#Lena wouldn’t just leave her girl like that | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lemoncrushh · 6 months ago

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Ruin the Friendship

Summary: It's Ella's birthday, and her best friend Harry plans to tell her how he feels about her.

Warnings: None, just sweet, sugary fluff

Word Count: 5.2k+

A/N: Uni!Harry x OC, AU, friends to lovers one shot written in third person, originally from 2019. I think my first plan back then was to include some smut, but as I was writing, I decided it was not needed. I think you'll see why and agree. Also, Liam and Niall are in this one :).

Ella was his best friend. Some people would say Niall was Harry’s best mate, and while he considered that to be true for the most part, if anyone was to ask, he’d proudly declare that Ella took the title. They’d only known each other since the first year of uni, but in that time they’d grown very close, and if Harry was honest, there were things they shared that he didn’t share with the lads.

Not things like details about girls he fancied or the head he’d gotten that one time from Marla Lemons. He could only talk shit like that with his mates, and he reckoned Ella wouldn’t wanna hear about it anyway. But they could have deep conversations well into the night about nothing and anything, musing about life and death and what it all really meant. He’d known Niall for nearly a decade, and while he could chat him up about complete random shit, he wasn’t the type to talk about things like that.

Sometimes it was nice to have a friend to just chat about nothing with.

One thing he’d never been able to tell Ella, however, was that he secretly wanted to be more than friends. He’d never made a move, and other than holding her hand when she was scared at the haunted house or wiping her tears when she’d cried about an exam she’d failed, he’d barely touched her. Something had happened that first year at university that had put them in the friend zone, and he eventually accepted that was just how it was meant to be. At least for a while. But this last year had been different. Something had shifted, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Harry stood in the kitchen, his hand around a red cup filled with some sort of concoction that smelled entirely too sweet. He didn’t really want to get shit-faced tonight, that wasn’t his plan. Not that he really had a plan. But it was Ella’s birthday, and if he had anything to say about it, it would be her best one yet. The last three had been fun as far as he could recall, except for the time some girl Niall had been dating...Lena? Lorna?...had gotten so wasted she threw up on the rug. Ella, being the kind soul she was, insisted on cleaning up, holding her nose with a clothespin until Harry finally pulled her away, yelling at Niall that he should clean up his own girlfriend’s puke. Later that night, sat with Ella up on the roof, Harry had thought about confessing his feelings to her. But it just hadn’t felt like the right time, and given that he was still pretty drunk himself, he was afraid Ella would simply blame it on that and not take him seriously.

So the friendship continued.

“Hey mate, you gonna drink that or are you trying to read your future in it?”

Lifting his head, Harry saw his friend Liam enter the kitchen, walking up to the counter beside him and pouring himself a cup of the same pink liquid.

“What’s in this?” Harry asked.

“Hell if I know,” Liam shrugged before taking a large gulp. “Mmm, tastes like bubblegum.”

“Blech!” Harry sounded after taking his own sip, making a face of disgust. “Nah man, where’s the good stuff?”

“Right here, mate!” exclaimed Niall as he strutted into the kitchen with a case of beer in each hand. Two more lads followed him in, carrying the same. Leave it to Niall.

“Not what I meant,” muttered Harry, walking around them to the living room.

The front door opened then, and another handful of people entered, some he knew, some he didn’t. He recognized Vickie, Ella’s roommate among them and when she spotted Harry she smiled.

“Birthday girl’s on her way,” she announced, setting a bag on the counter. Harry noticed the clinking sound it made which made his ears perk up.

“Harry!” Liam called as Vickie pulled out the bottles of both brown and clear liquor. “I think this is what you were looking for!”

Turning back to the kitchen, Harry eyed the bottles and was about to make a decision when a commotion started behind him. It wasn’t a surprise party, but it seemed every girl in the house had run to the front door to greet Ella when she arrived. Harry stood back, his hands in his pockets as he watched her beautiful smile, the pink in her cheeks when her friends hugged her or wished her a happy birthday.

He contemplated stepping forward to give her his own wishes, but soon thought better of it, deciding he’d give her time with her girlfriends first. Instead he made himself a drink, a proper strong one. At least one, he told himself. He didn’t need to get hammered, but he’d need the liquid courage if this was to finally be the night he told her how he felt about her. While he was at it, he reckoned he’d make a drink for Ella as well. He knew what she liked.

“Happy Birthday Ella!” he heard Liam exclaim over the loud music.

Harry looked up from his drink to see that the lad had beat him to the punch as he offered Ella a red cup of what he could only assume was the disgusting pink shit. He chuckled when he saw her make a face and shake her head.

“Um, no thanks, darling,” she said. “I think I’ll see if Harry has something more to my liking at the bar.”

He felt a warmth ooze throughout his body at both the mention of his name and the fact that she called the simple kitchen island with a handful of liquor bottles a bar. He watched as she took a couple strides through the living room and met him with a smile.

“What’ve we got here, bartender?” she asked.

Harry raised a brow. “Oh am I bartender? No one told me.”

“I’m joking,” she giggled, placing a hand on his bicep. “But can you make me something? I am the birthday girl, after all.”

With a smirk, Harry handed her the drink he’d mixed. “Just so happens I already did.”

A wide smile spread across Ella’s face as she took the cup. “See, this is why we’re besties.”

Harry’s face fell, but he quickly tried to compose himself. Clearing his throat, he nodded. “Yeah. You bet.”

Besties. Right.

“Hey, Ells Bells!” they suddenly heard behind them. They both turned to see Niall rushing towards Ella, nearly knocking her drink out of her hand when he enveloped her in a hug.

Harry rolled his eyes. He hated Niall’s stupid nickname for her. He suspected Ella wasn’t too keen on it either, especially when Harry’d slipped up once and called her that himself. She’d told him it was Niall’s name and she’d rather just leave it at that.

“Hello, Niall,” she greeted graciously, kissing him on either cheek.

“Who’s up for a game?” he asked.

Harry grimaced, knowing what kind of game Niall had in mind. But if Ella wanted to play…

“No thanks,” she shook her head. “I think I’ll sit it out this year, love, if it’s all the same.”

Niall shrugged. “Suit yourself. ‘s your birthday.”

“Besides,” Ella added with a cheeky grin, “I don’t want to end up like dear Lorna.”

Harry covered his mouth with his hand, nearly spewing out its contents. When he swallowed, he let out a loud guffaw, causing Niall’s cheeks to redden.

“Eat shit, the both o’ ya,” Niall spat before grabbing another beer from the cooler.

When he’d joined the group in the living room, the majority of them cheering at the prospect of a drinking game, Ella turned to Harry, her face flushed from laughing.

“You’re not gonna play?” she inquired.

“Nah, I’d rather not.”

“Wow. Harry Styles is not interested in getting smashed at a party?” she mocked. “Is the sky falling? Did I miss something?”

“No,” he replied with a shake of his head. “Just don’t feel like it tonight. I mean, I’m still drinking. Just...responsibly.”

“Uh huh. We’ll see how you are in an hour or two.”

“Oh we will?” he quirked a brow.

“Yeah. I’ll check in on you, but don’t expect me to hold your hair back when you’re retching in the toilet.”

He chuckled at their playful banter. He enjoyed taking the piss and teasing each other, even if Ella only thought of it as a friend thing. She didn’t need to know it gave him a boner sometimes.

“Styles, you’re not playing?” Liam called from the living room where a large group had gathered around the coffee table.

Harry simply held up his hands.

“It’s early yet,” Ella winked.

Early, indeed, Harry thought. Too early. He wanted this night to be over already, or at least get past the first part so he could possibly get a chance alone with her to give her his gift. He didn’t want her to open in front of everyone else. It was too personal, and if by chance she didn’t react to it the way he hoped, at least he’d only get his ego bruised a bit and not have to suffer a full embarrassment.

Vickie came up to Ella then, along with another girl who’s name Harry had forgotten. They chatted amongst themselves for a bit before Ella turned to Harry, her hand on his arm. Touch number two, he noted.

“Harry, we’ll be right back, Vickie wants to show me something.”

With a nod, Harry raised his now almost empty cup and drained the rest of his drink. He considered making a second, but reckoned he should pace himself if he didn’t want to hear Ella say ‘I told you so.’

He decided to wander into the living room and watch the others playing the drinking game. Sat on the couch, he laughed when Liam had to take a shot, then Ella’s friend Melissa had to take three in a row. Poor girl, Harry thought until she declared she could hold her own.

After a while, he got bored so he walked down the hall, wondering where Ella had gone. He couldn’t imagine there was anything in the house Vickie had wanted to show her. They’d probably gone outside or to her car. The music drifted down the hall as he made it to his room and sat on the bed. He was definitely not himself tonight. Normally he’d be the first one sat on the floor for a game, or at least by now he’d have a light buzz. He just wanted a clear head, he’d told himself. But it definitely wasn’t clear. All he could think about was her and what he was going to say, if he got the chance to say it.

Running his hands down his face, he took a deep breath and let it out. He stared at the floor for a good while, replaying in his mind the scenario he’d conjured up a couple years ago, edited and tweaked over time.

“Hey, what are you doing in here?”

He jumped when he heard her voice. Lifting his head, he saw her standing in the doorway, her gorgeous eyes wide with wonder.

“Hey,” he muttered softly. “Nothing, I’m just…”

Ella stepped into his room. She’d been in there several times, but this time as she sat on the bed, Harry felt himself tremble.

“Something wrong?” she asked. “Did one of those stupid prats out there give you a hard time? Because you know, that’s my job.”

She nudged Harry’s shoulder with her own, trying to lighten the mood. He laughed lightly under his breath, but said nothing.

“Hey. Harry. I’ve never seen you like this. What gives?”

She turned on the bed to face him, her legs criss crossed. Harry picked at his bottom lip. He wondered if this was it. If this was the moment he was supposed to take action. But how? Was he supposed to give her a long speech about how he’d pined for her for years, or was he supposed to just grab her and kiss her?

“This is probably a shitty thing to say,” Ella continued, “but I’m not sure I like this Harry. Not that you’re only fun when you’re drunk, I don’t mean that. But you’re so serious and quiet. It kinda scares me.”

“Sorry,” he said a little too quickly. “Don’t mean to scare you.”

“Something on your mind?” she tugged at his shirt. “You can tell me, you know. I’m your best friend.”

“I got something for you,” Harry finally said.

“Yeah?” Ella beamed. She bounced on the bed excitedly. “What did ya get me?”

“Um…”

“Ella!” the sound was deafening, coming from the living room. “Hey birthday girl! It’s time for cake and presents!”

“Oh!” she eyed Harry who merely shrugged. “Well, you can give me your present now.”

Harry shook his head. “I’ll wait. Til later. It’s…”

“Oh,” Ella mouthed again, her voice a whisper this time. “Okay.”

Ella rose from the bed, pulling Harry by the arm. They joined the party in the living room, the drinking game seemingly at a pause. The cake sat in the middle of the coffee table, pink roses and candles atop, Ella’s name in the center.

“Thank you so much,” Ella blushed, her hands by her chest. “I’m gonna cry.”

“You say that every year,” Niall quipped.

“Hush, you!” Ella poked at him.

Vickie lit the candles and a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ began. Though he sang along, Harry was mesmerized by how beautiful Ella looked in the candle light. His stomach was in knots now, and he knew he had to tell her.

Ella opened her gifts next, giving sincere thanks and hugs to each guest. When it was time to cut the cake, however, Melissa made it known that Harry hadn’t given her a gift.

“What’s with that, Harry?” she slurred, obviously drunk from the game. “You’re her best friend, where’s yours?”

Harry shifted uncomfortably in his seat until Ella spoke up.

“He’s saving it for later,” she winked at him.

Good god, how many times was she going to wink at him tonight? Had she done that before? He didn’t remember.

“Ooh,” voiced Melissa in a sarcastic tone. “Excuse me.”

Noticing Vickie could probably use some help, Harry rose from his chair and joined her in the kitchen where she was dividing slices of cake onto plates.

“Oh, thanks Harry,” she said, handing him two plates that were ready to be served.

“I should be doing this anyway,” he offered. “Seeing as I’m her best friend and all that.”

He hadn’t meant for his comment to sound sarcastic, but he certainly noticed it came out that way. When he turned the corner, however, he heard a snort from Vickie, followed by a “yeah, sure”.

“What was that?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

“No, what was that sound for?”

“Go,” Vickie shooed at him. “Serve the cake.”

With a frown, Harry made for the living room where he handed Ella a slice of cake, making sure it had a rose on it, and gave the other to Melissa, despite the scowl on her face.

“What did you mean by ‘yeah, sure’?” Harry hounded Vickie when he returned.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Harry, I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“You’re lying.”

“God, don’t be so sensitive,” she scoffed. Deciding Harry wasn’t moving fast enough, she brought more cake to the living room herself.

“Please tell me,” he urged when she came back to grab the last pieces. “Do you not think I’m her best friend?”

“Oh, certainly, Harry. You are.” Then she lowered her voice before completing her thought. “But you want to be more.”

Harry glared at her, his eyes wide. “What?”

“Oh c’mon, Harry! Everybody knows it.”

“Everybody?!”

Vickie giggled. “Don’t get so bent out of shape. Maybe I exaggerated. But Niall told me about your present.”

What the...too much was going on now, Harry’s mind was in a whirl.

“How does Niall know? I didn’t show him.”

“He found it in your room. Was looking for some shorts or something.”

“Jesus,” Harry mumbled with a sigh.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t tell anyone else. I have no idea who Niall told, but I reckon it was just me.”

“What the fuck…” Harry dropped his head. It suddenly felt too heavy for his neck. His entire body felt drained, and he thought he might be sick.

“Hey,” Vickie said low, “if it’s any consolation...Ella’s never confided in me about you or anything...but if you were to make a move, I don’t think she’d reject you.”

Biting his lip, he lifted his head. He was afraid to ask, but at this point he had nothing to lose.

“How do you know?”

“Well, I don’t know. But she literally talks about you all the time. I notice how she looks at you. It’s possible it’s just a friend-like fondness because she really does love and adore you. But I swear they look like heart eyes to me.”

With another sigh, his shoulders dropped. He admitted he felt a little relieved. But he was still extremely nervous.

“Thanks, Vickie,” he said.

“Here,” she grinned, “have some cake.”

“Nah. I think I’ll make another drink.” Harry grabbed a bottle and a new cup, filling it with ice.

“Whatever works for you, darling.”

Vickie joined the group in the living room while Harry nursed his cocktail for a bit. He watched Ella with her other friends, her head falling back as she laughed. Taking her final bite of cake, she looked up and their eyes locked. She tilted her head in question before rising from the couch.

“Here we go again,” she smiled as she leant against the counter. “Are you gonna tell me what’s wrong or not?”

“Not,” he managed a grin. “‘Cause nothing’s wrong.”

“Then why are you over here by yourself? Are you secretly getting drunk so I won’t notice?”

“Nope.”

“Hmm. So...how about that present?”

“I told you, I’ll give it to you later.” he replied, hoping his tone was light and playful.

“You’re being mean,” she pouted, resting her chin in her hand.

Harry chuckled. “No, ‘m not!”

“Well, you’re being weird then.”

“Sorry,” he muttered before taking a drink. “I just...wanna give it to you with no one else around.”

“Ooh. I’m intrigued.”

Harry noticed how her bum stuck out and she wiggled it just slightly. It almost seemed like she was keeping time with the music playing, but he wasn’t sure. Whatever the reason, he felt his blood rush to his crotch and he had to take another gulp from his cup.

“Make me one of those?” she asked, her eyelashes fluttering.

Harry obliged, pouring the liquor over ice and adding soda. When he handed it to her and she took a sip, her eyes widened.

“Is this what you’re drinking?”

“Yeah,” Harry laughed.

“This is way stronger than the first one you made me,” Ella claimed.

“Well, you gotta start off slow.” This time it was his turn to wink.

“Bloody hell, Styles, maybe I am getting drunk tonight.”

Ella rarely called him by his last name unless she was scolding him. With her hand on his arm as she took another drink, he suddenly decided he liked it.

The moment was short-lived, however, when his reverie was interrupted by the noise of half the party joining them in the kitchen. Apparently it was refill time, and they all began to freshen their cups or grab beers. They all chatted for a bit, and before long the whole gang was singing a chorus of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Harry realized he was enjoying himself, and was remembering it was a party and started to loosen up.

“Feeling better?” Ella asked, her doe eyes smiling up at him as she placed another hand on his arm. How many times was that now? He’d lost count.

He grinned, looking down at his now empty cup.

“Sorry I’ve been…” he didn’t know how to complete the sentence.

“No worries, darling,” sang Ella. “I just like it best when you’re like this. Happy and smiling. You have a dynamite smile.”

Before Harry could respond, her hand dropped from his arm and he suddenly felt a chill.

“Going to the loo,” she whispered in his ear. “Make me another?”

Harry watched her walk away before he refilled both of their cups with ice and made the same drink as last time.

“So did you tell her yet?”

Harry lifted his gaze to see Melissa standing across from him, a cheeky grin spread across her face.

“Tell who what?” he asked.

“Ella,” she rolled her eyes. “That you’re in love with her.”

Harry’s jaw dropped just as Liam and his footie pal Derek gasped.

“Wait...whoa...what?”

Harry searched the faces in the kitchen before landing on Vickie’s who simply shrugged. Then he glared at Niall.

“Don’t look at me, mate,” he held up his hands.

“It’s my fault,” Melissa admitted. “I saw the letter you typed on your laptop.”

“Letter?” Harry asked incredulously.

“Oh my God, there’s a letter?” Niall brought his fist to his mouth.

Harry thought he might be sick right there on the kitchen tile. Rounding the island, Melissa looked at him.

“Honestly Harry, I thought everyone knew. It’s rather obvious, don’t you think?”

“I didn’t think,” conveyed Liam.

“I might’ve suspected,” said Derek.

“I didn’t really know,” added Niall with a shrug. “Until I saw the box in your wardrobe.”

“What box?” piped Liam.

“I only told Vickie about it, I swear,” Niall continued. “I was wondering if maybe there was already something going on and no one told me.”

“You didn’t think to just ask me?” Harry scoffed, his jaw set. “And what were you doing in my room anyway?”

“Bloody hell, Harry!” exclaimed Melissa when he stepped closer to Niall like he was going to clock him. “What’s the big deal? It’s not like she hasn’t been in love with you for years anyway!”

“What?”

All was silent then, except for Ariana Grande who sang from the speakers in the living room as everyone turned to see Ella stood by the kitchen, her face full of shock, bewilderment and disbelief.

“Ohh shit,” someone muttered low.

“What’s going on?” Ella asked, her eyes wide and her fists at her sides. She appeared to be breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling rapidly. It was Harry’s instinct to pull her away from the crowd and hold her forever, but his feet seemed to be nailed to the ground.

The others in the kitchen quickly busied themselves, the beer and disgustingly sweet punch somehow suddenly the topic of conversation.

“Ella, the birthday girl!” cheered Liam. “What can I get you to drink, love?”

“Melissa?” Ella called, ignoring Liam’s attempt at distraction. “What did you just say?”

“Um...nothing um...important,” her friend stumbled. “I was just reminding Harry here what great friends you are and how it’s a wonder you’ve...never...become...more.”

