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camilieroart · 2 years ago

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Mikey and Raph

4,7k | Angst with happy ending | No physical harm, Relationships, Siblings, Harsh words, Colorcoded AU, TMNT, Hurt and Comfort, Talking things out

The ep begins during a mission, and Raph is leading. Because of their last mission where Leo felt like he messed up, and it became overwhelming, he gave the leadership to Raph like he often did when he didn’t feel up for it. The mission is to get intel from a Krang base. Raph sent Mikey and Donnie inside to investigate while Leo and him stood guard. Leo accidentally triggered the alarm and Mikey and Donnie barely made it out in one piece. Leo apologize for his mistake. But Mikey really saw the moment both he and his little brother were going to die, and the intense fear he felt there turns into anger. Instead of getting mad at Leo, he gets mad at Raph, for putting them in that situation in the first place. Donnie is trying to calm him down, but Mikey isn’t listening. He doesn't say anything until they're back at the lair, trying to hold his anger in. He walks in front, with quick and heavy steps, boiling inside. His brothers are talking casually behind him, but he can feel their stares on his neck and it only makes him more upset. Do they not understand how close they came to dying ? If the power hadn’t been miraculously cut out, they would have been both empaled. Raph and Leo weren’t there, fine. But what about Donnie ? He was there, he saw it all, he almost died way too many times and yet he took Raph’s side. Raph who put them in there, with no backup plan. Raph who didn’t even jump in when the alarm rang. Raph who was stupid enough to watch guard outside a Krang base. Where the krangs are. Inside. Mikey let out a wordless cry of frustration. The memory of his little brother’s near death, the fear on his face, the way he grasped his shoulder, as if to say goodbye. It was too fresh, too brutal. Just thinking about it made a lump in his throat. And behind him, Raph laughed. Mikey’s anger tripled.

Back at the lair, Raph asked him what his deal is. That was the last straw.

Furious, Mikey took off his gear and threw it on the couch before spinning around and stomping straight to his brother, seemingly going to grab him but changing at the last second to point an accusatory finger. "We could have died in there, Raphael. What the fuck were you thinking ?! Uh ? What kind of plan was that ?! You know both me and Donnie's skills are not as good as yours, and you just… just launch us in there !" Raph swats the finger away and calmly walks to his room, taking off his gear. "Yeah and ? Sounds like you need to train more often, not my problem." Mikey's anger seemed to turn into fury at these words, and Donnie and Leo exchanged a worried look, fully geared and ready to step in if necessary. Michelangelo grabs his brother's arm firmly and forces him to look in his eyes, spatting the words. "It'll be your problem once you have our dead corpses on your hands" "Mikey, you need to stop !" Leo promptly pushed him away, stepping in between his brothers. Donnie tried to put a calming hand on Mikey but he shakes it off. "I need to stop ? No Leo, you need to stop giving leadership to… to a reckless idiot." He let out a joyless laugh, gesturing to his brother. "Of course Raph wouldn’t think twice about putting us in danger, he never things anything through because he. Doesn’t. Care." The room fell quiet. They stood there, watching what the next move would be, and who would make it.

Mikey still has the flame of anger dancing in his eyes, covering the lingering fear he felt when they had suddenly been overwhelmed by bots, fearing for both his, and his younger brother's life. But all Raph sees is anger directed at him, for a reason he doesn’t get, and it's only making his own start to grow. What was Mikey talking about ? He watched their back, helped them escape and get out, dealing with Leo’s mistake pretty well. They barely had a scratch. What was his deal. He's the first to move, slowly going around Leo that weakly tries to stop him, and stopping with his face only inches from Mikey's. "You don't like how I do things ? Well. How about you take the lead then, Michelangelo ?" At the mention of his name, his teeth grits and his eye twitch. "I don't want to lead. I know my job, and I'm asking you to do the one Leo gave you, since clearly you can’t do your own." Exasperated, Raph pulled back, throwing his hands into his hair, tired of this stupid conversation that wasn't going anywhere. "Yeah, well my job isn't to lead ! I'm not Leo !" Raphael would never forget the look on his brother's face when he stepped back as well, looked at him from head to toes and said with his voice oozing of disgust : "Yeah. I saw that." Mikey stormed off, making sure to bump shoulders with his older brother to emphasize how angry he was with him, failing to see the look of sadness and hurt on his face.

If that night, Mikey had taken the time to look at his brother like he usually did, if he had seen the pain in his eyes that his words had caused him, he would have turned back. He would have apologized, maybe even made him a horrible cake. He would have been a good brother, trying to make up for his behavior. But he hadn't seen it. So all he did that night was slam the door of his room shut, as his brother felt his heart sink. The next day, Mikey woke up first, and Raph soon after, immediatly followed by the cold colored brothers, who "just happened to wake up at the same time". As soon as Raph entered the kitchen the tension filled the air, it was almost suffocating. Leo tried lamely to make some jokes to lighten the mood, while Donnie was looking at the bottom of his bowl, in an attempt to make himself as small as possible. Not one conversation was started, and at some point Leo's weak monologue disappeared and the only thing left was the awkward silence. If Mikey only had bitterness, Raph on his end was desesperatly trying to apologize for his mistake, whatever it was, but the words were stuck in his throat, blocked by the expression of his brother the night before, and the tone he took talking to him. The day was spent trying to act like everything was normal, but the tension didn't leave, making for a strange atmosphere in the household. Fortunately, Splinter didn't seem to notice, and if he did he didn't mention it once. Michelangelo had been busy all day in his workshop, refusing to come out even for lunch. Raphael had been wanting nothing more than the end of the conflict, but he didn't know how to end it, since he didn't understand what he did wrong. Was it his decision at the krang's base ? But they were fine in the end, he made sure of it. And if it was, why didn't Mikey just take his offer to lead ? It had to be something else but then how to apologize ? Should he even ? Was his brother just being petty and stupid ? He tried to talk about it with Leo but all he said was to talk to Mikey.

Not really the most helpful thing. Donnie wasn't much help either, basically recoilling inside his shell everytime he mentioned the conflict. He didn't want to mention it to his dad or friends, and that led him there. In front of Mikey's workshop's door, fidgetting and stimming, worriedly bouncing from a foot to another, wondering what to say that would make his brother happy again. Not that he wouldn't stand up for himself ! But... There had to be a reason. They could figure it out.

His hesitation was put to an end when the door flung open, a very annoyed Mikey behind it. "What do you want, Raph ?" "I- uh. I-I wanted to… we were… hum." Embarassed by his stuttering, he quickly cleared his throat. "I want to talk about yesterday. Can we ?" Mikey sighs, rolled his eyes and moved over, inviting Raph inside, and closing the door behind him. Unbeknownst to both of them, their cold colored brothers immediately ran up to the door and listened in to the entire conversation. It started calm, but it didn't last long. Mikey's words becoming more harsh and exasperated at Raph's lack of comprehension. How Raph is unable to lead and had been doing a horrible job everytime he took over. How both he and Donnie were in mortal danger and it’s like he didn’t even care, brushing it off like it was nothing. Raph tries to explain that he had everything under control, but he’s being cut off by Mikey, every time. How stupid of a move it was not to all go inside, where they would have been more safe. How Raph refuses to understand what it was like to see the wave of mousers raining down on them, the scream of their little brother, and his own desesperate attempt to keep them at bay. Raph tries to clarify why he did it, and that he always had eyes on them, but his brother doesn’t listen. How Raph often tells them off or is just rude. How he’s always mean and his retorts are the worst. How he never seem to try to get along with anyone, never being nice... And suddenly, he started saying things that had nothing to do with the day before. Michelangelo layed out all the little things that had started to annoy him with Raph : the stimming, the inability to read the room, his blunt, careless and brutal sentences, how much he had been teasing him, how he never socializes, never even tries... It was Donnie that noticed how quiet Raph had become. Leo only noticed how loud and violent Mikey's words were getting. They both jumped when Raph yelled back.

Unlike Mikey, he didn't get personal, he was just calling him selfish and self-centered, always distracted, idiotic... It's when Mikey yelled back even louder that they decided to barge in. The door swinged open but neither of the warm colored brothers seemed to notice, too busy yelling at eachothers. "Oh please, Mike, like you are a perfect little angel and not a selfish little shit !" "I’m selfish ?! I’ve been trying to talk to you and to be nice to you and all you do is push me… us away and be rude !" "That’s rich coming from you ! You’ve been trying to talk to me ?! Are you fucking kidding me ?" Leo tried to step in, not wanting his brothers to fight like that. "Guys, cut it out ! We-we can talk it out ! Let’s all calm down." It’s like he wasn’t even there. "YOU KEEP DOING THESE RIDICULOUS THINGS WITH YOUR HANDS AND ALL YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ARE VIDEO GAMES, VIDEO GAMES, VIDEO GAMES ! GROW UP RAPHAEL !"

"YOU NEVER EVEN LISTEN WHEN I TALK ANYWAY, SINCE ALL YOU CAN LISTEN TO IS YOUR SELF-CENTERED LITTLE PERSON, MICHELANGELO." Donnie didn't know what to do, frozen in place, fearing his older brothers were going to start beating each other up. "AT LEAST I TRY TO BE THERE FOR THE FAMILY. WHAT DO YOU DO ? UH ? EXCEPT RUN INTO YOUR ROOM EVERYTIME YOU’RE A LITTLE UNCOMFORTABLE. SERIOUSLY, JUST SUCK. IT. UP."

"UGH ! WHEN WILL YOU STOP BEING SUCH A… SUCH AN ASSHOLE ! " Mikey pushed Raph to the ground, seeing red, barely even registering what he was saying. "YOU KNOW WHAT RAPH ?!" Brutally Raph's expression changed at his tone, but Mikey didn't see it. "YOU’RE SO ANNOYING AND RUDE AND HORRIBLE ALL THE TIME I WISH… I WISH YOU WEREN'T MY BROTHER !"

Artwork by @calista-222

Only Mikey's huffs where audible in the room. Mikey's shoulders rose and fell quickly as he panted, his anger slowly receeding and leaving his eyes. He was expecting more yells, more insults, but it was deafly quiet. It was only when he saw the pain and sadness in Raph's eyes that he registered what he had just said.

Anger was replaced by shock, and shock, by horror. His hands slowly rose up, his eyes widening. He felt like he had just been punched. Why did he say that. Why would he ever say that. He didn't even think it. ...did he ? Mikey couldn't get his eyes off his brother. Their eyes were locked, a pair filled with horror, and the other with distress. The spell was broken when Raph suddenly stood up and rushed out, quickly followed by Leo calling out for him. Mikey's eyes followed, and fell on Donnie. His brother opened his mouth, as if to say something, but closed it instead and shook his head. And as quickly as the other two, he left. Leaving Mikey all alone to deal with what he had done. With no stares holding him up, he sunk to the floor, and cried.

Splinter found him shortly after, shaken by sobs and hiccups, in the middle of unfinished paintings thrown all around the room, splashes of paint covering him and his clothes. The father sighed, worried. He heard the yells, not the words that were said, but it couldn't be pretty. His sons fought, yes, as all siblings did, but that was different. More raw, more violent. More destructive. He sat down next to his son, placing a comforting hand over his, not forcing him to talk but signaling he was there if he wanted to. It takes a while for the cries to die down, even if not completely gone, leaving Mikey's throat aching and his eyes burning. It took even longer for him to break the silence. "Dad I... I said horrible things to Raph, I just... I don't even know why I said it, I didn’t even mean it and I-I'm so scared. What if I just... I... We... We were..." The tears that had just disappeared built up in his chest again, and he didn't fight them, encouraged by the soothing hand making circles on his shell. "We used to be so close as kids... He... he was my big brother, always, always here for me and... and he had my back and I had his back I just... I just don't understand, Dad. When did it... What happened...?" The turtle took a deep breath, trying to make sense of what he was feeling. "I love him so much. He's my brother, and I love him so much. And I know he wouldn't have send us in there without a back up plan, he would never put us willingly in danger but I got so scared and I- When he came to see me today I was already ready to fight. I said these things... Like I ha- like I hated him but I don't ! I was just… Donnie was so… I was scared and mad and I regret it so much… I regret it and I’m sorry… I’m sorry..."

Mikey choked on more tears, mumbling these words like a mantra. He buried his head in his arms, seeking comfort. Splinter reached out further, pulling his son into a hug. It was the moment. Yoshi had been wondering when was the best time to bring it up. How badly Mikey had been treating his brother lately. The turtle didn't realize what he was doing, thinking it was for the best. All the times he pushed his brother to be in social events he didn't want to go to, when he judged his words too pessimistic and shut him down, how he always seemed annoyed when Raph talked about video games and stimmed... Yoshi wanted to talk to him about it, but there was never a good time. And it was a hard talk after all.

"Michelangelo, what would you say if someone used the wrong pronouns when referring to you ?"

His son finally looked up, confused. Splinter simply smiled, waiting for an answer.

"I… I’d correct them."

"Then what if that person keeps using the wrong ones because they think they’re righ and that’s how you should be referred as ?"

"Dad, what…" "Would you get mad ? Uncomfortable, maybe leave the room ?"

"I… I guess I would. Yeah. Probably, I don’t know."

"You wouldn’t want someone to try to change you into something you’re not, right ?"

"No, of course not."

Splinter slowly cupped his son’s face, gently rubbing out the tears still stuck on his face. "Then my son, why are you doing this to your brother ?"

Mikey’s breath got stuck in his throat.

"Relationship, Michelangelo, are about boundaries, respect and compromises. They’re the building blocks for a good and healthy relationship with anyone. But recently, you’ve been ignoring these with Raphael. Pushing his boundaries, never making compromises. He caves in, because he loves you and he’s trying to make you happy, but it’s damaging what you two have. Can you see that ?"

He couldn’t speak, so the turtle just nodded. His throat was so tight, and he had to blink back tears. He wanted to listen. He had to listen, for once in his life. He had to hear it, and understand it.

"Raphael doesn’t like to be social for too long, and that’s okay. He doesn’t talk a lot and that’s okay. Sometimes when he gets excited, he expresses it more physically than you and your siblings, that’s just how he is. He likes to tease, but would never intentionally hurt any of you. He’s not like you, you’re not like him, and that’s okay. I’m not asking you to change to please him, but I’m asking you not to change him to please you."

Mikey couldn't breath. His vision was blurry and his chest was aching. Is this really how he had been treating Raph ? Had he really been that unfair and uncaring ? That's never what he had wanted. He wanted... he wanted him to open up a bit more, to... to make more friends, to say maybe nicer things. He hadn't meant to... He didn't mean to... He had been so close minded. But that was ending today.

Raph ran out, past the door, away from the sewers, farther and farther, as far as he could get from his home, and from his family. Raph wanted to outrun himself, be the one his brother would like, would love, would want to be part of the family. But no matter how fast he went, it didn't seem to work. He had never been good at expressing his feelings. He wanted to see his distress, to game it out, but he was too far from his video games. So all that was left was punching. Hitting. Breaking. Smashing. Destroying. Stabbing. Some foots, some bots, sometimes even some poor roof antennas, he kept punching and running. He doesn't know how long it lasted, but suddenly it came to a halt. Raph stopped in his tracks, looking to the ocean melting with the sky, covered by the rain. There was nothing left to punch. Nowhere left to run. The anger disolved, revealing what it truly was : pain. An overwhelming amount of pain. It flooded his body, making him drop his weapons, then his mind, and suddenly it poured out his eyes, streams of hurt rolling down his cheeks.

He cried out under the rain, his legs giving out as he slid to the floor, sobbing into the night.

It took them a while to find him. After all, when he wanted to, their brother could be really fast. When they did, the sight broke their heart. Raph, that was always so strong, so sturdy, the unmoving pillar, sometimes seemingly emotionless but so full of love and care, their brother was hunched over under the rain, wailing. Donnie and Leo stepped forward, as drenched as their brother, in their desperate attempt to find him, worried sick he might have done something stupid. They sat down next to him, and without a word being exchanged, they hugged.

Donnie, Raph and Leo were sitting on top of a water tower, looking over the city under the rain. They had been lucky enough to find an abandonned umbrella on their way there. Not that Leo wouldn't rather be under the tower, but Raph and Donnie had decided not to move. It was Donnie's idea after all, right after Leo said they needed to 'look at the situation from a distance'. His little brother was really embarrassed at how flat his joke landed, but the attempt was there. And it didn't change much, since Raph decided he didn't want to move anymore. So here they were. Huddled up on top of a soaking wet tower, under a too small umbrella and the pouring rain that was beating on his neck and shell. Instead of starting to dry 5 meters below. Leo sighed, readjusting the grip on the umbrella. His other hand was swung over his brother's shoulder, holding him close, Donnie on the other side of him going a step further and hugging him tight. Raph was silent, not that it was unusual. But this time it was different. His lack of words were heavy, pained.

He squeezed the hand resting on his brother's shoulder, and in response, Raph leaned slightly toward him. "Do you want to talk about it ?"

Raph shook his head, but just as he did, he ran a shaky hand on his head and opened his mouth. On his right, Donnie let go slightly to allow him more room to move, still holding onto him, but ready to listen. "I don't know if you guys have noticed..." His voice was raspy, rough and unsteady. They both unconsciously leaned in a bit more. "It's been a while now, maybe a year or two. Probably a bit more, but there's this... this rift that's been growing bigger between me and Mikey. It was small at first, like... like how he would frown when I got agitated, just these kind of little things, you know ?" He shakily breathed in. "Then it got bigger, like being constantly annoyed by my presence and everything I say is like... the wrong thing ? I guess ? How he's been trying to make me more like him. Like... like when he tells me to stop muttering and smile a bit more. Or that I should stop saying negative things, or when I answer to Dad or you, and he says I'm being mean, but I don't think I am ? I just... I don't know." "So I've been trying to... change ? To fix myself ? I don't want Mikey to... I-I tried to get closer to him, like we used to be. Trying to start conversations, or reacting to what he says, or teasing. But it's never the right thing to say or do... I know he doesn't want to... I mean I know he's just trying to make me happy, but it's just so. Invasive and... and it makes me mad and I leave, and he gets mad and then I'm- I-I just... I'm trying." Donnie gently handed him an handkerchief and Raph took it with a small smile, blowing his nose and rubbing the tears off his face. He looked over to Leo, then Donnie again, and both his brothers smiled as warmly as they could.

"I love this family so much. I love Mikey, I love you guys, I love Dad, heck I even love April and Casey. I love you, Leo, even when you're being so obnoxious about your stupid cartoon, even when you absolutely want to be the oldest, when you're stealing the last pizza slice from me, I love you. I love you, Donnie, even when you're disappearing in your lab for days, even when you school me, when you're trying to abuse baby brother privilege, I love you. And I love Mikey, even when he's being a huge asshole to me. And I'm so scared, sometimes, because I feel like I love you all too much, and one day I'll realize that... that you don't. None of you d-do, and I'm going to lose it all and I'm going to be all alone be-because I couldn't be normal, not the way you want me to be and I-I don't... I just don't... I don't know what to do." Leo's throat was tight, and it was taking him everything he had not to start bawling right then and there. Raph never talked about his feelings. In fact he never talked much. Hearing him say how much he loved them, it was overwhelming, and seeing him so small and so vulnerable right after, he just wanted to hug him tight and give him all the pizza slices he took, and tell him how much he meant to him. If Leo was trying to hold back, Donnie definitely wasn't, crying and pressing his head in his brother's shoulder, hugging him tight as Raph hugged back, repeating how much he was loved, by everyone, and how much he mattered.

Once he was sure his voice wasn't going to betray how he felt, Leo spoke again. "Do you want to go back ?" "I- Yeah, just. I need a little time." The cold colored brothers looked at each other and nodded, shifting closer to Raph and looking at the rain fall in silence. They had time.

Splinter was watching some news feed from one eye, seeing if his 3 other sons caused havoc, keeping his other eye on the last one, who was endlessly pacing in their living room. Mikey was worried. And he was stressed. His brothers had been gone for a while, and he wasn't sure what he would say to Raph once he returned. Say it came from a good place ? Explain his point of view in hope he understands ? No he had to own up to his mistakes. It was his turn to understand. Both he and his heart jumped when the lair's door opened. He immediatly rushed over and distractingly greeted Leo and Donnie, looking for Raph. His older brother finally steps out of the sewers' shadow, but not enough. He stays just a few feets away, enough for the open door to light his body, but not his face. It's the moment. Mikey opens his mouth, ready to apologize, to ask for forgiveness. He opens his mouth and nothing comes out. He closes it, try again. Nothing. Mikey starts to panic. He can't not say anything. He has to apologize. He has to tell his brother how wrong he was. He has to tell him that he's perfect and that it was all Mikey's fault, everything. He has to. But he can't. After a few more attempts, the frustration and panic start to get to him, and he feels tears forming.

But he can't cry. He can't make him feel sorry for him. He has to be strong, he has to apologize properly. His brother deserves that. So, Mikey wiped the tears away quickly, opens his mouth, determined. And he cries.

The apologies are nothing more than mumbled mess, nothing clear coming out except "sorry" and "Raph" again and again. Mikey isn't reaching out, like he always does, instead he's coiling on himself, like he's scared to hurt his brother again. Raph finally take the final steps, fully entering his home and the light. He stops in front of his brother, places a gentle hand on his shoulder. When he feels his own eyes welling up, his gentle touch becomes a grasp and he pulls Mikey into a tight hug. Mikey sobs and shakily hugged back, burying his face in his brother's neck, his apologies not stopping for even a second. They feel more people adding into the hug but they don't move, and Donnie and Leo smile at each other, relieved and happy, ready to help their brothers take the next few steps.

Artwork by @calista-222

COLORCODED TMNT AU MASTERPOST

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butterfluffy · 2 years ago

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The embarrassment story with Marco was what I needed after a bad exam, it make me laugh

Can you do it with Shanks, because I’m sure that Shanks would not be vey embarrassed, but what would he do?

“kiss me!”

⠀⠀ੈ♡˳· shanks is a romantic dork, and he's a big. fucking. tease—so upon asking him a small favor, he couldn't help himself and just be the tease he is.

⠀⠀➧ fluff, suggestive | shanks × gn!reader | scenario

⠀⠀➧ warnings — none! this is suggestive, and ofc, swearing and mistakes may be present.. so do ignore them, thanks!

⠀⠀➧ requests are closed until further notice!

⠀⠀꒰ 🍨 ꒱ notes: welcome to “kiss me!” special made to celebrate this account reaching 400+ followers! visit it to see more.

this is the shanks version as requested by u anon! deep apologies for the HUGE delay.

Red Hair Shanks—an emperor of the sea who is feared by most is surprisingly your lover who in reality is a lovable dork and of course;

A tease. A big fucking tease, and you know this very well, so you best avoid doing or saying anything that can cause his ego to swell, resulting to him being cocky about it, and turning into a tease.

But it's unavoidable. Especially when he's just... So fucking irresistible.

“Fuck, Shanks..” You muttered upon catching the red haired man relax himself on his seat across the room, being effortlessly hot.

You can't help it. His charm is too strong for you. He's being too much just by sitting there, legs wide open, and his back leaning on the furniture he's on. His shirt's collar messy, and shirt is unbuttoned, revealing his abs that's just—

“Shanks?” You called with a gulp, immediately grabbing the attention of your lover who turned his head on your direction, tilting it.

“Yeah? Is there anything you need, babe?” He asks, standing up then walking towards your direction—now sitting on the crate beside you to chat. His glossy lips that were wet from the sake he had drunk slightly pushing forward to a pout, captivating you completely.

“Well... I, uhm..” Eyes wandering around, you swallowed your words back—not wanting to say them by the fear of getting your lover worked up for that something you've been aching for.

“Babe, if you want something, don't be shy and just tell it. I'd give it to ya, no matter what it is! Haha!” Flashing a bright smile, Shanks then placed his hand on yours, caressing it while you have an internal crisis...

You definitely shouldn't tell him what you're aching for—or you'll end up a blushing mess from his teasing, however, you couldn't hold it in any longer.

“Can I.. Ugh—y'know what, just—”

“Kiss me, Shanks.” You demanded after a small hesitation, words said between sighs, soon being bashful from what you had demanded from your lover just now.

“O-Oh..?” Shanks stammered, shocked of your sudden boldness, obvious from the way his cheeks slightly reddening and by the way his sweat trickled down his chin, gulping loudly as your face approached his with such seriousness.

“Shanks, you heard me, didn't you?” You hummed, now sitting on his lap, eyeing him down like a hawk looking at its prey—

“Aaahhh.. Shit babe, yes, I did.” He groans, hand pushing your head down to his face, kissing you in a hot manner with eyes closed, fulfilling your demand.

“Damn.” He slips out, pulling out for a moment to catch his breath as you tugged the corner of your lips down, kissing him again hungrily, not even allowing him to breathe.

“You're eager, aren't ya?” He teased, pulling away once again, a smirk seen in his face. Now regaining his composure.

“You're making it so obvious that you want me real bad, Y/n..” Snickering, Shanks then went on to tease you as per usual, his words getting that blush on your face.

“Shut it and just kiss me already.” You huffed, kissing him again as your hands trailed on his broad chest, mewls escaping your lips.

“I love you so much, and I want to show it to you, Y/n.” Licking his lips, Shanks pushed you down the floor, lips going around your neck, chin, and finally going back to your lips.

“Then show it—”

As soon as you replied to him, you two were suddenly interrupted by the first mate who stood by the door in disgust.

“..What the fuck? On the floor, really?” Benn grumbled, massaging his temple, having enough stress from seeing too much of Shanks' fuckery...

“Ah, Beck! Heya, wanna join—” Shanks said with a smile, joking to his first mate who immediately slammed the door close, cursing him. “Fuck no, you disgusting shit!”

#ੈ♡˳· butterfluffy #ੈ♡˳· fluff's milestone special!#ੈ♡˳· “kiss me!” · special #shanks x reader #akagami no shanks x reader #red hair shanks x reader #shanks #red hair shanks #akagami no shanks #one piece #one piece x reader #one piece fanfiction #one piece oneshot #one piece scenario

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cosmiclove-heavenstruck · 3 years ago

Text

Dance Lessons | Harry James Potter

Pairing: Harry Potter x fem!Gryffindor!Reader

Wordcount: 12200 words (Yes, really. Do you ever just start to write a little oneshot and then it turns out as a fic with over 10000 words?)

Warnings: swearing, mentions of underage drinking, sexual tension but no smut, fluff, slight angst, slow burn i guess

Summary: Harry asks you to teach him how to dance for the upcoming Spring Ball.

a/n: Set in Harry’s sixth year. English is not my native language, so there might be spelling/grammar mistakes. (The beginning is inspired by this oneshot)

Not many could say that they had faced Voldemort more than once and had survived, but Harry Potter was one of the few lucky ones that had gotten away every time. And if that wasn’t enough, Harry had defeated horrifying creatures, had broken into the Ministry and had saved the wizarding world several times – more or less accidentally, but hey. He had dealt with Umbridge and fought Death Eaters.

To the world, he was a hero, he was the Boy Who Lived.

So yes, his record of fighting the evil was quite impressive for a sixteen-year-old. But there was one thing he knew he would never impress anyone with and that were his dance skills.

Because Harry Potter couldn’t dance for shit.

Everyone who had watched his poor attempt at a waltz at the Yule Ball knew it had been an embarrassing disaster, and a blessing when he had stopped – merely for Parvati Patil’s feet.

Everyone who had watched knew that Harry Potter had never before set foot on a dancefloor. And you had watched. You had watched with great interest because secretly, you had wished for him to ask you to the ball. But when there had been only two weeks left and Dean Thomas had asked you after Transfiguration class, you had said yes.

There you were, sitting with Dean beside Seamus and Lavender as well as Ron and his date Padma, your eyes glued to the raven-haired boy getting terribly out of step. You watched, of course, under the pretence that you found it disgracefully hilarious.

Harry had never thought about asking you to the Yule Ball, if he was quite honest with himself. He had been after Cho, and he waited way too long to ask her, so she was already going with Cedric. And you had a date with Dean.

As good as Harry was with fighting the dark and the evil, as bad was he with social interactions. He had no problem producing a Patronus, but he was absolutely useless when it came to talking to girls.

You were the opposite.

Yes, the boggart may had made you faint in front of your whole class, but on the other hand, talking seemed like the easiest task in the world. Whether it was a chat with a teacher or speaking to strangers, though you did not thrive off of that.

There was one other thing that made you stand out to the other girls (and boys) in your year: You knew how to dance, from a simple disco fox to a more complicated waltz.

So, when Professor Slughorn announced a Spring ball for the students in sixth and seventh year, Harry knew you were his only chance if he did not want to make a fool out of himself again. He asked you (after a whole week of practicing in front of the mirror), with heated cheeks and a fast-beating heart, if you could teach him how to dance.

You felt a bit taken by surprise by this request, but agreed, nonetheless.

Friday evenings, eight to nine o’clock, were now reserved for your weekly dance lessons.

Looking at Harry’s history, it should be no big deal to dance with a girl when you had already come across the most dangerous things existing in the wizarding world. He should not be nervous; what was the girl teaching you how to dance against gigantic spiders who saw you as their dessert?

Well, everything.

The thing was, Harry could prepare spells and charms, he knew what he had to do when he was faced with a Dementor or a Boggart. His mind, however, went completely blank when it came to you, like his nerves were on fire. To say he was nervous was an underestimation.

Harry ran his hand through the mess of black locks in a rather useless attempt to flatten them. They jumped back up immediately as he let go, pointing in every direction but the one he wanted them to. Stupid genes.

Sometimes he wished he had inherited his mother’s hair. It would have been fun to be mistaken as a Weasley and he could pretend he and Ron were actually brothers.

To keep his hands busy, Harry smoothened the plaid shirt he had thrown on before darting another glance at the clock over the door of the abandoned classroom on the fifth floor. 8:01 o’clock.

