the large bed. Ace made himself comfortable in a chair facing the head of the bed, the sound of his belt and zipper loud in Y/N’s ears. Erik was taking off his clothes.

“Happy birthday, you know you special,” Erik told her with a low seductive voice. Shirt off, she took in his defined body littered with scars. Now, he was working on his jeans, pulling those down nice and slow so she could watch his dick bob out at her. Once the long, and fat pole was free from its confines, Y/N gasped, mouth hanging open and ready for a dick in it. His dick in it.

Ace gave his right hand a workout by stroking his dick. He planned on cumming all over himself tonight. Erik returned to the bed, Ace witnessing the helpless look on his girl's face as Erik pulled her legs apart roughly, his face disappearing between her legs. It was as if she had no control over her reaction to the way Erik ate her pussy. That pretty face of hers contorted with pleasure.

“FUCK. Ace forgot to mention how sweet this pussy is,” Erik was eating that little pussy better than Ace. It didn’t make him feel jealous, it made his dick harder and heavier in his hand. All he wanted his woman to do was cum on his homeboy's face. Erik breathes hard on her clit and then started kissing all around her glazed pussy. He was licking and kissing everything but her clit.

He brought his face up to Y/N’s, kissing her lips, “what you want me to do, princess?”

Without stuttering, she said, “I want you to suck my clit, Erik!!!”

Finally, Erik began sucking it. He would move away and then come back to it. Move away and then come back to it, and that shit felt so damn good! He started licking it with long strokes, and she could feel his tongue working it’s way around the lips of her pussy and then dart in and out of it with expert precision. Erik worked his way back to her “trigger” and ran his tongue down each side of her clit and tickled it underneath. Erik didn’t miss a spot and Y/N enjoyed every bit of it. Erik swirled his tongue around the hood of her clit and Y/N started rocking her hips back and forth as he started pushing down harder with his mouth. He didn’t come up for air once, and the pressure and rhythm of his tongue on her clit was almost poetic!

Y/N never knew there were so many ways to suck a pussy before this moment on her birthday. Just when she thought it was over, Erik enclosed his whole mouth around her clit and started sucking it lightly, as he blew on it with his warm breath. He kept glancing up at her pretty face; she could tell he was getting off by the way she was moaning and driving that pussy into his face. He placed deep French kisses on her clit and sucking on it until Y/N was ready to cum. The stimulation was toe-curling, and as she thought she would fly off the bed but Ace was by her side now, keeping her legs open with his dick all out and slick with pre-cum next to her mouth. Erik was in the zone, he wasn’t about to turn the pussy loose for Ace to get a taste.

“Damn, homie, you sucking it like it’s your pussy...stay still baby, let him have it. This nigga Kill is hungry I see.”

Right when Ace said that, Y/N shouted at the top of her lungs in between chocked up moans, “This is your pussy!! This is your pussy!!” Erupting all over Erik’s face. As she rested her head back against the pillows, Erik finally let Ace join in as they both leaned forward and started slurping and feasting on what Y/N could rightly say was both of their pussy.

“Daddy,” she looked into Ace’s eyes then over into Erik’s, “Daddy.” She called both of them niggas Daddy.

“Damn, E, got your whole mouth on her clit.” Ace watched Erik back at it again with the sucking and slurping.

“Look at the way you making her pussy cream, bro,” Ace scoops up some of that cream, placing his finger in his mouth, “Fuck, this slutty little pussy is leaking.”

Ace goes back to his seat, rubbing Y/N’s juices on his dick. Erik lifted up her body, making her sit on his face. She could feel him running his tongue up and down her swollen pussy. He had his big biceps holding her in place while he overstimulated her clit with a back and forth motion of his sharp tongue and a little pulling and nibbling action of his plush lips. She was grinding all sexy on his mouth, her eyes watching Ace standing directly in front of her now, jerking his long dick. His slit was open and a long string of pre-cum spilled out and to the bed. Y/N had nowhere to run while Erik worked her sensitive clit into yet another orgasm.

“Daddy, Erik,” she cried, her arms shaking while her cum spilled and spilled into Erik’s mouth. He licked her clean, giving her pussy gentle kisses before pulling her off of him.

“You ready for me, Y/N?” He looked at her, his face shiny with her juices, “you ready for me to fuck that little pussy while your man buss a nut to it?”

Y/N got into doggie style position. She opened her pussy lips wide and said, “Here, Daddy, fuck this juicy pussy.”

“Shit,” Erik moaned.

“Keep that slutty little pussy open just like that baby girl,” Ace encourages. Erik takes a condom from his jeans pocket, opening it and rolling it over his dick. Secured, getting behind Y/N, he placed her body at an angle so that Ace could see how Erik was going to fuck her. Her shoulders and face were pressed into the bed, everything else up and to the ceiling. Erik reaches up under Y/N, rubbing her swollen clit.

“Lemme dig in this pussy one time,” Erik whispered. If only he could take Ace’s words literally. With the pussy Y/N had, once wouldn’t be enough. Erik thought he only needed one round of sex with this bad bitch to satisfy his fantasy...

“Fuck me, Daddy,” She cries, backing her twat into his meat.

“Yes! Call me Daddy,” Erik said, taking his enormously impressive dick, attempting to push it inside of Y/N’s pussy.

“Ace, yo,” Erik stops for a moment, looking over at his friend, “Yo, she hella tight, bruh,” He laughs.

“Told you, Bro.”

“Erik beat Y/N’s clit with his dick before trying to get in her shit again. The condom was a bitch tryna get all up inside of her.

“Take the condom off, fuck her raw,” Ace said with finality, “She feels sooooo much better that way anyway.” Ace didn’t understand the mistake in his words. Y/N had some good pussy...

“Please,” she begged.

Erik let out a satisfying moan at the way she begged for it raw. Shit, he liked this little one. Erik takes off the condom, rubbing her wetness over his dick some more before trying again. The minute he pushed himself inside successfully, was the moment he knew he was never going back. She literally swallowed him. Sucked him in like a vacuum. Ace’s words weren’t enough to explain how good this pussy was.

“Damn, baby girl, you giving up that juicy pussy to the homie?” Ace came to stand in front of her, bringing his dick to her mouth.

“That’s right, suck my big dick, baby, suck me good.”

“Damn right, I’m gonna suck it,” Y/N said with her mouth full of dick. Ace gripped her braids in his hand, popping her mouth off.

“Here,” he said, stuffing her mouth again with dick.

Erik was taking long, deliberate strokes. He feared if he picked up the pace, he would cum quick and he didn’t want that right now. She was so damn tight and warm around him.

“I love this sloppy pussy!” Erik has his lip between his teeth, fucking Y/N with no hands.

“Damn...Ace...look at her throwing it back on me, look at all this ass on my dick, bro.” Erik moaned.

Y/N found an easy rhythm to suck Ace while Erik tortures her pussy.

“She wetting you’re shit up man, I see them jaws you were talking about, mmm,” Erik had the best view, her little pussy wrapped around him and her mouth on Ace’s dick.

“Come get you some,” Ace slips out of Y/N’s mouth, stepping back to sit down and jerk his wet dick. Her spit gave him the best lubricant while he stroked. Even though he just wanted to sit back and watch Erik fuck his girl, it was damn hard. He’d always wanted to know what she looked like getting fucked. Ace decided to sit back and enjoy the rest of the moment for now so Erik could have all the fun he wanted. Erik was in front of Y/N now, his soaking wet dick mixed with her cream all over him and his pubic hair.

“Keep your mouth wide open. You ready for all of this?” Erik swinging his wet dick in front of her face had her slobbering.

“Yes, Daddy.” She gave him that innocent look with those big eyes.

“Gimme Some,” Erik whispers, grabbing her hair with one hand, and her chin with the other while his dick pressed between her lips and into her mouth.

“Suck that dick,” Erik grunted, thrusting his hips forward, causing Y/N’s head to push back. Erik started pulling his dick all the way out and thrusting all the way back in.

“She working your shit, E? Using them tight jaws on her?” Ace said, stroking his dick. Ace watched his girl swallow Erik’s dick, making his friend's eyes flutter shut.

“Goddamn, Bitch! Take it...yeah...take it deep.” Erik reached behind Y/N, slapping her ass hard. Her ass thrust up into the air, basically letting him know that she wanted that. Erik slapped her ass again, Y/N moaning around his dick. She popped her mouth off, a string of spit falling to her tits.

“Spank me again, Daddy.” She asked in a child-like voice.

“You like it when I pop that big ass?” Erik said, both of his hands came down in unison on her cheeks, “Yeah, you like that,” he thrusts his dick back into her mouth, making her gag.

“If you stay in her mouth too long she’ll have your ass cumming,” Ace joked. He was ready to buss a nut himself but he wanted to witness Erik back inside of Y/N’s slit.

“Same thing for that pussy,” Erik joked back. He slipped out of Y/N’s mouth, laying her on her back and putting her legs over his shoulders. Erik rested his arms behind her thighs to elevate her even more, her ass hanging over the edge of the bed, Erik’s toned hips angled perfectly over her body. His dick slipped inside with ease this time, even though she gripped him so tightly. He pistoned in and out to the tip of his dick down to his balls. Her body was bouncing against the damn bed. Erik was on his hands, looking down at her. She had her hands up, grabbing his wrists, her toes curled. Erik has to look down at the way his dick was murdering her pussy.

“Damn, Daddy, it’s so thick.”

Erik’s eyes rolled shut. He brought his mouth down to suck on her pretty chocolate nipples.

“It’s too big for my pussy,” She announced, “I thought my pussy could handle it.”

Ace felt his balls swell up, his hand shaking around his erection. Ropes of cum shot out and on his jeans, a look of disbelief on his face. He couldn’t believe how much cum spilled from him. That cum was begging to be freed.

“Daddy, let-let me lick it up,” Y/N wanted to taste him again. Ace groans, getting up to allow Y/N to taste the rest of himself off his dick. She took him deep into her mouth, sucking him dry while Erik held her thighs back with his hands.

“How’s That mouth?” Erik asked while deep in her pussy.

“Fucking amazing,” Ace said while holding Y/N’s head with both hands, “how’s that tight little pussy?”

“Goddam, she’s tight as fuck,” Erik panted.

Erik picked up the pace, Y/N’s mouth popping off Ace’s dick to let out a sharp moan. He was bold in her pussy. He really wanted this.

“Erik, homie, you going crazy with it. Beating that pussy up.” Ace was jerking his dick again, smacking Y/N’s face with it.

“Bruh,” Erik slips out of her good puss, “I was about to buss in your bitch.”

Ace’s dick jumped at that.

“Flip your pretty ass over,” Erik demanded. Y/N lifts up, flipping her ass over. Erik pressed her down yet again, making sure her ass was up in the air.

“Get that shit,” Ace was ready to watch Erik fuck her ass up from the back. Erik spread her cheeks open, his dick so deep she felt it in her abdomen. He was so deep if you looked at her belly you’d probably see his dick digging in her guts.

“You’re fucking me so good, Erik,” she panted.

“Giving this pussy up, huh?” The loud clapping sounds from her ass on him made Ace grunt.

“Pound that fat puss, E, give this bitch what she wants!” Ace yells.

“Look at this pussy, you can see it gripping my shit,” Erik said. Ace came behind, a load groan escaping his mouth. She was so wet. She dripped to the bed, pussy fitting tight around Erik. Her pussy was loving him.

“There’s enough for you, Daddy!! Take me please!!!” She whined so sexily beneath him. All soft and delicate like a little. Erik was about to cum, his fingers sinking into her flesh. She was looking back at him with those pretty ass eyes. Erik was caught up in them, giving her more of him like he wasn’t already filling her up.

“Oh, fuck,” she let her mouth hang open, her hands coming back to grab her own ass.

“I’ma cum on your dick, Daddy. Your making my pussy cum so good!!!”

She squeezed his ass. Erik almost fell from behind her with how she had him.

“Gimme you’re arms! Now!” Erik barked out. She reached behind her, her eyes falling on Ace’s dick, then to Erik’s intense sweaty face. She felt him beat her down. Her stomach tightened again, cumming on him yet again.

“Fuck!!!!” Ace yells, cumming on the bed. He was so overwhelmed by how good Erik fucked her.

“Damn! This good pussy...ima cum all over this fat butt!!!”

Erik pulled out, cumming on Y/N’s back and ass. She reached behind her, taking his cum on her fingers and bringing it to her mouth. She sucked it all off before lifting up to suck the rest off of his dick. She grabbed hold of Ace’s dick, jerking his while sucking Erik’s. The sounds coming from them both had her ready to take both dicks at the same time.

“Ace, are you gonna get in my pussy?”

She pouted while Erik massages her nipples.

“You know ima get in that pussy, baby.” He reassured her.

“You were such a good fucking girl for me,” Erik praises her. He leans down, kissing her lips softly. Y/N felt her heart stutter in her chest. It felt so good kissing him. Her eyes connected with Erik’s, looking at him with a desperate need for his lips again.

“Mm,” Erik slipped away, laying flat on his back with his fist around his dick. Y/N was sucking Ace off now, Erik focused on the way she took her time to suck it. It was like art. His eyebrows knitted together, jaw growing tight. Damn, he was hooked and it was just one fuck.

Lemme dig in that pussy one time.

He lied. There was no way he could leave here with just one taste.

“You staying the night, E?” She asked softly with Ace’s dick in her hand, face all covered in spit. She was fucking killing him.

Erik looked up at Ace, his friend shrugging his shoulders.

“You wanna stay the night?” Ace asked.

“If that’s cool with you, yeah,” Erik slowly stroked his dick. Y/N had an expectant look in her eyes.

“Please? Stay,” she grabbed Erik’s dick, causing him to close his eyes and cover her hand with his, stroking his dick with her.

“Okay.” He allowed her to stroke him fully. His dick was like steel.

@tgigoldie​ @soufcakmistress​ @chefjessypooh​ @chaneajoyyy​ @pananegra​ @theblulife​ @becincere​ @blaqwidow91​ @fish-outta-watah​ @moonlight-night-sky​ @eyeknowmywrites​  @crowngold​ @njadakillthiscookie​ @blktinkerbell​ @luvanxi​ @sheisexcellent1​ @chocolatedippedinhoney​  @brandithecrystalgem​ @dababydababydababydababy​ @soulfulbeauty19​ @btitannaaa​ @sunkissedebony97​ @youngblackndgifted​ @harleycativy​ @rbhp​ @thee-germanpeach​ @thadelightfulone​ @bugngiz​

[mountainsluna]

wicked regrets

request: “a seonghwa scenario in which he’s a “serious” looking boyfriend who doesn’t really celebrate Halloween but the reader does, so he gets jealous of her friends cuz she’s spending too much time with them decorating and shopping for costumes”

pairing: seonghwa x reader (gender neutral besides reader in a female character costume)

genre: angst + fluff ending

word count: 2.1k

✩ [author’s note] for those of you that aren’t familiar with the movie the nightmare before christmas, theseeeee are the characters/costumes i refer to in the story! :)

✩ masterlist

✩ requests : check bio or masterlist ♡

One afternoon in late September, you and your boyfriend were out shopping when you passed by a new Halloween store that immediately caught your attention. “Oh my god! Baby we have to go in, can we just look around inside really quick please?” 

“Hmm okay love, but just really quick.” The lack of excitement in Seonghwa’s voice didn’t register with you as you were already halfway in the door before he he could finish replying. You were nearly bouncing off the walls that were filled with scary costumes and spooky decorations. You two had started dating last November so it was your first Halloween with Seonghwa as your boyfriend and he could honestly say he had never seen you this ecstatic.

"Baby look!!! They have the cutest decorations look at these pumpkins and these candles!! Oooh we can get these small skeletons for the living room! What do you think?" 

"Uhm I guess if you want. I don’t really celebrate it...well not since I was like 9. Isn’t it really just for kids anyways?” His words made your smile falter a bit. Halloween was your absolute favorite time of the year, and there were already so many activities planned out in your head that you wanted to do with your boyfriend. However, from the looks of it, it didn’t seem like he’d be interested in the slightest.

“No of course not...Are you telling me you don’t think Halloween is fun as an adult?” 

He shrugged his shoulders as his fingers grazed a large plastic butcher knife in front of him.

“No horror movies?”

“No.”

“Pumpkin carving?”

“Too messy.”

“Decorating?”

“Waste of money, we live in an apartment and if we decorate inside no one will even see it.”