Blinking, Ella looked from Melissa to Harry. He seemed to be in the same state of shock she was in, his adam’s apple bobbing up and down each time he swallowed.

“Ella…” he breathed, unable to spit out any other word.

“Um...guys…” offered Vickie, coming around the counter with her arms open. “Now might be a good time to open that present.”

She eyed Harry strongly, giving a slow nod of her head. Her hands on each of their backs, she ushered them towards the hallway and into Harry’s room. Without a word, she closed the door behind her, leaving Ella and Harry alone.

They stood in the center of the bedroom, staring at each other and waiting for the other to speak until Harry finally broke the silence.

“Is it true?”

A blush rose in Ella’s already pink cheeks as she bit her bottom lip and nodded. Harry wasted no time erasing the space between them, taking her face in his hands and planting a soft kiss on her mouth.

Startled at first, Ella froze, her hands in the air. Then she soon relaxed, letting her hands fall on Harry’s arms as she kissed him back.

“Ella…” he breathed again when he broke the kiss, his lips nearly still attached to hers. “I’ve...I’ve been in love with you for years too.”

“Since when?” Ella looked up at him with her big beautiful eyes.

“Since...I met you?”

“Liar,” she quipped, stepping back as she tugged on the hem of his shirt.

“Well…” Harry chuckled nervously. “Soon after...I reckon it was that day after the footie game when we were walking back and you asked if I was enjoying school so far.”

Ella glared at Harry, her brows raised. “First year? I don’t think I even remember that.”

“I do,” said Harry. “Very well. You had your hair back in a plait, but the sides were falling down. The sun was starting to set, and I just thought you were the sweetest thing I’d ever seen. I wanted to kiss you so bad.”

Ella hummed softly as she ran her hands up his chest.

“Kiss me again,” she pleaded. “Just like you wanted to then.”

Cupping her face again, Harry tilted his head and brought his mouth to hers. Ella felt the tingles right to her toes, a tiny squeak of a moan escaping her throat. That was music to Harry’s ears, and he eagerly slipped his tongue between her lips, meeting hers with a jolt of electricity. They kissed each other like they meant it, like it was everything they’d ever wanted. When Ella repeated her sound of pleasure, Harry lifted her by her bum and carried her to the bed.

“Your lips are so soft,” he declared, his body pressed against hers.

“Yours too.”

His hand on Ella’s waist, he lifted her shirt slightly until he touched skin. The connection was like fire, an explosion of all the senses. He began to kiss her neck then, feeling her pant beneath his lips, sending his blood rushing throughout his entire body.

“Oh my God, Harry,” Ella moaned. “I’ve wanted this for so long.”

“Yeah?” Harry asked with a smirk. “Me too.”

“Really?

“Fuck yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because…” Ella hesitated. “I didn’t wanna ruin the friendship.”

“Me neither,” said Harry.

“So what do we do now?” Ella looked at him with equal parts desire and apprehension.

“Ruin the friendship.”

Ella giggled, causing Harry’s chest to tickle and his smile to widen.

“I guess...if both of us feel the same,” she remarked, “it’s not really ruining it, is it?”

“I suspect not.”

After a few more kisses, Harry rested his forehead against hers as he listened to both of their breathing.

“I should stop,” he groaned.

“No. Why?”

Lifting his head, Harry looked Ella in the eye. She was so beautiful, her pouty lips already swollen from his kisses, her gaze questioning. There were so many things he wanted to do to her, with her. But they’d only just confessed how they felt. Actually, they hadn’t really fully done that. Someone else had let the cat out of the bag.

“Um...let me...give you your present,” he said, sliding off the bed.

“Okay.”

Ella sat up, pushing her hair from her face as Harry rummaged through his wardrobe and pulled out a small box. Setting it on the bed, he cleared his throat.

“So um...there’s a letter that’s supposed to go with it. I was going to read it while you open the gift. It kind of explains it all. But...since you already know, I reckon it’s pointless.”

“No, I’d like to hear the letter,” Ella smiled sweetly.

“Right then,” Harry chuckled nervously while he pulled out a folded sheet of paper from his back pocket. Clearing his throat again, he began to read…

Dear Ella,

Four years ago, we met in Lit class. While I didn’t make the best marks, I felt as though I aced it because you were sat next to me. Your love for literature was infectious, and I always left class with a smile on my face. I also began to enjoy your company at football games. It was obvious to me that despite the fact that you weren’t a massive fan of the sport, you came along to cheer on your friends, and I thought that was just a kind thing to do. You’ve always had a compassionate heart and a kind soul, and I reckon that’s why I began to have deeper feelings for you.

As the years have gone by, I’ve tried my best to convince myself that we’re just meant to be friends. I consider you my best friend, and I cherish our friendship more than anything. Many times I’ve wanted to tell you how I really felt, but the timing was just off, or I was chicken shit. I worried that you didn’t think of me in any other way, and being just your friend was better than nothing at all.

I still feel that way, but tonight, on your birthday, I’m putting myself out there and taking that risk. You have my heart, Ella. I want you to be mine, both my friend and my lover. I want to kiss you better than you’ve ever been kissed. I want to hold you in my arms and tell you every day how in love with you I am. You deserve the moon and the stars, the heavens and the entire universe...and I want to be the one to give it all to you.

I pray that you’ll have me as more than a friend, and accept my heart as I hand it over to you.

Yours eternally,

Harry

Dropping the paper, Harry noticed Ella was in tears, her cheeks wet as she tried desperately to wipe them.

“That was the most beautiful letter,” she whispered.

Laying the letter on the bed, Harry sat down next to it and handed Ella the box.

“I hope you like it,” he said.

It was a simple white box, unwrapped but a pink bow adorned the top. When Ella lifted the lid, she gasped. Inside sat a silver charm bracelet containing six delicate charms. She fingered each one before looking up at Harry, waiting for his explanation.

“Here, may I?” he asked, lifting the bracelet from the box.

Ella nodded and Harry unlatched the clasp and wrapped it around her delicate wrist. Ella watched his mouth as he began to describe each charm.

“A book,” he said, touching the first one. “For your love of literature. A football, for all the games you went to.”

Ella smiled, recalling all the great memories she had of watching Harry and his team.

“Two hearts…” he added. “One for your big, kind heart. And one for mine which you now own.”

Without hesitation, Ella lifted her other hand to Harry’s cheek. He smiled back at her.

“And...the moon and the stars…” he finished. “Because you deserve them.”

“Harry…” Ella murmured softly, more tears threatening to fall from her eyes. “I don’t know what to say.”

Dropping his hands to her waist, Harry pulled her closer.

“Say you feel the same, Ella,” he whispered. “Say you love me too.”

“I do,” she declared. “I so very much do.”

Hope you enjoyed!

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latibvles · 6 months ago

Text

one hell of a reunion.

a continuation of this, but from Buck’s point of view, which was fun to write. this is for the prompt "reunited". trigger warning for discussion of character death & depictions of injuries — Viv references a beating but doesn’t go into explicit detail. Our favorite pilot isn’t doing too well! Don’t look too hard at any historical inaccuracies it’s my party and we can have some inaccuracies for the plot as a treat.

—

There is nothing quite like it: the dread of waiting.

He’d felt it during the week without Bucky, when Brady showed up asking for him about three days after Buck himself had wound up here. It was miserable, waiting at that fence like some kid waiting for the mailman. Miserable still, when Inez and Harriet came the day after Bucky, asking about the rest of their crew, and Buck quickly realized he was not done waiting.

They talk about it: what and who went down — although it’s more like Inez talks about it and Harriet’s head hangs low in a way Buck’s never seen before, and it kills him a little bit. She’s got a black and blue bruise curling around her eye that he doesn’t ask about for the sake of not losing his own mind on one of these guards.

Two unlucky bastards from the 95th were their stand-ins for Willie and Jo, the former in the hospital, the latter probably on her way to the flak house. He could see it, Viv fighting to get in the air anyway because everyone else was going.

“It was like our whole tail got blown off,” Inez is holding Harrie’s hand tightly, like she might slip away otherwise. “Fighter jets tore up our whole waist. Then there was a rocket. Engine fire on the way out. We lost Fern, Carrie, Lorraine.”

There are two sides to waiting.

Knowing that three of them wouldn’t be coming home doesn’t bring any comfort. Knowing three of them were still out there, probably, perpetuates the restlessness Buck has been feeling for days.

June, Lena, Viv — Benny starts pacing around so often that Buck thinks he just might start digging a trench that takes up the whole block. Bucky and himself are little more than ghosts staring at the fence when the siren goes off, a few steps behind Inez and Harrie, the former clinging to the fence like a lifeline or a promise.

As much as they all knew nothing was guaranteed, there were still parts of them that wanted to believe some things could be. Even Buck himself wasn’t immune to it: being shot down never once occurred to him, Bucky being shot down two days later never occurred to him. The prospect of Viv dead somewhere never once crossed his mind. To his credit, neither of them would ever let him think like that if they could help it.

And so he hates this: this waiting, the hoping, and the dreading, and all that comes with it.

There is no privacy here. They feign it anyway. They pretend not to hear Harriet’s quiet sniffling on the first night, up in the third row of bunks. That nearly kills Buck. By the fourth night, Bucky laments in a quiet mumble how he didn’t set things up right with an air of finality to it that doesn’t sit right in Buck’s bones. He doesn’t push for details. He doesn’t have to. Your move, Viv, is all Buck thinks, into the silence of the room. Now or never.

That last part, even in his head, sounds like her.

It is four more days of trudging along. Eight days — longer than a week, and on that eighth day, Buck doesn’t bring himself to wait by the fence anymore, and neither does Bucky, so Crank goes instead with the girls. There’s something implicitly unsafe about leaving them alone in a place like this, and Crank’s been good to them. Kept his head on straight, miraculously enough, and for that, Buck is grateful. Better than Benny, who paces, or he and Bucky, who are being consumed by their waiting, or Brady, who looks guilty for things he can’t control.

Willie’s back in England after all, but of course John Brady will be guilty over the one, minimal comfort he has.

On the eighth day, Harriet practically knocks the door down — a bat out of hell — and Buck can’t believe he’d forgotten how much of a livewire the girl could be. She’s flush-faced and panting, but still points decisively.

“Need… hah… one’o you big boys… Cap ain’t walkin’ right,” is what she says between wheezes. “M’not… not tall enough.” And Buck startles, half-because he thinks Harriet’s about to collapse but she bats his hands away with a smile and a “Not me, you goof! Over there!” Gesturing wildly to the outside, and Buck follows her as Brady moves to get Harriet water and guide her into a chair. Bucky’s right behind him as they step out into the grayscale yard.

They walk maybe a couple feet before stopping and Bucky says exactly what Buck is thinking.

“Holy shit— Viv?” Disbelieving, gaping, even from a few feet away. Buck recognizes the faces instantly: the bright red of Lena Connolly’s hair and the golden blonde of June Cielinski.

“That you, Cleven?!” It’s Lena who speaks, not Viv. Viv currently has an arm slung over Crank’s shoulders, leaning on him. Buck knows it’s taking Bucky everything in him not to break out into a run like a madman, but they’re both moving with a sense of urgency.

It doesn’t take a genius to know they’ve been through hell.

There’s a split running through June’s lip and the three of them look gaunt and tired. Lena still smiles from ear-to-ear and he reaches out to give both June and Lena’s arms a meaningful squeeze. They were careful now, with the girls — not wanting to draw attention to them with loud welcomes and tight embraces. But he lets Viv use his shoulders as Lena recalls that their pilot’s been limping since the crash and took a hard fall on the train platform. There’s something relieving about the weight on his shoulders and how real it feels.

“Should get that checked out. We could ask around about a doctor.” He keeps his voice low. Viv shakes her head and lifts her gaze and Buck finally sees how tired she looks, dark circles coupled with a bruise on her cheek that has his jaw clenching.

“Don’t need it. I’m fine.” Her voice is hoarse, scratchy. Buck’s brows furrow.

“You kidding? You can barely stand.”

“But I am.”

“Viv—”

“Cleven I swear to God—” Viv snaps. Cleven, not Buck, not even Gale. He doesn’t think he’s heard Cleven leave her mouth since Nebraska. He isn’t sure if those fingers digging into his shoulder are a means of grasping onto him tighter or a means of warning him like the way a dog bares its teeth. And then she reels back and breaks away from looking at him — her voice softer like she’s remembering who he is. “Just… I just need to sit. And get the boot off.”

This is not the woman that he knows. Maybe he’s seen her in passing, but Buck’s not used to these bared teeth being flung around so carelessly. She’s already made up her mind. Bucky gets the door on the way in, and June and Lena take off with that whirlwind swiftness that’s so intrinsic to that whole damn crew. Viv hasn’t said a word still.

They make it to their room, to girls in a tight embrace, and they wait until Viv’s eased into a chair to shower her with the same relieved affection. Her eyes just flutter shut for a moment with a long sigh as Harriet hugs her head. Everything is in motion, except for Viv herself, and that sight unsettles Buck to his bones. June is walking past to throw herself into Benny’s embrace, so tight that Buck thinks for the briefest moment they might crush each other into dust as Benny buries his face in her hair.

He doesn’t miss the stiffness to Bucky’s shoulders as he grabs another chair and goes about undoing Viv’s boot, he doesn’t miss how neither of them have hardly said a word. Viv reflexively reaches for Buck when he pulls the boot off, squeezing the life out of his wrist and face contorting into a wince — her whole damn ankle swelled up like a baseball. Bucky looks up, Viv looks down, Bucky looks at Buck.

“I’ll go poking around for ice. Maybe an extra pillow.” He rubs on her ankle for a moment before Harriet goes to snatch one of the pillows from an unclaimed bottom bunk to put on the chair as Bucky rises and sees himself out of the room.

Buck would hardly call it a reunion.

ii.

The Vivian that Buck knows and the Vivian that arrived at the Stalag feel almost completely different, and Buck knows that he isn’t the only one to notice the shift. She’s quiet, more often than not. She still waves off any attempt to help her, which she’s always done — but the patience is gone. Maybe not gone, maybe just in short supply; he’ll be the last to complain about anyone being in a bad mood, and it’s not like she’s started breaking things.

She stumbles, once, and there’s at least eight hands there to keep her upright, and it’s the first time Buck’s seen her look ashamed. Avoiding eye contact with anyone who helps her — no exceptions — and he’s pretty sure that part of it is killing Bucky a little bit. It’s killing him too, if he’s being completely honest, in the same way that Harriet’s sniffling on her first night did. The same way that waiting did.

Sometimes cracks of the woman Buck knows seeps through: when Lena says something especially sarcastic, or June and Benny start bickering quietly over their sad excuse of a dinner. He always finds himself looking over at her, hoping for a smile. The most he gets these days is the steely gaze softening a little, a small twinge of the corner of her mouth.

He keeps a careful eye on the other four girls and doesn’t try to hover too much. Bucky keeps things within reach of her hands or in places where she doesn’t have to move too far, but just enough to keep her a little bit independent.

“She’s just gotta get her head right,” The reminder sounds more like her voice than his own, even as he says it aloud. Bucky gives him a skeptical look. “It’s this place. Once she’s walking right it’ll be different.”

“You really believe that?”

When did Buck become the optimistic one?

“I do.” Another week has gone by, and it doesn’t take a genius to know that this place has a way of sucking the life out of you. You either end up restless or resigned. He can really only imagine what it feels like to show up half-alive already.

He gives Bucky’s shoulder a squeeze before heading into the billet, and stepping into the room.

Viv is sitting at her usual spot at the table, foot propped up. They couldn’t do much in the way of ice, so rags doused in water and left out to freeze overnight were the next best solution. Beside her is a half-eaten breakfast of bread and potatoes. He eyes the book curiously, before letting a small smile creep onto his face.

“Don’t let Bucky catch that, he’ll never let you hear the end of it.”

“Oh he gave me the earful last night when I asked him for it,” Viv peers over the battered copy of Runyon a la Carte. “‘Takes a crash landing and an ankle sprain for you to give it a shot’ he said. Kept going on and on…” She trails off, head bowing like a dog with its tail between his legs. Buck can see it now: Bucky, probably trying to make her laugh, and Viv not being able to give him much in the way of a reaction. Do you really believe that?

It’s really the most she’s spoken in days, and Buck feels almost greedy to keep her talking. Like it’s some proof of progress.

“And that ankle?”

“Hurts.”

“Could be worse.” Viv snorts, something sardonic and venom filled as she shuts the book with a shake of her head.

“Oh yeah,” sarcasm seeps into her words, “I could’ve blown up somewhere over Germany. Give you all one less problem to deal with? That’s way worse.”

“Is that what you think?” Gale asks, somewhere between hardly believing her words and understanding them completely. Viv gestures to the space around them.

“That’s what I know,” she counters, like she’s taking root in her stance with no intention to change it. “You’ve got that… that radio you’ve been working on. And when it’s not working right that’s how Bucky keeps himself useful. Benny’s fucking knitting. Most I’ve done since fucking Bremen is taken a beating in a transit camp ‘cause they thought I was lying about June being American. So don’t—” her voice cracks a little bit as it trembles on each word. She looks away for a moment. “Don’t you dare tell me that I’m not a problem sitting here doing fuck-all. I know what I am.”

There’s so much that Buck wants to say, but he’s combing through the words. Because he could tell her about how even in the moment that they’d seen her it was like they could all breathe again. No longer the kid waiting for the mailman — he didn’t care that she wasn’t going straight to work. They just wanted her to be here.

And then Buck thinks of Viv promising to get Bucky back to barracks when he calls it an early night, and Viv wrapping her knuckles after knocking the teeth in of a stranger who’d gotten too close to a replacement, and Viv worming her way up to the control tower to count forts — and doing it on the tarmac, too, hair all mussed from the helmet, scratches on her face. The letters she’d written to crews’ families just because she knew them and would call them friends. A runway in Nebraska, star-filled night: none of this works if you’re not onboard with it, too, Cleven. Don’t make me haul you up here with me.

Christ, she’d been making herself useful since the beginning. Didn’t complain, didn’t have a fit about it, didn’t even expect a thank you. Viv was the last person who should’ve been worried about being a problem.

“Think you’ve earned it — it’s not any trouble, you know that, too,” Buck reaches over to grab the back of her chair, pulling it closer to his own before reaching under the table leg for the half-finished radio he’d been working with for the past few days. “What you are, is alive, and you could ask anyone who comes through that door if they think you’d be better off dead and I think you’d already know the answer to that,” he continues, then sets the radio on the table. “But if you want to be useful, hold this in place for me.” He gestures to the wooden platform that the radio’s being built upon.

Viv looks at him for a long moment, like she’s waiting for something. She looks… small, in a way that he’s only seen in minor increments — when it dawned on them that Curt really wasn’t coming back, or when Dye pointed out how many crews they’d lost by the time he hit twenty-five missions. But she doesn’t quickly mask it like she might’ve before. Her lips, in spite of that small, bordering on kicked-puppy expression, curl into a smile. Something proper and alive, as opposed to the ghost of a lip twitch that she’d been giving sparingly.

“There she is,” Buck can’t help it, and Viv lets out some type of breathless laugh, knowing what he means. She rolls her eyes in a way that’s both playfully annoyed and so, so familiar.

“Shut up, Buck.” She holds the base steady while Buck fiddles with screws and wires.

It’s one hell of a reunion.