His fingers drummed against the wooden desk he was leaning on to release his excited tension, which only worked until the door opened, and he jumped up into a straight position.

You stepped inside, a vinyl clammed under your arm and an apologizing smile on your lips.

“Sorry I’m late, Snape held me off,” You said, placing your bag on the table Harry had leaned on previously.

“Don’t worry, it’s fine. Uh, are you alright?” He asked.

“Oh, yeah. I mean Snape just almost failed my assignment, but I found a new song to dance to, and I’m pretty sure you’ll like it,” You said as you rushed over to the old vinyl player in the corner and unwrapped the black record.

Harry followed your every movement. You could feel his eyes on you and bit down on your lip to stop yourself from smiling.

“It’s a bit slower than the other one, so it will be easier for you to follow,” You added and pulled the vinyl out, stroking a streak of Y/H/C hair behind your ear, your back still facing him.

When the record was placed correctly into the player, you turned back around and led Harry by the hand to the middle of the classroom. This simple touch alone made Harry’s head spin, and it did not help when you placed his hand onto your waist.

“Are you ready?” You asked and he nodded. “Good, follow my lead.”

There was nothing but admirable beauty, the way you moved to the soft piano music filling the room, Harry thought, and he hated himself for not realising sooner. You were like a sunset, and he was afraid to look right at you because what if you saw all the feelings swelling in his heart that dared to overspill at any moment.

You had been right, he adored the music you had brought with you, but he adored you even more.

You thought he looked at his feet because he was afraid to mess up the steps.

“Hey,” You said softly, taking the hand from his shoulder to lift his chin. “Eyes up.”

“Yes. Right. Sorry.”

A sheepish smile spread over his face and your heart beat hectically against your rip cage as his emerald green eyes met yours.

It took Harry a great deal of strength to not break out of the dance routine he had so intensely studied and kiss you. But your hand slipped away from under his chin back to his shoulder and the moment was lost, like so many others.

Staying professional was not so simple for you either, as much as you liked to deny it. You liked Harry, more than friends should like each other, but who could blame you? Harry was very handsome, with his messy hair and those green eyes, he was sweet and caring, and he was dancing with you in an abandoned classroom, his hand on your waist.

Looking at it from this angle, there seemed to be no reason as to why you were so careful to deny your feelings.

Well, there was one problem: You thought he wanted to ask Cho to the ball to make up for the Yule Ball.

Harry was pretty oblivious when it came to love. Neither had he thought about you as more than friends before sixth year, nor had he realised that the feelings he had felt for Cho two years ago were similar to the ones he had for you now, though they were much more intense.

The worst part was that you two had been friends for three year and since then, you had spent a week of every summer holiday at the Burrow. Harry knew you; he knew that you liked his crappy jokes and his sarcastic comments, but never before had his stomach tingled when you laughed at them. Never before had there been goose bumps all over his skin when you hugged him. And to hell, never before had he acknowledged how goddamn beautiful you were.

“You’re getting really good.” You ripped him out of his thoughts.

“Oh. Really?” He asked.

It would be brilliant if he could dance without thinking about it all the time, fearing he could step on your feet.

“Yes, really,” You replied, grinning.

“Well, I- I suppose I have a good teacher.”

The piano music faded out and you stopped in the middle of the room, slipping your hand out of his. It was a good excuse to turn around and start the vinyl again, so you did not have to answer anything.

Harry stood there for a second, gulping and scratching his neck. He should not have said that.

What he had said flattered you, but it was only a knife dressed like compliment, stroking over your heart to stab you right after. All of this was amicable, temporary, fickle. All of this was for Cho.

You sat the needle back on the record.

“What’s it called? The song, I mean,” Harry asked quietly.

“‘Il Reste du Temps’. The rest of time.” You walked back up to him and took his hand, leading you two into the dance. With his hand on your lower back, he pulled you a bit closer than last time.

“So, there are only two weeks left. You have asked Cho by now, I suppose?” You asked to remind your thoughts of reality.

Harry narrowed his eyebrows, not sure how you had come to the conclusion he still liked Cho. She was great, for sure, but she wasn’t you.

“Oh. Uh, not really, no,” He answered. Your heart jumped.

“Well, you should hurry up. You don’t wanna wait until last minute like last time.”

“I- yeah, I mean, I don’t- I don’t want to go with Cho.”

You stepped forward even though you were supposed to draw back and stomp on his left foot. His hand around yours clenched for a second at the sudden pain.

“Shit. Sorry.” You quickly brought you two back into the right footstep order. “You’re not asking Cho?”

“No. I wanna- No.” Harry stopped himself from talking any further. He couldn’t ask you. He just couldn’t.

“Well, who do you wanna ask?” You said.

Maybe it was Ginny. She was gorgeous, phenomenal at Quidditch and in the Slugclub. Nothing you could say about yourself.

Harry opened his mouth and stammered. “It’s, uh, you know…some…girl.”

Oh yes, great save, Harry, congratulations, He thought to himself, couldn’t be any vaguer, could you? For Merlin’s sake, look at her, she is completely confused.

You were pretty even when you were confused, with your eyebrows drawn together over your eyes curiously inspecting him – Stop.

“Ah, okay. The lucky girl’s a secret,” You said, laughing lightly. It was definitely Ginny.

“No, I mean, she’s –”

“It’s not my concern who you’ll ask, Harry,” You interrupted to calm him down. “As long as you ask her.”

Harry didn’t know what to reply to that. You really saw them just as friends.

The two of you danced for a while and Harry tried to memorise every golden speck in your dark eyes, every freckle, every curve, just so he could imagine you instead of the person he would dance with in a fortnight. If he would even go. Because what point was there to go to a ball if the one person he wanted to dance with more than anything else would not be there with him?

You tried to enjoy the closeness while it lasted. But the voices crowding your mind all shouted that he would never see you the way you saw him. That his face would never be so close ever again. That his hands would never rest on your body the way they did now, and never with any other intention than for the sake of learning how to dance, learning how to impress Ginny or whoever he would ask.

“Have you – have you asked anyone yet? To go to the ball with you?” Harry disrupted your thoughts and pulled you back into reality.

“No. I don’t even know if I’ll go,” You said and Harry’s heart dropped. “I mean, I’ll come to watch you dance, that’s for sure.”

Now his heart was way up in his throat, beating like hell. He swallowed and forced himself to answer. “No pressure then.”

You grinned at his comment. “Oh please, you can dance better than most of sixth and seventh year combined by now. You remember the spin I showed you last time?”

Harry nodded. He lifted his left arm and put a little pressure on your waist. You performed a small twirl before he caught you again, hand on your side. He smiled proudly.

“Really good.” The music stopped and you looked at the clock on the wall behind Harry. 8:57 o’clock. “I guess that’s it for today.”

Harry smiled sadly but you thought it was just your mind, playing you a trick. You packed the record back into the cover while Harry shouldered his back bag, handing yours to you. Then he held the door open for you, and you stepped out into the dimly lit hallway.

Harry had already pulled out the Marauders Map to check if the way back to the Gryffindor tower was clear. You weren’t technically allowed out after nine p.m. because of the new safety measurements, but it was part of the charm.

“Filch’s down on the first floor and Snape’s in his office,” Harry informed you.

“Okay.” You nodded.

Quietly and side by side, you two walked back to the Gryffindor tower. There was plenty of silence to break, plenty of time to ask you to the ball, Harry thought. But he was too afraid.

–

“It’s not that easy, alright?”

“Bloody hell, you spent every Friday evening with her! Half of our year thinks you’re secretly doing it in that classroom.”

For that, Ron earned a jab into his ribs. The two made their way through the masses of students down the last staircase to the Great Hall.

“Ow! It’s not my fault, you can’t open your mouth.”

“Oh, I can’t open my mouth? Have you asked Hermione yet?”

Harry was sure this would shut Ron up, but he was wrong.

“I asked her six weeks ago and she said yes, mate.”

Harry stopped in his tracks, stunned. “Wot?”

“Merlin, do you ever listen to me?”

Ron shook his head, walking to breakfast. Harry needed a few seconds before he could move again, then he caught up with his best friend. He was about to say something back when Ron’s sister Ginny interrupted them, wrapping her arms around both of Harry and Ron’s shoulders.

“Morning boys,” She greeted them enthusiastically.

The ceiling of the Great Hall was covered in a pale blue and yellow, the upcoming sun shining golden through the high windows.

“So.” Hermione poured both of you a glass of pumpkin juice. “How was it yesterday?”

“Mhm?” You looked up from your toast.

She sighed as if her question was rather obvious. “The dance lesson with Harry?”

“Oh.” You shrugged. “Normal.”

“So, nothing happened? Nothing you want to tell me?” She asked further.

You eyed her suspiciously, but she kept an innocent face expression.

“It’s not like we could do much besides dancing.”

Lavender beside you snickered and Parvati snorted into her coffee.

“Believe me, there is a lot you could do in that hour besides dancing,” Parvati said.

“God, no! Have you met Harry?” Lavender said bemusedly. “Like he's the type to have secret sex.”

“Still waters run deep,” Parvati replied, a smug grin on her lips. “Don't they, Y/N?”

Hermione crunched her nose at the suggestive tone as you narrowed your eyes at the two girls, shaking your head.

“Yes, keep making fun of my non-existing love life.”

You grabbed the strawberry marmalade, determined to ignore any topic concerning Harry. While you had lain awake last night, you had decided to bury your feelings for him all together and get over it. This would be easier once your dance lessons came to an end and the ball was done.

“Well, it does exist for everyone else,” Lavender interposed.

“And it would exist for you, too, if you would finally do something,” Hermione said, leaning forward.

“What?” You asked. “I mean, yeah, I like him, but he is definitely not into me like that. And I can't force him to be.”

Hermione groaned, and Parvati rummaged through her bag, pulling out a piece of parchment and making some space on the table.

“Okay, let’s see,” She began, “He asked you to teach him to dance. Big step for him, you know that. He always stares at you during Quidditch instead of the Snitch. Wood would've killed him by now. He always sits beside you. He definitely smelled you in Amortentia, regarding how he looked at you during that class. And since then, he looks at you like you’re the only person in the room. He –”

“He does not,” You said, grabbing her wrist to stop her from writing any further.

“Yeah, he does,” Lavender argued. “Look!”

You turned to spot Harry alongside Ron and his sister Ginny coming through the doorway, and for one second, your eyes met. Then Ginny said something, and Harry looked at her, laughing.

You sighed and stuffed the rest of your toast down your throat to get rid of the sour feeling twirling and burning in your stomach.

“Well, Ginny’s pretty funny,” Hermione tried.

“Yeah, she’s funny and pretty and she likes everything he likes.”

“None of that matters because he fell in love with you and not Ginny,” Lavender said, smiling brightly.

“He did not – not what you said.”

“He did! The list doesn’t lie.”

Parvati waved the parchment through the air, and you snatched it out of her hand, drowning it in the pumpkin juice before anyone could read it. Hermione curled her lip as she watched the paper soaking up the orange liquid, sinking to the ground of the jug.

In the same moment, Harry, Ron and Ginny reached your table, and to your surprise, Harry really did sit down beside you, your knees touching shortly while he climbed over the bench. The sudden touch sent sparks through your body and filled you with a comfortable warm which was quickly extinguished by Ginny sitting down next to Harry.

You didn’t want to be jealous.

There was no need to compare yourself to Ginny, you were two completely different people. But hearing her talk about Quidditch to the guys and seeing her flicking her beautiful hair over her slim shoulder made it so obvious how perfect for Harry she was. You couldn’t compete with that, in fact, you didn’t even want to compete with that.

No, you would get over your feelings and maybe ask someone else to spend the next Hogsmeade weekend with you. Those evenings with Harry, those moments too good to be true would stay somewhere deep down in your heart, locked away from the real world.

The weekend left as fast as it had come, and soon enough Harry and you both found yourselves in your day-to-day school life, studying for an upcoming Charms test and writing essays for Snape and McGonagall.

There wasn’t much time to think about each other, yet Harry managed to glance up from his homework a few times to stare at you opposite from him, snuggled into an armchair while flicking through a book. He noticed that you captured your tongue between your lips or mouthed single words to yourself whenever you were so deeply sunken into thoughts that you forgot the many people around you.

The latter found Harry very impressive because he was never that relaxed if more than three people were with him. Your lips on the other hand found Harry... well, much more interesting than his homework was the least to say.

Every day he woke up thinking that today, he would ask you. But whenever he came close to ask, he changed the topic or was distracted by friends and classmates.

Even Ron had given up with his jokes by now, which was a very bad sign and a nonverbal way to say, Man, you fucked up.

–

You had decided to make the last of your dance lessons a memorable one. An hour of pretending, of being close to someone you know you would never be this close to ever again.

Therefore, you had asked your older sister to send some of your favourite records from home, which you were now sorting through in the abandoned classroom. It was ten minutes to eight and you were sipping a butterbeer to cool your nerves. All those times before you had been as calm as ever, but today you were on the edge.

The door opened and you turned to find Harry in the doorway, hair messy as ever.

“Hi,” He said and the corners of his lips jumped up into a lopsided smile.

“Hey. You’re early.”

“Could say the same about you.”

“Yeah, you could,” You mumbled, pushing the needle of the record player down onto the vinyl.

Classic music filled the air and you walked over to Harry to lead him to the middle of the room after he had dropped his back bag to the floor. With the high heels on your feet, you were almost eye to eye, your nose at the height of his lips.

For a wonder, he did not need your instruction to place his hand on your waist and pulled you much closer than usual.

Harry felt his heart beating in his throat. Being this close to you was galvanic, every nerve was burning, and then again, for the first time in two months, he was able to close his eyes and let himself sink in, to melt with the music, to feel the tact pulsating through his whole body. It was what you had tried to teach him all along.

And yet his tongue was tied. He just had to ask. Would you like to go to the ball with me? One simple question. You had told him yourself to not wait until last-minute to ask, and now with every minute, every hour, every day passing it felt more ridiculous. He had known that he wanted to ask you and only you to the ball, but every time he thought about forming the question, his mouth failed him.

Your eyes lay calmly on him, tapping his shoulder in time to the music while secretly trying to remember every little detail of his face: His prominent eyebrows curved over his emerald green eyes, his flushed cheeks and the dimples created by his light smile lying on his lips.

Harry had become, for lack of a better word, quite fantastic at slow dancing. There was confidence in the way he moved through the room and held onto you, mingled with a certain elegance and appreciation of the art he was participating in. A good teacher, he had called you. Well, regarding slow dances, yes.

But there was one other thing he had yet to learn.

“You’re really good, you know that?” You said, and his smile brightened.

“Yeah? Or are you just saying that because it’s my last lesson?” He asked.

“No, I mean it. You know, I wrote my sister last week and she send some of my vinyl discs from home,” You told him as the music slowly faded out and let your hand slip from his shoulder and hand to turn to the record player, not noticing how his fingers lingered a moment longer on your waist.

Harry watched how you sorted through the discs, not able to make use of their names in any way. The only record he had come across before those dance lessons had been one by a singer named Bonnie Tyler, who Aunt Petunia secretly listened to on repeat during the summer when Uncle Vernon went grocery shopping or mowed the lawn.

Harry wasn’t a big fan, which was pretty much the only thing he had in common with his cousin Dudley.

“Here. To dancing and a nice Spring ball.” Harry snapped out of his thoughts. You held out a bottle of butterbeer, which he took and snapped its bottle top off, regarding for a moment to say something along the lines like To you, for teaching me how to dance or To us, but that seemed a bit too much.

Therefore, he went with a simple “Cheers” and touched glasses with you.

While he took a big sip in hopes it would make him braver, you decided on a turquoise and pink coloured disc with a man dancing on the front, the words Footloose in ornate writing covering its front. He couldn’t help but notice the grin you tried to hide, as if knowing something he didn’t.

“What’s that?” He asked, leaning against the table beside you and putting his beer aside.

“That’s what the cool kids dance to.”

You placed the needle onto the record. Drums began to play a fast rhythm, mixed with an electric guitar, and you slipped off your high heels, now only in tights. Harry watched with fearful curiosity how you snapped your fingers in time, bopping your head with closed eyes to internalise the music.

Every movement of your feet, your hips, your shoulders was nonchalant, effortless and... well, simply cool.

“Come on!” You said loudly over the music, waving Harry closer.

“No, no, that’s –” He shook his head, heat flushing his cheeks, and crossed his arms.

“Yes!”

You danced up to him, grabbing him by his hands and pulling him to the middle of the room.

Harry had improvised a lot when it came to fighting evil. His whole trip to the ministry had been decided because of his gut instinct, because he had thought he knew what he was doing. Well, that was probably a bar example. He had made everything worse back then.

But everything he had done to fight off the hundreds of Dementors at the Great Lake, or the creatures in the maze two years ago, or Voldemort at the graveyard, every single thing had been purely and spontaneously improvised.

Now, he wasn’t sure if he was that good at improvising dance moves, but you had other plans.

“Come on, don’t you trust me?” You said as his fingers clenched around your hands, unable to let go, like a man clinging onto a life buoy in the middle of the ocean.

And Harry wanted to say back that of course he trusted you, more than he probably knew himself, but all that came out was a “Yeah” which sounded more like a laugh than an actual word because of the grin stretched across his lips.

“Just dance the way you dance when no one’s watching,” You said.

“I don’t – I don’t do that,” He admitted, feeling how his cheeks burned under the unbelieving look coming from you.

“Okay, then close your eyes and just – just do it. Here, I’ll do it, too!”

You closed your eyes, smiling brightly, and slipped your fingers out of his, twirling on the spot like you usually only did behind closed doors, and clapping your hands in time with the music.

Harry couldn’t rip his gaze off of you, the way your body moved without any shame, your ridiculous head banging while acting like you play the guitar – air guitar, that’s what it was called, he had seen Dudley and his friends doing it, but never with so much... passion?

You were quite passionate about dancing, much more passionate than you were about school or Quidditch, and it fascinated him. How you could let loose, could forget what everyone thought of you, and he wanted to feel it too, wanted to not think that everyone was judging him.

So, Harry closed his eyes, concentrated on the beat of the music and your hands clapping, and then he did what you had been doing: Moving his arms, his legs, his feet, all a bit offbeat, all much less cool than what you did, but it had the effect he had wished for.

He forgot. Forgot about everything going on, everything in the past, everything that would come. It was like the music had deleted Voldemort from his mind. There was only his body and those absurdly freeing dance moves he would have been ashamed off any other time.

But not with you.

“Hey, you’re doing it! You’re doing it, look at you!” You shouted over the music, and Harry ripped his eyes open in the same moment as you grab his hands again. He slowed his legs.

“You said you wouldn’t look,” He said breathlessly, very aware of his fast-beating heart.

But if he was honest, he did not mind that you had seen him. If he could choose any of his friends to watch him dance like this, it would definitely be you.

“I had to, I’m sorry!” You laughed, and the song came to an end. “Oh, I have something even better, you’ll like that!”

You hit him friendly in the chest and rushed over to your pile of vinyl discs, wrapping the Footloose back up and pulling out another one from a white and pink packaging with two people on the front.

Harry would’ve never believed that dance lessons would be more exhausting than Quidditch training, but he had soon been disabused. He took a huge sip from his bottle of butterbeer and watched how you placed the needle on the disc before reaching for your own bottle.

“‘You broke my heart – ‘cause I couldn't dance – you didn’t even want me around!’” You were mouthing along the words the singer was speaking in an overdramatic seriousness, holding your bottle like a microphone. Harry was grinning at you, afraid of what would come next. “‘And now I'm back – to let you know – I can really shake 'em down!’”

The music dropped in, and you shook your hips, hands on your black skirt.

“Now don’t tell me you’ve never heard of Dirty Dancing,” You dared as Harry stayed at his spot, and he shrugged helplessly.

You shook your head at him with a smile on your lips, placed your bottle away and pulled him away from the table until you two were almost as close as in your usual dance lessons.

“Okay, like this.” You grabbed him gently by the waist and pushed him a bit down so his legs were slightly bent. Harry’s heart jumped at the unexpected touch. “Good, yeah, look at what I’m doing.”

Your grip became firmer, circularly moving his hips like you did. His eyes jumped up between your face and your waist, and he tried his best to copy your movements while calming his heart speed down.

“Yes, good! Now, your upper body, look at me – yeah! Good, eyes up,” You reminded him, and he glanced at your face, his cheeks flushed.

“Is that okay?” You asked, stepping closer so your hips almost touch, and he nodded. You took his hand, placed it on your lower back, and wrapped your own arms around his neck, just like Johnny and Baby had done it in the beginning of Dirty Dancing.

“That’s good!” You encouraged him, and he grinned at you, his face bright red. “You know, in the movie, they have another dance with a lift.”

“You’re not gonna make me do that, are you?” He asked.

You shook your head, laughing. “No, definitely not without training and a mattress,” You said, slowing your hip movements. “Maybe after the ball. I mean –”

The words had just slipped out of your mouth without thinking about them before. But Harry smiled, brushing a strand of hair out of his forehead, while I’ve Had The Time Of My Life began to play, and Bill Medley’s voice filled the room.

Harry felt like he was on fire. If you wanted to continue the dance lessons next year it must be because you liked him. In some way, you liked him, and it was very hard for him to concentrate during this dance. And training on a mattress would not make that easier – Stop it, stop it, just answer!

“Yeah, okay,” He said, and your heart jumped up in excitement. You smiled back at him and grabbed his free hand with yours, leading you back into a simple dance routine fitting the music. Harry followed almost effortlessly, only shortly glancing at his feet.

“I’ll have to demand payment if we keep doing this.”

“What kind of payment?”

His hand on your lower back pushed you a bit closer, you were almost chest to chest. Was he... flirting with you?

Whatever it was, it made you speechless, and in a moment of incautiousness, your eyes fell down to his lips. You held your breath for a second as you looked back up into his eyes, slowing your movements. He returned your gaze, but just as you were about to gather all your courage, his eyes shifted to the door of the classroom, his eyebrows drawn together in concentration.

“What?” You asked, turning around.

“Filch,” He said and not far down the hall, you heard the meowing of Mrs. Norris.

Panic flared up inside of you as you saw the clock on the wall: Half past nine.

“Argh, fuck.”

You let go off him and rushed over to the table with the record play on top, shoving your vinyl discs into your schoolbag and collecting your high heels in a hurry.

Outside in the hallway, the scratchy voice of Filch mixed with the clicking of his cat’s claws on the stone tiles. Harry had grabbed his bag from the floor and fished out his Invisibility Cloak. As you turned around, he had reached you and enveloped you two in the cloak, standing almost as close to you as a few seconds ago.

“Have you found someone, Mrs. Norris?” Filch’s voice echoed through the hallway. “Is someone out of bed at night?”

“We have to get out,” You whispered, not very keen on getting detention any time soon.

“If we open the door now, he’ll know someone disguised is there,” Harry answered.

“How often have you snuck out of bed at night?”

The corners of his mouth twitched upwards into a lopsided smile.

“Enough times to know what to do.”

The scratching on the classroom door reminded Harry that, despite the fact that they were invisible, it was still pretty obvious that someone had been in here. Harry flicked his wand at the ceiling light right in time – the candles went out and the two of you were coated in darkness just before Filch pushed the door open and the light from his lantern fell onto the stone floor. You held your breath, hoping he would leave again.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Norris’ red eyes scanned the room and the greyish cat walked up to you as if she could actually see you. Instinctively, you wanted to move backwards, but Harry’s arm wrapped around you, holding you in place. You looked up to him and he slowly shook his head.

Mrs. Norris eyed you for a few more seconds before she suddenly jumped onto the table behind you, walking up to the two almost emptied butterbeer bottles and bumping her head against them.

“Oh no.” Your voice was no more than a whisper. “I didn’t –”

Harry placed his hand over your mouth, forcing you to keep quiet.

“Sorry,” You mumbled.

Filch had turned away from the other side of the room he had inspected and was now walking over to his cat. With his arm around your mid, Harry pulled you two quietly away from the table he was now inspecting. You weren’t entirely sure whether it was the panic of escaping Filch or Harry’s chest pressed against your back, but the butterflies in your stomach were jittery as though they were on drugs, and your heart beat unbelievably fast.

Harry felt your heartbeat. He felt the pulsating blood in your veins on your neck where his arm lay, reaching up to your mouth. You were barely breathing, and he figured it was because he was holding you like he was about to kidnap you.

“Run when we’re in the hallway,” He whispered, eyes steadily watching Filch, and removed his hand from your lips to grab your free hand. You nodded shortly. Fortunately, Filch had left the door open, and in one swift motion, Harry had steered you outside.

Fingers still interlocked with yours, he began to run, you by his side. And despite the fact that you two had almost been caught, despite that you had been interrupted when he had felt most confident, despite the ruined moment, he felt light and free and happy.

You were clutching your shoes, slithering over the cold tiles in your black tights, and Harry, looking at you, almost missed the last step of the stairs leading to the portrait of the Fat Lady. He held onto you as he staggered, and you giggled breathlessly, pulling him back up.

“That – stupid – fucking – cat. Can she see through your cloak?” You asked.

Harry shrugged and ruffled through his messy hair.

“Don’t know. I think, but I’m glad she can’t talk,” He said, and a grin spread over your lips, which he returned.

He caught your eyes, looking at you like before, like there was something he needed to say – the tingling feeling in your core got overwhelmed by heart-racing panic and because of some sour mix of uncertainty and fear, you slipped out from under the Invisibility Cloak, taking a few steps away from Harry.

Not a second later, he emerged as well, fighting to keep the smile on his face like his heart hadn't just sunk so deep he wasn't sure if it was even still connected to his veins.

“You okay?” He asked.

“Yeah!” Your voice was too loud, too squeaky to convince him. “Yeah, I – I'm sorry, it's just been a long week and I'm really tired. I'm gonna – gonna go...”

You gestured to the portrait behind you, avoiding his eyes, and turned to escape the situation.

Harry stared at the spot where you had vanished into the common room, his fingers clenching around the fabric of his cloak before tossing it to the ground. It didn't give the satisfying sound he had wanted to make, so he sent a “Fuck!” after it.

“Young boy, that is not a very appropriate language, now, is it?”

His eyes flew up to the Fat Lady, who had apparently watched with great interest. “Besides, what are you doing that late out of bed? I mean I know it gets later on Fridays for the two of you but it's later than usual today –”

“Chinese Fireball.”

“I just don't know what you are doing during that hour. There are rumours, for sure –”

“I told you the password, now will you open the fucking portrait? Chinese Fireball.”

“Oh, fine.” She let the portrait swing forward. “I'll find out by myself... maybe visit some paintings down on fifth floor...”

Harry ignored the Fat Lady.

He also ignored Ron calling after him from the sofa in front of the fireplace, as well as Hermione's questioning look and all the other people staring at him as he darted through the common room and up the stairs, slamming the door of his dorm shut behind him.

He ignored them because the only person he wanted to be seen with had just left him standing in the hallway and he wasn't even sure why.

The first time you saw each other again was three days later in Potions. You had ignored him on purpose, which you knew was obvious to him: Leaving the Great Hall whenever he stepped inside, sitting as far from him in the common room as possible, avoiding his eyes... that did not leave that much room for speculations.

You didn't want to hurt him, you really didn't, but you couldn't be friends any longer, especially not after last Friday. You weren't even sure what exactly had happened – had he really flirted with you or had that been your imagination? Probably the latter. He had asked someone else the ball after all. Right?

Parvati nudged you with her elbow, and you snapped out of your thoughts, noticing the hole in your parchment created by your quill. The two of you sat in the far back of Professor Slughorn’s class, who was in the middle of telling one of his anecdotes instead of teaching about Veritaserum.

“What’s going on?” She asked in a hushed voice. “You’ve been weird since Friday.”

Lavender, who sat in front of you, turned around. “Is it because of – you know?”

She gestured towards Harry in his usual place diagonally across from you. You sighed, placed your quill aside to rub your hands over your face and shrugged. You had also avoided any questions from your friends about Friday, mostly because you could not even answer them yourself.

“I thought he would ask you,” Lavender whispered while throwing a quick glance at Slughorn to make sure he was still occupied with his story. “Didn’t he?”

“No,” You mouthed. Parvati shook her head.

“Man, you’d think he had grown a set of balls after all. If it turns out he just used you to look good in front of Ginny, I swear to Merlin –”

“Well, that’s what it looks like, I mean, he had enough time to ask you,” Lavender said.

Before you could reply anything, Parvati had grabbed her wand and leaned forward. In the next second, the blue Jobberknoll feathers on Harry’s desk burst into flames with an ear-piercing noise.

Both Harry and Ron jumped up, startled from the sudden explosion, and Hermione let out a little shriek as one of the sparks got caught up in her locks. Snickering came from the Slytherin table, and Crabbe and Goyle were stupidly grinning.

“Was that you? Stupid tosspot, I’ll shove that feather up your –,” Ron swore loudly, fists high and ready to walk over to the Slytherins, who had gotten up as well and were throwing insults through the room.

“Calm down, m’boys, no need to get abusive.”

Slughorn stepped between the two fronts while both Harry and Hermione pulled Ron back down onto his chair. With a wave of Slughorn’s wand, the feathers stopped burning and were as good as new.

“Have you gone mental?” You asked during the turmoil. Parvati shrugged and innocently shoved her wand aside.

“You’re my friend and if he hurt you, he’ll get what he deserves –”

“He didn’t hurt me!” You whispered angrily. “I was the one who panicked, I ran away that evening because I was afraid of what he would say! Not Harry. I left him like the idiot I am even though he – he was super nice and said he wanted to learn more –”

“Ms. Y/L/N?”

“Sorry, Professor, I was just –”

“Talking to Ms. Patil, I noticed. Could you still answer my question?” Slughorn eyed you, and so were all the other students.