You hated to admit how disappointed you were at his answers. You knew from the start that Seonghwa was a very serious person and you rarely ever had an issue with it. However, you were a couple and wanting to do couple things for your favorite holiday would’ve meant a lot to you.

“So, you wouldn’t even go with me to a haunted house?”

“I don’t see the appeal in literally paying someone to scare me. Aren’t your friends into all that stuff too? I say you should go with them.”

The fact that he wouldn’t even entertain the thought of having a little fun with you made you sad enough but for him to just pawn you off to your friends so he didn’t have to participate made you feel even more disappointed.

“Alright then Hwa, I guess I will.” You said sighing to yourself as you walked away from him.

----------

You decided that no matter how Seonghwa felt, you weren’t going to let his lack of excitement ruin your October. You even made sure he was aware of that the day you visited the Halloween store, leaving with nearly four bags full of decorations that he helped you carry home.

When October 1st arrived, your mind had already begun to wonder about what costume you wanted to get this year. Not wanting to hear Seonghwa shoot down your couple costume ideas you decided to not even mention it to him to save yourself the disappointment. Luckily, most of your friends were eager for the holiday just like you, one afternoon as you all hung out at a coffee shop, you vented to them about your problem with Seonghwa. You added in that you were a bit sad you couldn’t live out your couple costume dream with him by going as Jack and Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas, a movie even Seonghwa knew was your favorite.

“Well I don’t have a costume picked out yet and I know that movie, I wouldn’t mind dressing up with you if you want?” Your eyes lit up at your friend Hongjoong’s suggestion. He wasn’t as tall as your boyfriend to be able to fit the costume as good but he was taller than you and that was enough.

A few days later, Seonghwa had just gotten home, walking in as you were grabbing your keys. “Oh? Are you leaving?” He asked, you never left the house that late on a Tuesday night. 

“Oh, yeah I forgot to tell you my friends and I are going costume shopping. Don’t worry I won’t be out long and your food is on the stove.” You placed a quick kiss on his cheek before walking out the door. He stood there a bit shocked by your exit, but brushed it off. It’s not like it was an everyday thing.

It wasn’t until the week before Halloween that Seonghwa had begun to get frustrated. You had spent nearly every weekend either inviting your friends over or going to their apartments for Halloween baking or scary movies while he kept to himself. The first few times you told him it would be nice if he tagged along but he refused and after the third rejection you stopped asking. But now, he felt left out. Seonghwa swore to himself if you asked him again, he would accept this time, he just missed spending time with you. But you never asked.

The day before Halloween, Seonghwa was scrolling through his feed when he saw an ad for a haunted house that was only open that night and Halloween and he remembered you asking him if he’d go to one, regretting his words, he decided he should be the one to ask you this time.

He walked into the bedroom where you were adjusting your red wig onto your head. “Hey baby”, he started, sitting on the edge of the bed as he watched you at your vanity. “I know you probably have plans with your friends but...I would like to take you somewhere tomorrow night...to make up for everything I’ve missed this past month.” You saw his reflection in the mirror in front of you and you could tell how bad he was feeling, he never looked that sad.

“Where did you want to go?” You asked, turning to look at him directly.

He began telling you about the haunted house he had found but when he noticed your expression change from curiosity to a pout he stopped, knowing you had something to say.

“I...I’m sorry baby but...my friends and I are actually going there tonight. That’s why I’m all dressed up.” You said, spreading your arms to display your Sally costume to him.

At that moment, Seonghwa felt even more embarrassed of himself realizing he never even bothered to ask you what costume you had chosen and what your plans were for that night. He sat there staring at you for a few minutes, not knowing what to say to you. Before he could find the words, there was a knock on your door. You stood up, looking down at your boyfriend as his head hung slightly. “Maybe, we can try again next year?” You said, placing a kiss on his head before walking to the door to let your friends in.

When Seonghwa finally joined he looked over all your friends in their costumes, the laughter that filled the room made him feel jealous that he wasn’t apart of it. He felt his heart nearly drop as his eyes landed on your friend dressed as your cinematic lover. Even with the round mask covering his face, he knew it was Hongjoong. He always trusted him as your friend and he knew you had every right to dress up with any of your friends that you wanted but never did he expect to see this. As you all begun to head out you noticed as your boyfriend silently retreated back to the bedroom without telling you goodbye.

“Baby...Are you okay?” You asked, slowly stepping into the room to see him sitting in his previous position. He could barely even look you in the eyes.

“I’m sorry I didn’t try harder, I knew how much all this meant to you and it’s my fault for not wanting to be apart of it. But...seeing you and Hongjoong made me realize how much I really missed out on.” You caressed his cheek as he spoke, you knew he meant his apology but you weren’t sure how to comfort him. You didn’t want to leave him home all alone to feel bad while you went out with your friends. But then you had an idea, your body shot up as Seonghwa looked at you in surprise. 

“I think I may have an idea...wait here!” you said and before he could question you, you were gone. He could hear muffled exchanges as you and Hongjoong talked in the living room, right as he stood up to go check on you, you opened the door to reveal yourself and Hongjoong’s costume mask and jacket in your hands. “Try these on!” You said, extending the items to him.

“Is...is Hongjoong okay with this?” He asked, hesitating as he lifted up the jacket, inspecting it slightly. 

“Mhhm.” You said, smiling back at him as you two heard Hongjoong’s voice coming down the hallway.

“Oh I’m fine with that.” He chimed. “It’s this I’m not too sure about.” He said, holding out his black and white striped costume pants to Seonghwa as he stood there in his white shirt and gray boxers.

“T...they may be too...short for me.” Seonghwa said, earning a small glare from your friend.

“I’m sure you can squeeze into them, my love. Now change quickly while I help Hongjoong with his new costume.” You said, pushing the smaller boy out as you closed the door behind you.

After fumbling with the other boy’s pants for a few minutes, (omfg that sentence did not come out right hjsjshdkhs) Seonghwa joined you two in the bathroom biting back a laugh as he looked over Hongjoong.

A large white bed sheet and a pair of Seonghwa’s white pants now adorned his body along with a thick velvet pink choker you had worn a few times that matched a dress you owned, and to top it all off, two small bathroom towels tied to his hair with your hair bands.

All Hongjoong could do was glare at the taller male, as he stood letting you adjust the costume around him. “I let you dress me as the dog to help your relationship, I just want you both to know that you owe me your lives.” You smiled as you placed the red clown nose that you had draw a jack-o-lantern face on, on his nose.

“Zero is the best character in the entire movie, it’s not that bad.” You laughed, clapping your hands together. “Anyways, now we can go!”

--------

As you three exited your car to meet up with your friends, you looked over the two boys standing in front of you, Seonghwa’s pants looking more like high waters and Hongjoong’s cuffed nearly three times over to reach his ankle. “Can I ask you guys something?” You smirked as they looked back at you expectantly.

“How does it feel to be wearing each other’s pants?” You laughed, tears nearly ruining your face paint as you dodged Hongjoong’s bedsheet clad arms that were swatting at you playfully.

Once you found your friends you all got in line together, you rested your head on Seonghwa’s arm as you waited, the feeling of having your boyfriend next to you tonight made you feel so happy and the feeling of you in Seonghwa’s arms made him even happier. The entire haunted house was exactly what you had expected. You nearly threw yourself into Seonghwa’s chest every time a zombie got too close to you. Your boyfriend on the other hand practically laughed throughout the entire thing, finding the setups and actors to be quite amusing.

As you walked back to your vehicles Hongjoong told you he was going to ride with your other friends to another haunted house if you two wanted to join but you declined, Seonghwa looking at you confused as you waved bye to your friends getting into your car instead.

“Love, why did you say no?” He asked, hoping he hadn’t ruined your night.

“Because, I want to spend tonight and Halloween night with my boyfriend... If he wants to...” You said your eyes moving to look at him slowly.

“O..Oh, of course I do! But, I don’t want you to miss out on anything with your-”

“I’m not missing out on anything.” You interrupted him. “I wanted to spend Halloween with you and that’s what we’re going to do. We can go home and watch scary movies while we make snacks and I can listen to you rant about the dumb characters and their bad choices.” You suggested as you two pulled out of the parking lot.

“Maybe we can even carve some pumpkins.” Seonghwa added making you giggle as he smiled at you, his gaze focusing back on the road as he drove you two home. 

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

the scariest part about this story is that seonghwa is driving yall home and he doesn’t even have a driver’s license

[segafan37]

Shadamy Snippets: A Chance Meeting

[Shadow's p.o.v.]

I stared at the cars and people entering and exiting the parking lot. A worker was helping an elderly couple load their groceries. A group of teenagers stood around a car trying to act cool while bobbing their heads to some music. I saw a large mouse family pushing three carts toward the store. Each cart had about 3 to 5 small children inside. The children were all talking at once and playing with each other as their parents and a teen mouse pushed the carts. I then turned my gaze to a red female fox walking back to her vehicle, pushing a cart that held her two little ones: a boy and a girl. The girl was a sky blue, and the boy was a bright orange. They looked about the same age.

Maybe they were twins?

I tried to hold back a smile. I liked being here; listening to the mingled noise of the store, and watching the cars and people go by... The people I was sworn to protect. It was... relaxing. I took a sip of my cappuccino, as I relished these thoughts.

Mmm, that barista girl really knows how to make a GOOD cappuccino!

I took another sip as I viewed the dark clouds in the sky.

Looks like it's going to rain. I guess the weather report was wrong, again!

My multipurpose communicator beeped a reminder.

"Examine Star Case Files"

"Well, back to work." I groaned.

On my motorcycle, it takes me 30 minutes to get back to the hidden entrance of the Mobian's G.U.N. base and the way the weather was looking, I knew that I should probably be heading out now. 

I started rising from my chair, but something inside stopped me. It was like I was glued to my seat. Although, if I was being honest, I'd say I didn't want to go. I looked at my communicator again. The digital clock read 1pm.

"You got more than a half an hour left, Shadow!" I reassured myself. "You can stay for another 15 minutes."

I smiled, snoozed the reminder, and gazed back at the window. I was relieved that I didn't have to head back to work, just yet. I closed my eyes to engulf myself in the sounds of all that surrounded me. 

Car doors slam, horns beep, shopping carts rattle and squeak. Feet shuffle across the floor, children laugh, friends talk about work, love, school, and life. Workers greet, bar scanners beep and chairs glide across the floor. People serve, people eat, people drink, and people speak. 

These people... are why I am here.

I guess I was so entranced in my peace of mind that I didn't hear someone come up beside me. My ears twitched when I heard a female voice say my name. 

"Shadow?"

I opened my eyes and turned my head to see the one and only Amy Rose. 

"Amy?"

Her eyes widened with delight, and mine with shock. It has been over 7 years since I last saw Miss Rose, when we both attended Vector's wedding.

"Amy." I said again.

"Shadow!"

"How have you been!?" We were both surprised that we said it in unison. She kind of yelled it, but I just spoke it.

We laughed a little at ourselves. I stepped off my bar stool, suddenly feeling okay to leave it, and stepped back to get a good look at Amy. She was older, obviously, and had grown to almost reach my eye level. Her iconic red head band was gone and her quills were longer, the ends just reaching past her shoulders. Her dress was different too. It was still red, but was flowy, lacked the white trim, had short sleeves, and rested below her knees. The only thing about her appearance that was the same were her gold bracelets, boots, and white gloves and socks. (However, her socks were no longer rolled up.)

I was kind of bewildered by her new look. I liked it!

"You look.." I paused and gazed her over again "Good! You look good!" My voice had a hint of excitement to it. She smiled and shrugged.

"Thanks! I feel great, actually! And you look...", she paused, looking me over, "Um?.. Good, too!? The same, but good!"

I chuckled sarcastically. "Wow! Thanks! What a compliment! I feel very special. I'm blushing in fact. You can't see it cuz of my dark fur, but it's there!"

Amy blushed. Her back stiffened and her shoulders went up.

"Oh! Shadow, you know I didn't mean it like that!"

Inwardly, I smiled. That's the Amy I know.

"It's just that,.." she continued, "you're the Ultimate Lifeform! No matter the time span, you'll always look the same."

I sighed and gave an eye roll. I knew she was right and wasn't trying to be rude. I was just slightly annoyed, that she couldn't think of something better to say. Was it that hard for people to see that I've changed?

"Yeah, well, I'm not entirely the same." I retorted.

"Oh!?"

"Yeah! For one, I've grown, height and mass wise." I saw Amy give off a weird face.

Why did I say that!?

But I just continued.

"My voice has more base, if you hadn't noticed. And I work now as the Commander of G.U.N."

After Amy heard the last bit, her weird face disappeared and was replaced with a look of disbelief. 

"You're the Commander of G.U.N.?" she slowly asked, pointing a finger at me.

I folded my arms. "Don't look so surprised! I used to be G.U.N.'s top agent, once upon a time!" I said, not hiding my annoyance. I had taken Amy's question as an insult, but her next action proved I was mistaken.

"Shadow, that's incredible! What an honor! You're G.U.N.'s first Mobian Commander!"

I blushed and gave off a small chuckle.

"Yeah, well, with great power comes great responsibility."

Man! That was dumb!

If Amy thought it was dumb, she didn't show it. She just giggled and leaned towards me.

"I see you're blushing!" she teased. "I guess you can see a blush through that dark fur!"

I rolled my eyes and smirked. 

"You got me there!"

She laughed. I looked behind me to see if anyone was listening. Of course, no one was. Everyone was too busy in their own world to care about us. I turned to look at Amy again, who was still in her mocking position. I noticed the 'Sweet Bun' sub and drink in her hands.

She must have came up here to sit down and have lunch.

"Hey, would you like a seat?" I pointed to an empty bar stool next to mine.

She rose to her full height as she spoke, "Oh! Thanks! Probably be best."

Amy placed her things on the bar table and took the seat next to mine, as I returned back to my own.

* * * * * * * * *

[Amy's p.o.v.]

As our conversation went on, I couldn't help but notice that there was a change in Shadow. I already saw the difference. He was balanced. However, speaking with him more made the balance more noticeable, and made me to question.

What has happened to him?

I couldn't put my finger on it! Physically, he looked the same, an attribute I knew came with being the Ultimate Lifeform, and his demeanor was still stern and austere, yet his vibe was more relaxed and... friendly!

As I sat listening to the black hedgehog, with my face resting in my palms, I couldn't help but stare, a bit dreamily. His words became muffled, as I thought more of our past, his transformation, and our friendship. I admired him. 

That's when I decided,

I like him this way!

I didn't notice that Shadow had stopped talking and was looking at me a bit confused and alarmed. I guess he caught me staring at him.

"What!? Is there something on my face?"

"Oh! Uh.. no!.. I", I stammered. I could feel my face grow red. I swallowed and took a breath.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare. It's just..." I trailed off, as I looked into his eyes, "I-I can't help but notice the change in you."

"You mean I'm not as grim or stiff as before." he stated, bluntly.

"Pretty much!" I smiled nervously, " What caused you to be different?"

Shadow furrowed his brows and looked toward the window.

Oh, no! Did I say something wrong!?

"Do you know why I was so grim before?", he asked, still gazing at the window.

Was that a rhetorical question? 

"Well.." I started.

"Because the world was in danger!" he firmly interjected. "Eggman was threatening to conquer the world, and I couldn't rest until he was subdued! These people," he gestured his hand toward the window, "deserve to live in safety and have the chance for happiness. I gave a promise long ago to protect the world, and I will do everything in my power to keep it! So, when Eggman and all his evil was destroyed, I was able to breathe." 

His voice held such determination and passion, that it was inspiring. He turned back to me. His eyes were sparkling once more and he wore a small smile. I refrained myself from giving any dreamy stares. 

I knew he wasn't a cruel being as some perceived him to be.

"And then this is where my study of psychology came in."

"I see, but you still work for G.U.N. Why?" I asked.

"Because the bad guys are still out there. With people like Starline and the Deadly Six wandering about, you can't stop."

"Shadow." I said, thoughtfully.

"Yeah?"

"I like you this way!" I concluded."You've really grown!" He laughed.

"Well, I didn't know my behavior was being quizzed under your 'Self-Improvement Test,.." I started to laugh. He did not just say that! "But I'm glad I passed!", he said with a triumphant smile. 

"I didn't mean it like that!", I protested, giving him a shove. He laughed. "I'm just glad that you've loosened up a bit, so that the world can see the good person that I already saw in you."