#masters of the air oc #*poet writes #masters of the air fic #mota oc #buck cleven fic #buck cleven #*wdawe

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c-optimistic · 1 year ago

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Hi there! Are you still open to 100 days of fic prompts? Wondering if you'd take a stab at Lena worrying that she and Kara are too different to be together romantically and Kara insisting that they complement each other

this is a very old prompt, from back before my relationship ended and i was trying to impress my ex with fic everyday, but i am trying to write more so here’s a little bit of angsty fluff for funsies

When she finally had the presence of mind to pull the knife wedged between her shoulder blades, the remnant of the shattered trust between herself and Kara, she’d come to an all-encompassing conclusion: there was no such thing as love.

There couldn’t be.

(Because if there was such a thing as ‘love,’ then she rather thinks Lex would’ve stayed sane, her mother would have treated the girl she raised as her own, her friends wouldn’t have left her, and Kara…Kara wouldn’t have lied.)

But as the months dragged on and forgiveness became less of a long shot and more of a question of when, her thoughts on love began to evolve. Now, Lena is a scientist. And so, after careful consideration and thorough research, she decides that the thing people call love is merely chemical reactions in her brain, associating Kara’s presence with feelings of happiness and safety. A drug, really. And like any drug, the best way to cut her dependence is to remove the drug from her life and consistently remind herself why the drug is so dangerous to her health.

(She had not reckoned for the fact that this particular drug can advocate on its own behalf, and is very much not on board with the notion of ‘quitting.’)

“I don’t really understand what you mean,” Kara says, standing in Lena’s living room in her skin tight blue suit, red cape hanging listlessly behind her, leaving very little of Kara’s curves to the imagination.

Lena has to physically shake her head, blinking furiously in annoyance at the chemicals in her brain.

“What’s so confusing?” she asks, a question she really wishes sounded angry and hurt, but comes out as confused as Kara looks. Because if she’s honest, she’s not sure she knows what she means either. Just that she can’t think with Kara so close.

“I said I love you,” Kara says, voice clear and unafraid, those three words ringing in Lena’s ears, momentarily making thoughts hard. “I said that it’s been a while since I worked my back to being friends with you. But that I want more.” She steps towards Lena, who takes several steps back, causing Kara to huff but stop. “I asked how you felt, and all you’ve done is list all the possible reasons we’re not good for each other. But that’s not an answer, Lena.”

“But listen,” Lena says, swallowing. “Have you considered that you love potstickers and I don’t?”

“I don’t really care, that just means more for me when we order in.”

Lena’s eyes narrow at the easy solution. “Okay. Fine. What about the fact that you don’t like my taste in novels?”

“Lena, I want to go out with you, not the trashy romance books you read. What does that have to do with anything?” Kara asks, clearly exasperated.

“Right, but those books give unrealistic expectations of love and romance and I—”

“—then I’ll read all your favorites and will show you love the way you want to be loved.”

Lena’s heart hammers away, and she makes the mistake of looking away briefly, trying to come up with another excuse, unsurprised when Kara is approaching her slowly—like she’s a spooked deer or a cat with trust issues—giving her ample time to move away or tell Kara off.

She does neither.

“Lena. I love you,” Kara says in barely a whisper, now only inches away from Lena. “Can you please tell me what this is all about?”

“Everyone I love and who was supposed to love me has let me down. And I…” She trails off, closes her eyes, and presses her forehead to Kara’s strong shoulder, gripping her wrists as tightly as she can. “And I don’t know if I’m broken and am unloveable or if love isn’t real and—it was hard enough after finding out you’re Supergirl. I can’t do it, I can’t lose you again. Not you too.”

For a moment, there’s nothing but the sound of Kara’s breathing intermingled with Lena’s struggle to avoid breaking down into sobs. Then, strong arms wrap around her and hold her tight, enveloping her in the scent of flowers and sunshine and warming her from head to toe.

And embarrassingly, Lena’s chemicals send a single thought through her brain: home.

“I know I let you down,” Kara says, a gentle hand shifting and then fingers threading through Lena’s hair. “And I can’t promise I’ll never let you down, because I’m not perfect. But I do promise you will never lose me. As long as you’ll have me, in whatever form that is, I’ll be right here. Okay?”

And there’s so much more to say, so much more to figure out. Lena desperately wants to say those three words back, wants to pull away just enough to kiss Kara hard enough that she can feel the way those chemicals in Lena’s brain have altered her being, wants to confess every single dark thought she’s had from the moment she found out Kara’s secret and all the lies she told.

But instead she lets out a watery laugh.

“But you have a preference in what form I’ll have you, right?” she asks, knowing the answer, knowing that her answer is the same, knowing maybe forgiveness alone isn’t enough yet for them to take that next step.

“Oh Rao, obviously I have a preference,” Kara whines as she pulls away, grinning when she catches Lena’s smile.

And Lena’s pretty sure that next step will come sooner than either of them think.

#fanfic #supercorp #asks #kara danvers #lena luthor #prompts

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arlana-likes-to-write · 1 year ago

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A Black Widow Halloween

Family is More than Blood

Summary: Halloween was your favorite holiday. Spooky movies, cooler weather, and you loved watching the leaves change but that changes when you have to go back to the Red Room.

Relationships: Natasha x Yelena x Reader (sisters)

Warning: implied sexual assault, Drekyov is a horrible human and I'm glad he's dead lol, Red Room trauma, panic attack.

Word count: 1.6K

Halloween, Ohio, 1995

“And done,” Melina said. “You can open your eyes now.” You did as you ere told and starred at your reflection. It was Halloween and when Melina and Alexei said you and your sisters could go trick or treating you were surprised and lost for words. The first year they didn’t allow you to out, calming they didn’t know the neighborhood well. But you knew the truth, the Red Room forbade it. So when they agreed to let you go, you and Natasha jumped at the chance. You were going as a vampire, Natasha found a witch costume, and Yelena was going as a fairy. Melina helped you with your makeup, paling your complexion, adding dark eye shadow, and drops of fake blood.

“Thank you, mama,” you said, standing up from her vanity. “It’s perfect.”

“Go change into your costume and tell Natalia I’m ready for her,” You nodded and found Natalia in the kitchen, scarfing down the last of her dinner and ran towards the master bedroom. On the way to your room, you passed Yelena’s. You heard quiet Sniffling from instead which was odd. Her room was always loud with whatever game she made up. “Lena,” you quietly said, walking in. The crying stopped but you heard it from the closet. Gently, you opened the door and found the blonde curled up on the floor. Her fairy costume on minus the wings and tears steaming down her cheeks. “Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” You asked. She wouldn’t answer, her green eyes wide and tiny chest heaving as she tried to get air in her lungs. “It’s me. Y/n. I need you to breath,” you took her hand and placed it on your chest. “Do you feel that?” She nodded. “I need you to copy how I breath, slowly in and out.” It took her a moment but soon her breathing matched yours. Her eyes were bloodshot, dried tears on her cheeks, and snot dripping out of her nose. A little gross but you were more worried about getting her breathing under control.

You sat on the floor, crossed your legs, and held out your hands with your palms facing up. Yelena began to trace each line. “What’s got you upset, little miss?” She shrugged. “Come on you can tell me. I’m your big sister.”

“Monsters,” she whispered. You wanted her to elaborate but you learned to be patient with the girl. Speaking for her or to much caused her to shut down. “What if the monsters come and get me?” Oh, your heart broke on how innocent she saw the world.

“Those monsters are just people in costume they aren’t real,” you told her but she wasn’t convinced. “You know how you like to play make believe. We pretended to be doctors, or fairies, or hikers climbing a dangerous mountain,” she nodded. “Halloween is a big game of pretend and make believe.”

“You promise the monsters won’t get me.” The smile you wore twitched but she missed it.

“The monsters won’t get you while I’m around,” you tickled her sides and she began to giggle. “Now let’s get you cleaned up and put some glitter on.”

“But daddy said no glitter,” you helped her stand up.

Halloween, Red Room

“What dad doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” you smiled. “Now come on!” But the bitter lie tasted sour in your mouth. The monsters she was afraid of weren’t the ones she should be worried about. Those monsters weren’t wearing masks or scary makeup. They were men that ordered little girls to kill and stripped them of their innocence and childhood. You weren’t sure how you were going to protect her from that.

“Do you know what day it is, malen’kiy pauk (little spider)?” Dreykov asked from behind his desk. You stood at attention, arms behind your back and looking down slightly.

“Halloween, sir,” Also almost 6 months since your sisters escaped the Red Room, were free from the clutches of this man. You wondered how they were doing. Did they miss you? We’re they going to try to come back for you?

Halloween, Avengers Compound

“Yes, Halloween,” he stood up and walked behind you. Goosebumps covered your skin at the feeling of his breath. “And I have a very special costume for you to wear?” Costume? You haven’t worn a costume since Ohio when you and your sisters ran around the neighborhood getting candy from every house. You were so filled with sugar and happiness that it was impossible for Melina to get you to bed. For once, you were a real kid. A Widow entered his office with the costume in her hands. “You are going to look absolutely delicious."

“Tony is throwing a Halloween party!” Yelena proclaimed as she opened your door without knocking. Luckily, you were working on your laptop and not doing another serious. It was also the only warning before she jumped on the bed, you moved your laptop in time. “Tony is having a Halloween party.” She repeated.

“I heard you the first time, sestra,” you flickered her for heard and she rubbed the spot with a pout. “What does that have to do with me?” You asked.

“It’s our first Halloween together since Ohio and I want us to do a group costume,” you raised a questioning eyebrow. Holidays weren’t celebrated in the Red room. It was another day to train or an easy eye to sneak into an event. You sighed.

“Okay, what do you have in mind?” An evil smile formed on her face. Oh, you were in so much trouble.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head,” she ruffled your hair. “I have the perfect costume in mind.” She jumped off your bed and headed for the door.

“Yelena,” you groaned. “I do not want to look ridiculous.”

“You won’t! Promise. You’ll look hot.” To be honest, that didn’t make you feel any better.

So Yelena wasn’t wrong, the costume was flattering. It was a purple v-neck dress with red accents. She got a bat shaped necklace and required you to wear red lip stick and vampire teeth. You had no idea who you were supposed to be but it was fun. Like you told Yelena all those years ago, Halloween was a big game of pretend and make believe. Then why did you feel so sick to your stomach? “I can’t believe she got us to do this,” you looked towards your door and saw Natasha. Her hair was back to her red color and curled. She was wearing a navy pant suit with purple finger less gloves. Around her neck was a yellow necklace with a purple jewel. You smiled.

“I’m not,” you straightened your dress before you sat on the edge of your bed. “She was always good at those puppy dog eyes, she got Melina and Alexei to do anything.” Natasha chuckled. “Besides I have no idea who we are.”

“The Hex Girls, they are from a cartoon show,” your sister walked into your room and sat down next to you. “Are you okay? You’ve been acting strange all week.” You sighed, picking at the fabric of your dress.

“Just not the biggest Halloween fan anymore,” you saw Natasha frown.

“What did he do?” She asked. You knew who she was talking about without having to say a name but you remained quiet. With a sigh, she moved you so you were facing her. Natasha held out her hands, palms up, and you smiled at the gesture. You were surprised she remembered. You began to trace the lines on her hand. It helped ground you.

“It was the first Halloween since you escaped,” you began. “He called me into his office and had a costume for me. It was a maid outfit, barely covered anything and he took me to a party,” you sighed. “There were a few other Widows but the guests were people in his inner circle and a few politicians from around the world. I didn’t want to be there and I didn’t want what they did to me either,” your hands were shaking and Natasha grabbed onto them.

“The monster is gone,” she said. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

“But other people can,” you admitted. She sighed.

“Yes, that is true,” your sister slowly said. “What happened to you at that party won’t happen here. Tony may make a comment but none of them will touch you without your permission, okay?” You nodded. “If they don’t respect that I’ll cut their hands off then their dicks.” You laughed, shaking your head.

“Is it your turn to protect me from the monsters?” You teased.

“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “You’ve done it for to long now it’s our turn.” Before you could respond, there was a knock on your door.

“Looking good, sestras,” Yelena wore a long sleeve green dress and her blonde hair was in two pony tails. Her lip stick matched the color of her dress and she wore a choker and necklace.

“I feel like I should watch the cartoon these girls care from,” you said.

“Yeah,” you stood up. “There better be some good alcohol.” Natasha rolled her eyes.

“We’ll add it to the list. Scooby Doovis a timeless classic,” the blonde smiled. “Are you ready?” Natasha looked at you.

“That’s all Tony spends his money on.” Sometimes you could still feel his breath on your neck. His claws that were so deep inside you that you feared one day he would over power you. As you walked into the party with your sisters by your side and ignored the crude comment Tony threw at you, you felt normal. The monster was gone.

#black widow sisters #family is more than blood au #yelena belova x natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff x you #yelena belova x reader #yelena belova x you

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thinking1bee · 7 months ago

Text

When It Reigns Final Part

Requested by Anonymous

Pairings: Kara Danvers x Reader

Tags: Angst, Kryptonian!Reader, Parent!Reader, Parent!Kara, Estranged Parent, Graphic Depictions of Injuries, Blood, Humor, Bad Dreams, Memory Loss

Everything Taglist: @sammy90682 @nobody13 @owloftheshadows @captain-josslett @camslightstories @worldovart @finleyfray @acertainredhead @sammm9068 @reginassecretlover

When you came to, it was slow and arduous. You felt weak, incredibly so, but you felt two weights snuggled by your sides. You groaned, and that’s when you felt a hand against your cheek.

“Hey there, beautiful.”

You smiled and leaned into the touch, knowing instinctively who the hand belonged to.

“Beautiful isn’t the description I would give myself this moment,” you groaned.

You blinked your eyes open and focused on Kara, who was watching you with the softest smile that you had ever seen. You watched as she tucked some of her hair behind her ear before she cupped your cheek.

“You will always be beautiful to me.”

You rolled your eyes and chuckled. “Charmer,” you quipped before you looked around. “Where’s Angel?”

“Right here.”

You looked down to see her cuddled into your other side, her cheek buried into your neck, and when you saw her, tears came to your eyes. She was here, and she was safe. You leaned down to kiss her hair, sniffling as you tried to hold her closer. Your little girl was safe. And she was so brave.

“She wouldn’t leave your side,” Kara whispered as she ran soft and gentle fingers through her daughter’s hair.

“If it were me, you would have to pry me away from her, so I understand.”

Kara chuckled and kissed your cheek. “How do you feel?”

“Like I just got absolutely decimated by a runaway train. How are you?”

“Nothing the sun lamp couldn’t fix,” she replied.

“How’s Alex?”

As if on cue, she shuffled into the med bay. She groaned as she held a massive ice pack to her head. Alex didn’t say anything. Instead, she walked to a cabinet, opened it, and took out a large bottle of Advil.

“I know it doesn’t look like it, but I’m so happy that you’re awake,” she grumbled.

Alex readjusted the ice pack on her head. “My head is beating like a goddamn drum.”

“Are you okay??” you asked her.

“It’s a result of the psychic link we had with you and J’onn. It hit her a little harder,” Kara explained.

“Sorry that I’m not super awesome and have superpowers,” Alex mumbled sarcastically.

“Yeah, bummer,” Kara cackled. Alex shook her head.

“Bitch,” she said under her breath as she walked out. You watched her pop at least four pills in her mouth before she disappeared from view.

Kara giggled and you stared at the door she left out of. “I’m no doctor but I’m pretty sure that she took way more than the recommended amount.”

“She’ll chase it down with some wine in about an hour. She has never been one to listen to doctor’s orders.”

That made you laugh. Beside you, Angel stirred awake. She yawned before looking up.

“Hey there, beautiful,” you said, and her eyes widened.

“Mom!”

She circled her arms around you and hugged you closely. You held her back, your nose buried in her hair.

“Hi, babygirl,” you murmured against her skin. “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too!”

She was full on sobbing now, and you held her closer to you, smiling as she released the emotions that she’d been holding in for so long.

“You’re okay, right? Like you’re back to normal?”

“I’m not quite sure. Reign is gone but I have no idea if I’m me again.”

“Actually, I do have an answer for you,” Lena said with a smile as she walked in.

“Yeah?”

“The results from your blood examination came back. You are 100% human. There’s no trace of Kryptonian DNA anywhere.”

You breathed a sigh of relief as you sank back into the bed. That was so reassuring to hear. Angel pouted a little though, her eyes crinkling at the sides.

“What’s wrong?” you asked her.

“It would have been kind of cool to have another mom with superpowers. Could you imagine if you and Momma fought bad guys together?”

It was a thought, but you still shook your head. “There’s no way I would be remotely responsible if I had powers. All it would take would be for someone to cut me off in traffic and then I’d throw their car off a bridge.”

Angel snorted and Kara frowned. “No, we don’t need that.”

You turned to face Lena. “You protected my daughter from Reign. You protected her with your life. I don’t even know how to thank you.”

Lena smiled softly and held her hands together. She looked away as a slight blush colored her cheeks. “You don’t have to thank me at all.”

You shook your head. “No, I’m going to, because had anything happened to her, or you, or anybody else that I care about, I wouldn’t even know how to cope. And yet, you put yourself between Reign and her like it was nothing. You could have been hit or worse!”

Lena took your hand and held it tightly. “But I wasn’t, and neither was Angel. We’re all safe and relatively unscathed. You have nothing to worry about except for you to heal. We’re all okay and now you should focus on being the same.”

You nodded. Lena waved shyly to Angel and Kara before she took her leave. Everything was silent for a moment as you held your two favorite girls.

“I’m hungry,” you said a moment before your stomach growled.

Kara sat up. “Potstickers? Pizza?”

“All of it, please.”

Kara chuckled as she gently got up from the bed.

“Yes, ma’am.”

***

It was two more weeks before you were cleared to leave the DEO. After extensive tests that proved that you were no longer affected by Reign, J’onn practically pushed you out the door and told you not to come back. All of it was said with a smile on his face, of course. You were back at L-Corp with Angel doing her homework on the desk across from you.

“You’re okay with being here? It might be an all-nighter.”

Angel shrugged and smiled adorably. “No, I don’t mind. I wish to spend more time with you. Even if we’re not doing anything together, I still want to share a space with you. If that’s okay.”

You smiled, a bubble of emotion welling in your chest. “Of course, it's okay. It’s more than okay.”

Angel gave you the widest smile. More time passed when Lena checked in on you. You had to reassure her multiple times that you were more than okay to do this. By comparison, it was infinitely easier to stay at work all night than to be some alien doomsday device for all of mankind on planet Earth. That one made her laugh, and she took her leave after making you promise that you wouldn’t overdo yourself. As the time continued to tick on, and the day turned into night, you heard the sound of Kara’s boots landing on the balcony.

“Hello, gorgeous,” she said to you as she stepped inside.

Angel was already asleep. With a stomach full of pizza and her homework completed, she snoozed on the couch, and you even tucked her in.

“Hello, hello.”

You got up and hugged your wife, your face burrowed into the skin of her neck. She cupped your cheek before leaning down and kissing you deeply. You melted into her, Kara’s lips warm and strong against yours as she continued to hold you close.

“Wow, I missed that,” you admitted when she pulled away.

“Well, if you have some more energy later tonight, I would be more than happy to oblige. Maybe more kisses, or maybe something much more.”