“Uh...yes... if you could repeat it? Sir.” You said, and once again snickering echoed through the classroom, the loudest coming from Pansy Parkinson.

From the corner of your eye, you saw Parvati reaching for her wand again, and you quickly pressed her hand down to the table, awkwardly smiling at Slughorn.

“I asked if you could tell me anything about the usage of Veritaserum in court,” He kindly repeated and you straightened your back, ignoring Hermione’s raised hand.

“Well, the potion is strictly banned by the British Ministry of Magic, therefore they don’t use it during interrogations and such, which is also because, like any other potion, it’s not infallible. But I read that in some Asian countries, the accused can choose if they want to take Veritaserum before they give testimony. Unfortunately, in some courts they give the accused failed Veritaserum in order to alter the given testimony fraudulently.”

You had never read about that, you were – ironically – making it up, but Slughorn didn’t seem to notice.

“Very well, that’ll be five points for Gryffindor,” He said. “That reminds me of –”

As Slughorn fell back into his old habit of telling personal stories during class, you sank back into your chair and stared at the chapped top of the desk for the rest of the lesson.

Only the bell ripped Slughorn out of his monologue, and over the rustling of chairs, he told the class to read the next chapter of Advanced Potion Making until Wednesday.

“Courtyard?” You asked Parvati as to where to spend your free lesson.

“Yeah, but I got a question about that graded essay from last week. Just go ahead, I’ll catch up with you,” She answered and made her way to the front. Alongside with Lavender, you were one of the first to leave the Potions classroom.

“I wish I hadn’t picked Arithmancy,” Lavender complained.

“You can sleep longer on Thursdays, remember?” You said as you reached the entrance hall. “I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, bye.”

Lavender began to climb up the stairs to the third floor, and you walked down the hallway. It was freezing cold outside, but the courtyard was beautiful during every time of the year, especially in the early mornings when the sun melted the iced-up grass and you could share a hot chocolate with your friends on one of the benches.

“Hey, Y/N! Wait!”

You turned to spot none other than Theodore Nott running up to you, his Slytherin scarf loosely around his neck.

“Hi,” He said as he had reached you.

“Uh, hi. Can I help you?” You asked.

“Actually, yeah. I wanted to ask if you have a dance to spare at the Spring ball? I mean, I know you’re going with Potter, I just wanted one dance with someone professional –”

“I’m not going with Harry,” You blurted out. Theodore narrowed his eyebrows.

“What?” He asked, a bemused smile on his lips.

You gulped and shook your head, crossing your arms. “I’m not going with... anyone.”

“Oh. Well, then,” His body relaxed visibly, and he raised his eyebrows, “do you wanna go with me?”

You opened your mouth, an agreement already on the tip of your tongue, but you knew that was just out of desperation and not because you actually wanted to go to the ball with Theodore.

“Hey, you know what, no pressure at all, okay?” He said, placing his hand on your shoulder casually. “I’ll be at the ball anyway, so if you want to dance then, I’m free.”

You nodded. “Thank you, Theodore. I’ll think about it.”

“You can call me Theo. Only if you want to, obviously.”

A grin crept upon your face. “Yeah, I’ll – I’ll think about it.”

Whatever Harry had felt the two days prior, it was nothing compared to the sour feeling circulating in his stomach now, like some dragon-creature spitting fire and tearing at his entrails with sharp claws. Inside of him, everything was clenching and itching, but on the outside, he was numb.

Like his brain had been disconnected from his muscles, wherefore he was only able to stare at Theodore Nott and his stupid, complacent grin and his hand on your shoulder while he asked you to the ball.

This wasn’t fair. How come everyone else but him was able to do it, how come everybody else had managed to find a date, when – to be honest – he had been provided with one of the best initial situations? How come the only thing he was apparently fit for was getting himself into trouble and escaping death every goddamn year? Harry had kind of forgotten about all that was to come, all that Dumbledore had told him, and the memory Slughorn was still tending like dark secret simply because of you.

The worst thing wasn’t that Theodore Nott had just asked you to go to the Spring ball with him. No, the worst thing was that you had agreed.

The only thing that was left for him was to run, which he did now: Up to the Gryffindor tower, tossing his back bag into a corner and grabbing his Firebolt from under the bed, then back down to the Quidditch pitch in record time.

Flying was one of the most freeing activities known to Harry, especially in the cool, fresh morning air with no one else around. High above the frozen grass and the wooden stands, much higher than probably allowed without any teacher near by, Harry paused to watch the sun over the Forbidden Forest.

He wondered if you had ever flown before, if you knew how brilliant it was to hover a thousand feet above the ground, far away from all the problems. Far away from Ron asking what the bloody hell was wrong with him. Far away from Hermione telling him that it was his own fault for waiting so long but that you surely weren’t interested like that in that tosser Theodore (though she would probably word it much more formal).

Time was relative up here, Harry had noticed over the years, so he closed his eyes and shut the world out for a moment. Saturday was still light-years away anyway, so –

“Harry, is that you?”

He almost fell from his broom.

With his heart still beating way to fast and adrenalin pumping though his veins, he turned his broom around to find no one other that Luna standing inside commentary box and waving up to him. Oh well. So much for being alone.

He steered his Firebolt down to the blonde witch and landed beside her.

“What are you doing her, Luna?” He asked as climbed from his broomstick. “Don’t you have classes right now?”

“Oh, yes. But I saw that you are sad so I asked Professor Sprout if I could go because I’m not feeling very well,” She explained and sat down on one of the benches.

“You lied to a professor?”

“Oh, no,” She said, looking at him with her dreamy blue eyes. “I don’t feel well when my friends are sad.”

Harry didn’t know what to reply to that, so he simply sat down next to her. Luna had such a strange, but calm energy, like a pulsating, pink bubble inhibiting her, and if you were lucky, she let you inside this bubble and you could shut the world out for a moment.

“Harry, why are you sad?” Luna asked softly after a while.

“Because... because I like someone who doesn’t like me back,” He said.

Luna placed her hand upon his, and he saw that she had painted her fingernails in every colour of the rainbow. Though that was probably Ginny’s work.

“I think Y/N likes you very much,” She said. Harry scoffed.

“Not the way I like her,” He said. “She just agreed to go to the ball with Nott. I saw it. She looked happy. And when I wanted to ask her last week, she ran away.”

“You know, first I thought you wanted to go to the ball with somebody else,” She said. “I thought maybe you wanted to ask Cho again and wanted to prepare this time. And maybe Y/N thought so, too.”

Harry looked up at the blonde girl.

“She did ask me if I was going to ask Cho,” He said, remembering one of the dance lessons.

“And did you tell her that you actually want to ask her?”

“No,” He admitted, burying his face in his hands. “I panicked... and now it’s too late.”

“No, it’s not. You should still go to the ball, and then you should tell her,” Luna said.

“How? I can’t do it when we’re alone, I certainly can’t do it when there’s a hundred people around,” Harry said miserably.

“Well, then don’t.” Luna shrugged. “If you want her to be with Theodore –”

“I don’t want that,” He interrupted her. “Of course, I don’t.”

“Then go to the ball and tell her. I know you can do that.”

Saturday evening came around faster than you liked it to. Over the last four days, you had noticed Theodore’s eyes on you more than once during the meals or potions class, but it did not cause the tingling feeling in your stomach you would like his looks to cause.

If anything, you felt a pressure to talk to him and to spend time with him because you would go to the ball together. But you did not give in to that pressure and avoided him as much as possible, which led to you often leaving the potions classroom as one of the first.

To be honest, you were much more concentrated on Harry.

Harry who did not sit beside you during meals anymore. Harry who did not look in your direction but rather stared at his plate. Harry who looked like he had just lived through a very miserable week.

And you knew that was because you had left him standing in the hallway last Friday night. Maybe he had figured that you had feelings for him and that was his way of dealing with it: Distancing himself from you.

You wished you had not run. You wished you could’ve stayed in that abandoned classroom forever, your favourite song playing and his arms around you.

–

“What eyeshadow should I use?”

“The darker one.”

“Y/N?”

You snapped out of your thoughts, looking up from where you sat on the floor in your puffy, ankle-long purple-pink dress. Parvati held out her eyeshadow palette, eyebrows raised as she sceptically eyed you. Her black hair was still wrapped around a dozen curlers. Lavender had spent all morning on them.

“Yes, the darker one,” You said. “Brings out your eyes.”

Thankfully, that answer seemed to satisfy her enough to not ask how you were doing. She and Lavender had already asked that over a million times, but you had reassured them that you were totally okay.

Parvati turned back to face the mirror.

“When did you want to meet with Nott?” Lavender asked. She kneeled in front of her trunk, pondering whether she should wear black or silver heels.

“Half past seven,” You mumbled, picking at the tulle of your dress.

Theodore had held you back yesterday after Defence against the Dark Arts to tell you that he would be at the Great Hall at 7:30 and that you were welcome to eat dinner with him and his friends – which included people like Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson; people you usually avoided by all means, people that had laughed at you for tripping over the last step of a stair, for not knowing an answer to one of Snape’s stupid questions, or for simply being Muggleborn.

You had never been less interested in going to a social event. All you wanted to do was lay in bed under your blanket and erase the last week out of your mind.

“Oh, come on, darling, we talked about this.” Lavender came over and squished your cheeks, brushing away a tear. “Today is not the day to sulk about some guy who doesn’t return your feelings. Today is your day, and you’re gonna have fun with us. Don’t let some guy ruin that. Okay?”

You sniffed and nodded, not able to answer because she cupped your cheeks so solidly. Lavender smiled and kissed your forehead.

“That’s right,” She said. “We’re gonna have some dinner and dance a bit and if by then you still feel bad, we can go back to our dorm.”

“And if Harry dares to talk to you, he’s gonna know what’s it feels like to be kicked in the balls with a heel,” Parvati added dryly. You laughed.

The Great Hall was decorated with yellow, pink and purple banners, and the four long house tables had been exchanged with much smaller, round ones scattered where the staff table usually stood, on each of them a vase filled with rosa tulips and white daffodils.

The ceiling did not mirror the night sky outside but a beautiful, orange sunset lighting up the dance floor in the middle. Opposite from the many tables, on the other end of the hall, Slughorn had organised a stage with a cover band. Next to the stage hung a long parchment onto which everyone could write requests.

You spotted your Potions teacher, dressed in a bright green suit, next to Dumbledore, his robes a terrible pink, both of them writing down their song requests.

“A Galleon that Dumbledore is a Spice Girls fan,” Lavender said grinning as she had followed your eyes.

“Bet,” Parvati said, grabbing three drinks from a passing waiter. “Here. Cheers.”

The three of you clinked glasses and took a sip of the red punch – it tasted strongly of various fruits, coconut, and bitter alcohol.

You let your eyes glide further over the hall and the people that sat together in groups around the tables, some of them already eating. Secretly, you were looking for Harry, though you only discovered Ginny in between Luna and Hermione, all of them chatting happily, and a few tables behind them, Theodore.

He waved as he saw you, gesturing to come over. You forced yourself to smile and wave back at him.

“I’ll see you later,” You said, chugging down the rest of your drink.

“Tell us if he’s being an asshole,” Parvati said. “Or really any of them.”

“And have some fun,” Lavender added.

You took one last look at your friends – Parvati in her silk, almond white, slim dress, and Lavender with flowers in her hair, their arms linked together – and swallowed thickly before turning and making your way through the crowd towards Theodore, though you made sure to give the table with Ginny a wide berth.

“Hi, Y/N,” Theodore greeted you, pecking a swift kiss on your left cheek. His eyes, however, were gliding over the room filling with more and more students. “We’ve already ordered some drinks, come on.”

You took a step back after the kiss, blinking quickly, then noticed how the other people around the table were staring at you:

Pansy and Daphne eyed you and your dress dismissively, and Blaise sipped on his wine, eyebrows raised. Only Draco was slumped in his chair and chewed on a gum, not wasting a single glance at you. He looked as uninterested in this Spring Ball as you felt.

An hour ago, you sure as hell wouldn’t have believed to relate to bloody Draco Malfoy.

“Uh, hi. I’m Y/N,” You said, forcing a smile on your face and holding out your hand towards Pansy, as she sat closest to you. “I like your dress. Matches your earrings.”

That compliment seemed to leave a mark. Her judging look softened and she shook your hand.

After introducing yourself to everyone (well, except Draco, who had only shortly nodded at you), you sat down in between Theodore and Blaise, and ordered something to eat.

Pansy and Daphne were huddled together the whole time, giggling and pointing at others, while Draco raised a complaint about every meal on the menu or really any other small inconvenience that had the unfortune to be spotted by him (“I can’t eat that, it has tomatoes in it. Nothing on here is gluten free. I’ll write father first thing in the morning. Pansy, will you shut the fuck up for a second? That’s not even a real band. God, I hate this place.”).

“He’s a whiny bitch most of the time, but his family has a great holiday chalet in France,” Blaise said to you after Draco had shot you an annoyed look for asking if you should ask the band to play a different song. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be friends with him.”

“I hope you choke on that disgusting wine,” Draco muttered, and you chuckled.

“Sure, darling,” Blaise replied, sharing a look with you. Until now, Blaise had surprisingly talked the most with you, and it turned out he wasn’t half as bad as you had always thought he would be.

Theodore on the other hand had only occasionally asked you how your meal was and how long you had planned to stay. His eyes had not held contact with yours for longer than a second and were still searching for something in the crowd, which was – by the way – having fun on the dance floor while you had not moved in almost an hour.

It wasn’t until a particularly beautiful girl from Ravenclaw strode past your table that Theodore hooked his foot around the leg of your chair to pull you closer and placed his hand on your upper thigh, giving you his full attention for the first time that night.

“Have I told you that you look very pretty tonight?” He asked, his dark eyes meeting yours.

“Er – no,” You said, darting a confused look towards the Ravenclaw girl.

“Well, you do,” Theodore went on and turned your head back to face him by stroking his thumb over your cheek before pressing his lips onto the skin beneath your ear. They felt chapped and not pleasant in any way. You cringed.

“Uh, sorry, but that’s maybe a bit early, don’t you think?” You said, drawing back and shoving his hand from your thigh.

“She’s gone anyway, Theo,” Blaise said. You did not understand.

“Who’s gone?” You asked, looking back and forth between Theodore and the others, who all seemed to know something you didn’t. Pansy giggled.

“Nothing,” Theodore said. His sweet voice had turned bitter, and you felt like that was your fault. He stood up. “I’ll get some more punch.”

The band segued from an upbeat song into a much slower one, and the light of the candles magically dimmed.

“Do you want to dance maybe?” You asked Theodore as a way to make up for your rejection, but he had already pushed past a group of chatting seventh years, not turning around.

You sank back into your chair, picking at the tulle of your dress again. Was it too early to tell Lavender and Parvati that you wanted to go back to your dorm?

“Girl, if I were you, I would get out of here as quickly as possible,” Blaise said. You looked up at him. “He’s not worth it. And he’s not here for you. So don’t waste your energy.”

“But he asked me to the ball,” You said weakly.

“Did he? Or did he just ask for some time with you to make his ex-girlfriend jealous?”

“He – well – he…”

But Blaise looked at you and you knew that he was right, that this was never about you but some other girl. It was always about some other girl.

“Excuse me, I’ll get some fresh air,” You said and made your way through the tables towards the doors.

The last time, everyone had watched him. Now it was Harry’s turn to watch everyone else try their best on the dance floor. He wasn’t sure what was worse; to be laughed at by the others while stepping on Parvati’s feet every other second or to watch not only Hermione and Ron but also Ginny and Luna, as well as Seamus and Dean dancing closely, arms around the other.

They all had no idea what they were doing, Harry could tell, but they were having fun anyway. He had never seen Hermione this happy.

“Oh, flashback.”

Harry looked up. Parvati sat down next to him on the chair that Ron had left over half an hour ago.

“Yeah,” He mumbled, taking another sip of butterbeer, and turned back to the dance floor right in time to see Dean kissing Seamus passionately in the middle of the room.

“And you are not dancing because…?” Parvati asked. Harry crossed his arms.

“If you’re here to make fun of me or to blow up my butterbeer, feel free to fuck off.”

Parvati chuckled. “Sorry about that. But seriously, why are you sitting here miserably after all those dance lessons?”

Harry tried to make out if she was actually serious or if this was her way to revenge herself for the Yule Ball.

“Are you kidding me?” He asked. Parvati narrowed her eyebrows, now visibly puzzled.

“No, I’m genuinely asking –”

“Well, it’s not that fucking easy to slow dance if you have no date, is it,” He said crossly.

Parvati gaped at him, but he was certainly not in the mood for this. It had cost him all his strength to not look for you in the crowd all evening, he did not need reminding of you not liking him back by Parvati.

Before she could say anything else, he placed his butterbeer bottle on the table and darted outside, hands shoved deeply into the pockets of his suit and eyes directed to the floor.

Harry’s feet guided him towards the courtyard. The music played by the band wasn’t as loud out here, and the cold night air was lively in contrary to the sticky, perfumed air inside the Great Hall.

He kicked some of the grass away and walked towards the bench underneath the willow, watching how its branches weighed in the wind and thought how you were probably having as much fun as his friends, or maybe even more, considering Nott was infamous for snogging in various broom closets.

Harry’s stomach turned at the thought of that. He wished he had a time turner to make it right.

The moon stood high on the deep blue night sky, illuminating the courtyard you had unconsciously walked to. Grey clouds had approached, and tiny raindrops were falling to the ground, steadily drumming onto the roofs of Hogwarts.

On your way out of the Great Hall, you had caught a glimpse of Theodore sticking his tongue down the throat of that Ravenclaw girl, but to be honest, it didn’t matter that he was making out with someone else. It would’ve just been nice if you could have had a forewarning.

You thought you were the only single soul wandering about, then spotted a figure sitting on a bench. You were about to turn and search for some other place to wallow in your feelings, when you recognised the messy hair.

Maybe this was the time to make up for running away. Maybe this was the time to be honest.

Harry looked up when he noticed someone coming closer, the tulle of your dress rustling over the wet grass. His heart jumped and he forgot to breathe for a moment.

“Hello,” You said, voice echoing over the empty courtyard. “Can I sit?”

“Of course.”

Harry scooted to the side to make some space for you. You sat down next to him, leaving maybe a hand width between the two of you. The wide branches of the willow guided you from the cold rain.

“You weren’t dancing,” You said, staring at the grass instead of his face.

You would understand if he did not want to talk, if he just walked away. He didn’t owe you an explanation for why he had not asked you to the ball or why was sitting here instead of inside with Ginny or whoever he had asked.

“You weren’t either, were you?” Harry replied. “You and Nott.”

“No, he’s busy with someone else, so… no. Not dancing.”

“Oh.” Harry shuffled. His knee bumped against yours. “Well, he’s an idiot then.”

You smiled, not moving your knee away from his.

“Yeah…but I don’t mind, really.”

“You should,” Harry said, and he meant it. No one should be treated like that. “If anyone should be dancing, it’s you.”

You looked up at him. Harry was already watching you, and it filled you with warmth despite the freezing cold. There wasn’t a single sign of hurt on his face, just a soft curiosity lying in his green eyes.

“I’m sorry,” You whispered, “for running away last Friday. I had to sort out some things.”

“What things?” He asked quietly.

“Some…” Your heartbeat sped up. Be honest, you told yourself. “Some feelings.”

“Oh.” Harry tried to figure out what you meant by that, but the way you looked at him made his mind go blank. “You mean you…”

“I really like dancing with you,” You said. Harry felt his heart beating faster than ever against his ribcage. He wondered if you could hear it. “And I wouldn’t have done those lessons with anyone.”

The music from inside the Great Hall was growing louder, overshadowing the rain; someone must’ve opened the doors to let in some fresh air. The band was playing a slower, French song and it stung in your heart. It was one of your favourites.

When you turned back to Harry, he was standing up. For a second you thought he wanted to leave, to go back inside, then –

“May I have this dance?” Harry held out is right hand, and you did not have to think twice if you should take it or not.

He helped you up from the bench and led into the middle of the lawn, the rain still pattering onto the grass and the stone tiles. It smelled strongly of petrichor, and you thought that this was much closer to spring than the decorations in the Great Hall.

Harry’s hand found its place on your back, pulling you closer to him. You placed your hand on his shoulder, tapping his skin with your finger in time to the music out of habit, and met his eyes, reflecting the moon light in them.

Had you ever told him how beautiful he was?

The two of you moved, swaying back and forth. Harry realised that he did not even need to concentrate on the steps, he knew them by heart. The closeness of you took his breath away, the way your fingers held onto his, the way there was little to no room between your torso and his. You were smiling at him, despite the cold and the rain. Harry felt his stomach tingling.

“What’s it called?” Harry asked quietly, not wanting to drown out the music.

“‘Je Te Laisserai Des Mots’. I’ll leave you words,” You translated, having memorised the lyrics in your mind. “I’ll leave you words underneath your door, underneath the singing moon. Near the place where your feet pass by…hidden in the holes of wintertime and when you’re alone for a moment.”

You paused and Harry’s eyes fell to his feet, not able to take your gaze any longer. There were words on the tip of his tongue he did not dare to say – afraid, to ruin the moment. He wanted to stay here forever.

“Eyes up,” You said, placing your hand underneath his chin to lift his head up.

More French words reached your ears; Harry figured they were the same sentence repeated over and over, but even if he had been able to understand French, he wouldn’t have been able to translate them because of your hand still resting under his chin.

“Kiss me whenever you want,” You whispered. “Kiss me whenever you want. Kiss me –”

And then, Harry let go of his fears and kissed you.

After all it still took you by surprise how he loosened his fingers from yours to cup your face, pulling you as close to him as possible, until there was no space in between, noses bumping against each other. Both of your hands slung themselves around his neck, caressing his skin and driving up through messy hair.

His lips matched yours, gliding smoothly over one another, smearing your lip gloss everywhere until all you tasted was strawberries and sweet alcohol. With his chest against yours, Harry was glad to notice your heart beating as fast as his did, though that was also because he really needed to breathe – not that he wanted to, he would have been totally okay with never breaking away from the kiss if it was always going to feel this soft and freeing.

It was you in the end that had to carefully pull his face away from yours, heavily breathing in and out. You brushed his wet hair out of his forehead and let your fingers slide over his temples and cheeks down to his neck.

“That offer,” Harry began breathlessly, tucking a strand of hair he had accidentally drawn from your pinned-up hair behind your ear, “about continuing the dance lessons…that still stands, right?”

Your lips curved upwards into a smile. “Of course.”

“Brilliant,” Harry said, mirroring your smile before leaning down again to close the gap between your lips.

#Harry Potter #Harry James Potter #harry potter x reader #harry james potter x reader #fluff #oneshot #my writing #angst #slow burn

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softtdaisy · 2 years ago

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MAKE ME YOUR VILAIN - STEVE HARRINGTON

DESCRIPTION I Steve isn’t fan of Halloween or dressing up. But when you ask him to be Ghostface for a party, he can’t say no

PAIRING I Steve Harrington x female!reader

WORD COUNT I 2,6k

A/N I yes, let’s believe scream was made in the 80s 🥺 you can read Eddie’s part here | see the post about ghostface halloween night

“Aren’t you too old to be this excited about Halloween?”

“Aren’t you too young to be a grumpy grandpa, Harrington?” replied Max, with her sarcastic smile.

You couldn’t contain your laugh at her perfect comeback. She wasn’t wrong, though. But when you turned to Steve, he gave you such an annoyed look that you felt the need to apologize. “Sorry,” you mumbled with a sweet smile that immediately soften him. “Let him be,”you said softly to Max, rolling your eyes to make her smile.

When you started hanging out with Steve during your last year of high school, you never thought that you would become the babysitter of six big kids. But what you could say? You loved those six big kids. You became their big sister, the one they never had for those who always dreamt to have you and Mike’s favorite even though you tried to explain him multiples times that Nancy was a great big sister.

What you loved the most about those kids was that they never forget about you even when you finished high school. Never you nor Steve were there anymore, and you noticed how fast they could make new friends. You understood that when you met Eddie, or more exactly when you really met Eddie. You remember seeing in when you were in high school, and you regretted now not having paid much attention to the boy. But in the end, everyone seemed to get alone with everyone, and you were like a cliché: a group of friends that considered each other like family.

Because they knew about your obsession for Halloween and horror movies, the kids asked you not only to dress them up for the Halloween party that the high school was organizing but also to apply to be one of the chaperones for the party. How could you even say no? You already knew who you wanted to be when they asked you. And it wouldn’t be a hard work to make sure those kids weren’t making any mistakes.

Plus, you managed to bring Steve with you and that was a massive, good point.

You were finishing Max’s makeup as Lydia from Beetlejuice when Steve came back to you. You heard him, first, but you mostly felt him when he put his elbows on your shoulder. “Don’t make me move Harrington,” you muttered.

“I just don’t understand why you are all so excited about being someone else. And stop giving me that look, Mayfield.” You pinched your lips together to not laugh nor answer too direct. You found it quite interesting that Steve could be one of the most important people in your life, yet you could be so different on some subjects. So, when you finished giving Max the final black line on her face, you put your head backwards to look at Steve. “It’s just the pleasure of not being yourself for a few hours and put all your problems aside.”

For a few seconds, you forgot you were in the Wheller’s basement with all the kids around you. You just lost yourself in Steve’s eyes and so did he. You could tell from the small smile on his face. Damn, how much you loved when his beautiful lips were curling like this. “Yeah. Good point, I guess.” He shrugged, before winking at you and messing with your hair. You just had got the time to steal a kiss from him before he moved away.

“You realize you have to get dressed too, right?” you asked Steve, turning your head correctly this time to avoid a stiff neck. This was the only obligation for the party: everyone have to be dressed up. You let the kids choose their costumes. Lucas chose to follow Max and be Beetlejuice for the night. Mike decided to be Freddy Krueger while Dustin wanted to be Eddie, which you thought was quite funny considering the principal asked Eddie to not be there tonight. Will choose to be Marty McFly, which wasn’t a surprised considering his obsession with the movie. Just like Eleven wanted to dress up as Madonna who she was listening to all the time.

And you decided to be a Camp Crystal Lake Counselor from Friday the 13rd. It wasn’t your favorite horror movie, but you had great memories watching it with Steve. But nothing could beat Scream from the moment you saw it. It was like a revelation. Not only were you obsessed with Sydney and wanted to be like her, but you loved the idea of Ghostface. Which is why…

“It’s ok, it’s just a mask.” Steve shrugged, pretending he didn’t care.

Truth was, he did care. You had a hard time convincing him to wear that costume for the party. He almost resigned and didn’t come just because he didn’t want to get dressed. But you had two good arguments to make him change his mind. First, he would be totally dressed up, from head to toe. Nobody would recognize him if they don’t know who’s behind the mask.

Plus, since the principal didn’t want Eddie to come to the party because of his reputation, you just stole Scream’s idea. Why have one Ghostface when you can have two? In the end, there would be two men with the same costumes, and nobody will know who’s behind them. Or if they do know for one, they won’t know for the other. But you were the only one knowing this with Steve and Eddie. You loved the idea of surprising the kids.

“You really had a great idea with this costume, [y/n]” Max told you. You looked at her with a genuine smile. She was always nice with you but never hesitated to tease you about your relationship with Steve. All the kids knew about you dating each other, it wasn’t like you were the most discreet couple in Hawkins anyway. You tried to keep it private, but it didn’t take them long to notice Steve holding your hand naturally when he was talking. You didn’t even notice it yourself since you were used to his physical attention.

And you knew that deep down, Max was happy for the both of you. But she loved teasing you and testing you to see if you would defend your boyfriend. Truth was, you loved messing with Steve too much. Specially because you loved him too much. So, you were quite surprised that she was that happy about Steve’s costume. “No, for real. He won’t be talking all night, right? It’s a such a good idea.”

It didn’t take you long to see Steve middle finger popping between you and Max. “Alright kids.” You laughed. You were clearly the adult in this situation, and you quite loved this position. “I’m done with all the makeups for you. Still ok if we come back in an hour?” you didn’t bring your costume there…because you forgot it at Steve’s place. You wanted to show him when you got it when of course it inspired the boy for the rest of the night. And it wasn’t like you wanted to change in front of the kids anyway.

Once they all had agreed to let you go, you were in Steve’s car, listening and singing to Michael Jackson’s thriller. “I love when you’re this exciting about something.” You turned to Steve and noticed the soft look in his eyes. Steve was definitely more of physical love than talking boyfriend. He wasn’t the type to say I love you all the time, but he would caress your hand or kiss your forehead anytime he can. He had his own way of showing his love for you and maybe that was what you loved the most about him. He leant to you when you were at the red light to put a soft kiss on your lips.

“I’m mostly exciting about putting this mask on you baby.” He rolled his eyes before restarting his car.

And just like you thought, there was something terribly hot with Steve in Ghostface costume. You were finishing your makeup and when he came back in his bedroom, with his wet hair pulled back and the mask in his face. You were lost of breath, and you noticed how your body was reacting to this view. If you had more time, you would gladly do some naughty thing with this villain.

“What’d you think?” Steve wanted to please you more than anything. And he could already tell from the look in your eyes that you loved what you were seeing. You walked to him and grabbed the hood to put in on his head. “I’ve never been more attracted to a bad guy than right now.” You whispered before kissing him. You loved the feeling of his gloved hand going up and down on your thigh. There was almost something forbidden, like you shouldn’t be appealed by your boyfriend looking like a serial killer.

Steve ended the kiss by taking your face between his hands. “Fine, you convinced me. I loved this costume.” You laughed before placing a last kiss on his lips before he put on his mask. You were glad to see everything was working on well. You were walking to the door, ready to take the kids and go to the party when Steve grabbed you by the wrist and pulled you against him. “What’s your favorite Scary Movie?” you heard him say, using the voice transformer you bought for him and Eddie to make sure nobody would recognize them tonight. And once again, you knew you were doomed to be horny all night.