Shadow opened his mouth to speak, but then smiled. I smiled back. His red, powerful eyes gazed into mine intently, but I wasn't afraid. They were lovely; the eyes of a dear friend that I had almost forgotten. Another loud beeping interrupted the moment. Shadow looked at his wristwatch and turned it off.

"Work?" I asked.

"Yeah. Duty calls!" Shadow said, as he mounted off his stool and grabbed his leather jacket. I followed suit.

"I should probably head out, too. I don't want to get caught in the rain."

"You think it's going to rain, too!?"

"Of course! Have you seen those clouds!? The weather report is never right!"

He laughed. "True that!"

We walked down the stairs and out of the building, stopping just in front of Kangaroo Kroger's front entrance. A silence fell between us as we turned to face each other.

* * * * * * * * *

[Shadow's p.o.v.]

"Yeah! See ya around."

As Amy turned to walk away, I felt that I had forgot something. But what was it? Before I fully understood what I was doing, I called out to her.

"Welp!" Amy started, breaking the silence. "I'll see you around, Shadow!"

"Amy, wait!"

She stopped and looked at me with concern.

"What is it Shadow?"

I began rubbing the back of my neck as I slowly said my reply.

"Can I... give you a hug?" My arms were outstretched and I wore a sheepish grin, with my head slightly down. I felt kind of stupid asking this when we both were about to leave, but I didn't want to let her go, until we had done this. I saw her face questioning my motives. 

"I don't want to leave without giving you a proper goodbye."

She smiled and answered warmly "Of course!"

We hugged, a short, friendly side hug. I got a whiff of her hair. It smelled nice.

I wonder what shampoo she uses?

"It was good catching up with you, Amy." I said, as we broke from the hug. "I really enjoyed it."

"Me too!" she agreed with a smile. And with that she turned on her heels and waved goodbye. 

"Bye Shadow!"

"Bye Amy! I'll catch you later!"

I didn't know then how true those words would be.

.

.

.

Exsert from Shadamy fanfic "12 Years Later: A New Dawn". You can read the rest of this chapter and more on Wattpad, DeviantArt, Quotev, or Webnovel.

[fresafresitawrites]

hemera: goddess of the day

my second vignette in my creative writing class! posting this here so everyone can have fun reading and also cuz i havent posted anything in a while. it’s not that long, so if u can read thatd be so appreciated !!! inspirations: a party i went to with my art history friends and anne carson’s eros the bittersweet 

rest of the vignette is under the read more

I waited outside Hemera’s apartment building, wiping my shoes on the doormat and holding the champagne bottle she asked me to get. She was still 20 until next March and I turned 21 back in June, so for the next few months this would be my job.

The October air was crisp and sharp. The occasional gust of wind felt like needles on my skin. I’m glad that before heading to Hemera’s, my mom convinced me to wear the Sherpa-lined Levi’s jacket she bought me at a Black Friday sale last year—- 70% off.

 The door swung open.

“Andrew!” Hemera’s sudden embrace knocked me back a little. The rollers in her hair scratched the surface of my cheeks when she hugged me, and I was hit with the scent of coconut milk shampoo. A tropical wave juxtaposed with the autumn breeze.

“Hey, is no one else here yet?”

She didn’t let go of me. She hadn’t seen me in a while ever since she started a new job at an Italian restaurant near Union Square, and I’ve been working late-shifts at the bookstore since the holidays were around the corner. “Oh, here.” I gave the liquor store bag.

“You got it!” I closed the door behind me as I entered the lobby. “They use this brand at work, so I wanted to try it.” Her black nails tapped against the green bottle before handing it back to me. “And no, I actually told them to come at seven because I know if I asked you to come early you wouldn’t have done it.”

“Oh really?” I wasn’t actually surprised but I wasn’t going to argue with her either. She’s probably right anyway. I followed her up the three flights of stairs and into her studio, hanging my coat behind the door. She went back to unraveling her curls in front of the bathroom mirror. I leaned against the doorway. Her sink was covered in hair and make-up products.

“You would’ve said, vos! Jou’re gonna make me clean your room while jou do jour make-up again.” She exaggerated my accent. I’ve been a New Yorker for eleven years, but Argentina will always ring in my voice. “Anyway, can you clean you room? I have to brush out my hair.”

“No.” I started peeling off the foil of the bottle.

She turned around, snatching the bottle away from me.

“Not until everyone’s here!”

“All right, whatever.”

I was going to help her straighten the place out anyway. Hemera lived in a studio apartment that she moved into just last year, despite her mom’s disapproval. On the night of her move-in day, we lay down on the hardwood-- since she hadn’t gotten her couch yet-- and shared a bag of Doritos.

“Do you think she’ll be okay? All she has is the cat now.” She meant her mom. “Maybe things should be like they were back in like, the old times. She always talks about how full the house back in Mexico used to be, even my great-grandmother lived there. Three generations! With the kids and everything. There was so much noise… and now it’s just Pepino.” She rolled over to face me. “I miss my kitty already!”   

Hemera sometimes had this way of speaking where nostalgia tinted her voice with memories that weren’t hers. I could name more people in her family than my own.

The entire apartment was the size of my mom’s bedroom. The hardwood creaked with every other step, the pipes under the kitchen sink moaned like ghosts, and the walls were covered with floral wallpaper tearing at the edges, but Hemera treated her apartment as if everything was made of gold. I would too, honestly.

I cleared up the wooden coffee table by removing piles of open mail—mostly bills and Target coupons—printed recipes, and scripts from her theater classes. I didn’t know what else to do with them, so I just hid everything under her pull-out couch. On the kitchen counter, she had those trays of assorted cheeses and meats—to be fancy for her college friends. I rummaged through the cabinets and found her supply of Hot Cheetos to snack on while I reheated the pasta on the stove she made for the guests.

“Okay, how do I look?”

I followed her voice. Her hair was curled up in short rings, like black garden roses, and her eyes were dusted with purple and black eyeshadow. Or eyeliner, I didn’t know, but the glitter illuminated her tan skin. She was dressed in her signature all-black style. In a lace, spidery dress that hugged her curves and ended at her thighs. She sparkled under the dim lighting of her apartment, like a crystal in a cave. In Greek mythology, Hemera was the goddess of the day, but Hemera always reminded me more of Nyx, crowned in dark mist and black-winged.

In high school, Hemera spent most of her time woven in the arms of the upright bass player from our orchestra class. He was long haired and mysterious, as she liked them. She would ask me to French braid her hair before their dates, having me incorporate the artificial flowers he’d give her into her strands. This was something my mom taught me how to do so it’d take less time to get my sisters ready in the morning when they were younger. Maybe it was Hemera’s smooth hair, or the scent of her Jasmine perfume, or watching her finally leave, but my thoughts turned to poetry. The night he broke up with her she cried on the edge of my bed.

This was when she crawled towards me, placed her hand on the calculus textbook on my lap, and kissed me.

And in that moment, any romantic feelings I had towards her dissolved into a fog.

I read in an essay once how unrequited love is a form of escapism. Briefly, perfection exists in the form of a person who you believe is immaculate. Once the feeling is returned, you realize their judgment is flawed because they’ve decided to like you of all people. They lose their divinity. The Greeks spoke of a similar sentiment, Eros: the desire for what is missing. You desire only what you lack. Once something, or someone, is finally in your possession, you can no longer want it.

And where’s the fun in that?

“Hello? Andrew? Andrés Ibarra? Do I have to say it in Spanish? Does my ass look fat or not?”

She walked over to the full-length mirror, answering her own question and taking pictures on her phone. “Also, can you not be weird around my friends? You always talk about that time you swore you saw a UFO and I don’t think you realize how much of a weirdo you sound like telling that story.”

            I sprinkled some of the Hot Cheetos dust from the bag onto her pasta and stirred.

            “No problem.”

[cosmicbug379]

Ever Northward Gaze

Guys I made myself really sad with this one. Like so sad I cried writing it at 11 last night. It’s not my normal thing, but here we are. Also the title is actually from the book of Lord of the Rings! In the book, when Boromir dies, Aragorn and Legolas sing the Lament for Boromir and it’s really sad and I’ve been listening to the version on Youtube that Karliene did (she’s one of my favorite artists honeslty and she has some really good LotR and Game of Thrones stuff so definitely check her out, she’s amazing!) and I was being sad about it so here we are. It does not have a happy ending so be warned. Also, i picked some pieces from the book, and some from the movies and I combed through the timeline of the fellowship and looked up a lot of distances and stuff so the timeline and days is as accurate as I could make it and it’s literally only mentioned like 3 times so that’s fun. I also only tagged a couple people cuz I really honestly don’t know who even wants to read this. Okay sorry for the world’s longest Author’s Note.

Fandom: Lord of the Rings

Pairing: Boromir x reader

Words: 1496

Warnings: Major character death 

It had been months since you had last received a letter from Boromir, and you hated it. You understood why-the need for secrecy had been clear-but you still didn’t like it. The last letter he had sent was from Rivendell, he said he was joining a quest, a fellowship that was setting out to bring the One Ring to Mordor. You knew he left because Lord Elrond had sent word that it had been found, there had been a council called to Rivendell to discuss what to do with it. His father wanted him to bring it back to Gondor, so they could attempt to use it against Sauron, but the Ring was evil, it couldn’t be used against it’s master.

You missed Boromir terribly. He was supposed to come right back, instead it had been 241 days since he had left for Rivendell and 132 days since his last letter had arrived. He was only supposed to be gone a little over 100 days, and now it had been more than twice that since you had last seen your husband.

You had spent most of your time since Boromir’s departure in the Houses of Healing. Ioreth had taught you from a young age, and you quickly discovered you enjoyed it and you were good at it. Faramir always said you were the perfect balance to his brother. He was always the soldier, ready to fight; you always wanted to help people, heal them. 

When you weren’t in the Houses of Healing, you were in the rooms you usually shared with Boromir. You enjoyed painting, and you had a balcony that overlooked Pelennor Fields and you could just see Osgiliath in the distance. You also enjoyed singing, and Boromir insisted you had the voice of an angel, even when you told him he was wrong. You were writing a song for when he finally returned to you, but you were stuck. You had been on edge for over a week now, you weren’t sure why, but you had a bad feeling about something. Your sleep had been restless and your dreams troubled when you had them.

7 nights ago you had dreamt that you saw Boromir’s body in a small boat passing down the river Anduin. You were sobbing when you woke up, and stumbled your way to Faramir’s room. He said he had the same dream, and it made you even more uneasy. You were worried. A weight had come over you, you feared you would never see your husband again.

You sat in your room now, reading over his last letter again. The ink had started to fade and the edges were worn. You read his letters often, trying to remind yourself of him, but this was your favorite.

My darling wife,

It has been too long since I last saw you, and I fear it will be even longer still. I regret to tell you this will be my last letter for some time. I have volunteered to accompany a brave young hobbit in his quest to bring Isildur’s Bane to Mordor. I hope our path will bring us close to home and I will be able to see you, but I am not so sure. 

We are walking, it is best that way, horses will draw too much attention. It will be a long time before we pass into Gondor or anywhere close to the White City, but I will count the days until I can see you again. 

I miss you more than I can put into words, my love. I miss sleeping beside you and waking up with you in my arms. I miss your smile and the way your eyes shine when you do. I miss the sound of you singing to me, and I miss the sound of your laugh. I even miss the way you scold me when I distract you from your work. I cannot wait to hold you again, to kiss you again. You know me better than anyone, and I think you may even know me better than Faramir does. I miss you.

I must stop now, before someone walks by and sees me becoming a blubbering mess over a letter to my wife. Watch over Faramir, father is too hard on him. Don’t let him take anything my father says to heart. 

All my love,

Boromir

You weren’t sure when you had started crying, but a few tears dropped onto the fading words. It was a few moments later when you jumped, hearing the sound of a horn. The horn that signified someone was approaching the Citadel. Was Faramir back so soon?

You raced to the courtyard and saw a messenger there. He was carrying something wrapped in a cloth and he had a grim look on his face. The uneasiness you had been feeling for days crept up inside you, stronger than ever. The messenger looked at you and showed you what was wrapped in the cloth. The Horn of Gondor. Cloven in two. Boromir had taken that with him when he left for Rivendell. That means…

“I’m sorry, my lady,” the messenger said quietly.

You heard a scream of anguish, the saddest thing you had ever heard. It took you a moment to realize the sound had come from you. You weren’t sure how long you stayed there sobbing, but it was long enough that your handmaiden became worried. She and Ioreth found you and took you to your rooms, but you barely even noticed they were there.

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

You knew Gandalf had arrived in the city with a hobbit that day, and you waited outside the throne room while they spoke to Denethor. You had worn nothing but black for 6 days, since news of Boromir’s fate had reached Minas Tirith. You knew you should put on a finer dress to greet your guests, but you couldn’t bring yourself to wear anything else. All your dresses were ones Boromir had bought for you.

You looked up as Gandalf exited, followed by the halfling. He stopped when he saw you and gave you a look of sympathy. 

“My lady… I wish we were meeting again in happier times,” he said quietly.

“As do I, Mithrandir,” you replied. Turning to the halfling you spoke again, “I know Gandalf, but we have not met, what is your name?”

“Pippin, my lady. You are Boromir’s wife aren’t you?” 

“Yes, Boromir was my husband… I understand you are a friend of his,” you said, waving away Gandalf’s attempt to scold the hobbit.

“I like to think so... He spoke of you often. He loved you, and he was right, you are indeed beautiful, my lady,” Pippin blushed a little and looked down. 

“Thank you,” you hesitated. You weren’t sure you wanted to know the answer to your next question, but you had to ask. “How did he die?” 

Pippin looked at Gandalf, as if asking permission. With a nod from Gandalf he turned from you again. 

“He died defending me and my kinsman, Merry. We were north of here at Amon Hen, near the statues of the old kings. There were many Uruk-Hai and he fought bravely to save us. He was pierced by 3 arrows before he fell.” he said.

Your slowly cracking facade of composure finally broke. You tried not to openly sob, but you couldn’t stop the tears leaving your eyes. That sounded like your Boromir. Fighting to defend those who could not defend themselves.

“Thank you, Pippin,” you whispered. “For telling me. I am glad he was at least able to save you and your friend. I hope I get to meet Merry some day.” 

“I hope we will see him again too, my lady,” he answered. 

“Gandalf? Watch over this one. He is brave and he has a good heart. Boromir would be proud of him,” you said with a sad smile.

Gandalf squeezed your shoulder gently before leading Pippin away. You watched them go, trying to keep your tears at bay. Yes, you could see why Boromir loved this little hobbit. Even from the short conversation, you could see it. 

You wandered to your rooms again, telling your handmaiden not to disturb you unless absolutely necessary; you wanted to be alone. You went through your wardrobe, looking for one of the shirts Boromir had left behind. When you found one, you held it close to your face. You could still smell him on it, you didn’t want to think about when you would no longer be able to. 

You collapsed onto your bed, sobbing into the shirt, clutching it tightly to your chest. 

Boromir was gone, and he wouldn’t be able to come back to you now. You wouldn’t kiss him again, or hold him or fall asleep next to him. You wouldn’t have children that you would raise to be healers and warriors. You would be alone now for the rest of your days, with nothing but his memory.

Tags: @rzrcrst​ @longitud-de-onda​

[typicalmidnightsoul]

Home video fic

My first prompt fic. This was requsted by  @ Dayanna_Cahill_Fray_Chase and @my-fan-side. Nesta discovers a home video which she watches with her sister basically.

The edits are basically a story board so plz check that out I wasn’t going to post these but my cousin made me <3 Love ya cuz.

If you have anymore prompts feel free to send them to me <3

Cassian woke up trying to reach for Nesta but instead finding a cold side of bed. He had gone to the rooftop pool with Nesta and safe to say they had a…rough night. He pushed himself up and leaned against the headboard, the bathroom door was open giving him a full view of his fiancé’s back in that pretty white bathing suit. She was putting on mascara, her clothes on the heating rack in the bathroom.

“Where are you going?”

“Starbucks then my old house. It’s about time I cleared that place up.”

He grimaced, the old house as in the villa she grew up in that have reminders of her dead parents.

He started getting up only to have Nesta push him down, “You didn’t get much sleep last night,” She started fixing her bandanna in the mirror, “Stay. I’ll see you later.”

He rolled his eyes, “You didn’t get much sleep either.”

“That’s why I’m going to Starbucks,” She winked and trotted down the stairs leaving.

Well then he could also get Starbucks.