You went to respond when Angel dry heaved.

“That’s so freaking gross.”

You chuckled and held Kara close. Everything was okay. You were okay. Your family was okay, and for the first time, you felt more than prepared for the future, whatever it may bring.

#supergirl #fanfic #kara danvers #kara danvers x reader #reader insert #x reader #parent!kara #estranged parent #parent!reader #graphic injuries #blood #humor #angst #bad dreams \#memory loss

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gallavichsreddie1128 · 8 months ago

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Fuck You (Baz Blackwell)

Description: Baz and Y/N have a lot of tension between them but Baz is married. Spoilers for the ending of Season 2!

Warning: Smut, Cheating

Word Count: 2,418k

Author's note: This is my first fic that's not Hannibal related. I have one in the works right now but I am so busy today that I had to post a pic that I wrote a month ago while watching Animal Kingdom. If you haven't watched the show I recommend.

It started with glances during Jobs, stares while the other wasn’t looking. Touches being discreet and “accidentally”. She was 22 and he was in his late 30’s with a wife and a kid. She hated him though. He wasn’t a good person. None of them were really but Baz especially. He wasn’t the best dad and he cheated on his wife. It was clear that the two wanted each other but fought against it. She didn’t like the way Baz treated the rest of them. He was demanding and frankly it was kind of a turn on. But she wouldn’t admit that. Not out loud anyways.

Baz was running a job like always and was being a dick. Y/N couldn’t help but roll her eyes. J smirked at her reaction agreeing with her nonetheless. Baz ignored her reaction and kept explaining who needed to do what. “And Y/N you will be with me.” He tells her. She can’t miss the mocking smirk on his lips. She holds back the most dramatic sigh and eye roll and just nods. It wasn’t like she had a choice.

Baz for some reason let J help his uncles but not her. No, never her. She’s been around them for years and has helped but not today. It’s like Baz wanted to torture her. She hated him for it. J could have been the lookout like last time but Baz actually wanted to torture her. “Text them 2 minutes.” He broke her out of her thoughts. She sighed and texted J 2 minutes. Baz kept his eyes off the girl. He shouldn’t feel this way but he does. She was beautiful and sassy. “So I think we should address the tension between us.” He stated. She looked at him like he had 2 heads. “You wanna talk about your fantasy on a job?” She asked. He was ridiculous. “Got nothing better to do.” He said. He was still able to focus and talk. It was mind blowing to her. “Address what tension?” She asked. She was playing dumb. She knew what he was talking about. But wanted to hear it out of his mouth. “You’re into me I know it.” He shrugged.

She could have slapped him if it wasn’t for the smirk that was on his lips. “No I'm not, it seems that it’s you who’s into me.” She states with the same mocking smirk. He shrugged. “Yeah but at least I can admit it.” Her eyes widened. She wasn’t expecting that from him. Why tell her now? On the job. The boys returned before she had time to really process what Baz said. Leaving the conversation opened.

She sighed in the shower as she thought about what Baz said. She couldn’t lie. She felt the same way but what about Lena and Katherine? Y/N wasn’t going to ruin that. Lena and Kath deserved better. That’s for sure. Alexis knew that Baz cheated on Kath but now he wants it to be her. Yeah right. It wasn’t happening. Y/N was better than that. After her shower she got out and looked in the mirror. Was she better than that? All she wanted to do right now was jump into Baz’s arms after his confession. She shook that thought out of her head.

As she was getting dressed she heard a knock on the door. “Someone’s in here.” She said pulling up her pants. “It’s Baz.” “Still doesn’t change anything.” “Well it should.” She ignored him and got dressed. “Come on Y/N open the door.” He said. Once she was dressed she opened the door. “What Baz?” She asked, annoyed. He smirked and backed her up to the wall in the bathroom. “You need to stop acting like you don’t want me.” He tells her. They were in kissing distance. “I’m not acting like anything.” She says. “Then let me fuck you like you deserve.” He whispers. She sighs and closes her eyes. He leans down and kisses her neck.

She moans and wraps her hands around his neck. He made sure to leave a hickey. “Baz this isn’t right.” She moans as he attacks her neck. He hummed against her. “Like you give a shit.” He says. He pulls back and kisses her hard. She kisses back immediately forgetting about anything but Baz. He picks her up and she wraps her legs around his waist. Their lips move sloppily against each other. They pull away breathing hard. “You should have opened the door when I told you too. Now I gotta undress you.” He said. He pulled her shirt off and smirked. She wasn’t wearing a bra. Why would she be? She just got out of the shower. “Baz, please touch me.” She begged. He leaned down and latched onto her nipple. She gasped as his tongue circled her nipple and sucked on it.

She held his head and moaned his name. He pulled away after a few more seconds. “I’m barely touching you and you’re moaning.” He said. She got out of his arms and she pulled down her PJ bottoms. She had a white lace thong. His mouth watered at the sight. He made eye contact with her as he sank to his knees. He ran his nose over her clothed clit. She whimpered and gasped. He smirked and took a big whiff of her pussy. “Mmm you smell so good baby.” He said. He pulled down her thong. Her jaw was open as he did so.

He wrapped her legs around his shoulders and stood up. She grabbed ahold of his head as she was scared to lose balance and fall. Baz wouldn’t let that happen. He started kitten licking her pussy. She cried out his name. He licked and sucked her button as her head fell back against the wall. If Baz wasn’t holding her up she would have lost balance. Her moans and cries got louder. Neither cared that his brothers probably heard. “Baz fuck Baz.” His name was all she knew as his tongue was pretty much inside of her. He hummed and she gasped out his name feeling close. She had never felt this close so fast before. “Baz I’m gonna cum fuck please don’t stop.” She moaned. He didn’t and she fell over the edge with a silent scream. He slurps up every last drop of her. She tried pushing his face away after her high was over. He smirked up at her as she looked down at him in a daze. Her breathing was still hard and she couldn’t think straight. He dropped her slowly back down on her feet. She kissed him and moaned. The taste of her was all over his mouth.

She pulled on his shirt and he ripped it off. Her hands traveled over his torso. She traveled down to his jeans and unzipped them. He helped her pull them down. His boxers were a little damp with pre cum. She tried to sink to her knees but he stopped her. “I need to fuck you sweetheart.” He tells her. She nods and he pulls down his boxers. She jumps and wraps her legs around his waist feeling his hard dick near her pussy. He positioned himself at her entrance and she took a deep breath. He thrusted in her and she whimpered. Sure she’s been with other guys but Baz was older and much bigger. He let her adjust to his size before he started fucking her.

Her pussy was like a dream for him. He hadn’t really been with a younger woman. Let alone someone who lived in the same house as his family did. “Baz you can move now.” She begged. He thrusted in and out of her like it was all he could do. She gripped his shoulders hard. Her face looked blissed out and it was all he could think about and within 2 minutes he was already close. Her moans of his name didn’t help either. “Baz fuck.” He gripped her neck. “Are you close, baby? Are you gonna cum all of my cock like it’s yours.” He whispered. She groaned and nodded. He felt her clench around him and he cursed. He couldn’t hold back. He came with a grunt. She came right after him. The two fell into a silence after it was over. He pulled out of her and carefully.

He got dressed while she just stared at him. She couldn’t believe what just happened. She felt guilty but knew that she shouldn’t. It’s not like she owes Kath anything. But that wasn’t a great way to look at things. “Well I’ll see you around.” He said and walked out of the bathroom. She was so confused by that. They just fucked and it’s a see you around?

Baz hasn’t looked in her direction since that night. She felt sick. It was like he got what he wanted and used her like a toy. She wanted to punch him in the face for what happened. She was pissed. Luckily the only person that noticed the tension between them was J. “You and Baz okay?” He asked her. “Yeah why wouldn’t we be?” She asked, playing dumb. She didn’t think that J knew that they had tension, especially sexual. “Because one minute it looked like you guys were gonna fuck and the next minute he won’t even look at you.” Fuck. She wanted to lie and say she wasn’t sure she knew what he was talking about. But who was she kidding? He hit the nail on the head. “Well honestly yeah I don’t know.” She sighs. “So you guys fucked?” She looked at him and debated on telling him. He didn’t give a shit about Katherine. “He won’t even look at me now. I feel sick.” She says with tears in her eyes. “He’s an asshole, he got what he wanted out of you.” J told her but she already knew that. She sighed and agreed with him. What more could she do?

They had to talk about a job and unfortunately it had to be done at Baz’s house. Y/N thought about not going. She was gonna have J tell her what the plan was but decided against it. She wasn’t gonna let this affect her forever. He wasn’t worth it. They all stood at his kitchen table while Lena watched TV. Baz was getting pissed because the tv was too loud or she was annoying him. It made Pope and Y/N sick. He wasn’t a good father or husband. Baz kept telling her he’d take her to the park but wouldn’t so Pope offered. Pope honestly was a better dad than him and Pope wasn’t a dad. He cared for Lena a lot. Y/N couldn’t even be in his house anymore. She felt sick the countless times Baz yelled at poor Lena. What did she see in him? When everyone was leaving Y/N followed but Baz stopped her. “Hey you wanna stick around and have a beer?” He asked her.

She looked at him like he asked her to kill someone with him. “You want me to stay and have a beer with you after you avoiding me for days?” She asked. He sighed. “Look I know I’ve been an asshole and I’m sorry.” She laughed. A sarcastic laugh. “An asshole? Baz you’re a dick. You fuck me like you’ve always wanted to and then just ignore me. On Top of that you treat your own daughter like shit. Pope is being a better father than you-“ “don’t tell me how I should be treating my kid. You know nothing.” He yelled at her. “Yeah Baz I know nothing. I haven’t been here the past few times you’ve yelled at the poor girl over nothing. You’d rather fuck random bitches than take care of your own daughter im not stupid.” She yelled back. He walked up to her. “So you think you’re just a random bitch to me?” He asked her. “Baz I know I’m not the only one. And frankly I don’t care what you think I am. Whatever this was is done.” She said and walked out of the house.

“Baz is stealing money from Smurf and he’s talking about moving to Mexico with Lena and some girl.” J tells her. He only told her. Her jaw dropped. Not because of him with some other girl but he stole money from Smurf. She shook her head and shrugged. “Don’t act like you don’t care.” “J I don’t. I told you he disgusts me.” She says. Though she wasn’t sure if she was lying or not. After Katherine disappeared Baz thought she’d come running in his arms but that wasn’t the case.

“Here I want you to have this.” Baz said and gave her $5000. She looked at him confused as to why he was giving her money. “What’s this for?” She asked him. “Just take it. No questions all right?” She rolled her eyes. “I’m moving to Mexico and I want you to have it.” He told her. “Who’s the girl?” Baz looked at her. “It should be you.” She wanted to laugh or even smack him but it wasn’t worth it. None of this was. “Baz you wanted me for sex that was it. Let’s not act like we had a loving caring relationship and I left you.” “Well we should have and I’m sorry we didn’t.” She grabbed the cash off the table and looked at him.

He was crazy. It wasn’t very often that Baz and her talked after the incident but when they did he brought it up and tried to make up for it. She didn’t want his Money. She didn’t need it. But Baz wouldn’t let her leave without it. “Baz you’re fucking crazy.” She said and kissed him. He kissed back quickly but before the kiss could get heated she pulled away. She didn’t smile or show any emotion. She just walked out of his house. Not looking back.

That was the last time she saw him. When she heard that he got killed she bawled her eyes out for 5 minutes but after that she didn’t. She thought about him a lot. She saw how his death affected the others and she kept their night a dirty secret from everyone but J. In the end she was glad it wasn’t her. She was thankful that they only fucked. Cuz what kind of craziness would she bring feeling elsewise?

#animal kingdom #baz blackwell #scott speedman #baz blackwell x reader #pope cody #j cody #finn cole #Barry Blackwell #Barry Blackwell x reader #Barry blackwell imagine #animal kingdom show #x reader #smut #baz blackwell smut #Barry brown #joel edgerton

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oh-no-another-idea · 7 months ago

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fresh, after, spend, find, + bonus: previously, disappear: a word find tag

Finding some fun words from beloved @sleepyowlwrites -- thank you, owl! Funnily enough, I have all of these except fresh. I guess my characters need to eat healthier diets. Maybe when they're not running for their lives? 😂

From Invisible Girl:

After:

“I think I’ve finally found the answer to what we’ve been looking for,” Felicia had said the previous night after calling Velia back to her study. She’d lit candles around the whole room, and in the middle of them, she glowed orange, eyes nearly as bright as the flickering flames. The soft scent of smoke mixed with her floral perfume. “The cure for you.”

Spend:

The two waiters quickly hopped to it, leaving the cooks in relative peace. “Any more news on our special passenger?” one of them asked. Velia’s ears perked up. “Keeps to himself, don’t he?” The bearded cook answered, shaking a pan with the sort of hiss one would expect from a snake over an intercom system. “Takes a lot of meals in his room, spends time in the library car…rather dull, truly.” “As long as he’s not complaining, that’s all right in my books, eh? Remember when we had that radio star aboard, what was it, two years ago? Woman wouldn’t shut up about how she wanted her coffee prepared.”

Find:

She reported back to Felicia Verde’s home for unwanted Gifts. Nobody called it that but her; the name was unnecessary. You only found Felicia Verde if there was no one to find you.

Previously: [Velia and Paris first meeting lol]

“Wait,” the boy said, somehow guessing she was leaving because of his previously mentioned intelligence. “It’s just—I wondered—if a being can’t be seen, is it the being who is unseeable, or our eyes, that simply don’t work at all the right levels?” Velia stopped. “And if you painted over me with enough paint, would you be seeing me finally, or only the shell imitation?” she said. The boy snapped his fingers. “Exactly.”

Disappear:

For lack of anything better to do, Velia answered. “I’m not entirely sure. My clothes disappear. Anything small enough for me to hold disappears.” “I wonder if you could hold me—that is, carry me—would I disappear?” [said Antonio] “Nothing alive would,” Velia corrected. The train shook with suppressed laughter around them. “Except maybe a plant. I’ve never tried a plant.”

Context in case anyone would like it: Velia is invisible to those who don't care about her. And on that note, I'll pass on some gentle tags to anyone who read all of this, and also @author-a-holmes @halleyuhm @thegreatobsesso @lena-rambles @gummybugg

@imbrisvastatio @revenantlore @reneesbooks @eccaiia and @charlesjosephwrites if you'd like to search your wips for the words correct, hold, prayer, and fish 🐟

#tag games #find the word tag #wip: invisible girl

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ladylooch · 1 year ago

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Don’t be shy, tell us all about how daddy Timo embarrassed himself on the phone. I just know Kevin hears Emma in the background trying to wrestle it away from him 🤣

Don't be shy ☠️

The way I made this so soft in the end 🙈 I CANT HELP IT!!! THEY’RE MY BOYS!!!!!

Kevin is unassuming when he sees Timo’s name pop up on his phone.

“Hey.” Kevin answers, putting the phone on speaker so he can continue to put the groceries away with Sam. He holds her hips to wiggle past her in the pantry, stifling a groan at the way she brushes against him just right. He can’t wait for Lena to head to her friend’s house for the night.

“Hey fucker.”

Both Kevin and Sam pause, looking at each other with questioning eyes. This is new.

“Ah, what’s up?”

“You tell me what’s up. What is this I hear about your kid dating my daughter?”

Kevin and Sam had talked to Luca a few days ago and he mentioned spending time with Livia Meier while visiting Switzerland for the summer. Kevin thought it was great. The Meiers are close friends. Him and Timo grew up together. Luca finding someone to relate to as a hockey player’s kid and growing up outside of Switzerland seemed like a great fit.

“I heard the same thing earlier this week.” Kevin confirms. He stops putting things on the shelves.

“This is fucking bullshit, Kev. My daughter deserves better than your scrub of a son.”

“Timo!” Kevin hears Emma’s voice in the background. “Give me the god damn-” Her voice cuts off with the closing of a door.

“Scrub?” Kevin scoffs, looking at Sam who is still perplexed at what is happening. She holds her hands up, decidedly staying out of it. Her husband’s eyes are beginning to get squinty. She wants no part in this discussion and smartly leaves the pantry.

“He has to be coming from your balls.”

“Dude, what the fuck?” Kevin scoffs.

“You what the fuck! How close does the apple fall to the tree? He like to whip through the rotation every week like daddy? Is Liv the Friday or Thursday girl?”

“Hey.” Kevin hisses, taking him off speaker. He prays Sam didn’t hear that. “That was one year in Sweden, okay. I’ve come a long way since then. Also, I wasn’t the one who had my dick sucks by the girls tennis team on my way out of town to Canadian Juniors.” Timo is silent on the other end. Ha, Kevin thinks.

“I am fucking serious. Your kid hurts my daughter I’ll end his life.”

“You hurt my kid and I’ll end yours.” Kevin snaps back. Tension races through the silence between the lines. “And he has more Sam in him than me.” Kevin finishes with a heavy sigh. He forces his shoulders back down, trying to relax. Timo contemplates.

“So he’s a good midwestern boy?”

“Eh, I wouldn’t go that far.” Kevin says honestly, thinking about a certain position he found his son in last year on the couch. Luca is lucky it was him who came home early and not Sam. Kevin never told his wife, but he did immediately have the safe sex talk again.

“Fuck me.” Timo wails.

“I get it, man. I’ve got two daughters.”

“Why is this so much harder with her? With Lio it was.. a breeze.”

“Because you remember what it was like being 19.” Kevin’s small smile fills his voice. Timo sighs.

“Yeah. I wanna go back and kick my own ass now.”

“I can do it for you?”

“No you can’t… pussy.” Kevin laughs, loud and easy. Damn, he’s glad him and Timo are still friends.

“I’ll take you anytime, old man.”

“You’re older.”

“Yeah but I played longer.”

“Cause you’re a pussy.” Timo can’t even get through the sentence without busting out laughing.

“Again, you’re welcome in Minnesota anytime, bud.” Kevin opens the door to the pantry, stepping into the kitchen where Sam and Lena are beginning to make chocolate chip cookies. Lena had a good grade on her final test that she was nervous about, so Sam is rewarding her with homemade cookies. Kevin watches them for a moment and thinks about their last conversation with his oldest child. “Look, I know you’re worried, but I wouldn’t be. He’s a good kid and… I think he loves your daughter already. I’ve never seen him like this.” Sam nods her head along to Kevin’s words.

“I’m still gonna scare the shit out of him when he comes over.” Timo insists.

“Good. He could use some practice for dealing with washed up veterans next season.”

“You’re an ass.” Timo hisses.

“Not as big as you though. I gotta go. See you in a couple weeks for your ass kicking on the course.”