Since you couldn’t bring all the kids in one car, you and Steve both had to drive. You met again behind high school where Eddie was hiding. “Two Ghostface for me.” You smiled at the view of the two boys with their mask on. “Who’s Stu and who’s Billy?” you asked them. There was something quite hot to see them argue with their masks and costumes. You almost feel like you were part of the movie. And you were definitely not going to complain.

“We do as we said, ok? Steve you’re going with the kids and I’ll bringing Eddie with me. Good?”

“Fine.” Steve replied and you could swear he was rolling his eyes. “But you too, be good.” He put his hand at the bottom of your back to bring you against him. He sightly lift his mask to kiss you and you loved how he was giving his whole life in this kiss like he was scared of not kissing you again soon.

Just like you hoped, the plan worked perfectly. Since he was with the kids, nobody asked Steve his identity. So, when you arrived with Eddie, you were the one speaking to not betray his identity. “Trust me, it wouldn’t be as fun if he was speaking” you told the school administrator that was watching the entrance. Eddie signed under Steve’s name and since you were holding hands, and the whole school knew about your relationship with Steve, nobody asked questions.

And that was the story of how you managed to bring Eddie to a party he was forbidden and why there were two Ghostface.

“I’ll be right back to you, love.” Eddie told you with his scary voice. You were so happy to see him there among his friends, just like he deserved it. But you didn’t get much time to think about it before you got grabbed by the hips by another masked man. “Don’t try to kiss him thinking it’s me.” Steve said closed to your ears. You shivered against his touch and turned around to look at him…or at least what you could see.

“I could easily be confused you know.” You used an innocent tone, just like the poor victim trying the escape the serial killer. When the first note of Somebody’s Watching Me started playing, you had this huge smile on your face, and you heard Steve’s little laugh seeing you this excited. You started dancing with him and you loved how weird it must look like, watching a notorious villain dancing with the victim from another movie.

Steve left for a few minutes when he noticed a small fight between two students. So you were left on your own when Nancy came to you. “So, two Ghostface hm?” she asked with a playful smile. You rolled your eyes, having a drink as an only answer. You and Nancy learnt to appreciate each other these past months and you loved how she seemed to never judge you. “What can I say? I couldn’t resist.” She laughed with you before proposing to take a picture with your two men of the night.

Steve arrived right when you came back with Eddie. “Oh dude, it’s like watching myself in the mirror,” Eddie laughed. You put yourself right between them and you took multiples pictures. You couldn’t wait to see the one where Steve had his hand on your stomach and Eddie on your neck, both looking at each other like they were going to make you, their meal. You later learnt that Nancy took other pictures of you with them during the night. She took one when you were dancing with Steve and without seeing his face, just with the way his body was acting, you could tell all the love he had for you.

But it wasn’t until the party was over that you finally took some time with your boyfriend. You were sitting in the schoolyard, in the calm of the night. Steve had taken his mask off and you were obsessed with the way his wet hair was resting in his neck. You kept playing with some strands that were falling on his beautiful and tired face. “So, was I wrong? Didn’t we had a good night?” you asked him, putting your head on his shoulder.

Steve started rubbing your back and kissed your forehead. It was the sweetest thing he could do, and it was Steve’s favorite love demonstration. You loved the way his lips feel on your skin, like he could give you love just like that. No words were needed in those moments and you both knew it. It was easy when you were surrounded by the kids, when none of you wanted to say those three words.

“You were right, babe.” He finally replied with a broken voice. Apparently, he had too much fun with his voice transformer and played with it all night. “Even if it meant losing my voice, I had fun.

“I hope you still have enough voice for the private party.” You replied with your eyes closed, enjoying the little wind on your face and Steve hands on your body. “Always for you, baby.” He replied with his modified voice. And as much as you were excited by the idea of having sex with Steve like that, you couldn’t contain your laugh. So did he. Probably the tiredness of the night that was breaking your nerves right now. You were now both dying of laughter and cuddling even harder against each other.

It took you a few minutes to finally calm down. “I’m glad you convinced me to come.”

You looked up at him and saw the purest look of love in his eyes. Steve would follow you to the end of the world just out of love. Even if it meant dressing up as your favorite villain and dealing with kids all night, like he wasn’t doing it that all the time already. That was how much Steve Harrington was loving you.

And so were you.

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#steve harrington #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington fluff #Steve Harrington x reader #Steve Harrington x you #joe keery #joe keery x reader #joe keery x you #joe keery imagine #joe keery story #steve Harrington story #stranger things imagine #stranger things fiction #my writing

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crazycookiecrumbles · 3 years ago

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A Best Friend’s Return

A/N: UHHHHH. Okay. So this is in my Stark!ReaderVerse, and it comes after the Prequel series (The Beginnings). Feedback? Cool, thanks.

TAG LIST NOTES: I have no idea how to efficiently make a tag lists and am lazy as shit, so I would recommend post notifications just bc i’m, well,...tired lazy person

Direct Part 2 of: A Terrible Return

Pairing: Shang-Chi x Stark!Reader, Platonic!Bucky x Stark!Reader, Steve Rogers x Stark!Reader, Platonic!Clint x Reader

Warnings: swearing, swearing, angsty chats, fluff?

Summary: After the that explosive discussion with Steve, you feel incredibly lost and confused.

Sam shook his head. He glanced over to Bruce who was silently expressing his disappointment as he rubbed the bridge of his nose and exhaled slowly.

“That was not the way to go about this at all,” Bruce said out loud. “You guys shouldn’t have ambushed her.”

“She’d never have agreed to sit down with him, we needed to surprise her with this. I just didn’t think you were going to come out here confessing your love for her again, Steve, I thought you were just going to apologize and admit you’re an idiot.”

Steve shook his head, “No, I don’t want to hold my tongue with her. I just didn’t expect her to show up with a boyfriend. Are they serious?”

Bruce pursed his lips and shrugged, “We don’t really talk as much unless it’s about rebuilding.”

Sam, however, nodded, “Yeah, they are. I’ve seen them together. It’s serious, and he’s really, really devoted to her.”

Steve hummed, “But is she devoted to him?”

“Dude —“

“I’m just asking.”

Sam sighed, “Yeah, she is, man. Honestly, they’re a good fit. He’s helped her deal with a lot, deal with you.”

Steve sighed, “I get it. You’re mad at me —“

“Look, you made your choices, man, but the way you did it? I don’t agree with it. Regardless, it’s done. What’s done is done and it looks like she’s done with you. Springing that on her like that was messed up, and you know it, because I know you’re well aware of how your ex-wife is.”

Steve cringed at the word ‘ex-wife’, and it made him feel the guilt he’d been trying to repress for decades. Obviously, this was all his choice. He decided to do it. He decided to go back in time and live out his life with another woman because he just needed to know. Peggy was his biggest ‘what if.’ He spent five years without (Y/N) and he made himself move on. He forced himself to repress those feelings and move on, because there was no way to go back. You were gone.

And then suddenly you were back, just like that. You were back, but at the same time he had the chance to go back, to see her, to know what if. For a man who always feared how he didn’t belong, he finally had the chance to go back and live the life he thought he was supposed to, and he lived it until its completion.

And, yet, there was still an empty feeling inside, because the life he had always wanted: a home, a loving wife, domestic bliss without alien invasions or wearing the suit and being a symbol for the world. He just had the chance to be Steve, and he thought he wanted it. He did. He does, but he realized at the end of it all that empty, dark feeling inside of him was because he lived with a mistake for decades, and that mistake was thinking he could live that life with anyone else but you.

“I love her, Sam,” Steve said quietly. “If there’s a chance to get her back, I have to try.”

~*~

Outside, Shangqi was looking around frantically. There was no sight of you. He couldn’t even find footsteps of you. He felt a panicked feeling in his chest as he wondered where you could’ve gone so quickly. He took his phone out of his pocket and started to call your phone and realized that there was no way you’d answer at a time like this. He knew you were upset, and he was realizing very quickly you were doing that thing the Starks liked to do: run from their feelings.

You just happened to be very literal with it.

He placed another phone call as he started to walk around the new compound for any sort of clue. After three rings someone answered the call and he shut his eyes in relief.

“Hey! You guys miss your flight or something?” Katy’s voice asked. “Tell me you did and that you’re now going to go pick up New York pizza and bring it back — wait, how can you miss a flight on a private jet —“

“Katy,” Shangqi said quietly.

Katy’s eyes widened. She shoved her brother away from her by grabbing his face and throwing him on the sofa. She raced to her room and slammed the door shut, locked it, and sat on her bed as she put it on speaker and she started packing a bag.

“What happened? Are you hurt? Is (Y/N) hurt? Give me the word I will be there right now.”

“I—I—no—I don’t know where to begin. I don’t even know if I can say this on the phone?” Shangqi laughed and ran his hand through his hair. “Katy —“

“Spit it out, asshole!”

“Her ex is back,” Shangqi explained. “He’s back. He’s not old or anything. He’s….he’s the same as he was when he left.”

Katy’s jaw fell open, “Hold on.” Katy crossed her legs on the bed and covered her mouth for a moment, “The ex. The ex-husband?”

“That’s the one.”

“The iconic one?”

“Yes.”

“America’s—“

“Katy,” he groaned.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry,” Katy stared ahead of her at the wall, “Holy shit. How? Okay. Tell me later. Wait, no, tell me that now. No—just—are you okay? Is she okay?”

Shangqi laughed, “He’s the definition of a perfect man who wants her back. I feel great.” His bitter laughed continued again as he walked the compound, “She stepped out for a breath. She kind of almost threw Bucky out a window. Now I can’t find her. I can’t find Bucky. His bike is gone. There’s no trail — I don’t know what to do.”

“You’re not thinking clearly,” Katy said knowingly. “She’s definitely gone. She’s a runner, she ran somewhere, but she probably didn’t run. She probably used her powers, which is unfair, because I never get to see her be badass in person. Which is bullshit.”

Shangqi swore, “You’re right. She would do that.”

“Yeah. Maybe she kidnapped Bucky? Or he went on his bike after her?”

“I doubt it. I didn’t even hear the bike or see the trail — shit,” Shangqi stopped walking when he saw a body laying underneath a bike several yards away. “I think I found him. I don’t think he’s dead — but she definitely did something.”

Katy whistled, “Damn. She is not doing well. Keep me updated, okay? Should I come over? I can get on a flight. I remember where the compound is.”

“I don’t want to burden you with this. It’s not about me anyway, it’s —“

“Hey,” Katy said quickly. “You’re my best friend. You’re surrounded by her people. I know she’s your girlfriend, and that’s her ex, but this affects you too. Sam and Bucky like you too, but we’re still the new kids on the block. I’m coming down. Okay? I’m here for you — both of you.”

Shangqi nodded as he started walking towards what he assumed was Bucky, “Thank you, Katy.”

“Absolutely,” Katy said. “I also want to see what that guy looks like in person. See you in a few hours!”

Shangqi shook his head as he shoved the phone into his pocket. He ran over to Bucky just as the man grabbed the motorcycle with one hand and flung it over himself and to the side. Bucky groaned as he sat up and cracked his back, turning his head to see Shangqi as he caught up to him.

“You okay?” Shangqi asked as he extended a hand to him.

Bucky nodded, muttering a quiet thanks as he helped him up, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. She didn’t try to kill me, just tried to get me away.”

“She does that, pushing people away,” Shangqi muttered.

“Keeps you close, s’far as I’ve seen,” Bucky said and cleared his throat. “Look, man, I — “

“You walked us into an ambush back there,” Shangqi said. “I thought we were cool, at least enough for you to respect me, respect her, but I get it, Steve’s your best friend —“

“It’s not like that, Shangqi, I swear,” Bucky said quickly. “Steve wanted to talk to her, he said he wanted to explain himself. He never said he was still in love with her, had feelings for her, nothing like that. He didn’t say anything like that when he first came back. We had no idea he was going to do that, I swear.”

Shangqi studied him for a moment before nodding hesitantly. Bucky extended his hand to him to shake, a show of good-faith and earnestness that he really was not trying to break them up.

“I meant it when I said I liked the two of you together. Between all the death and how she just runs from her feelings, a lot of her support is gone. You make her deal with her shit and feel okay doing it. It’s not really the Stark way, it’s a new way, and it’s good.”

Shangqi snorted, “Considering I’ve been lying about who I am for over ten years, that’s shocking to hear.”

Bucky rolled his eyes, “That’s nothing. She spent a lot of time around other assassins, you’re fine.”

“Yeah, she mentioned some names earlier. Clint, Nat?”

“Natasha,” Bucky nodded once and gestured for him to follow him away. “Clint, yeah. Those are her actual best friends.”

Shangqi’s eyes flew open, “I thought that was you and Sam.”

Bucky laughed and shook his head, “No, no. I mean, I guess now we became her default, after everything that happened. We got closer because she married Steve. I mean, all of us were together so much, you know? It all became a big family, but way before me and Sam, even before Steve, there was those two. Uh, Nat died — Nat sacrificed herself. Clint was…Clint was devastated. He and (Y/N) didn’t really talk about it, and they haven’t really spoken to each other.”

Shangqi chewed on his lip as he realized how little he really knew about you even after all this time, “Okay. Does he live around here?”

“Uh, he has a farm out in Iowa. Last I heard he’s got a place in Brooklyn, too.”

“Would she see him?”

Bucky blinked, “Well, he didn’t walk her into an emotional ambush.”

“And he’s not currently at home with her impressionable, genius young sister.”

“And step-mom who would absolutely put her suit on and kill Steve,” Bucky nodded. “Huh, nice work, Shangqi. Let’s go pay him a visit.”

~*~

You landed with a soft thud and sniffled as you dragged your feet through the snow. You went and sat under a tree that you had sat under dozens and dozens of times before. This was too much for you. You just had the most emotional week of your life where all you could do was think about how much you missed your dad. Now, your friends shove you in front of your ex-husband who says he wants you back in front of your boyfriend, who is nothing but perfectly poise as he still takes care of you.

You felt like your own heart was fighting against you at this point.

It was beating so fast and you didn’t know what to do. Had this been years ago when your dad was still alive, you would’ve ran to him in the lab. He would’ve poured you a glass of booze, handed you a wrench, and told you to go crazy and work out your feelings. Sometimes you’d tell him what was wrong. Other times, you wouldn’t, but, somehow, he just always knew what the problem was, he just never forced you to say it.

Then again, Tony Stark was nothing if not extremely nosey, so he always knew because he was always snooping and hovering and doting over you. And you really wanted nothing more than to exactly that with him, but you couldn’t. And now you felt like maybe, just maybe, the healthy thing to do for once would be to talk and process these feelings out loud. But who? You didn’t want to put this on Shangqi, you’d done that once before. You couldn’t look at Bucky or Sam right now. Bruce — you didn’t want to test his temperament.

You could go to Pepper, but you’d left with such a positive end, and you really, really didn’t want to risk getting too upset and accidentally ruining their home. Pepper told you that you shouldn’t run anymore, that you stay and deal with things, and yet you couldn’t bring yourself to go to her. You really wanted to talk to someone who understood you and wasn’t going to interfere like you felt Pepper would out of maternal instincts.

Yes, even you were certain Pepper would kill Steve.

You just — you needed to talk to someone. You needed someone who knew you.

Your fingers were shaking as you brought up your phone. A process that would take so little time took much longer to do just because you were panicking and freaking out. Even the tree you were leaning on shook, and you brought the phone up to your ear, but it was too hard to hold. You ended up hugging your knees to your chest and setting the phone on top of them and putting it on speaker phone.

A voice you recognized all too well answered, “Barton.”

“Hi, your voice squeaked quickly.”

There was a very pregnant pause, “(Y/N)?”

“Hi, yes. Sorry. I’m freaking out and I need someone to talk to. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you after the funeral and I ghosted you like I did everyone else, but it was a lot and there was so much death and —“

“It’s okay,” Clint said, interrupting your verbal vomit. “It’s okay, Stark. You’re okay. It’s not like I was running to check on you either.”

You laughed dryly, “Your wife died for you.”

Clint huffed, “She died for everyone.”

“Yeah,” you trailed off. “I’m sorry. I didn’t help you.”

“I didn’t help you, and I’m supposed to be the contracted big brother,” he joked. “You lost Nat too, and Tony, and Steve and Wanda’s —“

“Off the grid, “You finished and sniffled. “Steve’s back.”

Clint hummed, “So that’s the panic attack I’m hearing, huh? What do you mean ‘back’?”

“I mean he looks exactly like he did the day he left.”

“How?”

“Doctor Strange fucked up a spell apparently? I don’t know. He left as soon as he saw me. I’m so confused.”

“Asshole,” Clint muttered under his breath, causing you to snort. “Okay. Just breathe with me Stark. You’re okay. I’m sure you already assaulted him.”

You laughed and rubbed under your eyes with your sleeve, “I stopped his heart.”

“That’s bad ass,” Clint mused. “Look at you all grown up, kid. I remember when you used to shake that place out in Malibu when a scary movie was on.”

You scoffed, “That was one time. And it wasn’t because of the scary movie. It’s because someone was trying to break in and get my dad.”

“I know, I know,” Clint said quickly. “Steve said something, didn’t he? You wouldn’t be like this if he was just back and that was it.”

You cleared your throat, “Sam and Bucky basically walked me into the lion’s den where Steve was waiting to tell me that he loved me and wanted me back.”

“What an asshole.”

“I know!” You said quickly. “I just — yeah.”

“Sam and Bucky really did that to you?”

“Bucky claims he had no idea Steve was going to do that.”

“Hm, I’d take that with a grain of salt, but I don’t know the dynamic with all of them now,” Clint said. “But Steve’s also a master tactician, so I’m sure he knew not telling them that detail would make sure you saw him.”

“Yeah, so we could work out our shit, apparently, because I’m always making something break at the thought of him or whatever.”

“Do you?”

“….Sometimes.”

He sighed, “Come on, kid. Don’t make that guy make you lose control. He’s an idiot.”

You snorted, “Yeah, yeah. You said I was going to marry that idiot and have tons of children. Remember that?”

Clint cringed, “To be fair, you did marry him. I just didn’t account for him being a selfish piece of shit.”

“No one did,” you muttered. “I should’ve known, though. Stubborn prick.”

“You had no way of knowing,” Clint said. “Don’t beat yourself up about that. And don’t let that guy get any more tears or stress from you. You’re worth more than that. Cry over shit that actually matters, like puppies in pounds, or kids falling.”

“Kids falling is sad?” You questioned.

“No, that shit’s hilarious,” Clint scoffed which made you snort. You heard his doorbell ring and he groaned as he got up off the sofa. “One sec, pizza’s here.”

“Still with the pizza?” You giggled.

Clint shrugged as he grabbed the cash off of the counter and sidestepped his resting dog and ran to the door, “The one thing that will never fail me or leave me in this world is pizza. That’s a good lesson to learn.”

“Even bad pizza?”

“Pizza is pizza,” he answered you and looked through the peephole of his door before humming, “That’s not pizza.”

“Who is it?”

“Bucky, and an asian guy.”

Your jaw fell to the floor. Your eyes widened, “What?”

“Yeah, hold on a sec. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you can hear it. This should be good.”

~*~

Clint was a great man for letting you stay on the line and listen to this conversation. He opened the door and leaned against it, arms crossed over his chest as he momentarily ignored Shangqi and stared at Bucky. Bucky quietly held the pizza box out to him.

“How’d you know that was for me?”

Bucky raised an eyebrow. Clint shrugged and gave Bucky the cash he was going to give the delivery guy and took the pizza box and went right towards his kitchen, “Bucky, mystery guy.”

“This is Shangqi,” Bucky explained.

“Still a mystery guy to me,” Clint said as he leaned against the counter, brought a slice of pizza out of the box and folded it in half before taking a large bite out of it. “Why do I care who he is? And why are you here, exactly?”

Shangqi pursed his lips and looked to Bucky. Bucky nodded to the man once and stepped forward into the kitchen. Clint turned the box of pizza towards him and Bucky declined. When Clint offered Shangqi, the man shrugged and nodded before taking a slice.

“So?” Clint asked. “What did you do?”

“Why do you —“

“Oh, come on.” Clint joked, “No one comes to the retired guy unless something’s wrong. We all know this. What’s going on?”

Bucky cleared his throat, “Okay. Steve’s back and young again. Says he’s in love with (Y/N) and wants her back. She ran off and we have no idea where she went but I know she won’t go see Pepper like this and you’re kind of, well —“

“The closest thing left?” Clint raised an eyebrow. “And he is?”

“Her…..boyfriend.” Shangqi said hesitantly around a mouthful of pizza.

Now that took Clint by surprise. He choked on his pizza crust and looked Shangqi up and down as he tried to assess this kid. This man was definitely not Steve. The Jordans, the graphic shirt, the bomber jacket, Shangqi was, well —

“Holy shit,” Clint coughed. “I thought she only went for elderly men. Dare I say it, you actually look age appropriate. Wow.”

You wanted to kill him for that joke.

Shangqi snorted, “I left my suspenders and cardigan at home.”

“I bet,” Clint said. “Wow. The prodigal one returns and you’re just left there like a sack of shit, huh? Must hurt.”

“A bit,” Shangqi confessed.

Clint hummed and studied his every move, “How’d you take it?”

“Well…how could I take it? It’s more news for her than me. I mean, it’s news for me but, but it’s not about me right now. I just know she’s hurt, and I don’t now where she is, and I want to find her.”

“And you came to me because you thought she’d magically pull up her big girl pants and contact me?”

“Yup,” Bucky nodded. “I don’t feel a rattle. She’s not here, is she?”

“No, she’s not.” Clint told them. “But you’re right, she did contact me. She’s okay. Didn’t start some earthquake or landslide. She just needed space to think. She's okay. You guys should head back to wherever you just drove from and go be with her.”

Shangqi breathed a sigh of relief. Bucky thought it was the first breath that man let out since they’d left to find you. He could feel the stress radiating off of him in waves, and it just served to make him feel more guilty for this entire thing.

“How’d you guys get here so fast, anyway?” Clint asked after a moment.

“Ah, boy toy over here was too anxious for the drive. We stole a quinjet.”

Clint whistled, “She’s going to kill you if those things weren’t meant to be tested yet.”

“We’ll survive,” Bucky snickered. “Come on. Let’s get going, daylight’s already gone.”

Shangqi nodded and glanced to Clint, “Thank you, Mr. Barton. I appreciate you telling me she’s okay.”

“Yeah, yeah. Clint’s fine, kid,” he replied. While Bucky was leaving the apartment, Clint extended his hand out to Shangqi. Shangqi smiled and shook his hand, surprised when he was suddenly yanked forward right into Clint’s chest. The man wrapped an arm around him and whispered in his ear, “If you do to her even a fraction of what Steve did, I will shove my arrows into your eye sockets until there’s nothing left but a puddle of mush.”

Shangqi blinked, “Noted, sir.”

~*~

When they were gone, Clint leaned against the counter after shutting the door behind him, “You get all that, Stark?”

“Yeah.”

“Boyfriend, huh?” Clint mused. “Doesn’t dress like Steve.”

“Clint —“

“If he treats you well, I’m happy for you, kiddo.”

Smiled softly, “He does. I’m happy too.”

“You love him?”

“Yeah.”

“Tell him,” Clint said. “He looks scared.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, he looks like he thinks he doesn’t hold a candle to Rogers,” Clint explained. “That kid’s a ball of fear and he’s holding it all in for your sake. If you love him, tell him.”

“Okay, I will. Thanks Clint.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Clint cleared his throat. “You sure he’s a good one to you?”

You smiled softly and nodded, “I think he makes me better and forces me to actually deal with my shit.”

“Wow. Dude deserves a god damn Nobel Prize.”

“Wow. Fuck off, Clint.”

“Hey, you called me,” He joked before clearing his throat. “I’m glad you did, kid. I’m sorry you’re going through this. But I’m here for you. I wasn’t before, but, but uh, I can be there for you again.”

“I can for you too,” You said quietly. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t there for you at all, but I’m…I’m making myself visible again. I’ll be there for you.”

“I’m happy to hear that. Go home, Stark, or wherever the hell you guys are. Okay?”

“Yeah, I will. Bye, Clint.”

You hung up the phone and took a few deep breaths. He was right. You needed to return to the compound. It was dark out, which was going to be more annoying to navigate until you came near the vicinity of the compound to see all the lights. With a heavy sigh, you stood up from your usual spot from whenever you were sad and still lived there, and took a moment to look around at the cliffs in front of you. You nodded once to yourself and turned around to leave, stopping in your tracks with your heart in your throat.

“Steve?”

Steve stood there with two flashlights and a backpack resting on his shoulders. He greeted you with a small wave and you scowled.

“What are you doing here?”

“We were married, (Y/N).” He reminded you, “You think I don’t know where all your hiding spots are when you need to be alone?”

You rolled your eyes, “I’m surprised you remember and it’s not all filled with details about Peggy.”

Steve sighed, “Can we talk?”

“No. I don’t even know why you’re here.”

“To make sure you get back okay.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, Steve. I’m fine. I’m fine without you. I made it here without you, and I can get back without you. I’m a world-ender. Okay? A fucking wolf isn’t going to kill me.”

“No, maybe not,” Steve said as you both started walking towards the compound. “But, you probably used your powers to get here, and I bet you haven’t eaten in awhile. You don’t have enough calories to get back without possibly risking getting exhausted or passing out, because while we both know how extremely strong you are: if you’re not 100%, you’re not going to make it.”

Fuck this fucking motherfucker for being totally right about that. You stopped and turned to glare at Steve as he caught up to you. You both continued walking in silence while he went through the bag. He produced a protein bar for you, and you muttered your thanks as you angrily bit into it.

“So, what did you think think you could talk to me about? Your mistakes? More excuses?”

Steve shook his head, “You know what, (Y/N)? You know how I feel about you. I love you. I’ve never stopped loving you, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get you back.”

You balked, “I don’t want you back, Steve. Get that through your head.”

“I’m not giving up on us,. You’re my wife —“

“Ex-wife —“

“Regardless, I love you.” He explained. “I love you, and I’ll do whatever it takes. I’m with you — “

You scoffed, “What, till the end of the line?”

He shook his head, “Always, (Y/N).”

You really thought about murdering him in the middle of the woods, but you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. You shook your head and told him you wanted to walk in silence on the way back, and whether it was because he realized he didn’t have a chance or because he thought listening to you would be getting on your good side, he was quiet.

by the time you saw the compound, you saw the quinjet they had stolen resting on a nearby helipad instead of being moved back inside the hangar like it was supposed to. Morons, honestly. You both entered the building, and you looked around to see Shangqi off to the side with Sam and Bucky, watching as the man was frantically on his phone typing away. Your phone had died during your walk and you could tell he was stressed by the look on his face.

Sam kicked Shangqi’s shoe, causing the man to look up and lock eyes with you. As Shangqi pocketed his phone and made his way over to you, you ran over to him and jumped on him. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders and your legs around his waist as you crushed him in a hug that made his bones crack under your grasp.

“I’m sorry,” you said quickly. “I’m sorry I ran away from you and I don’t deal with my shit like a healthy person should.”

“Oh, I know you do that,” Shangqi nodded. “Look, I —“

“I love you,” you said earnestly, hands coming up to cup his face. Shangqi’s gaze softened, as staring at you adoringly as you surprised him with this confession of love. “Shangqi, I love you with all of me. You make me so, so incredibly happy. And I don’t think I know how lucky I am to have someone love me and care about me like you do, but I uh, I'm starting to realize it.”

Shangqi smiled softly as he held you up, “You love me that much, huh?”

“You’re my first choice,” you said quietly. “I will always choose you. I promise.”

“I’ll choose you too,” Shangqi grinned.

You smiled and pressed your lips against his. Shangqi shuddered from the feel of your ice cold lips pressing against his while you melted into his warm touch. You ignored the sounds of Bucky and Sam clearing their throat as you kissed your boyfriend.

You let your legs fall from his waist and he held your hips as you slipped down to stand up straight.

Shangqi squeezed them and pressed his forehead against yours, “It’s late. Do you want to stay the night and leave tomorrow?”

You nodded, “Yeah, I’m starving.”

“I’ll see if I can make us something.”

You grinned and kissed him again. Shangqi kissed you, eyes opening briefly to see Steve standing behind you both by several feet, glaring at Shangqi with how the man held you and kissed you. At this moment, Shangqi just couldn’t help himself. He smirked as he kissed you, and he shot Steve a quick wink, just to really rub it in this face.

After all, how dare that man try to steal you away like that?

Just as Shangqi was about to walk off to the kitchen with you, and you were fully intent on ignoring Sam and Bucky for the time being, the compound doors open and you heard a loud huff and the sound of a bag hitting the floor.

“Oh, come on!” Katy shouted seeing everyone there. “Did I miss the drama already? Holy shit, dude. Old Captain America is hot. Well, I mean, previous Cap —I mean. Good job, (Y/N).”

Shangqi glared at her, “Really, Katy?”

“Uh, I mean good job now, with you, yeah. That’s what I meant.”