------

She was waiting in the line, scrolling through Instagram not bothering to look behind her. As she got to the front she smiled at the barista,

“Hey could I have-” a hand came around her waist.

“Caramel macchiato, Venti with extra whip, please.”

The barista smiled, “And for you sir?”

Cassian smiled, “me? Well-“

“He wants a Venti iced hazelnut macchiato, no whip and light ice.”

“Names?”

Cassian pinched her waist, “Nessie and Cassian.”

Nesta threw him a harsh look.

They moved along to the end.

“What are you doing here?”

“Helping you clear up your parent’s villa.”

She rolled her eyes.

“You know sweetheart you chug down coffee like its water I don’t think it’s healthy.”

“Shut up Cassian.”

The baristo handed their drinks to them giving Nesta a flirtatious smile which Nesta returned only to piss Cassian off.

Cassian growled.

She pulled him out of the coffeehouse before he could make a scene.

“Did you bring your car?” she asked him, because she hadn’t, she was planning on taking an uber.

He grunted a response she assumed was a yes.

As they got to his car, he opened the car door for her but didn’t look at her. She rolled her eyes.

She got in his black Bentley, as he got in next to her she pressed a kiss to his cheek, “Baby.”

No answer, “Baby!”

“Yes?” He turned, his lips so close to hers.

“I love you.” She pressed her lips to his, it always worked.

As she sat back, his hand went on her thigh.

“Are you sure you should be going there wearing that, babe? I mean as gorgeous as you look, will you be able to move around in it?”

She looked down at her baby blue Bardot tie front and high waist shorts.

“You’d be surprised sweetie.”

As they pulled up to the rustic villa Nesta sighed. Home.

She jogged up to the front door and opened it.

After all the Archeron sisters had moved out with their respective boyfriends and their father…passed the house was left the exact same way. She assumed it was an Archeron thing as after her mother died everything was left the same in her chambers as well.

She sipped her coffee.

“I’ll get started on clearing up the cellar babe, you get started upstairs ok?”

She mindlessly nodded heading upstairs; she had somewhere she needed to go. Something that was begging her attention.

She trotted down the marble hallway into her mother’s second room. The room she didn’t share with her father that she slept more and more in after their marriage was breaking. She went in and gasped. If Nesta didn’t know better she’d think her mother had gone to a party, because the room was immaculate, but still somehow like her mother.

Her mother’s perfume slanted on the table as if she’d just used it, her coat slung over her arm chair, a corner of her duvet folded over.

Her eyes got watery at the jewellery box on her mother’s dressing table.

She opened the box and sighed at the tune playing which she always sung along too and did so now.

“…and when you speak angels sing from above and every word seems to turn into love songs. Give your heart and soul to me and life will always be-”

She broke off at the twin bracelets in the box. She had given it her mother, when she was 13, in the morning for safekeeping because school wouldn’t allow it and forgot to get it back.

White gold chain bracelets with white gold hearts on them. She slid the bracelets on and underneath them, now out in the open from their absence were…pen drives. They had a gold geometric stick.

She giggled at how classy her mother is. Was. Her smile faded.

But what would her mother need to hide in a pen drive in her jewellery box of all places. Footsteps coming upstairs, she slipped the pen drives inside her pocket and closed the jewellery box.

Hands on her waist, lips skimming her neck.

“Clearing up, baby?”

She turned, “I was just about to start.”

“Oh really?” he looked around, “Who’s room was this?”

“My mom’s chambers, her second room.”

“Funny how she left everything for you. You must’ve been her favourite.”

“I was.”

They had countless arguments on this. Him defending Feyre and Elain, her standing her own ground. He was under the impression that Feyre was a villain in her story. She was. And Cassian wouldn’t accept that. He tried to justify Feyre’s actions. Nesta ended up not talking to him for 4 days, because on that topic she never argued for too long, just shut down.

This is why he didn’t push an argument today. She was trying to fix the bond between her sisters. But when the wound is fresh it doesn’t heal as quickly.

She was meeting them tomorrow. Ugh.

At least Cress would be there.

“My heads hurting I wanna go home.” He nodded and led her downstairs. As they got in the car Nesta felt like a hole was burning her pocket.

“Babe you ok?” He asked.

She nodded. Looking back onto the clear expanse of her childhood estate.

“You weren’t wearing those bracelets when we went in. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear those.”

She smiled, “I was getting in the car for high school and mum came out to give me my watch and she said, ‘Nesta jewellery isn’t allowed at school’ so I gave these for here to keep safe and forgot to take it back, she’s kept it safe for 11 years.”

He reached over and kissed her cheek. “They look amazing on you.”

-----

She clicked off her phone and tried to pull her brown mini skirt lower.

“Cresseida says she’s still on her flight from Manhattan. She should be here in a couple of hours.” Feyre and Elain both nodded, Elain stood.

“Want coffee?” Feyre nodded.

“Wait, Elain it’s my house I’ll-” Elain waved her off getting out three mugs. Nesta went and sat opposite Feyre.

“No need to make anything I have a stash of frappe’s in the fridge.”

Elain put the cups away and started picking out flavours.

Nesta took a deep breath.

“So I went to our old villa with Cassian yesterday…” Elain stopped her rattling of the bottles, Feyre sat up, “And I found these from mom’s old jewellery box.” She took out the pen drives.

“Cute. Have you seen what’s in them?” Feyre asked.

“No I thought I’d show you guys as well, just in case it’s a list of bad people.”

Feyre chuckled, “You watch Blacklist too much.”

Nesta rolled her eyes and got her projector out.

Elain came passing around the glass bottles she had topped with whipped cream and red straws.

Feyre gave Nesta a look.

“What? I brought this projector and literally haven’t used it since.”

She plugged it in.

A video started playing.

“Momma I can’t reach!”

A woman came into the shot, picking up the little girl in the middle of the orchid.  

“It’s ok sweetie! Mama’s here.” She picked out the lemons and handed one.

A male voice from behind the camera said, “Nesta look at the camera darling!”

The woman turned showing her pregnant tummy and pointing the camera out to Nesta.

“Daddy I want to pick a lemon.”

The camera was passed onto to someone else and Randolph Archeron ran to Nesta taking her from his wife and placing her behind his head. Nesta picked a lemon and giggled showing it to her mother who was behind her. Adelaide took the lemon from her and went on her tip toes. Nesta leaning back to kiss her mother on the lips.

The video froze for a few seconds.

“Nesta what is-” Elain asked.

“It’s a home video, from when we were younger.”

Feyre glued her eyes back to the wall.

The video changed.

Nesta, Adelaide and Feyre were picking and posing with oranges. Elain holding the camera.

“Smile!!!!” her voice said.

Nesta dropped an orange.

“OMG Nesta!” Elain shrieked, “You’re ruing my shot!”

Nesta picked up the orange, “Ok geez.”

Feyre had started peeling the orange in her hand causing their mother to burst into laughter at Elain’s shriek.

Again another video slid in, a longer one this time.

“Come on Feyre!” Nesta shouted.

“Cominggg.” The camera started running towards Nesta and Elain.

“We were really cute,” Elain said.

Feyre nodded, “I can’t believe she kept these. Where even are we?”

“In Verona I think.” Nesta said.

They were wearing hats too big for their heads.

Elain stopped.

“Dad can I go with you I’m tired.”

Randolph chuckled from behind the camera and held out his hand.

“You were such a daddy’s girl,” Nesta said to Elain.

Elain swiped cream on Nesta’s cheek.

“Get Cassian to lick that off later.”

“Idiot.”

“Come on Fey,” Adelaide picked up Feyre and took Nesta’s hand.

She took their hats off, and held them.

They made their way through the tomato fields into the house. Nesta took the camera from Feyre and ran into the hall. She set the camera down on a counter and started dancing on her own.

“What are you doing Nes?” Adelaide came and picked Nesta up giving her a piggyback; Nesta giggled and clutched her tight.

“She loved you a lot,” Elain looked at Nesta, who was staring at the screen. She didn’t answer, unable to at the longing in Elain’s voice and in Feyre’s eyes. They had always been their father’s child; Nesta had always belonged to her mother. She had stayed with her mother till the end.

Little Nesta in the video said to her mother, “Where’s Feyre?!”

Her mother chuckled, “I don’t know sweetie.”

“Let’s find out, we shall go on a secret mission,” She took the camera off the counter and shoved in her mother’s hands,

“You hold the camera.”

“Oop, ok wait for me,” They ran through the house hiding next to the door look into the kitchen. Feyre had taken out an easel and had started painting.

“Honestly, she’s already started painting, Help me God,” Adelaide laughed at mini Nesta’s sass.

Nesta burst through the door, “Oh Feyre, whatcha doing?”

Feyre looked up and grabbed Nesta, “Good thing you’re here Nes, I needed someone to paint.”

Nesta flicked a lock of hair over her shoulder, “Of course.”

After a few minutes of Nesta fidgeting, Feyre screamed at her to "Sit still Nesta!!" But Nesta kept on looking over at what Elain was doing in the garden.

Adelaide sat down on the kitchen table, the camera jolting.

The video flicked to the next one.

Adelaide was walking up the stairs.

“We seem to have a messy situation downstairs. Proceeding with caution.” She flipped the camera hiding on the landing to show Randolph and his 3 daughters making cookies, Nesta as the first person to notice squealing,

“Momma!!” She ran into her arms smearing her with flour and icing.

“You smell like cookie dough!!!”

Their cookie making continued, throwing flour at each other.

The clip ended. Another one rolled.

“Welcome to our house tour at night.” Adelaide started.

Adelaide started walking through explaining the pictures on the wall.

“There’s me and the girls. Me and Nesta. Randolph with a very tired Nesta. Aw, look at my baby. Nesta with Oliver. Good god if he wasn’t like a brother to her then I would’ve predicted these two would’ve got married.” She laughed, “Well the guy who does get married to Nesta must be a really lucky man. There’s Feyre with her canvas look at her artist in the making. Elain with her flowers that she grew herself, my little gardener!” She moved along to some other picture her voice growing less fond, “Mine and Randolph’s wedding pictures, our anniversary. Lord knows where he is nowadays.” She went quiet, “Anyway let’s check on the little ones the nanny must have put them to sleep.”

She went into a big room, where Nesta was sleeping. The room was light and airy with fairy lights on the wall and Polaroid pictures.

“There’s my baby,” she caressed a hand down Nesta’s face pressing a kiss to her face. Nesta wriggled.

“Goodnight baby.”

She moved into another room, a pink one this time, “There’s baby Elain with her little elf doll.” Elain lay in a plush pink bed in the middle clutching onto a knitted elf doll. Her mother fixed her covers and pressed a kiss to her head.

The next room was covered in with plush toys, the walls covered with stuck on paintings she did at school and at home.

Feyre was still wearing her apron. Adelaide tutted, placing the camera on the desk and holding up a sleeping mini Feyre getting her out of the apron. She put her back to sleep and pulled the covers over her. Pressing a kiss to her forehead as well.

She looked at the camera.

“Can’t wait till they grow up. Hopefully they won’t turn out like me or Randolph. Oh Lord just let them be happy. Especially Nesta. I overheard her telling her teddy that “Daddy doesn’t love her,” I hope she finds someone who does. Who chooses her and keeps on choosing her every day. And this one-” she stroked Feyre, “she should get out from behind that easel every once in a while, just like how Elain needs someone who will be gentle with her as she is gentle with her flowers. I’ll probably show this video to my grandkids, embarrass their mums.” She laughed at the thought.

A door opened and shut.

“Randolph’s here. Let’s find out where he’s been. So bye future and old me and Nesta, Elain and Feyre. I love all of you.”

The video clicked off.

Nesta was toying with her ring. Tears slipping down her face as she knew it was slipping down Elain and Feyre’s. Her mum would have loved Cassian. Well, maybe not at first but…yes she really would have. She smiled at her sisters. Not being able to say anything.  

-------

She had showed Cassian, obviously.

And he’d…well.

He was a fan of their mother.

And then she’d started crying,

“Baby, are you ok?”

“I miss her.”

“well couldn’t we get all those pictures she was talking about in the video and bring it here.”

She hadn’t thought of that, “But the house is in Verona.”

“Book tickets for us tomorrow so we can go the day after.”

She paused for a minute then squealed,

“Baby, baby!! You are the best.” She kissed him deeply.

She broke away smiling mischievously down at him.

“Can we take the yacht?”

She squealed again kissing him even deeper.

Tags: @skychild29​ @my-fan-side​

[mesmeret]

KPW 2.0 Day 2: Cat Daddy Hux and Juggalo Kylo

Day 2: Opposites Attract! "Boring" Cat Daddy Hux has a crush on his Juggalo neighbor Kylo. Kylo also has a crush on him. Cussing and lemons

Hux’s heart flipped hearing the loud engine of his crush coming up the block. He had no shame being picked up by his neighbor in front of his office building. Strangers and coworkers turn towards the blasting “Funyuns and Condoms”. The brakes screech and the passenger door unlocks. Hux bites his lip so his grin masks as a smirk while he gets into the decade old white Ford F-150 with peeling black and red flame decals.

He buckles in before looking over at Kylo, “Hey.”

“How’s the overlords?” Kylo is glaring at traffic with a pale white base with black lightning bolts painted all over his face. Hux’s stomach flips at how a few go down Kylo’s neck and get muddled with his neck tattoos. Kylo’s lips are bright red with black lip liner.

Hux knows to talk over Kylo’s cussing and singing along with his CDs, “Fucking awful. Brooks stole my work again. The cronies didn’t bat an eye seeing my watermarks. Thanks for that idea, by the way. Fuck, I am quitting next week. Not giving them any opportunity to fire me.”

“Fuck yeah!” Kylo honked his horn and grinned as the cars around them honked back. “They don’t deserve you!”

Hux felt his face heat up. This was one of the reasons he fell hard for Kylo. The man made him feel valuable.

“So what’s next for m-Mister Hot Shot?” Kylo stuttered as they pulled onto the highway.

“I don’t know. Maybe take a week off before looking for jobs?” Hux shrugged.

“Yeah? Cool,” Kylo gets into the fast lane and looks over at Hux. His voice low, “Gonna let your hair down and go wild?”

Hux managed not to gasp, instead he made a choked off nervous laugh, “Me? I was thinking of checking out the summer art exhibits before they go away.”

Kylo pounds his steering wheel, “Dude! You’re killing me! You can do that any time!”

“No, the exhibits are leaving at the end of July,” Hux feigns sulking to get more of a rise out of Kylo.

“M-Sorry, you fucker!” Kylo caught himself from saying Hux’s second least favorite curse word. “I’m worried about you. Those soul suckers have got you whipped. You should, like, I dunno… spend time with me and the guys that week!”

Hux’s toes would curl in his italian loafers if the narrow shoes would let them. He sighed, “Fine. I guess you’re right.”

“I’m always right!” Kylo puffed up his chest and belted out the lyrics for the next song on the Bang! Pow! Boom! Album. Hux at least remembered the album name. Kylo also surprised him last week remembering the company names of Hux’s favorite porcelain cat figurines. He stared out at the passing traffic. Maybe he could do something to get Kylo to call him Cat Daddy again? Millie hated the ribbons but if he could bribe her…

A few minutes of traffic later, they pull off the highway and quickly get into their neighborhood. Kylo looks over at him a couple of times before speaking, “Hey, would you like to rehearse your resignation?”

Hux sat up in his seat, “Huh? Yeah, that would help. When did you have in mind?”

Kylo stuttered, “I-uh, got some things to do but I can swing by in, uh, an hour?”

Hux nodded, “Sure. I’ll get Millie settled in with her din-din.”

“Cool!” Kylo yelled and went silent with wide eyes. Hux frowned a little but got distracted with Kylo’s arm bracing the back of his seat as Kylo pulled the truck into reverse to parallel park. Hux knew the tattoos were crude and chunky. But their canvas gave them far more allure. Hux didn’t have time to give into the temptation of nuzzling Kylo’s biceps because the man was an impressive parker.

They parted ways and Kylo stomped up to his apartment in his oversized jeans and baggy t-shirt. The clothes made him look absurdly giant. Hux loved it. Once he got into his apartment, he went straight to the kitchen to prepare Millicent’s meal as she mrrp’d her way around his feet. He hummed along with her as he mashed up some wet food with her kibble. He set the bowl down and gave Millicent her privacy as he headed into his bedroom. He took off  his dress shirt and slacks. He stared at his closet drawing a blank. What would Kylo like him in? Kylo hardly comments on his clothes. Hux sighed grabbing a white t-shirt and gray lounge pants. Why was he so boring? He flushed at the thought of getting Kylo to give him a makeover. He’d look absolutely ridiculous but Kylo would have his hands all over him.