#tm: loving & leaving #letters in your last name au #Liv X Luca

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inkedroplets · 11 months ago

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how many stars am i allowed to send!?!?!?!!!! ⭐️🌟💫

Just as many as you would like! So I picked a couple sections from Rich Girl at random because I could ramble way too much about all of my fics. Alex set the box back down on the desk and pushed it back towards Lena, daring her to take it. She crossed her arms tight over her chest, almost looking like she was trying to hug herself. “I don’t believe you, Lena.” Lena smiled or at least tried to. “I am a Luthor,” she said offhandedly. “Never a good idea to—” “You know that’s not what I meant,” Alex said testily. “I don’t believe you’d let me leave here without taking the suit.” “Believe what you like,” Lena said patiently, neither confirming nor denying Alex’s hypothesis. “Either way, it doesn’t matter.” “No?” “No,” Lena said and reached across the desk and took the box in her hand. She noticed the abrupt shift in Alex’s body language, the way her already tense shoulders hitched even higher than they already were. She cradled the box in her hand and held it out to Alex. “Because I know that you love Kara,” she said and pressed the box gently into Alex’s open hand. “And that to protect her, you’ll do whatever you need to. That there’s not a line you wouldn’t cross to do it.” So in Rich Girl when Lena makes Kara a new suit, the trouble of how to get it to Kara presented itself. Their relationship at the time was still in such a precarious and careful rebuilding phase that having Lena simply give it to her felt wholly anticlimactic and too grand of a gesture to not lead to some kind of reconciliation. Something that Lena is still(was) tiptoeing around. I tinkered with the idea of Lena giving Kara the suit while she was in her vigilante-guise. I actually wrote a little bit of it but it didn't feel right so the idea of Lena approaching Alex came to mind.

At that point in the story, Lena and Alex's relationship is not only non-existent there was the nasty matter of Alex trying to bug Lena's office. There's no love there between either of them but there is some common ground. They both love Kara and they have done or would do questionable things to make sure she was safe. It was a nice moment between the two of them and what led to Alex giving Lena the kind of silent go-ahead a little later. She might not like the idea of Lena and Kara together but there was a moment of understanding that let her at least be okay with it.

“Bruce told me about your mother,” Diana said delicately, the expression on her face a mixture of sadness and unease. “You called out for her while Bruce was synthesizing an antidote… Lena, you were only a child when it happened. You can’t blame yourself.” “I know I was. I know that logically there was probably nothing I could have done. If I had run for help, if I had screamed until my throat was raw, if I had swam after her, it probably wouldn’t have changed a thing but no matter how many times I try to tell myself that… It doesn’t make me feel any less responsible, any less guilty.” Something Bruce understands, she thought, thinking of the sorrowful kinship the two shared. How he understood better than most that some guilt, some wounds were ineffable. They remained. They persisted. Guilt wasn’t always logical and it often left deep scars.

“Even if I could portal out, I need to make sure the program never triggers. I can’t risk it, Bruce, and you know that.” She reached behind her neck, meaning to re-engage her helmet. “You’d do the same in my shoes. I need you to activate the Endgame protocol." He sighed and Lena couldn't help but notice how much like Alfred he sounded. "It needs your voice confirmation," he reminded her gently and she could hear him typing as well, the sounds of the keys being struck sounding somewhat echoey in the cave. It was a sound she would strangely miss. "Elizabeth." "I'll see that it's done, Lena," Bruce said. "To the letter."

I had a lot of fun drawing parallels between Bruce and Lena as the story went on beyond their bank accounts. Both of their lives are defined in a lot of ways by loss. Obviously they took far different paths but at their core, they're people who still feel a deep sense of guilt for not being able to save their parents. There's a sense of their parents names almost being taboo. They're not spoken aloud a lot even when they talk about them and I think it's simply because it's still too painful. So having Lena choose her mother's name for the protocol she would only activate when she thought she was about to die seemed right. To want to speak it one last time. A reminder of one of the biggest driving factors in her wanting to be a force for good.

#ask game #my writing #supercorp

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latibvles · 1 month ago

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43) a blood stained uniform for lena and andy

A BLOODSTAINED UNIFORM.

done with my essays which means I can finally tackle the clothing prompts!! lena and andy my beloveds... here's some postwar Andy at the Connolly house. they're having a slumber party. they should kiss already. I mean what.

Everything in the Connolly apartment is packed tightly together. A bedroom off the kitchen and the other off the living room — the only distinction between them being the shift from hardwood to tile. Andy figures it’s only fitting; Lena’s been fairly open about having no siblings and not needing much space — she liked how close together things were. It makes it easier when she’s stirring and he can hear from the thin wall separating her room from the living room.

She doesn’t say that, but whenever he opens the door and sits on the edge of her bed, tucking strands of hair behind her ear when she jolts awake, Andy has a feeling it’s a shared sentiment.

In the mornings she makes the eggs, he makes the bacon and she talks about why her parents have gone away to begin with. And Andy listens, because he likes the way she talks: everything is lists with Lena, it’s all step-by-step and clear, concise — intentions laid out clear as day. She’s easy to keep up with. After everything, surprises leave a sour taste in his mouth anyway. He’s here for her, so she wouldn’t be alone, but he can’t help but find comfort in the way her eggs are always a little burnt at the edges.

They sit on the couch, knees knocking against each other’s and the coffee table, knuckles brushing whenever she reaches for the mug in front of her.

“Do me a favor?”

“What I’m here for.” Lena chuckles at that, rolling her eyes.

“Cute,” she mutters, and Andy smiles. “I’ve got like… this box of letters from a few of Rivera’s girls under my bed. Pretty hard to miss. Could you..?” He nods, rising to his feet, making his way into her bedroom. He’d been endeared by the sight of it, when he poked his head in once and found her bundled up in a heavy hand-made quilt. Her bed is tucked into one corner of the room. Her vanity doubles as a desk and as such is littered with knick-knacks and pictures by the mirror.

He gets down on his knees, reaching beneath the bed until his fingers meet metal, and he curls them around the handle to tug. It’s heavier than he expects it to be, dragging across the floor with loud scrapes and Andy silently hopes he isn’t fucking up her floors or something as he eventually tugs out an old wooden footlocker — splintering a bit at the edges. The ink is fairly faded, but he can make out the words easily: CPL. LENA M. CONNOLLY, A-017610.

Andy stares at it for a long, hard moment — wondering if this is what she meant or if he’s completely missed the mark. And if this is what she meant, what does it say about them that she’s letting him crack open her old footlocker, even if he’s just trying to get something for her? He looks at the slightly rusted latches keeping it shut, the spots where green paint has chipped away a little bit before he sighs and pops the trunk open. He’ll make it quick.

There’s a bunch of books on one half of it, a couple loose pieces of paper that Andy skims over briefly, looking for names. He recognizes an H. Hobbs, vaguely, just from things Lena’s told him about service. There’s one signed off from “Soup” and he chuckles a little under his breath, stacking them to the side. An old photograph in front of a barracks — he recognizes Lena in the middle, her arms tossed around two girls’ shoulders: one tall, blonde and skinny, the other with a small smile and a youth-filled face.

It’s not that she’s never talked about her service before. But in the same way she hasn’t pried about the puckered scar on his temple, he hasn’t pressed about the jagged ones on her calf that didn’t look anything like shrapnel. He’s getting around to remembering names, and knows that ghosts linger in the corners of this tiny apartment. Takes a certain level of pride in knowing she’d called him to chase them away.

He doesn’t know where the line blurs between doing a favor and curiosity. He thinks it has something to do with his fingers brushing against fabric, tugging until it unravels but careful not to upend everything else in the box. Andy never had to wear something like this, an all-in-one green suit with a long zipper. He tries to imagine what it'd be like to wear this and comes to the succinct conclusion that the heat stroke would’ve taken him out before the bullet did.

There’s a few old stains on it, impossible to ignore. A dark brown on the cuffs of the sleeves, and down the front of it — it’s not hard to imagine how it must’ve smelled irony and metallic. His stomach begins to twist, feeling sick. Not at the fact that blood had been a part of her job, but that feeling that this isn’t meant for his eyes. He has half a mind to fold it up as quickly as he can. He almost does. The door opens and Andy can’t help the curse that escapes him.

“Andy? You— oh,” he looks over his shoulder, but Lena isn’t really looking at him. Her eyes are trained on the fabric in his arms.

“I’m sorry,” he says immediately, “I was just—”

“No no, it’s fine,” Lena walks towards him, gets on her knees next to him. “I haven’t really gone through any of it anyway. I’ve just been shoving stuff in here,” she admits, reaching over his legs to grab the letters and looking at them with a smile as she skims it. “But I probably should’ve unpacked it first.”

Andy watches as she folds up the two letters, sets them on her side. His eyes fall to her blunt nails, and the tattered and slightly scabbed nail beds. To one of the faded scars on her cheek — only really visible when he’s close, like this, when the sunlight starts leaking in through her window at 10am. He knows he’s staring, she knows it too, because she looks over at him and tilts her head slightly. “She’s fine though. My copilot. First aid was uh… part of the job. I helped land the plane that day.”

He doesn’t know if he’s relieved that she’s not angry with him, or that this part of the story has a somewhat decent end. He figures it’s a little bit of both as he folds up her flight suit again.

Lena’s hand brushes his when they pack away the other stuff. For a moment, Andy’s just a little mesmerized at their ability to heal, on top of everything else she can do.

#andylena my beloveds #ch: lena connolly #ship: lena/andy #andy haldane #Andy haldane x oc #the pacific fic #masters of the air fic #masters of the air oc

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what-if-i-just-did · 1 month ago

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Guilt & Revenge: Childhood Trauma

Whumptober, Day 15: Childhood Trauma

Guilt & Revenge Masterlist

Wow you're getting two chapters today! This is one of the first ones I wrote, actually. And now I'm all caught up again. This is also the first background story chapter... ooooh. Divider credit. Hope u enjoy and please lmk to be added to the taglist!

TWs: bullying, diverse childhood traumas, implied (sexually) abusive parents/father, childish denial/guilt projection, crying, school, broken glasses, dead parents, living in a boys' home, forgotten child's birthday, junkie mother getting clean (+ implied relapses), keeping silent while sobbing uncontrollably, and mentions of racism, having run away, (implied abusive) foster homes, death wishes (unto someone else, not suicidal wishes), and implied mild stalking

Eileen counted again, going over the calculations on her page. She was seven and ten months and twenty-two days old, so.. almost eight. She’d be able to leave her parents in… ten years, one month, and eight days. She sighed. Time was not passing fast enough- that was barely less than her last calculation a few weeks ago! Suddenly, she yelped as someone pulled on one of her braids.

“Hi Lena”

There was Nic’s stupid smug face. She hated that nickname, and she hated him. She hoped Nic died. Like.. with a lot of owies. And scared! She hoped he did that.

She’d worn braids specifically so he wouldn’t pull her pigtails, but APPARENTLY that wasn’t good enough either. She sighed, loudly. “What do you want, Nic.”

"Ooh, what's this? Are you doing MATH like a NERD? I thought you were stupid, Lena?”

Great. Another day of this.

Nic was a bit older than her, and he was a bully, and he liked bothering her in specific. The teachers said to ignore him, that he had a crush on her. She thought that was a stupid way of showing it. Her father said- She scrunched her eyes shut tightly. She would not think of her father, or what he said, or what he DID. She quickly opened her eyes, hoping no one noticed.

She glared at Nic. She blamed him, for everything. He just made everything WORSE. It was fine before he came along. It was fine..

Mercedes cried when her mother drove away. She’d been crying, begging and pleading and bargaining for mama not to drop her off today. To let her stay home. She turned to the school building with apprehension.

And there they were… the boys she was dreading. Dom Ruane and his friends, Tobey Anderson and Yusuf Abadi. Bullies. She walked into class, casting nervous glances, and immediately requested to go to the toilet. Then she decided to stay there all day. She could just avoid Dom. Right? This would totally in no way backfire.

Later, she’d look back on this, and think herself a fool. But the reality of the situation was, she was just a scared, 10yo little girl, hiding from bullies in a way that she thought could last forever. Dom was a white lil’ piece of shit, which her mama said she could say when people were being racist, and she didn’t wanna be anywhere near him and his boy germs.

She’d wished so many times to have a different name. Maybe she could be Jessica, or Emily, or Riley, or Madison. But no. She was a stupid car company, and she was stuck with it forever and everyone would always be mean to her cuz they didn’t understand Black culture, or at least that’s what her mama said. Mama said to be proud of her name and her heritage but, Mama didn’t understand what it was like… being at school with people like him.

Why couldn’t she be like him? It wasn’t her fault that she was born like this. She didn’t ask to be named Mercedes!

Hugo had watched in devastation as Dom crushed his glasses. Turning around in his bed, he kept rewatching that moment in his mind. Dom was only a year or so older than him, but he was by far the worst. Hugo knew the other boys picked on Dom too. He hated him so much. He wished he was bigger so he could pick on Dom too.

Dom liked to bully him for being a nerd. Wearing glasses, reading books, being smart. His mom used to be really proud of him for being smart. He still didn’t understand exactly where she and his dad went, but he knew they couldn’t come back, which is why he was here.

He was really upset when Dom crushed his glasses. His mom got those for him. They’d gone to the glasses shop together and she held his hand while he sat on a chair and looked into this big metal thing and the lady asked him questions about what he could see through the big metal thing. It’s not like it was the only thing he had left of her but… there wasn’t much. He didn’t even have most of his own stuff from last year…

And now he couldn’t see, which he didn’t like. He didn’t like the vulnerability. He didn’t like that he’d almost cried in front of Dom and Tyler and Tristan and DeShawn and Angelo and Ricky today when they crushed his glasses. He didn’t like that he couldn’t frigging do anything. He didn’t like being helpless. The tears were falling now, in the safety of darkness, with most others asleep. A boy a few beds over (Nathan, maybe? Or Levi? Somewhere near them) was reading a book with a flashlight. He could hear someone eating chips or something on the other side of the room. That was alright, since he could cry silently.

He turned around again, seething. It had been his birthday, today. His first birthday without his parents. He hadn’t told anyone, and nobody tried to celebrate it. He’d gotten his glasses broken by bullies almost twice his age, and he hadn’t had dinner cuz they’d served food he didn’t like, and he wasn’t allowed to go to the library cuz nobody was going to the city today.

Happy 8th birthday to him, he thought bitterly.

Dom stood at the edge of the roof, overlooking the home. He’d found this spot a few months in, and he knew it would be his last time here. He never had anyone to share it with, but still, it made him nostalgic. He’d just turned twelve a week ago, and this would be his last night here. His mom was clean… she’d finally done it! She hadn’t just ignored him when he ran away, when he put his ultimatum. It had been almost two years, but she’d done it. And she came looking for him!

He lets his gaze sweep over the home. It looked so different from above. He resented everything he saw, but still. It’s the longest he’d stayed in one place in a long time… He’d say ever, he’s not quite sure about when he was really little. He doesn’t remember well.

He hated everything about this place. He hated everything about every foster home he’d ever been in. He hated MOST things about every previous time he’d lived with either of his parents. He hated.. some things about living with his auntie and uncle. But he couldn’t go back there, so he’d been stuck with foster homes again, and his father, and then his mother, and then here.

But this time… His eyes shone with hope. This time would be better. His mom wouldn’t be high or passed out, ever- she was sober. Like, capital-s Sober. The kind that’s permanent.

She’d bring him to school and make him lunch and they’d watch movies together and he’d watch her do makeup and she’d talk to him until two in the morning and he’d pretend to cringe when she still called him “Nicky”, but secretly he’d love it. Kinda. Maybe. Shhh.

Paul suddenly tensed up when he saw Dom “I acted professionally” Ruane enter the locker room. Dom was the reason why Paul had asked his parents to quit acting classes. His Momma had said “Black folk don’t quit.” and that was that. Besides, the lessons were a birthday gift from his grandma for his twelfth….

It was one thing to be relentlessly bullied during theater class, there wasn’t that much Dom could get away with while the teacher was in the room… but yesterday Dom had shown up at. his. school. His SCHOOL!!! Paul needed this to end before it escalated further.. like Dom showing up at his house or something.

Paul had only gone into the locker room to grab his phone, he’d asked special permission from the teacher to be allowed to use it as a prop in the scene he was doing with Alexei and Jayla. He closed his eyes and sent up a quick prayer that Dom was just getting something too, or checking his phone even though they weren’t allowed. Paul stayed still and quiet and hoped Dom wouldn’t notice him. He stayed still.

He stayed still for a few seconds too long, actually. Had Dom left without him hearing? This was taking too long for him to just be grabbing something, and Dom wasn’t making a single sound. Paul was sure he’d seen him come in.. right?

He was considering and building up the courage to stick his head around the corner, when he heard a soft sound. He would have missed it if he wasn’t so alert but that.. was definitely the sound of someone crying.

Shit.

Hesitantly, Paul looked around the corner. There was Dom, with his arms wrapped around his knees, shoulders shaking, and his red curls poking out of the cap that was covering his face. “Are you okay?”, Paul clasped a hand in front of his mouth just after he said it. He was tryna be quiet, dammit. But seeing Dom like that, he hadn’t thought. Dom looked just like any other kid. For the first time, Paul considered if that bullshit adults said about bullies might actually be true.

Dom looked up, with his face red and tearstroked. He quickly realized who was in front of him, trying to to regain some semblance of superiority. It lasted for about a second before the mask cracked again and more tears streamed over his face. “Ye-ah” Dom's voice broke, and he switched to whispers. “Yeah… just, my foster parents… they uh. Fuck. Just.. fuck off, you dwarf.”

Paul was more than happy to comply, rushing out of the locker room. He tried not to think of it again but… it would forever change how he saw Dom. Or any other bully, really.

#whumptober #childhood trauma #Amber Ruane (OC)#Guilt and Revenge #bullying

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donkeytonk · 3 months ago

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[Once again I've been inspired by an obscure Québécois folk song. I'll put the song title at the end.]

The Betrothal

The princess frowned at the portrait miniature in her hand. Its subject painted on luminous vellum was a handsome enough young man, but that was not the problem.

“What if he thought I was ugly?”

Her minister laughed. “There’s not much chance of that, Highness. He’s seen your portrait.”

“We could have another portrait made and sent to him! An ugly one.”

“You forget, dear. His ambassador has already met you. She will have gone home full of praise for your beauty and charm.”

Silena stared across the garden, frowning and thinking. “What if I was already married? Secretly married and then, surprise! I can’t marry you, Prince Eirich, so sorry.”

Lord Michault smiled and shook his head again. “Not possible, dear Highness. What groom would marry you in secret?”

“How about you?” she asked with a grin.

He laughed. “I would be glad to serve you in any other way, but alas, I already have a wife and five children, and I humbly beg that you won’t behead us for it.”

“No, I don’t like headless ladies in waiting,” she sighed, looking back at her friends who were following their walk, “And my sister wouldn’t like a headless nurse. Too messy. What if I did something wicked, something so bad that it would cause a scandal?”

Michault raised his hands helplessly, but he knew her well enough to understand that she wanted a sincere answer. “If you committed some grievously immoral act, the prince would likely cover it up and silence your detractors. He means to marry you and will not be turned. His father and the king your father have agreed.”

“And what if my father dies before then?”

“That’s not likely, my dear! The doctors say he could live a year or more.”

“But what if he does die? What then?”

He continued patiently. “The marriage will happen anyway. The agreement is made, it’s done. In all sincerity, Lena, the prince of Nordaigue is a good match. He’s a wealthy man and you’ll want for nothing. He will be king someday, like your father here in Sudence, and you will be queen like your dear mother was, only in a larger and wealthier kingdom. Your father believes this union will strengthen the bond between the two kingdoms.”

He spoke kindly, earnestly, but she had known him too long to be deceived by his careful wording. “My father believes it, but you don’t.”

“I never said that.”