#shang chi x reader #shang-chi x reader #shang chi and the legend of the ten rings #shang-chi x stark!reader #shang chi x stark!reader #crazycookiecrumbles #stark!readerverse #steve x reader #steve rogers x reader #past!steve x stark!reader #past!steve x reader #platonic!clint x reader #stark!reader x platonic!clint #shangqi x reader #xu shang-chi #marvel imagine #shang chi one shot #marvel drabble

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dailytatsu · 3 years ago

Note

Hello! I saw request were open so i was wondering if i could request some headcanons of the Archons and/or the Adepti meeting a God reader who is the God of Chaos and destruction. The reader is not a Archon tho and travels all over Teyvat cuz small bits of destruction were ever they go. They're pretty mischievous and somewhat smug but despite how they act they're actually a good person. They dont mean to cause problems(most of the time anyways) chaos follows them were ever they go. Idk if you have a character limit but if you do please tell me so i wont make a mistake again. And if there is you can just do Zhongli and Xiao. Optionally could you make them a dendro user, there not a lot of dendro content and if not thats fine. I understand. Could you make the reader Gn or Non-binary they/them pronouns please? If not male reader is totally fine. Im so sorry for the long post and I hope you have a good day/night!

Ohmy, it’s my first time just writing headcanons! I’m use to write a lot, so let’s hope I did it right (^ ^' )7

Thanks for the request! ✨

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[HC] God of Chaos! Reader and the Archons + Xiao

Characters: Zhongli, Xiao, Venti, Shogun Raiden (Ei).

Gn! Reader

I tried doing it with everyone but I’m no still that confident to try writing with some characters ＿|￣|○

Sorry for any mistakes!

Request are open!

Genshin Masterlist

Second part ->

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VENTI

To be honest, he didn't notice your presence at first. He had other concerns on his mind that day to perceive the chaotic (and slightly threatening) aura that Mondstadt was infected with that day.

Barbatos is a person of habit, so he couldn't help but be curious when the crowd in front of him began to look a little agitated instead of seeming to enjoy his lyre and his songs.

But then a series of domino events appeared in front of his very eyes.

The purity of the chaos was such that he felt overwhelmed, even without the white-haired boy around, if it wasn’t Bennett fault, then how was it possible for everything to be ruined in such a short time?

His patience ended when, out of nowhere, the strings of his lyre jumped close to his face as they snapped. Making that awful noise that couldn’t mean nothing good.

Okay, enough, who is messing around in here? No more joking in his nation!

He concentrated a little, a faint but unique presence kept his nerves on edge, as if he was being watched from afar. He moved away from the busy areas and then chased that ephemeral energy to the highest point of the church, where the bells were ringing in an irregular and stressful way.

Then he found you. Snoozing against one of the columns, somewhat tired because the trip you made to reach Mondstadt.

Surprisingly, Barbatos understood you since the first exchange of words. A god of chaos who was also a free spirit, you followed no rules ever written in Teyvat, and you had no plans to apologize for the mess you made.

Both of you were Zhongli’s worst nightmare, but that’s another story.

He managed to through your arrogance and your teasing nature that you, in fact, were a lonely spirit that liked to witness the life from above of everyone.

The difference between teasing someone accidentally and committing a crime was really visible, but he still couldn't help but feel like he should scold you after your mere presence messed up with the guild's baskets full of fish.

But hey! He also enjoy the company! Venti tried to teach you how to enjoy the calm and the whisper of wind, music can also contain chaos, feelings, old stories waiting to be told again, expressions and desire united, in a wonderful piece of-

As you yawned his lyre broke up again. Making clear the message.

Okay, not even God of Freedom and Wind can control chaos. Anyways, what a tragedy, but there’s nothing a simple bard can do, smh.

“Do you like kids, don’t you?” He said once, after a nice day of hearing him sing before your chaos reached his little concert. Again watching everyone from above on the hands of the statue, with your attention caught by some kids playing tag.

“… I don’t know what do you mean.” Once discovered you had no choice but to remain defensive, pretending to be disinterested.

“Heh, you aren’t a good liar.” It may not be the wisest thing to make fun of someone who could destroy the place where you were resting, but Venti was confident that he knew you well enough to know that you were not so explosive. “You know!, I just have some pieces, but I think it’s because they are little walking concentrations of pure and innocent chaos, am I wrong?”

He wasn’t, no at all. But you would never confess something that embarrassing.

This guy wrote a ballad about the days when Mondstadt got immerse with that strike of bad luck. Kind of an apology of not being able to handle the situation.

Now there’s the rumor that says that, every time somebody sings that song, something unlucky will happen in front of you.

The song is cursed.

One night when the moon was shining on the Cider Lake his well tuned ears distinguished a melody that was broken from time to time by the accidents of his performer, distracting him of his way to look for you.

It could be painful to listen to, but Venti could certainly feel the dedication of the one who was playing the imperfect song.

The ballad of the god of chaos, hummed like a lullaby that instead of making you sleep makes you question the events of the day. Wishing for the slightest thing to be different after an exhaustive week of peace and tranquility.

A lonely spirits cursing their existence, sitting in the highest point of a stranger’s palace, where you can reach the sky by only rising your hand.

The next day, Barbatos invited you to drink some wine, this time near Windrise to avoid accidents in the city.

As he almost dropped the bottle when a lot of slimes were attracted by your presence, he confirmed the theory about that the way to spend time with you would not be his personal definition of hanging out.

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ZHONGLI

Okay, there’s only two scenarios that could happened when you set a foot in Liyue.

Old man has a soft spot for you for being a relative young deity.

Or he’s always lecturing you for not having control of your aura and powers.

How u dare bringing chaos to the nation of order? It’s that a death wish?

Jokes aside, you’re not really a threat. And he could sense that after he saw how you tried to avoid having direct contact with the city. Rex Lapis found your silhouette jumping and crossing through the mountains until reaching the fairest point that allowed you to enjoy the view of the streets that were filled with life and light as the sunsets.

He even noticed how you sighed in frustration when a storm started out of nowhere. A rain dedicated just for the arriving of the God of Chaos. Not even bothering of getting shield, you stayed in your place to look at all the people who were getting back to their places.

The rain seemed to stop over your head, for a second was enough to stop you from being cruelly swamped by the very weather you had created. An elegant umbrella covered you, the long awaited surprise you expected from someone as outdated as Morax.

You looked up, and found his expression calm and attentive, watching you. As if he had made a great discovery that he could not believe

“May I have a moment of your time to keep you company? Letting out your sorrows in the middle of a torrential storm is not what I would recommend as way to spend a good day.”

“… What are you talking about? Get in your own business, old man.”

“Well, you should know that a sorrow shared is a sorrow halved.”

Next time you knew was that he was helping you to dry your hair with a towel once you let him guide you to his place.

Zhongli picked you up like a abandoned cat that day. Even if having you near meant to deal with new the roof leaks.

Also kept you away from Hu Tao, if you two ever get along for being partners in crime he would seal himself underground-

For all the time you spend exploring Liyue, there he was. Like a little kid showing his treasures. But also like a worried father looking after his child for them not to stumble making their first steps.

Look at you! Almost crushing those Treasure Hoarders when a bunch of rocks fell down after you jumped at the edge of the cliff.

Wait, no- come back here! You should verify the surroundings and be aware of the weight of your power if you’re going to explore in that bold way. You, chaotic brat.

Another one who believed fervently that your mood was to blame for the constant chaos you caused. He also tried to show you the wonders of peace and calm, teaching you how to prepare tea while listening to the storyteller (also both being a little far away from the rest of them, just in case).

He couldn’t help but sigh when the teapot arm broke as soon as you tried to serve the tea. What a waste, he thought.

You apologized to him, kind of stressed with yourself after you took all the pieces with your bare hands to run away with them. Leaving a confused Zhongli behind.

Next day you were back, with the teapot repaired and just like new.

He let out a lot of thankful words, some flattering and a lot more cheesy things that you never had received before.

With that unexpected affection you couldn’t help but react flustered; then a cat that was chasing a bird jumped through a lot of decorations and merchandise, almost starting a fire as the chained events kept going.

Yeah,, uh, Zhongli got some useful mental notes about you and your chaos that day.

Hey, before you go, want to make a contract? You won’t regret it!

But as the wandering spirit you were you had no problems in reject his offer, but also promising that you would visit Liyue if he wanted you to.

Of course he wanted! But.. maybe next time you should stay in Huaguang Stone Forest instead of roaming near the city,,

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XIAO

Tried to kill you.

I mean, your aura is threatening and full of a destructive energy, how is possible that you weren’t a demon to eradicate??

Sorry, but he had a point.

Your first met was on your way to reach Huaguang Stone Forest along with Zhongli for introduce you with the Adeptus.

Xiao, in the other side, thought that you were about to attack Morax from behind, so he just struck against you. With his polearm near to go through your chest, just stopped because you felt him before.

Lifting your hand at his direction, summoning chaos, this time, on purpose. The wind gained a wrathful nature and the biggest roots that were hiding under his feet rose to caught him.

And when you were about to hit each other Zhongli’s shield appeared just in time to separate both of you. Preventing a real catastrophic event.

Now stop fighting and introduce to each other.

Nice(n’t) to meet u.

What if you tried to awake Azhdaha to bring chaos and destruction to Liyue? What if you wanted to summoned Osial? What if… ?

Zhongli had to confirm and promise to him that those cruel possibilities won’t be a near future for respecting the real reason of your travel.

No matter if he wasn’t comfortable with your presence, it wasn’t his decision to allow you to roam freely, so he had to get use to it.

He immediately knew after hearing about your nature that was your fault that lately there were a lot more demons and monsters. Even his karma was getting more painful than usual.

(If you ever meet Hu Tao, please think twice before doing Xiao a prank)

You both didn’t interact a lot, and being honest, it was better that way.

He hadn’t a single intention of talking with you again until the day you were practicing the song that your Anemo friend taught you. By the other hand, Xiao noticed that the melody had the same nature as the one he once heard before being consumed by the karma.

It wasn’t a flute, but a worn lyre that was still in one piece after weeks of being repaired again and again.

“That song… ”

“Do you know it?” Xiao just nodded, staying in silence, being your very first audience even if you still have a lot to learn about playing a lyre.

It wasn’t as effective as the original, but was still… nice, kind of nostalgic.

Next morning, the Yaksha called for you. Made you stay still in the middle of a plain and then he disappeared of your sight.

He abandoned y- wait, what’s that? Why those monsters has that weird dark aura?

You were about to defend yourself until Xiao appeared back just in time to defeat them.

That day you became his personal bait for demons and monsters. Naturally you attracted chaos, so anyway you were, there will be also something to fight.

I guess this is your way to pay for all the troubles you made for him and his duty, so no complaining about it.

If you ask for a unexpected experience to Ganyu she would said that once she found both of you fighting along against the catastrophe, looking after each other’s back and almost having a perfect synchrony.

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SHOGUN RAIDEN; EI

Also tried to kill you.

Well, the puppet tried to.

And then Ei tried when you had the opportunity of facing her.

But since killing a god just mean the releasing of a lot, pure, energy she couldn’t afford that risk, much less considering your “speciality”.

Who knows what would happen to Inazuma if your vital energy burst across the nation. Just like that old story about Sal Terrae and their goddess.

She just defeated you. Letting you rest and recovering in the midst of the plane of her reality within her mind. Your inert body in the middle of the battlefield as she kept meditating.

When you woke up she ignored your presence, but also denying your complaints about letting you go out back.

In her words, you were a burden, another enemy of eternity. Something as unpredictable as you and your “accidents” couldn’t get along with her utopia.

Ei could banish you from Inazuma, but she knows your type. Stubborn and not accepting the most simple orders to obey.

She knew that you would found a way to be back.

It’s better like this.

And in the hypothetical case of you being freed when she trapped the traveler (kicking you out) and then having a chance to see her again after the end of the war, then things would be somewhat different.

There’s not that much of civilization on some islands, so she allowed you to explore as much as your heart wanted. But if something serious happen, she promised that would end her work in the middle of the sea so your remains never be found.

Okay, message clear. Just do chaos near monsters and bandits, got it,,

Even if she wanted to spend some time with you and telling you some stories about Inazuma and other gods she couldn’t found the right time to call you at her presence.

As the current ruler of Inazuma she was busier than the rest of Archons you have meet. Maybe just some letters now and then like a way to keep a logbook, but not really a face to face talk.

Until she got the opportunity of a day off, just to found you messing around near some ruins. Trying to solve a puzzle before your speciality strikes in. The structure fell down after your fingertips reached the stone.

When the dust dissipated, you discovered her figure judging you from the other side of the remain ruins.

Give her a good reason for not errase you from the map, I dare u.

You felt the worst was about to come when Ei ordered you to follow her after a long sigh. Crossing her arms and starting to walk away from the bunch of old and worn rock.

Plot Twist, she actually invited you to rest under a tree, asking in her serene voice the reason for your journey and your origin. In such a direct way that it seemed more like a sentence than a talk to get to know each other better.

You answered what you could remember and then the silence stayed like the only way of interaction between you two.

Ohno, you know this pattern. Something’s about to happen-

“There is some strange beauty in the chaos, it may be the calm after the storm, but the catastrophe itself is seen as a necessary evil to appreciate the stillness. How much it would last until the lighting hit the valley?”

“So I arrived to keep order between the humans?”

Well yes, but actually no.

“… You see, if there is nothing but order and a lack of problems, mortals are likely to create them on their own. Their minds feels the need to be tested, to prove their worth, so I guess some of your chaos may be part of the history.”

“… then shall we take a walk in Inazuma?” You did not know if you were right, but you thought you saw a faint smile through his lips in the same way that lightning can be seen in the sky.

“I’ll allow it.” She said.

Her only condition was for you not to approach the huge boxes of fireworks down the street.

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simpfornatasharomanoff · 3 years ago

Text

I’m Losing You

A/N: It’s been a while, but here’s something I’ve been working on. Honestly this is just a mess of words thrown together. This hasn’t been edited/looked over, so I apologize for any mistakes!

Here’s a link to my Masterlist!

Here’s a link to my Taglist! I’ve made a new taglist because I haven’t been keeping up with my other one! So, even if you filled out the other taglist form, if you want to be tagged, please fill out the new one!

Warnings: Violence, mentions of cheating, violence (Let me know if I need to add any!!!)

Word Count: 7,850

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Reader to Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Summary: After a mission, you find your girlfriend being distant and different than before. Natasha ends up breaking up with you, now having feelings for your coworker, Bruce Banner. You find yourself being comforted by fellow Avenger, Wanda Maximoff.

“On your left!” Steve shouts, tossing his shield.

You look to your left, watching as Steve’s shield collides with a Hydra Agent. “Thanks,” You pant out.

Steve nods at you before running off into the sea of Hydra Agents.

“Is this a code green?” Bruce asks, his voice coming through the comms.

“Yes! This is a code green!” Tony replies. “It’s a never ending wave of Hydra Agents!”

“It’s reminding me of New York,” Clint says, shooting an explosive arrow. Your eyes follow the arrow, watching as it lands next to a small group of Hydra Agents before exploding.

You quickly duck down behind a turned over truck. You hold your gun tight to your chest and close your eyes. You take a deep breath, trying to calm yourself down. It was so sudden. You were all walking towards the Hydra base and all of a sudden you were all ambushed.

“Hey, are you okay?”

You open your eyes. Natasha is kneeling down in front of you, her green eyes locked on you worriedly. “Yeah, I’m fine,” You say with a nod of your head.

“Are you sure?” Natasha asks.

“I’m fine, babe,” You say. You reach forward and place your free hand on her bicep. You give her bicep a reassuring squeeze. “I promise.”

“Good,” Natasha says with a smile. “I was worried when I saw you duck back here.” A loud yell erupts in the air. You and Natasha turn your heads in the direction the yell came from. You watch as Hulk smashes into the battlefield. “I guess we should probably get back to work,” Natasha says, nodding her head towards the fight.

“Yeah, we should,,” You say, watching Natasha stand up. Natasha holds her hands out for you. You place your hand in hers and she pulls you to your feet. You and Natasha run in opposite directions, Natasha going to the left and you going to the right.

You fire your gun at every Hydra Agent you see, not even hesitating. You watch as two Hydra Agents sneak up on Wanda as she’s preoccupied with three others. You run towards Wanda, pointing your gun at one of the two Hydra Agents. You pull the trigger of your gun and moments later, the Hydra Agent falls to the ground. You reach Wanda’s position and when you point your gun at the other Hydra Agent, he slaps it out of your hands. You watch as it clatters against the dirt path. You quickly reach into your boot and pull your knife out. “They say never bring a knife to a gunfight, but I’m pretty skilled with a knife,” You say with a smirk.

You swipe forward with your knife, missing the Hydra Agent as they take a step back. You drop to one of your knees and spin, kicking your other leg out. Your leg slams against the Hydra Agents legs and they tumble backwards, falling to the ground. You quickly stand back up and throw your knife down at the Hydra Agent. Your knife lodges into the Hydra Agent’s throat.

You turn around, coming face-to-face with Wanda, who has her hands pointed at you, her red magic swirling around her hands. She relaxes and drops her hands when she notices it’s just you - a teammate. Wanda eyes you work. She looks back at you with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. “You’re so extra,” Wanda says with a roll of her eyes. “Can’t you just kill them normally?”

“What’s the fun in that?” You ask. You reach down and pick your gun up from the dirt path. “Plus, I have to impress the ladies somehow,” You say with a shrug.

Wanda rolls her eyes at you again. “Well, it isn’t impressive, it’s sloppy,” Wanda says teasingly.

“You can’t tell me you aren’t impressed!” You exclaim. You point your gun to the side and shoot a Hydra Agent without looking, sending them to the ground. “I’m very skilled.”

“I literally just told you I’m not impressed!” Wanda says. She uses her powers to slam a Hydra Agent into the wall of the nearby Hydra building. “I will admit that you are very skilled though.”

You smirk at your best friend. “Oh, I know I am!”

“Don’t get cocky now,” Wanda says with a smirk.

“Y/L/N! Pay attention!” Natasha says into the comms. “There’s an opening for you to get inside and get the intel!”

“Ooooh! You’re in trouble!” Wanda says through laughter.

It’s your turn to roll your eyes at Wanda. “Shut up!”

Wanda smiles at you. “Make me,” She teases.

You scoff at Wanda’s friendly flirting. “You wish I would.”

“I think you wish you could,” Wanda teases.

“Sure, Wands,” You reply with a nudge to her shoulder. “I’ll catch you after I get the intel,” You say, backing away from Wanda. As you pass the Hydra Agent you killed with your knife, you pull the knife out of their throat. You wipe the blood onto your pants before shoving the knife back into your boot.

“Be careful!” Wanda shouts.

“You know me! I will be!” You shout back. You smile at Wanda before turning and running to the entrance of the Hydra building.

You ready your gun and enter the building. You slide against the wall and peek your head around the corner, looking for any Hydra Agents. Seeing that the way is clear, you pull yourself from the wall and turn the corner. You walk through the halls of the Hydra building, peeking around every corner before you continue to move. You move to the stairwell and climb the stairs two at a time. You reach the third floor and exit the stairwell. You walk swiftly to the end of the hallway. Once you reach the end of the hallway, you enter the room on the left, closing the door behind you.

Your eyes scan the room, spotting the computer in the back corner of the room. You walk over to the computer and pull the flash drive from your pocket. You shove it into the computer and start typing. You watch as the downloading bar appears on the computer screen. Almost immediately, a red light starts flashing and an alarm starts blaring throughout the building. “Not good,” You mutter to yourself.

“Y/L/N, what’s going on?” Tony’s voice comes through your comms.

You watch as the downloading bar fills slowly, moving pixel by pixel. “As soon as the downloading started, the alarms went off. They must have some sort of security system so they’re notified.” You curse at yourself mentally for not checking before you started the download.

“How much longer on the download?” Steve asks.

Your eyes move back to the download bar, it’s not even halfway. “It’s gonna be a few moments.” You look up towards the door as you hear running footsteps approach. “Go wait in the quinjet. I’ll be making a hasty exit and we should be ready to leave.”

“Copy that,” Clint says. “You heard Y/L/N, everyone to the quinjet!”

The door bursts open and you immediately aim your gun. You shoot at the Hydra Agents as they pour into the room. You reach down to your belt for another ammo clip, only to find you don’t have another. “Fuck!” You duck down behind the desk. Bullets lodge into the desk as the Hydra Agents continue to spray their bullets in your direction. You don’t see another exit, the way you came is the only one. You look down at your belt, looking at the grenades strapped to it. “Guess that’ll do,” You whisper.

You look up and eye the download bar. “Come on, almost there,” You mutter to yourself, watching as the download bar is almost full. As soon as the download bar completes, you reach up and grab the flash drive and shove it into your pocket. You grab a grenade from your belt and pull the pin. You stand up and throw the grenade through the doorway before quickly ducking back down behind the desk.

“Grenade!” One of the Hydra Agents shouts. You hear the scramble of all of the Hydra Agents’ boots. Unfortunately for them, the grenade goes off before they get the chance to evacuate.

You glance over the top of the desk. Seeing that it’s clear you quickly rise to your feet. You run towards the doorway, picking up a gun off of one of the dead Hydra Agents on the way. You look at the hole in the floor, caused by the grenade and all the dead Hydra Agents. You take a deep breath and quickly make your way to the stairwell at the other end of the hallway. You quickly run down the stairs, jumping down to the last landing. You shoot at any Hydra Agents you pass, but there’s just too many.

You take off running, quickly exiting the building, plenty of Hydra Agents following you. You run towards the quinjet, pumping your legs as fast as you can. Your lungs cry for you to stop, but you can’t. You finally make it to the quinjet and run inside. “Clint! Go!” The quinjet ramp closes and the quinjet takes off.

You look around the quinet, your eyes search for Natasha. You see her sitting off to the side with Bruce, running one of her hands up and down his back. You notice Natasha’s other hand is placed over her abdomen. You walk over to her and kneel down in front of her. “Let me look,” You say, gently pulling her hand from her stomach.

“I’m fine,” Natasha says. She gently slaps your hand away, before placing her hand back over her abdomen. “It’s just some bruising.”

“Babe, just let me take a look,” You say, reaching for her abdomen again.

“I said I’m fine!” Natasha says coldly. She continues to calm Bruce down, her hand never leaving his back.

You’re taken back at Natasha’s tone and you’re slightly embarrassed that she would talk to you like that in front of everyone. You rise to your feet and take a step back. “Okay.” You turn on your feet and head to the front of the quinjet. “Here you go, Tony,” You say, tossing him the flashdrive when you pass him.

You reach the front of the quinet and you plop down into the co-pilot seat next to Clint. You huff and slouch, crossing your arms over your chest as you look out at the clouds.

“Are you going to be grouchy the entire trip home?” Clint asks, glancing over at you. “Because if you are, can you move to the back?”

You look over at Clint, slightly smiling at his teasing smile. “Well now I think I should be grouchy just to annoy you,” You tease the archer.

“So are you going to tell me why you’re grouchy?” Clint asks.

“I’m not grouchy,” You mumble.

Clint rolls his eyes. “And I’m a terrible archer,” Clint replies sarcastically.

You sigh and look out of the quinjet, looking at the clouds again. “It’s Natasha.”

“What about Natasha?” Clint asks, glancing at you.

“She’s being...she won’t let me look at her injury.” You look back over at Clint.

“That’s just Natasha,” Clint says with a shrug.

“Yeah,” You say, turning to glance over your shoulder. You see Bruce kneeled down in front of Natasha, looking at the cut on her abdomen. “Then why is she letting Bruce help her?” You ask, turning around to look back at Clint.

Clint glances back, looking at Bruce. “I couldn’t tell you,” Clint says, focusing his attention back on the sky.

“Natasha has been getting really close with Bruce now that she knows how to calm him down when he’s green.” You say with a clench of your jaw.

“You’re jealous.”

The new voice startles you and you jump in your chair. You lean your head against the headrest of your chair and turn your head to look at the new person. “I’m not jealous, Wanda,” You say with a roll of your eyes. “I know Natasha loves me.”

“You seem so sure of that,” Wanda says teasingly.

“Are you good to get us home?” Clint asks. “I think I might try to get some sleep before we land.”

“Yeah, I got it. Go get some sleep, old man,” You say with a grin.

“Thanks,” Clint says. He stands up and heads to the back of the quinjet.

Wanda quickly takes Clint’s seat. She watches you for a few moments as you pilot the quinjet. “You’re bleeding,” Wanda says. She points to your arm where blood drips from under your short sleeve. You were so focused on finishing the mission and making it out of the building alive that you forgot about the bullet that wedged into your shoulder.

“I’m fine.”

Wanda narrows her eyes at you. “No you’re not. You got shot!”

You pull your hands from the quinjet controls for a moment. You rip the bottom of your dirt and blood covered, mission shirt and pull a long piece. “Here,” You hold the strip of fabric out to Wanda. “This will do until we get back home.”

Wanda hesitantly grabs the tattered piece of cloth. She would much rather patch you up now with the medical kit onboard the quinjet. But knowing you would refuse, Wanda lifts the sleeve of your shirt to your shoulder and wraps the cloth around your wound. “You’re bleeding a lot.”

“I’m fine,” You look over at Wanda and give her a reassuring smile.

Wanda looks at you and leans towards you. She sets her hand on your lower arm and gently squeezes. “I know you are.” Wanda smiles at you.

“I love you, Wands.”

“I love you too, Y/N.”

---

You land the quinjet and you and Wanda wait for everyone in the back to get off of the quinjet. You slowly stand up and you sway a little. You put your hands on Wanda’s biceps to stabilize yourself and to try and get the quinjet to stop spinning.

Wanda immediately grabs your shoulders, gripping tightly. “Are you okay?”

“I’m f-”

“You’re not,” Wanda interrupts.

“Perhaps not,” You agree.

“What’s wrong?” Wanda asks.

“I’m...dizzy,” You say. “I think it’s-”

“The blood loss,” Wanda cuts you off.

“Yeah,” You breathe out. Your head falls against Wanda’s shoulder as the dizziness hits you harder.

“Hey, come on. Let’s get you to the med bay,” Wanda says. She runs her hands from your shoulder and down to your waist.

“I’m tired,” You whisper, making no effort to move.

“I know,” Wanda says. “We need to get you medical attention.” You nod against Wanda’s shoulder.

“I know, I just need a moment.” You and Wanda stand in silence while Wanda rubs tiny circles on your waist.

Wanda feels your shoulders slump against her. “Y/N?” Wanda looks over you.

“‘M fine,” You slur.

Wanda gently lifts your head with her hand, looking over your face. Your eyes are half open and you're the palest she’s ever seen you. “I’ve got you,” Wanda says. She wraps one of your arms over her shoulder and wraps one of hers around your waist. Wanda starts to lead you out of the quinjet. “Come on, help me out a little,” Wanda says, when you let your feet drag along the floor.

Wanda manages to get you into the elevator and you lean on her more. You let your head fall sideways and onto Wanda’s shoulder. “Wands, I’m tired,” You whine.

“I know,” Wanda says. She takes her hand not wrapped around your waist and brushes your hair behind your ear. “We’re almost there, just hang in, okay?”

“Okay,” You say with a nod.

The elevator doors slide open and Wanda quickly helps you to the medical bay. “Y/N has a GSW to the shoulder. She’s lost a lot of blood!” Wanda announces to the closest doctor.

“Follow me!” The doctor says, quickly walking away. Wanda follows the doctor. The doctor leads you and Wanda to a room. “Set her there!” The doctor points to the hospital bed in the middle of the room.

Wanda gently sets you down on the edge of the hospital bed. You immediately slump back, falling against the bed. Wanda rounds the side of the bed and grasps your hand. You look up at Wanda and give her a small smile. Wanda reciprocates the smile and squeezes your hand. You let your eyes close and let darkness take over.

---

The doctor kicked Wanda out of the room as soon as you passed out. Wanda looked over the nurse’s shoulder as she gently shoved Wanda out of the room. She saw your unconscious figure and started to panic. You, Wanda’s best friend, is not okay. That scared Wanda. The nurse closed the door in Wanda’s face and that’s when Wanda came to her senses. She needed to tell Natasha about your current state.

Wanda searches throughout the compound, looking for the redhead assassin. Wanda finds Natasha in her room, with her shirt pulled up slightly to look at the bruising on her abdomen. Wanda looks at Natasha and nervously scratches the back of her neck, not knowing how to tell Natasha that her girlfriend is about to have emergency surgery.

“Wanda, what’s up?” Natasha asks, dropping her shirt to let it fall back in place.

“It’s Y/N,” Wanda says.

Natasha snaps her head up to look at Wanda, her eyes wide in fear. “What about Y/N? Is she okay?”

“Y/N is having emergency surgery,” Wanda says.

“What?” Natasha jumps to her feet. “What...What happened?”

“She got shot in the shoulder and lost a lot of blood.”

“Shit!” Natasha runs to her doorway. She stops and turns to look at Wanda “Thank you for telling me!” Natasha takes off running.

---

You blink your eyes open, quickly closing them as the bright lights blind you. You squint your eyes open, letting them adjust to the light before fully opening them. Your eyes flicker around the room. Your eyes meet emerald green ones and you smile.

Natasha stands up from the chair she’s sitting in and she grabs your hand. “Y/N, I rushed over here as soon as Wanda told me what happened. I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you sooner.” Natasha brings your interlocked fingers up and places a gentle kiss against your hand.

“Maybe if you weren’t spending so much time with Bruce, you would’ve been,” You say, jaw clenching as you remember the events on the quinjet.

Natasha’s eyes widen for a moment before she relaxes her face. Her hand slips out of yours and she crosses her arms over her chest. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” You mutter.

“No, tell me,” Natasha says, her voice stern.

“It doesn’t matter,” You say.

“Right,” Natasha says. “Well if it doesn’t matter, I’m leaving.” Natasha turns her back towards you, heading towards the door. “Feel better.”

You watch as Natasha leaves the room and groans in frustration. You sit up in the bed, groaning at the pulling pain in your shoulder. You look at the IV in your arm and yank it out, wincing at the slight pain. You swing your legs over the side of the bed and stand up. You see a spare set of clothes sitting on one of the chairs and quickly change into them. You struggle to pull your shirt on, but manage to get it on with a lot of pain shooting through your shoulder. Just as you’re about to exit the room, the door opens and you take a step back.