Hux went into the living room and tidied up the little messes from the past few days. Millicent watched him from her cat tree with her tail swaying to and fro. He came over to kiss the top of her head. She scrunched her eyes and shook her head. He snorted, “I know, so embarrassing. But you’re so cute!”

She squinted at him as he scritched behind her ear. Long orange hairs started to shed. He looked at his watch and decided he could start brushing her coat before Kylo came over. He scooped up Millicent and she gave a chirp seeing him grab the brush kit. He was blessed having a cat who enjoyed grooming. He got most of her back done when there was a knock on the door. Millicent darted to the cat tree as Hux dumped the cat hair in the kitchen trash. He answered the door and was startled to see an unsettling version of Kylo.

Kylo looked normal. He was without his makeup in a black polo and khakis. His hair was tied in a bun. Hux felt sad seeing Kylo’s septum piercing flipped up and hidden. Kylo’s skin was splotchy and textured due to his Kryolan paint stick routine. Hux felt oddly reassured that Kylo wasn’t too perfect. Hux has seen him shirtless with his face painted up and spent many a night stroking to the visuals.

“I-um, thought we could role play?” Kylo shrugged.

Hux blushed realizing he had just stood there staring, “Oh! Wow, you really didn’t need to change. I liked the lightning today. A lot.”

Kylo muttered under his breath, “Fucking dumbass.”

Hux froze, “Excuse me?”

Kylo looked more shocked than Hux felt, “Me! I meant me! I’m the fucking dumbass!”

Hux shook his head, “No you aren’t, come on in.”

Kylo frowned but followed Hux to the couch. Hux’s heart fluttered as Kylo sat next to him, “What’s going on, Kylo?”

Kylo looked at him with a shy glance before looking ahead, “I thought you’d like me more like this? I thought if we roleplayed you quitting your job, we’d-” Kylo takes a deep sigh, “I thought we’d then like makeout or something ‘cuz the past couple of months have been crazy, y’know?”

Hux gulped and tentatively placed his hand over Kylo’s white knuckled fist, “I think you’re hot. But as you usually dress and stuff. This is very different but I see my Kylo. Though...”

Kylo goes cross eyed as Hux flips his septum piercing and bursts into deep laughter, “What the fuck! You’re freaky, Hux!”

Hux blushed, “I guess? Do you like it?”

Kylo’s voice cracked before going bone deep, “Uh, yeah. It’s really fucking hot… babe.”

Hux whined as his body went numb with arousal, “Could we… do something else than role play quitting my job?”

Kylo moaned, “Like what?”

Hux got up to straddle Kylo’s lap. Kylo’s eyes widened and his hands hovered before gripping Hux’s hips. Hux whispers while tugging on Kylo’s polo shirt, “Wanna see your chest again.”

Kylo gave a little nod and pulled off the polo. Hux moaned at the sight of the loosened bun, defined muscles, and garish tattoos. His fingers traced thick lines that trembled. Kylo whined and bucked up. Hux gasped as he slid further into Kylo’s lap and had to brace himself against Kylo’s chest. Kylo grunted, “Permission to kiss?”

Hux gave a nod before kissing Kylo. He sighed at how nice Kylo’s lip and tongue piercings felt. He gave a tentative roll of his hips and Kylo seized with a yelp. Hux hummed in delight feeling the pulse of Kylo’s dick against his. Kylo pulled away from the kiss with a dazed look, “Fuck, I didn’t bring condoms.”

Hux bit his lip, “I’m good with not rushing things. I really do like you. And, ah, would like to fuck when you’re all done up.”

Hux now knows that when Kylo’s eyes widen slightly, his cheeks go bright red. This revelation makes Hux kiss Kylo deeply. Kylo gives a confused sound but goes with the kiss. Hux pulls away when he finally needs air. After catching his breath, he whispers, “I can’t believe you like me.”

Kylo scoffs, “I can’t believe you like me. You of all people.”

Hux whines, “Hush, of course I like you. You’re like my best friend and crush.”

Kylo whimpers squeezing Hux’s ass, “I’m your what?”

“My crush-Ah!” Hux arches his back as Kylo rips his lounge pants. Hux shivers as fingers press through the tear to bare skin. “Nngh! Fuck, tear them more.”

Kylo does so looking up at Hux with a growl. Hux grunts as his cock drops down from the torn confines onto Kylo’s palm. It’s an awkward hand job but feels great. Hux’s mind whites out as Kylo leans up to suck on his neck. The other hand reaches over to press two fingers against Hux’s ass. Hux screeches as the fingers rub frantically with the fist around his cock. He goes limp as his cock twitches.

Kylo mouths his neck lightly before flipping them over. Hux whines as Kylo pulls away to take off his cum stained khakis. Kylo also didn’t bother with underwear and strokes himself while looking down at Hux. Hux studies Kylo’s cock and is a little bummed there’s no piercings visible. Kylo straddles him and moans as his cock head bumps against Hux’s small paunch. Hux blushes deeply once he realizes Kylo is writing his name on Hux’s belly. Hux whispers, “I’d get it tattooed there. Or a tramp stamp.”

Kylo’s eyes bulge and his breathing goes haggard, “Fuck, really?”

Hux bit his lip nodding. Kylo grunted as he came all over Hux’s belly. Hux kissed him softly, “Seriously. Maybe you could help me with the aftercare?”

Kylo snorted and shook his head, “Nah, that’s like ten year anniversary shit.”

“Oh, I guess you’ll just have to cum your name on me until then,” Hux feigned disappointment. “Maybe get me a collar or belt?”

Kylo chuckled, “Fucking freak.”  

Hux smirked, “You have no idea.”

[greekletters]

one shot, two prompts

back at it again with the terrible titles. new oneshot under the cut, kids. 

Prompts: Are you fucking kidding me? & Can we pretend I didn’t just say that?

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

“Are you going to be able to help me, or are you too busy with work?”

Weiss looks up from the computer in front of her and sees Blake leaning against the doorframe of her office. A hopeful look on her face.

“Oh, yeah, sure. I’m just editing this presentation for tomorrow. Do you want to go in there, or is in here fine?”

“Are you sure? Because I can just ask Yang to do it if you don’t want to. She’s just downstairs doing one of those workout video things she does in the living room. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”

Clearly reading the situation, Weiss shakes her head quickly.

“No, no. I don’t mind at all.” Blake gives her a small smile, standing up straight.

“Okay, great. Let me go change and I’ll be right back.”

As soon as Blake disappears from the doorway, Weiss turns right back to her work and begins to read through her notes for what feels like the millionth time. She hated to admit it, but she was so distracted with work that she barely noticed Blake return, with an armful of clothing.

“Alright.” Blake lays each outfit over a chair or on the coffee table across the room. “You’re sure you want to help me? You aren’t too busy?”

“Huh?” Weiss peers over the top edge of the computer screen. “Oh yes, of course. No problem.”

Blake was running back and forth across the office, placing little accessories or items with each outfit before finally coming to stand in the middle of the room, facing Weiss.

“Okay, this is my first option. I figured it was simple, not too fancy, but still professional. You know, business like.”

“It looks nice.”

Honestly, it looks a lot nicer than nice. Blake was wearing a flowing, loose fit white sleeveless blouse and a dark navy pencil skirt. The neckline dipped just enough to where it caught Weiss’ attention, but still remained professional.

“Um, okay.” Blake had been hoping for a little bit more of a critique than ‘nice.’ But this was Weiss we were talking about. “I was thinking navy or nude heels if I wore this one.”

“Uh huh.” Weiss’ eyes drifting back down to her presentation. “Remind me what this is for again?”

“The awards dinner? For the research institute? It’s in a few days. And you said you would come with me.”

Weiss can tell that Blake is nervous just mentioning the dinner. And she feels silly for forgetting. Blake had been working on her research for years and was finally up for an award which included a grant to further fund her study. Weiss felt awful and careless for forgetting.

“Oh wow, that came up fast. Feels like yesterday that you started your research project.” Nice cover, Weiss. Internally rolling her eyes at herself.

“You don’t have to go.” Blake’s shoulders slouch as she looks back and forth between two dresses, deciding which to try on next. “I know you’re really busy with the presentation and stuff. I understand. Maybe Yang can go with me instead.”

“Don’t even suggest such a thing. I will be going with you, and there is no need to discuss it any further. I might be busy but that in no way means that I don’t have time for you. Now, what is your next option?”

“This one I guess.” Blake leans down and grabs a dark red dress off of one of the chairs. When she begins to remove the clothing she is currently wearing she notices Weiss immediately look away, back down to the computer screen in front of her. She can’t help but take a jab at Weiss while she continues to change her clothes. “You know you don’t have to pretend not to look. You’ve seen me in way less, many times.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t choose to respect your privacy.” Her cheeks rosy, still averting her gaze as she hears Blake zip up the dress.

“Okay, what do you think about this one?” Blake does a little twirl so she can see the front and back of the dress before sharing her assessment.

“Unfortunately, red isn’t my favorite color. It does look amazing on you. But I think for the occasion it may not be the best option. It’s giving me ‘I just killed my husband and I’m mourning him at the funeral in a sultry red dress’ kind of vibes.”

“Eh, I agree. It wasn’t my favorite either. Ruby picked it. So sorry Ruby, maybe next time.” Immediately unzipping the dress, letting it fall down to the ground and stepping out of it.

Peeking away from her presentation yet again, Weiss sees Blake move to grab a long dress, white with silver accents.

“Is that the dress you wore to the company holiday party last year?” Weiss asks, the tone of her voice comes out way more stern than she had intended.

“I think so, why?”

“It’s too fancy formal for an awards dinner.” She sees Blake huff in disappointment at the dismissal of a quarter of her options. “You do look beautiful in that dress, no question. But I don’t think it says ‘research institute award winner Blake Belladonna.”

“Hm, maybe you’re right.” Standing in the middle of Weiss’ office in her underwear, completely unaffected, Blake wanders over to the final dress. “What does the dress say?”

“It says ‘watch me as I float majestically down these marble stairs with my girlfriend, who is obviously just as majestic. Oh, and happy holidays.” Weiss points her pen towards Blake for emphasis at the very end, which gains a small giggle from Blake as she dresses once again.

“Alright, last one.” Blake says as she models her final dress.

Weiss looks up to see an all black knee length dress that hangs off the shoulder. It’s made from a chiffon looking material and has ruching all throughout the middle area. And then, then there was the back.

“Thoughts?”

“No. Take it off.” Shaking her head back and forth. Trying to keep her thoughts in her head where they belong and need to stay.

“What? Why?”

“I just don’t like it. No.” Refusing to look up and meet Blake’s gaze, or the dress.

“Weiss, this is a very important evening for me, and I really need your help picking out something to wear.” Weiss hears the distress beginning to mount in Blake’s voice, making her uneasy. “What’s so wrong with this dress?”

“Please just take it off. We will find something for you to wear.”

“Tell me what’s wrong with this dress.” Blake struggles as she reaches behind her back to undo the zipper and it finally falls to the floor below. Leaving her there, arguing with Weiss in her matching set of black undergarments.

“I just didn’t like it, is all.” Weiss really doesn’t want to have this conversation, much less while the other half of the argument is nearly naked.

“Just tell me why you don’t like it, please!”

“Fine! It makes your ass look huge. There? You happy now?”

—————

Downstairs, Yang has just finished her workout and is refilling her water bottle in the kitchen. She has been the unknown third party to the entire disagreement going on up the stairs.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” The ferocity in Blake’s voice garnering Yang’s full attention.

Blake doesn’t yell. So maybe this was worth investigating. Usually, she didn’t get too involved in Blake and Weiss’ business. And seeing as how they had been gracious enough to let her stay with them while her house was undergoing “renovations” to fix damages caused by what the insurance company referred to as “an act of God or other natural disaster” on the paperwork, she was willing to make an exception.

“Can we pretend I didn’t just say that?” There is an unfamiliar tone in Weiss’ voice. One she reserves only for Blake. It’s almost pleading or apologetic in nature.

“This ought to be good.” Yang says to herself as she begins to climb the stairs.

“You want me to pretend that you didn’t just say my ass looks huge?” Blake says, not thinking Weiss would have the audacity to even suggest such a thing.

“Hey ladies, what’s going on in here? Woah!” Yang immediately turns around once she sees Blake has on nothing but her underwear. “Sounds like you two are having a little bit of a tizzy in here.”

“No we are-“

“Yes, yes we are. Thank you for noticing.” Blake crosses her arms over her chest. Which only accentuates her chest, involuntarily drawing Weiss’ eyes towards her.

“Now, now. What seems to be the matter? I’m sure there is a simple solution.”

“Quit staring at my chest, you’ve currently lost privileges.” Blake snaps at Weiss, who averts her gaze towards the wall.

“You can’t exactly fault her for looking, cuz I mean, I looked.” Yang shrugs and there’s a small gasp from Weiss’ side of the room. “Anyways, now you two make up. Because this is ridiculous. Weiss, you were being rude and an ass. And Blake, you have a nice ass. And we all know it. So there’s nothing to fight about.”

“That’s not the point, Yang.” Blake starts in but Yang holds up a hand to silence her.

“Tell her.” Weiss rolls her eyes at Yang’s demand. “Do it now, Weiss Schnee.”

“Blake, you have a lovely ass. It is one of your very, very fine qualities. The fault lies solely with the dress and my lack of eloquence in expressing it in such a way.”

“And?” Yang sticks out her neck, drawing out her words to match.

“And I love you and I’m sorry for being insensitive.” Blake notices the sincerity in Weiss’ voice, but still continues to tap her foot on the floor beneath her, arms still crossed.

“And you, standing over there nearly naked, what do you have to say for yourself?”

“Apology accepted.” Finally letting her arms fall to her sides.

“What else?”

“And of course I love you too, like it’s even a question.” Rolling her eyes at Yang for being so childish.

“Now that the two of you can quit being ridiculous, Blake, wear the blouse with the skirt. It’s a business event, not a red carpet. And Weiss, I can recite your presentation from memory by now, so I know you can too, give it a rest.”

“Okay.” The two of them say in unison.

“Can’t wait til I can go back to my own house with my own space, and no relationship drama.”

“Hey! We don’t have drama.” Weiss says, clearly offended.

“And you could be at home, alone, right now if you hadn’t burnt down your kitchen and half the dining room trying to make chicken nuggets in the toaster. Then lied to the insurance company and said the house got struck by lightning.”

“It was for science, Blake. You of all people should understand. And put some damn clothes on. I know this is your house, but good grief.” Yang waves her hand in dismissal as she turns around and leaves the room, heading down the hallway.

Blake begins to gather up all the clothes she’s left scattered across the office. As she’s about to walk through the doorway out of the room, she stops and turns back towards Weiss.

“You lost those privileges too, so quit staring.”

Weiss immediately frowns and sits back down behind her desk. After a second of silence, Blake pops her head back into the doorway.

“You know I was completely joking, right?” Winking before disappearing once again.

Quickly, Weiss closes the lid of her laptop and runs off down the hall to regain her lost privileges.

[valkyrieofthehighfae]

Chapter 3

Warnings: Brief mention of drug use and potential alcohol abuse. 18+ only y’all!

Word Count: 3.6k Join my taglist here Tagging: @mcu-padawan​ Chapter 1 & Chapter 2

Coruscant: my home away from home, my sanctuary, my own personal little slice of heaven in this hellish war. I was positively thrilled to be back here for the next two weeks: I had new tattoos to get, places to be, things to buy, and people to see. I checked my chrono to see what time it was, pleased to see it was still early enough that I had time to go home and shower before meeting with Fives for drinks. Hefting my pack up, I took off towards my nice, cushy apartment Ivar had procured me after I graduated the academy, whistling a cheery little tune as I practically skipped home. All I wanted was to take a nice, hot bubble bath and relax for a while.

“Hey V!”

I grunted as a heavy arm draped around my shoulders, taking me off guard momentarily. Fives had fallen into step with me, chuckling when I playfully elbowed him with a scowl. “What is it with you and scaring me? Seriously, this is the fourth time today! I’m finding a bell or something to tie to your neck.” I teased him. In the few days I’d known him and Echo, I’d quickly grown attached to the two men, finding Echo’s love of puns absolutely wonderful while Fives and his dirty jokes always had me in stitches, almost quite literally when he chose to tell a real good side splitter when I was working with a scalpel on a practice dummy to get better at my stitching. “We still on for drinks tonight?”