“I don’t either,” she continued as if he had not spoken. “I feel like it would weaken Sudence. My mother is dead, my brother is dead, and I’d be sent out of the country, leaving Mettie and my sick, weak, old father. Eirich doesn’t want me, he wants the whole country.”

Michault could only respond with a noncommittal shrug. He had long been her tutor in the art of statesmanship, and she had learned her lessons well.

“And, Nordaigue is at war in the east.”

“Correct, Highness.”

“And it’s not our war. It’s not our treacherous mountain frontier. But he’ll take our men and women to fight. He’ll send our people to die instead of his own.”

“They will all be your people if the kingdoms join,” he said, but it was a weak attempt and she shook her head.

“You know that would never really be true. He wouldn’t care about our people. My people. My brother Pellot went to war and died, but that was his choice as a prince. Our farmers and herders and weavers shouldn’t be forced to go and fight in a strange land just because of my marriage.”

A shriek across the garden interrupted their conversation. A little girl was chasing a hound and trying to ride it like a horse. “And Mettie? Who would she end up marrying?”

“Princess Metra’s marriage is many years away, and it may depend on the results of the war. It’s too soon for your father to make a match for her, too uncertain.”

“I wish she could marry one of your boys, instead of some foreign prince.”

Michault smiled. “We’re not of royal blood, Highness. But she will always have a home with our family, as will you.”

She returned his smile and handed him the gold cased portrait. “Sell this and buy something nice for the girls. Or scrape it off and paint Lady Anne instead. I’m not marrying him.”

“Princess – “

“I’m not.”

***

The princess sent everyone away from her father’s chamber so she could speak with him privately. He lay in his bed weak and coughing, but she helped him to sit up comfortably.

“Father, I’ve come to ask you once again, won’t you reconsider Prince Eirich?”

“What about him?” he grumbled.

“You know what about him. Must I marry him? Is there nothing that will change your mind, even with the threat of war that would harm our own people?”

The king frowned at his daughter. “We’ve talked about this already, Silena. The prince is wealthy. His father’s kingdom is wealthy. To attach us to that sort of fortune has always been your purpose. Your sister’s too. She’ll marry someone who benefits this kingdom.”

“Fortune benefits the family, but not the kingdom.”

“What? Don’t be a fool, girl. I thought that Michault was teaching you things. A kingdom needs a king, and it needs money. Money to pay for protection of the kingdom and its people. Money is power and strength, foolish child.”

Silena frowned. “I’m not foolish or a child, father. And I’m your heir to the throne now. Pellot is gone. It’s just me and Metra. We can be queen and princess in our own right. We don’t need to marry foreign princes. I want to stay here and be queen of Sudence some day. Some day many, many years in the future, of course.”

“When Prince Eirich becomes king, he will unite the kingdoms. You’ll be queen of twice the land!”

“I don’t want that. I don’t want his country or his wars killing our people. I don’t want Nordaigue. I just want Sudence.”

“A princess doesn’t get to choose her life,” the king retorted, then was overtaken by a fit of coughing. Silena poured a cup of wine for him and helped him to drink from it.

“You should rest, father. Shall I sing you a song? I’ve been practicing a new one that I wrote for you.” She took up her lute and sat in a chair by his bedside, singing and playing until he fell asleep.

***

The next morning, she was studying maps with Michault when one of the lords of the royal chamber brought her the news with her father’s ring: the king was dead.

“Then I am Queen.” She spoke it as fact, but looked to her minister for assurance.

“Yes, your Majesty,” Michault answered with a bow.

“Very well. Thank you, Lord Pursell, you may go. My Lord Michault?”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“You may still call me Lena, and we have things to do. I want to make it certain, first, that my sister is my heir.”

“Your Majesty – Lena, don’t worry about that. She’s the natural successor for the throne until you marry and have children. But are you all right, now? Your father’s just died.”

“The king died, yes. But you know you’ve always been more a father to me than he ever was. He was my king, and God rest his soul. Now listen, I’ve held possession of the Duchy of Elles ever since the crown prince died. I want you to have it.”

“Your Highness!” Such was his surprise that he forgot her new address. “I don’t know what to say. I’m grateful, but you should wait for these decisions, after you’re married – “

“I’m not getting married, not any time soon. The Duchy is mine and I’m giving it to you. I’m Queen now, and I don’t need to be a duchess too. I can give it as I please.” She took his hand in her own and looked up at him with touching sincerity. “It will be yours and your heirs’ forever. It will elevate Lise and Mara too.” She looked back at where her young ladies in waiting were standing, both trying to pretend not to eavesdrop on everything their new queen said to their father. They smiled and gave her a gracious curtsy. “Here, Magda, bring the red folio, an ink and quill. Lise, go and get Princess Metra. We will sign the grants and testaments immediately.”

Michault stared in confusion as the parchment documents were brought out. “You had these prepared? Already?”

“Yes. I wanted to be safe.”

“Safe?”

“In case anything might happen to my father. And who knows if this illness plagues my family? If I die too, Metra must be protected. I am making you her guardian and advisor, second only to me.”

“Princess! Forgive me – your Majesty, my Queen! Surely there’s no need to hurry. Shouldn’t you have other advisors here now? Your uncles in Ledannes – “

She shook her head. “They don’t know me. They don’t know Mettie and they barely know Sudence. There is no one I trust more than you, Your Grace, Lord Jean Michault, Duke of Elles. Will you sign? Will you guide her and teach her as you did me?”

Her minister took the quill that she handed him. He was stunned, but he nodded and signed both documents. Lady Magda signed as witness. There was no royal seal for the new queen yet, but Silena used her father’s ring on the wax. A sleepy Princess Metra joined them, followed by her nurse Lady Anne, Michault’s wife, and together they explained what was happening.

“And the funeral, the coronation, and the wedding,” Michault said. “There will be much else to plan besides matters of state. There’s no rush for you to make other decisions.”

“Do not plan my wedding.”

“Your Majesty, it was a binding agreement. A treaty between nations signed by both kings.”

“Do not plan a wedding! I’m not getting married to Prince Eirich.”

“Lena, it could cause a war to break such a treaty.”

“It won’t.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“Because,” she answered steadily, “he can’t afford to fight two wars. He can barely afford to fight one. And besides, I’m going to make him give up his claim.”

“How?”

“By dying.”

“What?”

Silena laughed. “I’m joking! Don’t look so worried, dear Michault. But listen; if I do die, by sudden illness perhaps, Mettie must not be married until at least seventeen, and she must be allowed to choose, though with guidance. That’s laid out in the guardianship, understand?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I still wouldn’t mind if it was Essel or Dany. Their papa’s a duke now.”

Michault at last was able to smile. “Still not of royal blood, though.”

“But noble blood of Sudence. That’s better than any foreign royalty. And now, Your Grace, I would speak with you alone. Ladies, leave us.”

Silena hugged and kissed her sister and sent her off to breakfast.

***

But she was wrong about Nordaigue’s capacity for war. Within days, the king sent Eirich his son to deliver the ultimatum in person. If Silena did not consent to marriage and return to Nordaigue with the Crown Prince (and his armed escort), they would take her by force, with her crown and her country. Her people would become embroiled in war either against Nordaigue or joined with it at the eastern frontier.

Before her throne and all of her royal court, Prince Eirich knelt and offered her his hand. His soldiers of course had not been admitted, and they were not enough to withstand an army, but he had an invasion force ready at the border.

“You intend to kidnap me?” She stared down at him with undisguised disdain.

“Not at all, Your Majesty,” he answered, looking up with a smile. “I wish to marry you, to hasten the fulfilment of the royal treaty between our two great kingdoms.”

The Queen stood and gestured impatiently for him to rise. “I wish there to be as little bloodshed as possible on the side of my people or yours. Prince Eirich, go home.”

The prince smiled ruefully. “Your Majesty, I cannot. Not without my betrothed bride at my side.”

“You are at my mercy in this court. Don’t you know that I could have you killed at once?”

He inclined his head. “I know that, of course. But I trust Your Majesty’s wisdom to know that such an action would only lead to more bloodshed that you wish to avoid. It’s my father’s wish that our kingdoms join hands, and I have younger brothers whom you might marry just as well as me. We children of kings must do as we are told, for the good of our people.”

She looked over at Lord Michault, and though she lost nothing of her queenly demeanour, she was suddenly his young pupil once again. Her advisor’s face was anguished, and it took all of his resolve to give her a nod.

“Not I, I’m afraid,” she said to the prince, “For I killed my father to save my country from this marriage. And for that crime, the law requires my arrest and death. Guards!”

Her personal guards came to her at once, but they did not know what they were meant to do. With their weapons drawn, they surrounded her as if to protect her. The court was in upheaval, and the prince stood there gaping, until at last he exclaimed, “But Your Majesty, please! You are Queen now. You make the laws. You can change them.”

“I am queen, but I am bound by the laws of this country.” She removed her crown and handed it to Michault. “Metra shall be queen and the Duke of Elles is her regent. Captain, I am to be escorted to my chambers and confined there as prisoner. See that the prince and his men return to Nordaigue at once, safely with all due courtesy. Goodbye, Prince Eirich. You may try to court my sister in eleven years, if you still live, though I doubt she’ll have you. There is no crown for you to wed until that time.”

***

Her day of execution was the first time that Silena was able to greet her people. Word had spread of the young queen’s reasons for killing the king: to avoid an impolitic marriage, to protect the kingdom from war and universal conscription, to prevent unification under a greedy monarch, plus the more elaborate horrors that spread as rumors do. When she stepped up on the gallows, bareheaded and her hair cut short, they cheered and waved their handkerchiefs as if it was her coronation. Many threw flowers, and someone handed her a wreath for her head. She stooped down to reach for it with a gracious smile, telling the giver “This is the sort of crown that I prefer.” She set the ringlet of flowers on her head, with Lady Magda helping her to adjust it. The crowd roared its approval, and Michault at her side had to wave for them to be quiet so she could address them.

“My dear people of Sudence, I thank you with all my heart for coming to meet me today.” A lump formed in her throat. She had not expected to become so emotional. She had forbidden her ladies in waiting from crying, but the crowd were under no such constraint. Seeing their earnest faces made it all the more difficult. “This is my first greeting to you, and my last farewell. I confess that I did commit the sin and crime of killing the king, my father, and so I deserve to die. But I have no regrets, only the wish that I could have stayed with you longer.” She smiled wistfully. “I would have liked to serve you as your queen. But I like more that you will live safe and free in peace.”

A man in the crowd yelled out in the silence, “I would go to war for you, my queen!” and dropped to his knees, his cap in his hand. Then another, “I’ll go to war and die for you!” and another, “Send me, Your Majesty!” “I’ll go and fight!” “We’ll protect you!” and another, and another.

She smiled through her tears. “Friends, please! Do not kneel. I thank you. My brother died in war, as you know, and I do not wish my grief on any other family. I would not lose a single one of you if I could help it. Do not die for me, but live for me! And for my sister. Please give your loyalty to my sister Metra. I was taught to serve you by a good man, the Duke of Elles who loves Sudence, and he will teach her the same, and guide her wisely until she comes of age to lead you on her own.” Metra was at her side holding her hand and Silena called out loudly, “Long live Queen Metra!” The crowd would have done anything for her at this point, and they echoed her cry thunderously. Then she leaned down to kiss her little sister and sent her away with Lady Anne. She wanted her last memory to be one of sweetness.

She turned now to the executioner, and to her surprise he had tears in his eyes. “Your Majesty,” he exclaimed, kneeling in front of her. “Is there no other way? Couldn’t you marry someone else? Anyone. Could you marry me, Your Majesty?”

She laughed, and so merry was her laugh that the crowd could not help echoing it.

“Why no, I’m afraid that would never do,” she told him, smiling and bidding him rise. “A queen to marry an executioner! Nordaigue would kill you straight away, and I your widow would be compelled to marry again. As long as I’m living, they will try to marry the crown of Sudence.”

She removed her crown of flowers and handed it to Lady Magda. She embraced her, embraced her beloved tutor Michault, and inclined her head to the crowed who bowed in return. Then she exhaled quickly.

“Executioner, do your duty. Do not pity me.”

_____

Inspired by "La Parricide," or "La Princesse Parricide et Le Bourreau"

#folk songs #Québécois music

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vgckwb · 8 months ago

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P5R: Rebel Girl (A FeMC Story/P5R Rework) Chapter 205: Sae's Palace: Act 2

November 6th. Today was the day. The thieves gathered at Leblanc before attending Sae’s trial. “Alright,” Ren said. “Do we have any new information?”

“Well,” Futaba interjected, “Riko and I came up with a ploy to make sure things go smoothly on the other side during the heist.”

“Will it work?” Ryuji asked.

“I think so,” Futaba answered.

“Well, that’s a good start,” Ren said.

“Oh, um, that reminds me,” Haru said. She took out a small drive and handed it to Futaba. “Here. It’s the data you wanted.” “Heh heh,” Futaba chuckled. “Perfect! With this, we can cross-reference the schematics of Starfall Coffee with my mom’s notes.”

“Sorry I didn’t get it back earlier,” Haru apologized. “I know I got this from you the day after Halloween, but I had trouble getting to the right computer without getting noticed.”

“No biggie,” Futaba said. “I’m glad you managed to do it at all.”

“Well, being the heiress has its advantages,” Haru chuckled.

“So, the plan is still to send the calling card at the last possible moment?” Makoto asked.

Ren nodded. “That’s right. As long as the warrant isn’t live, and the director is under suspicion, the ball is in our court.”

“But what happens after that?” Ann asked.

“I suppose we just need to leave luck to Heaven,” Yusuke said.

“Although I don’t think Heaven’s going to like our thievery,” Jose remarked.

“It’s a gamble for sure,” Ren said. “Eris even told me as such. Something is going to happen regardless of what we do. Our moves here are to get in a position where we aren’t worse for wear.”

“I’ve got an uneasy feeling about that…” Lena said.

“I think we all do,” Morgana assured her. “But we’ve come this far already, and we have no intention of stopping now!”

Lena chuckled. “Thanks Morgana.”

“By the way, how is the research into the director coming along Futaba?” Sumire asked.

“Riiiight…” Futaba said. “The man is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Publicly, he seems to be a well-respected prosecutor, and a well-meaning family man. But every time I dig, it’s like the trail goes cold. Well, apart from one thing.”

“Go on,” Ren instructed.

“I looked into his son murdering his wife,” Futaba explained. “From what I can find, the method used was to slip her sleeping pills to make sure she fell asleep in the bath to make it look like she just passed out and drowned. And you’ll never guess how the director’s wife died…”

“You’re kidding!” Ryuji said.

“I wouldn’t joke about this thing,” Futaba said.

“Hold on,” Makoto said. “I know my sister. She should have seen the similarity.”

“Perhaps,” Yusuke said. “But correlation doesn’t equal causation. I’m sure it would be difficult to prove that the director did the same thing at this point.”

“I guess that’s true…” Makoto said.

“Still,” Sumire said, “given his connection to whoever is in charge, I think it’s safe to say it’s at least possible.”

“Oh yeah,” Jose said. “That reminds me. Whoever is really in charge is the same person who that principal was talking about, right?” Everyone nodded. “And we think he came from that wall of water to take us out?”

“Oh, right!” Futaba said. “There’s that too.”

“We should come up with a plan to investigate it,” Yusuke said.

“I think the next time we go to Mementos, we should make that our first stop,” Lena suggested.

“I agree,” Haru said.

“But, um, how?” Ann said. “It’s a literal wall of water. It’s not going to be easy to investigate.”

“I think we can get some rope,” Ren said. “We attach it to someone, and they go out to explore. They tug when they want to come back, and the rest of us pull.”

“Seems simple enough,” Ryuji said.

“But who will investigate?” Makoto said.

“I think it should be someone light,” Jose said. “So the rest of us can pull easier.”

“But it also has to be someone who can make a good amount of ground,” Morgana said. “I’m fairly light, but…well…I don’t take to water too well.”

“I’ll do it,” Sumire offered.

Everyone was shocked. “You will?” Ann said.

Sumire nodded. “I’m fairly light, but I’m also quick and nimble. I think I have the best shot at this.”

“Are you sure?” Ren asked.

“Yes,” Sumire said, smiling. “I know it’ll be alright, because I trust you all.”

Ren smiled. “Right. Of course.” She sighed.

Sumire chuckled. “It’s OK. I know you worry because you care.”

“Yeah,” Ren admitted.

“Is there anything else?” Haru asked.

“I think that’s about as much as we can glean for now,” Futaba said.

“Well then,” Makoto said, “I suggest we go see sis put on a show.” Everyone nodded, and they headed out.

In the courtroom, the thieves had assembled. “Woah,” Ryuji remarked. “This place seems imposing…”

“I get that it’s meant to be a little imposing,” Yusuke said, “and by technicality, we are criminals, but it does seem a bit much.”

“Remember,” Makoto said. “The system isn’t 100% fair.”

“Yeah,” Lena said. “Although, I guess the justice system all across the world needs improvement.”

“And I think we should advocate for such improvement,” Ren said. “But right now, we can’t vote, so our voices don’t have as much of an impact just yet. So let’s just do what we came here to do and bring about change as…well, you know.”

“Right,” Lena said.

“So, what’s the trial about anyway?” Sumire asked.

“I believe it’s for a government official who has been embezzling funds,” Makoto said.

“Gah! What a piece of shit,” Ryuji noted. “Hoarding our money like that?”

“I know how you feel,” Ann said, “but maybe we should remain calm. We don’t want to get kicked out before it starts.”

“I know…” Ryuji said.

“I think it’s about to begin!” Haru said.

Sae walked in the room. “Um, will she notice us?” Jose said.

“Yeah, we do need to make sure we are seen,” Sumire said.

“Don’t worry,” Makoto said. “I told her I was coming. I’m sure she’ll notice you all too.”

“Even me?” Morgana said.

“Probably,” Makoto said.

Sae glanced over at the audience. She did a double-take when she saw Makoto. “Oh, that’s right. She said she was watching. Hmmm. Who’s she sitting by?” She glanced over the rest of the troupe. “Hmmm.”

“All rise,” the bailiff called out. Sae didn’t have time to ponder any further. She had a job to do. But once she was done, she could focus her full attention on The Phantom Thieves.

The trial didn’t take too long. It was a fairly open and shut case, and Sae was on top of her game. The thieves watched the whole trial, and still had enough time to slip into Sae’s palace. Once they were back in, Ren said “Alright everyone, are you ready?” They all nodded. “Good. Let’s go.” They headed in.

On the elevator ride up, Ryuji noted. “Wow Queen. Your sis was UNRELENTING! I think we need to prepare ourselves even more if we’re going to fight her.”

“What makes you think we’ll fight her?” Makoto asked. “Remember, the director’s presence here will probably make their move as well. We might spend more time focusing on him.”

“Besides,” Futaba added, “it’s not like you fought me when I was both the Palace Ruler and the Crusader.”

“I guess that’s true,” Ryuji said.

“I think we still need to be careful,” Sumire said. “Yours and her circumstances are a bit different.”

“I agree,” Yusuke said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if we had to fight her, at least for a bit.”

Makoto frowned. “Hey,” Ren said. Makoto looked up. “She’ll end up for the better because of this. We’re here to make sure of that.”

Makoto smiled. “Right.”

They arrived at the Exclusive Member’s Suit, nary a blockade in sight. “Let’s go,” Ren instructed. Everyone stepped off, and headed out.