“Y/N? What are you doing out of bed?” Wanda asks, rushing over to you. She gently places her hands on your arms and leads you back to the bed. She sits you down on the bed.

“Wanda, I’m fine,” You say, gently swatting her hands away from you.

Wanda huffs. “Yeah, you said that four hours ago on the quinjet and look where you ended up.”

“I really am fine this time,” You say. “Just a little pain.”

“I saw Natasha leave. She looked pissed.” Wanda sits down next to you on the bed. She grabs your hand and pulls it into her lap so she can play with your fingers. “What happened?”

You sigh. “Just a little argument.”

Wanda knows better than to push you, you would tell her more when you’re ready. The two of you sit in a comfortable silence. Wanda finally breaks the silence.

“I was really worried about you,” Wanda admits. “You really scared me.”

You look over at Wanda. “I’m sorry.” You sigh and set your head on Wanda’s shoulder. “You know you can’t get rid of me that easily,” You joke.

Wanda smiles and stops playing with your fingers. Instead, she interlocks her fingers with yours. “I know. Never scare me like that again.”

“I promise,” You say, squeezing her hand.

---

Over the next few days, you started to notice that Natasha was spending less time with you. You figured it was because of your short argument, but it didn’t mean it hurt any less. You also started to notice that Natasha was starting to spend more time with Bruce. The first time you noticed it was at dinner one night.

You sit down in your usual spot, greeting your friends as you sit down. You smile at Natasha, but soon frown when she sits down next to Bruce instead of you. Wanda sits next to you instead. You smile at Wanda. You ignore most of the conversation at dinner, spending most of the time wondering why Natasha didn’t sit next to you.

The next time you notice it is when you’re finally able to train again. You walk into the training room with Steve at your side. “Are you ready to get back to training?” Steve asks.

“Yeah, I can’t wait!” You say with a smile. “It’s been too long!” Your smile drops when you see Natasha and Bruce on the other side of the training room. Natasha told you she couldn’t train with you because she was busy.

“Come on!” Steve says, stepping onto the mat he set up. “I’m ready to kick your ass!” Steve jokes.

You laugh. “In your dreams Rogers!”

You notice it again during Avengers movie night. You sit down on the couch, looking at Natasha hopefully when she walks into the room. She sits down on the opposite side of the couch and you frown. Bruce walks into the room and plops down in between you and Natasha. You sigh and move to the empty armchair on the other side of the room. Halfway through the movie, you saw Bruce and Natasha cuddling together. You couldn’t take seeing them so close together and you left.

The next and last time you notice it is when you’re walking to the kitchen one morning. You hear laughter as you approach the kitchen, you smile when you notice that it’s Natasha who is laughing. You frown a moment later when you hear Bruce’s laugh. You stop in your steps, not sure if you want to walk into the kitchen while they’re both there together. You sigh and turn around.

“When are you going to break up with her?” Bruce asks.

Your ears perk up at Bruce’s words.

“Bruce, Y/N and I have been together for three years. It’s not that easy,” Natasha says with a sigh.

You hear your heartbeat in your ears. Was Natasha really planning on breaking up with you?

“I know. I just feel bad doing this to her behind her back. She doesn’t deserve it,” Bruce says. “I see the way she looks at us when we’re together. She’s sad.”

You turn back around and face the kitchen. You take a deep breath. You walk into the kitchen and immediately lock eyes with Natasha, who is sitting on top of the counter. She looks away, looking down at her cup of coffee.

“Good morning, Y/N, how are y-”

“Shut up!” You say, pointing your finger at Bruce.

“Woah, no need to be hostile,” Bruce chuckles nervously, holding his hands up in surrender.

“Leave,” You say, looking at Bruce. “Now.”

“Uh yeah, I was just leaving anyway,” Bruce says awkwardly.

You watch as Bruce leaves the kitchen. Once he’s out of sight, you look back up at Natasha. You watch Natasha, her eyes are still locked on her cup of coffee. “Look at me,” You say. You wait a moment. “Please,” You beg. Natasha hesitantly lifts her eyes from her mug and looks at you. “You’re planning on breaking up with me?” You ask.

Natasha’s shoulders slump and she sighs. “You heard?”

You close your eyes. “It’s true?” You ask, your voice wavering.

“You weren’t supposed to find out like this,” Natasha says. “I’m sorry.”

You open your eyes, seeing that Natasha is still looking at you. “You’re leaving me...for Bruce?” You clench your fists.

Natasha sighs. “Y/N, I-”

“Then do it,” You cut Natasha off.

“What?” Natasha asks. Natasha raises her eyebrows at you.

“If you’re going to break up with me, then do it,” You say, looking Natasha dead in the eyes. “

Natasha sets her coffee cup down next to her and hops off of the counter. She walks over to you, stopping right in front of you. “Y/N, I am so, so sorry. I never wanted it to happen.”

“Just get it over with, break up with me,” You say, your voice cracking.

Natasha looks at you sadly. “I’m breaking up with you,” Natasha says, her voice cracking just as much as yours.

You inhale a shaky breath, wishing, hoping this was some kinda nightmare. But when Natasha grabs your hands and holds them in hers, you know it’s real. You quickly snatch your hands from hers like you’ve been burned. “You…” You pause and take a deep breath. “You were supposed to be my forever,” You say. “But instead, you fell out of love with me and fell in love with him.” Without another word, you turn on your heels and leave. You pass Bruce, who was waiting outside of the kitchen. You grab Bruce by the collar of his shirt and press him against the wall. “If you hurt Natasha, you will regret it.” Bruce nods and you let him go before walking away.

---

Not too much later, you find yourself in the empty training room. You walk to the corner where the punching bag is hanging from the ceiling. You look at your hands, deciding you don’t need to wrap them. You start punching it, starting with light punches.

You run through the halls of the compound. “Excuse me! Sorry!” You say, shoving past people. You skid around the corner and burst into the medical bay. Your eyes frantically search for the closest nurse. “Excuse me, sir!” You call out, rushing over to the nurse.

“Y/N, how may I help you?” The nurse asks. “You’re not injured, are you?”

“Natasha,” You breathe out. “Where is she? How is she? Can I see her? Please tell me something!”

“Take a deep breath,” The nurse says. “Natasha is fine.” You breathe out a sigh of relief. “I can take you to see her now.” You follow the nurse to Natasha’s room, and he leaves you standing in front of the door.

You take a deep breath as you gently push the door open. Your breath catches in your throat as you see all of the wires connected to Natasha. You step into the room and close the door behind you. You walk to the side of the hospital bed and sit down in one of the chairs. You grab Natasha’s hand and run your thumb over her bruised knuckles. “Get better, Nat. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

You’re not sure exactly how long it’s been, but a small tug on your hand has you jolting awake. Your eyes are wide as you look around, your eyes meeting emerald green ones. “Natasha!” You exclaim.

Natasha smiles at you. “Hey,” She whispers. “How long have you been here?”

“I’m not sure,” You reply honestly. “I ran here as soon as Steve called me.”

“Weren’t you in the city?” Natasha asks.

“I was,” You say, with a nod. “But there was too much traffic for me to take a taxi back here, so I ran.”

“I can’t believe you ran from the city,” Natasha says with a small laugh.

“I had to! I care about you and… and I was really worried about you!”

“You were worried about me?” Natasha asks.

“Yes!” You exclaim. “I really like you Natasha and you’re a big part of my life. You mean so much to me. If I were to lose you, I think I would lose myself too. When I say I really like you, I like, really, really like you, like I-”

“Y/N,” Natasha cuts you off.

“Yeah?” You ask.

“Kiss me.”

“What?” You ask, taken off guard.

“I said, kiss me.”

You scratch the back of your neck nervously. “Nat-” Natasha grabs the front of your shirt and pulls you closer to her. She crashes her lips against yours. It takes you a moment but you kiss her back. You pull back and press your forehead against Natasha’s. “Wow,” You breathe out.

Natasha chuckles at you. “Wow indeed.”

“What uhm, what does this mean for us?” You ask, looking into her eyes.

“Whatever you want it to mean,” Natasha says.

You smile. “Let’s see where it takes us, how about that?”

Natasha grabs your hand. “I like the sound of that.”

You punch at the punching bag harder, feeling your knuckles split open.

You and Natasha are walking through the park with your fingers interlocked together. You swing your hands in between the two of you. Snow gently falls from the sky above.

“You know,” Natasha says, turning her head to look at you. “I don’t know what I would do without you in my life.”

“Yeah?” You ask with a smile on your face.

Natasha nods. “I love you.” Natasha smiles at you. “You don’t have to say it back if you’re not ready, but I love you.”

You stop in your tracks and pull Natasha to a stop. You pull Natasha into you and rest your forehead against hers. “I love you too,” You say, looking into Natasha’s eyes.

“Yeah?” Natasha asks, repeating your question from earlier.

“So fucking much,” You say before crashing your lips against hers.

You’re pulled out of your thoughts when a sharp pain surges through your hand. You stop your punches and look down at your hands. Blood trickles out of your knuckles and two of your fingers on your left hand are definitely broken. You turn your back to the wall and lean against it. You slide down the wall and pull your knees to your chest, hugging them tightly. You hate that you feel so much pain, but feel so numb at the same time.

---

You’re not sure how long you’ve been sitting on the floor of the training room, staring off into the distance and thinking about your favorite moments with Natasha. But you’re pulled out of it when someone kneels down in front of you. You focus your eyes and see Wanda.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Wanda asks with a concerned look. Wanda brings her hands up to your face and cups your cheeks. She runs her thumbs over your cheeks, wiping away your tears - you hadn’t even noticed that you were crying. “What happened?” Wanda notices the way you clench your jaw at her question. She searches your eyes for anything, but she’s met with a blank stare.

Wanda pulls her hands from your face and moves to sit next to you. She knows you’ll tell her when you’re ready and she’s willing to sit here all day if she has to. Wanda grabs one of your hands, and when she does, she gasps at your bloody knuckles. “What happened?” Wanda glances at your face before looking back at your hand. She grabs at your other hand, noticing that one is in the same condition.

“Punched the punching bag,” You say with a shrug.

“Without wrapping your hands?” Wanda asks. She’s surprised - she knows you’re not this reckless, knowing you need to be in pristine condition to have successful missions.

You nod. “Yeah.” You let out a deep sigh.

“Y/N, please talk to me,” Wanda pleads. “What happened?”

You look down at your feet, staring at the laces of your shoes. “Natasha, uhm she broke up with me,” You say, your voice cracking.

Wanda’s eyes widen at the information. “What?”

“She… She’s with Bruce,” You lift your head and look over at Wanda. “She left me for Bruce.”

“Are you okay?” Wanda asks. She knows it’s a dumb question, but she’s never seen you like this and your calmness about the situation scares her.

“I don’t think so,” You admit.

“How about this,” Wanda says. “I’ll get your hands cleaned up and then we can go back to my room and watch movies for the rest of the day.”

“Okay.” You nod.

Wanda stands up and holds her hand out for you. You place your hand in hers and she pulls you to your feet. You follow Wanda out of the training room, following her through the compound. Your heart aches when you pass Natasha and Bruce cuddling in the living room.

You reach Wanda’s room and she opens the door, letting you in and following in behind you. She closes the door and watches as you stand at the foot of the bed, wrapping your arms around yourself. Wanda goes into the bathroom and returns to her bedroom with a first aid kit moments later. Wanda sits on the edge of the bed and pats the spot next to her. You sit down and look down at your hands.

Wanda sets the first aid kit down next to her and opens it. She grabs an alcohol wipe. “Let me see,” Wanda says gently, motioning to your hands. You hold one of your hands out to Wanda and she gently grabs it. She presses the alcohol wipe to your knuckles and your hand flinches as you wince. “Sorry,” Wanda apologizes.

In a few minutes, your knuckles are clean and your two broken fingers are taped together with medical tape. Wanda cleans up the mess of dirty alcohol wipes and moves back to the bathroom to put the first aid kit away. Wanda sits at the top of her bed, resting against the headboard. “Come here,” Wanda says with a smile.

You move to the top of the bed and sit next to Wanda. “What do you want to watch?” Wanda asks, picking up the television remote.

“Whatever is fine,” You say with a shrug.

Wanda puts on some comedy movie and you find yourself cuddled up with Wanda. Your head is on her chest and your arm is sprawled across her stomach. Wanda runs her fingers through your hair. Your eyes are fixed on the television, but you’re not paying attention. Your thoughts are still on Natasha and how she broke up with you for Bruce. You feel your heart break again at the thought.

“Wanda,” You whisper.

“Yes?” Wanda asks softly.

“I don’t think I’m okay,” You say, feeling tears run down your face.

Wanda moves her hand from your hair and places it on your shoulder. Wanda feels her own heart break when she notices your shoulders shake as you sob. Wanda moves her hands down to your waist and pulls you into her lap. Wanda holds you tightly, wrapping her arms around you. You bury your face in the crook of her neck, watching your tears drip onto her shirt. Wanda shifts her hands from your waist to your back and runs her hands up and down. “It’s okay, you’ll be okay.”

---

Much like you found Natasha spending more time with Bruce, you found yourself spending more time with Wanda. Wanda is your best friend, so of course, you’re happy about that. You still found it hard when you would bump into Natasha in the compound, especially when Bruce was with her, but Wanda was always there to help you through those tough moments.

“How’s your hand feeling?” Wanda asks. The two of you are currently walking to the training room together.

“It’s a lot better,” You say, flexing your hand. “My knuckles and my broken fingers feel a lot better.”

“That’s good!” Wanda smiles at you.

“Maybe that means you’ll stop taking it easy on me when we spar,” You say, bumping Wanda’s shoulder with yours.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Wanda says with a smirk.

You roll your eyes at Wanda. “Sure you don’t,” You say sarcastically. You push the door to the training room open and walk in. “I want a challenge, Wanda.”

“Oh, you want a challenge?” Wanda asks with a smirk. “I can give you a challenge.”

You stop in your tracks when you see Natasha and Bruce training on the other side of the room. Natasha swiftly takes Bruce down in one move and they laugh about something as she helps Bruce back to his feet.

“Hey,” Wanda steps in front of you, blocking your view of the couple. “Don’t pay attention to them.” Wanda sets her hands on your arms and gently squeezes them. “Focus on how I’m about to kick your ass.”

You chuckle at Wanda’s joke. “In your dreams, Wands.” You and Wanda set up a mat in the middle of the training room. You didn’t notice, but Wanda definitely stared at your biceps while you carried the mat.

You and Wanda step onto the mat and stand across from each other. You both ready your fists. “Ready for your challenge?” Wanda asks with a smirk.

“I’m always ready,” You reply with a smirk of your own.

Wanda is the first to move. She swiftly steps forward and throws a punch at your face. You quickly sidestep, barely managing to dodge Wanda’s punch, watching as her fist flies past your face. Before you can even think, Wanda’s other fist connects with the side of your face. You quickly shake your head, trying to rid the pain that surges through your face. You look over at Wanda, seeing that she has a cocky smirk on her face.

You pull your arm back and surge it forward, throwing a punch at Wanda’s face. Wanda is quick and catches your fist just before it connects with her face. “Nice try,” Wanda says with a smirk. And before you can even blink, your back slams against the mat below you. Wanda falls on top of you, pinning your hands to the mat. When you finally catch your breath, you realize how close Wanda is, you can feel her breath on your neck.

“How’s that for a challenge?” Wanda whispers.

“Y..yeah, it was a good challenge,” You stutter out. “You kicked my ass.”

“Like I said I would,” Wanda says. “And I’ll do it again.” Wanda climbs off of you. “Yeah, you think you can?” You ask with a smirk. You prop yourself up on your elbows.

“What’re you smirking at?” Wanda asks, crossing her arms over her chest and looking down at you.

You quickly move your foot, sweeping Wanda’s feet out from under her. Wanda slams into the mat, just like you did moments earlier. Wanda quickly sits up and glares while you laugh. “That was cheap!” Wanda exclaims.

You sit up and pull your legs to your chest. You rest your head on your knees. “I saw my chance and took it,” You say with a shrug.

Wanda smiles at you. The two of you sit in silence, just staring at each other. “Come on,” Wanda says, breaking the silence and climbing to her feet. “I still have to kick your ass again.”

Wanda holds her hand out for you. You grab Wanda’s hand and she pulls you to your feet. She quickly twists you around and pulls your back into her before wrapping her arms around your head and holding you in a headlock. “I can take cheap shots too,” Wanda whispers in your ear.

---

“You and Wanda seem close.”

You look up with a sigh and roll your eyes. You shove the flash drive into the computer. “Wanda is my best friend,” You say, looking back at the computer screen. You type a few things and watch as a download bar pops up.

“The two of you seem like you’re more than friends.”

“What’re you, jealous?” You ask, glancing over at Natasha. “Because last I checked, you broke up with me. You don’t have the right to be jealous.”

“I’m not jealous,” Natasha says, looking out of the small window on the door.

“Right,” You scoff. “Why do you care?

“I still care about you, Y/N,” Natasha says. “I just want to make sure you know what you’re doing.”

“Look,” You watch the download bar move across the computer screen. “You don’t get to comment on my dating life.”

“So you and Wanda are dating?” Natasha asks.

“No!” You look over at Natasha. “And if Wanda and I were dating, it’s none of your business.”

“I still want to be friends,” Natasha says, looking over at you.

You sigh. “I’m not saying that can’t happen,” You take the flash drive out of the computer as the download bar completes and shove it into your pocket. “It’s going to take some time.” You walk over towards Natasha.

Natasha nods. “That’s unders-”

“Nat, get down!” You shove Natasha and tackle her to the ground just in time to dodge the bullets that come flying through the door.

Natasha is quick to grab the back of your head and pull it towards her chest to protect it from the bullets. The bullets finally come to a stop and you quickly get off of Natasha and pull your gun from the holster strapped to your thigh. Natasha quickly gets to her feet and readies her gun.

You look at each other. “Ready?” Natasha asks. You nod and Natasha opens the door and the two of you immediately start firing at the Hydra Agents. Soon enough, you and Natasha take the Hydra Agents out.

Your breaths come heavy and tears start to block your vision. “Nat?” Natasha looks at you. You bring shaky hands to your abdomen and pull them away, looking at the crimson covering them.

“Fuck,” Natasha mutters. She’s at your side in a second. She immediately runs to your side. “Y/L/N is down,” Natasha informs the group. You drop to your knees and Natasha wraps her arm around your waist and helps you back to your feet. “Come on, Y/N, stay with me,” Natasha says, placing your arm around her shoulders.

You mumble something incoherent and Natasha glances at you, noticing how pale you are. Natasha starts leading you out of the building, shooting every Hydra Agent the two of you come across. Natasha successfully gets you out of the building and the moment your feet touch the pavement, you collapse to the ground, catching yourself on your hands and knees. Natasha is quick to kneel down next to you.

“Nat,” You whisper, looking at her with teary eyes.

“It’s okay, I’m right here,” Natasha says. “We need to get you to the quinjet.”

You nod, “I’m just… so tired.”

“I know, but you can do it,” Natasha says. “I’ll be with you every step of the way.” Natasha helps you back to your feet, once again placing her arm around your waist and your arm around her shoulders.

“I’m sorry,” You gasp out as Natasha starts walking.

“We’re not doing this,” Natasha says.

“I don’t want to lose you,” You say. “Even as a friend. I-” You’re cut off by a cough ripping through your throat. You bring your hand up and wipe your mouth with the back of it, riding the blood that came with the cough. “You mean a lot to me and I will always love you.”

“Stop,” Natasha says. “You can tell me all of this after we make it back to the compound and you’re safe.” Natasha is quick to get you to the quinjet, and as soon as you step on, Wanda is at your other side and she helps Natasha lay you down across a few of the seats.

Wanda kneels down next to you with tears running down her face. She leans her forehead against yours. “Please you have to be okay,” Wanda begs. “

“Wands,” You give her a small smile. “I’ll be okay.”

“You can’t leave me,” Wanda says, looking into your eyes.

“I won’t,” You say weakly, grabbing her hand with yours.

“I love you,” Wanda says.

“I love you too, Wanda.” You squeeze her hand.

“I don’t think you understand,” Wanda says. “I love you.”

You weakly nod. “I know,” You say. “And I love you.”

That’s the last thing you say before everything goes dark.

---

You let out a soft groan and slowly open your eyes. You close your eyes and sink further down into the bed.

“Hey.”

You open your eyes and turn your head towards the voice. “Wanda,” You whisper. Wanda smiles at you. You notice her features and notice that she looks exhausted. “How long have you been here?”

“Two days.”

Your eyes widen. “Two days? Wanda, you need to go get some rest!”

“I needed to make sure you were okay,” Wanda says with a small smile. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I got shot in the abdomen,” You tease. “I’m fine for now, but I’m sure that’s the meds in my system.”

Wanda grabs your hand. “I’m glad you’re okay. I was really scared that you weren’t going to make it.”

You give Wanda’s hand a gentle squeeze. “I’m okay, Wands, I’m right here.”

Wanda nods. “I know.”

The two of you sit in silence for a moment, until Wanda finally breaks it.

“Did you mean it?” Wanda asks, looking at you.

“What I said on the quinjet?” You ask. Wanda nods her head. “Wands, I love you so fucking much.”

Wanda smiles at you. “Lucky for you, I also love you very much.”

“You call it lucky, I call it unlucky,” You joke.

Wanda slaps your arm playfully. “Not nice!”

“I’m kidding!” You laugh. “All jokes aside, I want to give us a go.”

“Are you asking me out?” Wanda asks with a smirk. “Because you’re not selling it.”

You roll your eyes at Wanda.

“Wanda, oh glorious Wanda, will you give me the pleasure and date me?”

Wanda acts like she’s thinking for a moment. “You know what, I think I could, yeah.”

“Are you accepting?” You ask. “Because you’re not selling it,” You repeat Wanda’s words.

“Yes, Y/N, I would love to date you.” Wanda smiles at you.

---

Taglist: @peggycarter-steverogers @womenlovingwomen-imagines @b-5by5 @natasha-danvers @crispykidcookiebasketball @kaitlynroseb @diaryoflife @haughtlikehell @feescher @marvelwomen-simp @d14n4ol @lilclownx @ymzki-haruki @feescher @hi-i-1 @tbpandtswiftfan @claudiaatje @midnight-lestrange @jellyfishbeansontoast @peabrain112 @supersourlemon13 @madamevirgo @fazebaconneggs @mcytpogmoment @xxromanoffxx @blurryylines @ilovemarvelwomen @natashaandwandaswife @midnight-is-lost @strangegardentaco @bubblegum18 @suki-is-a-queen

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lilxberry · 3 years ago

Text

Cap Doesn’t Like Bullies - Steve Rogers

Synopsis;

Your daughter meets her biggest hero to which you’re completely oblivious to the fact during the entire encounter. Her confidence certainly didn’t waver like you had expected it would of a child meeting someone such as Captain America.

Bruh I’m in love with him. LOOK AT HIS FACE!

Warnings: FLUFF! Rude ass stranger. A lil bit o’ language. A sassy child.

Words: 3,305

Pairings: Steve Rogers x Reader (female reader) (single mom!reader)

(A/N: I named the daughter Kira but you can happily change it. It’s just a name I can easily associate with a child for some reason lmao.)

(A/N 2: I fixed as many mistakes I could find and hopefully, it’ll be more bearable to read lmao.)

Chapter 2 >

_______________

“Mommy,” Kira, your little girl whined.

“Yes baby?” You swung your conjoined hands widely causing her to giggle which in turn, made you smile.

“Can we go to the park today?” Her Captain America backpack bounced on her shoulders with each step. The mostly blue bag clashed yet also complimented the very pink, puffy coat that she wore.

You looked down at her with a raised eyebrow as you watched her for a reaction. “Really? In this weather?”

Kira threw her head back and groaned before exasperatingly replying as if it were the most obvious thing she could have ever spoken. “YES! If we’re at the park, I’ll want to run around and running around will keep me warm. It’s always cold at home but you won’t let me run around.”

A smart little drama queen.

You desperately tried to hide your amusement because you know if she senses that you hadn’t taken her seriously, even more dramatics would be added. “That’s because we can’t run around inside. We might-“

“We might break something. I KNOW! Ugh…” Her feet drag slightly as she walks. She huffs and lowers her head, watching her feet as you move along the sidewalk. You smirk ever so slightly as you watch the top of her head which adorned a woolly hat in an attempt to keep her warm in the season of winter.

“We can go to the park-“ She perked up instantly with a gasp, looking up at you with wide, hopeful eyes. “ONLY, and only, if we can get burgers, too.”

She pauses her steps and looks up at you with a stern, serious expression as she thrusts her hand forward, prompting you to take a hold of it. “You’ve got yourself a deal!” Kira shook your hand firmly and rapidly before she began to pull you along in the direction of the park that was honestly too cold to be sat in.

You huffed a chuckle as you allowed your 6 year old to pull you along the pavements and closer to the large open space of the park.

_______________

The inside of the small Brooklyn burger joint was certainly warmer than the harsh weather that lashed at your face and every inch of exposed skin at the park. Your daughters face matched her coat in colour by the time you reached the building.

Waiting in line, your daughter wormed her hands out of the sparkly knitted gloves, stuffing them in her coat pocket before tearing her hat off of her head and stuffing that in the other available pocket. You chuckled as she tried to brush the mess of locks down with her hands and the cheesy grin she flashed you only made your laugh more.

The missing baby tooth at the forefront of her mouth adding a funny effect to the adorable face you had the tendency to squish between your hands tenderly.

The person in front of the two of you had just finished ordering and just as you were about to step forward with your daughter at your side, someone had rudely pushed in front of you, effectively cutting you off.

You scoffed at the sheer audacity this man had in believing he could cut the line, but it was your daughter who spoke up. Sometimes you cursed yourself for teaching her to stand up for herself in situations as these. You forget your daughter has a vote of confidence like no other and will speak her mind, even if the person is nearly 4 times her height.

Of course, these lessons were meant for her to deal with people her size and age, fellow students who bully her or others, seeing as she’s only 6, not for grown ass adult males.

“Cutting is rude. You should wait in line like everybody else mister.” You heard the pissed tone she spoke with and couldn’t decide whether to find it adorable, humorous, or concerning.

You heard the man scoff and honestly, your blood began to boil. He turned towards the two of you and looked you up and down as if scrutinising you before peering down at your daughter with disinterest.

“I’m ordering for one, you’re ordering for two. I haven’t got time to wait for mama bear to order with her equally scruffy little cub.” He rolled his eyes and looked towards the employee who honestly, looked just about as pissed as you did.

You clenched your fist and took a deep breath in the hopes of calming down. Honestly, it hadn’t worked well. “If you’d asked nicely, we would have happily let you order before us. There isn’t any need to be rude, especially to my kid.”

He heaved a deep sigh before turning to look at the two of you once more. He opened his mouth to no doubt retort back with yet another rude remark but someone elses’ voice swiftly cut him off. “I believe you should listen to the young lady and wait your turn like everybody else.”

The stranger, mighty handsome stranger you might add, with beautiful blue eyes and blonde hair smiled down at your daughter and sent her a discreet wink. She beamed up at the tall stranger as he turned to look towards the man who had rudely cut you off in line, his features hardening.

“You should apologise and move yourself to the back of the line. What you’ve said was unacceptable and certainly no way to speak to a woman and her child.” He folded his arms over his chest, his muscles, even though hidden behind the material of his long sleeves, bulged with incredible size.

The man that had cut the line looked up at your saviour and gulped but relatively kept his features schooled. “No chance. I only said what’s true. Why should I be punished because of that?”

The stranger chuckled humourlessly as he stepped forward, the incredibly rude man taking a step back out of fear. “Whether what you said was true or false, which was absolutely false, doesn’t matter. You disrespected another in not only speaking to them as if they’re below you, but by simply cutting in line in the first place.”

“Yeah. You’re just a bully. Bullies are rude and always cut in line,” your daughter chirped with pride. The stranger smiled down at your daughter and nodded his head.

“That’s right, sweetie.”

The man scoffed before turning towards the employee stood behind the counter. “Are you really going to let him speak to a paying customer like that?” he asked incredulously.

The employee had a smirk cross her lips and she popped her hip out before folding her arms in front of her. “You haven’t paid for anything. Now, please leave before I get my manager to call the cops to have you removed.”

The man huffed indignantly before grumbling and stomping pass the handsome stranger, shoulder checking him on the way. The stranger rolled his eyes before catching a hold of the mans’ arm and pulling him back slightly. “You still haven’t apologised.”

“Sorry.” His tone was fake and nothing but sarcastic but nonetheless, the stranger released him, probably knowing that was the best apology they should expect from him.

The small interior of the place slowly bustled back to its quiet chatter of the few customers inside. The stranger smiled down towards the two of you and you couldn’t help but be enraptured with how perfect his smile was.

“Are you ladies alright?”

Your daughter rapidly nodded her head, grinning widely once more. “Sure are mister. Thank you!”

You cleared your throat, shaking yourself out of your reverie and smiling up at him. ‘Stop gawking at him, idiot!’

“Uh, yes. Thank you.”

His smile seemed to widen, and he looked quite bashful and oh god, your stomach did flips when looking at him. “It’s nothing, ma’am. I don’t tolerate bullies, I suppose.”

Kira gasped and her eyes lit up. “Like Captain America! The Cap doesn’t like bullies, either!”

The stranger chuckled and lowered himself to your daughters’ height. “Yep, like Captain America.” Honestly, he seemed almost pleased at the connection, but you couldn’t place why. Although, if you were say compared to someone like Black Widow, you certainly would feel chuffed yourself, so you couldn’t blame him.