“Wouldn’t miss it, Valks. We’re still meeting at the 79’s right?”

“That’s the plan, yeah. I’m gonna get my best friend, Koyi, to come along as a date for Echo. She could use a night out on the town honestly and I think getting those two together would be damn adorable. I’m going to soak in a hot bath first, I have been absolutely dying for a hot bath since we got word we’d be getting leave. We’ll head to the 79 in about an hour, okay?” I confirmed, gave him a quick hug while saying goodbye, and kept walking, super eager to get home. “Hey, Koyi, drinks at the 79’s tonight. You in?” I called Koyi up on my comm while walking through my front door, dropping my pack on the ground by my couch and headed into the kitchen for a snack.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll come by your place so we can get ready together. Be there in thirty.” She sounded absolutely thrilled to hear we had plans, her voice always pitching up in her inflection whenever something got her excited.

“Ouch, you weren’t even going to come see me first?” A voice behind me had me nearly leaping out of my skin, whirling to see Grave coming out of my bedroom, a towel around his waist, his chestnut colored locks wet from a shower.

“Grave? I wasn’t expecting to see you here!” I lit up when I saw him, practically jumping into the lanky man’s arms when he held them out to embrace me, his lips pressing tenderly to my temple. “I was going to come see you, but I had plans made to get some drinks with some friends first.” I pulled away from him to head into my bedroom, discarding my clothes into my hamper. The sterile smell of the med bay still managed to cling to me, the smell itself not totally unpleasant per say, but it was just enough that it felt as if I were still at work, which is something I was ready to forget about for the next two weeks.

“That’s a view I certainly missed,” I could hear the smirk in his voice as I leaned over to turn the tub on. “What happened to your nose, Baby Doll?”

“It got broken in a fight. Doesn’t look near as bad as it did that first day, but it’s still pretty tender.” I grumbled, reaching up to touch the bridge of my nose. It was still pretty bruised up, but it was a lot better than the first two days after it had happened.

“Who the fuck do I need to kill for laying a hand on my Baby Doll?” Anger lurked just under that calm surface, coloring his voice with an unpleasantness that had a shiver crawl down my spine. I’d only ever seen him lose his temper one time and it stuck with me, the sight of all the blood and sounds of screaming still sometimes invading my dreams.

“It was an accident, Grave. I was trying to break up a fight between a couple of our mechanics and got hit with a wrench in all the chaos.” I soothed, resting my hands on his chest. “I’m fine, I fixed it no problem.” Standing up on tiptoes, I wrapped my arms around his neck so I could pull him down for a kiss, sighing softly when he gently stroked my cheek with a knuckle.

“Accident or not, they damaged you. I can’t have you go out on the stage until you’re bruise free.” He murmured against my lips, one hand coming up to gently grip my chin so he could inspect the damage, treating me as if I were a piece of property that got damaged in a bar fight. My brow furrowed in response to his scrutiny, jerking my head away from his grip so I could step into the tub, hiding my frown behind my curtain of hair.

“You know I hate it when you do that. I don’t like it when you grab my face, it’s uncomfortable. I wish you’d listen to me when I ask you not to do things you know bother me.” I eyed him with an irate glare, huffing at his rough treatment.

“I’m sorry Baby Doll, you’re right. Can you ever forgive me?” Grave knelt down by the tub, taking a hand in his, pressing soft kisses along my knuckles. I melted all over again, a warm blush creeping up onto my cheeks as he pressed another kiss to the inside of my wrist.

“Fine, but only because I love you.”

“Hey Astrid! Where are you?” Koyi’s voice cut into our moment, Grave’s nose wrinkling in distaste when the Twi’Lek woman poked her head into the refresher. “Hey girl! Oh good, Corpsefucker is here too.” Her grin quickly soured into a look of disgust. She and Grave had a rather… rocky relationship with one another, neither of them caring much for the other. It made it hard to have both of them with me, the constant bickering and name calling getting rather old rather fast.

“Great to see you, too Tailhead. I’ll let you two get caught up. Baby Doll, meet me at the Crypt later.” Grave got up with one last parting kiss, slipping past Koyi with a sneer. She ignored him, coming to sit down at my vanity instead, opening her makeup kit she’d brought along so she could start setting up.

“I still cannot understand what you see in that creep. Seriously what is the appeal? He’s a kriffing asshole and he’s so ridiculously possessive.” Koyi was watching me with raised eyebrows, shaking her head a little. “You could do so much better than that wastoid.”

“C’mon Koyi, leave him alone. Grave really can be so sweet and he’s taken such good care of me -”

“Oh yeah, cuz treating you like property is taking such great care of you. Come off it, Astrid. You’ve been brainwashed by the creep, he took advantage of you at a vulnerable time and now look at what’s happening. You’re excusing his shitty behavior because you can’t see it. I love you, you’re my best friend, but I can’t sit by and not say something about this mess.”

I couldn’t meet her fierce gaze, looking at the bottles of shampoo and conditioner sitting on the side of my tub instead, tears welling in the corners of my eyes. I didn’t get why she wasn’t happy for me, why she couldn’t just support my happiness with Grave. Deep down, though… deep down I knew she was right. I’d started noticing it each time I came home on leave, there would be little things here and there that he would do that would always upset me, things that I would repeatedly ask him not to do that he would keep doing anyway. His apologies always seemed so sincere before, but now? Now I was beginning to have doubts.

“You’re right. I’m sorry, Koyi.” It was hard to say out loud, hard to admit that I might be wrong, but her words had my brain in overdrive, thinking over every little moment I’d shared with Grave, every word that had been said, every single little action that had ever occurred, and I felt hollow inside just thinking about it.

“Stars above, you don’t need to apologize to me. I just worry about you. It’s hard enough knowing you’re out there helping in this war out there in the field like the clones, I don’t want to have to worry about you whenever you’re home, too.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I get it.” I sighed before getting out of the tub, wrapping my favorite fluffy towel around myself so I could dry off and get ready for our night out. “On a lighter note, I got you a date for tonight.” My grin only got wider when Koyi threw my dress at me, the silky fabric and hanger hitting me in the face.

“Why do you do this to me?” Koyi’s face had gotten ten shades darker, covering her face with her hands to try and hide it.

“Because I love you and you’re my best friend and deserve to be happy. You’ll like Echo, he’s so sweet. And he likes puns, it’s a perfect fit!” I laughed, dropping down onto the chair next to her, digging around for my makeup with a grumbled curse. Where had I put it? “Where the hell is my… oh son of a bitch.” It hit me I’d left my makeup on the Resolute in my bunk. I was in such a rush to get outta there, I forgot to grab it.

“Let me guess, you left your makeup? Just use mine, I’ve got so much stuff here I haven’t even used yet,” Koyi snorted while slipping into the black bodycon dress she’d brought along to wear on our night out.

“Thanks,” I sighed heavily. “What do you think of the dress I picked? I’m still not sure about it.” I motioned to the light pink strapless dress I’d laid out on my counter. It was a gift from Grave that I hadn’t had an opportunity to wear yet and I thought tonight would be perfect but it seemed like it was so short.

“Put it on! Let’s see how it looks.” Koyi handed me the dress and I slipped into it, waiting for her to zip up the back. “Oh. Wow. You look great, but damn that is short.”

“I thought it looked short! You know what, it’s fine, it’ll be okay. As long as I’m not up on tables dancing, no one’s gonna see anything.” I decided to just take the plunge and wear the dress since I wasn’t sure when I’d get the chance to wear it out and about. It was too cute to just let sit in my closet and go to waste. “Okay, I think I’m ready. I just need to get some shoes.”

“Oh great, we’ll be here for six thousand years waiting for you to pick. You have so many pairs of shoes. Why? Who needs this many shoes?” Koyi was staring into my closet with wide eyes at the sight of my four shelves of shoes.

“I do apparently. Grave likes to surprise me with new outfits fairly regularly when I come home on leave.” I smiled softly at the thought of him always finding new ways to surprise me. “I think I’m going with these for tonight.” I picked up a pair of wedged sandals that laced up my calf.

“You actually made a quick decision with your clothes? That’s a first!” Koyi broke into laughter when I gave her the evil eye. She wasn’t wrong though, I always took forever to pick an outfit and shoes, even as a kid.

“Okay, rude. I think we’re ready to go, do you have everything you need?”

                                                          ~*~*~

When we arrived at the 79’s, I couldn’t believe just how packed it was tonight. Finding Fives looked like it might be a bit harder than anticipated. I held on to Koyi’s wrist so we wouldn’t get separated in the crowd, grinning flirtatiously at everyone who checked us out. I finally spotted Fives with Echo, Hardcase, Kix, and Jesse lounging at a table, playing a game of sabacc.

“Hey guys!” I waved to get their attention over the loud music, laughing when Hardcase looked up, jaw dropping in shock. This was the first time I’d actually worn something like this around them, usually I was in a crop top and tight pants with comfy boots, so the dress and makeup was a completely new side of me I was showing. Case nudged Jesse, who in turn hit Fives in the chest to get him to stop talking for a minute. “Sorry we’re a little late. Took a little longer than originally planned to get ready.” We snagged a couple of chairs that were empty, perching on them with grins. “Guys, this is my best friend Koyi. Koyi, these are some of my guys. That’s Hardcase, Jesse and Kix, Fives, and Echo.”

“Nice to meet you all.” Koyi gave a shy wave, blushing a little when she caught Echo checking her out. I nudged her with my elbow, hoping she’d take the hint, fighting back a laugh when she elbowed me back but got up to go sit with him so they could chat.

“I’m gonna grab a drink, anyone want anything?” I turned my attention back to the others who were still staring at me with wide eyes. “Okay, come on, knock it off. It’s just a dress and brighter makeup than what I usually wear. It’s not that shocking.” With a roll of my eyes, I got up to my feet and grabbed Fives’ hand to pull him after me for drinks.

“You weren’t kidding when you said you had a lot of ink. Is there anywhere you don’t have any tattoos?” He was standing close enough to me that I could feel warmth radiating off of him and my cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

“You mean besides my face? Nope, I’ve got a tattoo pretty much everywhere.” I swallowed hard, my face getting hotter when he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “So, what’s your poison?” I motioned to the wall of alcohol behind the bartender.

“Surprise me, Valks.” Fives grinned down at me, laughing when I groaned at his continued insistence of calling me “Valks” instead of Valkyrie. It drove me crazy, but he was also the only one I’d let get away with calling me that cursed nickname.

“Okay,” I shrugged. “Could we get a Bad Motivator IPA and an Ellodeem nightflower?” I gave the bartender a brilliant smile, thanking him happily while handing over my credits to pay for our drinks. “Cheers Fives.” I raised the glass and took a sip, pleased by the balance of sweetness and tartness of the dark purple, shimmery liquid.

“So Echo and Koyi look pretty cozy. Look at them,” Fives nodded to where his brother and Koyi were dancing, the two of them laughing and chatting animatedly. I knew I made a good call by arranging for them to meet.

“Aww they’re so cute.” I joked, taking another sip of my drink. I made a note to order something a touch stronger once I finished this off, needing to get my mind off of Grave and everything else. I could practically taste the Z that I was so desperate to get into my system, I had to bite back a moan as I relished the thought of chasing that high that left me feeling like I was floating. I just needed to get through drinks with the guys first and then I could go to Grave for my fix.

Nope, no, don’t think about it. Focus on the moment happening right now. I shook my head a little, bringing myself out of my thoughts to try and keep my attention on Fives, who was talking animatedly about… shit what was he talking about? I’d been so zoned out, I hadn’t listened to a single word he’d said.

“Hey, anyone home?” Hardcase waved a hand in front of my face, a smirk on his face when I swatted his hand away with a glare.

“Sorry, I’m here, I just zoned out a little. It’s been a long day.”

“Yeah, are you alright? You seem really distracted tonight.”

That’s an understatement.

“Yeah, I guess I kind of am. Sorry about that, my head is just somewhere else right now. I’m gonna go grab another drink.” I half laughed, rubbing the back of my neck, embarrassed I was called out for zoning out. I carefully wound my way through people to the bar, leaning on it so I wasn’t in the way of people working their way past me and contemplated on a drink. “You know what, surprise me. Something really strong would be appreciated, though.”

The bartender nodded with a smirk, mixing up a drink that was a bright blue and smelled absolutely heavenly, the taste sweet, heavy on my tongue. I thanked him happily, turning to go back to the group when I accidentally bumped into someone.

“Oh, shit, I’m so sorry!” I blushed hard when my drink sloshed onto my dress and a little onto this person’s hand when they reached out to steady me.

“Whoa, hey, watch it.” An unfamiliar voice replied, steady hands holding my elbows to keep me upright in the blasted wedges. “You alright?” 

“Y-yeah, I’m okay. I’m seriously so sorry, can I buy you a drink to make up for my clumsiness?” I asked, resting a hand on his, biting my lip nervously.

“Ah don’t worry about it. I should be askin’ if I could get you a drink since yours spilled onto your dress.” He had a toothpick in the corner of his mouth, a cocky half grin on his mouth as he looked me up and down before reaching over me to grab the towel the bartender passed over, handing it to me. I took it with a shy thanks and dabbed at the spot of my dress, drying it as best I could.

“Oh, no, please don’t feel obligated! It was my fault anyway, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going,” I handed the towel back to the bartender. “I’m Valkyrie, by the way.”

“Crosshair. Nice to meet you pet.” Crosshair smirked, eyeing me with interest. I could feel my cheeks flare pink and took a seat with him at the bar. “You’re the five oh’s civie combat medic, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. I see my reputation precedes me and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.” I laughed nervously, wondering just what he’d heard exactly.

“Heard you’re a damn good medic, and you keep your cool under pressure. We could use a medic every now and then on Anaxis.” He gave a nod as the clone behind the bar handed him a glass of whiskey.

“I go where I’m needed, so if you guys need me there, it can be arranged with Captain Rex I’m sure. I’d be glad to help out. I’m not exclusively the five oh’s, I’m just with them primarily.” I tucked my hair behind my ears, a sweet smile on my face.

“Yeah? Great, I’ll make the arrangements to steal you away for a while.”

Wait. Is he… flirting with me? I mean, he was definitely cute and I was into it, but it definitely caught me off guard. I decided to test the waters, just to see if I was imagining things, and leaned in a little closer, taking up a flirtatious posture. “Steal me away, huh? My reputation can’t be that good,” I purred, tilting my head slightly and reaching up to tuck a strand of loose hair back out of the way again when it fell back into my face. He laughed, setting his empty glass down and touched my knee softly.

“You’d be surprised. Heard a lot of good things about you.” He was glancing down at my lips as he spoke, quick flashes and it confirmed my theory.

“I’m flattered, really,” I set my glass down next to his. “Oh, I love this song! Care to dance with me?” I hopped off the barstool with a smile, taking his hand in mine when he agreed. We passed by Fives and the others on the way to the dance floor, Fives whistling playfully at me, and I gave him the finger with a laugh. Koyi looked pleased from her place next to Echo, her arm looped through his and her head on his shoulder. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing up against him, rolling my hips to the beat, fighting back a gasp when his fingers tightened on my waist slightly. This was going to be a fun evening if things kept going well and I was eager to see where this was going to go.

[clumsydarknut]

Scripted Wishes

Chapter 4: Anima Extalia

Beginning | Previous | Next | Most Recent (That’s this! Hi!)

Lucy sighed, stretching and flopping back onto her bed. The dress rehearsal – if you could call it that – had only gone for maybe an hour and consisted mostly of the crew running a few of the more complicated dance scenes and rubbing out a couple bumps in the cues, none of which Loke seemed interested in helping her learn. The Loke she’d met that morning was nowhere to be found, instead replaced with a nervous, twitchy, hyper-focused stagehand who was determined to pretend she didn’t exist. He hadn’t said a word to her, even when she asked him things.

“Which one’s the left spot again?”

Point.

“So you play guitar?”

Nod.

“When do you think Natsu will be back?”

Shrug.

That hour had seemed like an eternity, dragged out second by second with anxious glances and awkward coughs. It wasn’t a total loss, though. She’d been able to see first-hand why Jellal got the praise that he did. Most of the cast of Anima Extalia were adult actors who seemed very experienced, and Jellal matched their skill note for note and step for step. They had done a battle scene featuring some crazy aerobatics – the choreographer had called it capoeira – where Jellal had pulled some off some incredible flips and twists. She was kind of bummed the show was sold out, and based on the way Loke behaved it wasn’t likely she could watch from the sound booth.