Morgana glanced around. “Hmmmmmmm.”

“Something on your mind, Mona-chan?” Haru asked.

“I think I sense the last Will Seed,” Morgana replied.

“Already?” Yusuke asked.

“The signal is weak though,” Morgana explained. “I think we ought to get our bearings first before we explore.”

“Well, there appears to be a kiosk straight ahead,” Jose said. “Let’s see what they have.” They walked over.

Ren went up to talk to the manager behind the desk. “Hello, good sir.”

“Hello,” the manager replied. “By the way, as a welcoming gift to the Exclusive Member’s Suit, I hereby offer you an extra 1,000 Fashion Points.”

“Oh. Sweet!” Ren said. “I don’t suppose we could meet with Miss Niijima as well, could we?” she asked.

“Well, her office is just beyond the door above me,” the manager said. “But she doesn’t meet with just anyone.”

“Well, we aren’t just anyone,” Ren said.

“Oh my,” the manager said. “You talk a big game, but talk is cheap. I suggest you see what’s beyond the door and then come back>.

“Very well,” Ren said. She instructed her team to follow her, and they made their way up to the door.

On the other side, they saw a set of scales. “What is that?!” Makoto yelped.

“Are those scales?” Yusuke wondered.

“Or is it a bridge?” Jose wondered.

“I think it’s both scales and a bridge!” Ann exclaimed.

“So, how do we access the bridge part of it?” Ryuji asked.

“I think I see something over here,” Sumire said, pointing to a vanity.

Everyone closed in on it. “Hmmm,” Ren said. “It seems like we need 100,000 Fashion Points to make it through.”

“That’s CRAZY!” Morgana shouted. “We spent all of that time and effort to get half as much!”

“Is there a way for you to hack it, Oracle?” Lena asked.

“Ummm, I don’t think so?” Futaba said.

"Oh yeah," Lena said. "It's a vanity, not a computer."

“Well, we just have to get more Fashion Points,” Yusuke relented.

“Right,” Haru said. “And we are in the Exclusive Member’s Suit. I think we might have an opportunity to get more points quicker.”

“Couldn’t we just do the things we already rigged?” Ryuji asked.

“I think they’ll catch on to that quickly,” Makoto said.

“Besides, we should always be on the move,” Jose said.

“Also, I imagine it’d be faster to get more points on this floor, as opposed to keeping going,” Ann said.

Ryuji sighed. “Fine.”

Ren smirked. “Let’s head back to the desk and see what we have here.” They left, and headed back to the kiosk.

“I take it you understand now?” the manager asked upon their return.

“Correct,” Ren said. “Now, what are the attractions on this floor?”

“Of course,” the manager said. “Over there is our Heels Training Room, and over there is the Battle Arena.”

“The Battle Arena?” Ren wondered.

The manager nodded. “That is the most difficult part of this Fashion Show. I would suggest doing Heels Training first.”

Ren nodded. “Very well.” She regrouped with the others. “Did you catch that?”

“Yeah…” Ryuji said. “And I don’t care what he says, I think a Battle Arena is WAY less difficult than Heels Training.”

“I concur!” Futaba said. “And I’m not even a fighter!”

“Well, as much as you might think that,” Makoto said, “I don’t think they would lie to us.”

“Besides, if you need any help, I’m an old hand,” Ann said.

“Me too,” Haru said.

“Is it too late to go back and stack the money in the games we already rigged?” Ryuji asked.

“I’d say so,” Lena said, reluctantly.

“Figures,” Ryuji said.

“Hold it!” Morgana said. “Before we do anything, there’s still the matter of the Will Seed.”

“Oh right,” Jose said.

“The signal disappeared when we went out to the bridge,” Morgana explained. “So it HAS to be in here. But it’s still faint.

“Well, what if it’s up?” Sumire suggested.

“Up?” Morgana wondered.

“That’s right,” Sumire said. “I mean, last time it was faint, the Will Seed was up.”

“Huh. I guess that’s possible,” Morgana said.

“So, now all we need is a way to get up,” Yusuke said.

“Shouldn’t be too hard,” Ren said. “Let’s look around.” The Thieves looked around for a bit, before climbing on some pillars, and then finding a spot to grapple up to. Once there, they took to the rafters, eventually finding a vent to crawl through.

On the other side, they saw the last Will Seed Door, as well as a powerful shadow guarding it. “So, this is it, huh,” Makoto remarked.

“We’ll finally see what cultivated this palace in the first place,” Futaba noted.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Haru asked.

“Positive,” Makoto said. “I don’t want any regrets.”

“I understand,” Haru said.

“Well, now that our resolve is steeled,” Ren said, “all we have to do is get past this guy. You ready?”

“HELL YEAH!” Ryuji cheered.

“Let’s do this!” Makoto said.

They approached the powerful-looking shadow. “Oh dear. This place is off limits.”

“We’re thieves!” Futaba said. “We don’t care about your rules!”

“Hm. Well then, I suppose it’s my job to MAKE you care!” the shadow said. The Phantom Thieves and the Shadow battled. While this was their first encounter in the palace for today, the shadow came out swinging. Still, the thieves managed to eke out a victory.

“Now that that’s taken care of…” Ren said. She cut the vines and opened the door.

Everyone pooled in, as Ren grabbed the last Will Seed. The voices started playing. “NO!” shouted Nobuyuki.

“Why not?!” Sae shouted back.

“That escalated quickly,” Ann noted.

“I don’t trust the man!” Nobuyuki said.

“You think I do?!” Sae said.

“You trust him enough to betray your ideals,” Nobuyuki said.

“I’m not betraying my ideals!” Sae said. “I believe there is good in the world, and that our justice system needs reform. I can do that from the inside!”

Nobuyuki sighed. “I know being a prosecutor is more lucrative than being a defense attorney. But like I said, I don’t trust him!”

“Do you trust me?” Sae asked, snidely.

“Yeowch!” Lena said.

“It’s not a matter of trusting you,” Nobuyuki said. “A parent’s job is to make sure their child doesn’t get hurt.”

“Well guess what?!” Sae snapped. “I’m not a child anymore!”

“Then why are you acting like one?” Nobuyuki shot back.

“Hooooooo boy,” Ryuji said.

“That’s rich, coming from you,” Sae said. “How many times have you said the words ‘Night Raider’ this week?”

“Hey!” Futaba protested. “Night Raider is for all ages!”

“That’s different,” Nobuyuki said.

“I’m taking the job!” Sae insisted.

Nouyuki sighed once again. “Alright, fine. If you won’t listen to reason… I won’t even say ‘Told you so’ when he inevitably undermines you.”

“You don’t trust me,” Sae said.

“I never said that,” Nobuyuki said.

“You just did!” Sae insisted. “You think he’ll get the drop on me. You don’t have faith that I’ll be the one to get the drop on him.”

“That’s not me disparaging you,” Nobuyuki said. “The man is a crafty, remorseless, cur! He’d shoot a kid in the face if it meant saving his own skin.”

“Hm,” Sae grunted. “If this is the mind of a brilliant detective, then I pray for the safety of our citizens.”

“You know I’m right,” Nobuyuki said. Silence. “Like I said, I’m not going to stop you. But just think carefully, you know? I don’t want you in over your head.”

Sae sighed. “I’m sorry.” That’s where the voices ended.

“That…was a lot,” Sumire said.

“Were you aware of this conversation beforehand?” Yusuke asked.

“No,” Makoto said. “I mean, I knew my dad wasn’t enthusiastic when my sister said she was going to work for the SIU. But I didn’t know it got to this point.”

“It sounds like your father really hated the SIU director,” Jose pointed out.

“Has that always been the case?” Lena asked.

“I don’t know,” Makoto said. “I know he didn’t like him, but I don’t know if that was always the case, or if that was a later development.”

“Well,” Ren said, “whatever the case, I think I can hazard a guess as to what’s coming next. Are you ready?”

Makoto sighed. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” Makoto said.

Ren nodded. She fused all the Will Seeds together, forming The Crystal of Envy. It began projecting a video. The video showed Sae looking at a memorial shrine for her father. The only light was the moon shining through the windows. Sae had a sad look on her face. “Well, it looks like you won’t even get a chance to say ‘told you so’ to not take.” Tears fell from her face. “Why?! Why did this have to happen?! I’m sorry! I know I can’t be you! But I will do my best! I will protect Makoto! I will protect the innocent! I will try harder than ever to bring about a better world for all!”

She sniffled. “But in order for me to do so, I will have to go to Hell and back. The people who killed you…they aren’t going to be caught by conventional methods. So I need to bide my time and make sure I can take every opportunity to seize power. I know it’s not like you, or mom, but I can’t let what happened to you happen again.” She smirked. “And when I’m in control, I won’t let it.”

The video ended. “Well…” Makoto said. “I can’t say I’m familiar with that moment either.”

“It was night,” Sumire said. “Perhaps you were sleeping.”

“Most likely,” Makoto said. “Sis isn’t one to show weakness like that in front of others.”

“Well, in any case,” Yusuke said, “it seems very apparent what caused your sister to follow this trajectory.”

“I mean…” Lena said. “I can’t say her ideals aren’t good, but…”

Makoto nodded. “You’re right. She even said herself, she was going through Hell. So let’s work on dragging her out of it!”

“Well said,” Ren said. “But first, we need more fashion points!”

“Why couldn’t this give us any?” Ryuji said.

“Be grateful,” Morgana said. “That Will Seed replenished our power, and we needed that after taking on that powerful shadow.”

“I guess you’re right,” Ryuji said. “Let’s roll!” The thieves left the Will Seed area, and headed back to the main area in the Exclusive Member’s Suite.

They headed towards the Heels Training Room. Futaba read the placard once more. “‘Heels Training Room Rules: Participants will be made to wear heels and traverse a darkened maze. It costs 1,000 Fashion Points to begin, but if you make it out, you get 10,000 Fashion Points.”

“Woah!” Ryuji said. “That’s a lot.”

“I agree,” Haru said. “I suppose the floor is high risk, high reward.”

“So, we just do this a few times?” Jose asked.

“I think once is more than enough,” Futaba said.

“Well, we still have to investigate the battle arena,” Sumire pointed out. “Why don’t we keep this as a back up?”

“Fair enough,” Yusuke said.

“Are you ready to strut your stuff?” Ren said.

“I guess…” Morgana said.

“Then let’s head in,” Ren instructed. They headed into the Heels Training room.

Upon entry, they saw a manager at the gate. “I take it you’re here to participate?”

“Of course!” Ren said.

“That’ll be 1,000 Fashion Points,” the manager said.

“Here you go!” Ren said.

“Very good,” the manager said. “Now, step through the gate. Once you enter the door, you’ll be in the maze. Once you reach the other side, you’ll receive your prize.”

“Thank you,” Ren siad. The Phantom Thieves nervously stepped through the gate. Once they got on the other side, they felt a strange sensation. Pairs of metallic 3-inch heels magically manifested themselves on their feet. “Oh my!”

“This feels weird,” Ann said.

“Is this not normal?” Ryuji said.

“I think it’s about the right height for a normal set of heels,” Haru said. “I think the shoes are just heavy.”

Sumire clicked her heels. “Not only that, but they’re kind of loud as well.”

“And we’ll be in the dark,” Morgana said.

“Welp, it’s too late now!” Ren said. “We already paid.”

“I guess the only way out is through, huh,” Lena said. The thieves entered the maze.

They were greeted by total darkness. “Why am I not surprised?” Ryuji said.

Futaba had some trouble maintaining her balance. “Woah!”

“I gotcha!” Yusuke said, steadying her.

“Thanks Inari,” Futaba said. She cleared her throat. “As if walking around in these wasn’t bad enough, I sense a bunch of shadows in the area.”

“I think the reason they’re this loud is to attract said shadows,” Jose said.

“While that may be true,” Makoto pointed out, “there’s also the idea of women both needing to wear them to be more feminine, while at the same time getting discriminated against for it. You can hear heels walking down the hall, and you already know you’re going to be talking with a woman. I remember reading somewhere that even when applicants for an orchestra were going in for a blind audition, people could still pick out the women because of their heels.”

“Not to mention they aren’t the easiest things to walk in,” Haru added. “While I am used to them, it is something you need to get used to.”

“And I take it THAT’S the function of this room,” Ren said.

“Trial by fire,” Lena surmised.

“Welp!” Ryuji said. “Let’s just find the end of this maze and get this over with.”

“Um, try not to rush,” Haru said. “It’s possible to run in heels, but you need to walk before you can run.” Ryuji sighed.

They started making their way through the maze. The heels definitely proved difficult, even for those who were more used to them. Attracting and then fighting the shadows as much as they did didn’t help either. There was a point where they thought they found an exit, but the door was locked. After some more venturing, and with as much sneakiness as they could afford, they managed to find the exit.

Once they exited, Ryuji remarked. “I never want to do that again.”

“Ugh, me either,” Futaba said. “Is the room spinning, or is that just me?”

“I think that’s just you,” Yusuke said. “Although perhaps getting a taste of this spinning room would make for a good art piece.”

“I kind of liked it,” Jose said.

Ann chuckled. “Do you want to try on some heels back in the real world?”

“Maybe,” Jose said.

“YOU!” an ominous voice shouted. The thieves turned to see a shadow. “You weren’t supposed to actually make it!”

“Well tough,” Ren said. “We made it through your maze, and looked good doing it!”

“Well, it’ll be the last time you look good,” the shadow said. “Because I’m going to beat you black and blue!” He readied his stance.

“So, you never intended on giving us the Points, huh?” Makoto said.

“NOPE!” the shadow replied.

“Well, in that case, we’ll just have to take them!” Haru declared. The thieves fought the powerful shadow at the end of the maze. Surprisingly, they had an easy time, since they had been practicing how to fight in heels in the maze. Once the shadow was defeated, the heels magically shattered, and they gained their Fashion Points.

“So, I’m thinking that even if we wanted to,” Lena said, “I doubt they’d let us do the maze again.”

“Fine by me!” Futaba said.

“Hm hm,” Haru chuckled. “You were getting the hang of it by the end. Maybe you can come over to my place and practice sometime.”

“I’m not ready to go back,” Futaba said.

“Well then, let’s move forward,” Ren said. The group moved on to the Battle Arena.

They stopped, and Futaba once again read the plaque outside the facility. “‘Battle Arena: A series of fights to determine who is the best. The challenger only sends in one person, while the champion may send in as many combatants as they want. The cost of entry for the challenger is 10,000 Fashion Points, but if they win, they get 100,000 Fashion Points. Audience Members may also place bets on who will win. The champion’s rate is 1:1, while the challenger’s rate is 23:0. Current Champion: Sae Niijima.’”

“What?” Ryuji said. “This makes the least sense of all the attractions we’ve seen so far.”

“Actually…” Makoto interjected. “This is the most direct one yet.”

“How do you figure?” Yusuke asked.

“Well, my sister is always muttering stuff about how as a woman she has to work twice as hard to earn half the respect,” Makoto clarified. “I assume her being the champion represents the countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears she put in to get the position she has. Maybe even the position she foresees herself being in.”

Haru pouted. “I believe I overheard my father talking about something similar once. He was discussing the idea of arranging my marriage because he was afraid that the business world would be cruel to me.”

“Noir…” Morgana said.

“Gah, that sucks,” Ryuji said.

“Yeah…” Ann said. “But did you hear? We’ll get enough Fashion Points to cross the bridge!”

“Hm,” Makoto chuckled. “You’re right. The best we can do for now is keep our eye on the ball.”

“But, um, who will enter as the challenger?” Jose said.

“I think that’s obvious,” Morgana said.

Ren chuckled. “You know me too well.”

“Well, Joker is the leader,” Lena said.

“Not only that,” Futaba said, “but her combat skills are unique amongst our ranks.”

“Well then,” Morgana said, “let’s head inside.” Everyone nodded and went in.

Ren walked up to the desk. “Hey there.”

“Hello,” the manager said. “Are you here to challenge the area?”

Ren nodded. “That’s correct.”

“Hm,” the manager smirked. “A bold choice. You know this won’t be easy.”

“Nothing worth fighting for is,” Ren retorted.

“Very well,” the manager said. “I will require 10,000 Fashion Points.”

“Here you go,” Ren said.

The manager took the points. “Excellent. One more question: What do you want it to say on your tombstone?”

“Bold of you to assume I’m going to lose,” Ren shot back.

“Famous last words,” the manager said. They opened the gate. “Go on in.” Ren nodded, careful not to say a word. Instead, she gave a thumbs up to her crew.

The rest of the thieves went to the stands to watch the fight. Ren was standing in the middle of the arena. An announcer’s voice rang out over. “Good evening everyone! How are we doing tonight?!”

“Riko?” Makoto wondered.

The voice of this palace's version of Riko continued. “We have a special match for you tonight! This Phantom Thief thinks they can take on the trial of the champion to topple her!’ There was booing from the rest of the crowd.

“Hey, that’s not fair!” Morgana said.

“YOU GO JOKER!” Futaba shouted.

Riko chuckled. “But fret not! Miss Niijima is the champion for a reason! This kid has no idea what kind of Hell she’s been through! So, let’s start the festivities, shall we? I’m thinking three rounds, each tougher than the last!” Two Ganesha appeared. The crowd started booing again.

“KICK THEIR ASSES, JOKER!” Ann called out.

“YEAH! GIVE ‘EM ONE FOR ME!” Ryuji added. Ren nodded.

“And BEGIN!” Riko shouted. The battle commenced. It was a tough battle, especially since Ren was fighting alone, but she managed to make it through the first round.

“I don’t believe it!” Riko shouted. “The Phantom Thief actually made it past the first round! Well, that just shows that we’ve always underestimated them. Round two!” Three Rangda appeared.

“DON’T LET THEM WIN!” Yusuke shouted.

“YEAH, YOU’RE BETTER THAN ALL OF THEM!” Jose yelled. Ren cracked her neck.

“And BEGIN!” Riko shouted. The second round was off. Without much breathing room, things were getting hectic for Ren. However, she managed to overcome the odds and win the fight.

“The Phantom Thief actually SURVIVED round two?!” Riko said. “Hm. No matter. NOBODY but SAE has made it past round three. EVER!”

“Someone’s desperate,” Morgana noted. A single Thor appeared.

“How come only one enemy this time?” Jose wondered.

“It might only be one,” Futaba said, “but they are tougher than the first two combined!”

“YOU CAN DO IT JOKER!” Haru shouted.

“YOU’VE OVERCOME WORSE!” Lena assured. Ren took a deep breath.

“BEGIN!” Riko shouted. The match started. Just as Futaba noticed, the match was rough. Ren was getting some good hits in, but so was the Thor. Between that and Ren having to face the previous two rounds was a lot to bear. She was struggling to stay on her feet.

Sumire then shouted. “YOU CAN WIN!” Ren looked up. “I KNOW YOU CAN WIN! YOU SAVED ME! YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!”

“SHE’S RIGHT!” Makoto said. “YOU ARE STRONGER THAN MY SISTER! YOU CAN DO THIS!”

Ren smiled. She channeled all her energy into a swing of her dagger. Twirling through the air, she sliced the Thor. Just as she was at her limit, the Thor was at his. He bled out, and then fell to the ground in defeat!”