You failed to realise you were staring at the stranger, again, until you felt a small tug on your arm. You snapped yourself out of small daydream to look down at your daughter. “Ask him if he wants to join us,” she whispered although by the huff of laughter that he tried, and failed, to supress, he clearly heard.

“Uh, yeah. Would you like to join us…?” You trailed off, hoping the stranger would give you his name. He seemed to pick up on his lack of introduction as he stood to his full height, once again towering over you.

He held his hand out before him for you to take, which you did. “Steve.”

“Well, would you like to join us, Steve? We’d like to thank you for standing up to that rude man and pay for your meal if you haven’t eaten yet.”

“Well, that’s a really nice offer…” Now it was his turn to trail off.

“Y/N!” your daughter exclaimed loudly. “And I’m Kira!”

He chuckled. “Y/N. And Kira. But I was actually going to offer to pay for your meals.”

“Oh, no. That’s oka-“

“Thank you, Steve!”

You looked down at your daughter with wide eyes as she cut you off and accepted the strangers’ offer. Steve chuckled and glanced down at Kira. “Very well. Should we order then?”

Kira grasped your hand in her smaller one and pulled you to the front of the counter, beckoning Steve to follow. You couldn’t help but shake your head, feeling only ever so slightly embarrassed by your daughters’ antics.

_______________

You daughter was enthralled with whatever came out of Steves’ mouth; completely enraptured with the stories he told. Though, you couldn’t really blame her.

Kira wasn’t one to shy away from conversation, but it had honestly shocked you how versed she became in conversation with the man the two of you had only met 45 minutes prior.

Yes. 45 minutes.

It seemed none of you really wanted to part ways; all enjoying yourselves with flowing conversation and shared smiles.

“So,” Steve started, his arms resting on top of the table that sat between him and you and Kira. “You mentioned Captain America earlier, and you have him on your backpack. Do you like him?”

“Yeah! He’s my favourite hero!” Gosh did she get excited over the topic of heroes.

He chuckled. “And why’s that?”

You rolled your eyes knowing what was coming yet couldn’t stop the fond smile growing on your face. “Well, he’s super cool. He’s brave, kind, strong and he doesn’t like bullies. I don’t like bullies either.” Then, a devilish smile broke out on her small, rounded face. “Mommy likes him too. She thinks he’s pretty. AND SHE HASN’T EVEN SEEN HIS FACE PROPERLY! She’s seen his butt though, looks at it a lot.”

Your eyes widened and the smile was promptly wiped from your face whilst Steve seemingly choked on his spit and laughed nervously. “I think she’s in love with him,” Kira whispered, further embarrassing you.

“OKAY! That’s enough, ha…”

Steve smiled, albeit sheepishly, towards the two of you. “Well, I believe Captain America would think your moms’ pretty, too.”

Kira shrug, shovelling a cold, left over fry from the basket into her mouth. “I know.”

You groaned softly and hid your face behind your hand, slumping in your seat. Your whole face felt hot. Trying to calm your racing heart, you peered at Kira. “Why don’t you tell him about your birthday sweetie?”

“OH YEAH! Mommies taking me to the Captain America display!” Kira bounced in her seat and if her eyes hadn’t already twinkled with excitement, they certainly did now after she’s formulated a plan quickly in her mind. “You should definitely come, mister.”

You and Steve both spluttered at her invitation.

“Oh honey, I don’t think Steve would-“

“W-well, it’s not up to me-“

Kira groaned and rolled her eyes overdramatically before looking at Steve. “Yep. It’s up to me.” She then turned towards you. “And, we can just ask Steve if he would like to.” To which she faced Steve once more, looking at him intently. “Would you like to come too?”

Steve looked extremely apprehensive to answer and looked towards you in the hopes of getting some guidance in what to say. If he were being honest, this past hour he’d felt nothing but calm and happy, forgetting his worries and has actually taken a break from all the responsibilities he’s been handed.

He very much liked both yourself and Kira, feeling content in both of your presences’ and would very much like if he continued to get to know both yourself and Kira more. He just certainly didn’t want to overstep.

He internally cheered for himself when you nodded your head discreetly. Your face told him that the young girl who looked extremely hopeful would certainly not cease until she succeeded in getting what she wanted in this moment.

“Uh…” He turned his gaze towards Kira once more gave her a small smile. “I would love to go to the Captain America display for your birthday.”

Kira cheered loudly and you shook your head with an adoring smile directed to the young girl sat beside you. “Great! You should give your number to my mommy so we can plan it properly.” She sipped on her half-drunken refill of milkshake after speaking so nonchalantly.

Both Steve and yourself felt and looked dumbfounded. Had she really just said that?

Steve chuckled before his eyes darted down towards your phone which was sat face down atop the table. “May I?”

“Oh, uh, yep.” You fumbled with picking your phone up, unlocking it and opening up a new contact before handing your phone over to Steve, face burning and a shy smile adorning your features. Your hands brushed against one another as he carefully took the phone from your hold and typed in his full name and phone number.

He was just about to hand it back to you when Kira swiftly took it and looked at the screen. She shook her head before looking up at Steve. “You gotta add a picture, silly.” She raised the phone after tapping the picture icon atop the contact, pointing it straight at Steve.

The poor man panicked and smiled quite awkwardly as your daughter snapped the photo. You slapped a hand over your mouth to try desperately hide your laugh, which hadn’t really been that successful.

Kira observed the picture on the screen before nodding; she clearly found the picture acceptable for use. Steve couldn’t help but also find it quite amusing and chuckled himself. Your daughter swiftly handed you your phone back but once in your hand, you had spotted the time and your eyes slightly widened.

“Oh wow, is it really that late?” you questioned yourself but prompted Steve to check the time himself by looking down at his watch. You looked up towards him with an apologetic smile and shrugged your shoulders. “Sorry, we really should get going. Kira has school in the morning.”

Steve shook his head and smiled, unbothered by your information. “No, no, it’s perfectly fine. I completely understand.”

“Thank you, and sorry again.” You looked sheepish as you stood and put your own jacket back on before beckoning Kira to stand herself. She pouted but did as she was told, allowing you to help her with her coat, to which she then put her hat back on top her head and gloves back on her small hands.

Steve stood and cleared his throat as he stood awkwardly, not knowing what to do. You looked up away from Kira and sent him the most beautiful smile he had ever seen upon someone’s face and miraculously, he felt a lot let nervous.

“Thank you for the wonderful company and the meal,” you spoke with such sincerity that made his heart thump louder and harder than any life threating mission ever could.

“And for standing up to that bully for us,” Kira added.

You huffed laugh. “Yes, and that.”

“It’s my pleasure.” He nodded his head.

Kira stepped forward which prompted Steve to lower himself to her height just as he had done so earlier. “It was nice meeting you.”

“It was nice meeting you too, ma’am.”

She beamed up at him before sticking her hand out and her expression was nothing but serious, one which Steve copied as he took her hand and shook it. “My mommy will text you later about my birthday.” She withdrew her hand before her big, bright smile reappeared. She grasped your hand in hers and waved as she began to pull you out of the burger joint.

“Bye Captain America!”

Your eyes bulged out of their sockets comically and you did nothing but splutter, opening and closing your mouth in the hopes that some words would pass out of you as your daughter pulled you out through the doors and in the direction of your small Brooklyn apartment.

Steve froze and watched wide eyed as you both left through the door, the bell atop jingling when it closed behind you. “Huh. Smart kid.” He shook his head before laughing and standing, collecting his jacket and leaving a tip on the table before slowly exiting the building himself, walking towards his bike ready to head back to the tower, completely dazed and the image of you ingrained into his mind.

Meanwhile, you finally snapped out of your shocked and flustered state halfway down the sidewalk. “YOU KNEW THAT WAS CAPTAIN AMERICA?!”

“Yep,” your daughter replied, popping the ‘P’ and acting completely nonchalant about the whole ordeal.

“AND YOU TOLD HIM I LIKE HIS BUTT?!”

“Yep.”

You narrowed your eyes at the small figure of your daughter. “You little monster.” You swept her up into your arms and began to blow raspberries against her chubby little cheek, causing her to burst into a fit of giggles and loud laughter.

You couldn’t help but laugh along with her and then Steves’ earlier comment came to the forefront of your mind. ‘Captain America thinks I’m pretty! HOLY SHIT!’

You’d dwell on that later though.

“MY MOMMY LIKES CAPTAIN AMERICAS’ BUTT!” Kira shouted as she continued to gasp out giggles and you couldn’t help but laugh and indulge in her silly behaviour.

“I LIKE CAPTAIN AMERICAS’ BUTT!”

Kira roared in laughter once more along with you, and you both continued to find an abundance of humour in the situation the entire walk home.

_______________

“Hey punk,” Bucky spoke as he entered the main, spacious shared living room and spotted Steve sat on the couch, staring at his phone and smiling widely as his eyes scan over the words you had texted him.

“What’s got you grinning like that?” Bucky playfully quipped, a small smirk across his lips.

“Uh, nothing.” It could have been convincing if Steve had looked away from his phone and his already large smile didn’t widen further.

“Sure. Nothing.” Bucky shakes his head and sits beside his friend. “She pretty?”

Usually, Steve would question what made his friend think it was a woman, but he was so dazed and giddy, he couldn’t find it in him to deny it. “She’s so beautiful Buck.”

“Gotta date?”

“Not yet.”

Bucky chuckled and slapped his friends’ shoulder in good nature as he shook his head. “Well, good luck, punk. I hope you get that date.” Bucky stood and huffed a laugh at Steve still grinning at his phone as he left to head towards the kitchen, missing Steves’ mumbled response.

“Me too.”

_______________

Gosh dang do I love this man

That is all

If you want to be added to a taglist lemme know

Anywho, I hope you enjoy

As always, constructive criticism and requests are welcomed and greatly appreciated :D

_______________

Marvel taglist:

@thanossexual @iwazoomingouttahere @xxxtwilightaxelxxx

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daryl-dixon-daydreams · 4 years ago

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Words: 2,952 Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader Reader pronouns: she/her Era: The prison (Season 3) Warnings: language, that's it! A/N: Kintsugi, aka "golden joinery" is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with precious materials like gold and it is strikingly beautiful. I think you'll understand why I titled the fic this at the end! Summary: After Daryl leaves with Merle, he return to the prison to find that Y/N is extremely angry with him...

Your name: submit What is this?

Your face went through a rapid series of emotions as soon as his familiar broad shoulders came into view. First was shock and surprise, and then relief to see him again and to see him in one piece, and then just... anger. Daryl shifted his weight anxiously from one foot to the next, watching over everyone crowded around him as you simply stood up and turned your back on the room and left. You walked straight out and into the row of cells, disappearing through the heavy metal door. Daryl caught Rick’s eyes and the sheriff simply tilted his head and gave Daryl a knowing look. Daryl’s attention was pulled away as Carol grabbed him into a tight hug.

He was surprised when you didn’t come back out to join in the discussion of what the hell to do next about Woodbury and the Governor. He worked up the courage to try to talk to you, knowing full well it may just be an exercise in futility.

You easily heard the familiar cadence of his steps approaching your cell and the doorway darkened as his frame stopped in the space. He gripped the edge of the cell door and anxiously chewed his bottom lip.

You were sitting on the edge of your bunk, determinedly not looking at him. “Go away, Daryl.” Your voice was quiet but there was an unfamiliar edge to it.

He shifted uncomfortably but didn’t leave. “Just—would ya just talk to me?” he ventured. He saw the muscle in your jaw tense as your teeth clenched. “What is there to talk about?” “I—’M back now. I came back,” he said. He felt sick. He wasn’t used to you being angry with him and it was completely twisting him into knots. “Yep,” you said, standing and going to the doorway. You pulled the hanging sheet in the doorway, a makeshift door, closed right in his face. “Leave me alone,” your voice came out from the cell and then he heard the springs of your bunk creak as you sank back down on it. He stepped back from the fabric and dropped his hand from its grip on the doorframe, heaving a heavy sigh. Carol stepped out of her cell, just a few doors down and looked at Daryl staring at the closed sheet in front of him. He turned at the sound of her soft footsteps. Carol’s brow was furrowed low over her eyes and she tilted her head in the direction of the staircase that climbed to the second level. Daryl’s hand clenched and unclenched in a fist and he gave your cell one last parting look before turning away to follow Carol up the stairs. She peeked at Judith in her makeshift bed and smiled. Daryl stopped beside her and looked down at the little sleeping bundle. His heart warmed at the sight of her, but his expression was still dark. Carol glanced over at him. He chewed on his bottom lip anxiously again. “She won’t even talk to me,” he drawled. “Give her a little time,” Carol said gently. “She’ll come around.” Carol sounded very sure of her assertion, but all Daryl could think was that he’d ruined things for good. “I came back,” he said, leaning back against the railing. His heart was aching with regret. Going off with Merle was stupid in the first place. Almost as soon as he’d done it he knew it was a mistake. “You being back doesn’t change the fact that you left in the first place,” Carol pointed out. “You really think she doesn’t have a right to be upset? Think about how she’s interpreting you leaving.” He gave her a questioning look. Carol straightened up and stared at him. “I understand why you did what you did. He’s your brother. He’s blood. But you leaving with him... to her it means she wasn’t worth staying for. You chose Merle, a racist asshole, over all of us, and right when we’re sitting on the edge of war against the psychopath Merle worked for. I know that isn’t really what happened. It’s not that simple, but that’s what it feels like. She thinks you leaving means that... whatever there is between the two of you wasn’t worth anything. It wasn’t enough to make you stay.”

He gulped and shifted uncomfortably. “But that ain’t true...” Carol shrugged. “That’s how it seems to her.”

Daryl ran a hand over his face and sighed again. “I really fucked up,” he growled. The grit and gravel in his voice was heavier than usual. “You did what you thought you needed to do,” Carol said, giving his shoulder a light squeeze. “Just give her a little time. She’ll cool off.” But the rest of the day, you stayed in your cell with the doorway covered. Daryl hung around hoping you’d step out so he could try to talk to you again, try to apologize and explain. He was sick with regret and guilt and worry, but you never stepped out. “Who’s on watch tonight?” Daryl asked Rick. He was thinking about offering to stay up and take both shifts because there was no way he would be sleeping that night anyway. He was too anxious. “Y/N first and then Glenn is taking the second shift. He gave Daryl a knowing look. The archer looked miserable. Rick sighed. “I’m just glad you’re back,” Rick said.

Daryl nudged his nose up in nod. “Yeah... thanks...” You’d be on guard first. You wouldn’t be able to hide in your cell forever. You could, however, still tell him to fuck off, but he had to try. Just waiting around was agonizing and he kept thinking about how in this world even the next minute wasn’t a guarantee. He had to make things right as soon as he could.

Night fell and after scraping together his courage, Daryl got up, knowing you’d be in the guard tower by now. He went to the little stove and heated up some water, pouring it over a tea bag in a mug and staring down at it. Yeah, bring her tea, dumbass. That’ll fix it. But regardless of that derisive voice in his head, he grabbed the mug and headed out to climb the narrow stairs of the guard tower, curls of steam wafting off the surface of the amber liquid. You turned when you heard the metal door from the stairwell creak open, thinking maybe Glenn couldn’t sleep and was coming to keep you company early. Instead you saw the broad shoulders of the archer coming through and you turned away and fixed your eyes on the darkness blanketing the prison yard. “What?” you asked sharply. Daryl gulped. Obviously you hadn’t cooled off enough yet. “I just—uhh.” He rubbed his hand awkwardly over the back of his neck. “I brought ya some tea,” he drawled. You kept your back to him and said nothing. He edged closer and set the tea in front of you on the table. It was then that he noticed the bandage on your upper arm. He hadn’t noticed it before, probably because you’d been wearing a jacket. Without thinking, he reached out and gently grabbed your arm. “What happened?”

You glanced at his hand on your arm and then up to his blue eyes. You felt your resolve crumbling as soon as your eyes met his. It was like some involuntary reaction you had no control over, but you tugged your arm from his grasp and shifted away from him, averting your eyes back toward the outside again. “I got shot,” you said. “What?” he urged. “The hell ya mean ya got shot?”

His voice was tinged with deep concern. “By one of those Woodbury assholes. You know, when you were off running around with Merle,” you replied. Daryl’s stomach twisted. How could he have been so stupid? If he’d been at the prison where he was supposed to be he could have protected you. What if it hadn’t just been your arm? He hadn’t even said goodbye to you... he’d just left. The hell was he thinking? You must have sensed his sudden panic because you looked over at him again and studied his face. “It’s just a bullet graze, Daryl.” Your tone was flat this time, but it was an improvement over the previous anger. “I’d rather be alone,” you said quietly. You hesitated. “Thanks for the tea.”

He gulped again. This distant tone you had was eating him alive and he felt his blood pressure rising. “Would ya just look at me at least? Gimme a chance to explain!”

You were a bit taken aback by his tone, which was now a little angry too, and you did turn to stare at him, your brow furrowed heavily now. “Explain?” You scoffed. “What the hell is there to explain? You made your choice. Your priorities are pretty damn clear. So, just—just leave me alone...”

“Nah,” he growled. “Not ‘til ya listen to me.”

You glared at him and he watched the muscle in your jaw tense as you clenched your teeth. “Actions speak louder than words, Daryl.”

“I fucked up, alright? I ain’t denyin’ that! I wanted to come back as soon as I left!” he roared. “‘M sorry!” “Sorry?” You stared at him, bewildered. “You’re sorry,” you repeated. “Yeah, well, so am I. Sorry I was stupid enough to think that maybe—” You broke off and shut your eyes, breathing in a tense breath. “That maybe what?” Daryl pressed you.

“That maybe I actually fucking meant something to you!” you yelled. There were angry tears in your eyes now and you fought to blink them away. “But if you could just leave then clearly I’ve deluded myself, because I could never do that to you. So, I guess I don’t know what this—” you gestured to yourself and then to him, “—is. Was. Whatever... apparently it’s nothing.” The archer stared at you feeling like his heart had split open. “That ain’t—that ain’t true. And it wasn’t that simple. S’not that simple.” He took a hesitant step toward you.

Your jaw was still set. “Forget it. You don’t need to explain anything to me. It’s not like we were.... together. I was stupid to read into anything. I’m—I’m done. I’ll just send Glenn up later,” you murmured, trying to storm out of the guard tower, ready to race down the stairs and leave the whole mess behind you. But Daryl’s hand gently caught you as you tried to move past him, landing lightly but firmly on your arm.

“Nah. Don’t do that! Don’t just—just dismiss this!” he growled.

You stared up at him, caught off-guard by his hand on you, by him physically stopping you from leaving. You were trying to think of something to say but your mind was suddenly blank. His hand finally dropped from your arm but instead of backing off he stepped closer to you. “This ain’t nothin’!” he argued. “And ya weren’t kiddin’ yerself. Now just stop bein’ so damn stubborn and talk to me!” You felt your resolve crumbling a little. “I—I don’t have anything else to say!” you retorted angrily. “Now let me by!” You tried to brush past him again but he stepped right in your way. “Daryl,” you growled. “Get outta the way.” “Nah,” he said shaking his head. “Ya wanna be stubborn? Fine, but so will I.”

“Move!” you yelled at him again, feeling a flush of angry heat in your face. “No,” he said again, this time catching your eyes with his blue ones.

Your chest was heaving with angry and nervous breaths. “Let me go,” you said, and this time even you were surprised by how weak your own request sounded.

Daryl stared down at you, his posture defiant, obstinate. His heart was absolutely racing in his chest and he finally couldn’t suppress the urge any longer. He clasped your face in both hands and kissed you urgently, something he’d wanted to do for so long, but even more so since he’d tried to leave. It was all he could think about. A moment later he was sweeping you into him with a hand on your lower back.

You let out a noise of surprise and stumbled back, away from him, staring at him standing there with his chest heaving. “Wh—what the hell are you doing?”

Daryl gulped. Oh shit. Had he just fucked things up worse? He gestured vaguely with one hand. “This ain’t nothin’,” he drawled, breathless from his lips on yours. He stepped toward you cautiously again, half expecting you to move away or brush past him for the exit, but you didn’t move. He anxiously licked his lips, and you felt butterflies flit to life in your stomach. “‘M sorry,” he said again.

You stared at him, a quizzical expression on your face. You wanted his lips on yours again. “Say it again,” you said softly. You stepped closer to him.

Daryl stared down into your eyes. The regret in his was plain. He slipped his fingers into your hair and clasped your face again. “‘M so sorry. I ain’t ever gonna leave again if I can help it.”

Your expression softened and you grabbed onto the front of his vest and pulled his lips down to meet yours, kissing him heatedly. Daryl’s hand landed on your lower back again and he pulled you against him, pressing forward so you were touching practically from knees to nose. His kiss was urgent, feverish. He pressed into you and you moved backwards blindly until you felt the table behind you. Daryl’s strong hands lifted you, setting you on the edge. You looped your arms around his neck and gently bit at his lower lip, eliciting a chesty growl from him. His hands wandered over your back and smoothed down your sides, feeling the curve of your waist and angles of your hips. They wandered down further and ran over your thighs, sending tingles of electricity up your back. You tugged him into you more tightly, feeling his hips pressing into the inside of your knees as you sat on the table. You slid a hand under his vest, around his back, and scratched your nails over the thin cotton of his shirt, feeling his strong, tense muscles beneath the material. He pulled back from you suddenly and your eyes opened, long eyelashes fluttering, disappointed and feeling the inches between your lips profoundly. “What is it?” you asked him, completely out of breath. He just stared down at you, not lifting his hands from your hips. “Nothin’. Just tryin’ to convince myself this is really happenin’,” he drawled, his eyes flitting between yours and your partially parted lips.

You ran your fingers through his hair and he leaned into your touch. “It is.”

He looked suddenly nervous again. “Listen, I still wanna tell ya... I can’t entirely explain it. I know Merle’s an asshole. Of course I know that... But he’s my brother. And it was almost like I didn’t have a choice in the matter. I’d already left him once in Atlanta. I couldn’t do it again.” Daryl rushed on, still in vague disbelief that somehow you’d gone from yelling at him to kissing him in a span of a few minutes. “But as soon as we were alone out there... I realized he might be my brother but he ain’t really my family anymore. Maybe he never was.”

You gulped and nodded, pressing your hand flush to his chest and feeling his racing heart beneath your fingers. “I’m sorry I was so hard on you,” you said regretfully. “I was just—hurt.”

He nodded. “I can’t blame ya. ‘M sorry.”

You looped your arms around his neck again and he gave in to the gentle tug easily as you pulled his lips back to yours. The heat built between you again and you let out a small sigh as Daryl’s lips wandered from yours to kiss your neck and the delicate skin by your collarbone, his fingers tangling roughly into your hair. You found yourself arching into him more and more and Daryl was reeling as your fingernails lightly scratched his back, even over the fabric of his shirt. But the building heat was quickly quashed by the sound of the squeaky metal hinges on the door to the stairwell and both of you startled. Daryl spun around and you jumped up from your spot on the table, accidentally knocking the mug of tea to the floor, which of course shattered and sent liquid splashing everywhere. Your entire face flushed as you saw Glenn standing in the doorway with a surprised look on his face, one hand still on the doorknob.

“Uhhhhh... sorry,” he mumbled. But his face quickly broke into a grin he tried to stifle. “I’ll just—I’m gonna go,” he said jutting a thumb back over his shoulder, unable to keep the amusement out of his voice. Daryl shifted uncomfortably next to you. Glenn turned on his heel and headed right back down the stairs and into the cellblock again.

Rick, unable to sleep with the threat of the Governor still looming, caught sight of him returning and gave him a questioning look. “I thought you were on guard duty now?” he asked curiously. Glenn smiled and laughed a little awkwardly. “Uhh, yeah, but uhh—Y/N and Daryl have got it,” he said, his eyebrows lifting. “Y/N and Daryl? Isn’t she still pissed at him?” the sheriff asked, looping one thumb into his pocket. Glenn laughed again. “I’m pretty sure they made up... Night, Rick.”

#daryl dixon fanfiction #daryl dixon twd #the walking dead #twd fanfics #daryl dixon drabbles #daryl imagines #daryl dixon x reader #fanfics #writers of tumblr #twd drabbles

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ptergwen · 4 years ago

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hi val can you maybe write something about the reader being dared to kiss peter/tom/arvin (you choose) since her friends knew that she has a big crush on him, but once she did he seems disinterested after which makes her sad, but what she doesn't know was after she kissed him, he practically runs to his friends freaking out that the girl he's had his eyes on this whole time just kissed him??

kiss and tell

w/c: 1.8k

warnings: like one swear and awkwardness

a/n: yeeee i went with peter! this is adorable :,)

“i can’t!” you scold betty and her annoying smirk. you’re bored at lunch, so liz suggested the three of you play truth or dare. you’d made the mistake of choosing dare. in your defense, betty is the nosiest person in all of midtown, so you thought you were dodging the bullet and guarding your deep dark secrets. how could you have known she’d make you do... this?

“that’s so, like, forward. he’s gonna freak out.” you glance over at peter’s table to see what he’s up to before you possibly scar him. he’s laughing along at a heated conversation ned and mj are having. the way his face lights up, and his eyes crinkle as a smile crosses his features, it gives you butterflies throughout your whole body.

“in a good way,” liz grins her most charming grin at you. it’s not working this time. you roll your eyes up to the ceiling. “i thought you liked him,” betty huffs, gesturing over to peter and keeping her eyes on you. “all you do is talk about how he’s so cute and smart, and his lips look so soft-“ “i never said that!” you look at her with wild eyes. liz bites her lip to hold in a laugh. “the last part, i mean,” you clarify in a murmur.

liz puts a hand on you and pats your shoulder knowingly. “you’ve probably thought it, though. i’ve seen you checking them out.” there have been quite a few times your gaze has landed on peter’s lips, watching them curve while he talks to you about some new science theory he’s excited to share. you end up zoning out and pretending you retained any of what he said. betty puckers her own lips at you.

“you wanna kiss him,” she insists in a sing song voice, resting her chin on your other shoulder. “i’m doing you a favor.” “you’re really not gonna change the dare?” you sigh, your friends leaning on you in support. liz taps your cheek. “so, you don’t wanna kiss him?” “there’s no way,” betty comments from your side. “no, i...” you start, focusing in on peter again.

he meets your eyes across the cafeteria. his smile fades slightly, then a shy one is replacing it, ned dragging him into his and mj’s debate. you turn back to liz and betty.

“i do, but do you think he wants me to?” you ask them both, and they share a you have to be kidding look. “only one way to find out.” liz gives your shoulder a nudge. betty beams at you. “i triple dog dare you now, so you have to.” considering your options, you bounce your leg up and down. you’ll either get the nicest rejection ever from peter or a kiss back. you can handle this.

“ok, i’ll do it,” you decide, betty clapping her hands and squealing. liz throws an arm around your neck. “yay! i love love.” “let’s calm down,” you giggle so she doesn’t get too carried away. you and peter haven’t even established that you like each other. “i’m calm, i’m calm. do you need to borrow chapstick?” she offers, betty simultaneously pulling a tube out of her purse. “or lip gloss?”

you’re appreciating their over involvement now.

“both,” you breathe out, letting them get you ready for your big kiss.

liz and betty send you good luck wishes in a hushed tone while you make your way to peter’s table. mj went to get a snapple, and ned went with her so they could continue whatever argument they’re in. that left peter by himself. it’s almost like this is meant to happen.

“hi,” you greet peter, making him look up at you with raised eyebrows. he notices right away that your lips are shiny, more so than usual. a color that you always seem to bring to his face takes over his cheeks. “hey. you wanna sit?” he gives you a small smile. you return it. “yeah, sure. thanks.” instead of taking the bench across from him like he assumed you would, you find your place next to him.

he doesn’t mind.

“how’s your day been?” you wonder, body turned towards him while he answers. peter scrunches his nose. “kinda busy. i got so much homework in spanish tonight, and i’ve been putting off this essay about...” you do the thing you do every time he goes off on a sort of tangent, watch his lips. lucky for you, that’s the whole point today. “i don’t know. all i have so far is the intro-“

you cut peter off with a kiss. liz and betty cheer to each other the second it happens. peter doesn’t move, only freezes up as you press your glossy lips to his and grab his shoulders. it takes a few seconds for you to realize he’s not kissing back. his arms are stiff at his sides, eyes wide in shock. absolutely humiliated, you pull back, moving as far away as you can.

“fuck, i’m sorry. i should’ve asked you first,” you apologize, voice shaking. you’re already getting to your feet. peter blinks a few times, grounding himself back in the moment. “no, no. it’s okay. i-“ “that was weird, i know. you don’t have to lie or make me feel better.” he furrows his eyebrows, in a way that seems regretful even though you’re the one who messed up. “i’m trying to tell you, y/n. it’s fine. we-“

ned’s voice fills the room, making you snap your head in his direction. him and mj are coming back. you need to get out of here before you embarrass yourself even more.

“i’m gonna go. i’m sorry,” you mumble out, running back to your table, where liz and betty are instantly asking what’s wrong and if you’re alright. peter licks his lips that are now coated in your gloss and clenches his jaw. he’s pissed. not at you, at himself. it’s clear because mj brings attention to it when she sits down.

“what’s up with your face?” she narrows her eyes at him, popping the cap on her snapple. ned elbows peter in his spot next to him. you were just there less than a minute ago. “you okay, dude?” he checks. “no.” peter closes his eyes in frustration. “what’s wrong?” ned kicks mj’s foot under the table so she’ll stop making out with her drink and help him.

“i... y/n kissed me,” peter admits, sounding oddly upset about something everyone knows he’s been hoping would happen. “she what?” ned gawks. “isn’t that a good thing?” mj points out. “you love her.” “like her,” peter corrects and chews the inside of his cheek. “whatever. shouldn’t you want her to kiss you?” she takes another sip of snapple, passing this off to ned.