Guess I’ll just have to try out for something, she thought. Probably the next musical.

With nothing else to do, Lucy wiggled her phone out of her tight pockets and unlocked it with a few quick taps. She was used to most of the notifications – a few spam and school emails, a new video from a YouTuber she liked, and suggested pins for her astronomy board weren’t out of the ordinary. To her surprise and delight, however, all of those lined up beneath six new texts from Levy.

I saw Natsu drag you to the sound booth. Nothing kinky going on is there? ;)

omg i can’t believe i said that plz don’t show him

Lucy?

Oh right probs busy learning sound booth stuff k nevermind

We hope you’re here to stay, Lucy! Welcome to Fairy Tail!

The last text brought tears to her eyes. Beneath the welcome message was an awkwardly thrown together group selfie, with Levy holding the camera and doing her best mock-Instagram face. Jet and Droy crouched next to her, grinning, while Cana leaned on them, pointing a finger gun and winking. Erza stood over Levy with her soft smile, and Gray stood just next to her, arms crossed over his chest and giving the camera a smirk. In the corner, she could make out the boxy shape of the sound booth, a blur of pink and a blur of blonde just visible in the fuzzy background.

Lucy grinned and rubbed a tear from her cheek. She let her thumbs dance over her keyboard while she tried to think of a good response. They really like me, she sighed. I’m in Fairy Tail, and they like me!

Her phone gave a buzz and she squeaked as her hands jerked in surprise, making her lose her grip on the slender piece of technology; she juggled it awkwardly for a second before it landed flat on the pillow next to her. She scrambled onto her stomach and flipped the vibrating phone over, grinning at seeing Natsu’s profile picture humming on the screen. She slid her thumb across the icon and put it to her ear.

“Hello?”

“Heya Luce!”

Lucy winced at the sudden noise, moving it a little further from her head. “Hey! What’s up?”

“Are you coming to the show?” he sang. She could almost see his toothy grin in the tone of his voice.

“It’s sold out, isn’t it?”

“Well yeah,” Natsu replied, “but you’re in the company now! You can watch from the sound booth with me!”

Lucy bit her lip. “Is that okay? I wouldn’t want to get in your way – it’s already pretty cramped with just two people up there.”

“You won’t get in the way,” Natsu chuckled, “Right Loke?”

She felt her breath hitch. Though she heard a faint “uh, sure” wobble on the other end, she knew the red-head was most certainly not okay with that. She wasn’t particularly fond of the boy, and certainly not of his playboy kind, but… he seemed genuinely afraid of her, and for no reason that Lucy could deduce. She didn’t want to make things worse if she could avoid it.

“No, it’s okay, Natsu,” she replied, “I should probably rest up – I’m a little woozy from all the action yesterday and today.”

“Aww, c’mon Luce! Is it cuz you’re afraid Loke will make a move on ya?” She heard Loke splutter something frantically. “Don’t worry, I won’t let him use a single pick-up line!”

“No, no,” Lucy laughed uncomfortably, “I just really need some rest.”

“Oh, okay.” Natsu seemed disappointed, but only for a moment before perking right back up. “I found a great role for you, by the way! I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, yeah?”

She smiled. “Sounds good!”

“Yosh! Ja na!”

“Bye!”

The screen turned black and she sighed. I’ll just have to miss this show, I guess. She rolled onto her back and picked up her phone again, humming as she decided what to do. She opened Instagram on a whim and flicked down to a random spot in her feed. It was another video posted by the school, bearing a very familiar face and a very familiar tag. She grinned.

I’d prefer to hang with him in person, but I guess this Salamander will do.

---

Gajeel really wasn’t one for theatre.

It was cheesy, weird, and straight up uninteresting. People prancing around on stage in frilly costumes, pretending to be things they’re not? And set to music? No, not really his thing at all.

Well, maybe that was a lie. He was in the Cosplay Club, after all.

But there was no way he’d ever admit the two things had anything in common. Cosplay was an art – a dedication to replicating a character so perfectly that it seemed they had stepped out of the world of fiction and straight into reality. Cosplaying a character was the ultimate testament to how incredible that character and their world truly was, and thus, being a cosplayer came with the heavy responsibility of making sure that character was done justice. It wasn’t this… thing, that played out on the stage in front of him.

He couldn’t really complain, though. Not since he was here on a date.

A second date, at that.

He leaned back further into his seat, scrunching down into his gray hoodie and tilting his head to look at the girl next to him. Sue was cute. She was at least a head shorter than him, with darker, tanned skin and forest green hair cut off at her shoulders. Now she wore a beige blouse and a short black skirt, but Gajeel much preferred her usual attire – a blue shirt with ripped sleeves and green cargo pants, along with an oddly adorable purple jester’s hat. He’d asked her out casually last week and they’d gone four-wheeling; when she asked him in return, this had been her suggestion.

He almost said no, but he actually kind of liked her.

He sighed, settling in for the show. The overture had finished, as well as the opening number – a solo by a guy in some weird ninja gear. Gajeel was pretty sure he’d seen him around school hanging with the other Fairy Tail dorks, which was a little bit of a surprise. Then again, all Fairy Tail had to work with was Fairy Tail, so maybe giving the title role to a teenager was the best they could do. Either way, the number was somewhat foreboding and left Gajeel with prickly discomfort itching at the back of his neck.

Sue gasped as the scene changed in a flash of smoke and a sheen of light. The eerie set the ninja dude had occupied was replaced with a multi-tiered stage painted as floating isles on a backdrop of a beautiful blue sky. Gajeel gave a smirk as Sue turned back, smiling, to see if he was watching. As soon as she looked back to the show he scrunched further into his seat. Maybe I can pick up some cosplay design ideas at the very least.

The show was pretty strange, in Gajeel’s opinion. Half the characters seemed to be humans from some post-apocalyptic magic-science hybrid country, and the other half were… cats? Cat people? Cat angels? Whatever they were, at least they weren’t furries. He had to admit the half-cat costumes were very well done, blending prosthetics perfectly into skin and avoiding the whole mostly-naked-with-body-paint deal that so often killed good animal cosplays. The rigging they used for some of the aerobatics attached to very well disguised harnesses with pretty impressive angel wings that seemed to be high quality animatronics. They’d somehow managed to get realistic tails as well, which moved and swished about like real ones instead of dangling limply or sticking out at awkward angles. Pretty cool, that. He made a mental note to scare the technique out of one of the stagehands later.

The main protagonist appeared to be a bluish cat called Shiawase, who, of course, was in love with a girl. Typical of musicals. The girl was a beautiful white cat called Charlotte who seemed to be a princess of sorts. From what Gajeel could tell, the two were just trying to elope while the humans warred with the cat people and it really wasn’t going well.

“Gajeel,” Sue whispered suddenly, pointing to Shiawase, “Isn’t that… Gray?”

Gajeel did the air equivalent of a spit take as he suddenly recognized the blue cat, sitting forward in his seat to study him with a squint.

“Sure is,” he chuckled. “Damn that’s a lot of makeup. Too bad he still looks like a twat.”

Sue gave him a pout. “C’mon, Gajeel, be nice. He helped you with the kanji on one of your katanas, didn’t he?”

“Tch.” Gray had been helpful that one time, being from Japan and all, but he was still a Fairy Tail dork.

As the show went on the story got more complicated. If Gajeel had cared, he would have found himself torn on which side of the war to get behind. The cat angels were some sort of tyrannical deities or the like, in which case he favored the humans, but the humans were merciless executioners who slaughtered their own kind as readily as they slaughtered the cats. As badass as that was, he couldn’t really get behind that either. Not that he was emotionally invested or anything. If he had to pick, he’d probably go with the humans – mainly because of the large, bulky black cat who had betrayed his kind to fight alongside them. Gajeel really didn’t care much, but that character was pretty neat.

The ninja guy from the beginning – Mist Can or something – was turning out to be kind of cool too. He was revealed to be the exiled prince of the human nation, swooping in to save the imprisoned cat protagonists right before intermission, and Sue bubbled over him through the entire break. Gajeel would have preferred to go get a snack, but… she was pretty adorable when she got all excited like that, so he didn’t mind too much. He’d lost track of most of the plot at this point, but he was actually sort of enjoying himself. Kind of. Maybe.

The entr’acte ended with a very mournful piccolo solo and the lights rose on the remains of a blackened forest. Charred branches scraped and clawed at the orange sky. Smoke effects drifted up in billows and the crackling of flames hummed in the silence. This was a totally different feel from when the show had begun. After another moment, the three main protagonists rushed onto the stage.

“W-wait,” Charlotte stammered, stumbling “I… I need to rest.”

“We cannot stop now,” the ninja man replied. “We have to get as far from the city as we can. It’s only a matter of time before my people use the Dragon Cannon.”

“There must be something we can do!” Shiawase cried. “We can’t just run away!”

“There is not,” he growled. He turned to continue the escape, cloak swishing behind him.

Shiawase rose to his full height, gesturing back the way they came. “You would just abandon your people? Your friends? You would turn your back as hundreds of innocents are murdered?!”

The man whirled around and ripped his veil from his face, storming up to the blue cat and leering over him. “I do not do so lightly, Exceed! May I remind you that it is your people who began this war?! That your kind have used us as slaves for centuries?!”

“That doesn’t change your cowardice! You’re running away, Mystogan! Running from your throne and your duty! It was not my people who made you this way!”

The two continued to argue as a harp plinked a note and the lighting around Charlotte changed tones. A tear ran down her face as she sang a pitiful, “Please, stop…”

“Stop?” Mystogan laughed as a bass tremolo hummed beneath him. In a darker tone he sang back.

“It is not I who slaughtered thousands.

Who killed children!

Who drove their slaves to madness!”

Shiawase picked up the melody, gesturing to the burning landscape.

“Do you think this is what we wanted?

Do you think this is the life we crave?

No, your Highness.

You’re wrong.

We may be at fault, but we tried to stop it!

It is you

who ran away.”

Mystogan stormed forward. “You speak of things you know nothing about,” he spat back.

Shiawase hissed. “And you run from people who need you!”

Mystogan’s voice took on a tone of fury.

“There’s naught I can do,

she’s doomed them all.

My people are dying, Exceed.

Our kingdoms have slaughtered each other!”

“We can end that,” Shiawase sang more insistently,

“We can end it all!

We can’t just save ourselves

we have to do something!”

Mystogan took a deep breath. “All you will do is die.”

Shiawase leapt at Mystogan, letting loose a vicious snarl. Gajeel raised an eyebrow in surprise. Damn, Gray, that was startlingly realistic.

“Please, stop…” Charlotte sang again.

Mystogan pushed Shiawase away and removed his staff from his back.

“We can’t fight like this…” she sobbed.

Shiawase took a fighting stance and the invisible rigging lifted him off the stage.

“I said STOP!”

The outburst from the white cat reverberated in the theatre. Her labored breath was the only sound heard in the room as she got to her feet. She stepped up to the unmasked ninja and looked him straight in the eye.

“I am sorry.” She intoned softly.

“I could have stopped this.

I could have tried harder.

Mother wouldn’t listen.

Couldn’t listen.

The blood of your people is on my hands.

We have both made grave mistakes

and cost innocents their lives.

Millions may yet die and it will be our faults.”

She paused and sighed before clenching her fists. When she began again, her voice was made of fire.

“But how dare you!

How dare you just give up?!”

Mystogan stumbled back a step, mouth dropping open slightly. Charlotte didn’t back down.

“This is your country, isn’t it?

Can’t you do anything without your throne?

Though it was all a lie

didn’t you try to live your best life,

protect your people where you could?!

Why are you giving up?!”

The air around Charlotte began to shimmer and slowly her feet rose off the ground. Mystogan stared up at her in awe.

“So what if you’re weak!

You’re not alone!

When weak things work together

Strength is born!”

As if by magic, Charlotte’s wings grew and turned iridescent. Gajeel’s jaw actually dropped – he could not fathom how they managed that.

“My country will not be destroyed!

It is my homeland!

It’s not going anywhere!

I will die before I abandon it!

And I will die before I let you abandon yours!”

In a burst of radiance and glitter her wings spread wide. The backdrop turned from burning orange to a smattering of stars as luminescent mist rose from the stage. She looked into the distance beyond the audience as she belted the last lines of the powerful refrain.

“I won’t give up!

I will stop this all,

or I will die trying!”

The rigging pulled her out over the audience at a startling speed, her wings and gown sweeping through the air in a dazzling blaze of light. The walls of the theatre suddenly became the night sky as she soared past, sweeping higher and higher until finally she was out of sight. In the near silence a single violin held a harmonic quietly as attention turned back to the stage.

Shiawase met Mystogan’s gaze with a stern resolve. Hesitance flitted in the man’s eyes, and the cat extended his hand.

“Are you coming?”

The violin dwindled to nothing. Gajeel suddenly realized he was holding his breath.

With purpose, Mystogan took the hand.

Shiawase smirked. Suddenly, the bass of EDM rumbled from beneath the seats, setting up a slow build. A chill shot down Gajeel’s spine and he exchanged amazed looks with Sue.

“Hold on!” Shiawase hooked his arm under Mystogan’s and gripped his wrist with both hands. The call of distant bagpipes echoed in the room on top of the building music. The two men took a few steps back. Shiawase flicked his wings out wide. The music grew as the bagpipes seemed to get closer. Mystogan nodded. Shiawase smiled. Then, they sprinted and leapt off the stage.

The scoring roared into a variation on the main theme at twice the speed it had been sung; Shiawase took off over the crowd, carrying Mystogan higher in a maelstrom of light and fire. Gajeel’s mouth hung open in awe as the audience let out whoops and whistles. Mystogan’s not wearing a harness. Is Gray… legitimately carrying him?

The two made a few more circles of the audience, the walls of the theatre – which Gajeel had figured out were screens – providing a continuous backdrop that gave the illusion of distance. As the music came to a close, they landed back on the stage, now a broken battleground of a city.

This was where Gajeel suddenly felt very, very strange.

“Cougairis!” Mystogan shouted. The scene was a blur of motion, cats and humans in combat in every conceivable space. Actors had spawned miraculously in the aisles near the stage and on one of the side balconies. That combined with the flash of explosions and the clang of swords made the battlefield come to life. He was surprised he could still easily focus on the main characters despite the chaos.

“Cougairis! I need your help!” Mystogan called again.

The man in question was forced onto the stage, locked in combat. This was the cat that he’d liked. The panther held back three other cats with his giant blade, fighting for control as they pushed their swords against his own. With a roar that Gajeel was sure just had to be recorded, the giant cat shoved his adversaries backwards, two falling off the front of the stage and out of sight. The last stumbled back, gripping his side painfully before crumpling to the floor in a heap.

The black cat turned to face Mystogan, and Gajeel froze.

Over Cougairis’ left eye was a slash; a deep, thick, raw slash that hadn’t been there in the first act.

Gajeel’s head throbbed and his heart pounded, chest tightening until all he could manage was a raspy pant. The edges of his vision grayed. Wha…? What’s happening?

“Gajeel?” He heard Sue whisper his name, but it sounded as though it were a thousand miles away. “Gajeel, are you okay?”

He lifted his hands and felt them tremble wildly as his eyesight shrunk to a pinpoint. He could hardly see, hardly feel. His long, wild hair fell over his shoulders as he tried to shake away whatever was doing this to him. He could no longer register Sue tugging at his arm in worry.

What…? Is this one of those… panic attack things? He couldn’t think of any reason he would have a panic attack – he’d never had one before and didn’t have any traumatic experiences that he could think of. It can’t be a panic attack. Why would a play give me a panic attack?

He looked back to the stage. His tunnel vision centered back on Cougairis. He tried to look away, to any other character, any other piece of set, but the cat’s scarred face seemed to fill his view. That scar. That black fur. That white muzzle. Something seemed to be stabbing his brain at every angle and yet he could not tear away from that face. Suddenly the cat looked out into the audience – looked right at him. As if being shot through the heart his breath stopped, and somewhere in the deepest recesses of his mind, he heard his own voice.

I’m taking you back to my guild one way or the other! And then, I’m going to make you my cat!