The audience was stunned silent. Meanwhile, The Phantom Thieves cheered immensely. “Hm,” Riko said, over the speakers. “As much as it pains me to say it, The Phantom Thief won the challenge!” The thieves in the stand cheered some more, while Ren let out a sigh of relief.

As everyone met with Ren after she left the area, the manager approached her and said “Well, it looks like I’ll be eating crow tonight. Here are your 100,000 Fashion Points.” He gave her the points.

“Thanks,” Ren said.

“Shall we lower the bridge now?” Futaba asked.

“Give me a minute,” Ren said. “That was exhausting. But your guys’ cheers got me through it.”

Sumire giggled. “Of course. We are a team after all.”

“Hm. Yeah,” Ren agreed. They took a quick break to let Ren catch her breath before heading to the bridge.

Once there, they looked at the bridge once more. “I believe that the treasure is on the other side,” Makoto said.

“So all we have to do is deposit our Fashion Points, and we’ll be set,” Yusuke said. The team nodded, and headed toward the vanity.

“Not so fast!” Sae’s twin voices rang out.

“What now?!” Morgana said.

“You’ve managed to gather a respectable amount of Fashion Points!” Sae said.

“However,” Shadow Sae interjected, “We cannot let you through.”

“WHAT?!” Ryuji said. “Why not?!”

“Because,” Sae said, “then you’d have a chance to win. And We can’t allow that!”

“Hence,” Shadow Sae said, “from here on, the toll to activate the bridge shall be 1,000,000 Fashion Points!”

“Hey!” Ann shouted. “That’s not fair!”

“You’ve been up and down this Fashion Show, have you not?” Shadow Sae said. “The whole point is that it’s unfair!”

“However,” Sae said, “once We capture you, We will bring about Our New World Order! The weak shall become the rulers, while the elite will be nothing but worms!”

“We have a similar goal!” Jose called out. “If you let us help you, we can-!”

“We’re sorry,” Shadow Sae said. “What makes you think We’d align ourselves with the people destroying the nation?!”

“A valiant effort Sunshine,” Yusuke said. “But alas, it’s futile.”

“Yes,” Sae said. “Resistance is futile!”

“Hm hm hm,” came a chuckle. The thieves looked behind them to see Eris. “Well this is quite a pickle.”

“Eris!” Makoto said.

“The one and only,” Eris replied. “It looks like you need help crossing the bridge.”

“Hey, what’s the big idea?!” Sae shouted. “I thought you were on Our side?!”

“Yeah, what gives?” Shadow Sae asked.

Eris chuckled. “Of course I’m on your side. But if you won’t fight fair, then I have to intervene. Unless you’re afraid that you’ll lose?”

There was a pause. Both Saes then called out. “We’re not afraid!”

“Very well,” Eris said. She started drawing her rapier.

“Hold it!” Haru said, pointing to Eris. “I’m afraid we don’t need your help.”

“I beg your pardon?” Eris said.

“We only need 1,000,000 Fashion Points, correct?” Haru said. “Well, it just so happens that we have them!”

“What do you mean?” Shadow Sae said.

“Hm,” Haru smirked, holding up a second card.

“Is that the Taro Tanaka card?!” Futaba yelped.

“That’s correct,” Haru said. “I know you told me to throw it out, but I decided to hang onto it. And then the kiosk manager on the floor told us about the program when they would lend us up to the total amount of Fashion Points we had, I decided to take advantage of that. After exiting the Heels Training room, I borrowed 10,000 to match the amount I had just received and then bet on Joker in the arena, netting me a total of 460,000.”

“Still not enough!” Sae barked.

“That may be true at that point, but while Joker was catching her breath, I returned the 10,000 I had borrowed, and then borrowed the total amount of the rest. Which puts me at a grand total of 910,000 Fashion Points. And combined with the Shinji Nakanomatsu card, we have over 1,000,000.” She transferred the amount to Ren’s card. “Joker, would you do the honors?!” Ren smiled, nodded, and deposited the Fashion Points, lowering the bridge.

“Alright!” Ann said.

“But, um, what about paying it back?” Ryuji said.

“Skull,” Jose answered. “We’re thieves.”

“Oh yeah,” Ryuji said.

“That was impressive Noir!” Lena said.

“Indeed,” Makoto said. “You have to get up pretty early to outsmart my sister.”

“Hm hm,” Haru chuckled. “Don’t underestimate the future of Okumura Foods!”

“Well damn,” Eris said. “I guess you don’t need me after all. Unless…?”

“Fuck off,” Joker said.

“Hm hm. As you command,” Eris said. She disappeared.

“So,” Sae interjected. “You’re going to stand against Us?”

“We don’t have to,” Ren answered.

“HA!” Shadow Sae replied. “Fat Chance!”

“I’m surprised you tried the same trick that Eris tried on you,” Sae said. “You should have known it would be just as fruitless.”

Ren smirked. “The dice are still in the air. I think our efforts will bear fruit. Maybe wait until the dice have stopped moving until rendering judgment.”

“Hm,” Sae pouted. “Well the only thing stopping you from here on is US! So don’t get too comfortable just yet!” The speaker shut off.

“That was something…” Sumire said. “But we’re here now.”

Ren nodded. “Now, let’s cross the bridge.” Everyone else nodded, and they crossed the bridge together.

On the other side, they passed through the door to see the treasure on a pedestal encased in glass. “So, this is the treasure, huh,” Morgana noted.

Sumire knocked on it. “It seems like ordinary glass to me.”

“And there’s nothing guarding it,” Yusuke noted. “How peculiar.”

“Well, she wasn’t expecting us to make it here,” Ann said.

“Still, we can never be too careful,” Noir said.

“Yeah,” Jose said. “It sounds like Sae isn’t going to go down without a fight.”

“There’s also the matter of the director,” Futaba said. “He’s probably going to make his move when we make ours.”

“Regardless,” Makoto said, “we have our route secured. All we need to do now is prepare ourselves. We can’t walk out of this empty-handed.”

“Hm,” Ren smirked. “Couldn’t have said it better myself. The thieves turned, and headed out, leaving the palace for the night.

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chaotic-super · 2 years ago

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For Her Sake - sneak peek

Rapidly pulling at the handle, falling short of opening it every time, the door well and truly sealed, trapping her on the top floor of the building, her anxiety rises. She can’t be trapped here, she has a little girl to get home to, this is bad, very bad, very very bad.

Even over the wailing of the alarm she hears it, the click that her brain just knows is from the gun she dropped earlier. Her blood runs cold.

Kara turns, hands automatically raising in the air as she does so. Across the way, over where she was thrown to the ground, is the woman she came here for and yet someone she really doesn’t want to be seeing. Lena Luthor.

“Please don’t shoot.” Kara begs, hands still up and eyes pinned on the gun being aimed at her, a slightly dishevelled looking woman holding it, black hair lying long and limp against her head and shirt untucked from her dress pants.

“Stay where you are!” Lena demands, hands shaky but finger firm on the trigger, leaving no doubt in Kara’s mind that this woman means business.

Kara presses her back to the door, chest rising and falling with her sharp intakes of breath, unsure of what she can do other than hold her hands up, no way to prove that she doesn’t want to hurt anyone and looking as guilty as she actually is.

Lena stalks her way forward, just a few steps so she can take a better look at her assailant. “Take off your mask!”

Kara’s hands shake as she does so, the mask clinging to her face but coming away with a little bit f tunning, her blonde hair spilling out of its confines and showing off her rosy, red cheeks, warm from the woollen material of the ski mask. She drops it onto the floor and it lands with a soft thump.

Her appearance takes Lena back for a moment, surprise coating her features, clearly not expecting someone that looks like Kara to be the one beneath that mask.

It’s understandable though, Kara is a blue eyed, blonde haired woman nearing thirty with a kind face, not the epitome of evil and certainly no devil.

Lena steels her gaze quicker than Kara can react to the momentary confusion though. “Stay where you are and get on your knees.”

“Please, don’t shoot, I have a daughter.” Kara pleads, falling to her knees and holding her hands out in front of her, praying that this woman doesn’t hurt her. It’s one thing for her daughter to have a mother in jail, it’s another to have a mother in the ground. “Please, I’m begging, don’t hurt me, I’m not going to try anything, we can just wait for the cops.”

Lena’s frown deepens. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, but this is the first time someone hasn’t immediately tried to negotiate their freedom, hasn’t begged to be let go and for the police to be left out of it, this woman is just accepting her fate and begging not to be shot, something Lena wouldn’t do unless she tried to attack her, she’s no heartless killer.

She lowers the gun by a fraction, aiming it at the floor just in front of the woman. “Stay where you are and don’t move, I won’t shoot as long as you do as I say.”

Read the first 5 chapters of For Her Sake on Patreon early here

#cw supergirl #supercorp endgame #supercorp #supergirl #kara leaned in #kara x lena #kara danvers #kara zor el #lena luthor #supercorp fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #fluff #angst #wlw #wlw ship #writing #chaoticsuper #single parent au

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sarcastic-pun-master · 9 months ago

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wip sc fic - pt 2?

this is kind of a flashback/backstory part :) pt 1

Kara was young. She had wandered into the garden while her mother discussed business with Lillian Luthor. She sat down near a tree, watching the birds and squirrels play. Eventually, her eyes landed on a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest.

She ran over to pick it up. It had a few feathers growing on top of its head, and it trembled as it took small breaths.

“What are you doing?”

A small voice came from above her. There was a girl, the same age as Kara’s, sitting in the tree.

“That baby bird is going to die,” she said, green eyes full of indifference. “You can’t possibly think you’ll save it.”

Kara, young as she was, began to cry. The girl’s eyes widened, and she jumped down from the tree.

“Hey, stop that. People are going to think I made you cry…” she waved her hands around Kara, unsure how to stop her tears. “Hey, stop crying! Please?”

Kara sniffled, but looked back at the small bird cradled in her hands, lip quivering. The girl sighed in acceptance.

“Alright, fine,” shel scooped the bird from Kara’s hands into her own, examining it. She turned on her heel and began walking to a nearby fountain. “Bring me a leaf.”

Kara watched in amazement as this little girl, no older than her, managed to rescusitate the baby bird, using a feather to drip water into its open mouth. It chirped, ruffling its feathers.

“Do you think it’ll be okay?”

The girl shrugged. “It’s mother will not return for it. It has no way of feeding itself. The odds are, a predator will eat it within the day.”

Kara gasped. The girl watched tears fill her blue eyes again, and quickly shushed her.

“No, don’t cry. We can put it in a birdhouse, and feed it twice… no, three times a day. Until it’s ready to be on it’s own again.”

Kara frowned. “But who will watch it once Mother takes me back home?”

“Who is your mother?”

“Allura,” Kara realized that she had yet to introduce herself. She held her hand out. “My name is Kara.”

The girl cautiously took it.

“What’s your name?”

The girl scoffed a bit. “You’re ridiculous. You don’t know who I am?”

Kara’s smile faltered. She worried she had offended this girl somehow.

“I’m sorry. I’m from Krypton, I don’t know many people here. Who are you?”

“I am Princess Lena Luthor,” she puffed out her chest in pride. “Firstborn daughter of House Kieran, and next in line for the throne.”

Kara giggled. She was still just a kid like her, but here she was, pretending to be a Queen. “You’re silly.”

Lena frowned, deflating a bit. “I am not! Lex told me so. He’s the smartest person of all time, and he told me that I will be the Queen of Thorul.”

Kara laughed again. “I’m sure you will. But you’re still acting silly.”

Lena’s face fell into a pout, and Kara suddenly felt bad for laughing. She sat down next to Lena, careful not to jostle the baby bird. “I’m sorry if I made you feel bad. I’m sure you’re going to be a great Queen.”

Lena side eyed Kara, suspicious. “What makes you say that?”

“You’re so smart,” Kara said, grinning at Lena. “You brought that baby bird back to life. I bet not even Lex could do that!”

“Lex wouldn’t even try,” Lena mumbled, focusing on the bird in her hands.

“Alex would,” Kara said, thinking of her older friend. “Alex can do anything.”

“Who’s Alex?”

“Oh, she’s the best! She can climb trees.”

Lena puffed out her chest once more. “So can I. That’s not anything special.”

“Yeah, but Alex can do it so fast! And she always finds the best apples. And one time, she put be on her back and swung through the trees, just like a monkey!”

Lena narrowed her eyes on Kara, looking her up and down. “I could do that too.”

Kara swung her legs excitedly. “Could you? That would be so much fun!”

Her eyes fell on the bird again. It’s eyes were half lidded, and it was breathing slowly. “But first… we should find someplace safe to put the baby.”

They found a hole in the tree that Lena had been sitting in, and filled it with leaves and grass to put the baby bird in. Lena dug through the soft earth and found some worms, dangling them over the bird’s head and encouraging him to eat.

Once they returned to the palace, Kara ran up to ask her mother if they could stay in Thorul for the week. Lena stood by her side, her eyes trained on Lillian. Lillian frowned at her dirty clothes and the mud covering her hands.

“What did the two of you get up to?”

Kara looked at Queen Lillian and the displeasure on her face, and began to worry. She looked back at Lena and took notice of how different she looked from when they had first met. Her hair was falling out of it’s ponytail, her sleeves were rolled up and her arms and knees were covered in dirt marks.

Kara opened her mouth to apologize and say it was her fault, but Lena beat her to it.

“I was climbing a tree in the garden and I fell. There’s no need to worry about it, Mother.”

Kara smiled to herself, grateful for her new friend covering for her.

Lillian looked curiously between the Princess and her adopted daughter. Allura, upon seeing how Kara was enjoying herself, agreed to extend their visit, despite Zor-El’s return.

On their first day, Lena and Kara spent their whole time in the garden, under the tree. Kara collected the worms, not wanting Lena to get in trouble again, while Lena worked on making a proper nest for the bird. Kara talked to Lena about every little thing that came to her mind, yet strangely, Lena remained quiet.

When she returned to her mother that night, she told her about how quiet Lena was, and Allura reassured Kara to keep talking.

“Some people are just harder to get through to, my dear Kara. But if you truly like her and want to be her friend, continue to open up to her. Show her that you are a kind person.”

On the second day, Kara brought Lena an apple. She had arrived to the garden early and gone on a hunt for apples. Eventually, she found a fruit similar in shape to an apple, but it was unlike any she’d ever seen before. This ‘apple’ was strange. It smelled sweet, but it was purple and had a slight fuzz to it.

When she presented it to Lena as an apple, she was surprised to see the young girl laugh. It warmed Kara’s heart to see the usually quiet girl laugh so happily.

“This is a Nori fruit, Kara, not an apple,” she told her, picking it out of her hands. “How did you find it? They’re very rare around these times. They grow mostly in the spring.”

Kara shrugged shyly. “My father said that if you put your mind to it, you can do anything. I really wanted to find an apple and I searched all day for it. Although… I guess since I didn’t find an apple, it wasn’t right.”

Lena used her nails to dig into the soft flesh of the Nori fruit and pick it apart. She gave the fruit to Kara, saying she didn’t enjoy sweet things.

“That’s ridiculous. How do you not enjoy sweets? They’re… sweet!”

“I just don’t like the way they make my teeth hurt.”

“You’re so silly, Lena.”

Lena used the skin of the fruit to drop it’s nectar into the baby birds mouth. “Nori fruit are supposed to be rich in nutrients.”

“Then you should really have some!”

Kara shoved a piece towards her, and Lena turned up her nose at it. But she looked at Kara, smiling so widely, encouraging her to try, and so she plucked it out of Kara’s fingers and dropped it into her mouth.

She chewed and swallowed it quickly, detesting the flavour. But she grinned at Kara for it. No one had ever forced her to eat something like this before.

The baby bird flew away on the third day. Kara and Lena watched in amazement as it stepped out of the hole, ruffled its feathers, and took off quickly. It was still quite small, and they lost sight of it once it went past the trees. A golden feather floated down from where it disappeared. Kara rushed to pick it up.

“Look what he left us!”

“Kara, that can’t possibly be from him,” Lena replied dryly, crossing her arms. “It’s far too large and it doesn’t match his colour.”

“Well, where else would it come from..” Kara twirled the feather in her fingers, a look of realization and excitement spreading on her face. “Oh, my Rao. He must have sent it!”

“Rao?”

“My mother tells me that when Rao is especially pleased with one of his followers, he will grant them a token. She says that if you wish upon one of these tokens, you can have anything!”

Lena thought that was ridiculous. There was no such thing as great deities. Lex had explained to her that it was a fairytale, something that not only assured children, but adults as well. But seeing how lovingly Kara held the feather, she didn’t feel like refuting the thought.

Kara held out the delicate feather to Lena. “Here, you keep it.”

“No, thank you, Kara. I’m no child of Rao.”

“But you saved the bird. The wish is yours.”

“Keep it, Kara. I never would have thought to save the bird unless you had been there.”

Kara grinned, but held the feather closer to her chest. Lena shook her head at Kara in amusement. If she’d wanted the feather, she never should have offered it. Lena wouldn’t have kept it, anyways.

On the fourth and fifth day, Kara and Lena spend their time in the palace. Lena offered to show Kara to the library, but Kara was far too energetic to sit around in silence all day. She forced Lena to play ‘tag’, which Lena understood to be an excuse to have children chase and tackle each other in the name of sport.

“Once you leave,” Lena shook her head at Kara, who had once again caught her against a hallway wall, “Maybe I can finally have some peace and quiet in the library.”

But when Kara and Allura departed for Krypton, Lena felt… empty.

Kara smiled and waved at her through the carriage. She saw that Lena’s face was once again passive, and gestured at Lena to smile, pulling up the sides of her own face. Lena slightly grinned.

Kara turned back to her mother.

“When can we visit again?”

***

A month later, Zor-El finally gave in to his daughter’s pleading, and sent her to Thorul for another week in the supervision of her aunt Astra.

“Princess Lena!”

Lena’s silent reading was rudely interrupted by a melodic voice. Lena looked up in surprise at blue eyes. Kara was standing in front of her in a summer dress, radiating excitement, a wooden ship in her hands.

“Your mother told me I could find you here.”

Lena stared at Kara. Was this a dream? She opened her mouth and closed it several times, unsure of what to say to this apparition. Her gaze fell on the ship Kara held in her hands, and she finally asked, “What is that?”

“This is my favourite toy,” Kara held it out to Lena. “It’s a ship built by my Grandfather. Well, the real ship is much bigger of course.”

“Why are you giving it to me?”

“I wanted to thank you. For the feather you gave to me. I know they pale in comparison, but this is the least I could give to you in return for the token you gave me. And the fun thing about it is, it actually works! Come with me, I’ll show you how.”

Lena was still in shock as Kara took her hand and led her outside.

“What are you… how did you get here?”

“My aunt Astra brought me.”

“Why?”

Kara let go of Lena’s hand, having arrived at the palace gates. She grinned toothily at Lena. “To see you, silly. I had to give you a present!”

Lena’s heart skipped a beat. “You came here… just to see me?”

“And to have Nori fruit again. They don’t grow in Krypton, can you believe that?”

Lena followed Kara in a daze to the fountain where they had sat with the baby bird. Kara turned a dial on the toy ship, and set it in the water. It began to propel itself.

Lena grinned in amazement, watching the boat travel across the fountain on its own.

She loved it.

“Thank you, Kara.”

#gay tape #supercorp

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