“yeah...” is all ned says. he awkwardly rubs peter’s back while mj tries not to snort. “that’s not the problem. i didn’t kiss her back, and she took it as me not being into it,” peter shakes his head as he recounts your weird moment. “which i was,” he tells them for the record. ned makes a funny face at him. “so why didn’t you kiss back?” “no shit she ran away,” mj mutters to him. she saw that part.

“because i wasn’t expecting it!” peter frowns at his friends’ reactions and at what he did. “you guys know how much i like y/n. i can’t believe i screwed this up so bad.” mj squints in mock confusion. “i can.” she quickly drops her sarcasm for encouragement after that. “ok, seriously. just go find her and apologize.” “maybe kiss her this time,” ned chimes in.

“if she really likes you, she’ll get it.” mj smiles genuinely, nodding back at your table. ned gives him a push forward. “you got this, dude. come tell us all about it after.” a rush of confidence enters peter from their advice. he’ll fix this. “thanks, guys. here i go.” he shoots up from the table, ned and mj getting back into their debate once he’s out of sight.

betty is hugging you way too tightly when peter gets over there. she goes on about how much peter sucks, overcompensating because she’s the reason you kissed him. you only hum in response. you don’t have the heart to tell her you blame yourself. only liz notices peter come over, so she talks on your behalf. “oh, hey,” she says drily. “hey. can i talk to y/n?” peter gets out, twiddling with his thumbs nervously.

she has to decide if she’d rather go into protective friend mode or let him. from your unenthusiastic responses to betty’s hate rant, she figures you’d like to hear him out.

“come on, betty,” liz takes her arm suddenly, betty trying to pull it back. “what? why?” “i’m gonna buy you ice cream. let’s go.” that’s her cover. peter shoots her a look that says thank you, liz pressing her lips into a line and dragging betty along. betty sees peter standing in front of your table and glares at him, liz walking faster. you don’t get the chance to ask them where they’re going because they leave so fast.

the bench dips down on one side of you, making someone’s prescense known. you’re surprised to find it’s peter. you talk first.

“if you’re gonna apologize, don’t. it was my fault-“ “you never let me finish earlier,” peter interrupts, the hint of a smile on his face. his clammy hand links with one of yours. “what were you gonna say?” you ask quietly, peter threading your fingers together. your heart is racing at the simple touch. “that i like you,” he replies at the same low volume. “and, that i wanted to try again.”

he’s sitting a lot closer to you than you realized. you welcome it, your hands in between you two on the bench. “i like you too... try what again?” you question, although you hope and pray it’s what you think. “kissing,” peter says what you were hoping and praying for. “wasn’t ready the first time.” you’re about to go into cardiac arrest as he rests his forehead on yours, curls brushing your face. a few broken up breaths escape him.

“can i?” he nearly whispers, warm hand still gripping at yours. “yeah,” you agree before your eyes flutter shut. he wastes no time, parting his lips and brushing them against yours gently, you reciprocating. he kisses as sweetly as he is, his free hand on your cheek and fingers careessing your skin. your other hand ends up on the back of his neck. you grin against him, lips detaching momentarily so you can engage him in another kiss.

peter doesn’t hesitate to kiss back this time, nose nudging yours as he moves in more. you tug on some hair at the nape of his neck and laugh into the kiss, reminding him you’re in school. he pulls back with a chuckle, but keeps his forehead on yours and your hands in each other.

“sorry. got too excited,” he laughs out, you leaning into his open palm. “i told you don’t apologize.”

liz and betty joined ned and mj at some point. the four of them are whistling at you and yelling out suggestive jokes. they’re too much. but, to be fair, you owe this all to them.

#tom holland #tom holland fluff #tom holland x reader #tom holland x y/n #tom holland x you #tom holland imagine #tom holland fic #tom holland fanfiction #peter parker #peter parker fic #peter parker fluff #peter parker x y/n #peter parker x you #peter parker x reader #peter parker imagine #peter parker fanfiction

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asscandles · 4 years ago

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HEAR ME OUT. HEAR ME OUT. PLEASE.

chifuyu with a fem s/o who's shorter than him and pretty flat. but he messes up and makes a joke about her, and suddenly everyone else thinks it's okay to do it. he ends up comforting her in the end.

idk how you wanna do this. you can do it however you want. but i need the DRAMA. the ANGST.

(could it please be angst to fluff?)

thank you bestie!!!

YES OMG WAIT I LOWKEY WENT OVERBOARD AND MADE IT LONG AS FUCK, BUT THAT'S OKAY. i hope you like it!! :D this is extremely unedited, though, so there will probably be a shit ton of mistakes. i also changed it slightly, because i just couldn’t see chifuyu maliciously making fun of his s/o. i hope it’s acceptable. my apologies in advance!

side note: i am a firm believer that chifuyu is a simp for his s/o. this is probably really out of character, but uh yeah

i literally finished writing this at 6AM i’m so tired i’m so sorry

He knew he shouldn’t have allowed it to go this far.

But he did, and that’s the problem.

It was only yesterday when it happened. Like clockwork, the bell marking the start of the lunch period rang, and Chifuyu planted a quick kiss on your cheek before you departed to link arms with a girl friend of yours that was waiting further down the hall. Like clockwork, the sea of students scurrying like mice in search of food parted ranks and let him through as he headed in the opposite direction. Like clockwork, he climbed the steps to the rooftop and joined his group of friends that had been waiting for him near the railing.

He should’ve known that they were up to no good--hell, the impish grin accentuating his close friend’s features told him so. His friend rose from his position leaning against the railing, the eyes of the others trailing after him with a light-hearted amusement that made Chifuyu rethink the situation.

“You owe me five bucks,” his friend crowed.

“Huh?” Chifuyu’s eyes narrowed. “For what?”

“Last week, you bet me that I couldn’t score a girlfriend, and today’s the day you eat those words!” He folded his arms, puffing out his chest with an air of triumph and pride. “You know that girl Mitsuba? The one who joined our class last week?”

“Oh, so you picked the only girl who hasn’t been around long enough to realize what an ass you truly are to target. Smart.” Chifuyu quipped sarcastically. He reached out, roughly yet playfully slinging an arm around his friend’s shoulders and pushing him down. His friend laughed. “You’d better be nice to her.”

“I wish I had a girlfriend more like yours, Chifuyu. Mitsuba’s a bit too tall for my personal taste.” Another member of the group sighed. He tapped his knuckle against his chin. “But then again, (Reader) is pretty short. Maybe a bit too short.”

“Uh, no. She’s definitely small,” Chifuyu shook his head “But not that small.” He reasoned. It’s true that you’re not the tallest person--scrap that. It’s true that you’re definitely not the tallest person. In fact, Chifuyu can even see the top of your head without trying. But he’s always found your short stature endearing, as well as all of the perks that come with it, such as the way his clothes swallow you up, how he’s able to rest his chin atop your head whenever he draws you close, and even how you wrestle with the car seat in order to modify it to accommodate your height.

Simply put, he thinks you’re adorable and that your stature is nothing to be ashamed of.

“I bet she still has to shop at kids’ clothing stores!” The first friend cackled, earning a fresh round of laughter from the group. But once he noticed the falter in Chifuyu’s smile, he was quick to clap a hand on the gang member’s shoulder. “Oh, we’re just screwing around.” The first friend’s hand fell upon Chifuyu’s shoulder, a wide grin playing on his lips. “Don’t take it so seriously.”

It took a moment for Chifuyu to offer a chuckle at his friend’s words. It was reluctant and somewhat uncertain, and the longer it dragged on, the more it seemed like a piss-poor attempt at preserving the group’s good-natured mood. “Uh, yeah…” It’s just a joke. He told himself. It’s just a joke.

So, why did he feel so uncomfortable? Why was his smile so forced? Why did he feel like this would explode in his face?

Ah, yes.

It’s because his friends are jackasses.

Chifuyu didn’t remember this important fact until the following day.

The science lab was filled with the murmurs of classmates, the rustling of papers being gathered, and the shrill clinking of test tubes and glass flasks being cleaned and dried. Chifuyu groaned, his cheek pressed against the cool, black surface of the table. His pencil lightly scratched across his assignment, ignoring the blank questions he was too lazy to answer in favor of sketching another manji symbol.

“Hey, you,” a voice chimed from behind him. A moment later, he felt a rolled-up paper lightly swat him over the head. A small smile spread across his lips. Even if he hadn’t heard your voice, he would’ve known it was you, mainly because no one else in the school would dare to lay a hand on him in any way that could be mistaken as aggression--but also because he half-expected this outcome. When he turned his head, his assumptions were confirmed.

You’re standing there, a subtle frown curving your lips and makeshift paper weapon in hand. One hand was propped on your hip. “The lab’s finished. Why is your paper empty?” You chided, pointing the rolled-up paper at his almost blank one.

“I couldn’t be bothered.” Chifuyu faked a yawn, only to laugh and lift a hand to defend himself when you promptly smacked him with the paper a second time. “What, have you come to scold me?” His grin was teasing.

“Uh, kind of!” You slid into the empty seat next to him, your eyebrows knitted together and eyes narrowed in mild exasperation. “Your paper is empty, and today was the only day that we’ll be doing the lab. You need to answer the questions. I can help you, if you want.”

“Oh? You seem pretty concerned.” Chifuyu commented, lifting his head and propping his elbow on the table to rest his chin in his palm. Your nose was scrunched as you eyed his paper with dissatisfaction, and you looked anything other than relaxed. However, that didn’t stop his eyes from softening. Even when you’re frustrated with him... She’s so pretty, he mused to himself. He could see your lips moving and your finger pointing to your own unfurled paper, but a sense of adoration for you flooded his chest and blanketed his mind in a warm, blurry haze, completely drowning out your voice and any background noise. His eyelids drooped almost sleepily. Before he knew it, he’d adopted the appearance of a lovesick little boy who’s either too ignorant or too careless to stop staring, a sharp contrast from the cold, aggressive gang member he’d painted himself to be. However, considering that he’s sitting in the back of the room with his head angled toward the wall, he supposed that he could let himself be for once.

He loved you, after all. He shouldn't have to try so hard to not show it.

He watched with a lazy smile as you thoughtlessly inclined your head toward his, your eyes glittering with tenacity and still fixated on the paper as your fingertip glided over the equations you’d worked out on the bottom of the page. Clearly, you thought he was still listening to you. And, like a fool, you thought he was capable of copying down the answers before the bell rang.

“Okay, you got all that? Because I’m not--” Suddenly, your head swiveled to face him, and both your eyes widened in shock. Your faces were mere inches from each other. From this distance, Chifuyu pondered the possibility of being able to unwind and decode every shade of color in your eyes; and honestly, he felt pretty good about his chances. He felt his ears heat up; and, almost on cue, a faint yet charming tinge of color blossomed across your cheeks. You inhaled sharply and turned your head away from him, clearing your throat. “Um… Uh, yeah, so… that’s that. Did you get everything I said?”

“Not a word.” He answered honestly.

“Chifuyu!” You groaned. You pressed the heel of your palm to your forehead. “Are you seriously telling me that I spent the better half of three minutes talking and you retained nothing?”

He grinned. “Oops.” Chifuyu leaned back in his chair, propping his hands behind his head. “I guess that means you have no choice but to teach me after school.” You shot him an irritated look, but he could see that you were actively fighting a smile.

But before you could respond, someone piped up from behind you.

“Hey, (Reader)!”

Both you and Chifuyu angled your heads toward the source of the voice. Immediately, Chifuyu felt his mood take a nosedive. One of his friends from yesterday’s rooftop group was standing halfway across the room, a female classmate sitting at his side. Identical sneers masked as grins contorted their lips, yet only Chifuyu’s presumed friend possessed a devious, impish glint in his eye that left Chifuyu feeling slightly nauseous. The ticklish warmth Chifuyu had been basking in ebbed away, and he was left to face the same feeling of discomfort and dread that he’d been exposed to on the rooftop yesterday.

The girl pointed to your shirt. “That’s a cute shirt.” She remarked. A bright smile bloomed on your lips, and you opened your mouth to thank her. But before you could, she continued with a taunting snicker. “I think I saw one just like that in that clothing store across the street from my house--you know, the store for children. Yuta told me that he thought he saw you walk in there--Oh, don’t worry. There’s no need to be embarrassed, love. There’s no need to be embarrassed about being comically short. Or, maybe there is.” Her eyes twinkle cruelly. “What do you think?”

Chifuyu could only watch helplessly as your smile froze on your lips and the vibrant glow in your eyes dimmed. Oh, no. He knew he shouldn’t have allowed any room for that ragtag group of wannabe delinquents to assume it’s acceptable to poke fun at you. He knew he should’ve shut it down right then and there.

So, why the hell didn’t he?

Why did he let them think this was okay?

“Don’t be an idiot, Aoi.” Yuta sneered. “It only makes sense that she would shop there. After all, she’s tiny everywhere. She really is like a child. She’s got no tits. There’s nothing to fill out her uniform, right, ‘Fuyu?”

Chifuyu saw red.

In a fraction of a second, he was out of his seat and in Yuta’s face, sending the desks blocking his path either skidding across the floor or slamming to the ground with ear-splitting crashes. Papers scattered and floated through the air. Students either leaped back or made a mad dash for the hallway, a few shrieks of surprise nearly piercing through the cloud of scarlet blurring Chifuyu’s vision. All he could sense was the cracking of bone beneath his knuckles and the hot spatter of blood against his skin.

Before his rampage could continue for much longer, he felt an iron grip clamp down on his shoulder and spin him around with a force that he would’ve expected from a high school delinquent. Reflexively, he bared his teeth and lifted his fist to neutralize the potential threat, only to freeze in his tracks.

A pair of eyes, cold as stone yet sharp as fragments of ice, bore directly through the haze of red plaguing his conscience, scattering and stomping out the crimson particles with such quickness that he genuinely didn’t know how to react at first. You’re standing before him, shoulders back and chin lifted to enforce direct eye contact. He immediately dropped his fist and withdrew from you, ears burning with shame.

“Wh—Oh, God… (Reader), I didn’t know it was you. Sorry--”

“For what?”

“Huh?” Now that his breathing started to return to normal, Chifuyu was able to focus on your eyes. It’s safe to say that he was more shocked at what he did see rather than what he didn’t. You carried yourself with an utter lack of fear, yes... But your eyes… They held…

Anger?

Now, it wasn’t uncommon for you to be upset with his violent lifestyle, but the anger the situation evoked was always overpowered by your concern for him. Always…

So, why was your gaze raw with unbridled anger and… affliction? What is this? What’s going on?

“Are you sorry for fighting?” This time when you spoke, your voice was quiet--tremulous, even. “Or are you sorry because what he said was true?”

“What?” Chifuyu’s head spun, but now with confusion rather than fury. “I don’t understand.”

“Yuta,” your eyes slipped past him, focusing on the scene behind him. Chifuyu turned to see the object of his aggression sprawled motionlessly on the floor in the center of a ring of overturned desks, blood smeared against the tile flooring and obscuring the severity of your bully's wounds. “While he was still conscious, he told you to take it easy.” You murmured. “He said he didn’t know why you were so mad. He said…” You returned your gaze to Chifuyu. “He said that you thought it was funny yesterday.”

Chifuyu’s heart sank. No, of course he didn’t find it funny. The jokes that they were telling were harsh and unnecessary. He wanted to tell you that, but he couldn’t.

Not when his lack of reaction to their jibes served as the catalyst for the events of today.

“Is what he said true?” You demanded.

“No!” Chifuyu exclaimed. “I never--” He reached out to you, but you retreated sharply--so sharply that you collided with the desks behind you.

“Then,” you began, inhaling deeply. Abruptly, the class bell chimed, and the room exploded with the chattering and quick footsteps of the remaining students as they hurried to vacate the area. You and Chifuyu were the only ones left, Aoi having abandoned both her seat and the classroom as soon as the look on Chifuyu’s face changed. The silence was deafening. Oh, how he wished the floor would swallow him whole. That way, he wouldn’t have to endure the consequences of his stupid mistake.

Chifuyu’s throat cinched shut when he saw tears glisten along your lashes. But you disposed of them with a quick, subtle brush of your hand. No, this wasn’t how this was supposed to go. He never wanted you to cry. He never wanted this to happen, period.

“Then, if you never said that or even thought it,” you proceeded, “then why do you look so guilty?” But all Chifuyu could do was stare at you like a kicked puppy, clearly searching for the right words to appease you. Stunned by his lack of response, you turned away with a mocking scoff. “You’re unbelievable.”

“Wait--”

“Screw off!” You lashed, whirling around to fix a searing glare on him. Chifuyu flinched back. It felt like his chest was caving inward, like he’d just been kicked in the stomach and was about to throw up. He fucked up. “Look,” your voice dropped to a hiss, “I’m sorry I don’t have a body like you want me to. I’m sorry that I don’t have any desirable… anything! I can’t control that, just like I can’t control my height. And if you don’t find me attractive or think it’s fucking funny to joke about my body, then that’s on you. Fuck you, Matsuno.”

“No, stop!” He cried out after you, but you weren’t listening. You spun around and swept your class materials into your arms before making a beeline for the door. “I never said any of that!” He insisted. “I never said anything about your body--your body’s awesome! Fuck, wait, that sounds weird. I mean it, but not like that! Wait, not re--I don’t know! There’s nothing wrong with how you look! I just--(Reader)!” Chifuyu lunged to grab you, but his bloodstained hands closed around empty air when you dodged away.

“(Reader)!”

But it was too late. You were already out the door, long gone.

Frustration swelled in Chifuyu’s chest. His jaw clenched, working repeatedly in a vain attempt at venting the negative emotions pooling within him and scraping at his throat. He messed up. No, no, no! “Fuck,” Chifuyu groaned, lifting a hand to drag his palm down his face. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He muttered. He raked his fingers through his hair.

The rest of Chifuyu’s school day was spent isolated in the principal’s office, listening to the principal and office staff members scold him for his behavior. At least, he thought that’s what they were doing. He didn’t know. He was too busy replaying the prior dispute in his mind to care. He recalled the tears you tried to conceal, the disbelief and hurt in your eyes as you silently begged him to tell you the truth.

He needed to get to you and shed some light on the situation. He needed to talk to you alone without any other distractions.

However, luck didn’t seem to be on his side. Due to the high rate of gang violence and Chifuyu’s own reputation, the principal was pressured into allowing more leniency when it came to doling out punishments for violence. Thankfully, Yuta’s injuries weren’t too severe, so Chifuyu was able to glide out of the situation on just detention. Unfortunately, that meant that until he straightened up the classrooms and disposed of trash until his teachers were satisfied, he wasn’t allowed to leave.

Which meant he couldn’t see you before you headed for home.

So, you could bet that as soon as the final teacher gave him a thumbs-up, Chifuyu was sprinting out of the school and hauling ass all the way to your house.

This landed him where he is now, standing at your doorstep, hands braced on his knees and chest heaving as he fights for oxygen. He lethargically lifts a fist, thumping it once against your door. “(Reader)!” He pants.

There’s a couple seconds of silence before he hears the soft padding of feet beyond the door. “Chifuyu?” The voice on the other side is muffled, but it’s definitely you. Chifuyu’s heart squeezes in his chest. He straightens up, only to feel his heart sink when you speak. “Go away.”

“No! I mean--no.” Chifuyu is swift to correct his tone. Right now, he desires nothing more than to kick himself. He’s already walking on thin ice as it is, and the slightest mistake could cause his only foundation to splinter and shatter. Then, he would be left to plunge into the gaping, frigid abyss below, his only chance at salvaging his relationship and mending your wounded heart getting swept away by the icy current. “I need to see you. Please.”

“Chifuyu, I’m serious. There’s no reason for you to be here.” You reply with a heavy sigh. “Just go home.”

“Not without explaining myself!” He argues back, his voice noticeably stronger than the weak objection he’d offered a moment ago. Chifuyu’s head lolls forward, his forehead knocking against your front door. He draws in a shaky breath. “(Reader), please. It’s not what you think. Just give me a chance to--”

“Not what I think?” Something firm strikes the opposite side of the door. Chifuyu lurches back at the feeling of the sturdy door rattling against his head. Your voice is wracked with pain, that much he can tell. It’s fractured with cracks and wavering notes, but there’s still an unmistakable sea of anger roiling beneath your voice. “Not what I think? Chifuyu, if it wasn’t what I thought, then why the hell weren’t you able to tell me the truth? Why the hell weren’t you able to speak to me without that guilty-ass look on your face?”

“Because I didn’t stop them, okay?”

His outburst of an answer is met with a few moments of silence from you. Then, you respond, tone cautious and quiet. “What… are you talking about? What do you mean, you didn’t stop them?”

“I admit, I did say you were short, but that was it.” Chifuyu finally lays the truth before you, voice quivering yet somehow electrified with a resolve that he’s never exhibited before. “I swear to God, that’s all I said. I didn’t think it was funny at all. I did laugh, but only because I was uncomfortable and didn’t want to ruin the mood. It’s a shit excuse and it makes me look like a coward, but that’s alright, because I am. I didn’t defend you like I should have. When I became your boyfriend, I told myself I would protect you.” Miserable, he thumps his head against the door a second time. “But I failed, and I knew that I did, but I didn’t do anything about it. What’s more, I couldn’t even tell you the truth.” He closes his eyes. This is all my fault.

“Chifuyu…”

“I’m so sorry,” he continues quietly. “I didn’t know it would escalate this far, and I didn’t know that your height was such a sensitive topic.”

Silence.

But then, he hears the sound of a lock clicking, and the door swings away from his head. His head snaps up to see you there in the doorway, one hand on the doorknob and the other clenching the fabric of your sweatshirt so tightly that your knuckles pale. But despite your death grip on your clothes, your face is mostly neutral, save for the furrowing of your eyebrows and an occasional twitch of your lips. Your eyes are glossy with unfallen tears, and it immediately becomes clear to Chifuyu that you’re actively concentrating to maintain your solemn expression. You inhale slowly. Your eyes are fixed on his chest, refusing to look him in the eye.

“You… What made you think that it wouldn’t be?” You murmur. “What made you think that I actually enjoy struggling to do basic, everyday shit? Being short sucks sometimes, Chifuyu. But, I put up with it, because I have no choice and that’s just how it is. And this isn’t the first time someone’s picked on me, either.” Your hand slides off the doorknob, dangling limply at your side. “Kids are just jerks. I’ve never really minded, anyway. But this time, it was different. I--” Your voice cracks, and Chifuyu’s eyes widen in shock when the tears you’ve been so tenaciously warding off finally spill over, washing down your cheeks in pearlescent rivulets. They spatter onto your sweatshirt, darkening the material and gliding over your fingers. You hastily wipe them away, but they just keep falling. “Sorry, I don’t know why--”

In an instant, Chifuyu’s on you. He can’t stand seeing you so upset. Seeing you cry… Hearing you apologize for it… It’s just so hard on him. In one smooth motion, he steps into your house and pulls you close, enabling his body to engulf you in a cocoon of security and warmth. His arms wind around your shoulders, a hand gently guiding your head to press your face into his shoulder. There’s only a moment of hesitation from you before you surrender to his touch, leaning into him and granting him access to the sensation of your body resting solely on him. He lifts his chin, propping it atop your head.

“Sh, don’t apologize,” he whispers, dropping his free hand to massage soothing circles into your back. “Don’t apologize. There’s no reason for you to feel sorry. If you need to cry, then go ahead. Take all the time you need.”

“I’m fine,” you insist, speaking against the thick material of his jacket. The tears dampening his clothes tell a different story, but he doesn’t argue. “I still think you’re an asshole, though.” Chifuyu barks out a laugh before he can think it through. He can feel you chuckle against his arm in response.

“Shame,” Chifuyu remarks playfully, “because I think you’re the prettiest person I’ve ever met.” His voice softens. “I’m serious, (Reader). Plus, I actually really like your height.”

“Now you’re just saying shit to make me feel better.”

“No, seriously.” Chifuyu’s smile falters, replaced by a more earnest, resolved expression. He kicks your front door shut with his heel.

“Chifuyu?” You pull back, peeking over his shoulder.

“Listen.” It’s less of a request and more of a command. Before you can react, Chifuyu presses forward and traps you in his arms, walking you backward until your legs collide with the couch.

“Hey--”

He wastes no time in throwing his weight against you, causing both of you to tumble onto the cushions. You squeak at the sudden change, a hand clinging to the fabric of his jacket for leverage. Chifuyu braces a hand on the back of the couch, lowering himself until he’s able to lay fully on top of you. If he were to have failed to catch himself, the combination of his weight and the impact likely would have injured you. He sighs. If anything else were to go wrong today, he fears he may just give up and break down. Your face burns a conspicuous scarlet, and you turn your head to the side to escape the weight of his red-hot stare. “Chifuyu! What are you--”

“Just making sure you can’t run away!” He smiles cheekily. Under normal circumstances, he would be nervous as all hell, and he wouldn’t normally assume such an intimate position so casually. But right now, it’s important that you understand how he feels. It’s important that he doesn’t hold back. It’s important that he lets himself be just as vulnerable as you are. He shimmies up your body to gingerly brush the stray strands of hair from your face. His touch is careful, so gentle that it seems borderline impossible for him to have just been beating the shit out of one of your classmates a few hours prior. He bows his head to press a chaste kiss of veneration to your forehead. No longer is he light-hearted and high-spirited. Now, he is completely relaxed, admiration and unadulterated love for you swirling lazily in his eyes as he gazes down at your flustered appearance. A tiny smile plays on his lips as he plants a second kiss on the tip of your nose. “I’ve never once found your appearance unattractive. If I have, then I can’t remember, but I think I have a pretty good memory. I always thought you were pretty, and I thought your height was... well, you know... I thought it was cute,” he explains a bit shyly, “I always loved how you looked in my clothes and how frustrated you got whenever you had to ask me to help you reach something. That’s what I thought of you.” He smooths a hand over the top of your head. “I promise.”

“I love you, Chifuyu.” He hums in surprise, but there is not a single trace of amusement on your face. Your expression is serious, genuine. You truly do mean that. “I love you. That’s why it hurt so badly when I thought that you said those things about me. I…”

“You what?” He prods gently. “Come on. You can tell me.”

“No, it’s embarrassing.” You turn your head away, and Chifuyu purses his lips. Oh, you want to talk about embarrassing? He’s laying on top of you, and he even did so without warning or permission. If it weren’t for his yearning to diffuse the situation and return your relationship to normal, he would either be too nervous to stay on you or would tense up and overthink every twitch of your muscles. If anything, he’s embarrassed.

“Tell me,” Chifuyu seizes your jaw firmly yet gently, angling your head so that you’re forced to look into his eyes. He squishes your cheeks and laughs when you mumble pitifully in protest.

“I just…” You sigh. “I just wanted you to find me attractive.” You mumble.

Now it’s his turn to be flustered. Chifuyu’s hand falls slack at your words, and his entire body freezes on the spot. He can feel heat pooling in his chest, scaling his neck, and blossoming like the most irritatingly flamboyant crimson flower he’s ever had the displeasure of encountering. He knows his face must be flushed right now, but at the same time, he can’t shake the stupid grin that’s slowly spreading across his lips. You wanted him to find you attractive. You value his opinion of you. You… You care. You care a lot. You wanted to be pretty for him. Well, he's certainly never felt this giddy before.

“Quit smiling like that!” You huff. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you. It’ll go to your head.”

“Luckily for you,” Chifuyu begins, the pride surging through his veins and roaring in his ears completely drowning out your words. “I think you’re beautiful. Oh! What about me? What about me?” His eyes sparkle. “Do you think I’m attractive?”

“Quite,” you finally crack a grin, the tears on your face having finally dissipated. Chifuyu tilts his head when your smile vanishes and your eyes narrow skeptically at him. “Wait, you really think that about me?” You challenge. “Small tits and all?”

“Small--what?”

You wrinkle your nose at him and sit up, forcing him to rock back on his knees. “That was also part of what Yuta said. You said you mentioned my height. What about my body? Face it, Chi, I’m flat as a board. Everyone knows it.”

If Chifuyu had just one more brain cell, he would’ve been able to detect the faint note of teasing in your voice. But, since he doesn’t, he takes your question seriously. “I think it’s just fine the way it is.” He answers a tad bashfully, averting his eyes with a nervous laugh and raising a hand to scratch at his neck. “Also, I can hear your heartbeat, which I think is cool. But either way, I’m not with you for your body. I’m with you because I love how your mind works, and because you’re always so supportive of me and my goals. I’m in love with you, not your body. Even so,” he shifts forward to lean over you, propping his hands on your knees, “small boobs are pretty cool, anyway.” He grins sheepishly. “I also want you to know that I never said anything to anyone about your body. I swear on my life. It’s not their business, anyway. Yuta just said that to piss you off. He’s such an ass.” He scowls. “If he says anything like that again, I’m going to kick the shit out of him.”

Now it’s your turn to reach out. You shift forward, tucking your legs beneath you and extending an arm to Chifuyu. You press your face into his chest, slinging your arms around your waist. “Oh?” Chifuyu muses, automatically returning your embrace.

“I forgive you.” You mumble. Little does your boyfriend know there is a fresh round of tears brewing on your lashes. However, these are not born from pain; rather, they are born from joy and pure love. “I forgive you, Chi.” He's cheesy as all hell, but somehow, it still worked.

“Really? Oh, thank God.” He heaves a dramatic sigh, pulling you closer. In reality, he’s ensuring that you can’t see the dopey, relieved smile on his face. This one looks even more ridiculous than the last, and he knows that if you saw him right now, he would never hear the end of it. “I promise you--I swear, this won’t happen again. I won’t let people get away with picking on you.”

“No, it’s alright. You don't need to do all that. You'll just get in trouble.” You retreat just enough to lift your head and press your own kiss against his jaw. “Just as long as I have you. That’s good enough for me.”

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