---

Gray watched from the shadows as Elfman strode to the front of the stage, their one and only child actor, Violet, perched on his shoulder. The audience roared and whistled as the large black cat set her down and she gave a small curtsey. Incredible, for a third grader, Gray smirked. I hope she sticks around.

The curtain call had always been one of Gray’s favorite parts of a show. Especially the final curtain call, on closing night. Molding yourself into another character was a huge, exhausting effort, and sometimes it was difficult to let go and become oneself again after rehearsal. The final curtain call, Gray felt, was an effective way to bridge the gap between being the character and living his own life. The audience, just for that final scene, now acknowledged you as both the role and the actor. In a way, it was a moment where he could be both people at once.

The music changed from Cougairis’ theme to that of Shiawase and Charlotte. Gray straightened his moss green, one-sided shawl over his bare shoulders and strode out from behind the curtains. From the other side, Charlotte – or perhaps now he should say Laurissa – strode out to meet him, a spring in her step as she took his hand. Renewed whistles and shouts rose from the house as they approached the edge of the apron, and just as they had done for every curtain call, Gray pulled her in for a kiss before they took their last bow. It had been her idea, of course, and the audience ate it up like free salsa at a Mexican restaurant. He and Laurissa weren’t romantically involved, but the reaction from the crowd was something they could both get behind.

The two parted as the music changed again, gesturing extravagantly as the star of the show took the spotlight. Mystogan rushed forward, twirling his staff several times before planting it solidly and whipping off his veil. The crowd screamed, applauding wildly and jumping to their feet. Gray clapped just as fiercely – not just for the performance, but for the grin spreading slowly over the blue-haired boy’s face. He knew that grin. The sage-prince Mystogan was gone; Jellal was back.

The company linked their hands and took their final bows as the music finished, and for the last time on that show, the curtain dropped.

“Excellent work, everyone!” Director Dreyar joined the scene from backstage, a toothy grin peeking from behind his mustache. “Very good indeed! A show well worth the effort! Head on home and we’ll strike the set tomorrow evening!”

“And don’t forget, the cast party is on Friday!” Mirajane added. The group bubbled into an energetic hum, matching the chatter of the audience just beyond the curtain. Hugs and claps on the back passed around along with laughter and the repetition of various inside jokes. Gray was happy – sometimes the afterglow of a performance was just as good as the show itself.

“Gray!” He twisted around to find the source of the call. Jellal waved him over. He grinned.

“Good to have you back, Jellal,” Gray replied. They did an elaborate fist-bump.

“It’s good to be back,” Jellal sighed. “At least, for a bit. King Oberon’s not a very complex character, so I won’t have to get into him for another couple weeks.”

“I’m sure Erza’s happy about that,” Gray nudged playfully.

Jellal blushed. “You could say that.”

“MYSTOGAN!” Gray turned just in time to dodge Elfman barreling through the crowd. The burly teen clapped Jellal hard on the back, and Jellal looked like he might’ve had the wind knocked out of him. “Your performance! OTOKO DA!”

“Thanks,” the blue-haired boy coughed. “You can call me Jellal now, though.”

“Oh, right,” Elfman chuckled. He turned to Gray. “Gray! You coming to Angie’s with us?”

Gray was tempted to say yes. He really wanted to. But he wasn’t sure if he’d make it that long.

“No, I gotta head home,” he replied. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Homework, y’know?”

Elfman gave him a funny look. “Homework? How? Today was literally the first day of school.”

Gray gulped. “Japanese stuff, y’know? Have to prep for tutoring.”

“Mmmm zannen da ne…” Elfman hummed.

“Yeah, that’s too bad,” Jellal continued. He didn’t look as convinced as Elfman was.

“Yeah…” Gray trailed off. He glanced between the two nervously, but tried to continue as if nothing were strange. “I should probably head out, actually. It’s pretty late and I really gotta get started.”

Jellal nodded, though his eyes still flickered with doubt. Gray gave a slight wave and sauntered away as confidently as he could, despite the knot in his stomach.

He made a short stop by the dressing room to pick up his things and drop off his shawl, his wings, and a few of the smaller accessories. The majority of his costume had been body paint and various prosthetics, so there wasn’t much he had to return to the company – there wasn’t much he had to wear on his way home, either. Body paint wasn’t a fun stain to get out of clothes, and he certainly didn’t want to scrub it out of his favorite jacket.

He made his way out the back to the rear parking lot, the night air chilling his bare chest. The cold didn’t bother him much – he was a hockey player, after all – but he was glad he’d come extra early to school to snag the closest spot. He clicked his key fob and the lights of his Chrysler 300 flashed. No one else had left yet; traffic was clear.

The ride home passed in a haze, as it always did. A turn here, a traffic circle there, the wonky tree on the end of the block followed by the gas station. He pulled into the dark driveway of his small, blocky house. No lights were on; his roommates were likely asleep. Good.

He locked his car by hand so it wouldn’t make a sound, then slipped inside as quickly and quietly as he could manage. A fan was on in the entryway, blowing softly against his bare chest. He cursed silently. His roommates wouldn’t have known better – he’d never said anything, never even gave a hint. At least, he was pretty sure he hadn’t. He wasn’t really sure if that was actually a good thing.

Just get to the shower, he thought. Get the paint off. You’ll be fine. Only a few more minutes.

He left the lights off as he made his way through the house, familiar enough with his home not to bump into anything in the dark. He figured most normal people could do that, could walk through their own house in the dark. This wasn’t strange. He was normal, too. Completely normal. Other people had sudden adrenaline jumps, right? It was nothing. Normal people occasionally had their heart start beating out of control, too, right? He was fine. He would be fine. This was normal.

Gray wasn’t sure he was being so stealthy anymore – blood pounded in his ears and he could hardly breathe, let alone tell if anyone else was awake. It was fine though. He shut the bathroom door behind him and ripped off the last of his prosthetics. It stung; the glue was particularly strong on his face. It didn’t matter though. If he was bleeding, he’d find out later. He couldn’t tell if he had cuts without the lights on.

His hands fumbled with the shower handles, shaking more than he would’ve liked. The water spattered for a moment before coming in a steady stream. Good. Warm. Paint. Take the paint off. He kicked off the last of his clothes. Steam. Hot water, sliding over his skin. Peeling away the paint. Not fast enough.

The blue skin of his character fell away, and left behind was only Gray.

Gray, and her.

[terrablaze514]

Happy Birthday!

Aww thank you! Greatly appreciate it!🤗♥️🎂🎂🎂🎂 30 has arrived and I'm here to see it.🎂🎂🎂🎂

A Black Panther/Gundam Wing crossover? It can work, depending on what the chosen theme is. I did start one a few months ago (but it's extremely violent). Then I ended up thinking about a more lighthearted version.

*******

I do not own these characters. Mixed timelines on purpose. No profit is made in this fanfic crossover short.

“Relena?”

The thirty-nine year old woman groaned as she slowly sat up on her bed. The weather forecast had presented a promise for Spring-like warmth, with sunny skies. All the more proof she needed that the Robin sang outside.

With a sigh, she rubbed and opened her eyes, met Dorothy’s petulant smirk, and spotted Zechs and Noin near the doorway, all dressed up.

The Foreign Minister managed a smile. “Good morning. What's going on?”

The group chuckled.

“What's going on? How could you possibly forget? Relena, today is STEM Rewards Day! There's the Science Fair in America right now as we speak.”

“Oh, that's today? I thought it was set for next week.”

Dorothy tried to hold back a chuckle with little success, while Zechs and Noin chimed in.

“Happy Birthday Sis!” they began in sing-song style. Noin continued, “And by the way, those emails you've gotten last month? It has everything to do with today's grand event, located in Oakland, California.”

A concentrated expression landed on her face.

“Wait a moment. Wakanda has opened its borders to the world sometime last year. Around July, which marks the period after King T'Challa reclaimed the throne.”

“That's right, and his younger sister, Princess Shuri, is in charge of the museum.”

Zechs smiled. “I find it quite interesting how she was given the responsibility to handle something like this, the same way responsibility was thrust into your hands during War Time.”

Relena nodded. It's true she took after her late father and discovered a keen interest in politics and public relations. She should've lived out loud like a typical teenager, but due to the circumstances, she's grateful to be in this position now.

“I will get organized, then we'll board the jet.”

~°~°~

A few hours later, The Peacecrafts had arrived in Oakland. A few formalities were exchanged, and unlike some of the people in attendance, Relena and the others greeted the Wakanda Royals with the salute. Queen Ramonda smiled as she invited members of the Sanc Kingdom in.

“It's great to have you here,” the Queen began. “We've heard so much about you.”

“Thanks,” Relena responded. “I was looking forward to seeing how the marginalized communities were doing, years after the war. It's also a great thing the Avengers had brought your children and countless others back.”

The Queen nodded. “Indeed, it is a blessing. It's as if they weren't gone, though - Shuri was quick to pick up the progress of accomplishing this center, while T'Challa collaborated with Thor, The Hulk and Falcon to rebuild and restore the broken parts of Wakanda, where many have evacuated before.”

“That's great to hear,” said Relena. “I was worried at first. Tried to get The Preventers to offer aid, but Commander Une had informed me that superheroes were taking care of that. Speaking of which...”

The Grand Hall of Shuri's Science Center was jam packed with onlookers, a few judges with pens and clipboards, children and youth with their various inventions at separate sections, and The Preventers.

Heero and Quatre were amazed by thirteen-year-old twins who invented an advanced hacker prevention system.

Duo and Hilde had an ongoing conversation with Ayo and Nakia about giving orphans a place to belong.

Wufei, Sally and a handful of attendees, young and old, enjoyed a story time corner hosted by Lord M'Baku's fiancée.

Trowa is seen juggling a ton of objects. Relena tried her hardest not to laugh; he should know that playing with vibranium held a lot of risks. Still, he didn't seem to mind. Five boys and two girls chanted, “More! More!” when W'Kabi tossed another object in Trowa's direction. The young man had no trouble juggling it with the other things.

Two battle knives, one hammer, an iron glove, a beaker, an old hard drive, and one of The Hulk's glass statues. Dorothy recorded this on her phone while the spectacle continued. At some point, the glass statue landed on Trowa's nose; other objects balanced on his arms. His emerald green eyes glanced at the tall warrior, who nodded and picked up his glass statue. A teenage girl who examined Trowa's abilities studied his brain waves and pulse rate on a black screen.

“This guy is good, extra courageous if I might add. There's no indication of fear or panic, just concentration. Should we try another test subject?”

“No!” the group chanted.

The young scientist looked up at Trowa. “I guess they really like you. You're not getting tired though?”

“I never notice such things,” he replied, placing the objects aside. “When I'm getting things done, that's what I'll focus on until it's done.”

“That's one important skill to have,” W'Kabi spoke as a finger tapped his shoulder. He turned to face Okoye.

“As grand as that display was, you are aware of the rules, kunene?”

“Sorry, my love. Be nwabisa.”

Zechs and Noin had taken a liking to a building presentation nearby, by two upcoming architects. “If we wanted to build another Space Colony, this is where we'd be located,” a five year old boy spoke. “Directly outside of Wakanda,” his fifteen year old brother added. “We can show you all the method of transportation we've started building.”

Relena turned to the Queen. “So, where are your children? I'm quite surprised they're not in here.”

“I think I know exactly where. Follow me.”

~°~°~

One block away from the museum, a group of youth were seen playing on the basketball court with Prince N'Jadaka and King T'Challa. Princess Shuri shook her head as she watched on. Her timer would buzz in two more minutes, which meant game time will be over. M'Baku and three Jabari Tribe Warriors carried more jugs of water into the museum. M'Baku paused midstep, and watched as Relena conversed with the Queen Mother.

“Ngubani lowo?” he asked.

“A colonizer,” his trusted assistant spoke. “Don't forget, some colonizers were invited to this event.”

M'Baku nodded. “As long as there's no trouble, I'm good.”

“We'll be fine, Lord M'Baku. I understand how you feel since that incident with Thanos, but things are different now. He no longer exists, so Wakanda - and the world as a whole - will not be threatened again.”

M'Baku smiled. “You're right, though I think it'd be wise to send two Dora with the pair. The King may be tolerant, and the Princess wouldn't mind... But the Prince on the other hand?”

The Jabari Warriors exchanged knowing glances.

“Thumela u khuselo olukhawulezileyo,” Lord M'Baku commanded. Placing the water jugs near the welcome station, the buff men split in search of Dora Milaje. M'Baku stood near the museum entrance and watched the Panther Tribe Royals, in hopes that they - Erik in particular - doesn't start a scene.

Shuri's timer went off.

“One more game, I promise,” said Erik.

“I'm ready to head back,” T'Challa said. “Nine games is enough.”

“It's also time for my speech!” Shuri snapped. Both her brother and cousin froze as the youth group made their way towards the museum (after exchanging high fives with them). Unbeknownst to them, Relena and Queen Ramonda had greeted them as they neared the basketball court.

“There's this thing called, Black Time Syndrome. You should try it.”

T'Challa shot a knowing glance at Erik. “Bad timing, Cuz. You know she never falls for it.”

“I heard that!” Shuri shouted. “Ngoku khawuleza phambi kokuba sibe neentloni.”

“Alright, alright. I hope Tayshall ain't forgot those chill pills.”

Shuri hid her face as T'Challa cocked an eyebrow. “What was that?”

“Last one back loses the bet.”

“What bet? We're supposed to take a break from those.”

“Oh, right. M'Baku never told you. Which means you'll lose!” Erik snatched T'Challa's wallet, leapt over the fence, and darted towards the museum with a hasty, “Hey Auntie,” before he stopped in his tracks. His locs complemented his moves, but his eyes lost their mirth. “Ngubani?” he asked, eyeing Relena with disdain.

“The Foreign Exchange Minister of ESUN.”

“Oh?” Erik crossed his arms. “Hope they don't steal nothing. Otherwise-”

“I'll take my wallet back thank you very much,” T'Challa interrupted as he thrust the object out of Erik's reach. “And the Peacecraft Family are not here to steal anything. They're granting scholarships and bursaries to the many pupils here in Oakland, so they can advance to the best universities of their choice when the time comes.”

“Nah, I have harder questions for later,” Erik said. “Don't trust their motive one bit.”

“Nice meeting you all,” Relena responded, secretly thanking T'Challa for stopping Erik in his tracks.

T'Challa nodded while Erik huffed and turned away. “Shuri, you don't want to be late!”

“I won't!”

Just as the tall men walked on, Shuri expanded her arm and shook Relena's hand. “It's great meeting you here,” she said.

“Likewise,” she said. “I've heard about the project last year and thought about how to introduce your style of Afterschool programs to the colonies.”

“As in the space colonies? Well, it shouldn't be hard if you have a great team of people behind you.”

The three of them walked back.

~°~°~

The Dora Milaje escorted the ladies back when an event coordinator approached Shuri. “Sorry to interrupt you all, but we will need you on stage in ten minutes,” she said.

“No problem,” came the curt response. She refocused on Relena. “Don't forget what I've told you.”

Relena chuckled softly. “I won't. Talking with you is like dealing with a younger version of me... Well, to a certain extent. Most importantly, I want to congratulate you on this project's success.”

“Thanks! I can't wait to see what you have in store for two hundred plus pupils.”

“The pleasure is mine.”

*******

Tagging GW Fans: @softnocturne @kirinjaegeste @vegalume @blacknekojess @seitou @downwarddnaspiral @deejayers @craftssakura @cooking-725 @chemicalcrush @ahsimwithsake @simulacraryn @elduende11 @bryony-rebb @gundam-wing-archivist @fadedsepiascribbles @noirangetrois @offspringchick29 @rhysgalentalcernunnos @lbro009 @jessie-blast-off

Tagging BP Fans: @thehomierobbstark @marvelmaree @muse-of-mbaku @chasingsunlight @3nmxnxt3r @blackpantherreblogs @orionthegay @sickaddiktions @kaiipeace @golddmindd @hi-looo12 @fiercegrace711 @tamara-visuals @85love @abeautifulmindexposed @thisisnajah @ljstraightnochaser @forgottenthoughtsandmemories @chaneajoyyy @mellowjellow6 @maddiestundentwritergaines @blowmymbackout @bidibidibombaclaat @afrobeautii @purple-apricots @supersizemeplz @thadelightfulone @jozigrrl @destinio1

*My apologies in advance if some are missing from this list - user tag limits - but this is for y'all! My personal Birthday present from me to you. I hope this crossover turned out fine. So if you love it, feel free to like, comment, reblog - your choice. Love y'all!*